pred_label
stringclasses 2
values | pred_label_prob
float64 0.5
1
| wiki_prob
float64 0.25
1
| text
stringlengths 70
924k
| source
stringlengths 37
43
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
__label__wiki
| 0.968958
| 0.968958
|
Imperial Oil to write off up to $1.2B in Alberta natural gas assets
Published Tuesday, December 1, 2020 9:07AM MST
Imperial Oil says it has reassessed the long-term development plans of its unconventional natural gas portfolio in Alberta and no longer plans to develop a "significant potion" of those assets. (file)
CALGARY -- Shares in Imperial Oil Ltd. were rising after it announced late Monday it would write down up to $1.2 billion on Canadian assets it doesn't think it will ever develop.
In a brief news release, it said it has reassessed the long-term development plans of its unconventional natural gas portfolio in Alberta and no longer plans to develop a "significant potion" of those assets.
It says that will result in a non-cash writedown of between $900 million and $1.2 billion in the current quarter.
In Toronto, Imperial shares rose by as much as 94 cents or 4.2 per cent to $23.42 on Tuesday morning, despite falling benchmark U.S. oil prices.
Imperial said the exploration lands it is shelving haven't been developed and aren't producing, adding the move doesn't include natural gas prospects that are also rich in petroleum liquids.
Last week, the Calgary-based company said it would lay off about 200 of its 6,000 employees across Canada as part of a cost-cutting initiative due to low oil prices, adding it has reduced the number of contractors it employs by about 450 since the start of the year.
"We did not expect the company to allocate much to its unconventional assets in 2021 (or beyond) given its focus on the oilsands as well as cash returns to shareholders," said CIBC analyst Dennis Fong in a report.
He added he expects Imperial's move to be "immaterial" to his financial estimates.
Imperial is 69.6 per cent owned by U.S. energy giant ExxonMobil Corp., which said in October it would cut its global workforce by about 15 per cent, equating to about 14,000 jobs.
Exxon announced Monday it would take an after-tax impairment of US$17 billion to US$20 billion thanks to removing certain natural gas assets from its development plan.
Imperial committed in March to cut spending by $1 billion, including a $500 million reduction in capital spending plus $500 million in lower operating expenses, due to lower energy demand caused by lockdowns to prevent spread of the COVID-19 virus.
Imperial Oil stops production at Kearl after Inter Pipelines leak
ExxonMobil to cut up to 300 positions in its Canadian operations
Imperial CEO says no to Aspen oilsands project until Alberta oil quotas are gone
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line269
|
__label__wiki
| 0.601121
| 0.601121
|
Holcim Helps CSR programs assist over 200,000 in 2019
BD February 27, 2020 Press Release No comments
Cement maker Holcim Philippines, Inc. directly helped over 200,000 people in 2019 through its corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs designed to support the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations (UN).
Holcim Davao Plant Manager Sam Manlosa (second from left) and CSR Manager May Escalicas (fourth) receive a plaque of appreciation from officials of the Department of Social Welfare and Development Region XI last January 31 for supporting its programs through Holcim Helps.
The company’s CSR initiatives under Holcim Helps benefitted 229,170 individuals last year. With this, the company has helped more than 800,000 people since 2015, surpassing its commitment to the LafargeHolcim Group of assisting 400,000 people by 2020.
The biggest share of the funds were directed to initiatives for infrastructure and shelter (31%) followed by livelihood and inclusive business (20%), environment (17%), education (13%), and health (8%).
In January, Holcim’s Davao plant was recognized by the Region XI office of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) for supporting the agency’s programs to uplift indigent people. In 2019, Holcim Davao partnered with DSWD and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) for trainings on plumbing, welding, forklift operations, masonry and carpentry that benefited over a 100 people in the community.
Other Holcim Helps highlights in 2019 were its support to the development of a sustainable tourism master plan for the municipality of Bacnotan, La Union, the masonry training for people displaced by the conflict in Marawi in partnership with the UN Human Settlements Programme and TESDA and the inaugural Young Builders Challenge, a sustainable construction contest for aspiring architects and engineers. Holcim employees also participated actively in volunteer programs throughout the year.
Holcim Helps initiatives are aligned with the LafargeHolcim Group’s 2030 Sustainability Plan, a set of goals that contribute to the UN’s efforts to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all.
Holcim Philippines President and CEO John Stull said the company will continue to implement progra working closely with various stakeholders to implement sustainable projects that help uplift the communities where it operates.
“Our Holcim Helps programs are our way of giving back to our communities. As hosts of our facilities, they play an important role in the success of our company,” Stull added.
Holcim Philippines Vice President for Communications Cara Ramirez said the Holcim Helps programs are aligned with the company’s message of contributing to progress beyond supplying essential building materials. In 2019, the programs also focused more on collaboration and emphasized the value of sustainability.
“We developed our CSR programs to have a more lasting positive impact. Our active collaboration with our communities helped us identify the right programs that are responsive to their needs. These are strategic initiatives that complement our operations. To ensure effectiveness, we prioritize sustainable programs that provide more quality support to our stakeholders,” Ramirez added.
Holcim Philippines, Inc. (Philippine Stock Exchange: HLCM) is one of the leading building solution companies in the country. The Company has a deep portfolio of innovative solutions fostered by a full range of products from structuring to finishing applications that can help local builders execute with high performance and efficiency a wide range of projects from massive infrastructure to simple home repairs.
With cement manufacturing facilities in La Union, Bulacan, Batangas, Misamis Oriental and Davao, as well as aggregates and dry mix business and technical support facilities for building solutions, Holcim Philippines is a reliable partner of builders in the country.
Holcim Philippines is also committed to the highest standards of sustainable operations and manufacturing excellence with its plants certified under ISO 14001:2004 (Environmental Management System), ISO 9001:2008 (Quality Management System) and OHSAS 18001:2007 (Occupational Health and Safety Management System).
Holcim Philippines is a member of the LafargeHolcim Group, the world leader in the building materials industry present in 80 countries with over 80,000 employees.
*LafargeHolcim has signed an agreement with San Miguel Corporation for the divestment of its entire 85.7 percent shareholding in Holcim Philippines Inc. The process is still ongoing. You may get more information on this development at this link:
https://www.lafargeholcim.com/lafargeholcim-divests-activities-philippines
Rice Straw Fertilizer
How to Make a Lemongrass Soap
Homemade Liquid Detergent
The fresh business of dried ornamentals
How to Make Gift Baskets for Business
How to Start a Nata de Coco Production Business
How to Make Pork Chicharon
How to Make Tilapia Lamayo
DA Region 5’s rimas ice cream set for acceptability trials in Hongkong
How to Make Cassava Cake
Water Refilling Station Study
8 Home Based Business Ideas For Men
5 Benefits of Building an Online Boutique Store
How To Start A Home Based Nail Salon Business
How to Start a Button Pin Business
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line272
|
__label__cc
| 0.667978
| 0.332022
|
The already disadvantaged and little understood BME disabled community will suffer greatly under austerity measures
Robert Trotter argues social groupings like that of the black and minority ethnic (BME) disabled are becoming increasingly complex and harder to identify. Greater understanding of these groupings are needed so policymakers carry out more informed decisions in times of austerity.
The Equalities National Council (ENC) and Scope have today published new research on disabled people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds (BME) – a group who haven’t previously been present in research and policy, and who are suffering badly from cuts to public spending. As The Guardian recently reported services for BME disabled people are being disproportionately affected by shrinking council budgets, and authorities are often neglecting to carry out thorough equalities impact assessments. Yet what we found is that the BME disabled constituency is larger and poorer than had previously been thought. Policy-makers, advocates and service providers should consider more carefully how such overlapping identities can affect, and be affected by, policy decisions.
Our original statistical analysis has shown that there are at least one million BME disabled people living in Britain – roughly one in ten of all disabled people. Yet we also know that this is likely to be a substantial underestimate. Trying to define what ‘disability’ means in survey data can be very difficult, so we’ve erred on the side of statistical caution. There may also be an under-reporting of levels of impairment in BME communities. We found there can sometimes be difficulties communicating what it means to be disabled in the medical language commonly used in Britain – as one of our participants put it: “we don’t have a word for neurological”.
The BME disabled population is also growing. Research by the Runnymede Trust and the Centre for Policy on Ageing has shown comprehensively that the BME population is both growing and, crucially, ageing. Given that there’s a huge correlation between ageing and disability, it’s very likely that there will be a powerful future link between ageing, population growth and the increasing prevalence of impairment in BME communities.
Our research has also shown that BME disabled people face enormous financial challenges in their daily lives. Nearly half of all BME disabled people live in household poverty. This means that one in two ethnic minority households with a disabled person earn less – often substantially less – than the average income in Britain. This compares with less than 1 in 5 of all households without a disabled person. Another important feature of BME disabled people’s incomes is that they tend to have a much smaller distribution. This means that there is a kind of cap on income – BME disabled people have less money, and far fewer opportunities to earn more.
In short, our research highlights how large and disadvantaged the BME population is, and ties into a bigger story about the effect of the cuts on different social groups. But it also shows the difficulty of thinking only in terms of particular ‘equalities strands’. As our population becomes more diverse and our social categories more complex, what does it mean to legislate, or even to understand, any given social group?
On what basis should a government decide to allocate scarce resources? And how, in the context of such overwhelming fiscal austerity, can we begin to get politicians to care? If we are to fully understand the effects of social policy in a time of austerity, it is vital that we pay attention to these difficult questions.
The full Scope report on Over-looked Communities is available here. Please read our comments policy before posting.
Note: This article gives the views of the author, and not the position of the British Politics and Policy blog, nor of the London School of Economics.
Robert Trotter is a research officer at Scope – a UK disability charity that supports disabled people and their families in England and Wales
Posted In: Fairness and Equality
Pingback: “Embrace your vulnerability” –– How Black disabled workers navigate money, productivity and care | Skin Deep
Pingback: Austerity and mental health – some figures and findings « zedkat
Pingback: I still don’t want to live this life – the real world 2 months #afterESA - The Creative Crip
Fairness and Equality
The debate on social mobility is stuck: time for a city perspective
The Civil Service’s gender diversity agenda under the coalition
Northern prosperity will increase national prosperity but a comprehensive economic strategy is needed to address structural constraints
Human rights issues are high on the policy agenda in the UK today and the public are keener than ever to discuss these. A recognition that this discussion is moving online and involves a wide range of people is vital if we are to successfully thrash out the issues on rights.
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line276
|
__label__wiki
| 0.53489
| 0.53489
|
Texas Tech University Press
Category: University Presses
The book publishing office of Texas Tech University since 1971 and a member of the Association of American University Presses since 1987, TTUP advances the knowledge and preservation of research and scholarship by publishing books and journals. The mission of the Press is to disseminate, within its focus areas, the fruits of scholarship in as many formats as will serve the university’s broadest constituency throughout the state, the nation, and the world.
Texas Tech University Press terms:
Trade discount is 45% returnable and 50% nonreturnable. Short discount titles are 20%. No minimum order quantity required.
Texas Tech University Press is distributed through Longleaf:
Longleaf Services, Inc.
116 South Boundary Street
A link to catalogs for Texas Tech University Press
See a list of bestsellers and backlist gems
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line277
|
__label__wiki
| 0.542628
| 0.542628
|
Ep 279: Ray Bradbury
As we continue our Spring Forward season--in which we're reading forward-looking books, stories, and essays--this week we checked out four famous Ray Bradbury stories and talked about Bradbury's visions of the future. The stories we read include one about a sentient house, one that introduced the idea of the butterfly effect to the world, one about a veldt (and some evil children) and one about a man out for an evening walk in a future society in which that kind of behavior can get you locked up.
Also: Ray Bradbury fun facts! And an early-20th-century plan to give New York City a central vacuum system.
Direct download: Ep279_Bradbury.mp3
Ep 278: Ecotopia, by Ernest Callenbach
Since we're doing an entire season on future-looking books, stories, and essays, it seemed like it would be a real oversight to not consider at least one utopian novel. Ernest Callenbach wrote Ecotopia while living in Berkeley and working as an editor for the University of California Press. He couldn't find a publisher, but managed to get the money together to self-publish the novel (a more expensive, and more difficult proposition in 1974 than it is today). The book built up a cult following, and after an excerpt appeared in Harper's Magazine, Ecotopia was picked up by Bantam and given a wider release. Now, more than forty years after its release, it's a book that's still taught at universities and discussed in environmental circles.
The novel is set in 1999, a few years after the Pacific Northwest and Northern California have seceded from the United States. The book's narrator is the first journalist to visit and report from inside Ecotopia; the book alternates between his newspaper dispatches and his personal journals. We talk about the book's utopian vision, and to what degree it still feels environmentally relevant. We also talk about utopians more generally. We live in a time when dystopian stories are everywhere--in novels, on movie screens, and on television. Is there room in our current world for utopian storytelling? And what might that look like?
Direct download: Ep278_SpringForward_Ecotopia.mp3
Ep 277: Collier's Magazine Takes on the Russians
In October 1951, Collier's Magazine gave over an entire weekly issue to imagining a possible war with the Soviet Union and its aftermath. Perhaps in the midst of American Cold War anxiety, this issue seemed less patently insane. But to a modern reader it's hard to fathom how Collier's got more than twenty authors to embark on a project that feels like one part anti-communist propaganda and one part teenage war fantasy.
Also this week: a special issue of Penthouse that imagined sex in outer space (while also previewing the launch of OMNI Magazine).
Direct download: Ep277_Colliers_vs_Russia.mp3
Ep276: E.M. Forster, "The Machine Stops"
This week we read a science fiction story by someone you probably don't associate with science fiction. In 1909, E.M. Forster wrote a story called "The Machine Stops" that imagines people living in isolation, in apartments under the earth, and communicating to each through technology that looks a lot like Skype. Also this week, we talk about futuristic stick-shaped foods.
Direct download: Ep276_TheMachineStops.mp3
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line278
|
__label__wiki
| 0.666423
| 0.666423
|
NATHALIE FAUBERT
Credentials: IALD, MIES
Nathalie joined Cline Bettridge Bernstein in 2000, having received her M.A. in Architectural Lighting Design from Parsons The New School for Design. She became an Associate of the firm in 2007, and was again promoted, to a Senior Associate’s position, at the start of 2013. Since joining the firm she has worked with many talented designers – both the architects who are her clients, and her fellow lighting designers at CBB – who inspire her on a daily basis.
Her interest in lighting arose from a lighting design course required as part of her Bachelor’s Degree in Interior Design at Philadelphia University. The qualities that lighting can impart to both interior and exterior environments appealed to her, and from that point became the focus of her studies and career.
Raised in Haiti, Nathalie’s diverse artistic background includes design experience in architecture, interior design and furniture design. Outside of her professional scope, she is a talented designer of custom jewelry. Her innate creativity and technical ability have contributed to CBB’s projects in the hospitality, educational, commercial, and residential fields. Her project work at CBB is published in numerous design industry magazines, with articles appearing in Architectural Digest, Interior Design and Oculus.
She is an instructor of architectural lighting design courses at the New York School of Interior Design.
Nathalie is a professional member of the International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD) and a member of the Illuminating Engineering Society (MIES).
BACK TO TEAM PAGE
FRANCESCA BETTRIDGE
Credentials: FIES, IALD, LC
Francesca, President and Principal of Cline Bettridge Bernstein Lighting Design, contributes insight, creativity, and commitment to sustainable design to her projects. Throughout her career, she has collaborated with esteemed architects on award-winning national and international projects encompassing a wide range of types and styles.
Francesca’s project experience encompasses some of the world’s most iconic buildings. She worked on one of the first LEED projects, the William J. Clinton Presidential Center, as well as the world’s first LEED Platinum certified skyscrapers in both the USA and Europe – the Bank of America Tower at One Bryant Park (New York City) and Torre Iberdrola (Bilbao, Spain).
She has been honored with over 130 lighting awards, including Lumen Awards of Excellence and Citations, A/L Magazine Outstanding Achievement Awards, Awards of Excellence and Citations, the Paul Waterbury Award of Distinction for Exterior Lighting, the GE Edison Award of Excellence, IALD Awards of Excellence and Awards of Merit, and IES Illumination Awards.
Francesca is a Fellow of the Illuminating Engineering Society (FIES), and has served on the Board of Managers and the Richard Kelly Scholarship Committee of the IES New York Section. She is a Professional Member and former Secretary of the International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD), and is Lighting Certified by the National Council on Qualifications for the Lighting Professions. She currently serves on Architectural Lighting Magazine’s Advisory Board.
She has been a keynote speaker at international lighting conferences: twice at Expo Lighting America in Mexico City; at the Lighting Days event in Stockholm; and at LightFair International in San Diego.
A graduate of Barnard, Francesca studied at Parsons The New School for Design and the Open Atelier of Design, which she co-founded. She has taught at Fashion Institute of Technology and at Parsons The New School for Design.
STEPHEN D. BERNSTEIN
Stephen, a Founder and Principal of Cline Bettridge Bernstein Lighting Design, is a graduate of The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and has also completed studies at Parsons The New School for Design. His award-winning work exemplifies his ability to respond creatively to the design intents of architects and interior designers. His designs provide an energy- and cost-efficient solution while maintaining a project’s overall design integrity.
In the course of his career, Stephen has met the challenges of a range of commercial, institutional, and residential projects, and has developed a complete understanding of building types, architectural styles and uses of space. He leads CBB’s lighting design team in successful projects for high-profile clients, nation-wide and around the world. His portfolio includes numerous LEED projects, including the first law office interiors to achieve LEED certification.
His innovative designs have been recognized with over 45 prestigious awards including the Lumen Award, Lumen Citation, IALD Award of Excellence, IALD Citation, GE Edison Award, the Architectural Lighting Magazine Outstanding Achievement Award, and multiple IES Illumination Awards. He was the first recipient of the Illuminating Engineering Society New York Section’s Brilliance Award, for his contribution to the New York City lighting community.
Stephen is a Professional Member of the International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD) and a Member of the Illuminating Engineering Society (MIES). He is currently on the Richard Kelly Grant’s Board of Directors. In the past, Stephen has served as Treasurer for the IALD and as a member of the IALD’s Board of Directors. He was instrumental in establishing the AIA Center for Architecture in New York City and served on the Center’s Capital Campaign Steering Committee and its Advisory Council.
He has been a keynote speaker at the Smart Lighting Engineering Research Center’s annual “Industry-Academia Days” Conference. He is on the advisory board for the graduate lighting program at the New York School of Interior Design (NYSID). Stephen is active in the education of emerging lighting designers: he was a judge for 2019 IESNYC Student Lighting Competition: Light & Culture and was a key organizer of the Center for Architecture’s Richard Kelly exhibit. He frequently speaks for AIA Continuing Education Systems (CES) courses. In addition, he has taught at Parsons The New School for Design, where he is a regular guest critic for the Masters’ program.
MICHAEL HENNES
Credentials: MIES, LEED AP BD+C
Associate Principal
Michael is an Associate Principal and Project Director at Cline Bettridge Bernstein, and brings over 30 years of experience in architectural lighting design to his projects. He joined the firm in 1987, directly after graduating with high honors in Architecture from the University of Florida. His educational background gives him insight into the many ways in which light can reinforce architecture.
He has held leading design roles in a long list of award-winning projects at CBB, including Torre Iberdrola (Bilbao, Spain) and the Bank of America Tower at One Bryant Park in New York City – the world’s first commercial high-rises to achieve LEED Platinum certification. His project work has been recognized with Lumen and IES Illumination Awards of Excellence, the IES Paul Waterbury Award for Outdoor Lighting, the Architectural Lighting Magazine Outstanding Achievement Award and multiple Architectural Lighting Magazine Awards of Excellence and Citations.
As a LEED Accredited Professional, Michael is committed to the goal of sustainable, energy-efficient lighting design solutions. He was a member of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) CALiPER guidance committee, which supported testing of solid state lighting equipment and distribution of the results in the public interest. He has lectured on LED applications for LEDucation, and he has served as a judge in the 2008 Next Generation Luminaires™ Solid State Lighting Design Competition, sponsored by the U.S. DOE.
Michael has lectured for the Designers Lighting Forum of New York, IES New York Chapter, The Center for Architecture in NYC and Light Congress 2006. He has given tours of CBB projects in New York City for Open House New York and has written for LD&A Magazine.
RENATA GALLO
Renata joined the lighting design team at Cline Bettridge Bernstein in 2007. She became an Associate of the firm at the beginning of 2013 and was promoted to a Senior Associate’s role in 2018. She was initially drawn to lighting design while studying at the New York School of Interior Design. On a course assignment to create a light sculpture, she found that she enjoyed the art of illumination and the ability to use light in creating different settings and moods.
A resourceful and versatile designer, Renata has held key design roles in many CBB projects where sustainability is a prime consideration. Her work in this area includes the first law office interiors to achieve LEED certification. Her projects span a broad range, from high-end commercial spaces to budget-conscious public school buildings. In her years at CBB, several projects in Renata’s portfolio have been lighting award winners.
What Renata finds most rewarding in her work is a project’s successful outcome – seeing the completed installation and hearing favorable comments from clients and architects. “Every day that I work at CBB gives me the chance to learn something new!”
ALEXIS ARNOLDI
Credentials: MIES, IALD, LEED AP BD+C
Alexis joined the Cline Bettridge Bernstein team in 1998, was made an Associate of the firm in 2004, and was promoted to a Senior Associate’s position in 2013. He holds leading design and management roles in a diverse selection of the firm’s projects, spanning a broad range of uses, styles and design needs.
As a LEED Accredited Professional, Alexis possesses an in-depth knowledge of energy efficient, sustainable lighting design. He brings this focused expertise to many CBB projects including corporate offices, academic centers and museums. A skilled team leader and trusted client manager, he heads projects involving highly complex, world-recognized building developments. He has held key roles in award-winning projects, with two Lumen Citations, an IIDA Award and an IES Illumination Award.
Inspired by opportunities to create better buildings and spaces through the incorporation of light, Alexis appreciates the daily challenges that his work presents. “What I like most at CBB is working with the different architects who are our clients and their wide array of projects and design styles. I enjoy the opportunity of bringing their work to a higher level through the use of light,” he says.
Alexis holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Architectural Engineering, with an emphasis on Lighting Design, from Pennsylvania State University. He is a member of the Illuminating Engineering Society and a Professional Member of the International Association of Lighting Designers.
NICOLE YOON KIM
Nicole joined CBB in 1998, after completing a Master of Fine Arts degree in Architectural Lighting Design at Parsons The New School for Design. She became an Associate of the firm in 2007 and was promoted to a Senior Associate’s position in January 2013.
Her project work covers a broad spectrum, ranging from high-end houses and apartments for high-profile owners to retail venues and corporate buildings. She was a key player in CBB’s work with world-renowned jeweler Harry Winston, leading a series of new and renovated “salon” projects in the USA and around the world. One of these projects, the new Harry Winston Shanghai Pavilion in China, was awarded a GE Edison Award of Excellence.
She responds to her clients’ design needs with a precise, highly professional yet very personalized service. Her thoroughness, attention to detail, and commitment to good client relations firmly support CBB’s´ reputation for optimal lighting solutions.
Nicole is both a talented designer and an enthusiastic mentor to the firm’s´ junior design staff and interns.
Credentials: MIES
Sang has been a member of the Cline Bettridge Bernstein team since 2001. He became an Associate of the firm in 2007 and was promoted to the role of Senior Associate at the start of 2013. Sang brings to CBB’s project work a unique combination of strength in design leadership, artistic talent and technical excellence.
His work includes lighting design projects of almost every type – master plans, hotels, museums, churches, corporate towers, office interiors, science labs, university campuses and landscapes/exteriors. A number of these projects are winners of lighting awards, including a Lumen Citation for the Use of Light to Transform Architecture, an Architectural Lighting Magazine Citation for Best Use of Daylighting, two IES Illumination Awards, an IIDA Award and a Best of Design Award for Interior Lighting from The Architect’s Newspaper.
He graduated from Chung-Ang University in Seoul, Korea with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Sculpture, then continued on to focus his studies at Parsons The New School for Design in New York, where he completed a Master’s Degree in Lighting Design.
NIRA WATTANACHOTE
Credentials: MIES, WELL AP
Nira brings to her project work a unique set of design skills that balance aesthetic creativity with technical expertise. She joined the Cline Bettridge Bernstein Lighting Design team in 2000, became an Associate of the firm in 2006, and was promoted to Senior Associate at the start of 2013.
In her previous work in interior design, Nira came to realize that lighting makes the difference between a good project and a truly inspired one. “Successful lighting transforms the way that people experience and perceive architecture,” she says.
This discovery is something that she expresses not just in words, but in the design of her projects. At CBB, she has been a key design team member in numerous award-winning projects, earning multiple IALD, IIDA and Lumen Awards, as well as a GE Edison Award.
Nira’s project experience includes high-end corporate office buildings, large-scale hospitality and residential complexes, and performing arts centers. Her expertise in custom fixture design for her projects combines innovation with practicality and an expert knowledge of energy-efficient lighting design techniques.
She holds a Bachelor of Architecture from King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology in Bangkok, Thailand, and a Master of Fine Arts in Lighting Design from Parsons The New School for Design, where she has also taught AGI classes for the school’s Master of Fine Arts program.
JEFF HOENIG
Jeff’s interest in architectural lighting design grew out of his studies in theatrical lighting. He joined Cline Bettridge Bernstein in 2007, after earning his Master of Fine Arts in Lighting Design from the Department of Theatre, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He was promoted to the position of Associate at the beginning of 2013.
In the architectural lighting field, Jeff sees countless opportunities to explore ways in which light affects people’s environments. Jeff was drawn to a career with CBB because of the firm’s extensive range of projects and its demonstrated ability to enhance each of these projects with lighting. He considers his knowledge of theatrical lighting to be a facet of his design capability that adds value and innovation to projects across all market sectors, and enjoys transposing his unique outlook on lighting into the architectural realm.
This specialized approach brings inspiration to CBB projects including arts venues, academic buildings and commercial office towers. Two of Jeff’s recent projects were both winners of multiple lighting awards, including Lumen Citations, IES Illumination Awards and Architectural Lighting Magazine Citations for Best Use of Color and Daylighting.
Jeff coordinates and teaches “Fundamentals of Lighting,” a course offered by the IES for newcomers to the lighting design field. In addition, he instructs classes at the New York School of Interior Design.
MIN YOUNG KIM
Min Young graduated from Ewha Women’s University in Seoul, Korea, earning a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Design. Her interest in lighting arose from those studies; this career choice attracted her because of the positive impact that thoughtful lighting design can have on the environment.
She was accepted into the Master’s Program at Parsons The New School for Design and moved to New York City, where she went on to earn a Master’s degree in Architectural Lighting Design. Min Young excelled in her chosen educational field: she received a merit scholarship from Parsons, and won a Thesis Award for a study of using colored light and shadow to transform vacant lots in New York City, improving people’s visual experience in those neighborhoods.
To supplement her studies, Min Young worked as an intern at CBB during 2016; following a brief assignment with Cooley Monato Studio, she joined CBB as a full-time designer in 2017. At CBB, she works on a variety of projects, including office towers, historic building renovations, and government facilities.
Min Young says, “I am intrigued by the challenge of creating lighting solutions that embrace both the functional and the aesthetic aspects of architectural design.”
Amer Alchama
Amer began his design studies at Damascus University in Syria. He completed his undergraduate degree at the New York City College of Technology, where he was on the Dean’s honor list for three years before graduating magna cum laude in 2017. Following his graduation, he continued his studies for a Masters’ degree in Architectural Lighting Design at Hochschule Wismar, University of Applied Sciences in Germany.
He joined CBB as an intern in 2018, working with CBB design teams on a variety of projects including night imagery lighting for tower façades and outdoor sites. His work at CBB also fulfils the hands-on design experience required for his Masters’ degree and for completion of his thesis on the psychological effects of different lighting schemes when viewed through virtual reality devices.
Prior to working with CBB, Amer worked as a New York City landmarks specialist, gaining experience in the preservation of historic building facades city-wide. In this role, he learned that lighting is a key aspect of architectural design, which transforms a project’s aesthetic and its impact on human well-being. He makes this philosophy the basis of all his work at CBB.
Jiyoung joined Cline Bettridge Bernstein in 2006 and was promoted to Associate at the start of 2013. Her undergraduate training in furniture design introduced her to the theory and practice of lighting design. She went on to earn a Master of Fine Arts in architectural lighting design from Parsons The New School for Design in New York City.
At CBB, Jiyoung works on design teams for both interior and exterior lighting projects. She has brought her design talent and technical skills to performing arts centers, community buildings, university facilities and large-scale works for international clients.
She is intrigued by the relationships that exist between light in its many forms and the way that people feel within the spaces where they work, play, learn and live. She enjoys working with lighting forms and effects to create colors, moods and ambiences that make people respond positively to their varying activities and environments.
BATUHAN TUMBA
Batuhan (Batu) started his professional career as an Urban Designer and Architectural 3D Visualizer, after his 2015 graduation from Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts, Istanbul with a BSc of City and Regional Planning. His interest in lighting developed through his 3D artwork, in which he experimented with adding lighting effects to architectural designs. Through this process he realized the depth and dimension that well-designed lighting can bring to architecture, and its positive impact on the people who use those buildings. This realization drove him to continue his education, specializing in architectural lighting design. In 2017, he graduated from Hochschule Wismar, Germany with a Master of Arts in lighting design.
He worked for CBB as an intern in 2016, then spent 2017 abroad, completing his studies and working as a designer in Istanbul. He rejoined CBB as a full-time designer at the end of 2018. Batu’s work at CBB encompasses a variety of projects, including educational buildings and campuses, healthcare centers, private residences and corporate offices.
In his project work, Batu maintains a passion for creating atmospheres that are both user-friendly and inspired. He believes that lighting has the power to affect our visual and emotional perception, providing the users of buildings and spaces with the best possible experience.
CLARA SAMUDIO
Clara studied architecture at the Universidad de Los Andes in Bogota, Colombia. Following her graduation, she began her career in design at David Restrepo & Cia. Arquitectos, also in Bogota, where she rose to the position of Senior Architect and worked on corporate, hospitality and residential projects. Two of these projects, a restaurant and a bank branch, were published in the Colombian architectural magazine Exkema .
Her architectural work led to her acceptance into the Masters’ Program at Parsons The New School for Design. However, it was her professional and personal experience with the many ways that design can influence human experience that drew her to the lighting design discipline. She earned her Master of Fine Arts in Architectural Lighting Design from Parsons in 2018, joining CBB as a designer after her graduation. Her thesis, “Lighting: the Historic Value of Brick and Cities’ Identity,” was selected for presentation at the 2018 Illumination Engineering Society (IES) Conference.
Clara’s international travels have given her a global perspective on design and its effects on our health, happiness and success. On a journey that began in her hometown on the Colombian/Venezuelan border, traversed both Latin America and Europe and concluded in New York City, she has developed an appreciation for design as an influence on social interaction. In her own words: “Good lighting encourages and welcomes people to use a project, making human beings the center of the designer’s creation.”
Nadia J. Hall
Nadia earned her B.A in Political Science from Brooklyn College, with coursework focused on African American politics. Throughout her studies, she sought internships to round out and hone her career skills. She worked in a variety of intern roles that enabled her to develop strong administrative capabilities. These positions led Nadia to seek a front-office role in professional services, where her leadership capabilities and interpersonal communication strengths would be valued. She was welcomed into the CBB team in 2018.
As CBB’s receptionist, Nadia is both the first point of contact for the firm’s clients and a vital part of the administrative team. Her duties are wide-ranging and include welcoming and greeting the clients who phone or visit the office, project administration tasks, and assisting in the production of promotional material and bids.
Nadia comments that her position with CBB is a perfect fit, saying, “I enjoy witnessing the dedication and inspiration that each team member brings to the table; it’s infectious!” She finds her role challenging and appreciates daily opportunities to work creatively and dynamically.
Maria Ruby E. (Ruby) Reyes
Ruby has extensive experience in office management, personnel supervision, benefits, and finance/accounting. Prior to working at CBB, she held roles in administration, finance and personnel, and social sciences research at both private and non-profit firms in NYC and Manila (Philippines). She moved to the USA in 1983, where she worked for 10 years as part of a NYC non-profit organization before joining CBB in 1994.
Ruby’s role as CBB’s Office Manager is busy and multi-faceted, with responsibilities that include finance/accounting, staff benefits, office facilities and maintenance, and management/supervision of the administrative and maintenance personnel.
She graduated with a BA in Economics from Maryknoll College, Quezon City, Philippines, where she was on the Dean’s List. She continued her education with postgraduate studies in Economics at the Jesuits’ Ateneo de Manila University.
Sophia DeChiazza
Sophia graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard University. She joined CBB in 2009, upon returning to the USA after 17 years of work experience in Auckland, New Zealand. While in Auckland, she studied Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. Finding creative fulfillment in working with these programs, she pursued a career path of marketing and bid management for architecture and design firms.
This new-found passion became a career path, in a profession that Sophia has pursued ever since. She enjoys the variety offered by her role as CBB’s Marketing Director: using words and graphics to create promotional materials; working with architects to develop bid scopes; collaborating with a talented team of designers; and most of all the satisfaction associated with proposal efforts that win new projects for CBB.
In addition to her marketing and proposal work, Sophia assists CBB in the NYC School Construction Authority’s Summer Internship Program. This annual program gives talented high school students an opportunity to work for CBB as marketing assistants during their summer vacations, under her leadership.
Tiffany Skinner
Tiffany is a native New Yorker, born and raised in Brooklyn. She has known since her grade school days that she wanted to be part of the corporate business world; this goal was solidified when she joined a business education program in high school.
She earned her Associate Degree in Business Administration from Katharine Gibbs School. Immediately following her graduation, she was appointed to the position of Office Manager by a non-profit organization headed by one of the original Tuskegee Airmen, Dr. Roscoe C. Brown. Tiffany began working at CBB in 2004 as the firm’s receptionist. Since that time, she has become a key player on CBB’s administration team. Her role covers a range of responsibilities, including assistance with accounting and invoicing, supervising reception, and orientation of new staff who join CBB.
“What I enjoy most about working at CBB is the people I work with,” Tiffany says. “Over the past 15 years, I have come to consider them not just my co-workers, but my extended family. I am also happy to have built an excellent rapport with the clients and manufacturers who work with CBB.”
We use cookies to help improve your experience of https://cbbld.com. This cookie policy is part of Cline Bettridge Bernstein Lighting Design (CBBLD)’s privacy policy, and covers the use of cookies between your device and our site. We also provide basic information on third-party services we may use, who may also use cookies as part of their service, though they are not covered by our policy.
If you don’t wish to accept cookies from us, you should instruct your browser to refuse cookies from https://cbbld.com, with the understanding that we may be unable to provide you with some of your desired content and services.
A cookie is a small piece of data that a website stores on your device when you visit, typically containing information about the website itself, a unique identifier that allows the site to recognise your web browser when you return, additional data that serves the purpose of the cookie, and the lifespan of the cookie itself.
Cookies are used to enable certain features (eg. logging in), to track site usage (eg. analytics), to store your user settings (eg. timezone, notification preferences), and to personalise your content (eg. advertising, language).
Cookies set by the website you are visiting are normally referred to as “first-party cookies”, and typically only track your activity on that particular site. Cookies set by other sites and companies (ie. third parties) are called “third-party cookies”, and can be used to track you on other websites that use the same third-party service.
Types of cookies and how we use them
Essential cookies are crucial to your experience of a website, enabling core features like user logins, account management, shopping carts and payment processing. We use essential cookies to enable certain functions on our website.
Performance cookies are used in the tracking of how you use a website during your visit, without collecting personal information about you. Typically, this information is anonymous and aggregated with information tracked across all site users, to help companies understand visitor usage patterns, identify and diagnose problems or errors their users may encounter, and make better strategic decisions in improving their audience’s overall website experience. These cookies may be set by the website you’re visiting (first-party) or by third-party services. We use performance cookies on our site.
Functionality cookies are used in collecting information about your device and any settings you may configure on the website you’re visiting (like language and timezone settings). With this information, websites can provide you with customised, enhanced or optimised content and services. These cookies may be set by the website you’re visiting (first-party) or by third-party service. We use functionality cookies for selected features on our site.
Targeting/advertising cookies are used in determining what promotional content is more relevant and appropriate to you and your interests. Websites may use them to deliver targeted advertising or to limit the number of times you see an advertisement. This helps companies improve the effectiveness of their campaigns and the quality of content presented to you. These cookies may be set by the website you’re visiting (first-party) or by third-party services. Targeting/advertising cookies set by third-parties may be used to track you on other websites that use the same third-party service. We use targeting/advertising cookies on our site.
Third-party cookies on our site
We may employ third-party companies and individuals on our websites—for example, analytics providers and content partners. We grant these third parties access to selected information to perform specific tasks on our behalf. They may also set third-party cookies in order to deliver the services they are providing. Third-party cookies can be used to track you on other websites that use the same third-party service. As we have no control over third-party cookies, they are not covered by Cline Bettridge Bernstein Lighting Design (CBBLD)’s cookie policy.
Our third-party privacy promise
We review the privacy policies of all our third-party providers before enlisting their services to ensure their practices align with ours. We will never knowingly include third-party services that compromise or violate the privacy of our users.
How you can control or opt out of cookies
If you do not wish to accept cookies from us, you can instruct your browser to refuse cookies from our website. Most browsers are configured to accept cookies by default, but you can update these settings to either refuse cookies altogether, or to notify you when a website is trying to set or update a cookie.
If you browse websites from multiple devices, you may need to update your settings on each individual device.
Although some cookies can be blocked with little impact on your experience of a website, blocking all cookies may mean you are unable to access certain features and content across the sites you visit.
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line279
|
__label__wiki
| 0.52876
| 0.52876
|
Bregman Partners
Scaled Coaching
Coaching Group
Leadership Intensive
Peter Bregman
Leadership Gap
Great Leaders Are Confident, Connected, Committed, and Courageous
Posted on July 16, 2018 by Peter Bregman
Brad was leading a difficult turnaround of his company and had decided to fire his head of sales, who was a nice guy but wasn’t performing.
Three months later, he still hadn’t fired him.
I asked him why. His answer? “I’m a wimp!”
Brad (not his real name — I’ve changed some details to protect people’s privacy) is the CEO of a financial services firm and is most definitely not a wimp. He’s a normal human, just like you and me. And he’s struggling to follow through on an important, strategic decision. Just like, at times, you and I do.
No matter your age, your role, your position, your title, your profession, or your status, to get your most important work done, you have to have hard conversations, create accountability, and inspire action.
In order to do that, you need to show up powerfully and magnetically in a way that attracts people to trust you, follow you, and commit to putting 100% of their effort into a larger purpose, something bigger than all of you. You need to care about others and connect with them in such a way that they feel your care. You need to speak persuasively — in a way that’s clear, direct, and honest and that reflects your care — while listening with openness, compassion, and love. Even when being challenged.
And, of course, you need to follow through quickly and effectively.
In 25 years of working with leaders to do all the above, I have found a pattern that I share in my new book, Leading with Emotional Courage, consisting of four essential elements that all great leaders rely on to rally people to accomplish what’s important to them. To lead effectively — really, to live effectively — you must be confident in yourself, connected to others, committed to purpose, and emotionally courageous.
Most of us are great at only one of the four. Maybe two. But to be a powerful presence — to inspire action — you need to excel at all four simultaneously.
If you’re confident in yourself but disconnected from others, everything will be about you and you’ll alienate the people around you. If you’re connected to others but lack confidence in yourself, you will betray your own needs and perspectives in order to please everyone else. If you’re not committed to a purpose, something bigger than yourself and others, you’ll flounder, losing the respect of those around you as you act aimlessly, failing to make an impact on what matters most. And if you fail to act powerfully, decisively, and boldly — with emotional courage — your ideas will remain idle thoughts and your goals will remain unfulfilled fantasies.
Let’s apply this to Brad and identify precisely where and how he was getting stuck.
Confident in yourself. Brad struggled with this element, which might feel surprising since he was so successful in his career. But this is not uncommon. He worked tremendously hard, but it came from some degree of insecurity — he wanted to prove himself and please those around him. He became unnerved in the face of potential failure and was not particularly gentle or compassionate with himself when he did fail. He did have important strengths in this element: He saw the person he wanted to become and he worked toward that future, putting aside distractions and investing his energy wisely and strategically.
Connected to others. This was Brad’s greatest strength. He was well-loved and always took great care of his team. People clearly knew and felt that he trusted them, even when he disagreed with them. They appreciated his curiosity — about people and problems — and were grateful that he did not draw quick conclusions about them. All that said, even in this element, he had room to grow: He was not always direct with people and tended to procrastinate on difficult conversations.
Committed to purpose. This was a mixed element for Brad. On the one hand, Brad was clear about what needed to get done to grow the firm, he engaged people in the early stages of work, and he was open and willing to ask for help. On the other hand, he was somewhat scattered. He wasn’t clear enough about the small number of things that would move the needle, and he didn’t have a reliable process for staying focused on the most important things, ensuring accountability and driving follow-through. Not firing his head of sales sent a mixed message to his team — was he really serious about the firm’s success?
Emotionally courageous. Brad had room to grow here, and it turned out to be an important element for growing his strength in the other three elements. Risks, by definition, make us feel vulnerable, and Brad avoided that feeling. He resisted the unknown and intentionally avoided uncomfortable situations. This made it hard for him to tell people hard truths and make hard decisions quickly, which stalled his actions.
So Brad’s strongest element was “connected to others,” followed by “committed to purpose.” He was weaker in “confident in yourself” and “emotionally courageous.”
Which puts his challenge in perspective: His connection to his head of sales was at war with his commitment to the success of his team and company. Meanwhile, his confidence in himself and his emotional courage weren’t strong enough to break the tie. That’s a recipe for inaction and painful frustration.
Just knowing what was happening helped him immediately. We spent some time strengthening his emotional courage by taking small risks while feeling the emotions he had been trying to keep at bay. Each time he followed through, regardless of whether he succeeded, he obviously survived and also felt the accomplishment of addressing the risk itself. Which, of course, built his confidence. Which helped him take bigger risks.
In a short time, he felt prepared (even though he may never have felt “ready”) to follow through on what he had known he needed to do for the past three months. With his natural care, compassion, and humanity, he fired his head of sales (who, by the way, and unsurprisingly, knew it was coming and said he felt “relieved”).
Brad was extremely uncomfortable going into the conversation — that’s almost always the feeling you’ll have when you do anything that requires emotional courage.
But using emotional courage builds your emotional courage. Brad emerged from the conversation stronger in all four elements: He was more confident in himself, more connected to his team (and even, believe it or not, his head of sales), more committed to purpose, and more emotionally courageous.
Author’s note: Curious about how you stack up? I’ve created an assessment that will help you identify strengths and weaknesses in each of the four elements. Once you take it, you will have a good idea of where you have room to grow. It’s free to take. You’ll have to submit your email address, but we’ll only include you on our mailing list if you ask us to.
Originally published at Harvard Business Review
Share this: share on facebooktweet thisshare by email
Ask This 1 Essential Question Now
to Save a Ton of Time Later
The Right Way to Respond When
Someone Makes a Poor Decision
Shyam Ramanathan says:
Totally agree on this. It does help if you are confident in yourself, connected to others, committing to a purpose, and finally displaying emotional courage. I think feeling your feelings especially when things don’t go our way is a skill we should all try to develop. Accepting differing view points is also critical. Good book.
©2021 Bregman Partners. All rights reserved.
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line284
|
__label__cc
| 0.692744
| 0.307256
|
Weeds: Vehicle Control Interfaces
I have owned and driven a Mazda 5 since 19 October 2012. That is over five years ago. I still don’t know where all of the controls are located. Worse: I don’t really want to know, or to waste more time learning about the car. The little I have learned these past years, is that there is nothing intuitive about the location of most controls.
I might consider buying a new EV, but the vast number of control mechanisms is disuading me. Here is a photograph of the interior of a Hyundai Kona. I will not even bother to guess what all the controls are for, but will only mention that the steering wheel has 17 control devices, in addition to its ability to steer the vehicle. There are control devices everywhere, and owners have no choice in their placement.
A 2017 Hyundai Kona with control devices everywhere. (Photo: Hyundai)
This situation arises because automotive manufacturers are failing to design cars that meet the real needs of their customers. In plain words, they are not meeting my needs! I have never actually had a conversation with living people where anyone has expressed a need for more controls.
Below, is a photograph showing the maximum level of controlling devices I want in a car. I personally refer to this as representing my personal maximum level of control sophistication.
1966 Volkswagen Typ 1 (Photo: West Coast Restorations)
The controls of a 1966 Volkswagen Typ 1 include: a speedometer and odometer, with warning lights for oil pressure and battery charging status (output exceeds input); an optional fuel gauge; two knobs in the centre of the dashboard where the one closest to the steering wheel is for lights, while the other is for windshield wipers and washer; the radio has two dials, one for selecting channel the other for volume, plus push-buttons with pre-selected channels. Not visible in the photograph is a red button that activates 4-way flashers, and the ignition, where a key can be inserted to turn on, start and turn off the engine. Non-control items on the dashboard include an ashtray and a glove box on the passenger side below a hand hold. However, the button on the glove box is a control device. On the steering wheel there is a horn (silver coloured) and turn signals. Below the dashboard on the left is a device for opening the trunk. You will also see the gearshift lever (4 speed transmission plus reverse), and the emergency brake. Not visible beside the emergency brake on the floor are heating controls. Visible on the floor there are three foot pedals for clutch, brake and accelerator, respectively. On the door is a window winder, the window above this is a “quarter window” that also has its own opening device. There is also a mechanism to open the door that is not in the photograph. This vehicle is identical to one I had between December 1966 and August 1971.
This does not mean that all proposed EVs are as messy as a Hyundai Kona. Honda has a much more austere approach.
One potential difficulty with this Honda, is that the large screen will encourage increasing the number of virtual controls. Instead of spreading over physical space, they will spread over the vehicles virtual space. One advantage of limiting people to a small screen, is that it will be difficult for designers to add additional controls. Instead, they will be forced to focus on the most important controls.
Is there hope? One potential area of hope is the elimination of visual controls altogether, and to replace these with voice control. The advantage is that the vehicle will be at the mercy of the user. Users who master a larger vocabulary of reserved words will be able to have greater control over vehicle minutiae. Those without this mastery will be served defaults. It is a situation that could suit almost everyone.
Needs: Maximum Dimensions
When a workshop is being designed, one of the first questions that has to be asked (and answered) is, What type of raw material is being used? While there are a lot of general workshops that can handle an assortment of raw materials, one material may distinguish it above all else. Currently, my workshop is oriented to woodworking, with an emphasis on hardwoods and furniture. Hardwood is harder and slower to cut than softwoods. So, whenever I have evaluated woodworking tools, it is to ensure that they can work with hardwoods. In many cases, it means having more electric power. For example, while many table saws and chop saws can operate using 1 200 Watts, I have selected machines that have 2 000 Watts.
The second question that has to be asked has to do with maximum dimensions. Many woodworking machines are designed for use on construction sites. In Scandinavia (not to mention USA and Canada) this means that they will be used with softwoods. The maximum sized board that has to be handled is typically 4 800 mm long, with a width of 300 mm and a thickness of 50 mm. Of course they also have to be able to handle a wide variety of sheet goods. these will typically have dimensions of 1 220 mm in width, by up to 3 000 mm in length. Thicknesses over 30 mm are extremely rare.
A furniture oriented workshop has to focus on other dimensions than those found on construction sites, although sheet goods are similar to those described above. With respect to lumber, there can be a need to work with thicker materials. At the Unit One workshop, the maximum design thickness is 75 mm. The maximum width is 300 mm and the maximum length is 2 400 mm. It should also be mentioned that boards up to 6 000 mm can be “chopped” into shorter lengths without problems. Beyond this, some doors may have to be opened. It is also possible to handle widths up to 600 mm. First position a board accurately at the chop saw using end stops. Make the first cut, flip the material, reposition, then make the second cut.
All of the woodworking equipment has been purchased with these dimensions in mind. This, in part, is why it has been so difficult to buy a chop saw, a sliding compound mitre saw, that can handle materials 300 mm in width, and 75 mm in thickness. Many chop saws are not suitable. It should also be noted, that I wanted to keep the commonality of blade size with the table saw. This meant 254mm x 30 mm. For several weeks I have tried to purchase a Scheppach HM 100 LXU. While the Scheppach is slightly over-dimensioned in terms of cutting width, it only just meets the workshop standard in terms of cutting depth. The reverse is true of the Ryobi EMS 254 L. With the workshop standard firmly in mind, I was able to substitute the Ryobi machine for the Scheppach without technical difficulty. Living with Ryobi green (or is it yellow?) instead of Scheppach blue may be another matter.
Ryobi EMS 254 L, a sliding compound mitre saw. (Photo: Ryobi)
Ryobi EMS 254 L in staged use. (Photo: Ryobi)
Sliding Compound Mitre Saw: Ryobi EMS 254 L vs Scheppach HM 100 LXU
Cross cuts at 90° 90 x 300 mm vs 78 x 340 mm
Compound cut 45°/45° 58 x 200 mm vs 42 x 240 mm
Bevel cut 45° 58 x 300 mm vs 42 x 340 mm
Mitre cut 45° 90 x 200 mm vs 78 x 240 mm
Speed 4500 /min vs 5000 /min
Power 2000 Watts (the same for both)
Weight 16 kg vs 15.7 kg (about the same)
Blade size 254 x 30 mm (the same for both)
With table saws, the critical dimension is depth of cut. The Scheppach HS 105 table saw is adequately powered (2 000 Watts) and is able to cut material up to 80 mm in thickness. With planers, it is the width of material that is critical. The Meec 250-025 planer is also adequately powered (2 000 Watts) and is able to plane materials up to 330 mm wide. Combination jointer planers are often sold. The jointer on top is unnecessarily wide, while the thickness planer underneath is too narrow. My jointer needs will be met with a self-built spindle moulder capable of using a router bit 80 mm in height. This exceeds the workshop thickness standard.
One exception to the material rules of 75 x 300 x 2 400 mm maximum dimensions, has to do with lathes. Here, the maximum size is 300 mm in diameter, with a length of 1 000 mm. No lathe has been purchased yet, and this purchase will probably be delayed by up to four years because these will mainly be used in the production of dining room chairs.
Childhood houses
For the past few weeks, I have been contemplating the purposes a residence can be put to. During this time, I have studiously avoided propaganda from real estate agents, and others with a vested interest in maximizing property values.
People who do the actual residing, the residents, populate these buildings. Household is probably the most generic and non-discriminatory term for a group of people living together, and occupying a residence. There can be single person households, as well as those consisting of couples, families with young children, families with older adults, and many others.
Residents are not always owners of the building where they reside. They may be renters, even squatters. Even owners are not always owners, as the building may be mortgaged, meaning that the nominal owner actually owns a small fraction of the value of a property, and may lose that investment if payments are not made. Even if payments are met, their may be ways for mortgage owners to gain control.
Yet, these terms all suggest something more is going on than just the provision of shelter. Undoubtedly, primordial needs dictate much of the content of a house: sleep, food consumption and personal hygiene.
Food has to be prepared and, depending on the culture, clothes may have to be made, repaired, or at least washed. A number of maintenance activities are also required. This may involve refurbishing the building, repairing or cleaning. Gardening may be required, indoors, outdoors or in a greenhouse. Subsistence agriculture, may not be an economically optimal use of time. Yet, houses have been and are used as a locus for this, and for other economic activity. If residents commute to work or school, vehicle maintenance, repair and cleaning may be regarded as a legitimate household activity.
Social needs will also be met, sometimes there may be social-sexual needs that results in children, who – after their birth – will have socialization needs. Beyond the social, individuals have other more reflective, and even spiritual needs that have to be addressed. While schools offer a better environment for socialization and education, there may be some forms of home schooling that supplement that provided by the state.
Many of these purposes to which a residential building is put depend on the noun used to describe that building. The term house is more natural for me to use generically, than any other, such as home, residence, dwelling or living quarters. It is a building in which people live, a habitat, although this simple fact may have to be modified to express situations where a building is shared with other groups of people, as is the case of an apartment building, or with other purposes, such as the traditional corner store, with a residence on the upper stories, with a store below.
It is time for a new persona to enter center stage, the infamous “We”. Life is complicated, and not all decisions are made at express speed, or on the most direct route. We, in terms of married life, is not a precise 50.000/50.000 relationship between two partners. Some days it may be 99/01 and others 01/99. If one of the partners is too dominant, then there is a great chance that “we” will soon replaced with “me and my ex”. In the discussion below, events sometimes reflect decisions and sometimes the absence (even dereliction) of decisions. There may be some prime mover spearheading a decision, or a more amiable, joint process.
While some activities remain the same throughout one’s life, others will change over time. For many, perhaps most, one will live in a sequence of houses. However, I am not a believer in a rapid transition of ownership, or serial ownership if it can be avoided. Personally, we have purchased precisely one house. I have no intentions of ever selling it, but will leave it to my children because this location was the focal point of their childhood.
My mother has throughout her life spoken warmly about her childhood home in Kelowna, and regretted it passing out of her family. Please note the change of noun. It reflects her usage. Yet, one wonders if she understands that other people might also have an affection for their childhood houses. When I speak with her about it, she seems to believe her childhood house and community was so special, that she cannot believe that other people, including her own children, could have similar feelings about their childhood houses.
I was given no opportunity to purchase my childhood house. The house where my wife and I currently live, and where our children grew up, belongs – at least in spirit – to our children, even if they do not formally own it yet. I never want them to regret that their childhood house has been sold.
Seeds: Electric Vehicle Manufacturing Strategies
What right does an individual have to be transported in an inefficient and heavy pod? This, and other strategic questions, are ignored in discussions about electric vehicles. Debate focuses on narrow tactical issues, rather than those of strategic importance.
Yes, vehicles are necessary, but not all vehicles are necessary. Electrification of vehicles is a necessary transition if the world is to avoid the calamity of global warming. Unfortunately, it is probably an insufficient measure. This means that very shortly one must come back to the initial question about individual rights.
Nations and Cities
Much of the debate about electric vehicles has been left to vehicle manufacturers, who have a vested interest in the status quo. EV1 developed by General Motors was a pubic relations dream. Everything about the EV1 was orchestrated to show the impracticality of EVs, except for the fact that the consumers who used them loved them. In the end, GM used all means at its disposal to destroy all vestiges of the EV1. They didn’t succeed.
General Motors EV1 the iconic electric car loved by everyone except its maker who tried to exterminate every EV1 made, and largely succeeded.
While vehicle manufacturers have their own particular strategies, these will have to be harmonized with those of nations and cities where EVs will be operated. California requires manufacturers to sell EVs in order for them to be allowed to sell environmentally dangerous vehicles. They do so at a loss. Both Norway and the Netherlands have stated that they will not allow the sale of new fossil fuel vehicles after 2025 and 2030, respectively. Many other nations are talking about 2040. The Paris Accord may force these and other nations to react before then.
It would be easy to be a vehicle manufacturer, if one could ignore customer needs and desires. Unfortunately, vehicles still have to be sold. This means that consumers are concerned with such matters as net acquisition costs, that is the cost of a vehicle after any government subsidies have been taken into consideration, and operating costs, especially the price differential between gasoline or diesel and electricity.
This said, a mid 21st century consumer may not be a private individual. It may be a ride-share company or other consortium of investors. The riders in that vehicle may not just consist of a vehicle owner and her immediate family.
With a little good will, there are six types of motive power in use. ICEV = internal combustion engine vehicles, found in two variants, gasoline and diesel. In addition, there are: HEV = hybrid electric vehicles, PHEV = plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, BEV = battery electric vehicles, and FCV = fuel cell vehicles.
Unfortunately, there is no reason why any of these variants should exist in 2040. WPTEV = wireless power transfer electric vehicles, are the future, especially if they are equipped with auxiliary batteries for “last kilometer” use, and as a safeguard against grid disruptions. In the future, the term hybrid may designate a WPTEV equipped with a battery.
The European Union has divided the automotive market into nine segments, referred to by as single letter. These are (with 2011’s market share followed by 2015’s in parenthesis, to closest tenth of a percent) – A: mini cars (8.7/8.8); B: small cars (26/22); C: medium cars (23/20.6); D: large cars (11/9); E: executive cars (3/2.7); F: luxury cars (0.3/0.3);J: sport utility cars (including off-road vehicles) (13/22.5); M: Multi purpose cars (13/10.5); and, S: Sports cars (1/0.7). This leaves (1/2.8) not reported. While other segments show some change, SUVs have almost doubled in quantity. This trend was not noticed in Norway, perhaps because SUVs have already been overrepresented. For further information see: http://www.jato.com/suv-takes-over-as-the-best-selling-segment-in-europe-for-the-first-time/
While some electric vehicles target luxury segments, many are for the 99%, segments especially A to C. Low-speed neighbourhood vehicles are largely electric. A large number highway speed A-segment vehicles are found, including the Fiat 500e, VW e-Up and Smart ED. Only a few B-segment vehicles, such as the Renault Zöe, are battery electric. Choice is further restricted in the C-segment, which is dominated by the Nissan Leaf. The Tesla Model S is in either E or F. J-segment SUVs, such as the Hyundai Kona, are just coming onto the market. The Workhorse W-15 pickup prototype, indicates that electric vehicles may soon enter this market segment.
Manufacturing strategy
Automotive manufacturers tend to concentrate on what they perceive to be their core competencies. They insource everything from electrical components to car interiors from specialist manufacturers, such as Bosch (electrics) and Faurecia (interiors).
Strategic decisions have to be made regarding manufacturing platforms, as well as product design
There are two approaches to platforms to produce electric vehicles. Either one can produce battery electric vehicles on existing platforms, or design a completely new platform for electric vehicles.
There are, similarly, two approaches to electric vehicle product design. Either one can adapt battery electric vehicles to existing ICE designs, or design a completely new product. While an adapted battery electric vehicle could be produced on either type of platform, a new electric vehicle design would almost certainly require the use of a new electric vehicle platform.
Case study # 1 – Fiat-Chrysler
Fiat-Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne is an EV skeptic. In November 2009, he disbanded Chrysler’s electric vehicle engineering team and dropped sales targets for battery-powered cars, that had been set as it was approaching bankruptcy and needing government aid. Its electric car program had been part of the case for a USD 12.5 billion federal aid package.
As late as August 2009, Chrysler took $70 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop a test fleet of 220 hybrid pickup trucks and minivans. Chrysler’s previous owner, Cerberus Capital Management, had set up a special division in 2007 called “Envi” as in, environment, to develop hybrid technology.
Chrysler announced in September 2008, that it was developing three electric vehicles and would sell the first of the models by 2010. In January 2009, at the Detroit Auto Show, Chrysler pledging to have 500,000 battery-powered vehicles on the road by 2013, including sports cars and trucks. By November 2009, Chrysler’s five-year strategy made no mention of electric cars. It was the only one of the six top-selling automakers without a hybrid offering.
In May 2012, Marchionne urged people not to buy Fiat 500 EVs because the company loses about USD 10 000 on every sale.
A 1957 Fiat 500 and a 2014 Fiat 500e
What actually concerns Marchionne is a fear that increased use of electric powertrains will lead to car manufacturers losing control to vehicle components suppliers. Yet, his head-burying approach will lead precisely to that outcome.
Case study # 2 – Volkswagen
Currently, Volkswagen uses MQB, Modularer Querbaukasten, translated as “Modular Transversal Toolkit” or “Modular Transverse Matrix”. It launched in 2012 for all VW Group brands, including Volkswagen, Seat, Audi and Škoda. It covers the A0 segment to the C segment. It is flexible in terms of powertrains and vehicle’s chassis. Larger vehicles use MLB, which stands for Modularer Längsbaukasten, translated as “Modular Longitudinal Matrix”. This was officially launched in 2012, but has its origins in 2007, with the Audi A5.
MQB and MLB are not platforms, but production systems for transverse and longitudinal engine vehicles, respectively, regardless of production platform, model, vehicle size or brand. There is a core “matrix” of components. A frequently cited example is their common engine-mounting core for all drivetrains (e.g., gasoline, diesel, natural gas, hybrid and battery electric) of the specific approach (transverse or longitudinal). In each system, the pedal box, firewall, front wheel placement and windscreen angle are fixed. Otherwise vehicles can be shaped to fit any body style and size range. Results from this approach include reduced vehicle weights (which reduces vehicle operating costs) and allows different models to be manufactured at the same plant, reducing production costs.
The only problem with MQB and MLB is that they were eclipsed by Dieselgate, the Volkswagen emissions scandal, revealed in September 2015. The challenge is that while catalytic converter technology has been effective since the early 1980s at reducing nitrogen oxide in gasoline engine exhaust, it does not work well for diesel exhaust because of the relatively higher proportion of oxygen in the exhaust mix.
In 2005, there was disagreement at Volkswagen regarding the use of Mercedes-Benz BlueTec technology. If they had opted for this, there would have been no scandal. Instead, starting in the 2008, Volkswagen began using a common-rail fuel injection system that failed to combine good fuel economy with compliant NOx emissions. Already about 2006, Volkswagen programmed the Engine Control Unit to switch from good fuel economy and high NOx emissions to a low-emission compliant mode when it detected an emissions test. This made it into a defeat device.
Dieselgate forced Volkswagen to re-think its options. It lied and deceived consumers as well as environmental authorities. In order to claw back its reputation, Volkswagen decided to position itself as a leading battery electric vehicle manufacturer, but without a significant number of battery electric models to offer the public. In this new world, the drivetrain approach of MQB and MLB became obsolete.
Welcome Modularer Elektrifizierungsbaukasten (MEB). In terms of vehicle size this approximates that of the MQB, but is is restricted to electric vehicles. The MEB is optimizing axles, drive units, wheelbases and weight ratios for battery electric vehicles. It is focusing on the design and position of high-voltage drive batteries. battery. Its flat placement on the vehicle floor free up interior space. Other changes allow the dashboard to be more compact, the position of the centre console to vary, and provide space occupants in an autonomous vehicle to work or enjoy leisure.
Volkswagen has released a time frame for five EMB vehicles. The first will be the 125kW, 500km ID Hatchback shown at the Paris Motor Show in 2016. It could/should be available in 2019. Europe will be the priority market for this model. At the far end of the spectrum with a 2022 debut, is the ID Buzz. This has been a long journey for Volkswagen, which has been teasing the public with such a vehicle since 2001, when it presented a Microbus concept vehicle. The I.D. Buzz was first shown at the North American International Motor Show, in Detroit, in 2017. It has potential markets throughout the world. The Buzz may also play a significant role in Volkswagen’s upcoming Uber rival, MOIA, launched in December 2016.
Volkswagen’s I.D. vehicles based on MEB: Buzz, Hatchback, and Crozz (left to right)
MOIA was set up to redefine urban mobility. With offices in Berlin, Hamburg and Helsinki it aims to become a leading mobility service providers by 2025, including on-demand ridehailing and ridepooling services. It is investing in digital startups and collaborating with cities and established transport providers
Between these two vehicles, three other vehicles will be released. The next vehicle will be the ID Crozz crossover coupe. At 225 kW, it is more powerful, but will retain the same 500 km driving distance on a single charge. It will be available in Europe and China. The I.D. Crozz was first shown at Shanghai Auto Show, in 2017. Perhaps the most important feature of the concept vehicle were the four roof-mounted laser scanners for autonomous driving mode, or in VW-speak, I.D. Pilot mode.
After this come two additional vehicles with code names I.D. Lounge and I.D. AEROe. The Lounge could be a luxury car, possibly a promised Phaeton, whose second generation development was halted, then changed to an electric vehicle post Dieselgate. The AEROe could be a sporty four-door coupe.
In contrast to Fiat Chrysler, Volkswagen is focused on controlling its electric future.
Seeds: Electric Power
In a quest to find inventor heros, Nicola Tesla (1856 – 1943) is frequently attributed as the inventor of alternating current (AC). Unfortunately, the world is a messy place, and a long list of contributors to the development of AC needs to be acknowledged. In 1831, Michael Faraday (1791 – 1867) devised a machine that generated electricity from rotary motion. This was made into a machine by Hippolyte Pixii (1808 – 1835) in 1832.
Pixii’s AC generator (Illustration: F. Niethammer 1906 Ein- und Mehrphasen-Wechselstrom-Erzeuger)
“ZBD” (Károly Zipernowsky, Ottó Bláthy and Miksa Déri) invented a highly efficient transformer in 1885. Transformers are important because they allow different voltages to co-exist on a network. High-voltages reduce transmission losses when transferring energy over long distances. Low-voltages offer safer environments in domestic, commercial and industrial settings.
Tesla did play a role in AC development, but is usually remembered for the invention of an AC motor, rather than anything to do with transformers or generators. The challenge at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, was to develop a safe, convenient electrical system that could be commoditized.
Perhaps one should go further back in time, with William Gilbert’s experiments on the relationship between static electricity and magnetism, recorded in De Magnete (1600). Benjamin Franklin, is famous for his kite in lightning experiment of 1752. Alessandro Volta is credited as the inventor of the first electrical battery, the Voltaic pile in 1799. Even if one regards Faraday’s thought experiment as the starting point, it took almost 50 years for the technology to reach a commercially viable stage. In 1878 the time was ripe. Joseph Swan, Thomas Edison and perhaps as many as fourteen others developed domestic light bulbs. which led to the first commercial power plant in 1881.
As AC systems rapidly expanded in the United States, at the expense of DC systems, a media war of the currents emerged in the late 1880s and early 1890s. Many see it as a propaganda campaign by the (DC oriented) Edison Electric Light Company to stifle commercial competition by raising electrical safety issues that put its rival, (AC oriented) Westinghouse Electric Company, in a bad light.
Unfortunately, one of the main challenges with DC, is its inability to transform to lower or (especially) higher voltages, which was needed for the economic transmission of power over long distances. DC power conversion is not a hurdle today, and HVDC (high-voltage, direct current) systems always includes at least one rectifier (converting AC to DC) and one inverter (converting DC to AC). HVDC systems can be less expensive to construct, and offer lower electrical losses compared to equivalent AC systems. HVDC is especially allows transmission between unsynchronized AC transmission systems. ABB entered into a contract in China in 2016 to construct an ultra-high-voltage direct-current (UHVDC) line featuring 1.1 MV voltage, 3,000 km transmission length and 12 GW of power, which, when completed, would set world records for highest voltage, longest distance and largest transmission capacity.
There is a lot of uncertainty about reason having any role in the selection of an AC frequency. Since the main purpose of electricity was to provide lighting, the only consideration was to prevent flicker. Thus, a multitude of frequencies emerged, in the period 1880 through 1900. Single-phase AC was common and typical generators were 8-pole machines operating at 2000 RPM, a common frequency was 133 Hz.
At the other extreme 16.7 Hz is used in AC railway electrification system in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden and Norway. The low frequency was chosen to reduce energy losses from early 20th century traction motors. The high voltage (15 kV) enables high power transmission. The preferred standard frequency for new railway electrifications is 50 Hz with an evening higher voltage (25 kV). Yet, extensions to existing networks, often use 15 kV, 16.7 Hz electrification. High conversion costs mean that older systems keep their voltage and frequency, despite potential on-board step-down transformer weight reductions to one third that used on the older system.
Preferred Numbers
In 1877, Charles Renard proposed a set of preferred numbers, later adopted as international standard ISO 3 in 1952. This system divides the interval from 1 to 10 into 5, 10, 20, or 40 steps, leading to the R5, R10, R20 and R40 scales, respectively. For some, the R5 series provides a too fine graduation. Often a 1, 2, 5 series is used, a R3 series rounded to one significant digit, a pseudo preferred number.
Myth has it, that when AEG built their European generating facility, its engineers decided to fix the frequency at 50 Hz, because the number 60 wasn’t a “R3” preferred number. This standard spread to the rest of the continent, including Britain after World War II.
Lower frequencies have a number of negative characteristics. Not only is 50 Hz 20% less effective in generation, it is 10-15% less efficient in transmission, and requires up to 30% larger windings and magnetic core materials in transformer construction. Electric motors are much less efficient at the lower frequency, and must also be made more robust to handle the electrical losses and the extra heat generated. But there are advantages too, such as lower impedance losses.
Yet, there are enlightened countries with the insight to follow Tesla’s advice and use the 60 Hz frequency together with a voltage of 220-240 V: Antigua, Guyana, the Leeward Islands, Peru, the Philippines and South Korea.
Originally Europe was 110 V too, just like Japan and North America today. Voltages increased to get more power with less voltage drop (power loss) from the same copper wire diameter. At the time the US also wanted to change but because of the cost involved to replace all electric appliances, they decided not to. At the time (50s-60s) the average US household already had a fridge, a washing-machine, etc., but this was not the situation in Europe.
The end result is that now, the US seems static. It appears to be the same now as it was in the 1950s and 1960s. It still has to cope with transformer related problems, such as light bulbs that burn out rather quickly when they are close to the transformer (too high a voltage), or too far away, with insufficient voltage at the end of the line (105 to 127 volt spread !).
Most new North American buildings provides a 240 volt residential service in the form of two 120 volt conductors and a neutral conductor. When a load is applied from either 120 volt conductor to the neutral it uses 120 volts. When a load is applied from one 120 volt conductor to the other, without using the neutral, 240 volts is used, which is useful for air conditioners, clothes dryers, electric furnaces, stoves, water heaters and others high power appliances.
There is some confusion about North American voltages. It is 120 V, not 110 V. This was increased starting in the 1950s. The historic reason for 110 V was due to Thomas Edison’s DC power systems, which probably used 110 V because that was the optimal voltage for his light bulbs. These systems converted to AC, but the voltage wasn’t changed so existing lighting didn’t need to be replaced.
North Americans could get a better system than Europeans, with no infrastructure changes, except inside buildings. Since houses get 240 V delivered, wall outlets could be supplied this too, offering the lower current and higher power advantage of the European system.
In terms of safety, current (amperes) kills, not electrical potential (volts). Even so, 240 V is regarded as more dangerous than a 120 V system. To compensate Europeans use high quality insulation and wiring methods, that include Ground Fault Current Interruptor (GFCI) or Residual Current Device (RCD) in the breaker box to cut the supply instantaneously if any significant difference is detected between the currents flowing in the live (hot) and neutral wires. This saves lives.
Needs: Fiber broadband
Within a year we should have fiber broadband to the house. Today, 2018-01-24, we have to make a decision and sign papers ordering products.
Currently we have a «Bredbånd 5» ADSL subscription from Telenor. It offers 0.2 – 6 Mbit/s (down) and 0.1 – 0.6 Mbit/s (up). We pay NOK 358 per month for this. In addition, we pay NOK 196 per month for telephone, for a sum of NOK 554 per month.
Our new broadband supplier will be NTE. They want to supply us with «100% trønderfiber helt inn til husveggen» ( 100% Trønder [an adjective referring to people and things from our county] fibre right to the walls of the house). This presents a conundrum, since the fiber is being sold under the brand name Altibox, which is being used by over 35 local Norwegian and 6 Danish FTTH (Fiber to the House) networks, and was originally set up far from Trøndelag county by Southwestern Norwegian multi-utility firm Lyse Energi in 2002 under the name Lyse Tele. It became Altibox in 2009. Since 2002, over 360 000 houses have been connected, the majority self-install (over 80 per cent).
At the top of the information sheet provided by NTE is their blurb about «fremtidens tv-løsning» (futuristic television solution). I didn’t even know that there was a future to television. Personally, I am very happy to decide what I want to watch, and when to watch it. So, we won’t be watching television, or buying any of the packages that cost NOK 1099 or 1599 per month.
After having consulted with our children, we decided to buy the lowest speed product available: 50 Mbit/s up and down. Here is a breakdown of the costs, compared to the standard package. At a 30% income tax rate, NOK 6 588 per year after taxes is equivalent to earning NOK 9 411.
Product 50/50 Mbit/s Internet Standard Package
Annual cost
Startup charge (NTE)
Connection charge (Inderøy)
First year costs
First year cost savings
Subsequent year costs
Subsequent year cost savings
Seeds: From Analogue to Digital Workshop
In my retirement, I am currently a denizen of an analogue world that that roughly approaches my teenage ideal. In that world, Plywood, marine plywood especially, was the material I preferred to shape. The preferred shape being that of a hard-chined sailboat. The radial arm saw was, unquestionably, the most exalted workshop tool. Yes, Roy Henderson had one that occupied a central position in his workshop. When I think carefully about it, that is where my idea of a line of tools, Machine Alley, has come from. He had few options, as an under-used recreation room occupied most of the basement. It was in the rec room that his son, Grant, spent his time, building and painting plastic model cars from kits.
A 1957 De Walt Radial Arm Saw, largely as I remember them, although I cannot recall any red sawblades. (Photo: https://vintagewoodshop.wordpress.com/1957-dewalt-10-radial-arm-saw-gw-i/ )
Roy’s shop was one of four that has influenced me. The second was a commercial workshop run by English immigrants building hard-chine, plywood hulled Enterprise sailboats from kits along the shores of Blind Bay, on Shuswap Lake, British Columbia. The third was the school workshop at Vincent Massey Junior High School, where I learned to use assorted woodworking tools, and found that mastering the jack plane was harder than mastering the band saw.
The fourth was the unloved workshop at my parents house in New Westminster. Its tools seemed to be from a previous century, and many probably were. They had belonged to my father’s Uncle, Thomas McGinley. He was the same uncle that had participated in the Klondike gold rush, but had otherwise worked as a carpenter. These tools were all rugged and heavy, designed for work on ship’s timbers or log cabins, rather than more delicate objects. I never saw my father use any of the tools. I’m not sure if it was from a lack of skills or a lack of interest. When my parents sold their house in 1972, these tools were disposed of.
These days I am more moderate in my opinions, but more excessive in my purchases. I am fortunate in being able to buy the tools I want. Yet, I hesitate to buy the best quality. I am buying the equivalent of Craftsman tools: Good, but not great. I don’t mind the challenges of working with imperfect tools. The fact that I may have to use extra time to adjust the table saw’s fence rather than have it snap into a precise position is a challenge with its own reward.
As I approach 70 years, I realize that the time I have to use analogue tools is limited. Yes, I am focusing on analogue woodworking tools. I am more comfortable working with wood than metal, or textiles or plastic or clay. In five years time, the worst of my infatuation with band saws, sliding compound mitre saws (UK)/ chop saws (US), spindle moulders (UK)/ wood shapers (US) and lathes should have eased. That is tomorrow. Today, I want to master this analogue world around me.
