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__label__cc	0.688855	0.311145	Online Memorials at Funerals360 Victoria Lynn Sowers In Loving Memory Of Date of Birth (DOB): Date of Death (DOD): Victoria Lynn Sowers, 44, passed away suddenly on Friday 11/24/2017 at Baltimore Washington Medical Center in Glen Burnie Maryland with her loving family by side. Victoria was a active member of the Bay Area Community Church in Annapolis, Md. She was born to Paul E & Beverly J Sowers, in Baltimore, Maryland on 12/26/1972. She was a long time resident of Severn, Maryland were she resided with her mother and father Mr. & Mrs. Paul E Sowers Sr. She enjoyed her job as a security guard. She is the beloved sister of Virginia Peery, Donald Lindsey, Kelly Sowers and Paul Sowers Jr. Preceded in death by her beloved Brother Joseph Michael Lindsey and Sister Anita Marie Koppleman (Sowers). She is the beloved Aunt of many Nieces, Nephews, Great Niece, Great Nephews and countless friends that will miss her dearly. She was also passionate about her kitties Lucy, Lacy and Gabriel. Victoria is a organ and full body donor, her Celebration of Life will be announced at a later date. Her final resting place, will be private and held at the Glen Haven Memorial Park. She will be placed in with her beloved older brother Joseph Lindsey which she had such a lifetime connection with, even though she was not born at the time of his death. She had such a love for her oldest brother. She has always felt his spirit living around her, with in her, all her life and that he was her Guardian Angel. Her finally resting place is where she would want to be and where she belongs with her oldest brother Joseph Micheal Lindsey. R.I.P Victoria Lynn Sowers your Spirit will always be in our lives.. We all love you so much... Share Your Memories and Condolences Your Memories and Condolences	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591461
__label__wiki	0.965975	0.965975	Kiwis voluntarily hand over guns Kiwis are voluntarily returning their semiautomatic rifles. by Vera Alves, New Zealand Herald 18th Mar 2019 3:30 PM A number of gun owners have voluntarily given up their semiautomatic rifles in the wake of the Christchurch terror attack and the New Zealand Government's announcement that it will ban these weapons. Multiple people have taken to social media to post about giving up their guns. John Hart, a farmer and Green Party member from the Wairarapa, says he took his semiautomatic rifle into the police station today where he dropped it off "no questions asked". John Hart today handed in his semiautomatic rifle to police. Given the climate and the presence of armed forces outside the police station, Hart said he went in first to check on the process and then returned with his rifle. "I didn't want to just rock up with a rifle," he told the New Zealand Herald. He said the process was straightforward. "I literally just signed a form and handed it in," he said. He was assured the rifle would be destroyed in a "very strictly controlled" process. He took to Twitter to urge other semiautomatic rifle owners to do the same. "Until today I was one of the New Zealanders who owned a semiautomatic rifle. On the farm they are a useful tool in some circumstances, but my convenience doesn't outweigh the risk of misuse," he posted. "We don't need these in our country. We have make sure it's #NeverAgain." Hart said he used the rifle for pest control on his farm but said the same job could be done other ways. The guns in the back of the Brenton Tarrant’s car. "Once you accept that these things can be harmful, in the wrong hands, the trade-off is a small inconvenience," he said. "It's not a big deal not having it anymore. I couldn't, in good conscience, say they shouldn't be around if I still had one." Hart is not the only Kiwi who has decided to give up his semiautomatic rifle this week. "When my husband died his guns were handed to family holding the requisite licence. Daughter of crack shot food hunting parents, I have used guns from the age of 9," Fey Hag posted on Twitter earlier today. "Today I requested that those guns be handed in for destruction." A Hawke's Bay woman who gave up her gun more than 10 years ago has also spoken to the media about how she feels about her decision, in light of the terror attack in Christchurch. Brena Smith says she used to own a .22 calibre semiautomatic, which she used for pest control, mainly shooting rabbits and possums. She said it would be fabulous if people decided to give up their guns in wake of Friday's events and added that she saw no benefit to owning military style, semiautomatics, as the only thing they were useful for was shooting people. "I think it's just time for a big change in New Zealand," she told Hawke's Bay Today. Online auction site Trade Me has stopped selling semiautomatic weapons in the wake of the Christchurch mass shootings. It has pulled all listings ahead of government's pending announcement on what it plans to do with gun rights. This article originally appeared on the NZ Herald and has been reproduced with permission. The warnings New Zealand ignored Killer’s guns like ‘nothing ever seen’ Accused Aussie gunman’s prison life revealed gun ownership mosque shooting firearms gun ownership mosque shooting new zealand terror attack	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591464
__label__wiki	0.877907	0.877907	Global Ministries is saddened to learn of the death of Lloyd Van Vactor By Global Ministries (Disciples of Christ and United Church of Christ) on January 11, 2021 Lloyd Van Vactor October 9, 1928-December 25, 2020 Lloyd Van Vactor, age 92, died on December 25, 2020 at Evergreen Health Hospice Center in Kirkland, Washington. Born on October 9, 1928 on the plains of southwestern North Dakota to Ellis Roy and Mariam Van Vactor. Later, the Van Vactor family would move to Spearfish, South Dakota. where Lloyd grew up. He would graduate from Yankton College in South Dakota before attending Yale Divinity School in New Haven, Connecticut, where he earned a Bachelor of Divinity degree in 1953. Later, during furloughs, Lloyd would obtain a Master of Sacred Theology degree from Yale and a master’s degree from Columbia Teacher’s College in New York. Lloyd was ordained in 1953 in Westport, Connecticut as a minister of the United Church of Christ. Lloyd served briefly at a congregation in eastern Montana before he and his wife, Maisie Dorland Van Vactor, were appointed to serve as mission co-workers by American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions, a predecessor mission body of Global Ministries, to serve in the Philippines. Their first assignment was in Cagayan de Oro, a city on the northern coast of Mindanao. Lloyd worked in ministry with a local congregation of the United Church of Christ of the Philippines (UCCP) and helped to expand the Pilgrim Institute, a secondary school. The couple’s two sons, Norman and Ross, were born in Cagayan. In 1969, Lloyd began serving as the president of Dansalan College, an institution founded in 1939. Lloyd helped to expand the College to include an elementary school, medical clinic, and a center for sociological and historical research as well as introduce programs for literacy, community organizing, and agricultural training. Lloyd served as Dansalan College’s president in a tense period during a military occupation in the Mindanao area. In March 1979, he was kidnapped from the college’s office at gunpoint and was taken to a remote area in the nearby mountainous area of Lanao del Sur. Twenty days later, Lloyd was freed after negotiations by the community and the college representatives. Sadly, when he returned, he learned that his wife Maisie had become ill and died. A book was written detailing this experience titled 20 Longest Days: The Kidnapping of Lloyd Van Vactor in Southern Philippines. After a brief hiatus, Lloyd continued as president of Dansalan College. He married Myra Florendo in 1981, and they moved to New York City, where he served in various executive positions with the United Church Board for World Ministries, also a predecessor mission body of Global Ministries, until 1992. He finished his tenure as the Associate General Secretary for Program. In 1992, Lloyd and Myra retired to the Seattle area, and became an active member of the Northshore United Church of Christ in Woodinville, Washington. For pleasure, Lloyd and Myra enjoyed traveling, particularly going on cruises, and enjoying trips to Antarctica, Europe, South America, the Middle East, and Asia. He also worked as a chaplain at the Fred Hutchison Cancer Center and the Seattle Children’s Hospital, and volunteered as a chaplain at Evergreen Health Hospice Center. In addition to his wife Myra and sons Norman (Lynn) and Ross (Patty), Lloyd is survived by nine grandchildren: Garrett (Giulia), Anthony (Areanne), Maisie, Alec, David (Apurva), Jessica (Eddie), Jack (Alysse), Kerry, and Kristen, as well as six great-grandchildren: Gianna, Clara, Aly, Ava, Freya, Ira. A memorial service will be held online on January 16th 3:00 PM Pacific Time. Memorial gifts may be made to the Lloyd Van Vactor Fund which is a Global Ministries named endowment fund supporting the Theological Education Scholarship Fund of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines. You can read more about this fund, as well as how to make a gift toward this fund here. A memorial service will be held online on January 16th 3:00 PM Pacific Time. If you are interested in attending virtually please email dbarickman@dom.disciples.org for the zoom connection information. Condolences to the family may be sent to Myra Van Vactor at 17665 NE 129th PL, Redmond, Washington 98072. Global Ministries (Disciples of Christ and United Church of Christ) published this page in News 2021-01-11 10:50:03 -0500	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591466
__label__cc	0.744916	0.255084	Lewinsky inspires Internet humiliation victims Monica Lewinsky embarks on a noble journey to use her dark controversial past as a medium to lighten up the lives of people, who like her, have experienced Internet humiliation. After 10 long years, Monica Lewinsky pens her thoughts about her controversial affair with ex-US President Bill Clinton. She expressed her feelings through an essay published in Vanity Fair, which will be released on May 13. In the essay, she writes that she deeply regret what happened between her and the former president. The essay was more about letting go of the horrible past and move forward to a higher state in life. It is her brave move to finally come out of the shadows of the headlining controversy that she got involved with in the past. One of the major motivational factors that prompted Lewinsky to stick her head out in the open after being silent for a long time was the suicide of 18-year-old freshman Tyler Clementi. Clementi is an LGBT youth who committed suicide by jumping over the George Washington Bridge September 22, 2010 after a video of him kissing another man went viral on the Internet. Lewinsky said her suffering has a different meaning compared to what happened to Clementi. What she aims with her coming out of the darkness is to shed light on other people who have dark episodes of humiliation in their lives. This way her dark past will have a good purpose, she said. Just like Clementi, the Internet fired Lewisnky’s scandal. Her controversial affair with Clinton was spread via cyber space. Now she is involved in efforts to help victims of online bullying and humiliation. She speaks in forums about this topic to help people who have experienced the same online humiliation as her. Despite the controversy, Lewinsky admitted that what happened between her and the former president was consensual and it was the embarrassment right after that caused the pain and suffering in her life.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591467
__label__cc	0.615798	0.384202	Photo Credit: Jdross75 / Shutterstock Medium-Size U.S. Cities Offer Opportunities, Lessons to Young European Entrepreneurs Lauren Burke Program Coordinator, GMF Cities When you ask most people to name innovation hot spots in the United States, major hubs like Silicon Valley, New York, and San Francisco are usually the first to come to mind. But if you ask an entrepreneur from Austin, Denver, or Seattle, they will proudly tell you that big opportunities often hide in much smaller cities. That is why each year, the U.S. Department of State sponsors the Young Transatlantic Innovation Leaders Initiative (YTILI), a fellowship program that connects European and Eurasian entrepreneurs to U.S. mentors in diverse medium-size cities for a week-long immersion. During that time, fellows dive into the distinct culture of their placement city and learn about the uniquely U.S. way of doing business from local investors, government officials, and, of course, fellow entrepreneurs. While entrepreneurs in highly competitive megacities often find themselves pitted against their peers, smaller ecosystems provide an opportunity to connect in a much more nurturing and collaborative environment. As Seattle mentor Pradyumna Misra explained, “Entrepreneurs learn a lot from like-minded people undertaking similar challenges and experiences. They become part of an informal club, a support system, and a network of their peers, mentors, and coaches. This creates an expectation that those receiving help and guidance provide help to others.” Entrepreneurs in medium-size cities also benefit from having an investor culture where the relationship between founder and investor goes beyond a simple loan. “It’s harder to get noticed on the coasts,” said Austin mentor Jennifer Milspaugh. “The support you garner is often superficial as investors and others move on to the next big thing. Here, you get to be a bigger fish in a smaller pond.” Investors benefit from this dynamic as well; in ecosystems that allow deep relationships to form, they often get to know founders over the course of many months in an advisory role. Doing so allows them to invest more strategically and therefore see higher returns. In an environment based on such deep relationships, entrepreneurs not only need to believe in their business, but also to be able to articulately tell their story and develop precise “asks” when talking to potential investors. That is why developing a strong, customizable pitch is critical to a start-up’s success. In countries where there is a less ingrained culture of self-promotion, adapting to the directness of the U.S. approach can be daunting. Learning to pitch effectively is therefore one of the major foci of the YTILI program and, unsurprisingly, the area in which mentors often provide the most support. “The biggest difference I’ve noticed between the European ecosystem and the United States is that folks in the EU can get governmental (financial) support at the very early stages of launching a business, which is great,” said Milspaugh. “U.S. businesses often don’t have that advantage, so our entrepreneurs have to be polished and clear about what they’re creating to get buy-in. This is something that everyone can learn from, because learning how to tell your story is so important to finding the people who can champion you along the way.” Just as the fellows learn about U.S. society from their mentors, the mentors learn from them in return. As Denver mentor Barbara Bauer, who has participated in the program for the last two years, said, “I’ve learned about their home countries and ecosystems, the challenges they face and how the different players engage. I’ve learned about the fellows’ personal courage and innovation, and we’ve formed long lasting friendships and professional relationships. I am deeply appreciative of the opportunity to be part of the program.” The 2019 cohort of YTILI fellows will be in their placement cities on September 7–14. You can follow their journey on YTILI Facebook page as well as on twitter (#YTILI) and Instagram @ytilinetwork. The views expressed in GMF publications and commentary are the views of the author alone. YTILI Fellowship	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591468
__label__wiki	0.800447	0.800447	Worldwide shipping (Free in Singapore) All Rare Books Ancient & Medieval World Children’s & Illustrated Books General & Others Maps & Prints Myth, Legend & Folklore Science, Medicine & Natural History Singapore & Malaysia Social Sciences & Economics S$0.00 / 0 items Home / Shop / All Rare Books / Books & Myself – John A. Hammerton (1944) (1st ed) Books & Myself – John A. Hammerton (1944) (1st ed) Title: Books and Myself Author: John Alexander Hamilton Publisher: Macdonald & Co., London. No date, but most likely the 1st edition of 1944. Condition: Hardcover, fair. Fading to spine, especially severe at the edges. Some foxing, inscription to ffep. Attached to the endpaper is a letter from the author to a reader, dated 1944. With photographic plates. Binding tight, text unmarked. 343pp., app 8″ by 5.5″. Categories: General & Others, All Rare Books Tag: First editions The memoirs of John Alexander Hammerton, and influential figure in the early 20th century UK publishing scene. About the author (from Wikipedia): Sir John Alexander Hammerton (1871-1949) is described by the Dictionary of National Biography as “the most successful creator of large-scale works of reference that Britain has known”. Hammerton’s first posts in journalism included a period in Nottingham, where he first met his lifelong collaborator and friend, Arthur Mee. In 1905, Hammerton joined Alfred Harmsworth’s Amalgamated Press. He and Mee produced the Harmsworth Self-Educator. Hammerton contributed to the first edition of Mee’s Children’s Encyclopædia, which was a fortnightly series from 1908 till 1910 before being published in eight large volumes. Hammerton’s contribution consisted of compiling articles on ‘Famous Books’ and ‘Poetry’. Hammerton’s greatest achievement was Harmsworth’s Universal Encyclopædia. It was published first as a fortnightly series from 1920 to 1922. The Encyclopaedia sold 12 million copies throughout the English-speaking world. In 1933, Hammerton’s A Popular History of the Great War (in six volumes) was published. In his introduction to volume 1, Hammerton discusses the previous World War I series: ‘Although it remains a storehouse of information for future students of the period, “The Great War”, as that set of thirteen massive volumes was called, would now require to be largely re-written in light of later knowledge’. Hammerton later edited a biography of J. M. Barrie and studies of Charles Dickens and Robert Louis Stevenson. He also wrote Other Things than War: Musings and Memories (1943), and an autobiography, Books and Myself. Children's & Illustrated Books NoneClear filters Out Of Stock In Stock All Products First editions Gift Ideas Published before 1800 15 Nov Closure of retail store 05 Jun Books to tide you through Covid-19 01 Jun Operating online only Call: +65 9090 6181 Email: gohd @ gohd.com.sg © 2009 - 2019 GOHD Books — Rare & Collectable Books	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591469
__label__wiki	0.810632	0.810632	© Charlie Gray Alastair Campbell interviews Eddie Hearn By Alastair Campbell 21 February 2019 Meet boxing’s ‘Silver-Spoon Kid’. Brought up around the toughest heels in sport and business by a man whose life lessons were given on the canvas, he’s now one of prizefighting’s biggest – read, loudest – promoters. The father’s domain was snooker and darts. But for the son, who took Anthony Joshua from promising amateur to an unbeaten record and record pay-per-views, the billion-dollar deals are being won in the ring I was half hoping to avoid Barry Hearn when I turned up at the Matchroom Sport HQ in Essex to interview his son, Eddie. But when I saw Hearn Junior’s Rolls-Royce with personal numberplates alongside an even bigger Bentley I guessed Hearn Senior was there. The political argument broke out the second I was through the door. By his own admission the older Hearn, a Thatcher fanboy and hard-core Brexiteer, is “to the right of Ghenghis Khan”. Eddie waited patiently, checking his phone, as our dialogue of the deaf erupted – not the first time. I tried to tell Barry how his business would be hit by Brexit. He countered with Jeremy Corbyn wanting to tax him at 90 per cent. Apparently. I guessed from his son’s roll of the eyes that he might not be quite so far along on the Ghenghis scale. The elder Hearn conceived of sports empire Matchroom in the mid-Seventies, when the then-chartered accountant became chairman of a British chain of snooker clubs and, in 1978, began managing snooker prodigy Steve Davis. As the game exploded in popularity, it allowed him to develop a portfolio of sporting interests that extended to boxing, pool, darts, golf and even fishing. Eddie joined his father in 2000 and has been at the forefront of boxing’s resurgence, promoting some of the biggest fights in Britain and overseeing the rise of Anthony Joshua from Olympian to world heavyweight champion. It was good-natured conversation all round: politics, sport, father-son relationships. Father, 70, calls the son “the silver-spoon kid”. Son, 39, tells Dad he let himself down in a recent radio interview in which he had a very public spat with fellow promoter Frank Warren. Father asks interviewer why the son, not him, is getting the GQ treatment. “You had the cover of Snooker Scene once, Dad. That’s your level.” It’s hard not to warm to both of them, despite some of Barry’s views, and harder still not to admire what they have done to a succession of sports: snooker and darts (Barry’s empire) and expanding into others, such as gymnastics. Boxing is now very much Eddie’s domain and he also has his eye on rugby league. With Joshua on the books and a $1 billion deal to stage fights in the US, it’s fair to say they have both made a success of what they do. But there are more plans for the future. And the competition between them, I learn, is real. It’s what drives the son – probably as his father intends. Alastair Campbell: You’ve got your personalised Rolls-Royce outside, smart clothes, smart watch... How much do you like money? Eddie Hearn: I think for a silver-spoon kid I’m a hustler for a pound note. We’ve always been motivated by money. Doesn’t matter if the target is 10,000 or 20,000 or 100,000. It’s not really about the money, but having a target and winning. If you didn’t have a Roller would you think you were a failure? No. I’ve not really been obsessed with materialistic things, but I’m approaching 40. I’ve done all right, grafted hard, so to buy the odd nice thing... Your father sent you to a private school, so how come you’ve got the same accent? I had my early years following him around the world, as it was the only time I could spend time with him. He’s always taken the piss out of me for being a silver-spoon kid. But he’s the only one. Tyson Fury did. Yeah, but I’ve got a bit more respect for the old man than [for] Tyson Fury. He’s instilled the working-class mentality in me. He’s off a council estate in Dagenham. He was petrified of me being that horrible spoilt kid with no working-class mentality, didn’t wanna work, didn’t wanna graft. And my work ethic is the same as his. What’s this about him having a fight with you when you were 16? Was it a proper fight? Yeah. Well, with gloves. I grew up in the gyms. I’d finish school, go to Romford, sit in the gym, waiting for him to finish work, go to all his shows, and I always felt that I could fight a bit, so I said, “I think I could.” And he said, “Son, you’re a silver-spoon kid. You can’t fight! These kids would take your head off.” So I went to Billericay Boxing Club. When I was getting introduced in the ring they said, “From Billericay, Eddie Hills!” I was gutted they got my name wrong. In the next fight they did it again. I went to my dad and he said, “I couldn’t let them know that you’re my son. You’d get a pasting!” But he always said to me, “When you get to 18, I’m going to teach you about life.” I got to 16 and I was about 6’2” and 13 or 14 stone. He said, “I think now is the time. We won’t wait until you’re 18.” We did three minute rounds and he came out like a lunatic. I just remember keeping my guard up and looking at his face. He really wanted it. 'In the drama of boxing Fury is the bad guy. He’s actually not a bad guy' Did he ever hit you outside of that? No, no. He’d give me a good clipping. He was big on discipline. He had a bad temper back in the day, because he was working in boxing, the worst business in the world to work in. It’s a very, very, very hard world. You seem passive compared to him. He’s not got a temper any more. He’s the best person in the world to go to with a problem, because he’s come through the peaks and troughs of a company that’s had its ups and downs. Do you see him as your boss? Probably. I respect him in that way, as a father and a boss. What is the division of labour now? I do boxing. He does darts, snooker. We’ve got different multi-sport partnerships – gymnastics, golf, table tennis, pool – but his main focus is the darts and the snooker. He sits at the top and delegates. Are there any sports you two wouldn’t get involved in? He always says, “No passion, no point.” So he gets involved in sports... Do you like gymnastics? No, but he does. He thinks it’s great. Me, not so much. It’s the same with fishing. He is mad for fishing. For me, not at all. So what sports would both of you just not touch? Esports is a good example. But we’re talking on esports and we’re quite close to it. It’s a new world, even for me. In boxing I’m seen as the innovator. In esports I’m an old git. And it fascinates me that we live in a world where 17,000 or 18,000 people will buy tickets to watch people playing a computer game. You can’t ignore it. You are going to get into that? We’re looking at it. We’ve changed the face of many sports. Darts is the biggest, isn’t it? Huge. Boxing has always been a great sport. Darts is the one where if you’d have said ten years ago it would be the second-highest-rated sport on Sky, selling 10,000 tickets a week... With the boxing, we’ve just launched our American project and they’re saying to me, “How do you do it in the UK?” The atmosphere is just not the same in America. I think the British have a much stronger passion for their own [fighters]. America is such a vast country, so you could get a guy from Atlanta fighting in LA – how much do they care about that bloke? Doesn’t matter to a Brit if he’s from Liverpool or London. He’s one of us. We’ve made boxing sexy again. Whether that’s promotion from me or the old-school promoters, who are 70, and maybe the British public don’t want to listen to them any more... “Shut up, Dad!” “Shut up, Dad.” I say it to him all the time, especially when he went on the BBC the other day. I said, “Leave it!” Great radio, though. What about snooker? There don’t seem to be any big characters. No. And that’s the problem. I think when you go back to AJ, he’s probably one of the first guys in boxing where I pick my daughter up from school and her friends say, “I watched Anthony Joshua last night.” That’s the difference. And Tyson Fury’s the bad guy, in a kind of caricature kind of way. In the drama of boxing he’s the bad guy. He’s actually not a bad guy. But he chooses to sell himself in a way where he will be a bit outrageous. He’ll say some controversial stuff. You’ll never get Joshua playing up to the camera. When Joshua went to the gym he didn’t say, “I want to be the next heavyweight world champion.” He said, “I want something to hope for.” Do you think if people didn’t drink they’d enjoy watching boxing as much? Probably not. There’s no point in papering over it. It’s part of their enjoyment. Some people live a boring, depressing life; they like to go out and enjoy themselves and have fun. If that means going to the boxing, having a few pints, dressing up, having a dance and getting a smile on their face, we’re all winning. I want to ask you about rugby league. Is that happening? We’re talking. It all started on social media. Someone said, “Why don’t you do rugby league?” I said it was on its knees. Next thing, Ralph Rimmer called me, chief executive of the Rugby Football League. Next thing, we’re at the cup final. But it’s the same thing we talked about earlier in snooker. Tell me the stars in rugby league. I couldn’t tell you one rugby league player. You tune in to watch a star, but with the wage cap you’re not giving clubs a chance to achieve. Our players are going to Australia. What about UFC and MMA? Big admirer of the brand, not of the actual sport. The McGregor/Mayweather fight was one of the greatest hit-and-runs in terms of a cash grab. It was genius, but disgusting for the sport of boxing. Anyone in the sport of boxing knew what it was, knew that Floyd Mayweather held him up for eight or nine rounds. You think he could have put him down in round one? It’s like Mayweather going into a cage with McGregor; he would get absolutely eaten alive by McGregor. I was there. I was thinking, “I can’t believe what I’m watching here.” But I’m looking around at the media tours, the pay-per-view numbers, and thinking this is absolutely genius. And McGregor is absolutely brilliant. Talk about characters in sport. Love him or hate him, he’s a complete genius. Are you saying that there was an element of a con in it? Yeah. I think it was a con job. He was never going to win. I think the world knew that, but everyone involved knew it was going to break pay-per-view records. It was the fascination of the bizarre. In all sports, but particularly boxing, circus sells. But you have to find the line between the circus and what’s going to be good for the sport. Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather had zero interest in the good of the sport. Mayweather as well? Yeah. He’s done in the sport of boxing... Would you say it was boxing? It was boxing because they were in a four-corner ring, but it was a mismatch, a farce. Is Ali the best trash talker ever? Without a doubt. 'It’s like Mayweather going into a cage with McGregor; he would get absolutely eaten alive by McGregor' So who’s the second best? Deontay Wilder is very good. Tyson Fury’s a very good trash talker and hype man. AJ looks at that and cringes. If someone put his nut on him it could go off there and then. AJ don’t mess about. My fear is you would get a full-blown brawl at a press conference and that’s not what he wants for the sport. Joshua feels the responsibility on his shoulders. I’m sure there are times he’s sat in a press conference and looked at a fighter and thought, “I’ll rip your head off.” But he knows there are kids watching, that he is that guy that carries the sport on his shoulders. My son Calum, who is a big boxing fan, says the only question I’ve got to ask is “Why is AJ bottling Wilder and Fury?” Well, he’s definitely not bottling Tyson Fury. It’s a game and a negotiation. They’re the two biggest stars in the division, Joshua and Wilder. Fury is great, [but] he’s not on the level. He beat Klitschko, so he deserves a lot of credit, but he’s awfully boring to watch. Because he’s so defensive? He doesn’t really want to fight. He’s a non-puncher. Wilder against Joshua is the biggest fight in the sport. So the problem is, in terms of commercial draws, Joshua is up here and Wilder is down here. Wilder is on about $3 million a fight. That’s his average purse. He sells 5,000 or 6,000 tickets for a fight, whereas Joshua is on ten times the money. You have to get the deal right. Wilder and Fury are going to fight? Supposedly. It’s not confirmed yet? It is, yeah, but Fury has got a 50/50 pull-out ratio on big fights. If they get in the ring, Fury, because he’s the challenger, will have a rematch clause if he wins. So if he wins he’ll have to fight him again, which scuppers us a little bit. So you want Wilder to win? Well, as a Brit I want Fury to win, but it doesn’t help us get that undisputed fight. So in an ideal world, for Joshua’s career, Wilder would win and we fight in April for the undisputed championship. And if Wilder beats Fury in a rematch? We have to wait till another time, so it could be the end of next year. Joshua wants it. People don’t understand about fighters. They aren’t scared to fight fighters. But the deal’s got to be right and that’s our job. 'Boxing is not dodgy at all. It’s more regulated than ever. The bigger problem now is doping and performance-enhancing drugs' How big would Wilder vs Joshua be in terms of money? Absolutely huge. An old-school promoter – my old man – would say, “That fight’s going to get bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger.” But the new school is saying, “Let’s make it now.” Look at Mayweather/Pacquiao. They [usually] box for $30m or $40m each. They ended up getting $250m and $180m for that fight. But we can’t wait too long, because the fans will lose patience. And they pay the wages. How much does Joshua fight for? Tens of millions. He’s a commercial freak. Walk down Fifth Avenue, he’s got big Under Armour billboards. He’s in Lucozade campaigns. He has a commercial team that he’s built – very bright guy, unbelievably commercially savvy, a dream to work with. As a fighter, he’s so exciting. He speaks so well. He’s intelligent. He’s disciplined. He’s got the perfect story – kid in trouble, looked like going down the wrong way, found boxing, saved his life, became world heavyweight champion – and we’re very lucky to have him. Wilder said you’re “just another white man milking a black man”. I know. And I said, “Well, you need me to do some milking of you. You’re making $3m a fight. You’re the world heavyweight champion and in America nobody has heard of you.” He is a character. He’s a dangerous fighter. He’s exciting, speaks well, looks the part. He should be a superstar across the US. Why is he not? Because he ain’t got a promoter. He’s got three different managers who don’t want to be promoters. You need the mouthpiece. In America is Mayweather the only household name? Pretty much. Pacquiao, because they had that rivalry, De La Hoya, Evander Holyfield. Don King had many, many bad points [King has been charged with killing two people, for one of which he was convicted], but he was a great promoter. If he had a show in town, you knew it was in town, because he was a loudmouth who would go around the whole town, sometimes with a megaphone, screaming and shouting from the rooftops. And you need someone working for you 24/7. You mentioned Tyson Fury has quite a high pull-out rate. Do you think boxing takes mental health seriously enough? I think it’s starting to. A lot of sports are starting to realise that when an athlete leaves there is an immense void in their life and a lot of them struggle. I think the sport is starting to come to terms with that side. When you see what happened to Ali, for example, and plenty of others, as your dad was saying, when Joshua lands a punch, bone on bone, you hear the crunch... You can’t paper over it. It is a brutal, brutal sport. And we have a responsibility – promoters, managers, trainers – to act in the best interest of fighters, particularly when a fighter is at the end of their career, to make sure when they do leave the sport they’re OK. We’re working now with the [British Boxing] Board Of Control and charities to try to provide some kind of support for fighters who leave the sport. And I think the awareness of mental health is changing. I’m probably guilty of the wrong mentality five, ten years ago. “You’ve got depression? You roll your sleeves up and work harder.” That’s what my old man would say. But people are understanding it a lot more. It’s not unusual for someone today to step out and say, “I’m struggling.” Fury said you are a “daddy’s boy, bitter little spoiled punk”. Probably fair. I said he’s probably the most unentertaining heavyweight world champion in the history of the sport. So that was his comment on that. Why do the fans boo you? I don’t know. People always tell me it’s a pantomime. Every time my dad gets on the stage at the end of the darts they boo him. And he’s always told me, “That’s a great sign. You don’t want to be getting cheered.” 'I don’t care about the booing, but I like acknowledgement for what we do for the sport' But you are giving them what they want. Yeah, but I’m a bit of a loudmouth, a bit of a Jack The Lad. Would you boo yourself? I would, 100 per cent. Why do you do it then? I don’t get booed and go home at night worrying, but my mum, it really upsets her. “Why do they boo you so much? Do they not know how hard they work?” I say, “Yeah, don’t worry about it. It’s a pantomime!” But I never get booed and leave and go, “I wish I got cheered.” Do you care about what they think? It sounds cheesy, but when I put on a great show I’m so happy. I don’t care about the booing, but I like acknowledgement for what we do for the sport. So when people say to me, “Can I just say, what you’ve done for the sport is unbelievable?” and then I say, “Thank you,” and I turn around and they go, “Prick.” But it means a lot to me. The “Prick” bit? The bit where when I’m done, and it might be three years, it might be 30 years in boxing, but my legacy can only be making an impact on the sport. And, actually, probably trying to outperform my old man. Revenge for the 16-year-old’s fight? Yeah. But that’s how I can be measured. Tell me about this streaming thing in America. How big is that? Massive. We’ve signed a $1bn deal with DAZN, a massive company owned by a guy called Len Blavatnik, the Netflix of sport. They launched in Japan, Italy, Germany, Canada. All sports. In Italy, they own Serie A rights. [Cristiano] Ronaldo is their global ambassador. They came to us and said, “We’re launching in America and we believe that boxing is a great opportunity. We’d like you to create 16 events a year across America, with the biggest budget in the sport.” I tried to hide my keenness. We start our first show in Chicago next week [6 October]. It’s a massive job, because now we’ve got 24 events here and 16 over there. How many fighters does it involve? We’ve probably signed 20 fighters since being in America. We’ve got 30 fighters here. But the plan really is to establish Matchroom as a global brand, which creates events in the UK, America and coming up in Italy, Japan, China. What sort of numbers will you get? Five or six thousand live. 'I remember I used to hang out with Dwain Chambers growing up. Lovely guy. When he got done for doping I couldn’t believe it' And on DAZN? Couple of hundred thousand, because they’ve just launched. So quite small? Yeah, quite small. It’s a streaming service with a monthly subscription. They feel that your cable subscription, which might be $240 a month in America, should become fragmented. So get rid of your cable and get Netflix and DAZN and Amazon Prime and you’ll pay a tenth of what you will for your existing cable product. And that’s what they’re banking on, that the future is on stream. And you only have to look at our children to know that they’re right. In the more traditional Olympic sports, is there a culture that resists you? Oh, very much so. Gymnastics! When we moved in we could see the red-blazer group looking at it and saying, “We’re not sure about you.” Darts was the same. Snooker as well. We don’t do things the traditional way. How worried are you about organised crime in boxing. Is that still a problem? No. We don’t see it. I think that’s a very old-school mentality. Boxing is not dodgy at all. It’s more regulated than ever. The bigger problem now is doping and performance-enhancing drugs. There might be testing on fight night, which is the biggest waste of time going. The idea of boxing is to hurt your opponent, to knock him out. A fighter is on performance-enhancing drugs to get stronger, to get faster, to hit harder. Cheating through performance-enhancing drugs in sprinting is one thing, but doing it in boxing is a whole other level. Because you’ve got an unlawful physical advantage. You should be imprisoned for cheating in boxing if you’re on performance-enhancing drugs. We’re trying to get it out of the sport and, actually, now a lot of fighters are failing tests because there’s a much wider testing problem. What are the drugs? Anything, any kind of steroids, any kind of weight-cutting drug, anything that increases oxygen flow to the body, to be able to train harder, to make you stronger than someone who is not. How widespread is it? It’s a problem, but it’s solvable and it’s being dealt with. It just comes down to costing. A big fight, it costs £40,000 to test both fighters, continuously, through the camp, probably twice a week for ten or 12 weeks. It’s a lot of money. On the smaller shows, how can a promoter pay that sort of money when the show might be losing £10,000 or £20,000? Is it happening more at the lower levels of the sport? Probably not. It’s access to the drugs, access to the knowledge of what they can do. It rarely comes from the fighter, by the way. Like in athletics. I remember I used to hang out with Dwain Chambers growing up. Lovely guy. When he got done for doping I couldn’t believe it. I thought they’d got it wrong. And it’s because he went somewhere, went to camp, all of a sudden he’s taken these and they don’t know any different. It’s something we’ve got to get on top of. When GQ met Anthony Joshua and JJ Richard Madden relives the Red Wedding scene in Game of Thrones Eddie Hearn: 'We have no plans to ban ring card girls' SportBoxingAlastair CampbellLong readsMagazineJanuary/February 2019 Issue Tyson Fury vs Anthony Joshua must happen in the UK Anthony Hopkins makes cologne now By Danielle Cohen 23 October 2020	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591472
__label__wiki	0.848454	0.848454	© Evan Agostini/Invision/AP/Shutterstock How Jim Parsons, Hollywood nice guy, brought Hollywood's biggest villain to life By Iana Murray 2 May 2020 The star of the revisionist new Netflix series talks Ryan Murphy, finding empathy in slimy characters, and life after The Big Bang Theory. Like the rest of us adapting to this weird, new world, Jim Parsons is trying to figure out how Zoom works. He toggles the sound settings, then finally finds the button that turns his microphone on. He adjusts his phone against what I assume is a makeshift stand before the camera suddenly moves 90 degrees and I’m faced with a white ceiling. Apologies follow—he’s not used to this, he admits. Such technological clumsiness might be mildly surprising for anyone familiar with Parsons’ role in The Big Bang Theory as the nerdy, socially-awkward physicist Sheldon Cooper. But, obviously, actors don’t inherently align with their characters. The same can be said of Parsons’ villainous role in Ryan Murphy’s new miniseries, Hollywood. The show treats Tinseltown like a glamorous dollhouse, mixing and matching Golden Age actors with fictional heroes in a utopian scenario where a black actress can be cast in the lead of a prestige motion picture, and Rock Hudson can be out of the closet. Parsons portrays the very real Henry Willson, a closeted agent who was famous in the 1940s for launching the careers of the era’s most prominent actors (including Hudson), and infamous for taking advantage of his male clients. It’s a dastardly, juicy role that the actor sinks his teeth into. Scene to scene, he flips from hilarious to unnerving to terrifying. It’s unlike anything you’ve seen him do before. Parsons is currently in that state of lockdown-induced limbo we’re all familiar with. “Every day is a little different,” he says. “Some days feel really successful, and some days I’m like, ‘How was I in a good mood yesterday?’” He acknowledges the oddness of promoting a TV show right now, but he confesses that he’d much rather talk through an app he doesn’t know than have nothing to do. And just before the conversation moves on to Hollywood, his phone starts slipping again. © Courtesy of Netflix GQ: Since you finished The Big Bang Theory, you’ve had this immense privilege of being able to pick and choose your projects—so why Hollywood? Jim Parsons: It's really Ryan Murphy. I had worked with Ryan a couple of times and I love working with him. That's the easiest way to say it. But honestly, the specific thing was: I was at a place where I didn't know what I was going to do, and I still feel I'm in [that place.] But I knew that I wasn't going to sit in the desert and wait for the answer to hit me. And so when Ryan called, I really felt strongly that it was like the universe sending a handout and saying, "Step this way". He told me, "I've got a character in this that's unlike anything you've gotten to do before, and I'll send you the first couple of episodes and you can look at it and see what you think." I went home and told my husband, "It's sweet that he's gonna send me these and I'll certainly read them, but it is very unlikely I'm saying no to this." From the time I was young and in Houston doing theatre, you find yourself in your creative circle and that's how I felt when Ryan came. I consider him a part of my artistic family, and if anything, I'd like to strengthen that relationship. When the family calls, I say yes. Was the fact that this is such a big departure from Sheldon a factor in taking the role? Yes and no. Certainly, if it bore too much similarity to the role that I played in Big Bang I wouldn't have done it, but I wasn't thinking consciously what type of character would be a nice way to branch out or show a different side of myself or whatever. This is where it's very specific to Ryan: Ryan is very good at giving performers an opportunity to do things they haven't done before. He particularly enjoys that. He has a talent for seeing ways in which they can do things they haven't done before that they would be able to succeed at. All of that played into my subconscious for sure, and it was certainly refreshing and rejuvenating. I definitely left the project a different person than I had entered it, insofar as... I don't know. It's hard to put a finger on it or even say the right words, but it opened up my vistas, and I see things a little bit differently from having done this project. I probably see myself a little bit differently from having done it. I'm sure I do. Don't ask me in what ways, but I can sense it. How would you describe your collaborations with Ryan Murphy, especially in terms of being in his family of returning actors? There's a couple of major things about how I feel about working with Ryan. Number one is his desire and willingness to try new things. Creatively, you can be assured that you're joining to do something that nobody's done before. He's got a really unique way of going about it. He's so interested, and always has been, in telling stories of people we've not heard of before. But that alone isn't just it—it's just that he has such follow through. You know going into it that it's going to be some level of playground of new things and you're going to be surrounded by other people that Ryan loves, which means other really creative types and all sorts of people, and that all of these creative efforts are going to get a severe amount of support from him. And part of that comes from the power he's developed in Hollywood as a business, but this is something he's been doing his whole career. I'm sure many things are a little bit easier for him in that way now than they were a decade ago but the brave choices he makes were never easy and I'm sure they're still not, but he just does them and enjoys them. I found your character really interesting because there are very few true antagonists in the show; if I had to pick one, it would be Henry Willson. I was wondering if you see him as an antagonist, too. For a majority of the series, I do. You know, it's interesting: he's both a member of the oppressed team, and he is a member of the oppressing team. Something I didn't think much about until we were long finished is that one of the key things I think that eats at somebody like Henry was that at that time in his life, he was forced to hide his sexuality in a business sense. And he made his career, partly at least, helping other gay people suppress and hide their sexuality. Obviously, that's going to lead to a certain sense of shame that you internalise. The other thing about it that hadn't crossed my mind until we talked about it was that some of the other oppressed groups of people in this series don't have the luxury of hiding the reason they're being oppressed. In that way, their time spent in Hollywood in this age is much harder and worse than Henry's. That being said, because Henry can hide it, Henry fights his battle alone, and isn't allowed to publicly join forces with anyone or take a stand alongside anybody because he's being secretive about it. That was a long answer to your question but yes, he is the antagonist until he's not, when things get historically inaccurate and we go into the fantasy sequence. Then he tries to start becoming the champion, someone who wants to make a change for his own community. As you prepared to learn Henry’s ins and outs, what was the point of entry in trying to understand who he is? There were several. There was one book in particular by an author named Robert Hofler called The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson. It was so thoroughly researched from the beginning to end of Henry's life, and that alone humanised him, getting to know his family, where he grew up, how he was part of a large swath of people who were suddenly making their way from Broadway to see if they can make a fortune in Hollywood. That alone gave me a lot to go on for this series which was that for as dirty and power hungry as he could be, a huge part of him just wanted to succeed in this business and be an integral part of it the way any of us who are in it do. That's not to say he didn't abuse his power, but some of it was very relatable in that way. And then as a gay man, just knowing what it is to try and hide and be scared of being found out. Not only your own existence being discovered, but also in his case, he couldn't risk his livelihood, he couldn't risk his client, Rock Hudson, being found out. I love when they had [Henry] doing his dirty part to help the brave movie they were making, and there were times when it took on a slightly sweeter tone and he's a little less villainous. He's like Templeton the rat in Charlotte's Web: he's gonna dig through the trash to get the good people what they need. Again, it's selfish means for his own thing but there were ways of looking at it where he's not just despicable. The other thing was, it was a real blessing for me to have never heard of him before I got offered this, because I had no preconceived notions. And not only was there not an idol type figure that everyone knew that I needed to represent overly accurately, but everything I did find out about him, I found out through the lens and the knowledge of having to play him. So there was really no opportunity for me to generalise him as just a slime ball or a sad gay man. I always knew with everything that I have to bring this to life somehow, which is always the job but this was especially exciting. This character could’ve easily been reduced to a villainous caricature. How did you go about making him feel more human and rounded? I feel like the scene where I do the Dance of the Seven Veils is the best example of the way I felt about everything else about him. It would be very easy to look at that dance as just ridiculous or just for comedy. As I started working on it, it quickly started to occur to me that this is important to him, this is a passion for him. It's weird, and it doesn't match up with his personality at all, but all those things only went to inform me of how deeply personal this was for him. This is a man who had to stifle most of his life and who he really was, and in the privacy of his own home and given a couple of drinks, he had an Isidora Duncan in him. This was the way in which he not only expressed himself, but because he was expressing himself, he felt beautiful in a way that he didn't do in life. Not only did he probably feel physically less attractive than the clients he represented who were some of the hunks of the decade, but he also subdued his own homosexuality, and that makes one feel, quote unquote, ugly. This was freedom for him, this was expression. I guess I just bring it up because I feel like in more nuanced ways, every scene sort of had that in there for me. When he would be his most villainous, part of me either consciously or just subconsciously [knew] he was fulfilling some need. He's not just doing something to be mean, and even if he is, he needs that to prop himself up, to make himself feel equal to this really attractive guy he's talking to. And that part was really enjoyable, it really was. I got a kick out of trying to humanise some of the more awful, ridiculous things about him. Did you have any reservations in taking the role? A Hollywood agent who abuses his power and takes advantage of his clients is a tricky role regardless, but it’s especially tricky now. No, I didn't. This goes back to the Ryan of it all. I had ultimate faith in his taste, and that he would be the ultimate yes or no person about what made it to the screen and what didn't. It's one of his specialties, in my opinion, Ryan's shows handle tricky subjects and thorny ideas, and much like this show, when it really works, it asks more questions than it answers. I feel like this character kind of does that too; it seems like it's one thing, and then they use that character to show how a seemingly almost unrelated brave choice for them, like giving the major role to a black actress, that has no direct connection on Henry's own homosexuality or shame, but it dominoes and it's part of why he's suddenly able to look at his life a little more clearly and make some positive changes. In that way, I thought the use of Henry was important, because what choices can we make that we may not know will help somebody like him, but can? By helping somebody like him, we help all of us because he's no longer like that. That sounds really big but you know what I mean. It sounds to me like you feel really passionate about this show, which is rare to find nowadays. I do. We were about midway through shooting when we got to the holidays this year, and just looking back at the year and where my life had gone, I wrote Ryan an email just to tell him that I had no idea this was coming. But I also had no idea what an impactful experience it would be for me, and even midway through I could feel that. I had done enough episodes by that point to be able to go, Oh, I'm not going to get the chance—or maybe I will, God willing—but characters like this don't come along that often in a career that are complicated, colorful, so far outside your own comfort zone, and yet something that I felt able to play. I didn’t feel I couldn't do it, it just felt like something outlandish that for whatever reason I am able to do. The show is a fantasy, revisionist take on Hollywood that course-corrects the treatment of minorities in the film industry. I was wondering how you connected to that personally and how seeing that kind of representation affected you? I was a young man in college who wanted to be an actor back when Ellen DeGeneres came out. And that was so hard for her, not just in the moment, but business-wise—she was a desert after that. No work, show gone. And that move of hers, and others like them, they're echoed so loudly for me in the fantasy parts of this show, and the brave steps taken. Now in our show, the fairytale aspect takes over, and not only do they make the moves but it goes beyond their wildest expectations, and that's really nice. Obviously, real life moves like that aren't fantasy sequences, but they are just as important for those of us out in the world not connected to Ellen DeGeneres. She and others like her completely changed my life and the trajectory of my career. And it is like tipping a domino or throwing a stone into a lake where the ripples just go on for a very long time. Where they finally lead to has very little to do with where they started. And they affect lives that the person who made the first bold move couldn't have ever imagined they would affect. And I think that's one of the greatest strengths of this show and why it's such a great show for right now in general: it plants that seed in your head. It’s the bittersweet part of if a decision like this had been made 80 years ago, where would we be now? It is real food for thought about what decisions we can make right now that will have that kind of effect and set us on a better course eight years from now, 80 years from now. If reality had played out like the show, where do you think we would be now? [The show] is one of those things that, for me at least, blows your mind in the same way like... when I was young I used to try and imagine nothing. Like really, what what if there was nothing? I can still feel that. It's such a funny thing—it has a physical reaction in me. For me, I would always [imagine] the colour gray. But there would be no colour, nothing. And this is sort of that for me, although this is more uplifting, you kind of imagine everything, because that's what these brave, bold moves in life can do. In the grand scheme of things, it's a small little moment but it unlocks a door that reveals everything. And so... I don't know. I guess that's my long way of saying I have no fucking idea what things would be like, but one has to imagine they'd be more colourful, richer, and better. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. Why Zach Braff and Donald Faison are currently rewatching every episode of Scrubs How Doja Cat broke the internet 10 coolest things to do from home right now TVCulture Hans Zimmer on how he helped Billie Eilish produce ‘No Time To Die’ By Thomas Barrie 30 October 2020 Carl Weathers: 'There were three or four years where I was just in excruciating pain' By Ben Allen 24 November 2020	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591473
__label__wiki	0.649578	0.649578	Black jobs matter: does the law curb positive action? Personnel Today - Raoul Parekh and Mark Callaghan 29 June 2020 It feels like the perfect time for pioneering HR and diversity/inclusion managers to bolster policies that assist BAME people to overcome the inherent challenges they face in the workplace. But they have to take heed of the Equality Act 2010, which puts the brakes on positive action, write Mark Callaghan and Raoul Parekh. It has been striking to see the number of employers who have made public commitments to improve black and ethnic minority representation in the workplace in the wake of the killing of George Floyd and the ensuing Black Lives Matter protests. There have been grand gestures. Reddit’s co-founder, Alexis Ohanian, resigned, and urged the company’s board to replace him with a black candidate; Jack Dorsey, Twitter CEO, declared Juneteenth (19 June) a corporate holiday to commemorate the end of slavery; and Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, took a knee with bank branch staff. However, it is also notable that even employers in traditionally apolitical industries have been making renewed commitments to improve BAME representation – for example, the allyship demonstrated by tea brands PG Tips and Yorkshire Tea on Twitter. With the spotlight currently on employers, now feels like a perfect moment for pioneering HR and D&I managers to implement meaningful policies that assist BAME people to overcome the inherent challenges they face in the workplace, and empower non-BAME staff to contribute as well. The question is: how should they go about doing so, when the default position under the Equality Act 2010 is that positive race discrimination (even where an employer’s motivations are good) is prohibited? Ohanian’s proposed hiring policy for Reddit is well-intentioned, but it would fall foul of the UK’s discrimination laws, if a competing white candidate were to apply and be overlooked on account of his or her colour. Race discrimination claims from white employees are uncommon but are certainly not unheard of: last year the Cheshire Police were found to have discriminated against a white applicant who excelled during the recruitment process but was not accepted onto the force. Where two candidates for a role are equally qualified for a role, employers are allowed to use positive discrimination as a “tiebreaker”. In the Cheshire Police case, the employer’s policy was to treat all candidates who passed the various recruitment stages (whether they passed with flying colours, or just scraped by) as being equally qualified for the job. They then prioritised BAME candidates. The white applicant’s complaint concerned this practice, because he felt he had been an especially high performer. The decision effectively confirmed that the force was wrong to treat the candidates as equally qualified in the circumstances. The most obvious answers lie in the provisions set out in section 158 of the Equality Act, which permit positive action (not discrimination) where: the employer reasonably thinks that persons sharing a protected characteristic suffer a disadvantage, or have different needs from other persons, or have disproportionately low levels of participation in an activity, and; the employer takes proportionate steps to remedy that disadvantage, or to provide for those needs, or to boost participation. The key here is that the action must be “proportionate”. A blanket policy of hiring black candidates by default would not be proportionate, whereas a policy of fast-tracking black candidates to a first round interview, or guaranteeing at least one BAME candidate is interviewed for every new role (akin to the National Football League’s Rooney Rule in the US, which requires teams to interview minority candidates for certain coaching and senior jobs) might well meet the threshold. Mr Ohanian’s proposed hiring policy for Reddit is well-intentioned, but it would fall foul of the UK’s discrimination laws, if a competing white candidate were to apply and be overlooked on account of his or her colour. How radical can you be while remaining proportionate? There are dozens of examples in the EHRC Employment Statutory Code of Practice, but it’s possible that what would be proportionate right now, in the current political climate, may well go beyond these examples. Employers should think outside the box, and should take comfort in the fact that the positive action provisions are widely defined, and rarely challenged in the tribunals (even if the corollary of that is that their precise legal reach is not fully defined). The process of showing that a particular group suffers a disadvantage does not necessarily involve the use of sophisticated statistical data or research – the employer must just reasonably think that one of the statutory conditions applies and should be able to point to some evidence (for example, an assessment of the workforce, qualitative data arising out of discussions with the workforce or a union, or national statistics about the employer’s sector). At the moment, with the wealth of information available online about the difficulties BAME candidates face in the workplace, there will a backdrop of compelling evidence for many employers to establish that a disadvantage (or different needs, or low participation) subsists for certain sections of the workforce. If employers conduct a form of D&I survey or collects data to measure their ethnicity pay gap (a step that is not currently required by law, but may be soon) then these sources of data may also provide ample justification for the implementation of positive action policies. It is also arguable that positive action in respect of a person (“A”) will also be justified not only where A overcomes a disadvantage as result of the action, but also where the action leads to a benefit for a wider group of people (who need not be employees) sharing A’s protected characteristic. For example, if a magazine or newspaper can show that its BAME readership suffers a disadvantage on account of a lack of journalistic diversity, then the benefit to those readers of hiring more BAME writers could be used as a justification to provide for positive action in the hiring process. The images from the US and the UK are harrowing and serve as a tragic reminder of the disadvantages suffered by BAME people, both inside and outside of the workplace. Now feels like the right time for employers to consider implementing, or bolstering, positive action.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591474
__label__wiki	0.844011	0.844011	New species of cold-tolerant yeast could yield better lager July 6, 2017 by The Growler Phenotypic chatacteristics of Saccharomyces jurei sp. nov. D5088T. Photomicrograph of the asci (left) and scanning electron micrographs of ascospores (right) formed on acetate agar after 5 days at 25 °C. Bars, 2 µm // Images via Microbiology Society Yeast—it ferments our beer, leavens our bread, and is found virtually everywhere on earth. But despite the many thousands of yeast strains catalogued in collections around the world, it’s estimated that we’ve only identified perhaps as little as 10 percent of what exists in nature. Thanks to a group of researchers at the University of Manchester, that number just got a tiny fraction bigger with the discovery of a new species of yeast in the Saccharomyces family. The research team, in collaboration with the National Collection of Yeast Cultures (NCYC), discovered the new yeast strain on an oak tree in Saint Auban, in the foothills of the French Alps. More importantly for brewers is the fact that the oak tree was growing 3,000 feet above sea level. To survive at that altitude, the yeast developed an ability to tolerate colder conditions than most other known strains of Saccharomyces yeasts, making it a prime candidate for lager beer production. “This ability is of interest to brewers, as lagers rely on yeasts that thrive in the cold; it also open the opportunity to create arrays of novel yeast hybrids with improved biotechnological traits,” said Professor Daniela Delneri, from the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology at The University of Manchester. According to Dr. Steve James from NCYC, which is based on the Norwich Research Park, the yeast strain is the first new species belonging to the brewing yeast family to be discovered since 2011. “It’s really exciting to find this new Saccharomyces yeast, as it extends even further the genetic diversity from which we can draw in the yeast gene pool,” James said. With the vast majority of known yeasts derived from lower altitudes, the search for greater yeast diversity drove the team from the University of Manchester to search for new yeasts higher above sea level. Dozens of different yeast samples were collected from oak trees, which are a particularly rich source of yeasts, and surrounding soils, and cold-tolerant strains were isolated based on their ability to grow at lower temperatures than most other yeasts. The strains were brought to the team at NCYC for testing, and while most of the isolates were found to be known species, two were confirmed through DNA sequencing and genetic testing to belong to an entirely new species. Dr. Samina Naseeb, a research associate from the University of Manchester, added, “It was incredibly exciting when we realized that we discovered a new cold-tolerant species which can also ferment maltose efficiently.” The species was named Saccharomyces jurei in memory of the yeast researcher Professor Jure Piškur. Filed Under: Beer, Beer News, Beer Page, Drink Tagged With: science, yeast	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591477
__label__cc	0.667106	0.332894	How do truck drivers’ hours affect accident rates? On behalf of Garland, Samuel & Loeb, P.C. \| Nov 3, 2014 \| Car Accidents \| Chances are that you frequently encounter large trucks on a regular basis on Georgia roadways, particularly on busy freeways. The size and speed of these vehicles can often present a danger to you and others sharing the road. While a number of factors can contribute to trucking accidents, such as alcohol use, speeding and reckless driving, fatigue is a serious issue for many truck drivers and has been increasing in recent years. It is a well-known fact that many truck drivers work long hours to transport their cargo to its destination in a timely manner. But just how much do these hours affect the ability of truckers to drive safely? According to the New York Times, it is not uncommon for truck drivers to be on the road as many as 11 hours each day, or even longer. A full night’s sleep may not prevent the risk of a truck crash occurring as a result of fatigue. In fact, studies show that drivers are more likely to fall asleep at the wheel with each hour that passes on the road, greatly increasing the chances of others suffering serious injuries or fatalities. Since 2009, truck crashes have been increasing throughout the U.S. It’s estimated that drowsy driving has caused about 13 percent of these accidents. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported 153 fatalities in Georgia in 2012 that involved large truck crashes. It can be said that many of these accidents were caused by truck drivers who should not have been behind the wheel due to fatigue and long hours.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591478
__label__wiki	0.818148	0.818148	Council gives progress update a year on from climate emergency declaration By Ed Sheridan, Local Democracy Reporter \| Thursday 23 July 2020 at 19:56 Hackney’s energy, waste and public realm chief Cllr Jon Burke Hackney Council has undertaken its first annual update on its progress in decarbonisation a year on from its declaration of a climate emergency, on the same day that its publicly owned energy company unveiled its first solar power installation at the West Reservoir Centre. As part of the update, the borough’s Mayor Philip Glanville also promised last night to publish annual emissions data, as the Town Hall works on how to improve its analysis, with the results to be taken before a citizen’s assembly in the future as an “absolute commitment”. Hackney is committed to a reduction of 45 per cent in its carbon dioxide equivalent emissions against 2010 levels by 2030 and to delivering net zero emissions by 2040. An extensive rundown on the borough’s progress on its environmental work also sets in stone that, according to a report by consultants currently being reviewed internally, that the above targets are “possible” based on initial modelling of energy demand and Hackney assets’ carbon emissions up to 2050. Introducing the update, energy, waste and public realm chief Cllr Jon Burke said: “Low-hanging fruit areas, such as the switch to 100 per cent renewable wholesale electricity procurement, have been identified and swiftly executed, but future actions must not only continue at pace but in an increasingly systematic fashion. “Amidst the tragedy of the Covid-19 pandemic, there are signs that the public are valuing cleaner air and time spent in nature, and many people have adapted to working remotely. “As we look to the future, we can see that the coronavirus has created a ‘new normal’. Amongst the many other impacts of the virus, it has been a stark reminder that prevention is better than cure. This must mean a renewed, and meaningful, commitment to rapidly reducing emissions of the greenhouse gases that are driving global warming and contributing both directly and indirectly to the world’s multiple ecological crises. “At the June 2019 Full Council, I invoked the great Carl Sagan with the demand that we, as a council, ‘don’t sit this one out’; noting that we are ‘by accident of fate alive at an absolutely critical moment in the history of our planet’. This report documents the crucial steps that Hackney Council has taken in the previous 12 months towards a different kind of future for ourselves, in which peace, prosperity, and security, are underpinned not by mortgaging the future of our children but by living within the finite ecological limits of our only home.” The Woodberry Down councillor also slammed the £3bn in government funding to support a green recovery as “woefully inadequate”, comparing it to other funding streams such as £29bn for roadbuilding which increase carbon output. Burke and the borough’s mayor also responded to questioning from members of Hackney Green Party and environmentalists on how the council is measuring its success in decarbonisation, on the timeline for a citizen’s assembly to discuss the issues and on carbon emissions linked to the construction industry and the built environment. According to the update report, by 2040 embodied emissions, or the total emissions generated to produce a building, could be the only remaining significant emissions from council operations, with the update stressing that the inclusion of embodied carbon is a “bold step that signals our ambition to tackle significant emissions from consumption and in particular development.” Hackney will be seeking to “strongly reduce” the embodied energy of new builds with the recently published Local Plan asking every new-build to be zero carbon, though the update admits that some residual emissions in this area would still need to be offset. The update report presents an in-depth look at the progress made by the Town Hall in establishing multiple schemes to bring carbon emissions down in the borough, with plans on energy strategy and green infrastructure aiming at baking in the commitments on the policy to the council’s long-term structures, rather than relying on “the individual enthusiasm and energy” of particular officials. Schemes brought forward by the council over the past year include: A shortlist of areas for decentralised district heating network schemes The Town Hall’s pension fund “well over halfway” to its target of divesting from carbon investments by 50 per cent over six years 5,000 new street trees to be planted by 2022, with 31,000 park trees to be planted by the same year A 21st Century Streets programme aimed at bringing together greening, sustainable urban drainage, tree-planting and community parklets as well as cycling and electric vehicle infrastructure, piloted at Dalston’s Colvestone Crescent An additional 40 School Streets for the promotion of active travel and public transport Cycle infrastructure schemes aimed at putting 89 per cent of residents within 400m of a cycle route 12 Low Traffic Neighbourhoods to be created or improved, which are groups of residential streets bordered by main roads where through traffic is discouraged or removed 67 per cent of residents now within 500 metres of an electric vehicle charging installation, with an additional 185 charging points to be installed this year A upgrade programme to the borough’s street lights to LED technology, with 7,000 across the borough committed to be installed over the next 3 years The entire heavy goods vehicle fleet for the council to set at the highest emissions standards as dictated by the EU Fortnightly residual waste collections to be brought forward, which are predicted to eliminate an annual 5,000 tonnes of incinerated waste Traffic reduction schemes such as workplace parking levies and road user charges are also understood to be under consideration. The council is also undertaking a detailed study on how the council’s multiple different types of housing stock could be be made more energy efficient, with all major buildings to generate at least 10 per cent of their energy needs from renewable sources. The use of building materials such as cross laminated timber (CLT) will also continue to be encouraged by the council, which planning committee chair Vincent Stops underlining that Hackney as a hub of such construction has spurred development “across the planet”. The Hackney Central councillor went on to warn that obstacles to the use of such construction were represented by lobbying by the concrete industry and the repercussions of the Grenfell Tower fire, which Stops said had resulted in the government “woefully misunderstanding” its combustibility and “bearing down on its use”. When asked when and how a citizen’s assembly on climate change would take place, Cllr Burke said that while such a deliberative process was “most applicable to the objective of exploring solutions to the challenges posed by global warming”, that the Town Hall would be undertaking further work on developing the process, including identifying the performance targets to meaningfully track progress and support public scrutiny. Burke added: “I’m keen to ensure that key stakeholders in the borough who have had an interest in sustainability play a role in scrutinising the council’s work in this area. However, I’m equally keen to ensure our future work on engaging with the public does not merely include the usual suspects and extends as broadly as it possibly can. “The environmental community, however benign its intentions, is not necessarily representative, ethnically, politically, socially or economically, of Hackney, and I we believe as an administration that to ensure that we bring the public with us we need the broadest possible participation. “Clearly there will be engagement with our key stakeholders, but there will be even more engagement with the keyest stakeholders of all – our residents.” You can read the full update report here ← ‘Important moment in history’: Town Hall passes Black Lives Matter motionHackney sees highest two-week rise in Covid-19 cases in London →	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591482
__label__wiki	0.989972	0.989972	Committed Wenger dismisses Man City speculation Published: 12:33 AM March 6, 2009 Updated: 1:26 PM October 14, 2020 Arsene Wenger has moved to reassure fans he is staying at Emirates, despite rumours that Manchester City will try to lure him to Eastlands in the summer. Speaking ahead of Sunday s FA Cup fifth round clash with Burnley, the Arsenal manager said he remains Arsene Wenger has moved to reassure fans he is staying at Emirates, despite rumours that Manchester City will try to lure him to Eastlands in the summer. Speaking ahead of Sunday's FA Cup fifth round clash with Burnley, the Arsenal manager said he remains committed to the Gunners after more than 12 years at the club. "I have never allowed anyone to question my commitment to this club, in the good and in the bad times, that has not changed in my mind," he said. "Man City have a very good manager in Mark Hughes. He is doing a good job and they have to keep confidence in him. "On my side, I am contracted until 2011 and until 2011 I do not envisage to go anywhere else." He also insisted Cesc Fabregas' future is in north London. The Spaniard this week reportedly told Radio Catalunya that he would leave the club if Wenger went. His boss, however, believes he will remain at Emirates long after he is gone. "I hope his future will last longer than mine because I think he can still be here in 10 years," said Wenger. "Cesc should be one of the bases of this club. I think the club should be built around personalities like Cesc and that is why I hope he will still be here. "He is 22 years old in 2009 and at 32, he will still play." England winger Theo Walcott is expected to play some part of Sunday's match after a four -month absence with a shoulder injury, while Eduardo (hamstring) and William Gallas (ankle) may also return.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591485
__label__wiki	0.968684	0.968684	Thieves ‘defiled and ransacked’ body of World’s End pub landlord who lay dying in street Published: 2:25 PM June 12, 2013 Updated: 1:35 PM October 14, 2020 Landlord Mick Doheny was found dead in Camden Town - Credit: Archant A man who stole from the landlord of a famous Camden pub as he lay dying in the street has been sentenced to 15 months in jail. Yesterday Graham Fitzpatrick, 50, of Hilldrop Crescent, Holloway - known as Fitzy - pleaded guilty to theft from Michael Doheny, who ran the iconic World’s End pub in Camden High Street. Mr Doheny was found dead in Pratt Street, Camden Town, in November last year and an inquest found he died from a head injury after drinking. The court heard that Fitzpatrick, with co-defendant Maria Kitanous, 47, of Drovers Way, Holloway, “defiled” and “ransacked the body” of Mr Doheny, who was described as “vulnerable” and either unconscious or dead. Fitzpatrick, a drug addict, had been in Camden to buy class A drugs and after seeing Mr Doheny’s body laying in the street, he and Kitanous took the landlord’s wallet, ignoring two others who told them to stop. Fitzpatrick told the onlookers not to call police until they had got away. The emergency services found £700 in cash beside the body, as well as a number of scattered cards. Witnesses, Cosmos Scallion and Kerry Mustoe, directed police to Fitzpatrick’s home, where an empty wallet and a card belonging to Mr Doheny was found. Judge Blackwell said during sentencing: “I acknowledge that [Fitzpatrick] has a sad and miserable background and a chaotic lifestyle. But we all live in this city and we have to rely on each other. “Mr Doheny would have expected some measure of help from local citizens. You both defiled and ransacked this body and took what you could get.” Fitzpatrick, who has 60 past convictions for 100 offences since 1975, pleaded guilty at his fourth appearance at Blackfriars Crown Court after he failed to attend court three times previously, once because he was unwell. He was told he would be released on licence after serving part of his sentence. Kitanous pleaded guilty to theft in February and was sentenced to 20 weeks imprisonment.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591486
__label__wiki	0.979741	0.979741	Hampstead Highgate Express > News > Education Haringey Jewish Primary becomes Eden Rhiannon Evans IT has been a big week for Haringey’s first free school and Jewish primary as it changed its name, purchased a site in Muswell Hill and received a formal go-ahead from the government. What was formally known as the Haringey Jewish Primary will now be known as Eden Primary when it opens in September, after its business case was approved by Education Secretary Michael Gove MP. In a letter approving the school to open this year, Mr Gove wrote: “The detailed work [the group] have undertaken to reach this point is testimony to the careful consideration and great commitment shown… and augurs well for the proposed school.” The group behind Haringey’s first free school, which will be government funded but not have to follow the national curriculum, also this week announced the purchase of land on Creighton Avenue, where the school will be built. Eden Primary’s first 30 pupils will be placed in temporary accommodation while the school is built around them, ready to open next year. Headteacher Jo Sassienie only arrived in the UK this week from New York, where the native north Londoner was the principal of a Jewish day school in Manhattan for eight years. She said: “It’s definitely all coming together so we can put together a school that will be unique and inspiring. It’s just a question of putting all the pieces together. There’s lots of enthusiasm and I think the school will be a wonderful place to be.” Peter Kessler, part of the group behind the opening the school said 83 children had applied for the 30 places on offer. Speaking about the name change, he said: “The school is all about breaking down barriers between different communities and calling it a Jewish Primary, even though it has a strong core of Jewish teaching, it sends out a message to non-Jewish families it’s not been built for them. Three separate people came up with Eden independently. It’s a Hebrew word meaning delight.”	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591487
__label__wiki	0.910341	0.910341	Former world record breaking athlete David Bedford in the running to save threatened Hampstead pub A FORMER world record-breaking long distance runner has stepped up the pace in the battle to save a favoured Hampstead pub threatened with closure – by offering to take over the reins. David Bedford, 60, who is currently race director of the London Marath A FORMER world record-breaking long distance runner has stepped up the pace in the battle to save a favoured Hampstead pub threatened with closure - by offering to take over the reins. David Bedford, 60, who is currently race director of the London Marathon, is willing to step in and take over the running of the Duke of Hamilton pub and save it from being closed down at the hands of developers. And to the delight of regulars, the fight to save the New End pub was given another significant boost this week when owners Criterion Asset withdrew their controversial planning application to convert the 250-year-old venue into two homes. A snag in the fight to keep the pub open is the fact that the current lease expires in September. With current landlords Mary and Michael Wooderson looking set to retire, the pub could simply be boarded up and moth balled. But Mr Bedford, a former world record holder in the 10,000m race, has now thrown it a lifeline. He told the Ham&High: "There are a number of things the owners of the pub could do. One of them is to offer someone else a new lease - someone who represents local residents so it could be run as a community pub by locals for locals. I am in touch with the owners and they are aware of my interest in this. Hampstead Village means a massive amount to me. "My family have been here for 250 years. I feel I am a local and I want a decent pint of beer in a pub like the Duke. That is where the real community go to meet. I cannot remember a local issue that has had so much interest from the community." Don't expect to see Mr Bedford pulling pints behind the bar though as he revealed he would prefer to get a manager in to run the pub. His plan is supported by the Heath and Hampstead Society. Chairman Tony Hillier said: "If Mr Bedford wants to give me a call then we would be prepared to support him, as long as the pub operates within its framework hours." Mr Bedford is due to chair a Save the Duke campaign meeting at 11am on Saturday at the Magdala pub in South End Green. Supporters of the pub are urged to attend. There was another boost for the Save the Duke campaign when news filtered through on Monday that Criterion Asset, owned by the Wellington Pub Company, had withdrawn their application. Company chiefs had been told by council officers the proposals would be rejected because of concerns over the loss of a pub and the threat to an ash tree in grounds. Hampstead councillor Chris Knight said: "This is the first step in the fight but the protesters must be on guard because I am sure the developers will come again." The campaign to save the pub is backed by residents and the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) but current landlord and lease holder Michael Wooderson is not impressed. He said: "The owners can do what they like with the pub, it is not my problem. I think it is all wrong. Six other pubs in Hampstead have closed so why not here. I have about 175 customers, whose names I know, yet 700 people objected. What is that about?	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591488
__label__wiki	0.525633	0.525633	Maida Vale couple speak about their luxurious hand-painted, hand-stitched wallpaper range Sara Odeen-Isbister Published: 11:39 AM July 11, 2014 Updated: 6:53 PM December 7, 2020 Nine years ago Maida Vale couple, Tim Butcher and Lizzie Deshayes, combined their creative talents to launch interiors house, Fromental. Their aim was to produce the world’s most beautiful hand-embroidered, hand-painted silk wallpaper. Today the pair’s luxurious creations - which also include fabrics - adorn some of the most prestigious residential and commercial properties around the globe, among them The Dorchester in London and the George V hotel in Paris. Tim started his career as a tailor producing silks for top fashion designers, including Paul Smith and Ralph Lauren, before moving on to work as creative director of chinoiserie house de Gournay. Lizzie, meanwhile, spent two years designing prints for silk neckwear, worked as a designer at wallpaper and fabric company, Osborne and Little, and later became a freelance decorative artist. Asked what inspired them to launch their own business, Lizzie says: “Both creative, we were longing to work on our own designs, so when we left the companies we were working for, we set to work on our own line of papers. “Initially, we focused on a more modern look, but as Tim was known and respected by many clients for his knowledge of chinoiseries, the requests kept on coming for us to create our own.” Although the Far Eastern inspired chinoiseries now feature heavily in the Fromental range the pair still offer three contemporary collections. Each design is customised - with the client able to choose their silk, paint colour and thread, while the composition is designed especially to fit the wall space and compliment the rest of the room. From £300 a square metre, the wallpaper is not cheap, but when you take into account that each panel can take artists up to 600 hours to stitch and paint the price tag is understandable. Tim says the feedback from those who have bought Fromental products has been fantastic. “The overwhelming response is how much they love it,” he explains. “It feels very personal to them and as each room is entirely customised to the client’s requirements, it reflects their own personality.” He adds that despite “challenging” periods over the past nine years they both adore their jobs: “It really is a deep love of design, craftsmanship and not a little showmanship that is utterly addictive.” The couple have a showroom in Kensal Rise where you can view samples by appointment. They also work closely with Hampstead based interior designer Carly Madhvani, who will visit your home and offer advice on what colours and designs would best suit your space. For more information on Fromental visit fromental.co.uk and to contact Carly go to her website NW3interiorsltd.com.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591489
__label__wiki	0.531314	0.531314	TV gardener Joe Swift pays visit to Highgate charity Published: 3:00 PM May 17, 2014 Updated: 6:50 PM December 7, 2020 Highgate residents who are eager to get their garden blooming for the summer were treated to a charity flower sale on Saturday, hosted by BBC Gardeners’ World presenter Joe Swift. Stalls selling summer bedding, window box plants, hanging baskets, herbs and home-made chutneys and jams were set up at the rear of Grade II-listed building Furnival House, in Cholmeley Park. It was organised by The Harington Scheme, a Highgate charity which has helped young adults with learning disabilities for over 30 years through its various gardening projects. The day also saw Harington Scheme patron and gardening expert Mr Swift sign copies of his new book, Joe’s Small Garden Handbook. It features garden design, maintenance and planting tips – all in a bid to help readers “create their very own personal Eden”. Mr Swift, who lives in Islington, has designed a number of gardens for TV shows over the years – including one for Comic Relief – and won a gold medal at RHS Chelsea flower show for his design in 2012. Simon Tye, who is the Harington Scheme’s administrator, said: “He’s got a new book out which he brought along and did a book signing, in support of us really. “It was also our annual spring plant sale, which is meant to get local people on site and to see what we’re doing. “They can have some cake and tea and also buy plants if they want to.”	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591491
__label__wiki	0.785442	0.785442	Hampstead Highgate Express > Things to do Teen author Robert Muchamore on causing controversy and finishing popular CHERUB series Published: 8:00 AM June 17, 2016 Updated: 1:47 PM October 14, 2020 Robert Muchamore. Picture: Debra Hurford Brown - Credit: Archant Bestselling Crouch End author Robert Muchamore, 43, has just released the 17th and last novel in his acclaimed CHERUB spy series for young adults. The former Acland Burghley School pupil, who is also about to finish his Rock War series, reflects on getting his books banned from Highgate School, causing controversy, gender segregated books and what’s next. The cover of New Guard, the last CHERUB novel - Credit: Archant Why end the CHERUB spy series now, with New Guard? Because it’s now 12 years and 17 books. I did enjoy writing the last book but it also felt really good to end it. I do feel quite emotional about it being the end because it was my first book published and it’s been so successful all over the world, out in lots of different languages. New Guard is about an Islamic State-style outfit, very topical... I’ve always done that with CHERUB, I thought it was important that the stories felt very contemporary and of their time. The series has been so popular with young people, what do you put that down to? I just made some quite smart decisions early on. I keep the characters very grounded, like a character will come in hot and sweaty, and have a shower, in the morning they go to the loo, they eat breakfast. It makes them feel real. With James Bond, it opens with an action sequence, then you see him in a casino - it’s entertaining and I’m not criticising that, but ultimately you don’t feel he is ever a real person. Last year you got into hot water after describing lesbians as ‘ugly women with short hair’, and you’re no stranger to controversy… That was a bit of a disaster. It was a throwaway line and when I read it back, I thought, oh s*** I shouldn’t have written that. It was completely inappropriate. But sometimes I think it’s a shame in a way, because you can end up with a culture where it becomes a ‘Lewis Hamilton’ effect – he never says anything out of turn, he’s so incredibly careful about what he says that he doesn’t seem at all genuine. I’m slightly more careful about editing my Facebook page than I was before but I don’t want to be a robot. If something annoys me I want to go online and say, god that was annoying! Your books were famously banned from Highgate School over ‘unsuitability’ after you were due to give a talk there back in 2011. How you do feel about it now? I really have no grudge against them at all, it was a bit of a storm in a teacup and I think my publicist actually quite liked the idea because it got quite a bit of publicity about it and made quite a good headline... What I don’t like is the kneejerk reaction where one parent will complain about one thing that happens in one book. It’s lowest common denominator stuff, and you’ll just end up with the blandest books. You’ve voiced strong opinions blasting gender segregated books, but your CHERUB series is distinctively marketed towards adolescent boys... The irony is that boys are incredibly sexist. They’re turned off if there’s something even slightly feminine. JK Rowling is the ultimate example - they didn’t want to put that it was by someone called Joanne on the cover. But if we go for a masculine look on the covers of my books, boys will read it and the kind of girls that read my books will read it too. Society is much more tolerant than it used to be when I was at school 30 years ago but there’s still social stigma about boys doing certain things and it is a real shame. What inspired you to write the CHERUB series? Surely James Bond must have been an influence? James Bond, yes, but more than that, around the time I was writing Cherub there was the Spy Kids movie and they were very much in the conventional James Bond mould; quite kiddy, quite cartoony, with over the top gadgets. You can kind of think of CHERUB as the anti-Spy Kids. In Spy Kids, they get in this special submarine; and in CHERUB, they have a Windows laptop that doesn’t work properly and they wander in a muddy field. What’s next, now CHERUB’s over and you’ve only got two more books left in your other series, Rock War? I definitely want to carry on writing for the same audience. There’s lots of authors for the audience I write for but I don’t think they do it in the same way. My voice is unique and kids appreciate it. There’s always a challenge, when you’ve got 30 books in the market, to make your next book sparkle, to make it stand out; it has to be really special.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591492
__label__wiki	0.941307	0.941307	Chariots of Fire to trans... Chariots of Fire to transfer to the West End Following its sell-out run at Hampstead Theatre, Edward Hall’s five star production will open at The Gielgud Theatre on 23 June 2012 where it is currently booking to 10 November 2012. Inspired by Colin Welland’s original screenplay, award-winning playwright Mike Bartlett’s new adaptation is based on the true story of Eric Liddell and Harold Abrahams’ inspirational tale of hope, honour and belief. Designer Miriam Buether will transform The Gielgud Theatre into immersive stadia experience, evoking the spirit of the 1924 Paris Olympic Games. Costumes are by Michael Howells with lighting by Rick Fisher, choreography by Scott Ambler and sound by Paul Groothuis. The production features the legendary music of Vangelis with additional live music and arrangements by Tony Award-winning composer Jason Carr. The cast, led by Jack Lowden as Eric Liddell and James McArdle as Harold Abrahams comprises Sam Archer (Athlete), Joe Bannister (Frank), Antonia Bernath (Florence Mackenzie), Natasha Broomfield (Jennie Liddell), Gareth Charlton (Athlete), Henry Davis (Athlete), Mark Edel-Hunt (Aubrey Montague), Lloyd Everitt (Athlete), Daniel Fraser (Athlete), Nickolas Grace (Master Of Trinity), Leemore Marrett Jr (Athlete), David Newman (Prince of Wales), Matthew Pearson (Sandy McGrath), Simon Slater (Mr Liddell/Foster), Savannah Stevenson (Sybil Gordon), Paul Tinto (Secretary of the Gilbert and Sullivan Society), Simon Williams (Master of Caius), Tam Williams (Lord Andrew Lindsay) and Nicholas Woodeson (Sam Mussabini). Jack Lowden’s previous roles include Cammy in the Laurence Olivier award-winning Black Watch for the National Theatre of Scotland which was also seen at the Barbican and on tour worldwide. On television his credits include Blue Haven and Being Victor. James McArdle has previously been seen on stage in The Heart of Robin Hood for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Emperor and Galilean for the National Theatre, A Month in The Country for Chichester Festival Theatre, Spur of The Moment for the Royal Court and Macbeth at the Globe Theatre. His television appearances include The Best Possible Taste, Appropriate Adult and Page Eight. McArdle has also appeared in the film Private Peaceful. Mike Bartlett’s plays include Love, Love, Love for Paines Plough which has recently completed a sell-out run at the Royal Court, Earthquakes in London for Headlong and National Theatre, 13 for the National Theatre, and Cock, Contractions and My Child for the Royal Court. Bartlett is Writer-in-Residence at the National Theatre. His play Cock won the 2010 Olivier award for Outstanding Achievement and Bartlett also won the Writer’s Guild Tinniswood and Imison prizes for Not Talking, a radio play for BBC. Edward Hall was appointed the Artistic Director of Hampstead Theatre in 2010 where he has subsequently directed No Naughty Bits, Loyalty and Enlightenment. He is also Artistic Director of Propeller, the all male Shakespeare company who recently toured the hugely successful Richard III and The Comedy of Errors, and is currently touring Henry V and The Winter’s Tale. His many theatre credits in London and New York include The Deep Blue Seat at the Vaudeville Theatre, Once In A Lifetime, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum and Edmond for the National Theatre, A Streetcar Named Desire for the Roundabout Theatre, New York, The Taming of the Shrew for the Old Vic and Rose Rage for the Haymarket Theatre, in the US and on tour internationally. Award-winning designer Miriam Buether’s theatre credits include Earthquakes in London for Headlong and the National Theatre, Sucker Punch for the Royal Court, Judgement Day for the Almeida Theatre, In the Red and Brown Water for the Young Vic and The Wonderful World of Dissocia. Greek composer Vangelis is best known for his Academy Award-winning score for the film Chariots of Fire, and scores for the films Blade Runner, 1492: Conquest of Paradise and Alexander. Additional music is by Tony Award-winning composer Jason Carr whose credits include orchestrations of Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park with George, A Little Night Music and La Cage Aux Folles. Colin Welland’s 1981 Academy Award® winning film of the same name, starred Ian Charleson and Ben Cross as athletes Liddell and Abrahams, was directed by Hugh Hudson. Produced by David Puttnam, Chariots of Fire also won the BAFTA award for Best Film and a further two awards at the Cannes Film Festival. Chariots of Fire is produced in the West End by Hugh Hudson, Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson and Michael Rose Limited who present a Hampstead Theatre production based on the Enigma Productions Limited motion picture by arrangement with Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation and Allied Stars S.A. Panama. Dates: 23 June – 10 November 2012 Address: Gielgud Theatre, 35 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, W1D 6AR Performances: Monday – Saturday at 7.45pm, Wednesday and Saturday at 3pm Box Office: 0844 4825130 Ticket prices: £26 – £55 plus concessions, all prices include a £1 theatre restoration levy Website: chariotsoffireonstage.com 4 Stars from The Guardian for Chariots of Fire Read full story 5 Stars from The Daily Mail for Chariots of Fire Read full story 4 Stars from the Evening Standard for Chariots of Fire Read full story 5 Stars from The Sunday Times for Chariots of Fire Read full story 4 Stars from the Financial Times for Chariots of Fire Read full story 4 Stars from The Times for Chariots of Fire Read full story	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591494
__label__wiki	0.666541	0.666541	TERRY JOHNSON'S KEN TO TR... TERRY JOHNSON'S KEN TO TRANSFER TO THE BUNKER THEATRE The Bunker Theatre today announce their Spring Season 2018. The season opens with Ken, written by Olivier and Tony award-winning writer Terry Johnson, which transfers from Hampstead Theatre following a riotously successful run at Hampstead Downstairs last year. Ken pays tribute to the truly original and unclassifiable Ken Campbell - maverick writer, theatre director, and legendary practical joker. Writer Terry Johnson comments 'Ken Campbell was a true original - a theatrical maverick, unique comedic thinker, legendary practical joker and an inspiration to many of us. He was also my friend, champion, and occasional nemesis. 2018 is the tenth anniversary of his death. Following our enjoyable and cathartic run at Hampstead Theatre Downstairs in 2016, I’m so proud to have the opportunity to present our tribute to a wider audience at The Bunker. For those who knew him, I hope we’ve evoked his spirit as you remember him. For those who never met him; hold on to your seats. Our show is an enjoyable, unpredictable, slightly bonkers journey in the company of the most influential man I ever met. Please join us.' Joshua McTaggart, The Bunker’s Artistic Director, comments 'It is incredibly exciting to announce The Bunker's spring 2018 season - our first season of fully curated work since we opened our doors back in October 2016. In the past year we have discovered so much about our space, our audience, and our artists, and these four shows reflect the height of what we want to be doing at The Bunker in bringing ambitious artists and adventurous audiences together into our shared space. From Terry Johnson's celebration of the life of the experimental theatre-maker Ken Campbell and an actor-musician led punk-rock version of Sophocles' Electra, to two world premieres: Kevin Armento's exploration of Hillary Clinton and the Monica Lewinsky scandal and Grotty, Izzy Tennyson's dark drama exploring this city's lesbian subculture from Damsel Productions, we have lined up a Spring season that demonstrates the full breadth of artists and their work that has found a home at The Bunker since we opened.' The Bunker in association with Hampstead Theatre 1978, London. A 23 year old aspiring playwright in a rundown flat-share off the North End Road is wrestling with his masterpiece for the Royal Court. The house phone rings, the young man answers… a call for the person who used to occupy his room, recently moved to Amsterdam. But even once this information is imparted, the man at the other end refuses to hang up. His name is Ken. And he’s about to change the young man’s life forever... Directed by Lisa Spirling, Artistic Director of Theatre 503, Ken is the retelling of an extraordinary friendship from beginning to end, replete with wickedly funny anecdotes, magnificent hoaxes, and general chaotic lunacy – all infused with the spirit of the great man… Terry Johnson and Jeremy Stockwell reprise their roles following a sell-out run at Hampstead Theatre to bring to life Ken Campbell's wild and idiosyncratic perspective on life.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591495
__label__wiki	0.636212	0.636212	When Climate Change Distracts the U.S. Military COMMENTARY Defense Dec 9th, 2020 3 min read Dakota Wood Senior Research Fellow, Defense Programs Dakota L. Wood, who served America for two decades in the U.S. Marine Corps, is the Senior Research Fellow for Defense Programs. 