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Osage Wedding Clothes featured at Tribal Museum
The University of Oklahoma and the Osage Tribal Museum collaborate on Osage wedding Regalia Exhibit
By: Roseanne McKee
On the evening of Feb. 19, the Osage Tribal Museum and Library hosted a presentation about a new exhibit undertaken in collaboration with the University of Oklahoma, which will open in December 2015.
The exhibit, which has taken five years to create, will include of a collection of over 100 Osage wedding photos of from several sources and the display of Osage wedding regalia.
Dr. Daniel Swan a University of Oklahoma professor gave a presentation with photos about the significance of Osage wedding clothing past and present.
“It seemed to us that this was an opportunity to undertake a project that’s still relevant to the community today. It’s close enough in the past that we’re not going back to the nineteenth century. We’re talking about the early twentieth century here.”
According to Dr. Swan, the significance of the regalia is twofold. First, the clothing was worn as wedding attire.
Second, “these wonderful wedding outfits have come to be incorporated into the passing of the drum or the paying of the drum,” Dr. Swan explained.
As he showed photos, he added, “you’ll notice that people have made identifications on the photos, which makes these collections stronger also.”
Because of the many requests to see the photos, a website has been created called http://www.osageweddings.com and over 6,000 people have visited the site, Swan said. “I really encourage you to visit the website to piece together these important stories of Osage history.”
The sources of the historic photographs gathered were: the Osage Tribal Museum, the University of Oklahoma’s Western History Library and a number of private collections.
The exhibit also provides a window into some of the customs associated with Osage weddings in the early twentieth century.
“We basically have the photographs to tell the story of a traditional Osage wedding from the very beginning of the negotiative process between the families, all the way to the completion of the wedding and the formation of a new family. It’s just tremendous,” he said.
Explaining this negotiation process, Swan said, “one of the things that my colleague, Jim, has turned up is a wonderful set of photographs that document the taking of food to the bride’s family, so for four mornings we have this procession where they’re taking the food every day as part of this negotiative process.”
In addition to showing photos, Swan played a silent film of an Osage wedding in the 1920’s and described additional details of the wedding.
“One of the things we learned was that each day the family would eat the food and put the dishes out at the end of the driveway and if those dishes were put back out washed, that meant that the negotiations were still open and they would expect for food to be brought again the next day. If those dishes were put out at the end of the driveway and they weren’t cleaned, it was over. Everybody packed up and went home. The negotiations had broken down.”
In gathering information for the exhibit, “the Osage people and members of the community, have been incredibly generous and forthcoming in sharing these resources,” he said.
Swan was impressed with the abundance of information people had shared for the exhibit. “We have the words of the Osage people themselves…. To me it’s just amazing that we have the voices of the Osage people to tell the story.”
“There are wonderful oral history materials,” Swan said, citing the Doris Duke collection, which funded a number of oral history projects around the country in the 1960s with Native American communities, which are kept at the University of Oklahoma. “It’s one of the few collections where community members interviewed community members,” he added.
“Our own Kathryn Red Corn did some interviews for this. She did some really important ones. Leonard Maker, Sr., did a lot of these and his wife did a lot of these interviews.”
“Vann Bighorse at the Wahzhazhe Cultural Center has a complete set of the recordings, which is really important,” Dr. Swan said.
Whereas in the past only transcripts were available, Swan explained that now, “you can go over there, any time the library is open, and listen to those recordings” at the Wahzhazhe Cultural Center in Pawhuska.
Another oral history project that provided helpful information for this exhibit was the White Hair Memorial, located between Hominy and Fairfax in a 1920s-era home which had belonged to Lillie Morrell Burkhart, a descendant of Osage Chief Pawhuska (White Hair).
A past project also provided helpful material. Beginning in 1983, Dr. Swan worked with Maurice Lookout to take on a project in which Osages interviewed Osages. Lookout and John Henry Mashunkashey had interviewed all of the members of the Pawhuska Committee “about the dance and the passing of the drum and the responsibilities of the drumkeeper and the other committee members,” Swan said.
“This was the year that Vann Bighorse took the drum, so it’s this wonderful resource – this glimpse into the workings of the committee and how you put a committee together and how you get ready to pay for the drum.” These recordings are available for listening at the White Hair Memorial, Swan added.
“There’s a wonderful recording in the series he did with his Aunt Mary Standing Bear Lookout in which she talks about a wedding outfit and she goes through and discusses each and every piece and the care that she took when she put these outfits together to help someone pay for the drum,” he said.
There are many archival sources and “an incredibly rich body of material out there” on the subject of Osage wedding regalia, including the Bartlesville Historical Society, Swan said.
“They have wonderful materials. We’ve been able to find great documentation over there. A lot of these weddings were written up in the newspapers of Tulsa and Bartlesville.”
Swan shared that Romaine Shackelford, had conducted research of government documents on microfilm at the Osage Tribal Museum, and made a significant discovery.
“Low and behold, he turns up a letter from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs writing the Superintendent of the Osage Nation, the agency, in which he said, ‘we received your letter requesting a chief’s coat for 17 Osage chiefs. We’ve received their measurements and on our next visit, we’ll bring them.’ This shows this continuous process of using these coats as symbols of authority and respect – that there was this continual supply coming in to them,” Swan explained.
“It’s clear that eventually that supply of old military coats exceeded the demands of the community and that people up here started to make these coats. These are stories that we’re working on right now – the different mechanisms that Osage people have employed to build their inventory of coats.
“Lastly, we’ve undertaken a series of interviews about more modern times and the construction of coats and their use in paying for the drum,” Swan said.
Swan encouraged guests to visit the University of Oklahoma’s website: http://www.ou.edu for digital collections such as Doris Duke’s, the Indian Pioneer Papers, the Native American Manuscripts, photographic archives, which are all free and available to be downloaded from the website.
Delaware Tribe Hosts Housing/Loan Seminar — All Tribes Welcome!
Posted on August 18, 2014 by Roseanne McKee
On Tuesday, Aug. 19, the Delaware Tribe will host a Housing/Loan Seminar at the Delaware Tribal Complex, 170 NE Barbara, Bartlesville, Okla., in Forsythe Hall at the Community Center at 6 p.m.
The seminar, presented by Legacy Tribal Consultants, will provide details of the Section 184 Native American Home Loan program. This event is free and open to the public. A question and answer session will follow the presentation.
The Section 184 loan program offers competitive, low mortgage interest rates for: home purchase, refinance, rehab or construction including double-wide and modular homes — and loans are not limited to property on tribal lands.
Approved borrowers must be members of a federally recognized tribe with photo I.D. and tribal registration card.
Unlike traditional loan programs which are credit-score driven, Section 184 loans do not require a particular credit score. Instead, borrowers must demonstrate a pattern of good rental or mortgage history for the past two years, have all credit collections, judgments and tax liens paid, and have two years of work history in the same line of work and/or school enrollment.
Approved borrowers must be currently employed with verified income and those with past credit problems must provide written explanations of derogatory credit.
The loan program, guaranteed by the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), has lower down-payment requirements than traditional loan programs. The Section 184 loan program offers borrower down payments of only 2.25% for mortgages over $50,000 and just 1.25% for mortgages under $50,000.
In addition, the source of down payment funds may be: borrower’s own funds, gift funds, secured loan funds or tribal down payment assistance.
Another attractive feature of the Section 184 loan program is that in purchase scenarios, contracts may specify that sellers pay prepaid fees, such as taxes and insurance, and other costs at the home closing. For more information, call the Delaware Tribe of Indians at 918-337-6590.
Osage Ballet to hold July performances in Skiatook and Miami
Posted on July 12, 2014 by Roseanne McKee
(L-R) Sean Steigerwald, Arthur Rocha, Sasha Kotelenets and Chad Jones. Photo by: Bill Riley
“Wahzhazhe” an Osage Ballet will again grace the Oklahoma stage. The Osage Ballet will hold six July performances of “Wahzhazhe, an Osage Ballet,” at two Oklahoma venues — Miami and Skiatook.
Three performances will be held at the Skiatook High School: July 18, 19, at 7:30 p.m. and July, 20, at 2:30 p.m. at 1000 W. 4th St., Skiatook, Okla.
In addition, there will be three performances at the historic Coleman Theater in Miami, July 25, 26, at 7:30 p.m. and July 27, at 2:30 p.m. at 103 N. Main St., Miami, Okla.
The director, Randy Tinker Smith, made the decision to hold these summer performances following the warm reception by audiences in 2013 at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center, Bartlesville Community Center and the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.
Smith said that the ballet “Wahzhazhe” tells the story of the Osage people from their first encounters with European visitors to the present day. Called the “Masters of the Battlefield” and sometimes referred to as the happiest people in the world, the Osage people monopolized trade because of their organization and order. Highlights of “Wahzhazhe” include: the Osage’s journey to Oklahoma territory, their wealth through the discovery of oil in the minerals estate, and the manner in which they now walk in two worlds.
The Osage Ballet operates under the Arts and Humanities Council of Tulsa, 101 E. Archer St., Tulsa, OK 74013, as a non-profit organization.
“We appreciate donations from the Osage Nation Foundation, Iron Hawk Energy Group and other area oil businesses,” Smith said. “These donations help us continue to bring the story of the Osage people to the Oklahoma stage.”
Tickets are available at to door for $10 for children and seniors and $12 for adults.
For more information, or to make a donation, contact the Osage Ballet at 918-704-4668 or via e-mail at osageballet@gmail.com.
Donations to the Osage Ballet may be mailed to: the Arts and Humanities Council of Tulsa at 101 E. Archer St., Tulsa, OK 74103.
Visit the Osage Ballet Facebook and the website at: http://www.osageballet.com for photos and updates.
Osage Ballet holds Art Auction and Fashion Show
(L-R) Madeline Pennington, Emily Pennington and Jenna Smith model designs by Wendy Ponca and Terry Wann inspired by Native American clothing.
The Osage Ballet held an art auction and fashion show on April 25 at the Harwelden Mansion in Tulsa.
Native-American fashions by designers Wendy Ponca and Terry Wann were inspired by the Osage creation story, which tells of sky people, called Tzi-Zho, coming to earth from the sky and marrying the earth people called Hun-kah.
“Two of the models represented the sky people and one the earth people,” Ponca explained. “The earth model is clothed in buckskin, otter skin, copper and shells just as those found at the Cahokia Mounds.”
The sky models were dressed in Mylar® with crystal necklaces and Eagle headdresses, Wann said. According to Wann, she chose to use Mylar® because a similar substance was found at the UFO crash site in Roswell, NM.
“It’s my interpretation as an artist,” Wann said.
Models Madeline and Emily Pennington hail from the GrayHorse Village near Fairfax and Jenna Smith is from the Pawhuska Village.
Following remarks by Osage Ballet Director Randy Tinker Smith, Native-American art was auctioned to benefit the Osage Ballet. “It’s very expensive for us to continue this,” Smith said, explaining her desire to continue to offer opportunities for audiences to see Wah-Zha-Zhe an Osage Ballet telling the history of the Osage people.
The proceeds of the evening will go toward summer performances of Wah-Zha-Zhe in Skiatook and at the Coleman Theater in Miami, Okla.
Educators, Parents and Students attend Rally on Capitol Steps
(L-R) Osage Hills Elementary School teachers Jennifer Gilkey and Mindy Englett at the Rally for Education held at the state capitol on March 31, wearing the tee-shirts Englett designed which read “In it for the outcome…not the income.”
For the first time in over two decades, an estimated 25,000 educators, parents and students gathered on the steps of the state capitol on March 31 at 10:30 a.m. to rally for public school education in Oklahoma and the children it serves.
“We were not there for ourselves. I was there for Osage Hills, for my students, for your child and my children,” explained Osage Hills Elementary School Math Teacher Mindy Englett. “It really bothers me that there are legislators out there who thought it was selfish for us to be there.”
To bring attention to their true purpose, a group of teachers purchased and wore tee shirts designed by Englett, which read “In it for the outcome — not the income.”
In describing the highlights of the rally, Englett said, ‘the most amazing speaker I heard was a high school student who compared herself to a flower and teachers to gardeners.” According to the speaker, teachers have the power to help students blossom or wilt depending on the resources they have, Englett said.
Explaining how the rally came about, Pawhuska Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Landon Berry said, “Several months ago the Education Coalition contacted me saying that there might be a rally.”
Berry, who has been in education for over 22 years said, “the last big rally was over House Bill (H.B.) 1017.”
H.B. 1017 sought to lower class sizes and increase funding, explained Osage Hills Schools Superintendent/Principal Jeannie O’Daniel, an educator for 25 years.
A recent House Bill has gained ground since Monday’s rally. H.B. 2642, provides for “small, guaranteed increase each year through the state funding formula,” O’Daniel explained.
The conundrum is that even if H.B. 2642 becomes law, it will take time to gain the ground lost.
“They’ve been cutting us for years, they can’t replace it all in one year,” O’Daniel said.
Those interviewed echoed concerns with a central theme – the state mandated curriculum has changed and those changes have not been facilitated through funding or curriculum.
Pawhuska High School Principal Joe Sindelar: “There’s a whole new philosophy of education, but we can’t even get the textbooks and resource materials to implement it. Where is the funding for those materials?”
Osage Hills Superintendent/Principal Jeannie O’Daniel: “We’ve had reform after reform coming very rapidly and there’s no funding to back it up; and if there has been it is because they’ve taken funding away from somewhere else. We adopt textbooks on a six-year cycle, one subject per year, but we’re supposed to implement Common Core all at once.”
The resulting budget challenges are only part of the problem because textbooks containing the Common Core curriculum simply don’t exist in many cases.
“We’re scrambling to find resources that really teach the Common Core content and concepts,” O’Daniel said. “The cover of the textbook changes, but that doesn’t mean the content of the textbook has changed.”
“I agree with the general objective of Common Core, analyzing and critical thinking, but how are we going to get there? We’re not being given the tools to get there” Sindelar observed.
To complicate matters, the name of the Common Core curriculum has changed recently. Math and language arts are still referred to as “Common Core Curriculum,” but the other subjects have been renamed “Oklahoma Academic Standards,” O’Daniel explained.
One might wonder without textbooks how schools are informed about the mandated Core Curriculum and Oklahoma Academic Standards.
“The standards are provided by the state education department and tell what concepts should be taught in what grade,” O’Daniel said.
With legislation to revoke it being considered, some wonder if Common Core will remain in place. “There is talk of repealing Common Core standards so districts are now up in the air as to what the required standards will be,” O’Daniel said.
Understanding what her district faces, Math teacher Mindy Englett works to conserve resources for the benefit of her students.
“With budget cuts, resource funds are limited and it’s tougher to justify the purchase of new textbooks for a curriculum that may be repealed,” Englett said.
No matter what challenges her district faces, O’Daniel’s attitude is positive.
“I have good teachers and that makes all the difference in the world,” O’Daniel said beaming.
Describing the situation his school district faces, Dr. Berry said, “This comes down to a lack of money to educate kids. I’ve been a superintendent for 12 years and the money goes down every year. You have to reduce staff and class size increases…It’s getting to be a critical stage,” Berry said that Pawhuska Public lost over half a million in revenue for the 2013-14 school year. “We’re going to cut $200,000 more from next year’s budget,” he added.
Summing up the reason for the rally, O’Daniel said, “we’ve all reached a breaking point and that’s why we went. We’ve had major changes in the educational system in the past four years. None of these is bad, but they’ve all come at the same time without the funds to implement them.”
Dr. Berry shared a statistic: “Since 2009, percentage-wise we’ve gone through more cuts than any other state in the nation. In 2013, we were number three, and this year we’re number one according to the Oklahoma Policy Institute.”
Berry said he spoke to three state legislators on March 28 at the Pawhuska Chamber of Commerce Gala about the problem. Berry’s message to the legislators: “It’s a hard choice, but we make hard choices every day. You have to step up and do what’s right for kids.”
Sindelar said that he spoke to State Representative Dennis Casey recently about his concerns. “He’s very pro-education. He gets it,” Sindelar said. “I asked Dennis, ‘does this make an impact?’ He said, ‘actually, it does.’ Teachers and administrators have an impact, but parents also make an impact…If parents call legislators to say, ‘we don’t have textbooks, or resources, it really has an impact.’”
Educators are asking their legislators important questions that deserve answers. What are the ripple effects of state legislators placing education low on the list? Are teachers drawn to work in Oklahoma public schools if the state doesn’t pay competitive wages?
“When I first went into teaching there were hundreds of applicants for each job. Now there are just two or three and schools advertise early for positions,” Englett said.
“My niece went to Missouri to work as a teacher and makes $10,000 more there,” said Osage Hills Support staff member DeDe McMillan.
Another ripple effect could be a reduction in tax revenue in the years to come.
Dr. Berry said, “We’ve got kids out there who need to be educated so they can work, pay taxes and pay in to social security for those retiring.”
It took a lot for educators to get to the point that they felt a rally was necessary,
Englett said, but “If we don’t stand up now, what’s going to happen to future generations?”
Osage Ballet to Hold Fundraiser Art Auction and Fashion Show April 25th
The Osage Ballet will hold its second annual fundraiser on April 25, from 7:00 – 8:30 p.m. at the historic Harwelden Mansion in Tulsa. In addition to an art auction, this year’s fundraiser will feature a fashion show inspired by Native American clothing by designer Wendy Ponca. Tickets will be $15 at the door. Hor D’Oerves and wine will be served. The Harwelden Mansion is located at 2210 S. Main Street in Tulsa.
“The Harwelden Mansion provides a beautiful backdrop for this elegant evening,” Director Randy Tinker Smith said. “Last year’s fundraiser exceeded our expectations and with the addition of the fashion show, we expect this year’s event to be a great success.”
Attendees may bid on the silent auction or the live auction, featuring renowned artists, including Native Americans. Works by: Anita Fields, clay figure, Ken Foster, oil painting, Joseph Chamberlain watercolor painting, Black Dog Creek, turquoise necklace, Charles Chapman, gilcee, and Jim Red Corn, print, are among the paintings and fine jewelry to be auctioned.
The funds raised will help fund the summer performances of “Wahzhazhe: an Osage Ballet,” which was well received at 2013 performances at Tulsa Performing Arts Center and the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.
The summer performances are planned at the Skiatook High School July 18, 19 and 20, and at the historic Coleman Theater in Miami, Okla., July 25, 26 and 27.
“These summer performances continue our efforts to provide opportunities for area residents to experience the story of the Osage people through ballet,” Smith said.
For more information call Randy Tinker Smith at 918-704-4668 or email at osageballet@gmail.com
Donations may be sent and made payable to: Arts and Humanities Council of Tulsa, 101 E. Archer St., Tulsa, OK 74013. This is a non-profit organization and donations are tax deductible. Also visit the Osage Ballet Facebook page and website at: www.osageballet.com.
Dance Maker Performing Arts Academy prepares for upcoming Open Houses March 30 and April 6 from 2-4 p.m.
Posted on March 26, 2014 by Roseanne McKee
Dance Maker Performing Arts Academy will hold two Open Houses on consecutive Sundays, March 30 and April 6, from 2-4 p.m. in Pawhuska at 200 Palmer Avenue. The academy is located just south of the police department in the building which previously housed the senior center.
The Open Houses will provide an opportunity for prospective students to learn the class schedule, the dress code, meet instructors and sign up while sharing light refreshments.
Evening and day classes will be available serving students from age three to adults, Dance Director Jenna Smith explained. Classes for younger students will meet once per week, while classes for older students may meet twice or more per week.
Ballet is not just for girls. Boys are also welcome and encouraged to sign up, she added.
Initially, only ballet classes will be offered, Smith said. Later, jazz and modern dance classes and other performing arts education instruction will be added: musical theater, drama and painting.
Smith, who holds a Bachelor’s degree in Dance Performance from Oral Roberts University, is an accomplished artist and teacher. Smith has taught ballet at the Tulsa Ballet and the Jasinski Dance Academy for the past two years.
Smith began dancing when she was three, and began pre-professional ballet training in the sixth grade with Pavel Rotaru.
During her senior year of high school she studied with Prima Ballerina, Maniya Barredo, in Alpharetta, Ga., and attended the University of North Carolina School of the Arts her freshman year of college as one of only eight accepted from across the U.S. into the college ballet program.
In 2012, Jenna choreographed Wahzhazhe: An Osage Ballet, which premiered in Tulsa, Bartlesville and at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the Native American in Washington, DC, in March of 2013.
Smith, who is Osage and Cherokee, said she sees the academy as a way of giving back to the community.
“Because of the great success of this ballet, the interest in ballet is very high,” Smith said. “We look forward to serving the people of Pawhuska and the surrounding communities at our performing arts academy.”
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News from the world of maths: Beautiful symmetry provides glimpse into quantum world
A complex symmetric structure known as the exceptional Lie group E8, which has so far only existed in the minds of mathematicians, seems to have turned up in real life for the first time. Physicists from the UK and Germany have conducted an experiment which involved cooling a crystal made of cobalt and niobium to near absolute zero and then applying a magnetic field. As they increased the strength of the magnetic field to a critical value, spontaneous patterns appeared in the configuration of electrons in the crystal, and these patterns carried the tell-tale signature of E8.
At 10:13 PM, BlindTurtle said...
So, the answer to life, the universe, and everything is 57.
So what is the question?
Not 57...30.
At 1:41 PM, Steve said...
Dr. Radu Coldea is deadly right. The E8 symmetry group is more fundamental than what was achieved experimentally. Alexander Zamolodchikov pointed out its possible importance in a somewhat limited context similar to what was done in Helmholtz Inst. and Oxford. However, and since almost twenty years, there was a fully developed general theory for high energy physics based on transfinite E8. This is the usual E8 plus a manifest golden mean effect in addition to the inert one. The theory is fully explained in various papers published in a journal for nonlinear dynamics, Chaos, Solitons & Fractals. I should list three papers which readers of this serious site may find very illuminating and informative. They are: High energy physics and the standard group from the exceptional Lie groups, 36, 2008, pp. 1-17. On a class of general theories for high energy particle physics, 14, 2002, pp. 649-668 and The theory of Cantorian spacetime and high energy particle physics (an informal review), 41, 2009, pp. 2635-2646. Further work on the subject was made by Ervin Goldfain, L. Marek-Crnjac, Ji-Huan He and G. Iovane as well as Tim Palmer.
News from the world of maths: Maths for mums and dads
In a survey published last week 79% of parents revealed that maths homework frequently leads to conflict and arguments in the household, and a third of those surveyed admitted that they avoid helping their children with their maths homework. Over 40% of parents proved unable to work out the answer to a question that a 10-year-old might be expected to solve in a national test. (Alex thinks of a number. He adds half of the number to a quarter of the number. The result is 60. What was the number Alex first thought of?) What's more, over 50% admitted to not being able to teach their kids basic maths techniques used in primary school, including division by chunking, the grid method, or number bonds?.
The survey questioned a random sample of 1000 parents who have children aged 6 -11 years. It was commissioned by Random House Group to coincide with the publication of a new book by Plus author Rob Eastaway and Mike Askew. Maths for Mums and Dads is designed to help parents come to grips with the techniques children are now taught at school and to give parents an insight into why children make mistakes. Look out for a review in the next issue of Plus or buy now from Amazon.
Read more from Rob Eastaway on Plus...
News from the world of maths: The speed of climate change
How long will it be until climate change brings tropical butterflies, exotic birds, or malaria-infested mosquitoes to UK shores? A team of US scientists has come a step closer to an answer by estimating the speed of climate change: the distance animal and plant species would have to migrate every year to maintain a constant temperature in their surroundings. According to the team's study, recently published in the journal Nature, the global mean of this speed is 0.42 km per year, but the study also points to important differences between types of habitat. Mountain species will be able to move slower, a predicted 0.11 km a year, since temperature varies quickly as you move up and down a mountain slope. Ecosystems from flooded grass lands and savannas, however, may have to shift by as much as 1.26 km a year to keep their temperature constant.
News from the world of maths: Mysterious stocking filler for US physicists
Researchers working on the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search experiment (CDMS) received an early Christmas gift last week when their detectors spotted evidence for the existence of dark matter, the mysterious substance that is believed to make up 25% of our Universe. The detectors, sitting half a mile underground in a disused mine in northern Minnesota, detected two events that may be results of dark matter particles bouncing off other atomic nuclei. It's the first time that such events were recorded by CDMS, and while they don't provide conclusive proof that dark matter exists, the detections have caused a stir in the scientific community.
News from the world of maths: How long is a day?
In our last online poll to find out what Plus readers would most like to know about the Universe you told us that you'd like to find out how long a day is. We took the question to the physicist Nicholas Mee and here is his answer — and it's not 24 hours!
Labels: IYA2009
Nice, but shouldn't that analemma be shifted left by a few minutes to the intersection coincides with zero minutes?
If you are looking for something to while away the holiday, then this issue has plenty of ideas for you! We explore the power of origami to solve ancient (and very modern) problems, find the maths in fashion, and marvel at the complexities of church bell ringing. But it's not all fun and games, as we investigate the controversies surrounding breast screening and the maths behind drug-induced hallucinations, find out how to predict the impact of natural catastrophes, and answer some deep questions about the Universe.
Read issue 53 of Plus!
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Services of LNG Ship Gas up and Cool Down at Kochi
8-Apr-2015
Petronet LNG Limited has found innovative ways to enhance the utilization of the Kochi LNG terminal.
It provided the services relating to Gassing Up and Cool Down of an LNG vessel at the terminal recently. The services were provided to the vessel named "Golar Snow" which had arrived under nitrogen. For Gas up the Nitrogen is displaced with LNG vapours in a controlled manner. Then the vessel tanks are slowly cooled to about minus 110 deg. Celsius, before injecting LNG. The whole operation was performed in a period of 48 hours and the vessel left for its destination carrying a small "heel" quantity of LNG.
A few days ago, Petronet had also provided LNG as a "bunker fuel" to a small vessel. It was a vessel which, due to stringent pollution norms in its area of operations, has to run on the cleaner fuel – LNG.
The Kochi LNG terminal has also been providing services relating to "storage" and "reload" of LNG.
This is the first time in India that such services are being provided and it has put Petronet's Kochi LNG terminal on the World map. There are very few regas terminals in the World who provide such services and, hence, it is a unique value proposition which Petronet has been able to offer at international benchmarks. The Kochi LNG terminal, which has been running at a very low capacity utilization due to non-availability of pipeline evacuation network, is looking into providing such value added services.
Source: New Delhi
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You are previewing: Types of contemporary Muslims: Lax, extremist and moderate
Publish Year
ھندوستان ابتدائی مسلممورخین کی نظروں میں (Hindustan)
Indian Nationalism versus Hindu Nationalism
Karkare na Qatilo Kaun? ગુજરાતી (Gujarati)
The Betrayal of India: Revisiting the 26/11 Evidence
Types of contemporary Muslims: Lax, extremist and moderate quantity
SKU: 0914-ZIK-Lax Categories: English, Islam, Non-Fiction Tags: Islam, Muslims, Types
Three types of Muslims exist in the world today: lax, extremist and moderate. The first, the lax variety, forms the bulk of Muslims living in any country today as a majority or minority. This short book discussed all these three varieties and shows which variety is closer to real Islam.
Zafarul-Islam Khan is an Indian Muslim author and journalist based in New Delhi. He is currently editor and publisher of The Milli Gazette fortnightly focusing on issues concerning the Muslim community, which is a minority in India. He is also the founder and chairman of Charity Alliance, an organisation involved in relief and welfare work in India. And is Managing Director of Pharos Media & Publishing Pvt Ltd.
He is author and translator of over 40 books in Arabic, English and Urdu including Hijrah in Islam (Delhi, 1996) and Palestine Documents (New Delhi 1998). He has contributed eight articles to the Encyclopaedia of Islam (Leiden) on Indo-Muslim themes. He is a regular commentator on Islamic and South Asian issues on radio and TV channels, including Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya and BBC Arabic and his writings appear in Arabic newspapers and magazines.
All India Muslim Majlis-E-Mushawarat, Delhi
Darul Musannifin Shibli Academy, Azamgarh
MA (Islamic history), Cairo University, 1978;
PhD (Islamic Studies), Manchester University, 1987.
Translator-announcer, Urdu Service, Cairo Radio, 1972-3;
Translator-Editor, Foreign Ministry, Tripoli, Libya, 1973-79;
Senior Research Fellow, The Muslim Institute, London, 1979-1993;
Director, The Institute of Islamic & Arab Studies, New Delhi, 1993-;
Visiting professor, Imam University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, September-October 1991;
Resource person (expert/lecturer) in the methodology of research, Academic Staff College, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, 1991-;
Contributor, The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Leiden, and the Encyclopaedia of Islamic History, Cairo.
Muslimedia News & Features Service, London, 1981-84;
Orient Press International (OPI) News & Features Service,
New Delhi,1988-;
Muslim & Arab Perspectives, New Delhi 1993-;
Journal of Islamic History, New Delhi 1995-.
The Milli Gazette (fortnightly newspaper) Jan. 2000-
Muslim India monthly magazine 2003-04
Al-Hayat Newspaper, London, 1991-92;
Arab News, Jeddah, 1992-97;
Al-Riyad Daily, Riyadh, 1991-2006.
Political analyst/ commentator:
BBC Radio & TV-London, Voice of America, Washington, Al-Jazeerah Satellite Channel, Doha, Kuwait Radio, Al-Arabiya, Kuwait, Manar TV, Beirut, Iran Radio, Tehran, All-India Radio, New Delhi etc.
Author and translator:
Over 40 books in Arabic, English and Urdu, published in Kuwait, Cairo, Beirut, London and Delhi since 1968.
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S.M. Mushrif
Indian Freedom Movement and RSS: A story of Betrayal
Dr. Shamsul-Islam
Be-gunah Qaidi (Urdu)
Abdul Wahid Shaikh
Iraq War: Untold story of the American invasion and Iraqi resistance
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Tag Archives: Dolly
Dolly, Google And Original Sin
Remember Dolly? I do. I was twenty years old in July of 1996. Back then, I spent most of my free time smoking marijuana, hiking and recording music in my tiny bedroom studio. You might say I was on a spiritual quest of sorts (think: Frodo). So it must have been one evening, feeling more than a little frustrated with the progress I was making on a particular song, when the announcement came across the television that researchers in Scotland had successfully cloned a sheep, named Dolly. I remember grabbing the first thing I could find and tearing it up- it was my mattress. Needless to say, I was against cloning.
Ever since, I’ve been trying to understand why I reacted so strongly to the news. My wife jokes with me now, “Don’t go tearing up our mattress” when I get enraged over some bit of disturbing news, and there is a lot of that out there. Yet, I’ve never quite matched that peak of intensity. I haven’t become desensitized, just more tempered. If not, this blog would be full of insane ranting, and there is a lot of that out there, too. It wasn’t so much a reaction to Dolly herself, I’m sure she was a very pleasant sheep, completely oblivious of her artificial conception, it was the realization that if they could now clone sheep, soon they would move to clone human beings. In fact, since Dolly, scientists have been successful at cloning other mammals, like horses and bulls and it is fairly routine now for scientists to experiment with chimeras, or creatures made up of elements from more than one species. For example, mice with human brain cells or pigs with human blood, all in the name of advancing science and medicine. Surely somewhere, somebody, in a top-secret lab, is experimenting with human cloning right now. Human curiosity, especially under the manipulation of unscrupulous benefactors, frequently outstrips our sense of morals, with unforeseen, sometimes grave consequences.
There seemed to be a buzzing in the air
The barnyard creatures settled off to bed
All at once they heard the sound
Soft vibration filled the ground
Now it came as they were sleeping
Now the magic science knife
Is cutting up the molecules of gold
Now the magic scientists
Patching up the fabric of the soul
A slip of the coil
From “Clone” by The Meat Puppets [2009]
The line, “a slip of the coil” from the Meat Puppets’ song “Clone” might be referring to the double-helix structure of DNA, with the “slip” forcasting a mistake. Knowing the Meat Puppets, it could also mean nothing at all. But the message seems clear enough; science is continually unveiling a universe so complex in its simplicity that we would be foolish to assume we understand any of it, much less seek to control it.
I can’t help but be reminded of the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. We all know it. Is this not like eating from the forbidden tree? In the book of Genesis, Satan appears to Eve and lies:
And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
[Genesis 3:4-5]
In the Qur’an, the story of Adam and Eve is similar, except that Satan claims Adam and Eve would become like the angels or immortal by eating from the tree which God forbade:
Then began Satan to whisper suggestions to them, bringing openly before their minds all their shame that was hidden from them (before): he said: “Your Lord only forbade you this tree, lest ye should become angels or such beings as live for ever.”
[Al-‘A`raf 7:20]
It is understood that “bringing openly before their minds all their shame that was hidden from them” means their reproductive parts were revealed to them. In fact, some versions of the Qur’an translate the Arabic as such. Might we speculate that becoming aware of their private parts, while causing them to feel shy for the first time, also made them aware of their mortality? Angels are immortal spirit beings whom God created prior to creating human beings. They do not possess reproductive parts because they do not need them. I’m not a religious scholar, but perhaps the shame came not from modesty about their nakedness, or guilt from their disobedience to God, but from knowledge of their inferiority to the angels and Satan (who is not a fallen angel in Islam, but another being called a jinn, made from fire). In the Islamic account of creation, Satan would not bow down to mankind, whom he considered lesser beings, made of clay, more akin to the animals and susceptible to instinctual drives. He was jealous of Adam and Eve and vowed to lead them astray. Part of Satan’s strategy was to make humans feel lowly and then manipulate them though their desires. Yes, first he damaged their self-esteem, then through careful persuasion along the way, caused them to choose bad relationships and ruin their lives- sound familiar?
In both religious texts, it is recorded that Adam and Eve became ashamed of their nakedness- of their humanness- by listening to Satan and responded to their new awareness by covering themselves. So, while Islam places no more blame on Eve than Adam and there is no concept of original sin from which a redeemer is needed to free us, it is clear that in Abrahamic thought, evil has its origin in Satan’s defiance of God and his mission to disgrace God’s favorite creation- us. The creation story is an allegory of the human condition. Our very existence, at times, seems like an experiment dreamt up in heaven. Our moral struggles are reflective of a greater struggle going on in the spirit world. Regardless of your religious tradition, there is a mystical truth concealed here that binds all of humanity together.
It is also taught that Satan is a deceiver. Christians say that Satan disguises himself as an “angel of light.” To shed light is to illuminate, to give knowledge. And who has made “Don’t be evil” their motto? Google of course; the same company that seeks to create artificial intelligence that will “be like the mind of God”; the same company that recently appointed Ray Kurzweil, the renowned trans-humanist, as their director of engineering. As a proponent of trans-humanism, Kurzweil believes that we can transcend our own humanity by controlling the aging process:
“We have the means right now to live long enough to live forever. Existing knowledge can be aggressively applied to dramatically slow down aging processes so we can still be in vital health when the more radical life extending therapies from biotechnology and nanotechnology become available.”
– Ray Kurzweil, The Singularity Is Near
The September 30, 2013 issue of Time Magazine featured the cover story: Can Google Solve Death? In it, the article discusses Calico, Google’s new venture into life-extension technology. Trans-humanists believe human beings can, through the aid of technology, control our own evolution. They envision a time where human beings merge with technology, becoming post-human, essentially a new species. If that doesn’t disturb you, then perhaps the announcement that Google has acquired Boston Dynamics will. Boston Dynamics is an engineering and robotics firm which sprouted from MIT in the early nineties. It is the eighth robotics company Google has snatched up in recent months. With funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Boston Dynamics has developed some of the most advanced robots and AI software in the world, much of it for military use. For example, BigDog is a quadrupedal robot meant to accompany soldiers in battle. It is capable of carrying up to 340 lbs. of gear while traveling at 4 mph. Atlas is a six-foot-tall humanoid robot designed to cover rough terrain and assist in search-and-rescue operations. Google’s emerging robotics division is being overseen by Andy Rubin, the executive responsible for the development of Android, the world’s most widely used smartphone software. Regarding Google’s acquisition of his company, Boston Dynamics founder Dr. Marc Raibert said in a recent New York Times article, “I am excited by Andy and Google’s ability to think very, very big… with the resources to make it happen.” The internet giant has been suspiciously quiet about what it has in the works, however.
I think I’m on the brink of another “Dolly” moment. Trans-humanists and proponents of a world increasingly reliant on technology might refer to me as a Neo-Luddite, because of my resistance to these sorts of “advancements”. Well, sticks and stones. I’m not against scientific reasoning or human advancement, but with each scientific endeavor, should we not be carefully analyzing our motives, especially considering prior advances in technology which almost always result in more inequality and de-humanization? Always under the guise of helping people or making life more convenient, technology masquerades as a savior, but really only increases the scope and influence of the power-elite.
I am convinced the true power of human consciousness lies dormant, forgotten. Only a few enlightened ones throughout history have glimpsed the possibilities of the human mind and have understood our role in the universe. Technology will never solve the problem of death, because it is not a problem to be solved. Technology will never succeed at traveling through space or time or contacting alien intelligences, because, these are not puzzles technology can piece together. I believe we will not advance through better and faster microchips, but through complete freedom from material limitations. But I’m just One American, what do I know?
Leave a comment | tags: Adam & Eve, Boston Dynamics, Calico, cloning, DARPA, Dolly, evil, Genesis, globalism, Google, Qur'an, Ray Kurzweil, Satan, technology, trans-humanism | posted in Culture, Life, Reflections, Religion, Science, The Big Picture
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Boston University Theses & Dissertations
Confrontation and engagement in relations between the DPRK and the United States, 1991-2011
Yi, Yurim
In examining why the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) pursues nuclear weapons, this study focuses on Pyongyang's consistent demand for normalization of relations with Washington. The primary aims of this study are 1) to study the significance of normalization of relations with Washington as an alternative to nuclear weapon development in the DPRK, 2) to investigate potential causal relationships between Pyongyang's policy choices and Pyongyang's expectation for normalization of relations with Washington, and 3) to examine whether culturally sensitive behavior significantly influences Pyongyang's policy decisions. To understand the significance of normalization of relations and the meaning of Pyongyang's behavior, this study depends heavily on cultural perspectives. In this study, two independent variables are examined for their effects on Pyongyang's policy, 1) Pyongyang's expectation for normalization of relations with Washington, and 2) the alignment of Washington's policy with Pyongyang's cultural code. Two hypotheses emerge from these two factors: first, when Pyongyang had high expectations for normalization of relations with Washington, Pyongyang was more likely to choose engagement policies and give less priority to pursuit of nuclear weapons; and second, the more Washington's policies harmonized with Pyongyang's cultural code, the more Pyongyang cooperated with Washington. Using case studies and discourse analysis, this study examines four periods from 1991 to 2011. Interviews with North Korean defectors and with South Korean experts complement this study of expectation and cultural meaning. The study concludes, first, that normalization of relations with Washington appeared to Pyongyang as a viable alternative to nuclear weapon development in providing a security guarantee and national dignity. Second, during most periods, Pyongyang appeared to believe that it was highly dependent on nuclear weapons for its regime survival when it could not expect the benefits of improved relations with Washington. By the same token, Pyongyang's regime survival seemed less dependent on nuclear weapons when it could expect improved relations with Washington. At some times, however, Pyongyang practiced confrontation as a way to improve domestic stability. But usually high context diplomacy by the United States elicited positive responses.
Boston University Theses & Dissertations [5519]
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Pro-ACT, Inc. is a leader in training and educating professionals committed to creating safer hospitals, residential facilities, classrooms and treatment environments. The foundation of what has become Pro-ACT, Inc. was laid in the early 70s when Paul Smith, a doctoral student working in a Southern California psychiatric hospital, became concerned about the assaultive behavior he witnessed in his workplace. That concern prompted the creation of a training program intended to reduce assaults and show patients the respect and dignity that Paul, a Quaker, believed all people deserved. The first class was taught in 1975.
As Paul’s training evolved, first to PART and then to Pro-ACT and Pro-ACT Restraint Certification, he partnered with a select group of professionals involved in healthcare, behavioral health, education, and residential programs, each committed to reducing restraint and improving safety. From this group, Pro-ACT, Inc. was formed. While Pro-ACT, Inc. makes Pro-ACT training available nationwide, it does more. With a continuing commitment to creating safer hospitals, residences, communities, and schools, Pro-ACT, Inc. recognizes that there are professionals in a variety of work environments seeking more insight, more support, and more information. In response to those needs, Pro-ACT, Inc. provides an expanding array of training and consulting services.
Pro-ACT, Inc. was established to support the mission of safety and dignity, offer training and consultation to agencies committed to improving treatment, and make Pro-ACT training available to organizations throughout the world.
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Homepage»Commentary»What’s happening with Germany’s coal phase-out?
Commentary , Feature
What’s happening with Germany’s coal phase-out?
Last year, the German government convened a 24-person commission to plan the country’s move towards a definitive coal phase out. The group delivered its verdict: get off coal entirely by 2038.
By Guest Contributor on January 29, 2019 Go To Comments
Coal fired power plants are a type of power plant that make use of the combustion of enormous amounts of coal in order to generate electricity.
Greenpeace’s Martin Kaiser – who sat on a 24-person commission to plan the country’s move away from coal power – explains if this move is enough to stave off climate change.
So what has Germany’s coal commission decided?
First of all, the commission can’t decide anything. It was set up to work out a proposal for how Germany can quit coal in a socially responsible way whilst also making sure the country can meet its 2030 climate target and close the gap to its 2020 goal as quickly as possible.
That said, after the enormous efforts of the commission over the past 7 months to find an agreement between parties as diverse as unions, industry reps, energy utilities, mining regions, and environmentalists, it’s hard to imagine that the government won’t adopt its recommendations.
The most important part of the proposal – and the commission’s very existence – is that Germany, home of the Energiewende, but also world-champion in lignite burning, has finally decided to get off coal for good.
The deadline for that phase-out is 2038, with several opportunities to review the plan and see if it can be accelerated.
The phase out will start immediately: Over the next three years (until 2022) coal capacity of more than 12GW (5 of lignite, 7.7 of hard coal) will be removed from the grid. That’s about a third of Germany’s entire fleet.
Now obviously – since the commission needed everyone on board – there are some pretty significant problems with the proposal’s goals.
The 2038 phase-out date fails to meet the Paris Agreement’s climate target and was voted against by the environmental groups on the commission (including Greenpeace).
And the speed of the phase out between 2022 and 2030 is far too slow, which again the three NGOs within the commission voted against.
Finally, although Hambacher forest can finally be spared from RWE’s mining plans due to the planned lignite reductions, there was a glaring absence of any statement about how all threatened villages must be saved.
How is Germany planning to close these plants?
The proposal does not speak about individual plants, it only mentions capacity reductions.
It’s now up to the government to figure out which plants will deliver the needed GW-reductions. There will be compensations for the utilities, but again the details will be determined by the government.
Why is this announcement significant?
Germany hasn’t been making any progress in reducing its carbon emissions for close to a decade, but with the coal phase-out in place this is almost certain to change. It will add the much-needed second leg to the energy transition.
The country’s stalling emissions showed that it’s not enough to boost renewables if you leave an aging brown coal fleet untouched. These plants are cheap, old(some are more than 50 yrs old) and hard to compete with economically, but also very dirty (a brown coal plant emits about three times more CO2 compared to a modern gas power plant.) Now the renewables boom can start to become a success for the climate.
Germany, the world’s fourth-largest economy, is moving into a decarbonized future without relying on nukes and that’s obviously a big deal.
With the coal phase out in place the path is cleared to eventually focus on other key areas of decarbonisation such as transport.
But the commission’s proposal is not in line with the Paris Agreement…
The commission’s proposal ensures that the energy sector reaches its 2030 target which was modeled on a 2° trajectory. So it is not in line with 1.5 and that is a big problem.
Ending coal only in 2038 is unacceptable and sets a bad example to other countries – which is why environmental NGOs voted against it.
Is there anything people can do to try to accelerate the phase out?
As much as this proposal leaves to be desired, the important progress it does make could only have been achieved with the tens of thousands of demonstrators marching for Hambacher Forest, asking for more climate action, and the pupils and students who have gone on strike on Fridays. Similarly I believe that a loud voice of civil society is crucial to accelerating the phaseout.
This voice should first be heard during the legislative process ahead when the proposal will be put into law by the government. Here, the climate movement needs to ensure that there must not be any weakening of the proposal and contrary to emphasise the urgency to move ahead faster.
The proposal includes a number of assessments (in 2023, 2026, 2029 and 2032) to look at things like electricity prices and the necessary structural changes in the mining regions as well as progress in climate protections and I’m certain that the Paris Agreement goals and the need for a faster decline in emissions can and must be taken into account here.
Carbon Emissions Climate Change Fossil Fuels Germany
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Victor Joecks: Right-to-work proxy vote on ballot in November
By Victor Joecks Special to the Pahrump Valley Times
The most important election in a recent week didn’t involve a candidate, and it didn’t go the Republicans’ way.
Voters in Missouri overturned a right-to-work law that the Legislature enacted last year. Unions put it on the ballot via a referendum. That vote has implications for Nevadans this November.
Right-to-work laws allow employees covered by union contracts to choose whether or not they want to pay for union activities. Labor bosses hate giving options to employees because unions get less money as a result. It also means fewer campaign contributions for Democrats. That’s why union groups spent more than $15 million to roll back Missouri’s right-to-work law. Supporters of the law raised only about 20 percent of that.
“We’re just getting started,” bragged Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO. “We’ll build on this tremendous achievement in the days and weeks to come.”
That statement should scare Nevada employees who don’t want to pay union bosses hundreds of dollars a year to keep their jobs. It’s also a threat to Nevada employers.
That’s because Nevada is the only right-to-work state in which Democrats control the Legislature. If Trumka is looking for another place to fight right-to-work, Nevada makes the most sense. As a percentage of the workforce, Nevada actually has more union members than Missouri, 12.7 percent to 8.7 percent.
Last session, Democrats and their union allies didn’t have a path to repeal Nevada’s right-to-work law. Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval had the veto pen and used it frequently. Democrats put forward such a radical agenda that the moderate-to-left-leaning Sandoval set a Nevada record for the most sustained vetoes.
Sandoval, however, is termed out. And barring a miracle, Democrats will control both branches of the Legislature after November. That means the future of Nevada’s right-to-work law comes down to Nevada’s next governor.
Parker Briden, a spokesman for Republican gubernatorial candidate Adam Laxalt, wrote, “Adam supports Nevada’s right-to-work law and would oppose efforts to undermine it.” The campaign of Democrat Steve Sisolak didn’t return requests for comment on the issue in time for publication of this column, even though they were asked about it in April, June and again recently. Even without a direct response, there’s ample evidence he would do the bidding of union bosses.
“To earn and keep our support, you have to be an advocate for our agenda,” Trumka said. “That means helping us pass labor law reform so aspiring union members can organize freely and fairly.”
Part of the AFL-CIO’s agenda is opposing right-to-work. The Nevada AFL-CIO endorsed Sisolak in April. It’s logical to conclude that Sisolak supports repealing right-to-work.
“I think it would be very unfortunate if our right-to-work law was repealed,” said Cara Clarke, a spokeswoman for the Las Vegas Metro Chamber of Commerce. “It’s really about economic freedom for the employees and how their income is spent.”
Rolling back right-to-work would also hurt efforts to diversify the economy.
“Being a right-to-work state can help us attract quality employees into our state, compared to other states that don’t have right-to-work laws,” Clarke said. “This is an important factor that businesses look at when they’re looking to relocate to Nevada.”
A change this substantial should be a major issue in the governor’s race. But Nevada politicians have a history of springing liberal proposals on the public after an election. In 2014, Sandoval talked about the need to “keep taxes low” just months before proposing the largest tax increase in Nevada history. Last session, legislative Democrats voted to raise property taxes and repeal compromise labor reforms passed in 2015. Good luck finding incumbent Democrats who will even mention those votes on their campaign websites.
Right-to-work won’t officially be on the ballot in November. But it may as well be.
Victor Joecks is a columnist for the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
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Everything You Wanted to Know About Leadership . . . and Should Have Asked Your Kids
The article was written by Brian McDermott, who is the self-described, Chief Storyteller, at his consulting firm,GrowthWorks Inc., where he specializes in helping leaders facilitate change, innovation and improvement. Brian is the co-author of Leading Innovation: Creating Workplaces Where People Excel So Organizations Thrive, and Time Out for Leaders: Daily Inspiration for Maximum Impact. Brian currently is working on a new book which mirrors the title of this article, Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Leadership . . . and Should Have Asked Your Kids.
Brian Blogs at http://growthworksinc.typepad.com/growthworks_inc/. He would love to hear your kid-inspired lessons about life and leadership: bmcdermott@growthworksinc.com.
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Leadership . . . and Should Have Asked Your Kids
I have a theory that if I listen well enough, everything I need to know about business and leadership I can learn from kids.
I’ve been paying attention for a long time – first for 20-plus years as a journalist, and for the last decade as a facilitator and consultant. I work with bosses who want to lead teams that aren’t stuck doing the same old things the same old ways. The lessons keep coming fast and kid-curious about what it really takes to treat employees – people – as any organization’s most important resource. Here are four youth-inspired insights I find essential:
#1 Let ’em Do Something that Matters . . .
Shortly after starting high school, my daughter, Callie, gave me a no-holds-barred review of one of her classes. It wasn’t pretty. She came down heavy on the teacher, delivering this assessment with all the drama you’d imagine from an exasperated 15 year old: “All he does is talk. He never lets us do anything.” Keep in mind this was a course she wanted to take, a subject she seemed eager to master, a class she, as a freshman, initially felt lucky to get into. Her pain was complicated by disappointment. And her teacher – her leader – never really corrected his course.
Step into the workplace and start looking for comparables . . .
One small example: Business meetings. They don’t last a semester like high school courses, thank your lucky stars, but there’s plenty of evidence adults hate ’em and suffer the same kind of gloom Callie felt being lectured to instead of being engaged.
Research out of places like the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California and the University of Minnesota estimates executives spend 40 to 50 percent of their time in meetings. Other studies show business professionals say half their meeting time is unproductive, and that up to 25 percent of that time is maddeningly frittered away on irrelevancies.
That’s not good for business because, in theory, meetings are where a lot of work is supposed to get done, and where leaders have to be at their best.
Even worse news is that 65 percent of all workers in the U.S. are dissatisfied with their jobs, according to a 2010 survey by The Conference Board. That’s more than six of every 10 people you work with saying, “I’d rather be doing something else.” With some 140 million people in the American workforce, that’s a lot of squandered potential; unhappy workers are not particularly productive.
What’s the antidote?
Give the people you lead opportunities to do some important work. Stop talking. Start listening. Give people a chance to roll up their sleeves and make a contribution. In reporting the sobering Conference Board stats about the high levels of worker dissatisfaction, program director John Gibbons says, “Challenging and meaningful work is vitally important to engaging American workers.”
Most of the work I do now is for leaders who want help creating meetings, process, and projects that grown-ups won’t hate – working sessions that have purpose, engage people strategically and creatively in doing stuff that matters, and that produce measureable results. We’re usually pushing for new strategies, major changes, innovation and breakthroughs, increased efficiencies, and improvement.
I have a strong desire to stay in business, and an ego too fragile for the sights and sounds of rolling eyes and sighs and heads thumping onto tabletops in response to what I do. So, I’m diligent about focusing on what everybody else is bringing to the conversation. One of the most important things I’ve learned in my work as a journalist and as a facilitator and consultant is that other people know a lot. And one of the most effective ways for me to lead them to new ideas and solutions is to tap into the wisdom they bring to the room. To connect knowledge, creativity and human spirit.
At GrowthWorks, we developed a model we call LOOP Leadership (Linkage, Obstacles, Opportunities,Plans). We use it for everything from designing non-boring hyper-productive meetings to doing individual executive coaching. LOOP helps create engagement in meetings and in jobs because it forces focus on pressing real-world business issues and because it actively involves people in learning about and dealing with those issues:
Linkage. A vital early step in “letting ’em do something” is to create clarity and ownership for the players. Whether you’re planning a meeting agenda or assigning a yearlong project, draw a connection to a specific business issue. Then help people answer a few key questions: What is the ultimate goal? What is my role in contributing to that goal? Why is this important – to me, to our team and to the company?
Obstacles. Sometimes the most important thing you can do with any project is identify what’s blocking your goals. As a leader, set the tone. Acknowledge there are barriers, and examine the risks in not overcoming them and of not challenging the status quo. That’s not easy, of course, because we’re talking about creating an environment where there’s openness, safety and authentic dialogue about longstanding practices based on obsolete beliefs, procedures, policies and habits that may no longer serve a useful purpose but are protected nonetheless. We call them Sacred Dinosaurs. Digging up those old bones requires laying aside egos and the need to be right. Involving people in this kind of work, however, is a potent elixir for engagement and productivity.
Opportunities. Once people understand the challenge and the barriers, turn them loose on generating ideas for improving, changing and innovating current successes and creating new possibilities for growth and success. An important element of identifying opportunities is to challenge the mindset there is only one right way to do things. What works today might not work tomorrow, so it’s important to keep asking questions, knowing that solutions always will be moving targets. Gertrude Stein, the American author who gained notoriety influencing the artistry of Ernest Hemingway and Pablo Picasso, once laid out the challenge this way: “There is no answer. There never was an answer. There never will be an answer. That’s the answer.”
Plans. The final step to letting ’em do something effectively is to clarify priorities and to make plans and personal commitments for what must be done to achieve the desired business results. Determine who will do what, by when to move toward the goal. Engaging people by asking for commitment, accountability, and reinforcement are critical to achieving sustainable results.
The objective in engaging people – using LOOP or any other approach – is to create a process and an environment that encourages people to think differently, build on each other’s ideas and develop high levels of communication, commitment and collaboration.
Think about a classroom full of teenagers. Energy and intelligence abound, as in every work team. When we bring people together, the challenge is to tap them, not turn them off.
#2 Put Your Pants on First . . .
When my son, Sean, was 3 years old, he asked me a question that 18 years later still rattles around my head almost every day, and reminds me of how important it is to keep questioning the status quo.
He used to toddle down from his bedroom in the morning is his fuzzy footy pajamas to keep me company while I got ready for the day. When I slid aside the shower curtain he’d be sitting on the closed lid of the toilet reaching up to hand me my towel. Sometimes I wouldn’t have heard him arrive. While I worked my razor he played with handfuls of shaving cream. And then while I dressed he would stand nearby the closet, watching… watching as only one with unencumbered curiosity would watch.
That morning he watched me pull a pair of pants off a hanger, step into them, latch the waist clasp, then pull down a shirt, put it on, unbutton my pants, tuck in my shirt, and re-button my pants.
He looked at me, his head tilted a bit, smiling, and asked, “Why don’t you put your shirt on first?”
Almost every morning when I dress I relive that moment and hear that question. First, I smile. Then I remind myself: Beware of doing things the way they have always been done merely because that’s the way they have always been done. There are always other ways. Maybe better ways. And if you always do what you’ve always done you always get what you’ve always got. Even a child can see that.
#3 Don’t Be Afraid of Fish Heads . . .
This lesson came in a handmade card daughter Callie sent from her Peace Corps job location in Tzactza, Peru last year for Father’s Day (celebrated annually the third Sunday in June in the US).
DISCLAIMER: If you want to score big points with a parent, send a note like the one I’m about to share with you. I’m flattered and touched to have my daughter giving me this much credit for my parenting (and I had only an instant of suspicion that she may be about to ask me for something big). I know it may seem like I’m nominating myself for some good daddy award, but I really am putting this out here because of the leadership wisdom I’m hearing in her words.
THE BACK STORY: You need a bit of background to understand the “inside” story on the fish heads that show up in the first paragraph. When Callie was 15 we took a family trip to Spain. When we ordered our first meal at a restaurant in the Plaza Mayor, near where I lived when I was a college student studying abroad, I warned that the fresh-caught trout would come with head and tail attached. Everyone thought I was joking; they had never seen that in their American-cuisine upbringing. But I wasn’t. After the initial shock it was not that big a deal. Trout is a delicate creature. Everyone ate with no major problems. But a week later at a restaurant in Nerja, along the Costa del Sol, Callie ordered another variety of fish that had a much bigger, more intimidating head. She got a bite or two in, but couldn’t go on. I was eating a delicious…wonderfully blackened swordfish steak I was planning to savor sloooowly…bite… by… bite. I was a bite or two in when I realized to make life right at that moment it would be Callie eating my swordfish. And, to enjoy the punch line that comes with her advice, you need to know there is an animal many kids keep as pets in the U.S. that are a delicacy in the Peruvian diet, and we had plans to be sharing meals on a visit with Callie shortly after her card arrived.
NOTE: The outside of this card was a head-and-shoulders photo of Callie holding a camp-fire-grilled fish in two hands, with head and tail attached, and looking as if she might swallow it whole.
The lesson in Callie’s words:
“Well, you must have done something right. It may have taken a while, but in the end you raised a daughter who isn’t afraid of fish heads. Proud? Happy Father’s Day.
“Actually I really can use fish heads to embody many of the important life lessons you have given me – to try new things even when they’re scary; to be able to laugh instead of getting angry; to look for a solution instead of despairing over a situation (Trade plates?). But most importantly, you were always there to help me out when I was struggling with these lessons (Yep, let’s trade plates.). And now I’m all grown up and munching on fried trout head. You done good, Pops. Now I get to teach you to eat roasted guinea pig! I can’t wait.”
#4 Jerks and Idiots Are Out There – If That’s What You’re Looking for. . .
Through the Eyes of a Child . . .
A mother was driving in afternoon rush-hour traffic, having just picked up her 7-year-old daughter from school. While Mom drove, the little girl worked quietly, drawing pictures in a notebook on her lap.
After a few minutes, the little girl raised her eyes, looking a little confused at her mother and asked quizzically, “Mom, where are all the jerks and idiots today?”
Mom said, “Oh honey, they’re only out when your father is driving.”
. . . the World is a Different Place.
I’m not the kind of guy who recites affirmations in the mirror to start my mornings. But anybody who’s been involved in a project I facilitated can tell you, I am a big advocate for making the choice to go through life not seeing the other drivers as jerks and idiots. I’ve seen the difference it can make in a life or a business when someone – especially a leader – chooses to approach most days with hope and optimism.
I’m so glad there are kids around to remind us about all these good ideas.
VIEW ALL POSTS ABOUT: Common Law Claims
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NEW: Failing RI Report Card Grades Not Advancing Social Justice
November 17, 2015 /0 Comments/in Budget and Spending, Education, Energy, Health Care, Infrastructure, Jobs, Labor, Recent Posts, Social Services, Taxes /by RI Center for Freedom
Non-Competitive Grades Harming Work, Mobility, and Opportunity for Rhode Islanders
Preponderance of Fs and Ds Should Signal Need for Change in Policy Culture
Providence, RI — The opportunity for upward mobility for many Ocean Staters continues to be hampered by a non-competitive business climate and onerous family tax burdens, as evidenced by the poor grades the State of Rhode Island received on the 2015 Report Card on Rhode Island Competitiveness, the fourth annual such report, released today by the Rhode Island Center for Freedom & Prosperity.
Burdened with public policies that discourage work and a productive lifestyle, the state’s poor grades in 10 major categories (two F’s, seven D’s, and one C) reflect a government culture geared to benefit special interest insiders, while at the same time promoting job-crushing and soul-crushing dependency among the general populace.
Raising even further alarm, Rhode Island ranked dead-last, overall, when compared with report cards from other New England states.
“This report card clearly demonstrates the wreckage that decades of liberal policies have wrought upon our state. These unacceptable grades should be a wake-up call to lawmakers that a government-centric approach is not producing the social justice and self-sufficiency that Rhode Islanders crave,” suggested Mike Stenhouse, CEO for the Center. “If we want to provide more mobility and opportunity for our neighbors and entrepreneurs, we must completely reform our public policy approach. We must learn to trust in our people and remove the tax and regulatory boot of government off of their backs by advancing policies that empower the average family with choices, that reward work, and that grow the economy.”
The two categories with F grades are Infrastructure and Health Care; the seven D’s are Business Climate, Tax Burden, Spending & Debt, Employment & Income, Energy, Public Sector labor, and Living & Retirement in Rhode Island; while Education received a C-. Among the 52 sub-categories evaluated, Rhode Island received 19 F’s, 24 D’s, 5 Cs, 3 Bs, and just one lone A.
In a related 1-page brief, the Center also analyzes report card trends over recent years as well as comparisons to grades for other New England states.
The RI Report Card, originally developed for the Center by a national economist, compiles into a single document the state rankings among key economic and social indexes, as published by dozens of credible 3rd party national organizations.
The 2015 report card, with citations, as well as reports from prior years can be downloaded at RIFreedom.org/RIReportCard.
http://rifreedom.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_sail_300x100.png 0 0 RI Center for Freedom http://rifreedom.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_sail_300x100.png RI Center for Freedom2015-11-17 08:48:582018-02-05 13:14:44NEW: Failing RI Report Card Grades Not Advancing Social Justice
To GOVERNOR’S MEDICAID WORKING GROUP: A Proven Policy Idea to Save Money
April 7, 2015 /0 Comments/in Blog, Budget and Spending, Health Care, Recent Posts, Social Services /by RI Center for Freedom
A proven and bi-partisan cost saving measure that has produced significant savings in other states has been recommended to state officials by the RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity and its national partner, the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA).
It is well-known that fraud, abuse, and lack of enforcement plague many state and federal welfare programs, often resulting in wasteful spending and a potential lack of funds for the truly needy.
FGA’s recent “Stop the Scam” report discusses how many states are not conducting detailed enough Medicaid eligibility and verification procedures for new and existing enrollees.
From issuing Medicaid and welfare payments to dead people, to lottery winners, to enrollees who did not provide proper documentation, and to people under-reporting their incomes, a process that provides for more detailed screening and periodic check-ups can result in significant cost savings for states.
According to FGA, “Illinois and Pennsylvania instituted proactive audit reforms with bipartisan support, and together they have saved hundreds of millions of dollars. Pennsylvania discovered thousands of ineligible individuals receiving benefits, removing 160,000 individuals in just the first 10 months of the audit, saving $300 million. Illinois quickly followed suit and removed 300,000 individuals in the first year, 400,000 more in the second, with expected taxpayer saving of $350 million per year in Medicaid alone.”
As with many states, Rhode Island has its own screening and verification process. However, according to FGA, rarely do they have the capacity to conduct the deep-diving to search the federal and state databases necessary to root out more subtle cases of ineligibility.
The Center recommends legislative action or an executive order requiring Rhode Island to utilize third-party vendors that specialize in determining if enrollees have retained eligibility in Medicaid.
A thorough examination of FGA’s recommended “best practices to stop welfare fraud” should be conducted by Rhode Island health officials to determine if the vendors suggested by FGA may be able to help the state identify additional cases of ineligibility.
http://rifreedom.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_sail_300x100.png 0 0 RI Center for Freedom http://rifreedom.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_sail_300x100.png RI Center for Freedom2015-04-07 08:26:212015-04-07 08:26:21To GOVERNOR'S MEDICAID WORKING GROUP: A Proven Policy Idea to Save Money
POLICY BRIEF: Welfare Reform in Rhode Island
April 7, 2015 /0 Comments/in Budget and Spending, Recent Posts, Social Services /by Justin Katz
POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS: In tandem with plans to realign the institutional incentives of Rhode Island’s welfare services, the RI Center for Freedom and Prosperity recommends the following specific reforms:
Implement a cash diversion program for new enrollees. Thirty-three other states have such measures to provide lump-sum cash assistance in lieu of full enrollment in the state’s welfare program.
Decrease the lifetime limit for assistance through the state’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program from its current 48-month limit.
Enforcement. Increase accountability by implementing stricter sanctions for noncompliance with work requirements. In Rhode Island, only 11% of TANF recipients are actively engaged in work-related activities, the second-worst rate in the nation. Strengthening the sanctions for failure to participate in work activities would likely increase work participation substantially in Rhode Island.
Download the PDF here
RI’s Poor Welfare Reform Performance
For the Ocean State, perhaps the most shocking finding in the Heartland Institute’s 2015 update to its “Welfare Reform Report Card” is that only 11.0% of Rhode Islanders receiving welfare payments through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program are “working.” In this case, “working” would even include such activities as attending classes, doing community service, and receiving therapy to improve “work readiness.”
Nationally, TANF work participation ranges from 7.3% in Massachusetts to 68.7% in Wyoming, with a national average of 29.5%, according to the study. In the original 2008 version of the report card, Rhode Island ranked 43rd, with a work participation rate of 24.9%.
In that one statistics, Rhode Islanders can see the results of their state’s welfare-to-work policies, which Heartland graded an F and ranked 45th in the country. That grade and rank are given based on the Ocean State’s overall weakness in five areas of reform that should serve to draw people facing hard times toward work and self-sufficiency.
The Center recommends that lawmakers seriously consider implementing stronger reforms in areas of weakness. Legislators should be careful, however, to craft policies that take account of their state’s actual and unique circumstances.
Work Requirements
The requirement to work is the only area in which RI grades above a C, according to Heartland. As the state’s abysmal 11% work participation rate shows, however, it would be wrong to see the A grade as an indication that nothing can be done.
One consideration is that Heartland only applies three grades to this section: A for immediate work requirement, C for up to a three-month delay, and F for more than that. In Rhode Island, the immediate requirement isn’t so much working as having an “employment plan.”
A second consideration is, as mentioned above, that a wide variety of activities that might be better termed “work preparedness” count for the plan, and the General Assembly is moving in the wrong direction. In their 2014 session, for example, legislators removed the six-month limit that work-readiness education programs could be used to fulfill the requirement (2014 H7242 and S2476).
The third consideration is that Rhode Island’s statutes allow for a wide variety of exemptions, especially for single-parent families (60% of families receiving payments). So, while welfare recipients may technically be required to follow through on an employment plan, the requirement is easily waived and easily answered with activities that aren’t actually work.
Cash Diversion
Cash diversion is one of the two areas in which Rhode Island receives an F, because it has no such policy in place, according to Heartland, although the General Assembly has authorized it. The program would allow social workers to give those in need one-time payments that are relatively large, typically with a stipulation that they cannot receive TANF payments for a period afterward. The idea is to help cover one-time costs, like car repairs, that help family members keep working, rather than ushering them onto welfare.
In this area, the Center would caution that an additional cash diversion program should only be implemented as part of a strong welfare-to-work reform initiative, preferably with bureaucratic reforms that better align agencies’ incentives with the goal of reduced welfare rolls. In an agency without such a culture, or in which cash diversion programs are simply added to other benefits, they could make existing problems worse.
Regardless of whether such a program is created, the General Assembly should remove or limit the blanket authority that currently exists in law.
Integration of Services
Another area in which the Center would advise caution is integration of services, for which Heartland gave Rhode Island its second F.
On paper, the idea is sound. People toward the bottom of Rhode Island’s economic ladder probably don’t only need some money and a soft push into a job search. They also need various forms of therapy (e.g., for substance abuse) and other government services, including childcare, healthcare, heating assistance, and so on.
It makes a sort of intuitive sense to secure services that will help them market themselves as employees. Specifically, Heartland recommends reforms like locating all offices in one building and increasing the ability of case workers to sign their clients up for the full array of services.
The Center’s concern, which it has been expressing for years, is that activists seem to have something more insidious in mind, which we’ve dubbed a “Dependency Portal.” With all welfare programs integrated, and even automated, the emphasis could become on ensuring not that people have access to the programs that they need, but that the government is able to provide as many benefits as people may be eligible for.
Rhode Island is currently engaged in a Unified Health Infrastructure Project (UHIP) that Governor Raimondo’s budget projects to cost $229 million. As the Center understands UHIPs intended design, it will increase the risk without necessarily capturing the efficiencies that Heartland suggests. If the General Assembly remains intent on funding the project, it should move quickly to develop and implement reforms to safeguard against the development of a Dependency Portal.
Lifetime Eligibility Limits
As a state that provides welfare benefits to individuals for up to four years, Rhode Island receives a C from Heartland in this category.
Arguably, the Ocean State actually should receive a little more credit, here, because welfare recipients can only receive benefits for two years within a five-year period. On the other hand, the law does allow for “hardship exceptions,” which would seem to be broadly applicable to families eligible for welfare in the first place.
Moreover, the relevant statute contains potentially contradictory sections that muddy the waters of Rhode Island policy. This leaves the door open for the annual attempts at legislation that wears away at the requirement.
Not only should the General Assembly lower the lifetime limit, but it should also clarify the language of the law to be clearer. Clarity would ensure that regulatory interpretation cannot change the policy and that future legislative changes would have to be unambiguous.
Rhode Island’s second C grade comes in the area of sanctions, or the penalties that the state imposes when recipients don’t comply with the requirements of the program. Heartland notes that Rhode Island’s penalty is full elimination of monthly payments, but marks the state down because the payments are reinstated immediately upon compliance. A longer term penalty would give the requirement more force.
Institutional Reforms
As the above analysis makes clear, the Center does not dispute the value of some degree of safety net for Rhode Islanders who fall on hard times. The overriding goal of such policies, however, should be to guide our neighbors toward self-sufficiency and productive participation in the state’s economy.
The Heartland Institute lays out policy suggestions that would improve Rhode Island’s abysmal performance, but they require institutional incentives about which the Center is skeptical. Ensuring that Rhode Islanders can have full trust in their government to work toward the goals that give welfare programs their moral justification is a prior necessity for full, effective reform of the system itself.
Toward that end, the Center recommends developing institutional reforms to realign incentives for state employees so that individual case workers and agencies overall are motivated to move people off of public assistance and toward work. Such reforms are beyond the scope of this brief and would require additional research, consideration, and discussion.
They might include renegotiated employment contracts that shift the weight of compensation packages to reward success offloading beneficiaries. On an agency scale, they could also include pilot programs involving longer-term block grants.
In undertaking to reform Rhode Island’s public safety net — or in deciding not to do so — legislators must give full consideration not only to the needs of beneficiaries, but also the capacity of a struggling, fading private sector to support them. Legislators must also be constantly aware of the unintended consequences that their program can have, whether in terms of increasing dependency, of fostering a special interest culture within the bureaucracy, or of distorting the state’s economy.
http://rifreedom.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_sail_300x100.png 0 0 Justin Katz http://rifreedom.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_sail_300x100.png Justin Katz2015-04-07 08:16:482016-12-23 02:02:13POLICY BRIEF: Welfare Reform in Rhode Island
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May 14, 2018 May 14, 2018 / Rydal Mount
“The house was stunning and we all loved it. Our favourite part was exploring and getting lost in the woods…”
This is from a thank-you letter sent to the Wordsworth family after the recent poetry awards for young people. Christopher Wordsworth and his mother, Susan, were here to present the prizes. And among the schools attending was a group from Bewcastle School, north of Carlisle. So far north that they are only six miles from the Scottish border.
So the Wordsworths were thrilled to receive a batch of letters from the children, several of whose poems were commended at the award ceremony. Especially the note that “we really enjoyed the drinks and nibbles because we were really hungry after our long drive”.
The prize-giving event is an opportunity for local people – well, Cumbrians, if not necessarily local – to visit what many see as a tourist attraction. “It’s on our doorstep yet we’ve never been before,” said one parent from Ambleside, who now recommends Rydal Mount to all her b&b guests.
And we always invite the youngsters to explore the gardens that William Wordsworth created, and which we are continually restoring in accordance with his plans. He would be thrilled to see the grounds being explored by young people loving the chance to run wild if just for a short time. They agreed with Dorothy Wordsworth who said: “Rydal Mount is the nicest place in the world for children”.
“It was like fairies live in the garden,” wrote Niamh from Bewcastle School. “My favourite part was when we ran away from the teachers.”
“..as if there were fairies in the garden..”
She sent us copies of pictures of daffodils, and the famous poem in their own handwriting, which she and her friends made, inspired by William Wordsworth.
← The refugee crisis that inspired our winning poet
The garden that Wordsworth planned →
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Beyond Fleet campaign to help boost the fleet manager position
Created: Friday, March 2nd, 2012 03:01 pm
NAFA Fleet Management Association recently announced the launch of its Beyond Fleet campaign, which is an effort by the company to improve the fleet management position.
Through the campaign, fleet managers can learn ways to move to executive-level status in their companies by gleaning tips on career development in the workplace.
"Beyond Fleet will be one of the most significant member benefits we've ever offered at NAFA," said Phillip Russo, executive director of NAFA. "We have crafted a digital suite of tools at BeyondFleet.com featuring presentations and template letters for fleet managers to utilize and show their employer they are more than just the 'car guy' or 'car gal.'"
Russo also said the campaign will use the power of social media, radio, videos and music for promotional purchases, while demonstrating the importance of the fleet manager position.
According to Connected World magazine, fleet managers need to find the best way to communicate with their truckers while they are on their routes, and the source suggests using tablets, which would allow truckers to use a multitude of relevant applications while parked.
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New trucks mean greener driving
Created: Tuesday, September 20th, 2011 04:01 pm
Even though the economic environment in the U.S. remains uncertain, government officials and trucking companies are still moving towards implementing more eco-friendly regulations when it comes to the nation's big rigs. Greatwide Logistics is one of these companies, which will be adding new vehicles that use alternative fuel to its fleet, reports Trucking Info.
