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President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria.
Buhari reinstates whistleblower wrongfully retired four years ago
The Senate had twice called for the reinstatement of the woman.
byPRNigeria
How Nigerian govt distributed rice seeds to companies in 2020
President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the immediate reinstatement of Maryam Danna who was wrongfully retired in 2016 by the Federal Government.
In a letter of reinstatement signed by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, he stated that the previous letter of her disengagement has been set aside.
The letter of reinstatement sighted by PRNigeria with a reference No SGF.50/S/4/II/621 and dated November 18, 2020, the SGF wrote thus: “I write to inform you that Muhammadu Buhari, President, Federal Republic of Nigeria has approved your reinstatement as General Manager (Audit & Compliance), Niger Delta Power Holding Company Limited with effect from 10th November 2020.
“Consequently, the letter of your disengagement Rf. NoSGF.55/S.4/52 dated 10th June 2016 has been set aside. Please accept my congratulations and best wishes on your reinstatement,” it concluded.
Mrs Danna, a chartered accountant with the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC), was a respected whistle-blower who had exposed corrupt practices and other irregularities in the federal agency, for which some of its officials were sanctioned. But rather than be rewarded for this act of patriotism, she was sacked while the indicted officials who had been suspended were reabsorbed and promoted to higher levels in government ministries.
On his awareness of the case, President Muhammadu Buhari had directed that the widow should be reinstated to her position in the agency in a memo from justice minister, Abubakar Malami, to the then Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari, dated October 25, 2016. But that never happened.
The eighth Senate of the Federal Republic, under the leadership of Bukola Saraki, had thereafter passed a resolution on May 3, 2018, ordering Mrs Danna’s immediate recall to her position as general manager (Audit & Compliance) of NDPHC.
The current Senate Under the leadership of Senate President Ahmed Lawan on February 20, 2020 also mandated NDPHC to reverse the alleged wrongful termination of the appointment and similarly dispatched a letter in March 2020 to the secretary to the government of the federation, urging him to direct the Managing Director of the NDPHC to comply with and implement its resolution on the case.
Netanyahu met Saudi crown prince, Pompeo in Saudi Arabia – Israeli minister
Yellow fever spreads in three Benue local govts – Commissioner
PRNigeria
VIDEO: "I can kill you, nothing will happen," Nigerian soldiers say as they assault two men
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Prestige Detour: Meliá Koh Samui Offers the Perfect Family Retreat
How De Hygienique Offers Thailand’s Most Reliable Cleaning System Solutions
Words of Wisdom from HM the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej
Over the past decade, De Hygienique has greatly contributed towards improving indoor living standards by providing the Kingdom’s most reliable cleaning system solutions.
The direct link between cleanliness and health is something that cannot be ignored. And these days, with Covid-19 causing such a panic around the globe, it’s especially important to keep pollutants, allergens, microbes, and air-borne viruses under control.
In Thailand, as in other parts of the world, people have been suffering lately from long-term exposure to various kinds of toxins and other pollutants in the atmosphere and the environment, most notably the air pollutant PM2.5. But there are other growing health hazards to worry about as well, including smog and allergens such as dust mites, pollen, and moulds. And to make matters worse, most of us do not even realise that some of these tiny organisms are probably right now living in our homes – in the mattresses, the furniture, the carpets and even the curtains.
Statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO) show that as many as 400 million patients around the world suffer from allergies and other respiratory diseases, many of which are triggered by pollutants and allergens. This problem can be mitigated, however, when proper attention is paid to hygiene and cleanliness in general. But in many cases the kind of deep cleaning required is beyond the scope of the average housekeeping service, and that’s where De Hygienique (Thailand) comes in.
Pakin Sudprasert
“In today’s society you see things changing constantly, and that includes traditional cleaning methods,” explains Pakin Sudprasert, the vice-president of De Hygienique (Thailand) Co. Ltd. “The change is driven by, and towards, the demands of a healthier lifestyle and safer living spaces, especially for families with small children who are prone to higher risk of developing allergies when exposed to hazardous environments. De Hygienique offers homeowners the safest mattress cleaning and sanitising services, all powered by cutting edge German technology.”
For more than a decade, De Hygienique has been the number one complete indoor hygiene service provider in Thailand. Working with the German brand Potema®, who are experts when it comes to the research and development of world-class sanitising systems, the company offers state-of-the-art professional disinfecting services paired with a specially formulated disinfecting solution that contains no chemicals, but is instead a mixture of six extracted organic oils that can disinfect and eliminate all viruses, bacteria and spores. As certified by the Potema Research Institute in Germany, this disinfecting solution, comprised of food-grade ingredients, even has the ability to effectively eliminate Covid-19, SARS, Ebola, H5N1, and various other types of harmful bacteria, while at the same time being 100 percent safe for humans and animals.
To date, more than 50,000 households have chosen De Hygienique’s services, resulting in happy and satisfied customers throughout the Kingdom. In addition, many hospitals in Bangkok trust and rely on De Hygienique as well to provide cleaning services for both their surgery and recovery rooms. What’s more, this unique system has been implemented in more than 16 other countries around the world.
De Hygienique’s cleaning services – available 24 hours a day, every day – take care of mattresses, furniture upholstery, curtains, carpets, and even difficult to clean chandeliers. They also offer car sanitising services, air filter replacement services, virus disinfection floor mats, and O-zone service, which combined with a high-performance air disinfectant provides a solution for indoor odor problems. Meanwhile, their air and surface disinfection service safeguards against bacteria, harmful microbes, and viruses, including Coronaviruses. It’s no wonder the company’s corporate slogan is: “we don’t just clean, we sanitise!”
Equipped with state-of-the-art technologies, it is the duty and commitment of De Hygienique’s indoor hygiene specialists to ensure customers satisfaction. Their teams of specially trained professionals are not just there to clean, but to actually solve hygiene problems for homeowners. So, if a hygienic home is your priority, then De Hygienique has the service solution for you.
To find out more, call 0 2281 7108, or add them on Line Official @dh-thailand. You can also visit their Official Facebook Page. dh-thailand.com
De Hygienique Cleaning Solutions
Dr. Somjate “Aek” Manipalviratn Shares How IVF Helps Parents Start Families
Health-Focused Holidays: RAKxa Wellness & Medical Retreat Offers a Green Sanctuary
Spa Review: Erb Bliss Room Nourishes the Senses for Radiance from Within
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Fluent in Funny
With his reach into the comedy scene, Roy Johnson is able to bring top-shelf comics to the Loony Bin that go well with the new, refreshed club atmosphere.
Michele Chiappetta
Sarah Eliza Roberts
Need a laugh? These days, who doesn’t, right? But where do you go to find some laughter, great deals on food and drinks, and superbly affordable entertainment — all on the south side of Tulsa? Trust us, you don’t have to restrict yourself to downtown — not when you check out the comic genius on display at the new and improved, zestfully funny Loony Bin in south Tulsa.
Before taking over management at the Loony Bin in Tulsa in 2017, club manager Roy Johnson traveled the U.S. as a standup comedian, so he not only knows what it’s like to be funny onstage; he also knows a lot of men and women who, like him, are working hard to bring laughter to crowds at venues just like the Loony Bin.
“Since I’ve taken over this location, I’ve worked to bring new acts in,” says Johnson. “I make sure I go out and get quality, professional comedians. There’s a lot of them out there whose names you don’t know. I was one of them for 15 years. I can go out and find them and bring them here.”
With his reach into the comedy scene, Johnson is able to bring top-shelf comics to the Loony Bin that go well with the new, refreshed club atmosphere. Visitors can expect to see and laugh along with well-known comedians who might not otherwise stop in Tulsa or appear at such an intimate venue.
“We had Bill Bellamy in here for a few shows,” says Johnson. “And I called an old friend, Jake Johannsen, who is arguably one of the funniest people on the planet. He agreed to come here.” Bellamy has appeared in multiple movies, Def Comedy Jam, and served as the host of seasons 5 and 6 of NBC’s Last Comic Standing. Among Johannsen’s credits are appearances on HBO, Comedy Central, PBS, and multiple appearances on the Late Show with David Letterman.
“I’m trying to raise the bar as far as the comedians who come here,” Johnson says. While he can’t compete with the BOK Center or the casinos, the Loony Bin has something those venues don’t — the intimate, edgy, slightly subversive feel of a true comedy club, where you can catch both nationally known performers as well as up-and-comers who may very well become the next Bellamy or Johannsen.
Before taking over management at the Loony Bin in Tulsa in 2017, club manager Roy Johnson traveled the U.S. as a standup comedian, so he not only knows what it’s like to be funny onstage; he also knows a lot of men and women who, like him, are working hard to bring laughter to crowds at venues just like the Loony Bin. (Photo: Sarah Eliza Roberts)
And the whole feel of the club is being upgraded as Johnson looks for ways to enhance the experience of those who come for a show. “When Bill Belamy was here, he was like, ‘This is one of the nicer clubs in the country,’” says Johnson. “In the last year, we’ve reinvested a lot into making this place nice and modern.” That means new and improved seating, TV screens on the walls, Facebook comedy shows including The Bin and a show about Tulsa called 411 on the 918. They also have a new menu that offers a lot more options.
“We have full wine, beer, liquor, and food,” Johnson says. “We now have wraps, because people wanted vegetarian options. We have hummus now. Of course, we do our fried stuff too. Wednesday night is all-you-can-eat Wing Therapy night, and it’s $2 chuckle night, so you pay $2 to get in, then $16.95 for all the wings you can eat, and that’s a hell of a deal. Thursday is Ladies Night — ladies get in free.”
In terms of drinks, you can enjoy deals on beer and wine, as well as specialty drinks unique to the Loony Bin. “We’re known for our Lobotomies — which is served in a 32-ounce pitcher.” It’s made with vodka, rum, gin, tequila, cranberry, Sprite and Grenadine.
“The new thing we have is the adult Capri Suns.” They come in red and purple. “If you don’t think red and purple are flavors, then the child inside you is dead,” jokes Johnson. They’re also strong, he warns. If you plan on drinking them, he suggests having a designated driver or hiring an Uber or Lyft ahead of time.
“I want people to feel like, no matter who’s here, they can come out and have a great date night,” says Johnson. “And I’m trying to be the flag bearer for south Tulsa. People in south Tulsa want to hang out close to their home, where it’s cheaper to Uber home. They want a nice date night with their husband or wife, and they want to have a good time without having to worry about finding parking.”
Of course, if you want a taste of what it’s like to get up onstage yourself, you might want to take a six-week course in comedy from Johnson. He holds classes for adults as well as for children a few times a year, and he says it’s a great way to help people become comfortable speaking in public and sharing their ideas.
“I love comedy. It’s the purest form of art,” he says. “There’s no medium between you and the audience. It’s just your words, an audience, you’re expressing something and getting a direct reaction back. And I love it. That’s why I teach the class here.” Details and signup options are found at befunnytulsa.com.
The Loony Bin is open Wednesdays through Sundays. It’s age 18 and up to get in, 21 and up to drink. Performers and showtimes are available on the website, and group rates are available too.
Downtown Turnaround
Anchored by the popular restaurant SMOKE., the SEVEN6MAIN mixed-use development breaking ground in Owasso’s Redbud District this fall will offer a far-reaching impact.
Faire Play
Whether you’re interested in theatrical performances, jousting, authentic medieval wares, or just a good ol’ turkey leg, the Oklahoma Renaissance Festival promises a fun and light-hearted experience.
Traditional Inspiration
"Fiddler on the Roof" is rarely considered political or particularly serious, but the worldwide issue of migration and displacement is inescapable, even as the show raises a cup to love and life.
Ballet Bonanza
Featuring special effects usually reserved for Broadway productions, journey with Dorothy, Glinda, and Scarecrow as they make their return to save the land of Oz in "Dorothy and the Prince of Oz."
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Inside the Near Meltdown of the #Feminist Tour in Australia
Jesse Singal / 24 April 2019
A rowdy crowd, an attempt to suppress the video via a legal threat, and ongoing controversy over the host — it didn’t turn out as planned.
Source: Inside the Near Meltdown of the #Feminist Tour in Australia
The first thing you notice when you talk to Desh Amila, beyond the fact that he’s an outgoing and friendly guy, is that he has a lot of faith in the power of public debate to help improve the world. This stems in part from his background: The Australian entrepreneur and event organizer was born in Sri Lanka in 1981, not long before a civil war broke out that, over the course of 26 years, would kill as many as 100,000 people.
After emigrating to Melbourne in 2000, he created a chapter of Sri Lanka Unites, an organization built around the sad fact that, as its website notes, “We grew up in a society where ethno-religious identities were emphasized over an inclusive, equal Sri Lankan identity, and as a nation, Sri Lanka has been trapped in a vicious cycle of violence.” He did some reconciliation work back home and learned that “70 percent of my countrymen have not had a meaningful conversation with, or did not have a friend from, the other side.” He believes the civil war was, in part, “a failure of conversation.”
Desh (the surname he goes by; his full name is Amila Deshantha) has built a career out of facilitating intellectually oriented public events, often between people with serious disagreements. He co-directed Islam and the Future of Tolerance, a documentary centered on a debate between Sam Harris and Maajid Nawaz, a former Islamic extremist turned liberal reformer. The film originated from a tour of Australia that Desh put on with Harris, featuring Nawaz as a “special guest.” First as the head of Think, Inc., a company he has since sold, and now with the group This Is 42, Desh has organized events featuring top public intellectuals in Australia and elsewhere.
Given his previous work covering subjects like Islamic extremism and atheism, Desh probably didn’t anticipate that a conversation between two American feminists, both frequent contributors to mainstream publications, would spark one of his career’s messiest episodes, complete with legal threats and prolonged negotiations over whether the event’s video footage would be released. But that’s what happened. And it’s a rather telling, colorful story of what happens when the highest ideals of civil conversation collide with the realities of public-intellectual stardom and a thoroughly tribalized social media ecosystem. The saga shows that working through disagreement in this political era can be a bit more complicated and fraught than merely getting two disagreers onstage together.
It all started about a year ago, Desh says, when he was involved in a casual group conversation in which “a lot of people got really touchy the moment I mentioned I’m a feminist — I didn’t realize the actual term had morphed into something some people use as an insult.” This made him realize that “feminism definitely has a branding issue and people don’t seem to really understand what it is.” Two of his favorite feminists were Roxane Gay and Christina Hoff Sommers, and he wondered if it might be worthwhile to get the two onstage together in Australia. Gay, who has a Ph.D. in rhetoric, is the superstar author of books like Bad Feminist and Hunger and is an outspoken progressive on issues of gender and race. Sommers is a center-rightish “classical liberal” type with a Ph.D. of her own in philosophy and is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. Though she has been an author and a public commentator for decades, Sommers is best known among younger audiences for “The Factual Feminist,” her YouTube video series, which leans heavily on “modern feminism has gone too far”–style arguments, racks up hundreds of thousands of views per video, and has spurred frequent criticism from left-of-center voices that she is less a genuine feminist than a conservative concern troll.
Desh reached out to them both. Sommers was excited by the idea but didn’t think Gay would agree; Gay’s management team was receptive but similarly skeptical. In June of last year, Desh says, he sent Gay an email laying out his vision and citing the famous Buckley-Vidal debate, itself the subject of a documentary, as his inspiration. “This is how conversation used to be,” he explained. Eventually, Gay agreed.
The original plan was to hold events in Melbourne, Sydney, and Auckland, New Zealand, but instead ended up as two conversations: in Sydney on March 29 and in Melbourne on March 31, the Auckland event being canceled due to lack of interest. The mini-tour was dubbed #Feminist.
Desh had put on all sorts of events about controversial subjects before and never had much trouble finding a host. This time was different. Desh says he reached out to about ten qualified potential hosts, seven of them female, and they all turned him down (he shared some of the emails with me, names redacted). Most didn’t explain why, but Desh says one told him that she “strongly disagrees with Christina Hoff Sommers and feels it would be hypocritical for her to share a stage with Christina.” (In a follow-up email, I asked him why, given how much lead time he had before the event, he’d asked only ten people to host. He said that he’s sought hosts to previous events about six weeks ahead of time, and figured that timeline would work here.)
This event became the subject of controversy a full six months ahead of its scheduled dates, when, in a September 2018 interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, Gay called Sommers a “white supremacist,” a claim for which there doesn’t appear to be any evidence (Sommers is Jewish and says she is a registered Democrat, for what it’s worth). “Personally, I was a bit surprised that she used those words because if you look into Christina’s work, it’s far from that,” says Desh. “I was taken aback by that statement.” Gay had been asked about her decision to share a stage with a “white supremacist,” given that she had pulled a New Yorker article in response to that magazine having invited Steve Bannon to a New Yorker Festival (after the outcry, he was disinvited) and had also pulled a book she’d been contracted to write for Simon & Schuster after the publisher inked Milo Yiannopoulos to a (since canceled) deal. In response, Gay told the Morning Herald that she’d never heard of Sommers before but that after she’d mentioned the mini-tour on Twitter, the Southern Poverty Law Center, an anti-hate group, sent her information about Sommers that she found “disturbing.” (The SPLC has accused Sommers of making arguments that “overlap” with those of hard-line “male supremacist” groups, but the overlapping in question appears not to be about any radical male-supremacist claims but rather on issues where there is mainstream expert disagreement, such as the prevalence of sexual assault on college campusesand the magnitude and origins of the gender wage gap.)
Desh had been hoping for the events to be seen less as a “debate” — a term he says he explicitly avoided in the publicity materials — and more as a “conversation.” This was quickly proving to be naïve. The subject going in was not the nitty-gritty of the gender wage gap or the best ways to prevent sexual assault but the accusation that one of the participants was a white supremacist, along with the inevitable online sniping that occurred in its wake. A week or so before the event, still without a host, Desh decided the best route would be to host it himself — something he’d never done before. He knew the optics weren’t ideal for an event labeled #Feminist, but he didn’t see any other options.
Desh shared the audio of both events with me, and it’s clear from the start of the Sydney conversation that he’d attempted to leaven the situation with humor, as in this opening line: “I know what you’re thinking, What is this penis doing onstage?” That one got some laughter. He then explained the trouble he’d been having. “For some reason, no self-proclaimed feminist wanted to host this event — actually, nobody wanted to host this event. So as an immigrant, I’m doing the job nobody else wants to do.” More laughter with applause and cheers.
But from there things quickly devolved, and in Desh’s telling, the crowd was largely responsible. “Imagine a terrible, terrible YouTube comments section — but live,” he says. “People had already picked their sides when they came into it, we could hardly get words in, and people were chanting and yelling and screaming.” Omayma Mohamed, an Australian-Egyptian ex-Muslim in attendance whose tweetstorm about the event helped frame its subsequent online narrative (more on that soon), independently provided a similar accounting. “It felt like a sporting home game,” she told me in an email, “where the overwhelming majority of the crowd is there to see their player demolish their opponent, the outsider that they have no loyalty to. There was so much hostility in the room, with the spectators desperate to see Gay outdo Sommers at every turn. Each of Gay’s points was followed by loud applause, while Sommers was met with snickering and laughter even as she was speaking … I found it really difficult to concentrate on what was being said at times because the crowd was so disruptive, and it seemed like I was one of few who actually wanted to hear the exchanges in full.” In an email, Sommers said, “The audience was filled with noisy fans of Roxane — so I was a bit flustered at times. They tended to cheer at whatever she said and jeer at my remarks. But I have had that happen at schools like Oberlin and Lewis & Clark Law School. I’m always hopeful that I will get through to some audience members — even hostile ones.”
The audio generally supports these accounts. It’s clear the crowd was solidly pro-Gay and anti-Sommers and fairly rowdy, increasingly so as the event went on. At the same time, much of the conversation itself comes across as a fairly standard left-versus-right debate: occasionally interesting dialogue interspersed with a healthy dose of talking-point recitations. Here and there are moments when Sommers and Gay appear to agree, even if they don’t say so. When Sommers criticized the commonly repeated statistic that “one in five” women are sexually assaulted on college campuses, for example, Gay noted that it included sexual harassment, not just assault — meaning they agreed that the figure is an overestimate when it comes to assault. Both also seemed to agree that certain gray-area cases of sexual misbehavior, like that of Aziz Ansari, were not a good direction for the #MeToo movement (on Twitter, Gay had bemoaned the lumping in of the Babe.net bad-date story with more serious incidents like those surrounding Matt Lauer and Louis C.K.).
Afterward there was no question the event had been heated and the atmosphere a bit unruly, but opinion differed about its overall quality. “I thought Desh was a fine moderator,” said Sommers. “He asked fair and reasonable questions, and the event seemed to go okay.” At least some attendees appeared to agree: “I had a lot of people approaching me saying that they appreciated what I did,” says Desh. “Some people were joking, saying, ‘I’m glad I wasn’t onstage.’ And some people were saying, ‘I can see why nobody wanted to take on this job.’” Most people who approached him were positive about what they’d just experienced, though he acknowledged that was likely a biased sample. Twitter, meanwhile, was in an uproar, so Desh removed the app from his phone and headed backstage to ask the participants how they thought it went. Sommers gave a positive assessment; then Desh approached Gay and asked her the same question. It was “a shitshow,” she told him.
In the immediate wake of the Sydney event, some online misinformation about it began to spread, likely exacerbating the sense that some genuinely crazy or embarrassing stuff had gone down. Some Australian media accounts clouded the situation further. Rumors began to circulate that Desh had been unprepared for the event and had asked laughably basic questions. As Mary Ward of the Sydney Morning Herald, which is one of Australia’s most important newspapers, reported about one spectator’s reaction, “[She] said simplistic and overly broad questions (like ‘What is feminism?’ and ‘What is intersectionality?’) made the debate feel ‘cheapened.’” Gay pressed the same point in an email to me: “At the first event, he asked, ‘What is feminism?’ and ‘What is intersectionality?’ These were … terrible questions to ask an audience that had paid up to AU$247 to attend a feminist exchange of ideas.” (The cost of the event had been a point of contention between Desh and Gay and her management team. Desh says that prices were higher than usual because of Gay’s large fee and that AU$247 represented the highest tier of ticket, which included the best seats, food, and drink, plus a meet-and-greet. He says the standard ticket prices ranged from AU$42 to AU$67.)
Desh did ask Gay and Sommers to explain what intersectionality meant to them in a fairly 101-level way, but the sillier-sounding question he was accused of asking — What is feminism?— is a misrepresentation that makes it sound as if he’d wandered onstage, sweaty and shuffling papers, and sputtered, “So, like, what is feminism?” That wasn’t what happened. Rather, in opening the conversation immediately after the participants were introduced, he told a version of the story he’d told me about describing himself as a feminist (which got a strangely cool response from the audience) and, pointing out the surfeit of polling data showing that feminist is an unpopular label among young people, asked each guest for her own definition of the term. It comes across, in context, as an obvious means of cuing up some of the broader disagreements between Gay and Sommers. “His question on feminism was on point,” said Sommers. “Most Australians and Americans believe in gender equality yet don’t identify as feminist.” She also critiqued the media coverage: “The stories in the Australian press seem to have been written by reporters who did not attend the event. No one ever contacted me for comment.”
A slight but important misrepresentation of one of Gay’s answers spread on social media as well. It had to do with a question Desh asked about the proper role of Western feminists in the fight against oppressive gender mores and laws in places where harsh interpretations of Islam reign. To drive the question home, Desh played a video clip from a documentary of “Sharia police” in Indonesia harassing young women over their attire. In a tweetstorm (archived here), the first tweet of which got 2,700 retweets, Omayma Mohamed wrote that Gay said “it would be rich for a westerner to assume that they knew what was best for other cultures & that we didn’t need to intervene in their affairs. She said that we should wait for representatives of that culture to speak up, b/c after all, the west is also guilty of misogyny.” There’s some truth to the idea that Gay downplayed the differences between the women’s-rights fights in the West and in places like Indonesia (“We are dealing with the very same issues in the Western world when it is not encoded by Sharia law,” Gay said). But arguably the most inflammatory claim — that she said, “We should wait for representatives of that culture to speak up” — just isn’t true.
Here’s an excerpt from Gay’s response:
I also think it would be really presumptuous of me as a feminist to know what’s best for Saudi Arabian women, who have been very effective at organizing — we saw this especially in recent years as they fought for the right to drive. And from a Western perspective, you think, My goodness, you’re still fighting for the right to do this very basic thing and to have this very basic amount of independence? But I don’t know that they need external intervention. What they need is our support materially, probably financially, and certainly in terms of highlighting voices in those communities who are leading these movements to create change. So I think support can come in a lot of different ways, but I don’t think it needs to come in an interventionist way, because I don’t think we know better than what those communities need for themselves.
It’s clear Gay’s gripe was not with the idea of American feminists helping foreign feminists win their own fights but rather with doing so in an “interventionist” way (though the term is never defined in this part of the conversation). Sommers replied by more or less agreeing. So this was another area where, if you dug down a bit, there wasn’t a great deal of conflict between the two — not that it stopped Gay’s critics from spreading exaggerated accounts of her response on social media.
The true shitshow hit the day after the Sydney event. “I woke up to a number of emails from Roxane’s management, very, very upset at me,” says Desh. Seven of them, to be exact, with the first laying out the complaints of Gay’s team at the Iowa-based Tuesday Agency:
I have to let you know that Roxane wasn’t very pleased with the event last night.
I would ask you as a matter of courtesy to refrain from asking her personal opinions about CHS [Sommers] while onstage. Inciting a confrontation like that is poor taste, frankly. She’s a human being with feelings and so is CHS.
Also, showing the video regarding Sharia law took her aback as well. Please consider removing that segment from the Melbourne event.
The “personal opinions about CHS” refers to when Desh asked Gay onstage whether she actually believed Sommers was a white supremacist. In response, Gay hedged a little but never fully retracted the accusation, referring to Sommers as “white-supremacist adjacent” for having appeared onstage with Yiannopoulos, among other appearances — an apparent reference to a 2015 incident in which Sommers accepted an interview on a Swedish podcast that turned out to have a history of Holocaust denialism. (She acknowledged this on Twitter in March 2018, saying she had simply been unaware of the show’s history and posting a screenshot of an emailshe’d sent in early 2016 asking for the interview to be taken down.) Desh was being asked not to press Gay on the rather damning claim about Sommers that she had made without evidence, as well as not to bring up the topic of women’s treatment in countries with strict interpretations of Islamic law, which was salient to the differences in opinion between Gay and Sommers (not to mention a source of schism in the feminist movement itself).
Later that day, Gay’s management team unilaterally settled on a solution: Desh wouldn’t host the second conversation in Melbourne, at that point just a day away. Instead, they suggested Rachael Hocking, a journalist of indigenous ancestry at Australia’s NITV who had just interviewed Gay a few days earlier — in fact, Gay’s team had already reached out to her. “Here’s her number — contact her now,” Desh sums up the email he received. He says he can’t share the details of the event contract due to a confidentiality clause, but it was clear that Gay’s team had no right to choose the host. “It was always going to be our call,” he says, adding that the Tuesday Agency had been generally professional and was in his view simply trying to protect its client but that in this case their demands “were absolutely unreasonable.” They seemed to be attempting to install a pro-Gay host for the second event. Moreover, while Hocking told Desh she would do it, she was honest with him about having never heard of Sommers until Gay’s team had reached out, making her (in Desh’s view) a less than ideal choice.
So Desh contacted another possibile host: Meredith Doig, a feminist with a Ph.D. who is president of the Rationalist Society of Australia, a Medal of Australia winner, and one of Desh’s mentors. Doig said she’d do it if she had to, contingent upon the speakers’ agreement, but didn’t really have enough time to prepare, and she thought the request to unseat Desh as moderator was unfair. All day on the 30th and 31st, as Desh helped his small team pack up cameras, props, and other gear for the flight to Sydney, emails from Gay’s team kept pinging his inbox. While at the airport waiting to fly to Melbourne for the event that day, he received several from Kevin Mills, a vice-president of the Tuesday Agency and the point person for the mini-tour. “I strongly urge you to go with Rachael,” read one. “Roxane will not put up with any more stunts provoking a reaction out of her or the audience.” Gay’s team made it clear that Doig was not acceptable. “We are not playing games, my friend,” read another. “Who are you planning on having for a moderator? Easy question.” Sommers, meanwhile, said she was fine with Doig but didn’t like the idea of Hocking hosting — she thought it was unfair for Gay to get to choose the host — and she preferred Desh overall.
Adding to the tensions, the day after the Sydney event Desh also received a legal threat from an Iowa-based firm representing Gay, demanding that he not release the video of the previous evening’s conversation and not record the following evening’s, on the grounds that “at no time has the Client or the Agency, as the Client’s designated representative, granted permission to You to record and/or publish the Performance.” As everyone involved now acknowledges, the letter’s claims were false. The Tuesday Agency did, in fact, sign a contract on Gay’s behalf granting full video rights to This Is 42 — Gay just didn’t realize the contract included full video rights. “I did not sign any contract with Desh. Kevin and Trinity [Ray, president of the Tuesday Agency] did,” said Gay in an email sent on April 19. “This was a huge mistake and one I only learned about yesterday. I have no idea what the contract says, and it’s deeply frustrating that this wasn’t caught before they signed the contract.” (It isn’t unusual for celebrities to have a member of their management team sign contracts on their behalf.) It appears that what happened was that a This Is 42 staffer handed Gay a video release about 30 minutes before the Sydney event (that’s her estimate) and, thinking it was a release for that event, she didn’t sign it because she thought it was too broad. But as Desh explained to me in an email, it was a waiver for a separate video she had already recorded for This Is 42 in which she reacted to Hollywood depictions of black people. So the initial claim that This Is 42 didn’t have rights to the event video stemmed from this misunderstanding.
Things were too frenzied just then for Desh to worry about the legal threat, though — it was the day of an event that had been announced six months earlier, for which he and the talent were already at the Sydney airport, and there was still disagreement about the moderator. Desh appealed to Gay: What if he didn’t ask her about the “white supremacist” claim and agreed not show the Sharia video again? Gay agreed to drop her objection to letting him host.
Everyone seems to agree that the second event went a bit smoother. Desh couldn’t resist asking a question about conservative Muslim gender rules, so he ended up showing a different video, this one about Iran. “I was being cheeky,” he admits, “but I find that rather problematic, that whole inaction toward what’s happening in countries like Iran, Indonesia, Bangladesh. It’s close to my heart.” The next day, Gay and Sommers left Australia, and Desh was able to exhale a bit. “I thought that was the end of it,” he says, “and at that point my lawyer had written to their lawyers,” explaining that This Is 42 indeed held the rights to the video of the events. “I didn’t hear anything from them for a little while.”
On April 11, This Is 42 released a trailer for a planned video editing together footage from both events — one that seems to use negative tweets about the events as a “you’re not gonna want to miss this” selling point.
At 8 a.m. on Monday, April 14, his time, Desh got a call from Trinity Ray, the president of the Tuesday Agency. Ray made it clear to Desh that the agency was quite serious about preventing the video’s release. Desh argued that the video actually made Gay look good — she was impressive. Be that as it may, Ray insisted, Gay still didn’t want it to be released and also asked Desh to take down the trailer of the event. Desh says Ray then offered to pay for Gay’s flights and accommodation in exchange for his agreeing not to release the video and to take down the trailer. Desh said he would consult with his advisers.
The next day, according to Desh and confirmed by the email chain shared by Ray, Desh received an email from Ray with a confidentiality agreement attached, dangling the prospect of future access to Gay if he agreed not to release the video of her events with Sommers. “Certainly, I know Roxane would be grateful for your concession and open to booking additional events with you here in North America or elsewhere if we can come to some terms on this matter,” it read. In his first response, Desh said again that he would consult his advisers, but a couple of emails later he officially rejected the idea of suppressing the video: “I have nothing but admiration and respect for Roxane, but I think the video should see the light of day. I do not think it is ethical for me to take any money. I want to stand up to the principles I believe in, what drove me to reach out to Kevin to pitch this event in the first place, to help the world have better, honest conversations in an ever-polarised world.”
Ray responded by saying he understood and asking if Gay’s team could at least see the video before it went up. He asked Desh to take down the trailer on the grounds that it was racist. “Our concern with the trailer is that frankly we believe it plays to the ‘angry black female’ stereotype and as such comes off as racist,” he said. “I know that’s not your intent here, but it has been hurtful.” Desh agreed to share the video with Gay’s team when it was ready and to make the trailer private but only after the full video was released.
Ray remembered the circumstances of the conversation that kicked off the email back-and-forth a bit differently: He said that the compensation came up only because Desh complained that he had lost money on the mini-tour and that the idea of North American events came up only because Desh revealed in the call a desire to expand into event planning there. Ray complained that both parties had agreed the conversation would be confidential. “He did tell me not to record the call where the offer was made but did not tell me the call has to be confidential per se,” Desh claimed in followup emails. “I have never publicly spoken about my dealings with a talent’s management in my entire career but then again I have never been threatened to be sued by one, either :-)”
One point of consensus among all the participants in this fracas seems to be that Desh was a bit blindsided by the intensity of what the mini-tour had wrought, both in its run-up and during the events themselves. “He reminded me of the Dev Patel character in Best Exotic Marigold Hotel — charming, enthusiastic, idealistic but a bit overwhelmed by events,” said Sommers. “He had a great success bringing the physicist Michio Kaku to Australia. He had imagined that a large appreciative audience would gather to hear two feminist writer-professors with very different ideas discuss their differences — and perhaps find some common ground. That turned out to be impossible.” That’s certainly true, and it’s also interesting, when listening to the event itself, to note the way its very structure and atmosphere, rather than nurturing real conversation, dumbed it down in, well, exactly the way Desh said it did in his analogy to terrible YouTube comments.
The best example came in a discussion of campus rape toward the end of the Sydney event. Sommers was explaining,
What worries me the most is that, to the extent that we have a serious problem, which no one here is denying, there’s actually a good study — it was in The New England Journal of Medicine — about how you could cut the numbers and how you could get it down of just untoward behavior and too much … and what they found was that girls are most vulnerable freshman year, and it has to do with sort of binge drinking and drunken parties and fraternities and all the things you could [The audience boos] … So they found they could cut the numbers substantially, and this was peer-reviewed, careful research. And the young women would take a course, and they would learn more about [More, louder boos] — Exactly! Everyone’s — Showing somebody how not to be a victim is not victimizing them. [Loud, angry jeering]
“Surely we can have a class that shows young men how not to victimize,” Gay responded, eliciting raucous cheers. A minute later, she reiterated that idea: “Really, all of these problems could be solved by men learning to not rape.” More cheers and applause followed. [50:20]
I’m familiar with the study in question — I covered it when it came out. It was a sophisticated, carefully constructed approach centered on helping young women “assess risk from acquaintances, overcome emotional barriers in acknowledging danger, and engage in effective verbal and physical self-defense.” Yes, some of the tools might come in handy in alcohol-soaked situations, but that wasn’t really the focus. Rather, it was more on the risk of acquaintance rape and on a message any progressive feminist would agree with: Young women should be empowered to be outspoken in asserting their boundaries when they feel those boundaries are being threatened, but they’re all too often socialized to be polite or pliant instead. The program seemed to work. Young women who went through it were significantly less likely to face an attempted or completed sexual assault than those who were simply given a standard-issue sexual-assault-prevention pamphlet. Again, the available evidence suggests that young women who would have been sexually assaulted in the absence of this program weren’t, because of it.
But in Sydney, on a stage ostensibly dedicated to fostering meaningful conversation, everyone, the audience included, quickly manned the appropriate battlements, eager to show they were on the right side. For Sommers, it was about binge drinking and out-of-control campus culture, conservative bogeymen. For Gay, that was victim blaming, a liberal one. In a quiet bar or restaurant, with the journal in front of them and someone explaining exactly what the study found, it’s highly unlikely that either woman would have responded to it with anything but interest and enthusiasm and possibly some mild disagreement over the specifics. It prevented assaults, and everyone agrees young women should be taught to speak up when they’re made uncomfortable. But here, in a charged public setting where, not unlike Twitter, every utterance was met with immediate audience feedback, there was no room for that. Instead, the debate was dumbed down, almost immediately, to a hero-vs.-villain caricature: There was Roxane Gay, who is Good because she wants men to stop raping, versus Christina Hoff Sommers, who is Bad because she, on the other hand, blames women for being raped. As though Gay doesn’t want young women to speak up and say, “I don’t feel comfortable — please leave my room right now.” As though Sommers doesn’t want men to stop raping.
Despite the prolonged chaos and negotiation surrounding this tour, Gay said she isn’t worried about the video being released, as long as it’s unedited. “I have no problem with the video, unedited, being released because I did well in both debates and am pleased with how I represented my views,” she said. “The full, unedited video will, frankly, work in my favor given all the nonsense that has arisen around this event.” It sounds like there’s probably still some negotiating to be done between the two camps, given that This Is 42 plans on releasing a version in which footage from both events will be cut together sometime Wednesday, April 24, which as of this writing is just a day away.
Soon, at least, everyone will be able to decide for themselves what they think of the events. But still: This can’t have been what Desh Amila had in mind.
News, Published articles, Ethics in Action
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Get Out (Blu-Ray + DVD + Digital HD)
Blu-Ray Reviews | By Bryan ReadJunk on May 24th, 2017
Starring: Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Catherine Keener, Bradley Whitford, Caleb Landry Jones, Stephen Root
Written By: Jordan Peele
Directed By: Jordan Peele
When Get Out was released in theaters, the hype was very high and I was wondering why a “horror” film was getting so much attention. Turns out, Jordan Peele is a good director and has made quite the thriller with some social commentary mixed in. Definitely a movie to watch!
The movie is about Chris (Daniel Kaluuya), a young African-American photographer who visits his white girlfriend’s (Allison Williams) parents home. When he gets there, he realizes something is strange about everybody’s behavior. Once he finally figures things out, it might too late to…get out. See what I did there?
Get Out isn’t the type of movie I’d go out of my way to see but since it got a lot of praise, I wanted to check it out. In fact, I looked up the wiki entry when the movie was released and spoiled everything for myself just to see if I would like it. I rarely do that before watching a movie but kind of wanted to know if there was a happy ending to it before I sat down to watch this. Thankfully I forgot most of what I read and still enjoyed this very much! I don’t know why the marketing on this was declaring this a horror movie when it was more like a thriller. I heard Jordan Peele call it a social thriller and I agree with that phrase.
I think instead of Get Out, the movie should have been called White People Are Crazy! But I don’t think that would have went over so well. It’s the honest movie title though. I didn’t know what to expect with the movie but ended up really enjoying it. The acting was good for the most part, even though Alison Williams isn’t the best actress in the world. This was her first feature-length film though. You wouldn’t know Daniel Kaluuya was British just based on the film. He does an American accent well, like most Brits. Rod was a scene stealer and added the comic relief. Rod feels like a character Jordan wrote for himself but then decided not to star in his own movie. Bradley Whitford makes a good villain, just like the first movie I remember him in which was Revenge of the Nerds 2.
I thought the story itself was interesting, and having the hypnotic stuff in played into everything nicely. It was a bit silly with the brain stuff at the end but this is a horror/thriller after all. The dialogue was cringey at times but that’s because it was done on purpose. I’m talking about the party scene where all the white people were bringing up race and it was just…awkward and face-palm worthy. I’m sure that happens a lot and was based on previous experiences Jordan had.
The extra include an alternate ending, commentary, a Q&A discussion with Jordan Peele, deleted scenes and more. The alternate ending was a bit of a downer and as I call it, the reality ending. I’m glad Peele picked the ending he went with because at least it ends on a happy note. The deleted scenes were pretty good, mostly extended scenes or scenes that added some depth to some characters. That’s about 20 something minutes long and worth watching after the movie. You can listen to commentary of them if you want to know why they were cut. I thought one line that should have been added at the end was when Rod said “no more white bitches” or something along those lines. Another alternate take, and the funniest one was when Rod said “I bet she voted for Trump.”
Get Out is an entertaining thriller, although it’s something much more than that. It handles race really well and it will make white people think, “have I said something like that before?” Of course, I hope you don’t kidnap black men and hypnotize. This is one of the better thrillers I’ve seen in awhile and I’d definitely watch it again.
Alternate Ending with Commentary by Writer/Director Jordan Peele
Deleted Scenes with Commentary by Writer/Director Jordan Peele
Unveiling the Horror of Get Out
Q&A Discussion with Writer/Director Jordan Peele and the Cast
Feature Commentary with Writer/Director Jordan Peele
English Dolby Digital 5.1
Widescreen 2.40:1 Color
Bottom Line: Excellent thriller with a few laughs
Extras Rating:
Allison Williams, Blu-Ray Review, Bradley Whitford, Caleb Landry Jones, Catherine Keener, Daniel Kaluuya, get out, Jordan Peele, Stephen Root, Universal Studios
Previous: DVD/Blu-Ray Tuesday Roundup (May 23rd 2017)
Next: DVD/Blu-Ray Tuesday Roundup (May 30th 2017)
Iron Mask (Blu-ray + Digital)
Gladiator (4k Ultra Hd + Blu-Ray + Digita HD) Steelbook
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Drake and Shawn Mendes were nominated for this year’s Grammy Awards. (Photo by THE CANADIAN PRESS)
Drake picks up seven Grammy nominations, Shawn Mendes gets two nods
TORONTO — Chart-toppers Drake and Shawn Mendes led the Canadians picking up nominations at this year’s Grammy Awards.
The Toronto rapper pulled in seven nominations, including in the album, record and song of the year categories for work from his 2018 double-album ”Scorpion.”
The performer, born Aubrey Graham, was also recognized for his contributions to other rappers’ tracks, including Travis Scott’s “Sicko Mode,” which is up for best rap performance.
Mendes scored two nominations for song of the year for “In My Blood” and best pop vocal album.
Drake’s Toronto-based collaborator Boi-1da was nominated as producer for his body of work this year, which includes songs with Cardi B, G-Eazy, and Beyonce and Jay-Z’s project the Carters.
Noah Shebib, another one of Drake’s producers, is also being recognized with three nominations for his work on songs from the “Scorpion” album.
Golden Globes nominations deliver big boost to ‘Vice,’ plus early Oscar front-runners ‘A Star Is Born,’ ‘The Favourite’ and ‘Green Book’
Hart steps down as Oscars host over his past anti-gay tweets
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India's traditional cigarette makers halt production over health warnings
By Aditya Kalra
NEW DELHI, April 7 (Reuters) - India’s traditional cigarette industry, which makes hand-rolled smokes and employs more than 8 million people, shut down production on Thursday, saying it could not meet new government rules requiring them to print bigger health warnings on tobacco packets.
New rules mandate that from April 1 all manufacturers must cover 85 percent of the surface of a packet of cigarettes with health warnings, up from 20 percent now.
Traditional cigarettes, called beedis, are made by wrapping raw tobacco in leaves that are then packed manually in conical paper packets that have curved surfaces. The shape means small-scale manufacturers in rural areas cannot print warnings on the packs, an industry body said.
“The curved area and wrapping paper edges prevent printing on a reasonably large area of the curved surface,” All India Beedi Industry Federation (AIBIF) said in a statement. “All the workers, mainly women in rural areas, engaged by the industry have been rendered jobless overnight.”
Arjun Khanna, a member of the AIBIF, said the industry body represents 65 percent of India’s $1.1 billion beedi industry, which employs more than 8 million people, mostly in impoverished rural areas.
Health officials in New Delhi could not be reached for comment on Thursday, but the ministry this week stepped up its fight against the industry by ordering strict implementation of the new rules.
The rules have already hit the $10 billion cigarette industry. The cigarette maker ITC Ltd, which is part-owned by British American Tobacco, shut its factories last week, saying it needed more clarity on the new rules .
The cigarette makers say they’re unclear on how big the warnings need to be. In March, a parliamentary panel’s report on the impact of the new rules called for reducing the size of the warnings to 50 percent of the pack.
Smoking kills about 1 million people in India each year, according to researchers at BMJ Global Health. The World Health Organization has called the debate on reducing the warnings size in India “worrisome”.
“Beedi industry is using this as an excuse. Samples show it is possible to print bigger warnings on their packs,” said Sanjay Seth of Voice of Tobacco Victims, an anti-tobacco campaign. (Reporting by Aditya Kalra, editing by Larry King)
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Inicio » Justiciabilidad & Litigios » Right to Education Initiative » Recursos
La crisis de libros de texto de Limpopo en Sudáfrica: Cómo Section27 recurrió a estrategias basadas en los derechos para asegurar la rendición de cuentas del gobierno
In South Africa, SECTION27 has used rights-based strategies, including litigation, to hold the state accountable for not ensuring the procurement and delivery of textbooks to schools across Limpopo, a poor rural area of the country.
Juma Musjid Primary School v Essay (Constitutional Court of South Africa; 2011)
In this decision, the Constitutional Court of South Africa held that an eviction order obtained by an owner of private land on which a public school was located could not be enforced where it would impact students’ right to basic education and the best interests of the child under the South African Constitution (sections 28 and 29). The Court held that a private landowner and non-sate actor has a constitutional obligation not to impair the right to basic education under section 29 of the Constitution. The Court also held that, unlike other socio-economic rights protected by the Constitution, the right to basic education is immediately realisable and any limitation of this right must be 'reasonable and justifiable in an open and democratic society based on human dignity, equality and freedom'.
Claim of unconstitutionality against article 183 of the General Education Law (Colombia Constitutional Court; 2010)
In this case, petitioners supported by the Colombian Coalition for the Right to Education filed a claim with the Constitutional Court of Colombia challenging a provision in the General Education Law (Law No. 115 of 1994), which allowed the government to impose fees for primary education. The Constitutional Court found that the provision of law that allowed the charging of fees for primary education was unenforceable and in violation of the Colombian Constitution and international human rights treaties. This decision reaffirmed that Colombian laws must be interpreted in light of the provisions of international human rights treaties, which have a superior standing. The decision also confirmed the fundamental nature of the right to free primary education.
Mohini Jain v Karnataka (Supreme Court of India; 1992)
In this case, a resident of Uttar Pradesh state challenged a notification issued by the Karnataka government that permitted private medical colleges to charge higher fees to students who were not allocated 'government seats'. The Supreme Court of India held that the charging of a ‘capitation fee’ by the private educational institutions violated the right to education, as implied from the right to life and human dignity, and the right to equal protection of the law. In the absence of an express constitutional right, the Court interpreted a right to education as a necessary condition for fulfilment of the right to life under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution. In addition, the Court held that private institutions, acting as agents of the State, have a duty to ensure equal access to, and non-discrimination the delivery of, higher education.
Environmental & Consumer Protection Foundation v Delhi (Supreme Court of India; 2012)
In response to a petition filed by an Indian charity, the Supreme Court of India directed the governments of all States and Union Territories to ensure that all schools, whether private or state-run, provide proper toilet facilities, drinking water, sufficient classrooms and capable teaching staff. The court held that, under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (2009) and the Indian Constitution, central, state and local governments have an obligation to ensure that all schools, both public and private, have adequate infrastructure. Adequate infrastructure includes safe drinking water, toilet facilities for boys and girls, sufficient class rooms and the appointment of teaching and non-teaching staff.
Society for Unaided Private Schools v India (Supreme Court of India; 2012)
In this decision, the Supreme Court of India upheld the constitutionality of section 12 of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (RTE Act), which requires all schools, both state-funded and private, to accept 25% intake of children from disadvantaged groups. However, the Court held that the RTE Act could not require private, minority schools to satisfy a 25% quota, as this would constitute a violation of the right of minority groups to establish private schools under the Indian Constitution. This case affirms that the authority of the State to fulfil its obligations under the right to education can be extended to private, non-State actors. Because the State has the authority to determine the manner in which it discharge this obligation, it can elect to impose statutory obligations on private schools so long as the requirements are in the public interest.
Louisiana Federation of Teachers v Louisiana (Supreme Court of Louisiana; 2013)
The Supreme Court of Louisiana held that Louisiana’s ‘Minimum Foundation Program’, which allocates educational funding to schools, could not be used to provide funding to privates schools by way of a voucher programme. It ruled that to do so violated article VIII, section 13 of the Louisiana Constitution, which establishes how monies are to be allocated to public schools based on a formula adopted by the state board of education. The Court recognised that public resources constitutionally reserved for public schools cannot be allocated to private school, either directly or indirectly through a voucher programme. The Court avoided addressing the issue of whether the school voucher programme itself violated the right to education provisions of the Louisiana Constitution.
Bush v Holmes (Supreme Court of Florida; 2006)
In this decision, the Florida Supreme Court held that a voucher program providing public funds to students to obtain private education failed to comply with article IX, section 1 of the Florida Constitution, which requires the state government to make adequate provision for education through a uniform system of free public schools. This decision confirms Florida’s constitutional obligation to provide high quality, free public education – a duty that cannot be discharged by funding unregulated private schools through a voucher or scholarship program. The decision is consistent with the principle that the State has the primary responsibility for ensuring that the right to education is upheld regardless of whether the provider is public or private, and that the State must ensure that private providers meet minimum educational standards.
Key resource
Accountability from a human rights perspective: The incorporation and enforcement of the right to education in the domestic legal order
RTE's background paper for the Global Education Monitoring Report 2017/8: Accountability in education: Meeting our commitments.
The purpose of the paper is to show how a human rights-based approach offers insights and practical solutions to address the accountability deficits found in both education policy decision-making and implementation, and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Specifically, the paper argues that a human rights-based approach to accountability can bolster public policy accountability by defining the responsibilities of authorities, ensuring they are answerable for actions regarding those responsibilities, and how they can be subject to forms of enforceable sanctions or remedial action for failures to carry out those responsibilities.
As the national government is the primary duty bearer for the right to education it is important for any report on accountability to start with the responsibilities of government. The paper provides an overview of the right to education legal framework to which States have legally committed, as well existing international and regional accountability mechanisms.
The paper then explores the connections between the 2030 Agenda, the Incheon Declaration, and human rights law. The Incheon Declaration affirms, ‘the vision and political will reflected in numerous international and regional human rights treaties that stipulate the right to education and its interrelation with other human rights” (para. 2). In the Declaration education is framed as both a “public good” and a “fundamental human right” (para. 5). However, whether a rights-based approached is consistent or present in the operationalisation of SDG4 has not been clearly debated. Part of this challenge is the diluted and often, overly simplistic notion of what the right to education entails. The paper seeks to better understand the similarities and differences of these two large global frames for education and includes a matrix that links the normative content of each framework. This matrix shows that the content of each is largely aligned, even if the processes are not. The paper argues that by recasting the content of SDG4 as part of the right to education, the legal obligations owed to that content can be invoked. This renders various elements of SDG4, if the state in question has legally committed to the right to education and incorporated the right to education in their domestic legal orders, amenable to adjudication by competent mechanisms, offering the possibility of legal accountability through legal enforcement.
The second half of the paper explores the prevalence of the right to education in national laws and the conditions necessary for the right to education to be successfully adjudicated at the national level. It provides an overview of how countries have incorporated the right to education in their domestic legal orders, as well as a list of countries where the right to education is justiciable. This is complemented by a series of case studies that draw out the requirements for successful adjudication at the national level.
At the national level the incorporation and implementation of the right to education, as required by international treaties, requires at least three stages. Firstly, countries must translate their international legal commitment into concrete action to ensure the full enjoyment of the right to education. This includes the incorporation of the right to education into the domestic legal order, through the adoption of education laws and policies. Secondly, countries must secure the right to education as a justiciable right. Lastly, the justiciable right to education must be able to be adjudicated fairly through the judicial system. Whilst the first stage is completed at a near universal level by countries, the final two stages, essential for the fulfilment of the right to education, are achieved by significantly fewer countries. Even when justiciability is present, various barriers may be present that hinder the adjudication of the right to education. Understanding how countries move from incorporation to application and implementation is essential to understanding whether the right to education is truly realised in a country. Our analysis shows that legal enforcement, through mechanisms competent to hold duty-bearers legally accountable, has a positive impact on the realisation of the right to education. Furthermore, little is known about how the political, social, and cultural context of a country limits or enables the adjudication of the right to education. This paper examines court cases from countries around the world to identify the conditions that enable the right to education to be realised through adjudication.
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News: Swinden House redevelopment plans submitted
By Tom Austen
Plans to build 100 new houses on the site of the Swinden Technology Centre (STC) in Rotherham have been submitted on behalf of Tata Steel.
The steelmaker has vacated the research and development site and the laboratories are being demolished. Tata considers that it is no longer a suitable home for the R&D arm and announced in 2014 that it is relocating research to Warwick University.
Property consultants Harris Lamb have been working on a masterplan for the 6.6 hectare Moorgate site and proposals went on show last year. The plans involve 101 new dwellings, keeping the Grade II-listed Swinden House and other historic buildings and converting them into 26 flats.
The planning application submitted this week is for full consent for the conversion of the retained buildings and outline consent to develop the remaining site including access.
The application states that "the scheme proposes to retain Swinden House, Sitwell House, the workshops and the former gatehouse. These will be refurbished and converted to residential use. The remaining laboratory buildings will be demolished to make way for the redevelopment of the site as housing."
The scheme, which has estimated development costs of over £30m, is set to create "a new build residential development focused on the location of the laboratory buildings, open spaces, car park and single area of open space" in order "to create a comprehensive residential scheme that marries the old and new.
"The site's main features; the heritage assets, tree belts and central open space will all be retained and managed, making them a centerpiece to the scheme."
A financial assessment submitted with the application explains that the high quality location, and the private "parkland" nature of the former Swinden Technology Centre, will generate an above average residential value compared with the general Rotherham area. It adds that the proposed specification of the residential development is likely to be the "higher end" new-build standard.
A range of dwelling sizes are included in the proposals, from one bedroom apartments to five bedroom houses. The types of dwelling range from apartments within the conversions to terraced, semi detached and detached houses. Anticipated sales values for the open market units sit between £168,432 and £532,400.
In terms of access, one-way access will come from the existing entrance on Moorgate Road, where the existing lodge will be retained. A new two-way access route from Beaconsfield Road is set to be created.
Rotherham Council adopted its Community Infrastructure Levy last year and developers behind new housing in the Moorgate area set to pay £55 per sq m. However, the planning consultants are discounting the levy as the site has been in its lawful use as an employment site.
The applicants are also hoping to provide no affordable housing as they consider that including 25% affordable housing would make the scheme unviable.
United Steels acquired the site in 1946 and in addition to research laboratories, it also includes Swinden House, the former home of Rotherham solicitor Thomas Badger, plus playing fields, tennis courts and orchards. The Grade II listed building, previously known as "Red House" was completed in around 1880. The stable block, walled garden and the lodge are also protected.
The site also includes Sitwell House, a late nineteenth century house that is not a listed building.
The facilities at STC were claimed to be, by the 1960s, one of the largest research organisations devoted to metallurgy in Europe.
It is understood that the Indian-owned steelmaker will sell the site if and when planning permission for the residential development is secured.
Images: Tata Steel / Harris Lamb
Labels: construction, Heritage, housing, investment, Rotherham, Swinden House, Tata Steel
Dennis, January 30, 2018 at 2:20 PM
One hopes that the Council make it clear that they have to pay the Infrastructure Levy and at last make the Affordable Housing payment, even if they don't want to provide it on that site.
They will be making enough profit from the nice (expensive) detached houses on site anyway. Don't let them argue their way out of their financial responsibilities.
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Rowan International Church has its roots in the spiritual quickening of the early 1990s when Liberians from various denominational backgrounds ignored their traditional religious boundaries and joined prayer band where they could hear from God and feel his POWER. Pastor Samuel Wlue, then a resident of Salisbury, felt God’s Call to formerly organize this group of worshippers into one that would long continue to challenge religious indifference and the aged old tendency of Christians to substitute vital and experiential relationship with Jesus Christ for religious tradition. The goal was to unite the body of Christ as Christ has intended (John 7:21) under the banner of the truth of God’s Words. All Christians are born of the same father (John 1:13), bought with the same price (1Corthinas 6:20), are all members of the same body (1 Corinthians 1:18) and are all thought by the same spirit (John 16:13), serve the same Master (Matthew 23:8), are heirs of the same inheritance (Romans 8:17) and are subject to one great commission (Mathew 28:19-20).
The result of this Holy Spirit led effort was the Rowan International Fellowship which gave birth to the Rowan International Church Incorporated. The Lord confirmed that conviction when it was no long before he led a sizable number of Liberians and other nationalities to join the Ministry. It had to be the Lord’s doing because the church had nothing to offer other than the truth. Consequently, we are confident that the path God has chosen for this Ministry is in harmony with the desire of Jesus Christ for the unity of his body as expressed in his prayers in (St John 17 “That they might all be one”). The congregation began worshipping in the Knox Middle School. In 1992, Pastor Wlue, through his association with the First Baptist Church of Salisbury, secured their Youth Center located on West Liberty Street where we worshipped until 2000. Pastor Wlue in furtherance of his scholastic career took sabbatical leave of absence and was replaced by Pastor Meally Freeman in 1998.