5786 U.S. Air Force Lockheed MC-130J Commando II Hercules (STRIX44) of the 67th Special Operations Squadron (Night Owls) approaches RAF Mildenhall, England on 5 October 2020. NurPhoto / Contributor / Getty Images Lumping everything we think is important into the basket of “national security” dilutes the term, makes it harder to prioritize limited resources. The U.S. military is too small, too old, and insufficiently ready to handle more than one major conflict. The U.S. military cannot do what is being demanded of it without a corresponding increase in funding or a dramatic and dangerous reorientation from its real job. Climate change is an urgent national security threat? Here we go again. Leaving aside the debate over the causes of climate change—and the pace of that change—promoters of the argument that changes in the global climate are a “security threat” to the U.S. muddle our understanding of the term and jeopardize our ability to confront real security threats to the country. All sorts of things vie for our attention as they affect our country’s economic, security, moral, and human interests. But lumping everything we think is important into the basket of “national security” dilutes the term, makes it harder to prioritize limited resources (money, time, attention), and distracts the U.S. military. Directing the Department of Defense to account for the threat of climate change in all planning sets up contradictions wrapped in hypocrisy. We saw this during the Obama administration when funding for the military fell irresponsibly short of the things the military was required to do. Our military was expected to sustain operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere while simultaneously being warned that it would be derelict in its duties if it did not account for the severe effects of climate change. And yet it was starved of the resources to do both. According to the Obama administration, and presumably a Biden one too, the implications of climate change include more intense weather events that will be “more frequent and more severe … inflict more damage, heighten humanitarian needs, undermine development investments, adversely impact public health, contribute to ecological, social, and political instability, compromise diplomatic goals, and undermine national security interests.” Setting attribution aside, this heady list of challenges would seemingly require the military to be more capable of responding to humanitarian crises and various climate-induced conflicts around the world. Given this backdrop, it would be immoral not to increase defense spending so as to prepare the military to deal with a world riven by more—not fewer—crises. And this in addition to being prepared to prevail in war. Yet in spite of orders to be prepared for potential conflict with major competitors and to prioritize adapting to the increased security implications of global climate change, there are increasingly strident calls from the political left to reduce spending on defense by 10% or more. What? Do more with less funding and fewer resources? At present, the U.S. military is too small, too old, and insufficiently ready to handle more than one major conflict in spite of the emphasis placed on a return to great power competition. >>> Index of U.S. Military Strength It is facing extraordinary bills to modernize after 30 years of neglect: $80 billion to replace 50-year-old Minuteman III ICBMs, another $80 billion to replace 30-year-old strategic bombers, $100 billion to replace aging ballistic missile submarines, mounting costs to replace tanks, amphibious vehicles, artillery systems, and basic support equipment acquired in the 1980s and 1990s. The U.S. Navy’s fleet of 296 ships average over 20 years old. Meanwhile China, alone, already fields 350 ships and is growing at a rate equivalent to the size of the entire navies of other countries every two years or so. Iran has assembled an arsenal of 3,000 ballistic missiles, and North Korea continues its efforts to expand its inventory of nuclear weapon delivery capabilities. The U.S. Army and Marine Corps are both trying to solve the challenges of operating against major opponents with substantial military power rather than terrorist groups with little ability to prevent the U.S. from doing what it wants. In addition, this says nothing about the fact that the cost of ships, tanks, and aircraft needed to survive in modern combat, much less prevail, has grown five times or more above the rate of inflation. Simply put, the U.S. military cannot do what is being demanded of it without a corresponding increase in funding or a dramatic and dangerous reorientation from its real job: defending the country from military threats. Ordering it to defend the country and take on climate change as a national security threat without giving it the resources to do both does a disservice to the men and women who have dedicated themselves to serve the country in uniform and to the American people who expect their military to do what only it can do. Let’s get real about “climate change” and how we view it through the lens of national security. No matter the driver, if climate change is a threat, then provide the funding needed to upgrade century-old bases, replace half-century-old aircraft, expand the force beyond the bare minimum needed to defend against a single threat, and ensure our forces can train enough to be competent in their jobs. Anything less is hypocritical and an insult to the force we supposedly need, value, and respect. North Korea Could Spell Trouble for Biden COMMENTARY10 min read Protecting the Planet While Great Powers Compete	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591501
__label__wiki	0.660099	0.660099	By Morton A. Klein and Dr. Daniel Mandel Obama wrong: PA doesn't want peaceful state NEW YORK—There was a good deal that was wrong and fantastical in President Barack Obama’s address to the United Nations last week—such as the idea that al-Qaeda is “splintering” (actually, it is proliferating) or that Russia and Iran need to “realize that insisting on [Syrian president] Assad’s rule will lead directly to... an increasingly violent space for extremists to operate” (actually, neither Moscow nor Tehran have wish or motive to abandon Syria, their most important Middle East ally). Here, however, we focus on a single issue also misaddressed by President Obama: the alleged peace process between Israel and the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority (PA). In his address, President Obama contended that “Israel’s security as a Jewish and democratic state depends upon the realization of a Palestinian state.” Yet he did not explain how setting up an irredentist, terrorism-promoting PA-run state, whose leaders explicitly refuse to accept Israel as a Jewish state; publicly glorify terrorists —like last week’s PA celebration of Dalal Mughrabi, the leader of the 1978 coastal road massacre in which 37 Israelis, including a dozen children, were slaughtered; demand that a PA state be Jew-free; and who do not even exercise control over Gaza, which is in the hands of the Hamas terrorist movement, could conceivably be in the Israeli interest. Handing over the West Bank to PA state, including the strategically vital Jordan Valley, would entail drastic deterioration in Israeli security. It would bring Jerusalem, Ben Gurion Airport and most of Israel’s major population centers within rocket and rifle range of Palestinian terrorists. Terrorist movements, nurtured behind a wall of sovereign immunity, would create destabilization and cross border raids, to the detriment of Israelis and Palestinians alike. President Obama provided no evidence or argument as to why we should expect a different outcome today, other than this: both Israelis and Palestinians, he claimed, understand that peace is necessary and possible via the creation of a Palestinian state. In fact, the idea that Israelis currently favor creating a Palestinian state, or believe that doing so would bring peace with the Palestinians, is false. No less false is the notion that Palestinians seek merely statehood alongside Israel. Successive Israeli polls in recent years show that Israelis do not favor further concessions to the PA, nor do they believe such concessions, or even a peace treaty with the PA, would produce peace with the Palestinians. A June 2013 Smith poll can be taken as representative: 57 percent opposed the recent freeing of Palestinian terrorists into which President Obama pressured Israel, while 68 percent believe that Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank would harm Israeli security. Numerous Palestinian polls over the years—including one in recent weeks by Pew Research—show majority Palestinian support for suicide terrorism against Israelis. Fatah’s unchanged Constitution calls for the “demolition” of Israel and its armed wing, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, is on the U.S. list of terrorist organizations. PA media, mosques, school curricula and official speeches produce unending reams of incitement to hatred and murder, glorification of terrorists and rejection of Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. The fantasy behind the idea of an Israeli/PA peace under prevailing conditions cannot be gainsaid by claiming, as President Obama did, that “the world is more stable than it was five years ago” and that the time is therefore “ripe” for international efforts to bring about an Israeli/Palestinian peace. The Middle East is actually experiencing its worst turbulence and bloodshed in decades. Over 100,000 have been slaughtered in Syria. Massive instability and brutal violence is afflicting Egypt. Yemen has been wracked by internal conflict for over two years. Libya has become a jungle of jihadist warriors since the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi’s dictatorship. Thousands of Christians have been murdered and many dozens of churches destroyed in Egypt, Syria and elsewhere. In Iraq, over 5,000 people have been slaughtered in virtually daily suicide bombings just this year. The July 2013 death toll in Iraq was nearly 1,000 dead—more than in any other month since President Obama assumed office in January 2009. Given these undeniable and demonstrable facts, it is nonsense for President Obama to assert that, on his watch, the Middle East is experiencing, or drawing into, a period of stability greater than that which prevailed when he assumed office. And even if he were right on this score, the obstacles to an Israeli/Palestinian settlement, of which we have mentioned only the most important, would still hold true. Whatever else can be said of it, President Obama’s idea that a Palestinian state is “central” to Israeli peace and security is a mirage and an absurdity. Morton A. Klein is national president of the board of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA). Dr. Daniel Mandel is director of the ZOA’s Center for Middle East Policy. China wants to blind the world Exhibit has no connection to the Holocaust Viewpoint: Anti-Semites inside our Holocaust Center Anti-Semites combating anti-Semitism: An Orwellian farce When will Jewish refugees from Arab nations get the justice they deserve? Erdogan confidant prop...Dean Shmuel Elmas and Arie... Jews in the Land of Di...Ed Borowsky Exhibit has no connect... Viewpoint: Anti-Semite...Alan Kornman From homeless to Congr...Jackson Richman	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591502
__label__wiki	0.869873	0.869873	Search Hurlburt Field: Search Hurlburt Updates Shared Media Manager Hurlburt Senior Leaders 1st Special Operations Wing (Host Wing) Air Force Special Operations Command 505th Command and Control Wing 24th Special Operations Wing 492nd Special Operations Wing 1st Special Operations Group 1st Special Operations Maintenance Group 1st Special Operations Mission Support Group 1st Special Operations Medical Group Wing Staff Agencies Partner Units Honorary Commander Noise Resolution Air Park Comptroller Services Portal In processing Newcomers Info Off-Limits Areas Voting Assistance HomeNewsArticle Display 1st SOCES HVAC specialists replace A/C chiller By Airman First Class Robyn Hunsinger , 1st Special Operations Wing Public Affairs / Published December 10, 2020 PHOTO DETAILS / DOWNLOAD HI-RES 1 of 8 U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Marquez Carson, a heating, ventilation and air conditioning craftsman with the 1st Special Operations Civil Engineer Squadron, bolts a pipe into place during an air conditioning chiller replacement at Hurlburt Field, Florida, Dec. 8, 2020. HVAC specialists maintain systems necessary to regulate air quality and temperature in facilities throughout the U.S. Air Force. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Robyn Hunsinger) U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Sean Paschal, a heating, ventilation and air conditioning journeyman with the 1st Special Operations Civil Engineer Squadron, removes a pipe in preparation for an air conditioning chiller replacement at Hurlburt Field, Florida, Dec. 8, 2020. HVAC specialists maintain systems necessary to regulate air quality and temperature in facilities throughout the U.S. Air Force. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Robyn Hunsinger) U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Brent Taylor, a heavy equipment journeyman with the 1st Special Operations Civil Engineer Squadron, directs a crane driver during an air conditioning chiller replacement at Hurlburt Field, Florida, Dec. 8, 2020. Pavements and Construction Equipment personnel are experts in multiple types of heavy machinery used to maintain and improve facilities across the installation. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Robyn Hunsinger) U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Marquez Carson, a heating, ventilation and air conditioning craftsman with the 1st Special Operations Civil Engineer Squadron, uses a miter saw to cut pipe during an air conditioning chiller replacement at Hurlburt Field, Florida, Dec. 8, 2020. HVAC specialists maintain systems necessary to regulate air quality and temperature in facilities throughout the U.S. Air Force. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Robyn Hunsinger) U.S. Air Force heating, ventilation and air conditioning specialists with the 1st Special Operations Civil Engineer Squadron use a miter saw to cut pipe during an air conditioning chiller replacement at Hurlburt Field, Florida, Dec. 8, 2020. HVAC specialists maintain systems necessary to regulate air quality and temperature in facilities throughout the U.S. Air Force. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Robyn Hunsinger) U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Brent Taylor, a heavy equipment journeyman with the 1st Special Operations Civil Engineer Squadron, and U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Michael Hudnall, the heating, ventilation and air conditioning section chief with the 1st SOCES, discuss the process of maneuvering multiple air conditioning units during an air conditioning chiller replacement at Hurlburt Field, Florida, Dec. 8, 2020. Pavements and Construction Equipment personnel are experts in multiple types of heavy machinery used to maintain and improve facilities across the installation. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Robyn Hunsinger) U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Brent Taylor and U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Bijon Vasquez, heavy equipment journeymen with the 1st Special Operations Civil Engineer Squadron, secure a new air conditioning unit before a crane maneuvers it into place at Hurlburt Field, Florida, Dec. 8, 2020. Pavements and Construction Equipment personnel are experts in multiple types of heavy machinery used to maintain and improve facilities across the installation. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Robyn Hunsinger) HURLBURT FIELD, Fla. -- Heavy equipment journeymen with the 1st Special Operations Civil Engineer Squadron conduct an air conditioning chiller replacement at Hurlburt Field, Florida, Dec. 8, 2020. HVAC specialists maintain systems necessary to regulate air quality and temperature in facilities throughout the U.S. Air Force. Hurlburt Field 1st Special Operations Wing AFSOC Air Force Special Operations Command HVAC Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning 1st SOCES 1st Special Operations Civil Engineer Squadron	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591511
__label__wiki	0.931572	0.931572	Klanderman’s focus on sound K-State defense Arne Green @arnegreen As Kansas State's new defensive coordinator, Joe Klanderman wasn't looking to reinvent the wheel. Now that the wheel has a flat — namely the coronavirus pandemic, which shut down spring practice opportunities nationwide — there's simply no time. But when Klanderman, a veteran on head coach Chris Klieman's staff going back to their days at North Dakota State, was promoted from safeties coach to coordinator at the beginning of March, wholesale changes were not part of the plan to begin with. The K-State defense flourished in its first year of the Klieman regime under Scottie Hazelton, who left for a similar position — and a hefty raise — at Michigan State. Klanderman hinted that he may take a slightly more aggressive approach, but that for the most part he and Hazelton were of like mind. "Scottie (Hazelton) and I come from the same (coaching) tree," Klanderman said Wednesday during a video teleconference. "Philosophically, I think I'm similar to Scottie in that I think that if you play sound defense and you eliminate explosive plays, you give yourself a chance. "Now can you play sound defense and bring pressure? Sure. I don't think I'm a crazy pressure man, but think that maybe we could have been a little more aggressive in some of our zones. We maybe could have been a little more aggressive in our play-calling situation." By promoting Klanderman, Klieman was able to maintain some continuity in his second season while also turning to a trusted staff member who had been with him for six years — five at North Dakota State and one with the Wildcats. Other than Hazelton, who has since been replaced by linebackers coach Steve Stanard, the defensive staff returns intact. That Klieman didn't bring in a hired gun as coordinator now looks like a stroke of genius. Imagine having to start from scratch with a new defense and without the benefit of spring practice. Van Malone, who recently was promoted from cornerbacks coach to assistant head coach and passing game coordinator, did imagine that, and it wouldn't have been a pretty picture. "If you think about that, it would have been quite a big deal for our players to know that they would have to learn a new system once they return," Malone said. "So for us coaches, it's been refreshing for us to know the calls, for us to know the defenses, and so we can sharpen that. "It's not the same as it is as a coach when you're learning as they're learning. So to have coaches in the system for two years and the players be in the system for multiple years, I think is an incredible advantage." Even so, there's work to be done, and at this point that means coaches communicating with players via video conferences and players studying game tape on their iPads. "Yeah, it's uncharted waters here, isn't it?" Klanderman said. "It's not ideal, (but) everybody's in the same boat, though. "I guess the way I think about it is, if we're maximizing our time, we're getting ahead, and I think we're doing that as best we can." That means coaches comparing notes before they impart their information to the players. "If we're all on the same page with the same voice, it's going to help us move faster when we get everyone together," Klanderman said. "Right now it's film with the guys, it's terminology with the guys (and) learning that stuff. And then the walk-through stuff and the actual pictures, they're going to have to wait until we get some face time with them." The question remains, when will the face-to-face time come? Will it be in the summer or not until the fall, with just a few short weeks to get ready for the season? "As far as how that's going to affect us, we'll probably have to simplify the package a little bit," Klanderman said. "Maybe all of the things that we wanted to do originally, we're not going to be able to do. At least not initially in the season. "And the other thing is, when we get back we're getting plenty of meeting time right now. I think when we get back, the big thing is going to be we're going to have to spend more time in walk-throughs. We're going to have to spend more time on our feet than we would have otherwise."	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591512
__label__cc	0.738805	0.261195	Problems We Found With Laredo's Drinking Water Emma Schultz @ Monday, November 27, 2017 at 5:28 pm -0500 BREAKING 9/29/2019: Laredo has issued a city-wide boil order as the result of insufficient tap water chlorination. The city has made the adjustment, and is monitoring levels across the system. Please follow municipality's instructions for when the boil order is lifted. Emma Schultz, M.S. \| Scientific Contributor For our assessment of city of Laredo's water quality, we aggregated water quality test data from the City Of Laredo Utilities Department, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as well as from samples that we collect and analyze. We cross reference these data with toxicity studies in the scientific and medical literature, and look at upcoming regulatory changes. The water filters that we sell in Laredo are optimized with these issues in mind. Source Of Laredo Drinking Water Laredo’s drinking water is surface water-based, and comes from the Rio Grande River. There are two water treatment plants that filter and treat water for Laredo customers. The Jefferson Water Treatment Plant has two separate river intakes, pump structures, and related pump units, although one of the pump structures has been permanently closed since 2013. The El Pico Water Treatment Plant is a new facility that commenced operations in 2015. In addition to these treatment plants and associated water storage facilities, Laredo has the option of using Webb County’s Lake Casa Blanca Reservoir in a water emergency. Arsenic In Laredo Drinking Water Arsenic is a hazardous heavy metal that can cause cancer and other health problems. Arsenic originates in source water naturally. While the city of Laredo's water quality is in compliance with EPA water quality standards, consumers should know that the U.S. EPA's standard balances toxicity against the costs of removing arsenic from drinking water. Laredo’s most recent tap water quality report listed a highest level detected of 4 parts per billion. We strongly suggest that tap water with more than 1 part per billion be treated to remove arsenic, especially in homes with children. High Levels Of Disinfection Byproducts (DBPs) In Laredo Drinking Water DBPs are a category of emerging contaminants that are created when chlorine-based disinfectants added to the water supply combine with naturally-occurring organic matter. Although these chemicals are not fully regulated, the EPA has explicitly stated that they are linked to an increased risk of bladder cancer, as well as kidney, liver, and central nervous system problems. Laredo’s tap water has recently had high levels of DBPs, with a 2016 average of 103 parts per billion. The level of trihalomethanes (TTHM) detected in 2016 ranged as high as 147 ppb, which is nearly double the Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) of 80 ppb. This was a violation, as TTHM levels exceeded the MCL in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th quarters of 2016. While not a violation, the level of Haloacetic Acids detected also ranged above the MCL of 60 to 83.9 ppb. Use Of Chlorine In Laredo Tap Water Like most cities in the United States, Laredo adds chlorine to its water supply to keep consumers safe from waterborne illness. While not considered exceedingly harmful, many people find that when they remove the chlorine from their water supply, they quickly notice an improvement in taste and odor. When you choose to filter your tap water, we believe you will notice an immediate taste enhancement. Laredo made the news in September of 2016 when five schools tested positive for a lack of chlorine in their water supply, prompting the schools to provide students with bottled water until the system was flushed with enough chlorine to ensure safe levels of disinfection. Still Have Questions About Laredo’s Tap Water? Hydroviv is a water filtration company that uses water quality data to optimize water filters for each city’s water. The chemicals that we list above are what we consider to be “points of emphasis” so we can build the best water filter for Laredo tap water, but all of our water filters provide broad protection against other contaminants commonly found in drinking water (e.g. VOCs, heavy metals [including lead], pharmaceuticals, solvents, pesticides, mercury). If you’re interested in learning more about water filters that have been optimized for Laredo tap water, feel free to visit www.hydroviv.com, reach out by email (hello@hydroviv.com) or through our live chat. We also frequently post water-related news on Twitter or Facebook. Please Share This Laredo Water Quality Report Article On Social Media With Anyone You Think Would Benefit From The Information! Recommended Articles For You What Do I Need To Know About Disinfection Byproducts? What Should I Know About Arsenic In Drinking Water? Why Whole House Filters Are Usually A Waste Of Money Why Does EPA Allow Toxic Chemicals In Drinking Water? Problems We Found In McAllen's Drinking Water Analies Dyjak @ Friday, December 15, 2017 at 10:34 am -0500 Kezia Snipe \| Hydroviv Research Analyst For Hydroviv’s assessment of tap water in McAllen, TX, we aggregated water quality test data from McAllen Public Utility, the city’s water provider and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as well as from samples that we collect and analyze. We cross reference these data with toxicity studies in the scientific and medical literature, and delve into upcoming regulatory changes. The water filters that we offer at Hydroviv are optimized with these numbers in mind. Sources Of McAllen Drinking Water The sources of drinking water used by McAllen Public Utility are Surface Water and Ground Water. Water is received from the Falcon and Amistad Dams, located in Starr and Val Verde Counties, respectively. The water is transferred from the Rio Grande River by irrigation districts into reservoirs. Arsenic In McAllen Drinking Water Arsenic is a toxic metal that is known to cause cancer and other health issues. Unlike lead, which distributes into water from plumbing, arsenic comes from the source water itself. McAllen is in compliance with the EPA’s water quality standards but it’s important to point out that EPA’s standard balances the toxicity against the costs of removing arsenic from drinking water. The city’s most recent tap water quality report reported an average arsenic concentration up to 3 parts per billion. Hydroviv recommends that anyone with more than 1 part per billion take steps to remove arsenic from their water, especially if they have children. Chromium 6 Levels In McAllen Drinking Water Chromium 6 is a highly toxic metal that is not currently regulated by the EPA. In recent years, the city’s tap water has averaged 7 parts per trillion for Chromium 6. These levels are well within compliance with federal standards but do carry risks of having negligible impact on cancer risk. Disinfection Byproducts (DBPs) In McAllen Drinking Water DBPs are a category of emerging contaminants that form when chlorine-based disinfectants react with naturally-occurring organic matter. Although these chemicals are not currently regulated very well, the EPA has admitted that they are associated with an increased risk of bladder cancer, as well as kidney, liver, and central nervous system problems. Still Have Questions About McAllen Drinking Water? Hydroviv is a water filtration company that uses water quality data to optimize water filters for each customer's water. The contaminants that we list above are what we consider to be major “points of emphasis” that we use to build water filters that are built specifically for McAllen, but all of our our filters provide broad protection against a wide range of contaminants (including lead). If you’re interested in learning more about water filters that have been optimized for McAllen tap water, or just have questions about water quality in general, feel free to visit www.hydroviv.com, reach out by email (hello@hydroviv.com) or through our live chat. We also frequently post water-related news on Twitter or Facebook. We pride ourselves in being a reputable source of information on water quality, and your questions will be answered by scientists, not salespeople (we don't have any salespeople). Please Share This Article On Social Media With Anyone You Think Would Benefit From The Information! What Do I Need To Know About Arsenic In My Drinking Water How Do I Remove Chromium 6 Contamination From My Drinking Water? Disinfection Byproducts In Your Drinking Water Problems We Found In Orange's Tap Water For Hydroviv’s assessment of Orange's tap water, we aggregated water quality test data from the City of Orange Water Division, the city’s water provider, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as well as from samples that we collect and analyze. We cross reference these data with toxicity studies in scientific and medical literature, and look at upcoming regulatory changes. The water filters that we build for people who live in Orange are optimized with these figures in mind. Source Of Orange Drinking Water Orange’s water comes from three sources. The primary source is groundwater drawn from 14 municipal wells drilled about 1000 feet into the Santa Ana River Aquifer. Well water goes directly into the distribution system, is disinfected with chlorine and meets all state regulations. The second source is water imported by the Metropolitan Water District, from the Colorado River and from northern California (San Francisco-San Joaquin Bay Delta). Metropolitan water is filtered and disinfected with chloramines. Orange also purchases a small amount of water from the Serrano Water District. This source is primarily treated surface water, but also includes local treated well water. Chromium 6 Levels In Orange Drinking Water Chromium 6 is a highly toxic metal that is not regulated by the EPA. In recent years, Orange’s tap water has averaged 320 parts per trillion for Chromium 6. While they are in compliance with nonexistent federal and very loose state regulations, these levels are 16 times higher than the concentration determined to have negligible impact on cancer risk. Disinfection Byproducts (DBPs) In Orange Drinking Water DBPs are a category of emerging contaminants that form when chlorine-based disinfectants react with naturally-occurring organic matter. Although these chemicals are not currently regulated very well, the EPA website discloses that high levels of disinfection byproducts in drinking water are are associated with an increased risk of bladder cancer, as well as kidney, liver, and central nervous system problems. Still Have Questions About Orange Tap Water Or Water Quality In General? Hydroviv is a water filtration company that uses water quality data to optimize water filters for each customer's water. The contaminants that we list above are what we consider to be major “points of emphasis” that we use to build water filters that are built specifically for Orange, but our filters provide broad protection against a wide range of additional contaminants found in Orange's tap water. If you’re interested in learning more about water filters that have been optimized for Orange's water, or just have questions about water quality in general, feel free to visit www.hydroviv.com, reach out by email (hello@hydroviv.com) or through our live chat. We also frequently post water-related news on Twitter or Facebook. We pride ourselves in being a reputable source of information on water quality, and your questions will be answered by scientists, not salespeople (we don't have any salespeople on staff). How Do I Remove Chromium 6 From My Tap Water? Does Boiling My Water Remove Chromium 6 Or Arsenic? Problems We Found In Syracuse Drinking Water For Hydroviv’s assessment of Syracuse tap water, we aggregated water quality test data from the City of Syracuse Department of Water, the water provider for the city and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as well as from samples that we collect and analyze. We cross reference these data with toxicity studies in scientific and medical literature, and look at upcoming regulatory changes. The water filters that we offer at Hydroviv are optimized with these numbers in mind. Source Of Syracuse Drinking Water For 123 years, the primary water supply for the City of Syracuse has been Skaneateles Lake, a Finger Lake located approximately 20 miles southwest of the City. Syracuse has utilized this lake for its water supply since 1894. Skaneateles Lake is approximately 15 miles long and one mile wide with a maximum depth of 300 feet. Skaneateles Lake has a relatively small watershed of 59 square miles and a water surface area of 13.6 square miles. In 2016, an average of 25.03 million gallons per day was released at the outlet of Skaneateles Lake to control lake level and maintain Skaneateles Creek flow at or above the minimum required flow. Chromium 6 In Syracuse Drinking Water Chromium 6 is an extremely toxic metal that is not currently regulated by the EPA. In recent years, Syracuse tap water averaged 57 parts per trillion. For the sake of perspective, these levels are nearly 3 times higher than the concentration determined to have negligible impact on cancer risk. Disinfection Byproducts (DBPs) In Syracuse Drinking Water Still Have Questions About Syracuse Drinking Water? Hydroviv is a water filtration company that uses water quality data to optimize water filters for each customer's water. The contaminants that we list above are what we consider to be major “points of emphasis” that we use to build water filters that are built specifically for Syracuse, but all of our our filters provide broad protection against a wide range of contaminants (including lead). If you’re interested in learning more about water filters that have been optimized for Syracuse tap water, or just have questions about water quality in general, feel free to visit www.hydroviv.com, reach out by email (hello@hydroviv.com) or through our live chat. We also frequently post water-related news on Twitter or Facebook. We pride ourselves in being a reputable source of information on water quality, and your questions will be answered by scientists, not salespeople (we don't have any salespeople). Problems We Found In Killeen's Drinking Water For our assessment of Killeen tap water, we aggregated water quality test data from the City of Killeen, the water provider for Killeen, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as well as from samples that we collect and analyze. We cross reference these data with toxicity studies in the scientific and medical literature, and look at upcoming regulatory changes. The water filters that we sell in Killeen are optimized with these issues in mind. Source Of Killeen Drinking Water The City of Killeen obtains its drinking water from Belton Lake, a surface water source located in Belton, Texas. Disinfection Byproducts (DBPs) In Killeen Drinking Water DBPs are a category of emerging contaminants that are created when chlorine-based disinfectants added to the water supply combine with naturally-occurring organic matter. Although these chemicals are not fully regulated, the EPA has explicitly stated that they are linked to an increased risk of bladder cancer, as well as kidney, liver, and central nervous system problems. Killeen’s tap water had a 2016 average tested 119.7 parts per billion. This is well within the Maximum Contaminant Levels for Total Trihalomethanes and Haloacetic Acids. Use Of Chloramine In Killeen Tap Water While many cities use chlorine as the primary disinfectant, Killeen’s water is disinfected with chloramine, made by combining chlorine and ammonia. Chloramine is the frequent problem when customers report a “bad taste” in their tap water, and unlike chlorine will not fade away if left in the fridge overnight. The recent chloramine residual for Killeen was 3.4 parts per million. Most one-size-fits-all water filters use filtration media that don’t adequately remove chloramine, but the filters that Hydroviv builds for Killeen use special filtration media that are purpose-built to remove chloramine as well. Still Have Questions About Killeen’s Tap Water? Hydroviv is a water filtration company that uses water quality data to optimize water filters for each city’s water. The chemicals that we list above are what we consider to be “points of emphasis” so we can build the best water filter for Killeen tap water, but all of our water filters provide broad protection against other contaminants commonly found in drinking water (e.g. VOCs, heavy metals [including lead], pharmaceuticals, solvents, pesticides, mercury). If you’re interested in learning more about water filters that have been optimized for Irvine tap water, feel free to visit www.hydroviv.com, reach out by email (hello@hydroviv.com) or through our live chat. We also frequently post water-related news on Twitter or Facebook. chloramine disinfection byproducts	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591513
__label__wiki	0.593156	0.593156	Superior Court Briefs: March 28 - March 31 Andy McKeever 07:41PM / Wednesday March 30, 2011 Cases heard before Judge John Agostini on Monday, March 28. Brandon Brown, 27, of Springfield pleaded guilty to furnishing a false name to a police officer. Brown was ordered to serve a 321 day sentence at the Berkshire County House of Correction. One county of distribution of cocaine, a second offence, was dismissed by the state. The incident occurred in Pittsfield on May 12, 2010. Cases heard before Judge John Agostini on Wednesday, March 30. Matthew Hadsell, 33, of Pittsfield had not guilty pleas entered on his behalf on single counts of trafficking in cocaine, trafficking in oxycodone and trafficking in ecstacy. Hadsell allegedly trafficked drugs in Pittsfield on Feb. 23. He will be held on $2,500 bail. Jeremy Stanton, 25, of Pittsfield pled not guilty to an array of charges. Stanton is being charged with trafficking in cocaine, trafficking in oxycodone, trafficking in ecstacy, two counts of conspiracy to violate drug laws, three counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, three counts of illegal possession of a firearm, three counts of possession of ammunition without a firearm identification card and three counts of improper storage of firearms. The charges stem from the execution of six search warrants in Pittsfield on Feb. 23 and Stanton is being held at the Berkshire County House of Correction on $200,000 bail. Steven Signor, 24, of Pittsfield had not guilty pleas entered on his behalf on single counts of trafficking in cocaine, trafficking in oxycodone, trafficking in ecstacy, possession of marijuana with intent to distribute and drug violation within a school zone. Signor allegedly conspired with others to traffick in drugs and was in possession of marijuana with intent to distribute when he was arrested in Pittsfield on Feb. 23. Signor is being held on $2,500 bail. Cases heard before Judge John Agostini on Thursday, March 31. Robert M. MacDonald, 33, of Adams pleaded guilty to single counts of larceny, assault by means of a dangerous weapon, assault and battery and malicious destruction of personal property as a result of a robbery of Supreme Pizza and Wings in North Adams on June 28, 2010. He was sentenced to two years at the Berkshire County House of Correction on the charges of assault and battery and malicious destruction of personal property. He was placed on three years probation on the other charges on the condition that he refrain from using drugs and alcohol, undergo drug and alcohol testing and receive substance abuse and mental health counseling. Jose A. Morales, 34, of Springfield had not guilty pleas entered on his behalf on single counts of trafficking in heroin and conspiracy to violate drug laws. Morales will be held at the Berkshire County House of Correction on $50,000 cash or $500,000 surety bail. The charges stem from a motor vehicle stop in Richmond on Feb. 7. David Ciepiela, 41, of Adams was found not guilty by a jury for single counts of burning a dwelling house, burning insured property with the intent to defraud and injuring a firefighter in the line of duty. The jury deliberated for two hours on the charges that Ciepiela had set fire to his home on Phillips Hill in Adams on January 16, 2009. Jerry Davis, 29, of Pittsfield had not guilty pleas entered on his behalf for two counts of intimidation of a witness or other person and two counts of threat to commit a crime, to wit: murder. It is alleged that on Jan. 2 Davis intimidated and threatened two witnesses in a pending criminal case. He was released on personal recognizance and is being held at the Berkshire County House of Correction on a related case. Tags: cocaine, oxycodone, ecstacy, firearms, arson	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591514
__label__wiki	0.978446	0.978446	Miss World 2013 Megan Young Returns to Philippines Crowned [PHOTOS] By Sanskrity Sinha October 11, 2013 07:39 BST Racing ahead of all Miss World protests and controversies, Megan Young returned to her home country, Philippines, crowned Miss World 2013 on 10 October. Megan Young, who is the first contestant from the Philippines to win the coveted crown, succeeded Miss World 2012, Wenxia Yu of China, at the pageant's finale held on 28 September in Bali. The 23-year-old Young is the 63rd Miss World. Upon arriving at Manila Airport, Young was treated to a warm welcome by hundreds of people who had gathered at the airport to get a glimpse of their Miss World. "It's an amazing feeling," Young told the Philippine Daily Inquirer. "It's an overwhelming feeling, how warm I was met here in the Philippines," she said as tears rolled down her eyes. "These are tears of joy. I'm just really happy to be home and just really happy to see everyone." "This victory is not just for me, this is a victory for the Filipinos as well." Megan Young reached the Philippines after touring London and Cannes, France, as part of her first official overseas visit as the reigning beauty queen. In London, she gave her first official interview to the Miss World Organisation while taking a quick tour across the city. In Cannes, Young attended MIPCOM, one of the world's leading entertainment conference and exhibition event. The Miss World 2013 has a series of activities lined-up for her time in the Philippines. To begin with her busy schedule in the country, Megan Young attended the first ever NBA preseason game held in the Philippines where she made the ceremonial toss. Some of Miss World's other activities in her home nation include a meeting with the President of the Philippines Benigno Aquino III, parades, a visit to her hometown of Olongapo City, trips to various charitable causes in the name of Beauty with a Purpose, media interviews and victory parties. Watch below the photos from the homecoming of Miss World 2013, Megan Young, in Philippines. Miss World 2013, Megan Young, looks overwhelmed after arriving at Manila airport on 10 October. (Photo: Miss World organisation) Megan Young takes courtside seats at NBA game in Manila on 10 October. (Photo: Miss World organisation) Megan Young is seen at the big screen at NBA game, where she made the ceremonial toss. (Photo: Miss World organisation) Related topics : London	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591515
__label__wiki	0.912618	0.912618	International Business Times, Singapore Edition Goblin: OSTs by Ailee, Urban Zakapa, and Kim Kyung Hee top music charts Now, it is followed by Songstress Ailee, R&B group Urban Zakapa, and April 2nd's Kim Kyung Hee's tracks for the series. By Ambili S Updated January 6, 2020 20:47 +08 goblin Twitter Goong Yoo's latest drama Goblin, which is making fans crazy with its interesting twist and turns, is creating new records. A few days back, we reported that the drama had dethroned other top Korean dramas like "The Legend Of The Blue Sea" "Moonlight Drawn by Clouds" and "Descendants Of The Sun," to top the rating charts. With a record-breaking premiere rating in tvN's history, it is likely to surpass the records set by 'Reply 1988,' which holds the highest tv rating of all tvN dramas. According to AllKPop, "the latest episode of the trending drama aired on January 6 recorded average viewer ratings of 15% and the highest of 17.2%. This is also a 1.8% increase from last week's highest viewer ratings." Then, one of the drama's OST 'Beautiful' by Crush, which was released on December 17, received the top spot instantly. It has been ranked number one on music charts overtaking Melon, Mnet, Olleh Music, Bugs, Genie, Monkey3, and Naver Music. Now, it is followed by Songstress Ailee, R&B group Urban Zakapa, and April 2nd's Kim Kyung Hee's tracks for the series. As per a report on Soompi, "As of January 10, all eight major Korean music charts featured either Ailee's OST "I Will Go to You Like the First Snow," Urban Zakapa's OST "Wish," or Kim Kyung Hee's OST "And I'm Here" in first place. Ailee's track was in first on the real-time charts of Melon, Genie, Naver, and Monkey3, while Urban Zakapa's song came in first on Bugs, olleh, and Soribada. Kim Kyung Hee's newly released "Goblin" OST entitled "And I'm Here" took first place on Mnet at the time." Meanwhile, the drama, which portrays the romance between a high school girl, played by Kim Go Eun and Goblin an adult male in his 30s, is reaching its climax with few high-intensity scenes. In the 12th episode, we saw Goblin wanting to take revenge on the grim reaper while Eun Tak seems to have lost her ability to see supernatural things. With the finale falling on Jan 21, we hope that the writers will not give us a heartbreak by killing any of the characters. Lee Min Ho 10th debut anniversary: Big plans for the day revealed Goblin again on top spot on TV list: tvN drama's OSTs reigning over music charts Suzy Bae solo debut to be produced by Park Jin Young This article was first published on January 11, 2017 The Penthouse Season 2 teasers are HERE: Pre-release clips from Kim So-yeon's series promise more suspense, thrills Two teasers from The Penthouse season 2 have been unveiled. Both the pre-release clips... Baby V.O.X's Shim Eun Jin Marries Bad Love Co-star Jeon Seung Bin Singer Shim Eun Jin has married actor Jeon Seung Bin on Tuesday. She revealed the news of... Kim Se Jung–EXO Sehun Relationship: Actress Reveals The Truth, Responds to Malicious Comments Former Gugudan member Kim Se Jung and EXO's Sehun filmed together for variety show...	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591516
__label__wiki	0.893411	0.893411	Funny Girl (1968) Review this title Sort by: Helpfulness Review Date Total Votes Prolific Reviewer Review Rating Filter by Rating: Show All 1 Star 2 Stars 3 Stars 4 Stars 5 Stars 6 Stars 7 Stars 8 Stars 9 Stars 10 Stars Brilliant Barbra drednm22 June 2005 Barbra Streisand made one the biggest debuts in the history of films playing Fanny Brice in Funny Girl. She also won an Oscar as best actress of 1967 for her efforts. Although this musical bogs down a bit in the second half, Streisand keeps the viewer glued to the screen with her brilliant portrayal of this great star. Terrific musical numbers come one after another, and Streisand shifts gears effortlessly between comic gems like "I'm the Greatest Star" and "The Roller Skate Rag" and signature tunes like "People" and "Don't Rain on My Parade." Her closing rendition of "My Man" is very effective (and was copied by Diana Ross in Lady Sings the Blues). Big and bright and splashy, Funny Girl is one of the last great, old-style musicals produced in Hollywood. Omar Sharif, Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, Kay Medford, Mae Questel, Frank Faylen, and Lee Allen co-star. Meford won a supporting Oscar nomination as the mother. Pidgeon should have been nominated for his role as Flo Ziegfeld. And I think Questel is a scream as the local yenta. But the center of this film is Streisand. Every number is a gem, and she looks great. There may be better musicals, but you'd be hard pressed to name a better performance in a musical than Barbra Streisand playing Fanny Brice in Funny Girl. Others in the cast include Gertrude Flynn and Penny Santon as the card players, Tommy Rall as the prince in the ballet sequence, Mittie Lawrence as the maid, Gerald Mohr as the gangster, Inga Neilsen and Bettina Brenna as show girls, and Elaine Joyce in the roller skating number. 44 out of 48 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote. "When a person's a stranger...they should act a little strange." moonspinner5523 September 2001 Tour-de-force for Barbra Streisand, reprising her Broadway triumph and taking over the screen as 1930s Ziegfeld singer/comedienne Fanny Brice. Streisand's incredible self-assurance and clowning poise was enough to win her the Best Actress Oscar AND tick off most of Hollywood (few in the business were prepared for someone like Streisand in 1968, except maybe those familiar with her TV work, but the results here show she didn't care what anyone thought of her). The sets look phony, the script is contrived, and Omar Sharif is somewhat miscast as husband Nick Arnstein (Sharif is wonderful in the early stages, but his wet, red eyes and mincing baby-talk grow incredibly weary); however most of the song numbers are fabulous, and Barbra is at her best when delivering a high-powered number. She's tough and unyielding even while doing a comedic bit, but during an emotional song she lets her guard drop a little (not enough to become truly vulnerable, just enough to let us share her pain). The film doesn't exhaust one the way some musical extravaganzas can; the camera-work is uneven and some sequences are overlit, but it has lots of spirit and dazzle. Most importantly, it's a film that remembers it is about a woman and a man, and never allows the show-biz glitter to suffocate the characters. * from ** A Funny Girl Happened on the Way to the Follies. gbrumburgh21 February 2001 There are not enough superlatives in the world to bestow on Barbra Streisand for her rags-to-riches portrayal of 20s Ziegfeld Follies star Fanny Brice. To say she gives the single most triumphant musical performance ever showcased on the silver screen could be close. I am constantly bowled over with each viewing at how the 26-year-old Brooklyn novice ever pulled off this incredible stunt. Cinderella playing Cinderella. Even the finicky Hollywood powers-that-be, who NEVER use untried screen talent for such a weighty role (Julie Andrews and "My Fair Lady" come to mind), knew that nobody but Barbra could inhabit this part. She won the Oscar, naturally, and it was befitting that the newcomer should share this honor with perhaps the greatest screen legend ever, Katharine Hepburn. Barbra's Fanny Brice first conquered Broadway where she lost the Tony award to another irrepressible talent, Carol Channing, for "Hello Dolly!" She got her revenge of sorts years later when she won the coveted screen role of Dolly due strictly to her auspicious debut in "Funny Girl." Transferred to celluloid, the movie loosens its bustles quite a bit and grants more breathing room for Barbra to expand her natural comic and dramatic talents both keenly and intimately amid the elaborate sets and costumes. The timing of this film couldn't have been better for Streisand. The late 60s ushered in a new legion of stars. The rash of talent coming to the forefront purposely lacked the super-model good looks and incredibly-sculpted physiques of their predecessors. Audiences now clamored for realism...human imperfection. What less attractive guys like Dustin Hoffman and Al Pacino did for the men, Barbra did for the distaff side. She dragged out her own Cinderella version, making a virtue of her odd looks and gawky gait while laying out her two big trump cards -- she was a supreme song stylist and a gifted, self-deprecating cut-up. Hardly ever off screen, Streisand totally immerses herself in the role of chorus clown-turned-Ziegfeld headliner, weaving a spell around each and every song she touches. From the stubbornly optimistic "I'm the Greatest Star" to the profoundly touching "My Man", the actress matures Brice into the glowing swan of her own dreams, while exposing a deep, personal vulnerability she never recaptured (or allowed) again on screen -- to her detriment. Despite heavy critical lambasting, I still say exotically handsome Omar Sharif was indeed the consummate choice to play wanderlust husband and card shark Nicky Arnstein. Polished, prideful and totally in his element as the global-gambling playboy, one can believe the ungainly Fanny (or Streisand, for that matter) placing this glossy god on a pedestal. It may not appear to be much of a stretch (in real life, Sharif was a world-class bridge player), but he owns the part as much as delightful Kay Medford does as Brice's droll Jewish mama. Everyone else, however, is pretty expendable. It's been said that Anne Francis blamed Streisand for her supposedly top featured role being butchered. If it's true, she has an open-and-shut case. Francis was left with a nothing part. Highly fictionalized and weak as biography, Streisand champions above the sometimes grandiose material from the moment she utters her first classic words: "Hello, gorgeous!" And so she is. The Greatest Star MarkGriffin29 April 2006 Quite simply, Barbra Streisand's extraordinary, scintillating Oscar-winning debut in this classic is one of the finest musical-comedy performances ever committed to celluloid. Better than that...I'd venture to say that alongside Vivien Leigh's masterful performance in "Gone With The Wind," Barbra's portrayal of vaudeville icon Fanny Brice may be one of the most ambitious, captivating turns by a lead actress ever captured on film. Even Barbra-phobes would have to concede that the woman completely knocked herself out with "Funny Girl" and her renditions of "I'm The Greatest Star," "My Man," "People" and especially the pulse-jolting "Don't Rain On My Parade" rank right up there with the best of Judy Garland ("Over The Rainbow," "The Trolley Song" and "The Man That Got Away."). Because Streisand has been an exalted Hollywood legend for many decades, people tend to almost take her remarkable talents - both as an actress and as a singer - for granted now but this opulent musical, sparkling score and her thrilling, take-no-prisoners performance will endure as a testament to what pure show business, high octane theatricality and legitimate talent are all about. Sing Proud, Barbra! Bad Biography...Great Musical Isaac585513 July 2006 Every time a film is made about a real-life figure, particularly a show business figure, people love to complain that the movie is not accurate regarding the facts of that person's life. If the truth be told, if movie biographies were strictly about the facts, no one would go to see them, because for the most part, the facts don't make for great entertainment and Fanny Brice is no exception. The 1968 musical FUNNY GIRL has been maligned for years because it is not a very accurate representation of the facts of Fanny Brice's life. If you want to learn about Fanny Brice's life, read a biography or go on the internet, but if you want to see an amazing movie musical spotlighting a legendary performer at the beginning of her amazing career, then you can't beat FUNNY GIRL, the 1968 musical based on the 1964 Broadway musical that made Barbra Streisand a star. Streisand tied with Katharine Hepburn for the Best Actress Oscar for this charismatic star turn as the young girl from Henry Street who becomes a big star of the Ziegfeld Follies and has a heartbreaking romance with a charming gambler named Nick Arnstein, played by Omar Sharif. Streisand is in practically every frame of this film and never makes you wish otherwise...one of the great performances in the history of cinema...whether she is defying Florenz Ziegfeld by refusing to appear in the finale or chasing an ocean liner to be with Nick, Streisand gives the one-woman performance of a lifetime here. Directed by Oscar-winner William Wyler, Streisand is lovingly photographed and effectively showcases the Jule Styne-Bob Merrill score, which includes classics like "People" and "Don't Rain On My Parade". Some changes have been made in the score from the stage musical but Streisand makes it all work and the finale "My Man" is just devastating. It's not an accurate biography of the vaudeville legend, but as a dazzling and entertaining movie musical, it's hard to top this one. The Greatest Star?... TJBNYC3 September 2001 ...Perhaps not. But for nearly 2 1/2 hours in "Funny Girl," Barbra Streisand at least makes a convincing case for herself. Forget about the television airings you've seen. Throw away your old video cassette copy. Instead, see the restored, widescreen, road show version now in limited theatrical release. It is the ONLY way to truly appreciate the talents of Ms. Streisand and, more notably, the film's brilliant director, William Wyler. Movies today no longer look like movies. The highest compliment one can pay "Funny Girl" is that it is a grand, glorious MOVIE in the truest sense. Wyler's brilliance is never more evident than in his glorious treatment of the "Don't Rain on My Parade" sequence, the stunning camerawork of "The Swan," and the incredibly effective set-up of the "My Man" finale. Ms. Streisand doesn't really give a performance; she simply is Barbra. Every "Barbra-ism" that we have come to know, love and hate over the years is already crystallized at this point. Her brashness can be off-putting, but by the end of the movie, one is completely won over by the sheer enormity of her talent and presence. Yes, you can see the beginnings of the blind egomania that has marred her performances for the last 20-odd years (to be generous); but you cannot deny her brilliance, either. And to see her extraordinary face in full-screen close up is breathtaking. Kudos to the director, lighting director, and make-up artist for making Streisand appear so wonderful in this. From the sweepingly orchestrated titles to the high-drama impact of the showstopping finale, this is Entertainment with a capital E. About 20 minutes could have been trimmed, and exactly why Omar Sharif was cast remains a mystery; but at the end of the picture, these quibbles are trivial. Did I laugh? Yes. Did I cry? Yes. Was I thrilled, excited, entertained? You betcha. Fanny's Marital Problems Aren't Minor ngu4 December 2004 I've seen this film many times,and I've always thought it was one of Barbra Streisand's best films because it allowed her to use her strengths as a comedian, singer, and dramatic actor. It's clear that her presence dominates the movie; however, there are some excellent supporting players, including Kay Medford as Fanny Brice's mother Rose and Walter Pigeon as Florenz Ziegfeld, two very fine character actors. Rose is particularly likable because, unlike her daughter Fanny, she sees things as they are and not the way they should be. This applies to her comment about Nick Arnstein, the handsome gambler that Fanny marries, despite the fact that Rose perceives him to be a "sponge." Fanny, as shown in this film, is also very likable not only because of her humor but for her generosity and thoughtfulness. Her ambition, of course, is to conquer the stage and she does so fairly quickly after making a great mess of a roller skate number at the local dance hall. Before long, Fanny is auditioning for Ziegfeld, the famous impressario and she wins him over with her talent and charm. Nick Arnstein, a man about town, always seems to be around Fanny when she triumphs on the stage and this time is no different. He buys her a beautiful bouquet of roses with a note, "Dear Star, I told you so." Very soon, Fanny and Nick become involved in a relationship which is often on and off until Fanny literally proposes to him. What follows is a heartbreaking story of a young woman whose desire to be loved for herself alone and her passion for a happy domestic life is thwarted by fate and some wrong choices. After a montage of the first year of their marriage together, problems start affecting the Arnstein marriage. It is true that they are wealthy people; however, their problems aren't minor. Nick begins to lose heavily at the gaming table and everything he tries ends in failure. Fanny, on the other hand, continues to be successful on the stage and Nick starts to resent her. Suddenly, all of his gentlemanly charm and good manners disappear as if by magic; he's rude to Fanny, making her upset over things that a truly married couple would find a way to resolve. Indeed, he starts ignoring her deliberately and places his interests and needs above hers. After a while, the marriage collapses not because of Fanny's career but the way in which Nick looks at their relationship (we discover this near the end of the film.) He also conceals his financial problems from her, shutting Fanny out of his life as though she didn't exist. All of this culminates in Nick's unfortunate involvement in a shady bond scheme which sends him to prison for two years. I would say that these problems are rather huge. I don't want to give more away because I feel others should have the opportunity to see the film and judge for themselves. But I have to say that the ending of the movie, is, in my opinion, one of the most heartfelt, dignified, and classiest moments ever put on film. And Barbra Streisand makes the most of it, touching us not only with her excellent performance of the song "My Man" but also by the way her Fanny carries herself, taking responsibility for her choice and showing that she will go on with her life, despite what's happened to her. A Lot Of Fanny, But All Barbra bkoganbing2 March 2009 There are two important things to remember about Funny Girl when writing about it or discussing it. The first is Nicky Arnstein was still alive in 1964 when it debuted on Broadway, he died the following year. The second is that Ray Stark, the producer of Funny Girl on stage and on the screen is the son-in-law of Fanny Brice and Nicky Arnstein. So off the bat you know you're going to get a sanitized version. Not that what they created was bad, how could it be for giving Barbra Streisand the role that made her a star on both stage and screen. Fanny Brice didn't do too bad out of it either, unlike a lot of her contemporaries she lives on through the artistry and interpretation of an icon in a future age. But was Fanny's story ever given the literary dry process cleaning. Eliminated was her brief marriage to a first husband. Changed is the fact that she knew exactly who at what Arnstein was before she married him. Arnstein was a big time con artist who had no shame whatsoever in using his famous wife's name as a come on. Fanny herself though was never involved in any of his schemes. Arnstein did in fact take the fall and never squealed on any of the ones behind him who certainly were more than capable of reprisals against him and possibly against Fanny Brice. Jule Styne and Bob Merrill wrote the original songs for the Broadway score and added one song, Funny Girl, for the film. But still the two standouts are Barbra Streisand's classic People and Don't Rain On My Parade, a couple of standards she's made almost exclusively her own. I don't think anyone else would attempt to sing them. Added to the film are a couple of contemporary songs that Fanny Brice made famous that Barbra reinterpreted, the classic My Man, a song she sang before Nicky Arnstein went to the joint, but still is identified as her lament for her husband in stir. She also sang Second Hand Rose, a really great comedy song, emphasizing Brice's Jewish heritage. I wish a couple of others had gotten in there. I've got Brice recordings of Cooking Breakfast For The One I Love and I'm An Indian. That last one is especially hysterical, Brice did it one of the Ziegfeld Follies dressed as an indigenous person to this continent with the last line being "I'm a Yiddishe Squaw". It's great to hear and must have been fabulous to see. Funny Girl got seven nominations which included Best Picture, Best Sound, Best Song, Best Musical Scoring, Best Editing, Best Cinematography and a Best Supporting Actress nomination for Kay Medford, the only other player from Broadway besides Streisand to be in the film. But the only Oscar it got was a shared one when Barbra Streisand tied for Best Actress with Katharine Hepburn. One of the very few times someone got an Oscar for their very first big screen effort. Of course two things helped Barbra greatly. One was a role she had made her own and the second was direction by William Wyler who has won Best Director three times in his career and directed more players to Academy Awards than any other. Barbra was his last. Oddly enough he wasn't nominated for Best Director. Those who are interested in seeing Fanny Brice as she really was can see her in The Great Ziegfeld, The Ziegfeld Follies, and Everybody Sing all of which are out on DVD and/or VHS. I think Barbra channeled more of Fanny into Funny Girl than the sequel Funny Lady, but I'll let you the viewer be the judge of that. You can't go wrong seeing and hearing Barbra Streisand do some of the best material ever written for her in both films. WARNING: SUPERLATIVES UP AHEAD info-275228 September 2004 I've decided to purchase all of Omar Sharif's movies of the 60s and have myself an Omar Sharif film festival, thanks mainly to this movie! Sure, Barbra has always been my favorite songbird, and without a doubt, after seeing her here, hello--she deserved that Oscar, hands down. But "it" boy of the 1960s Omar Sharif was just achingly splendid as suave, cultured gentleman and card shark Nick Arnstein. No big stretch for the guy though, who was schooled in French and English schools, in addition to being a professional bridge player and, like Nick Arnstein, also owns racehorses (much later in life, he too almost lost his shirt to gambling). The chemistry between both stars work very well, and the seduction scene was quite funny (what nonchalance indeed, putting beds in restaurants) and and Mr. Sharif could have, should have pursued a singing career with that wonderful voice and patented accent! Rumors were rife that both were having an affair while filming. Barbra, you certainly were on a roll. Note to Omar: I am woman...and YOU'RE THE MAN! 9 out of 12 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote. A memorable Musical Bio olddiscs27 June 2001 Funny Girl, first released in 1968, remains, a very enjoyable and most entertaining musical biography. Beautifully performed by Streisand, its possibly her best film, (some will argue that The Way We Were is her best performance,as an actress)/ Its is magnificently staged and photographed. Streisand's talents are emphasized, and displayed to perfection. This role (Fanny Brice) will forever be associated with her!! IT is to her credit that @38 years have passed and they have not revived this great musical on Broadway ... A recent revival at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn , N.J. was very successful, and there's talk of taking that production to NY, and Leslie Kritzer (new,unknown) was excellent, but more like Merman,than Streisand!! William Wyler, an underrated film director, handles the production like the true master he was. This ranks with one of his great films (Ben Hur, Mrs. Miniver, The Little Foxes etc). The score ,by the immortal, Jule Styne is and remains beautiful & memorable. People, Dont Rain on My Parade, The Greatest Star are standards. My Man,(not by Styne) a true tour de force conclusion, is a beautiful addition to the film, though ,in the original production, The Music That Makes Me Dance, worked very well also.. Ths supporting cast is excellent, especially, Omar Shariff, looking absolutetly "gorgeous" as Nicky Arnstein, and plays this role well. Kay Medford, as Mama, is terrific, and provides, many memorable moments. A Film to see again and again, makes you laugh and cry, beautiful to look at, and Barbra, is and will always be a treasure!!I rate this film a 10!! and feel it should rank higher on memorable film lists. The Musical film is a lost genre today (Moulin Rouge,is not a true musical in the classic sense) Its too bad!!Young audiences should be exposed to musicals, and Funny Girl should be seen by all ! Streisand is the greatest star robb_77220 April 2006 The ultimate showcase for an actress, Barbra Streisand's highly publicized film debut in FUNNY GIRL met every single expectation and then some. The film was the highest-grossing film of 1968, and it's very easy to see why. The film has many great qualities: It's expertly directed by three-time Academy Award winner William Wyler (the finale of the "Don't Rain On My Parade" number is just as astonishing as the chariot race in Wyler's BEN HUR), the storyline is extremely compelling, Omar Sharif is an incredibly suave and charismatic leading man, the supporting players are perfectly cast (particularly Kay Medford, Lee Allen, and Walter Pigeon), and the song score (primarily by Jule Styne and Bob Merrill) is first-rate. However, virtually everything that FUNNY GIRL has working for it would be worthless without Barbra Streisand's absolutely phenomenal performance. I honestly cannot think of enough good descriptive adjectives to do justice to her amazing performance in this film. She handles drama, comedy, music numbers, and tearjerking sentiment with equal aplomb, and she does it all better than any actress before or since. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had no choice but to honor her with the Oscar for Best Actress (in an extremely rare tie with academy favorite Katherine Hepburn; only the second tie in Oscar history to date), it is a performance that is nothing less than perfect. Fittingly, one of FUNNY GIRL's major asset is it's phenomenal song score, which ranks among the all-time best of any play or film. The songs "I'm The Greatest Star," the Top 5 hit "People," "You Are Woman," "Sadie, Sadie," and especially "Don't Rain on My Parade" have justifiably become instantly recognizable standards, and the lovely "I'd Rather Be Blue Over You" and the stunning "My Man" (two of Fanny Brice's standard numbers) are worked into the score and prove to be highlights. This is quite an impressive list of 24 Karat-standards, and each number is vividly brought to life by Streisand's incomparable voice. It is truly acting when Streisand sings, and it is no surprise that she received the Academy Award for best actress for her work in this film. 5 out of 6 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote. Great early Streisand...a reminder of how Babs was before egomania set in... Doylenf21 May 2005 Mention the name BARBRA STREISAND to me today and I can only think of the insane utterances she's made about President Bush and all Republicans and the war in Iraq and her stance as a Democratic activist. But back in '68, I was justly impressed with her work under William Wyler's firm direction in FUNNY GIRL. Watching it again, I haven't changed my opinion. Her Fanny Brice is indeed as perfectly in character as any musical star performer in memory and she carries the film to heights it never would have reached with a less gifted actress/singer. Sad to say, this can't be said of her later characterizations. I don't understand criticism leveled at OMAR SHARIF as Nicky Arnstein. He looks magnificent, even if his singing voice leaves something to be desired, and plays his role extremely well. The chemistry between him and Streisand is evident, giving credence to the rumor of an affair while filming. Their duet in "You Are Woman, I Am Man" is deliciously staged in a fancy restaurant setting. In fact, all of the settings glow under the technicolor lights. The score is riddled with fascinating show tunes, all of them sung and staged in the best manner possible. I particularly enjoyed the early Roller Skate Rag where Streisand's comic abilities are shown off to such advantage. The supporting players do outstanding jobs, including Kay Medford as her Jewish mother and Walter Pigeon as Flo Ziegfeld whose first encounter with Streisand is played for laughs while establishing the boundaries between them. Poor Anne Francis is given only limited screen time, but even she is worth watching in a role that must have suffered from too much editing. And Streisand's first big scene in a Ziegfeld musical is hilarious, hiding a pillow beneath her wedding gown to the extreme shock of Mr. Ziegfeld while the chorus girls can hardly stifle their laughter. Highly recommended as a film musical that put Streisand on the map. She even looks beautiful in certain close-ups and camera angles, glowing under the artistry of cameramen skilled in photographing her imperfect face in the most flattering manner. As noted by others, the hairdos and styling do not always suggest the 1920s period, but in a musical where so much talent is on display, it hardly matters. What is really striking is that Streisand is so confident and assured in every phase of her performance that it is hard to believe this was her first chore before the cameras. How much of this is due to the craftsmanship of William Wyler, I don't know. Her work here has to be ranked as one of the greatest acting "firsts" ever for a musical star performer. Streisand fully deserved the Oscar and should not have been in a tie with the much over awarded Katharine Hepburn's LION IN WINTER--as annoyingly false as any of Hepburn's later performances were bound to be. CharmedGirl4723 May 2007 Wow. That best describes this movie. I don't tend to be a big fan of musicals but this one defies the pattern. I absolutely LOVE Barbra and almost anything she is in I love (excluding Hello, Dolly and its sad attempt to recapture the classic, yet horrid, musicals of the 1950's). This movie is just another time for Barbra to shine. The scenes are cute and the dance numbers will charm any audience, young or old, and provide a laughter and tears. All the vocals are fantastic (specifically the last number, which Barbra insisted not be a voice-over.) This movie will satisfy the any lover of musicals and anyone who can appreciate quality acting. theowinthrop22 January 2006 Few have been able to wake up one day and discover they are famous overnight. Lord Byron was one - he discovered that his poetry opened the floodgates to fame that his title had never opened (Byron's family was prominent, but not of the aristocratic elite of the early 19th Century). For our purposes it was Barbara Streisand. She had worked hard in productions, most notably in I CAN GET IT FOR YOU WHOLESALE, where she sang "Miss Marblestein". Then she got the role of Fanny Brice, the great Ziegfeld Follies comedienne and star of the turn of the century, and she was a star on Broadway. She got the role in the movies, and won (in the only tie vote for "Best Actress" in Academy Award History) the "Best Actress" Oscar with the same role. I may add, although she has won another Oscar for "Love Soft as an Easy Chair" in her version of A STAR IS BORN, she has never been the recipient of another Oscar for an acting award since then, nor has she been nominated for her three directing jobs (YENTL, THE PRINCE OF TIDES, and THE MIRROR HAS TWO FACES). Despite that she did become "the greatest star". Streisand's insistence on doing her films her way has become legendary, and has built up a negative image legend of egomania gone amok. That her ideas have worked out to be successful more frequently than not is overlooked. It shouldn't be. FUNNY GIRL was directed by William Wyler, and Wyler was notorious for doing his films his way until they were gotten right. He would do and redo a scene for the closest thing to perfection he could get. It is notable that he and Streisand did not end up at loggerheads on the set but worked pretty nicely together. It is as though they understood precisely what would work for the film in the same way. Streisand is quite gifted in comedy as well as singing, so that her performance as Fanny is quite on target (such as the sudden dropping into "Yiddish" sch tick - like referring to her "schwans" instead of "swans" in the mock ballet in the Follies). She happens to be better looking than Fanny, but that is not unexpected in any movie. For that matter the handsome Omar Shariff is far better looking than Nicky Arnstein was. Shariff, by the way, is given sufficient time on screen to fill out his character - a good natured man driven by humiliation and desperation to commit fraud. Kay Medford (as Fanny's mother) and Walter Pigeon (as Flo Ziegfeld) give very effective performances in the film as well. Not all the songs from the show are in the movie. "Cornet Man" is replaced by "I Want to be Blue". The song "Find Yourself A Man" is reduced to a dance tune at Mrs. Brice's saloon. A song sung by Fanny's mother and her friend Eddie, "Who Taught Her Everything She Knows" was dropped (one wonders if it was ever shot). And (as pointed out on this thread) "The Swan" replaced the World War I spoof "Rat-a-tat-tat" ("I'm Private Schwartz bin Rockavay!"). I only have one little comment to make. Nicky Arnstein was a professional gambler, and had worked closely with Arnold Rothstein on several jobs. Rothstein (renamed Peterman here) was responsible for the fraud that snared Nicky. But Nicky was fully aware of the fraud in the sale of the bonds. He was also aware that the powerful Rothstein was someone you did not threaten in a law court by blaming for a fraud. Rothstein would have retaliated - against Fanny and their daughter Frances. So it makes plenty of sense that Nicky took the blame for the fraud. Two years in prison versus potential physical danger to his loved ones - well I can fully appreciate why he made his choice in court. Sensational Oscar winning performance by Barbra Streisand in her first film role clive-3828 December 2000 The young Fanny Brice (Barbra Streisand) desperately wants to be a success in show business and after a shaky start thinks she has made it when she lands a part in a big Ziegfeld show. Ziegfeld (Walter Pidgeon) and Fanny clash over various matters due to her strong personality but her talent shines through and she does eventually become a major star. She meets gambler Nicky Arnstein (Omar Sharif) and falls madly in love with him. Unfortunately his gambling habits get him in trouble with the police causing Fanny much sadness and anguish. However, she overcomes these problems to concentrate on her career and manages to realise her ambition to become a big Broadway star. The film of "Funny Girl" was awaited with much anticipation after all the tremendous publicity given to Barbra Streisand following her stunning portrayal of Fanny Brice in the hit Broadway show. An "unauthorised" version of the Fanny Brice story had been filmed once before as "Rose of Washington Square" (1939) starring Alice Faye, Tyrone Power and Al Jolson but Fanny Brice was not happy about the film and sued 20th Century Fox for invasion of privacy. "Funny Girl" received a total of eight Oscar nominations but only picked up the one (for Best Actress) which Streisand had to share with Katharine Hepburn for "The Lion in Winter". Personally, I thought this was a real shame as Hepburn had just picked up the Best Actress Award the previous year for "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" and had also won back in 1932 for "Morning Glory". In my opinion Streisand (in her first film) had worked tremendously hard on "Funny Girl" and given an excellent portrayal of Fanny Brice and her singing at the time was sensational. To have to share the award with Hepburn was bad luck for Streisand and must have taken away some of the pleasure of winning. The film was directed by the legendary William Wyler and produced by Ray Stark (who was in fact Fanny Brice's son-in-law!). The film had a superior supporting cast including Kay Medford (recreating her Broadway role as Rose Brice), Anne Francis (Georgia James), Lee Allen (Eddie Ryan), Gerald Mohr (Branca), and with Frank Faylen as Keeney. What a marvellous collection of songs this film contained: "People", "Second Hand Rose", "Don't Rain on My Parade", "My Man" and "I'm the Greatest Star" are just five gems from a really wonderful score. Some favourite lines from the film: Barbra Streisand (to her reflection in theatre mirror): "Hello gorgeous". Lee Allen (to Streisand): "Are you sure you can rollerskate?". Streisand: "Can I rollerskate??". Streisand: "I'm a Ziegfeld girl!". Streisand (to Walter Pidgeon): "O.K. you win. You don't win fair but you win!". "Funny Girl" was one of those rare occasions when the perfect part came along with the perfect star to play it. One of the last of the great Hollywood musicals. 10/10. Clive Roberts. Nobody needs this movie rhoda-113 March 2008 Not a musical but an extended personal appearance by Barbra Streisand, grinding away at her aren't-I-cute routine so relentlessly that it seems only natural one of her comedy skits has her playing a four-year-old. Omar Sharif has no more charm--or activity--than a store dummy, with his prissy little features and his simpering that's supposed to represent understated class. There's no texture in this movie, no ambiance, no sense of period of even much of a sense that there are any other people around besides Fanny and Nick, and much laundered versions of both (they lived together for six years before getting married, while he was married to someone else, and before the bond robbery he had already done two years in Sing Sing for illegal wiretapping). The script is leaden and clumsy, without a single laugh. The tone matches Streisand's phony self-deprecation--the movie presents her to us as if she's a favourite grandchild, smugly saying, oh, look, isn't she marvelous. While all this is tedious, what is really offensive is the hammering on the point that beauty is all, and that Fanny is quite right to crawl to a man who does her the big favour of sleeping with her and marrying her. Streisand may not win any Liz Taylor look-alike contest, but she's a good-looking, vivacious woman, so the constant put-downs are as phony as they are distasteful, especially given what a bum Nick is. Though he is greatly cleaned up(in real life, unlike the movie, he had no compunction about spending as much of his wife's money as he could get his hands on), he is still portrayed as a man who gambles for a living. He even complains in one scene that his wife's fame is interfering with his "work"! And yet he is someone we're supposed to sympathise with, and sympathise with Fanny for loving him. At a time when women were starting to take up real careers of their own? Please! I always thought People was a ridiculous song--you're lucky if you need people? Who doesn't need other people? It's not luck, it's necessity. This peculiar sentiment ties in with Fanny needing Nick so much that she overlooks his aversion to real work and his involvement with gangsters. In other words, the more needy you are, the better, because that means you'll ignore what is wrong with your man. It's an all too appropriate song for a movie that says a woman should be a doormat. a (hello) gorgeous debut for Barbra Streisand lee_eisenberg8 November 2005 In one sense, "Funny Girl" is a little hokey, but it's really good nonetheless. In an Oscar-winning role, Barbra Streisand makes her film debut as Fanny Brice, who wanted dearly to be a Ziegfield Folly. Brice wasn't particularly good-looking, but she was sassy enough to have what it took (as certain scenes show). Accompanying her was gambler Nick Arnstein (Omar Sharif), whose habits eventually went too far for his own good. Both Streisand and Sharif do a great job, as does director William Wyler. As someone who doesn't usually like musicals, I have to speak positively of this one. It's a real treat in every sense. This is what classics are all about. I Was Right The First Time LeslieHell27 April 2004 Once upon a time I worshiped Barbra Streisand. There, I said it. That's over. For that matter, so is my love affair with Streisand. What happened to the heat and abandon she had in her first few albums, the ones with the fantastic versions of Harold Arlen ballads? Listening to her on the Broadway cast album of "Funny Girl" only makes us painfully aware of how much we lost when she decided to "act" the songs for us in the movie. The night it opened in Cincinnati I sat with my best buddy vibrating with excitement (I can even tell you the color of the curtain that hung over the screen). By the end of the night I was actually depressed. Where were my favorite songs from the show? I was really looking forward to seeing her sing"Cornet Man" and it made me sick to see they replaced that great tune with something lame called "The Roller Skate Rag" that went "Thud!" (You're supposed to find it hysterically funny that Fanny messed up a line of third-rate singers and dancers by falling all over them because she couldn't skate.) Because the star, herself, and the producers were sure no one wanted to see anyone but Barbra Streisand (and they had a point . . . sort of), they cut everyone else's numbers until the movie of "Funny Girl" was pretty much another Streisand TV special. After I saw the movie I wanted to do some cutting of my own, especially on the embarrassing "Swan Lake" number that replaced the satirical "Private Schwartz from Rockaway." I also wanted to cut everything but about 15 minutes of the second half of the film. The Ziegfeld Follies numbers look like bad 1960's television, there is no chemistry in the love scenes between the wooden Omar Sharif and Streisand, Kay Medford is wasted, and whatever kept Fanny Brice growing as a legendary comedienne is dropped after the pleasantly silly "His Love Makes Me Beautiful." We get a quick flash of her in Baby Snooks drag when she takes on the reporters but that's all. (And, anyway, Fanny Brice didn't take up the Baby Snooks routine until years later.) Instead of the rueful tune "Who Are You Now?" we got another mediocre replacement song, the "title" song "Funny Girl," which takes the focus of Fanny's heartbreak away from what she might be doing to her husband (out of love, albeit) and puts it on what all the suffering is doing to her. I suppose this should have told us in what direction Barbara Streisand was going like a runaway train. Oh, there's no denying there are parts of the movie that show her off at her best, and that best can be very fine. Over forty years have gone by and she never again touched the bravado and power of her final number "My Man," even if that business about it being done in one take with her singing perfectly while crying is pure bull. For one thing, it is physiologically impossible. They took her vocal of "My Man" from off the "My Name is Barbra" album and dubbed it in with a new orchestral arrangement. The effect is great so it doesn't really matter except for the Star's dishonesty in perpetuating that story. And when Streisand stops jumping all over the place and stands still to sing the last stanza of "I'm the Greatest Star" she's amazing, even if the post dubbing is terribly obvious. I'm a sport, though. When "Funny Girl" was restored ten years ago I let a couple of friends talk me into seeing it again. I forgot it would mean nearly three hours of my life, but, as I said, I'm a sport. But, thirty-six years later, "Funny Girl" redux only made me painfully aware that I was right the first time. This is terrible liber127 July 2004 I hate this movie. It's entirely a one-woman show, completely centered around Barbra Streisand. The relationship between Fanny Brice and Nicky Arnstein has no passion behind it at all. They truly made me simply not care at all. I like "From Justin to Kelly" more than this, and that's a really bad movie. And what's up with Barbra Streisand's hair? Long, short, poofy, not poofy, I mean what the heck? Also, what in the world kinda accent is Nicky supposed to have? I understand Omar Sharif is from Egypt, but he sure doesn't sound like it. In addition, Omar Sharif simply looks scary! I mean, I'd run away from him, not fall in love and have a kid with him. By the way what happened to their kid? Yeah, this really is a bad movie. I want this movie to end, it's just so annoying. Please, lower its rating so no one else will rent it. I'm just glad I got this on my birthday discount, so I didn't have to pay for it. Barbra Streisand Being Barbra Streisand johnm_00111 October 2000 That "Funny Girl" was considered a hit, in 1968, was probably due more to the appeal of Omar Sharif, who was super-hot at the time, and fresh off his star turn in "Doctor Zhivago", than to the presence of Barbra Streisand (in her first film). There are a few good tunes, and Barbra even manages to be somewhat appealing in the first third of the film; but "Funny Girl", eventually looses its charm. When it does, we're left with mind-numbingly bad acting, and a plot development that not even Fanny Brice herself would care about. Striesand is so bad in the emotional moments of the film that, unless you are a dyed-in-the-wool fan (who just love Barbra being Barbra), you'll be hitting the off button on your remote. Streisand actually won an Academy Award for her horrid portrayal of Brice. She's never "funny" (she keeps doing a bad Jerry Lewis impersonation, and it's NOT FUNNY), and whether she is in love or pain, or happy or sad, you really can't tell the difference. She basically makes the same goofy face, for all emotions. Every over-the-top facial expression, hand gesture, and line delivery from Striesand, forces you to notice her. That what she's doing is totally inappropriate for what is happening within the context of the story, doesn't seem to matter to her. She wants your attention and she gets it, at any cost. The cost, however, is entertainment. This is a loud, obnoxious, star-fest. None of the musical numbers are executed very well (see every other musical from the same time period for really good staging of musical numbers), and it has a "who cares?", paper-thin plot. It is recommended for true-blue (she can do no wrong) Streisand fans, only. Virtually every other 1960's musical is better. Not Recommended. Disappointing Epic gavin694227 January 2016 Weird-faced Fanny Brice (Barbra Streisand) rises to stardom on the New York Vaudeville Stage and maintains a turbulent marriage with suave gambler Nick Arnstein (Omar Sharif). So maybe this is supposed to be one of the classics. I appreciate the attempt to tell the story of Fanny Brice... but geez, this is just bad. I am sorry that everyone in the world disagrees, but wow. First of all, way too long. I don't mind overtures and intermissions... but for this? And Streisand... just awful. Who thinks she's a good actress? Wow. I feel bad rating this so low, but it just was not enjoyable... it was almost unbearable to watch. I would not recommend this to anyone, even my worst enemies. Funny???... You Think??? strong-122-4788853 April 2015 With the exception of Streisand's delivery of two songs (People & My Man), I think the rest of this movie, including Streisand's character, was utterly intolerable. This movie didn't even come close to being an accurate account of Fanny Brice's life. Brice never had the vocal talents of Streisand. Brice was actually a really gifted comedienne. Streisand was not. Streisand was so painfully bad as a comedienne that it made me wince and cringe whenever she cracked another 'funny'. About the only thing that I found 'funny' (actually hysterical is more like it) in this movie was Streisand's wigs. She never wore the same wig twice and each time she donned a new one it seemed like her head was getting longer and longer until by about two-thirds of way thru' this musical mess she started to remind me of Ridley Scott's "Alien" whenever she turned sideways in profile. I wonder if her inflated head was any indication of how inflated her ego was getting as film production continued. Could be. My trashing of this movie would never be totally complete without a word, or two, about Omar Sharif and I'm sorry to say but words like 'Gorgeous!' (as Streisand referred to him in the movie) ain't the kind of words that come to mind. 'Blech!' is more like it. Sharif really gave me the creeps, big time. I hated-I hated-I hated his big, droopy eyes. They always looked so watery and yucky. Apparently women in the 70's drooled like fiends over Omar and his watery eyes and they happily slept all night long with his picture tucked safely under their pillows. He was a big box-office draw back then, but his career was short-lived. Thank goodness for that. Started off great, but then got boring... KatiesGhost5 July 2008 I rented this movie from my library along with "Hello, Dolly!" because I'm a huge Barbra Streisand fan. So I watched this movie first to see if it was gonna be great like people said. Well, I was kind of wrong. The movie started off great, but then during the part where Nick returns, the movie went downhill at an almost "out of this world" speed. It got boring and dragged along. One thing I did love about this movie were the songs. My favorites are People, Don't Rain on my Parade, and His Love Makes Me Beautiful, but that was it. The only thing I liked were the songs. If you're a Streisand fan, this movie is definitely for you. But for some Streisand fans like me, it can get pretty boring. A Streisand Time Capsule mpofarrell5 May 2002 The movie version of the Bob Merrill/ Jule Styne musical FUNNY GIRL is notable for only one reason : Barbra Streisand. For anyone fortunate enough to have seen the young singing actress in her signature role as comedienne Fanny Brice, the experience must have been electric. The nearest experience to that event is listening to the original cast album on Capitol/ Broadway Angel which conveys the immediacy of a live stage performance and the power of Streisand's characterization .The film is definitely a horse of a different color. The entire production is geared to showcasing Streisand ( no big surprise there! ) but she seems to be wandering through the movie as if she were starring in one of her early television specials - all supporting performances in the film are just that ; every one else's role seems to have been truncated to give more screen time to the star . William Wyler, one of Hollywood''s greatest directors, leaves no personal stamp on this picture, very odd indeed as he directed such classics as WUTHERING HEIGHTS and BEN HUR. The marvelous music score is pretty much intact, but two of the stage production's greatest songs are missing, THE MUSIC THAT MAKES ME DANCE and the haunting WHO ARE YOU NOW, supplanted by the pedestrian title song (ironically nominated for an Oscar!) and the standard that dramatically closes the movie, MY MAN . As with Rex Harrison's performance in the film of MY FAIR LADY, FUNNY GIRL preserves Streisand's performance for the ages, which makes this film a notable one but not a classic on the order of A STAR IS BORN. How I Feel About Funny Girl ilovecolin12 August 2003 So many people have written in and bad mouthed this movie. I saw it in 1973 in school on film,in one of my classes in junior high. I fell so in love with Barbra then.(You know all we gay people do love her so) I have always loved her music,which has gotten me through all the rough times in my life-and although I am not a professional movie critic-(like alot of the comment people assume they are)- I will simply say that this movie was very good.I didnot find anything wrong with it. I have seen it over and over again. Barbra displays an innocence and star quality about her. She well deserved her Oscar. I will challenge anyone to this. I have all her music, I have all her movies, and she is wonderful. Shame on anyone for ever saying anything bad about Barbra. Awards \| FAQ \| User Ratings \| External Reviews \| Metacritic Reviews 1 TOP FAVORITES Movies of 1968	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591517
__label__cc	0.632786	0.367214	Press Release No. PR13/384 Portugal and the IMF Press Release: Statement by the EC, ECB, and IMF on the Eighth and Ninth Review Mission to Portugal Staff teams from the European Commission (EC), European Central Bank (ECB), and International Monetary Fund (IMF) visited Lisbon during September 16-October 3 for the combined eighth and ninth quarterly reviews of Portugal’s economic adjustment program. There are early signs of a recovery in economic activity. Economic activity is now projected to contract by 1.8 percent in 2013—an upward revision of 0.5 percentage points—before expanding by 0.8 percent in 2014. Unemployment is expected to remain below 18 percent next year and significant external adjustment is ongoing, with Portugal gaining export market share for the third year in a row. The program’s 2013 fiscal deficit target of 5.5 percent of GDP is within reach. Budget execution has been supported by solid revenue performance and improved expenditure control, while underperformance in some parts of the budget is being addressed. Public sector reforms continue to strengthen financial management, fight tax evasion, restructure state enterprises, and reduce costs of public-private partnerships. The authorities have reaffirmed their commitment to the 4 percent of GDP deficit target for 2014. Reflecting a thorough assessment of the balance between the necessary fiscal adjustment, economic growth, and financing prospects, it was agreed to reaffirm the fiscal deficit target as revised in the 7th review. To reduce the excessive weight of the public sector in the economy, the key consolidation measures to be proposed in the draft Budget for 2014 will rightly aim at rationalizing and modernizing public administration, improving the sustainability of the pension system, and achieving cost savings across ministries. A rigorous implementation of the draft Budget for 2014 will be a decisive step toward respect of the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance (the Fiscal Compact). In the event that some of the measures were determined to be unconstitutional, the government would need to reformulate the draft Budget in order to meet the agreed deficit target. This, however, would imply increasing risks to growth and employment and would reduce the prospects for a sustained return to financial markets. While banks’ buffers are adequate, the operating environment remains challenging. Banks’ solvency has been further strengthened following some additional recapitalisation efforts, while liquidity conditions are gradually improving amid ongoing, and necessary, deleveraging of balance sheets. Nevertheless, profitability remains weak, calling for enhanced and sustained vigilance by the Banco de Portugal and ongoing efforts to improve its supervisory and resolution frameworks. Credit conditions remain challenging, although with recent improvements for the export-oriented sectors. Measures to ensure adequate funding for viable small- and medium-sized companies are being implemented, including initiatives to encourage the diversification of financing sources. The program’s agenda of structural reforms is well advanced, and effective implementation will be key to sustaining competitiveness gains. Important progress has been made in the areas of labor markets, judicial reforms, reforms of network industries, and regulated professions, with some initial evidence of an impact on the functioning of the economy. A blueprint for a comprehensive reform of corporate income tax has also been prepared, but implementation would need to respect fiscal consolidation targets. Progress is being made, although with some delays, in the reduction of barriers to doing business via easing of administrative burdens and licensing procedures. The authorities are also committed to explore the scope for new initiatives, which will be especially important in view of the need to foster competitiveness and job creation. The program remains broadly on track, with the authorities determined to achieve its objectives. Over the summer, sovereign yields reversed earlier gains, amid market concerns about the predictability of policymaking following short-lived political turbulence and Constitutional Court rulings that blocked key policy measures. Public debt remains sustainable; it is now expected to peak at 127.8 percent in 2013 and to decline thereafter. Resolute program implementation and reaffirmed ownership will support the government's return to full market financing. Provided the authorities persevere with steadfast program implementation, euro area member states have declared they stand ready to support Portugal until full market access is regained. Portugal’s culture of political and social dialogue remains an important asset to the program. Portugal’s economic adjustment program is supported by loans from the European Union amounting to €52 billion and a €26 billion Extended Fund Facility with the IMF. The conclusion of the 8th and 9th reviews could take place in November, subject to the approval of ECOFIN and EUROGROUP and of the IMF Executive Board. This would allow for the disbursement of €5.6 billion (€3.7 billion by the EU, and about €1.9 billion by the IMF) following the approval of the current reviews. The joint mission for the next program review is expected to take place in November 2013. IMF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT E-mail: media@imf.org	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591518
__label__wiki	0.884563	0.884563	Chucho Valdés - 2018 Latin Songwriters Hall of Fame Chucho ValdÃ©s From Billboard Gloria Trevi & Chucho Valdes Among 2018 Latin Songwriters Hall of Fame Honorees By: Jessica Roiz The Latin Songwriters Hall of Fame has revealed which five songwriters will be inducted at the prestigious hall this year. Joining last year’s honorees, which including Erika Ender, Carlos Vives and Ana Gabriel, to name a few, are Gloria Trevi, Chucho Valdés, Carlos Rubira Infante, Fernando Osorio and KC Porter. For the past six years, the Latin Songwriters Hall of Fame, founded by Desmond Child and Rudy Pérez, has honored the world’s greatest Latin music creators and their memorable songs. The 2018 honorees will be officially inducted at the sixth annual La Musa Awards ceremony and gala, taking place October 18 at the James L. Knight Center in Miami. Chucho Valdés (Cuba) As a pianist, composer and arranger, Chucho Valdés has become one of the most influential figures in modern Afro-Cuban jazz. The 76-year-old Cuban artist is a winner of six Grammys and three Latin Grammys. On November 27, 2010, Chucho peaked at No. 8 on the Latin Pop Albums chart thanks to his collaboration with Buika on her album El Ultimo Trago.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591520
__label__wiki	0.746895	0.746895	Discover INFORMS Explore O.R. & Analytics My Informs Recognizing Excellence INFORMS Prizes & Awards Community Prizes & Awards History of O.R. Excellence Certified Analytics Professional Pro Bono Analytics Analytics Body of Knowledge INFORMS Education Program Database Resources for Policymakers Resources for Organizations Speakers Program Healthcare Conference Security Conference Regional Analytics Conference Community Conference Calendar INFORMS Journals OR/MS Today Analytics Magazine OR/MS Tomorrow Librarians Portal Editor's Cut About INFORMS Self-Service Center Explore Our Sites: PubsOnLine 2021 Analytics Conference INFORMS Connect Building Successful O.R. and Analytics Teams Miser-Harris Presidential Portrait Gallery INFORMS Award Namesakes Biographical Profiles Non-Academic Institutions O.R. Application Areas O.R. Methodologies History & Traditions eBooks RCA and the Advancement of the OR/MS Community in the 1960s and 1970s From the early 1950s through the mid-1980s, the RCA Corporation was a significant player in the development and practice of operations research and management science methodologies. The company fostered a culture of collaborative research in OR/MS and advocated for the advancement of the discipline beyond its own projects. RCA’s innovative technologies and established reputation gave their staffers a platform from which to achieve lofty goals. RCA was first and foremost a dominant manufacturer of communications technologies and a leader in broadcast advancements. Founded in 1919 as a subsidiary of General Electric, the “Radio Corporation of America” was forcibly split from its parent organization following a federal antitrust suit in 1932. RCA’s research laboratory in Princeton, New Jersey was founded in 1942 and officially named after the company’s leader, David Sarnoff, in 1956. The David Sarnoff Research Center became a hot spot of invention and innovation and a natural location for the company’s operations research group, one of the nation’s first. Though RCA built its reputation on key developments in radio and television, executive leadership saw the importance of getting involved in the emerging computing scene by the mid-20th century. In 1965, they introduced the Spectra 70 line of electronic data processing units, a direct competitor to the widely integrated IBM System/360s. An advertised element was that one could “replace an existing system with Spectra 70 and gain the benefits of its exceptional cost/performance,” making it easy to use and able to produce cutting edge results (RCA 1965). By building a computer that reasonably compared with the other leading systems of the era, RCA provided its researchers first access to a pioneering technology with which to develop OR/MS solutions and strategies. Because of this benefit, OR practitioners at RCA had the tools to become early leaders in computer science for OR/MS and were able to codesign their systems with the on-site hardware team. Franz Edelman, the original Director of Operations Research at RCA, took the lead in bringing together management systems with this new technology. In 1975, he recognized, “two fairly recent technical developments – data base management concepts with high level, end user oriented inquiry languages and shared, interactive computing – [that] have combined to deliver dramatic increases in the combined potential of the information and management sciences, especially in the context of providing operationally useful decision support” (Edelman 1977). RCA under Edelman took the charge in merging management systems, management science, and computer science under a single practice. In the early 1970s, Edelman pushed for a broader OR/MS implementation within RCA. One aspect was to open up areas of application and implementation beyond just production, such as marketing and financial analyses. The other aspect was to open up applications in different types of operations. The group started working with senior staff in TV production, frozen foods, rental cars, broadcast communications, records, etc. Of course, it helped that RCA was a diversified conglomerate and had sizable subsidiaries in these businesses. All this led to an expanded outlook, approach and influence of the OR/MS group – not only in RCA, but elsewhere. The size of the group typically varied between 12 and 15 members. Some examples of successful project work include: Development and use of sales forecasting models for color TV. This work was documented and published in the paper “Developing and Using Forecasting Models of Consumer Durables – The Case of Color Television” by Bayus, Hong and Labe in the Journal of Product Innovation Management, March 1989. Financial models used by the Corporate Finance team to evaluate the impact of strategic decisions and their impact on future profits, cashflow and the balance sheet. “What if” scenarios were analyzed related to potential mergers and acquisitions, stock issuances and buybacks, dividend policies, etc. Compact disc forecasting models based on new product diffusion models, used to support the production and rollout of CDs in their early years. Pricing models for the American Communications (Americom) satellite division to help set prices for home consumer direct-to-dish broadcast services. Beyond implementing OR/MS solutions, RCA researchers were focused on advancing the widespread adoption and appreciation of their field. The company was therefore an active member of regional TIMS (The Institute of Management Sciences) chapters, hosting meetings and dialogues in the 1960s and 70s. Edelman’s constant presence within TIMS and the general practice community was key. For instance, in 1966, he gave the closing talk at the Milwaukee Chapter’s annual “Management Night” (“Chapter News” 1966). As the field grew and more localized organizations were established, RCA became a major force in the supporting the newer Delaware Valley Chapter. They hosted a group meeting in 1973 where Edelman led a panel discussion on “factors for implementing management science” (Jugenheimer 1973), bringing his philosophy to many other institutions. Furthermore, a handful of RCA persons took positions with professional organizations and journals, showing a willingness to cooperate and share in a way that many non-academic institutions chose not to. Edelman served as Finance Vice President of TIMS from 1975 through 1978 and RCA’s Avadhesh (Raj) Nigam was the Practice Column Editor of Interfaces through 1980. H. Newton Garber, Edelman’s eventual successor as OR Director at RCA, was the Secretary and primary contact of the College on the Practice of Management Sciences (CPMS) in 1973. That same year, the CPMS summer workshop was co-organized by RCA’s William Hartzel (Jugenheimer 1973) and IEEE’s conference “on the Future of Scientific and Technical Journals” was chaired by RCA’s John Philips (“Bulletin Board” 1973). In subsequent years, Newt Garber served as Chair of the College on the Practice of Management Sciences (CPMS) and was President of TIMS in 1983-84. Their presence permeated through multiple levels of the professional MS community, hence influencing at multiple points. During this period, management science faced an identity crisis. Practitioners debated whether their field was on the verge of a significant breakout or sitting at the cusp of irrelevance. The interdisciplinary nature of MS made it difficult to keep all practitioners, methodologies, use-cases, and applications under a single classification. Conferences through the mid-1970s featured panels that questioned whether MS was indeed “the wave of the future” or “a wave which had never crested and never will as originally anticipated by the guiding authors” (Program of Sessions 1971). Edelman, who by 1977 was RCA’s Staff Vice President for Business Systems and Analytics, was a strong proponent of the first belief. He and others thought the inclusivity of young and enthused OR/MS practitioners was key to the field’s survival and growth. RCA set a noteworthy example in this area, running an internship program that brought together academics and nonacademic professionals. “RCA personnel [would] often sit on dissertation committees under this program” and gave permanent positions to 60% of their interns (Hall & Hess 1978). By not only welcoming these relationships but supporting them through multiple waves of graduating classes, the company became a focal point in unifying the community and pushing forward a continued interest. By the early 1980s, RCA products were losing significant market share to their competitors. David Sarnoff’s retirement in 1970 and subsequent death in 1971 had begun a degenerative process for the company. The leadership vacancy was never quite filled with the same gravitas. In computing, IBM was reestablishing control and the newest Spectra computers, while fast and reliable, were released too late to make a significant dent. General Electric took advantage of the situation and reacquired its former subsidiary in 1986. GE almost immediately began to divide and sell the company’s divisions and assets. Sarnoff Research Center was placed on a strict budgetary schedule and handed a reduced workload. Just about all (if not all) of the men and women in OR/MS left at this time. During 1986, the RCA OR group made multiple attempts to find a home within the GE corporate organization but ultimately did not succeed. Citing overlap with other existing analytic teams, GE officially disbanded the RCA OR group in December 1986. The remaining Sarnoff Research Center skeleton was sold to SRI International (https://www.informs.org/Explore/History-of-O.R.