The freight hauling business, based in Dallas, Texas, will primarily be using these trucks in Ontario, traveling more than 250,000 miles a year. Almost 40,000 gallons of gas will be saved annually with these three big rigs alone.
Bill Doherty, chief operating officer of Greatwide Logistics, says he hopes this new program will increase revenue as well as help the environment.
"As the economy rises and falls with fuel prices, we have a responsibility to look for smart ways to reduce our costs," Doherty said.
In New York and New Jersey, officials are also working towards greener conditions when it comes to emissions and operations of trucks in the area. According to Fleet Owner, trucks made before 1994 were banned in the Port Authority area, which will demand fleet management owners to upgrade their trucks. Although this may boost costs, it is a necessary move to improve the polluted environment in the cities.
Even though the economic environment in the U.S. remains uncertain, government officials and trucking companies are still moving towards implementing more eco-friendly regulations when it comes to the nation's big rigs.
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Terminology – Introduction to Gender Identities
Aug,2018
belief, cis, cisgender, crossdressing, difference, drag, enby, Gender Fluid, gender identity, individual, Label, Non-Binary, person, Pronouns, respect, Title, trans, Transgender, transsexual, transvestite, versus
One of the questions I am asked all of the time is; “what is trans”.
Well… that is a big conversation, but the long and short of it is that “Trans” means is from the Latin and means “on the other side of” whilst “cis” means “on the same side of”. So both cis and trans are an antonyms paring. A non-trans person is cis.
We use trans as prefix in modern life all of the time for example transport an transplant – we are taking something from a place to the other side of somewhere.
When we talk about transgender individuals, these are people whose gender identity is different to that assigned at birth; be they non-binary, fluid or binary in that identity.
Transgender is an adjective – so you have a transgender woman, a transgender man, a transgender person or individual. It is not a verb or noun. You don’t have “a transgender” or “a group of transgenders” and also you can’t be “transgendered” or be “transgendering”. Importantly there is no “ism”, being transgender is not a condition or a thing. It is an identity and a part of someone’s sense of self.
We also use the term “trans” or sometimes “trans*” as an inclusive umbrella term to encompass all transgender and gender non-conforming identities, as I mentioned earlier, they include; Non-Binary, Gender Fluid and even Drag and Crossdressing.
Language evolves over time, words and expressions that were common place in society have fallen out of use, some of these can be taken as offensive by some, newer words have taken their place and form part of everyday usage.
There is always a “space” between “trans” and “woman”, it is never acceptable to join the two together, using “transman” or “tranwoman” implies that trans people are not the same or equal to “men” or “woman”. We have “tall people”, “short people” and we have “trans people” who can also be tall or short.
Facebook has many different ways of describing yourself, sexuality and your gender identity. This list keeps evolving as people’s own sense of self and identity evolves.
Take the two words “transsexual” and “transvestite”. These terms have been largely superseded by the use of the word “transgender” and “crossdresser”. Many in the community found the conflagration of “sex” incongruent with their identity and feelings. It’s a sense of self not a sexual orientation or desire. Many who grew up when transsexual was the accepted term still own that identity and are proud of it.
Transvestite has connotations of being seedy or part of some underground the scene. The word was popularised by films such Rocky Horror with many followers dressing up to support the show for a night out.
The important thing to remember is that everyone’s identity is their own, words and how they describe themselves is important, as are their pronouns and titles.
Let’s not forget, when we are being inclusive, that cis is also a gender identity. Being a cisgender person, whilst being the traditional one that society knows about, it is still their sense of self, although many cis people have never felt the need to consider or question their own gender identity.
We should avoid labelling or making assumptions based on appearance or personal beliefs or perspectives – if in doubt, ask!
Please check out our Bite Size Learning Module on Sex, Gender and Attraction for more information. You can also see details of our workshops and talks for ways to access training for your own organisation.
Bite Sized Learning
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Apple plans move to the middle of Amazon’s Seattle hub
Apple will bring 2,000 new jobs to Seattle over the next five years as part of its national expansion effort, company officials said at a press conference Monday.
The company signed a lease at 333 Dexter, for two 12-story buildings in the South Lake Union neighborhood, which is already filled with buildings that house thousands of Amazon workers. The space will hold more than 3,000 employees, according to the Seattle Times, and will officially open by the end of the year.
“These new jobs confirm what we already knew: We have the best talent and city anywhere,” Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan said in a statement.
“Apple’s expanded footprint in Seattle is another example of the growing opportunity that exists for residents of Seattle and the economic powerhouse our city has become.”
Apple announced in 2018 plans to employ more than 1,000 workers in Seattle by 2022 as part of a larger expansion effort. Google and Facebook are also leasing property near the new Amazon offices in Seattle.
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Girls Volleyball Wins Title
posted On: November 14, 2016 posted by: admin
Amanda Miles, SFC’s Girls Volleyball Coach didn’t fully understand what she was in for when she applied for the coaching position this year. “My philosophy? Unify the team and keep them motivated to work hard every day. I want the girls to know they are all vital to the team’s success. Our motto is: ‘stay humble, hustle hard,’ staying true to our team verse, Hebrews 12:11,” exclaimed Coach Miles. “Coming into this year as a new coach, I have really relied on our seven seniors. Our captains Nicolina Duhs, Emily Hubbard and Lexi Sun provide excellent leadership. I am proud of all the girls; we have four Division 1 bound athletes. Lexi Sun is worthy of praise – she was selected as a 1st team All-American member and was recognized as the number one recruit in the country. We have some pretty phenomenal players.”
In 2007, SFC took the section championship when they won the Division IV title. That was in the past. Now playing against top ranked D1 schools in the Open Division, it is a bit like David versus Goliath. “These girls are playing against big schools stacked with talented players,” expresses Coach Miles. SFC’s Upper School has an enrollment of 446 students playing against powerhouses with an enrollment of 1800 to 2700.
On the way to winning the CIF San Diego Section title, the Eagles beat Cathedral Catholic High in the quarter-finals, Torrey Pines (number one seed) in the semi-finals and won the championship in three sets against La Costa Canyon, last year’s Division I champion. The next match, Round I of CIF State Girls Volleyball Championship, will be hosted by SFC on Thursday, November 17th at 6pm. Coach Miles joyfully states, “I am in awe of the support at these matches. The stands are full and include students, parents and administrators. Our entire school really represents well and celebrates together. God truly gets all the glory.”
Hands-on Learning Engages Students
SFC Celebration from the Heart of a Veteran
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All those Instagram followers, but how many friends?
Nov 21, 2018 | Shona
1000 followers and 700 Facebook friends, but who can you call?
I’m not good at making friends, I think it’s to do with my depression. I tend to shut people out or I take a long time to open up and let people in. Something I’m sure of is my family. There’s four girls in my family so we kill each other but I know when shit hits the fan we’ve got each other’s back. But who else can you say that about? That girl who sits beside you in maths? Or the drunken friend that came up to you on a night out saying “if you need anything I’m here!”
People are so good. They always say if you need anything I’m a phone call away or anything like that. But when you do need someone, they say they’re here, but where’s here? It’s so important to surround yourself with people who will be there when you need them. Who you’re not embarrassed to call at 1 in the morning crying, who you can turn to when you need a shoulder to cry on and who you can rely on.
I went through the stats and I’ve almost got 1000 followers on Instagram, nearly 700 twitter followers and nearly 700 Facebook friends. But the number of people I would trust to have my back going into a battle is quite small. Especially compared with my own little statistics.
Everyone’s situations are different. Friends come and go, that drunk girl in the bathroom showering you with compliments is gonna wake up hungover and go about her life but your family are stuck with you.
Something I’ve noticed is that with mental health illnesses we tend to shut everyone out. We say “I’m fine” when we are holding back tears and hope they don’t notice. It’s a lot easier to ignore your feelings and push them back and shut them off. It’s a lot more difficult to say “yeah I feel pretty shit, I’m not okay”. I have noticed though that after the first time you say it, it becomes so much easier.
I’m the worst for it, saying “yeah I’m good” but it generally follows up with “actually yeah no f@%k it, not doing too swell this morning.” You may feel like you’ve to merit this awful feeling in your stomach with a reason “not feeling the best I’ve a headache.” Or “I’m not feeling great I had a fight with my parents” when really you’re just not feeling it today.
I’ve got a small circle around me of those who I trust with my life. I’m trying to expand that circle. There’s no harm in it. Letting people in actually isn’t as scary as it seems. Believe it or not, people aren’t all that scary once you get to know them.
Start with a smile, then honesty, some pleasantries and common interests and you’ve got yourself a friend. And guess what? The ground won’t swallow you whole, the worst thing that might happen in response to your negative feeling might be a hug, and they’re not so bad.
Be honest, always.
Ash x
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Departments & Services »
The Shore Cancer Center
Shore Medical Center's Cancer Center has taken cancer care in southern New Jersey to a new level. The Cancer Center houses an advanced linear accelerator for radiation therapy and serves as a command center for early detection and prevention programs, outreach and follow-up care.
Shore Cancer Center
Located on the Shore Medical Center campus, the Cancer Center is thoughtfully designed to support the special needs of cancer patients and their families. Our Cancer Center blends together the most advanced diagnostic and treatment technologies with specialized teams of passionate highly skilled physicians, patient navigators, radiation therapists, nurses, social workers, clinical dieticians and support staff in a comforting atmosphere of dignity and caring.
A Leading-edge Cancer Center
The Shore Cancer Center was designed and developed to bring the most advanced cancer care available to the people of southern New Jersey in a private and attractive space that is comfortable for patients, their families and friends.
In addition to a Varian 21EX linear accelerator and a Toshiba Aquillion Prime CT scanner, the radiation therapy department houses a patient and family library, a conference room, and social service and nutritional counseling areas in support of our patient-centered philosophy. An advanced linear accelerator is the centerpiece of treatment at the Cancer Center. This accelerator has image guided radiation therapy (IGRT), intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy (SBRT) capabilities.
Radiation treatments are painless and patients are typically in the treatment room for approximately 15 minutes. In most cases, daily treatments are given over the course of several weeks.
The medical oncology department has an infusion suite with eight chairs, an on-site pharmacy and three exam rooms. All nurses are oncology certified nurses (OCN) and chemotherapy certified.
Healing by Design
The Cancer Center at Shore Medical Center was conceived, designed and built specifically to support the special needs of cancer patients, their families and friends. It represents the new look of 21st century, patient-centered cancer care – a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary approach combining clinical excellence with patient comfort and convenience.
A blend of leading-edge technology and beautiful design, the Cancer Center supports the technical needs of physicians, radiation therapists, physicists, nurses and other specialists while providing a convenient, safe, caring and attractive atmosphere of healing, privacy and dignity.
The Cancer Center is a free-standing facility on the Shore Medical Center Campus, conveniently located at the corner of Shore Road and Medical Center Way. The exterior design blends with residential development in the area. Inside, the feeling is inspiring – a quiet, tastefully decorated space that is welcoming and relaxing.
Every aspect of the design was chosen to reduce stress, with muted colors, warm wood and a generous use of natural light. The waiting areas, patient access and treatment rooms provide for different privacy requirements. Two waiting rooms are offered – one with television and the second a quiet waiting room.
The patient and family library offers research materials, cancer-related books and pamphlets and Internet access. The library is stocked with materials from the American Cancer Society, the National Cancer Institute and the Oncology Nursing Society. Materials are available in English and Spanish.
Shore Medical Center provides a full-range of healthcare services to our community regardless of the patient’s ability to pay. We recognize that a critical part of offering healthcare services includes mitigating concerns our patients may have related to billing matters.
This business philosophy is our commitment to the community, patients and family members we serve. It runs parallel to our not for profit mission and is evidenced by the following proactive measures taken by Shore Medical Center to provide financial assistance to our patients. Shore Medical Center endorses both the American Hospital Association and the New Jersey Hospital Association fair billing and collection guidelines. For more information, visit these websites, call or write:
American Hospital Association Headquarters One North Franklin Chicago, IL, 60606-3421 Phone: 312-422-3000 www.aha.org
New Jersey Hospital Association 760 Alexander Road (PO Box 1) Princeton, NJ, 08543-0001 Phone: 609-275-4000 www.njha.com
Self-Pay Discounting Program
Shore Medical Center has a discounting program to assist patients who are least able to pay. The policy is designed to provide financial relief to our self-pay population by reducing the medical center’s standard charge for services rendered. At the time of patient billing, the charges are reduced to an estimated cost of services.
State Charity Care Program
The medical center also ensures that all patients receive information pertaining to the State Charity Care Program for the uninsured and under-insured. To inquire about Shore’s Self-Pay Billing and Discount Policy, Charity Care or payment arrangements, contact the Patient Financial Services Credit and Collections Office.
Healthcare for the Uninsured
The State of New Jersey provides a telephone number to the general public for questions related to the New Jersey Department of Health, Health Care for the Uninsured Program. New Jersey State Department of Health call 1-800-367-6543 or write to: Healthcare for the Uninsured Program CN 360 Trenton, NJ, 08625-0360
Financial Counseling & Screening
Shore Medical Center also offers financial counseling and screening for patients to ensure that any potential third party coverage under other government programs, such as Medicaid, can be identified. This service is provided at no cost to the patient. The hospital approves payment arrangements for our patients who cannot pay their bills in full. These payment arrangements can be tailored to the individual needs of the patient.
We do not charge additional fees in the form of interest for carrying the balances being paid under these arrangements. The hospital absorbs a significant amount of bad debt annually (balances due by patients that are intentionally not paid), or are incurred as a result of mitigating circumstances, bankruptcy filings and other collection matters.
Collections & Billing Issues
Shore Medical Center pursues collection of balances rightfully owed by patients for services rendered and contracts with third party collection agencies for the purpose of collecting delinquent account balances. The collection agencies operate under the federal fair debt, credit and collection guidelines. Collection agency activity is closely monitored by the medical center to ensure that patient collection efforts are appropriate and in line with our customer service philosophy.
All patient complaints regarding dissatisfaction with services rendered or billing issues are handled promptly and in a courteous manner to ensure that customer service remains the focus of any patient concern. All complaints are considered valid and patient feedback is welcome with respect to disputed matters. The Patient Financial Services Department, Insurance Billing Office may be contacted at 609-653-3717.
Corner of Shore Road & Medical Center Way in Somers Point, NJ 08244. For more information call 609-653-3585. Click the map below for door-to-door directions
There is a parking lot adjacent to the Cancer Center. The gate will open automatically and a code will be given at the main desk in the Shore Cancer Center for exiting the parking lot.
Directions to the Cancer Center
From Wilmington and West:
Take Delaware Memorial Bridge to US Rt. 40 East. Continue on Rt. 40 into Pleasantville and take Rt. 9 South (New Road) and follow into Somers Point. Turn left onto Brighton Avenue. The Shore Cancer Center is located on corner of Shore Road and Brighton Avenue.
Take the Garden State Parkway north to exit 29. Follow exit road which is Route 9 North (New Road). Continue on Route 9 North (New Road) past two traffic lights then turn right on New York Avenue. At the next traffic light turn left on to Shore Road and then turn right at the next street which is Brighton Avenue. The Shore Cancer Center is located on the corner of Shore Road and Brighton Avenue.
Take NJ Turnpike to Garden State Parkway (Exit 11). Take Garden State Parkway South to exit 30. Follow the exit road (Laurel Drive) to Rt. 9. Take Rt. 9 (New Road) North two blocks; turn right on New York Avenue. At the next traffic light turn left on to Shore Road and then turn right at the next street which is Brighton Avenue. The Cancer Center is located on the corner of Shore Road and Brighton Avenue.
From Philadelphia:
Take Atlantic City Expressway to Garden State Parkway (exit 7S); continue South on Parkway to exit 30 and proceed as above.
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Researchers’ Highlights
Researchers’ Funding
SCRC Analysis Software
Researchers’ Highlights of 2018
Dr. Kristine Cowley
Highlights from the past year include publishing: “Energy cost at rest and during exercise in tetraplegia: the need for specific diet and exercise guidelines” in Frontiers in Exercise Physiology and the invited review “A new conceptual framework for the integrated neural control of locomotor and sympathetic function: implications for exercise after spinal cord injury” in Applied Physiology Nutrition and Metabolism. The research in both of these papers will have implications for the health of those living with spinal cord injury (SCI) and the energy expenditure paper results have been translated into everyday language and published in two SCI-magazines. In addition, we have continued implementation of our CFI and Will to Win-funded Human Spinal Cord Injury Research Centre for Health, Balance and Motor Control Facility. I continued to serve as a member of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council’s Research Tools and Instruments national peer review committee, and enjoyed my experience serving on the international letter of intent peer review panel for the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation’s SCI Research on the Translational Spectrum Funding Opportunity.
Dr. Eftekhar Eftekharpour
In 2017-2018, my lab has published 3 research articles, through local and national collaborations. I have been invited to the Canadian Oxidative Stress consortium to introduce my research to my Canadian colleagues. I have also established new collaborations with researchers in the United States and Europe.
This year my program was awarded a major two‐year grant in the field of Spinal Cord Injury from the European foundation of Wings for Life (€200,000). Additionally, my research in the field of cell death has expanded to neurodegenerative diseases and we have presented our latest findings at the Society for Redox Biology and Medicine. Our work was selected for podium presentation and my post-doctoral fellow has been recognized through a competitive travel award from the Society. This manuscript has been recently submitted.
Dr. Brent Fedirchuk
Throughout 2018 I have continued in leadership roles both within the Unit and also relating to teaching within the Max Rady College of Medicine. I am the Division Head of the Neurosciences and Spinal Cord Injury Division within the Department of Physiology & Pathophysiology and the Course Director for the “Foundation of Medicine” course within the Undergraduate Medical Education, Med I curriculum. I serve on the Pre‐Clerkship Curriculum, Pre‐Clerkship Evaluation, and Academic Appeals committees within the College of Medicine. I am also a major content contributor and instructor within the Med I “Neuroscience I” course. I also serve on the Departmental Graduate Program Committee and am the Course Director (or Co-Director) for a variety of graduate courses, as well as Pathophysiology courses within the College of Pharmacy. I have been nominated by the Manitoba Medical Students Association for teaching awards in their “Inspiration” and/or “Innovation” categories for 3 successive years. During 2018 I was also pleased to re-connect with a former trainee from our group (Dr. Yue Dai, PhD with Dr. Jordan, followed by PDF training with me). We published work that I had originally started as a ‘side-project’ while Dr. Dai was a student. We had collaborated on how frequency / current relationships of motoneurons could be assessed during walking movements, and he has subsequently re-examined this with updated computer modeling techniques in his own laboratory in China. We have published the resulting study during 2018.
Dr. Phillip Gardiner
I was honoured to be asked by the journal Applied Physiology, Nutrition & Metabolism (APNM) to be Guest Editor of a Special Edition of the journal entitled “The Nervous System and Exercise.” All requested invited reviews have been submitted and reviewed, and are in press. I also published a review in this issue entitled “Mechanisms and functional implications of motoneuron adaptations to increased physical activity” (co-authored with Chris MacDonell). I was pleased to accept an invitation to speak at Simon Fraser University in April 2018, the title of which presentation was “I sing the spinal cord electric: Activity-related plasticity of spinal cord neurons and circuits.” Recently, I was asked to chair the Manitoba Spinal Cord Injury Research Committee (MSCIRC) beginning April 2019, which invitation I have accepted. On October 31, at the Annual Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology Conference in Niagara Falls, the President’s Lecture in my honour will be given, titled “Motor Neurons, Muscle & Mechanisms: a PHILharmonious Approach to Studying Neuromuscular Plasticity.”
Dr. Larry Jordan
In May 2018 I was invited to present a keynote address at the Symposium providing homage to Dr. Serge Rossignol, where I highlighted recent work in my lab using Designer Receptors Exclusively Activated by Designer Drugs (DREADDS), to show that locomotion can be improved in paraplegic rats by activating grafted cells below the lesion using chemogenetic tools. Our lab has developed a mouse model with excitatory DREADDS expressed in all 5-HT neurons. This mouse model will provide a tool for establishing the functional roles for descending 5-HT neurons, and it will provide a source of cells for grafting that will improve on the current method of using a viral vector. In July I was invited to provide an overview of the role of 5-HT7 receptors in the control of movement at an International Meeting in Ireland. I also collaborated on an invited review of the role of 5-HT in the control of locomotion to be published in Current Opinion in Physiology. My work on fictive locomotion in adult rodent preparations continues and is one of only a few laboratories in the world with this capability.
Dr. Soheila Karimi
This year my group had a productive year at all fronts. We received several grants, notably a sizable 5-year grant from the Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR) that supports our neural stem cell transplantation research. We have published several high impact articles in top-tier journals including 3 papers in GLIA, 2 papers in the Journal of Neuroinflammation and one in the Journal of Controlled Release that has implemented a new microcarrier-based drug delivery platform for our spinal cord injury and MS therapeutics. This work was entirely performed by my team and was published in a top journal in the field of drug delivery (IF of 8).
This year I received a Merit Award from the University of Manitoba for my outstanding contributions to Scholarly Research, Teaching and Service. I have been also nominated by the University of Manitoba for a CIHR Gold Leaf Prize for Outstanding Achievements by an Early Career Investigator. I was honored to be elected by the Canadian Neuroscience Community to the Board of Directors of the Canadian Association of Neuroscience for a three-year term. I served on the Scientific Advisory Committee of the 2018 International Neurotrauma Symposium that was held in Toronto. I also served on the review board of operating grants and fellowships for the New York State Department of Health and the Spinal Cord Injury Research Board (SCIRB) and the CIHR Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience panel (NSB) for both Spring and Fall competitions. I have been invited as an evaluator and chair for the Mid-term symposium of the funded consortia of the European ERA-NET NEURON in Germany. I have joined the editorial board of Frontiers in Neurology and BMC Neuroscience. At the U of M, I have participated in several committees including Search Committee for the Buhler Chair in Stem Cell Research, the Henry G. Friesen Chair in Metabolic & Endocrine Diseases Renewal Committee, Promotion and Tenure, and Major Awards. I have completed a two-term membership (6 years) in the Undergraduate Medical Education Progress Committee.
In 2018, I delivered eight presentations as keynote or invited speaker including 5 national presentations in Toronto, Ottawa and Calgary. I was the keynote speaker of the Calgary StemCellTalks and the Alberta MS Network in May 2018. Our spinal cord injury and multiple sclerosis research received media attention. Notably, our MS research was featured by the Winnipeg Free Press (https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/life/health/u-of-m-researchers-battle-ms-from-new-angle-483291013.html) and by CBC Radio-Canada “Sclérose en plaques: des travaux porteurs d’espoir."
My trainees were recognized this year through 15 research prizes, recognition and studentships. Most notably, Arsalan Alizadeh was invited to deliver the Drewry Memorial Lecture in 2018 as the recipient of the 2017 Drewry Award for Excellence of Research in the Health Sciences. Chris Hart received two Gold Medal Poster prizes and was also honored to be invited by the Gairdner Foundation to attend the 2018 Gairdner Symposium and Gala in Toronto and meet with Gairdner laureates. Arsalan Alizadeh received the Hilary Kaufman Lerner Memorial Fund from the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences that is awarded to top research trainees/residents who work on demyelinating conditions. Graham McLeod (BSc Med Student) received four major awards including Award to top BSc Med students to represent Manitoba in the National Medical Student Forum in Galveston, Texas in spring 2019, Award for the best BSc Med thesis with potential for commercial applications, MMSF thesis award, and Award for Outstanding BSc Med Presentation. My laboratory also celebrated graduation of four graduate and BSc Med students who defended their thesis high distinctions.
Dr. Jim Nagy
I was invited as senior and corresponding author to write two major reviews in highly reputable journals on the topic of electrical synapses, along with two co‐authors. These reviews focus on three general issues concerning electrical synapses. First, from a historical perspective, the field of electrical synapses in the mammalian CNS appeared to emerge relatively suddenly at the turn of the last century, and has progressed at a relatively rapid pace. These two points have left those outside the field somewhat behind and perplexed, wondering how and why did all this happen, and what caused this sudden transformation in knowledge. It is therefore instructive to consider the multiple discoveries and technological advances that initially enabled the revolution in understanding of electrical synapses in higher vertebrates and convey this to a broad neuroscience audience. Such advances include identification of connexin proteins, especially those forming neuronal gap junctions (e.g., connexin36, Cx36), novel approaches to ultrastructural detection of gap junctions, and application of definitive methods for analysis of neuronal electrical coupling. Second, despite progress on and acceptance of the widespread distribution of electrical synapses in the mammalian CNS and their functional contributions to neuronal network activity, there are still numerous regions in brain and spinal where Cx36‐containing gap junctions are abundant as seen by our immunofluorescence studies, but have otherwise received little attention. These sites have not been investigated for either cellular, subcellular or ultrastructural localization of those junctions, and have not been subject to electrophysiological analysis. Consequently, their potential contribution to these structures. Third, electrical synaptic transmission between neurons is regulated by numerous neurotransmitters and modulators, and by alterations in the phosphorylation state of Cx36. However, little is known about how modifications in Cx36 trafficking and changes in rates of gap junction turnover, including assembly and disassembly, could contribute to short or long term regulation of transmission at electrical synapses. Our identification of the macromolecular protein components of Cx36‐containing gap junctions that form electrical synapses provides opportunities to consider novel mechanisms whereby intracellular signaling pathways could influence the formation and structural integrity of these synapses and thereby contribute to regulating strength of electrical coupling. These components include structural and scaffolding proteins, transcellular adhesion proteins, and a variety of regulatory and signaling proteins.
Dr. Brian Schmidt
In collaboration with Dr. Katinka Stecina, we are continuing our investigation of the locomotor propriospinal relay system. Our hypothesis, based on our earlier work using an in vitro neonatal rat model, is that this system is critical for the activation of locomotion in adult mammals (including humans). This technically demanding series is now almost complete. We believe we have confirmatory evidence of the existence of such a system.
Dr. Katinka Stecina
The only constant variable in my lab’s research activity in the past year was change. With the relocation of my mouse laboratory this summer, we are now one step closer to the establishment of the new human research facility! The new transcranial magnetic stimulator, although not utilized in the human function lab yet, was put to good use during our NeuroTalks day science outreach activities. It was a popular hit with the high school students! Other ongoing animal research experiments either in collaboration with Dr. Schmidt and Dr. Larry Jordan or my personal research projects are developing well with results being published in the very near future.
Areas of Expertise (by Principal Investigator)
all-day Movement 2019: Brain-Body-Cognit...
Movement 2019: Brain-Body-Cognit...
2019 International Conference on Movement: Brain, Body, Cognition 22-24 July 2019 Location: Tel-Aviv University, Israel Dear colleagues, Following our Movement and Cognition conferences at Oxford University and at Harvard Medical School, we have the great[...]
all-day Neuroscience 2019, Chicago, IL @ McCormick Place, Chicago, IL
Neuroscience 2019, Chicago, IL @ McCormick Place, Chicago, IL
Oct 19 – Oct 23 all-day
Get Ready for Neuroscience 2019 Neuroscience 2019 will take place October 19-23 at McCormick Place in Chicago. Join 30,000 colleagues from more than 80 countries at the world’s largest marketplace of ideas and tools for[...]
André Coleman advances to 3MT final February 27, 2019
Congratulations to Drs. Albensi & Fernyhough on their CIHR funding January 30, 2019
SCRC Annual Report for December 2018 January 9, 2019
Christopher Hart receives 2018 Hilary Kaufman Lerner Memorial Fund November 26, 2018
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Scottish Budget 2019/20
SCVO Briefing to Scottish Parliament
Download a PDF version of this document
Reduced funding is resulting in high levels of uncertainty for the people and communities who rely on personalised services delivered by Scotland’s third sector and the staff and organisations who work to support them. Organisations delivering key services are already struggling to continue their work whilst maintaining the quality of what they deliver.
Any real terms fall in revenue grant allocation or standstill budgets for Local Authorities will have a knock-on effect for Scotland’s third sector, putting the delivery of crucial services and strong community connections at risk at a time when our organisations are relied upon to deliver more for less.
The funding situation for the sector cannot continue as at present. The sector needs a sustainable funding model to maintain and build capacity to deliver quality services and retain skills within our organisations to meet growing demand.
Those outside of government must be presented with an unambiguous account of the budgetary decisions made and be involved in the decision-making process. The latest Scottish Budget reveals the need for greater transparency through the delivery of a fiscal framework for third sector and local government funding.
The debate surrounding the allocation of funding to Local Authorities in the 2019/20 Scottish Budget reveals the deeper issue that there is no shared, clear vision and method for how we achieve our National Outcomes as a collective through the support of the Scottish Budget.
The current debate and lack of clarity surrounding the Scottish Budget for 2019/20 and the allocation of funding for Local Authorities is of concern to much of Scotland’s third sector. In 2017, only 4% of SCVO members thought that their public sector funding would increase, and local authority cuts were the top concern for most respondents. Although the resilience of Scotland’s third sector has seen it navigate through a decade of cuts and streamlining, any real terms fall – even standstill – in Local Authority budgets in 2019/20 would put the delivery of crucial services in communities at risk. Based on the SPICe analysis of the Scottish Budget for 2019/20, Local Authorities would see a 3.4% real terms fall in their revenue grant allocation under the proposed budget.
In its evidence session with COSLA and the Scottish Government, Members of the Local Government and Communities Committee heard from COSLA that funding for the third sector, which ‘delivers a massive amount of valuable support to our communities,’ would be an area at risk of cuts. With the commitment to increasing public sector pay and taking inflation into account, as well as the ring fencing of protected areas, it is logical to presume that services delivered by Scotland’s third sector will be put at risk with Local Authorities already announcing the substantial cuts they may have to make. The fact that we can only make presumptions about the viability of crucial third sector services in the short-term is an illustration of why the current system needs to change.
The issue for Scotland’s third sector and the people and communities we work alongside goes far deeper than any reduction in Local Authority funding in the 2019/20 Scottish Budget and the cuts to third sector services that may subsequently arise. Only 56% of grant recipients, and 50% of contract/service level agreement recipients felt that their funding was enough to cover core costs for the activity associated with the funding and contract in 2016/17. Much of the sector is already struggling to continue its work in the current context whilst maintaining the quality of what it delivers.
The sustainability of the third sector is not an end, it is a means of ensuring that those marginalised by the current economic system are not left behind; that organisations at the heart of communities and with the skills, knowledge and experience to make a real difference can pilot, test and implement much needed change and methods of prevention within the Scottish economy. The patience required to work in a way that can deliver much more impact and social good means that the unpredictability of current short-term funding arrangements is a major problem for Scotland’s third sector. Current arrangements fail to recognise the need for long-term projects or planning, resulting in regular stress for organisations, communities and individuals.
Current funding arrangements have a significant impact on the third sector workforce and limit the sector’s impact at a time when the Scottish Government, local government, the justice system and the NHS rely on our organisations to deliver more. The sector needs longer-term funding to maintain and build capacity to deliver quality services and retain skills within our organisations. The different messages coming from local and national government present a real challenge for the third sector and the people and communities we work alongside. Plans for new funding models for Scotland’s third sector must be progressed and SCVO is working with the Scottish Government to develop options to enable this to happen.
A different approach to funding Scotland’s vital services must be part of a collective discussion as to how Scottish Budgets can give greater opportunities to and increase the wellbeing of the people living in Scotland. This discussion cannot happen without the acceptance of an open government approach to developing the Scottish Budget, which allows wider society to participate in the decision-making process and enables funded organisations to understand the bigger picture.
Later this month, Scotland will launch its second Open Government National Action Plan, setting out the commitments the Scottish Government has pledged to deliver as a pioneer of open government to improve the lives of people living in Scotland. Greater financial transparency is one of those commitments. In our view, the latest Scottish Budget and the lack of clarity surrounding the allocation of funding for Local Authorities in 2019/20 shows the need for greater financial transparency and less ambiguity around the impact that budgetary decisions will have on communities across Scotland, including the third sector.
We are pleased that Members of the Local Government and Communities Committee approached the issue of budget clarity in their recent evidence session with COSLA and the Scottish Government. In our view, the ongoing debate highlights the need and opportunity to seriously explore the practice of open budgeting when it comes to developing a fiscal framework for third sector and local government funding; this would allow those outside of government to cut through what many could consider a confusing debate between local and national government and help build greater confidence and trust at a time when citizens, and indeed our sector, are unsure who and what to believe.
Further, without some sort of alignment to the National Performance Framework, it is impossible to see how Scotland is allocating its budget to achieve the National Outcomes. The fact that vital third sector services continue to be subjected to pick and mix cuts and underfunding by Local Authorities shows that there is no clear direction of travel for how we achieve our National Outcomes as a collective through the support of the Scottish Budget. Is the current approach really giving greater opportunities to and increasing the wellbeing of the people living in Scotland whilst leaving no-one behind?
Scotland’s third sector has a well-established reputation for delivering high quality personalised services and working alongside some of the most vulnerable groups across society to improve their lives. However, organisations delivering key services are already struggling to continue their work whilst maintaining the quality of what they deliver. Any real terms fall in revenue grant allocation or standstill budgets for Local Authorities will have a knock-on effect for Scotland’s third sector, increasingly putting the delivery of crucial services at risk.
Uncertainty around the current short-term funding arrangements and the possibility of pick and mix cuts to the services our members deliver will always have a significant impact on people and communities across Scotland. Alignment of spending decisions with the National Performance Framework and greater transparency in how these decisions are made is key if Scotland is to achieve our National Outcomes and leave no-one behind.
The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) is the national body representing the third sector.There are over 45,000 voluntary organisations in Scotland involving around 138,000 paid staff and approximately 1.3 million volunteers. The sector manages an income of £5.3 billion.
SCVO works in partnership with the third sector in Scotland to advance our shared values and interests. We have over 2,000 members who range from individuals and grassroots groups, to Scotland-wide organisations and intermediary bodies.
As the only inclusive representative umbrella organisation for the sector SCVO:
has the largest Scotland-wide membership from the sector – our 1,900 members include charities, community groups, social enterprises and voluntary organisations of all shapes and sizes
our governance and membership structures are democratic and accountable – with an elected board and policy committee from the sector, we are managed by the sector, for the sector
brings together organisations and networks connecting across the whole of Scotland
SCVO works to support people to take voluntary action to help themselves and others, and to bring about social change.
Further details about SCVO can be found at www.scvo.org.uk.
Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations,
Mansfield Traquair Centre,
15 Mansfield Place, Edinburgh EH3 6BB
Email: politicalengagement@scvo.org.uk
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The Chess Player
From “Steppenwolf”
Guidence in the Building Up of the Personality
Success Guaranteed
This seemed to me to be worth looking into and I went in at this door. I found myself in a quiet twilit room where a man with something like a large chessboard in front of him sat in Eastern fashion on the floor. At first glance I thought it was friend Pablo. He wore at any rate a similar gorgeous silk jacket and had the same dark and shining eyes.
“Are you Pablo?” I asked.
“I am not anybody,” he replied amiably. “We have no names here and we are not anybody. I am a chess player. Do you wish for instruction in building up your personality?”
“Then be so kind as to place a few dozen of your pieces at my disposal.”
“My pieces--?”
“Of the pieces into which you saw your so-called personality broken up. I can’t play without pieces.”
He held up a glass to me and again I saw the unity of my personality broken up into many selves whose number seemed even to have increased. The pieces were now, however, very small, about the size of chessmen. The player took a dozen or so of them in his sure and quiet fingers and placed them on the ground near the board. As he did so he began to speak in the monotonous way of one who goes through a recitation or reading that he has often gone through before.
“The mistaken and unhappy notion that man is an enduring unity is known to you. It is also known to you that man consists of a multitude of souls, of numerous selves. The separation of the unity of the personality into these numerous pieces passes for madness. Science has invented the name schizophrenia for it. Science is in this so far right as no multiplicity may be dealt with unless there is a series, a certain order and grouping. It is wrong insofar as it holds that one only and binding and lifelong order is possible for the multiplicity of subordinate selves. This error of science has many unpleasant consequences, and the single advantage of simplifying the work of the state-appointed pastors and masters and saving them the labors of original thought. In consequence of this error many persons pass for normal, and indeed for highly valuable members of society, who are incurably mad; and many, on the other hand, are looked upon as mad who are geniuses. Hence it is that we supplement the imperfect psychology of science by the conception that we call the art of building up the soul. We demonstrate to anyone whose soul has fallen to pieces that he can rearrange these pieces of a previous self in whatever order he pleases, and so attain to an endless multiplicity of moves in the game of life. As the playwright shapes a drama from a handful of characters, so do we from the pieces of the disintegrated self build up ever new groups, with ever new interplay and suspense, and new situations that are eternally inexhaustible. Look!”
With the sure and silent touch of his clever fingers he took hold of my pieces, all the old men and young men and children and women, cheerful and sad, strong and weak, nimble and clumsy, and swiftly arranged them on his board for a game. At once they formed themselves into groups and families, games and battles, friendships and enmities, making a small world. For a while he let this lively and yet orderly world go through its evolutions before my enraptured eyes in play and strife, making treaties and fighting battles, wooing, marrying and multiplying. It was indeed a crowded stage, a moving breathless drama.
Then he passed his hand swiftly over the board and gently swept all the pieces into a heap; and, meditatively with an artist’s skill, made up a new game of the same pieces with quite other groupings, relationships and entanglements. The second game had an affinity with the first, it was the same world built of the same material, but the key was different, the time changed, the motif as differently given out and the situations differently presented.
“This is the art of life,” he said dreamily. “You may yourself as an artist develop the game of your life and lend it animation. You may complicate and enrich it as you please. It lies in your hands. Just as madness, in a higher sense, is the beginning of all wisdom, so is schizophrenia the beginning of all art and all fantasy. Even learned men have come to a partial recognition of this, as may be gathered, for example, from Prince Wunderhorn, that enchanting book, in which the industry and pains of a man of learning, with the assistance of the genius of a number of madmen and artists shut up as such, are immortalized. Here, take your little pieces away with you. The game will often give you pleasure. The piece that today grew to the proportions of an intolerable nuisance, you will degrade tomorrow to a mere lay figure. The luckless Cinderella will in the next game be the princess. I wish you much pleasure, my dear sir.”
I bowed low in gratitude to the gifted chess player, put the little pieces in my pocket and withdrew through the narrow door.
Hermann Karl Hesse ( 2 July 1877 - 9 August 1962) was a German-born poet, novelist, and painter. His best-known works include Demian, Steppenwolf, Siddhartha, and The Glass Bead Game, each of which explores an individual's search for authenticity, self-knowledge and spirituality. In 1946, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature.
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Adam Rippon says Mike Pence situation not a 'distraction'
Kevin Kaduk
Yahoo Sports February 12, 2018, 4:29 AM UTC
Adam Rippon finally made his big introduction on Sunday night’s prime time Olympic coverage, ripping off a routine that helped the United States win a bronze medal in the team figure skating competition.
The openly gay skating star then held court with NBC’s Mike Tirico, touching on many topics in an entertaining interview that lasted almost four minutes.
One of the subjects, of course, was Rippon’s pre-Olympics feud with vice president Mike Pence. Rippon lashed out when it was announced that Pence would lead the American delegation into PyeongChang, questioning the vice president’s support of all Americans. He said he didn’t want to meet Pence in South Korea if given the chance.
“If it were before my event, I would absolutely not go out of my way to meet somebody who I felt has gone out of their way to not only show that they aren’t a friend of a gay person but that they think that they’re sick,” Mr. Rippon told USA Today.
Since then, Rippon has said he has no interest in “picking a fight” with Pence and both he and Pence seem open to the idea of meeting after the Olympics.
Despite that relative détente, Tirico still asked Rippon after the team competition if all of the headlines generated by scraping with the vice president had been a distraction.
Rippon said they had not:
Tirico: “You came out as openly gay in October of 2015. There have been a lot of stories written about that including the vice president’s involvement. But you’ve said you’re not going to let it be a distraction. That’s a lot to say. How about doing it in practice. Has it distracted you in any way. ”
Rippon: “You know, Ive worked my entire life for this moment. But more than that, my mom has always taught me to stand up what I believe in and that has given my skating a greater purpose. So I go out there and I’m not only representing myself, I’m representing my coaches, I’m representing my country and I’m representing my teammates. So I remember that and that’s how I stay focused.”
Given both his talent and personality, Rippon will be a constant media presence for the rest of these Olympics. He’ll have to continue maintaining that focus because it’s not likely the questions about Pence will stop.
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• IOC member: Joint Korean hockey team should win Nobel Peace Prize
• How Russia’s Olympic fans are making a mockery of the IOC
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IPL Winners – List of Indian Premier League Champions [2008-2019]
Publish on March 14, 2019 By Kartik Shah , Last updated March 14, 2019
One of the Most popular and Biggest Twenty20 cricket tournament of Indian Premier League which was started from the 2008 Year. In this T20 cricket tournament played between the 8 Teams and each team inclusion of Local Players and Several Foreign Players took part in this competition each year. Inaugural Edition of IPLT20 tournament was […]
Filed Under: Indian Premier League - IPL Tagged With: Indian Premier League, Indian Premier League 2008, Indian Premier League 2009, Indian Premier League 2010, Indian Premier League 2011, Indian Premier League 2012, Indian Premier League 2013, Indian Premier League 2014, Indian Premier League 2015, IPL 2016 Records
IPL 2010 Final CSK vs MI Full Scorecard – Chennai Super Kings won by 22 runs
Publish on April 6, 2016 By Kartik Shah , Last updated March 7, 2017
Third Edition of Indian domestic twenty20 cricket tournament of IPL 2010 was schedule to played between the Chennai super Kings vs Mumbai Indians on 25th April at Dr. Dy Patil Sports Academy, Mumbai. This CSK vs MI Final Match of IPL 2010 was won by the Chennai super King by 22 runs. After won the […]
Filed Under: Indian Premier League - IPL Tagged With: Indian Premier League, Indian Premier League 2010
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Thu 30 Aug, 2018, 7:00 PM (EDT)
Novak Djokovic vs. Tennys Sandgren 2018 US Open Tennis Pick, Preview, Odds, Prediction
By: Randy
Updated: 12/16/18
Tennys Sandgren vs. Novak Djokovic
Thursday August 30, 2018, 7:00 PM (EDT)
Unknown Location Unknown Address
The Line: -- Over/Under:
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Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY Sports
Novak Djokovic and Tennys Sandgren meet in the second round of the 2018 tennis US Open.
Novak Djokovic is coming off a four sets win over Marton Fucsovics that took 34 games to decide. In the victory, Djokovic won 74 percent of his first serve points and 56 percent of his second serve points. Djokovic won 67 percent of his total service points and won the last 10 games to close out the match. Djokovic can still improve in certain areas such as the second serve and the unforced errors, but he’s as close to being the player he was a couple of years ago as he’s ever been. Djokovic hopes to make the third round of a grand slam appearance for his sixth straight try. Djokovic has never been bounced before the third round of the US Open. Djokovic has won seven straight matches on hard court.
Tennys Sandgren is coming off a straight sets win over Viktor Troicki that took 27 games to decide. In the victory, Sandgren won 73 percent of his first serve points and 68 percent of his second serve points. Sandgren won 71 percent of his total service points and faced just two break points the whole match. As long as Sandgren can keep serving well and give the American crowd a reason to stay engaged, he could make this match interesting. Sandgren hopes to make the third round of a grand slam for the second time in his career. Sandgren is now 1-1 in career matches at the US Open. Sandgren has split his last four matches on hard court.
These two have played once, which was in this years Wimbledon, a match Djokovic won in straight sets. The match took 24 games to be decided.
Sandgren could push Djokovic a bit with his serve and I’m sure the American fans will do what they can to give an extra boost of confidence. The problem is there’s levels in grand slam play, and Djokovic is one of the best ever and takes his game to another level on the big stage. Sandgren is 27 years old and this is his sixth ever grand slam appearance. Sandgren would have to play the match of his life to have any shot here.
Like the Wimbledon, Djokovic in straight sets.
GrabThePoints
Randy Chambers has been with Sports Chat Place since 2014 and covers everything from the NFL to WNBA and tennis. Nobody works harder in this business in terms of content produced and amount of sports covered. Formerly a lead college football writer with Bleacher Report and has had his work featured at Fox Sports, CBS Sports and various other outlets.
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heliosphere
Archives For heliosphere
Voyager 2 enters interstellar space
This illustration shows the position of NASA’s Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 probes, outside of the heliosphere, a protective bubble created by the Sun that extends well past the orbit of Pluto. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
For the second time in history, a human-made object has reached the space between the stars. NASA’s Voyager 2 probe now has exited the heliosphere – the protective bubble of particles and magnetic fields created by the Sun.
Comparing data from different instruments aboard the trailblazing spacecraft, mission scientists determined the probe crossed the outer edge of the heliosphere on Nov. 5. This boundary, called the heliopause, is where the tenuous, hot solar wind meets the cold, dense interstellar medium. Its twin, Voyager 1, crossed this boundary in 2012, but Voyager 2 carries a working instrument that will provide first-of-its-kind observations of the nature of this gateway into interstellar space.
Voyager 2 now is slightly more than 11 billion miles (18 billion kilometers) from Earth. Mission operators still can communicate with Voyager 2 as it enters this new phase of its journey, but information – moving at the speed of light – takes about 16.5 hours to travel from the spacecraft to Earth. By comparison, light traveling from the Sun takes about eight minutes to reach Earth.
The most compelling evidence of Voyager 2’s exit from the heliosphere came from its onboard Plasma Science Experiment (PLS), an instrument that stopped working on Voyager 1 in 1980, long before that probe crossed the heliopause. Until recently, the space surrounding Voyager 2 was filled predominantly with plasma flowing out from our Sun. This outflow, called the solar wind, creates a bubble – the heliosphere – that envelopes the planets in our solar system. The PLS uses the electrical current of the plasma to detect the speed, density, temperature, pressure and flux of the solar wind. The PLS aboard Voyager 2 observed a steep decline in the speed of the solar wind particles on Nov. 5. Since that date, the plasma instrument has observed no solar wind flow in the environment around Voyager 2, which makes mission scientists confident the probe has left the heliosphere.
“Working on Voyager makes me feel like an explorer, because everything we’re seeing is new,” said John Richardson, principal investigator for the PLS instrument and a principal research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. “Even though Voyager 1 crossed the heliopause in 2012, it did so at a different place and a different time, and without the PLS data. So we’re still seeing things that no one has seen before.”
In addition to the plasma data, Voyager’s science team members have seen evidence from three other onboard instruments – the cosmic ray subsystem, the low energy charged particle instrument and the magnetometer – that is consistent with the conclusion that Voyager 2 has crossed the heliopause. Voyager’s team members are eager to continue to study the data from these other onboard instruments to get a clearer picture of the environment through which Voyager 2 is traveling.
“There is still a lot to learn about the region of interstellar space immediately beyond the heliopause,” said Ed Stone, Voyager project scientist based at Caltech in Pasadena, California.
“Voyager has a very special place for us in our heliophysics fleet,” said Nicola Fox, director of the Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters. “Our studies start at the Sun and extend out to everything the solar wind touches. To have the Voyagers sending back information about the edge of the Sun’s influence gives us an unprecedented glimpse of truly uncharted territory.”
While the probes have left the heliosphere, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 have not yet left the solar system, and won’t be leaving anytime soon. The boundary of the solar system is considered to be beyond the outer edge of the Oort Cloud, a collection of small objects that are still under the influence of the Sun’s gravity. The width of the Oort Cloud is not known precisely, but it is estimated to begin at about 1,000 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun and to extend to about 100,000 AU. One AU is the distance from the Sun to Earth. It will take about 300 years for Voyager 2 to reach the inner edge of the Oort Cloud and possibly 30,000 years to fly beyond it.
In Uncategorized heliosphere, interstellar, NASA, solar system, Sun, Voyager
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Robot Delivery Vans May Hit Your Street Before Self-Driving Cars
The new autonomous vehicle unveiled last week by Nuro, a Silicon Valley startup
The future of driverless driving looks like a giant toaster with a funny hat.
That’s an approximation of a new autonomous vehicle unveiled last week by Nuro, a Silicon Valley startup that’s been cryptic about its business plan since it launched about 18 months ago. Nuro’s shiny, minimalist appliance on wheels doesn’t have doors or windows to speak of, because it will be carrying packages-not people.
As every major automaker and dozens of tech companies race to replace drivers in Uber cars and taxi fleets, Nuro is ignoring humans altogether and steering for Amazon.com, United Parcel Service and any retailer looking to build its e-commerce business. “We realized we could make it possible to deliver anything, anytime, anywhere,” said co-founder Dave Ferguson. “We like to call it a local teleportation service.”
Nuro’s delivery pod weighs about 1,500 pounds, with most of that mass packed into a battery pack that powers its electric motor. It’s roughly the same length and height as a conventional SUV, but only 3.5 feet wide. There is a glass windshield, mostly just to keep other drivers from freaking out.
Each will come with a modular, customizable interior that can carry about 250 pounds. A grocer will be able to opt for shelves and refrigeration; a dry-cleaner can go with hanging racks; while peer-to-peer versions shuffling the detritus of Craigslist may have two empty cargo bays with some anchoring straps. “We spent a bunch of time doing ergonomic experiments,” Ferguson said.
Along the spectrum of self-driving technology, Nuro’s cargo vehicle falls somewhere between a car from the “The Jetsons” and one of those smart suitcases that follow travelers around the airport.
To be sure, the market is massive. UPS alone delivers about 19 million packages a day. Excluding management and pilots, it employs roughly 353,000 people and spends 57 cents of every sales dollar on compensation and benefits. Robot-cars, meanwhile, are far easier to negotiate with at review time and ask only for some electricity.
Of course, Nuro isn’t the first company to notice the Amazon Prime packages piling up on porches. Ford began testing human-free pizza delivery with Domino’s last summer. Toyota rolled out a delivery vehicle in Las Vegas this month. Dubbed e-Palette, the futuristic van already has partnerships with Amazon.com and Pizza Hut. Renault-Nissan plans to unveil a driverless delivery van in September. Udelv Inc., a self-driving startup, is testing an autonomous delivery vehicle in California this month.
However, Nuro, by all accounts a scrappy newcomer, has some street cred. Co-founders Jiajun Zhu (who goes by “Jay-Z”) was one of the first engineers working on Waymo, the self-driving unit launched by Google (now Alphabet Inc.) Ferguson, who has a Ph.D. in robotics from Carnegie Mellon, joined him there in 2011.
Since leaving Waymo, the pair has rounded up $92 million of venture capital over two rounds led by Banyan Capital and Greylock Partners. The company’s most critical asset, however, may be its staff. It’s lured dozens of workers from Bay Area giants, including Apple, Google, Tesla and Uber. And it’s given them a relatively uncomplicated mission: Don’t worry about passengers.
The Nuro vehicle, compared with similar robot cars, is skinny and slow, both of which make it relatively safe. It can avoid an errant child, for example, without leaving its lane. Meanwhile, it’s in no particular rush. “Most of these things sort of drive like my grandma,” Ferguson said. “If someone’s inside the vehicle, that’s annoying. If no one’s inside the vehicle, that’s actually a strictly positive thing.”
As such, Nuro believes cargo vehicles have a clearer, quicker path to profit than the 30 or so outfits that incorporate sentient beings who must emerge unscathed. “Passenger self-driving, to (these companies), is an existential threat; they have to get it right,” Ferguson said. “Whereas, for us, there are just some things we don’t need to worry about.”
Alexander Hars, managing director at Inventivio, a German self-driving consultancy, expects the number of players in the self-driving space to peak soon and then shrink quickly. The network effects enjoyed by the first movers will make it tough for the rest of the field to catch up.
“I think it will shake out very quickly,” Hars explained. “The manufacturing is an essential part.”
This is where Nuro may be trailing General Motors, Tesla and others. While its nifty vehicle seems to be in the vanguard, Nuro has yet to ink agreements with manufacturing partners-or customers, for that matter, though the company said it’s in talks with a few major retailers. Its mission, for the time being, is to get its vehicles on U.S. roads sometime this year, performing some kind of “useful service.”
“It’s ambitious,” Ferguson said with a laugh. “We’re uncomfortably excited about that goal.” There is one downside about delivery vehicles without drivers, though: You’ll have to go outside to get your stuff. While the tricky, so-called last-mile of delivery may soon be solved by the likes of Nuro, that last-50-feet will require better robots.
Tags: before, cars, delivery, Hit, May, Robot, self-driving, Street, vans, Your
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Dorian Bon
Islamophobia and the rise of the new right
Dorian Bon explains how reactionary political leaders and their parties are thriving by whipping up hatred against Muslims--with deadly consequences.
2016 SAW life become a lot more frightening for Muslims around the world.
In the U.S., at this time last year, Muslims were already dealing with the biggest wave of Islamophobic hate crimes recorded since the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.
The rest of the year was even worse. Local chapters of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and Muslim community groups around the country recorded a continuous stream of attacks every week, peaking after the election of the extremist Islamophobe Donald Trump.
Meanwhile, in Europe, far-right leaders on the ascendancy greeted Trump's victory as a harbinger of things to come in their own countries. In Austria last month, the presidential candidate of a party with direct connections to a Nazi past was barely defeated in a runoff election, but there will be more such challenges in the future.
Recently, two terrorist attacks claimed by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS)--one at a Christmas market in Berlin on December 19 and a deadly shooting rampage at an Istanbul nightclub on New Year's Day--gave political leaders of the left and right an excuse to amplify their anti-Muslim rhetoric.
Clockwise from left: Donald Trump, Marine Le Pen and Nigel Farage
The horrific attacks claimed the lives of ordinary people with no connection to the political elites who thrive off war and Islamophobia. They will make the lives of Muslims in Europe far worse by opening the way to increased state repression and allowing the far right to whip up more hate.
But the reaction of Western leaders is utterly hypocritical. They call for more repression and war--carried out by military machines, especially the Pentagon in the U.S., that are incomparably more violent and deadly. Shredding civil liberties and stepping up military intervention only feeds the hatreds that occasionally "blow back" within the U.S. and Europe.
Islamophobia is common across the political spectrum, but it is a special ingredient in the rise of right-wing figures like Trump in the U.S. or Marine Le Pen of France's National Front. Theirs is the politics of despair and scapegoating to harden a base of support for their reactionary agendas.
That's why we can't remain silent in the face of these surges of Islamophobia. We have to speak out, even when it isn't popular, to explain that the violence and repression of the "war on terror" has made the world more deadly and dangerous--and that reactionaries like Trump have to be opposed with a left-wing alternative to their hate and greed.
THE LIST of chilling assaults against Muslims in the U.S. is long, but a few examples make it clear how severe the onslaught of violence really is.
The New York City borough of Queens alone saw three high-profile murders of Muslims in cold blood in 2016. Imam Maulama Akonjee and his friend Thara Uddin were executed in broad daylight with bullets to the backs of their head, and 60-year-old Nazma Khanam was stabbed to death on a peaceful, residential street just three weeks later.
In Houston, Texas, a raging driver yelling "Go back to Islam!" shot and killed Ziad Abu Naim, a Palestinian Muslim on his way to a local mosque. And in Portland, Oregon, 68-year-old Abdul Jamil Kamawal was beaten to death with a shovel in his own yard--his family believes he was praying at the time of the attack.
What could have been the deadliest Islamophobic attack of the year was thwarted while in its planning stages: Three white supremacist terrorists in Kansas were caught amassing explosives and heavy weaponry to blow up an apartment complex housing predominantly Muslim, Somali refugees on the day after the presidential election.
All this has created a near-inescapable atmosphere of fear and tension in everyday life for Muslims all over the country--and the election of the billionaire bigot Donald Trump intensified this grim reality.
Trump's racist tirades energized the Muslim-haters from the early days of his campaign--when he resurrected an obscure myth about U.S. troops executing Muslim resistance fighters using bullets laced with pigs' blood during the U.S. colonization of the Philippines. Vigilantes fed on this kind of rhetoric by desecrating mosques with pig carcasses in Philadelphia, Oklahoma and elsewhere.
Trump ran on a boldly Islamophobic platform of banning Muslim immigration and creating a comprehensive Muslim registry for domestic surveillance. But the sad fact is that the "liberal" opposition in the mainstream system, the Democratic Party, has pandered to the same fears and hatred, if less openly than Trump.
After all, it was the supposedly liberal administration of Barack Obama that barred entry to all but 10,000 Syrian refugees, far fewer than Canada and much of Europe have accepted, and has maintained an error-ridden "no-fly list" that all but legally sanctions anti-Muslim profiling.
ACROSS THE Atlantic, far-right leaders are also taking advantage of the crisis of mainstream political parties--and especially exploiting the measures already taken by center-left and center-right parties--to offer an undiluted brew of bigotry.
Marine Le Pen praised Trump's election in the U.S. as a "sign of hope" which "shows that people are taking their futures back."
Opinion polls predict that Le Pen will be the runner-up in this year's presidential election--behind the upstart candidate of the center-right, François Fillon, who won the presidential nomination of the Republicans based on Trump-like appeals to racists and to small business owners eager for lower taxes and gutted regulations.
Former UK Independence Party (UKIP) head Nigel Farage lauded Trump's election as a twin to the successful "Brexit" vote on a referendum to leave the European Union--both of which, he claimed, were "about ordinary people rising up to defeat the establishment."
In fact, Farage and other conservatives made the scapegoating of migrants and Muslims central to their Brexit campaign. Farage is a vocal advocate of an exclusively "Judeo-Christian" Britain and has repeatedly referred to British Muslims as a "fifth column" at war with society from within.
Britain's new Conservative Party Prime Minister Theresa May has feuded with Farage, but her speech at the Tory conference this year channeled many of UKIP's anti-immigrant themes. May has signaled her willingness to embrace the Trump administration in the U.S.
In Germany, Jörg Meuthen, a spokesperson for the recently formed Alternative for Germany (AfG), drew parallels between his right-wing party's efforts and Trump's program in the U.S.: "The establishment now has to recognize that you can't rule past the population for long...Trump has rightly been rewarded for his bravery in standing up against the system and speaking uncomfortable truths."
AfG is now the main opposition party in the country's fourth- and fifth-biggest states, Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg Vorpommern. An AfD manifesto states that "Islam is not part of Germany" and calls for measures to eradicate Muslim influence.
The extremist Islamophobe and xenophobe Geert Wilders of the Dutch Party for Freedom also celebrated Trump's election as a precedent for the Netherlands, where his party is leading in national polls for next year's presidential race.
And in Italy, the right-wing populist Five Star Movement has its eyes on state power after leading a successful effort against a constitutional referendum put forward by then-Prime Minister Matteo Renzi of the center-left Democratic Party.
Five Star leader Beppe Grillo prides himself on defying left-right divisions and championing cutting-edge, populist measures like web-based democracy and a guaranteed basic income. But that hasn't stopped him from typical racist antics--he called immigrants "rats," likened his movement to the Trump campaign, identified with Nigel Farage and "joked" that London's Muslim mayor Sadiq Khan would "blow himself up at Westminister."
The impact of these developments is being felt in every area of Muslim life. A white nationalist attacker north of London took the far right's call to curtail Islam into his own hands when he severely beat a pregnant Muslim woman, killing the fetus she was carrying.
On the same day as the Christmas market attack in Berlin, a Swiss terrorist wounded several Muslim worshipers in a shooting at an Islamic Center in Zurich--to frustratingly little media attention amid the round-the-clock coverage of the carnage in Berlin.
Persistent hate crimes coincided with another round of state measures in countries like France, Germany, Belgium, and Austria barring Muslim women from choosing their own dress.
THE WAVE of anti-Muslim bigotry gripping Europe and the U.S. can't be separated from the military interventions carried out by the U.S., its allies and other imperial powers in majority Muslim countries in the Middle East and North Africa.
The Obama administration supported a disastrous sectarian post-occupation regime in Iraq, carried out bombings and drone attacks in Yemen, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Pakistan and Afghanistan, and backed three separate Israeli assaults on Gaza.
Dictators Bashar al-Assad in Syria and Gen. Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi in Egypt have mercilessly repressed the democratic uprisings that swept their countries during the Arab Spring--in Syria, the Russian Air Force has laid waste to scores of cities and towns to help Assad stay in power.
The terrorist wars of the U.S. and other powerful governments created the conditions for the rise of reactionary forces like ISIS, whose predecessor organizations in Iraq were marginalized and militarily defeated until an escalation of violence and repression by the U.S.-backed central government.
Meanwhile, the Syrian war especially has caused massive displacement of millions of refugees--mainly to other countries of the region, but more than 1 million to Europe.
Far-right and nationalist forces in Europe have exploited this desperate exodus of millions seeking to escape suffering and death. The racists are stoking fear and loathing of Muslims, and they have been enabled by discredited establishment parties and politicians, who for decades have themselves cynically scapegoated the most vulnerable.
All of these actions in the West sow the seeds for another harvest of violence--sometimes in the form of terror attacks carried out in Europe and the U.S.--which in turn stokes further bigotry and another round of fear and bloodshed.
If the left does not to stand up to Islamophobia wherever it emerges, it will be the source of support for the right wing for years to come. Any challenge to reactionaries like Trump must include opposition to all imperialist warfare and unconditional defense of the civil and human rights of Muslims, in the U.S. and around the world.
Eric Ruder
Who will stand with Ilhan Omar?
The public shaming of Ilhan Omar on false charges of anti-Semitism ran into an angry opposition felt all the way to the Capitol.
Mukund Rathi
Third time is the harm for the Muslim ban
The Supreme Court upheld the third version of the Muslim ban, delivering a sordid victory to Trump and the white supremacists.
Justice denied on Trump’s Muslim ban
The Supreme Court's restoration of parts of Trump's Islamophobic travel ban is a travesty that must be contested in the streets.
The bigots behind the “anti-Sharia” marches
Islamophobic marches planned for a number of cities are contributing to the climate of violence fueled by racist politicians like Donald Trump.
Danny Katch
Back to the Islamophobic drawing board?
The federal court rejection of Trump's ban on Muslims is a victory for the protests against him--but don't trust that this White House will give up.
Urban rebellions and social change
Far from being "pointless violence" the Black urban rebellions of the 1960s changed the direction of U.S. politics.
Eric Ruder and Danny Katch
He made America protest again
A torrent of humanity flooded through cities around the country to express their anger at Donald Trump--but also their joy at finding one another.
What the Chicago teachers accomplished
The winning strike by Chicago teachers can be an opening wedge against corporate school "reform"--and a fighting example for other unions.
How the 1 percent rules
We know the 1 percent runs Wall Street and Corporate America, but their control extends into the supposedly democratic political system as well.
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CommentaryLiving FaithEconomic Justice
Kingdom Come Undone
When the Most Christian States Are Also the Poorest
By Joseph Wiinikka-Lydon
Alabama, where I live, just placed last among states for livability, according to a recent CNBC article.
“Worst” and “best” lists, a cottage industry on social media these days, are the cheap candy of critical inquiry. They give us a quick sugar high laced with self-satisfaction, before we move on to the next post, the next meme.
But what worries me about this list is that it points to uncomfortable truths: Nearly one-in-four people in Alabama live in poverty, compared to the national average of 13.5 percent. In cities like Birmingham, where I live, the poverty rate reaches 37.4 percent, the brunt of which is born by communities and persons of color. This makes Alabama the fourth poorest state in the country with the fourth highest child poverty rate. It is a state where every county except one has a child food insecurity rate above the national average of 20 percent. And if you are Latino or African American, one-third of your community will be poor, compared to a little over 13 percent for white communities statewide.
At the same time, Alabama is tied with Mississippi as the “most religious” state in the country, according to the Pew Research Center. Having lived in both the Northeast and the Southeast, the prevalence of churches and billboards in Alabama, admonishing passersby to repent or accept Jesus, is sometimes overwhelming. My first month in Birmingham, I was asked by a blood technician taking my blood if I had found my home church yet, even though I had not mentioned religion at all.
But what is more overwhelming is the realization that the most religious states — a comparison based on questions like church attendance, identity, and prayer frequency — more often than not coincide with the poorest states, the states with lowest life expectancy, and the states where it is most dangerous to be LGBTQ and/or a person of color.
READ: Facing Down the KKK: The Story of Koinonia Farm and Christian Hospitality
How can this be? If you ask Christians in a state like Alabama, which I have, you will hear that Christianity is the solution to most of life’s problems. It is a religion of peace, a religion of love. How can there be such suffering if, as Romans 8:27 argues, “the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God?”
This is a question that for a Christian should muddy the spiritual waters. Is it despite the prominence of Christianity, or partly because of it, that states like Alabama are struggling? There is no quick answer to this, nor should there be. It should weigh on a Christian’s soul and pull one’s attention back to question the prominent theologies or our time. If Christianity can thrive, yet the people starve, how Christ-like are our Christian communities?
A friend who grew up in Alabama told me one day that she would never move back to the state. When I asked her why, she responded, “It’s a state that does not invest in its people.” That is a damning response. Truly, what else is there for a Christian to invest in than their community, than in other people? With New Testament emphases on “the least of us” and Paul’s argument that love, that care for others, is the greatest of Christian virtues, a people that do not invest of their own time, energy, and wealth in their neighbors are living a life that is Christian in name only. They are like the wolf in sheep’s clothing, only this time, the wolf has forgotten it is a wolf and believes itself to be the sheep.
If Christianity can thrive, yet the people starve, how Christ-like are our Christian communities?
If the Christian project is the Kingdom of Heaven, what then is the status of that project in the United States? The Kingdom of Heaven, or of God, is a constant theme throughout the New Testament, and in the Gospel of Matthew alone, the phrase “Kingdom of Heaven” is used more than 30 times. Jesus describes the Kingdom of Heaven in six different metaphors for this week’s lectionary reading in Matthew. It is a term that has been understood in various ways, as signaling the imminent parousia and return of Jesus, to the true life that is after life, to the promise of the social gospel, where the Kingdom can be created here on earth in this lifetime.
What makes it so open to interpretation is the use of parable, of story, in presenting the topic. In one of the more famous set of parables, Jesus is said to have referred to the Kingdom of Heaven as a “mustard seed” that grows enormous to support birds and other life. It is also leaven or yeast used to increase the size of bread. What does it mean to call the Kingdom of Heaven a “mustard seed,” which for the farmer back in the day was a weed? Why is the Kingdom the leaven and not the bread? Why is it the seed and not the tree?
Despite those who argue that the Bible is a literal document, the use of parables undermine a literal interpretation of Jesus’ teachings and instead insist that the reader think about what was written. The Bible invites dispute, contemplation, disagreement. If Jesus spoke these words, then he had a twisted sense of humor. He must have, looking at the faces of those who listened, now confused, now unsure. But if community is built on dialogue and argument, what better way to nurture community over time — to plant community’s seed, if you will — than to give it images that will only compel the community to revisit its beliefs every generation, even every day.
What seeds are we in Alabama planting? What seeds are we planting in the United States, in the world? “Leaven” is often taken to be positive in Matthew, but in other parts of the Bible, it has a negative shade. The leaven must saturate the dough, becoming the animating ingredient that shapes the bread that we will one day eat. The parable is a good one, because it is open as to its meaning. Is the leaven supporting a rich, healthy meal, or is it undermining our future?
The mustard seed creates an ecosystem where other life, such as birds, find a place to live and flourish. What was a weed becomes the biggest plant in the garden and the best able to nurture life. Out of wrong decisions and a twisted history, there can be hope and growth. This is a key gospel message: love, hope, and life. But this side of Eden, the ground must be tilled. We must discern the best seeds to plant. And if we do not ready the ground, then who will?
Via ON Scripture.
Joseph Wiinikka-Lydon
Joseph Wiinikka-Lydon is a teacher and writer focusing on religious and philosophical ethics and a researcher at the new Center for Ethics as Study of Human Value at the University of Pardubice.
Image via Forsaken Fotos/Flickr.com
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Opinion: Millennials may lead the way to high-speed rail
Media Hit
3.31.14 | John M. Crisp, NorthJersey.com
- For Immediate Release -
TWO QUESTIONS: Why doesn’t our nation have more passenger trains? And does the younger generation’s declining interest in driving imply an opening for the expansion of public high-speed rail?
Last May The New York Times reported that all of us, and especially the so-called millennials, are driving less. The Times cites a report from U.S. PIRG, a nonprofit advocacy organization, that documents a six-decade increase in miles driven per capita, and then a surprising eight-year decline in total miles driven and a corresponding per-capita decline since 1996.
The report suggests several reasons for this decline, including higher gas prices, the recession and retiring baby boomers who are no longer driving to work. U.S. PIRG reports also that the use of public transportation grew by 10 percent between 2005 and 2011 and commutes by bike and on foot increased, as well.
Millennials seem to be key to the “post-Driving Boom era.” They drove 23 percent fewer miles in 2009 than they did in 2001, and they’re getting driver’s licenses in lower numbers than previous generations. Many young Americans don’t appear to embrace the baby boomers’ infatuation with cars as sexy, cool symbols of adulthood, freedom and power.
Sign of improvement
This could be a good thing. It’s hard to think of anything that
has had a bigger influence on the shape and condition of the modern world than the adoption of the privately owned, hydrocarbon-fueled, internal combustion engine as our preferred way to get around. Or of anything that has caused more harm.
But maybe forward-thinking millennials will provide an opportunity for reconsideration of our commitment to the automobile and for more openness to forms of public transportation like high-speed rail. Consider these self-evident ways that American life would improve:
Efficiency: Our car-driven culture wastes a lot of time and energy. A 2012 mobility study from Texas A&M reports that drivers spend an average of 38 hours per year — a work week — stuck in traffic. In larger cities drivers were pushing 70 hours per year, contributing to an extra 5.5 billion hours on the road and an extra 2.9 billion gallons of fuel burned. Yes, stuck in traffic, with an idling engine. High-speed rail doesn’t have this problem.
Furthermore, while the energy to run HSR is hardly emissions free, the relationship between energy consumption and passenger-moving capacity can be much more closely calibrated. We expend a lot of energy moving empty passenger seats around the nation in SUVs conveying only one person.
Eliminating a hazard
Safety: No form of transportation is entirely risk free. Still, about 100 Americans per day are killed on our highways. That seems like a lot. When you’re driving, if you’re not sleepy, speeding, drunk, high, incompetent or texting, remember that some percentage of the drivers coming from the other direction are. High-speed rail eliminates this hazard entirely.
Productivity: Almost from the beginning of the automobile age, we’ve dreamed of the car that can drive itself, perhaps because we realize that driving isn’t time well spent. For many of us it’s tedious, uncompensated labor, and a lot of it. How much? Estimates vary, but many indicate that the average American will spend four to five years of her life driving. I wonder what else we could do with that time.
Some things we could do with that extra four to five years of life are read, surf the web, watch a movie, work, doze, dine, walk down to the bar car and have a drink, play Candy Crush or just watch the countryside roll smoothly past a train window at speeds up to 200 mph.
Of course, this is the sort of thinking that usually garners me several invitations to move to France. We Americans love the footloose freedom of the automobile; our affection and commitment to cars run deep. But automobiles are not inevitable. Our culture has the capacity to make other choices, and perhaps millennials will have the wisdom to do so.
Push on to expand state’s bottle bill
McCutcheon Money
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While Facebook went all out to support Paris after the attacks in 2015, they've remained notably silent after other tragedies. (Image via UWA)
Thoughts x October 11, 2018
Where’s the Facebook Filter for Indonesia?
The lack of support for the Asian nation is just another example of the Western world’s disregard for non-white countries.
By Sierra Zareck, Haverford College
Indonesia had an earthquake. And then it had a tsunami. I was lounging on my living room couch, mindlessly scrolling through Facebook when my mom casually said, “Oh, did you know Indonesia had an earthquake?”
Shocked, I immediately sat up saying, “What? That can’t be true, I haven’t heard anything about it!” I checked Google and she was right; Indonesia had in fact endured a horrific tragedy. But why hadn’t I seen it on Facebook? Why was there no filter? Social media seemed completely unaware of what was happening. And that begs the question: What exactly is going on in Indonesia?
First there was the earthquake. On Sept. 28., there was a devastating 7.5-magnitude earthquake on Sulawesi island in eastern Indonesia. It wreaked havoc; the very earth swallowed people alive.
Fifteen-year-old Priska Sustanon was one of 34 children whose bodies were found in a church after the building was buried by mud and other debris. A mosque, shopping center, hotel and road bridge were also devastated by the quake.
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After the main shock, an enormous tsunami with waves almost three meters high hit the provincial capital city of Palu, 48 miles away from the earthquake. Many were unaware a tsunami was even imminent, as the warning underestimated the waves and others failed to get the alerts because of power loss after the quake.
The mix of tsunami and earthquake caused terrible soil liquefaction. Whole neighborhoods were consumed by a sort of heavy sludge that destroyed everything in its path. At first the death toll was thought to be around 200, but in the days after the earthquake and tsunami it kept rising higher and higher. As of Oct. 7, the death toll is believed to be around 1,754, with 2,549 injured and 683 still officially missing. However, no one was found alive after the third day of search and rescue.
The devastation is so severe the Indonesian government is considering turning Balaroa and Petobu, two of the worst-hit neighborhoods in Palu, into mass graves. There is a possibility that hundreds of people in those areas were buried by the dirt, making it difficult to find their bodies. Some believe the number of people missing in the two neighborhoods could even be in the thousands.