During Pastor Freeman’s administration, membership increased and substantial amount of money was raised that facilitated the construction of the current edifice. Rev. Freeman broadened the vision of the church by lunching the following ministries: Men's Ministry, Women's Ministry, Praise & Worship, Deacon Board, Trustee Board, Choir, Usher Board, and Youth Ministry. The Deacon board was organized and then ordained on April 30th, 2000. Among those ordained were, The Late Deacon Moses Yarsiah, The Late Deaconess Mary Steele Snetter, The Late Deacon David Blamo Woods whom we are honoring posthumously today, and Deaconess Nancy Cooper Holmes. Bylaws and Constitution were developed in 2001. The original trustee board members included George Edwards, James Paul, Roland Morris, Rogelio McLain and Salimatu Kemokai Reeves. The fellowship continued to worship in the First Baptist Church Youth center until 2001, when it was challenged by the First Baptist church to find another place to worship. Pressed with this demand, Bro. Francis N. Nyae was commissioned to search for a new place to conduct services. With God’s favor and Bro. Nyae’ s instrumentality and influence, he negotiated with the Principal of Salisbury High School, Dr. Eagle, to use the music center. In pursuit of higher education, Rev. Meally Freeman turned over the ranks to Pastor Jacob K. Doe in 2001, after leading the ministry for three years (1998-2001).
When Pastor Jacob Doe took over in 2001, the vision to construct the church edifice became even clearer. The Board of Trustee was then commissioned to build an edifice. The Church made a fifty thousand dollars ($55,000.00) down-payment to Litco to begin the construction. Grounds for the new edifice were broken on March 29th 2003. The building was completed in March of 2005 and Deaconess Saya Sio, through a friend, Regina Moss, secured a $100,000.00 loan at Mechanics and Farmers Bank. The Church moved to its new edifice on April 10, 2005. The church was formally incorporated on February 2, 2006 and received its 501(c) 3 status from the IRS on May 20, 2006.
Pastor Jacob Doe resigned in August of 2011 and the Church Selected Pastor Samar Ghandour to serve as head pastor. Under Pastor Ghandour’s administration, the church has experienced growth in various ministries including outreach & camp missions. The church purchased the adjacent building on April 10, 2014 for $20,600 cash.
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Facebook feuds with Apple over privacy changes that threaten its advertising business
On Wednesday, Facebook (FB) held a press event to trot out small businesses opposed to the change, debuted a new hashtag to discuss it and placed ads in several national newspapers excoriating Apple (AAPL) for the move.
In ads featured in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post, Facebook slammed Apple’s upcoming requirement for users to give explicit permission for apps to track them across the internet. Facebook said the move could be “devastating” to millions of small businesses that advertise on its platform.
The newspaper ads coincide with a new section of its Facebook for Business site called SpeakUpforSmall where Facebook is urging small business owners to share their story and giving them “a place to speak their mind.” It’s also encouraging small business owners to use the hashtag #SpeakUpForSmall on social media to share what personalized ads have meant to them and what it could be like without them.
Facebook, and the businesses who use it for marketing, rely on data tracking to target users with personalized advertising. The social media company, which makes almost all of its revenue from advertising, warned investors in August that Apple’s software changes could hurt its business.
The privacy change was announced at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference in June but is delayed until early 2021. During the event, Apple teased how a user would be shown a prompt asking if they want to allow tracking, warning that the data would be used for personalized ads.
Apple has repeatedly attempted to position itself as a defender of consumer privacy, describing the changes in September as stemming from its belief that “privacy is a fundamental human right.” Facebook, which has been criticized for its data privacy practices, is attempting to position itself as a defender of small businesses, many of which are grappling with the fallout from the pandemic.
“We’re standing up for small businesses everywhere,” the ads states. “Many in the small business community have shared concerns about Apple’s forced software updates, which will limit businesses’ ability to run personalized ads and reach their customers effectively. … These changes will be devastating to small businesses, adding to the many challenges they face right now.”
The Facebook for Business website states that about 44% of small businesses have turned to personalized ads to adapt to the outbreak of COVID-19.
In response to the campaign, Apple in a statement to CNN Business late Wednesday said, “We believe that this is a simple matter of standing up for our users.”
“Users should know when their data is being collected and shared across other apps and websites — and they should have the choice to allow that or not,” the statement continued. “App Tracking Transparency in iOS 14 does not require Facebook to change its approach to tracking users and creating targeted advertising, it simply requires they give users a choice.”
In a call with reporters on Wednesday, Dan Levy, Facebook’s VP of ads and business products, said the company wants to sit down with Apple “to figure out a way to move forward.”
“We disagree with Apple’s approach, yet we have no choice but to show their prompt,” the company said in a blog post on its site Wednesday. “If we don’t, we’ll face retaliation from Apple, which could only further harm the businesses we want to support. We can’t take that risk.”
Apple (AAPL) declined to respond to Facebook’s claims, but said it is committed to helping small businesses, such as with its new developer program to accelerate innovation.
The two companies have clashed before over privacy, including very recently. Last week, Facebook-owned WhatsApp criticized Apple over its move to display a summary of an app’s privacy practices before a user downloads it from the App Store, almost like a nutrition label for data collection.
In a statement to Axios, Facebook said Apple should be “consistent across first and third party apps as well as reflect the strong measures apps may take to protect people’s privacy.” In response, Apple told CNN Business the new label requirement also applies to pre-installed apps, such as iMessage, the camera and clock function.
In August, Facebook argued Apple’s in-app fees, such as a 30% fee for transactions that take place on apps, is negatively impacting small businesses during the pandemic. (Alphabet-owned Google requires the same charge).
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RJC Mourns Passing of Ariel Sharon
Washington, D.C. -- The Republican Jewish Coalition released a statement from RJC National Chairman David Flaum on the passing on former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon:
"We are deeply saddened by the passing of Ariel Sharon. He was a great warrior who fought wholeheartedly for Israel’s existence, security, and well-being from the very beginning of the State of Israel. He was willing to take risks and to lead from the front – on the battlefield and at the negotiating table.
"In 1998, the RJC had the privilege of taking four U.S. governors to Israel; one of them was then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush. Then-Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon took the governors on a helicopter tour of Israel that opened their eyes to the size of Israel, the proximity of her enemies, and the dangers she faces on all sides. That ride was also the beginning of a friendship between Bush and Sharon, two men who would soon become the elected leaders of their respective countries. This trip formed a strong bond between these leaders and fostered an historic strengthening of the U.S.-Israel relationship.
"Ariel Sharon’s strength and insight have been sorely missed in the years since his devastating stroke. We join with the people of Israel in mourning the loss of one of the true giants of Israel."
*The date of the governors' trip to Israel has been corrected.
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Ysgol Bryn Deva
Linden Avenue
CH5 4SN
Flintshire County Council
Nursery, Infants & Juniors
Estyn grade
Ysgol Bryn Deva Report Scottish Literacy Report Scottish Numeracy Report
School level results for primary schools were not published by the Welsh Government in 2019. We give a summary star rating based on the last available data as a helpful indicator to parents. This is to be used as a guide only. You can view national level results including the percentage of pupils across Wales achieving the expected levels for the Foundation Phase (age 7) and at Key Stage 2 (age 11) here.
NATIONAL AVG. 1
Support category
Green, yellow, amber or red
NATIONAL AVG. 22.0:1
Pupil/Teacher ratio
NATIONAL AVG. 94.6%
Attendance during the year
Language of the school
Bryn Deva County Primary School is in Connah’s Quay in Flintshire local authority. Most pupils come from the immediate vicinity. The school has 273 pupils aged three to eleven years on roll, including 30 who attend the nursery on a part-time basis. There are ten classes, including nine that are mixed-age. Many pupils are of white British ethnicity. A few pupils are from a minority ethnic background. Approximately 15% of pupils are new to the English language. Very few pupils come from Welsh speaking families. The school has identified about 34% of pupils as having additional learning needs. This figure is above the national average for primary schools (25%). A very few pupils have a statement of special educational needs. Around 26% of pupils are eligible for free school meals. A very few pupils are looked after by the local authority. There were four fixed-term exclusions during the last academic year, 2014 to2015. The last inspection of the school was in March 2013. The current headteacher took up the post in November 2013. The individual school budget per pupil for Bryn Deva County Primary School in 2015-2016 means that the budget is £3,086 per pupil. The maximum per pupil in the primary schools in Flintshire is £4,838 and the minimum is £2,809. Bryn Deva County primary School is 51st out of the 67 primary schools in Flintshire in terms of its school budget per pupil.
Ysgol Bryn Deva Catchment Area Map
Pupil Level Annual School Census 2019
01352 704 068/704073
This School Guide heat map has been plotted using official pupil data taken from the Pupil Level Annual School Census collected by the Welsh Government. The data tells us where pupils lived at the time of the last Pupil Census (released annually in July).
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Any day is good day for a mad tea party or an "unbirthday"! Special Alice days, however, are July 4th, the day of the "Golden Afternoon" which inspired Lewis Carroll to devise his story of a little girl tumbling down a rabbit hole, or November 26, the day of the initial publication of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
Scroll all the way down for Chapter 10's "The Lobster Quadrille."
And for a collection of curious and curiouser Alice in Wonderland themed Scottish tartans, click here!
Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, won't you join the dance?
~The Lobster Quadrille
Above: G. W. Backhouse, 1951
Selected Dances
(click for more holiday folklore and background information)
Cabbages and Kings
Alice in Wonderland Day
A summer's day boating ride on the "Isis" (the River Thames) on May 4th 1862 was the day of the "Golden Afternoon" which inspired Lewis Carroll to write down the fanciful stories he told to the Dean of Oxford's three daughters, Ina, Edith, and the forever immortalized Alice, in his stories "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There." Lewis Carroll was the pseudonym of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, author and mathematician at Christ Church University, Oxford, where he made the acquaintance of the Dean of Christ Church and Vice-Chancellor of Oxford's family. Though the extent to which Dodgson's Alice may be or could be identified with Alice Liddell is controversial, her full name does appear in an acrostic poem at the end of Through the Looking-Glass, "A Boat Beneath a Sunny Sky". Curiouser and curiouser! 🌹♠️♥️♦️♣️🐇
Along with the Mona Lisa, one of the most famous smiles belongs to the Cheshire Cat from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, known for its distinctive mischievous grin, which lingers even as the cat itself disappears. The expression "grinning like a Cheshire Cat" predates the story, and has many origin theories, including the one favoured by the people of Cheshire, which boasts numerous dairy farms - cats in Cheshire grin because of the abundance of milk and cream. Another theory relates to a time when cheese formerly sold in Cheshire was moulded like a grinning cat. The cheese was traditionally cut from the tail end, so that the last part eaten was the head of the smiling cat. 😸
Mad Hatter Day
Mad Hatter Day, October 6th, was derived from the original illustrations of the Hatter (with its hanging price tag "10/6" translating from 10 shillings 6 pence to this date in the month/day format) from Lewis Carroll's classic fantasy story, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The expression, "mad as a hatter," a term which predates Carroll's stories, lives on in the terms "Mad hatter disease," or "mad hatter syndrome," which describe occupational chronic mercury poisoning symptoms common amongst hat makers whose felting work involved prolonged exposure to mercury vapors. 🎩 🎉 ☕
A Curious and Nonsensical Index of Dances
(click for dance description or cribs)
For the dance description of the Lobster Quadrille, see below from Chapter 10:
The Mock Turtle sighed deeply, and drew the back of one flapper across his eyes. He looked at Alice, and tried to speak, but for a minute or two sobs choked his voice. 'Same as if he had a bone in his throat,' said the Gryphon: and it set to work shaking him and punching him in the back. At last the Mock Turtle recovered his voice, and, with tears running down his cheeks, he went on again:—
You may not have lived much under the sea—' (I haven't,' said Alice)—'and perhaps you were never even introduced to a lobster- -' (Alice began to say 'I once tasted—' but checked herself hastily, and said 'No, never') '—so you can have no idea what a delightful thing a Lobster Quadrille is!'
'No, indeed,' said Alice. 'What sort of a dance is it?'
'Why,' said the Gryphon, 'you first form into a line along the sea-shore—'
'Two lines!' cried the Mock Turtle. 'Seals, turtles, salmon, and so on; then, when you've cleared all the jelly-fish out of the way—'
'That generally takes some time,' interrupted the Gryphon.
'—you advance twice—'
'Each with a lobster as a partner!' cried the Gryphon.
'Of course,' the Mock Turtle said: 'advance twice, set to partners—'
'—change lobsters, and retire in same order,' continued the Gryphon.
'Then, you know,' the Mock Turtle went on, 'you throw the—'
'The lobsters!' shouted the Gryphon, with a bound into the air.
'—as far out to sea as you can—'
'Swim after them!' screamed the Gryphon.
'Back to land again, and that's all the first figure,' said the Mock Turtle, suddenly dropping his voice; and the two creatures, who had been jumping about like mad things all this time, sat down again very sadly and quietly, and looked at Alice.
'It must be a very pretty dance,' said Alice timidly.
'Would you like to see a little of it?' said the Mock Turtle.
'Very much indeed,' said Alice.
'Come, let's try the first figure!' said the Mock Turtle to the Gryphon. 'We can do without lobsters, you know. Which shall sing?'
'Oh, you sing,' said the Gryphon. 'I've forgotten the words.'
So they began solemnly dancing round and round Alice, every now and then treading on her toes when they passed too close, and waving their forepaws to mark the time, while the Mock Turtle sang this, very slowly and sadly:—
'"Will you walk a little faster?" said a whiting to a snail. "There's a porpoise close behind us, and he's treading on my tail. See how eagerly the lobsters and the turtles all advance! They are waiting on the shingle—will you come and join the dance? Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, will you join the dance? Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, won't you join the dance?
"You can really have no notion how delightful it will be When they take us up and throw us, with the lobsters, out to sea!" But the snail replied "Too far, too far!" and gave a look askance— Said he thanked the whiting kindly, but he would not join the dance. Would not, could not, would not, could not, would not join the dance. Would not, could not, would not, could not, could not join the dance. '
"What matters it how far we go?" his scaly friend replied. "There is another shore, you know, upon the other side. The further off from England the nearer is to France— Then turn not pale, beloved snail, but come and join the dance. Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, will you join the dance? Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, won't you join the dance?"'
"Enchanted Garden"
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State should lead by example and pay Gardaí a living wage – Ó Clochartaigh
New Garda recruits are living on the bread line according to Sinn Féin Senator Trevor Ó Clochartaigh.
Speaking in response to a number of complaints from members of An Garda Síochána, Senator Ó Clochartaigh said:
“I was shocked to hear that after Graduation a new Garda’s salary is a mere €23,171 before tax. In 2009 a graduating Gardaí was paid €31,000 (€27,000 plus €4,000 Rent Allowance). However in 2010 there was a pay cut of 10% for Gardaí, plus a further cut of 10% for new employees.”
“New recruits no longer receive a pensionable Rent Allowance of approx. €4,000 per annum - an allowance that has been in place since the inception of An Garda Síochána and one that all members of the service rely on and view as regular pay. Worth about €77 per week, the loss of this can mean the difference between being able to pay the rent or put food on the table.”
“A salary of €23,171 is not enough to survive on, especially for many recruits who will be sent to Dublin and faced with high rents, and the need to own a car (due to shift work), etc.
“I am sure the 300 new recruits are proud to be members of An Garda Síochána; they would have battled through a tough recruitment process which started off with 25,000 applicants. However the ongoing race to the bottom in terms of worker rights, pay and conditions presided over by this government cannot and should not be tolerated.”
“How can the Minister stand over this the cut to the rent allowance– €27,000 is hardly a high salary by any standards.”
“Gardaí are workers and they should be treated with respect and dignity in terms of pay and conditions. The state has a duty of care to its workers. It should set an example and stop behaving as a bad employer.”
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A hole in the wall can be seen from inside the Best Buy store off U.S. 280 where someone gained access to the store in an apparent burglary attempt. (CONTRIBUTED)
Best Buy store broken into
By Stephen Dawkins
Published 12:53 pm Wednesday, December 7, 2016
NORTH SHELBY – An apparent attempted burglary at the Best Buy store off U.S. 280 appears to have been unsuccessful.
A culprit gained entry to the story by busting a hole in a wall with an unknown tool, but Birmingham Police said an inventory conducted by the business has revealed no stolen items, according to Lt. Sean Edwards, public information officer for Birmingham Police Department.
At about 3:08 a.m. Nov. 28, an alarm at the store was activated but no call was made to police by the alarm company, according to detective’s notes provided by Edwards.
At about 3:56 a.m., a second alarm went off, and police were notified and arrived at the scene about four minutes later.
A search of the area produced no suspects. Also, surveillance video was little help because of a lack of light.
“It appeared that there was only one suspect that entered the business through the hole on the wall,” the detective’s notes read. “Security video from the surrounding area businesses has been negative so far; however there was a lot cleaning crew present in the area at the time of the burglary. Interviews with that crew will be conducted soon.”
Detectives were notified by Best Buy regional investigators that this type of incident have been reported throughout the region, with some suspects entering through a hole in the wall and others entering through a ceiling vent.
One suspect, in Indiana, has been taken into custody in these incidents.
Expert: Businesses need emergency plans
HOOVER – Preparedness was the focus of a meeting of the Hoover Area Chamber of Commerce Economic Development Committee... read more
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Falcon Heavy launch to provide Aussie weather monitoring satellites
SpaceX has launched its largest rocket so far, as the Falcon Heavy blasted off from Cape Canaveral on Tuesday Australian time carrying 24 research satellites and 152 paying passengers.
Last Updated: 14 April 2020 Published: 28 June 2019
Admittedly the passengers weren’t appreciating the experience as they were long dead, their ashes placed in low-Earth orbit as a lucrative sideline of the space launch business.
Of greater relevance to Australia was the launch of the six COSMIC-2 weather satellites designed to improve global weather forecasting and space weather monitoring.
Satellite data underpins the weather and climate services delivered by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, and the COSMIC-2 mission was expected to bring major benefits to Australia, including better storm forecasting, especially in warm, tropical areas near the equator.
Bureau of Meteorology chief data officer Dr Anthony Rea, said the bureau was pleased to be playing a role in this international effort.
"The bureau's technical experts will be working closely with our international partners to ensure the successful deployment of the COSMIC-2 satellites and monitoring them from the bureau's ground station in Middle Point, Northern Territory," he said.
"The bureau has a large network of ground stations from which we can send and receive signals from satellites. This enables us to make a valuable contribution to international space missions, such as COSMIC-2. In the case of COSMIC-2, we will be sending commands to the satellites as well as downlinking real-time data."
COSMIC is actually an acronym for Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere and Climate. COSMIC-2 follows the initial COSMIC satellite mission, launched in 2006.
Each COSMIC-2 satellite is about the size of a standard kitchen oven and carries a precision GPS receiver.
As COSMIC-2 satellites orbit the Earth, they receive signals from GPS satellites that are distorted as they pass through the Earth’s atmosphere, a process known as radio occultation.
COSMIC-2 can detect those distortions in the signal that can be used to determine atmospheric density, temperature, pressure and moisture in near real time.
As secondary payloads, COSMIC-2 also carry three instruments to detect electron density and other space weather information.
The first COSMIC mission satellites circled the Earth in near polar orbits but COSMIC-2 satellites will orbit near the equator, taking measurements of the tropics and subtropics, and monitoring the ionosphere for the effects of solar storms.
This was the third Falcon Heavy launch but the first contracted by the US military for the the US Air Force Space Test Program-2 (STP-2), designed to provide lower cost launches by commercial providers.
To reduce costs, the aim is to reuse rocket components. Two side boosters landed back at Cape Canaveral several minutes after liftoff, as they did after the launch in April. The nose cone was caught in a giant net at sea.
However, the new core booster missed an ocean platform in what SpaceX boss Elon Musk termed a RUD – rapid unscheduled disassembly. That wasn’t unexpected as this was a difficult mission with success billed as no higher than 50-50.
On this mission was the US Orbital Test Bed satellite, carrying a number of science experiments including NASA’s Deep Space Atomic Clock intended to test the performance of a small highly accurate clock, which could aid in navigation for future deep space missions.
This satellite also carried a payload from Celestis, a company that organises for cremated remains of people and even their pets to be sent into space.
Remains sent into orbit stay within their capsules in the satellite and burn up when the satellite re-enters the atmosphere.
The basic service costs US$2,495 to go to the edge of space and back to Earth, US$4,995 to be placed in orbit and US$12,500 for remains to be sent to the moon.
Airbus T-16 satellite launched on Ariane 5
SpaceX Falcon Heavy launches with NASA tech missions
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Lindsay Lohan’s Show
February 23, 2008 February 23, 2008 by admin
Dina, who is the mother of Lindsay Lohan, will clear her showbiz family in a new show.
Her mother will show off her life as manager of Lindsay and her other daughter Ali’s showbiz careers in show and she promises her A-list offspring will make an appearance to boost ratings.
She revealed, “This show is more about our family, and Ali’s music, and what we do. Setting the record straight about what’s been written about our family.”
She continued, “Lindsay will be in and out of the show. She’s my daughter! Lindsay told me ‘absolutely not’ when I asked if she was going to be involved.”
She added, “I don’t have any interest in that. I’m working for the church and I’m working on a mission for a crisis center.”
Scarlett Johansson Is Not Engaged
Nicole Kidman Wanted To Do Movies For Kids
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$15 Flights to Europe Announced by Ryanair
Airfare Deals Mar 17, 2015
(Update: March 20, 2015, 12 p.m. EST) Ryanair has retracted its statement that it will run transatlantic flights between the U.S. and Europe. On March 19, Ryanair released this statement: “In the light of recent press coverage, the board of Ryanair Holdings Pic wishes to clarify that it has not considered or approved any transatlantic project and does not intend to do so.”
For the likes of airlines including American, British Airways, and Virgin Atlantic, flights between the U.S. and Europe have been reliable cash cows, largely immune to the corrosive effects of competition from low-cost airlines.
It’s not that low-cost carriers haven’t tried. Famously, Sir Freddie Laker’s Skytrain began selling tickets between New York and London in 1977 for as little as 32.50 pounds each way.
The cheap flight party lasted until February 1982, when the one-two punch of a recession and competitors’ predatory pricing forced the airline out of business.
Related: The Sneaky New Way Airlines Are Raising Fares
More recently, Norwegian Air, Europe’s third-largest budget carrier, has thrown its hat into the low-price Transatlantic ring, boasting New York-London fares for as low as $259.90 each way.
But it’s been dribs and drabs, fits and starts, and stops. None of the would-be budget Transatlantic carriers has reached critical mass and sustained it long enough to force the full-service airlines to lower their ticket prices. A change, however, may be in the air.
This week, Ryanair’s board gave the airline the go-ahead to launch flights between as many as 14 U.S. cities and a comparable number of cities in Europe. According to coverage of Ryanair’s plans by The Guardian, the airline envisions one-way fares beginning at a staggeringly low 10 pounds (about $15 at current exchange rates).
Related: Europe’s Cheapest Cities in 2015
Budget travelers will have to put their trip planning on hold for the time being. The new service could take as long as five years to materialize, depending on the availability of long-haul planes Ryanair will need to operate the new flights.
For $30 round-trip, plus whatever add-on fees Ryanair can squeeze from passengers, travelers can expect barely tolerable legroom and bare-bones service.
Related: 7 Secrets to Booking Ultralow Airfares
For some, the comfort trade-off will make Ryanair a non-starter. But even those who spurn Ryanair’s cramped flights will benefit from its presence in the market, as the incumbent carriers are forced to cut ticket prices to fill seats.
It’s been a long time coming, but Freddie Laker’s dream of reliably budget-priced flights between the U.S. and Europe may be just a few years away.
Reader Reality Check
How much comfort are you willing give up to enjoy rock-bottom ticket prices?
low-cost airline
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Formation Issues
Equity Incentives
Oh No They Didn’t! Websites Can Lose DMCA Protection By Using Moderators
In a recent decision, the Ninth Circuit held that the use of so-called community moderators by social media platform LiveJournal created a...
Written by Amit Singh May 19 · 2 min read >
In a recent decision, the Ninth Circuit held that the use of so-called community moderators by social media platform LiveJournal created a question as to whether the site was shielded by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s safe harbor provision from copyright infringement. This is a major decision that limits the availability of the safe harbor protection for sites that use moderators to review user-submitted posts.
LiveJournal allows users to create communities in which they post and comment on content related to the theme. It has different levels of moderators who run the communities and ensure compliance with the forum’s rules.
Mavrix Photographs, a celebrity photography company, filed a lawsuit in April 2013 over 20 copyrighted images posted to “Oh No They Didn’t,” an online community which features celebrity news and gossip. LiveJournal quickly won a ruling that the safe harbor of the DMCA shielded it from liability. In order to be eligible for the Section 512(c) safe harbor, LiveJournal needed to show the photographs were posted at the direction of the user. The district court held that although moderators screened and posted ONTD’s posts, the posts were at the direction of the user.
“LiveJournal is simply the operator of an online platform on which anyone can create his or her own individual blog or start a group blog based on shared interests,” U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney wrote in a September 2014 ruling.
9th Circuit Decision
Overturning the district court in a decision April 7, the Ninth Circuit said the judge erred in rejecting Mavrix’s argument that the moderators are LiveJournal’s agents, making LiveJournal liable for the moderators’ acts. It said the record raised genuine issues of material fact regarding the level of control LiveJournal exercised over the moderators.
For example, although they are volunteers, the court said the moderators performed a “vital function” in LiveJournal’s business model and were given express directions about their screening functions, including criteria for accepting or rejecting posts. It also noted that LiveJournal hired a paid moderator to oversee the volunteers and could select and remove them on the basis of their performance.
“This evidence raises genuine issues of material fact regarding the level of control LiveJournal exercised over the moderators,” it wrote. “From the evidence currently in the record, reasonable jurors could conclude that an agency relationship existed.”
The decision raises a potential conflict with the Tenth Circuit, which considered the scope of the Section 512(c) safe harbor in an April 2016 decision. In BWP Media USA Inc. v. Clarity Digital Group. LLC, the Tenth Circuit held that a service provider’s contractors were “users” rather than agents under the DMCA. The Ninth Circuit acknowledged the apparent split in a footnote, writing: “To the extent that BWP’s holding contradicts our case law that common law principles of agency apply to the DMCA such that a service provider is liable for the acts of its agents, including its employees, we reject it.”
While the Ninth Circuit based its decision on the relationship between LiveJournal and its moderators, the court offered guidance on other elements of the DMCA safe harbor that it said “may be contested on remand.” If the photographs were posted at the direction of the user, LiveJournal must then show that it lacked both actual and red flag knowledge of the infringements, and that it did not financially benefit from infringements that it had the right and ability to control. Failure to establish either of these conditions would mean it is not eligible for the safe harbor.
The Ninth Circuit said the issue of whether LiveJournal had actual knowledge of infringement shouldn’t be limited to considering whether Mavrix notified it of infringement. It should also include an assessment of LiveJournal’s subjective knowledge of the infringing nature of the posts, the court said. The Ninth Circuit further noted that the “right and ability to control” involves “something more than the ability to remove or block access to materials posted on a service provider’s website.” It said the lower court must assess whether LiveJournal’s review process, infringement list and blocker tool constituted high levels of control to show “something more.”
The ruling demonstrates that an internet service provider might lose DMCA safe harbor protections even when it has procedures in place to expeditiously take down allegedly infringing user-generated material. It remains to be seen how platforms’ use of moderators might be impacted, though the decision appears to incentivize them to exercise less oversight of content that has been submitted by users.
Written by Amit Singh
Deadlines For DMCA Agent Renewals Fast Approaching
Amit Singh in Intellectual Property, Reference Materials
Delaware Supreme Court Upholds Dismissal Of Trade Secrets Case Against PE Fund
Amit Singh in Corporate Governance, Formation Issues, Intellectual Property, Mergers & Acquisitions, Venture Capital
Mar 6, 2019 · 1 min read
Doing Business Overseas? You Need To Know About BE-120
Aug 9, 2018 · 1 min read
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© Copyright 2016-2020 Amit Singh
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Force For Change // APRIL 13, 2019
SWCC 2019: Disney and Lucasfilm Team Up with FIRST to Inspire the Next Generation of Heroes and Innovators
Plus, Star Wars: Force for Change launches a Twitter sweepstakes in support of FIRST -- where you can enter for the chance to win a vacation to visit Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland Resort.
Just announced at Star Wars Celebration Chicago, Lucasfilm and parent company Disney, and the global K-12 nonprofit organization FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) are teaming up to inspire the next generation of heroes and innovators. As part of their Star Wars: Force for Change philanthropic initiative, Disney and Lucasfilm are providing a $1.5 million donation, in-kind, and mentorship resources to help expand access to FIRST programs for more students globally, with a focus on underserved communities.
“Star Wars has always inspired young people to look past what is and imagine a world beyond,” said Kathleen Kennedy, president of Lucasfilm. “It is crucial that we pass on the importance of science and technology to young people — they will be the ones who will have to confront the global challenges that lie ahead. To support this effort, Lucasfilm and Disney are teaming up with FIRST to bring learning opportunities and mentorship to the next generation of innovators.”
In a video played during the Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge panel at Star Wars Celebration Chicago, the legendary Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) announced the new collaboration — as well as a Twitter sweepstakes for a chance to win a vacation to visit Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland Resort, to help spread awareness of FIRST. This vacation will also include a guided tour by a Disney Imagineer throughout the all-new land. Visit the official Star Wars Twitter account at twitter.com/starwars and retweet the announce video with #StarWarsFFCSweepstakes between April 13-22 to enter. You can watch the video above, which also features FIRST mentors and students discussing the impact of the community on their lives, from learning problem-solving skills, to teamwork, to the art and science of robotics design.
As a robotics community, FIRST has inspired millions of students and provided opportunities that prepared young people for the future. Each year, more than 600,000 students participate in team-based, mentor-guided FIRST programs in 100+ countries around the world, building confidence in STEM and growing into well-rounded, community-focused leaders of the future.
“Disney has been a long-time supporter of FIRST, providing mentorship, support and even hosting our FIRST Championship event over the years.” said Donald E. Bossi, president of FIRST. “This is an incredible opportunity to bring together world-class Star Wars storytellers and engineers, their passionate fans, and the innovative, inspirational community of FIRST to expand access to our programs and raise a generation of global STEM citizens.”
Stay tuned to StarWars.com for more on Star Wars: Force for Change and this new collaboration with FIRST.
StarWars.com. All Star Wars, all the time.
Visit StarWars.com’s Star Wars Celebration Chicago hub for all the latest Celebration news.
Site tags: #StarWarsCelebrationChicago2019, #SWCCNews
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Enter Sweepstakes between 4/13/19 at 8:00 AM PDT and 4/22/19 at 11:59 PM PDT. Open to legal residents of the 50 U.S. & D.C., Puerto Rico and Canada (excluding Quebec), who are 13+ at time of entry. Limit 1 entry per person. Visit https://starwars.com/FFCsweeps for Official Rules including details on how to enter, eligibility requirements, odds of winning, prize descriptions and limitations. Void in Quebec and where prohibited. Sponsor: Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC, 1110 Gorgas Ave, San Francisco, CA 94129.
TAGS: Star Wars Celebration Chicago (2019), Star Wars: Force for Change
Support Star Wars: Force for Change at Disney Parks Starting May 4, 2016
SWCC 2019: 6 Things We Learned from the Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge Panel
Fans Were Out in Full Force at Star Wars Celebration Chicago
The Force Awakens Again at Star Wars Celebration Anaheim 2020
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Ky. Hospital Pays $16.5M To End False Billing Claims
Law360, Washington (January 29, 2014, 4:37 PM EST) -- A unit of KentuckyOne Health Inc. has agreed to pay $16.5 million to resolve whistleblower claims alleging it billed Medicare and Medicaid for unnecessary heart procedures and violated the Anti-Kickback Statute, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday.
According to the government's allegations, a number of cardiologists associated with St. Joseph Health System Inc., owner of London, Ky.-based St. Joseph London Hospital, billed the government for numerous invasive cardiac procedures performed between January 2008 and August 2011 on Medicare and Medicaid patients who did not need them, in violation of the False Claims Act.
"We all rely on health care providers to make treatment decisions based on clinical, not financial, considerations," U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky Kerry B. Harvey said in a statement Tuesday. "The conduct alleged in this case violates that fundamental trust and squanders scarce public resources set aside for legitimate health care needs."
These unnecessary procedures, performed by doctors from the Cumberland Clinic — a physician group that had an exclusive arrangement to perform cardiology services at the hospital — included diagnostic catheterizations, coronary stents, pacemakers and coronary artery bypass graft surgeries, at a cost of between $10,000 and $15,000 for each procedure, the announcement claimed.
In addition to the $16.5 million payout, the deal includes a corporate integrity agreement between the hospital and the U.S. Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General, requiring the hospital to undertake "substantial" internal compliance reforms, and conduct a third-party review of claims submitted to federal health care programs for the next five years, the DOJ said.
The settlement also resolves claims that the hospital violated the Anti-Kickback Statute and Stark Law — which bars doctors from referring government-funded patients to facilities they have a financial relationship with — by entering into sham "management agreements" with Cumberland doctors to induce them to refer patients to the hospital.
St. Joseph said in a statement Tuesday that it had not admitted to any violation of law in the agreement, but entered into the deal to "avoid the expense and uncertainty of prolonged litigation."
"We are pleased to have reached this agreement so that we can move forward," St. Joseph London President Greg Gerard said.
The hospital also noted that it no longer has a relationship with the doctors named in the suit and has since established a new leadership team — including the appointment of a corporate responsibility officer — as well as having begun to implement a number of procedures outlined in its agreement with the HHS OIG.
The settlement stems in large part from a qui tam whistleblower suit filed in March 2011 by three Lexington, Ky.-based cardiologists, as well as the voluntary disclosure by St. Joseph that one of its cardiologists, Sandesh Patil, had performed medically unnecessary coronary stent operations, the DOJ said. Patil was previously sentenced to 30 months in prison for health care fraud.
The whistleblowers — Michael Jones, Paula Hollingsworth and Michael Rukavina — will share a little over $2.4 million from the settlement, as well as $295,000 for fees and costs, with Kentucky nabbing about $366,000 for its share of Medicaid funds paid out to the hospital.
Andrew Beato, counsel for the relators, praised the deal in a statement Tuesday, saying the conduct of the doctors accused in the case was "unconscionable" and "a serious threat to public health and patient safety."
"The courageous actions of these whistleblowers helped bring to an end deplorable conduct that hurt patients and their families for no reason other than greed," Beato said.
The suit will continue against other defendants named in the complaint — Patil and fellow doctors Ashwini Anand and Satyabrata Chatterjee, as well as related clinics — as will a related criminal investigation, according to the government.
The relators are represented by Andrew M. Beato and Jed Wulfekotte of Stein Mitchell Muse & Cipollone LLP.
St. Joseph is represented by Daniel Reinberg of Polsinelli PC.
Counsel information for the doctor defendants wasn’t immediately available.
The case is U.S. ex rel. Jones, Hollingworth and Rukavina v. St. Joseph Health System Inc. et al., case number 6:11-cv-00081, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky.
Link to article: https://www.law360.com/articles/504737/ky-hospital-pays-16-5m-to-end-false-billing-claims
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Steven Roy Management and Cambyses Financial Advisors, LLC
Full Spectrum Business, Tax, and Management
Nastaran Motiei MBA
Nastaran is Steven Roy Management's Chief Executive Officer(CEO) and CEO-Managing Member for our financial services affiliate, Cambyses Financial Advisors, LLC. Nastaran supervises and guides our project management, banking, and interim CFO services; provides analytics and due diligence in connection with our business planning projects; and is broker of record for insurance activities.
Nastaran brings over thirty years of financial planning, banking industry, light manufacturing, and project management experience to her role in Steven Roy Management. Recent projects include compliance and stress testing services (DFAST and CCAR) for a major Southern California bank, and structural financial and risk exposure analysis for an aerospace specialty manufacturer.
Nastaran is an MBA graduate of University of Massachusetts (Amherst). She holds Series 5, 7, 26, 63, and 65 securities registrations (CRD #5836735) and several life, annuity, and health insurance Registrations (0G79012). Nastaran is Project Management Professional (PMP) certified (PMP Number: 2599579)
Contact Nastaran
Contact Steven
Steven J Roy MS, MST, EA, MRP
Fellow of the National Tax Practice Institute
Steven is currently Chief Operations Officer of Steven Roy Management, and Chief Operations and Compliance Officer for Cambyses Financial Advisors, LLC. For nearly forty-five years Steven has provided business development, management consulting, financial management, and tax services to aviation, entertainment, hospitality, technology, service companies, and real estate ventures. Through Steven Roy Management, Cambyses, and their predecessors, Steven has provided financial expertise to over 1,100 business ventures.
Steven has served as a director, officer, or trustee for over thirty-five public and privately held companies. He taught finance, taxation, and management to fellow professionals through UCLA Extension Services, has been a contributing editor for several professional journals, and has authored four book length publications (finance, tax, and economics). Steven was recognized as a Fellow of the National Tax Practice Institute in July 2003.
A community activist, Steven supports not-for-profit organizations, civic and municipal activities, and churches-church administrators. He currently serves on the Board and as CFO for Advanced Heliophysics (A joint research project of JPL, UCLA, Cal-Tech, NASA, and NOAA), and Future XO. He is a Board Member of the Los Angeles Mounted Police Foundation and a management advisor to The New Festival, New York's LGBTQ Film Festival. Steven has served on the board of directors for the Tennessee Shakespeare Festival, World Heart Association and over 50 other arts, social, and humanitarian organizations. He was a member of the IRS National Technology Task Force and a financial affairs consultant to the United States Green Building Council and the Los Angeles Public Safety Employee Division. Internationally (through Crisis Recovery International) Steven has assisted development projects in Nepal (Women for Human Rights), Sri Lanka (Association of War Affected Women), India, Viet Nam, and the Philippines.
A graduate of UCLA (BS) and USC (MS), Steven also holds an MS in Taxation from California State University, Fullerton, and professional designations or certifications in real estate investment, financial planning, entertainment finance, accounting and equine operations. Steven is a licensed California Real Estate Broker (CalBRE License # 01706626) and broker of record for Steven J Roy Management. He is Managing Member and an Investment Advisor Representative (CRD #6499051) for Cambyses Financial Advisors LLC (CRD #230786). He is also an Enrolled Agent (Federal Registration #036074) and is enrolled to practice before the Internal Revenue Service’s Compliance, Examination, Appeal, and Collections Divisions.
Dr. David A Lee
David Lee provides management and marketing advisory services to our clients and assists when we market our real estate investment funds and owner/user syndications.
David brings a wealth experience to Steven Roy Management. In addition to his role in our investment funds, David acts as Vice President for Sales and Marketing for Steven J Roy Management. Since 1974 David has been President of Basic Analysis, a sales and marketing organization serving a number of engineering and engineering support companies including Taylor Devices. David has served as West Coast Technical Director of Taylor Devices, and as Vice President of Tayco, a Taylor subsidiary. In these capacities David has been responsible for sales and marketing of commercial and military shock and vibration isolators, and has supplied mechanical and structural engineering design and analysis services.
Among his more interesting assignments, David served as head of TRW’s Engineering Design Section overseeing and supervising design of the LEM descent module, the VELA Hotel satellite, associated ground support and special test equipment, dynamic balancing machines, and a variety of ordnance devices. David currently holds 10 active patents and has authored over 15 technical papers on topics ranging from the design and analysis of flexures for use in rocket engines to balancing systems for spacecraft.
David holds a BS in Structural Engineering from California Institute of Technology and an MS and PhD from the University of Southern California. A community activist, David currently sits on the Boards of Directors of the Wain Foundation and the Los Angeles Mounted Police Foundation. David is a licensed California Real Estate Agent, CalBRE # 01717843, and holds a Series 65 securities registration (CRD #2725610).
© 2014-2020 by Steven J Roy Management. Steven J Roy Management is an equal housing opportunity broker, California Bureau of Real Estate license number 01706626. Steven J Roy Management is affiliated with Cambyses Financial Advisors, LLC a Registered Investment Advisor - CRD 230786 - Proudly created with Wix.com
The facts and information on these pages are reproduced from sources we have found to be reliable, but we cannot guarantee accuracy or completeness. Our observations and conclusions are general in nature and may not apply to specific situations. Nothing in this website should be construed as professional advice or professional opinion. Please consult your own advisors on matters of law, accounting and finance, taxes, insurance, planning, and investment before making significant decisions.
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All We Have Left
Bloomsbury Children's Books
A haunting and heart-wrenching story of two girls, two time periods, and the one event that changed their lives—and the world—forever.
Sixteen-year-old Jesse is used to living with the echoes of the past. Her older brother died in the September 11th attacks, and her dad has filled their home with anger and grief. When Jesse gets caught up with the wrong crowd, one momentary hate-fueled decision turns her life upside down. The only way to make amends is to face the past, starting Jesse on a journey that will reveal the truth about how her brother died.
In 2001, sixteen-year-old Alia is proud to be Muslim... it's being a teenager that she finds difficult. After being grounded for a stupid mistake, Alia is determined to show her parents that that they must respect her choices. She'll start by confronting her father at his office in downtown Manhattan, putting Alia in danger she never could have imagined. When the planes collide into the Twin Towers Alia is trapped inside one of the buildings. In the final hours she meets a boy who will change everything for her as the flames rage around them . . .
Interweaving stories past and present, full of heartbreak and hope, two girls come of age in an instant, learning that both hate and love have the power to reverberate into the future and beyond.
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Winning the Devil’s Bargain
When the business world compromises an individual’s values, courage and climate can make all the difference.
by Elizabeth Doty
I had my first moment of truth with an organization back in 1985, when I realized I would have to either leave my job or compromise my own integrity. It happened at the end of the annual meeting I’d helped organize for the 55 directors of the luxury hotel chain where I worked as a sales manager. I’d spent that week temporarily relieved of my regular duties to oversee “special arrangements,” and I’d come very close to quitting.
It had happened because, in front of the executive committee, my boss’s boss had assigned me to select attractive female managers to host a theme breakfast for our (all male) hotel directors, and to choose low-cut costumes for them. The demand had shocked me, but I could not refuse without appearing insubordinate or prudish. I said nothing at the time; later, I spoke to him in private. He retracted the request, but the experience left me with lingering concerns about this company’s willingness to compromise its managers’ professionalism.
I wasn’t naive. I told myself that ethical bumps in the road were part of the game of business. Our hotel managers sometimes secretly canceled guests’ discount-rate reservations on oversold nights. I myself had concocted the “right” numbers on sales forecasts, and then convinced my boss in his staff meeting that I really believed them. For four years I’d been able to persuade myself that one had to expect such practices even in first-class operations. And it almost worked this time, too; by the final night of the annual meeting, I’d nearly stopped fuming over the costume incident. I even allowed myself to feel some pride in how well the event had come off.
But then came the featured highlight: the annual raffle for frontline employees. The lights were bright on the stage. Clusters of faces in relative darkness — the hotel’s 400 housekeepers, bellhops, engineers, servers, and desk clerks — waited as the raffle drum spun in silence. The public relations director reached in and drew the grand prize ticket; and then she looked straight up at me and called out in a bright voice, “It’s Elizabeth Doty!”
My heart sank. They must have rigged the prize to ensure that I would win, hoping to rekindle my loyalty after that hellish week. I knew, and felt that everyone else knew, that the moment was utterly false. Still, I stood and smiled as I accepted my award. I was determined to appear loyal and committed. But I wasn’t. I left for business school six months later.
There is always some tension between our values as individuals and the compromises that we must make for our organizations. Being “professional” requires that we learn to reconcile these tensions. But when does the willingness to go along go too far? My experience at that annual meeting forced me to confront the fact that, over the years, my seemingly minor compromises had accumulated into a violation of my core identity and beliefs. And I now know, after 17 years of privately interviewing businesspeople about their own tensions at work, that my experience isn’t unique. As companies demand greater levels of productivity and commitment in an environment characterized by fierce corporate politics and the relentless pursuit of shareholder value, many managers and employees routinely grapple with predicaments that go straight to the question of personal integrity. On the one hand, it’s essential to believe in the organization to succeed in any leadership job; on the other hand, the reality of many organizations, particularly in a globalizing world where executive decisions are made from afar, makes it difficult to justify that belief.
In 2005, I began a more focused interviewing project to see whether others experienced tension between their work personas and their core values. How did they reconcile the challenge? Did they find ways to “make a difference without getting killed,” as one person put it? I conducted extensive interviews with 38 businesspeople from a range of industries, organizations, backgrounds, beliefs, and career stages. I spoke to directors; executives (vice presidents and above); frontline managers; and new professionals at large public and private companies, startups, and professional-services firms. I particularly sought out those who had a significant impact on their organization’s policies, products, and programs, but who were not often in the limelight. I invited them all to tell, as candidly as they could, the story of their work lives and the criteria that guided their important choices.
I expected to hear cynicism mixed with arguments for separating work from “what really matters.” Although I did hear some of that, I also heard people express a deep commitment to high ideals and a strong desire to believe in their organizations, even in the face of moral ambiguity. Some of those whom I talked to had confronted gross ethical violations, to be sure; but it was much more common to feel ensnared by subtle inconsistencies and contradictions that gradually raised nagging doubts about the nature of one’s employer. As one woman put it, “You always worry that you might have made a deal with the devil.”
The Wounds of Commitment
Not surprisingly, those who dared to care deeply about their work had the worst stories to tell about being burned. An intensive-care nurse described having daily panic attacks on her way to work, terrified that someone would die on her shift because managed-care policies had tripled her patient load. A commercial banker talked of being told that either he or his peer would be fired — and then of being presented with a portfolio of real estate loans to approve that involved “looking the other way” on zoning violations.
And then there was Greg. He had been a corporate officer for a financial-services firm until the senior officers of his firm (including his boss) were indicted and sent to prison for embezzlement. Greg was no naif; he’d spent years in investment banking. As he put it, “You just rosy up the numbers a little. It’s all part of the dance.” He had come to this last firm specifically because he thought it was an unusually ethical place, where he could escape those pressures. That only made the shock of the alleged wrongdoings more painful. Three years later, when I met him one evening over dinner, he had not gone back to work. He articulated the bewilderment he still felt: “I believed in these people. I respected them; I even loved them in some way. Was I an idiot to be part of this? I can’t reconcile it in my mind.” He felt adrift; distrustful and unsure of his own instincts. “I guess I’m suffering from the wounds of commitment,” he confessed.
More than half the people I spoke with described a state of creeping uneasiness and loss of faith as their roles forced them into untenable situations. As I listened, I was reminded of Chris Argyris’s description (in his famous article “Skilled Incompetence,” Harvard Business Review, September 1, 1986) of a double bind: a mixed message or contradiction that is undiscussable and whose undiscussability is undiscussable. Here’s an example. One day, working with an IT team in a Fortune 50 computer and office equipment company, I happened to sit in as an internal account team was directed to promise higher service levels to their customers. Three months later, I overheard the same group struggling to deal with a reorganization in an internal supplier organization that made delivering on those promises impossible. When I asked their leader why she did not speak up, she said, “What, and look like a whiner?” Bingo: undiscussability. Many of the people I interviewed spoke of similar situations, often leading to painful compromises or disappointments. Over time, they felt increasingly alienated from themselves. Amrita, a senior VP of innovation and strategic marketing for a global chemical company, confronted this experience late in her career. “I had become an extremely competitive person.… I felt I had to be, given the people I worked with. Then one day I looked at myself in the mirror. I saw my tight face, my stiff jaw. It just wasn’t me anymore. I had to ask myself, ‘Who have I become?’”
As any successful leader will tell you, a business runs on the network of alliances, loyalties, and understandings among its people. We want to believe in our organizations, and our organizations want us to invest our discretionary effort in their causes. But when we join a cause, we naturally assume its leaders will reward us correspondingly, especially if we achieve results.
This is where we are wrong. Having listened to so many stories, I am increasingly convinced that organizations routinely break this implied social contract, compelled not by individual malice but by simple expediency. Unfortunately, the most effective short-term solutions to immediate problems often involve taking advantage of the very dedication evoked by the mission.
For example, a mid-career publishing executive who had fought to save a division found himself laying off the people who had pushed hardest to make a needed change. “My bosses challenged me to turn around the Florida operation,” he later recalled, “to get it up to corporate standards because they didn’t want to have to shut it down. It turned into a fantastic assignment, working with dedicated people who were intensely proud to be part of the company. After 18 months, we had met the company’s most ambitious targets. Then, based on our performance, corporate dramatically increased their growth projections. Of course, that meant they had to shut down the operation anyway, because only the corporate operating facility was set up for such high volume. I understood the decision, but telling the team was one of the hardest things I ever did. It was translated into Spanish as I spoke [half the team was Spanish-speaking], and for a good 90 seconds they were all smiling at me as the translation happened. They thought they were going to get a bonus, not be laid off.”
Most people I talked to accepted such situations as part of the job. But clearly those experiences took a toll. Having been through such experiences repeatedly, people found it more difficult to give themselves wholeheartedly to any new endeavor. Somehow, they had to find a way to play the game differently next time.
The Five Strategies
In the interviews I conducted, I heard about five different strategies that people had adopted — to prepare in advance to win the “devil’s bargain” and avoid disillusionment.
Playing to Win. Of the 38 people I spoke with, 18, at one point or another, had adopted a strategy focused on proving themselves. Skeptical about grandiose aspirations or altruistic ideas, especially in the workplace, they put their faith in drive, intelligence, and free markets to propel them to the top. They took on challenges just to see if they could, putting work at the center of their lives and deferring their personal dreams and ideals until they had sufficient power and wealth to command respect. Dave, a 34-year-old technology entrepreneur, was typical of this group. “It took us five years of driving — days, nights, weekends. Doing deals, promising the moon, then pushing to meet impossible deadlines without enough staff. But when we sold the company last year, we made it big,” he said. “I felt like Caesar returning to Rome after conquering the Gauls. That was my triumph.”
The playing-to-win strategy tended to satisfy people for a time, but it could also lead to deep sadness, even shock. When Dave cashed in, he left behind a partner who hadn’t benefited on the same scale. “You follow the lure of the money,” he said, “but the M&A people don’t tell you about the downside. Your partners are going to feel betrayed. I succeeded, but it ended my closest friendship. Now I have to ask myself, ‘Am I a good guy?’”
Playing to Live. For the 15 interviewees who followed this strategy, work became primarily a means to an end. They remained committed to their jobs, but their real satisfaction came from life outside work, especially from their families. Remembering times when they burned out or lost touch with their true priorities, they learned to set limits.
“Because somebody’s paycheck is going to be late, because somebody didn’t like the results they got on a survey, that’s a friggin’ emergency? I don’t think so,” declared Roberta, a human resources director at a Fortune 100 computer software company. “Don’t get me wrong; I care a lot about my work. I’ll go the extra mile, even work weekends once in a while. But mostly, I’m going to go home on time. I have a life outside of here. And that means saying no. I don’t do it antagonistically, but I do have limits.”
This strategy allowed people to live a richer life overall, but at a cost. As an upper middle manager in telecommunications pointed out, “You sometimes have to pretend to be a shark, to avoid having your loyalty tested.” Otherwise, you may be “branded,” as Roberta found out. “Now I’m ostracized, and they say I don’t have a strategic view of things. Give me a break.”
Playing for the Good Guys. The third strategy, adopted by 18 interviewees at some point in their careers, was to actively seek out employers whose mission or culture they could believe in. This group was passionate about customers, employees, organizational transformation, or businesses that “do well by doing good.” Alex, a young product manager for a consumer software company, loved his job finding new ways to make life easier for customers. “What I get excited about is creating something my mom can use, that could maybe save someone like her an hour a day, so they can focus on something else. If I can make just a little bit of difference in people’s lives, that’s what I’m working for. I get a real sense of meaning out of serving our customers.”
Yet Alex’s passion for customers had recently got him into trouble. “[My team was] designing a product to meet the needs of our business, not the needs of our customers. We were looking for a way to get more money out of our customers, but not necessarily to give them something that they would want to pay more for. We were talking to customers, but we weren’t listening to them! I knew it was going to blow up in our faces. I felt I had to speak up, which they saw as making trouble and going against their ‘quick fix’ of turning around the business. Finally, I transferred out.” This strategy can lead people to painful dilemmas in which they are forced to make trade-offs between their passion and the rewards — either money or recognition — that they expect.
A senior executive in the cosmetics industry discovered this when he was offered a promotion out of a job as environmental quality director. “This is a conflict for me. I would rather not leave the position I love, and where I’m making a difference. But I need to build up enough money to retire. If I put my love for the environment first, my wife would shoot me.”
Leaving the Game. At some point, 12 of the people I talked to had left their organizations to preserve their integrity. Interestingly, this often happened when organizations with the highest aspirations contradicted themselves. After Jim, the sales director of a carpet company, moved his family across the country to sell an inspiring new product line, the company changed its portfolio approach. “I took this role because I believed in our commitment to environmentally sustainable products. But now they’ve changed my job responsibilities and I have to sell the normal [product line] as well, which is the worst offender in terms of landfill. Now I don’t see how I can tell the sustainability story to our customers in good conscience.” Not too long after the interview, he went to work for a competitor.
Sometimes, leaving the game meant leaving corporate life altogether. “I tried to help the organization see the larger purpose we could serve,” recalled Amrita, the senior VP of innovation and strategic marketing. “But when I began to realize that we weren’t going to change in a sustainable way, I couldn’t stay. I’m not the kind of person who can set limits, or only invest part of myself.” She is now working as a consultant to nonprofit organizations and academic institutions. This strategy proved somewhat successful for Amrita, but it also meant reducing her income. Not everybody I talked to had the financial stability, or the courage, to take that kind of chance.
Playing a Bigger Game. In her book Value Shift: Why Companies Must Merge Social and Financial Imperatives to Achieve Superior Performance (McGraw-Hill, 2002), Lynn Sharp Paine asks us to confront the uncomfortable question, “Although we often say ‘ethics pays,’ what if it didn’t?” Eleven people among those I interviewed seemed to have confronted this tension directly, and resolved that their values came first. They stayed in the corporate world, but jealously guarded their ability to say no when moral issues were at stake. The former CEO of several European consumer brand companies described such hard choices as almost routine. “I have left my role voluntarily as CEO twice for moral reasons. The first time was because the board was trying to force me into a shortsighted and damaging strategy, and the second was because I was personally debilitating the executive team.”
What enabled people to feel independent enough to take these risks? Often it was the choice to limit material wants. As this same CEO put it, “I could be true to myself those two times I needed to quit because we kept our expenses low. Before we even bought a car or a home, we saved a year’s worth of living expenses. What people often don’t realize is that true security lies in healthy family relationships and access to our own psychic resources.” Having this security gave people the freedom to stand up, even at company meetings. “I put my badge on the table at one team meeting,” an HR director told me. “I told them I didn’t want to continue talking the talk if we weren’t going to walk the walk. That really seemed to shift the conversation for the better.”
Less focused on “winning” in traditional terms, those playing a bigger game seem to hold a subtle but unmistakable conviction that what really matters is much larger than business — whether it is human potential, spirituality, society, or the natural environment — but that the corporate world is one of the most effective places from which to change the world at large. “I estimate it will take 150 years to transition to fully sustainable sources of energy. Hopefully, my company will be a significant part of that transition,” says Bill, the CEO of an alternative fuels company. “That is what I work for every day and what I try to get the analysts to see when I give the quarterly earnings reports. But if we fail, that will be progress, too. Someone else will pick up the challenge, and they will be able to learn from what we have accomplished. So, you see, none of this can be meaningless.”
The Personal Deal
I began my interviews wondering if others experienced the moral tensions of corporate life that I sensed. These interviews led me to conclude that it is possible to “make a difference without getting killed.” We do not have to leave the corporate world to keep our integrity or live a life of purpose.
Nor does playing a bigger game require us to take on our organizations in a confrontational way — a choice not many of us are prepared to make. Instead, we have to “deal with the devil” more personally: to acknowledge the all-too-real pressures to compromise while simultaneously strengthening our ability to move past them by preserving our options, viewing our work in a larger context, and extending our time horizons by recognizing that it could take months or years to accomplish some of our goals.
Although this might seem to be an individual journey, it could also be an inherent part of life in a highly evolved organization. Over and over I heard it was a “tap on the shoulder” that awoke people to their potential. Jim, the sales director, told me, “Lisa [a colleague] would ask me, in a friendly way, ‘Is this really what you want to be doing?’ Now, I preach the story of sustainability every day.” If corporations are made up not of people, but of “parts of people,” as anthropologist Gregory Bateson once suggested, what parts of ourselves might we encourage each other to bring into play?