Because it is so many years since I used analogue tools seriously, I have to rebuild my skills. At the same time the workshop is being formed. The wisdom of what I had hoped would be a single line of stationary tools along a wall, Machine Alley, is being questioned. The table saw, an essential tool for transforming plywood, MDF and even OSB into useful components is demanding a more central placement. Already now the as yet un-purchased lathe has been repositioned in Machine Alley. The prudence of purchasing a separate thickness planer, rather than one in combination with a jointer, is being questioned. While tools are cheaper now, it doesn’t mean that they are easy to come by. I regret Norway being outside EU’s Customs Union. It makes my purchasing decisions more complex and expensive. Because importing goods is an expensive and bureaucratic hassle, Norwegian tool retailers and importers can ignore people like me, and just offer a selection of popular tools. All of the tools that I want, but cannot find in Norway, can be found stocked in Ireland.
At this point I would like to comment on my feelings in relation to my fate. It is complex, combining regret with acceptance, even contentment. Yes, I regret never having built my own house. Yet, I am sure that I could never build one in Norway, in a way that I would like to build it. Norway is a country without building inspectors, that allows each trade to police itself. A loose canon, such as myself or anyone without trade qualifications, would never be given permission to build such a major undertaking. In Canada, anyone can do anything, but it has to be inspected, to ensure that it meets the standards. I am equally sure that I would find it equally frustrating to build a house in Canada. I am not sure that I could regress to 24″ from 600 mm.
A lack of house building means that my workshop activities have limited scope. The workshop will ensure that improvements are made to the various rooms of the house, including the kitchen and living room. A minor addition or a shed will be added. Siding will be replaced, possibly with stucco. Furniture will be built. That could take up to five years. What will happen after that? Unfortunately, many makers do not plan for their future. They see their activities proceeding linearly, forever.
What I do see happening is that at some point old age will demand a transition away from analogue tools. My eyesight will worsen, and some of my skills may degenerate. Yet, hopefully, working in the workshop will keep my strength up. I am giving myself five years to accomplish my analogue goals. Everything has to be finished by 2022-12-31, although that date may be extended, health permitted.
Let me repeat that comment about my feelings in relation to my fate. “It is complex, combining regret with acceptance, even contentment.” What I am looking forward to is replacing analogue with digital, working more with workshop automation, home automation and robotics, including robots for the elderly.
I am not quite sure what this world will look like. Yet, in my later retirement years, I am looking forward to being a denizen of a digital world that is vastly different from my teenage ideal. In this future world, I may still be using plywood, but my table saw will be replaced with a CNC machine in the centre of the workshop. It will allow me to work with different processes, simply by replacing a head. It will work with different materials, some currently unknown.
CNC Machine kits are available from many sources, including CNC Router Parts. (photo: cncrouterparts.com )
Yet, transitions have to be planned. An analogue workshop will neither appear nor disappear by itself, a digital workshop has to be planned and implemented.
Weeds: Maker’s block
Everyone has heard of writer’s block, and much more competent authorities have written on it – so that will not be mentioned beyond this paragraph. Instead, I want to write about maker’s block, and take an example from my own life – the non-installation of a dust extraction system for a workshop. Writer’s block is a writer’s inability to write; Maker’s block is a maker’s inability to make. Here, we will look at why this happens, and how to get the maker making again.
Several months have passed since I purchased a dust extractor. Still there is no sign of any ducting to transport that dust from their production centres to a storage centre. Why not? Unfortunately, there are not many good answers to choose from. Perhaps the best reply is to say, I’m awaiting a miracle.
The challenge is that a dust extractor is a system, not just a single product. The system is made up of many components, that have to work together. These components are all sold individually, not prepackaged in a kit.
There is no single criteria that can be used to judge components. Instead, there are three that compete with each other. Each appears to make a system better, but each also introduces weaknesses. The three criteria are finding and using: 1) a uniform type of material, in this case a plastic; 2) a uniform tube/pipe diameter, 100 mm is the diameter of tubing that comes with the dust extractor; and 3) a wide selection of components.
Of the local shops where I can purchase DIY equipment, only one, Jula, offers blast gates or more specialty components related to dust extraction. One expects these products to have the type of plastic imprinted on them, so that at end of life they can be recycled. Before then, the same information might be useful for knowing what to do with the component. None of these specialty components from Jula have any such markings, and none of the product descriptions include anything about the type of plastic. However, each component does have “Made in Taiwan” on it. From experience, I am fairly certain that each of these components is made from ABS (Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) plastic, a type most notably known for its use in Lego bricks.
Why is having only one type of plastic so important? The challenge is that it is very difficult to “weld” a plastic from one resin family to a plastic from a different resin family. This means that connections between components made from different types of plastic have to be made mechanically.
I can obtain: hose made of PU (polyurethane) and PVC (polyvinyl chloride); pipe made of PP (polypropylene) and HDPE (high density polyethylene). ABS pipe is more difficult to find.
Pipe/hose diameter.
The dust extractor comes equipped with an inside diameter of 100 mm (that’s about four inches) hose. This is the same diameter that is used for other household ventilation purposes. While hoses have a varying diameter, because of reinforcement wires, ducting and pipe are more stable. Using Vernier calipers, one finds that their diameter varies from about 100 to 103 mm. This is probably because 101.6 mm is the exact equivalent of four inches.
At Jula they offer 6 meters of PU hose with 100 mm inside diameter for NOK 800. This is only part of the cost. Every joint requires the use of a hose clamp at each end, that costs NOK 70 for 2. PU hose is described as being very flexible. Which makes it suitable for “last meter” attachment between a blast-gate and a machine, or – more often than not – an adaptor, which costs NOK 70. A blast-gate costs NOK 100, and a Y-joint separating the machine feed from the common line costs NOK 200. The last meter of machine attachment costs about NOK 570 for each machine.
Hose is not really suitable for transport between the other side of a blast gate, and the dust extractor. One of the challenges has been to find a suitable 100 mm pipe system. At Biltema this size pipe can be purchased for NOK 90 for one meter; At Jula it costs NOK 100, for 860 mm. Unfortunately, there are no sleeves at the end of either pipe, so these must be purchased for every joint. These cost NOK 40 at Biltema.
Component Diversity
The main logical flaw at this point is the expectation is that the selected components are actually suitable for the job. Unfortunately, this is not the case. The miracle that I am awaiting is that these components will suddenly become available, if only I search the internet one more time!
Enter wastewater pipes.
Wastewater pipes are available in 1, 2 and 3 meter lengths (the last one costing NOK 170). Each comes with a sleeve at one end. Sliding sleeves are also available so that cut off pieces can be attached easily. These cost NOK 60 each, as do elbows available in 15, 30, 45 and 90 degree varieties. There are also Y-joints, that cost half the price of the ABS joints, or NOK 100. This variety eases the installation process and reduces waste. There are no problems fitting these components to each other, they are designed to fit together without glue or clamps.
110 mm to 100 mm transition
The key to being able to move on, was the realization that it would be possible to joint 100 mm components with 110 mm components, despite their belonging to different plastic resin families. Weatherstripping can be placed on the exterior of the 100 mm components. These can then be joined together, and filled with silicon. Duct tape can then be wrapped around the entire joint.
The conclusion of this article cannot be written at this moment. At my next opportunity, I have to make a shopping list of 110 mm components, drive into Steinkjer, purchase them and then drive home. Then the difficult part comes, actually doing the work of installing them. The end of maker’s block is within sight.
Volunteering and other 2nd class words
In a comment to another post, I mentioned that I would be working up to one day a week at Hastighet, a technology workshop. The type of work that I would be doing would be very similar to that which I have done throughout my life – teaching.
The difficulty with using the term work is that there are assumptions baked into it. Work is paid work. Except, it isn’t always. Let’s take a real world example. In homes throughout the world, people work to clean bathrooms, to prepare and serve meals, to read stories to children. It is probably safe to say that most people do not employ hired staff to have these tasks performed.
If one moves outside the family/household, other adjectives come into play. Volunteer work implies that the work is unpaid. An even more poignant example is to to talk about an unpaid internship. It seems clear that an intern (like the volunteer) is inferior in some way, because they are working without pay, and people are forced to label themselves with these job titles.
I don’t want distinctions made between unpaid work, and other forms of work, where people are paid. Work is work. Similarly, I don’t want to see people labeled in terms of their income status. I find it offensive when nametags prominently display, Volunteer.
Job titles should indicate a persons level and area of competence. Senior street cleaner, junior brain surgeon and deputy assistant manager have both of these characteristics, which is fine. Sometimes, it may also be appropriate to indicate that the person is undergoing training, as in apprentice cabinet maker or management trainee.
What should be done about volunteerism?
One solution is to ensure that all work is paid, although I am unsure who is going to pay me for washing the dishes, shoveling the snow or writing a blog post.
An alternative solution is to ensure that no work is paid, that everyone receives a basic income. The challenge with this approach is that while there may be a lot of people wanting to work as CEOs, there could be less people choosing to work as pipe fitters at the local sewage works.
Perhaps the most appropriate approach world be to pay people according to the inverse popularity of the job. So while CEOs work for minimum wage, pipe fitters at the local sewage works receive supplemental income payments.
What is clear at the moment is that taking an unpaid internship is unhealthy. If nothing else, it damages long-term income prospects. An unpaid intern is identified as a loser, and will be treated as such. https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/jul/29/unpaid-intern-damage-graduate-career-pay
Weeds: Plastic tablesaw blade guards
Cheap table saw blade guards are seldom worth the plastic they are made of.
One reviewer suggested that potential purchasers of table saws should disregard the saw blade guards that come with the machines. They will probably have to be replaced with more appropriate equipment. Recently, I was happy to have been given that advice. When a 25 kg sheet of Baltic birch plywood crashed into my guard it shattered, with two large broken pieces the result.
A temporary repair involved the disassembly of the two main plastic parts. Contact cement was then used to glue each broken pieces to its main piece. Finally, the two main parts were assembled again. If this guard is ever used again, it will be further reinforced with duct tape. While the repairs were being made, I was building the next iteration of a saw blade guard in my mind.
Here are the four pieces of the broken saw blade guard, along with the screws used to hold each half of the guard together.
The pieces after being glued together with contact cement.
The reassembled saw blade guard.
The guard was actually not fit for purpose. While the guard had its own connection to the dust collector, it was unable to accommodate sheets of plywood because its hose was in the way. Thus, I had to disconnect the hose while cutting the plywood.
Marmot is the brand name of products I make for my own personal enjoyment. During the design process of the saw blade guard, I made 4 iterations of the design, designated V (for version) 1 to 4.
V1 is conceptually the same guard as the original Scheppach guard, but made with 12 mm Baltic birch plywood. The version was made just before I went off to sleep for the night.
In the morning, when I awoke, I knew there were two changes that had to be made to the guard. The first was the use of 6 mm Baltic birch plywood for the side pieces. This reduced the width of the guard by 12 mm. The second was a repositioning of the dust extractor. It now exits the guard horizontally, rather than vertically.
Here the main change was the orientation of the drawing. In terms of materials, I tried to take advantage of the irregular size of Baltic birch plywood. Its sheets are 1220 mm x 2440 mm. When making 600 mm oriented products, this leaves lengths of 20 mm plywood and widths of 40 mm plywood as waste. In this case, this waste can be used to make some of the structural components for the guard, in particular those coloured green in the drawings. No sooner had I made the drawing, than I noticed a logical flaw, which necessitated another version, V4.
To save time, I got out my light table. which made redrawing faster, but slightly less accurate than using a pencil, eraser and ruler. The logical error involved the thickness of the orange pieces in V4. These are 6 mm in V4, but 12 mm in V3. These pieces originate in the isosceles right triangles removed from the front of the 300 x 110 mm rectangular sides. These have a side length of 90 mm, and a hypotenuse length of 127 mm. Each of these triangles has two additional isosceles right triangles removed to be used to strengthen the front of the guard. Their side lengths are 25 mm, with a hypotenuse length of 35 mm.
The next step will to actually build the saw blade guard, and to test it out.
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line285
|
__label__cc
| 0.603745
| 0.396255
|
Tag: Dwayne Alexander Smith
The Unkind Hours – Dwayne Alexander Smith
The Unkind Hours is the latest exciting thriller from Dwayne Alexander Smith, the author of terribly underrated Forty Acres. (You need to read Forty Acres if you haven’t already!) We meet an ex-baseball player Steven who’s married to Nichole. They are happily married and have a little girl named Luna who is four years old. She’s the apple of her father’s eye. Steven and Nichole work together in their successful home decorating business. It seems as if they have the ideal life, as if nothing can touch them, until something tragic happens that will alter their lives and make Steven do the unthinkable. Smith explores the difficulty of doing the right thing by placing Steve in a moral predicament the reader is not likely to forget. Is there real justice out there or should we take matters into our own hands.
Everything about this books screams excellent thriller for summer. Steven is the main character and is written in a fairly realistic manner. The story turns mostly around two characters so all the other characters are secondary. However, that doesn’t make the story boring. The strong dynamic between these two characters is what makes The Unkind Hours so suspenseful. The pacing of the book is fast-moving enough with its short chapters and twists and turns. The plot is interesting and Smith throws in enough surprises to keep the reader not only occupied with the story, but keeping us guessing on what’s to come. Smith has even added a little surprise touch towards the end of the book that made me grin from ear-to-ear. Can’t tell you what it is because that wouldn’t be fair to you. You’ll get it as soon as you read it.
Sadly this book ends on a bit of a cliffhanger because I was expecting the story to be tied up at the end. This being said the villain in this novel is going to be an excellent character for Smith to play around with in future novels. We’ll have to stay tuned to see when and if a part 2 comes out of The Unkind Hours.
The Unkind Hours, 340 pages, Damn Good Books
Recommended to: lovers of thrillers, readers who enjoyed Forty Acres, summer beach read!
If you’d like to pick up a copy of The Unkind Hours or any of my other recommendations please consider clicking my affiliate link for The Book Depository. It would be much appreciated. It will help fund my incessant book buying, reading, and reviewing. Thank you!
http://www.bookdepository.com/?a_aid=browngirlreading
Author didibooksenglishPosted on July 14, 2018 February 13, 2019 Categories Book Reviews, ReadSoulLitTags #readingblackout, Black Men Write, blacklit, book review, Booktuber, diverse book recommendatios, Dwayne Alexander Smith, mystery, ReadSoulLit, summer read, The Unkind Hours, thrillerLeave a comment on The Unkind Hours – Dwayne Alexander Smith
#ReadSoulLit Photo Challenge Day 10 – Favorite Antagonist
Day 10 – Favorite Antagonist I to think a bit to decide who I would put for my favorite antagonist. It has to be Dr. Kasim from Forty Acres by Dwayne Alexander Smith! This character is introduced about one third of the way into the story and he is introduced like a slithering, silent, snake waiting to strike. If you get a chance to read Forty Acres keep your eyes on Dr. Kasim. I do hope Smith decides to write a part 2 to this novel because it really needs one and that’s coming from me who is really a fan of part twos and series.
What if overcoming the legacy of American slavery meant bringing back that very institution? A young black attorney is thrown headlong into controversial issues of race and power in this page-turning and provocative new novel.
“Martin Grey, a smart, talented black lawyer working out of a storefront in Queens, becomes friendly with a group of some of the most powerful, wealthy, and esteemed black men in America. He’s dazzled by what they’ve accomplished, and they seem to think he has the potential to be as successful as they are. They invite him for a weekend away from it all—no wives, no cell phones, no talk of business. But far from home and cut off from everyone he loves, he discovers a disturbing secret that challenges some of his deepest convictions…
Martin finds out that his glittering new friends are part of a secret society dedicated to the preservation of the institution of slavery—but this time around, the black men are called “Master.” Joining them seems to guarantee a future without limits; rebuking them almost certainly guarantees his death. Trapped inside a picture-perfect, make-believe world that is home to a frightening reality, Martin must find a way out that will allow him to stay alive without becoming the very thing he hates.
A novel of rage and compassion, good and evil, trust and betrayal, Forty Acres is the thought-provoking story of one man’s desperate attempt to escape the clutches of a terrifying new moral order.” (Forty Acres, inside flap)
My copy: Forty Acres, hardcover 369 pages
I’m an affiliate for The Book Depository. It would be much appreciated to click the link below if you’re interested in picking up any of my recommendations. It will help fund my incessant book buying.
Author didibooksenglishPosted on February 10, 2016 Categories Bookish StuffTags African-American literature, Black History Month, Black Men Write, books, Dwayne Alexander Smith, Forty Acres, Photo Challenge, ReadSoulLitLeave a comment on #ReadSoulLit Photo Challenge Day 10 – Favorite Antagonist
#ReadSoulLit Photo Challenge Day 6 Make it into a Movie!
Day 6 – Make it into a Movie! – I absolutely could not decide on one. Impossible! There are so many good ones that could be turned into fantastic films. So went with the following five:
The Supreme’s at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat – “Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat diner in Plainview, Indiana is home away from home for Odette, Clarice, and Barbara Jean. Dubbed “The Supremes” by high school pals in the tumultuous 1960s, they’ve weathered life’s storms for over four decades and counseled one another through marriage and children, happiness and the blues.
Now, however, they’re about to face their most challenging year yet. Proud, talented Clarice is struggling to keep up appearances as she deals with her husband’s humiliating infidelities; beautiful Barbara Jean is rocked by the tragic reverberations of a youthful love affair; and fearless Odette is about to embark on the most terrifying battle of her life. With wit, style and sublime talent, Edward Kelsey Moore brings together three devoted allies in a warmhearted novel that celebrates female friendship and second chances.”(The Supreme’s All-You-Can-Eat cover description)
Buck – “MK Asante was born in Zimbabwe to American parents: a mother who led the new nation’s dance company and a father who would soon become a revered pioneer in black studies. But things fell apart, and a decade later MK was in America, a teenager lost in a fog of drugs, sex, and violence on the streets of North Philadelphia. Now he was alone—his mother in a mental hospital, his father gone, his older brother locked up in a prison on the other side of the country—and forced to find his own way to survive physically, mentally, and spiritually, by any means necessary. Buck is a powerful memoir of how a precocious kid educated himself through the most unconventional teachers—outlaws and eccentrics, rappers and mystic strangers, ghetto philosophers and strippers, and, eventually, an alternative school that transformed his life with a single blank sheet of paper. It’s a one-of-a-kind story about finding your purpose in life, and an inspiring tribute to the power of education, art, and love to heal and redeem us.”(Buck, inside flap description)
Forty Acres – “What if overcoming the legacy of American slavery meant bringing back that very institution? A young black attorney is thrown headlong into controversial issues of race and power in this page-turning and provocative new novel. Martin Grey, a smart, talented black lawyer working out of a storefront in Queens, becomes friendly with a group of some of the most powerful, wealthy, and esteemed black men in America. He’s dazzled by what they’ve accomplished, and they seem to think he has the potential to be as successful as they are. They invite him for a weekend away from it all—no wives, no cell phones, no talk of business. But far from home and cut off from everyone he loves, he discovers a disturbing secret that challenges some of his deepest convictions…Martin finds out that his glittering new friends are part of a secret society dedicated to the preservation of the institution of slavery—but this time around, the black men are called “Master.” Joining them seems to guarantee a future without limits; rebuking them almost certainly guarantees his death. Trapped inside a picture-perfect, make-believe world that is home to a frightening reality, Martin must find a way out that will allow him to stay alive without becoming the very thing he hates.A novel of rage and compassion, good and evil, trust and betrayal, Forty Acres is the thought-provoking story of one man’s desperate attempt to escape the clutches of a terrifying new moral order.”(Forty Acres inside flap description)
Kindred – “The first science fiction written by a black woman, Kindred has become a cornerstone of black American literature. This combination of slave memoir, fantasy, and historical fiction is a novel of rich literary complexity. Having just celebrated her 26th birthday in 1976 California, Dana, an African-American woman, is suddenly and inexplicably wrenched through time into antebellum Maryland. After saving a drowning white boy there, she finds herself staring into the barrel of a shotgun and is transported back to the present just in time to save her life. During numerous such time-defying episodes with the same young man, she realizes the challenge she’s been given: to protect this young slaveholder until he can father her own great-grandmother.”(Goodreads description)
One Crazy Summer – “In the summer of 1968, after travelling from Brooklyn to Oakland, California, to spend a month with the mother they barely know, eleven-year-old Delphine and her two younger sisters arrive to a cold welcome as they discover that their mother, a dedicated poet and printer, is resentful of the intrusion of their visit and wants them to attend a nearby Black Panther summer camp.In a humorous and breakout book by Williams-Garcia, the Penderwicks meet the Black Panthers.”(One Crazy Summer back cover description)
My copies:
The Supreme’s at Earl’s All-you-Can-Eat, paperback 407 pages
Buck, hardcover 249 pages
Forty Acres, hardcover 369 pages
Kindred, papberback 264 pages
One Crazy Summer, paperback 218 pages
Author didibooksenglishPosted on February 6, 2016 Categories Bookish StuffTags African-American literature, Black History Month, Buck, Dwayne Alexander Smith, Edward Kelsey Moore, Forty Acres, Kindred, MK Asante, Octavia E. Butler, One Crazy Summer, Photo Challenge, ReadSoulLit, Rita Williams-Garcia, The Supreme's at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat8 Comments on #ReadSoulLit Photo Challenge Day 6 Make it into a Movie!
Author Interview: Dwayne Alexander Smith talks about Forty Acres
I picked up Forty Acres by Dwayne Alexander Smith, while browsing on Amazon. After reading the premise of the novel I was immediately intrigued and wanted to know more about it. So September started with a bang!
I definitely made the right decision. Forty Acres, is about a young upcoming African-American Civil Rights lawyer who gets involved with a secret organisation of affluent African-American businessmen. Little does he know, they are resolute in the idea of preserving slavery where they are the masters and white people are their slaves.
The novel is extremely engrossing, a real page turner, and very difficult to put down. Smith’s writing is fully descriptive and his clever way of telling the story explains the legacy of slavery in details that the average person may not be ready to read, but tells the cold hard history that is never told in history class. Martin Grey, the main character, is intelligent and a bit of an idealist and at times does things that we as the reader know are a bit reckless but we can’t help but like him and root for him, all the same.
The reverse racism is presented as a way for these African-American men to “even the score” as they put it. Smith incorporates many important themes in this novel that make it a thriller with substance, although some critics may have felt that he could have and should have gone deeper. I was surprised at the length and depth Smith’s story went to exposing the problems of race in the United States. He covers the details of slavery but most of all he delves into the way African-Americans feel at times in society today. We haven’t had many contemporary novels of late get into the details of race the way it’s dealt with in Forty Acres. It’s a novel that will make you reflect, question your ideas of race and racism, and at times cringe. After I finished Forty Acres I kept asking myself, “Could this happen today?”
I had the great pleasure of interviewing Dwayne Alexander Smith. Check out the interview below to learn more about this budding novelist.
1. I really enjoyed reading Forty Acres. Could you tell us how you came up with the idea for this story?
Forty Acres started out as a sci-fi story, believe it or not. A black astronaut crash lands on earth, but in the past, during the period of American slavery. Unable to speak due to an injury, he is captured an held captive on a plantation with African slaves. I loved the idea for this story because it would give us a modern black man’s view of slavery. Unfortunately I couldn’t make the story work the way I wanted. After lots of rethinking Forty Acres took on the form it has now.
2. With all that’s been going on racially in the United States at the moment, how has your book been received?
I think that the book has been received well considering the tough and uncomfortable subject matter. Slavery is a touchy subject in the United States. Many readers who are looking for something entertaining to read, won’t easily select a thriller centered around such a sensitive topic. Surprisingly, the book has been better received in Europe.
3. I can say being a black American that I was very proud to see your book placed on the new releases wall at WH Smith in Paris. How have you been accepting the attention?
The attention from readers around the world has been the best part of having Forty Acres published. Right before sitting down to answer these questions I read an email from a gentleman in the UK who loved the book and just wanted to let me know that. Also, a week ago I found out that I have been nominated for a NAACP Image Award. I was blown away by this news. The attention is great and very addictive.
4. I heard that Forty Acres started as a movie script. Could you tell us a bit about the process of adapting a movie script to a novel?
Well, Forty Acres was never actually a script, it was an idea for a script. I’ve never actually adapted a book into a screenplay, but I hope to have that problem if and when the Forty Acres movie rights are acquired.
5. Martin Grey is an interesting character, but most of all Dr. Kasim, who is one hell of a villain. Will there be a sequel to 40 Acres or other novels with Martin Grey as the central character?
Yes there will be a sequel. Will that sequel be published by a major publisher or self-published by me is the only unknown. Book sales will be the deciding factor. Regardless of how it reaches the public I do plan to write a sequeI. I have the story figured out and yes Martin will play a central role. Also, I think a lot of women will be happy to know that Martin’s wife Anna will have a much larger role.
6. Forty Acres is centralized primarily around black men. What were you trying to accomplish with that dynamic?
From the very beginning, when Forty Acres was a sci-fi tale, I just wanted to find a new way to tell a story that involved American slavery. It’s amazing that more movies aren’t made about slavery, considering its lasting impact on American culture.
7. Are there plans for Forty Acres to be adapted to film?
No plans as of yet but there’s a small army of people in my corner, agents, managers, and lawyers, trying to make that happen. The truth is that Forty Acres scares a lot of producers. It’s controversial and very in your face and that projects like that tend to make the powers that be in Hollywood queasy. It’s going to take a producer with vision and courage to bring Forty Acres to the screen. It will happen, it’s just a matter of when.
8. Are you working on a second novel? If so when will it be released?
I am working on another thriller called White Widow. No one has seen it yet so there’s no publishing deal or release date in place. Right now I’m just laser focused on making it as good as possible. Forty Acres has a lot of fans, many of which have stated in reviews that they are eager to read my next book. The last thing I want to do is let my newly found fan base down. For that reason I’m working really hard to get White Widow right.
9. What advice can you give to other black writers that are trying to write, to get published, and recognised?
I get this question a lot. The advice I give doesn’t just apply to black writers but to all writers who are trying to break into a writing career. I firmly believe that the best way to grab the attention of publishers and readers is to have an amazing idea for a book. Dozens of thrillers about cops chasing bad guys cross the desks of editors everyday. What’s going to make yours stand out? I’ve wanted to write a novel for a very long time but I knew that when I did I had to have a killer idea, an idea that would demand attention and interest. When I came up with the idea for Forty Acres I had a great time telling people because I loved to see their stunned expressions. That’s how I knew I had a solid concept. So my advice to writers is simple. Before you sit down to write, spend as long as it takes dreaming up an idea that will set mouths agape and widen eyes. When you nail that you’ll know that you’re on the right track.
Big thanks again to you Dwayne Alexander Smith for taking the time out of your extremely busy schedule to answer these questions. Good luck with your future writing!
Author didibooksenglishPosted on December 22, 2014 Categories Author Interviews, Book ReviewsTags author interview, book review, debut novels, Dwayne Alexander Smith, Forty Acres, slavery, thriller11 Comments on Author Interview: Dwayne Alexander Smith talks about Forty Acres
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line287
|
__label__wiki
| 0.605232
| 0.605232
|
Sep 21, 2020 Apurba Sakti, Audun Botterud, Batteries, battery energy storage system (BESS), Energy, energy storage, lithium-ion battery, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Mehdi Jafari, MIT, MIT Energy Initiative, MIT News, MITEI, Wind energy
Lithium-ion battery technologies currently dominate the advanced energy storage market — a sector of increasing importance as more focus is put on variable renewable energy generation and reliability to help decarbonize the global energy system. But according to MIT researchers, prevailing battery models can actually overestimate the battery’s revenue in an energy storage system by 35 percent.
“Current modeling is not very representative of how these batteries actually operate,” says MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI) research scientist Apurba Sakti. “These models often do not account for degradation, or the lifetime of the batteries, which directly impacts the costs and the added value of the energy storage system.”
To address this gap, Sakti worked with colleagues in the MIT Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems (LIDS) to investigate six mathematical representations, incorporating increasing degrees of detail and representation of battery degradation, to evaluate energy- and capacity-market revenues generated from the pairing of a battery energy storage system (BESS) — in this case, a lithium-ion battery — with an offshore wind farm.
Their findings were recently published in the journal Applied Energy in a paper by Sakti, the principal investigator; Mehdi Jafari, the lead author and a postdoc in MIT LIDS; and Audun Botterud, a principal research scientist in MIT LIDS with a co-appointment at Argonne National Laboratory.
The researchers first analyzed the current predominant modeling method, which assumes fixed amounts for elements of the battery’s performance, such as round-trip efficiency and rated power capability, and neglects the degradation that would occur due to the battery’s capacity fade (the decrease in charge that the battery can hold) over time, and cycling. The researchers then developed and evaluated five enhanced models that better reflect how a battery would actually operate in a physical space by accounting for this capacity degradation, as well as power limits due its state of charge and efficiencies as a function of the discharge power. Their investigation reveals that the potential value of a battery is directly tied to the way it cycles and discharges power.
After comparing the five advanced models, the researchers determined that the “SUM” approach was the best choice to evaluate their case study: an offshore wind farm in New York. An important feature of this particular model is that it accounts for degradation as a sum of the capacity fades in battery cells caused by cycling (resulting from charging and discharging the battery) and calendar aging (which happens as a function of time, regardless of use). With this approach, a given battery only cycles if the revenues cover the costs of capacity fade.
Using the SUM model with price and wind data for New York during 2010-13, the researchers evaluated four battery storage and offshore wind system designs — an offshore wind farm with no BESS, a BESS located onshore, a BESS located offshore, and a hybrid system utilizing BESSs both on- and off-shore — to evaluate the impacts of the battery system’s location on its overall profitability. After incorporating other decision factors, such as wind curtailment, cable sizing, and dispatch of the BESS, they found that locating the battery system onshore while operating within its full state-of-charge window yields the highest revenue potential and can compensate for some of the degradation-related costs.
“Energy storage is frequently identified as a key enabler for a large-scale expansion of renewable energy in the power grid. However, batteries are still a new asset type in the electricity system, and there are many questions about how to best use them,” says Botterud. “Our research on improved battery representation in power system optimization models enables more realistic assessments of efficient pathways toward a decarbonized energy system.”
To this end, their analysis showed that battery revenues can be significantly overestimated when using the less-advanced model currently employed by researchers to evaluate the added value of a battery in a given energy storage system. Using the advanced model that accounted for changes in battery efficiency, the researchers demonstrated that battery revenues in the energy- and capacity- markets for the test case were not great enough to recoup the investment costs of the battery. The added value of a megawatt hour (MWh) of energy storage varied from $2 to $4.50 per MWh of wind energy, leading to a break-even cost for the battery system ranging from $50 to $115 per kilowatt hour.
“With our advanced battery modeling approaches, the energy storage asset value can be estimated more accurately, which will help future investment and operation decisions,” says Jafari. “Moreover, accounting for the dynamic performance and degradation behavior of battery energy storage can change our assessment of its economic value and provide the opportunity for other emerging technologies, such as flow batteries or hydrogen-based storage, through more accurate comparisons.”
Sakti adds that “With concerns around a lithium-ion battery technology lock-in [which, in essence, means that this dominant technology will drive out its competitors, as evidenced by multiple bankruptcies in the battery industry], our analyses can help investors and policy-makers understand trade-offs better, as well as inform research-level decisions. Improved accounting of life-cycle costs and benefits across multiple applications beyond the primary use of these batteries — for instance, using a battery for secondary grid-level services once it has reached its end of life in a car — can also benefit from our work.”
In future research, the researchers plan to study a wider range of battery chemistries and their potential value compared to lithium-ion batteries. They will also build on their current work by considering other spatio-temporal variations that might affect the value of energy storage, such as geographical locations, battery applications, and alternate revenue streams.
“Overall, we are interested in developing improved analytics for low-carbon energy systems,” says Botterud. “This includes computationally efficient algorithms that can address the variability and uncertainty in renewable resources, and also model formulations that can answer key questions about electricity market design and energy-environmental policy that affect the ongoing energy transition across the globe.”
This research was supported by Equinor ASA through MITEI’s Low-Carbon Energy Center for Energy Storage.
مسلسلات عربي on Autodesk AutoCAD Electrical 2020 Free Download
مسلسلات عربي on Autodesk AutoCAD MEP 2020 Free Download
Hairstyles Cool on Experimental elasticity of Earth’s deep mantle
I Fashion Styles on Rapidly photocurable silk fibroin sealant for clinical applications
Jimmy Rhodarmer on Metallurgical and Electrochemical Properties of Super Duplex Stainless Steel Clads on Low Carbon Steel Substrate produced with Laser Powder Bed Fusion
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line292
|
__label__cc
| 0.714936
| 0.285064
|
Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go
Disquera: Sony Music Entertainment
Never Gonna Give You Up (7" Mix)
Party All the Time
Sign Your Name
Love of the Common People
This Ole House
Who's Zoomin' Who? (Single Version)
Can't Fight This Feeling
Real Gone Kid
I Ran (So Far Away)
Theme from S'Express
Total Eclipse of the Heart
Can You Feel It
You Got It (The Right Stuff)
Going Back to My Roots (Single Version)
How 'Bout Us (Single Version)
Love Resurrection
Through the Barricades
Let's Hear It for the Boy
See the Day
Quiet Life (7" Version)
Living After Midnight
Stand and Deliver
Rock Me Amadeus (The Gold Mix)
Dr. Beat
I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)
You're the Voice
The Flame (Single Edit)
The Promise You Made
Digging Your Scene
Love Come Down (Single Version)
Tribute (Right On)
Girl You Know It's True
People Hold On (Radio Edit)
Tell It to My Heart (Single Mix)
The Power of Love (Radio Edit)
How Am I Supposed to Live Without You (Single Version)
Waiting for a Star to Fall
My Favourite Waste of Time
The King of Rock 'N' Roll
Baby, I Love Your Way / Freebird
Loco in Acapulco
Lovely Day (7" Sunshine Mix)
Shake You Down (Single Version)
You're My Heart, You're My Soul (Mix '84)
Boys (Summertime Love)
Boxerbeat
Poison (Single Version)
When Will I Be Famous?
Caribbean Queen (No More Love On the Run)
Walk This Way (Single Version)
Living in America (From "Rocky IV" Soundtrack)
Never Too Much
(Feels Like) Heaven
Touch Me (I Want Your Body)
Toy Soldiers (Single Version)
Anything for You
Dead Ringer for Love
Cum on Feel the Noize
Rock 'N' Roll Is King
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line293
|
__label__cc
| 0.581624
| 0.418376
|
London’s tech hub rivals Silicon Valley 18th October 2013
It isn’t just the know-how that is making London’s tech hub a global phenomenon, it’s everything around it from lifestyle to accommodation. Why is Silicon Roundabout doing so well?
What creates a hub? If the focus is technology then one would probably assume it was a good idea along with coding knowhow. That’s how to power a tech start-up and become the next Facebook, right? If London’s Silicon Roundabout is anything to go by, however, the ingredients of a tech hub are more nuanced than just a few likeminded, technology focused individuals.
Every year, Wired magazine – the bible for technologists the world over – publishes its list of the most promising businesses in the world. The focus is innovation, it’s important for investors and those within the tech industry. This year, the magazine has pinpointed London as one of Europe’s most important tech hubs. They predict it will rival Silicon Valley.
The impact of this is enormous. A huge amount of private and public sector investment has been earmarked to support a technology led regeneration of Old Street. Tech City UK might have had its detractors but for government and for entrepreneurs the goal of creating a rival to the US’ Silicon Valley has been realised. It has involved attracting the best talent, an entrepreneurial mind-set and emphasising the importance for investors to get involved at the ground floor. Likeminded businesses tend to attract and generate a buzz and enthusiasm. As Steve Jobs said you can’t come up with innovation over email, it needs face to face meetings and brainstormings for an idea to pop up out of nowhere. It is like preparing the earth ahead of seeding. There’s an element of luck but a good gardener knows the importance of making sure the ground is just right.
The US is so worried about the strength of London’s Tech City that they are heading over to see it for themselves. New York’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg is building a European HQ close to tech city once his tenure ends next year. He had harboured ambitions for New York to wrangle the mantle from Silicon Valley but concedes London is likely to get their first. If you can’t beat them, join them.
It isn’t simply the start-ups that make London so attractive, says Bloomberg. Instead it is immigration, a family friendly atmosphere and places for people to stay. The very culture of the capital is built towards encouraging people to do business.
This is an element Clarendon serviced apartments has been passionate about. When business travellers are looking for long term accommodation close to Tech City, flexible arrangements and places to stay near Barbican and Spitalfields with studios, one bed and two bed apartments make it easy for people to bring their families with them and create a home from home. As demand has grown in the postcode, Clarendon has prepared for the trend and provides a range of accommodation to suit needs. Staying in a hotel while on a business trip, setting up a new firm in a capital or just learning from an established business in the area isn’t practical. A serviced apartment, as well as being cheaper, offers a more comfortable and relaxed place to live while in the capital ensuring the traveller is relaxed and ready for work.
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line294
|
__label__wiki
| 0.825109
| 0.825109
|
UK Report: Muslim Women Being Abused By Sharia Law Courts
by Soeren Kern
Muslim women across Britain are being systematically oppressed, abused and discriminated against by sharia law courts that treat women as second-class citizens, according to a new report, which warns against the spiraling proliferation of Islamic tribunals in the United Kingdom.
The 40-page report, “A Parallel World: Confronting the Abuse of Many Muslim Women in Britain Today,” was authored by Baroness Caroline Cox, a cross-bench member of the British House of Lords and one of the leading defenders of women’s rights in the UK.
The report shows how the increasing influence of sharia law in Britain today is undermining the fundamental principle that there must be equality for all British citizens under a single law of the land.
The Arbitration Act of 1996 allows parties to resolve certain civil disputes according to sharia principles in such a way that the decision can be enforced in British courts.
According to the report, however, many Muslim bodies are using the Arbitration Act to support the claim that they are able to make legally binding decisions for members of the Muslim community, when in fact the law limits their role to that of being a mediator to help reach an agreement. “The mediator is not a judge or an arbitrator who imposes a decision,” the report states.
The report shows how sharia courts often fuse the concepts of arbitration, in which both parties agree to submit their dispute to a mutually agreeable third party for a decision to be made, and mediation, in which the two parties voluntarily use a third party to help them reach an agreement that is acceptable to both sides.
On top of this lies the problem of “jurisdiction creep,” whereby sharia courts are adjudicating on matters well outside the arbitration framework, such as by deciding cases relating to criminal law, including those involving domestic violence and grievous bodily harm.
As a result, Muslim women, who may lack knowledge of both the English language and their rights under British law, are often pressured by their families to use sharia courts. These courts often coerce them to sign an agreement to abide by their decisions, which are imposed and viewed as legal judgments.
Worse yet, “Refusal to settle a dispute in a Sharia forum could lead to threats and intimidation, or being ostracized and labelled a disbeliever,” the report states, and adds:
“There is a particular concern that women face pressure to withdraw allegations of domestic violence after they make them. Several women’s groups say they are often reluctant to go to the authorities with women who have run away to escape violence because they cannot trust police officers within the community not to betray the girls to their abusing families.”
The report shows that even in cases where Muslim tribunals work “in tandem” with police investigations, abused women often withdraw their complaints to the police, while sharia judges let the husbands go unpunished.
Meanwhile, most sharia courts, when dealing with divorce, do so only in a religious sense. They cannot grant civil divorce; they simply grant a religious divorce in accordance with sharia law.
According to the report, in many cases this is all that is necessary for a “divorce” anyway; many Muslim women who identify themselves as being “married” are not in marriages that are legally recognized by British law. Although a nikah (an Islamic wedding ceremony) may have taken place, if the marriage is not officially registered, it is not valid in the eyes of civil law. The report states:
“This creates a very serious problem: women who are married in Islamic ceremonies but are not officially married under English law can suffer grave disadvantages because they lack legal protection. What is more, they can be unaware that their marriage is not officially recognized by English law.”
This places Muslim women in an especially precarious legal situation when it comes to divorce. In Islam, a husband does not have to follow the same process as the wife when seeking a talaq (Islamic divorce). He merely has to say “I divorce you” three times, whereas the wife must meet various conditions and pay a fee. The report cites women, when speaking of their own talaq proceedings, who referred to their lack of legal protection after discovering that their nikah did not constitute a valid marriage under English law.
The report cites Kalsoom Bashir, a long-time women’s rights activist in Bristol, who discusses the added problem of polygamy. She notes:
“There is an increasing rise in polygamy within Muslim families and again the women who are involved are not in a position to be able to challenge the situation or get any form of justice. They find it difficult to obtain any maintenance as the marriages are not registered legally. Polygamy is used to control first wives who are told that if they are a problem the man has the Islamic right to take another wife. Sometimes just one of the marriages is registered leaving one wife without any legal protections.”
Overall, the report includes excerpts of testimonies of more than a dozen Muslim women who have suffered abuse and injustice at the hands of sharia courts in Britain. One woman said: “I feel betrayed by Britain. I came here to get away from this and the situation is worse here than in the country I escaped from.”
The report concludes by calling on the British government to launch a judge-led inquiry to “determine the extent to which discriminatory sharia law principles are being applied within the UK.” It also calls on the government to support Baroness Cox’s Private Members’ Bill — theArbitration and Mediation Services (Equality) Bill — which would “create a new criminal offense criminalizing any person who purports to legally adjudicate upon matters which ought to be decided by criminal or family courts.”
Baroness Cox originally introduced the bill in 2011, but it went nowhere due to the lack of support from the main parties. She re-introduced the bill in 2013 and 2014, but it continues to languish, apparently because the main parties are afraid of offending Muslims. Cox has vowed to re-introduce the bill in the next session of parliament, whose members will be elected on May 7.
The bill aims to combat discrimination by, among other restrictions, prohibiting sharia courts from: a) treating the evidence of a man as worth more than the evidence of a woman; b) proceeding on the assumption that the division of an estate between male and female children on intestacy must be unequal; or c) proceeding on the assumption that a woman has fewer property rights than a man.
The law would also place a duty on public bodies to ensure that women in polygamous households, or those who have had a religious marriage, are made aware of their legal position and relevant legal rights under British law.
In a letter, Baroness Cox wrote that her recommendations “can by no means remedy all of the sensitive issues involved, but they do offer an important opportunity for redress.” She added that her bill “already has strong support from across the political spectrum in the House of Lords as well as from Muslim women’s groups and other organisations concerned with the suffering of vulnerable women.”
But it remains to be seen whether the next government will agree to support the bill. On March 23, British Home Secretary Theresa May pledged that if the Conservative Party wins the general election, she would launch a review into whether sharia courts in England and Wales are compatible with British values.
But the Conservative government’s track record on confronting Islam has been patchy at best. In November 2013, for example, the government rejected an amendment offered by Cox to the Anti-Social Behavior, Crime and Policing Bill, which would have protected women who are duped into believing that their marriages are valid under British law when in fact they are not.
More recently, the Conservatives quashed a “politically incorrect” inquiry into the activities of the Muslim Brotherhood in Britain.
While Cox welcomed May’s commitment to investigate sharia courts, she also expressed concern that politicians will once again bow to political correctness. It is important, she wrote, that such investigations “do not fall at the first hurdle, as appears to have happened with previous, similar government-led reviews. Without powers to subpoena witnesses, any independent review — no matter how well intentioned — will be another lost opportunity.”
Cox summed it up this way:
“The government’s response will be a litmus test of the extent to which it genuinely upholds the principle of equality before the law or is so dominated by the fear of ‘giving offense’ that it will continue to allow these women to suffer in ways which would make our suffragettes turn in their graves.”
Soeren Kern is a Senior Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute. He is also Senior Fellow for European Politics at the Madrid-based Grupo de Estudios Estratégicos / Strategic Studies Group. Follow him on Facebook. Follow him on Twitter.
This article appeared originally on GatestoneInstitute.org
Share1TweetSendSend
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line296
|
__label__cc
| 0.718083
| 0.281917
|
Home » The Future of Family Medicine in China
The Future of Family Medicine in China
Des Moines , IA US
Open to DMU faculty and staff only. There is no cost to attend and registration is not required.
The Fall 2017 IAMSE Web Seminar Series takes on an increased international flavor as presenters review health professions education around the world each with unique challenges and solutions. The goal of this series is to foster the exchange of ideas in the community of health science educators. Continuing with our longitudinal focus on competency-based-education, the series begins with an overview of medical education in Canada with an emphasis on the initiatives of the International Competencies in Basic Medical Education (ICBME). From the Far East, we will hear a presentation on Chinese medical education (World-China initiative) which places an emphasis on primary care in China. A panel will provide an overview of the European model of health professions education from globalization of education to global healthcare. Another presentation will explore medical education challenges and solutions in Sub-Saharan Africa. The series will conclude with a session focusing on an integrated model of medical care: childhood disease prevention in South America. At the end of the series the audience will be able to identify global challenges and solutions to medical education that may provide valuable perspectives at the local level.
Webinar Description
This web seminar will focus on the work of the International Primary Care Educational Alliance (IPCEA) over the past 10 years in China. From the development of family medicine residencies to the retraining of former subspecialists who are now providing primary care services in Chinese Community Health Centers, the IPCEA has been working with local and provincial health and family planning commissions, medical universities and others to meet the goals of the triple aim: enhancing patient experience (access, enhanced quality of care), improving population health, and reducing the cost of the care delivered.
The purpose of IPCEA is to advance the recognition and development of primary care medicine as the foundation required to provide timely and appropriate access to quality, cost-effective, humanitarian health care for all people of the world.
Discuss the background leading to an emphasis on the development of primary care.
Share the International Primary Care Educational Alliance (IPCEA) journey in China
Discuss Healthy China 2020/2030
William J. Burke, DO, FACOFP
Dean, Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine, Dublin
Dr. Burke serves as Dean of the Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine (OUHCOM) Dublin Campus. His previous positions included Vice President of Medical Education and Program Director of the Family Medicine Residency Program at OhioHealth Doctors Hospital. He is also an associate professor of family medicine with tenure at OUHCOM. Dr. Burke has been actively involved in graduate and undergraduate medical education for over 20 years. He received his BA in history from Capital University and his doctorate in Osteopathic Medicine in 1988 from Ohio University. Dr. Burke is board-certified in Osteopathic Family Medicine and Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the American Osteopathic Association, a member of the Board of Directors of the Osteopathic International Alliance and a founding director of the International Primary Care Educational Alliance.
Highlights of the Webinar
Physician Training Today in China
Complete K -12 in High School
Matriculate into Medical School right after High School
Complete residency of 5, 7 or 8 years
Bachelor’s Degree after 5 years
Master’s Degree after 7 years
D. after 8 years
Both 7 and 8-year degree involve research
All degrees include a 1 year Clinical year similar to our 3rd year clerkship year
Dilemma in China
Lack of Insurance Coverage
Rising Cost of Healthcare
Lack of Confidence in Community Clinics and Small Hospitals
New Government Focus
Make people-centered health care a priority
Increased Tax Base
Increased Government Funding for Universal Basic Healthcare
Decision to turn to Primary Care and the Partnership with IPCEA
Goal to have 300,000 new and re-trained Family Medicine Doctors by 2020.
Increase the number of Community Health Centers and Community Health Stations.
Ryan Hall 181
Des Moines , IA 50312
Driving Directions and Campus Map
Des Moines University is located on a 22-acre campus in the heart of Des Moines, Iowa. Just west of downtown on Grand Avenue, the University is located in one of Des Moines’ most prestigious neighborhoods. The campus is in a historic neighborhood filled with tree-lined streets and gracious older homes and businesses. Its central location makes it easy to access the rest of the city and outlying communities. The campus is close to the Des Moines International Airport, located on the bus line and just blocks from local shopping and downtown Des Moines.
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line302
|
__label__wiki
| 0.646427
| 0.646427
|
Land and Agrarian Reform in Zimbabwe: Beyond White-Settler Capitalism
Women and Power: Education, Religion and Identity
Values and Development in Southern Africa
Pratiques d’esclavage et d’asservissement des femmes en Afrique
Les cas du Sénégal et de la République Démocratique du Congo
Culture et développement en Algérie et dans les pays arabes
Public Sector Reforms in Africa: Nigerian Perspectives
Contemporary African Cultural Productions
Samir Amin : Intellectuel organique au service de l’émancipation du Sud
Réponses radicales aux crises agraires et rurales africaines
Agriculture paysanne, démocratisation des sociétés rurales et souveraineté alimentaire
Politique africaine contemporaine : Le cas de la République démocratique du Congo
The Concept of First Lady and Politics in Nigeria
Kunle Ajayi. The Concept of First Lady and Politics in Nigeria. Dakar, CODESRIA, 2010, 72 p. ISBN: 978-2-86978-304-1
Women in Nigeria remain victims of gender discrimination, especially in politics. This monograph examines the possibility of utilizing the First Lady’s institution to achieve gender mainstreaming and consequently terminate the sustained feminine marginality in Nigerian politics. The study finds that the First Lady’s office is self-serving as successive First Ladies since the Babangida military era are merely utilizing their positions to mobilize and rally support for their husbands in power. And, depressingly too, the First Ladies used their esteemed positions to exploit the Nigerian rural women, whose poor political and economic lives, ordinarily, they were supposed to use their vantage position to transform for the better. Ultimately, therefore, the First Lady institution in Nigeria is just a conduit pipe for satisfying the material psychology of the First Ladies and bolstering the women’s political support for their ruling husbands.
Dr Kunle Ajayi is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria. He has published widely in local and international journals, including the Nigerian Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, the African Journal of Public Administration and Management, Studies of Tribes and Tribals, The Social Sciences and the Journal of Social Sciences. Professor Ajayi is an awardee of the CODESRIA Advanced Research Fellowship and a pioneer Fellow of the Council’s Child and Youth Institute. He is also a Fellow of the Centre for Women’s and Gender Relations, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, and a member of the International Political Science Association.
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line303
|
__label__wiki
| 0.81356
| 0.81356
|
Mark Weber was born in 1951 in Portland, Oregon, where he was also raised. He studied history at the University of Illinois (Chicago), the University of Munich (Germany), and Portland State University, from where he received a bachelor's degree in history (with high honors). He then did graduate work in history at Indiana University (Bloomington), where he served as a history instructor and received a Master's degree in European history. …
Journal of Historical Review
Officially Sanctioned Fraud at Dachau
Another False Holocaust Witness
By Mark Weber
This document is part of a periodical (Journal of Historical Review).
Vol. 1 (1980) Vol. 2 (1981) Vol. 3 (1982) Vol. 4 (1983) Vol. 5 (1984) Vol. 6 (1985) Vol. 7 (1986) Vol. 8 (1988) Vol. 9 (1989) Vol. 10 (1990) Vol. 11 (1991) Vol. 12 (1992) Vol. 13 (1993) Vol. 14 (1994) Vol. 15 (1995) Vol. 16 (1996/97) Vol. 17 (1998) Vol. 18 (1999) Vol. 19 (2000) Vol. 20 (2001) Vol. 21 (2002)
No. 1 No. 2 No. 3 No. 4 No. 5 No. 6
Each year many thousands of tourists visit the site of the notorious Dachau concentration camp in southern Germany, not far from Munich. They see the crematory, the memorial shrines, and the museum. And in recent years, as an almost daily fixture, they see Martin Zaidenstadt. This elderly Jewish man lectures visitors to Dachau on his experiences as a wartime prisoner there. He is particularly passionate about the horrors of the camp’s gas chamber where, he explains, many prisoners were put to death with poison gas. He even claims that this gas chamber served as a model for Auschwitz (New York Times, Oct. 26, 1997). Zaidenstadt’s listeners respond to his heart-rending testimony with unquestioning sympathy. Many reach generously into their wallets.
But now a new 50-minute documentary film, “Martin,” and a new book, The Last Survivor: In Search of Martin Zaidenstadt, written by journalist Timothy W. Ryback and published by Pantheon, have subjected that testimony to critical review. Ryback establishes that the octogenarian Zaidenstadt was born in Jedwabne, Poland, but that his story of Dachau internment is a fraud. He probably never visited the camp until the 1990s, says Ryback, and his tales of gas chamber killings are untrue.
Although supposedly authoritative evidence of gas chamber killings at Dachau has been cited over the years – including “eyewitness” testimony at the main Nuremberg trial of 1945-46 – today no reputable historian credits such claims. It is widely acknowledged, even by the well-known “Nazi hunter” Simon Wiesenthal, that no one was ever “gassed” at the camp. (See, for example, “Wiesenthal Re-Confirms: ‘No Extermination Camps on German Soil’,” The Journal of Historical Review, May-June 1993, pp. 9-12.)
In today’s cultural climate, one is obliged to regard “Holocaust survivors” such as Zaidenstadt with an almost reverential indulgence. For example, the director of the state-run Dachau camp memorial, Barbara Distel, seems unbothered by Zaidenstadt’s deceit. Even though she is a government official, she permits his mendacious pan-handling. (One can hardly imagine Distel tolerating anyone who spent hours explaining to camp site visitors that American GIs who liberated the camp on April 29, 1945, summarily killed 500 German prisoners there. For more on this, see, J. Cobden, “The Dachau Gas Chamber Myth,” March-April 1995 Journal, pp. 14-26.)
Also typical is the attitude of Howard Kaplan, a Jewish writer in Los Angeles. In a recent article about Zaidenstadt published in an influential Israeli magazine, he acknowledges that “a difficult question arises from Martin’s fabrications,” but concludes on an upbeat note: “But is exaggerating the horror really an affront to truth? I’m not persuaded... What matters is that Martin has ultimately found his way back to Judaism at the doors of the crematorium.” (H. Kaplan, “The Man by the Door,” The Jerusalem Report, April 10, 2000, pp. 46-47.)
A recent New York Times article about the new “Martin” film acknowledges that Zaidenstadt’s “assertion” of Dachau gassings is “contrary to the official stories.” But instead of forthrightly identifying his “provocative contentions” as lies, the Times coyly tells readers: “In the end we learn that Mr. Zaidenstadt’s version of things isn’t entirely reliable, but isn’t to be dismissed either... The implicit message of ‘Martin’ [is] that everyone has a truth to deliver...” (“Holocaust Documentary Explores One Man’s Truth,” April 3, 2000.)
No one seems concerned about the toll that such deceit takes on the residents of the Bavarian town of Dachau, who must live in the shadow of the camp’s government-promoted infamy. For example, to avoid the stigma of having children born in the notorious city, many expectant mothers go elsewhere to deliver their babies.
The Zaidenstadt story points up the social-intellectual corruption that is an intrinsic by-product of what Rabbi Michael Goldberg (in his 1995 book Why Should Jews Survive?) aptly calls “the Holocaust cult.” All the same, Zaidenstadt now joins a growing list of demonstrably false “Holocaust survivor” eyewitnesses – a slate that includes Jerzy Kosinski and best-selling author Binjamin Wilkomirski. (See “Holocaust Survivor Memoir Exposed as Fraud,” Sept.-Oct. 1998 Journal, pp. 15-16.)
– M. W.
There is an error in the headline to the essay by Prof. Kevin MacDonald in the Jan.-Feb. 2000 Journal issue, page 56. It should, of course, read "An American Professor Responds to a 'Jewish Activist'."
In the essay by Robert Faurisson in the Jan.-Feb. 2000 Journal, the final sentence at the bottom of the left-hand column on page 25 should read: "They are mindful of their own torments, which one may compare to those suffered by Torquemada..."
Author(s): Mark Weber
Title: Officially Sanctioned Fraud at Dachau, Another False Holocaust Witness
Sources: The Journal of Historical Review, vol. 19, no. 2 (March/April 2000), p. 60
First posted on CODOH: March 12, 2013, 7 p.m.
www.ihr.org
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line304
|
__label__wiki
| 0.728687
| 0.728687
|
Tag Archives: Barcelona Olympics
The Great Madiba*
I have previously mentioned on this blog that I have a bit of a thing for Nelson Mandela. I try not too bring this up too much, but when you happen to think that someone was the greatest human who has ever lived then it can be a touch tricky. I also promised myself that I would not do another 1 man adulation-fest for a while either, but today happens to be his ninety fourth (yes, 94th) birthday, so I felt that one might be appropriate.
Nelson Mandela was born in 1918 as the son of a Xhosa tribeschief, and was originally named Rolihlahla, or ‘troublemaker’ (the name Nelson was given to him when he attended school). South Africa at the time was still not far out of the Boer war, which has been a difficult one for historians to take sides in- the British, lead by Lord Kitchener of the ‘Your Country Needs You’ WWI posters, took the opportunity to invent the concentration camp whilst the Dutch/German descended Boers who both preached and practiced brutal racial segregation. It wasn’t until 1931 that South Africa was awarded any degree of independence from Britain, and not until 1961 that it became officially independent.
However, a far more significant political event occurred in 1948, with the coming to power of the National Party of South Africa, which was dominated by white Afrikaners. They were the first government to come up with apartheid, a legal and political system that enforced the separation of white & black South Africans in order to maintain the (minority group) whites’ political power. Its basic tenet was the dividing of all people into one of four groups. In descending order of rank, they were White, Coloured, Indian (a large racial group in South Africa- in fact a young Mahatma Gandhi spent a lot of time in the country before Mandela was born and pioneered his methods of peaceful protest there) and Black. All had to carry identification cards and all bar whites were effectively forbidden to vote. The grand plan was to try and send all ‘natives’ bar a few workers to one of ten ‘homelands’ to leave the rest of the country for white South Africans. There were a huge number of laws, many of which bore a striking resemblance to those used by Hitler to segregate Jews, to enforce separation (such as the banning of mixed marriages), and even a system to be up- (or even down-) graded in rank.
Mandela was 30 when apartheid was introduced, and began to take an active role in politics. He joined the black-dominated African National Congress (ANC) and began to oppose the apartheid system. He originally stuck to Gandhi’s methods of nonviolent protest and was arrested several times, but he became frustrated as protests against the government were brutally opposed and he began to turn to more aggressive measures. In the early sixties he co-founded and lead the ANC’s militant (some would say terrorist) wing, coordinating attacks on symbols of the Apartheid regime. This mainly took the form of sabotage attacks against government offices & such (he tried to avoid targeting or hurting people), and Mandela later admitted that his party did violate human rights on a number of occasions. Mandela was even forbidden to enter the United States without permission until 2008, because as an ANC member he had been classified a terrorist.
Eventually the law caught up with him, and Mandela was arrested in 1962. Initially jailed for 5 years for inciting workers to strike, he was later found guilty of multiple counts of sabotage and sentenced to life imprisonment (only narrowly escaping the death penalty, and once turning up to court in full Xhosa ceremonial dress). He was transported to the imfamously tough Robben Island prison and spent the next 18 years, between the ages of 45 and 58, working in a lime quarry. As a black, and a notorious political prisoner, Mandela was granted few, if any, privileges, and his cell was roughly the same size as a toilet cubicle. However, whilst inside, his fame grew- his image of a man fighting the oppressive system spread around the world and gained the apartheid system notoriety and hatred. In fact, the South African intelligence services even tried to get him to escape so they could shoot him and remove him from his iconic status. There were numerous pleas and campaigns to release him, and by the 1980s things had come to a head- South African teams were ostracised in virtually every sport (including rugby, a huge part of the Afrikaner lifestyle), and the South African resort of Sun City had become a total pariah for almost every western rock act to visit, all amidst a furious barrage of protests.
After Robben Island, Mandela spent a further 9 years in mainland prisons during which time he refined his political philosophy. He had also learned to speak Afrikaans and held many talks with key government figures who were overblown by both his physical presence (he had been a keen boxer in his youth) and his powerful, engaging and charming force of personality. In 1989, things took a whole new turn with the coming to power of FW de Klerk, who I rate as the South African equivalent of Mikhael Gorbachev. Recognising that the tides of power were against his apartheid system, he began to grant the opposition concessions, unbanning the ANC and, in 1990, releasing Mandela after nearly three decades in prison (Mandela holds the world record for the longest imprisonment of a future president). Then followed four long, strained years of negotiations of how to best redress the system, broken by a famous visit to the Barcelona Olympics and a joint awarding, in 1993, of the Nobel Peace prize to both Mandela and de Klerk, before the ANC got what it had spent all its years campaigning for- the right for black citizens to vote.
Unsurprisingly Mandela (by now aged 75) won a landslide in the elections of 1994 and quickly took apart the apartheid regime. However, many white South Africans lived in fear of what was to come- the prospect of ‘the terrorist’ Mandela now having free reign to persecute them as much as he liked was quite terrifying one, and one that had been repeated multiple times in other local African nations (perhaps the best example is Zimbabwe, where Robert Mugabe went from the first black leader of a new nation to an aggressive dictator who oppressed his people and used the race card as justification). Added to that, Mandela faced the huge political challenges of a country racked by crime, unemployment and numerous issues ranging from healthcare to education.
However, Mandela recognised that the white population were the best educated and controlled most of the government, police force and business of his country, so had to be placated. He even went so far as to interrupt a meeting of the national sports council to persuade them to revoke a decision to drop the name and symbol of the Springboks (South Africa’s national rugby side, and a huge symbol of the apartheid regime) to try and keep them happy. His perseverance paid off- the white population responded to his lack of prejudice by turning a boom in international trade caused by apartheid’s end into a quite sizeable economic recovery. Even Springboks became unifying force for his country, being sent off to coaching clinics in black townships and being inspired to such an extent by Mandela and his request for South Africans of all creeds to get behind the team that they overcame both their underdogs tag and the mighty New Zealand (and more specifically their 19 stone winger who ran 100m in under 11 seconds, Jonah Lomu) to win their home World Cup in 1995, igniting celebrations across the country and presenting South Africa as the Rainbow Nation Mandela had always wanted it to be. Despite his age, declining health he would only ever sleep for a few hours every night (claiming he rested long enough in prison). donated a quarter of his salary to charity on the grounds that he felt it was too much, and had to juggle his active political life around a damaged family life (his second wife having divorced from him & his children having some disagreements with his politics).
It would have been easy for Mandela to exact revenge upon his former white oppressors, stripping them of their jobs, wealth and privilege in favour for a new, black-orientated system- after all, blacks were the majority racial group in the country. But this is what makes Mandela so special- he didn’t take the easy option. He was not, and has never been, a black supremacist, nor one given to knee-jerk reactions- he believed in equality for all, including the whites who had previously not extended such a fair hand to him. He showed the world how to ‘offer the other cheek’ (in Gandhi’s words), and how to stand up for something you believe in. But most importantly, he showed us all that the world works best when we all give up thoughts of vengeance, and petty selfishness, and we instead come together as a brotherhood of humanity. Mandela’s legacy to the world will none be of his brilliant political mind, nor the education, healthcare or economic systems he put in place to revive his country, or even the extraordinary dedication, perseverance and strength of will he showed throughout his long years behind bars. Nelson Mandela taught the world how to be a human being.
*Madiba was Mandela’s Xhosa name, and he is referred to affectionately as such by many South Africans
Standard | | Tagged 94, African National Congress, Afrikaans, Afrikaner, age, ANC, apartheid, arrested, Barcelona Olympics, birthday, Black, Boer, Boer War, Britain, brotherhood, business, Coloured, control, dedication, economy, family life, FW de Klerk, Gandhi, government, greatest human being ever, human, human rights, humanity, imprisoned, independence, Indian, industry, Kitchener, landslide, legal, Madiba, Mahatma Gandhi, Mandela, Mikhael Gorbachev, militant, National Party, Nelson Mandela, Nobel Peace Prize, nonviolent protest, notoriety, perseverance, police force, political, political power, politics, power, protest, quarry, revenge, right to vote, Robben Island, Robert Mugabe, Rolihlahla, rugby, Rugby World Cup, RWC 1995, segregation, selfishness, separation, Spear of the Nation, sporting bans, Springboks, strength of will, Sun City, supremacist, terrorist, troublemaker, vengeance, violent protest, White, Xhosa, Your Country needs you, Zimbabwe | 0 comments
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line305
|
__label__wiki
| 0.962376
| 0.962376
|
200 Million Girls Are Missing | UCSB’s Girl Up Club Hosts “It’s a Girl” Documentary Screening
April 20, 2015 at 12:04 pm by Janel Mendoza
photo courtesy of chicagofilmmakers.org
In countries such as India, China and many other regions of the world, girls are being abused, murdered and abandoned simply because of their gender. On April 16, UCSB’s Girl Up Club hosted a screening of the internationally acclaimed film “It’s a Girl” in the Student Resource Building’s Multipurpose Room.
Students filed in as the smell of buttery popcorn and the sound of snapping soda cans filled the room. The abundance of junk food would be a temporary comfort to those unprepared for the harsh reality that would be shared by the movie.
Directed by Evan Grae Davis, “It’s a Girl” introduced a widespread custom called “gendercide” that is globally practiced but often unheard of. The documentary told intriguing stories of abandoned and trafficked girls, of families who would kill for a son and of women who must fight to save their daughters. Through interviews and animations, the film’s team attempted to accurately capture the war that is continuously waged against girls in traditional societies across the world.
Located and shot in India and China, director Davis and producer Andrew Brown interviewed victims. The men and women included Miss Li and her husband, who were forced to flee and financially support their three daughters from a distant region because of China’s One-Child Policy. Davis also spoke to activists such as Reggie Littlejohn, who is president and founder of an organization called Women’s Rights Without Frontiers. In between interview segments, animator Garrett Moldrem heightened victims’ stories with simple yet gripping graphics that emulated each narrative.
Despite the film’s imperfect edits, viewers were taken by the holistic message: gendercide is not only worldwide and unjust but, most importantly, must be ended.
Since its release in September 2012, “It’s a Girl” has been screened in hundreds of settings and has engaged close to a million people. The film has acted as a tool for schools and organizations to enlist people, from students to influential leaders, in the battle against gendercide.
UCSB’s Girl Up is working towards publicizing issues such as gendercide that negatively and internationally impact women and girls. Vice President of UCSB’s Girl Up Club Claudia Perez said, “It’s incredibly important to, as the film itself stated, ‘fight for our sisters’ because they so often can’t fight for themselves.” The club hopes to host more screenings in the future. “It all starts by showing powerful [documentaries like this],” Perez explained; in addition to other events that will promote change within and beyond the UCSB community.
Facebook: UC Santa Barbara Girl Up
Instagram: ucsbgirlup
Find out more about Girl Up at girlup.org
Find out more about the documentary at itsagirlmovie.com
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line307
|
__label__cc
| 0.646098
| 0.353902
|
No-Bowie Can Compare
Elizabeth Edwards on the sound and vision behind her class on David Bowie
By William Coney
The Contemporary Studies programme out of King’s College has chosen to focus their third year course, CTMP 3415: Contemporary Aesthetic and Critical Thought, around David Bowie, the idol of the 1970s and ‘80s. Dr. Elizabeth Edwards, Director of the Contemporary Studies Programme and instructor of the course, sat down with Gazette reporter William Coney to talk about this course:
Gazette: Why David Bowie?
Dr. Elizabeth Edwards: There’s few [people] who’ve lasted as long as he has, and there are few who I’ve been as big a fan of since 1972. My first serious boyfriend gave me a copy of The Man Who Sold The World and I was blown away. He’s kind of a representative figure […] and as a cultural studies course, we can use him as a means to open up certain methods or theories of cultural studies, so it has a double end.
When I saw the line-ups at the 2013 David Bowie is retrospective which was touring from the Victoria and Albert Museum when it was in Toronto, you went from beyond thinking, “I was a personal fan,” to thinking that, “No, he was a major artist and a major body of works of art.” This was when he moved out of the ephemera of the pop world, and something to be considered as a major artist. […] In a way it’s so exciting because the archive is so rich. I was surprised with the amount of stuff out there, and the record is so complete. Part of this is about the simulacrum, the creation of the alternate world within media. I had never really paid that much attention to early Ziggy Stardust (David Bowie’s persona in the early 70s) before preparing for this class, and now I’m completely smitten. It’s such a strange time warp, which is now there in this media record, which isn’t there in other periods of study.
G: You didn’t have any difficulty in getting this approved by the other faculty members in the programme?
EE: Yeah, I did [laughs]. Most of them didn’t know that much about David Bowie, and didn’t follow his career as much, so they didn’t understand the significance of him. One was very opposed, on the grounds that he is ersatz, fake, a Nazi — there was a terrible episode in the 1970s where he gave Nazi salutes and was talking about Nazi aesthetics. I see some deep ambivalences and ambiguities in there, and the complications and politics make him even more interesting to me. I see him as a figure of the zeitgeist, of a spirit of the time. Most people might want to repudiate it, but it is a part of the spirit of the times, there it is.
G: Are you anticipating similar difficulties in the instruction of the course?
Dr. Edwards: I just had my first class last night (Sept. 10), and yeah, there is some difficulty with the fact that to some degree, there are students who know Bowie better than I [laughs] and some students who don’t know him well. As an additional challenge, there is the challenge of dealing with him, as the grandmaster of sound and vision, in putting together the whole total theatre effect, and I need to work on putting my own sound and vision into the work. I was surprised in the massive scholarly resources available, though, so there weren’t any difficulties in presenting the work seriously.
G: How does this class fit in within the rest of the Contemporary Studies Programme?
Dr. Edwards: Contemporary Studies is divided up into three main curriculums: political theory, science studies and aesthetics. This is a special topic course in aesthetics, so this is an elective/option course. It’s an academically rigorous class, but also terribly fun.
G: What is your favourite David Bowie Song? Why?
Dr. Edwards: One of my motivations was I really like the album The Next Day, and it’s going through my head at the moment because I’ve been listening to it a lot, and to think I’d be saying in 2015 that I would still be thinking that, “Oh, he’s uncovering all new ground.” If I had to name one, it’d be Ashes to Ashes, but then that’s a complex answer: the reason it’s so potent is how it references his early career.
← In case you missed it: the Women’s Rights and Gender Equality Debate
Tigers Team Previews for 2015-16 →
William Coney
Posted in Arts & Culture, Music
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line310
|
__label__cc
| 0.510707
| 0.489293
|
Tag Archives: george lucas
My apologies, but I have to nerd out here for a minute. Real nerds probably heard about this already, but I just discovered it last night.
Let me start off by saying that one of my nerd-facets is that I love the original three Star Wars movies. Love them. And I hate the prequels with a passion. And I also hate all of the “enhancements” to the original movies that have been going on since 1997 when the “special editions” were released in the theaters. I have no problem with digital enhancement–I don’t mean the changes where he went in and changed the footage of the old movies to make them look all CGI-ified–I mean like the versions in the 1995 VHS release that were cleaned up and THX-ed and looked really good. If those had been released in widescreen format they would have been perfect. I don’t like CGI-ing the old technology, which was amazing in its day. I don’t like Jabba appearing in A New Hope. I don’t like Hayden Christensen being digitally inserted into the “ghost” scene at the end of Return of the Jedi instead of old-Annakin. And I definitely don’t like Greedo Shooting First.
But this newest change, made for the blu-ray release of the Star Wars movies, has hit a new low. There’s a key scene at the end of Return of the Jedi where the Emperor is electrocuting Luke, and then Darth Vader silently watches before getting up and using all of his strength to pick up the Emperor and throw him over the ledge. When you’re a kid and you’re watching that for the first time, you have this moment of “what’s he going to do?” when he stands up that is just so powerful (shut up, it is). And you can even sense some of his pain behind his mask. And it’s just awesome. If I have kids someday I want them to have that experience. What I don’t want them to see is this:
Yes. George Lucas, in his infinite wisdom, has seen it fit to add dialogue to Darth Vader in this scene, so that he now cries, “Noo… nooooo!” before saving his son. WHY??? I do not understand this. No doubt his is trying to parallel this scene from Revenge of the Sith, when Annakin has just transformed into Darth Vader only to be told that his wife has died:
And I can totally hear George Lucas in my head saying, “See, it flashes back to that the scene where Padme died, only this time he can change things” and thinking that he’s being SO DEEP. Why doesn’t he employ a staff of people who will slap him upside the head and tell him when something is a stupid idea? That scene from Revenge of the Sith is laughably embarrassing, but the prequels are just awful as a whole so it’s not as egregious. But when he messes with the classics, it just makes me so angry. STOP RUINING MY CHILDHOOD. STOP RUINING CLASSIC FILMS THAT HAVE HISTORICAL VALUE. HOW ARE YOU THE SAME PERSON WHO MADE STAR WARS AND AMERICAN GRAFITTI AND INDIANA JONES??? NOOOOOOO!
I didn’t buy the 2004 dvd releases when word came out that they would be further cleanups of the “Special Edition” versions from the late-90s. I refused to buy them until the original theatrical releases came out, which George Lucas said would never happen because they allegedly don’t exist anymore. But a few years ago he DID release them on dvd, though they were included as “bonus material” on what was marketed as “your chance to purchase each movie as an individual dvd rather than in a box set.” And Best Buy sold them in a collector’s tin, so it feels like a box set, so fuck you George Lucas. But the originals were taken from the laserdisc version, so while you do get the entire picture rather than the pan-and-scan fullscreen of the 1995 VHS tapes, it’s not dvd quality. But it’s the best I can do right now. I keep hoping that this is just a phase, kind of like how for awhile there was a phase of colorizing old black-and-white films before people realized that the original black-and-white has value and is better. But I seriously think George Lucas has lost his mind. Hire a writer, you dumbass.
*For those who may not understand where the title for this blog comes from, see the origin of the “do not want” meme, from a Chinese bootleg copy of Revenge of the Sith:
Tagged as blu-ray, darth vader, george lucas, nerd, rant, return of the jedi, revenge of the sith, star wars, video
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line315
|
__label__wiki
| 0.579527
| 0.579527
|
Film Study: Andrew Wiggins vs. Aaron Gordon and the power of hype
By Rob DausterJan 23, 2014, 6:23 PM EST
We’ve all heard of blind resumes, right?
They pop up around NCAA tournament time and are a pretty effective way of evaluating who has had a better season while eliminating the bias that comes with the name associated with the teams involved.
We’re going to take a look at some blind stat-lines today:
Player A is the leading scorer and third-leading rebounder on a power conference team that is the overwhelming favorite to win their league. Player B is the second-leading scorer and the leading rebounder for another power conference team that is the overwhelming favorite to win their league. Both teams are in line to earn themselves No. 1 seeds come Selection Sunday. Both players are noted for their ability on the defensive end of the floor, but neither of them are considered the best player on their team as of today.
Have you figured it out yet?
Player A is Andrew Wiggins.
Player B is Aaron Gordon.
Once you factor in that Gordon spends more time playing the four than Wiggins and Wiggins plays in a more uptempo offense than Gordon, I think I can safely say that the impact that Wiggins and Gordon have had on their team has been quite comparable.
In other words, these guys are both having really good years.
So why is Wiggins constantly critiqued, criticized for finding and embracing a role on his team, while Gordon is celebrated for it?
It’s simple, really: hype and expectations.