I have only captured a minuscule fraction of the horrors occurring in Indonesia. The Red Cross estimates over 1.6 million people have been affected, and so many are still unaccounted for. I cannot imagine what horrors people are enduring there and my heart goes out to them. Yet despite the devastation and destruction, it has been virtually unacknowledged on Facebook.
Over the years, Facebook has been known to show solidarity with countries who have endured tragedies in some way. After the terror attacks in Paris that killed 130 people, Facebook created a profile picture filter of the French flag to show support. Over 120 million people used the filter in three days.
The filter was met with criticism as people questioned why France, a mostly white, developed country, had one but there was none for the suicide bombing in Beirut that had occurred just one day prior to the Paris attack. I also discovered that in response to the backlash, Facebook actually got rid of sponsored filters altogether, although user-created ones still exist.
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However, this is bigger than just filters. After the attack in Paris, millions upon millions showed their support through Facebook posts, be it news articles, people’s personal thoughts or survivors’ GoFundMes. Similar support has been shown for attacks in England and the U.S. Social media provides an insight into what is on people’s minds, what keeps them awake at night and what they care about. I’m not saying the terror attacks in countries like France, England and the U.S. were not tragedies, because they were; my heart goes out to those people as well. But why is the same support not shown for Indonesia?
Indonesia is not the only country that has gone seemingly unnoticed. Just a few days ago, Haiti was also hit by an earthquake. This July over 200 were killed in Syria in one of the deadliest ISIS attacks. More than 110 girls are missing after a Boko Haram attack in February of this year. So many brown and black people are being killed daily, yet it seems as if it goes largely unnoticed on social media such as Facebook. But again, why?
While I cannot know for sure, the issue runs along racial and class lines. A tragedy is a tragedy, and I again am not trying to devalue what has happened in western cities such as Paris.
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However, similar tragedies occur in other countries constantly. Not only does the world not care about the deaths of brown and black people as much as they do about white people, it is desensitized to them. When there are attacks in places such as Western Europe, people are shocked because they happen so rarely in comparison to other parts of the world. Inhabitants of mostly white, developed countries generally do not live every day wondering if that is the day a terrorist group will finally kill them. They don’t go to sleep at night wondering if their house will be the next one bombed. They don’t desperately flee their country, risking death, just to avoid almost certain death in the place they call home.
So, when something terrible does happen in Western nations, people can hardly believe it. They talk about these “trying times” even though times have been trying for generations elsewhere. Countries of mostly black and brown people have suffered so much post-colonization that their suffering is considered part of the norm.
I wish it was different. I am not trying to blame anyone, but instead reflect on what I believe to be a sad trend with countries made up of mostly brown and black people not being shown the same solidarity as majority white, developed countries. People should not attempt to quantify which tragedies are worse than others, that is not what I am calling for. What they can do, however, is think about which news articles they share on their Facebook feeds, what disasters they talk about and where they donate their money. A death is a death, regardless of skin color.
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Apparently, The Onion Hates Facebook Just As Much As Everyone Else Does
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Eugene Castner Lewis
Hadley Park
Nashville City Cemetery
Shelby Park
Lewis was born at Cumberland Furnace in Dickinson County, Tennessee. His father was the manager of the Cumberland Iron Works, which produced cannonballs, using enslaved labor, for the Confederate army. Growing up amid mining, smelting, and the ironworks, the younger Lewis was educated at the Pennsylvania Military Academy during the four years of the Civil War. Although he never served in the military, Lewis adopted the title ‘major’ and began his career, after the war, as a civil engineer with the Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway. In approximately 1875, he joined the Sycamore Powder Mills in Cheatham County, Tennessee, where he was eventually promoted to general superintendent in 1884, designing two bridges that spanned Sycamore Creek. After leaving Sycamore, Lewis increased his involvement in business, briefly publishing the local newspaper Nashville American and being appointed to the board of directors of the Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway in 1896, for which he served as chairman from 1900 to 1917.
Appointed director-general to the Tennessee Centennial Exposition of 1897, Lewis was responsible for constructing the exposition’s buildings, but his involvement extended to the design of the landscape, reflecting pools, and plantings. In 1901 he was elected as an early director of the Nashville Parks and Recreation Department, going on to oversee the development of Centennial Park, Shelby Park, Hadley Park, and Watkins Park. He also oversaw the improvement of the Nashville City Cemetery. In 1916 Lewis was the subject of a nepotism lawsuit, which alleged he had appointed his son, brother, niece, and other relatives to various posts in the park commission during his tenure. Before the investigation was complete, he died of stomach cancer in 1917 and was buried in the city’s Mount Olivet Cemetery.
City Cemetery, Nashville, TN - Photo by Sue Choi, 2018
City Cemetery, Nashville, TN - Photo by Charles A. Birnbaum, 2017
Centennial Park, Nashville, TN - Photo by Nord Wennerstrom, 2017
Centennial Park, Nashville, TN - Photo by Sue Choi, 2018
Shelby Park, Nashville, TN - Photo by Sue Choi, 2018
Shelby Park, Nashville, TN - Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons, 2009
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Henry Clossen Hibbs
George Peabody College of Vanderbilt University
Scarritt Bennett Center
Born in Camden, New Jersey, Hibbs earned a B.S. in architecture from the University of Pennsylvania in 1904. During his undergraduate study, he served as an apprentice at the architectural firm of Frank Miles Day and Brother. He worked for one year in Philadelphia at Cope and Stewardson before moving to New York City, where he worked at George B. Post and Sons, from 1904 to 1906, and D. Everett Wade, from 1908 to 1909. He then partnered for four years at Van Vleck & Goldsmith Architects, where he designed a post office building and a theater in Westfield, New Jersey.
In 1913 Hibbs left Van Vleck and began work with the firm Ludlow and Peabody in Nashville, Tennessee, serving as the supervising architect for the construction of the George Peabody College for Teachers in 1914. There he worked with landscape architect Warren Manning to design a neoclassical campus inspired by the grounds of the University of Virginia, particularly its large central lawn. He went on to design numerous buildings in Nashville, including the libraries at both Vanderbilt University and Fisk University and the Nashville Electric Building. In 1929 he was awarded a Gold Medal from the American Institute of Architects for his plan and design of Scarritt College for Christian Workers (now the Scarritt Bennett Center). Outside Tennessee, Hibbs completed projects for Mary Baldwin College in Virginia, Davidson College in North Carolina, Hendrix College and Galloway College, both of Arkansas, the University of South Carolina, Columbia, and the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma. He passed away at the age of 67 and was interred in Nashville’s Mt. Olivet Cemetery.
Scarritt-Bennett Center, Nashville, TN - Photo courtesy Sue Choi, 2018
Fisk University, Nashville ,TN - Photo by Sue Choi, 2018
Peabody College, Nashville, TN - Photo by Kevin Oliver - Flickr, 2008
Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN - Photo courtesy Corey Seeman-Flickr_2015
Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN - Photo by Corey Seeman - Flickr, 2015
Scarritt-Bennett Center, Nashville, TN - Photo by Sue Choi, 2018
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A Thriving Tampa Bay Region Depends on the Health of Our Bay
ThinkSustany® / By Melissa Hodge
A recent history of our bay and how we can sustain its health amid population growth
Listen to the podcast version of this article in your browser or download the mp3. Click here!
For many of us who live in the Tampa Bay region, the bay itself plays an important role in our overall quality of life. Economically the bay is the lifeblood of the region, supporting about one-third of annual GDP and an estimated 660,000 jobs paying about $51B per year in the six counties that surround it (PDF). A portion of that economic activity, such as marine shipping, could occur regardless of the bay’s condition. But other activities such as tourism and recreational boating and fishing, which provide about 300,000 jobs and $22B of annual GDP, rely on a healthy estuary and good water quality. Environmentally a healthy bay provides important habitat for a large number of fish and shellfish species; more than 70% of all recreationally and commercially important saltwater species depend on estuaries like the bay at some stage of development. The bay and its watershed also provide habitat for more than 40 species of native plants and animals that are classified as threatened or endangered by government wildlife agencies.
Given its importance to our quality of life, the health of the bay needs to be kept in mind when we think about the sustainability of our work and recreational activities and other lifestyle choices. This is particularly true if we live near the shoreline or one of the streams or rivers that flow into it, since human activities in these areas can have direct impacts on the bay. But it is also true for those who live in inland portions of the watershed, because activities there can have impacts on regional air and water quality that can have indirect effects on the bay. The more we know about the environmental impacts of the things we do, the better understanding we will have of their long-term sustainability.
Want to skip the history lesson and go straight to learning how YOU can help sustain a healthy Tampa Bay? Click here
Recent Bay History: Degradation and Recovery
Although many current residents aren’t familiar with the story, the environmental health of the bay has fluctuated dramatically over the past several decades.
Rapid population growth that began in the 1950s, along with inadequate sewage treatment systems that could not keep up with the growth, led to major declines in the bay’s water quality during the 1960s and 1970s. Hillsborough Bay, including the shoreline of South Tampa, was particularly hard-hit, with frequent algae blooms and fish kills. These produced sights and smells, along Bayshore Boulevard and elsewhere, that drove people away from the water.
By the mid-1970s residents around the bay decided the situation had become intolerable and demanded action from their elected officials. The recently-enacted federal Clean Water Act had led to some improvements in sewage treatment, and in 1978 state legislation was passed requiring much larger improvements. Environmental regulations involving industrial waste discharges and urban stormwater management were also strengthened at the state and federal levels. By the mid-1980s bay water quality began to improve.
A collaborative bay management effort – involving several cities and counties, other government agencies and segments of the local business community – was organized to guide and coordinate additional actions. That collaborative partnership has helped bring the bay to where it is today, with healthy water quality that is comparable to the pre-growth era of the early 1950s.
THE TAMPA BAY STORY, 1950 – 2018
Rapid population growth and declining water quality, 1950s to mid-1980s
Population growth in the Tampa Bay watershed, 1940 – 2010
The human population of the Tampa Bay watershed increased by more than 500% over the past several decades, from less than 500,000 in 1950 to more than 2.5 million in 2010. Much of the early growth occurred near the bay shoreline and took place before the adoption of modern environmental regulations that now help to protect water quality and aquatic and wetland habitats. Many of the water quality impacts occurred during a roughly 30-year period between the early 1950s and late 1970s.
Like many other coastal waterbodies, in Florida and elsewhere, the bay’s water quality problems were primarily caused by ‘nutrient enrichment’ or over-fertilization. In the Tampa Bay watershed, as a general rule of thumb, phosphorus is the major nutrient of concern in fresh water lakes and rivers, while nitrogen is the major concern in brackish and marine water bodies such as the bay.
While both nitrogen and phosphorus are naturally-occurring nutrients that are essential for life, in large doses they are harmful. In surface water bodies excessive nutrient inputs encourage the development of dense populations of phytoplankon (free-floating microscopic algae and other micro-organisms), producing ‘algae blooms’ that degrade water quality in several ways. In addition to being unsightly, the floating cells reduce water clarity and block sunlight, which harms seagrass beds and other desirable aquatic habitats. And as the cells die and decompose, dissolved oxygen is removed from the water column and bottom sediments as part of the decomposition process.
Because an adequate supply of oxygen is essential for most organisms, such reductions can have adverse impacts on the local wildlife. Fish and other highly mobile animals are often able to disperse from areas with reduced oxygen levels, but both they and less mobile bottom-dwelling organisms can be physiologically stressed or killed by lengthy exposures to extremely low levels. Fish kills and mass die-offs of bottom-dwelling organisms were frequent events in Tampa Bay (particularly Hillsborough Bay) during the 1960s and 1970s.
Annual nitrogen load in tons per year in the Tampa Bay region
Manmade nitrogen sources that have contributed to water quality problems in Tampa Bay include things such as municipal sewage discharges, stormwater runoff and nutrient-enriched industrial discharges (for example, from facilities involved in the manufacture and shipping of fertilizer products). Surprisingly, the combustion of fossil fuels for transportation and electric power generation have also been important manmade sources, contributing an estimated 25% to 65% of the manmade nitrogen entering the bay during some periods. Combustion of coal, oil and gas in power plants and vehicles releases nitrogen-containing compounds into the atmosphere, which are then returned to the surface by rainfall and other atmospheric deposition processes.
Estimates of the annual amount (or ‘load’) of nitrogen entering Tampa Bay have been calculated for the pre-1950s ‘historical’ period and the ‘worst case’ period of the mid-1970s. Annual loads during the worst case period were about 500% larger than during the historical period, explaining the water quality impacts observed in the 1970s and early 1980s.
Seagrass declines
Seagrasses in Lower Tampa Bay
Seagrasses are a unique group of plants that have become adapted to life in brackish and marine waters. Seagrass beds provide shelter and feeding habitat for many popular fish and shellfish species, including snook, redfish, seatrout, shrimp and the bay scallop. They also serve as a food source for manatees, sea turtles and other wildlife.
Because seagrass plants require sunlight to grow, the reductions in water clarity that occurred during the ‘bad old days’ of the 1970s and early 1980s caused large reductions in seagrass acreage in Tampa Bay. Based on analysis of aerial photographs, almost 41,000 acres were present in 1950. At the low point, in 1982, less than 22,000 acres remained, a loss of almost 50%. Much of the loss occurred in Hillsborough Bay, which had the largest nitrogen loads and poorest water clarity of all the bay segments and lost almost all of its seagrass cover.
In addition to reductions in water quality and water clarity, extensive dredge-and-fill projects conducted prior to the adoption of modern environmental regulations led to the loss of more than 13,000 acres of bay bottom, about 90% of which were shallow water areas that may have supported seagrass beds. Hillsborough Bay was once again among the most impacted parts of the bay, its surface area reduced by about 14% due to large-scale dredging and filling for the construction of shipping channels, port facilities, power stations, spoil islands and residential development.
Seagrass Acreage as a Bay Management Goal
Seagrasses have been identified as a key envi¬ronmental resource in Tampa Bay because of their critical importance in providing habitat for large numbers of fish, shellfish and other species of wildlife. They are also sensitive to water-quality degradation, and play a valuable role in nutrient cycling and improving the stability of bottom sediments.
Dredge-and-fill projects of Tampa Bay
Because seagrass acreage is such an important indicator of bay health, the local resource management community is using it to assess the effectiveness of its bay management efforts. In 1996 the Tampa Bay Estuary Program (www.tbep.org), which is a partnership of local bay management organizations, adopted a goal of returning seagrass acreage in Tampa Bay to early-1950s levels. The early 1950s was chosen as the baseline period because it preceded the period of rapid population growth that began soon thereafter, and because aerial photographs were available for the entire bay from that time, allowing accurate image-based estimation of seagrass acreage for the first time.
In order to meet the acreage goal, the TBEP partners developed a multi-step seagrass management strategy. Because adequate sunlight is a key component for seagrass survival and growth, the initial step was to determine the amount of sunlight needed by the seagrass species that occur in Tampa Bay. Field studies carried out in Lower Tampa Bay, where seagrass acreage has remained relatively stable since the 1950s, indicated that grassbeds there required about 20.5% of the sunlight reaching the water surface on an annual average basis. Given the water clarity that normally occurs in Lower Tampa Bay, this requirement is usually met in areas where the average water depth is six to seven feet or less, a depth that marks the deep edge of most grassbeds in that part of the bay.
Based on the 20.5% light requirement, the seagrass restoration goal was then restated as a light penetration and water clarity target. That is, in order to restore seagrass acreage to early 1950s levels in a given bay segment, water clarity in that segment would need to be restored to a point that allows at least 20.5% of surface sunlight to reach the same average bottom depth that it reached during the early 1950s. These depths ranged from about 3.3 feet in Hillsborough Bay to about 6.5 feet in Lower Tampa Bay.
Previous experience had shown that excessive nitrogen loads, and the algae blooms those additional nutrients fueled, were a primary cause of the loss of seagrasses that occurred between the early 1950s and early 1980s. In order to reverse those impacts it was necessary to express the water clarity targets in terms of algal biomass and nitrogen loadings. Algal biomass can be estimated by measuring the concentration of chlorophyll-a (a type of chlorophyll that all phytoplankon contain) in the bay’s water column. These measurements have been carried out on a monthly basis in Tampa Bay since the early 1980s, by the Environmental Protection Commission of Hillsborough County (EPC) and other local government monitoring programs. Using the monthly chlorophyll-a data and nitrogen loading estimates developed by the TBEP, numerical relationships between the two variables were identified that allowed chlorophyll-a and nitrogen loading targets to be developed for each segment of the bay.
Tampa Bay Seagrass Recovery Strategy
Implementing the Management Strategy: 1996 – present
Following the low points in water quality and seagrass acreage that occurred in the late 1970s and early 1980s, local communities and industries took significant steps to reduce the amounts of nitrogen and other pollutants that are discharged to the bay. In 1979 the City of Tampa obtained federal grant funds and carried out a $100-million project to modernize its Howard F. Curren sewage treatment plant at Hookers Point, a project that sharply reduced the amount of nitrogen discharged to Hillsborough Bay. At the same time the City of St. Petersburg was initiating a wastewater reuse program in which highly treated municipal wastewater is used for landscape irrigation rather than being discharged to the bay. The City of Clearwater and other municipalities also upgraded their sewage treatment systems.
As nitrogen discharges were reduced, water quality began to improve. Improvements in chlorophyll-a concentrations and water clarity levels began in the mid-1980s and continued into the 1990s and beyond.
Aerial view of the City of Tampa’s Howard F. Curren advanced wastewater treatment plant on Hillsborough Bay
Examination of the long-term water quality data in 1996 indicated that the water clarity conditions that existed in the bay during the years 1992 through 1994 were adequate to meet the targets developed for the seagrass restoration strategy. This implied that the nitrogen loads that occurred during the 1992 through 1994 period also met their target values. The TBEP and its partners therefore adopted a ‘hold-the-line’ goal for nitrogen loading, keeping annual loads to each bay segment at or below the levels that occurred in 1992 – 1994.
It was clear, however, that ongoing population growth in the watershed could potentially lead to increased nitrogen being discharged to the bay, from sources such as municipal sewage treatment plants and stormwater management systems, and thus prevent the ‘hold-the-line’ nitrogen loading goal from being achieved. If annual nitrogen loads were to be maintained at 1992 – 1994 levels, additional nitrogen management projects would be needed to preclude the expected load increases (about 17 tons of additional nitrogen per year, each year) that would otherwise be generated as a result of population growth.
To achieve these nitrogen load reductions, the TBEP and its partners formed the Tampa Bay Nitrogen Management Consortium (NMC), a voluntary group that includes electric utilities, phosphate companies and other industrial concerns, agricultural interests, local governments, and state and federal regulatory agencies. Together, the NMC members developed a nitrogen management action plan and committed to implement projects to contribute to meeting the adopted management goals. The types of projects included in the plan range from traditional nutrient-reduction activities, such as municipal wastewater and stormwater treatment upgrades, industrial retrofits, and agricultural best management practices, to actions that provide nutrient reductions as a secondary benefit, such as land acquisition and habitat restoration projects.
The effectiveness of the ‘hold-the-line’ nitrogen management strategy is assessed annually by evaluating chlorophyll-a concentrations and water clarity levels measured by local monitoring programs in each bay segment during the previous calendar year and comparing those values to the segment-specific targets. During years when the water-quality targets are not met, a ‘decision-matrix’ approach is used to determine an appropriate level of management response. The ongoing effectiveness of the seagrass management strategy is evaluated every two years, when changes in seagrass acreage are mapped and provided in GIS format by the Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD). The GIS data layers produced by the mapping effort are available online.
As a result of the nitrogen management projects carried out by the NMC and other TBEP partners, the goal of restoring Tamp Bay’s seagrass acreage to early-1950s levels was reached in 2014, and continued in 2016 when a total of 41,655 acres were mapped by the SWFWMD aerial mapping program.
While the acreage numbers can be expected to fluctuate from year to year, due to climatic factors (such as tropical cyclones and El Niño/La-Niña episodes) and other events that cause fluctuations in annual nitrogen loads, it appears that the ‘hold-the-line’ nitrogen management strategy has been successful so far. The challenge will be to continue to hold the line as the population of the Tampa Bay watershed continues to grow.
Sustainability – What Can I Do to Help?
There are a large number of things that residents of the Tampa Bay region can do to contribute to the bay management effort. An updated list is maintained at the TBEP website and some examples are listed below:
As a homeowner:
Follow local guidelines for fertilizer use; use slow-release formulations and do not apply fertilizer when rain is likely during the next 24-hours (i.e., anytime during the June – September rainy season).
Practice xeriscaping and other Florida-friendly landscaping practices (additional information is available from the Florida Native Plants Society, local Cooperative Extension Service offices, and the Southwest Florida Water Management District)
Take appropriate steps to reduce stormwater runoff from your property (for example, by positioning gutters and downspouts to discharge to lawn or mulched areas rather than driveways or roadways)
Improve the energy efficiency of your home and vehicles, and reduce your use of fossil fuels as much as possible
If you own a pet, be sure to dispose of waste responsibly
If your home uses a septic system for wastewater treatment, make sure it is properly maintained (for more information, contact your county health department)
Reduce your use of hazardous household chemicals and dispose of chemical properly
As a worker or business owner
Examine the sustainability of your work and business-related activities and do what you can to reduce their environmental impacts
As a boater or angler
Follow guidelines for responsible boating and angling
As a volunteer or donor
Donate time and/or funds to support a nonprofit organization that is active in the Tampa Bay sustainability effort. For a list of some local resources, visit https://sustany.org/links
Tampa Bay Estuary Program: Volunteer Workdays
Tampa Bay Watch
Restore America’s Estuaries
Florida Department of Transportation: Adopt-A-Highway Program
Southwest Florida Water Management District
Hillsborough County Government Florida: Adopt-A-Pond
Manatee County wateratlas: Adopt-A-Pond
Pinellas County Florida: Adopt-A-Pond
City of Tampa: Hillsborough River & Coastal Cleanup
Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful
Tampa Bay Association of Environmental Professionals
Ocean Conservancy: Coastal Cleanup
St. Petersburg: ICAN Involved Citizens Active in Neighborhoods
As a citizen
Let your elected officials know that you support programs that support the bay such as upgrades to sewage treatment plants and stormwater management systems, environmental land acquisition and habitat restoration programs, and agencies that enforce water quality and wetland impact regulations
Stay up to date on and be active in local government land-use decisions that could affect the health of the bay and its watershed
Information Sources and Additional Reading:
Environmental Protection Commission of Hillsborough County (2018 and prior years) – water quality monitoring maps and data
Southwest Florida Water Management District (2016 and prior years), Tampa Bay seagrass maps
Tampa Bay Water Atlas
Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council (TBRPC) and Tampa Bay Estuary Program (TBEP)(2014), Economic Valuation of the Tampa Bay Estuary (PDF)
TBEP (2017), Tampa Bay Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP)
TBEP (2018 and prior years), technical publications on the Tampa Bay management effort
TBEP (2018 and prior years), Action Plan Database for tracking completed and ongoing nitrogen management projects
Yates, Greening and Morrison (2011) Integrating Science and Resource Management in Tampa Bay, Florida
This piece was provided by Gerold Morrison, PhD, a recently-retired environmental scientist and current Sustany® Foundation board member. Dr. Morrison has lived and worked in the Tampa Bay area since the 1980s.
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SYLVIA LAW
Revisiting Immersa
Immersa (Copper Bowl)
Sculpted by Sylvia Law, 2013.
Based At MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine, Edinburgh.
Today I had the privilege of revisiting Immersa, a copper bowl that I sculpted as part of my final project for the RSA New Contemporaries exhibition in 2013. Immersa comes from the latin word ‘immersed’, and was inspired by my time during the RSA John Kinross Scholarship in Florence, Italy.
Upon graduating in 2012, I was awarded the RSA John Kinross Scholarship to undertake 2 months of artistic research in Florence, Italy. During my time there, my focus was researching different historic sites that were linked to the ancient ritual of Baptism. I was specifically interested in exploring sites that portrayed the symbolism of rebirth and of eternal life through the ritual of healing water. I spent my time visiting holy wells and Baptisteries, all sites relating to water and its reviving properties. Water in this sense was used as a symbol for rebirth and showed a great reverence to nature. Inside each space, I recorded the aural imprints of the architecture as well as its visual symbology, which formed the basis of my final piece.
Immersa was exhibited at the annual RSA New Contemporaries exhibition in 2013. It was created through an ensemble of sound and sculpture. The final piece was sculpted as a baptismal font with the copper bowl placed at the centre. The soundscape that accompanied the work was created from a series of different sites, which I recorded in during my time in Italy. The recordings included sites in Pisa, Orvieto and Ravenna. The sounds were inspired by the acoustics of each space and formed together, emerging invisibly from within the wooden structure.
Immersa was created at the Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop in 2013. Rendered from raw copper and rescued from a nearby salvage yard, the material was sourced and crafted all from natural resources. I also received support from the Dewar Arts Award who funded the production of the project. I saw it right through it’s entire process, from a raw piece of metal, to a shining hammered bowl. The process took over 3 weeks to make and was raised by hammering the piece into the hollow of an old tree stump. It evolved from a flat piece of metal into a formed raised bowl.
It now sits peacefully in the MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine, as a vessel in itself. The sculpture’s roots fit nicely into the space as it too wished to articulate the symbolism behind regenerative life and healing. Immersa was inspired by the ancient ritual of Baptism, which sees water as a living organism that brings new life and renew us. It was this connection and symbolism that I wished to portray in the final piece. So it feels very fitting that it made its way to this space, and now sits in the RSA John Kinross Board Room.
You can listen to the soundscape here:
Moments as Movements…
I sing all the time. On my way to work, walking out in the woods. Sometimes in between conversations with myself and the world around me. It is a constant cycle of creating and watching things as they rise and fall back into silence…
I have all of these little snippets saved on my phone, just like catching a falling leaf or noticing the sun as it shines through the clouds. It is a moment, an then it’s gone.
I wished to share these little moments, just as pieces in themselves. I record them and then forget about them, and then rediscover them again.
I love their ephemerality and the way that something can just come to you and fill you with life, and then go back to stillness.
Listening back, some re-trigger the memory of the moment, and others don’t. It is a moment, and then it’s gone.
I find that we are constantly in a cycle of creation, and it is rare that we keep all the moments in between. The little sounds that become songs, the words that become lyrics, and the tunes that mark important times in our lives. They all come from this moment, where we open to what is calling to be opened…
REDISCOVERING THE SONG LINES….
This year, I have been working at the Scottish Storytelling Centre; a space for oral tradition to bloom into the present moment. It is said that stories are told “Eve to Eye, ‘Heart to Heart’…they are a moment of connection between the teller and the listener.
If anything, I have found that Storytelling is a shared experience. It is something which opens our cultural roots through different traditions, places and beliefs. Our stories are a foundation that allow us to dig into our past and to see our present through new ways.
“It is the word, blossoming as legend, poem, story, secret, that holds a community together and gives a meaning to its life.” George Mackay .
It has been extremely inspiring to be amongst such an old tradition and to see how it brings people together today. The stories of the past still hold so much resonance at present. Storytelling has been a way to share our existence with both the places we inhabit and the people that we encounter. We navigate our lives through the stories we tell, and we navigate our stories through the lives that we live.
This echoes the work that I created during my undergraduate degree, sculpting site-specific performances that triggered the present and past from forming a story between both spaces. Within this vast body we are able to re-listen to the journeys of our ancestors, to the their paths and songs and to retell them once more through our own voices.
This rich cultural tradition is embedded within Scotland today, and is still alive and evolving. All sorts of stories and songs are being retold, generation from generation, with the same resonance and knowledge, which hold the same magic and spirit as when they were first told thousand of years ago.
In this way, we can tell stories from the inside out, where our soul can meet the land it stands on. Navigating our stories through listening, telling and singing…
We storytellers are concerned
not alone with amusement, or with education,
or with distraction;
nor is it enough to give pleasure.
We are concerned with letting a stream of light
pass through us as though one facet of the gem or jewel,
that there may be revealed some aspect of the spirit,
some beauty and truth
that lies hidden within the world and humankind.
– Ruth Sawyer, The Way of the Storyteller
Posted on January 21, 2015 November 4, 2015
MA RESEARCH PROJECT: FOUND THROUGH SOUND
Calling out, Angus-Hughes Gallery, London. 2014
The Absence of Presence: Feeling A Whisper Coming Through The Body of Silence.
This work has been sculpted as a series of sonic journeys in which the listener is invited to engage with sounds from inaudible realms. The pieces explore the theme of being invisible through journeying internally from one place to another, where the sound itself takes you to an unknown space, to hear itself for the first time. The work will be presented as both playbacks immersed throughout the gallery space, as well as performing daily vocal interventions.
In my practice, I wish to sonify these unheard soundscapes which embody a geography of intimacy by locating the things we cannot see, but feel. My work is presented as fleeting moments of ephemeral encounters, in which the listener is invited to occupy a liminal space that is neither here nor there but still present. It appears from nowhere, like a whisper coming through the body of silence; an invisible presence that you can feel unfolding inside of you…
Performed and shown at the MA Sound Arts Final Show: Constantly Evolving, But Never Ending.
MY RESEARCH POSTER:
Posted on September 12, 2012 February 25, 2016
Welcome to my artist’s webpage.
This space is dedicated to sharing my work, both past and present as well as upcoming future projects.
I am an Edinburgh-based Artist, and work with a large variety of artistic mediums including sound, performance art, environmental sculpture, deep listening, site-specific practices, poetry, drawing & writing.
My nature is to tell the story of a place through sound. I wish to engage and explore many environments, both externally and internally. Everyone has a story to tell and their song to share, and I feel nature too has its own. Through listening and engaging with the landscape, I aim to sculpt dialogues which interweave both shared narratives of the land and myself into one space, a place where we can both belong. Through these discoveries I locate and discover the true nature of the stories within our natural habitats.
I see this as a process of finding balance between the nature within, and the nature around us. Formed by this creative enquiry, I create a space where both can meet and interact with one another. We sound through one another to become one, like flowers growing from the earth, a renewing force perceiving our beauty both from within and from without. Art in this sense is a physical manifestation of our intention, which we can clearly see as it is birthed through us.
As well as forming my own individual practice, I work creatively within the community. I use my creative practice to sculpt new experiences, which adapt to each individual’s diverse needs. I have recently worked with Artlink and Jupiter Artland, supporting both their creative outreach programmes. This has involved assisting educational activities in nature working with young children, as well as supporting individuals on a one to one basis with learning disabilities. My role as a creative practitioner is to come up with inventive ways that incorporates creativity into our everyday lives and that creates a space for us to re connect with our own inner creativity.
If you wish to contact me about future projects then please send me an email: sylvia_anna_law@yahoo.co.uk
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Technology Android OnePlus 6 Specs Leak: Here Is What You Will Get
OnePlus 6 Specs Leak: Here Is What You Will Get
We all know very well that these days we are talking a lot about the OnePlus 6, one of the most anticipated mobiles of the moment recently we said that the smartphone would be a clone of the top of the range of Oppo (2019) and today, the appearance on the network of the features of the OnePlus 6, seem to give us the reason.
These days we are talking a lot about the OnePlus 6 and, as with the Xiaomi Mi 7, it is one of the most anticipated mobiles of the moment (as often happens every year) recently we said that the smartphone would be a clone of the top of the range of Oppo (2019) and today, the appearance on the network of the features of the OnePlus 6, seem to give us the reason.
Days ago the price of OnePlus 6 was filtered, a figure close to 750 dollars that has begun to worry, and much, to the fans of the firm, who affirm that this price is not identifying a phone that calls itself “flagship killer” Faced with this, Pete Lau has gone to Twitter to make a curious reference to the “overprice” of the current top of the market. A clue about the final figure of there flagship?
And the theme of 2019 is… overpriced flagships. 樂
— Pete Lau (@petelau2007) March 23, 2019
Beyond this controversy, today a OnePlus 6 specification sheet has been leaked on the Web. Of course, it is one of those leaks that we have to doubt their origin, however much they are in line with what has been rumoured on the phone in recent days.
Possible characteristics of the OnePlus 6
As we were advancing a few days ago, the new information about the OnePlus 6 resembles the terminal to the Oppo R15, the smartphone on which the phone will be based, just as the OnePlus 5T was based on the Oppo R11. The only difference that we could find between both Chinese mobile phones would be the processor.
The list of features of the OnePlus 6 indicates the presence of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 CPU driving the terminal. These days there was the talk of a presence of 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, but the filtration shows a single variant of 6GB + 128 GB. It is likely that the 8GB model also hits the market.
Continuing with the filtered information we see that the OnePlus 6 will have an AMOLED screen of 6.28-inch with a resolution of 2280 x 1080. This would be the same panel as the Oppo R15
will feature.
In the back we would have a double rear camera, in this case, configured with two sensors of 16 MP + 20 MP with an aperture f/1.7. indeed, it would be the same system found in the OnePlus 5T. The improvements would come in the front sensor, which would now reach 20 MP in the OnePlus 6.
Now, if we talk about the other filtered features of the OnePlus 6 then let clarify that the new OnePlus 6 will come with Android 8.1 as an operating system, most likely with OxygenOS as a customization layer. In addition, there is also talk of a battery of 3450mAh. Again the same as we have in the Oppo R15.
So, what do you think about this? Simply share all your views and thoughts in the comment section below.
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Regina (State) vs Paul Golding (2014) – Counter Terrorism Division of the CPS
by TellMAMA | Jul 21, 2015 | Far Right groups, News, Uncategorized |
We have highlighted the following case to show the actions of far right groups like Britain First who intimidate people and who, thankfully, have been successfully prosecuted by the Crown Prosecution Service. This text highlights the criminal conviction of the Group’s leader, Paul Golding.
On the evening of 3 April 2014 Paul Golding, the leader of an organisation called Britain First, visited Chafont Hundred, a small town in Essex, along with a group of male supporters. The group’s primary intention was to confront a man called Sajeel Shahid who, according to an article in the Daily Mail, had been a member of a proscribed terrorist organisation and had been involved in training terrorists in Pakistan. In fact, the house that the group intended to visit actually belonged to Mr Shahid’s brother, and at the time of their visit only his wife, Munnazza Munawar, and their three children were at home.
On arrival in the area the group began posting leaflets entitled ‘no hate preachers in Hepburn close’ through a number of doors in the vicinity before approaching Mrs Munawar’s front door. PauL Golding knocked and, although Mrs Munawar did not open the door due to her understandable concern, he asked her to pass a message on to Sajeel Shahid that he should get out of the neighbourhood. He ended by stating that he would return and posted one of the offending leaflets under her door before departing. Mrs Munawar was left in a state of fear for herself and her children.
One member of Paul Golding’s group filmed the whole visit including a number of speeches that he made to camera. The video recording of this incident was subsequently posted on the website of Britain First. In this footage Paul Golding could be seen to be wearing a green bomber type jacket which had a visible emblem on the right hand breast. The others in his group all wore similar jackets which were available to buy on the Britain First website.
Paul Golding was prosecuted for an offence of harassing a person at their home, contrary to section 42A Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001 and an offence of wearing a uniform in connection with political objects, contrary to s1(1) Public Order Act 1936. The latter offence required the consent of the Attorney General. After a trial at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court he was convicted of both offences. He received a fine of £425 and was made the subject of a restraining order to prevent him from harassing Mrs Munawar.
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SPECTACULAR Victory Day Fireworks Light Up Moscow Sky (VIDEO)
© AP Photo / Sergey Ponomarev
Earlier on Thursday, a military parade took place in Moscow's Red Square during which sophisticated Russian military hardware, including tanks and missile systems, was displayed.
Splendid fireworks have been launched on 9 May to commemorate the 74th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in the 1941-1945 Great Patriotic War.
The Great Patriotic War, which constituted part of the Second World War of 1939-1945, began at dawn on 22 June 1941, when Nazi Germany attacked the USSR, violating the Soviet-German non-aggression treaty of 1939.
Follow Sputnik's feed to find out more
Highlights of the 9 May Victory Day Parade in Moscow (PHOTOS)
Russia's Brand-New Aurus Convertible Presented at Victory Parade for 1st Time
Global Media Reacts to Zelenskiy's Victory in Ukrainian Presidential Election
Victory Day, WWII, Moscow, Russia
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Posts Tagged ‘Nixon’
Either Hillary Clinton Needs To Be Utterly Destroyed Over Her Emails Or The Experiment In Constitutional Republican Democracy Needs To End.
Hillary Clinton had every right to use all the private email she wanted; all she had to do was STAY THE HELL OUT OF PUBLIC SERVICE.
There is one and only one question that needs to be put to Hillary Clinton. And put to her again and again at every event in which she talks to ANYONE until she drops out of public life and becomes a recluse with about a thousand cats for the rest of her life.
That question is this: “Secretary Clinton, do you believe that every government official ought to be allowed to do what you did by setting up your own private system such that there is no possibility of impartial third-party accountability, or do you believe that you are an elitist entitlement whore and that you alone ought to be above the laws that protect representative government from corruption?”
I mean, look, either from now on every single person who holds a government job should put his or her emails on a private server beyond access or control by the government such that each government worker must be trusted implicitly, or Hillary Clinton needs to be permanently publicly destroyed and utterly despised as a symbol of tyranny and corruption.
If Hillary Clinton is allowed to do this, then from now on your right-wing Karl Roves or Dick Cheneys working in their uber-right-wing bunkers writing orders and commands to destroy liberalism ought to have the exact same freedom to be above the law and immune from the law.
And any representative democracy needs to be abolished today and from this moment forward.
There is absolutely no question whatsoever that Hillary Clinton set up a system to make her immune from the federal records act and freedom of information requests. In her system, she and her staff of priestesses get to decide what is relevant and what is not and everyone is required to believe her.
I don’t even think Joseph Stalin’s fascist tyrant balls were that big.
Fact checks reveal that Hillary Clinton is either lying or massively equivocating on every single thing she is saying about her emails. But then again, the Clintons are people who could find some way to insinuate “it depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is” when they are explaining to a traffic cop whey they refused to stop at a damn stop sign. Liberals are people who believe that laws are things for them to pass and impose and for little people to follow.
We have a pathologically partisan and dishonest media, but it is nice to know that even the mainstream press is going after Hillary Clinton’s fascist tyrant balls:
The Associated Press said Wednesday it has sued the State Department to force the release of government documents and e-mails from Hillary Rodham Clinton’s tenure as secretary of State, an action taken a day after she defended her use of a private e-mail account to conduct business and after six formal attempts by the news agency to obtain records.
“After careful deliberation and exhausting our other options, The Associated Press is taking the necessary legal steps to gain access to these important documents, which will shed light on actions by the State Department and former Secretary Clinton, a presumptive 2016 presidential candidate, during some of the most significant issues of our time,” AP General Counsel Karen Kaiser said in a statement.
“The press is a proxy for the people, and AP will continue its pursuit of vital information that’s in the public interest through this action and future open records requests,” Kaiser said.
At a news conference following a speech at a United Nations conference on women’s economic status Tuesday, Clinton defended her use of a private e-mail account, saying it was done for convenience. Using a personal account was permissible during her tenure as long as she kept the records, and she did not discuss classified information on her personal e-mail, Clinton said.
“Looking back, it would have been better for me to use two separate phones and two separate e-mail accounts,” Clinton said. “I thought using one (mobile) device would be simpler. Obviously, it hasn’t worked out that way.”
Clinton sent or received 62,320 total e-mails while heading the State Department, and deleted 31,830 that she deemed personal.
She turned over 30,490 e-mails to the State Department last fall at its request. More than 27,500 involved official government e-mail addresses.
Clinton said she “chose not to keep” personal e-mails, such as those related to daughter Chelsea’s wedding in 2010 or the funeral for her mother, Dorothy Rodham, who died in 2011. “No one wants their personal e-mails made public and I think most people understand that and respect that privacy,” she said.
Filed under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the lawsuit says “AP seeks the records in question from the State Department to inform citizens both regarding the operation of their government and regarding Secretary Clinton’s official actions as Secretary of State.”
Beginning in 2010, AP filed six requests under FOIA to obtain records from the State Department regarding Clinton’s tenure as secretary, including her calendars and schedules and records concerning the designation of Special Government Employee status given to her former deputy chief of staff, Huma Abedin.
The news agency also sought records related to the raid in Pakistan in which Osama bin Laden was killed and surveillance and other anti-terrorism programs conducted by the U.S. government.
AP also requested documents detailing the State Department’s dealings with defense contractor BAE Systems. The State Department reached a settlement with BAE in 2011 over violations of the Arms Export Control Act and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations.
Since the first FOIA request was submitted, the State Department “has failed to respond substantively to five of the requests, and has only partially responded to one request” related to BAE Systems, according to the lawsuit.
Consider this factoid: even if you believe Clinton’s story – which makes you a FOOL, just for the official record – you have this issue to deal with: Hillary Clinton says that she spent half of her time (31,830 personal emails out of a TOTAL of 63,320 emails as Secretary of State) engaged in personal business. Do you know what I call somebody who spends half their damn work time on personal emails? A FORMER employee. Because she’s fired.
If you want to believe Hillary Clinton’s story – and again you just identified yourself as a true FOOL – she is an astonishingly incompetent and self-centered pathological narcissist.
But no, Hillary Clinton set up her “private server” to avoid transparency and to avoid accountability. And she is refusing to turn over her server because she is a liar with something very, very serious to hide.
Meanwhile, the pissy, pathologically fascist Obama Administration that praised and adored itself as “the most transparent” (communist dictatorship) in history has refused for FOR AT LEAST FIVE DAMN YEARS to turn over so much as an email saying “good morning” from the Secretary of State of the United States of America. Oh, yeah, Obama will have his lawthug Eric Holder investigate the police department in Ferguson forever, but here’s a giant scandal involving his very top official and he can’t be bothered.
Obama is in this over his eyeballs. He did what he always did and lied about it and said that he is a detached incompetent fool who didn’t even know what the hell was happening all around him, but yeah, he received emails from Hillary Clinton’s private email server that was in graphic violation of the rules and policies and regulations that had been set up to protect the integrity of government service:
President Barack Obama communicated via email with Hillary Clinton while she used her personal email, according to the White House.
In a press briefing on Monday, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said that Obama did correspond with his secretary of state via her private email address.
“The president, as I think many people expected, did over the course of his first several years in office trade emails with his secretary of state,” Earnest said. “I would not describe the number of emails as large, but they did have the occasion to email each other.”
Earnest’s admission comes after Obama said on CBS on Saturday that he learned about Clinton’s use of a private email and server “the same time everybody else learned it, through news reports.” According to Earnest, this comment should not be assumed to mean that Obama and Clinton never emailed back and forth. […]
When pressed on whether Obama was aware that Clinton was conducting business over her private email, Earnest responded, “the point is the president did email with Secretary Clinton. I assume that he recognized the email address that he was emailing back to,” before saying that the important issue is whether she complied with the Federal Records Act.
I mean, “Oh, THOSE private emails!”
Just another day in the fascist life of fascists doing their fascist thing.
Even the leftist Democracy Now is publicly calling Obama “the least transparent president in history”:
“My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government.” So wrote President Barack Obama, back on Jan. 29, 2009, just days into his presidency. “Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.” Now, six years into the Obama administration, his promise of “a new era of open Government” seems just another grand promise, cynically broken.
As the news industry observed its annual “Sunshine Week” in mid-March, The Associated Press reported that “[m]ore often than ever, the administration censored government files or outright denied access to them last year under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act [FOIA].” The AP report continued, “The government’s efforts to be more open about its activities last year were their worst since President Barack Obama took office.”
That article is within days of being a year old now, and Obama had only just BEGUN to be a fascist thug at that point compared to what he’s done since.
In the same way, even the leftist New York Times acknowledges that Barack Obama’s regime “is the most closed, control-freak administration I’ve ever covered.”
Consider what this rat-bastard lying fascist thug promised us when he seized power in his own now-proven-to-have-been-demonic-lying words:
“A democracy requires accountability, and accountability requires transparency. As Justice Louis Brandeis wrote, “sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.” In our democracy, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which encourages accountability through transparency, is the most prominent expression of a profound national commitment to ensuring an open Government. At the heart of that commitment is the idea that accountability is in the interest of the Government and the citizenry alike.
The Freedom of Information Act should be administered with a clear presumption: In the face of doubt, openness prevails. The Government should not keep information confidential merely because public officials might be embarrassed by disclosure, because errors and failures might be revealed, or because of speculative or abstract fears. Nondisclosure should never be based on an effort to protect the personal interests of Government officials at the expense of those they are supposed to serve. In responding to requests under the FOIA, executive branch agencies (agencies) should act promptly and in a spirit of cooperation, recognizing that such agencies are servants of the public.” {…}
Yeah, that sure happened.
In reality, if you ask ANY SENTIENT LIFE FORM – obviously that description excludes liberals – you get the type of statements I recorded above that Barack Obama is THE most closed, THE most secretive, THE most paranoid, THE most intolerant of the press, THE most intolerant to foia requests, of any president.
Hillary Clinton is nothing more than a fascist thug trying to take over the job of a fascist thug. Period. She claims her emails would have gone to .gov accounts that would have fallen under the law (you know, as the lesser people who had to follow the damn laws picked up for Hillary who refused to obey the requirements of government service). But that’s a lie. For example, her two most senior aides ALSO had their own private email accounts and did not use .gov accounts. So those three wicked witches could literally have conspired to commit treason and none of us would ever know about it. And to the best of my knowledge, the foreign governments – such as the sponsors of terrorism that Hillary Clinton illegitimately raked in MILLIONS from even while she was serving as Secretary of State on behalf of the Clinton Foundation – didn’t use .got accounts and sending all their emails to the US government.
We have to trust that what Hillary Clinton and her two senior priestesses decided to save and what they decided to purge was above-board. Because we must trust Hillary Clinton’s, Huma Abedin’s and Cheryl Mills’ integrity the same way we should have had boundless confidence and trust in everything that George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Karl Rove did. We should allow all government officials to conceal their communications and only cherry pick what they deem “relevant” from now on.
It is wrong to brand Hillary Clinton “Nixonian.” But that is because it is a blatant dishonor of Richard Nixon when Nixon makes Clinton look like Billy Graham or whatever pope you think was the holiest holiness. Nixon, remember, set up his taping system to PRESERVE THE RECORD. He installed it to write his memoirs and probably to remind people of exactly what they’d told him. And he only deleted what, eighteen minutes? from that taping system when those records may have incriminated him. Hillary Clinton, by contrast, set up her servers to CONCEAL THE RECORD. And she didn’t delete eighteen minutes, but rather four entire YEARS, from disclosure.
Clinton has now conclusively proven – by setting up a private server in her home to dodge reporting requirements such that there is no possibility whatsoever for transparent, accountable government beyond being required to implicitly trust the word of your dictator; she has already proven in her refusal to turn over records without spending more than two years having her staff of priestesses pouring over them for anything potentially incriminating against her and purging records; she has already proven in her imperious statements that she does not have to turn over anything to anybody because she like Obama is ontologically superior to the rest of us pathetic herd animals – that she is either not fit to be in ANY government position. Or that our government should be “fundamentally transformed” to a tyranny.
We are now learning that Hillary Clinton’s “personal, private serve” was not so very private, after all, but that it was established by taxpayer funds and should belong to the people and not the tyrant. Hillary claims she can’t turn over any actual records because after all, her decision to ONLY use a private server for official business somehow inadvertently resulted in mixing her personal emails in with official emails. And after all, think of all of those intimate email exchanges she had with her husband, Bill. Mind you, Bill says that he’s only sent two emails in his entire life and neither was to his shrew wife. So that’s a stinking load of crap.
Hillary Clinton is like Al Sharpton, who somehow mysteriously suffered from not one but TWO suspicious fires that destroyed all of his financial records when he was running for public office. And of course, neither Hillary’s corruption nor Al Sharpton’s corruption is enough to disqualify them from being liberal Democrats in good standing. Because, of course, it’s actually dishonesty and corruption and a fascist disregard for the rule of law that qualifies them to be Democrats.
Make your choice, liberals. But realize that if you choose Hillary Clinton, you also just chose your own personal nightmare of the most rabidly right-wing tyrant the world has ever seen having his records immune from disclosure. And it will have been YOU who set that nightmare up and brought it to life.
Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama need to go down and go down hard and go down in history as treasonous disgraces to everything that representative democracy and any kind of government by the people should be. Either that, or else the next rabid right-wing tyrant needs to follow their example and run down the damn field with it.
Tags:.gov, Al Sharpton, Bill Clinton, dot gov, emails, financial records, Hillary Clinton, Nixon, Nixonian, only two emails, personal, private, Secretary of State, server, suspicious fires, transparent
Posted in Barack Obama, fascism, Hillary Clinton, Media, Politics | 2 Comments »
Barack Obama Is A Liar. And The American People Know He’s A Liar. The Question Is, Does Anybody Give A Damn About Truth Anymore?
Do the American people believe Obama’s dishonest bullcrap any longer?
Not so much:
Poll: Most Americans believe Obama lies on important issues
By Charles Hoskinson | APRIL 17, 2014 AT 10:53 AM
How much do Americans trust President Obama? Not much, according to a Fox News poll.
Sixty-one percent of respondents in the poll released Thursday said Obama lies at least some of the time on important issues. An additional 20 percent said he lies every now and then.
Only 15 percent believe the president is completely truthful.
“Lies” as in DELIBERATELY says things that he KNOWS are false. Obama knows he’s looking you right in the eye and lying to your face, but he does it anyway.
The article points out that there is some political bias going on in the perception:
Predictably, Republicans were more likely to believe Obama is a liar, with 85 percent saying he lies some or most of the time. Thirty-one percent of Democrats said the president is always truthful.
Two things. Thing one: “Thirty-one percent of Democrats”? Less than a third of the man’s own damn party??? That aint so good. I’m sure other roaches have a far higher opinion about their lead roach. And thing two, well, I’ll let the article say it and just comment afterward:
What’s interesting is that independents were slightly more likely to believe Obama lies at least some of the time — 63 percent, compared with 61 percent for the total sample.
Yeah, Independents are actually MORE likely to believe Obama is a dishonest lying sack of bovine filth than Republicans are.
So, it really turns out that the only truly “biased” people are the Democrats who rabidly insist on believing their lying Führer no matter what. We’ve seen that rabid mindset before. But the fact is that not only are Independent voters with the Republicans, but they are actually even MORE with Republicans than Republicans are in that they are even more likely to point a finger in Obama’s face and snarl, “YOU LIAR!”
The April 13-15 poll of 1,012 registered voters had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. Democrats were 39 percent of the sample, Republicans 38 percent and independents 20 percent.
Which is to say (again) that the only people who would find “bias” in this poll are the biased Democrats who are totally out of step with reality and with the rest of the universe.
Here’s the thing. It wasn’t all that long ago that Obama would have been done with this kind of perception. His own party would have turned against him, the way Nixon was done when his own Republican Party said, “That’s it. We’re better than this and we’re definitely better than YOU, Tricky Dick.” Not long ago, Obama would have been giving his final pathetic wave as president as he flew away before the people showed up with pitchforks and torches to burn the monster.
This isn’t – or at least it shouldn’t be – just about the lies by which Obama sold ObamaCare to the American people and then got re-elected based on the same lies told over and over and over again. This is a man who began his campaign with lie after lie. He slandered his predecessor based on lies, such as his attack on George Bush as “irresponsible” and “unpatriotic” for allowing the debt to increase by $4 trillion during his eight years only to increase it himself by nearly $8 trillion in only five years. This is a man who demonized his opponents in the GOP for voting against his debt ceiling increase when HE HIMSELF voted against the debt increase when he was a Senator. This is a man who routinely demonizes and slanders his opponents for their “war on women” when HE HIMSELF is far more vicious against women in HIS OWN “boy’s club” and in HIS OWN “gender gap” “wage disparity” than his opponents have EVER been.
Barack Obama is a lying, dishonest, cynical political opportunist without shame, without honor, without virtue and without decency. And he always HAS been from his first day on the campaign trail. Obama literally BEGAN his campaign for the presidency with a lie having broken his promise:
MR. RUSSERT: When we talked back in November of ‘04, after your election, I said, “There’s been enormous speculation about your political future. Will you serve your full six-year term as a United States senator from Illinois?”
Obama: “Absolutely.”
SEN. OBAMA: I will serve out my full six-year term. You know, Tim, if you get asked enough, sooner or later you get weary and you start looking for new ways of saying things, but my thinking has not changed.
MR. RUSSERT: But, but—so you will not run for president or vice president in 2008?
SEN. OBAMA: I will not.
And in being the first major party nominee to refuse to accept matching funds, Obama didn’t just fundamentally transform the nature of American campaigns by blowing open the doors to money as has never been seen in politics, but he LIED:
In November 2007, Obama answered “Yes” to Common Cause [and to a questionnaire by the Midwest Democracy Network] when asked “If you are nominated for President in 2008 and your major opponents agree to forgo private funding in the general election campaign, will you participate in the presidential public financing system?”
versus:
Barack Obama made it official today: He has decided to forego federal matching funds for the general election, thereby allowing his campaign to raise and spend as much as possible.
By so doing, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee becomes the first candidate to reject public funds for the general election. The current system was created in 1976 in reaction to the Watergate scandal.
Barack Obama has ALWAYS been a liar. And those who hate the truth have always been his most ardent supporters.
Obama has spent his career slandering and demonizing his opponents with his “war on women” slander and has “my opponents want dirtier air, dirtier water and children born with Down Syndrome and Autism” vileness.
That, too, is just another lie from hell from a liar from hell. Lest you have conveniently forgotten, Barack Obama’s “signature promise” to the American people was that he would “transcend the political divide.” He lied. And the only people who believe that the political climate that has become more bitter than ever is the Republicans’ faults are the pure, rabid, toxic liars who have supported Obama and his ocean of lies.
Obama’s pathological dishonesty has taken it’s toll on America’s national security. Obama is the man who issued a “red line” warning if Syria used chemical weapons. And then did NOTHING as they used them repeatedly. And now Obama is threatening Vladimir Putin on an almost daily basis if Putin keeps doing what Putin keeps doing. Because nobody believes a thing our Empty-Suit-in-Chief says anymore.
Obama has already been kissing the dirt of Nixon with his own poll numbers. And that is with the most dishonest propaganda mill since the Soviet Union’s TASS and the Nazi Party’s Ministry of Propaganda spinning the news for their messiah.
But times have changed. America is a much fouler place.
We are a nation of Pontius Pilates, a nation who skeptically asks, “What IS truth?”
And just like Pilate, we have turned out backs on the Man who is truth’s very embodiment. And that is because we turned out backs on the values of that Man that made discerning truth even possible.
From the Great City on a hill that many of our founding fathers envisioned, we are a nation that is in darkness just as Israel was in a darkness of wickedness and moral relativism in their darkest days. We are a people who do that which is right in our own eyes, rather than in God’s.
We find out that our president is a wicked, dishonest man and our response is to yawn in boredom and stuff another handful of potato chips in our faces.
God is patient, yes He is. I already would have handed out “Flood, Part Deux” were I in God’s place. And that’s just one of many reasons why I praise and honor God for being God. But that said, we also know that God is not mocked as those who are deceived think He can be. What a man sows, that he will also reap. And what a nation plants, it will surely harvest. Which is why Longfellow pointed out the truth that “Though the mills of God grind slowly; Yet they grind exceeding small.”
And that is why we are a nation on the way out. It is why when we collapse, there will be no part of what used to be America big enough to survive. And it is why it will be no shame when we go the way of the failed empires before us.
God is going to judge this nation as a nation that tolerates lies and that tolerates wicked policies based on those lies. And as I look around, I see a people and a nation that is ALREADY being ground down.
America has lived by lies, and it will surely perish because of those lies.
Tags:at least some of the time, Democrats, important issues, Independents, Nixon, Obama lies, Obama's lies, Pilate, Republicans, What is truth?
Posted in Barack Obama, Conservative Issues, fascism, morality, philosophy, Politics, Religion and Culture | 7 Comments »
Decent People MUST Demand A Special Prosecutor Over IRS Scandal: ‘Not Even A Smidgeon of Corruption’ Obama Says Of Supposedly Active Investigation
What do we as a people do when the president refuses to put an independent prosecutor in charge of an investigation into the worst kind of democracy-poisoning corruption in his own administration???
It is a fact that 292 conservative groups were targeted by the IRS (whose union gives 97% of political contributions to Democrats versus 2% to Republicans, for what it’s worth) versus only SIX liberal groups. And only ONE of those six liberal groups was denied the approval that ALL the conservative groups were denied.
It is a fact that the criterion for the targeting was “anti-Obama rhetoric.” That is simply chilling to anyone who ISN’T hoping Big Brother and then the beast of Revelation will show up to take over the world.
What do we do when we find out that this investigation has without any question been slow-walked, with the director of the FBI forced to acknowledge that he had no idea who was running the incredibly important IRS investigation, or how many agents were working on it as far back as June of last year. We found at that time that few if any of the conservatives who had been politically targeted by the IRS had been interviewed to obtain their stories and their testimony. We learned that as of late last year, the FBI had STILL had bothered to contact any of the conservative victims of the IRS. How on earth can you claim that you are investigating a crime if you don’t even bother to get the stories of the victims of the crime???
What do we do as a nation when the president’s handpicked law dog appoints a maxed-out Obama donor to head this investigation???
Two Republican lawmakers and a conservative legal group are questioning the Justice Department’s selection of a Democratic donor to lead the agency’s probe into the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of certain advocacy groups during the 2010 and 2012 election cycles.
House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) issued a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Wednesday demanding the department remove DOJ trial attorney Barbara Bosserman from the case, saying her involvement is “highly inappropriate and has compromised the administration’s investigation of the IRS.”
Bosserman donated a combined $6,750 to President Obama’s election campaigns and the Democratic National Committee between 2004 and 2012, according to federal campaign finance records.
The American Center for Law and Justice, which represents 41 groups suing the IRS over its controversial screening methods, also criticized the appointment of Bosserman to lead the probe.
“Appointing an avowed political supporter of President Obama to head up the Justice Department probe is not only disturbing but puts politics right in the middle of what is supposed to be an independent investigation to determine who is responsible for the Obama administration’s unlawful targeting of conservative and tea party groups,” ACLJ chief counsel Jay Sekulow said in a statement Thursday.
The Obama DoJ excuse is that they “cannot take political leanings into account when assigning cases and that making legal political contributions does not prevent its attorneys from fulfilling their duties without bias.” Okay, fine: so appoint an investigator who maxed-out giving political donations to Mitt Romney. Allow a doctrinaire conservative to conduct the investigation, since it [supposedly] doesn’t matter to the Obama DoJ. It’s kind of like the wrong price in the store: every single time it happens it seems to favor the store and work against the customer and yet it’s always an accident.
What do we do when the president says that there is “Not even a smidgeon of corruption” in an investigation that is supposed to be open and ongoing??? How can anyone now claim that this investigation has been anything other than politically tainted??? And at the very highest possible level??? And why don’t the American people deserve a special prosecutor to ensure that the tax collection service of this nation is not being used as a political attack dog to benefit a pathologically dishonest and corrupt administration???
It comes down to this: how in the hell does Obama know that the investigation won’t turn up so much as “a smidgeon of corruption”??? Because his maxed-out donor stooge is fixing the investigation for him, that’s why.
This is the most corrupt administration and the most corrupt president in history. Obama compared himself to Nixon during O’Reilly’s interview. Good. Because he makes Nixon look like a choir boy when it comes to political corruption.
Consider how Obama had his gubmint thugs go after one woman who had never had a problem with the government until she made the mistake of refusing to believe that her new president was a total fascist who would reward his friends and punish his enemies:
IRS officials have recently admitted improperly giving special scrutiny to conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status because the agency was “swamped with applications” and looking for “shortcuts”. But in a federal lawsuit filed last week, Engelbrecht claims the IRS’ actions toward her interests actually created a great deal more effort and paperwork for all concerned.
The trouble began shortly after Engelbrecht founded True the Vote, which trains election volunteers and aims to root out voter fraud; and King Street Patriots, a group with ideals similar to the Tea Party. Both sought tax-exempt status from the IRS in July 2010. And both organizations drew the ire of Democrats. Democrats accused True the Vote of intimidating voters in its poll watching efforts, which the group denies. And the Texas Democratic Party successfully sued King Street Patriots, arguing that it’s an unregistered political action committee.
But Engelbrecht’s attorney, Cleta Mitchell, says it’s not just the Democratic Party that went after the conservative causes, but also the federal government. Within months of the groups filing for tax-exempt status, Engelbrecht claims she started getting hit by an onslaught of harassment: six FBI domestic terrorism inquiries, an IRS visit, two IRS business audits, two IRS personal audits, and inspections of her equipment manufacturing company by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), the U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and Texas environmental quality officials.
“Not a smidgeon of corruption.” That’s like Obama when he said, “Your taxes won’t go up one dime.” Because they went up by THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS instead.
It is a fact that 76% of the American people want a special prosecutor to investigate Obama’s IRS scandal.
Obama’s “faux” Fox scandal is an outright lie from a truly evil man.
We now find that the Benghazi scandal that Obama also refuses to acknowledge is anything other than the invention of Fox News is a red hot example of political corruption. We learn that the CIA station chief – whose assessment is all important – very clearly and very immediately stated that the attack was NOT an “escalation of protest” as Obama had all of his officials claim it was. Contrary to the Obama cover-up, THERE WAS NO PROTEST. We now know that within MINUTES of the Benghazi attack, Defense Department officials briefed Obama that the event was a terrorist attack and NOT a demonstration over a video as Obama claimed for weeks afterward. How on earth is that not a scandal??? We suffered a terrorist attack at the very time that Obama was falsely stating that he had won the war on terror. We now know that the Deputy Director of the CIA lied – and even lied to the FBI – about having changed the official White House talking points. And we now know that this very same former Deputy Director just joined a group founded by “Clinton’s principal gatekeeper.”
Obama says there was no scandal in the cover-up of Benghazi. Just answer the question: who altered the talking points that claimed a Youtube video protest instead of a terrorist attack was responsible for the Benghazi event that resulted in the murder of the first US ambassador to be killed in the line of duty since 1979??? And why is it that what we now know to be a lie so transparently benefitted Obama’s political interest during a campaign when he was trumpeting his victory over terrorism???
We have a very clear pattern of systematic corruption at the highest levels of the Obama administration. That is simply a categorical fact.
During Watergate, there came a point when Republicans had a choice to make: do the right thing for the nation or circle the wagons politically. In doing what was right for the nation, they did something that we can now definitely say that the Democrat Party is pathologically incapable of doing. To be a Democrat at this point means to be a person devoid of any scintilla of virtue, or integrity, or honesty, or honor, or decency of any kind. And all we need to do is look at the ObamaCare disgrace along with the IRS scandal to learn that there is no possible way that Democrats will do the right thing for the country.
It is long past time to demand that Barack Obama appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the IRS scandal. If there was in fact “not even a smidgen of corruption,” then why the hell did multiple senior level IRS managers plead the fifth amendment??? What do you say when you plead the Fifth Amendment? You say, ” “Your honor, I respectfully invoke my rights under the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution on the grounds that answering questions may incriminate me.” These people committed CRIMES and they KNOW they committed crimes.
What is perhaps even more frightening is that Obama is trying to rewrite the law so that the criminal targeting of conservative groups becomes the way it is done moving forward.
If Obama allows an honest investigation into the scandals plaguing his administration, it will lead to his being impeached for committing high crimes and misdemeanors. And dirty Democrats know it.
Tags:Benghazi, Bosserman, conservatives, corruption, Engelbrecht, FBI, interviewed, IRS, maxed-out, Nixon, Not even a smidgeon of corruption, Obama, Obama donor, scandal, special prosecutor, targeting, Tea Party
Posted in Barack Obama, Conservative Issues, fascism, Politics | Leave a Comment »
The Fascist Hypocrite-In-Chief Says He’ll Finally Stop (A Little Of) The Spying After Demoning Bush WHO SPIED LESS THAN OBAMA
I looked at a headline in the Los Angeles Times featuring something on Validmir Putin and almost vomited.
I almost vomited because I had had a thought that I never thought I would have in my lifetime: I envied Russia for its political leadership. I mean, yes, the guy is a former communist KGB thug, but Barack Obama is a CURRENT communist thug who has turned his FBI and his IRS into the KGB. And of course whenever Obama and Putin have crossed swords, Putin has made Obama look like such a chump it is beyond unreal.
The United States before Obama USED to be the most powerful nation on the face of the earth. And the president of the United States was OF COURSE the most powerful man on the planet. Not so anymore: the most powerful man in the world is Gog of Magog (the way the Bible describes the leader of Russia in the last days), Vladimer Putin.
Obama is Putin’s poodle:
According to the magazine [Forbes], Putin has replaced US President Barack Obama in the top spot because the Russian leader has gained the upper hand over his counterpart in Washington in the context of several conflicts and scandals.
Indeed, at the moment, Putin seems to be succeeding at everything he does. In September, he convinced Syria to place its chemical weapons under international control. In doing so, he averted an American military strike against the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad and made Obama look like an impotent global policeman.
In late July, Putin ignored American threats and granted temporary asylum to US whistleblower Edward Snowden, a move that stirred up tensions within the Western camp. The Germans and the French were also outraged over Washington’s surveillance practices.
Since then, Putin has scored one coup after the next. In the fall, when meaningful progress was made in talks with Tehran over a curtailment of Iran’s nuclear program, Putin once again played a key role.
Obama doesn’t even look THIRD rate as a leader advancing the cause and power of his people compared to Vladimir Putin over Syria. He made Obama look like an organ grinder’s monkey when he got Obama to fold over his stupid “red line.” And what has Syria done since to fulfill it’s promises to Obama? Try “zero.” Now Syria has all of its WMD and Assad – thanks to Obama – has an iron grip on power over the rebels whom Obama flat-out betrayed. The joke is on Obama and of course the hapless American people who are screwed by this idiot’s “leadership.” In the same way, Obama fails to rank as a FOURTH rate leader compared to Vladimir Putin over Iran. Right after Iran – and Putin – got everything they wanted out of the Chump-in-Chief, Iran announced the truth to the world: that Obama had “surrendered.” Oh, the media likes to say “the West surrendered,” but of course as the so-called “leader of the free world,” it was Obama who LED the West to surrender to Iran. And now Iran is already on the rapid economic mend and will be able to pour more funds into its ballistic missile program – immediately after the success of which they will announce that they have become a nuclear power.
I never in my wildest dreams ever believed that I would prefer a Russian president to an American one. I mean, even Jimmy CARTER didn’t make me think that.
Friday Obama gave his NSA speech. And of course it was just like all of his other speeches: Obama the great and grand impartial listener has heard all sides, has not yet made his infinitely wise decision, and will punt all unpopular decisions to Congress in the meantime until he imposes his totalitarian godhood without any accountability via executive orders later.
The New York Times in one of its mostly drivel articles began this way:
WASHINGTON — As a young lawmaker defining himself as a presidential candidate, Barack Obama visited a center for scholars in August 2007 to give a speech on terrorism. He described a surveillance state run amok and vowed to rein it in. “That means no more illegal wiretapping of American citizens,” he declared. “No more national security letters to spy on citizens who are not suspected of a crime.”
It pointed out that:
Mr. Obama’s 2007 speech at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars came after the revelation that President George W. Bush had authorized warrantless surveillance in terrorism cases without permission from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. A presidential candidate, Mr. Obama criticized Mr. Bush’s “false choice between the liberties we cherish and the security we provide.”
Oh, and my favorite line:
He was surprised at the uproar that ensued, advisers said, particularly that so many Americans did not trust him, much less trust the oversight provided by the intelligence court and Congress. As more secrets spilled out, though, aides said even Mr. Obama was chagrined. They said he was exercised to learn that the mobile phone of Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany was being tapped.
It took a traitor named Snowden to expose the treason and abject hypocrisy of our traitor-in-chief. And so it was Snowden, now basically a Russian citizen (that’s just one of the many ways Putin has OWNED Obama) who pointed out the fact that no president in American history had ever built up such a large spying system on its own citizens.
Of course we also know that this same president used his IRS to target 292 conservative organizations plus a couple of liberal ones (who used “anti-Obama rhetoric”) so that liberals would say Obama went after both sides.
And we know that the FBI under Eric Holder refused to investigate this political crime and didn’t even bother to INTERVIEW any of the victims and get their stories to find out what actually happened. Nope, they just listened to that lizard lady who pled the Fifth because the truth would have incriminated her.
Tyler Durden asked a good question this way:
Who said it?
This Administration also puts forward a false choice between the liberties we cherish and the security we demand. I will provide our intelligence and law enforcement agencies with the tools they need to track and take out the terrorists without undermining our Constitution and our freedom.
That means no more illegal wiretapping of American citizens. No more national security letters to spy on citizens who are not suspected of a crime. No more tracking citizens who do nothing more than protest a misguided war. No more ignoring the law when it is inconvenient.
That is not who we are. It’s not what is necessary to defeat the terrorists. The FISA court works. The separation of powers works.
Our constitution works. We will again set an example for the world that the law is not subject to the whims of stubborn rulers and that justice is not arbitrary.
This administration acts like violating civil liberties is the way to enhance our security. It is not.
There are no shortcuts to protecting America.
– August, 2007
Confused? It is the same guy who said this back in 2006:
“Mr. President, I rise today to talk about America’s debt problem. The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. government can’t pay its own bills. Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally.
Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here.’
Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership.
Americans deserve better.
I therefore intend to oppose the effort to increase America’s debt limit.”
Still confused? Here he is:
Barack Obama isn’t just a hypocrite without shame, honor, decency, or virtue; he’s a liar without any shame, any honor, any decency or any virtue.
Do you remember Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Obama Press Secretary Jay Carney, Obama’s UN ambassador and a host of other Obama cronies repeatedly told us that Benghazi was NOT a terrorist attack and that it was the result of a video that even the Democrat-controlled SENATE says had nothing whatsoever to do with this Al-Qaeda-sponsored and linked terrorist attack??? And how they LIED???
Do you remember Obama’s top national security appointee Clapper who answered, “Not wittingly” to the question as to whether the NSA was keeping information on Americans that it was VERY MUCH “WITTINGLY” KEEPING??? And do you remember how he ADMITTED he lied and said he gave “the least untruthful” answer possible??? Which is of course exactly what I did every time I told a woman in a bar I was a Navy SEAL or whatever it took to get in her panties, right???
Yeah, he’s STILL on the job. Because Obama has SURROUNDED himself with liars to cover and shelter his administration. That’s why he also hasn’t done a damn thing about the fiasco at Benghazi where he and many of his cronies also lied, about the political attack via the IRS where his cronies pled the Fifth Amendment rather than telling the American people what they’d done, etc. etc.
Why wouldn’t we trust this abject liar???
Why wouldn’t we trust “the liar of the year” who promised if we liked our health plan we could keep it and if we liked our doctor we could keep our doctor and that health care would be less expensive after his ObamaCare and basically be wonderful for us when it turned out that EVERY SINGLE ONE OF HIS PROMISES TURNED OUT TO BE ABJECT AND OUTRIGHT LIES??? Why wouldn’t we trust a man who demonized his predecessor for violating civil liberties only to himself be the worst violator of civil liberties in American history??? Why wouldn’t we trust the man who demonized Bush for increasing the national debt by $4 trillion but then increase it $8 trillion AND COUNTING himself???
I don’t know: why don’t we trust THE MOST DOCUMENTED LIAR IN THE HISTORY OF THE ENTIRE PLANET??? That is, unless you can show me which leader has had his lies literally heard and seen by more people than have heard and seen Obama’s lies.
The Washington reporters – and most of these guys are LIBERALS – say Barack Obama was the least transparent president since NIXON. They point out that Obama is WORSE than Nixon when it comes to viciously targeting anyone who leaks anything that damages him.
And Obama’s pathological dishonesty, his political viciousness and frankly the demons screaming in his ugly little soul are why his approval ratings are the WORST SINCE NIXON. As in Nixon mired in the Watergate scandal as his lies were exposed.
Barack Obama is a pathological liar. To put it in Obamaesque terms, Obama is a pathological liar. Period. End of story.
Tags:Benghazi, Nixon, NSA, Obamacare, Putin, Snowden
Posted in Barack Obama, Conservative Issues, fascism, health care, Hillary Clinton, Iran, Libya, Politics, Russia | 2 Comments »
Why Does Obama Blame Bush For HIS Economy (After FOUR YEARS Of Failure) When Obama Takes Credit For Every Good Bush Achievement?
OSAMA BIN LADEN RAID
Obama takes the credit for getting bin Laden. Was it Obama who rebuilt the national security apparatus following 9/11 to reshape it from the Cold War emphasis that had characterized it for the previous sixty years? Was it Obama who first announced the mission to get bin Laden dead or alive? Was it Obama who used water boarding to secure the key intelligence breakthroughs that bin Laden was relying on couriers for his communication (rather than phones, computers, etc.) and that he was living in the city of Abbottabad which allowed intelligence to zero in on him?