There is more than a personal imperative behind this question. Corporations have become so powerful in their ability to affect human society that, in many people’s view, they effectively eclipse national governments. If that is true, then every individual’s ability to win the devil’s bargain matters to all of us. The way that companies use or misuse their power is determined, moment by moment, by the way we as individuals play this game.
Elizabeth Doty (EDoty@worklore.com) is an organizational consultant, a 12-year veteran of the hotel industry, a Harvard MBA, and a “recovering reengineer.” Her firm, WorkLore, applies systems thinking, simulation, and storytelling for clients in manufacturing, high tech, financial services, educational testing, and real estate operations.
Topics: operations, banking, leaders, strategy, integrity
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Author's Choice
May 6, 2013 (originally published by Booz & Company)
The Manager as Maker
Don Tapscott, who has written 15 books, most recently Radical Openness: Four Unexpected Principles for Success, introduces an excerpt that demonstrates how openness to new business practices and work settings can unleash human capital, from The Soul of Design: Harnessing the Power of Plot to Create Extraordinary Products, by Lee Devin and Robert D. Austin.
These days, I see evidence of the rich potential of radical openness everywhere. More and more companies are shunning the insular, opaque business practices of the past and rethinking commonly held beliefs about the workforce. In the process, they are discovering that human capital can come from surprising places and take myriad forms.
To access these untapped sources of human capital, companies may need to remake work settings and adopt new approaches that eschew the dictates of command-and-control management in order to enable and truly empower employees and other collaborators. The excerpt that follows provides a dramatic example: At a Danish software testing and consulting company named Specialisterne, three-quarters of the staff members are autistic.
As you might expect, Specialisterne must provide its people with unusually high levels of training, customized work settings, and managers who are able and willing to support them in unconventional ways. But the effort is well worth it. Company founder Thorkil Sonne’s openness to rethinking and remaking the workplace enables him to hire people who are often considered unemployable but who are actually perfect for the rigors of software testing—and they have helped the company achieve a competitive advantage in the marketplace.
— Don Tapscott
An excerpt from Part 4 of The Soul of Design: Harnessing the Power of Plot to Create Extraordinary Products
Specialisterne (“The Specialists”), a Copenhagen-based company, provides software testing and some other services to a list of prominent international clients that includes Microsoft, Computer Science Corporation, Oracle, and Lego. Members of the company’s consulting staff have skills uniquely suited to software testing and similar jobs: three out of four have been diagnosed with some form of Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD).
Autism is a brain condition that impairs social interaction and communication, and it leads those afflicted to exhibit restricted and repetitive behavior. The condition, which usually becomes evident before a child is three years old, poses significant developmental obstacles. But it can also include particular talents: exceptional focus, impressive thoroughness, strong memory. According to Specialisterne’s founder, Thorkil Sonne, “Researchers have hypothesized, based on facts known about their lives, that many of history’s great achievers—Albert Einstein, Socrates, Charles Darwin, and Isaac Newton among them—might have been afflicted by a mild form of ASD called Asperger’s Syndrome.”
Sonne’s inspiration to start the company originated when psychologists diagnosed his three-year-old son, Lars, as autistic. The condition presented the expected difficulties to Sonne and his family, but occasional surprises suggested that Lars possessed unusual capabilities. One day, for example, the boy began drawing a very elaborate diagram. At first, Sonne couldn’t figure out what it was, but after a while it took on a familiar shape. Gradually it became a map of Europe, but thick with perplexing numbers that meant nothing to Sonne. Later and completely by accident, as he looked through an atlas, Sonne stumbled on the source of his son’s drawing: the index page. The numbers indicated pages in the book on which detailed maps of regions from the larger area appeared. This remarkable child had reproduced from memory the entire overall image, complete with numbering scheme, without a single error.
Sonne, who at the time enjoyed a successful career as an IT professional within a large telecommunications company, recognized potentially valuable capabilities in his son’s behavior. To reproduce the diagram so accurately required a strong memory, the skill to concentrate on minute detail, and a willingness to submit to an exacting standard of accuracy. These mapped well on to the skills that Sonne looked for in software and system testers. From this realization, he made up his mind to start a new software testing company in which the majority of employees would be people with ASD. To start the company, he quit his job and refinanced his home; he took a big risk, but he knew that to make a company that met and found value in the unusual needs of his employees would require his total attention.
Work done by disabled people, while providing a “social good,” is sometimes price discounted, to reflect the likelihood of problems or additional overhead and expense. Sometimes the organizations in which such people work operate as charities or nonprofits. Sonne didn’t want to go these routes. He made instead a for-profit company that offered a best-in-class service. He intended to pay industry-competitive wages and to train his employees to become the world’s greatest software testers. Such a firm, he thought, could sustain itself and would genuinely benefit his special consultants; he would pay them to provide real value, not condescend to them with a handout. In effect, Sonne reconceived the current ideas about disabled workers: instead of cramming them into conventional work situations, he made new workspaces, spaces that not only accommodated their special needs but set free (exploited, even) their special skills.
It was at first far from obvious that this could succeed. Autism can cause substantial impairment for those afflicted, notably in their ability to interact and communicate in social settings, and in social imagination. People with autism may appear aloof and indifferent; they often don’t fully understand the meaning of common gestures, facial expressions, tones of voice, or irony. In the United Kingdom, for one example, only 15 percent of adults with autism hold full-time jobs.
Sonne aspired to move more people with autism into the “employed” category, to leverage their special abilities while he made a system in which their impairments could become strengths. On the basis of his research, he hypothesized that social interaction difficulties likely prevented many high-functioning [autistic] people from acquiring and holding jobs. He believed he could overcome such difficulties in high-functioning autistic people. He designed support services to teach workers the job, invented work methods they could master, and designed social training to help them develop ways to interact with employers and colleagues. He made, in other words, places in which special people could work at peak levels of performance; produce genuine value; and, as a result, live productive, satisfying lives. And now, a few years later, it’s become apparent that he was right.
How did he do it? The details are these: Specialisterne operational plans include a high level of support and careful handling for its special consultants. The company maintains an on-call response staff, people who can resolve issues that client companies don’t know how to address. This support staff helps set up work situations that insulate consultants from the hectic, sometimes chaotic environment of the client and help to maintain the quiet, orderly work environment they need. Many can’t work full time. Each presents a complex of particular mental conditions and a personal constellation of life difficulties. These all require special arrangements in the division of labor and the structure of each job. Sonne must include clients in the design process, persuade them to help make some unusual arrangements. Those who do usually find that it’s worth it: the effort produces an impressive return. In other words, Sonne reconceived the idea of a software testing company, and made a new one. He’s a poster child for the concept of manager as maker: he made workplaces, each one unique, where special things can be done. He conceived and made a business in which doing what comes naturally leads naturally to the desired outcome.
One of our colleagues, a senior business school professor who serves on the boards of directors for several large international firms, upon hearing the story of Specialisterne immediately raised an issue: “The thing that is hard to sort out is how much [additional] cost is being incurred by a customer to use these resources?”
Sonne, when asked why his company operates as a business instead of a charity, always highlights the skills of ASD consultants as a source of competitive advantage. He acknowledges that his consultants require extra support and extra management, but he also argues that they’re worth it. The company estimates that [its] consultants are significantly more effective than traditional testing consultants, and that this more than offsets the cost of making a workspace in which ASD consultants can work effectively.
One reason to examine Specialisterne closely is that this kind of logic, which compares the benefits and costs of working with special employees to traditional models, applies in general when you’re managing specially talented employees in ways that will, you hope, bring about outlier levels of performance. It’s not limited to ASD consultants.
A manager at one of Specialisterne’s client companies made this point eloquently. He told us that managing Specialisterne’s ASD consultants has made him a better manager of all his staff. Managing ASD consultants, he said, required him to create the conditions needed to help them do their best. Work on that problem produced an epiphany for this manager. He realized that he could, and should, pay the same levels of attention to his other employees. Many of those, he observed, had eccentricities of personality or behavior. In the past, he’d regarded these differences as inconveniences he had to “put up with.” After working with Specialisterne, he asked himself if he could find ways to make workspaces that could improve the performance of all his employees. Outlier behaviors can sometimes create coordination difficulties and additional costs, but this manager reckoned he’d have to cope with those no matter what. He was, he figured, already paying the costs of accommodating the eccentricities. Why not get some more benefit for his trouble?
This thinking and his performance represent a transition from the industrial dichotomy between manager and maker to a more artful notion of managers and creatives both as makers.
Reprinted with permission of Stanford Business Press; copyright © 2012 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University
Don Tapscott (don@tapscott.com) is CEO of the Tapscott Group and vice chairman of Spencer Trask Collaborative Innovations, which is building a portfolio of companies in the collaboration and social media space. He is an adjunct professor at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. Tapscott is the author of 15 books about information technology in business and society, including, with Anthony D. Williams, Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything (Portfolio, 2006), Macrowikinomics: Rebooting Business and the World (Portfolio, 2010), and Radical Openness: Four Unexpected Principles for Success (TED Conferences, 2013).
This Book
The Soul of Design: Harnessing the Power of Plot to Create Extraordinary Products (Stanford Business Books, 2012), by Lee Devin and Robert D. Austin
Lee Devin (ldevin1@swarthmore.edu) is a senior consultant with the Cutter Consortium’s business technology strategies practice. He is an emeritus professor of theater and senior research scholar at Swarthmore College and senior dramaturge at People’s Light and Theatre Company. Devin is also coauthor, with Robert D. Austin, of Artful Making: What Managers Need to Know about How Artists Work (Financial Times/Prentice Hall, 2003).
Robert D. Austin (raustin@unb.ca) is dean of the faculty of business administration at the University of New Brunswick. He has written several books, including, with Richard L. Nolan and Shannon O’Donnell, Harder Than I Thought: Adventures of a Twenty-First Century Leader (Harvard Business Review Press, 2012) and The Adventures of an IT Leader (Harvard Business Press, 2009).
Topics: board, skills, training, communication, design
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Next:MURPHY'S LAW: The Polish Missiles And Iran
Submarines: French Nukes For Brazil
August 26, 2009: After over a year of negotiations, Brazil and France have nailed down an agreement that will give Brazil four French diesel-electric Scorpene submarines, and technology from France to enable the construction of, in effect, a fifth, nuclear powered, "Scorpene". This is described as a strategic defense alliance, which involves France helping build demand for French weapons in Brazil. In return, with French help, Brazil will complete development a nuclear power plant small enough to fit into something like the new, 4,700 ton French Barracuda nuclear attack subs. France considers the 100 meter long Barracuda an evolution of the 66.4 meter long Scorpene. At least this is how it was explained to the Brazilians. The 1,400 ton Scorpene subs cost $600 million each, while the new French Barracuda nuclear powered subs cost $1.6 billion each.
All five subs will be assembled in Brazil, using components imported from France. Some of the components will be manufactured in Brazil as well. France will also help Brazil install the Brazilian designed nuclear power plant in a new sub design. France also wants to develop another major export customer for its weapons, and is willing to go to extraordinary lengths to accomplish this. France is particularly eager to sell Brazil Rafale jet fighters. The submarines, 50 Cougar helicopters, technical assistance and technology transfer is believed to be costing Brazil over $10 billion.
Brazil says it is will to spend all this to improve its fleet, in large part because oil has been discovered off the coast of Brazil, and must be defended.
AIR DEFENSE: Spyders Overrun India
MURPHY'S LAW: The Polish Missiles And Iran
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Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping
Conner, Owen and Lawrence become famous after launching their rap album. But Connor abandons the band to form a solo career and is forced to see his celebrity status crash after the project fails.
Ultimate Guide to Film Terms: The Definitive Glossary of Film Terminology
Browse Terms A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Whether you’re working on your first or 100th film, there is always something new to learn. When you need to update your film terminology, this resource will be… Continue reading Ultimate Guide to Film Terms: The Definitive Glossary of Film Terminology
StudioBinder May 3, 2020
The Best Movies of 2016 — The Year in Review
Best of…20102011201220132014201520162017201820192010-2019 By 2016, the Marvel Cinematic Universe was in full swing. However, superheroes were far from the only films coming out in the mid-2010s as a resurgence of independent filmmaking came to the forefront. Filmmakers, such as Martin Scorsese, would make films radically different than anything that would come before and after. It was… Continue reading The Best Movies of 2016 — The Year in Review
Mike Bedard November 13, 2019
The Best Comedy Movies of All Time: Funny Movies to Inspire Filmmakers
The difference between a funny movie and a truly great comedy is subjective. So, when it comes to writing a successful comedy, many writers want to appeal to the lowest common denominator. While many screenwriters want to please all, humor isn’t universal. What makes a baby cackle in Albuquerque won’t cut the mustard in Ouagadougou!… Continue reading The Best Comedy Movies of All Time: Funny Movies to Inspire Filmmakers
Herman Wilkins August 16, 2019
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Sydney Ideas
Breaking news: on the decline of press freedom and democracy
Home / Engage with us / Events and sponsorships / Sydney Ideas / Breaking news: on the decline of press freedom and democracy
Event_
Why transparency is a bedrock of democracy
What does national security, data security and the changing face of legislation mean for free speech and our right to know? A reporter, satirist and political theorist examine the state of affairs.
Australia currently ranks 21st on the World Press Freedom ranking. The United Kingdom ranks 33rd, while the United States is 48th and China is 177th. On the other hand, Norway is 1st and New Zealand is 7th. What do these rankings mean, and why is it important that we care?
In light of recent police raids on the ABC and the home of a News Corporation reporter, and Australian Federal Police analysing private flight records of a journalist, we ask – what does a free press mean or look like? Is Australia in fact, as some claim, heading down an intrusive and authoritarian path?
Join us for a special Sydney Ideas event where the 2019 Chaser Lecture guest speaker, journalist Vicky Xiuzhong Xu; former Race Discrimination Commissioner, Professor Tim Soutphommasane; and The Chaser’s Julian Morrow, unpack these big questions.
This event was presented in partnership with The Chaser Lecture and held on Monday 26 August, 2019 at the University of Sydney.
Vicky Xiuzhong Xu, journalist
Vicky covers the intersection of Australian and Chinese politics for the New York Times in Australia. She also reports on the changing landscape for business, education, and religion in Australia’s immigrant communities. Before joining the newspaper, she was a producer for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Born and raised in China, she can often be found in front of a spicy hotpot or telling jokes on stage at a stand-up comedy night.
Professor Tim Soutphommasane, University of Sydney
Tim is Professor of Practice (Sociology and Political Theory). He was Australia’s Race Discrimination Commissioner from 2013 to 2018. He is the author of five books about multiculturalism, national identity and race, including On Hate (Melbourne University Publishing).
Julian Morrow, The Chaser
Julian is a television writer and producer, comedian and media commentator. He is best known as a member and co-founder of the satirical media empire The Chaser. He also founded Giant Dwarf, a theatre venue and comedy company. He has made TV shows that include The Election Chaser, CNNNN, The Chaser's War on Everything, The Hamster Wheel and The Checkout.
Share Sydney Ideas
Each month we'll send you details about upcoming events, and a selection of podcasts.
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Sarkozy to face investigation
Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been charged with corruption, misappropriation of Libyan funds, and unlawful campaigning. It is alleged that Sarkozy..
Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been charged with corruption, misappropriation of Libyan funds, and unlawful campaigning. It is alleged that Sarkozy accepted approximately $50 million in funds from former Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi in 2006. Under Sarkozy’s rule, France later played a major role in the 2011 NATO intervention in Libya, which unseated Gaddafi.
Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa, known as Nicolas Sarkozy, was born in 1955. The French politician started his political career as mayor of the Parisian suburb Neuilly-sur-Seine from 1983 to 2002. Sarkozy also served as Budget Minister from 1993-1995, and Minister of the Interior from 2002 and 2005.
Nicolas Sarkozy was elected as the President of France in May 2007. The same year, Sarkozy struck a $230 million arms deal with then President of Libya, Muammar Gaddafi. Gaddafi was known as one of the longest rulers in the Arab world, ruling from 1969 to 2011, when civil war broke out in the country. Sarkozy helped spearhead the NATO offence against the Gaddafi regime. The civil war ended with the defeat of Gaddafi’s forces by the armed rebellion, which was assisted by Western (NATO) military intervention. Since Muammar Gaddafi’s death in 2011, Libya has been in a state of political unrest.
Sarkozy served until 2012 and ran for re-election the following year, however, he lost to François Hollande. Polls showed that while running for re-election, his approval ratings were at an unprecedented 36% low.
Sarkozy has faced a number of scandals during his career. He earned the nickname “President bling-bling” due to his brash and unapologetic nature, and penchant for grabbing media attention. In 2010, it was alleged that billionaire heiress Liliane Bettencourt had illegally funded Sarkozy’s presidential campaign. The charges against Sarkozy in the “Bettencourt affair” were later dropped.
In 2017, the former president also faced a trial regarding illegal campaign funding for his 2012 Presidential election campaign. He was accused of exceeding campaign spending limits using false accounting. The incident was dubbed the “Bygmalion affair” due to the involvement of the communication firm Bygmalion. He was briefly placed in police custody in 2015, over separate allegations of illegal campaign funding, and attempting to influence judges.
Sarkozy has now been placed under investigation due to his dealings with the late Libyan dictator Gaddafi. The former French President has been charged with corruption, illegal election financing, and appropriating Libyan public funds.
In 2012, French Media agency Mediapart released records of a $68 million transaction to Sarkozy, which they claim was signed by Libya’s intelligence chief. This allegation, if true, could be evidence of illegal campaign funding. The legal limit for election campaigns in France is $24 million.
The investigation into these dealings began in 2013. A number of the late Libyan President’s supporters have corroborated the fact that Gaddafi funded Sarkozy’s campaign. In November 2016, arms dealer Ziad Takieddine claimed that in 2006, he had personally enabled the transfer of $6 million in cash from Gaddafi to Sarkozy’s chief of staff Claude Gueant.
Sarkozy has sued Mediapart for producing what he claims are fake documents. He has maintained his innocence. “I stand accused without any tangible evidence through comments made by Mr Gaddafi, his son, his nephew, his cousin, his spokesman, his former prime minister,” he reportedly said. In a televised interview on Thursday, Sarkozy sent on to describe Gaddafi as a “crazy man who likely used drugs”, and Gaddafi’s supporters as a “band of killers, crooks, and mafiosos.”
Sarkozy has called the allegations “crazy” and “monstrous”, and claimed that they have made his life a personal “hell”. “I have never betrayed the trust of the French people,” Sarkozy told reporters. The former President has faced two days of police investigation regarding this case.
The investigation has sparked questions regarding the legitimacy of a number of Sarkozy’s decisions while President. “There are real questions about this 2011 war with France where Nicolas Sarkozy overstepped the mandate of the United Nations, to the point where a regime was overthrown," Mediapart editor Edwy Plenel told Al Jazeera. “One can [only] wonder if there was not a dimension of private war to destroy the evidence.”
Our assessment is that this investigation has grave implications, beyond issues of campaign funding. If Sarkozy is implicated, it will raise serious concerns regarding the motivations behind his 2011 campaign against the late Libyan dictator. While Sarkozy will likely make a plea, we believe that it is possible that this investigation will lead to trial.
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Self-driving Uber car kills pedestrian
An Uber self-driving car hit and killed a woman crossing the street in Arizona. This marks the first fatality involving an autonomous vehicle and a possible blow to the..
A self-driving Uber car in Arizona hit and killed a woman crossing the street. This marks the first fatality involving an autonomous vehicle and could possibly be a blow to the technology that is expected to transform transportation.
Automation and technological enhancements have been labeled as the primary reason for future unemployment. This is because robots and automation will be able to do the jobs that were previously performed by human beings. Developing nations that have a growing labor force are expected to face a substantial challenge in the years ahead. According to a study conducted by PeopleStrong, nearly a quarter of people in India will lose their jobs to automation by 2021.
Research on driverless self-directed cars has been carried out since the 1920s. However, it was only recently that it has been considered as a viable option in transportation. Since 2010, major car manufacturers like General Motors, Ford, Mercedes Benz, Volkswagen, Audi, Nissan, Toyota, BMW, and Volvo have been testing self-driving cars on the roads. In 2012, the Google driverless car project announced that its test fleet had already completed 480,000 km with no accidents.
In 2016, the Self Driving Car Coalition was started by companies in the industry. Members of this coalition include Google, Ford Motors, and Uber. The goal of the partnership is to push for federal action from the government to get self-driving cars in the market.
The robot cars, when fully developed by companies including Uber, Google, and General Motors Co, are expected to considerably reduce motor vehicle fatalities and create billion-dollar businesses. However, Monday’s accident highlighted potential challenges existing for the technology as the cars encounter real-world situations involving real people. Uber, a ride services company, said it was suspending North American tests of its self-driving vehicles, which are currently going on in Arizona, Pittsburgh, and Toronto.
US lawmakers have been debating legislation that would speed up the introduction of self-driving cars. “This tragic accident underscores why we need to be exceptionally cautious when testing and deploying autonomous vehicle technologies on public roads,” stated Democratic Senator Edward Markey, a member of the transportation committee.
Elaine Herzberg, 49, was walking with her bicycle outside the crosswalk on a four-lane road at about 10 p.m. in Tempe, Phoenix, when she was hit by the Uber vehicle, according to local police. The vehicle was a Volvo XC90 SUV and was traveling at about 40 miles per hour (65 km per hour) in autonomous mode with an operator behind the wheel. Herzberg later died from her injuries in a hospital.
“The pedestrian was outside of the crosswalk. As soon as she walked into the lane of traffic she was struck,” Tempe Police Sergeant Ronald Elcock stated. It was not clear how close Herzberg was to the vehicle when she stepped into the lane.
After reviewing footage from the vehicle, the Tempe Police Chief Sylvia Moir said “it’s very clear it would have been difficult to avoid this collision in any kind of mode (autonomous or human-driven) based on how she came from the shadows right into the roadway.” Moir continued, “I suspect preliminarily it appears that the Uber would likely not be at fault in this accident,” but she did not rule out that charges could be filed against the operator in the Uber vehicle.
Local authorities and federal officials are still investigating the incident. Canada’s transportation ministry in Ontario, where Uber conducts testing, also said it was reviewing the accident.
Our assessment is that companies like Ford, General Motors, Tesla, and Waymo are investing heavily in research to develop self-driving cars. They are often characterized as the future of the industry and seen as a method to reduce traffic accidents. Driverless cars also promise far greater mobility for the elderly, and people with disabilities. Although this fatality is a temporary setback for the self-driving car industry, we believe it is not expected to have a widespread negative impact on technological advancements.
Read more: The future of self-driving cars
Google Vs Uber
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Manuscripts at Trinity
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Beyond the Book of Kells
Long ago and far away –
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a library in possession of great artefacts, must be in want of an opportunity to bring them out to light in public.
The naïve twist to the very opening of the beautiful novel Pride and Prejudice is my humble attempt at depicting what my time with the manuscripts collection in the Library has been. It has allowed me to understand how the physical attributes of an object could signify the pride and prejudice that comes along with analyzing an artefact.
Continue reading “Long ago and far away –”
Women of the Cuala Press.
We’re back with another blog from the Cuala Press Print Project – this one will showcase the women of the Cuala Press. The Cuala Press began its life as the Dun Emer Press and was part of Dun Emer Industries, established by Evelyn Gleeson (1855-1944) and Susan and Elizabeth Yeats in Dundrum, Co. Dublin, in 1902. Their aim was to employ and train local Irish girls and young women in ‘the making of beautiful things’. Elizabeth (1868-1940) trained two people at a time on an Albion printing press and they gained knowledge of composition, typography, type setting, and ink rolling; they were also involved in the hand painting of the prints and the other material they printed. Susan Yeats (1866-1949) ran the embroidery section and taught embroidery herself. The trainees were also instructed in Irish by the writer Susan L. Mitchell (1866-1926) and in the dramatic arts by the Fay brothers, who were among the founders of the Abbey Theatre.
Continue reading “Women of the Cuala Press.”
Cuala Press Prints Project
A collection of one hundred and eleven hand-coloured Cuala Press Prints (TCD MS 11574) was donated to the Manuscripts and Archives Research Collection in Trinity College Dublin where they are currently being catalogued as part of a project to make them accessible to researchers. It is a visually stunning collection and represents an important part of Irish visual culture. It also includes work by many female artists from the early 20th century. The collection was a gift from a private individual who built the collection in the mid 20th century and the philanthropically-funded project to make them available includes the appointment of an archivist, a conservator, a digital photographer and a post-doctoral researcher in the history of art. The project will not only focus on the new collection of prints but will also look at the business archives of the Cuala Press itself (TCD MS 11535). Thus, we will ensure and enhance the usability, visibility and accessibility of these significant materials to support the teaching, learning and research needs of staff, students and the wider research community.
Continue reading “Cuala Press Prints Project”
Wives, widows and mothers: recovering records of women in the early eighteenth century building trade
Melanie Hayes, Irish Research Council Advanced Laureate Project Fellow CRAFTVALUE
The early eighteenth-century building industry was a male-dominated arena. Craftsmen populated both building site and records of the same; building-craft skills were handed down from father to son, from master-craftsman to young male apprentice, while the industry’s organisational framework, at least in Dublin, centred on the freemen of the city. Female involvement, save unskilled labour in the brickfields, was peripheral and prominent figures like Eleanor Coade, who was active later in the century, were the exception rather than the rule. But what of the ancillary industries and associated supports within the building trade? Does the overt gender-bias in the documentary record represent a true picture of the reality on the ground, of the role (or lack thereof) of women behind the scenes in the complex, multifaceted mechanics of the early Georgian building industry?
Trawling through the catalogue of Trinity College Dublin’s muniments in the college’s Manuscripts and Archives collections my colleague, Andrew Tierney and I were struck by the (relatively) frequent appearance of women’s names in the College building accounts.* Between 1700 and 1745 a number of women were involved in the supply of labour and materials to the major building works then taking place on campus, the New Laboratory or Anatomy House, 1710-18; the New (now Old) Library, 1712-32; and New Kitchens, 1719-22. Although these women may have been drawn into the building trade through necessity or the demise of their male relation, several seem to have carried on successful enterprises in their own right.
Jane Spencer, plastering and painting
Jane Spencer’s account, Documents concerning College building’s, TCD Mun/P/2/30/14
In April 1715 Jane Spencer, widow, was paid £2 2s. 8d. for ‘plastering worke done in Trinity College Dublin,’ which was measured by Henry Kinder. The bill, which appears to be in Jane’s own hand presumably relates to work previously carried out by the plasterer Nathaniel Spencer, who had worked at the college since 1707. Nathaniel, like several of his contemporaries, carried out works in both plaster and paint (despite moves by the painter’s guild to prohibit this encroachment on their trade), and was admitted to the Guild of St. Luke in 1701 (NLI MS 12,122 ff75r). Nathaniel had submitted his final bill to the College in October 1714 (TCD Mun P/2/26/27), and therefore appears to have died sometime in the intervening six months.
This occurrence is far from unique. The lack of either state support or indeed opportunities for their own gainful employment meant the widows of tradesmen had little or no means of their own, and were forced to pursue their husband’s creditors soon after the latter’s demise, often for relatively small amounts of money. Indeed, building accounts for Powerscourt Co. Wicklow (NLI Mss 3162; Mss 4875) are peppered with such payments to the widows of building craftsmen and suppliers in the 1730s, while the College accounts contain several other instances of such remittance to newly widowed women.
Jane Price received 5s. for carpenter’s work in March 1732, presumably relating to work by the carpenter Gabriel Price, who had worked at Trinity, sometimes in collaboration with Isaac Wills since 1700 (TCD Mun P/2/63/18). In 1705 Alice Banks received 14s. 6d. for plumbers work, likely carried out by her husband John Banks, a plumber who had also worked at the College from 1700, and had last received payment in January 1704/5 (TCD Mun P/2/14/1-2); whereas Ellen Smith continued to submit bills for plastering and painting work for almost five years after payments ceased to the plasterer James Smith, including a large bill of £23 17s. 6d. for ‘painting and gilding the new organ case and pipes’ in 1706 (TCD Mun P/2/15/8).
‘Agnes Heatly, slater’
Agnes Heatly account, Documents concerning College building’s, TCD Mun/P/2/47/20
Between 1707 and 1743/4 Agnes Heatly regularly signed for work carried out by the slaters Abraham and Thomas Heatly (alternately Heatley, Hately). The Heatlys were one of Dublin’s most prominent families of slaters. Abraham Heatly, who had worked at the Royal Hospital had been employed at the College since at least 1686, when he received a yearly salary of £20 for maintaining the College roofs (TCD Mun P/2/3/4).
Over the course of the next four decades Abraham received frequent payments for slater’s work, and on June 24th 1730 signed a new agreement with the Provost &c. for the maintenance of the College roofs worth £45 p.a. (TCD Mun p/2/60). During the 1720s several payments for slater’s labour and materials were made directly to Agnes Heatly, ‘for the use of my husband’ (TCD Mun p/2/47/20), and by 1730 Agnes seems to have taken over management of the slating contract, after which time Abraham Heatly’s name no longer appears in the records.
In 1685 ‘Thomas Hately’ received a single payment of £4 10s. for slater’s work at the College, but it was not until 1710 that this individual began to receive more regular employment, at the New Laboratory and the Library. Thomas continued to work at College until 1746, carrying out slater’s work for Richard Castle and John Ensor (TCD Mun P/2/86/11; p/2/90/5). He appears to have taken over Abraham’s maintenance contract in 1746 (TCD Mun P/2/90/7).
Agnes’s relationship to Abraham and Thomas is not directly stated in the records, but it appears that she was the wife of the former, and mother of Thomas. She certainly seems to have acted as a financial manager of sorts for the family business during the first half of the century. Women of the mercantile class and above would have been trained to keep domestic accounts, and were usually responsible for household management. It is therefore unsurprising that some of these enterprising individuals would have stepped outside the female domain, to apply their skillset in supporting roles in the business sphere.
‘Joan Delane, glazier’
Joan Delane account, Documents concerning College building’s, TCD Mun/P/2/43/14
A similar situation occurs in the case of Joan and George Delane, glazier. George Delane had been employed at Trinity College since the 1690s, when according to Arthur Gibney he replaced William Vizer, carrying out glazing work on several ad hoc projects, such as the gate house in 1705 (TCD Mun P/2/14/7). He was the only glazier employed at the College during this period and worked extensively at the New Laboratory and Kitchens in the 1710s. In November 1720 Joan Delane first makes an appearance in the records, when she signed for work carried out by George (TCD Mun P/2/40/19). This practice continued at regular intervals throughout the following year, until January 1721/2, after which time ‘Joan Delane, glazier,’ began to submit bills in her own right, and George’s name no longer appears, although he may well have executed some of the works.
Over the next five years there were several large invoices submitted, all meticulously set out in Joan’s neat hand, including bills for ‘work on [the] library’ for which she was paid £28 3s. 9d. in February 1723, and a further £30 in April that year (TCD Mun P/2/52/9-10). The last payment made to Joan Delane was in September 1726, suggesting that she had carried on the management of contracted glazing work at the College, for several years after George Delane’s absence from the records (TCD Mun P/2/56/10).
Ellen Jeffers, building supply
Ellen Jeffers account, Documents concerning College building’s, TCD Mun/P/2/39/61
The College accounts also offer evidence of female involvement in the supply of building materials, which supports the broader picture emerging of this sector. In 1718 Ellen Jeffers supplied 10 brass sheaves, or grooved pulley wheels, at a cost of £4 12s. 4d. for use at the Library (TCD Mun P/2/37/59), and a further six sheaves the following year (TCD Mun P/2/39/61). In 1720 she presented a much larger bill for £29 15s. for a brass boiler and furnace for the New Kitchen. This business seems to have been previously carried on by one George Jeffers, who in 1711 had supplied the College with a copper still for the Laboratory for the sizeable sum of £12 15s. 1 1/2d. (TCD Mun P/2/20/38), while in 1713 he supplied pulleys for the gin at the Library (TCD Mun P/2/25/50). That Ellen was still responsible for the operation some seven years later suggests a less peripheral, and more sustained involvement of such women in this seemingly male dominated environment. Ellen Jeffers was not alone in this regard. At the former Parliament House at College Green Anne Staples was listed as the supplier of ‘nails, &c.’ receiving quite considerable payments of £18 1s. 2 1/2 d. and £27 1s. 10d. in 1730 and 1731 respectively (JHCI Vol viii, f. 68 & 11). These records, however cursory and fragmentary they might be, offer a tantalising glimpse into the role women in the early eighteenth century building industry, and begs the question of how much more these wives, widows and mothers were responsible for, behind the scenes.
• James Ayres, Building the Georgian city, London, 1998.
• Arthur Gibney, Livia Hurley and Edward McParland (eds.), The Building Site in Eighteenth-Century Ireland, Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2017
* Catalogue of Documents concerning College building’s, TCD Mun/P/2, Trinity Manuscripts & Archives Research Library.
We are very grateful to Estelle Gittins and the staff of the TCD Trinity Manuscripts & Archives Research Library for providing us with access to this valuable resource, and for facilitating this research in the Manuscripts & Archives collections, during the resumption of services in the early autumn.
For further information on this ongoing research and the Irish Research Council Laureate project, CRAFTVALUE visit www.craftvalue.org
‘The Show Must Go On’ – Ina Boyle Song Recording in London
Ina Boyle portrait, TCD MS 4174/1
If she were alive in 2020, the Irish composer Ina Boyle (1889-1967) would be unfazed by the current Covid-19 restrictions. She was accustomed to living a relatively isolated and solitary life, rarely venturing far from her family home at Bushey Park, Enniskerry, Co. Wicklow. Yet that did not prevent her from seeking every opportunity to have her music performed and published, as she meticulously chronicled in her ‘Musical Compositions Memoranda’ (TCD MS 4172).
So Boyle would have been very gratified that a long-planned project to record most of her songs at the Wigmore Hall in London was not derailed by the pandemic, in spite of a few late obstacles. The original plan for a public lunchtime concert and live recording had to be abandoned, but the three Irish singers Paula Murrihy (mezzo-soprano), Robin Tritschler (tenor) and Ben McAteer (baritone), along with pianist Iain Burnside, assembled on the appointed day (28 October 2020) so that the recording team from Delphian Records could still capture their performances for a CD due to be released in 2021.
‘Musical Compositions Memoranda’, TCD MS 4172
Only two of Boyle’s songs for voice and piano were ever published, so in preparation for the recording 35 songs had to be edited and typeset from the original manuscripts held at the Library of Trinity College Dublin. There was a last-minute hiccup when the editorial team needed to recheck some details in the manuscripts, but found that the campus was by then open only to TCD staff and students. Happily, Research Collections staff were able to save the day by calling up the manuscripts, taking photographs of the relevant pages and dispatching them urgently to the editors so that they could meet the deadline for preparing definitive typeset scores for the performers.
3 Songs by Walter de la Mare, TCD MS 10960/3
The 37 songs recorded – from a total of 66 preserved in the manuscript collection – represent the full span of Ina Boyle’s life as a composer, from 1909 until 1966 (only a few short months before her death). About half come from the 1920s, her most prolific decade. Boyle was inspired to set words by a wide range of poets, from Sir Philip Sidney, George Herbert and Robert Herrick to more recent writers such as Walt Whitman, Rudyard Kipling, Edith Sitwell, and Walter de la Mare. Settings of poems by several near-contemporary Irish poets also feature – Eva Gore-Booth, Patrick Pearse, W.B. Yeats, Austin Clarke, and James Stephens.
An RTE television news report on the recording session is available (Boyle segment at 39:00 – 41:00). And four of the songs were included in Ben McAteer’s recital at the 2020 Belfast Festival (Boyle songs at 26:06 – 37:40). As well as the forthcoming CD, the typeset scores will be published next year by TU Dublin so that other singers will be able to add some of Boyle’s songs to their repertoire. This project is another great success for the Ina Boyle Society and its indefatigable director, Katie Rowan, in achieving their primary aim of bringing the music of this pioneering Irish woman composer to the ears of a much wider audience.
UPDATE: A video report of the Boyle song recording at the Wigmore Hall, including interviews with the artists, score editors and others involved in the production, is now available. The central role of the manuscripts collection is acknowledged.
Roy Stanley
Copyright © 2017 the Library of Trinity College Dublin
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Six regional winners in space science competition announced
YouTube,Lenovo,and Space Adventures today announced the six regional winners of YouTube Space Labthe global science competition that challenged 14-18 year-olds to design a science experiment that can be performed in space. Space Lab will provide two global winners the chance to have their experiment conducted and live streamed to the world using a Lenovo ThinkPad laptop from the International Space Station on YouTube.
The six regional winners, who hail from Egypt, India, New Zealand, Spain, and the U.S., are:
14 - 16 year old regional winning teams
Asia Pacific region: Patrick Zeng & Derek Chan from New Zealand “Is space too cold for life to exist?”
Europe, Middle East and Africa region: Laura Calvo & María Vilas from Spain “Could weightless liquids be the key to better gadgets?”
The Americas region:Dorothy Chen & Sara Ma from U.S.A. “Could alien superbugs cure disease on Earth?”
17 - 18 year old regional winning teams:
Asia Pacific region: Sachin Kukke from India “Could liquid magnets take us deeper into space?”
Europe, Middle East and Africa region:Amr Mohamed from Egypt “Can you teach an old spider new tricks?”
The Americas region: Emerald Bresnahan from U.S.A. “Could a snowflake unlock the mysteries of the universe?”
The six regional winning teams will visit Washington DC in March for a series of activities and events to honor their achievements, including a ZERO-G Flight, a Lenovo IdeaPad U300s Ultrabook™, a special tour and dinner at the Udvar-Hazy Air & Space Museum at Dulles, and an awards ceremony at the Newseum on March 22. The two global winners (one team from each of the two age groups) will be announced at the awards ceremony on March 22, and will later this year have their experiments performed 250 miles above Earth aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and live streamed on YouTube as part of a global event celebrating science and space.
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Two Phoenix schools go solar
Kyocera announced today the completion of two solar electric systems in partnership with SolarCity at Phoenix area schools: Copper Ridge in Scottsdale and Cholla Elementary in Casa Grande. Featuring Kyocera solar modules, the two photovoltaic systems have a combined size of more than 764 kilowatts (kW) — enough to offset more than 33 million pounds of carbon dioxide.
Comprised of 2,387 Kyocera KD210 modules, the 500 kW system at the Copper Ridge School is expected to produce 775,992 kilowatt hours (kWh) annually and offset 47 percent of the school’s energy usage. Through a solar service agreement (SSA), SolarCity installed the solar panels and continues to monitor and maintain the system. Copper Ridge reaps the benefits of this agreement by harnessing the power produced by the solar system, effectively allowing the school to reduce its energy costs and create savings that can be used for other school services.
With a 264 kW solar system utilizing 1,260 Kyocera KD210 modules, Cholla Elementary School’s expected output is 364,000 kWh annually, offsetting 70 percent of the school’s energy use. Casa Grande School District recently adopted an Energy and Water Conservation Plan, outlining energy-saving guidelines, including efforts for construction projects to follow LEED-certification processes. Local utility company Arizona Public Service also provided a rebate to offset solar installation costs.
As energy costs continue to rise, so does the demand for solar energy, which provides an environmentally sustainable and cost-effective alternative to fossil fuel-generated electricity.
“Solar energy provides a financially viable solution to offset rising electricity costs,” said Steve Hill, president of Kyocera Solar, Inc. “It is most gratifying for Kyocera to participate in this growing trend among academic institutions to convert to solar power — the Copper Ridge and Cholla projects, and the recent 806kW installation at Sedona Red Rock High School, represent the opportunity to promote sustainable alternatives — and to work with partners such as SolarCity who make it a viable energy solution.”
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HomeyogaWhat Is Kirti Chakra?
What Is Kirti Chakra?
Geek news May 08, 2020
Kirti Chakra -
The Kirti Chakra or the Kundalini Chakra, also known as the Chakra of Protection, is an ancient Indian spiritual symbol which represents a spiritual life force in the body. The Kundalini Chakra can be found on the top of the spinal cord at the base of the spine. It has been used to protect people from spiritual harm by protecting them from psychic forces and other energies in the physical world. It also protects against sexual impurity.
Kirti is considered sacred and protected by many Indian religions. It represents the body's energy center known as Kundalini. It is an ancient Indian military decoration given for bravery, courage or self-sacrifice in the battlefield away from the front line. It can also be given to soldiers or civilians, as well as those who have passed away in war, posthumously. It's also the peacetime counterpart to the Maha Virchakra.
Kirti is often worn by Indian soldiers who are part of the armed forces and have fought in many wars. In Hinduism, Kirtis are often used in the form of a necklace. It is also worn by many people who are fighting against evil spirits. Many people believe that wearing a skirt increases one's spiritual energy levels, thus enhancing a person's mental faculties.
Kirtis are worn by men in the form of necklaces. Some women wear a necklace made out of pure Kundalini, which is said to have magical properties. Kundalini is one of the most powerful energies within the body and it is usually found at the bottom of a person's stomach, between their navel and pubic bone. It is a natural and integral part of the human anatomy and represents the female gender. Its energy is powerful enough to transform humans into powerful spiritual beings.
Kirtis are usually crafted with either beadwork gold or silver. They are mostly given by the Indian royalty. The most commonly seen kirtis are made from glass beads, crystal, and precious gemstones.
Kirtis have a special significance within many Hindu religious traditions. Kirtis are worn by devotees of various gods and goddesses. There are also Kirtis available for use in various Hindu rituals. These include marriage ceremonies, religious festivals, and as holy relics.
Kirtis are often worn during spiritual ceremonies. Some Hindus also use Kirtis to guard themselves against bad luck and evil spirits. In some instances, Kirtis are worn to ward off enemies and bad influences. Even today, Kirtis are still used as amulets to protect individuals from evil.
Kirtis are often given to children who have passed away. They are a symbol of the hope and power of life after death. Kirtis are also worn by those who are involved in a ceremony called 'Brahma Yatra' where they journey to the holy place for meditation. When Kirtis are given as a gift to the dead, the wearer is believed to bring good luck to them. They are also believed to offer protection and to bring wealth and prosperity to the future.
Kirtis are also worn by those who are suffering from physical problems or disorders. For this reason, Kirtis are often given to people who need to be cured from illnesses or to those who are going through emotional trauma.
Kirtis are also worn by pregnant women in order to increase their chances of conceiving. They are also given to women during fertility treatments.
Kirtis are also gifted as wedding gifts. These are considered to bring happiness and prosperity. Often, Kirtis are also worn by newly weds and newlyweds-to-be in order to ensure that they do not become a burden on their parents.
Kirtis are also given as presents to friends and family members. They can be made from various materials such as crystals, gemstones, and even glass beads. Kirtis may be made from beads or crystal glass. Kirtis are traditionally made out of small pieces of glass, but nowadays they may be manufactured from glass beads and crystal beads.
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You are here: Home / News / Samsung Galaxy Tab S6: A Touch of Note is Drawn into the Tablet
Samsung Galaxy Tab S6: A Touch of Note is Drawn into the Tablet
August 20, 2019 By Faiza Iftikhar Leave a Comment
At long last, the Galaxy Tab S4 gets a worthy successor and the Galaxy Tab S5e an older sibling. It’s called Galaxy Tab S6 and a portion of the new highlights will be familiar to owners of a Samsung Galaxy Note9.
There are relatively few manufacturers that build powerful tablets anymore. The market is for the most part overwhelmed by Apple’s iPad Pro. Samsung is, alongside Huawei, one of the staying enormous tablet manufacturers who oppose Apple’s superiority. The new Galaxy Tab S6 is Samsung’s leader in this portion and wants to catch customers with improved hardware and a few highlights borrowed from Galaxy Note9.
New features of the Galaxy Tab S6
Since the Galaxy Tab S6 is estimated over the S5e and is to contend with Apple’s iPad Pro 10.5, the South Korean top tablet will get a S-Pen that will be paired via Bluetooth 5.0 LE. The stylus can be used as a sort of remote control, much the same as with the Galaxy Note 9. This remote capacity is surely practical for presentations, yet additionally for everyday use as a play/pause remote for multimedia content or even as a remote trigger for the cameras. What’s additionally viable is that Samsung has now provided a spot on the back of the Galaxy Tab S6 for the S-Pen to sit, where it is not only held magnetically, yet in addition charged wirelessly.
If the S-Pen comes up short on vitality, the super capacitor inside the stylus is ready for use within 10 minutes for a full 11 hours. This is the pure backup time, not real-world battery life. To what extent this will be, we’ll have to test when we do our detailed review.
With the second camera, the S6 sees more
For the first time with a Samsung Tablet, there are two fundamental cameras. While the normal camera takes photos with 13 megapixels, the subsequent camera takes photos with 5 megapixels with a field of perspective on 123 degrees. Thus, those who like to go on a photo safari with their tablet can now be able to take wide-angle pictures with the help of the second camera.
Practical feature for Gamers
A tablet makes it simpler to play, particularly games where a huge field of view is important. For gamers who like to talk and chat with their partners simultaneously, it is hard to stay in touch with Android’s onboard resources. Samsung has reported a partnership with Discord for the Galaxy Tab S6, a correspondence app generally used by gamers. It incorporates Discord deeper into the Game Launcher. Gamers using a Tab S6 can remain in the game and still talk with their friends via Discord now.
If you discover the Galaxy Tab S6 energizing, you can pre-request it legitimately online at the Samsung Shop between August 15 and 29. The Tab S6 is accessible in the three colors Mountain Gray, Cloud Blue and Rose Blush, each with 6/128 or 8/256 GB of memory and capacity. A LTE-proficient adaptation will likewise be accessible later in the year. Official deals begin on September 6, when the tablet will be accessible in the shops. Costs will begin at $649 for the 6/128 GB rendition and $729 for the 8/256 GB adaptation.
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Thomson Geer advise QSR on sale of KFC stores for $82.4 million
Thomson Geer’s Sydney corporate team, led by Partner, David Zwi have advised client QSR on the conditional sale of 100% of shares in the company, which owns and operates 42 KFC stores in NSW to New Zealand Stock Exchange listed Restaurant Brands Limited. The transaction is for a total consideration of $A82.4 million to be satisfied as to approximately $60 million in cash and the balance in RBD shares.
The transaction is subject to a number of conditions, including approval from the franchisor, Yum! Restaurants International and other conditions customary for a transaction of this nature. It is expected that the transaction will settle by the end of April 2016.
QSR is currently owned by interests associated with the Copulos Group and generates sales in excess of $A100 million per annum.
QSR’s KFC stores are located in urban Sydney and New South Wales regional locations. QSR has been a KFC franchisee for the past 17 years and is the largest KFC franchise in New South Wales (by number of stores).
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Police increase patrolling in Australia’s COVID-19 hotspot
FILE PHOTO: Fire Services Victoria personnel meet outside a public housing tower, locked down in response to an outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Melbourne, Australia, July 8, 2020. REUTERS/Sandra Sanders
MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Police in Australia’s coronavirus hotspot state of Victoria stepped up patrolling on Saturday as hundreds of people in the city of Melbourne breached stringent lockdown restrictions and flocked to beaches on the warmest weekend in months.
Under the restrictions, nearly five million people in Melbourne, Victoria’s capital, may exercise or socialise outdoors for a maximum of two hours a day, but must stay close to home. People must wear masks in public places.
But television and social media footage showed crowds, many people without masks, at some of Melbourne’s beaches as temperatures soared ahead of summer in the southern hemisphere.
“A number of fines were issued to people who breached directions …. and Victoria Police will be conducting increased patrols of popular public spaces this weekend,” police said in a statement.
Fines for not wearing masks reach A$200 ($143) and for breaching public health orders are more than A$1,600.
Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews said the behaviour of the beach-goers was “unacceptable”.
“Spending time at the beach without a mask, without social distancing now, will just mean that you won’t get to go to the beach for all of summer,” Andrews said at a televised briefing.
State officials said eight people had been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus in the past 24 hours and three more people died. The numbers have been going steadily down after reaching more than 700 in new daily cases at their peak in July.
Melbourne has been under a strict lockdown for months, with the measures set to remain in place until the average number of new daily cases over a two-week window falls below five. On Saturday it was 12.
Victoria, Australia’s second-most populous state accounts for 90% of national COVID-19 deaths. Australia, with 893 fatalities, has fared far better than many other developed countries.
India's coronavirus death toll passes 100,000 with no sign of an end
Songkhla Zoo official kills himself after allegedly killing his boss
Reconciliation committee ‘doomed to fail’ without participation from protesters
Bangkok blanketed in excessive amounts of PM2.5 dust pollution
Youths believed to have died of benzodiazepine overdose in ketamine powdered milk January 15, 2021
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Home » Nation » Fallout over Capitol siege extends to job losses for those who were there
Fallout over Capitol siege extends to job losses for those who were there
On: 1/11/2021, By Mark Pattison, , In: Nation
...A billboard seeking information about the attack on the U.S. Capitol is seen at a bus stop in Washington Jan. 9, 2021. (CNS photo/Tyler Orsburn)
...National Guard troops stand watch near the U.S. Capitol in Washington Jan. 9, 2021. (CNS photo/Tyler Orsburn)
...U.S. Capitol and Washington, D.C. Metropolitan police officers salute the hearse of fallen Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick Jan. 10, 2021. The U.S. Air Force veteran died Jan. 7 after being injured the day before during the breach on Capitol Hill by President Donald Trump supporters. (CNS photo/Tyler Orsburn)
...Supporters of President Donald Trump climb on walls at the U.S. Capitol in Washington Jan. 6, 2021, during a protest against Congress certifying the 2020 presidential election. (CNS photo/Stephanie Keith, Reuters)
...President Donald Trump boards Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Md., Jan. 12, 2021, to head to Texas for a visit at the U.S.-Mexico border wall. (CNS photo/Carlos Barria, Reuters)
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Just as the political and criminal fallout has continued over the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol by people seeking to halt the Electoral College certification of President-Elect Joe Biden's win in the November election, the fallout has extended to job losses for those who have been identified as taking part in the siege.
One case in point: Rick Saccone, who for the past 20 years had been an adjunct professor teaching courses in international relations and global terrorism at St. Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. Saccone tendered his resignation after college officials started an investigation once it became aware of his tweets outside the Capitol.
A Jan. 7 statement from Benedictine Father Paul Taylor, St. Vincent president, did not name Saccone by name but said the professor's resignation from the college was "effective immediately. He will no longer be associated with Saint Vincent College in any capacity."
Father Taylor added: "All individuals have the right to an opinion, but when beliefs and opinions devolve into illegal and violent activities, there will be no tolerance."
Saccone, a former Pennsylvania state representative who unsuccessfully challenged U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb two years ago for an open House seat, tweeted Jan. 6: "We are storming the capitol. Our vanguard has broken through the barricades. We will save this nation. Are u with me?" The tweet was removed before the day was over.
But the damage had already been done. An online petition on change.org calling for his termination from the faculty had collected more than 900 signatures before it, too, was taken down.
Saccone is far from the only one to have lost a job after participating in the activities of Jan. 6, which started with a rally featuring incendiary remarks by President Donald Trump and his personal attorney, former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, and devolved into chaos as many at the rally headed to the Capitol. The melee inside left five people dead, including a Capitol Police officer.
Some of those involved were betrayed by their own social media posts.
A man who worked at a printing and marketing firm in Frederick, Maryland, was fired when a photo of him at the Capitol went viral. It showed him wearing his work badge. A Dallas lawyer who worked as the head of human resources at an insurance company was fired after someone posted on Twitter the lawyer's Instagram story about being at the Capitol. A Chicago real estate agent was fired after her posts about "storming the Capitol" got back her employer.
In Washington, the House was preparing an article of impeachment against Trump for his role in sparking the violence if Vice President Mike Pence and the Cabinet did not invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office. If the article of impeachment passes, Trump would be the first president to be impeached twice.
There have also been calls for the resignations of Republic Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Josh Hawley of Missouri for leading the charge to challenge the Electoral College ballot counts; a book publisher has already canceled a contract for a book Hawley was writing.
There have also been calls for the resignation of a Pennsylvania state representative who appeared with Saccone outside the Capitol in one of his tweets, and a West Virginia lawmaker who breached the Capitol.
Meanwhile, the FBI says it has received more than 50,000 tips pointing to people in connection with the Jan. 6 events. Already arrested and charged are the man who brought a host of "zip ties," or plastic handcuffs, with him into the Capitol; the man who dressed in a Teutonic-style horn headgear and a fur vest; and the man who broke into the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, and propped his feet on the desk of one of her aides.
As of midday Jan. 11, no one has been charged in the death of Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, who died Jan. 7 after being assaulted inside the Capitol.
Special Edition: Vocation Awareness Week 2020
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CommentNews / UK & World
Syria: people almost numbering Scotland’s entire population trapped without help
by Kieran Andrews
December 29 2016, 8.30am
Stephen Gethins, and fellow SNP MP Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh, on a visit to Syria
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Men, women and children totalling close to Scotland’s population are trapped away from humanitarian aid they desperately need in Syria, an MP has said.
North East Fife representative Stephen Gethins, a member of the House of Commons foreign affairs committee, said the five-year-old civil war has “left hundreds of thousands of people dead and blighted the lives of millions”.
He recently asked the UK Government for an assessment of the humanitarian situation.
It replied that there are 13.5 million people in need of humanitarian assistance, with almost five million living in “hard to reach or besieged areas”, where it is difficult to deliver help.
By Stephen Gethins, North East Fife MP and member of the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee
During these holidays, not so far away from where the first Christmas story unfolded 2,000 years ago, a tragedy is continuing to play out.
The devastating five-year-old civil war in Syria is a regular staple on our TV screens night after night. It has left hundreds of thousands of people dead and blighted the lives of millions more.
Just last week I asked the Government for their assessment of the humanitarian situation in Syria; that response paints a bleak picture.
The Government told me that there are 13.5 million people inside Syria in need of humanitarian assistance. That number includes almost five million (just about the population of Scotland) who are living in what is termed ‘hard to reach or besieged areas’, in other words where it will be difficult to deliver the assistance required.
Even the very basics are missing for millions in Syria. The UN currently assesses that seven million do not have consistent access to food, 15 million need water and sanitation and 4.3 million need shelter. All this while facing a bitterly cold winter.
One of the most dreadful aspects when considering these figures, is that this is not a natural disaster. It is entirely man-made and due to a brutal civil war which rages on with no end in sight. The distressing scenes that we have witnessed in Aleppo are the latest in a series of outrages where civilians, including young children, are the main victims.
Amid the inhumanity it is important to take time to remember the best of humanity that thrives in the carnage. I witnessed at first hand the work being done to help refugees fleeing this conflict in refugee camps just over the border from Syria.
It is worth remembering that countries like Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and Lebanon, who do not have their troubles to seek, are bearing the brunt of the refugee crisis.
Ordinary people in those countries have offered the hand of friendship and relief as well as the outstanding work being done by NGOs, the UN and governments where they can. Even in Syria itself, aid groups, medical staff and others such as the White Helmets continue their impossible work amid the devastation.
Refugees do not want to be refugees; it takes a lot to leave everything you have and have ever known, behind. The strongest message I was given was that they want to go home and rebuild their lives. It is the same then as it was when the Holy Family fled the Holy Land as refugees 2,000 years ago.
Stephen Gethins
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Dorothy Parker Slices and Dices
TOUGH AUDIENCE
The author and Algonquin wit penned some of the most memorably acerbic book reviews ever written. But she could celebrate just as well as she could assassinate.
Ellen Meister
Updated Apr. 14, 2017 11:55AM ET / Published Mar. 22, 2015 6:45AM ET
Everett Collection Inc / Alamy
You may know Dorothy Parker as the acid-tongued wit who once said a performance by Katharine Hepburn “ran the gamut of emotions from A to B,” and who reviewed a Broadway play with the line, “The House Beautiful is, for me, the play lousy.”
But Parker was more than just a hard-bitten theater critic. She was also a poet, short story writer, screenwriter, and literary critic. In fact, she was The New Yorker’s book reviewer from 1927-1933, writing under the pseudonym Constant Reader, and held a similar post at Esquire decades later. Of all her literary eviscerations, perhaps the most famous is the slicing she gave to A.A. Milne’s The House at Pooh Corner, making it clear Mrs. Parker had no taste for whimsy. Here's an excerpt:
“ ‘Well, you’ll see, Piglet, when you listen. Because this is how it begins. The more it snows, tiddely-pom—’
“ ‘Tiddely what?’ said Piglet.” (He took, as you might say, the very words out of your correspondent’s mouth.)