Gordon has met every expectation that was set forth for him, and frankly, he’s probably benefitted from the presence of Wiggins, Jabari Parker, Julius Randle and now Joel Embiid more than anyone. He wasn’t part of the Big Three entering the season. He didn’t play in the Champions Classic. He was the answer to every ‘Name Another Good Freshman’ question I got during the preseason, which is perfect for him. At this point in his career, Gordon is more of an athlete that plays basketball than a basketball player that’s athletic. His skill set will develop with time, but right now his ability allows him to play a role similar to that of Kawhi Leonard on the Spurs. Defend, rebound, hustle. He’s excelling.
With Wiggins, we heard all the scouts salivating over his potential and mention names like Kevin Durant and LeBron James and immediately expected him to be the dominant force in college basketball. I fell victim to it as well, but the issue — the one that we ignored while tossing around unfair comparisons throughout the preseason — was that Wiggins is so much more like Gordon than he is like Parker and Randle.
Parker and Randle are polished, skilled and physically mature offensive weapons that could have a major impact in the NBA right now. Wiggins? Well, he’s got a long way to go to get there, but there are times that he makes plays that just leave you scratching your head in bewilderment at what he just did. His athleticism is off the charts and there’s a fluidity to his movement that makes some of his most ridiculous plays look almost nonchalant.
You don’t need to be an NBA scout to see his potential. All you need is two eyeballs. But after seeing Wiggins get dragged through the mud after back-to-back unimpressive performances over the long weekend, I was curious: Why can’t he consistently dominate at this level?
So I went back and watched every second that Wiggins was on the floor of every Big 12 game he has played, and this is what I came away with:
1. He can’t penetrate against a set defense: Wiggins is just unstoppable in transition. His strides are so long that when you let him get a full head of steam going towards the rim, you just don’t have a chance. His height and jumping ability allow him to finish over anyone. There was one play in the first half against Iowa State that Wiggins caught the ball at half court and needed just two dribbles to lay the ball in. It’s incredible.
But in the half court, Wiggins really struggles beating his man off the dribble. In half court sets, he’s basically turned into a spot-up shooter, which is where 24.3% of his possessions are used. According to Synergy, 58.5% of Wiggins’ shots are jump-shots. By comparison, 21.9% of Aaron Gordon’s shots were jump shots. Last season, 66.5% of Ben McLemore’s shots were jumpers.
Part of this is that defenses are conscious of his ability, meaning helpside rotations get there a step quicker than when, say, Naadir Tharpe decides to try to put the ball on the floor. But it’s still alarming how uncommon it is to see someone as explosive as Wiggins square a defender up, beat him to the rim and score. There are three things at play here:
It doesn’t seem like Wiggins has all that powerful of a first step. The long strides that allow him to roast defenders in transition get choppy in the half court.
Wiggins is not a great ball-handler, and he seems to be aware of this. Everything time he penetrates it’s a straight-line drive at the rim, and he has an awkward habit of picking the ball up after one dribble. It doesn’t help that he doesn’t really have a feel for being able to drive-and-kick when help defenders show up.
Wiggins lacks upper body strength, which brings me to my next point …
2. Wiggins needs to get in the weight room: One of the major criticisms I’ve read of Wiggins is that he’s soft. I don’t necessarily think that’s the right way to term it. He’s weak. His upper body is slender. He gets knocked off balance too often. When he gets a defender on his hip, he can’t get all the way by him. When he’s going to the rim, he can’t use his front shoulder to absorb contact; he just bounces off.
This is part of the reason that he’s not finishing above the rim. For a guy as athletic as Wiggins is, we almost never see him on Sportscenter Top Ten. He hasn’t posterized anyone yet this season. He’s all about the floaters and the finger-rolls. His is a finesse game around the basket, not a power game.
3. He’s a streaky jump-shooter: Wiggins has a pretty nice release. When he sees one jumper go down, he can reel off three or four in a row. But when they aren’t going in, he’s got a tendency of to throw up some bricks. When he’s on balance and he’s got his legs underneath, Wiggins isn’t a bad rhythm shooter. He just seems to rush some of the looks that he gets.
4. He coasts: It’s not just offensively, either. Wiggins is an excellent rebounder. He’s got the length and the athleticism, and he seems to have a feel for where a rebound is going to come off, but he’s not always crashing the glass. He’s got the tools to be a terrific defender — in fact, I was pleasantly surprised at just how effective he has been chasing people around screens — but he can also be slow on a close-out or get beat off the dribble. The reason that he was benched in the second half against Oklahoma State wasn’t simply because he was struggling offensively, it was because Markel Brown was lighting him up on the other end of the floor.
5. Confidence: This is my biggest takeaway. I just don’t think that Wiggins believes that he’s as good as he is. I think that he’s cognizant of what his limitations are as a basketball player, and more than anything, this is what prevents him from taking over games. He’s not aggressive in the biggest moments of the biggest games.
Wiggins isn’t the superstar that we all expected him to be this season. He’s got a long way to go to fulfill the expectations he had coming out of high school, and he’s got plenty of time to get there.
None of that changes the fact that he’s been a very good player for Kansas this season.
So while we can lament that the ‘Next Big Thing’ won’t live up to his potential as a collegian, we should at least recognize that fact.
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line317
|
__label__wiki
| 0.867438
| 0.867438
|
Double Feature: ‘Bram Stoker’s Dracula’ and ‘Nosferatu The Vamprye’ Each Portray Vampires As Being More Lonely Than Sexy
By Tyler Coates Twitter @tylercoates Oct 9, 2019 at 12:00pm
Photo Credit: Everett Collection; Photo Illustration: Dillen Phelps
In the glory days of theater-going, movie fans would sit back, relax, and enjoy not one but two features at their favorite movie theater. While it’s more difficult to find in our multiplex era, the wide variety of movie titles on streaming services means movie lovers can have their own double feature in the comfort of their own homes — and we’re here to help you decide what to watch. In this edition of the Decider Double Feature, we celebrate Halloween early with two auteur-driven retellings of one of the most important horror tales of all time: Francis Ford Coppola’s lush adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Werner Herzog’s unsettling remake of a classic silent feature Nosferatu the Vampyre.
Do you remember the Sexy Vampire Boom of the late aughts? (They seem so long ago.) Thanks to Twilight — and Robert Pattinson’s brooding portrayal of Edward Cullen, the role that made him a star — vampires were all the rage a decade ago, with teenagers (and, let’s face it, horny women of all ages) losing their minds over the tragic tale of a handsome undead teenage boy who fell in love with a mortal girl. While the Twilight series brought a few twists to the vampire genre (the primary difference between historical vampires and Stephenie Meyer’s world: her vampires had luminescent skin that sparkled in the sun), it continued the romantic quality of these immortal bloodsuckers: they are lonely and morose figures, cursed to wander through time without strong connections with others — until they encounter their true love (or someone that resembles it).
It all goes back to Bram Stoker’s 1897 horror novel Dracula, which has inspired countless film adaptations and subsequent ripoffs. Inspired by the real-life historical figure Vlad the Impaler, Dracula introduced the classic bloodsucking literary figure (as well as all of the conventional rules surrounding vampires: how they live and spread their immortality, how they change their forms, how they can be killed) and established an entirely new literary genre. And while there are so many movie Draculas to chose from, my favorite is the one who appears in a little movie I like to call Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula (or Bram Stoker’s Dracula for short).
Bringing all of the lush and deadly aspects of the gothic romance to the screen, Coppola taps Gary Oldman to lead his all-star cast in the definitively faithful adaptation of Stoker’s novel. And Oldman is the perfect choice to play the count; he’s known for disappearing in his roles, and this film gives him the chance to play many different iterations of Dracula. He’s the old, withered being that Keanu Reeves’ character Jonathan Harker first encounters in his gloomy castle in Transylvania; he’s the destructive and monstrous creatures he embodies to wreak havoc on both his neighbors in the countryside and in metropolitan London, where he relocates; and he is the charming and seductive newcomer to England’s capital, where he meets and seduces Harker’s new bride (and spitting image of his own long-lost love), Mina (Winona Ryder).
Dracula is a horror film, yes, but it’s what we might call “elevated horror” today: an artistic, auteur-driven vision, more like The Exorcist and Rosemary’s Baby than a schlocky b-movie with plastic fangs dripping with thick, red-dyed corn syrup. That’s not to say, however, that Coppola doesn’t revere and respect the films that came before his own. Using practical effects rather than CGI, his Dracula is human in more ways than one. It’s well-crafted and gorgeous, probably more beautiful than more movies about an immortal being who kills for both blood and lust. But it also attempts to understand Dracula — former human, now beast. His origin story is that he’s heartbroken; renouncing God and anything heavenly, he embraces pure evil as a form of retribution (and self-flagellation). The result is high drama in the Grand Guignol tradition: it’s all emotion and gore, laid out before us, and it takes it serious enough to veer into camp. (My favorite part: a breathless Mina, overwhelmed with her sudden bloodlust, gasps, “Take me away from all this death!” It’s a fun thing to repeat to yourself when you recognize the absurdity of a stressful day, or need to recognize it.)
Coppola was not the first director to examine Dracula’s profound existential crisis. Werner Herzog’s vision of the vampire tale varies greatly from the traditional Stoker adaptations, but mostly because it’s a remake of a silent German horror film: F. W. Murnau’s 1922 Nosferatu. That film was an unauthorized adaptation of Stoker’s novel; thanks to legal threats from the author’s estate, Murnau changed many details including the characters’ names, hence the pale and fanged villain “Count Orlok”). Herzog’s Nosferatu the Vampyre, on the other hand, gives its characters their classic names, with Klaus Kinski as Dracula, Bruno Ganz as Jonathan Harker, and Isabelle Adjani playing Lucy Harker (the one incongruity: rather than Mina, Herzog substitutes the name of her friend who is turned into a vampire by Dracula half-way through Stoker’s story).
Wearing prosthetics, makeup, and fangs to look just like the original Count Orlok, Kinski makes a perfect Dracula — in real life, the actor was a bit of a monster — but he also imbues his character with so much pathos that the vampire is almost an anti-hero. He’s not overcome with heartbreak or grief; rather, Kinski’s Dracula is just lonely as hell, having spent centuries on his own in a never-ending quest for blood. One can imagine, I guess, how much of a bummer that would be.
'True Blood' Reboot from 'Riverdale' Creator in the Works at HBO
Fangbanging: The 10 Hottest Vampire Sex Scenes
Stream It Or Skip It: 'Vampires vs. the Bronx' on Netflix, a Horror-Comedy in Which the Bloodsuckers are Real Estate Developers
Woman Crush Wednesday: 'Vampires vs. The Bronx' Star Coco Jones is Monstrously Talented
While Herzog makes his titular character a sad-sack bloodsucker, the writer-director actually gives his female lead some material to work with. Adjani’s Lucy is not just the first victim of the story, nor is she easily swayed by the vampire’s seduction. Rather, she’s onto him from the get-go, knowing that her husband has disappeared and that Dracula is likely to blame. Not to mention she’s the only one who happens to notice that the plague has swarmed the German city of Wismar just as Dracula arrives by boat. (Stoker’s novel coincided with an immigration panic in the late 19th century, with the denizens of London convinced that the Eastern Europeans flooding their city were bringing with them sickness and death.) And it’s Lucy who brings Dracula down by seducing him — he is too distracted by her beauty and her capability for love that he can’t recognize that she’s luring him into her trap.
Draculas might be a dime a dozen at this point, and you may think the whole bloodsucking business is old hat. Which, in a way, it is! But if you’re looking for two of the best and most visually striking versions of the classic tale, you can’t go wrong with these two adaptations that, despite their differences, boil down to one essential theme: one cannot imagine the loneliness of a Middle Ages vampire.
Tyler Coates is a writer who lives in Los Angeles.
Where to stream Bram Stoker's Dracula
Where to stream Nosferatu The Vampyre
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line325
|
__label__wiki
| 0.620492
| 0.620492
|
Monastery of the Holy Cross
Benedictine Life
Father Timothy's Ordination to the Priesthood
Sacred Triduum 2020
Diaconal Ordinations March 2019
Corpus Christi Procession 2017
Divine Mercy Cross Stitch
Monastery walks in the footsteps of St. Benedict
Our New Choir Stalls!
Prosopon Icon Workshop
Solemn Profession of Br. Timothy
Prayer Schedule
The Catholic Readers Society
List of Novels Read This Year
Oblate Podcast
Solemn Vespers
Articles tagged with Saint Benedict
The Historical Saint Benedict
After a few weeks densely populated with solemnities, we enter into the heart of summer with the Feast of Saint Benedict next Tuesday. Benedict has been receiving a certain amount of attention recently, thanks to the publication of The Benedict Option by journalist Rod Dreher. The current issue of Regina Magazine also features an article called “Benedict and Scholastica,” by Bill Schulz. It’s a fine introduction to some of the questions surrounding the historicity of the Dialogues of St. Gregory the Great, our only source for the biography of these saint-founders. I’m personally grateful for the attention given to our founders!
I’m somewhat less skeptical than Schulz. We actually have an abundant resource for reconstructing the personality of the historical Saint Benedict if we pay close attention to his Rule for Monks. I would also note that the Rule of Saint Benedict is the source of much, perhaps most, of the legislation on religious life in the West. Thus, while it is accurate to say that the Rule “still in use today by some orders,” this doesn’t quite do justice to the significance of Saint Benedict, who is, after all, the patron of Western Europe! Saint Benedict’s wisdom is fundamental to all religious orders in the West today, and every religious novice will have spent time with Saint Benedict in his or her study of the history of religious life.
The historicity of Saint Scholastica is admittedly a sticky subject. In my experience, a lot depends on how much exposure one has to Italian monasticism. I’ve had the opportunity to spend more time in the last two years in Italian monasteries, and I’ve encountered a lot of oral history that substantiates the Dialogues. Of course, this oral history could have been invented after the fact, to embroider the biographies of Saints Benedict and Scholastica. But it’s also at least possible that there are genuine memories of these saints, particularly at Monte Cassino, whose history goes back quite close to the lifetime of Saint Benedict.
We will be having our regular schedule of services for the liturgy of Saint Benedict beginning with First Vespers at 5:15 p.m. on Monday. We hope that many can join us to celebrate one of the most important post-Apostolic saints in the West, one whom Dante placed in the highest level of contemplatives!
© 2021 Monastery of the Holy Cross
Web Design by ePageCity
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line327
|
__label__wiki
| 0.686684
| 0.686684
|
'Fixer Upper' star Chip Gaines refutes divorce rumors: 'Won't Ever Happen'
(YouTube/I Am Second)Chip and Joanna Gaines is seen here in a video from I Am Second.
Rumors have been circulating that "Fixer Upper" stars Chip and Joanna Gaines are separating, but the online chatter was suddenly extinguished in one short tweet from half of the home improvement couple.
On Friday, Chip responded to a Twitter post from a fan who appears to be annoyed by the divorce rumors.
"I'm so sick of these 'stories' claiming @joannagaines and @chippergaines breaking up. Leave this couple alone they are wonderful together," Twitter user @Liason_TRTN wrote, according to The Gospel Herald.
Chip posted a tweet minutes later, saying: "Won't ever happen..you can take that to the bank! #LoveOfMyLife."
Chip and Joanna have been married since 2003 and have four children together, ages 6 to 11. The couple's show on HGTV is currently in its fourth season and has been rated as one of the most popular programs on the network.
In an interview with People magazine in February, Chip admitted that he and Joanna have faced challenges in the past, just like any married couple.
"Nothing has come easy. We've worked so hard to have this beautiful family and this farm - it really does seem like the American dream you heard about growing up," he said at the time.
"Jo and I really have created boundaries to some extent for one another and it just helps us both flourish," he added.
Earlier this year, Joanna cautioned her fans not to believe everything they read especially as fake news continue to circulate about the "Fixer Upper" couple.
She encouraged supporters who want to know what's going on to follow her and Chip's social media accounts and keep up with their blog.
"Always remember: if you're reading big, exciting news about us, and we did not confirm it on our official sites, then proceed with caution," Joanna wrote.
The Gaines couple drew controversy last year when Buzzfeed published a story that revealed that they attend a church that opposes same-sex marriage.
The article noted that the couple attends the Antioch Community Church in Waco, Texas, where the pastor, Jimmy Seibert, once preached a sermon expressing his opposition to same-sex marriage after it was legalized by the U.S. Supreme Court.
After an online mob demanded that HGTV end their show, the network released a statement assuring its viewers that it does not discriminate against the LGBT community in its programs.
The American Family Association and Family Research Council launched separate petitions calling on HGTV to stand by the Gaines couple.
Despite the controversy, "Fixer Upper" recently garnered an Emmy nomination for "Best Structured Reality Program."
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line331
|
__label__cc
| 0.710734
| 0.289266
|
»Statutes Related
170.02(2)(a) (a) A brief description of the stray, giving its marks, natural or artificial, as near as practicable.
170.02(2)(b) (b) The name and residence of the finder, specifying the section and town.
170.02(2)(c) (c) The time when the stray was taken up.
170.02(3) (3) If the finder neglects or refuses to publish the notice required under sub. (2), the finder of the stray shall be liable in double the amount of damages sustained by the owner of the stray. If the finder neglects or refuses for one year to publish the notice required under sub. (2), the finder of the stray shall be liable for the full value of the stray, to be recovered by an action in the name of the town. The amount recovered shall be apportioned in the same manner as tax revenues collected by the town for schools under s. 60.33 (9) (d).
170.02 History History: 1993 a. 482; 1997 a. 254.
170.03 170.03 Appraisal. Every finder of a stray of the value of $10 or more, at the time of such taking up, shall within one month cause the stray to be appraised by the chairperson of the town, and a certificate of the appraisal, signed by the chairperson, shall be filed in the town clerk's office. The finder shall pay the town chairperson 50 cents for the certificate and 10 cents per mile for each mile necessarily traveled to make the same.
170.03 History History: 1989 a. 56 s. 258.
170.04 170.04 Charges for keeping. The owner or person entitled to the possession of the stray at any time within one year after the notice is filed with the town clerk may have the stray restored to him or her upon proving his or her right to the stray and paying all lawful charges. If the claimant and the finder cannot agree as to the amount of the charges or upon what should be allowed for the use of the stray either party, on notice to the other, may apply to the chairperson of the town to settle the dispute, who for that purpose may examine witnesses on oath. If any amount is found due the finder, over the value of the use of the stray, the amount, with the costs, shall be a lien upon the stray and costs of the adjudication shall abide the decision of the town chairperson. If either party refuses to accept the decision of the town chairperson, action may be brought in circuit court.
170.04 History History: 1977 c. 449; 1989 a. 56 s. 258.
170.05 170.05 Sale of stray. If no claimant for the stray requests its return under s. 170.04 and if the stray has not been appraised at more than $10 the finder shall become the absolute owner; but if the appraised value exceeds $10 the stray shall be sold at public auction by the sheriff or any constable of the county on the request of the finder. Notice thereof shall be given and the sale shall be conducted and the same fees allowed therefor as in case of sales under ch. 815. The finder may bid at the sale and shall at the time of sale deliver to such officer a statement in writing of the finder's charges, which shall be filed by the officer with the town treasurer; and after deducting the charges, if just and reasonable, and the costs of the sale the officer shall pay one-half of the remaining proceeds to the finder and within 10 days thereafter the other half to the treasurer of the town for its use. If the finder of the stray neglects or refuses to cause the sale to be made when required by law the finder shall pay to the town the value of the stray, to be recovered in an action by the town.
170.05 History History: Sup. Ct. Order, 67 Wis. 2d 585, 775 (1975); 1975 c. 218.
170.06 170.06 Removal of stray; neglect to give notice, etc. If any person shall, without the consent of the finder, take away any stray taken up pursuant to this chapter without first paying all the lawful charges incurred in relation to the same the person shall be liable to the finder for the value of such stray; and if any finder shall neglect to give, file or publish the notices or have the appraisal made or do any other act prescribed by this chapter the finder shall be precluded from acquiring any right of property in such stray and from receiving any charges or expenses relative thereto.
170.06 History History: 1993 a. 482.
170.065 170.065 Exemption. Sections 170.01 to 170.06 do not apply to a humane officer appointed under ch. 173 or a law enforcement officer who takes custody of an animal under ch. 173 or other applicable law.
170.065 History History: 1997 a. 192.
170.07 170.07 Lost chattels, notice. Except as provided in ss. 170.105 and 170.12, if a person finds $25 or more or any goods having a value of at least $25 but less than $100, and if the owner of the money or goods is unknown, the finder shall, within 5 days after finding the money or goods, give a written notice of the found money or goods to the law enforcement agency of the city, village or town in which the money or goods are found. That law enforcement agency shall post a notice of the found money or goods in 2 public places in the city, village or town.
170.08 170.08 Notice and appraisal. Except as provided in ss. 170.105 and 170.12, the finder of lost goods having a value of $100 or more shall give a written notice of the found goods to the law enforcement agency of the city, village or town in which the goods are found within 15 days after finding the goods and cause a class 2 notice under ch. 985 of the found goods to be published in the county. If no person who is entitled to the goods appears to claim the goods, the finder shall, within 2 months after finding the goods and before using the goods to their injury, procure an appraisal of the goods by the law enforcement agency of the finder's city, village or town. The appraisal shall be certified by the head of the law enforcement agency and filed in the office of the law enforcement agency of the city, village or town.
170.08 History History: 1989 a. 56; 1991 a. 206; 1995 a. 263.
170.09 170.09 Restitution. If the owner of lost money or goods appears within 90 days after notice is given to the law enforcement agency of the city, village or town under s. 170.07 or 170.08 and makes out his or her right to the money or goods, he or she shall have restitution of the money or goods or the value of the money or goods upon his or her paying all the costs and charges on the money or goods, including a reasonable compensation to the finder for the finder's trouble.
170.10 170.10 Disposition of found goods or money. If no owner of lost money or goods appears within 90 days after notice is given to the law enforcement agency of the city, village or town under s. 170.07 or 170.08, the finder of the money or goods shall be the owner of the lost money or goods.
170.10 History History: 1991 a. 206; 1995 a. 263; 2015 a. 196.
170.105 170.105 Chattels found by public officials, employees or agents.
170.105(1)(1) Notwithstanding ss. 170.07 and 170.08, if an official, employee or agent of the state or of a county, city, village or town finds $25 or more or any goods having a value of at least $25 while acting within the scope of his or her official duties, employment or agency, he or she shall transfer custody of the found money or goods to the agency in the city, village or town where the money or goods were found that is designated by the city, village or town governing body to receive found money or goods. That agency shall post a notice of the found money or goods in 2 public places in the city, village or town.
170.105(2) (2) If the owner of lost money or goods appears within 90 days after the notice is posted under sub. (1) and makes out his or her right to the found money or goods, he or she shall have restitution of the money or goods or the value of the money or goods upon paying all of the costs and charges on the money or goods. If no owner of lost money or goods appears within 90 days after the notice is posted under sub. (1), the found money or goods become the property of the state or county, city, village or town whose official, employee or agent found the lost money or goods.
170.11 170.11 Penalty for neglect. Except as provided in s. 170.12, if the finder of lost money or goods having a value of $3 or more fails to give notice of the found money or goods or otherwise to comply with the provisions of ss. 170.07 to 170.10, the finder shall be liable for the full value of the money or goods, one-half to the use of the town and the other half to the person who sues for the full value, and shall also be responsible to the owner for the money or goods.
170.12 170.12 Sunken logs on submerged state lands.
170.12(1)(1) Definitions. In this section:
170.12(1)(a) (a) “Board" means the board of commissioners of public lands.
170.12(1)(b) (b) “Log" means a portion of the trunk of a felled tree which has not been further processed for any end use, including any portion of a trunk of a tree previously used in substantially its natural state as part of a dock or crib but that is no longer part of a dock, a crib or any discernible structure, or is part of the debris field of a dock or crib.
170.12(1)(c) (c) “Resident of this state" means an individual who maintains a residence, as described in s. 6.10 (1), in this state, or a corporation, partnership, association or other legal entity that maintains an office in this state and in which at least 50 percent of the ownership interest is held by one or more individuals who maintain a residence, as described in s. 6.10 (1), in this state.
170.12(2) (2) Title to sunken logs. The state reserves to itself title and ownership of all logs resting on submerged lands owned by the state.
170.12(3) (3) Application to remove sunken logs on certain submerged lands. A person wishing to raise and remove logs that are resting on submerged lands owned by the state and that are located in Lake Michigan, Lake Superior, Star Lake in Vilas County, Boom Lake in Oneida County, Rib Lake in Taylor County or the Fox River shall make application to the board for a permit to do so. Unless the applicant has received a permit under this section prior to October 14, 1997, the applicant shall include with the application a performance bond in the amount of at least $10,000. The application shall do all of the following:
170.12(3)(a) (a) Identify the boundaries of the location where the sunken logs will be raised.
170.12(3)(b) (b) Specify the time period during which the sunken logs will be raised.
170.12(3)(c) (c) Specify the methods to be used in raising the sunken logs, including any techniques with the potential to disturb lake bed material.
170.12(3)(d) (d) Describe, in detail, the applicant's plans for the use and disposition of any logs raised.
170.12(3)(e) (e) Certify that the applicant is a resident of this state.
170.12(3)(em) (em) Include the information required under sub. (3m).
170.12(3)(f) (f) Include any additional information required by the board.
170.12(3)(g) (g) Be accompanied by a $500 application fee, except that no fee is required under this paragraph for an individual who is eligible for the veterans fee waiver program under s. 45.44.
170.12(3m) (3m) Social security and federal employer identification numbers.
170.12(3m)(a)(a) In addition to the information required under sub. (3), the application under sub. (3) shall include all of the following:
170.12(3m)(a)1. 1. If the applicant is an individual and has a social security number, the applicant's social security number.
170.12(3m)(a)1m. 1m. If the applicant is an individual and does not have a social security number, a statement made or subscribed under oath or affirmation that the applicant does not have a social security number. The form of the statement shall be prescribed by the department of children and families. A permit issued in reliance upon a false statement submitted under this subdivision is invalid.
170.12(3m)(a)2. 2. If the applicant is not an individual, the applicant's federal employer identification number.
170.12(3m)(b) (b) The board may not disclose any information received under par. (a) 1. or 2. to any person except as follows:
170.12(3m)(b)1. 1. The board may disclose information under par. (a) 1. or 2. to the department of revenue for the sole purpose of requesting certifications under s. 73.0301 and to the department of workforce development for the sole purpose of requesting certifications under s. 108.227.
170.12(3m)(b)2. 2. The board may disclose information under par. (a) 1. or 2. to the department of children and families in accordance with a memorandum of understanding under s. 49.857.
170.12(4) (4) Review by other agencies. Upon receipt of an application under sub. (3), the board shall immediately transmit copies of the application to the department of natural resources and to the historical society for review. The department of natural resources and the historical society shall, as appropriate, within 30 days after their receipt of the application, notify the board whether any of the following applies:
170.12(4)(a) (a) The proposed project appears to require a permit under s. 30.20.
170.12(4)(b) (b) The proposed project appears to require a permit under s. 44.47.
170.12(4)(c) (c) The proposed project may affect public rights in navigable waters. The department of natural resources shall recommend to the board requirements and conditions to be attached to the permit which shall protect those rights.
170.12(4)(d) (d) The proposed project is subject to any requirements arising under federal law.
170.12(5) (5) Reservation of value. The state reserves to itself 30 percent of the stumpage value, as established under s. 77.91 (1), of any log raised pursuant to a permit issued under this section.
170.12(6) (6) Permit. Within 60 days after receipt of an application under sub. (3), the board shall either approve, modify and approve or deny the application for a permit. A permit issued under this subsection shall be effective for 5 years. A permit issued under this subsection is not transferable and shall specify all of the following:
170.12(6)(a) (a) The boundaries of the location where sunken logs may be raised pursuant to the permit. The area covered by the permit shall be contiguous and may not exceed 160 acres. A permit may not cover submerged lands that are not contained within Lake Michigan, Lake Superior, Star Lake in Vilas County, Boom Lake in Oneida County, Rib Lake in Taylor County or the Fox River. No location may be covered by more than one permit under this section.
170.12(6)(b) (b) That the applicant shall obtain all other permits that are required by law, and shall comply with all other requirements that are imposed by law, for raising and removing logs resting on submerged lands owned by the state.
170.12(6)(c) (c) The frequency, means and procedure for accounting for and determining the appraised market value of any logs raised.
170.12(6)(dm) (dm) That the applicant shall implement procedures to determine whether a raised log bears an American Indian tribal mark or brand, to identify the tribal mark or brand, and to track the value realized from the sale of logs separately for logs that bear a particular tribal mark or brand.
170.12(6)(e) (e) The procedure and times when the permit holder shall tender to the board, on behalf of the state, amounts due the state for its net share of the value of any logs raised. The amounts due the state for its net share of the value of logs described under par. (dm) shall be separately identified by tribal mark or brand.
170.12(6)(f) (f) Any requirements and conditions necessary to protect public rights in navigable waters.
170.12(6)(g) (g) Any requirements recommended under s. 44.47 (5r) (b) that the board determines should be a condition of the permit.
170.12(7) (7) Permit renewal. If a permit holder wishes to renew a permit issued under this section, the permit holder shall submit a request for renewal, together with a $500 renewal fee, to the board at least 30 days before the expiration date of the permit. The board shall renew the permit for a 5-year period unless the board determines, after notice to the permit holder and an opportunity for the permit holder to be heard, that the permit holder has knowingly or willfully violated the terms, conditions or requirements of the permit; this section; s. 44.47; or rules promulgated under this section or s. 44.47. If the board determines that there are environmental or archaeological facts affecting the location specified in the permit that were unknown at the time that the original permit was granted, the board may attach additional conditions or restrictions to the permit. If the board determines that the permit holder has knowingly or willfully violated the terms, conditions or requirements of the permit or a provision under this section or s. 44.47, the board may deny the renewal or may attach conditions or restrictions to the renewal necessary to ensure compliance with the requirements of the original permit.
170.12(8) (8) Denial of application; restriction, suspension and revocation of permits.
170.12(8)(a) (a) The board may deny an application for an original or renewal permit if the applicant does any of the following:
170.12(8)(a)1. 1. Fails to comply with sub. (3).
170.12(8)(a)2. 2. Violates any of the terms, conditions or requirements of a permit for the previous year.
170.12(8)(b) (b)
170.12(8)(b)1.1. The board shall deny an application for a permit renewal if any of the following applies:
170.12(8)(b)1.a. a. The applicant has failed to provide the information required under sub. (3m) (a).
170.12(8)(b)1.b. b. The department of revenue has certified under s. 73.0301 that the applicant is liable for delinquent taxes under s. 73.0301. An applicant whose renewal application is denied under this subd. 1. b. is entitled to a hearing under s. 73.0301 (5) (a) but is not entitled to any other hearing under this section.
170.12(8)(b)1.bm. bm. The department of workforce development has certified under s. 108.227 that the applicant is liable for delinquent unemployment insurance contributions under s. 108.227. An applicant whose renewal application is denied under this subd. 1. bm. is entitled to a hearing under s. 108.227 (5) (a) but is not entitled to any other hearing under this section.
170.12(8)(b)1.c. c. In the case of a permit holder who is an individual, the applicant fails to provide his or her social security number, fails to comply, after appropriate notice, with a subpoena or warrant that is issued by the department of children and families or a county child support agency under s. 59.53 (5) and that is related to paternity or child support proceedings or the applicant is delinquent in making court-ordered payments of child or family support, maintenance, birth expenses, medical expenses or other expenses related to the support of a child or former spouse, as provided in a memorandum of understanding entered into under s. 49.857. An applicant whose renewal application is denied under this subd. 1. c. is entitled to a notice and hearing under s. 49.857 but is not entitled to any other hearing under this section.
170.12(8)(b)2. 2. The board shall restrict or suspend a permit issued under this section if the board finds that, in the case of a permit holder who is an individual, the permit holder fails to comply, after appropriate notice, with a subpoena or warrant that is issued by the department of children and families or a county child support agency under s. 59.53 (5) and that is related to paternity or child support proceedings or the permit holder is delinquent in making court-ordered payments of child or family support, maintenance, birth expenses, medical expenses or other expenses related to the support of a child or former spouse, as provided in a memorandum of understanding entered into under s. 49.857. A permit holder whose permit is restricted or suspended under this subdivision is entitled to a notice and hearing under s. 49.857 but is not entitled to any other hearing under this section.
170.12(8)(b)3. 3. The board shall revoke a permit issued under this section if the department of revenue has certified under s. 73.0301 that the permit holder is liable for delinquent taxes under s. 73.0301. A permit holder whose permit is revoked under this subdivision for delinquent taxes is entitled to a hearing under s. 73.0301 (5) (a) but is not entitled to any other hearing under this section.
170.12(8)(b)4. 4. The board shall revoke a permit issued under this section if the department of workforce development has certified under s. 108.227 that the permit holder is liable for delinquent unemployment insurance contributions under s. 108.227. A permit holder whose permit is revoked under this subdivision for delinquent unemployment insurance contributions is entitled to a hearing under s. 108.227 (5) (a) but is not entitled to any other hearing under this section.
170.12(8m) (8m) Duties of permit holders.
170.12(8m)(a) (a) A holder of a permit issued under this section shall do all of the following:
170.12(8m)(a)1. 1. At the written request of the historical society, provide directly to the historical society a representative sample of company logging marks by sawing off the ends of the logs bearing the marks and by delivering them to the historical society.
170.12(8m)(a)2. 2. Allow a historical society designee to observe log recovery activities under the permit.
170.12(8m)(b) (b) A person may not do any of the following while engaging in log recovery activities pursuant to a permit issued under this section:
170.12(8m)(b)1. 1. Remove any object, as defined in s. 44.47 (1) (f).
170.12(8m)(b)2. 2. Disturb any discernible archaeological site, as defined in s. 44.47 (1) (b).
170.12(8m)(b)3. 3. Disturb any crib or dock.
170.12(9) (9) Transfer of title. At such times as a permit holder tenders to the board the amounts due under the state's reservation of value, pursuant to the terms and conditions of the permit, title to any logs covered by such tender shall pass to the permit holder.
/statutes/statutes/170 true statutes /statutes/statutes/170/12 Chs. 164-177, Police Regulations statutes/170.12 statutes/170.12 section true
2019-20 Wisconsin Statutes updated through all Supreme Court and Controlled Substances Board Orders filed before and in effect on January 1, 2021. Published and certified under s. 35.18. Changes effective after January 1, 2021, are designated by NOTES. (Published 1-1-21)
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line338
|
__label__cc
| 0.66969
| 0.33031
|
Dr. Markie Twist (she/her/they/them) is based out of the Las Vegas, Nevada and Minneapolis-St. Paul Twin Cities areas and is an award-winning sexuality educator, sexologist, relationship therapist, author and international speaker. Dr. Markie regularly consults and presents on the following topics: sexual, gender, erotic, and relational diversity; couple and family technology practices; and tantric sex. Dr. Markie is also the originator of Sex Speak Sessions, which are held in public venues and provide the opportunity for people to show up on a first-come, first-serve basis and have their questions about sex and relationships answered in a free and confidential manner. Dr. Markie is frequently sought after by media for interviews, and/or their work is commented upon, including in the following venues: various podcasts, Women’s Health, Playboy Magazine, Sexual Health Magazine, Psychology Today, VICE Magazine, New York Magazine, Family Therapy Magazine, New York Times, and U.S. News and World Report.
Dr. Markie is a licensed marriage and family therapist and mental health counselor, clinical fellow and approved supervisor, and certified sexuality educator and certified sexuality educator supervisor. Dr. Markie has over 70 journal publications, 13 book chapters, and has presented over 200 times in various venues. Dr. Markie is co-author of the books, The Internet Family: Technology in Couple and Family Relationships, The Couple and Family Technology Framework: Intimate Relationships in a Digital Age, and Focused Genograms: Attachment Focused Intergenerational Assessment of Individuals, Couples, and Families (2nd ed.), and co-editor of the book, Eco-Informed Practice: Family Therapy in an Age of Ecological Peril. Dr. Markie also serves as the Editor in Chief for Sexual and Relationship Therapy: International Perspectives on Theory, Research, and Practice and on the editorial board of the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy. Dr. Markie is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health in the University of Nevada, Las Vegas School of Public Health. Dr. Markie is also a Full Professor in the Human Development and Family Studies Department, and Marriage and Family Therapy Program, as well as the Program Coordinator of the Graduate Certificate in Sex Therapy Program at the University of Wisconsin-Stout.
Alaskan-born, and of Norwegian, English, German Jewish, and Basque descent, Dr. Markie enjoys running, game playing, traveling, art, museums, science fiction, horror films, fine wines, theater, and hiking. Dr. Markie has a history as an award-winning collegiate cheerleader and coach, as a professional cheerleader, guest relations handler for myriad celebrities, art model, and as a co-host of a pilot comedy television show.
AAMFT Clinical Fellow and Approved Supervisor (American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy)
AASECT Certified Sexuality Educator and Supervisor (American Association for Sex Educators, Counselors and Therapists)
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line340
|
__label__wiki
| 0.523707
| 0.523707
|
Can You Be a Firefighter With a DUI?
A person who has a DUI or DWI conviction on his or her record may have a harder time finding employment as a firefighter, but such an offense does not necessarily mean that he or she will never be hired. As with so many jobs, the decision often rests on the shoulders of the hiring manager. Furthermore, each department has its own policies regarding prior convictions.
The majority of fire departments across the country treat many prior convictions, including DUIs and DWIs, as discretionary disqualifiers. What this means is that they can technically prevent someone from being considered for employment, but the decision is up to the discretion of the hiring manager. Under such circumstances, the specific details of the conviction are taken under advisement. A fire department that is desperate for new firefighters may be more willing to hire someone with a DUI or DWI than one that is flooded with applications.
When deciding whether or not to hire someone with a DUI or DWI, most fire departments first consider the date of the offense. If it occurred within the last few years, for instance, the official policy may preclude the hiring of that person. If it happened many years ago and no other offenses have occurred in the meantime, however, the fire department may be more amenable to hiring the individual.
Many times, fire departments are more concerned with looking for patterns of misbehavior that could affect a person’s ability to safely and adequately fulfill his or her duties as a firefighter. As a result, many departments automatically disqualify anyone who has two or more DUI or DWI convictions.
With that being said, many fire departments have zero-tolerance policies regarding DUIs, DWIs and similar convictions. Someone who has been convicted of DUI or DWI should contact the department to find out its official policy before applying.
It’s far better to avoid a DUI or DWI conviction entirely than to have to explain one while applying to be a firefighter. Therefore, it’s crucial to line up exceptional legal representation when facing such charges. Contact a lawyer to find out more about what legal options are available to someone who has been charged with DUI.
Written by Carl · Categorized: DUI FAQ · Tagged: Alcohol law, Crimes, Driving under the influence, DUI, Law, Traffic law, Transport
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line342
|
__label__wiki
| 0.630677
| 0.630677
|
Roads Less Travelled. Exploring New Connections Between Media Research and STS
Estrid Sørensen and Cornelius Schubert
The workshop1 was set up partly as a follow-up to the track “STS and media studies: Empirical and conceptual encounters?” at the EASST conference in Toruń in September 2014. The aim of both workshops was to trace the growing links between STS and Media Studies. The workshop in Siegen reported here was specifically targeted at looking beyond the mainstream of STS / media research encounters which, bluntly speaking, often consist of importing ANT vocabulary into Me dia Studies and of STS scholars looking at internet phenomena (cf. Bo czkowski and Lievrouw, 2008; Wajcman and Jones, 2012; Thielmann et al., 2013; Gillespie et al., 2014). We wanted to question this division of labour and to look for connections less travelled, besides the beaten tracks.
Conference venue: the Artur Woll-Haus in Siegen
Over two days, speakers and participants from Australia, Austria, Den mark, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, and the UK discussed such diverse topics as media theory, the aesthetics of amateur photography, government IT infrastructures, credit cards, web videos and issues of surveillance and conflict in new social media. The heterogeneity of the cases and approaches highlighted the fact that Me dia Studies seem to occupy an even more diverse field than STS. Trying to bridge the two fields is thus a difficult, if not impossible task to under take. It would force singular identities onto polyphonic fields. Instead, the workshop revealed that STS and media research overlap in certain areas of interest, both conceptually and empirically, such as in studies of infrastructures and media technologies. Paolo Magaudda (Padova) elegantly showed how user studies in STS and media research share a common ancestor in domestication theory (Silverstone and Hirsch, 1992) and the idea that the shaping of media and technology is hardly finished after they enter the user household (e.g. Oudshoorn and Pinch, 2003). Yet both sides tend to obscure this shared history in favour of purifying their respective approaches.
Somewhat unexpected by the organisers the workshop gave in many presentations rise to discussions of relevant differences between STS and Media Studies . By comparing approaches of the German media theorist Friedrich Kittler with that of Bruno Latour, Judith Willkomm (Siegen) elaborated how Kittler was primarily concerned with the “lo gic” of media, whereas Latour is preoccupied with their “logistics”. Despite their common interest in media, processes of mediation, and inscriptions, they undertake different analyses and ask different ques tions.
Sergio Minniti (Milan) argued that media archaeology focuses on sub altern and artistic practices of media use rather than re-tracing the de velopment of a successful technical or scientific innovation in STS. In a similar vein, STS studies of innovation failures, like that of Aramis (Latour, 1996), usually do not take the subaltern position as a starting point, but argue from the perspective of (forestalled and unsuccessful) powerful actors. One theme that followed from this was that STS is often seen as only following dominant actors while at the same time not taking clear political sides in favour of suppressed minorities. This critique has been levelled at STS from Media Studies in the tradition of Cultural Studies. While usually tiresome to STS scholars, who feel this critique is utterly misplaced the exchanges at the workshop revealed that the discussion more than anything is about what counts as political, and in what contexts STS and Media Studies scholars can be granted political relevancy. STS scholars mainly argue with respect to the (so metimes invisible) levels of ‘doing politics’, i.e. of enacting decision making or making media technological changes. Media Studies schol ars, on the other hand tend to count as political in a more distanced di agnostic sense – pointing out power differences in media technological arrangements. It became clear in the course of the workshop, that if we force both tendencies to their extremes, we risk creating the ‘essential’ differences between STS and Media Studies we sought to overcome, and which are hardly warranted given the internal diversity of both fields. Yet different perspectives remain and we should be sensitive to their boundaries.
Another striking difference between STS and Media Studies is the en gagement with issues of war. In the evening keynote Erhard Schüttpelz (Siegen) articulated two divergent positions: On the one hand Media Studies were primarily born out of Communication Studies occupied with propaganda related to warfare. Kittler and McLuhan shared a com mon interest in military media technology. In STS on the other hand we find very few empirical studies on war and on military technolo gies (except for some prominent cases such as MacKenzie, 1993; Law, 2002), but indeed the proliferation of military metaphors along with a strong political rhetoric in order to draw attention to the conflictual nature of science and technology. The most obvious example of this is the science wars rhetoric.
The preference for asymmetries in media studies and symmetries in STS was mirrored in the presentations of Adam Fish (Lancaster) and Diletta Luna Calibeo (Brisbane). From a Cultural Studies background both engaged with visibilities in social media. Adam Fish analysed how Anonymous video producers see themselves in a war with Scientology and government agencies and how they are at the same time inextri cably linked to commercial video platforms. Diletta Luna Calibeo ela borated how environmental activists may be framed as eco-terrorists in their struggle to create visibility for corporations’ environmentally da maging activities. These presentations also hinted at another difference between STS and Media Studies: the latter prefer situating their cases in a “bigger picture” of capitalism, whereas the former tend to look more closely at individual cases, and draw more modest conclusions.
That our attempt at exploring new connections between STS and Media Studies also brought their differences to the fore was one of the most insightful and unexpected results of the workshop. It showed that the search for novel links in many cases occasioned a re-tracing of bounda ries between and homogeneity within STS and Media Studies. No sim ple equation can be made between STS and Media Studies. Yet, the di stinction between perspectives is productive in focusing and specifying our discussions of science, technology, and media. If we look beyond the beaten tracks of collaborations between STS and Media Studies a plethora of new questions arise concerning media, technologies, and science, along with variations of more or less disciplinary ways of answering them. Despite the differences common themes and ancestors of STS and Media Studies came to the fore. They warrant their conti nued engagement, among others with issues of power and subversion, materiality and meaning, mediation and cooperation, design and use. STS and Media Studies undoubtedly (have to) share empirical fields and conceptual perspectives and both benefit from manifold cross-ferti lisations. Continuing on the roads less travelled we need simultaneous ly to engage in purification work and in work of hybridisation: looking for the similarities as well as the differences between STS and Media Studies, for homogeneities as well as heterogeneities within and across their boundaries (some of which may be fluid), and from there to iden tify productive ways of collaborating and ways of fighting.
1 An international workshop at the University of Siegen, 5th & 6th Feb ruary 2015. Organised by Cornelius Schubert and Estrid Sørensen as a cooperation of the DFG Research Training Group Locating Media (University of Siegen) and the Mercator Research Group “Spaces of Anthropological Knowledge” (Ruhr-University Bochum).
Boczkowski, P. J. & Lievrouw, L. A. (2008). Bridging STS and communication studies. Schol arship on media and informati on technologies. In: E.J. Hackett, O. Amsterdamska, M. Lynch & J. Wajcman (eds.), The hand book of Science and Technolo gy Studies (pp. 949-977). Cam bridge: MIT Press.
Gillespie, T., Boczkowski, P. J. & Foot, K. A. (eds.) (2014). Media Technologies. Essays on Com munication, Materiality, and Society. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Latour, B. (1996). Aramis, or the love of technology. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Law, J. (2002). Aircraft stories. Decentering the object in tech noscience. Durham: Duke Uni versity Press.
MacKenzie, D. (1993). Inventing Accuracy. A Historical Sociolo gy of Nuclear Missile Guidance. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Oudshoorn, N. & Pinch, T. J. (eds.) (2003). How users mat ter. The co-construction of users and technology. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Silverstone, R. & Hirsch, E. (eds.) (1992). Consuming tech nologies. Media and informati on in domestic spaces. London: Routledge.
Thielmann, T., Schüttpelz, E. & Gendolla, P. (eds.) (2013). Ak teur-Medien-Theorie. Bielefeld: Transcript.
Wajcman, J. & Jones, P. K. (2012). Border communication. Media sociology and STS. Media, Cul ture & Society, 34, 673-690.
Cornelius Schubert is a post doc researcher in the DFG re search training programme „Locating Media“ at the Univer sity of Siegen. He specialises in science and technology studies, medical and organisational so ciology and innovation studies. He has conducted research on human-technology interactions in surgical operations and on global innovation networks in the semiconductor industry. He is currently studying the impact of computer simulations on pre dictive knowledge in politics and the econom.
cornelius.schubert@uni-siegen.de
Estrid Sørensen is a Junior Pro fessor of Cultural Psychology and Anthropological Know ledge in the Mercator Research Group „Spaces of Anthropolo gical Knowledge: Production and Transfer“ at the Ruhr-Uni versity in Bochum. She has done research on the production of knowledge and subjectivities through instructional techno logies in education, and on the diversity and coordination of categorisations of harmful me dia throughout societal societal institutions. She is currently in vestigating knowledge produc tion in social psychology.
estrid.sorensen@rub.de
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line344
|
__label__wiki
| 0.887275
| 0.887275
|
Eco CBD Vape
The Haunting of Bly Manor Recap: Original Sin
The Romance of Certain Old Clothes
Photo: Courtesy of Netflix
Almost everything we’ve seen in The Haunting of Bly Manor is a story within a story. Apart from the opening moments of the season — when Carla Gugino decided to entertain a bunch of wedding guests with what has turned out to be a very long and complicated ghost story — this entire plot is being filtered through the perspective of a narrator we really don’t know anything about. Apart from the handful of lines Carla Gugino speaks in voiceover each episode, it’s fair to question why we needed that framing story at all (though I suspect we’ll get some clarity in that in the season finale).
But you can’t say the same for this episode, which leans heavily on Gugino’s narration to deliver a story that is Bly Manor’s most traditionally gothic hour. Everything about this episode signifies that it’s something different than we’ve seen before, from the near-total absence of Bly Manor’s main cast to the audacious decision to photograph this story, which is set in the mid-17th century, in black and white.
What we get, instead, is an origin story for the horrors contained in Bly Manor. The episode centers on sisters Viola (Kate Siegel) and Perdita (Katie Parker), who are left alone when their father passes away. This wouldn’t be a problem if they were men — but since property can’t be inherited by women, Bly Manor itself is at risk. The clever, headstrong Viola comes up with the best compromise permitted by the standards of the time: She marries Arthur Lloyd, a distant cousin, who can move in and become the (nominal) head of the family.
At its core, Bly Manor is a series of love stories, and it’s in that spirit that Viola’s marriage to Arthur — which could easily have been a cold and pragmatic business arrangement — actually becomes a fairly loving one. They have a daughter, Isabel, and Perdita continues to live in Bly alongside them, forming a warm and supportive family unit.
Tragedy strikes when Viola begins coughing up blood, which results in a tuberculosis diagnosis. A doctor insists she has months to live at most, but dutifully begins a grueling medical regimen that includes isolation, leeches, and bloodletting. Nothing helps, and the family prepares to say goodbye to Viola forever.
But on her deathbed, Viola makes a choice that will continue to haunt Bly Manor centuries later: She simply refuses to die. As her husband and the vicar beg her to take the last rites and go gentle into that good night, suggesting that it’s all part of God’s plan, her sister Perdita intervenes: “God should know better. She is as He made her. If she says she will not go, she will not.”
And so Viola doesn’t go — an incredible, almost supernatural act of willpower with far-reaching consequences for everyone, including Perdita. Living for years after tuberculosis was predicted to claim her life, Viola becomes a shell of herself: Sick, isolated, cruel, and pathologically jealous of her healthy sister’s relationship with Arthur.
To be fair, that last one turns out to be warranted. After serving as Viola’s round-the-clock nursemaid — and suffering under what is clearly regular physical abuse from her sister — Perdita loses all the warmth and affection she once had for Viola, and begins to imagine how much better life might be without her in it. When she finally suffocates Viola one night, the narrator tells us, Perdita tries to convince herself it was mercy before privately admitting that she had another word in her mind the whole time: Enough.
Perdita marries her former brother-in-law — apparently keeping it in the family is a Bly Manor tradition — and they settle into a relatively happy and comfortable life. But when Arthur makes a few bad business deals, all of the family’s wealth (including Bly Manor itself) suddenly ends up at risk. There is, at least theoretically, a Hail Mary in reserve for this exact situation: A massive locked trunk full of valuable old clothes and jewelry that belonged to Viola. But Arthur vowed to Viola that he would save the trunk to give to Isabel when she came of age, and no matter how dire their financial situation becomes, he refuses to let Perdita open it.
So Perdita takes matters into her own hands. She steals the keys to the trunk, sneaks up to the attic in the middle of the night, and opens it. And as she greedily eyeballs the dresses, the sleeves suddenly wrap around her throat and strangle her to death. Arthur discovers her corpse in the morning, and resolves to take Isabel away from Bly Manor once and for all.
As it turns out, even dying couldn’t stop Viola from rejecting her own death, so she became Bly Manor’s first ghost instead. Like the ghosts we’ve met in the show’s main narrative, Viola spends much of her time “tucked away” — in this case, in a private “room” that exists within the trunk — waiting for the moment when her grown daughter will open the locks. And when this fairytale ending is thwarted by Perdita, she decides to kill her instead.
This is, understandably, enough to make Arthur believe the trunk is cursed, and he tosses it into the lake before he leads Isabel away from Bly Manor. As the years pass, Viola gradually becomes The Lady From the Lake. Even as she forgets who she is or what she wants — and even as her own face disappears — she emerges from the lake to repeat the steps she took in life (and leave some very familiar-looking wet footprints behind, of course). If anyone gets in the way, she kills them, dooming them to a similarly deathless fate on the grounds of Bly Manor.
But before Bly Manor zooms back to the main story in its closing moments — where The Lady From the Lake still has Dani in her cold grip — it’s worth pausing for a moment to think about this strange, interesting, deeply tragic revelation about the ghosts in this old house. Traditionally, ghosts in stories like this one have some kind of unfinished business. That’s clearly what Viola believed as she waited, all those years, for her daughter to open the trunk — a mother-daughter reunion that would, at last, bring her joy and peace.
But Bly Manor has a darker moral in mind: If you refuse to accept your own death, you’ll discover that immortality has a very high price. Centuries later, Viola still says she will not go, and so she is still here. But looking at this blank-faced parody of a human being, mindlessly clinging to the life she had without any memory of what made it worthwhile… maybe eternal rest isn’t so bad after all.
Bumps in the night:
• Hidden Ghosts: As far as I can tell, this episode doesn’t contain any, because there are no ghosts until Viola’s death. But we do get some explanations for the hidden ghosts we’ve seen throughout the season. The plague doctor you can spot as early as the premiere was killed by Viola after Bly Manor was converted into a quarantine hospital for plague victims. The moaning woman who Flora shushed during hide and seek was Perdita herself, trapped in the attic. And the little boy befriended by Flora was originally drowned by Viola, whose fuzzy grip on reality made her mistake him for her own child to bring back to the lake with her.
• This entire episode is a loose adaptation of the legitimately creepy Henry James short story “The Romance of Certain Old Clothes,” which you can read here. Numerous lines from Carla Gugino’s voiceover narration are also pulled directly from the text.
• Okay, we’re at the end of the season, so it’s crazy theory time. Here’s the dart I’m gonna toss at the board: Everyone at Bly Manor is dead. The events of the series are actually just the ghosts — who are all “tucked away” — reliving the circumstances that led to their deaths over and over again. This would also mean that the main story isn’t actually set in 1987; it’s set in 2007, in a Bly Manor that’s abandoned and empty except for the ghosts of those who died 20 years ago. Based on the ending of Hill House, I suspect Mike Flanagan might ultimately be too sentimental to embrace an ending this grim — but I dunno, I think it’d be creepy and cool.
• Arthur and Isabel just kind of disappear from the story, huh? Maybe they’re the ancestors of Carla Gugino, or one of the other wedding guests in the frame narrative?
• As Viola wanders the hall at night, she sings “O Willow Waly,” which is the song you’ve heard Flora singing by the lake all season, and from the music box in the forbidden wing of Bly Manor. It’s also featured heavily in The Innocents, Mike Flanagan’s favorite film adaptation of The Turn of the Screw.
• Viola and Perdita’s names are each pulled from Shakespeare (Twelfth Night and The Winter’s Tale, respectively). The original story makes it clear that the girls’ father was a devoted Shakespeare enthusiast.
• And while we’re talking Shakespeare: Viola’s reference to “honeyed words” while holding Isabel recalls Owen’s mumbled speech in episode 5, which comes from Romeo & Juliet.
• Katie Parker, who plays Perdita, also appeared in The Haunting of Hill House (as Poppy Hill).
• The envelope containing the keys to the trunk reads “teneo,” which is Latin for “to hold.”
• One thing I’m not entirely clear on: Why doesn’t Viola attack Miles or Flora? They’ve at least figured out that they need to stay out of her way — but how? Given what she did to the little boy, you’d think Viola would at least mistake Flora for her daughter instead of just dragging Dani away at the end of episode 7.
VULTURE NEWSLETTER
Keep up with all the drama of your favorite shows!
What is CBD? Every CBD Question You Could Ever Have, Answered.
Kencko chugs down $3.4M that will help you get extra fruit and greens in your weight loss program – TechCrunch
Can I Place An Amazon Hyperlink On My Web page To An FBA Item?
7 DSP/NO THC/PHN This is the code utilised for a urine drug test, does this imply it will not test for Marijuana?
Ice Cream Cake Marijuana Strain
Fake West Coast Remedy Cartridge Critique From Our Reader – Cannabisthrives.com
Copyright © 2021 by ecocbdvape.com. All rights reserved. All articles, images, product names, logos, and brands are property of their respective owners. All company, product and service names used in this website are for identification purposes only. Use of these names, logos, and brands does not imply endorsement unless specified. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line345
|
__label__wiki
| 0.951919
| 0.951919
|
eDayFm.com
Best Sport Videos
FK Komarov
A brief glimpse into the past
Hostouň-Lhota, Hostouň-Tuchlovice SP / 3. 11. 2018
Výběr momentek z utkání OS kategorie U11 / hřiště Dobrovíz. Hostoun lhota tuchlovice20181103 50fps.
Velim - Tuchlovice
Bohumil Kučera
Team, Place & City Details
Tuchlovice is a municipality and village in Kladno District in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 2,600 inhabitants.
Tachlovice
Tachlovice is a village in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic . The village has an area of 6.36 square kilometres and 700 inhabitants as per the latest census.
Těchlovice (Hradec Králové District)
Těchlovice is a village in the Czech Republic.
Těchlovice
Těchlovice may refer to:
Těchlovice (Děčín District)
Těchlovice is a village and municipality in Děčín District in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. The municipality covers an area of 10.47 square kilometres (4.04 sq mi), and has a population of 512 (as at 28 August 2006).
Privacy Policy · Contact · About · F.A.Q. · Report #TAG
eDayFm.com © 2020
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line347
|
__label__cc
| 0.566331
| 0.433669
|
Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments
E-Textbook
Policy-Advocacy
Climate Change Committee
Food & Ag Committee
Nurses Climate Challenge
Nursing Collaborative on Climate Change and Health
Climate Change, Health, & Nursing Report
Nurses Caring for Climate and Health
Getting Started: A Guide for Nurses
Energy and Health
Environmental Health Nurse Fellowship
Green Bag Lunch – Green Tea Webinar Series
Home » ANHE Fellowship Region 9
CPHNO Virtual Town Hall Meeting on the Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals
ANHE Global Climate Change Committee Monthly Call – January 2021
Virtual Launch Event for McGill Nurses for Planetary Health
ANHE Fellowship Region 9
Barbara Sattler, RN, DrPH is a Professor in Public Health at the University of San Francisco and a nursing leader in the area of environmental health, including issues related to climate change. She has been an advisor to the EPA’s Office of Child Health Protection and the National Library of Medicine for informational needs of health professionals on environmental health. Dr. Sattler was a founding member of the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments. Under her leadership, ANHE has played an important role in the fight against fracking by alerting policymakers and the public to the detrimental health impacts of the chemicals used in fracking on the communities nearby.
Erika Alfaro Lemus is a public health nurse for Health and Family Services with San Mateo County, where she works as a nurse case manager for California Children’s Services. Ms. Alfaro Lemus has a broad range of nursing experience, from pediatric cardiac ICU to utilization review and community health. She has been working in the nursing field since the age of 18, when she worked as a nursing assistant in a variety of nursing specialties including skilled nursing, psych/mental health, medical-surgical, and ICU.
Sarah Brown Blake, PhD, RN, PHN is an Assistant Professor in the School of Nursing at California State University, Chico. She coordinates the graduate program and teaches public health nursing. Her research focuses on equitable access to clean and affordable drinking water in California’s San Joaquin Valley.
Michelle Bergen has been a nurse for 25 years and worked primarily in oncology nursing. As of 2017, Ms. Bergen holds an MSN degree from California State University-Fresno and is a board-certified family nurse practitioner. She is currently pursuing a DNP degree at the University of San Francisco with a major in population health leadership, where her focus is on prevention and education around coccidioidomycosis, also known as Valley Fever. She hopes to implement a program in the Central Valley where primary care providers are educated on coccidioidomycosis prevention, pathophysiology, and mandatory screening and early treatment in high-risk groups.
2901 Shepherd Street Mount Rainier, MD 20712 240.753.3729
· © 2021 EnviRN. All rights reserved. ·
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line350
|
__label__cc
| 0.738162
| 0.261838
|
Environment New York Research and Policy Center Staff
Susan Rakov
Senior Vice President, The Public Interest Network; Managing Director, Frontier Group
Started on staff: 1984
B.A., Harvard University
Susan directs Frontier Group, the research and policy development group of The Public Interest Network. Frontier Group’s work informs the public discussion about degradations to the environment and public health, threats to consumer rights and democracy, and the available routes to a better future. Her team’s reports have documented the link between global warming and extreme weather, the impacts of fracking on the environment, and the transformation of our nation's relationship with the automobile. Susan lives with her family in Santa Barbara, Calif., where she is an advocate for public education and a singer and songwriter.
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line351
|
__label__wiki
| 0.779403
| 0.779403
|
Blue & White Porcelain
Asian Scrolls
Byobu Screens
Coromandel Screens
Butcher Blocks & Kitchen Islands
Etageres & Shelves
See more: Table Lamp
Glazed Ceramic Crock Lamp with English Royal Coat of Arms
Interesting and large glazed ceramic crock or jar made into a table lamp featuring the English royal coat of arms on one side. This large earthenware vessel has been mounted to a round wooden base with a wood bung and topped with brass metal hardware. The coat of arms decoration of the United Kingdom as used in Scotland.
Dimensions: 12"w x 12"d x 34"h
Circa: 19th Century, England
Condition: Good, wear consistent with age and use. Age appropriate wear.
Pair of Chinese Polychrome Quan Yin Deity Table Lamps
Images / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12 / 13 / 14 / 15 / 16 / 17 / 18 / 19
Pair of Chinese Famille Ginger Jars Mounted as Lamps
Images / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12 / 13 / 14 / 15 / 16 / 17
Japanese Bronze Urn Vase Mounted as Table Lamp
Images / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12 / 13 / 14 / 15 / 16
Marbro Parcel Gilt Ceramic Vase Table Lamp
info@erinlaneestate.com
© 2021 Erin Lane Estate.
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line354
|
__label__wiki
| 0.869974
| 0.869974
|
U.S. lawmakers deadlock on Zika virus funds
by Reuters 29/06/2016 12/02/2018 238
By Susan Cornwell
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. lawmakers deadlocked over funding to fight the Zika virus on Tuesday, as Senate Democrats blocked a Republican proposal they said fell short of the challenge posed by the mosquito-borne virus and hurt other health priorities.
Amid political recriminations by both parties, the Republican plan to provide $1.1 billion in funding to combat Zika, which had already passed the House of Representatives, failed to get the 60 votes needed in the Senate to clear a procedural hurdle. The vote was 52 in favor and 48 against on a mostly party-line vote.
It was unclear when Congress would revisit the issue. Democrats urged bipartisan talks, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, said lawmakers would address the matter again sometime after the July 4 national holiday next week.
Both sides warned the other that there could be a political price to pay in an election year for stalling on Zika funding, with the summer mosquito season under way and with it the threat of the virus spreading.
“Here we are, in an utterly absurd position, playing political games as this public health crisis mounts here in our country,” McConnell said.
The Zika virus, which has swept through the Americas and Caribbean since last fall, has been linked to thousands of cases of microcephaly, a rare birth defect, in Brazil, as well as to neurological disorders. It has been declared a global health emergency by the World Health Organization.
There have not yet been any cases reported of local transmission of the Zika virus in the continental United States, but there have been 820 cases that were acquired from travel to areas with active Zika outbreaks, or through sexual transmission. There have been more than 1,800 cases of Zika infection reported in Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory in the Caribbean.
Health experts expect local transmission to occur in the continental United States with warmer weather.
Democrats have been urging Republicans for months to agree to Zika funding. The Republican plan would have funded mosquito control efforts by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, as well as vaccine research by the National Institutes of Health, and money for community health centers in areas that are experiencing the highest rates of Zika transmission.
But Democrats complained that Republicans locked them out of drafting the $1.1 billion funding plan, which would have made $750 million in budget cuts elsewhere. The Republican plan, rushed through the House last week, would have taken money from battling the Ebola virus as well as from funds set aside for implementing the Obamacare health insurance program in U.S. territories.
The Senate last month agreed to a bipartisan bill allocating the same amount – $1.1 billion – to fight Zika, but without cutting any other programs.
DISPUTE OVER PLANNED PARENTHOOD
Democrats were especially angry that the Republican proposal that failed on Tuesday would not allow funding to go to private entities such as the women’s healthcare provider Planned Parenthood, although the Zika virus can be sexually transmitted.
“I don’t know what universe (McConnell) is living in. What does he think, we’re all stupid, the American people are dumb? They’re not. They understand what’s going here,” Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid declared after the vote.
President Barack Obama, a Democrat, had vowed to veto the plan, which falls short of his $1.9 billion request, if it ever arrived on his desk.
Republicans charged that the Democrats were blocking the measure mainly because it included no funding for Planned Parenthood, a non-profit group that Democrats and Republicans have been skirmishing over for years. It provides health exams, screening and contraception services to women.
Republicans have previously sought to cut off all federal funding to the group, which also provides abortions. Planned Parenthood says abortions make up just three percent of its work.
Republican Senator John Thune, referring to Planned Parenthood, charged on Monday that Democrats were more interested in pleasing a what he called a special interest group than in acting on Zika.
U.S. health officials have concluded that Zika infections in pregnant women can cause microcephaly, a birth defect marked by small head size that can lead to severe developmental problems in babies. The WHO has said there is strong scientific consensus that Zika can also cause Guillain-Barre, a rare neurological syndrome that causes temporary paralysis in adults.
(Additional reporting by Susan Heavey and David Morgan; Editing by Bill Trott and Frances Kerry)
Divided Supreme Court rejects family pharmacy’s religious claim
Phelps eases into 200m butterfly semis at Olympic trials
Reuters is an international news agency headquartered in Canary Wharf, London, England and is a division of Thomson Reuters.
Training of Health Workers a Priority for the Catholic Church
Children need to be a focus during SOE
Lillian Keneqa 14/04/2020
K270m Approved For COVID19 Exercise
Jack Lapauve Jnr. 11/05/2020 12/05/2020
Two midwives passionately work to reduce maternal and infant mortality in PNG
Tim Berners-Lee: Out to Remake the Digital World.
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line356
|
__label__wiki
| 0.938309
| 0.938309
|
Commander in Chief (TV series)
Find sources: "Commander in Chief" TV series – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (August 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
Commander in Chief is an American political drama television series that focused on the fictional administration and family of Mackenzie Allen (portrayed by Geena Davis), the first female President of the United States, who ascends to the post from the Vice Presidency after the death of the sitting President from a sudden cerebral aneurysm.
Rod Lurie
Kyle Secor
Ever Carradine
Caitlin Wachs
Jasmine Anthony
No. of seasons
No. of episodes
Steven Bochco
Marc Frydman
Dee Johnson
James Spies
Sascha Schneider
Battleplan Productions
Steven Bochco Productions (from episode 8)
Touchstone Television
Original network
1080i (HDTV)
Original release
September 27, 2005 (2005-09-27) –
June 14, 2006 (2006-06-14)
The series began broadcasting on ABC on Tuesday, September 27, 2005, at 9 p.m. Eastern Time, although most countries outside North America began screening the series in mid-2006.
The show was #1 on Tuesday nights until FOX's American Idol started in January. The show was also the #1 new show of the season until CBS' Criminal Minds surpassed it. Its major competitor in the 9:00 p.m. timeslot was FOX's House, which aired after American Idol.
The series was created by American director Rod Lurie, director of the films The Contender and Deterrence.
The network replaced Lurie with Steven Bochco as show runner,.[1][2] But after he failed to increase ratings, he was also replaced with Dee Johnson while further declining ratings brought about a hiatus, a timeslot change and ultimately cancellation—announced May, 2006, with the final episodes airing the following month.[2]
1.1 Main
1.2 Recurring
2.1 "Little Shop of Horace"
4.1 Filming locations
5 Awards and nominations
6 Home release
7 International broadcasts
CharactersEdit
MainEdit
Mackenzie Allen (Geena Davis)
Mac is a former member of Congress from Connecticut and chancellor of the University of Richmond. An Independent placed on the Republican presidential ticket alongside Teddy Bridges. It is a common belief she was the reason Bridges won the election. Mac becomes the first female vice president, a very popular one at that, and, upon Bridges' death, she becomes the first female president of the United States. During the first season, Mac decides she wants to run for re-election, with her political strategists stating her campaign is likely to secure her the middle fifty percent of voters.
Nathan Templeton (Donald Sutherland)
Templeton is a Republican congressional leader from Florida and The Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. He was Bridges' choice to succeed him as President, and thus he harbors significant resentment towards Mac, who refused to resign from her position. He and Mac slowly become more acquainted with one another over the course of the series, and begin to develop a political kinship. He has his own intentions to run as a Republican candidate in the next election. He is married, with no children.
Jim Gardner (Harry Lennix)
Jim was Bridges' chief of staff, and was asked by Allen to continue into her administration. A loyal supporter of his Commander in Chief, Gardner finds himself resented by her husband, Rod Calloway, who served as her vice presidential chief of staff. Gardner becomes Vice President of the United States following the resignation of Keaton.
Rod Calloway (Kyle Secor)
Calloway is Mac's husband. He was her vice-presidential chief of staff, and thus was initially resentful of Gardner. During the first season, Calloway encourages Mac to give him an office in the West Wing, and a real role in the administration. He later returns to a more traditional First Person role, though Mac's mother continues to act as hostess.
Kelly Ludlow (Ever Carradine)
Brought into Allen's administration from her vice presidential residential staff, Ludlow was the VP's communications director. She is promoted to Press Secretary ahead of the incumbent Deputy Press Secretary, though later proves herself particularly capable in this role. As the series progresses, Mac offers her a more in-depth role in the administration, and thus keeps her apprised of numerous political developments.
Richard McDonald (Mark-Paul Gosselaar)
Dickie is a campaign advisor and political strategist hired by Rod Calloway into Mac's administration. He idolizes the President, and believes her unquestioning principles to be unmatched in Washington. He often irritates senior staff by focusing only on the political outcomes of personal situations, although he states he does so in order to secure Mac the middle fifty percent of voters.
Horace, Rebecca, and Amy Calloway (Matt Lanter, Caitlin Wachs, and Jasmine Anthony)
Horace, Rebecca, and Amy are Mac and Rod's children. Horace and Rebecca, aged sixteen, are twins, and Amy is six years old. Rebecca frowns on her mother's choice to assume the presidency and holds more conservative political views than her mother, though Horace is more supportive.
RecurringEdit
Vince Taylor (Anthony Azizi); a special aide to the President.
Jayne Murray (Natasha Henstridge); the Speaker's Chief of Staff.
Warren Keaton (Peter Coyote); the Vice President of the United States who resigns in episode fifteen.
Kate Allen (Polly Bergen); Mac's mother and the White House hostess.
Mike Fleming (Matt Barr); a guy from Becca's High School and her boyfriend later on.
Joan Greer (Julie Ann Emery); a Secret Service agent.
EpisodesEdit
This section's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (January 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
US viewers
"Pilot" Rod Lurie Rod Lurie September 27, 2005 (2005-09-27) 16.370[3]
While on a diplomatic mission in Paris, Vice President Mackenzie Allen is informed that President Teddy Bridges has suffered a possibly fatal stroke. Since it is very unlikely, that Teddy Bridges will be able to remain in office, Jim Gardner asks Mac to resign. That way Speaker of the House Nathan Templeton would assume the presidency.
Mac visits President Bridges in the hospital and he asks her to resign, too. Upon the President's death, Allen is again asked by Templeton to step aside. Even though she holds her resignation speech in her hands, she chooses to take the oath of office.
As her first action in office, Allen finishes a mission she championed as Vice President. She negotiates to free a Nigerian woman who is sentenced to death by stoning for having sex outside of marriage. While the first female President speaks to Congress, the Nigerians quietly hand their prisoner over to the U.S. military and she is flown out of the country.
The episode contains several inaccuracies about Nigeria; for instance, Nigeria has a President as both head of state and head of government, therefore it does not have a Prime Minister as is mentioned in the series. Like the United States, Nigeria is a federal republic and most domestic laws are state-, and not nationally set. Hence, while Sharia law is existent in a minority of states, Lagos, in which the woman is apparently imprisoned in this episode, is not one of them.
"First Choice" Rod Lurie Rod Lurie and Dee Johnson October 4, 2005 (2005-10-04) 16.940[4]
Allen faces the first political crisis of her presidency as her selection of a new Vice President is manipulated by Speaker Templeton. Someone leaked a wrong name to the press. Meanwhile, the White House is still in disorder after the resignation of several other members of the Bridges administration, including the Press Secretary. Allen appoints her personal speechwriter, Kelly Ludlow, to be the new Press Secretary.
Allen's daughter Rebecca is concerned when her personal diary disappeared from her possessions during the family's move to the White House. The Secret Service is summoned to by the President to help find the diary. It turned out the diary was not lost but had been mistakenly placed among the possessions of Allen's youngest daughter (Amy).
President Allen offers the Vice Presidency to her former political rival Warren Keaton, a former United States Army General and vice presidential candidate on the Democratic ticket who was defeated by the Bridges-Allen ticket.
"First Strike" Rod Lurie Rod Lurie and Dee Johnson October 11, 2005 (2005-10-11) 16.230[5]
President Allen faces her first international crisis when nine undercover DEA agents are killed in the fictitious South American country of San Pasquale. In the meantime, the First Gentleman begins coaching vice presidential nominee Warren Keaton for his upcoming confirmation hearings and Horace and Becca begin their new terms in a public school.
The President orders the Air Force and the DEA to destroy coca fields in San Pasquale and calls for the people of the country to ask for the arrest of General Sanchez, the dictator of San Pasquale. Before the attack begins, the military of the country overthrows Sanchez. Juan Duran, San Pasquale's exiled president, is asked to return to power.
"First Dance" Vincent Misiano Steven A. Cohen and Allison Adler October 18, 2005 (2005-10-18) 16.300[6]
President Allen faces her first summit and state dinner with the President of Russia Dmitri Kharkov. The subject of civil liberties and dissident journalists is a source of deep division between the two world leaders.
To coincide with the summit, Nathan Templeton has organized the resignation of several members of Allen's Cabinet by offering them positions in a future administration with himself as President. Among the resignations were those of the National Security Advisor and the Secretary of the Interior. Chief of Staff Jim Gardner visits Templeton to demand explanations for his actions, but instead, Templeton offers Gardner the opportunity to be his Vice President if he resigns his position as Chief of Staff. Gardner refuses the offer as Templeton vows that he will run and defeat Allen in the next election.
During the state dinner, whilst dancing together which was viewed badly by the White House staff, President Kharkov and President Allen seem to mend their differences and offer support for each other's countries. The family life of the First Family has some controversies when Rebecca, the President's daughter, decides not to attend the dinner in order to have a date with a school friend.
At the end of the episode, President Allen presents Templeton with a biography of the 10th President of the United States, John Tyler, whose Cabinet largely resigned when he assumed the presidency. Tyler managed to stay in the White House until the end of his term.