The key intelligence breakthrough occurred when US intelligence discovered two key facts: 1) that Osama bin Laden was hiding out in the city of Abbottabad in Pakistan; and 2) that bin Laden was relying on a courier who could then be identified and tracked to bin Laden’s specific location in that city. Both of these key facts were discovered under the Bush presidency by means of waterboarding:
Liberals outrageously lie when they talk about how waterboarding was used. CIA professionals did NOT ask a terrorist a question and then waterboard him until he gave them whatever answer they wanted. Rather, they used this incredibly painful – but completely medically safe under supervision – procedure of simulated drowning to “alter the perception” of the terrorist. The terrorist was confronted with his new reality in a cold, painful way: “We own your ass; we can do whatever the hell we want to you; and we will ultimately break you down. Get used to the idea that you WILL tell us what we want to know.” The point of waterboarding was to break their will to resist, not to torture immediate answers out of them but rather to inexorably bring them to the point where they would ultimately crack. The fact of the matter was that the CIA experts didn’t even bother to ASK terrorists any questions while they waterboarded the three terrorists who ended up singing like canaries. But it is a simple FACT that waterboarding was the essential background component that led to the breaking of these hard, hateful men: because the terrorists we waterboarded were the very same terrorists who told us about Abbottabad and the courier.
Democrats talk about “torture.” I say if we catch a monster like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed we waterboard him until he grows gills and then we take the water away so he’ll flop around like a dying fish. And repeat it over and over again until the same man who tried to destroy us becomes the very man who tells us how to destroy his hateful organization.
I recently watched a 2 hour documentary about the 2006 terrorist attempt to use passenger jets as bombs titled “Stopping the Second 9/11” on the National Geographic Channel. The thing that most struck me was the fact that British intelligence recorded the terrorists talking to each other on phones. The terrorists planned to bring their own wives and their own BABIES on the flights that they planned to destroy in order to reduce the likelihood that they would tip off law enforcement by boarding the planes as “family men.” That ought to scream about the determination of these men to kill and destroy. You simply are not going to get men like this to open up with courtesy and niceness. Islamic terrorists by their culture, their religion, and their brutal nature as mass murdering killers respect only superior force, not peaceful overtures, which they see as a sign of weakness. Anyone who thinks you can “nice” a terrorist into betraying his worldview, his ideology, literally his religion, and his movement is simply a naive fool.
The question then becomes this: Why would anybody but a radical leftist ideologue give Obama credit for the intelligence breakthroughs that led to killing bin Laden when Obama was the very guy who most viciously demonized the very procedures that led to those breakthroughs?
There is a fascinating analogy that comes out of the talk about the moon landing that happened as a result of the discussion about the passing of Neil Armstrong (who by the way went on the record criticizing Obama before his death). The anology begins with this: We give John F. Kennedy complete credit for putting a man on the moon:
Nixon gets ZERO credit even though he was the president sitting in the White House when the Apollo 11 mission landed on the moon. You will not read an article written by a liberal giving Nixon any credit for landing a man on the moon and bringing that man safely back to earth. Why? Kennedy had been DEAD for six years prior to that moon landing. Why isn’t Nixon “the president who put a man on the moon”? Because it was JFKs vision and the fulfillment of that vision just as getting bin Laden was the fulfillment of George W. Bush’s vision:
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush pledged anew Friday that Osama bin Laden will be taken “dead or alive,” no matter how long it takes, amid indications that the suspected terrorist may be bottled up in a rugged Afghan canyon. The president, in an Oval Office meeting with Thailand’s prime minister, would not predict the timing of bin Laden’s capture but said he doesn’t care how the suspect is brought to justice. “I don’t care, dead or alive — either way,” Bush said. “It doesn’t matter to me.”
But again, that meme about the first man on the moon merely reinforces the pathology of the left to take full credit for every good thing and avoid any blame whatsoever for any bad thing. The media gives John F. Kennedy complete credit for putting a man on the moon because JFK was a Democrat; the media gives George W. Bush ZERO credit for getting Osama bin Laden because GWB was a Republican. It’s really that simple.
Was Obama’s decision to send the SEALs into Pakistan to kill bin Laden really that amazing? Let me ask you this: what would have happened to Obama’s political fortunes if he had refused to kill bin Laden and a bunch of pissed off CIA and military professionals leaked Obama’s abject refusal to kill the world’s worst terrorist monster? How many people think Obama could have been reelected as “the man who refused to kill bin Laden”???
Bottom damn line: if Obama had tried to kill bin Laden and failed, he would have been criticized for that failure. And to insulate himself from that possibility, he set up Admiral McRaven as the fall guy by giving McRaven responsibility. It was ultimately McRaven who made the “courageous call,” not Obama. That said, if Obama had refused to even try to kill bin Laden, HE WOULD HAVE BEEN DONE POLITICALLY. Does anybody seriously think for one second that the men who had devoted YEARS to getting bin Laden would have just rolled over if Obama had refused to issue the order to get him? In fact, I will bet you that Republicans would have brought up and article of impeachment due to Obama’s refusal to protect the citizens of the United States, and Democrats would have voted for it. Because otherwise, this election would have been the worst disaster in the history of politics for the Democrat Party as the weakling coward treasonous bin Laden Party.
So spare me about Obama’s “incredibly courageous decision” to kill bin Laden as George W. Bush had promised the world that the United States would do. Spare me the idiotic rhetoric that if George W. Bush had still been president he never would have had the guts to kill bin Laden. Just spare me all your blathering idiocy, liberal.
Let’s talk about the Iraq War. Let’s talk about the withdrawal of American forces from Iraq. Do you know which president won that war? Do you know which president negotiated that withdrawal of American troops? I do. In answer to both questions, the name is George W. Bush.
But who claims credit for the success of Iraq? Listen to Vice President Joe Biden, speaking on behalf of the Obama administration:
“I am very optimistic about — about Iraq. I mean, this could be one of the great achievements of this administration. You’re going to see 90,000 American troops come marching home by the end of the summer. You’re going to see a stable government in Iraq that is actually moving toward a representative government.”
Two words come to mind: they are “evil” and “hypocrite.” Obama demonized the Iraq War again and again while Bush was trying to fight and win there. Obama demonized the incredibly successful surge strategy that allowed us to break the back of the insurgency. But now that same Obama claims credit for what he opposed.
That same Obama dragged America FAR deeper into the quagmire of Afghanistan than anybody could ever dream blame on Bush. Because Obama and the Democrat Party didn’t want to appear weak on national security. So they created a contrast between Iraq (which Bush won) as the “bad war” and Afghanistan (which Obama massively expanded) as the “good war.”
You wait and see: when Obama cuts and runs from Afghanistan, he’s going to frame it as his courageously getting us out of the last of “Bush’s wars.” When Obama massively expanded America’s involvement in Afghanistan and very obviously used Afghanistan as a political device to give Obama a cover from charges that he was a cut and run coward:
As I pointed out before, Charles Krauthammer pointed out the sheer cynical depravity of Barack Obama and the Democrat Party as regards Iraq and Afghanistan by pointing to what the Democrats themselves said:
Bob Shrum, who was a high political operative who worked on the Kerry campaign in ’04, wrote a very interesting article in December of last year in which he talked about that campaign, and he said, at the time, the Democrats raised the issue of Afghanistan — and they made it into “the right war” and “the good war” as a way to attack Bush on Iraq. In retrospect, he writes, that it was, perhaps, he said, misleading. Certainly it was not very wise.
What he really meant to say — or at least I would interpret it — it was utterly cynical. In other words, he’s confessing, in a way, that the Democrats never really supported the Afghan war. It was simply a club with which to bash the [Bush] administration on the Iraq war and pretend that Democrats aren’t anti-war in general, just against the wrong war.
Well, now they are in power, and they are trapped in a box as a result of that, pretending [when] in opposition that Afghanistan is the good war, the war you have to win, the central war in the war on terror. And obviously [they are] now not terribly interested in it, but stuck.
And that’s why Obama has this dilemma. He said explicitly on ABC a few weeks ago that he wouldn’t even use the word “victory” in conjunction with Afghanistan.
And Democrats in Congress have said: If you don’t win this in one year, we’re out of here. He can’t win the war in a year. Everybody knows that, which means he [Obama] has no way out.
Afghanistan was just a way to demagogue Bush in Iraq by describing Afghanistan – where Obama is failing so badly – as “the good war” and Iraq – where Bush won so triumphantly – as “the bad war.” It was beyond cynical; it was flat-out treasonous.
There’s more about how the Democrats – including Democrat voters – did a “cut and run” on their “good war” here.
The thing is that Obama’s “good war” aint going so good. The thing is that if you examine the casualties of Obama’s “good war” since Obama took it over, Obama is responsible for more than 70 percent of the casualties for the entire war (i.e., compare Obama’s 1,477 casualties in less than four years to Bush’s 630 casualties over eight years of fighting.
Bush limited the Afghanistan War. Obama radically expanded it. And now the man who radically expanded the Afghanistan War is trying to A) walk away from the mess that HE created and 2) blame the mess that HE created on Bush just as he’s blamed ALL his failures on Bush.
We are NOT winning in Afghanistan. We are not GOING to win in Afghanistan – particularly after Obama declared a “timetable for withdrawal” that told the enemy all they have to do is hang on until we crawl out with our tails between our legs and the country will be theirs. There IS no winning in that hellhole. As I have pointed out in the past echoing other conservatives, Afghanistan was a terrible place for the U.S. military to fight and be able to exploit our overwhelming air and ground power whereas the flat plains of Iraq was a GREAT place for America to fight and win.
I’ve said that before (just to show you I’m not boasting with 20/20 hindsight):
Bush was rightly resistant to putting too many troops into Afghanistan because he knew enough about history to understand that Afghanistan is a hell-hole. Bush understood that while Iraq – with its flat, mostly open terrain – was perfect for American equipment and tactics, and that mountainous and cave-ridden Afghanistan was most certainly NOT well-suited for American equipment and tactics. Bush knew that the fairly well-educated Iraqi people were capable of some semblance of democracy; and Bush knew that the ignorant, basically stone-age Afghani people were NOT capable of anything resembling self-governance.
Because Bush – however stupid the left wants to say he is – wasn’t 1/20th as massively moronic as Barack Obama is.
Afghanistan is also the place where Obama ignored and overruled his generals. He was the one who declared that we needed to have a huge surge there (after demonizing Bush’s successful surge in Iraq, fwiw); and then he was the one who refused to listen to his own generals’ recommendations when they said we’d need at least 40,000 troops to do it right – and then after endless indecision finally decided to basically give them too many not to lose but not nearly enough to ever win.
Afghanistan is as much Obama’s war as Iraq was “Bush’s war.” The difference was that Bush owned his war and accepted responsibility for how it went and how it was fought and Obama will NEVER own ANY of his massive failures. So as I said above, when Obama cuts and runs from Afghanistan, he’ll deceitfully depict it as getting America out of the last of “Bush’s wars.” Because that’s the kind of slandering liar that weasel is.
I was wrong about one thing in my past predictions: I thought that Obama would crawl out of Afghanistan before the election in November and make the immediately above claim. But I submit at this point that Obama can’t do that: because Afghanistan is frankly going so badly with new cases of Afghan soldiers fragging their American partners practically every day that to cut and run NOW would only serve to draw attention to just how catastrophically Obama has truly failed over there.
Obama is the president who was mocked by Hillary Clinton for his naive stupidity in assuming he could talk Iran out of its rogue regime intent on acquiring nuclear weapons status. He is the same naive fool today that he was when Hillarly Clinton mocked him.
And Iran has doubled its centrifuges and made it all but impossible for observers to monitor Iran’s nuclear program while Obama has dithered.
Just as Iran has successfully propped up the Syrian dictatorship while Obama has done nothing.
And I have documented that when craziest nation in world history Iran gets its nukes – which it will – you can COMPLETELY lay the blame for the Armageddon that will surely ensue on Barack Obama and the Democrat Party.
Not that Obama will accept responsibility for his failure of leadership.
Barack Obama has also been constantly taking complete credit for being the president who has produced more oil than any other president. Is that true? No. The reason that we are producing virtually ANY domestic oil at all right now is because of the Bush administration’s granting the leases that have produced so much American oil.
“According to EIA’s short-term 2011 outlook, released last week, oil production was significantly higher in 2009 than in the years prior. Obama may have been in office for most of that year, but the oil production numbers are due to action taken before he became president. In 2010, most if not all of the production increase recorded is likely due to action that predates Obama, since Obama didn’t take any major action expanding offshore drilling his first year in office.”
But the Obama administration has taken action since then, as Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell pointed out on Wednesday. “Over the past two years, the Obama administration has delayed, revoked, suspended, or canceled an enormous range of development opportunities. One month after the President took office, his administration cancelled 77 oil and gas leases in Utah — once the review was complete the administration refused to reinstate a single one. . . . Last January, it announced new restrictions for onshore oil and gas exploration in the Mountain West. Last February, it denied a permit to build a bridge needed to access an oil producing field in Alaska, after the Environmental Protection Agency designated a nearby river an aquatic resource of national importance. Last April, the Administration suspended 61 oil and gas leases in Montana that were issued in 2008 — then announced that all oil and gas leases in Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota would be delayed indefinitely. Last May, the President announced a 6-month moratorium on deepwater drilling — a moratorium that’s been repeatedly struck down in the courts.”
Bush was the president who signed the leases that Obama is taking credit for. Obama is the president who has shut down oil production. And yet Obama is the president who is taking credit for Bush’s success even as he refuses to stand behind his failure. Something to consider as we face the highest gasoline prices in the history of the republic on this Memorial Day.
ObamaCare was an unpopular fiasco the entire time Obama and Democrats were forcing it down the throats of the American people. Obama demagogued health care costs – which were actually going DOWN before his ObamaCare boondoggle placed another one-sixth of the economy under government bureaucratic control – to pass his socialist takeover of the health care system.
Health care will be more expensive thanks to Obama and his socialism. We’re talking $1.76 trillion more than Obama promised. In fact, it’s already three times as expensive as Obama said it would be and we aint seen nothin’ yet. That is a fact.
College students are seeing their health care costs skyrocket or be completely removed altogether as insurance companies decide they don’t want to pay for all the “free stuff” that ObamaCare forces them to pay for.
ObamaCare disingenuously imposes all the burden on the doctors and insurers while claiming to give all kinds of benefits. Which is why 74% of doctors say they will quit, retire early, or see fewer patients if ObamaCare stands. ObamaCare shennanigans, higher costs and fewer doctors mean that you will have LESS chance of actually seeing a doctor under this incredibly failed program.
Obama also swore up one side and down the other that he would NEVER raise taxes on the middle class. And yet ObamaCare is a massive tax hike on ordinary people. Because 75% of the 21 new tax hikes will fall on the middle class.
And where’s Obama to accept responsibility for his failed program???
Question: Which president left his successor with a bubble collapse that vaporized $7.1 trillion in American wealth and wiped out 78% of the Nasdaq portolio? Answer: William Jefferson Clinton. But we don’t tend to remember the terrible Dotcom bubble recession that Bill Clinton left for George Bush to inherit because of three reasons: 1) the sheer unmitigated bias of the mainstream media; 2) the disasterous 9/11 attack (that can likewise be laid almost entirely at Clinton’s feet as he gutted the military and intelligence community and left America both weak and blind such that Osama bin Laden declared America to be a “paper tiger” and began to plot his devastating attack); and 3) because unlike Barack Obama, George Bush wasn’t a pitiful whiner and accepted responsibility for the economy.
The fact of the matter is that George Bush began his presidency with a huge double whammy. Not that the media will ever assign responsibility for it to Clinton the way they were determined to assign responsibility to Bush. Because there is a longstanding propaganda meme according to which the mainstream media will NEVER blame a Democrat for a failure and will ALWAYS find a way to blame a Republican.
Barack Obama has demonized Bush for the “Great Recession,” literally refuses to cite statistics that consider the first year of his presidency to create the rhetorical statistical illusion that his presidency has been better than it actally was, demonized Republicans for “obstructionism“, and taken credit for his “recovery”. The truth is that none of these things is true.
Let’s take the “Great Recession” first. Obama has demonized Republicans over and over again for “lack of regulation” and “failed policies” causing that recession. Bullcrap. The single entity that resulted in this collapse was Government Sponsored Enterprise Fannie Mae and its twin Freddie Mac. I’ve documented that fact over and over again on this blog:
https://startthinkingright.wordpress.com/2010/01/23/aei-article-how-fannie-and-freddie-blew-up-the-economy/
https://startthinkingright.wordpress.com/2010/08/10/barney-frank-and-democrat-party-most-responsible-for-2008-economic-collapse/
https://startthinkingright.wordpress.com/2010/05/11/2009/08/03/who-really-exploded-your-economy-liberals-or-conservatives/
https://startthinkingright.wordpress.com/2011/08/15/democrats-set-up-america-for-2008-collapse-and-barack-obama-became-their-king/
http://startthinkingright.wordpress.com/2010/05/11/2009/12/31/with-eyes-finally-wide-open-reconsider-why-the-economy-collapsed-in-the-first-place/
https://startthinkingright.wordpress.com/2011/10/13/democrat-lies-about-their-key-role-in-2008-economic-collapse-reaches-laughable-proportions/
https://startthinkingright.wordpress.com/2010/05/11/2009/07/08/biden-we-misread-the-economy-and-its-all-the-republicans-fault/
http://digitalartpress.wordpress.com/2009/03/22/video-proof-democrat-party-warned-responsible-for-fannie-mae-freddie-mac-economic-crisis-repost/
https://startthinkingright.wordpress.com/2010/05/11/barney-frank-video-proves-democrats-at-core-of-2008-economic-collapse/
And since Democrats took over and issued regulations up the yin yang and then up the whazoo of aforementioned yin yang, we’ve continued to have clear examples of the very things Democrats demonized Republicans over. And Obama is setting up America and the world for an ultimate $600 trillion collapse that will make the one in 2008 look like a warm, sunny day compared to Armageddon.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac collapsed FIRST before ANY private sector entity to initiate the collapse – just as conservative economists had predicted a full decade before the collapse occurred:
In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of lending, Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times. But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980′s.
”From the perspective of many people, including me, this is another thrift industry growing up around us,” said Peter Wallison a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. ”If they fail, the government will have to step up and bail them out the way it stepped up and bailed out the thrift industry.”
And in fact the private sector entities such as Lehman Brothers that collapsed did so because they suddenly found themselves holding BILLIONS of dollars in sub-prime mortgage backed securities that had been issued by the GSEs that the Democrats created and ran into the ground and protected – and refused to allow Republicans to regulate (Bush tried SEVENTEEN TIMES to regulate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac prior to its collapse and was stopped by Democrats every single time). In fact Bush was trying to regulate Fannie and Freddie all the way back to 2003 when we still had time to prevent the coming collapse. Democrats used Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to force the market to sell homes to people who couldn’t afford those homes; and when the bubble burst and Lehman Bros. and others found themselves holding “toxic assets” that they had purchased from Fannie and Freddie, they couldn’t cover their Democrat-caused losses and collapsed.
Nixon was president during the moon landing, but Democrats and liberals have never and will never give him credit because they wanted to give one of their own credit for the success. Bush was president during the 2008 collapse, and that was all liberals needed to say to blame him for the entire fiasco regardless of how many Democrat shennanigans had gone into that collapse.
And here we are, nearly four years later, and all of Obama’s promises based on his anti-Bush demagoguery to: 1) not increase the debt ceiling; to 2) cut the deficit in half during his first term; to 3) cut the debt after demonizing Bush for his debt. Obama imposed the most massive one-time spending binge in the history of planet earth and promised that unemployment would be 5.5% by now. Instead not only has unemployment been over 8% longer than ANY time in history since the Great Depression, but in fact unemployment has actually been worse than had Obama’s own experts said it would be had we NOT wasted and pissed away $862 billion that we can never get back.
Obamanomics has been one catastrophic failure after another. Here we are, with median household income under Obama nearly TWICE as bad than they were during the Great Recession – whether you want to blame Bush for that recession or not. Here we are, with more poor people devastated by Obama’s economy than at any time in history. And that didn’t happen under Bush’s watch, you liberal liars. Somehow, it wasn’t Bush who put more people into poverty than ever before; it wasn’t Bush who devastated median household incomes as people move in with parents and relatives because the economy has failed them; it has been Obama. It was OBAMA who made one out of every six Americans poor.
And Obama’s stimulus cost Americans an incredible and frankly insane $278,000 per job. We can’t afford any more damn Obama jobs!!!
Obama is a liar and his “success” is based on lies – as you will see for yourself if you just try to match his rhetoric to painful American reality under his presidency:
But it’s Bush’s fault that Obama did it. Because no president in history has ever abrogated his responsibilities or refused to claim responsibility for his failure to live up to his responsibilities than has Obama.
Obama has been the president for the last four years, people, not Bush.
I began talking about the first man on the moon, Neil Armstrong. The only “man on the moon” now – thanks to Obama’s policies – is none other than Barack Obama: because this disgraced leader will surely assume no responsibility for anything that happens on the earth that lies so far below his lofty but meaningless rhetoric.
It’s past time to hold him responsible and fire his ass.
Tags:Abbottabad, Afghanistan War, bad war, bin Laden raid, Bush's vision, Fannie Mae, good war, Iraq War, JFK, moon landing, Nixon, Obamacare, waterboarding
Posted in Afghanistan, Barack Obama, Conservative Issues, debt, defense, Economy, first Jeremiah Wright term, George Bush, Iran, Media, military, oil, Politics, socialism | Leave a Comment »
Obama’s ‘Major Policy’ Speech Last Thursday Documents He Is A Failure. His Abrogation Of The Rule Of Law On Friday Documents He Is A Fascist.
I thought this blog article which cites USA Today hit part of Obama’s trouble right in the testicles:
“Major economic speech” by Obama planned for Thursday
Posted by: ST on June 13, 2012 at 9:20 am
Via The USA Today:
President Obama will seek to draw economic contrasts with Republican opponent Mitt Romney in what campaign aides are billing as a major speech on Thursday.
In announcing the address at a community college in Cleveland, the Obama campaign said the president will describe his vision as “ensuring that our economy is built to last and restoring economic security for the middle class.”
Obama also plans to condemn Romney’s vision, which the campaign said is “based on the same failed economic policies that brought on the worst crisis since the Great Depression.
“Romney Economics is familiar and troubling,” said the Obama campaign. “More budget-busting tax cuts for the wealthy; fewer rules for Wall Street — the same formula that benefited a few, but that crashed our economy and devastated the middle class.”
Obama is not expected to unveil any new policy proposals of his own; the president is still trying to persuade Congress to adopt elements of a jobs bill he proposed last year.
(Bolded emphasis added by me)
Translation: there’s nothing new here. It’ll just more of the same old song and dance we’ve been hearing for the last three and a half years, jacked up on spinsanity with a generous helping of predictable Democrat class warfare and demagoguery – given in front of (presumably) a captive audience of college students (shocking).
In other news, dog bites man.
BTW, here’s Obama’s fundraising schedule for this week, in the event you actually thought his “presidential responsibilities” excuse for not campaigning for Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett in the Wisconsin recall election was legitimate. Just sayin’ …
Obama’s major speech is a giant bag of wind from the most prolific windbag who ever lived. Check.
Obama is completely out of ideas. Check check.
Ninety percent of Obama’s speech was just a slightly different way for Obama to demonize Mitt Romney. And in what had been built up as a major policy speech at that. Only ten percent of this speech Obama gave in Ohio on Thursday, April 14 AT BEST discussed what Obama would do if re-elected – which frankly amounted to a steadfast refusal to own up to ANY kind of responsibility for his last four years and a doubling down on what has already been demonstrated to have failed. The bottom line is that we are currently cursed with a president who doesn’t want to talk about the past but doesn’t have any ideas about the future.
It’s not just me claiming Obama’s “major speech” was a major failure.
Consider leftist Jonathon Alter from MSNBC who said it was “one of the worst speeches I’ve ever heard Barack Obama make.” And that was actually KIND, given the fact that “Before the speech was over, MSNBC’s Mike O’Brien begged the president to stop.” While conservatives, of course, are saying, “Don’t you let them interrupt you, Barry Hussein. By all means, please continue. You were saying the private sector’s doing fine, right?”
That’s from MSNBC, which without any question is THE most überbiased überObama propaganda out there (see here and here for a couple quick examples).
The reliably leftist Washington Post’s leftist writer Dana Milbank – and this woman is a raving leftie – said that “instead of going to Ohio on Thursday with a compelling plan. for the future, the president gave Americans a falsehood wrapped in a fallacy.” This in an article titled, “Skip the falsehoods, Mr. President, and give us a plan.”
I mean, thanks for confirming what I’ve been saying all along that Obama is a complete liar without a clue or a plan, but I can’t help but admit my surprise, Dana. I mean, coming from a woman who once argued that if Obama comes across as stupid, it’s only because he’s just so incredibly brilliant that we frankly don’t deserve his greatness. Which of course followed the liberal script.
It’s not adequate to say that Barack Obama is a failure; because Barack Obama is an epic failure.
Essentially, Obama’s campaign is about trying to recreate his now thoroughly disillusioned 2008 base. And the only way that he can do that – because he is a completely failed leader who cannot legislate or compromise – is to issue a “jump the shark” series of executive orders that frankly abrogate the Constitution and the rule of law in America and set a terrifying precedent. So he demonized his rhetoric of a bogus “war on women” (see here and here and here and here for how that’s working out for him) and then jumped that shark to “come out” in favor of gay marriage in blatant contradiction of his previous posture (see here and here for how that’s working out for him) – and then he just jumped that shark on Friday to abrogate the Constitution in order to recklessly pander to Hispanics.
And what Obama did on Friday was directly related to the colossal turd he laid on Thursday. Obama HAS to keep jumping the shark because this complete failure SOMEHOW has to keep the support of a base that would otherwise abandon him like a liberal mommy having her baby aborted.
Consider what Obama himself said in the exact context of what he proceeded to do on Friday:
“The idea of doing things on my own is very tempting. I promise you, not just on immigration reform. But that’s not how our system works. That’s not how our democracy functions. That’s not how our Constitution is written.”
“I swore an oath to uphold the laws on the books. That doesn’t mean I don’t know very well the real pain and heartbreak that deportations cause. I share your concerns and I understand them,” he said Monday. “We work every day to make sure we are enforcing flawed laws in the most humane possible way.”
“America is a nation of laws, which means I, as the president, am obligated to enforce the law. I don’t have a choice about that. That’s part of my job,” Obama said in March 2011 at a town hall event hosted by the Spanish-language television network Univision. […]
“Congress passes the law. The executive branch’s job is to enforce and implement those laws. And then the judiciary has to interpret the laws,” he said. […]
“There are enough laws on the books by Congress that are very clear in terms of how we have to enforce our immigration system that for me to simply through executive order ignore those congressional mandates would not conform with my appropriate role as president.”
Apparently, Obama has limited powers unless he a) gives a crappy speech and b) is losing an election. Then there is no law, no Constitution, and no democracy.
Which all goes to say that what Obama did was a) un-American (“not the way our system works“); b) anti-democratic (“That’s not the way our democracy functions“); and c) unconstitutional (“That’s not how our Constitution is written“).
When I say Obama is a fascist – and I’ve said it before at length – I mean it as a highly accurate descriptive term rather than merely as a rhetorical ad hominem. And Barack Obama is a fascist BY OBAMA’S OWN PREVIOUS ADMISSIONS ABOUT WHAT HIS ACT ON FRIDAY CONSTITUTED when he set aside the separation of powers and imposed by “Führer-fiat” what the Congress had explicitly refused.
Liberal progressive legal expert Jonathan Turley (along with a number of other constitutional experts) had this to say about Obama’s action in setting aside the rule of law for his political expedience:
“The president is using executive power to do things Congress has refused to do, and that does fit a disturbing pattern of expansion of executive power under President Obama. In many ways, President Obama has fulfilled the dream of an imperial presidency that Richard Nixon strived for. On everything from (the Defense of Marriage Act) to the gaming laws, this is a president who is now functioning as a super legislator. He is effectively negating parts of the criminal code because he disagrees with them. That does go beyond the pale.”
Obama’s strategy is to set aside and flatly ignore the law for his own political benefit. Every American who is not deeply troubled by that – troubled enough to not vote for this fascist – is UN-American.
What Obama has done is provide an example of out-and-out lawlessness on the part of the president of the United States. And when we get a hard-core right wing president the way Obama has been a hard-core left wing president, Obama and the Democrat Party and all of those who voted for Obama and the Democrat Party will be entirely to blame for that president and his extremist actions. You mark my words. Because what goes around comes around, and if a Democrat can set aside the law the way Obama has now repeatedly done, well, guess who’s going to be stomping on your necks under your own president’s prior justification??? Conservatives are rising up in a spirit of righteous outrage. You have repeatedly slapped us in the face through your messiah Obama, and the time is coming when we’re going to punch you hard in the nose and then keep on punching. And when that day comes, liberals, look to yourselves for blame.
We are watching the unravelling of America as Obama that if his presidency doesn’t succeed, America won’t succeed.
America is losing steam on all economic fronts as we speak. Europe is falling apart at the seams. The Middle East is going to hell. Scandal after scandal is erupting that directly involved the White House. And Barack Obama is doing more fundraisers than the last five presidents COMBINED.
America doesn’t matter to this Turd-in-Chief. He’s willing to sell out American foreign policy to the Russians as long as they’ll help him win in November. And given that we already can see right in front of our faces that Obama is a fascist dictator in his first term, there’s no telling what will happen if he gets a second term and is answerable to nobody and to nothing.
There is absolutely no question that the constant stream of top secret leaks are coming directly out of the White House and that vital secrets are being revealed as a means to create propaganda depicting Obama as a “tough” leader. General Jack Keane said that the only times that America had ever suffered this much damage to its security was when traitors were selling secrets to our adversaries. We are literally talking about treason.
It is VERY possible and even probable that Obama as president declassified vital secrets such as the existence of SEAL Team 6, such as the details of the bin Laden raid and precisely what America found in the compound, such as the top secret operation known as Olympic Games and the computer virus known as Stuxnet, such as the drone missions, such as his use of a “kill list.” Why would he do something that depraved? Why, in order to sell long-term American security in exchange for short-term votes, that’s why. Even Diane Feinstein has publicly stated that no nation will trust America for years to come as a result of these leaks, and it is a fact that intelligence operatives who have cooperated with America have been captured and killed or imprisoned, with far more of that to come. If Obama declassified these and other secrets that have been leaked in an avalanche unlike anything the American intelligence community has ever seen, Obama will have legalized treason. As commander-in-chief, a president has the right to declassify secrets. But no president in American history until Obama will have so despised America that he would see this nation burn if he doesn’t win his election.
Even the very left-leaning Daily Beast is outraged at our Traitor-in-Chief:
Last week, the Times ran two sensational front-page articles, one detailing the president’s personally administered list of terror suspects targeted for assassination—the so-called “kill list,”—the other a book excerpt about the origins of the cyberwarfare program, codenamed Olympic Games, out of which came the Stuxnet virus. Both pieces were widely seen as boosting the president’s credibility on national security just as the 2012 presidential race kicked into high gear. Both pieces cite anonymous current and former high-level officials in the administration. The White House has denied that the leaks were authorized, calling the suggestion “grossly irresponsible.” […]
This is the nugget of the problem. If information is too dangerous to be public, it’s supposed to be classified. If it isn’t, then it isn’t—full stop. Information isn’t classified—at least it isn’t supposed to be—for political gain or to cover up wrongdoing, or so high-level government officials can unilaterally dole out secrets to their favorite reporters at elite media organizations, or so well-connected politicians can manage the news cycle, undermine enemies, or win allies.
Officially, there is no middle ground. Sadly, leaks out of the Obama administration are beginning to look like official policy. Days before the Stuxnet and kill-list stories in the Times, columnist Glen Greenwald highlighted administration leaks to Hollywood filmmakers for an upcoming production about the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. This, amid the harshest crackdown on unauthorized leaks by any president ever—the Obama administration’s docket of six leak prosecutions under the Espionage Act dwarfs any previous administration’s persecution of loose-lipped officials.
One thing is obvious: Obama only goes after leakers who don’t politically benefit him.
Obama has a long history of personally demonizing people while doing the exact same thing that he demonized them for. Think of Gitmo, when Obama demonized George Bush – only to keep Gitmo open himself in direct repudiation of his entire presidency by his very own rhetoric. The same goes for the Patriot Act, for rendition, for military commissions, for domestic eavesdropping and for a long list of other issues. The liberal New York Times literally accused Bush of “shredding the Constitution.” Who is shredding it now by the very rhetoric of the left??? In the same way, it is none other than Barack Obama who has violated civil liberties in a manner that goes so far beyond anything that Bush ever did it is almost funny. The very few liberals who are not abject moral hypocrites (eg., here and here) have pointed this fact out, but the vast majority of liberals who rabidly demonized Bush with froth drooling out of their mouths are nowhere to be seen now that the fascist in the Oval Office is the man they put in there.
Think of Obama’s demonization of Republicans being in the pockets of lobbyists and his lying promises that he would put an end to it. In fact it’s worse under Obama than it has EVER been, and that according to the liberal Washington Post. Obama demonized George Bush over the national debt and lied to the American people that he would cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term. Instead the disgrace has given us more debt than all the previous presidents in history COMBINED. Obama demonized Bush as irresponsible and even unpatriotic for his debt; now Obama’s debt dwarfs Bush’s. Obama demonized George Bush as a failed leader for needing to raise the debt ceiling and voting against that debt ceiling himself; now Obama has THREE TIMES raised the debt ceiling to levels never seen in the history of the human race and demonizing Republicans who didn’t want to vote for it.
All again pointing out the fact that Obama leaking secrets that politically benefit him while at the same time attacking anybody who leaks secrets that doesn’t politically benefit him is par for the course. Which reminds me of the fact that this man who is supposed to be working so hard to get America back on track recently completely his 100th round of golf – equivalent to taking four months off his job.
Barack Obama is a cynical liar and hypocrite without shame, without honor and without decency. And that is simply a fact of history. And so are his followers who will vote for him no matter what he does no matter how offended they were when the other side did a small fraction of what Obama has done.
That’s actually a big part of the reason Obama is pushing all of these leaks as a means of “boosting the president’s credibility on national security.” He KNOWS that liberals are abject moral hypocrites who will vote for him even if he is murdering American citizens without any kind of trial with predator drones and even if he is personally selecting which terrorists live and which ones die with his political adviser David Axelrod sitting with him. Obama knows that the left will vote for him no matter what he does because he knows that they are as much fascist hypocrites as he is. It’s the independents he wants – and these people WANT the president to be like Bush and be tough on terrorist murderers.
And if Obama has to betray America to sell himself to these independents, what is that to him??? Obama is a man who never saw himself as an American to begin with.
Barack Obama is THE most evil man who has ever contaminated the White House. I saw that in what might even be called a vision the moment I first saw those Jeremiah Wright tapes and realized that Obama had sat for twenty-plus years under the “spiritual leader” and “mentor” Jeremiah Wright and remained for sermon after sermon of this anti-American and racist Marxist. In my very first political article ever, I betrayed both my naivety and understanding all at once. I predicted that Democrats would rightly reject Barack Obama in favor of Hillary Clinton due to the Jeremiah Wright revelations; I was wrong because I simply failed to understand how truly depraved Democrats and the Democrat Party had become. But I also rightly perceived the evil of Obama. My last words in that very first article of mine were:
If Senator Barack Obama’s presidential aspirations aren’t done for now, they should be. If he wins the nomination, I have every confidence that he will be destroyed in the general election when the Wright issue comes back with a vengeance. Until this week, I believed Senator Hillary Clinton was a far more beatable candidate than Senator Barack Obama. I was wrong.
Barack Obama is far more wrong for sitting under the teaching of such a hateful man for so many years. In doing so, the most liberal Senator in the nation underscores just how extreme his views actually are, and just how dangerous a Barack Obama presidency would be for this country.
Republicans would have had to nominate David Duke for president to even BEGIN to come close to what Democrats did in nominating Barack Obama. And this nation was asking for it and has dearly paid for it ever since that evil day on June 3, 2008 when he received enough delegates to win the Democrat nomination prior to the economic crash.
This is God damned America until Obama is thrown out of office. Now that we’ve seen this failure in action for four years, America has no excuse. The soul of this nation is at stake in November, and America needs God far, far more than God needs America.
Tags:America is a nation of laws, April 14 speech, Constitution, Dana Milbank, fundraisers, gay marriage, Hispanics, hypocrite, I swore an oath to uphold the laws on the books, imperial presidency, Jonathon Alter, Jonathon Turley, kill list, leakers, leaks, Nixon, obligated to enforce the law, one of the worst speeches I've ever heard Barack Obama make, rule of law, Skip the falsehoods and give us a plan, Stuxnet, war on women
Posted in Barack Obama, Conservative Issues, debt, defense, fascism, first Jeremiah Wright term, Jeremiah Wright, Media, Politics, terrorism | 12 Comments »
Choosing Policies Based On Character, Or Color: Please Choose Wisely
It was the late 1980s, and I experienced something that will probably puzzle me for the rest of my life on this earth.
I had ordered “Blazer Cable” so that I could see the Portland Trailblazer home games. And in order to help pay for it – and to make it more fun to watch – I got a few friends to go in on it with me.
One night, one of my friends brought one of his friends over on a night when the Blazers were playing the Chicago Bulls. I thought the guy had some faulty wiring from about the moment I met him, but, what they hey.
In any event, to get to the point, at some point during the game my friend’s friend was sitting on the couch alone with me (everybody else was either in the kitchen or in the bathroom, as it was halftime). They were interviewing Michael Jordan. And he looked over at me and said, “Would you trade places with Michael Jordan?”
This was like the stupidest questions I had ever heard, and I’ve heard quite a few stupid questions.
“Of course I would,” I said. I mean, duh. Michael Jordan was strikingly handsome, he was filthy rich, he was incredibly successful, and he was one of the best athletes in the history of the human race. And I wouldn’t want to trade places with him why, exactly?
Then came the only possible answer.
My friend’s friend starting giggling. I can’t really call it laughing.
“What the hell is so funny?” I asked.
“You’d trade places with a black guy,” he said, still giggling.
Well, yeah. I waited to hear the cross-eyed albino boy start playing a banjo.
At the time, I was too astonished to be angry at the guy. It was like encountering someone who – in spite of massive evidence to the contrary – believed he was invisible to the human eye.
I’ve thought about that few second encounter a number of times since. It still amazes me to this very day. How can somebody possibly get that stupid?
In the years before that moment, and since then, I had known some black men who were total turds. And I have known some black men whom I regarded as having superior character to my own.
Lumping people into racial groups and then judging people on the basis of the color of their skin is every bit as stupid as not wanting to change places with Michael Jordan simply “because he’s black.” But I see it being done all the time these days. By the left.
I was raised to regard character, intelligence, virtue, attitude and attractiveness of personality as the qualities that determined the value of a person. It had never even occurred to me to think that the color of one’s skin made on more or less valuable.
I was also raised to want to continue to improve myself. I was raised to want to become a better human being, to improve my station in, and my quality of, life.
I think that’s why I react so viscerally to the racial attitude inherent in modern liberalism. To pit people against each other on the basis of color and bigotry, and to label white people as being evil and somehow complicit in some kind of white power structure is bad enough. But it goes beyond that.
It’s self-taught, self-limiting perpetual victimhood. It’s providing a class of people with a ready-made excuse for failure; it’s discouraging them from even really bothering to try, and rewarding them for not trying; it’s an evil exchange in which one accepts all kinds of control over their lives in exchange for destructive and cancerous welfare; it’s wallowing in an attitude of bitterness and even self-loathing that dooms one to a life of misery. It is a guaranteed perpetuation of failure.
It is a completely alien worldview to me. Every bit as much as that idiot who wouldn’t trade places with Michael Jordan “because he’s black.”
I made the earlier comment that I’ve met black men whom I regarded as being superior to me in the thing that I value most – character. They were examples to me, and as a result of their friendship, I became a better person. I’ve also known a number of white men whose superior character helped me advance in my own life. The point is that you desire excellence, and you take it wherever you can find it.
I have a feeling that Pastor C.L. Bryant would be one of those men, were I fortunate enough to know him.
From ScottFactor.com:
Slavery, Courtesy Of Liberals Everywhere
Comedian Eddie Murphy once joked that Lincoln forgot to sign the Emancipation Proclamation, and that people should go out and claim their slaves. I’m here to tell you that the Democratic Party took that request seriously and have claimed their slaves.
When 98 percent of African-Americans vote Democrat, that tells me that they are psychological and economic slaves to a Party that structures its fiscal policy to keep the black man down.
Welfare policy, government-forced affirmative action, reduced testing requirements for minorities…these are all things that don’t serve to elevate people to greatness, rather, they keep people down.
This video is a movie trailer about a man who proposes that these slaves to the liberals run away from the slave plantation that liberals have created. Its creator, Pastor C.L. Bryant, holds an honest discussion about black conservatives in America. Quote the man, “Run away from the slavery of tyranny toward the blessings of liberty!” Check it out:
David Horowitz rightly calls African-Americans “the human shields of the Democrat Party.” It simply a fact of history that modern African-Americans have come hat-in-hand to the Party of Slavery, and the Party of the Ku Klux Klan.
That analogy illustrates a simple fact that was well-known only a couple years after the Civil War ended:
And the above isn’t a cartoon from some “right wing” loon, but from the venerable and quite left-leaning Harper’s Magazine.
Even the left-leaning historian Eric Foner observed that:
“In effect, the Klan was a military force serving the interests of the Democratic party, the planter class, and all those who desired restoration of white supremacy. Its purposes were political, but political in the broadest sense, for it sought to affect power relations, both public and private, throughout Southern society. It aimed to reverse the interlocking changes sweeping over the South during Reconstruction: to destroy the Republican party’s infrastructure, undermine the Reconstruction state, reestablish control of the black labor force, and restore racial subordination in every aspect of Southern life” (Foner 1989, p. 425–426).
I wrote the following as part of a comment a few weeks ago to point how how shockingly far black Americans have gone from what should have been their core:
Let us never forget that Democrats were the party of slavery. And that Democrats were the creators of the Ku Klux Klan. It literally took a war in which Democrats had to be militarily crushed to keep them from enslaving people based on the color of their skin. And thank God for the Republican Party and a Republican president for freeing the slaves from Democrats. Let’s not forget that Woodrow Wilson – Democrat president and the father of the progressive movement – RE-segregated the military after Republicans had DE-segregated it. Let us not forget that Wilson cheered the racist propaganda film “Birth of a Nation.” Let us never forget that the national party convention that was so directly tied to the Ku Klux Klan that it was called the “Klanbake” was the 1924 DEMOCRAT convention. Let’s not forget that FDR’s New Deal directly attacked blacks and kept them from getting jobs.
Few know about the incredibly racist history of pro-Democrat labor unions (see also here), but it is both very real and very ugly. And progressive Democrats were at the very core of it.
Few have bothered to learn the Democrat Party’s profound legacy of racism. Or the Republican Party’s history of standing up to protect the rights, freedoms and dignities of black Americans.
As we move into the 1950s we find that a Democrat Governor, Orval Faubus, called out the National Guard in 1957 to prevent black children being integrated into white schools. And again, a Republican president had to rise to the occasion, with Dwight D. Eisenhower sending in US Army airborne troops to enforce racial equality that had once again been opposed by Democrats. And of course Alabama Democrat Governor George Wallace would fight for racist segregation all over again in 1963. It was Democrat John F. Kennedy who sent in the troops this time. But few are aware that that same John Kennedy had previously voted AGAINST the Civil Rights Act.
And let us not forget that both the famous Martin Luther King, Sr. and his even more famous son were both registered Republicans. It’s a shame that the pseudo civil rights leaders of today aren’t fit to carry Martin Luther King’s shoes, much less criticize his party affiliation.
Martin Luther King, Jr. and Frederick Douglas BOTH fundamentally opposed the quotas and preferential treatment that liberals have employed to create the equivalent of the Democrat “house negro.” Jack Greenberg of the NAACP said in the 1950s that “The chief problem with quotas is that they introduce a potentially retrogressive concept into the cherished notion of individual equality.” But it is readily obvious today that the NAACP has fallen far from it’s roots.
Let’s listen to Frederick Douglas, escaped slave and greatest of all champions of civil rights, has to say:
Frederick Douglass ridiculed the idea of racial quotas, as suggested by Martin Delany, as “absurd as a matter of practice,” noting that it implied blacks “should constitute one-eighth of the poets, statesmen, scholars, authors and philosophers.” Douglass emphasized that “natural equality is a very different thing from practical equality; and…though men may be potentially equal, circumstances may for a time cause the most striking inequalities.”77 On another occasion, in opposing “special efforts” for the black freedmen, Douglass argued that they “might ‘serve to keep up very prejudices, which it is so desirable to banish’ by promoting an image of blacks as privileged wards of the state.”
So now conservatives are suddenly racists for agreeing with Frederick Douglas and Martin Luther King, Jr. and against liberals and the vile pseudo values that the greatest civil rights leaders in history condemned?
Richard Nixon, whom Democrats love to make the poster boy for “Republican racism,” was in fact the first president to introduce the racial quotas that Democrats have been trying to implement and expand ever since. Which is to say that, if you want to argue that Nixon was a racist, Democrats have been baptizing themselves in Nixon’s racism ever since. And if Nixon employed a racially immoral strategy to win whites, the Democrat Party has employed the flip-side of that same immoral strategy to win blacks.
Liberals are biblical – and never in a good way:
PSA 52:3 You love evil more than good, Falsehood more than speaking what is right.
MIC 3:2 “You who hate good and love evil, Who tear off their skin from them And their flesh from their bones
History proves again and again that DEMOCRATS are the racists, and conservatives have stood for genuine equality again and again.
There are men and women of basic virtue in every race, and even every creed. The problem is that there are fewer and fewer of these, while the men and women of apathy, degeneration and self-centeredness abound.
Slavery is a terrible thing. But it is even worse when one willingly applies the shackles to his or her own wrists and ankles and demands the right to a government-imposed easy way out, in pathetic contrast to the principle from an Aesop fable, “Better to starve free than be a fat slave.”
Watch the video. One of the amazing and tragic facts that emerge is that, with liberal ideology and Democrat policies paving the way, blacks have instituted their own self-genocide, murdering more than one-third of their very own children.
Tags:affirmative action, bigotry, Birth of a Nation, black, C.L. Bryant, character, class of people, Democrat Party, failure, Frederic Douglas, Ku Klux Klan, Martin Luther King, Nixon, quotas, racism, re-segregated, slavery, Southern strategy, testing, virtue, welfare, Woodrow Wilson
Posted in Barack Obama, Conservative Issues, Democrats, Politics, race | Leave a Comment »
How Exactly Did Bill Clinton And Rahm Emanuel NOT Violate US Code 600 In Quid Pro Quo Offer To Sestak?
First of all, the idea that a former president like Bill Clinton would be the go-between between the White House and Joe Sestak, bearing an offer that amounted to the equivalent of an unpaid Pez dispenser of a position, doesn’t pass the smell test.
I mean, who on earth seriously thinks a former admiral and current Congressman would take an unpaid intern-level position in exchange for running for the US Senate?
How many of the other members of Obama’s intelligence advisory board can you name off the top of your head without Googling it? ZERO, just like Obama’s nickname, that’s how many.
Sestak waited until the White House announced their “narrative” in this corruption before telling his own version so they could get their stories straight. Joe Sestak’s brother, who is also Joe Sestak’s campaign manager, gets a phone call to better hone the background details of the White House’s “narrative.” Bill Clinton visits the White House yesterday to receive the details of HIS role in the narrative.
And then the “narrative” gets released to the public on the Friday before the Memorial Day recess and weekend.
Nothing slimy there, folks.
Bottom line: Joe Sestak knows if he’s the guy who brings down the Obama administration, that’s it for his liberal Democrat career; he also knows that he needs Obama and the DNC to help back, fund, and support his campaign if he’s going to have any chance of winning going forward. So he’s basically been saying, “I’m not going to say another word about the White House’s role until they tell me what they want me to say they said.”
Every single player in this disgrace of our national political system has an incentive to lie.
Charles Krauthammer pointed this out today: The documents released by the White House indicate a two month effort to persuade Sestak to drop out of the Senate primary against Arlen Specter. Unless the phone call between Clinton and Sestak lasted something like 86,400 minutes, there were other contacts and other offers. Let’s hear about all those, too.
Like I’ve already stated, I have a very hard time believing that the “job” Joe Sestak says the White House offered him in exchange for withdrawing from the Senate race was nothing but a trivial unpaid advisory position. Nevertheless, even if that’s what it was, it nevertheless WAS a “position.”
So here’s the language of US Code 600:
Whoever, directly or indirectly, promises any employment,
position, compensation, contract, appointment, or other benefit,
provided for or made possible in whole or in part by any Act of
Congress, or any special consideration in obtaining any such
benefit, to any person as consideration, favor, or reward for any
political activity or for the support of or opposition to any
candidate or any political party in connection with any general or
special election to any political office, or in connection with any
primary election or political convention or caucus held to select
candidates for any political office, shall be fined under this
title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.
How was that code not violated??? “Any position.” That would encompass even the unpaid position on the president’s intelligence advisory board. Joe Sestak had repeatedly said that he was offered a “job” (which generally involves compensation) in exchange for dropping out of the Senate race so Obama’s guy could win. That’s a quid pro quo exchange, and it is a clear violation of the law.
Is this going away?
When told about Clinton’s involvement, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who has been leading the charge for more details on the allegation, said, “This is punishable by prison. This is a felony.”
I guess not.
Another question, given the fact that Obama supporters are citing cases involving Bill Clinton and alleging (without any evidence) that Bush did this crap too: Barack Obama promised he’d be a “new politician” who would change the nature of Washington. How has he not just flat-out lied about that in the most cynical way?
One way or another, the law was broken, any claim to the integrity of the Democrat political machine has been demolished, and the Obama White House has been verified to be more Nixonian than “ethical.”
As a final matter, it needs to be pointed out that this corrupt White House now has a PATTERN OF CORRUPTION:
Sestak-gate: White House Offered Romanoff Job, Too
Wednesday, 26 May 2010 08:18 PM
By Jim Meyers
Allegations that the White House offered Joe Sestak a job in exchange for dropping out of the Pennsylvania Senate race echo an earlier report of a job offer to candidate Andrew Romanoff in Colorado.
On Sept. 27, 2009, the Denver Post reported that the Obama administration offered Senate candidate Romanoff a position if he canceled plans to run for the Democratic nomination against incumbent Sen. Michael Bennet.
The paper said the job offer, which specified particular jobs, reportedly was delivered by Jim Messina, Obama’s deputy chief of staff. One position the Post cited was a job at USAID, the foreign aid agency.
And, oh, yeah, that one DEFINITELY violates US Code 600 and a bunch of other laws. Not that the offer to Joe Sestak didn’t, too.
Who would have ever thought we’d see Chicago-style politics from Barack Obama?
Question: what sounds better, “Barack Hussein Nixon” or “Richard Milhous Hussein”?
Tags:Andrew Romanoff, Arlen Specter, Bill Clinton, brother, campaign manager, Chicago-style, Colorado, compensation, directly or indirectly, ethical, job, Joe Sestak, Messina, Nixon, Nixonian, position, promises any employment, Rahm Emanuel, senate, Sestak, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, transparent, US Code 600, White House, Whoever
Posted in Barack Obama, Conservative Issues, Democrats, Politics | Leave a Comment »
Obama White House Accused By Democrat Of Federal Crime In Specter, Bennet Races
Richard Nixon was honest to a fault compared to Barack Obama – and Obama is displaying corruption in only a year (Nixon was into his second term before he got caught).
We have Obama on video telling what we now recognize were seven major lies in less than two minutes when he was lying his way to the presidency:
[Youtube link]
We’ve got Obama displaying a shocking pattern of corruption and lack of transparency in a case involving a friend and a sacred-cow program. It is also a case of a president firing an Inspector General for the crime of investigating a crime in a manner that was not merely Nixonian, but Stalinist (link1; link2; link3; link4). Rest assured that Obama has his own enemies list.
The case of the illegal firing of Inspector General Gerald Walpin is far from over as it works its way through the legal system.
Getting closer to what we now have before us, we have the cases of the Louisiana Purchase, the Cornhusker Kickback, and a list of political bribery shenanigans that gets too long to follow.
All from an administration that deceitfully promised unprecedented transparency and openness and continues to shamelessly represent itself as being the best thing since sliced bread.
But this story – supported by the testimony of Democrats – may be in a whole new class of corruption:
White House Accused of Federal Crime in Specter, Bennet Races
By Jeffrey Lord on 2.22.10 @ 6:09AM
“Whoever solicits or receives … any….thing of value, in consideration of the promise of support or use of influence in obtaining for any person any appointive office or place under the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.” — 18 USC Sec. 211 — Bribery, Graft and Conflicts of Interest: Acceptance or solicitation to obtain appointive public office
“In the face of a White House denial, U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak stuck to his story yesterday that the Obama administration offered him a “high-ranking” government post if he would not run against U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania’s Democratic primary.”
— Philadelphia Inquirer
“D.C. job alleged as attempt to deter Romanoff”
A bombshell has just exploded in the 2010 elections.
For the second time in five months, the Obama White House is being accused — by Democrats — of offering high ranking government jobs in return for political favors. What no one is reporting is that this is a violation of federal law that can lead to prison time, a fine or both, according to Title 18, Chapter 11, Section 211 of the United States Code.
The jobs in question? Secretary of the Navy and a position within the U.S. Agency for International Development.
The favor requested in return? Withdrawal from Senate challenges to two sitting United States Senators, both Democrats supported by President Obama. The Senators are Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania and Michael Bennet in Colorado.
On Friday, Pennsylvania Congressman Joe Sestak, the Democrat challenging Specter for re-nomination, launched the controversy by accusing the Obama White House of offering him a federal job in exchange for his agreeing to abandon his race against Specter.
In August of 2009, the Denver Post reported last September, Deputy White House Chief of Staff Jim Messina “offered specific suggestions” for a job in the Obama Administration to Colorado Democrat Andrew Romanoff, a former state House Speaker, if Romanoff would agree to abandon a nomination challenge to U.S. Senator Michael Bennet. Bennet was appointed to the seat upon the resignation of then-Senator Ken Salazar after Salazar was appointed by Obama to serve as Secretary of the Interior. According to the Post, the specific job mentioned was in the U.S. Agency for International Development. The Post cited “several sources who described the communication to The Denver Post.”
The paper also describes Messina as “President Barack Obama’s deputy chief of staff and a storied fixer in the White House political shop.” Messina’s immediate boss is White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.
Sestak is standing by his story. Romanoff refused to discuss it with the Denver paper. In both instances the White House has denied the offers took place. The Sestak story in the Philadelphia Inquirer, reported by Thomas Fitzgerald, can be found here, While the Denver Post story, reported by Michael Riley, from September 27, 2009, can be read here.
In an interview with Philadelphia television anchor Larry Kane, who broke the story on Larry Kane: Voice of Reason, a Comcast Network show, Sestak says someone — unnamed — in the Obama White House offered him a federal job if he would quit the Senate race against Specter, the latter having the support of President Obama, Vice President Biden and, in the state itself, outgoing Democratic Governor Ed Rendell. Both Biden and Rendell are longtime friends of Specter, with Biden taking personal credit for convincing Specter to leave the Republican Party and switch to the Democrats. Rendell served as a deputy to Specter when the future senator’s career began as Philadelphia’s District Attorney, a job Rendell himself would eventually hold.
Asked Kane of Sestak in the Comcast interview:
“Is it true that you were offered a high ranking job in the administration in a bid to get you to drop out of the primary against Arlen Specter?”
“Yes” replied Sestak.
Kane: “Was it Secretary of the Navy?”
To which the Congressman replied:
Sestak is a retired Navy admiral.
In the Colorado case, the Post reported that while Romanoff refused comment on a withdrawal-for-a-job offer, “several top Colorado Democrats described Messina’s outreach to Romanoff to The Post, including the discussion of specific jobs in the administration. They asked for anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.”
The Post also noted that the day after Romanoff announced his Senate candidacy, President Obama quickly announced his endorsement of Senator Bennet.
The discovery that the White House has now been reported on two separate occasions in two different states to be deliberately committing a potential violation of federal law — in order to preserve the Democrats’ Senate majority — could prove explosive in this highly political year. The 60-seat majority slipped to 59 seats with the death of Senator Edward Kennedy, a Democrat, and the election of Republican Senator Scott Brown. Many political analysts are suggesting Democrats could lose enough seats to lose their majority altogether.
This is the stuff of congressional investigations and cable news alerts, as an array of questions will inevitably start being asked of the Obama White House.
Here are but a few lines of inquiry, some inevitably straight out of Watergate.
* Who in the White House had this conversation with Congressman Sestak?
* Did Deputy Chief of Staff Messina have the same conversation with Sestak he is alleged to have had with Romanoff — and has he or anyone else on the White House staff had similar conversations with other candidates that promise federal jobs for political favors?
* They keep logs of these calls. How quickly will they be produced?
* How quickly would e-mails between the White House, Sestak, Specter, Romanoff and Bennet be produced?
* Secretary of the Navy is an important job. Did this job offer or the reported offer of the US AID position to Romanoff have the approval of President Obama or Vice President Biden?
* What did the President know and when did he know it?
* What did the Vice President know and when did he know it? (Note: Vice President Biden, in this tale, is Specter’s longtime friend who takes credit for luring Specter to switch parties. Can it really be that an offer of Secretary of the Navy to get Sestak out of Specter’s race would not be known and or approved by the Vice President? Does Messina or some other White House staffer — like Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel — have that authority?)
* What did White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel know, and when did he know it?
* What did Congressman Sestak know and when did he know it? Was he aware that the offer of a federal job in return for a political favor — his withdrawal from the Senate race — could open the White House to a criminal investigation?
* What did Senator Specter know about any of this and when did he know it? .
* What did Governor Rendell, who, as the titular leader of Pennsylvania Democrats, is throwing his political weight and machine to his old friend Specter, know about this? And when did he know it?
* Will the Department of Justice be looking into these two separate news stories, one supplied by a sitting United States Congressman, that paint a clear picture of jobs for political favors?
* Will Attorney General Holder recuse himself from such an investigation?
While in recent years there have been bribery scandals that centered on the exchange of favors for a business deal (Democrat William Jefferson, a Louisiana Congressman) or cash for earmarks (Republican Congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham), the idea of violating federal law by offering a federal job in return for a political favor (leaving two hotly contested Senate races in this instance) is not new.
Let’s go back in history for a moment.
It’s the spring of 1960, in the middle of a bitter fight for the Democratic presidential nomination between then Senators John F. Kennedy, Hubert Humphrey, Lyndon Johnson, Stuart Symington and the 1952 and 1956 nominee, ex-Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson.
Covering the campaign for what would become the grandfather of all political campaign books was journalist and JFK friend Theodore H. White. In his book, the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Making of the President 1960, published in 1961, White tells the story of a plane flight with JFK on the candidate’s private plane The Caroline. The nomination fight is going on at a furious pace, and White and Kennedy are having another of their innumerable private chats for White’s book while the plane brings JFK back from a campaign swing where he spoke to delegates in Montana.
The subject? Let’s let White tell the story.
The conversation began in a burst of anger. A story had appeared in a New York newspaper that evening that an Eastern Governor had claimed that Kennedy had offered him a cabinet post in return for his Convention support. His anger was cold, furious. When Kennedy is angry, he is at his most precise, almost schoolmasterish. It is a federal offense, he said, to offer any man a federal job in return for a favor. This was an accusation of a federal offense. It was not so.
Let’s focus on that JFK line again:
“It is a federal offense, he said, to offer any man a federal job in return for a favor.”
With a fine and jail time attached if convicted.
What Larry Kane discovered with the response of Congressman Sestak — and Sestak is sticking to his story — combined with what the Denver Post has previously reported in the Romanoff case — appears to be a series of connecting dots.
A connecting of dots — by Democrats — that leads from Colorado to Pennsylvania straight into the West Wing of the White House.
And possibly the jail house.
“It is a federal offense,” said John F. Kennedy, “to offer any man a federal job in return for a favor.”
Obama – who is loudly and frequently patting himself on the back for how “bipartisan” he is, is the most radically ideological partisan who ever sat in the Oval Office.
And as Obama continues to push his ObamaCare boondoggle apparently to the very last Democrat, it is more than fair to ask: why on earth are we trusting these dishonest rat bastards with our health care system and literally with our very lives in the event that their government takeover succeeds?
Tags:Bennet, bipartisan, bribery, Colorado, Cornhusker Kickback, corruption, dishonest, enemies list, Gerald Walpin, health care, ideological, if he would not run, Inspector General, Jim Messina, Joe Sestak, Kevin Johnson, Louisiana Purchase, Nixon, Nixonian, Obama, offering high ranking government jobs, partisan, Pennsylvania, political favors, primary, promise of support, Romanoff, secretary of the Navy, solicitation to obtain appointive public office, Specter, trust, U.S. Agency for International Development, violation of federal law, Watergate, White House
Posted in Barack Obama, Conservative Issues, Democrats, health care, Politics | Leave a Comment »
What’s Happened To Obama’s Chicago-Way Thug-Style ‘Hope And Change’?
One of the things that was truly amazing during the 2008 campaign is that the mainstream media were hyper-eager to gather in droves over Sarah Palin’s and then Joe the Plumber’s trash cans for any dirt they could find, but utterly refused to examine Barack Obama’s record in the most politically corrupt city in America.
This is why Obama was able to say, “I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views.” He could be whatever he wanted to depict himself, because the mainstream media wasn’t going to challenge anything he said.
Americans are finally beginning to understand who Mr. “blank screen” really is – and they are rejecting him in droves. The pity is that they should have had an opportunity to learn who he was before they elected him. But the dishonest ideologically-biased mainstream propagandists were not about to tell us anything they thought we might not want to hear.
The mainstream media have long held a “gatekeeper” mentality to the news, which is to say that they only told you what they wanted you to know, while holding back what they didn’t want you to know.
And they didn’t want you to know how Obama’s Chicago past would influence or even dictate his presidency: what happens in Chicago stays in Chicago.
But, inevitably, the American people were going to see the “Chicago side” of Barry Hussein.
From the Los Angeles Times blog:
President Obama Day 386: What’s happened to him?
February 9, 2010A favorite story about Chicago politics involves Roman Pucinski, who served six long terms of political apprenticeship in the Washington minor leagues of the U.S. House of Representatives before the Windy City’s vaunted Democratic political machine allowed him to step up and serve on the City Council.
The late Pucinski then served for 18 years as a loyal operative assigned to the 41st Ward (of 50).
It’s always useful for Chicago pols to have White House connections if, say, they’d like to dispatch someone famous to fly off to Copenhagen to lobby the International Olympic Committee for their city’s 2016 summer games bid.
But the Chicago Daley machine, which is actually a ruthless coalition of urban Democratic factions united by the steel reinforcing rods of self-interest, didn’t much care about this Barack Obama fellow before, as long as he was quiet, obedient and headed on a track out of town. How he acquired a reform label coming out of that one-party place is anyone’s guess.
But now that the sun has risen on the 386th day of the Obama White House, many political observers are coming to see that the ex-state senator from the South Side is running his federal administration in Washington much the way they run things back home: with a small….
…claque of clout-laden people from the same school who learned their political trade back in the nation’s No. 3 city, named for an Indian word for a smelly wild onion.
That style is tough, focused, immune to any distractions but cosmetic niceties. And did we mention tough. A portly, veteran Chicago alderman once confided only about 40% jokingly, that he had taken up jogging to lose weight but quickly gave it up as boring because “you can’t knock anyone down.” That’s politics the Chicago way.
For instance, remember how much we heard all last year about the need for healthcare legislation before early August, before October, before Thanksgiving, before Christmas, before the State of the Union? And how spanked the White House was by the Massachusetts Senate upset that Obama said his laser-vision for 2010 was on jobs and the economy?
So, what did he announce during a Super Bowl interview? More healthcare meetings, designed to politically box Republicans into the No-Nothing corner.
In the last few days at least three major outlets have published well-informed evaluations of Obama’s first year in office. All are well worth reading. The dominant themes: disappointment and disillusionment with the Chicago way.
In one respect it’s not surprising that a capitol city with its own style of take-no-prisoners politics should find a professed outsider’s style of smoother-spoken take-no-prisoners discomforting.
But now, no less than the Huffington Post headlined its Obama evaluation by Steve Clemons: “Core Chicago Team Sinking Obama presidency.”
The devastating Financial Times report by Edward Luce: “A fearsome foursome.”
And the Washington Post story by Ann Gerhart: “A year later, where did the hopes for Obama go?“
The Post story focuses on a handful of Obama supporters, so fiercely motivated and hopeful in 2008 and through the inauguration, now largely drifting back to normal lives lacking fulfillment of so many promises.
The other two fascinating accounts examine Obama’s close-knit team of Chicagoans: confidante Valerie Jarrett, who’s so intelligent she once hired Michelle Obama; Rahm Emanuel, the diminutive, acid-tongued chief of staff with overwhelmAxelrod and Obamaing energy and ambition; David Axelrod, the ex-Chicago Tribune politics reporter-turned-consultant who’s been coaching Obama forever; and Robert Gibbs, who isn’t from Chicago but that’s OK because he’s only the mouthpiece and the others keep a close eye on him.
Clemons focuses on how dead-on the Luce piece is and how the FT Washington bureau chief had to assiduously hide his sources as everyone was properly so fearful of retribution from the quartet around the mayor, er, president.
And Clemons attributes the lack of online link love to the Luce item Monday to the same fears among D.C. journalists dodging disfavor from the same four.
Quoting “administration insiders,” Luce says “the famously irascible Mr Emanuel treats cabinet principals like minions. ‘I am not sure the president realises how much he is humiliating some of the big figures he spent so much trouble recruiting into his cabinet,’ says the head of a presidential advisory board who visits the Oval Office frequently.”
And both articles note, accurately, how savvy cabinet secretaries like Kathleen Sebelius at Health and Human Services and Ken Salazar at Interior have been marginalized because putting a media face on the Obama Oval Office can only be entrusted to the likes of Gibbs and Axelrod.
Another Luce source talks about the difference between campaigning, which is easier, and governing, which is the ultimate goal but takes a more refined skill-set:
‘There is this sense after you have won such an amazing victory, when you have proved conventional wisdom wrong again and again, that you can simply do the same thing in government,’ says one. ‘Of course, they are different skills. To be successful, presidents need to separate the stream of advice they get on policy from the stream of advice they get on politics. That still isn’t happening.’
Also noted, how most everything coming out of the executive office is filtered through a political prism above all. i.e. the Afghanistan troop surge speech that touched all the political bases in 4,582 words without once saying “victory.”
Warning that Obama needs to take action quickly, Clemons adds that needed advice from a broader range of advisers “is getting twisted either in the rough-and-tumble of a a team of rivals operation that is not working, or is being distorted by the Chicago political gang’s tactical advice that is seducing Obama towards a course that has not only violated deals he made with those who voted him into office but which is failing to hit any of the major strategic targets by which the administration will be historically measured.”
David Gergen, who helped guide Bill Clinton out of not dissimilar troubled waters, tells Luce: “There is an old joke. How many psychiatrists does it take to change a lightbulb? Only one. But the lightbulb must want to change. I don’t think President Obama wants to make any changes.”
— Andrew Malcolm
Mark Steyn reminded viewers of Obama’s horribly botched pronunciation of the Navy Corpsmen who save the lives of wounded Marines, and then referred to “the four corpse men of the Obamaclypse.” That’s quite accurate, as it turns out. and these four corpse men are riding America into apocalypse right along with Barack Obama’s and the Democrat Party’s political future.
It’s scary to think that we have a preening peacock campaigning and campaigning with absolutely no idea how to actually govern.
Since the FT article is hard to obtain, and since I am all about preserving a record of the facts, here is the Luce article:
A Fearsome Foursome
By Edward Luce
At a crucial stage in the Democratic primaries in late 2007, Barack Obama rejuvenated his campaign with a barnstorming speech, in which he ended on a promise of what his victory would produce: “A nation healed. A world repaired. An America that believes again.”
Just over a year into his tenure, America’s 44th president governs a bitterly divided nation, a world increasingly hard to manage and an America that seems more disillusioned than ever with Washington’s ways. What went wrong?
Pundits, Democratic lawmakers and opinion pollsters offer a smorgasbord of reasons – from Mr Obama’s decision to devote his first year in office to healthcare reform, to the president’s inability to convince voters he can “feel their [economic] pain”, to the apparent ungovernability of today’s Washington. All may indeed have contributed to the quandary in which Mr Obama finds himself. But those around him have a more specific diagnosis – and one that is striking in its uniformity. The Obama White House is geared for campaigning rather than governing, they say.
In dozens of interviews with his closest allies and friends in Washington – most of them given unattributably in order to protect their access to the Oval Office – each observes that the president draws on the advice of a very tight circle. The inner core consists of just four people – Rahm Emanuel, the pugnacious chief of staff; David Axelrod and Valerie Jarrett, his senior advisers; and Robert Gibbs, his communications chief.
Two, Mr Emanuel and Mr Axelrod, have box-like offices within spitting distance of the Oval Office. The president, who is the first to keep a BlackBerry, rarely holds a meeting, including on national security, without some or all of them present.
With the exception of Mr Emanuel, who was a senior Democrat in the House of Representatives, all were an integral part of Mr Obama’s brilliantly managed campaign. Apart from Mr Gibbs, who is from Alabama, all are Chicagoans – like the president. And barring Richard Nixon’s White House, few can think of an administration that has been so dominated by such a small inner circle.
“It is a very tightly knit group,” says a prominent Obama backer who has visited the White House more than 40 times in the past year. “This is a kind of ‘we few’ group … that achieved the improbable in the most unlikely election victory anyone can remember and, unsurprisingly, their bond is very deep.”
John Podesta, a former chief of staff to Bill Clinton and founder of the Center for American Progress, the most influential think-tank in Mr Obama’s Washington, says that while he believes Mr Obama does hear a range of views, including dissenting advice, problems can arise from the narrow composition of the group itself.
Among the broader circle that Mr Obama also consults are the self-effacing Peter Rouse, who was chief of staff to Tom Daschle in his time as Senate majority leader; Jim Messina, deputy chief of staff; the economics team led by Lawrence Summers and including Peter Orszag, budget director; Joe Biden, the vice-president; and Denis McDonough, deputy national security adviser. But none is part of the inner circle.
“Clearly this kind of core management approach worked for the election campaign and President Obama has extended it to the White House,” says Mr Podesta, who managed Mr Obama’s widely praised post-election transition. “It is a very tight inner circle and that has its advantages. But I would like to see the president make more use of other people in his administration, particularly his cabinet.”
This White House-centric structure has generated one overriding – and unexpected – failure. Contrary to conventional wisdom, Mr Emanuel managed the legislative aspect of the healthcare bill quite skilfully, say observers. The weak link was the failure to carry public opinion – not Capitol Hill. But for the setback in Massachusetts, which deprived the Democrats of their 60-seat supermajority in the Senate, Mr Obama would by now almost certainly have signed healthcare into law – and with it would have become a historic president.
But the normally liberal voters of Massachusetts wished otherwise. The Democrats lost the seat to a candidate, Scott Brown, who promised voters he would be the “41st [Republican] vote” in the Senate – the one that would tip the balance against healthcare. Subsequent polling bears out the view that a decisive number of Democrats switched their votes with precisely that motivation in mind.
“Historians will puzzle over the fact that Barack Obama, the best communicator of his generation, totally lost control of the narrative in his first year in office and allowed people to view something they had voted for as something they suddenly didn’t want,” says Jim Morone, America’s leading political scientist on healthcare reform. “Communication was the one thing everyone thought Obama would be able to master.”
Whatever issue arises, whether it is a failed terrorist plot in Detroit, the healthcare bill, economic doldrums or the 30,000-troop surge to Afghanistan, the White House instinctively fields Mr Axelrod or Mr Gibbs on television to explain the administration’s position. “Every event is treated like a twist in an election campaign and no one except the inner circle can be trusted to defend the president,” says an exasperated outside adviser.
Perhaps the biggest losers are the cabinet members. Kathleen Sebelius, Mr Obama’s health secretary and formerly governor of Kansas, almost never appears on television and has been largely excluded both from devising and selling the healthcare bill. Others such as Ken Salazar, the interior secretary who is a former senator for Colorado, and Janet Napolitano, head of the Department for Homeland Security and former governor of Arizona, have virtually disappeared from view.
Administration insiders say the famously irascible Mr Emanuel treats cabinet principals like minions. “I am not sure the president realises how much he is humiliating some of the big figures he spent so much trouble recruiting into his cabinet,” says the head of a presidential advisory board who visits the Oval Office frequently. “If you want people to trust you, you must first place trust in them.”
In addition to hurling frequent profanities at people within the administration, Mr Emanuel has alienated many of Mr Obama’s closest outside supporters. At a meeting of Democratic groups last August, Mr Emanuel described liberals as “f***ing retards” after one suggested they mobilise resources on healthcare reform.
“We are treated as though we are children,” says the head of a large organisation that raised millions of dollars for Mr Obama’s campaign. “Our advice is never sought. We are only told: ‘This is the message, please get it out.’ I am not sure whether the president fully realises that when the chief of staff speaks, people assume he is speaking for the president.”