“ ‘Pom,’ said Pooh. ‘I put that in to make it more hummy.’ ”
And it is that word “hummy,” my darlings, that marks the first place in The House at Pooh Corner at which Tonstant Weader Fwowed up.
Of course, not all of Parker’s reviews were negative. An avid reader, she loved and hated with equal intensity. And though the positive reviews might not be as entertaining as the scorchers, the books live on, and are worthy of our attention. Here are five examples of books Dorothy Parker recommended.
Men Without Women by Ernest Hemingway
Parker adored this collection of Hemingway short stories, while castigating those who insisted that only his novels should be taken seriously. She said, “Mr. Hemingway's style, this prose stripped to its firm young bones, is far more effective, far more moving in the short story than in the novel. He is, to me, the greatest living writer of short stories; he is, also to me, not the greatest living novelist.” She goes on to say Men Without Women is “a truly magnificent work,” and “I do not know where a greater collection of stories can be found.”
The Glass Key by Dashiell Hammett
Dorothy Parker was a big fan of Dashiell Hammett’s work, calling him “as American as a sawed-off shotgun.” And while she explains that he doesn't have Hemingway’s scope or beauty, she says it's true that “he is so hard-boiled you could roll him on the White House lawn. And it is also true that he is a good, hell-bent, cold-hearted writer, with a clear eye for the ways of hard women and a fine ear for the words of hard men, and his books are exciting and powerful and—if I may filch a word from the booksy ones—pulsing.”
Round Up by Ring Lardner
While she hated the book's name, complaining “if there were ever a cup given for the most unfortunate title of the year, it would be resting at this very moment upon the Ring Lardner mantelpiece,” she insists that he is such an outstanding artist she is nearly without words. "It is difficult to review these spare and beautiful stories; it would be difficult to review the Gettysburg address. What more are you going to say of a great thing than it is great? You could, I suppose, speak of Ring Lardner's unparalleled ear and eye, his strange, bitter pity, his utter sureness of characterization, his unceasing investigation, his beautiful economy .... But it seems to me that Lardner's qualities are not to be listed, but to be felt, as you read his work."
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
Parker's negative reviews can go on for pages, outlining the sheer torture of the reading experience. Her praise, on the other hand, is often succinct. Here is her entire review of this book: “There is still sunshine for us. The miracle is wrought by Shirley Jackson. God bless her, as ever unparalleled, more than ever in her latest book, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, as leader in the field of beautifully written, quiet, cumulative shudders. This novel brings back my faith in terror and death. I can say no higher of it and her.”
Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote
Though Breakfast at Tiffany's was published in a book with other stories Parker didn't find as memorable, she had the highest praise for Capote's title story and considerable talents. “Mr. Capote has three speeds, of each of which, I think, he is a master. He is a novelist, a writer of short stories, and a reporter of murderous accuracy.” (I have to interject here to fawn over the phrase “murderous accuracy” as it's applied to Truman Capote.) And only Dorothy Parker can praise one writer and slice an entire grouping of others in one cut. “I am sick of those who skate fancily over the work of Mr. Capote, to give their time to the beat boys. They neglect to say one thing which is, to me, the most important; Truman Capote can write.”
Ellen Meister is the author of Farewell, Dorothy Parker, The Other Life, The Smart One, and Secret Confessions of the Applewood PTA. She teaches creative writing at Hofstra University Continuing Education, mentors emerging authors, lectures on Dorothy Parker and the Algonquin Round Table, and does public speaking about her books and other writing-related issues. Follow her on Twitter @EllenMeister
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Crispin Black
Crispin is an independent intelligence consultant. He is retained by the BBC as an expert in terrorism and intelligence and was extensively involved in their coverage of both 7 and 21-7. He is the author of 7-7 The London Bombs - What Went Wrong? - a critical examination of the failures in intelligence and security leading up to the July 2005 bombs in which he makes suggestions for wide-ranging reform and improvement. He also writes periodically for the Independent on Sunday and appears on other TV channels from time to time including NBC, ARD, Sky and Channel 4. After the London Bombings of 2005 Jon Snow called him "One of the very best in the field."
On passing out from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, Crispin started his career as a second lieutenant in the Falklands War and finished over twenty years later as a lieutenant colonel in the Cabinet Office preparing intelligence briefings for Number 10, the Joint Intelligence Committee and COBRA (Cabinet Office Briefing Room A - the government's highest level crisis response machinery) where he was on duty on the night 11-12 September 2001. In between he did three emergency tours of Northern Ireland including a stint as intelligence officer in the Republican stronghold of West Belfast. His trials and tribulations and those of his soldiers during two years on counter-terrorist operations in the early 1990s were the subject of a popular BBC documentary by Molly Dineen "In the Company of Men". He also served with the British Army of the Rhine and the United Nations Forces in Cyprus.
After graduation from the Army Staff College he specialized in intelligence and in 1996 was awarded the MBE for his role in the Defence Intelligence Staff during the crisis in Former Yugoslavia. He has degrees from both London and Cambridge - where he spent a year on a defence fellowship - and has lectured at both universities.
While in the Cabinet Office he was dispatched to advise the Macedonian government on the structure of their intelligence assessment machinery. In September this year he was asked to provide independent assessment of the UK's counter-terror capability to the Danish Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee.
Crispin's special areas of interest and expertise are decision making and assessment in the face of uncertainty.
He is married with two small daughters and lives in London. He has one brother who is an attorney in Las Vegas.
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There are currently no gigs listed for this artist
In the summer of 1984 singer Steve Overland and his brother, guitarist Chris (both formerly of Wildlife) teamed up with drummer Pete Jupp (ex Wildlife and Samson) and bassist Merv Goldsworthy (ex Diamond Head and Samson) to form FM. Joined by the keyboard talents of Didge Digital, by December that year they had secured a recording contract with CBS/Portrait and the band headed to Germany for a run of dates with Meat Loaf. Further tours with Tina Turner, Foreigner and Gary Moore built up the momentum. On 8 September 1986 FM released their debut album INDISCREET (featuring the hugely popular single "Frozen Heart") to great critical acclaim and the year ended on a high with FM supporting the white-hot Bon Jovi on their "Slippery When Wet" tour. For the next nine years FM consolidated their position at the forefront of British melodic rock, touring extensively as headliners and also joining bands such as Status Quo and Whitesnake on tours to promote releases such as 1989's TOUGH IT OUT album; TAKIN' IT TO THE STREETS released in 1991 (with Andy Barnett on guitar replacing the now-departed Chris Overland); APHRODISIAC in 1992 (featuring Tony 'Slim' Mitman of Romeo's Daughter on keyboards) and what was to be their 'final' album, 1995's DEAD MAN'S SHOES with new recruit Jem Davis (Tobruk, UFO) on keyboards. In 2007 - after a 12 year sabbatical - FM were persuaded to return to the stage for a 'one-off' headline performance at a sold-out Firefest IV at Nottingham Rock City. The rapturous reception from the fans at Firefest led to FM quickly making the decision to record a new album and following a return to Firefest in 2009, in March 2010 FM released their much-anticipated sixth studio album METROPOLIS with Jim Kirkpatrick replacing Andy Barnett on lead guitar. And FM haven't stopped since… Headline tours both in the UK and overseas, Special Guest slots touring with Foreigner, Journey, Thin Lizzy and Heart; festival appearances including Download, Planet Rockstock, Sweden Rock, Graspop, Steelhouse Festival, Frontiers Rock Festival, HRH and HRH AOR, Cambridge Rock Festival and in 2018 their first-ever live show in the US at Melodic Rock Fest 5. When not touring, FM have been busy in the studio and since their 2010 'comeback' album they have released 2013's double helping of ROCKVILLE and ROCKVILLE II (with two songs playlisted by BBC Radio 2 - "Story Of My Life" and "Better Late Than Never"); HEROES AND VILLAINS in 2015 and INDISCREET 30 - a new 2016 recording of FM's classic debut album to celebrate the 30th anniversary of its release. Released on 30 March 2018, the latest album by FM is ATOMIC GENERATION featuring the lead track "Black Magic" and radio single "Killed By Love".
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Want to join New York's High Line crowd? Don't listen to Joanna Lumley
With the collapse of London’s Garden Bridge dream, the pitfalls of urban renewal projects are more apparent than ever. So how do you emulate Manhattan’s High Line without sparking gentrification or turning your city into Disney World?
Tue 15 Aug 2017 02.00 EDT Last modified on Wed 23 Sep 2020 10.28 EDT
Watch out: your High Line could become a ‘tourist-clogged catwalk’. Photograph: Kathy Willens/AP
Every city wants a High Line. When Joshua David and Robert Hammond first dreamed of turning a long-disused elevated railway track overgrown with weeds into a linear park for Manhattan, they could scarcely have imagined the day – about 10 years and more than $180m later – when fellow urbanists in Miami, Seoul, Toronto, London and Sydney would strive to replicate their project’s phenomenal success.
London garden bridge project scrapped
“Part of the High Line’s allure lies in its seeming impossibility,” says Adam Ganser, vice president of planning and design at Friends of the High Line. “It was so unlikely that this project would happen that I think it provides some optimism around similar crazy concepts in other cities around the world.” The fact that it attracts five million visitors per year and an estimated $980m (£756m) in tax revenue might also have something to do with it.
But as major cities fall over each other to adapt the relics of their industrial past into engines of tourism and property booms, the chorus of detractors is growing. The charges against the mini-High Lines of the world are numerous: racial segregation, gentrification, cost, ugliness and outright idiocy. London’s Garden Bridge project has just collapsed amid widespread opposition from the very population it hoped to titillate. Even Hammond – whose penitence included setting up the High Line Network, a coalition of designers and planners meant to help other High Line-like “adaptive reuse” projects avoid his mistakes – acknowledges the problems. “We were from the community. We wanted to do it for the neighbourhood,” he said in a recent interview. “Ultimately, we failed.”
So, how do you do it right?
Sydney’s version of the High Line, which offers a view of Frank Gehry’s famous Dr Chau Chak Wing Building. Photograph: Anna Kucera/Destination NSW
Do: think of the locals first
While many people see the High Line as the high watermark of urban design – “It’s perfect,” pronounced the New Yorker’s not easily pleased Peter Schjeldahl – its critics accuse it of social failure. “The High Line crowd is overwhelmingly white, to a degree that is far out of line with the racial/ethnic demographics of the borough and city,” political scientist Alexander J Reichl reported in a paper last year. His observations that “the level of racial homogeneity significantly exceeds that of other comparable parks, and that the lack of diversity cannot be explained by neighbourhood composition” led him to the conclusion that “the High Line is failing as a democratic public space”.
Among its unintended negative consequences is “gentrification of many kinds, from some of the most expensive residential real estate, to the disappearance of taxi garages and gas stations, to the displacement of art galleries that made Chelsea appealing in the first place”, says architecture critic Alexandra Lange. The condos along the High Line are disproportionately pricier than their neighbours, with Bjarke Ingels and Zaha Hadid among the architects who have cashed in.
The High Line crowd is overwhelmingly white, to a degree that is far out of line with the demographics of the city
Worse, is the “lack of appeal of the High Line for long-time neighbourhood residents – a destination park without being a neighbourhood amenity”, says Lange. In the New York Times, author Jeremiah Moss has deplored it as a “tourist-clogged catwalk” and “just another chapter in the story of New York City’s transformation into Disney World”.
Don’t: just do it anywhere
The High Line’s “mistakes are artfully multiplied and layered”, says urbanist James Howard Kunstler. “For instance, the assumption that New York City doesn’t need railroad tracks anymore. Or the notion that buildings don’t have to relate to the street-and-block grid. Instead of repairing the discontinuities of recent decades we just celebrate them and make them worse.”
But a good part of the High Line’s success, in the view of architecture professor Witold Rybczynski, “is due to its architectural setting, which, like the 12th arrondissement, is crowded with interesting old and new buildings”. Other than New York, “very few American cities can offer the same combination of history and density”.
In other words, there is a danger that what works in a specific place might fail in other less interesting landscapes. Done wrong, High Lines could become the latest in a long list of urban design failures, such as downtown shopping malls, underground passages, skyways – and monorails.
Sydney’s unloved monorail, which opened in 1988 only to close just 15 years later, inspired one architecture firm to propose converting it into a garden path called – wait for it – the High Lane. The plan never got enough traction to stop the monorail’s demolition, but in 2015 the city got its own elevated linear park anyway: the Goods Line. It’s a much closer imitation of the High Line, built upon disused industrial railway track and outfitted with greenery, wifi, performance spaces and even an outdoor gym.
The architectural texture of Sydney, a city developed mostly in the postwar car-centric era, can’t compete with that of New York and Paris – or even that of Melbourne, where a historic railway bridge comes up every so often as a candidate for High-Lineification. But the Goods Line at least offers a striking view of Frank Gehry’s characteristically unconventional Dr Chau Chak Wing Building at the University of Technology Sydney. It’s a decent start.
Don’t: build it from scratch
Seattle hired High Line landscape architect James Corner to design a 26-block promenade, linear but not elevated, that would replace an unsightly freeway, which was to be relocated underground. But the project came face to face with Kate Martin, another designer who was intent on preserving a section of the condemned road for conversion into an unusually high High Line.
After unsuccessful school board and mayoral campaigns, Martin made the “Park My Viaduct” project her political hill on which to die. Even after her seismic engineer ruled out the possibility of retrofitting the existing freeway, she proposed rebuilding some of it after the demolition. The project won just 19% in a local referendum, not least because Corner himself described Park My Viaduct as a “dumb idea”. “The High Line doesn’t stand out alone, apart from the city,” he said.
Until recently, London looked as though its own High Line would take the form of a park spanning the Thames. The Garden Bridge was originally envisioned in 1998 by Absolutely Fabulous actor Joanna Lumley as a tribute to Princess Diana. It was different from the New York High Line, in that it would have to be built from scratch. But as costs passed £200m – with the city likely to be liable for ongoing maintenance – and Londoners grew displeased with the proposals to limit public gatherings on the bridge, mayor Sadiq Khan withdraw financial guarantees, effectively killing it.
Joanna Lumley in 2015 at the site of the proposed Garden Bridge across the river Thames. Photograph: Philip Toscano/PA
Do: crowdfund for extra legitimacy
As Khan taketh away, so he giveth: the Camden Highline aims, like its inspiration in New York, to make a park out of an existing train track – in this case a 2,800ft stretch between Camden Town and Kings Cross, originally part of the North London Railway, which ceased operations in 1922.
“[It’s] a great example of a local community taking an idea and garnering support in order to make it a reality,” says Khan, referring to the fact that the Camden Highline raised the first phase of its budget, £63,976, on the crowdfunding platform Spacehive. (The mayor himself pitched in £2,500.) Spacehive previously crowdfunded feasibility assessments for a potential Peckham Coal Line, an elevated urban park in south London made from old coal sidings.
Don’t: think crowdfunding is enough, however
This kind of “Kickstarter” urbanism, however innovative, has its limitations. “You wouldn’t Kickstart a replacement bus line for Brooklyn, but you might Kickstart an app to tell you when the bus on another, less convenient line might come,” Lange has argued.
Take the Lowline, an abandoned trolley terminal in New York that was billed as “the world’s first underground park”. The crowdfunding campaign grew considerable attention – but in reality the park was a wildly overambitious proposition, with the funding only able to cover a test run of the skylights that would filter daylight underground.
The High Line that could have been ... London’s failed Garden Bridge. Photograph: Thomas-Heatherwick designs
Do: design it well
Lange also criticises the Lowline’s vision of “a high-tech eco-tainment crossed with a multi-purpose community centre”, seeing “something undeniably dystopian about the idea that a neighbourhood starved for open space might find its solution in a tunnel”. Indeed, the High Line has greatly raised public expectations for design.
Chicago’s Bloomingdale Trail, another railway-turned-park that acts as the backbone of a larger network called the 606 (taken from the city’s zip codes), opened in 2015 to a collective shrug from a city that boasts such famously well-executed public spaces as Millennium Park. “The fact that the 606 is an elevated trail on an abandoned rail line creates an almost inevitable comparison to New York’s High Line,” wrote urbanist Aaron Renn. “The 606 is not even remotely another High Line.”
He argued that it doesn’t have any citywide significance, either for local residents or for tourists. “It’s a neighbourhood-serving rail trail that is elevated above the streets with some nicer features like lighting that you don’t see often” – but it’s afflicted with a utilitarian awkwardness owing to its low budget ($95m – just over half the cost of the High Line) and the various demands of the regulatory bodies involved.
Do: look in unexpected places
Toronto’s Bentway, slated to open at the end of this year, is one of the stronger pretenders to the High Line throne. In Toronto’s case, private philanthropists employed urban consultants to judge what Toronto actually needed in the way of parks – and where. The undervalued land they identified lies beneath the regrettable Gardiner Expressway, a mid-century freeway that cuts off the city’s waterfront.
The Bentway’s continuous, road-shaded path will have 55 “outdoor rooms” demarcated by the Gardiner’s concrete support structures (or “bents”), variously suitable for gardens, art shows, playgrounds, farmers’ markets, performance spaces, and much else besides – ideally upending the longstanding North American perception of the land under freeways as being useless, dirty or outright dangerous.
Similarly, Miami’s Underline aims to make a 10-mile “linear park, urban trail and canvas for art” out of the land beneath its rail system’s elevated track, currently used for either parking or nothing at all.
Seoul’s Skygarden – a successful version of London’s Garden Bridge? Photograph: Ossip van Duivenbode
Do: be patient, young Jedi
In search of a High Line of its own, Seoul chose a freeway overpass that had become unsuitable for cars. Rather than tear it down, the city reinforced it – and, with a design by Dutch landscape architect Winy Maas, turned it into an artfully lit elevated park lined with plants and attractions, connected directly to the towers around it, and open 24 hours a day. What differentiates Seoullo 7017, as Rowan Moore wrote for Guardian Cities on its opening in May, is the “ambition to grow out of the character and needs of contemporary Seoul”, and as such it “promises to be among the more convincing of all the many High Line wannabes in the world”.
A garden bridge that works: how Seoul succeeded where London failed
While it still retains a bit of the stark, concrete look of midcentury Seoul, the park’s designers are urging the public to give its organic features a chance to emerge – as have those of the Cheonggyecheon, the celebrated downtown stream that replaced another 1970s freeway flyover in 2005.
It’s a fair point: these projects are about deep-rooted change, a shift in priorities from pure economic capacity to aesthetics, comfort and public amenity. “Making sure that potential is leveraged to benefit the existing communities that live near these projects, and benefit the park as well, will be key to their long-term success,” says Ganser.
And as glorious a view as they can provide, Lange advises their creators not to forget about the foreground. “Think about the park in the context of the city and the neighbourhood, of different age groups and use groups. Don’t allow it to drive away the people it could most benefit. Each opportunity is a chance to make the idea of an infrastructure park more complete – which goes down way deeper than design.”
Follow Guardian Cities on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to join the discussion, and explore our Archive
Parks and green spaces
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Berserk Season 3: Is the Anime Season in Releasing in 2018?
Wanner Ritz
The heavily criticised anime for its animation style may come back with “Berserk Season 3” as the finale of the Season left open ends. The anime is based on the manga and it is the sequel of the Golden Age Arc film trilogy. The anime is the television adaptation of the anime which was released with the same name in 1997. The anime has run for two successful Seasons with a total of 24 episodes. Director, Shin Itagaki has said that he will like to work more with the series if the producers will think likewise.
The anime follows the story of Guts as the Black Swordsman, which seemed briefly in the first episode of 1997 anime and in the final scene of Golden Age Arc film series. Guts was once a part of the mercenary group known as Band of the Hawk. One day, they mutilated their leader and sacrificed his followers to become of the God Hand. Guts were able to escape with his lover Casca, who lost her sanity after witnessing the horrors in the name of sacrifice to the God. Guts and Casca escaped the ritual but they were branded with the marks which attract evil and restless spirits. Now Guts have set on a journey to hunt down the God Hand’s Apostles and kill them in vengeance.
The manga of the series has released 39 volumes so far and the English readers are also not too far behind as the Dark Horse Comics has published the 38 volumes in English as of July 5, 2017. In the anime adaptation, the director skips several manga chapters as most of them were covered in the 1997 adaptation and in the movie trilogy, and went straight to the rest of the Conviction story arc. All in all, there are still over 100 manga chapters available as the source for the Berserk Season 3.
Also Read: Sword Art Online Season 3 Spoilers and Updates
Spoilers for the Berserk Season 3
It is believed by most of the fans that the “Berserk Season 3” will pursue the final part of the Falcon of the Millennium Empire story arc. The arc will start the search for a sea vessel to take the group to Skellig. The Vandimion family will get into a dispute amongst themselves which will turn deadly when Guts will be challenged to a duel. Moreover, Emperor Ganishka will declare a war against the Holy Sea but it will turn out that the city is under attack by the Kushan Empire’s Army.
The battle with the Kushan’s army will result into guts forming an alliance with the sword master, Nosferatu Zodd to combat Ganishka. During this battle, a fissure is opened into the astral plane but Skull Knight. This event is known as World Transformation which will cause the material world to overlap with the supernatural. The event will cause the Guts and his party to split apart and the Mystical creatures will be now fully manifesting in the physical world. This will led to the rise of the new empire of Griffith in the kingdom of Falconia.
Release date of the Berserk Season 3
There have been no announcements for the continuation of the series but the fans know that the studios will be working on the “Berserk Season 3” for sure. The end of Season 2 left a lot of open ends and therefore the fans are in waiting for the Berserk Season 3 to be released soon, unfortunately, no official news on the release date has been made but some inside sources have teased the 2019 release of the anime sequel.
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From Bad Boy To Role Model
From a bad boy past, ALEX Hunt was headed for life on the wrong side of the tracks until a new calling took him to new heights.
GOLD COAST, QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA, January 14, 2021 /EINPresswire.com/ — Alex Hunt (22) who is well respected in the business world and an influence to many people, didn’t always have high hopes. From a bad boy past, Hunt was headed for life on the wrong side of the tracks until a new calling took him to new heights.
Hunt, who grew up in a small metropolis town of Newcastle, Australia left behind a life that wasn’t looking too good for him. From school suspensions, police visits, gangs and violence, Hunt said “I don’t know where I would be now if I hadn’t made that life change years back. I'd probably be locked up or struggling to find a job”.
Hunt moved out of home to the Gold Coast to set his sites on bigger business opportunities. He had started his first business at 14 and since then has grown in the business world as a role model and influence to others wishing to get into business. Hunt is now the acting CEO of the Hunt Retail Group, a small digital and consulting agency group that delivers business services to people all around the world.
“I never liked school and besides from all the suspensions and expulsion warnings, I kept my grades high. I guess during that time I got caught up on the wrong side of the tracks outside of school with bad people doing bad things. I guess I had to see the bad side of life to understand that’s not how I wanted to live.” Hunt said in a statement.
"I was young and rebellious and didn't know better" He said. Hunt has been trying to forget and leave that old life behind. "I often go back there to visit my parents and people still know who I am instantly. I had this one random guy say “oh I’ve heard of you before”. It was the best decision moving”
If you want to check out his company you can visit it here www.huntretailgroup.com or follow his instagram at @itsalexhunt.
Lisa Matherson
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Transforming the 45-Room Hotel Belsito into the Private Villa Ferraro Residence in Capri, Italy
Marcus Anthony
It’s not very often that you see a large hotel converted into a private residence, but on the Island of Capri in Italy, that is exactly what one affluent owner did.
Located in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the Sorrentine Peninsula, Capri is an island that features a wealth of natural beauty and stunningly panoramic views from its spectacular coastlines and beaches. The beautiful Mediterranean weather attracts multitudes of tourists to its hotels and resorts while the prominent harbor is a magnet for luxury yachting enthusiasts.
So, with an island that has historically been known for its luxuriously carefree Mediterranean lifestyle, why not transform a hotel into a private luxury residence befitting its location and elevate its stature to that of one of the best discrete summer homes in the world?
That was the impetuses that lead the head of a wealthy international family from Brazil in South America to commission the transformation of the 45-room Hotel Belsito in Capri into a private luxury home, now known as the Villa Ferraro Residence.
Restorations were carefully done to re-establish the architectural importance of the structure, which historically included a red Pompeian exterior color and Capri style columns. , The warmth and charms of its Mediterranean character both inside and outside the building were meticulously re-established.
The transformation and restoration process that was started in 2010 was completed sometime in 2012. Italian interior designer, Febrizia Freszza brought her renowned Mediterranean design influences to the renovation process, by creating a contemporary Italian villa living experience that befits both the distinction of the space and its location.
Developed over two levels, this private villa’s ground level features two separate living rooms, a dining room, kitchen, and service apartment. The grand upper level features vaulted ceilings with several rooms that all include private bathrooms.
The rooftop deck was built for the purpose of providing a luxury resort experience with a swimming pool when it was a hotel, so naturally the swimming pool was retained atop this private residence, providing the owners with stunning visuals each morning and night with glorious sunrises and sunsets.
The ambitious restoration of this unique, one-of-a-kind property represents the true notion of luxury ownership that is beyond the boundaries of ordinary living. It is the exemplification of a luxury lifestyle that characterizes an atmosphere of exclusivity where the enjoyment of the naturalistic aspects of one’s environment is as paramount as the character and historical significance of the structure. There’s nothing else quite like Villa Ferraro, so next time you’re traveling to Italy and have a chance to visit the Island of Capri, navigate to Via Matermania, 11 to get a glimpse of this former hotel meticulously restored and reinvented as an impeccable representation of a luxurious classic Italian Villa.
Co-founder of The Pinnacle List
Co-founder & Brand Director
Solespire Media Inc.
New Westminster, BC, Canada
marcus@thepinnaclelist.com
www.Solespire.com
Marcus Anthony co-founded The Pinnacle List on April 23, 2011 with his father, Kris Cyganiak. Together, Marcus and Kris would later establish Solespire Media Inc. on March 27, 2017, which was followed by Solespire’s immediate day-of-launch acquisition of The Pinnacle List, as part of the new Solespire Media Brands portfolio.
Marcus currently serves The Pinnacle List as Brand Director. He is responsible for directing brand strategy, developing digital media infrastructure as a technical full-stack web developer, as well as managing sales and operations that lead the real estate marketing industry in innovation with The Pinnacle List’s globally recognized website, advertising platform, and full-service listing portal for local, national, and international luxury real estate.
In 2009, Marcus also co-founded BuyRIC, which services as a portal and directory for local real estate markets. In 2016, Marcus created TRAVOH, a popular travel brand, which produces content by capturing real-time experiences and curating social influencers. Both brands were also acquired by Solespire, where Marcus leads as President, alongside Kris as Vice President.
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A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, Don Q, & Trap Manny Connect for new "Vroom Vroom" Video
A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, Don Q, and Trap Manny make the perfect team on their new single "Vroom Vroom."
Highbridge The Label has been making quite a name for itself thanks to artists like A Boogie, Don Q, and Trap Manny. All three of these artists are frequent collaborators with one another and recently, they decided to come through and bless fans with a brand new single called "Vroom Vroom" which just so happens to have a music video to go along with it.
The track features some smooth production with Trap Manny giving a nicely sung hook. Meanwhile, Don Q and A Boogie offer up verses that feature their signature sounds. Overall, these styles come together to make a dope track that is sure to please the ears of fans of all three artists.
A Highbridge The Label Compilation tape is coming soon, so definitely be on the lookout for that in the near future.
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And the Blackface Oscar Goes To…
The week that Barack Obama was sworn in as the nation’s first black president, the talented Robert Downey Jr. received an Oscar nomination for his role in the late-summer flick Tropic Thunder. The honored performance involved a character in blackface and an Afro wig; the role, a brilliant showcase for the actor’s “Ebonics vocal training.”
A century after D.W. Griffith's "classic" The Birth of A Nation, some white folks still think it's OK to parade around in blackface. Hell, many feel empowered in the march to the post-racial America. Whoa Nellie! It's not OK! It’s obnoxious, easy and pathetic. This is not what the Academy should be celebrating, especially in a year when there is worthy competition.
When the film was released, producer/director/writer/star Ben Stiller faced a firestorm of protest, but not for Downey Jr.'s pigment overhaul. Complaints about the racial/racist insensitivities of the film were overshadowed by a larger offense: belittling people with “intellectual disabilities,” through the constant use of the R-word (retard). The director’s cut DVD actually includes a public service announcement that seeks to discourage the use of the R-word.
There was no PSA, though, about the historical and cultural freight that blackface still represents. From Al Jolson (The Jazz Singer) to C. Thomas Howell (Soul Man), white performers have used blackface as a cover to appropriate and experience black culture, not necessarily to celebrate or pay respect. Far from being a "black thang," in a weird, twisted way, blackface is definitely, undeniably and disturbingly a “white thang.”
The defense, in the Tropic Thunder case, is that the film-within-a-film is a spoof, a sendup of Hollywood's overused tropes and stereotypes; it is an equal-opportunity offender. While the film was profitable—it made over $180 million worldwide before its release on DVD last November—several critics were not amused. Chief among them was Scott Feinberg, founder of And The Winner Is, a blog on the award season. “I just can’t imagine any circumstance under which a blackface performance would be acceptable,” wrote Feinberg. “Any more than I can imagine any circumstance under which the use of the N-word would be acceptable.”
It’s not that Downey is particularly bad in the role; it’s that he and the rest of the artists involved thought it was a clever move. “I disliked the idea of Downey Jr. in blackface more than I disliked seeing him do the role,” said Dwight Brown, a film critic for NNPA Syndication/BlackPressUSA.com. “However, if you are asking me if I think less of Downey Jr. for taking the role, less of Ben Stiller for creating it and less of the Academy for nominating it, my answer would be yes.”
OK, I chuckled at some points in the movie, and I know some black folk who think it’s hellafied funny and don’t see anything wrong with Downey Jr.'s portrayal. And there are at least two other performances in the film, which were even more outlandish. An unrecognizable Tom Cruise does a turn as Jewish movie mogul Les Grossman, and Nick Nolte basically lampoons himself as a broken-down vet, whose Vietnam experiences serve as the basis for the film-within-a-film.
Perhaps the biggest slight this Oscar season is that the Academy ignored many strong contributions from black artists. Perhaps the most egregious snub was the blanket rejection of Miracle at St. Anna, Spike Lee’s World War II drama based on James McBride’s book of the same name.
Is the irony in all of this lost on Academy voters? After all, this is liberal Hollywood we’re talking about. They rooted for Barack Obama, contributed to his war chest and celebrated hard when he won. Yet, their expansive sensibilities didn’t extend to the ways in which black people are portrayed in films. For all its self-congratulatory high-mindedness, Hollywood has just been passing for enlightened.
I guess the best we can hope for is that if Downey Jr. does win, he will not roll up in blackface or utter the words “sho nuff” in his acceptance speech.
Nick Charles is a regular contributor to The Root.
FRIENDLYNEIGHBORHOODDALEK
I thought the joke was about how Hollywood will cast popular white actors in roles that should go to POC, and how the character (and by extension those who cast him) was too self-absorbed to realize how ill-concieved and wildly inappropriate it was. Maybe I was giving the film too much credit?
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Danette St. Onge
Expertise: Thai and Italian cooking
Danette St. Onge is a food and travel writer and translator. She is the author of a Thai cookbook and has written many print and online recipes.
Recipe developer, tester, editor, and translator
Author of "The Better-Than-Takeout Thai Cookbook"
Translator and editor in French, Italian, Spanish, and English
Former editor at Cook's Illustrated magazine
Danette St. Onge is a food and travel writer specializing in international cuisines and the science and chemistry of food and cooking. Growing up in a multicultural family, traveling, and living abroad in several countries have all informed her unique take on food and cooking. She lived in Tuscany for five years and has traveled extensively throughout Italy, exploring regional culinary specialties and traditions. She is currently based in Paris and London.
Danette has published a Thai cookbook featuring 100 easy recipes. She worked as an editor at Cook's Illustrated magazine (America's Test Kitchen) writing and editing articles and recipes, as well as devising kitchen experiments, tips, and taste tests. As a freelancer, she has written about food, dining, and travel and developed, tested, and edited recipes for various clients in print and online media, including Saveur, Zagat, Google, and the Food Network. She has also worked as a translator (Italian, Spanish, and French to English) on many projects, including cookbooks and restaurant menus.
Danette St. Onge has B.A. in biology from Tufts University and a B.F.A in studio art from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, as well as a copy editing certificate from Emerson College.
Published in 2017, "The Better-Than-Takeout Thai Cookbook: Favorite Thai Food Recipes Made at Home" provides both well- and lesser-known recipes along with tips to making iconic Thai dishes in under 30 minutes.
Danette has also published work in several print and online publications such as America's Test Kitchen, Cook's Illustrated magazine, Saveur, Zagat, and the Food Network.
About The Spruce
The Spruce, a Dotdash brand, is a new kind of home website offering practical, real-life tips and inspiration to help you create your best home. The Spruce family of brands, including The Spruce, The Spruce Eats, The Spruce Pets, and The Spruce Crafts collectively reach 30 million people each month.
For more than 20 years, Dotdash brands have been helping people find answers, solve problems, and get inspired. We are one of the top-20 largest content publishers on the Internet according to comScore, a leading Internet measurement company, and reach more than 30% of the U.S. population every month. Our brands collectively have won more than 20 industry awards in the last year alone and, most recently, Dotdash was named Publisher of the Year by Digiday, a leading industry publication.
Read more from Danette St. Onge
The 8 Best Lasagna Bakeware Pans of 2021
The 18 Best Galentine’s Day Gifts of 2021
Ribollita, A Classic Tuscan Winter Soup
How to Roast Chestnuts in the Oven
The 4 Best Wine Advent Calendars of 2021
Pasta alla Puttanesca
The 18 Best Chocolate Gifts of 2021
The 8 Best Pasta Drying Racks of 2021
The 8 Best Pasta Pots of 2021
The 8 Best Soup Makers of 2021
The 8 Best Mezzaluna Knives of 2021
10 Delicious Ways to Use Prosciutto
How to Make Cappelletti: "Little Hats" of Filled Pasta
Lo Sfincione, The Original Sicilian-Style Pizza
Spicy Spaghetti With Garlic and Olive Oil
Sun-Dried Tomatoes in Olive Oil
Get daily tips and tricks for making your best home.
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Home » baseball player » Art Thomason Net Worth 2018: What is this baseball player worth?
Art Thomason Net Worth 2018: What is this baseball player worth?
Art Thomason was a pro baseball player who played Outfielder. Thomason was born on February 12, 1889, in Liberty, Missouri. Thomason died on May 2, 1944, in Kansas City, Missouri. This page will take a closer look at Art Thomason’s net worth.
Art Thomason Career, Earnings
Thomason batted Left and threw Left. Thomason debuted in the MLB on August 10, 1910 for the Cleveland Naps. In all, Thomason played for the Cleveland Indians. Thomason’s career ended with the Cleveland Naps in 1910.
Some of Thomason’s most prominent statistics in the MLB included a Batting average stat of .171, a Home runs stat of 0, and a Runs batted in stat of 2.
Art Thomason Net Worth 2018
Baseball annual pay can range widely. In professional baseball, the median pay is approximately $3 million annually. Top pro baseball players can receive $25 million or more per annum, and less successful players earn $1 million or less. Outside the MLB, most contracts are worth less than $10,000 a year.
Art Thomason net worth: baseball salary distribution
So what was baseball player Art Thomason’s net worth at the time of death? Our estimate for Art Thomason’s net worth at death is:
Want to see some related net worth articles? Check out these: Jack Hammond, John Tudor, Frank Baumholtz, Alex Cora, Jim Manning, Gene Bailey, Horacio Ramírez, Dick Jones, Josh Labandeira, Billy Beane, and Joel Naughton.
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Home » baseball player » Leury García Net Worth 2018: What is this baseball player worth?
Leury García Net Worth 2018: What is this baseball player worth?
Leury García is a pro baseball player who plays Utility player for the Chicago White Sox as # 28. García was born on March 18, 1991, in Santiago, Dominican Republic. This page will take a closer look at Leury García’s net worth.
Leury García Career, Earnings
García bats Switch and throws Right. García debuted in the MLB on April 6, 2013 for the Texas Rangers. In all, García played for the Texas Rangers, and Chicago White Sox.
Some of García’s most prominent statistics in the MLB included a Batting average stat of .234, a Home runs stat of 13, and a Run batted in stat of 58.
Leury García Net Worth 2018
According to USA Today, Leury García is under a 1 (2018) year contract worth a total of $1.2 million. García is currently earning approximately $1.2 million per year.Over the years, García earned $500,000 in 2013, $500,000 in 2014, $500,000 in 2017, and $1.2 million in 2018.
Player pay can range widely. In professional baseball, the average player earns around $3 million every year. Top players can earn $25 million or more annually, and less successful players make $1 million or less.
Leury García net worth: soccer/football salary distribution
In the minor leagues, most contracts pay less than $10,000 a year.
So what is baseball player Leury García’s net worth in 2018? Our estimate for Leury García’s net worth as of 2018 is: $3 million
Want to see some related net worth articles? Check out these: Oscar Judd, Trayvon Robinson, Park Hyun-june, Pop Smith, Bill Ortega, Brian Tallet, Víctor Zambrano, Doug Simons, John Quinn, Warren Morris, and Elmer Ponder.
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Home » baseball player » Sonny Dixon Net Worth 2018: What is this baseball player worth?
Sonny Dixon Net Worth 2018: What is this baseball player worth?
Sonny Dixon was a pro baseball player who played Pitcher. Dixon was born on November 5, 1924, in Charlotte, North Carolina. Dixon died on November 19, 2011, in Charlotte, North Carolina. This page will take a closer look at Sonny Dixon’s net worth.
Sonny Dixon Career, Earnings
Dixon batted Switch and threw Right. Dixon debuted in the MLB on April 20, Baseball year1953 for the Washington Senators (1901-1960). In all, Dixon played for the Washington Senators, Oakland Athletics, and New York Yankees. Dixon’s career ended with the New York Yankees in Baseball year
Some of Dixon’s most prominent statistics in the MLB included a Win-loss record (pitching) stat of 11-18, a Earned run average stat of 4.17, and a Strikeouts stat of 90.
Sonny Dixon Net Worth 2018
Player annual pay can range widely. In the MLB, the average player earns approximately $3 million annually. Top baseball players can get $25 million or more per year, and lower rated players earn $1 million or less. Outside the MLB, most contracts pay less than $10,000 a year.
Sonny Dixon net worth: baseball salary distribution
So what was baseball player Sonny Dixon’s net worth at the time of death? Our estimate for Sonny Dixon’s net worth at death is:
Want to see some related net worth articles? Check out these: Tom Hughes, Mike Boddicker, Jack Jenkins, Jim Baxes, Johnny Beazley, Roy Schalk, David Buchanan, Morgan Ensberg, Don Songer, Archi Cianfrocco, and Harry Lumley.
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Canada quietly shipping bomb-grade uranium to U.S., ‘secret’ federal memo says
By Andy BlatchfordThe Canadian Press
Tue., Dec. 27, 2011timer3 min. read
MONTREAL—Weapons-grade uranium is quietly being transported within Canada, and into the United States, in shipments the country’s nuclear watchdog wants to keep cloaked in secrecy.
A confidential federal memo obtained through the Access to Information Act says at least one payload of spent, U.S.-origin highly enriched uranium fuel has already been moved stateside under a new Canada-U.S. deal.
The shipments stem from the highly publicized agreement signed last year by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and U.S. President Barack Obama, amid fears that nuclear-bomb-making material could fall into the hands of terrorists.
The Canadian stash gradually being shipped from Chalk River, Ont., contains hundreds of kilograms of highly enriched uranium — large enough to make several Hiroshima-sized nuclear bombs.
But even as the radioactive freight travels toward the U.S. border, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission has no plans to hold public hearings or disclose which communities lie along the delivery route.
The shipments themselves are protected by intense security protocol, which means specifics like routes, transportation method, quantities and schedules remain top secret.
The federal nuclear body, a co-regulator of the uranium transfers, says rules restrict it from disclosing such information to the public.
A ministerial memorandum, classified as “Secret,” says the nuclear watchdog considers it unnecessary to hold public sessions that would allow citizens to ask questions and comment on the shipments.
That same memorandum, dated Feb. 25, 2011, points out that recent hearings for another nuclear-shipment case generated intense public and media interest. The controversy has stalled the project to ship 16 generators from a Bruce Power nuclear plant through the Great Lakes, up the St. Lawrence River and onto Europe.
The memo, obtained by The Canadian Press, appears to warn against a repeat scenario.
“Given the public and media interest surrounding Bruce Power’s plan ... there may be an expectation that similar information be made public on the shipments of spent HEU (highly enriched uranium) fuel to the U.S., and that the CNSC (Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission) hold public hearings,” said the document, addressed to then-natural resources minister Christian Paradis.
“To date, the CNSC has not considered it necessary to hold public hearings on the shipment of spent HEU fuel to the U.S.”
When asked why public hearings aren’t necessary for the uranium deliveries, a commission spokeswoman replied by email: They “are not carried out given the robustness of the packages used and due to the security issues related to the transfers of highly enriched uranium.”
The government added that there has never been a significant transport accident involving nuclear materials, anywhere in the world, and that such shipments occur regularly in Canada.
It said only authorized people or agencies, like police forces along the shipment route, are made aware of the details.
One nuclear expert said theft is the primary concern when shipping highly enriched uranium fuel — because there is virtually no danger of leaks or explosions.
“If I were the people doing the shipping and so on, I’d want to keep as low a profile as possible ... you don’t want to give terrorists or criminals any advantage,” said Bill Garland, a professor emeritus from McMaster University in nuclear engineering.
“There’s a greater risk in the general public knowing, because then the bad guys would know as well.”
As for non-theft incidents, like possible road accidents, he described the containers carrying the substance as highly resistant to collisions, chemicals, fire and explosions.
“It’s relatively easy to contain and secure and it’s not going to go off like a bomb,” Garland said.
“I would have no hesitation sitting in the truck and driving across the country with it. It wouldn’t bother me in the least.”
Garland added that drivers share Canadian highways every day with trucks carrying loads of liquid chemicals, like gasoline and chlorine, that would pose a much bigger danger in a smash-up than nuclear waste.
While the risks are small, he said, that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. He warned that radiation could be released if someone deliberately opened a container, for instance.
Garland said moving uranium poses far more danger than shipping Bruce Power’s old generators up the St. Lawrence.
He calls the generator shipments a “trivial radioactive situation” and a “non-issue” because the cylinders hold very low levels of radioactive material. He said that even if they fell into the bottom of the river, the generators would pose a negligible risk.
Canada has been importing highly enriched bomb-grade uranium from the U.S. to make medical isotopes at Chalk River for the past two decades. While Canada has been pushing for all nations to move to low-enriched uranium, it maintains a large inventory of the substance at Chalk River.
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5 benefits to teaching online by violinist Rodney Friend
By Hannah Nepil2020-07-10T14:11:00+01:00
Ahead of a new online violin academy and masterclass series that he is running later this month, the Royal Academy of Music professor and former New York Philharmonic concertmaster explains the advantages of the online teaching format
Rodney Friend
There are many things I don’t like about modern technology; for a start, I like to to know that the person I’m talking to online isn’t having a conversation with someone else at the same time. But can you imagine what life without the internet would have been like over the last few months? Personally, it has enabled me to teach students from all over the world, students who, in pre-coronavirus times, would have come to stay with me for a while, so that we could study together for a few days at a time.
I’m not saying that online teaching is the best way of teaching. The disadvantages are obvious. You can’t hear all the nuances in the sound that you’re producing or receiving; there can be interferences in the wifi; there is no physical contact with the student, which can make it more difficult to know which muscles are working, say, or how loose the wrist it. And it’s just not the same as being in the same physical space and breathing the same air:
When I see my grandchildren online, it’s lovely, but it’s not as nice as when they come running up the garden path and you give them a hug. You can’t replicate that feeling. You can’t even get close to it, and to a lesser degree, online teaching has the same downside. That said, if you are prepared to set yourself up properly and spend a little bit of money on getting a good microphone and speakers, I think the advantages of it outweigh the disadvantages.
1. There is a certain kind of intimacy to online teaching, which I don’t think we would experience if we were in a room together, where one might feel more awkward about making eye contact. You may be in New York, while I’m in Timbuktu, but on a screen you’re only 24 inches from me, not 4000 miles, not even a couple of metres as you would be if we were in the same room. And that kind of intense one-on-one setting can help you to feel more focused, both as a teacher and as a student.
2. There is less time wasting: you don’t have to travel for hours to get to your lesson, which means that you can immediately practise what you’ve just been taught. And I don’t have to keep coming over to make markings in the music, because I can just email across any notes and fingerings in 30 seconds. The days feel very short when I’m teaching online.
3. The sound quality can actually be pretty good. When I was a child, the early recordings I listened to were 78’s. I wore out my records of Jascha Heifetz and Yehudi Menuhin; I listened to them non stop, and it never bothered me that the sound I was hearing was far removed from the sound of their Strads in real life. I still learnt an enormous amount from them; they were more important to me at the time than my violin lessons. And the technology we have now is far superior. Yes, listening to music online is not the same as listening to a live performance. But, with a good camera, microphone and speakers, you can tell what is coordinated, what is in tune, what the dynamic range is, whether there is an unnatural design in the bow stroke; you can see all of that, and I think you can get fairly close to the real thing.
Read: What does it feel like to give an online chamber concert?
Read: How to record chamber music in lockdown
Read: Running an educational chamber music programme remotely
4. You can get immediate solutions to problems. If I have a lesson in which I’ve had to convey some complicated information, or where there’s been some struggle, it’s very easy just to say, ‘if something hurts or you run into difficulties, just email me and I can Zoom you as soon as possible. You don’t have to wait until next week, while this problem gets worse and worse, let’s just have ten minutes now and I’ll take a look at it.’
5. You feel more relaxed. Sometimes kids can come into my teaching room, and you can see they’re a bit tense. With online teaching, you’re both at home, in your own setting where you feel secure. I don’t need to sit on the Marylebone Flyover for 30 minutes, with people shouting from other cars. It cuts out a whole level of stress.
Rodney Friend’s International Violin Academy and Masterclass Series, featuring violinists Pinchas Zukerman, Augustin Hadelich, Rodney Friend, Yuzuko Horigome, Joel Smirnoff, Dong-Suk Kang, Cho-Liang Lin, Cihat Askin, Siyeon Ryu and So-Ock Kim runs from 30 July to 5 August. Visit http:www.friendsviolin.com for more information. Observer tickets are available from https://www.tickettailor.com/events/fiva
How I began giving Instagram tutorials during the pandemic
Violinist Callum Smart explains how the pandemic prompted him to transfer his teaching to the online sphere
Should music tuition revolve around passing exams?
Toby Deller argues that young instrumental players should be inspired by fulfilling experiences
How I started teaching students in Mozambique over Zoom
Violinist Darragh Morgan shares his experience of teaching students 8000 miles away
More Playing & Teaching
What to do if your violin pegs keep slipping or sticking
Korinthia Klein presents a simple player’s guide to violin maintenance, without encroaching on luthiers’ territory
’I don’t feel at all guilty about tinkering with the "classical canon" – David LePage
Violinist David Le Page explains how he found the connections between Rameau and Radiohead, Schubert and The Smiths through arrangements for Orchestra of the Swan’s new album Timelapse
The Pandemic Paganini Project: how I decided to fill in the blanks of 2020
When the arts were extinguished by the pandemic, orchestral violinist Sarah Atwood was galvanized into creating a new musical pathway for herself – and she learnt a lot from doing it, as she explains here
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Victory without humanity can be no triumph
We have seen for ourselves why an international relief effort is now urgently needed in Sri Lanka
David Miliband and Bernard Kouchner
Thursday April 30 2009, 1.00am, The Times
Recent demonstrations in London, Paris and elsewhere have brought the situation in Sri Lanka to wide public attention. But the island’s civil war has been running for 28 years. The Tamil minority in the north has long argued that it is marginalised politically and economically.
In the early 1980s the LTTE (the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or Tamil Tigers) started fighting for an independent Tamil state. By 1986 it had full control of the northern Jaffna peninsula. What began with violent protest soon led to civil war - to the majority the assertion of military power by a sovereign government against a murderous terrorist organisation, to the minority the abuse of violent power by the State. Repeated attempts to find a political solution ran
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The Wise Articles
Home > Life > Horses, Leadership, and Vision
Horses, Leadership, and Vision
Dost Can Deniz, 2 years ago 0
This story comes from Joan Starkowsky, CEO of Roadway Reverse Logistics, who once spoke at the Cleveland Gestalt Institute where I was working as an instructor.
Starkowsky, whom I met seven or eight years ago, attributes the great success of her company to a very critical point she learned at a leadership training program.
She told us that after years of struggling to drag people from one place to another, she decided to join a training program inspired by the behavior and sensitivity of horses. This program had become rather popular in recent years. A group of senior managers like herself were first educated about horses, namely that you have to keep an image of your destination in mind to lead a horse from one place to another. They were then introduced to the horses and their trainers, and over time, they started riding them for a little at a time.
Joan’s horse was a robust specimen called Zeus. She mounted him and took the reins before starting to circle the enclosed area. Just when Joan started to believe their relationship had become strong enough to relax a little, a large fence on her left side caught her eye. Her left leg had been in plaster just a couple of weeks ago, so she panicked that the horse was getting closer and closer to the fence. She fixed her eyes on the fence and mentally repeated to herself, “Don’t go over there…Don’t you dare go over there.” Zeus then really did start getting closer to the fence. Joan’s anxiety then suddenly increased and she became unable to take her eyes off the fence. As a result, Zeus really did crush Joan’s leg between the fence and his body.
Joan said about the event, “I then understood what it really meant to ‘keep an image of the destination in your mind’…I realized how I’d kept telling my employees, my children, and myself what I didn’t want them to do. I gave them the wrong image of the destination: ‘Don’t ever fail to reach the desired result. Don’t ever misbehave. I shouldn’t be late.’ For this reason, I’d tried to steer and drag people to somewhere all my life. I kept tugging at the reins, although all I could see was the fence… I then blamed them for crushing my leg against the fence, even though the main reason for all this was nothing other than me…”
There’s no need to ride horses. When you’re driving, fix your eyes on the truck ahead of you instead of your destination and see what happens! Let me tell you: You can’t help but crash into it. Humans are programmed like this: We can only go to a place we keep our eyes on and reach only what we can imagine. When we have a particular destination, and when we can keep an image of it in our minds, and if the image is clear enough, we will ultimately reach it. There’s nothing esoteric about it—it’s simply a biological process. If we don’t have an image of a destination, or if our gaze drifts toward the fence, then we definitely won’t reach a destination.
Now, let’s get down to leadership. The primary mission of leaders is to determine clear images for where they want to take their companies, organizations, teams, or even themselves. They need to make sure they plant the same clear image in everyone’s minds. Unfortunately, many leaders have no idea about where they want to go, so they can’t plant any ideas into the minds of their teams. Our leaders seem to struggle with the fences instead. At best, they’re more concerned with getting the daily tasks done without any disasters happening. This can easily draw the attention of the team members toward the fence, and even if they avoid crashing into it, the idea still creates a general senselessness. Financial goals can easily become fences as well when they’re not associated with a meaningful goal. The team will chase the financial goal and eventually crash into it. In this respect, the primary mission of a leader should be to manage the map of meanings for his or her team, company, or country.
Just think about it like this. Imagine you went to a grocery store and asked an assistant, “Hey, don’t get me a loaf of bread.” What can this assistant do for you?
Tags #business life #leadership #life #life coaching
Correct Parenting
The Teacher and the Technician
Dost Can Deniz
Dost Can Deniz is the first Master Certified Coach accredited by the International Coach Federation in Turkey and Southeast Europe which serves leaders from all walks of life. Dost holds positions as a faculty member of the Gestalt Center for Organization and System Development in Cleveland, Ohio, USA, and co-leader of the Eurasian Gestalt Coaching Program in Istanbul. He has coached Managing Directors, CEOs, General Managers, Sr. Vice Presidents (SVP), Assistant General Managers (AGM) and executive teams of top 500 Turkish companies and Turkish subsidiaries of Fortune 500 global companies. A best-selling author, Dost wrote Cesur Sorular (Courageous Questions), now in its sixth printing. He has practiced meditation for more than 10 years, as well as daily training in the fundamentals of Qi Gong.
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Digital, Culture, Media and Sport: Support Measures
Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 2:37 pm on 8th October 2020.
Julian Knight Chair, Julian Knight MP Committee, Chair, Julian Knight MP Committee, Chair, Julian Knight MP Committee, Chair, Julian Knight MP Committee 2:37 pm, 8th October 2020
I beg to move,
That this House
has considered the spending of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport on support measures for DCMS sectors during and after the covid-19 pandemic.
I am truly grateful to the Backbench Business Committee for granting time for this important debate, which affects so many of our constituents. I also thank my co-sponsor, Kevin Brennan.
The past six months have presented us with the challenge of our lifetimes. From the moment the coronavirus pandemic took hold, it has posed an existential threat to the areas of the economy that enrich our lives the most—whether that is the ability to attend sporting events, the theatre, or a gig, to enjoy our world-class museums or galleries or to go on holiday somewhere in the UK, in one fell swoop we could not do any of those things anymore. The DCMS sectors faced a complete shutdown that, despite an easing of restrictions, largely remains.
Our world-leading cultural sectors have been on their knees as a result of covid-19, with their major source of funding cut off. Media and broadcasting organisations have struggled as advertising revenues have fallen off a cliff. The very existence of at least 10 to 15 of our professional football clubs lies in the balance. DCMS sectors also rely on freelancers more than any other sector, more than one third of whom were unable to access a penny of the Government support for the DCMS sector.
More than six months have now passed; many businesses remain unable to open due to Government restrictions, while the Treasury’s vital, job-saving furlough scheme is winding down. The arts and leisure sectors are disproportionately affected by that, as 30% of workers in those industries are still on furlough today. We do not yet know when crowds will be permitted to return to the football or when theatre performances will be able to take place without social distancing, which is the only way those performances can be viable. Many businesses face catastrophe, with recent figures showing that 155,000 jobs in the creative industries have effectively ceased to exist since March.
The Government have rightly taken steps to protect those sectors. The culture recovery fund is the largest ever investment in the arts, and I know how hard the Secretary of State personally worked to secure the £1.57 billion package. The furlough scheme gave those who could not work due to Government restrictions a chance to keep their jobs. There have been measures for charities on the covid frontline, but the money allocated fell £3 billion short of what the sector said that it needed for just a three-month period during lockdown. There has been a bespoke deal to ensure that film makers can access reinsurance and keep producing the films and television shows that we know and love, but that, too, took many months to get over the line and applications opened only last week.
I thank the Government for their efforts to support the sectors, but those measures do not go far enough. There remain large gaps in the Government’s response, and many industry figures are concerned that some within Government have failed to understand either the needs of the sectors or the immense value that they add to both our economy and lives. I, though, absolve individual DCMS Ministers of such a charge, because I know exactly the level of engagement that they have had with all those sectors and the hard work that they have put in.
My Committee conducted an exhaustive inquiry into the impact of covid-19 on the DCMS sectors. We found that no sector has been unaffected by this seismic shift in the way we work and live. We have had hundreds of conversations and received evidence from almost 700 organisations and individuals, including charities, tech companies, broadcasters and some of our most innovative businesses and best known public figures.
The contribution of the DCMS sectors individually is immense; yet charities not on the frontline in the fight against covid, for example, have been largely excluded from Government support, despite their work been indispensable in so many ways. Cancer Research UK, for example, which does vital, life-saving work, has told us that its research budget has been cut to the extent that 1,500 fewer scientists are now working on treatments and cures for cancer: a disease that statistically affects one in two of us.
The theatre industry, which was thriving before the pandemic, struggles to make performances viable if fewer than 70% of tickets are sold. Even at a metre, they are still running at 25% to 30% capacity. Although the UK is exceptional at fostering world-class music talent—9% of global music comes from this island—music venues also rely on selling 70% to 80% of tickets to sustain their businesses. News that the Royal Albert Hall may reopen for Christmas is welcome, but what about the many pantomimes that will not, and cannot, take place in regional theatres, some of which have now closed? That is up to 60% of their annual income.
The leisure sector has taken a hit, too, with gyms shut at precisely the time that more and more people are looking to get fit and reduce their chance of suffering from the effects of covid. Travel restrictions are causing immense pain for the UK tourism industry, as inbound tourism numbers have plummeted to historic lows. UK tourist destinations, which draw millions from all over the world, face absolute ruin, and 7% of seaside businesses went under just during lockdown.