"First...Do No Harm" Dan Minahan Dahvi Waller and Anya Epstein October 25, 2005 (2005-10-25) 15.620[7]
Just after announcing Anthony Prado as the new National Security Advisor, President Allen is called out of the press conference. She is told that a terrorist has been caught attempting to cross the Canada–US border into the United States with a car full of explosives. His intended target was an elementary school in Springfield, Missouri. Because the terrorist's organization always plans simultaneous, thematically-linked attacks, they must figure out what other locations were targeted and stop the attacks. A problem arises, however, when Allen and Attorney General Melanie Blackston have different views on how to deal with the situation; Allen wants to invade a known training camp for more information while Blackston believes that the information can be coerced from the captured terrorist. Allen finally decides to go ahead with the raid of the camp, but also permits Blackston to interrogate the prisoner, so long as Allen doesn't "hear" that he was tortured. Furthermore, when news of the situation is leaked to the press, Speaker of the House Nathan Templeton goes on TV and publicly second-guesses Allen's decisions on how to handle the threat.
At the same time it's Halloween, and Allen's daughter Amy desperately wants to go trick-or-treating like a normal kid. She is disappointed when, due to security concerns, Allen tells her daughter that she might have to settle for a party this year. More family matters arise when Rod, the First Gentleman, learns that he is being humiliated by late-night comics. This seriously affects his son, Horace, who tries desperately at school to stand up for his father, nearly getting into a physical fight. After the fight, Allen catches Rebecca making out with her boyfriend. Horrified by thinking that her daughter might be interested in sex, Mac kicks her boyfriend out of the White House, and orders Prado to have the Secret Service guard Rebecca's room, therefore preventing her from having her boyfriend in her room.
In the end, the terrorist plot is unraveled using the information found in the raid, and Allen averts the first real security crisis of her administration. Amy is allowed to go trick-or-treating. But when Allen discovers, via comments from Templeton, that Blackston had indeed allowed the imprisoned terrorist to be tortured, she is horrified and fires Blackston.
"First Disaster" Vincent Misiano Crystal Nix-Hines and Richard Arthur November 1, 2005 (2005-11-01) 14.640[8]
After a hurricane affects the state of Florida, an oil tanker off of the coast of the state is damaged. Large amounts of oil are spilled into the sea and though the ship stops leaking oil, it is only a matter of time before some hairline fractures break and more oil spills. President Allen is presented with two options: sink the ship in the hope that such a move would not rupture the hull or take it to a Florida port where it can be repaired. She orders it to return to Florida, so that should there be a further oil spill it will damage only a localized part of Florida as, alternatively, the oil could be carried with the Gulf Stream, which would carry the spill to a great part of the eastern coast. Nathan Templeton persuades the Governor of Florida to go to court so that the ship won't be allowed to go to port and it's instead forced to be sunk. However, the President then declares the ship part of the Coast Guard so that she can legally bring it into a naval port, which is federally controlled.
At the same time, there are controversies within the First Family, when the First Gentleman is considering to accept the office of Commissioner of Baseball, an action which disturbs the President, since her husband did not tell her about this offer and his serious consideration of it before telling their children and White House officials. The President's daughter Rebecca convinces her security officer to allow her to have ten minutes alone with her boyfriend outside of the view of the Secret Service which is making her self-conscious. However, as a result of this, the first child is swarmed by autograph-seekers and the First Gentleman removes the security officer from the presidential detail as a result.
The episode ends with President Allen reaching an agreement with Templeton and the Governor of Florida; the president will work with more funding for the state and will ensure that military bases which are being shut down elsewhere are transferred to Florida, providing thousands of new jobs, while the Governor allows the damaged tanker to enter a port in Florida.
"First Scandal" Dan Attias Rod Lurie and Dee Johnson November 8, 2005 (2005-11-08) 14.780[9]
A new book is released which reveals that President Bridges had asked Allen to resign the presidency on his deathbed. This results in a major crisis in the White House and protests in the streets outside. In the meantime, General Keaton's confirmation hearings are set to begin in the House of Representatives and Speaker Templeton appears set to reveal some damaging personal information on Keaton that a Republican congressman learned when the two were friends and serving together in the Army.
Rebecca convinces her father to allow her to go to a party hosted by her boyfriend and the two go alone to his room where he expresses his interest in having sexual intercourse with her. Rebecca, realizing that she likes him but this is something she is not yet ready for, declines and leaves and it is revealed to the viewers that her boyfriend was recording them with a hidden video camera.
Rod convinces President Allen to confront her chief of staff, Jim Gardner, on the book as Rod believed Gardner is the source. Gardner denies this and, citing the President's lack of trust in him, tenders his resignation. Eventually, he and the President discuss this and Gardner suggests that President Bridges himself may have been the source as he was very close to the author and often used him as a sounding board for his ideas. This, however, does not explain how the author obtained Allen's handwritten resignation speech which she penned after Bridges's death. As Press Secretary Kelly Ludlow said, on the night the speech was written it was "a full house". Among others Attorney General Melanie Blackston, now a rival, and Speaker Templeton could have swiped the letter.
Finally, as the House hearings on Keaton's nomination to the Vice-Presidency enter the late evening, questioning begins on the damaging personal information, which seems to relate to Keaton's deceased daughter, who we learn was a medical doctor and a single mother. Templeton halts the hearings, then informs Keaton that he knew what was coming forward and would not permit such dirty politics. Keaton expresses his gratitude and Templeton indicates he will expect the favor to be returned.
In the end, President Allen has a news conference in which she admits that Bridges had asked her to resign but that she would have been derelict in her duty as the elected Vice President to comply with his request. She agrees to answer all questions on the subject on the condition that the press gallery not raise the issue again. The Speaker announces that the House has held a snap vote and confirmed Keaton by a margin of 386–46 (a comment by the president that Keaton should "kick some tail, just like [he] did in the Senate" suggests that his nomination has already been confirmed by the United States Senate, as per the 25th Amendment) and the President returns Gardner's resignation letter unopened.
"Rubie Dubidoux and the Brown Bound Express" Jeremy Podeswa Steven Bochco November 15, 2005 (2005-11-15) 12.570[10]
At the White House, President Allen names her husband Rod as strategic planning advisor to assist her in transitioning her administration from reactionary to visionary. Gardner protests saying that strategic planning should be the purview of the chief of staff but the President explains to him that as the chief aide to an Independent President, he has a far greater workload in coalition building from issue to issue to fully focus on the big picture.
Using the information provided by lobbyists in the pharmaceutical industry, Speaker Templeton learns that Vince Taylor is HIV-positive and plans to exploit this information to embarrass the president. The speaker's aide, Jane, warns Jim of this as she believes it is taking matters too far. In the meantime, friends of Kelly's from Florida provide her with a 1965 speech of Templeton's making strong statements in favor of segregation. The President at first refuses to use the tape against Templeton. When Jim tells Allen about Vince's condition and private life, she confronts him. Vince accidentally offers her his resignation, and as a result, she fires him for not trusting her to tell her about this in the first place. Jim tells her that firing Vince was a bad idea and warns her about what else Templeton will do to her in the future, but the President at first refuses to have Vince hired again, as she cannot work with someone she can't trust. However, when she learns of Templetons plan to embarrass Vince and the President herself, she shows him the tape and warns him against embarrassing her or her staff. The Speaker fires Jane for having revealed his plan to Jim while the President hires Vince to work again.
Meanwhile, Rebecca's boyfriend turns out to have only been interested in sex and tells her that she can give him a call if she is interested in doing the same but in the meantime things are off.
Finally, Horace gets into a confrontation with Rebecca's former boyfriend as he is spreading rumors that he did, in fact, have sex with Becca. When Rod confronts Horace about getting an F and plagiarizing an essay, Horace responds, "What's worse a cheater or a slut?", letting his father know of what has happened to her daughter. Rebecca assures her parents that the rumors are false. Allen hears about the rumors and politely confronts her daughter in a suspicious, but not in a mild physical way, and reveals she was not a virgin herself when she got married. Rebecca is keeping her secret that she nearly did have sex with him. Her mother suggests talking to his parents. Becca refuses immediately. The President offers her to have him arrested under the Patriot Act and ship him off to prison in Syria. Becca knows her mother is joking, so she agrees.
The episode ends as the President reveals that she will be holding weekly news conferences and, with Vince at her side, reveals that he is HIV-positive and tells the American people that victims of the disease can be very productive members of society.
Starting with this episode Steven Bochco takes over as executive producer after replacing Rod Lurie.
"The Mom Who Came to Dinner" Chris Long Steven Bochco, Stuart Stevens, and Steven A. Cohen November 29, 2005 (2005-11-29) 13.660[11]
During the Thanksgiving holiday, Mackenzie's mother, Kate (Polly Bergen), comes to spend the holiday and is invited to remain permanently. Mac decides to invite Nathan Templeton and his wife to join them for dinner, which Kate insists on cooking herself much to the chagrin of White House tradition. When an independent commission proposes the closing of a major naval base in Mac's home state of Connecticut, which could devastate the local economy, Rod brings in Richard "Dickie" McDonald (Mark-Paul Gosselaar), a media consultant, to help build her image and lagging poll numbers. Mac also weighs her opinion on the fate of a woman on death row.
"Sub Enchanted Evening" Jesse Bochco Steven Bochco January 10, 2006 (2006-01-10) 11.400[12]
The first of a two-part-episode story arc, Allen is discussing the possibility of running for reelection with her family, when she is summoned to deal with a huge crisis: a submarine has just collided with a seamount and drifted into North Korean waters. Furious, she questions the Secretary of Defense, the Director of Central Intelligence, and a member of the Joint Chiefs as to why a submarine was there, to which they reply that it was sent on a spy mission ordered by President Bridges. Annoyed that she was kept out of the loop, Allen tells the trio that nothing will be kept from her.
Several plans are tossed around: Vice President Keaton even suggests abandoning the sub in fears that North Korea will find out about the entire operation. However, Allen brings in the subject of possible assistance from the Chinese, and Templeton is brought in, since he is on friendly terms with the Chinese Ambassador and knows the situation well over there. The United States can't send a rescue boat in time to save the crewmen inside the sub, so Allen and Templeton brainstorm and come up with the idea to ask the Chinese to pilot their rescue boat. This information, of course, is kept from most people in the White House to ensure that the secret of the submarine will not be compromised.
Allen and Templeton meet with the Chinese Ambassador, and expecting that the Chinese will want something in return, come up with the deal that they will let China sell arms to Myanmar and Algeria. The Chinese Ambassador takes the deal back to his government, and they accept the terms.
Plans are underway for the rescue mission, and Mac retires to her private residence. However, she is alarmed to find that the North Koreans have found out about the submarine, and that they consider the submarine in their waters to be an "act of war". Mac rushes to the Situation Room, and the episode ends here.
The episode also deals with Rebecca's reluctance to be a part of the reelection campaign, the negative aspects of Jane's new job as well as Jane's friendly encounter with Dickie, and the staff trying to figure out what's going on with the secret meetings.
"No Nukes is Good Nukes" Bobby Roth Steven Bochco January 17, 2006 (2006-01-17) 10.790[13]
As the submarine situation with North Korea increases, Mac is faced with a possible nuclear war. Templeton supports Mac by remaining at the White House but it becomes evident that he and Mac think differently on certain stands on leadership, determining how having Templeton in power might lead to a very different conclusion to the situation. After an intensive round of negotiation with the North Korean regime, Mac was able to secure China's help in order to use deep-sea rescue facilities to save the trapped sailors. After all of the sailors were rescued, Mac greeted them via a video link, the scene was subsequently broadcast to the nation. After this incident, Mac won over the support and respect of the Military, also the trust of the North Korean regime to a certain degree. The crisis was smartly averted and even Rebecca expressed her gratitude and appreciation to her mother.
"Wind Beneath My Wing" Greg Yaitanes Steven Bochco January 24, 2006 (2006-01-24) 10.380[14]
Templeton and Mac travel to California for the dedication of former President Bridges' Presidential Library. As Air Force One lands, the plane is held hostage by a man who demands to speak with the President or he will blow up the plane. Meanwhile, Kate watches the children while the first couple is out of town, and allows Horace and Rebecca to throw a party for their friends. One of the original texts of the Gettysburg Address is supposedly stolen but six-year-old first daughter Amy Calloway was hiding it to get back at her older siblings. Grandma Kate told them that if it never happened again, she wouldn't say anything.
"State of the Unions" Steve Shill Dee Johnson and Alison Cross April 13, 2006 (2006-04-13) 8.200[15]
Mac works on her upcoming State of the Union Address. Rod ends up in an odd position with an intern, after he trips on the way out of a restaurant as paparazzi take pictures of the incident. The following morning, a humiliating photo ends up on the front page of the papers, embarrassing Mac which threatens to politically deteriorate her image. Meanwhile, Templeton sets out to destroy Mac's Homeless Initiative Bill, in return for her to play "political hardball".
"The Price You Pay" Jesse Bochco Joel Fields April 20, 2006 (2006-04-20) 7.690[16]
Mac stands by her longtime friend and nominee for Attorney General, Carl Brantley (Adam Arkin), who suffers during his first Senate confirmation hearings after his background is checked. A cargo plane in Pakistan carrying sensitive military weapons goes missing and the Vice President uses his military skill to resolve the situation. Kate leaves for a date which troubles Mac and Rod who mistake her for being lost.
"Ties That Bind" Dan Lerner Alex Berger and Cynthia J. Cohen April 27, 2006 (2006-04-27) 6.510[17]
Mac asks the Attorney General to research the growing urban unrest in nearby Prince George's County, Maryland, the home of Chief of Staff Jim Gardner. Meanwhile, a friend from Jim's past pays him a visit at the White House to deliver a first-hand account of the situation. Mac is then informed on the situation of the missing surface-to-air missiles that went down during a military plane crash in Pakistan and are now available on the black market. Mac must use all of her necessary means to determine that the weapons do not fall into the wrong hands. Templeton champions the Templeton Act targeting domestic crime, which Mac threatens to veto, instead supporting more law enforcement and education over the bill's calls for harsher jail sentences. The Bill passes in the House and is expected to tie in the Senate. Templeton-reminding Keaton of the favor he received at his vice presidential confirmation hearings-asks Keaton for a political favor. As his ex officio role as President of the Senate, Keaton has the power to break tied votes. Keaton, seeing no other options proceeds to the Capitol Building, but upon arrival votes down the Templeton Act, and later tenders his resignation to Mac. When Dickie learns of Vince's plans for a commitment ceremony with his partner, he urges him not to invite Mac since it may hurt her in the polls.
"The Elephant in the Room" Bobby Roth Dee Johnson May 31, 2006 (2006-05-31) 5.540[18]
Mac has an appendix attack and is hospitalized en route to a west coast trip. Prior to the operation, she invoked the 25th amendment. She assumes that Templeton (Speaker of the House) would decline a short term presidency as it would require him to resign as congressman. Then the President pro tempore of the Senate would assume the temporary position. She assumed incorrectly. Her appendix is removed in Omaha, Nebraska, while Templeton takes the oath of the presidency.
Of course Templeton takes the opportunity to grandstand and forces a mandatory end to the crippling airline strike, undoing Mac's careful negotiations. An actual resolution was looming but is now dashed by Templeton's cheap trick.
Upon her healthy return to the White House, she calls Templeton into her office and gives him an angry piece of her mind. He's not the least repentant and she throws him out with a "Get the hell out of my office."
Dee Johnson replaces Steven Bochco as executive producer after he is fired by ABC. This marks the 3rd and final producer to take over the show in a period of 10 episodes.
"Happy Birthday, Madam President" Jeff Bleckner Stuart Stevens and Steven A. Cohen June 7, 2006 (2006-06-07) 5.310[19]
On Mac's birthday, she faces American hostages being taken in Turkey by a militant Kurdish group. Mac is also interviewing candidates to be her new Vice President which Dickie is very opinionated about. Rebecca's new IM buddy is shown to be a very unlikely friend.
"Unfinished Business" Rick Wallace Steven A. Cohen, Cynthia J. Cohen, and Dee Johnson June 14, 2006 (2006-06-14) 5.530[20]
Mac's determination to pass the Equal Rights Amendment divides her staff and family over the issue of women's rights. Jim continues to ponder Mac's vice president offer. He tells Mac that he "would be honored to be considered for the Vice-Presidency." Kelly's ex-husband, a journalist, pitches a story to the First Family which Kelly vouches for him on a professional level however is stunned to learn about his new family. Mac fires Dickie because he sabotaged her attempts to get the ERA passed. He then joins Templeton's team. Rebecca is charmed by a new boy she chats with online, who is revealed to be an intern working for Templeton. Templeton announces his presidential bid. The President and Templeton "debate" in a town hall style meeting, and the press and audience widely declare Mac as the winner.
"Little Shop of Horace"Edit
This episode was scheduled to air on February 21, 2006, after "Wind Beneath My Wings", and a promo was released.[21]
Mac weighs her options on how to deal with a situation in Africa when she learns genocide is taking place in a country there, and it becomes clear there are no easy solutions. Meanwhile, at Dickie's suggestion, Mac considers firing her current Cabinet - many of them holdovers from Teddy Bridges' administration - and bringing in her own in order to start with a clean slate going into her re-election campaign. At the same time, Rod makes a scheduled appearance at a joint U.S.-Cuban children's gymnastics convention, where a freak accident sparks an international situation, and Horace asks Rebecca's friend, Stacey, for help with his homework—but the two end up doing more than just studying.
The episode was written by Tom Szentgyorgyi and directed by Carol Banker.[21]
ReceptionEdit
Commander in Chief received generally positive reviews (although Davis' performance was largely praised as being a "successful comeback vehicle"), with an aggregate score of 56/100 (26 reviews) on Metacritic.[22] However, critics in major U.S. media, cited on the review site Rotten Tomatoes — while generally enthusiastic — commonly described the series as lacking "credibility," approaching "fantasy," and less about the presidency than about "gender politics."[23]
Reason magazine charged that the series glorified the "Imperial Presidency"[24] and that it favored using government force to impose the personal values of some Americans on others who disagreed with them and to impose the values of those Americans on the rest of the world.[24]
Negative comparisons were drawn[25] with 24's black president David Palmer, as while in that show a black president was depicted as having been voted into office under normal circumstances, Commander in Chief's storyline showed a female president only coming into the presidency because the existing president dies in office.
On the day the series premiered, Davis was reported to have said in an interview, "This is a show about every aspect of the life of a person who is president, the personal side and the public side."[26] A November 2005 review in USA Today noted the show's focus was more on Allen's family than world or national political events; in the same review, Allen's leadership style was compared and contrasted favorably with that of Josiah Bartlet of The West Wing.[27] A reviewer for United Features Syndicate wrote that "While 'Commander' avoids the overt wonkery of 'West Wing,' it also fails to give its audience much credit for knowing history or current events."[28]
The episode "Ties That Bind" generated further controversy and negative press in its fictional depiction of the bordering suburb of Hyattsville, Maryland, as having one of the fastest growing crime rates in the United States. It also indirectly depicted the town as being an urban ghetto dominated by poor minorities. The city and Prince George's County were very upset at ABC and somewhat surprised as well at this depiction; in reality, the city is ethnically mixed, middle-income and mostly suburban in density and character. On May 1, 2006, ABC formally apologized to both the city and county.
RatingsEdit
The series had good ratings initially, but they waned in subsequent weeks.
The series went on hiatus after its January 24, 2006 episode. In its place, ABC promoted a new Arrested Development-type show titled Sons & Daughters. Commander in Chief was scheduled to return on April 18. However, on March 29, ABC announced that it would instead return on April 13 and move from its Tuesday 9 p.m. slot to a 10 p.m. slot on Thursdays, directly competing with CBS hit Without a Trace and longtime NBC standby ER. Some media experts thought that ABC was hoping the show could be saved by gaining viewers from the surprise reality hit American Inventor aired right before Commander in Chief.[29] However, the reality show saw its ratings drop by half and proved to be a weak lead in to Commander in Chief.[citation needed]
The show's return on April 13 was met by low ratings in its new time slot. Preliminary ratings available on April 14 indicated that only 8.2 million viewers (2.4 rating/7 share in the 18-49 demographic) tuned in for the show's return. CBS's Without a Trace dominated the hour with 18.6 million viewers. NBC's ER, airing a repeat, beat Commander in Chief in the 18-49 demographic (2.6/7 versus 2.4/7), although it had about two million viewers less overall.[citation needed]
ABC pulled the series from its lineup on May 2, 2006, and on May 13 announced that the show had been cancelled. The remaining three episodes of the season were broadcast after the ratings year had ended.[2]
ProductionEdit
Starting with the episode Rubie Dubidoux and the Brown Bound Express, Steven Bochco replaced Rod Lurie as head executive producer and showrunner. Bochco's changes included a staff of new writers and a new title design similar in style to that of NBC's The West Wing.
Beginning with the episode State of the Unions, Dee Johnson replaced Steven Bochco as head executive producer and showrunner.
Part of the Greater Richmond Children's Choir (GRCC) of Richmond, Virginia was the French Choir in the pilot episode, making an ironic connection between real life and fiction since Mackenzie Allen was Chancellor of the University of Richmond when Bridges tapped her as his running mate as seen as a flashback in the pilot, the scenes in Paris were also filmed at the University of Richmond.
Former Clinton Administration National Security Advisor Sandy Berger was signed on as an advisor to the show.
Filming locationsEdit
City Hall - 200 N. Spring St., Downtown, Los Angeles, California, USA
Oriole Park at Camden Yards - 333 W. Camden Street, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Raleigh Studios - 5300 Melrose Ave., Hollywood, California, USA (studio)
University of Richmond - 28 Westhampton Way, Richmond, Virginia, USA
Washington, District of Columbia, USA
The Huntington Library - San Marino, California, USA
Intersection of North Vermont Avenue and Russell Avenue, Los Feliz, California, USA
Awards and nominationsEdit
2005 Satellite Awards Best Actress – Television Series Drama Geena Davis Nominated
2006 GLAAD Media Awards Outstanding Drama Series Commander in Chief Nominated
2006 Golden Globe Awards Best Actress – Television Series Drama Geena Davis Won[30]
2006 Golden Globe Awards Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film Donald Sutherland Nominated
2006 Golden Globe Awards Best Television Series – Drama Commander in Chief Nominated
2006 Golden Reel Awards Best Sound Editing in Television Short Form Episode: "Pilot" Nominated
2006 NAACP Image Awards Outstanding Drama Series Commander in Chief Nominated
2006 NAACP Image Awards Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series Harry Lennix Nominated
2006 People's Choice Awards Favorite New Television Drama Commander in Chief Nominated
2006 Primetime Emmy Awards Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series Geena Davis Nominated
2006 Screen Actors Guild Awards Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series Geena Davis Nominated
2006 Young Artist Awards Best Young Supporting Actress in a Drama Series Caitlin Wachs Nominated
2006 Young Artist Awards Best Young Actress Age Ten or Younger in a Comedy or Drama Jasmine Jessica Anthony Nominated
2007 Visual Effects Society Awards Outstanding Supporting Visual Effect in a Broadcast Program Episode: "The Wind Beneath Her Wings" Nominated
2007 Visual Effects Society Awards Outstanding Model and Miniatures in a Broadcast Program Episode: "Air Force One" Nominated
Home releaseEdit
On April 28, 2006, Buena Vista Home Video formally announced the release of Commander In Chief: The Complete First Season.[31] However, following the show's cancellation, it was decided that it should be split into two volumes.[32]
In Italy, the 5 DVD boxset was released on December 1, 2006 and it contains all original episodes dubbed in Italian plus voice tracks in English and Spanish and also special features the Pilot episode with comments by Rod Lurie and deleted scenes.[33]
DVD Name
Ep #
The Inaugural Edition, Part 1 10 June 27, 2006 N/A Episodes 1–10
The Inaugural Edition, Part 2 8 September 5, 2006 N/A Episodes 11–18, Interview with Geena Davis, Unaired Scenes, Bloopers, Exclusive Creator Commentaries.
The Complete First Season 18 N/A January 29, 2007 Interview with Geena Davis, Unaired Scenes, Bloopers, Exclusive Creator Commentaries.
International broadcastsEdit
Australia - Previously: Seven Network Australia (Original airing)
Currently: 7TWO (Encore Screening - 2009)
Asia - STAR World, Hallmark Channel
Belgium - Fox life
Bulgaria - Fox life as "Главнокомандващ"
Canada - CTV (English), Historia (French)
Denmark - TV 2
Estonia - Fox life
Finland - Nelonen
France - M6 then Téva
Germany - Sat.1 as "Welcome, Mrs. President"
Hong Kong - ATV World as 最高統帥 (Commander in Chief)
Hungary - Viasat 3 as "Az elnöknő" (Mrs. President)
India - STAR World
Indonesia - Metro TV
Republic of Ireland - RTÉ One
Israel - Yes Stars as "Gvirti Hanasie" (Madam President)
Italy - Rai Uno and Fox Life as "Una donna alla Casa Bianca" (A woman at the White House)
Japan - Fox life as "マダムプレジデント"
Kenya - NTV
Latin America - Sony Entertainment Television
Latvia - Fox life
Lithuania - Fox life
Malaysia - 8TV
Middle East - Showtime Arabia / MBC 4
Netherlands - Foxlife
New Zealand - TV2
Norway - TVNORGE
Philippines - STAR World
Pakistan - STAR World From October 12, 2007
Poland - TVP1 as "Pani prezydent" (Madam President)
Portugal - SIC as "Senhora Presidente" (Mrs. President)
Russia - Fox Life
Serbia - RTS 2 as "Predsednica" (Mrs. President)
Singapore - MediaCorp TV Channel 5
Slovenia - POP TV as "Gospa predsednica" (Mrs. President)
South Africa - SABC 2
South Korea - KBS2
Spain - People&Arts/La Sexta as "Señora Presidenta" (Mrs. President)
Sweden - TV4
Switzerland - SF zwei as "Welcome, Mrs. President" (German+English Bilingual)
Taiwan - Public Television Service as "白宮女總統" (Female President at the White House) [1]
Thailand - TrueVisions16 Hallmark Channel as "ประธานาธิบดีดอกไม้เหล็ก"(Iron Flower Mrs. President)
Trinidad and Tobago - CNMG
Turkey - DiziMax
United Kingdom - ABC1 (Apr 2006), More4 (10 October 2006), with repeats on More4, Channel 4, and E4
^ Gay, Verne."He's not blue about leaving network TV". The Boston Globe, September 5, 2007. Accessed 2 July 2009.
^ a b c "A Final 'Commander' Performance?" May 16, 2006, The Baltimore Sun retrieved June 15, 2020
^ "WEEKLY PROGRAM RANKINGS FROM 09/26/05 THROUGH 10/02/05" (Press release). ABC Medianet. October 4, 2005. Retrieved January 25, 2011.
^ "WEEKLY PROGRAM RANKINGS FROM 10/03/05 THROUGH 10/09/05" (Press release). ABC Medianet. October 11, 2005. Archived from the original on March 11, 2015. Retrieved January 25, 2011.
^ "WEEKLY PROGRAM RANKINGS FROM 10/10/05 THROUGH 10/16/05" (Press release). ABC Medianet. October 18, 2005. Retrieved January 25, 2011.
^ "WEEKLY PROGRAM RANKINGS FROM 10/24/05 THROUGH 10/30/05" (Press release). ABC Medianet. November 1, 2005. Retrieved January 25, 2011.
^ "WEEKLY PROGRAM RANKINGS FROM 11/07/05 THROUGH 11/13/05" (Press release). ABC Medianet. November 15, 2005. Retrieved January 25, 2011.
^ "WEEKLY PROGRAM RANKINGS FROM 01/09/06 THROUGH 01/15/06" (Press release). ABC Medianet. January 18, 2006. Retrieved January 25, 2011.
^ "WEEKLY PROGRAM RANKINGS FROM 01/23/06 THROUGH 01/29/06" (Press release). ABC Medianet. January 31, 2006. Archived from the original on July 28, 2014. Retrieved January 25, 2011.
^ "WEEKLY PROGRAM RANKINGS FROM 04/10/06 THROUGH 04/16/06" (Press release). ABC Medianet. April 18, 2006. Archived from the original on August 15, 2010. Retrieved January 25, 2011.
^ "WEEKLY PROGRAM RANKINGS FROM 04/17/06 THROUGH 04/23/06" (Press release). ABC Medianet. April 25, 2006. Archived from the original on February 3, 2013. Retrieved January 25, 2011.
^ "WEEKLY PROGRAM RANKINGS FROM 04/24/06 THROUGH 04/30/06" (Press release). ABC Medianet. May 2, 2006. Retrieved January 25, 2011.
^ "WEEKLY PROGRAM RANKINGS FROM 05/29/06 THROUGH 06/04/06" (Press release). ABC Medianet. June 6, 2006. Retrieved January 25, 2011.
^ "WEEKLY PROGRAM RANKINGS FROM 06/05/06 THROUGH 06/11/06" (Press release). ABC Medianet. June 13, 2006. Retrieved January 25, 2011.
^ a b "COMMANDER IN CHIEF (2/21)" (Press release). ABC Medianet. February 6, 2006. Archived from the original on April 28, 2012. Retrieved January 27, 2011. CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
^ "Commander in Chief Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 22 April 2019.
^ Dana Stevens (Slate (magazine)), Matthew Gilbert (The Boston Globe), Heather Havrilesky (Salon.com), et.al, cited in: "Commander in Chief Season 1," on Rotten Tomatoes, retrieved June 1, 2020
^ a b Healy, Gene (October 18, 2005). "Geena Davis Is Not My President". Reason.
^ Alston, Joshua (2008-02-11). "Diversity Training". Newsweek.
^ Jay Bobbin (Zap2it), "Geena Davis becomes ABC's 'Commander in Chief'," Albany Times Union, On TV section, p. 3, September 25, 2005.
^ Keveney, Bill (November 1, 2005). "Study in leadership styles". USA Today.
^ McDonough, Kevin (September 26, 2005). "Davis begins term as President". United Features Syndicate. Albany Times Union. Missing or empty |url= (help)
^ Maynard, John (2006-03-30). "Pulled After Approval Ratings Fell, 'Commander in Chief' Returning". The Washington Post.
^ "Fall TV schedule has Geena Davis, Damon Wayans and other stars you haven't seen in a while," September 15, 2016 The Washington Post retrieved June 15, 2020
^ Lacey, Gord (2006-04-28). "Commander in Chief - David Takes Office in October". tvshowsondvd.com. Archived from the original on 2008-10-22.
^ Lacey, Gord (2006-05-25). "Commander in Chief - One Set Become Two Volumes". tvshowsondvd.com. Archived from the original on 2008-10-22.
^ "Una Donna Alla Casa Bianca Stagione 1". dvd.it. Archived from the original on 2007-05-02. Retrieved 2006-12-31.
Commander in Chief on IMDb
Commander in Chief at TV.com
Commander in Chief at epguides.com
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Commander_in_Chief_(TV_series)&oldid=995095403"
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line358
|
__label__wiki
| 0.851574
| 0.851574
|
“LiveSpace Vietnam” to boost international exchange for young Vietnamese artists
NDO - LiveSpace Vietnam, a music project aimed at discovering new talents initiated by the by the French Cultural Centre-L’Espace in collaboration with Monsoon Music Festival and a number of organisers, has been launched in Hanoi.
Speaking at a press conference on January 12, Director of L’Espace Thierry Vergon expressed his hope that the LiveSpace Vietnam program, which will be held for the first time for Vietnamese artists, will, if successful, create opportunities to duplicate the project in Southeast Asia, thereby creating a playground for the award-winning artists of each country to exchange and share their passion for music.
He also said that when applying for the project, young artists and bands will have the opportunity to develop their expertise professionally, such as: performing on the professional stage of L’Espace, having their music products recorded, and participating in consulting workshops on performance expertise, composition, and recording technical standards for artists and live performance techniques for on stage.
In particular, young artists will also have a chance to sign an exclusive distribution contract for Fast Track and receive support from Believe, perform at Monsoon Music Festival 2021, and perform in many major cities across the country co-organised by L’Espace and Monsoon Music Festival, among others.
About 10-15 selected artists or groups will be introduced to the public through performances and through the votes of the audience the organising board will determine the final winners in October 2021.
The first concert of the upcoming series of LiveSpace Vietnam will take place at the stage of L’Espace at No. 24 Trang Tien Street, Hanoi, on January 16.
The event will gather together Limebócx, Chú Cá Lơ and Những Đứa Trẻ which promises to bring a colourful musical journey with multiple landscapes, ranging from rock to electro through the touches of traditional Vietnamese music.
Musician Quoc Trung, the founder of Monsoon Music Festival, also expressed his belief that the project will be successful and be held in a long term to develop professionalism as well as opening the door to international exchange for Vietnamese artists.
Mural raises awareness of environmental protection in Hanoi (18 hours ago)
Winners of 2020 Golden Apricot Blossom Awards honoured (Jan 15, 2021 10:59:59)
Literary, arts associations’ union holds 10th congress (Jan 14, 2021 17:09:41)
Artist Trieu Trung Kien: 'Cai luong' artists must work to make their shows more appealing to young audience (Jan 13, 2021 17:02:12)
New innovations in “industrial heritage” (Jan 13, 2021 15:01:20)
Outstanding cultural and art events in 2020 (Jan 13, 2021 09:13:33)
HCM City’s Book Street welcomes 11.5 million visitors in five years (Jan 10, 2021 15:39:47)
Seeking ways to develop independent film projects (Jan 08, 2021 16:42:38)
2020 in review: the silence and boom of cultural sector (Jan 07, 2021 17:06:09)
Winners of Dedication Music Awards 2021 announced (Jan 07, 2021 17:02:48)
Promoting heritage values of tug-of-war games and rituals (Jan 06, 2021 17:25:09)
Vietnamese ceramic artefacts to be promoted in ROK (Jan 06, 2021 14:11:49)
Turning cultural heritage into strength for national development: Deputy PM (Jan 05, 2021 22:15:05)
Seven more relics recognised as special national ones (Jan 05, 2021 13:52:24)
2021 Devotion Music Awards launched (Jan 05, 2021 09:49:03)
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line359
|
__label__wiki
| 0.846671
| 0.846671
|
Analysis shows cause of warming Antarctic waters
Rod Janssen climate change September 29, 2018
Recent scientific research confirms man’s impact on Antarctic waters. Kelsey Litwin explains in an article on the National Observer website.
For the first time, scientists prove human activity is the top cause of warming Antarctic waters
Neil Swart had barely begun his master’s degree at the University of Cape Town when he embarked on a three-month voyage to the South Pole.
While aboard a ship meant to resupply South Africa’s research facilities in Antarctica, enduring rocky waters and waves reaching 10 metres tall, Swart deployed instruments to record the Antarctic Ocean’s temperature.
At the time, Swart thought of himself as a volunteer helping further “someone else’s science.” He didn’t expect that 13 years later, the data he collected would allow him and a team of researchers to identify human activity as the number one cause of rising water temperatures in the Antarctic Ocean, also known as the Southern Ocean.
“It’s kind of nice to see it come full circle,” Swart, now a researcher with Environment and Climate Change Canada, told National Observer in an interview.
Along with other scientists from the department, and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in California, Swart found that changes seen in Southern Ocean temperature are directly tied to ozone depletion and human-induced greenhouse gas emissions, as opposed to regular temperature variations or responses to natural climate changes, such as volcanic eruptions or changes in the sun.
Their findings were published in the scientific journal Nature Geoscience on Monday.
Serious consequences for the ocean
While the connection between human-made greenhouse gas emissions and rising global ocean temperatures has long been understood, this is the first time it has been proven specifically for the waters that surround Antarctica, explained Swart.
Since industrialization, the ocean has absorbed nearly 40 per cent of human-made greenhouse gas emissions. The Southern Ocean, according to Swart, is responsible for absorbing the majority of those emissions.
“The Southern Ocean is the single most important region globally taking up the heat associated with global warming,” he said. As a result, it plays a huge role in mitigating the effects of climate change.
“If it weren’t providing these services, so to speak, we would be experiencing far more CO2 increases in the atmosphere. So understanding changes in this region is really critical.”
The consequences of human-induced warming in that region are not minor, he added.
“By driving an intense warming of these southern waters, we’re increasingly destabilizing the Antarctic ice sheet,” he said. That contributes to well-documented increases in sea level, affecting coastal populations, he explained, and “the warmer ocean water becomes, the less effective it becomes at absorbing CO2.”
Swart explained that as the ocean’s ability to absorb climate-warming carbon dioxide decreases, global temperatures stand to increase, all of which could lead to greater weather extremes, such as more heat waves and changes in or stronger precipitation events.
To attribute the rise in ocean water temperature in the region to human activity, Swart and his team used simulations based off historical data and recent observations. By removing contributing factors from their simulation, the researchers were able to pinpoint the the cause as being man-made greenhouse gas emissions and ozone depletion.
Fossil fuel production and consumption are some of the greatest emitters of greenhouse gases. In 2015, 26 per cent of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions came from the oil and gas industry.
In a 2012, Swart and Andrew Weaver – then a climate scientist, now an MLA in British Columbia and head of the province’s Green Party — published a controversial article in the journal Nature Climate Change. The pair suggested coal was a bigger threat to climate change than oilsands, while stressing that there was a need to move toward non-greenhouse gas emitting sources of energy and avoiding new fossil fuel infrastructure. After their research was used by pro-oilsands advocates to justify calls for expansion, the two scientists later reiterated that all fossil fuel use needs to be regulated to reduce global warming.
‘Zero emissions’ only way to stabilize climate
“It is very clear that to limit warming to any given (global temperature) target…there’s a finite amount of CO2 emissions that we’re allowed to make, kind of like a budget we’re allowed to spend,” said Swart.
“If we go above that, we will exceed that target threshold. We have to get to zero emissions at some point in the future if we were to stabilize the climate.”
While it’s a lofty goal, Swart said ozone depletion is a good example of a climate problem tackled by policy. The Montreal Protocol, which took effect in 1989, helped eliminate the production of chlorofluorcarbons, a chemical that contributed the depletion of the ozone layer and was once commonly found in refrigerators and aerosol sprays. In the decades since, there has been significant decrease in ozone depletion.
Last November, an amendment was added to the protocol to reduce production of hydrofluorocarbons, which are used similarly to chlorofluorcarbons. Titled the Kigali Amendment, it will come into effect on Jan. 1, 2019.
“As a result, the consequences of (ozone depletion) are not going to be as severe as they would have been if we hadn’t taken action,” said Swart.
“I think that provides a good model for the case with CO2 – that we also have to take some kind of similar action which ultimately deals with the problem.”
The Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change is one of the federal government’s attempts to take such action. The strategy, which was introduced in December 2016, is meant to significantly reduce Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. It intends to do so, in part, through a carbon tax scheme, which Ontario, Saskatchewan and Alberta have all opposed.
Canada has also committed to the Paris Agreement, along with 194 other countries in December 2015. Though not legally binding, in doing so, Canada also pledged to take action to limit a global temperature increase of 2 degrees this century.
Previous Post Edinburgh company says it will transform the way electricity is delivered
Next Post India’s energy transition sees some “gathering clouds”
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line362
|
__label__cc
| 0.506635
| 0.493365
|
‘Til death do you part
December 2, 2014 November 27, 2014 / Elliot Chan
Charles Manson granted licence to marry, as he should
By Elliot Chan, Opinions Editor
Formerly published in The Other Press. November 26, 2014
To me Charles Manson had always been the image of insanity, hate, violence, and murder. To me the man is unlovable, or better yet, undeserving of love. But is that how we punish people? Yes, we can abolish freedom and civil rights, but can we ever abolish love, whatever it is?
It’s been reported that the 80-year-old convicted murderer and cultural symbol of cruelty and bloodshed has been granted legal rights to marry his 26-year-old betrothed, Afton Elaine Burton. It’s a match made somewhere, anywhere, but definitely not heaven. However, their story is one that may be adapted into a Nicholas Sparks novel real soon. After corresponding over letters and telephone, Burton, at 19, moved to Corcoran, California to be closer to Corcoran State Prison where Manson is to be confined until the day he dies. Five hours on Saturdays and Sundays is all they get together, and will continue to get even as a married couple. To Burton, that is worth it.
Burton, a troubled young woman, found Manson the killer to complete her, and even though they will not live a normal life, it can be said that they will have a happy ending, especially when their situation is compared to all the other atrocities in the world. We often say: “Good things happen to bad people,” as if that explains all the injustice in the world, but what happens between two people has nothing to do with justice. Let’s just say he’s lucky to be imprisoned in North America. As far as murderers go, he is a lucky one.
But let’s not forget, Manson is being punished; nothing is going to change his sentence. And after he dies, Burton can move on with her life, infamous. If nothing more, his marriage is final attempt to spread his ideals, his deep dark history through public press and media.
Alternatively, I’d like to consider his story to be an inspiring one. After all, mistakes and loneliness are two of the most crippling struggles people have to deal with. Finding that special someone is not a simple task, and with real life obstacles, those who only have unrequited love may feel downtrodden and defeated. Don’t be discouraged, it doesn’t matter what you’ve done in life, there is always a chance for love. Hey, if Manson found it, so can you.
What’s funny to me is that America is a country where one of the world’s most notorious murderers can operate under the institution of marriage, while many same sex couples can’t. Nevertheless, same sex partners shouldn’t feel discouraged, since the movement is causing the general mindset to slowly but surely shifting in their favour.
Manson had a family before and he lost it all. He could have died a sad old man full of regrets, and many people like him do. But who’s to say he’s isn’t full of regrets? Who’s to say that he is happy? Who’s to say that he even understands what love is? Either way, marriage is not something that should be denied when there is mutual consent.
Afton Elaine Burton, Charles Manson, marriage, prision
← Keep your dogs off the ledge
We Day Vancouver Empowers Youth To Make Next Technological Leap in Global Activism →
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line366
|
__label__wiki
| 0.787835
| 0.787835
|
VP Howard-Taylor Enjoins Japan To Increase Women Participation In parliament; Addresses WPL Summit 2019
VP Howard-Taylor poses with fellow high profile women
Photo Credit: VP Office Photo
Monrovia, Liberia - Liberia’s Vice President Chief Dr. Jewel Howard-Taylor, has addressed the Women Political Leaders (WPL) Summit 2019, held in Tokyo, Japan encouraging the Japanese government to accelerate efforts in ensuring more women are involved in electioneering processes to enable them be elected in Parliament.
The WPL which kicked off June 25-27, 2019, is a global network of female politicians. It is an independent and non-partisan foundation, with Headquarters in Iceland, the global champion of equality between men and women.
The Summit organized by the WPL and Co-hosted by the House of Representatives of the People's Republic of Japan was held under the theme: “Advancing Society through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)”.
According to a dispatch, the Summit preceded the G-20 Summit which is hosted by the Government of Japan for the first time since the establishment of the Group of Twenty (G20) in 1999.
The Vice President, who is an Executive Board Member of the WPL, participated in a Panel Discussion on the topic: “Advancing Society with women as political leaders”.
In her articulate presentation, Madam Vice President commended the Japanese Parliament for hosting the WPL Summit while encouraging the Japanese government to accelerate efforts in ensuring more women are involved in electioneering processes to enable them get elected in Parliament.
She recounted Japan's low female parliamentarians performance which accounts for only 10% of females occupying seats in the lower house and 20% occupying seats in the upper house; a statistics which places Japan amongst the lowest in terms of females participation relative to the G20 Countries.
VP Howard-0Taylor also applauded the Women of Liberia who finally broke the "glass ceiling" by electing Former President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf as Africa and Liberia first female elected President, opening the doors for many women in Liberia and Africa at large.
The Liberian first female Vice President also called for the establishment of quotas in various countries to reflect women participation in Parliament and cabinet positions.
She emphasized support for women who are in elected positions and challenged women to support each other; reducing words and increasing actions.
Vice President Howard-Taylor shared the platform with Madam Fumiko Hayashi, Mayor of the City of Yokohama, Japan, Madam Anna Rossomando, Vice President of the Senate of Italy, Madam Paula Cox, former Premier of Bermuda, Madam Maria Loreto Carvajal Ambiado, First Vice President of the Chambers of Deputies of Chile, and Madam Hanna Burns Kristjansdottir, Senior Advisor at UN Women, Chair of the Board of WPL and former Minister of Interior of Iceland.
The Liberian Vice President also had diplomatic discussions with Mr. Ochade M. Osekwe, Executive Chairman of the Nigerian Chamber of Commerce & Industry in Japan.
The meeting centered on enhancing Liberia's energy sector and waste management.
Madam VP also had diplomatic exchanges with members of the Japanese Parliament and discussed ways in which both countries can collaborate in the area of democratic governance.
Meanwhile, VP Howard-Taylor also granted interview with Mr. Hidetake Miyamoto, Deputy News Editor, and International News Department of Japan.
The interview focused on the government of Liberia Pro-poor Agenda and how Japan has contributed immensely to infrastructure, agriculture and education in Liberia.
The 7th Tokyo International Conference for African Development (TICAD) to be held in August 2019 was high on the agenda.
The Vice President assured that President Weah is aware of TICAD and is expected to lead a high level delegation to foster relations between Liberia and Japan.
The WPL was founded in 2013 by Madam Silvana Koch-Mehrin. The 2019 WPL Summit witnessed the participation of over 230 women from more than 30 countries across the world.
More VP Press Releases
Jewel C. Howard-Taylor
Vice President of Liberia
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line367
|
__label__wiki
| 0.674853
| 0.674853
|
It’s time to take a look at the upcoming football matches set to appear live on our TV screens this week, so here’s a rundown. It’s...
The FA Cup Third Round draw in full live
So, here we are, it’s time for the eagerly anticipated full FA Cup Third Round draw live, and you can follow...
Ball numbers revealed for the FA Cup Third Round draw
The ball numbers have been revealed for the FA Cup Third Round Proper draw following this weekend’s Second Round Proper action....
Fans won’t be allowed to sing or chant when they return to stadiums
Yes, you read that headline right, football fans won’t be allowed to sing or chant when they are able to return...
Significant news has been confirmed on crowds returning to stadiums as Boris Johnson made his big announcement on Monday afternoon. There...
The predicted final 20/21 Championship table simulated on Football Manager
The predicted final Championship table simulated on Football Manager has been revealed, and it’s thrown up some surprises. Various media outlets,...
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line381
|
__label__wiki
| 0.763528
| 0.763528
|
Solo Films Could Be The DCEU’s Greatest Strength
in DC, Editorials, Movies
by FandomWire Staff January 4, 2018, 3:03 am
Well, it’s official. I can finally say it, guys. Aquaman is officially going to come out this year and I couldn’t be more excited as someone who definitely enjoyed Jason Momoa’s performance in Justice League which got me thinking about the DC Extended Universe as a whole.
As of late, the franchise has largely taken flack for all of the behind-the-scenes trouble that has surrounded nearly every film in the franchise excluding Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman and Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel which got me thinking about the franchise as a whole and how to actually win back people’s goodwill in a post-Justice League world and the future of the franchise is uncertain.
If Warner Brothers has the intentions of winning back the public trust and goodwill then they need to take a look at the two films in the franchise that were largely profitable and mostly critically well-received, Man of Steel and Wonder Woman. Currently, Man of Steel has a 55% rating from critics and a 75% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Obviously 55% on the site is technically “rotten” on the site but it only takes 60% to get fresh on the site which means that for the most part critics didn’t fully hate it or view it in the same way that they did Batman v Superman or Suicide Squad. The same is largely applicable for the audience who generally found the Superman reboot to be enjoyable and a much stronger film compared to later installments. Same goes for Wonder Woman, which is the highest rated DC Extended Universe production. It currently sits at a 92% critical score and an 88% which means that as a whole it was not a polarizing film and most people enjoyed it despite whatever problems that it may have had. They were also on of the most profitable films since Wonder Woman broke box office records left and right last year and is the highest-grossing superhero origin film in cinematic history. Now what exactly am I getting at here? Well, it’s quite simple. Solo films have been an untapped resource in the franchise that could prove to be it’s greatest strength and a way to win back the goodwill of the audience and actually hold on to that positive critical response for more than one movie. It would be best for Warner Brothers to exploit this in a positive way starting with Aquaman.
Before we had the Marvel Cinematic Universe, we largely had solo superhero outings such as Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, and Blade. These were truly historic films that we grew up watching again and again on DVD because they had a lot of fun, iconic, and memorable moments that kept you invested from start to finish. They spent every minute of their hour to two hour runs trying to tell us a good story, build the characters, and did nothing else. They weren’t trying to serve as a commercial and set up for Avengers 3000: Electric Boogaloo like a lot of comic book movies do today. They were self-contained. Granted, I do appreciate films like Avengers: Age of Ultron and Justice League despite it being a largely bad film with some good moments and a great cast but that can get boring at times if all we are starting to get is a bunch of over-hyped team films that never fully build up some of the characters to be what they should be since they largely serve as the pilot to set up for another film.
They are literally films to set up for other films. Wonder Woman, however, was a diamond in the rough. It truly was self-contained compared to other “solo” superhero outings like those in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It hardly referenced the events of prior films and wasn’t building to a sequel or an overall event like what other comic book movies have done as of late. Something that I and the audience welcomed with open arms since we did miss it a lot more than we realized and would love to see more of in the future. With this in mind it’s clear Warner Brothers has the upper hand to cure any potential “superhero movie fatigue” by doing something refresh while going back to the drawing board but for some reason can’t or will not use it.
In a little more detail here is how I would expect Warner Brothers to exploit the strength of the solo superhero film the way I see it. As I said previously, starting with Aquaman it needs to be made clear that “solo films” will be the biggest priority in the DC Extended Universe and they will be the ones that will have the most power behind them as far as money and manpower goes for the franchise. At least until they can find a way to produce proper build-up towards a full on team dynamic that feels earned which was a problem for the Justice League and Suicide Squad. The next step after that is to scrap Flashpoint since it’s too big of a concept for the first solo Flash movie in which the character is still going to have to learn to be a superhero and balance his new job as a crime scene investigator. Stop messing around and find an actual noteworthy director, scrap it, and then re-work it to be called The Scarlet Speedster (or something along the lines of that) and have it be a simple story that borrows it’s themes and tone from Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man. Do this with several other films that should be scrapped like Gotham City Sirens and Suicide Squad 2 and then rigorously screen and evaluate the scripts of every solo film and if they’re not to an actual high standard then scrap them and start over. Let the process take as long as it needs to. As much as I enjoy Ben Affleck’s Batman and would hate to see him go since I know it would hurt the franchise to lose a fan favorite but it’s maybe time to let him go so he can sort out his personal life instead of being a depressing liability since he clearly hasn’t come off as someone invested in the role anymore. Pass the torch to an actor who is talented and around the same age. Oh, and perhaps give Geoff Johns more than just an advisory role since he’s gotten an in-depth understanding of all of these DC characters since he’s written comics about pretty much all of them. He’s proven that he is the man who should be steering the ship of this universe for it’s solo outings as he has done wonders for correcting the mistakes made with the comics after the New 52 and knows how to write a film since he worked under Richard Donner. Let us not forget that he has written numerous episodes of Smallville and The Flash, both of which have been able to please both fans and critics alike.
I guarantee you that if half of this stuff happened nobody would be complaining. Fans and critics alike are a lot more simple than Warner Brothers executives think. We don’t ask much except for a good movie!
What do you think of these thoughts? Let us know in the comments below!
DCDC Extended UniverseWarner Bros.
Previous article Netflix’s ‘Bright’ Sequel Confirmed
Next article Walter Hamada Tapped To Be New DC Films Boss
Peacemaker: Suicide Squad Spin-Off Series Adds Four New Cast Members
Black Adam: Trinkets Actress Quintessa Swindell Cast As Cyclone
in DC, Lists, Movies, News
Wonder Woman 1984: First Reactions Arrive With High Praise
Wonder Woman 1984 Hitting Theaters & HBO Max December 25
in DC, Exclusives, Movies, News
EXCLUSIVE: The Flash Approaching Bale, Kilmer, Clooney, & Huge Surprise Cameo
Netflix’s ‘Bright’ Sequel Confirmed
Walter Hamada Tapped To Be New DC Films Boss
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line382
|
__label__wiki
| 0.569066
| 0.569066
|
Vivid vision of EWL dream
EWL in Media
EWL blog
Cross-border posting of workers
Legalization of employment of foreigners
Real estate rental
Development of recruitment network
CSR activities | EWL in Media | News | Reports
Author:Anatoliy Zymnin
Anatoliy Zymnin
85% of Poland’s eastern migrant workers not going to homeland for Christmas – Notes from Poland
The vast majority of Poland’s many eastern European immigrant workers will not return to their home countries for Christmas, a study has found. While the pandemic and associated restrictions are one factor, half of those remaining in Poland are doing so in order to continue working. The research was conducted by the University of Warsaw’s Centre for East European Studies in collaboration with EWL, a recruitment agency. The study surveyed 1,350 migrant workers, mostly from Ukraine, as well as Belarus, Moldova, Georgia and Russia.
Ukrainians make up the majority of the estimated two million foreigners living in Poland, while Belarusians, Moldovans, Russians and Georgians are also among the top seven national groups.
As Poland experiences an unprecedented wave of migration, it has issued more first residence permits to immigrants from outside the EU in each of the last three years than has any other member state.
Among those interviewed in the new study, 84.5% said that they will remain in Poland for the holidays (in both December and January), with only 9% saying they would be returning to their home country. Two thirds of the migrant workers say that it will be their first time spending Christmas in Poland.
Among those staying, almost half (48%) said it is in order to work over the holidays. Only 16.5% say they are remaining due to coronavirus restrictions, while a further 14% say they want to avoid quarantine and 8% that they fear for their health or that of their family.
The interviewees were also asked about how they will celebrate Christmas. Two thirds said that they will do so both in December, as is traditional in Poland, as well as in January, as is common for many Orthodox Christians. Almost 13% say they will not celebrate Christmas at all.
Just under a fifth say that they will meet with their compatriots or other immigrants, while only 7% will spend time with Polish friends. Almost a third plan to connect with family by phone or online, and just 7% say they will attend church service. Only 29% expect to receive a gift, while 39% say they have no such hopes.
Although a majority say that their feelings over the holiday will be ones of joy (56%) or excitement (11%), a significant minority say it will be a time of longing (16%), sadness (11%) and anxiety (8%).
“The restrictions relating to the pandemic are difficult for Poles, but for foreigners working here they are doubly burdensome because they are far from their families,”
says Andrzej Korkus, CEO of EWL.
“We appeal to all employers who have hired foreign workers to remember about those for whom these holidays are being spent separated from their loves ones,”
he added.
Source: Notes from Poland
Let’s help together not only during Christmas!
Anatoliy Zymnin Published: 29.12.2020
CSR activities | News
Christmas wishes from EWL
Rzeczpospolita: The Polish labour market opens up more to Belarusians
Academy Ocean, i.e. onboarding and remote training
Elena Lytvynenko Published: 23.10.2020
The Labour market during the pandemic
Michał Wierzchowski Published: 22.10.2020
Follow us on a daily basis
West Station II,
Working with EWL
We answer within 2 hours (on working days from 8:00 to 16:30).
(Mon. Fri. 08:00 – 16:30)
Copyright © EWL Group. All rights reserved.
For foreign workers
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line384
|
__label__cc
| 0.67649
| 0.32351
|
Gaming / News
by: Frankie Stein
Top-5 poker players in the gambling history
Poker is becoming more and more popular every year, and the reason for this is the fact that you can make money just with a little effort. At the same time, many professionals have earned their first million in poker, and some of the players have even become famous all over the world, primarily due to their aggressive and successful game. In this article, we will tell you about the most prominent poker legends, as well as how exactly these players have earned such a portion of fame.
Top 5 Best Poker Players
1. Doyle Brunson
This player is considered to be the “Godfather” of modern poker. After all, he was at the origins of modern Texas Hold’em, when all others preferred to play Seven Card Stud. In 1988, he was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame, for his achievements and victories. Brunson is not only a good player but also the author of several books, the most famous of which is “Super System” on how to properly build your game to get the highest payouts by controlling emotions, watching other plays, and numerous similar tips.
2. Phil Ivey
This poker legend is considered by many to be the best player of our time. He won more than $22 million in his entire career, and this is only in offline tournaments, not counting the games on the Internet.
3. Daniel Negreanu
This Canadian player with Romanian roots is probably the most recognizable person in the gambling world today. He always represents “PokerStars” in their advertising campaigns. A distinctive feature of this legendary player is his incredible ability to feel his opponent, to find an approach to them, and understand what cards they are playing against him. Negreanu perfectly understands the psychology of the game, he knows how to “read” a person during communication and to find out exactly how he or she plays poker.
4. Phil Hellmuth
He is known worldwide as the man who was able to win a record number of WSOP bracelets – 13. Interestingly, Hellmuth considers himself to be the most prominent player in poker history. He has made the most of the final tables at the big tournaments and, according to him, he could have won every tournament he took part in if there was no element of luck in poker.
5. Chris Ferguson
This player is nicknamed “Jesus” because of his long brown hair and modest table behavior. After all, even though he was able to win almost $10 million, he behaves very quietly and calmly at the table, which makes it almost impossible to “read” him. Long hair, a beard, and a cowboy hat are all that his rivals see at the table.
Many people would like to win the title of the best poker player. However, a really brilliant poker career has been built by a limited circle of people. Nevertheless, such a chance is really given to everyone. Just try your luck!
CasinoChris FergusonDaniel NegreanuDoyle BrunsongamblingPhil HellmuthPhil Iveypoker
Frankie Stein
Frankie Stein is from Italy, but lives in Ingolstadt, Germany. Her hobbies are: reading about science, doing experiments, and travelling. She's been all around Europe and loves Scotland, London, and Russia. Her boyfriend is called Victor and they both love listening to The Cure, reading Byron, and gazing upon William Blake prints.
You won the Powerball – what’s next? A guide to claiming your payout
Most Popular TV Shows That Involve Gambling
Strong bets: Test your luck with these online casino games
The coolest movie poker scenes in history
TOP 10 gambling celebrities
The Top 5 Hollywood Gambling Movies
Here are all the best poker scenes in movie history
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line385
|
__label__cc
| 0.563834
| 0.436166
|
dustin milligan silicon valley
Dustin Milligan Height. He presently resides in LA, California. Dustin Milligan was born on July 28, 1985 in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada as Dustin Wallace Milligan. Dustin Wallace Milligan (born July 28, 1985) is a Canadian actor, known for his role as Ethan Ward on the teen drama television series 90210 and as Ted Mullens on Schitt's Creek. Bedenker Mike Judge verhuisde in 1987 naar Silicon Valley, een regio die bekendstaat om de vele technologiebedrijven die er gevestigd zijn.Judge sloot zich er aan bij Parallax, een bedrijf van zo'n 40 werknemers dat gespecialiseerd was in videokaarten.Omdat hij zich stoorde aan de bedrijfscultuur en zijn collega's stapte hij al na drie maanden op. The couple is now engaged and planning to get married soon. Dustin Milligan Age. Milligan at the Repeaters premiere in September 2010. Even after Repeaters, the duo went on to work together on HBO's Silicon Valley. You might know Dustin from TV shows like Schitt’s Creek or Silicon Valley, but the guy… His current age is 33 years old as of 2019. Dustin Milligan has a height of 1.79 m, that is approximately 5 feet 10 inches or 179 cm. Dustin Milligan was born on July 28, 1985 in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada as Dustin Wallace Milligan. He was born on 28th July 1985.
He is an actor, writer and producer, known for Extract (2009), 90210 (2010), Schitt's Creek (2014), Silicon Valley (2015), Me Him Her (2015) and Dirk Gently (2016). WikiMili. Schitt's Creek actor, Dustin is dating a Canadian actress, Amanda Crew, who currently appears in the comedy TV show, Silicon Valley. Dustin Wallace Milligan (born July 28, 1985) is a Canadian actor who portrays Ted Mullens on Schitt's Creek.. Career . Dustin Milligan Last updated January 03, 2020. Dustin Milligan, Actor: Schitt's Creek. Photo: Dustin Milligan and his fiancee, Amanda Crew at Laurel … Image: Dustin Milligan and Amanda Crew Source: Pinterest. Dustin Milligan was born in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada. Dustin Milligan was created on July 28, 1985 in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada as Dustin Wallace Milligan. He’s an actor, article writer and maker, known for Draw out (2009), 90210 (2010), Schitt’s Creek (2014), Silicon Valley (2015), Me Him Her (2015) and Dirk Lightly (2016). See all photos. He currently resides in Los Angeles, California. Dustin Milligan was born on July 28, 1985 in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada as Dustin ... Born: July 28, 1985 Photos. This height suits his body composure and figure. They might want to keep their personal space away from public attention, which paparazzi has respected so far. Dustin Milligan was born on July 28, 1985 in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada as Dustin Wallace Milligan. He is an actor, writer and producer, known for Extract (2009), 90210 (2010), Schitt's Creek (2014), Silicon Valley (2015), Me Him Her (2015) and Dirk Gently (2016). Dustin Milligan. Productie. He is an actor, writer and producer, known for Extract (2009), 90210 (2010), Schitt's Creek (2014), Silicon Valley (2015), Me Him Her (2015) and Dirk Gently (2016). Dustin Milligan is a man very in touch with his masculinity, and if you caught him recently as one of the winners on RuPaul’s Celebrity Drag Race - you’d see he’s clearly in touch with his femininity just as much.
Where To Buy Amiibo, Psalm 100 (enter In Sheet Music), 2004 Kumbakonam School Fire, American Shorthair Black And White, Salt Bath For Stitches After Birth, Xenophon Oeconomicus Quotes, What Is Madcap, Do Jellyfish Have Organs, South Africa Water Crisis Solutions, Pyaar Ki Yeh Ek Kahani Written Updates, E-commerce Delivery Partners, Pawn Sacrifice Netflix, Forbidden: Dying For Love Be My Savior Amanda, Sakalakala Vallavan Hitu Song, Munificent-class Star Frigate, Rice Cooker Desserts, Coturnix Quail Lifespan, Introduction To Metazoa, Why Do Cats Purr Loud, Rocky Mountains Highest Peak, Slowhand At 70 High Time We Went, Rear Meaning In Tamil, Critical Appreciation Of Strange Meeting, Red-whiskered Bulbul Baby, Are Anoles Nocturnal, Kolamavu Kokila Full Movie Tamilgun, Nasa Tracking Asteroids, Old Train Images Hd, La Belle Beauty School Flagler, Subnautica Vr No Fire, Persian Empire Map, Secret Lair Godzilla, Wingspan Board Game Target, Franklin Expedition Photos, All Mine Album, Lobsang Sangay Wife, Athulya Ravi Salary, Worksheet On Revolt Of 1857 For Class 8, Characteristics Of Frog, Mudinja Vaalu Telugu Movie, Coming Down Movie, Maruti Omni Wiki, Dbs Ending 9, The Secret Online, What Happens When Two Old Souls Meet, Feel My Love Arya Lyrics, Air America Radio, Kid Rock Woodstock 99, Fresh Horses Blackadder, The Last Gunfighter, Ye Dil Mera Episode 27 Dailymotion, Describe The Structural Differences In The Mouth Of A Crayfish And Of An Earthworm, Hanuman Chalisa Fast, How Is A Parabola Different From A Hyperbola, John Bolt Actor, Pike And Shotte Faq, Bill Viola: The Passions, Air Tycoon 5 Unlimited Money, Anuradha Paudwal Daughter, A Better Son/Daughter, Jacobs Well What To Bring, Bad Manners - Can Can, Red Dead Redemption 2 Xbox One Digital, Giant Day Gecko Morphs, V-rally 3 Gba Rom, Lds Primary Repentance Activity, Goblin Market Quotes, Gran Turismo Sport VR, Oldest Living Western Actor, The Futurological Congress Movie, Antonym For Tears, Return To Ravenhearst Eye Puzzle, Live In The Light Of Hope, Colonial Williamsburg Tickets, Blacktail Deer Hunting Gear, Music Was My First Love Chords, Seen It All Meaning, Porcupine Caribou Adaptations, What Was Disturbing To The Public This Chris Ofili Painting?, Barbary Dove Pet,
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line397
|
__label__cc
| 0.647987
| 0.352013
|
Search in titles only Search in Druitt, Montague John only
Druitt, Montague John
What makes Druitt a viable suspect?
Simon Wood
Nicely played.
Never believe anything until it has been officially denied.
Originally posted by Wickerman View Post
Hi RJ.
Yes, agreed. Police suspicion ranks head & shoulders above that of the modern theorist, even when the evidence behind that suspicion no longer exists. And, especially a police officer who was still on the force at the time the suspicion was recorded.
Suspicions voiced by the likes of Anderson, Swanson, Sagar & Abberline while they were still on the force would be invaluable, but alas we have none.
And that’s why I say that handful of suspects need to be cleared before we go inventing others. Druitt, Tumblety, Koslowski etc.
G U T
There are two ways to be fooled, one is to believe what isn't true, the other is to refuse to believe that which is true.
Wickerman
I guess there must be more than one Hampstead murder - I have 1890 for the Hampstead Murder Case.
Regards, Jon S.
rjpalmer
I guess there must be more than one Hampstead murder.
It's a rough area. People bludgeoning each other to death with copies of Jane Austin's Emma.
JeffHamm
Originally posted by rjpalmer View Post
Hi Jeff. I just popped in, so I can give you an immediate response. That's one interpretation, but you should have added the word "maybe..."
Hi rjpalmer,
Fair enough, though I intended phrases like "...makes me think..." and "...it looks in some ways that Abberline could very well know ..." to signal the same, that I was presenting just one of many possible interpretations. I in no way intended to suggest what I was putting forth was the one and only interpretation.
I know what you are saying, and even to a large extent agree with it, but, unfortunately, this observation in no way demonstrates that Abberline had knowledge of the entire 'case against Druitt.' It is still entirely unclear and uncertain how much he knew. He could have had full knowledge, and concluded that the 'evidence' did not incriminate Druitt (probably what Phil Sugden believed); or, on the other hand, he could have had almost no knowledge of the circumstances surrounding Druitt beyond the drowning, and thus said what he said out of a position of ignorance.
I fully agree. I was just noting that even if Abberline did have full knowledge, he could still have expressed his belief as he did, and MacNaughten express his belief as he did, without creating the situation where one of them must be lying as I was suggesting they are using different criterion; which seems to be the issue going on now. And, because that "different criterion" explanation doesn't require us to ignore data, rather it explains data, I think it is fair to consider it a viable (if not proven) hypothesis.
There is no way of knowing which of the two he meant by his bare statement alone. And we still have the issue of his retirement, and Mac claiming the information was "private."
Yes, that is always the case when we can not go back and ask the people exactly what they meant. We are forced to make inferences about their intentions, and often there are a number of inferences possible. I just noticed that one inference could be made that resolved the apparent conflict between the two would be to liken the difference of opinions expressed to the current discussion. The two could have (not did, but could have) access to exactly the same information and yet through different criterion of evaluation present their arguments in diametrically opposed wording. We're seeing that here after all.
The whole idea of ‘suspicion’ against this or that suspect is an odd one. Some people have nearly devoted their working lives to prove that this or that person was never a serious suspect (Tumblety, Druitt, take your pick) thus hoping to prove something, while others, gleefully acknowledge that their ‘suspect’ was never suspected by the police (Lechmere, Hutchinson, Francis Thomson, Maybrick, ad infinitum) yet are none the less certain he is the guilty party.
True. I view "suspect" and "guilty" as separate, in many ways in that one can be a suspect and yet in truth be innocent, and one can be in truth guilty and yet not suspected. The latter do not get researched because without suspicion there is no motivation to research them (even if one finds something serendipitously upon that find the person becomes a suspect and further research ensues). So, I think there needs to be something that gets the ball rolling though. Wtih Druitt and Tumblety we have their names from contemporary police officers, Hutchinson, while apparently not suspected at the time, admits to being in the vicinity of Miller's Court at a time close to when the murder may have occurred, and Sarah Lewis's testimony seems to corroborate that. Modern researchers put him on this suspect list because of that fact (right place right time), Maybrick is there because of the Diary, Lechmere/Cross because he found Nichols, and so forth. Again, there is something that draws attention to them. Suspects, like Royal Doctors and so forth, have nothing to put them on the list and so I would argue those sorts of "suspects" are misnamed as such (Lewis Carrol, for example - I'm sorry, but anagrams are not evidence of anything, they are the result of games and fantasy).
This is why I think in the context of JtR, because we're not police working on a cold case, but historical researchers examining a historical crime, suspect just means "person for whom suspicion is held", or in other words, "the person at the focus of the research into the identity of JtR". If your "suspect" appears to be drawn from a hat by chance (i.e. Lewis Carrol), then you're leaving it to chance you happened to pick the right person. If your suspect comes by being named by a contemporary police officer, that's probably a good starting point. But it still doesn't mean you've got the right person. Research, once it clears somebody (proves they could not have been JtR), can then be said to have served it's purpose. Druitt is not entirely out of the question, hence people continue to research his life. Even if he were cleared, there are interesting questions remaining to be answered - such as "What was that private information that MacNaughten had?"
Ultimately, suspicion, or lack thereof, does not prove a person’s guilt...…nor his innocence.
So, in one respect, the entire argument is a lost cause, if one wishes to PROVE guilt.
Entirely agree.
I think what Paul B might be suggesting is that police suspicion, in itself, signals that there must be something more to a ‘suspect’ than meets the eye. It’s a way of dispelling the ‘nay sayers.’ Agree with them or not, Anderson, Swanson, Sagar, Mac, Littlechild, Race?, etc. must have had their reasons. Most sensible people would acknowledge this.
And it might even lead somewhere.
Yes, evidence of suspicion by contemporary police officers is a good reason for us to be interested in someone. They had access to a lot of information lost to us. While we don't know what it was, they did and if they held suspicions, that should be of interest to us.
For example, in the case of Kosminski, nowhere does Macnghten mention the incident with Kosminski’s sister and the knife. He said there were ‘strong circs.’ but didn’t not elaborate. It was subsequent research that turned up the incident with the knife, which tends to demonstrate that Macnaghten was not talking out of his hat.
Yes, that's what research does. It turns up information, and by adding that new information to our storehouse of evidence, previous evidence that was unclear starts to make sense. Research into Druitt, for example, shows that while he was not a doctor, his father was. That sort of factual error looks to me like a standard memory error, remembering Druitt as a doctor rather than as the son of a doctor. If it was a memory error, then an interesting question becomes "To what extent did that memory error influenced MacNaughten's thinking about Druitt as JtR?" And if that memory error influenced his thinking, then our confidence in MacNaughten's view might likewise require some caution. Again, this is only one hypothetical line of reasoning I'm not saying it is the only one (see below).
So, in that respect, police suspicion suggests there were reasons for suspicion, and it may not be entirely hopeless to uncover further data that could reveal what those reasons were.
Absolutely. Because, even if my above hypothetical line were true, it may also be true that the other information he had would be strong enough on it's own to warrent suspicion and so forth. This is why research is necessary. We can't say MacNaughten's factual errors are fatal to his suspicions without knowing all of the information he had available at that time. We cannot weigh his evidence without knowing what his evidence was. We know his conclusion, just not how he got there. Research, hopefully, will enlighten us. Until then we just have hypotheses, and those are only answered with data.
And, once again, I personally have no issue with the actual Ripper being a bad “suspect.”
Nor do I, though personally, I'm not really concerned with identification of JtR just yet. Mostly, I think there's lots to be done just sorting out the details of what even happened, and who saw what, etc.
- Jeff
P.S. In terms of serendipity, for example, there is the Henry/ Harry Buckley thread, where Trevor apparently has suggested this may be "Blotchy Face/Carroty Mustache" man seen with Kelly. If that identification is correct, given that blotchy is considered by many as a good "unnamed suspect", Buckley could now very well be considered a "suspect", even though one could argue we can't be sure he actually was blotchy. That "one in the same" connection hasn't been proven, but it has been suggested and there are interesting circumstances that now make him worthy of investigation. He becomes a "suspect" in the historical JtR sense. But that's going off topic.
Last edited by JeffHamm; 05-18-2019, 12:43 AM.
How anybody can argue the arse out of a phenomenon who/that/which never happened is completely beyond me.
Wake me up when someone finds some solid proof against one suspect or another.
Originally posted by Simon Wood View Post
You may end up with the nickname Rip Van Winkle if we must let you sleep until solid proof is found.
That tells me all I need to know.
No Paul, it would not make you a suspect.Only if the suspicion could be proven,would you become a suspect.Forget the dictionary,instead look to the general principle of 'A person is considered innocent until proven guilty'.Like it or not,police jargon as you call it, cannot be ignored. Suspicion,investigation,conclusion. I believe all three stages apply whether the Ripper killings are considered in a historical or police investigative manner. As no investigation into the suspicions of the Druitt family can be proven to have been undertaken,then no conclusion as to Druitt being suspect is acceptable. MM did not declare a belief in Druitt's guilt,nor did he use the word suspect in relation to Druitt. He simply declared a belief that the family were genuine,meaning the suspicions were real to them,the family.In no way does MM suggest that any other person or agency held such suspicions.,or what form the suspicions took. No Herlock,I do not insist on anything,you are incorrect yet again.It is true I consider Druitt of some interest,but how other persons view him is up to them.
Abby Normal
this isnt a modern court case. its history. good grief why cant you understand?
Who is talking about a court case Abby? It is a crime case that is under consideration.If that is your contribution,then I have nothing to worry about.
id be worrying about dementia if i was you.
PaulB
Yes, it would make me a suspect. I would be a suspect because you suspected me. Your suspicion doesn't convey guilt, it simply means that you, if nobody else, have reasons to think I could be guilty. It is only 21st century policemen who distinguishes between different types of suspect and what they may mean by 'suspect' isn't the way the majority of people understand and use the word. We don't 'forget the dictionary', Harry, we forget the jargon.
No matter how you approach 'Jack the Ripper', be it as a cold-case investigation, a historical mystery, or an event in the past, you have to judge people by the time in which they lived, and that means understanding what people meant by the words they used. In the late 19th century 'gay' almost exclusively meant cheerful and jolly, and if a man described himself as 'gay' he almost certainly wouldn't have been referring to his sexual orientation, and talk of a 'gay parade' would have conveyed something totally different to what it does today. If you start applying the modern meanings to what people wrote and said in the past, you'd very quickly end up with a horrendously distorted view of what was going on. That's why you do not apply 21st century word usage, especially modern jargon, to the 19th century. And that, amongst other reasons, is why this subject is history. It is necessary to understand that 19th century world, not apply our world too it.