The same can be observed in foreign policy. On Mr Obama’s November trip to China, members of the cabinet such as the Nobel prizewinning Stephen Chu, energy secretary, were left cooling their heels while Mr Gibbs, Mr Axelrod and Ms Jarrett were constantly at the president’s side.
The White House complained bitterly about what it saw as unfairly negative media coverage of a trip dubbed Mr Obama’s “G2” visit to China. But, as journalists were keenly aware, none of Mr Obama’s inner circle had any background in China. “We were about 40 vans down in the motorcade and got barely any time with the president,” says a senior official with extensive knowledge of the region. “It was like the Obama campaign was visiting China.”
Then there are the president’s big strategic decisions. Of these, devoting the first year to healthcare is well known and remains a source of heated contention. Less understood is the collateral damage it caused to unrelated initiatives. “The whole Rahm Emanuel approach is that victory begets victory – the success of healthcare would create the momentum for cap-and-trade [on carbon emissions] and then financial sector reform,” says one close ally of Mr Obama. “But what happens if the first in the sequence is defeat?”
Insiders attribute Mr Obama’s waning enthusiasm for the Arab-Israeli peace initiative to a desire to avoid antagonising sceptical lawmakers whose support was needed on healthcare. The steam went out of his Arab-Israeli push in mid-summer, just when the healthcare bill was running into serious difficulties.
The same applies to reforming the legal apparatus in the “war on terror” – not least his pledge to close the Guantánamo Bay detention centre within a year of taking office. That promise has been abandoned.
“Rahm said: ‘We’ve got these two Boeing 747s circling that we are trying to bring down to the tarmac [healthcare and the decision on the Afghanistan troop surge] and we can’t risk a flock of f***ing Canadian geese causing them to crash,’ ” says an official who attended an Oval Office strategy meeting. The geese stood for the closure of Guantánamo.
An outside adviser adds: “I don’t understand how the president could launch healthcare reform and an Arab-Israeli peace process – two goals that have eluded US presidents for generations – without having done better scenario planning. Either would be historic. But to launch them at the same time?”
Again, close allies of the president attribute the problem to the campaign-like nucleus around Mr Obama in which all things are possible. “There is this sense after you have won such an amazing victory, when you have proved conventional wisdom wrong again and again, that you can simply do the same thing in government,” says one. “Of course, they are different skills. To be successful, presidents need to separate the stream of advice they get on policy from the stream of advice they get on politics. That still isn’t happening.”
The White House declined to answer questions on whether Mr Obama needed to broaden his circle of advisers. But some supporters say he should find a new chief of staff. Mr Emanuel has hinted that he might not stay in the job very long and is thought to have an eye on running for mayor of Chicago. Others say Mr Obama should bring in fresh blood. They point to Mr Clinton’s decision to recruit David Gergen, a veteran of previous White Houses, when the last Democratic president ran into trouble in 1993. That is credited with helping to steady the Clinton ship, after he too began with an inner circle largely carried over from his campaign.
But Mr Gergen himself disagrees. Now teaching at Harvard and commenting for CNN, Mr Gergen says members of the inner circle meet two key tests. First, they are all talented. Second, Mr Obama trusts them. “These are important attributes,” Mr Gergen says. His biggest doubt is whether Mr Obama sees any problem with the existing set-up.
So you learn that Obama is all fluff and no substance (i.e., all campaign mode and no actual governing mode), and that Obama has to rely on his “Chicago fearsome foursome” the way he relies on his teleprompter: ubiquitously (as in even in sixth grade classrooms!!!).
And you should think long and hard about the profound comparison of Nixon’s tight (and tightly wound) inner circle and Obama’s same same. A tight, insular circle that answers to no one and keeps its counsel secret is a frightening thing in any republic.
Here’s another comparison between Obama and his alter ego. And realize that for a CHICAGO POLITICIAN to say, “I am not a crook,” is pretty much like a Chicago politician saying, “I am not a Chicago politician.”
Everything is politics for Obama. Political posturing, political preening, political hatchet jobs. Nothing else matters.
It is frankly amazing to me that such a hypocritical and cynical man as Barack Obama was ever elected president. He constantly lectures Republicans (and even Democrats when it suits him) to “rise above petty politics” when the very construction of his administration is completely about politics.
I have on several occasions compared Barack Obama to Neville Chamberlain. Both men were utterly ruthless (there’s your ‘Chicago Way’) in pounding head after head to achieve their signature domestic issues, and both men became utter failures as they attempted to have their personal domestic agenda at the expense of everything else.
People are starting to learn that the “blank slate” may well be blank because the man behind the grand facade has no soul.
Tags:A fearsome foursome, Afghanistan, alienated, Arab-Israeli, blank screen, cabinet secretaries, campaigning, Chicago, Chicago Way, China, claque of clout-laden people, collateral damage, David Axelrod, deals he made, Edward Luce, fearful, fears, gatekeeper, Gitmo, governing, health care, humiliating, Massachusetts, Media, Mideast, minions, Nixon, no-nothing, Obama, Obama campaign, party of no, profanities, Rahm Emanuel, retribution, Robert Gibbs, Scott Brown, tough, treated as though we are children, trust, Valerie Jarrett, victory
Posted in Afghanistan, Barack Obama, China, Conservative Issues, health care, Media, Politics | Leave a Comment »
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HomeArchivesEmerson College Professor Launches a First-of a-Kind Digital Museum Devoted to America’s Quintessential Musical Instrument: The Banjo Project
Emerson College Professor Launches a First-of a-Kind Digital Museum Devoted to America’s Quintessential Musical Instrument: The Banjo Project
Emerson College announces the creation and launch of a first-of-its-kind digital museum devoted to the banjo – an instrument that uniquely reflects America’s complicated and contested social history. The Banjo Project, set to launch in June 2019, was created by Associate Professor Marc Fields, and produced by Fields and Assistant Professor Shaun Clarke. Fields is a Visual & Media Arts Professor and Emmy-Award winning writer/director/producer of cultural programming for PBS, most recently the music documentary Give Me the Banjo (narrated by Steve Martin). The digital museum, built on a searchable archive of over 300 hours of original media, archival footage, stills and recordings, will serve as a public, online cultural resource devoted to the instrument’s colorful and complicated history.
The digital museum, in beta form at banjo.emerson.edu, is supported by a $100,000 National Endowment for the Humanities grant, which is the largest NEH grant received in the college's history. The award is part of $14.8 million in grants announced on December 12 by NEH for 253 humanities projects nationwide.
“The banjo has symbolized patriotism and protest, pain and pleasure, low entertainment and sophisticated leisure. It's been a black instrument, a white instrument, a laborer's pastime and a socialite's diversion, a young person's fad and an old-timer's friend. But mostly it's been a snubbed instrument,” said Fields, who aims to showcase the banjo’s rich and diverse music and players in their historical context.
Brought to the Americas by enslaved Africans, the banjo is the product of three centuries of cultural exchanges, appropriations and interactions. It has helped to shape many American and transnational musical forms including the minstrel show (the dominant popular entertainment in the US in the 19th century), ragtime and early jazz, Tin Pan Alley, old-time folk and the folk revival, as well as blues, bluegrass, country, and world music. The instrument’s complex history also resonates with current social issues and struggles in our society.
“The Banjo Project highlights many of the issues at the heart of American society today, including lingering conflicts around race, class, gender, regionalism and the collisions between folk and pop music,” Fields said.
The Banjo Project combines interactive documentary, up-to-date research, curated, professionally produced content and rare archival footage and recordings. It will also serve as the hub for a consortium of partner institutions, scholars and collectors, providing portals to showcase related content. The digital museum is the result of more than 15 years of work to create a public resource that provides users with the ability to discover the stories about America’s instrument that are particularly relevant today.
“When the diverse styles and purveyors of banjo music are placed in their historical context, users become a community of storytellers building narratives around the banjo that overcome boundaries of race, culture, class, region and gender. Hearing the music is just the first step in an odyssey spanning three centuries of trans-Atlantic culture,” said Fields.
According to the NEH, many of the grant awards announced on December 12 will help document, preserve, and ensure access to materials of critical importance to the nation’s cultural heritage.
ABOUT THE BANJO PROJECT: Since 2002, The Banjo Project has produced and collected over 300 hours of original video, with interviews and performances by banjoists in all styles: Pete Seeger, Earl Scruggs, Bela Fleck, Rhiannon Giddens, Mike Seeger, Taj Mahal, Sonny Osborne, Cynthia Sayers, Don Vappie, Buddy Wachter and many others, as well as expert commentary from banjo builders, historians and researchers. Visit the beta site at banjo.emerson.edu.
ABOUT EMERSON COLLEGE: Based in Boston, Massachusetts, opposite the historic Boston Common and in the heart of the city’s Theatre District, Emerson College educates individuals who will solve problems and change the world through engaged leadership in communication and the arts, a mission informed by liberal learning. The College has 3,780 undergraduates and 670 graduate students from across the United States and 50 countries. Supported by state-of-the-art facilities and a renowned faculty, students participate in more than 90 student organizations and performance groups. Emerson is known for its experiential learning programs in Los Angeles, Washington, DC, the Netherlands, London, China, and the Czech Republic as well as its new Global Portals, with the first launching in 2019 in Paris. The College has an active network of 39,000 alumni who hold leadership positions in communication and the arts. For more information, visit emerson.edu.
ABOUT THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES: Created in 1965 as an independent federal agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities supports research and learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities by funding selected, peer-reviewed proposals from around the nation. Additional information about the National Endowment for the Humanities and its grant programs is available at: www.neh.gov.
MFA Student and Next Boston Poet Laureate Porsha Olayiwola Speaks to WBUR
Presidential Fund for Curricular Innovation: Internationalization and Inclusion -- Now Accepting Applications
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Mexican Lawmakers Pass Cryptocurrency Regulation Bill
Lawmakers in Mexico have reportedly advanced a bill that was drafted to regulate fintech, including cryptocurrencies, in the country.
According to Reuters, the bill was passed by Mexico's Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of its legislature, on Thursday and currently is pending signature from Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto before it goes into effect as law.
The latest legislative move follows a previous green light from the country's Senate in December 2017 that cleared the way for the bill, which is aimed to bring certainty on the status of cryptocurrency, as well as to prevent use of the tech in illicit activities such as money-laundering.
As reported by CoinDesk, the framework aims to set out that cryptocurrencies are not legal tender in Mexico, a stance in line with comments from the country's central bank in early 2017. In a local report, Agustin Carstens, the then-governor of Banco de Mexico said bitcoin should be considered a commodity, not a currency.
In addition, the bill also seeks to put the operation of cryptocurrency exchanges under oversight of the country's central bank.
The Reuters report, though, indicates that the bill, drafted in general terms, will also see further development of a secondary law by other financial regulators such as Mexico's securities commission, the central bank and the finance ministry in the coming months.
The changes are expected to bring rules on activities such as fund-raising by cryptocurrency firms.
Mexican Senate image Shutterstock
Wyoming 'Utility Token' Bill Heads to
Wyoming's state legislature has cleared a bill that creates exemptions for certain types of crypto assets from securities laws, with the measure now
Illinois Has Been Quietly Considering
Legislators in Illinois are weighing a proposal to allow residents in the state to pay their taxes in cryptocurrency. With the move, Illinois joins a
Singapore: Central Bank Assessing Need
Cryptocurrency regulation may be on the horizon in Singapore as authorities look closer at “investor protection.” Singapore’s central bank has
Mexicos Cryptocurrency Regulation
Cryptocurrency will see official regulation in Mexico once its president signs it into law, reports say. Mexico is just one signature away from
UK Central Bank to Clamp Down on Crypto
The head of the U.K.'s central bank has said that the institution will step up its efforts to combat the use of cryptocurrencies in illegal financial
Mexico?s Congress Approves
Mexico’s lower house of Congress recently approved a bill that’s set to regulate the financial technology (fintech) sector in the country. The bill
Binance CEO: Bitcoin (BTC) Run is (Was) Driven by Retail Investors
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How Bad Does Border Have To Be For Democrats To Admit It's An Emergency?
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not represent the views of Townhall.com.
Source: AP Photo/Marco Ugarte
Is there any number of illegal border crossings into the United States that would strike Democrats as an emergency?
As they resisted President Trump's efforts to stem the flow of illegal migrants across the U.S.-Mexico border, many Democrats made the point that fewer migrants are coming today than years ago, during the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush presidencies. The implication was that today's situation cannot be an emergency, because it used to be worse.
That doesn't make sense, of course. One could argue that crossings were an unaddressed emergency back then, and that today's figures, although lower, also qualify as an emergency.
But now, the border numbers are surging back to the bad old days. It appears that Customs and Border Patrol apprehended more than 100,000 people in March (the precise figure has not yet been released), a pace that could mean more than 1 million apprehensions this year.
For some perspective: According to Border Patrol statistics, U.S. authorities caught 1,643,679 people trying to cross the border illegally from Mexico in fiscal year 2000. In 2001, the number was 1,235,718. In 2002, it was 929,809. In 2003 it was 905,065. In 2004, it topped the million mark again, with 1,139,282. In 2005, it was 1,171,396. In 2006, it was 1,071,972.
After that, due to a combination of slightly more assertive border security policies, plus -- far more important -- a massive economic downturn, the number of apprehensions began to fall. They hit a low point of 327,577 in 2011, leading many in Washington to assume that the problem -- if they ever thought it was a problem -- no longer existed.
Then the number began to creep back up, to 479,371 in 2014. Then it fell back down in 2017, to 303,916. That was likely due to would-be migrants' fear that newly elected President Donald Trump would get tough on illegal crossings. But the courts, resisting Democrats, ambivalent Republicans and Trump's own lack of focus, stopped any great progress on the border.
In a matter of months, migrants knew Trump could not stop them from entering the country illegally -- and staying.
It should surprise no one that the numbers headed up again, to 396,579 in 2018. Now, crossings have gone through the roof, with 76,103 apprehensions in February 2019 and 100,000-plus in March -- numbers that could have come from the early- and mid-2000s.
And the numbers do not tell the whole story. In the Clinton-Bush years, the overwhelming number of illegal crossers were single, adult men trying to avoid detection as they sneaked across the border. When caught, they were quickly returned. So when 1.2 million were caught crossing, that did not mean that 1.2 million stayed in the United States.
Now, however, the nature of the flow has changed. Today, the large majority of those caught crossing are families and unaccompanied children. They are not trying to sneak in -- they are crossing for the purpose of giving themselves over to the Border Patrol. They do that knowing U.S. law forbids them being returned, or separated, or even held for more than a few days. In short order, they are released into the United States.
It seems safe to say that more illegal crossers are staying in the U.S. than in the days of Clinton and Bush.
Yet Democrats steadfastly refuse to recognize that the situation constitutes an emergency. Instead, they accuse Trump of making the whole thing up. They call it a "fake emergency" and a "manufactured crisis" and every possible variant of those terms. And they reject the idea that adding barriers on the border will decrease the number of illegal crossings.
Formally announcing his presidential candidacy Saturday, Democrat Beto O'Rourke vowed to "find security by focusing on our ports of entry." Ports of entry are where the majority of illegal drugs crossing the border are seized, so that is indeed important (and why Trump proposed new funding and technology for drug detection efforts at the ports).
But the 100,000-plus migrants crossing the border are not waiting at ports of entry. They are walking across the border in areas with inadequate barriers or no barriers at all. O'Rourke would not strengthen that security -- he has actually said he would tear down some of those barriers.
The only Democrats who will admit there is a crisis are the ones no longer in office. Recently Jeh Johnson, who was Barack Obama's last secretary of Homeland Security, said that while in office, he checked the apprehension figures every day. Noting that there was a recent day in which there were 4,000 apprehensions, Johnson said, "I know that a thousand overwhelms the system. I cannot begin to imagine what 4,000 a day looks like, so we are truly in a crisis."
That is something Democrats in Congress will not admit. Perhaps they believe doing so would give a victory to Trump, which they cannot abide.
An expanded and strengthened border barrier would help in the long run. But in the immediate crisis, Trump realizes that the U.S. must change its policy of giving immediate and de facto permanent entry to virtually anyone requesting asylum. A large majority do not have a valid claim, yet get to stay in the United States anyway.
"Democrats, working with Republicans in Congress, can fix the asylum and other loopholes quickly," Trump tweeted Monday. "We have a major National Emergency at our Border. GET IT DONE NOW!"
It could be done. But doing so would require recognizing the emergency at the border as real, not fake, and not manufactured. Can Washington do that?
Byron York is chief political correspondent for The Washington Examiner.
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Best Use of Games for Learning
Wilhelmsen Maritime Services and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management created games that allow learners to apply the information learned from the game in their role within the organization.
Lorri Freifeld
“May the odds be ever in your favor”—The Hunger Games
Games and gaming are immensely popular right now. The movie, The Hunger Games,was not only the box office winner for its opening week, but had the third highest opening weekend ever, for any movie, and the highest box office take ever for a non-sequel (http://boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=3401&p=.htm). Video games are also immensely popular. According to a 2011 report from the Entertainment Software Association, 72 percent of American households play computer and video games (http://www.theesa.com/facts/pdfs/ESA_EF_2011.pdf), and not all of those households have kids in them.
The concept of using a game and rewards to support learning and development has been around for years, and started for many of us in grade school with gold stars and report cards. We are competitive creatures by nature, and games provide an opportunity for people to engage deeply in a learning environment, and offer motivation for behavior changes. Games shouldn’t be used lightly; they should fit the situation and business outcomes required. If managed well, not only are these games entertaining and educational, but learning games can go beyond learning and into talent management and workforce development.
In the 2011 Brandon Hall Group Awards “Best Use of Games for Learning” submissions focused on training employees not just to be able to perform simple skills, but to go beyond and understand the industry and special needs of their organization.
For Wilhelmsen Maritime Services, a 2011 Brandon Hall Group Silver Award Winner, this meant creating MIPMAP - The Maritime Industry Game. The company wanted to create a game where the participants play roles as competing vessel operators in a global market. The game creates opportunities to be active and make strategic choices, and gives the players the opportunity to learn about the complex maritime industry.
The U.S. Office of Personnel Management won a Bronze Award in 2011 for its learning game of IT Security for the Network Administrator. The learning games were developed for all of the federal agencies throughout the United States government for all Network Administrators serving in these government agencies. The learning games provided opportunities for learners to apply what they learned by being a part of real-life scenarios (similar to their work environments) and making decisions that affect IT security. The learning games correspond to objectives and challenge learners by introducing a variety of scenarios through each game. These scenarios require learners to recall information and put it into practice by applying what they have learned
Both of these companies saw the value for their employees to use a game for learning because that game creates an “as if” situation and allows learners to apply the information learned from the game in their role within the organization.
As people are making decisions about where they want to spend their discretionary time, learning games could turn what once was a chore into a new opportunity. Is there a way for your organization to make games work for you?
To download a case study example, visit http://go.brandonhall.com/AOL_learning_games_TM
With more than 10,000 clients globally and 20 years of delivering research and advisory services, Brandon Hall Group is an established research organization in the performance improvement industry. Brandon Hall Group has an extensive repository of thought leadership research and expertise in its primary research portfolios—Learning and Development, Talent Management, Sales Effectiveness, Marketing Impact, and Executive Management. At the core of its offerings is a Membership Program that combines research, benchmarking, and unlimited access to data and analysts. Members have access to research and connections that help them make the right decisions about people, processes, and systems, coalesced with analyst advisory services tailored to help put the research into daily action. For more information, visit http://go.brandonhall.com/home and http://go.brandonhall.com/membership_TM
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Dabo Swinney gets record $92 million contract from Clemson | TribLIVE.com
U.S./World Sports
Dabo Swinney gets record $92 million contract from Clemson
Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney signed a 10-year, $92 million contract, the school announced Friday.
Two national titles in three years helped Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney get the biggest contract in college football history.
University trustees approved the 10-year, $92 million deal Friday. It runs through 2028 and includes two new clauses to make sure Swinney stays with the Tigers and stays one of the sport’s best-paid coaches as long as he keeps winning.
The buyout in Swinney’s contract increases significantly if he leaves Clemson to coach at Alabama, where he was a walk-on wide receiver and assistant coach in the 1990s. Swinney must pay $4 million if he leaves Clemson before the end of this year, but the buyout increases to $6 million if he coaches the Crimson Tide.
The deal also requires Swinney to be one of the three highest-paid coaches in college football any season after his team makes the playoff semifinals, or he can leave without penalty.
Swinney’s contract is bigger than the $74 million, eight-year deal Alabama’s Nick Saban has through 2025 and the 10-year, $75 million contract Jimbo Fisher with Texas A&M signed through 2027.
Clemson athletic director Dan Radakovich, who also received a contract extension Friday through June 2024, said Swinney is worth every penny.
“Dabo’s leadership of our football program has brought value, exposure and unprecedented levels of success not only to our athletics program but to the entire university,” Radakovich said in a statement.
Swinney’s first head coaching contract in 2009 at Clemson paid him $800,000 a year, the lowest salary in the Atlantic Coast Conference. He went 15-12 his first two full seasons, including his only losing season at 6-7 in 2010.
Swinney is 97-15 since, making the past four college football playoffs — Clemson’s only miss was the inaugural edition after the 2014 season — and won two national titles, both over Alabama.
Swinney, 49, said he was humbled by the school’s commitment to him and promised fans even bigger accomplishments.
“Our boys attended elementary school, middle school, high school and college in Clemson,” Swinney wrote in a letter to fans after the deal was finalized. “Very few head coaches get the opportunity to experience that type of stability and support, and we don’t take it for granted.”
Swinney will be paid at least $8.25 million this season, with his salary increasing to $10 million in 2027. The contract includes other incentives like a $250,000 bonus for a national title, $200,000 bonus for an ACC championship and $50,000 if he wins a coach of the year award.
If Clemson fires Swinney in the first two years of the contract, it will have to pay him $50 million with the buyout slowly declining over the next decade.
Categories: Sports | US-World
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First-year WVU coach, surging Texas big parts of new-look Big 12
Tim Benz, Stan Savran discuss Wimbledon and possibly ‘greatest tennis match of all time’
Greg Cote: Wimbledon, Tiger, U.S. women … and cricket? Why 2019 is greatest sports year ever.
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Music Khan Academy
written by Jill T Frey March 22, 2009
Paste Music is dwelling to the world’s largest stay-music archive, protecting every part from rock and jazz to hip hop, nation and pop. Concord refers to the “vertical” sounds of pitches in music, which means pitches which might be performed or sung collectively at the identical time to create a chord Usually this implies the notes are performed at the similar time, although harmony may be implied by a melody that outlines a harmonic structure (i.e., by using melody notes which might be played one after the opposite, outlining the notes of a chord).
Performers, including singers and instrumentalists, can add musical expression to a music or piece by including phrasing , by adding effects such as vibrato (with voice and a few devices, such as guitar, violin, brass devices and woodwinds), dynamics (the loudness or softness of piece or a piece of it), tempo fluctuations (e.g., ritardando or accelerando , which are, respectively slowing down and dashing up the tempo), by including pauses or fermatas on a cadence , and by changing the articulation of the notes (e.g., making notes more pronounced or accented, by making notes extra legato , which suggests easily connected, or by making notes shorter).
Many forms of music, akin to conventional blues and folks music were not written down in sheet music ; as a substitute, they were initially preserved within the memory of performers, and the songs were handed down orally , from one musician or singer to a different, or aurally, by which a performer learns a track ” by ear “. When the composer of a tune or piece is not recognized, this music is commonly classified as “traditional” or as a “people tune”.
Extra broadly it refers to any study of music, usually related in some kind with compositional issues, and should embrace mathematics , physics , and anthropology What is mostly taught in starting music concept lessons are tips to write down in the fashion of the common follow interval , or tonal music Concept, even of music of the frequent observe interval, might take many different kinds.
In its “purest form,” it “has three chords, a robust, insistent back beat, and a catchy melody.” fifty four In the late Sixties and early 1970s, it branched out into different subgenres, ranging from blues rock and jazz-rock fusion to heavy metallic and punk rock , in addition to the extra classical influenced genre of progressive rock and a number of other forms of experimental rock genres.
Categories: Music
academy music
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A fantasy getaway in a fish tank
The Adult Swim talk show ‘FishCenter Live’ offers a soothing respite from the world.
Samuel Argyle Mar—29—2019 11:29AM EST
FishCenter Live is a strange, soothing show. It started as a way for Adult Swim employees to entertain themselves, and despite itself (“Of all the things to blow off, this is what we can’t blow off,” one host says after they consider leaving midway through a recent episode) has gained thousands of fans. It may be a bit confusing to outsiders, but there is entertainment in watching fish swim, eat, and play games. When many talk shows have become politically charged, it’s difficult to find a reprieve in the genre of “people talking about stuff.” Mine is FishCenter. Like a lot of Adult Swim shows, the presence of absurdist humor, poorly Photoshopped effects, and brightly colored tanks make FishCenter border on the avant-garde.
The show’s premise is simple. The camera is fixed on a fish tank, in which nine fish with names like Mimosa, Th’Lump, and Hot Steve swim around. Off-screen, human hosts Dave Bonawits, Max Simonet, Andrew Choe, and Matt Harrigan shoot the shit about anything from a recent movie they saw to the show’s website not working properly. Occasionally, there’s a musical guest, who is cheaply green-screened over the fish. Sometimes we see the hosts and the guests talking; sometimes we don’t. There are games, but mostly there’s a lot of nothing. Fans can call in at 708-SWIM-FUN to air grievances about the faulty website, play off-kilter word association games and award the fish points, or have the show’s hosts speak over them entirely.
One of the most action-packed parts of the show is the feeding frenzies, where crawfish are dropped into the tank, and the show’s hosts narrate the ensuing showdown. "Coin Quest" is another staple. The most frequent game played by the fish occurs when the hosts Photoshop coins on the screen, so as to appear like they’re in the tank, and then award the fish points based on when and if they swim across certain coins. The hosts offer a play-by-play and keep score like watching a pointless horse race, but instead of horses we have fish that have no idea a game is even being played.
Another highlight, and probably the most accessible part of FishCenter, is the show’s guests. A number of relatively famous guests have appeared including George Clinton, David Sedaris, Billie Eilish, Post Malone, and underground artists like death metal pioneers Morbid Angel and punk art-rockers Le Butcherettes. Every guest has a game specially curated for them. For example, death metal band Dying Fetus plays “What’s your fetus?” where they try to guess what’s inside of a person’s pelvic region based on an X-ray. When David Sedaris guested, he played “Truth or Se-Dare-Is,” where a caller dared Sedaris to wear his socks on his hands for the rest of the show. Almost immediately, the author removed his shoes and socks and placed the socks like mittens on his hands. Morbid Angel played “More-Bid-Angel” where they were asked to guess the highest priced angel figurine on eBay. Happily enough, they guessed correctly.
The episode that makes the most cohesive narrative sense is from March of 2017, when George Clinton joined the show as a special guest. This episode, like others, opened with a shot of the fish swimming around, but this time they were backed by The Meters playing thumping basslines and spurts of trembling psychedelic guitar. Clinton was in his environment among all the absurdity. “I used to be a crash dummy. It gave me a headache but that’s all,” Clinton says nonchalantly, during one rambling discussion. On FishCenter, he fits right in. For his game, the show’s hosts ask him to guess songs based on basslines played out of a computer, including an unspirited version of Stevie Wonder’s “Higher Ground.” Clinton can’t guess a single one.
The show’s allure is its meaninglessness. Sure, musicians go on to promote their gig in Atlanta, but it’s often the same night they’re on FishCenter, so anyone attending probably already has a ticket. Instead of trying to self-promote, the bands get to play in front of a quirky set up and let loose a bit: kickback, watch the fish tank, and play nonsensical games. Because the show airs every day, the musical guests only make up a small portion of the show’s output. Of course, the guests may make the show more accessible to some, but it’s still all about the fish. During the Morbid Angel episode, one host said, “The score of the fish — everything else props it up. Morbid Angel are a wedding cake of entertainment, but on top of that wedding cake is the scores of the fish and they are the people getting married.” The fish are in a tank for the rest of their lives, and FishCenter gives them, and us, a joyful escape.
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In snorkeling, the swimmers nose and mouth are submerged and covered by a mask. Breathing takes places through a mouthpiece connected to the L or J shaped tube that gets air from being above the water surface. If diving, the swimmer has to hold his breath, the tube is allowed to flood when underwater. The snorkeler expels water from the snorkel either with a sharp exhalation on return to the surface (blast clearing) or by tilting the head back shortly before reaching the surface and exhaling until reaching or "breaking" the surface (displacement method) and facing forward again before inhaling the next breath. The displacement method expels water by displacing its presence in the snorkel with air; it is a more advanced technique that takes practice but clears the snorkel with much greater efficiency.
Bora Bora is defintely in the running for most beautiful island paradise in the world. You can reach the island in just under an hour flight from the main island of Tahiti. When you see the beautiful turquoise waters and swaying palm trees, you’ll know you’re in the right spot for serious relaxation. Bora Bora is lush and tropical with perfect white-sand beaches and emerald waters teaming with colorful fish. Luxury resorts and spas dot the island with overwater bungalows and thatched-roof villas, making it the island of your dreams.
The dream digital nomad lifestyle here is to surf the morning high tide, work through the heat of the day in your air-conditioned villa, then surf the evening high tide. If you want a little more hustle and bustle, a few hours north is surfer’s paradise Tamarindo and on the Caribbean coast there is Puerto Viejo for digital nomads who love to surf and listen to lots of reggae.
Though no dinosaurs are to be found, there is no escaping the enchanting feeling that Nuku Hiva, in the super remote Marquesas Islands of French Polynesia – resembles Jurassic Park. Maybe it’s the fact that there’s hardly anyone around, or maybe it’s the fact that you thought such incredible natural beauty only existed in Hollywood productions – Nuku Hiva is dramatically beautiful beyond imagination. The few visitors who make the long journey to Nuku Hiva will spend their days hiking to hidden waterfalls and secluded beaches, exploring the island’s ancient temples and natural wonders by 4X4, horseback or small boats, and meet the proud local Marquesans – whose rich history has developed over centuries of isolation.
Older proprietary designs came with special facilities. One design separated the eyes and the nose into separate mask compartments to reduce fogging. Another enabled the user to remove integrated snorkels and insert plugs instead, thus converting the snorkel-mask into an ordinary diving mask. New-generation snorkel-masks enclose the nose and the mouth within an inner mask at the demand end directly connected to the single snorkel with its valve at the supply end.
With crochet, you can get flirty, feminine tops, curve-hugging dresses, sporty swimsuits and more when you shop through our pieces. Flaunt what you've got and step up your fashion game by adding a few of these to your closet today. With our incredible attention to detail and commitment to quality, you can rest assured that even the most delicate crochet swimsuits and clothing will hold up well for years to come.
As far as Caribbean tourist destinations go, Trinidad & Tobago are still considered off-the-beaten path, perhaps because they don’t rely on tourism as their primary economic resource. Visitors can expect a vibrant Creole culture, coral beaches, and tropical jungles. Trinidad is the more developed of the two islands with luxury resorts and charming colonial cities. Port-of-Spain’s annual Carnival celebration is dubbed the biggest street party on Earth. Eco-travelers will appreciate Tobago’s even more laid-back ambiance. It’s the quieter island with an emphasis on protecting the natural environment.The Tobago Ridge Forest Reserve – a haven for hummingbirds, and Nylon Pool are top Tobago excursions.
The Virgin Islands are divided into the U.S. Virgin Islands, which are comprised of St. Croix, St. John, and St. Thomas, and the British Virgin Islands, made up of Tortola, Virgin Gorda, Anegada, and Jost Van Dyke, along with numerous smaller islands and cays. All are part of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean. On the U.S. side, St. Croix is the charming, historic, culturally diverse island, St. John is the favored eco-friendly destination, and St. Thomas is the chic and sophisticated island. On the British side, the islands are less developed, but more exclusive, catering to wealthy luxury travelers and sailing enthusiasts.
A third type of volcanic oceanic island is formed over volcanic hotspots. A hotspot is more or less stationary relative to the moving tectonic plate above it, so a chain of islands results as the plate drifts. Over long periods of time, this type of island is eventually "drowned" by isostatic adjustment and eroded, becoming a seamount. Plate movement across a hot-spot produces a line of islands oriented in the direction of the plate movement. An example is the Hawaiian Islands, from Hawaii to Kure, which continue beneath the sea surface in a more northerly direction as the Emperor Seamounts. Another chain with similar orientation is the Tuamotu Archipelago; its older, northerly trend is the Line Islands. The southernmost chain is the Austral Islands, with its northerly trending part the atolls in the nation of Tuvalu. Tristan da Cunha is an example of a hotspot volcano in the Atlantic Ocean. Another hotspot in the Atlantic is the island of Surtsey, which was formed in 1963.
Good luck! If you want to be surrounded by more tech people and other coders to learn from, Chang Mai would be a lot better for that. But there’s no beach there. Any more questions feel free to email me. I would also recommend joining a digital nomad mastermind like Dynamite Circle or Digital Nomad Academy. That way you can make connections and meet other people who are doing similar Internet-related things in Thailand and SE Asia.
This is the official star rating given to the property by an independent third party - the Hotelstars Union. The property is compared to the industry standard and scored based on price, facilities and services offered. Use the star rating to help choose your stay! Great for two travellers. Location and facilities suited to those travelling in pairs Great for two travellers
In 1994, the bikini became the official uniform of women's Olympic beach volleyball.[175] In 1999, the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) standardized beach volleyball uniforms, with the bikini becoming the required uniform for women.[176] That regulation bottom is called a "bun-hugger",[177] and players names are often written on the back of the bottom.[177]
In May 1946, fashion designer Jacques Heim from Paris released a two-piece swimsuit design that he named the Atome.[3] Like swimsuits of the era, it covered the wearer's navel, and it failed to attract much attention. Clothing designer Louis Réard introduced his new, smaller design in July.[4] He named the swimsuit after the Bikini Atoll, where the first public test of a nuclear bomb had taken place only four days before. His skimpy design was risque, exposing the wearer's navel and much of her buttocks. No runway model would wear it, so he hired a nude dancer from the Casino de Paris to model it at a review of swimsuit fashions.[5]
4. Cranium care: Wearing a swim cap or bandana around your head not only keeps hair out of your snorkel but also helps to keep your scalp from burning on a sunny day. An especially good style of bandana to wear is the one that surgeons don in the operating room—the ties prevent them from slipping off. Pick one up from a medical supply company for cheap.
Yes, as in that Brando. The Brando is, in fact, a resort built on an island that was owned by Marlon Brando. So, if you weren’t entirely sold on it before, you should be now. ($135,000 per night be damned!) Should you intend to book this joint, what you will get is 35 villas for a maximum of 82 guests. The rate is all-inclusive, meaning accommodations, meals, beverages, one spa treatment per guest, and select activities. Not included are transfers to the airport, premium wine/liquors, select off-island activities, additional spa treatments, and Godfather impressions on request.
Though this country has some 322 islands, less than a third are inhabited. Most of the action happens in the western islands, but no matter where you go, this is heaven. Any time the name Fiji is heard, visions of beaches and tropical ocean dance in people’s head. There’s a good reason for that – because this place is one of the best places to go in the world, and with so many islands, you’re bound to find one you like.
In 1915, John D. Spreckels and his Bayshore Railway Company built a 1,500 feet (460 m) wooden bridge connecting Ocean Beach with Mission Beach. The company used the bridge for a trolley, part of the San Diego Class 1 Streetcars, which connected OB with Downtown San Diego and encouraged the development of both Ocean Beach and Mission Beach.[10] The bridge was demolished in January 1951, thereby cutting off through traffic to Ocean Beach from the Mission Beach and Pacific Beach communities.[11]
I am going to teach English in South America beginning in Sept 2015 and was wondering what areas you would recommend. I am definitely looking for something tropical year-round, hopefully a smaller town off the beaten track (100,000 people or less), with plenty of hiking opportunities, beautiful sunny beaches, friendly locals, decent cost of living, good wi-fi, and yoga would be a HUGE plus. I am aiming to be fluent in Spanish by the time I arrive.
Surrounded by the second-largest coral reef in the world, it’s no surprise that this tropical destination is primarily visited by diving and snorkel enthusiasts. There aren’t many islands left in the Caribbean that you can visit without being shoulder-to-shoulder with tourists. Roatán has managed to hold onto its authentic charm while still being able to provide familiar western comforts. Cruise ships didn’t start coming here until 2005 and there aren’t a whole lot of flights to the area, which means the secret isn’t out quite yet, though this may change quickly as more people continue to flock to this 35-mile stretch of gorgeous Caribbean coastline. If you’ve never heard of Roatán, consider yourself lucky and put it on your list of tropical places to visit sooner than later.
The easternmost tip of the Polynesian Triangle (Hawaii – New Zealand – Easter Island) is the most mysterious island in Polynesia and perhaps the entire world. Discovered in 1722, Easter Island is home to nearly 1,000 strange monolithic statues known as Moai. Whether depicting ancient ancestors or alien visitors, very little is known about this strange ancient culture which disappeared due to civil war, diseases introduced by early European visitors and 19th-century slave raiding parties. What is entirely clear is that the island’s ancient civilization lived in complete isolation for nearly 1,000 years and slowly depleted the island’s natural resources. A visit to Easter Island is both eerie and enchanting, also raising questions about the future of our own planetary existence.
What was once a French colonial resort town in southern Cambodia is now a quiet coastal getaway surrounded by tropical islands. Known for its seafood market, where the fish practically jump from the water to your plate, it’s easy to see why Kep won’t be kept a secret for long. For the time being, you’ll find very few tourists among the locals sampling fresh crab, lobster, shrimp (and pretty much anything that swims) at its popular seafood market — you can go there around sunset and have yourself a five-star meal for less than a few dollars. Travelers visit Kep for its laid-back atmosphere rather than an extensive list of activities. In the past, Kep was primarily limited to expats living in Phnom Penh looking for a quiet weekend getaway, but with a variety of nearby tropical islands like Koh Tonsay — better known as Rabbit Island — it’s no wonder Kep is becoming more difficult for visitors to stay away from.
One of our favorite things about two-piece womens bathing suits that you don’t get with one piece swimsuits is mixing and matching different colored swim suit tops and bottoms! Go bold in brightly colored womens swimsuits-- like a red bikini! Or keep it classic in a white bikini or a black bikini-- the perfect bathing suits for women that believe in less-is-more.
The Island of Jamaica in the West Indies is the ultimate vacation destination for the package tourist. But head out from behind the gates and you will discover a country filled with rich culture, fun activities and friendly and inviting people. And yes, the beaches are absolutely beautiful. Jamaica is so large, we captured many beautiful pictures of this tropical island. It was difficult to choose a favourite.
Full face snorkel masks use an integral snorkel with separate channels for intake and exhaled gases theoretically ensuring the user is always breathing untainted fresh air whatever the respiratory effort. The main difficulty or danger is that it must fit the whole face perfectly and since no two faces are the same shape, it should be used with great care and in safe water. In the event of accidental flooding, the whole mask must be removed to continue breathing. Unless the snorkeler is able to equalize without pinching their nose it can only be used on the surface, or a couple of feet below since the design makes it impossible to pinch the nose in order to equalise pressure at greater depth. Trained scuba divers are likely to avoid such devices[citation needed][clarification needed] however snorkel masks are a boon for those with medical conditions that preclude taking part in SCUBA diving.[citation needed][clarification needed]
Heading out for a day in the sun? We’re right there with you. We have a fantastic collection of this summer’s two-piece swimsuit styles. Our women’s two-piece bathing suits and bikinis are unforgettable, from ruffle and mid rise bikinis to wrapped bikini tops and high-waisted bikini bottoms. Before you head to the boardwalk, throw on a pretty beach cover-up to keep you protected from the sun.
It's no surprise that the Maldives tops your list of best islands to snorkel. A chain of 26 atolls and over 1,000 islands in the Indian Ocean, it's the world's most geographically dispersed of countries, and can't be beat for underwater exploration. Seeing as each island is barely the size of a small estate in the Hamptons, we're hard-pressed to pick a top spot, but consider the Anantara Kihava Villas Maldives your first stop.
Morocco is a surreal place. Shepherds ride around on camels, old men tame giant cobras in the markets and the whole place feels like a frontier at the edge of the world. It’s one of the most mysterious and magical places in the world and the Moroccan people are absolutely amazing with their kindness and hospitality. It’s also super cheap and the southern coast is a magnet for European surfers and expats looking for a simpler life without going too far from home.
1,200,000 people visited last year. 40% of them stayed overnight with an average stay of 2 nights. Day ticket prices start at €33; an overnight stay in a tent starts at €150. There are supposedly 10 flamingos in residence, but I only saw 9 during my stay. I emailed T.I. reps to see if there’d been a death. A representative assured me they only had a double digit count and said, “[N]ow and then one of them tiptoes around to explore the rest of the hall.” There are 275,000 balls in the children’s ball pit and I’m sad to report that I missed something called the Space Hole at the water playground where “guests slip into a funnel that slowly sucks them down.” The hall has 50,000 plants from 600 species and the work of 1 self-described “palace-slut” who moved to Bali from Australia in the seventies, renounced his name (Michael White), and went on to become a world-renowned tropical landscape architect, designing both David Bowie’s estate in Mustique and Tropical Islands’ lagoon before his death in 2016. I lasted about 22 hours.
Ocean Beach lies on the Pacific Ocean at the estuary of the San Diego River, at the western terminus of Interstate 8. Located about 7 miles (11 km) northwest of Downtown San Diego, it sits south of Mission Bay and Mission Beach and directly north of Point Loma. The O.B. community planning area comprises about 1 square mile (742 acres),[1] bounded on the north by the San Diego River, on the west by the Pacific Ocean, on the east by Froude St., Seaside St. and West Point Loma Boulevard, and on the south by Adair Street.[2]
The bikini finally caught on, and by 1963, the movie Beach Party, starring Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon, led a wave of films that made the bikini a pop-culture symbol, though Funicello was barred from wearing Réard's bikini unlike the other young females in the films. In 1965, a woman told Time that it was "almost square" not to wear a bikini; the magazine wrote two years later that "65% of the young set had already gone over".[89]
Soon after, Louis Réard created a competing two-piece swimsuit design, which he called the bikini.[56] He noticed that women at the beach rolled up the edges of their swimsuit bottoms and tops to improve their tan.[4] He introduced his design at a swimsuit review held at the popular public pool, Piscine Molitor, four days after the first test of a nuclear weapon at the Bikini Atoll. The newspapers were full of news about it and Reard hoped for the same with his design.[57][5] Réard's bikini undercut Heim's atome in its brevity. His design consisted of a two triangles of fabric forming a bra, and two triangular pieces of fabric covering the mons pubis and the buttocks connected by string. When he was unable to find a fashion model willing to showcase his revealing design,[58] Réard hired Micheline Bernardini, a 19-year old nude dancer from the Casino de Paris.[59] He announced that his swimsuit, with a total area of 30 square inches (200 cm2) of cloth, was "smaller than the world's smallest bathing suit".[60][61] Réard said that "like the [atom] bomb, the bikini is small and devastating".[62] Fashion writer Diana Vreeland described the bikini as the "atom bomb of fashion".[62] Bernardini received 50,000 fan letters, many of them from men.[10][38]
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01/06/10 Round Up
03/06/10 UKAD hotline
05/06/10 Euro Cup
07/06/10 Super8 Brits
08/06/2010 Euro Team Champs
09/06/10 Disability Challenge
09/06/10 Woods and Weir
10/06/10 Ennis
10/06/2010 Mountain
10/06/2010 Super8
11/06/10 YODO Opportunity
11/06/10 Midweek Report
13/06/2010 RoundUp
14/06/2010 Combined Events
14/06/2010 EA Commission
14/06/2010 Pole Vault
15/06/10 S8 Ohuruogu
16/06/2010 Ennis
16/06/10 Rooney
17/06/10 Euro Team Champs
17/06/2010 Junior Trials
17/06/10 S8 Howard-Lowe
18/06/10 TV coverage
19/06/2010 ETC Day1
19/06/10 World Junior Trials
20/06/10 Cockroft WR
20/06/10 World Juniors day two
21/06/10 Ohuruogu
21/06/10 Cockroft
22/06/10 Powell
22/06/10 Anti-Doping
22/06/10 Alfa
23/06/10 World Juniors
23/06/10 Sayers
24/06/2010 Danvers
24/06/10 Officials Wanted
24/06/10 Trials
24/06/10 Woods and Bushell WR
25/06/10 Trials and World Cup
26/06/10 Trials 2
28/06/2010 Alfa
28/06/10 Altitude
29/06/10 Mannheim
29/06/10 Super8
You are here » Home » Media » News » News Archive - Pre-2011 » June 2010 » 03/06/10 UKAD hotline
UKAD Launch Hotline
The UK Anti Doping Agency which administers the anti doping programme across sports including athletics has launched a new confidential hotline, inviting people involved in all sports to ‘make the call’ and safeguard the competitive landscape.
The initiative, first announced last year, comes on the back of UK Anti-Doping’s first six months of operation which has already seen a world-first positive test for human growth hormone.
In addition the organisation has formed an Athlete Committee, celebrated five years of the 100% Me anti-doping education programme and provided education and support to every member of the GB team at the Vancouver Winter Olympics and Paralympics.
The Report Doping in Sport line is a new service for athletes, support personnel or concerned family and friends to pass on information about the use, concerns or knowledge concerning substances.
By dialling 0800 032 2332, callers will be able to speak to someone 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The line gives the sporting community a simple mechanism by which they can lodge any suspicions or evidence they may have, safe in the knowledge that calls will be answered by professional call handlers trained in anti-doping. All information will be fed into the UK Anti-Doping Intelligence Unit and processed following the National Intelligence Model widely used by law enforcement.
Callers can remain anonymous and can rest assured that any information they share will not only be treated in confidence but be researched and investigated.
UK Anti-Doping Chief Executive, Andy Parkinson said “To protect our athletes we need to tackle the supply and trafficking of doping substances. The most effective way for us to do this is with the help of competitors, coaches and support personnel as they are the closest people to sport. We are urging people to come forward with any information on doping, no matter how insignificant they might feel it is. The smallest amount of information could be the missing link that enables us to take action and protect sport from those who want to cheat.”
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Artcile 32
You are here » Home » Media » News » News Archive - Pre-2011 » September 2007 » Article 13
Jo Jackson is number one
Weekend Round- Up, 7- 9 September
Jo Jackson (Redcar RWC) has moved to the number one position in the Power of 10 rankings for the women's 10km race walk. The position promotion comes after her win at Earls Colne last Sunday, with a time of 47.49 secs. Lisa Kehler (Wolverhampton & Bilston) and Anne Loughnane (Ireland) came second and third resectively.
Other News...
Steph Twell (Aldershot, Farnham and District AC), the 18-year-old European Junior Cross Country Champion, will never forget the day Asafa Powell (Jamaica) lowered his world 100m record to 9.74 seconds.
For at the same IAAF World Athletics Tour meeting in Rieti, Italy, Twell enhanced her reputation as the outstanding UK Junior of the last 12 months by lowering her 1500m best to 4:06.70, beating the A-standard qualifying time for the Olympic Games to be staged in Beijing next year.
The amazing PB, 4.01 seconds quicker than her previous best in Spain in June, lifts her to third in this year’s Power of 10 senior rankings even though she will still be an Under 20 next year. The only UK athletes to have run faster are Helen Clitheroe (Preston Harriers), 4:05.81 indoors in Stockholm in February, and Commonwealth Champion Lisa Dobriskey (Ashford AC and Loughborough Students), 4:06.22 at the Bislett Games in Oslo in June.
Twell’s delighted coach, Mick Woods, Performance Coach at the UK Athletics Endurance Performance Centre at St Mary’s University Twickenham, said: “Steph had run an 800m PB of 2:06.15 at the BMC meeting at Watford on Wednesday night so we knew she was in shape to run quick. But I felt the Olympic qualifying time was a little bit out of reach.
“This morning she went to the stadium after breakfast because she always likes to have a good look round any new venue. She had a 10-minute jog, loved the view of the mountains surrounding the stadium, and just knew she was going to run well.
“Everything went to plan. Because it was such a quality field, I said, ‘Just go straight to the back of the field’. We knew she could not afford to run the first lap in less than 65/66 seconds. She ran it in precisely that, went through 800m in 2:11/2:12 and 1200m in 3:18. We banked on people coming back to her and she passed five people on the last lap, and covered the final 300m in 48 seconds.”
Among the athletes she overtook was Norwich Union World Trials winner Katrina Wootton (Bedford and County AC), who finished 11th in 4:08.10 in the race, won by former World Champion Olga Yegorova (Russia) in 4:03.27.
Twell said of her race: “The first lap felt like a dream, it was so easy. I’ve never felt so comfortable in a race in my life. It was awesome. I loved it. But I couldn’t believe the time.”
Twell, who won the 1500m silver medal at the European Junior Championships in July is now the leading European Junior for this season over 1500m, 3000m and 5000m – and looking forward to defending her European Junior Cross Country title in December.
Woods added: “Some friends wondered whether she should be racing this late in the track season, but there was no point her wasting all that fitness.”
Of other UK athletes in Rieti…
Marilyn Okoro (Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers) won the 800m B race in 2:00.66 with Becky Lyne (Hallamshire Harriers Sheffield) third on her return from injury in 2:01.05. The times were the sixth- and eighth-fastest in two races. The winner of the A race, World Champion Janeth Jepkosgei (Kenya) clocked 1:56.29.
Tasha Danvers-Smith (Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers) clocked 55.03 for second place in the 400m hurdles, won by Anna Jesien (Poland) in 54.78.
Rob Tobin (Basingstoke and Mid Hants AC) was fifth in 46.41 seconds in the 400m won by Tyler Christopher (Canada) in 44.94.
Michael Rimmer (Liverpool Pembroke and Sefton AC) was eighth in 1:45.36 in the 800m won by Belal Mansoor Ali (Brunei) in 1:44.02.
Chris Tomlinson (Newham and Essex Beagles) long jumped 7.89m for fifth place in a competition won by Irving Saladino (Panama) with a massive 8.31m.
Emma Ania (Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers was fifth in the women’s 100m in 11.46 seconds, 0.16sec behind winner Sally McLellan (Australia).
Joice Maduaka (Woodford Green with Essex Ladies) was seventh in 23.30m in the 200m, won by Laurin Williams (USA) in 22.76.
Hatti Dean (Hallamshire Harriers Sheffield) got to within a couple of seconds of her UK 3000m steeplechase record in finishing fifth in 9:40.64 in a race won by Yekaterina Volkova (Russia) in 9:26.80. Clitheroe was sixth in 9:44.38, a PB by 0.84sec.
For all of the Rieti results, please click here
UK Challenge Final 100m winner Leevan Yearwood (Victoria Park Harriers and Tower Hamlets AC) clocked 10.37 seconds for third place at an international meeting in Wusterhausen, Germany. He was given the same time as runner-up Mickey Grimes (USA) in a race won by Matic Osovnikar (Slovenia) in 10.28.
European Under 23 silver medallist Montell Douglas (Blackheath and Bromley AC) was second in both sprints in 11.40 and 23.38 seconds – and Donna Fraser (Croydon Harriers) third in 11.84 and 23.83 – behind Anim Vida (Ghana), who won in 11.33 and 23.33.
For all the results from Wusterhausen please click here
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On my honor
Photography Wordpress
Teenager plays for Jesus
Those in the Main Street area were recently treated to a live performance by Gage Caruthers, who was playing the drums on his porch. Caruthers, 17, said his performance was dedicated to Jesus.
“I’m not saying I”m really good, but I play with the Holy Spirit, I play for Jesus and God,” Caruthers said.
“They talk to me as I play and I get visions, pictures…I feel honored by God to be at the front of the lines… and worship for everybody. It is Something I am blessed to do.”
Caruthers enjoys playing outside because he likes to see people walk or drive past him and enjoy his music.
Since he’s outside on Main Street , people in their cars honk their horns and smile at him. Sometimes children will play outside and ask Caruthers if they can hit the drums too.
He hasn’t received any major noise complaints yet.
“I think one time I played a little bit too late,” he admitted. “A police officer asked me to ‘cut it out,’ but not in a mean way… it wasn’t that late. It wasn’t like 10 o’clock, it was like 8:30 p.m.”
However, Caruthers said no one from the public has approached him mad or angry. Normally, people will make Facebook posts of him playing outside. This makes Caruthers giggle. His intentions are not to annoy the public, but to bring positive life into his hometown and to have Jesus in his heart.
” I love Jesus, he’s my buddy,” Caruthers said. “When I play, I bring that atmosphere to New Castle. I love this town and I want it to get better. I have a heart for it. It’s always home.”
New Castle City Code, Chapter 100, addresses noise regulations, specifically those pertaining to loud speakers, radios, CD players, TVs, musical instruments, phonographs cassette players, etc. On private property, for example, city code states that noise should not be, “audible 40 feet or more outside of said private property line,” or “is at a level of 90 decibels (90dB) a dB (A) scale from a distance of not less than six feet from said private property line.”
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Home Business Change agents take on expansion of Living Arts & Science Center
Change agents take on expansion of Living Arts & Science Center
by Tom Martin
Lexington, KY - Phil and Marnie Hololubek, young parents, active in the community, had a lot going on in their lives. So they made a decision: "laser focus" their time, energies and resources only on community initiatives that show real promise of making a positive difference to Lexington and all those who call it home.
That simple and clear criteria for civic engagement led the couple to a project in the city's East End neighborhood: a plan to more than double the space of the Living Arts & Science Center (LASC) on Martin Luther King Boulevard - the latest of recent proposals to breathe new economic, cultural and social life into Lexington's Northside and East End neighborhoods.
Speaking at a Nov. 16 rollout of the Center's capital campaign, co-chair Holoubek touched on the additional facilities envisioned in an adjoining 10,000 square foot structure designed by the Louisville firm DeLeon & Primmer Architecture Workshop.
"Part of this $5 million dollar capital campaign is going to create a new planetarium. We're going to have a digital media center, not just working on photos but also creating films, movies, that sort of thing. There is going to be a recording arts studio. We're going to have a children's gallery. When you display childrens' art in a big public space it creates this intangible sense of pride that they're worthy and that their work is important. And finally, there's going to be a teaching kitchen in this new facility."
Holoubek, who is sharing the capital campaign leadership role with his wife, and Honorary Chair Gloria Singletary, indicated that partnerships would be sought with community groups focusing on healthy, locally-grown foods. "We're trying to create healthy lifestyles, educate people on healthy diets," he said. "One of the missing pieces to close that loop has been a teaching kitchen."
GoodGivingGuide.net
Momentum to fund the expansion got a major boost in May when the Center received a $1 million matching grant from the Lucille Caudill Little Foundation. $300,000 in matching funds have been raised, to date. Direct dollar-for-dollar matching contributions to the campaign can be made online at
LASC Executive Director Heather Lyons said a steady annual increase in demand for services has exceeded the Center's current physical space, a 7,000 square foot brick antebellum mansion built by Abraham Lincoln's attorney, George B. Kinkead, in 1847. Last year alone, schools from 22 counties brought students to the Center which annually presents more than 400 art classes and workshops for children 18 months-old to adults. The facility houses more than half a dozen art exhibits in a given year and offers participatory field trips for over 6000 students.
"I think it's brilliant," said Lexington Mayor Jim Gray.
"This project is an example of great urban planning and great architecture that respects the character of the historic neighborhood and lifts it up.
This is extremely exciting."
LASC is located within walking distance of the recently renovated Lyric Theater.
For a look at the LASC expansion plans online,
Business Lexington Social Media Uncategorized Business
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Cannibal star discovered
An astronomer says he’s caught a star in the act of chewing up a companion and spitting out a second generation of exoplanets.
Using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, Joel Kastner, professor at Rochester Institute of Technology, has found evidence that a variable star in the constellation of Pisces, BP Piscium, could be a one billion-year-old red giant that has gobbled up a star or planet in its vicinity.
The star’s been puzzling astronomers for 15 years, as it shows characteristics of both age and youth.
But Kastner says its youthful appearance is caused by an orbiting disk like those that form planets around young stars, and prominent jets extending from the poles that eject material at high velocity.
But this was contradicted by the fact that the star is isolated, whereas most young stars form in clusters.
The star also lacks the abundance of lithium on its surface that is typical of young stars. And other key spectral features involving the star’s radius and surface gravity also point to the star’s advanced age.
“The last piece of evidence, which, to me, is the nail in the coffin that BP Psc is old rather than young, is that its rate of X-ray production is very similar to old, yet rapidly spinning, giant stars that have surface temperatures similar to BP Psc,” Kastner says.
The rate of X-rays coming from the star are in keeping with a class of rapidly rotating old stars that are thought to be the result of one star swallowing another.
“These giant stars’ companions have fallen inside and spun them up. But we’ve never actually caught one in the act,” says Kastner.
“Our working speculation is that we are observing the star right at the point at which it has swallowed its companion and hence formed a disk. Some of the material that used to be its companion has fallen onto the star and some has been shot out at high speeds, and that’s what we’re seeing.”
Kastner says the discovery could help astronomers looking for exoplanets by giving them a new place to search.
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Abid, Perrott suspended
February 2, 2005 theahl
The American Hockey League announced today that Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins left wing Ramzi Abid has been suspended for two (2) regular season games as a result of receiving a match penalty in a January 29, 2005 AHL game in Syracuse.
Abid missed Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s game on Sun., Jan. 30 in Providence and will also miss the Penguins’ game tonight versus Bridgeport.
The AHL also announced that St. John’s Maple Leafs right wing Nathan Perrott has been suspended for one (1) regular season game as a result of his actions in a January 28 AHL game in Cleveland.
Perrott will miss St. John’s game on Fri., Feb. 4 versus Hamilton.
Previous PostFor Admirals’ Suter, it’s still “On, Wisconsin!”Next PostLarsen leads Wolves over Aeros
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The C Is for crank
News. Politics. Urbanism.
Annual Homeless Count: Redefining “Shelter,” Struggling to Count the Chronically Homeless
May 31, 2019 June 4, 2019 / ericacbarnett / 1 Comment
The latest annual report on King County’s homeless population from All Home King County found an overall decrease in the number of unsheltered people experiencing homelessness in Seattle, from 4,488 last year to 3,558 in 2019—a reduction Mayor Jenny Durkan touted in a letter announcing the expansion of the Navigation Team as “the first decrease since 2012″ and evidence that ” our shared work to address our crisis of affordability and homelessness is having an impact.” Over the same time period, the number of people experiencing homelessness who were in some form of shelter or transitional housing increased from 4,000 to 4,239.
This year—at the request of Mayor Durkan’s Human Services Department—All Home redefined “shelter” to include five “tiny house village” encampments. This added 180 people to the “sheltered” count, which accounts for all but 59 individuals added to the “sheltered” category.
However, those numbers conceal a few important details: First, that the number of unsheltered people living in tent encampments actually went up in this year’s count, from 1,034 to 1,162. Second, this year—at the request of Mayor Durkan’s Human Services Department—All Home redefined “shelter” to include five “tiny house village” encampments that were previously categorized as encampments. This added 180 people to the “sheltered” count, which accounts for all but 59 individuals added to the “sheltered” category. (A sixth village, at Northlake, was excluded “until it is up to ADA code,” according to the board minutes.) Including the tiny houses—communities where people live in wooden structures the size of a small garden shed—in the “encampment” count would have raised that number to 1,342. The board vote on the redefinition was split 10-4.
In a letter to the All Home board in March, Seattle Human Services Department Director Jason Johnson requested that the tiny houses be moved to the “shelter” category, arguing that they meet “the most relevant” criteria set by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development for “shelter”—namely, that the structures are ADA accessible, that there is security on site, that the site has hygiene facilities, that the structures are ventilated, and that they include sanitary food preparation areas. In the letter, Johnson also notes that the five tiny house villages have case management and offer extended hours or 24/7 access.
“If basic shelters, which only allow people to come in overnight and sleep on floor with no services and amenities are classified as shelter, then permitted villages that meet the HUD requirements of shelter, and have amenities, services and outcomes that far exceed that of basic shelter, should also be classified as such,” Johnson wrote.
Alison Eisinger, head of the Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness, which was responsible for what was then called the One-Night Count until All Home took over in 2017, called the reclassification of tiny house villages as shelter “Orwellian” and out of keeping with decades of established practice.
HUD’s minimum criteria for emergency shelter (Appendix A) also include additional requirements, such as smoke detectors in each unit, structural standards, compliance with fair housing rules, heating and cooling, and other requirements that Johnson did not mention in his letter.
The report also found a reduction in the number of veterans, young people, and chronically homeless people living outdoors. Of those three categories, the decrease in veteran and youth homelessness is a clear result of new investments in shelter and housing targeted at those specific populations. The apparent decline in the number of people experiencing chronic homelessness, however, could be a result of the methodology used to come up with that number, which is an extrapolation based on in-person interviews with chronically homeless individuals—defined as individuals who have experienced homelessness for a year or more or on four separate periods during a three-year span, and who also have a disabling condition that prevents them from working or going to school.
Extrapolating these numbers to Seattle (based on the percentage of the population , this finding would suggest that the number of chronically homeless unsheltered people—increased from just over 1,200 in 2017 to nearly 1,800 in 2018, then decreased to just over 600 people between 2018 and 2019. Since chronically homeless people are, by definition, people who are homeless year after year, and since there has not been any massive investment in new permanent supportive housing for hundreds of chronically homeless people in Seattle, the obvious conclusion is that these numbers are not an accurate guide to the actual number of unsheltered chronically homeless people in Seattle from year to year. A similar fluctuation can be seen in the number of unsheltered people with mental illness and substance use disorders—a pattern that probably reflects the challenges with the methodology All Home’s researchers use, rather than any wild fluctuation in the number of people living on the streets with mental illness and addiction from year to year.
Daniel Malone, the director of the Downtown Emergency Service Center, says the surveys that serve as the basis for the counts of unsheltered people in various sub-populations may be to blame. “They survey people, then extrapolate out to the total number of people who are unsheltered, so if one year if you happen to interview a bunch of people who meet the criteria for chronic homelessness, and the next year you interview a bunch of people who don’t, then you’re going to end up multiplying a factor and applying it to the total number of unsheltered people,” Malone says. “I think you naturally have to be much less confident in that kind of demographic extrapolation.”
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Kira Zylstra, All Home’s acting director, acknowledges that “there is fluctuation with all of these numbers” based on survey data, “particularly with more refined slices of the data. … For chronically homeless and people with disabilities and other characteristics and needs, it’s dependent on a representative survey, which has even further limitations, as well as reported data” obtained through other sources.
To put a finer point on it, information obtained on sheltered people through the county’s Homeless Information Management System (HMIS) is generally pretty good, because it’s based on tracking individual people from year to year—a fact that’s reflected in the number of chronically homeless people in shelter, which has fluctuated only slightly between 2017 and now.
Information on chronically homeless people living on the streets is much less reliable for a number of reasons , including the fact that interview subjects are located by formerly homeless people themselves, who may gravitate to people and places they already know; the fact that people with major disabilities may face extra challenges that make them less likely to participate in lengthy, in-person interviews with researcher; and the fact that the survey results are extrapolated to apply to much larger populations, despite the fact that in the case of unsheltered people in particular, the survey itself may be unrepresentative.
This year, the data on all chronically homeless individuals in King County is extrapolated using surveys with about 180 people, some of whom did not respond to all questions. Anything unrepresentative about this population will be multiplied and magnified when the researchers extrapolate from that small sample to the entire homeless population in King County and Seattle. For example, the researchers reached conclusions about the chronically homeless population by figuring out what percentage of survey respondents fit into certain categories—sheltered vs. unsheltered, individual vs. families, etc.—and multiplying that percentage by the total number of people in the general street count in those categories.
Malone, whose organization works primarily with chronically homeless people, says he hopes the extrapolated surveys of unsheltered people won’t be used to dictate policy or funding decisions or to fuel self-congratulatory press releases. He maintains that the best use of the count is as a general comparison of homelessness from year to year—by that standard, he says, the real story is that the unsheltered homeless population has declined as the number of shelter beds in Seattle has increased.
From Jail to Homeless Shelter
October 17, 2018 / ericacbarnett / Leave a comment
This story originally appeared on Seattle magazine’s website.
The third floor of the west wing of the King County Corrections Center in downtown Seattle is accessed through a series of heavy metal doors, each one closing with a loud “ka-THUNK” behind visitors as they enter. Walk through a disused lobby, onto an elevator, and up a flight of institutional-looking stairs and you’ll find yourself in the old minimum-security living quarters, where a series of rooms—cells, really—look down on a central staffing station; you can imagine guards sitting behind the semicircular counter, keeping a wary eye on the large security mirrors that overlook the ward. In the rooms, rows of narrow metal bunks beds with chipping blue paint and fake wood-grain headboards are scattered haphazardly, each labeled with a different number. The views from the narrow windows are blocked by bars and glazing that makes it impossible to look outside.
The place feels, unsurprisingly, like a jail—which is just one of many hurdles that King County, and its future, still-unnamed nonprofit partner, will have to surmount before the former jail wing, which has been closed since 2012, can reopen as a 24/7, low-barrier shelter. Last week, staffers from the county’s Community and Health Services department took reporters on a tour of the building, followed by a press briefing with King County Executive Dow Constantine. Here’s what we currently know about the county’s plans for the shelter, as well as a few questions that remain unanswered.
The new shelter, which Constantine said he hopes will open sometime before this coming winter, will include dormitories, storage space, case management, showers, and laundry facilities for up to 150 people. The county hasn’t chosen a partner to operate the facility, which county officials said would cost about $2 million to renovate and $2 million a year to operate. (That funding is included in Constantine’s proposed 2019-2020 budget, which the King County Council is considering now.) The shelter will be open 24/7, allowing people to leave some of their stuff on site during the day and giving those without daytime jobs a place to be during the daytime hours other than on the street.
“As I look around and I see the number of people who are continuing to be out on the streets… and then I see a vacant building right here in the middle of downtown Seattle., it seems to me that we really have a moral obligation to open that up and provide the opportunity for people to get out of the weather and to get the services they need,” Constantine said Thursday. “This is an element of what we need to do. This is not the solution. The solution is the heavy lifting we’ve been doing on root causes, on housing, on behavioral health treatment, on job connectedness, on all of these other root causes. But meanwhile there are people on the streets and that is a humanitarian crisis that we absolutely must deal with.”
Jurors and county court employees have complained about people congregating in parks and on sidewalks near the downtown courthouse, which sits in close proximity to several shelters that require people to leave first thing in the morning. King King County Housing and Community Development division director Mark Ellerbrook said the new shelter will include indoor areas and a courtyard where clients will be able to spend time during the day, and will be connected to a new day center just a block away, at a county-owned building on Fourth and Jefferson that currently serves as a winter shelter.
A recent City of Seattle report on homeless services found that enhanced shelter is several times more effective at getting people into permanent housing than basic shelters that only offer mats on the floor, which are mostly a basic survival tool for people who would otherwise be sleeping out in the elements. “There’s no real opportunity to connect folks with services in that environment,” Ellerbrook said.
Opening a shelter inside a jail building presents what a political consultant might call some challenging optics—and not just because homelessness is not a crime. People experiencing homelessness are more likely than other groups to have past experience in the criminal justice system, and to want to avoid any place that feels like jail. Asked how the county planned to overcome the obvious association between the jail and the shelter, which will not connect directly but will share an emergency stairwell, Constantine responded, “Clearly, this is not ideal … for people who have been incarcerated and may have been traumatized by that experience. This would not be the ideal choice for them to go to, and they don’t have to. Nobody’s going to make them. But for others, it is a very good alternative to being out on the street, to be able to be in a place that is well built, that’s warm and dry and has all of the facilities they need.”
On the flip side, many people who leave jail depart directly into homelessness; prior incarceration is one of many factors that make it difficult for people to find a place to live or a job to lift them out of homelessness, according to the county’s most one-night homeless count. Downtown Emergency Service Center director Daniel Malone, whose organization is one of several in the running to operate the shelter, said, “I certainly can see it as sort of a swords to plowshares situation, where you could repurpose a facility that previously had really negative connotations into something much more positive for people’s lives, but that said, I think there remains some work to be done that would really examine, will people who would be the intended recipients of the help use it in a facility like that?”
Constantine said he sees the new shelter as an opportunity to divert people leaving jail directly to services and “interrupt that process when people are coming out of the jail and to be able to bring them next door to a, set them up with the services they need to be able to be successful. … It gives us a unique opportunity for those who have been justice involved to help them get their lives back on track and not fall into homelessness and then be another person who ends up back in the justice system.”
Constantine said he wants to open the new shelter before this winter. That leaves a lot of details to be hammered out in a short period of time, including who will run the shelter and who it will serve. Constantine said last week that the new facility will house “primarily men,” but Ellerbrook said the county would try to allow partners, possessions, and pets to the extent possible, which means—among other things—that parts of it might be coed. The shelter will be low-barrier—meaning, as Constantine put it, that “this is not going to be a situation where you have to solve life’s problems before you’re offered a safe place to sleep—but to what extent people with major mental health and addiction issues will be targeted is unclear.
Downtown Emergency Service Center director Daniel Malone, whose group runs the Morrison Hotel on Third Avenue across the street from the King County Courthouse, says DESC will be most interested in running the new shelter if it “prioritizes people with longer-term homelessness and more complicated types of situations that would [require] the more robust set of services that we would like to deliver. Ideally,” he adds, you’d want to build in as few barriers as possible, so making it coed would be in support of that.”
Morning Crank: Bags and Bags of Shredded Ballots
May 8, 2018 May 8, 2018 / ericacbarnett / 3 Comments
The new version looks just like a mailbox.
1. The King County council voted 7-2—with one Republican, Pete Von Reichbauer, joining the council’s six Democrats—to spend up to $381,000 next year on postage-paid ballots for this year’s midterm and general elections. King County voters have voted exclusively by mail, or by dropping their ballots at designated drop boxes, since 2009, but it has been voters’ responsibility to buy stamps for their ballots. Voting rights advocates have argued that the postage requirement is burdensome for younger voters (who are less likely to have stamps) and very low-income voters (for whom a 49-cent stamp represents a real impediment to voting); those who oppose providing postage say that it’s voters’ responsibility to make the minimal effort required to buy a stamp, and that those who feel they can’t afford it can just trek to their nearest ballot box.
Before the measure passed, County Council members Kathy Lambert and Reagan Dunn offered several amendments that would have watered down or placed conditions on the legislation, including a proposal by Lambert to clarify that the county measure did not set any “precedent” for the rest of the state. Lambert argued that if voters in King County were able to vote more easily than voters in the rest of the state, it would put other counties, particularly more rural counties with fewer resources that are “hanging on by their fingernails,” at a disadvantage—essentially the same argument offered by Republican Secretary of State Kim Wyman when she urged the council to reject the measure one week ago. That amendment failed, as did another Lambert proposal that would have required the county elections office to turn around a complicated report about turnout and ballot box usage three days after the November election was certified. Another, from Republican Reagan Dunn, would put language on the outside of every prepaid ballot encouraging people to put stamps on their ballot anyway, ostensibly in an effort to save King County money. Although King County Elections director Julie Wise made it clear that Dunn’s amendment would almost certainly cost the county far more than it saves (election workers would have to pore over hundreds of thousands of ballots by hand, photocopy them, and mail them to the post office for a refund), the amendment actually passed, after Dunn said the language in his amendment left some wiggle room for the county to reject the idea if it cost too much.
“I like the voters’ drop boxes [because] it’s not shredded, I know it’s in, it’s going to get counted, and I know that there are very few people that are going to handle it.”—King County Council member Kathy Lambert
Before the final vote, Lambert offered a strange, last-ditch anecdote to explain why she opposed voting by mail. “I pay my property taxes in person,” Lambert began, because one year when she sent them by mail—she knows it was her anniversary, she said, because she was about to go to Hawaii—and they never made it to the tax assessor’s office. When she went to the post office to find out what had happened, she said, “they brought me out two huge bags of mail that had been shredded, and they said, ‘If you find your check in here, you can take it out and prove that you have found it.’ I hope that we won’t find out later on that there are bags and bags of shredded ballots that have gotten caught in the machinery,” Lambert continued. “I like the voters’ drop boxes [because] it’s not shredded, I know it’s in, it’s going to get counted, and I know that there are very few people that are going to handle it.”
Lambert did not note that voters can track their ballots, and find out whether theirs was counted or “shredded,” at the King County Elections website.
2. A rumor was circulating yesterday that ousted King County Democrats chair (AKA ousted King County Assessor’s office spokesman) Bailey Stober will announce today (or this week) that he is not running for 47th District state representative, despite announcing that he plans to do so in an interview with the Seattle Times. As I reported last week, Stober’s announcement came just two days before Debra Entenman, a deputy field director for Congressman Adam Smith, was planning to formally announce that she would seek the same position with the full support of the House Democratic Campaign Committee. The announcement gave Stober some positive press shortly after he was forced out of two positions of power when four separate investigations concluded he had engaged in sexual harassment, bullying, and multiple acts of workplace and financial misconduct. (Each of the investigations upheld a different combination of allegations).