One perception of the DCMS sectors that I especially want to push back on is that these businesses do not hold their own or are not net contributors to the UK economy. They are growth sectors, and prior to the pandemic they were growing at twice the rate of the economy as a whole. In the creative industries, the rate was five times the economy as a whole. If those sectors had not been contributing in the way that they have been, we would have been in recession for three of the last four years.
For every pound spent in a theatre, another six is spent supporting the local night-time economy. The contribution of the DCMS sectors is so often overlooked, even by those in the Treasury. “Why are they giving money to the arts?” some people say. I will tell hon. Members why: because they make money back. The DCMS sectors are diverse and often composed of very small businesses. They are not regulated industries in the way that, for example, financial services are, which perhaps explains why their needs are not as well known to the Government, but they are no less in need of support as a result of a pandemic; in fact, they need it more.
These sectors, while representing a quarter of the economy, comprise only 0.5% of Government spending. Every single time, DCMS Ministers have to go cap in hand to the Treasury for even the smallest amount of governmental loose change. That cannot be right. DCMS needs to be able to punch its weight even more in the Government and to have a higher margin of spending and greater discretion. What can be done? Well, there are a number of steps my hon. Friend could take, starting with sector-specific support to protect jobs. As the furlough scheme winds down, it becomes clear that the job support scheme simply will not meet the needs of thousands of DCMS sector businesses, which remain unable to generate any income whatever. The sectors desperately need support that recognises the restrictions they are under.
Without restrictions, those businesses would be growing. These are not zombie jobs. Sector-specific support would mean that those who currently cannot work, but who have jobs that remain viable in normal times, are supported for longer. No support means those essential creative jobs could disappear, possibly forever, as more and more creative businesses fold as a result of not being able to generate any income.
The theatre tax credit could be repurposed for marketing to show what is on offer and to encourage people to come back once it is safe to do so. Reinsurance schemes would restore business confidence for organisations that are struggling and fearful of the risks of reopening only to be shut down again. We need clear timelines, with “no earlier than” dates to aid in planning for the next few months, as well as rapid and top-notch test and trace. Those are all changes that could make a big difference for businesses that lack certainty about the future. The reality is that we do not know what is around the corner. Whether a vaccine is or is not found, we need to find a safe, smart way for venues to open at or near capacity.
Perhaps the bigger question is the opportunities the pandemic presents to reshape our DCMS sectors. It is a chance to look at competitions, such as the premier league, and decide how we want them to look in the future. We can explore whether the current model of operating is right for the UK and its many millions of football fans, and whether the balance between the top tier and other tiers of football is fair. That is just one example. The pandemic is a real chance to improve standards in areas that have long raised concerns.
There is also a chance to drive more investment and innovation in areas such as tech, spurred on by the Government’s commitment to rolling out gigabit-capable broadband nationwide by 2025. There are new opportunities for tourism and industry, too, which are so often a Cinderella consideration.
Throughout the past six months, I have heard from cultural and creative businesses that even where they are likely to survive, the depletion in their resources means they will not be able to offer the same outreach programmes that directly contribute to the Government’s levelling up agenda and create opportunities for young people and black and minority ethnic communities across the country. Those who will suffer the most from the blow to our cultural sectors are the people who can least afford to do so.
Finally, it bears repeating that the DCMS sectors are one of the UK’s great success stories. Britain truly punches above its weight in all these sectors. The past few decades have cemented that success. Our artistic, cultural, sporting and touristic excellence is a source of great pride to me and, I am sure, to many Members of this House. The people who work in those sectors deserve our support. We simply cannot afford to put so many years of progress at risk.
(Citation: HC Deb, 8 October 2020, c1093)
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Evangelical Alliance publishes guidance on new Marriage law
on Thursday, 15 August 2013 at 6.36 am by Simon Sarmiento
categorised as equality legislation
Under the title Marriage FAQs, the Evangelical Alliance has published a guidance document:
Earlier this month, the new Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act was introduced. As this legislation has now been passed by parliament, it is important to face the reality that the state’s definition of marriage will now be different from the historical definition. The Alliance has published the following guidance for Christians and churches, answering some of the most frequently-asked questions about the implications of the Act.
The document can be downloaded as a PDF.
The Introduction is copied in full below the fold.
The Evangelical Alliance is committed to uniting evangelicals to make a difference in our society. A key element of this is providing an evangelical voice to government and culture, and in doing so we have worked hard to oppose the government’s plans to redefine marriage. A range of statements and resources can be found here:
http://www.eauk.org/current-affairs/politics/marriage-and-family.cfm
As this legislation has now been passed by parliament, it is important to face the reality that the state’s definition of marriage will now be different from the historical and biblical definition.
However, it is also important for Christians to understand that, although we need to acknowledge the new definition of marriage, we do not need to approve of it or accept the premise on which it is based. In this context, it is vital that we are well informed of our rights and the limits of the law, and also that we speak the truth with grace and love.
It is essential for Christians to continue to defend and promote marriage as being exclusively between a man and a woman, but this does not mean that they should provoke accusations of homophobia. Indeed, it is worth remembering that many people from the gay community also opposed David Cameron’s plans.
There are many concerns about what the effect of the new law will be for churches and for individual Christians. The Evangelical Alliance offers the following FAQs as guidance for its members following the introduction of the new Marriage (Same-Sex Couples) Act 2013 which redefines marriage in England and Wales.
Please note that the FAQs represent advisory guidance and should not be regarded as legal advice. Many aspects of the law relating to the redefinition of marriage are complex, fluid and open to interpretation. Also, government assumptions about the robustness of protections for third parties are likely to be challenged by case law. Although the guidance is as comprehensive as possible, it is not exhaustive and may be supplemented or amended from time to time in the light of experience. Consequently the Evangelical Alliance accepts no legal responsibility for the accuracy or otherwise of the FAQs. In cases of doubt consultation with appropriate legal experts is recommended.
It should also be noted that because of its established status, which includes a public duty to conduct marriages, different rules apply to the Church of England as to nonconformist churches and other religious groups. The new legislation makes it illegal for the Church of England to conduct same-sex marriages. Accordingly, the guidance applies primarily to churches other than the Church of England, though some FAQs will apply also to the Church of England.
Sorry to post another link, but this is interesting too in its reporting that US conservative evangelicals fighting the culture wars against lgbti people are not only getting tired but that they are realising that it isn’t working. In this context the advice from EA seems akin to the little Dutch boy with his finger in the dyke (sorry am I allowed to use that simile these days?) They are just going to get swept away by the sea change in public attitudes: Justin Welby’s ‘revolution’.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/08/the-quiet-gay-rights-revolution-in-americas-churches/278646/
This seems to be a fairly clear and straight forward statement of the legal position. The only strange part is in the Introduction: “It is essential for Christians to continue to defend and promote marriage as being exclusively between a man and a woman, but this does not mean that they should provoke accusations of homophobia. Indeed, it is worth remembering that many people from the gay community also opposed David Cameron’s plans.” This seems to imply that they should not be homophobic because many gay people opposed gay marriage. Not only is this factually incorrect – a few high… Read more »
ExRevd
I can’t remember when I last read a more reactionary and negative document. Surely, if the “traditional” understanding of marriage is so commendable, one would expect an alliance of evangelists to be wholeheartedly commending it, and responding to FAQs of those who long to do likewise. But there is no news here, good or otherwise, just the same old, old story. For a profound lack of confidence in the Gospel, look no further.
cheryl clough
Sorry I’ve seen evangelicals at their worst, particularly in an alliance. If it is not in the vernacular try this one “social deprivation”. This is where the “incrowd” attempt to deny the legitimacy of someone, accuse them of slander/insanity etc. and make it that no one “respectable” will speak to them. They then threaten defamation lawsuits or litigation if anyone tries to expose their game. Solution? Treat everyone as you would want to be treated. Be fair to everyone in the way you would want to be treated fairly. Treat gays as you would want to be treated. In reality,… Read more »
Roger Mortimer/Lapinbizarre
Use it with a care for spelling where US viewers are concerned, Richard. In those parts, the Little Dutch Boy had his finger in a dike, with an “i”. A “y” would convey a totally different meaning.
In my opinion, this EA document is noticeably less negative in tone than earlier ones. See
http://www.eauk.org/current-affairs/politics/new-resources-on-marriage.cfm
and in particular this briefing note issued only a few days earlier than the one linked above
http://www.eauk.org/current-affairs/politics/upload/The-redefinition-of-marriage-Church-briefing.pdf
Roger, at the risk of provoking the esteemed moderator of this blog, my Chambers dictionary allows both spellings tor either meaning!
Chambers is a British dictionary, Richard. US usage is as I described above. Moreover, even the most reputable dictionaries can be idiosyncratic. The shorter OED bought when I started university, noted of the verb “masturbate” that it is “intrans”.
Craig Nelson
I think EA have done a considerable public service by producing this factual, accurate and balanced publication. Of course they are catering for people opposed to marriage for same sex couples but they do so in a calm, measured way which I think is helpful. One can see less of the apocalypse in this document than is often the case with EA.
I sometimes think that it would be rather nice to have those ‘like’ buttons here, as they do on Facebook.
There is the law of a government, which is always changing, and the beliefs of a Church, which should not change. Maybe it shouldn’t matter to the Church what the government’s current law is, except to recognize it but apply one’s own beliefs. I’m not sure why a belief about the meaning of marriage means one is “homophobic” if they disagree with current law. It just means they disagree, without using inflammatory language to paint an inaccurate picture of the person.
MarkBrunson
Thanks, Brian. With friends like you, our enemy quotient is dead full.
Pat O'Neill
“There is the law of a government, which is always changing, and the beliefs of a Church, which should not change.”
Really? Not even when those beliefs contradict proven science? Does the sun revolve around the earth? Are the stars and planets merely points on a succession of spheres surrounding the earth?
‘It just means they disagree, without using inflammatory language to paint an inaccurate picture of the person.’
You will find, if you care to look, that anti-gay MPs, peers and archbishops both RC and C of E, do indeed employ very intemperate and ‘inflammatory language’ while they seek to deny those of us who happen to be lgbti a place in both community and in their denominations.
Do not not try to paint them as simple, victimised believers, please.
“the beliefs of a Church, which should not change”
So the Catholic Church should be proscribing heliocentric models of the cosmos and asserting that Jews bear the guilt of killing Jesus, in order to remain consistent?
I think it’s a little unkind to denominate Brian as an ‘enemy’ (I have no idea whether he is or isn’t). The point is that the law that has been passed does decide the question of whether same sex marriage should be allowed to couples who wish to marry and also to churches and synagogues who wish to marry them and a mechanism to allow that to happen (a somewhat cumbersome one as it happens but there we are); the law also recognises the bona fides of those who are not on the same page and can, as a result,… Read more »
Laurence – ‘You will find, if you care to look, that anti-gay MPs, peers and archbishops both RC and C of E, do indeed employ very intemperate and ‘inflammatory language’ while they seek to deny those of us who happen to be lgbti a place in both community and in their denominations.’
Are you really denied a place in their denominations? Just because a homosexual couple cannot be married in one of their churches does this really mean they are denied a place in that community?
Today, New Zealand celebrates its first Same-Sex Marriages, with some religious bodies agreeing to perform the ceremonies. In the meantime, the Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches will not be joining in the celebrations. This does not prevent some anglicans and Catholics from joining with our LGBT sisters and brothers in celebrating their committed, faithful, same-sex relationships.
robert Ian williams
You can rest assured there will be some gay marriages in Anglican Churches in Aotearoa/NZ, as the Governmment has no coercive powers over the Church.
`from the historical and biblical definition.’
That would be the historical view that held women as property until the last couple of centuries, would it? And the biblical “definition” that somehow ignores Solomon having 700 wives and 300 concubines?
Pull the other ones, they have bells on.
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Pakistan’s Buddha of Swat smiles again 11 years after being dynamited
Peshawar, July 12, 2018 (PTI) – The iconic Buddha of Swat, carved on a cliff in the 7th century, has been restored to its almost original form with Italian assistance in northwestern Pakistan,nearly 11 years after it was dynamited by the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan during their control over the area.
The Buddha seated in a meditative posture, considered one of the largest rock sculptures in South Asia, was attacked in September 2007 by the Taliban militants, who blew up half the statue’s face by drilling holes into the face and shoulders and inserting explosives, triggering a worldwide anger.
The Italian government invested €2.5 million ($2.9 million) in five years to preserve the cultural heritage and restore the six-metre-tall Buddha of Swat, depicted in a lotus position at the base of a granite cliff.
Luca Maria Olivieri, an Italian archaeologist who oversaw the restoration of the Buddha of Swat, said the rehabilitation of the site has not been easy. The Italian Archaeologist said the reconstruction is not identical, but that is deliberate, as “the idea of damage should remain visible”.
The restoration started in 2012 in phases with the application of a coating to protect the damaged part of the sculpture. The reconstruction of the face itself was first prepared virtually in the laboratory, in 3D, using laser surveys and old photos. The last phase, the actual restoration of the Buddha of Swat, ended in 2016.
Now the authorities are counting on the Buddha’s recovered smile and iconic status to boost religious tourism from places such as China and Thailand, he added.
The Italian government has been helping to preserve hundreds of archaeological sites in northwestern Pakistan, working with local authorities who hoped to turn it into a place of interest for history-loving people and make it a tourist attraction.
In 2007, the Taliban militants under the leadership of Mullah Fazlullah gained effective control of much of Swat, a picturesque valley in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan. The militants banned dancing, parties and music shops, and also destroyed more than 400 schools.
In 2009, the Pakistan Army launched an operation, Rah-e-Rast, to flush out militants from the tribal region.
Mullah Fazlullah, the dreaded chief of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, was killed in a U.S. drone attack in Afghanistan’s Kunar Province in June 2018.
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Mendoza’s dual roles had drawn attention and caused friction. The Los Angeles Dodgers banned her from their clubhouse last year once during the season and once during the postseason because of her position with the Mets. She also drew attention last month for saying on an ESPN show that pitcher Mike Fiers should have gone to Major League Baseball before he told a journalist that the Houston Astros had been using a camera to steal signs.
Commissioner Rob Manfred said during this week’s owners meetings that he was not comfortable with Mendoza and former Boston Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martinez being both team employees and broadcasters.
“It’s a topic that remains under discussion internally,” he said. “It caused a lot of complications, not just on this particular incident or comments, but in general.”
Van Wagenen said in a statement that the team supported Mendoza’s need to devote herself full-time to broadcasting.
“We have such respect and value her baseball insight and know her impact on the game of baseball is just beginning,” he said.
As part of her new role, Mendoza will be the lone analyst on a package of weeknight games as well as being in the booth for ESPN Radio’s coverage of the World Series and postseason games. Additionally, Mendoza will be making plenty of studio appearances on “SportsCenter,” “Baseball Tonight” and other ESPN studio shows as well as doing features on “E:60.”
Mendoza, who was inducted into the National Softball Hall of Fame last year, will continue as a lead analyst during ESPN’s coverage of the Women’s College World Series as well as reporting from the Tokyo Olympics. She was a four-time, first-team All-American at Stanford, and won gold (2004) and silver (2012) medals with the U.S. at the Olympics. She also signed a multi-year extension with ESPN in December 2018.
“We are proud that Jessica, one of our most talented and recognizable commentators, will continue blazing new trails with ESPN for several years to come,” said Norby Williamson, ESPN’s executive vice president for production.
ESPN is trying to finalize the rest of its MLB coverage plans for this season. Alex Rodriguez and Matt Vasgersian are entering the final year of their ESPN contracts but the only certainty right now is that Rodriguez will be back on “Sunday Night Baseball.”
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Lee Joo Woo
이주우
Lee Joo Woo is a South Korean actress born on September 3, 1990. She attended Baekseok Arts University, where she studied in the Department of Music and made her debut appearance in the music video for the 2013 song “Story of Someone I Know” by rapper San-E. She made her drama debut in 2015, appearing in the series “Schoolgirl Detectives.” She then followed up with her movie debut in the 2016 film “Mood of the Day.” She later played a role in the series “Return of Fortunate Bok” (2017), for which she was nominated in the Best Character category at the 2017 MBC Drama Awards. More recently, she has appeared in the series “Welcome to Waikiki” (2018) and “The Running Mates: Human Rights” (2019).
Sep 3, 1990 (age 30)
The Running Mates: Human Rights
Let's Eat 3
Girl’s Day’s Sojin, Lee Jong Won, And More To Join Eric And Yoo In Na’s New Drama
Lee Joo Woo Reveals How “Let’s Eat 3” Cast Responded To Yoon Doojoon’s Sudden Enlistment
Cast Of “Let’s Eat 3” Shares Final Thoughts After Drama’s Conclusion
Watch: Highlight’s Yoon Doojoon Reminisces About His Crazy College Days And Reconnects With Baek Jin Hee For “Let’s Eat 3”
Lee Joo Woo And An Woo Yeon Join The Cast Of “Let’s Eat 3”
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'America's Got Talent': Johnny Manuel slays Whitney Houston ballad
Erin Jensen
Did you dare walk away from your TV when America's Got Talent aired Tuesday night? Don't worry. Because we Will Always Love You, we're giving you a chance to watch Johnny Manuel, who absolutely slayed his cover of Whitney Houston's I Have Nothing.
Seriously, it was so good that at one point host Tyra Banks proclaimed, "Whitney hears you, honey" backstage.
Hailing from Flint, Mich., Manuel told judges Simon Cowell, Heidi Klum, Melanie Brown and Howie Mandel that he's been "singing most of my life." Though he was signed to a record label as a teenager, that contract didn't propel him to stardom. But he hopes AGT could be his big break. Before Manuel finished belting out the tune from the soundtrack of 1992's The Bodyguard starring Houston and Kevin Costner, the audience was on its feet.
Watch Manuel's outstanding performance in the clip above.
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GOP deeply divided over Republican Roy Moore in the Alabama Senate race
Deborah Barfield Berry Deirdre Shesgreen
WASHINGTON – A week before the special election in Alabama, national Republicans remain conflicted about the Senate contest with GOP Senate leaders continuing to call for Roy Moore to step aside and President Trump ramping up his support for the controversial candidate.
National Republicans are at odds about how to balance their discontent with Moore, the GOP nominee, and their need to keep the seat in Republican hands.
“They have an inherent challenge here," said Matt Mackowiak, a Republican consultant based in Texas, noting that Trump still has a solid base of supporters in Alabama, who are backing Moore. “But you also have the risk of alienating the voters you need nationally in the midterms by doing this. So they really are between a rock and a hard place.’’
Trump initially supported Sen. Luther Strange, Moore’s opponent in September’s Republican primary. Moore won the bid to be the GOP nominee for the seat left vacant when Jeff Sessions left o become U.S. Attorney General.
Moore will face Democrat Doug Jones in the Dec. 12 special election.
Trump has since endorsed Moore, despite allegations that the former state Supreme Court justice sexually abused several teenagers when he was in his 30s. Moore has denied the allegations and refused to drop his bid for the seat.
“We don't want to have a liberal Democrat in Alabama, believe me," Trump said Tuesday.
The White House has said Trump doesn’t plan to campaign for Moore in the state, but he is scheduled Friday to visit Pensacola, Fla., which is just across the border from Alabama.
The Republican National Committee, which had withdrawn its support for Moore in the wake of the allegations, reversed course earlier this week. The RNC said Tuesday it has “reengaged’’ in the race.
Mackowiak said he thinks Trump and the RNC are trying to protect themselves if Moore wins or loses.
“Do you want to be blamed for not helping the guy that you wanted," said Mackowiak, a former press secretary for former Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas. “It’s possible they think he’s going to lose and they’d rather be seen as helping him than not seen as helping him if he loses."
Jennifer Duffy, senior editor at the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, said she’s not sure why Trump is stepping into the race to back Moore.
“Either he’s looking for victories or he honestly believes that Moore will be with him all the time," she said. “I’m not sure I would take that one to the bank. I think he’s put himself in a terrible position if Moore doesn’t win."
“If Moore were to lose…then Trump takes a big hit,” she said.
Duffy said the race may come down to voters who don’t want to see Roy Moore in the Senate, including some Republicans, versus some Republicans who want him there at any cost, including Trump.
“And that’s what he’s trying to convince voters to do: To overlook everything because having a Republican there is important," said Duffy.
Other Republicans are staying clear of Moore.
Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., tweeted that he had donated $100 to Jones' campaign.
Mitt Romney, a former Republican presidential candidate, tweeted Tuesday that Moore in the Senate would be a “stain on the GOP and the nation ... No vote, no majority is worth losing our honor, our integrity.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has repeatedly called for Moore to step aside.
“There’s been no change of heart," McConnell of Kentucky said Tuesday. “I had hoped earlier he would withdraw as a candidate. That obviously is not going to be happen. If he were to be elected, he would immediately have an ethics committee case and the committee would take a look at the situation.”
“If he wins, he will be seated," said Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., who said earlier a Republican should win the seat. “Somebody will file an ethics complaint, and then we’ll get the facts.”
Duffy said she expects Senate Republicans to immediately pursue an ethics investigation, which she said raises questions about why Trump would push for him to win.
“I’m not sure Trump understands … Why spend that capital?’’ she said.
But some Senate Republicans said they’re not surprised Trump has stepped up to support Moore.
“The president is interested in keeping 52 votes up here. I’d like to too,” said Sen. Richard Shelby, the senior Republican from Alabama. “A lot of us have different views on it you know… I’d like to keep the Republican majority. But on the other hand, I wrote in somebody else’s name.”
Shelby, who cast an absentee ballot earlier this month, said then he voted for a “distinguished Republican’’ and it wasn’t Moore. Shelby had supported Strange, a long-time friend, in the primary.
Shelby said he was surprised the RNC jumped back into the race.
“They didn’t ask me … and the president didn’t either,” he said.
Contributing: Deidre Shesgreen, USA TODAY
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Jascha Heifetz' Personal Items Up for Auction
March 27, 2017, 2:53 PM · Are you interested in all things related to the great violinist Jascha Heifetz?
If so, you might want to scroll through the dozens of personal items up for online auction from the Jascha Heifetz and Family Collection. Bids are being accepted through April 6, through the Australian-based Mossgreen auction house. (Here is more on how to bid)
"We’ve been entrusted with these items since my father's death 30 years ago, and it’s now time for them to be shared with the broader group of fellow musicians and fans who will carry his legacy forward," said his son, Australian-based photographer Jay Heifetz. "These things that were important to him can now inspire others who aspire to enjoy his excellent taste and artistic perfection."
Some of those things include Heifetz' concert tails, paintings (including a Picasso), porcelain, marriage certificate, private correspondence, concert programs, paintings, silver, crystal, a Steinway upright piano, recordings, books, photos, documents and more. Besides Picasso, other artists and makers include Fabergé, de Kooning, Thiebaud, Lloyd Wright, Tiffany, Stella, Hermes, Burberry, Gaultier, and more. Rare glassware from Russia’s Imperial Glass Factory that was a gift to the Heifetz family from the Czar is also available. Unique documents include Heifetz’ original Naturalization Certificate (making him an American citizen), the Wedding Certificate for his second marriage, his last U.S. Passport, original Karsh and Mili photographs, French Legion of Honor Medallions, and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. The tails were custom made in 1951 and were Heifetz’ favorite during his last years of public performing. There is also a silk monogramed bathrobe and scarf from the American maker, Sulka.
Heifetz, who was born in Vilnius, Lithuania on February 2, 1901, became a U.S. citizen in 1925. He gave hundreds of concerts for Allied service men and women during World War II, concertized for many years and published dozens of violin transcriptions. In his later years, he moved to Southern California, where he taught at both UCLA and USC. This auction celebrates the 100th anniversary his migration to the United States and his American debut at Carnegie Hall, on October 27, 1917.
Interview with Endre Granat: Playing Scales Like Jascha Heifetz
Jascha Heifetz Society Celebrates the Master's Birthday
Premiere of the Documentary, Jascha Heifetz, God's Fiddler
March 27, 2017 at 11:39 PM · Wouldn't it be great to have a Heifetz Museum?
March 30, 2017 at 11:46 AM · No museum, unfortunately. All these things will end up scattered all around the world - too bad! Anyone know what happened to his music library?
Gary McAleer
April 2, 2017 at 06:05 PM · I'm happy just to have his recordings. The more demanding the passage, the more Jascha toyed with it. Technical demands had nothing on that man!
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Former EarthLink CEO leaves legacy for adrenal cancer
WEBWIRE – Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Garry Betty Foundation gives $400,000 gift to U-M for adrenal cancer research, establishes fund to raise more
ANN ARBOR, MI – When former EarthLink CEO Garry Betty was diagnosed with an extremely rare form of cancer in late 2006, he was determined to use his experience to help others and to find a cure.
So he established the Garry Betty Foundation, which today announces a $400,000 gift to the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center for its adrenal cancer program. The first $200,000 will be used to create the Garry Betty Scholars Program, which will pay for international researchers to come to U-M for training in adrenal cancer research.
“Throughout his life, Garry was an intense competitor and an eternal optimist who believed in the power of the human spirit,” says Kathy Betty, Garry’s widow. “Those very qualities led Garry to establish the Garry Betty Foundation after being diagnosed. He was determined to not only beat the odds against this rare form of cancer, but to help others as well. His spirit lives on through the work of the foundation, and I am very grateful for those who helped make this foundation a reality.”
Betty, who died of adrenal cancer on Jan. 2, joined EarthLink as president and CEO in 1996, and took the company from a small regional Internet service provider with fewer than 100,000 subscribers to a national brand with more than 5 million subscribers.
“The Garry Betty Scholars Program will begin to establish Garry’s legacy by supporting ongoing efforts to make U-M the center of excellence for adrenal cancer research and clinical care,” says Gary Hammer, M.D., Ph.D., the Millie Schembechler Professor of Adrenal Cancer at the U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center. “We will begin to build his legacy by training people from around the country and around the world, then sending them back to open their own programs.”
The U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center has one of the top adrenal cancer programs in the country, thanks largely to an endowment from former U-M football coach Bo Schembechler, whose wife, Millie, died from adrenal cancer in 1992. U-M also has one of the only multidisciplinary adrenal cancer treatment programs in the world. Typically, U-M oncologists see about 10 to 15 adrenal cancer patients per week.
Adrenal cancer is extremely rare – about 200 Americans are diagnosed with the disease each year. It is also extremely deadly, with nearly no chance of survival at five years for those diagnosed with advanced disease.
The two adrenal glands sit just above the kidney in the back and are responsible for making stress hormones and sex hormones. Tumors of the adrenal gland often make excess hormones. Depending on the type of hormone involved, this could lead to side effects such as high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, hair growth or sexual dysfunction. Other signs of adrenal cancer may include abdominal bloating or pain. But the symptoms are often subtle or mistaken for other conditions, making diagnosis difficult. Most patients are diagnosed after the cancer has spread to other parts of the body.
Betty was diagnosed in mid-November 2006 with adrenal cancer, and died Jan. 2, less than two months later. He was 49.
The first two Garry Betty Scholars are Tobias Else, M.D., from Hamburg, Germany, and Alessia Trovato from Padova, Italy. They will begin their work at U-M later this year, with an option to renew for a second year.
Hammer’s laboratory research looks at how adrenal tumors develop and become cancerous, and how certain genes and proteins contribute to the process. Capitalizing on the discovery by U-M researchers that the growth of many cancers is fueled by a very small number of cells within the tumor, referred to as cancer stem cells, Hammer’s lab team has begun to unravel the complex control of the adrenal stem cell. They have identified cellular pathways that become mutated in these cells and lead to the development of adrenal tumors.
Researchers hope to target new drugs or other treatments to kill the cancer stem cells. Two potential therapies are now moving into early stage clinical trials.
“One of the strengths of our adrenal group here at Michigan is that we collectively examine the basic biology of adrenal growth, engage in translational studies and treat patients with a true multidisciplinary approach,” Hammer says.
The non-profit Garry Betty Foundation is soliciting additional donations on their Web site, www.thegarrybettyfoundation.org. The $400,000 gift to the Cancer Center is part of the University-wide $2.5 billion Michigan Difference campaign.
For information about giving to the U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center, call 734-998-6896. For information about adrenal cancer, call Cancer AnswerLine at 800-865-1125 or visit www.mcancer.org.
Written by: Nicole Fawcett
Health Care / Hospitals
Infectious Disease Control
Medical / Pharmaceuticals
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Menu level 1 - VOLPARA
Volpara Solutions’ new office may well be in the running for the best work view in Wellington.
Volpara Solutions have gone from road views to harbour views. Now located on the fourteenth and fifteenth floors of a central city building, their offices look out right across Wellington city, with stunning views of the harbour and a birds-eye view of the active capital city.
CEO Ralph Highnam says the new office is about giving them that “global view” that is so important to the work they do.
Volpara set up its home base in Wellington in 2009, borne from Ralph’s breakthrough research in medical physics and artificial intelligence at Oxford University. Because he was so deeply affected by the loss of friends and family members to breast cancer, he decided to apply his findings to breast imaging which has resulted in revolutionary health outcomes for those susceptible to breast cancer.
Today, Volpara has 170 employees globally with around half based in Wellington, and they expect to continue to expand.
Chief People Officer Kat Greene says they’re a global company, with most of their business coming out of the US but having their headquarters in Wellington is deliberate and very much underpins their wider company’s culture and practice. Their space and the work they do is governed by whānau – a sense of family, she says.
“Our offices are set up to facilitate that. We have a large communal space where the whole company gathers every week to celebrate successes and keep up with what all the branches of our family are up to.”
“Aside from that, we have a flexible working style here – it is not unusual for the senior execs to be seen leaving at 3pm to pick up the kids – and lots of opportunities for fun.”
A bigger space for bigger things
Their new space is about three times larger than their last Wellington office and it’s been a welcome reprieve to have more space for their expanding team, she says.
Split over two levels, the open plan office is set up to allow for more collaboration between their teams. There’s also a number of breakout meeting rooms, all named after important people in the breast imaging field, a fitting hat-tip to why they do the work they do.
The lunch room is open kitchen space, where you can eat lunch looking out over the ocean – a beautiful vista to get a break from screens. But the workspace is just window-dressing compared to the drive of their staff to make a real difference, Kat says.
“One of the key reasons people join Volpara is to be part of our mission. Almost everyone has been touched by cancer in some way and wants to be part of making a difference in that story. Not many companies can truly say that they are out to save lives!”
“As a knowledge-based business our people are at the heart of everything we do. It is only by having experts in their field, and those at the top of their game onboard that we can change the world.”
From here you feel like you’re on top of the world and when you see the boats and planes going in and out you see how fully connected we are.
Ralph Highnam, Volpara CEO
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« May 2014 | Main | July 2014 »
In casino case, SJC delivers a setback to all vested interests
Casino opponents and Martha Coakley’s gubernatorial rivals aren’t the only ones who should be pleased with last week’s big state Supreme Judicial Court opinion.
In allowing a question on repealing the state gambling law onto the ballot in November, the state’s highest court didn’t just give the attorney general an embarrassing election-year comeuppance. In a unanimous decision, the seven justices also dealt a blow to a worrisome legal theory — one that entrenched, government-entangled interests of all sort could try to apply in their efforts to thwart legal reforms and market competition.
In attempting to block the referendum, Coakley had ruled that it violated the Massachusetts constitution. From the first, the attorney general’s claims had a strained, absurdist quality. In her brief to the justices, Coakley observed that gambling firms had put up money to get their proposals heard before the state’s gaming commission. Because of that, she said, there was an “implied contract” that the state might award casino licenses. Since the referendum question would make casino gambling illegal, it undermined that implied contract and so was constitutionally impermissible. In effect, the state would be taking away something of value.
In a nutshell, Coakley’s case amounted to this: Having made a decision to allow gambling, the Legislature is not allowed to change its mind. Nor, for that matter, are the people, through the referendum process, able to override the Legislature. So much for democracy. Long live the dead hand of the past.
The Supreme Judicial Court zeroed in on one big, gaping hole in the attorney general’s logic: Under the law, the gaming commission has no obligation to award any casino license whatsoever. So even if Coakley were right and there were an implied contract to be heard, what does it matter if there is no subsequent requirement to award a license? Her response was almost laughable. She claimed that, even so, a hearing might give an imprimatur to a gaming firm — kind of like a Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval — that it could then take to other states and, in effect say, “See, Massachusetts thinks we’re a decent company.”
As the SJC opinion drily noted, “the Legislature established the commission as a licensing authority, not a validation authority.” In other words, the law was not set up to be the gaming world’s equivalent of Angie’s List.
But suppose that Coakley’s view of the referendum as a “taking” had held sway, and that the justices had agreed that history rules: Once a law is in place, those with a vested interest in a rule can stop it from being changed. Let’s say, for example, a Legislature passes a law asserting marriage is only between a man and a woman and must remain that way forevermore. Ten years later, a more enlightened body tries to reverse the law. Would Coakley side with aggrieved straight couples and say it couldn’t?
A century ago, the entire country decided to ban the manufacture and sale of liquor. Could existing breweries and distilleries have successfully stopped Prohibition, arguing that since past laws had allowed booze, it was no longer possible to reverse course?
Or, take an issue now in the news: taxicabs. Having established medallion systems that limit the number of cabs within their borders, are cities and towns now obligated to keep those rules in place and, indeed, required to ban the operation of competitive services such as Uber?
The answer to all of these is, unequivocally, no. A “Legislature cannot curtail the power of its successors to make whatever laws they deem proper,” the SJC said. Sure, sometimes the state can enter into long-term agreements — multi-year bonds, for example — that require future legislatures to cough up funds. But that kind of contractual obligation is explicit and far different from what Coakley was urging.
Indeed, the rebuttal to Coakley’s arguments was so obvious one has to wonder what the attorney general was thinking. Was her opposition to the referendum just an exercise of power — use any means possible to keep the gaming law alive? Did she really believe that voters shouldn’t have a say on the matter? Or did she actually believe that change and reform can be stopped by decisions made years or even decades earlier? These are questions that Coakley — and her rivals — should address.
This column originally appeared in the Boston Sunday Globe on June 29, 2014.
Posted on June 29, 2014 at 06:58 AM | Permalink
Busing wasn't about education
Hurrah! It’s time to celebrate Boston’s 40th anniversary of forced busing. This month marks four decades from the court decision that kicked off mandatory desegregation. September will be 40 years from when the first yellow buses started rolling. Expect to hear many conversations and reminiscences about Boston’s great social experiment: the racism it exposed, the trauma it caused, and how the city has since changed (or not).
What won’t get much discussion is how busing was designed to help improve the quality of education in Boston. And for good reason. Busing — no matter which side you were on — was all about social engineering. Education, at best, was tangentially connected.
Busing per se, of course, isn’t a bad thing. If you want to go to a school and need a ride, it’s a decent way to get there. It became an epithet because it was the means used to comply with the state’s 1965 Racial Imbalance Act. The goal was to rid the state of segregation, and after a long series of court decisions a federal court found that the Boston School Committee (back then, a separately elected body) had intentionally discriminated against black students, creating what amounted to two segregated school systems. Schools serving white children were well funded. Schools for black children were short-changed, with crowded facilities, poor teachers, and second-rate materials. White kids were channeled toward the city’s college preparatory schools; black kids were pushed toward trade schools.
If the goal had been to bring education for black kids up to snuff — to provide schools in black neighborhoods with the resources needed to do their job — one could imagine a different result. The court might have insisted money be reallocated and policies changed to deliver a decent education to all. But school quality really wasn’t on the agenda.
Many opponents to busing had their own agenda too: neighborhood schools. Those, too, had little to do with education itself. In their conception, schools were social and cultural centers, places around which civic life revolved. Busing, they feared, would disrupt that, ripping apart the fabric of the community.
Both social engineering ideals have appeal. Schools ideally should be mixing bowls, where students learn about other kids and other families from far different backgrounds. And folks within tight-knit neighborhoods can support and help one another, creating community norms that pass on values from one generation to the next.
But while both are nice — bonus points, if you will — each is trumped by education itself. Look at what rich people do: They seek out the best possible schools for their kids. They may move to towns where school spending is high and hence the education thought better. Or they may send their children to private schools. I know of more than a few young couples who profess themselves ardent supporters of public schools until their children are born and, suddenly, they find themselves back-peddling. It’s perfectly understandable. When it comes to your own kid’s future, everything else is secondary.
Busing produced some good, notably in opening up the city and breaking down barriers, but overall it has to be judged as a failure. It was doomed to be so. For one, the real source of segregation is region-wide housing patterns, something busing kids in one relatively small city wouldn’t change. And more to the point, the key to wiping out poverty, ending discrimination, and giving all an equal shot at life is education — which busing and its aftermath effectively undermined.
Back in the 1960s and ’70s, Boston’s school system exacerbated segregation and poverty because it ill-served children from black communities. If things had been different, if those kids had had great teachers and plentiful resources, if they had graduated high school and then successfully gone on to college, where would they be today? Far better off, and undoubtedly so also would be their children and even grandchildren.
The take-away from our remembrances of busing should not be a rehash of the past, but rather a focus on the future: The best social engineering of all would be to give poor and minority kids the same kind of educations as children of the rich.
This column originally appeared in The Boston Globe on June 24, 2014.
Nice try, Ohio, but don't ban political lies
Ohio is an earnest state, and it likes its politics clean and proper: Tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. It’s the law, in fact. Political campaigners who fib, mislead, or stretch the truth could find themselves in jail. That’s right: If you’re a politician in Ohio, it’s illegal to lie on the stump.
It’s intriguing to entertain the idea of the state’s aspirations applying to other aspects of our lives: “Does this make me look heavy?” “I’m seeking other opportunities.” “It’s me, not you.”
OK, so maybe we need a few deceptions to sustain ourselves. Still, in this era of mud-slinging, dirty politics, and unsavory money, why not follow Ohio’s model when it comes to campaigns? Is it really too much to insist that politicians do such an elementary thing as tell the truth?
Ohio’s rules are not unique; a number of other states have in place various truth-telling requirements. But the state is in the news because the law is under challenge. Just last week it lost at the Supreme Court — in a rare unanimous vote — but the decision was procedural, handing the issue back to a lower court. So whether the law ultimately passes constitutional muster is still unknown.
Let me assure you, however: It won’t pass constitutional muster.
One of those opposed is satirist P.J. O’Rourke, who submitted a friend of the court brief that, in essence, maintained that lying is a hallowed part of American politics. O’Rourke opened his essay with a series of quotes: “I am not a crook,” “Read my lips: no new taxes,” “I did not have sexual relations with that woman,” “Mission accomplished,” and, of course, “If you like your health care plan, you can keep it.”
Funny stuff. Yet are these lies we really want to defend? Wouldn’t we all be better off if Richard Nixon had admitted Watergate, George H.W. Bush had acknowledged the need to raise revenues, Bill Clinton had confessed infidelity, George W. Bush had said Iraq would be an interminable slog, and Barack Obama had described health care reform’s cons as wells as pros? Certainly our cynicism would have dropped a notch.
Ohio’s effort to promote honesty is far-reaching. Suppose you call your opponent a “nut”? The state prohibits falsely claiming someone has a “record of treatment or confinement for mental disorder.”
How about terming a state official an “ignorant hack”? That violates two sections — one about “formal schooling or training,” the other relating to occupations. The normal and glorious give-and-take of politics — insults, caricatures, and exaggerations — would disappear. Campaigns would become dull indeed. But maybe, you think, that’s a worthwhile trade-off: lose some rough-and-tumble and gain some civility in return.
The real problems with Ohio’s law are these: Who knows what the truth is? And who gets to decide?
Were all of the famous presidential quotes above really lies? Each permits a different interpretation. Nixon was blind to his flaws. H.W. changed his mind. Clinton was drawing the same line between sex/non-sex that teenagers have used for years. W. was referring to one phase of the Iraq adventure. Obama was glossing over details.
Agree or disagree with any of what those politicians said, it’s hard to imagine any of them jailed for making these or similarly questionable claims.
The details of the Ohio court case neatly illustrate the problem. The plaintiff, an anti-abortion group, wanted to post a billboard saying a congressman’s vote for national health care amounted to support for “taxpayer-funded abortion.” The offended pol threatened prosecution. The plaintiff backed off. The proposed billboard wasn’t a lie, per se — it was more just a convoluted argument. But the threat of prosecution was enough to shut it up.
Would Ohio also prohibit doubters of climate change from voicing their views? Would it have in the past refused to countenance arguments that marriage could be between those of the same sex?
The thrust of the First Amendment is that no one individual or government agency gets to decide the truth. If you think folks wrong, deceptive, or untruthful, speak up. Rebut them. Ultimately, speech competes against speech. If and when this case finally gets decided by the Supreme Court, Ohio will deservedly lose. The US Constitution protects lying because the alternative is worse.
City Council’s transgender vote is a brave move
Last week the Boston City Council voted to require that city health plans cover “gender dysphoria” — the condition of either not knowing what gender you are or knowing with great certainty that you are different from how you grew up. It seems like a minor thing. The new rule covers only those who actually work for the city, and a handful of folks, perhaps, really stand to benefit.
But when it comes to certain issues, it’s the principle that counts. And the councilors’ vote stands as a sharp rebuke to other state politicians who should have known better but, when it came to a tough case affecting transgendered people, took the politically easy way out.
The subject of transgender identity is evolving, complicated and, for many, probably uncomfortable as well. Most of us have no recollection of becoming male or female; we were pronounced one or the other at birth, and that’s simply the way we are. But for some small portion of the population — perhaps 1 percent or less — things aren’t that easy, and their torment is intense. Rejected as oddities or freaks, they are often outcast and despairing, suffering high rates of unemployment and poverty, and far more likely to attempt suicide (41 percent versus just 1.6 percent for everyone else).
There are solutions. One is tolerance; it’s amazing what a bit of open-mindedness can accomplish. Others include psychological counseling, hormone therapy, and sex reassignment surgery. Some argue that such procedures are elective, as if they were little different from cosmetic surgery. Eventually, I think, they’ll be recognized as a basic human right. Why? It’s a simple matter of justice.
In his influential 1971 book, “A Theory of Justice,” American philosopher John Rawls proposed a thought experiment. Suppose a group of people could get to design the kind of society they want and are then to be born into that world. However, as they work on their plans, they operate under a “veil of ignorance,” not knowing how they’ll end up: white or black, male or female, rich or poor. The logic of this approach has appeal across the political spectrum. Liberals embrace the notion that such a hypothetical society would prize equality under the law. For conservatives, it would be a society that would also maximize individual freedoms, giving people the opportunity to succeed or fail on their own merits.
And if there was a chance that you could be born into what seemed to you the wrong body, what kind of world would you want? Presumably one where you wouldn’t be mocked, where you would be accepted for who you are, and where personal wealth did not dictate access to the treatment needed to become the person you thought you should be.
Which brings us to the controversial case of Michelle Kosilek. Kosilek was born as Robert in 1949 and for years — beginning as a child, according to her telling — was seeking transition to a woman. Denied that, she went underground, trying to live as a man, getting married, fathering a son, and then — in 1990 — killing her wife.
There’s no doubt about the crime and no doubt Kosilek should be imprisoned. But since her incarceration, she’s been fighting to get sex reassignment surgery. Courts have been sympathetic to her arguments. To their shame, however, the prison system and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts have been going all out to stop her. And left-leaning politicians — including Governor Deval Patrick and Senator Elizabeth Warren — have opposed Kosilek’s quest as well.
Granted, it’s hard politics. Kosilek’s in prison, after all, and doesn’t make for a sympathetic character. Voters seem outraged at the idea. Still, the state would pay for other medically necessary treatments.
Boston’s city councilors took a different course. Their legislation, proposed by newcomer Michelle Wu and veteran Ayanna Pressley, passed unanimously. Mayor Martin Walsh says he intends to sign what Wu terms “a matter of equity and of fairness.” My guess is that someday the liberals who were quick to deny Kosilek her rights will be stumbling over themselves to make amends, much as Hillary Clinton is now trying to explain away her past opposition to same-sex marriage. Boston’s politicians won’t have to make such apologies. They did the right thing.
Making the wrong leisure tradeoff?
Those silly Europeans. Life on the continent seems a concerted effort to avoid work. In France, the legal workweek is 35 hours.The Netherlands is down to an average of 29.Sweden’s pushing for six-hour days. China, India, and other upstart nations have to be loving this. It’s a lot easier to beat your competitors when your competitors aren’t trying that hard.
And then comes a widely publicized topper: France has passed legislation banning work-related e-mails between 6 p.m. and 9 a.m. Oh, la vache! How lazy are these people?
As it turns out, that story was an Internet version of the telephone game: It began with a germ of truth and then mushroomed into exaggeration. It wasn’t a law; it was a labor agreement. Only about 250,000 workers were covered. And there’s no mention of hours of the day. Still, wouldn’t it be nice?
For an enormous number of workers there’s no such thing as quitting time. The line between work and non-work has blurred so much so that the line has essentially disappeared. Leaving the office may be a change of place but not a change of status: You’re still on; still expected to respond to e-mails, texts, and posts; still assumed to be available for a discussion or a review. And that’s not only true after hours but weekends and vacations too. You go off grid at risk of reproach.
“I wasn’t able to reach you Sunday. Is everything OK?”
“I was at the beach.”
“Swimming.”
“The whole time?”
It’s easy to blame technology. Computers, tablets, and smartphones: Our devices are always with us, everyone knows it, and there’s no compunction about reaching out. As a result, we’re working more. White-collar workers with smartphones are now dealing with work-related matters an average of 13.5 hours a day — 72 hours a week — according to a study last August by the Center for Creative Leadership. For many, including blue-collar workers as well, jobs have become a 24/7/365 proposition (with perhaps time off for sleep).
That’s why, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the United States ranks 29th out of 36 nations on a measure it calls work-life balance, in line with such not-so-fun places as Turkey and South Korea. Meanwhile, European countries rank far higher, arguably happier and healthier. We in the United States are grinding away, while the Europeans drink wine, discuss philosophy, and do other things that would make ordinary Americans blush. Is it time to follow their lead?
In the past, the United States kept workweeks in check by requiring that anyone working more than 40 hours be paid overtime. But there are broad and growing exceptions to that rule for white-collar employees and those in various professions (doctors and teachers, but also the tech savvy). The self-employed are exempt as well. The Obama administration is making an effort this year to get more covered, on the theory that the white-collar exemptions “have not kept up with our modern economy,” but it’s an uphill battle.
Why? Many people seem to enjoy structuring their workweeks as they want; offices, daily commutes, and a rigid 9-to-5 schedule seem so last century. Moreover, long workweeks are often a competitive necessity. Lawyers work all sorts of hours in part because their clients expect it. If they didn’t, they’d lose business to someone else. Similarly, the United States is all too aware of the global challenges it faces. The French may have a good work-life balance, but they also have an unemployment rate over 10 percent and per capita incomes well below Americans’ ($37,567 versus $52,547 in 2012).
Most important, though, work and individual accomplishment are part of our culture. Cadillac’s controversial ad for its luxury ELR makes the point and mocks Europeans to boot: “You work hard, create your own luck, and you got to believe anything is possible,” the ad says. And as for things money can buy? “That’s the upside of only taking two weeks off in August.” Perhaps someday Americans will decide to trade off a little wealth for some more free time. Until then, keep checking your smartphone.
Lotteries — Robin Hood in reverse
When Jesus said, “The poor you will always have with you,” who knew the Massachusetts Lottery would be around to make sure he was proved right?
Data collected by Globe reporter Catherine Cloutier show the Lottery is often a Robin Hood in reverse, taking from the poor and giving to the rich. Chelsea, for instance, is one of the state’s worse-off cities, with a poverty rate of 25 percent. Its residents spend an average $1,178 a year on lottery tickets. Meanwhile, those in ultra-wealthy Weston spend a scant $45 a year.
And who benefits? The whole point of the lottery is to generate money for municipalities. Certainly Weston does well. Its gambling-averse residents contributed just $100,519 in net lottery revenue last year, but received back state aid of $316,391. Meanwhile, Chelsea got back over $1 million less in aid than its citizens spent. A big shout-out from Weston: Thanks, Chelsea!
Shocked? Don’t be. These are the dirty secrets not only of the Bay State’s lottery, but of all government-sponsored lotteries. In the case of Massachusetts, we’ll probably see some minor re-jiggering of distribution formulas to get a little more money to worse-off towns. But the heart of the problem will remain: Lotteries prey on the gullible, desperate, and poor, amounting in essence to a highly regressive tax. True, unlike with taxes, no one is compelled to purchase a lottery ticket. But the distinction is hollow. For all intents and purposes, lotteries are used for the same purposes as taxes.
New Hampshire created the first modern-day state lottery in 1964. Today, 44 states have them, generating annual sales of over $68 billion. Most states use net earnings (that is, after winnings and administrative costs) to support popular programs such as the arts, schools, or aid to cities and towns. They build up strong constituencies: the beneficiaries, naturally, as well small retailers who rely on them as a mainstay for their business.
But, clever ads notwithstanding, they are a lousy deal for those who play. “Someone’s gotta win,” says the Massachusetts Lottery. “Get in the game!” urges New Hampshire. “Give your dreams a chance,” exhorts New Jersey. And, adds New York, “Hey, you never know.”
More like, “Hey, you know, never.” The chances of winning $1 million in Mega Millions, for example, are 1 in 18,492,204. How unlikely is that? The odds of you someday getting struck by lightning are 6,164 times greater. Unfortunately, that’s the way the numbers work; there have to be a lot of losers for there to be one big winner. True, the odds are better for smaller prizes, but even so, over time the average player must lose. The reason is that gambling is a negative-sum game. In the case of the Massachusetts Lottery, 28 percent of gross receipts are kept by the state.
And who plays? Not those with high incomes and good educations; they figure the ladder to success is climbed in other ways. But people stuck in dead-end circumstances or working multiple jobs often see lotteries as their only way out — an idea the state commissions do a good job of promoting. It’s the poorest among us who buy the most lottery tickets; indeed, one study found individuals making $13,000 or less spend a shocking 9 percent of their incomes on lotteries.
Don’t get me wrong. If people want to gamble, by all means let them. But one can be a libertarian on this while at the same time believing that we cross an uncomfortable ethical line when we go from allowing individuals to gamble to setting up a vast marketing and distribution scheme urging them to do so. And, of course, here in Massachusetts we’re about to take that one step further, as the state prepares for casino gambling.
By rights, if we want to fund local aid or otherwise spend on pet projects, we shouldn’t do so by picking the pockets of the neediest. Rather, we should either increase conventional taxes or reduce other spending. But politicians lose their jobs when they raise taxes or cut programs. No one gets fired, however, when yet another new lotto game reaps millions more. It feels like free money, even though it comes at great cost.
Bottle bill: End it, don’t mend it
Proponents for “updating” the Massachusetts bottle bill are surely right when they mock the distinctions the current law now draws: carbonated beverages are covered, non-carbonated are not. A container is a container, after all, whether it contains Diet Coke or Snapple. Their seemingly sensible solution — likely appearing on the ballot this fall — is to require deposits on some of these containers, too. But that begs the real question: Should we have a bottle bill at all? Three decades ago, deposits might have made sense. Today, there are other, more effective approaches.
The 1983 bottle bill had its origins in the days of public service ads featuring a Native American crying over a littered landscape. The fault supposedly lay with the beverage industry, which had recently abandoned returnable and reusable bottles. Environmentalists saw a mandatory deposit as a way of cutting trash and perhaps even forcing manufacturers to go back to the old reusables. A handful of states, including Massachusetts, latched on to the idea.
As it turned out, reusable containers never made a comeback; consumers liked the convenience of the lighter, one-time-use bottles and cans far too much. But, according to advocates, the new laws did help cut roadside trash. Back then the nickel deposit (worth 12 cents in today’s money) was lure enough to persuade many not to toss their containers out car windows. It also was lure enough to persuade others to collect any containers that remained. In retrospect, it’s worth wondering whether there might have been more efficient ways to reduce trash — say, by stiffening and enforcing anti-littering laws and paying work crews directly to clean roadsides. In any event, changing mores have also accomplished a lot; random littering is far less socially acceptable.
Another effect of the bottle bill was to increase the proportion of containers that were recycled. At the time, most rubbish simply went into landfills or was incinerated. Returned containers became the exception. They could be segregated, crushed, or melted down, and then re-made into something else.
Over time, though, the recycling movement grew. Many communities, including Boston, now have single-stream recycling. Everything from newspapers to bottles to plastics can be placed in familiar blue bins, where it is picked up and recycled. Other communities have gone further, imposing bag fees on trash but exempting recyclables. In towns with this system (known as “pay as you throw”), recycling rates climb dramatically; communities also save significantly on their waste-disposal costs.
The rise of everyday recycling means we now have two parallel systems. Consumers supposedly take back to stores bottles and cans subject to a deposit. Everything else that’s recyclable — paper, containers for non-carbonated drinks, milk cartons, wine bottles, and the like — gets put out in blue bins.
Logically, we should choose one approach or the other. For example, the November referendum question irrationally exempts containers such as wine bottles, milk jugs, and drink boxes. Why not subject them to a deposit, along with everything else we use, from newspapers to plastic yogurt containers? Seem crazy? Don’t laugh. A few years ago, a couple of Boston city councilors, upset about litter around convenience and liquor stores, proposed a nickel deposit on Lottery tickets.
That idea got nowhere, for reasons that would apply to any dramatic expansion of deposits: The process would prove nightmarishly complex, expensive, and hard to administer. The alternative is to abandon deposits altogether and simply expand recycling programs. Granted, that’s what the beverage industry wants, and as a result some people might reject it out of hand. But keeping two systems in place makes no sense either. Other states have come to this conclusion. Only 10 states now have bottle bills. Delaware, for instance, got rid of its bottle bill in 2010, moving to a system that puts in place near-universal recycling. (Delaware is funding its program with a 4 cent tax on containers, which gets phased out over a period of years).
Of course, voters won’t see that choice or other alternatives when they read the November ballot. That’s the problem with the up-down nature of ballot questions. But voters may want to vote “no” anyway — not because they oppose recycling, but because there are ways it can be done better.
This column originally appeared in the Boston Sunday Globe on June 8, 2014.
Republican Charlie Baker is stealing a key progressive issue
Republicans don’t win in Massachusetts because the state is liberal and they’re conservative. The solution? Become progressive. I know, it feels like cheating. The Democratic Party is left-wing and the GOP right, and that’s the way things are supposed to be. But on a number of key issues, Charlie Baker — a very safe bet to be the GOP’s nominee for governor — is starting to look an awful lot like the very Democrats he might be facing.
Baker is pro-choice. He supports same-sex marriage. He thinks global climate change is real and favors renewable energy — including (in a reversal from four years ago) Cape Wind.
Most striking, however, has been his embrace of what has emerged as the signal lefty issue: income inequality. The concern surged to prominence with the 2011 Occupy Wall Street movement and has since been a national focus by Democrats such as Senator Elizabeth Warren and President Barack Obama. The basic argument is that there has been a “hollowing out” of the middle class, that the country is becoming increasingly divided between rich and poor. Connected to that is the idea that the American Dream — the opportunity to succeed — is ever less available to all.
The issue itself is debatable. Much of the data that underlies it is drawn from the last few years, years marked by the Great Recession. No question, jobs have been lost, wages have been squeezed, and family finances have become more fragile. That’s what happens during recessions. As the economic recovery takes hold, we may well find the American Dream restored.
On the other hand, there’s a credible argument that something deeper is at play. Rapid changes in technology have made obsolete many jobs that once required only basic skills and education, and that trend seems to be accelerating. Good jobs are available, but only for the highly skilled and highly adaptable. Others are increasingly out of luck, which may be the reason so many have now dropped out of the workforce altogether.
Whether the worrisome plight of the middle class is a function of recession or reflects something more structural, Baker has seized upon it, sounding on occasion like a full-throated populist. His acceptance speech at the Republican convention closed with a litany of those left behind: “single moms,” “parents who need good schools,” those facing “the sky-high cost of a college education” and people “who live on fixed incomes.” At a forum in late May he voiced a “two Americas” message reminiscent of one-time vice-presidential nominee John Edwards: “I think the most important thing we need to realize is that we very much have two economies, we have two educational systems, and we have two kinds of communities.” And he supports increasing the minimum wage.
I can hear the Democrats now: Hey, he stole our issue!
Indeed he did.
It’s smart stuff. I’ve written before that Massachusetts seems to be taking a sharp turn toward progressivism, our Scott Brown infatuation long behind us. With only 11 percent of the electorate registered as Republicans, Baker has to figure out how to attract a good number of Democrats and the unenrolled. Middle-class issues make a good lure.
But it’s smart in another way too: It boxes Democrats in.
If Democrats care so much about income inequality, Baker might ask, why have things gotten so much worse over the last eight years? The obvious answers: Maybe they really didn’t care that much or maybe they don’t have the ideas necessary to solve the problem. Either way, he can argue, more of the same is hardly a solution.