So, Macnaghten thought Druitt was the most likely suspect to have been Jack the Ripper. That much is abundantly clear from the sources we have. As has been explained, Macnaghten wrote of information implicating Druitt having been received by the police some years after mid-1889 and he also wrote of private information from which he deduced the beliefs of Druitt's family. It is assumed that this information was one and the same, and it is also assumed that the information came from Druitt's family, but neither assumption need be correct. You are making an assumption about Druitt's family too. The rest of what you say has been gone over time and time again.
We have one source for Druitt,and that was MM."H e was sexually insane,and from private info I have little doubt that his own family believes him to be the murderer"
His own family.No evidence Druitt was sexually insane ,and the wording clearly indicates MM was not talking about his (MM)'s belief of Guilt,but the family's.
Yes it has been gone over many times and still, the same untrue and misleading claims that it was MM who had the beliefs of guilt.Well tell me the words that MM used to describe his(MM)'s beliefs,or the words that others used.Anyone?
My jargon,,and I am entitled to it,is preferable to the jabber constantly sprouted by those supporting Druitt as suspect,and being as I was never in the police,it isn't police jargon I use.They are so wrong again.
Well AbbyI suppose it's your own condition that allows you to speak of dementia,but keep it up,personell abuse seems to be the last desperate attempt to sell the Druitt non starter.Damn,that jargon again.
No Herlock,I do not insist on anything,you are incorrect yet again.It is true I consider Druitt of some interest,but how other persons view him is up to them.
This talk of the use of the word ‘suspect’ is a meaningless quibble Harry. It’s achieving nothing. whether we feel that Druitt should be considered as one or a person of interest or any other title that we decide to bestow. So why is it so important to you and Trevor that we should call Druitt a person of interest? As I’ve said, you and Trevor and anyone else are free to do so and I won’t even comment on it. I don’t see why you should insist that everyone else follow suit though Harry? Does whatever title we select for Druitt affect how we treat his candidature or discuss matters? I really can’t see how? This isn’t a police investigation where a more rigorous kind of classification would have been necessary. As I said in my earlier post Harry, a suspect can turn out to be innocent and yet a person of interest can turn out to be guilty. This isn’t personal Harry. I’m not criticising you because you see Druitt as a poor candidate. I happen to disagree...so what. All I’m saying is that an inordinate amount of time on here is being wasted on an issue that’s completely trivial.
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line399
|
__label__cc
| 0.551173
| 0.448827
|
The Panoramic Museum of the Battle of Borodino
26 May, 2020 26 February, 2018 by admin
Visit the Panoramic Museum of the Battle of Borodino: main information
Visit the Panoramic Museum of the Battle of Borodino, one of the great museums of Moscow. Getting to know the Panoramic Museum of the Battle of Borodino is ideal for a guided tour. Tour the Panoramic Museum of the Battle of Borodino only with Free Tours Russia who offers you the best tour services in Spanish.
Tour the Panoramic Museum of the Battle of Borodino
The Panoramic Museum of the Battle of Borodino is located in the vicinity of the Parque de la Victoria, on the opposite side of the subway street of the city. This place now includes several departments and has three exhibitions. Here it is given place to the exhibition of the facts happened during the Patriotic War of 1812. As well as of the General Battle in the town of Borodino. In the “Kutusov Hut”, visitors can find details about the military council of the Russian generals, which happened in the Fili Village on September 13, 1812. This is the “Museum of the Heroes of the Soviet Union and Russia” ” Which, is dedicated to the deep traditions of Russian heroism. It is made up of collections has a long and hectic history. It is the ideal museum to know Russian history, especially 1812 in Russia.
Get to know the Panoramic Museum of the Battle of Borodino: history
If you plan to visit the Panoramic Museum of the Battle of Borodino, you should know that during the 19th century, a wooden building was built, where before it was the “Martial Council of Izba”, through which the museum was opened. This place was called “Kutuzovskaya Hut”, and it offered exhibitions about the Patriotic War of 1812, the Military Council in Fili and also about the Sovereign Prince M.I Kutuzov.
In 2006, it became a non-profit cultural institution, and included the full Cavaliers of the Order of Glory. After several years, the Moscow municipality decided to build a new building for the “Heroes of the Museum” and transfer it to the management of the “Borodino Battle” Panoramic Museum.
In front of the entrance, as it should be, there is a monument to Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov, and to be precise Golenishchev-Kutuzov-Smolensky. The last prefix to his name that he received just after the war in 1812 in Russia.
The museum has many paintings about the events of the War of 1812, which provide a special interest. Here is written the life, battles and real events that happened in the history of our country.
For example, the painting of “The feat of the soldiers Raevsky of Saltanovka”, describes the moment when the French troops occupied Mogilev, blocking the way of the Second Army to join the army of Barclay de Tolly. When Bagration sent Lieutenant General Rayevsky’s 7th Infantry Corps to the city. The general personally led one of the attacks, taking with him his children, who were 10 and 16 years old, inspired by their own example of soldiers under the strong fire of the cards.
Another picture is of the Most Serene Prince Mikhail Illarionovich Golenishchev-Kutuzov-Smolensky. In August of 1812 in Russia, the commander-in-chief of the Russian army, would unite all the forces to give a decisive battle, besides eliminating the friction within the structure of command between Bagration and Barclay de Tolly. The first pleaded for the active actions of the army, the second led a line of withdrawal and this time between them there were constant confrontations.
On the other hand, why did Kutuzov have the honor of leading the army? This site tells you. Kutuzov was one of the most experienced generals of the time, who participated in the wars against Turkey and in Catherine and Alexander I. In the war of the window they indicate that the yatagán was used as Turkish jenízaras arms and the Cross for the capture of Ismael , the fortress that was considered impregnable. They are on the left side of the store window. Kutuzov fought under the command of P.A. Rumyantsev and A.V. Suvorov, he was well educated. He graduated from the noble artillery engineering school and there he shows the type of tools he used to carry out his studies (it is believed that they belonged to him).
Know Russian history
There is a place called “The Little Gallery”. Here is a group of military portraits, which is located in the Hermitage of St. Petersburg.
The following exhibition is dedicated to the families of the troops of the Russian and French armies of the time. The soldiers of our army are shown on the left and the French on the right.
The cuirassier is a mounted soldier, wearing a breastplate and a helmet with a feather, armed with a saber. The cuirassiers were the army’s shock unit, the strongest men were physically selected here.
Exhibitions of the Panoramic Museum of the Battle of Borodino
How was 1812 in Russia? Here is the list of exhibitions to learn about Russian history:
• The cuirassier: a mounted soldier, wearing a breastplate and a helmet with a feather, armed with a saber. The cuirassiers were the army’s shock unit, the strongest men were physically selected here.
• The Cuirassier with armor and helmet of the Russian troops.
• The last soldier representing the artillery, armed with a sword.
• The infantry of the French army in 1812 (in the foreground).
• The cuirassier of the French army of 1812
• The artilleryman of the French army in 1812
• The weapons of soldiers of the French army.
• The genuine helmet and corset of the French soldiers.
• The Order of the Legion of Honor: it is the main award of the French army.
Finally, we return to the panorama of the Battle of Borodino. This is an image of 115 m long and 15 m high. This painting was written for the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Borodino in 1912. The work took 11 months. The second part of the panorama is the plan of the frontal theme, organically connected with the image. In the pictures below it is even difficult to tell where there is something. Lighting in the corridor creates the effect of sunlight. It is very similar to the brilliant day this battle took place.
Now we are in Borodino camp, on the left flank of the Russian army, in the village of Semenovskoe.
In itself, the whole panorama is divided into 4 sectors, showing what was happening on the Borodino battlefield.
The results of the battle are ambiguous. Although Napoleon occupied the field after it, and the Russian troops withdrew to Moscow, he did not fulfill his main task, which was to destroy the Russian army. In the Borodino field, he did not win either, the losses were huge on both sides. Therefore, the war continued.
Now we leave the battle and go to the last room of the museum. Here the images mainly show the events that happened after the battle:
• The Military Council in Fili, where it was decided to leave Moscow to the French. The plot of the image was a description of the epic novel “War and Peace.”
• The army and Russian residents leaving Moscow.
• The entry of the French army in Moscow on September 14, 1812 in Russia. Napoleon on the Poklonnaya Hill waited for him to take the symbolic keys of the city. And he was very surprised when this did not happen. The image clearly shows the height of the Poklonnaya Hill at that time, and what view was opened in Moscow.
• The projection of the burning of Moscow with a sound design.
Before the withdrawal of Russian troops, the city was burned down by order of the governor of the time.
Napoleon, while in Moscow, sent letters to Alexander I three times with a proposal for peace, but never received an answer.
Napoleon leaves Moscow. He exhausted the stocks, the local peasant population refused to give his army, destroyed the food crops, and decided to move to the Smolensk war. But the road to Kaluga was blocked by the Russian army. As a result of the battle, Napoleon was forced to retreat and move in the same way that his army attacked Moscow. That is, he was again without provisions.
The way in which Napoleon’s troops went through the Berezina River was building two bridges. Some of the troops managed to cross when the Russian soldiers appeared. Napoleon’s army began to panic, one of the bridges collapsed and the second Napoleon himself ordered to be burned. In this battle, the French army decreased by several tens of thousands of people.
The last image is called “Napoleon’s return from the campaign against Russia.” It shows the state in which the old great army was returning. In the snow there was the body of a man, a chest with precious jewels that fell from him, plundered in Moscow with good, that nobody needs. Of the troops pathetic crumbs remained.
According to a survey conducted by the Public Opinion Foundation in 2012, almost a third of Russians do not know who fought 1812 in Russia.
If you want to know the Panoramic Museum of the Battle of Borodino, book the tour with Us.
Visiting the Panoramic Museum of the Battle of Borodino and other places of interest can do it in the best way thanks to Free tours Russia.
Categories Blog, History, Places of interest Post navigation
The Largest Rivers in Russia
Holidays in Russia in May
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line403
|
__label__wiki
| 0.706524
| 0.706524
|
Free Ukraine Now
Stopping US-NATO takeover of Ukraine and Russia
← Engdahl: Foreign bankers rape Ukraine
Inside the “Ukraine Freedom Support Act” →
Former Polish president confirms existence of secret CIA torture prison
From World Socialist Web Site
By Konrad Kreft
The Polish government has denied for years the existence of a secret CIA prison on its territory between 2001 and 2003 in the face of previous revelations.
The publication of the US Senate report on CIA torture, however, has not only proven the existence of the “black site,” but also the close collaboration between the Polish and American governments in barbaric and illegal practices.
US President Barack Obama called Polish President Ewa Kopacz the night before the report’s release “in order to forewarn the US ally of the publication,” according to Polish sources.
The following day, Aleksander Kwaśniewski, Poland’s president between 1995 and 2005, gave a joint press conference in the country’s parliament, the Sejm, with Leszek Miller, prime minister between 2001 and 2004. For the first time, the two social democrats from the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) admitted that the CIA had operated a secret prison in Poland.
The approval of the clandestine facility, which reportedly operated between 2001 and 2003, was part of strengthening Poland’s ties to the US in line with the so-called war on terror, Kwaśniewski said. He claimed that the government asked the US to treat prisoners in accordance with Polish law. A memorandum drafted for this purpose was “informally” recognised by the US representatives, but not signed due to time constraints, he claimed.
The former president said the cooperation with the US accelerated after September 2001, as Poland responded under NATO rules to an attack on a fellow member nation.
Although Kwaśniewski said he was opposed to it, he admitted to having known about the torture, essentially acknowledging his complicity in these crimes. “Interrogations were unfortunately normally carried out secretly and on the verge of legality. But the goal of all of this was not torture for torture’s sake, but to obtain information we otherwise would not have gotten.”
The millions of dollars Poland received from the CIA was all legal, Kwaśniewski claimed. This had been paid not for making the secret location available, he asserted, but for other reasons. “The financing took place in accordance with the regulations of the Polish intelligence agencies, the Agencja Wywiadu and Agencja Bezpieczeństwa Wewnętrznego,” he said, adding, “The parliamentary committee for the secret services was informed about the financing.”
Prior to the long-delayed release of the 500-page summary of the US Senate report, some of its contents were revealed in the media. In January, after the 6,700-page full report had been ready for some time, the Washington Post reported the existence of a CIA prison in Poland. It seems likely that information from the Senate report was passed on to the newspaper.
The Post revealed that in December 2002, two Palestinian-born prisoners, Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, were taken to a villa functioning as a prison in the village of Stare Kiejkuty, a restricted military area, and tortured. This was followed in March 2003 by the torture of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a Pakistani. The CIA left Poland in September 2003, the newspaper wrote, because “it was feared that using an institution for too long could lead to its exposure.”
Since 2008, there have been repeated reports that Sheikh Mohammed was tortured in a Polish CIA prison. The reports were based on witness statements from intelligence agents and Sheikh Mohammed himself. In that year, the Polish state prosecutor began investigations into the government of Leszek Miller for suspected abuse of office. The investigations are still ongoing.
The Post detailed the methods used by the CIA torturers, including beatings, sleep deprivation and waterboarding, or near-drowning. Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times and Nashiri subjected to a mock execution, the newspaper noted.
The torture chamber at Stare Kielkuty, which was given the code-name “Quartz,” was seen as “one of the most important black sites established by the CIA after September 11, 2001,” the Post wrote. The CIA spent $300,000 alone on surveillance cameras attached to the building.
The building was made available to the CIA by Polish intelligence—Agencja Wywiadu—which had previously used it. According to the Post, the agency received $15 million in cash in return, which was transferred through the US embassy in Warsaw.
The reference to the detainees’ names and further details in the Post article made it possible to immediately identify the CIA’s Polish institution. The site appears in the report as “detention site Blue” beginning on page 67. Between pages 73 and 75, tensions with “land X” are reported, a blacked-out reference to Poland, in connection “with the CIA prison facility and the bringing of new detainees.”
The report further states: “The political leadership (of Poland) gave their consent to host a CIA institution” (page 73), and “The agreement to create a CIA institution in Poland led to numerous sustained difficulties between Poland and the CIA.” Polish representatives “suggested a ‘memorandum of understanding’ that would confirm each of the roles and responsibilities between Poland and the CIA, which was ultimately not signed by the CIA” (page 74).
Polish officials first opposed the transfer of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, but subsequently acquiesced after “the US ambassador intervened with the leadership [redacted] on behalf of the CIA,” the report said. “One month later, the CIA made [redacted] million dollars available, after which the [redacted] leadership indicated that they were flexible on the issue of the number of CIA detainees” (page 74).
Finally, the report noted the “great disappointment” of Polish representatives with the CIA’s inability to keep secrets. The fact that then-US President George W. Bush made the programme public in September 2006 without any warning also caused irritation, according to the report. The CIA interpreted the events as “a serious setback in bilateral relations” (page 75).
Kwaśniewski thus merely acknowledged at the press conference what could no longer be denied. In July of this year, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ordered that the Polish state pay compensation to Abu Zubaydah of €100,000 and a similar sum to al-Nashiri, because both had “not [been] protected from torture and inhumane treatment.”
Despite the publicly available facts, Kwaśniewski defended the Polish-sponsored torture chambers, criticising only that it had been uncovered.
“We have been betrayed,” said Kwaśniewski, referring to the publication of the report, which could yet have legal consequences for him and other members of the government. “In the long term, the Americans will lose the ability to be an alliance partner, because every country will ask themselves how much trust they can be given,” he continued.
Kwaśniewski justified his government’s violation of the Polish constitution and international law by suggesting that closer collaboration with the US was necessary today because the NATO-Russia conflict over Ukraine was leading to a Russian aggression against Poland.
“We helped the Americans in the war on terror. That’s why we can expect that faced with the threatening of Poland, that our requests for missiles, soldiers and reconnaissance planes will not be opposed,” he said, adding that Poland could “demand meaningful support for its security at this extremely challenging time.”
Current President Ewa Kopacz of the neoliberal Citizens Platform (PO) took the same position, saying, “Regardless of what is in the report, it will not burden our relations with the US.”
Tagged "Quartz", Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, Abu Zubaydah, Agencja Wywiadu, Aleksander Kwaśniewski, CIA, Ewa Kopacz, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Leszek Miller, Stare Kiejkuty, waterboarding
Follow Free Ukraine Now on WordPress.com
The Ribbon of St. George, worn on Victory Day in Russia, Ukraine, and other countries in commemoration of the victory over Nazi Germany
How to help Julian Assange by writing to him in prison
Five years ago, U.S. installed a neo-Nazi government in Ukraine — a ‘flowering of democracy’?
Max Blumenthal: The U.S. is arming and assisting neo-Nazis in Ukraine, while Congress debates prohibition
Intensifying attacks on Donbass, Poroshenko requested help compiling evidence of Russian aggression for Munich speech
No War on Venezuela — Global Day of Action, February 23, 2019
The making of Juan Guaidó: How the US regime change laboratory created Venezuela’s coup leader
Honduras: Fleeing citizens; U.S. supports and arms Pres. Juan Orlando Hernandez’ regime
Venezuela: Canciller Jorge Arreaza ante el Consejo de Seguridad de la ONU 27/1/2019 – “la grosera intervención y los groseros mecanismos de injerencia de Estados Unidos”; UN Security Council speech transcript
Pompeo put Elliott Abrams in charge of regime change in Venezuela
In defense of democracy and self-determination of the people of Venezuela
Venezuela at the UN Security with proof of U.S. “blatant and gross intervention” directing the coup d’etat, reviews history of U.S. interventions; Iran Contra’s Ellliott Abrams speaks, Russia and Venezuela respond (VIDEO)
Russia at the UN Security Council on Venezuela, “Such gross interference by the U.S. in the internal affairs of another nation is nothing new”; “the warden who watches over the Western hemisphere” hasn’t read UN Charter Chapter 2.4 for a long time (VIDEO)
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line404
|
__label__cc
| 0.566701
| 0.433299
|
Keeping In Touch – Sent February 26th 2018
Feb 26, 2018 | Keeping In Touch Newsletters
The Planning Application for 28 houses within the AONB in Frogmore (ref: 1768/16/OPA) is the subject of a Planning Appeal. Representations are to be submitted to the Planning Inspector by 6th March 2018.
Parishioners have enquired about the process for voicing their view on the Appeal. They have requested clarification on statements made in the Appeal documents. What follows factually states government policy pertaining to the application and suggests questions that parishioners might consider in making their own decisions on the input they wish to make to the Inspector.
KEY POINTS TO BE CONSIDERED IN MAKING YOUR SUBMISSION
The Appeal site is situated within the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). Under the provisions of the Government’s National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), Areas of Outstanding Beauty are afforded the highest protection against development.
For planning permission to be granted a development proposal would need to be fulfilling an EXCEPTIONAL NEED and would demonstrably be IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST.
Is there a need for housing and can it only be met in the AONB? If need is established, could requirements be satisfied elsewhere in the district? The applicant is required to apply particular tests in submitting an application. These assessments include:
The cost of and scope for, developing outside AONB.
An examination of the detrimental effect on the environment, landscape recreational opportunities which may arise from development in the AONB.
Points to consider:
SHDC’s 2016 ‘Our Plan’ assessment is that the site is not considered appropriate for development.
Frogmore has a creditable 30% proportion of affordable housing and most recently met South Hams District Council’s ‘objectively assessed need’ at Creek Close in 2017.
Further local and district needs will continue to be monitored under the emerging Frogmore & Sherford Community Neighbourhood Plan.
South Hams District Council, like others Councils, has been set a 5-year housing land supply target. While it has been claimed that this is currently met, the position is challenged. The picture is not clear. On the other hand, the emerging Plymouth and South West Devon Joint Local Plan (JLP), now being scrutinised by the Government’s Planning Inspectorate, sets more precise targets. Frogmore, as one of 46 sustainable villages, is to procure 10 or more houses between 2014 and 2034. This minimum target has already been met in the village.
There are presently substantial applications for additional ‘windfall’ housing including in neighbouring West Charleton and Chillington. Frogmore has relatively limited access to local services, such as schools. Is there a greater, exceptional need for more housing in Frogmore?
Would the development of the proposed 28 houses be detrimental to the AONB environment and landscape?
Although advocated by the Government and South Hams District Council, pre-application community consultations were not offered by the applicant. Parish Council consultations have been conclusive – overwhelming opposition at each stage to the proposals as documented and reported to the Planning Authority.
Frogmore Creek is an important area of scenic beauty and a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). Would the setting, conservation and character of the estuary and the village be served by new housing in the AONB?
Would local economic and community benefits outweigh the consequences of building in the AONB?
Nigel Smith
Chair, Frogmore and Sherford Parish Council
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line405
|
__label__cc
| 0.667084
| 0.332916
|
Exclusive: The Hideaway Inn by Philip William Stover Excerpt
By: Keira Soleore
An Introduction by Phillip William Stover
Ever since I first watched Grease I have loved a summer romances. Thoughts of sunshine, lemonade and country fairs always make me smile. This excerpt from The Hideaway Inn, the first book in my Seasons of New Hope series takes place at the local Fourth of July festival. Vince attends with Tack and his gender non-conforming child Jules. In this scene Vince says: “I never thought there was a place for me in picture-perfect Americana, but maybe that frame has shifted recently and become more inclusive.” I’m so proud to have this book be part of the Carina Adores launch. I grew up reading Harlequin romances, and I’m thrilled to be a part of the shifting frame.
About The Hideaway Inn
High school wasn’t the right time or place for their relationship to grow, but now, fifteen years later, a chance encounter changes both of their lives forever.
No one in the charming river town of New Hope, Pennsylvania, needs to know that Vince Amato plans on flipping The Hideaway Inn to the highest bidder and returning to his luxury lifestyle in New York City. He needs to make his last remaining investment turn a profit…even if that means temporarily relocating to the quirky small town where he endured growing up. He’s spent years reinventing himself and won’t let his past dictate his future.
But on his way to New Hope, Vince gets stuck in the middle of nowhere and his past might be the only thing that can get him to his future. Specifically Tack O’Leary– the gorgeous, easygoing farm boy who broke his heart and who picks him up in his dilapidated truck.
Tack comes to the rescue not only with a ride but also by signing on to be the chef at The Hideaway for the summer. As Vince and Tack open their hearts to each other again, Vince learns that being true to himself doesn’t mean shutting down a second chance with Tack — it just means starting over and letting love in.
Frolic-Exclusive Excerpt
By the middle of the afternoon the festival is swarming with people. We’ve visited the petting zoo a number of times, eaten corn dogs, cotton candy and lemonade, looked at the photos and paintings in the barn, and Jules has made a sword with a jeweled handle and feathers on the tip so it “doesn’t hurt anybody” after we each finished our wands.
Walking around the festival I think about when I was growing up how I hated everything about this area. I thought it was so boring and Podunk. I thought I would never find a way to be a part of it. I was sure there would be better things waiting for me in a big city like New York but after a day here with Tack and Jules now I wonder if those things are just different not better.
“I think I want to go in the bouncy castle now. Can I?” Jules asks Tack.
“Are you sure?” Tack asks seeing that it’s even more crowded with kids. “Do you want us to go over there with you?”
“No, you guys can wait here.” Tack gives them the okay and they run over, kick off their shoes and start bouncing before they even get inside. Tack and I sit next to each other in a quiet spot across from the bouncy castle.
“I’m exhausted.” I say and lean back on the bench and spread myself for a quick stretch that I’m too tired to finish.
“Cooking for a full dining room is nothing compared to keeping up with Jules.”
I can hear music coming from a small brass band playing at a small stage on the other side of the festival. It’s some kind of patriotic march like you would here at a parade. A gentle breeze sweeps across us and we both sigh almost in unison. We sit in our silence for a while. I’ve been waiting for a moment like this to return, one where we are connected without talking. It’s so easy to be around Tack. I can just relax for a few moments. I never thought there was a place for me in picture-perfect Americana but maybe that frame has shifted recently and become more inclusive. Maybe I can belong in places where I never thought I was allowed.
A clown making balloon animals pops a poodle’s head right in front of us and it breaks the spell.
“You ever think about having one?” Tack asks.
“A balloon animal?”
“No,” he says slapping me playfully on the arm. “A kid. Have you ever thought about having a kid?”
No one has ever asked me that before. I’ve always been too focused on success to really give it serious thought.
“I mean, I know you don’t want a boyfriend or a husband. Your career comes first and all, but I just thought it might have crossed your mind at some point.”
I still don’t know how to answer him. I never really thought it was something realistic to consider. I know gay men adopt and have surrogates but generally you need a partner for that and I never thought that was part of my plan.
“If I did have a kid, I know I would want him to have a different life than I did.”
All a kid like Jules really needs is someone to listen to them. I know that’s what I needed. I wouldn’t need to give Jules advice about what to do or how to act. I’d just wait until they came home from school and listen to everything they had to say. I look at Vince and say, “I’d ask questions about how they feel and their friends and what they like to do and what scares them. I’d make sure they felt heard in every way. I would raise a kid to be themselves. To not be scared of anything. I’d protect them from all the people in the world who would want him to fit in.” I speak firmly and decisively. Tack listening to me with his ears but keeping an eye on his kid in the bounce house. “Like you’re doing with Jules,” I say.
“Thanks, Vince. It definitely sounds like we are on the same page about what a kid needs.”
I never thought Tack could be any sexier. I’ve fantasized about his body since I was a teenager and that fantasy has never gotten old. But there is something about seeing how tender he is with Jules and knowing that he is finally out to the world that makes me want him more deeply than I have ever imagined. The thought of us being on the same page about raising a kid makes me head spin.
A breeze sweeps across our faces and I let it blow my hair across my forehead without any resistance. It’s two months until Labor Day and I can’t keep this fight up that long. I’ll deal with that moment when it comes but right now my ability to think beyond this moment is as strong as a cheap paper plate.
“About the other day,” I start but it takes a second to get up my courage. “In the stream.”
“I know you don’t want to talk about it. I get it,” he says and I see his bottom lip raise as a frown appears across face.
“No, it’s not. I mean. I’m sorry I got so weird after and shut you out. That’s not what I want to do.”
“What do you want, Vince?” he says looking at me.
His hand is resting on the bench just a few inches from mine. Inch by inch I move closer to his until his pinky is aligned with mine. As soon as our skin connects he smiles. He keeps looking ahead but I know the connection is powerful. It’s not like kissing in the stream. That was pure sexual heat. This is different.
I take my hand and move it on top of his. It lands there for just a second before he turns his over so that my hand is in his palm and then he covers it with his fingers. We are sitting on a bench at the Tinicum Fourth of July Festival and now we are both smiling.
Philip William Stover splits his time between Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and New York City. He has an MFA in writing and is a clinical professor at New York University where he is the former chair of the writing curriculum. As a freelance journalist, his essays and reviews have appeared in Newsday, The Forward, The Tony Awards, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Houston Chronicle, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and other national publications.
Philip grew up tearing the covers off the romance novels he devoured so he wouldn’t get teased at school. Now he enjoys traveling the world with his husband of over twenty years and sitting in front of the woodstove with their half-Bassett, half-Sharpei rescue pup, and now he would never consider defacing any of the books he loves.
He is thrilled to be returning to romance and loves to write cozy, warm-hearted stories served by hairy forearms with a side of fries. He can be found on social media as Philip William Stover.
Connect with Philip:
Website: https://www.philipwilliamstover.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PWStover
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/philipwilliamstover/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/philipwilliamstover
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/19293791.Philip_William_Stover
About Carina Adores
Carina Adores is home to highly romantic contemporary love stories featuring beloved romance tropes, where LGBTQ+ characters find their happily-ever-afters.
Keira Soleore writes for the International Examiner and Cogitations & Meditations. She enjoys connecting with readers on Twitter (@keirasoleore) and through her website (www.keirasoleore.com). Her interests include medieval manuscripts, philosophy, poetry, picture books, choir, sunshine and beaches. Keira is a pseudonym.
PrevPreviousDaily Frolic: Coffee Dippin Dots!?
NextIt’s Pick a Strawberry Day! Here’s What to Read.Next
Daily Frolic: Coffee Dippin Dots!?
It’s Pick a Strawberry Day! Here’s What to Read.
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line406
|
__label__wiki
| 0.744694
| 0.744694
|
Betsy McCann to speak at Beyond the Diploma Speaker Series
On Wednesday, March 22, 2017 newly appointed Marching Band Director at the University of Minnesota, Betsy McCann, will be speaking at Eden Prairie High School on a wide range of topics including how her formative years in Eden Prairie Schools helped propel her to a rewarding career in music. Event begins at 7pm.
Buy Tickets for this event
A silent auction goes live on Weds, March 15th and goes through the end of the event.
Please consider participating in our silent auction!
More on Betsy McCann…
Betsy McCann is the Assistant Director of Bands and Director of Marching and Athletic Bands at the University of Minnesota. Here, she directs the University of Minnesota Marching Band and University Band and teaches undergraduate conducting. McCann is the first woman in history to lead a Big Ten Marching Band and Athletic Bands program. McCann has a Bachelor of Music degree in flute performance and music education from the University of Minnesota and a Master of Music degree in wind band conducting from Northwestern University, where she graduated with conducting program honors.
A strong supporter and active conductor of new music, McCann receives positive acclaim from composers, performers, and audiences for her interpretation and conducting of new works. McCann has been active in commissioning new works since her time as a public school teacher and strives to increase collaboration between composers and the musicians who perform their works. Additionally, McCann is active as a guest conductor, clinician, adjudicator, and speaker.
Prior to her current appointment at the University of Minnesota, McCann served as the Assistant Director of the University of Minnesota Marching Band. She also taught band and classroom music courses at Burnsville and Watertown-Mayer High Schools in Minnesota, and Waubonsie Valley High School in Illinois.
McCann is a member of National Association for Music Education, College Band Director’s National Association, Minnesota Music Educator’s Association, and Phi Beta Mu. She is an honorary member of Kappa Kappa Psi and Tau Beta Sigma.
Categories: Alumni, Event, Featured, Students, Teachers & Staff
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line408
|
__label__cc
| 0.520932
| 0.479068
|
Issue 66 (November - December 2008)
On Hibernation and Bedsores
Bagasra Omar- Pace D.gene
You would have thought them awake though they were asleep. We caused them to turn over to the right and the left, and their dog lay outstretching its two forelegs on the threshold. Had you come upon them unprepared, you would certainly have turned away from them in flight, and would certainly have been filled with awe of them. (Kahf 18:18)
Religion involves abstract concepts, including the belief in a Supreme Being that can intervene in human affairs. Such intervention can take the form of divine communication, which in its written form becomes scripture, the holy word that exceeds in quality and wisdom the literary achievements of mortal writers. These writings outline basic beliefs, and provide counsel that give humans certain guidance as they pursue their mortal pilgrimage in an uncertain world. Besides their profound impact on individuals, these guidelines help to form, and even transform, cultural and behavioral patterns that unify group thinking and social structure, that influence legal codes, that shape educational programs, and that influence life in innumerable ways. Religion, with its reliance on faith in the unseen, seems to clash with the scientific method, with its insistence on empirical data, on proof. Yet no such clash exists in true religion, which embraces all truth, visible or invisible, from whatever source. Faith and science, then, are merely different ways of knowing, two useful means of discerning truth.
Science and religion are so intertwined that some church names announce the connection: Church of Scientology, and Church of Christ, Scientist. Some of the great scientists do not feel there is a science-only limit on their research, and perceive themselves as much more than narrowly-focused scholars. For example, Dr. Francis H. C. Crick (1916–2004), the co-discoverer of the current DNA double helix model, researched the human spirit;1 Dr. Henry D. Eyring (1901–1981), world famous for his work on reaction rates in chemistry, saw no conflict between authentic religion and accurate science.2 These and innumerable scientists have affirmed belief in the existence of the human spirit and life after death.
The claim that the Holy Qur’an is scripture sent by the Creator Himself should be easily verifiable in any stage of human civilization, according to the degree of knowledge a society has at a specific time. Muslims believe that the Qur’an is the last and final revelation of God, the miracle of miracles. It is the ultimate book of guidance and warning for the whole of humanity, a merciful message for mankind sent by God through the Prophet Muhammad (may peace be upon him). Therefore, Muslims critically investigate the veracity of its claims, and analyze them scientifically; they find every aspect of it to be true according to well established scientific facts. It is pertinent to mention that we are only talking about well-established scientific facts, not theories or hypotheses, which are numerous and prone to change.3 Modern humans, however, too often have sold themselves short by limiting the quest for truth to empirical logic and reason, by granting science supremacy over scripture. This is not to say that the scientific quest is fruitless, simply that it is unduly limited. Islam has made reason the ultimate judge in everything; in the Qur'an, God links disbelief to the refusal to use reason: “Those who disbelieve simply do not use their reason and neither do they understand” (Baqara 2:171). Reason and understanding, then, are meant to buttress belief, to fortify faith. Otherwise, one incurs the merited displeasure of God, who not only compares the disbeliever to one “who hears the sounds of a call but does not distinguish any word or idea,” but also teaches that to converse with such a person “is like talking to the deaf, dumb, and blind” (Baqara 2:171). In the Holy Qur'an, God calls upon humans to look into the universe and discover its construction and structure. He commands them to do so in the conviction that their investigation of the organization of the universe will lead them to the discovery of God and His Unity: “In the creation of the heavens and the earth, in the succession of day and night, in the phenomena of ships sailing across the seas with goods for the welfare of human beings, in the fall of rain water from sky to quicken a dead earth, in populating the earth with all species of animals, in ordering of winds and clouds between sky and earth - in all these there are signs and pieces of evidence for those who reason” (Baqara 2:164).
According to the Qur'an, any scripture claiming to be a divine revelation must also be acceptable on the strength of its own reason and logic. The Qur’an is not a book of science but one of signs (each verse in the Qur’an is called aayaat which also means “sign”). Nevertheless, it conveys scientific knowledge; of the 6,000 or more verses in the Qur’an, over 1,000 of them deal with core scientific facts. For example, Anbiya 21:30 suggests that the discovery of an expanding universe, commonly called the Big Bang theory, was revealed by illuminating inspiration long before it was discovered by such scientific luminaries as Edwin Hubble and Alan Guth: “Do not the Unbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were joined together (as one unit of Creation), before We clove them asunder?” The Holy Qur’an is full of scientific explications, including tantalizing intellectual nuggets that describe the spherical nature of planets, the nature of their orbits, human embryology, and the fundamental role water plays in life on planet Earth.4
In this article, we would like to point out a yet another scientific secret that apparently has not been analyzed by Qur’anic scholars. The verse with which this article begins (Kahf 18:18) invites discussion of two important topics that are of interest to modern physicians and others: hibernation, and the prevention of bedsores that may afflict humans during times of extended immobility, as in hibernation or serious paralytic or other illness. In the Qur’anic story of the “people of the cave,” two signs appear: an instance of long-term sleep (hibernation) and a simple method to prevent bedsores.
The chapter state that a small group of youth, believers in One God who were fleeing their own family for fear of persecution, took refuge, and sought divine grace in a large remote cave, for which they are known as the “people of the cave.” They were overtaken by sleep in the cave, which was away from sunlight and is mentioned as one of the Signs of God.
These youth slept in the cave with their dog for an exceptionally long time (309 years according to the verse 18:25), during their slumber their physical position was periodically changed, and the cave was away from direct sunlight.
You would have seen the sun, when it rose, moving away from their Cave to the right, and when it set, turning away from them to the left, while they lay in a spacious hollow in the Cave. That was one of God’s signs. (Kahf 18:17)
Let us now discuss these topics: the hibernation or a state of sleep in which they thought they were awake-a hypnogogic state, the repeated turning over, and the avoidance of sunlight in the cave. First, let us examine hibernation, which is defined as a state in which mammals, and some non-mammals, experience depressed metabolic activity characterized by exceptionally slow breathing and lower body temperature during an extended period of inactivity. A means of rest and energy conservation, hibernation reduces the need for food by relying on fats already present in the body itself. Bears are perhaps best known for their hibernation during winter, when food is more difficult to acquire, but squirrels, bats and rodents also hibernate. The Common Poorwill, a bird found in North America, hibernates, as does the Western Diamondback rattlesnake, and the Dwarf Lemur, which hibernates more than half the year (sometimes in warm temperatures). It should be noted that in the Qur’an the hibernation is described as a hypnogogic state, a state when a person believes that he or she is kind of awake.
Scientists and others are currently intrigued by the potential that hibernation offers to humans. Could induced hibernation save a seriously injured person until appropriate medical help arrives? Could hibernation reduce the demands on the heart and other organs of seriously ill patients? Could life be extended through this means? Would persons suffering from clinical depression benefit from some “time off” with no stress? What about astronauts, who would benefit from hibernation during long flights to distant locations in space?5 The Qur’an seems to suggest the possibility of space travel, as allowed by God: “O company of jinn and men, if you have power to penetrate (all) regions of the heavens and the earth; then penetrate (them)! You will never penetrate them save with (Our) sanction. Then, which of the favors of your Lord will you deny?” (Rahman 55:33–34)
Is there any evidence of human hibernation in recent years?
Of course, the story of the believers mentioned in the Qur’an relates to a miracle that occurred long ago and it is mentioned to show the power of belief, and as one of the small signs denoting God’s existence and His mercy. However, documented occurrences of human hibernation in recent years have been highly publicized.
For instance, in 1991, Brittany Eichelberger, a West Virginia three-year-old, was rescued from a late December snowdrift, on a night when temperatures fell to –3 C. She survived, lost only a portion of one toe, and suffered a little from a weak arm and some minor pneumonia. A decade later, thirteen-month-old toddler Erika Nordby seemed to have frozen to death after crawling into the cold one night in Edmonton, Canada in February 2001. Although clinically dead, she came back after serious treatment by doctors who dealt with frostbite issues and were astounded to find that she suffered no major brain or other physical injuries that would be expected for one who had been outside for perhaps three to four hours. Although the brain had been deprived of oxygen for an extended time period, apparently the decreased body temperature and the resultant metabolism slowdown reduced the need for normal brain activity and blood flow. These “miracles” have prompted increased interest in whether similar miracles could be intentionally performed to prolong life. Karlee Kosolofski, a two-year-old, survived a six-hour ordeal in Rouleau, Saskatchewan, Canada on a night so cold (–22 C) that her body temperature plummeted to a documented 14.16 C (which placed her in the Guinness Book of World Records). A physician who helped her survive likened her badly-frozen legs to ice blocks. She lost a leg, had another severely scarred, and required grafts and surgeries. Ironically, Krista Rempel, the paramedic who was first on the scene in Rouleau later arrived first in Edmonton, to rescue Erika Nordby.6
To religious observers aware of the dual-rescue “coincidence,” it seemed apparent that the same paramedic was assigned to serve by God again to witness another miracle.
Cryogenics, which deals with the changes in materials when frozen, has helped humans (including astronauts and heart patients) by improving materials that help propel spacecrafts or that make open heart surgery safer. But what about the branch of cryogenics called cryonics, which deals directly with people, specifically frozen people? Could people be intentionally frozen until specialized help arrives within a few hours? What about within a few decades? Could patients be placed in suspended animation until a surgical procedure is improved or until genetic engineering becomes more advanced? So far, cryonicists have not succeeded in freezing and then reviving humans.
Hibernation induction (inducement) triggers (HIT)
Scientists have good reason to hope that induced hibernation can work on humans because it has worked on animals. For example, when HIT-hibernation induction (inducement) trigger-is extracted from the blood of a hibernating squirrel in winter and injected into an active squirrel in the spring, this second squirrel goes into hibernation. HIT can even be shown to induced short-term hibernation in a monkey, which normally does not hibernate.7 HIT, which a bear’s body releases when the temperature decreases, is thought be a type of opiate that is similar to morphine in its chemical makeup (http://www.sciencemadesimple.com/animals.html). Could HIT help terminally ill patients, such as cancer patients who take morphine? Could it lengthen the time that animal or human organs can remain independent in transplant operations? Studies have shown that a synthetic substitute called DADLE, can dramatically “increase the time animal organs can survive in the laboratory from 8 hours to 46 hours by using an opiate-like compound in combination with a preservation method that keeps a number of organs from the same donor animal linked with connecting veins.”8
In the Qur’an we do not find mention of the hibernation inducing agents that may be present in the cave, but it is intriguing to consider that various kinds of gases, including carbon monoxide and hydrogen sulfide, are found in dark caves. Called oxygen-mimetic gases, these have a molecular similarity to oxygen. Because they mimic oxygen in their binding capacity, these gases can inhibit the body’s capacity to utilize oxygen (known as oxidative phosphorylation). This inhibition is important because it can reduce metabolic activity to the point that a state like sleep or even hibernation can ensue. Later, revival occurs as organisms are again placed in regular air. The cave story in the Qur’an suggests that the cave was intentionally deprived of sunlight and kept cool.
With regard to the second sign, the Holy Qur’an mentions a state of “a very long sleep” in a group of believers and their dog. One of the most interesting aspects of this miraculous sleep is that God says, “We caused them to turn over to the right and the left.” As any health care professional is well aware, a human being cannot lie down on a bed or on the ground for a long time without developing bedsores unless they change positions periodically. It is continual, unrelenting pressure that damages skin and other tissue and causes bedsores (pressure sores), especially when this pressure is applied to areas of skin that cover areas in which bones or cartilage are prominent. The parallel between the modern remedy for bedsores and the universal wisdom of the Qur’an is impressive.
There are numerous secrets in the Qur’an that we see the world has ignored due to apathy, ignorance, or arrogance. Muslims, as well as others who seek for truth wherever it exists, would do well to pay closer attention to the Qur’an and to the aayaat or signs of God. As this article demonstrates, faith complements science at its best, and true science becomes a subset of true religion. Together, the two function more like an intertwined double-helix in DNA than like two geometric rays pointed in different directions.
1. See Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul, 1994.
2. See The Faith of a Scientist, 1969.
3. See Thomas S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions,1962.
4. These and many other subjects have been explored by many authors-notably Dr. Maurice Bucaille, The Bible, the Qu’ran and Science: The Holy Scriptures Examined in the Light of Modern Knowledge (1990), but also by such scholars as A. Abd-Allah, The Qur’an, Knowledge, and Science (USC-MSA Compendium of Muslim Texts. University of Soutern California. Internet. <http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/scislam.html>. Accessed 30 May 2008.), and Dr. Zakir Adbul Karim Naik, Qur’an and Modern Science – Compatible or Incompatible? (2003; see also http://www.irf.net/irf/drzakirnaik/dznindex.htm (download of text), http://www.irf.net/irf/ drzakirnaik/index.htm, and http://www.islamicvoice.com/may.2000/religion.htm).
5. Tariq Malik, “A Sleepy Science: Will Humans Hibernate Their Way Through Space?”, Science 12 October 2004. Internet. http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/ scitues_hibernation_041012.html.
6. CBC News Online, “Hypothermia.” Indepth: Health. 16 July 2004. Internet. http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/health/hypothermia.html. See also, Robert Roy Britt, “New Hibernation Technique Might Work on Humans.” 21 April 2005. Internet. http://www.livescience.com/health/050421_hibernation.html, John Harlow, “Race to be first to ‘hibernate’ human beings.” The Sunday Times. TimesOnline. 27 May 2007. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article1845294.ece
7. Great Moments in Science, ABC, http://www.abc.net.au/science/k2/moments/s1038546.htm.
8. (Neil Swan, “Hibernation-Triggering Opioid Extends Life of Organs for Transplantation.” NIDA Notes, Research Advances. Vol. 11, no. 1 Jan–Feb. 1996, See also Chien, S.; Oeltgen, P.R.; Diana, J.N.; Salley, R.K.; and Su, T.-P. Extension of tissue survival time in multiorgan block preparation with a delta opioid DADLE. Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery 107:965–67, 1994; Oeltgen, P.R.; Horton, N.D.; Bolling, S.F.; and Su, T.-P. Extended lung preservation with the use of hibernation trigger factors. Annals of Thoracic Surgery; Oeltgen, P.R.; Nuchols, P.A.; Nilekani, S.P.; Spurrier, W.A.; and Su, T.-P. Further studies on opioids and hibernation: Delta opioid receptor ligand selectively induced hibernation in summer-active ground squirrels. Life Sciences 43:1565–1574, 1988; Charles F. Schwartz, MD, Anthony J. Georges, MD, Marsha A. Gallagher, Le Yu, Kenneth S. Kilgore, PhD, Steven F. Bolling, MD, “Delta opioid receptors and low temperature myocardial protection.” Annals of Thoracic Surgery. 1999;68:2089–2092. Internet. http://ats.ctsnetjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/68/6/2089.
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line409
|
__label__cc
| 0.60276
| 0.39724
|
Funky Pickens » Tag » snakes
Tag Archives: snakes
An island in Brazil has so many snakes that humans aren’t allowed on it.
By funkypickens | 06/28 - 10:49 am | 08/08 animals, cool, History, videos
About 25 miles off the coast of Brazil, there is an island where no local would ever dare tread. Legend has it that the last fisherman who strayed too close to its shores was found days later adrift in his own boat, lifeless in a pool of blood.
The mysterious island is known as Ilha da Queimada Grande, and it is in fact so dangerous to set foot there that Brazil has made it illegal for anyone to visit. The danger on the island comes in the form of the golden lancehead snakes – a species of pit viper and one of the deadliest serpents in the world.
The lanceheads can grow to be over a foot-and-a-half long and it’s estimated that there are between 2,000 and 4,000 snakes on the island, which unsurprisingly is known as Snake Island. The lanceheads are so venomous that a human bitten by one could be dead within an hour.
Snake Island is uninhabited now, but people used to live there for a short period up to until the late 1920s when, according to legend, the local lighthouse keeper and his family were killed by vipers that slithered in through the windows. Today, the navy periodically visits the lighthouse for upkeep and makes sure no adventurers are wandering too close to the island.
Another local legend claims that the snakes were originally introduced by pirates seeking to protect buried treasure on the island.
In reality, the vipers’ presence is the result of rising sea levels – a less exciting origin story than paranoid pirates to be sure, but still interesting.
Snake Island used to be part of Brazil’s mainland, but when sea levels rose over 10,000 years ago, it separated the landmass and turned it into an island.
The animals that wound up isolated on Queimada Grande evolved differently from those on the mainland over the course of millennia, the golden lanceheads in particular. Since the island vipers had no prey but birds, mother nature helped them develop extra-potent venom so that they could almost immediately kill any bird. Local birds are too savvy to be caught by the many predators that inhabit the island and the snakes instead rely on birds who visit the island to rest as food.
Lancehead snakes, which are the golden lancheads’ mainland cousins, are responsible for 90 percent of all snake bites in Brazil. A bite from their golden relatives, whose venom is up to five times more potent, is less likely to actually happen due to their island isolation. However, such an encounter is far more likely to be lethal if it does happen. There are no fatality statistics of the golden lanceheads (since the only area they inhabit is cut off from the public), however, someone bitten by a regular lancehead faces a seven percent chance of death if untreated. Treatment does not even guarantee a lancehead bite victim will be saved: there is still a three percent mortality rate.
It’s hard to imagine why anyone would want to visit a place where a painful death lurks every few feet. However, the vipers’ deadly venom has shown potential in helping to combat heart problems. This has led to something of a black market demand for the venom. For some lawbreakers, the lure of the money is incentive enough to risk almost certain death on Queimada Grande.
source: business insider NatGeo/Youtube
Tagged history, reptiles, scary, snakes, youtube
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line411
|
__label__wiki
| 0.695883
| 0.695883
|
Woodsworthy
Woodsworthy is a Multi-Instrumentalist, Producer and DJ from the woods surrounding Halifax, Nova Scotia. He is constantly releasing new music and loves to collaborate. There is also a DJ Duo that includes Woodsworthy and Wobble Wallah, named The Bass Babas, who flow back n forth between realms and tell the story behind fire dancers called IndusTribe. Included in the many facets and tools to hypnotize, 8 channel mixing with loops, tracks, instruments, and vocal samples are the branches of the tree. The exchange with the audience is the trunk. Living life fully roots this tree and the healing energy of nature is the sap that runs through its veins.
Wobble Wallah
Wallah may refer to:
Auto-wallah, driver of an auto rickshaw
Chai-wallah, a boy or young man who serves tea
Attar-wallah, seller of perfumes and extracts
Wobble-Wallah, Dj who mixes and serves, grimy, wonky, worldly beets.
Wet Paint is a vibrant electro/funk duo that have been tearing shit up since day one. Conceived in the summer of 2012 in Montreal, Wet Paint have evolved their sound turning over many hit remixes including Frank Ocean, Purity Ring, the Black Keys, and more – they currently reside in Halifax, NS where they perform with live drums, electric guitar sax and contributing vocalists from time to time.
After a season of sharing the stage with some of their favourite acts including Gramatik, Lunice, Torro Torro and Viceroy, they’re in the studio preparing their next release.
Smooth grooves and layered bass are first on the agenda at their live shows; with the recent addition of a live drums AND guitar to spice up the mix, it’s only a matter of time before they’re on the road to promote their newest releases set to drop in April, 2015.
Keep yr eyes peeled. Wet Paint is on the move.
Wasko AV is the multidisciplinary art of Nick Iwaskow – a projection designer, visual artist and producer based out of Halifax NS. He’s brought dynamic visual installations to clubs, bars, buildings, and music festivals all over the Atlantic Provinces. Passionate about pushing the boundaries of what is possible with a space; and using the environment as a canvas to create unique experiences for audiences of all types.
Troy Power
I’ve opened and closed stages for —> Ryan Hemsworth, Dave Luxe, Hunter Siegel, KDZ, Gingy, Vanic, Andrea, Tommy Jacob & more
Tommy Knuckles
A true veteran to the Halifax Underground music scene, Tommy Knuckles is a Halifax house music staple. It all started on a fateful night in ‘96 when Tom experienced his first underground party. His love affair with house music was born. That night started a journey which created Bubble Productions (Wolfville, NS) and eventually lead him to managing “The Underground”, the staple rave venue in Halifax, until its final show in 2000. The next few years were spent working with The Deep Red Collective, keeping the underground alive in Halifax. Moving into the club scene as KNUCKLES Productions, Tom became the host of the “Friday Night Showcase” at Reflections Cabaret (2003-2005). Since then, he has been focusing on keeping the happy house music vibe alive, one show at a time, all over Canada and beyond (including SmartBar, Chicago IL).
Known for dropping old school vocal house, lots of horns and sassy bass lines, Tom’s indisputable drive and natural talent has earned him his place amongst the best house jocks on the east coast. With the back ground of a jazz drummer, he embraces those roots in his music as a DJ, but it is his smiling face and dancing legs that make him such a great addition to any party. Notorious for dancing up a storm in the DJ booth, Tommy Knuckles fun energy and funky music will leave a smile on your face and your body begging for more.
Year after year at Evolve, Mr. Knuckles set is always a crowd favorite and this year is sure to be no exception. See you on the dance floor!
The Real Molloy
Michael Molloy, also known as The Real Molloy, is a Funk / Breaks DJ, and Producer from Halifax, Canada. Over the past 10 years he has successfully become one of the east coasts favourite party rockers, combining Funk and Glitch hop with old school Hip-Hop & Disco favourites. His bootleg of ‘Fire’ by New Zealand’s funk super group ‘The Black Seeds’ is gaining worldwide attention, even being picked up by the mighty Ghetto Funk label in Britain (UK). Over his career, Molloy has had the honour of sharing the stage with artists such as Stickybuds, A. Skillz, Bobby C Sound TV, The Funk Hunters, Wolfgang Gartner, Lazy Rich, Lucky Date, JELO & countless others. When not on stage, it’s likely you can find Molloy working long hours in the studio, refining his craft and preparing new material for the world to hear.
Soundsyster
Over the last decade, SoundSyster has cultivated a reputation for awakening even the most critical-ears who are searching for something more then the usual deep and techy dance beats. The constant buzz that ignited many moons ago, remains the livewire of Soundsyster.
From this multi-faceted music purveyor, expect an auditory experience that blurs the boundaries of genres enabling the music to journey through a myriad of sounds and notions that reflect her artistic expression while keeping listeners appreciating and moving. She describes her style as Tech House, with Techno and Deep House elements being primary. It’s about a mood, a combination of sounds, vocals, bass lines, and melodies playing together, and off one another. It’s sometimes indie, it’s sometimes electro. It’s always interesting. Her craze for next-level music fuels many firsts in Atlantic Canada.
Recently, she has played at Toronto Pride’s Dirty Disco stage for two years in a row, and regularly plays at select Night Clubs, Festivals, Art Galleries and special events around Eastern Canada.
Scout’s been rocking the turntables in Atlantic Canada for nearly 10 years now. No limits in his bag and no restraints on the dance floor.
With roots in the club and hip hop scene, Scout has got what it takes to get the floor hopping. There’s a fire that keeps getting hotter and is ready to blow the roof off. Chef Scout’s party recipe is to take ghetto funk, moomba, trap and bass music spiced with hip hop vocals and a pinch of 50’s swing, mixed with turntables and served hot. Getting hungry just thinking of it.
Sam Vipond
Sam Vipond is first and foremost a music lover. These days he likes to play what he calls “Fancy Bass” which is really any sort of bass music that is awesome, bouncy and gets bums wiggling. One of his favourite things to do is to share some of the really great tunes he’s been collecting since he started DJing in 2006.
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line412
|
__label__wiki
| 0.647789
| 0.647789
|
Crush Alert: Alexander Rybak
Welcome to Fuzzable’s crush alerts. A section of our site where we bring you the hottest celebrities and influencers. We want to provide you with a reason to be able to take a break from your busy day and revel in our crushes greatness. On this edition of Crush Alert, we’re bringing you one of Eurovision legends, Alexander Rybak.
by Fuzzable August 10, 2018, 2:27 am
Who is Alexander Rybak and why do we have a crush on him?
Alexander Rybak is a Norwegian musician, most notably on the violin. Born in Belarus, his family moved to Norway at age 4 and studied music since a young age. He is known as the 2009 winner of the Eurovision Song Contest, with the song “Fairytale” and represented Norway in the ESC 2018 with the song “That’s how you write a song.” Alexander is really passionate in his music, composing such works as ‘“Into A Fantasy” for the Dreamworks film How to train your dragon 2 and wrote songs in multiple languages as he is fluent in English, Russian, and Norwegian.
Outside of his live performances, Alexander interacts with his fans through his YouTube channel and Instagram account. On YouTube, not only he posts his official music, but also covers of songs that he enjoys listening to such as the ESC 2017 winning song “Amar Pelos Dois” by Salvador Sobral.
Photographic proof of Alexander Rybak being ‘crush-worthy.’
While I’m singing and shaving, this comes to mind: There will always be days where you can’t find anything good in life, and everything in your head just seams dark. And you know what, that’s OKAY! 👍🏼 We all know there will come better days.😘
A post shared by Alexander Rybak (@rybakofficial) on Jul 23, 2018 at 4:54am PDT
NAME ME A MUSICIAN WHO ALSO HAS A GOOFY SIDE? I’ll wait…
All jokes aside, this is really adorable, seeing him this goofy, as well as spreading some positivity to his audience.
A post shared by Alexander Rybak (@rybakofficial) on Mar 31, 2018 at 5:41am PDT
We’ve seen edits where we post emojis around our fave celebs and influencers… but the fact that he took the liberty to post his own version of this trend just gives us butterflies.
Seeing Alexander in Action
I shall present to you the live performance of his song “That’s How You Write A Song” during the Melodi Grand Prix (Norway’s national selection for Eurovision).
Here, you can see how he just wants to have fun when performing.
How to keep up with Alexander
As stated above, you can follow Alexander on Instagram and YouTube, and he also has a Facebook and Twitter account. So make sure you follow those so you’re not missing out.
You can also follow us on Twitter @Fuzzable, to find out all the rest of our crushes. You’re welcome.
Written by Fuzzable
This content has been created by a Fuzzable staff member. We post the latest news and features for you to read every day.
“Pink California” by Eden Warsaw
Sophia Scott unveils new single: ‘Strangers Again’
Jonas Blue, Liam Payne and Lennon Stella team up for ‘Polaroid’
Exclusive Interview with James Mullally: ‘Longshot’
Exclusive interview with Fly By Midnight and Carly Paige – ‘I Feel It’
Sean Ardoin – Kreole Rock and Soul
Sophia Scott Releases Acoustic Version of “White Fence”
A playlist to celebrate World Lion Day
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line413
|
__label__wiki
| 0.705191
| 0.705191
|
Home Tech News Getting to the core of nuclear speckles — ScienceDaily
When the famous Spanish physician Santiago Ramón y Cajal looked through his microscope in 1910, he discovered irregular and “transparent lumps” that appeared throughout the nucleus of a neuron. What these nuclear speckles are all about is still largely unclear, even though the biological and medical sciences have experienced several revolutions since then. “Even though we know quite a bit about their function, we didn’t know how nuclear speckles originate, i.e. what their core consists of,” says Tuçe Akta from the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics.
A Berlin team of scientists led by the Max Planck Research Group leader now identified the molecules that form the scaffold of nuclear speckles.The two proteins in question are SON and SRRM2, which are present in different variations throughout the entire animal kingdom. Both molecules are involved in the processing of RNA, which is produced when genes are transcribed. Without these proteins, the speckles dissolve.
Unlike other cell structures, speckles do not have a membrane envelope. They consist of an aggregation of molecules that can dynamically dissolve and reassemble, exhibiting the properties of solids as well as those of liquids. These “condensates” can be found throughout the cell. “Each cellular condensate has a protein that represents its nucleus — in the case of nuclear speckles, there are two,” says Akta.
Of red herrings and finding the right path
It is no coincidence that past attempts to identify the lowest common denominator of the mysterious structures have not been successful. “For 30 years scientists have been staining nuclear speckles with a reagent that they did not know very well,” says Akta. “We did not realize that we have been in the dark for decades.”
Since the early nineties, nuclear speckles have been visualised with a substance called SC35, which is an antibody that specifically attaches to certain sites in the speckles and can stain them with the help of pigments. Until recently, however, it was assumed that the antibody only recognizes the small protein SRSF2 — an assumption that now turned out to be wrong. “We wanted to use the antibody as a bait to fish for speckles in the cell,” says brahim Avar Ilk, the lead author of the study. “It was a great surprise to find the protein SRRM2, which was not the intended prey for our experiment.” It turned out that the antibody not only adheres to the already known SRSF2, but especially and particularly well to SRRM2.
Quest in the evolutionary family tree
While the sequence of SRRM2 varies widely in different animal species, the protein has a small section that has been preserved over hundreds of millions of years of evolution. Looking for similar proteins in the evolutionary family tree, the researchers also noticed the protein SON, which was considered by other research groups as a possible critical component of the speckles, too. “We had the idea that the combination of the two proteins could be the fundamental building block of the speckles,” says Ilk.
To test their hypothesis, the team grew human cells with the genes for either SRRM2 or SON switched off. This resulted in only spherical remnants of the speckles in the cell’s nuclei. Once the researchers knocked down both proteins simultaneously, all the speckles dissolved completely and associated proteins were found to be distributed throughout the cell nucleus. “We concluded that SRRM2 and SON must be the scaffold for nuclear speckles,” says Ilk. “Next, we will investigate how the two proteins bind to other molecules and how this process is controlled.”
Historical misinterpretation has consequences
But the results have even more, and perhaps far-reaching consequences. “Now that it is clear that SC35 binds to a different protein than assumed, previous research results on nuclear speckles must be carefully reevaluated,” says Akta.
The antibody SC35 has also been widely used in disease research, since the speckles have been implicated in several neurodegenerative conditions such as Huntington’s disease, spinocerebellar ataxia and dentatorubro-pallidoluysis atrophy. “There may be entirely new perspectives for research into these diseases,” says Akta.
Materials provided by Max-Planck-Gesellschaft. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
CorenuclearScienceDailyspeckles
Cyber Monday headphones deals continue to wow with these wireless earbuds
WhatsApp delays new privacy policy by three months...
FAA Authorizes First Commercial Smart Drone Flights
Free Galaxy Buds Pro (UK deal)
Extra 3 months for free with CyberGhost VPN...
Unboxing Samsung’s Galaxy S21 and S21 Ultra
WhatsApp delays new privacy policy by three months amid backlash over data sharing with Facebook- Technology News, Firstpost
Extra 3 months for free with CyberGhost VPN (UK deal)
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line415
|
__label__wiki
| 0.84864
| 0.84864
|
Mields, RuneNicola Petek2020-01-27T12:53:39+02:00
*1935 Münster – lives in Cologne
Rune Mield’s began her artistic work quite late: First, she trained as a bookseller in the early 1950s. However, she soon gave up this profession and began to work as an self-taught artist. In 1968 she was a founding member of the Zentrum für aktuelle Kunst – Gegenverkehr (Centre for Contemporary Art – Oncoming Traffic) in Aachen, in 1977 she participated in the documenta 6. In 1984, the established artist received a visiting professorship at the Berlin University of the Arts. In 1988 the State Art Gallery of Baden-Baden organized together with the Kunstverein Bonn her most extensive solo exhibition to date. The following year she became the guest of honour at Villa Massimo in Rome. Further awards and prizes followed.
Mields was first known for her large-format tube pictures. Using a systematic theoretical approach, she designed large-format geometric figures, mainly tubes and cones, in hard black and white contrasts on canvas. Through simple overlaps and the skilful play with the vanishing point, interesting contrasts arise between the visual grasp of the concrete space and one’s own perception. It is a game with the third dimension: a larger-than-life, seemingly plastic geometric figure hovers over the viewer and points to him almost threateningly. The viewer himself becomes the vanishing point of a figure that apparently breaks through the surface of the canvas.
These theoretical-geometric works were followed by works with scientific and historical, but also philosophical references. For this, Mields continued to deal intensively with mathematics and music, but also with classification systems, algorithms, signs and structures in general and with their respective meanings in different cultures and contexts – for example, the visual implementation of a binary system according to Francis Bacon, the series Master of Signs (a series of pictures in which mathematical signs are assigned to the respective year of origin and “inventor” of the sign) as well as the visual implementation of the Fibonacci formula.
Solo exhibitions (selection)
2005 Wilhelm Hack Museum, Ludwigshafen | 2001 Max Planck Institute for Social Research, Cologne | 1988 State Art Gallery Baden-Baden and Kunstverein Bonn
2010 honorary membership of VG Bild-Kunst | 2009 Konrad von Soest Prize | 2000 Gabriele Münter Prize | 1997 City of Cologne Culture Prize | 1996 Harry Graf Kessler Prize | 1984 Guest of honor at Villa Massimo, Rome | 1972 Critics’ Prize for Fine Arts
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line416
|
__label__wiki
| 0.793186
| 0.793186
|
DC Zoning Office system shreds paper-based processing
By GCN Staff
For years, the D.C. Office of Zoning, which provides administrative and technical assistance to the District’s Zoning Commission and Board of Zoning Adjustment, required applicants for zoning approvals to appear in person and submit 20 copies of all supporting documents. The tedious paper-based workflow caused difficulties in retrieving information, significant storage costs and laborious coordination with other agencies. Responding to what had become an intolerable system, the DCOZ IT team developed a Web-based system that provides for electronic case filing, processing, management of zoning cases and electronic distribution of final decisions.
The Interactive Zoning Information System (IZIS) was developed using object-oriented software development techniques to enhance re-usability, maintainability and scalability. Sun J2EE blueprint and Jakarta STRUTS were used to build the core of the system, which is supported by a Microsoft SQL Server 2008 database. Industry standard design patterns Singleton and MVC form the basis of IZIS components while Java, Java Server Pages, Servlets and JavaScript were used to develop interfaces. IZIS is also integrated with iFileNET and the Office of Zoning’s ESRI-based GIS system to validate geographic information.
Extensive training was conducted to ensure a successful launch of the system and smooth ongoing operations. Today, the IZIS enables the public to conduct online searches and instantly retrieve case information going back to 1970.
Connect with the GCN staff on Twitter @GCNtech.
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line418
|
__label__wiki
| 0.752326
| 0.752326
|
REVIEW: Marcus Miller – Marcus
March 12, 2008 December 13, 2017 by BG, posted in Blues, Boomers, Jazz, Music, Retirement, Review, Seniors
More than three decades after first bursting onto the New York music scene, Grammy-winning bassist Marcus Miller is still a vibrant presence in R&B and jazz. At any particular point in time he might be functioning as a producer, composer, arranger, or performer — and sometimes all at once. That’s the case with his newest album – his first for Concord – which is simply titled Marcus.
Miller is a talented multi-instrumentalist who is not only skilled on electric bass, but also keyboards, clarinet, sax, sitar and probably a few more besides. Just about everything shows up on his seventh solo album, a 13-track collection that’s top-heavy with his own compositions — not that there’s anything wrong with that.
He’s joined by some talented friends too. It’s an outstanding group that includes vocalists the caliber of Keb’ Mo’, Corinne Bailey Rae and Lalah Hathaway. Other performers include Shihan the Poet, jazz icon David Sanborn, and actress Taraji Henson (who made her singing debut in the movie Hustle and Flow).
Henson’s vocalizing on the bonus track, “Lost Without U [Spoken Word],” backed by Hathaway and the Ivey Sisters, is surprisingly enjoyable, and is a different take on Hathaway’s earlier version of the same tune. Hathaway is at her best with “Ooh,” a piece she co-wrote with Miller, and according to the album notes he backs her delicious singing with no less than seven different instruments.
I also enjoyed “Milky Way,” which not only brings us more of Miller’s virtuosity but also the strong, authentic blues voice of Keb’ Mo’, who – not content to just sing – also takes over as lead guitar. Miller is still a strong presence though, and the two legends play off each other in one of the best tracks on the album.
Good stuff, and the same could be said for “Free,” the single that’s getting the most attention on this album. It’s a Deniece Williams song that’s turned into a showpiece for the smooth, soulful voice of Corinne Bailey Rae. For added value on the track, we can experience Miller playing everything from bass to Moog synthesizer, along with Sanborn doing his thing on alto sax — and you don’t get much better than that.
There’s lots more to be found here – even Shihan the Poet, if that’s your thing – but the bottom line is simply that the album is a good collection of R&B flavored jazz that should be well worth a listen for any fans of good music — and isn’t that why we’re all here?
Sound samples available at artist’s Myspace.
Previous postJazzin’ The Classics With Larry Clinton
Next postA Musical Chick-Flick Is Still A Chick-Flick
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line419
|
__label__wiki
| 0.711523
| 0.711523
|
The AAA Girls
About The AAA Girls
Courtney Act, Alaska Thunderfuck, and Willam are three drag queens and entertainers that competed on different seasons of the reality TV series RuPaul’s Drag Race. The three queens first collaborated in 2014 on a single and music video advertising their line of shirts with fashion brand American Apparel. They also collaborated on two Christmas songs in 2014 (“Bring Me a Man”) and 2015 (“Christmas Sweater”). Later in 2016, the trio collaborated on a series of three videos filmed doing one another’s makeup, and posted on their respective Youtube channels. In June 2017, they reunited in an appearance on the music video for the song “Power” by Little Mix. Shortly thereafter, they released their debut song “AAA” from their new album, Access All Areas.
“A few years ago, Willam, Alaska, and I, recorded a song together and since then, the fandom would not let us quit. Two holiday tracks later, we give you the first single off our debut album,” Courtney said. “It’s time to let you Access All Areas for you aural delight.” Alaska added: "There may also be some surprise cameos from some of our famous friends” (source).
Popular The AAA Girls songs
American Apparel Ad Girls
Heather?
A Lacefront Like This
Tuck Tape
Dear Uber Driver
When the Water Runs Clear
Dear Santa, Bring Me a Man
Show all songs by The AAA Girls
Popular The AAA Girls albums
Access All Areas
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line420
|
__label__cc
| 0.637097
| 0.362903
|
Mom Gets 3 AM Call from Her Son and Is Fearful When He Says ‘Bring a Blanket’
By Timothy Roberts
It seems as if everybody is using a rideshare program these days. People were concerned about safety when they were first introduced a decade ago, but it seems as if everybody has gotten beyond it and now uses them for everything from getting a ride to work, to getting a safe ride home after an evening at the pub.
The overall outlook that most people have has certainly changed for the better. We often hear about the individuals who drive those peer-to-peer cars and some of the things that they do for their passengers. It isn’t unusual to hear about them going above and beyond the call of duty in many different ways.
Ashton Mazyck is one of those who drives for Lyft in his spare time when he is not working as a behavioral therapist in Worcester, Massachusetts. He was out driving on a cold January evening and was coming home after dropping someone off when he saw something that made his blood run cold.
He parked his car in the parking lot at his building and when he looked at the lobby door, he saw what appeared to be a small animal shivering in the cold. When he got closer, however, he realized that it was no small animal. It was actually a shivering and crying two-year-old girl, and this was 3 AM in the morning!
Vida Mazyck, Ashton’s mother also lives in the same building and he called her immediately to have her bring down a blanket. They took the tiny child into the building and tried to warm her up.
“Her feet were numb. I kept saying, ‘Does this hurt?’ And she couldn’t feel me rubbing her feet.”
The Worchester police were also called and the incident was reported. When they arrived on the scene, they rushed the girl to the hospital without delay.
According to a police report, the little girl was being watched by her grandmother that night while her mother was working the night shift. Somehow, the girl was able to sneak out of the house while the grandmother was asleep. The little girl was in her bare feet and covered with salt and ice as she huddled next to the main entrance of the building. Ashton shared this with the local news:
“I don’t know how long she was out there, but I’m just definitely thankful, you know, that I was there when I was.”
Vida does not typically like to have her son to work the late shift but she was happy he was out there this time.
Ashton was certainly at the right place at the right time. There is no doubt that he saved a life that day.
Woman Has Emotional Reunion With Dog Rescued From Avalanche
Woman Horrified To Learn That The Man She Took Off...
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line422
|
__label__cc
| 0.640767
| 0.359233
|
Una Storia Americana
Gordon Parks is a narrator who is unique in America, able with his camera and his ability to understand and dig deep into society’s recesses, to reveal injustices and abuses of power, to bring to light the stories of those who have no voice to broadcast them for themselves. One of the twentieth century’s most significant photographers, from the 1940s until his death in 2006, Parks showed the world, particularly through the pages of Life magazine, the difficulty of being black in a world of whites, segregation, poverty, prejudice. But also some of the great protagonists of the twentieth century, the world of fashion and even the great figures in a world that was radically changing, including Malcolm X, Muhammed Ali and Martin Luther King. Highly eclectic (he was already referred to as “Renaissance Man” by the time he was working for Life magazine), as well as a photographer, Parks was also a director, writer, musician, poet and while his work may defy simple classification, perhaps the key to understanding it best is as that of a professional narrator, the traditional storyteller drawing on his own experience of living and suffering to create his stories. Throughout his career, Gordon Parks attempted to tell many stories, illustrating them with exemplary images. Stories of groups fighting for survival, small communities isolated from the world, people on the edge or those already in the spotlight who need, however, to be better understood. True or merely plausible, generated by deep drama, viewed from his own experience as ex black boy condemned to die before being born or constructed with the alchemy of pure make-believe, Gordon Parks’ stories are without exception genuinely felt, recounted as authentic visions born of the desire to have a bearing on reality, affirming through this tale told in images his own opinion and the need to shout it to the world. The exhibition held at Forma is the largest European retrospective to be dedicated to his work, to his profound poetry, to his classic, powerful and highly cinematographic photography. The catalogue is published by Contrasto.
Link to Contrasto
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line423
|
__label__cc
| 0.703813
| 0.296187
|
From Iceland — Reykjavík Cemeteries Face Chilling Economic Crisis
Reykjavík Cemeteries Face Chilling Economic Crisis
Christian Bickel/Wikimedia Commons
Due to the lack of funding, Reykjavík cemeteries are having difficulties providing their services, according to a report by Visir. In fact, the only cremation furnace in the country, located in Reykjavík, now faces the risk of collapsing. Þórsteinn Ragnarsson, director of the Reykjavík cemetery, is asking the government for an increase in financing.
In 2005, the state and the cemetery council signed a contract that stipulated that the cemeteries’ projects would be fully financed. Soon after, the 2009 economic crisis led to cuts in funding and the state stopped complying with the contract. “They say that this 40% cut-down should apply to the cemeteries although it has been corrected for other institutes within the government,” says Þórsteinn. In the ten years since, the staff has been reduced from 160 to 60, which has resulted in the deterioration of many structures.
Currently, the cremation oven is 72 years old and at risk of collapsing. Þórsteinn warns that if the furnace stops working, the only other option for cremation would be to get the service done abroad.
One of the proposals made by Þórsteinn to the Ministry of Justice was for the legislation to be changed to allow the cemeteries to collect fees. The fees would be charged for the use of mortuaries and the rent of the church for funerals. “It wouldn’t be a high amount proportionally to the cost for cemeteries, but this has been denied,” he told Vísir. Unfortunately, the idea has been rejected and the Ministry of Justice has yet to respond to Þórsteinn’s propositions.
Next: There Are Now Over 50,000 Immigrants In Iceland
Previous: This Week In Weather: Hail Will Prevail!
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line424
|
__label__wiki
| 0.844519
| 0.844519
|
Devastation as the Wanted star Tom Parker diagnosed with terminal brain tumour at age 32
Oct 12, 2020 Devastation as the Wanted star Tom Parker diagnosed with terminal brain tumour at age 32, Global 247 news
Pop star Tom Parker, who formed the band The Wanted, has been diagnosed with a terminal and inoperable brain tumour.
The Bolton man, aged only 32, has spoke of his devastation after the news but his family have vowed to ‘raise awareness of this terrible disease’ and ‘fight this all the way’.
Parker said he was “still in shock” after being told he had a stage 4 glioblastoma six weeks ago.
“I knew something wasn’t right, but I never expected it to be this.”
Speaking to OK! magazine, the singer said he would remain positive, despite being told the cancer was terminal. “I’m going to be here,” he added. “I’m going to fight this.”
Tom said he is already undergoing radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatment in a bid to prolong his life.
The tragic news comes as he is expecting his second child with his wife Kelsey.
Life expectancy for this illness ranges from three months to 18 months after diagnosis, but the couple have not asked to hear Tom’s prognosis amid fears he would ‘sit and count down the days and not live his life’.
Posting a photo of the couple with their daughter, Aurelia Rose, 15 months, on Monday, he wrote: ‘Hey guys, you know that we’ve both been quiet on social media for a few weeks and it’s time to tell you why.
‘There’s no easy way to say this but I’ve sadly been diagnosed with a Brain Tumour and I’m already undergoing treatment.
‘We decided, after a lot of thought, that rather than hiding away and trying to keep it a secret, we would do one interview where we could lay out all the details and let everyone know the facts in our own way.
‘We are all absolutely devastated but we are gonna fight this all the way. We don’t want your sadness, we just want love and positivity and together we will raise awareness of this terrible disease and look for all available treatment options.
‘It’s gonna be a tough battle but with everyone’s love and support we are going to beat this. Tom and Kelsey xxx.’