-Excellence/Non-Academic-Institutions/Stanford-Research-Institute) in 1988, officially marking the end of an era that spanned over four decades. Though RCA has since been split and has faded away across multiple spaces, the impact of its people is still felt and recognized today. Shortly after Edelman’s death in 1982, TIMS renamed their practice prize the Franz Edelman Award for Achievement in Advanced Analytics, Operations Research, and Management Science, which is still given by INFORMS. Seven members of the RCA OR team, including Newt Garber, Raj Nigam, and Russel Labe, formed the core of a new team at Merrill Lynch in November 1986, establishing the first centralized Management Science group on Wall Street. This group reported to DuWayne Peterson, the Chief Technology Officer at Merrill Lynch, who himself had an OR background and was interested in expanding the use of analytics and modeling at the brokerage house. The RCA influence at Merrill Lynch was felt well into the 2010s as Garber (1986 – 1991), Nigam (1991 – 2004), and Labe (2004-2015), succeeded one another as directors of the Analytics and Modelling group. Quite fittingly, under Nigam’s leadership, the team received the 2001 Franz Edelman Award (Altschuler, et. al, 2002), a poetic contribution to the full circle of RCA’s legacy. Compiled by: Reed Devany Author’s Note: The author would like to give special thanks to Russ Labe and Raj Nigam for their contributions to this piece. Altschuler, S., Batavia, D., Bennet, J., Labe, R., Liao B., Nigam, R., & J. Oh (2002) “Pricing Analysis for Merrill Lunch Integrated Choice.” Interfaces, 32(1), 5-19. (1974) “Back Matter”. Interfaces, 4(2), 93. (1975) “Back Matter”. Interfaces¸5(2) (1978) “Back Matter”. Interfaces, 8(4) Bayus, B. L, Hong, S., & R. P. Labe, Jr. (1989) “Developing and using forecasting models of consumer durables: The case of color television”. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 6(1), 5-19. (1973) “Bulletin Board”. Interfaces, 3(2), 74. (1966) “Chapter News”. Management Science, 13(2), C-30. Edelman, F. (1977) “They Went Thataway”. Interfaces, 7(3), 39-44. (1980) “Front Matter”. Interfaces, 10(1). Hall Jr., J. R. & S. W. Hess (1978) “OR/MS: Dead or Dying”. Interfaces, 8(3), 44. Holmer, F. (1968) “Management Research in State and Local Governments”. Operations Research, 16(6), 1096. Jugenheimer R. (1973) “College and Chapter News”. Interfaces, 3(3), 99-100. Program of Sessions (1971) “12th American Meeting: Detroit, Sept. 29 – Oct. 2, 1971”. Interfaces, 1(5), 18. RCA (1965) RCA Spectra 70. RCA: Princeton, New Jersey. 2 Associated Historic Individuals Edelman, Franz Garber, H. Newton Hertz, David B. Lemke, Carlton E. The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences Catonsville, MD 21228 USA phone 1 443-757-3500 phone 2 800-4INFORMS (800-446-3676) email informs@informs.org Explore OR & Analytics Copyright 2021 INFORMS. All Rights Reserved Contact INFORMS If you are using a screen-reader and are having problems using this website, please call 443-757-3500 or contact us for assistance. 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__label__wiki	0.816419	0.816419	Henry Hutton Maddock (1821–1905) Home Henry Hutton Maddock (1821–1905) My Irish Ancestor Hilary Jarvis My Great, Great, Grandfather Henry Hutton Maddock was born in Dublin about 1821. I could not find a record of his birth but he was 30 at the time of his marriage in 1851 and his burial record stated that he died aged 84 in 1905. My Great, Great, Grandfather was always spoken of with a great deal of pride, by my mother. As children, we were told that he was a wealthy gentleman, son of a judge, who had lived in a castle in Co. Armagh. We were also told he had a dozen children whose multiple names my mother would reel off with alacrity. When records became available I was able to unravel Henry Hutton Maddock’s history with more accuracy. Although the family legend was not totally true, it had threads of truth which obviously had become embroidered over time. Henry Hutton Maddock was the only son of Joseph Maddock, a solicitor and Mary Gunning, although I believe there was an older daughter, called Olivia. Joseph Maddock was an Attorney at law in the Court of King’s Bench and in 1820 he was appointed Deputy Clerk of the Crown for the Connaught Circuit for King’s Bench, Common Pleas and the Exchequer and served in this capacity until 1837. He had entered King’s Inns in 1778 (aged about 16) to qualify as an attorney. He married Mary Gunning in 1814 in St Peter’s Parish, Dublin when he was about 40 and Mary was 22. Mary Gunning’s maiden name was Hutton and Joseph Maddock’s father’s name was Henry so it is easy to see why his names were selected. I know nothing of Henry’s upbringing or education although he would obviously have enjoyed the status of being the son of a solicitor. Like his father, Henry married later in life. He was 30 at the time of his marriage in 1851 when he married Anna Frances Bernard, aged 19, in Dublin. Other than being described as a bachelor and a gentleman the marriage notices I found give no clues as to his occupation. Married by license on 28th Feb 1851, in St. Peter’s C. Of I. Dublin, Henry Maddock, of full age, a gentleman, bachelor with an address in Harold’s Cross. To Anna Frances Bernard, a minor, spinster of no stated occupation, with an address at 66 Aungier Street. Henry Maddock was the son of Joseph Maddock, a solicitor. Anna Frances Bernard was the daughter of Arthur O’Brien Bernard, a gentleman. – Record of marriage from St. Peter’s Parish. Also, in the Gentleman’s Magazine 1851. “At Dublin, Henry Maddocks, esq. only son of the late J. Maddocks, esq. to Anna Frances, third dau. of Arthur O’Brien Bernard, esq. of Carlow, and Mount-Bernard, Isle Man.” Note: spelling varies from Maddock to Maddocks in the notices of marriage There is a record from the Town Clerk’s Office – City Assembly Hall, Dublin, in 1853. “I hereby certify that Henry Maddock of 36 North Cumberland St. in the City of Dublin was admitted into the liberties and franchises of the City of Dublin on the eighteenth day of January 1853 by right of birth.” Dated 25th Feb 1853. Roll # 4241. William Ford, Town Clerk, City of Dublin. During the time that Henry and Ann lived in Dublin they had six children, the fifth and sixth being born when Henry and Anna lived at 63 Heytesbury St, Dublin. Two of these children probably died in childhood as there is no later record of them. In approximately 1865 Henry and Anna moved from Dublin to Northern Ireland. While there, Henry was the estate manager for William Drogo Montagu, the 7th Duke of Manchester, at Tandragee Castle, Co. Armagh. Hence the family legend that my great, great, grandfather lived in a castle While in Tandragee Henry and Anna had another five children between 1866 and 1875. Family legend has it that the Maddock children took lessons with the children of the Duke of Manchester and their tutors, in Tandragee Castle. Today Tandregee Castle houses offices for the Tayto potato crisp factory and the adjoining park incorporates a golf course. Henry Hutton Maddock was described as a civil engineer in the 1880 Belfast/Ulster Street Directory, as well as in the 1901 Irish census and on one of his children’s birth records. However, there is no record of him graduating from Trinity College with an engineering degree nor was he ever registered with the Institution of Civil Engineers of Ireland. The names of the eleven Maddock children were interesting as they all had more than one name and many of these names were chosen from relatives in Anna Frances Bernard’s family or from the family of her mother. Her mother was Anna Frances Gayer, the youngest daughter of John Gayer, who was Deputy Clerk of the Irish Parliament just prior to dissolution. Anna Frances (Bernard) Maddock was the daughter of Arthur O’Brien Bernard and Anna Frances Gayer. Her siblings were called: Maria Frances (married Thomas Jackson), Arthur Thomas, Standish O’Grady and Rozetta Bernard (married Samuel Knaggs) Anna France (Gayer) Bernard’s sisters were Olivia Gayer who married, firstly Richard Wolfenden and secondly Robert Massaroon; Henrietta Harriet Gayer who married Benedict Hamilton Jn.; Maria Gayer who married William Bernard; Elizabeth Gayer who married Arthur O’Brien Bernard (who, after her death, married secondly Anna Frances Gayer); and Charlotte Gayer who married Rev. James Morgan. These daughters of John Gayer were born to his first wife Olivia Henderson. Only Anna Frances was born to John Gayer’s second wife, Dorothea Smith. The names of the children of Anna and Henry Maddock reflect those of their relatives. Born in Dublin: Anna Olivia (Posie) Maddock 1852 Arthur Hamilton Maddock, 1853, my great, grandfather Charlotte Elizabeth Maddock 1856 (probably died before 1866 as another child was later named Charlotte) Elinore (or Ellie) Galloway Maddock, 1859 William Hayes Maddock 1860, Edward Bailey Bernard Stackpool Odell Maddock 1861. (In the Parish Register only the names Edward Stackpoole Odell are shown. His marriage certificate gave all the names). Born in Tandragee, Co. Armagh: Charlotte Massaroon Morgan Maddock 1866. Henry Henderson Gayer Maddock. 1867 Harriet Hamilton Trail Maddock (Bridie) 1870 Mona Maud Mary Maddock 1873 Standish O’Grady Joseph Ira Dwight Knaggs Maddock 1875 The names Olivia, Hamilton, Charlotte, Elizabeth, Massaroon, Henderson, Traill and Gayer all derived from the Gayer sisters or relatives. The names Arthur, William, Bernard, Harriet, Stackpool, Odell, Standish, Knaggs and O’Grady all came from siblings or close relatives of Anna Frances Bernard. Henry and Anna Frances also used names from famous Irishmen – I am not able to determine if they were actually related. At least this use of family names made it easier to trace and connect family members. Anna Frances (Bernard) Maddock was born in 1832 on the Isle of Man. Her father, Arthur O’Brien Bernard owned “Balladhoo”, a farm there, but became indebted to local retailers and spent time in a debtor’s prison on the Island. Upon his release the property was leased so that the rent could be used to satisfy debts. “Whereas by indenture bearing the date of the 7th day of June 1833 made between the said William Trail and Fortescue Gregg Trustees of the one part Charles Scott and Co., Charles Scott, William Duff and Co., Thomas Gelling, Robert Cribbon, John Cain and John Stephens all of the Town of Douglas and creditors of the said Arthur O’Brien Bernard and Anna Frances Bernard of other part. It was agreed between the several parties thereto that said lands should be let or lease for any term of years not exceeding 21 years that the yearly rents of said lands reserved by the said lease should be applied for the benefit of one Mr. William Stephenson therein named and of the creditors of the said Arthur O’Brien Bernard and Anna Frances Bernard” In the 1840 census the Bernard’s are still living in the Isle of Man but must have returned to Dublin prior to Anna’s marriage to Henry Hutton Maddock. After the marriage of Henry Hutton Maddock and Anna Frances Bernard in 1854 a document was drawn up for the Bernards to sell the “Balladhoo” estate in the Isle of Man to Henry Hutton Maddock for £200. This deed was registered in 1855. A year later another deed dated Jan 9th 1855 was drawn up to sell “Balladhoo” to Mary Maddock (Mary (Gunning) Maddock was the mother of Henry Maddock and mother-in-law of Anna Frances Bernard). A later document in 1873, reveals that Henry and Anna Maddock did not execute the 1855 document to sell “Balladhoo” to Mary Maddock for £200 but actually sold the estate to her for the sum of five shillings, far less than the £200 originally agreed on. Then, in an indenture dated 1875 Mary Maddock sold the estate back to Henry and Anna Frances for five shillings. This indenture was not registered in the Isle of Man Registry Office until 1904, probably at the time that Henry Hutton Maddock was making his will There are various references to Henry and Anna Frances Maddock in both the Isle of Man and Ulster in the years between 1865 and 1906. It is probable that Henry remained in the employ of the Duke of Manchester at Tandragee Castle as well as spending time at “Balladhoo” in the Isle of Man. Henry’s mother, Mary Maddock, appears to have lived with Henry and Anna in Tandragee as a deed between them in 1873 describes Mary Maddock, as a widow “of Tandragee” In Slater’s Directory Co Armagh 1881, under the section – Fire, & Office Agents. Lists “Henry Maddocks, Market St. English & Scottish Law (life)”. (Note spelling variance.). Members of the family are also mentioned in the 1886 edition of “Report of the Ulster Society for promoting the education of the Deaf and Dumb and the Blind”. Donations noted from H. Maddock and Miss Maddock (Tandragee). There was an additional deed in 1896 which described the sale of “Balladhoo” by Edward Gelling and his wife Anne to Henry Maddock of Balladhoo House of “lands of Balladhoo” which Gelling had purchased from Andrew Bowman in 1888. It appears from the various documents that describe the property first owned by the Bernards called “Mount Bernard” (later called Balladhoo House) and the adjacent property also known as “Balladhoo”, eventually were all owned by Henry Maddock. Several of these deeds were witnessed by Olivia Gracey. Henry Hutton Maddock is believed to have had a sister named Olivia who was born in 1815 in Dublin. I could not find a marriage for Olivia Maddock but I did find a burial record for Olivia Gracey of Rathfarnham, Co Dublin in 1894 at the age of 79 (which means she would have been born in 1815). I can only assume that the Olivia Gracey who witnessed the deeds for Henry and Mary Maddock was Henry’s sister and Mary’s daughter. I have yet to find the proof. Although the Maddocks owned “Balladhoo” in the Isle of Man they also maintained a residence in Tandragee, Co Armagh. Henry Maddock employed his son-in-law, John Kelly who owned an adjacent property, as steward of the farm. While living in Tandragee Henry Hutton Maddock rented a stationery shop at 47 Duke St. Douglas, Isle of Man in 1872 for his son Arthur Hamilton Maddock. Arthur was 19 and, I suspect a bit of a scoundrel. At the age of 19, having just settled in Douglas, Arthur eloped with a local girl of 17 (Eliza Birtles, my great grandmother) and went to Liverpool. They married there in 1873 and, after giving birth to two children in Liverpool and while pregnant with a third child, Eliza left Arthur to return to the Isle of Man. Arthur followed her and was arrested for threatening his wife and mother-in-law. He later, re¬married bigamously and died an alcoholic a few years later. He must have been a huge embarrassment to his parents who were respectable members of the community. The Maddock’s dual residences in the Isle of Man and Ulster are reflected in the records. In the 1881 and 1894 Brown’s Directory – Lonan, Isle of Man, Henry Maddock is listed as “farmer and landowner, Balladhoo” In the 1891 census for Lonan, IoM, at Balladoo, Farm lists are: Anna Maddock 1841 age 50 born in IoM Henry Maddock born in Dublin 1831 age 60. Civil engineer Mona Maddock 1873 aged 18 born in Dublin Standish 1877 aged 14 born Launde Ayce, Armagh, Ireland Edward Maddock 1871 aged 20 born in Dublin (actual birth year was 1861 so he was 30, not 20) Henry H Gayer Maddock was overseas in 1891. Note: Either Mona’s age is wrong or her place of birth. If she was born in Dublin then her birth year is before 1866 In the 1901 Irish census Henry, Anna, Edward, Mona and Henry Gayer Maddock were to be found in Tandragee. At the same time Anna Olivia (Posie), who was married to John Kelly (Manager of the “Balladhoo” estate), was living in the Isle of Man and Standish, her brother, is staying with Olivia and John Kelly. Arthur Maddock, the eldest son, had died in Liverpool in 1895. Anna Frances (Bernard) Maddock died in May 1903 in Onchan, Isle of Man, at the age of 68. The family relocated to 1 Newsham Terrace in Douglas but retained the farm. Henry Hutton Maddock died in Douglas, Isle of Man at the age of 84. He was buried in Onchan in November 1905. Henry Maddock left a will dated May 1904. The application for probate, filed by his executor, son Edward, lists Henry’s living children as: Edward, Eleanor, Harriet, Olivia (Kelly) and Mona on the Island and Standish and Henry G. Maddock in South Africa. Henry Hutton Maddock lived the life of a privileged gentleman growing up in Dublin, then living on the estate of the Duke of Manchester in Tandragee and spending his last years on a farm in Onchan, Isle of Man. His eldest daughter (Olivia) married; three children died in childhood; his son Arthur (the rascal) died in 1895 of “excessive drinking”; Hid daughters Ellie, Harriet and Mona appeared to have been spinsters as I find no record of a marriage for them; Edward married in his 40s in Liverpool and the two youngest sons Henry and Standish both served in the Boer War. Following the war Henry HG Maddock spent some time in Australia and South Africa before returning to the Isle of Man where he died aged 40. Standish Maddock emigrated to South Africa where he married an Irish woman from Dublin.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591524
__label__wiki	0.770543	0.770543	Mysterious, Ancient Stone Monument Unearthed in Galilee [PHOTOS] by Andrew Friedman \| Mar 5, 2017 \| Biblical News Aerial photograph of 4,000-year-old stone structure, known as a dolmen. (Shmuel Magal, courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority) Archaeologists from Tel Hai College, the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem announced the discovery of a 4,000-year-old dolmen, a large table-like stone structure, near Kibbutz Shamir in the Upper Galilee. The dolmen is marked by its huge dimensions and the artistic decorations engraved in its ceiling. According to the Israel Antiquities Authority, the dolmen was discovered inside a large chamber measuring 2 by 3 meters, and was covered by an enormous stone estimated to weigh at least 50 tons, one of the largest stones ever used in the construction of dolmens in the Middle East. The dolmen itself was enclosed in an enormous stone heap (tumulus) approximately 20 meters in diameter, and its stones are estimated to weigh a minimum of 400 tons. At least four smaller dolmens that were positioned at the foot of the decorated dolmen were identified inside the stone heap. The 4,000 year old dolmen. (Gonen Sharon, Tel Hai College) “In other words, what we have here is a huge monumental structure built hierarchically (with a main cell and secondary cells). This is the first time such a hierarchical dolmen has been identified in the Middle East,” said the IAA in a release. The dolmen was discovered by Professor Gonen Sharon of the Galilee Studies Program at the Tel Hai College and is just one of some 400 stone structures dating to the Intermediate Bronze Age that are located in a field first unearthed by by the late Moshe Kagan in the 1950’s. The engravings that were exposed on the inside of the built chamber (Gonen Sharon, Tel Hai College) Experts said the latest find sheds new light on the nature of dolmens in ancient Israel. “This is the first art ever documented in a dolmen in the Middle East,” said Uri Berger, an archaeologist with the Israel Antiquities Authority and partner in the study. “The engraved shapes depict a straight line going to the center of an arc. About fifteen such engravings were documented on the ceiling of the dolmen, spread out in a kind of arc along the ceiling. No parallels exist for these shapes in the engraved rock drawings of the Middle East, and their significance remains a mystery.” [ubm_premium banners=497 count=1] The panel depicting the art was scanned in the field by the Computerized Archaeology Laboratory of the Hebrew University. The resulting three-dimensional model of the engraving allowed researchers to study the dolmen with precision not previously available. “The three-dimensional scan enabled us to identify engravings that otherwise could not be seen with the naked eye,” explained Professor Lior Grossman, the laboratory director. Experts also said the dolmen provides evidence of “a significant and established governmental system in the region during the Bronze Age.” The view from inside the dolmen. (Shmuel Magal, courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority) “Archaeologists tend to interpret the past based on material finds,” said the IAA. “The absence of cities, large settlements and monumental buildings attests to the collapse of the governmental and economic systems during a ‘dark period’ in history. The dolmens tell a different story about the period – a story about a society that had a complex governmental and economic system that executed monumental engineering projects but did not leave behind any other archaeological evidence.” “The gigantic dolmen at Kibbutz Shamir is without doubt an indication of public construction,” added Professor Sharon, “that required a significant amount of manpower over a considerable period of time. During that time all of those people had to be housed and fed. The building of such a huge construction necessitated knowledge of engineering and architecture that small nomadic groups did not usually possess. And even more importantly, a strong system of government was required here that could assemble a large amount of manpower, provide for the personnel and above all direct the implementation and control of a large and lengthy project.”	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591526
__label__cc	0.600475	0.399525	Meet Yusta Recently, Inherit Your Rights completed another 16 week paralegal training with students from our partners at Jobortunity. Over this time, 27 students learned about topics including women’s rights, property, inheritance, domestic violence, labour rights and more. The students consisted of young adults – both men and women – of all different backgrounds from around Arusha. They sat two exams, one half way through the course, and one at the very end. Student who received over 75% in the exams are eligible to become paralegals and can further play a critical role in representing the disadvantaged and raising awareness in their communities and beyond. Yusta, one of the students, was a top performer in her class. “I’m very happy to get my paralegal certificate,” said Yusta. “I learned that we as women can really do something to advance our rights.” “As a paralegal, I want to spread this knowledge further. When I get the chance I’ll be communicating with youth. I talk to a lot of youth in my community and I want to get them together and explain what I learned from Inherit Your Rights.” Mobilising youth in this way can be a pivotal force for change. By creating a network of young community champions we can initiate a behavioural change in the next generation to advocate for women rights and equality across the board. To contribute to societal change, we must work with every member of the community. When men, women and children alike are aware of their rights, it builds understanding and fosters informed and engaged communities who can work together to advocate for their rights – whether it’s for themselves, their family or neighbour. “It’s very important to learn about legal rights because we can help women in our society,” adds Yusta. “Women face challenges every day in our daily life and many people don’t know about the laws there to help them.” We can’t wait to see what Yusta and her fellow class mates do next to help raise awareness and educate and empower others. Do you know a group that would benefit from our training? Get in touch with us today to learn how we can help. Contact us at inherityourrights@gmail.com	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591527
__label__cc	0.741517	0.258483	CBCA Proposes Changes to its Rules By Covington Team on April 12, 2018 Posted in Claims and Contract Disputes [Update: The CBCA’s amended rules will become effective on September 17, 2018. Click here for additional information and our analysis.] On March 28, 2018, the Federal Register published proposed changes to the Civilian Board of Contract Appeals’ (“Board”) Rules of Procedure regarding appeals under the Contract Disputes Act (“CDA”). These proposed rules indicate that the Board wishes to: simplify and modernize access to the Board, clarify certain rules, and increase conformity between its rules and the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (“Federal Rules”). Our key takeaways are below, and a side-by-side comparison between the Board’s current and proposed rules can be found here. Interested parties may submit comments by May 29, 2018. Summary of Key Proposed Changes As reflected in the Federal Register, the Board seeks to revise 40 procedural rules regarding CDA appeals. Below is a summary of the key proposed changes: Discovery. Although the current rules permit the Board to consider the Federal Rules when resolving discovery matters, the proposed rules leave no doubt as to the significance of the Federal Rules. The proposed rules seek to directly incorporate certain aspects of the Federal Rules regarding the scope of discovery, submitting and responding to requests for admissions, responding to interrogatories, the use of deposition testimony, and supplementing discovery responses. The proposed rules also require that objections be made by the date the response to the discovery request is due instead of within 15 days after receiving the discovery request. These changes are intended to “allow the Board to adopt and apply case law applying the relevant Federal Rules, as well as any future amendments to those Federal Rules, without revising the Board’s rules again.” Evidentiary Record. Proposed Rule 4 requires the parties to submit the appeal file in electronic format (rather than hardcopy) unless classified or protected materials are involved. Proposed Rule 9 clarifies that the evidentiary record consists of “evidence” (e.g., exhibits and testimony transcripts) and “other materials” (e.g., pleadings, motions, and demonstrative hearing exhibits), and that the Board “may also rely” on the latter category “to decide a case.” Pleadings. Proposed Rule 6 formally recognizes that the “Board may in its discretion order a respondent [i.e., the Government] asserting a claim to file a complaint.” This is consistent with past Board decisions, and should allow for more efficient proceedings. Admissibility of Evidence. Although it is unclear why the Board’s admissibility rule was substantially re-written, Proposed Rule 10 still maintains that the Board will use the Federal Rules of Evidence as a guidepost, and that the Board generally will admit hearsay evidence unless deemed unreliable. Motions Practice. For substantive motions (e.g., a motion to dismiss or a motion for summary judgment), Proposed Rule 8 extends the deadline to file an opposition brief from 20 days to 30 days, and the movant’s reply is due 15 days thereafter. Voluntary Dismissals. Under the current rules, the Board may, in lieu of issuing an order suspending proceedings, dismiss the case without prejudice and reinstate the case within 180 days. When a case has been dismissed without prejudice and neither party has timely requested that the case be reinstated, the Board deems the case dismissed with prejudice. Proposed Rule 12 would eliminate a provision purporting to convert a voluntary dismissal without prejudice to a dismissal with prejudice after 180 days. The Board has indicated that this change is based on limits to the Board’s jurisdiction under the CDA. The proposed rules, if and once finalized, would govern future cases, as well as “all further proceedings in cases then pending” unless the Board decides that using the new rules in a pending case would be inequitable or infeasible. As we discussed in an article last year, one of the significant recent trends at the Board has been its increase in publishing discovery-related decisions. We suggested that the increase in published discovery decisions has the potential to enable parties to better assess the bounds of permissible discovery, thereby allowing the parties to spend less time sidelined by discovery issues and more time focused on the underlying merits of appeals. Explicitly aligning the Board’s discovery rules with the Federal Rules has the potential to provide even more predictability in discovery and further establish expectations. Nonetheless, one challenge the Board may face in implementing the proposed rules is striking the balance between following the often formalistic Federal Rules and maintaining the efficiencies and informalities that generally are hallmarks of Board practice. Tags: CBCA, Civilian Board of Contract Appeals, Contract Disputes Act, Rules of Procedure	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591529
__label__wiki	0.797736	0.797736	Home>Construction>Conversions Building Components/Materials Multi-Story Building Renovations/Upgrades JSM Venture to Convert Vacant Kmart to Self-Storage in Zion, IL TAGS: News Development Self-storage developer JSM Venture Inc. has purchased a vacant Kmart in Zion, Ill., for $2.3 million that it intends to convert to self-storage. Plans for the 90,426-square-foot structure at 3355 Sheridan Road include 69,750 rentable square feet of indoor storage in 619 units, the majority of which will be climate-controlled, according to the source. JSM was represented in the transaction by Brendan Green, senior vice president, and Patrick Turner, vice president, of the Chicago office of real estate firm Colliers International Group Inc. The seller, Amin & Shah Solutions LLC, was represented by Paine-Wetzel Associates Inc. “Given the rise of e-commerce and its impact on retail shopping habits, there is now a surplus of empty big-box retail stores. Many of our clients—like JSM Venture—are looking at alternative uses to fill these vacancies,” Turner said. Led by Charlie Mengel, JSM is a Northfield, Ill.-based developer specializing in self-storage conversions and redevelopment of existing industrial properties. Founded in 2004, the company has acquired and developed more than 1 million square feet of self-storage. Colliers is a global commercial real estate services firm employing more than 12,000 professionals in 69 countries. The company offers a variety of services for investors, business owners and developers. These include consulting, market research, real estate intermediation for sale and rent, project management, property management, and valuation. RE Journals, Former Kmart Location in Zion Sells, to Be Converted to Self-Storage Stuf Raises $1.8M to Convert Unused Commercial Space to Self-Storage Conversion Conundrum: Could Self-Storage Developers Wind Up Battling Amazon for Abandoned Retail Space? Historic Conversion: Transforming a Former Kentucky Distillery Into High-Tech Self-Storage	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591530
__label__cc	0.5432	0.4568	Musical Performance Anxiety (MPA) By Sérgio de Figueiredo Rocha Submitted: December 6th 2019Reviewed: February 6th 2020Published: March 6th 2020 Home > Books > Anxiety Disorders [Working Title] The musical practice is an extremely complex activity that involves a series of cognitive abilities and functions, among them are hearing, memory, motor coordination, attention, affection, mathematical calculation, and the association of all of these concomitantly, including situations of public exposure. Because of this, musical performance is particularly susceptive to anxiety symptoms. Musical performance anxiety (MPA) is defined as an experience of persistent and distressing apprehension and/or real prejudice of the performance abilities in a public context in an unjustifiable degree given the individual musical aptitude and preparation level. It prevails more commonly on the female gender in a 3:1 proportion and affects about 20% of the professional musicians. In the present chapter, its main etiologies and psychic mechanisms, evaluation instruments, as well as the current therapeutic strategies available will be presented. musical performance anxiety perceived causes psychological intervention drug therapies optimal performance Sérgio de Figueiredo Rocha* Federal University (UFSJ), São João del Rei, Brazil *Address all correspondence to: sergiorocha@ufsj.edu.br Anxiety DisordersEdited by Vladimir Kalinin Anxiety Disorders [Working Title] Prof. Vladimir Kalinin, Prof. Cicek Hocaoglu and Dr. Shafizan Mohamed The musical practice is an extremely complex activity that involves a series of cognitive abilities and functions, among them are hearing, memory, motor coordination, attention, affection, mathematical calculation, and the association of all of these concomitantly, including situations of public exposure [1]. Because of this, musical performance is particularly susceptive to anxiety symptoms. The Yerkes-Dodson curve. Anxiety in itself is, up to a certain point, something favorable to the performance [2], since it helps the performer to perceive what favors him and disregard what could hinder his performance. After a certain point, anxiety starts to influence negatively the musical performance efficiency, according to the Yerkes-Dodson curve. Musical performance anxiety (MPA) is a term that encompasses many dimensions and started being described in 1990. It is the experience of a persistent and distressing apprehension and/or real prejudice of the performance abilities in a public context in an unjustifiable degree given the individual musical aptitude and preparation level [3]. In the musical environment, MPA has been called as “stage fright” although MPA encompasses something much bigger than that [4]. The reason is that MPA has three axes that complement each other in terms of subjective manifestations of this picture. Performance anxiety affects equally music professional and students. There is a prevalence of around 18% [5]. The main reported symptoms are concentration decrease, tachycardia, tremor, sweating, and xerostomia, which are severe enough to negatively impact on the performance level [5, 6]. In the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition, or DSM-5, social anxiety disorder (SAD) is highlighted, in which the subject feels fear or anxiety in social interaction situations when he worries about the possibility of coming to be evaluated by the public [4]. In the present chapter, general aspects of MPA, its possible etiologies, its occurrence in the diverse age groups, the instruments of evaluation, and, at last, the therapeutic approaches will be approached. 2. MPA pathogenesis, susceptibility, and vulnerability MPA is a complex phenomenon caused by the interaction of many factors, including genetics, environmental stimuli and individual experience, emotions, cognitions, and personal behavior. Factors like age, gender, the kind of musical instrument, musical background, musical perception, perfectionism, and emotions compose the group of personal variables that can interfere more or less on the MPA levels [4, 7]. Although MPA can begin in childhood, the literary data are conflicting. While some studies suggest that in this age group there are no significant differences between the genders [8], others point out that there are significant differences in many parameters (physiological, cognitive, behavioral, and subjective perception) [9]. For example, the girls tend to show an anticipatory anxiety and also during the performance, while the boys only show anxiety during the performance. This profile seems to present itself gradually even more unfavorable to the female gender as age advances [10]. These data indicate that women are significantly less confident and more anxious and show less self-efficacy (attitude) in contexts such as jazz improvising learning. In women over 45 years old, the MPA prevalence is even bigger and can achieve up to 60% depending on the context [11]. However, there is a great relation between MPA and age increase among susceptible individuals, independently of the gender. The way in which each individual processes his beliefs about the performance situation and how he perceives the way his somatic anxiety reactions affect his performance. This behavior is related to perfectionism. Perfectionism, a personality valence, is a complex and multidimensional construction that goes beyond the simple search for perfection. It concerns the fight for unreal self-imposed patterns, a fixed mentality, high levels of self-criticism, or expectation of high patterns of performance by a third party. This distorted expectation about one’s own performance ends up influencing negatively self-confidence, and this, ultimately, can sabotage the performance quality. Another important aspect that has been studied is the public impact over the performer [6]. In situations where the musicians are being judged in some kind of competition or selection, there is a significantly bigger incidence of symptoms such as tachycardia and anxiety observed compared to situations that do not involve judgment. The three causes of MPA most commonly cited by musicians are pressure from self, excessive arousal, and inadequate preparation for performance [12]. Beyond personal impressions there seems to be a combination between genetic vulnerability and the learning environment [4, 7]. This learning environment is the result that builds a psychic pattern confrontation of the performance situations. This building is the sum of the situations that involve familiar experiences with teachers, colleagues, tests, and performances. The Barlow model seems to be the most consecrated among the MPA scholars. It consists of an integrated group of three vulnerabilities: biological (genetics, endocrine, etc.) and psychological, that is, referring to the subject psychic formation and more specific psychological issues in which the environmental stimuli are processed according to the patterns learned by the individual [5, 13, 14, 15]. The psychological vulnerabilities are structured by elements like affection, cognition and its processing, attention, and personality traits [13, 15]. All these elements are processed together. For example, when attention is deviated from the performance priority objects, it can sabotage its own efficiency. The hyper-focus in a determined aspect of the performance can, equally, cause the performer to lose a systemic view of what is being presented. The previous musical experiences and other experiences related to anxiety involved in personal and professional histories are also important in the MPA genesis [4]. Therefore, the most vulnerable profile to MPA can be identified. The subject that feels anxious only in the presence of the public and in front of them has unrealistic beliefs about his own potential is the most specific profile. This characteristic was also described in the DSM-5 new edition which “seems to represent a distinct subgroup of social anxiety disorder in etiology terms, initial age, physiological response, and treatment [16]. 3. MPA in children and adolescents Since the first childhood (up to 7 years old), MPA is rarely manifested, differently from adults/elderly ones [17]. On the contrary, children tend to show others their “feats” in a pleasurable way. The question is that this same subject, some years later, starts to develop a behavior opposite to this, avoiding to a maximum his own exposure to whoever it is. The main factors that lead to this change in attitude are the innate temper, the trace of anxiety, the broadening of the integrated capacity of cognition, the auto-reflexive function, and the accumulation of the anxiogenic interpersonal experiences. The conjunction of these factors contributes for the formation of beliefs and emotions during performance in the adolescence [18]. The emotions that emerge in moments that precede the performance are positive as well as negatives. This occurrence of joint affections in general is uncomfortable. Therefore there is the need to work on recognizing this emotion/affection so that afterwards, there is a control of this situation. However, the reception given by the parents, teachers, and more experienced colleagues is fundamental for a better processing of these beliefs on behalf of the younger musicians, especially preadolescents. It was observed that the students who started the musical practice after 7 years of age showed higher anxiety scores when compared to those who started at the age of 7 or less [19]. This has direct implications in the preventive strategies against MPA among children and adolescents. These strategies should privilege the recreation and in every opportunity minimize the negative aspects of the performance; in other words, the occurrence of some mistakes in the face of countless right ones does not matter. 4. MPA evaluation instruments Currently, about 20 instruments validated in the English language1 to evaluate MPA are available [3]. The majority of these scales is generic, that is, they are not specific for an instrument, although some are. There is the Piano Performance Anxiety Scale and the Stage Fright Rating Scale (specific for string musicians). Many of them are adaptations of the already existing scales for anxiety evaluation. These scales are aimed at the musicians’ adult population. The K-MPAI and perfAIM scales will be highlighted as follows. The K-MPAI is the MPA evaluation instrument that has more validations for other idioms in the world [20]. Its original version had 26 items, and the most recent one, published in 2009, has 40 items. The Appel’s Personal Report of Confidence as a Performer (PRCP) and the Performance Anxiety Inventory (PAI) structured themselves having as their referential the three components of the Barlow Theory [3]; in other words, such scales encompass physiologic, cognitive, and behavioral aspects. In K-MPAI the people interviewed use a Likert-type scale of 7 points to answer each question, where zero represents no observed anxiety symptom and 6 represents extremely high levels of anxiety. Therefore, the score can vary from zero (Ø) to 240 points. A search to find a cutoff point has been made; however, the cut-off point concerning each test criteria vary, suggesting that the K-MPAI cutoff point depends on the clinical interest of each patient [20]. Another validated scale in 2011 was the PerfAIM [21]. The PerfAIM comprise 58 declarations divided into 34 items and 24 subitems. The possible scores vary from 58 to 290. Due to the normal standard distribution, the scale author suggested that the scores between 100 and 205 corresponded to the MPA normality band under stressful situations, whereas values above these are associated to extreme cases which would demand more attention. Besides, this reference interval can help to establish a level of comparison among the subjects, independently of the sample. The K-MPAI-A is the correlative to K-MPAI for adolescents from 12 to 19 years old [8]. Despite being an instrument aimed at young ones in this age group, it was applied in other studies including 7-year-old children. Such as the version for the adult population, its structure also encompasses the physical, behavioral, and cognitive aspects; however, there are only 15 questions. The fulfilling scheme follows the K-MPAI for adults, so it is also the Likert type. The main contribution of these scales is the assistance of the subjects and, together with other approach strategies, the structure of a continuous segmented project and, if necessary, subject treatment. 5. MPA management, treatments, and approach strategies The MPA involves, in general, combined strategies. These strategies can be divided in therapies, medicinal intervention, and other approaches. The first published studies that investigated the MPA non-pharmacological treatments are dated from the beginning of the 1980s, while the pharmacological studies started in the late 1960s decade [14]. 5.1 Therapies Among the therapeutic interventions, the main strategies pointed out in the literature are behavioral therapy, cognitive therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy [14, 22, 23, 24, 25], hypnosis [24, 25, 26], and, more recently, the Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) [27]. The cognitive and behavioral therapies have as their main objective to approach emotions and dysfunctional behaviors. The interest is in accessing thought patterns that form themselves and become more and more disabling if not treated. Therefore, these therapies aim at a change of faulty thought styles and their consequent inadequate behaviors [25]. The desensitizing process present in the cognitive-behavioral therapy allows, through guided images, the scene that generates anxiety to be gradually transformed in something more adaptive that does not involve anxiety. The reason is that learned answers can be substituted by more adaptive behaviors [25]. Hypnosis or hypnotherapy consists in inducing the patient to a state of sleepiness, easing the access to issues that involve the problems of nonadaptive behavior or dysfunctional thoughts. This access would allow an awareness to begin a change process in the way the subject deals with situations that generate MPA [25]. The Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is one of the most recent therapies of the third wave in which the dialectical behavioral therapy, the metacognitive therapy, and the depression therapy based on mindfulness are also part of it [27]. The focus of this therapy is the promotion of full attention and someone’s emotional suffering acceptance instead of the symptom domain or control as in the conventional cognitive behavioral therapies. 5.2 Strategies and complementary therapies Besides the classic therapies, there are MPA complementary control strategies. Among them expressive arts therapy (in which one is exposed to virtual reality [images] and music therapy), yoga, meditation, the Alexander technique, biofeedback, neurofeedback, and transcranial stimulation [23, 25] can be mentioned. Image-guided therapy consists of employing internal images of the subjects to reveal and access internal conflicts that possibly relate themselves to the MPA genesis. This method is used frequently in sports performance [25, 28]. For this kind of strategy, the results show MPA level reduction, discomfort improvement, increase of self-confidence, and decrease of heart rate [23]. Music therapy, in turn, promotes a better musical and musicality perception and decreases the stress like distractibility [25]. There are few studies about the yoga impact on MPA [23]. In the few available studies, improvements of the MPA indicators, including humor, sleep and osteoarticular disturbances, and stress, were observed. There are still no evidences that meditation alone can, in some unquestionable way, contribute to decrease the MPA indicators [23]. The few available studies only raise questions that speculate that meditation can be related to an improvement in some parameters such as heart rate. The Alexander technique consists of closely observing the individual’s attitude and, in the musical practice sphere, trying to check the more accurate possible causes of tension in the performer’s body. Therefore, this technique can relieve muscle tensions and contribute to decrease the factors that impact, directly or indirectly, the MPA levels [29]. Biofeedback has been used for about 70 years in the experimental psychology and neurology fields [30]. It is a technique to accurately measure some organic data such as brain waves, heart rate, respiratory rate, muscle activity, and skin temperature. The main objective of this technique is to provide learning of the self-control of these functions. Thus, biofeedback can be part of a strategy to treat anxiety since it contributes to control part of the symptoms which are part of MPA. It is usually associated with other strategies [30, 31]. Neurofeedback is a kind of biofeedback that teaches individuals the self-control of brain functions, measuring the brain waves and providing a feedback signal. Neurofeedback usually does not provide an audio and/or video feedback. Positive or negative feedback is produced for desired goals or undesirable brain activities, respectively [32]. There are seven kinds of feedback, two of which are indicated for anxiety treatment, which makes this technique potentially suitable for treating MPA. The more frequent neurofeedback used is the frequency/power neurofeedback. It is used to alter the amplitude or velocity of specific brain waves in specific brain areas to treat TDAH, anxiety, and insomnia. This technique usually includes the use of two to four surface electrodes, sometimes called neurofeedback. There is a second modality called low energy neurofeedback system (LENS) which provides weak electromagnetic signal to alter brain waves on the patient while he is motionless and with his eyes closed. This kind of feedback has been used to treat traumatic brain injuries, TDAH, insomnia, fibromyalgia, restless legs syndrome, anxiety, depression, and irritability [33]. About 25% of the cases that involve anxiety are not responsive to conventional therapies and the psychopharmacological resources. The transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a noninvasive method created in 1985 [34]. TMS is based on the Faraday Law—electromagnetic induction—through which the electric activity of the brain tissue can be influenced by the magnetic field, therefore inducing an electrical current that depolarizes the neurons. In this context, TMS in its repetitive form, that is, rTMS, can modulate the cortical excitability besides the stimulation period in itself, originating its potential application as a clinical treatment for a variety of neurological and psychiatric disturbances, like the anxiety one [34, 35]. Other two noninvasive strategies of low cost are the physical activity and induction of the flow state. The regular physical activity, especially the aerobics modality, provides a decrease in anxiety levels [36, 37]. The literature data are robust in demonstrating the beneficial effect of the physical activity on anxiety scenarios. There are data which demonstrate that this evidence also applies to MPA [36]. On the other hand, the “flow state” is a state of awareness of the hyper-focus in which irrelevant details and intrusive thoughts about the performance are eliminated, resulting in the subject being fuller in the final activity which is the musical performance. In this context it would be a complete absorption in a determined task with enhanced performance skills [15, 26]. There seems to be an inverse relation between the flow sate and MPA [38]. From this relation a facilitator model was built for the flow state based on three factors: subject preparation, qualification of the teachers to deal with this focus, and the building of the flow experience [15]. These three axes are linked among themselves and necessarily need to access some valences such as learning/preparation that involves well-being, creativity, motivation, and musical skill mobilization [15, 26, 38]. 5.3 Pharmacotherapy MPA is limited to a determined situation that usually occurs on stage. Therefore, to do a medicament intervention, one must consider the need of using psychotropic or not. This will depend on, to a large extent, the frequency the subject is exposed to this situation and, certainly, its intensity. Another important aspect is that the isolated use of drugs does not contribute for a change in the performer’s attitude towards MPA. In this regard, the combined treatments involving countless psychotherapy alternatives and complementary therapies are highly recommended [25]. In the musical environment, the two most used drug types for the acute MPA treatment are the beta-blockers, mainly represented by the propranolol and benzodiazepines (BDZ) which have as their principal representatives alprazolam, diazepam, and bromazepam. The use of BDZ is controversial. If, on the one hand, it has a relatively fast and well-tolerated beginning action, on the other hand, its long-term use can cause a dependency syndrome, becoming tolerant to the doses, which tends to cause an abusive and uncontrolled use [39]. Besides, the fact that they can cause sleepiness can compromise, in an import way, the musical performance. Therefore, the use of this drug must be very careful so that one uses the minimum possible. In the cases where there is a prolonged and inadvertent use of these anxiolytic classes, employing combined strategies as a gradual discontinuation of the drug, followed by psychotherapeutic accompaniment and regular orientations about the collateral effects and commitment of the cognitive functions, is recommended. The BDZ are usually prescribed in association with antidepressive drugs (these will be approached further on). The best answer taxes are around the sixth week of use [40]. The average daily doses found in the literature are, respectively, clonazepam 2.4 mg/day, bromazepam 21 mg/day, and alprazolam 4.2 mg/day. The beta-blockers are very efficient in the containment of somatic symptoms, mainly the tremors and muscle tension; however, they do not have any action on the cognitive and behavioral symptoms [41]. Considering the most severe cases, there is always the possibility of comorbidity with other anxiety situations. This issue will be approached in the next topic. The majority of the literary review studies about the strategies to handle MPA do not include psychotropic use [23]. However, basing on the recommendation that combined strategies are more efficient and considering that in the most severe cases the use of drugs will be necessary, one can, for example, adopt protocols to treat a social phobia [42] which, besides being a disorder of the common anxiety, is a situation that has the closest conceptual relations to MPA. The psychotropic of the first-line choice are the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and dual serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) due to their efficacy and tolerability profile. The nonselective monoamine oxidase inhibitor, phenelzine, can be stronger than these two drug classes, but, due to its potential to interact with food and drugs, its use should be restricted to patients that do not respond to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or serotonin-noradrenaline reuptake inhibitors [40]. The initial alternatives include duloxetine, buspirone, hydroxyzine, pregabalin, or bupropion, in this order. If the response is unsatisfactory, the second recommendation is to try a different SSRI. If the answer to the second SSRI is unsatisfactory, the recommendation is to try a serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor [43]. Other alternatives for SSRIs and SNRIs for patients resistant or intolerant to the treatment include tricyclic antidepressants, second generation of antipsychotics, and valproic acid. There is less information available about the ideal treatment duration, although it has been observed that individuals who abandoned the treatment with less than 12–20 weeks have shown more relapses compared to the ones who continued making regular use of the medication [40, 41, 42, 43, 44]. The existing data suggest that it is reasonable to keep the treatment for at least 3 to 6 months after the situation has been stabilized, and this period can be even longer depending on the severity and individual characteristics of each subject [44]. In this context, other classes of drugs could be employed; however, there are no systematic reviews whose focus is the social phobia treatment. Nevertheless, the treatment protocols of other anxiety situations, such as generalized anxiety, can be considered. In this regard the following classes can be cited: (1) anticonvulsant drugs such as pregabalin for at least 24 weeks and (2) atypical antipsychotic of controlled release such as quetiapine, which reduce the chance of an anxiety upsurge [42]. Pregabalin, alternatively, can be employed in monotherapy in daily doses between 450 and 600 mg and is recommended as a first-choice agent for the social anxiety disorder [45]. Its beginning action is on the first week, and, in general, it shows less collateral effects than the BDZs. Other still very recent pharmacotherapies can be cited as the use of botulinum toxin (BT) and cannabidiol. Recent studies indicate that the botulinum toxin injection on the glabella reduces the amygdala response with antidepressive effects [46]. If the BT effect in humor is, in part, due to the decrease in negative emotions in general, it is reasonable to suppose that other psychiatric disorders, such as social anxiety disorder, where negative emotions are highlighted, can respond to the BT glabellar injection. Regarding cannabidiol, there is a growing evidence of studies in humans and animals that indicate this compound, the principal non-psychotomimetic phytocannabinoids present in Cannabis sativa, as an option to alleviate the anxiety in paradigms assessing fear. More recently, the effects of cannabidiol on learned fear have been investigated in clinical studies with relevance for clinical application in phobias [47]. In such studies the evidence shows that cannabidiol can be a useful option to treat social anxiety [48]. More recently the anxiolytic effect of melatonin was shown [49]. Melatonin is a hormone secreted by the pineal gland during the night. The melatonin receptors (MT2) seem to relate with mechanisms of decrease in anxiety levels. Besides, there is evidence that melatonin can stimulate the dopaminergic synthesis in the hippocampus, which contributes to suppress the induced stress behavior [50]. 5.4 MPA prevention Preventing MPA means to employ strategies in which the most vulnerable subjects can have access to a context in more favorable environments. Such strategies can be applied to the beginners as well as the professionals. The learning/preparation process should involve well-being, creativity, motivation, and musical ability mobilization [15, 26, 38]. It is necessary to simulate the negative scenarios so that such situations can be trained in an imaginary way as well as a real one. The exposition situation cannot be something new or unexpected for the performer. The oriented and repeated experience in stage situations allows the performer to become familiar with potentially anxiogenic stimuli. As these stimuli are faced without prejudice for the subject integrity, new situations must be created in order to develop handling and competence abilities to deal with them. This process needs to be regular and with a weekly frequency so that the situations can be assimilated and issues, such as attitude and creativity, can become part of a defense arsenal for each individual facing anxiogenic “scenes.” There are many music graduation courses that structure activities of this nature, called performance workshop. From the pharmacological strategies’ point of view, it is important to detect the procedure as early as possible in the most severe cases, which have indication to use psycho-medicines. 5.5 MPA monitoring strategies The early MPA detection is fundamental for a program of strategies for the subject’s monitoring. The differentiated attention towards these individuals must include monitoring with screening tests, individual care, and the structuring of an activity plan that includes the gradual practice of public exposure. The forming of vulnerable individual groups contributes for each one of them to perceive that their distresses are not exclusive or a rarity. The group can act as a facilitator of an encouraging experience. The pedagogical, therapeutic, and medical dimensions must be shared. Each context requires that other dimension be known, even for creating a sharing environment where each one of the knowledge can intervene in determined situations. Thus, the pedagogical dimension needs to be in agreement with the therapeutic strategies, and the medical interventions need to know the context of the musical performance, the specificities and discomfort of each musician, as well as their routines and technical requirements [51]. 6. Comorbidities There are not many studies about comorbidities in MPA. The literature results indicate that the specific phobia, generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder with/without agoraphobia, and major depression disorder (but not dysthymia) are the common comorbidities [3, 52]. Furthermore, one third of the subjects that show severe MPA also show a generalized anxiety disorder. There are studies that point to a prevalence of a 19 and 20% comorbidity of social phobia and depression, respectively [53]. This social phobia prevalence among musicians is about 10 times more prevalent than the general population. On the other hand, more recent studies indicate that the generalized anxiety disorder is the strongest MPA predictor among all major DSM-5 anxiety types [54]. There is a model that proposes three MPA subtypes: MPA1, which is a variety restricted to the focus on the performance itself; MPA2, which establishes connections between (and with) social anxiety/social anxiety disorder; and MPA3 which establishes close relations with other nosologies in the anxiety spectrum such as panic disorder with or without depression [3, 55]. These relations configure a potential MPA worsening as other disorders manifest themselves, in a way that MPA will not necessarily convert itself in another anxiety disorder or establish a comorbidity but there is this potential. These data indicate that MPA is complex and multifactorial. Probably the first symptoms are of an early start. Consequently, there is the importance of spreading the information about MPA, especially in the family level and the school/academic environment, contexts where the future professional musicians are formed. Preventively, in the family environment as well as in the schools, one must build relationships that privilege the well-being, motivation, and reception of psychic distresses. MPA has a worrying prevalence of about 20% among the professional musicians. This number can mean some million subjects! The preventive strategies, the qualitative and quantitative evaluation, and the management of the already installed situations are of upmost importance. Currently there are countless strategies to approach MPA. They go from the traditional psychotherapy strategies (cognitive, behavioral, and cognitive-behavioral therapies) to the pharmacological resources. New approaches signal a new outlook in this area with the therapeutic use of cannabidiol, melatonin, botulinum toxin, neurofeedback, and transcranial stimulation. I thank the Music Post-graduation Program of the São João del Rei Federal University (PPGMUS/UFSJ) for the support in their teaching staff production. The author declares that there are no conflicts of interest. Some of them are validated in more than 20 languages. 2.MPA pathogenesis, susceptibility, and vulnerability 3.MPA in children and adolescents 4.MPA evaluation instruments 5.MPA management, treatments, and approach strategies 6.Comorbidities Sérgio de Figueiredo Rocha (March 6th 2020). Musical Performance Anxiety (MPA) [Online First], IntechOpen, DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.91646. Available from:	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591531
__label__cc	0.715842	0.284158	You are here:HomeLove & SEXMenI like mature women Age difference between partners was and unfortunately still is a controversial subject. “Unfortunately” because the problems of a couple should normally remain only within the couple... and no one else. However, “people’s voice only the earth could stop” and thus, there will always be annoying grumblers who, even they are not affected by anything in their obtuse existence (by the phenomenon in question), they will ask irritated, ironically and amazed, how can a man be with a woman who might be his mother in other circumstances? Well, relationships of this kind exist and they even work very well, sometimes much better than those of same-age partners. And, ironically, even without the consent of these professional “critics”! The causes of young people's attraction for mature women are somewhat more complex, but a first series of briefly described arguments, at the first sight, for an “introductory” answer could be: their desire to leave as soon as possible the uncertain and irrelevant youth period, by a maturity that is not their own but attracts them by refinement, wisdom and personality (a kind of social taxi, with an experienced and sexy driver). The presence of the “adult” woman in a young man's life is truly fascinating. Firstly because she offers him the opportunity to subliminally relive the good feelings of maternal attention and affection (total and unconditional), but this time coming from a person that he does not hesitate to imagine (with the satisfaction of a male “conqueror”) also desired by other men. There are, of course, plenty of young “attractions”, but they sometimes seem to offer no reason for interest. The lack of consistency, the uninspired fashion style or the almost infantile behavior, are also good reasons to avoid them. Same annoying are their arrogance and infatuated self-confidence, supported in reality only by a nice physical appearance, generator of sexual temptation, for which, receiving attention, they implicitly consider that they are worthy of a real existential appreciation, especially in connection with values that they probably have not even heard of. Other times, they are labeled as being too “strident”, too vulgar... because by their desire to make themselves quickly noticed in the society that they barely discover with enthusiasm, they are tempted to bizarrely stand out in almost everything they do. Immaturity, instability and dependence (especially the financial one) that they are really excited to practice as an instrument measuring the attention of men, make the latter ones show interest in the more experienced and more balanced Eve's offspring, who always seem to have miraculous solutions to their problems that apparently (for their age) seemed impossible to solve. “Mature ones” have had several love affairs until that moment and naturally acquired some sexuality “knowledge”. That's what initially attracts the “males”. Knowing relatively well the typologies of men, they know how to approach them, to seduce them, but above all... to satisfy them. Their young partners have so many things to learn from them and there are not “classes” where someone could get bored or which someone does not attend with pleasure. Therefore, like fulfilling the dream of every man, the long-practiced eroticism will definitely say its word, whereby the learner will abandon himself in a sweet languor, exclusively in the hands of his “sex teacher”. Currently, couples no longer conform to the rules and traditions of the past. That's why, slowly... it seems that the age difference begins not to matter so much, and if there is attraction, understanding and affection, nothing can stop people's desire for closeness, because “in love and in war, there are no rules”. Mature women are well aware of their qualities. They have had enough time to identify them, to study them and cultivate them, but most of all to learn how to put them into value, fading the flaws inherent to every human being. And men respect that. The experience gained along the years in the struggle for survival, the way they draw attention through their attitude wherever they make their presence felt and that special charm... are like a life saver exotic island in a sea of unstable false appearances (specific to young women who have just crossed the threshold of adolescence). One of the biggest complaints of men when it comes to women, in general, is that they are difficult, undecided and eternally unhappy... with everything. Fortunately, the problems in question disappear at maturity, and those who have reached this stage of evolution know exactly what they want and are able to say things as they are. Complexes belong to the past and they live their lives fully, without dreaming or silly waiting for the sex to be necessarily preceded by some syrupy love story... as in fairy tales (or soap operas). The best sex is the one with no inhibitions, and the “middle-aged ladies'’ got rid of them a long time ago. By contrast (and to the bitterness of men), young women are insecure, eternally worried about the size of their breasts, body shape and weight, cellulite, stretch marks, hair color, manicure, clothes, places they would like to see or things they would necessarily do, giving the feeling of a candle that “consumes”, burning too fast... selfishly and carelessly, manifested especially towards those who support them. And that is completely unpleasant, because simply nobody likes to be used as a cashier-payer, feeling that he arouses interest only because he manages to satisfy the whims of such a spoiled girl. And the worst is that anyway, sooner or later he will be changed by another one (without any restraint or remorse), either because he desperately gets tired in his efforts to make himself interesting, either because he represents “something” she is bored of. On the other hand, the young man who managed to conquer a middle-aged woman, has the possibility of experiencing a more emancipated satisfaction. The revelation that a woman who has lived several love affairs, may have been married or courted by several “important” men, has chosen him (and seems to feel good in his company), will make him gain an extraordinary confidence in his own personality and ability to win. If we were to analyze this situation from the physiological point of view, the man reaches the peak of his sexual life at the end of adolescence, while women reach this point only at the age of 40, which means that the inexperienced lover fits perfectly well with a “stylish woman”. Mature woman is neither complicated nor simple. But one thing is clear: she has enough qualities that are favorable in relation to a teenager. It seems that she may be likened to wine, because age makes her more valuable. Last but not least, it is extremely comforting that a partner of this type has enough knowledge to offer advice, solutions, ideas, and finally, when dining in an elegant restaurant, to know how to order the best wine and to also have the money to pay for it. So... if you love such a woman, be happy, enjoy your story and do not worry about those who blame you. They are far from understanding or feeling at least some of the joys and eccentric pleasures that you experience! There is life after breakup Reasons for which it is b... Despite the rights gained by women in the last period, the world continues to belong to tough sex. And, if they would like to ... There is life after break... Whether it comes after a long and agonizing dysfunctional relationship, needlessly prolonged, whether it naturally crowns the female partner... Small and sure steps to c... What do you do when you see a woman you feel attracted to? You avoid looking at her or getting close to her? You tell her a phrase that yo... Small and sure steps to conquer her! 10 tricks to conquer a woman on the first date! What excites women in a man? Sexual attraction (sex drive comes from the brain) Some tips that will help you conquer any woman... What a woman is looking for in a man?	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591533
__label__cc	0.736424	0.263576	J. Clayton Rogers The Ari Ciminon Novels STAND-ALONE NOVELS NOW AVAILABLE - ice ladY Summoned out of his safe house by his handlers, Ari Ciminon (The 56th Man) is shown CCTV footage of a group of men arriving at Richmond International Airport. The group is comprised of: lawyer Benjamin Cassin (nicknamed 'the Rabbi' by his admirers); his bodyguard, Henry Jones (an African-American who has converted to Judaism); a small man dressed as a woman, who turns out to be a deadly assassin; and a mysterious Turk whom neither the FBI nor Mossad has been able to identify. Ari immediately supplies the Turk's name. He is an inoffensive salesman working for a contracting company based in Istanbul. But the puzzle is far from solved. An empty carry-on left behind by the new arrivals casts a sinister light on the group, and suspicion deepens when the Turk abruptly disappears. Once his business at the airport is concluded, Ari is ordered back to his safe house. Sensing an opportunity for profit that he cannot ignore, he disobediently sets out to find the missing man—only to discover the body of the fabulously wealthy Miriam Fleckenstein, a widow who resides in a mansion outside of Richmond. He learns of a rumor that Mrs. Fleckenstein intended to leave her wealth to an organization dedicated to peace between Israel and Palestine. This goes against the interests of several dangerous parties. A plot is afoot to discover Mrs. Fleckenstein's will and either bring it to the light of day or suppress it entirely. However, like the Turk, the will has vanished. The mystery culminates in a grand inquisition in a basketball gym, where Ari (with the assistance of maimed former Marine Elmore Lawson, an insurance company investigator) picks his way through a weed field of killers and con-men to expose the truth—and reveal the unique location of the will. Miriam Fleckenstein returns from the dead…and puts everyone in their place. I am the author of more than fifteen novels. I was born and raised in Virginia, where I currently reside. I was First-Place Winner of the Hollins Literary Festival a number of years ago. Among the judges were Thomas (Little Big Man) Berger and R.M.W. Dillard, poet and husband of the writer Annie Dillard. Along with my wife, I have rescued and maintained 22 stray cats, which should tell you something about me (good and bad). Permanently addicted to writing, I have just posted the 9th book in the Ari Ciminon (The 56th Man) Series.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591535
__label__wiki	0.796181	0.796181	KAFOFUND Korean Americans for Organizing Questionnaires & KAFO Fund's principal mission is to help elect more Korean American Democrats to office at all levels. Learn more about the questionnaires that we use to vet candidates and meet the candidates that we have endorsed. Candidate Questionnaires The KAFO Fund team has developed comprehensive questionnaires for Korean American Democratic candidates to explain their position on important policy issues that effect the American public as a whole, and the Korean American community specifically. These answers help the Executive Team and Board make decisions on endorsements. Endorsed candidates are profiled on our website and promoted throughout our network. Endorsed candidates are eligible to receive fundraising support and other assistance. Request a questionnaire at kafofund@gmail.com. U.S. House of Representatives - New Jersey, 3rd District Congressman Andy Kim was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2018 and is running for re-election in 2020. He represents the Third Congressional District of New Jersey, which stretches from the Delaware River to the Atlantic Ocean encompassing most of Burlington County and parts of Ocean County. Congressman Kim grew up in South Jersey, the proud son of Korean immigrants. His father and mother raised Andy and his sister in South Jersey because of the top notch public school system and safe communities. Andy attended public K-12 schools and credits the quality of his education with helping him become a Rhodes Scholar and leading national security expert. Andy is a dedicated public servant, who believes service is a way of life. He worked as a career public servant under both Democrats and Republicans, and served at the Pentagon, State Department, the White House National Security Council, and in Afghanistan as an advisor to Generals Petraeus and Allen. https://andykimforcongress.com/ U.S. House of Representatives - Washington, 10th District Marilyn Strickland is running to represent the Washington State's 10th District. She was born in Seoul, South Korea. Her father, who fought in World War II and Korea, met her mother while he was stationed there after the war. If elected to Congress, she will be the first African-American to represent Washington State at the federal level, and the first Korean-American woman elected to Congress in its 230-year history. Strickland's parents endured discrimination and hardships that she cannot imagine. They wanted me to have opportunities they were denied and taught me to work hard, fight for what’s right, serve the community, and to stand up for the underdog. Those values inspire her today. As Mayor of Tacoma, she helped transform a city and economy crippled by a deep recession into a destination for families, workers, artists, tourists and entrepreneurs. We attracted over $1 billion in investment for housing and businesses, and invested over $500 million in infrastructure for roads, bridges, transportation, and the Port, creating over 40,000 new jobs in the Tacoma region. In Congress, Marilyn Strickland will bring the experience of rebuilding an economy after an economic recession, and continue to be a strong voice for change to ensure that we can help the most vulnerable members of our community and ensure we have an economy that works for all of us. https://stricklandforwashington.com Marilyn Strickland Port Commission - Seattle, WA Sam Cho is running for Port Commissioner in Seattle, Washington. A lifelong Washingtonian and son of South Korean immigrants, he learned the value of labor by helping his family operate their small dry cleaning business. It’s during this time that he learned firsthand the challenges faced by small businesses and working families. (even more so for immigrants). He is an entrepreneur and committed public servant with a proven track record. As the founder of an international export company with experience in both state and federal government, he possess a unique combination of skills and experience to steward economic development at the Port of Seattle for the people of King County. As port commissioner, he intends to emphasize shared prosperity awhile championing critical issues like environmental sustainability and human and labor trafficking. https://www.electsamcho.com/ Sam Cho kafofund@gmail.com Subscribe to Get Our Newsletter © 2019 by KAFOFUND. Proudly created with Wix.com	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591541
__label__cc	0.646487	0.353513	Legislative Drafting and the Interpretation Act Gonsalves-Sabola Chambers Bahamas July 8 2019 Next to the Constitution, the Interpretation Act, sometimes styled the Interpretation and General Clauses Act, is the most important tool in a drafter's toolkit. There is a close connection between drafting legislation and interpreting legislation. The underlying objective in drafting legislation is creating a legislative sentence that is clear, concise and unambiguous. That feeds into the whole objective of facilitating interpretation and ease of understanding. The Literal Rule of Interpretation advocates give the literal meaning to a word used in order to arrive at the intention of the drafter. The Interpretation provision in an act, typically found at section 2, defines words when a special meaning is to be attributed to that word. However, some words are used repeatedly in legislation or are given a particular or official meaning. Such words are often defined in Interpretation Acts, for the purpose of obviating the necessity of defining them in discrete acts. Yet we drafters continually define and redefine commonly used words such as “Minister” when there may really be no need to do so at all, as the word is usually defined in the Interpretation Act. However, on the other hand, there is much to be said for self-contained legislation, where one does not have to be flitting between other acts to fully understand the import of words used in the act. The definition of a word as having a meaning given to it in another act may on the one hand be regarded as a somewhat lazy way of defining the word, which necessitates cross-referencing the other act on any occasion when it is sought to interpret the word. However, there is a useful purpose to be served by using this device, which is that it will automatically import any amendments made to the meaning of the word in the principal act. It has been suggested that legislative drafters and others interpreting legislation should read and re-read the Interpretation Act from time to time in order to keep these definitions and meanings at hand whenever the necessity arises to attribute meaning to a statute. Unfortunately, some lawyers forget its existence. Gonsalves-Sabola Chambers - Kim C. St. Rose Why Your Business Needs Ongoing Legal Advice on Corporate Governance * Considerations When You Dismiss an Employee in The Bahamas * Which Kind of Commercial Contract Do You Need? * Moving to The Bahamas? What You Need to Know * Claim definiteness in the US, Canada and Europe * - USA IT'S THE WAY YOU SAY IT: when Punctuation really Matters * - Canada Recent amendments to the Acts Interpretation Act 1954 (QLD) * - Australia Alex Brainis Director Legal & Compliance Citco (Canada) Inc "The service provided by Lexology has to date been extremely useful and informative. It provides me with a snap shot update of various legal developments and assists me in staying current now and going forward."	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591550
__label__wiki	0.697331	0.697331	Building (Scotland) Act 2003 19Completion certificates: certification of construction (1)On submitting a completion certificate to a verifier under this Act, the person submitting the completion certificate may submit to the verifier a certificate issued by an approved certifier of construction certifying in relation to the building in question that such construction as is specified in the certificate complies with building regulations. (2)In subsection (1), the reference to building regulations is— (a)in relation to a completion certificate submitted under subsection (1) of section 17, to those regulations as they applied for the purposes of the building warrant, (b)in relation to a completion certificate submitted under subsection (4) of that section, to those regulations as they have effect on the date on which the completion certificate is submitted. (3)In determining whether or not to accept the completion certificate, the verifier must accept the certificate of the approved certifier of construction as conclusive of the facts to which it relates. (4)Any approved certifier of construction who— (a)issues a certificate under subsection (1) containing a statement which the certifier knows to be false or misleading in a material particular, or (b)recklessly issues a certificate under subsection (1) which is false or misleading in a material particular, is guilty of an offence. (5)In this section— “certificate”, in relation to construction, means a certificate which the approved certifier of construction is authorised to issue— in the case of such a certifier appointed under section 7(1), by the terms of the certifier’s appointment, in the case of a person who is such a certifier by virtue of membership of a scheme approved under section 7(2), by the scheme as approved, “construction” includes any building or work in relation to a building and includes services, equipment and fittings provided in or in connection with a building.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591554
__label__cc	0.715414	0.284586	LANSING BOBCATS SPORTS BOOSTERS Parent Representatives Team Fundraising & Monetary Accounts Each year, the Lansing Bobcats Sports Boosters shall present four awards in the amount of $500 each to graduating Lansing High School students. The intent is to give two awards to female student athletes and two awards to male student athletes. However, there may be variation in this distribution based on the qualifications of applicants. These awards are given in recognition of leadership, sportsmanship, and contributions to a positive interscholastic athletic culture at Lansing High School. The selection committee weighs not only leadership and good sportsmanship while at Lansing but also the potential of these awards to support the recipient as s/he pursues her/his future goals, recognizing that the lessons of interscholastic sports can be carried into the armed services, workplace, education, family life, and more. Applicant and/or his/her family must be a current Boosters member whose membership began no later than January 1 of the year preceding the year of graduation. (For example: if an applicant is graduating in the class of 2020, membership must be current and have begun no later than January 1, 2019.) Applicant must have an overall GPA of 75 or higher. Applicant must have participated in at least one full season of athletics during each year of high school. This will be verified by the athletics department. Should the applicant have transferred to LCSD during high school, verification of participation in athletics at the previous school(s) will be required. Applicant must not have violated the LCSD code of conduct at any time during his/her enrollment and/or participation in LCSD athletics. The board of the Lansing Bobcats Sports Boosters shall submit all applicant names to the athletics department and then the guidance office to confirm eligibility for the awards. The names of all eligible applicants shall be given to the Athletic Director who will give feedback to the LBSB board. The AD may choose to contact coaches to seek additional information and perspective. After a discussion, the board shall vote to determine award recipients. Any board member whose child is applying shall recuse him/herself from voting.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591555
__label__cc	0.715531	0.284469	EY Aided the Laundering of Drug Money, But Who’s Really to Blame? A recent investigation by the BBC and Premières Lignes has uncovered that one of Britain’s biggest accountancy firms aided the laundering of drug money. The report claims that EY failed to report evidence of a criminal gang using black market gold to launder money. It claims that the gang collected cash from drug dealers across Europe then laundered it by buying and selling black market gold. Here Bambos Tsiattalou, Founding Partner of Stokoe Partnership Solicitors, discusses the case, offering some insight on the exposé, its implications and money laundering challenges in the legal sector as a whole. An explosive BBC Panorama exposé suggests that EY aided the laundering of drug money through its Dubai office. A former EY auditor turned whistleblower said his bosses would not inform the authorities of extraordinarily suspicious activity. This was despite a litany of suspect activity involving Kaloti gold refinery in Dubai. As Kaloti’s auditor, EY noted the company had paid out some £4bn in cash in 2012 alone, but failed to raise concerns. AML and UK Lawyers: Time to Root Out the Bad Apples? Here’s the EU’s Plan to Tackle Money Laundering A lawyer and head of compliance at Deutche Bank in Dubai, Anna Waterhouse, also raised concerns about Kaloti’s extraordinary levels of cash withdrawals, noting that the company had literally used wheelbarrows to withdraw cash. Such reports raise serious questions about what can happen when major banks and professional service firms become embedded in jurisdictions where corruption is more common. Yet, while we might not often see people taking wheelbarrows full of cash out of UK banks, we should not be complacent about money laundering in the UK, or Europe more widely. For example, ABN Amro NV is currently subject to a Dutch criminal probe into its alleged money laundering failures. The bank is far from alone in having questions raised as regards its compliance with anti-money laundering and terror financing rules. In recent years, similar questions have been raised as regards Danske, Nordea, ING and several other European banks. However, it may be that the legal sector’s money laundering failings are also significant. Last March, the UK’s National Crime Agency director Donald Toon told MPs that 83% of suspicious activity reports came from banks, noting pointedly that, “usually lawyers and accountants” are involved but ’it’s unusual for us to get a report from them.” For lawyers, the question of whether to make a suspicious activity report can be affected by considerations of legal privilege. However, a major SRA review of 400 law firms has now found that 21% of firms failed to comply with the money laundering rules. The SRA also criticised law firms for using template forms that did not properly address their own specific risks. For lawyers, the question of whether to make a suspicious activity report can be affected by considerations of legal privilege. Both law and auditing firms need to adopt a more risk-based approach to money laundering. This is a systemic issue and, as such, requires a systemic response. Nowadays, money can easily move across borders, particularly within the EU’s single market. Therefore, any effective regulatory response must be both systemic and transnational. The European Commission recognised this last July, with a report urging better implementation of the EU’s existing anti-money laundering and terror financing regime. The Commission specifically suggested turning the EU anti-money laundering directive into a regulation, which would then be directly effective across the EU. As it stands, member states have significant latitude in terms of how they implement the directive. Making it a regulation would mean exactly the same regime applies throughout the EU, and auditing firms will then be more able to address potential money laundering activities universally. In addition to new laws, there is a need for greater knowledge relating to money laundering in both the financial services and professional services sectors. Above all, banks and their advisors must be willing to act rapidly and robustly once suspicious activity is detected. There is a need for greater knowledge relating to money laundering in both the financial services and professional services sectors. The allegations about EY should serve as a wake-up call to the legal profession. The regulatory trend towards an increased focus on money laundering is clear. We have now seen a number of major banks and other entities suffer significant damage both to their share prices and reputations as allegations of money laundering failures emerged. As lawyers, we have a duty to help our clients both better understand, and fully meet, the regulatory standards required of them in terms of money laundering and terror financing. By Bambos Tsiattalou Last updated Nov 5, 2019 0 SolicitorBirketts \| Ipswich Associate / Senior AssociateBirketts \| Norwich	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591556
__label__wiki	0.864158	0.864158	R. Lyons, Life Designs Distributor: R. Lyons, Life Designs Awards Gallery - LifeWave, Inc. Welcome to the LifeWave Award Gallery, which features the recognition we have been honored to receive over the years. Click on the images below for a full view photo of each award. In 2015, LifeWave was honoured with the DSA Ethos Award for Product Innovation. This award was given in recognition of LifeWave’s sustained commitment to product innovation. ETHOS awards are given annually to companies that exemplify the bold innovation that continues to drive our industry. Given the formidable competition in 2015, which included some of the most prominent companies in the field of network marketing, it was truly an honour to receive this coveted award. The United States Patent Office has issued an official patent for the Theta One and Theta Activate nutrition technology entitled “Nutritional Product Composition for Increasing Human Growth Hormone and Nitric Oxide Production.” This issuance of our patent for Theta technology guarantees the exclusivity of this “feel it within minutes” breakthrough in the nutrition industry. Theta One and Theta Activate are LifeWave’s approach to rapidly elevating nutrients in the body to dramatically improve quality of life. United States Patent for LifeWave Technology Issued after 12-Year Review The United States Patent Office (USPTO) has now officially issued the foundational LifeWave Technology patent entitled “Biomolecular Wearable Apparatus.” After a thorough review of our scientific and research data, the USPTO determined that the LifeWave Technology is valid and novel, and on that basis issued this patent. Second LifeWave Technology Patent Issued by United States Patent Office The United States Patent Office has officially issued a second patent that provides further coverage of the LifeWave Technology. This marks an important benchmark in advancing the efficacy and validity of LifeWave, and is an extraordinary accomplishment for all of those who make up our growing community. LifeWave Founder/CEO David Schmidt received a very special award from the Military Order of the Purple Heart! David was presented with a statue of a Naval Corpsman attending to the wounded, which symbolizes help given to the suffering during crucial moments of need. This was the first presentation of the award in the history of the MOPH, and David is extraordinarily honored to be chosen as the inaugural recipient of this very special honor! LifeWave Honored By Veteran's Organization LifeWave was honored by the Military Order of the Purple Heart (MOPH) for work the company has done to help alleviate pain and suffering for Veterans. The MOPH is a wonderful organization composed of around 45,000 military men and women who received the Purple Heart Medal for wounds suffered in combat. The MOPH is devoted to fostering an environment of goodwill and camaraderie among combat wounded veterans, promoting patriotism, supporting necessary legislative initiatives, and most importantly, providing service to all Veterans and their families. LifeWave is proud to be recognized by such a profoundly important organization. LifeWave Receives Award From California Miramar University California Miramar University recently honored LifeWave, Inc., with its "Small Business Spotlight Award." CalMU chose LifeWave because of the company's global presence in over 100 countries, the fact that LifeWave products are helping people across the world improve their quality of life, and that "LifeWave has truly cornered a segment of the health market because THEY have created it." CalMU was also impressed with LifeWave's business model, history and accolades. LifeWave is proud to be recognized by such a well-established university and right in LifeWave's hometown of San Diego, California. LifeWave Featured in Inc. 5000 List of Fastest-Growing Private Companies, 2011 Rank #721/5000 In August 2011 Inc. Magazine announced that LifeWave once again earned a spot on the Inc. 5000 ranking of fastest growing private companies in the United States. This is the third consecutive year that LifeWave has made this prestigious and well-recognized list. This time however, LifeWave reached into the top 1,000 coming in at an amazing number 721. LifeWave first made the Inc. 5000 list in 2009 earning a ranking of 4825 and was featured again in 2010 moving up to an incredible 1435. The 2011 achievement of earning spot number 721 is a true landmark in the company's history. The "Moving America Forward" Award In January 2011, LifeWave had the honor of being selected for a feature on Moving America Forward, a nationally-aired news television program in the United States hosted by an international celebrity and icon, William Shatner. Moving America Forward highlights entrepreneurs and organizations whose products and services contribute to the progress of the nation. During the segment, LifeWave was recognized with the "Moving America Forward" Award. Rank #1435/5000 Inc. Magazine's annual ranking of fastest growing companies is a well-recognized and comprehensive listing of rapidly developing private companies in the United States. For two years in a row, in 2009 and 2010, LifeWave had the distinction of being named to this prestigious list. Not only that, but in 2010, we jumped a whopping 3,390 spots from the previous year to number 1,435. LifeWave Five-Year Anniversary Award From November 10-14, 2009, LifeWave celebrated its five-year anniversary in style – with an unforgettable Caribbean cruise. On the last day of that journey, LifeWave staff members, with the enthusiastic support of the entire field, presented David Schmidt with this striking commemorative crystal sculpture. Inc. Magazine's annual ranking of fastest growing companies is a well-recognized and comprehensive listing of rapidly developing private companies in the United States. For two years in a row, in 2009 and 2010, LifeWave had the distinction of being named to this prestigious list. In 2009, we were ranked number 4,825. International Observatory of Discomfort Award (Osservatorio Internazionale Sul Disagio) The International Observatory of Discomfort is a society whose mission is to recognize people and organizations who aid in the relief of international suffering. Members of the organization had observed IceWave being used in Italy with remarkable effectiveness. As a result, Professor Angelo Marra, Secretary General of the society, presented David Schmidt with this award in 2009, at the Carrousel du Louvre in Paris, France, for the development of IceWave. Medal of Recognition from Rome In April 2009, the worst earthquake Italy has seen in three decades struck the historic central Italian city of L'Aquila. The disaster killed hundreds, left tens of thousands homeless and injured more than 1,500 people. LifeWave responded by donating patches to help emergency response workers, volunteers and victims cope with the aftermath of this catastrophe. In recognition of LifeWave's efforts, an emissary from the office of the Mayor of Rome presented David Schmidt with this gold coin in front of a crowd of more than 800 who were gathered for LifeWave's open meeting at the Ergife Palace Hotel in Rome on October 25, 2009. Cambridge Who's Who Award The "Cambridge Who's Who" Registry is a detailed compilation of biographies of executives, professionals and entrepreneurs across a wide variety of industries. Inclusion in the registry is limited to individuals who have demonstrated leadership and achievement in their industry and occupation. David Schmidt was selected for inclusion in the registry's 2008-2009 edition and was recognized as a Lifetime Member. Honorary Degree, Doctor of Science and Technology In 1999, the Award Committee for the International Hall of Fame, sponsored by the Inventors Club of America, selected David Schmidt to receive an Honorary Degree, Doctor of Science and Technology, for his work in the biomedical field as well as his contribution to the research of metal alloys. The International Hall of Fame was an organization that was established to honor and recognize exceptional work by inventors. Advanced Technology Award, 1999 In 1999, David Schmidt was presented with the Advanced Technology Award for the second year in a row. The International Hall of Fame (sponsored by the Inventors Clubs of America) recognized David for his work in developing a metal alloy that served as a catalyst for producing hydrogen and oxygen gas from water – something that had never been done before! In 1998, David Schmidt was presented with this Advanced Technology Award from the International Hall of Fame (sponsored by the Inventors Clubs of America) for his work in developing a catalyst for accumulating minerals from sea water to form a new type of cement. The novel invention was aptly dubbed "SEA-MENT."	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591557
__label__wiki	0.940844	0.940844	LIGHTNING SPEED SKATING CLUB Proudly, Port Coquitlam is our home Qiang Han Surrey skater speeds his way to four golds, a silver at BC Winter Games Speed skater Barnett Liu was lightning-quick on the track in Fort St. John, where the Surrey-area teen won four gold medals and added a silver during the 2020 BC Winter Games. His medal haul was among the most of any of the 1,000-plus athletes who participated in 15 sports at the 2020 Games, which ran from Feb. 20-23. Barnett, 14, and his family live in the Fraser Heights neighbourhood, where his five medals were proudly displayed on their kitchen table this week. After giving a few other sports a go, including hockey and figure skating, Barnett tried speed skating for the first time four years ago, and caught on quick. He now trains with the Lighting club in Port Coquitlam. “I just really enjoy going fast on the ice,” Barnett said. “I don’t know, there’s just something special about gliding on the ice at extremely fast speeds that I really like doing.” • RELATED STORY: Many medals for Surrey-area athletes at 2020 BC Winter Games. In Fort St. John, Barnett won gold medals in three short-track races – the 400M, 1500M and 2000M point race – and also as a member of the Fraser River zone 3000M relay team. For the relay, a last-minute change found Barnett paired with two other skaters. “We got the news it was going to be gendered and only a three-man team against two other four-man teams, and I felt less confident during that, and my expectations went down,” Barnett explained. “I wasn’t sure we’d get to be on the podium, but then those last couple of laps, we started to catch up and it was like, I don’t know how – I put the pedal down and somehow went to the front.” Back home, Barnett’s older sister Lena was watching on a computer. “That race, he really pulled through,” she said. “He kept passing the other skaters, and the people were really cheering for him. It was amazing to watch.” For the singles races that earned him gold medals, Barnett said he was well prepared. “For those distances I was pretty confident because I’ve been putting in a lot of hard work before the Games to prepare for it, and I was feeling really strong during those days,” he said. • RELATED VIDEO/STORY: 2020 BC Winter Games wrap up in Fort St. John as torch passes to Maple Ridge. Barnett’s silver medal came in 500M Olympic Style Boys Long Track – an entirely new event for him, as he has focused on short-track skating. “He only had an hour practice at the BC Winter Games on the second day to learn before going off to compete,” Lena explained. “As a short-track skater, he didn’t have long-track equipment and so borrowed blades from the Vancouver club but right before his warm-up for his 500M race, he found out that his blades didn’t match with his short-track boots and could not be used. So last minute they found some replacement blades that weren’t ideal. However, he was still able to land second place, only 0.3 seconds behind the first place (skater). “He was up against several very experienced long trackers in his race,” she added. “It was completely unexpected that he placed in his very first long-track race, even with technical difficulties and all that.” Barbara Beck, speed skating coach with the nine-member Fraser River zone team, said Barnett is a phenomenal athlete. “He just really blossomed and has become a strong athlete, a strong team leader, and an all-around good kid – as all of our skaters are, of course,” Beck said. “The relay was incredibly exciting, because it was because of him that the team won the gold, he was amazing,” she added. “Our plan was for him to finish off, and he just took off and passed the lead skater near the end.” After four days of competition, from skating to skiing to karate, the 2020 BC Winter Games wrapped up the action on Sunday. The Games concluded with a Indigenous drumming and the closing ceremonies, where the games’ torch was extinguished, to be relit this summer in Maple Ridge. The BC Games flag was passed to Mike Keenan, president of the Maple Ridge 2020 BC Summer Games, to take place July 23-26. Meantime, Surrey’s Grace Kemp, a ringette coach with the Fraser River Zone 4B team, was among 16 youth leaders recognized with a Coast Capital Savings Leadership Bursary during the Winter Games’ closing ceremony on Sunday. “The bursary recipients were chosen from close to 100 applicants for their significant achievements in sport and education and most importantly for their leadership contributions to their schools, community, or sport associations,” according to a Games news release. “The recipients are from communities across the province and their leadership involvement includes service with student councils, community events, food banks, fundraising, coaching, and officiating, to name a few.” Learn More about Our Programs Five Unexpected Benefits of Volunteering as a Family Caroline Dong won 4 gold medals at BC Winter Games info@lightningspeedskating.com ©2020 by Lightning Speed Skate Club. Proudly created with Wix.com	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591559
__label__wiki	0.761794	0.761794	Sister Chan Khong on Thich Nhat Hanh: He’s Getting Stronger Every Day by Melvin McLeod\| November 8, 2017 Thich Nhat Hanh’s closest collaborator, Sister Chan Khong, brings us up to date on his health and the future of his teachings and community. Sister Chan Khong. Photo by Paul Davis. Melvin McLeod: Following his stroke three years ago, Thich Nhat Hanh is now resting and recovering at Plum Village in Thailand. How is he doing? He cannot stand up on his feet yet, but he is stronger and stronger every day. He has started to say a few words, although not very clearly. Sometimes we sing songs like, “I have arrived, I am home in the here and now,” and he’ll say “here,” “now,” and so on. He is making good progress, but it is slow. I had the honor to visit Thay when he was being treated in San Francisco. He was in a wheelchair and didn’t speak, but it was clear he was as sharp, present, and engaged as ever. You were with him in San Francisco then, and you told me how close he had come to death. Thich Nhat Hanh already had serious health problems for many years—with his lungs and his digestive system—before he had the stroke. When he had the stroke, the neurologists said he would not live more than one day. I think it was a miracle that he survived. Yes. You told me that you believe the prayers and good wishes of people around the world—students and non-students, Buddhists and people of other faiths—made the difference. When he was still alive after three days, they moved him to the best neurological hospital in that part of France. Then the press mistakenly reported that Thich Nhat Hanh had died. Andrea Miller from Lion’s Roar called me and asked if it was true. I said, “No, my master is still alive.” She said, “Can we announce that he is still alive?” and I said, “Of course, please.” After that, millions of people sent the energy of healing and love from their hearts to him. Then the neurologist discovered that the fluid in Thay’s brain had reduced quite a lot. He said, “I cannot understand why that happened, but now I can guarantee you he will live.” His teachings have benefited millions of people around the world, and over the decades, hundreds of thousands have attended his teachings in person. I was fortunate to attend one of his five-day retreats and his dharma teachings were among the most powerful and comprehensive I have heard. Now that he is no longer teaching personally, will his teachings continue to reach people? At the beginning after Thay’s stroke, we thought it would be difficult to continue. Every year, we have a gathering at Plum Village in France for four days to practice and hear dharma talks. When Thay was giving the talks, about twelve to thirteen hundred people would come for them. Now, the same number of people come to hear the talks at Plum Village, maybe even more. There’s no doubt that Thay’s impact is growing. So the benefit of Thich Nhat Hanh’s teachings will continue in Europe, in the United States, in Asia, and elsewhere. I don’t think there will be any problem with the continuation of Thay’s teachings. Many people come because they have read his books. They try their best to transform and so they come for a day or a week of mindfulness. There’s no doubt that Thay’s impact is growing. Thich Nhat Hanh never named a successor, even you as his most senior disciple. What is the future of his lineage and community? Even before the stroke, I think Thay prepared everything in advance. He didn’t want to have one heir to replace him. He said the sangha’s collective insight is very important. So his continuation is the sangha of dharma teachers, the sangha of monks and nuns, and the sangha of lay practitioners. That is the key for us. Sometimes, as a big sister, I might think I have the power and the right view. But it’s not true. We need the collective insight of many dharma teachers. That is one of the dharma seals of Thich Nhat Hanh. He gave his heritage to the whole sangha of monastics and lay practitioners. About Melvin McLeod Melvin McLeod is the Editor-in-Chief of Lion's Roar magazine and Buddhadharma. Topics: Lion's Roar - Nov '17, Plum Village Tradition / Order of Interbeing, Sister Chan Khong, Teachers & Communities, Thich Nhat Hanh The Doors of Liberation Thich Nhat Hanh on Walking Meditation The Best of Thich Nhat Hanh: Life, Teachings, Quotes, and Books	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591560
__label__wiki	0.7853	0.7853	Home Play Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall: A Story of Revolution Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall: A Story of Revolution Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall is a colonial villa found in the Balestier neighbourhood. In the past, this quiet enclave was favoured by rich merchants for its privacy. Its discrete location also made it an ideal base for Dr Sun Yat Sen and his organisation, the Tong Ming Hui, in 1911 as they made plans to topple the 267-year rule of the Qing Dynasty in China. A Villa with Many Names Today, a bronze statue of Dr Sun Yat Sen sits at the front of the villa. Sun, who lived from 1866 to 1925, stayed at the villa on four of his nine visits to Singapore. He would work and sleep in a rear room on the second floor. The land the villa is built on was originally granted to Loh Jun Teck in 1856 and acquired by Boey Chuan Poh, a local newspaperman. Boey built the Victorian-style villa, and it was known as Bin Chan House. In 1905, it ended up in the ownership of rubber merchant Teo Eng Hock who bought it as a retirement home for his ageing mother, Tan Poh Neo. Teo renamed the house Wan Qing Yuan (Serene Sunset Garden) after a line from a Tang Dynasty poem to convey his wishes for his mother to enjoy her golden years. The villa is still known as Wan Qing Yuan today. A Base for Revolutionary Thinking After Teo met Dr Sun in 1905, he offered the use of the villa to the Tong Ming Hui or Chinese Revolutionary Alliance, an underground resistance movement against the Qing Dynasty. A bronze statue of Dr Sun Yat Sen at Wan Qing Yuan Dr Sun aimed to overthrow the Qing Dynasty and establish a new republic in China. He had a price on his head in China (literally), and his struggle took him around the world to rally support for his cause. Singapore and Malaya were key support bases because of the many overseas Chinese living and working here. Teo, his childhood neighbour Tan Chor Lam and nephew Lim Nee Soon were activists who supported the Dr Sun’s cause for a new China. Wan Qing Yuan eventually became the Southeast Asian headquarters of the Tong Ming Hui. Galleries into the Past Today, the Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall is a heritage building dedicated to Dr Sun’s revolutionary activities in Southeast Asia. Dr Sun’s life work culminated in the 1911 Revolution in China and the elimination of the Qing Dynasty. These events not only ended Manchurian rule in China but the country’s long imperial history. The permanent exhibition at Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall is broken into four galleries. In the Beginning – Singapore Prominent Trio Gallery Teo Eng Hock’s business card In the Beginning – Singapore Prominent Trio introduces the three personalities of Teo Eng Hock, Tan Chor Lam and Lim Nee Soon at the personal level. Learn more about Sun Yat Sen at the Tong Meng Hui in Singapore and Nanyang gallery Tong Meng Hui in Singapore and Nanyang provides greater insight into the life of Dr Sun Yat Sen and charts out the activities that took place in Singapore rally the local Chinese community’s support for the revolution in China. Shoes for bound feet – one of the practices dispensed with after the fall of the Qing Dynasty Overthrowing the Monarchy, Establishing a Republic looks into the events and failed uprisings leading to the fall of the Qing Dynasty in China. Echoing the Establishment of the Republic of China from a faraway Nanyang gallery The last permanent gallery, Echoing the Establishment of the Republic of China from a faraway Nanyang, examines the impact of the new China on the Chinese communities in Southeast Asia. Appreciating the Past The Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall will appeal to those keen to learn more about the establishment of modern China and the role the overseas Chinese played in supporting the revolution. Text panels accompanying the exhibits are informative but require some patience to read through and digest. Families with kids may wish to note that the subject matter may come across as heavy-going. It may be helpful for parents to guide children through the exhibits and provide them with some context to the age Sun Yat Sen lived in, for example, peasant rebellions to imperial rule and the spread of western influence as China was forced to open up. The Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall also offers complimentary guided tours in both English and Mandarin. It is open from Tuesday to Sunday and closed on Monday. Wall mural at Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall recounts Singapore’s journey Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall Address: 12 Tai Gin Road, Singapore 327874 Parent Review: Soul Disney/Pixar Movie – Should I Bring My Kids... Chun Fong - 11 January 2021 Star Wars Identities: The Exhibition Is Coming To ArtScience Museum	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591561
__label__cc	0.61516	0.38484	Woman claims police stomped on her stomach during traffic stop, causing a miscarriage By Sarah Terzo \| June 4, 2020 , 10:14am A Black California woman is suing the San Leandro Police Department for the loss of her preborn baby after a police officer allegedly stomped on her stomach during a routine traffic stop. Emerald Black was reportedly on her way home from the hospital in June 2019, where she had just been told she was at risk for miscarriage. Her fiancé was driving when police pulled the car over for having “bad registration tags.” The police ordered both of them out of the car, but Black said she asked police officers if she could stay seated. Visibly pregnant, according to the Daily Mail, she explained that she was at risk for miscarriage. According to the lawsuit, the police allegedly “yanked Ms. Black from the car, taunted her, piled on top of her and stomped on her stomach leaving a [shoe] mark.” She subsequently suffered a miscarriage. READ: Two pro-life women arrested outside New York City Planned Parenthood Black’s lawyer, Patrick Buelna stated: … it’s important to note that Ms. Black had committed absolutely no crimes, nor was she even suspected of any. She was simply a passenger in the car being pulled over for a minor vehicle infraction. Black was never a suspect and was never charged with any crime. She is now suing the Leandro Police Department for the loss of her baby, her medical bills, lost wages due to medical treatment, and emotional distress. The lawsuit includes unnamed San Leandro officers and the city itself. According to City Manager Eric Engelbart, the city is denying the allegations.