The Democratic response will be that Baker is just posturing, cleverly adopting a populist tone even as he holds to old Republican ways. In office, they’ll say, he’ll quickly shed the campaign rhetoric.
Even so, Baker’s progressive clothes give him appeal. Incumbent parties always face a conundrum: If there are still serious problems after they’ve been in power for a while, they need to find someone at fault. Elsewhere, it’s easy to lay the responsibility on your political opponents. Here in Massachusetts, where Democrats have had near-absolute control for eight years, there’s no one to blame but yourself. It makes for a powerful argument for change.
This column originally appeared in The Boston Globe on June 3, 2014.
In taxis’ battle with Uber, ugly endgame looms
It’s easy to mock the taxicab drivers who encircled Uber’s Boston offices about a week ago, honking horns and protesting the upstart’s presence in their midst. They’re like Luddites trying to stop the spread of machine-made textiles, typewriter manufacturers objecting to personal computers, or travel agents outraged by services such as Travelocity. It seems obvious how this story will end: The taxicab industry, eventually, will be no more.
Or perhaps not. Many people have a lot of money invested in the status quo. They will fight to keep what they can. If the taxicab industry is to die, its death will not be pretty.
“People say this is good old-fashioned American competition,” a spokeswoman for the protesting cabbies said, “but that’s nonsense, because it’s not a level playing field.” She’s right. Right now, and like many other cities around the country, Boston’s hackney carriage unit, part of the city’s police department, dictates the conditions of service, sets prices, and tightly regulates supply. (The number of cabs in Boston is fixed at 1,825.) In effect, the industry is a government-created monopoly. One consequence of the monopoly is that taxi licenses, or medallions, trade for upwards of $600,000. Up to now, individuals and corporations have eagerly paid that price since, by owning a medallion, they and only they could pick up folks looking for a ride.
Then along came Uber, along with other new competitors such as Lyft. They use technology — a smartphone application that summons a car — to create a service that mimics a traditional taxicab but seemingly doesn’t cross the line to being a taxicab itself. You can’t legally hail an Uber car from the street. But from a consumer’s point of view, the difference is inconsequential.
The result has been a better product. Uber isn’t perfect; like any new company, it’s learning, making mistakes along the way. But that’s the nature of competition. And consumers seem to love it, with the result being that business for traditional cabs is down about 35 to 40 percent. Undoubtedly, that means the value of a medallion is falling too. Indeed, should Uber and its ilk continue to grow and succeed, one can imagine a day in the not-too-distant future when a medallion is worth almost nothing.
Which is why, not surprisingly, the industry is so desperate to put a stop to Uber. In San Francisco, Chicago, and other cities around the world, cabbies are mounting protests, filing lawsuits, and lobbying local politicians.
When politics and business become enmeshed, the results are unpredictable. Many politicians will be sympathetic to the taxi industry’s arguments about drivers and dispatchers who might lose their jobs. Moreover, they’ll be sensitive to the economic claims of medallion owners, who will argue that they bought their medallions in good faith. If the rules change, they’ll say, shouldn’t they be compensated?
Using tax dollars to pay off medallion owners is almost certainly a nonstarter, however. Faced with this, the alternative will be to try to defend the taxicab industry: Load up the newcomers with stifling regulations; prohibit Uber cars from picking up passengers; impose mandatory pricing schemes.
Others will reject the industry’s argument that it deserves protection, arguing that taxicabs are like any other business, subject to the risks of marketplace changes. Medallions are like any other investment, with no guarantees about their value. There’s a precedent: Radio broadcasting licenses were once a kind of monopoly. But today they are worth far less because of competition from the likes of satellite radio and Spotify.
In the end, I suspect, most politicians will prefer to do nothing, letting the taxicab industry wither away amid ever mounting competition. But that outcome, which would ultimately serve the public good, is hardly certain. The industry is battling for its life, and the Luddites might well have their day.
This column originally appeared in The Boston Sunday Globe on June1, 2014.
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Christopher Lloyd Gives Me Hope for the Future; Might Really Be Doc Brown
Fri Oct 12, 2012 7:12pm 5 comments Favorite This
Right away, Christopher Lloyd was asked at today’s NYCC panel who he would choose to cast as Doc Brown if Back to the Future was remade. With perfect deadpan comic timing Lloyd answered, “Me.”
This might sound like blind nostalgia; but I really don’t feel like Christopher Lloyd looks all that different than he did back in 1985. Throughout his charming Q&A at New York Comic Con today, I felt as though Lloyd the man was being conflated with his more famous characters; not that he minded at all! It was as though Doc Brown, Reverend Jim, Professor Plum, Uncle Fester, and the Klingon Kruge were all literally present in New York City this afternoon, answering for their various actions. Lloyd is his characters, and is a sweet person who loves his fans.
Accompanied by a moderator, who occasionally repeated questions Lloyd either didn’t understand or didn’t hear properly, everyone’s favorite mad scientist was pretty damned on it considering that he’s 73. Sure, a few times he wasn’t quite sure what fans were referring to, and other times he seemed to flat-out not remember names of other actors, but for the most part, he played this off as part of the Christopher Lloyd uber-character. When a fan asked him “do you prefer playing geniuses or dummies?” Lloyd roared, “WHAT IS THIS MAN ASKING ME!?”, laughed and then responded “I just like to act. I don’t mind if it’s brilliant or stupid.”
Immediately thereafter, a question was asked in regard to a possible remake of the remake of The Addams Family. Same answer, “Me.” Christopher Lloyd may not be able to hear you, or understand exactly all your references right away, but he’s still funnier than you and is working on tons of projects.
“I’m told I have seven independent films in post-production,” he mused at one point, adding, “the longer I live, the less competition I have [for roles.]”
On the subject of Doc Brown specifically and his experience with Back to the Future; Lloyd asserts Back to the Future III is his favorite because “who doesn’t want to do a western?” and then later added, “…if you have a chance to ever get on a steam engine, you should! They’re like mechanical elephants.” Later, when he was relating a recent experience recording the voice of Doc for a Back to the Future game, Lloyd noticed that everything Doc says is in “crisis mode,” and then treated the audience to a few frantic utterances of “Marty!” before laughing to himself.
A Star Trek fan, speaking loud and clear into the microphone asked Lloyd if he enjoyed working on Star Trek III. “Well, I heard you!” Lloyd responded loudly and quickly answered, “I loved it. I’m not sure why I was cast…but I loved everything…wrestling around with that big worm…”
And then he paused as he spoke about the climactic fight scene with “what’s his name—SHATNER!” The fact that wrestling both Shatner and a giant worm were uttered in the same breath was pretty great.
Does he have any regrets? Well, apparently Martin Scorsese once asked him to be in a film he turned down. “And Martin has a habit of using the same actors over and over again,” Lloyd joked, “So that was probably a bad career move.”
In what could have been a mood-killing moment, one fan asked Lloyd how he felt about “the economy” and the state of the world and if he would like to travel back in time to 1985 to escape the fact that the 2015 of Back to the Future was is obviously not going to happen. The actor again, barely paused, and responded that he’s still “hopeful” for the future. And then, as though he really was Doc and he really did have the option of traveling back to 1985, Lloyd said, a little choked up, “As hard as times are, I’m glad I’m here to see this.” This is the kind of stuff you go to Comic Con for, when fandom and make-believe weirdly collide with something touching, human and real.
Towards the end of the Q&A, the moderator pointed out an awesome Doc Brown cosplayer in the audience. With an mischievous grin and a crazy glint in his eye, Christopher Lloyd pointed at the faux Doc and said, “Hey man, we’ve got some stuff to talk about.”
And maybe they do!
Ryan Britt is a staff writer for Tor.com.
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Vineyard township
Vineyard township Missouri Education Attainment Charts
This section of charts contains education data for Vineyard township Missouri based mainly on the latest year 2019 American Community Survey census data but also the survey from Common Core Data available for Public Elementary through Secondary Schools. In Figure 1, the percent of all people aged 25 years or older, who have either graduated from high school or completed the Graduate Equivalency Degree (GED) or some equivalent certification/credential. Vineyard township shows it has a percent high school graduates or better of 91% which is the second most percent high school graduates or better of all the places in the greater Vineyard township region. The city with the highest percent high school graduates or better in the area is Stotts City which shows a high school graduates of 100% (9.9% larger).
In Figure 2, the percentage of people aged 25 years or older who have graduated from college/university with at least a bachelor's degree is provided. Note that the bachelor's degree is also called a four-year degree because it normally takes four years of full-time study to finish the course curriculum required to obtain the degree. This chart portrays the proportion of the population in this region who are college graduates with at least a bachelor degree or higher. In many ways, this analysis alongside the prior chart are very quick measures of the level of education in any particular area. Vineyard township indicates it has a percent with a bachelors degree or higher of 16% which is ranked #1 of all places in the greater Vineyard township region.
Figure 4 shows the percentage of people 25 years of age or older who either have no schooling at all or dropped out of school before being able to complete high school. Additionally, these are people who also do not have a Graduate Equivalency Degree (GED) or some other high school level type credential/student achievement. This analysis, along with the last two charts, provides another high level review and comparative data on the Vineyard township Missouri educational level. Vineyard township depicts it has a percent who dropped out of school of 9% which is the second smallest when sorted by percent who dropped out of school of all the other places in the local area. The city with the highest percent who dropped out of school in the area is La Russell which depicts a percent who dropped out of school of 35% (approximately 3.9 times bigger).
Figure 5 provides a more detailed look at the educational attainment for Vineyard township Missouri. This chart provides the proportion of people aged 25 years of age or older and what was their level of educational attainment. The chart provides 5 broad categories including: No Education/No School, Some High School, High School or equivalent, Some college or Associates Degree, and Bachelors Degree or higher. Vineyard township has the percentage of percent of people with less than a high school education the second smallest when sorted by percent of people with no schooling of all the other places in the local area at 9% of the total. Second, it has the largest proportion of percent of people with a bachelors degree or higher at 16% of the total and is ranked #1.
The next chart shows a break down of people who have received a bachelor's degree or higher advanced degree generally in a campus learning environment. In particular, Figure 6, provides the proportional breakdown of all the people who have received a postsecondary education along with what the level of advanced degree that was obtained. Note that these categories do not include any type professional development type activities such as those related to maintaining professional credentials in workshop lessons. Note Professional Degree includes medical, dental, lawyers, etc. Vineyard township has the smallest proportion of percent of people with an associate degree at 10% of the total. Second, it has one of the largest proportions of percent of people with a bachelors degree at 48% of the total and is ranked #2. The only larger city being Stotts City with 56%. Third, it has the largest proportion of percent of people with a masters degree at 42% of the total and is ranked #1.
The chart in Figure 7 shows the broad area of academic concentration or the discipline for people who have received a bachelors degree. This high level classification is essentially the field of study for which a degree was obtained. Vineyard township has one of the largest proportions of percent of people with a science or engineering degree at 51.6% of the total and is ranked #2. The only larger city being Avilla with 100.0%. Second, it has the second smallest as measured by percent of people with a science or engineering degree of all the other places in the local area when ranked by percent of people with an arts, humanities, or other degree at 4.1% of the total.
The next chart (Figure 8) provides a more detailed deep dive on the category of major degree obtained for people aged 25 years or older who earned a bachelor's degree or higher. Specifically, this frequency distribution details out what the major field of study was the degree obtained. Vineyard township has one of the largest proportions of percent of people with a degree in biological, agricultural, and environmental sciences at 45.1% of the total and is ranked #2. The only larger city being La Russell with 50.0%. Second, it has the largest proportion of percent of people with a degree in multidisciplinary studies at 6.6% of the total and is ranked #1.
Figure 9 provides comparative data between the places in the greater Vineyard township Missouri region for broad educational attainment. This analysis uses provides five broad education attainment categories including: No Education/No School, Some High School, High School or equivalent, Some college or Associates Degree, and Bachelors Degree or higher. Vineyard township has the percentage of percent of people with less than a high school degree the second smallest when sorted by percent of people with no schooling of all the other places in the local area at 9.0% of the total. Second, it has less than most other places in the greater region when ranked by percent of people with high school (or ged) at 38.8% of the total. Third, it has the largest proportion of percent of people with a bachelors degree or higher at 16.4% of the total and is ranked #1.
A more detailed frequency distribution of educational attainment is provided in Figure 10. In particular this illustration breaks out the highest levels of university educational opportunities beyond the four year college degree. Included in the breakout are the relative proportion of masters degrees, PhD/Doctorate/Doctorial holders, and professional degrees such as medicine, dentistry, lawyers, etc. Vineyard township has the percentage of percent of people with less than high school the second smallest in terms of percent of people with no schooling of all the other places in the metro area at 9.0% of the total. Second, it has the smallest proportion of percent of people with an associate degree at 1.7% of the total. Third, it has the largest proportion of percent of people with a masters degree at 7.7% of the total and is ranked #1. The next exhibit (Figure 11) provides detailed cross tabulation analysis that provides education success data broken out or cross tabulated by age group. Please note that the columns add to 100% and you must use the pagination buttons at the bottom of the table to see all the rows.Figure 12 is a cross tabulation analysis that shows large educational success categories and is broken out or cross tabulated by racial group. Please note that the columns add to 100% and you must use the pagination buttons at the bottom of the table to see all the rows.The final cross tabulation analysis is provided in Figure 13 and shows education success broken out by gender. Please note that the columns add to 100% and you must use the pagination buttons at the bottom of the table to see all the rows.
Vineyard township Missouri School Enrollment Charts
The next section of chart resources look at school enrollment by a variety of educational institutions and are categorized into a number of other groupings. Figure 14 provides the overall school enrollment by broad range of school age/level groupings. Vineyard township has the percentage of percent of children in kindergarten in the middle range of other places in the metropolitan area at 4.1% of the total. Second, it has one of the largest proportions of percent of children in grade 1 to 4 at 28.6% of the total and is ranked #2. The only larger city being Avilla with 38.1%. Third, it has the second smallest in order of percent of children in kindergarten of all the other places in the greater region in terms of percent of children in grades 9 to 12 at 20.9% of the total.
The next chart in this series of resources shown in Figure 20 looks at the total number of students enrolled in any educational institution for each place in the greater Vineyard township region. (Total enrollment in this case includes all students from preschool all the way through students enrolled in graduate school.) Vineyard township shows it has a total population enrolled in school of 238 which is the third most total enrolled of all other places in the greater Vineyard township region. The city with the highest total population enrolled in school in the area is Mount Vernon which shows a total population enrolled in school of 619 (approximately 2.6 times bigger). Comparing total population enrolled in school to the United States average of 81,415,106, Vineyard township is only about 0.0% the size. Also, versus the state of Missouri, total population enrolled in school of 1,498,474, Vineyard township is only about 0.0% the size.
The final chart in this series is Figure 22 and provides analysis data for the school year shown. The chart shows the proportion of kids/children that are enrolled in a pre-school public district versus those kids/children who are enrolled in a private pre-school oriented tuition institution (private salary/superintendent/etc.) Vineyard township Missouri has the largest proportion of public preschool enrollment at 100% of the total and is ranked #1.
Vineyard township Missouri Area Schools Charts
Figure 23 lists all the schools in the area along with the school district, county location and other program information/credential such as if they are a public charter school or private charter school or magnet school. Some of the Area Schools are: Mt. Vernon Treatment Ctr., Wildwood Elem., Mt. Vernon Intermediate, Avilla Elem., and Sarcoxie High. The next illustration in Figure 24 shows the total child school enrollment for all grades (through 12th grade) at the school shown using NCES data (Common Core of Data, Public Elementary-Secondary School Universe Survey.) Looking at Enrollment for Area Schools we find that Monett Elem. ranks the largest with a value of 666 enrolled students. The next largest values are for: Monett High (653), Mt. Vernon High (499), Sarcoxie High (405), and Wildwood Elem. (386). The difference between the highest value (Monett Elem.) and the next highest (Monett High) is that the enrolled students is about only slightly larger.
Figure 25 show the ratio of the number of students to the number of teachers in the classroom. A good student to teacher ratio should be low because it indicates that there are less students for any one teacher to educate in a class and generally a better learning environment, better success and optimal teaching excellence. Teachers includes all educational staff such as special education teachers and any other educator. Note that distance learning (online learning/remote learning) is not included in these values. Looking at Student to Teacher Ratio for Area Schools we find that Oakview School ranks the largest with a value of 6.1 student to teacher ratio. The next largest values are for: Mt. Vernon Treatment Ctr. (8.0), Pierce City High (10.8), Mt. Vernon Elem. (10.9), and Verona Elem. (12.1). The difference between the lowest value (Oakview School) and the next lowest (Mt. Vernon Treatment Ctr.) is that the student to teacher ratio is 31.2% larger.
The next chart, Figure 26, shows the racial mix of students at each location in this district of the state of Missouri department of education.
Vineyard township, Missouri Education Data
Figure 1: Vineyard township, MO At least High School Education
Figure 2: Vineyard township, MO Bachelors Degree or Better Education
Figure 4: Vineyard township, MO School Dropout Rate
Figure 5: Vineyard township, MO Education Attainment Breakdown
Figure 7: Vineyard township, MO Bachelors Degrees Field of Study
Figure 8: Vineyard township, MO Bachelors Degree Obtained
Figure 9: Vineyard township, MO Education Attainment by Level Comparison (Age 25+)
Figure 10: Vineyard township, MO Education Attainment Detailed Comparison (Age 25+)
Figure 11: Vineyard township, MO Detailed Education Attainment Breakout by Age Group (Age 18+)
Figure 12: Vineyard township, MO Detailed Education Attainment Breakout by Race (Age 25+)
Figure 13: Vineyard township, MO Detailed Male and Female breakdown of Educational Attainment
Figure 14: Vineyard township, MO School Enrollment by Aggregate Categories
Figure 15: Vineyard township, MO Overall Public vs. Private School Enrollment
Figure 16: Vineyard township, MO Public vs. Private K-8 School Enrollment
Figure 17: Vineyard township, MO Public vs. Private High School Enrollment
Figure 18: Vineyard township, MO Public vs. Private College Enrollment
Figure 19: Vineyard township, MO Public vs. Private Graduate or Professional School Enrollment
Figure 20: Vineyard township, MO Total Enrolled in Schools
Figure 22: Vineyard township, MO Public vs. Private Preschool
Figure 23: List of Schools in the Vineyard township, MO Area (2013)
Figure 24: Vineyard township, MO School Enrollment (2013)
Figure 26: Vineyard township, MO School Racial Mix (2013)
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20 Best Companies To Work For In Norcross, GA
We hand-curated a list of the best companies to work for headquartered in and around Norcross, GA using data on salaries, company financial health, and employee diversity.
1. Immucor
Immucor is a proud partner to thousands of laboratories & donor centers. We are focused on continued innovation in transfusion and transplantation diagnostics.
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2. FleetCor Technologies
FLEETCOR Technologies is a leading global business payments company that simplifies the way businesses manage and pay their expenses. The FLEETCOR portfolio of brands help companies automate, secure, digitize and control payments to, or on behalf of, their employees and suppliers.
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3. EMI
EMI Group Limited was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 2012, it was the fourth largest business group and record label conglomerate ...
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4. American Megatrends
American Megatrends International is an American hardware and software company, specializing in PC hardware and firmware. The company was founded in 1985 by Pat Sarma and Subramonian Shankar. Shankar was appointed chairman and president in 2011.
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5. Milner
We are experts at designing complete business solutions to improve the way large and small enterprises operate.
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6. United Consulting Group
United Consulting's commitment to client satisfaction is evidenced by our ISO:9001-2008 Certification and is instrumental in the firm successfully executing some of the biggest and most complex projects in the Southeast. United Consulting's top man...
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7. RTS Packaging
RTS Packaging, LLC, Specializes in the design and manufacture of fiber partition, sheeted paperboard products and die-cut paperboard components.
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8. EasyLink Services International
EasyLink Services International Corporation provides communication applications that enable enterprises to communicate with their customers, trading partners, and other third parties. Its applications include electronic fax, electronic data interchange, multimodal notification, and other communication services, which are integral to the movement of money, materials, products, people, information, and documents, such as insurance claims, trade and travel confirmations, purchase orders, invoices, shipping notices, and fund transfers. The company also offers email, document capture and management, workflow and notifies, and telex services, as well as delivers cloud-based applications-as-a-service through a proprietary business integration network comprising enterprise-class platforms. EasyLink Services International Corporation provides its services through direct and/or indirect distribution channels worldwide. It serves financial services, insurance, healthcare, retail, manufacturing, technology, transportation and logistics, and oil and gas industries. The company was formerly known as Internet Commerce Corporation and changed its name to EasyLink Services International Corporation as a result of its acquisition of EasyLink Services Corporation in August 2007. EasyLink Services International Corporation was founded in 1991 and is headquartered in Norcross, Georgia. As of July 2, 2012, EasyLink Services International Corporation operates as a subsidiary of Open Text Corp.
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9. Jvion
Jvion is one of the leading healthcare AI companies, helping healthcare systems prevent harm and lower costs using prescriptive analytics for preventable harm.
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10. Custard Insurance Adjusters
Custard Insurance Adjusters takes pride in being one of the largest independent loss adjusting companies in the United States. Celebrating 57 years of service, we are the largest privately held adjusting company and provide true multi-line service to t...
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11. Medical Doctor Associates
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12. Alternative Apparel, Inc.
American Apparel Inc. is an online-only retailer and former brick-and-mortar stores operator based in Los Angeles, California.
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13. Larson-Juhl
Larson Juhl is recognized as the industry leader in offering an incredible range of custom picture frames. Beautify your home with Larson Juhl frames.
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14. Oil Offshore Marine
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15. Eagle Rock Distributing Company (Budweiser/Bud Light)
Eagle Rock Distributing Company is a full service beverage distribution company located in Norcross, Georgia. The company services licensed retailers in metro Atlanta and North Georgia and Con Vinum, the wine and spirits division of ERDC, services ret...
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16. ARMCO Partners
ARMCO is an industry leader in Healthcare Revenue Cycle assistance, providing services to over 100 health systems at over 500 location sites eliminating the issues that can affect the financial health of an organization.
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17. RevenueMed
RevenueMed, Inc. provides healthcare revenue cycle solutions to the healthcare market in the United States. It offers remote medical coding, medical coding audits, paper to 835 conversion, outsourced billing operations, paper claim to EDI/837 conversion, credit balance resolution, payment kick-out resolution, EMR abstraction, and credentialing services. The company serves sectors, such as hospitals, health systems, large physician practices, billing companies, bank lockbox providers, durable medical equipment companies, disease management companies, revenue cycle service providers, practice management/patient accounting companies, revenue cycle consulting companies, clearinghouses, group purchasing organizations, EMR/EHR companies, and healthcare software companies. RevenueMed, Inc. was founded in 2002 and is headquartered in Norcross, Georgia with production centers in Trivandrum, India. As of February 23, 2015, RevenueMed, Inc. operates as a subsidiary of Navigant Healthcare Cymetrix Corporation.
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18. BENCHMARK BRANDS
Keep walking in comfort with footwear and accessories from FootSmart.com that help you get the perfect fit.
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19. Aquilex Holdings
Aquilex LLC provides industrial cleaning, hydroblasting automation, specialty repair, and overhaul solutions. It offers industrial cleaning services, such as hydroblasting, hydrocutting steel vessels, cleaning process piping, chemical cleaning, new construction, tank cleaning, and vacuum services; and specialty repair and overhaul services, including boiler construction, boiler overhaul, boiler tube repairs, BOP repair and inspection, erosion/corrosion, outage planning and support, shop fabrication, and engineered solutions. The company also provides nuclear services, such as cracking mitigation and repair, refurbishment of critical valves, repair of heat exchanger tubes and components, installation of the heat exchanger, reactor pressure vessel maintenance, pressurizer weld overlay and pressurizer heater repairs, piping, spent fuel canister sealing, and general mechanical components repair. In addition, the company offers industry-specific solutions, such as automatic welding and orbital machine repairs for component restoration and protection designed to improve mechanical integrity and extend component life. Further, the company provides services for challenges, including heat exchangers, hydrocutting, refractory removal, custom engineered solutions, lines and piping, chemical cleaning, surface cleaning, tank services, offshore platforms, degassing, oil and gas torque and test, turbine services, demolition and remediation, and zero emissions vacuum. It serves fossil power, nuclear, petro-chemical, refining, waste-to-energy/biomass, and industrial processing industries. The company was founded in 2001 and is based in Atlanta, Georgia. Aquilex LLC operates as a subsidiary of Aquilex Intermediate Holdings LLC.
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20. ASAP Solutions Group
ASAP Solutions Group, LLC ASAP is a management and technology consulting and staff augmentation firm. We focus on today's most complex and costly business challenges. Our unique approach provides local and expert consulting teams to Fortune 500 clie...
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Other National Companies With Offices in Norcross, GA
Company Highlights:
FIS, founded in 1968, is a global leader in financial services technology. It focuses on retail and institutional banking, payments, asset and wealth management, risk and compliance, and outsourcing solutions. Headquarted in Jacksonville, FL, FIS currently has more than 55,000 worldwide employees, and more than 20,000 clients in over 130 countries. After acquiring financial technology firms, such as Certegy in 2006, eFunds in 2007 and Metavante in 2009, FIS broadened its reach worldwide and earned a place on the fortune 500 listing.
What people like about FIS:
Well organized and specialized support for employees even though there are more than 50,000 of us. Decent perks and it seems like you are rewarded regardless of which office you're in.
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Automatic Data Processing, Inc., commonly known as ADP, is an American provider of human resources management software and services.
What people like about Automatic Data Processing:
Work life balance, great benefits and compensation
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Roper Technologies, Inc. is an American diversified industrial company that produces engineered products for global niche markets.
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HD Supply, Inc. is an industrial distributor in North America. The company provides a broad range of products and value-added services to approximately 500,000 professional customers in maintenance, repair and operations, infrastructure and power and specialty construction sectors.
What people like about HD Supply:
It was a very good experience for me. I was supported for many years by upper management as well as the sales support team and the special order group as well as the merchants. All in all a great experience!
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LSI Corporation was an American company based in San Jose, California which designed semiconductors and software that accelerate storage and networking in data centers, mobile networks and client computing. On May 6, 2014, LSI Corporation was acquired by Avago Technologies for $6.6 billion.
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Metso Oyj is a Finnish industrial machinery company focusing on providing technology and services for mining, aggregates, and oil and gas, recycling, pulp and paper and other process industries. The company employs over 13,000 people in 50 countries. Metso's shares are listed on the NASDAQ OMX Helsinki, Finland.
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Siemens AG is a German multinational conglomerate company headquartered in Munich and the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe with branch offices abroad.
What people like about Siemens:
Pay, development opportunities, travel opportunities, ability to grow
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Akzo Nobel Chemicals Inc
Akzo Nobel Chemicals Inc. manufactures specialty chemicals including pulp and paper chemicals. The company is based in Dobbs Ferry, New York. Akzo Nobel Chemicals Inc. operates as a subsidiary of Akzo Nobel NV.
What people like about Akzo Nobel Chemicals Inc:
Good products for customers to fit their needs. Easy to learn and use for every application.
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Intergraph Corporation is an American software development and services company. It provides enterprise engineering and geospatially powered software to businesses, governments, and organizations around the world.
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CareerBuilder is an online employment website, founded in 1995 and with offices in the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia. In 2008, it had the largest market share among online employment websites in the United States, where it was founded.
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Parsons Corporation is an American technology-focused defense, intelligence, security, and infrastructure engineering firm headquartered in Centreville, Virginia.
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Roto-Rooter Group
Roto-Rooter Plumbing & Water Cleanup Service provides plumbing repair, sewer & drain services and water damage cleanup services to residential and commercial customers. Roto-Rooter is a United States company founded in 1935 which originally specialized in clearing tree roots and other obstructions from sewer lines.
What people like about Roto-Rooter Group:
Any plumbing related great on Excavation mini Excavator
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Fiserv, Inc. is a global provider of financial services technology. The company's clients include banks, thrifts, credit unions, securities broker dealers, leasing and finance companies, and retailers.
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Waste Management, Inc. is an American waste management, comprehensive waste, and environmental services company in North America. Founded in 1968, the company is headquartered in the First City Tower in Houston, Texas.
What people like about Waste Management:
Excellent Management Team Collaboration. “I love my job because everyone shares the same vision and is dedicated to the mission.
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NorthgateArinso
NorthgateArinso, Inc., doing business as NGA Human Resources, provides managed payroll and tax filing solutions to mid to large-sized companies. It helps organizations to transform their business-critical HR operations to deliver people-critical services. The company provides HR outsourcing, payroll outsourcing, platforms and tools, and HR consulting solutions It offers NGA Cloud Support Services that consists of NGA Employee Central Health Check, which evaluates a client s current configuration and identifies critical areas where enhancements can be achieved; NGA Cloud Application Management service that provides expert resources who help clients manage frequent software releases, expand functionality, and ensure daily application maintenance through ongoing services; and NGA Cloud Advantage that provides clients with strategic guidance on how to maximize the value they gain from their investments and make critical decisions to ensure a journey to HR solutions in the cloud. The company was formerly known as ARINSO International, Inc. and changed its name to NorthgateArinso, Inc. in June 2007. NorthgateArinso, Inc. was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida. It has locations in the Americas, Europe, Asia, Australia/New Zealand, and Africa. NorthgateArinso, Inc. operates as a subsidiary of Northgate Information Solutions Holdings Limited.
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ACI Worldwide
ACI Worldwide Inc. is a payment systems company headquartered in Naples, Florida. ACI develops a broad line of software focused on facilitating real-time electronic payments.
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Dr Pepper Snapple Group is a flavored carbonated soft drink (CSD) company in the Americas and a marketer of functional/noncarbonated beverages. With 22 manufacturing locations, more than 100 warehouses and distribution centers and approximately 21,000 employees across North America, Dr Pepper Snapple Group is a leader in the CSD market. Its brands include: 7up, Orangina, Sunkist, Schweppes, Snapple, Mott's, and much more. The company also operates in Latin America and Canada.
What people like about Keurig Dr Pepper:
It's a professional company that works hard to be an industry leader.
Learn More About Keurig Dr Pepper:
Sprint Corporation is an American telecommunications company that provides wireless services and is an internet service provider, based in Overland Park, Kansas. It is the fourth-largest mobile network operator in the United States and serves 54 million customers as of October 2017.
What people like about Sprint:
I was part of management so it pushed me to lead my team to accomplish a wide array of goals. It was always a changing work environment that challenged me everyday.
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Our commitment to our fans: The Iron Mountain Facebook page is a community for our fans to actively engage with Iron Mountain and each other. Discussions about Iron Mountain experiences, products, and services are encouraged. We expect that users will ...
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The leading provider of arbitration, mediation and dispute resolution services in the US. Over 2,600 neutrals in all 50 states. Submit your case online.
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Best Companies In Norcross, GA
1 Immucor 4.8
2 FleetCor Technologies 4.7
3 EMI 4.7
4 American Megatrends 4.6
5 Milner 4.4
6 United Consulting Group 4.3
7 RTS Packaging 4.2
8 EasyLink Services International 4.2
9 Jvion 4.2
10 Custard Insurance Adjusters 4.2
11 Medical Doctor Associates 4.2
12 Alternative Apparel, Inc. 4.2
13 Larson-Juhl 4.2
14 Oil Offshore Marine 4.1
15 Eagle Rock Distributing Company (Budweiser/Bud Light) 4.1
16 ARMCO Partners 4.1
17 RevenueMed 4.1
18 BENCHMARK BRANDS 4.1
19 Aquilex Holdings 4.0
20 ASAP Solutions Group 4.0
About Zippia's Best Companies To Work For
You can read about how the Zippia Score and Company Rankings are calculated here.
Best Companies To Work For In Nearby Cities
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Picture blog: live from Sony's Tokyo HQ
By Andy Clough 15 February 2012
We're at Sony's Tokyo HQ all this week, getting the inside info on the company's TV strategy, forthcoming 2012 TV range and other new products heading to the UK later this year.
Some of what we're being shown is so secret it's covered by a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), but here are some pictures we managed to snap during this morning's session on Sony's design strategy.
As you'll see from the pictures, Sony isn't going down the super-slim, bezel-free design approach of arch-rivals Samsung. Instead, it's sticking to its Monolith design launched in 2010, with the screen angled slightly backwards when placed on the stand.
Fumiya Matsuoko, Sony's art director, home products design group, says the design philosophy behind the new models can be summarised as "minimal, simple, tranquil" – and also "masculine and solid". Just don't tell that to the women in your household.
Sony's KDL-HX850 Monolith LCD/LED TV (above) will come in 40, 46, 55in sizes, and has a 'floating' aluminium stand as standard – the TV hovers above the stand, rather than dropping into a groove as it does on the current model.
There are two very small horizontal speakers built into the stand (the vertical ones you see either side of the TV are optional), a subwoofer round the back, and it's all connected to the telly with a special cable.
Sony EX650
The Sony KDL-EX650 has a dimpled surround ‘tension surface’ (not that you can tell from this photo) and will be sold in 22, 26, 32, 40, 46in screen sizes. It uses a much simpler stand design.
Just to the left of the TV is one of Sony's new slimline 3D Blu-ray players. There'll also be a non-3D entry-level player. More details here.
Sony BD system 1
Sony has developed two prototype Blu-ray home cinema systems. The upmarket model (above) has a brushed metal finish and will be sold in Europe as a 2.1 system. It can be had with satellite or tallboy speakers.
The entry-level BD system (below) is a 5.1 set-up and has a more basic plastic finish, albeit with a faux 'brushed metal' surface design.
There's more info on these systems, plus UK prices and release dates, in our CES news story.
Sony's Google TV set-top box and touchpad controller (below) will land in the UK later this year. Initially we were told spring, but it now looks more likely it will be late summer. Expect two models, one just a streamer, the other with built-in Blu-ray drive. The latter will cost around £300.
The back of the Google controller has a full-sized Qwerty keyboard. Handy for texting while you're watching telly.
Sony Google controller
These super-light 3D active-shutter glasses first went on show at CES back in January – UK pricing to be confirmed.
Sony 3D glasses
Definitely not coming to the UK, but still worth a mention, is this giant iPod boombox. To get an idea of the size of the thing (and it's definitely not portable!), your iPod/iPhone slips into that slot on the right below the controls. Subtle it ain't.
Sony BoomBox
We've also seen the new Sony KDL-HX750 LCD/LED TV, which looks similar to, but has a slightly different stand design from, the KDL-HX850 model at the top of this blog. It will be available in 32, 40, 46 and 55in screen sizes.
Sony says its new TV range will go on sale during the first half of 2012. You can find more details of UK release dates and prices in our CES news story.
We've got another session this afternoon on picture quality and the technology behind Sony's 2012 TVs, so we'll report back on that as soon as we know more.
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Wild Child Herb Shop
FORAGING IN SUMMER: PART I
SUMMER FORAGING GUIDE: Wild foods can be found all year if you know where to look! The summer months provide soft fruit, flowers, herbs, nuts and some fungi that are great for foraging. A few autumn species are present, but they are not quite ripe yet.
Fruits: Summer is soft fruit season, and several varieties are very flavorful and worth the effort. Gooseberries, Strawberries, Red Currants, Cherries, Raspberries, Bilberries and Cherry Plums are waiting to be added to puddings, cordials, wine, cocktails, vinegars, jams, and chutney. The first blackberries are ripening, and it is always the one at the end of the cluster, called the “king” berry, that ripens first. Then Japanese Rosehips, Rowans, Haws, and Damsons ripen.
Flowers: Elderflower time is a distant memory, though the cupboard or freezer should be stocked with cordials, which can go into puddings, cakes, and breads. Roses, Meadowsweet, Himalayan Balsam, and Clover flowers can be harvested and used with desserts, drinks, cocktails, puddings, and cakes.
Greens: Summer foraging finds Chickweed in the fields that can be used as a lettuce. Watercress abounds in the wild, and it must be cooked into a soup or vegetable dish to avoid the risk of liver fluke. Fat Hen is plentiful, however, avoid the woodier stems. It is used in soups, curries, quiche, or as a green vegetable side dish. Pine Needles make a refreshing fruit cordial that is delicious on a warm day.
Herbs: Summer is a good time for foraging for herbs, and many, such as Marjoram, Fennel, and Mint can be dried. The dried herbs can be used in the autumn with crab apples for herb jellies. Sorrel is abundant in the meadows with a multitude of uses, including a sauce for oily fish, salads, quiche, or bruised with buttered new potatoes.
Nuts: Hazelnuts are visible in the hedgerows and on the grass where the squirrels have thrown their leftovers. The flesh of green Hazelnuts has the crisp crunch of overgrown peas, and a sweet vegetable-like taste that quickly becomes rather addictive!
Fungi: Thunderstorms usually kick-start the fungi season. Chanterelles, Chicken of the Woods, Fairy Ring Champignons, Field Mushrooms, and Red Cracking Bolete, also known as Porcini, are all ready for harvesting during the summer months.
WILDCRAFTING & FORAGING GUIDELINES:
Always properly identify plants. There are some great foraging field guides out there that can help with plant identification.
Know the sustainability status of the herbs to be included in the harvest. United Plant Savers is an organization that works to protect at-risk plants and preserve them for future generations. If a plant is on the to-watch or at-risk list, find a sustainably cultivated source to use instead of harvesting it from the wild.
Be sure to harvest plants growing in clean soil.
Stay away from roadsides, places where chemicals or animal feces run off or are dumped, and areas close to city buildings and businesses. These places can be contaminated with chemicals and other toxins that will also be contained in the plants.
Be sure to have permission to harvest on private property.
Don’t harvest all of the plant in one given area. The forager’s rule of thumb is to only harvest ⅓ of the plant growing in any given area. This is to ensure that there’s more for other foragers, for animals that survive on plants, and for the plant’s life cycle to continue.
Jewelweed (Impatiens capensis): a member of the touch-me-not family, Jewelweed grows 4-5 feet tall. It has translucent-like, watery stems with swollen joints, and it branches out in different directions. Leaves are ovate, thin, smooth, almost wax-like, serrated, and light green-grey in color. They have a silvery shimmer to them when placed in water. Jewelweed has a distinct irregular blossom that is yellow or orange in color with 5 petals, 2 of which are united, 3 sepals, and 5 stamens. Seed capsules, when mature and full of seeds, explode, throwing seeds all over.
To harvest jewelweed, clip the smaller branches with a pair of sharp scissors.
Jewelweed is mostly used in fresh form, but it can also be juiced or gently boiled in water and frozen into ice cubes to preserve it. It’s most commonly used as a poultice or infused in water, witch hazel, or vinegar, but some use it dried in infused oils, salves, and soaps. Jewelweed is a well-known astringent herb and is commonly used for external skin conditions. It has cooling and moistening energetics.
Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria): also known as “Queen of the Meadow” meadowsweet loves to grow in damp meadows and banks. It grows from 3 to 7 feet tall. The individual flowers are quite small but have five petals and many stamens, typical of the rose family. The leaves are dark green on top with a whitish and downy color on the underside. They grow as leaflets that are three to five lobed on the terminal leaflet. Meadowsweet blooms from June to September and boasts creamy white flowers. The flowers are strongly aromatic and sweet smelling.
Foraging meadowsweet in summer offers large concentrations of salicylates contained within the aerial parts. When harvesting meadowsweet, both the green leaves as well as the inflorescences and fruits can be harvested. The herbs can be stored and dried. When drying the herbs, the inflorescences should be hung.
Herbalists use meadowsweet to treat a variety of conditions including pain, indigestion, heartburn, arthritis, gastritis, chronic ulcers, peptic ulcer, minor stomach upsets, and diarrhea. Meadowsweet has anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and astringent actions. A simple meadowsweet tea is wonderful medicine. It is strongly aromatic, sweet, and slightly astringent. Use a heaping tablespoon per pint of water. Steep covered for 15 minutes. It will get noticeably more bitter with the longer steeping time. Meadowsweet also works well as an alcohol extract or tincture. Generally, a small amount of glycerin is added to help extract the tannins.
Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris): grows to 4 feet in height, but occasionally reaches heights of up to 6 feet. Its angular reddish-brown stems have bitter-tasting leaves that have a sage-like aroma. The plant blooms with yellow or dark orange flowers in the summer.
Harvest mugwort by cutting the top 1/3 of the plant when in flower. Hang the plant upside down to dry or chop into small pieces and spread onto newspaper. Roots are dug up and collected in the fall. Use a scrub brush and a bit of water to clean the roots, then spread them out on newspaper or on mesh sheets in the dehydrator and let them dry completely. All parts of the plant should be stored away from light.
The mugwort plant is used for colic, diarrhea, vomiting, constipation, headache, epilepsy, irregular menstrual periods, anxiety, hypochondria, fatigue, sleep problems, restlessness, irritability, and depression. It is commonly used in cooking to flavor fish, meat dishes, desserts, pancakes, soups, salads, and beer. Mugwort is used in a variety of herbal preparations, including extracts, tinctures, supplements, and as a poultice, a soft, moist mass of plant leaves kept in place with a cloth and applied to the body to relieve soreness and inflammation. Mugwort can be made into a tea by adding 1.5 teaspoons of mugwort leaves to a cup of boiling water, steeping for 10 minutes then straining off the leaves and serving. The roots of mugwort are used to make an energy tonic.
Mullein: (Verbascum thapsus): a biennial plant that grows in zones 3 through 9. It prefers full sun and dry soil. The plant grows from 6 to 10 feet tall, so to prevent it from spreading in the landscape, remove the fuzzy rosettes that appear on the plant. Remove the flower stalk before the seeds disperse to prevent a widespread seeding.
Mullein leaves are usually gathered the first year of growth, although the second-year leaves are as effective in medicinal teas. The stalk and blossoms grow the second year. The mullein flowers are harvested daily, as they open. After the harvest, use fresh immediately or dry them for storage. Mullein can be used fresh for tinctures, teas, and oils, or dried for all herbal preparations. Fresh flowers work best in tinctures, wilted flowers in oils, and dry for storage and later use.
The leaves, flowers and roots of the Mullein plant are used for the treatment of various inflammatory diseases, diarrhea, asthma, coughs and other lung-related ailments.
Peach Leaves (Prunus persica): an herb that is commonly foraged during the summer months. There are several varieties of peach, but most all are medium sized trees with 4-inch-long, lance shaped, finely serrated leaves. Blossoms grow in groups of 2 or more at the end of last year’s branches and are pink in color with 5 petals, 5 sepals, and many stamens. Blossoms turn into fruit with thin skin, juicy flesh, and seed encased in a wrinkled pit.
Peach leaves are harvested after the fruit has ripened on the tree. Heavily harvest peach leaves by clipping those free of blemishes with a pair of sharp scissors. Peach leaves can be used fresh or dried in poultices, teas, syrups, and tinctures.
Matthew Wood suggests using peach leaves to cool and moisten hot, dry conditions like those that can present themselves during allergies or autoimmune issues. He also recommends it for skin eruptions, hot digestive and respiratory conditions, and to help cool the body during menopause. It’s also an excellent herb for children and sensitive individuals. Kiva Rose suggests using peach for to aid an upset stomach and nausea anytime there are signs of excess heat, to help with adrenal health, to relieve hot, swollen bug bites, and to soothe the nervous system as it has an almost sedative-like effect that varies from person to person.
St. John’s Wort (Hypericum perforatum): a pretty little shrub with cheery yellow flowers that have a burst of long, showy stamen in the center, the blossoms of St. John’s Wort last from midsummer until fall, and they are followed by colorful berries. St. John’s wort grows well in sand, clay, rocky soil or loam, and tolerates acidic to slightly alkaline ph. St. John’s wort adapts to both moist and dry soil, and even tolerates occasional flooding. It also withstands drought but grows best with irrigation during prolonged dry spells. Plant in a location with bright morning sunlight and a little shade in the hottest part of the afternoon. Water slowly and deeply after planting and keep the soil moist until the transplants are well-established.
Harvest the leaves around June 10th, and harvest the flowers around June 24th. Harvest the leaves and stems on a morning or evening, when the dew isn’t on and the sun isn’t at its peak. Clip the stem off about an inch above the ground and dry the entire stalk on a flat screen or hang it upside down. Harvest flowers mid-morning or early evening by taking the first inch or so of stem and leaf below, as all will contain the oil needed for herbal remedies. Try to harvest flowers that are unopened. The most popular preparation method is St. John’s wort oil, which is used topically. The leaves and/or flowers are infused in a carrier oil, such as olive or sesame oil, and the process is magical! As the herb infuses, a red volatile oil is pulled out of the yellow flowers and turns the carrier oil blood red. To use St. John’s wort internally, it can be made into a tea or tincture with either fresh or dried herb.
St. John's wort boost mood, relieves symptoms of depression, calms anxiety, eases menopause-related symptoms and PMS, and helps with seasonal affective disorder, and smoking cessation. An oil made from St. John’s wort has also been used topically for wound healing and a variety of other skin conditions such as eczema and hemorrhoids.
Yarrow (Achillea millefolium): grows from 1-5 feet tall, and has many rough, hairy stems sprouting from a rhizomatous root. Bipinnate leaves branch off the stem in a spiral pattern with larger leaves at the base of the plant and smaller leaves at the top. The leaves are finely segmented giving them a feathery look, and the creamy white, daisy-like flowers grow in flattened, terminal, loose heads, or cymes.
Yarrow can be harvested as soon as the flowers have bloomed. It’s recommended to harvest mid-morning, after the dew has dried and before the sun’s heat evaporates lighter volatile oils. If using the whole plant, grab at the base of the stem and gently pull upward to pull the plant out of the soil, roots and all. If only harvesting the tops of the plant, using sharp scissors or shears, cut 6 inches above the base.
Yarrow can be used in fresh or dried form in teas, tinctures, oils, salves, and syrups. Rosemary Gladstar suggests using yarrow to increase circulation in order to open the pores and induce sweating as a way to gently lower body temperature. She also suggests it as a first-aid herb to slow internal and external bleeding, to relax cramping of the digestive and reproductive organs, and as an antiseptic wash for wounds.
HERBS FOR WINTER WELLNESS: PART II
HERBS FOR WINTER WELLNESS: PART I
HERBS FOR AUTUMN EQUINOX: PART V
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Home › Laws and regulations › Operational policy framework › Operational policies › Policy clarification: What is hazardous waste and what we expect of you
Policy clarification: What is hazardous waste and what we expect of you
This policy clarification sets out how we define hazardous waste and what your responsibilities are.
Policy clarification: What is hazardous waste and what we expect of you (PDF 52 KB)
Health and Safety at Work (Hazardous Substances) Regulations 2017
This policy clarification sets out how we’ll apply the Health and Safety at Work (Hazardous Substances) Regulations 2017 (HSWA HS Regulations) to hazardous waste.
You should read this policy clarification if you work with hazardous substances or hazardous waste.
Regulations for using, handling and storing hazardous waste came into force on 1 June 2019.
You need to identify hazardous waste in your business produces and manage the risks associated with it.
You should manage the risks associated with hazardous waste in the same way that you manage the risks associated with hazardous substances.
What the law says
As a person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) you must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, your health and safety, and the health and safety of your workers and any other people who are influenced or directed by the business. You must also look after other people who could be at risk from work carried out at the workplace, such as visitors. If a risk can’t be eliminated, you must take steps to minimise it so far as is reasonably practicable.
Hazardous waste is specifically referred to in the HSWA HS Regulations, in Regulations 1.4, 2.3, 3.1(2) and 4.5(1). These regulations came into force on 1 June 2019.
The HSWA HS Regulations define hazardous waste as:
waste that is generated by a manufacturing or other industrial process and is reasonably likely to be or contain a substance that meets one or more of the classification criteria for substances with explosive, flammable, oxidising, toxic, or corrosive properties under the Hazardous Substances (Classification) Notice 2017.
What we mean by hazardous waste
For us to regard something as hazardous waste, it needs to:
be produced by current or ongoing work activities
be a manufactured substance
be able to be contained and labelled.
We don’t consider the following to be hazardous waste under the HSWA HS Regulations:
Naturally occurring materials, as these are not produced by a manufacturing or other industrial processes.
Contaminated land. As set out in our policy clarification Contaminated land and the Health and Safety at Work (Hazardous Substances) Regulations 2017 there is an established framework for managing and remediating contaminated land under the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA).
Manufactured articles with hazardous substance components as they are not waste generated by a manufacturing or industrial process.
Waste that only contains components that are ecotoxic (ie not harmful to human health).
What we expect of you
We expect you to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, your health and safety, and the health and safety of your workers and any other workers who are influenced or directed by the business. You must also look after other people who could be at risk from work carried out, such as visitors at the workplace. If a risk can’t be eliminated, you must take steps to minimise it so far as is reasonably practicable.
We expect you to manage hazardous waste in the same way you manage hazardous substances. You’ll need to identify your hazardous waste and its properties, and manage the risks associated with it. This includes:
Identifying and managing the potential for reactions between components of the hazardous waste.
Meeting the relevant requirements, as relevant for the hazardous waste you have. These requirements may include:
storage, segregation and separation distance requirements
emergency management planning
compliance certification
providing training and information.
What you can expect of us
We may visit you to make sure you are managing hazardous waste appropriately. You can expect us to ask the same questions about any hazardous waste as we would about hazardous substances.
Most of the rules that apply to managing hazardous substances in the workplace also apply to hazardous waste.
Last updated 18 November 2019 at 11:53
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Hindi Language Spoken States in India
Post category:Miscellaneous / Peoples
Hindi is the Prime and official language of India and there are many states with Hindi speakers majority and also as their official language, peoples from the north and central part of India speak in Hindi and also in official purpose where official language are Hindi. There are native languages in Hindi spoken states. In India, a total of 422 million Hindi speakers, it’s about 41% of total population of India.
The following states of North and central part of Indian region where Hindi is spoken and official language.
Bihar Angika, Bhojpuri, Magahi, Maithili and Vajjika Hindi, Urdu
Uttar Pradesh Awadhi, Bhojpuri, Bagheli, Braj bhasha, Bundeli, Kannauji, Khari boli Hindi, Urdu
Haryana Haryanvi, Punjabi and Rajasthani language in some parts Hindi, Punjabi
Rajasthan Rajasthani language Hindi
Himachal Pradesh Pahari Hindi, Punjabi
Uttarakhand Kumaoni, Garhwali, Hindi Hindi, Sanskrit
Chhattisgarh Chhattisgarhi language, Hindi Hindi, Chhattisgarhi
Jharkhand Maithili, Santali language, Hindi Hindi, Santhali, Mundari, Bengali, HO, Kurukh
Madhya Pradesh Bagheli, Bundeli, Khari boli, Malvi Hindi
Delhi is the capital city of India, and Hindi is the official and spoken language. There are several Hindi spoken States in India including Punjab, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Odisha, West Bengal and Jammu and Kashmir, but not as their official language.
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Neo-McCarthyite hysteria at US Senate Intelligence Committee hearing
Tuesday’s Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on “Global Threats and National Security” was an exercise in right-wing hysteria aimed at promoting the claim that all social opposition in the United States is the product of foreign subversion. This fraudulent narrative was advanced to justify censorship and police state repression.
Not since the McCarthyite witch hunts of the 1950s has Congress seen such a vitriolic denunciation of supposed foreign subversion. Russia, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats told the committee, “perceived its past efforts [at manipulating the 2016 elections] as successful and views the 2018 US midterm elections as a potential target.”
It is necessary to “inform the American people that this is real,” Coats proclaimed, and that “resilience is needed for us to stand up and say we’re not going to allow some Russians to tell us how to vote, how we ought to run our country.”
One after another, senators pressed the assembled intelligence officials about purported Russian and Chinese plots to “sow divisions” within American society, calling on the intelligence agencies to work with technology companies to censor the Internet and prevent the dissemination of “divisive content.”
Chinese students were denounced as potential spies and subversives and Americans were instructed not to buy smartphones made by Chinese companies.
All of these accusations were made without the slightest attempt at proof or substantiation. This is because they are simply made up.
The basic claim of the liars and frauds on Capitol Hill is that the US would be a peaceful and healthy democracy if it weren’t for the nefarious operations of Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping. The absurdity of such a statement was revealed once again on Wednesday when a mass school shooting took place in Parkland, Florida, the 18th school shooting to occur in the seven weeks of 2018. Are Russia and China responsible for the social dysfunction that produces such atrocities with horrific regularity?
The concern of the American ruling class is not Russian or Chinese “subversion,” but the growth of social opposition within the United States. The narrative of “Russian meddling” has been used to justify a systematic campaign to censor the Internet and suppress free speech.
The performance of Senator Mark Warner, the ranking Democrat on the committee, was particularly obscene. Warner, whose net worth is estimated at $257 million, appeared to be doing his best impersonation of Senator Joe McCarthy. He declared that foreign subversion works together with, and is largely indistinguishable from, “threats to our institutions… from right here at home.”
Alluding to the publication of the so-called Nunes memo, which documented the fraudulent character of the Democratic-led investigation of White House “collusion” with Russia, Warner noted, “There have been some, aided and abetted by Russian Internet bots and trolls, who have attacked the basic integrity of the FBI and the Justice Department.”
Responding to questioning from Warner, FBI Director Christopher Wray praised the US intelligence agencies’ greater “engagement” and “partnership” with the private sector, concluding, “We can’t fully police social media, so we have to work with them so that they can police themselves.”
Wray was referring to the sweeping measures taken by social media companies, working directly with the US intelligence agencies, to implement a regime of censorship, including through the hiring of tens of thousands of “content reviewers,” many with intelligence backgrounds, to flag, report and delete content.
The assault on democratic rights is increasingly connected to preparations for a major war, which will further exacerbate social tensions within the United States. Coats prefaced his remarks by declaring that “the risk of inter-state conflict, including among great powers, is higher than at any time since the end of the Cold War.”
As the hearing was taking place, multiple news outlets were reporting that potentially hundreds of Russian military contractors had been killed in a recent US air strike in Syria. This came just weeks after the publication of the Pentagon’s National Defense Strategy, which declared, “Inter-state strategic competition, not terrorism, is now the primary concern in US national security.”
However, the implications of this great-power conflict are not simply external to the US “homeland.” The document argues that “the homeland is no longer a sanctuary,” and that “America is a target,” for “political and information subversion” on the part of “revisionist powers” such as Russia and China.
Since “America’s military has no preordained right to victory on the battlefield,” the only way the US can prevail in this conflict is through the “seamless integration of multiple elements of national power,” including “information, economics, finance, intelligence, law enforcement and military.”
In other words, America’s supremacy in the new world of great-power conflict requires the subordination of every aspect of life to the requirements of war. In this totalitarian nightmare, already far advanced, the police, the military and the intelligence agencies unite with media and technology companies to form a single seamless unit, whose combined power is marshaled to manipulate public opinion and suppress political dissent.
The dictatorial character of the measures being prepared was underscored by an exchange between Wray and Republican Senator Marco Rubio, who asked whether Chinese students were serving as spies for Beijing. “What is the counterintelligence risk posed to US national security from Chinese students, particularly those in advanced programs in the sciences and mathematics?” asked Rubio.
Wray responded that “the use of nontraditional collectors, especially in the academic setting, whether it’s professors, scientists, students, we see in almost every field office that the FBI has around the country, not just in major cities, small ones as well, basically every discipline.”
This campaign, with racist overtones, recalls the official rationale—defense of “national security”—used to justify the internment of some 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry during the Second World War.
In its open letter calling for a coalition of socialist, antiwar and progressive websites against Internet censorship, the World Socialist Web Site noted that “the ruling class has identified the Internet as a mortal threat to its monopolization of information and its ability to promote propaganda to wage war and legitimize the obscene concentration of wealth and extreme social inequality.”
It is this mortal threat—and fear of the growth of class conflict—that motivate the lies and hypocrisy on display at the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing.
PerspectivesInternet CensorshipWorld NewsUnited States
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MayorFirst LadyNewsOfficials
Mayor Bill de Blasio today announced that his administration secured 24,293 affordable apartments and homes in Fiscal Year 2017, the highest overall production since 1989
Mayor de Blasio Announces Record Pace Building and Protecting Affordable Housing
52,000 homes protected, 25,000 under construction since 2014-enough to house the entire population of Salt Lake City; one-third of all homes serve families making under $43,000 and record number for formerly homeless families
NEW YORK—Mayor Bill de Blasio today announced that his administration secured 24,293 affordable apartments and homes in Fiscal Year 2017, the highest overall production since 1989. The 10-year Housing New York plan to create or preserve 200,000 homes has financed a total of 77,651 affordable homes since January 2014, including the highest three-year streak of affordable housing production in the City’s history.
New Yorkers can apply for affordable housing at nyc.gov/housingconnect or by calling 311.