Stober received a $37,700 settlement from King County in exchange for resigning from his $98,000-a-year position, from which he had been on fully paid leave for most of 2018. On Friday, he posted a photo on Facebook of what he said was his brand-new jeep. “New life new car 💁🏽♂️ 😏 #adulting,” the caption read.
3. Three low-barrier shelters run by the Downtown Emergency Service Center, which were all scheduled to shut down this month, will stay open for the rest of the year, though their fate after that remains uncertain. The shelters—an overnight men’s shelter on Lower Queen Anne, the Kerner-Scott House for mentally ill women in South Lake Union, and DESC’s auxiliary shelter at the Morrison Hotel downtown—lost funding under the new “Pathways Home” approach to funding homeless services, which prioritizes 24/7 “enhanced” shelters over traditional overnight shelters and withholds funding (see page 7) from agencies that fail to move at least 40 percent of their clients from emergency shelter into permanent housing. When the city issued grants under the new criteria, it increased DESC’s overall funding but eliminated funding for the three overnight shelters. All told, about 163 shelter beds were scheduled to disappear in May unless DESC could come up with the money to keep them open or another operator stepped forward.
Oddly, the decision to close at least one of the shelters does not appear to have been strictly about money, but about DESC itself. According to a letter HSD sent to concerned community members in mid-April, the city had “HSD reached out to Salvation Army to discuss the possibility of taking over operations of the Roy Street Queen Anne shelter in June when the DESC contract ends. Salvation Army has agreed and is going to have a May-Dec contract so there is some overlap time during the transition. Shifting operations to the Salvation Army would have required a special budget allocation from the City Council to keep the shelter running under new management for the rest of the year.
DESC’s overall budget request included significant pay increases for all of the agency’s staff, who are unionized but remain notoriously underpaid, even by human service provider standards. DESC’s $8.6 million budget request for its enhanced shelter program included more than $6 million for salaries and benefits—enough to raise an entry-level counselor’s wages from $15.45 an hour to $19.53 and to boost case managers’ salaries from a high of about $38,000 to $44,550 a year. Even those higher salaries remain paltry by private-market standards, but by proposing to implement the raises all at once, DESC inflated its budget request dramatically at precisely the time when the city was looking to cut “fat” from the system and reward programs that promised fast results and cost savings for the city.
The good news for DESC (and the men and women) who use its overnight shelters) is that funding for the shelters appears to be secure for at least the rest of 2018. The bad news is that the reprieve is temporary, and major issues, including low salaries for shelter workers, remain unresolved.
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Morning Crank: I Don’t Want That Rumor to Be Perpetuated
January 19, 2018 January 18, 2018 / ericacbarnett / 4 Comments
1. Sitting at the year’s first meeting of the Progressive Revenue task force Thursday morning, it was hard not to flash back to a press conference the previous day, when Mayor Jenny Durkan announced that the city would spend some of the $11 million it expects to receive from the sale of a city-owned property in South Lake Union (a different property than the “teardrop” site council members discussed as part of their budget deliberations last year). At that briefing, held in front of two “tiny houses” under construction at the Seattle Vocational Institute, Durkan said it would take time to build all the housing that will ultimately be funded by the $290 million 2016 housing levy, and that in the meantime, a $5.5 million investment in “bridge housing”—or, in the clunky title Durkan chose for the initiative, “building a bridge to housing for all”—would give people living on the street slightly better options. “In an ideal world, we would not need to be building tiny houses,” Durkan said. Then she acknowledged that state and federal support for affordable housing is about to fall off a cliff.
The rest of the money would pay for rental assistance for people on SHA’s Section 8 voucher waiting list—”we’re going to focus on the people who need that assistance the most,” Durkan said— design of a new fire station, and city expenses related to the land sale. The developer buying the property would also provide $2 million of a total $7.7 million payment toward affordable housing projects elsewhere, required as part of the city’s Mandatory Housing Affordability program, to build actual affordable housing.
The reason I was thinking about Durkan’s announcement Thursday morning is that it was basically a rounding error—what government staffers sometimes call “budget dust”— in the funding needed to actually address the city’s homelessness problem, which has been growing every year since at least 2013. According to task force co-chair Kirsten Harris-Talley, if every unit of affordable housing requires $160,000 in capital expenditures from the city (more on how advocates for a higher employee hours tax arrived at that number in a minute), and the city will need around 20,000 new units for very low-income people in the next 10 years, that means the city will need to spend around $3.2 billion over that time. As you can probably imagine, the city isn’t spending anywhere close to that right now—according to the presentation, the city spent just under $95 million from all sources on capital housing investments last year. At that rate, it would take more than 33 years to come up with $3.2 billion (and that’s assuming housing costs stayed flat).
Obviously, none of this is an exact science. The $160,000 figure is an estimate provided by council member Kshama Sawant’s office, of what the city would need to contribute if it ramped up its affordable housing production and was unable to find a significant amount of new funding from other sources to help pay for all the new units. (Currently, each new unit costs the city about $93,000 in capital costs, but the programs that pay for the difference between the city’s contribution and the total cost to build a new unit, about $311,000, are only committed to a certain number of units, requiring the city—theoretically—to pay more for each additional unit out of its own pockets.)
If Harris-Talley and Sawant’s figures are correct, that provides a ready-made argument for the employee hours tax (effectively a flat annual tax for each full-time employee on every business over a certain revenue threshold) that they’ve wanted to pass all along. Today, the task force looked at potential revenues from the so-called head tax at different levels and with different sizes of business exempt from the tax, which I’ve copied below. (Last year’s proposed head tax would have exempted businesses with less than $10 million in gross revenues, up from $5 million in the initial proposal; some businesses argued that basing the tax on gross revenues was unfair because it didn’t take into account thin profit margins in certain industries, like restaurants.)
If the city goes through a recession, of course, the amount it can expect to collect will shrink. However, recessions tend to actually lower rents; Downtown Emergency Service Center director and task force member Daniel Malone pointed out that during the last recession, the county’s annual point in time count of people living outdoors tends to stagnate or even decrease, as it did between 2010 and 2011, and between 2011 and 2012. That’s one of the paradoxes of a weakening economy: Although revenues from taxes that are less stable, like direct taxes on businesses, tend to decline, so do rents, making it possible for some people forced onto the street by an impossible housing market to actually find a place to live.
2. In a King County Board of Health discussion about the possibility of a Hepatitis A outbreak in Seattle yesterday (a nationwide outbreak, ongoing now, began in California and was widely blamed on lack of access to handwashing facilities for the state’s homeless population), King County Health Department Director Patty Hayes expressed concern about the city’s decision last year to cut funding for three downtown hygiene centers that provide restrooms, showers, and handwashing and laundry facilities for homeless people living and moving through downtown.
City council and Board of Health member Sally Bagshaw—a vocal proponent for cutting funding to the facilities as part of the city’s new “performance-based” approach to homeless service contracts—objected to Hayes’ characterization of the problem.
“I think that [problem with the closure of the hygiene centers] is more apparent than real,” Bagshaw said. “We’re putting huge investments into new 24/7 shelters … I’m working with those 24-hours shelters to say, ‘Can you open these up for people who aren’t [staying] here tonight” to take showers, she said. “We opened up community centers [for people to shower]. There are more facilities open now than before. It’s just that the money’s being shifted. I don’t want that rumor to be perpetuated. There were some organizations that didn’t get funded” because the city went to a competitive process, Bagshaw said.
I covered the cuts to funding for hygiene centers, and the reason some advocates believe community centers and shelters are not an adequate substitute for public restrooms and dedicated hygiene facilities, here.
3. The Sightline Institute, a progressive think tank that researches and covers of housing, transportation, and environmental policy from a green, pro-transit, pro-housing perspective, just brought on a new (unpaid) fellow to cover “issues of infrastructure, technology and energy with a view towards sustainability.” His name: Daniel Malarkey.
If that name sounds familiar, it should. (If it doesn’t, you weren’t following Seattle politics in the early 2000s.) He was the finance director for the Seattle Monorail Project, the transportation agency that was going to build a monorail line from Ballard to downtown to West Seattle. That project was doomed to failure after Malarkey’s revenue projections overshot the mark by about 50 percent, and after the agency compounded the problem by trying to paper over the error. (The error Malarkey made was counting revenues from taxes on every single car in Seattle, when in reality, thanks to heavy lobbying from the auto industry, all new cars and cars brought to the city by people moving here from out of state were exempt from the monorail tax. The result was that Malarkey overestimated the monorail’s tax base by a third) When he resigned at the end of 2003, I wrote this. Interestingly, it looks like his three years consulting or working directly for the monorail agency aren’t on his official Sightline bio.
Anyway, it looks like he’ll be writing about autonomous cars.
Full disclosure: I have written several pieces for Sightline and often use their research in my reporting.
Navigation Center Has Housed Just Two People Since Opening in July
October 13, 2017 / ericacbarnett / 2 Comments
This story first appeared at Seattle Magazine.
Late last month, the city’s Human Services Department released its first annual report on Pathways Home, a new framework for serving homeless residents that emphasizes “rapid rehousing” and submits service providers to new performance standards. Among other conclusions, the report found that the Navigation Center, a 75-bed shelter that serves people who don’t do well in traditional shelters, has struggled to place people into permanent housing within the 60-day time limit set by the city.
“People coming inside from being unsheltered have a big adjustment to make and multiple issues to address and many barriers to housing stability; the Navigation Center is finding that mapping out a strategy to get them housed could take more than 60 days,” the report says.
In fact, as of October, the Navigation Center had placed just two people into housing, according to the Downtown Emergency Service Center (DESC), which runs the Center. DESC’s director of administrative services, Greg Jenson, says that one of those clients is now in transitional housing and one went to live with family. According to the Pathways Home report, of the 105 clients who came through the center in its first six weeks, 32 have left, and “nearly half” of those “have refused to disclose or didn’t know where they were exiting to.”
DESC director Daniel Malone says the “biggest challenge” to placing clients in permanent housing isn’t just that the people the Navigation Center serves are hard to house; it’s that there simply aren’t enough places for Navigation Center clients to go.
The Navigation Center is designed to serve clients who are the “hardest to house”—people experiencing chronic homelessness who often face multiple barriers to finding a place to live, such as ongoing substance abuse and mental-health issues. It “was not designed to serve the needs of the higher-functioning individuals who are more likely to thrive in traditional shelter settings which have strict rule requirements,” Jackie St. Louis, the coordinator for the Navigation Team, says.
However, DESC director Daniel Malone says the “biggest challenge” to placing clients in permanent housing isn’t just that the people the Navigation Center serves are hard to house; it’s that there simply aren’t enough places for Navigation Center clients to go. “One thing that has been good is being able to identify people who have a natural priority for the limited housing that is available in the community,” by giving them an assessment that scores them on the number of barriers to housing they face, Malone says. But, he adds, “If we aren’t producing new housing, they’ll just be getting it instead of someone else.”
Seattle’s Navigation Center isn’t the first of its kind; that distinction goes to a low-barrier shelter by the same name in San Francisco, which also serves a hard-to-house clientele. In San Francisco, clients seeking permanent housing stay an average of 90 days, and that figure would likely be larger if the city didn’t set aside some low-income housing units specifically for Navigation Center clients, something Seattle does not do. Although Seattle officials were familiar with the challenges San Francisco faced in housing people through its Navigation Center, the city adopted a 60-day cap, predicting that Seattle’s Navigation Center would be able not only mimic but surpass San Francisco’s success.
The city’s Navigation Teams—groups of police and outreach workers who facilitate encampment removals—frequently refer encampment residents to the Navigation Center. According to a report issued by the Navigation Team itself earlier this month, the teams have sent about 75 people to the center this year.
Meg Olberding, a spokeswoman for the Human Services Department, says she’s confident that the city is sending people who want and will benefit from the services that the center provides. “HSD and DESC are satisfied that the right clients are being referred to the Navigation Center,” she says.
But Malone notes that DESC has “definitely heard from some people that they only came there because they were having to leave where they were staying out, and they hadn’t really decided for themselves that was something that they wanted yet.”
Malone cautions against reading too much into what happens at the Navigation Center in the first few months. “Has it changed the face of homelessness in less than three months? No,” he says. “There have definitely been some start-up issues, and we need to try different things out.”
In San Francisco, Navigation Centers have been successful at getting some homeless people off the street, but they’re hardly a panacea. The success or failure of Seattle’s Navigation Center will be measured not by how many hundreds of people it moves on to permanent housing, but by how many dozens.
Morning Crank: A Political Statement That Capitalism Has Failed
March 23, 2017 March 23, 2017 / ericacbarnett / 2 Comments
Homelessness consultant Barb Poppe and Mandy Chapman Semple of Houston’s Corporation for Supportive Housing
1. Homelessness experts from Los Angeles County, San Francisco, and Houston rounded out a panel that also included consultant Barb Poppe Tuesday morning, the second in a three-part series of discussions on homelessness sponsored by the Downtown Seattle Association, the Seattle Metro Chamber of Commerce, Visit Seattle and the Alliance for Pioneer Square.
KIRO Radio’s Dave Ross moderated the discussion, which focused on what solutions other jurisdictions have come up with to address the homelessness emergency in their communities. Perhaps fittingly for a station that has made a hero out of a woman who built an illegal wall to keep homeless people away from her business, KIRO’s Ross asked many questions that could be charitably described as leading. For example, one of the first questions he asked Poppe was how it could be that in a recent survey, 30 percent of homeless people could afford to pay $500 or more in rent—implying, it seemed, that homeless folks really have enough money to live in housing, they just don’t want to. At another point, Ross commented that “there are some folks who want to keep those tents out there as a political statement that capitalism has failed”—implying that homeless people are living in tents not because they have no other option, but because they want to make a political statement. At still another point, Ross put words in Poppe’s mouth, which she immediately disavowed.
“So you have seen no movement towards setting a policy and politely urging the existing [housing and homeless service provider] groups who are not seeing results to adapt to that new policy,” Ross said. “No, I am not saying that,” Poppe said, looking exasperated.
If you’d like to read my live-tweets of yesterday morning’s meeting, you’re in luck—I’ve Storified them here.
2. Yesterday, I reported that the proposed homelessness levy would increase wages for case managers, social service workers, and mental and public health-care providers substantially, by funding higher minimum wages for several positions that will be; funded by the levy. The city says they don’t have a specific breakdown of how much the levy-funded raises will cost or precisely how many contractor positions will be affected, though it may be in the hundreds; however, a look at the wages currently offered by one of the city’s main homelessness service contractors, the Downtown Emergency Service Center, shows that the new minimums will represent a significant upgrade. For example, the annual salary for a behavioral health case manager at DESC’s Crisis Solutions Center starts at $30,128 a year, or about $14.48 an hour; a chemical dependency specialist starts slightly higher, at $33,033, or about $15.88 an hour; and a registered nurse starts at $52,884, or about $25 an hour. If the levy passes, pay for those positions will go up, to $22, $25, and $45 an hour, respectively.
3. Learn to trust the Crank: As I reported last month, after meeting with about 100 employers of all sizes from across the city, city council member Lorena Gonzalez has rolled out a proposal to require employers in the city to provide paid family leave. The proposal would require all employers in the city to provide up to 26 weeks of leave for new parents or employees taking care of a sick family member, and up to 12 weeks of paid medical leave for employees with a serious illness. The benefits would only kick in after an employee has worked 340 hours (about two and a half months for full-time employees and longer for part-time) for a business, and would be capped at $1,000 a week.
“I heard a strong desire from my conversations with business owners [for] a pathway to provide this benefit to their employees that is fair and equitable,” Gonzalez said Wednesday. “While I sincerely hope that the state legislature passes a law that is available for all Washington workers, Seattle, as always, is ready to stand on our own two feet to come up with a solution, which is a universal paid family and medical leave program.”
Currently, the state legislature is working on a compromise between two very different paid family leave laws. One, by Republican Sen. Joe Fain, would start out providing just eight weeks of leave paid at just half an employee’s original salary, eventually rising to twelve weeks at two-thirds pay, and would require employees to pay the full cost of the program. That bill would also preempt Seattle from adopting a more generous paid leave law of its own. The other, by Democratic Rep. June Robinson, would provide much more generous benefits and supported by the progressive Economic Opportunity Institute, provides far more generous benefits and would not prevent Seattle from adopting its own policies.
Given that the Trump administration has “very little respect for boundaries between the federal government and state government and local government,” Gonzalez said, “I think it’s important to continue to protect and to empower local government to have all the tools we need at our disposal to be able to protect and serve our residents in a way that is tailored to our specific community needs. That is why I believe a local preemption in this ordinance, or in any other ordinance is a very dangerous step to take.” Other Republican preemption bills that were floated this year would have prohibited Seattle from allowing encampments or opening supervised drug-consumption sites.
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Morning Crank: That Really Interferes With Making Progress
1. One element of Mayor Ed Murray’s proposed $275 million homelessness levy that didn’t get mentioned at his press conference earlier this month—perhaps because it involves a significant concession to labor—is that it helps pay for higher wages for the caseworkers and counselors who will be integral to the success of the outreach and treatment elements of the proposal. (The Service Employees International Union 1199 advocated for the inclusion of higher wages in the levy.) Those workers include public health nurses and mental health and substance abuse counselors who will evaluate and treat formerly homeless people who seek services through the city’s navigation teams and at the proposed new 24-hour shelters; outreach workers who talk to people living in encampments during encampment sweeps; case managers who get people connected with rental assistance in the form of new temporary housing vouchers funded through the levy; and the people who staff the new 24-hour shelters and permanent supportive housing. Turnover in those positions is notoriously high, in large part because many people who take those jobs burn out or leave Seattle because they can’t afford to live here, and because high-quality clinical workers and case managers tend to leave for better-paying jobs in the private sector.
The exact cost of raising wages for these positions is unclear, since the increase would also apply to existing contracts. The initiative itself alludes to the wage increases just once, in this blink-and-you-missed-it line: “The Director of Finance and Administrative Services shall make appropriate allowances for (1) the higher costs of high-quality programs staffed with clinical or social service professionals and paraprofessionals and (2) a reasonable wage differential in organizations where employee wages have increased or will increase as a result of the City’s minimum wage.” A more detailed program-by-program breakdown for the initiative indicates that public health nurses and mental health counselors will be paid $45 an hour; therapists in the pilot “Journey of Hope” residential treatment program will be paid $35 an hour; substance abuse counselors and caseworkers will be paid $25 an hour; and outreach workers will be paid $22 an hour. Previously, according to SEIU, some of those workers were making as little as the $15-an-hour minimum.
Downtown Emergency Service Center director Daniel Malone argues that agencies like his need to be able to pay higher wages to attract and retain high-skilled workers. “Some of the client services that we’re able to deliver are highly dependent on establishing a trusting relationship with a person who has had, quite often, bad experiences with treatment or social services, and when somebody’s case manager is changing all the time, that really interferes with making progress with them. You needs staff who are skilled at working with and providing help to people who sometimes have challenging behaviors, and you can’t have a workforce that is always principally comprised of people who are basically brand new and just learning.”
2. State Senator Mark Miloscia—perhaps best known to readers of this blog as the Republican who proposed two bills that would ban Seattle from allowing homeless encampments and safe injection sites, respectively—met with teenagers from the immigrant rights group OneAmerica outside the Senate chamber in Olympia the other day, and things did not go smoothly.
According to the version of events I heard from a source in Olympia, Miloscia “grilled” the students (including one young woman wearing a headscarf) about whether they were “Catholic or Christian,” then engaged them in an animated argument over race and religion.
I talked to Miloscia this week, and here’s his version of the story. He says he was approached by a group of kids who “peppered” him with questions, and that one of them, a person of color, “said ‘I can only be represented by somebody who looks like me.” Miloscia (who is white) claims he used religion merely as another example of how a person could feel represented by someone who doesn’t share their race—then asked whether the teenagers were “Christian, or Catholics. I said, ‘You can be represented based on religion, not just skin color.'”
Miloscia says he noticed the young woman who looked Muslim, and thought about using her religion as an example, but didn’t want to “put her on the spot. I was going to say she could be represented by a white Muslim or an Asian Muslim, not just a black Muslim.” He said the group then discussed two versions of a statewide voting rights act—one that would give citizens the right to sue if their city’s voting system disenfranchises minority voters, and another, proposed by Miloscia, that would not. “They impressed me with their knowledge of what’s in both bills,” Miloscia says. OneAmerica didn’t want to comment on the record about the exchange, but it’s probably safe to say the admiration wasn’t mutual.
Murray Unveils $275 Million Levy Proposal for Homeless Housing, Shelter, and Treatment
March 8, 2017 March 10, 2017 / ericacbarnett / 7 Comments
At a news conference in the common room of a Downtown Emergency Service Center-run permanent supportive housing facility this afternoon, Mayor Ed Murray released details of his five-year, $275-million proposal to address homelessness, which includes short- and long-term housing vouchers, new funding for 24-hour shelters, expanded medication treatment for opioid addiction, and permanent housing for people who need intensive services. What the proposal doesn’t include is funding for transitional housing, traditional overnight shelters, or a broad expansion of inpatient treatment for people whose addictions can’t be treated by medication.
Acknowledging that the $55 million annual commercial and residential property tax levy would represent an additional burden for Seattle taxpayers, Murray said he had hoped the federal government would pick up some of the tab for addressing what is also a national emergency. “When I announced the [homelessness] state of emergency, when we announced [the homelessness response plan] Pathways Home, I emphasized … that we could not do it alone; we needed the federal government,” Murray said. “In my State of the City address, I basically conceded a point that many of you in the media have challenged me on: that federal help is not coming.” In fact, Murray said, “we will probably see less money than we see today.”
The briefing came just one day after the city removed the few remaining stragglers from the SoDo homeless encampment known as the Field, to which the city itself directed people five months ago when it cleared the vast encampment under I-5 called the Jungle. Earlier this week, residents of the camp and their supporters showed up to the 2pm city council meeting to ask the council to delay the sweep, arguing that the city had failed to respond to repeated requests for things like sawdust, additional port-a-potties, fire extinguishers, and trash pickup, making the squalor at the camp inevitable. The city argued that the camp was not just unsanitary but unsafe, citing the arrest last week of a camp resident for rape and sex trafficking of teenage girls.
Murray’s proposal emphasizes getting people indoors through “rapid rehousing” in the form of temporary rental subsidies for housing on the private market; the mayor’s proposal would divide those subsidies into “short-term, medium-term, and long-term vouchers,” Murray said today. (The proposals are based on a set of recommendations called Pathways Home, which in turn is based on a report by Columbus, Ohio consultant Barb Poppe, and another firm called Focus Strategies). Short-term vouchers could provide rental assistance for as little as three months, while medium-term vouchers could last 18 months or longer, and long-term vouchers would effectively be permanent.
A slightly more detailed breakdown of the measure provided by the city reveals that the vast majority of the housing vouchers it would pay for would be either short- or medium-term, meaning that when they run out, formerly homeless renters will need to make enough money to pay for a market-rate apartment. (Currently, the median rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Seattle is just under $2000). About 4,250 of the 5,100 “housing exits” the proposal aims to accomplish over five years take the form of short- or medium-term housing vouchers; another 475 people would receive long-term vouchers, and 373 would be moved into permanent supportive housing. The proposal also aims to prevent 1,750 people from becoming homeless through diversion programs, and to provide subsidies for 1,500 people to move into clean-and-sober Oxford Houses over the next five years.
Other than the subsidies for Oxford housing, the mayor’s proposal includes no new funding for transitional housing, temporary housing that’s somewhere between a shelter and a private apartment. It does include 200 new beds at 24-hour, low-barrier shelters, which would replace some funding for traditional overnight-only shelters in the city’s 2018 budget, according to details provided by the city.
Although rapid rehousing hasn’t been implemented on the scale Murray is proposing in a city with a comparably unaffordable rental market (in the cities most commonly cited as rapid-rehousing success stories, Salt Lake City and Houston, a one-bedroom apartment costs about half what a comparable unit rents for in Seattle), council human services committee chair Sally Bagshaw said it was time to stop asking questions and start taking action. “We can debate, we can continue to study, or we can do what our experts have recommended to us,” Bagshaw said. “Do we just keep studying it, or do we invest big in what we know works?”
The proposal also includes a $10 million “housing innovation fund”—unallocated dollars that will go toward finding new housing models and building types that might be cheaper and faster to bring online than conventional low-income housing. Murray’s housing policy advisor Leslie Brinson Price said today that the fund is meant to “spur new thinking and provide a way to pilot projects” that the city might not try otherwise, like modular construction and cohousing.
Substance abuse treatment makes up a relatively small portion of the proposed levy, about $20 million of the $275 million total. That treatment consists primarily of programs that expand access to buprenorphine, brand name Suboxone, a replacement opiate that reduces cravings in people who are addicted to heroin and other opioids, and “housing with intensive outpatient substance use disorder treatment,” which Price said would also focus on buprenorphine distribution.
The measure would add 16 new inpatient treatment beds as part of a pilot project based on Philadelphia’s Journey of Hope project, which offers long-term residential treatment for chronically homeless individuals. The proposal does not appear to explicitly include treatment for alcohol addiction, which is also extremely pre homeless people as as addiction to heroin and other opiates, or other drugs with more complicated courses of treatment than taking a daily dose of Suboxone.
Asked about the relatively small emphasis on treatment—a subject that comes up often in discussions about homelessness—Murray said, “Remember, addiction treatment is not a city function, it is a county function. … We are getting into new lines of business that I hoped we wouldn’t get into, but again, if you look at the restricted nature of the county’s funding and the fact that they constantly find themselves cutting budgets, that’s why we’re getting into buying some services from them.”
As I noted earlier this week, by gathering enough signatures to take his measure directly the ballot, Murray is effectively bypassing the city council, which tends to tinker with (and often reduce) mayoral spending proposals. Asked why he chose this tactic over the more traditional course of sending the ballot measure to the council for approval, Murray said, “I thought it was important for this to come from the community, for signatures to be gathered through a grassroots effort, rather than the usual model of doing things where the council puts it on the ballot. .. It gives people the chance to think about whether they want to sign that measure and whether they want to vote for that measure.” Then, smiling slightly, Murray added, “I mean, I’m a former legislator. [Legislators] always change the executive’s budget.”
Assuming supporters gather the requisite 20,000 valid signatures, the measure will be on the August 1 ballot—alongside Ed Murray, who is running for reelection.
The Future of Seattle’s Shelter System is in San Francisco
January 2, 2017 January 16, 2017 / ericacbarnett / 6 Comments
San Francisco’s Navigation Center for the homeless is a promising model for Seattle—if the city decides to really embrace it.
Last month, the Seattle Human Services Department dropped several pieces of bad news in the laps of the city council’s human services committee: First, the department had failed to locate sites for all four of the sanctioned encampments Mayor Ed Murray promised as part of his “Bridging the Gap” proposal to shelter some of the city’s unsheltered homeless population, now several thousand strong. Second, ongoing sweeps of unauthorized encampments will no longer be monitored by the city’s Office of Civil Rights, which was charged with overseeing encampment removals and making sure workers comply with rules about notice and disposal of people’s tents and other possessions. And third, a planned low-barrier shelter known as the Navigation Center, to be operated by the Downtown Emergency Service Center, won’t open on schedule due to trouble locating an acceptable site for the facility. “Identifying a site has taken longer than we originally [anticipated], so we’re going to have to issue a new timeline once the site has been identified,” HSD deputy director Jason Johnson said at last month’s meeting.
The Navigation Center delay was a blow to advocates who’ve argued that Seattle needs shelter options that serve the hardest to house among the city’s growing homeless population—those who don’t use regular shelters because they have one or more of the “three P’s”—pets, partners, and possessions, which aren’t allowed in traditional shelters—or because they’ve been scared away by bad experiences in the shelter system. Add to those three disqualifiers a fourth “P”—problems. Shelters don’t work well for people in acute mental distress, people who happen to be drunk or high, or people whose mental or emotional troubles make it difficult for them to stay in close quarters with hundreds of other people.
It’s a fairly safe bet that the city will announce the Navigation Center site sometime in January—too late to help those stuck sleeping outside in subzero temperatures during the first half of this unusually cold winter, but in time for Murray to attend the opening before his reelection campaign begins in earnest. But what do city officials really mean when they talk about “low-barrier” shelter, anyway—and what will make the Navigation Center different from other shelters DESC operates, like the Morrison Hotel downtown, which takes people in any condition on a first-come, first-served basis?
To help answer those questions, I headed south to San Francisco, where the original Navigation Center opened in the Mission District in March 2015. (The city has since opened another Navigation Center, and is working on a third; all three are temporary facilities on public land slated for eventual redevelopment.) Located in the middle of a a dreary street of Mission Street populated largely by street kids and older people just sort of hanging around, the Navigation Center stands out for its clean sidewalk, airy entryway, and woodsy, modern exterior. It looks more like the entrance to a pricey new condo building than a shelter—if that condo building was flanked by two portable buildings painted institutional yellow, and fronted by a short but official-looking sturdy iron fence.
“It’s hard to explain that it’s never looked so good [on the street outside], but there it is,” Sam Dodge tells me as we walk through the center. Dodge is the deputy director of San Francisco’s new Department of Homelessness, and he—along with John Ouertani, the site manager—is one of the chief evangelists for the Navigation Center model. “This property is open 24 hours and is very low-threshold,” Ouertani says. “There are a few rules, but the guests pretty much come in and out as they please.” As we’re talking, a new guest comes in—a skinny young man, probably 30, staggering under some unseen weight, his head parallel to the dusty ground. A case worker steers him toward his dorm, urging him to get some sleep.
Physically, the center consists of several low portable buildings—an admissions center, a dining hall/TV room, an ADA-accessible building with showers, restrooms, and free laundry facilities, and five dorms—clustered around a central courtyard. The layout gives clients (the Navigation Center calls them “guests”) more physical room than a traditional shelter, to walk around, play with their pets—and sleep. The dorms themselves house a maximum of 15 people each, a far cry from the hundreds of bunk beds that crowd a typical shelter, and some beds are pushed together in pairs, to accommodate couples who want to sleep together. Meals are available all day and night in the common building, and showers are open 24/7, to give people a sense of autonomy and to differentiate the center from other institutional living situations that guests may have encountered and found unwelcoming or traumatic in the past.
“A lot of people [the Navigation Center serves] haven’t had contact with a shelter for a very long time, but they have past memories of shelter or they’ve heard rumors on the street, and that’s kept them out,” Dodge says. “I think it’s really important that we’re telegraphing to people that ‘You are going to make this amazing life change, and it’s going to be hard and it’s going to take a lot of appointments and all this stuff, but we’re here to make it easy for you, and we want to make a tranquil environment where you can rest when you need to rest, and you can eat when you need to eat, and stay focused on the goal of ending your homelessness.” In contrast, traditional shelters typically serve meals, if they serve meals at all, at standard times, clear out sleeping areas during the day, and are anything but tranquil.
DESC director Daniel Malone says that during one of his visits to the San Francisco Navigation Center, he and his colleagues witnesses a client become “really agitated about something,” yelling and pacing around frantically. What they noticed, he says, is that the man “was basically able to blow off some steam—the physical environment there seemed to allow for him to have that moment, or that event, without really significantly affecting anybody else. And some of us from DESC observed that and immediately made the connection that if that had happened in the DESC shelter—and things like that happen in the DESC shelter all the time—he would have had a different reception, because a lot of people would have been around and wouldn’t have had the patience for that happening.
“It helped some of us feel more confident that there could be some real differences by going this route of creating a place where we weren’t just trying to squeeze in as many people as humanly possible.”
Another key difference between the Navigation Center and a traditional shelter is that the Navigation Center is truly low-barrier, welcoming people who have partners, pets, possessions—and problems. Ouertani estimates that at any given time, there are a dozen or more dogs on the property—many of them pit bulls—and says that as long as they’re vaccinated, on a leash, and don’t attack people or other dogs, they can stay. “We had about 17 pets come in within the first month and an half after we first opened up, and that’s pretty much what dictated where the guests went, because you can’t put 10 pit bulls in one dorm,” Ouertani said. People are also allowed to bring large possessions, like shopping carts, bikes, and what Dodge calls “survival stuff from the street.” (Weapons are taken at the door and stored for clients to retrieve later.) And they’re allowed to stay with partners‚ unlike typical shelters that require couples to split. (Dodge says there have been times when women, for example, or transgender people have said they felt unsafe sleeping in coed dorms, and the Navigation Center has accommodated them by making one of the five dorms single-gender). Finally, they’re allowed to stay at the center even if they’re under the influence of drugs or alcohol—or, in most cases, even if they consume drugs or alcohol at the center. “We’re not so much focused on the drugs and alcohol,” Dodge says, “because we know those are almost a given. So if you get caught using on the property, it does not mean that you are asked to leave. That’s our time to outreach to you.”
Clients can’t just walk in to the Navigation Center, nor will they be able to do so in Seattle. Instead, the center seeks out new clients at encampments (often right before announced raids by San Francisco city authorities) and through groups serving homeless people from marginalized communities. “One of our [initial] ideas was that we could go and just take a whole encampment and bring them inside,” Dodge said. “And then we saw from some of our data that in taking the whole encampment, we started to preference a younger, whiter group that felt comfortable in places of conflict, so then we started to say, ‘Let’s select for some racial equity and try to balance those numbers out a little bit.'” Like the city of Seattle, San Francisco uses a race and social justice lens when designing and funding city programs. “And then we went to the Haight Ashbury [neighborhood] and worked with some of the groups up there, and said, ‘Let’s work with a younger cohort. Let’s try to preference transgender people who seem to feel unsafe in a lot of our shelter system.'” The result is a population that goes through demographic changes based on the center’s current outreach priorities. f the population looks a little too young and white, they can tweak their outreach to bring in more Latino immigrants; if it’s skewing heavily toward straight, older couples, the center can increase outreach to groups that serve LGBTQ youth.
“Part of the model is being able to experiment and try new things and collect data and analyze it and experiment again,” Dodge says.
One reason the original Navigation Center has been so free to experiment is that it’s funded largely by private dollars, through a no-strings-attached grant from an anonymous wealthy donor; Seattle’s Navigation Center will be funded by a combination of state and local dollars.
Daniel Malone, the DESC director, says his group plans to emulate the experimental spirit of the San Francisco Navigation Center, but notes that the city will choose clients based on its own set of criteria, which will in turn be dictated, to some extent, by federal priorities. “Essentially, folks are going to [come] to us after being selected by the Human Services Department,” Malone says. Johnson, the HSD deputy director, says Navigation Center clients will be chosen by outreach workers who will “engage with an unsheltered person or couple to try to tease out what that couple might need to move from living outside to living inside”; if it seems like they’ve rejected other shelter options because of barriers like restrictions on partners and pets, “then the Navigation Center comes into play.”
Johnson says Seattle’s Navigation Center, when it opens, will still embrace “the core themes that hold true at the San Francisco Navigation Center,” but it will be uniquely Seattle.” For example, Johnson says, people will be expected to move out of the center, and into more stable (if not permanent) housing within 30 days—an ambitious goal given that, also according to Johnson, the average shelter stay in King County is 200 days. Johnson says the San Francisco Navigation Center has “changed their model” to move people through the center in 30 days, but Dodge says that for those who are seeking stable housing (as opposed to shelter or treatment), moving through the system takes longer, about 90 days on average.
San Francisco’s Navigation Center has moved nearly 300 people into more stable housing since it opened in 2015, which is quite a feat—especially when you consider that many people enter the center with few or no prior connections to the city’s homeless “system.” That’s another thing that’s different about the Navigation Center—instead of just providing phone numbers and addresses for service providers and sending clients on their way, the center provides each client with an on-site case manager who helps them make appointments and actually show up, as well as service providers who come to the center weekly. Of all the barriers to housing, Dodge says, the sheer number of appointments can be one of the most daunting. “At one point, we were averaging 28 appointments that someone had to make coming from the street [before getting] housing, and for some of these other cases, where you’re dealing with immigration and maybe the Veterans Administration, it’s much more.”
The most ambitious versions of San Francisco’s plan max out at about six Navigation Centers, which works out to about 450 theoretical clients at a time. The unsheltered homeless population of San Francisco is nearly 6,700, according to a 2015 count; in Seattle, it’s around 3,000. (The actual numbers are likely much higher, since those figures only represent the number of people homeless count participants actually encountered sleeping on the streets.) Johnson says Seattle has no immediate plans to start siting a second Navigation Center, and indicates that the site the city will choose won’t be a temporary use of publicly owned land, like the ones in San Francisco. Given that a single low-barrier shelter will barely make a dent in the growing demand, many advocates point out the obvious: Seattle needs more low-income housing, and not just in the form of short-term “rapid rehousing” rental vouchers.
“I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that, when I got to Seattle 20 years ago, there were literally a third of the homeless people that we see now,” says Real Change director Tim Harris. “My issue with the [Navigation Center] approach is just simply that 75 beds doesn’t go all that far, given the depth of the need.”
Malone, whose organization will be charged with making the Seattle Navigation Center a success, says that “if the Navigation Center fails and doesn’t have a lot of throughput”—that is, people entering the center and exiting into housing—”then it’ll end up being a very expensive shelter, and that’s not what anyone’s looking to do.”
A final unknown: What will federal housing policy look like under the Trump Administration? Immediately after the election, housing and homelessness advocates were deeply concerned about who Trump would pick to head up the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which sets federal housing policy. (The federal government provides about 40 percent of Seattle’s budget for homeless services). Now that Trump has chosen Ben Carson, the libertarian-leaning surgeon and failed Presidential candidate, they’re looking for funding closer to home, at the state and local levels.
Council member Sally Bagshaw, who heads up the council’s health and human services committee, says that “as dire as it is, what we’re facing right now, I actually don’t think that the federal government was going to help us anyway, because of the Republican Congress. I believe firmly that what we do, and every step of progress that we make is going to be done by the city and the county, with, hopefully, some help from the state.”
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“Very, Very Worrying”: Homeless Providers and Advocates on Post-Trump Seattle
November 19, 2016 November 20, 2016 / ericacbarnett / 3 Comments
President-elect Donald Trump has made his agenda quite clear on many issues. He has promised to crack down on immigration and ban “sanctuary cities,” end the Affordable Care Act, roll back civil rights law, renounce the Paris Agreement on climate change, and suspend immigration from Syria, to name just a few of the policies he has outlined in his plan for the first 100 days of his presidency.
One issue on which Trump has said little to nothing is homelessness. Perhaps because the homeless aren’t exactly a coveted constituency, perhaps because the issue lacks the headline-grabbing force of proposals like the border wall or a ban on Muslim immigration, homeless advocates, service providers, and housing agencies have been left largely in the dark about how Trump’s policies will impact them. They know, of course, that a President bent on dismantling the social safety net and “devolving” much federal spending to the states won’t be good for the nation’s most vulnerable, and least powerful, residents, but for now they can only speculate about just how damaging a Trump presidency will be. To get a sense of how local homeless providers and advocates are anticipating Trump’s policies will impact them, I talked to four representatives of agencies that provide housing and services, and one advocate for the homeless, in the Seattle area. Here’s what they had to say.
Daniel Malone, executive director, Downtown Emergency Service Center
We have no idea, is the bottom line. I think there’s a lot of pants-shitting and dejection overall. Our organization relies heavily on federal funding. We get a lot of Medicaid money through a whole complicated stew [of funding sources]. The whole Obamacare repeal, if it’s true repeal and does kick off the 20 million people who got on Medicaid through the expansion, that does impact some of our clients who were eligible for Medicaid through disability. A lot of times [before the Affordable Care Act expanded access to Medicaid], they wouldn’t participate in the process, because they had to go through evaluations and they didn’t want to do that. We’ve been able to get mental health care services through the expansion.
We build a lot of affordable housing with the federal low-income tax credit. That’s the one I’d be most confident about saving, because it’s politically popular, it involves the private market, and it involves rich people making investments and making money off the deal.
We get a lot of [Department of Housing and Urban Development] money. It almost all flows through the city of Seattle or King County. We have to raise a lot of private money, but it’s a small portion of our budget–a little over a million dollars out of about $40 million is private money. If we had millions of dollars in cuts from HUD or other sources, the prospect of raising that from private funding is totally grim, even if we were to become a cause celebre.
Sharon Lee, executive director, Low-Income Housing Institute
We are worried about the tax reforms that might be put in place. If there is serious tax reform, where they’re going to cut the corporate tax, that will impact the low-income housing tax credit program, because Fortune 500 companies will have less interest in investing in low-income housing if the rate gets cut. Just about every new building we’re building has relied on the housing tax credit program, so that would be a significant. But then again, there’s the other version, which is: [Trump]’s a developer. He knows about real estate, and he knows that a lot of corporations have gained a lot from the tax credit program. Maybe it’s one program that he would want to support. We just don’t know.
The other thing that’s very concerning is if the president puts forward a budget that doesn’t have a cap on military spending, but then he wants a corresponding decrease in other spending, that’s going to be where housing, human services, and education will all get cut. If there continue to be cuts to the HUD budget, the concern for people relying on rental subsidies like housing vouchers is that not only would the program not grow, but that existing people would be cut off Section 8 [a program that provides rent vouchers for low-income people and pays for some housing construction], and that would be most problematic. There’s for-profit and nonprofit organizations that build housing, and only way it’s affordable is that they all have Section 8 subsidies, so that the seniors or families or homeless people can pay 30 percent of their income. We have people paying $100 or $200 for rent because that’s a third of their income. Without Section 8, they would have to pay the full cost, which they can’t afford.
“The reality is, we’re dealing with folks with dementia or severe trauma or huge medical issues who can’t just pull themselves up by their bootstraps without a little help.”
The other thing that’s a major new initiative that we’re concerned about is the housing trust fund, and that is being funded through the profits of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac [the agencies that . My concern is that if they decide Fannie and Freddie should be privatized, that would take away a funding source for housing. Trust fund housing is terrific because it is the only program that is funding new housing for low-income families. Every other funding program has been devastated.
Paul Lambros, executive director, Plymouth Housing Group
We’re waiting to see who the HUD secretary is going to be. It’s not only about the amount of funding for Section 8, but all the rules that we’ve tried to forward for fair housing. Section 8 has been vital to us. Then there’s the question of what’s going to happen with McKinney funding and all the service money we get through McKinney. [McKinney-Vento homeless assistance grants are the primary source of federal funding for people experiencing homelessness.] A lot of the dollars that we all rely on are pass-through federal dollars [federal funds distributed by state and local governments], so we have to wait and see
Janet Pope, executive director, Compass Housing Alliance
Mayor Murray and [King County Executive] Dow Constantine were very clear that part of declaring the state of emergency [on homelessness] was to try to get national attention, [to say] “We can’t do it on our own, we’re really suffering, and we need your help.” Seattle has the resources to address that. Just as we’re hearing that folks are starting to step up to give to refugee organizations or Planned Parenthood or other organizations, I hope people will start giving to homelessness organizations. We need to start thinking about trying to address the problem on our own.
I think in the area of homelessness, folks are frustrated now. There’s much more of an activism and a sense of, “This can’t happen in our community.” How can we expand that sense of wanting to do more and be involved, and not being just stuck in our daily grind.
[I’m worried about] the elimination of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which is something that was talked about during the campaign that would change the landscape completely. There’s a general bias [in the new administration] that people can just pull people themselves up by their bootstraps. I think that was reflected a lot in this administration too, and the reality is, we’re dealing with folks with dementia or severe trauma or huge medical issues who can’t just pull themselves up by their bootstraps without a little help. For the businessmen and folks who have been successful, it’s very hard to walk in the shoes of these people.
Then there’s just the safety of our staff and our clients, who are very diverse. We do serve some undocumented folks. Seattle has one of the largest populations of Somali refugees and a lot of people with language barriers. Everybody’s scared about what’s going to happen to our people—to our staff and to our clients.
Alison Eisinger, executive director, Seattle King County Coalition on Homelessness
I think, in general, what we’re looking at with this administration really does go beyond any kind of Democrat or Republican labels. It goes to the heart of the question, what is government’s function? And I think that what we are concerned about—those of us who know that the federal government is the most important source of significant investments [in housing]—what we are concerned about is two things. One is that the people who will be making decisions, and I mean mot only administration appointees in key department roles, but the people who are controlling both houses of Congress are people who believe that there is not an appropriate role for government to play in ensuring that we don’t leave a million people homeless every day.
Let’s start with the idea of block-granting Medicaid. That is not only a godawful idea, but every one knows that block-granting is essentially a way to ultimately reduce the amount of money that goes to the states to do their work.
The unpredictability [of Trump] is part of the concern, because in fact we do not know. But based on statements that Trump the candidate has made, and based on the kinds of people who seems likely to be advising him for the long haul, I think what we can expect to see is a less fair tax system, which means fewer resources, and from the point of view of homelessness and health care, the federal government is the biggest player. The allocations in the federal budget simply dwarf anything that the city, county, or state governments are able to invest, so that’s why when Mayor Murray says we the the state and federal governments to do their part, we agree, and that’s why it’s very, very worrying when there’s a possibility that Health and Human Services and HUD will be not just run by people who don’t necessarily see the government as having an important role to play but will, as agencies, have greatly reduced budgets. Because of [federal budget] sequestration, we lost hundreds of section 8 vouchers in Washington State, so we are still behind. We’re at a point where we need increased federal resources to support people who are working to pay a reasonable proportion of their income in rent, and instead what we are anticipating is drastic reductions in those resources.
And of course, I have had countless conversations just over the last 10 days with people who are concerned about their staff and the people they serve, who are immigrants and people of color, and it is a reality that there is cause to be worried about the safety, wellbeing and status of people regardless of whether or not they are in the country legally. My privilege is to say, “Let’s inform ourselves, let’s prepare, and let’s get ready to fight.” But I understand that there are people who are panicked, and I have deep sympathy for those concerns. Think about children who are homeless and in our public schools. There are tons of reasons why those parents or guardians might be reluctant to go to the school counselor and say, “I’m homeless. I need help.” Those concerns are likely to be magnified, because this is the reality we live in. We may have elected officials who hang tough, but let’s not kid ourselves—we also have people in the community who have demonstrated their willingness to engage in threatening and harassing and bigoted behavior. That’s really where the whole country is.
Facing Homelessness’ New Project: Sweeping Up Trash to Stop the Sweeps
Morning Crank: Seattle vs. Broken Windows, Burgess vs. “Ideology,” Showbox Contract Suspended
Seattle’s Homeless Encampment Trash Is a Home-Grown Problem
Election Crank: But Wait—It Gets Even MORE Confusing
Durkan’s Backyard Cottage Plan Would Have Kept Some Old Restrictions, Imposed New Ones
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July 1, 2016 7:53AM PT
Box Office: ‘The Purge 3’ Expunges ‘Legend of Tarzan,’ ‘The BFG’ on Thursday Night
CREDIT: Courtesy of Universal
“The Purge” expunged Tarzan and the big friendly giant at the Thursday night box office.
The horror sequel opened with $3.6 million in Thursday night previews at 2,343 theaters. “The Legend of Tarzan” debuted respectably to $2.7 million, while Steven Spielberg’s “The BFG” launched with a modest $775,000.
The trio of new titles are expected to trail “Finding Dory” during the Independence Day weekend with Disney-Pixar’s blockbuster taking in at least $40 million over the four days. “Dory” has already topped $330 million domestically in less than two weeks.
Universal’s “The Purge: Election Year” outperformed its predecessors in Thursday night previews, with the original “The Purge” making $3.4 million in 2013 and “The Purge: Anarchy” taking in $2.6 million in 2014. The third entry in the Blumhouse micro-budget franchise should debut to about $27 million across 2,796 locations over four days — a solid result given its $10 million price tag.
The films take place in a future America in which all crime, including murder, is legal for one night a year. “The Purge: Election Year” stars Elizabeth Mitchell as a presidential candidate whose platform includes eliminating The Purge.
Warner Bros.’ “The Legend of Tarzan,” starring Alexander Skarsgård and Margot Robbie, is expected to open with about $35 million at 3,561 North American locations. That’s a disappointing result, given its $180 million price tag. The pic will require strong performances from overseas markets in order to make it into the black by the end of its run.
Warner Bros. is opening “The Legend of Tarzan” in 19 international markets this weekend, including South Korea and Russia.
“The BFG” has been forecast to open with $30 million from 3,357 theaters over the four-day holiday. Critics have received the Roald Dahl adaptation warmly, particularly Mark Rylance’s motion-capture work as a giant who befriends an orphan girl. Amblin Partners is backing the film along with Disney and Walden Media.
Fox’s second weekend of “Independence Day: Resurgence” will also figure into the competition with the new titles after opening with $41 million last weekend.
The Purge: Election Year
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Published on VOX, CEPR Policy Portal (https://voxeu.org)
Home > Is there a hidden Eurozone bailout?
Professor Sinn misses the target
Karl Whelan 09 June 2011
In a recent Vox column, Hans Werner Sinn of the prestigious Institute for Economic Research claims that the German Bundesbank is effectively propping up banks across the Eurozone’s periphery. He adds that doing this risks a major crisis. Here, Karl Whelan of University College Dublin argues that Professor Sinn’s analysis is incorrect and that his policy prescriptions are extremely unhelpful and even dangerous.
In a number of recent columns that have been widely cited, Hans-Werner Sinn (2011a [1], 2011b) critiques something he calls “the ECB’s stealth bailout” on the basis of figures from the Eurosystem’s intra-Central Bank payments system known as Target2. Professor Sinn argues that:
The Bundesbank has been lending large amounts of money to the central banks of peripheral countries – Greece, Ireland, Portugal, and Spain;
This lending to peripheral countries is causing the stock of credit in non-peripheral countries to shrink; and
The solution to this problem is to place limits on the functioning of the Target2 payments system.
Here, I argue that Professor Sinn’s analysis is incorrect and that his policy prescriptions are extremely dangerous.1
ECB lending and Target2 balances
Recent years have seen a sharp reduction in borrowing by peripheral banks from German banks through interbank money markets and bond markets. The peripheral banks have replaced much of this interbank borrowing with borrowing from the ECB via its lending (refinancing) programmes. The result has been a large net transfer of funds from, for example, Irish banks to German banks.
Target2 is the Eurozones’s “plumbing system” that enables these transfers. This works as follows. Eurozone banks maintain accounts with their country’s central bank. When an Irish bank writes a cheque to a German bank, the Target2 system deducts the Irish bank’s account at the Central Bank of Ireland and credits the German bank’s account at the Bundesbank. Technically, the Bundesbank incurs a new liability in the form of an increase in the value of the Bundesbank account of the bank cashing the cheque but this is offset by a claim against the ECB which appears as an asset on the Bundesbank’s balance sheet.
Recent years have seen the Bundesbank accumulate large Target2 claims against the ECB while other countries have accumulated negative Target2 balances. The picture below shows Target2 balances at the end of 2010 (Deutsche Bundesbank 2011).
Is the Bundesbank lending to peripheral central banks?
Professor Sinn’s “stealth bailout” article correctly states that Target2 balances represent claims owed either against or towards the ECB. His mistake, however, is how he interprets these balances. He states that they represent bilateral claims of the Bundesbank on other central banks. He says “it is as if the Bundesbank had lent money to the Irish Central bank for the purposes of extending a loan to an Irish bank.” But it is not. If I loan you money, I lose money if you don’t pay back. In this sense, the Bundesbank is not owed money by the Central Bank of Ireland. It is owed money by the ECB. If the Irish Central Bank refused to pay, it would be the ECB on the hook, not the Bundesbank. The Bundesbank can only lose money if the ECB refuses to pay it back.
The statute governing the ECB requires that it must be solvent, so it is as close as one can come to a completely safe borrower. Because of this, the Bundesbank’s Target2 claim does not represent a risk to the Bundesbank’s balance sheet. The current risk to the Bundesbank stems from the requirement that national county central banks recapitalise the ECB should it became insolvent due to losses on its lending operations or its portfolio of government bonds. The statute requires national country central banks to contribute to this recapitalisation exercise in proportion to their ECB capital. In Germany’s case, this would require covering 27% of credit losses. If the Bundesbank does not have sufficient funds to cover these losses, it would need to be recapitalised by the German taxpayer.
So the credit risk to the German taxpayer stems from the Eurosystem’s refinancing operations, not the Target2 payments system. If it was France and not Germany that had built up a large positive Target2 balance, the risk to Germany stemming from the ECB’s lending operations would be identical to what it is now. Professor Sinn’s focus on Target2 balances is a red herring.
Crowding out German credit creation?
Professor Sinn also argues that the ECB’s lending to peripheral economies (GIPS in his terminology) is “crowding out” credit in Germany. He writes that “If every year a further €100 billion is granted to the GIPS as Target loans, the stock of credit given by non-GIPS central banks to their commercial banks via refinancing operations will shrink by the same amount”. This is because “strict crowding out is inevitable if the ECB controls the overall stock of central bank money in the Eurozone by way of sterilising interventions or auctioning off limited tenders.” Indeed, Professor Sinn worries that current ECB policy “shifts too much economic vigour to the GIPS” and will trigger a serious inflationary problem.
These are highly misleading claims. The ECB is not currently auctioning off credit via limited tenders. Instead, they are providing the full amount of liquidity requested by banks provided they have sufficient eligible collateral. No German bank is being denied funds from the ECB because of the lending operations to Ireland or other countries.
Is Sinn’s vision of German banks starved of credit likely to come true at some point in the future? The ECB has indicated that its approach of providing as much liquidity as requested will be changed “when appropriate”. The obvious concern about this policy is that the absence of a limit on loans to peripheral banks will lead to a credit-fuelled upturn in inflation, which would then lead the ECB to end the policy.
At present, however, we are seeing the opposite pattern. Peripheral countries (e.g. Ireland and Greece) receive large amounts of funding from the ECB. Yet they are experiencing falling private-sector credit. The reason is that the Eurosystem loans are viewed by banks as no more than a temporary replacement for the private-sector funding that was previously available.
So there’s no need to worry about too much economic vigour in these countries! More broadly, Eurozone M3 is growing at a slower pace than seen in any of the euro’s pre-crisis years when inflation was well under control.
Sinn’s vision of lending to peripheral countries leading to falling credit in Germany and a collapse of the euro due to inflation is scare mongering without any basis in fact.
Sinn’s Target2 proposals
To avert the nightmare scenarios he believes are about to occur, Professor Sinn’s articles have proposed various reforms to the Target2 payments system. In his Project Syndicate article, he proposes setting a cap on Target2 accounts. He believes that individual country central banks have control over their Target2 balances. He praises Mario Draghi for keeping the Banca d’Italia’s lending under control even though Draghi may have been “sorely tempted” to accumulate a Target2 deficit. The truth is that the Banca d’Italia has simply implemented Eurosystem lending operations and Target2 transfers according to the same rules as other participants. Mr Draghi’s ability to resist temptation had little to do with it.
Consider what a limit on Target2 balances would imply. Imagine it’s September 2012 and I’m writing a cheque to a German economics journal to pay my submission fee. However, the cheque bounces. Even though I have sufficient money in my account, I’m told that Ireland has reached its limit on its Target2 balance, so the ECB is refusing to transfer my money. In other words, the euros in my bank account can’t do the same things that a euro in a German bank account can do. In other words, this kind of suspension of transfers would mean the end of the euro as a single currency.
Professor Sinn’s latest Vox column proposes that Target2 balances should be settled each year. Central banks that have a Target2 deficit would pay up and these funds redistributed to central banks that have a positive Target2 position. (Presumably understood is that this would require fiscal support from national governments if the country’s central bank did not have the funds).
Again, let’s be clear about what this means. If this system was implemented this year, the Central Bank of Ireland would have to pay over €150 billion, equivalent to a full year of Irish GDP and way beyond the slim financial resources of the Central Bank. Debts run up by privately-owned banks to the ECB, funds borrowed to pay off German and French banks (with the explicit encouragement of the European authorities on the grounds that to do otherwise would endanger European financial stability) would end up being paid off immediately and in full by Irish citizens handing over a full year of their incomes. This is nonsense.
Sinn justifies his proposal for annual settlement of Target balances on the grounds that this is the approach adopted by Federal Reserve Districts for their Fedwire payments system. However, this is a very poor analogy. Federal Reserve districts have no fiscal connection with the states that they serve.
Suppose there was a regional bank-run in, for example, the district overseen by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and this meant that the San Francisco Fed did not have sufficient gold or securities to settle its Fedwire balance. Who does Professor Sinn imagine San Francisco Fed President John Williams is going to ask to provide the money to settle this balance? If such a scenario ever arose, Mr. Williams would most likely call Ben Bernanke to explain that the annual settling of balances would not be taking place this year. He wouldn’t find any disagreement on the other end of the line.
The Eurosystem has serious problems and the citizens of its member states have many reasons to question the wisdom of the decision to adopt a single currency. However, this situation isn’t helped by respected public figures making incendiary claims about how the system works and putting forward policy proposals that would cause chaos if implemented.
Deutsche Bundesbank (2011), “The German Balance of payments in 2010 [2]”, Monthly Report, 34-25.
Sinn, Hans Werner (2011a), “The ECB’s Secret Bailout Strategy [3]”, Project Syndicate, 29 April.
Sinn, Hans Werner (2011b), “The ECB’s stealth bailout [1]”, VoxEU.org, 1 June.
Sinn, Hans-Werner and Timo Wollmershäuser (2011a), "Target Loans, Current Account Balances and Capital Flows: The ECB’s Rescue Facility [4]" CESifo Working Paper Nr. 3500, 24 June.
Storbeck, Olaf (2011), “The stealth bailout that doesn’t exist: debunking Hans-Werner Sinn [5]”, 6 June.
Whelan, Karl (2011). “Professor Sinn Misses the Target [6]”, The Institute of International and European Affairs, iiea.com
1 Since I wrote the original version of this article (Whelan 2011), I have come across this [5] excellent blog post by Olaf Storbeck of Handelsblatt, which makes some of the same points.
Topics: EU policies [7] Europe's nations and regions [8]
Tags: Germany [9], Spain [10], Ireland [11], Greece [12], Eurozone crisis [13], Portugal [14]
Source URL: https://voxeu.org/article/there-hidden-eurozone-bailout
[1] http://www.voxeu.org/index.php?q=node/6599
[2] http://www.bundesbank.de/download/volkswirtschaft/mba/2011/201104mba_en_german_balance.pdf
[3] http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/sinn37/English
[4] http://www.cesifo-group.de/DocDL/cesifo1_wp3500.pdf
[5] http://olafstorbeck.com/2011/06/06/the-stealth-bailout-that-doesn%E2%80%99t-exist-debunking-hans-werner-sinn/
[6] http://www.iiea.com/blogosphere/professor-sinn-misses-the-target
[7] https://voxeu.org/content/topics/eu-policies
[8] https://voxeu.org/content/topics/europes-nations-and-regions
[9] https://voxeu.org/taxonomy/term/45
[10] https://voxeu.org/taxonomy/term/232
[12] https://voxeu.org/taxonomy/term/2053
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Waterkeepers
Clean Water Act: Excuses for Proposed Rollback Don’t Withstand Scrutiny
by Ellen Simon
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The Trump administration’s proposals stripping some waterways of Clean Water Act protection have no basis in law or science. Many of the administration’s assertions about the Clean Water Act also have no basis in fact.
We weigh some of the administration’s claims, below:
Fact: Clean water protections don’t put people out of work. Increased pollution does
Pres. Trump says: “The EPA’s regulators were putting people out of jobs by the hundreds of thousands,” Pres. Trump said on Feb. 28, 2017, as he signed an executive order initiating the process for eliminating Clean Water Act protections for the nation’s waters. He also said that excluding waterways from Clean Water Act protection would “[c]reate millions of jobs.”
The truth: The Trump administration has no evidence that protecting waters against pollution and destruction causes mass job loss. The truth is that clean water is essential to the economy, industrial production, and human well being, while uncontrolled pollution imposes severe economic costs.
Dead fish on a Florida beach, 2018.
Companies undertaking a “mass” layoff of 50 or more workers report them to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Those employers attribute a scant 0.2 percent of all mass layoffs to government intervention or regulations — of any kind. For every one job lost due to regulations of any kind, 15 jobs are lost to cost cutting and 30 to organizational changes, such as a change in ownership.
Pollution, however, has a cost.
Failing to control nitrogen and phosphorus pollution has caused exponential increases in the cost of drinking water treatment. For instance, nitrate-removal systems in Minnesota caused water purification costs to rise from 5 to 10 cents per 1,000 gallons to over $4.00 per 1,000 gallons. The tourism industry loses $1 billion annually because of nutrient pollution, mostly through losses in fishing and boating due to fish kills and algal blooms. Cancelled fishing trips mean guides, hotels, and restaurants lose business.
The fish and shellfish industry also suffers from water pollution. In Washington state alone, nitrogen and phosphorus pollution closed the razor clam fishery for part of 2016 resulting in an estimated $9.2 million in lost income.
Clean water, like a clean environment in general, has economic benefits.
Using the midpoint of estimates in a study by the Office of Management and Budget for the years 2001 to 2010, the benefits of environmental regulations exceeded costs by a ratio of 11 to four.
Alaska fishermen. Photo credit: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
A good example is the Chesapeake Bay, where cleaner water “will mean more fish, crabs, and oysters, which will translate to more work and income for fishermen, processors, packers, restaurateurs, and people in tourism-related industries,” according to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. Economists estimate that saving the Bay will add $22 billion a year to the Bay’s fishing, tourism, recreation, and real estate industries.
Rivers, lakes, and streams clean enough for kayaking, canoeing, fishing, and swimming have an economic benefit. The Outdoor Industry Association found that consumers spend $887 billion annually on outdoor recreation, with nearly $140 billion on kayaking, rafting, canoeing, scuba diving and other water and recreation activities. (The state-by-state breakdown is here.) Fishing added $41.8 billion to the economy in 2011, the most recently available year.
Clean water can also raise the value of a nearby home by up to 25 percent.
A $9.47 billion economic sector has grown around environmental restoration, including habitat and wetland restoration and management. The size of the restoration sector translated into 126,000 jobs created annually.
Unlike the shrinking facets of the economy, like the coal industry, the environmental sector is adding jobs, not cutting them. The number of environmental industry jobs in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia alone increased 43 percent over two decades.
Fact: No One’s Regulating Your Puddles
Pres. Trump says: “[A] few years ago, the EPA decided that navigable waters can mean nearly every puddle or every ditch on a farmer’s land or anyplace else that they decide. Right? It was a massive power grab.”
The truth: Even though farming and ranching are one of the largest contributors of nitrogen, phosphorus, and pathogen pollution across the U.S., our regulations treat these pollution discharges, for the most part, as “nonpoint sources” of pollution, exempt from discharge permitting requirements of the Clean Water Act.
A partially covered pile of poultry waste in the Catawba River basin on Sept. 12, two days before Hurricane Florence made landfall.
During the 45-year history of the Clean Water Act, EPA has never attempted to regulate puddles. But the myth has caught on, thanks to an expensive public relations campaign from the American Farm Bureau Federation and industry allies, part of a strategy developed by a broad coalition of industry lobbyists to convince farmers that EPA would be at their doors to inspect and regulate mud puddles and tire ruts.
As a result, EPA, under Pres. Obama, explicitly exempted puddles from the definition in its final version of the rule defining waters protected by the Clean Water Act.
This is a case, to paraphrase Mark Twain, where a lie will get around the world twice before the truth puts on its shoes.
Fact: No one’s punishing ranchers for digging small watering holes. Damming up a tributary without a permit? Different story.
Pres. Trump says: “In one case in Wyoming, a rancher was fined $37,000 a day by the EPA for digging a small watering hole for his cattle. His land.”
The truth: The Washington Post worked with FactCheck.org to look into this claim and “found that the Army Corps and the EPA found that the rancher had constructed a dam on a waterway that was a tributary of the Green River, which is deemed by the EPA as a “navigable, interstate water of the United States.”
Despite multiple warnings, he built the dam without a permit required by the Clean Water Act to prevent the inevitable downstream water pollution caused by dam construction.
The bottom line: The safeguards that underpinned the Clean Water Act before this proposal did not threaten anyone’s jobs, farms — or puddles.
By contrast, the Trump administration’s proposal narrowing the Act’s protections threatens us all.
The proposal would allow corporations to dump unlimited quantities of arsenic, cyanide, PCBs, or other dangerous pollutants into our drinking water supplies, fisheries and recreational waters — and do so with impunity.
The proposal would allow industrial animal operations to dump swine waste into waters that feed our fishing streams and swimming holes — and do so with impunity.
The truth is, our waterways are all connected.
The truth is, we all live downstream.
The truth is, the thing we can’t afford is this dangerous rollback of our essential water protections.
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Timeline: Human Rights Situation in Ethiopia
Photo courtesy of the BBC
Sparked by the Ethiopian Government’s plan to incorporate parts of the Oromia region surrounding Addis Ababa to the capital municipality in 2014, the Oromo people, the largest Ethiopian ethnicity, have used the latest round of protests that started in November 2015 to make their more basic grievances of lacking political participation and persecution on grounds of ethnicity heard. In all cases, the Government met their people’s expression of discontent with excessive and often lethal force, leaving more than a thousand Oromo dead within less than a year.
The Ogaden Somali ethnic group and other minorities, such as the Benishangul and Amhara, have during the same timeframe also experienced continued Government suppression. Local and federal police and militia have been indiscriminately killing civilians and pillaging whole communities where people refused to make way for government-backed investment projects.
The international community, after initially only reluctantly addressing the severe human rights violations, have in October 2016 found clear words condemning the Ethiopian Government’s abuses of their citizens’ basic freedoms.
12 July 2018: Oromia-based gunmen killed some 50 Somali civilians, what is undoubtedly a response to the Liyu Police’s exactions toward Oromos. According to UNPO Member the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) this would seem to suggest that the strongmen of the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) in the regional governments orchestrate the violence occurring on the border.
5 July 2018: Ethiopian parliament votes unanimously to remove the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) and the ‘Ginbot 7’ from the government's “terrorist” list.
4 July 2018: Human Rights Watch (HRW) publishes new report ‘We are Like the Dead’: Torture and other Human Rights Abuses in Jail Ogaden, Somali Regional State, Ethiopia,”. This 88-page report describes the relentless and systematic pattern of abuse in the Ogaden region, where victims are imprisoned often never facing charges or trials and must face abuse, torture, rape and humiliation. Often their family members or lawyers are not aware of their condition. The report goes to great lengths to explain the involvement of the regional government as well as state sponsored paramilitary group 'the Liyu police'. Most prisoners are accused of some affiliation with the opposition group Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF).
23 June 2018: A grenade explodes during a rally in support of Ethiopia's new Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and his reform policies, killing 2 and wounding many.
18 June 2018: PM Abiy Ahmed makes startling admission in Ethiopian Parliament regarding state-sponsored terrrorism and torture. PM Ahmed stated that the State's unconstitutional use of force to stay in power, is also terrorism. This astonishing admission of the (EPRDF) regime's use of torture and jailing is possibly the first public admission of this kind on the atrocities the government has done.
2 June 2018: The Ethiopian parliament lifted the State of Emergency two months early, originally scheduled to end in August 2018.
21 April 2018: Bashir Makhtal was finally reunited with his family on 21 April 2018 in Toronto, Canada after 11 years of incarceration in an Ethiopian prison. In 2009 Makhtal was sentenced to life imprisonment after being unlawfully deported from the Kenya-Somalia border during a business trip. Makhtal’s life sentence, during what has been deemed an unlawful trial by Amnesty International, was based on “terrorist-related” charges due to his grandfather allegedly being member of the government-banned Ogaden National Liberation Front
2 April 2018: (EPRDF) ruling coalition swore in new Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. PM Abiy Ahmed is 42 years old and is Ethiopia's first Oromo prime minister.
25 March 2018: Ethiopian authorities re-arrested several politicians and journalists who had recently been freed near the capital city of Addis Ababa. Among those arrested are journalists Eskinder Nega and Temesgen Desalegn, politician Andualem Aragie and prominent blogger Befekadu Hailu. This unrest is a direct consequence of the State of Emergency and lawyer Amha Mekonnen explained that the arrests occurred because they were accused of displaying a prohibited national flag as well ad gathering en masse, both violations of the state of emergency rule.
10 March 2018: On 10 March 2018, nine civilians were shot to death and fifteen were wounded by the Ethiopian army in Moyale town, not far from Ethiopia’s border with Kenya. The government responded that security forces acted upon a “mistaken intelligence report” and that the army was pursuing members of the Oromo Liberation Front. However, civilian testimonies argue that they have been shot at close range. This carnage terrified the civilians and over 8,000 Ethiopians fled to Kenyan Moyale town in search for safety. Kenyan schools have closed to host the refugees, including many injured, yet the city is struggling to contain the influx due to a lack of humanitarian assistance. Taye Dendea, Head of Public Relations and Communications for the Oromia Justice Bureau, condemned the Moyale killings as a planned operation which resulted in his arrest on 15 March 2018 and detention in Maekelawi Prison. This episode of violence is yet another concerning episode happening under Ethiopia’s recently re-imposed state of emergency.
5 March 2018: Yonatan Tesfaye was released from Zeway prison in Oromia state after more than 2 years incarcerated. Tesfaye, spokesperson of opposition group Semayawi (Blue Party), was charged and convicted for "inciting violence" and of “associating with a terrorist organization” after criticizing the government on his facebook account.
26 February 2018: Less than two weeks after the release of prominent Oromo leader Bekele Gerba along with six of his colleagues, it has been reported that the Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC) members Bekele Gerba and Merera Gudina were detained again in western Ethiopia. Gerba and his colleague Merera Gudina were touring the region in order to address their supporters, before being stopped by Ethiopian forces near the city of Nekemte. Eventually they were released from custody in Nekemte, but were forced to stop their tour and to return to Addis Ababa.
16 February 2018: The Ethiopian government declares a six-month nationwide state of emergency, invoking a grave threat to the constitutional order. The state of emergency, the second in less than a year, was announced a day after the resignation of Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, in what he described as a bid to "smooth the path for political reform". This declaration gives the government the power to suspend basic human rights and freedoms, such as freedom of assembly, in the name of restoring constitutional order.
14 February 2018: Ethiopian officials freed Oromo opposition leader Bekele Gerba and six of his colleagues of Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC) from prison after all charges against the Oromian protesters were dropped. This move is a response to a three-day social boycott that had been going on in the region. Gerba had been detained following the start of protests in November 2015.
12 February 2018: According to the Addis Gazette portal, federal forces opened fired on internall displaced peoples in Ethiopia’s Oromia region, claiming the lives of six people with others sustained varied degrees of injuries. This attack occured in the Hamaressa IDP camp located in the East Hararghe Zone of the Oromia region.
20 January 2018: Government security forces opened fire on protesting participants and killed 7 people in a religious ceremony taking place in Woldiya, a small city situated in the Amhara region in northern Ethiopia. The victims were allegedly chanting anti-government songs
17 January 2018: Oromo oppoisition leader who was imprisoned after giving account of the situation in Oromia to the European Parliament in 2016, Dr Merera Gudina, is released alongside 527 other "political" prisoners.
14 December 2017: In response to increased tensions on the border between the Ogaden and the Oromo region and uprising protests against the Ethiopian government that is said to sponsor violence between various ethnic groups, all social media channels have been shut done.
8 December 2017: Citizen Lab reports that the Ethiopian government is continuing to use targeted malware attacks in over 20 countries and includes the ISP adresses of the government of Eritrea and the Oromia Media Network.
28 November 2017: The sentence of Oromo activist Yonatan Tesfaye was reduced by three years after the Supreme Court decided to charge him under criminal charges instead of terrorism charges for online activism on Facebook.
22 November 2017: Somalia's Parliament states that the detention and susequent transfer of ONLF leader Mr Abdikarin Sheikh Muse, who was seeking refuge in Somalia, to Ethiopia in August 2017 was a breach of both Somali and international law.
1 November 2017: Following an appeal by state prosecutors, the bail granted to Bekele Gerba was reversed before his release. The official excuse for this backtrack is an admninistrative mix-up, but Gerba's daughter doubts the authorities will release her father while activists continue to claim that his imprisonment is politically-motivated.
30 October 2017: Bekele Gerba was granted bail by a federal supreme court after months of detention. Oromo activists, however, continue to demand that the politically-motivated charges be dropped.
26 October 2017: According to a report from the Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa, 10 people were killed and more than 16 injured by the Agazi forces - federal and special forces tied to the TPLF - in Ambo, Oromia, in the midst of protests triggered by recent shortages of sugar in the country.
18 September 2017: Somalia’s parliament took action on the unlawful transfer of ONLF party leader and Somali national, Abdikarin Sheikh Muse, to Ethiopia. After weeks of international outrage surrounding the arrest, the Somalian parliament officially designated a body of 15 members to open investigation on behalf of Mr Abdikarin.
23 August 2017: a Somali refugee from the Ogaden region, having been living in Mogadishu, Somalia, for three years, was arrested by the regional security of the Galkacyo, Galmudug regional state in central Somalia. Mr Abdikarin Sheikh Muse, also an executive committee member of UNPO Member Ogaden National Liberation Front, was then transferred to Mogadishu and held by the Somali National Security for a few days before being refouled to Ethiopia.