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591562
__label__wiki	0.760117	0.760117	Witness the Team's Reception to Sarge in New 'Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.' A new episode airs tonight, Friday, June 28 at 8p/7c on ABC! Anthony Michael Hall guests! Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. \| Season 6, Ep. 7 ‘That’s Not Coulson’ Promo That's not Coulson, and don't you forget it! Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. returns with a brand new episode tonight and the team has Sarge, and Snowflake, in their custody. With Daisy, Piper, and Davis back on Earth, the entire team meets Sarge, who exactly isn't eliciting the confidence and unity of their late director despite sharing his identical DNA. The team tries to understand the immediate threat heading to Earth, and it appears that Sarge is the only lead they have to unlocking the mystery. While May believes they're all fighting on the same side, the rest of the team are slow to warm on the intergalactic stranger. Sarge's bedside manner isn't necessarily endearing. The Shrikes, which resulted in the loss of the late Agent Keller, are live entities that infest their hosts and result in the destruction of worlds. While Sarge and his crew have been hunting Shrikes for hundreds of years, they still haven't been able to prevent the mass destruction they leave in their wake. The key is to find the Shrike's creator. However, Mack is not about to let Sarge burn Earth into the ground to stop the Skrikes and their creator. Meanwhile, FitzSimmons managed to escape their mind prison and personal demons Atarah and the Chronicom hunters thanks to Enoch in last week's episode. Where they escape to is the last place they wanted to return to — Kitson Casino. Get ready to meet the Kitson Casino on the Planet of Kitson name, Mr. Kitson, the fiendish ruler of an alien empire, played by Anthony Michael Hall! Sarge's confident he'll be the one in charge by the end of the day. Tune in tonight to see how correct, or close, he is, and what lies ahead for the newly reunited FitzSimmons! Watch "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." Season 6 on Fridays at 8\|7c on ABC! Stream new episodes the next day on Hulu, On Demand or ABC.com. For more information on “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” visit ABC.com, follow @AgentsofSHIELD on Twitter, and like “Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.”on Facebook for all the latest news and updates. In this article: Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. \| Season 6, S.H.I.E.L.D. Iron Man's Most Unlikely Team-Ups Ahead of Iron Man’s latest series on Marvel Unlimited, revisit the Armored Avenger’s most surprising partners! S.H.I.E.L.D., A.I.M., S.W.O.R.D., and More: A Tour of Marvel Acronyms What does W.A.N.D. stand for? What about S.T.A.K.E.? Or G.R.A.M.P.A.!? Last Chance to Bid On Items from ‘Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ Prop Store Auction Take a peek at items from all seven seasons of the ABC show! Bidding is Now Open for Prop Store’s 'Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.' Television Live Auction Bid bid on over 500 props and costumes from Marvel's longest running live action television series!	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591569
__label__wiki	0.888442	0.888442	The 2019 Made in Scotland Programme has now launched, showcasing World Class Theatre, Dance & Music from Scotland. Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary for Culture, Tourism and External Affairs, today announced the companies, ensembles and artists selected for the 11th year of Made in Scotland – the curated showcase of music, theatre and dance performed during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Through funding from the Scottish Government’s Expo Fund, Made in Scotland is a partnership between the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, Creative Scotland, the Federation of Scottish Theatre and the Scottish Music Centre. A total of £550,000 has been received from the Expo Fund which has enabled Made in Scotland to present 22 artists, companies and ensembles this year including six world premieres. Approximately £100,000 of this funding goes towards onward touring to enable artists and organisations to take up future opportunities with contacts made with industry professionals during the Festival Fringe. Made in Scotland goes from strength to strength each year, winning many plaudits and accolades along the way for the quality of the work being presented on stage. The showcase is widely recognised as one that not only celebrates the wealth of work being made in Scotland but enables Scottish-based artists and companies to act as ambassadors to worldwide audiences. 2019 sees the inaugural Made in Scotland Festival in Brussels, which will see six dance, theatre and music performances being performed in Belgium in June. Since its inception in 2009, Made in Scotland has supported over 150 companies, ensembles and artists to to deliver over 200 shows at the Fringe. The onward touring fund has enabled 91 productions to tour across six continents, visiting 42 countries. Playwrights’ Studio Scotland returns with TalkFest 2019 to provoke discussion around what stimulates the artists behind this year’s Made in Scotland showcase and the wider Edinburgh Festivals and Fringe. These workshops and discussions are led and chaired by some of our leading playwrights and theatre-makers and this year includes Mara Menzies, Oliver Emanuel, David Greig, Douglas Maxwell, Jenny Lindsay, Nicola McCartney and Dritan Kastrati. Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary for Culture, Tourism and External Affairs said: “The Scottish Government Expo Fund is targeting and promoting home grown talent from Scotland to showcase at the Edinburgh Fringe, helping them develop their careers with support to secure onward international touring opportunities.” She added: “This is the 11th year of the Made in Scotland showcase with 22 shows supported in this year’s programme, backed by £550,000 from the Scottish Government’s annual Expo Fund. The breadth and depth of home grown talent participating in the programme represents a roll call of gifted Scottish-based performers. It provides artists with an international platform that will enhance Scotland’s reputation as the UK’s most cultural nation, a finding highlighted in a recent British Council survey.” Shona McCarthy, Chief Executive, Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society said: “The 2019 Made in Scotland Showcase once again highlights the brilliant and compelling work that artists and companies are creating here in Scotland today. This year sees 22 productions, including six world premieres, with a diverse range of stories and themes explored across theatre, dance and music. The Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society is proud to work alongside our partners at Creative Scotland, Federation of Scottish Theatre and the Scottish Music Centre to present this work in a global arena.The Edinburgh Fringe is the world’s biggest annual exhibition of contemporary performing arts and an exceptional international platform for Scottish work to be seen, appreciated and selected for touring by arts industry from around the world. The Scottish Government’s Expo fund makes Made in Scotland and its Onward Touring Fund possible and provides crucial support for Scottish artists to avail of this unique platform. It is an exciting development to see the inaugural Made in Scotland Festival kick off in Brussels this June.” Laura Mackenzie-Stuart, Head of Theatre, Creative Scotland said: “This year’s showcase embraces creative inspiration from the very local to global continuing Made in Scotland’s important role as a calling card for international theatre, dance and music peers, programmers and audiences. The range of themes and partnerships reveal an appetite amongst Scotland’s artists to lead on and contribute to contemporary story-telling in distinctive and varied performative forms regardless of creed or borders. Thanks to the Scottish Government’s Expo Fund, their work is ideally placed to grasp the astounding opportunity which the Edinburgh Festival Fringe offers every August.” Jude Henderson, Director, Federation of Scottish Theatre said: “This vital investment by the Scottish Government supports the selected artists and producers to engage effectively with key figures at one of the top international industry events. It also helps to create and support international touring opportunities for our members, enabling our industry to develop new partnerships and expand into new markets. FST is delighted to continue working with our partners on this important project.” Gill Maxwell, Executive Director, Scottish Music Centre said: “Working in partnership with the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, Creative Scotland and the Federation of Scottish Theatre, the Scottish Music Centre is delighted that this year’s 11th edition of Made in Scotland will present nine world-class music shows. Highlighting the quality and diversity of Scotland’s composers, songwriters, musicians and artists, this impressive programme presents new Scottish music from across all genres: from electric and acoustic multi-artist showcases to solo instrumentalists, contemporary classical and jazz ensembles to new twists on folk music and ingenious specially crafted music-making for children, this year’s wide-ranging line-up offers something for every music lover.” For more info on Made in Scotland, please download the full press release. Click to download a full copy of the press release, including notes for editors. @MadeinScotShows RT @jesusthequeen : When I lived as a man, I said “Love your neighbour “. And no, @10DowningStreet , I did not say ‘Condemn your neighbour a… RT @jesusthequeen : This @edfringe . We can't perform. But we can still bless. Join Queen Jesus this August, every Sunday and Wednesday at 1… RT @thenightwith : One year ago today we launched our 2019 season as part of @MadeinScotShows in @StillsEdinburgh and @ScotStoryCentre You c… It's sad news but the best possible solution at this time. We'll be back in 2021! https://t.co/MDNa75Ot3M	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591570
__label__cc	0.693267	0.306733	Gamescom details shed some light on Death Stranding’s story August 29, 2019 \| News \| 1 Comment A couple of interviews with Hideo Kojima held at Gamescom, as well as the briefing scene shown at the event, shed some light on the story and overall structure of Death Stranding. Warning: the following information may be considered a spoiler. Kojima stressed that you need to play the game to understand it, but he would try to provide a bit of clarity. The game takes place in a post-apocalyptic US of the future, which has been devastated by a cataclysmic event caused by ‘Void Outs’, and is now haunted by BTs, monsters from the ‘other side’ that Sam can’t see until he is given a Bridge Baby. This BB is a baby born to a ‘Stillmother’, a braindead mother who is on life-support. Sam must travel from east to west in order to reconnect the US and re-establish civilization. His end goal is to reach Edge Knot City, which has been taken over by terrorist separatists (The Homo Demens), who are holding future president Amelie (Lindsay Wagner) prisoner. They want to keep the city independent. Meanwhile Sam must reconnect the communication relays (called Cryon terminals) using the necklace as some sort of key (called a Q-PIP) which he received from Die-Hardman. The briefing takes place inside what looks like the Oval Office, with Amelie talking to Sam as a projection (seeing she is not actually there but on the West Coast as a prisoner of the Homo Demens). While not allowed to leave Edge Knot City, Amelie is free to use the facilities and communicate with Sam. Sam initially refuses to undertake this task, but obviously he eventually sets off on this mission. There is also a multiplayer aspect that plays into the connection theme of the game, and that apparently will be revealed at Tokyo Game Show next month. “With Death Stranding I wanted to create something that only I could create.” – Hideo Kojima Source: Hollywood Reporter, IGN, GamesRadar	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591575
__label__wiki	0.922945	0.922945	Rising Star Kallie Rock Debuts New Single “Girls Just Wanna Have Fund$” Filmed in Miami. A young upcoming star, Kallie Rock is making headway in today's artistic scene with her grand talent and determination to thrive in the competitive music industry. Kallie, born in Daytona Beach, is riding the wave in the entertainment world as her evident potential has brought her to a one-to-one interview with the Miami News Today cast team. Kallie stands out for her individuality as an African-American pop rock exponent among innumerable new artists. She recently chose the sunny, palm-tree-filled city of Miami as the setting for the video accompanying her new single “Girls Just Wanna Have Fund$.” Kallie, 24, deems Miami a “passionate” city, which she has visited since a young age. She grew up as a multifaceted, well-rounded person putting effort into academics, singing, songwriting, and basketball. Her serious commitment to basketball manifested in her decision of not staying home for her birthdays ages 11 through 18 to travel for competitions. She was also involved in music since her childhood, working with American rapper Krayzie Bone at merely 10 years old. However, it wasn’t until she was a mature adult that she decided to fully pursue music. "Being involved back then you think you're writing yourself a record deal, but there's so much more to music..." she said in a recent interview with Miami News Today. "I didn't even know who I was. You need an image." Kallie has lately recorded catchy pop singles like “With You” and “Picture Me,” available on platforms such as iTunes and Spotify. The young, promising artist envisions herself releasing a couple of albums in the near future, and she plans to concentrate in Orlando and travel back and forth to Miami. She wishes to be an inspiration to young people to work on their true passions in spite of societal standards. “The music I make is a lot different,” Kallie said. “It's not something I'm doing to fit in.” Her studious nature and achievements in basketball are a prime exuberant demonstration of a compilation of efforts, and what you can accomplish if you're focused. She made a decision early on to focus on the music and with these same vigorous and relentless efforts in years time you can also attain your own goals. "Miami is a passionate city" she says. "I concur, Miami is a passionate city, multi-ethnically passionate with a unique history. MiamiNewsToday is also a part of the passion of Miami's long lasting history relapsing differently. Miami is an alpha city, developing and progressing with unity, encompassing diverse cultures and peoples from all over the world and has plenty of opportunity for everyone." - MiamiNewsToday "What people want to see is innovation and new talent." - interviewer Passionately, together MiamiNewsToday and Kallie artistically form our part of a beautiful dream of innovation and "raw" creative talent with this interview/article/biography." Innovative and being a creative leader and into hip-hop and country, Kallie strikes us as different, but we accept different, because those who are different are the ones that actually have a positive Impact and manage to change the world. Who's Behind The Site Follow "MiamiNewsToday" www.miaminewstoday.org Like what you read? Donate now and help me provide fresh news and analysis for my readers	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591576
__label__wiki	0.824034	0.824034	MichCapCon Profile: The 12th State Senate District Primary By Ken Braun \| July 15, 2010 Ed. Note: This is part of a series of articles profiling a limited number of political races where the archives of Michigan Capitol Confidential store significant information that may be of interest to free-market inclined voters. In each of these profiles, the article will cover only the candidates who have compiled a vote history or other record that has been covered by this news service since it began as a print publication in fall 2007. This is not to slight the candidates whose public record has not yet appeared in MichCapCon. In some cases, voters may determine that these are the best possible candidates in a given race. All voters are strongly encouraged to give every candidate a serious look. The purpose of this series is to tell the interesting stories that are known about those issues that have been examined by this page over the last several years. MichCapCon has always targeted free-market issues, not individual political personalities. As such, these profiles should be viewed as only a small part of the overall policy picture. This is not a comprehensive voter guide, not a comprehensive picture of any candidate and certainly not an endorsement of any candidate. For a larger list of votes written up by MichCapCon, please see: www.MichCapCon.com/12541, and use the search feature on the home page. Additionally, every roll call vote for every bill considered by the Michigan Legislature since 2001 is available at www.MichiganVotes.org. Michigan's 12th state senate district is situated in the northwest quarter of Oakland County. It has traditionally had a very strong GOP base vote. Currently represented by Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, R-Rochester, it will be an open seat because Bishop must leave due to term limits. Two candidates running in the GOP primary have compiled public policy records that have appeared in MichCapCon. They are: current state Rep. Jim Marleau of Lake Orion and former state Rep. John Garfield of Rochester. Also in the race on the GOP side are manufacturing business owner Kim Russell of Rochester; Bishop senate staff aid Copper Rizzo of Rochester; food distribution businessman Gene Taliercio of Rochester Hills; and Lois Golden, who is a small-business owner and a former member of the Rochester Hills city council. The Democrat primary ballot will have two candidates: Casandra Ulbrich and dermatologist Ted Golden, both of Rochester Hills. Ulbrich is a current member of the Michigan Board of Education and is also the director of corporate and foundation relations for Wayne State University. While MichCapCon articles covering the votes and actions of Garfield and Marleau as members of the Michigan House generally reveal lawmakers who frequently voted with the GOP caucus, there have been some noteworthy instances where this was not the case. Also, a MichCapCon article earlier this year profiled the legal troubles of several lawmakers, and one of these two was noted in that article. Both men voted against the $1.4 billion in state tax hikes that were approved at the end of 2007 (www.MichCapCon.com/9134). When it came time to spend these tax hikes, Marleau approved spending increases of more than $274 million above the previous year allocation, and Garfield approved more than $126 million above the previous year (www.MichCapCon.com/9270). For comparison: A half-dozen GOP lawmakers kept their spending increases well under $100 million for that year, despite the projected large influx of new revenue following the tax increase. In 2008, a bill before the House proposed to borrow $60 million and spend it on tourism promotion (www.MichCapCon.com/9686). Marleau and the vast majority of lawmakers in both parties supported deficit spending for tourism promotion. But Garfield was one of 11 House Republicans to vote "no." Also that year, the Democrat majority in the Michigan House proposed a budget for K-12 public schools that deliberately appropriated $32.2 million more than was available to be spent (www.MichCapCon.com/9913). "This overage says to me that we have made the commitment to find the money to fund schools in our coffers throughout the year," noted one Democrat lawmaker, conceding that those voting for the measure knew that they didn't yet have any idea how they were going to pay for it. "Are we nuts?" asked Birmingham Republican Chuck Moss, who voted against the deliberate deficit. "How in heavens do we propose to pay for all this stuff?" Five Republicans voted with the Democrats to support this K-12 budget that was $32.2 million out of balance. Marleau was one of the five. Garfield voted with the majority of Republicans who opposed the measure. A budget passed in 2008 proposed to create and fund a worker retraining program that has since produced dubious results (www.MichCapCon.com/10139). The funding for it was accomplished by way of a $27.5 million spending increase in the budget for the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Growth. Dubbed "No Worker Left Behind" by Gov. Jennifer Granholm, it was later profiled in The New York Times as part of a story about a U.S. Department of Labor study that showed these programs to be ineffective at their primary goal of getting unemployed workers into new careers (www.MichCapCon.com/10864). A majority of Republicans in the Michigan House voted against creating NWLB. Among them was then-state Rep. Jack Brandenburg, R-Harrison Township, who noted at the time that "this program should be left behind." Garfield joined Brandenburg among the 34 House Republicans who voted against funding NWLB. Marleau was one of just 16 House GOP legislators to vote for it. An opportunity to support making Michigan a right-to-work state came up by way of a vote on an amendment during 2008 (www.MichCapCon.com/10312). Garfield was one of the 35 Republicans to vote in support of right-to-work. The Democrat caucus voted unanimously against the measure, and were joined by 14 Republicans, including Marleau. Distribution of beer and wine in Michigan is subject to a government-mandated wholesaler monopoly that gives special market power and advantages to a small number of private businesses and according to many studies, harms consumers by driving up prices (www.MichCapCon.com/10494). The trade association that advocates for the wholesalers disburses a significant amount of donations to politicians and can usually count on the vast majority of lawmakers voting to protect the artificial market power of the wholesalers. A vote in 2008 prevented consumers from having more choices outside the government monopoly. Garfield was one of just six lawmakers in the entire Legislature to vote against the bill and for more consumer choice. Marleau voted for the bill and thus against expanded consumer choice. Alcohol was the unfortunate subject of a Feb. 20, 2010, MichCapCon article about the drinking and driving incidents of state lawmakers (www.MichCapCon.com/12159). To that date, at least 8 of the 110 legislators working in the Michigan House at the beginning of 2005 had been stopped by the police for drinking and driving — a rate that is double the state average for the citizens that they represented. Garfield was responsible for two of the eight incidents, one in 2005 and another in 2007. For a complete list of profiles, please see the July 2010 heading for the Michigan Capitol Confidential Vote History page: www.MichCapCon.com/12541. Fewer Workers At This Michigan City Collected More During Pandemic	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591577
__label__wiki	0.929322	0.929322	Share this Story: Canadiens will face some new challenges in shortened NHL season Canadiens will face some new challenges in shortened NHL season There will be less time for practice and a tougher travel schedule while flying across the country in new all-Canadian North Division. Stu Cowan • Montreal Gazette Canadiens head coach Claude Julien speaks with his players during training-camp practice at the Bell Sports Complex in Brossard. Photo by Allen McInnis /Montreal Gazette Canadiens coach Claude Julien has some experience with shortened NHL seasons. The 2012-13 season didn’t start until Jan. 19 and was only 48 games because of a lockout imposed by the owners after the expiration of the collective bargaining agreement. Canadiens will face some new challenges in shortened NHL season Back to video Julien was coaching the Boston Bruins at the time and they finished the regular season in second place in the Northeast Division with a 28-14-6 record, one point behind the Canadiens, who were 29-14-5 with coach Michel Therrien. The Canadiens lost to the Ottawa Senators in the first round of the playoffs, while the Bruins went all the way to the Stanley Cup final before losing to the Chicago Blackhawks in six games. Before that season started, Julien spoke with Doc Rivers, who was coaching the NBA’s Boston Celtics at the time. The previous NBA season, 2011-12, had been reduced to 66 games because of a lockout and the Celtics finished first in the Atlantic Division with a 39-27 record before losing in seven games to the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference final. The Heat would go on to win the championship with LeBron James. Rivers told Julien there were many days when he decided to cancel practice and instead do film work with the players, giving their bodies a chance to recuperate from the gruelling schedule. Julien took the advice from Rivers and said it worked well with the Bruins. Julien is planning to use the same formula this season with the Canadiens, as they begin a shortened 56-game season because of COVID-19 Wednesday night in Toronto against the Maple Leafs (7 p.m., SN, TVA Sports, TSN 690 Radio). The Canadiens will play their first six games on the road — including two against the Oilers in Edmonton and three against the Canucks in Vancouver — before their home opener at the Bell Centre on Thursday, Jan. 28, against the Calgary Flames. “There’s no doubt any time you go on the road — especially early in the season — it’s really good for team chemistry,” Julien said. “I know with COVID-19 protocols there’s things that are a little tougher. First of all, guys can’t go to another guy’s room and spend time there. There’s going to be a big lounge, I guess, in hotels for our guys to spend time there or have their meals. But definitely it certainly helps hockey-wise to start on the road that way with an opportunity to build some chemistry, especially with the number of new players we have this year.” There won’t be any fans in the stands — at least not to start the season — so home-ice advantage won’t be what it normally is. Last season, the Canadiens actually had a better record on the road (17-14-3) than they had at the Bell Centre (14-17-6). “To me, it might create more of an even playing field, to be honest with you,” Julien said about having no fans in the rinks. “That’s probably what we felt, or witnessed, when we were in the (postseason) bubble in Toronto. Not that we played the Leafs, but more about the fact that there was no fans and there was no real excitement or cheering and all that stuff. So it really created an even playing field. But, at the same time, you hope that familiarity with your own building will give you that advantage. There’s no doubt the fans, once they get back in the building, will make a big, big difference. But for now, you hope that being familiar with your building and all the little things will give you a slight advantage.” A look at the Canadiens’ roster changes for 2021 Canadiens TV schedule in 2021: 56 games on TSN2 and Sportsnet What won’t be an advantage for the Canadiens is their travel schedule this season as they fly back-and-forth across the country and into different time zones in the new all-Canadian North Division. The good part is that they will be playing two or three consecutive games against the same team on trips to Western Canada. “We’re in a division that travels the most of all the divisions in this league this year,” Julien said. “We’re going from one end of the country to the other, where in the States it’s mostly kind of like in their own area. You look at the (East Division) there with the New York teams and they can probably just bus to each other’s places in that division. So we’re going to have to also adapt and be ready to face that kind of travel. Normally in the regular season we probably go out west once a year. So this year it’s going to be a little different.” scowan@postmedia.com twitter.com/StuCowan1 News Near Espanola	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591578
__label__wiki	0.997513	0.997513	33 Bodies Found Scattered Across Baghdad Topic: 33 Bodies Found Scattered Across Baghdad Media: The Associated Press Byline: By ELENA BECATOROS BAGHDAD, Iraq_Police found the tortured, blindfolded bodies of 33 men scattered across the capital and the U.S.-led coalition reported combat deaths of seven servicemen, a day after Iraqi leaders said the capture of a top terror suspect would reduce violence. Iraqi soldiers also clashed Monday with gunmen near the holy city of Karbala during an operation to secure the area ahead of a religious festival on Saturday, leaving 14 gunmen and one soldier dead, the prime minister's office said. Kidnappers also dragged off a popular soccer star in Baghdad, while a security crackdown in the city expanded into the upscale Mansour An al-Qaida-affiliated group dismissed the Iraqi government's claim that the organization's second most important leader had been arrested, suggesting the man was not a senior figure and denying the terror group had suffered a significant blow. On Sunday, Iraq's national security adviser announced the arrest of Hamed Jumaa Farid al-Saeedi, also known as Abu Humam or Abu Rana, and said that had left al-Qaida in Iraq suffering a "serious leadership crisis." But the Mujahedeen Shura Council, an umbrella organization of Sunni Arab extremist groups that includes al-Qaida in Iraq, issued a statement Monday saying its "leadership was in the best condition." The statement did not directly deny the arrest, or say what position al-Saeedi held, although it suggested he was not the No. 2 leader. The security adviser, Mouwafak al-Rubaie, described al-Saeedi as the second most important al-Qaida in Iraq figure behind Abu Ayyub al-Masri, who is believed to have taken over the group after Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed by a U.S. airstrike in June. Al-Saeedi was involved in the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra, al-Rubaie said. The attack inflamed tensions between Shiite and Sunni Muslims and set off reprisal killings that have killed hundreds of Iraqis, like those found in Baghdad on Monday. Police said they the 33 bullet-riddled bodies all showed signs of torture and had their hands and feet bound. The men had been dumped around several neighborhoods, police said. Two other bodies were found dumped on a highway in Kut, 100 miles southeast of Baghdad. Both had been shot in the head and chest, said Maamoun Ajil al-Robaiei at Kut hospital's morgue. The Mujahedeen Shura Council's statement also said insurgents have been inflicting heavy losses on U.S. troops in western Anbar province and in Baghdad. The U.S.-led coalition said seven of its personnel had been killed the past two days _ five Americans and two Britons. On Sunday, two U.S. Marines were killed in Anbar and two Army soldiers died from roadside bombs in Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, and near Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of the capital. Another soldier was killed Monday by a roadside bomb. A sixth American died of non-combat injuries, the military said. In the south, a roadside bomb killed two British soldiers and seriously wounded a third north of the southern city of Basra, a British military spokesman, Maj. Charlie Burbridge, said. British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett arrived in the capital Monday on an unannounced visit _ her first to Iraq since taking up the post in May. "We do not underestimate the challenges ahead," Beckett said in a statement. "But we must not forget the progress made in the last twelve months in bringing the first democratically elected national unity government to the country, with a constitution voted for by the people." South of the capital, Iraqi soldiers clashed with gunmen near the holy city of Karbala during an operation to secure the city ahead of a Shiite religious festival, the prime minister's office said. Tens of thousands of Shiite pilgrims are expected in Karbala, 50 miles south of the capital on Saturday to observe Shaaban, a mid-month religious celebration. Fourteen gunmen were killed and another 22 were arrested, while one Iraqi soldier was also killed and another was wounded, the statement said. On Saturday, police said 13 Pakistani and Indian Shiite pilgrims and their Iraqi driver had been ambushed and killed on their way to Karbala. Assailants abducted Ghanim Ghudayer, a soccer star and member of Iraq's Olympic team. Considered one of the best players on Baghdad's Air Force Club, the 22-year-old was taken Sunday evening by unknown assailants, some of whom were wearing military uniforms, police said. The U.S.-led coalition said the Iraqi army had begun searching the capital's Mansour district as part of a crackdown aimed at tackling violence in Baghdad neighborhood by neighborhood. U.S. soldiers would "observe and advise" during the operation, the military said. The coalition also said five suspected insurgents and a child were killed and a second child was wounded during a raid in Muqdadiyah, about 60 miles north of Baghdad. The raid targeted "an individual with ties to movement of terrorist finances and foreign fighters into Iraq," the military said in a statement. The Iraqi Defense Ministry said that over the previous 24 hours, its troops had killed 15 people suspected of involvement of insurgent activities. Iraqi police said clashes between gunmen and Iraqi forces in Musayyib, 40 miles south of Baghdad, resulted in the death of an Iraqi soldier and the arrest of about 100 gunmen. Disagreements continued over the handover of Iraq's armed forces command from the U.S.-led coalition to the Iraqi government, and the Defense Ministry said a ceremony to mark the transition had been postponed indefinitely. The two sides still need "to complete some legal and protocol procedures that will lead to a complete understanding between the Iraqi government and the multinational troops," the ministry said. Handing over control from the coalition to Iraqi authorities is a key part of any eventual drawdown of U.S. troops in the country. 33 bodies found scattered across Baghdad (AP) Police recover 33 bullet-riddled bodies in Baghdad 14 bodies found in Baghdad Bodies of 12 Iraqi men found dumped in Baghdad (Reuters) 12 Bodies Found at Baghdad Garbage Dump (AP)	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591579
__label__wiki	0.712559	0.712559	As of the census1 of 2010, there were 53,515 people and 24,271 households. The population density was 1,814.1 people per square mile (704/km²). There were 24,271 housing units at an average density of 822.7/sq mi (319.0/km²). Racial Makeup The racial makeup of the township was 98.70% White, 1.5% African American, 0.1% Native American, 1.8% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 0.50% from other races, and 1.3% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.8% of the population. In 2008-2010 there were 22,000 households in Millcreek Township, Erie County, Pennsylvania. The average household size was 2.4 people. Families made up 63% of the households in Millcreek Township, Erie County, Pennsylvania. This figure includes both married-couple families (49%) and other families (13%). Of other families, 6% are female householder families with no husband present and own children under 18 years. Nonfamily households made up 38% of all households in Millcreek Township, Erie County, Pennsylvania. Most of the nonfamily households were people living alone, but some were composed of people living in households in which no one was related to the householder. In Millcreek Township, Erie County, Pennsylvania, 29% of all households have one or more people under the age of 18; 28% of all households have one or more people 65 years and over. Persons 15 and Older Among persons 15 and older, 54% of males and 50% of females are currently married. Population 15 Years and Over Now married, except separated Native Residents Ninety-six percent of the people living in Millcreek Township, Erie County, Pennsylvania in 2008 to 2010 were native residents of the United States. Seventy-eight % of these residents were living in the state in which they were born. Foreign Born Residents Four percent of the people living in Millcreek Township, Erie County, Pennsylvania in 2008 to 2010 were foreign born. Of the foreign born population, 61% were naturalized U.S. citizens, and 63% entered the country before the year 2000. Additionally, 37% of the foreign born entered the country in 2000 or later. Foreign born residents of Millcreek Township, Erie County, Pennsylvania come from different parts of the world. In 2008-2010, Millcreek township, Erie County, Pennsylvania had a total population of 53,000 - 27,000 (51%) females and 26,000 (49%) males. The median age was 42.8 years. Twenty-two % of the population was under 18 years and 17% was 65 years and older. The median income of households in Millcreek Township, Erie County, Pennsylvania was $54,300. Eleven percent of households had income below $15,000 a year and 7% had income over $150,000 or more. Seventy-nine percent of the households received earnings and 20% received retirement income other than Social Security. Thirty-two percent of the households received Social Security. The average income from Social Security was $17,359. These income sources are not mutually exclusive; that is, some households received income from more than one source. "American FactFinder". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved 2008-01-31 and 2012-03-19. About Millcreek Township Fire & EMS Protection	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591580
__label__wiki	0.547591	0.547591	UAVs – Mining’s Eye in The Sky 23 July 2009 (Last Updated June 1st, 2018 14:44) With mining companies beginning to use unmanned aerial vehicles to search for new mineral deposits, Daniel Garrun examines how such aircraft offer miners an opportunity to broaden their scope. It seems inevitable that in the future unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), which have already risen to prominence in the military sector, will become standard tools in the commercial sphere. Research in UAV technology has been increasing since the late 1980s. Initially, the applications for this technology have been military-centric, the reason being that military UAVs, for the most part, operate outside of civilian airspace and do not have to comply with civil airspace standards and rules. The benefits of removing the need for human pilots in air combat missions have also resulted in government fast-tracking UAV use. This has seen progress made in the technology, efficiency, range, size and payload of UAVs, although these developments have largely been outside of the commercial sector. This, however, is changing and the vast benefits of the technology have attracted the attention of industries such as the mining sector which has already begun to reap the rewards. A gem of an idea The primary use of aircraft within the mining industry is for exploration; to map out tracts of distant terrain and to explore for potential mineral deposits. The nature of such missions makes the use of UAVs a natural fit, but that is not the only area of mining operations in which unmanned aircraft excel. “The primary use of aircraft within the mining industry is for exploration; to map out tracts of distant terrain and to explore for potential mineral deposits.” Missions flown by manned fixed-wing aircraft are inherently dangerous because of the necessity of conducting such flights at low altitudes and low airspeeds. UAVs only require control from a pilot stationed safely on the ground. Pilotless aircraft also offer an advantage as flight time is not limited by the maximum time a pilot is allowed to fly. Missions can also be conducted at night. UAVs are also cost-effective. Without the maintenance and staffing costs of helicopters and light aircraft, UAVs are cheaper to run and require less to launch, mobilise, set up, relocate and refuel. Another handy trait of UAVs is there relatively low environmental footprint, a high priority for the mining industry at present. UAVs require fewer materials to build, use less fuel to fly, emit less pollution and are easier to dispose of at the end of service. For a UAV to be useful in mining exploration it must be able to travel at low altitude over long distances and carry a suitable payload of scientific equipment capable of storing and transmitting information. The aircraft most suitable for this task belongs to the medium altitude, long endurance or MALE category of UAV. Such aircraft come in a phenomenal range of configurations and are capable of flying at an altitude of up to 30,000ft (9,000m) over a range of 200km. To carry out geological surveys, UAVs are most often equipped with onboard magnetometers, instruments that measure magnetic field variations in the ground caused by minerals such as iron. In Australia, a UAV known as the Tandem Wing RPV has been used successfully to carry out airborne geo-survey missions over long tracts of open dessert using magnetometers. Another UAV used for geophysical surveys is the GeoRanger built by Insitu and used by Fugro, a geotechnical survey and geoscience company to interpret data related to the earth’s surface. The GeoRanger is a long-endurance unmanned aircraft, which carries a commercial magnetometer and can fly pre-programmed routes in excess of 15 hours. Data from the magnetometer sensor can be stored on board or sent to a ground control station. Geometers are not the only technology useful in mining exploration. The INTEGRATOR, also being built by Insitu, carries inertial stabilised electro-optical, longwave infrared, and mid-wave infrared cameras with optional infrared marker and laser rangefinder to develop high-quality imagery used in terrain mapping and geomagnetic surveys. UAVs can be also used by for high-resolution topographic mapping using light detection and ranging, which uses optical remote sensing technology to measure properties of scattered light to find range and/or other information to produce extremely accurate terrain models. Not cleared for take-off By far the biggest barrier to routine commercial flight missions by unmanned craft is a lack of regulatory guidance and standards necessary to allow UAVs to operate within civil airspace. The relatively low cost and simplicity of UAV design have resulted in a flood of vastly different models into the air space. Not every aircraft is built to a rigorous level of safety and often operators are untrained fliers, a serious issue when you consider these aircraft share the same airspace as manned and passenger aircraft. The position of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the US is one of safety first. According to the FAA the design of many UAVs makes them difficult to see and in the absence of adequate detection, sense and avoidance technologies safety implications are a major issue. “Widespread adoption of UAVs in the mining industry has been slow, not because of a lack of technology but because of a lack of recognised standards and protocols.” The FAA therefore requires UAV operators to obtain a certificate of authorisation based on principles that include using a defined airspace in coordination with air traffic control facilities and often only under strict rules such as flying the aircraft in daylight and maintaining visual contact at all times. To address the increasing demand for civil and commercial UAV certification and development, the FAA is working on guidance to increase the level of access into the national airspace, a process it has described as ‘long-term’ and a ‘work in progress’. In 2001, the Europe Community launched UAVNET, a network to advance the development of UAVs for civilian and commercial purposes. To support the activity, which the EU sees as a prime economic enabler, the EU has set out certification and regulatory support, cost reduction and safety and reliability enhancement as the major areas to be supported. Preliminary proposals on certification and regulations for civil UAV operations were laid out in a report produced by the Joint Aviation Authority/Eurocontrol Task Force in which the UAV safety issues for civil operations participated. The European Aviation Safety Agency has also been heavily involved in the certification process of civil UAVs into controlled airspace. The mandate that all UAVs will eventually have to include complex voice communications, transponders and sense and avoid systems has, however, ensured that progress has been slow. To a new horizon Widespread adoption of UAVs in the mining industry has been slow, not because of a lack of technology but because of a lack of recognised standards and protocols, an issue not only within mining airspace but across all UAV-receptive industries. On a positive note, mining exploration often takes place outside of restrictive airspace, which may encourage the use of UAVs on far-flung missions. Comprehensive use of unmanned aircraft will, however, have to wait until a safety consensus can be practically applied. Nonetheless, although certificated UAVs are rare, research (and testing) is booming at an exponential rate. The opportunity to use drones to fly safely over vast terrains is simply too good to pass up and already it seems a foregone conclusion that with enough technological and bureaucratic digging, the mining industry may soon unearth a real gem of an aerial solution. Russell Mineral Equipment Specialist Mining Equipment Design and Manufacture SiMINE Simulated Training and Digital Technologies for the Mining Sector Shotcrete Technologies Shot Tech Robotic Arms, Supplies and Expertise	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591581
__label__cc	0.705919	0.294081	Health Data Security and the Unfortunate Choices Hospitals Must Make By Andrew D. Boyd, M.D. Health technology developers need to prioritize security from the moment a device or platform is first incepted. Protecting patients from harm is not only part of the Hippocratic Oath, but one of the major goals and principals of modern medicine. However, this is becoming nearly impossible to achieve within today’s chaotic healthcare system, largely due to the design, implementation, operation and regulations behind electronic health records. Across the United States, the public often talks about electronic health records, or EHRs, as if they are one large database that contains all of the information necessary to manage a hospital. The reality is that hospitals can have up to several hundred databases and software systems in place to keep departments and facilities running. For example, X-rays and CT scans are normally located in a separate system from other pertinent records, simply because their file sizes are so large to store. Learn more about device security at MTI’s upcoming conference, Medical Device Cybersecurity: Legacy Device Remediation, Compensating Controls & End of Life \| September 26–27, 2019 \| Cambridge, MA or attend virtuallyThis begs the question of why don’t hospitals invest in multiple IT systems to keep that information both secure and easily-accessible? In healthcare, practitioners and staff have to access certain information quickly and easily, and having to navigate through several IT systems could slow things down. In a single shift, an ER doctor could click through an individual system 4,000 times. For that ER doctor, having to utilize an EHR system built with multiple forms of authentication and technical solutions is not reasonable, and it may reduce the amount of time they can spend treating patients and could result in worse outcomes. The recent innovation of the integrated IV pump serves as another example of healthcare’s dilemma with time and technology. This IV pump can scan barcodes to learn about a patient’s medical history, medications they are taking and the nurse treating them, all while ensuring the patient is receiving the correct medication and treatment. The settings of the IV pump can be automatically preset, decreasing the likelihood that a nurse or staff person may change it to the wrong setting or provide improper medication. \But, because the IV pump is connected within the hospital’s human resource directory, the pharmacy resource system, and electronic health records, the potential is introduced for hackers to penetrate a hospital’s information system and compromise patient data. New features could be implemented into the IV pump to help maintain security, such as staff having to undergo a more extensive sign-in process. The amount of time spent preparing and using the IV pump would increase, and, in turn, make clinics less willing to adopt this potentially lifesaving technology. The thought of hackers targeting IV pumps may seem a bit far-fetched, but that’s before one considers just how frequently healthcare organizations and their data are attacked. According to the data collected at Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, 55% of all reported data breaches in 2018 occurred in healthcare-related organizations. Within those 372 reported breaches, 44% were deliberate hacker penetrations, 39% of the breaches were unintended disclosures, and 17% were physical loss (including paper). The fact that loss of paper can be a significant potential breach indicates just how hard it is to secure data, especially when paper records have been the standard at clinics and hospitals for decades. When data breaches do occur, they are not always easy fixes. One of the largest data breaches that directly impacted hospitals took place at the Erie County Medical Center. In this incident, the facility’s EHRs were taken down for six weeks. For the foreseeable future, all healthcare systems could be the subject of a potential attack. Health technology developers need to prioritize security from the moment a device or platform is first incepted. The belief that a hospital network will be perfectly secure, and that its larger, non-security systems do not need their own protection, is no longer existent. Additionally, hospitals and clinics need to train and engage their staff about necessary policies and procedures to follow to ensure the security of health data. This is not something that can take place in a single webinar with a revisiting of the topic some years later, but requires a periodic and consistent emphasis of the necessary methods to maintain security. To stop more attacks and breaches from taking place, hospitals need to prioritize standard operation procedures to monitor updates for patches or potential security threats. Take the data breach at Equifax for example, where the credit monitoring service did not follow through with a critical patch to its software, allowing hackers to infiltrate the system. Monitoring security notices and patching software is not necessarily a “fun” activity, but as health systems become more dependent, it is necessary to decrease potential threats. Plus, hackers and their tools are only going to evolve in sophistication, so even the most state-of-the-art systems will require both active monitoring and awareness. No hospital or healthcare organization will ever be 100% safe from the threat of data breaches, but there still needs to be a strong financial and personal investment to ensure that patient data is as safe and secure as possible. Focus on Digital Health, Future for Health Lab to Join MEDICA 2017 U.S. companies will be able to showcase their technological advancements. Health Canada: CMDR Compliance Required for Single-Use Reprocessed Devices Canadian medical device market regulator Health Canada will begin requiring all reprocessed single-use medical devices to comply with Canadian Medical Device Regulations (CMDR) by September 1, 2015. Reducing Risk and Providing Security in Your Global Supply Chain Manufacturers should collaborate with a third-party logistics provider that has expertise in local in-country regulatory requirements and transportation security. Embrace the Healthcare Data Transformation Best practices to achieve compliance as regulations evolve and customer requirements change. data electronic health records Focus Article hackers hospitals IT patient privacy patient safety security Andrew D. Boyd, M.D. Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical and Health Information Sciences Andrew D. Boyd, M.D. is an assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical and Health Information Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago. For his contribution to the field of health informatics, he was awarded 2015 UIC Researcher of the Year in Clinical Sciences, Rising Star. He has more than 30 publications (with over 1500 citations). He has been a PI, Co-PI, Co-I on numerous grants from the NIH, DOD, and private foundations.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591584
__label__wiki	0.886808	0.886808	‘We’ve met our responsibilities’: Worcester city manager confident revised Polar Park price tag is final overall increase Updated Mar 03, 2020; Posted Feb 19, 2020 Construction at Polar Park continues at the future home of the Worcester Red Sox. By Michael Bonner \| mbonner@masslive.com Less than a year of construction on Polar Park brought walls around the future site of home plate and the visitors’ dugout took shape. Last month, the city also announced a $9.4 million cost increase. City Manager Ed Augustus is confident, though, it will be the last - at least for Worcester - as more than 70 percent of the projects associated with Polar Park will have an exact cost by the end of the month. “I think a lot of the big pieces are in place,” Augustus said. “There’s still some big stuff to go but I’m hopeful as we go forward. The team is responsible for any cost overruns going forward.” When building a ballpark, Augustus said, every aspect needs to be sent out for bid, including steel, plumbing, electric, concrete and waterproofing to name a few. Polar Park entered February with about 55 percent of those projects having been awarded to a company. By the end of the month, that number should jump to about 75 percent of those projects being awarded to businesses. “Because the bids are going to be awarded, we’ll know what the cost of those components are going to be," Augustus said. "I think over the next couple of months we should pretty much be clear about the cost, other than some unforeseen circumstance.” In January, the city announced construction costs increased by $9.4 million while other costs associated with the redevelopment of the area have increased more than $20 million. When the city announced its agreement with the Worcester Red Sox, it estimated the cost of the ballpark would be $90 million. However, estimates provided by the team to the city covered constructing a ballpark in Rhode Island, rather than the site in Worcester, which offered unique obstacles such as leveling a mountainous terrain. “We didn’t see [the increase] coming when we first announced the deal,” Augustus said. “We announced what we thought the ballpark was going to cost. We probably should have been more clear that that was just a snapshot in time.” Since the agreement construction costs rose 5 percent. “Construction is booming in the country,” Augustus said. “I see it with other construction that we’re doing. So it’s hard sometimes because the cost escalation, people have a lot of work, they’re not as hungry as they are in leaner times in terms of being aggressive with their bids.” The city’s responsibilities include site acquisition, demolition, the relocation of existing businesses and site operation. As the majority of projects begin to take shape, the responsibility of the city lessens while the team’s grows. An unpredictable aspect of construction has allowed the city to save money. The relatively dry winter in terms of snow has kept the plows and other city workers away from the site. Augustus acknowledged this winter isn’t fully complete and construction will continue through another. “We haven’t had the costs if there were snow and ice all over that site and you’re still trying to do the same work. We have a budget for that. We’re spending less than we’d normally spend,” Augusts paused to knock on the table. “Because we haven’t had as harsh a winter. So there’s all these gives and takes.” With the increase announced last month, the revised cost for Polar Park is now $99.4 million. The number includes an additional $9.4 million for increased ballpark costs that the Worcester Red Sox will cover. To make up for those costs, the team and the city agreed to increase the facility fee assessed to tickets for home games to $1 and $1.25 for other ballpark events. The parking fees at city-owned facilities will also increase from $5 to $8 for basic parking and from $10 to $12 for premium locations. The revised plan was approved by the City Council’s Economic Development Committee and will head back to the full council on Feb. 25. Augustus is hopeful the vote will close the book on adjustments and is even more confident any potential adjustment in the future won’t affect the city’s cost. “We’re done. We’ve met our responsibilities,” Augustus said. “...We feel like this additional funding has taken care of our obligations. We’re making our contribution to the ballpark, but anything beyond that, that would be the team’s responsibility.” Inside Worcester Red Sox President Charles Steinberg’s blue notebook: 406 ideas for Polar Park Worcester’s Table Talk Pies moving out of Kelley Square, building new bakery in Main South ‘I want it to be an institution:’ Worcester Public Market emerging through sawdust, construction as Feb. 6 opening date approaches	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591585
__label__wiki	0.631847	0.631847	Analysing Irrigation Farmers’ Preferences for Local Governance Using a Discrete Choice Experiment in India and Pakistan Rapidly Accelerating Deforestation in Cambodia’s Mekong River Basin: A Comparative Analysis of Spatial Patterns and Drivers Advances in Hydrologic Forecasts and Water Resources Management Using the Freshwater Health Index to Assess Hydropower Development Scenarios in the Sesan, Srepok and Sekong River Basin 10.3390/w12061820 Campbell, T. Pin, K. Ngor, P. Bun Hogan, Z. Full Article Text Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle Conserving Mekong Megafishes: Current Status and Critical Threats in Cambodia Teresa Campbell 1,* , Kakada Pin 2,3 , Peng Bun Ngor 3,4 and Zeb Hogan Department of Biology and Global Water Center, University of Nevada, Reno, NV 89557, USA Centre for Biodiversity Conservation, Royal University of Phnom Penh, Phnom Penh 12156, Cambodia Wonders of the Mekong Project, c/o Inland Fisheries Research and Development Institute, Phnom Penh 12300, Cambodia Inland Fisheries Research and Development Institute, Fisheries Administration, Phnom Penh 12300, Cambodia Water 2020, 12(6), 1820; https://doi.org/10.3390/w12061820 Received: 2 June 2020 / Revised: 19 June 2020 / Accepted: 20 June 2020 / Published: 25 June 2020 (This article belongs to the Special Issue Channels for Change: Integrating Multiple Disciplines for New Frontiers in Managing the Mekong River Basin) Megafishes are important to people and ecosystems worldwide. These fishes attain a maximum body weight of ≥30 kg. Global population declines highlight the need for more information about megafishes’ conservation status to inform management and conservation. The northern Cambodian Mekong River and its major tributaries are considered one of the last refugia for Mekong megafishes. We collected data on population abundance and body size trends for eight megafishes in this region to better understand their conservation statuses. Data were collected in June 2018 using a local ecological knowledge survey of 96 fishers in 12 villages. Fishers reported that, over 20 years, most megafishes changed from common to uncommon, rare, or locally extirpated. The most common and rarest species had mean last capture dates of 4.5 and 95 months before the survey, respectively. All species had declined greatly in body size. Maximum body weights reported by fishers ranged from 11–88% of their recorded maxima. Fishers identified 10 threats to megafishes, seven of which were types of illegal fishing. Electrofishing was the most prevalent. Results confirm that Mekong megafishes are severely endangered. Species Conservation Strategies should be developed and must address pervasive illegal fishing activities, alongside habitat degradation and blocked migrations, to recover declining populations. Keywords: megafauna; biodiversity; freshwater; conservation; body size; abundance; human impact; dams; endangered; local ecological knowledge megafauna; biodiversity; freshwater; conservation; body size; abundance; human impact; dams; endangered; local ecological knowledge Megafishes are some of the most ecologically, economically, and culturally important species in the world. They are also some of the most endangered [1,2]. Based on a threshold established for the broader group of megafauna, we define megafishes as fish species that attain a maximum size of at least 30 kg [2,3,4]. These fishes are ecologically important in both marine and freshwater systems. Often top predators or voracious herbivores [5,6,7], megafishes serve as keystone species that structure local species assemblages [8,9,10,11]. As long-distance migrants [5,12,13], megafishes are also a key vehicle of nutrient transport between distant habitats [14]. Megafishes can also be used as indicator and flagship species to highlight ecological health, foster ecosystem and biodiversity conservation, and inform conservation measures [3,15]. Economically, these species fetch high sale prices and are a staple of global and local economies [16,17]. Megafishes are also the center of stories and traditions. Ancient cultures revere and give special protection to local megafish species [18]. These examples highlight the essential roles these fishes play in sustaining the health of species, people, and ecosystems around the world. Among the world’s major river basins, the Mekong in Southeast Asia has the third highest number of freshwater megafauna species, the majority of which are fishes [2]. Until the early 2000s, these megafishes were thought to persist in the Mekong despite centuries of fishing pressure [19]. One Mekong megafish—the Mekong giant catfish Pangasianodon gigas—is the largest entirely freshwater fish species in the world [20]. Many fishers in the Mekong Basin regard P. gigas and other megafishes, like the giant barb Catlocarpio siamensis, which is the Cambodian national fish, as special creatures that must be honored and protected and can bring curses upon their family if they are killed. Many of these species are also highly threatened and thus have harvest and trade restrictions [1]. However, neither superstition nor legal protection has prevented a widespread and often-illegal trade for Mekong megafishes [21]. The perceived risks are outweighed by the opportunity for a lucrative catch since large megafish specimens are among the highest-priced species in the Lower Mekong Basin [21]. This trade is one of many factors that have caused severe declines in Mekong megafish populations to the point that most are now extremely rare and highly endangered [1,2,22]. Megafishes of the Mekong River Basin face ever-increasing anthropogenic threats that push them closer to extinction. Prolonged intense and indiscriminate fishing has led to declines in the abundance and body size of large-bodied fishes [23]. With the advent of cheap nylon mesh and access to new technologies, combined with the open access nature of the fish resources, illegal fishing methods —such as nets with too-small or too-large mesh sizes, electrofishing, poisons, and explosives —are on the rise [24]. These fishing methods not only directly deplete fish stocks, but also destroy habitat and food resources. The rapid proliferation of dams on the Mekong mainstem and its tributaries threaten to disrupt the life cycle of megafishes by restricting them from essential habitats, destroying habitat, removing sediment and nutrients, and modifying vital flow and temperature regimes, among other impacts [4,25,26,27,28]. Other threats like pollution, rapid industrialization, urbanization, and habitat modification in the form of deforestation and rapids blasting both degrade and eliminate fish habitats [4,24]. All of these threats are compounded by a lack of effective resource management and enforcement [24], poor education about natural resources and the environment, and high economic incentive to exploit megafishes [21]. Furthermore, these threats are expected to intensify due to a rapidly growing human population that will increase the demand for natural resources and take a heavier toll on the environment [24]. For megafishes, ecological traits such as large body size and late maturity make them especially vulnerable to these pressures [4,29,30], and their poor conservation statuses reflect the impacts [1]. Because of the threats mounting up against them, research is urgently needed to increase understanding of megafish conservation statuses by filling knowledge gaps about their abundance, current distribution, population stability, and basic ecological traits such as habitat requirements and migration patterns [2,22]. Available evidence for Mekong megafishes, mostly in the form of fishers’ reports of decreased catches through time—especially of large individuals—suggests that their populations are decreasing [1]. Additionally, a recent study using local ecological knowledge in the Siphandone area of Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) revealed high rarity and declining trends in perceived abundance of several megafishes [31]. Fifteen years of catch data from the Tonle Sap River (Cambodia) also showed a decrease in abundance and body size of the largest species, suggesting selection against large-bodied fishes [23]. These works are helpful to highlight declining trends, but more information is needed to improve understanding of megafishes’ conservation statuses and create effective Species Conservation Strategies and Species Action Plans [32,33], which are urgently needed if megafishes are to be preserved in the Mekong [3,22]. The purpose of this study was to identify the conservation status and critical conservation needs of megafish species in the northern Cambodian Mekong River and the Sekong, Sesan, and Srepok (3S) Rivers, which are major tributaries to the Mekong. This part of the Mekong River Basin is thought to be critical habitat for megafishes [34,35,36]. However, little work has been done to understand their current distributions, abundances, population trends, and threats, all of which are necessary components of Species Conservation Strategies and Action Plans [33]. The stretch of the Mekong River between the towns of Kratie and Stung Treng is arguably the most important deep pool area for many fishes [35,37]. Many fish species, including megafishes, are known to use these pools for dry season refugia and spawning habitat [37,38]. A Ramsar site protects 40 km of river just north of the city of Stung Treng [39]. No mainstem dams have been constructed in this area to date, which means flow alterations should be relatively minimal (compared to sections of river close to large dams) and habitat relatively unaltered. In support of this conclusion, this is also the last known range of the critically endangered Irrawaddy dolphin Orcaella brevirostris [37]. Finally, the input of the 3S Rivers at Stung Treng town provide alternative habitat choices that are known to be important to some fishes, including megafish [40]. These characteristics suggest that the main river and large tributaries of the northern Cambodian Mekong constitute prime habitats for megafish and possibly the best opportunity to gather conservation data on these species. We used local ecological knowledge to collect data on the conservation status and needs of eight megafish species in this area (Figure S1). Because the rarity of megafishes, the vastness of the Mekong system, and limited resources prevent direct sampling (e.g., netting or tagging surveys), a local ecological knowledge survey was deemed the most viable method of collecting initial conservation data on these species. Local ecological knowledge is a proven and effective method for obtaining data on sensitive, threatened, and rare species [41,42,43,44]. It involves collecting information from local people who interact with the study species on a regular basis, i.e., “expert” fishers. Because many people in the Mekong River Basin fish every day, it is possible to acquire high-quality local ecological knowledge about megafishes. Although more than eight megafish species are known to occupy this area, time constraints for the interviews limited the number of species that could be investigated. Thus, the study species were selected based on their status as threatened or data-deficient according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List [1] (Table 1). To increase understanding of the conservation status and needs for these species, this study addressed four sub-objectives: (1) assess the rarity of each species in the study area and across three habitat types to identify critical habitats; (2) identify temporal trends in population abundance; (3) assess temporal trends in individual body size; and (4) identify threats to these species from fishers’ perspectives. The outcomes of this work are expected to contribute significantly to the management and preservation of megafishes in the Mekong River Basin by filling knowledge gaps needed for Species Conservation Strategies [33]. 2.1. Study Area This study was conducted in the Mekong River Basin in northern Cambodia (Figure 1). All of the species are known to occur in this area, except for Aaptosyax grypus, which likely only occurs in the very northern part of the study area, and Luciocyprinus striolatus, which likely only occurs in Lao PDR at present [1]. However, because these species are still data-poor and they may have once existed within the study area, we interviewed fishers about them to obtain presence-absence data for northern Cambodia. Semi-structured interviews with fishers were conducted in fishing villages along the Mekong River from Kampong Cham to Stung Treng provinces. This stretch of river encompasses a variety of habitats thought to be essential for megafish life cycles, including an abundance of floodplain habitats (connected lakes, tributaries, and flooded forests) south of Kampong Cham town and more deepwater (pool) habitats to the north. There are also, as of yet, no mainstem dams in this part of the Mekong. (However, there are plans for two mainstem dams in the study area—one in Stung Treng and one in Sambor, which is near Kratie town). Interviews were also conducted in two villages on major tributaries to the Mekong River—the Sekong and Srepok rivers, which are part of the 3S River System in northeast Cambodia and part of the known range of all of our megafish study species [40,45]. (Pangasius sanitwongsei’s presence in the 3S is not well documented, but Poulsen et al. [45] show some occurrence data from local ecological knowledge). The Sekong River is the last of the 3S Rivers to remain undammed for most of its length, whereas the first dam on both the Sesan and Srepok rivers is located between their confluence and the Mekong River (Figure 1). This dam, Lower Sesan 2, began operating fully at the end of 2018 [46]. For this study, the study area was divided into five river sections based on river and province: (1) the Mekong River in Kampong Cham Province, (2) the Mekong River in Kratie Province, (3) the Mekong River in Stung Treng Province, (4) the Sekong River in Stung Treng Province, and (5) the Srepok River in Ratanakiri Province (Figure 1). The villages where interviews were conducted were selected based on the presence of experienced fishers, which was either known prior to the survey or identified during the survey by asking fish sellers, other local people at ports and markets, and their peer fishers. These villages were also spatially distributed evenly along the Mekong mainstem to provide a relatively even sampling of geographic areas and habitat types (Figure 1). In all, 12 villages were sampled on the Mekong mainstem—four from Kampong Cham Province, three from Kratie Province, and three from Stung Treng Province (Figure 1, Table 2). Two villages were sampled in the 3S Rivers—one in Stung Treng Province on the Sekong River and one in Ratanakiri Province on the Srepok River (Figure 1, Table 2). The number of fishers interviewed varied among villages and provinces due to limited survey time and because finding expert fishers was easier in some places than in others. Figure 1. Map of the Mekong, Sekong, Sesan, and Srepok rivers within the study area in northern Cambodia. Water bodies indicate permanent rivers and lakes, while the floodplain indicates seasonally-inundated areas. Deep pool depths range from approximately seven to 80 m. Land cover data were provided by the Mekong River Commission (MRC); these data were published in the MRC technical reports [47,48] and were reproduced with permission from the MRC. Three coarse habitat types were represented in this survey: floodplain, pool, and tributary. These habitat classifications are general representations of the broader riverine area near the villages. The classifications are not suggesting that fishers from these villages only fished in these specific habitat types. Floodplains are known to be essential feeding and rearing habitat for many Mekong migratory fishes [48]. In our study, floodplain habitat was defined as sections of river that had close lateral connectivity with large flooded areas; these river sections also tended to have few to no deep pools in the river channel and a larger web of small streams and ox-bow lakes. The floodplain habitat type occurred in the Mekong River in Kampong Cham Province and the southernmost village sampled in Kratie Province (Figure 1, Table 2). Deep pools are thought to be critical dry season refugia and spawning habitat for many species [37]. Pools are found throughout the Mekong Basin in Cambodia, including Kampong Cham Province and the 3S Rivers, but some are considered more important to fisheries than others [35,47]. The deep pools in the Mekong River in Kratie and Stung Treng provinces (shown in Figure 1) were identified as productive fishing grounds by local fishers; they are also larger, deeper (up to 80 m), and more numerous (95 between Sambor and the Lao border) than pools in other parts of the Cambodian Mekong [35,47]. Thus, for our study, we defined pool habitat as river sections characterized by numerous deep pools that were identified as important by local fishers. These occurred in Kratie and Stung Treng provinces (Figure 1, Table 2). It is noteworthy that less work has been done to map pools on Mekong tributaries [47]. Tributaries are often used by fish species for spawning and migration to other essential habitats, and some species are specialized to tributaries [40,48]. In our study, the tributary habitat was represented by the villages sampled on the 3S Rivers (Figure 1, Table 2). In total, of the villages sampled in this survey, five were in river sections connected to floodplain habitat, five in deep pool habitat, and two in tributary habitat in the 3S Rivers (Figure 1, Table 2). 2.2. Survey Methods This research was approved by the Institutional Review Board and the Research Integrity Office at the University of Nevada, Reno (IRBNet ID: 1210753-2, 20 March 2018). Data were collected using a local ecological knowledge survey [42]. Local ecological knowledge is defined as “a cumulative body of knowledge, practice, and belief, evolving by adaptive processes and handed down through generations by cultural transmission, about the relationship of living beings (including humans) with one another and with their environment” [49]. Obtaining the local ecological knowledge of natural resource users is an established method of collecting ecological and conservation data on rare and sensitive species [42,44]. It is also currently the most effective way to collect data on threatened megafishes in the Cambodian Mekong River Basin. Interviews with fishers were conducted using a semi-structured questionnaire in which both closed and open-ended questions were asked to obtain specific information while also allowing fishers to highlight other knowledge from their experience and expertise. The full set of interview questions can be found in the Supplementary Material. For this study, our goal was to collect the highest-quality information available on these study species. Therefore, we sought to interview only “expert” fishers [50]. To facilitate this, several survey trials and scouting trips were conducted to find villages with knowledgeable fishers, make contact with village chiefs, and also to refine the questionnaire and methodology. (More detailed information about survey trials and methods is available in the Supplementary Material). Fishers were considered experts if they were full-time fishers by trade (as opposed to part-time for subsistence), if they had been fishing for more than five years, or if they were referred to by their peers as being very knowledgeable about the fish. Some fishers were also selected because they had specialized experience with one of the study species. Careful fisher selection was very important because the rarity of the study species makes it easy for inexperienced fishers to confuse them with other species that are similar in appearance. Even with our selection process, many interviews had to be discarded due to uncertainty over whether fishers had correctly identified the species. (This quality-control process is described in more detail in the following paragraphs). Therefore, using expert fishers was essential for obtaining good quality data from this survey. Once fishers were selected to interview, several quality checks were incorporated into the interview to ensure accurate species identification. First, using photographs of both adults and juveniles of each species, the fishers from a village were asked as a group whether they knew the names and had knowledge of the study species. Photographs of closely-related species that were similar in appearance to the study species were also presented to reduce confusion between the study species and close relatives. Species that were not well known by anyone in the group were eliminated and then interviews were conducted about the species that were known. Of the species that were known by the group, if an individual fisher did not know enough about one to provide high-quality information, then that species was skipped so that each fisher was only asked about species with which he was familiar. Interviews were conducted one-on-one as much as possible. The second set of checks were interview questions about known biological and ecological traits to make certain that the fisher had identified the correct species. For example, fishers were asked to describe the species’ physical characteristics, diet, seasonal distribution patterns, and any closely-related species. Based on their responses, the interviewers were able to discern, using prior knowledge of the species, whether the fisher knew the species in question. This made the interviewer’s knowledge of the species critically important in assessing the quality of the information given. Thus, we strove to have only experienced fisheries professionals conducting the interviews. At the end of each interview, the interviewer rated the information provided as “poor,” “good,” or “expert” as an assessment of the quality of the information. An interview was considered “poor” if the fisher had trouble identifying the species or answered some of the quality-control questions (e.g., about basic ecology) incorrectly. An interview was considered “good” if the fisher was able to clearly identify the species and answer the quality-control questions correctly. An interview was considered “expert” if the fisher provided detailed, specialized information about the species. A quality rating was given for each species covered in an interview. (Therefore, one fisher could provide a good interview for one species and a poor interview for another species.) “Good” and “expert” interviews were considered high-quality interviews. The quality ratings were used during data analysis (more on this below). 2.3. Analyses For all analyses, unless otherwise stated, data were only used from high-quality interviews (those rated “good” or “expert”; see above). All analyses were conducted in RStudio Version 1.1.456 or Microsoft Excel 2016. For some analyses, as shown in the results, Luciocyprinus striolatus was excluded due to its low sample size of high-quality interviews. 2.3.1. Population Status Rarity—The rarity of megafish species in the study area was assessed following the methods in Gray et al. [31]. Fishers were asked to provide the month and year in which they most recently captured a specimen of each species. Dates of the last capture were converted to the number of months before the survey (June 2018), and the mean and 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated to evaluate the rarity of each species. If fishers could only provide the year of capture, the date was set as June of that year [31]. Species that were captured a greater mean number of months before the survey were considered to be rarer than more recently captured species. These analyses were also conducted for the three coarse habitat types within the study area—floodplain, pool, and tributary (explained above)—to see if species rarity varied across habitats. Perceived abundance—Temporal trends in megafish abundance were assessed by asking fishers to provide their perception of the abundance of these species at four time periods: 20, 10, five, and zero years before present (June 2018). Fishers ranked abundance on a scale of: 1-common, 2-uncommon, 3-rare, and 4-extirpated. To evaluate the abundance of each species through time, the mean and 95% CI of the perceived abundance ranking were calculated for each time period. During the trial surveys, interviewers attempted to put qualifications on perceived abundance rankings based on the number of individuals captured per interval of time (e.g., year, season, month, etc.). However, it proved to be too difficult for fishers to answer the questions with that amount of specificity. When these qualifications were removed, fishers were able to answer with much more ease. Thus, these abundance rankings were open to the subjective perception of the fisher. 2.3.2. Body Size Another important component of conservation status is body size. Fish body size is a critically-important factor of biological and ecological functions [51,52,53,54]. Therefore, analyses of fish body size were conducted to find out the size composition of these megafish populations. Observed fish body size (weight in kg) was evaluated to understand temporal trends and current size composition in relation to the species’ maximum size potential (obtained from FishBase, www.fishbase.org). For each species, fishers were asked for data on the maximum attainable size, the size of their most recently captured specimen, the size of their largest captured specimen, and the average body size in their catches 20, 10, five, and zero years before present (June 2018). The means of these values were calculated and compared to the maximum reported size from FishBase. The temporal change in the size of the largest individuals in the population was also assessed. For each species, fishers were asked for the size (weight in kg) and date of capture of the largest specimen they ever captured. The size of the largest individuals captured was compared to the time of capture using simple linear regression. The purpose of this analysis was to detect a change in the size of the largest individuals, which has implications for reproductive potential and population stability [51,55,56]. 2.3.3. Conservation Threats Fishers were asked, with an open-ended question, to identify the greatest threats to these megafishes. Fishers were allowed to name more than one threat. Because this question was not part of the individual species questions, it did not receive an interview quality rating; thus, all interviews were used in this analysis. To identify geographic variation in the threats to these species, the number of times a threat was named in each of the five river sections was counted and then divided by the total number of fishers interviewed in that section. This gave a measure of the importance of each threat to each area while accounting for sample size. 3.1. Sample Sizes and Assessment of Species’ Geographic Distributions Ninety-six fishers were interviewed from 12 villages in five river sections (Table 2). The number of fishers interviewed in each village ranged from 5–10 (mean 8 ± SD 2). There were 34 fishers interviewed from the Mekong in Kampong Cham, 21 from the Mekong in Kratie, 21 from the Mekong in Stung Treng, 10 from the Sekong in Stung Treng, and 10 from the Srepok in Ratanakiri (Table 2). Fishers’ ages ranged from 20–76 years (mean 46 ± SD 13) and their fishing experience ranged from 5–55 years (mean 23 ± SD 10). These fishers were all active fishers at the time of the survey and fished a mean of 35 ± SD 17 hours per week (range 12–72). Fishers used a variety of fishing gears. All fishers used gillnets, 75 used hooks, 40 used castnets, and 22 used various types of traps. Gillnet mesh sizes ranged from 2–30 cm (mean 10 ± SD 6). Some fishers mentioned using different mesh sizes in the past; past sizes ranged from 5–40 cm (mean 23 ± SD 8), showing a general decrease in mesh sizes used from past to present. Forty-one percent of fishers reported using gear that was able to capture large specimens (e.g. trawls, large seine nets, and gillnets with mesh greater than 20 cm) at some time in their fishing careers (usually in the past). From these 96 fishers, we obtained 326 interviews about individual species, including six expert interviews, 202 good interviews, and 118 poor interviews. (The total number of species interviews is greater than the number of fishers interviewed because one fisher provides interviews on multiple species.) The proportion of fishers who provided high-quality (good or expert) interviews (% columns in Table 3) provided insight into how well known a species was in a given area, which could relate to the abundance of the species in that area (although fisher memory and fishers fishing in different locations through time could impact this assumption). For the whole study area, 65% of fishers were able to provide high-quality interviews on Probarbus jullieni, making it the best-known study species among fishers (Table 3). High proportions of fishers were knowledgeable of this species in every river section (range = 57–90%), suggesting Probarbus jullieni occurs (relatively) commonly throughout the study area (Table 3). Other megafish species that were well known by fishers were Catlocarpio siamensis and Wallago micropogon (Table 3). Forty-six and 53% of fishers, respectively, within the whole study area provided high-quality interviews on these species. Higher proportions of fishers knew Catlocarpio siamensis in the mainstem Mekong River than in the 3S Rivers, suggesting that this species may prefer the larger river to tributaries. Wallago micropogon seemed to be fairly well known (range = 29–90%) throughout the study area, suggesting a fairly even distribution among river sections. Lower proportions of fishers were able to provide high-quality interviews on Pangasius sanitwongsei and Urogymnus polylepis (20% and 19%, respectively, for the whole study area; Table 3). Both of these species were best known in the deep pool areas of the mainstem Mekong (Kratie and Stung Treng provinces). Pangasius sanitwongsei was also fairly well known in the Srepok River (50%), suggesting that the 3S Basin may be included in the species’ range [40]. Based on the low proportion of high-quality interviews in the 3S Rivers (range = 0–10%), Urogymnus polylepis seemed to prefer the mainstem Mekong over tributaries. Pangasianodon gigas was not well known by fishers in the study area, with only 9% providing high-quality interviews, suggesting it is extremely rare in this part of the Mekong (Table 3). Pangasianodon gigas was best known in the southern portion of the study area (Kampong Cham and Kratie provinces of the Mekong River) but was still only given high-quality interviews by 9–29% of fishers in those river sections. The least known study species were Aaptosyax grypus and Luciocyprinus striolatus (Table 3). Only 3% and 2% of fishers, respectively, in the whole study area were able to provide high-quality interviews on these species. This is not surprising considering the presence of these species within the study area was uncertain [1]. However, the ability of at least a few fishers to provide high-quality information on these species suggests that they may occur in very low numbers in northern Cambodia. 3.2. Population Status Megafishes in northern Cambodia had great variation in reported rarity, but none of them were common (Figure 2). Across all species and sites, the most common species (the one that was generally captured most recently) was Probarbus jullieni, which had a mean last capture date of 4.5 months before the survey (Figure 2). Pangasianodon gigas was the rarest species, with a mean last capture date approximately 95 months before the survey. Pangasianodon gigas also had a large variation in its estimate due to its low sample size, which is another indicator of its rarity. The next rarest species was Pangasius sanitwongsei, with a mean last capture date approximately 25 months before the survey. The means of the most recent captures of the other study species ranged between five to 24 months before the survey. Across habitat types (for species with sufficient sample sizes), there was not much variation in the date of the last capture; all were uncommon to very rare (Figure 2). All megafish species were shown to have a decreasing trend in perceived population abundance between 20 years ago and present (Figure 3 and Figure S2). Twenty years ago, most species were ranked as common. The exception was Pangasianodon gigas, which was ranked uncommon even 20 years ago. The species with the smallest declines over the last 20 years (other than Pangasianodon gigas) were Urogymnus polylepis, Probarbus jullieni, and Catlocarpio siamensis. These species, on average, were ranked uncommon at present. The species with the greatest declines were Aaptosyax grypus, Wallago micropogon, and Pangasius sanitwongsei. These species were, on average, ranked rare at present. Although Pangasianodon gigas had the smallest magnitude of change in perceived abundance between 20 years ago and present, this species was considered to be the rarest of all, with its present mean abundance ranked between rare and locally extirpated. In general, the largest magnitudes of population decline occurred during the last ten years before the study (Figure 3 and Figure S2). These results contribute to the conclusion that these species are all currently uncommon to rare, and also show that their populations are in a state of decline. Moreover, when fishers were asked which species they thought might become locally extirpated in their fishing area, all eight study species were identified as either already gone or likely to disappear in the near future (Figure S3). Furthermore, all river sections reported multiple species at risk of extirpation, showing that the risk to megafishes is widespread in the study area (Figure S3). 3.3. Body Size According to fishers, average body size (weight in kg) decreased for every species in every time interval except for Pangasianodon gigas between five years ago and present, when there was reportedly no change in body size (Figure 4 and Figure S4). The means and upper confidence limits of all size categories reported by fishers—including the maximum size—were smaller than the maximum size reported by FishBase (Figure 4). The mean size of the last capture was always closest to either the average size five years ago or at present and was often more than five times smaller than the maximum size reported by FishBase or by fishers. For many of the study species, the upper 95% confidence limit on the size of the last capture was greater than that for the size at present, showing the influence of large specimens caught in the more distant past (Figure 4). Thus, Mekong megafishes captured by fishers at the time of the survey were usually very small relative to their maximum size potential. At the time of the survey, most of the study species were being captured at an average body size between one (Aaptosyax grypus) and six (Wallago micropogon) percent of their maximum size potential reported by FishBase (Table S1). The exception was Pangasianodon gigas, which on average was at 29% of its maximum size potential. The maximum body size reported by fishers also was smaller than the maximum size reported by FishBase. For all species, the maximum body size reported by fishers ranged between 11 (Aaptosyax grypus) and 88 (Wallago micropogon) percent of the maximum body size from FishBase. Additionally, the mean size of the last capture and mean size of the largest capture were also a small fraction of the maximum size potential (range = 2–27% and 5–59% respectively across all species; Table S1). The body size of the largest individuals captured also decreased through time (Figure 5). For species with sufficient sample sizes, all simple regression models showed significant and decreasing trends in body size through time, although some species models had issues with heteroscedastic and non-normal residuals (Figure 5). The largest specimen of Probarbus jullieni (110 kg) was determined to probably be a misidentification due to it being larger than the maximum body size reported from FishBase. When this data point was removed from the analysis, the decreasing trend in body size was still significant (5.8 × 10−4), but issues with model residuals remained (Figure 5). The trend for Pangasianodon gigas was not significant (p = 0.98) and there were insufficient data to evaluate Aaptosyax grypus and Luciocyprinus striolatus (Figure 5). Only one high-quality interview provided data on the largest specimen captured for Luciocyprinus striolatus. This interview was with a master fisherman in Kratie, whose largest specimen was captured in June 2016 at 4 kg. Because of the direct effect that gear size could have on this analysis, some further analyses were conducted to see if an effect of gear size used by fishers could be detected. Some fishers did not fish with gears large enough to catch the biggest of megafish specimens. Therefore, using information that fishers provided on the fishing gears they used, the data on the size of largest capture (Figure 5) were grouped into fishers who said they used large gears and fishers who said they did not use large gears. Across species, the temporal trend in the size of the largest individuals captured was similar for both groups of fishers and was always decreasing, although fish body sizes tended to be smaller for fishers who did not use large gears (Figure S5). Furthermore, in 2006, fisheries law was changed and, among other regulations, restricted the size of net mesh used in inland fisheries to 1.5–15 cm [57]. Therefore, these trends were also looked at before and after these regulations were in place (Figure S5). Results varied and were often affected by low sample sizes after 2006, and so it was unclear how the regulations may have affected the size of fish caught by fishers (Figure S5). However, the regulations may have influenced fishers to reduce the size of their gillnets (see discussion of fishing gears used in Section 3.1), which may have reduced the size of fish captured. 