“Affordability is the key to protecting New York families, stabilizing our neighborhoods and the city as a whole. By making smart investments we are stretching public funds and creating more and better homes for New Yorkers, from formerly homeless families to seniors, firefighters, police officers and teachers. We have more work to do, but this city is for New Yorkers – and we will keep it that way,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said.
Of the 24,293 homes financed this past Fiscal Year, which ended June 30, more than 40 percent are for families earning less than $43,000 a year, including more than 4,014 homes for families of three earning less than $26,000 a year.
Under new programs created by the City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development and Housing Development Corporation, this past Fiscal Year saw the highest production of homes for formerly homeless families in New York’s history: 2,571. That beats the record set in Fiscal Year 2016: 1,907 homes. The HNY total is 6,533. Affordable homes typically require individuals or families to pay 30% of their income on rent.
With 4,627 affordable senior apartments financed under HNY, the City is nearly a third of the way towards its goal of creating 15,000 homes for seniors, many of who are living on fixed incomes. The 929 homes created in Fiscal Year 2017 include the first projects to benefit from the City’s Zoning for Quality and Affordability amendment, which makes it easier and less expensive to build quality, affordable senior housing citywide.
HNY numbers are available here.
Helpful links for tenants and landlords interested in finding out more about HPD programs are available here, here and here, with further information below.
On budget and ahead of schedule, the 77,651 affordable homes and apartments started under HNY include the highest total production in any three-year period in HPD’s history. One-third of all affordable housing financed will reach New Yorkers making less than $33,400 for an individual or $43,000 for a family of three. Of these 24,782 homes, 50 percent are for New Yorkers making less than $20,000 for an individual or $25,800 for a family of three.
Fiscal Year 2017 saw the financing of 7,705 new apartments and 16,588 preserved homes. This represents a direct investment of $1 billion by the City of New York, which leveraged more than $1.3 billion in bonds issued by the Housing Development Corporation during Fiscal Year 2017. This brings total direct City investment under the housing plan to $2.8 billion, and total bond financing to $5.5 billion.
Earlier this year, Mayor de Blasio committed an additional $1.9 billion in City subsidy to ensure that 50,000 affordable homes, one quarter of the HNY total, will be for the lowest-income New Yorkers, with particular commitments for seniors and veterans. By adding a mix of incentives and requirements to its programs, HPD is working to put the new funds to work as quickly and efficiently as possible.
“Through the 77,651 units financed to date under Housing New York, we are delivering affordable housing on a scale that hasn’t been seen since the Koch era,” said Housing Preservation and Development Commissioner Maria Torres-Springer. “More importantly, we are reaching more of the city’s lowest-income families, making good on our commitment to reach far deeper levels of affordability. While much of the emphasis is on numbers, at its heart, the housing plan is about people. Each affordable unit we finance is a home – for working families, seniors struggling on fixed incomes, and New Yorkers facing rising rents across our neighborhoods. Their individual stories and very real needs are what motivates us at HPD to do more and better, and to fight for the resources we need to shape a more affordable, inclusive city for generations to come.”
“We ramped up from day one to meet the goals of Housing New York and are now seeing the results of those efforts. Through various programmatic and policy changes, we’ve exceeded our targets and are achieving deeper affordability for New York City residents. Building affordable housing on this scale requires us to use all our tools, and the numbers serve as a powerful reminder of how critical federal programs are to our efforts to build a more affordable city. I would like to thank the administration, the teams at HDC and HPD, and all our partners in government and across the affordable housing community for their commitment to addressing the housing needs of our city,” Housing Development Corporation President Eric Enderlin said.
“Behind today’s groundbreaking numbers are real New York households with a wide range of incomes who can sleep more comfortably, knowing that they will have a roof over their heads. Providing stability for these households helps ensure that our city’s neighborhoods remain affordable, vibrant and livable,” City Planning Commission Chair Marisa Lago said.
“DCA believes that all New Yorkers should have access to an affordable place to live,” Department of Consumer Affairs Commissioner Lorelei Salas said. “Through the Ready to Rent program our Office of Financial Empowerment offers free one-on-one housing focused financial counseling to help New Yorkers overcome challenges in qualifying for affordable housing. Our financial counselors provide the tools and resources needed to help New Yorkers improve their credit and achieve financial stability for themselves and their families.”
Today, the Mayor visits the Crencher family at Strivers Plaza, a new eight-story, Central Harlem development that serves 54 New Yorkers at a range of incomes, including individuals earning as little as $27,000 a year and families of three earning $35,000. There is a NYC FRESH supermarket opening on the ground floor, and community space for Street Corner Resources, a Harlem-based not-for-profit organization dedicated to reducing gun violence and gang activity.
“Our new home is just what the doctor ordered. It’s clean, beautiful and offers me and my family the stability we need to live and work in the city we love,” said Matthew Crencher, who recently moved into a new, two-bedroom affordable apartment with his wife and uncle.
Some projects financed this past Fiscal Year:
Bronx: Bronx Commons, a mixed-used development in Melrose, combines 305 affordable apartments with retail space and a 300-seat music- and arts-centered community hub, the Bronx Music Hall. The homes will serve households with incomes as low as 20,040 for an individual and $25,770 for a family of three.
Brooklyn: Ingersoll Senior Residences is a 17-story, affordable senior housing project on NYCHA land at the Ingersoll Houses campus in Fort Greene. The 145 new homes will be for low-income seniors supported by Section 8 rental subsidy. Services and Advocacy for LGBT Elders (SAGE) will operate a senior center on the ground floor.
Manhattan: The affordability of 506 affordable homes in 39 East Harlem buildings, collectively known as Hope East of Fifth, will be preserved for families earning as little as $33,400 or $42,950 for a family of three. The buildings and apartments will see needed improvements. More than 100 units are set-aside for homeless households.
Queens: One Flushing will create 208 new affordable homes for individuals earning as little as $20,040 and $25,770 for a family of three. The project, on City-owned land, was formerly a parking lot. The project provides supportive services for 66 seniors and a rooftop farm.
Staten Island: 35 homeowners with incomes as low as $42,950 received support through various HPD programs to provide down payment assistance or home repair loans to low-income and senior homeowners.
Beyond the numbers:
Most housing for the homeless: Last Fiscal Year saw the highest production of housing for the city’s homeless, with 2,571 homeless units financed. The second highest year was Fiscal Year 2016, with 1,907 homeless units, bringing the total number of apartments for homeless New Yorkers produced under the plan to 6,533 apartments. This progress reflects the requirement of homeless set-asides in the majority of HPD’s affordable housing programs, and new initiatives such as Our Space that provide additional capital subsidy to create a reserve to fund units affordable to homeless households without relying on rental assistance.
First MIH units: The City financed its first 400 units under the City’s new Mandatory Inclusionary Housing program, which requires developers to build permanently affordable housing in areas rezoned for growth. Since MIH was adopted, 18 applications for approximately 6,800 homes – about 5,000 of them affordable – have been approved by the City Council. At least 1,700 of them will be permanently affordable.
Enhancing preservation outreach: To further expand the City’s outreach to owners and landlords, last month HPD launched the Landlord Ambassadors program to select community-based nonprofits to help owners of small- and mid-sized multifamily buildings take advantage of HPD’s affordable housing initiatives. Organizations will be provided with the training and funds to hire staff as they work with landlords to stabilize and upgrade buildings, including those on the City’s tax lien docket. A new preservation marketing campaign is also now underway, building on the outreach that HPD made in the last year to the owners of more than 12,400 properties across the city to make them aware of the agency's various loan programs.
Improving access to affordable housing: Through funding from the City Council, HPD expanded its Housing Ambassadors program, and produced a video to help New Yorkers prepare and apply for affordable housing. HPD and the City’s Office of Financial Empowerment also launched the Ready to Rent program. This program works in partnership with the financial counseling provider Ariva and offers free one-on-one financial counseling and additional assistance to those seeking affordable housing.
Record Affordable homeownership: The City achieved the highest number of affordable homeownership units in over a decade with 5,827 affordable homes, bringing the total financed under the housing plan to almost 10,000. This includes the preservation of critical Mitchell-Lama developments that provide an anchor of affordability in key neighborhoods across the city, and is in addition to the many efforts underway to work with homeowners to provide counseling, pursue mortgage modification or refinancing, or reposition foreclosed homes as affordable homeownership opportunities, especially to support neighborhoods continuing to struggle in the aftermath of the foreclosure crisis.
Job opportunities: Approximately twenty projects set M/WBE goals for the first time under the City’s new M/WBE Build Up program, which requires developers receiving more than $2 million in contribution from the City to set and meet M/WBE goals. Through this program we expect greater inclusion of M/WBEs over the course of design and construction of our development projects. And through HireNYC, the City is expanding access to jobs on affordable housing projects receiving more than $2 million in City subsidy. Last fiscal year, HPD closed 51 projects, including almost 9,000 units that require participation in HireNYC.
"The construction and preservation of affordable housing for families across the socioeconomic scale is the top priority of my administration. 21,000 units in Brooklyn since 2014 is an impactful start, but by no means the end of our mission. We must, and we will, continue build new and protect existing affordable housing across our borough," said Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams.
"The construction and preservation of several thousand new units of affordable housing in Queens is a welcome addition to our borough's permanently affordable housing stock," said Queens Borough President Melinda Katz. "Thanks to Mayor de Blasio's aggressive agenda with Housing New York, this is just the beginning of offering quality affordable housing for Queens families, and hope to soon bring our count up to par with our fellow boroughs."
“Housing affordability is not only key to growing and protecting our working class, but it is essential to the sustainability and future success of our city,” Representative Joe Crowley said. “I’m glad to see the City is working on its commitment to making New York more livable for low-income families and our vulnerable communities, and I’m encouraged by the investments that continue to be made under Housing New York.”
“New York is the greatest city in the world, but too many families have been priced out due to skyrocketing housing costs. The Mayor and City Officials have been proactive in responding to this issue, and I commend them for the record setting pace at which they are building and preserving affordable housing options. I will continue to work with my colleagues at the federal level to procure even more funding for New York City families,” said Representative Eliot Engel.
“I commend Mayor de Blasio for his effort to preserve and bring more affordable housing to our city,” Representative Adriano Espaillat said. “New York City should not be reserved solely for our most wealthy citizens and should remain a city of hope and aspirations for all and affordable housing is a key component of that concept. Today’s announcement is further proof that the Mayor’s initiative to ensure affordable housing is working and helping us keep New York a city open to everyone.”
“Mayor de Blasio knows what New Yorkers’ most pressing needs are and top of that list is access to affordable housing. By securing nearly 25,000 additional affordable apartment units this year as part of his 10 year plan to create or preserve a total of 200,000 units, the City’s government is expanding access to quality housing and investing in the stability of our neighborhoods and families. On behalf of the Bronx, I thank Mayor de Blasio for this effort to help the City’s most needy and vulnerable families and individuals,” Representative José Serrano said.
“Affordable housing remains a perennial challenge in New York and I applaud the Mayor for making this a priority. While this represents progress, there is much more to do and we must work at all levels of government to expand the stock of affordable housing. For my part, I will continue fighting in Washington to oppose cuts to federal housing funds and work to secure resources for housing programs,” Representative Nydia M. Velázquez said.
"Generating more affordable housing is imperative to reducing our homeless population and ensuring lifelong New Yorkers can stay in the neighborhoods they grew up in," Senator Toby Ann Stavisky said. "I am proud to have supported the One Flushing project that will provide relief to hundreds of seniors in Queens."
"The announcement and commitment are a game changing as Bronx Commons in the Melrose Commons section of our district will provide affordable housing, community programming and soon the Bronx Music Heritage Center. We commend Mayor de Blasio and the administration for focusing on Bronxites in our 79th assembly district living and thriving affordably to continue," said Assembly Member Michael Blake.
“Protecting and building affordable housing has been a key priority in the Assembly and is integral to fulfilling our goal to help all our residents – working families, seniors living on fixed incomes, people struggling with unemployment – to find stability, hope and a place they're proud to call home,” said Assembly Member Steven Cymbrowitz, Chair of the Housing Committee. “I’m pleased that Mayor de Blasio has been such a strong partner in this effort and I’m gratified by his commitment to make affordable housing a reality for so many New Yorkers.”
“I welcome this news and commend the Administration for this effort in making the city truly affordable for its residents. As our neighborhoods grow and change, it becomes even more important to preserve and create affordable housing,” said Council Member Jumaane D. Williams, Chair of the Committee on Housing and Buildings. “In order to reduce homelessness, we must prevent and reform policies and practices that undermine efforts to create quality inexpensive housing options for New Yorkers. This includes ensuring efforts to preserve and expand affordable housing are evenly dispersed throughout the City. I look forward to working with the Administration in continuing to push for more income-targeted affordable housing choices for the City’s residents.”
“Creating and preserving affordable housing is one of the most important things a city can do for its families. I thank Mayor de Blasio for his vision and my Council colleagues for their commitment to ensure that projects are approved and financed in a way that benefits a broad spectrum of New Yorkers all across our diverse neighborhoods,” Council Member David Greenfield said, Chair of the Committee on Land Use.
“During the discussions for Mandatory Inclusionary Housing, we heard from countless New Yorkers about the enormous need for more affordable housing,” said Council Member Donovan Richards, Chair of the Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises. “The City must make every effort to ensure that all New Yorkers have the ability to find stable, affordable housing in the neighborhoods they have called home for so long. I’d like to thank and congratulate Mayor de Blasio and HPD Commissioner Maria Torres-Springer for working to secure these crucial investments that will allow New Yorkers to stay in the City they know and love.”
“Our identity as New Yorkers is deeply rooted in the diversity that exists throughout the five boroughs, particularly in the borough of Brooklyn. From Fort Greene to Crown Heights, the landscape of my district is drastically changing and accelerating the displacement of longtime residents. Housing New York has been our city’s steadfast commitment to ensuring that single-parent households; minimum wage earners; fixed, low, middle-income and formerly homeless families can continue to thrive in the communities where they have lived for generations. I am proud of our unprecedented gains in the creation and preservation of affordable housing, including nearly 600 units in Prospect Heights' Brooklyn Jewish Hospital Complex, to protect everyday New Yorkers from being displaced by rising rents,” said Council Member Laurie A. Cumbo.
“Quality affordable housing for fixed-income seniors and low-income families is among the top needs in our community, and the One Flushing project is a great example of the city responding to these needs with a range of solutions. Coupled with community spaces, support services, and commercial opportunities, One Flushing seeks to provide quality living for everyone who lives, works and visits our community,” Council Member Peter Koo said.
“In my district in the South Bronx, perhaps no issue is more important than working to create or preserve affordable housing,” said Council Member Rafael Salamanca, Jr. “While there is still much work to do, we are on the right track in creating new housing options for all New Yorkers, especially in our working class neighborhoods.”
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What are the eligibility criteria for free school meals?
Children whose parents receive the following support payments are entitled to receive free school meals in maintained schools in Wales:
• Income Support
• Income Based Jobseekers Allowance
• Support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
• Income-related Employment and Support Allowance
• Child Tax Credit, provided they are not entitled to Working Tax Credit and their annual income does not exceed £16,190. (HM Revenue and Customs are responsible for assessing the level of annual income.)
• Guarantee element of State Pension Credit.
• Working Tax Credit 'run-on' - the payment someone may receive for a further four weeks after they stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit.
• Universal Credit
Young people who receive Income Support or Income Based Job Seekers Allowance in their own right are also entitled to receive Free School Meals.
You can find out more about Free School Meals from the Welsh Assembly website.
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Boner Fight for July 26th, 2019
Boner Candidate #1: THE FRANKENSTEIN CHOP SHOP.
Buckets of body parts, a cooler filled with male genitalia and a woman’s head sewn onto a male torso “like Frankenstein” were found by FBI agents during a raid on an Arizona body donation center, a new lawsuit reveals. The stomach-churning scene was discovered by FBI agents at the now-shuttered Biological Resource Center in 2014 as part of a multi-state investigation into the illegal trafficking and sale of human body parts, as reported by the Arizona Republic. Details of the grim find were revealed in a lawsuit filed against the center this week by 33 defendants whose loved ones’ bodies were donated to the facility under the guise they would be used for scientific purposes. In his declaration in the civil suit, former FBI special agent Mark Cwynar described the “various unsettling scenes” that awaited cops, including “a bucket of heads, arms and legs” and “a cooler filled with male genitalia.” Agents also found “infected heads,” a small woman’s head sewn onto a large male torso and hanging on a wall “like Frankenstein,” and body parts stacked on top of one another with no identification tags. Biological Resource Center specialized in the free pickup of deceased loved ones for families in exchange for their bodies, to be used for scientific research. Instead, the company sold body parts to various middlemen for profit. Read More
Boner Candidate #2: PLEASE DON’T HARASS THE WILDLIFE.
With its vast narrow canyons and stunning scenery, it’s no surprise Zion National Park is home to iconic western wildlife. As the summer tourist season is in full swing, park rangers are urging visitors to be more respectful of their surroundings. Staff said hikers have been touching and harassing wildlife, with multiple reports of fawns being picked up, held, and moved in The Narrows and the campgrounds in the past few weeks. “They’re completely innocent animals going about their normal lives, and people, even with the best of intentions, intervene and cause those animals to be injured or even killed,” Zion National Park wildlife technician Jason Pietrzak said. “It’s terrible.” One fawn recently died in the Narrows as a result of either its mother abandoning it or the stress and trauma of being held. “Imagine you’re a child and a grizzly bear was trying to help you by picking you up,” Pietrzak added. “It would be terrifying.” Zion National Park visitor Ana Zissou expressed her frustration, describing wilderness ethics as “common sense.” Read More
Related Items:Bill, boner fight, boner of the day, boners, gina, Kerry, Radio From Hell, rfh
Boner Fight for January 15, 2021
Boner of the Day for January, 15, 2021
Boner Fight for January 14th, 2020
Boner of the Day for July 26th, 2019
The Offspring Are Finishing Up Their 10th Studio Album
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My Conversation With a Ft. Detrick Scientist
Galileo Sat, 08/09/2008 - 2:39pm
2001 anthrax attacks
weaponized anthrax
Today (August 9), I spoke with a PhD scientist who works at Ft. Detrick. The scientist knows Dr. Bruce Ivins very well and has worked with him for many years.
The scientist is an acquaintance of mine who I've known for about five years.
The scientist is a specialist in infectious diseases, including airborne diseases.
The scientist does not want their name given out. The FBI has told all the scientists at Ft. Detrick they cannot speak with the media or they will be fired.
[Its interesting to note that scientists at Ft. Detrick can't exercise their first amendment rights, but the FBI can illegally leak confidential investigative information to the media. Its also interesting that some of the info leaked to the media by FBI informants is not legitimate investigative material, but instead, material meant to character assassinate Dr. Ivins. Its also interesting that the FBI leakers can avoid detection, given the Patriot Act.]
The scientist's eyewitness statements and expert opinions are based on personal knowledge, not media reports, and the scientist has not read hardly any news articles about Dr. Ivins. The scientist has heard media reports that have character assassinated the good name of Dr. Ivins. I will be sending some important news articles regarding the anthrax case to the scientist today.
The scientist's political views tend to lean on the right side, while the views of Dr. Ivins tend to lean on the left side. This is based on the fact that the scientist tends to vote republican or conservative libertarian, while Dr. Ivins was a regular voter in democratic primaries. Therefore, the statements of the scientist have nothing to do with politics, and everything to do with the facts.
The scientist says that "Dr. Bruce Ivins is innocent and all the scientists who worked with him know he is innocent".
The scientist says that "Dr. Ivins doesn't have a motive to kill anyone", and was instead, "dedicated to saving lives by making anthrax vaccines". "Dr. Ivins has 30 years of service in protecting human life".
The scientist says that "Dr. Ivins did not make weaponized anthrax, does not know how to make weaponized anthrax, and does not have the equipment to make weaponized anthrax".
The scientist says that this holds true for every scientist at Ft. Detrick, and "none made weaponized anthrax, none know how to make, nor do any have the equipment to make it".
The scientist says all the scientists at Ft. Detrick have been harassed by the FBI. The scientist says that the "FBI harassment has been totally awful and disgusting the way the scientists were treated".
The scientist says that "two doctors who came over form the Soviet Union and work at the facility think the FBI's behavior is worse than the KGB".
The scientist says that "Dr. Ivins was driven crazy and racked with fear from the FBI harassment which amounted to psychological torture".
The scientist says the "FBI essentially murdered Dr. Ivins by driving him crazy".
The scientist says that "Dr. Ivins innocent and doesn't know who sent the anthrax".
Galileo's blog
Thanks Galileo for the inside dope
Are you a scientist as well?
Joe on Sat, 08/09/2008 - 4:47pm.
No, I'm not a scientist. I
No, I'm not a scientist. I work as a Loan officer, but I do have a degree in math, and studied Galileo in college. You're welcome, glad you like the scoop.
Galileo on Sat, 08/09/2008 - 4:55pm.
Investigating the FBI
Just for fun, let's investigate some facets of the FBI's case:
1. Leaks last weekend claimed that Ivins was about to be charged with committing the anthrax crime. Turns out, FBI had not yet brought its evidence against Ivins to a grand jury. And one of his attorneys denies that he was told he was to be charged: "It had never been made clear to him nor to us that he was 'the suspect,'" says DeGonia, Ivins' co-counsel.
2. The FBI said it couldn't produce its case till after the victims and their families were briefed, which took until 8 days after Ivins' death. This gave FBI time to create the story and select the evidence it wanted to present.
3. After Ivins died, FBI agents scrambled to obtain two computers Ivins had used a few days earlier, from a Frederick public library. Only this week did they obtain the search warrant normally required.
4. Remember how this story began one week ago? The following were released: pictures and audio from the hearing where a "Peace Order" had been issued against Ivins a week earlier. The order had been obtained by his substance abuse therapist, herself a recovering multi-substance abuser. But the therapist was on probation for substance abuse (DUI's) and had had an FBI agent suggest she get the order, as well as coach her in the crimes that were about to be laid at Ivins' feet. Could she be interviewed directly? No--she had retreated to an undisclosed location, where she apparently remains.
5. Video of a crazed, estranged older brother named Tom Ivins hit the TV screens, though he had not seen Bruce in 23 years. This guy indicated Bruce thought he was God, had been coddled by their mother, and wasn't a real man, as Tom was. Brother Tom was really scary, but the national media were only too happy to put him in front of the cameras to cast aspersions on Bruce.
6. Only two months ago, the Justice Department had settled with "person of interest" Steven Hatfill, for 5.8 million dollars--but they wouldn't exonerate him or admit liability. Suddenly today (after I mentioned how odd it was that FBI refused to acknowledge Hatfill's innocence, given its claim to have an airtight case against Ivins) the formal exoneration appears.
What is the logical conclusion?
FBI was not ready to prosecute a case against Ivins when he fortuitously killed himself the Tuesday before last. If the evidence of Ivins' guilt had been unequivocal, Hatfill would have been cleared a lot earlier. Looks like the FBI was still hanging onto Hatfill as a possible fallback guy, if they couldn't pin the deed on someone else. You know how the line would go: 'the judge made us pay him off, but he's guilty in our book.'
The FBI then scrambled to come up with enough juicy dirt to clinch the case in the media: producing a mad scientist, fixated on women, poisoning people even before the anthrax letters, thinking he's omnipotent. Even though the two people who were used in this audio-video dog and pony show were themselves highly flawed, the media bit: hook, line and sinker. (Looks like the FBI can play the media a lot better than it plays gumshoe.)
Then, when a few folks, followed by the media, pointed out the profusion of fallacy, fluff and absence of hard evidence during 3 days of successive leaks, the FBI started scrambling to find some evidence--quick--and plug some holes. They are still at it.
Looks like Ivins' death was a precondition for FBI to "close the case."
Posted by Meryl Nass, M.D. at 7:25 PM
http://anthraxvaccine.blogspot.com/2008/08/investigating-fbi.html
Holes in the Anthrax Case?
The nation and the FBI would benefit from an independent review of the investigation.
Ivins' Lawyer on where the envelopes came from
http://anthraxvaccine.blogspot.com/2008/08/ivins-lawyer-on-where-envelop...
Through surveillance, was FBI complicit in Ivins' death?
http://anthraxvaccine.blogspot.com/2008/08/bombshell-was-fbi-complicit-i...
Sander Hicks: The “Mad Scientist” Ivins, and Other 9/11 Legends
http://www.911blogger.com/node/17040
Anthrax Hysteria
http://www.antiwar.com/prather/?articleid=13276
The US Government Is the Real Bioterror Threat
http://www.antiwar.com/eland/?articleid=13279
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2018 Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition Accomplishments Report
Our Shared Commitment to Patients
Tracking Organoids with RFID Technology
Newer Horizons in Treating Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders
Enhanced Nutritional Support for Patients with Complex Needs
By Jorge Bezerra, MD
Director of the Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition
In the midst of busy clinics, complex medical and surgical cases, care conferences, review of exciting research projects, and everything else that fills our days here at Cincinnati Children’s, we know it is important to take a moment every now and then to reflect upon where we have been and where we are going. This Accomplishments Report, which highlights clinical and research activities from the past fiscal year (July 1, 2017-June 30, 2018), is an opportunity to do just that.
Our clinical mission is to deliver exceptional, safe and affordable care to improve the outcome of children with digestive diseases. From the simple to the most complex conditions, we work as a team to deliver the best care. In June 2018, we learned that the US News and World Report recognized this commitment by placing our GI Division at the top of its 2018-19 Honor Roll rankings.
Our achievements simply would not be possible without the physicians, nurses and staff who bring complementary skills to provide timely consultation, implement comprehensive treatment strategies for the children in our care, and foster the best possible patient and family experiences at Cincinnati Children’s.
So much of what we do for children begins with you, our network of referring physicians. You are highly capable, caring providers who are committed to your patients and ready to partner with us to pursue the best outcome. This coming year, in an effort to support the work you do, we are finding ways to further increase access to our clinics, improve provider-to-provider communication, and explore strategies to lower the cost of treatment. Please know that this is our commitment to you and to the patients we serve.
Some of you collaborate with our clinical and basic research teams to solve challenges and pursue discoveries that are highly relevant to the digestive diseases that affect children. Thank you. Through partnerships with you and with specialists in other disciplines like surgery, neurology, allergy and immunology, we are working to improve existing protocols, design new diagnostics and treatments, and continuously explore strategies to make these advances available to our patients.
No matter what the next year holds, please know that one thing always remains in focus: our commitment to serving the patients and families who look to us for healing and hope. Thank you for being part of that most worthy endeavor.
A new, comprehensive nutrition program at Cincinnati Children’s is ensuring that patients with complex medical conditions receive optimal nutritional support across the continuum of care.
A new pain-related FGID clinic, new therapies, and collaborative practice and research philosophies provide innovative, comprehensive care.
A team of researchers achieved proof-of-principle in monitoring organoid activity using radio-frequency identification.
Receive the latest information on clinical advancements, research updates and news from Cincinnati Children's.
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Guest Author Walter Giersbach of Manchester, New Jersey.
I was pleased to discover Walter's stories on commuterlit.com and he agreed to be our guest this week and share one of his tales, as well as what inspired it.
Walt Giersbach’s fiction and articles have appeared in more than a score of print and online magazines. Two volumes of short stories, Cruising the Green of Second Avenue, have been published by Wild Child. He also served for three decades as director of communications for Fortune 500 companies, helped publicize the Connecticut Film Festival, managed publicity and programs for Western Connecticut State University’s Haas Library, and moderates a writing group in New Jersey. Living in Taiwan for a year gave him a second home. Having an Asian-born spouse immediately placed him in the enviable cultural position of sharing in two worlds and celebrating twice as many holidays.
He can be contacted at w.giersbach@att.net and blogs at http://allotropiclucubrations.blogspot.com/.
Back Story: Test of English by Walt Giersbach
I completed “Test of English as a Foreign Language” several years ago, but the germ of the story has gnawed at me for many years — actually since 1979 when I returned to Taiwan on a business trip. I met up with my wife’s girlfriend who had married an American, lived several years in the States, and came back when her husband was reassigned to Taiwan. It was poignant when I saw her treated as an American hwa-chiao (foreigner on a homeland visit) in Taipei’s marketplace, but as a bargirl when she tried calling her husband stationed at a military post.
She was no longer Taiwanese and not yet American. Of the many stories I know about bi-national people, this one stood out.
I wondered if perhaps we’re all expatriates of one sort of another as we swim through any murky pool filled with strangers. I’ve always had a creepy feeling about being a tourist — buying a vacation, looking confused in a new city, acting gawky and “foreign.” Perhaps it’s because I used to scorn the clots of people clustered in midtown Manhattan, holding maps and looking at the skyscrapers as though waiting for God to be their Gray Lines tour guide. While I was rushing across town on some mission of capital importance, I’d have to stop and detour around these Ausländers in their blousy sports shirts and khaki shorts.
So add to the expatriate syndrome in “Test of English” the despair of a dead child and a divorced husband and you have the making of a universal tension. Key to writing the story was the characters’ realizing how hard it is to be accepted. Rightly or wrongly, Shirley felt Americans were “predisposed to believe that American men only married bargirls.” Orville, too, had difficulty with his environment, saying, “It was all getting to me. The telephones and car horns. Fire sirens, even chatter at parties. It was all like a toothache. It was getting on my nerves.”
How can feeling like a stranger be otherwise when store clerks answer an expat’s question by turning to her spouse, when locals are perplexed by an unfamiliar accent, or when an in-law ingratiatingly says all children or women in [insert country name] are beautiful or intrinsically smart or better at sports? These are the preconceptions — if not prejudices — that all Asians are good at math (and, by extension, at gambling), that immigrants must all have come from a certain class or occupation, and that some people have in-born diet preferences.
Let me make a case that there’s a universal feeling of discomfort among expatriates, beginning with Moses coming back to Egypt announcing, “I have been a stranger in a strange land.” Granted, it’s easier to be an expatriate in the U.S. than, say, in an insular nation like Japan. America is a nation of immigrants. A Hungarian engineer once told me, “I worked in Germany for several years, but to them I was always a Hungarian. In the U.S., I’m called a ‘new American.’”
“Test of English as a Foreign Language” tries to approach this situation of apartness. Writers feel compelled to connect with people, to cross cultural bridges, and to obliterate barriers. Perhaps through writing and reading — passing our test of English as a foreign language — we can all become assimilated. For aren’t we all “new Americans” in one way or another?
Test of English as a Foreign Language
Why bother to go to the Bowlerama, she wondered. It smelled of people’s feet, the sound of balls hitting the pins jangled her nerves, and she never beat her 168 game years ago at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. Still she returned once a month or so, almost always by herself. At least there was physical action, exercise. In a few days it would be 1972. She should be doing something, anything, tonight.
Strangers — they were mostly strangers in this upstate town on the Hudson River — would stare at her figure, still fit at the age of forty-one. Occasionally, as these very white, often loud wai-guo ren struggled for small talk, they would say offhandedly “You’re tall for a Chinese woman.” Men would ask, “You married? What unit’s he in?” They never wondered what she did for a living, whether she had gone to school, where she worked. They assumed she was an enlisted man’s wife who spent her days at the NCO club.
And more assumptions. That she’d been a bargirl in Kaohsiung or Taipei, hooking sailors or soldiers to buy her drinks. They were primed to believe that American men only married bargirls.
Whenever she returned to her parents’ in Yung Ho City, outside of Taipei, the shopkeepers made assumptions, too. They knew from signals given off by her clothes or hair or gestures, that she was American or at least a hwa-chiao on a homeland visit.
“Hey, Shirley,” the assistant manager called from behind the desk. He waved when she looked up. A year ago, he’d told her, “Surely, you’re kidding,” when she ordered a pair of size ten bowling shoes. “Shirley? How did you know my name?” she asked. It had been a standing joke. Of course, Ronald the slacker would be in charge. It was Christmas Eve. Who on earth would be bowling on Christmas Eve?
There was a young woman with him, chewing gum and leaning over the counter so her breasts hung on her crossed arms. She would go home with the assistant manager.
Shirley chose a ball from the ladies’ rack, hefted it and tried several others before she found one to fit her long fingers. She loved the colors of the balls, especially the blue, agate-toned ones. The balls were smooth and impermeable to her feelings, the sweat of her palms, even her hurt and anger.
She was the only player tonight. Everyone in Newburgh would be at home, except for those on duty at Stewart Air Force Base. A cough made her turn to the banquette that formed a horseshoe-shaped arena behind her lane. Players usually extended courtesies to each other, careful not to invade a bowler’s single-minded concentration or their wish to bowl alone.
“Guess we’re the only ones here. Want to play together?”
The man wore civilian clothes, but his short haircut telegraphed the fact that he was military. Because no one else was playing, ordinary courtesies here might be suspended tonight, Christmas Eve.
“Okay, I guess.” She wasn’t attracted to short hair. It brought back too many memories, and this man had cut his almost to fuzz — like a five o’clock shadow on his head. Her own hair still fell below her shoulders and was brushed to a silky dark shine — not black, but the color of mahogany.
“I’m Orville,” the man said. “Got off duty and haven’t found a party worth going to. And you?”
“I’m Shirley.”
His eyes went up and down her body, slowly. “Ni shr Chung-hwo ren?”
His accent was terrible. Americans could never form their lips around foreign languages. “Yes, I’m Chinese. Taiwanese, but American citizen.”
“You met your husband in Taiwan. I was there once.” This man seemed proud of his reasoning. She knew what he thought. Any Asian woman must have been brought by a husband to the Land of the Big PX, full of glorious stores, fully stocked supermarkets, lots of TV channels. “Family?” he asked.
“No husband. No kids. Not any more, so you do not need to feel nervous.” She flipped her hair back. It was a gender symbol of defiance. She could say the word “divorce” as easily now as she could talk about the price of bread and eggs going up because of President Nixon. Quiet anger soaked all conversations about the economy, politics, war, the culture. Perhaps it was frustration over not being sure any path wasn’t aimless. Other things were harder to speak of, like the body bags being unloaded from the C-47 Skytrains. Like the little coffin that had contained her son. The airmen sometimes called the airplanes Gooney Birds, an undignified way of referring to an airborne coffin.
She bowled an entire game without speaking to the man, with none of the chatter about missing a split, keeping your wrist straight or ending your approach with your toe on the same spot. Occasionally, he turned and gave her an open smile, one without meaning. This made her wonder if she’d hurt his feelings, whether he was now asking how the hell to get to the next step with this cold bitch. Or maybe he was just dense and stupid.
He ended with a score of 210, but she wasn’t apologetic about her 134. When she bowled, she felt no competition. A score was just a place mark, digits that told her the balls had hit the pins or they hadn’t. Like so many things now, it was a matter of no consequence.
“Can I buy you a cup of coffee?” he asked. “It’s too soon to go to sleep.”
She took a moment to digest the fact that he hadn’t said go to bed, which could be an invitation filled with a great many presumptions. “Sleep comes when it comes,” she answered. “Sleep is like a cat you are chasing to bring it home. It doesn’t want to be caught.”
Surprisingly, Orville didn’t guide her to the bowling alley bar and coffee shop where a few people were nursing drinks. He took her to his car and drove her through the thin snow down Route 9W to a restaurant.
“Favorite place of mine,” he said parking and walking around to open her door. “The owner came from Tuscany. That’s in Italy. When I was in language school, assigned to NATO, I really fell in love with Italy. As a kid, I moved around a lot. I never really had a home. So,” he laughed, “I find places I really like and call them home. Really.”
“You say really a lot, don’t you?” She didn’t chide him. It was simply an observation. Really meant a person might not be terribly sure of his or her reality.
He paused to roll her comment around in his mind, the way a person might try a strange dish on his tongue. “Really means it’s the truth and there’s no other interpretation.”
The man was an agreeable surprise — so far — on Christmas Eve. There had been other Christmases and surprises that hadn’t been so nice. Her husband Whit had often gotten drunk, and Christmas was an especially good excuse to get stinko, get mad, and then slam the front door on his way out of the house. Her simple response, after the pain and humiliation of having Whit walk naked in front of her parents, was to say He is sick, sick in the heart and the soul — and he doesn’t know it.
The restaurant was almost empty, but had comfortable warmth from the votive candles and linens on the tables. It was like a church for the disenchanted, or maybe Italian ghosts. When Orville had seated her at a table, she decided she wanted a brandy. “Who can drink coffee on Christmas Eve?” She said it with what she hoped was a light tone.
“I agree completely,” he said, signaling the owner. “Cognac — Hennessey VSOP if you have it.”
“You know,” she said, “the best seller in Hong Kong is brandy. No one drinks vodka or gin. No Chinese. Only the English.”
“Brandy is the color of gold. I learned that when I went there on R and R.”
“You were on R and R?”
“No. Sorry. I went with my husband. He was an alcoholic, so now I don’t drink. Almost never.”
The waiter placed the drinks and Orville silently toasted Shirley. “I wonder if being an alcoholic is just a substitute for wanting love. That’s what psychiatrists say.”
She took a quick sip, wet her lips and leaned forward. “You can think of all the substitutes you want.” She searched for the words. “There is no substitute for looking things in the eye. Not backing away. Not giving up. I was married and lost my husband. I had a son and lost him. I had education in Taiwan and stateside, I have a green card and earn my living as an accountant. I pay my own rent — no alimony. I have never given up.”
“I admire that,” he said. “I admire you holding on and fighting back.”
“Now, tell me about yourself.”
He shrugged. Was it humility or an affectation? She didn’t want to know too much about this Orville, why he was so smart in language school and still in the military. And why he was alone on Christmas Eve. Knowing too much about someone tied you to him with a knot. Talking led to feelings of closeness, and closeness led to attachments. It was a triangle that could wind around your neck like a rope and drag you under water. Her husband, her son, this American dream world all threatened to pull her under the waves to an inviting cool darkness that spelled submission.
“I was raised in the south, in Texas.”
She nodded, remembering Lackland.
“I did the usual stuff. High school and college and then….” His voice trailed off and he impulsively lifted the Cognac to his lips. “I kind of had a breakdown. Nerves, the doctor said. I quit college.” He lifted the glass again. “See, it was all getting to me. The telephones and car horns. Fire sirens, even chatter at parties. It was all like a toothache. It was getting on my nerves. I just wanted to…yank that fucking tooth out.” He muttered an apology for saying fuck. “It was static in my head. Static, like a radio station that isn’t tuned in right. ”
Shirley stared, hoping she appeared sympathetic.
He shrugged again. “I quit school and joined the Air Force. I was good at languages. I learned to speak schoolbook Spanish as a kid. Even studied French out of a book I got at a library sale. When they gave me the language test,” he laughed, “it was nothing but Esperanto!”
She nodded her head, not knowing what Esperanto was, but he seemed to take it as understanding.
“I was that way with business,” she said. “Accounting. Numbers are easy.”
Unbelievably, he said maybe it was a racial ability. “I never knew a Chinese who wasn’t good at business.”
“Like gambling, they say.”
He wasn’t ignorant, this Orville. He absorbed information, like the smattering of pidgin Chinese he had picked up. “It’s all communication. Italian, Chinese. Just another way people relate to each other. Sign language, body language. Even the clothes they wear. The red sweater you have.” He pointed to Shirley’s breasts. “Happy color. Positive. Outgoing and gregarious.”
“Christmassy,” she explained. “Not dressing like an FOB.”
“Fresh off the Boat Chinese girl.” She decided he talked too much. Maybe it was to drown out this static in his head. She wanted to go home and make a cup of tea. The Cognac was making her head woozy, but being with this man was something, and on Christmas Eve something — someone — was better than the vacuum of reading a book or calling Taiwan to speak to her mother. Orville wasn’t a bad person or a stupid person. Just something she couldn’t find the English word for.
“Is Shirley your real name or one you picked up, you know, for convenience?” He had changed the subject again.
“It’s my real name. My legal name, too. My Chinese name is Mei-Fun. Lee.”
“Lee is your last name? Your Chinese name?”
“No. My ex-husband’s name.”
“So, how did you meet your husband?”
A very direct question, but not entirely unexpected in this land of pioneers and cowboys where there was no time for nuance. “He was teaching an ESL class. Teaching wasn’t his Air Force job. It was something to do when he was off duty. I was studying for my TOEFL to get into college here.”
TOEFL brought a frown to his face.
“Test of English as a Foreign Language.”
Orville was perfunctory in his love-making. Short in duration, attentive but not offering any illusions. Each of them needed to be satisfied in some way as the snow fell outside, and this was a simple expedient. Shirley got up afterwards and went into the bathroom to wash. Then she returned to Orville’s bed while he went in. When he returned, she thought about putting on her bra and panties, although there was no reason. It was no matter to her now whether she remained nude or dressed, whether he wanted to make love again or not, whether she stayed there or went home.
“I was just thinking,” the man said. “About movies. You know what I like about Chinese movies?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “They have really great characters. Great subtle story lines.”
“Plot?”
“Plot, yes. I didn’t know if you knew that word, so I said. . . .”
“My degree is in accounting, but I read a lot.”
He sat on the edge of the bed and began waving his hands in enthusiasm. “The thing with Chinese movies now is that they imitate American films. The subtlety has disappeared since they made Crouching Tiger.”
“That was made by a Taiwanese.” She looked at his face more closely, approvingly, in spite of his ridiculous haircut.
“Americans want a snappy ending. Real closure that wraps up all the loose ends. Aaand,” he drew out the word to emphasize it, “they prefer the ending have fiery explosions and bodies flying through the air. There has to be some guy who was shot, but he sits up with a gun and has to be killed for good. And the hero needs to say a catchy phrase then, like ‘Make my day’ or ‘I told you smoking’s bad for your health.’” He laughed. “Surprise endings. Something that makes the audience say, ‘Shit, I wasn’t expecting that.’”
She stared at him. “Closure?”
“Ending. Finality.” The man seemed disappointed that she hadn’t responded to his critique of movie-making. He reached over and fondled her breast, and he mounted her again, but he couldn’t get an erection so they lay side by side.
“So, let me get this straight,” he said. They had gotten dressed and were driving back to Newburgh. The snow was a silent blessing over the world, a promise that the children would have a white Christmas when they woke up. “You and your ex met in Taiwan and then you both came to the States?”
“Lackland, then Stewart. Then he was reassigned back to Taipei. I went with him. My parents were there. I knew a U.S. accounting firm here so I came back. Afterwards.”
“And your child. What happened?”
“It’s a long story. Some other time, maybe.”
“You know,” he said. “I was in Taiwan. TDY for two months. Maybe I knew your husband. What’s his name?”
“Whit. Whit Lee.”
“Whit? What kind of name is that?”
She shrugged. “Whitman, I think. We lived in Tien Mou. Outside Taipei.”
He shook his head. There was no recognition.
“This is my place,” she said. It was a two-lane street lined with one-story houses in a vaguely Cape Cod style. The snow and darkness made them look more identical than they would otherwise. Snow and darkness treated people the same way.
“I hate to say good night,” the man said. “We’re just getting to know each other. Can I come inside?”
“No, not tonight. But we can talk for a minute or two. Then I have to go.”
“So you mentioned a kid. Your child. Where’s he — or she? Taiwan?”
She sighed and watched the snow begin to thicken on the windshield like sticky rice. “I had gone to work, to do the accounting at a friend’s business in Taipei. I left my husband to take care of our little boy. He was one year old. Whit got drunk and fell asleep on the couch with a cigarette. He burned down the house and killed our son. He escaped. Our son could not. That’s why we’re divorced.”
“Holy shit,” the man said. “That’s terrible.”
She grimaced. “Closure. You weren’t expecting that.” She opened the door and got out. “Thank you for a very nice time. Watch out for the static.”
“Can I see you again?”
What a stupid question, she thought. They would see each other or not. She turned back to the car. “In your movie, about the guy who’s supposed to be dead but isn’t. Should I have killed my husband?”
“Closure. End of story.”
“I think in a Chinese movie I would have killed myself.”
Thank you Walter for being our guest and for your excellent story.
I mentioned above that Walter has other stories published on commuterlit. com and you find them here
Thank you faithful reader for visiting this week.
Posted by Allan Hudson at 08:10 2 comments:
Guest Author Walter Giersbach of Manchester, New J...
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News Archive: March 2017
About a week ago, Elijah teamed back up with talk show host Chris Hardwick to tape his new program, Talking with Chris Hardwick. It's not known when Elijah's segment will air, but it could be the very first episode which debuts on April 9th. Hardwick took to Twitter to gather some questions for the show. There's more information here and here, so keep an eye out on AMC.
:: Congratulations to The Greasy Strangler which was nominated in two categories for the Three Empire Awards, taking home the win for Best Comedy!
:: Since Elijah has been as quiet as a mouse wearing slippers over the past month, I'll take this time to point out some features on Always and Forever that readers may have overlooked.
:: The media section is chock full of goodies from movie screencaps, magazine scans, photo shoots, and special events. It also focuses on Elijah's two television shows, Wilfred and Dirk Gently. In the video section, there is plenty to see including year end compilations.
:: Providing a lot of material is the information section. We've listed Elijah's production companies, his nominations and awards, movie and TV reviews and our newest part, the Life Biography.
:: In the fans section, we have our 10th anniversary fan appreciation video, and fan art, which has some new wallpapers and our special Mr. Elwood comics. The web section has links to other sites directly or indirectly related to Elijah, and if you ever want to go back through news from the past 15 years, you can check out the archives. We hope that all we offer is what makes Always and Forever a "go-to" place for any fan of Elijah's. So take a look around and enjoy, and if you come across any broken links, please let me know. The internet is constantly changing.
:: That's all... for now.
Despite Elijah making an appearance at SXSW last Friday, there's not much happening in the update, but update I must.
:: There are a few pictures from SXSW when Wooden Wisdom DJ'ed at Barracuda.
:: There's also a couple of very short videos. Video 1, Video 2.
:: Entertainment Weekly has a podcast, as well as one from Bill Carter on SiriusXM of Elijah talking more about I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore and portraying classic literary characters like Huck Finn.
:: The striking inset photo is from Sundance and is featured in Rolling Stone Italia and MovieMaker Magazines.
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BERLIN SIDEWALK
Archive - May 2014
Berlin Street Art – Xberg Astronaut
by Carsten
A 22m x 14m huge mural, called the Xberg Astronaut, drawn by the Portuguese artist Victor Ash, in Berlin Kreuzberg. It was painted as part of the Backjumps Festival back in 2007 and is now a landmarks, when it comes to Street Art in Berlin.
Blended World Premiere Berlin
The Sony Center in Berlin was again, venue for a movie premiere, Blended (Ger: Urlaubsreif), cleberated its world premiere, with actors Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore, as well as director Frank Coraci on Monday, May 19.
Bernauer Straße – The Berlin Wall Memorial
The Bernauer Straße is a street in Berlin’s Mitte district, it was named after the City of Bernau which is located about 10 km northeast of Berlin. During the old GDR times, the Wall was erected alongside this street and it became famous for numerous escapes from windows of nearby apartments and houses in the eastern part of the city.
Now, a part of it was turned into a memorial park, explaining the history of a divided Berlin, with a newly constructed Visitor and Information Center, a viewing platform and an exhibition about the time when the Berlin Wall was built in August 1961.
Berlin Street Art – Hands
German Street Artist Andreas von Chrzanowski a.k.a case painted this piece of art in less than one week, on a wall at Köpenicker Straße X Brückenstraße in Berlin.
Case, who is known for photo-realistic portraits, is part of the graffiti crew Ma’Claim, which was founded in 2000 and is considered as pioneers in photo-realistic representation within the graffiti scene.
Olympus OM-D Photography Playground 2014
Because last year’s exhibition was a huge success and over 27.000 people visited the Opernwerkstätten in Berlin in 2013, Olympus is hosting another OM-D Photography Playground from April 10 until Mai 25, 2014 (same location).
Rent an OM-D E-M10 (and keep the SD-Card) for free and discover the 7.000m² huge playground with (interactive) installations created by nine international artists: AlexandLiane, 3Destruct [ANTIVJ], Clemens Behr, Dean Chamberlain, Leandro Erlich, Philip Beesley, ANNA BURNS and THOMAS BROWN and Transforma and Maser.
With instruction signs in German and English and a professional staff helping you, not only with the cameras functions and controls, but also with the different photography techniques, the OM-D Playground is something for everyone.
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Montana’s Flathead Basin has long been a spawning haven for the westslope cutthroat trout. But as waters in the region warm, rainbow trout have swum up from the western lakes where they were introduced decades ago to cutthroat native grounds.
As rainbow trout meet and interbreed with dwindling cutthroat trout populations, the survival of cutthroat trout is at risk. Instead, a hybrid species is taking its place.
“It’s a major cause of species extinction—lots of species are now disappearing because they are being genetically swamped by other, commoner ones,” said Stuart Pimm, a professor of conservation ecology at Duke University.
In some cases, hybridization can lead to reduced genetic diversity in animals, according to David Tallmon, an associate professor of biology at the University of Alaska. “Rather than growing a new branch on the [genetic] tree, you have two branches growing together,” he said.
In the case of cutthroat-rainbow trout hybrids, the hybrids are less genetically fit, with offspring of the hybrids struggling to survive, a study led by researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey found.
Scientific American, 1 Jun 2015
beavers blamed!
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Directory & Deals
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Beck Series presents author, poet, essayist, and cultural critic Hanif Abdurraqib
Denison University's Beck Series welcomes author, poet, essayist, and cultural critic Hanif Abdurraqib.
Abdurraqib is the author of two works of nonfiction: “They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us” and “Go Ahead in the Rain” and two collections of poetry: “The Crown Ain’t Worth Much” and the forthcoming “A Fortune for Your Disaster.” His work has appeared in Vinyl, PEN American, The FADER, Pitchfork, The New Yorker, and The New York Times, and various other journals. “The Crown Ain’t Worth Much” was a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Book Prize, and was nominated for a Hurston-Wright Legacy Award. “They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us,” a collection of essays, was named a book of the year by Buzzfeed, Esquire, NPR, Oprah Magazine, Paste, CBC, The Los Angeles Review, Pitchfork, and The Chicago Tribune, among others. He is a Callaloo Creative Writing Fellow, an interviewer at Union Station Magazine, and a poetry editor at Muzzle Magazine.
Beck Series presents author, poet, es...
Tuesday Sep 10, 2019
8:00 PM - 9:00 PM EDT
Barney-Davis Hall Board Room
200 West Loop
http://denison.edu
Michael Croley
© 2021 Granville Area Chamber of Commerce | Site by GrowthZone
110 Elm Street Suite D PO Box 603
chamber@granvilleoh.com
© Granville Area Chamber of Commerce. All Rights Reserved.
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Norway’s wealth fund voted against Fiat-Chrysler merger
August 08, 2014 Sean
Norway’s sovereign wealth fund was the single largest shareholder to vote against Fiat’s merger with its U.S. unit Chrysler, according to minutes of the Aug. 1 shareholder meeting.
Norges Bank, which registered for the shareholder meeting with a 2.15 percent stake, today declined to say why it voted against the tie-up or whether it would exercise its right as a dissenting investor to sell its shares in Fiat.
The merger was approved by a two-third majority of shareholders at the Aug. 1 meeting, with about 8 percent voting against.
But it could still fall apart if enough dissenting investors sell their shares for a cash compensation – a right granted to them under Italian law given the carmaker’s decision to move its headquarters and fiscal domicile away from its Italian homebase.
CEO Sergio Marchionne wants to merge Fiat and Chrysler into the world’s No.7 auto group before a New York listing, a move that should help it fund an ambitious investment plan.
However, Fiat has said that if it has to pay more than €500 million ($668 million) to dissenting shareholders – equivalent to just over 5 percent of Fiat shares at the cash exit price – the merger would not go ahead.
People’s Bank of China also voted against the merger with a portion of its 2 percent stake.
Among those that voted in favor was Vanguard International Growth Fund, another key investor with 2.4 percent of Fiat.
Two shareholder advisers, ISS and Frontis Governance, recommended a vote against the merger saying a loyalty scheme put in place as part of the deal would give too much power to holding group Exor, owned by the Agnelli family.
The family controls Fiat Chrysler with a 30 percent stake but its voting power could rise to as much as 46 percent.
A filing by Italian stock market watchdog Consob showed this week that Norges Bank had cut its stake in Fiat to 1.338 percent on July 31, a day before the shareholder meeting.
Under the terms of the merger deal, dissenting investors can sell their shares for a cash exit price of €7.727, well above Fiat’s current stock price of €6.75 a share.
The shares have suffered a marked drop this week amid concern the merger could be derailed.
Shareholders have until Aug. 20 to decide whether to exercise their exit right.
Posted in: General Talk Tags: - Norway's wealth fund, Norges Bank, voted against Fiat-Chrysler merger
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===...[[Religion]]=== Every human being, cat and extra-terrestrial is born an atheist. That is because an atheist is literally a person who does not believe in a god or gods. Every religious person will say otherwise of course; they will say that an atheist is somebody who actively believes that he doesn’t believe, and they define a lack of religion as religion in its own right. If you’re confused don’t worry; the people who think like this are clearly quite confused too. Here is a typical rant from an angry religous person who clearly hates atheists ( spelling errors <s>added</s> left in ): Religious people clearly think a lot about non-religious people. The reverse is not true. Most non-religious people are too busy living their lives to be worried about something they don’t believe in. ( Fairies, unicorns, Zeus, Thor, Hercules, Tony Blair, etc ). They simply develop page after page of online content, write books like, well, all the books they write and actively protest the new version of the Pledge of Allegiance ( since the original version didn't contain the word "God", just like the original Dollar bill didn't say anything about trusting God ), and so on and so forth. Sometimes they commit acts of terrorism like blowing up toy busses to show people they're right.
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Daily Nutmeg Food. Arts. People. Events. New Haven.
Arts & Entertainment Sep 16, 2014
I magine arriving in a foreign land, exhausted from an arduous journey, unaccustomed to the native language and struggling to get a foothold as you begin a new life. How would you acclimate? Where would you go for help?
For many immigrants who found themselves in the Elm City in the early 1900s, an answer to both of those questions was an artsy community center called Neighborhood House, now known as Neighborhood Music School. Founded in 1911, it allowed new New Haveners to turn to the universal language of music to help jumpstart their lives here. As Hans Christian Andersen once said, “Where words fail, music speaks.”
Today, NMS is one of the 10 largest community arts organizations in the United States, according to school officials. Its 30,000-square-foot home downtown has 33 studios, practice rooms, a recital hall and a library. More than 3,000 students study there each year. The school was a 2014 National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award finalist, chosen by the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities. (The award recognizes outstanding after-school and out-of-school programs.) Also this year, NMS received a grant from the National Endowment of the Arts.
More than 100 years in, Neighborhood Music School is a cornerstone of New Haven’s arts education landscape, though there’s a feeling that it doesn’t quite get the recognition it deserves. “We’re well-known nationally,” says Jill Weaver, the school’s director of marketing, communications and planning. “But some people in New Haven don’t even know we’re here.”
For the unacquainted, there’s a lot to get to know.
NMS is a nonprofit, relying on tuition and private lesson fees to generate the majority of its cash flow, says Weaver. Its mission is “to provide the highest quality education in music, dance and drama” to students of all ages, abilities and economic backgrounds, she says. Budding musicians can take private lessons and group classes. Courses include jazz studies, rock studies and musicianship, among others. Dancers can study tap, jazz, ballet, modern dance, African dance and other styles. Theater classes range from beginner to advanced. Groups like the seventh-grade-and-up Greater New Haven Concert Band, pictured above with conductor Rachel Antonucci, lend valuable ensemble and performance experience.
Students can learn rarer skills, too, such as how to play the viola da gamba (a string instrument, similar to a present-day cello, dating back to the 15th century). Kids as young as age 5 can turn beloved children’s books into musical theater in NMS’s “Once Upon a Time” program. There’s even a preschool for students ages 2 to 4.
As Weaver puts it, “There is a lot going on here.” Outside of its main campus at 100 Audubon Street, the school also offers satellite programs at the Jewish Community Center of Greater New Haven in Woodbridge, First Congregational Church in Guilford and First Congregational Church in Madison.
The school’s impressive roster of classes is meant to be comprehensive but not intimidating, says Weaver. “Some people may get the impression that this is only for serious, orchestral training,” she says, but people of all ages, ability levels and stylistic interests are welcome to study at NMS.
Inclusiveness has been a tenet of the school since its founding, when it was located on Wooster Street. It was part of the “assembly house” movement, bringing arts to immigrants to help them engage with their new community in a meaningful way. It’s been known by the Neighborhood Music School name since 1945.
“We started very much with a mission of reaching out to the less wealthy and to people who are not in the mainstream,” says Weaver. “We’re still hoping to create positive change in the community.” One way it does that is through its City Initiative, launched in 2007, a partnership with New Haven Public Schools that allows 60 public school students to take lessons and participate in ensembles at NMS free of charge.