Three adults per every 100,000 will be struck down with a glioblastoma, says The American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS).
It is most commonly found in men aged 50 to 60, and there is no link between developing glioblastoma and having a previous history with other cancers.
Treatment is usually surgery to remove as much of the tumour as possible, followed by a combination of radio- and chemotherapy (chemoradiation).
Parker formed the band The Wanted in 2009 and spent 6 years touring with fellow members Siva Kaneswaren, Jay McGuiness, Max George and Nathan Sykes.
The band won numerous awards and nominees for singles including ‘All time low’ and ‘Glad you came.’
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line427
|
__label__wiki
| 0.752904
| 0.752904
|
gogglesoc X High Fives
High Fives and gogglesoc have partnered for winter 2019/20. For every High Fives soc sold, $5.00 will be donated to High Fives. It's a high five for everyone!
About this soc
$5.00 from the sale of each of these gogglesocs is donated to High Fives Foundation to help them in their mission.
At gogglesoc, we think it's cool to be kind. We've donated over 7,000 gogglesocs to adaptive charities around the world in support of their causes. At market value, this equates to over $100K in donations. Help us donate to High Fives by purchasing one of these gogglesocs.
It's a high five for everyone.
About High Fives Foundation
The High Fives Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that focusses on preventing life-changing injuries and provides resources and hope if they happen. Founded by Roy Tuscany in 2009, High Fives Foundation has successfully raised funds, secured alternative treatments and aided in the recovery of 324 athletes from 32 states.
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line431
|
__label__cc
| 0.510047
| 0.489953
|
CONNECTING THE DOTS BETWEEN RADICAL ENVIRONMENTALISM AND GLOBAL COMMUNISM
Connecting the Dots between radical environmentalism and the expansion of global communism is a very simple process. Read the benchmark publication by the Club of Rome "Limits to Growth" and it becomes much easier to link the promoters of global collectivist government with the so-called green revolution. Communist ideology is a signature component of most environmental NGOs. They generally equate capitalism and economic development to the destruction of the natural world, while promoting unlimited government control of human activity from cradle to grave and eugenics as the panacea to save "Mother Earth" from total environmental devastation.
COP25 - losers and fanatics on display
Make no mistake about it, climate alarmism is intended to do one thing, use fear to convince everyone to give up all their freedoms and rights to property in the name of saving themselves from catastrophic destruction, all the while embracing collectivism. Collectivism (communism and socialism) has historically failed because Marxist technocrats are lousy at understanding human nature and always end up using force to make others accept their brilliant plans...........naturally for our own good.
KILLING AMERICA- thru regionalism & sustainable development
Private property, once the cornerstone of American freedom has become much less meaningful and is now largely controlled by government planners and unelected bureaucrats. All private property is subject to annual property taxes that make property owners little more than tenants. Is this the meaning of "pursuit of happiness" outlined by our founders? The number one target of communist planners and Marxist ideologues has always been the elimination of private property and the sustainability movement is the antithesis of private property protections. Regionalism and Councils of Government (COGs) are very effective ways of eliminating elected representative (accountable) government.
THE GREEN NEW DEAL - the identical twin of UN Agenda21/2030?
The Green New Deal is really just a rehash of the Green
Old Deal known as U.N. Agenda 21, which means that it is an extremely raw deal for average Americans. These green programs are only green for the insiders who seem to find profit in everything green, especially those insiders occuping cushy elected positions in Congress. They continue to promote these Marxist programs although they violate our most basic unalienable rights under the Constitution........the same Constitution they swore an oath to protect and defend against all enemies foreign and domestic.
Hang on America, we are about to go on a very wild ride into the New World Order
WHAT NEXT ? now that the lunatics are running the asylum!!
For years they labeled those of us who warned about the real purpose of the radical green agenda as alarmists and conspiracy theorists. When we pointed out their efforts to subvert public education, control the mainstream media, radically alter due process, and alter life in America in ways antithetical to the original intent of the Constitution they laughed and made pointed remarks about our tinfoil hats. Americans were told that there was no organized effort to radically alter our political systems or adopt communist programs under the guise of liberalism, and anyone who said they were should be ignored as wingnuts.
Well guess what; we were right all along and Americans are about to reap their just rewards for being asleep at the wheel for the past 100 years while the radical leftists wormed their way into every institution and position of power throughout our society. We now have multiple generations that have been re-educated and indoctrinated into Marxist and progressive socialist ideologies, until almost no-one understand the most fundamental underpinnings of constitutional republican government. America has become the land of useful idiots, ushering in the Green New Deal by supporting and electing Marxists like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
AMERICA’S NATIONAL FORESTS - stewardship Trumps radical environmentalism
U.S. National Forest policy has created an environmental crisis that could be easily avoided with basic stewardship and just a kernel of common sense. Decades of anti-logging policies and lawsuits filed by Environmental Attorneys posturing to stop every timber sale on National Forest lands have severely impacted the logging industry and are harming the natural and human environment.
COP24 - How Climate Change Is Being Used To Sell The World On Communism!!
At the recent U.N. COP24 Conference in Katowice, Poland a international cast of characters spewing fear and faulty science moved forward with their plan to deindustrialize advanced capitalist countries and redistribute their wealth to third world and communist countries under the epithet "social justice". Although communism has failed miserably wherever it is instituted, the movement toward total global government control of every aspect of our lives is alive and well at the United Nations, and no lie or scare tactic is beyond the reach of the numerous flunkies and tyrants that thrive there. We are constantly told that mankind is destroying the planet, and industrialized society is destroying it much faster than primitive and third world cultures .
The enemy of all life on Earth is Western European and American Capitalism and the sooner we destroy free enterprise and advanced civilization, the sooner we can assure the future generations of a sustainable Utopia. However, the Utopia they envision is one where no personal choice, freedom of thought or individual liberty can be tolerated, and the rights of individuals must submit to the dictates of the collective. We must willingly turn over our freedoms and national sovereignty to an unelected group of enlightened leaders working desperately to save us from ourselves. These selfless international “leaders” have determined that man-caused (anthropogenic) global warming is destroying our planet and that we must learn to sacrifice and share our wealth with all of mankind in a perfect balance of nature, resources and a newly redefined human society where individual rights bow to the rights of the collective...…..in other words, communism!!
Threat to the Future of Ranching by compliance to Agenda 21
We will be doing a day after Christmas broadcast on the radical animal rights movement with my special guests Mindy Patterson of The Cavalry Group, and Montana State Representative Theresa Manzella to talk about how radical animal rights groups and well meaning but sadly mis-informed elected officials are threatening the future of ranching and animal husbandry nationwide. Hear from real experts how harmless sounding new regulations and laws are intentionally being written to cripple livestock and poultry producers with the ultimate goal of ending the independent small farm and ranching lifestyle in conformance with UN Agenda 21 sustainable development policies. Hear how deceptive marketing to wealthy urbanites is generating huge sums of cash that are funding campaigns to end American animal husbandry and promote the re-wilding of America from coast to coast. This will be a really eye-opening broadcast on a subject that is virtually ignored by the mainstream media.
SUSTAINABLE DEEP STATE wading around in the D.C. swamp
The political climate in America and around the world is getting more destructive and radical by the day. Progressive socialists and Marxists have controlled the American Media for decades and have been promoting the most anti-constitutional radical agenda imaginable. Truth and common sense protection of our civil society, property rights and liberty have become distant memories in the deep state world of globalist social planners.
Every possible opportunity to create conflict between social, racial, religious, political and gender groups has been employed by socialist planners in an effort to create chaos within our society…….all the while claiming to save us from ourselves and promote "social justice". The Deep State is synonymous with Marxist/communist/socialist government control of every aspect of our personal lives and is the progenitor of the sustainability movement and UN Agenda 21.
The “Reintroduction” of the Predators and the threat to Farms and Ranches
Tuesday’s program will examine the misrepresented “reintroduction” of Canadian Gray wolves into the Yellowstone National Park aka Yellowstone International Biosphere during the Clinton Administration and the subsequent harm on western farming and ranching families that are at the center of the debate over grazing rights on public lands. Our guests will be Bob Fanning and Dr. Valerius Geist, and the subject will be the proposed introduction of these same apex predators into the highly populated state of Colorado and the presence of a particularly virulent strain for parasite known as Echinococcus Granulosis carried by these wolves that are a serious threat to humans and domestic animals as well as native game species. We will connect the dots between these radical large predator reintroductions and the destruction of traditional small farming and ranching operations that are dependent on grazing leases on public lands.
There is absolutely no justification for these radical apex predator policies, especially when there are known public health dangers and such enormous consequences for animal husbandry and rural American lifestyles. Hear from two leading experts on the history and ecological consequences of a Federal policy known as Apex Predator Re-introduction that started as the brainchild of the radical environmentalist founder of Earth First, Dave Foreman. This important radio broadcast will help you to Connect the Dots between radical environmentalism and the attacks on rural America that are destroying our way of life and our tradition of strong private property rights and freedom from tyranny.
The Incestuous relationships between Environmental NGOs,Tax Exempt Foundations and elected/appointed public officials
Tuesdays program will look at the Non-Governmental Organizations and Tax Exempt Foundations that are at the heart of the radical environmentalism driving sustainability policies. These policies threaten the cornerstone of American liberty; private property. For the past 2 weeks we have been focusing on the attacks on the small farm and ranch heritage that exemplifies American individualism. Over the past 50 years we have seen an intense and growing attack on rural American lifestyles from Federal and State Land Agencies that seem far more interested in promoting radical environmentalism than defending citizens rights, private property, and rural lifestyles. These attacks on private property were thrown into hyperdrive at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit and the subsequent policy whitepaper called U.N. Agenda 21. Globalist President George H.W. Bush signed his pledge of support on behalf of the American people to a program that openly promoted Marxist policies antithetical to American independence. Two years later President Bill Clinton, through Executive Order, created The President’s Council on Sustainable Development that implemented these radical policies throughout the Federal Agencies despite a vote of 98-2 against passage of the Sustainability Treaty by the U.S. Senate as required by the Constitution. Sustainability and sustainable development guidelines currently influence 95% of all new Administrative Agency regulations.
Terrorist or Patriot-stand against the Federal Leviathan
Our guests will be: Author and Public Speaker Michael Stickler who will be talking about his latest autobiographical book Cliven Bundy – American Patriot. Stickler met Cliven Bundy in the Southern Nevada Detention Center and spent 2 months interviewing and assembling the information to write an honest and detailed autobiography of the man labeled as a Domestic Terrorist by Harry Reed and the BLM. This autobiography is the story of a family that decided it had no option but to take a last stand to protect the Western ranching tradition from a Federal leviathan hell bent on absolute control of every aspect of our lives, especially our property. His stand is a case study in what could happen to anyone willing to stand against Federal Land Agency Bureaucrats, and why it is important to be willing to make that stand. The Federal machine has become much too powerful, with a total disregard for the uniquely American tradition of private property and constitutional republican government. After hearing this radio program you are tasked with deciding for yourself......is Cliven Bundy a terrorist or a patriot.
The National Problem of Attacks on Rural America
Our guest will be Pennsylvania farmer Bob Brace (Brace Farms)who has spent the past 30+ years in very costly litigation over a wetlands issue that should have never have become a problem. He will be joined by property rights advocate and local government consultant, Jim Carlson ( Stillwater Technical Solutions), and Science Editor/Writer for Range Magazine, Chance Gowan.
The Sustainable War and Deep State and Security
Our radio broadcast for Tuesday, April 24th, 2018 will feature sustainable development/U.N. Agenda 2030 expert Tom DeWeese for the first hour to talk about his new book Sustainable – The War on Free Enterprise, Private Property, and Individuals.
The second hour will be spent with national security expert and Congressional Liaison Bruce Moran to give us an update on President Trump’s actions in Syria and how he is dealing with the Deep State.
The Environment Hockey Stick Theory isn’t Sticking
Our radio broadcast for Tuesday, April 10th, 2018 will feature Dr. Tim Ball to get an update on his lawsuit with Dr. Michael Mann, the man who created the science to support Al Gore’s bogus hockey stick that shows that we are in the hottest period in human history as a result of anthropogenic (man made) climate change. Dr. Ball famously opined that Dr. Mann should be teaching at the State Pen, instead of Penn State, and the resulting defamation lawsuit by Michael Mann has had some rather interesting revelations. As part of the discovery process, Dr. Ball requested Dr. Mann’s scientific documentation to back his hockey stick thesis, and Mann refused to provide any of the documentation, claiming that he had special authors privilege and didn’t need to provide any documentation. The Canadian Judge held that Mann needed to provide those studies to prove his defamation case and this radio broadcast will provide our listeners with an update of the trial.
The Left’s Utopian Dream
Independent farmers and ranchers who produce much of America's meat supply have come under special scrutiny and attack in recent years by federal agencies, environmental NGOs and tax exempt foundations that increasingly support a re-wilded North America and vegan lifestyles. Grazing leases on public lands that have been an essential part of Western ranching for many generations are increasingly restrictive or being terminated; with rule of law, common sense, or science having no impact on these decisions. This process started out so gradually that most rural Americans paid little attention to the refocus of government land agencies from friend, neighbor and protector of people to advocate of radical environmentalism.
Reasons behind Poverty and Violence
We will be discussing Paul’s book Eco-Imperialism Green Power Black Death, an expose’ on radical environmentalism’s unrelenting attack on energy development and modern technology, especially in underdeveloped African countries with the world’s poorest populations. We will explore the hypocrisy of leftist progressives who claim to stand in support of the poor and downtrodden, then openly suppress the modernization and development opportunities that could lift them out of poverty.
Our second hour will feature author, speaker and nationally recognized expert on the doping of America, Ann Blake-Tracy. We will be looking at the gun control agenda being promoted by school administrators nationwide, and connect the dots between serotonergic medications that are being prescribed for America’s children and the gun violence within our society.
Global Warming Collusion and the Deep State
Tomorrow morning we will be doing a two part program with two special guests; Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, and Lord Christopher Monckton. Dr. Roberts will be a first time guest to Connecting the Dots and will join us for the first half hour of our broadcast to talk about the nature and extent of the Deep State, and Lord Monckton will join us for the last 1-1/2 hours of our broadcast to talk about a massive collusion with the global warming proponents and the manipulation of data.
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line432
|
__label__wiki
| 0.563606
| 0.563606
|
What Every Leader Needs to Know About Followers
The distinctions among followers are every bit as consequential as those among leaders—and have critical implications for how managers should manage.
Barbara Kellerman
From the Magazine (December 2007)
Reprint: R0712F
Countless studies, workshops, and books have focused on leaders—the charismatic ones, the retiring ones, even the crooked ones. Virtually no literature exists about followers, however, and the little that can be found tends to depict subordinates as an amorphous group or explain their behavior in the context of leaders’ development. Some works even fail to sufficiently distinguish among varying types of followers—barely registering the fact that those who tag along mindlessly are a breed apart from those who are deeply devoted and consciously, actively involved. These distinctions have critical implications for the way leaders should lead and managers should manage, according to Kellerman, a professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Additionally, today’s followers are influenced by a range of cultural and technological changes that have affected what they want and how they view and communicate with their ostensible leaders.
In this article, Kellerman explores the evolving dynamic between leaders and subordinates and offers a typology that managers can use to determine and appreciate how their followers are different from one another. Using the level of engagement with a leader or group as a defining factor, the author segments followers into five types: Isolates are completely detached; they passively support the status quo with their inaction. Bystanders are free riders who are somewhat detached, depending on their self-interests. Participants are engaged enough to invest some of their own time and money to make an impact. Activists are very much engaged, heavily invested in people and process, and eager to demonstrate their support or opposition. And diehards are so engaged they’re willing to go down with the ship—or throw the captain overboard.
There is no leader without at least one follower—that’s obvious. Yet the modern leadership industry, now a quarter-century old, is built on the proposition that leaders matter a great deal and followers hardly at all.
Good leadership is the stuff of countless courses, workshops, books, and articles. Everyone wants to understand just what makes leaders tick—the charismatic ones, the retiring ones, and even the crooked ones. Good followership, by contrast, is the stuff of nearly nothing. Most of the limited research and writing on subordinates has tended to either explain their behavior in the context of leaders’ development rather than followers’ or mistakenly assume that followers are amorphous, all one and the same. As a result, we hardly notice, for example, that followers who tag along mindlessly are altogether different from those who are deeply devoted.
In reality, the distinctions among followers in groups and organizations are every bit as consequential as those among leaders. This is particularly true in business: In an era of flatter, networked organizations and cross-cutting teams of knowledge workers, it’s not always obvious who exactly is following (or, for that matter, who exactly is leading) and how they are going about it. Reporting relationships are shifting, and new talent-management tools and approaches are constantly emerging. A confluence of changes—cultural and technological ones in particular—have influenced what subordinates want and how they behave, especially in relation to their ostensible bosses.
It’s long overdue for leaders to acknowledge the importance of understanding their followers better. In these next pages, I explore the evolving dynamic between leaders and followers and offer a new typology for determining and appreciating the differences among subordinates. These distinctions have critical implications for how leaders should lead and managers should manage.
A Level Playing Field
Followers can be defined by their behavior—doing what others want them to do. But for the purposes of this article, and to avoid confusing what followers do with who they are, I define followers according to their rank: They are low in the hierarchy and have less power, authority, and influence than their superiors. They generally go along to get along, particularly with those in higher positions. In the workplace, they may comply so as not to put money or stature at risk. In the community, they may comply to preserve collective stability and security—or simply because it’s the easiest thing to do.
History tells us, however, that subordinates do not follow all the time. As the ideas of the Enlightenment took hold in the eighteenth century, for instance, ordinary people (in industrialized societies especially) became less dependent on kings, landowners, and the like, and their expectations changed accordingly—as did their sense of empowerment. The trend continues. Increasingly, followers think of themselves as free agents, not as dependent underlings. And they act accordingly, often withholding support from bad leaders, throwing their weight behind good ones, and sometimes claiming commanding voices for those lower down in the social or organizational hierarchy.
Witness the gradual demise of communism (and totalitarianism) in the former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, and now China. And consider the social and political upheavals, all of them antiauthority, in the United States and elsewhere during the 1960s and 1970s. Similarly, there has been a dispersion of power at the highest levels of American business, partly because of changes in the cultures and structures of corporations as well as the advance of new technologies. CEOs share power and influence with a range of players, including boards, regulators, and shareholder activists. Executives at global companies must monitor the activities of subordinates situated thousands of miles away. And knowledge workers can choose independently to use collaborative technologies to connect with colleagues and partners in other companies and countries in order to get things done. The result is reminiscent of what management sage Peter Drucker suggested in his 1967 book The Effective Executive: In an era dominated by knowledge workers rather than manual workers, expertise can—and often does—trump position as an indicator of who is really leading and who is really following.
Types of Followers
Over the years, only a handful of researchers have attempted to study, segment, and speak to followers in some depth. To various degrees, Harvard Business School professor Abraham Zaleznik, Carnegie Mellon adjunct professor Robert Kelley, and executive coach Ira Chaleff have all argued that leaders with even some understanding of what drives their subordinates can be a great help to themselves, their followers, and their organizations. Each researcher further recognized the need to classify subordinates into different types. (See the sidebar “Distinguishing Marks: Three Other Follower Typologies.”)
Distinguishing Marks: Three Other Follower Typologies
While there is a landslide of materials out there dissecting and explaining the intricacies of leaders, very few people have devoted time and attention to the study of followers. Here are the exceptions.
Abraham Zaleznik. In 1965, this Harvard Business School professor argued in these pages that “individuals on both sides of the vertical authority relationship” matter to how organizations perform (see “The Dynamics of Subordinacy,” HBR May–June 1965). To distinguish among the different kinds of subordinates, he placed them along two axes: dominance and submission (from those who want to control their superiors to those who want to be controlled by them), and activity and passivity (from those who initiate and intrude to those who do little or nothing). Zaleznik further segmented followers into four groups, two of which reflected his Freudian perspective on relationships: Impulsive (rebellious, sometimes spontaneous and courageous), compulsive (controlling but passive, in part because they feel guilty about privately wanting to dominate), masochistic (want to submit to the control of the authority figure), and withdrawn (care little or not at all about what happens at work and behave accordingly).
Ten years later, Zaleznik coauthored Power and the Corporate Mind with Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries and argued that leaders who know more about what makes their followers tick put themselves, their followers, and their organizations in an advantageous position.
Robert Kelley. In 1992, Kelley, now an adjunct professor at Carnegie Mellon, published The Power of Followership, which essentially urged followers to follow not blindly but with deliberate forethought. He distinguished followers from one another according to factors such as motivation and behavior in the workplace and ended up with five different followership styles: Alienated followers think critically and independently but do not willingly participate in the groups of which they are members. Passive followers do not think critically and do not actively participate; they let their leaders do their thinking for them. Conformist followers do participate in their groups and organizations but are content simply to take orders. Exemplary followers are nearly perfect, or at least they perform well across the board. And pragmatic followers play both sides of the fence, ranking in the middle in terms of independent thinking and level of activity.
Ira Chaleff. The author of the 1995 book The Courageous Follower was, like Robert Kelley, primarily focused on empowering subordinates, encouraging them to actively support leaders they deemed good and to actively oppose those they deemed bad. He classified subordinates according to the degree to which they supported leaders and the degree to which they challenged them. He came up with four different types of subordinates: implementers, partners, individualists, and resources. Implementers are the most common, and leaders depend on them above all to get the work done. Partners are even better: They strongly support their leaders, but they are also ready and willing to challenge them as necessary. Individualists can be a bit of a problem to leaders, because they tend to withhold support from people in positions of authority. And resources “do an honest day’s work for a few days’ pay but don’t go beyond the minimum expected of them.”
Zaleznik classified subordinates into one of four types according to two sets of variables—dominance versus submission and activity versus passivity. His research findings intended to inform corporate leaders in particular. By contrast, Kelley and Chaleff were more interested in the welfare of those lower down the corporate ladder. Their work was designed to challenge and counteract what Kelley called the “leadership myth”—the idea that leaders are all-powerful and all-important.
Kelley classified subordinates into five types according to their levels of independence and activity, but his special interest was in fostering “exemplary” followers—those who acted with “intelligence, independence, courage, and a strong sense of ethics.” These individuals are critical to the success of all groups and organizations, he argued. Meanwhile, Chaleff placed subordinates into one of four categories based on the degree to which the follower supports the leader and the degree to which the follower challenges the leader.
All three did pioneering work—and yet, as indicated, it seems to have had little impact on how current leader-follower relationships are perceived. In part, this is because of cultural, organizational, and technological changes that have taken place in just the past few years. Manual laborers, for instance, have been replaced by younger, tech-savvy knowledge workers, who are generally less disposed to be, in Zaleznik’s parlance, “masochistic” or “withdrawn.”
The most important point of all these typologies, however, is that leader-follower relationships, no matter the situation, culture, or era in which they are embedded, are more similar than they are different. Underlying them is some sort of dominance and some sort of deference. Segmenting followers, then, serves at least two broad purposes: In theory, it enables us all to impose an order on groups and organizations that up to now has been largely lacking. In practice, it allows superiors and subordinates alike to discern who in the group or organization is doing what—and why.
A New Typology
The typology I’ve developed after years of study and observation aligns followers on one, all-important metric—level of engagement. I categorize all followers according to where they fall along a continuum that ranges from “feeling and doing absolutely nothing” to “being passionately committed and deeply involved.” I chose level of engagement because, regardless of context, it’s the follower’s degree of involvement that largely determines the nature of the superior-subordinate relationship. This is especially true today: Because of the aforementioned changes in the cultures and structures of organizations, for instance, knowledge workers often care as much if not more about intrinsic factors—the quality of their interpersonal relationships with their superiors, for instance, or their passion for the organization’s mission—than about extrinsic rewards such as salary, titles, and other benefits.
A typology based on a single, simple metric—as opposed to the multiple rating factors used by the creators of previous segmenting tools—offers leaders immediate information on whether and to what degree their followers are buying what they’re selling: Do your followers participate actively in meetings and proceedings? Do they demonstrate engagement by pursuing dialogues, asking good questions, and generating new ideas? Or have they checked out—pecking away at their BlackBerries or keeping a close eye on the clock? I categorize followers as isolates, bystanders, participants, activists, and diehards. Let’s look at each type.
Isolates are completely detached.
These followers are scarcely aware of what’s going on around them. Moreover, they do not care about their leaders, know anything about them, or respond to them in any obvious way. Their alienation is, nevertheless, of consequence. By knowing and doing nothing, these types of followers passively support the status quo and further strengthen leaders who already have the upper hand. As a result, isolates can drag down their groups or organizations.
Isolates are most likely to be found in large companies, where they can easily disappear in the maze of cubicles, offices, departments, and divisions. Their attitudes and behaviors attract little or no notice from those at the top levels of the organization as long as they do their jobs, even if only marginally well and with zero enthusiasm. Consider the member of the design team at a large consumer goods company who dutifully completes his individual assignments but couldn’t care less about the rest of the company’s products and processes—he just needs to pay the bills. Or witness the typical American voter—or, more accurately, nonvoter. In 2004, no fewer than 15 million Americans said they had not gone to the polls because they were “not interested in the election” or were “not involved in politics.” Groups or organizations rarely profit from isolates, especially if their numbers are high. Unwittingly, they impede improvement and slow change.
To mitigate the isolates’ negative effect on companies, leaders and managers first need to ask themselves the following questions: Do we have any isolates among us, and, if so, how many? Where are they? Why are they so detached? Answering these questions won’t be easy given that isolates by their very nature are invisible to the top team. Senior management will need to acquire information from those at other levels of the organization by having informal and formal conversations about managers and employees who seem lethargic or indifferent about their work, the group, or both.
The next step, of course, is to take action. Depending on the reasons for alienation, there may be ways to engage isolates in the workplace. If it’s a matter of job satisfaction, a training and development plan might be drawn up. If it’s a matter of job stress, a new schedule that allows for several days of work from home might be considered. In any case, leaders and managers will need to consider the return from making such investments in isolates: If it will be low or nonexistent, managers may ultimately decide to part ways with these followers. Employers that are satisfied with those who do an adequate job and no more might choose to keep these types of followers.
Bystanders observe but do not participate.
These free riders deliberately stand aside and disengage, both from their leaders and from their groups or organizations. They may go along passively when it is in their self-interest to do so, but they are not internally motivated to engage in an active way. Their withdrawal also amounts to tacit support for whoever and whatever constitutes the status quo.
Like isolates, bystanders can drag down the rest of the group or organization. But unlike isolates, they are perfectly aware of what is going on around them; they just choose not to take the time, the trouble, or, to be fair, sometimes the risk to get involved. A notorious example from the public sector is people who refuse to intervene when a crime is being committed—commonly referred to as the Genovese syndrome or the bystander effect. A corporate counterpart might be the account representative at a financial services company who goes along with the new CEO’s recently mandated process changes, even as some of her colleagues are being demoted or fired for pointing out inefficiencies in the new system. To speak up or get involved would be to put her own career and reputation on the line at a time when the CEO is still weeding out “loyal” employees from “problem” ones.
There are bystanders everywhere—and, like isolates, they tend to go unnoticed, especially in large organizations, because they consciously choose to fly under the radar. In the workplace, silent but productive bystander followers can be useful to managers who just want people to do as they are told—but they will inevitably disappoint those bosses who want people to actually care about the organization’s mission. There are ways to bring bystanders along, however. As with isolates, the key is to determine the root causes of their alienation and offer appropriate intrinsic or extrinsic rewards that may increase their levels of engagement, and, ultimately, their productivity. Bystanders, perhaps much more than isolates, may be swayed by such incentives.
Participants are engaged in some way.
Regardless of whether these followers clearly support their leaders and organizations or clearly oppose them, they care enough to invest some of what they have (time or money, for example) to try to make an impact. Consider the physicians and scientists who developed the painkiller Vioxx: They felt personally invested in producing a best-selling drug for Merck, bringing it to market—and defending it even in the face of later revelations that the drug could create very serious side effects in some users. They were driven by their own passions (ambition, innovation, creation, helping people)—not necessarily by senior managers.
When participants support their leaders and managers, they are highly coveted. They are the fuel that drives the engine. In the workplace, for instance, they can make effective junior partners. When they disapprove of their leaders and managers, however, or when they act as independent agents, the situation gets more complicated. Former Merck CEO Raymond Gilmartin, for instance, was not trained as either a physician or a scientist. So it was easy enough for the people who on paper were his subordinates—the physicians and researchers championing Vioxx—to get ahead of him with a drug that brought the company a whole lot of trouble. (Vioxx was pulled from the market in 2004.)
Gilmartin could have done a much better job of communicating with and learning from these participant followers, perhaps bringing in experts from the outside to consult with him and his knowledge workers as Vioxx was being produced and marketed—and especially as it was being questioned. Indeed, if Gilmartin had understood the leader-follower dynamic even a bit better, he might have been able to help his company avert public relations and legal disasters.
Although Gilmartin’s subordinates acted as free agents, they supported him nonetheless—which highlights an important point about followers’ attitudes and opinions. When it comes to participant followers, and to the other engaged follower types described later in this article, leaders need to watch them overall and pay particularly close attention to whether their subordinates are for or against them. (The for-or-against question does not even come up for disengaged isolates and bystanders.)
When it comes to engaged follower types, leaders need to watch them overall and pay particularly close attention to whether their subordinates are for or against them.
Activists feel strongly one way or another about their leaders and organizations, and they act accordingly.
These followers are eager, energetic, and engaged. They are heavily invested in people and processes, so they work hard either on behalf of their leaders or to undermine and even unseat them.
When Paul Wolfowitz ran into trouble as president of the World Bank, for instance, it was the activists among his staffers who led the charge against him. As soon as the news broke that Wolfowitz had intervened in a professional situation on behalf of a woman with whom he was having a personal relationship, members of the World Bank Group Staff Association promptly issued a statement: “The President must acknowledge that his conduct has compromised the integrity and effectiveness of the World Bank Group and has destroyed the staff’s trust in his leadership. He must act honorably and resign.”
Activists who strongly support their leaders and managers can be important allies, whether they are direct or indirect reports. Activists are not necessarily high in number, though, if only because their level of commitment demands an expense of time and energy that most people find difficult to sustain. Of course, this same passion also means they can and often do have a considerable impact on a group or organization. Those activists who are as loyal as they are competent and committed are frequently in the leader or manager’s inner circle—simply because they can be counted on to dedicate their (usually long) working hours to the mission as their superiors see it.
Some activist followers are effectively encouraged by their superiors to take matters into their own hands. This was the case at Best Buy. CEO Brad Anderson had consistently encouraged “bottom-up, stealth innovation” at the retail organization, and human resource managers Jody Thompson and Cali Ressler were bold—and smart—enough to take him up on it. They wanted to create policies that would enable a workplace without any fixed schedules—a “results-oriented work environment,” or ROWE. Best Buy employees at all levels of the organization—in the stores and at headquarters—would be free to set their own hours and come and go as they pleased, as long as their work got done. On their own, Thompson and Ressler considered how to make such a policy work, how exactly to measure results in the absence of set hours, how to implement the new processes that might be required, and so forth. In 2003, they presented their ideas to several unit managers who were struggling with complaints from top performers about undesirable and unsustainable levels of stress in the workplace. The managers were open to hearing about ROWE—more important, they were willing to test it in their units. Word gradually spread about the grassroots experiment, building strong support and acceptance in various departments, until it finally reached management’s ears—after some parts of the company had already implemented the new policy. The HR managers’ program eventually was rolled out companywide.
Diehards are prepared to go down for their cause—whether it’s an individual, an idea, or both.
These followers may be deeply devoted to their leaders, or they may be strongly motivated to oust their leaders by any means necessary. They exhibit an all-consuming dedication to someone or something they deem worthy.
Diehard followers are rare; their all-encompassing commitment means they emerge only in those situations that are dire or close to it. They can be either a strong asset to their leaders or managers or a dangerous liability. Hitler’s most ardent disciple from the start was, arguably, Nazi propagandist Josef Goebbels. As conditions in Germany began deteriorating, with the Allies closing in, Goebbels remained close to the leader—straight through to the end: Shortly after the führer committed suicide, Goebbels took the most radical diehard-type step when he and his wife took their lives along with those of their six children. Without Hitler, they considered life not worth living.
Of course, not all diehard followers are so extreme in their devotion. But they are willing, by definition, to endanger their own health and welfare in the service of their cause. Soldiers the world over, for instance, risk life and limb in their commitment to protect and defend. They are trained and willing to follow nearly blindly the orders of their superiors, who depend on them absolutely to get the job done.
Sometimes diehards can be found in more ordinary circumstances, even in traditional organizations in which they are motivated to act in ways judged by others to be extreme. Whistleblowers are a case in point. Usually we think them heroes and heroines. In fact, these diehards can and often do pay a high price for their unconventional behavior. Bunnatine H. Greenhouse, a U.S. Army contracting official who criticized a large, noncompetitive government contract with Halliburton for work being done in Iraq, was punished for being so outspoken. She had initially registered her complaint only to those inside the Army. When this had no effect, she testified in 2005 before the Senate Democratic Policy Committee and described the contract as “the most blatant and improper contract abuse I have witnessed.” Incensed by her remark, and citing poor performance, the Army removed Greenhouse from her elite Senior Executive Service position and reassigned her to a lesser job.
As I mentioned earlier, attitudes and opinions do not matter much when we are talking about isolates and bystanders, if only because they do little or even nothing. They matter a great deal, however, when we are talking about participants, activists, and diehards. Do these followers support their leader? Or, rank notwithstanding, are they using their available resources to resist people in positions of power, authority, and influence? My typology suggests that good leaders should pay special attention to those who demonstrate their strong support or their vehement opposition. It’s not difficult to see the signs—participants and especially activists and diehards wear their hearts on their sleeves.
Good and Bad Followers
Certain character and personality traits are nearly always associated with being a good leader (integrity, intelligence, and wise judgment, for instance), as are particular skills and capacities (effective communication and decision making, for example). But given the different roles played by leaders and followers, what can reasonably be said about what constitutes a good follower? More to the point, what distinguishes a good follower from a bad one? Here my typology can again be of help.
First and foremost, there is this: Followers who do something are nearly always preferred to followers who do nothing. In other words, isolates and bystanders (little or no engagement, little or no action) don’t have much to recommend them. Then again, doing something is not, in and of itself, sufficient, especially in cases of bad leadership. On the one hand, the story of “Chainsaw Al” Dunlap, former CEO of Scott Paper and Sunbeam, is one of a powerful leader with a mean streak, an intimidating executive who cultivated a culture of tyranny and misery while realizing success at Scott Paper and failure at Sunbeam. On the other hand, it’s the story of isolates and bystanders who were unwilling or unable to stop him from leading so poorly. It’s also a tale of participants and activists who did something; trouble was they supported rather than opposed a leader who did not deserve it.
Or consider the extreme case of Darfur, which New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof has long described as a situation in which there is enough blame to go around, including to those among us who have known about the genocide for years but have done nothing to stop it. Kristof praises certain kinds of followers, however—participants and activists who, despite being without power, authority, and influence, did what they reasonably could to stop the murder and mayhem. One such follower was the 12-year-old from a small town in Oregon who, after seeing the film Hotel Rwanda, formed a Sudan Club and raised money by selling eggs and washing cars. Another was the doctoral student who in his spare time became the foremost expert on how investments by foreign companies “underwrite the Sudanese genocide.”
Good followers will actively support a leader who is good (effective and ethical) and will actively oppose a leader who is bad (ineffective and unethical). Good followers invest time and energy in making informed judgments about who their leaders are and what they espouse. Then they take the appropriate action. The senior editors and other newsroom staffers at the New York Times, for instance, certainly may have had problems with the way Howell Raines, then the executive editor, was trying to remake the venerable publication and may have chafed at his arrogant leadership style. The tipping point for them, however, was Raines’s mismanagement of the scandal involving wayward reporter Jayson Blair—an incident they believed could create lasting damage to an institution to which they were deeply committed and where credibility is everything.
Good followers invest time and energy in making informed judgments about who their leaders are and what they espouse. Then they take the appropriate action.
Conversely, bad followers will do nothing whatsoever to contribute to the group or organization. Or they will actively oppose a leader who is good. Or they will actively support a leader who is bad. Clearly Chainsaw Al’s lapdogs fall into this last category. Most of the subordinates in his inner circle—those who were closest to him and who arguably could have afforded, professionally and financially, to oppose his ultimately destructive behavior—did nothing to try to shorten his miserable reign.• • •
Contrary to what the leadership industry would have you believe, the relationship between superiors and their subordinates is not one-sided. Nor are followers all one and the same—and they should not be treated as such. Insofar as they can, followers act in their own self-interests, just as leaders do. And while they may lack authority, at least in comparison with their superiors, followers do not lack power and influence.
Spurred by cultural and technological advances, more and more followers are either challenging their leaders or, in many cases, simply circumventing them altogether. Participant, activist, and diehard followers invested in animal rights can, for instance, on their own now mass-send messages via e-mail, collect data using concealed cameras, and post their galvanizing images on various websites. Their work has motivated chains like McDonald’s and Burger King to ask their meat and egg suppliers to follow guidelines that include providing extra water, more wing room, and fresh air for egg-laying hens. In 2007, Burger King went a step further and announced that it would buy eggs and pork only from suppliers that did not confine their animals in crates or cages.
As this example and countless others confirm, it’s long overdue for academics and practitioners to adopt a more expansive view of leadership—one that sees leaders and followers as inseparable, indivisible, and impossible to conceive the one without the other.
Read more on Organizational structure
Barbara Kellerman is the James MacGregor Burns Lecturer in Public Leadership at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, and is author and editor of many books and articles on leadership.
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line433
|
__label__cc
| 0.547286
| 0.452714
|
Assistant Professor of Nursing
Augsburg University
The Augsburg University Nursing Department invites applications for a full-time, 9-month, tenure-track position beginning August 15, 2021. The department offers multiple programs: BSN completion, M.A. in Transcultural Nursing and/or Transcultural/Leadership, and two tracks in the Doctoral program, Transcultural or Family Nurse Practitioner — that focus on transcultural nursing and holistic health practices. The nursing department is known for distinctive course offerings which include immersion learning that foster understandings into socio-cultural dimensions of health and healing in communities locally and abroad.
Augsburg University nursing programs are designed to prepare nurses for career advancement through BSN completion as well as graduate work in advanced transcultural nursing leadership aimed at addressing health care inequities and integrating holistic practices into [x]. Candidates with demonstrated commitments to equity and inclusion and effectiveness in serving students from diverse communities are especially encouraged to apply.
A successful candidate will have opportunities to teach nursing courses across Augsburg’s various nursing programs. Courses are offered in a variety of formats: face-to-face, blended, and online. Priority will be given to a candidate demonstrating interest and strength in teaching with an emphasis on transcultural nursing, leadership, holistic health, equity and inclusivity, and social justice issues in the discipline.
Primary responsibilities include teaching, scholarship, service, and academic mentoring. Teaching requirements include facilitation of graduate and undergraduate nursing courses with adult students in a hybrid format that may include travel between the Twin Cities and Rochester, MN. Student advising is expected along with committee assignments within the Department and participation in the larger University community. Maintaining an innovative program of scholarship that compliments teaching is essential to fulfilling tenure requirements.
Doctoral degree in nursing or a Masters Degree in Nursing and a doctorate in a related discipline, such as Education or Anthropology, prior to the start of the position.
Licensed and unencumbered registered nurse in the State of Minnesota or eligible for RN licensure in Minnesota.
Academic preparation and teaching experience in nursing education.
PhD in nursing
Demonstrated passion for holistic health, transcultural nursing, or community health
Teaching experience in online, hybrid, and/or in-person formats.
Commitment to fostering a diverse working and learning environment.
Minimum of five years of experience in the nursing profession.
To apply for this position, please upload a cover letter and CV at https://www.augsburg.edu/hr/. In the cover letter, candidates should address their ability to educate and mentor diverse students and/or contribute to a diverse community. As part of the online application process, you will be required to provide the names of three professional references. If your application advances in this search, you will be notified prior to Augsburg contacting your references. Application review will begin on Jan 30: the position will remain open until filled.
About Augsburg University
Augsburg University offers more than 50 undergraduate majors and 11 graduate degrees to approximately 3,400 students of diverse backgrounds. With a student/faculty ratio of 12:1, the University focuses on close personal interaction with faculty and experiential education opportunities on campus and in the community. An Augsburg education is defined by excellence in the liberal arts and professional studies, guided by the faith and values of the Lutheran church, and shaped by its urban and global settings. At both undergraduate and graduate levels, students actively engage in international travel and intercultural experiences that broaden their view of the world and deepen their engagement in it. Augsburg's main campus is located in the vibrant Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis, one of the most diverse areas in the Twin Cities. The University of Minnesota West Bank campus and one of the city's largest medical complexes are adjacent to Augsburg; the Mississippi River and the Seven Corners Theatre district are just a few blocks away. In addition to its Minneapolis campus, Augsburg has a site in Rochester, the fastest growing city in Minnesota and headquarters of the Mayo Health System. In addition to these locations, Augsburg owns and operates international sites in Central America and southern Africa. Augsburg University enrolls approximately 2,000 traditional undergraduate students, 400 adult undergraduate students and 1,000 graduate students. The University's commitment to intentional diversity is reflected in the student body: for the past two years, students of color represented more than 50% of the incoming first-year undergraduate class. Augsburg's commitment to an intentionally diverse community goes beyond race and ethnicity and includes programs for first-generation students; non-traditional-age students; students from a broad array of faith backgrounds, cultures and nationalities; students of various gender and sexual orientation identities; students in recovery; and students with disabilities. Augsburg University values the diversity of persons, perspectives, and convictions. Critical thinking, rigorous analysis, and open discussion across a full range of ideas lie at the heart of the University's mission as an institution of higher learning. Essential to the University in living out its mission of educating students to be "informed citizens, thoughtful stewards, critical thinkers, and responsible leaders" is that our foundation be one of diversity, inclusion, equity, and intercultural competency. Augsburg University is dedicated to achieving an educational experience free from the barriers of poverty, racism, and discrimination so that students can fully realize their unique gifts. Recognizing that higher education's democratic promise is compromised by systemic and systematic barriers to college access and completion, Augsburg is called to stand for equity in everything we do to fulfill our academic mission, serve our students and engage our fellow citizens. Augsburg University is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, gender, age, national origin, familial status, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status or public assistance status.
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line434
|
__label__cc
| 0.637827
| 0.362173
|
Washington, July 29, 1976, 10:40–11:37 a.m.
President Ford
Dr. Henry A. Kissinger, Secretary of State
Brent Scowcroft, Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs
Bulent Ecevit, Former Turkish Prime Minister, Leader of Republican People’s Party
Amb. Melih Esenbel, Turkish Ambassador to the United States
Amb. Hasan Esat Isik, Republican People’s Party Foreign Affairs Advisor
[The press came in for photos. There was small talk about Ecevit’s being Secretary Kissinger’s student, and the fact that the President had spoken before the Kissinger seminar, too. The press then left].2
The President: When did you enter parliament?
Ecevit: 1957. I had to leave here to campaign.
The President: First let me apologize for the incident in New York
Ecevit: Thank you, Mr. President. These things can happen anywhere. The security has been fine and they risked their lives for me— otherwise I might have been killed.
The President: We are delighted to have you here. I would be interested in your comments on our mutual interests, and I’d like to hear your suggestions for how we can improve things.
Ecevit: I would like to thank you for receiving me and for what you and Dr. Kissinger have done to maintain the ties with Turkey against domestic pressure. That has been the major influence in calming the Turkish people over the situation. The Republican People’s Party is doing its best not to inflame the situation.
My general observation is that the Turkish people have always been independent, so they are very proud, and any government which appears too pliant is opposed.
For that reason, when I was in power in 1974, I am sure Dr. Kissinger would tell you we were not an easy ally. But in 1974, the Turkish people developed friendly attitudes toward the United States and NATO. There were no slogans and no anti-American demonstrations.
Kissinger: That is why the tragedy is that we couldn’t move decisively in 1974 soon after the Cyprus crisis.
Ecevit: We had problems which developed within my coalition and I had to leave office in November and cancel Dr. Kissinger’s trip because I couldn’t deliver on my promise.
The President: Tragically, it has been more than two years now. We have irrational elements in this country on Cyprus. But I have done my best to maintain friendly relations without regard to domestic concerns. I just hope we can find a way out.
Ecevit: Yes. I asked to form a minority government because I thought if the problem wasn’t solved right away it would be more difficult. The new Government inherited my coalition so they weren’t able to make many moves. I had been critical of the Government and urged them to make some conciliatory moves. Then, of course, Makarios returned to Cyprus. I have the feeling the Greek Government is losing its interest in a solution to Cyprus, and they can’t influence Makarios. So all of these things conspire to make movement difficult, and the longer it goes the more difficult it becomes. I had a plan in 1974, but it no longer applies. If we win in 1977, we will put forth a plan. Of course, the Greeks are intransigent because they think they can get American and Western support.
The West appears to be aware of only the Cyprus problem between Greece and Turkey, whereas the major problem is the Aegean. Greece is laying claim to the whole of the Aegean—she has used NATO missions to reinforce that claim. They have been making seismic exploration in the Aegean without opposition. When I came in, we asked for discussions to solve the problem. The junta said there were no problems because the Aegean is theirs. So we sent a seismic ship out. Greece objected and we said, “So, let’s talk.” They refused. The Greeks have used their public relations skills on the issue to make it appear one- sided in favor of Greece.
The President: Haven’t both sides agreed to submit it to the ICJ?
Ecevit: The Greeks proposed it. My Government thinks it is important to have talks first.
This is a big issue between us. What the West should do is to induce Greece and Turkey to negotiate all our problems simultaneously, but separately. In that way, things could get going. I mentioned it to Waldheim who thought it had merit.
The President: Under the UN, or bilaterally?
Ecevit: Bilaterally. The UN has no role now in the Aegean except to give friendly support for talks. The other point is the West shouldn’t appear as if they support the Greeks against Turkey. Particularly the U.S. should keep equidistant between Greece and Turkey.
If I could, I would like to mention our difficult problems. I spoke yesterday with Congressional Armed Services Committees.
The President: How did it go?
Ecevit: I am not filled with optimism. I didn’t have the impression they were sure the treaty would pass.
The President: We are forthrightly in favor of it.
Kissinger: Did you tell them what the consequences would be?
Ecevit: Yes. But we must be careful. We aren’t volatile like the Greeks, but when we act responsibly we don’t get the publicity.
DEMIREL makes sour statements which may sound a little dangerous—like leaving NATO or warning of the consequences. I never say anything like that. I say that whatever happens, that is no reason to leave NATO because it is important for many reasons. I have kept my party in line on this issue. I don’t think the Eastern Europeans would be happy if we left NATO. They can’t say it, but we feel it.
The President: Romania or Yugoslavia?
Ecevit: Yes, and even further.
But if the treaty fails we would have to develop a new NATO relationship. We couldn’t go on as in the past. Turkey would crack under it. Our defense expenditures are the highest in NATO. I have given [Page 822]this explanation to the Congress and told them they have been proven wrong on their predictions about Turkey. On the poppies, for example. The UN has investigated and said there is no opium leakage.
The President: I am dedicated to pushing the Turkish Treaty.
Kissinger: Frankly, I think the Greeks are trying to delay to prevent the Turkish Treaty from passing. I think we must separate them and push the Turkish Treaty.
The President: We will do whatever is needed.
[The Turkish press comes in for photos. Secretary Kissinger leaves. The Turkish press leaves.]
The President: Why don’t you tell me a bit about the Turkish domestic situation?
Ecevit: There is a terrorist campaign from the extreme right, which is protected by some of the Government parties. By one party directly and by the Justice Party indirectly. There is a danger of militant counteraction from the left. We are trying to calm our party, but we have no influence on the extreme left. There have been 50 or so students killed and the terrorists are protected. Now they are penetrating the labor unions. I think all of this is being done because the conservative parties in power are different than those of the West. In the West, all of them are dedicated to the rules of the game. In developing countries, the conservatives fear democracy.
Nevertheless, I am confident of the future of the democracy in Turkey. We have a good constitution, an independent judiciary, a free press, a free labor movement, and a strong opposition party. Our Army has a tradition of intervening—right or wrongly—when it sees the country in trouble, but it has never wanted to rule. Now it is, thankfully, very reluctant to intervene in any way.
May I say frankly that in Turkey, many people suspect indirect CIA involvement in covert actions in Turkey.
The President: They must be approved by me and it is not and will not be done.
Ecevit: I believe whatever you say. As you know, such operations sometimes have a life of their own. I hesitate to mention it, but I thought you should know.
The President: I am glad you mentioned it to give me a chance to go on the record. There is absolutely no truth to the stories.
May I reemphasize the importance we ascribe to good bilateral relations with NATO. This Administration will maximize its efforts to maintain good relations and to contribute to a strong NATO. We must do our share—especially with Congress, with the Treaty and to keep them from taking ill-advised action as they have done in the past. On the other hand, it is important that Turkey do its best to resolve the [Page 823]Cyprus problem. We understand Makarios’ game. Cyprus is a cancer which is harmful to this Administration or to any U.S. administration. To the degree you can help in opposition, I hope you will work for progress. October, 1977 is a long way away. I hope to win in November.
Ecevit: I hope so.
The President: I plan to, but I have reason to believe Carter might be pro-Greece.
Ecevit: I know. I have seen his statements. I wish you well this fall. We know who our friends are.
The President: Can you have elections earlier than October 1977?
Ecevit: Only by an absolute majority of the Parliament.
Source: Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Kissinger Papers, Box CL 283, Memoranda of Conversations, Presidential File. Secret; Nodis. The meeting was held in the Oval Office.↩
All brackets are in the original.↩
Demirel, SüleymanEcevit, BülentEsenbel, MelihFord, Gerald R.Kissinger, Henry A.Makarios IIIScowcroft, Gen. BrentWaldheim, Kurt
CIAICJNATONodisUN
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line441
|
__label__wiki
| 0.825382
| 0.825382
|
History of the World According to the Movies: Part 92 – 1990s Europe
Posted by historymaniacmegan on June 29, 2014
Helen Mirren stars as Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in the 2006 The Queen in which she won a well deserved Oscar. The film is a portrait of the relationships between the British Royal Family and the Blair government amidst the tragic death of Princess Diana in a car accident, who was well loved by the public and not so much by the royals (though they were genuine upset by it). Still, you could also say that this film is about how Queen Elizabeth II was under pressure to publicly express her grief on Diana’s death despite being uncomfortable showing her emotions. Still, The Queen is a fitting film that shows what it’s like being a constitutional monarch in this day in age.
Of course, the United States wasn’t the only place where things were happening in the 1990s. After all, the Cold War ending in Europe led to a massive readjustment in Eastern Europe where the 1990s were certainly not a fun time. This is especially true if you lived in Yugoslavia which had been struggling since the 1980s to keep itself together since their dictator Josip Tito died, but it would ultimately fail in 1991 and by the end of the 1990s, the country would be no more since it would split in other nations like Croatia, Macedonia, Albania, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Slovenia, and Kosovo. Let’s just say it’s a hell hole for Europe. Of course, the other places in Eastern Europe besides the former East Germany, Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Poland would be kind of bummed that Communism fell, except perhaps hockey players and women athletes (especially in East Germany). In Britain, you have the rise of Tony Blair as well as a lot of drama in the royal family with Prince Charles and Princess Diana getting divorced, Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson getting divorced, and Princess Diana dying in a car accident in 1997 which led to Elton John singing at her funeral and his eventual knightood. Still, Britpop was in vogue at this time with Oasis and the Spice Girls (that would have one member marry a famous soccer player and another father Eddie Murphy’s baby). Nevertheless, there are movies made in this time that contain their share of inaccuracies which I shall list.
The European Union was in existence in 1993. (It was known as the EEC or European Economic Community until 1993.)
Yugoslav Wars:
It was the Cincinnati Accords that kept the peace in Bosnia. (It was the Dayton Accords contrary to Behind Enemy Lines because the treaty was signed in Dayton, Ohio. And perhaps not for long.)
Jean Dominique Bauby’s girlfriend at the time wouldn’t visit him in the hospital after he experienced a debilitating stroke. (While this is shown in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, his late-life partner Florence Ben Sadoun has claimed to be a faithful partner who visited him at Berck-Sur-Mer frequently during Bauby’s final days, driving from Paris for 3 hours 2-3 times a week to be with him {and she had 2 kids from a previous marriage as well}. And she has evidence to back it up since Bauby said so in his memoirs and there’s video footage as well. I think the writer for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly kind of owes Florence an apology.)
Jean Dominque Bauby’s baby mama visited him frequently while he was in the hospital. (Contrary to The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, it’s disputed how often Sylvie de la Rouchefoucauld visited him. She said she saw him frequently while other sources said she rarely did so and was with her boyfriend in New York the day Bauby died in 1997 and she’s hardly mentioned in his memoirs aside from a Father’s Day outing on the beach when she brings their kids to the hospital. Still, she wasn’t the long suffering ex who still loved him in the film who takes up the slack because his girlfriend wouldn’t see him. Rather she moved on. She never had to call up Bauby’s girlfriend or be worried about him being neglected because she’d be at his bedside as often as she could. Oh, and they had two kids not three since the director couldn’t decide between three child actors for the film. Then again, the mother of Bauby’s kids is a successful businesswoman with her own PR company)
During his time in the hospital Jean Dominique Bauby was an invalid babe magnet with women surrounding him in the hospital vying for his attention. (Bauby didn’t mention any of this in his book though friends said he was very charming with a sense of humor. He was also said to be engaging.)
Jean Dominique Bauby’s friend Jean Paul K came to see him in the hospital. (Contrary to The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Bauby wrote in his memoirs that he felt guilty for not seeing his friend after he had been released from being held hostage in Lebanon.)
Jean Dominique was a miserable wreck during his time having locked-in syndrome and wanted to kill himself. (His girlfriend Florence said that he never wished to die even when he was unable to move everything in his body but an eyelid.)
Florence Ben Sadoun was a weak-willed and selfish girlfriend to Jean Dominique Bauby and was unable to face her once handsome boyfriend. (Contrary to her portrayal in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, she was anything but. Also, she wasn’t a model at the time; she was a critic and a single mother of two.)
Robin Janvin was Queen Elizabeth II’s private secretary in 1997. (Not until 1999, unlike in The Queen.)
Queen Elizabeth II:
Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip shared a bed. (Though shown in The Queen, the British public have known that the royal couple don’t sleep in the same bedroom since 1982 when someone tried to break in into the Queen’s chamber at Buckingham Palace. However, this just applies to Buckingham Palace since it’s not the only royal residence.)
Between Princess Diana’s death and Queen Elizabeth’s public capitulation, opposition to the monarch dropped from 25% to zero. (Contrary to The Queen, support for republicanism has remained consistent for decades at 15-20% even before and after Diana’s death.)
Prince Charles was Queen Elizabeth II’s only child. (Though he’s the only one of her kids shown in The Queen, she has four kids including Princess Anne, Prince Andrew, and Prince Edward.)
Princess Diana:
Princess Diana had an affair in 1995 with surgeon Hasnat Khan. (Contrary to Diana, though the real Khan said that he and Diana knew each other and dated for two years, but neither he nor Diana have confirmed whether they were in what you’d call “true love.” Yet, this doesn’t stop close friends from saying that he was her “true love” but maybe this is what they’d want to believe. Still, it’s likely that Khan and Diana were no more than just friends, though she might’ve been more like a desperate, wounded stalker who wouldn’t leave him alone.)
Princess Diana dated Dodi Al Fayed to make Dr. Hasnat Khan jealous. (We’re not sure about that contrary to Diana. Also, she and Khan broke up on mutual terms since he couldn’t handle the media attention of her celebrity and she didn’t want to move to Pakistan.)
Princess Diana was a sweet natured, wistful, half-wit. (According to one critic of Naomi Watts’ Diana performance, yet she’s said to be quite smart who tried to make the world a better place but she was also conniving, manipulative, and materialistic. She was also driven by payback trying to make Prince Charles jealous such as posing in a revealing swimsuit on the south of France while the Prince of Wales hosted a 50th birthday party for Camilla Parker-Bowles. Yet, didn’t work since Charles had been in love with Camilla for years {as well as fooled around with her} and only married Diana due to pressure from his family. She was also estranged from her mom for dating a Muslim and hadn’t spoken in months before she died.)
Tony Blair:
Tony Blair and his family cooked their own food while he was prime minister. (Contrary to The Queen, I’m not so sure they’d even be allowed to do this. I mean the President of the United States has his own chef and servant retinue. Then again, maybe the Blairs prefer to cook themselves.)
Adderall was around in the early 1990s. (It wouldn’t be on the market until 1996 and wouldn’t be sold in generic until 2002.)
Nintendo game cubes were around in 1995. (Not until 2001.)
LED warning lights were around in 1995. (Strobe beacons would’ve been used because I have no memory of hearing about LED until my teens.)
This entry was posted in Movies and tagged Europe, history, Humor, WTF?. Bookmark the permalink.
History of the World According to the Movies: Part 91- Crime and Law Enforcement in 1990s America
History of the World According to the Movies: Part 93 – General History: Historical Aspects
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line442
|
__label__cc
| 0.650916
| 0.349084
|
New article on abuse and classical music by Damian Thompson in the Spectator, and some wider reflections on classical music and abuse
Posted: December 5, 2014 | Author: Ian Pace | Filed under: Abuse, Music - General, Musical Education, PIE, Specialist Music Schools, Uranians | Tags: aesthetic movement, aleister crowley, beethoven, Benjamin Britten, cold war, damian thompson, el sistema, erik satie, frederic spotts, geoff baker, gustavo dudamel, joris-karl huysmans, lewis carroll, oscar wilde, paris conservatoire, roger shattuck, uranians, walter benjamin, walter pater, wilhelm von gloeden | 5 Comments
A new article went online yesterday on abuse in the classical music world – Damian Thompson, ‘Classical music’s dirty little secret’, The Spectator, December 6th, 2014. It contrasts in particular the revelations about alleged abuse within the El Sistema organisation through the work of Geoff Baker, and those about abuse at Chetham’s School of Music and elsewhere, featuring an interview with me on this and related subjects. The article goes deeper than most have done previously, and I would urge all to read it.
I have been reflecting more widely on the relationship between the callous exertion of power in music and also aestheticised outlooks, and the abuse of both children and adults, and wanted to share a few thoughts growing out of what I said for the Spectator interview. I have published previously on this in the Times Educational Supplement here and here, and will write at more length on these issues at a future date. At the heart of this lie the issues of the exploitation of power beneath an artistic veneer, and the relegating of human interests secondary to other aesthetic or more abstract concerns, an subject which has exercised me for a great many years. Here are my thoughts for now.
There are multiple ways in which sexual abuse occurs in musical education in the UK (see my earlier posts here and here for documentation of various cases since 1990). One involves abuse of pre-pubescent boys in choirs, and has been found time and time again in many leading private schools; another involves adolescents, primarily but not exclusively girls, who are sexually exploited by instrumental teachers, especially in specialist music schools and at summer music courses and the like. There is also of course much evidence of abuse of both sexes by private music teachers, who are often not subject to the same checks as those working in some institutions. The process of sexual exploitation of adolescents also continues with young adults in conservatoires, in a similar fashion. Instrumental teachers have great power and prestige which can easily be exploited when they have access to vulnerable, sometimes star-struck, girls and young women. The many stories I have heard are utterly hideous and depressing. Teachers regularly reduce their students to tears so they can then comfort and sexually touch them, or ask the students to perform sexual acts as a sign of how much they ‘trust’ them. Some are told they can only do justice to certain types of music when they have become a ‘whole woman’, as a prelude to sex. Other teachers simply attempt to force themselves on students in lessons in ways which can be terrifying and amount to attempted rape. Some have been told by directors of institutions that if they dare to go to the police, then they can give up any hope they might have had of a musical career; those with powerful connections are indeed often in a position to do this.
But there are certainly non-sexual forms of abuse which have gone on at all the music schools as well, which can be just as damaging. The issues of abuse in the classical musical world are not in my opinion simply about some people in power being sexually attracted to some musicians – I don’t think that is something surprising, unnatural or wrong, even if they act on those desires, when the musicians are above the age of consent and of course consenting. But I believe these link to a deeper culture of power and its wilful exertion, a vocabulary and mentality of sexual predation as a strategy to demean, dominate, humiliate for reasons that are far from merely sexual. In this field, in my experience, there is no reason to believe that female teachers are any less likely to be culpable than male ones (and in the case of actual sexual abuse the gender divide is not necessarily so simple; even where not actual perpetrators, some female teachers and others have been amongst the most staunch defenders of abusers, and acted in hateful and vicious ways towards those they have exploited).
In such a context sexual abuse can often be an extension of other forms of emotional and physical abuse, in order to enforce a relationship of domination and dehumanisation mystified by the aura surrounding ‘artistic’ personalities and their relationships to others. An artistic aura and its associated temperament can often mask simple cases of fragile egos and other insecurities, which can be bolstered by dominating others. Such domination works best with a willing or at least helpless victim in the form of a child, or one who acts and appears like one.
At the same time, I think we need to look hard at the way audiences and others ‘consume’ and psychologically dominate musicians, especially young ones. Is the young performer presented in a rarefied fashion for an audience’s delectation so different from a glamour model, or even one in a window in a red light district? Are they meant to have a will of their own, or merely to please others?
The world view of the nineteenth-century aesthete still has a profound impact upon classical music culture, certainly in the UK, US, France and some other places. I have spent quite some time studying this in various contexts (not least the ways in which this outlook can be linked to fascism, as diagnosed in different ways by Walter Benjamin, Roger Shattuck and Frederic Spotts). The aesthetic movement was a type of quasi-aristocratic rearguard group of aesthetes reacting against the growth of bourgeois society and mass culture. They believed moral questions and human interests to be of little importance relative to their own notions of beauty. This beauty was of course something only a small number were in a position to appreciate, an aesthetic aristocracy if you like, and they often viewed other human beings in purely aesthetic terms. I believe this is profoundly dehumanising. There is also a considerable overlap between early aesthetes, including Pater, Wilde, Huysmans, Crowley and others, and the movement of ‘Uranian’ poets and some artists, a group of pederasts who were described in the volume Betrayal of Youth as like a nineteenth-century version of the Paedophile Information Exchange.
To the aesthete, a young boy not yet faced by the doubts, moral choices and responsibility of an adult, is unthreatening and more ripe to be adored and salivated over. If you look at pederastic photographs of naked young boys in classical poses by Wilhelm von Gloeden, who was associated with the Uranians (and whose work I have earlier written about in terms of its influence upon some music of Michael Finnissy), you will see a similar thing. Certain qualities are favoured – looks suggesting arrogance but submission, petulance and self-centeredness, and sometimes exaggerated hyper-masculinity, absolutely nothing which would suggest an emerging mind or any trappings of an intellectual-to-be.
I have seen exactly the same attitudes at play regularly amongst those with power in the classical music world. Young men and women favoured to the extent they exhibit (deliberately or unwittingly) certain of these attributes. Some men because they look like a slightly thuggish rent boy, some women because they can give the right type of Shirley Temple-like sickly-sweet smile. Fundamentally, they become objects, and often the critics, administrators, radio producers and so on who favour them will abandon them as they get older, so they can move onto their next bright young things. This is all part of the same processes of domination of which sexual abuse of children is the most extreme form.
There’s a very obvious continuum, to me, between von Gloeden’s arrogant yet submissive naked boys and the picture of Gustavo Dudamel with a smug and self-satisfied expression, showing how his willingness to conform to the needs of others is rewarded with a Rolex watch. Similarly between Lewis Carroll’s pederastic pictures of young girls and some of the images routinely encountered of young female violinists. The same is true of the publicity materials and discursive constructions around numerous Wunderkind young composers and performers. The arbiters of classical music enmesh musicians into their own web in ways which bear an uncanny resemblance to the grooming strategies of paedophiles. I have even come to consider more sinister interpretations of the apparent innocence, suffused with unspoken desire, which I hear in works such as Erik Satie’s Gymnopédies, possibly representing dances of naked boys (in part) at an ancient Spartan festival, at a time when the concept of ‘Greek love’ (love between men and boys) was very much in vogue in British and French artistic circles.
There were tyrannical teachers and educational practices which grew in the nineteenth century. It was seen as perfectly acceptable to beat students; teachers put them through gruelling (and generally useless) regimes of exercises so that the few who had not had a nervous breakdown or suffered irreparable muscular damage could feel themselves blessed and ‘toughened up’ for a musical career, in which they could inflict the same on their own students. Learning, practising, and music-making were made mind-numbing and conducted in an atmosphere of intense fear. In the educational culture bequeathed above all by the early Paris Conservatoire, the emphasis was no longer upon producing a rounded musician and individual, as in earlier times, but more simply a streamlined playing machine. But in many places these methods were found to be unsatisfactory in many respects and more mature and humane approaches began to take their place, which also often produced much finer musicians.
But then with the Cold War and the Soviet need above all to produce competition winners rather than rounded musicians, there was something of a backlash. Dictatorial approaches to teaching, with no concern for the wider consequences, came back into fashion. Some were aped in the West, crowding out some alternative approaches. Several of the specialist music schools in the UK – all of which were founded between 1962 and 1972 – were explicitly modelled on Russian institutions and styles of teaching, at a time when considerations of the welfare of children and the dangers of such hothouse environments hardly registered.
I have heard major allegations of abuse at all five institutions. The schools have certainly all produced some successful musicians, but if they are happy to take credit for these, they must also take responsibility for the ruined lives, sometimes racked by depression, self-harm, suicide attempts and more, which are equally their legacy. The effect of a school upon all who attended it, not just a small successful minority, matters.
Bullying and malicious exploitation of power in musical education are also rampant. Insecure teachers do this plenty. One of my own former students underwent some serious bullying at the hands of another teacher on a course, who tried everything he could to undermine this pianist by repeatedly spreading malicious talk about him to others, doing all he could to humiliate him in front of others (and before he was about to perform) and so on, because he saw him as a threat. Various people complained about the behaviour of this teacher, but of course nothing was done. This individual once proudly pronounced ‘I get students who think they are good – my job is to make them realise they suck’. This attitude is all-revealing – it is not about helping the student, but playing power games to bolster the teacher’s own self-esteem.
Other types of behaviour I have often encountered have deeply shocked me – just the callousness of it all. One privileged young composer thought nothing of fabricating false rumours about a rival, claiming he was being beaten up by his father, so as to portray this rival as unstable and thus unlikely to be up to being a composer. What has shocked me even more is how many people know this and other similar things about this person, but are completely unbothered by it – certainly it did not impede his own progression in academia. I know one instrumentalist who feigns friendship in order to gain other musicians’ confidence, so that they might reveal such things as spells of depression, which he then uses as malicious gossip to undermine them; another did the same when he found that one woman was going through a legal process in which she alleged her father had abused her. A prominent musician, upon being appointed to a prominent position, bragged to others that now he had the chance to get revenge on all those who had previously stood in his way.
Classical music and its associated culture is still shot through by some fundamentally hierarchical nineteenth-century values which are little in vogue any longer in other cultural fields. I am not saying we should throw out the baby with the bathwater, but do believe much rethinking is necessary. Sexual abuse in classical music is maybe the most extreme symptom of a wider corruption. When you have a culture which idolises a small few ‘great men/women’, sees narcissism, bullying and despicable treatment of others not simply as unavoidable evils but actually as signs of artistry, and encourages an attitude of awe and submission, rather than concrete and critical engagement, then the dangers of abuse are acute.
Whilst figures such as Beethoven or Wagner or Furtwängler or Britten continue to be idolised not just for the work they produced but for the personalities they were, then the role models for younger musicians are fatally flawed. We should reject entirely the idea that musicians are a breed apart, and discourage such thinking.
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line445
|
__label__cc
| 0.726627
| 0.273373
|
International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group
Our patrons and supporters
Achievements & gains
ICLMG in the media
News from the ICLMG
Social media champions
Arar+10 Report: National Security and Human Rights a Decade Later
Bill C-59, the National Security Act of 2017
New Oversight and Review Mechanisms
Changes to C-51
Mass Surveillance and New Cyber Powers
C-22: An Inadequate and Worrisome Bill
C-51, the Anti-terrorism Act, 2015
Canada’s No Fly List
Civil Liberties, National Security & International Solidarity
Criminalization of Land and Environment Defenders
National Security Agencies & Review Mechanisms
National Security Consultation: Our answers
National Security Info Card 2001-2015
Parliamentary Committee Oversight – Comparative Country Analysis
Peace bonds and preventive detention
Watch lists and border controls
New revelations of RCMP online mass surveillance raise troubling privacy, civil liberties concerns
RCMP must immediately halt use of new spy software and release audit of surveillance practices, says civil liberties coalition
Sept. 28, 2020 — The International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group (ICLMG) is deeply concerned by the latest revelations of the RCMP contracting firms to engage in widespread online surveillance and so-called “proactive” identification of threats.
On Sept. 23, the Tyee revealed that the RCMP has awarded a new contract to Babel Street, a US-based company that uses algorithms to track, analyze and translate online communications. It is used extensively by law enforcement agencies in the United States. The RCMP has said in the past that it uses such software to move from “reactive” policing to the controversial practice of “proactive” policing: identifying potential threats before they occur by surveilling and collecting information on individuals who are not suspected of having engaged in criminal activity.
“It is completely unacceptable that the RCMP is moving forward with what can only be described as online mass surveillance,” said Tim McSorley, National Coordinator of the ICLMG. “We are calling on the RCMP to immediately halt the use of Babel Street and other surveillance software used in an attempt to predict crime, and to release the audit of its online surveillance program the force committed to months ago, but never made public. We also believe that the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada should open an investigation into the RCMP’s online activities.” Mass surveillance can never be justified, added McSorley, regardless of what may be included in the RCMP’s report.
“We are calling on the RCMP to immediately halt the use of Babel Street and other surveillance software used in an attempt to predict crime, and to release the audit of its online surveillance program the force committed to months ago, but never made public.”
This latest revelation is one in a long line of reports from the Tyee, the Canadian Press, the CBC and others documenting the RCMP’s use of online media monitoring tools to spy on internet users. In one case, it was revealed that the RCMP collected information online to create detailed profiles of anti-mining activists, despite their never being suspected of planning, let alone committing, a crime.
In 2019, the Tyee also revealed the existence of Project Wide Awake, an RCMP initiative to monitor online communications, including on a wide range of social media sites, in order to engage in “proactive” policing to “help detect and prevent a crime before it occurs.” Based on the RCMP’s invitation for bids that led to the Babel Street contract, it would appear that this new tool is meant to compliment and expand on the Social Studio software they were already using.
Following the outcry caused by the Tyee’s report in 2019, the RCMP announced it would undertake an audit of its online surveillance practices, and release details publicly. While the force stated the review would be completed by summer 2020, it was never shared publicly. In other reports, the RCMP also committed to a privacy impact assessment (PIA) of its online surveillance – which is supposed to be completed before new activities come into effect – that would be filed with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) and a summary made public online. No such summary is on the RCMP website, and it is unclear whether the PIA has been submitted to the OPC
“The RCMP claims its surveillances activities respect the law, and promises transparency, but then continues to shroud its work in secret,” said McSorley. “The force must come clean about how and why it is spying on people in Canada so we can take appropriate steps to protect our rights.”
According to the RCMP, it intends to use this new software to broaden its monitoring of online communications, ranging from group buying sites like Groupon to online collaboration sites like Wikipedia, location-based sites like Foursquare and social bookmarking sites like Digg, on top of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. It is also looking to use the tool to analyze text within images, to analyze sentiment of online messages, and to be able to analyze the information collected based on location.
This extensive surveillance and collection of individuals’ online activities raises troubling questions about the impact on fundamental rights enshrined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
In their recent report, To Surveil and Predict, researchers Kate Robertson, Cynthia Khoo, and Yolanda Song at the University of Toronto’s CitizenLab documented extensively how algorithmic policing and mass surveillance can violate and undermine the rights of individuals and entire communities. These tactics result in increases in policing of already over-policed populations, particularly BIPOC communities, further entrenching systemic racism. Moreover, predictive policing and mass surveillance undermine the right to privacy; freedoms of expression, association; freedom from discrimination and the right to equality, to due process; and freedom from arbitrary detention.
For several years, the ICLMG coalition has raised concerns about the growth and impact of mass surveillance in Canada, particularly under the premise of combating terrorism and other public safety threats.
“In our coalition’s work, we have seen the negative impacts stemming from state surveillance of Muslims and Arabs in Canada, and of Indigenous people. But this clearly goes further, with implications for racialized and marginalized communities across the country,” said McSorley. “Once again, if the RCMP and the Canadian government are serious about addressing systemic racism and protecting civil liberties, they would act immediately to halt this over-reaching surveillance program, and commit to ending mass surveillance.”
Since you’re here…
… we have a small favour to ask. Here at ICLMG, we are working very hard to protect and promote human rights and civil liberties in the context of the so-called “war on terror” in Canada. We do not receive any financial support from any federal, provincial or municipal governments or political parties. You can become our patron on Patreon and get rewards in exchange for your support. You can give as little as $1/month (that’s only $12/year!) and you can unsubscribe at any time. Any donations will go a long way to support our work. You can also make a one-time donation or donate monthly via Paypal by clicking on the button below. On the fence about giving? Check out our Achievements and Gains since we were created in 2002. Thank you for your generosity!
This entry was posted in News from ICLMG on 28 September 2020 by ICLMG CSILC.
← Send a message: CSIS is not above the law Time to end Canada’s No Fly List once and for all →
Website archives Select Month December 2020 November 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 June 2019 May 2019 March 2019 February 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 February 2012 December 2011 January 2010 June 2009 March 2009
Get notifications for new posts
Enter your email address to receive notifications of new posts published on our website.
Copyright © 2021 International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line448
|
__label__wiki
| 0.676716
| 0.676716
|
+53 59 15 5533
EUR USD GBP CAD JPY CHF
Hostels in Cuba
Become a Host | Login | Sign up
Need an account ? Sign Up Sign Up
×hostel-details.close
I want to receive interest information and notifications from this web site. Signing Up I Accept the follow Terms and Conditions
Pre-Reservation Information
havana streets
Stroll through the streets of Old Havana and be captivated by the magic of its history...
el templete
Symbol of the city, it is tradition every November 15 to go around the ceiba three times and make a wish....
Havana, the capital city of Cuba, is its largest city and its economic and cultural center. It is located on the north coast of the west of the island. Founded in 1878, it was one of the first cities established in America by Spanish colonizers. Many of its areas preserve almost intactly the architecture and customs of the times of the colony, fundamentally its historic center that is today one of the best preserved architectural complexes in Latin America, which is why it was declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco in 1982.