3.4. Conservation Threats Fishers identified 10 different threats to Mekong megafish in northern Cambodia (Figure 6). Seven of the 10 threats were different types of fishing methods and practices, all of which are illegal in Cambodia. The threats that fishers identified, in order of importance across all study areas, were: electrofishing, small mesh, dynamite, poison, big mesh, big traps, dams, dry season fishing (in deep pools), human population growth, and high market price for megafish (Figure 6). “Electrofishing” is the use of electricity to catch fish. It is highly effective and kills aquatic animals indiscriminately across species and sizes. “Small mesh” usually refers to catching fish with mosquito nets, which capture large quantities of larval fish. This is thought to be detrimental to both common and rare species populations. “Dynamite” refers to using explosives to catch fish, which kills many fish at once and destroys fish habitat. “Poison” refers to chemicals used to kill and harvest fish in large quantities. “Big mesh” indicates gillnets with large mesh sizes used to target the largest-bodied fish, especially during their sedentary period in deep pools in the dry season. “Big trap” refers to extremely large traps (e.g. fences and bamboo poles with mosquito netting) that are highly efficient at catching large quantities of fish of all sizes. “Dams” refers to the recently-built Lower Sesan II Dam and other dams proposed for, and being built-in, the mainstem of the Mekong River (e.g. Xayaburi and Don Sahong). One fisher identified “dry season fishing” and was referring specifically to fishing in deep pools (known to be dry-season refugia for megafishes) during the dry season when megafishes are easiest to catch. “Population growth” refers to the rapidly-growing Cambodian human population. “Price” indicates the extremely high prices (up to 100 USD/kg) fishers fetch for these species, which encourages capture and trade. It also reflects a high market demand for megafishes. Across all river sections, electrofishing was the threat most likely to be identified by local fishers, being named by 70–95% of respondents (Figure 6). The importance of other threats varied by region. The use of small mesh and big traps (with very long fences) were the other prominent threats (reported by >20% of fishers) in Kampong Cham Province on the Mekong River, while in Stung Treng Province (Mekong River) the next prominent threats were dynamite and poison. Big mesh, poison, and dynamite all played near-equal secondary roles in the Sekong River (Stung Treng Province). For Kratie Province on the Mekong River and Ratanakiri Province on the Srepok River, there were no other threats reported by greater than 20% of fishers. In all, illegal fishing practices were the most-identified threats across the study area, with other factors—dams, population growth, and sale price—being mentioned in only a subset of river sections and by a small proportion of fishers in those sections (Figure 6). Based on the local knowledge of fishers in northern Cambodia, the megafishes of the Mekong River Basin in this region are experiencing severe declines in population abundance and individual body size that have led to increased rarity and risk of extirpation. Fishers perceived megafishes as currently uncommon, rare, or extirpated in some locales. These conclusions were drawn from both subjective rankings of population status and extirpation risk (Figure 3 and Figure S3) and objective date of last capture data (Figure 2). The current perceived rankings of population abundance (Figure 3) agreed very closely with the date of last capture data (Figure 2, Table S3). Uncommon species (Urogymnus polylepis, Probarbus jullieni, and Catlocarpio siamensis) had a mean last capture date between 4.5 months and two years before present; rare species (Wallago micropogon and Pangasius sanitwongsei) had a mean last capture date very close to two years before present; the rarest species (Pangasianodon gigas) had a mean last capture date of approximately eight years before present. Thus, none of these megafishes are commonly captured in northern Cambodia. A similar study by Gray et al. [31] in the Siphandone area of Lao PDR (just upstream of our study area) also found that megafish species are now uncommon to rare. However, the estimates of mean dates of the last capture varied between the two studies. Four species were investigated in both studies: Pangasianodon gigas, Pangasius sanitwongsei, Probarbus jullieni, and Urogymnus polylepis. Three of these species were caught more recently in northern Cambodia than in the Lao Siphandone. Pangasius sanitwongsei was much more common in northern Cambodia, where it was captured, on average, 91 months more recently than in the Lao Siphandone. Urogymnus polylepis and Probarbus jullieni were caught more recently in northern Cambodia by approximately 9 and 3 months, respectively. Conversely, Pangasianodon gigas were rarer in northern Cambodia than in the Siphandone, having been caught approximately 69 months more recently in the Siphandone. These differences highlight the importance of geography in patterns of species rarity. Due to many differences between the two study areas, such as habitat type and fisheries governance, a more in-depth investigation is necessary to uncover true differences in megafish conservation status in these regions. However, this preliminary comparison suggests that northern Cambodia may have larger populations of several species of megafish. Alternatively, Gray et al. did use a randomized approach to fisher selection that may have impacted their results relative to the findings here. A randomized sampling method, versus an expert peer referral method, could bias dates of the last capture towards the more distant past because the average fisher is probably less likely to capture rare species than experts. Regardless of the differences between the two studies, both clearly show that megafishes in this part of the Mekong are now very rare. In northern Cambodia, all study species were identified by fishers as being at risk of extirpation, although the risk level varied by species and geographic area (Figure S3). Interestingly, the order of species fishers considered most at risk of extirpation varied from the order produced by the estimates of rarity and population abundance discussed previously. Such discrepancies in extirpation risk versus rarity reveal the importance of investigating different lines of evidence to understand the conservation status of rare species for which there are very little survey data. They also provide an opportunity for further research to investigate why fishers perceive certain fishes as disappearing. Lastly, the results of all these evaluations of conservation status revealed that these species are at high risk of extirpation, a conclusion which agrees with their IUCN Red List statuses (Table 1). In further support of this conclusion are the severe declines in population abundance experienced by all of the study species over the last 20 years (Figure 3). The rankings of perceived population abundance in earlier time periods compared to present showed that most species were considered by fishers to be common 20 years ago and, since that time, all of these species’ abundances decreased at varying rates. The group of rare species listed above (Wallago micropogon and Pangasius sanitwongsei) showed the greatest decline between 20 years ago and present, with Pangasius sanitwongsei decreasing more than one full abundance ranking (from almost common to between uncommon and rare) in a single time interval (10 to five years ago) (Figure 3). Furthermore, the greatest decreases among all species tended to occur between 10 and five years before present. Gray et al. [31] also found temporal decreases in perceived abundance that were similar to the decreases presented in this study. Therefore, it appears that megafish populations in the Mekong have experienced declines in abundance beginning as far back as the mid-1990s in a broad geographic range and that something occurred to accelerate this decline between 2008 and 2013. During this period, there was a three-fold increase in the cumulative gross storage capacity of hydropower dam reservoirs in the 3S River System [58]. Ngor et al. [58] found that flow alterations caused by these dams led to reduced fish diversity in the 3S, notably in large-bodied, highly migratory cyprinids (Cyprinidae) and catfishes (Pangasiidae and Siluridae), which cover six of our species. Hydropower development in Mekong tributaries is predicted to drive down fish productivity and biodiversity in the Mekong Basin [25] and is likely contributing to the population declines observed in our study. In addition to high rarity, high extirpation risk, and extensive population declines, multiple lines of evidence from this study convey a story of decreasing body size in Mekong megafishes. This agrees with other size trend data from the region that show a decrease in the body size of large fishes from 2000 to 2015 [23]. Large fishes generally become sexually mature at relatively larger body sizes and older ages, which puts them at high risk of capture before they can reproduce, increasing their populations’ vulnerability to fishing and risk of extirpation [30,59]. Currently, captured megafish specimens are almost always in the low end of their size range (Figure 4, Table S1). Our survey found that the size of the average individual has decreased by more than half in the last twenty years (Figure 4). For most species, the size of the largest individuals captured has also decreased greatly through time (Figure 5). Even more alarming is that most fishers today are not even aware of the maximum size potential of most of these fishes (Figure 4 and Table S1). Thus, while most of these megafishes are still found in the study area, albeit infrequently (Figure 2), their body size data suggest that the populations are subject to recruitment overfishing, which is “characterized by a greatly reduced spawning stock, a decreasing proportion of older fish in the catch, and generally very low recruitment year after year” [20]. Although these species are too rare to have measured data on maturation rates, estimates from FishBase’s life history tool suggest that most of the specimens currently being captured are unlikely to have reached sexual maturity (Table S2). If nearly all mature adults have been lost, the remaining juveniles/sub-adults are likely the progeny of very few remaining spawning adults. This has strong implications for decreased future reproductive success, reduced genetic variation, and increased extinction risk [60,61]. If megafish populations are to persist into the future, protections for the largest individuals must be effectively implemented and enforced. Fishing regulations were created in 2006 that provided protections for large fish [57]. Nevertheless, the results of this study’s threats analysis showed that regulations are not effectively enforced. Many illegal fishing practices are widespread in the study area (Figure 6) and in other productive fishing grounds in inland waters countrywide [62]. These practices decimate fish populations and also damage the environment in the case of dynamite and poison [62]. The most-identified threat to megafishes by fishers was electrofishing (Figure 6). This illegal fishing method threatens species throughout the whole study area and the rest of Cambodia [62]. Electrofishing is one of the most convenient and effective means of increasing one’s catch at a reasonable investment, leading to its widespread use [63]. Electrofishing targets species indiscriminately and impacts larger-bodied individuals more severely [64]. However, the power outputs used by poachers would probably allow very few fish to escape the current. Another practice identified by fishers—dry season fishing in pools when fish are concentrated there—is likely a more serious cause of population declines than indicated in this analysis. Furthermore, some fishers freely indicated that they continue to use gillnet mesh sizes greater than the legal limit of 15 cm. If Cambodian fisheries management seeks to improve the conservation status of megafishes, and fishes in general, a priority conservation action must be to bring illegal fishing under control. In doing so, socioeconomic conditions need to be addressed as illegal fishing is often the outcome of persistent poverty [62,63]. Other than fishing practices, three other threats to megafishes were identified: dams, human population growth, and high cash value of the fish (Figure 6). Fishers widely perceive reduced fish catches to be partly due to increased fishing pressure caused by the rapidly growing human population in Cambodia. When fishers are struggling to fill their nets and the price of megafishes is high, there is an extremely high incentive for fishers to keep and sell megafishes—even with the risk of fines or imprisonment. These factors reemphasize the need for socioeconomic reforms, in addition to crack downs on the illegal species trade [21], to protect megafish populations. Furthermore, the highly migratory nature of these megafishes, combined with evidence that their populations are declining in other Lower Mekong Basin countries [31], suggest that conservation efforts should be broadened to a regional scale if megafishes are to persist in the Mekong. Curiously, very few fishers mentioned dams as a threat to megafishes. It is widely known within scientific and management communities that dams are a severe and impending threat to fishes in the Mekong [25,26,65]. All of the fishes studied here, except for Luciocyprinus striolatus, are migratory and will be highly affected by dams. However, most of the fishers interviewed for this study live far away from large hydropower dams and they likely have yet to feel the full effects of the dams farther up- and downstream. Furthermore, large hydropower dams are new to the lower Mekong, especially to Cambodia, and fishers may not be aware of the magnitude of short- and long-term impacts on fisheries. It is important to remember that the threats presented in this study are from the perspectives of the fishers, which are limited to their experiences. Thus, this list of threats does not preclude other real and present threats not listed here. What this list of threats does show is that it is critical, in the face of impending hydropower impacts, to not lose sight of the detrimental effect that widespread, intensive, and uncontrolled fishing pressure has on fish populations [66]. We also assessed differences in megafish conservation status across regions and habitat types within the broader study area. Among habitat types, there was not much variation in species rarity (Figure 2). There also was not a consistent pattern in species extirpation risk across regions (Figure S3). However, there was a slight tendency for fish body size to be greater in pool areas than in tributaries or shallower river sections with a close floodplain connection (Figure S6). It makes sense for larger individuals to be found in pools where they have more space than in these other habitats, and pools are known dry-season refugia for adults of these species [37]. However, it is a little unexpected that megafish were considered no more common in pools than in the other habitats. It may be that, while larger individuals are caught in pools, smaller individuals continue to be caught in or near floodplains and tributaries, which are known to be important feeding, rearing, and spawning habitats for Mekong fishes [40,67]. These results suggest that all of the habitats covered by the study area are important to megafish life cycles and that deep pools are particularly important for adults. Therefore, to protect large individuals, areas with deep pools should be given conservation priority. This is already somewhat in place in Cambodia via fish conservation zones, which often protect deep pools [37,68], but again, the enforcement in those zones must be effective. To fully understand the data presented in this study, there are a few caveats to these conclusions that should be discussed. Firstly, although local ecological knowledge surveys are currently the most efficient method of collecting data on rare Mekong fishes, there are limitations to this method, including the dependency on human memories to accurately replicate facts from the past. Secondly, despite extensive efforts to reduce fisher misidentification of species (see methods), there is still the possibility that this occurred, especially when talking about juveniles and the Pangasiid species. At small body sizes, many fishes, and especially Pangasiids (which can also be problematic at large sizes, depending on the species), are very similar in appearance. For example, although not presented in this paper, we interviewed fishers about Pangasius krempfi, a Pangasiid catfish with a maximum body weight of 14 kg. Size data collected from fishers on Pangasius krempfi indicated that fishers were misidentifying this species because many claimed to have caught specimens of a much greater size than its maximum. Such misidentifications may also occur because some species share the same Khmer name. Additionally, an informal follow-up survey of other fishers about Aaptosyax grypus showed that fishers tended to confuse this species (at small sizes) with the small cyprinid Raiamas guttatus, as noted by Rainboth [69]. Fishers may also confuse Wallago micropogon at small sizes with Ompok spp. Thus, there is the possibility that fishers were unable to clearly distinguish small juveniles of Pangasianodon gigas, Pangasius sanitwongsei, Aaptosyax grypus, Wallago micropogon, and possibly Luciocyprinus striolatus. However, at large body sizes, these species are much more distinct and easier for fishers to identify. Furthermore, the other study species—Catlocarpio siamensis, Probarbus jullieni, and Urogymnus polylepis—are unique in appearance and fishers are unlikely to mistake them for other species. Probarbus jullieni does have a congener—Probarbus labeamajor—in the region that is similar in appearance, but fishers accurately described the physical differences between the two Probarbus species. Thus, if misidentification were to affect the conclusions of this study, we would expect it to primarily impact the reports of small size classes of a subset of the species. This may bias body size estimates to be lower than reality. It should also bias fishers towards thinking juveniles of these species are more common than in reality, which only strengthens the conclusion that these species are extremely rare and in need of immediate protective actions. A third consideration of this study is whether fishers trusted us enough to provide information on catching illegal species and knowledge of illegal fishing activities. In many villages, fishers seemed comfortable with us, but in a few they seemed more guarded. Fishers can face steep penalties (including jail and possibly bodily harm) if they are caught for such activities, and there can be suspicion toward unknown people coming to ask questions about these topics. Knowing this, interviewers took every precaution to show that we were only interested in the biological status of the species and not in enforcing laws (see methods for more explanation). However, it seemed as though the greatest asset to facilitating trust between fishers and interviewers was having someone from their community who could vouch for us. One such example was using a contact of one of the interviewers to make introductions with fishers. In communities where we did not have such a contact, it helped to communicate with the village chief ahead of time and thoroughly explain our purposes. Based on this insight, we recommend researchers desiring to conduct work in this area to establish relationships with local people by periodically maintaining contact with them to show reliability and trustworthiness. This will lead to more accurate data collection. The fourth consideration of these data is changes in fishing regulations over time that potentially impacted fishing behavior and/or reporting of catches. As previously mentioned, it is illegal to use nets with mesh sizes that target large-bodied fishes (mesh >15 cm) [57]. Thus, there is a high incentive for fishers to under-report catches of very large individuals. Furthermore, those fishing regulations were put into place in 2006 and there could be a tendency for fishers to be less honest about reporting catches of large-bodied fish after 2006. Lastly, some fishers did stop using gears that targeted large-bodied individuals to conform to the law and, therefore, their current gear gives them a lower probability of capturing a large-bodied fish than they had in the past. All of these behaviors would serve to bias trends towards a steeper decrease in body size and less recent dates of the last capture, making these species appear to be smaller and rarer than they are. (However, an alternative explanation is that a true decrease in fish body size is what caused fishers to switch to smaller mesh sizes). Although this is a significant consideration that may affect the results, pressing further into these issues with the fishers was unwise as it could foster distrust, leading to even less accurate information. A delicate balance had to be struck between obtaining specific information and maintaining a relaxed interview environment. As it was, our analysis of the effect of gear size and regulations on the trends in body size of the largest megafish individuals suggested that neither of these variables impacted the declining trends in body size (Figure S5). This analysis also suggests that fishers were being honest about the size of the largest fish captured and the type of gear they were using because the captures from fishers with smaller gears were generally smaller than the captures from fishers who used larger gears. This declining trend in body size also agrees with results from other studies [23,70]. More detailed investigation into the relationship between gear size and the impact of fishing regulations on reported fish body sizes was beyond the scope of this work. Future investigations would benefit from developing a method to control for gear types used throughout fishers’ careers to see how that affects the size of fish captured. The final limitation of this study was low sample sizes. Two of the species (Aaptosyax grypus and Luciocyprinus striolatus) had too few high-quality interviews to be able to draw any strong conclusions about their populations. Luciocyprinus striolatus may not have historically occurred in this study area; the southernmost part of its range in the Mekong River is currently known to be Lao PDR [20]. Aaptosyax grypus is known from Cambodia, but is considered very rare [20] and is difficult for many fishers to identify. Despite the low sample size, we found Aaptosyax grypus had a relatively recent mean date of last capture (five months before the survey; Figure 2), which may suggest that it is generally poorly known throughout the study area, but a small number of fishers specialize in catching it and can catch it relatively frequently. Although a little better than those species, Pangasianodon gigas also had a low sample size. It is difficult to know if the low sample sizes are a result of the species not being present in those areas or fishers being unable to identify them. However, it could simply be another indicator of the extreme rarity of these species. Another benefit of establishing networks of knowledgeable and reliable fishers for this type of research is that scientists can assist and train fishers in the identification of these rare species, which generates more accurate data. To conclude, megafishes in the northern Cambodian Mekong Basin are very rare, decreasing in population abundance and body size, at high risk of extirpation, and threatened by multiple anthropogenic pressures. This is especially concerning considering that this region of the Mekong is thought to be one of the last strongholds for these fishes on Earth. Protective management policies and effective enforcement are urgently needed to preserve these species in the wild. We recommend developing Species Conservation Strategies and Species Action Plans, which focus and guide all aspects of species conservation and recovery. The IUCN Species Survival Commission offers specific guidance in developing such plans, which is freely available online [32,33]. The results of this survey can inform the species Status Review, an integral part of any Conservation Strategy or Action Plan. Speedy development and implementation of conservation plans are worthwhile and have the potential to help these species. One encouraging result of this (and other) studies is that individuals in multiple size classes of certain megafishes do still exist, albeit in low numbers, suggesting limited natural reproduction. Furthermore, Cambodia’s decision in March 2020 to suspend all mainstem dam-building—two of which were planned for this study area—for ten years [71] offers hope of maintaining open migration channels and a more natural flood pulse for the megafishes in northern Cambodia. If more conservation actions like this are taken, there may still be hope for preserving Mekong megafishes in the wild. The following are available online at https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/12/6/1820/s1, Table S1: Comparison of Mekong megafish body size (weight in kg) reported by fishers to the maximum body size from FishBase (www.fishbase.org), Table S2: Mekong megafishes’ age and length at first maturity, Table S3: Comparison of fishers’ mean dates of last capture with their perceived rankings of megafish population abundance, Figure S1: Photographs of the megafish species examined in this study, Figure S2: Annual change in perceived abundance of Mekong megafishes in northern Cambodia, Figure S3: Mekong megafishes identified by local fishers as extirpated or likely to be extirpated in northern Cambodia, Figure S4: Annual change in perceived average body size of Mekong megafishes, Figure S5: Plots of the size and date of capture of the largest Mekong megafish specimens captured by fishers, Figure S6: Distributions of body sizes of the most recent Mekong megafish specimens captured by fishers in northern Cambodia. The survey questionnaire is also available along with a detailed description of the local ecological knowledge survey methods and recommendations. Conceptualization, T.C. and Z.H.; methodology, T.C., K.P. and Z.H.; formal analysis, T.C.; investigation, T.C. and K.P.; data curation, T.C. and K.P.; writing—original draft preparation, T.C.; writing—review and editing, T.C., K.P., P.B.N. and Z.H.; visualization, T.C. and K.P.; supervision, T.C. and Z.H.; project administration, T.C.; funding acquisition, Z.H. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript. This study was funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-supported project, Wonders of the Mekong. This study was also supported by the Inland Fisheries and Development Institute, Fisheries Administration. We particularly thank the villagers and village chiefs who gave us their time and kind participation in the study. 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The number after the species abbreviation on the x-axis is the number of high-quality interviews obtained for that species. “All Sites” = data from all 12 villages where interviews were conducted; “Floodplain” = data from five villages in river sections that have close connectivity with the floodplain; “Pool” = data from five villages in river sections that have nearby deep pool habitat; “Tributary” = data from two villages on the Sekong and Srepok rivers, which are tributaries to the Mekong River. For species abbreviations, see Table 1. Figure 3. Perceived population abundance for Mekong megafishes in northern Cambodia in four discrete time periods over the last 20 years. Zero years before present indicates the time of the survey, June 2018. Data points and error bars represent the means and 95% confidence intervals of fishers’ rankings of population abundance. Rankings were: 1-common, 2-uncommon, 3-rare, and 4-extirpated. Sample sizes for each species are the total numbers of high-quality interviews for the whole study area reported in Table 2. For species abbreviations, see Table 1. Figure 4. Temporal trends in Cambodian megafish body size (kg) with comparisons to maximum size and size of the last capture. Bars with orange-red shades and white speckling show the maximum reported size from FishBase (www.fishbase.org) and the maximum size known by fishers interviewed during local ecological knowledge surveys. The maximum size from FishBase for Urogymnus polylepis is 600 kg and is off the scale for graph clarity. Bars with solid blue shades show the average body size reported by fishers 20, 10, 5, and 0 years before the survey in June 2018 (“ya” = years ago). Green bars with white stripes show the body size of the most recent specimen captured by fishers. Each bar (except for the maximum size from FishBase) shows the mean and 95% confidence intervals calculated from fisher responses across the whole study area. Sample sizes for each species are the total numbers of high-quality interviews for the whole study area reported in Table 2. For species abbreviations, see Table 1. Figure 5. Plots of the size and date of capture of the largest Mekong megafish specimens reported by fishers. Trend lines represent the result of a simple linear regression of body weight and time. The table summarizes regression statistics for the simple linear regression models. (Aaptosyax grypus was excluded from the table because its sample size was too small to model the relationship between body weight and time). Model diagnostics were run and found to be acceptable for all species with these exceptions: Pangasianodon gigas had non-normal residuals; Pangasius sanitwongsei had heteroscedastic residuals; Probarbus jullieni had non-normal and heteroscedastic residuals and an influential outlier. A second model was run for Probarbus jullieni without the outlier (* pjul), and the model diagnostics were only slightly improved. Sample sizes for each species are the total numbers of high-quality interviews reported for the whole study area in Table 2. Note that all plots have the same x-axis, but different y-axes. Figure 6. Threats to Mekong megafishes in northern Cambodia identified by local fishers. Bars show the proportion of fishers interviewed from each river section that named a given threat. Sample sizes are the total number of fishers interviewed in each river section in Table 2. Refer to the text for threat definitions. All of the fishing practices listed here are illegal in Cambodia. Table 1. Mekong megafish species investigated in this study. Information was obtained from the FishBase (www.fishbase.org) and IUCN (www.iucnredlist.org) databases. Some local names were provided by local collaborators. For local names, “Kh” = Khmer language name; “Lao” = Lao language name. Maximum length abbreviations: “SL” = Standard Length; “TL” = Total Length; “WD” = Width. The “Species Abbr” column shows the species name abbreviations used throughout the paper. Scientific Name/English Name Local Names Max Length/Weight IUCN Status Abbr Giant salmon carp Trey pasanak (Kh), Pa sanak, Pa sanak gnai (Lao) 130 cm SL/30 kg Critically Endangered agry Giant barb Trey kolriang (Kh), Pa kaho (Lao) 300 cm TL/300 kg Critically Endangered csia Luciocyprinus striolatus Trey sroum dao (Kh) 200 cm SL Endangered lstr Pangasianodon gigas Mekong giant catfish Trey reach (Kh), Pa boeuk (Lao) 300 cm TL/350 kg Critically Endangered pgig Pangasius sanitwongsei Giant pangasius or dog-eating catfish Trey po pruy (Kh), Pa leum (Lao) 300 cm SL/300 kg Critically Endangered psan Isok barb Trey trasak (Kh), Pa eun, Pa eun ta deng (Lao) 150 cm SL/70 kg Critically Endangered pjul Giant freshwater whipray Trey bor bel yeak, Trey bawbel (Kh), Pa fa hang, Pa fa lai (Lao) 240 cm WD/600 kg Endangered upol Wallago micropogon Trey stourk (Kh), Pa khoun (Lao) 154 cm SL/96 kg Data deficient wmic Table 2. The number of fishers interviewed in each village. Villages are grouped by river section. Bold numbers in parentheses are the number of fishers interviewed in each river section and are subtotals of the number of fishers interviewed from the villages within the river section. Villages are ordered from downstream to upstream. Habitat indicates the habitat type where the village was located (see text for more details). No. Fishers Mekong/Kampong Cham (34) Svay Leu Floodplain 7 Prek Koy Floodplain 10 Prek Toch Floodplain 10 Roka Knol 3 Floodplain 7 Mekong/Kratie (21) Chheu Teal Plous Floodplain 8 Sambok Pool 5 Koh Khnhe Pool 8 Mekong/Stung Treng (21) Sma Koh Pool 5 Ba Chung Pool 7 Koh Khon Den Pool 9 Sekong/Stung Treng (10) Pha Bang Tributary 10 Srepok/Ratanakiri (10) Sre Angkrong Tributary 10 Grand Total 96 Table 3. Summary of high-quality interviews by river section and species. For the summary by species, “Ct” columns show the count (number) of high-quality interviews for each species in each river section. The “%” columns show the proportion of fishers from each river section who provided a high-quality interview on each species. Thus, a larger value in the “%” column indicates more fishers were knowledgeable about that species than other species. For species abbreviations, see Table 1. Sekong Srepok Province Kampong Cham Kratie Stung Treng Stung Treng Ratanakiri Total Fishers 34 21 21 10 10 96 Summary of High-Quality Interviews by Species Species Ct % Ct % Ct % Ct % Ct % Ct % agry 0 0 1 5 1 5 1 10 0 0 3 3 csia 21 62 15 71 6 29 1 10 1 10 44 46 lstr 0 0 1 5 0 0 0 0 1 10 2 2 pgig 3 9 6 29 0 0 0 0 0 0 9 9 psan 3 9 7 33 4 19 0 0 5 50 19 20 pjul 20 59 15 71 12 57 6 60 9 90 62 65 upol 0 0 10 48 7 33 0 0 1 10 18 19 wmic 10 29 17 81 8 38 9 90 7 70 51 53 © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Water, EISSN 2073-4441, Published by MDPI Disclaimer The statements, opinions and data contained in the journal Water are solely those of the individual authors and contributors and not of the publisher and the editor(s). MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591588
__label__wiki	0.601211	0.601211	tom santilli movie reviews Tom Santilli is a professional film critic, TV personality, host and the Executive Producer of Movie Show Plus. He also is the film critic for WXYZ Channel 7 Action News in Detroit, and appeared weekly on FOX-2 in Detroit from 2016-2020. Feel free to use the "search" below to find your favorite titles. TOM'S GRADING SCALE: B- and above: Thumbs Up C+ or below: Thumbs Down Review: 'Pieces of a Woman' not for the weak of heart Netflix, 2021. Serious warning: The first 30-minutes of "Pieces of a Woman" is incredibly hard to watch, especially for anyone who has ever suffered any sort of loss. You've been warned. That being said, watching actress Vanessa Kirby pick up the pieces of her life after an unthinkable tragedy destroys it, is an absolutely riveting experience that makes "Pieces of A Woman" a vital watch for anyone looking to fill out their Oscar scorecards. MILD PLOT SPOILERS TO FOLLOW: 2020 was certainly...a year. For my entire existence on this Earth - as it has been for every single person reading this - the movies have offered an escape from the harsh realities of life. Movie theaters have been my sanctuary, my safe haven. And since becoming a professional film critic in 2010 - a fulfillment of a life-long dream - they've become my home away from home...A place that I would visit 2-3 times per week, to catch up with friends and fellow critics and to partake in an activity and place that I apparently had been taking for granted all these years. I haven't been to a movie theater since March 2020, and it hurts. Movies are still my passion and a huge part of my life, and as is the case with every one of us in 2020, they've recently been relegated to home TV screens, or in a pinch, iPads or laptops. It's just not the same, and it sucks. But when 2020 handed the movie industry lemons, they made delicious, refreshing lemonade. Yes, in a year like no other, there were still great films being made, they just weren't playing on the big-screen. As several major movie releases were postponed or shuffled to streaming services, many smaller films carried the torch for the industry. Oh, there were great films in 2020. Don't let anyone tell you different. The problem has just been that this year, they've been harder to find, and with a slew of streaming platforms, there are just so many places to look. Luckily I'm still here, watching movies, and organizing for you the best of the best. What follows is a list of my 20 favorite films of the year, and I hope that you get a chance to find them too. One quick caveat before we begin...it's been harder than ever in 2020 to decipher how to categorize certain works. For this list's purposes, I'm taking the cues directly from the studios. So for example, the five-part Amazon "mini-series" (or is it a collection of five films?) "Small Axe" by Steve McQueen? Amazon is qualifying them for Emmys, not Oscars, so they're not on this list (despite this collection of TV episodes curiously being named "Best Film" by the LA Film Critics Circle). Nor is the HBO concert film by Spike Lee, "David Byrne's American Utopia" for similar reasons. Last but not least, by far, the absolute best thing I've seen all year was "Hamilton" on Disney+. Not even a close second. But again, this is not technically a movie, so it's not on this list. Speaking of "Hamilton," check out the Hulu doc "Freestyle Love Supreme" and the HBO doc "Siempre, Luis" as great companion pieces, or just to get more of a dose of Lin-Manuel Miranda. Here then, are the top 20 films of 2020: Review: 'The Dissident' doc details the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, and so much more Briarcliff Entertainment, 2020. Earlier in 2020, a Showtime documentary called "Kingdom of Silence" detailed the brutal murder of The Washington Post journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, as he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, and was never heard from again. That documentary was one of the best of the year, with this being my only critique: "While "Kingdom of Silence" does a great job in setting the stage for his disappearance, it would have been even more effective had it put into context exactly why his murder has meaning, and the political fall-out of the American-Saudi relationship being tested as it never quite has before." (Read Full "Kingdom of Silence" Review). Well, my request has been answered in the form of a new documentary film called, "The Dissident." These two films were made independent of one another, but together they paint a brutal, shocking and unbelievable picture of not just what happened to Khashoggi, but why each and every American should care. Review: 'One Night in Miami' a night to remember Amazon Studios, 2020. There isn't much that Regina King can't do. In the last year alone, the 49-year-old actress won an Emmy (HBO's "The Watchmen") and an Oscar (Best Supporting Actress for "If Beale Street Could Talk"). Now, she takes a turn in the director's chair, heading up the film adaptation of the stage play of the same name, "One Night in Miami," proving that there are no limits to her unquestionable talents. Review: 'Promising Young Woman' will knock you out Focus Features, 2020. Say hello to Carey Mulligan, your 2020 Best Actress, for her unpredictable, deliciously wild role in the ambitious crime-drama, "Promising Young Woman." Top 10 Documentary Films of 2020 It might not be remembered as such (there were a few other things going on this year), but 2020 was one heck of a year for documentary film. Because there were so many GREAT docs released this year, I thought it only appropriate that they deserved their own "best of" list. Here then, are the ten best documentary films of 2020 (I may have cheated a bit and included 11 total films...read on for explanation): Review: 'Wonder Woman 1984' be careful what you wish for Warner Bros. Pictures, 2020. to Gal Gadot is back in what is clearly the most highly-anticipated film of 2020. Much of that anticipation built during the pandemic, when "Wonder Woman 1984" found itself delayed from its original June 5th release date, to August 14th, then to October 2nd, and finally landing on Christmas Day. It was the last and only superhero movie still standing, as other films such as "Black Widow" were pushed off of the 2020 calendar completely. Even its Christmas Day release was in jeopardy, with many expecting that it would move yet again with COVID cases continuing to climb across the country. But that's when Warner Bros. made the bold move to not only keep "Wonder Woman 1984" in theaters, but to simultaneously release it on HBO Max, a move that has since shaken up the entire movie industry. Well, it pains me to report that we should be careful what we wish for. While many might be thrilled just for the chance to watch a superhero movie on the big-screen once again, I sure wish there was a better one for us to experience. "Wonder Woman 1984" is a mess of a film - several steps worse than the 2017 effort - and dare I say one of the worst movies of 2020. Review: An exploding dragon not enough to save 'Monster Hunter' Screen Gems, 2020. "Monster Hunter" has a plot and characters only a video game from the early 2000s could respect. This is a movie so stupid, that by the time the talking cat pirate shows up, you won't even think twice. Review: Steve McQueen's 'Small Axe' anthology now available on Amazon Prime Video Amazon Prime Video, 2020. Filmmaker Steve McQueen ("Widows," "12 Years a Slave") has put together a fascinating collection of five, separate, distinct films for Amazon Prime Video. These five films - known as "Small Axe" - are technically being billed as a mini-series, despite none of the "episodes" featuring any of the same characters. To settle the matter, here is an excerpt from IndieWire as to whether "Small Axe" is technically a series of movies or a TV mini-series: "When it comes to “Small Axe,” one thing is clear. Amazon Studios is submitting the series for Emmys, not Oscars. And until the Film Academy introduces an anthology series category, that‘s where “Small Axe” belongs." They compare "Small Axe" to other anthology series like "Black Mirror" or "The Twilight Zone," shows with thematic commonalities but that do stand-alone. And it is true that "purpose" matters when it comes to the upcoming, delayed Oscars...in order for a film to be eligible, it doesn't necessarily have to have played in theaters, but it does have to have intended to play in theaters. That right there should end the debate on where "Small Axe" qualifies. Whether they are technically movies in the traditional sense, or whether they are TV episodes, there is no debating that these are some of the most powerful stories you will witness in 2020. They are timely, often poetic and strongly linked thematically, and all take place in roughly the same place in England, featuring West Indian immigrants in the 1960s and 1970s and their struggles against police brutality, racism and injustice. Read on for a quick overview of each "episode" in the "Small Axe" series: Review: 'Greenland' the disaster movie we don't need right now STX Films, 2020. Through no fault of its own, "Greenland" is not exactly the movie that the world needs right now. Delayed from its original theatrical release and now landing on VOD, a disaster movie about an apocalyptic event wiping out humanity isn't exactly the kind of film that offers an "escape" during a global pandemic. At a different time, it might be a passable popcorn blockbuster, but in 2020, its just a major bummer. Looking for a specific movie or review? Movie Reviews With Tom Santilli Pedro Schwarzenegger Tom Santilli Tom Santilli is a RottenTomatoes-Approved Critic and current member of the Critics Choice Association and the Detroit Film Critics Society. He is the Executive Producer and co-host of "Movie Show Plus" and also appears weekly on FOX-2 in Detroit. Be sure to check your local listing to watch and DVR Movie Show Plus on TV! Currently Airing: Check Local Listings For more information on Movie Show Plus, Email: info@tomsantilli.com	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591594
__label__wiki	0.886901	0.886901	Embracing Cultural Differences As Muncie Power Products continues to expand into international markets, International Customer Service Manager Sandra Thompson is happy to be the voice of the company for many of its Spanish-speaking customers. “I have calls that come through from Ecuador, Puerto Rico, Guatemala and other places in Central America. I also take calls from Texas and other places in the United States,” Thompson said. Thompson, who was born in El Salvador, was adopted by a Guatemalan mother and an American father and spoke Spanish as her primary language for the first years of her life. “It’s a big advantage from my stand-point. I’m able to speak the language and bring comfort and familiarity to the customers on the Spanish side,” she said. “It helps with them feeling at ease with somebody who didn’t just learn the language. I can tell them I was born in El Salvador.” Thompson grew up in Wisconsin, but she has traveled to Spanish-speaking countries, including Mexico and Costa Rica. “Cultural differences are always fun to embrace and celebrate,” she said. But speaking Spanish is only part of her job. She also had to learn the technical side of the industry and the specifications for the diverse line of Muncie Power’s products. “My favorite subject in school was chemistry and I love math; although, not the calculus side of things. I like the versatility and complexity of the job. I see it as a great challenge,” she said. The company’s commitment to training its employees has been a valuable resource as she has grown into her role as international customer service manager, and Thompson appreciates that Muncie Power Products works to pass along the same information about its products to customers. “Training is a very big part of what we do. We get out and support customers and distributors. We have a nice, personalized pace, in our training,” she said. In addition to answering customer service calls from Spanish-speaking customers, Thompson does a lot of support work for the international sales team, including data entry, clerical duties and translating correspondence into Spanish. “To be a team player here has been my goal. At first, when hired by Muncie Power Products, my work load consisted of clerical aspects, which in turn allowed members of the team more room for travel and focus less on paperwork, entering orders etc.," she said. In addition to enjoying her role as part of the international sales team, Thompson also is proud to be a Muncie Power Products employee. "The unity is one of the many things I have enjoyed about Muncie Power Products. It really is family focused," she said. Although the company continues to grow, Thompson believes it has kept its small-business attitude toward its customers and staff. "On a personal note, my mother passed in December. The company as a whole expressed in different ways how much they cared. The company sent flowers, while my supervisor, co-workers, extended their sympathy verbally, through cards and emails - it was all greatly appreciated," she said. "That's a big deal in today's business world. You often lose the personalization and care. As companies grow bigger, they tend to be indifferent to employees. I don't see that here." Sandra Thompson - International Customer Service Manager Sandra Thompson, who grew up in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, is the International Customer Service Manager for Muncie Power Products. She majored in Spanish and secondary education with a minor in psychology in college, and has a degree in biblical studies from Northwestern University - St. Paul in Roseville, Minnesota. Thompson started working for Muncie in 2014 as the International Sales Operations Assistant, which involved clerical support for the international sales team. This position evolved into her current job in August. She has been married for 18 years and has two, teenage children.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591599
__label__cc	0.54802	0.45198	LONDON'S RIVERSIDE CHURCH, DAGENHAM London's Riverside Church Contract value and type £1,600,000 JCT Intermediate Mossford was appointed as principal contractor to phases 2 and 3 of this project in Dagenham following the insolvency of the previous contractor and architect. Phase 1 had been completed but required snagging so that the staff could move in and vacate the rear two-storey rear building and the single storey middle. We demolished the single storey middle section and built a three-storey steel frame with curtain walling to create a new cafe space on the ground floor, two stairwells and offices on the upper floors. The two-storey rear building was comprehensively refurbished including replacement of the flat roof that was in poor condition and complete cladding of the external walls. We installed panoramic windows to the upper floor and divided the space into a suite of seven offices. We installed a new passenger lift in the new central building and a high specification commercial kitchen. Underfloor heating under a polished concrete floor gave the new cafe an industrial feel. As the previous contractor and architect practice had become insolvent there was a significant amount of work to be done translating the construction drawings that had not been fully developed and design work on the fly. One of the challenges was to ensure that the parts of the building occupied by staff were fully functional during the whole construction phase so segregation was carefully planned and the safety of the public was always a consideration in all activities.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591605
__label__cc	0.725672	0.274328	WCCC Departments Learning Lab Preschool Treasurer/Financial Information WCCC Education Foundation Canvas User Canvas Staff & Student Warren County Career Center is located at 3525 N. St. Rt. 48, Lebanon, Ohio 45036. The main campus is at the intersection of St. Rt. 48 and St. Rt. 122, just north of Lebanon. It is easily accessible to I-71 and I-75. The campus includes the high school and adult education facilities, Administration Building, and Fire Training Facility. High School, 513-932-5677 (Staff available between 7:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. Monday-Friday) Adult Education, 513-932-8145 (Staff available between 8 a.m. and approx. 9 p.m. Monday-Thursday and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday) Email us at [email protected] and someone will respond within 2 business days. Sign up for our monthly email newsletter HERE! Link to Google Maps Main Campus The Greentree Health Science Academy, is located at 5757 Innovation Drive Middletown, Ohio 45005. This collaboration between WCCC and Atrium Medical Center is located west of the main campus. From WCCC, take St. Rt. 122 west toward Middletown. Turn right into the Atrium Medical Center campus, the academy is around the loop road behind the hospital. All adult and high school medical programs are housed at this facility. Link to Google Maps Greentree Health Science Academy The WCCC Aerospace Academy is located at the Warren County Airport, 2460 Greentree Road, Lebanon, Ohio 45036. The WCCC High School and Adult Education Aviation programs are located at the Academy. Link to Google Maps Aerospace Academy The Aspire Office, which offers High School Equivalency Exam preparation and English for Speakers of Other Languages, is located in downtown Lebanon in the OhioMeansJobs building, 300 E. Silver St., Lebanon. Phone: 513-695-2987. Link to Google Maps Aspire Office Information About WCCC Click here for information on Customer Services, District Departments, Vision and Mission statements, partnerships and more.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591607
__label__wiki	0.669706	0.669706	About Us Book Distribution Booksellers & Retailers Our Publishers REPS LIST PRICE & AVAILABILITY CHECK CONTACT US Childrens (All) Design (Art / Graphics) Design (Interiors) Fiction - Young Adult NZ (History) NZ (Landscapes) NZ (Pictorial) Taschen : 40th Anniversary Edition Taschen : BA Basic Art Taschen : BU Bibliotheca Universalis Christopher Shores (4) Mediterranean Air War 1940-1945 (Volume 1: North Africa, June 1940- January 1942) Author: Christopher Shores Publisher: Grub Street It is now more than 40 years since Fighters over the Desert was published, and nearly as long since this was followed by Fighters over Tunisia . Both volu... It is now more than 40 years since Fighters over the Desert was published, and nearly as long since this was followed by Fighters over Tunisia . Both volumes have long been out of print and collectors’ items, but, despite much prompting, Christopher Shores has resolutely refused to permit their reprinting until he amassed so much more information. He has also long nursed a desire to expand the coverage to encompass the operations of the other types of aircraft involved in this interesting and important theatre of war – the bombers, reconnaissance aircraft and maritime units. Further, it is his intention to extend the period covered to include the later operations over Sicily, Italy, the Aegean area, the Balkans and Southern Europe. \n This then represents the first volume of a seminal series dealing with all these aspects and areas, which will also tie in with the earlier Grub Street volumes which he and his collaborators have produced. Thus a full coverage of all aspects of aerial operations throughout the whole of the Mediterranean area will be the ultimate result. Further, these volumes will link appropriately and directly with his other works of this nature, dealing both with the Far East and the war in Europe. Readers will then be able to follow the wartime careers of units and personnel involved from volume to volume throughout the war. \n Operations directly over the main battlefronts will be dealt with as previously, on a daily basis. However, to allow a clearer view to be obtained of operations elsewhere in the theatre, or of a different nature, separate chapters will deal specifically with the night bombers, the air defence of the base areas, and the naval co-operation activities. \n Wide use of maps will be made throughout this and subsequent volumes together with a considerable number of photographs integrated into the text. Long awaited by many, if any work can be said to be comprehensive and definitive, this is it. A History of the Mediterranean Air War 1940-1945 Volume 2 The first volume of this series dealt with the initial 19 months of the air war over the Western Desert of North Africa. This volume picks up the story as the 8... The first volume of this series dealt with the initial 19 months of the air war over the Western Desert of North Africa. This volume picks up the story as the 8th Army, following its hard-fought success in Operation Crusader, was forced back to the Gazala area, roughly mid-way between the Cyrenaican/Tripolitanian border of Libya and the frontier with Egypt. It covers the lull prior to the disastrous defeat of the 8th Army in June 1942 and the loss of the important port and fortress of Tobruk. The costly efforts of the Allied air forces to protect the retreating British and Commonwealth troops and prevent this turning into a rout is examined in depth. So too is the heavy fighting which followed in the El Alamein region as the line was stabilised. This period was ameliorated somewhat for the Western Desert Air Force by the arrival - at last - of the first Spitfires. The build-up of both the army and air force which followed, coupled with new commanders on the ground, meant that Rommel's Deutsche Afrika Korps was defeated at Alam el Halfa at the start of September, and then again, comprehensively, at the climactic battle of El Alamein in October. Joined now by the first units of the United States Army Air Force, the Allied air forces began to achieve a growing ascendency over those of the Axis. The long, rather slow, pursuit of the Italo-German forces right across Libya is recounted, including the capture of Tripoli, followed by the breakthrough into Southern Tunisia at the end of March 1943. This allowed a link-up with the Allied forces in Tunisia (whose story will be related in Volume 3) to be achieved. In this volume follow to the fortunes of some of the great fighter aces of the Desert campaign such as Jochen Marseille and Otto Schulz of the Luftwaffe, Franco Bordoni-Bisleri of the Regia Aeronautica and Neville Duke, Billy Drake and 'Eddie' Edwards of the Commonwealth air forces. While the fighting above the constantly-moving front lines form the main narrative of this book, the Allied and Axis night bombing offensives and the activities of the squadrons co-operating with the naval forces in the Mediterranean are certainly not neglected. Bind: hardback Tags: May 2014 Military A History of the Mediterranean Air War 1940-1945 Volume Three The third volume in this series returns to November 1942 to explain the background to the first major Anglo-American venture – Operation Torch, the invasion o... The third volume in this series returns to November 1942 to explain the background to the first major Anglo-American venture – Operation Torch, the invasion of French North Africa. It deals with the fratricidal combats which followed the initial landings in Morocco and Algeria for several days. It then considers the efforts made – unsuccessfully in the event – to reach northern Tunisia before the Germans and Italians could get there to forestall the possibility of an attack from the west on the rear of the Afrika Korps forces, then beginning their retreat from El Alamein. Tags: July 2016 Military The fourth volume in this momentous series commences with the attacks on the Italian island fortress of Pantellaria which led to its surrender and occupation ac... The fourth volume in this momentous series commences with the attacks on the Italian island fortress of Pantellaria which led to its surrender and occupation achieved almost by air attack alone. The account continues with the ultimately successful, but at times very hard fought, invasions of Sicily and southern Italy as burgeoning Allied air power, now with full US involvement, increasingly dominated the skies overhead. The successive occupations of Sardinia and Corsica are also covered in detail. This volume, then, is essentially the story of the tactical air forces up to the point when Rome was occupied, just at the same time as the Normandy landings were occurring in north-west France. In its pages are found what can justifiably be considered the story of ‘the soldiers’ air force’. Frequently overlooked by more immediate newsworthy events elsewhere, their struggle was often of an equally Homeric nature. With regards to the long-range tactical role of the Allied heavy bombers, only the period from May to October is examined herein, while they remained based in North Africa. Thus the period from November 1943 when the US 15th Air Force was formed to pursue the strategic air offensive against the Reich, together with the RAF’s 205 Group of night bombers, will be covered in a future (sixth) volume. Volume Five will deal with the rest of the tactical war in Italy and Greece, over the Adriatic and Aegean, and with the entry into the South of France to join forces advancing southwards from Normandy. Tags: September 2018 Military © 2021 Nationwide Book Distributors	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591612
__label__wiki	0.935671	0.935671	Firefighters From Mexico Arrive in California to Help Battle Wildfires Five teams of 20 trained, equipped firefighters from the Comisión Nacional Forestal, or CONAFOR, will be sent first to work in California’s Sequoia National Park By Oscar Flores • Published September 24, 2020 • Updated on September 24, 2020 at 2:49 pm USFS Fire-California At least 100 firefighters from Mexico arrived in California on Wednesday to help battle several wildfires burning across the state. Five teams of 20 trained, equipped firefighters from the Comisión Nacional Forestal, or CONAFOR, landed at San Bernardino International Airport where they were welcomed by officials with the U.S. Forest Service. The firefighters, who hail from 22 states throughout Mexico, will undergo several days of orientation and training sessions before they will be sent first to work in the Sequoia National Park, according to the U.S. Forest Service. Virus Updates: Oregon Gov. Says There's No Federal Vaccine Stockpile; Global Deaths Top 2M The park is threatened by the SQF Complex of fires ignited by lightning in the Sequoia National Forest. The Sequoia Complex is comprised of the Castle and Shotgun fires. Burning since Aug. 19, the complex has scorched nearly 144,826 acres and was just 35% contained as of Thursday. The fire has also destroyed 189 structures and threatens scores more, according to CalFire. “I am excited about this unique opportunity to visit a station where I worked and trained when I was young," said Eduardo Cruz, the current director of CONAFOR. "The training I received helped me advance my career and now I feel able to help USFS and Sequoia, bringing firefighters from Mexico with me, to provide support in the California firefighting effort." Cruz spent two seasons as a forest firefighter with a helicopter crew in the Sequoia National Forest early in his career, as part of the training and exchange program. In 1989, USFS dispatched fire management specialists to assist Mexico during the disastrous fire season that occurred in the State of Quintana Roo. This year, the firefighters of Mexico will be able to return the favor. Since 1962, USFS has had a long history of cooperation with Mexico in the area of fire management. USFS has been providing training and supporting Mexico in strengthening its fire fighting capabilities since 1983, the organization said. california wildfiresMexicofirefighters	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591614
__label__wiki	0.863389	0.863389	Vintage sailing vessels It may almost be time to bid goodbye to the Delta Queen, the only authentic steamboat carrying passengers overnight on American waters. Fire safety laws have threatened to halt this wooden wedding cake of a vessel dating from 1926. Aug. 18, 2008, 7:24 PM UTC / Source: Forbes Traveler.com By Carla Davidson The S.S. Karim, for example, was built in 1917 for an Egyptian sultan. This three-deck sternwheeler still cruises the Nile, powered by its original steam engine. Historic as it is, the Karim's 15 air-conditioned cabins offer 30 travelers a blend of the best of modern comfort and ancient splendor on eight-day round trips from Luxor. In the warmer months, Sea Cloud departs from a variety of Mediterranean ports. In all of them, even before the crew sets the massive sails, this 369-foot-long, four-masted boat dominates the harbor. Christened Hussar when built in 1931 for Marjorie Merriweather Post — one of the richest women in the world at the time — Sea Cloud remains the most opulent tall ship afloat. Traveling on such small, historic ships costs more than taking a traditional cruise. But for an increasing number of discerning voyagers, the charm of these vintage vessels is worth the additional cost. According to Nancy Herbert of the New York-based agency, Roberta Sonnino Travel, "clients often prefer them to the gigantic cruise ships, which can feel like nothing more than interchangeable floating hotels." Closer to home, there's the S.S. Sequoia, which was launched in 1931 as a Prohibition patrol boat, but soon recruited as the presidential yacht. Harry Truman and Richard Nixon relaxed at the piano in the main salon, and John F. Kennedy celebrated his last birthday there. In 1977, President Carter sold Sequoia in a cost-cutting move and it's now owned by a non-profit group based in Washington D.C. The meticulously restored National Historic Landmark is available for charter — unless booked for the President or Vice President. Then there's the Shamrock V, an America’s Cup J-class sloop that is simply “a gorgeous boat,” according to Bernadette Bernon, former editor of Cruising World magazine. Built in 1929 for Sir Thomas Lipton (of the tea fame), this is the only one of three J-class survivors not to have suffered serious disrepair over the decades. “Shamrock has been for sale on and off for years, but even so it’s available for charter,” Bernon says. A summer week in the Mediterranean costs approximately $77,000. Given the number of brokers who handle boats like the Shamrock V, making arrangements can get confusing. “Normally, here in the U.S., a boat can be booked by any broker worldwide,” says Bernon. “But only one company acts as the clearinghouse for that yacht and handles their actual booking schedule." Bernon recommends dealing with a reputable American firm and seeing the firm's escrow accounts. Among the firms Bernon suggests are Bartram & Brakenhoff, Fraser Yachts Worldwide, Churchill Yacht Partners, Edmiston and the venerable Camper & Nicholsons International, in business for 230 years. Camper & Nicholsons represents the fabled Onassis yacht, Christina O., which can accommodate 36 passengers in style; fees start at $618,000 per week in the Mediterranean. You can book vintage vessels closer to home and on a proportionally slimmer budget and still enjoy the aura of yachting’s golden age. Seascope Yacht Charters, based in Newport, Rhode Island customizes trips on Gleam and Northern Light. These rare 12-meter vessels date from the late 1930s and are typical of the yachts that battled for the America’s Cup from 1958 to 1987. Seascope’s Elizabeth Tiedemann and two other charter companies in Newport have crafted a highly popular outing called “Your Own America’s Cup Regatta,” in which two or more 12-meters go out for the day. You don’t need sailing experience; in about an hour she says, the captain and crew determine their passengers’ level of experience and assign appropriate tasks. Then it’s off to the races. On a wedding weekend the bride’s family might battle the groom’s — or sometimes, as Tiedemann puts it, “it’s the boys against the girls.” More often than not, these Regattas are chartered as corporate exercises, with the objective of improving teamwork, respect and communication. According to Tiedemann, "Sailing is like running a company. You have a goal, the course is set, but you always need to watch for a change in the weather.” The newly hatched sailors return to land exhilarated. “These are the photos you see back home on executives’ desks,” she says. Carla Davidson	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591615
__label__cc	0.559809	0.440191	Dangerous and wild animals Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976 The Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976 aims to ensure that where private individuals keep dangerous wild animals, they do so in circumstances which create no risk to the public and which safeguard the welfare of the animals. Any person that wishes to keep any animal as listed in the prescribed list in the city must obtain a dangerous wild animals licence (DWA licence) from the City Council. A list of these animals is contained in the legislation, alternatively please contact is us if you are unsure if your animal qualifies. This does not apply to any dangerous wild animal kept in a zoo; a circus; premises licensed as a pet shop; or a place which is a designated establishment within the meaning of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986. A person is held to be the keeper of the animal if they have it in their possession. They remain the 'keeper' and therefore are responsible for the animal, even if it escapes or it is being transported, etc. The licence will be issued subject to compliance with the licence conditions and payment of the fee of £150.00. There is an application fee payable upon application and subject to annual renewal. However, should we require the expertise of an animal specialist this may incur further costs at your expense before a licence is issued. Any applicant for a DWA licence must: own and process, or propose to own and possess, all of the animals that are to be included on the licence, unless there are circumstances which the City of Newcastle upon Tyne consider exceptional not have been disqualified under the Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976 from keeping any dangerous wild animal. To apply for a dangerous wild animals licence, applicants must complete and submit an application form with the relevant fee. The Council will arrange for an authorised veterinary surgeon/practitioner to undertake an inspection of the premises and produce a report, which the Council is legally obliged to consider when determining the application. The fee for this service is additional to the standard licence fee. You are welcome to request that the premises are inspected by the vet you normally use for the treatment of your animals. If you do not wish to do this, the Council will appoint an appropriate veterinary surgeon/practitioner as it sees fit. The Council will not grant a licence unless satisfied that: it would not be contrary to the public interest on the grounds of safety, nuisance or otherwise the applicant is a suitable person to hold a Licence and is adequately insured animals will be held in secure accommodation to prevent them from escaping accommodation for animals is suitable with regards to the construction, size, temperature lighting, ventilation, drainage and cleanliness, and which is suitable for the number of animals proposed to be held in the accommodation animals are provided with adequate food, drink and bedding materials and will be visited at suitable intervals appropriate steps will be taken for the protection of any animal concerned in case of fire or other emergency appropriate steps will be taken to prevent and control the spread of infectious diseases while any animal concerned is at the premises where it will normally be held, its accommodation is such that it can take adequate exercise. How long will it take to process my application? If we have not contacted you to make arrangements to authorise a veterinary surgeon to inspect your premises within 14 days of your application, please contact us to check that your application was correctly made and received. Applicants are advised the application process can be fairly lengthy due to the necessity for a veterinary inspection. The Council will endeavour to issue a licence within a period of 10 weeks from receipt of application, however if we have been unable to determine your application within this time a licence will not be automatically granted due to animal welfare implications. For renewals, please be reassured that if we have received your application form and fee before the expiry date of your existing licence, we will treat your premises as if they are in possession of a valid licence whilst the application is being processed. Applicants, who are late requesting renewal, thereby allowing their licence to lapse, are advised to contact us immediately. How long does a licence last? The period of validity of a licence will be a maximum of two years. Licences will come into force immediately upon their being granted, except for renewals of a licence applied for before the expiry of the licence they are to replace, in which case the subsequent licence will come into force from the date of expiry of the licence it replaces. Licences must be renewed before their expiry if the licence holder is to continue to keep the animal(s) named on the licence. Licence holders will receive a written reminder prior to the expiry of their licence. In the event of death of anyone to whom a licence has been granted, the licence shall continue in force for a period of 28 days as if it had been granted to the personal representatives of the deceased. After a period of 28 days the licence expires, unless application is made for a new licence within that time, in which case it continues, until the new application is determined. What conditions will be attached to a licence? The Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976 provides standard conditions that must be specified on a Licence. In addition to these conditions the Council may impose others as they think fit. If we proposes to insert in a licence a provision permitting any animal to be for any continuous period exceeding 72 hours at premises outside of the City of Newcastle upon Tyne it shall consult the local authority in whose area those premises are situated. As part of the Licence conditions, you are required to ensure that you have adequate Public Liability Insurance which provides cover for the animal(s) which you have on site. You must ensure that any policy you take out provides sufficient cover against any damage which may be caused by the animal should it escape. The level of insurance will depend on many factors which may include the species and number of animals you wish to keep. The Council may at any time vary the licence by specifying any new conditions of the licence or varying or revoking any condition of it (exceptions apply to those conditions specified by section 1(6) of the DWA Act 1976). Rights of entry Local Authorities may authorise competent persons to enter premises either licensed under the Act or specified in an application for a licence, at all reasonable times, and producing if required their authority, and the authorised officers may inspect these premises and any animal in them. Powers of seizure In addition to powers of inspection, the Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976 also gives the Council powers to seize any animal being kept on premises which are unlicensed or failing to comply with a condition of their Licence. Animals may then be either retained in the council's possession or be destroyed or otherwise disposed of and the authority shall not be liable to pay compensation to any person in respect of these powers. Where we incur any expense in seizing, retaining or disposing of an animal then the person who was the keeper of the animal shall be liable for those costs. The following offences and penalties apply: any person found guilty of keeping an animal covered by the Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976 without a licence shall be subject to an unlimited fine any person found guilty of failing to comply with any licence condition shall be subject to an unlimited fine any person found guilty of obstructing or delaying an inspector or authorised veterinary practitioner or veterinary surgeon shall be subject to an unlimited fine Where a person is convicted of any offence under the Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976, or of any offence under: The Protection of Animals Acts 1911 The Performing Animals (Regulation) Act 1925 The Pet Animals Act 1951 The Animals (Cruel Poisons) Act 1962 The Animal Boarding Establishments Act 1963 The Riding Establishments Acts 1964 and 1970 Breeding of Dogs Act 1973 Animal Welfare Act 2006, Sections 4,5,6(1)(2), 7 to 9 and 11 the Court by which he is convicted may cancel any licence held by him/her under the Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976, and may, whether or not he is the holder of such a licence, disqualify him from keeping any dangerous wild animal for such period as the court thinks fit. The cancellation or disqualification may be suspended by the Court in the event of an appeal. Will tacit consent apply? No. It is in the public interest that the authority must process your application before it can be granted. If you have not heard from the local authority within a reasonable period, please contact it using the contact details below. Right of appeal Any person aggrieved by a refusal to be granted a Licence or by any conditions to which a Licence is subject or by the variation or revocation of any condition of the licence, may appeal to the magistrates' court who may give such directions regarding the licence or its conditions as it thinks proper. A court which has ordered the cancellation of a person's licence, or his disqualification, in pursuance of the last foregoing subsection may, if it thinks fit, suspend the operation of the order pending an appeal. If you want to make a complaint about any dangerous wild animals establishment, please contact us. Government Announcement On the 12 December 2020 the Government announced that it is intending to ban the public from keeping monkeys and other primates as pets. Go to BBC News. If you feel we have failed to provide you with good service or are concerned about the progress of your application, please contact Trading Standards. Telephone (0191) 2116121. Email: tradingstandards@newcastle.gov.uk We will endeavour to resolve any concerns you may have. Animal health and licensing	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591619
__label__wiki	0.926671	0.926671	Two dolphins were found stranded off Newport days apart. Why? Savana Dunning NEWPORT — Experts are unclear if there is a causal link between the two dolphins that washed up on Newport beaches within the past two weeks. “Dolphins can strand for a number of reasons,” said Sarah Callan, assistant manager of the Mystic Aquarium Animal Response Team in Connecticut. “I can't really say if there's a trend that I've seen on the recent ones.” The aquarium’s Animal Response Team, which responds to reports of alive or dead marine animals in Connecticut, Rhode Island and New York, removed a baby dolphin off the shore of King Park on New Year's Day and euthanized it after a thorough health inspection revealed it was critically ill. “For us to have, like, around 10 dolphin strandings a year wouldn’t be abnormal,” Callan said. The Department of Environmental Management’s Marine Fisheries Division began working closely on stranded animal response this year as the border shut down between Connecticut and Rhode Island made it difficult for the Mystic Aquarium’s team to respond to situations. Conor McManus, deputy chief for the division, said he has seen six marine life strandings in 2020 — seven, including the incident Friday — mostly in the fall and winter. “I would characterize it as surprising,” McManus said. “It's hard to know in terms of what's a high number of strandings or not, given that some people find and don't report to us. But particularly for our division, it's the most that we've seen as an agency, so it's an abnormal year for us.” The division responded to a reported deceased dolphin washed ashore along the Ocean Drive on Dec. 28. The crew removed the animal and buried it off-site the next day. McManus said it can be hard to determine if a dolphin passed away before or after it entered the shore, and does not have a prevailing hypothesis as to the specific cause. “In general with dolphins stranding, it has been linked to erratic behavior, whether that's due to water quality or confusion during an abnormal migration path or being lost from a pod,” McManus said. “There's all these hypotheses out there … but to point to a specific factor for Newport this year, it's hard to really say until looking at regional data of temperatures, prey movements and things like that that could cause it as well.” Often, the Mystic Aquarium team will perform necropsies or send samples to a lab to determine the cause of death for marine mammals and sea turtles. Often, results take weeks and are given to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Callan said those who find a stranded dolphin, whale or other marine animal should stand back 150 feet as recommended under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Many animals carry zoonotic diseases or are stressed and potentially dangerous. “I think that your initial gut reaction is you want to help that animal and go towards them and touch them,” Callan said. “Keeping a distance is really important not only for your health, but also the animal.” The aquarium’s hotline for alive or dead animal response is 860-572-5955, Ext 107. In addition, those who find a stranded animal can contact the DEM. “A lot of our work is all keyed off of the public being eyes and ears for us,” McManus said. “Newport residents particularly, it's a lot of homeowners who walk with their dogs in the beach or who live right on the ocean they washed up on their on their property ... So my big message would be, thank you to the public for your continued interest and helping us respond to these events.”	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591620
__label__wiki	0.570492	0.570492	North Country Report: 20-megawatt solar project coming to Fort Edward NYCOM urges state to release withheld AIM, transportation funding Fulton Co. Sheriff’s Office Civil Division closed to public, services still available by: Jack Summers Posted: Mar 19, 2020 / 10:20 AM EDT / Updated: Mar 19, 2020 / 10:21 AM EDT FULTON COUNTY (NEWS10) — The Fulton County Sheriff’s Office Civil Division is currently closed to the public until further notice. The Office says it is staffed and most services are still being provided. All transactions are currently being provided via mail. Services such as; income execution payments, service of process, as well as accident and incident reports are still being provided. The Office says that pistol permits are provided in the lobby, however new applications will not be processed due to the closing of Courts, and the unavailability of gun safety courses and fingerprinting services. If anyone is in need of these services, contact the Civil Office at (518)-736-2128, (518)-736-2129, or (518)-736-2130 for additional instruction. The mailing address for the Civil Office is: Fulton County Sheriff’s Office Johnstown, N.Y. 12095 by Jay Petrequin / Jan 15, 2021 FORT EDWARD, N.Y. (NEWS10) - In Gov. Andrew Cuomo's State of the State Address this week, two dozen new solar and wind power initiatives were announced across the state. One of those will bring two solar plants to the town of Fort Edward. There wasn't much to know yet on Friday about what the 20-megawatt project would bring to the town in terms of space consumption or job opportunity, but the numbers are a good start. Currently, Washington County generates around 25 megawatts, a number that will be nearly doubled by the time this project is complete. Gun sales surge locally amid protests and politics	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591621
__label__wiki	0.843412	0.843412	NBA pushes back draft combine, draft lottery by: Array, Associated Press Posted: May 1, 2020 / 05:13 PM EDT / Updated: May 1, 2020 / 05:13 PM EDT FILE – In this March 11, 2020 photo, fans leave the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, Calif., after the NBA basketball game between the New Orleans Pelicans and Sacramento Kings was postponed at the last minute over an “abundance of caution” after a player for the Jazz tested positive for the coronavirus. A person with knowledge of the situation says NBA players will be allowed to return to team training facilities starting Friday, May 1 provided that their local governments do not have a stay-at-home order prohibiting such movement. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File) The NBA is delaying the draft lottery and draft combine, events scheduled for Chicago later this month. The league made the decision Friday, though it has been expected for some time. The lottery cannot occur until the regular season is completed or is declared over, because team records determine the odds that the 14 non-playoff teams will have of securing the right to pick No. 1 overall in the draft. For now, the draft remains scheduled for June 25 — though that, too, will likely have to change in the coming weeks as the league continues reacting to the coronavirus pandemic. The lottery was to have taken place May 19. The draft combine was to have run from May 21-24. The league typically invites about 70 players to the combine, where some of the candidates work out and play in scrimmages and others skip the on-court events entirely and just interview with teams instead. The combine has also been a chance for teams to conduct physicals with players, a key component of the evaluation process. The NBA has been looking at several options for weeks about the draft schedule and pre-draft events, just as the league has when it comes to possibilities for resuming the season when public health officials say that would be appropriate. “There are no target dates. There are more target responsibilities,” San Antonio CEO R.C. Buford said earlier this week. “And there’s still questions. We just got the early entry candidates list in the last couple days. That at least gives some kind of clarity on who the draft pool will be. But from there, we don’t have clarity on the Chicago pre-draft or medicals or all the things that go on with draft preparation.” The NBA has not played since March 11, when it became the first of the major U.S. pro sports leagues to suspend games because of the pandemic. The league has missed 259 regular-season games because of the shutdown, and the playoffs would have started about two weeks ago. NE10 cancels repositioned fall sports; Saint Rose committed to competition by Liana Bonavita / Jan 15, 2021 LOUDONVILLE, N.Y. (NEWS10.COM) — The Siena women's basketball team is back on pause for the third time in the last two months due to a positive COVID-19 test among the program's Tier I personnel, according to an athletic department spokesperson. The team announced Friday two hours before it was supposed to tip off against Quinnipiac, that its series against the Bobcats has been postponed.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591622
__label__cc	0.507897	0.492103	Study says voluntary smallpox vaccination program may not be sufficient Monday, August 11th 2003, 12:00 am WASHINGTON (AP) _ Leaving smallpox vaccinations up to individual Americans could result in many more deaths in the event of terrorist attack, according to a study. The result could be an increase of between 22 percent and 54 percent in mortality in case of a smallpox attack, according to a mathematical model developed by U.S. and Canadian researchers. Currently the Bush administration has mandated smallpox vaccinations for 500,000 military personnel and is seeking voluntary vaccination of millions of medical and emergency personnel across the country, though the civilian program has lagged. The research team led by Chris T. Bauch at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, used game theory to estimate the share of the general population that would seek vaccination under a voluntary program _ about 19 percent. The findings are reported in Monday's online issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The team noted that vaccination campaigns have often met resistance from people concerned about side effects. If the perceived threat of terrorism is low, the percentage of the population protected from the disease falls, creating a situation where it would be easier for an epidemic to spread. ``On the one hand, voluntary vaccination does not protect the public as it should. On the other hand, imposing mandatory vaccination to group-optimal levels arguably violates civil rights,'' the researchers concluded. They recommended appeals to public spiritedness. The result could be an increase Kristin Wells Senator James Lankford (R-OK) issued a letter to Black Tulsans after his decision to contest the results of the 2020 presidential election.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591623
__label__wiki	0.908503	0.908503	McCarthy's nomination delayed until next year Friday, November 19th 1999, 12:00 am TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- The federal judicial nomination of Frank McCarthy is still in limbo, held over until next year after the Senate Judiciary Committee again refused to bring it up. Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe has shifted from endorsing McCarthy's nomination to a neutral stance as he waits for more answers on McCarthy's views on the death penalty. Inhofe, R-Okla., expressed support for the delay in the nomination. McCarthy's nomination ran into trouble after the Tulsa World republished comments he had made in the mid-1980s against the death penalty. Then, McCarthy said as he was leaving the public defender's office to become a federal prosecutor that he would never prosecute a death penalty case. Before the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing, he told senators he would have no reservations in imposing the death penalty law. Some senators, including Inhofe, have asked McCarthy to clarify his position. The committee failed to bring up the confirmation this week and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, the panel's chairman, said Thursday that no more meetings will be scheduled until after Congress convenes next year. Inhofe said McCarthy, a federal magistrate, needs to do more to either refute or elaborate his 1985 statements that the death penalty is immoral and that society has no right to impose such a penalty. "No, I'm not. I'm not necessarily supporting him," Inhofe said when asked he still backs the nomination. "I want to wait and see what elaboration there can be, and I'll wait for that." Inhofe said he wasn't opposing the nomination. "I'm not either way right now," he said. Sen. Don Nickles, R-Okla., continues to support McCarthy. McCarthy and two other applicants from a field of four were endorsed by Nickles and Inhofe, who hold veto power over any Oklahoma nomination in a GOP-controlled Senate. President Clinton sent McCarthy's name to the Senate for confirmation. The nomination will not have to be resubmitted and the committee may pick up the issue again after returning for the 2000 session. News On 6 TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- The federal judicial nomination of Frank McCarthy is still in limbo, held over until next year after the Senate Judiciary Committee again refused to bring it up. Meanwhile,	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591624
__label__cc	0.503158	0.496842	OSU 72, Texas Tech 68 Sunday, March 13th 2005, 10:53 am KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) _ John Lucas scored 19 points, including a crucial free throw with 4.4 seconds left, and Number 10 Oklahoma State earned its second straight Big 12 tournament championship with a 72-68 victory over Texas Tech. Joey Graham, the tournament's most valuable player, added 16 points and 11 rebounds for the third-seeded Cowboys (24-6), who overcame 20 turnovers _ seven by Graham _ to win the last Big 12 tournament game in Kemper Arena. Ronald Ross, who had 22 points and 10 rebounds for Texas Tech, airballed a 3-point attempt with time winding down and the fourth-seeded Red Raiders (20-10) trailing 71-68. Lucas caught the ball under the basket, was fouled, and hit the second of his two free throw attempts to put the game out of reach. News On 6 KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) _ John Lucas scored 19 points, including a crucial free throw with 4.4 seconds left, and Number 10 Oklahoma State earned its second straight Big 12 tournament championship with a	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591625
__label__cc	0.657346	0.342654	Commonwealth outdoors sanitation intervention during royal visit 7 November 2018 11:28pm A new initiative, “Sanitation Checkmate”, aimed at promoting better solid waste management amongst the youth in the country, was out-doored as part of activities heralding the royal visit. The Commonwealth’s sanitation initiative was one of many innovative interventions and installations exhibited at the roundtable environmental summit that was held in honour of the Prince of Wales at the Sandbox Restaurant in Accra. Under the theme “Keeping plastic's value in the economy and out of the ocean”, the summit was well received by the Prince of Wales, who is known for his passion to get rid of ocean plastics and ensure a safer and cleaner environment. Organised by the British High Commission in Accra, the roundtable summit was applauded by The Prince of Wales. Speaking at the roundtable event attended by the Minister of Environment Prof Frimpong Boateng and the CEOs of multinational organisations such as Nestle, Coca-Cola , Fanmilk and DOW Chemicals, the Prince of Wales reiterated his desire to leave the world a better place for his grandchildren – one of whom he is expecting shortly – and the rest of the Commonwealth. The Head of the Africa office for The Royal Commonwealth Society John Apea spoke of the need for “a unified approach” to tackle a global menace. He said the “Sanitation Checkmate” is a collaborative initiative by the Commonwealth Youth Council, the Royal Commonwealth Society and the National Youth Authority. Mr. Apea stated that the future of the environment looked bleak if proactive methods were not put in place. Taking Prince Charles through the details of the initiative, the Vice – Chair of the Commonwealth Youth Council Abena Dugan explained that Sanitation Checkmate will partner with waste disposal companies as well as students in both first and second cycle institutions to rid the city and the country of plastic waste. She added that the objective of the intervention was to get students involved in fighting the solid waste menace, particularly how to dispose of plastics. Ms. Dugan further stated that the initiative will make use of young students as change agents by educating them on the proper ways of disposing of solid waste. This will be done she said, by rolling out an aggressive campaign that involves all stakeholders	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591628
__label__cc	0.702691	0.297309	Our Papua New Guinea practice COVID-19 and the practical implications for the global aviation industry Global \| Update \| March 2020 COVID-19 (coronavirus) has had an early and extreme effect on the aviation industry. This article gives a short overview of some of the areas in which we are assisting our clients. Rental payments, force majeure and rent holidays An immediate consequence of an airline’s inability to operate and/or the substantial drop in demand is that some airlines have seen a huge fall in their revenues at a time when advance tickets sales are usually strong. This has been a problem, even for some large and well-established carriers. Airlines have reacted in different ways. Some have approached their lessors and financiers for rent or loan payment holidays or waivers in order to preserve cash. Some airlines are looking to enter into loans, or sell assets quickly in order to raise cash, for instance by the sale and leaseback of aircraft. Some have laid off staff or put them on unpaid leave. A number of airlines have appealed for government support. The current mantra is that “cash is king.” Although there are exceptions, many lessors and banks have sought to work with their airline customers and to agree to rent holidays or the restructuring of payments. This is largely an acknowledgment that, if the fundamental business of an airline is sound, it is better in the long term to ensure an airline’s survival than to risk its failure and to have to go through the process of repossession, which typically results in losses such as rent arrears and transition costs. In any event, many creditors will take the view that it makes little sense taking back aircraft at a time when demand is low and placing them at all, let alone at a similar rental, will be difficult. Nevertheless, some financiers and lessors, as well as other creditors such as airports or suppliers, require advice to protect their positions in the event of a default by an airline, particularly if – in the worst case scenarios - an insolvency procedure ensues. This was seen recently in the UK when FlyBe went into administration. Financial institutions may also have increased reporting requirements, as a result of the changes in the market. For some airlines, the scenario of a pandemic may have been contemplated at the time of the negotiation of the relevant lease and is catered for explicitly in a force majeure clause, with the effect that obligations are temporarily suspended on agreed terms. In the event of any government support being provided to airlines by way of emergency legislation, this may have an impact on investors, financiers or counterparties, who may need advice to understand the effect on their own interests. Wet leases Only a few months ago there was a severe shortage of aircraft, especially narrow bodies, largely as a result of the issues concerning the Boeing MAX aircraft, with the consequence that airlines were keen to supplement their fleets with wet leased aircraft. We saw a number of disputes arise where airlines which had committed to wet lease surplus capacity instead wanted to retain the aircraft to cover for grounded Boeing MAX aircraft. Now, the restrictions on flying mean that there is a surplus of capacity and wet lessees are looking for ways of releasing themselves from commitments to wet lease aircraft over what had been expected to be the busy summer period. Airport slots There have been reports across Europe of some airlines flying virtually empty aircraft (so called “ghost flights”) to maintain their entitlement to airport slots, as a result of the EU Slot Regulation (EEC 95/93) requiring airlines to operate 80 percent of allocated slots, or face losing their right to slots in future seasons. This so called “use it or lose it” rule has been severely criticized by airlines for this very reason, since it limits the flexibility of airlines when faced with demand reductions. The European Commission has relaxed slot rules during previous periods of financial stress for airlines, for instance after 9/11, during SARS and the Iraq war in 2003, and amid the financial crisis in 2009, and indeed earlier in the COVID-19 crisis in relation to flights to and from China. The EU Commission has now announced that to help ease the impact of COVID-19, it will put forward targeted legislation to temporarily alleviate airlines from their airport slot usage obligations under EU law. “This measure will help both the European industry and the environment. It releases pressure on the whole aviation industry and in particular on smaller airlines. It also decreases emissions by avoiding so-called ‘ghost flights’ where airlines fly almost empty aircraft to keep their slots.” Airlines await details of the precise measures which the Commission intends to put in place so that they can adjust their schedules accordingly. EC261 compensation and welfare claims European Union Regulation EC261 requires airlines to pay to customers substantial compensation, which can be significantly more than the ticket price, let alone the profit made on the ticket, for flights which are cancelled with 14 days or less notice, or delayed by 3 hours or more. Compensation is not payable if the delay or cancellation is caused by an extraordinary circumstance. Ultimately it is for the court to decide whether any flight was delayed or cancelled by an extraordinary circumstance but there has been welcome guidance from the UK Civil Aviation Authority that delays and cancellations caused by COVID-19 are considered caused by an extraordinary circumstance, including potentially where airlines seek to cancel flights within the 14 day period due to the economic and environmental consequences of operating flights with only a small number of passengers on board. This guidance is useful but it emphasizes that the tracking of the decision-making and the rationale for decisions is all the more important to be able to evidence the reasonableness of the steps taken. This is not easy in a constantly changing environment – we have been assisting clients by developing and putting in place systems and processes which do just that: which will assist in the defense of claims in the future, as well as supporting the response operation and improving corporate governance. Another obligation imposed on airlines under EC261 is the requirement to provide “welfare” (including food and accommodation) if required by a delay or cancellation. This can lead to an airline having to pay significant sums for hotel and subsistence, often many times the ticket price and, in accordance with the European Court of Justice’s decision, potentially for an unlimited period. It may make sense for an airline to reroute passengers by other means, including by rail, to avoid significant liabilities. Getting these issues right now can make a major difference to an airline’s liability under EC261 when the expected wave of claims arrives. Finally, in the case of cancellation, under EU law, airlines are required to provide a choice between refunding or rerouting customers. In addressing this, many airlines are seeking to strike the right balance between being responsive to customers’ needs and managing cash flow. For example they may offer innovative alternatives to refunds, by making the changing of flights simple and cost-free, or offering vouchers for future travel which are more than the face value of the tickets. These may be more attractive to passengers than refunds, while preserving cash for airlines. Robin Springthorpe robin.springthorpe@nortonrosefulbright.com Duncan Batchelor Global Head of Aviation duncan.batchelor@nortonrosefulbright.com The EU adopts its first global human rights sanctions regime The sanctions space is very active and changes are made frequently. This publication is current as of December 21, 2020.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591629
__label__wiki	0.970838	0.970838	Halatau praises Farah after farewell Sun 4 Sep 2016, 09:26 PM Retiring Wests Tigers veteran Dene Halatau says he wasn't expecting Sunday's loss to Canberra to be his last NRL game but now that it's all over, is looking to spending some more time with his young family. Halatau also had some very high praise for close mate Robbie Farah, who was also given a touching send-off by the Leichhardt faithful on Sunday afternoon before departing to an as-yet-unspecified new club next year. Draw Widget - Round 26 - Wests Tigers vs Raiders While Farah's departure has been acrimonious at times in terms of the club and coach, both he and Halatau – who has been stuck in the middle somewhat as the man filling in for Farah on the field – will be fondly remembered by fans. "I count him as the best Wests Tiger to play and wear the jersey so it was a great honour playing alongside him for so many years," Halatau said of his fellow 2005 premiership-winner. "We've had some really good memories together and gone through some tough times as well together and he's held himself really well and we're really close mates. "This year, I've got no doubts it's been a tough year for him but I found myself in the middle of it somewhat through no fault of my own but he's been great to me and we're talking constantly and our friendship's still sat above everything and we know there's definitely no hard feelings between us so our friendship will continue for a long time; we'll be mates for life." Two legends farewelled today. Thanks for everything. 🙌 pic.twitter.com/1fm6D5HSmL — Wests Tigers (@WestsTigers) September 4, 2016 Halatau was given a guard of honour at the start of the game as he walked out with his young daughter on his shoulder and the rest of his family at the ground and he said it is a moment that will stay with him – despite his disappointment at the 52-10 loss to Canberra on the day. "It's been a bit weird, I didn't come here thinking it was going to be all done," Halatau told NRL.com. "I kind of expected us to put in a better performance than that and really have a crack at the finals but it wasn't to be. They showed us the way to play and we gifted them the ball a lot and made it really hard on ourselves." Despite his disappointment at not playing finals to finish, Halatau praised the Leichhardt faithful for their support both on Sunday and over the years. "It's my favourite place to play, Sunday arvos at Leichhardt Oval. It's where I started and it's where I finish. It was an awesome crowd and an awesome build-up," he said. "The excitement was there but obviously the disappointment of the result overrides that a bit but it's done now, we can't really change it. I look forward to relaxing in the next couple of days and just enjoying the company of the boys." Halatau's young family will also benefit from having him around more. "My eldest girl (Tayla) will definitely look back and remember when dad played first grade footy and that's really important to me," he said. "My youngest (Payton), she's not quite aware of what's going on, she just knows there's people around but that was really important and obviously having my wife (Rochelle) there at the sideline at the start and the end of the game and my mum and my dad and my brother and sister, it's a big reason why I play the game is for my family so it was great having them there. "They get me for the weekends now and they get me stress free. Everything sort of revolves around game day through your career, you do all the prep and I'm always fairly quiet on game day and I know that's pretty tough on the wife and the kids when dad gets into a bit of a mood, but I look forward to having those weekends free and being able to unwind and relax and not having to stress too much about games." Halatau also had belief that he was going out with the club in a good position to build and improve for the future. "I've got a lot of belief in the group and if they continue to work and build on what has happened the last couple of months and there's no doubt in my mind the next couple of years will prove pretty successful," he said. "I'll be there supporting the boys and I'm looking forward to seeing what they can do." Tigers season a definite pass mark: Taylor Sun 04 Sep, 2016 Updated team lists: Wests Tigers v Raiders Tigers hope for Leichhardt magic repeat No trust issues for 'Leipana' Wests Tigers settle in for nervous wait	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591630
__label__wiki	0.680281	0.680281	Revelations Of Oblivion There was a time in which genuine power was felt erupting from the sonic landscape that is now referred to as “old school” death metal. As with most newly developed forms of art, at its genesis it was filled with a fresh and vibrant energy and was virtually unsaturated by musicians. It was the mighty POSSESSED who initially breathed life into this new and exciting genre. With writing that started in 1982, the first official death metal band created the now classic record »Seven Churches« and established the face of the genre permanently. Even DEATH’s late guitarist and mastermind Chuck Schuldiner who is sometimes credited with creating the genre, was adamant about the album’s influence upon him. Sadly, like with many artistic pioneers, it was very early on in POSSESSED’s existence that a grand tragedy struck which would put the band on hiatus for almost two decades. After many years of healing, education, renewal, and eventually new writing, there is now a resurgence of life, and the rebuilt, and polished POSSESSED are due to return with their long awaited album »Revelations Of Oblivion« this Spring, 2019. As time has passed the line-up for the band has shifted and after tireless striving for perfection, the ultimate combination has been settled upon. POSSESSED is now original founder and song writer Jeff Becerra (Vocals), Daniel Gonzalez on guitar (Nailshitter, Gruesome), Claudeous Creamer on guitars (Dragonlord, Serpent, Girth), Robert Cardenas on bass guitar (Coffin Texts, Masters of Metal, Agent Steel, Malice, Engrave), and Emilio Marquez (Brainstorm, Sadistic Intent, Engrave, Brujeria) on drums. With the majority of the album written by founder Jeff Becerra and his partner in crime Guitarist Daniel Gonzalez, the new tracks manage to hang on to what all metal-heads hope for with their favorite artists; a consistent sound. It is a guarantee that fans will know immediately upon listening to »Revelations Of Oblivion« that this is in fact, the familiar sound of POSSESSED. The album is adorned with artwork by Polish artist Zbigniew Bielak who has created artwork for bands like ABSU, DEICIDE, GHOST, GORGUTS, PARADISE LOST, and the like. The painting on the cover radiates a complex, demonic, hellfire ridden feel. With elements of the actual lyrics strewn throughout, the image tells a very detailed story. Symbolic and abstract images of cathedrals, horrifying demons, and gothic stained glass windows are detailed magnificently. Though we’ve seen enlightened transformations throughout humanity over the past several decades, there still remains a hovering horror that can be found inside most standardized religions; often appearing to preach love and modesty, though many believe they actually demand a sort of violence and lust for power that will one day be the undoing of humanity as we know it. It is with this artwork and the underlying message of the lyrics that POSSESSED hope to bring back the notion of true fear that was once associated with the idea of evil. Tracks like ‘No More Room In Hell’ describe a hell on earth where there is no more physical God, Satan, or afterlife to discern right from wrong, only the leftovers of humanity existing in torture and plague. ‘The Word’ goes more in depth concerning the less tangible ideals of a religious fallout such as the loss of scripture, and how humanity reacts when there is no longer a “word” of God to bestow boundaries upon them. Songs like ‘Ritual’ and ‘Graven’ focus on more specific notions of hatred, religion, and what it means to engulf oneself within these things. Co-produced by Daniel Gonzalez and executive produced by Jeff Becerra, the album was recorded at NRG studios, Titan Studios, and mixed & mastered by the likes of Peter Tägtgren (HYPOCRISY, PAIN, BLOODBATH) at Abyss studios in Sweden. Becerra comments: “Working with Peter was a fantastic experience. We put a great deal of thought into who we wanted to produce our new album. Since we hadn't made an all-new material release in well over 30 years, it was essential that we found the right person. Peter's name kept coming up over and over, and after speaking with my bandmates they all really liked Peter as he is more organic, and somebody we felt would fit in well with our process.” Summertime and festival season are right around the corner, ushering in new opportunity for live shows and tour cycles for the band. With exciting announcements drawing near, POSSESSED is ready to take on the road. Crawling out of a pale inferno of creation, life, loss, and injury, the ensemble has returned to reignite the flame of true Death Metal. Prepare yourselves for you are soon to behold »Revelations Of Oblivion« as the harbinger of a resurrected musical era. 1 - Chant Of Oblivion 1:53 2 - No More Room In Hell 4:48 3 - Dominion 4:25 4 - Damned 5:00 5 - Demon 5:16 6 - Abandoned 5:20 7 - Shadowcult 4:43 8 - Omen 6:41 9 - Ritual 4:47 10 - The Word 5:09 11 - Graven 4:19 12 - Temple Of Samael 1:49 Jeff Becerra Daniel Gonzales Emilio Marquez Robert Cardenas Claudeous Creamer Tweets von @jeffbecerra POSSESSED »	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591631
__label__wiki	0.851583	0.851583	Franz Kafka: The Best Works This ebook compiles Franz Kafka's greatest writings, including novels, novellas, short stories and parables such as "Amerika", "The Trial", "The Metamorphosis", "The Castle", "In the Penal Colony", "A Hunger Artist" and "The Great Wall of China". This edition has been professionally formatted and contains several tables of contents. The first table of contents (at the very beginning of the ebook) lists the titles of all novels included in this volume. By clicking on one of those titles you will be redirected to the beginning of that work, where you'll find a new TOC that lists all the chapters and sub-chapters of that specific work.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591632
__label__wiki	0.776924	0.776924	Radio Lineup Newstalk Florida – N Home Florida Daytona Head of the line: Big companies got coronavirus loans first, small businesses... Head of the line: Big companies got coronavirus loans first, small businesses at the end of the line. By News Talk Florida - NEW YORK (AP) — Ever since the U.S. government launched its emergency lending program for small businesses on April 3, there have been complaints that bigger companies had their loans approved and disbursed more quickly. There is now evidence to back up those complaints. An Associated Press analysis of Small Business Administration’s $659 billion Paycheck Protection Program shows that nearly a third of the loans approved in the program’s first week ranged from $150,000 to $10 million, the maximum allowed. In a second round of funding that began April 27, such loans made up just 7.4% of the total. The average loan size fell from $257,240 on April 10 to nearly $105,000 as of July 17, according to the SBA. The PPP made very low-interest loans available to any business — or any franchisee of a business — with under 500 employees. The loans would be forgiven if most of the money was used to keep employees on payroll. Larger companies with connections to major national or regional banks got priority treatment in the program’s initial phase, the data show, while many smaller businesses said they were turned away because the banks required them to have a checking account, a credit card and a previous loan to be considered. Some small businesses submitted an application but then heard nothing. Small restaurants, retailers and other companies most in need were left waiting and unable to pay their employees, landlords or vendors. Many learned not from their bank but via news reports that the initial $349 billion in funding had run out in less than two weeks. “The program was structured to take advantage of existing banking relationships that favored established businesses,” said John Arensmeyer, the CEO of the advocacy group Small Business Majority. “It was not designed for very small businesses.” It’s not clear how many small companies have failed because of the pandemic. A survey conducted for the National Bureau of Economic Research by researchers at Harvard University, the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois found 2% of small businesses surveyed had shut down permanently in March, just after the pandemic hit the U.S. In theory, that means 100,000 of U.S. small businesses closed their doors before the PPP was even launched. Andrew Cao applied for a $72,500 loan for his digital marketing company with 10 full-time and part-time employees the day after the first round opened. Cao submitted his application to Bank of America, where his company had been a customer for 10 years. Cao got two phone calls telling him he should submit his documentation, which he already had done, but could get no information on his loan. “When we heard the funds were exhausted, I said, ‘Are you serious?