Because money talks, sure, but music speaks.
Neighborhood Music School
100 Audubon St, New Haven (map)
www.neighborhoodmusicschool.org
Written by Cara Rosner. Photographed by Dan Mims.
Tags: arts education, Cara Rosner, dance, feature, Jill Weaver, music education, Neighborhood Music School, New Haven, theater
This Week in New Haven (September 15 – 21)
Cookies ’n’ Dream
About Cara Rosner
View all posts by Cara Rosner
Over the past 10 years, Cara has been writing about the people and places that make Greater New Haven great. After a couple of years working in nonprofit marketing, the former New Haven Register editor and reporter is returning to her first love: journalism.
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2014-0555-F - Drafts of President George W. Bush’s Remarks at the United States Military Academy at West Point on June 1, 2002
FOIA 2014-0555-F contains drafts of President George W. Bush’s remarks at the United States Military Academy at West Point on June 1, 2002. This FOIA primarily contains speech drafts, research material, background and participant information, schedules, briefing papers, trip books and printed emails related to scheduled events from June 1, 2002 to June 3, 2002. Electronic records consist of speech drafts and emails transmitting speech drafts.
23 folders, approximately 1,332 pages / 101 assets
Official records of George W. Bush's presidency are housed at the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum and administered by the National Archives and Records Administration under the provisions of the Presidential Records Act.
Subject Files – FG001-07 (Briefing Papers)
06/01/2002 [460845]
Subject Files – SP703 (Remarks at 2002 United States Military Academy Commencement, West Point, NY, 06/01/2002)
National Security Council - Media Communications and Speechwriting - Anton, Michael (Mike)
West Point 06/2002
Public Liaison, White House Office of - Smith, Matthew
West Point Commencement Ceremony 06/01/2002
Speechwriting, White House Office of - Campbell, Anne
West Point Commencement, 06/01/2002 [1]
Speechwriting, White House Office of - Reilly, Jeannette
Staff Secretary, White House Office of the - Miers, Harriet E. - Confidential Files
06/01/2002 - 06/03/2002 [President’s Briefing Papers] [Folder 1] [1]
United States Military Academy Commencement - 06/01/2002; 760634 [1]
Increase Your Knowledge With Presidential Trivia
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By Allie Gregory
Following the viral success of the "Travis Scott Meal," McDonald's has announced plans for another celebrity-endorsed combo meal with the help of reggaeton artist J Balvin.
Simply called "The J Balvin," the meal itself centres on a Big Mac and includes an order of fries with ketchup plus an Oreo McFlurry.
Balvin — the first Latino artist to team up with the fast-food chain in this type of partnership — shared a sentimental story about his memories of eating at McDonald's growing up:
I grew up with McDonald's. I wasn't born in the States, but since I was a kid, I was eating McDonald's meals. When I had my very first chance to go to the States, it was like a dream to me, coming from Colombia to my first time having a McDonald's meal. It's those types of moments that connect with me as a child. And when they called me saying that they wanted to work with me, I immediately said yes because it connects with me and my childhood. I've always been a big fan. It's crazy to have your own meal. Basically, the meal that I have here is in this chain: a McFlurry, Big Mac with no pickles of course, medium fries, the ketchup, and tray. I just wanted to do something different with it.
McDonald's chief marketing officer Morgan Flatley adeed, "He's always been a regular at McDonald's restaurants during his concert tours, and now we're excited to bring his go-to order to our menus across the U.S."
His meal is set to launch today, now that that the Travis Scott deal has ended. The meal will be offered at participating restaurants until November 1.
See the announcement below.
⚡️⚡️⚡️ ¡lego! ⚡️⚡️⚡️ #ad https://t.co/mZZ9iYVMlP pic.twitter.com/oVCjJHb2KL
— J BALVIN (@JBALVIN) October 5, 2020
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Category: Bullshit scholarship
Problem Solving and Its Enemies
I have a problem. I cannot go across the street from where I live where there is an open grass-covered block of land and plant some edible plants, or erect a fenced-in chicken coop for a supply of daily eggs. Instead, I have to get these from a grocery store by paying money — which I may be short of, or may not have.
Why can’t I use that empty lot across the street? Because if I try, someone will complain to some government official and a policeman will come telling me that what I am doing is illegal, to stop and desist on the threat of arrest. And if I ignore him, he will arrest me. And I will be in a jail, where they will then feed me some vegetables and eggs, and even give me a chicken breast. In other words, they will give me (in exchange for a deprivation of my freedom to roam) the very things which I was trying to procure by my own efforts.
A bit paradoxical, don’t you think?
To explain this conundrum requires getting some knowledge of the culture of my vicinity. And as with all work — including the getting of information and knowledge — there is a division of labor. Knowledge is obtained by research and study, and the results are published in all sorts of places — mostly in scholarly journals and books. And these are stored, mostly in libraries, and now also on computers.
How does this relate to my problem of trying to understand why if I try to furnish my own food supply on the empty lot, I could wind up receiving food in jail, where I would rather not be?
How and where do I get an answer to this problem? If I go to a library, I am sure that someone there will figure out that this is a legal problem and point to the section housing the law books. And if I tell the librarian that I want a wider cultural and historical perspective, I will most likely be taken to a section on sociology and economics, and then to a section on history. And if I ask the librarian if there are any normative studies as to what should be the case, I will likely be taken to some section on political philosophy or political science (so-called).
You get the picture!
And if you pick up any of these “scholarly” writings, you will be bombarded with a nightmare of references and footnotes. Why? To prove to some decider (like an editor of some publication, or a chairman or a dean in some school who decides whether to hire the scholar), as well as to the reading public that the scholar did a whole lot of “research.”
So, what is literary “research”? It is the scrutiny of the work of others as to how they tried to solve some problem, and referencing the work of authors; so that others — if they so desire — can verify the references for accuracy and plausability of interpretation.
What would happen if we removed from a piece of scholarship all the footnotes and references?
The result would be some sort of alternative proposals for a solution. Let’s call the listing of proposed solutions — a librarian’s list.
But, although a listing of alternatives is good, what I really want is a solution — and if not a solution, at least the best alternative.
Now, I do not mean to single out the book by Alexander Gray, The Socialist Tradition: Moses to Lenin (1946), but it does serve as an example of what I want to stress. I have consulted it as a book about socialism, and have found the scholarship very helpful — I mean it is full of names, references, and footnotes — all very helpful for further research for a solution to my original problem.
It has led me to look at the work of Anton Menger and the uncovering of the early English writers on socialism, which present more alternatives.
However, the book also endeavors to provide us with the abstracted alternatives gleaned from all this scholarship, and to adjudicate between them.
Here, I believe, it fails. Not all the plausible alternatives are presented for consideration. There are too many conceptual blunders, and too many emotive disparagements.
In a broad sense of speaking, too much concentration on scholarship distracts and prolongs the finding of a solution to a problem, and is thus, in this sense, its enemy.
Author chruckyPosted on October 14, 2020 October 14, 2020 Categories Bullshit scholarshipLeave a comment on Problem Solving and Its Enemies
In Search of Scholarship about Social Problems
I feel confident about how to find scientific and technological information. Today this is quickly accomplished through the internet. If you want to cook cassava (or find out what it is) or if you want to restart your hot water heater (as I had to do recently), use a search engine, and you mostly likely will not only receive the needed information, but you will also most likely find a video demonstrating how to do the cooking or the repair.
When it comes to normative social issues, the matter is not that simple. By a “normative” issue, I mean some prescription of what should be done, rather than just a description or even an explanation of what is being done.
There are, of course, various recipes and procedures for using particular methods and tools for achieving particular goals. For example, there are prescriptions for using a hammer for the purpose of driving a nail, and a prescription for how to hold and use a hammer. I, myself, gave a prescription or recommendation to use the internet for getting information and a demonstration. You, of course, can get such information and demonstration from some live persons, or you could find some paper source.
But my concern is with the state of the social world. The fact that we are facing an ecological doomsday, the fact that there is war, genocide, protest, violence, a stark division of people into wealthy classes, poor, and desperate. These are problems for which I want solutions; if not a practical one, at least an ideal one. And I read and listen to people with their proposals, and to date I have formulated my own solutions to the extent that I have. But I do not rest content. I entertain the possibility that I may be wrong, and that others may have formulated better solutions. So I keep reading, listening, watching, searching.
If you have been reading my blogs, then you know where I stand so far.
However, I feel that I am not that well informed about the history of that vague thing called “socialism.” I mean I know that socialism was widely discussed from the early part of the nineteenth century, after the French Revolution (1789). But I wanted some comparative historical guidance about socialism. Don’t ask me how or when, but I stumbled on a book by Alexander Gray, The Socialist Tradition: Moses to Lenin, 1946. In some previous blogs I have expressed my dissatisfaction with the book, but still in all, it has a bibliography, an attempt at classification, and commentary. All this is helpful.
One thing that I noticed is that Gray is more concerned with “influence” than with the truth, coherence, feasibility, or value of an idea. The result is that in this book he views Marx as the most influential socialist writer. By “influence” he means the amount of literature devoted to examining his writings, and I suppose to how many people have heard of Marx and Marxism, and called themselves Marxist. And, in terms of this kind of “influence,” he is probably correct.
The result of this view of Marx is that a very important part of his chapter 11, is called “The Pre-Marxians.” And the reason he gives them this title is that they had some similar ideas to Marx, and, in fact, Marx learned from some of them and accepted some of their ideas.
Reading Gray’s exposition of these “pre-Marxians” was an eye-opener. I wanted to read them myself. And I took careful notice of Gray’s footnote #1 to his exposition of William Thomson: “[Anton] Menger, The Right to the Whole Produce of Labour, with introduction by H.S. Foxwell (1899).” But what grabbed my attention was the next sentence: “It was this volume that brought belated recognition to the members of this group.” Aha, so it was Anton Menger’s book which was the source of Gray’s knowledge of these “pre-Marxians.”
So, I have now read this book by Anton Menger. In a future blog I will make a critical assessment of this book. But here I simply want to express two thoughts.
1. After reading Menger’a book, it turns out that Menger has given a systematic examination of socialism from a juridical perspective which pales Gray’s approach by comparison.
2. My second observation is this. A current writer on a social topic is not necessarily better informed or a better thinker just because he has access to past writings. For example, Alexander Gray apparently read Menger, and learned the names and books of the English socialists, but as far as learning from Menger’s critical thought, he learned nothing — so it seems.
Author chruckyPosted on October 5, 2020 October 5, 2020 Categories Bullshit scholarshipLeave a comment on In Search of Scholarship about Social Problems
Put-down writing and other side-issues like “influences,” “schools,” and “movements.”
I am going to comment on the book by Alexander Gray, The Socialist Tradition: Moses to Lenin, 1946. What I say about this book can also be said about many other books as well.
On the one hand, I find the book very valuable for several reasons. Among these is its listing and coverage of a host of socialists and its classification of socialisms, and its bibliography. I also find valuable the exposition of the ideas covered, and for the critical commentary.
However, on the other hand, I find the book annoying for its attempts at psychological and sociological commentary, and more so for Gray’s — what can I call them? — put-downs. As examples of put-downs which annoyed me are: “The fundamental trouble with the anarchist is that, though he may be highly intelligent, he has no sense.” (p. 381) “Anarchism is rather the charming dream of an innocent child.” (p. 495) Without explanations, these are simply ridicule and insult.
This reminds me of the famous description of Noam Chomsky [Paul Robinson,”The Chomsky Problem,” The New York Time, Feb. 25, 1979.] as “arguably the most important intellectual alive today.” This is followed by a criticism of his political writings. It leaves the impression that the writer is using the following put-down: “How is it that such a brilliant linguist is so politically naive?”
There are other things in Gray’s book which annoy me. They could be classified under an attempt at psychology and sociology.
Let me begin with psychology. Instead of just stating and evaluating an author’s ideas, he also attempts at trying to understand what caused him to have these ideas. Thus he looks into a thinker’s biography for what are called “influences.” Instead on focusing on the ideas or claims themselves, Gray seeks some sort of assimilation from someone else’s writings — perhaps a “borrowing” or “stealing” from someone else. What is being ignored or postponed is an exposition of an author’s position — his ideas and claims. Where they came from — other than from his own brain — is a different question — perhaps a question of originality, plagiarism, or subconscious assimilation. But this is a separate matter from understanding the ideas themselves.
In reading a piece of argumentative writing, for most of the time, I have no idea who the author is — and I really don’t care. Why? Because I am able to critically evaluate what I am reading regardless of who the author is. To think that the character of the author has some bearing on the truth or value of his writings is to commit the genetic fallacy. [See my similar criticism: “A bullshit argument against the writings of Karl Marx by Stefan Molyneux”]
The other sort of irrevancy relative to an understanding of an author is the matter of his “influence” or “impact” on others. And here Gray introduces the ideas of “schools” and “movements.” I suppose a “school” exists when two or more thinkers have similar ideas as a result of talking to each other. And as to a “movement,” I don’t know what to say. Perhaps it requires some kind of association — a party, a club; or perhaps a periodical or periodicals with a broad readership. I associate the word “movement” with the flowing of lava from a volcano, land-slides, floods, a tsunami, an approaching storm with moving clouds, a herd of reindeer or buffalo moving over a grazing ground, or a crowd of people moving in some direction. All I know is that talk of human “movements” is a sociological matter, which is in principle a matter of numbers and percentages.
Gray seems to be very interested in “schools” and “movements.” I am not. I am foremost interested in the ideas themselves — not in how many people held them or what “influence” they had.
A further criticism. There seems to be some kind of expectation by snobbish writers that all readers are fluent in at least three languages: English, German, and French. And that a knowledge of Greek and Latin goes without saying. Sometimes it is expected that the reader also knows Russian and Italian. This is bullshit. If you are writing for an English reader, translate everything into English beside the foreign quotations and citations!
Author chruckyPosted on July 5, 2020 October 7, 2020 Categories Bullshit scholarshipLeave a comment on Put-down writing and other side-issues like “influences,” “schools,” and “movements.”
Richard Wolff on “Cultural Marxism” of Jordan Peterson
Author chruckyPosted on May 30, 2019 May 31, 2019 Categories Bullshit scholarshipLeave a comment on Richard Wolff on “Cultural Marxism” of Jordan Peterson
Bertrand Russell: “. . . the fundamental concept in social science is Power, in the same sense in which Energy is the fundamental concept in physics.”
Bertrand Russell, Power: A New Social Analysis, 1938.
Author chruckyPosted on May 21, 2019 May 21, 2019 Categories Bullshit scholarship, Economic Bullshit, Political BullshitLeave a comment on Bertrand Russell: “. . . the fundamental concept in social science is Power, in the same sense in which Energy is the fundamental concept in physics.”
Bullshit about “Influence”
It is natural to seek explanations. And we are very successful in doing this with inanimate things, as in physics and chemistry. When it comes to living things — well, it gets fuzzy. And when it comes to explaining human activity, it gets to be perplexing. There is in humans something analogous to Aristotle’s saying that “nature abhors a vacuum.” It is to the effect that “the human psyche abhors a tabula rasa.” The result: myths. And in everyday life, there is the aversion to acknowledge ignorance; hence, the production of some claim or other — bullshit.
Why am I dwelling on this. It has to do with my very long uneasiness with claims to “influence.” In trying to understand the actions (including the linguistic acts of writing), all types of explanations are sought. And since causal explanations like those in physics or chemistry are out of place, some other explanations are sought. These are segregated into “influences” and “reasons.” “Reasons” I understand; “influences” leave me puzzled.
Reflecting on my own history. I would say that I was influences by the writings of Wilfrid Sellars and C. D. Broad — among others. How so? Simply in the fact that I read them and critically reflected on what they claimed or argued for. Did I agree with them? In some things, yes; in other things, no.
Alfred North Whitehead, in his book Science and the Western World, talked about presuppositions of the age. And Eric Dodds, in his Greeks and the Irrational, talked about an “inherited conglomerate.” Stephen Pepper talked about “World Hypotheses” as based on models and analogies. And when Descartes said “Cogito ergo sum,” he could have been a bit more reflective in recognizing that what he wrote was in a language. Call this linguistically presupposed set of implicit beliefs, a Weltanschauung. Given this understanding, I would acknowledge that I, and everyone else, is influenced by a Weltanschuung, which has a temporal and a geographical location.
Why am I dwelling on this? I am interested in politics and economics, and I have read a few books which I have tried to juxtapose with each other. Incidentally, I keep discovering old books which seem to be excellent, but which I have never heard of either in my experience with higher education, not in current articles or books . . . But then reflecting on the fact that most books in a library are picking up dust . . .
Anyway, I read Oppenheimer’s The State, and he makes constant reference to Ratzel’s “History of Mankind” and Gumplowicz’s “Der Rassenkamp.” I have also recently read some Max Weber and some Karl Marx. And most recently I have returned to Karl Popper’s The Open Society and Its Enemies. Popper is concerned with what he calls “totalitarianism,” which is exemplified by Hitler and Nazi Germany. The Closed Society, he identifies with Tribalism, which in modern times expresses itself, for Popper, as Nationalism. Such a society has a Leader, who has a plan of Holistic or Utopian Engineering. Such totalitarian societies are closed to criticism through censorship.
Popper does a Herculean labor of examining the views of practically the whole history of philosophy, and his criticisms are to the point, insightful, and convincing for the most part. He is critically examing the political views of philosophers and some economists. If one were to justify or rationalize totalitarian practices — then yes, this is the sort of study to do. But such a study as Popper’s is relevant only to scholars who study and criticize the apologists of totalitarianism.
But understanding and explaining totalitarianism is a different matter. But really, how, for example, are the views of political and economic writers relevant to what Hitler did. If Hitler created a totalitarian State, the question should be how and why. Let us compare the mind of Hitler and that of Trump in some respects — like reading. Hitler, I assume was a sincere chauvinistic Nationalist, in the sense that he believed that Germans were superior to others and that Germans should be settled in the regions of Ukraine, by wiping out the indigenous populations. (Remind you of the American treatment of Native Americans? Or the colonial practices of England in Africa and India? Of the Belgian treatment of the Congo?) I suppose Rudyard Kipling’s phrase “white man’s burden” is a rationalization and an encouragement for Americans to take over the Philippines in 1898.
From one perspective, what Hitler did was a form of colonization which all of Europe had been practicing in remote regions of the world; in particular, Hitler followed the American plan of manifest destiny by expanding the German homeland. Other European countries justified themselves by the “white man’s burden” in respect to savages. Well, Hitler extended the coverage of “savages” to include Jews, Gypsies, and Slavs. And where others killed the indigenous people in makeshift ways, he did it efficiently. It is said that he modeled himself after the Armenian genocide of 1915 and the herding of American natives into reservations (concentration camps).
I don’t see how Popper’s book explains what Hitler did, as it would not explain anything which Trump does. Hitler took the practice of colonialism in a direction adjacent to Germany; while Trump will continue American imperialism, not because of any theory, but because he has the power, and he will use it for his own benefit, as he sees fit. As far as I know, neither Hitler nor Trump are intellectuals of any depth — so the literary tradition of the scholar has no relevance for them.
What is the relevant question? How does a person like Hitler or Trump get such power? And the answer is straightforward. There is the almost universal political practice in the world to give power to a single individual — a monarch, a president, a prime minister, a chancellor; and on a smaller scale to a governor or mayor. And once this power is given, there may or may not be ways to control this power. While it is hoped that these autocrats are benevolent; for the most part, they are not. Only Switzerland has wisely refused to give executive power to a single individual; giving it instead to a council of seven. The modern model of giving power to a council, comes from the French Revolution, but, as we know, it degenerated to the dictatorship of Napoleon. So power structures of any kind are precarious.
Author chruckyPosted on January 27, 2019 September 22, 2020 Categories Bullshit scholarshipLeave a comment on Bullshit about “Influence”
The World of the “Intelligentsia” and the World of the Common Person
I am reading Karl Popper’s “Open Society and Its Enemies” (1943), which is a critical examination of views on politics and history, and I am overwhelmed by his scholarship. Reading him, and checking on some of his sources, makes me realize how “unread” I am. I keep learning from authors like him, of various great books which were never mentioned in any list of “great books” which I am familiar with. So, I keep learning. But I also reflect on the following. Suppose Popper has — say — a “solution.” Who will read his book? What difference will it make, and to who? OK, so I read it, and write something about it, as here. Who will read me, and follow up by reading Popper? The circle of people who I will influence — in even a miniscule way — is very small.
There is a European term for the reading public, and it doesn’t mean someone who has mastered literacy and reads fiction, but a reader who has cultural and political interests. The term is “intelligentsia” and is broader than the term “intellectual.” So, there is this class of readers and writers who feed off each other. But, I think, the circle of this class is small and closed. I mean that the impact or influence of this class on the wider public is, practically speaking, near zero.
Author chruckyPosted on January 18, 2019 January 18, 2019 Categories Bullshit scholarshipLeave a comment on The World of the “Intelligentsia” and the World of the Common Person
In response to Jordan Peterson’s claim for the evolutionary benefit of religious stories
Aristotle made the observation that nature abhors a vacuum. I want to extend this by saying that minds abhor a vacuum of beliefs. As I was listening to Jordan Peterson saying that there surely must be an evolutionary benefit to religious stories, it struck me that he is probably right but at the wrong level. He seems to be claiming that there is some evolutionary benefit to particular stories and rituals. By contrast, I would like to claim that even on the animal level — of say cats, there is a benefit in constructing a map of the world. I don’t know how to talk about the behavior of cats and other animals without invoking the language of perception, desires, and beliefs. C.D. Broad introduced the concept of a “quasi-belief” which he explained as trying to understand the behavior of an animal or a human on the model, analogy, or fiction of a belief. In other words, to say that an animal or a human has a quasi-belief, is just another way of expressing the idea that the animal or human is acting “as if” it had the belief.
I would like to advance the hypothesis that in some animals there is an innate drive to construct a quasi-Weltanschuung. For example, I have a cat, and I believe that it has formulated a complete picture of its proximate environment — the interior of our house. At first the cat was relatively slow in moving around the house; but now it moves around the house with speed and confidence, and it seems to know the properties of the objects it encounters. Furthermore, it has a picture of the house composed of substances and causal properties — perhaps we can call them quasi-substances and quasi-causes. In my Ph.D. dissertation, I called this view Animal Realism.
I bring up the powers of the cat to point out the evolutionary powers which we share with the cat in addition to our conceptual powers embodied in our mastery of language. What am I driving at? Just as the cat can and does map the house, we also have the ability, but more than an ability — we seem to have a drive to map and explain our universe. This drive is aided by imagination. I am saying that we have a drive to have beliefs about the workings of the whole universe, and this drive is such that what we do not know by experience, we supplement with imagination. This work of the imagination is called myth and religion. Now, we would now call it the ability to form scientific hypotheses.
I am as skeptical about the evolutionary benefits of particular mythical beliefs, as I am of initial scientific hypotheses — i.e., until they have failed refutation.
I make no claims about the origin of our conceptual abilities, but judging by the nature of myths, I think that Wilfrid Sellars was right in postulating for humans an Original Image — a Weltanschauung in which everything is a person. If animism is the view that everything in the universe is alive, then Sellars is a radical animist in making a more specific claim that everything is a person. And I think that it suffices to say that such a power of imaginatively constructing a Weltanschauung is an evolutionary endowment of man, without having to resort to the additional burden of explaining particular myths in evolutionary terms.
If there is this drive in humans to have a total world view, it would explain the proclivity of people to utter bullshit. They cannot help it. They always will give you some answer as an explanation. President Trump is almost the perfect example of this. The man is obviously quite ignorant of many things, but when asked he never says “I don’t know.” Instead he makes up an answer on the spot without any qualms about the truth. He is a bullshitter as described by Harry Franfurther. Apparently it takes some sophistication and courage to say “I don’t know.”
Author chruckyPosted on December 5, 2018 January 18, 2019 Categories Bullshit scholarshipLeave a comment on In response to Jordan Peterson’s claim for the evolutionary benefit of religious stories
On Reinventing the Wheel
I am troubled by the fact that many speakers and writers do not acknowledge or are ignorant of previous relevant writings on a topic, and really repeat saying what others have written; thus, “reinventing the wheel.”
What can explain this phenomenon? Well, it is obvious that people want to have personal success and income from their speaking and writing, and so, they try to get attention. They want people to view their videos, read their books, and be invited to various interviews, debates, and lectures.
They succeed, in part, because they appeal to a wide ignorant audience, which is attracted by the speaker’s or writer’s entertainment qualities, rather then by his or her scholarship.
For example, what do I want from a writer on a topic such as ethics? I want him to begin with something similar to what C. D. Broad did in his Five Types of Ethical Theories (1930). This is what he wrote: “Sidgwick’s Methods of Ethics seems to be on the whole the best treatise on moral theory that has ever been written, and to be one of the English philosophical classics.” p. 143. And the bulk of Broad’s book — 113 pages our of a total 285 — is devoted to a critical examination of Sidgwick’s ethics.
Instead of jumping right into a topic, I would like an author to start by identifying what he considers to be the best work to date on a topic and write a critique of this work.
I had tried to do something like this in my dissertation in the fields of epistemology and metaphysics . I did not outright say that Wilfrid Sellars is the best contemporary thinker on these topics, but I did so implicitly by choosing to critically examine his views and claiming that he had verisimilitude. Here is what I wrote: “The examined philosopher provides an occasion for developing one’s own philosophy, and this is especially rewarding if the examined philosophy has verisimilitude, as does that of Wilfrid Sellars. The conclusions I reach are very close to Sellars’ own — so close, in fact, that I am not certain whether what I am offering as correction are of things I am only misinterpreting.” Andrew Chrucky, “Critique of Wilfrid Sellars’ Materialism,” 1990.
I myself have not done any systematic work in ethics, but it seems that being able to pursue a critical examination of morals assumes a cultural and political context of such things as having had an education which gives one the critical acumen to pursue such studies, as well as the leisure to do so; rather than working at some unrelated area for a wage; and the means to pursue such a study — as access to a suitable library or the means to purchase necessary books. And, most important, there is the necessity of cultural tolerance and the political right of free speech.
Although I have a concern with ethics, there are also the more basic problems of how to cope with people who do not have a concern with morals and how to cope with institutions which allow such people to flourish. It is a question how to wage war against such people and such institutions.
Author chruckyPosted on June 18, 2018 July 5, 2018 Categories Bullshit scholarship, Bullshit InstitutionsLeave a comment on On Reinventing the Wheel
Criticism of Murray Rothbard and Natural Rights
David Ritchie in his book Natural Rights: A Criticism of Some Political and Ethical Conceptions, 2d ed. 1903, on p. 65, gives the following description of one kind of anarchism, which he identifies with the French Radicals associated with the French Revolution of 1789. I see no difference between this description and that of Murray Rothbard’s anarcho-capitalism.
“Anarchists are of three kinds. First of all, there is the old-fashioned Radical who repeats the revolutionary creed of 1789 in changed times, to whom an association called a government is an object of suspicion, whilst an association called a joint-stock company is an object of admiration. This old-fashioned Radical does not think himself a survival, but imagines that
he has the verdict of the newest science on his side. He would abolish legislation, but would leave the judicial functions of government to enforce what he calls natural rights, but what are really the legal and customary rights resulting from ancient legislation or want of legislation. He professes to give every one a fair start, but does not notice that the runners are unequally weighted. He calls himself an individualist, and is only a half-hearted Anarchist. His anarchy is anarchy based on the existing economic structure of society. He believes in Nature, but forgets that it is a Nature that has been operating for ages among human beings. Nature to him really means human society under a completely triumphant “Manchester School.” He would contribute to the amelioration of the species by abolishing all sanitary legislation, but would perhaps leave the tender-hearted private philanthropist a free hand in encouraging the propagation of beggars in order to give scope to his altruistic sentiments.”
Author chruckyPosted on May 31, 2018 December 10, 2020 Categories Bullshit scholarshipLeave a comment on Criticism of Murray Rothbard and Natural Rights
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WHAT EVER HAPPENED...? "Brain Tumor Vigil"
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READER: In the rising of the sun and in its going down, we remember them.
TOGETHER: In the blowing of the wind and in the chill of winter, we remember them.
READER: In the opening of buds and in the rebirth of Spring, we remember them.
TOGETHER: In the blueness of the sky and in the warmth of summer, we remember them.
READER: In the rustling of the leaves and in the beauty of Autumn, we remember them.
TOGETHER: In the beginning of the year and when it ends, we remember them.
READER: When we are weary and in need of strength, we remember them.
TOGETHER: When we are lost and sick at heart, we remember them.
READER: When we have joys we yearn to share, we remember them.
TOGETHER: So long as we live, they too shall live, for they are now a part of us, as we remember them.
III. Reading of Names
READER: At this time, we remember and honor those who have been diagnosed with brain tumors. Some of these people are no longer living, but their memories continue within us. Others are living their lives as brain tumor survivors, with all of the challenges that surviving may involve for themselves and their loved ones. We send out hope and healing to each of these gentle spirits and to their families and loved ones.
[Read any names you have collected]
In addition to those names read aloud, we invite anyone here to come forward and speak a name or names, including their own. Each of us can also silently acknowledge loved ones and friends that have been affected.
[at conclusion of reading of names]
READER: Out of the glaring darkness of life's chaos,
we must struggle for the words
that will bring light and understanding.
May we be blessed with clarity of thought,
mindfulness of the blessings that surround us,
and a vision of peace.
Life is eternal, love is immortal, and death is only a horizon.
A horizon is but the limit of our sight.
IV. Hope and Healing – a prayer for renewed health
READER: Let us send healing thoughts and prayers to everyone diagnosed with a brain tumor. Research shows that prayer can help in healing. Our gathering is powerful.
TOGETHER: Let us focus our loving attention on everyone in our community in need of healing. May they be restored to renewed health.
READER: Each of us can silently acknowledge loved ones and friends, both present and absent ones who are in need of our prayers.
[A moment of silence is observed]
READER: May all who are ill or suffering find peace and comfort.
TOGETHER: May all who encounter challenges – physical or emotional – find their strength and courage increasing each day.
READER: Grant to all who are in need of healing, the consolation of hope.
IV-ii. REFLECTIONS (At this time in the service, gathered members may be asked for additional reflections on healing. Poems, songs or any thoughts are welcomed. This section may be included as time permits)
V. A Prayer for Our Community
(with opening REFLECTIONS if time permits)
READER: May all who are living with brain tumors find compassion, comfort and support from our community
TOGETHER: May everyone in a position to make important contributions to brain tumor research, treatment, and prevention be empowered to do so.
READER: May all people affected by brain tumors, their families, friends, and their lay and professional caregivers, be blessed with courage and hope.
TOGETHER: Allow us to find new meaning in the challenges we encounter.
READER: Grant everyone affected by a brain tumor the blessings and strength of a caring, supportive community like the one we have gathered today.
TOGETHER: Grant us the vision to understand how we can work together.
READER: May all whose lives have been changed by a brain tumor find inspiration to adapt to new ways of living.
TOGETHER: May all of us find comfort knowing that we are not alone, as we encourage one another and share our experiences together.
READER: May we all be blessed with health and strength, as we continue our efforts on behalf of the global brain tumor community.
TOGETHER: Amen
VI. Closing Prayers
READER: Eternal source of life,
You have called us into life
and set us in the middle of purposes
we cannot measure or understand.
TOGETHER: Yet we are thankful for the good we know,
for the life we have,
and for the beautiful gifts that are part of our life each day.
Fill us with hope knowing that
what is good and lovely does not perish.
ALL: May we go forth renewed in courage and hope. So may it be.
VII. Conclusion and Announcements
*Editorial note: the prayers in this ecumenical service have been gathered from a number of sources including prayer books from different faiths. Original text by Nancy Conn-Levin and Samantha Scolamiero, founder of T.H.E. BRAIN TRUST, is also included in the service.
© The Healing Exchange BRAIN TRUST, Inc.
I (Douglas Winslow Cooper) have been excerpting, weekly, material from this almost-final version of the fine book by Janet Johnson Schliff, M.S. Ed., which she wrote over a three-year period with some coaching and editing help from me, through my business, Write Your Book with Me.
More talks are being planned for the spring of 2019… she can be contacted at 845.336.7506 (home) or 845.399.1500 (cell).
Janet spoke at the Mountain Top Library in Tannersville, NY, on June 9 at noon.
Janet again spoke at the Mountain Top Library in Tannersville, NY, on September 22 at noon.
Janet’s interview for the TV program Wake Up with Marci on the You Too America Channel aired on Monday, November 5, and Friday, November 9. It can now be found on the Internet.
Janet spoke at the Germantown Library in Germantown, NY, on November 7 at 6:00 p.m.
Janet participated in the Red Hook Middle School's College and Career Cafe in Red Hook, NY, on December 19 at 10:30 a.m.
Janet will speak at the Poughkeepsie Brain Injury Support Group at the Poughkeepsie Galleria Mall in Poughkeepsie, NY, on Saturday, February 23 at noon.
Janet will speak at the Stanford Free Library in Stanfordville, NY, on Saturday, March 9 at 10:00 a.m.
Janet will speak at the Howland Library in Beacon, NY, on Wednesday, March 20 at 1:00 p.m.
Janet will speak at the West Hurley Library in West Hurley, NY, on Saturday, March 23 at 1:00 p.m.
Janet will speak at the East Fishkill Library in Hopewell Junction, NY, on Monday, March 25 at 6:30 p.m.
Janet will speak at the Grinnell Library in Wappingers Falls, NY, on Saturday, March 30 at 10:30 a.m.
Janet will speak at the Dover Plains Library in Wingdale, NY, on Friday, April 5 at 6:00 p.m.
Janet will participate in an Author Talk at the Saugerties Library in Saugerties, NY, on Saturday, April 13 at 1:00 p.m.
Janet will speak at the Red Hook Community Center in Red Hook, NY, on Wednesday, April 24 at 5:00 p.m.
Janet will speak at St. Timothy's Church in Hyde Park, NY, on Sunday, May 5 at 11:00 a.m.
Janet will speak at the Moffat Library in Washingtonville, NY, on Saturday, May 11 at 1:00 p.m.
Janet will speak at the Beekman Library in Hopewell Junction, NY, on Saturday, May 18 at 10:30 a.m.
Janet will speak at the Pleasant Valley Library in Pleasant Valley, NY, Tuesday, May 28 at 6 p.m.
More signings will be coming up. A fine feature about Janet by John DeSantos [845 LIFE] appeared in the Middletown Times Herald-Record on Monday, March 12, as part of Brain Injury Awareness Month. An article about her book was just published in the May 2018 Living Rhinebeck Magazine. An article about her book appeared in the May 14 Daily Freeman of Kingston, NY. and another in the Family Life section of the Poughkeepsie Journal on June 8th. The Millerton News published an article on Thursday, August 2, about her talk at the Pine Plains Library.
Posted by Douglas Winslow Cooper, Ph.D. at 6:49 AM
JERRY JENKINS on WRITING YOUR BOOK
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WHAT EVER HAPPENED...? "Recommended Books, V"
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Downtown Austin Blog
downtown Austin's real estate and neighborhood blog
You are here: Home / Austin Lofts For Sale / Brazos Place
Brazos Place
800 Brazos St, Austin, TX 78701
Brazos Place was originally built in 1948 as the 14 story Commodore Perry Hotel. In 1984 the building was converted into offices and renamed One Commodore Plaza. It’s rebirth into 72 residential condominiums was complete in 2008. The location of Brazos Place is unique in that sits between the Texas State Capitol, 6th Street Entertainment District, and Congress Ave. Prices have ranged from 250s to 1.5MM.At the base of the condominium a massive lobby welcomes guests. There is a 24 hour concierge and valet parking. While not true lofts, the architecture includes stylized elements such as exposed duct work and concrete floors.
Brazos Place Condos’ HOA rules are exceptionally valuable to owners and investors by permitting lease terms as short as one-month in duration. This flexibility is very unique compared to most downtown Austin high rises which require leases to be at least 6-12 months long. This flexibility enables owners to host corporate/executive rentals.
Lobby of Brazos Place condos
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LEGAL NOTICE: Texas Real Estate Commission Consumer Protection Notice. • Information About Brokerage Services. • Copyright © 2007-2020 Jude Galligan. All rights reserved. Site Map
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CALL HGMC (951) 652-2811
Doctors urge the public to continue social distancing. Hetty Chang reported on NBC4 News on Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2020. Dr. Hares Najand, Orange County Global Medical Center interviewed.
KPC’s Global Mission to Save Community Healthcare Began in Hemet
In 1984, a young orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Kali P. Chaudhuri, arrived in Hemet with the dream he one day would have a lasting impact on community healthcare.
Hemet happened to be the perfect place to set up shop and call home. Single-family residences were starting to become more prevalent, with businesses and retailers following right behind. The large retirement community made the need for local healthcare options all the more obvious and important. Dr. Chaudhuri began working out of Hemet Hospital, where he quickly built a successful practice and established a reputation as one of the top orthopedic surgeons in the country.
Shortly thereafter, patients from around the United States began making the journey to Hemet for their surgeries. It was reminiscent of Dr. Chaudhuri’s journey here back in 1984. While the efforts of Dr. Chaudhuri and his fellow physicians led to initial success and profitability, trouble lay ahead for Hemet Hospital. Poor upper-level management and decision-making eventually led to many problems for the District Hospital System known as Valley Health System, which included Menifee and Moreno Valley.
That fateful decision resulted in the demise of Hemet Hospital, putting it on the path to bankruptcy and, perhaps most importantly, a pivotal turning point in Dr. Chaudhuri’s career. Rather than moving on to another job, at another hospital, in another city, Dr. Chaudhuri made it his personal mission to save Hemet’s only hospital.
Galvanized by his efforts, other physicians regained their confidence in the hospital and joined the cause. By 2010, public support for Dr. Chaudhuri’s mission to save the hospital reached critical mass, with 87 percent of voters approving the privatization of the District Hospital System.
Despite initial skepticism, the valuable community hospital that was once on the brink of bankruptcy continues its operations today as Hemet Valley Medical Center under Dr. Chaudhuri’s leadership. The hospital’s financial position has completely turned around, and continuous improvements to the facility, technology, and staff are being made.
Due to these efforts, Hemet Valley Medical Center is now home to a medical education and residency program that is attracting some of the brightest young doctors from around the world. Moreover, what Dr. Chaudhuri started right here in Hemet was only the beginning of his pursuit to save community healthcare.
Today, Dr. Chaudhuri serves as chairman of KPC Health, which owns and operates a nationwide integrated healthcare delivery system consisting of acute care hospitals, independent physician associations, medical groups, and various multi-specialty and ancillary facilities. Hemet was the first of a series of hospital turnaround successes led by Dr. Chaudhuri.
In the past five years, KPC Health achieved a similar feat after fully acquiring a group four Orange County hospitals in Santa Ana, Anaheim and Orange. More of the same appears to be on the horizon given KPC Health’s recent acquisition of seven Promise Healthcare hospitals and two skilled nursing facilities, as well as an astonishing $610 million bid to purchase four Verity Health Hospitals in Los Angeles and the Bay Area. KPC Health’s national footprint spanning across eight states including Kansas, Utah, Mississippi, Arizona, Louisiana, and Texas including northwest Dallas is poised to become a 21-hospital system sometime this year.
Over the past decade, Dr. Chaudhuri has expanded his journey beyond healthcare. The KPC Group includes a vast international real estate portfolio and a number of successful businesses throughout the pharmaceutical and biotechnology, education, real estate, infrastructure development, agriculture, architecture and engineering, alternative energy, waste management, travel services, and information technology industries.
For Dr. Chaudhuri, a dream that started in Hemet in 1984 has truly come to fruition in 2019.
2 Orange County firefighters ‘gravely injured’ as wildfires rage: report
California company buys Overland Park hospital
KPC Group Gets Court Approval to Acquire Four Verity hospitals
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Mushairas in Delhi – 1950s
Jal Pappa by Arzan Khambatta
Mumbai's Lasting Legacy
The Rise and Fall of the Princely State of Alwar
The Heroes of the INA Trials
My mother’s blue kitchen
Shooting the Governor of Bengal 1932
Bina Das
Major Events Pre-1950
Bina (1911-19??), daughter of Beni Madhab Das (one Netaji Subhas Bose's teachers) and social worker Sarala Devi, was an Indian revolutionary and nationalist from Bengal. She was a member of Chhatri Sangha, a semi-revolutionary outfit for women in Kolkata. On 6 February 1932, she fired five shots at Bengal Governor Stanley Jackson, but failed to kill him. She was imprisoned and released in 1939, after which she joined the Congress party. In 1947, she married Jatish Chandra Bhaumik, an Indian independence movement activist belonging to the Jugantar group. After the death of her husband, she led a lonely life in Rishikesh and died in anonymity.
Editor's note: This article is reproduced from http://subhaschandrabose.org.
STATEMENT BEFORE THE SPECIAL TRIBUNAL OF CALCUTTA HIGH COURT, 1932
I confess that I fired at the Governor on the last Convocation Day at the Senate House. I hold myself entirely responsible for it. My object was to die and if I had to die, I wanted to do it nobly, fighting against this despotic system of government which has kept my country in perpetual subjection to its infinite shame and endless sufferings, and all the while fighting in a way which cannot but tell. I fired at the Governor impelled by my love for my country which is being repressed and what I attempted to do for the sake of my country was a great violence on my own nature too. It was a severe injury to the family to which I belong and the Institution where I was having my education - an Institution which loved me dearly and exercised the highest influence on my life and character, and which I looked upon with all regard due to a mother\; but the love for my country was always supreme in my mind\; and I felt very deeply in my heart at the miserable condition of my country. All the ordinances, all the measures to put down the noble aspirations for freedom in my countrymen, came as a challenge to our national manhood and as indignities hurled at it. This hardened even the tender feminine nature like mine into one of a hero's mould.
I had been thinking - is life worth living in an India so much subjected to wrongs and continually groaning under the tyranny of a foreign Government or is it not better to make one supreme protest against it by offering one's life away? Would not the immolation of a daughter of India and of a son of England awaken India to the sin of its acquiescence to its continued state of subjection and England to the iniquities of its proceedings? This was one question that kept thundering at the gates of my brain like incessant hammer blows which would neither be stilled nor muffled.
My sense of religion and morality is not inconsistent with my sense of political freedom. I believe that a person who is a slave politically cannot realise God who is the embodiment of the spirit of freedom and has made His sons and daughters free to share in the joy that is in Him. I have held, therefore, that political freedom is organically connected with religion and morality\; and there ought to be no conflict between them. In fact, I feel in my heart of hearts that the best and the divine in humanity cries out in revolt against all forms of tyranny in this world.
Political freedom, religion and moral ideals should, therefore, be blended together into one harmonious whole and the subject races inhabiting this globe should be politically free. It was for the purpose of bringing this fact home 1 selected as my field of action, the Convocation Hall of my sacred alma mater.
I studied in Diocesan College for my B.A. degree and passed with Honours in English and my father sent me to that College for an additional course of study for B.T. Degree, in order to bring me into closer touch with truly Christian souls and to give opportunities to see the best side of British Character. I gratefully acknowledge that I have immensely profited by my study under the Sisters of my dear College. But at the same time, with the comparative knowledge of things, I felt with deep anguish that the true Christian spirit was not much in evidence in the administration of a Christian Government.
The series of ordinances savouring of Martial Law, to my mind, showed nothing but a spirit of vindictiveness and were only measures to crush all aspirations for freedom. The outrages perpetrated in the name of Government at Midnapore, Hijli and Chittagong (my own district), the refusal to publish the Official Enquiry Reports and many more of such instances, were things I could never drive away from my mind. The outrages on Amba Debi of Contai and Niharabala of Chittagong literally upset my whole being. I used to help the wife of a detenu in her studies as a work of love. Every day I saw with my own eyes the sufferings of the poor girl who was leading the life of a widow during the life-time of her husband as also the demented parents of the detenu, slowly sinking into their graves, without their having the faintest notion of the supposed guilt of their son.
I attended the Court proceedings during the trial of my sister Kalyani. She was punished to serve a term of rigorous imprisonment for having allegedly attended a meeting which could not be held and for being a member of an unlawful society only on the basis of the evidence of her having a proscribed leaflet in her possession. This was to my mind grossly unjust. Though she is an Honours Graduate who had earlier lived in all the comforts of a middle-class family, yet ignominy was hurled on her during her prison-life. What with the jail-dress and jail-diet of ordinary convicts classified as third class prisoners, and the sleepless nights amongst such criminals, militated against my whole being. I saw all these with my own eyes and also witnessed the bitter tears welling out of the eyes of my dearest parents.
I thought that such must be the sufferings of innumerable others. All these and many other incidents worked on my feelings which worked themselves into a frenzy. The pain became unbearable till such time I felt that I would go mad if I could not find the relief in death. I only sought the way to death by offering myself at the feet of my country and invite the attention of all by my death as a mark of most immaculate form of protest against the situations created by the repressive measures of the government, which can unsex even a frail woman like myself, brought up in all the best traditions of Indian womanhood.
I can assure all that I could never have any personal grudge against any person or anything on earth\; I have no sort of personal feelings against Sir Stanley Jackson, the man and Lady Jackson, the woman. But the governor of Bengal represents the system of repression which has kept enslaved 300 millions of my countrymen and countrywomen.
Now I stand alone before the judgment seat of God and open myself before Him and pray for His all-forgiving love to wash me clean so that I may be a worthy offering to Him. May I see the benignant countenance of the Mother Divine and feel Her loving embrace for me - even for - at this most solemn moment of my life. If it be Her will that I should die, then let it be so. If She wills that I live, let me consecrate my life to the service of suffering humanity, which is the fondest longing of my heart, if She out of Her infinite mercy spares it to be used by Her as Her instrument. May God fulfil Himself through my death or my life, if it so pleases Him. Thy will be done. Oh Lord.
Her memoirs have been published by Zubaan Books.
Permalink Submitted by Ardhendu Mukherjee on Sat, 02/06/2016 - 08:52
Indian revolutionary shooting Governor and Chancellor Stanley Jackson Bina Das 6th February 1932
Permalink Submitted by KRISHNAMURTHY on Sat, 03/07/2020 - 06:10
I HOPE THAT WE MUST HAVE AT LEAST THANK TO GOD TO GET CITIZENSHIP OF OUR BINA DOS"LAND ,THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR RFERENCES AND LIGHTING OF PATRIOTISM
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THE FLAMINGOS PINK SHARE BRAND NEW VIDEO FOR BEST WE EVER HAD
FROM SOPHOMORE ALBUM OUTTACONTROLLER
Toronto, ON – December 1, 2020 – Today, Montreal rock ‘n’ roll duo, The Flamingos Pink – Sacha Gubany (guitar/vocals) and Julien Corrado (drums/percussion) – drop the latest visual from their recently released sophomore album, Outtacontroller – a live take of the album’s opening track, Best We Ever Had. Premiering yesterday on Canadian Musician, the song – and video – is about the connectivity of the past that we can no longer enjoy. It’s a stroll down memory lane that reveals how that at one time, we could all get together, have fun, party, go to a show, rock out and release – together. Check out Best We Ever Had here.
Says the band, “If you really pay attention, the story writes itself. A real trip down memory lane. Remember live shows? The feeling of closeness to strangers while getting pummeled by a tower of sound? This is the past. What’s next? Let’s close out this year strong and look straight ahead, steady as she goes. Keep surfin’ the waves and feeling the heat. Let’s ride this through. Best we ever had – the focus is on the good times.”
The video recalls warm summer nights, the vibe inside a packed music venue and feeling close to other people.
The band continues, “To celebrate the launch of our second album, we rented a venue and played it in front of absolutely nobody in the audience. We still got a noise complaint though. It ain’t rocknroll unless somebody gets ticked off. We’re definitely getting good at it. Limitations breed creativity, so we’ve been told. 2020 has given us enough of that. It takes a lot of sh*t for the flowers to grow.
The Flamingos Pink believe rock ‘n’ roll is a way of life; a state of mind that is foundational to the band’s DIY attitude and reckless self-abandon. As a duo, they fill space and time rhythmically with a sweet blend of tones. Authority tight power chords, bottom heavy beats and a soulful voice, this musical harmony is the result of Sacha and Jules having a deep connection to one another thanks to their parallel backgrounds and upbringings. Being able to relate to one another went beyond just having gone to the same schools and having the same jobs (at different times). They discovered that they have undeniable chemistry, both musically and in the broader sense of style-de-vie.
Outtacontroller was constructed during the quarantined Spring of 2020. Starting in April, Gubany and Corrado exchanged around 30 voice memos of song ideas and anything else musically that came to mind. Gubany played guitar every day for two months straight, exploring the sounds that would eventually come to be part of the 11 tracks on Outtacontroller. In May, the pair met up in an industrial warehouse and wrote the whole album. When June came around, they were ready to record the entire album and headed to the studio for two days to lay down all 11 tracks. Outtacontroller pushed Gubany and Corrado, and highlights just how much they are able to accomplish together.
DOWNLOAD – Hi Res Press Photo | DOWNLOAD – video still
DOWNLOAD – Hi Res Album Art
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New since last visit
You are here: Home ‹ Board index ‹ Movie Discussion ‹ All Other/Older Movies ‹ (2008) Horton Hears a Who
01/11 Jim Carrey Wins at the Critics Choice Super Awards
01/09 Jim's New Tweet Cartoons
12/31 Happy New Year - Goodbye 2020, Hello 2021!
12/28 Best of 2020: Memoirs and Misinformation
12/24 Merry Christmas
Box Office - Results
Discuss this animation. Available on DVD and Blu-ray.
by TNPihl » Sun Jul 20, 2008 12:25 pm
Update. The first 50 days in theaters:
No. 6 / Horton Hears a Who! / $2,675,755 / 30 days (04-12-2008) / Total $137,862,239
No. 6 / Horton Hears a Who! / $355,016 / 32 days (04-14-2008) / Total $139,903,936
No. 10 / Horton Hears a Who! / $931,886 / 36 days (04-18-2008) / Total $141,838,547
Was in Top10 45 days!!
Jim Carrey Movies/Series/Books in 2021:
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Production Start in March)
Join Jim Carrey Online on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, VK and Snapchat
TNPihl
JCO Staff
E-mail TNPihl
by grinchy steve » Sun Jul 20, 2008 3:10 pm
Not bad at all, huh.
grinchy steve
by TNPihl » Sun Jul 20, 2008 3:36 pm
Numbers from the last weeks:
No. 12 / Horton Hears a Who! / $70,780 / 53 days (05-05-2008) / Total $149,888,460
No. - / Horton Hears a Who! / $36,662 / 81 days (06-02-2008) / Total $152,608,082
No. 22 / Horton Hears a Who! / $57,577 / 100 days (06-21-2008) / Total $153,594,921
No. - / Horton Hears a Who! / $25,423 / 102 days (06-23-2008) / Total $153,666,176
Still playing in 150 theaters.
Domestic: $154,245,889
Foreign: $140,887,544
Total Worldwide: $295,133,433
Return to (2008) Horton Hears a Who
Jump to: Select a forum ------------------ Welcome Forum Information Members JCOs Playground Movie Discussion Upcoming Movies (2020) Sonic the Hedgehog (2018/19) Kidding (Season 1 and 2) (2018) Dark Crimes (2017/18) I'm Dying Up Here (Season 1 and 2) (2017) Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond (2017) The Bad Batch All Other/Older Movies (????) Ripley's Believe It or Not (2014) Dumb and Dumber To (2013) Kick-Ass 2 (2013) The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (2011) Mr. Popper's Penguins (2010) I Love You Phillip Morris (2009) Disney's A Christmas Carol (2009) Under The Sea 3D (2008) Yes Man (2008) Horton Hears a Who (2007) The Number 23 (2005) Fun With Dick And Jane (2004) Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Older Movies Book Discussion (2020) Memoirs and Misinformation (2013) How Roland Rolls Jim Carrey Discussion Stop The Press! Recent Photos Video Clips The Speakeasy General Discussion Off Topic Site / Forum Discussion
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STAPLES v. THE STATE.
A91A0144.
(199 Ga. App. 551)
ANDREWS, Judge.
Aggravated assault. Rockdale Superior Court. Before Judge Peeler, Senior Judge.
Staples was indicted for two counts of aggravated assault and found guilty on the second count at trial. Although he did not demur to the indictment, after the verdict was returned Staples filed a motion to arrest judgment on the basis that the indictment was imperfect and incomplete. From the trial court's denial of that motion, he now appeals.
In attacking an indictment after the verdict, every presumption and inference is in favor of the verdict. King v. State, 103 Ga. App. 272 (119 SE2d 77) (1961). By failing to file a demurrer before trial, Staples waived his right to a perfect indictment. State v. Eubanks, 239 Ga. 483 (238 SE2d 38) (1977); Hubbard v. State, 129 Ga. App. 793 (201 SE2d 337) (1973). Therefore, a motion to arrest judgment should be granted only if the indictment is absolutely void. See Moore v. State, 94 Ga. App. 210 (94 SE2d 80) (1956).
Here, the allegedly deficient count for aggravated assault charged Staples "with having committed the offense of Aggravated Assault for that the said accused person in the County aforesaid, on the 26th day of August, 1989 unlawfully with a deadly weapon, to-wit: a .35 Caliber rifle, the same being a deadly weapon when used in the manner in which it was used to shoot the said victim, contrary to the laws of said State, the good order, peace and dignity thereof, . . ."
Staples contends that the indictment is fatally defective because the second count omitted the victim's name and failed to set forth all the elements of the crime. Although the count is not a model of clarity, it is sufficient to withstand the motion to arrest judgment.
The two requirements of an indictment are that it definitively inform the accused of the charges against him, so that he may present his defense and avoid surprises at trial, and that it protect the accused against another prosecution for the same offense. Berger v. United States, 295 U. S. 78, 82 (55 SC 629, 79 LE 1314) (1934); Ingram v. State, 137 Ga. App. 412, 415 (224 SE2d 527) (1976); Williams v. State, 165 Ga. App. 69 (299 SE2d 402) (1983). Both requirements were met here. Although the victim is not named in this count, her identity is clear from the prior count. 1 See Weddington v. State, 191 Ga. App. 738, 739 (382 SE2d 661) (1989). Although the second count is worded awkwardly, it plainly charges Staples with aggravated assault for shooting the victim with a deadly weapon. See Miller v. State, 182 Ga. App. 700, 701 (356 SE2d 900) (1987).
The test of the sufficiency of an indictment is whether the accused could admit all of the accusations and still be innocent of having committed the offense charged; if so, the indictment is defective. Mahomet v. State, 151 Ga. App. 462 (260 SE2d 363) (1979) 2; Brooks v. State, 141 Ga. App. 725 (234 SE2d 541) (1977). Here, Staples cannot admit to an aggravated assault using a .35 caliber rifle to shoot a victim and still be innocent of the offense charged.
The instant count adequately charges a violation of the law and sufficiently apprised Staples of the offense charged. Watson v. State 190 Ga. App. 671 (379 SE2d 811) (1989). Since there was no fatal defect in the indictment, the denial of Staple's motion to arrest judgment was proper.
Robert F. Mumford, District Attorney, Nancy F. Nash, Assistant District Attorney, for appellee.
1 Although each count must be complete within itself and contain every allegation essential to constitute the crime, this rule applies to the offense rather than the form. Holtzendorf v. State, 146 Ga. App. 823 (247 SE2d 599) (1978). Therefore, one count may incorporate by reference portions of another, Durden v. State, 152 Ga. 441 (110 SE 283) (1921), and the indictment is read as a whole. See Manley v. State, 187 Ga. App. 773 (371 SE2d 438) (1988); compare Lee v. State, 81 Ga. App. 829 (60 SE2d 177) (1950).Here the first count of the indictment was also for the offense of aggravated assault and charged that Staples "unlawfully did assault the person of [name of victim] with the intent to murder the said [name of victim] . . ."
2 See Manley, supra, note 1, for the slightly different test of whether the accused can admit all the accusations and be innocent of any crime.
Michael S. Waldrop, for appellant.
DECIDED APRIL 12, 1991.
YOUNGBLOOD v. THE STATE. (253 Ga. App. 327) (558 SE2d 854) (2002)
THE STATE v. JONES. (274 Ga. 287) (553 SE2d 612) (2001)
GRANT et al. v. THE STATE. (227 Ga. App. 88) (488 SE2d 79) (1997)
BOWMAN v. THE STATE. (227 Ga. App. 598) (490 SE2d 163) (1997)
CAMPBELL v. THE STATE. (223 Ga. App. 484) (477 SE2d 905) (1996)
HASSELL v. THE STATE (two cases). (212 Ga. App. 432) (442 SE2d 261) (1994)
THE STATE. (206 Ga. App. 604) (426 SE2d 179) (1992)
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