Among the most distinctive features of the city are its fortifications, built primarily around the bay of Havana due to the successive attacks of pirates and privateers during the first years of the sixteenth century.
Among its most distinguished buildings and monuments are the Castillo del Morro, the Cathedral of Havana, the Plaza de Armas, the Museum of the Revolution, the Great Theater of Havana, the Bellas Artes Museum - which has one of the best collections of universal art in the Latin American continent and the largest of Cuban art in the world - the Capitol, the Revolution Square, The Revolution Museum, the Colon Cemetery, Obispo Street, the Malecon, a promenade that extends from the bay to the mouth of the river almendares.
Havana is the first tourist pole in the country. It has a wide network of hotels among which the National Hotel of Cuba, the Hotel Havana Libre, the Melia Cohíba among others. However, in recent times, the hostels and guest houses, which offer a cheaper option with high standards of quality and comfort in their facilities, in addition to offering an excellent service, also stand out among the accommodation modalities preferred by tourists.
Among the most outstanding cultural events are the Havana International Ballet Festival, the Havana Film Festival, the Jazz Plaza Festival, as well as the Havana International Book Fair.
The nightlife in the city is entertaining, after the opening of private businesses the number of restaurants, nightclubs, bars and other places of recreation increased dramatically.
Rancho Boyeros International Airport connects the city with the rest of the country and the world.
Havana Map Location
Things to do in Havana
See the Experiences
Old car tours in havana
Enjoy a three-hour tour in a classic car through the streets of Havana. Among the attractions that you can appreciate are: a part of the captivating O...
/all person
Havana seawall
Havana Seawall or Maceo Avenue, better known as El Malecón Habanero, is a wide avenue of about 8 km long, which borders the north coast of Havana from...
Floridita bar and restaurant
Bar and Restaurant located at the intersection of Obispo and Monserrate streets in Old Havana, Cuba. Founded in 1817 with the name of La Piña de Plata...
Hostels in Old Havana or Havana
BnB Accommodation in Havana
Carla House
Old Havana Havana
The Prado Terrace
Habana Vieja Havana
Casa Pedro Julio
Miramar Havana
Luisa House
-- Havana
House 13, Playa
Playa Havana
Ana House
In Hostels in Cuba we are your window to Cuba. We provide you with detailed information about Cuba's tourist destinations, what experiences to enjoy, what places to visit. We help you to find the most suitable accommodation for your purposes among the Hostels and Guest Houses of Cuba. With us you can find detailed information about your accommodation, see nearby places of interest, check reviews from other guests as well as make your booking online.
Cuba Destinations
Playa Larga
Copyright © Hostels in Cuba 2019. All rights reserved.
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line452
|
__label__wiki
| 0.54717
| 0.54717
|
girls looking at guys dicks
virtual gay sex video
mood boobs chapter 2
sexy minges
free nude photos brazil girls
Martina Hingis naked - Tennis Photo () - Fanpop - nude pictures of martina hingis
nude pictures of martina hingis - Martina Hingis Porn Pictures, XXX Photos, Sex Images # - ilprofeta.info
Martina Hingis (born 30 September ) is a Swiss professional tennis player who is currently ranked world No. 1 in doubles by the WTA. She spent a total of weeks as the singles world No. 1 and has won five Grand Slam singles titles (three at the Australian Open, one at Wimbledon, and one at the US Open), twelve Grand Slam women's doubles titles, winning a calendar-year doubles Grand Slam. Martina Hingis (born 30 September ) is a retired Swiss professional tennis player who spent a total of weeks as World No. ilprofeta.info won five Grand Slam singles titles (three Australian Opens, one Wimbledon, and one US Open).She also won nine Grand Slam women’s doubles titles, winning a calendar year doubles Grand Slam in , and one Grand Slam mixed doubles title.
Find out if Martina Hingis was ever nude, where to look for her nude pictures and how old was she when she first got naked. Martina Hingis has reportedly become the latest celebrity to fall victim to apparent leaked nude photos scandal. Highly personal and private photographs from her mobile phone were posted on several celebrity gossip websites yesterday September 3. (View all the photo right here).
Photo of Martina Hingis naked for fans of Tennis Martina Hingis, born on September in Slovakia, is a renowned tennis superstar. She began playing tennis at a very young age. Apparently, her parents are skilled players, which explains her .
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line454
|
__label__wiki
| 0.879673
| 0.879673
|
Bothering
The Mighty Boosh
Derek Evers
Photos by Hatnim Lee
Sometimes you need a reminder that the word fan stems from fanatical. Which is a very appropriate adjective when describing the people who adoringly follow the British comedy series The Mighty Boosh. The sitcom-style fantasy show centered on the lives of Vince Noir [Noel Fielding] and Howard Moon [Julian Barratt] has become a cult-like phenomena in the UK. Growing out of the theater show Barrat and Fielding created nearly ten years ago, The Boosh has evolved from theater to radio to television to touring to appearances at giant music festivals. And now with their show picked up for syndication in the U.S. on Adult Swim, they're about to be opened up to a whole new audience.
Support Independent Music! Give Us A Follow:
With a press trip packaged around the release of their first three complete seasons on DVD (coincidentally coinciding with Comic-Con), the entire cast hit our shores in New York before heading west to the annual San Diego nerd-fest. This gave me the chance to sit down with Barrat and Fielding for quite literally their first interview on U.S. soil. I was also privy to witness their first ever U.S. live appearance later that evening at New York's Bowery Ballroom. But don't worry, I'm not bragging. Rubbing it in the faces of their crazy fans maybe, but not bragging.
This is the first verbally transcribed interview I've done in a long time.
Julian: Well, hopefully we'll help you through it.
Without lying, what was the last thing you listened to?
J: A Hawk and the Hacksaw, do you know that band?
Noel: The last thing I listened to was on the plane, it was Peter Green. Fleetwod Mac Peter Green. I really like two of his songs so I kept playing them over and over again.
[To Julian] You write all the music for the show, correct?
J: Yep
So is tonight just going to be comedy, or is there going to be music?
N: [Laughs].
J: Tonight is a DJ set.
N: We were supposed to just DJ at a party for some MySpace people, and now they want us to do a complete set, so we're trying to ramshackle something together. It will be a bit of music a bit of comedy a bit of theater.
J: A little taste of everything.
Although, I read you are going to be doing some sort of real musical endeavor soon?
N: Yeah, we got a band together and toured with a band.
J: We would end every show with songs. We would start with music, then do a big narrative piece, theater. You know theater? Then we do the gig at the end with the band.
N: We were doing a massive tour with crew and stuff, so we can't do that here. We're just going to do more cabaret type stuff.
You've been together for almost ten years now, do you have any plans to celebrate your ten-year anniversary?
N: [Laughs] Are we going to celebrate? We're going to have a low key one, eh?
J: yeah, I'm going to cook. My favorite pasta.
N: Since we do such big shows, we thought it would be good to do something low key. Maybe go to the insect museum.
Is it weird to be here in the U.S. for the first time? There's obviously people who knew about you already, and now with Adult Swim, but like you said, you are doing stadiums back home.
J: Yeah, I don't know. We just want to see how it works out here and how people react to it.
N: We're up for doing a proper tour, we're just testing it out. It's like we're putting our toe in the water.
J: I'm also looking for painting and decorating work as well, if anyone is looking to hire someone for that.
N: You do do that don't you?
J: It's mainly why I'm here. The Boosh is just a side thing.
N: I dry flowers and sell those on the streets. Although that guy with the bubble gun said I could work with him. He's taking Thursday off to go to the park, so he said I could fill in and if it goes well I could do every Thursday.
J: Maybe we should be a bit more gung-ho about playing in America [laughs]. We're going to destroy this place! We're going to really smash it's ass!
N: No, we don't do that.
J: We're going to smash it's ass off! We're going to break it's ass!
N: We have an American in our group and he's a bit more excited about it.
How do you figure out what bands to have on the show? Is it people you like or people who approach you?
J: it's more about when it's funny or there is a part we feel fits.
N: Well, we both thought Gary Numan. We had Peaches in our live show, we just liked having her with the gorilla.
J: Beauty and the beast.
N: It depends what it's for and it's usually very specific. We're not into the idea of getting cameos when we don't know how it will fit into the show.
Is there anyone specifically you really want to get?
N: Jagger. I would love it if Jagger would do it.
J: I'd like to ask who he was.
You guys never explained the transition from a zoo to a flat after the first season and then ultimately to the shop. Do you guys have a reason or do you just want to keep it open ended?
J: We just wanted to change the location…
N: …and then we thought we wouldn't mention it [laughs].
J: Yeah, it's more about our relationship really, rather than where we were. We thought if we kept changing it people would be like, 'I wonder where it will be this time.' We thought actually of all the old double acts where in one film they're street sweepers, the next film they're working in an ice cream parlor or in a barbershop. So that's what we were trying to do, but there is sort of a logic to it. The ape was with us and we met him in the zoo. It was almost like we got kicked out of the zoo was the idea. We did have one conversation one afternoon about being kicked out of the zoo and taking the ape with us.
N: Also, as a vehicle for writing comedy, the zoo was almost too big because it was slightly competing with the magical places we wanted to go. Then we found the flat and it was almost too simple, we didn't have a job or anything. There was nothing we could gag about, it felt a bit strange we weren't doing anything. So then we thought, 'we don't want to go back to the zoo, but we need some sort of little job, a quite simple job that everyone understands.' So the shop seems perfect, because you can leave the shop and go someplace fantastical.
J: It was more about learning how to write as well. We didn't really know what we were doing in the beginning, so we were just going along, then we realized we needed jobs and thought about the situation in depth a bit more. Because initially we would just do all our stuff that was very chaotic and psychedelic.
What about the characters, was that something you conceptualized before the TV show?
N: Yeah, live, we did it live. Some of the characters worked really well live, the Hitcher and Rudy.
J: And from voices. Just doing the voice a lot and then you think about visually what they might look like.
N: I think Rudy was in the first live show we ever did and Hitcher was in the third live show. Which was good for me, I'm a bit more of a cockney and I quite like the evil characters.
It's funny you say that, because I wasn't expecting you guys to represent your characters this much. At least from an outward perspective, you [Noel] came in dressed up and you [Julian] are very business casual.
N: [Laughs] There are no characters, it's based on us.
[To Julian] Are you a jazz fan?
J: Yeah, yeah. I suppose we forget that so much of it is who we actually are.
N: We thought we would incorporate all those things we like, like the fact that I didn't like jazz or understand it. He would say 'You fear jazz.' I used to literally be like, 'What is this?' and he would say 'You fear it, it's jazz.' And I'd be like, 'Ugh, it's giving me a panic attack.'
J: He's been getting into it lately though.
N: Secretly, I've been getting into jazz, don't tell anyone [laughs].
Yeah, well as a jazz fan I was wondering why you're always hating on it so much.
N: It's funnier for my character not to understand it and to be confused. And it's funny that he only likes music where it's all about fashion and the way people move and dance and for Julian to go, 'Awful, what's Bowie doing here?' Obviously Julian likes Bowie and I quite like Miles Davis. In real life, we cross over, but I think it's about comedy.
Do you prefer the live show over the studio show, because it seems like you haven't kept consistent with the TV show in terms of seasons. You take breaks to go on tour or do theater.
N: Actually, we do a lot of TV and we start to get bored of it, and then go, 'Oh, we can do live again.' And then we do the live show and it's so exhausting and massive you sort of think it might be quite nice to make something permanent. Because you can record live, but it doesn't work in the same way, you need to come and see it really. Especially when you do a big show.
J: Plus we get a lot of the ideas from our live show to put into the TV show. We were in a shop on stage before we were in a shop on the show. The last show we did live, we were set in the future in an apocalyptic narrative where I was the last man on Earth…
N: …and I was an alien.
J: Then he turned up and I was really quite annoyed [laughs], but you know, that might become something we write for the screen.
And NME has listed you as the best TV show for three years running. Who do you know there? Can I send them my demo?
[Both laugh] N: I think our sort of comedy appeals to people in bands or who like bands. A lot of people who like music and go to music gigs like to come to our show.
People always refer to your comedy as very “British” so I was wondering if there are any American comedians or TV shows you take inspiration from?
N: I was huge into Bill Cosby's stand-up when I was a kid. We like Kaufman.
J: Steve Martin, I really loved his early stuff, his stand-up especially.
N: The early Saturday Night Live stuff, I love Belushi and all that.
J: We didn't get Saturday Night Live in England, so it was really rare you would see it.
N: Richard Pryor, Larry Sanders, Seinfeld… all that stuff. Family Guy I really like, Entourage… there's a lot of good stuff that comes out of here.
So the kiss scene; I only caught the one, but have you kissed more than once?
J: It happens at the end of every episode [laughs].
N: [Laughs] That was the best part of the documentary that we used in the show.
J: I kind of wish that at the end of every episode we made out.
N: And then just said, 'Ok, see you later' [laughs].
J: Enjoy the credits.
N: I don't know, it's one of those things we thought would be funny and it was quite strange. It was sort of popular with some viewers and then it freaked quite a lot of people out. It caused quite a stir actually. It still does.
J: It breaks a lot of rules in terms of double acts.
N: It's really crossing the line, there's no way you should kiss your double act partner 'cause it's that sexual tension that keeps you going.
J: And what happens when you lose that?
N: We did actually think about doing a whole episode where we kiss then we weren't funny anymore.
J: We thought of an idea where we went to a bar that served us this magic punch that made us get really erotic and we woke up the next day in bed and thought we made love. So we thought that would be a quite good episode to do that, you know, sort of the awkwardness between us.
Was it awkward after it happened in real life?
N: [Trying to be as serious as possible, looking directly at me] No.
J. Mmmmmm [laughs].
N: We were both comfortable with it.
I guess that's it. Do you need an extra Bollo, I'm open for auditions?
N: [Laughs] Where is Bollo?
Do you guys do the voice or does he?
N: We used to. We've both done it actually, I did it on the radio show and he did it on the live show.
J: And we do it for the TV show.
So I could do it then.
N: [Laughs] Should we tell Dave he's fired or do you want to do it?
Buy The Mighty Boosh Seasons 1-3 on DVD here.
Tags: a hawk and a hacksaw, adult swim, comic con, fleetwood mac, gary numan, julian barratt, mick jagger, mighty boosh, noel fielding, peaches, peter green
The Newport Folk Festival Turns 50, Day 1
Impose Main
Young Dro, Lo Life
About Derek Evers
Derek Evers is the founder and publisher of Impose Magazine. He also puts out records on various imprint labels.
full profile/ twitter
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line455
|
__label__wiki
| 0.586547
| 0.586547
|
‘Tequila bacteria’ used for producing medicinal weed
Maurits Kuypers
Farmako, a Frankfurt-based pharmaceutical startup company, has discovered a new way to produce cannabinoid using genetically modified bacteria that convert sugar into the active ingredients of the cannabis plant. Farmako applied to the European Patent Office for a patent in February, the company announced.
According to spokesman Victoria Schneider, the company aims to respond to the rapidly growing demand for cannabinoids for medical use. Founder and CEO Niklas Kouparanis (29) speaks of a “revolution” within the pharmaceutical industry. The active ingredients in cannabis such as THC and cannabidiol (CBD) are currently almost exclusively extracted from the flowers of weed plants. However, several universities and companies are trying to synthetically produce the medically active ingredients of the plant. Farmako is among the first to succeed in this.
The Farmako-team
They are not the first ones, though. Two American companies managed to produce cannabinoids with the help of brewer’s yeast. But according to molecular biologist and Farmako co-founder Patrick Schmitt (26) this technique is expensive and difficult to convert into industrial production. With the Farmako bacteria this should be a lot easier.
BRINGING MALARIA INTO THE MIX
The bacterium Farmako uses is also known as the “tequila bacterium” because it is used in the production of the famous Mexican alcoholic drink. The official name is zymomonas mobilis. Farmako has genetically modified this bacterium by adding genes from the malaria parasite and removing other pieces of genetic material.
According to spokesman Schneider, the potential possibilities are enormous. In Europe there are several countries that have legalised pharmaceutical cannabis, including Germany, Denmark and Great Britain. Canada has a market of €30 billion. Consultant Prohibition Partners estimates that, for Europe, the market will have grown to €58 billion by 2028. According to Schneider, customers will also benefit. The costs of medical cannabis will be reduced, while the supply will be increased, she says.
Farmako is only a year old and employs nearly 40 people. The company is aiming to start producing synthetic cannabis in the second half of this year. The company further profits from “regular” trade in medical cannabis, such as CBD oil. Their aim is to become a European market leader. Earlier this month they made a deal with the Polish company Pharmacann to import 50 tons of marijuana flowers and weed oil over a period of four years. German pharmacies are currently still importing a large number of cannabis pharmaceuticals from the Netherlands and Canada.
Besides Kouparinis and Schmitt, Sebastian Diemer is involved in the company as a financer. Diemer is a well-known member of the Berlin startup community, having several startups to his name and living an exuberant lifestyle. He reportedly sold one of the companies he founded, Kreditech, for several millions.
Maurits Kuypers graduated as a macroeconomist from the University of Amsterdam, specialising in international work. He has been active as a journalist since 1997, first for 10 years on the editorial staff of Het Financieele Dagblad in Amsterdam, then as a freelance correspondent in Berlin and Central Europe. When it comes to technological innovations, he always has an eye for the financial feasibility of a project.
Water increasingly important as a source of precious substances
Fruit export on banana pallets substantially reduces CO2 emissions
Blood test offers a chance to develop medicine against Alzheimer’s disease
Sewage sludge and tree bark as sources for green gas production
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line457
|
__label__wiki
| 0.765841
| 0.765841
|
Twin Girls Dance With Donor Who Saved Their Lives
If you like feel-good stories, twin sisters Elizabeth and Kathryn Girtler have a good one for you. The Rochester Post-Bulletin was one of the first to report it. It's been picked up by the likes of ABC News, Inside Edition, the TODAY Show, and the New York Daily News. But for Michele and Brett Girtler, the story of their 9-year-old daughters meeting the bone marrow donor who helped save their lives will never get old. "I was looking at a picture of them the other day that was taken when they were five," Michele tells us. "They were as tall as a lawn chair. That was crazy to look back on and see." Especially since there was a time Michele and Brett weren't sure their girls would live that long.
As the Mayo Clinic News Network reports, Elizabeth and Kathryn's story began just hours after their birth, when a routine newborn screening exam revealed a problem with their blood. It wasn't until after a three-year search for answers, which ultimately led the family to Mayo Clinic, that Michele and Brett were told their daughters had been born with congenital amegakaryocytic thrombocytopenia, an "inherited disease" that prevented their bone marrow from producing enough platelets to allow for normal blood clotting. Mayo pediatric hematologist Shakila Khan, M.D., told Michele and Brett that left untreated, the disease could develop into leukemia, and that Elizabeth and Kathryn's only shot at a cure was a bone marrow transplant.
Meanwhile, a world away in Munster, Germany, Ingo Gruda was going about his life as a husband, construction worker, and father of three when his cell phone rang. The "TODAY Show" reports that Gruda had registered as a marrow donor to donate in the past, but had not been a match. This time, however, things were different. After learning he was a perfect match for Elizabeth and Kathryn, Gruda "didn't hesitate" in authorizing his bone marrow to be flown from Germany to Rochester to be transplanted into both girls.
Fast forward five years to last month, when the whole Girtler family was finally given a chance to thank Gruda in person. Officials from Be the Match had flown Gruda to Minneapolis for a special "gala event," where he was able to meet the now-healthy girls. And although the Girtlers could only communicate with Gruda through a translator, the joy and appreciation Michele and Brett felt as they watched Gruda, Elizabeth and Kathryn "dance the night away" could easily cross any language barrier.
"It was so surreal and so emotional,'' Michele tells the "TODAY Show" of meeting Gruda. "To think that somebody that didn't know your children was selfless enough to give bone marrow to save them is amazing. … The girls would not be here today without (Gruda), simple as that."
You can amaze us by sharing your comments below. Then, share this story with others using the handy social media tools atop this page.
Tags: Dr. Shakila Khan, Leukemia, Patient Stories
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line460
|
__label__wiki
| 0.74705
| 0.74705
|
Iowa Center for Public Affairs Journalism (https://iowawatch.org/2018/09/16/family-farms/)
Defining Family Farms
When Being A Family Farm Doesn’t Mean Squat In The Government’s Eyes
By Molly Hunter | September 16, 2018
More on Defining Family Farms
Subscribe to Defining Family Farms
Jeff Sigmund/IowaWatch
Earl Canfield, owner and operator of Canfield Family Farm in northeast Iowa, moves an oats bin into place at a grinder on Saturday, Aug. 18, 2018. Oats is one of many grains he will use to make hog feed for a customer.
DON’T MISS AN IOWAWATCH STORY. Subscribe now to our newsletter.
Small family-run farms that raise organically, without genetically modifying crops or by reducing their use of pesticides and antibiotics, are such a small part of the U.S. government’s definition of a family farm that they often are lost in the crowd when it comes to government and industry support.
Some of these non-conventional farms lack enough support to obtain some federal farm subsidies that go to larger farms, but also professional network opportunities to grow their business, an IowaWatch investigation revealed.
“In my heart I’d like to be in one place right now in terms of having a more sustainable or regenerative farming operation,” Earl Canfield, owner and operator of Canfield Family Farm in northeast Iowa, said.
“I’m having to grapple with the reality of what does it take to actually get there.”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture sets an industry definition for family farms. But that definition doesn’t take acreage size into consideration and can include operations where the family may not own the land, or even farm it. It defines what a family farm is for a consistent technical term in research and policy, which includes farm subsidies.
Click arrow to see other Midwest U.S. States. Charts by Molly Hunter/IowaWatch
Under that definition, 79,550, or 89.7 percent, of Iowa’s farms can be considered family farms.
But lost in that, particularly when it comes to the research and policy, is that, according to an estimate done by IowaWatch, less than 7 percent — 5,636 operations — of Iowa’s farms are on small or medium acreages and run and owned by one family. The breakdown for states bordering Iowa is similar.
Click arrow to see other Midwest states. Charts by Molly Hunter/IowaWatch
“What we’ve found is that the definition of family farm is being stretched…,” Aaron Lehman, president of the Iowa Farmers Union, said. “The public in general wants to see what they think of as a family farmer succeed and oftentimes we see that image distorted to include operations that indeed are much more corporate in nature.”
The federal government definition has become the overriding one for industry professionals when networking and marketing farm products and influencing public policy.
“When they talk about small farms they mean small conventional farms … not organic or alternative farms,” Dave Peters, a professor of sociology at Iowa State University, said.
Canfield farms 300 acres northeast of Waterloo, near Dunkerton. His production is a combination of non-GMO, natural, and organic feed, grain, hay, straw, produce, and eggs.
“If we don’t succeed … we’re not even going be here down the road to continue improving or doing what we’re doing,” Canfield said.
Matthew Canfield rakes over the straw one last time before bailing it later in the day, at his family’s farm near Dunkerton, Iowa. He is a son of Earl and Jane Canfield. Photo taken Aug. 18, 2018.
ORGANIC FARMING SQUEEZED
Non-conventional or alternative producers cultivate organically and reduce or eliminate the use of antibiotics, pesticides and GMO products. They’re often independent family farmers with as few as 250 to 500 acres up to 1,200 to 1,400 acres, using minimal hired labor, and they don’t contract with corporations or larger companies.
Andrew, Jane and Elijah Canfield add ground feed along with supplements to a mixer at their farm near Dunkerton, Iowa, on Aug. 18, 2018. Andrew and Elijah are sons of Earl and Jane Canfield.
But no distinction for them is made in the USDA family farm definition. The effects from that can be felt beyond the farm.
“We feel most small- to medium-size farms tend to be the operations that are extremely important to their rural communities,” Lehman said. “They tend to shop, buy and sell locally. Some of the larger operations in that category tend to support their local institutions less.”
Lehman is a fifth-generation family farmer raising organic and conventional corn, soybeans, oats and hay in Polk County.
The USDA does not have data on the number of these non-conventional family farms, but IowaWatch came up with an estimate by looking at 2012 Census of Agriculture data on farm ownership by size of operation.
IowaWatch defined “small, independent family farms” as those with full-owner status between 260 and 999 acres.
The USDA’s family farm definition includes part-owner and full-owner operations, and makes no distinction based on size of operation.
The USDA includes under its definition of a “full-owner operation” farms where the operator is a manager hired by a corporation, rather than an independent owner-operator. Because of this, IowaWatch’s estimate, while closer to the actual number of non-conventional family farms, is not perfect.
Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship communications officer Dustin Vande Hoef said the state agriculture department uses the USDA definition when referring to family farmers in an official basis.
The Iowa congressional delegation used the term in a March 7 letter to President Donald Trump, urging the president not to impose tariffs on imported steel and aluminum for fear of setting into motion a “chain of retaliatory measures, hurting Iowans from the family farm to the family-owned manufacturing plant.”
IowaWatch reached out to the offices of each Iowa congressional delegate for comment on how they use the phrase “family farmer,” but only received a response from the office of U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who also used the term in a December 2017 opinion piece published on his website and distributed to various newspapers when commenting on the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
Grassley’s communications director, Michael Zona, said Grassley uses the USDA definition in speeches, press releases and announcements, but “wouldn’t call general partnerships or joint ventures family farms.”
LINK TO USDA DATABASE: FARM SUBSIDIES IN U.S., BY STATE
WHY THE WORRY ABOUT WORDS
Earl Canfield mixing ground feed for a customer, at his farm near Dunkerton, Iowa. Photo taken Aug. 18, 2018.
Daniel Prager, a USDA economist in Washington, D.C., said two federal definitions of a family farm have existed since 1988, with the most recent change in 2005. However, the change in definition wouldn’t impact the USDA’s reports on how many family farms exist in the United States, he said.
“I think it’s just a way to make a universal definition that extends across the different types of farms,” Prager said.
Lehman said the Iowa Farmers Union’s definition of a small family farm matches up sometimes with that of the USDA, but more often does not.
Stretching the definition in this way takes the focus off of small, non-conventional family farms, IowaWatch interviews showed.
While broad definitions by policymakers and the USDA effectively make small, non-conventional family farms invisible in research-based policy discussions, commodity interest groups like the corn growers, soybean and pork producers associations do a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to maintaining and expanding markets for conventional producers.
The Iowa Corn Growers Association’s 2016 tax return shows the group spending spent more than $18 million from September 2016 to August 2017 in the name of “creating opportunities for long-term Iowa corn grower profitability.”
The association lobbies for Iowa corn farmers’ interests at the state and national levels. The association says its “pro-farmer” legislative and policy priorities focus on renewable fuels, decreasing regulatory burdens on Iowa’s livestock industry, improving Farm Bill programs, and promoting trade policies that benefit Iowa corn farmers.
Lisa Cassady, a corn growers spokeswoman, said the organization works to maintain existing markets and open new ones for Iowa corn farmers at all levels by supporting market development, exports, ethanol and Iowa’s livestock industry.
“With the promotion or the market development education research we don’t target assistance to individual farmers, it’s more to help the overall industry,” Cassady said.
Groups like the Iowa Farmers Union and Practical Farmers of Iowa are more concerned with providing support and resources to individual farmers, but operate using a fraction of the corn growers’ association budget. For instance, in 2016, the Iowa Farmers Union’s total expenses came in just under $90,000.
The Iowa Farmers Union’s 2018 legislative policy priorities mirrored its 2017 policies of restoring water quality, promoting family livestock farms, growing local food systems, and protecting farms from pesticide drift.
According to its website, the union works to support independent family farms “through education, legislation and cooperation and to provide Iowans with sustainable production, safe food, a clean environment and healthy communities.” The union provides education opportunities for adults and children via webinars, workshops, conferences and classes.
Ames-based Practical Farmers of Iowa strives to connect producers of all products, sizes, backgrounds, management methods, both conventional and alternative, who are dedicated to sustainable farming. In 2016, Practical Farmers of Iowa spent $1.7 million.
Canfield said Practical Farmers of Iowa is doing more than anyone in the state to promote different types of farming and help farmers find ways to market.
Practical Farmers of Iowa publishes educational podcasts and newsletters and holds field days, conferences, and “farminars” with the goal of connecting farmers and helping them learn from one another.
Jane Canfield watches the scale readings at the Canfield farm near Dunkerton, Iowa, as she adds roasted soybeans to a bin before grinding it into a mix for a customer.
The dearth of marketing support for alternative or alternatively-produced commodities leaves a lot of legwork for each individual non-conventional producer.
“It’s taken us three years of a lot of intentional effort to carve out a market for ourselves,” Canfield said. “Between web-based advertising and Craigslist and hanging up business cards flyers all over the place and just talking and networking with people, we’re starting to get more and more regular buyers for our products. But it’s a lot of work.”
Like many non-conventional farmers, most of Canfield’s business is local. His grain and feed are purchased by farmers and non-farmers largely for the animals they raise to butcher for themselves. Their produce and eggs are sold to individual buyers.
However, finding a place to sell alternative agriculture products stops many producers from exploring non-conventional farming.
“They run headlong into the wall of no place to sell it. They’ll very quickly get discouraged and just not do it again,” Canfield said.
The market for alternative agriculture exists, but without the marketing assistance of larger organizations, connecting with consumers is an ongoing challenge.
“I continue to find people that I would’ve thought I would’ve reached by now,” Canfield said. “And they maybe live within 10 miles of here and they say, ‘I just didn’t know you were here.’”
FIGHTING THE “BIGGER IS BETTER” ATTITUDE
Beyond dealing with the definition of a family farm, the smaller farms face another matter — business decisions made by those seeking agricultural products.
Iowa Farmers Union board member and education coordinator Ron Tigner said advocates of an economy of scale farming model often argue larger operations are just naturally more efficient than smaller farms are but that the claim is misleading.
“This economy of scale is skewed because we have policies that … make it look that good,” Tigner said.
Tigner, who lives in Webster County in northwest Iowa, once grew corn, soybeans and alfalfa on 175 acres in north central Iowa, but that was about 20 years ago. He no longer is a full-time farmer, but he has continued to work in farming.
Sometimes large companies that buy agricultural products in bulk give larger farmers preferential treatment, Tigner said.
“They’ll give breaks to certain farmers who are larger just to get their business,” he said. “For many, many years the types of crops that got the most share of the commodity support was corn, soybean, wheat, cotton, and rice. When you support that you’re actually manipulating the economy to drive it that direction.
“Diversified types of operation have been left out for many, many decades.”
TO LEARN HOW IOWAWATCH’S NONPROFIT JOURNALISM IS FUNDED AND HOW YOU CAN SUPPORT IT, GO TO THIS LINK.
This IowaWatch story was republished by the Marshalltown Times-Republican, The Courier (Waterloo, IA), The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, IA), the Corridor Business Journal, the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting, Wisconsin State Farmer and Little Village (Iowa City, IA) and versions were written by Modern Farmer and EcoWatch and aired on KCRG-TV9 (Cedar Rapids, IA) under IowaWatch’s mission of sharing stories with media partners.
Business & Consumer Affairs
Canfield Family Farm
Census of Agriculture
Iowa Farmers' Union
Practical Farmers of Iowa
Drifting Pesticides Put Neighboring Farms At Risk
Iowa’s organic farms, vineyards, apiaries and other non-conventional farms surrounded by row crops treated with pesticides are at risk of being hit with drifting spray that can leave their farms’ futures uncertain.
Iowa Woman Reports On The "Real Life" Of Post-World War I Europe
Evans: Apparently, Legal Deadlines Don’t Apply To Everyone
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line462
|
__label__wiki
| 0.702646
| 0.702646
|
The International Indigenous Policy Journal
Scholarship@Western > IIPJ > Vol. 4 > Iss. 4 (2013)
Pathways to Higher Education for Native Hawaiian Individual Development Account Participants
David W. Rothwell, McGill UniversityFollow
As the cost of higher education rises, a growing body of theory and research suggests that asset holding in the form of savings and net worth positively influence education expectations and outcomes. Native Hawaiians, like other Indigenous peoples, have disproportionately low college enrollment and graduation rates tied to a history of colonization. Using data from an Individual Development Account (IDA) program for Native Hawaiians, I examine the trajectories through the program and find: (a) welfare receipt and unemployment reduces the chances of IDA enrollment; (b) net worth increases the probability of IDA graduation; and (c) IDA graduates were more likely to gain a college degree over time compared to non-graduates. The study provides empirical evidence to the debate on asset-based interventions for Indigenous peoples.
I extend thanks to Jennifer Loiacono for excellent research assistance. Thanks to Jamie Omori and ALU LIKE, Bank of Hawaii, and the Hawaii Community Foundation for providing funding for the wave 2 survey and to Bob Agres and HACBED for the opportunity to learn about and work in asset-based community development. Finally, mahalo to IDA participants.
Rothwell, D. W. (2013). Pathways to Higher Education for Native Hawaiian Individual Development Account Participants. The International Indigenous Policy Journal, 4(4) . Retrieved from: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/iipj/vol4/iss4/1
DOI: 10.18584/iipj.2013.4.4.1
This document is now available on OJS
All Issues Vol. 10, Iss. 3 Vol. 10, Iss. 2 Vol. 10, Iss. 1 Vol. 9, Iss. 4 Vol. 9, Iss. 3 Vol. 9, Iss. 2 Vol. 9, Iss. 1 Vol. 8, Iss. 4 Vol. 8, Iss. 3 Vol. 8, Iss. 2 Vol. 8, Iss. 1 Vol. 7, Iss. 4 Vol. 7, Iss. 3 Vol. 7, Iss. 2 Vol. 7, Iss. 1 Vol. 6, Iss. 4 Vol. 6, Iss. 3 Vol. 6, Iss. 2 Vol. 6, Iss. 1 Vol. 5, Iss. 4 Vol. 5, Iss. 3 Vol. 5, Iss. 2 Vol. 5, Iss. 1 Vol. 4, Iss. 4 Vol. 4, Iss. 3 Vol. 4, Iss. 2 Vol. 4, Iss. 1 Vol. 3, Iss. 4 Vol. 3, Iss. 3 Vol. 3, Iss. 2 Vol. 3, Iss. 1 Vol. 2, Iss. 4 Vol. 2, Iss. 3 Vol. 2, Iss. 2 Vol. 2, Iss. 1 Vol. 1, Iss. 2 Vol. 1, Iss. 1
International Indigenous Policy Journal established in 2010
Service of Western Libraries | Home | About | FAQ | My Account | Accessibility Statement
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line465
|
__label__wiki
| 0.655251
| 0.655251
|
Awardees of the IUPAC 2019 Distinguished Women in Chemistry or Chemical Engineering
To celebrate International Day of Women and Girls in Science this February 11, IUPAC is pleased to announce the awardees of the IUPAC 2019 Distinguished Women in Chemistry or Chemical Engineering:
Professor Kim Baldridge, School Pharmaceutical Science and Technology, Tianjin, China
Professor Donna Blackmond, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA
Professor Susan Bourne, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa
Professor Janine Cossy, ESPCI, Paris, France
Professor Vicki Grassian, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
Professor Otilia Mó Romero, Univ Autonoma Madrid, Madrid, Spain
Professor Elizabeth Ann Nalley, Cameron University, Lawton, OK, USA
Professor Carol Vivien Robinson, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
Professor Molly Shoichet, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
Professor Luisa Torsi, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy
Professor Chris Willis, School of Chemistry, Bristol, United Kingdom
Professor Pernilla Wittung-Stafshede, Chalmers University, Gothenburg, Sweden
The awards program, initiated as part of the 2011 International Year of Chemistry celebrations, was created to acknowledge and promote the work of women chemists/chemical engineers worldwide. These 12 awardees have been selected based on excellence in basic or applied research, distinguished accomplishments in teaching or education, or demonstrated leadership or managerial excellence in the chemical sciences. The Awards Committee has been particularly interested in nominees with a history of leadership and/or community service during their careers.
An award ceremony will take place during the IUPAC World Chemistry Congress in Paris, France, coinciding with the special symposium on Women in Chemistry and reception in honor of the recipients. See www.iupac2019.org for details.
Dr. Carolyn Ribes, chair of the IUPAC committee on Chemistry and Industry and co-chair of the special symposium, remarked: “We are pleased with this year’s awardees and eager to recognize their contribution in a special session organized for the 2019 IUPAC Congress. Each year since 2011, the award has gained more attention in the community. During this year’s Congress and with the help of IUPAC leadership, we plan to continue this trend.”
The International Day of Women and Girls in Science is a global day celebrating achievement and promoting full and equal access to and participation in science for women and girls. The day also marks a call to action for further achieve gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.
See also project 2015-007-1-020 or originating call for nominations
Announcement published in Chem Int April 2019, p. 28
About IUPAC:
IUPAC was formed in 1919 by chemists from industry and academia. Since then, the Union has succeeded in fostering worldwide communications in the chemical sciences and in uniting academic, industrial and public sector chemistry in a common language. IUPAC is recognized as the world authority on chemical nomenclature, terminology, standardized methods for measurement, atomic weights and many other critically evaluated data. In more recent years, IUPAC has been pro-active in establishing a wide range of conferences and projects designed to promote and stimulate modern developments in chemistry, and also to assist in aspects of chemical education and the public understanding of chemistry. More information about IUPAC and its activities is available at www.iupac.org.
Tags: IUPAC Congress, women in chemistry, Paris
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line466
|
__label__wiki
| 0.887338
| 0.887338
|
Home News Dr. John To Release "Locked Down" On Nonesuch Records April 3, Album...
Dr. John To Release "Locked Down" On Nonesuch Records April 3, Album Produced By The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach
Storied musician and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Dr. John–Mac Rebennack–will release LOCKED DOWN, a startling album that marks a significant departure from his recent efforts, on April 3, 2012. The new album, produced by The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach, will be Dr. John’s first for Nonesuch Records.
It’s an entirely new approach for the iconic Dr. John, featuring as it does his collaboration with Auerbach and a band of young musicians Auerbach hand-picked to make LOCKED DOWN at his studio Easy Eye Sound in Nashville. “It was way cool cutting this record with Dan and the crew he put together for it,” says Rebennack. “It’s reel HIP.
For his part, Auerbach–who currently is preparing for a worldwide tour in support of The Black Keys’ new album “El Camino”–says about the collaboration: “Mac inspired me every single day we were in the studio together – musically, spiritually, cosmically…something special seemed to be happening and everyone involved could sense it. For my money, Mac’s one of the greatest who ever was and who ever will be…I’m so honored to have had this opportunity to work with him.”
Auerbach, a long-time fan of the influential musician dubbed “the Night Tripper” in the late 60s, visited Dr. John late in 2010 in his hometown New Orleans, announcing his ambition to produce “the best record you’ve made in a long time.” Rebennack replied that he had done his research–his children had told him good things about The Black Keys–and the conversation led to an agreement to collaborate on the 2011 Bonnaroo Jam being curated by Auerbach.
That performance–called by NY Times critic Ben Ratliff in his best-of-the-year list “deep and oozy, close-to-the-vest, low-frequency funk” –confirmed that something unusual was taking place and led to September recording sessions in Nashville. Dr. John returned to Nashville at Thanksgiving to complete the vocals and LOCKED DOWN was mixed by Auerbach and completed in early 2012.
http://www.nitetripper.com/
Dr John
Previous articleDaryl Hall's Livin’ The Blues With Keb Mo’ On Next Live From Daryl's House
Next articleThe Groove Radio Show #3 – Jan 15, 2012 – Featuring Freekbot
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line469
|
__label__wiki
| 0.95981
| 0.95981
|
Home News New Joey Ramone Solo Album "…ya know?" To Be Released May 22
New Joey Ramone Solo Album "…ya know?" To Be Released May 22
On May 22, Joey Ramone’s second solo album, “…ya know?” will be released (BMG Rights Management), eleven years after his life was cruelly cut short by lymphoma. The tracks were drawn from a cache of demos and unreleased recordings that Joey had cut at various times during the last decade and a half of his life.
His brother, musician Mickey Leigh, executive produced the project. “It was of the utmost importance to me that these remaining songs of Joey’s be finished properly, and made available for the world to hear,” Leigh says of “…ya know?”, which is comprised primarily of never-before-heard songs written and sung by his brother.
But this is no half-baked grab-bag of odds and ends. Rather, it’s a riveting collection of first-rate songs that embody Joey’s trademark intensity and wit, and that can stand proudly alongside his most beloved Ramones compositions. It’s also a fitting, if belated, follow-up to Joey’s first solo album Don’t Worry About Me, which was recorded just prior to his death and released the following year.
“…ya know?” – whose title refers to the phrase that was a ubiquitous staple of Joey’s conversation – adds a significant new chapter to the seminal punk icon’s hugely influential body of work.
Among the many talented people Mickey Leigh and Joey’s manager Dave Frey reached out to in bringing “…ya know?” to fruition was veteran producer Ed Stasium, who was behind the board for many of the Ramones’ greatest albums, including their early classics Leave Home, Rocket to Russia and Road to Ruin.
In addition to producing ten of the album’s fifteen tracks, Stasium also contributed instrumentation and vocals to each.
The swaggering album-opener “Rock ‘n’ Roll Is the Answer” (co-written with Plasmatics guitarist Richie Stotts) will be released as a limited-edition 7” single for Record Store Day on April 21, 2012.
That song and the hometown shout-out “New York City” demonstrate Joey’s knack for channeling his personal passions into bracing anthems. The playfully breezy “Make Me Tremble” (which Joey wrote and recorded with Dictators founder Andy Shernoff) and the bittersweet acoustic ballad “Waiting for That Railroad” find him exploring some of the more introspective territory that he’d been unable to visit within the format of his former band.
Elsewhere on “…ya know?”, “I Couldn’t Sleep” is a collaboration between brothers Joey and Mickey, who also teamed up to record a romantic alternate version of the Ramones’ holiday classic “Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want to Fight Tonight)” in Joey’s apartment. Meanwhile, a previously unreleased reprise of Joey’s late-period Ramones tune “Life’s A Gas” ends the album on an appropriately uplifting note.
Also contributing to “…ya know?” is an assortment of musicians and producers whose prior relationships with Joey help to give the album an organic vibe that enhances its power and character. The cast of players includes Joan Jett, and Little Steven Van Zandt, who plays guitar on “Party Line” and wrote the album’s poignant liner notes, along with such notables as former Ramones drummer Richie Ramone, Bun E. Carlos of Cheap Trick, Dennis Diken of the Smithereens, Richie Stotts, Patti Smith Group guitarist Lenny Kaye, punk survivor Holly Beth Vincent, members of the Ramones’ punk-era contemporaries The Dictators, and producers Jean Beauvoir and Joe Blaney.
The resulting album is a brilliant encapsulation of the qualities that made Joey Ramone one of rock’s most unlikely, yet most beloved, heroes.
Leigh reflects “Over the past eight years I’ve been getting barrages of emails and Facebook messages from Joey’s fans, wanting to know when this album would be coming out. So having it finally become a reality gives me a feeling of triumph – not for me, but for my brother, and for his fans. And there’s not the slightest doubt in my mind that people are gonna be blown away by it.”
www.joeyramone.com
Previous articleThe Flaming Lips Ready Exclusive Album For Record Store Day Featuring Collaborations With An All-Star Cast
Next articleMayan Holidaze Returns with Another Spectacular Musical Adventure in Mexico – 12/17 – 12/21/2012
Mick Rock Iggy Pop Colored Vinyl Tin And Other Record Store Day 2012 Releases… | Cherrybombed March 20, 2012 At 4:52 pm
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line470
|
__label__cc
| 0.507211
| 0.492789
|
Vancouver Neighbourhood Listings
Grandview - Commercial Drive Real Estate
Hastings East Real Estate
Strathcona / Hastings Real Estate
Cedar Cottage Real Estate
North Burnaby Real Estate
Cell 604-626-9734 | info@jamesb.ca
For a few days every summer, Commercial Drive bursts to life. The main section of the street, from Grandview Highway to Venables Street to the north, closes down to cars to celebrate Italian Day, Car Free Day, the Parade of Lost Souls and more. On festival days, the streets flood with young families and fun-seekers of every stripe. They come from all over Vancouver to see live performers, check out local vendors and look at the colourful murals that line the drive. With such a friendly community, it’s not surprising that many families and professionals come for more than just the festivals; they come seeking Commercial Drive real estate.
Even on regular days, Commercial Drive is a lively street. Its sidewalks are lined with some of the best local groceries, eateries and specialty stores. With almost exclusively independent local businesses, Grandview maintains a pleasant small town feel. You’re likely to get to know your barista, your grocer and the guys who work down at the hardware store. The area is also full of community gardens and small parks to relax in, and, at night, music filters into the streets from the small bars and cafes. But don’t let the small town atmosphere fool you: it’s a short drive, bike ride or SkyTrain trip to Downtown Vancouver. The area also features several schools, lots of parks and, near the centre of the neighbourhood, Brittannia Community Centre.
The Grandview neighbourhood stretches from south of Broadway to Trout Lake and John Hendry Park, and north towards the Hastings neighbourhood around Venables Street. To the west, it’s bordered by Clark Street and to the east by Nanaimo.
Turn east off Commercial Drive and you’ll find yourself on quiet residential streets, cooled by towering oaks. Here’s where you’re most likely to find attractive Commercial Drive houses for sale. The west side of the Drive is more sparsely wooded, but features spectacular views of the city core. Regardless of which side of the street you find a home on, you’re close to everything. The shape of the neighbourhood and its main street means that all amenities tend to be only a few blocks away from the homes. Because of this, many residents make the choice not to own cars at all. This is, after all, a neighbourhood best experienced on foot.
Commercial Drive and the Grandview neighbourhood has a rich, layered history. It’s been largely shaped by immigrant communities that have found themselves in the area. The neighbourhood still supports many of the businesses (and much of “la dolce vita”) from the huge Italian community that moved to Vancouver after World War II, when Commercial Drive real estate prices were low. These Italian cafes, bakeries, cheese shops and pizzerias, found along the length of the Drive give the area its other name: “Little Italy.” They’re also exciting places to catch a soccer game.
Later waves of Latino, Vietnamese and Jamaican immigrants have also made their mark on the community with authentic restaurants and unique cultural offerings. In the 1980s, Commercial Drive became popular with hippies and young artists, inspired by the community and inexpensive housing. Unlike in many other neighbourhoods, where new groups threaten to drive old groups out, Grandview has become remarkably diverse. You can see the interplay of different groups and cultures on the streets today.
Grandview has been a hub for transit in Vancouver for over a century, when it became a stop on the historical Vancouver – New Westminster streetcar line. Commercial and Broadway, the area’s principle intersection, is one of the busiest parts of the city. Here, two major SkyTrain lines meet with the buses that service the Broadway corridor. Many thousands of cars pass by on their way to downtown, Mount Pleasant, Fairview and Kitsilano.
Commercial Drive real estate listings reflect the neighbourhood’s history. The south east side of Commercial is dominated by older homes built as single family dwellings. Many of these are heritage homes in various states of repair, but there are a few brand new buildings, too. You can always check out Victoria Drive for Vancouver homes for sale; many homes in this area are newer and great for young families. Brand new developments are appearing further to the north and east. Since the area is very popular with students, artists and young professionals, many home owners in the area rent out basements or whole houses for extra income.
Things are a bit different on the west side of Commercial Drive. Townhomes for sale, duplexes for rent, and apartment buildings dominate the landscape. Many developers, noting the livability of the Grandview neighbourhood and its slightly lower property costs, are putting up new low-rise buildings with condos for sale on Commercial Drive. Vancouver may be one of the world’s most livable cities, but Grandview is one of its most livable neighbourhoods.
Google Map WalkScore
There are currently no available listings.
113 - 100 KLAHANIE Drive
James Buonassisi
When you are ready to see a listing in person, or just have a simple question, please don't hesitate to contact me!
info@jamesb.ca
V5V 3R8
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line472
|
__label__wiki
| 0.838376
| 0.838376
|
Tag: British Grand Prix
Along with Formula 1, lower form Formula 2 and Formula 3 have also finished successfully this 2020 season. To reduce the cost of organizing these two races in the coming years, the organization of the F2 and F3 races from 2021 will be significantly changed. Besides, another racing format will also be supported by F1 from next year.
F2 season in 2020 has officially ended after the Sakhir GP race took place over the weekend. Mick Schumacher won the championship title this year after a choking race against his direct competitor with Ferrari youth academy, Callum Ilott.
Mick ended the season after 12 races (24 races), taking 2 wins and another 8 podia, earning 215 points. So the Prema Racing team has won all four titles of both F2 and F3 prizes – 2 team titles, the F3 individual title for Oscar Piastri (Australia), and the F2 title for Mick.
Prema Racing acquired all 4 titles in the F2 and F3 tournaments in 2020
By 2021, the F2 and F3 prizes, belonging to the “Road to F1” system, agreed on a change plan to better control the organizational budget. Specifically, the cost of renting engines and parts will be significantly reduced, along with costs related to logistics and transportation.
The organizers decided to keep the car design for the next 3 years with F2, starting from 2021. The 2019 F3 car design is likely to be maintained for the next 4 seasons.
Another factor that directly affects the cost is the number of races per season. So the organizer thinks that the most effective way to reduce spending is to reduce the venue but keep the total number of races intact. Currently, two races will take place at each F2 and F3 venue, but from 2021 this number will increase to three.
F2 season will include 8 races (Grand Prix – GP), so there will be a total of 24 races. That means racing teams can save up to 1/3 on logistics costs. With the F3, the GP number will be 7, equivalent to 21 races, more than in 2020.
To achieve that, F2 and F3 will not be able to hold the same race weekend with F1, as it is impossible to arrange up to 6 races in an already very busy schedule. Therefore, F2 and F3 will take turns participating in F1 races.
At F2 2021, the season will begin at the end of the 2020 season, the Bahrain international race on the weekend of March 26-28. The tournament will take a break for nearly 2 months before the start of the tour in Europe in Monaco on May 20-22.
Tags British Grand Prix, F1 racing, Prema Racing, the Sakhir GP race
F1 organizers announce the schedule of the 2020 season
After much effort, the F1 organizers finally set the schedule for the 2020 season with the first 8 races.
The F1 2020 racing season has yet to start due to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, with many races being postponed or even canceled. After much effort, the tournament organizers have finally set the season opening date in the new context.
F1 organizers announce the schedule
Accordingly, the first race of the F1 2020 season will be held in Austria from July 3-5 and the second race will continue in Austria one week later (July 10-12). The next week, the third race will be held in Hungary (July 17-19).
The fourth and fifth stages of the F1 season will be held at the famous Silverstone racecourse in the UK (July 31 to August 2 and August 7-9). The next leg of the race in Spain will be held (August 14-16).
After the first 6 races, the teams will take a week off before starting the races in Belgium (August 28-30) and Italy (4-6 September). Currently, the F1 organizers have only temporarily scheduled the events of the first 8 races and will update more in the future.
Thus, the fate of the F1 race in some countries has not been determined yet in 2020. According to Inside Racing, the organizers are still looking for a reasonable schedule for the F1 racing in these countries in the near future.
Recently, the F1 organizers have issued five basic rules to bring the races back. It is testing all the participants in the race, minimizing the number of people attending a race, trying to keep a distance and isolate themselves when moving from airports and hotels … it is the races that will be held in a state of no audience.
Tags British Grand Prix, F1 racing, the schedule of F1 racing
The racing teams support the start of the Formula 1 this season
Formula 1 racing is under the influence of the Covid-19 pandemic when it was continuously delayed on the start of the competition. However, recently the racing teams have voiced support about the time the tournament starts.
Austria Grand Prix is supported by many racing teams, which is the starting place of the F1 2020 season.
Accordingly, the F1 season has been forced to postpone up to 9 times from the beginning of the season until now. The nearest race is scheduled to be held in France on June 28.
But the complicated developments of the Covid-19 pandemic forced the President of France to extend the national blockade order until 11 May and may continue until mid-July. Therefore, it is likely that the F1 race in France is highly affected when the situation has not had positive changes in this country.
In the event the French race is postponed, Austria will be the venue for the start of the F1 2020 season on 5-7. Meanwhile, the F1 2020 season will have only 12 races to take place according to the original schedule.
And according to the information, the racing teams are very supportive of the F1 2020 season starting to start from the race in Austria, also known as the Austrian Grand Prix. This opinion has received the approval of many fans. Several other racing teams have also planned to prepare for the race to take place at the Red Bull Ring racetrack, after the end of the holiday.
In addition, the Austrian Government basically did not object to the organization of the race in this country. However, the organizers and the teams will have to ensure maximum safety, and accept the competition without spectators.
As expected, the Austrian Grand Prix (race in Austria) will take place on 5-7, then to the British Grand Prix (race in England) 2 weeks later.
Tags British Grand Prix, Covid-19, Formula 1 racing
Interesting statistics about British motorcycle Grand Prix
Max Verstappen set a record as the youngest racer to win an F1 race after winning the Spanish GP 2016. Also set a record for the youngest racer on the podium and the youngest racer to ever lead at least 1 lap.
This is the 6th consecutive year Silverstone has hosted the MotoGP race since 2010 after a period of 23 years of no organization. Here are some interesting statistics and figures related to this race:
The first MotoGP race held at Silverstone was in 1977. This is also the first time in the UK to host a MotoGP race. Prior to 1977, UK-branded races were held on the Isle of Man since 1949. Later UK races were no longer held on the Isle of Man for safety reasons.
The first race to win Silverstone in 1977 was Pat Hennen (Suzuki 500cc); Kork Ballington (Yamaha 250 and 350cc) and Pierluigi Conforti (Morbidelli 125cc).
The original length of Silverstone is 4.71km (from 1977 to 1986); the record of this period is Kenny Robert (Yamaha) set in 1983 with an average speed of 192.2km per h.
After 10 consecutive years held at Silverstone, the UK Race was transferred to Donington Park racetrack in 1987.
By 2010, the UK race was transferred to Silverstone, the length of this time Silverstone is 5.9 km. Silverstone is also the longest race in this year’s schedule.
The most winning Grand Pix in the UK is Valentino Rossi with 7 wins (125cc 1 time, 250cc 1 time, 500cc 2 times, MotoGP 3 times) but all these victories take place at the racetrack. Donington Park.
The drivers with the most wins in Siverstone are Kork Ballington and Angel Nieto with 6 victories for each.
Since the UK race returned to Silverstone, only 2 riders won more than once here, which is Jorge Lorenzo with 3 victories in 2010, 2012, 2013 in both MotoGP and Marc Marquez with 2 victories (125cc in 2010 and MotoGP 2014).
There are 12 British riders on the podium at Silverstone; but only two riders have ever won: Ian McConnachie (80cc in 1996) and Scott Redding (Moto2 in 2013).
Since MotoGP returned to Silverstone, the highest achievement of a British driver in MotoGP class is Cal Cruthlow’s 6th in 2012.
Yamaha won the last 3/5 races (all belonged to Jorge Lorenzo); The remaining 2 victories belong to Honda. The highest achievement of Ducati is only 2 times Nicky Hayden in fourth place in 2010 and 2011. As for Suzuki, it is 5th place of Alvarô Bautista in 2011.
Tags British Grand Prix, British MotoGP, F1 race, Max Verstappen, MotoGP
Things You Might not Have Known about British Grand Prix
Memorable Moments:
1994: Michael Schumacher disobeyed the rules and ignored a five-second penalty
1987: Nigel Mansell’s finest hour as he overtook team-mate Nelson Piquet with just two laps remaining
1960: Graham Hill lost the Grand Prix just five laps from winning with brake failure
1950: f1 was born at Silverstone where Giuseppe Farina, an Italian racer, was victorious
The British Grand Prix is one of the f1 calendar’s oldest races and the UK is home (either in full or part) to eight of the competing teams including Williams, Mercedes, Red Bull, McLaren, Lotus, and Force India. The British Grand Prix has never failed in providing drama for spectators who can get their hands on tickets to the coveted F1 race at Silverstone Circuit.
As any F1 racing fans knows, nothing beats the amazing atmosphere that can only be found as the British Grand Prix comes home to Silverstone. This reaches fever-pitch everytime when there is a Brit in the racing line-up.
Silverstone circuit also provides some wonderful racing opportunities for both driver and spectator as well. The track used to be a former World War II aerodrome, it is fast and a quick lap time requires finesse and bravery from the racing drivers. Many of them consider the corners at Silverstone circuit to be some of the best in Formula One, especially at the start of the race.
Over the three race days, Silverstone circuit always attracts a bigger crowd of grand prix racing fans than any other race in the f1 calendar. Because race days are always busy so it is wise to get to Silverstone as soon as possible. If you have a Grandstand seat, you can afford to arrive later but if you have to stand, the flag-mad fans tend to set up very early, particularly around the Luffield part of the circuit.
About British Grand Prix 2020:
When: Friday 10th – Sunday 12th July, 2020
Where: Silverstone Circuit, Northamptonshire, NN12 8TN
Tags British Grand Prix, F1 racing, Silverstone Circuit
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line473
|
__label__wiki
| 0.725079
| 0.725079
|
» Issue 05, Special Issue: COVID-19 and science c…
» Science communication for the Deaf in the pande…
Science communication for the Deaf in the pandemic period: absences and pursuit of information
Alexandre G. Silva, Tiago Batista, Felipe Giraud, Andrea Giraud, Flavio Eduardo Pinto-Silva, Julia Barral, Juan Nascimento Guimarães and Vívian rumjanek
COVID-19 pandemic hit Brazil in February 2020. Controversial information, minimization of the problem, and difficulties resulting from extreme social inequality, led to the intensification of the disease and number of deaths. During this period, the government failed to provide information to the Deaf minority that uses Brazilian Sign Language to communicate. This study analyzes information provided by a TV with accessibility, as well as a Facebook page created by Deaf and hearing interpreters, and videos posted on Instagram and YouTube for that community. The novelty of the subject required linguistic efforts so that information could be coherent in sign language.
Risk communication
JCOM_1905_2020_A05.pdf
JCOM_1905_2020_A05.epub
1 Context
2 Information sources used by the Deaf
3 Organization of dissemination networks among the Deaf
4 Objective
5 Methods
6.1 Social media Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and information on the pandemic
6.2 TV INES and information about the pandemic
6.3 Topics that received less attention
6.4 Scientific content of information
6.5 Clarity of information
The first evidence of a new infectious agent, capable of producing an epidemic that spread rapidly and produced a disease that led, in severe cases, to acute respiratory failure, came from Wuhan, in the province of Hubei in China, on December 2019. On January 7th, 2020, the agent was identified as a new coronavirus SARS-CoV2 [Gralinski and Menachery, 2020; Lu, Stratton and Tang, 2020]. Soon other countries like Thailand, Japan, South Korea, Iran and Italy started to present cases of this disease. On January 30th, 2020, the general director of the World Health Organization declared this SARS-CoV2 pneumonia an Emergency and International Public Health Problem and on March 11th declared it a pandemic [Cucinotta and Vanelli, 2020]. Recognized as a pandemic, the disease produced by SARS-CoV2 was named COVID-19. As of May 31st, the disease had already affected more than 200 countries with different degrees of intensity [Worldometer, 2020] and the total number of infected people in the world reached 6,238,549 with an observed case fatality ratio of 11.6% deaths.
In Brazil, the first confirmed case was in the State of S.Paulo on February 26th and the first death on March 17th [Croda et al., 2020; Werneck and Carvalho, 2020]. Since then, cases of COVID-19 have been reported in different parts of the country. The total number of infections by May 31st in Brazil was 278,980 with 29,314 deaths [Worldometer, 2020]. However, one must consider that few people have been tested and it is believed that there is a large percentage of underreporting. In the countries most affected, on the same day, the number of accumulated deaths was 106,432 in the United States, 38,394 in the United Kingdom, 33,415 in Italy, 28,802 in France and 27,127 in Spain.
With no vaccine nor specific treatment, being easily transmitted even by asymptomatic individuals, protection against COVID-19 used the same approaches as those employed a hundred years ago in the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918. That is, social distance and cleanliness. The rising death number and the impotence in the absence of a treatment that could certainly lead to a cure has generated a great degree of stress, depression, and even panic worldwide.
The rapid spread of information, which could had been extremely beneficial, also brought along with it unclear, wrong, and/or exaggerated information about the pandemic. Several studies have shown that frequent exposure to social networks during the COVID-19 outbreak could be associated with the onset of mental health problems such as depression and anxiety, and in some circumstances even racism and political crises [Bastani and Bahrami, 2020; Depoux et al., 2020; Gao et al., 2020]. And Brazil was not immune to such effects. However, the use of social media has also made it possible to keep people in contact, provide information on ways of prevention, symptoms, public measures, and advances regarding research on the virus and the disease [O’Brien, Moore and McNicholas, 2020]. These media also acted beneficially by reporting number of cases, distribution, and improvement of the pandemic. Thus, in Brazil, in parallel with traditional media, social networks played an important role in the dissemination of information during this pandemic, but also produced some of the problems described in other countries [Lima, Medeiros Lopes and Brito, 2020].
In 2019 there were 3,484 billion social media active users spread around the world [Kemp, 2019a], with Facebook having 2,449 billion followers, YouTube 1,9 billion, Whatsapp 1,6 billion and Instagram 1 billion [Kemp, 2019a]. In Brazil, data from that same year showed the enormous reach of social media, since 81% of Brazilians over 13 years old used social media compared to 58% worldwide. The most accessed ones were YouTube (95%), Facebook (90%), Whatsapp (89%), Instagram (71%), Messenger (66%) and Twitter (43%) [Kemp, 2019b].
In a pandemic period, it is essential that information should be available through different means, to which the population should have access, and thus be enabled to put into practice what it is transmitted. This information can be conveyed by the media, or by official government channels in their different spheres. However, what has been observed is that the guidelines are not always available to everyone. The difficulty of information for people with disabilities has already been reported [Almeida, Schiaffino and Rumjanek, 2014; Hub Editorial, 2020; Rose, 2020; Shew, 2020].
The scientific journal Nature published this year, in the issue of March 17th, a Letter by Castro et al. titled “COVID-19: don’t forget Deaf people” [Castro et al., 2020]. But were Deaf people considered in Brazil during this pandemic?
It is necessary to highlight the difficulty that Deaf people have in accessing information and, consequently, the risk they run of exposing themselves to dangers due to the absence of educational materials and News that contemplate their linguistic specificity in the use of Brazilian Sign Language (Libras). In addition of not being able to hear, the level of literacy among the Deaf is much lower than that of hearing people.
Santos and Santos [2016] point to the difficulty that TV, considered the main means of mass communication today, presents in not meeting the communicative needs of Deaf people:
the situation of people suffering from hearing loss appears in the mass media. Taking into account that television is the most used means of communication today and that 73% of people watch TV every day, there are more than 10 million Deaf or hearing impaired people trying to watch open TV channels, which often offer neither closed captioning nor a Libras window [Santos and Santos, 2016, our translation].
It is possible, thus, to point out the difficulty that presents itself to the Deaf in Brazil in this type of vehicle. The lack of adequate communication through Libras imposes segregation on this group. Although we have some initiatives in Libras via TV open channels, the time allocated is still only a few minutes a day. If we compare the amount of information in Portuguese, it is possible to say that the TV time destined or with accessibility for the Deaf is very small, less than 10 min daily in the open channel TV Brasil [TV Brasil, 2020].
In Brazil, according to a Federal Decree from 2004 [Presidência da República do Brasil, 2004] and the Brazilian Inclusion Law of 2015 [Presidência da República do Brasil, 2015], Deaf and hearing-impaired people should be assisted via subtitling, mainly on TV programs and newsreel, or should have direct access in sign language. This second option is almost nonexistent today. Among the strategies pointed out by the legislation is closed captioning [Araújo, 2004].
Although this mechanism seems to be the most adequate and capable of producing accessibility to part of the group of hearing-impaired people, it is worth noting that there is still a huge lack in the implementation of this feature in the Brazilian open TV. Among the problems pointed out by Santos [2014], there is a delay in the information written in front of the images and in relation to the messages, in addition, there is the rapid digitization of the words and their consequent appearance on the screen with mistakes. Unfortunately, these technical flaws have not yet been corrected, mainly due to allegations of technical unfeasibility, resulting from the lack of investment to use this resource on TV [Santos, 2014]. The problem of the use of television captioning for the Deaf is also discussed in other countries [Burnham et al., 2008; Cambra, Silvestre and Leal, 2009].
It should be added that during official appearances by members of the government talking about the pandemic, we observed that there was always the presence of an interpreter in person, however, many TVs channels cut the interpreter out of frame.
In addition to traditional media, Brazil has had since 2013 a broadcaster, TV INES, aimed at the Deaf community, with all its programs in sign language, voiceover and subtitles in Portuguese [TV INES, 2020]. TV INES is very diversified and has educational programs, general issues and News [TV INES.org, 2020]. The programs specifically designed to News broadcast are Boletim (Bulletin), Primeira Mão (First Hand), Saber Mais (Knowing More), Panorama Visual (Visual Overview). However, TV INES is not broadcast on open TV, but through the internet and mobile phone apps.
It is important to seek a perception of how information transmission networks function for the Deaf, as well as the resources used by these individuals in order to remain aware of the news related to the pandemic. By understanding how dissemination networks work, the production in sign language and its transmission, it might be possible to have an overview of the forms of access to information of this community. The analysis of how this has been constituted on the internet, so that the Deaf community could follow the advances of the pandemic, may contribute with the reflections on accessibility and the most useful and adequate tools for transmitting recommendations to Deaf people. It discusses the strategy the Deaf have been adopting to obtain the knowledge and information produced in this pandemic period and its implications.
The Deaf community chooses public areas for meetings, interactions, and information to be transmitted, no longer through an official or government channel, but through the transmission of information by its own members. The Deaf community is understood here from the perspective of Strobel, who understands that this “is not only about Deaf individuals, there are also hearing subjects — Family members, interpreters, teachers, friends and others who participate and share the same common interests in a given location” [Strobel, 2008]. The interaction between these entities tries to minimize the great difficulty of accessing information in sign language. The meeting points are the squares, shopping malls, bars and others, that somehow bring together Deaf people from different places. Although the use of internet has greatly reduced the use of these spaces, they were still utilized for this purpose. However, with the worsening of the pandemic, these physical meeting spaces have no longer been conducive to meetings.
This does not mean that the Deaf community has not found other spaces for interaction. Hall [1997] understands that relationships change quickly, and information has become increasingly accessible. This change pointed out by Hall, is not linked to spaces, but it can be virtual. The need for displacement and decentralization of physical locations contributed to the migration to a meeting space, digital-virtual interaction, whose centralities are unrelated to the geographical environment, but allow remote meetings through apps and social media.
The internet has contributed greatly to this new communicative dimension of Deaf people. The use of social media in the Internet allows people to organize themselves both in accessing and disseminating information. Social networks that allow for the sharing of videos, information and texts have been gaining prominence in the current scenario. People who would not have, otherwise, the means to carry out physical interactions are able to exchange messages and participate in discussions with friends and other individuals on social networks.
During the pandemic period attention turned to the importance of videos and sharing channels such as YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, for the Deaf community. Due to their configurations, they allow messages to be visual, and consequently can be transmitted through sign language.
Although there are several social media under study, regarding the relationship of the Deaf person with social networks, Ramos [2014] discussed the strength of Facebook for the Deaf community in Brazil. In this social network many groups participate in political, tourism, education, and health discussions. In addition, Facebook is seen as a “social network that, in a globalized moment, reduces the distance between people and makes everyone equal in access, there are no barriers, lack of information, everything is there, everyone posts, everyone reads, there are no limits to expressiveness, especially for the Deaf” (2014). This study is in line with international studies that analyzed the use of Facebook by Deaf people [Kožuh and Debevc, 2019]. Furthermore, an international experience during the disaster resulting from an earthquake in Italy has demonstrated the importance of this media to provide information for the Deaf community [Rotondi et al., 2019].
When faced with the lack of access to information related to the pandemic, many hearing people who are part of the Deaf community and many Deaf people who do translation work started posting informative videos about COVID-19. Initially they were posted only in personal profiles, however, already in the first week of decrees and determinations of social distancing, a Facebook group was created and named Central Libras/Coronavirus [Central Libras/Coronavirus, 2020]. This is a collective administration composed of Deaf and hearing sign language interpreters from different regions of the country, and aims to share information about the new coronavirus, the pandemic and the main news taking place in the country during this period. This group had a fast adhesion of the Deaf community and in May 2020 it already had more than 8,000 members.
Deaf people, as discussed above, have a more limited access to information. Usually the information sources do not contemplate the fact that they communicate in sign language and might have a lower level of literacy. Furthermore, Libras did not have signs for the terms that were being used during the pandemic, and this, in certain occasions, made comprehension difficult.
In an attempt to understand how Brazilian Deaf were informed about COVID-19 during this period, this paper analyzed what was published about the pandemic in four different media used by the Deaf in the period between January 14th and May 31st 2020.
Due to the use of social media by the Deaf community, this source of information was investigated in the present work.
Different media were analyzed: a Facebook page, YouTube, Instagram and TV INES. The total period covered was from January 14th, when the first reports of Corona Virus started appearing on TV INES, up to May 31st, when the collection of samples for the study was ended. However, as described in the text, the different programs in TV INES lasted for different periods. The Facebook page Central Libras/Coronavirus was only created on March 17th and the study went up to May 31st. The videos in the YouTube and Instagram analyzed were posted on March 21st and the analysis covered up to May 31st. All videos posted in these media, during this time interval, were analyzed. Every media was seen by at least two of the authors, except for TV INES, that was covered by only one investigator. The total amount of views of each medium was compiled in the first week of June 2020. The group comprised a Deaf investigator, sign language interpreters and biological scientists.
Searching for places on social media, in which the information was reliable, in which Fake News was excluded, and in the impossibility of following all the information exchanged on social networks among the Deaf community, we chose to start by verifying the scope of the information present on the Facebook Central Libras/Coronavirus, created this year on March 17th [Central Libras/Coronavirus, 2020]. One of the objectives of the 29 administrators of this page was to exclude fake news, so that it would never be posted, and during our search we did not find any. The search was conducted by us between March 17th and May 31st, and all posts within this period were analyzed apart from, the very rare cases when a second copy of the same video was posted. The total of 387 videos was excluding duplicates.
To compare if there was a difference in access to videos posted on Instagram [Batista, 2020a] and YouTube [Batista, 2020b], we used the videos of the same person, a sign language interpreter and co-author of this work, and analyzed the period from March 21st to May 31st.
The impact of journalistic programs produced by the web TV INES, was also analyzed. These programs are divided into different groups, each group is composed by a team with Deaf and hearing professionals, from different backgrounds and with different methodology for choosing the topics covered that will be presented in each program. Primeira Mão (First Hand), Saber mais (Knowing More), Plantão Coronavirus (Coronavirus Breaking News), Panorama Visual (Visual Overview), Boletim (Bulletin). They were analyzed at different times and this is explained in the Results section. The TV INES portal does not provide any statistical data regarding the number of accesses; therefore, we analyzed the TV INES page on Facebook [TV INES, 2020].
In the period from March 17th to May 31st a total of 387 videos were posted in the Facebook Central Libras/Coronavirus. These videos were comprised of the most diverse topics including precautions to prevent transmission, means of identifying symptoms of COVID-19, possible treatments, vaccine development, decrees suggesting social isolation, number of contaminated people and deaths, as well as news from daily newspapers. Of the total number of posts, those with the highest number of views (over 100 views) were analyzed. The sample was comprised of 95 posts.
During the period under study the theme of the messages modified over time. The number of posts also decreased. During March, the first month, there were 208 posts and those related to the precautions to be taken predominated: hygiene, hand washing, cleaning the food, time that the virus lasted in various materials, symptoms of the disease, explanation of contagion, isolation, data on contamination and number of deaths in other countries and in Brazil.
In April, with 116 posts, social isolation is still discussed, the need for masks by the population appears more frequently, as well as the comparison between the lethality of COVID-19 and H1N1, epidemiological bulletins with number of cases and deaths in different parts of Brazil and lack of intensive care units (ICU) in public hospitals.
In May, the last analyzed period, the total number of posts dropped to 63. The almost daily announcement of the increase in the number of infected or killed as a result of COVID-19 in Brazil also aroused much less interest with 22 posts with a median of 12 views. During the same period, two interviews with a scientist talking about the development of the American and English vaccines, a post on bilingual hospital care and a video with a deaf pharmacist, presented more than 100 views, each indicating that the concern now turned more to the disease itself.
The themes of the most viewed videos during the total period (March 17th to May 31st) were analyzed monthly. In March, a video on the cases of COVID-19 in Brazil received great attention because it was the beginning of the epidemic in this country, but at the same time what was happening in Europe was still news and another video with posted pictures of hospital nurses in Italy was the second most viewed of the period. In April, the two most viewed videos were: a video about the death by COVID-19 of an interpreter, and a video reinforcing the need to stay at home. In May the video of an interview explaining the English vaccine, and the video of the pharmacist were the most viewed ones.
When doing this survey, we found that in some situations the same video on YouTube had a higher number of views. To verify if another social media could also reach the Deaf public, videos posted on an Instagram channel were also analyzed. Videos from both media posted during the period from March 21st to May 31st were examined.
On Instagram, with 42 videos analyzed, views ranged from 25 to 267 views per video with a median of 48 views. The most viewed video was one that said that boldo tea for the cure of COVID-19 was Fake (267 views). The subject of Fake News proved to be of interest to the Community and a video against this practice received the third largest view (195 views). The second most viewed video was one that showed that Rio, in 24hours, surpassed the data of São Paulo, until then the epicenter of the pandemic in Brazil (206 views). This is consistent with the fact that another one with many views was that in which the gradual reopening of the city was announced (152 views). Finally, the fifth most viewed video discussed self-medication and Ibuprofen (135 views).
On YouTube, 47 videos were analyzed in the same period and the median of views was slightly lower, 40 views, varying in a very wide range from 3 to 918 views. Once again, the subject Fake News gained attention and the most viewed video was one that showed that it was fake the news of looting supermarkets (918 views). The second most viewed video was sex and corona virus (560 views), followed by the same one that had featured many views on Instagram stating that the cure through drinking boldo tea was fake (523 views). The fourth video explained the problem of men with beards and the corona virus (396 views), and the fifth most viewed video was a statement by the governor of Rio de Janeiro (354 views).
As previously mentioned, the existence of an accessible web TV for both the Deaf and hearing people, TV INES, could partially supply the lack of accessibility on open TV channels. During this period, TV INES covered the main news that were featured in the mainstream media through its journalistic programs. The following paragraphs will introduce the different programs, analyze the methodology of each nucleus, as well as the purpose of each program produced.