‘, we tried to do everything we could — we submitted papers, contacted the bank, and then nothing,’” says Cao, co-owner of Motoza, based in Austin, Texas. Cao submitted an application through a small local bank two days before the first round ended. Motoza got its loan a few days after the program’s April 27 reopening. The PPP, which still has more than $130 billion available, is a key part of the government’s coronavirus relief plan. It’s credited with supporting the job market when millions of workers have been laid off. The data released by the SBA July 6 does show that by June 30, 85% of the PPP loans had been for less than $150,000. Still, the AP analysis shows that early on some of the nation’s biggest banks were quickly approving loans for larger customers before ramping up their volume of smaller loans. In the first week, 27% of the 4,231 loans JPMorgan Chase made were over $1 million. Chase, the nation’s largest bank and the biggest PPP lender through June 30, processed 243,427 loans in the second round of funding; only half a percent were $1 million or more. Among other big banks, nearly 18% of the 1,185 loans TD Bank made the first week were over $1 million, as were 13% of Truist’s 7,143 loans. PNC made just 675 loans in the first week, but 40% were above $1 million. At Chase, each of four divisions handled their clients’ loans separately, spokeswoman Patricia Wexler said. That included its commercial banking division; among its customers are larger small and mid-size businesses. “There was no prioritization of one business line over another. Each business processed applications generally sequentially in the order in which the clients applied,” Wexler said. Truist spokesman Kyle Tarrance said, “applications were handled through a single application portal made available to clients on a first-come, first-served basis, without any preference given to any client, including larger or more affluent clients.” PNC said in a statement, “several factors may have affected the processing speed of individual applications. For example, loans that were incomplete necessarily took longer to process.” The bank also noted that the SBA did not begin accepting applications from self-employed individuals and independent contractors, whose loan amounts were among the smallest, until a week into the program. TD Bank did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Bigger loans are typically prepared by a team of finance officers and accountants using sophisticated software, while small companies might not have such polished applications that take more time to review. Familiarity with well-established customers can expedite the application process. And from the banks’ perspective, it’s good business to take care of their biggest customers. Although the evidence points to big loans going to the head of the line at banks, it’s not clear what happened once applications entered the SBA system. The SBA did not respond to a request for comment. At the start, only established SBA lenders could take applications, limiting businesses’ ability to apply. The government did eventually bring online lenders, credit unions and more community banks into the fold. But “it may have been too late for who knows how many small businesses,” said Karen Kerrigan, president of the advocacy group Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council. Jane Gideon applied for a loan for her publicity firm the day the PPP began but was left waiting when the initial funds ran out. “When it didn’t come through the first time, I knew what was happening. The wealthy and connected had priority because they have the relationships that put them at the front of the queue,” says Gideon, owner of San Francisco-based Incendio International. She didn’t hear until April 29 that her loan was approved. AP Data Editor Meghan Hoyer and AP Data Journalists Angeliki Kastanis and Justin Myers contributed to this report. News Talk Florida News Talk Florida Staff 1968 A Year In Review FBI: Proud Boys fan stockpiled ammo, knives in NY home Biden is not a fan of Trump’s Impeachment thinks it will slow down his agenda Is it really possible to keep President Trump from running again in 2024? Expecting trouble, DC locks down a week before the inauguration WHBO AM 1040 WWBA AM 820 Updated Hurricane Irma Evacuation Shelters: Hillsborough County GOP’s fear and loathing of Hillary Clinton cost you $100 million THE POLITICAL EPIPHANY OF #WalkAway – The Democrats start to worry... NewsTalk Florida Newsletter Will The Countdown Clock To MLB Spring Training Be Stopped? Are the Democrats stepping up their attacks on American culture? News Talk Florida’s Bubba The Love Sponge Begins Airing His Successful... Popular Interviews Clearwater Redefines Relationship Between City and Tourists Florida Live: Gregg Popovich Goes After Trump Again Relative ‘devastated’ after shooting kills 8 in Mississippi Here at News Talk Florida we strive to use creativity and innovation in order to introduce our followers to new and distinctive angles. Our mission has always been to measure success through the growth and development of our talent and client partners. © 2020 Genesis Communications II, Inc. 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__label__wiki	0.814712	0.814712	Back to All Resources Honoring Caregiver Heroes Our in-person CNA practice labs are named in honor of caregivers who broke barriers, cared for others despite grave danger to themselves, fought for equity and shaped the future of caregiving. Read on to learn more about their contributions. Mary Eliza Mahoney Mary Eliza Mahoney was the first African American to study and work as a professionally trained nurse in the United States. After working for some time as an untrained practical nurse, she took a job at the New England Hospital for Women and Children in Roxbury, Massachusetts, providing housekeeping and serving as a nursing assistant. It was not until 15 years later, in 1878, that the hospital accepted her into its nursing school. After graduating in 1879, Mahoney went on to help found the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses and became one of the first African American members of the Nurses Associated Alumnae of the United States and Canada, now the American Nursing Association. She fought for racial and gender equity throughout the rest of her life. Her efforts are credited heavily for doubling the number of African American nurses in the United States between 1910 and 1930, and she has been honored by the Nursing Hall of Fame and the National Women’s Hall of Fame. Mary Seacole Mary Seacole was a British Jamaican business woman and nurse who set up the “British Hotel'' near Sevastopol to feed and house sick soldiers during the Crimean War. Born in 1805, Seacole was skilled in traditional medicine and gained practical nursing experience during her travels to the Bahamas, Haiti, Cuba, England and Panama. In addition to running the British Hotel, Seacole assisted patients at the military hospitals and cared for wounded soldiers on the front lines. She was posthumously awarded the Jamiacan Order of Merit in 1991. In 2004 Mary Seacole was voted the greatest Black Briton. Susie King Taylor, a nurse and teacher, was the first African American woman to publish an account of her experiences during the Civil War: Reminiscences of My Life in Camp with the 33d United States Colored Troops, Late 1st S.C. Volunteers. She tended to an African American army troop for four years during the war and worked as a nurse at the Beaumont, South Carolina, hospital for African American soldiers. Taylor was also the first African American educator to openly teach in a school for formerly enslaved people in Georgia. Taylor went on to open a school for African American children in Savannah, Georgia, after the war ended and eventually became the president of the Women’s Relief Corps. Mabel Staupers Mabel Staupers, a Caribbean American nurse, executive and activist played an essential role in ending segregation in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps. Born in 1890, Staupers co-founded the Booker T. Washington Sanitarium in Harlem in collaboration with Louis T. Wright and James Wilson. After serving as the sanatorium’s director from 1920 to 1921, Staupers conducted research on the health care needs of Harlem residents that helped launch the formation of the Harlem Committee of the New York Tuberculosis and Health Association. She also served as executive secretary of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses, which dissolved itself in 1951 after Staupers’ and other activists’ efforts to fully integrate the American Nurses Association were successful. That same year, Staupers was awarded the Springarn Medal from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Clara Barton, a nurse and teacher, founded the American Red Cross in 1881. Early in her life, Barton established one of New Jersey’s first free public schools and was the first woman to serve as a copyist in the Patent Office in Washington, D.C. During the Civil War, Barton earned the nickname “Angel of the Battlefield” for nursing wounded soldiers. She also served as the head nurse for an army unit. Barton was president of the American Red Cross from its founding through 1904. Florence Nightingale was a British nurse whose work understanding and improving sanitation and hygiene in health care facilities in England and Crimea saved thousands of lives and changed the way nursing is viewed and practiced throughout the world. Nightingale began her nursing career studying at a Lutheran Hospital in Germany in 1844. When she returned to England to work in a Middlesex hospital, she was quickly promoted to superintendent. In this role, she grappled with a cholera outbreak that inspired her commitment to improving hygiene conditions. During the Crimean War, Nightingale became known as the Lady with the Lamp for her day- and night-long commitment to caring for the sick. After the war, she was named as an honorary member of the American Statistical Association for her work creating the “Nightingale Rose Diagram,” which helped demonstrate and address the high percentage of troops that were dying from preventable disease. Adah Belle Samuels Thoms Adah Belle Samuels Thoms was a well known nurse and activist in the early 20th century. Alongside more than 50 other African American nurses, she helped found the National Association of Colored Nurses in 1908. She also served as the organization’s president for seven years. Her advocacy was influential in securing African American nurses’ access to serve in the American Red Cross. Thoms was inducted into the American Nurses Association Hall of Fame upon its creation in 1976. Want to Become a Caregiver Hero? Learn more! Honoring Caregiver HeroesView Six Top Tools for CNAsView Do You Have a Caregiver Personality?View To Care Well For Others, First Care For YourselfView hello@nextstep.com About NextStep About UsCareersResourcesMedia Center Practice Lab Sign InPrivacy PolicyEnd User License Agreement ©2020 NextStep Interactive - All Rights Reserved For EmployersFor LearnersAbout Us Choose Your State. NextStep is proud to offer CNA training in Colorado. We'll be launching CNA programs in more states soon! All Other States	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591634
__label__cc	0.706894	0.293106	Nobody seems to be mentioning that this game is supposed to be a rivalry game for the Governor’s Victory Bell. With such a lack of publicity, and with the teams waiting three years to see each other, I have to wonder what kind of a rivalry the marketing geniuses were trying to promote. Here, for your reference is a picture of the Governor’s Victory Bell trophy. Whether we’ll see it at the game is anyone’s guess. What’s Dis Decker? Decker, Decker, Decker… that is all we’re hearing these days. Triple Decker Club Sandwiches, Double Decker London Buses, Black & Decker Chinese power tools… Oh, and Eric Decker of the Minnesota Golden Gophers. Eric Decker leads the Big Ten in two categories: receptions per game and average receiving yards, at 7.67 and 114.83, respectively. Decker, a 22 year-old senior from Cold Spring, Minnesota, is known for his mental toughness and athletic ability, and is the cornerstone of the Gopher offense. Hell, he even can throw a pass himself, and he occasionally is called upon to do so. Some would think that Decker is the only player on the team, as evidenced by the following question and answer taken from Nittany Lions head coach Joe Paterno’s Tuesday press conference. Joe got cranked up because a reporter asked him how the Lions planned to defend against Decker. Questioner: On the Timmons thing, what would your plans be to cover Decker? Will you try to rotate cornerbacks? Paterno: Why in God’s name would I answer that in any way? You sound like a Minnesota assistant coach. What are you going to do with Decker? You know, I don’t know. We may put four corners on him, all right, let everybody else run for touchdowns. I don’t know what we’re going to do yet. We got to look at some things. It’s Tuesday. We’ve had one practice. We had a long discussion this morning as to some of the things they do. Minnesota gives you a lot of problems. You never see the same offense two weeks in a row with Minnesota. They’re very, very innovative. They’ve got smart kids that can handle different formations, different pass routes each week. They have that experienced quarterback who is able to keep everything together. So I don’t know what to expect. We’ve got to play our game. We can’t guess. There’s no question Decker is a guy that’s a very big concern of ours. But they’ll jam that ball down your throat if you’re not careful. They can run the football. This is a good football team. This is a good football team. Note the final couple of sentences: “This is a good football team. This is a good football team.” That is what Joe called Eastern Illinois, Illinois, Temple, Syracuse, and Akron (just once). Therefore, there is great hope here for a victory. But I have promises to keep. And miles to go before I sleep. And miles to go before I sleep. If you want to look at common opponents, we have had one this year thus far: Syracuse. Minnesota beat the Orange 23-20 in the season opener in overtime while Penn State, playing their most complete game of the year thus far, won their battle with the Orangemen, 28-7. If you recall, this was the game in which the Nittany Lions finally found their running game. Minnesota has had the tougher schedule thus far, losing only to then #8 Cal (35-21) and Wisconsin (31-28). This is a difficult stretch for the Gophers, as they’ll also be facing #7 Ohio State on the road next week. Exploring the Unknown Because of the Lions’ cupcake dominated schedule, it is impossible to determine where the team really is now. This game should give us a better indication than we have had thus far as to Penn State’s efficacy on the field. We think they have a good pass rush and we think they have a good defense against the run, but we do not know. We think we might have a cohesive offensive line – do not include me in that camp – but we do not know. We have no idea whatsoever whether the defensive secondary can defend the deep pass threat. However, we do know one thing for damn sure: our kickoff and punt coverage and return units suck badly. In fact, we do not know whether Daryll Clark can play in a pressure game. He folded against Iowa when the going got rough. He pouted for the second half of that game and for the first half of the Illinois game. If the offensive line is unable to protect him, will he be able to surmount the adversity? We do not know. Why we are still exploring the unknown halfway through the season is a function of a rough start with several unsettled positions on the offensive line, injuries on defense, and the uncertainty of playing an early schedule peppered with slackers. The Nittany Lions are looking better, but are they good enough to win Big Ten games against the better teams? The next four games – the veritable “meat” of the schedule – will tell the tale one way or the other. One area in which the Lions should find success is with the pass rush. Minnesota has allowed 2.5 sacks per game. They allowed five last week against Purdue. The Lions’ front seven must be licking their chops in anticipation. If they can be effective in rushing the passer, the threat of Decker beating the secondary deep can be minimized. Minnesota has three good linebackers, led by MLB Lee Campbell with 10.6 tackles per game and Nate Triplett with 10.2 tpg. Potential Stumbling Blocks Special teams had better improve damn fast. Minnesota ranks 7th nationally in punt returns and 12th in kickoff returns. Penn State ranks 99th and 119th in these statistical categories. The suckage is obvious and this will hurt the Nittany Lions. Turnovers are another Achilles heel: Penn State ranks 76th with a net give-up of .33 per game while the Golden Gophers rank 61st and are dead even between give-ups and take-aways. I suspect that Minnesota will try to beat the Nittany Lions with the pass, because they respect the PSU rushing defense. Nevertheless, they are not stupid. They know about the Penn State schedule, too, and they will have to test the rushing defense just to see if it is as good as it appears on paper. It will be interesting to see how the PSU defensive interior handle 375 lb juco transfer Jeff Wills. You have to respect a team that can keep a game tied with a decent PAC-10 team until the fourth quarter. In that game against Cal, junior quarterback Adam Weber went 21-32 for 226 yards and two touchdowns, but three interceptions gave Cal the edge. All-Time Name Winner? In doing my apostrophe search through the Minnesota roster, I found a potential candidate for the best apostrophiated name ever in college football. Senior fullback Logan U’u is a serious front-runner, at least in the name derby. The forecast is for a high of 38, with a chance for rain mixed with snow. This is ya-better-hang-onto-da-ball weather. For the fans, it is bundle up time. And remember, no glass bottles of human antifreeze at the tailgates this year. Turkey Poop Prediction You’ve read this far, so you deserve more of the same. That’s what you’ll get. Remember our credo: A tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Because of the uncertainty of this week, the Official Turkey Poop Prediction, which was uncannily accurate last week, is in a bad way this week, signifying nothing. As I’ve mentioned above, the gamblers have established Penn State as a 17-point favorite, with an over/under of 50. This suggests a potential final score of 33-17, or thereabouts. When in doubt, I’ll go with the home team, especially, if the home team is the Nittany Lions. When in doubt, I’ll also throw the spread out the window, given Penn State’s penchant for not covering it. I’m not hopping off the Lions’ train just yet. Penn State 27, Minnesota 17. Filed Under: Penn State Football Merry Christmas to All! December 20, 2020 Who Cares? December 18, 2020 Will They Play? December 15, 2020 Going Forward December 15, 2020 Lovie Dovey All the Time December 14, 2020 A Most Decisive Upset in 1964 Bye Week at Rutgers Penn State Blogroll 2theLion.com Big Ten Blog CFBNation: Penn State Nittany Lions JoePa's Doghouse Linebacker-U Nittany Lines Nittany Lion All-Sports Blog Nittany Lions Den Onward State The Lion's Den Victory Bell Rings William F. Yurasko Penn State Football Links Bleacher Report: Penn State Football Blue White Illustrated Fight On State Lions247 Nitt Notes Nittany Anthology Nittany Links Nittany Network Penn State Football Letter Pennstatefansite.com The Digital Collegian Criminal Brief Politics, Statesmanship, Philosophy The Double Standard The Eye Life Whodat Turkey? The Nittany Turkey is a retired techno-geek who thinks he knows something about Penn State football and everything else in the world. If there's a topic, we have an opinion on it, and you know what "they" say about opinions! Most of what is posted here involves a heavy dose of hip-shooting conjecture, but unlike some other blogs, we don't represent it as fact. Read More… Enter your email address to subscribe to the Nittany Turkey and receive notifications of new posts by email. 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__label__wiki	0.609085	0.609085	Maps of Islington Insurance Plan of London North North West District Vol. D: sheet 9 1 : 480 This detailed 1892 plan of London is one of a series of eight sheets in an atlas originally produced to aid insurance companies in assessing fire risks. The building footprints, their use (commercial, residential, educational, etc.), the number of floors and the height of the building, as well as construction materials (and thus risk of burning) and special fire hazards (chemicals, kilns, ovens) were documented in order to estimate premiums. Names of individual businesses, property lines, and addresses were also often recorded. Together these maps provide a rich historical shapshot of the commercial activity and urban landscape of towns and cities at the time. The British Library holds a comprehensive collection of fire insurance plans produced by the London-based firm Charles E. Goad Ltd. dating back to 1885. These plans were made for most important towns and cities of the British Isles at the scales of 1:480 (1 inch to 40 feet), as well as many foreign towns at 1:600 (1 inch to 50 feet). Chas E Goad Limited Chas E Goad Limited London VII.34 - OS London Town Plan Insurance Plan of London Vol. xi: sheet 398-1 1 : 480 This detailed 1891 plan of London is one of a series of forty seven sheets in an atlas originally produced to aid insurance companies in assessing fire risks. The building footprints, their use (commercial, residential, educational, etc.), the number of floors and the height of the building, as well as construction materials (and thus risk of burning) and special fire hazards (chemicals, kilns, ovens) were documented in order to estimate premiums. Names of individual businesses, property lines, and addresses were also often recorded. Together these maps provide a rich historical shapshot of the commercial activity and urban landscape of towns and cities at the time. The British Library holds a comprehensive collection of fire insurance plans produced by the London-based firm Charles E. Goad Ltd. dating back to 1885. These plans were made for most important towns and cities of the British Isles at the scales of 1:480 (1 inch to 40 feet), as well as many foreign towns at 1:600 (1 inch to 50 feet). Chas E Goad Limited Chas E Goad Limited SKETCH PLAN AS LAID OUT FOR BUILDING HOUSES OF THE SECOND AND THIRD RATE OF BUILDINGS AT BATTLE BRIDGE, THE PROPERTY OF ROBERT Mc WILLIAM AND THE TRUSTEES UNDER HIS MARRIAGE SETTLEMENT. Plan for proposed new buildings at Battle Bridge, the site where King's Cross railway station now stands. Standidge & Lemon Insurance Plan of London North District Vol. D: sheet 10 1 : 480 This detailed 1901 plan of London is one of a series of twenty sheets in an atlas originally produced to aid insurance companies in assessing fire risks. The building footprints, their use (commercial, residential, educational, etc.), the number of floors and the height of the building, as well as construction materials (and thus risk of burning) and special fire hazards (chemicals, kilns, ovens) were documented in order to estimate premiums. Names of individual businesses, property lines, and addresses were also often recorded. Together these maps provide a rich historical shapshot of the commercial activity and urban landscape of towns and cities at the time. The British Library holds a comprehensive collection of fire insurance plans produced by the London-based firm Charles E. Goad Ltd. dating back to 1885. These plans were made for most important towns and cities of the British Isles at the scales of 1:480 (1 inch to 40 feet), as well as many foreign towns at 1:600 (1 inch to 50 feet). Chas E Goad Limited Chas E Goad Limited Insurance Plan of London North North West District Vol. D: sheet 8-2 London (1915- Numbered sheets) V.6 (includes: Finsbury; Holborn; Islington; St Pancras) - 25 Inch Map London (First Editions c1850s) XXVI (includes: Finsbury; Holborn; Islington; St Pancras) - 25 Inch Map Insurance Plan of London North District Vol. D (Key C): sheet 3-1 A New and Accurate SURVEY of the PARISHES of St. Andrews Holbourn Plan of the parishes of St. Andrew's, Holborn, St George's, Queen Square, St James's Clerkenwell, St Luke's, Old Street, St Mary's Islington and the Charterhouse Liberty. Cole, B. Trade Card Map of Islington T. Starling 1 : 12672 Map of the borough of Islington with inset plan of the parish of St Mary's on the left of the plate and note giving information about the borough down the right side of the plate. The plan shows the New River, a man made water course supplying London with fresh water from Hertfordshire. Baker, E. London VII.NW - OS Six-Inch Map Poverty map of London, 1891 Charles Booth LONDINUM FERACISSIMI ANGLIAE REGNI METROPOLIS This derivative of Braun & Hogenberg's 1572 map of London was published in Belle Forest's 'La Cosmographie universelle de tout le monde'. The map's title features at the top of the plate, flanked by Tudor and city arms. Descriptive notes in French appear at bottom left and bottom right, with figures of merchants at bottom centre. The map is similar in detail to the 'Copperplate Map', the earliest printed map of London of which no complete copy survives. Merchant ships, cranes, mills, bull- and bear-baiting pits, the large tennis courts at Westminster and the stags in St. James’s are examples of London business and leisure activities. Walled gardens, elegant churches and livery halls testify to the high quality of life enjoyed by its citizens. Braun, Georg & Hogenberg, Frans Militärgeographische Angaben über England. Generalstab des Heeres, Abteilung für Kriegskarten u. Vermessungswesen IV. Mil.-Geo A Plan of the New Intended Road from Paddington to Islington. A Plan of te Parish of ST MARY ISLINGTON, with the boundaries of the Several Ecclesiastical Districts, Sueveyed by R. Creighton for the Parochial History, BY S. LEWIS, JUNR. 1 : 15840 Plan of the parish of St Mary's Islington, with the nine ecclesiastical districts that make up the parish delineated by pastel colours. Dower, John, Pentonville. Charles Booth's descriptive map of London poverty 1889 A New and Accurate PLAN of the CITIES of LONDON AND WESTMINSTER, including the NEW ROADS & NEW BUILDINGS. 1765 This map shows the London, Westminster and Blackfriars bridges across the Thames, marking the many stairways down to the water necessary before the bridges were built. WALLIS'S PLAN of the CITIES of LONDON and WESTMINSTER 1797 This is the first edition of a map published seven times over a period of 16 years. This plan has been physically trimmed resulting in the loss of some information. The scale bar and list of Hackney coach fares would have been to the bottom right. Wallis, John Plan nouveau et correct des villes et fauxbourgs de Londres et Westminster et du bourg de Southwark 1 Plan : Kupferdruck ; 28 x 48 cm Le Rouge Georges Louis le Rouge A pocket map of London, Westminster and Southwark 1 Plan : Kupferdruck ; 26 x 51 cm Hoole; Seale printed and sold by H. Overton and J. Hoole at the White Horse without Newgate Insurance Plan of London North District Vol. D: Key Plan 1 : 3600 This "key plan" indicates coverage of the Goad 1901 series of fire insurance maps of London that were originally produced to aid insurance companies in assessing fire risks. The building footprints, their use (commercial, residential, educational, etc.), the number of floors and the height of the building, as well as construction materials (and thus risk of burning) and special fire hazards (chemicals, kilns, ovens) were documented in order to estimate premiums. Names of individual businesses, property lines, and addresses were also often recorded. Together these maps provide a rich historical shapshot of the commercial activity and urban landscape of towns and cities at the time. The British Library holds a comprehensive collection of fire insurance plans produced by the London-based firm Charles E. Goad Ltd. dating back to 1885. These plans were made for most important towns and cities of the British Isles at the scales of 1:480 (1 inch to 40 feet), as well as many foreign towns at 1:600 (1 inch to 50 feet). Chas E Goad Limited Chas E Goad Limited Grundstriss der Statt LONDON wie solche vor und nach dem Brand anzuschen sampt dem Newen Model wie selbige wid rum Auffgebauwet werden solle This is a map of London immediately after the great fire of 1666. The map was first published by the Merian Heirs of Frankfurt in 1677, appearing in the anthology "Theatri Europei". The title appears in a scroll along the top, flanked by royal and city arms. Notes on shading and an inset plan of Robert Hooke’s designs for rebuilding the city appear in another scroll at the foot of the plate. Hooke's plan is given with its own key and reference table. A Correct PLAN of the CITIES of LONDON & WESTMINSTER & BOROUGH of SOUTHWARK, including the BILLS of MORTALITY, with the ADDITIONAL BUILDINGS 118x This map of London was published as a supplement to Vol. 30 of the 'London Magazine' in 1761. Attributed to John Rocque, the map’s title features in panel below the plan with the publisher’s imprint along the top. The Bills of Mortality referred to in the title were the areas in Greater London that reported death notices directly to the London government. Rocque, John This plan for a survey of London was published in Volume VIII of ‘Encyclopaedia Londinensis' in 1814. The plan's title appears above the plan, with a compass star at the top right. St. Paul's Cathedral and other prominent buildings are shown pictorially, with other places of interest indicated by numbers. Jones, George A POCKET MAP OF LONDON, WESTMINSTER AND SOUTHWARK With ye New Buildings to ye Year 1739 The map's title appears in English and Dutch in a panel along the top. A descriptive note features below the title, with royal arms at top left, city arms at top right and fares of hackney coaches and water ferries in a panel below the plan. The map shows the new bridge at Westminster and represents prominent buildings and landmark three-dimensionally. De Leth, Hendrick A Correct PLAN of the CITIES of LONDON & WESTMINSTER & BOROUGH of SOUTHWARK, including the BILLS of MORTALITY, with the ADDITIONAL BUILDINGS 118 This map of London was published as supplement to Volume 30 of the 'London Magazine' in 1761. Attributed to John Rocque, the map's title features in a panel below the plan, with the publisher’s imprint along the top. [Rocque, John] A New PLAN of LONDON WESTMINSTER and SOUTHWARK Engraved for Noorthouck's This map highlights in red the boundaries of the old London Wall, built by the Romans. By the end of the 17th Century it had become an anachronistic nuisance. The first section (near Bishops Gate) was removed in 1707 and much of the rest was broken down or built over during the 18th Century. Most of the gates were pulled down in 1760/1, wtih Newgate, the last to survive, demolished in 1777. Noorthouck, John Scale: 1 : 480 Description: This detailed 1892 plan of London is one of a series of eight sheets in an atlas originally produced to aid insurance companies in assessing fire risks. The building footprints, their use (commercial, residential, educational, etc.), the number of floors and the height of the building, as well as construction materials (and thus risk of burning) and special fire hazards (chemicals, kilns, ovens) were documented in order to estimate premiums. Names of individual businesses, property lines, and addresses were also often recorded. Together these maps provide a rich historical shapshot of the commercial activity and urban landscape of towns and cities at the time. The British Library holds a comprehensive collection of fire insurance plans produced by the London-based firm Charles E. Goad Ltd. dating back to 1885. These plans were made for most important towns and cities of the British Isles at the scales of 1:480 (1 inch to 40 feet), as well as many foreign towns at 1:600 (1 inch to 50 feet). Creator: Chas E Goad Limited Publisher: Chas E Goad Limited	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591639
__label__wiki	0.621534	0.621534	PR's Top Pros Talk: Matt Kucharski Fri., Jun. 19, 2020 Padilla president Matt Kucharski offers some pointers on how firms can make the most of the “new reality” they are facing in the latest installment of “PR’s Top Pros Talk,” a video interview series produced by D S Simon Media in partnership with O’Dwyer’s. Kucharski’s team at Padilla has been conducting what he calls “an ethnography study of the C-Suite,” which looks at how executives at a range of companies are dealing with the changes that have resulted from the coronavirus crisis and the wave of racial unrest that followed the killing of George Floyd. He says that the expectations of both a company’s employees and its clients are changing to adjust to the new environment. Those changing expectations are leading to a greater appreciation of the role that strategic communications play. Top of the list for communicators, Kucharski says, is transparency—which is leading to a greater demand for company leaders and spokespeople to get out in front of the public themselves to deliver their messages. “You have to put a face and a voice to the organization,” he notes, “and there’s no better way to do that then through senior leadership and obviously video.” He also says that a big part of transparency is to admit when you don’t have an immediate answer or solution to a problem. “It’s OK to say I don’t know,” he says, “and that we’re going to work through this.” Despite the challenges, Kucharski sees a positive side to the ever-changing situation. “Employees and customers have this opportunity to look at how each one of these brands is responding to these life-changing events and determining whether or not their character and their reputation is reflective of that.” All of the interviews in the “PR's Top Pros Talk” series can be seen here. Interested in taking part? Contact Doug Simon at dougs@dssimonmedia.com D S Simon Media helps clients get their stories on television through satellite media tours and by producing and distributing content to the media. The company also produces live social media events. Category: PR Commentary	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591642
__label__wiki	0.830048	0.830048	Metro Regional Government Metro is a regional agency that serves the urbanized portions of Multnomah, Clackamas, and Washington counties. It deals with land use and transportation planning and administers a grab bag of regional services. The roots of Metro lie in the Metropolitan Planning Commission (1957-1966), which undertook data inventory and studies of economic and land-use conditions. In 1966, the organization evolved into the Columbia Region Association of Governments. CRAG (1966-1978) was a regional planning agency on the "council of governments" model, in which the governing bodies of counties and municipalities named representatives in a sort of miniature United Nations. CRAG met the federal requirements that transportation, housing, and sanitation planning be coordinated on a regional basis before federal funds could be allocated to improve infrastructure. From 1966 to 1974, local governments could choose whether or not to be part of CRAG; participation was mandated by legislative action from 1974 to 1978. In 1970, the legislature created the Metropolitan Service District, or MSD (1970-1978), which was responsible for solid-waste planning and, after 1976, the Washington Park Zoo. Several other regional agencies were created during this period. In 1963, the legislature established the Portland Metropolitan Study Commission, which functioned until 1971. The commission facilitated the creation of CRAG and MSD and assisted in the consolidation of four fire districts in Multnomah County and the Columbia-Willamette Air Pollution Authority in 1968 (soon absorbed into the new Oregon Department of Environmental Quality). The Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District, or Tri-Met, dates from 1969. The Port of Portland and the Commission of Public Docks consolidated in 1970 and expanded into a three-county agency in 1974. In 1975-1976, the National Academy for Public Administration used funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to fund the Tri-County Local Government Commission. The commission, in turn, developed a proposal to merge CRAG into MSD, which already had statutory authority to provide direct services. The most creative and innovative aspect of the proposal was the direct election of the governing council from districts. The 1977 legislative session approved sending the proposal to the voters, although suburban representatives shrank its coverage from the entire three counties to those areas already urbanized, or likely to be so. Residents of the three counties approved the changes by 20,000 votes in May 1978, and CRAG was folded into the MSD. Majorities in Multnomah and Washington counties carried the measure over opposition from Clackamas County. Because the ballot measure title began with the words "Abolish CRAG," it is unclear what portion of voters expected to get a weaker regional agency rather than one that was potentially much stronger. The agency's governing body soon changed the official name to Metro. Since January 1979, Metro has remained the only directly elected regional government for any United States metropolitan area. Originally, Metro had a directly elected executive officer and a twelve-member council. The district boundaries were drawn to cross city and county boundaries, so that councilors would see themselves as direct representatives of the citizens rather than as agents of pre-existing units of local government (analogous to members of the state legislature). Executive officers elected under this structure were Rick Gustafson (1979-1986) and Rena Cusma (1987-1994). Metro bought and renovated an empty Sears store on Northeast Grand Avenue and moved its offices into the building in 1993. In 1992, voters adopted a home-rule charter for Metro that reduced the number of councilors to seven and created an independently elected auditor. Mike Burton (1995-2002) was the executive officer under this system. The most recent structural change to Metro came with charter amendments that went into effect in 2003. The new arrangement abandons the separation of powers model for something analogous to a mayor-council system. The council now consists of six members elected from districts and a council president (David Bragdon, 2003- ) elected at large. The council president sets agendas and makes appointments to all Metro committees, board, and commissions. Metro's major responsibilities can be grouped into six categories. 1. Land-use planning. Metro is the regional land-use planning agency. Its Urban Growth Management Functional Plan (1996) and Regional Framework Plan (1997) guide cities and counties in preparing their own plans. The plans implement the Region 2040 Growth Concept that Metro adopted in 1995 following a comprehensive process of technical analysis and citizen input. The 2040 model envisions a region with a strong center in downtown Portland, eight "regional centers" such as Hillsboro, "town centers" such as St. Johns and Lake Oswego, and "main streets" such as Sandy Boulevard. Metro is also responsible for setting the state-mandated urban growth boundary (UGB) for the three-county metropolitan region. By state law, the UGB is supposed to include enough residential, commercial, and industrial land to meet projected twenty-year needs. Because the first boundary was drawn somewhat generously, there was little pressure on land supply until the region emerged from the recession of the 1980s and began a period of fast growth. In response, Metro substantially expanded the area within the UGB in 1998 and again in 2002. Decisions about the UGB are among the most controversial of Metro's actions because of their potential effect on land values and the character of rural districts. 2. Transportation planning. Metro is the federally recognized agency for coordinating and recommending regional transportation decisions. A Joint Policy Advisory Committee on Transportation, consisting of elected officials, operates under the agency's auspices. 3. Open space. In 1994, Multnomah County transferred several county-owned parks to Metro, and the agency won approval of a $135 million tax levy for open-space acquisition in 1995. Voters approved an additional levy of $227 million in 2006. By September 2008, the agency had acquired roughly 9,000 acres, much of it land at the edge of urbanized areas or just beyond. 4. Oregon Zoo. The Washington Park Zoo was one of the first responsibilities given to the original MSD. At the time, the City of Portland was glad to be rid of a money sump. Since then, Metro has renamed the facility the Oregon Zoo and worked to improve exhibits and increase visitors. 5. Convention and performance venues. Through the Exposition-Recreation Commission, Metro owns and manages the Portland Center for the Performing Arts, the Oregon Convention Center, and the Portland Metropolitan Exposition Center in North Portland. 6. Solid waste planning and disposal. Household garbage, construction debris, and other trash in the metropolitan area are collected by private haulers, and Metro is responsible for the disposal of the collected materials. Since 1990, the bulk of this material has been trucked to a large landfill in Gilliam County. Metro works with local governments to encourage recycling and maintains waste transfer facilities in Oregon City and Northwest Portland for commercial haulers and individuals. Metro, sign Metro Regional Center, 600 NE Grand Ave., Portland. Courtesy Metro Carl Abbott Benjamin Stark (1820-1898) Columbia Region Association of Governments (CRAG) Community of Dee Ladd's Addition Land Use Planning (essay) Lewis and Clark Exposition Nohad Toulan (1931–2013) Paul Allen (1953-2018) Port of Portland Portland (essay) Portland Commission Government Portland International Airport Rajneeshees Simon Benson (1851-1942) South Portland/South Auditorium Urban Renewal Project Vanport Abbott, Carl, and Margery Post Abbott. Historical Development of the Metropolitan Service District. May 1991.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591645
__label__wiki	0.554299	0.554299	Our BOOST e-bikes in Monaco PBSC SOLUTIONS URBAINES lance sa solution de vélopartage entièrement électrique à Monaco PBSC Urban Solutions, the leading global provider of sustainable urban mobility solutions, is proud to introduce state-of-the-art electric pedal-assist bikes to the Principality of Monaco after being selected to redesign their current bike-share system. The BOOST e-bike has been specially selected for its renowned pedal-assist technology that will transport riders with ease as they traverse the Principality’s hilly terrain. With the total rollout slated at 300 BOOST e-bikes and 35 smart charging stations, the bike-share network will be expanded to encompass the entirety of Monaco. The existing system will be rebuilt from the ground up, with a completely new technology and rebranding in line with the high standards of Monaco. The MonaBike system offers several brand-new features to optimize user experience. Our mobile app, with real-time mapping of stations and bike rental features, makes it easy for riders to locate and rent the nearest available e-bike. The new QR code on the e-bike will allow users to rent and return a bike faster through their smartphone! PBSC will also be offering its unique valet station feature, whereby bikes can be relocated and rented out independently of stations. This feature will be particularly useful in prestigious events host by the city such as the world-famous Formula 1 Grand Prix. PBSC is working directly with CAM, Compagnie des Autobus de Monaco, to enable residents and commuters to take full advantage of all resources available to them through Monaco’s public transportation network. The project represents a key part of the Principality’s Smart City program, promoting low-carbon mobility. By the end of the summer, the MonaBike network will be integrated into a multimodal transportation app, encouraging the use of soft and shared mobility. PBSC’s BOOST e-bikes, one of the most advanced micromobility solutions, will bridge any gaps that exist in the current transportation infrastructure, easing the journey for all. MonaBike is also being compatible with the current transit card, allowing users to rent and return bikes. Some of the stations will be placed in underground parking lots, inviting commuters to park their cars and hop in the saddle, effectively solving the First Mile/Last Mile problem.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591646
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Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee 17 April 2018 Convener Graeme Dey (Angus South) (SNP) Deputy convener John Scott (Ayr) (Con) Claudia Beamish (South Scotland) (Lab) Donald Cameron (Highlands and Islands) (Con) Finlay Carson (Galloway and West Dumfries) (Con) Kate Forbes (Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch) (SNP) Richard Lyle (Uddingston and Bellshill) (SNP) Angus MacDonald (Falkirk East) (SNP) Alex Rowley (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab) Mark Ruskell (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Green) Stewart Stevenson (Banffshire and Buchan Coast) (SNP) attended The following also participated: Johanna Dow (Business Stream) Peter Farrer (Scottish Water) Alex Kinninmonth (Scottish Environment LINK) Councillor Norman MacDonald (Comhairle nan Eilean Siar) Audrey MacIver (Highlands and Islands Enterprise) Dr Calum MacLeod (Community Land Scotland) Douglas Millican (Scottish Water) Professor Simon Parsons (Scottish Water) Dame Susan Rice (Scottish Water and Business Stream) Andy Wells (Crown Estate Scotland) Clerk to the committee Lynn Tullis The Robert Burns Room (CR1) Decision on Taking Business in Private The Convener (Graeme Dey): Good morning. Welcome to the 12th meeting in 2018 of the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee. I remind everyone present to switch off mobile phones and other electronic devices, as they might affect the broadcasting system. Item 1 is a decision on whether to take items 4, 5 and 6 in private. Do we agree to do so? Members indicated agreement. Scottish Crown Estate Bill: Stage 1 The Convener: Item 2 is consideration of the Scottish Crown Estate Bill. We are joined by Alex Kinninmonth from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, representing Scottish Environment LINK; Councillor Norman MacDonald, from the Western Isles Council; Audrey MacIver from Highlands and Islands Enterprise; Dr Calum MacLeod from Community Land Scotland; and Andy Wells from Crown Estate Scotland. We have a number of questions for our panel, the first of which is from Stewart Stevenson. Stewart Stevenson (Banffshire and Buchan Coast) (SNP): Given the diversity of the panel, there is probably no better group of people to answer my question. The bill has a focus on good management. What makes a good manager? I see that they are all dodging that one, convener. Andy Wells (Crown Estate Scotland): Perhaps I should start, given that the question concerns one of the terms in the Crown Estate Act 1961. Obviously, the committee must consider how that term transfers into the new legislation. The interpretation of the term “good management” in the act has involved the question of operating the business in such a way as to deliver growth in the business, to deliver capital growth in the assets and to turn that to account by delivering revenue—but doing so according to good management. That covers a wide range of different ways of doing things in terms of how you operate, collaborate and work in partnership. It is also about how you take into account a wider range of benefits that you can deliver as the result of any particular transaction or decision. The bill specifies that that should be interpreted more in terms of social, economic and environmental objectives, with more of a focus on a sustainable approach to management, but that is how the Crown Estate has historically interpreted “good management” in any case. It involves making decisions that are in the best interests of a range of different considerations, while, clearly, given the terms of the act, taking account of commercial factors. Stewart Stevenson: Before I ask others to comment, I would like to clarify one point. You are saying that good management is about more than simply the measurable outcomes and that it is also about the process by which the Crown managers have to operate and the respect that they give to those with whom they work. Am I correctly hearing what has been said? Andy Wells: I think that that would be a fair interpretation. Dr Calum MacLeod (Community Land Scotland): Thank you for that question, Mr Stevenson—it is an important one to start off with. There are various characteristics that make a good manager, such as the transparency of how you act and your accountability to the stakeholders for whom you are managing assets. It is important to have that process in place and to meet those best-value characteristics. In thinking about what constitutes a good manager in the context of the management of Crown Estate assets, I think that it is heartening that the bill contains a clear and unambiguous iteration of the fact that—as Andy Wells just mentioned—we are not thinking about managing assets only in relation to their financial components and that the focus on environmental and social aspects is fundamentally important, too. Community Land Scotland would suggest that good management is very much to do with the focus on the broader considerations and on ensuring that the assets are managed in a way that ties into a wide array of public policy objectives, not least of which is community empowerment, and what that might mean in practice. I have a question for Mr Kinninmonth in particular. In response to the consultation, 79 per cent of respondents said that environmental considerations should be part of good management. I take it that that is something that you and the organisations that you represent are particularly interested in. Alex Kinninmonth (Scottish Environment LINK): Absolutely. I would also echo the comments that you have just heard about good management involving transparency and accountability for the wider public objectives, because the environment is a key consideration for Scotland in that regard. Andy Wells mentioned the interpretation of the 1961 act. The Crown Estate Commissioners have taken that act as giving them a very narrow financial remit. Although they have had to operate under the principles of good management, it has always been up to the commissioners to define what good management is. There has been a lot of progress in recent years towards defining good management in terms of environmental wellbeing and in looking at approaches to widening what value means to include natural capital or the ecosystem services that can be got from natural assets. It is encouraging that, as the responses to that consultation question note, the bill widens the manager’s duties to include other considerations and wider benefits. I can see the intention in the bill to bring those into play more. I am concerned, however, that section 7, on the duties of managers, still retains the primary duty to “maintain and seek to enhance— (a) the” “value of the assets, and (b) the income arising from them”, with the additional outcomes being seen as secondary or discretionary. There is room for improvement in the bill to make it clearer that financial gain and getting a good return from the assets are not necessarily in conflict with achieving wider societal aims. Councillor MacDonald, your council area has some significant areas of community ownership, such as Stòras Uibhist. Do these provide a model for the relationship between those who are stakeholders and live in the area and the duties of managers on good management? Councillor Norman MacDonald (Comhairle nan Eilean Siar): The principles of good management, as we have heard previously, are about collaboration and consultation with all interested parties and communities. Through consensus if not agreement, it should be possible to manage the assets in a way that is sustainable, both for the community and, importantly, for the environment. The model of community land ownership is a good example of how collaboration can work positively across the Hebrides and parts of mainland Scotland. Along with community empowerment, that will drive the policy forward in a positive way, but it has to be done in collaboration, by consensus and taking account of the environment. Local government is very conscious of that. For almost 30 years, we have been involved, on the marine environment in particular, with an international organisation called KIMO, or Kommunenes Internasjonale Miljøorganisasjon. We and other coastal communities call ourselves KIMO UK but in reality we are KIMO Scotland, because the communities that are part of it are in Scotland. We have been involved in some of the things that, over the past year, are being seen as important for the marine environment, such as the Blue Ocean Network and the efforts of Sky News to take plastics out of the marine environment. We have been engaged, not because doing that will transform our communities but because managing our marine assets, including the oceans, sustainably will prevent significant damage to our communities in the future. The focus of the Scottish Crown Estate bill is much narrower, but I believe that the community land experience is a positive one and there is nothing to fear about the accountability that goes with it, either for community land owners or for those who work with them. We work in partnership with community land owners, including the Crown Estate, over major projects. There is nothing to fear from devolving that degree of control to local level, provided that it is managed in the way we have already discussed. Does Highlands and Islands Enterprise consider that the bill as presently cast adequately describes the range of responsibilities that all witnesses have articulated, with which HIE might or might not agree? Audrey MacIver (Highlands and Islands Enterprise): The bill provides a good framework around management in terms of the strategic plan requirement and the management plans that would need to be put in place. It would help ensure that there is forward planning, accountability and reporting back on that. Those are absolutely required from a governance point of view, whether you are managing a relatively modestly sized asset or a very large and complex asset. To add to the point about what good management requires, it is essential to have the knowledge and expertise in the management outfit. It is a key requirement to recognise the diverse portfolio of the Crown Estate Scotland asset and the range of expertise that is required to manage it. Good governance is essential. It is also about whole-life asset management and management for the longer term. Looking at the wider social and environmental considerations, and not just immediate financial gain, is a key part of that. You have specifically said, in relation to the required management skills, that it is a “complex” and varied environment. Given that Crown Estate Scotland is a comparatively small organisation, does that lead you to say that you would expect the management to be delegated to experts in particular areas in some circumstances, without the Crown Estate necessarily being relieved of responsibility? Audrey MacIver: With regard to the expertise required, the offshore environment in particular—which is what I am more familiar with, with my HIE energy hat on—is a very complex environment to operate in. It does not necessarily need lots of individuals, but it needs very knowledgeable individuals. It is not necessarily about numbers of individuals or teams or resources; it is about having a strong understanding of the complexity of the environment and the due process that needs to be gone through. Having that understanding is possible at a local level, but expertise at a national level is also required in terms of the industry and the learning that the industry is undergoing, as the offshore renewables sector—if that is what we are talking about—is still in its infancy. That expertise can be quite close and modest in size, but it needs to be very well developed. It is a case of horses for courses for the more modest assets. We in HIE have been advocating community ownership and community management for a number of years. We are very much working with partners to build the capacity and capability in communities to manage local assets very well and to realise the wider benefits from doing so. Kate Forbes (Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch) (SNP): As a supplementary, Highlands and Islands Enterprise has highlighted the potential for conflict if a local authority is both the awarder of planning permission and the receiver of revenues when it comes to aquaculture. Do you think that the potential for such a conflict of interest goes beyond aquaculture? How do you propose that that could be mitigated? In our response, we highlighted that there is a potential for conflict when a landlord can also give consent. I acknowledge that that is already the case where local authorities own the land and can also consent to new housing developments. We wanted to highlight the potential for conflict and the need to ensure that in any structures there are clear remits and responsibilities and there is transparency around process. I also acknowledge that at an early stage of leasing for the offshore energy market—round 3 of the Scottish territorial waters and Pentland Firth and Orkney waters leasing in 2008 and 2009, in particular—leasing activity may have been slightly ahead of the planning process, because in that case the marine spatial planning process had not been completed. There has been a lot of learning since that time, and I now see much greater integration of what we look at in terms of spatial and resource planning at a national level and future leasing activity. That alignment can facilitate a more successful planning outcome and having different organisations take that forward. Again, it is about scale. In certain circumstances, it will be fine to have both roles, but in others there might need to be a degree of separation. Alex Kinninmonth: We have raised the matter in our submission and I see that it is highlighted across a number of other submissions. I do not think that it is insurmountable, but care needs to be taken. As Audrey MacIver stated, a number of organisations—not least local authorities—deal with it on a day-to-day basis, and they are well equipped to do so. It is essential that care is taken to ensure that there is adequate internal separation of decision making. The roles of landlord and regulator are very different and it is important that there is clear separation between those two functions within an organisation. In the not too distant past, the Crown Estate was the regulator for fish farming. That situation was untenable at the time and has since changed, but it is a useful recent example in which it was decided that something needed to change. There is no reason why that could not happen in the future. However, what is really important is the internal separation of decision making. Mark Ruskell (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Green): Is there a potential conflict of interests with ports and harbours? There has been a lot of controversy over ship-to-ship oil transfers in terms of the statutory responsibilities of ports and harbours to the environment, but there are also commercial opportunities. Exactly. Ports and harbours must tackle those dual roles. Lessons can be learned: that is one example in which there is certainly risk. We need to establish how successfully ports and harbours discharge both those duties and learn from that. Councillor MacDonald: There is a great deal of separation. In terms of the Crown estate historically, we know that the first that local authorities would have known about consent and a lease having been given would have been when a planning application for the associated onshore facilities came in. They had no say whatsoever in whether it was appropriate to have granted the lease in the first place. More local control of the Crown estate is one of the key drivers for the campaign that has been worked on for many years, and the United Kingdom Government has recognised that and has devolved powers to the Scottish Parliament. We are seeking further devolution of those powers to local communities, because they are where a lot of the expertise on, and understanding of, the impact on the marine environment lies. Undoubtedly, situations arise every day in local government in which such conflicts of interests need to be dealt with. It is important that conflicts of interests are recognised at the earliest possible point, and that there is then separation in the decision-making process. Ultimately, that will lead to the right decisions being taken. Local government is very well regulated in terms of its ability to do that, and it is something that it is quite accustomed to doing. Local governments are harbour authorities, as well as being authorities that work with harbour trusts and others. You could not find better examples than those of Sullom Voe in Shetland and Scapa Flow in Orkney, where local authorities very ably manage facilities that are of great benefit to the whole UK. Given the topical and contentious nature of aquaculture consenting, do you feel that there is an additional perception of a conflict of interests, of which you might need to take account? I am not sure whether there is a conflict of interests. There are interests: local authorities have a real interest in the continued existence of aquaculture, particularly for our coastal communities. Comhairle nan Eilean Siar has, with the aquaculture industry, entered into voluntary management agreements on the amount of biomass that is put into particular sites. The amount relates to the kind of site and whether there is a constant flow of water that effectively flushes out the area. I see no issue with extending such arrangements beyond that to ensure that where conflicts arise between the aquaculture industry and other industries that use the marine environment, they can come together and reach consensus on how to make the best sustainable use of that resource. I would like to clarify a point in relation to the process. Crown Estate Scotland would not normally grant a straightforward lease, but would grant an option to lease, prior to a developer or an aquaculture property going through the planning process. We would grant the lease only once all regulatory conditions had been met. Dr MacLeod: There is broader issue that touches on the question that Kate Forbes asked about the connection and fit—or otherwise—between asset management, community empowerment and planning processes. As members will be aware, the Planning (Scotland) Bill is currently going through Parliament, and there is potentially a disconnect in respect of communities having their voices heard in planning. It is important that we make connections between the broader planning process, community empowerment and how communities interact in relation to asset management. Richard Lyle (Uddingston and Bellshill) (SNP): I want to raise a point that follows on from Stewart Stevenson’s question, and that Alex Kinninmonth touched on slightly. The Scottish Crown Estate Bill sets out that managers “of ... assets must maintain and seek to enhance ... the value of assets, and ... the income arising”, “may do so in a way that” contributes to wider objectives including “economic development ... regeneration ... social wellbeing ... environmental wellbeing” and so on. Could interpretation of “value of assets” be about anything other than purely financial value? For example, could the phrase be interpreted in terms of the non-monetary value that the asset provides, such as ecosystem services or its recreational or health value? Richard Lyle: I thought that you would say that. I touched on the issue earlier. From the evidence that the bill team has received so far, it seems that, as drafted, the bill interprets “value” and “income” derived from assets in purely financial terms. Perhaps Andy Wells can touch on this from his experience in Crown Estate Scotland. I know that in recent years there has been a big move—not just in Scotland, but globally—towards considering value in terms of natural capital and what we can receive from natural heritage assets that is of value to society in relation to ecosystem services. Clean water, clean air, provisioning of food and pollination are just a few examples. The Crown Estate has been an early adopter of the natural-capital protocol and in its rural estates it has been piloting approaches on how to use ecosystem services in decision making about how land is managed. That is crucial. I ask whether the bill, as drafted, allows for such innovation to happen and continue. I hope that it does. However, there needs to be clarity about how “value” is to be interpreted and how it relates to wider societal objectives and delivery of broader national outcomes, which go far wider than just having a strong economy, because that is fundamentally underpinned by the environment. Absolutely. Creation of value in addition to financial value in a wide variety of ways is something to which sustainable long-term businesses such as Crown Estate Scotland should aspire. The bill creates real opportunities for future managers—Crown Estate Scotland or any other manager—to consider how they can enhance value in a range of areas, and not just in terms of natural capital, but in terms of social capital. We see driving of economic benefits alongside social and environmental benefits as part of operating a sustainable business: they go hand in hand. Large amounts of the Crown Estate assets in Scotland are in remote rural communities, and we need sustainable and viable businesses operating in those areas. We need communities there to be prosperous and we need the environment to support the businesses, so it is very much in the long-term interests of all managers and businesses to seek to enhance such value. Highlands and Islands Enterprise has a unique remit for economic and social development, so I very much welcome the move in the bill to consider value not just in a monetary or financial sense but in terms, too, of wider regeneration, and of environmental and social aspects. However, we have picked up on the fact that the bill states that managers “must ... enhance ... the value” but “may” take into consideration other factors. We want to understand whether either there is a hierarchy or all the factors that the bill mentions will be taken into account. HIE wants to alert the committee to our concern about whether financial imperatives, as opposed to wider benefits, will become the drivers. Those can be at odds with one another. There could, for example, be a drive towards maximising value through new house building in order to get value up as quickly as possible, as opposed to there being thinking for the longer term about energy efficiency and other social developments that could support the community, and which might take a bit more capital investment and might not be at the heart of what the current manager is driving. Through the bill, we need to ensure that management is not seen as secondary to those wider aspects, which we believe are absolutely integral to the overall asset value. It is really important that the bill and subsequent management of assets make people think about value beyond assets’ simple financial value. That is tied to some aspects that colleagues around the table have mentioned. Stewart Stevenson started by asking what makes a good manager. In thinking about value and management of assets, a good manager needs to think more widely than just about the financial or commercial aspects of the asset. If you want management of assets to contribute to the ways in which communities are empowered, that is not necessarily easy to do in practice, in terms of value being measurable. However, qualitative value can be shown in some ways—with regard to community confidence, and how social cohesion is increased within communities once they have more control over how they shape their natural and social environments, for example. There are ways of doing that at grass-roots community level. There can be profound value in such processes in terms of what assets mean for communities more qualitatively, rather than assets being the focus of naked financial valuation. That is important when we think about cohesion of communities and how managing and, in some respects, owning assets contribute to the communities and, more broadly, to Scotland. Let us not forget that the national performance framework is to be reviewed imminently. Although the focus is on sustainable economic growth as its purpose, there is also the addition—a welcome addition, to be frank—of wellbeing, which is a rather amorphous but very important concept, when we are thinking about how our society and our communities function. The bill’s broader concept of “value”, not as a hierarchy but as something that is on a level playing field, is an important dimension that will contribute to that national purpose. There is no doubt that the socioeconomic aspects of the transfer of an asset must be part of the equation, otherwise transfer just will not work. That is already happening when land is being made available for housing, as Audrey MacIver said. When local authorities are divesting themselves of assets, that has to be the subject of a rigorous business case, so that what is being transferred is actually an asset and not a liability. That should apply equally to Crown Estate assets; the asset should be an asset financially and socioeconomically. That is a vital part of the equation. I am glad to know that it will not come down just to pounds and pence. Most of my other questions have been answered. Claudia Beamish (South Scotland) (Lab): Good morning. I will pin the issue down with a final question on it—unless other members want to come in. All the witnesses have helped with a wide discussion of financial gain, sustainable development, community empowerment and a range of other issues. Professor Andrea Ross and Professor Colin Reid state in their written submission that section 7(1) of the bill has “focus on narrow financial gain” “may or may not be in the public interest”. Is the word “may” in section 7(2) enough to cover consideration of the other issues that we have been discussing, which go beyond the financial aspects that the managers of assets “must maintain and seek to enhance”, or should the section say “must”? One-word answers will be great, but it will be fine for witnesses to qualify it. You do not all have to answer. Achievement of sustainable development should be a requirement. The submission that Claudia Beamish quoted is helpful and worthy of serious consideration by the committee. Achievement of sustainable development must be a requirement, although “sustainable development” is a slippery term that is used in a wide range of ways, and so becomes everything or nothing to everybody and anybody. It should provide the overarching framework for the bill. John Scott (Ayr) (Con): I toss out the idea that widening the duties of managers and different responsibilities being given to others, such as local authorities and communities, will come at some cost. Will those things dilute the ability of the Crown Estate to yield revenues to the Scottish Government? Is there a balance to be struck? I see us charging down one road. Local authorities want very much to have the benefits of what were previously Crown Estate assets. Will not that ultimately lead to disintegration and fragmentation of the Crown Estate? I guess that that might dilute the Crown Estate’s ability to cross-subsidise the agricultural estates— John Scott: —or to work efficiently, at any rate. That does not necessarily have to happen. If an organisation is taking responsibility for management of an asset, it should also be able to accrue some of the revenues. In all the discussions so far, we have spoken about the net revenues from the Crown Estate being transferred in order to support sustainability in management of the asset. However, Crown Estate Scotland will still have to retain responsibility for the land-based estate in particular, but not exclusively, and some kind of control over it. We welcome some of the recommendations that it has made and how it is changing from its historical position. I do not see widening of managers’ duties and giving of responsibilities to other bodies as threatening dilution of the Crown Estate. The fact that there is consensus on how to move forward on transfer of assets and the revenues that go along with them strengthens the Crown Estate’s ability to do the work that it will do. I will respond to Claudia Beamish’s question about whether section 7(2) should say “may” or “must”. It could go different ways. To take a wider perspective, in transactions in which one might want to take a more commercial view, inclusion of “must” might result in challenges to decisions: it could be a judicial challenge, which would impact on the business. I urge consideration of that. Claudia Beamish: There could be a legal challenge to any bill. Why would there be a legal challenge if there was a “must” relating to the aspects in section 7(2) as well as to those in section 7(1)? We are talking about the new devolved settlement for the Crown estate, so I do not understand why you are saying that. I am thinking of decisions that may be made in relation to investments, for example. A challenge might be possible. I am not a legal expert, so I cannot comment on why one may be interpreted differently from another. I am not suggesting that it is either one way or the other, but there is a consideration there. Would the consenting of offshore wind farms perhaps be an example? That might be one. Surely that process must involve taking into consideration the contribution to the wider objectives of “economic development ... regeneration ... social wellbeing, environmental wellbeing” and “sustainable development”. I cannot see what the conflict would be in a Scotland that works for sustainable development for the people of Scotland. I do not understand. I do not disagree with that. It just may be a consideration—that is all that I am saying. What about John Scott’s point? Sorry, but can you remind me what that was? In essence, with all this devolution of responsibility and income to other bodies, what will be left for the Crown Estate to do? Will there be a body left? The bill will lead to disintegration and fragmentation, given all the devolution of responsibilities and accountability to other bodies and communities. Again, much will depend on the scale and nature of the assets that are under devolved management and the needs of those assets. The way that we currently work as a national body managing the estate as a whole, particularly in how investments are made, is to raise capital for reinvestment from within the whole portfolio. We may sell off assets in one part of the estate to fund investments in another part. A local manager will have less scope to do that, although obviously there is scope in the bill for a national framework and for ministers to direct one part of the estate to fund another. It could be workable, but there could be an issue in relation to some of the opportunities to cross-subsidise across the estate. A lot of people want to get in, so I ask everybody to be concise. One perspective on the bill is that it might dilute the role of the Crown Estate; another perspective, which Community Land Scotland advocates, is that the concentration of attention on devolution is a good thing, as it adds to the democratic process by involving organisations and communities in managing assets, which is useful and adds value in the ways that we have already outlined. I have a supplementary comment on Claudia Beamish’s question. There is a sustainable development duty on ministers in other legislation, not least the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010, which places a general duty on ministers to act in the way that is calculated to best further the achievement of sustainable development, including the protection and, where appropriate, enhancement of the health of the Scottish marine area. The Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 places a similar duty on ministers to contribute to the achievement of sustainable development, and the land use strategy, which comes out of that act, must also contribute towards sustainable development. It is a very well-used term in Scottish legislation. The issue comes down to the principle that the national assets should be managed for wider public benefit, and primacy should be given to managing for intergenerational equity. The framework for sustainable development allows that to happen quite well. From an offshore energy and industry perspective, ease of doing business is absolutely critical in what is a very complex and, as I said, relatively young industry. The industry players are looking globally at opportunities. From our perspective of trying to derive economic value from supply chain development in the offshore energy sector, we believe that an approach to leasing at a national level must be maintained and that the approach should not be further fragmented. I want to return briefly—with Mr Wells only, I suspect—to the issue of “may” versus “must”. If “must” is used, that will apply to every single decision, but I imagine that there will be essentially neutral decisions. A decision that was made in the past might have to be revisited, and it might properly be concluded that no change will be made. However, that would be a decision. If “may” is used, the decision can be made without opening up a particular hoop for legal challenge, but if “must” is used, every single decision—even on whether to move from 80 to 70 grams per square metre paper in the corporate printers to save paper—could be open to challenge. Is that a fair characterisation? In other words, one needs to look at every specific instance of “may” and “must” to see the specific effects, and one must be extremely careful in legal drafting terms. Stewart Stevenson expressed that far more eloquently than I did. I think that that will suffice. Alex Rowley (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab): As was said earlier, Professor Ross and Professor Reid suggested in their submission that the bill should be amended to include a mandatory requirement for sustainable development to be taken into account. As somebody has said, around 10 per cent of the acts of the Scottish Parliament contain sustainable development provisions, even though there is no legal definition of sustainable development. Should sustainable development be defined in statute? Should consideration of environmental, social and economic wellbeing, as well as regeneration, be required as subsets of sustainable development? It is absolutely right that that should be the case. If sustainable development “must” be taken into account, then clearly it is also about socioeconomic and wellbeing issues—it is about all those issues. The reality is that ministers have to do that in any event. If sustainable development is taken into account, that does not mean that there has to be a huge piece of work to do that, but it must be considered before a final decision is taken. That happens right across the spectrum. If sustainable development “must” be taken into account, then that has to be done. If the word “may” is used, people can choose not to take it into account, whether or not there are socioeconomic or sustainable development benefits. Angus MacDonald (Falkirk East) (SNP): The issue of national or local management has already been touched on. We know that the Smith commission recommended that responsibility for the management of the Crown Estate’s economic assets in Scotland “be further devolved to local authority areas” in the northern isles and in the Western Isles. Orkney Islands Council has said: “While the Bill’s provisions in respect of management are deemed workable, they are not considered ‘appropriate’ when read alongside the Smith Commission recommendation.” Comhairle nan Eilean Siar indicated that the bill should have devolved powers to island councils rather than set out a methodology to enable devolution and specifically considered the case for the devolution of lease management of offshore wind out to 12 nautical miles and for aquaculture. HIE suggested that national management of wave, tidal and offshore wind energy—we have heard this again today—is “the preferred option of project developers and will assist in achieving the potential of offshore renewables. It will also make for simpler industry engagement”. Will the bill deliver the Smith commission’s recommendations? If not, what is required either through a change in the bill or other action? We clearly believe that infrastructure within 12 nautical miles, whether that is offshore renewables or aquaculture infrastructure, is something that we and our communities would want some control of, because the reality is that it will be developments within 12 nautical miles that will be most likely to have an impact on the land-based infrastructure, including on our shoreline. We see that from time to time, due to adverse weather. I do not want to focus on aquaculture, but the breaking up of cages has to be dealt with. There has to be some control of such assets, whether they be offshore renewables, aquaculture or other industries that we are currently not all that clear about. Communities should have a significant say as to whether a development should go ahead, because they will be most affected by it. What about the national interest? The national interest can be part of the equation. As regards even onshore wind developments, the planning authority is not the local authority but the Government. However, local authorities treat every onshore application as though we were the determining authorities: we make our submissions to the Government on that basis and it takes them into account. As such authorities, we have a significant say in developments and we carry out wider consultations in the community, which enables the Government to make the ultimate decisions. It is therefore important to have local control up to the 12 nautical mile limit. With respect, the two positions that we have heard on this issue were probably fairly predictable, given where you are coming from, which is quite understandable. What views would other panellists articulate? Community Land Scotland is clearly in favour of mechanisms that will ensure that the power to manage such assets is devolved as far as possible in relation to levels of governance and of management. While we broadly welcome the provisions in that respect that are contained in the bill, where there are opportunities for local communities to have an influence and a say in managing and shaping how such assets are used in the broader context of national interest considerations, as Norman MacDonald has mentioned, it is critically important that that actually happens and is made to happen in the legislative provisions that exist. The committee will have seen from our submission that we make other wider points on aspects of how that might be managed with regard to foreshore elements and also—as I think has been mentioned in other evidence sessions—the ownership or otherwise of aspects of the sea bed. Bringing such matters into local consideration is paramount, from our perspective. We are neutral on the topic of management transfer to the local level versus retaining a national, geographic or functional level. For us, the key consideration is whether the transferee has sufficient capability to discharge the duties and liabilities that come with that role and whether it is subject to appropriate scrutiny. The case-by-case approach that is proposed in the bill seems to me to be appropriate—again, subject to there being sufficient transparency and scrutiny of ministerial decisions on that. We often talk about two very different roles relating to development in the marine environment. One aspect that the bill deals with is the leasing of the sea bed. Of course, there is a parallel regulatory process about licensing what can happen on the sea bed. Those two issues are very different but are sometimes mixed up in discussion. It is worth noting that the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 is often lost in discussion of community empowerment but is very much aimed at that, in that planning and decision making in coastal waters were to be developed through regional marine plans developed by marine planning partnerships. We are a number of years down the line from the publication of the national marine plan in 2015, yet we are sitting without a single regional marine plan having been adopted in Scotland. Before we start talking about the transfer of assets in terms of leasing, we really need to commit to establishing regional marine plans around Scotland’s coastline. We need to get the order right. We need to know what we want and what we aim to achieve from the use of and development and activity in our marine environment, then we can think about leasing and getting financial benefit from that. It cannot happen in the reverse order. I want to ask Calum MacLeod about Community Land Scotland’s written submission in relation to the question that we have been exploring. The submission suggested that land ownership is a key driver for sustainable development. How does that fit with the bill? Does it give opportunities for that in relation to the Crown estate? I understand of course that, if something is sold, there has to be a quid pro quo or whatever in terms of assets, as you cannot just sell off the Crown estates. It goes back to what Councillor Norman MacDonald highlighted about the importance of community ownership. I stress that as a member for the South Scotland region; it is important not only in the Highlands. Thank you very much for that really important question, which gets to the nub of the critical issue of the relationship between ownership of assets, whether land or other assets, and their management. You will hear two different views on that. One suggests that it does not really matter who owns the asset and that it is how it is managed and used that counts. That is important and I do not dismiss that perspective. However, ownership is a critical element in many instances with regard to how the asset is used and managed. It is critical to have and recognise the relationship between land and/or other asset ownership and the use of that asset, and the influence between the two. If I understand the nub of your question correctly, you are asking about the importance of ownership as a driver for sustainable development. Yes, and particularly in relation to the bill, as that is what we are taking evidence on. We argue that ownership—where appropriate and on a case-by-case basis, but certainly with a pre-emptive right with regard to, for example, foreshore rights—is critical. Enabling communities to have ownership of particular assets allows them the autonomy and democratic process—when they are community land owners—to shape how the assets are used in practice. That is critically important in the context of how, bluntly, communities thrive, survive and prosper as, in many cases, they are quite fragile communities. We are also thinking about the broader question whether the Crown estate will become fragmented and what its purpose will be in terms of the bill. That is not even a price that has to be paid—it is really important to follow that through. Enabling communities in appropriate circumstances to own Crown Estate assets will add value in various ways to how those communities make themselves sustainable. I have an added comment in relation to that. We talked about the legal challenges to sustainable development issues. If we are not measuring or addressing any of the assets and how they are managed on sustainable development grounds, what are we measuring them on? Finlay Carson (Galloway and West Dumfries) (Con): HIE suggested: “there is scope for the rural estates ... to be managed by communities where there is an aspiration ... a viable management plan ... and capacity to deliver.” What is the case for communities managing rural estates in the objectives of the Smith commission and in the bill? We have already heard that there is no appetite from current tenants for a change in the status quo and no desire to become a community group to manage their own estates. What is your response to that? The point around aspiration is key: it is about where there is indeed community aspiration, which is where Highlands and Islands Enterprise seeks, with partners, to support those communities and enable them to see that process through. The current consultation on pilots will highlight where there is appetite or otherwise, and I think that due attention will need to be paid to that. The context in which we made that comment in our submission is that we see opportunities in particular communities for subsets of the estate to be taken into community management in order to derive the benefits that we have witnessed in other parts of the region. Again, however, there is a distinction between that context and the offshore context, where we believe that a national, strategic approach is required. What subsets do you have in mind? There could be community involvement in the management of assets such as small harbours or moorings, and in access to and management of land from the point of view of the creation of recreational facilities in the interests of tourism. That could bring about wider indirect benefits than would be the case if the assets were managed more remotely or at a national level. Finlay Carson: In relation to the suggestion that communities could manage rural estates, is there a potential for conflict in a situation in which the current tenants have no desire to be managed by a community? How would that be resolved? The question suggests that tenants are separate from the community itself. I do not think that they are, and I do not think that that is the intention. It is important not to lose sight of the fact that whether a community would take over the management or, indeed, the ownership of a rural estate is a question not only of the community’s appetite for that—which Audrey MacIver just mentioned—but, importantly, of the will of the broad community, of which the tenants are an equal and legitimate part. As the committee knows better than most, there are legal elements in relation to the community right to buy, but the broader principle concerns the fact that a community must state clearly why it wants to take on the management or ownership of an asset, and it must understand the collective benefits that are to be achieved, which might not otherwise be achieved. Throughout the Highlands and Islands, and certainly in the Western Isles—this does not apply to quite the same extent in the south of Scotland, although that is coming on, too—large estates that have been taken over by communities have been revitalised in economic, financial, environmental and social terms. The idea that communities are too small or do not have enough capacity to take on such roles is misguided. Having said that, I do not want to lose sight of your question. The central point that you make concerns how we work in relation to that dynamic. I think that the processes are there to enable such issues to be dealt with where there is a will to make that happen. In addition to the issue of resistance on the part of tenants to such a proposal, would it not be the case that a community that looked at the liabilities that are involved in a rural estate—for example, the backlog of repairs on tenant farms—would shy away from it? That can be the case, of course. I am wearing my Community Land Scotland hat today, but my other hat, as it were, is one that involves consulting communities on sustainable development issues. Part of that process concerns how people think about liabilities in relation to assets that they might manage and how they might manage them. There are some important questions to be addressed around how we manage liabilities with regard to the public interest and the common good in terms of the sustainable development of communities and the sustainable management of assets. As I was going through the previous evidence sessions, I noted that there was some discussion with Scottish Government officials about how the liability element might be managed. Something imaginative, or at least progressive, could be done there, which might help communities to engage with asset management in ways that contribute to their sustainability and add to the broader common good and the public good. The reality is that, whether or not tenants are involved, if there is no appetite in a community, or even if there is an appetite but it turns out that, when people look at the business case, the asset is really a liability, the proposal just will not happen. As Calum MacLeod said, although many parts of the outer Hebrides are under community ownership, there are significant pockets that are not under community ownership for that very reason, so there is no imperative there—there is no forcing it. It is entirely down to the community. Do the witnesses think that within communities there would be the capacity, or indeed the expertise, to manage the land portfolio of the Crown Estate? For my part, I am not certain that there would be, but I am interested to hear what you think. It will clearly depend on the context of the particular estate and whether the community is in a position to manage that land. That is not to dismiss the examples of communities that have taken on very large estates and have managed them successfully. Stòras Uibhist is a classic example of that—it is a community landowner that is now involved in multi-million pound partnerships and regeneration schemes relating to that asset. Whether a community would wish to take on the management of one of the Crown Estate’s rural estates would have to be determined in terms of its will and its capacity to do that, but to suggest that that is not feasible would be to dismiss the potential capacity and expertise that communities may have, which would enable that to happen. It will vary in different contexts, but I would certainly not rule it out on principle. I would be interested to hear the views of others. In the context of managing the assets as they stand, either as a whole portfolio or as part of a fragmented management structure in which different managers operated different parts of rural estates, there would clearly be challenges in accounting for capital investment. I have alluded to the fact that we often have to sell property on one estate so that we can invest in another, and there are a number of overall liabilities associated with the management of certain properties that are not attached to another and which we have to plan for and manage. That is not to say that it cannot be done, but there could be some practical issues in continuing that on-going investment. Can I take the opportunity to answer a couple of questions that I did not get a chance to answer earlier? Briefly. In relation to the sale of assets, under the bill, any manager is able to sell and buy assets. The key thing is that the capital that is derived from those assets is reinvested in land and property. That is something that could happen in relation to the sale of foreshore, and is happening in certain circumstances in relation to asset sales to communities. Going back to the strategic national infrastructure, there is clearly a case for ministers to have a strategic approach to offshore wind and marine environment cables and pipelines, but I highlight the views of tenants as also being critical, not only in relation to those assets but in relation to rural estates. We operate in a business environment and we have strong relationships with future business tenants as we work to unlock potential, so the importance of those tenants’ views should not be underestimated. One of the central arguments for community land ownership is that it is responsive to the community’s needs and helps to shape that community. The evidence from previous sessions suggests that it is not necessarily all milk and honey with the Crown Estate at the moment. I was very interested to hear Mr Brian Shaw from the Applegirth estate say that “There are many underlying problems about which tenants are honestly frightened to go to the Crown Estate. There are some houses that need a lot of work.”—[Official Report, Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee, 13 March; c 26-27.] There are some capacity issues there, as well as issues around resolving some of the social conditions in which tenant farmers and other folk on such estates live. One of the reasons why the Ulva buyout has been successful in getting approval from the Government is that it has a business plan and a real agenda to refurbish and renew the island’s housing—its social fabric. There is no way in which it would be appropriate to dismiss the potential of communities to replicate such a process on a rural estate or elsewhere. Your point suggests that if the amount of money that is available to those communities was also available to the Crown Estate to carry out work for those admirable and necessary social purposes, it, too, would have the ability to refurbish housing. If it had the ability, the Crown Estate would do that work, would it not? It would potentially have the ability to carry the work out if it made the management decision to do so. However, at the community level you find a clear commitment to doing such things, and the grass-roots process also enables communities to make decisions on such matters, which Community Land Scotland sees as invaluable. Given that the well-performing rural estate currently subsidises the less well-performing parts of the Crown estate, if the community were to consider the economic viability of a good part of the estate, would recognition also need to be given to the impact of fragmentation on the less sustainable parts of the estate? Would the whole portfolio be recognised in any fragmentation or devolution of the viable parts of the estate to communities, including the impact on the less viable parts of the rural estate? Any such transfer of ownership would need a measured decision on value across the different elements that we have been discussing, such as whether community, economic, social and environmental benefits are associated with ownership of one aspect of the estate or several. On balance, that would create a public interest argument for that transfer. We are not suggesting for one second that it is a straightforward process; we are suggesting that it would be a missed opportunity to dismiss the possibility of incorporating that as a principle. On that note, we will move on. Donald Cameron (Highlands and Islands) (Con): I refer to my entry in the register of interests as a landowner in the Highlands. I want to ask about pilot projects. The various island authorities that I have spoken to have expressed a real enthusiasm for pilot projects. They are very keen to get on with it—they have been for quite some time. Is the panel satisfied that sufficient progress has been made on pilot projects? The three island authorities are very clear about wishing to progress with the pilots. The consultation on the pilot process has only just concluded and it will be some time before we get to see the submissions that were made to it. It is really important to take pilot projects forward. The discussions that we have had with our colleagues in Orkney and Shetland make it clear that their pilot projects will be different from ours. We are quite clear about what we want our pilot project to be about, which is Crown Estate assets out to 12 nautical miles and working with the capacity that the community can bear, which, as Calum MacLeod has already said, we have very clear evidence of through community land ownership. There is no great difference between community land ownership in principle and ownership of the marine assets that already contribute a significant amount to those communities. It is about having local management and control, with local revenues that can be reinvested in facilities that enable things to go further. We hope that our pilot projects will be our starter for 10, because we will be able to demonstrate through them that we have the capacity and will to undertake them and that safeguards are in place for taking the process forward in a regulatory framework and—importantly—with local management. That is where the biggest gains will come from in relation to the Crown estate. I can comment on the financing in terms of progress. Clearly, it is something that Crown Estate Scotland and the board have been keen to pursue. However, we must bear in mind that we are only a year old and that we have had a huge focus this year on getting the business up and running following the transfer from the Crown Estate. Immediate financial cash-flow difficulties were a huge priority and we had to get a corporate plan in place, which has been done. The board had to settle in and understand the assets, and the drive to develop the pilot programme was taken forward as soon as was practicable. The board and staff have visited many councils to understand their aspirations. As has been said, the consultation process has just been completed and the first pilot applications are expected to come through in June this year. It is a two-stage process and, following the responses to the consultation, we hope to refine it and get up and running as soon as possible. Mark Ruskell: On the retention of net revenues by asset managers and reinvestment in the asset, you will probably be aware of the evidence that we have had on the 9 per cent figure. I do not fully understand the methodological basis of that. However, you have all submitted strong views on that point, which I want to explore. In particular, what are your views on what the redistribution methodology should be? How do we calculate that redistribution? I can clarify that. It would be useful to have that clarification before hearing other panel members’ views. It comes back to the way in which Crown Estate Scotland has to separate its revenue account from its capital account. The capital is part of the ownership, under the Crown, of the asset itself and is retained as such. As I mentioned, any capital raised from sales is reinvested in the estate. Under the terms of the Crown Estate Act 1961 and of the Scottish Crown Estate Bill, any manager needs to turn that capital into account through generating revenue from it. That revenue, minus the costs of securing it, is then surrendered to the Scottish Government. Before doing so, under the terms of existing legislation, 9 per cent of that revenue can be moved into the capital account, and that is normally calculated on the basis of the previous year’s turnover. So, 9 per cent of gross turnover can be moved into the capital account, which creates an opportunity for the business to use that capital for reinvestment in the asset. In the current year, because we do not have operating accounts for last year—we were not Crown Estate Scotland then—we are having on-going discussions with the Scottish Government as to how that 9 per cent will be determined. I, too, admit to not being clear about how the 9 per cent is derived, but I thank Andy Wells for that clarification. In our submission, we went as far as suggesting a top-up of that 9 per cent, particularly for community organisations. We do not necessarily advocate a specific number, but we are mindful of the financial incentive. Taking on board all other comments on the issue, we have said that, although the incentive is not only about the financial aspect, we wonder whether 9 per cent is sufficient for community organisations to have good and proper management of the asset. We are flagging up the need to understand whether that is the case. Perhaps we will get more understanding of that from the pilot process. In measuring and evaluating that incentive, do we again come back to sustainable development? If so, is it therefore about having clear objectives for reinvestment and delivery for communities? Can I get some more views, please? There is no doubt that we would prefer to refer to the First Minister’s statement in, I think, 2015, when she stated that 100 per cent of the net revenues would be returned to the communities in which they were generated. I recognise that there is still quite a lot of complexity about the distribution and there needs to be a major focus on that in the near future otherwise it will be difficult to set parameters for how the pilot schemes can be taken forward. That will have to be resolved with much greater clarity than we have at the moment before things can move forward. It is key for us to address that, for the communities who aspire to take control of the management of the assets and for the Crown Estate. There are fundamental issues around distribution that need to be resolved in the near future. Do you see part of that reinvestment as being reinvestment in your capacity as a council to manage assets? To come back to Audrey MacIver’s point about ensuring consistency and professionalism among asset managers when it comes to renewable energy development and leasing, I presume that councils have gaps in that regard. Do you therefore see that reinvestment as reinvestment in your council teams so that they can deliver or is it about community benefit? We do not necessarily see it as reinvestment in council teams. As you have just stated, we already have teams in the local authority that manage marine assets of different types. We want the net revenue that comes from the management of those assets to go back into the communities and for them to decide, to a large extent, whether that investment is for onshore infrastructure or managing the asset through persuading those who are involved, such as aquaculture organisations, to manage their processes in a sustainable way within the local context. If the net revenues from the Crown estate go to local government, we will not be interested in using that to deliver services. We are looking for investment in the Crown estate, which has not happened in the past. Communities are crying out for that. We need to be clear about distribution. Are you saying that that will be the case even if the devolution of management puts pressure on your teams? The greatest pressure on our teams is their inability to deliver on the aspirations of local communities because of the financial resource that they have. The 9 per cent figure is curious and intriguing in some respects. Although it has not quite been plucked out of the air, it is a historical figure. I am not clear about the rationale for it. It is because the Crown Estate cannot borrow money. There has to be a method by which it can generate capital for reinvestment other than through sales of land. Thank you for that helpful clarification. That being the case, there is nevertheless an issue around the incentivising of communities to become managers of assets and whether there is scope to change that figure. We do not have a figure in mind either, but it should certainly help to do that. When David Mallon gave evidence to the committee on 20 February 2018, he said that 9 per cent is “a game changer” for communities. Perhaps it is, and I do not want to dismiss that, but it could be even more of a game changer if it was a larger figure. There is also an interesting question about what happens to the 91 per cent that goes back into the Scottish consolidated fund. From Mr Mallon’s evidence, I gathered that there is some ambiguity around whether there is scope to redirect that money from the fund back into communities. If that is the case, we would be interested to hear how it might happen in practice. I have a wrap-up question that I would like to pose to all the witnesses. I am looking for brief answers. Do you have any views on potential omissions from the bill or suggestions for how it should be amended, other than the ones that we have already discussed? We have a couple of suggestions in areas in which we think that there are opportunities. One suggestion relates to an automatic right of ownership of the foreshore. When communities are not in a position to take on ownership, the right would go to local authorities, which would enable communities then to take that on. In our written evidence, we also made a suggestion relating to the scope for community ownership of areas of the sea bed that are in the proximity of foreshore rights. I will not rehearse all the arguments that we have heard already, but that suggestion relates to sustainability and community cohesion. In real terms, what would be the benefits of both those options? They would give communities more control and more say in what they might want to do with the assets for the benefit of the communities. There would be potential economic benefits and other broader sustainable development benefits in terms of social cohesion, community confidence and helping communities to thrive. Mr Wells, how would you see that happening in practical terms, given your inside knowledge of the Crown Estate? It is about balance. From our perspective, we think that the bill offers a real opportunity for people and communities to have more opportunities to get involved and have a say in how assets are managed. It is a matter of striking the right balance between empowering communities and ensuring that there is accountability and that the right systems are in place. I will not be unfair and ask you whether the bill can be improved, given that you are here to represent the Crown Estate. That would perhaps be unkind. On sea bed ownership, it is recognised that Scotland’s territorial sea bed is of national importance, which is why we are happy to support the presumption against the disposal of that asset without safeguards. Given that there is quite a strong consensus on that presumption, there is scope to make the bill slightly stronger. As the bill is drafted, it is at the discretion of ministers to consent to disposal of the sea bed against an unknown set of criteria. We should either be clearer about what the set of criteria is or we should make the sea bed in effect inalienable—it should be unable to be sold or Parliament should have a greater role in deciding when and where it should be sold. From an industry and sector development perspective, as well as the further devolution, the bill should illustrate how Crown Estate Scotland can continue to play a vital role in stimulating innovation and supporting technology and development, whether in offshore energy or aquaculture. On the point that Alex Kinninmonth raised about ministerial discretion, it would, I hope, be reassuring if there was some clarity on the criteria that are to be used. No community will take on the management of Crown estate assets if there is no benefit to it in doing so. Nobody will take on the management of an asset if it is not an asset but a liability. We should ensure that safeguards are in place so that the process, whereby people take control of the management of assets and the revenues that go with them is very clear and regulated at different levels. Thank you all for your evidence, which has been very useful. I suspend the meeting for a couple of minutes before we move to the next item. 11:08 Meeting suspended. 