4 August 2017: The Ethiopian Parliament voted in favor of lifting the state of emergency imposed in October 2016.
7 July 2017: A letter, co-signed by 38 members of the European Parliament, spanning 6 different political groups, has been sent to Ms Federica Mogherini, calling her to condemns the violence with which the protests in Ethiopia have been met and call for an independent investigation into the conduct of the security forces when dealing with these protests, as well as for the end of sexual violence in Ethiopia.
20 June 2017: Federal prosecutor submitted their objections to Dr Merera Gudina's statement asking that the criminal charges against him be separated from the terrorism charges against the two media organisations OMN and ESAT that were put in the same file. The prosecutors asked that the court dismiss Dr Gudina's objection on the grounds that he had not included this objection along with his preliminary objections and that the three cases are closely interrelated. The court will give its verdict on 7 July 2017.
18 May 2017: The European Parliament passed a resolution calling for a credible, transparent and independent investigation into the killings of hundreds of protesters and the extreme violence that has been used by security forces during demonstrations in 2016. The resolution also renews calls for the release of Ethiopian opposition leader Merera Gudina and urges the Ethiopian government to end the state of emergency and the restrictions it entails, as well as to stop using anti-terrorism legislation to suppress peaceful opposition.
4 May 2017: The prosecutors replied to the preliminary objections raised by Mr Gudina's lawyers on 25 March 2017 and the court adjourned the release of its verdict on these objections to 2 June 2017.
25 April 2017: Dr Merera Gudina, who is charged with alleged terrorism and other criminal offences, has presented preliminary objections to the federal court where he is standing trial, which postponed the case to 4 May in order to give prosecutors the time to respond. According to Dr Gudina, his trip to Brussels and his speech at the European Parliament should not constitute grounds for his continued detention as he never meant to trespass the state of emergency by travelling to Belgium and never granted interviews to anti-government media outlets.
30 March 2017: The Ethiopian government, under the full control of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic front (EPRDF), voted to extend the state of emergency for four more months. This decision signifies the continuation of state-sponsored violence in heavily policed areas such as Oromia, impunity for authorities and the abuse of martial law to target marginalised communities. The Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa called upon Western powers to condemn the systematic repression and human rights violations happening in Oromia.
16 March 2017: UNPO released a report on human rights in Ethiopia, shedding light on the worrying situation of the Oromo and Ogadeni peoples. With the support of major international donors such as the European Union, Addis Ababa increasingly places economic development and enforced political stability above human rights and civil liberties.To view and download the report, please click here.
8 March 2017: Over the course of three days, more than 300 people died from cholera in Ogaden. Scores more are at high risk of death due to the lack of medical support. It is estimated that since November 2016, more than 2000 have died in rural areas and villages in Ogaden. The ongoing drought and the inaccessibility of food and water puts most of the population at risk.
23 February 2017: Dr Merera Gudina was charged with terrorism by Ethiopian prosecutors, along renowned Oromo activist Jawar Mohammed and executive director of the Oromia Media Network Berhanu Nega.
15 February 2017: On 14 February 2017, Lilesa’s wife and daughter were granted a visa and joined him in the United States. Since he attracted world’s attention on the plight of the Oromo while crossing the finish line of the marathon at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, Feyisa Lilesa has not been able to return to Ethiopia for fear of reprisals from the regime.
19 January 2017: Human Rights Watch published a scathing report on the events that took place in 2016 in Ethiopia. The organization identified a string of human rights abuses – including the killing of 400 protesters and others – carried out by security forces and the regime in Addis Ababa. Its report highlights violations of the freedom of assembly and the freedom of expression and association, as well as the use of torture and arbitrary detention.
1 December 2016: Mr Merera Gudina, a high-level Oromo opposition politician, was arrested shortly after his return to Ethiopia after speaking out against the plight of the Oromo people in front of the European Parliament. In his speech from 9 November 2016, he roundly condemned the arrest of thousands of people under the government-imposed, 6-month state of emergency.
16 October 2016: The Ethiopian Government imposes a whole host of measures within the scope of the one-week old state of emergency impinging severely on the population’s civil liberties. Those measures include a 6pm to 6am curfew; the right to stop and search suspects; to search private residences without prior court order and forbidding diplomats to travel further than a 40 km radius around the capital. Opposition organizations regarded as “terrorist groups” by the regime have, moreover, been put under a total media blackout, prohibiting them to release any statements as well as banning anyone from establishing contact with them. Since then, the Ethiopian authorities have detained more than 1,600 people, mainly from the Oromia and Amhara regions.
14 October 2016: EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Federica Mogherini, speaks in a telephone call to Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn. In the conversation, she expresses the EU’s worries about the recently imposed state of emergency. The High Representative highlights the slippery slope that a state of emergency brings about for the compliance with civil liberties and urges the Prime Minister to comply with human rights standards as provided for by the Ethiopian constitution.
12 October 2016: The European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights and the EP Committee on Development jointly hold a hearing addressing the deteriorating human rights situation in Ethiopia. During the meeting, Members of the European Parliament, human rights experts and representatives of the Ethiopian Government had a chance to express their concerns and points of view. Although several MEPs call for the EU to review its strategic partnership with Addis Ababa, denouncing its appalling human rights record, the EU Commission and its External Action Service insist on a dialogue and collaboration with the incumbent government. Ms Barbara Lochbihler MEP extended the debate to the precarious situation of the Ogaden people, who have been subjected to the same kind of rights abuses as the Oromo over the past years. Ms Linda McAvan MEP and Chair of the EP Committee on Development, in turn, adds that the EU would need a reliable and stable partner in the region who respects the rights of political minorities.
10 October 2016: UN human rights experts call for an independent investigation of the ongoing government-directed violence in Ethiopia. The experts would like to see an international commission of inquiry established in order to bring to justice those responsible for the severe human rights violations. While still persistently under-reporting the number of people fallen victim to government-sponsored killing squads, the Special Rapporteur on freedom of peaceful assembly and of association as well as the Working Group on enforced or involuntary disappearances and on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions do strongly condemn the Ethiopian Government’s violent reaction to peaceful demonstrations. The human rights experts, further, highlight a few choice words on the current Ethiopian anti-terrorism legislation, which they describe as conducive to acts leading to extrajudicial executions.
8 October 2016: The Ethiopian Government declares a six-month state of emergency. In response to ongoing protests after the Irrecha massacre, the Prime Minister decries the peaceful Oromo protests as a danger to the Ethiopian people and institutes the state of emergency.
6 October 2016: The Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) send their condolences to the families of the Irrecha massacre victims. The ONLF call the Tigrean Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF) Government’s horrific disregard for human rights crimes against humanity and demand the government to put an end to the impunity under which their killing squads keep murdering unarmed civilians. Furthermore, the ONLF states that they regard the Oromo’s and all other oppressed Ethiopian people’s struggle for justice in the face of the TPLF-sponsored violation of their basic dignity as their own.
5 October 2016: The Peoples Alliance for Freedom and Democracy (PAFD), while condemning the regime’s increasing paranoia, extends an invitation for collaboration with other civil society organizations. In a statement on the 2 October Irrecha mass killing, the PAFD invites all civil society groups, NGOs or opposition parties working for the respect of human rights to collaborate and join forces with them to put a stop to the government’s harassment of its people and to find a way for all Ethiopians to live together in peace. This is proposed to be achieved by a concerted effort to draw up a transitional mechanism for a peaceful shift in power towards an inclusive government for all people of Ethiopia.
5 October 2016: The EU External Action Service fails to adequately condemn the 2 October Oromo mass killing. Disappointingly, they fail to mention the perpetrators of the horrific events, which is the Agazi killing squad, as well as the Ethiopian people’s most immediate needs, which are to live freely in a democratic country and to have a say in the matters affecting their regions and communities.
2 October 2016: The Irrecha Festival Massacre. At the Oromo Festival of thanksgiving, the government-sponsored Agazi killing squad fires rubber bullets and live ammunition into a large crowd of Oromos, who were also protesting the government’s exploitation of their sacred festival for their own political agenda, causing the death of at least 600 peaceful demonstrators. The deployment of armoured vehicles and a combat helicopter, moreover, triggered a stampede on top of the already appalling tragedy.
20 September 2016: The European Union’s Annual Report on Human Rights and Democracy in the World 2015 shines a light on the precarious human rights situation in Oromia. The Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) welcomes the clear stand the EU is taking on the protection of human rights but remarks the scarcity of reliable sources on Oromia used in the report.
Mid-September 2016: 300 Benishangul were arrested during land rights protests. The locals of the town of Gizan in Benishangul-Gumuz refused to leave their land after it had been sold for gold prospecting to government and army officials from Tigray; over a dozen of them are claimed to have died in detention.
6 September 2016: The European Commission assures in an emailed statement that no money from its Emergency Trust Fund is being channelled through the Ethiopian Government or any of its agencies.
23 August 2016: The crowdfunding campaign instituted by Abdi Fite, Lalisaa Hikaa and Solomon Ungashe on the day after Feyisa Lilesa’s silver medal success to support his claim of asylum surpassed $100,000 in just two days.
21 August 2016: The Oromo athlete Feyisa Lilesa finishes second in Rio’s Olympic marathon event and signals his support for Oromo protests while crossing the finish line. The Olympic athlete crosses his arms with his fists closed over his head as a sign of protest against the Ethiopian Government’s treatment of his people. Despite government statements calling him an Ethiopian hero, Lilesa fears to be killed if he were to return home.
16 August 2016: The Ethiopian Government dismisses the OHCHR’s plea for an independent investigation of the latest violent crackdowns on peaceful Oromo and Amhara protesters. In his statement the government spokesperson appears unwilling to allow any opposition to the regime’s policies to be voiced at all.
10 August 2016: The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) urges the Ethiopian Government to grant access to independent investigators to all conflict zones. The OHCHR demands that human rights experts be allowed to transparently assess the most recent state-sponsored violations of the freedom to peaceful assembly that have verberated especially the Oromo region since late 2015, so far, culminating in the 6-7 August indiscriminate killing of one hundred unarmed protesters.
6 and 7 August 2016: Approximately 100 people have been killed when security forces used excessive force against Oromo and Amhara protesters. All across Oromia and in several parts of Amhara people went out on the streets to demand political reform, respect for the rule of law and an end to the persecution of people with dissenting opinions from that of the government.
21 July 2016: Two Oromo die in a self-immolation in front of the UNHCR’s offices in Cairo. The two asylum seekers set themselves ablaze over desperate frustration with the UN officials’ slow processing and frequent rejection of Oromo’s claims for asylum, which currently leaves over 10,000 Oromo asylum seekers in limbo in Egypt alone.
28 June 2016: Julie Ward MEP and the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) enable the newly founded Peoples Alliance for Freedom and Democracy (PAFD) to present themselves at the European Parliament. During a roundtable discussion, the PAFD explained their agenda, which covers topics such as the potential for peaceful dialogue and cooperation between all oppressed ethnic groups.
UNPO General Secretary Marino Busdachin, further, stresses the importance to ensure that EU development funds reach the affected people and are not being embezzled by Government officials. Ms Ward and her colleague Ana Gomes MEP agree that the EU could do more to raise awareness for the deplorable human rights conditions that Ethiopian minorities are facing; the European Parliament’s resolution of January 2016 condemning the crackdown on peaceful Oromo protests had been an urgently needed first step in the right direction, but only unwavering support for a coalition of local stakeholders could bring sustainable prosperity to Ethiopia.
22 and 23 June 2016: Two side-events to the XXXII Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva deal with the relationship of business ventures and human rights in Ogaden and the repeated violent suppression of peaceful Oromo protests since November 2015. The Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO), in cooperation with the Nonviolent Radical Party (PRNTT), the Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa and the Ogaden People's Rights Organization organized both events, which were directed at an audience of human rights defenders, diplomats, politicians, journalists and academics from all over the world.
The June 22 event culminated in the premiere of Mr Graham Peebles’ investigative documentary entitled: “Ogaden: Ethiopia's Hidden Shame”, portraying the Ethiopian security forces’ reckless methods of torture, rape and other excessive forms of violence as described by victims now staying at Dadaab Refugee Camp in Kenya. The second side-event on June 23 saw the presentation of the latest Human Rights Watch report on the situation of Oromo in Ethiopia, published on June 16 (see below), and an in-depth analysis of the background to the Oromo protests expounded by Mr Garoma Wakessa, Director of the Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa. Both side-events achieved the aim of convincingly disenchanting the West’s view of Ethiopia as a role model for a well-developing African democracy or as an anchor of stability for the region.
16 June 2016: The Senior Human Rights Watch Researcher on the Horn of Africa, Felix Horne, publishes his latest report on the Ethiopian Government’s human rights record. The report is entitled "'Such a Brutal Crackdown': Killings and Arrests in Response to Ethiopia's Oromo Protests" and gives a detailed account of the excessive force used by government-backed militias in extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests and maltreatment in detention. It is comprised of 125 eyewitness testimonies and victims’ accounts gathered between the start of the Oromo protests in November 2015 and May 2016; it finds severe violations of the freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly and access to information.
15 June 2016: The founder of the Semayawi Party, Samuel Aweke, is found dead after openly criticizing the government. He reportedly received ominous threats from security officials following the publication of a critical article on the behaviour of Ethiopian security forces during the 2016 national elections. Since his murder, an alleged perpetrator has been convicted of the crime, notwithstanding trial observers calling the proceedings a sham.
5 June 2016: 51 unarmed civilians have been killed in an indiscriminate Ethiopian army attack in Ogaden. After murdering scores of inhabitants of the village of Jama’ Dubad near Gashamo in the Ogaden region, the army forces kidnapped a dozen community elders and burnt the village to the ground, making sure to completely destroy the villagers’ livelihoods in the process.
3 May 2016: A delegation from the Ogaden People’s Rights Organization raises awareness at meetings with UN officials for the most recent Ethiopian State-sponsored human rights violations. The visit to the Palais des Nations in Geneva has been facilitated by UNPO and is designed to increase pressure on the Ethiopian Government to grant unlimited access to humanitarian agencies to the country and to allow for an independent investigation of the ongoing severe human rights violations, as previous appeals by the international community have gone unheeded.
2 May 2016: The White House forcefully condemns the indictment of Oromo opposition politician Bekele Gerba. The Obama administration calls on the Ethiopian Government to cease using its anti-terrorism legislation to prosecute journalists, politicians and human rights defenders.
26 April 2016: 22 dissidents appear in front of the Ethiopian Federal High Court. After being held incommunicado, without access to legal counsel and under deplorable hygienic conditions for four days, the 22 human rights activists and opposition politicians charged on April 22 under the Anti-Terrorism Proclamation (see below) have been presented to their judges. Four of the prisoners of conscience – including the Oromo Federalist Congress’s First General Secretary, Bekele Gerba – had, additionally, been placed under dark solitary confinement after refusing to take ominous pills administered to them by prison authorities.
22 April 2016: 22 civil society activists and opposition politicians have been arrested and charged under the Anti-Terrorism Proclamation. They are being accused of inciting violence and being members of the outlawed Oromo Liberation Front; among the detained is the globally respected Oromo Federalist Congress politician Bekele Gerba, who had just been released from prison earlier in 2016.
27 March 2016: Almost 300 Oromo asylum seekers gather in protest in front of the UNHCR building in Cairo. The protesters are trying to raise awareness for the long wait for their applications to be processed and for the high number of rejected claims for asylum.
21 to 25 March 2016: The Peoples Alliance for Freedom and Democracy (PAFD) holds its first general congress. The Alliance, which is made up of five organizations representing five different oppressed Ethiopian peoples – among them the Oromo Liberation Front and the Ogaden National Liberation Front – besides organizational issues, addressed the state of the member organizations’ collective struggle against the oppressive regime and invited all Ethiopian ethnicities to join their cause.
15 March 2016: The Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) is worried about the Ogaden people’s right to self-determination in the face of an Ethiopia-China gas deal. For the implementation of the recently agreed natural gas deal, UNPO calls, particularly, on the European Parliament to make sure that the local Ogaden population will be involved in the decision making process connected to all environmental and land rights side effects that are to be expected.
10 March 2016: The Peoples Alliance for Freedom and Democracy (PAFD) releases a statement expressing its concern about a multi-billion dollar natural gas project. The business venture between the Ethiopian and Djibouti Governments and a Chinese investor is designed to exploit Ogaden’s natural gas resources. Judging from earlier experiences – particularly forced displacements of whole communities without adequate compensation, extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances – the PAFD fears that the people of Ogaden will come out at the short end of the deal.
3 March 2016: Two foreign journalists and their interpreter have been arbitrarily detained for 24 hours. A government spokesperson claimed the two journalists, who had reported on the most recent Oromo protests, were in violation of their press accreditation – in other words, reporting on events they were not supposed to report on. Their translator was detained, according to the spokesperson, because of his affiliation with an opposition group.
Early March 2016: Facebook Messenger, Twitter and WhatsApp are being blocked in Oromia and other regions of Ethiopia. The social media sites have remained inaccessible for months to come. The government-enforced social media blackout, enabled by Ethio Telecom, who is the only telecommunications provider in Ethiopia, has been denied to be intentional by the government and has not been commented on by Ethio Telecom. The ban on social media does, however, match known patterns of practices by the Ethiopian regime to undermine the free flow of information on people trying to make their grievances heard.
26 February 2016: The Ethiopian Government de facto declares martial law over Oromia. By removing all civil administrators of Oromia from office and replacing them with members of the federal intelligence and military officers, the government de facto declares martial law over the Ethiopian heartland.
February 2016: Ethiopian forces carry out a gruesome mass killing of 300 villagers in Ogaden. The whole community of Labarbar village near Shilaabo in Ogaden is reported to have been completely destroyed by the Ethiopian army, supported by the infamous Liyu Police militia, apparently due to its vicinity to the Jeexdin (Calub) natural gas field.
29 January 2016: Seven inmates have been tortured for hours at an Addis Ababa prison. Overnight, seven inmates at Kalitti prison in Addis Ababa have been severely beaten by prison officials, reportedly receiving broken limbs, cuts and open wounds, leaving their naked bodies smeared in blood. They were, subsequently, subjected to an unknown period of dark solitary confinement. One prisoner, who was separated from the others and whose injuries are reported to have been exceptionally severe, is feared dead.
27 January 2016: More than 50 Anuak civilians have been indiscriminately shot dead by regional security forces and local militia in villages all over the Gambella region in what has been described as an “ethnic cleansing” campaign by the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO). The premeditated raids appear to be in connection with government-suspicions against members of the Anuak ethnicity of affiliations with the Gambella Peoples’ Liberation Movement, a founding member of the Peoples Alliance for Freedom and Democracy (PAFD).
27 January 2016: 20 Oromo protesters have been injured in a demonstration. Security forces hit protesters with batons and iron rods to the head and legs in a police operation to crackdown on a peaceful demonstration in Addis Ababa.
21 January 2016: The European Parliament (EP) issues a resolution on the situation in Ethiopia. The EP calls for an independent investigation of the latest crackdowns on peaceful Oromo protesters by government-sponsored militias. At the same time, the Parliamentarians do not neglect to appropriately mention the deplorable human rights conditions from which the Ogaden people keep suffering; the resolution outspokenly criticises the government-imposed ban on media coverage and any kind of impartial investigation of the war crimes and serious human rights violations committed by the Ethiopian army and government paramilitary forces in Ogaden. The European institution, further, pledges to keep a close eye on the use of funds from European development assistance, making sure that none of it trickles off to the central government to be used to prolong the suppression of its own people. The Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) welcomes the resolution as a necessary step towards human rights protection and democracy in Ethiopia.
21 January 2016: UN human rights experts are welcome the abandonment of the “Addis Ababa Master Plan”. UN experts on communicative freedoms and on enforced disappearances express their satisfaction with the abandonment of the “Master Plan”, but urge the Ethiopian Government to also put an end to the violent suppression of peaceful protests.
17 to 20 January 2016: Despite the cancellation of the “Master Plan”, at least 12 protesters are killed during several peaceful demonstrations all over Oromia.
14 January 2016: Oromo protest in front of the European Parliament. Oromo communities from Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany raise awareness in Brussels for the Ethiopian Government’s repeated brutal crackdowns on peaceful Oromo demonstrations. The protesters also demand that the EU cut all development assistance from which the Ethiopian Government would benefit until a peaceful solution to the current human rights crisis has been found. The Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) fully supports the Oromo’s demand to have the Ethiopian Government held responsible for the crimes they committed.
12 January 2016: The Ethiopian Government calls off its “Master Plan”. After the violent deaths of more than 140 Oromo protesters since November 2015, the Ethiopian Government finally halts its “Addis Ababa Integrated Master Plan”. The decision was reached after three days of talks between government officials and representatives from local Oromo communities. Oromo activists, however, regard the government’s concessions as “too little too late”, as the grievances voiced by the demonstrators have long since exceeded this single concern and spread to more fundamental demands of good governance, political participation and the end of ethnically motivated persecution of Oromos and many other Ethiopian peoples.
December 2015: The number of deaths related to the use of excessive force by security forces during the crackdown of peaceful protests keeps increasing. Until the end of December, well-known patterns of excessive force used by federal police or the ruthless Liyu security forces – all controlled by the central Tigrean-dominated Government – have been reported by Human Rights Watch in 62 separate incidents all over Oromia, leading to 27 confirmed deaths of protesters and arrests of pupils as young as 8, while local human rights organizations claim hundreds more (at least 143) have fallen victim to the Ethiopian security forces’ unyielding violence.
Last Week of November 2015: Four Oromo students die at a protest rally at Haramaya University in Oromia. The Ethiopian Government’s federal police, known as “Agazi”, opened fire on peaceful demonstrators at Haramaya University in Dire Dawa, a town located in eastern Oromia. The students – like many Oromo these days – were protesting the “Addis Ababa Master Plan”, which embodies for them the ruling Tigrean elite’s disregard for Oromo farmers’ land rights and stands emblematically for the Government’s persecutory policies directed against most Ethiopian peoples, including the Oromo and Ogaden.
Mid-November 2015 (starting on 12 November): Oromo protests against the so-called “Addis Ababa Integrated Master Plan” keep intensifying.
Oromia sees increasing protest against the “Addis Ababa Master Plan”, which has been designed to accommodate the concerns of the growing Ethiopian capital city by integrating large swathes of the surrounding Oromia region into the city, in the process dispossessing countless Oromo farmers’ agricultural land. The Oromo make up the largest ethnic group of Ethiopia and account for around 35% of its total population, inhabiting the heartland of the country all around the capital city. The first demonstrations against the “Master Plan” had already occurred in April 2014, when its implementation began, and during which security forces (or “Liyu” police) already killed several dozen protesters.
During the first protests of November 2016, which were mostly organized by university and school students as well as those farmers directly affected by the plan, the police used teargas when the demonstrators refused to disperse and arrested many participants of the peaceful assembly. In ensuing protests the federal police (or “Agazi” – an infamous government-sponsored killing squad) did not stop at firing tear gas at the protesters but, after firing warning shots into the air, started shooting indiscriminately into the crowd, killing scores of unarmed demonstrators.
23 October 2015:
After a two-day meeting in Oslo, Norway, the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), the Benishangul People’s Liberation Movement (BPLM), the Gambella People’s Liberation Movement (GPLM) and the Sidama National Liberation Front (SNLF) found a political alliance, named Peoples Alliance for Freedom and Democracy (PAFD), which is designed to unite the peaceful efforts of the participating ethnicities in working together towards ending the persistent and severe human rights violations committed by successive central Ethiopian Governments.
The Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) calls the establishment of the PAFD “a milestone for the struggle for human rights and democracy in Ethiopia”; the equal footing on which the different ethnic organizations have met is regarded as the best hope for an all-inclusive process of national reconciliation.
Dinknesh Deressa Kitila, Oromo
Ogaden: ONLF Signs Agreement for Mutual Cooperation
Ogaden: ONLF Leadership Returns to Ethiopia
Oromo, Ogaden: Ex-Intelligence Service Members Held Accountable For Surveillance of National Liberation Groups
Oromo: Feyisa Lilesa Back in Ethiopia After Exile
Ogaden: ONLF and Ethiopian Officials Agree to End Conflict
More Oromo news »
More Ogaden news »
UNPO Kicks Off Unrepresented Women Campaign with Release of Study on Minority Women in Politics
UNPO Perspectives on the Somali Region Following Human Rights Watch’s Damning Report On Jail Ogaden
UNPO Submits Report for CEDAW Review of Ethiopia
UNPO Releases Briefing Note on the Current Situation of the Ogaden and Ethiopia
UNPO Submits Report for Midterm Universal Periodic Review on Ethiopia
More Oromo publications »
More Ogaden publications »
UNPO General Secretary Condemns Ethiopian Arrest of Swedish Journalists
EES Week 1: Blossoming Trade Conceals Roots of Exploitation
More Oromo appeals »
More Ogaden appeals »
Ogaden
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20th/21st Century
Suite in C Major, K. 399: II. Allemande
Label: Unclassified
Suite in C Major, K. 399: I. Overture
Suite in C Major, K. 399: III. Courante
Piece in the Shape of a Square
Torso of a Bodhisattva
Was mir behagt, ist nur die muntre Jagd!, BWV 208, "Hunt Cantata": Aria: Schafe konnen sicher weiden (Sheep May Safely Graze) (arr. E. Petri for piano)
Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, BWV 62 (arr. W.S.D.M. Prado for piano)
String Quartet No. 45 in A Major, Op. 55, No. 1, Hob.III:60: III. Menuetto
Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, Op. 46: I. Morning Mood
Liebesfreud (arr. W. Drahts for cello and piano)
Violin Concerto No. 4 in D Major, K. 218: II. Andante cantabile
Cello Sonata No. 1 in F Major, Op. 5, No. 1: I. Adagio sostenuto - Allegro
Symphony No. 1 in C Major, Op. 21: II. Andante cantabile con moto
String Quartet No. 1 in G Major: I. Allegro moderato
Beau soir (arr. for piano)
Symphony No. 9 in E Minor, Op. 95, "From the New World": II. Largo
Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007: I. Prelude
Études, Op. 10: 12 Etudes, Op. 10: No. 3 in E Major, Op. 10, No. 3
Ballade No. 4 in F Minor, Op. 52
Concierto de Aranjuez: II. Adagio
All-night Vigil, Op. 37, "Vespers": Hail, O Virgin Mother (Ave Maria)
Variations on a Theme by Haydn, Op. 56a, "St. Anthony Variations": Theme: Chorale St. Antoni: Andante
Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 16: I. Allegro moderato (revised by P. Grainger)
Serenade for strings in E Major, Op. 22: II. Tempo di valse
Serenade No. 10 in B-Flat Major, K. 361, "Gran Partita": III. Adagio
Ave Verum Corpus, K. 618: Ave verum corpus, K. 618
Horn Concerto No. 3 in E-Flat Major, K. 447: I. Allegro
Clarinet Sonata: I. Allegro tristemente: Allegretto - Tres calme - Tempo allegretto
Piano Sonata: I. quarter note = 112
The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1, BWV 846-869: Prelude No. 1 in C Major, BWV 846
Pavane pour une infante defunte (version for orchestra)
24 Caprices, Op. 1: No. 2 in B Minor: Moderato
The Lark Ascending
Thaïs: Thais, Act II: Meditation (version for violin and piano)
Cello Concerto in C Major: II. Grave
The Hebrides, Op. 26, "Fingal's Cave"
Symphony in D Major, Op. 3, No. 1, W. C1
Symphony No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 11: II. Andante
Lieder ohne Worte (Songs without Words), Book 1, Op. 19b: No. 5 in F-Sharp Minor, Op. 19b, No. 5, MWV U90
Requiem in D Minor, K. 626: Sequence No. 6: Lacrimosa dies illa
String Quartet No. 14 in G Major, K. 387: III. Andante cantabile
Piano Sonata No. 30 in E Major, Op. 109: I. Vivace, ma non troppo - II. Adagio espressivo prestissimo
5 Preludes, Op. 16: No. 1 in B Major: Andante
5 Preludes, Op. 16: No. 2 in G-Sharp Minor: Allegro
5 Preludes, Op. 16: No. 3 in G-Flat Major: Andante cantabile
5 Preludes, Op. 16: No. 4 in E-Flat Minor: Lento
5 Preludes, Op. 16: No. 5 in F-Sharp Minor: Allegretto
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Sep OCT Apr
25 Oct 2014 - 19 Feb 2019
The College of Arts and Sciences
SYR.EDU
Interrelated Units
Black Student Groups
Integrated Learning Majors
Academics: MA Program of Study
Recent Master Theses
Graduate Rules and Regulations
External Fellows
The M.A. in Pan African Studies
The M.A. in Pan African Studies is a 30-credit program offering students a comprehensive understanding of the global African experience. This interdisciplinary program is structured around:
Four core courses
Two electives
An external site experience
A thesis
Courses explore the Pan African experience as reflected in multiple historical, social, and political contexts, most notably in Africa, the Caribbean, and the United States. With the approval of the Graduate Committee, students may participate in the Scholar Exchange Program, a cooperative relationship with the University of Rochester and Cornell University.
This innovative program is distinct from any other of its kind. It has a unique experiential component that requires a residency at an external site where the department either runs a Division of International Programs Abroad (DIPA) program, or has established an institutional affiliation. This experience offers students alternative academic exposure while confronting them with the challenge of merging theory and practice as they learn to operationalize Pan African Studies in the larger world.
The targeted sites are located in Africa, the Caribbean, Europe, Canada, and the United States. At the site, students complete a pre-approved project involving research, practical education, independent study, an internship, or a related activity. Two of the graduate courses that contribute to the core offerings in the program, AAS 611 Arts, Literatures, and Cultures of the Pan African World and AAS 612 Societies and Politics of the Pan African World, are unlike any courses offered in similar graduate programs around the country. The courses create a comprehensive framework that brings together concentrations from specific disciplinary foci, as well as the transformations in those foci that have occurred through the Black encounter. Students learn to appreciate intellectual nuances, dynamism, and diversification as these pertain to Pan African Studies, a layered and complex field of academic engagement. Equally important, they are taught to engage the silences inherent in many disciplines and paradigms, including those associated with traditional Africana Studies approaches. The M.A. in Pan African Studies degree exposes students to the arts, the humanities, and the social sciences, and incorporates a wider global framework against which the spectrum of the entire Black world is critically, comparatively, and contrastively examined and theorized.
The program aims to produce well-groomed, master's level scholars ready either to proceed to further doctoral studies in the humanities or the social sciences, or to enter the world of work. Potential areas of employment include the local non-governmental sector, international organizations, social services, criminal justice, education, and health care, among others.
For further information on our program please contact our Administrative Assistant, Ajajielle A. Brown, Room 204 Sims Hall, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244-1725. Phone: (315) 443-5599.
Bob Marley, Social Justice Songwriter and Reggae Musician; a dying Hector Pietersen becoming an icon of the anti-Apartheid South Africa struggle while being carried away by a fellow student, with his sister running next to them during the 1976 Soweto Uprising, Johannesburg, South Africa; Black feminists demonstrating (ca. 1980); Black Liberator and South African President Nelson Mandela (with wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and supporters) after being released from prison in 1990, after serving a 27 year sentence as a political prisoner in staunch opposition to Apartheid.
The Master's Degree in Pan African Studies
Academics: M.A. Program of Study
MySlice
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African American Studies at Syracuse University | 200 Sims Hall | Syracuse, NY 13244 (315) 443-4302 | Fax:(315) 443-1725 | email
Copyright 2011 © The College of Arts and Sciences
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Tag Archives: Marianne Dashwood
When the Grapes Are Out of Reach: Stream-of-Consciousness Saturday
Posted by Sandi in Glass, Jane Austen, Photography 101, Sense, SoCs, Stream of Consciousness
#photo101, Aesop, Benjamin Franklin, Elinor Dashwood, Marianne Dashwood, Sense and Sensibility, Thomas Paine
Common sense has never been my strong suit. When I was in high school, a friend gave me a lovely hardback copy of Aesop’s Fables with the hope that I might acquire some common sense from reading Aesop’s instructive allegories. I still have the book, but I feel sure that the book did not have the desired effect. Years later, I am still lacking in the common sense department, although I’d like to think that I balance my deficiencies in that area with my strengths in other areas.
What do I mean by common sense, anyway? Thomas Paine’s pamphlet, Common Sense, comes to mind: Paine’s pamphlet ultimately inspired many colonists to support the revolution against King George III, or so the history books would have it. After all, did it make sense for a monarch and, more importantly, a governing body in which the American colonies had no representation to make important decisions about those colonies? Was it fair for Parliament to levy taxes on goods imported to the colonies when the colonies were given no voice in their own government? Paine argued that such a practice defied common sense.
Common sense, or practical wisdom, seems to have been valued greatly by our American forefathers. Benjamin Franklin, another American who played an important role in stirring up support for the American revolution and who had a central part in the Continental Congress, is well known for Poor Richard’s Almanack, which contained pithy sayings such as, “A penny saved is a penny earned.” Common sense when applied apparently can lead to a more frugal, fruitful, and industrious lifestyle.
Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, although it is not primarily a didactic work, would similarly suggest that those who live their lives in a sensible manner are ultimately fated to wreak less havoc on the lives of others and, it is to be hoped, may ultimately be rewarded with good things. In Austen’s novel, the two oldest Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne, provide excellent examples of the two qualities in the title, sense and sensibility.
While capable of strong feelings, Elinor exercises self-control when circumstances vex or disappoint her; she devotes herself to practical measures rather than allowing herself to dwell upon the various ways in which life seems to have cheated her — of her ancestral home, of the young man who appears to have more than a brotherly interest in her. Meanwhile, her sister Marianne indulges her sensibilities — her emotional reactions to the circumstances and people around her. While Elinor quietly accepts that she, her mother, and sisters must leave Norland, Marianne gives herself over to emotional outbursts. Later, when Marianne is led on by the dashing Willoughby, she is utterly consumed with sadness at Willoughby’s desertion and, perhaps, is therefore more susceptible to a serious illness.
In reading Austen’s novel, I found Elinor’s practical, other-centered response to unfortunate circumstances far more admirable, but, in my heart, I know that I probably would have behaved as Marianne did: reacting rather than acting, rashly seeking out the one who had wronged me rather than rationally accepting that, reprehensible as Willoughby’s behavior was, she was better off without him in her life. By the end of the book, Marianne has become a more sober, wiser character — but, to tell you the truth, I prefer the impulsive, passionate Marianne of the pre-Willoughby chapters. Still, even the most imprudent of us must bow to life’s realities at some point or another. Laundry, taxes, deadlines, homework — these practical needs or demands necessitate that even those of us with little common sense must acquire some, or otherwise inflict a great deal of inconvenience on the people closest to us.
For this reason, I have realized that I must curtail my blogging somewhat: when there are so many practical matters crying out for my attention, how can I justify spending hours each day reading the musings of others and adding my own two cents’ worth? Yet there must be some way of managing to sustain both the life of the imagination and life in all its unromantic necessities. Here, the tools of organization might be helpful: careful evaluation of my time will surely reveal misspent hours.
Perhaps one of Elinor Dashwood’s most admirable qualities is her ability to think of others even when she herself is downcast: I’m not sure that is so much because she has common sense as because she has a sense of her own unimportance in the overall scheme of things. Yes, her personal happiness matters, but she sees her affairs as one small piece in an enormous puzzle, so to speak. She manages to find a source of contentment even in the humble diversions open to her, such as walks in the country or evenings with the Middletons.
In one of Aesop’s best-known fables, “The Fox and the Grapes,” the fox concludes, after realizing that he will never be able to reach the grapes, that those grapes weren’t worth having, anyway. Elinor Dashwood has a bit more sense than the fox, in that she realizes that the life she had envisioned as Edward’s wife was worth having; at the same time, she comes to terms with the idea of a life apart from Edward. While Marianne accuses her of being unfeeling, Elinor is simply being practical. In accepting that she may never experience great happiness herself, she finds a peace that, perhaps, gives her the ability to be a source of comfort to others, such as Colonel Brandon or even friendly Mrs. Jenkins.
Because Sense and Sensibility is fiction, after all, Elinor does get the grapes in the end. Moreover, she wins the respect of all who know her, because she has the sense to know when something is out of her control — and a sensitivity to the needs of others that brightens the lives of those who have contact with her. It would seem that acceptance of the sour with the sweet is part of Elinor’s sensible approach.
To Marianne, given over to her sensibilities, life appears to be all shadow or all sparkle. Elinor’s filter of common sense enables her to view life as a mixture of shadow and sparkle.
This post was written in response to Linda‘s prompt for Stream-of-Consciousness Saturday: sense/scents/cents, with a bonus word this week – “sent.” As dictated in Linda’s SoCS rules, editing of this post was primarily restricted to adding links and photos. The “Glass” photos were taken at someone else’s lovely home for a Photo 101 assignment using a Panasonic Lumix. Text and photos copyrighted © 2014 by Sandra Fleming.
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Malawi Slave Routes and Dr. David Livingstone Trail
Criteria: (iii)(iv)
Malawi National Commission for UNESCO
Slave trade was introduced in Malawi by the Swahili-Arab traders in the 19thCentury following a great demand for ivory and slave in the East African markets namely Zanzibar, Kilwa, Mombasa and Quelimane. The Swahili -Arabs moved further into the interior of Africa including Malawi to obtain slaves and ivory.
One of Slave Trade Route was Nkhotakota where one of the Swahili-Arab slave traders, Salim-bin Abdullah (Jumbe) set up his headquarters on the shore of Lake Malawi in the 1840s. From Nkhota kotawhere he organized his expeditions to obtain slaves and ship them across the lake to East African markets, Kilwa. About 20, 000 slaves (Pachai, P.A. 1968) were annually shipped by Jumbe to Kilwa from Nkhotakota. The captives were kept until they number 1000 and taken across the lake and then forced to walk for three to four month journey to Kilwa where they were sold.
Dr. David Livingstone was a Scottish missionary and explorer. He visited Nkhotakota inl861 where he witnessed slave trade at its peak. He got horrified in the way slaves were handled at Jumbe's stockade and he described it as" a place of bloodshed and lawlessness". In 1864 David Livingstone visited Nkhota kota again and met Jumbe. He was able to secure a treaty between Jumbe and Chewa Chiefs to stop slave trade and hostilities between them. However, the treaty did not last long as Jumbe continued with slave trade. It was up until Nyasaland came under the British protectorate in 1891 that slave trade completely came to cease. It was Sir Harry Johnston who was the first Commissioner in Nyasaland Protectorate who made a significant effort to stop the trade. One of the policies of his administration stipulated was to bring slave trade to an end. Sir Harry Johnston with a force of Sikh soldiers attacked Jumbe in 1894. He was tried and banished to Zanzibar.
The remaining relics along this slave route include a mosque which was the first to be constructed in the country, graves of three Jumbe chiefs and also the graves of the lieutenants of Jumbe. The fig trees where Jumbe and Or. David Livingstone met and agreed to stop slave trade still exist up to this day. Other features very outstanding include the site where the slave market stood, the village of descendants of slave traders and slaves who were freed by the British, and also the Anglican Church which was built on the village of freed slaves to offer them education and Christianity.
Another Slave Route was at Karonga where Mlozi, another Swahili-Arab, settled and terrorized the Nkhonde people and seized them as slaves to Zanzibar. He organized surprise raids as far as Chitipa and Zambia. He also employed a number of the Swahili from Tanzania who undertook such expeditions. He, however, came into conflict with African Lakes Company, formed by Scottish businessmen John and Fredrick Moir in 1878. They were brothers. The Moir brother had a mission to supply the missions working in the country and provide a "legitimate" trade as opposed to the slave trade to the Africans. The African Lakes Company and Mlozi fought each other. It was until Sir Harry Johnston, a slave protagonist, sent soldiers and defeated Mlozi who was tried by the Nkhonde chiefs and hanged.
Another Slave trade route passed through the southern shores of Lake Malawi into Tete Province and Zambezi valley in Mozambique. Here the controllers of the route were the Mangochi Yao chiefs namely Mponda, Jalasi and Makanjira. These Yao chiefs terrorized the peaceful Nyanja, a branch of the Maravi people who lived in the Upper Shire and Southern shores of Lake Malawi. They captured them as slaves, plundering their property and disrupting their agricultural economy. They were sold as slaves to the Arabs on the east coast. Or David Livingstone visited the compound of one Yao chief, Jalasi, where he witnessed the suffering of the captured slaves.
The other slave trade route passed through the southern highlands and was also controlled by the Yao chiefs. Nyezerera and Mkanda controlled the sub route passing between Mulanje Mountain and Michesi Hill in what is now Phalombe District. Two other Yao chiefs controlled the sub route passing through the southern part of Mulanje Mountain and these were Chikumbu and Matipwiri. These terrorized the Nyanja people in the Shire highlands and the Mang'anja of the Lower Shire valley. Dr David Livingstone witnessed the suffering of these people and burning of their villages as he was traveling along the Shire River and around Lake Chilwa in April 1859.
Almost all the Yao chiefs stopped Slave trade after being defeated by the British Colonial Government forces led by Sir Harry Johnston. After the defeat, the Colonial Government erected forts along the slave routes to check slave trafficking and to bring peace in the area. Some of the forts are still intact up to date. Some of the forts include Fort Mangochi, Fort Johnstone and Fort Lister. Other forts disappeared. The forts were usually given names of Europeans who participated in the fight against the slave trade. The forts include Fort Johnstone, Fort Lister, Fort Hill, Fort Maguire, Fort Manning and Fort Mangochi.
The main Slave Route in the interior of Africa, Central Africa, were Nkhotakota, Karonga, Mangochi and Phalombe where the Swahili-Arabs and their Yao allies built their headquarters and stockades and also organized expeditions to capture slaves as far as Zambia and Congo. These routes were the major terminus of the Slaves in the entire of Central Africa going to the East African Coast Markets. At Nkhotakota, Jumbe send about 20000 annually to the market of Kilwa.
These Slave routes contain most preserved relics of Slave trade in the entire region of Central Africa. At Nkhotakota, there is a fig tree where David Livingstone, Jumbe and the Chewa chiefs made a treaty to end slave trade and hostility between them. Part of the mosque which Jumbe built so as to introduce Islam still stands today. The spectacular Fort Mangochi built by the British still stands today.
The Slave routes are a rare and unique heritage site in Malawi which records the memories of hardship and inhumanity which the people of Malawi and the entire Central Africa went through in the 19'h Century. It is important that this heritage should be preserved to keep this memory alive for younger generations to come.
The Slave trade routes led to the coming in of another chapter in the history of Malawi and the whole of Central Africa, which is colonization. The forts which were constructed on the slave route, not only acted as site for control of the illegitimate trade, but also formed the basis of administration of new form of government established by colonialists. Examples include Fort Johnston (now Mangochi Boma), Fort Manning (now Mchinji Soma), and Fort Hill (now Chitipa Boma). These sites have been maintained as administrative centres even in the post colonial and independence period.
The slave trade routes are a justified heritage because they also have a link to missionary work. When David Livingstone reported accounts of experience on his Second Journey to Africa, he recommended that Christianity be introduced in the area to counteract slave trade activities. This led to the coming of important missionaries along the slave trade routes. These include the establishment of Established Church of Scotland (now Blantyre Mission of CCA.P.), Free Church of Scotland which established at Cape Maclear (now Livingstonia Mission of CCA.P.), the Universities Mission to Central Africa at Magomero (now Anglican Church), Holy Family Mission at Phalombe (Catholic Church), Mulanje Mission (CCA.P.) and Mitsidi Mission of the Zambezi Industrial Mission in Blantyre (now Zambezi Evangelical Church). This means that the slave trade routes and Livingstone trails have a link to the present important missionaries.
The sites remain in their original authenticity. The original form and design of Fort Mangochi and Fort Lister including the associated buildings remains the same, no alteration has occurred. This is also true with the Mosque at Nkhotakota which Jumbe built. The original materials are also intact; no new materials have been added to the property. However most of them are now in ruins. Most of the relics at the property are authentic; the same fig tree where in 1861 Dr. David Livingstone, a Scottish Explorer and missionary, met Jumbe and gave him an umbrella is still present at Nkhotakota. Likewise, the other fig tree where Dr. David Livingstone had a meeting with Jumbe and Chewa chiefs in 1864 and agreed to end slave trade and hostility between them is still intact.
The integrity of the sites at Fort Mangochi and Fort Lister have been intact. The environmental setting remains the same as it has been the time the forts were built, the same brachystegia trees remains within the property, no human encroachment has occurred. However, the perimeter wall of both forts have fallen, especially Fort Lister, but it is a bit intact at Fort Mangochi. Most of the buildings are in ruins.
The property at Nkhotakota has been compromised to some extend due to natural and human factors. The raise of the lake levels has submerged some relics and the graves of three Jumbes are now buried by sands. The raise of lake levels also caused collapse of some section of the mosque which Jumbe built in 1850s; the first mosque in Malawi. However, most of the relics of the properties are intact. The other factor is due to human activities such as rice cultivation. Most residents near the sites are the descendants of Jumbe's lieutenants whom he brought from Zanzibar and some are the Bisa tribe from Congo whom he employed. The population now has grown and there is pressure for land to build houses. However, most of the relics are intact; people respect them as part of their history.
The Slave sites in Malawi are quite different from those from the East African Coast. These were trade routes established by the Swahili-Arab traders and their African allies in the interior of Africa. Headquarters were established in different points. The major ones were Nkhotakota, Karonga, Mangochi and Phalombe. These acted as operation or command centres where slave traders organized themselves. They could send an expedition to raid and capture slaves in different parts of Central Africa. Sometimes they went as far as Congo. They came back with slaves and temporarily kept them until the required number; in most cases 1000 slaves were reached. Thereafter, the slaves were taken to East African slave markets. Slave sites in East Africa were primarily slave markets, where slave from the interior of Africa and other East Coast areas were auctioned and sold to different parts of the world, mostly Asiatic countries.
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News 10th May 2019
Regulatory Crime Spring Newsletter
Welcome to the Spring issue of 2 Hare Court’s Criminal Regulatory Newsletter.
Nikita McNeill reviews the Sentencing Council’s impact assessment following the introduction of the Definitive Guideline on Health and Safety offences, Corporate Manslaughter and Food Safety and Hygiene offences.
Alex Tampakopoulos analyses the guidance from the Court of Appeal in respect of sentencing linked organisations: R-v-NPS London Ltd [2019] EWCA Crim 228.
The decision in R-v-Faltec Europe Ltd [2019] EWCA 520 is explored by Laura Stephenson and in particular the approach to assessing the risk of harm in health and safety offences.
Finally, Hannah Thomas reviews the Governemnt Consultation on Legal Aid for Familes at Inquests.
I hope you find this edition of interst and look forward to hearing your feedback which can be submitted here.
Jim Buchanan
The Sentencing Council’s impact assessment shows an increase in fines imposed on individuals and organisations of all sizes following the introduction the Definitive Guideline on Sentencing on Health and Safety Offences, Corporate Manslaughter and Food Safety & Hygiene Offences
Nikita McNeill
3 years after it came into force the sentencing Council has published a report assessing the impact of the introduction of the Definitive Guideline for sentencing Health and Safety Offences, Corporate Manslaughter and Food Safety & Hygiene Offences.
Using data from the Ministry of Justices’ Court Proceedings Database, they have analysed sentences handed down in a sample period prior to the guidelines and a sample period following their implementation. The key findings for each category of offences are considered below…
Guidance from the Court of Appeal in Sentencing Linked Organisations for Health & Safety Cases: R -v- NPS London Ltd [2019] EWCA Crim 228
Alexandra Tampakopoulos
On 25 July 2017, the NPS London was fined a sum of £370,000 after pleading guilty to an offence of failing to comply with its duty under s.3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.
NPS London was a joint venture company, owned 80% by NPS Property Consultants Ltd (the NPS parent) and 20% by the London Borough of Waltham Forest. The role of NPS London was that of managing on behalf of the London Borough of Waltham Forest a project to refurbish a school. In that capacity, it was responsible for commissioning an asbestos survey carried out by Redhill Analysts. NPS London admitted that it failed to recognise the deficiency of the survey and consequently failed to take further reasonably practicable steps which it should have taken to ensure that all the asbestos which was present in the building was identified and safely removed before the refurbishment works took place. The failure to do this resulted in those who carried out works and others being exposed to dust containing asbestos with a consequent long-term risk to their health…
Faltec Europe Ltd v Health and Safety Executive [2019] EWCA Crim 520
Laura Stephenson
Faltec is a car part manufacturer, employing around 550 people, and located in a well-populated urban area. On 3 April 2017 Faltec was sentenced in respect of three offences under ss.2, ss.3 and 33(1)(a) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 to a total fine of £1.6 million.
A Legionnaires’ disease outbreak gave rise to two offences, under ss.2 and ss.3. Between October 2014 and June 2015 there were two legionella outbreaks emanating from a dead leg, or length of capped off pipe, in a cooling tower. Four employees and one local resident contracted Legionnaires’ disease. One victim was admitted to intensive care and put into an induced coma.
The third offence related to an explosion in a flocking machine, which injured an apprentice. The £800,000 fine for this was unchanged on appeal…
Government Consultation on Legal Aid for Families at Inquests
Hannah Thomas
The availability of legal aid for bereaved families in inquests is a hotly debated topic that has been the subject of many reviews[1]. This debate led to the Government conducting a review of the current position, which was published in February 2019. The full report can be accessed here.
To address concerns as to whether means testing should remain for all inquests, and that the legal aid system is impenetrable for families, the review covered three main areas:
The initial stages of the inquest process;
The legal aid application and its availability; and
The inquest hearing itself.
James Buchanan jamesbuchanan@2harecourt.com linkedin
Hannah Thomas clerks@2harecourt.com
Nikita McNeill clerks@2harecourt.com
Laura Stephenson clerks@2harecourt.com linkedin
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Dec 15, 2008 Issue
Putting Prevention into Practice An Evidence-Based Approach
Screening for Chlamydial Infection
A more recent USPSTF on this topic is available.
KENNETH W. LIN, MD, Medical Officer, U.S. Preventive Services Task Force Program, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
LOLITA RAMSEY, MSN, RN, Preventive Medicine Intern, George Mason University
Am Fam Physician. 2008 Dec 15;78(12):1349-1350.
A 20-year-old woman comes to your office for her initial prenatal visit following a positive home pregnancy test. Her last menstrual period was 10 weeks ago. She is in a monogamous relationship and uses condoms inconsistently. Her only complaint is morning sickness.
Case Study Questions
Based on the information from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), which one of the following statements about chlamydia screening in this patient is correct?
A. The USPSTF would not recommend routinely screening this patient for chlamydia if she had no risk factors other than her age.
B. The patient should be screened at the initial visit and screened again during the second trimester.
C. The benefits of screening pregnant women at increased risk are small.
D. All pregnant women should be routinely screened regardless of individual risk factors.
E. The risk factors for pregnant women are the same as those for nonpregnant women.
Which one of the following statements about screening for chlamydia is correct?
A. You must perform a pelvic examination to screen for chlamydia.
B. Nucleic acid amplification tests have low sensitivity and specificity compared with vaginal cultures in identifying chlamydia in asymptomatic women.
C. In populations with a low prevalence of chlamydial infection, a positive test is more likely to be a false positive than a true positive, even with the most accurate tests available.
D. Women younger than 25 years who are sexually active have a risk of chlamydial infection similar to that of women 25 years and older.
E. It is not necessary to test patients at increased risk of other sexually transmitted infections such as gonorrhea.
If the patient's chlamydia screening test is positive, which of the following actions is/are appropriate?
A. Treat with a single oral dose of 1 g azithromycin (Zithromax) or with 500 mg amoxicillin orally three times daily for seven days.
B. Treat with 100 mg doxycycline (Vibramycin) orally twice daily for seven days.
C. Delay treatment until the second trimester.
D. Instruct the patient to have her sex partner tested for chlamydia and treated, if infected, or treated presumptively.
1. The correct answer is E. The USPSTF recommends that all pregnant women 24 years and younger, and older pregnant women who are at increased risk should be screened for chlamydia. The USPSTF recommends against routinely screening for chlamydia in women 25 years and older who are not at increased risk, regardless of pregnancy status.
Risk factors for pregnant women are the same as those for nonpregnant women. These include age, inconsistent use of condoms, new or multiple recent sex partners, a history of chlamydia or other sexually transmitted infections, and exchanging sex for money or drugs.
The USPSTF recommends that pregnant women who are at increased risk of chlamydia be screened at the first prenatal visit. Additional screening during the third trimester is recommended in women who continue to be at increased risk of chlamydia, or in whom new risk factors have been identified (e.g., a new sex partner).
Although studies have not directly addressed the effectiveness of screening for chlamydia in pregnant women, the USPSTF found that there is a high prevalence of infection among pregnant women at increased risk, that screening accurately identifies infection in asymptomatic pregnant women, and that treatment for chlamydia improves pregnancy and birth outcomes. Therefore, the USPSTF concluded that the benefits of screening pregnant women at increased risk are substantial.
2. The correct answer is C. In low-prevalence populations, a positive test is more likely to be a false positive than a true positive, even with the most accurate tests available. When evaluating female patients who are not at increased risk of chlamydia, physicians should consider the characteristics of their communities (see accompanying table). Local public health authorities can be a valuable source of information.
Nucleic acid amplification tests have a high sensitivity and specificity when used to screen for chlamydia and can be performed on urine and vaginal swabs. A pelvic examination is not required for screening, although physicians may choose to perform a pelvic examination for other reasons (e.g., cervical cancer screening).
Women younger than 25 years are more than five times more likely to be infected with chlamydia compared with women older than 30 years. Chlamydia and gonorrhea are the two most commonly reported sexually transmitted bacterial infections in the United States. The USPSTF also recommends routine screening for gonorrhea in sexually active women at increased risk.
View/Print Table
Populations with Higher Prevalence of Chlamydia than the General Population
Incarcerated populations
Military recruits
Patients at public sexually transmitted infection clinics
3. The correct answers are A and D.Guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend treatment of chlamydial infection in pregnant women with a single oral dose of 1 g azithromycin or with 500 mg oral amoxicillin three times daily for seven days. Because these medications are considered safe to use in pregnancy, it is not appropriate to delay treatment. Doxycycline is a pregnancy category D medication, and therefore is contraindicated in pregnant women. The CDC's Web site (http://www.cdc.gov/std/treatment) contains additional information and updates.
Because of high rates of reinfection, the USPSTF advises that physicians ensure that all sex partners of infected persons are tested and treated as appropriate, or treated presumptively.
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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Workowski KA, Berman SM. Sexually transmitted diseases treatment guidelines, 2006 [published correction appears in MMWR Recomm Rep. 2006;55(36):997]. MMWR Recomm Rep. 2006;55(RR-11):1–94....
Meyers DS, Halvorson H, Luckhaupt S. Screening for chlamydial infection: an evidence update for the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. Ann Intern Med. 2007;147(2):135–142.
Meyers DS, Halvorson H, Luckhaupt S. Screening for chlamydial infection: a focused evidence update for the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. Evidence synthesis no. 48. Rockville, Md.: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2007. http://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/uspstf07/chlamydia/chlamydiasyn.pdf. Accessed October 17, 2008.
U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. Screening for chlamydial infection: U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendation statement. Ann Intern Med. 2007;147(2):128–134.
The case study and answers to the following questions on screening for chlamydial infection are based on the recommendations of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), an independent panel of experts in primary care and prevention that systematically reviews the evidence of effectiveness and develops recommendations for clinical preventive services. More detailed information on this subject is available in the USPSTF Recommendation Statement, the evidence synthesis, and the evidence update summary on the USPSTF Web site (http://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/uspstfix.htm). The evidence synthesis and Recommendation Statement are available in print through the AHRQ Publications Clearinghouse (800–358–9295, e-mail, ahrqpubs@ahrq.hhs.gov). The practice recommendations in this activity are available at http://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/uspstf/uspschlm.htm.
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Former Florida doctor sentenced 157 years for drug trafficking
Home › Addictions News › Former Florida doctor sentenced 157 years for drug trafficking
Published: 08/1/2018 | Author: Addictions.com Medical Review
A doctor in South Florida who consistently overprescribed pain pills was sentenced to 157 years in prison on Tuesday.
The disgraced doctor, Barry Schultz, who gave up his medical license two years ago, had already been given a 25-year sentence for 55 counts of trafficking drugs, which he was convicted for in January.
He’d given up his medical license in a plea deal with prosecutors after being charged with killing David Tain, 50, via an overdose of methadone that Schultz prescribed.
After an investigation that began in 2010, his trial took place in 2015, and in 2016 he pleaded guilty to a manslaughter charge over Tain’s overdose in order to get a sentence of five years. That sentence ran concurrently with his 25 years in prison.
But some prosecutors felt Schultz, who once authorized 20,000 painkiller pills for a single patient in just ten months, needed to be sentenced more severely for his crimes. They appealed the case and got the longer sentence.
In court, Schultz claimed he was prescribing oxycodone pills to make his patients feel better. He had personally appealed – without a lawyer – to the Sunshine State’s supreme court, arguing that certain people whom he treated needed large doses of oxycodone, which is an opioid. Schultz argued that his patients had a “high tolerance” for opioids and therefore needed bigger doses for the drug to be effective.
He also maintained that he believed what he’d done was legal at the time.
Many of Schultz’s patients were in nursing homes, and he was regarded as something of an authority on the care of the elderly.
Authorities became interested in Schultz after one of his patients went to a pharmacy in Lake Worth, on the Atlantic coast in Palm Beach County, seeking to fill a prescription from the doctor for more than 1,500 30-milligram pills, calling it a month’s supply.
Schultz is from West Delray Beach, south of Lake Worth and north of Miami.
Prosecutors asked in the appeals court re-sentencing for Schultz to be given at least a life sentence for each of the 55 counts against him, or the minimum of 157 years. They said Schultz made as much as $10,000 a week for his pain pill prescriptions.
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Economy of Aberdeen
This article is about the non-oil related economy. For that area, see Oil Industry in Aberdeen.
Aberdeen is one of the most prosperous cities in Scotland owing to the variety and importance of its chief industries. Traditionally Aberdeen was home to fishing, textile mills, ship building and paper making. There industries have all but gone now and have been replaced with high technology developments in the electronics design and development industry, research in agriculture and fishing and the oil industry which has been largely responsible for Aberdeen's economic boom in the last three decades.
1 Traditional (pre 1970)
2 Granite
3 Fishing
4 Agriculture research
Traditional (pre 1970)[edit]
Donside Paper Mill under demolition, 15 February 2006
Most of the leading pre-1970s industries date from the 18th Century, amongst them woollens (1703), linen (1749), and cotton (1779); these gave employment to several thousands of operatives. The paper-making industry is one of the most famous and oldest in the city, paper having been first made in Aberdeen in 1694; the industry has however, collapsed. Culter Paper Mill closed in 1981, Donside Paper Mill closed in 2001 and the Davidson Mill (run by BPB Paperboard) in 2005. Flax-spinning and jute and combmaking factories also flourished, along with successful foundries and engineering works.
Granite[edit]
Very durable grey granite was quarried at Rubislaw quarry for more than 300 years, and blocked and dressed paving "setts", kerb and building stones, and monumental and other ornamental work of granite have long been exported from the district to all parts of the world; the terraces of the Houses of Parliament and Waterloo Bridge in London were built from Aberdeen granite. Quarrying finally ceased in 1971.
Kemnay Quarry granite has been used in many buildings and structures, including Princes Street, Edinburgh and The Forth Railway Bridge.
Fishing[edit]
This, though once the predominant industry, was surpassed by the deep-sea fisheries, which derived a great impetus from improved technologies throughout the 20th Century. Lately, however, catches have fallen due to overfishing in previous years, and the use of the harbour by oil support vessels. Aberdeen remains an important fishing port, but the catch landed there is now eclipsed by the more northerly ports of Peterhead and Fraserburgh; the Fisheries Research Services is based in Aberdeen, including its headquarters and a marine research lab.
Agriculture research[edit]
Aberdeen is well regarded for the agricultural and soil research that takes place at The Macaulay Institute, which has close links to the city's two universities; the Rowett Research Institute is a research centre for studies into food and nutrition located in Aberdeen, it has produced three Nobel laureates and there is a high concentration of life scientists working in the city.[1][2]
Footnotes[edit]
^ "History and Background". Rowett Research Institute. Archived from the original on 29 December 2006. Retrieved 1 February 2007.
^ "A Scientist's guide to Scotland". New Scientist. Archived from the original on 4 January 2007. Retrieved 8 February 2007.
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Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Economy_of_Aberdeen&oldid=864781137"
Use British English from July 2017
Aberdeen railway station is the only railway station in Aberdeen, Scotland. It is the busiest railway station in Scotland north of the major cities of Edinburgh, it is located on Guild Street in the city centre, next to Union Square. The station is managed by Abellio ScotRail. Inter-city, regional and sleeper train services are provided to all parts of Great Britain by Abellio ScotRail, Caledonian Sleeper, CrossCountry and London North Eastern Railway; the station standing was built as Aberdeen Joint Station between 1913 and 1916, replacing an 1867 structure of the same name, on the same site. The station and the new Denburn Valley Line enabled the main line from the south and the commuter line from Deeside to connect with the line from the north; the lines from the south had terminated at the adjacent Aberdeen Guild Street. This had not been Aberdeen's first railway station, that distinction belonging to a previous terminus a short way south at Ferryhill. After the construction of the Joint Station, Guild Street Station became a goods station.
Some of its tracks remain, but the vast majority of the site was cleared in 2005. Prior to the construction of the Joint Station, lines from the north had terminated at Aberdeen Waterloo, a short but inconvenient distance along the edge of the harbour; this too became a goods station after the construction of the Joint Station. There is no longer a station at the site, but a goods service runs weekly to industrial operations there; the Waterloo tracks join the north-south connecting Denburn Valley Line in the Kittybrewster area of the city, where the first terminus of the lines from the north had been, before extension and the building of the Waterloo Station. As far north as Inverurie, these follow the route of the Aberdeenshire Canal, purchased and filled in by the Great North of Scotland Railway; as a result of the grouping of railway companies under the Railways Act 1921, Aberdeen was shared by the London and North Eastern Railway and the London Midland and Scottish Railway, each company running the station for a year and handing its administration to the other company.
At nationalisation in 1948, it became part of British Rail. As part of the changes during this period which saw a general contraction of railway services in the UK, some services were cut in the 1960s; these included those running north to Ellon as well as the Deeside Line. Suburban services were reduced and the grand suburban ticket office, located on the corner of Guild Street and Bridge Street, was closed, it now houses a beauty salon. The number of platforms at the station were reduced in the early 1970s, from the thirteen of the late 1950s/early 1960s down to just seven by 1973; this rationalisation process saw the removal of all of the north end bay platforms to allow for redevelopment of that part of the site. However, significant improvements under British Rail included introduction of InterCity 125 high-speed service to London and other major destinations, introduction of other new rolling stock. Other improvements included a new Travel Centre opened in 1978 and under British Rail's regional brand ScotRail, a major station renovation was completed in the 1980s.
The station was resignalled around this time, with two more bay platforms taken out of use along with the former through platforms 8 & 9. This left just five platforms in regular use -- the layout. At privatisation in the mid-1990s, ownership of the station passed to Railtrack, while day-to-day management passed to the train-operating franchisee ScotRail, a division of National Express. Following the quasi-nationalisation of railway infrastructure in the early 2000s, the station is now owned by Network Rail. In 2004, the train-operating franchise and station management were taken over by First ScotRail. ScotRail continue to operate trains but the station and all signage is now branded with the "ScotRail" logo and rolling-stock livery. Historic Environment Scotland designate the current building and road overbridge as Category A, noting that it was the last major station to be completed in Scotland in the period 1913 - 20; the station had become run-down in the last years of British Rail. In the late 2000s, the railway station and bus station were included in the extensive Union Square development sited on an abandoned railway goods yard east of the station.
As part of this, the railway station was comprehensively refurbished. The original sandstone station building became the centrepiece of a covered plaza for the new shopping and entertainment complex, while a granite-faced building was constructed to house station offices, a new Travel Centre, other facilities; the car park at the front of the station was replaced by a public square providing pedestrian access to the station and Union Square. In addition, direct access was provided from the station concourse to Union Square and through to the bus station, creating a covered transport interchange; the refurbished station opened in 2009 followed by Union Square itself some months later. Plans to relocate the ticket office and passenger waiting room, as well as upgrades to the taxi rank and concourse, were approved by Aberdeen City Council in December 2018, with work due to start in spring 2019. Under a separate scheme, the vacant Atholl House building to the north of the station is to be demolished, making way for the construction of a public square and student accommodation, improved connections between the city's main Union Street and the station.
This development could allow the disused platforms 8 and 9 to be
Architecture of Aberdeen
The Architecture of Aberdeen, Scotland is known for the use of granite as the principal construction material. The stone, quarried in and around the city, has given Aberdeen the epithet The Granite City, or more romantically, less used, the Silver City, after the mica in the stone which sparkles in the sun; the hard grey stone is one of the most durable materials available and helps to explain why the city's buildings look brand-new when they have been newly cleaned and the cement has been pointed. Unlike other Scottish cities where less durable stone, such as sandstone, has been used, the buildings do not weather, need little maintenance. Union Street runs for 0.8 miles, is 70 feet wide and contained the principal shops and most of the public buildings, all granite. Part of the street crosses the Denburn ravine by Union Bridge, a fine granite arch of 132 feet span, with portions of the older town still fringing the gorge, 50 feet below the level of Union Street; the latter was built between 1801 and 1805, named after the Acts of Union 1800 with Ireland.
Amongst the notable buildings in the street are the Town and County Bank, the Music Hall, the Trinity Hall of the incorporated trades, now a shopping mall. In Castle Street, a continuation eastwards of Union Street, is the new Town House, the headquarters of the city council. Designed by Peddie and Kinnear and built between 1868 and 1874, it is one of the most splendid granite edifices in Scotland, in Flemish-Gothic style in recognition of close trade links between Aberdeen and Flanders, it contains the great hall, with an open timber ceiling and oak-panelled walls. In the vestibule of the entrance corridor stands a suit of black armour, believed to have been worn by Provost Sir Robert Davidson, who fought in the Battle of Harlaw in 1411. On the south-western corner is the 210 ft West Tower, with its prominent bartizans, which commands a fine view of the city and surrounding country. On the corner of Castle Street and King Street stands the old North of Scotland Bank by Aberdeen born architect, Archibald Simpson.
This building, with its imposing corner entrance of four giant order composite columns, statue of Ceres above, is now a pub named after its original architect. On the opposite side of the street is the fine building of the Union Bank, redeveloped in 2005 as the High Court, the third permanent high court to sit in Scotland. At the upper end of Castlegate stands The Salvation Army Citadel, an effective castellated mansion, on the site of the medieval Aberdeen Castle. In front of it is the Mercat Cross, built in 1686 by John Montgomery, a native architect; this open-arched structure, 21 ft in diameter and 18 ft high, comprises a large hexagonal base from the centre of which rises a shaft with a Corinthian capital, on, the royal unicorn. The base is decorated, including medallions illustrating Scottish monarchs from James I to James VII. To the east of Castle Street were the military barracks, which were demolished in 1965 and replaced with two tower blocks. Castlegate is home to some of the oldest surviving streets in Aberdeen.
Some of these are from 14th centuries. Two houses, Provost Skene's House, now a museum, Provost Ross's House are in the Castlegate as well; this imposing terrace of late Victorian granite buildings is a prominent landmark in the city. Constructed in 1892, to a design by open competition winner Alexander Brown, the Central Library, opened by its benefactor Andrew Carnegie, stands at the west end of the terrace. Brown was responsible for the extension to create the Central Reading Room in 1905. St Mark's Church by architect Alexander Marshall Mackenzie in the middle of the terrace has a giant order quatrostyle Corinthian portico, dome modelled on St Paul's in London, his Majesty's Theatre by Frank Matcham, 1906, stands at the east end. Marischal College and Greyfriars Kirk on Broad Street, opened by King Edward VII in 1906, is the second largest granite building in the world, is one of the most splendid examples of Edwardian architecture in Britain; the architect, Alexander Marshall Mackenzie, a native of Elgin, adapted his material, white granite, to the design of the building with the originality of genius.
This magnificent building is no longer a seat of learning. Following a comprehensive restoration project, it re-opened in 2011 as the new corporate headquarters of Aberdeen City Council. Kirk of St Nicholas, one of Scotland's largest parish churches and is subdivided into East and West churches; the large kirkyard of the Kirk of St Nicholas is separated from Union Street by a 147 ft long Ionic façade. The divided church within, with a central tower and spire, forms one continuous building 220 ft in length; the West Church was built in 1755, byu James Gibbs, the East Church was built in 1837 by Archibald Simpson. St Machar's Cathedral begun in the 12th century, a few hundred yards from the river Don took centuries to build with the exception of the period of the episcopate of William Elphinstone. Gavin Dunbar, who followed him in 1518, completed the structure by adding the two western spires and the southern transept. With high vaulted ceilings and a large church yard, you can see the remains of old parts of the church which are now ruin.
Large columns supporting the ceiling arches tower from floor
Kemnay
Kemnay is a village 16 miles west of Aberdeen in Garioch, Scotland. With a population of 3,830 residents aged 16 or over, Kemnay is the third largest settlement in the Garioch after Inverurie and Westhill; the village name Kemnay is believed to originate from the Celtic words that mean "little crook in the river" due to the village location on the bend of the River Don. Kemnay House is classified by Historic Scotland as a category A listed building. Kemnay has church buildings available for the following religious groups: Church of Scotland Roman Catholic Scottish Episcopal Church Kemnay is popular with explorers of Aberdeenshire who can stay in numerous guest houses and bed and breakfasts within the village. There are the Bennachie Lodge and the Burnett Arms Hotel. Kemnay Quarry was opened in 1830 by John Fyfe, became commercial in 1858. Kemnay Granite has been used including, they travelled to quarries in California, the Mississippi Levees and Odessa. Carrier Fetternear Estate Fetternear Palace, archaeological dig site Johnstone FM Monument Kemnay Academy View Point War memorial Kemnay has various sports clubs, including.
Golfer Paul Lawrie, who won the 1999 Open Championship is a former pupil of Kemnay Academy, as is former Aberdeen F. C. footballer Darren Mackie. In Kemnay, there are two primary schools and one secondary school: Kemnay Primary School Alehousewells Primary School Kemnay Academy, which unveiled a £14.3 million extension in 2015. Citations Bibliography grid reference NJ7316Kemnay Village WebsiteKemnay Academy
The petroleum industry known as the oil industry or the oil patch, includes the global processes of exploration, refining and marketing of petroleum products. The largest volume products of the industry are fuel gasoline. Petroleum is the raw material for many chemical products, including pharmaceuticals, fertilizers, synthetic fragrances, plastics; the extreme monetary value of oil and its products has led to it being known as "black gold". The industry is divided into three major components: upstream and downstream. Petroleum is vital to many industries, is necessary for the maintenance of industrial civilization in its current configuration, making it a critical concern for many nations. Oil accounts for a large percentage of the world’s energy consumption, ranging from a low of 32% for Europe and Asia, to a high of 53% for the Middle East. Other geographic regions' consumption patterns are as follows: South and Central America and North America; the world consumes 30 billion barrels of oil per year, with developed nations being the largest consumers.
The United States consumed 25% of the oil produced in 2007. The production, distribution and retailing of petroleum taken as a whole represents the world's largest industry in terms of dollar value. Governments such as the United States government provide a heavy public subsidy to petroleum companies, with major tax breaks at every stage of oil exploration and extraction, including the costs of oil field leases and drilling equipment. In recent years, enhanced oil recovery techniques — most notably multi-stage drilling and hydraulic fracturing — have moved to the forefront of the industry as this new technology plays a crucial and controversial role in new methods of oil extraction. Petroleum is a occurring liquid found in rock formations, it consists of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights, plus other organic compounds. It is accepted that oil is formed from the carbon rich remains of ancient plankton after exposure to heat and pressure in Earth's crust over hundreds of millions of years.
Over time, the decayed residue was covered by layers of mud and silt, sinking further down into Earth’s crust and preserved there between hot and pressured layers transforming into oil reservoirs. Petroleum in an unrefined state has been utilized by humans for over 5000 years. Oil in general has been used since early human history to keep fires ablaze and in warfare, its importance to the world economy however, evolved with whale oil being used for lighting in the 19th century and wood and coal used for heating and cooking well into the 20th century. Though the Industrial Revolution generated an increasing need for energy, this was met by coal, from other sources including whale oil. However, when it was discovered that kerosene could be extracted from crude oil and used as a lighting and heating fuel, the demand for petroleum increased and by the early twentieth century had become the most valuable commodity traded on world markets. Imperial Russia doubled its output by mid-century. After oil drilling began in what is now Azerbaijan in 1846 in Baku, two large pipelines were built in the Russian Empire: the 833 km long pipeline to transport oil from the Caspian to the Black Sea port of Batum, completed in 1906, the 162 km long pipeline to carry oil from Chechnya to the Caspian.