Primeira Mão (First Hand). The Primeira Mão group has as its flagship the Jornal Primeira Mão (First Hand News), a news program that is available on the TV INES portal and on social networks, such as Facebook. Before the pandemic, the team met on Mondays at the company’s headquarters, and each team member was responsible for bringing their news suggestions based on what they searched in the mainstream media. The Deaf presenters, as representatives of the Deaf community, were the first to give their suggestions. After the presentation of the suggestions of the whole team, the chosen themes were divided among the journalists who wrote the stories that would be recorded the next day. On the day of the recording of the program, a Libras sign language interpreter studied the Portuguese text with the Deaf person and passed it on to glosa, a translation resource that describes the structure of the sign language using Portuguese words, and would be placed on the teleprompter to be signaled by the Deaf presenters.
Each program of the Jornal Primeira Mão lasts an average of three to four minutes and is broadcast from Monday to Friday. It is also available on VOD (video on demand) and social networks, and it can be accessed anytime. The videos are all presented by Deaf people in Libras, have voiceover and subtitles in Portuguese, reaching a diverse audience that include deaf sign language users, oralized deaf people and hearing language learners.
During the period from January 14th to March 23rd 2020 a total of 10 programs on the Coronavirus theme were addressed with 12,079 views, 30 comments and 785 reactions, according to a survey on the TV INES page on Facebook.
From March 23rd, the city of Rio de Janeiro began to adopt measures to contain the spread of the virus and the work began to be carried out in the form of home office. Without the structure of the company to do the editing, subtitling and voiceover, Jornal Primeira Mão was discontinued during this period of social isolation.
Saber Mais (Knowing More). The same First Hand group is also responsible for the Saber Mais and Plantão (Breaking News) programs. Saber Mais came up with the need to deepen a subject that was brought up in a Jornal Primeira Mão, but unknown to the majority of the Deaf Community. In Saber Mais this subject is explained more deeply so that the Deaf take ownership of the concept and thus, when the topic appears at another time in the news, they already have prior knowledge.
During this period of the emergence of the SARS-Cov2 virus and the disease COVID-19, two programs were produced with the related theme, one explaining what a corona virus is, and the other what is the meaning of quarantine. The need to make this meaning explicit arose because there was a doubt whether quarantine would mean 40 days in isolation.
The programs were made available on digital platforms on February 1st and March 14th and had a total of 20,200 views, 34 comments and 741 reactions.
Plantão Coronavirus (Coronavirus Breaking News). Plantão (Breaking News) presents important issues that come up when information and the news in Jornal Primeira Mão have an urgent need to reach the public. It is a program that does not need a large postproduction, as it has no subtitles or voiceover. At the beginning of the pandemic, it was posted under the name Coronavirus, later modified to Plantão Coronavirus. After the stoppage of TV activities and the need of the work to be carried out under the form of home office, the team responsible for the program did not have the studio resources, editing, subtitling, and voiceover, and as of March 23rd it started to produce only Plantão Coronavirus.
During the period from March 6th to May 20th, 75 programs were produced with a total of 136, 976 views, 286 comments and 7613 reactions.
Panorama Visual (Visual Overview). The Panorama Visual team is responsible for several productions. Presenting a diversified content such as tourism tips, gastronomy, fashion, Panorama Visual also presents topics relevant to society, such as the pandemic. During this period, the program interviewed several professionals who addressed important issues in this pandemic era.
Between March 4th and May 30th there were 14 programs totaling 7,883 views, 38 comments and 602 reactions.
Boletim (Bulletin). Finally, the Boletim center holds the responsibility of bringing important information into the lives of Deaf citizens. It is usually a topic that has not been addressed by other News programs or that needs an update. The first Boletim that addressed the issue of Coronavirus was broadcasted when the virus had not yet crossed the limits of China. This program updated information that had been presented in other programs and commented what the authorities of that country were doing to contain the progress of the disease. Boletim programs with several themes were produced during the period since that first program that dealt with the coronavirus.
There was a total of 15 programs that addressed issues related to the pandemic, between January 24th to April 12th, with 13,650 views, 26 comments and 735 reactions.
In view of the period of social isolation, information about various services and their functioning is essential. However, not everyone has access to safe and clear information with official channels in sign language.
In Brazil, a time of intense movement is Carnival, which this year took place between February 21st and February 26th, concurrent to the first case of COVID-19 detected in the country. During this time many people entered and left the country in addition to intense domestic tourism. The first case in Brazil was detected on February 26th and the first death less than a month later. Despite this, tourism continued, and the first measures only started to take place on March 19th, when the Federal Government determined, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the closure of borders with the countries of South America. The determination applied to highways, but not to airports. And beside that, it would not affect Brazilians who were in these neighboring countries. Without having access to concrete information in Libras, the Deaf person found himself unable to continue planned trips. With the intention of minimizing the financial impacts as a result of cancellations of interstate flights and buses, the Ministry of Tourism, through the ‘Do not cancel! Reschedule!’, advised on postponing trips and cultural events, giving guidelines for maintaining the sector’s business. It also drew up a provisional measure to regulate cancellations and reschedules in the area. Such information did not have accessibility in Libras. However, despite the lack of information, we did not find programs or videos in Libras warning Deaf people about what to do in these circumstances.
On the other hand, in the cultural tourism segment, we are faced with information about the functioning of museums, available on YouTube in Portuguese and in Libras. The Museu do Amanhã (Museum of Tomorrow), for example, published a video in sign language, where it contains information on closing the museum (part 1) and guidelines for individual protection regarding hygiene and care to avoid contagion (part 2). Also, the TV INES Primeira Mão program offered virtual visits to several museums around the world, informing their electronic addresses. We notice that such initiatives are still few in the face of all the demands of the Brazilian Deaf Community.
Many other topics, which are quite relevant, were less addressed to the Deaf citizen. With the need for social isolation due to the current pandemic, and similar to what has been observed in other countries, domestic violence has increased in this period. Thus, we were faced with the concern which is the attention to women and children who are victims of this type of violence. The TV INES program Plantão Coronavirus, displayed, on May 22nd, a video in Libras with information about the launch of an app by the Ministry of Women, Family and Human Rights, with the name of Human Rights of Brazil that contains the step by step information on how to report domestic violence. The video was published on May 22nd and until June 5th had 328 views. However, in the media that were analyzed in this study, this was the only video found on the subject.
Little was found on where Deaf communities could obtain information and guidance for children and their doubts about the pandemic period. However, TV INES, through two programs, made videos available to children and their parents. In the video “Corona, the virus” information about COVID-19 is presented in Libras, showing ways of contagion and how to avoid it. This video was played on various social media. Another video, telling a children’s story in Libras and showing the illustrations, “The Protective Shield against King Corona virus” can be found on Facebook Central Libras/Coronavirus. At this same address, three other videos could also be found, a children’s story in Libras about an earthworm, one with a small Italian boy talking about the pandemic with interpretation in Libras and another with a Brazilian girl.
The program Fica a Dica (Tips), also on TV INES, provided guidance for parents to deal with children and the proper care that should be taken, including the electronic address for online care that aims to answer questions about the corona virus for the Deaf community. This video was also played by other social media.
We live in an age in which, despite all the accumulated scientific knowledge, we find ourselves surrounded by anti-scientific views of the world [Hotez, 2020]. In Brazil this is not different and, in certain groups, we even returned to the acceptance of the Flat Earth Theory [De Albuquerque and Quinan, 2019]. This occurs despite the fact that, in 2013, the majority of the population displayed a positive attitude towards science [Castelfranchi et al., 2013]. Additionally, during the pandemic, the news in general stressed the importance that decisions should be made based on science [Fraser, 2020]. In this dichotomous scenario, it was observed that aspects related to the scientific knowledge of the virus were rarely addressed, even less for the Deaf. In general, basic science education for the Deaf community is deficient in Brazil. This, in addition to the vast amount of circulating misinformation, hindered the conscious decision making in this pandemic period.
The most specific and in-depth information about the infection and the disease did not circulate effectively among the Deaf. As already mentioned, the majority of videos translated into Libras, are made voluntarily by interpreters and this means that deeper scientific themes are only translated when there is an interest of the person translating, which is often correlated with the technical capacity of the interpreter and his/her understanding of the subject.
We believe some concepts were clear, such as contagion, for which a number of videos and animations focused. Others, for example, the susceptibility of people with blood type A, or how the SARS-Cov2 virus reproduces, proved to be too complex and aroused no interest. But it is important to report that the basic scientific knowledge of this group is weak. We also detected the explanation of the tests for COVID-19. Interviews, carried out with simultaneous interpretation in Libras, with a microbiologist well known as a Science communicator for the hearing audience, were also problematic due to the speed with which information was transmitted and the small size of the sign language window. On the other hand, there was an interest in understanding about possible vacines, despite the fact that these were also videos of scientists speaking Portuguese with interpretation in Libras.
Visual understanding for the Deaf is essential. In this context, the videos need to be visually adapted bringing clearly aspects of the virus, such as what happens when it infects the cell in a detailed way. Especially if one considers the absence of technical/scientific signs in the area.
According to data analysis, since the appearance of the first newscasts related to COVID-19, there have been numerous attempts disseminated on social media on the transmission of this information in Libras. Not only was the subject itself a great novelty and unknown by a large part of society, but it also required considerable linguistic efforts so that such information could be translated in Libras in a coherent and effective manner.
The first videos with information about the new corona virus took place in January and the development of a specific sign for corona virus dates from that time. However, the SARS-Cov2 sign itself is a source of discussion as described by Amorim et al. [2020]. These authors, studying various media, found up to three variants of the sign and discussed which one had better acceptance among the Deaf. Along with the virus itself, the appearance of several terms that had no translation in Libras also had to be explained. An explanation of the use of some of these terms can be found on April 11th in a video on Facebook Central Libras/Coronavirus. As previously verified, the same video on Facebook had 56 views and on YouTube 349 views. In parallel, several glossaries with new signs for these terms have emerged, such as the one created by Prof. Gildete da S. Amorim, at Universidade Federal Fluminense [Amorim, 2020], but without widespread adoption. As a result, the newscasts started to use more than one sign for the same term.
Basically, terms such as: COVID-19, VIRUS, CORONA VIRUS, PANDEMIC, EPIDEMIC, QUARANTINE, SOCIAL ISOLATION, INFECTION, CONTAGION, TRANSMISSION, SUSPECTED CASES AND CONFIRMED CASES were the most used in the making of these news, drawing attention to their concepts, meanings and order of words in Libras syntactic operations.
As discussed by de Quadros [2003] it is necessary to know the proper order of words to communicate in sign languages so as to structure the sentence correctly. As mentioned by de Quadros, the authors Felipe [1989] and Ferreira-Brito [1995] present in their work the flexibility of the word order in Libras and point out different possibilities for the ordering of the words in the sentence, although they culminate in the understanding of the existence of a basic order SUBJECT — VERB — OBJECT (SVO).
Therefore, we can start the investigation of the clarity of news and texts presented in this context in Libras, observing the basic structural order of the sentences.
A second structural form that can be analyzed regarding the sentences produced in Libras is what it is called topicalization, when the resulting sentence order is OBJECT — SUBJECT — VERB (OSV).
Following the analysis of the materials published in Libras on COVID-19, it was possible to observe the use of different possibilities regarding the ordering of words in sentences. However, in many cases, the choice for a certain model seemed to significantly compromise the understanding of what was being announced. Let us take as an example, the repeated use of the term PANDEMIC which, not having a sign, when translated into Libras, ends up assuming a different understanding from the one intended in the source language.
For example, in the original sentence:
“…The confinement to contain the pandemic of the new coronavirus has triggered calls for help by battered women …”
Pandemic — Translation offered in sign language — Coronavirus+spread
Confinement — Translation offered in sign language — Need-stay-home
The signs used for the conceptualization of PANDEMIC and CONFINEMENT compromised the general understanding of the information when associated with the choice in the organization of the sentence in Libras, obscuring the real reason for staying at home or the incidence of domestic aggressions.
According to de Quadros and Karnopp [2004] among other groups, there are types of verbs in Libras called manual verbs (classifier verbs) that are those that use classifiers and incorporate action. Examples of this class of verbs are Put-Cake-in the-Oven, Sit-on the-Wall. It is possible to observe below, an example of the inappropriate use of a possible classifier verb for the context of contamination with the Coronavirus.
Coronavirus — Translation offered in sign language- Bite (in hand) + spread
Contract — Translation offered in sign language — Catch
Disseminate — Translation offered in sign language — Spread
Misunderstanding of the concept of CONTAMINATION using inattentive use of the classifier verb in Libras (Bite-in hand) making the lexical choices for the construction of sentences in sign language have compromised the real information contained in the source language.
In other instances, the wrong understanding of the word in Portuguese by the signer (emitter of the news), generated a sign formation in Libras and, consequently, a contextualization totally disconnected from the one proposed by the source language (Portuguese).
In Portuguese, the word for Contract (in the sense of contracting a disease), for example, is Contrair. The signer divided the word as Contra (against)+Ir (to go), so that the final idea instead of getting the disease was going against the disease, which would be totally opposite to the original meaning.
In an attempt to understand the term CONTRAIR, the sign maker chose to fragment the word, bringing to Libras the combination of two Portuguese words equivalents: CONTRA (against) + IR (to go). Therefore, as a result we have the distortion of that announced by the source language. Instead of the final idea being contracting the disease, it became going against the disease.
In another example:
“…patients with the Coronavirus that has killed more than 400 people. The virus influences the financial Market and China’s stock Market fell more than 8% in one day. (…)”
In this particular piece of news, they go on to explain the number of suspected cases and confirmed cases, as well as the importance of quarantine.
Confirmed cases — Translation offered in sign language — Corona+certain
Suspected cases — Translation offered in sign language — Corona+suspect
Quarantine — Translation offered in sign language — Group+separate+contact+nothing
The lack of clarity regarding the choices in the order of words to explain the terms above, presents ambiguity as to WHO IS SUSPICIOUS and, finally, compromises the understanding of WHO or WHY quarantine is practiced.
There are studies in Brazil describing that Deaf individuals when pursuing information use social networks or gather information from friends [Barbosa et al., 2011; Almeida, Schiaffino and Rumjanek, 2014; Ramos, 2014]. Similarly, TV INES, a web TV created especially for the Deaf, is known to represent an important source of information for this community despite the absence of data on its total audience. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the absence of public authorities to make information available to the Deaf community was notorious. In this way, the information channels used by the Deaf remained the same as before.
But difficulties arose. As a result of social isolation, TV INES was unable to maintain its programming. The Plantão Coronavirus program was kept without subtitles, only serving the Deaf fluent in Libras. Even so, the reach of TV INES, compared to the other social media of this study, was very large. However, regarding TV and other means of information, an additional problem arose, the information resulting from the pandemic was new for everyone, including hearing individuals, and had many unknown terms in the Portuguese language and nonexistent in Libras.
The analysis of the information offered by the sources under study demonstrated the importance of videos of public utility, those that were intended to protect the individual against infection, including day-to-day care. However, videos intended to be of scientific dissemination, with information about the virus, the disease, medicines, etc. were proportionally few.
Deaf individuals should represent a priority group in receiving information during a health crisis such as the pandemic COVID-19. The knowledge of how the dissemination network of this community works, and the difficulties encountered by this linguistic minority in relation to obtaining information, will be useful tools to provide means to yield scientific information to the Deaf.
The authors would like to thank Dr. Lucia de La Rocque for the helpful comments and some editing of this paper. We would also like to acknowledge the support from Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), Fundação Carlos Chagas de Apoio à Pesquisa do Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ).
Almeida, R. C. N., Schiaffino, R. S. and Rumjanek, V. M. (2014). ‘Access and comprehension of information by profound deaf youngsters in Brazil’. Journal of Media and Communication Studies 6 (11), pp. 174–178. https://doi.org/10.5897/jmcs2014.0411.
Amorim, G. (2020). Glossário de libras do coronavirus COVID-19. [YouTube video]. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-snZ0P7x_0A (visited on May 2020).
Amorim, G., Ramos, A. S. L., de Castro Junior, G., de Souza Afonso, L. and Castro, H. C. (2020). ‘Coronavirus, deafness and the use of different signs of the area in health during a period of pandemic time: is that the best option to do?’ Creative Education 11 (04), pp. 573–580. https://doi.org/10.4236/ce.2020.114042.
Araújo, V. L. S. (2004). ‘Closed subtitling in Brazil’. In: Topics in audiovisual translation. Ed. by P. Orero. Amsterdam, The Netherlands and Philadelphia, PA, U.S.A.: John Benjamins Publishing Company, pp. 199–212. https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.56.20san.
Barbosa, G. A. R., Silva, I. S., Gonçalves, G., Prates, R. O., Benevenuto, F. and Almeida, V. (2011). ‘Characterizing interactions among members of deaf communities in Orkut’. In: Human-Computer Interaction — INTERACT 2011. Ed. by P. Campos, N. Graham, J. Jorge, N. Nunes, P. Palanque and M. Winckler. Berlin and Heidelberg, Germany: Springer, pp. 280–287. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-23765-2_20.
Bastani, P. and Bahrami, M. A. (2020). ‘COVID-19 related misinformation on social media: a qualitative study from Iran’. Journal of Medical Internet Research. https://doi.org/10.2196/18932.
Batista, T. (2020a). Tiago Batista Instagram page. URL: https://www.instagram.com/tricolor_tiago?r=nametagw (visited on 5th June 2020).
— (2020b). Tiago Batista YouTube channel. URL: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEWojBE_p5zCZeEY1nFGLSQ (visited on 5th June 2020).
Burnham, D., Leigh, G., Noble, W., Jones, C., Tyler, M., Grebennikov, L. and Varley, A. (2008). ‘Parameters in television captioning for deaf and hard-of-hearing adults: effects of caption rate versus text reduction on comprehension’. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 13 (3), pp. 391–404. https://doi.org/10.1093/deafed/enn003.
Cambra, C., Silvestre, N. and Leal, A. (2009). ‘Comprehension of television messages by deaf students at various stages of education’. American Annals of the Deaf 153 (5), pp. 425–434. https://doi.org/10.1353/aad.0.0065.
Castelfranchi, Y., Vilela, E. M., de Lima, L. B., de Castro Moreira, I. and Massarani, L. (2013). ‘Brazilian opinions about science and technology: the paradox of the relation between information and attitudes’. História, Ciências, Saúde-Manguinhos 20, pp. 1163–1183. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0104-59702013000400005.
Castro, H. C., Ramos, A. S. L., Amorim, G. and Ratcliffe, N. A. (2020). ‘COVID-19: don’t forget deaf people’. Nature 579 (7799), pp. 343–343. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-00782-2.
Central Libras/Coronavirus (2020). Central Libras/Coronavirus. Facebook group. URL: https://www.facebook.com/groups/918648301921031 (visited on 5th June 2020).
Croda, J., de Oliveira, W. K., Frutuoso, R. L., Mandetta, L. H., Baia-da-Silva, D. C., Brito-Sousa, J. D., Monteiro, W. M. and Lacerda, M. V. G. (2020). ‘COVID-19 in Brazil: advantages of a socialized unified health system and preparation to contain cases’. Revista da Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical 53. https://doi.org/10.1590/0037-8682-0167-2020.
Cucinotta, D. and Vanelli, M. (2020). ‘WHO declares COVID-19 a pandemic’. Acta Bio Medica Atenei Parmensis 91 1, pp. 157–160. https://doi.org/10.23750/abm.v91i1.9397.
De Albuquerque, A. and Quinan, R. (2019). ‘Crise epistemológica e teorias da conspiração: o discurso anti-ciência do canal “Professor Terra Plana”’. [Epistemological crisis and conspiracy theories: the anti-science speech of “Professor Terra Plana” channel]. Revista Mídia e Cotidiano 13 (3), p. 83. https://doi.org/10.22409/rmc.v13i3.38088.
de Quadros, R. M. (2003). ‘Phrase structure of Brazilian sign language’. In: Crosslinguistic perspectives in sign language research. Selected papers from TISLR 2000. Hamburg, Germany: Signum Press, pp. 141–162. URL: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ronice_Quadros/publication/228459159_Phrase_Structure_of_Brazilian_Sign_Language/links/5487fe040cf289302e2ee700.pdf.
de Quadros, R. M. and Karnopp, L. (2004). Língua de sinais brasileira: estudos linguísticos. Porto Alegre, Brazil: Artmed.
Depoux, A., Martin, S., Karafillakis, E., Preet, R., Wilder-Smith, A. and Larson, H. (2020). ‘The pandemic of social media panic travels faster than the COVID-19 outbreak’. Journal of Travel Medicine 27 (3). https://doi.org/10.1093/jtm/taaa031.
Felipe, T. A. (1989). ‘A estrutura frasal na LSCB’. In: Anais do IV encontro nacional da ANPOLL. Recife, Brazil.
Ferreira-Brito, L. (1995). Por uma gramática das línguas de sinais. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Tempo Brasileiro.
Fraser, B. (20th May 2020). ‘‘Medications should be prescribed by doctors, not the president’: leading Brazilian scientist discusses the pandemic’. Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-01506-2.
Gao, J., Zheng, P., Jia, Y., Chen, H., Mao, Y., Chen, S., Wang, Y., Fu, H. and Dai, J. (2020). ‘Mental health problems and social media exposure during COVID-19 outbreak’. PLOS ONE 15 (4), e0231924. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0231924.
Gralinski, L. E. and Menachery, V. D. (2020). ‘Return of the coronavirus: 2019-nCoV’. Viruses 12 (2), p. 135. https://doi.org/10.3390/v12020135.
Hall, S. (1997). ‘The centrality of culture: notes on the cultural revolutions of our time’. In: Media and cultural regulation. Ed. by K. Thompson. London, U.K.: Sage, pp. 208–238.
Hotez, P. J. (2020). ‘Combating antiscience: are we preparing for the 2020s?’ PLOS Biology 18 (3), e3000683. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000683.
Hub Editorial (23rd April 2020). ‘COVID-19 poses unique challenges for people with disabilities’. HUB, Johns Hopkins Magazine. URL: https://hub.jhu.edu/2020/04/23/how-covid-19-affects-people-with-disabilities/ (visited on May 2020).
Kemp, S. (30th January 2019a). Digital 2019: global internet use accelerates. URL: https://wearesocial.com/blog/2019/01/digital-2019-global-internet-use-accelerates (visited on 10th May 2020).
— (31st January 2019b). Digital in 2019: Brazil. URL: https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2019-brazil (visited on 10th May 2020).
Kožuh, I. and Debevc, M. (2019). ‘The utilisation of social media among users with hearing loss: an analysis of Facebook communities’. Universal Access in the Information Society 19 (3), pp. 541–555. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-019-00658-x.
Lima, D. L., Medeiros Lopes, M. A. A. A. de and Brito, A. M. (2020). ‘Social media: friend or foe in the COVID-19 pandemic?’ Clinics 75, e1953. https://doi.org/10.6061/clinics/2020/e1953.
Lu, H., Stratton, C. W. and Tang, Y.-W. (2020). ‘Outbreak of pneumonia of unknown etiology in Wuhan, China: the mystery and the miracle’. Journal of Medical Virology 92 (4), pp. 401–402. https://doi.org/10.1002/jmv.25678.
O’Brien, M., Moore, K. and McNicholas, F. (2020). ‘Social media spread during COVID-19: the pros and cons of likes and shares’. Irish Medical Journal 113 (4), p. 52. URL: http://imj.ie/social-media-spread-during-covid-19-the-pros-and-cons-of-likes-and-shares/.
Presidência da República do Brasil (2004). Decree number 5.296 from December 2, 2004 — DOU 03/12/2004. URL: http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_ato2004-2006/2004/decreto/d5296.htm (visited on 5th May 2020).
— (2015). Law 13.146 from July 6, 2015. Statute of persons with disabilities — Brazilian Inclusion Law. URL: http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_ato2015-2018/2015/Lei/L13146.htm (visited on 5th May 2020).
Ramos, F. M. (2014). ‘A comunidade surda e o Facebook’. Revista Ampliar 1 (1). URL: https://gravatai.ulbra.tche.br/jornal/index.php/revistaampliar/article/view/31 (visited on 5th May 2020).
Rose, B. (28th April 2020). ‘Coronavirus: lack of sign language interpreters leads to legal case against government’. BBC News. URL: https://www.bbc.com/news/disability-52323854 (visited on 15th May 2020).
Rotondi, L., Zuddas, M., Marsella, P. and Rosati, P. (2019). ‘A Facebook page created soon after the Amatrice earthquake for deaf adults and children, families and caregivers provides an easy communication tool and social satisfaction in maxi-emergencies’. Prehospital and Disaster Medicine 34 (02), pp. 137–141. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1049023x19000086.
Santos, R. C. M. A. and Santos, F. C. (2016). ‘Televisão e acessibilidade: o uso de recursos de inclusão para o surdo no telejornal brasileiro’. Revista Anagrama: Revista Científica Interdisciplinar da Graduação 10 (2). URL: http://www.revistas.usp.br/anagrama/article/view/118033.
Santos, T. B. (2014). ‘A inclusão/exclusão dos surdos por meio da legendagem no cinema nacional’. Master Degree Dissertation. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: PPGEDu and UNIRIO. URL: http://hdl.handle.net/unirio/12304.
Shew, A. (2020). ‘Let COVID-19 expand awareness of disability tech’. Nature 581 (7806), pp. 9–9. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-01312-w.
Strobel, K. (2008). As imagens do outro sobre a cultura surda. ISBN-10:853280778X. Florianópolis, Brazil: UFSC.
TV Brasil (2020). TV Brasil webpage. URL: https://tvbrasil.ebc.com.br/visual (visited on June 2020).
TV INES (2020). TV INES. Facebook group. URL: https://www.facebook.com/tvines.oficial/ (visited on 3rd June 2020).
TV INES.org (2020). TV INES.org webpage. URL: http://tvines.org.br/ (visited on 5th May 2020).
Werneck, G. L. and Carvalho, M. S. (2020). ‘A pandemia de COVID-19 no Brasil: crônica de uma crise sanitária anunciada’. Cadernos de Saúde Pública 36 (5), e00068820. https://doi.org/10.1590/0102-311x00068820.
Worldometer (2020). COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic webpage. URL: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ (visited on 8th June 2020).
Alexandre G. Silva. B.A. in Portuguese Language and Literature, Interpreter and Translator Brazilian Sign Language, Coordenadoria de Comunicação Social — COMSO, UNIRIO, Rio de Janeiro. Part of Projeto Surdos (Deaf Project) — UFRJ, Medical Biochemistry Institute Leopoldo de Meis, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. E-mail: alexgsilva3@gmail.com.
Tiago Batista. M.A. in Education, Professor, Departamento de Didática, Centro de Ciências Sociais e Humanas — CCHD, UNIRIO, Rio de Janeiro. Part of Projeto Surdos (Deaf Project) — UFRJ, Medical Biochemistry Institute Leopoldo de Meis, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. E-mail: tiagointerprete@hotmail.com.
Felipe Giraud. B.A. in Pedagogy, Interpreter and Translator Brazilian Sign Language, Núcleo de Apoio As Pessoas com Necessidades Educacionais Especiais, Instituto Federal Fluminense — IFF Campus Macaé, Macaé. Part of Projeto Surdos (Deaf Project) — UFRJ, Medical Biochemistry Institute Leopoldo de Meis, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. E-mail: giraudfgm@hotmail.com.
Andrea Giraud. Interpreter and Translator Brazilian Sign Language, Núcleo de Acessibilidade Linguística, GIRAUD Traduções e Eventos, Rio das Ostras. Part of Projeto Surdos (Deaf Project) — UFRJ, Medical Biochemistry Institute Leopoldo de Meis, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. E-mail: andygiraud@hotmail.com.
Flavio Eduardo Pinto-Silva. Ph.D. in Biological Chemistry, Coordinator of the center ESPECIE-A, Instituto Nacional de Educação de Surdos, MEC, Rio de Janeiro. Part of Projeto Surdos (Deaf Project) — UFRJ, Medical Biochemistry Institute Leopoldo de Meis, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. E-mail: flavioedu@ines.gov.br.
Julia Barral. Ph.D. in Biological Chemistry, Research Coordinator, Instituto Brasil Social — IBS, Rio de Janeiro. Part of Projeto Surdos (Deaf Project) — UFRJ, Medical Biochemistry Institute Leopoldo de Meis, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. E-mail: juliabarral79@gmail.com.
Juan Nascimento Guimarães. B.A. in Brazilian Sign Language, Research assistant, Projeto Surdos — UFRJ, Medical Biochemistry Institute Leopoldo de Meis, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Part of Projeto Surdos (Deaf Project) — UFRJ, Medical Biochemistry Institute Leopoldo de Meis, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. E-mail: j10.juuan@gmail.com.
Vivian M. Rumjanek. Ph.D. Immunology, Full Professor, Medical Biochemistry Institute Leopoldo de Meis, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Head of the Projeto Surdos-UFRJ Project. Part of Projeto Surdos (Deaf Project) — UFRJ, Medical Biochemistry Institute Leopoldo de Meis, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. E-mail: vivianrumjanek@yahoo.com.br.
Silva, A. G., Batista, T., Giraud, F., Giraud, A., Pinto-Silva, F. E., Barral, J., Guimarães, J. N. and Rumjanek, V. M. (2020). ‘Science communication for the Deaf in the pandemic period: absences and pursuit of information’. JCOM 19 (05), A05. https://doi.org/10.22323/2.19050205.
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line477
|
__label__cc
| 0.603947
| 0.396053
|
Australian Capital Territory, Australia
https://www.northropgrumman.com/Pages/default.aspx
We are a close-knit community of big thinkers collaborating to keep the world safe. Our passion, creativity and expertise bring next-level technology solutions to life in autonomous systems, cyber, C4ISR, strike, space, and logistics and modernization for our customers around the globe.
On the Northrop Grumman team, you’ll join our pursuit of excellence immersed in a dynamic culture of innovation and respect. Your unique perspective will help achieve our shared vision for the future of global security. Every step of the way, you'll be supported by world-class training, employee resource groups and a comprehensive benefits package that enables greater health and happiness for you and your family.
Worldwide and across disciplines, we’re challenging what’s possible for technology to protect people and places from undersea to outer space and into cyberspace. And we see the impact of our performance every day. We are Northrop Grumman, and we work on what matters—now, you too can make a difference.
Explore opportunities in engineering, IT, manufacturing, business management, cybersecurity and more at careers.northropgrumman.com.
Northrop Grumman is committed to hiring and retaining a diverse workforce. We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer, making decisions without regard to race, color, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, national origin, age, veteran status, disability, or any other protected class.
Email me jobs from Northrop Grumman
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line485
|
__label__cc
| 0.633559
| 0.366441
|
Validating Automated Integrative Complexity: Natural Language Processing and the Donald Trump Test
Lucian Gideon Conway
Psychology Department, University of Montana, Missoula, MT, USA
Kathrene R. Conway
Shannon C. Houck
Defense Analysis Department, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA, USA
Computer algorithms that analyze language (natural language processing systems) have seen a great increase in usage recently. While use of these systems to score key constructs in social and political psychology has many advantages, it is also dangerous if we do not fully evaluate the validity of these systems. In the present article, we evaluate a natural language processing system for one particular construct that has implications for solving key societal issues: Integrative complexity. We first review the growing body of evidence for the validity of the Automated Integrative Complexity (AutoIC) method for computer-scoring integrative complexity. We then provide five new validity tests: AutoIC successfully distinguished fourteen classic philosophic works from a large sample of both lay populations and political leaders (Test 1) and further distinguished classic philosophic works from the rhetoric of Donald Trump at higher rates than an alternative system (Test 2). Additionally, AutoIC successfully replicated key findings from the hand-scored IC literature on smoking cessation (Test 3), U.S. Presidents’ State of the Union Speeches (Test 4), and the ideology-complexity relationship (Test 5). Taken in total, this large body of evidence not only suggests that AutoIC is a valid system for scoring integrative complexity, but it also reveals important theory-building insights into key issues at the intersection of social and political psychology (health, leadership, and ideology). We close by discussing the broader contributions of the present validity tests to our understanding of issues vital to natural language processing.
Automated Integrative Complexity integrative complexity natural language processing AutoIC
Conway, L. G., Conway, K. R., & Houck, S. C. (2020). Validating Automated Integrative Complexity: Natural Language Processing and the Donald Trump Test. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 8(2), 504-524. https://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.v8i2.1307
Conway L. G., Conway K. R., Houck S. C. (2020). Supplementary materials to "Validating Automated Integrative Complexity: Natural language processing and the Donald Trump Test" , https://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.3359
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line492
|
__label__wiki
| 0.724178
| 0.724178
|
Global Law Thinkers Society’s rally on Intellectual’s day
বার্তাকক্ষ প্রকাশের সময় : ডিসেম্বর ১৫, ২০২০, ১১:০৪ অপরাহ্ন / ০
Zafor Ahmed Shimul, DIU Representative.
“The Global Law Thinkers Society, a global humanitarian organization that has taken the lead in building a positive mindset for young people in Bangladesh and around the world and leading a great leadership movement, has rallied peacefully to demand the punishment of the martyred intellectual’s killers of Bangladesh in 1971.
The rally as well as human chain was held on Monday (December 14) from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. in front of the National Press Club.
Ms.Raoman Smita, Founder-President of the Global Law Thinkers Society, said that today’s youth should learn about the black history of December 14 and how Pakistani forces and their local allies Razakar, Al-Badr and Al-Shams were involved in crippling the country. The Bengali creative intellectuals of the front line, today’s Bangladesh, were assassinated, resulting in a black chapter in the history of Bengal and the beginning of the heinous attempt to make this country incompetent.
The notable demands made by the leaders of the Global Law Thinkers Society, including President Raoman Smita, while addressing the human chain, are as follows:
1. Pakistan must apologize unconditionally for the inhumane and heinous acts committed by their nasty troops in 1971.
2. Will pay the appropriate compensation for the irreparable damages they have done.
Advocate Jasmine Akhter, organizing secretary of the Global Law Thinkers Society, said the irreparable damage done to the country by the killing of intellectuals could not be compensated in any way.
Through this peaceful movement, the young society of the country has become well-organized and is demanding the punishment of the intellectual murderers.
Zafor Ahmed Shimul, Campus Leader of the Global Law Thinkers Society affiliated to Dhaka International University and Yeamin Mollah, Deputy Campus Leader, joined hands with President Ms. Raoman Smita to make the demands of human chain stronger and more successful and significant.
Also present at the human chain were Ahsanul Alam, vice-president of the organization, Solaiman Ahmed Jisan, joint-secretary and many more!”
জাতীয় বিভাগের আরো খবর
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line493
|
__label__wiki
| 0.592526
| 0.592526
|
Wrigley Field (Los Angeles) facts for kids
Avalon Boulevard and 42nd Place, Los Angeles, California
Broke ground
Zachary Taylor Davis
22,000 (1925)
Field dimensions
Left Field - 340 feet (100 m)
Left Center Field - 345 feet (105 m)
Center Field - 412 feet (126 m)
Right Center Field - 345 feet (105 m)
Right Field - 339 feet (103 m)
Backstop - 56 feet (17 m)
Los Angeles Angels (PCL) (1925–1957)
Hollywood Stars (PCL) (1926–1935, 1938)
Los Angeles Angels (MLB) (1961)
For the Wrigley Field in Chicago, see Wrigley Field.
Wrigley Field was a baseball park in Los Angeles, California. It was a home field of the minor league baseball teams called the Los Angeles Angels and the Hollywood Stars. It was also the home of the Los Angeles Angels of the American League in 1961.
The ballpark was built in 1925, by the same people who had built the much more famous Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois. It was on a city block bound by Avalon Boulevard, 42nd Place, San Pedro Street, and 41st Street. It opened in the last part of the 1925 baseball season and closed for baseball after the 1961 season.
It was used for other events from time to time. Martin Luther King, Jr. led a civil rights rally there on May 26, 1963. It was used as a set for several movies and TV shows. It was used for boxing matches a few times. It was also used for soccer matches. The ballpark was torn down in 1969. The block is now the home of a public park called Gilbert Lindsay Park.
Green Cathedrals, by Philip J. Lowry
Ballparks of North America, by Michael Benson
Lost Ballparks, by Lawrence Ritter
The PCL Angels at Wrigley Field, 1952.
Wrigley Field (Los Angeles) Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line494
|
__label__cc
| 0.505002
| 0.494998
|
JKB CMD Unveils Calendar 2021 App
Observer News Service | December 23, 2020
Srinagar- J&K Bank Chairman and Managing Director Rajesh Kumar Chhibber unveiled the much awaited mobile Calendar Application for the year 2021 at Bank’s Corporate Headquarters here.
Executive Presidents Arun Gandotra, Sunil Gupta, and G N Teli, Presidents Rajni Saraf, Chetan Paljor and Ashraf Ali, Vice-Presidents and other officials of the bank were present at the unveiling ceremony. Besides, the office-bearers of J&K Bank Officers’ Associations from Jammu and Kashmir regions were also present on the occasion.
The decision to go for an e-calendar instead of decades-old tradition of printed version comes on the back of Finance Ministry’s advisory to various ministries, departments including banks and autonomous bodies not to print any calendars or dairies in order to pave way for technological innovations known to be economical, efficient, effective and above all environment friendly.
“We really understand the emotional connection that our customers have with J&K Bank and our calendar has been one of the key markers of this deeper bond. However, envisaging the digital future of the economy coupled with the government advisory post Covid-19 outbreak, we thought it was the right time to switch to a digital platform and decided to have the Calendar-2021 in the form of a digital app,” the CMD said.
Having a calendar in digital form, the CMD said, is in line with the maxim ‘Future is Digital”, adding, “World is fast switching to digitization of almost everything, and, J&K Bank is keen to introduce more technology-enabled interventions to bring comfort and convenience to its customers. I think e-calendar, unlike the limited stock of traditional calendars, will reach almost anyone with a smartphone as the user-friendly application is easy to download and access,” he said.
The bank’s Calendar-2021 application is available on leading platforms like Google Play Store and Apple App Store. The application will be updated on a regular basis to bring more and more interactive features into it with the holiday list of the UTs of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh set to be added once issued by the respective governments.
https://kashmirobserver.net/2020/12/23/jkb-cmd-unveils-calendar-2021-app
Notably, the application has been customized in such a way that it has holiday lists of five regions across the country- Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Delhi, Karnataka and Mumbai- incorporated in it with the people having a user-friendly option to choose and toggle between any of these variants.
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line497
|
__label__cc
| 0.626609
| 0.373391
|
Anything Nice to Say: Olympus Has Fallen
Gerard Butler is known for his flops. One movie, though, stands out as a film that kicked off a franchise that’s still going strong.
We take a look at Olympus Has Fallen. Spoiler alert: Angela Bassett is a national treasure.
The Story Behind Anything Nice to Say
Posted on April 12, 2020 1 Comment
In 2020, I started a YouTube channel called Anything Nice to Say.
The idea was to watch the movies that no one liked, the movies everyone thought were bad, but had never actually seen.
I’m a pretty critical person. The origin story for quite a few writers is that they, once upon a time, read something and thought to themselves, “I could do this better.” Then, they set out to do it. That requires a critical, maybe even cynical, disposition.
I’m not one to always look on the bright side of life.
I noticed, though, that there are a lot of movies I like that people seem to be pretty negative about.
I like the 1999 Godzilla starring Matthew Broderick. I like 2016’s Ghostbusters. I think The Last Jedi is the best Star Wars movie that exists in a universe where Star Wars movies exist.
During the summers of 2004 and 2005, I worked at a movie theatre which meant I got free movie tickets. I saw pretty much everything that came out those summers and, when the ticket is free, it’s surprising how that changes your viewpoint on a movie. There’s no value judgment. I remember seeing Dukes of Hazzard with my brother in an otherwise empty theatre and I thought it was hilarious.
I questioned whether or not Razzie awards are really warranted. As a disaffected Millennial, is it our default setting to hate everything?
Yes. I think it is. I think we’re so obsessed with proving that we are ‘cool,’ ‘hip,’ or part of the ‘in’ crowd, that we pretend to hate things because everyone else hates them.
Besides, you can find plenty of reviews on the Internet where people tell you why you shouldn’t like something.
I remember a moment with my father, after seeing Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. We walked out of the theatre and my dad said, “I didn’t like that movie.” I said, “Neither did I.” And, he said, “Why didn’t I like it?”
I proceeded to explain to him why, from a story standpoint, he didn’t like the movie, encompassing character motivations, the heroes’ journey, and character arcs.
It’s easy to convince someone not to like something by making the implication that they are stupid for liking it.
You aren’t stupid for liking something that was intended to entertain you. Alternatively, you aren’t smart for hating something that everyone else hates.
I’m not going to try to convince you to hate something you like. If you like something, like it. If other people hate it, well, they aren’t you and their opinion doesn’t matter. What if they just filed divorce papers before they saw that romantic comedy? What if they thought the movie was going to be a terrifying action adventure but what they got was a family-friendly romp?
It’s easy to criticize because nothing is perfect.
At Anything Nice to Say, we encourage you to like what you like.
It’s just a movie, after all. And, if you enjoy it, what does it matter what anyone else has to say about it?
Anything Nice to Say: John Carter
The works of Edgar Rice Burroughs, author of Tarzan, has seen a number of adaptations over the years, but it seems like none so maligned as John Carter. Estimated losses on the movie was $200 million, making it one of the biggest flops of all time.
But, just because it was a flop was it a bad movie? We take a look.
Anything Nice to Say: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)
What’s the deal with the heroes in a half-shell?
Michael Bay’s take on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise started off rocky with pre-production leaks and backlash to casting choices. Concept art and a leaked script didn’t help matters and the movie seemed doomed to fail before the teaser trailer even dropped.
That doesn’t mean it’s all bad. Here’s our take on Anything Nice to Say.
Anything Nice to Say: Tron: Legacy
Tron: Legacy may not be the best movie, but it’s definitely a work of art. The combination of the visual aesthetic with Daft Punk’s soundtrack is outstanding.
Here are some of the nice things I had to say about the sequel to 1982’s Tron.
Anything Nice to Say: Godzilla (1998)
The American Godzilla of 1998 might not be the best Godzilla (in fact, it’s not canonically recognized) but it IS the best Godzilla with Jean Reno in it.
Also, it’s basically a by-the-numbers Roland Emmerich film. See if I could find anything nice to say about Godzilla.
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line498
|
__label__cc
| 0.61805
| 0.38195
|
Western Colorado Songwriters Festival: Dylan Altman
Two Rivers Convention Center will be the site of the first Western Colorado Songwriter's Festival, and we want you to meet the guys who will be the featured performers.
Dylan Altman
Dylan Altman has been writing and singing songs in Nashville since 1995 and has written some memorable hit songs that made it all the way to the top of the charts.
"Watch the Wind Blow", a number one for Tim McGraw was penned by Altman, as well as "Barefoot Blue Jean Night" for Jake Owen and "Take a Little Ride", a recent number one for Jason Aldean.
He has also written songs for The Eli Young Band, Trace Adkins, Chase Rice, and others and will be bringing his song stylings to Grand Junction on November 2, along with Brandon Kinney and Clint Daniels.
Performing in the round, these three talented singer/songwriters will take the stage at 7:30. Get your tickets and don't miss it!
Download the app for pre-sale code
Download the KEKB APP and use code KEKBIS#1 and get $10 off V.I.P. tickets.
Filed Under: Western Colorado Songwriters Festival
Categories: Concerts, Grand Junction Events, Locals Only
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line501
|
__label__wiki
| 0.599366
| 0.599366
|
Fitch Rating Agency Affirms Triple A (AAA) Rating of the African Development Bank, with Stable Outlook
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast, July 22, 2020/ — Fitch Ratings, the global credit rating agency, has affirmed the African Development Bank’s (AfDB) (www.AfDB.org) Long-Term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at ‘AAA’, with stable outlook.
According to the agency, “the ‘AAA’ rating of the AfDB is driven by extraordinary support it receives from its shareholders, which Fitch Ratings assesses at ‘aaa’”. It judged the Bank’s risk management policies as conservative and excellent in line with ‘AAA’ rated regional peers.
Fitch Ratings assessed “the Bank’s liquidity profile at ‘aaa’, reflecting an ‘excellent’ liquidity buffer and quality of liquid assets”, while “the bank’s capitalization is judged strong reflecting strong equity-to-assets ratio”.
The rating agency “assumes a 125% in subscribed capital from 2021 as per the Bank’s 7th General Capital Increase plan approved in October 2019”, noting that it “expects all non-regional shareholders will make their first payments before October 2021”.
In April 2020, the Bank’s Board of Directors approved a group-wide up to $10 billion COVID-19 Response Facility to be made available to current borrowers to ease the economic impact of the COVID-19 crisis.
Commenting on the development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank said, “We are delighted with the affirmation of the ‘AAA’ rating of the Bank, with a stable outlook, by Fitch Ratings, despite the global and regional economic challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic. We will continue to strengthen our policy relevance to support regional member countries, especially during and after the period of COVID-19, while ensuring that we maintain our prudential ratios with adequate buffers”.
“The Bank will continue to apply strong risk management. We are positive that African countries’ economies will recover as the pandemic subsides and Africa returns to a positive GDP growth trajectory,” Adesina added.
“The strong support of our shareholders will continue to be critical to allow the Bank to continue to play its leading role in supporting development in Africa,” said Swazi Tshabalala, the Vice President for Finance and Chief Finance Officer at the African Development Bank.
The ‘AAA’ rating with a stable outlook of the African Development Bank by Fitch Ratings follows an earlier affirmation of the ‘AAA’ rating of the Bank, with stable outlook, by Standard and Poor’s Global Ratings.
Tagged Business
PrevCoronavirus – The Africa Young Feminist Blog “Sauti صوتي” winners
NextAnzisha Prize Hall of Fame highlights ten successful Africans who embraced entrepreneurship at an early age
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line503
|
__label__wiki
| 0.614618
| 0.614618
|
ReviewVideo GamesMultiplatform
Pokémon Smile: The Kotaku Review
Luke Plunkett
Maybe you thought it would be easy to write/laugh this one off as a dumb gimmick, but for real: Pokémon Smile is one of the most important video games to have entered my household in years.
I have two kids, one 9, the other 7, and while both are beautiful, wonderful little people, both of them are incredibly stubborn when it comes to brushing their teeth. Ask them if they’d like to create art or do incredible physical shit or even clean their rooms and make their beds and they’re all over it. Ask them to perform a single two-minute piece of important daily hygiene and it’s like I am killing them.
Pokémon Gets A New Puzzle Game And A Toothbrushing App
In non-Pokémon Snap news, this morning’s YouTube presentation from The Pokémon Company also…
My wife and I have tried everything over the years to try and get around this. Licensed electric toothbrushes, a teeth-brushing timer on their Fitbits, (delicious) Minion toothpaste, rewards, punishments, you name it. Somehow though, this game is the one thing that has managed to break their resistance, and has them not only brushing their teeth without a fight, but racing to do it, twice a day, every day.
In case you let the news of this game wash over—and I don’t blame you, this is barely a game at all—Pokémon Smile is an app for iOS and Android designed specifically to do what I’ve just described, which is get kids brushing their teeth with more gusto than usual. It uses a front-facing camera to turn brushing into a game, visualising the bacteria that’s inside a kid’s mouth and asking them to brush real hard to get rid of it.
There’s also at least one Pokémon in your mouth at all times. Don’t ask why.
Here’s a trailer so you can see it in action, and also know that I’m not making any of that up:
There are a few basic hooks to the game. There’s the primary “gameplay”, which involves brushing your teeth and having the camera detect the speed at which you’re doing it. There are achievements that are handed out for continuous use of the app. And crucially, at least from the feedback I’ve got from my kids, is that you get all kinds of stuff every time you play, from getting the chance to “catch’ the Pokémon that you’ve rescued with your brushing to stickers to hats.
I know this may sound incredibly trivial to anyone not a member of an achievements forum or Steam card-trading group, but that’s because you’re an adult who asks for a little bit more from their Pokémon entertainment.
My kids are far less discerning, and they are very into this shit.
While each of those hooks sounds pretty thin on its own, as a complete rewards package for doing something they usually hate, it’s more than enough. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen kids play with something like Facebook Messenger before, but the ability to mess with their faces in real-time on a screen can keep them busy for hours.
Pokémon Smile taps into this in multiple ways. The best is maybe the way you can unlock stupid Pokémon hats that you can wear during gameplay, but there’s also this cool feature where the game takes four random photos during a brushing session then, at the end, lets kids choose one and cover it in unlockable stickers, then save and share the image.
While I’m impressed that both kids are sticking rigorously to the prescribed two-minute timer (though this can be adjusted for younger kids), I’m just as happy that both are spending 5-10 minutes each night just fucking around with all of this customisation stuff, because it’s making sure they’re keen to be involved in everything the game offers, not just the brushing.
It’s the brushing itself though that, as a parent, I’m obviously most impressed with. The secret to its magic is that it elegantly fudges the line between what it’s actually doing and what the kids think it’s doing.
We worked out pretty quickly, after a few failed attempts at catching Pokémon, that the game was tracking how fast/hard the kids were brushing. So long as they kept up a good pace, the screen would show a random Pokémon trapped in bacteria have its bonds slowly chipped away, while other bacteria on the kid’s teeth was being zapped off at the same time.
This “action” was displayed in real-time in the centre of the screen, while off in the bottom right there’s a display that tells kids to move the brush to various parts of the mouth, so that they brush all sides of every tooth, top to bottom, inside and out.
The game is tracking hardly any of that. It’s just a front-facing phone camera, it has no way of telling whether my kids are brushing the top or inside of their molars! It’s got a rough idea of how fast their arms are moving, and that’s about it.
But my kids don’t know that, and I sure as hell aren’t going to tell them. They’ve been raised on stuff like the Wii U and Switch, with their relatively precise gyroscopic controls, and so in their minds a Pokémon app on my phone is doing the same thing, and they’re sticking to those guidelines like glue.
We’ve been using the app since launch, which is about two weeks, and their teeth are spotless. More importantly, we’ve gone from a house where teeth-brushing-time has been transformed from a battleground to a pastime, and every morning and night they’re yelling at my wife and I to borrow our phones so they can see who (and what) they can unlock that night.
I know this won’t last forever, but it doesn’t have to. The whole point of the app is to establish patterns and break down resistance to something that’s really quick and easy, and it’s definitely doing that, so if it’s taking some Pokémon stickers to get that through to them, then whatever, that’s awesome.
Luke Plunkett is a Senior Editor based in Canberra, Australia. He has written a book on cosplay, designed a game about airplanes, and also runs cosplay.kotaku.com.
TheDanslator
This game is Dan. My daughter now gets her toothbrush herself and excitedly asks to play every morning.
What’s hilarious, though, is I actually saw someone grumbling online about how it only has Gen 1 Pokemon and Nintendo better patch more in. Stans are the fucking worst.
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line505
|
__label__wiki
| 0.742287
| 0.742287
|
David Prowse, Actor Who Played Darth Vader, Dies at 85
Prowse was the first man to play Darth Vader in ‘Star Wars.’
Star Wars Launches ‘High Republic’ Series of Novels and Comics
They’re like prequels to the prequels.
Largest Privately-Owned ‘Star Wars’ Collection Was Robbed
The owner of the largest privately-owned Star Wars memorabilia collection in the world, known as Rancho Obi-Wan, has announced today that it has been systematically robbed over a period of many months from 2015 to 2016. Steve Sansweet, who offers tours of the ranch and its many pieces of Star Wars h…
The First ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ Trailer Is Here
Finally, the wait is over and the very first footage of Star Wars: The Last Jedi has arrived! If you haven’t already passed out or exploded into tiny specs of dust, congrats!
Carrie Fisher, 'Star Wars' Princess Leia, Dies at 60
Terrible news to confirm today, as a beloved icon and Star Wars star’s condition has taken a turn for the worse. Carrie Fisher, actress behind both Princess and General Leia, has passed away at age 60. The revered actress and comedic presence had earlier suffered a heart attack en-route from …
First ‘Rogue One’ Trailer Debuts Tomorrow
December still seems pretty far away, but in just eight months fans will be swarming theaters to see Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the franchise’s anthology film. Aside from an official cast photo and a few Instagram prop pics, we haven’t had much to go on as production has remain…
Bill Hader, Jack Black and Maya Rudolph Do a Bad Lip Reading of ‘Star Wars’
Whether it’s Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead or The Hunger Games, you’ve surely seen one of the Bad Lip Reading videos on YouTube. They take a movie or TV show (or footage from football games) and re-record the dialogue with hilarious results. Today they’ve finally set their s…
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line506
|
__label__wiki
| 0.550871
| 0.550871
|
KU Announces Lawrence Public Schools Elementary Challenge
Kansas Athletics will host the Lawrence Public Schools Elementary Challenge during the final two home games of the women’s basketball season: Sunday, Feb. 18 against Kansas State and Wednesday, Feb. 21 against No. 14 Oklahoma.
All Lawrence Public School elementary students and staff will receive free admission to both games. Discounted tickets will be available for the KSU game for families of elementary students. Students and staff can pick up their free tickets in the Hall of Athletics on the east side of Allen Fieldhouse, on the day of the game.
The elementary school that has the highest combined percentage of its population in attendance for both games will receive a grand prize to be determined by their principal. The class with the highest combined attendance at the two games will win a party at a KU baseball game this spring. For more information, please contact Chris Jones at 785-864-7976.
The Sunflower Showdown against Kansas State will air live nationally on Fox Sports Net at 1 p.m. KU’s matchup with 2006 Big 12 Champion Oklahoma will air on Metro Sports with tip-off set for 7 p.m.
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line507
|
__label__cc
| 0.517
| 0.483
|
EIR LEAD EDITORIAL FOR MONDAY, JANUARY 4, 2021
An Inflection Point in Building a Movement
Jan. 3 , 2021 (EIRNS)—Saturday’s explosive meeting of the LaRouche movement was an incredible breakthrough, showing how LaRouche’s vision can draw together political leaders, community activists, and thoughtful citizens representing various constituencies, around a higher concept of statecraft and mankind. In the process comes the great joy of discovering, together, a higher concept that subsumes the various causes that have prompted people of conscience and courage to commit themselves to. That dialogue shows how the Wednesday, Jan. 6 historic developments in Washington, D.C. can serve as an inflection point in building a political constituency for LaRouche’s far-reaching ideas and policies.
And Wednesday will be historic indeed! The Joint Session of the Congress can be expected to run into the wee hours as the electoral votes from six states—Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, Nevada, and Arizona—are challenged by dozens of Members of Congress and a grouping of at least 11 Senators. Debate about the results from each state can last up to two hours. While this may not result in President Donald Trump being declared the President-elect, it will certainly serve to draw national attention to the mountains of evidence of election irregularities and illegal (non-legislative) changes to the conduct of the election. And it shows that this affront to democratic rule is not simply being swallowed by the entire government. Outside the halls of the Capitol, near the White House, a rally of at least hundreds of thousands of Trump supporters will gather to make it clear that there exists within the U.S. population a large and committed core that does not accept the destruction of elected government.
The still-ongoing coup conducted against Trump’s outsider Presidency, the concerted efforts by the British-directed financial-military-intelligence slime mold to draw the United States into completely unnecessary conflict with its natural allies Russia and China, the murderous proposals of the Green “Great Reset,” and the absolute travesty of justice being perpetrated against the uncompromising publisher Julian Assange, are all aspects of a destructive, imperial paradigm. This British assault on humanity and its potential seeks to pit people against each other in the most demeaning manner, on such grounds as what is called “race,” while convincing people that their greatest common enemy is progress itself, against which a Green crusade is to be waged.
But the real enemy is that British Empire which seeks more than anything to prevent the truth of its operations from being understood or acted upon. The unconscionable, torturous persecution of truth-teller Julian Assange is the latest in a string of abuses that can be traced back to enormity of the attacks on Lyndon LaRouche, his method, and his movement.
This perspective was brought to a New York City rally for Julian Assange, by Diane Sare, U.S. Senate candidate in New York (2022). With a banner reading “President Trump, Pardon Assange and Snowden; Stop the Coup, Exonerate LaRouche,” Sare began the time she had to address the participants by lunging with the need to exonerate Lyndon LaRouche, and situating the persecution of Assange (and Snowden), from that standpoint. While much coverage supportive of Assange (whose extradition to the United States to stand trial for the crime of publishing the truth is to be decided today) approaches his imprisonment in Britain as a result of U.S. pressure, Sare explained that it is the other way around—the British running the United States. She pointed to the killing of Soleimani and the origins of the Russiagate hoax.
Liberating people around the world, through bringing them into a framework for understanding the nature of the historic fight they have the great opportunity to be engaged in, is the greatest of gifts. Share that message today!
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line515
|
__label__wiki
| 0.741667
| 0.741667
|
Keenen Ivory Wayans Net Worth
SETH ROGEN NET WORTH
Home » Actors » SETH ROGEN NET WORTH
on July 6, 2019 add comment 491 views
SETH ROGEN NET WORTH Net Worth is $45 Million (as of 2020)
Seth Rogen is quite a well known name in entertainment industry. It has been estimated that the overall sum of Seth Rogen net worth today reaches 45 million dollars. He is known to be a comedian and actor, and he is also working behind the scenes of the cinema industry, where he is a screenwriter, producer and director. Thus, these careers are the main ones when it comes to increasing the overall size of Seth Rogen net worth.
When he was a teenager, he started his career as a comedian and in the beginning he was performing stand-up comic routines. In 1998, Seth Rogen became a winner of the Vancouver Amateur Comedy Contest. Thus, seeing that he could reach a lot in comedy, he decided to get involved in it full force and it eventually started to add huge sums to Seth Rogen net worth, as well as added a lot to his overall fame.
When he was still living in Vancouver, Canada, he also began to appear on TV and one of the first shows in which he appeared was “Freaks and Geeks”. However, when he moved to Los Angeles, the mentioned show soon got cancelled due to the fact that it did not attract a lot of audience. Another show, in which he worked, was called “Undeclared”. There, he was also working as a screenwriter, however, this show also did not last for a long time.
The show, which started his breakthrough career, is considered to be “Da Ali G Show”. All the staff members of the show, including Seth Rogen, were nominated for an Emmy award for their work on this show. Thus, Seth Rogen was encouraged to get involved into cinema industry more fully by Judd Apatow.
Thus, Judd Apatow invited him to work on his movie called “The 40-Year-Old Virgin”, and this movie also increased the total estimate of Seth Rogen net worth. His appearance in this movie received mainly positive reviews from critics and due to that, Judd Apatow casted him for leading roles in his subsequent movies, called “Funny People” and “Knocked Up”.
As a producer and writer of movies, Seth Rogen is mostly known from movies, such as “Pineapple Express”, “This Is the End” and “Superbad”. Thus, this career also added much success to him and also increased the overall sum of Seth Rogen net worth. Therefore, he established his name as one of the most successful ones in cinema industry.
Is SETH ROGEN NET WORTH Dead or Alive?
What do you think about SETH ROGEN NET WORTH’s net worth? Leave a comment below.
SETH ROGEN NET WORTH, 5 / 5 (3 votes)
Arthur Blank Net Worth
Matt Roloff Net Worth
Billy Dee Williams Net Worth
So in this article we are going to talk about Billy Dee Williams net worth, which currently amounts to $7.5
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line516
|
__label__wiki
| 0.938862
| 0.938862
|
Arts + Life » LGBTQ
In a First for VT, Conference Aims to Strengthen Gay-Straight Alliances
by Kevin J. Kelley
BURLINGTON - Football players at Burlington High School "told me they were going to bang me straight," says Tameka Eastman-Coburn, a lesbian student who complains of being frequently harassed at BHS because of her sexual identity. Just last week, for example, a male first-year student called her a "she-man," Eastman-Coburn reports.
Homophobic bullying, said to be widespread in Vermont high schools, will be a focus of the state's first Gay-Straight Alliance youth conference scheduled for April 28. About 80 Vermonters ages 13-22 are expected to take part in the half-day event at the University of Vermont's Living/Learning Center.
Heterosexual students actively opposed to the sort of menacing bigotry experienced by Eastman-Coburn will account for a large share of conference attendees, says Lluvia Mulvaney-Stanak, director of Outright Vermont. The Burlington-based organization is sponsoring the conference as part of the 8th annual Youth Pride Day, which also includes a speak-out on the steps of City Hall and a Queer Prom at the Memorial Auditorium Annex.
"Gay-straight alliances are building respect and acceptance in many high schools in Vermont," Mulvaney-Stanak notes. "They're vital in bringing about changes that need to happen, and this first conference is a chance for members of existing alliances to network with one another and to help form new alliances. They can be a great source of strength and support."
Eastman-Coburn, an 18-year-old BHS soccer player, says Outright Vermont has served as a source of strength in her own life.
"It was really helpful when I first came out two years ago and was able to meet other youth who were queer and struggling with the kinds of things I was," she recounts. "It allowed me to have a voice. I couldn't make it through [harassment at school] if I didn't have Outright Vermont providing me with an understanding of being an outsider, of being different from the norm."
Formed in 1989, Outright Vermont regularly conducts awareness workshops in schools as part of its mission to "build a safe environment for queer youth," Mulvaney-Stanak says. Sometimes, however, these sessions are met with intolerance on the part of parents.
Last month, for example, a right-wing radio talk-show jock tried to prevent Outright Vermont from holding a planned 2-day series of workshops for juniors and seniors at Missisquoi Valley Union High School in Swanton. Paul Beaudry, the father of a student at the school and the host of shows on WRSA in St. Albans and on WDEV in Waterbury, argued that Outright Vermont aims to recruit youth into "the homosexual lifestyle."
Beaudry's "mistruths" proved unpersuasive as the Missisquoi Valley Union principal and school board "stayed strong," Mulvaney-Stanak says. The half-dozen members of the school's Gay-Straight Alliance were instrumental in ensuring that Outright Vermont's message was heard, she adds.
"Despite the community climate around these issues, we found that the student body of MVU was incredibly respectful, mature and welcoming," Mulvaney-Stanak says. "I think that some members of the community could learn a lot from their young people."
Three Chittenden County Schools Among Five in Vermont With Recent COVID Cases
Scott Seeks $12 Million for School Year Childcare 'Hubs'
Families Face Tough Decisions About School, Childcare and Jobs
Amid Pandemic, Vermont Homeschool Enrollments Surge
Champlain Valley School District Will Use 'Hybrid' Model This Fall
LGBTQ local matters education local issues glbt
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line519
|
__label__wiki
| 0.923132
| 0.923132
|
Leading the Rebirth of the Blast Zone
by Eric Apalategui
On an unusually balmy January day, a lush Douglas fir forest in the Green River Valley is dappled with sunlight. Dick Ford (’70 Forest Mgt.) may not have arranged the blue skies, but the longtime Weyerhaeuser forester did engineer this verdant rebirth of the company’s timberlands from an ashen wasteland north of Mount St. Helens.
A quarter-century after the volcano’s catastrophic eruption, that rebirth is complete. This winter the first truckloads of logs rolled off these slopes to become lumber.
Ford no longer works in the woods. As director of the nearby Forest Learning Center at Mount St. Helens, it is his job to tell the dramatic story of the forest’s stunning comeback to visitors from around the world. This May 18, as the reawakened volcano attracts new interest, Weyerhaeuser will host the “signature event” at the center to commemorate the eruption’s 25th anniversary.
From deep inside the sylvan sanctuary, it’s difficult to imagine the devastation that blew across this forest and killed 57 people on May 18, 1980. If Mount St. Helens had remained corked for 24 more hours, the blast would have killed hundreds more workers on private timberlands outside of a restricted “red zone.” One of those casualties of a delayed eruption might have been Ford himself.
On the morning of May 19, 1980, he was scheduled to burn logging slash to prepare a clear-cut for replanting. That site was within the blast zone, the 150,000-acre area where the overwhelming force and searing heat of the eruption killed every tree.
Instead, the mountain blew the day before, at 8:32 a.m. on a placid Sunday. That morning Ford was digging razor clams from the surf near Long Beach when his wife heard the news on their car radio. Driving back toward Longview, Ford caught his first glimpse of the massive plume of ash while rounding a bend along the Columbia River.
Many people, including prominent scientists, doubted the scarred land would ever generate another two-by-four. Ford helped prove them wrong.
In 1980, he was forester for Weyerhaeuser’s large Camp Baker district, which included the 68,000 acres the company owned inside the blast zone. The district is part of the massive St. Helens Tree Farm, which the company has owned for more than a century.
Ford managed “a scale [of reforestation] that we had not done on the West Coast,” says John Keatley (’64 Forest Mgt.), his supervisor at that time and one of a group of Cougars who helped restore Weyerhaeuser’s timberlands around Mount St. Helens. “He did that very well.”
Just 30 days after the eruption, Ford and three coworkers shoveled through layers of sandy ash to plant the very first tree seedlings in the blast zone to see how they would fare. The ash held few nutrients, made digging difficult, and presented other problems, but the heavy layer also held in moisture and curtailed weed growth to give young trees a head start.
From those early trials, foresters quickly devised a plan to replant 45,000 acres the company would retain inside the zone’s boundaries. Before much of the planting, Weyerhaeuser salvaged enough lumber from dead trees to build 85,000 three-bedroom homes.
The timber company swapped a third of its land inside the blast zone for smaller public holdings elsewhere during formation of the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument in the early 1980s. Left to nature’s slower pace, the monument also is undergoing a renewal, but remains a starker landscape next to Weyerhaeuser lands wrapped in solid evergreen.
“After the monument was formed, everything we owned, we planted,” Ford says. “I negotiated every single planting contract out here.”
For seven seasons after the blast, Ford oversaw contract crews that planted 18.4 million trees-mostly the Douglas and noble firs native to the Cascade Mountain slopes.
Planters started at the fringes of the blast zone, where the ash was only two inches deep, compared to the two-foot drifts closer to the crater. Today, the dynamic forest soils have swallowed up the ash.
The logging of those replanted forests that started this year inside the blast zone is known as commercial thinning, which provides valuable lumber and pulp while priming the remaining 160 trees per acre to become top-grade timber within 15 years.
Forestry has changed nearly as much as the Mount St. Helens landscape in the 35 years since Ford graduated from Washington State University and returned home to work in rainy southwest Washington.
“You didn’t see anything like this in the woods in the ’70s and ’80s,” Ford says, watching a modern harvester machine buzz a standing tree into two cut-to-order logs in less than 30 seconds while barely leaving a tire track on the soil. “This is a pretty exciting time to be a forester.”
Besides new technology, says Ford, Weyerhaeuser adheres to tougher environmental laws, certifies all of its operations for sustainable forestry practices, and mandates stricter safety rules that have made the profession less treacherous.
Back in the ’60s, Ford went to WSU on scholarship to wrestle, a solitary sport that took him to the 1969 nationals. He still officiates high-school matches in his spare time. He went into the similarly solitary field of forestry, because aptitude tests suggested he was most at home in the woods.
So at first there seems a bit of irony in his current position as founding director of the 10-year-old Forest Learning Center, which Weyerhaeuser operates in a partnership with the Washington State Department of Transportation and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.
“I chose the field to be out in the trees and away from people,” Ford says, pulling into the center with a commanding view of Mount St. Helens. Now what do I do? I manage a center that gets 250,000 visitors a year.”
“There’s nobody with the history of the area like mine,” he says. “You eventually reach a point where you want to tell people about it.”
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line520
|
__label__cc
| 0.643768
| 0.356232
|
Home → Magazine Archive → June 2009 (Vol. 52, No. 6) → Speech-Activated User Interfaces and Climbing Mt.... → Full Text
Speech-Activated User Interfaces and Climbing Mt. Exascale
By Tessa Lau, Daniel Reed
Communications of the ACM, Vol. 52 No. 6, Pages 10-11
10.1145/1516046.1516072
From Tessa Lau's "Hello, Computer"
Four years ago when I bought my first in-car Global Positioning System (GPS) unit, it felt like a taste of the future. The unit knew where I was, and regardless of how many wrong turns I made, it could tell me how to get where I wanted to go. It was the ultimate adaptive interface: No matter where I started, it created a customized route that would lead me to my destination.
Alas, my first GPS unit met an untimely end in a theft involving a dark night, an empty street, and a smashed window.
My new GPS, a Garmin nüvi 850, comes with a cool new feature: speech-activated controls.
Speech recognition brings a new dimension to the in-car human-computer interface. When you're driving, you're effectively partially blind and have no hands. Being able to talk to the computer and instruct it using nothing but your voice is amazingly empowering, and makes me excited about the future of voice-based interfaces.
The nüvi's interface is simple and well designed. There's a wireless, button-activated microphone that you mount to your steering wheel. When you activate the mic, a little icon appears on the GPS screen to indicate that it's listening, and the GPS plays a short "I'm listening" tone. You can speak the names of any buttons that appear on the screen or one of the always-active global commands (e.g., "main menu," "music player," or "go home"). Musical tones indicate whether the GPS has successfully interpreted your utterance. If it recognized your command, it takes you to the next screen and verbally prompts you for the next piece of information (e.g., the street address of your destination). Most of the common GPS functionality can be activated via spoken confirmations without even looking at the screen.
Lists (e.g., of restaurant names) are annotated with numbers so you only have to speak the number of the item you want from the list. However, it also seems to correctly recognize the spoken version of anything in the list, even if it's not displayed on the current screen (e.g., the name of an artist in the music player).
In my tests it's been surprisingly accurate at interpreting my speech, despite the generally noisy environment on the road.
What has surprised me the most about this interface is that the voice-based control is so enjoyable and fast that I don't use the touch screen anymore. Speech recognition, which had been in the realm of artifical intelligence for decades, has finally matured to the point where it's now reliable enough for use in consumer devices.
Part of the power of the speech-activated user interface comes from the ability to jump around in the interface by spoken word. Instead of having to navigate through several different screens by clicking buttons, you can jump straight to the desired screen by speaking its name. It's reminiscent of the difference between graphic user interfaces (GUIs) and command lines; GUIs are easier to learn, but once you master them, command lines offer more efficiency and power. As is the case with command lines, it takes some experimentation to discover what commands are available when; I'm still learning about my GPS and how to control it more effectively.
Kudos, Garmin, you've done a great job with the nüvi 850. I can't wait to see what the future will bring! (Voice-based access to email on the road? It seems almost within reach.)
Disclaimer: The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer, ACM, or any other entity besides myself.
Reader's comment:
Information I've read lately on the topic of speech recognition indicates that a device's ability to correctly recognize commands depends in large measure on the quietness of the environment. I have often found that voice systems on my cell phone don't work well unless I find a quiet place to access them. So it is good to hear that Garmin has found an effective way to interpret commands while drivingan environment that you note can be noisy.
As you speak of future enhancements, it brings up the issue of what drivers should be able to do while on the road. Multitasking is great, but I'm not sure email while driving is such a good idea...
Debra Gouchy
From Daniel Reed's "When Petascale Is Just Too Slow"
It seems as if it were just yesterday when I was at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications and we deployed a one teraflop Linux cluster as a national resource. We were as excited as proud parents by the configuration: 512 dual processor nodes (1 GHz Intel Pentium III processors), a Myrinet interconnect, and (gasp) a stunning 5 terabytes of RAID storage. It achieved a then-astonishing 594 gigaflops on the High-Performance LIN-PACK benchmark, and was ranked 41st on the Top500 list.
The world has changed since then. We hit the microprocessor power (and clock rate) wall, birthing the multicore era; vector processing returned incognito, renamed as graphical processing units (GPUs); terabyte disks are available for a pittance at your favorite consumer electronics store; and the top-ranked system on the Top500 list broke the petaflop barrier last year, built from a combination of multicore processors and gaming engines. The last is interesting for several reasons, both sociological and technological.
Petascale Retrospective
On the sociological front, I remember participating in the first peta-scale workshop at Caltech in the 1990s. Seymour Cray, Burton Smith, and others were debating future petascale hardware and architectures, a second group was debating device technologies, a third was discussing application futures, and a final group of us was down the hall debating future software architectures. All this was prelude to an extended series of architecture, system software, programming models, algorithms, and applications workshops that spanned several years and multiple retreats.
At the time, most of us were convinced that achieving petascale performance within a decade would require new architectural approaches and custom designs, along with radically new system software and programming tools. We were wrong, or at least so it superficially seems. We broke the petascale barrier in 2008, using commodity x86 microprocessors and GPUs, InfiniBand interconnects, minimally modified Linux, and the same message-based programming model we have been using for the past 20 years.
However, as peak system performance has risen, the number of users has declined. Programming massively parallel systems is not easy, and even terascale computing is not routine. Horst Simon explained this with an interesting analogy, which I have taken the liberty of elaborating slightly. The ascent of Mt. Everest by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953 was heroic. Today, amateurs still die each year attempting to replicate the feat. We may have scaled Mt. Petascale, but we are far from making it pleasant or even a routine weekend hike.
This raises the real question: Were we wrong in believing different hardware and software approaches would be needed to make petascale computing a reality? I think we were absolutely right that new approaches were needed. However, our recommendations for a new research and development agenda were not realized. At least, in part, I believe this is because we have been loathe to mount the integrated research and development needed to change our current hardware/software ecosystem and procurement models.
Exascale Futures
Evolution or revolution, it's the persistent question. Can we build reliable exascale systems from extrapolations of current technology or will new approaches be required? There is no definitive answer as almost any approach might be made to work at some level with enough heroic effort. The bigger question is: What design would enable the most breakthrough scientific research in a reliable and cost-effective way?
My personal opinion is that we need to rethink some of our dearly held beliefs and take a different approach. The degree of parallelism required at exascale, even with future many-core designs, will challenge even our most heroic application developers, and the number of components will raise new reliability and resilience challenges. Then there are interesting questions about many-core memory bandwidth, achievable system bisection bandwidth, and I/O capability and capacity. There are just a few programmability issues as well!
I believe it is time for us to move from our deus ex machina model of explicitly managed resources to a fully distributed, asynchronous model that embraces component failure as a standard occurrence. To draw a biological analogy, we must reason about systemic organism health and behavior rather than cellular signaling and death, and not allow cell death (component failure) to trigger organism death (system failure). Such a shift in world view has profound implications for how we structure the future of international high-performance computing research, academic/government/ industrial collaborations, and system procurements.
Tessa Lau is a research staff member at IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose, CA.
Daniel Reed is director of scalable and multicore systems at Microsoft Research in Redmond, WA.
DOI: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1516046.1516072
©2009 ACM 0001-0782/09/0600 $10.00
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. To copy otherwise, to republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee.
The Digital Library is published by the Association for Computing Machinery. Copyright © 2009 ACM, Inc.
|
cc/2021-04/en_head_0004.json.gz/line521
|
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.