11:15 On resuming— Scottish Water Annual Report and Accounts 2016-17 The third item of business on our agenda this morning is to hear from Scottish Water and Business Stream on the “Annual Report & Accounts 2016-17”. We have been joined by Johanna Dow, who is the chief executive of Business Stream. Peter Farrer is Scottish Water’s chief operating officer, Douglas Millican is its chief executive and Professor Simon Parsons is its director of strategic customer service planning. Dame Susan Rice is the chair of Scottish Water and of Business Stream. Good morning and welcome. What measures have been taken to improve Scottish Water’s customer service record in recent years, and how can it be sustained? Douglas Millican (Scottish Water): I will give the committee an overview and then ask Peter Farrer to comment. We focus on two key things: the physical service and our performance on quality of water, environmental protection, minimising interruptions to supply and minimising instances of sewer flooding; and the experiences of customers—how they feel about the service. I am pleased to be able to say that, having completed 2017-18, as well as the year that is under review today, we have continued our forward positive trajectory. Peter Farrer (Scottish Water): For physical measures of customer service, there is a measure that is known as the overall performance assessment, which covers 17 individual measures. The measures are weighted to reflect their importance to customers. As Douglas Millican said, they cover various things including water quality, environmental performance, flooding, pressure, interruptions to water supply, leakage and so on. In our “Business Plan 2015-21”, we set a target to reach more than 382.5 points on the OPA on average. That level represents the threshold above which a score is recognised as leading performance in the UK. In 2016-17, we achieved 390 points on the OPA measure, which was a notable improvement on the target. This year, the improvement is continuing. Although numbers have not been finalised, it looks as though the total will be more than 400 points. As an indication of the journey that we have been on, I will say that when the OPA measure was introduced 10 years ago, we were benchmarked as the worst-performing company in the UK. We are now recognised as one of the leading companies. The second customer service measure—the more experiential one that Douglas Millican talked about—is the household customer experience measure. It is a combination of qualitative and quantitative measures that represent what is important to customers. It includes the number of contacts that we get from customers, abandoned calls in our contact centre, complaints—both first-tier complaints and second-tier complaints from the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman—customer experience scores and perception measures from customers who do not transact with us on a regular basis. When we started on it two years ago, we had a target of 82.6 points for that measure. In 2016-17, we achieved 85.8 points, which represents a 20 per cent improvement in performance against the measure since we implemented it two years ago. This year, we are on a similar trajectory to improve performance further against the measure such that, over the three years since implementation, a 22 to 25 per cent improvement will have been achieved. I want to pick up on a couple of the important measures within that. Be brief, please. Peter Farrer: Complaints are an important element of the household customer experience measure. In 2016-17, there was a 20 per cent reduction in the number of complaints from the number previous year. This year, it looks as though a 40 per cent reduction will have been achieved over a two-year period. Thank you. That was very helpful. What is Scottish Water’s approach to handling the sensitive community matters to which the chief executive referred? Douglas Millican: In its daily operations and services, Scottish Water operates in communities the length and breadth of the country. The most intrusive aspect of our work in communities is when we go about our capital investment programme. At any point in time, there will probably be 200 or 300 projects running live in Scotland. It is an area in which we have made enormous strides, but we can still do more. When we embark on a project, we now work actively with communities to consider how we can maximise community involvement in what we do, and in how and when we do things. For example, if we want to do an infrastructure project around a primary school, we will look at how we can arrange traffic flows so that the impact on people going to and from school is minimal. That is our general position. Given the amount of work that we do, we do not always get it right. When we create sensitivity in communities, we must recognise that and consider what we need to do to recover the situation and make progress. It is crucial that we always ask what insights we can obtain from such situations so that we can learn from them and build into our processes measures to improve what we do. I will give a live example that relates to the capital city. We are doing a significant project in the Haymarket area of Edinburgh, just opposite Haymarket station. We are expanding the size of the sewer there to take away the risk of sewer flooding for some businesses on Haymarket Terrace. In that area alone, we have had to engage with half a dozen different communities, including businesses, households in the area and in the adjacent area to which traffic has been diverted, people who use the train station and cyclists. Community engagement is a multifaceted activity at which we are seeking to get better all the time. Another example that could be cited is the massive infrastructure project in Glasgow that Angus MacDonald and I visited some time ago. Was not there a delay in completion of that project, which led to inconvenience for businesses in the area? I would like to tease out a few points in that regard. I think that you are referring to the Shieldhall tunnel project, which is the largest project that we are running at the moment. An investment of £120 million has been provided to put in a new three-mile underground sewer of nearly 5m in diameter. It is a huge project that affects many communities. I have noticed in my many visits to the project how close the physical infrastructure comes to people’s properties. For example, piling rigs as high as the ceiling were only feet away from people’s houses. I saw for myself the constructive way in which the team had engaged with the local community and kept it on board, which was tremendous. I think that the issue to which the convener referred was in an area where businesses were affected by traffic diversions. We can say—with the benefit of glorious hindsight—that we were, in our great enthusiasm, probably too quick to give a commitment on the date by which we would be out of the area. As we do more and more complex infrastructure work in city areas, our understanding is growing that projects are often more complex than our ambitious engineers first estimate or hope. Sometimes, the issue is what we find when we go underground. To take my Haymarket example, as we went in, we found old tram tracks for trams that had ceased in the 1950s, and we found other uncharted services. You get surprises when you go underground. Therefore, we can say with hindsight that we promised businesses there that we would be out on a date that was too early. I will give a contrast with that. One of the other aspects of the project to which the convener referred was the closure of Aikenhead Road in Glasgow in order to do major sewer work. I was absolutely delighted that we could announce last week that we were out of there early. That is a good example of how we have tried to learn from aspects on which we had overpromised earlier. To come back to the original question, I say that overall the project is running ahead of schedule, and we hope that the tunnel will be operational early in the summer. That is all well and good, but did you compensate businesses on which your work had a negative impact? As a matter of principle, recognising that we are a public body and that all our money comes from households and business customers throughout the country, we do not compensate customers for delay. Our challenge is to minimise interruptions for customers and to give businesses as much notification as possible of any impact. If our business model was to compensate businesses that are affected throughout the country, that would have an upward impact on the charges that everybody in Scotland would have to pay. Therefore, it is a matter of policy that we do not compensate. This is perhaps an obvious question, but I want to get it on the record. Your written evidence says that “Written customer complaints” fell by “30% ... in 2016/17”. Do “Written customer complaints” include emails? Yes, they do. One would not have been surprised to see the number of letters falling by that amount in this day and age. It is good to get that on the record. I have two questions. Page 13 of “Shaping the future of your water and wastewater services” says: “We support the continued use of council tax bands as the basis for setting household customer charges as it is simple, cost effective and also provides a level of fairness.” Are water charges the same for every household in council tax bands A and H? I am sorry, but I am not quite sure that I understood the final bit of the question. Right. I will be very precise. Are the charges for each house in bands A through to H the same? Okay. I will give a bit of the context behind the question and then discuss the specifics. I think that Richard Lyle is referring to our consultation document on the long-term future for Scottish Water and the services that we provide to our customers. That will be available in hard document form and online for consultation and customer views over the next six months. We are going all round the country to try to engage customers and to get their views about what they want from Scottish Water in the future. On the specific question, the council tax charges are the same in any individual band irrespective of where one lives in Scotland, so if a person lives in— That is not what I asked you. I am just coming on to that. In band A it is the same wherever you are in Scotland, and in band H it is the same wherever you are in Scotland. That goes for all points in between. The relationship of the charging structure between bands A to band H is exactly the same as the historical basis that was used for council tax in Scotland until the change was made recently to increase the council tax bands E to H. That is not what I asked you. If I pay—I will take a figure out of the air—£300 in band A, is it £300 for every house in the country or is it £300 for band A and, say, £370 for band H? It is £300 for every— I will give you the actual figures. I am sorry. Can I stop you? I want a precise answer to a precise question. Is the water charge for every house in Scotland the same? Thank you. I thought that, but I wanted to make sure. Scottish Water is publicly owned. We, the public, are in effect your shareholders. Is that the case? Given that Scottish Water has made £94.2 million in its current financial situation, is there scope to reduce the charges and to have every house in Scotland pay the same, so that, if I live in a band A house, I would pay £300, and if I live in a band H house, I would pay £300? We are all drinking the same water and using the same facilities, so why is there a difference? If you take on board that you have made that profit—I know that you are going to say that you have projects to do and that you have to pay for this and that—can you reduce your fees to local councils and local households so that everybody pays the same? As most councils collect water charges through household bills, dare I say—councils will love this—that you could increase their fees? There are a number of different elements. First, the principles by which we charge are set by ministers for every six-year regulatory period. The charging structure that links to council tax bands was set in late 2014 to apply for 2015-21. Scottish Water implements ministers’ policy on charging. My second point is on our activities and how we finance them. We do two things: first, we deliver the day-to-day services of providing clear, fresh drinking water, and taking away waste water, treating it safely and returning it to the natural environment. There is a cost for that. The second cost is for all our investment, which falls into two categories: repair of infrastructure and assets and replacement of infrastructure and assets that have come to the end of their lives; and enhancement and extension of our networks. In very simple terms, the cash cost of delivering all our operations and our investment is more than the revenue that we generate. That is why we borrow from the Scottish Government to part-finance our investment programme. If we were to drop the charge levels, borrowing would need to go up. Those are not our decisions. They are made through an independent regulatory process that is a reflection of the Water Services etc (Scotland) Act 2005, under which the economic regulator has a duty to set our charges at what is termed “the lowest reasonable overall cost” for us to deliver our services. Yes—but every company in the world has to make a loss or a profit and has expenditures and so on. I used to work for the Royal Bank of Scotland and was a shareholder in the Royal Bank of Scotland. I sold the shares before their value crashed, by the way. The physical situation is that, from a shareholder’s perspective, you have made a profit. Even with all your costs and your spending, you made a profit of £94 million. As a shareholder, should I not get some of that back, as shareholders do with other companies when they get a dividend? In the model that we have, customers get the profit back in the form of its being reinvested in infrastructure so that we can keep delivering services for the future. So, my dividend is paying for future projects. It is used to keep on delivering services effectively into the future. Further to that question, I say that local government tax reform is always sitting waiting in the wings. How closely linked to it is the charging methodology? Do you see it as being completely separate from the debate on where we go as regards council tax, or do you anticipate that a review of the charging methodology would take place automatically if there were to be a review of council tax and consideration of its potential replacements? I have two or three thoughts on that. That is, fundamentally, an issue for ministers. I guess that it is clear that, to the extent that they think about changes in local government taxation, there is a flow through to thinking about what happens with water. One of the great benefits of the current system is how efficient it is for billing and collection. The costs of billing and collection activity are shared between the local authorities and Scottish Water, which effectively helps to keep down council tax and water charges. Alex Rowley: I want to talk about investment and new development. We have the Planning (Scotland) Bill going through Parliament just now and there is a need for major investment in housing. Take the example of a proposed housing estate of 900 houses. Does Scottish Water claim some of its investment in infrastructure back from the developer, or do you have to make that investment yourselves? Is the level of investment that you put in keeping up with the level of demand for investment in infrastructure, or are we storing up problems for the future? I will take those questions in reverse order. We endeavour to be what we term ready just ahead of need. We do not want to create infrastructure that ultimately might not be required, because that would be what we call a stranded asset. It would be a sunk cost for us as a business. However, we do not want to be late and to hold up new development, so our strategic aim is to be ready just ahead of need. We have made a lot of progress in the past few years by working with developers and local authorities to try to get ourselves ready and, generally, we are in that position. On the question of who pays for what, there is a model at the moment, which, in very simple terms, is a shared-cost model. We pay part of it and developers pay part of it. There is quite a bit of intricacy as to precisely how that works, but one of the questions that we pose in our consultation is whether that balance is right for the future. Do we have the right balance between what existing customers pay and what developers and new customers pay for the cost of new investment? I come back to the point of whether we are storing up problems for the future. Are you satisfied that the level of investment in infrastructure and repairing it is meeting the pressure on the infrastructure? That is a very topical question, because we are spending a lot of time with our regulators at the moment thinking about the next price review for 2021 and beyond. Probably the biggest issue that we are grappling with is the asset replacement challenge. We have spent a lot of time in Scotland over the past 20 to 25 years investing very significantly in upgraded infrastructure and assets, and putting in place waste water treatment plants where there were none before. As we look into the decades ahead, the big question for us is when we will need to replace that infrastructure. At one level, the challenge for us is how we can sweat the assets and make them last as long as possible. Equally, we need a good understanding of when we will need to replace them so that we have the financial capacity to do so. That is a live issue that is under review as we go through and work on our 2021 price review. Let us move on to Business Stream. When you were last in front of the committee, we had a discussion about the concerns that some members had about your 14-day billing period for customers when you had a longer period for paying your own creditors. An undertaking was subsequently given that that would be looked at and that a 21-day period would be introduced for new customers. Has that been done? If so, what impact has that had? Johanna Dow (Business Stream): When I wrote to the committee to provide additional evidence after the meeting, we made a commitment that we would move to 21-day payment terms, not just for new customers but for any customer who was not on a contract with us. We endeavoured to do that while undertaking a wider review of our debt recovery practices. We have subsequently done that, completed the review and implemented a range of changes, and our default position for payment terms for our customers is now 21 days unless they contract to do it differently. We have reviewed all our debt recovery practices and, for the majority of our customers, the first interaction that they would have with Business Stream would be 10 days after the 21-day period has elapsed. To be clear, does that now also cover the customers you had at that earlier point? Johanna Dow: It does. It covers any customer who is not on a separate contract with us. There are some customers who opt to have shorter payment terms in return for a discount, but any customer who is not on a contract will have the 21-day payment terms in place. What has the feedback been on that? It has been really positive. We do not get a huge amount of direct feedback from customers, but we have had feedback through some of the consumer bodies, and that suggests that it has been welcomed. That is good news. The committee has previously heard about a number of complaints about leakages, particularly on agricultural land. We have pursued the issue of how Business Stream is dealing with some of those cases. Has Business Stream seen a reduction in the number of complaints from businesses with regard to charging for leakages on agricultural land? I cannot comment specifically on the number of complaints that relate to leakage, although I can get back to you with additional information. At a high level, I can say that, following our entry into the English market, the number of customers we serve has more than doubled from this time last year but the number of complaints that we have had in the past 12 months has been about 1,300, which is the same as the figure 12 months ago. That shows that we are definitely seeing a downward trend in the number of complaints that we are getting from customers overall. With regard to the particular issues around leakage and the complaints that were raised by NFU Scotland in a meeting of this committee 18 months ago, I can say that we have worked through each of those cases systematically and have sought resolution for each of the customers. We have also been quite proactive with the NFUS, and have produced “how to” guides for its members in relation to a few common themes including leakage and shared supplies. I do not believe that we have got the balance right with regard to the water industry. The stock excuse that we seem to hear is, “It’s taxpayers’ money.” That was the case with the answer that the convener got in reply to his question about compensating businesses. I could give you a list of complaints that I have received from constituents on issues such as sewage works being only part completed and farmers hitting water pipes that have not been buried to the prescribed depth and having to pay the subsequent bill. People often get the stock response, “Computer says no—we’re not going to deal with that and you are not going to get any compensation.” Do we have the right balance with regard to Scottish Water’s duty of care to its customers? Surely there cannot just be a rush to the bottom to reduce water charges, given that there is obviously an impact on some businesses as a result of some actions that Scottish Water has taken or has not taken. Who wants to answer that? The question concerns both sides of the issue. The first thing to say is that you should pass any constituency concerns to us, and we will look into them. In general terms, I would say that we have got the right balance. The exception to that, which I mentioned to the committee last year, concerns the issue of a sewer bursting on farmland—it is something that we need to look at as we move into the next period. The reason why I think that the current practice in that regard is not up to date is that it reflects 1968 legislation, under which the liability on us is extremely restricted. This is my personal view, but my instinct is that we should be seeking to provide a level of compensation when we get a sewage issue on a farm that is similar to the level of compensation that we provide when there is a burst pipe on a farm. When I spoke to the committee last year, I gave a commitment to work with the Government to take that forward as part of the planning for the 2021 price review. However, as I said, aside from that issue, I think that we have got the balance right. That is shown by the huge reduction in the level of complaints that we are getting and the fact that, when we get challenged on issues, we think hard about what is in the interests of the specific customer and of customers in general. As we go into a period of consultation on our strategic projections, there is a great opportunity for you, your constituents and our customers to raise with us issues that we and the Scottish Government should think about in framing policy for the 2020s. In a nutshell, do you have enough flexibility to offer the compensation that people would generally expect? I am talking about people whose houses have been flooded because the waste-water drains needed to be updated. The answer that we receive is, “Well, we don’t have the budget for that.” We are told, “Well, it’s public money, and we don’t think that that is value for money.” Do you have enough flexibility in your budget to address such individual concerns? There are two different issues there. I am pleased to put something on the record. When sewage gets into somebody’s house—fortunately, that happens very rarely—that is quite the worst impact that Scottish Water’s activities can have. As much as anything, that is a function of our growing urban areas, more paving over and more intense storms. When that rain lands in sewers, it has to go somewhere. We have made a huge priority with the Scottish Government because of that. For this regulatory period, we have trebled our level of investment to deal with sewer flooding issues. We have prioritised areas, people and properties at risk of having repeat sewer flooding inside their premises. It is clear that external sewer flooding issues—which could be in a driveway, a garden or a road—have a real impact on people’s lives but, relatively speaking, have less impact than flooding inside houses has. Therefore, that has not been prioritised for investment in this period. When we look at the period of 2021 and beyond, we and our regulator and the Scottish Government will need to look at all the relative levels of priorities. However, I give an absolute assurance that, whenever anybody suffers a sewer flooding event, we will always go along and ensure that it is fully cleaned up. I want to let in Angus MacDonald on sewage floods, but I will ask Johanna Dow a question first. We have moved away from the original question to Business Stream. Do you record data at the level of the number of your agricultural customers in Scotland? I ask that question because I understand that the NFUS has an arrangement with a rival provider that offers a metering service. Is there any evidence that you have been losing customers to it because of that? We hold some information that would allow us to categorise the nature of the customer’s business, but it is not 100 per cent accurate, as it is based on the standard industrial classification codes that Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs uses. I could not sit here and give members the number of farms that we supply, for example. However, from looking at recent trends in customer switching activity, I do not see a significant reduction in the number of farms that we supply. I can see information on who is transferring out to somewhere else on a monthly basis. Angus MacDonald: I want to pick up on the issue of sewage spills on farmland. I should declare an interest: I have a family member who is currently in dispute with Scottish Water at the Court of Session over alleged arsenic poisoning of a herd of cattle due to sewage spills on nearby land. Perhaps I should also declare that I am a customer of Business Stream on a non-domestic property in the Western Isles. At the previous session with Scottish Water, I raised the issue of sewage sludge spills on farmland in general and highlighted the concerns of the NFUS, which had identified numerous incidents of sewage spilling on to farmland. Douglas Millican has referred to the comments that he made in December 2016, when he previously appeared before the committee. As I said then, the NFUS had “flagged up the fact that current law puts the onus on the farmer to prove that Scottish Water is liable for any damage that is caused by sewage spills rather than on Scottish Water to prove that it is not liable ... The NFUS feels that that should be changed in law as it is the wrong way around.” Mr Millican said in response to that: “We have some sympathy for that.” You have said today that you are still looking at that. That is disappointing, because you stated in 2016: “the law, which was written nearly 50 years ago, is out of step with current customer service expectations and practice. We need to look at that with the Scottish Government either to consider formalising a change in approach for the next period or to decide whether such a change should be accompanied by a change in legislation. It is on our radar.”—[Official Report, Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee, 6 December 2016; c 37-8.] However, a year and a half later, we do not seem to be any further forward. What progress has been made on sewage spills on farmland? Is that still on your radar and what progress has been made on the discussions with the Scottish Government on formalising a change of approach? I hope that the answer that I gave a few moments ago echoed the one that you have recalled from December 2016. Yes, but we are now a year and a half down the line. We are in a process of considering all the factors for the next strategic review of charges, which will come to a conclusion over the next 18 months or so. Only as it reaches a conclusion will we come to a definite position on what is agreed, what the priorities are for the future and whether there should be any changes in policy position. I hope that what you got from the sentiment behind my comments in December 2016 and today is that I believe that it is an issue that we should consider and therefore if it is not addressed through legislation, it would be in our gift, subject to Government support, to address that through our policy position. I want to drill down into the pollution figures in more detail. There has been a slight decrease in minor category 3 incidents in the past year and there has been a slight increase in the small number—thankfully—of more serious category 1 and category 2 incidents. Can you tell us a little more about the consequences of those more serious incidents and, in particular, how your investment programme is ensuring that such incidents continue to decrease over time? You refer to the environmental pollution incidents, for which categories 1 and 2 are the most serious and category 3 is more minor. You are right to say that the number of category 1 and category 2 incidents increased a bit this year. When something is categorised as a 1 or a 2, that means that it could lead to fish kill or other environmental impacts on rivers and so on. If the incident is really serious, the environmental regulator can take us to court and prosecute us in respect of the severity of the impact. Could you pick one serious incident and tell us about that? We had a prosecution at Dunswood. It is the only incident for which we have been prosecuted and it was down to the fact that one of our treatment works had a problem over the weekend: a large piece of electrical cable went down the sewer, blocked up some of the equipment and caused an untreated discharge into the river—the discharge had not gone through the works for proper treatment. At the same time, because of power issues, our telemetry unit failed, so we did not know about the discharge until the next morning when the operator arrived at the site at 7 am and the discharge had been running for a number of hours on the Sunday. That was classed as a serious incident. Fortunately, incidents are not often as serious as that. We have looked at the impact of that incident in relation to our equipment and telemetry and we have made alterations to ensure that it does not happen again. How does your investment programme address those particular issues? Is it a common theme for more serious incidents that there is a mechanical failure or some other unexpected failure that you have to go away and think about the reasons for before making reinvestments, or is such failure predictable? Is there something about asset management that Scottish Water needs to consider? I will give a general answer. We have been focusing on pollution incidents for quite a while. Back in 2010, there were 825 pollution incidents and you will see from the document that that figure is now down to about 200, which is a significant improvement. We have achieved that by focusing on the whole network and on treatment works and what we can do to improve their controls. If we look at the number of pollution incidents across the network, we can see that 70 per cent are caused by blockages in the sewer pipework. The committee has probably seen the campaigns that we have been running to engage with customers by telling them not to put inappropriate things down toilets, which can lead to such blockages. We have been working very hard over the years and are doing a number of things to minimise those incidents. An inherently challenging area is that, at the moment, we do not always know when a discharge might be going out of a combined sewer overflow. Committee members might imagine the situation. Such overflows are designed to relieve excess surface water in times of storm. However, if there should be a blockage because of inappropriate material having been put down in dry weather, we might not know that that overflow is discharging. Therefore one of the things that we have agreed as a priority in our investment review for 2018 is to look at where we need to install greater sensors in our networks to give us insights into what is happening in our waste water system. For example, if there is a discharge from a combined sewer overflow on a sunny day, that would indicate that something is wrong and we need to get out there and attend to it. Over the years to come, we will have quite a bit more to do, where it is cost effective and environmentally worth while, so that we can get further real-time insight into what is happening in our sewer network. I want to ask about longer-term pollution issues. I give the example of Kinghorn in Fife, where, last year, there was bacterial loading at the harbour. Again, that relates to overtopping and combined sewage getting into the storm water system and then into bathing water. Is that picked up in these figures? Are longer-term, low-level pollution problems—and, more so, dispersed pollution problems—picked up, acted on and fed back into the investment programme? Professor Simon Parsons (Scottish Water): Yes—very much so. I know that that happens in the case of Kinghorn, but I am interested in how you report and monitor that kind of stuff. Professor Parsons: All pollution incidents, such as the one at Kinghorn, are reported to the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and then categorised. Kinghorn is a good example: we are working with SEPA, first, to make sure that we understand how that network works, what all its contributory parts are and how it impacts on bathing water, and then to work out what investment we will need to put in place. At Kinghorn, we are already working to put in investment that will control the discharges from that network into the bathing water. In the longer term, by far one of our bigger challenges is controlling the amount of surface water or storm water that gets into our sewers. It is very much a case of making sure that the sewers are used for what they have been designed for. For example, we minimise wash-off from roads and paved areas and try to slow down that water to allow the sewer networks to work as they have been designed to do. Finally, what is your planning horizon? Is the timescale adequate to make long-term changes in the system? The committee had a submission from Consumer Futures, which said that Scottish Water needs to adopt a 50-year strategic review. That might be difficult to do, given climate change, but—you know what—that is coming anyway. Are the current timescales for investment adequate for us to really look at where we want to be in 50 years’ time? That is a really great provocation from the Consumer Futures unit. When we have pulled together all the work that has informed our shaping the future consultation, we have tried to look as far ahead as can reasonably be done. In some areas, we can have reasonable confidence as to how things might be decades down the track. In other areas, we might ask who knows what the world will be like in the 2020s, never mind the 2030s or 2040s. Therefore, quite intentionally, we have not put a date on it. We have not said, “This is 25 years ahead”, but we have tried to look as far ahead as we practically can. If there were to be an anchor, I guess that it would be 2050, but it is not limited to that. We are trying to stretch our thinking and planning as far ahead as we can. Even in active dialogues with Government and our regulators, looking at the next period, we are absolutely rooting our thinking in that—not just for even six years but trying to do the right things to make sure that the industry and our service to customers will be in the right place in the decades beyond that. Does that assume regulatory alignment with European Union directives, even though we will be out of the European Union? In effect, it assumes that there will be a continuation of the standards that we currently have to achieve. We are already looking at possible changes in EU legislation. For example, there is a proposed new EU drinking water directive, and we are absolutely considering what we might need to do to comply with that. I want to develop the climate change point, but I will let Alex Rowley in first. I will take the liberty of homing in on a specific Fife question relating to a sewage treatment plant. You will be aware that the new Queensferry crossing is near a sewage treatment plant and that there have been real problems with smells coming from that site over a number of years. Given that the local communities in places such as North Queensferry and Rosyth want to take advantage of the iconic bridges, where are you at in trying to address those issues? We had problems in the past with odour, which were to do with the way that the treatment was carried out. We carry out a treatment called lime stabilisation. Because of restrictions on the site, some of that had to be done outside, which led to odour issues. However, we have now changed that practice and we are doing treatment within a building, which has odour control, and the sludge is then removed from the site. We have changed the way that we do the treatment in order to minimise the odours that come from the site. I will move on to climate change mitigation and adaption. Douglas Millican has highlighted three key areas in that regard, which are the capacity of our sewerage systems, assessing the flood risk to some of our critical assets and what we need to do from a drought resilience angle. What further progress has Scottish Water made on energy efficiency and climate change mitigation? I will deal with the energy part of that. We have a number of approaches to renewable energy in our business. We already have a number of large wind schemes on our catchments, and we also have a number of hydro installations, small wind schemes and photovoltaic installations. Of course, we have recently started heat-from-sewage schemes. Over the years, we have increased our self-generation capacity and we now generate about 13 per cent of the electricity that we need each year. We use a significant amount of energy every year. The figure is about 440 gigawatt hours, which is a huge amount, and we self-generate 13 per cent of that. In March 2017, we reached a milestone when we announced that we were generating or hosting on our assets more renewable energy than we consume in a year. We have continued with that programme. We are continuing to build renewable assets and we hope to announce more achievements in that area very soon. As well as the renewable generation, we have a focus on reducing the amount of energy that we need to consume in our operations. A lot of that comes down to optimising our treatment technologies. We are on track to deliver 11GWh of energy efficiency savings by the end of this period. Do you still consider capacity of the sewerage system, flood risk to critical assets and drought resilience to be the key issues arising from climate change? Very much so. For example, there are issues about how we deal with storm water in our sewers, which are a very fixed asset, and about ensuring that we can always provide an adequate supply of drinking water, in terms of quantity and quality. Some of the biggest risks that we see from climate change relate to those issues. One area on the list that is slightly different concerns the changing quality of some of our waters. A lot of our waters come from upland and very peaty sources, and we are seeing an increase in the amount of organic material in those waters. There are predictions that, given climate change, that situation could become worse for us. There is therefore a challenge for us over a very long term in ensuring that we are able to provide both the quantity and the quality of water. Are you talking about increased turbidity? We tend to see increased turbidity, but it is primarily about the colour of such water. Among other characteristics of Scottish waters, we are seeing increases in that colour. We do not want that to come through to the high-quality water that we provide. Can you say a bit about external sewer flooding in Prestwick, in my constituency? Have you made any progress on that issue? Are you considering a pilot? How are you working with the local authority on it? Will it be 2021 before you get a resolution? My constituents are still very anxious about it. A number of areas are firmly on my radar, including Prestwick, where we have particularly concerned customers because of the issue of repeated external sewer flooding. We are actively looking at what else we could do in the meantime short of formal investment. I cannot offer you specific solutions today, but I can reassure you that we are looking at whether we can do other things in the meantime. That is not a promise that there are other things that we can do, but we are certainly looking at whether there are. It is distressing for me that there is a big issue that impacts on people’s lives and that, apparently, we can do little about. For a business that prides itself on putting its customers at the heart of what it does, that is not a great place to be. I therefore want to make sure that we do all that we credibly can in that respect. Equally, however, we always operate in a world of constrained finance because there is ultimately a limit to how much our customers will be willing and able to pay. There will therefore always be difficult choices in any investment review as to what gets promoted and what we just have to manage as best we can. Thank you. We move on to the issue of chloraminated water, on which a number of colleagues want to come in. Kate Forbes: The witnesses might be aware that a petition on chloramination that is in front of this committee—it was referred to us by the Public Petitions Committee—was sparked by the situation of the water supplied from Aviemore to the Badenoch and Strathspey area. However, my first question is a general one. Why has Scottish Water decided to increase the number of areas that are being supplied with chloraminated water? I will provide a bit of context. We draw water from many different sources across Scotland. We sometimes draw water from rivers and underground aquifers, but we predominantly draw it from upland lochs and reservoirs. We then need to get that water into a high-quality condition and deliver it safely to customers’ properties. The two main challenges for us are the nature or characteristics of that water from lochs and reservoirs and the nature of its distribution—the length and material of the pipes—from where we collect it to where we deliver it to customers’ premises. Those are the two main factors that drive our water treatment activities that ensure that the water that gets to customers’ premises across the network is of a high quality and safe to drink. On chloramination, I will make a general point that does not deal specifically with the Badenoch and Strathspey issue. Over a quarter of Scotland’s water, including the water that we drink here in the Parliament, is now being chloraminated because, as Simon Parsons referenced earlier, a lot of our natural source waters come from upland areas where the soil is quite rich in organics and peat—more so than in most other places in Europe. When that organic material reacts with chlorine, water is produced that is safe to drink. However, there is always a risk that water from an area that is rich in organics might breach the regulatory standards that we are required to achieve. The context is that the standards that we need to achieve are broadly three times more demanding than the World Health Organization’s guidelines for appropriate health parameters. When water that is rich in organic or peaty material is combined with chlorine, we are at risk of breaching one of those regulatory standards. However, a treatment of chloromine—a combination of chlorine and ammonia—means that that element is way below the regulatory standards and is even safer for people to drink. When Scottish Water decides to chloraminate water in an area, does it engage with consumers prior to the introduction and during the initial phase? How far in advance are consumers notified, and is there a regulatory requirement to notify consumers about changes to their water? Our principal engagement has been with the drinking water quality regulator and local health boards. Both the regulator and NHS Scotland recognise chloramination as very safe and appropriate for water treatment in Scotland. Typically, we engage with the NHS a year ahead of chloramination to make sure that, for any patients who have kidney issues, adjustments can be made to dialysis machines to deal with chloraminated water as opposed to chlorinated water. Rightly or wrongly, we have intentionally taken a low-key approach to informing customers. The drinking water quality regulator said in evidence to the Public Petitions Committee that “using a treatment process which involves the addition of ammonium sulphate to the water may sound alarming, but this is ... recognised,” approved and safe. We have been low key about it because a person who gets a postcard about the addition of ammonium sulphate might be very anxious. Most customers rely on the whole infrastructure of the national health service to protect public health. The Scottish drinking water quality regulator and Scottish Water work together to give the assurance that water is absolutely safe to drink and of a high quality. We do not alarm customers. Historically, we have restricted information to the organisations and people that need to do something about the change: the NHS, for dialysis, and people who keep fish as pets. However, whether that approach is right is an open question. Recently, in East and South Ayrshire, we had kick-back—for the first time—about why we did not do more to inform people in the area, which struck me and posed the question whether we should work with the drinking water quality regulator and Citizens Advice Scotland to look at the pros and cons of different approaches to the provision of information for customers. On the issue of timing, information is provided a year ahead to the health board and three or four weeks’ ahead to customers. That is far enough ahead for them to take action, such as by getting the right filter for a pet fish, but not so far ahead that they may have forgotten about it by the time the change comes along. How do you identify which customers keep fish as pets? We do not try to identify them. We send out A5 postcards to draw the issue to the attention of people who have fish, asking them to look at what to do and to speak to someone at a pet shop or fish shop. The postcard makes it clear that the change is chloramination and includes links to a website with a question-and-answer section on all the issues. Thank you for clarifying that point. You mentioned that a quarter of customers are drinking chloraminated water, which means that three quarters of customers are not. Do you plan a further roll-out of the process, or do you decide whether to use it on an area-by-area basis? What might be the challenges for areas that do not have chloraminated water? Let us work back the way. Our approach is driven entirely by data on the quality of water at the premises of customers across Scotland. We do 140,000 tests a year on the water supply at customers’ premises and, in more than 99.9 per cent of those cases, the supply meets all the standards. When there is an area in which there is a fail or there might be a trend towards fail, we consider what more we need to do by way of operational practice or through investment to keep the water absolutely pure. Interestingly, the major driver for chloramination is what are called trihalomethanes, which are one of the parameters that we test for. They are caused by the combination of chlorine with organic material. If there is an area in which, historically, the trihalomethanes standard has occasionally been exceeded or in which there might be a risk of that happening in the future—perhaps because of climate change, which, as Simon Parsons explained, leads to more storms, which in turn cause more organic material to run off—we will consider whether we might need to change our method of treatment from chlorination to chloramination, to make sure that we are always within the prescribed limit for trihalomethanes. That is done on an area-by-area basis. Yes. For example, later this year, we will turn on chloramination in the Oban area, where we are building a new treatment plant. One of the major drivers for doing that is the need to deal with this issue. A number of colleagues want to come in on the same issue. I have a very simple question: can other methods be used to make heavily peated water safe? Are decisions on whether to chloraminate the water taken on the ground of cost effectiveness? Are there alternatives? Could there be heavier screening or filtering of the water, which would remove the requirement to chloraminate? Yes. We can look at a range of different options for the treatment of water and for the distribution part of the process, and we consider different approaches for removing such organic material from the water before we add the chlorine. Most of our water treatment works seek to remove 80 to 90-plus per cent of it, but many of our source waters contain such high levels of organic material that even removing 80 to 90 per cent of it is still not enough to enable us to guarantee that, when a customer turns on the tap, the water will be free from the by-products that we are talking about. We always look at the range of options that exist. We actively engage in research and innovation that looks at new technologies, new approaches and new ways of controlling our processes. In the end, we will make a decision that is based on the best way of ensuring that the water is always of a high quality and great to drink. In doing so, we take a long-term view of the whole-life cost. I am impressed by the fact that you carry out more than 400 tests a day to make sure that our water is safe. However, how many complaints have you received about the chloramination process in south and east Ayrshire? What action have you taken to address those complaints, some of which have been made by my constituents? I do not have a figure for the number of complaints about chloramination, but I do not think that there have been many of them. We introduced chloramination a week past Monday, and it has taken a number of days to get right through the system. I think that, at the absolute peak, we had 20 contacts a day about issues to do with the taste or the smell of water. That figure has now dropped down to four or five a day in an area in which we serve more than 300,000 people. I would say that it is a negligible level of inquiry. We get inquiries about water taste issues every day from customers across Scotland, so the fact that we are down to a handful of inquiries a day in an area of more than 300,000 people, just one week after putting in the supply, suggests that we have a so-far, so-good situation. If possible, could you supply us with those figures? I would be happy to do so. When a decision is taken to change a water source or alter a customer’s supply, how do you ensure that you do not inadvertently create further problems? All the approaches, processes, chemicals and treatment options that we use are highly regulated. That means that their impacts are well understood. A huge amount of sampling, in addition to the 400 samples a day that you mentioned, takes place as part of the commissioning of any new treatment process or putting any new chemical into the supply. That sampling analysis and science goes on in the background to ensure that, before the water goes into the supply, we fully understand that it is safe and of a high quality—and, we hope, that it tastes good. We then look at the impact that the chemical has as it travels through our networks. There are definitely things that we can improve. Some of the learning from a treatment works that was put in this year has helped us to understand more about the interaction between certain types of water and our networks. We use pilot rigs and test methods to understand what any change in treatment or chemicals will have on customers’ supply. Finally, is chloramination universally regarded as good practice worldwide? The chloramination process is supported by the World Health Organization, and it is used widely across the United States, Canada, Australia and various places in Europe. It is one of a number of disinfection methods that we can select from and use, and it is widely acknowledged as being a suitable process. You say that you “Deliver high quality, great tasting drinking water, every minute of the day.” What right do you have to change my water? I have noticed that water taste has changed in the 60 years that I have been on the planet. In Strathclyde, you tried to put in fluoridation. I do not know whether that has happened yet, but you have changed our water. What scientific evidence do you have that what you have done in the new input into our water does not affect people? People have concerns and are putting in petitions that ask the simple question about the costs of water filters. I remind you that Scottish Water made £94 million profit in one year. If someone does not want their water to be affected, given that you have made the change, why should you not pay the cost to ensure that the water that they are drinking is to their taste? I will let Simon Parsons deal with most of the question, but the first thing to say is that filters can give customers a superficial confidence. To be clear, it is absolutely the customer’s choice whether to put in a filter. Our concern is that, unless those filters are changed regularly, there is a risk of bacterial growth inside a customer’s property and that would undermine the safe, high-quality water that we supply. The improvements in water quality since the formation of Scottish Water have been fairly significant. That improvement in water quality has been proven both from a scientific point of view and in the number of contacts and people’s concerns about the quality and taste of the water. We have had a tenfold decrease in the number of failures to meet drinking water standards and a significant reduction in the number of contacts from customers. There is no doubt that the quality of the water that customers get across Scotland today is significantly better than it was 10 or 15 years ago, which is the result of significant investment in treatment processes, operations, skills and capabilities and science. There has been a significant improvement in the quality, from the perspective of safety and that of consistency across Scotland. There is no doubt that the taste of water is affected by where it comes from. Anywhere else in the UK, the water tastes very different from the phenomenally good-tasting water that we have here today. The taste of water is affected by the source. We always look for the most sustainable source that can provide water for the long term. The water in Scotland today is of an incredibly high standard and it is safe. I hope that we achieve the statement in the strategic projections that it is good to drink. I agree that Scottish water is the best, but I have noticed a change in the taste over the years that I have been on the planet. In London, my goodness, the water down there is—well, I will leave it at that. I will go back to my point, which is to address the petitions that are in front of us. There are products out there—I will not mention the brand name—that you put in your fridge to filter water, although those come at an extreme cost. If Scottish Water is changing people’s water and they do not want that because they are fearful of skin allergies, for their children or because of their dialysis, but it would cost them £2,000 to buy a filter and they do not have that, why can you not pay for that? In very simple terms, it is because our obligation is to provide safe high-quality drinking water. There is a risk that providing filters would undermine the safety of the water because of the risk of bacterial formation on the filters. I do not accept that. If I go to a doctor, I can get a prescription every so often. If I go to a pharmacy or a company that supplies me with something, they can send it to me every so often. If I get a filter from Scottish Water, you could supply me with a new filter. The operative word is a four-letter one: safe. Scottish Water says that it will deliver safe water to me. If I do not believe that that is happening, I should be safeguarded by your providing me with a means to get safe water. I absolutely agree, and that is why it is so important that we have an independent drinking water quality regulator who gives that assurance to people across Scotland that the water, not just in aggregate but area by area, is safe to drink. I will leave it there. There are people who have concerns about the process, and we hear suggestions that difficulties arise in relation to skin conditions and breathing difficulties. Do you accept any of those claims as appropriate and accurate? Potentially, there are lots of complex issues. The area that probably caused me most distress was Badenoch and Strathspey, where there were issues for a whole bunch of reasons. Historically, we did not handle that situation well and we took too long to get on top of it. The skin issue was a particular concern there. We had changed the source water from a loch in the Cairngorms to an aquifer under the River Spey. Undoubtedly, there were people who presented as having skin issues that they had not had before. The only way that we could deal with that properly was to engage NHS Highland, which looked really hard at the data. It spoke to all the local general practitioners in the area and compared the data on skin issues after the new supply came in with the data under the old supply and at the instance of skin issues in Badenoch and Strathspey compared with that elsewhere in the Highlands. NHS Highland’s two key conclusions were that there was a negligible difference between the instance of skin issues under the new and old supplies and that, overall, the instance of issues was about 20 to 30 per cent lower in Badenoch and Strathspey than in the Highlands as a whole. That was part of the evidence that NHS Highland gave to the Public Petitions Committee in July 2017, and that is the area where we have looked hardest at the issue. I was struck by the part of the evidence that showed the significant percentage of the population that suffers from skin issues. NHS Highland highlighted the complex interaction of factors that can give rise to such issues. It is very much a matter for the health services rather than for us. What about the breathing issues? I must say that that is not an issue that I have heard of. The science behind chloramination is really well understood. There is a huge amount of academic research, as well as research by organisations such as the drinking water quality regulator and other health boards. There is a huge amount of data and information that gives us the confidence that the process is safe for us to use. I am not aware of specific concerns about breathing, but I take a lot from the research that was undertaken by NHS Highland that talks about the underlying science that says that monochloramine and chloramination are safe to use. Is the need to chloraminate waters from a particular catchment in any way related to land management practices? For example, at Loch Katrine, which is a major drinking water supply for Glasgow, you took the sheep off the hills a number of years ago and you are reforesting the area. I understand that that is not just about biodiversity or economics; it is about improving drinking water quality. I am interested to know whether there is a link with the chloramination issue. There is less of a link with chloramination; the specific issue that it is associated with is cryptosporidium, which is another thing that we have to control in the water and which is ubiquitous across landscapes in the UK. Those measures allow us to manage that catchment better. Elsewhere, we look at the impact of peatland, for example, and whether the peat in the source has been deteriorated by sheep or other uses. That can lead to more organic material coming into the water, which means a different treatment challenge for us and, as such, we might consider how we control that. However, the measures at Loch Katrine are primarily driven by cryptosporidium rather than other issues. We are very active in the whole area of land management. As much as anything, it is about trying to improve the source water, but it is also about stabilising it from further deterioration as the climate changes. A really good example is the super peatland restoration job that we did in the past year with the local community around our loch supplying Lerwick in Shetland. Do you put money directly into peatland restoration? Yes, we do that where it will deliver benefit to the source waters. Could you write to us with the details of that? Do you mean on the example in Shetland? Yes, and on any other peat restoration projects that you are involved in, because they obviously have climate change benefits, too. Absolutely—we can do that. Donald Cameron: I have two questions. One is on Scottish Water Horizons, and the other is a local question. Scottish Water Horizons had slightly lower profits in 2016-17 than in previous years. Will you explain why and say what is next for Scottish Water Horizons and Scottish Water International? The profitability of Scottish Water Horizons and International moves about from year to year. Although, at one level, we set them up to be profitable, we ask them to be quite entrepreneurial and innovative, and to do things that benefit Scottish Water and the water sector as a whole. Maximising profit per se is not the primary driver for the business. Scottish Water Horizons does a lot of work in supporting the development community with, for example, impact assessments and helping to construct new infrastructure for developers. It exports water offshore into the oil sector in the North Sea. It does quite a bit of work on waste management and it has its own food waste recycling facility at Cumbernauld. It is active in bringing waste from third parties into some of the waste water treatment plants. We look to bleed that waste in alongside the sewage. As long as we can manage that within our discharge licence standards, that is a great win-win situation—it is about getting more value out of our assets. Increasingly, quite a lot of what Horizons does is around supporting other Scottish businesses. We have set up two innovation test centres—one is at Gorthleck in the Highlands doing water testing and the other is a waste water testing facility at Bo’ness. We typically work with Scottish small and medium-sized enterprises that want to test potentially innovative products. That is a great example of something that does not feed through to the bottom line particularly but is really good in relation to supporting the Scottish economy generally. I will move on to a local question, on Gairloch in Wester Ross, which I am sure that you will be cognisant of. Scottish Water is currently reviewing the controversial planned changes to waste water treatment there in light of the serious concerns expressed by the local community. Do you accept that the local community’s concerns are justified? I will start by referencing one of my earlier answers, which is that we work in hundreds of communities across Scotland and occasionally we do not get it right. I would put Gairloch in that category—we did not get it right. The fundamental thing that we got wrong in Gairloch was that we approached it from our own technical and logical perspective about the required level of treatment to protect the sea around Gairloch and we did not understand sufficiently how it looked and felt from a community perspective. In Gairloch, we have a bit of a Rolls-Royce waste water treatment plant. It is built to a far higher spec than is needed for that area but it is so advanced that it does not work as well as it needs to. That is why we were looking to replace it. Unfortunately if you say to the owner of a Rolls-Royce—even if it is a rather malfunctioning Rolls-Royce—that you want to replace it with a Ford Fiesta because that is what is appropriate, there is a feeling of loss. Any person’s feelings are absolutely valid. If that is what the community feels, whether or not the basis for that feeling is right, we have failed to properly engage people and take them with us when looking at all the whys and wherefores around our proposed changes. I have a couple of questions on gender and diversity. First, the Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Act 2018 now has royal assent. It requires boards to have representation of at least 50:50 by 2020. How are you getting on with that—are you on your way to achieving that? Secondly, as an employer—as a public body—do you have proactive policies in place to encourage more girls in particular to look at a career with Scottish Water? Historically, in Britain—but not in Europe—it seems to be that trades such as engineering are predominantly seen as jobs for men or as jobs for the boys. Are you doing anything to change that attitude? Can you demonstrate that women can have a good career within Scottish Water and encourage more women? I think that in terms of the balance between the men and women you employ, 27 per cent of your employees are women. What are you doing to address that? Are you encouraging support for women at every level, in all the jobs within your organisation? Dame Susan Rice (Scottish Water and Business Stream): I will start, because you asked about the board. I can tell you that, as the chair, I am very attuned to the issue, as I have been throughout my career in lots of different spaces, and particularly here. When we have had searches for new board members, we have been very proactive in spelling out at the beginning of the search the kinds of diversity that we would like on the board. Diversity is more than gender. I realise that gender is the area that has been crystallised just now, but diversity of thought, background and experience is what makes a really strong board. However—and I have no hesitation about doing this at any stage in a search—I have looked particularly at candidates who are female, and I have pushed and spoken to panel members or whoever is considering the candidates to see whether we have missed anything. I know, as a woman, that women often have quite different career paths than men do, so we need to be open-minded when we look at somebody’s experiences on a CV to see what value they might bring. In recent searches, we have appointed two very strong women to our board—Samantha Barber and Deirdre Michie—who have very different backgrounds and they are contributing a good deal. I would love to get 50:50 representation. The thing about a board is that members cannot be changed at will; they have terms, so you change people when the time comes, but it is hard to have an instantaneous impact. Douglas Millican can speak to encouraging younger women up through the organisation, but at board level, we talk about issues such as the gender mix and about what programmes the organisation has to encourage women to not only start but continue their careers, right through the decades of their lives, so that they have that chance to rise up. There are women’s networks and I have spoken to one about being professional for my entire life and how to balance that with family matters and other factors. There are a lot of things that one can do, but Alex Rowley is right that, at the end of the day, it should be a goal to have very senior women in the organisation. We are beginning to see that happen. Some of our strongest up-and-coming women have come and talked to us on the board, and as we become familiar with them, we give them exposure to us. Perhaps that is enough said from the board level. The short answer to Alex Rowley’s question is yes. I know many different examples. In the interest of time, I will share just two. We are bringing lots of new apprentices into business and, in our promotional work, we very consciously showcase female apprentices in technical roles as a way of showing that Scottish Water is a place where no matter what gender you are, you can come and have a great career in a technical area as well as anyone else can. Secondly, I want to highlight that, on our operational side, which Peter Farrer runs, we have in the past year gone up to having eight female operational managers, whereas I think that a year ago there were two. If you look at our whole future leadership programme, it is broadly 50:50. I had a succession planning discussion with the board in March, and of those whom we see as having the potential to be in executive-level positions 10 years out, three quarters are women. Johanna Dow, I will allow you the opportunity to comment on that because, prior to your time in this post, I visited the Business Stream premises and was struck by the youthful nature of the staff. That seemed to be an emphasis in the early days. Is it still an emphasis? Yes, that is still the case. Moving on to the subject at hand, what work are you doing to encourage more women into Business Stream? We are also doing a lot. Mirroring what Douglas Millican and Susan Rice said, we have a real focus on family-friendly policies. We try to encourage not only working women with children but working men who have families. We try to provide support for them. Looking at our reported gender pay gap statistics for 2016-17, I think that we were one of the very few organisations in the United Kingdom that had a 50:50 balance for that year across both our board and our executive leadership team. Those statistics also showed that we were one of the very few organisations in which the mean pay gap was actually in favour of women, in our case by 1 per cent. We are consciously trying to do as much as we can to provide family-friendly policies to try to keep women in the workforce throughout their careers. I want to move on from that and ask about the customer forum. What work is the customer forum doing? How representative is it of customers? What are the future priorities for the customer forum in engaging with your shareholders, who are the public? The customer forum was a successful part of our previous price review. It was an innovative way of getting customer representation and views right at the centre of our price review. It was deemed to be successful and is now being mirrored elsewhere across the world. Douglas Millican and I met some people from Australia who are mirroring the process in the power industry. It was a successful model. The new forum’s membership is about 50 per cent different from the previous version. We are working extensively with them on our next price review. Their focus is on the service that customers will receive now and into the future, how we will monitor our performance, what the prices and charges will be, and the range of different services and how we interact with our customers. I am spending a significant amount of time with the forum members. The questions that they are asking are a welcome challenge and stimulation to us, and they make us really think about different types of customer, whether they are urban or rural, or whether the environment is a customer, or domestic customers versus business customers. We are getting a range of different challenges. The key thing is that the forum works with us to try to understand the views of customers as a whole across the country. It is not about them bringing their own views as customers or representatives; it is about us wrestling with what matters to 5 million people across Scotland. We need to reflect that and the diversity of views within that as well as we can, and hopefully we can agree a business plan with them for the next regulatory period. We have a final question from Mark Ruskell. I will end on an easy question about private finance initiatives. Where do you go with those? I am aware that the first contracts will expire from 2021 and that you are going through a process of review and analysis. Where are you with that? Do you have any conclusions on whether PFI has a role in future? To put the question into context, we have nine PFI contracts, and the one that I think that you are referring to is the one for Inverness and Fort William, which expires in December 2021. We have looked at the different options and are in discussion with the PFI company about the way forward. What I am about to say is an expectation and not a commitment. If we are here in a year, I expect that I will be able to say definitively where we will be on PFI. However, if I was to give you a basic presumption, it would be against them all. Waste water treatment, which eight of the nine PFI contracts cover, is a core competence of Scottish Water so I expect that, over time, those projects will be absorbed back into our core waste water activities. Whether that happens on the date of contract expiry or whether we negotiate a small extension might vary from contract to contract but, in principle, eight of the nine will come back to us. The biggest question is around the contract that we have in Glasgow for sludge treatment and disposal. It handles 50 per cent of Scotland’s sludge. That contract expires in 2026 and there is a much more open question about the right way forward. I am not saying that that will mean another PFI contract, but it is a much more open question because we have less core competence in that area and at that level. Thank you for that clarification. What are the key reasons why you wish to effectively abandon PFI as quickly as possible and move services back in-house? Is that about core delivery, the core objective, or price? There are many reasons. PFI has brought some benefits, but one of the downsides is that the works are all run as stand-alone works. The manning levels on any of those contracts are typically much higher than, for example, Peter Farrer would have in his operations, which manage assets on a portfolio basis. Another aspect is that our finance costs are much lower than if we use private markets to pay for assets. The witnesses have undertaken to write to the committee on a number of points and I want to make an observation. Members have raised a number of points about issues that were discussed a year ago but there has been no great movement on them, and you have indicated that there might be some movement on them. Please do not wait until a year from now. If there is some movement on the issues that members have seen fit to raise, please write to the committee and keep us updated. Thank you for your time. At its next meeting on 24 April, the committee will take evidence on the Scottish Government’s national outcomes and the Scottish Crown Estate Bill from the Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform. As agreed earlier, the committee will now move into private. 12:50 Meeting continued in private until 13:16. Access Key (0)	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591649
__label__wiki	0.944856	0.944856	Stamps released with classic Rock album designs The Royal Mail has released a set of 10 stamps which show a series of classic album designs. The stamps all show a vinyl record sliding out of the 'album', extending beyond the stamp's perforations on the right. All the albums all classics from famous bands, but the artwork was foremost in the minds of those who made the selections. The selection is being launched with the help of Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, whose 1971 album IV is represented. The album includes the song Stairway to Heaven, but it is the enigmatic painting of an old man carrying a bundle of sticks on the cover which drew the attention of the selectors. No one knows the identity of the man or even the painter, which captures the anonymous feel Led Zeppelin were looking for. The name of the band doesn't appear on the cover. Led Zeppelin collectors may be interested to know that a set of autographs from the band is currently available. Often the covers stood out because they were not typically rock and roll. The Rolling Stones album Let It Bleed features a lovely cake. (Even less rock and roll is the fact that the cake was made by a then unheard of Delia Smith.) "For decades the album sleeve has been the canvas for some of the most imaginative graphic artists in the world, and this issue celebrates this unique art form and some of its greatest examples," Royal Mail's head of special stamps Julietta Edgar told the BBC. "We hope customers will enjoy the opportunity to send or collect these classic album designs in their smallest format yet - as miniature works of art on millions of 1st class stamps" she added. The only albums depicted are: Let It Bleed (The Rolling Stones), IV (Led Zeppelin), A Rush of Blood to the Head (Coldplay), Power, Corruption and Lies (New Order), London Calling (The Clash) Screamadelica (Primal Scream), Tubular Bells (Mike Oldfield), The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars (David Bowie), The Division Bell (Pink Floyd) and Parklife (Blur). More news on Stamps and Memorabilia	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591651
__label__wiki	0.666266	0.666266	Government Greenlights Offshore Mining in Cagayan The government has given the go-signal for the first large-scale offshore mining to operate in Cagayan in January next year. According to a statement, JDVC Resources Corporation, a majority-owned subsidiary of Apollo Global Capital, is now ready for operations, having secured permits from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. It's Mineral Production Sharing Agreement said that the mine is allowed within an area of 1,903 hectares in the seabed off Cagayan. The firm also had an agreement with billionaire Frank Lao of the Choi Garden restaurant group, who will provide two deep-sea mining vessels for the operation. When these vessels arrive in January, the operations will start. Ore reserves are expected to reach around 632 million tons of magnetite – a kind of iron-oxide mineral used to make steel. According to the website of JDVC, the extraction process would come as a “no hazard at all and no social complication,” emphasizing that no explosives are going to be used. The community in the area, however, doesn’t sit well with the operations. In a previous report, they questioned how the government allowed the firm without public consultation. Environmental groups even said that offshore mining may damage the ecosystem. University of Hawaii oceanographer Craig Smith said in a recent study, “Many deep-sea ecosystems will be very sensitive to seafloor mining, are likely to be impacted over much larger scales than predicted by mining interests, and local and regional biodiversity losses are likely with the potential for species extinction.”	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591652
__label__cc	0.711244	0.288756	Book Review: Liberty and Education: A civic republican approach Book Review: Liberty and Education: A civic republican approach, by Geoffrey Hinchliffe Reviewed by Neil Hopkins, University of Bedfordshire Geoffrey Hinchliffe’s book, Liberty and Education, is an important contribution to the literature on republican conceptions of liberty and non-domination and how these might relate to the contemporary field of education. Hinchliffe draws on the work of Quentin Skinner, Philip Pettit, and J.G.A. Pocock in his discussion of republicanism and recent political philosophy. Broadly speaking, republicanism (in its contemporary guise) emphasises a theory of liberty around freedom as non-domination. This is to be distinguished from freedom as non-interference (which has tended to predominate in Anglo-American political philosophy over the past few centuries). Where Skinner, Pettit, and Pocock differ from the classical forms of republicanism associated with fourth-century Athens or the Roman Republic is in regard to political participation: contemporary republican theorists tend not to view political engagement as a necessary component of leading a good life. In this regard, Skinner, Pettit, and Pocock adhere to contemporary liberal political philosophy by not advocating a particular conception of the good. Hinchliffe’s book is set out in four parts. In Part One, he gives an account of republican liberty (based primarily on Skinner but also with references to Aristotle, Machiavelli, and Locke to give an historical perspective to the theory). Part Two frames republican theory within a theory of knowledge that draws extensively on John McDowell’s Mind and World (1994), especially his concept of a ‘space of reasons’, and the implications this theory has for education. In Part Three, Hinchliffe investigates the relationship between authority and republican forms of liberty (with particular emphasis on notions of educational authority and teacher authority). The fourth (and final) part discusses Antonio Gramsci’s ideas on hegemony (based on his Selections from Prison Notebooks (1971)) in relation to aspects of knowledge and educational processes. As stated above, Hinchliffe defines liberty in terms of freedom as non-domination. This liberty is envisaged within the parameters of what Hinchliffe refers to as a ‘free state’: ‘the relation between states is one that is free of domination, and at the same time within such a state the relation between persons is free of dominion as well’ (p. 10). However, this republican free state is non-eudaimonic because, in the words of Hinchliffe, ‘republicans endorse the freedom not to flourish [as well as the freedom to flourish] because the notion of self-determination…implies that one takes the consequences of one’s actions’ (p. 11). Hinchliffe makes very strong connections between liberty and human powers (especially in Chapter Three). For the author, ‘[a]s far as liberty is concerned, there are only two powers that really count: the power of self-determination and the power to co-operate with others’ (p. 35). It is important for Hinchliffe that these powers are seen as normative powers ‘without which the concept of liberty and liberty-bearing agents is incomprehensible’ (p. 37). Hinchliffe engages with capability theory by interpreting it in terms of the idea of liberty-bearing agents and the two human powers mentioned above. In this sense, capability is itself viewed as a form of self-determination to the extent that ‘[t]here is…a way of interpreting capabilities that sees them as not only contributing to but as exemplifying the liberty-bearing status of an agent’ (emphasis in the original) (p. 39). What implications does this concept of liberty have for knowledge and education? It is here that Hinchliffe investigates McDowell’s ideas concerning the ‘space of reasons’. The ‘space of reasons’ is defined in the book as ‘the domain in which liberty-bearing persons conduct themselves and interact with each other’ (p. 45). It is important, in this account, to connect the ‘space of reasons’ with what is referred to by Hinchliffe as ‘second nature’. ‘Second nature’ is conceived by Hinchliffe (from his reading of McDowell) as the ‘sensory processes and other experiences that we share with a natural world become saturated with conceptual meaning’ (p. 46). This opens up a long-standing debate in philosophy regarding the mind-world dualism and, for Hinchliffe, the space of reasons does not dissolve this dualism – in his view, ‘it provides a way of thinking through that relationship’ (p. 49). The theory of knowledge outlined in the book does not lend itself to what the author calls a ‘comprehensive pedagogic strategy’; instead pedagogy must adopt a modest role. Regarding theories of knowledge and education, the book critiques ‘propositional knowledge’ (which is often associated with the work of Paul Hirst). According to Hinchliffe, such forms of knowledge ‘are disconnected from experience, whereas in fact they arise from a certain understanding of the structuring of experience’ (p. 54). In keeping with not promoting a specific conception of the good, liberty is not to be seen as the aim of education but rather in terms of what the book calls ‘authoritative structures’. Although we have already seen that Hinchliffe sets out a ‘modest’ role for pedagogy, he sets out in Chapter Six how teaching can facilitate or hinder liberty. Interestingly, he is sceptical (at times) of constructivist teaching methods and the development of what he calls ‘auto-pedagogy’. While many have linked constructivism with autonomy in education, Hinchliffe believes ‘[c]onstructivism seems to place a considerable burden and responsibility on the child’ (p. 78). He disconnects the concept of liberty from that of self-mastery: ‘if liberty is to be taken seriously then I should be free not to embrace self-management as a way of life’ (emphasis in the original) (p. 86). For Hinchliffe, many aspects of learner-centred pedagogies assume this level of self-mastery. From a curriculum point-of-view, Hinchliffe agrees with Christopher Winch (for example) in emphasising the importance of knowing-how as well as knowing-that. But Hinchliffe is a strong advocate of subject disciplines – this is because ‘[a] subject-based curriculum respects children’s autonomy much more than a curriculum that is integrated through the promotion of holistic-based ends’ (p. 96). There is a certain scepticism expressed towards the idea of the curriculum focussing too keenly on personal development and personal relationships, as this potentially leads to a ‘narcissistic preoccupation with the self’ (p. 96), when schools should be aiming to aiming to open up pathways to the world through the subject disciplines. The issue of liberty and authority (and where the boundaries occur) is a constant source of tension within political philosophy and theory. According to Liberty and Education, liberty ‘can only function within an authoritative normative order’ (p. 105). As an answer to the question ‘What is an authoritative normative order?’, Hinchliffe responds: a government that ‘constitutes laws and institutional structures premised on the idea that agents are free and liberty-bearing’ (p. 109). But what of authority within education itself? Hinchliffe explores educational authority through Amy Gutmann’s models in Democratic Education. Hinchliffe is keen to promote a democratic conception of educational authority where ‘[e]ducation is not a service and neither are teachers mere service-providers’ (p. 118). The author favours a return to the School Boards that were in existence in England at the inception of the state school system (and are still in existence in the United States) as a means of exerting democratic authority and control on the state system of education. Hinchliffe is concerned by the increasing centralisation of educational authority (exemplified by the current powers the Education Secretary now has regarding Academies). School Boards, in his view, ‘acted as a forum for local debate and discussion in a way rarely seen these days’ (p. 120). The authority of teachers needs to be derived from such a broad-based educational authority. Currently, this is not the case – OfSTED and the current inspection regime for schools and colleges comes in for particular criticism because it ‘treats teachers as the mere instruments of children’s learning who are not recognised…as being capable of bearing liberty’ (p. 126). Hinchliffe introduces the German concept of Beruf (or a sense of vocation that encompasses theoretical and occupational knowledge with civic and ethical responsibilities) as a way forward when reflecting on teacher authority, particularly within an accountable and participatory public sphere (or set of public spheres). Authority leads neatly to hegemony and the work of Antonio Gramsci (in the final part of the book). Hinchliffe sees hegemony as ‘the supremacy of a set of ideas that privilege some social groups over others, that privilege certain activities over others’ (p. 144); he alludes to the dominance of business terminology and practices in contemporary education as an example of hegemony. Why Gramsci is important for Hinchliffe’s notion of liberty is because hegemony is not monolithic – there are always contradictions or ellipses in any hegemonic structure. Gramsci also believed in the possibility of counter-hegemony: ‘each person has a philosophical-intellectual dimension that enables them to play a part in constructing society both in terms of its physical, material character and at the level of meaning’ (p. 147). Hinchliffe focuses on Gramsci’s criticism of the Gentile reforms in the Italian school system that favoured a more vocational approach to learning. In this sense, Hinchliffe implies, Gramsci is in agreement with him regarding an emphasis on a curriculum that favours subject disciplines of a broadly humanistic character. The study of history is of particular relevance: ‘For Gramsci, reflection without history is meaningless’ (p. 157). This is an important and engaging book that makes a significant contribution to the literature. Hinchliffe grounds his ideas on liberty and education using credible philosophical forebears and theoretical frameworks. If there was more space within the book, a greater exploration of Pettit’s ideas on freedom as non-domination would have benefitted the book as a whole. Pettit provides a sophisticated analysis of the child and the role of parental and teacher authority from a republican point-of-view (especially in Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and Government (1997)) that would have complemented the discussion in Part Three. Finally, can Hinchliffe’s work been seen as a civic republican approach? When one thinks of civic republicanism, we conjure up ideas of Aristotle’s polis and the Jacobins of Revolutionary France. Can an approach still be deemed ‘civic republican’ when it acknowledges there is not one dominant conception of the good? Discussion of that is for another book and another review. Hinchliffe, G. (2015), Liberty and Education: A civic republican approach (Routledge) Pettit, P. (1997), Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and Government (Clarendon Press) You can read an interview with Geoff Hinchliffe on the Author Interviews page. Neil Hopkins’ ‘Citizenship and Democracy in Further and Adult Education’ is reviewed here. You can read an interview with Neil here. RT @BERANews: Submit for #BERA2021 under one of our Special Interest Groups or these new additional themes: Climate and Sustainability Educ… London Branch event Monumental Changes: The Civic Harm Argument for the Removal of Confederate Monuments Winston C… https://t.co/fsSnOZkvfE Roehampton Branch event Environmental Ethics and Ontologies: Humanist or Posthumanist? The Case for Constrained P… https://t.co/2MWN7ske8v	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591653
__label__cc	0.605667	0.394333	Balasubramanyam Pattath Smart Drivers: Transforming Transportation As Artificial Intelligence envelopes our lives, among the many sectors expected to enter a period of rapid transformation, is transportation. Increasing urbanization, rising incomes, influx of new technologies and the political economy of each of these changes will cause structural shifts in economies, polities and societies. As part of our special report on new technologies, this article is dedicated to analyzing the trucking industry in the United States of America and the changes technology is bringing to the fore in this quintessential American embodiment of freedom - roads. The engagement trucking has with politics in America has become significant since President Trump rode to the White House on a rust belt vote. All the four key states won by President Trump in 2016 - Michigan, Florida, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin - count trucking as a dominant profession among their residents. The fact that three of these states, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan had not voted Republican since the 1992 Presidential Race, brought forth the anxieties of blue collar workers - from rapid globalization to automation. The consequent fall in incomes, coupled with a threat of skills acquired over decades becoming obsolete overnight, was enough to push them to a rallying cry of a glorious past, no matter how unachievable it might be in reality. What bolstered the sentiment, which Mr. Trump easily exploited, was that trucking in particular was witnessing stagnation in job creation. Bloomberg points out that while jobs in the industry, which constitutes 70% of America's domestic freight movement, had recovered from the depths of depression, job growth had started to slow since 2013. Combine this with the image of Elon Musk walking to cheering cameras with a self-driving truck, and you have the perfect mood of despair, and a perfect mix for disaster. However, recent research has indicated that a key behavioral aspect might just help make the automation less of the bloodbath than previously thought. Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics/Bloomberg. “Artificial Intelligence, Automation, and the Economy”, written by President Obama’s top economic and science advisors just before the 2016 presidential elections estimates that automated vehicles could threaten or alter 2.2 million to 3.1 million existing U.S. jobs. That includes those of the 1.7 million driving tractor-trailers. Long-haul drivers, it says, “currently enjoy a wage premium over others in the labor market with the same level of educational attainment”, placing them in a precarious position of risk and unemployment trap, should they ever lose their jobs. However, new research, particularly the open source economic analysis published by Uber’s Advanced Technologies group, claims that self-driving trucks will lead to a net increase in jobs. Their model of the industry’s labour market, based on data from the Bureau of Labour Statistics, looks at scenarios where the adoption rate of self driving trucks on the road affects the labour market. The division of trucking jobs into long haul and local haul connected by transfer hubs is central to their argument. As jobs in the latter category are predicted to increase in number and be exclusively available to human drivers, who can handle the complexity of the terrain, the model predicts a net increase in jobs augmented by lowering freight costs leading to increased demand for products, meaning more local haul trips as more people increase their consumption across the country. The prediction resonates with the views of government executives from the transport industry who believe that a driver’s job is more than just driving from A to B, and also includes handling a series of complex tasks between the drive, including the maintenance of the truck. Even sociological reasons exists for autonomous vehicles to take the long-haul burden off driver’s shoulder, as it would enable an easier lifestyle where drivers do not have to be away from home for 200 days of the year. Instead, through transfer hubs, they would enter good local jobs which enable them to be closer to their families, and reduce some of the nasty labour abuses in the low-paid trucking industry. Navigating Change through Risky Means As was the case with the ATM’s disruption of banking jobs, the process of creative destruction allowed for that sector to be pried open with some pain, invigorating possibilities offered by banking and enhancing consumer friendliness. A vast majority of studies that predict a doomsday for trucking jobs ignore the existing state of the industry and the potential that remains unexplored, making their analyses less robust, and the predicted doomsday, less likely. However, the changes Uber envisages depend heavily on the leverage it has over the political system, as introduction of autonomous vehicles will force it to use its increasing clout in wresting changes in regulation and restructure wages. Uber’s responsibility to collectively bargain for truck drivers will also increase its control over the labour force, and will have to be balanced by regulatory changes that prevent its monopolization of the industry. The political engagement with the changing faces of each sector awaiting disruption due to automation, are largely responsible for the skepticism driving the automation paranoia. Even the question of people adapting to these labour market upheavals by enhancing their skills is in doubt, when the unemployment benefits system does not have the capacity to assist that volume of personal enhancement as more people lose their jobs. This engagement is not just restricted to the written law, but extends to the nature of the political discourse as well. President Obama, in his farewell speech to thousands in a packed convention hall in Chicago warned, “The next wave of economic dislocations won’t come from overseas. It will come from the relentless pace of automation that makes a lot of good middle-class jobs obsolete.” This message was a softer, perhaps more prudent reflection of the times, than the aggressive political discourse from the Trump campaign, which framed the stakes of the election in losses rather than gains, prompting middle class voters to swing the election in favor of the aggressive, unpredictable capitalist who billed himself as the riskier bet. The election, having been decided by the Rust Belt, was dominated by voters behaving in accordance with Kahneman and Tversky’s Prospect Theory. The theory suggests that given a choice of playing it safe when confronting gains and, taking risks when confronting potential losses, people prefer risks in the hope of minimizing the damage. For many who had suffered indignation at the hands of the elite and the 1%, Mr. Trump was the risk at a time of potential losses. However, it is important to realize that, although the damage has been done through the election and its continuing aftermath, this risk-seeking behavior among the American middle-class might just be the crucial ingredient in dealing with the automation disruption. A class of individuals and families, who have made riskier political bets, and see little economic returns from them, can question their unending predicament and demand a change of their fortunes through collective action and enhancements to their repertoire of skills. Enduring upheavals that have resulted in economic gain for many, have often been a result of the constant particle accelerator-esque collision of changing attitudes, eventually crystallizing a complex interwoven structure that incorporates differences better than the quick-fix populist politics. A more optimistic outlook towards automation, allied with the constant fear of a robot snatching your job keeping you on your toes, might just be the ideal recipe for navigating the Fourth Industrial Revolution better than we think. Comments and suggestions are welcome. Article has been updated for accuracy. Balasubramanyam Pattath is a Research Associate at the Indian School of Business. He holds a Masters in Development Studies, from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, Switzerland. Originally from Kerala, India, Balu has a Bachelor in Economics from the University of Delhi. His interests and past work concern migration, demography, labour and, employment. He has served as the co-chief editor of the Hans Raj college Economics journal in 2014-15. He has also published several papers on the intersection of AI with manufacturing and education in peer-reviewed journals. During his undergraduate studies, Balu was an active quizzer and respected quizmaster.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591660
__label__wiki	0.827723	0.827723	Tag Archives: Greenpeace history 1990s Teaser Tag: Environmental History 1991-2000, 2001-Today April 15, 2020 J.D. Cover of 1999 book by Tony Rice & Paula Owen, “Decom-missioning The Brent Spar.” Click for copy. In April 1995, a famous environmental protest and activist intervention began to unfold in Europe’s North Sea. A political, media, and direct-action controversy erupted there between the environmental group, Greenpeace, and one of the world’s largest oil companies, Royal Dutch Shell. The battle began when Shell sought to dispose of a gigantic, decommissioned North Sea oil storage rig named the Brent Spar. Shell proposed to dump the rig into the North Atlantic Ocean. Greenpeace by the mid-1990s was a well-known environmental group globally – known especially for their often heroic direct-action protests at sea. In 1985, their Rainbow Warrior boat, scheduled to protest nuclear weapons testing in the Pacific Ocean, was blown up at a dock in New Zealand by French agents, killing one activist. That incident galvanized public support for the group, and their membership climbed for a time, only to ebb away a bit in the early 1990s. The Brent Spar battle, however, would spark renewed interest in the group and their environmental campaigns. The book cover at right depicts a scene from the North Sea in June 1995 as Greenpeace activists in a motorized rubber raft were attempting to board the Brent Spar facility amid water-cannon fire from nearby Shell vessels attempting to discourage the activists from approaching and boarding the Spar. What follows below is a re-telling of the Greenpeace/Brent Spar battle and the role the activists and their organization played in that intervention – not only at sea, but also in negotiations and other activity throughout Europe at the time. Included, as well, is some review of related offshore oil/ environment issues in the North Sea and other regions as of October 2019. Graphic describing the Brent Spar oil storage structure. In the early 1970s, Royal Dutch Shell, and its then project partner, Esso, a predecessor of ExxonMobil, were faced with an oil storage problem for their North Sea oil operations – the North Sea then, and still, a major realm of offshore oil production. The oil companies needed a facility on the water into which they could pump and store their Brent Field crude oil while awaiting collection. At the time, there were essentially two storage options: using a permanently-moored oil tanker, or building a new kind of huge, cylindrically-shaped, floating oil storage unit called a “spar.” The name is taken from the old “spar buoy” used in navigation, traditionally a long piece of colorfully-painted timber anchored at one end to sit upright in the water. However, in this case the spar would be an industrial behemoth – a gigantic, floating oil tank, which stood on its end, would be equivalent to a 40-story structure, tethered with massive chains to six 1,000-ton concrete blocks — a structure of more than 460 feet in total length, with about 100 feet of that visible above the water’s surface (see graphic at left). The storage tank section would have a capacity of 300,000 barrels of crude oil. The Brent Spar, it turns out, would be the first of other kinds of spars used in the industry, and particularly, production spars, which have become most prevalent in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. Spars are also found in offshore Malaysia and Norway. Back at Shell headquarters in the early 1990s, internal analysis showed the moored tanker option to be cheaper than the floating “spar.” Esso, in fact, favored the tanker option. But Shell as operator had the final say, and it wanted to use the spar – Brent Spar, as it would be called. Shell also stated that it favored the spar option, in part, because the risk of polluting the sea with the tanker option would be “significantly higher.” The very top of the Brent Spar oil storage unit during its operation, showing helipad and operating level, with more than 450 feet of its below-sea storage tanks not shown. So in 1972, the dry-dock building of the Brent Spar commenced at Erfjord, Norway and was completed three years later in January 1975, when the huge storage cylinder was floated out to sea. The Brent Spar was put in place in June 1976 and officially began operation that December The Brent Spar continued to operate for nearly 15 years, until September 1991. During that time a number of large tanker ships – such as the Esso Warwickshire, shown in the photo below — would come to load North Sea oil from the facility. In the intervening years, however, a pipeline was built, relieving Shell and Esso of the need for the Brent Spar storage unit. So, by the early 1990s, Shell was faced with a decision about what to do with the Spar, as it had outlived its usefulness but could not remain in place since it would pose a danger to shipping and over time would also break apart. Photo showing large oil tanker, the “Esso Warwickshire," taking on oil from the Brent Spar storage unit during its working years, likely sometime in the late 1970s or early 1980s. Dump or Dismantle? Although a study of 13 different options for the Spar’s disposal ensued over a 30-month period, there were essentially two choices: dumping the rig at sea or dismantling it on land. The studies that Shell commissioned showed that sea dumping was the cheapest route, while dismantling the rig on shore would be more expensive. One estimate found that sinking the Spar would cost $19 million, while dismantling it on land would cost $70 million. The dismantling-on-land option had potential environmental and worker exposure costs. The ocean dumping option would mean that the Brent Spar would be towed more than 100 miles out into the North Atlantic Ocean and sunk in a very deep trench there where the environmental effects were projected to be minor. Shell acknowledged there were toxic and radioactive materials aboard the vessel — a small amount of radioactive waste, small quantities of cadmium and mercury, and 53 tons of oil and oily wax. The scientists and studies commissioned by Shell found that these materials would create no major environmental or health problems. Britain’s National Environment Research Council also found the sea disposal acceptable, noting that “the direct impact on the environment would be small, since at these depths animal life is sparse and only loosely connected to the food chain.” Still, it would be the first time that an offshore oil facility of this size and kind would be disposed of at sea. Map shows the approximate locations of the Brent Spar, and its proposed 1995 dumping location, in the North Feni Ridge region, out in the north Atlantic Ocean, off the northwest coast of Scotland. By February 1995, the disposal had the approval of Shell’s board and the UK government, which said at the time the disposal was fully in line with the 1991 Oslo and Paris Convention (OSPAR) of internationally-agreed guidelines for the disposal of offshore installations at sea. So the dumping was set: the rig would be towed out into the Atlantic Ocean, 150 miles off the northwest coast of Scotland. There it would be sunk in more than 6,000 feet of water. Greenpeace Action But two months later, in April 1995, the Brent Spar was about to have some unwelcome visitors. On the evening of April 29th, 1995, just before sunset, a group of Greenpeace activists, in an old fishing vessel named the Moby Dick, set sail from the Shetland Islands. Their destination was the Brent Spar, 118 miles and fifteen hours away. And their objective was to board and occupy the Spar in protest of its proposed dumping at sea. 1995. Greenpeace activists approaching the base of the Brent Spar, would scale the structure to the helicopter pad where they would begin their occupation and protest. Arriving near the Brent Spar by mid-day on April 30th, the Moby Dick rendezvoused with another contingent of German Greenpeace activists who had come by chartered vessel. Rubber rafts were shortly put into the water. Minutes later, four of the activists had reached the giant Brent Spar structure, scaling its tower and unfurling a banner at the top of the Spar on its flat helicopter-pad. The banner – clearly legible from fly-overs above – read: “Save the North Sea. Stop Shell.” The activists, meanwhile, had come to stay, bringing initial quantities of food and setting up shop in the Spar’s living quarters and galley, also establishing a communications capability. The Greenpeace action at the Brent Spar was no spur-of-the-moment crusade. In fact, Greenpeace had heard about Shell’s plan to scuttle the rig more than a year earlier, and in the summer of 1994 had set out their own study to look into the decommissioning options, finding that the dump at sea would be about four times cheaper for Shell than to dismantle it on land. They soon decided to take on the fight – and planning to get media attention in the battle was at the top of their list. In fact, they made sure to acquire satellite communications and video equipment in advance so their people would be able to transmit televised pictures during the protest. So once the Greenpeace activists had boarded the Brent Spar on April 30, 1995, the Greenpeace media plan would begin. Greenpeace activists atop the Brent Spar rig in the North Sea, April 1995, with protest banners – one reading “Save The North Sea: Stop Shell’ – opposing Shell’s proposed dumping & disposal of the rig in the north Atlantic Ocean. On the Moby Dick, meanwhile, which also carried some news reporters, Greenpeace organizer, Tim Birch, announced that “Greenpeace will remain on the Brent Spar until the UK government or Shell come to their senses and revoke the decision to dump it.” Back in London, Greenpeace released a report to the media entitled, No Ground for Dumping: The Decommissioning and Abandonment of Offshore Oil and Gas Platforms. Greenpeace was using the Brent Spar disposal to raise larger issues for the region: the North Sea ministers would soon meet in Denmark to discuss solutions to toxic environmental problems affecting the North Sea. Britain had been a laggard in this effort, due in part to its highly lucrative North Sea oil revenues. During early and mid-May 1995, the activist numbers on the rig grew to 14 along with about 9 journalists. The Brent Spar occupation and protest during this time was also filmed by Greenpeace and journalists aboard the Greenpeace supply vessel. Meanwhile, on May 15, 1995 at the G7 summit being held in Halifax, Nova Scotia, German chancellor Helmut Kohl publicly protested the Brent Spar dumping plan to British Prime Minister John Major. Shell offshore vessel using water canons aimed at Brent Spar to discourage/dislodge Greenpeace activists on the structure. This is a later, mid-June 1995 photo, after two Greenpeace activists had re-boarded the Brent Spar via helicopter. AP photo. Shell, meanwhile, had refused to meet with Greenpeace. At sea, Shell had begun using water cannons from it own vessels to bombard the Brent Spar activists and their rubber rafts. In court, Shell’s lawyers went after Greenpeace for trespassing. But on May 22nd, Greenpeace received a letter from some of Shell’s worker representatives in Germany expressing their “concern and outrage” over the rig dumping plan – which was quite embarrassing for Shell UK. The next day, May 23rd, Shell workers with police boarded the Brent Spar to remove the activists and journalists from the structure. The activists were jailed briefly in Aberdeen, Scotland. But by then, the televised media coverage had been running for days and a “David-vs.-Goliath” storyline had been cast over the offshore battle. The TV broadcasts had captured some of the water cannon bombardment attempting to dislodge the activists, which garnered sympathy for the activists throughout Europe. “… Joe Six-Pack won’t understand your technical details [about the dump-ing]. All he knows is that if he dumps his car into a lake, he gets fined….” – Jochen Lorfelder, Greenpeace Although the activists were removed from Spar by May 23, 1995, Greenpeace then called for a boycott of Shell service stations in continental Europe. On June 1st in Hamburg, Germany, executives from Shell’s subsidiary met with Greenpeace, arguing that the dumping of the rig at sea was the best option scientifically. One of the Greenpeace reps at that meeting, Jochen Lorfelder, offered a public perception perspective: “…But Joe Six-Pack won’t understand your technical details [of the dumping]. All he knows is that if he dumps his car into a lake, he gets fined. So he can’t understand how Shell can do this.” Lorfelder also had some other more alarming information for Shell at the meeting, pointing to an independent survey showing that 85 percent of German motorists would support a Shell gasoline boycott. Lorfelder explained that in the four weeks it would take to tow the Brent Spar to its dump site in the North Atlantic Ocean – moving at a pace of about 1 mile per hour – a gasoline boycott could really have a considerable impact on Shell’s German gasoline revenues. By June 10th, Greenpeace executive director Steve D’Esposito sent a 22-page report to the Shell board in London and released it to the public about a week later. The report charged that sinking the Brent Spar would release radioactive waste, heavy metals, and 5,500 tons of oil sludge into the ocean with unpredictable consequences. Greenpeace also charged that the released waste from dumping the Brent Spar would damage the food chain for fish in the area, reducing the fishing stocks. Greenpeace’s estimates of the oil and toxic materials on the Spar were over a hundred times those offered by Shell, and were later found to be quite overstated. Another photo of a vessel using its water canons in an attempt to foil the Greenpeace activists at the Brent Spar. Shell UK, meanwhile, on June 11, 1995, went ahead with their dumping plan, cutting the anchor chains of the Brent Spar to begin its towing out to sea. The gasoline boycott on the continent then began in earnest. In Germany, some politicians, trade unions, and the Protestant church supported the boycott of Shell’s 1,700 gas stations there. “We couldn’t believe the response,” said Jochen Vorfelder of Greenpeace Germany, referring to the boycott. “These ordinary people said they wanted to do something.” In Berlin, Shell Service stations reported a 30 percent drop in sales in the first two weeks of June 1995. However, at some locations in Germany, the protest turned violent. On June 16th, 1995, a Shell gas station in Hamburg was firebombed in the middle of the night, and for a period of six days thereafter one report had it that about 50 Shell stations were damaged, two firebombed, and another shot at. The boycott soon spread to Denmark, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the UK. Government leaders in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark also called for a halt to the sinking. June 1995. Other Greenpeace demonstrations protesting the Brent Spar dumping occurred elsewhere in Europe, such as this “Stop Brent Spar!” banner being installed by activists on a large Shell Oil storage tank in Luxembourg. UK Environment Minister Tim Eggar accused Greenpeace of “grossly exaggerating” the disposal problem, arguing that disposal on land would cause “very significant environmental damage.” Prime Minister John Major, holding forth in the British House of Commons, said Shell had his full support. Major even leveled some remarks at German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who had been critical of the Shell dumping plan earlier that week at a G-7 Summit held in Halifax, Nova Scotia in mid-June 1995. Out in the North Sea, meanwhile, Greenpeace activists had tried boarding the Brent Spar a second time in May, but were unsuccessful. Then they tried again in mid-June 1995. This time, two Greenpeace activists re-boarded the Brent Spar by way of a dramatic helicopter drop at noon, with the activists later re-laying their protest banners on the helipad deck. Shell officials on nearby tug boats again used water cannons to try to stop the activists, nearly knocking the helicopter down at one point, according to Greenpeace. Photo showing Greenpeace activists in motorized rubber raft trying to approach Brent Spar structure amid water cannons being fired from nearby vessels. This action occurred on June 16, 1995 after an earlier occupation of structure in May. TV images of Shell security and British police spraying the protesters with the water-cannons were broadcast by the media worldwide, and especially in Europe, where they helped fuel demonstrations. There had also been continuing coverage in major European newspapers. Three London newspapers, for example – The Daily Telegraph, The Daily Mail, and The Daily Mirror – more or less had continuous coverage of the controversy, though with somewhat differing sympathies for the protest. By June 19th, 1995, a Greenpeace advertisement appearing in national newspaper editions demanded that Shell accept its corporate responsibility. “The day Shell sinks the Brent Spar,” said the ad, “Shell’s reputation sinks with it.” Greenpeace had spent heavily on promoting its campaign to stop the dumping. Shell, by comparison, was outflanked – at least in the media. June 23, 1995. New York Times reporting on Shell’s troubles with its Brent Spar plans. Inside Shell’s own corporate structure, meanwhile, there had been considerable tumult among the company’s European units. Shell Germany complained about Shell UK’s arrogance in the whole affair and its lack of communication. Peter Duncan, chairman of Shell Germany, said the first he heard about the sinking of the Brent Spar was “more or less from the television.” Shell officials in the Netherlands, Belgium and Scandinavia were also feeling the heat from their national governments. And the head of Shell Austria described the dumping plan as “intolerable.” Given this internal dissension, Shell UK began to retreat: “The European companies of Royal Dutch Shell Group find themselves in an untenable position and feel that it is not possible to continue [with the Brent Spar sinking] without wider support from [their] national governments.” On June 20th, 1995 Shell’s directors at the Hague were deep into a three-hour session on the fate of their plan, after which they agreed to abandon the dumping. With that, Shell UK chairman Chris Fay met with UK Environment Minister Tim Eggar to inform him that a press release on the abandonment would be sent out within a few hours. Shell’s Fay admitted his company was in an “untenable position” because it had failed to convince other North Sea governments that dumping the rig was the best option. According to the company’s statement: “Shell UK has decided to abandon deepwater disposal and seek from the UK authorities a licence for onshore disposal… Shell UK Ltd still believes that deep water disposal of the Brent Spar is the best practicable environmental option, which was supported by independent studies.” Shell’s decision was not cheered by the UK government, with some officials openly critical of the company’s backing down. Prime minister John Major, for one, was quite angry and reportedly called the company’s board “wimps” for caving in to the pressure brought by Greenpeace, the European boycott, and national leaders such as Germany’s Helmut Kohl. Major had put his own prestige on the line supporting Shell’s claims that sinking the “Brent Spar” rig would do the least damage to the environment, saying at one point, it was the “right way” to get rid of it. Out at sea, meanwhile, Greenpeace activists aboard the Brent Spar, noticed the structure was moving in a different direction. They soon received word that Shell’s disposal plan for the rig had been stopped, and the structure was now heading temporarily back toward Scotland, while Shell sought plans to moor the rig in Norway. The protestors on board the Brent Spar celebrated on the news, some lighting flares on the upper deck, as shown in the photo below (top deck, at left). Four Greenpeace occupiers aboard the Brent Spar, upper left, celebrate on helicopter pad waving lit flares at the news that the Brent Spar was heading a new direction toward shore, and would not be dumped at sea. Some at Greenpeace, however, were not gloating over Shell’s reversal. “It’s not a victory against Shell or the British government,” said Ulrich Jurgens, campaign director for Greenpeace International. “It’s a victory for the sea.” The Brent Spar was finally towed and “parked” to a corner of the deep Norwegian sea near Stravanger. A week after Shell abandoned its plan, OSPAR voted 11-2 for a moratorium on disposal of decommissioned offshore installations in the North Atlantic, including the North Sea. However, Britain and Norway, the largest beneficiaries of North Sea oil and gas revenues, voted against the ban. Under the OSPAR convention, the suspension vote was not legally binding on dissenting countries. (The real success came three years later (1998), when the OSPAR conference (at a meeting of the Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic) passed a general ban against sinking oil platforms. July 7, 1995. Headlines from front-page Wall Street Journal story on the Brent Spar battle. By July 7, 1995, a trio of Wall Street Journal reporters – Bhushan Bahree, Kyle Pope, and Allanna Sullivan – filed a long, post-mortem newspaper story on the whole Brent Spar affair, tracking both Shell and Greenpeace moves and countermoves. That account is summarized by the story’s headlines and opening paragraphs, shown at right, as it ran on the front page of the Wall Street Journal that day. The reporters covered the history of the controversy, key events, with telling quotes from participants on both sides, as well as third party observers, but generally concluded that Shell was outflanked by the Greens who had won the battle in the court of public opinion: “For Greenpeace, the Brent Spar shows that high-profile cases, properly framed and easily explained, can ignite widespread public interest, especially if the news media get plenty of good photo opportunities. It also shows that economic warfare may be the best way to wage eco-warfare. The attention grabbing tactics helped spark a boycott against Shell that cut sharply into gasoline sales and pushed the company to reverse course.” A New York Times report about the same time found that Greenpeace’s appeal to the public was likewise boosted by the Brent Spar events, as the organization would gain in membership and funding. Greenpeace, however, did not emerge unscathed, as the group was challenged on some of its arguments and also called out for its estimates of oil waste on board the Brent Spar. In late June 1995, an article surfaced from the British magazine Nature critical of Greenpeace’s scientific arguments opposing the dumping. Its authors argued that the metallic elements found in the structure, compared to those already found on the ocean floor and in undersea venting at the planned site, would make the damage from the Brent Spar “minimal” by comparison. In early September 1995, Greenpeace itself acknowledged in an apology to Shell, that it had overstated its case with incorrect data about toxic quantities due to inaccurate sampling measurements. It was later shown there were 150 tons of oil waste aboard the Brent Spar, not 5,000 tons, as Greenpeace had claimed. Still, Greenpeace maintained that the larger issue was dumping the structure at sea. Each retired rig jettisoned to the sea bottom would commit, on average, about 4,000 tons of “oil junk” to the ocean floor. In the end, Shell did dismantle the Brent Spar on shore, using it to help build a pier in Norway. However, it is still unclear what the future holds for the numerous rigs, pipelines, and other oil junk now found in offshore regions all over the world. A Daily Mail (London) newspaper photo from January 2016 showing a “graveyard”-like image of retired oil rigs parked off the coast of Scotland, hauled to their harbor moorings during a drop in oil prices as companies were then cancelling off-shore explorations. Indeed, at the time of the Greenpeace action, the Brent Spar was only one of 6,500 offshore rigs worldwide and one of 416 oil platforms in the North Sea. In the British sector of the North Sea alone there were then 219 offshore installations, 53 of which were deep-water oil platforms then scheduled to be decommissioned over the next decade or so. Should deep-sea dumping of these structures become the standard disposal practice, what then will be the long-term impact of such practices for both ocean ecosystems and shipping safety? Battle Flares Anew More than 20 years after the Brent Spar controversy, in October 2019, Greenpeace activists again boarded Shell offshore oil structures in the North Sea – this time, two Brent Alpha and Brent Bravo structures, unfurling a banner on one that read: “Clean Up Your Mess, Shell!” The Greenpeace activists were protesting plans by the company to leave parts of several of its old, decommissioned North Sea structures in place rather than entirely removing them. October 2019. Greenpeace activists from the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark boarded two oil platforms in Shell's Brent field in protest against plans by the company to leave parts of old oil structures with 11,000 tons of oil in the North Sea. Climbers, supported by the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior, scaled Brent Alpha and Bravo and hung banners saying, `Shell, clean up your mess!' and `Stop Ocean Pollution'. Source: Greenpeace As of late 2019, Shell’s refusal to fully remove four old Shell oil platforms from the North Sea prompted complaint, not only from Greenpeace, but also European Union member nations Germany, Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. While Shell has removed the large topside parts of some rigs, at issue in this instance was an estimated 11,000 tons of raw oil and toxins still remaining in the base structures of three rigs – Bravo, Charlie and Delta – located in the East Shetland basin. Environmentalists believe that such proposals are but the opening salvo of a much larger plan of “leave-them-in-place” rig abandonments, with oil firms intending to leave hundreds of offshore North Sea structures behind. Stay tuned. The battles over how to deal with the world’s offshore oil junk – including that in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico – will undoubtedly continue for many years ahead. For additional stories on the environment and the fossil fuel industry at this website see the “Environmental History” topics page. Thanks for visiting – and if you like what you find here, please make a donation to help support the research, writing and continued publication of this website. Thank you. – Jack Doyle Date Posted: 15 April 2020 Jack Doyle, “The Brent Spar Fight, Greenpeace: 1995,” PopHistoryDig.com, April 15, 2020. Rex Weyler’s 2004 book, “Greenpeace: The Inside Story: How a Group of Ecologists, Journalists and Visionaries Changed the World,” Pan MacMillan (hardcover), 480 pp. Click for copy. 2019 paperback edition, “Shamrocks and Oil Slicks: A People's Uprising Against Shell Oil in County Mayo, Ireland,” by Fred Wilcox, Monthly Review Press, 160pp. Click for copy. Paperback edition of Elizabeth Kolbert’s Pulitzer-prize winning best-seller, “The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History,” first published in 2014 by Henry Holt & Co., 335 pp. Click for copy. Paperback edition of “Where Vultures Feast,” a 2003 book about Shell’s performance history in Nigeria. Click for copy. 2008 book: “Failure to Learn: The BP Texas City Disaster,” 200pp. Click for copy. Riki Ott’s 2008 book, “Not One Drop: Betrayal and Courage in the Wake of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill,” 352 pp. Click for copy. Scott Cole’s 2018 book, “Fallout,” about a community’s fight with oil industry pollution from a Unocal Oil refinery in California. Click for copy. Robert Easton’s 1972 book, “Black Tide: The Santa Barbara Oil Spill and Its Consequences,” Delacorte Press; 336 pp. Click for copy. The 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill helped generate the first Earth Day and the environmental movement. Story at, https://www.pophistorydig.com/topics/santa-barbara-oil-spill/. Stephen Howarth, A Century in Oil: The Shell Transport and Trading Company, 1897-1997, Weidenfeld & Nicoloson, 1997, p. 323 and p. 381. Click for copy. “Brent Spar,” Wikipedia.org. Simon Reddy, No Grounds for Dumping: The Decommissioning and Abandonment of Offshore Oil and Gas Platforms, Greenpeace, 1995. Auke Visser´s Esso UK Tanker’s Site, www. aukevisser.nl/uk. “Murder At Sea: Scandal of Dumped Rigs That May Wipe Out Marine Life: Greenpeace Seize Oil Rig To Highlight Danger of Leaving Deserted Rigs To Rot At Sea,” Daily Mirror (London), May 1, 1995. “Science: Dump The Rig – And Be Damned,” Daily Telegraph (London), May 31, 1995. Richard L. Hudson, “Global Outcry Greets Shell’s Dumping Plan,” Wall Street Journal, 1995. “Major And Shell Defy Efforts to Stop Brent Spar Sinking,” The Guardian ( London), June 17, 1995. Nathaniel C. Nash, “Oil Companies Face Boycott Over Sinking of Rig,” New York Times, June 17, 1995. “Seabed Must Not Become Rubbish Tip,” Daily Telegraph, June 20, 1995. “Experts Warned Ministers of Oil Rig Disaster Two Year Ago,” Daily Mirror, June 20, 1995. “Greed That’s Poisoning Our Seas: Shell Sinking of the Brent Spar Oil Rig,” Daily Mirror, June 20, 1995 “We Shell Not Be Moved: Dumping of Brent Spar Could Be The First of Many – There are 350 Rigs in the North Sea,” Daily Mirror, June 20, 1995. “Mr. Green Targets Britain: As Britain is Tagged The Dirty Man of Europe, Green Heroes Talk of North Sea Ordeal: European Greens Target Britain;’s Polluting Companies,” Daily Mirror, June 20, 1995. “30 Studies in Favour of Dumping,” Daily Telegraph, June 20, 1995. Associated Press (London), “Greenpeace Tackles Shell; Offshore Platform Opposed,” Delaware County Daily Times (Swarthmore, PA), June 20, 1995, p. 21. “Shocked Shell” Editorial, Wall Street Journal, June 20, 1995. “Green For Danger,” Daily Telegraph, June 21, 1995. Associated Press, “Shell Abandons Plans To Sink Oil Platform Off Scottish Coast,” New York Times, June 21, 1995, p. A-9. Cacilie Rohwedder and Peter Gumbel, “Shell Bows to German Greens’ Muscle; Reversal of Plan to Sink Rig Shows Growing Clout of Environmentalists,” Wall Street Journal, June 21, 1995, p. A-15. Shawn Pogatchnik, Associated Press, “Shell Bows to Environmentalists, Says it Won’t Sink Old Rig At Sea,” Philadelphia Inquirer, June 21, 1995. William Tuohy (London), “Shell Backs Down, Won’t Sink Oil Rig in Atlantic,” Los Angeles Times, June 21, 1995. Bill Glauber (London), “Brent Spar’s Burial at Sea Canceled,” Baltimore Sun, June 21, 1995. Associated Press (London), “Shell Backs Down; Oil Platform Won’t Be Sunk,” Delaware County Daily Times (Swarthmore, PA), June 21, 1995. Financial Times, June 20 and 21, 1995. Sue Leeman, Associated Press (London), “Shell Apologizes to Government After Backing Off Plan to Sink Oil Rig,” APnews .com, June 21, 1995. Colin Brown, Nicholas Schoon & Peter Rodgers. “Shell `Wimps’ Apologise to Major,” Independent.co.uk, June 22, 1995. Kyle Pope and Allanna Sullivan, “Shell’s Course Change Invites Questions; Bringing Oil Rig Ashore May Hold Its Own Hazards,” Wall Street Journal, June 22, 1995, p. A-12. “A Triumph For The Forces of Ignorance: In The Wake of the Brent Spar Fiasco, One of Britain’s Most Distinguished Noble Prize-Winning Scientists Savages Greenpeace,” Daily Mail, June 22, 1995. Kyle Pope, “Rig Incident Shows Britain Is Paler Shade of Green Than Rest of Europe,” Wall Street Journal, June 22, 1995, p. A-12. Nathaniel C. Nash, International Business, “A Humbled Shell Is Unsure On Disposal of Atlantic Rig,” New York Times, June 23, 1995, p. D-2. “Heroes Did Great Job: Fishermen Pay Tribute of Greenpeace Over Brent Spar,” Daily Mirror, June 23, 1995. “Oil Rig Hero Gets Sell Discount Card,” Daily Mirror, June 24, 1995. “Demo Man Wants Hug From Love: Brent Spar Hero Al Baker Arrive Back in Shetlands,” Daily Mirror, June 24, 1995. “Dumping Rigs ‘Is Good For Sea Life’,” Daily Mail, June 30, 1995. Bhushan Bahree, Kyle Pope, and Allanna Sullivan, “Giant Outsmarted: How Greenpeace Sank Shell’s Plan to Dump Big Oil Rig in Atlantic; Environmentalists Used TV To Win the PR battles while the Firm Bumbled; Science Loses to Joe Six-Pack,” Wall Street Journal, July 7, 1995, p. 1. Marlise Simons, “For Greenpeace Guerrillas, Environmentalism Is Again a Growth Industry,” New York Times, July 8, 1995, p. 3. Clifton Curtis, Biodiversiety/Oceans Political Advisor, Greenpeace International (Wash., D.C.), Letter-to-the-Editor, “You Can’t Hide, Even in The Sea,” Wall Street Journal, July 7, 1995, p. A-11. Edward A. Ross, Jr., Response to Clifton Curtis Letter-to- the-Editor, “Frightening Seepage: Toxic Propaganda,” Wall Street Journal, July 21, 1995, p. A-11, “Greenpeace Brent Victory ‘A Sad Day’,” Daily Mail, July 8, 1995. “Oil Rig Sinking Blocked in Europe, Accepted in U.S. Gulf Coast,” Environmental Science & Technology, September 1, 1995, Vol. 29, No. 9, 406A. “Deep Waters,” Daily Mail, September 6, 1995. Reuters, “Greenpeace Apologizes To Shell Oil Company,” World News Briefs, New York Times, September 6, 1995, p. A-11. “Greenpeace Fiasco,” Daily Telegraph, Sep-tember 7, 1995. “Brent Spar Plan ‘Was Right’,” Daily Tele-graph, September 12, 1995. Nature, September 29, 1995, vol. 375, p. 715. “The Brent Spar Saga,” Environmental Health Perspectives / NIH.gov, September 1995, Vol 103, No 9, pp. 786-787. “Brent Spar Was No Pollution Threat, Say Experts,” Daily Telegraph, October 19, 1995. BBC, On This Day, June 20, 1995, “1995: Shell Makes Dramatic U-Turn,” News.BBC.co.uk. Julian Oliver, “Learning The Lessons of Brent Spar Saga,” European Voice / Politico.EU, November 1, 1995. Samuel Passow and Michael D. Watkins, “Sunk Costs: The Plan to Dump the Brent Spar,” Case Program, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, 1997, CR1-97-1369.0, 19 pp. Chris Rose, The Turning of the ’Spar, (Greenpeace: London), June 1998, 221 pp. Paula Owen and Tony Rice, Decommissioning the Brent Spar, CRC Press, May 14, 1999, 192pp. Rémi Parmentier, “Greenpeace and the Dumping of Wastes at Sea: A Case of Non-State Actors´ Intervention In International Affairs,” International Negotiation, Vol. 4, No. 3., 1999, Kluwer Law International (The Hague). S. M. Livesey, “Eco-Identity as Discursive Struggle: Royal Dutch/Shell, Brent Spar, and Nigeria,” Journal of Business Communi-cation, 2001., Vol. 38, No. 1, pp. 58-91. Jack Doyle, “Shell At Sea” chapter in, Riding The Dragon: Royal Dutch Shell & the Fossil Fire, Boston: The Environmental Health Fund, 2002, pp. 141-145. Thomas Mösch (jen) “Brent Spar Revisited, 10 Years On,” DW.com, June 20, 2005. Shell International, Ltd., “Brent Spar Dossier,” May 2008. Anders Hansen, “Claims-Making in the Brent Spar Controversy,” in Barbara Adam, Stuart Allan, Cynthia Carter (eds), Environmental Risks and The Media, Routledge, 2013, pp 57-71. Nicholas A Jackson, Ronin Institute, “Shell Responds to the 1995 Ogoni and Brent Spar Crises: Industry-level Risk Management Through Corporate-Level Perception Man-agement,” ResearchGate.net, January 2013. Brian G. Williams, “The Brent Spar: Coverage Analysis,” briangwilliams.us, Last Updated, 14 June 14, 2016. Euan McLelland, “Is This the Graveyard of the World’s Economy? As Shares Crash Along with Price of Crude Oil, the Ranks of Massive Drilling Rigs Rusting in the Scottish Estuary Where They’ve Been Dumped since Demand Tumbled,” DailyMail.com (London), January 21, 2016. Adam Vaughan, “Leave Oil Rigs in the North Sea, Say Conservationists,” TheGuardian.com, May 29, 2017. Tom Lamont, “Where Oil Rigs Go to Die. When a Drilling Platform Is Scheduled for Destruction, it Must Go on a Thousand-Mile Final Journey to the Breaker’s Yard. As One Rig Proved When it Crashed on to the Rocks of a Remote Scottish Island, This Is Always a Risky Business,” TheGuardian.com, May 2, 2017. Rex Weyler, “A Tribute to Jon Castle,” Greenpeace.org, January 25, 2018. ipj/sms (AP, AFP, Reuters), “Berlin to Shell: Remove Old Oil Platforms in North Sea,” DW.com, October 17, 2018. Philip Oltermann and Jillian Ambrose, “UK Facing EU Outrage Over ‘Timebomb’ of North Sea Oil Rigs; Germany Leads Complaint Against Plan to Leave Polluted Remains of Shell Rigs in Place,” TheGuardian.com, September 5, 2019. Greenpeace International, “Greenpeace Acti-vists Board Shell Oil Rigs in Protest Against Plans to Leave Behind Oil in the North Sea,” Greenpeace.org, October 15, 2019. Brent Spar controversy 1995Brent Spar environmental actionBrent Spar gasoline boycottBrent Spar historyBrent Spar London newspapersBrent Spar media coverageBrent spar politics 1990sBrent Spar sea dumping proposalBrent Spar Wall Street Journalenvironmental history 1995Greenpeace 1995Greenpeace direct actionsGreenpeace history 1990sGreenpeace North Sea direct actionGreenpeace occupation of Brent SparGreenpeace vs Shell Oiloffshore oil junkoil rig disposaloil rig historyoil rig junkShell Oil and Brent SparShell Oil company 1995Shell Oil North Seawater cannon fire on activists	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591661
__label__wiki	0.937497	0.937497	Tag Archives: Maybe I’m Amazed lyrics Teaser Tag: Annals of Music enclosure: https://www.pophistorydig.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Paul-Mcartney-Maybe-Im-Amazed.mp3 4704749 audio/mpeg March 15, 2020 J.D. Photo from back cover of “McCartney” album, April 1970, his first solo album. Photo of he and daughter Mary, tucked inside his coat, by Linda McCartney, shot in Scotland. Click for album. It was a turbulent time for the famous British rock group, the Beatles – that period from around September 1969 through April 1970. The “Fab Four,” as they were once called, were having their differences. Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr were having both creative differences over musical direction and business disagreements. In August 1967, they had lost their friend and business manager, Brian Epstein, then 32, to a drug overdose and were now navigating the business world on their own. Apple Records, their new label, was created in 1968, but a rift ensued when Allen Klein came in as manager with the support of Lennon, Harrison and Starr, while McCartney wanted his wife’s father, entertainment lawyer Lee Eastman, to be manager. On the musical front, too, there were serious fissures in the group, some dating to early 1968 and a couple of walk outs. But as they worked on the final sessions for what would be their last album together, Let it Be, the rifts were widening and near rupture. By then, each of the Beatles had been thinking about, or had launched, solo projects. John and Yoko Ono had already recorded. George Harrison, frustrated with Lennon-McCartney domination, had put out a solo album in January 1968. Ringo was pursuing some film interests and also had a solo album in the works. And Paul McCartney, too, had begun working on songs for a possible solo album. But for McCartney, the period leading up to his work on that solo album had become a rough, uncertain time, borne by the prospect of the Beatles breaking up, which had set him adrift. In September 1969, John Lennon had privately announced to the group (and not the public) that he wanted to quit the Beatles, though at the time it was unclear whether he meant permanently. Still, Paul had taken John’s announcement to heart, and it left him bereft. The Beatles were practically everything Paul had ever done. So what now? McCartney then retreated with his wife and young family to his farm in Scotland, a remote place on the Kintyre peninsula they also called the High Park farm. At the farm, however, McCartney went through a very down period of brooding, drinking, and depression over the likely demise of the Beatles and his uncertain musical future. He and his first wife, Linda – Linda Eastman, an American photographer – were married for less than a year at that point, having wed in March 1969. Maybe I’m amazed at the way you love me all the time Maybe I’m afraid of the way I love you you pulled me out of time And hung me on a line I really need you Maybe I’m a man and maybe I’m a lonely man Who’s in the middle of something That he doesn’t really understand you’re the only woman Who could ever help me Baby won’t you help me understand you’re with me all the time Maybe I’m afraid of the way I leave you you help me sing my song Right me when I’m wrong Linda then had her hands full with her 7 year-old daughter Heather from an earlier marriage, plus their newborn baby, Mary. Still, Linda became the rock in helping Paul weather the Beatles’ turmoil and getting him back on track. She encouraged him musically, boosting his confidence, helping him to finish his solo album, which he had already started. Then, from late December 1969 through late March 1970 – working mostly at the McCartney London home, he set about working on that solo album, which would be titled, McCartney and would include an assortment of 13 songs, some of which had begun as earlier-composed fragments. One of the songs — “Maybe I’m Amazed,” dedicated to Linda — would become a top hit in the U.K. and America, and one of Paul’s most famous songs. Paul McCartney – 1970 https://www.pophistorydig.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Paul-Mcartney-Maybe-Im-Amazed.mp3 McCartney recorded the album in secrecy, mostly using basic home-recording equipment – a Studer four-track tape recorder – at his house in St John’s Wood. Some of the material dated to ideas he had years earlier. One of the songs, “The Lovely Linda,” was written at the farm in Scotland. McCartney played all the musical instruments for the songs – acoustic and electric guitars, bass, keyboards, drums and various percussion instruments. Linda supplied backing vocals on some of the songs. There was also some mixing and later recording for some of the songs at two studios in London – the Abbey Road studios and the Morgan Studios, the latter to copy the four-track recordings onto eight-track tape for overdubbing (more on the album later). But it was “Maybe I’m Amazed” that stood out on the album — an ode and love song to Linda, as the lyrics make plain. It was Paul’s tribute to his wife for bringing him out of his funk and restoring his confidence. She was his muse and inspiration; the one who steadied him through a difficult time. The McCartney album is also noted for its photo art by Linda, one sample of which is shown at the top of this story from the album’s back cover — a photo of Paul taken at their farm in Scotland. Paul is shown in a fur-lined winter coat with baby Mary peering out from her snug position, tucked inside Paul’s coat. Additional photos by Linda used in that album included a collage of 21 family snapshots in the inner gate-fold spread – images of Paul, Linda, Heather, newborn Mary, and the family sheepdog. 1960s: Photographer, Linda Eastman. Linda Eastman Linda Louise Eastman was born in Scarsdale, an affluent community in Westchester County, New York. Her father, Lee Eastman, practiced entertainment law in New York and had well known clients such as Tommy Dorsey, songwriters Harold Arlen and Jack Lawrence, and artists Willem de Kooning and Mark Rothko. Her mother, Louise Sara (Lindner) Eastman, was the daughter of Max J. Lindner, founder of the Lindner Company clothing store of Cleveland, Ohio. Linda graduated from Scarsdale High School in 1959, attended Vermont College for an associate degree in 1961, and then to the University of Arizona to study Fine Arts, also taking up nature photography there as a hobby. Linda’s mother had died in a plane crash in March 1962. Linda married Melville See Jr., in June 1962, whom she had met in college. Their daughter, Heather, was born that December. Linda’s mother had left Linda an inheritance to live on plus some paintings. In June 1965, Linda and Melville divorced, and thereafter Linda took a job as a receptionist and editorial assistant for Town & Country magazine. Linda Eastman at a 1960s photo shoot with Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones. During a personal relationship with professional photographer David Dalton, Linda began learning about how photographic shoots were set up and organized. She soon developed a good eye and a knack for shooting rock groups in particular, setting them at ease and getting them to cooperate. A big break for her came with a Rolling Stones shoot on a yacht where she was the only photographer. Linda’s father, however, was not impressed with her becoming a photographer, as her siblings had gone on for further education. Nevertheless, during the 1960s, Linda Eastman became an unofficial house photographer at Bill Graham’s Fillmore East concert hall in New York, photographing a range of rock acts. Among the artists and groups she photographed at the Fillmore and elsewhere were: Aretha Franklin, Grace Slick, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Eric Clapton, Simon & Garfunkel, the Who, Jim Morrison and the Doors, the Animals, John Lennon, and Neil Young. In May 1968 she photographed Eric Clapton for Rolling Stone magazine and became the first woman to have a photograph featured on Rolling Stone‘s front cover. Meeting Paul In May 1967, while on a photo assignment in London, Linda met Paul McCartney. She was then doing a photo shoot of blues and jazz performer Georgie Fame performing at the Bag O’Nails club. Paul and Linda met again four days later at the party for the launch of the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s album at Brian Epstein’s house. In May 1968, they met again, this time in New York, while Paul and John Lennon were there to inaugurate Apple Records. May 1967. Early dating. Linda Eastman talks to Paul McCartney at launch party for Beatles album “Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” The couple would marry two years later, in March 1969. Photo: John Pratt A few months after their May 1968 meeting in New York, and after McCartney returned to London, he invited Linda to spend some time with him there. When she arrived, they went to his home, where they spent the evening together. March 1969. Linda & Paul McCartney at their wedding, with daughter/flower girl Heather. McCartney, known as a free-loving bachelor with his share of ladies, did have a long-term relationship and near-marriage with British actress Jane Asher; a relationship ended by Asher when she suspected Paul’s dalliances. Yet, Paul was smitten by Linda; attracted to her good looks and her sense of independence. McCartney would note that Linda had a rebellious streak growing up, was a “very free spirit,” considered something of a black sheep by her family, not choosing to excel in education like her father and brother. “She was an artist,” McCartney would say of her, “and was not cut out to be an academic.” They both shared a love of nature, which became one of their most important emotional links. When Paul and Linda first began seeing one another, Paul also took readily to Linda’s daughter from her first marriage, Heather, then six years old. He insisted that Linda and Heather move to London to live with him. After they did, Paul took time with Heather, reading her stories, drawing with her, and sometimes, singing her bedtime tunes. On March 12, 1969, Linda and Paul were married in a small civil ceremony in the Marylebone area of London. Young ladies around the globe were broken-hearted, as Paul was now a married man. John Lennon married Yoko Ono a week later, and both women were sometimes wrongly cast by fans as the reasons why the Beatles broke up. Lennon at one point publicly criticized the press for its treatment of Linda: “She got the same kind of insults, hatred, absolute garbage thrown at her for no reason whatsoever other than she fell in love with Paul McCartney.” November 1969. Among the photos taken by Life magazine of Paul, Linda and family in Scotland. Click for magazine copy. During the tense times of the Beatles difficulties and pre-break up in later 1969, Paul, Linda and family had retreated to their farm in Scotland. Paul and Linda both loved the farm. Linda would say of the farm and location: “Scotland was like nothing I’d ever lived in. It was the most beautiful land you have ever seen, way at the end of nowhere. To me it was the first feeling I’d ever had of civilization dropped away … so different from all the hotels and limousines and the music business, so it was quite a relief.” But it was also around this time – from about September through December 1969 – when the “Paul-is-dead” hoax story was in its most heated form (see separate story here), with supposed Beatles song and album image “clues” all feeding into a mini-media frenzy. Perpetrated mainly by college students and some disc jockeys, the story had it that McCartney was supposedly killed in a 1966 car crash and had been quietly replaced by a look-alike to spare Beatles’ fans and keep the group on track. None of it was true, of course – a big false story – which a Life magazine cover story of November 7, 1969 dispelled quite directly, finding Paul, with family, very much alive and well in Scotland. The Solo Album The production of the McCartney album, meanwhile, was taking form. A purposely low-tech affair, the songs on the album were mostly absent the Abbey Road studio treatment and wizardry of Beatles’s productions, since it was McCartney’s goal to produce a “getting-back-to-basics” selection of tunes. April 1970. Front cover, “McCartney” album. Bowl with cherries photographed by Linda. Click for CD or digital. “The Lovely Linda” – 0:43 “That Would Be Something” – 2:38 “Valentine Day” – 1:39 “Every Night” – 2:31 “Hot as Sun/Glasses” – 2:05 “Junk” – 1:54 “Man We Was Lonely” – 2:56 “Oo You” – 2:48 “Momma Miss America” – 4:04 “Teddy Boy” – 2:22 “Singalong Junk” – 2:34 “Maybe I’m Amazed” – 3:53 “Kreen-Akrore” – 4:15 The album cover, a photo of an emptied bowl with cherries strewn across a white strip, was taken by Linda when on vacation in Antigua. During the release of the McCartney album, meanwhile, there had been something of an ongoing battle behind the scenes between Paul and the other Beatles, and their record label, Apple, over the timing of releasing Paul’s album (also from Apple), versus the Beatles’ Let it Be album, plus a scheduled album from Ringo. Eventually – after some unpleasantness between Paul and others – Paul’s album was set for April 17, 1970, to precede the Let it Be album, which would come out later, on May 8, 1970. April 1970. UK news story on Paul quitting the Beatles. Lower headline also notes, "Clash Over The Running of Apple". Prior to the McCartney album’s release, however, there was also a press release from Paul and Apple on the album, which included a statement about Paul’s departure from the Beatles that made front-page headlines in London on April 10th, 1970. Thus Paul was seen publicly as the prime mover in the group’s break up, when in reality, there were multiple reasons for the group’s demise (the formal break up of the Beatles would not come for months, with legal entanglements for several years thereafter). McCartney was released in Britain on April 17, 1970, and three days later in the U.S. In the UK, the album debuted at No. 2, where it remained for three weeks behind the best-selling album of 1970, Simon and Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Water. Although McCartney’s standing among Beatles fans had plummeted as a result of his announcement that he was leaving the Beatles, news of the band’s break-up ensured that the album was highly publicized and helped it gain notice. By May 15th, 1970, McCartney had sold over 1 million copies in the U.S., and from May 23, 1970, McCartney began a three-week stay at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart, eventually going double platinum. Despite the album’s good sales performance, a number of music critics dismissed the work as mediocre – with the exception of “Maybe I’m Amazed.” A few praised Paul’s skills with melody on some of the tracks, or noted it’s home-made quality. Rolling Stone reviewer, Langdon Winner, found most of the songs “distinctly second rate” relative to McCartney’s best work as a Beatle. April 30, 1970. Paul McCartney interviewed for “Rolling Stone,” in which, among other things, he spoke about his solo album and the Beatles. Click for magazine or Kindle subscription. Nor did his former Beatle bandmates have much to praise about it, feeling betrayed by its release at the time of the Beatles break up. Lennon, in fact, called it “rubbish” and “Engelbert Humperdinck music.” Yet Paul had set out to make a minimalist, no-frills-just-the-basics collection of songs, and admitted to some experimentation, and that it was not on a par with the studio-engineered, George Martin-helmed Beatles albums. Paul McCartney was interviewed for the April 30, 1970 edition of Rolling Stone, in which, among other things, he spoke about his solo album and his desire to become a broader musician. “From very early on, when our bass player [Stuart Sutcliffe] died, I have been lumbered with the bass,” he said. “All the time, however, what I really wanted to do was play guitar and play lead, so that’s what I’ve done on this LP [i.e., McCartney].” Paul, at the time, was also personally unwinding, taking a respite from the fast-paced music world. He was also enjoying the contentment of family life, his marriage, and being a new father. In his Q&A released on April 10, 1970, Paul described the theme and feel of the McCartney album as, “home, family, love.” The music on McCartney, his website would offer some years later, “represented a creative rebirth, bursting with new ideas, experiments, playfulness and freedom.” In any case, the album was no doubt buoyed by the popularity of “Maybe I’m Amazed,” as Paul did not release that song as a single. However, the song did receive a great deal of radio airplay worldwide, helping boost McCartney album sales, and making the song one of Paul’s most recognizable solo successes. Ram & Wings May 1971. Paul & Linda album, “Ram.” Click for CD. In 1970, Paul taught Linda to play keyboards and the couple began working on an album together that would be titled Ram, with a Linda McCartney photo of Paul and a ram from Scotland on its cover. This album was produced with the help of a few other musicians, but was mostly a Paul and Linda project, recorded in New York city between October 1970 and Mach 1971. Ram was released in May 1971. One of its songs, “Uncle Albert” became a hit, while others on the album stirred some Beatles controversy, construed to be musical digs aimed variously at John and Yoko (“Too Many People”) and George, John and Ringo.(“3 Legs”). “Another Day,” a song recorded by Paul and Linda McCartney during the Ram sessions in New York, was also a Top Ten single in the U.S., UK, and elsewhere. It was later included on subsequent editions of the Ram album in 1993 and 2012. May 1976. Linda & Paul performing at Wings concert, Madison Square Garden, New York. In 1971, Paul and Linda formed the band Wings, and despite criticism of including her as a musical partner in the band, she continued to be part of Wings until the band’s breakup in 1981. Linda would also continue with McCartney’s subsequent touring band through 1993. Although Wings had periods of changing personnel, it was anchored by its core trio of Paul, Linda, and former Moody Blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist, Denny Laine. Of the nine albums released by Wings in the 1970s, all went into the Top Ten in either the UK or the U.S., with five consecutive albums topping the U.S. charts. Wings also had 12 Top Ten singles in the UK and 14 Top Ten singles in the U.S., including six at No 1. All 23 singles released by Wings in the 1970s reached the U.S. Top 40. Cover art for Wings live version of “Maybe I’m Amazed.” Click for digital. Wings also produced the notable James Bond theme song and 1973 hit, “Live and Let Die.” And seven years after McCartney debuted “Maybe I’m Amazed” on his solo album, Wings released a live version of the song as a single from their Wings Over America album. In early February 1977, that single rose to No. 10 on the U.S. Billboard chart and No. 28 in the UK. Another Wings single in 1977, “Mull of Kintyre,” a tribute to the Kintyre peninsula in Scotland where the McCartney farm is located, became one of the best-selling singles in UK history. In some ways, Wings, especially through the 1970s, was Paul still getting over and proving himself after his separation from the Beatles, and doing so, again with Linda’s help and presence throughout. The two were practically inseparable. During the 1970s, in fact, the whole McCartney family was involved with Wings on the road, as Paul and Linda had their children in tow as well, which was surely a challenge at times, but which Paul has reflected was an important and memorable time. Professionally, Paul has also reflected, that the Wings Over America tour of 1976 was particularly gratifying, as it had turned out Beatle-equivalent crowds and recognition at tour stops, which was especially satisfying to Paul. June 1976. The McCartneys & crew during dinner aboard their private jet over America during Wings tour. Mary is trying to hear Paul's guitar while Linda listens on headphones across the aisle, and Stella, to Linda’s left, looks on. Linda & Legacy Linda, meanwhile, also became an animal rights activist and wrote and published several vegetarian cookbooks. She and Paul founded the Linda McCartney Foods company, a successful vegetarian business marketing a range of food products in the 1990s, making her a millionaire in her own right. A book of her photographs was also published in 1992: Linda McCartney’s Sixties: Portrait of an Era. Paul, Linda & friend, possibly at farm in Scotland, early 1970s. However, in 1995, Linda was diagnosed with breast cancer and died from the disease in 1998 at the McCartney family ranch in Tucson, Arizona. She was 56 year old. A memorial service was held for her at St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London, which was attended by George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Billy Joel, Elton John, David Gilmour, Peter Gabriel, and other celebrities among a gathering of 700. Linda’s ashes were scattered by Paul and immediate family at the McCartney farm in southern England. In January 2000, Paul announced donations in excess of $2,000,000 for cancer research at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York and the Arizona Cancer Center in Tucson, where Linda received treatment. Also that year, The Linda McCartney Centre, a cancer clinic, opened at The Royal Liverpool University Hospital. Linda and Paul McCartney were married for 29 years, raised four children together. In addition to Heather, from Linda’s first marriage whom Paul adopted, the couple had three children, Mary, Stella, and James. And except for ten days Paul spent in jail in Japan on marijuana charges, the couple had never been apart. In April 1999, Paul McCartney, and others, performed at the “Concert for Linda” tribute at the Royal Albert Hall, which had been organized by two of their friends, Chrissie Hynde and Carla Lane. Linda’s photographic work, meanwhile, has been reprinted in several books and exhibited at more than fifty galleries around the world, including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Paul McCartney retains Linda’s photographic legacy, and in recent years has made selections of her photos available for public exhibits, donating some of her work to British museums. Regarding Linda’s talent as a photographer, Paul would note, “she always put people at ease, no matter who she was taking a photograph of…She just had a way of disarming you.” A Memorable Photo John & Paul, 1968 Linda Eastman McCartney took hundreds of photos, both during her early career as an entertainment photographer and after she was married to Paul McCartney. Some of her photos captured the Beatles at work. And one of those photos – the one shown below – is of John Lennon and Paul McCartney at work in 1968 during their Beatles career. To the right of the photo, Paul explains the context and his feeling about this photo and its importance to him, as he described the photo and context in a June 2019 interview with the London newspaper, The Guardian, discussing several of Linda’s photos for that story. Here’s Paul: 1968. Linda McCartney photo of John Lennon and Paul McCartney at work at Abbey Road studios, possibly composing a song together. “This is me and John, in Abbey Road. It wasn’t too long before the breakup of the Beatles; this would be the end of our relationship and, at the end, when the breakup happened, it was kind of sour – very difficult to deal with. The rumour started going around that John and I didn’t get on well, we were arch-rivals, that it was very heavy and ugly. The strange thing is you sometimes get to believe something, if it’s said enough times. So I used to think: ‘Yeah, it’s a pity, you know, we didn’t get on that well.’ “So this picture is a blessing for me. It’s like, this is how we were: this is why we related, or else we couldn’t have collaborated for all that time. It sums up what our relationship was like the minute we were actually working on a song, and most of the time we were together, really. I’m just writing something out – possibly it’s a medley or something; it might be for Abbey Road – and it’s lovely, because John is very happily in on the process, and agreeing with me, and we’re laughing about something. Just seeing the joy between us here really helped me, because it reminds me that the idea we weren’t friends is rubbish. We were lifelong friends, our relationship was super-special. “That applied to all the Beatles, even when we were pissed off with each other from time to time. People used to remind me: that’s families, that happens. Mates disagree. As soon as we started working on music, we gelled, we just enjoyed the noise we made together, we enjoyed playing with each other. We’d worked together for over 10,000 hours over the years, and that old spirit automatically kicked in. Any disputes were got over very quickly.” Source: Alexis Petridis, “Paul McCartney on Linda’s Best Photos: ‘Seeing the Joy Between Me and John Really Helped Me’,” TheGuardian.com (London), June 26, 2019. Paul McCartney, meanwhile, remains part of two giant musical legacies – The Beatles, and since the Beatles with Wings and numerous other projects – as he continues to this day with his solo work, various collaborations, forays into classical music, stage and video productions, and more. Vintage 1962 record sleeve for first Beatles hit. Click for collector’s box set of 14 Beatles albums in vinyl or CD editions. The Beatles, of course, are ranked among the best-selling music acts of all time, with more than 183 million units sold in the US and estimated 600 million worldwide. They hold the record for most No. 1 albums on the UK Albums Chart, most No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and most singles sold in the UK. The Beatles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a group in 1988, and all four were also inducted individually between 1994 and 2015. As noted earlier, the Wings and Paul McCartney output during the 1970s was quite successful, with multiple platinum-selling No. 1 albums and more than 20 Top 40 hits. Following the Wings era, McCartney continued writing, composing and touring. Since 1989, for example, and continuing through 2018, Paul McCartney has completed more than 15 concert tours, encompassing hundreds of shows, including 50 most recently during his Freshen Up Tour of the 2018-2020 period. 2010. Paul McCartney collecting his Gershwin Prize for popular music from President Obama at the White House. Paul McCartney’s 17th solo album, Egypt Station, released in September 2018, debuted at No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard albums chart, and delivered a Top Ten performance throughout Europe, Japan and Australia. Throughout his career, McCartney has accumulated a long list of honors and accolades, among them: 18 Grammy Awards; appointment to the Order of the British Empire in 1965; Academy Award winner (as a member of the Beatles) 1971; Honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of Music presented by Prince Charles in 1995; knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for services to music in 1997; Fellowship into the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors in 2000; Super Bowl halftime show headliner, 2005; Kennedy Center Honors and the Gershwin Prize for popular music presented by President Barack Obama in 2010; star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2012; and others. As of 2015, Paul McCartney was also ranked one of the wealthiest musicians in the world, with an estimated fortune of $730 million. In his personal life, Paul McCartney was rocked by losing Linda to cancer, and he mourned her passing for a good long while. But today he is married to New Yorker Nancy Shevell, the vice-president of a family-owned transportation conglomerate that owns New England Motor Freight. They had known each other for about 20 years, both having homes in the Hamptons. Paul & Linda McCartney, 1970s. Meanwhile, the song Paul McCartney wrote for his first lady muse back there in the rough waters of 1969-1970, “Maybe I’m Amazed,” is still among his personal favorites. In fact, as he remarked in a 2017 interview, it’s the song he would like to be remembered for in the future. For other Beatles stories at this website, see the “Beatles History” topics page, and for a profile of John Lennon during his post-Beatles years, see the “Watching The Wheels” story. For additional stories on music history, artist and song profiles, and the music business, see the “Annals of Music” category page. Thanks for visiting – and if you like what you find here, please make a donation to help support the research, writing, and continued publication of this website. Thank you – Jack Doyle Date Posted: 15 March 2020 Jack Doyle, “McCartney: Amazed – The Paul & Linda Story,” PopHistoryDig.com, March 15, 2020. Danny Fields’ 2001 biography of Linda McCartney. Time Warner UK edition shown, 286pp. Click for similar US edition. Tom Doyle’s 2014 book, “Man on The Run: Paul McCartney in the 1970s,” Ballantine Books, 288pp. Click for copy. “Paul McCartney,” in Holly George-Warren and Patricia Romanowski (eds), The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll, Rolling Stone Press, New York, 3rd Edition, 2001, pp. 624-627. Sherryl Connelly, “Paul McCartney’s Girl-friends, Loves, and Lovers Documented in New Biography of Beatles Star,” New York Daily News, April 16, 2016. “Linda McCartney,” Wikipedia.org. Bryan Wawzenek, “The Day Paul McCartney Met Linda Eastman,” UltimateClassicRock .com, May 15, 2017. “McCartney (album),” Wikipedia.org. Kitty Empire, “Paul McCartney Leaves the Beatles (10 April 1970): Number 21 in Our Series of the 50 Key Events in the History of Rock Music,” TheGuardian.com, June 11, 2011. Jann S. Wenner, “Q&A: Paul McCartney; Rolling Stone’s Founder Talks with the Rocker About His Solo Album and the Possibility of a New Beatles Record,” RollingStone.com, April 30, 1970. “The Ex-Beatle Tells His Story: Interview of Paul McCartney,” Life, April 16th, 1971. Tom Doyle, “’We Were Gypsies, a Bunch of Nutters on the Road. God, What Were We On?’: Paul McCartney’s Most Moving Interview Ever About Life with Linda,” DailyMail.co.uk, May 11, 2013. “’Man on the Run’ Excerpt: Paul McCartney Threatened to Kick Linda Out of Wings and More,” Billboard.com, June 9, 2014. Beatles Interviews Database, “Paul McCartney Interview: Beatles Break-Up 4/9/1970,” BeatlesInterviews.org. “Break-Up of The Beatles,” Wikipedia.org. Zach Baron, “Paul McCartney After the Beatles,” GQ.com, September 23, 2015. Dalya Alberge, “She Loved Him: Linda McCartney’s 1960s Letters About Paul Revealed. In Three Handwritten Notes, the Late Photographer Writes About Her Budding Romance With The Beatle,” TheGuardian .com, November 24, 2019. “Ram (album),” Wikipedia.org. “Sir Paul McCartney Donates Photographs Taken by His Late Wife Linda to V&A Museum,… McCartney Has Made a ‘Major Gift’ of More than 60 Photographs Taken by His Late Wife Linda To The Victoria & Albert Museum,” Express.co.uk, May 3, 2018. “Paul McCartney and Wings,” Wikipedia.org. Paul McCartney Website, PaulMcCartney .com. Alexis Petridis, “Paul McCartney on Linda’s Best Photos: ‘Seeing the Joy Between Me and John Really Helped Me.’ Linda Eastman Was the Award-Winning Photographer Who Captured a Generation of Rock Stars Before Marrying a Beatle. He Discusses How Her Work Changed His Life,” TheGuardian.com, June 26, 2019. Linda Eastman careerLinda Eastman historyLinda Eastman meets Paul McCartneyLinda Eastman photographerMaybe I’m Amazed 1970Maybe I’m Amazed historyMaybe I’m Amazed lyricsMaybe I’m Amazed songPaul and Linda McCartney historyPaul and Linda ScotlandPaul McCartney 1970Paul McCartney 1970sPaul McCartney 1980sPaul McCartney 2000sPaul McCartney Beatles break-upPaul McCartney Egypt stationPaul McCartney honorsPaul McCartney Ram albumPaul McCartney soloWings and Paul McCartneyWings touring 1970s	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591662
__label__wiki	0.951807	0.951807	John Major Former UK PM John Major.. sits in a library.. clipping his stock options from arms manufacturers while injured Iraqis fight for life in hospitals. from Global Security: The Carlyle Group is a private global investment firm which originates, structures and acts as lead equity investor in management-led buyouts, strategic minority equity investments, equity private placements, consolidations and build-ups, and growth capital financings. Carlyle is the eleventh largest defense contractor in the US because of its ownership of companies making tanks, aircraft wings and other equipment. It is also heavily invested in telecommunications. Headquartered in Washington, DC, the firm serves a diverse base of nearly 425 Investors -- mainly large pension funds and banks -- in 50 countries worldwide. The Carlyle Group does not provide investment or other services to the general public. Carlyle has ownership stakes in 164 companies which employed more than 70,000 people and generated $16 billion in revenues in the year 2000. Formed in 1987, The Carlyle Group has invested over $5.8 billion of equity in 217 corporate and real estate transactions with an aggregate acquisition value of over $17 billion. As of March 2001, the firm had more than $12.5 billion of capital under management. Separate teams of investment professionals manage funds dedicated to management-led buyouts and strategic minority investments, venture capital, and real estate investment opportunities. Carlyle also has three High Yield Funds which invest in leveraged loans, high yield bonds, mezzanine instruments and private equity. The firm conducts its investment activities through focused industry groups which leverage the extensive operating, corporate and governmental experience of its partners. Frank C. Carlucci has been a Managing Director of Carlyle since 1989 and the Chairman since 1993. Mr. Carlucci was Secretary of Defense from November 1987 through January 1989, following his service as Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs under President Reagan. He is also Chairman of the US-ROC (Taiwan) Business Council. Before serving in these positions, Mr. Carlucci was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sears World Trade, Inc. James A. Baker III has been the Senior Counselor at The Carlyle Group since 1993. Mr. Baker has served at the senior levels of the U.S. government under three different Presidents. He served as the nation’s 61st Secretary of State from January 1989 through August 1992 in the Bush Administration. Mr. Baker served from 1985 to 1988 as the 67th Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan Administration. Prior to his service as Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Baker was President Reagan’s White House Chief of Staff from 1981 to 1985. Mr. Baker’s record of public service began in 1975 as President Ford’s Under Secretary of Commerce. It concluded with his service once again as White House Chief of Staff for President Bush from August 1992 to January 1993. On 14 May 2001 The Carlyle Group announced that John Major, the former Prime Minister of Great Britain, had agreed to join the firm as Chairman of Carlyle Europe. In that capacity, Mr. Major serves as Chairman of Carlyle's European private equity funds and their advisory boards. The Carlyle Group bought United Defense in October 1997. United Defense has the widest product line of systems for land forces and a strong position in naval armaments. United Defense has its headquarters in Arlington, VA and its 5100 employees operate on a global basis to serve its customers. United Defense provides Combat Vehicle Systems, Fire Support, Combat Support Vehicle Systems, Weapons Delivery Systems, Amphibious Assault Vehicles, and Combat Support Services. UDLP's current programs include: Bradley Family of Vehicles M113 Family of Vehicles M88A2 Recovery Vehicle M9 ACE Composite Armored Vehicle M6 Linebacker M7 BFIST Armored Gun System M4 Command and Control Vehicle Battle Command Vehicle Future Scout and Cavalry System Combat Systems Integration Integrated Defense Systems Electric Drive Vehicles FBCB2 Electric Gun Technology/Pulse Power Advanced Simulations and Training Systems The first order for amphibious landing craft came in 1941 with a form from the military that simply said "Buy 1,000 LVTs — Food Machinery Corporation". During World War II, FMC produced more than 10,000 armored vehicles. Similarly, Bowen-McLaughlin York (later BMY, a division of Harsco) also began building tanks. For the last half century, both companies provided the military with high, quality reliable equipment. More than 100,000 systems have been produced. In response to the complexities of the military industrial base and the technology developments in a declining market, FMC and Harsco merged their defense units into United Defense Limited Partnership in 1994. Business conditions for the two conglomerates then lead to an exit strategy from the defense sector. The Food Machinery Corporation in Riverside traces its origins to three men operating in the first half of the Twentieth century. In 1903, Fred Stebler opened the California Iron Works at Ninth and Vine Streets, where he produced citrus washing, drying, sorting, and packing equipment. In 1909, George Parker bought the Riverside Foundry and Machine Works (renamed the Parker Machine Works) at Twelfth and Pachappa (later known as Commerce) Streets, where he manufactured nailing and boxing machines, as well as citrus washing equipment. Parker's Orange Box Maker was widely used by citrus packing houses in California and Florida. Business rivals, Stebler and Parker filed numerous patent infringement cases against the other, and against other competitors. Upon the advice of banker W. B. Clancy, and based on economic necessity, the two merged in 1920 to form the Stebler-Parker Company, which produced the packing and handling machines at Stebler's plant. Parker continued at his factory with his nailing devices and wire-tying machines. During the 1920's, a third competitor entered the business. Hale Paxton developed a nailing machine that was faster, lighter, and could be easily transported to the fields, unlike Parker's machine. Paxton also made lidding machines, which were gentler to the fruit than Parker's version. Paxton's machine raised the box to the lid while Parker's machine had the lids slam down onto the boxes. Parker and Paxton competed in the field, making improvements on their lidding and box-making machinery. Meanwhile, Stebler had no competition, and thus made no improvements on his machines. He further consolidated his holdings by having packinghouses buy not just his patented machinery but entire citrus packing systems, including non-patented parts. The California Fruit Growers Exchange encouraged the Food Machinery Corporation to enter the field of citrus machinery. FMC started as a national consolidation of various manufacturers of vegetable drying and packing equipment, fruit canning machines, and agricultural spray pumps. In the 1930's, the Stebler-Parker Company became a division of FMC under the name Citrus Machinery Co., with Stebler a large stockholder. Paxton also joined the corporation as superintendent in 1938, moving his equipment from its Orange County location to the new FMC building at Parker's old plant, which FMC bought at a liquidation sale several years after Parker's death in 1930. The Stebler location became a warehouse for FMC. The company eliminated the wire typing machinery division after the consolidation. In 1940, FMC helped design a light amphibious tracked vehicle. The government gave FMC the contract to build military versions of the vehicle, with an assembly line in Florida and another in Riverside. Several types of the Landing Vehicle, Tracked (LVT, also known as the Water Buffalo) were produced, with Riverside responsible for the gun turret version, the LVT-4. The Riverside main plant also manufactured spare parts for the vehicles. During World War II, FMC built 11,251 LVT vehicles, receiving in 1945 the Army-Navy "E" award for outstanding war production. Changing its name to the Food Machinery and Chemical Corporation in 1948, operations continued during the Korean War with retrofitting of the older LVT models and also building different vehicle types. In 1949 a monument, complete with a LVT, was dedicated to the factory war workers at Fairmont Park near the location where they had conducted testing. FMC Corporation (its moniker since 1961) continued operations worldwide with its chemical divisions, military contracts (including ones for the M113 and the Bradley Fighting Vehicle), and its agricultural and machinery systems. Though FMC Corporation continued to have a sales and service location in Riverside on Linden Street, it sold the building at the site of Parker's old factory and moved its citrus system and food technology headquarters to Florida. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/industry/carlyle.htm Maintained by John Pike Last Modified: October 30, 2002 - 08:47	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591664
__label__wiki	0.666342	0.666342	Features Innovation Technology PAPRICAN’S RESEARCH OPENS THE DOOR to opportunities and growth for its Member Companies and Industry Partners It's safe to say that the Pulp and Paper Research Institute of Canada (Paprican) has seen more changes in the past five years than the previous 70. As Paprican celebrates its 75th anniversary, this er... It’s safe to say that the Pulp and Paper Research Institute of Canada (Paprican) has seen more changes in the past five years than the previous 70. As Paprican celebrates its 75th anniversary, this era of change and this scope of change show no signs of abating. Words like business plan, globalization, return on investment and value are not just for privately held manufacturing concerns. These issues are the facts of life for anyone wanting to succeed in the forest products industry today. Paprican itself has a new business plan. Its president, Joseph Wright, explained the basics behind it. “To move forward, the most critical thing for business success these days is for companies to have really good strategic business plans.” One component of any plan must be a technology piece. He noted that a business plan in the absence of technology is “unlikely to be successful. The reverse also holds true, perhaps more so,” Wright added. “It is guaranteed to fail. You cannot survive on technology alone.” In tracing Paprican’s history, Wright said that the Institute focused on deep fundamental science in its first 50 years or more of existence. This was important for the industry at the time. Then, the industry had a good technical capability. What it needed was a deeper understanding of fundamental physical and chemical properties, e.g., fibre physics and how they influence the products the mills were making. It has been well documented how that technical capability now has been lost to most mills. Mill technical people are focused on operations, Wright said, “not on deep science or what’s going on in a fundamental sense. So there’s a change in the receptor capacity and a change in the interface between institutes/universities and the industry.” Globalization is another issue that the industry has embraced (or has had thrust upon it). The institutes must keep up. “I don’t think in the long term very small companies will be terribly successful,” Wright said. “Some will survive and fill in niche or local markets, but the drivers for the industry will be the big global companies.” Wright said that Canadian pulp and paper companies have moved from a position where they were relatively large vis-a-vis their international competitors to a point where they are relatively small on a world scale. Abitibi-Consolidated, the world’s largest newsprint producer, “is perhaps an exception but on a world scale of companies is still not terribly big if you compare it to International Paper or Stora Enso. But, its product dominance is large so that helps a lot.” The global companies are the ones that have a vision of how to run their business to achieve market dominance. “They’re trying to consolidate the volumes so they can make more efficient and more effective use of their manufacturing capacity.” What does all this have to do with a research institute like Paprican? According to Wright, wedded to all this is the need for technology. “Technology plays into this global picture on a number of fronts.” Companies, generally, should be focused on the product. Their major suppliers will be focused on the equipment. “What the companies are faced with,” Wright explained, “is if they have enough money, or if they run their business properly, is that everybody can buy the same manufacturing equipment.” If this is the case, from where will the differentiation come? “Partly from the product side,” answered Wright, and partly from a “developed ability to use common equipment more effectively to do the special things that the companies want to provide for their customers.” Hand in hand with growth in the current economic model is cost cutting/minimization. Looking at the return on investment model as a ratio, Wright said that growth is the numerator and reduced cost is the denominator. “You can improve the return on investment by looking at either one. Long-term, however, costs become irrelevant. Everyone must become low-cost producers with state-of-the-art equipment or,” Wright added, “They won’t be there in the long-term.” The exception being niche market companies. Wright emphasized that long-term future success for companies will come by focusing on the opportunity, rather than the cost side of the equation. “The real opportunity is in growth, derived from a better set of new and innovative products. The question is, how can you lever your investments to make this happen?” Opportunity is knocking Opportunities exist for more effective use of overall capacity and a “much more sophisticated” view of how to develop new products and add product attributes. “It’s in that context that the research and technology picture has to be viewed.” Companies focused on the product side may not spend a lot of time on how to develop new processes. “But when they map out their product ideas, you can use different features of equipment to optimize the products, to give them special properties or minimize the variances. “When you look at the research picture from outside the company, you need to think about technology platforms, which are manufacturing platforms and the deep science of the elements of the components of what makes up the products. So it’s the materials science. That takes us back to fibre physics, to chemicals, additives, the chemistry of additives, surface effects, the quality of surfaces, all those kinds of things. There’s the link into deep science.” Looking at the science side from that perspective opens the door for institutes and universities. Wright said the more effective place to do “very deep” fundamental science is in an academic milieu. Curiosity-driven research, an ability to focus deeply on narrow topics is best done in the university. “The individual researchers who focus on those deep science problems probably don’t have the ability to do the technology integration that’s needed across areas of science, across the range from what are the fundamental physics properties of a fibre to how does that fibre interact with a chemical additive or a binder.” That’s where the institutes come into play, as an integrator. Their strength will come from their ability to integrate across the disciplines, more effectively than university groups can do. Wright continued, “That’s what I think the focus of the science side of Paprican should be on when it comes to the fundamentals for our industry. Also, the translation of these fundamental science ideas and understanding into what does this mean for product property attributes. It’s that translation that’s really important.” With their focus on the product side, companies do not have as much deep technical expertise as they need to understand how to do the translation Wright spoke about. “If it’s done properly through strategic technology platforms and ideas, you can share some of those investment costs effectively, and jointly with other companies, have the work done at research institutes like Paprican because the research is not necessarily proprietary. The results are pre-competitive or are platform technology. It’s the translation from those platform technology ideas and the systems integration thinking into the particular product attributes that a company wants that brings individual competitive advantage.” Another important component is how the processes operate. “You can look at systems ideas for common technology platforms that get into process operation,” Wright said. “Some of the available technologies that Paprican has developed are, in fact, the implementation of process operation ideas and how you can run standard processes differently and more effectively. Some of these ideas map into cost reduction. “But they also have process efficiencies and attributes of running the process that can enhance product properties, by virtue of running the processes in novel ways and that’s not necessarily cost driven; that’s more on the opportunity side.” Wright offered an analogy with the sport of car racing. In Formula 1, there is very little difference between the cars themselves. The difference between a world class team and those that follow is the system performance. “It’s the performance of the mechanics, the performance of the driver, as well as the car itself.” Different but the same It is the same within the industry. Every company potentially has access to the same manufacturing equipment. One of Paprican’s challenges is to participate in partnerships with a variety of companies that have quite different technical capabilities. Is it a tough sell to convince this range of companies that they will receive great value working with you? “If you just look at it from a cost cutting point of view, we can demonstrate that we provide real value for our Member Companies. But cost-cutting doesn’t necessarily play easily into what is the opportunity side where it is much more difficult to be persuasive about costs, especially with companies that do not have good product innovation capabilities. I really think that that drives the long-term future and we have to make sure we’re positioned to help our Member Companies and our business partners. There has to be a value equation in the discussion. I’m encouraged by those opportunities because we can see lots of evidence where we can contribute to revenue growth. That’s a necessary component for our long-term success.” Going back to cost cutting, Wright said that the belief that some companies have that they must be in the lower quartile to be successful needs to be challenged. Particularly for commodity production, the cost curves are going flatter relentlessly, so there is no real advantage aiming for the bottom quartile. “You have to be there by definition or you’ll be out of business. You have to be in a competitive position to grow revenue.” The real opportunity and advantage will be in the specific product attributes a company can take to the market and how they satisfy customer needs. Customer satisfaction also relates to service and reliable supply. “But certainly a component of it relates to technology,” Wright added. The general positioning of Paprican and of institutes generally will be between the fundamental science of the universities and the product innovation side, which should be the focus of the companies. “Within that spectrum the suppliers make massive investments in research for their own technologies. But there is no unique value-added for an individual customer of a big supplier because the same equipment, and often the same materials, are available to the next company down the road. For Paprican, there is a link to individual company value because we understand the fundamental side of the components that are put through these processes, differently from the suppliers.” (See text on Paprican’s Industry Partners.) The transition from science to applied and mill-level technologies, is not something that started yesterday at Paprican, nor is it something for the future. It has been underway for some time. As the pulp and paper companies themselves have moved from the era where they had deep expertise in science in the mills, to now where a leaner staff focus on mill operations and cost cutting, Paprican is sensitive to mill level opportunities and issues. It has also been sensitized to what technology/science means to a Member Company. “The transition that has happened over the past decade or two has been strongly dependent on a deep understanding of mill level issues. This has been coupled with the retention of world-class scientific research, and a comprehension of required product attributes in a generic sense from a host of Member Companies with different products.” To satisfy its customers, Wright said that Paprican staff has been “repositioned”. A few years back, about 45% of staff work dealt with environmental work, particularly during the dioxin crisis. Now, only 25% of staff activities deal with environmental issues including system closure, which is a “big chunk” of it, Wright noted, and which has broader implications than just the environment. Meanwhile, 50% of the research is focused on product quality and value (product attributes/performance). Wright stressed that Paprican works on product attributes and performance not on specific product development. However, it will do that on a proprietary basis in partnership with a Member Company. Paprican focuses on technology platform ideas. These include, for example, quality of surfaces, how to produce surfaces with desired attributes, and how a set of attributes translates into value that customers perceive. That is, are color images perceived to have quality when seen by the customer, and are they different from those where a technical measurement implies that they are good? There is a difference between perception and an absolute measure of color. Again, Wright said, the focus is on the platform side rather than on the product side. “We’ve repositioned the staff. We’ve evolved with our growing understanding of business value to a new process of really developing our interactions with Member Company personnel.” The Paprican Liaison Representatives are the prime links with each Member Company and, in some cases, to individual mills of a Member Company. Liaison is a two-way street. Wright expects a Member Company Liaison Representative to provide an interface so the two are the point contacts to ensure that Paprican focuses on strategic needs and technology issues that are relevant to Member Companies. “We have a real intense focus to understand what the companies would like us to do and how they would like it to happen. Our challenge is to be persuasive as to why some of these ideas can be leveraged from the platform technologies as opposed to doing one-off individual specific tasks.” If companies only wanted individual proprietary research from an institute, then they would not realize an advantage from leveraged investment. The Institute would be no more than a collection of individual research groups, which, Wright said, would be the same as a company having its own small research force. No borders Does Wright see this evolution in Paprican as something that would have happened anyway? He said that if one looks at it from an historical perspective, the factors become more complex. For virtually all of its 75-year history, Paprican focused on Canada. For the most part, its Member Companies operated solely in Canada. However, the global changes driving the industry today will require that in the long-term, the successful large companies will have operations in more than one country (allowing for the smaller niche companies). “That’s been the second force that’s been very significant and where I have really focused since I came to Paprican (in 1994).” Wright came to Paprican from global powerhouse Xerox. “My view coming to Paprican was that consolidation was a necessary transition for our industry. I came into Paprican with a strongly held view that Paprican needed to be much more than just a Canadian research institute. We needed to be a partner with our Member Companies on a global basis.” Paprican’s transition over the past couple of years in particular has been driven by the strong belief it needs to be a strategic technology partner with its Member Companies for their entire operations. This contrasts with Paprican’s early business model, which constrained it to Canadian mills. “You can’t stop technology at the border. You shouldn’t try. We still do it and part of our history says that is what we do. And we have some of our Member Companies that do not choose to bring their non-Canadian assets into membership. We’ve tried to make it easier for that to happen.” It’s a challenge for Paprican, for Wright in particular, to think how Paprican can be really successful with a Member Company when only some of its mills are in membership. The company needs to be the partner, not two or three mills. If the company has a truly integrated strategy, that’s the only path that makes sense to Wright. He said that Paprican has tried to expand its business model to include both strategic and mill-level technologies, the change from the past being that it wants to be a global partner with its Member Companies and provide techn ology input for all their operations. “That doesn’t mean we are going to do mill visits in South America or Indonesia. Most mill level technology will be local, perhaps extending for us throughout NAFTA. But when we consider global technology platforms, I think these should be relevant to corporate strategies on a global basis. I think that companies should be investing this way.” The companies are receptive, based on logic. “It’s hard to say how you can stop technology at the border when you have an integrated strategy.” The challenge comes in having the corporate executives look at Paprican as a strategic partner, as opposed to a supplier of cost-cutting technologies to some local mills. The new business plan reflects this. It looks at Paprican as a global player in the technology business. It will be implemented by growing the membership base from its domestic roots to include the mills of members outside Canada, as well as non-Canadian companies. It will also play out as foreign multi-nationals acquire Canadian mills. There are cases like this already, including Weyerhaeuser, Bowater, and Stora Enso. More recently International Paper and Norske Scog have joined this class. This, added Wright, gives Paprican the opportunity to talk with the “whole” company. Paprican has a valuable, world-class reputation. It is a known entity to foreign multi-nationals. This view was recently reinforced by a major benchmarking study done by Jaakko Poyry Consulting. According to the study, Paprican is “best in class” at providing mill level assistance. It also rates best at relating fundamental science to mill applications/products. Its members give it high marks for effective communications. The study also found that its research program is aligned well and balanced with its diverse membership needs. Wright noted that the Institute has a range of programs covering products such as fine papers, packaging and board to go along with the familiar newsprint, and chemical and mechanical pulps. However, until a year and a half ago, the Institute was constrained to working for Canadian mills of its Member Companies. Now, under the new business model, there are no constraints. This good reputation makes it a credible business partner. The new challenge that accompanies its expanded mandate is that Paprican’s counterpart organizations around the world also play on this global field. Often they provide service and are contributors to the technology strategies of the companies coming from outside Canada. “The challenge for institutes around the world is to learn how to collaborate, participate and work together. On the one hand, you respect the proprietary investments of an Institute’s individual Member Company. On the other, when institutes have common member companies by virtue of these global players, you learn how to be effective together for the benefit of a particular company. We’re in the early days of understanding how to do that.” Issues like the costs of the business partnership and how to handle joint membership where there are multiple institutes involved are complex. Membership growth for Paprican is being looked at in a number of ways. The traditional route has been to invite membership of all Canadian producers, big or small, no matter the product. ‘We can provide major advantages on a cost basis to these operations. That’s one of the things we excel at, doing that translation of technology to value.” Paprican has broadened the ways it offers “partnerships”. “We are more flexible than we used to be in how companies can interface with Paprican as a partner.” The new growth opportunity is in existing members that have mills outside Canada. “We’ve been working with this group of companies to try and persuade them that a global strategy is more powerful than a mill strategy. These discussions are ongoing and continue to be a challenge because if our message is perceived as one that will only increase costs, it is not an ‘easy’ discussion,” Wright added. For companies outside Canada, many have long wanted to work with Paprican but were stymied because of the rules under which Paprican operated. The new-found flexibility allows Paprican to talk with just about anybody and find ways to develop partnerships. Looking at membership from a global perspective, Wright said that current Canadian production is about 30 million tonnes. Of this, Paprican’s membership accounts for about 22 million tonnes. Three or four mid-size US companies alone would equal that volume. It would not take the addition of many new members to greatly increase potential revenues. “If we can persuade them that there is enough investment value, we could generate revenue that would significantly change our cash flow,” Wright explained. This would allow Paprican to reduce the individual company costs across the board. “If we double tonnage, it would halve membership costs because we don’t need to be a lot bigger than we are.” Membership classes In the past, almost all of Paprican’s revenue — over 90% — came from Member Company fees — based on tonnage. The rest came from Allied Industry partners and other sources. Recently, the Member Company share has dropped, but only slightly. It still accounts for more than 80% of revenue. The Member Company fee base was really the only way for pulp and paper producers to benefit from the Paprican research programs. To move ahead, new membership classes have been created. Besides Full Members, there are: Associate Plus Membership: This class recognizes that companies outside Canada may wish to participate in the research programs, but because of proximity limitations may not derive full benefits from all the services. A substantial contribution towards the basic infrastructure and operations of the institute, including pilot plants and laboratories, library and technical services, and a portion of the full research costs is rewarded with access to, and royalty-free use of, intellectual property. Other services including contract research are available but at a “different cost structure” than full members, Wright explained. Canadian mills are not eligible. Associate Members: This class is designed for mills (outside Canada) affiliated with Member Companies but not wanting full privileges. They pay nominal fees and have access to but not royalty-free use of the Institute’s intellectual property. Contracts and other services are available at higher rates than Members or Associate Plus Membership. Program Element Partners: A new feature of the Paprican Business Plan is to allow Member Companies, as well as others to direct the research activities by allocating money to individual segments of the overall program. The unit sizes encompass groups of projects of a nominal size of about $1.5 million per year. Several Program Elements together comprise our more traditional research programs like chemical or mechanical pulping, fibres, papermaking, or paper and board quality. These program elements are available to anyone who wants to join them individually. “If you’re a full Member, you get very low-cost access. If you’re a non-member but still want to join only for a specific set of research results, we’ll allow you to do that but you pay a fully-loaded fee.” Those choosing this option must sign up for at least three years. Another difference with the “new” Paprican is contract work. Proprietary work was done only for Member Companies for a contract fee. Contract research is now open to non-members as well, but with a “significantly” different fee. “We won’t do proprietary contract research on mainline platform technologies, but we can work in areas that relate to products, product development, and generic technology where we have excellent expertise.” The opportunities presented by the new categories will also serve as an invitation to those thinking about Full Member status. Companies can make small investments and assess the Paprican capabilities. “If you like what you see, there’s an opportunity to grow the base. It is a common sense approach to how to make ourselves more flexible,” Wright sa One major opportunity for research institutes to contribute to our industry through the collaborative research programs is in areas of threats from other technologies. Similarly, opportunities for synergies with new technologies can offer whole new growth areas. Wright mentioned two specifically – packaging and electronic communications. The former deals with the threat from plastics. The industry needs to show consumers/customers what can be done with paper that can’t be done with plastics. The latter new growth area reaches more toward the future. Wright noted that the interface between electronic communications and paper is changing and that it represents a whole new area of opportunity. He mentioned things such as intelligent packages and inks. “Can we invest in new ways to make paper functional by linking to new ideas enabled by electronics and communications.” These threats and opportunities are areas where the Institute can “play very well”, Wright added. “Individual companies will probably not be able to afford all the necessary technologies and can benefit from the leverage of shared investments.” Awards to Paprican Staff: 1998-1999 John S. Bates Memorial Gold Medal: Richard Kerekes 1998 PAPTAC John S. Bates Award: Tom Browne, Jean Hamel, Dave McDonald 1998 PAPTAC J. H. Weldon Medal: Joe Dorica, Jean Paris 1998 PAPTAC Certificate of Appreciation: John Wood l998 PAPTAC Best Research Paper Award: Ho Fan Jang, Raj Seth 1998 TAPPI Board Research Committee W.A.E. McBryde Medal: Bruce Sithol 1998 Canadian Society for Chemistry Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada: Theo van de Ven 1998 Certificate of Recognition: Sylvie Deschtelets, Norayr Gurnagul, Xuejun Zou 1998 American Institute of Conservation Killam Prize: Martha Salcudean 1998 Canadian Council for the Arts Fellow of the International Academy of Wood Sciences: Dimitris Argyropoulos 1998 Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers: Guy Dumont 1998 <>Central Systems Technology Award: Guy Dumont 1998 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers University-Industry Synergy R&D Partnerships Award: Andy Garner, Richard Kerekes, James Olson, in partnership with OpTest Equipment Inc. 1998 Marcus Wallenberg Prize: Don May, Keith Miles 1998 Marcus Wallenberg Foundation Dave Wetherhorn Award: Gilles Dorris, Vic Uloth 1998 TAPPI Pulp Manufacturing Division Honorary Doctorate: Jim Rogers 1999 Memorial University Technical Award and Johan CFC Richter Award: Barbara van Lierop 1999 TAPPI Pulp Manufacture Division University-Industry Synergy R&D Partnerships Award: Guy Dumont, in partnership with Universal Dynamics 1999 Technical Award and Richard S. Hunter Prize: Raj Seth 1999 TAPPI Process and Product Quality Division Raimbault de Montigny Award of Excellence: Jean-Nol Cloutier, Mike Paleologou 1999 PAPTAC Chemical Institute of Canada Medal: Brian James 1999 ACQUISITION: UPM-KYMMENE TO BUY REPAP News (March 01, 2002) China: Becoming the Next Economic Superpower RESEARCH: UBC PROFESSORS SECURE SUPPORT UPGRADE: NEXFOR SPENDS $40M ON BOARD MILL Cascades will close its napkin manufacturing plant in Laval, Quebec, on June 30, 2021, affecting 54 jobs. http://ow.ly/gPAs50Cvcls #pulpandpaper . @CascadesSD has won two 2020 CTAQ Food Innovation Awards for its 100 per cent recycled and recyclable thermoformed cardboard tray. http://ow.ly/BEmn50CuG53 #pulpandpaper #packaging	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591668
__label__wiki	0.89447	0.89447	Every Sh*tty Thing That Happened in 2016 By Eli Solidum March 22nd: three coordinated acts of terrorism stunned Brussels. March March 2016 was a month of terror. On March 13th, a suicide bomber in Ankara, Turkey killed 37 people. A little over a week later, three coordinated terrorist attacks in Brussels stunned the world. 32 people were killed while 340 were injured in bombs that targeted the airport and a metro station. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack. Just three days later, ISIS claimed responsibility for another act of terrorism. This time, it was a suicide attack during a soccer match in Iraq that claimed the lives of 32 people and injuring 95 more. Two days later in Pakistan, a bombing in Lahore just outside of a park killed 72 people. 29 of the victims were children. The Easter Day attack was targeting Christians. April 21: Pop star Prince dies from an accidental overdose at age 57. On April 3rd, the Panama Papers were released, exposing many of the world’s most influential people’s involvement in tax evasion, fraud, and kleptocracy. Just two days later, Iceland's Prime Minister stepped down amidst scandals from what was revealed in the Panama Papers. The music world continued to lose its legends. April saw the loss of country giant Merle Haggard and pop superstar Prince. Prince shockingly passed away on April 21st at just 57 years old. He was one of the elitely talented people to win an Academy Award, Grammy, and Golden Globe for their work. In the war-torn country of Syria, ISIS terrorists executed 175 kidnapped workers outside of the capital nation of Damascus, adding to the long list of ISIS' acts of terrorism this year, and the even longer list of struggles and massacres faced by the Syrian people on a daily basis. Top 10 Most "DTF" Colleges The 15 Most Beautiful College Campuses Why Travel Is Worth The Money Top 10 Party Colleges Justin Bieber's Hottest Hookups	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591671
__label__wiki	0.827605	0.827605	Sesame Workshop Partners with Sourcebooks to Bring Beloved Sesame Street Friends to the Put Me In The Story Personalized Children’s Book Platform Heather Moore, Senior Publicity Manager heather.moore@sourcebooks.com Jodi Lefkowitz, Manager, Corporate Communications Jodi.Lefkowitz@sesame.org CHICAGO – January 15, 2013—Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind Sesame Street, and Sourcebooks, a leading independent publisher and developer, announce the forthcoming addition of two Sesame Street books to Put Me In The Story, the innovative, personalized children’s book iPad app and website launched by Sourcebooks in November. The beloved classic Elmo Loves You will be the first Sesame Street book to launch on the platform. Put Me In The Story, as seen in the New York Times and Christian Science Monitor, takes nationally bestselling children’s picture books by celebrated and award-winning authors, and integrates personalization—creating personalized books that make your child the star of treasured children’s stories. Elmo Loves You is one of Sesame Workshop’s bestselling children’s books, and is being made available for the first time in personalized form. “We are always looking for meaningful ways to enhance parent-child engagement in the digital arena, so we are especially excited to partner with Sourcebooks to create our first personalized storybooks on an app platform. Put Me In The Story increases a child’s engagement and enjoyment by bringing children directly into the story, where they are part of the narrative alongside their favorite Sesame Street characters,” said Jennifer A. Perry, Vice President, Worldwide Publishing, Sesame Workshop. “We built Put Me In The Story to create greater bonding through and with books, and to change how kids grow with books. Sesame Workshop’s mission of using the educational power of media to help children everywhere reach their highest potential is completely aligned with what we’re aiming to accomplish with Put Me In The Story,” says Dominique Raccah, CEO and publisher of Sourcebooks. “We are overjoyed to announce Sesame Workshop as our first publishing partner.” The Put Me In The Story app on the iPad is available on the App Store for free. Elmo Loves You will be available in February as an in-app purchase for $4.99. Custom print book orders will be available at www.putmeinthestory.com, and are priced at $32.99. Recently added to the app and website are My Name Is Not Isabella and My Name Is Not Alexander, the New York Times bestselling picture books by Jennifer Fosberry. About Sesame Workshop Sesame Workshop is the nonprofit educational organization that revolutionized children’s television programming with the landmark Sesame Street. The Workshop produces local Sesame Street programs, seen in over 150 countries, and other acclaimed shows including The Electric Company, to help bridge the literacy gap. Beyond television, the Workshop produces content for multiple media platforms on a wide range of issues including literacy, health and military deployment. Initiatives meet specific needs to help young children and families develop critical skills, acquire healthy habits and build emotional strength to prepare them for lifelong learning. Learn more at www.sesameworkshop.org. About Sourcebooks Sourcebooks is creating the next evolution of a book publishing company. We are committed to innovative publishing, to exploring every platform and creating breakthrough models. We truly believe that books have the power to touch people and change lives. Sourcebooks is home to more than 90 enthusiastic book-loving employees who are dedicated to finding new ways to connect with authors, readers, and ideas. We publish over 300 new titles each year, and are honored to have 30 New York Times bestsellers. Sourcebooks is proud to be one of the largest woman-owned book publishers in the country. Visit www.sourcebooks.com for more information, and check out the Sourcebooks blog. <Return to Our Press Room> Put Me In The Story Sourcebooks Announces Personalized Digital Picture Book Platform—Bestselling Books Starring Your Child! Sourcebooks, a leading independent publisher, announces the immediate availability of Put Me In The Story™ app for iPad, an innovative new personalized children’s book platform that creates highly personalized editions of nationally bestselling children’s picture books. Far beyond any e-reading experience, the Put Me In The Story app will transform story time, creating an incredible connection and special moments between parent and child. “We know that reading with your child is something that, as a parent, you will always remember,” says Dominique Raccah, CEO and publisher, Sourcebooks. “What makes Put Me In The Story unique is that it takes bestselling picture books that children, parents, and educators already know and love, and personalizes that experience. For kids, seeing their name throughout the book makes them feel special and gets them excited about reading. For parents, it creates an unbelievable bond.” Put Me In The Story will launch with three bestselling picture books, including the New York Times bestseller Dream Big, Little Pig by Olympic gold medalist Kristi Yamaguchi and The Night Night Book and If I Could Keep You Little by award-winning author and illustrator Marianne Richmond. The Put Me In The Story app creates personalized books with the child’s name throughout each bestselling story—a captivating and magical experience for any child. A dedication page at the front allows parents to easily personalize each book with their own photo and message. In addition, Twitter and Facebook integration on the dedication page allow the user to share their delightful experience with friends and family. Upon opening the book, users tap “Put Me In The Story” to instantly create their own personalized book. A child can also choose “Read to Me” or “Read by Myself,” which supports early reading and allows independent readers to explore at their own pace. Parents will appreciate the animation (clouds move, sky changes from night to day!), lively interactivity, and sound effects (bubbles, dogs, crickets, and more!) that will help a child engage with the story on many levels. “We started with two very distinct challenges: how do we create a more meaningful bedtime reading experience for parents and their children and, as a publisher, how do we build a digital future for children’s book authors and illustrators,” adds Raccah. “We believe Put Me In The Story accomplishes all that, and more.” The Put Me In The Story app on iPad is available on the App Store for free. The Night Night Book by Marianne Richmond is also free. Additional books are available as an in-app purchase at $4.99. Sourcebooks is working with several publishers to make their products available on this new personalized children’s book model. If interested, please visit http://www.putmeinthestory.com/contact-us.html. For more information about Sourcebooks, its authors, and new initiatives, visit www.sourcebooks.com. 630.536.0553; heather.moore@sourcebooks.com @sourcebooks	cc/2021-04/en_head_0001.json.gz/line1591673

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