Batum is renamed to Batumi in 1936. At the turn of the 20th century, Imperial Russia's output of oil entirely from the Apsheron Peninsula, accounted for half of the world's production and dominated international markets. Nearly 200 small refineries operated in the suburbs of Baku by 1884; as a side effect of these early developments, the Apsheron Peninsula emerged as the world's "oldest legacy of oil pollution and environmental negligence". In 1846, Baku the first well drilled with percussion tools to a depth of 21 meters for oil exploration. In 1878, Ludvig Nobel and his Branobel company "revolutionized oil transport" by commissioning the first oil tanker and launching it on the Caspian Sea. Samuel Kier established America's first oil refinery in Pittsburgh on Seventh avenue near Grant Street, in 1853. One of the first modern oil refineries were built by Ignacy Łukasiewicz near Jasło, Poland in 1854–56; these were small, as demand for refined fuel was limited. The refined products were used in artificial asphalt, machine oil and lubricants, in addition to Łukasiewicz's kerosene lamp.
As kerosene lamps gained popularity, the refining industry grew in the area. The first commercial oil well in Canada became operational in 1858 at Ontario. Businessman James Miller Williams dug several wells between 1855 and 1858 before discovering a rich reserve of oil four metres below ground. Williams extracted 1.5 million litres of crude oil by 1860, refining much of it into kerosene lamp oil. Some historians challenge Canada’s claim to North America’s first oil field, arguing that Pennsylvania’s famous Drake Well was the continent’s first, but there is evidence to support Williams, not least of, that the Drake well did not come into production until August 28, 1859. The controversial point might be that Williams found oil above bedrock while Edwin Drake’s well located oil within a bedrock reservoir; the discovery at Oil Springs touched off an oil boom which brought hundreds of speculators and workers to the area. Canada's first gusher (fl
Aberdeen International Airport is an international airport, located at Dyce, a suburb of Aberdeen, Scotland 5 nautical miles northwest of Aberdeen city centre. A total of just under 3.1 million passengers used the airport in 2017, an increase of 4.6% compared with 2016. The airport is owned and operated by AGS Airports which owns and operates Glasgow and Southampton airports, it was owned and operated by Heathrow Airport Holdings. Aberdeen Airport is a base for Eastern Airways and Loganair; the airport serves as the main heliport for the Scottish offshore oil industry. With the utilisation of newer aircraft, helicopters can reach northernmost platforms on both the east and west of Shetland areas. However, helicopters sometimes use Wick, Kirkwall and Sumburgh for refuelling stops; the airport has one main passenger terminal, serving all charter holiday flights. In addition, there are four terminals dedicated to North Sea helicopter operations, used by Bristow Helicopters, CHC Helicopter, NHV and Babcock Mission Critical Services Offshore.
Bristow Helicopters have a small terminal adjacent to the main passenger terminal, used for oil company charter flights to Scatsta and Sumburgh in Shetland, operated by Eastern Airways. The airport opened in 1934, established by Eric Gandar Dower, intended to link the northern islands of Scotland with London. During Second World War the airfield became a Royal Air Force station – RAF Dyce, it was the site of the Dyce Sector Operations Room within No. 13 Group RAF. Although fighters were there throughout the Battle of Britain to provide protection from German bombing raids from Occupied Norway, it was used as a photographic reconnaissance station. Anti-shipping operations by Coastal Command were carried out from RAF Dyce as well as convoy escort; the airfield was bombed by the Luftwaffe on 26 July 1940 and 27 August 1940, no damage was reported. A decoy site was located at Harestone Moss near Whitecairns; the aim of this site was to create the impression of an active airfield during the night. The decoy worked on around four occasions, where several raids resulted in bombs being dropped on the decoy site.
The decoy site had a small underground bunker. This was used to power a decoy'flarepath' in addition to a rotating lamp to give the impression of a taxiing aircraft. Near the airport off the A96, to deter German gliders landing to attack RAF Dyce during WW2, the flat areas across from Concraig Farm had wooden poles erected as anti-glider landing poles. A Spitfire IIa crashed at the east side of the airfield on 19 November 1941 during attack practice with a target glider being towed. F/O Zaoral is buried in the old Dyce graveyard, where some German aircrew are buried that crashed in Aberdeen in 1940. A significant wartime event occurred in May 1943 when a German, Junkers Ju 88 night fighter landed here; the surrender of this aircraft was of great intelligence value at the time, as it was fitted with the latest FuG 202 Liechtenstein BC A. I radar; the aircraft is displayed in the RAF Museum in London. On 17 August 1943, a Mosquito crashed following a stall in the circuit, crashing onto 5 John Street in Dyce village.
On 26 December 1944, A Messerschmitt BF109G signalling intentions to surrender crash landed at the airfield. On 16 May 1945, two pilots were killed when a Wellington bomber crashed on landing wrecking a goods train in Dyce Station. During air raids in the Second World War, aircraft were moved to East Fingask beside Oldmeldrum. One RAF building still remains at East Fingask, where aircrews waited for the "All Clear" before returning to Dyce airfield; the following units have been based at Aberdeen Airport: Virtually nothing remains from the war era at the airport due to expansion and development of the industrial estates around it. The original airport terminal was located at the East Side where the Bond Offshore Helicopters Terminal 2 is located, a new terminal was built along with a new control tower to handle the increase in air traffic; the airport was nationalised in 1947 and was transferred to the control of the British Airports Authority in 1975. From 1967 and 1970 there were regular flights to Toronto.
With the discovery of North Sea oil, helicopter operations began in 1967, linking the growing number of oil platforms to the mainland. As Aberdeen became the largest oil-related centre in Europe, the airport became the world's largest commercial heliport. Today, Aberdeen Airport handles more than 37,000 rotary wing movements carrying around 468,000 passengers annually. Helicopters account for half of all aircraft movements at the airport; until March 2005, aircraft were not allowed to take-off or land between 22:30 and 06:00 local time due to noise constraints. The city council overturned this ban, despite some Dyce residents' objections, the airport is now open 24 hours a day to fixed-wing aircraft with a quota count of QC4 or below, the overnight restrictions still apply to helicopters. General aviation flight training for private pilots licences takes place from the East Side of the airport. Signature Flight Support handles most of the private flights and corporate jets that park on the Eastside Apron.
The air ambulance is positioned on the eastside apron in a dedicated hangar, Gama Aviation operates King-Air aircraft from Aberdeen. Aberdeen, being a major city in the oil industry h
Religion in Aberdeen
Religion in Aberdeen is diverse. Traditionally Christianity with the city being represented by a number of denominations the Church of Scotland through the Presbytery of Aberdeen and the Catholic faith. However, according to the 2001 census, Aberdeen is the least religious city in the country as Glasgow and Edinburgh, with nearly 43% of people claiming to have no religion. Liberal religion in Aberdeen and the North East of Scotland is represented through a Unitarian community and the city is home to an Islamic mosque in Old Aberdeen and a small informal Jewish congregation; the Hazelhead area holds a Thai Buddhist temple. There is no formalHindu building; the University of Aberdeen has a small Bahá'í society. The largest denomination in the city is the Church of Scotland; the Church of Scotland's Presbytery of Aberdeen has 41 parish churches. In the Middle Ages, Aberdeen contained houses of the Carmelites and Franciscans, the latter surviving in modified form as the chapel of Marischal College as late as the early 20th century.
Churches still in use today are located in the city centre including Bon Accord Free Church, situated on Rosemount viaduct near His Majesty's Theatre and Gilcomston South Church situated at the corner of Union Street and Summer Street. Many other churches in the city centre have been converted into restaurants. In the Middle Ages there was only one burgh kirk - the Kirk of St Nicholas, one of Scotland's largest parish churches. Like a number of other Scottish kirks, it was subdivided after the Reformation, in this case into the East and West churches; the Kirk of St Nicholas congregation is now an ecumenical partnership in membership of both the Church of Scotland and the United Reformed Church. The large kirkyard of the Kirk of St Nicholas is separated from Union Street by a 147 ft long Ionic façade, built in 1831; the divided church within, with a central tower and spire, forms one continuous building 220 ft in length. The pre-Reformation Diocese of Aberdeen is said to have been first founded at Mortlach in Banffshire by Máel Coluim II to celebrate his victory there over the Danes, but in 1137 David I transferred the bishopric to Old Aberdeen, twenty years St Machar's Cathedral was begun, a few hundred yards from the river Don.
With the exception of the period of the episcopate of William Elphinstone, building progressed slowly. Gavin Dunbar, who followed him in 1518, completed the structure by adding the two western spires and the southern transept; the church suffered at the Reformation, but is still used by the Church of Scotland as a parish church. St Mary's Cathedral is the Roman Catholic cathedral. A Gothic Revival building, it was erected in 1859. St. Andrew's Cathedral is the Scottish Episcopal Cathedral, it was constructed in 1817, as St Andrew's Chapel, was Archibald Simpson's first commission. The church was raised to Cathedral status in 1914; the Episcopal Church in Aberdeen is notable for having consecrated the first bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, Samuel Seabury. The cathedral was renovated in the 1930s to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Seabury's consecration; the memorial was dedicated with a ceremony attended by the US ambassador to the UK, Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. Belmont street at the turn of the 19th century was better known as Holy Street as crowds would file out of six churches set over the 400 metre road.
The last remaining church congregation in Belmont Street has now moved to Union Square South Christ Central. Triple Kirks pub, The Academy Shopping mall, Neptune Night Club, Slain's Castle theme pub is all that remains of the 19th-century traditional church; the last church to be in Belmont Street was the charismatic newfrontiers church, Christ Central, which met in the Belmont Picturehouse. On Justice Street, is the category B listed St Peter's Roman Catholic Church which opened in 1804
Peterhead is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is Aberdeenshire's biggest settlement, with a population of 18,537 at the 2011 Census. Peterhead sits at the easternmost point in mainland Scotland, it is referred to as The Blue Toun and people who were born there as Blue Touners. More they are called blue mogginers from the blue worsted moggins or stockings that the fishermen wore. Peterhead was developed as a planned settlement. In 1593 the construction of Peterhead's first harbour, Port Henry, encouraged the growth of Peterhead as a fishing port and established a base for trade. Peterhead was a Jacobite supporting town in the Jacobite risings of 1715 and 1745. In particular, it was one of the Episcopalian north-eastern ports where reinforcements, plus money and equipment, were periodically landed from France during the Forty-Five. A lifeboat station was first established in 1865. Since early times Peterhead has received a portion of its water supply from Morris Wells. Peterhead convict prison was opened in 1888, gaining a reputation as one of Scotland's toughest prisons.
The present harbour has two massive breakwaters, enclosing an area of 300 acres in Peterhead bay. The south breakwater, about 2,700 ft long, was constructed in 1892–1912 using convict labour from the prison; the north breakwater, constructed 1912–56, is 1,500 ft long. A new phase of growth was initiated in the 1970s with Peterhead becoming a major oil industry service centre, the completion of the nearby St Fergus gas terminal. At this time, considerable land holdings were allocated for industrial development. In recent times, the town has suffered from several high-profile company closures and is facing a number of pressures, including Common Fisheries Policy reforms. However, it retains a diverse economy, including food processing, service industries and, still fishing; the Peterhead Port Authority plans to extend the northern breakwater as a stimulus to the town's economic development. In addition, to assist with business diversification and town centre environmental improvements, the'Peterhead Project' initiative under the Aberdeenshire Towns Partnership brings together the Council, Scottish Enterprise Grampian, Communities Scotland and community representatives.
Between 1952 and 2004 the Royal Air Force station RAF Buchan was located near the town. The radar unit ceased to be a RAF station on 1 September 2004 and was downgraded to a Remote Radar Head named RRH Buchan. Peterhead is the largest settlement in a committee area of Aberdeenshire; the town was a burgh in the historic county of Aberdeenshire. In 1930 it became a small burgh under the Local Government Act 1929, but in 1975 small burghs were abolished and Peterhead became part of the district of Banff and Buchan within the new Grampian Region; when districts and regions were abolished in 1996, Peterhead became part of the new unitary authority of Aberdeenshire. Since 1975 Peterhead has had a community council, with limited powers. Peterhead Academy houses around 1,300 pupils and the school is split into six houses, with all the names associated with areas of the town; the school has pupils coming from surrounding villages such as Boddam, Cruden Bay, Inverugie, Rora, St Fergus and Crimond. The academy's motto is "Domus Super Petram Aedificata".
The academy is Scotland's largest school at over 22,920 m2 of gross internal floor area. The school has multiple subjects such as ICT, French/German, Engineering, Home Economics, many more; the building is split in two distinct designs. The older section of the school was built before the Second World War, whilst the newer section of the school with hexagonal designs came after; the latter section of the school shares space with the town's community centre and sports facilities. Peterhead has six primary schools. There is one special school, Anna Ritchie, which caters for most specific learning difficulties and other disabilities. There is Peterhead Alpha School which caters for children with social and behavioural difficulties, as well as learning difficulties, e.g. dyspraxia and dyslexia. Peterhead has a number of in-town and out-of-town bus services. Peterhead is further from a railway station than any other town of its size in Great Britain; the town once had two stations, namely Peterhead railway station and Peterhead Docks railway station.
Passenger trains on the Formartine and Buchan Railway stopped in 1965 under the Beeching Axe, freight in 1970. The start of reconstruction of the Borders Railway to Galashiels has begun a local political debate into the possibility of reopening the line from Aberdeen to Fraserburgh and Peterhead; the nearest airport with scheduled services is Aberdeen Airport. A heliport has been set up at the Eastern end of the former RAF Buchan air base. Recreational aviation takes place from a part of a former runway. In 2008, a Blueprint for Growth was published – a plan to extend the town beyond its bypass; the plan involved 4,500 homes, 4 new primary schools, a new secondary school and a new hospital to be built in the next 20–25 years –
Aberdeen [videos]
Aberdeen is a city in northeast Scotland. It is Scotland's third most populous city, one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas and the United Kingdom's 37th most populous built-up area …
Clockwise from top-left: Marischal College, West Tower of the new Town House on Union Street, River Dee view from Tollohill Woods, Old Aberdeen High Street, Aberdeen Beach
The Town House, Old Aberdeen. Once a separate burgh, Old Aberdeen was incorporated into the city in 1891
Petroleum industry [videos]
The petroleum industry, also known as the oil industry or the oil patch, includes the global processes of exploration, extraction, refining, transporting, and marketing of petroleum products. The largest volume products of the industry are fuel oil and gasoline …
Oil Field in Baku, Azerbaijan, 1926
Natural oil spring in Korňa, Slovakia.
Oil wells in Boryslav
Galician oil wells
Wool [videos]
Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and other animals, including cashmere and mohair from goats, qiviut from muskoxen, from hide and fur clothing from bison, angora from rabbits, and other types of wool from camelids; additionally, the Highland and the Mangalica breeds of cattle and …
Wool before processing
Unshorn Merino sheep
Shorn sheep
Fleece of fine New Zealand Merino wool and combed wool top on a wool table
Linen [videos]
Linen is a textile made from the fibers of the flax plant. Linen is laborious to manufacture, but the fiber is very strong, absorbent and dries faster than cotton. Garments made of linen are valued for their exceptional coolness and freshness in hot and humid weather. — The word linen is of West …
A linen handkerchief with drawn thread work around the edges
Linen cloth recovered from Qumran Cave 1 near the Dead Sea
Flax stem, fiber, yarn and woven and knitted linen textiles
A bag of white linen, unopened. Contains rolls of linen. Foundation deposit, Heb Sed Chapel at Lahun, Fayum, Egypt. 12th Dynasty. The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London.
Cotton [videos]
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus Gossypium in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. Under natural conditions, the cotton bolls will increase the dispersal of the seeds. — The …
Manually decontaminating cotton before processing at an Indian spinning mill (2010)
Cotton plants as imagined and drawn by John Mandeville in the 14th century
The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary
A woman in Dhaka clad in fine Bengali muslin, 18th century.
Flax [videos]
Flax, also known as common flax or linseed, is a member of the genus Linum in the family Linaceae. It is a food and fiber crop cultivated in cooler regions of the world. The textiles made from flax are known in the Western countries as linen, and traditionally used for bed …
Brown flaxseeds
Golden flaxseeds
Spinning (textiles) [videos]
Spinning is the twisting together of drawn-out strands of fibers to form yarn, and is a major part of the textile industry. The yarn is then used to create textiles, which are then used to make clothing and many other products. There are several industrial processes available to spin yarn, as well …
1595 painting illustrating Leiden textile workers
Image: Textile Spinning room
Image: Catalonia Terrassa m NATEC Selfactina
Image: Ringspinnen
Jute [videos]
Jute is a long, soft, shiny vegetable fiber that can be spun into coarse, strong threads. It is produced primarily from plants in the genus Corchorus, which was once classified with the family Tiliaceae, and more recently with Malvaceae. The primary source of the fiber is Corchorus olitorius, but …
A Jute field in Bangladesh.
Jute stems being retted in water to separate the fibers
Comb [videos]
A comb is a tool consisting of a shaft that holds a row of teeth for pulling through the hair to clean, untangle, or style it. Combs have been used since prehistoric times, having been discovered in very refined forms from settlements dating back to 5,000 years ago in Persia. — Description …
A modern plastic comb
Woman combing her hair by Felix Schurig, 1870
A Stone Age nit comb
Image: Egyptian Wooden Comb Walters 61306
Foundry [videos]
A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal into a mold, and removing the mold material after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals processed are aluminium and cast iron. However, other …
From Fra Burmeister og Wain's Iron Foundry, by Peder Severin Krøyer, 1885.
A Foundryman, pictured by Daniel A. Wehrschmidt in 1899.
Melting metal in a crucible for casting
A metal die casting robot in an industrial foundry
Quarry [videos]
A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. — The word quarry can also include the underground quarrying for stone, such as Bath stone. — Types of rock — Types of rock extracted from …
Carrara quarry in Tuscany, Italy
Portland stone quarry on the Isle of Portland, England
An abandoned construction aggregate quarry near Adelaide, South Australia
An abandoned stone quarry in Kerala, India
Waterloo Bridge [videos]
Waterloo Bridge is a road and foot traffic bridge crossing the River Thames in London, between Blackfriars Bridge and Hungerford Bridge. Its name commemorates the victory of the British, Dutch and Prussians at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. Thanks to its location at a strategic bend in the …
Crowds attend the opening of the first Waterloo Bridge on 18 June 1817
Waterloo Bridge, about 1925
The design called for supporting beams only at the outside edges, to bring "light and sweetness" to the underside--Giles Gilbert Scott, quoted in Hopkins (1970)
Waterloo Bridge by Charles Deane, 1821
Princes Street [videos]
Princes Street is one of the major thoroughfares in central Edinburgh, Scotland, and the main shopping street in the capital. It is the southernmost street of Edinburgh's New Town, stretching around 1 mile from Lothian Road in the west, to Leith Street in the east. The street has virtually …
Panorama showing Princes Street from the Scott Monument.
View of Princes Street from Calton Hill.
Princes Street 1825 by Alexander Nasmyth
Princes Street, looking East, c. 1910–1915.
Forth Bridge [videos]
The Forth Bridge is a cantilever railway bridge across the Firth of Forth in the east of Scotland, 9 miles west of Edinburgh City Centre. It is considered as a symbol of Scotland, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It …
View of the structure
Illustration of the cantilever principle
The bridge under construction
A German photograph allegedly taken during the raid
Fraserburgh [videos]
Fraserburgh is a Parish town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland with a population recorded in the 2011 Census at 13,100. It lies at the far northeast corner of Aberdeenshire, about 40 miles north of Aberdeen, and 17 miles north …
Bellslea Park
Image: Fraserburgh Harbour
Image: Fishing Fleet at Fraserburgh
Image: Fraserburgh Wine Tower
River Dee, Aberdeenshire [videos]
The River Dee is a river in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It rises in the Cairngorms and flows through southern Aberdeenshire to reach the North Sea at Aberdeen. The area it passes through is known as Deeside, or Royal Deeside in the region between Braemar and Banchory …
The River Dee at Potarch, between Aboyne and Banchory.
Falls of Dee in An Garbh Choire
Caledonian pine forest, Glen Tanar
Image: Wells of Dee
Culture in Aberdeen [videos]
See also Green Spaces and Walkways in Aberdeen and Media in AberdeenThe city of Aberdeen in Scotland has amenities that cover a wide range of cultural activities, including a selection of museums and galleries. There are festivals and theatrical events throughout the year. — Notable attractions …
Gordon Highlanders Museum
Provost Skene's House
King's College, Old Aberdeen
Green spaces and walkways in Aberdeen [videos]
The Scottish city of Aberdeen has a number of green spaces and walkways. The parks, gardens and floral displays which include 2 million roses, 11 million daffodils and 3 million crocuses have led the city to win the Royal Horticultural Society's Britain in Bloom Best City award many times …
The City's Coat of Arms in Union Terrace Gardens
Johnston Gardens
Duthie Park Winter Gardens
Sculpture of European Bison by Sally Matthews, Tyrebagger sculpture park
Architecture of Aberdeen [videos]
The Architecture of Aberdeen, Scotland is known for the use of granite as the principal construction material. The stone, which has been quarried in and around the city, has given Aberdeen the epithet The Granite City, or more romantically, and less commonly used, the Silver City, after the mica in …
The old North of Scotland Bank by Archibald Simpson viewed from the Castlegate
St Mark's Church, Rosemount Viaduct
Marischal College
Transport in Aberdeen [videos]
The network of transportation in Aberdeen is widespread and complex like that of any major city. It is currently receiving the attention of politicians in Scotland who have acknowledged that there has been underinvestment over the past few decades in keeping the infrastructure in line with the …
Aberdeen Airport terminal building
Sign at Aberdeen bus station, Union Square
Victoria Bridge, Torry
Aberdeen Airport [videos]
Aberdeen International Airport is an international airport, located at Dyce, a suburb of Aberdeen, Scotland, approximately 5 nautical miles northwest of Aberdeen city centre. A total of just under …
The airport is the world's busiest heliport. Here four helicopters are lined up in the morning waiting to begin the day's operations.
Various aircraft at Aberdeen International Airport in July 2014
Head office of BMI Regional
Image: Aberdeen Airport terminal close up 23 03 11
University of Aberdeen [videos]
The University of Aberdeen is a public research university in Aberdeen, Scotland. It is an ancient university founded in 1495 when William Elphinstone, Bishop of Aberdeen and Chancellor of Scotland, petitioned Pope Alexander VI on behalf of James IV, King of …
King's College, Aberdeen.
An illustration of King's College in 1661.
Marischal College (following restoration in 2011)
Robert Gordon University [videos]
Robert Gordon University, commonly called RGU, is a public university in the city of Aberdeen, Scotland. It became a university in 1992, and originated from an educational institution founded in the 18th century by Robert Gordon, a prosperous Aberdeen merchant, and various institutions which …
Main plaza at Garthdee campus (2013)
Main plaza at Garthdee campus
Former building at St. Andrew Street, due to be converted to luxury hotel
Administration Building at Schoolhill. This building was constructed around 1885 as Gray's School of Art, then converted to administrative use in the 1960s.
Religion in Aberdeen [videos]
Religion in Aberdeen is diverse. Traditionally Christianity with the city being represented by a number of denominations, particularly the Church of Scotland through the Presbytery of Aberdeen and the Catholic faith. However, according to the 2001 census, Aberdeen is the least religious city in the …
Image: St Nicholas Kirk
Image: Aberdeen Saint Mark
Image: Aberdeen Church ruin
Image: Gilcomston South Church, Aberdeen
Aberdeen railway station [videos]
Aberdeen railway station is the only railway station in Aberdeen, Scotland. It is the busiest railway station in Scotland north of the major cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh. It is located on Guild Street in the city centre, next to Union Square. — The station is managed by Abellio ScotRail …
Concourse at Aberdeen station
Signage at Aberdeen station in May 2012, showing National Rail double-arrow logo
A ScotRail service at Aberdeen, formed of a Class 170 Turbostar unit
Paper [videos]
Paper is a thin material produced by pressing together moist fibres of cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags or grasses, and drying them into flexible sheets. — It is a versatile material with many uses, including writing, printing, packaging, cleaning, decorating, and a number of industrial and …
Paper products: book, toilet paper, Ruled paper, carton, egg box
Hemp wrapping paper, China, circa 100 BC.
Card and paper stock for crafts use comes in a wide variety of textures and colors.
Peterhead [videos]
Peterhead is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is Aberdeenshire's biggest settlement, with a population of 18,537 at the 2011 Census.Peterhead sits at the …
View of Peterhead bay, looking towards the breakwaters
Merchant Street with the Harbour in the background
Image: Peterhead, Broad Street
Rowett Research Institute [videos]
The Rowett Institute for Nutrition and Health is a research centre for studies into food and nutrition, located in Aberdeen, Scotland. — History — The institute was founded in 1913 when the University of Aberdeen and the North of Scotland College of Agriculture agreed that an "Institute for …
Exterior of the new building on the Foresterhill Health Campus
The Reid Library at the old Bucksburn site
Strathcona House
Education in Aberdeen [videos]
Education in Aberdeen, Scotland has a strong tradition with two Universities and Scotland's largest further education college. — Universities — The first of Aberdeen's two universities, King's College, was founded in 1495 by William Elphinstone, Bishop of Aberdeen and Chancellor of …
Robert Gordon's College
University of Aberdeen, Elphinstone Hall
Kemnay [videos]
Kemnay is a village 16 miles west of Aberdeen in Garioch, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. With a population of 3,830 residents aged 16 or over, Kemnay is the third largest settlement in the Garioch after Inverurie and Westhill. — History — The village name Kemnay …
Kemnay Academy in 2005.
Image: Kemnay Aberdeenshire cropped
Coat of arms of Aberdeen [videos]
The coat of arms of Aberdeen consists of three towers within a border decorated with fleurs-de-lis. This design is known to have been used on city seals from the 15th century onwards, if not earlier. — Arms — The three towers represent the three buildings that stood on the three hills of …
The arms displayed on a lamp-post at the Great Southern Road
The arms of Aberdeen
River Dee ferryboat disaster [videos]
The River Dee Ferry Boat Disaster occurred on 5 April 1876. Thirty two people drowned in the mouth of the River Dee, Aberdeenshire, Scotland when their ferry boat capsized. Overcrowding, fast flowing current and a poorly spliced wire rope were blamed. — Context — The city of Aberdeen lies at …
River Dee, looking towards Victoria Bridge. This is close to the location that the ferry capsized.
Queen Victoria Bridge
History of Aberdeen [videos]
There has been a human presence in the area of Aberdeen since the Stone Age. Aberdeen as a city, grew up as two separate burghs: Old Aberdeen, the university and cathedral settlement, at the mouth of the River Don; and New Aberdeen, a fishing and trading settlement where the Denburn entered the Dee …
Aberdeen Market Cross
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The Wild Hunt (https://wildhunt.org/tag/costa-rica)
“Sights and Sounds of Ancient Ritual”: an exhibition
By The Wild Hunt | February 3, 2019
The Wild Hunt reviews an ongoing exhibition at the Yale University Art Gallery, “Signs and Sounds of Ancient Ritual,” which explores the world of ancient religious ritual through human sensation.
Pagan Community Notes: Pagans attend Vigil, James Bianchi, Kindred Irminsul and much more!
By The Wild Hunt | April 20, 2015
On Sunday, April 12, nearly 100 people gathered together to honor the life of Yuvette Henderson, a 38-year old woman who was killed in Oakland in February. The vigil and march, organized by the Anti Police-Terror Project, is one of the many recent Bay Area social justice actions that have been supported by local area Pagans. In this case, there were at least nine Pagans in attendance. T. Thorn Coyle was one of them and said, “[We] gathered on the corner where Yuvette was killed by Emeryville PD, in Oakland. We then caravaned to deliver letters to Home Depot and the Oakland Police department (who are overseeing the investigation) asking for security tapes.”
Finding Kindred Spirits in Costa Rica
By Heather Greene | January 4, 2015
The Republic of Costa Rica, nestled in Central America, is a small country home to approximately 4,300,000 people. According to the country’s tourism service, Costa Rica’s small landmass “shelters 5 percent of the existing biodiversity in the entire world.” As such it has become a prime tropical tourist destination for travelers wanting an exotic or natural vacation experience. Much of that may not surprise anyone. However, what is surprising is that Costa Rica is home to a burgeoning Heathen community.
Halloween: the new American export
By Heather Greene | November 4, 2012
Before we move too far into the future, let’s pause a moment to talk about Halloween. Not the spiritual vigil of Samhain or seasonal harvest celebrations. Let’s discuss the wholly secular, American and Canadian holiday of Halloween, complete with candy, costumes and PVC pumpkins. It’s fair to say that Halloween has a somewhat uneasy place in the family of North American holidays. On the one hand, we, as Pagans, fully embrace the festivities. It is the one calendar event that openly clings to its Pagan origins.
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Ottoman Empire: Losing the Balkans and Middle East
Fawaz Azem
Photo of Lawrence d'Arabie from the film, courtesy of Icarus Films.
The End of the Ottoman Empire
By Mathilde Damoisel
Icarus Films, 2017
A two-part documentary directed by Mathilde Damoisel, “The End of the Ottoman Empire” addresses the decline and fall of the Ottomans. The film deals first with the loss of the Balkan territories and subsequent repercussions, and then with the empire’s losses in the Middle East. The film’s structure and subject matter make it best to approach these two parts separately.
Part I, “The Nations Against the Empire,” deals almost exclusively with the loss of the Empire’s Balkan territories, the legacy of that loss, and its lasting effect on the empire. It opens, appropriately, with a wide angle shot of a Muslim cemetery in present day Sarajevo, thus setting the tone and expressing the filmmaker’s thesis that Bosnia-Herzegovina, with it Muslim Bosniaks, Catholic Croatians and Orthodox Serbs, serves as a microcosm of the Balkanization that occurred in the last part of the 19th century, and, with the carnage experienced in the 1990s, offers the best embodiment of the legacy of the Ottoman retreat from Europe.
The loss of the Empire’s Balkan territories had the dubious distinction of ushering in two of the most heinous scourges of the modern age: the refugee phenomenon and the crime of genocide. According to historian Mark Mazower of Columbia University, one of several renowned historians featured in the film, the loss of about 200,000 square kms as a result of the 1976-1978 crisis caused a massive flow of refugees, mostly Muslim, from the Empire’s former territories. Mazower also adds that the brutal suppression of the 1894 Armenian Sasun Rebellion at a cost of 20,000 people presaged the subsequent Armenian Genocide. This massacre serves as one of several elements in the film in which one finds echoes of more recent trends and events.
Historian Hamit Bozarslan says that while the Ottomans became eventually reconciled to the inevitability of the loss of their Balkan territories, they still wanted to protect the hard core of the Empire, The Turkish center, with a Muslim shell made up of the Albanians, Kurds, and Arabs. Isn’t this almost a direct paraphrase of the neo-Ottomanism foreign policy, favoring a commonwealth with Turkey’s neighbors, and old Ottoman connections? Erdogan pursued this policy, while his first Foreign Minister, later Prime Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, actively promoted it!
In Part I, Damoisel displays an assured mastery of the medium, avoiding the pitfall of allowing the film to deteriorate into a gabfest of talking heads. Although she features several distinguished academics, she achieves this by skillfully interspersing their statements with archival footage and photography, artists’ rendering of historical events, photocopies of materials from contemporaneous media, animation and even clips from vintage films. The use of archival footage creates a harrowingly surrealistic effect by juxtaposing the jittery, Chaplinesque movement of the characters against a graphic depiction of brutal violence.
Part II, “A Fragmented Middle East,” opens with the statement “From the ashes of its (the Ottoman Empire’s) lands in the East, Arabia, Mesopotamia, Syria and Palestine would emerge the Middle East as we know it.” It narrates the story of the ‘Arab Martyrs’ who Jamal Pasha condemned to death by hanging in Beirut, Damascus and Jerusalem. The film features historian Salim Tamari, of Bir Zeit University, and the Iraqi Saad Eskander, who comments trenchantly on Gertrude Bell’s choice of the Hashemite Faisal to be king of Iraq, stating, “He had no place in our history or in our memory.” However, while these historians and others lend a certain depth and a degree of objectivity to the film, the choice of Ambassador Nawaf Salam, permanent representative of Lebanon to the UN, who weighs in with his take on the creation of Greater Lebanon, strikes one as rather odd. One cannot help but wonder how much such a senior representative of the Lebanese Government can deviate from the official narrative!
Part II goes on to deal with the question of Palestine, to which, despite the importance of the subject matter, the film devotes a disproportionate amount of time. Thus, it includes scenes of the Wall and other more recent events, extending the narrative far beyond the fall of the Ottoman Empire, yet pays scant attention to other topical problems such as the Syrian Civil War or the Lebanese Civil War and its continuing legacy.
Unfortunately, Part II falls far short of Part I, so much so, that a viewer, shown the two parts separately, might easily assume them to be the work of different filmmakers. Unlike Part I, which Damoisel bookended with the crisis of 1876-1878 and the declaration of the Turkish Republic by Ataturk in 1923, Part II literally meanders over the map, stretching all the way into the second Gulf War and beyond. And while the filmmaker edited Part I so tightly that at times it attains the texture of a thriller, Part I moves back and forth in time without any rationale, creating an impression of disconnectedness. Viewers can see a striking case in point when the film cuts abruptly from the fight in Iraq against ISIS to the declaration of the Turkish Republic by Ataturk, leaving the baffled audience with the sensation of watching a Quentin Tarantino movie.
This film review appeared in Al Jadid Magazine, Vol. 21, No. 73, 2017.
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Historic deal between China and Vatican 'in the making'
Agreement could include Beijing giving the Vatican more say in picking bishops in state-approved churches.
by Adrian Brown
30 Mar 2018 19:06 GMT
Beijing, China - After 67 years of acrimony, signs have emerged of improving relations between the Chinese government and the Vatican that could determine the future of the 10 million Catholics in China.
Francesco Sisci, an Italian academic and a China-Vatican relations analyst, said there are discussions about Pope Francis establishing a representative office in Beijing.
"This could happen within this year I would say," Sisci, a senior researcher at a university in Beijing who was invited to interview Pope Francis in 2016, told Al Jazeera.
"I think it is a possibility. We don't know. There are of course many things up in the air. But there is 'love in the air', as the song would say."
The two sides severed ties in 1951 following the communist revolution, forcing many Catholics to go underground.
Catholic worshipers, however, have the option of praying in a state-sanctioned church, which does not recognise the authority of the pope in the last 67 years.
But now, China's communist government and the Vatican are reportedly close to a historic deal that could give the Vatican more influence over state-approved churches, including the selection of bishops.
Underground Catholics express unease over warming ties between Beijing and the Vatican
In the 2016 interview with Sisci, Pope Francis signalled a change in policy towards China, saying it is a "great country", and that it is "necessary to enter into a dialogue" with its leaders.
In 2017, Chinese officials attended a summit at the Vatican.
Worshipers at a government-backed church in China's capital, Beijing, told Al Jazeera they were enthusiastic about the prospect of better relations between China and the Vatican.
"I would be so happy if the Pope came to China. I always hope the Pope and the Vatican can establish diplomatic relations with China. I am so excited," one worshiper said.
"The pope is the symbol of the Catholics. If you are Catholic you will definitely want to see him," added another.
But some in the underground churches that operate without government approval said they are fearful about this growing rapprochement.
A senior Catholic official, retired Cardinal Joseph Zen, has also accused the pope of betrayal.
Cardinal Zen is the former bishop of Hong Kong, where religious freedoms are still protected.
"Many people in the universal church may get scandalised. They may lose their faith in the pope," he told Al Jazeera.
"The poor pope has so many critics already. With this one, I am very sorry."
Such harsh criticism of the pope, even by a retired cardinal is rare.
The Vatican has not respond to Al Jazeera's requests for comment. China's Religious Affairs Bureau, which regulates the official church in China, has also refused to comment.
SOURCE: Al Jazeera News
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Inter-Korean tension remains high
S Korea nominates new defence minister, amid reports of conflict escalation with fresh artillery fire by the North.
South Korea has ordered more troops to be deployed at Yeonpyeong island following Tuesday's shelling [GALLO/GETTY]
Pyongyang has warned that South Korea's military exercises with the US would bring the two neighbours to the "brink of war".
The stark warning came as sounds of distant artillery fire were heard from within North Korea on Friday. A Reuters witness said he saw smoke rising from inland North Korea.
South Korea's YTN television said the shells appeared to have landed north of a disputed maritime border in North Korean waters, and the military does not believe the firing was aimed at the South.
Some South Korean legislators, meanwhile, said the military should have responded more ruthlessly, by staging an air strike on the North's artillery batteries.
New defence minister
Meanwhile, South Korea has named its former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff as the new defence minister, amid growing criticism of the government's response to a deadly attack by North Korea.
General Kim Kwan-jin, a 61-year-old career soldier, is replacing Kim Tae-young, who resigned on Thursday - two days after the attack on the small South Korean island of Yeonpyeong left four people, including two marines, dead.
The South Korean defence minister was held responsible for the response to the North Korean attack [AFP]
"[We] think nominee Kim, well-respected for professionalism and conviction, is the right person for the post in order to restore trust from people and boost morale in the entire military," Hong Sang-pyo, the presidential secretary, told a news briefing on Friday.
Earlier reports had suggested Lee Hee-Won, a security aide, would succeed Kim. But the office of Lee Myung-bak, the South Korean president, said several candidates were undergoing rigorous checks.
Kim's appointment came hours after North Korea said that impending military exercises by the South and the United States were pushing the region towards conflict.
Al Jazeera's Wayne Hay, reporting from Seoul, said that Kim, who is also a former army general, has "clearly been brought in to shake things up in the South Korean military".
"He has been brought in because of his 40 years of experience in the military and strong leadership skills."
South Korean officials said Tuesday's attack was the first shelling of civilian areas in the South since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.
The government said it would increase troops near the disputed sea border off its west coast following the attacks.
The military in Seoul said it will revise its rules of engagement to respond more strongly to North Korean attacks in the future.
But North Korea's KCNA news agency said Pyongyang will launch more attacks if South Korea continues with "reckless provocations".
"[North Korea] will wage second and even third rounds of attacks without any hesitation, if warmongers in South Korea make reckless military provocations again," the agency said, quoting from a military statement.
China's reaction
Meanwhile, China's prime minister has called on all sides to observe "maximum restraint" over renewed tensions on the Korean peninsula.
Wen Jiabao, in the first highest-level Chinese response to North Korea's attack, said that China opposes military provocations in any form.
"China has all along devoted itself to maintaining the peninsula's peace and stability, and opposed military provocations in any forms," he said during a visit to Russia on Wednesday.
"All concerned parties should exert maximum restraint, and the international community should make more efforts conducive to easing up the tensions," Wen said in remarks posted on the Chinese foreign ministry's website.
China has been careful not to mention North Korea by name or assign blame for Tuesday's attack, in keeping with its status as North Korea's most important ally.
China has long propped up the Pyongyang leadership, worried that a collapse of the North could bring instability to its own borders.
Beijing is also wary of a unified Korea that would be dominated by the United States, the key ally of the South.
The deaths of civilians have added to anger in South Korea.
"If China does not put public pressure on North Korea, provocations by North Korea will continue," South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper said.
"If the Korean peninsula is in flames, Chinese prosperity will shake from the bottom."
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Pakistan clash claims civilian toll
Fighting rages between government forces and pro-Taliban group in Swat valley.
Tribesmen are bearing the brunt of the fighting along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border [AFP]
A total of 46 people have been killed in the last 24 hours, according to Pakistani army sources.
Fighter positions
Helicopter gunships pounded Taliban fighter positions in the Swat valley during a second day of fighting, which has brought a two-month-old peace deal in the former tourist region to the brink of collapse.
"We are now preparing for the burial, but facing hardships due to the curfew," Khan said.
Another two men died when shells hit their houses in Deolai, while a young boy and a man working in a garden were killed in nearby Matta district, police and intelligence officials said.
Pakistani Taliban say they have army of bombers
A man was also killed in the crossfire between fighters and security forces at a golf course in the town of Kabal, they said, adding that a total of 25 people were also wounded in the fighting.
Officials did not say if the deaths were caused by shells fired by security forces or Taliban fighters.
Separately, Taliban fighters set fire to two girls' schools overnight, they said.
Haji Muslim Khan, the spokesman for one of the largest pro-Taliban groups in the Swat valley, said that the group would begin targeting government schools and buildings throughout Pakistan with suicide bombers.
"Who killed the innocent people they are bombing and they are shelling from helicopters? It is the Pakistani army," he told Al Jazeera.
"I don't want America in my country and I don't want our soldiers to work for America and I want the rules and regulations of Islamic Sharia.
"Our government are following rules and regulations of America and we want to change it."
Zahid Hussain, an expert on Pakistani religious groups, told Al Jazeera that the peace deal the Pakistani government made with pro-Taliban fighters has collapsed.
"I think from the beginning it was very clear that it would not work," he said.
"While the deal was signed in May, there has not been a cessation of hostilities, and I think this period only displayed the fighters' capability to further arm and organise themselves."
Army of bombers
The warning follows a statement by Maulana Fazlullah, the Pakistan Taliban's leader in the Swat valley, that the group has an army of suicide bombers that could strike across the country at any moment.
He told Al Jazeera that the Taliban has the capacity to take control of the entire Swat valley.
Mountainous Swat was a thriving tourist resort known as the "Switzerland of Pakistan" until last year, when Fazlullah launched an armed campaign to enforce Sharia law in the region.
Under the May peace deal, the Pakistan government agreed to gradually pull out troops and introduce an Islamic justice system.
In exchange, the Taliban said they would halt attacks and surrender arms.
Isaf frustration
The threats from Swat's pro-Taliban groups came as the head of Nato-led forces in Afghanistan expressed frustration at not being able to confront the Taliban in Pakistan.
In an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera's James Bays, General David McKiernan, commander of the International Assistance Security Force (Isaf), said: "[Violence] largely emanates from tribal sanctuaries across the border in Pakistan that allow the freedom of movement of insurgents into Afghanistan.
"My mandate as a Nato commander stops at the border. ... You asked me, is it frustrating that organisations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda exist in sanctuaries across the border? - Absolutely frustrating."
"It's a regional problem. It is a problem for Pakistan and the leadership for Pakistan and it's a problem for Afghanistan."
McKiernan, in charge of 53,000 Nato-led troops, said that Isaf was under-resourced and needed more military capabilities.
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The Greenbelt Movement of Kenya
Program #MAAW001. Recorded in Boulder, CO on October 2, 1990.
The Greenbelt Movement of Kenya is an indigenous, grassroots environmental campaign with tree planting as its basic activity. Although its objectives are many and varied, the tree has been used as a focal point around which other environmental issues are discussed and brought to the attention of the public and decision makers. Interview by David Barsamian.
Wangari Maathai was a Kenyan environmental and political activist. In the 1970s, Maathai founded the Greenbelt Movement, an environmental non-governmental organization focused on the planting of trees, environmental conservation, and women’s rights. In 1986, she was awarded the Right Livelihood Award, and in 2004, she became the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for “her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace.” She died in 2011.
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Today, Iraq. Tomorrow . . . ?
A Pax Americana is emerging in the Middle East. Today the U.S. stands astride Iraq. The Red Sea, the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean are virtually U.S. lakes guarded over by the largest naval armadas in the world. American planes command the skies. The Middle East is dotted with and surrounded by U.S. military bases. […]
The CIA and Cuba
The island of Cuba occupies a big place in the imagination and politics of the United States. The powerful anti-Castro lobby has greatly influenced U.S. policy toward the Caribbean nation. The landscape of U.S./Cuba relations is dotted with the missile crisis, blockades, embargoes and boat refugees. Few know the details of the extensive CIA operations […]
The Amherst Interviews
8 CDs Ranking among the most important interviews Barsamian has ever done, this six hour-plus discussion with the noted Pakistani intellectual focuses on India, Gandhi, Tagore, Pakistan, Islam, Middle East, globalization, imperialism and encounters with Fanon, Said and Chomsky, a virtuoso performance by an original thinker. Interview by David Barsamian. Recorded at Hampshire College.
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Collections Curator, Academy Museum
The Collections Curator is responsible for the stewardship and further development as well as for digitization strategies and policies of accessibility of the museum collection. Additional duties are the conceptualization and realization of a range of museum programs including exhibitions as well as advising and participating in interpretive initiatives that relate to the collection. The incumbent engages the public and disseminates knowledge on the Academy Collection through exhibitions, digital initiatives, publications, lectures, gallery talks, and other public programs. This position reports to the Acting Head of Curatorial Affairs and is in close collaboration with Collection Management and Preservation.
Responsible for development of the Academy Museum’s collection and long-term collection strategies.
Responsible for conducting research relevant to the understanding, use, loan, display, and care of works of art and material culture in the collection.
Assures proper identification or authentication, documentation, conservation, and interpretation of works in the collection.
In collaboration with Collection Management, develops access policy to the collection.
Initiates and maintains contacts with filmmakers, collectors, scholars, curators, critics, authors, and other colleagues in the field.
Supports exhibition curators in finding lenders.
Identifies objects for potential acquisition in auctions and from private and institutional sources. Recommends new acquisitions to the Museum director and the senior curatorial team and participates in Academy wide acquisition and Museum collection meetings.
Prepares materials related to potential acquisitions as needed.
Administers and leads decision making process for purchases and donations to the Museum collection.
Participates in the deaccessioning process.
Manages acquisition budget.
Proposes exhibitions on different scales inspired by the collection.
Develops long term digital and digitization projects in relation to the Museum’s collection.
Seeks collaborations with other major national and international collections.
Works with public programs to create lecture series, symposia, conferences, collaborations, and other innovative interpretive programs geared for a wide range of audiences, including adults, universities, schools, families, and children related to the collection.
Collaborates with Development staff to cultivate individuals, corporations, and foundations that may donate funds and/or goods and services in support of the museum’s programs.
Candidate is required to have a Master’s degree in film studies, museum studies or related subject; PhD preferred.
Have substantial knowledge in film history and preferably also contacts in the film industry.
Demonstrated experience working with a museum or with a private collection.
Management skills.
Knowledge and experience with digital projects and databases.
Proficiency in MS Office including Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Adobe Acrobat, and Adobe Photoshop.
Excellent verbal and written communications skills.
Ability to multi-task in a fast-paced, high-volume work environment while maintaining a high level of organization and attention to detail.
Education Master’s degree in film studies, museum studies or related subject; PhD preferred.
Position Collections Curator
Exempt/Non-Exempt Exempt
About the Organization The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures will be the world's premier institution dedicated to the art and science of movies. Located at Wilshire and Fairfax in Los Angeles, the Museum will be simultaneously immersive, experimental, educational, and entertaining. More than a museum, this dynamic film center will offer unparalleled experiences and insights into movies and moviemaking.
We will consider for employment all qualified Applicants, including those with criminal histories, in a manner consistent with the requirements of applicable state and local laws , including the City of Los Angeles' Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance.
The Academy Museum is committed to equal opportunity in employment and to creating, managing and valuing diversity in its workforce. Maintaining a diverse workforce is vital to the Academy Museum.
Accordingly, the Academy Museum enforces a strict policy that prohibits discrimination in hiring, training, compensation, promotion, transfer, or termination, whether on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, disability, age, veteran status, sexual orientation or genetic information. This includes a workplace that is free of all forms of harassment. And, to help foster diversity, the Academy Museum utilizes programs that ensure fairness of opportunity, pay, and growth to all applicants and employees. Every employee of the Academy Museum is required to follow this policy and to preserve the Academy Museum's commitment to diversity.
Exhibitions Installation Manager, Academy Museum in Los Angeles , CA
Digital Media Manager, Academy Museum in Los Angeles , CA
Manager of Public Programs, Academy Museum in Los Angeles , CA
Controller, Academy Museum in Los Angeles , CA
Assistant Manager of Security, Academy Museum in Los Angeles , CA
Exhibition A/V Preparator, Academy Museum in Los Angeles , CA
Assistant Manager of Maintenance, Academy Museum in Los Angeles , CA
Human Resources Coordinator, Academy Museum in Los Angeles , CA
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Blog About Support Take Action Contact
Psychic Numbing Pseudoinefficacy Environmental Humanities Prominence Numbers and Nerves
Home Categories Psychic Numbing Pseudoinefficacy Environmental Humanities Prominence Numbers and Nerves BlogAbout
The more who die, the less we care. Learn why..
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Combating the Lord’s Resistance Army: A Humanitarian Success Story
Children displaced the LRA in northern Uganda. Photograph by an employee of the United States Agency for International Development.
Too often our responses to humanitarian crises are inadequate. Public support for action is hampered by psychic numbing and pseudoinefficacy. Policy makers undervalue human life in the decision making process due to prominence bias. For these reasons it’s worth paying attention to a recent example of a successful humanitarian intervention: the dismantling of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in Africa.
Writing in The Register-Guard, former Department of State official Jason Lewis-Berry describes the largely successful mission to degrade the LRA. Serving as field representative to the Department of State for LRA issues, Lewis-Berry saw firsthand how activism, diplomacy and military action can work in concert to put an end to ongoing atrocities. Thousands of activists mobilized to get Congress to do something about the LRA, which according to the UN has killed more than 100,000 people and displaced millions in Central and Eastern Africa. Advocacy efforts were successful, culminating in signed legislation committing the U.S. to take action. Working with local civilians and military troops, U.S. diplomats and special forces conducted a campaign against the LRA that resulted in the capture, killing, or defection of senior LRA leaders, and the reduction in the LRA’s fighting force from 3,000 to just 130.
As Lewis-Berry argues, the mission to degrade the LRA demonstrates “that American leadership and ‘America first’ thinking are not mutually exclusive.” When humanitarians, government officials, and military personnel work together, we can end atrocities and ensure a safer world.
Read Lewis-Berry’s op-ed detailing the mission here.
Psychic Numbing, Pseudoinefficacy, ProminenceArithmetic of Compassion Team June 29, 2017
Making Compassion Count
Prominence, Psychic Numbing, PseudoinefficacyArithmetic of Compassion Team July 24, 2017
Identifying Donor Recipients in Media Reports Increases Willingness to Donate
Arithmetic of Compassion Team June 12, 2017
Website designed by Bree Heimbach at wwwebdesign.co and maintained by Decision Research, a research institute that investigates decision making. Decision Research is a registered nonprofit with 501(c)3 designation. All original content is copyright of Decision Research.
The banner image on all pages except for the home page is a photograph of the Kigali Memorial Centre by Radu Sigheti. The Kigali Memorial Centre contains a gallery of photographs depicting victims of the Rwandan genocide. The remains of 250,000 victims are interred at the center.
The photographs in the rotating images on the Home page linking to the About, Pseudoinefficacy, and Take Action pages are by Paul Jeffrey.
The material on this website is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation and Riksbankens Jubileumsfond. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation or Riksbankens Jubileumsfond.
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Should Educators Carry Guns
Amanda ReynoldsThe Independent
The ongoing debate over arming teachers has gained momentum between teachers, parents, students and law enforcement. In an article on ww.Edweek.org, the idea of arming teachers, or loosening state restrictions to allow concealed-carry permit holders to bring guns into schools, is often circulated after school attacks, such as Sandy Hook Elementary School and the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. There are many schools in Arkansas that are arming teachers, such as Heber Springs.
The arguments in favor of armed teachers include U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos who believes districts have the flexibility to use federal funds to arm teachers. At a speech just after the Parkland shooting, President Trump argued that armed teachers with training and experience who "love their students" might be better able to protect them in an active shooting scenario than an armed police officer. There does not appear to be a law that prevents teachers from carrying guns in Arkansas. The number of teachers carrying guns in and around schools in Arkansas is growing. Armed teachers and school officials at Heber Springs all had criminal history investigations and psychological tests before being permitted to carry a gun at school. Each received about 60 hours of gun training, as well as extra training three times a year. "I see it as protecting more than one person. I'm protecting all the other students," states one such teacher for VOA News.
On the other side of the debate is the opposition to armed teachers. In one article published in the New York Times states that putting guns in the hands of school staff is often met with resistance from educators, who say they do not want the responsibility of carrying and securing a firearm on top of their already demanding jobs. Some teachers suggest it puts an unfair burden on teachers. Many teachers believe that arming themselves, and their peers, would make schools less safe. All the major teacher, principal, school employee, and school security organizations oppose guns in schools, except when carried by a police or security officer.
In Arkansas, Governor Asa Hutchinson asked a committee to study how to prevent future school shootings. As reported by the Arkansas Times, the committee’s report was released earlier this year. It said that individual schools need to make decisions for themselves. It suggested that "no [school] should ever be without an armed presence when staff and children are attending class or a major extracurricular activity." Not everyone agrees that arming teachers helps reduce or prevent gun violence. Cathy Koehler, president of the Arkansas Education Association, states that the preference is to invest in the mental health services that are desperately needed and underfunded in most school districts.
Most school officials agree that even with all the added security measures, a motivated shooter will find a way to do harm. Research shows even trained, full-time law enforcement officers are not wholly reliable in armed conflicts. According to the post, statistics show that serious behavioral incidents in schools rarely involve weapons. A bloody fistfight is no small thing. But they are not a new feature of adolescent behavior. Guns or counselors? Guns or early childhood intervention?
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Roaring Fork field goal beats Aspen, 20-17
Jon Mitchell
Glenwood Springs Post-Independent
CARBONDALE — Tanner Nieslanik’s 51-yard run in the fourth quarter set up a go-ahead field goal from Alex Fisher, and Aspen’s field goal attempt with 13 seconds remaining failed in the Roaring Fork High School football team’s 20-17 nonleague victory Friday night.
Nieslanik also had a 59-yard punt return for a touchdown in the first quarter that gave the Rams (2-0 overall) an early lead. The victory for Roaring Fork was its first over the Skiers (1-1) in six years.
Ryan Fitzgerald finished with a game-high 147 rushing yards and a touchdown on 28 carries for the Skiers, who had a pair of lost fumbles and were unable to take advantage of 11 penalties against Roaring Fork.
Nieslanik, who alternated between quarterback and running back, finished with 74 yards rushing with a touchdown to lead the Rams. Aspen’s defense limited him to negative-1 yard on his first 11 carries.
His big run came with just over 5 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. The Roaring Fork senior broke through a pile on a third-and-1 play from the Rams’ 40, then broke into the clear before he was run down at the Skiers’ 9.
The Skiers kept the Rams out of the end zone on the next three plays, and Fisher kicked a 27-yard field goal with 2 minutes, 23 seconds remaining to snap a 17-all tie.
Aspen got the ball back on its own 31 and, 11 plays later, spiked the ball on Roaring Fork’s 23 with 13.5 seconds remaining. It gave a chance at a 39-yard field goal to Aspen kicker John Heaphey, who had converted a 32-yard field goal with 8:32 left in the fourth quarter to tie the score at 17.
But the snap slipped in the wet and soggy conditions on the Roaring Fork Middle School football field. Aspen tight end Henry Woodrow scooped the ball up and threw a desperation pass up the field, but it fell incomplete.
Tanner Nieslanik’s punt return for a score — his second punt return for a touchdown in as many games — was helped thanks to a pancake block from Roaring Fork’s Nate Nieslanik. It opened up a wide-open sideline for Tanner, for the first-quarter score.
Aspen responded in the second quarter with a 21-yard run from Fitzgerald with 10:19 left before halftime that evened the score at 7-7 after Heaphey’s point-after kick. Fisher gave Roaring Fork a 10-7 halftime lead with a 28-yard field goal, and Nieslanik’s 6-yard scoring run in the third quarter gave the Rams a 17-7 lead. The Skiers responded, though, driving 76 yards on 10 plays and pulling within 17-14 on a 2-yard TD run from Young.
Three Rivers 8-10 boys baseball wins districts, hosts state at Crown Mountain
Steamboat rugby beats Boulder to win Cowpie; Aspen Gents finish 1-2
Glenwood resident Kirstie Ennis took home Pat Tillman Award at ESPYs
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The Trumping of Cambodian democracy
4 Dec 2017|Joshua Kurlantzick
Over the past year, Cambodia’s ruling party, the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), has dramatically increased its pressure on its political opponents and civil society. Democracy in Cambodia has always been fraught, and elections are not completely free and fair. But the current crackdown is much greater in scope, and far more concerning, in part because it is being enabled by American apathy.
Prime Minister Hun Sen, East Asia’s longest-serving non-royal ruler, has used his power to silence critics and close outspoken media outlets, including one independent newspaper, the Cambodia Daily. The CPP has also expelled the National Democratic Institute, a US-based nonprofit that focuses on rights and democracy, and detained political challengers. Kem Sokha, who co-headed the main opposition group, the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), was arrested in September on dubious treason charges. The other main opposition figure, Sam Rainsy, remains in exile in France.
But in recent weeks, Hun Sen has increased the pressure, essentially ending Cambodia’s shaky attempts at democracy. Earlier this month, a court dominated by CPP allies dissolved the CNRP. As a result, the party will most likely be unable to contest national elections next year, all but ensuring that Hun Sen will win another term as prime minister. The ruling could also help enable Hun Sen to eventually hand power to another family member. Fearing for their lives, around half of the CNRP members have left Cambodia.
Hun Sen has hardly been shy about his slide towards what the Cambodia Daily, on its last day of publishing, termed a ‘descent into outright dictatorship’. In fact, Hun Sen, like other Southeast Asian autocrats, now seems to believe that he has political carte blanche, given the low priority that US President Donald Trump has placed on human rights.
In the past, Western pressure had managed to keep Hun Sen in check. Foreign aid, including from the US, accounts for as much as 40% of Cambodia’s national budget. And, while President Barack Obama’s administration did expand cooperation with Cambodia, it also repeatedly raised the issue of human-rights abuses with Hun Sen, including during a tense visit by Obama to Phnom Penh in 2012.
The Trump administration has rolled back this pressure, and then some, by downplaying human rights and democracy promotion. In an address to the United Nations General Assembly in September, Trump made clear that his priority would be sovereignty rather than rights. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, meanwhile, has even reportedly considered removing democracy promotion from the State Department’s mission.
Hun Sen recognised this shift almost immediately. In February, he compared his disdain for Cambodia’s media to Trump’s distrust of the mainstream media in the US. And although lower-ranking US officials, including the senior director for Asia on the National Security Council, have met with their Cambodian counterparts to press them on rights issues, Trump has said nothing negative about Hun Sen’s actions. In a speech in early November, Hun Sen essentially praised Trump for his indifference and non-interventionism.
Other Southeast Asian autocrats, or elected leaders with autocratic tendencies, have also celebrated the arrival of Trump’s ‘America First’ foreign policy. Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, who led a coup against an elected government three years ago, was welcomed at the White House this year. So was Malaysian leader Najib Razak, whose wealth may be questioned by the US Justice Department as part of a wide-ranging investigation into fraud at a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, meanwhile, held a friendly phone call with Trump back in April. Trump praised the Philippine leader for his brutal, lawless ‘war on drugs’, in which, according to Human Rights Watch, more than 12,000 people have died.
During Trump’s visit to Manila in November, Duterte serenaded him with a song, and then Trump laughed when, in a joint appearance, his counterpart blasted the media, calling them ‘spies’. (The Philippines is one of the most dangerous countries in the world to be a journalist, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.) Trump later claimed that he briefly mentioned human rights to Duterte, but a Philippine government spokesperson said the two had not discussed rights issues.
As Hun Sen, Duterte and others have shown, the new US approach fosters impunity for autocratic leaders. Although other donor countries, such as Canada and France, have at times spoken out against Hun Sen’s abuses, the US government, as the actor wielding the most leverage, has historically led the charge.
But the Trump administration’s see-no-evil approach hinders other countries’ ability to promote rights and democracy. For example, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in his own bilateral meeting with Duterte last month, did raise concerns about the drug war in the Philippines. But without US support, Trudeau’s pressure lacked credible measures.
Trump’s policies are placing America’s long-term interests at risk. As in Cambodia, many of Asia’s strongest supporters of democratic change are young men and women. Opposition parties in Malaysia, Cambodia and other Southeast Asian countries attract a high share of young people, as do many of the media organisations and civil-society groups now under pressure. And, most important from the standpoint of national interest, the US has built its strongest partnerships in Asia with other democracies.
Policies that ignore human rights and democracy will not benefit the US or the region. An ‘America First’ approach that disregards these issues—in Cambodia or elsewhere—will only leave the US weaker in the end.
Joshua Kurlantzick is Senior Fellow for Southeast Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations. This article is presented in partnership with Project Syndicate © 2017. Image courtesy of Flickr user Jean-François Chénier.
Trump’s opportunity in Asia
Leadership in Asia: don’t count the US out
Cambodia’s latest crackdown
Trump, it’s time to get smart
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Understanding the UN’s new Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons
10 Jul 2017|Ramesh Thakur
On the same day that the third and near-final draft of the text of the UN’s new Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was released, North Korea tested its latest missile, boasting it had achieved intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capability that brings Alaska within its range. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop joined world leaders in strongly criticising Pyongyang for defying international condemnation of its nuclear and missile program. Yet Australia has boycotted the UN talks, currently the world’s only efforts actually to promote nuclear disarmament. Given that, how much credibility and moral authority does Bishop’s criticism of North Korea have?
Reflecting the widespread dismissive attitude of the nuclear weapon states and allies sheltering under the US nuclear umbrella, Rod Lyon writes that ‘the ban treaty probably won’t remove a single nuclear weapon from the face of the earth’. The recalcitrant states have boycotted the UN ban conference on two grounds: the appropriate global normative framework for regulating nuclear weapons is the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the mandated multilateral disarmament machinery is the Conference on Disarmament.
Newsflash: The Conference has not been able to agree on its own agenda for 20 years and the NPT has never eliminated a single warhead. After 49 years of existence, and 21 years after the World Court unanimously advised that under Article VI all NPT states parties have an obligation to engage in and bring to a conclusion good-faith negotiations on nuclear disarmament, the NPT count on elimination or a disarmament treaty is zero. The UN talks produced an agreed treaty within just one month of negotiations.
The state of nuclear arms control in 2017 shows three storylines:
No negotiations on arms control are currently being conducted between any of the nine countries that collectively possess 15,000 nuclear weapons (China, France, India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, the UK and the US).
The Preparatory Committee process for the 2020 NPT Review Conference began with the first committee in Vienna on 2–12 May.
The UN-mandated conference to negotiate a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons met in New York on 27–31 March and 15 June–7 July. The final text was adopted on 7 July by 122 states. It prohibits the acquisition, development, production, manufacture, possession, transfer, receipt, testing, hosting, use and threat of use of nuclear weapons. The treaty is the most significant multilateral development on nuclear arms control in two decades, if not since the NPT itself in 1968.
The sobering first proposition effectively delegitimised the NPT as the dominant normative framework for nuclear arms control. The third proposition is the inevitable result of this disillusionment of the majority of the international community.
Against the twin backdrop of the receding nuclear arms control and disarmament tide and elevated nuclear threat levels, many countries concluded that fresh out-of-the-box efforts were needed by those who neither possessed nuclear weapons nor required the security of extended nuclear deterrence provided by the US. The normative prop for the new initiative was humanitarian principles. The majority of states have reclaimed nuclear agency and were determined to proclaim a more powerful and unambiguous prohibition norm.
The main impact of the UN nuclear ban treaty will be to reshape the global normative context: the prevailing cluster of laws (international, humanitarian, human rights), norms, rules, practices and discourse that shape how we think about and act in relation to nuclear weapons. Stigmatisation implies illegitimacy of a practice based on the collective moral revulsion of a community.
The foreseeable effects of use makes the doctrine of deterrence and the possession of nuclear weapons morally unacceptable to the community at large. Criticism of the treaty as ineffective in eliminating warheads, lacking credibility and impractical is therefore fundamentally misconceived: it confuses the normative impact of a prohibition treaty with the operational results of a full-fledged nuclear weapon convention.
The nuclear disarmament policy goals can be summarised as delegitimise, prohibit, cap, reduce, eliminate. In this five-part agenda, only those with nuclear weapons can undertake the last three tasks. But the rest—the vast majority of the international community—can pursue the first (delegitimisation) and second (prohibition) goals on their own, both as an affirmation of global norms and as one of the few means of exerting pressure on the possessor states to pursue the other three goals.
In this effort at stigmatisation, the ban treaty will draw on the UN’s long-recognised unique role as the sole custodian and dispenser of collective international legitimacy. By changing the prevailing normative structure, it will shift the balance of costs and benefits of possession, deterrence doctrines and deployment practices, and create a deepening crisis of legitimacy.
Stigmatisation and prohibition are the necessary—not sufficient, but necessary—precursors to elimination. The conference was mandated by the General Assembly explicitly to negotiate a prohibition treaty leading to the eventual elimination of nuclear weapons. The boycotting states engaged in a petulant defiance of a duly constituted and UN-mandated multilateral conference and thereby defied the international community and disrespected two-thirds of the NPT membership. Going by the experience of the Chemical Weapons Convention and previous efforts at dismantling nuclear weapons stockpiles, the safe, secure, verified and irreversible decommissioning, dismantlement and destruction of all bombs following a nuclear weapon convention could take between one and two decades.
Just like the nuclear-armed and umbrella states, in the end even Rod Lyon confesses to believing in abolition, but only as ‘the ultimate goal’. It calls to mind St Augustine’s prayer: ‘Lord, make me chaste. But not just yet.’
Ramesh Thakur is director of the Centre for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament, Australian National University, and co-convenor of the Asia-Pacific Leadership Network for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
non-proliferation
North Korea: the plot thickens
The nuclear ban cometh … unfortunately
North Korea: it’s not the first time Australia’s been threatened with nuclear attack
Wanted: a new policy on nuclear weapons
Nuclear disarmament, narratives and ‘spoilers’
Strategic policy, ANZUS and dealing with Trump
What comes after the Non-Proliferation Treaty?
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AstraZeneca launches Healthy Heart Africa programme to address hypertension in Africa
AstraZeneca has today launched a programme aimed at tackling the burden of hypertension in Africa. Healthy Heart Africa is designed in consultation and collaboration with non-governmental and community based organisations, international organisations, health experts and governments to support local health systems by increasing awareness of the symptoms and risks of hypertension and offering education, screening, treatment and control. The programme will initially be launched in Kenya, with a view to expanding to other countries in the continent.
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death among those aged over 45 in Africa. The continent has the highest prevalence of adults with hypertension, or high blood pressure, which puts patients at high risk of developing more serious cardiovascular conditions such as heart disease or stroke. Together with seven partners, AMPATH, AMREF Kenya, the Christian Health Association of Kenya, Jhpiego, Population Services Kenya, Mission for Essential Drugs and Supplies and Abt Associates, AstraZeneca will run five demonstration projects to test different ways of addressing the barriers currently preventing access to care for patients with high blood pressure.
AstraZeneca has initiated the programme to highlight its commitment to improving the health of patients in Africa, leveraging its knowledge of cardiovascular disease – one of its core therapy areas – to make a significant impact on what is becoming one of the continent’s major causes of mortality and morbidity. The programme also reinforces the company's long-term growth ambition in the region. Healthy Heart Africa, the first programme of its kind, has three components:
Education and awareness – increasing awareness of the risk factors associated with hypertension and how to prevent it, as well as prompting patients to access screening services.
Provider training and treatment guidelines – supporting training for health and community care workers and developing guidelines with professional societies and the Kenyan Ministry of Health to ensure consistency in the level and quality of care.
Access and affordability – improving access to hypertension treatment and ensuring a consistent supply of low priced, affordable medicines including calcium-channel blockers, angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and hydrochlorothiazide diuretics.
The demonstration projects will run for a period of 12-18 months and will test different models to determine the most effective methods of integrating hypertension care into existing health platforms, including USAID-supported HIV/AIDS care platforms, networks of private primary care providers and pharmacies and public and faith-based clinics. The projects will be carried out predominantly in urban and surrounding areas in the central and western counties of Kenya and will be independently evaluated. Those demonstrating the greatest impact will be taken forward and expanded across the country and, in the longer term, into other parts of Africa.
Mark Mallon, Executive Vice President, International at AstraZeneca, said: “Recognising a significant unmet medical need, we have been working closely with governments, health experts and community organisations to design a programme that can have a real and lasting impact on the identification, treatment and prevention of hypertension in Africa – one that offers education and care as well as access to affordable medicines. By taking a holistic approach to healthcare delivery, establishing strong working partnerships and securing local ownership through collaboration at all levels of the healthcare system, we will ensure that Healthy Heart Africa is sustainable over the long-term.”
Prof. Elijah Ogola, Kenya Vice-President (East), Pan African Society of Cardiology, said: “Cardiovascular disease is rapidly rising in Africa and hypertension is one of the main risk factors. In Kenya alone, over 40 per cent of adults have high blood pressure and it is vital that we address this growing problem early by increasing awareness, treatment and control rates. We welcome AstraZeneca’s Healthy Heart Africa programme, which has the potential to have a significant impact on the burden of cardiovascular disease across this continent.”
Hypertension is an often-overlooked non-communicable disease that puts patients at high risk of developing more serious cardiovascular conditions such as coronary heart disease and stroke. Africa has the highest prevalence of adults with hypertension at 46%, and a quarter of all premature deaths in Africa are attributable to the condition*. AstraZeneca’s ambition through the programme is to ensure that 10 million patients with high blood pressure are on treatments which control their condition by 2025, supporting the World Health Organisation’s (WHO’s) ‘25 by 25’ global monitoring framework for preventing and controlling non-communicable diseases. If achieved, this would address a quarter of the WHO’s hypertension target in Africa.
About hypertension
Hypertension, or high blood pressure, is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease, and indicates an increased risk of heart attack, heart failure, stroke and other complications. Hypertension causes 7.5 million deaths annually (12.8% of all deaths) and the risk of dying from hypertension in low and middle-income countries is more than double that in high-income countries.
Africa is home to the highest prevalence of people over 25 with raised blood pressure. In Africa, 25% of deaths under 60 are attributable to hypertension. In 2000, there were approximately 80 million adults with hypertension in Africa, current epidemiological data suggest that this figure will rise to 150 million by 2025. In contrast to developed regions, Africa has seen a steady increase in high blood pressure in both sexes since the 1990s. In Kenya alone, 44.5% of adults have raised blood pressure, which is one of the highest prevalence rates across Africa.
About AstraZeneca’s Healthy Heart Africa partners
AMPATH (The Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare) was established in 2001 as part of the Ministry of Health's response to the HIV pandemic. With funding from USAID, AMPATH was able to rapidly scale up to become one of the largest and most comprehensive HIV programmes within the Ministry of Health. AMPATH represents a collaborative construct that is unique in Africa. It represents a North American consortium teamed with Moi University School of Medicine and Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital - with each member of the collaboration armed with a new sense of mission. That mission is for AMPATH to join with the Ministry of Health and new county governments to assist in creating comprehensive models of care that are responsive to the needs of the population. AMPATH continues to impact the community with innovative care interventions, research and training in the fields of HIV and non-communicable diseases and its response covers primary to tertiary care.
AMREF Kenya is Africa’s largest international health NGO. AMREF Kenya’s vision is for “lasting health change in Africa”: communities with the knowledge, skills and means to maintain their good health and break the cycle of poor health and poverty. With a focus on women and children, AMREF Kenya works with the most vulnerable communities to achieve lasting health change.
The Christian Health Association of Kenya (CHAK) is a leading national faith based organisation of protestant churches' health facilities and programmes from all over Kenya. Established in 1946, CHAK has the goal of promoting access to quality healthcare.
Jhpiego is an international, non-profit health organisation affiliated with The Johns Hopkins University. For more than 40 years, Jhpiego has empowered front-line health workers by designing and implementing effective, low-cost, hands-on solutions to strengthen the delivery of health care services for women and their families. By putting evidence-based health innovations into everyday practice, Jhpiego works to break down barriers to high-quality health care for the world’s most vulnerable populations.
Population Services Kenya (PS Kenya), which transitioned to PS Kenya in January 2014 but remains part of the Population Services International (PSI) global network, has been measurably improving the health of Kenyans since 1989. PS Kenya's approach harnesses the vitality of the private sector to improve health outcomes for “Sara”- their archetype that focuses their interventions. PS Kenya addresses the most serious health challenges affecting resource-poor and vulnerable communities in Kenya, including HIV/AIDS, reproductive health and family planning, and the greatest threats to children under five including malaria, diarrhoea, pneumonia and malnutrition.
Mission for Essential Drugs and Supplies (MEDS), is a medical supply chain and capacity building organisation. Its mission is to provide reliable, quality, affordable essential medicines, medical supplies, capacity building, quality control and other pharmaceutical services guided by Christian and professional values. MEDS is a Christian not-for-profit organisation registered as a Trust of the ecumenical partnership of the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB) and the Christian Health Association of Kenya (CHAK).
Abt Associates is a mission-driven, global leader in research and programme implementation in the fields of health, social and environmental policy, and international development. Known for its rigorous approach to solving complex challenges, Abt Associates is regularly ranked as one of the top 20 global research firms and one of the top 40 international development innovators. The company has multiple offices in the U.S. and programme offices in more than 40 countries.
AstraZeneca is a global, innovation-driven biopharmaceutical business that focuses on the discovery, development and commercialisation of prescription medicines, primarily for the treatment of cardiovascular, metabolic, respiratory, inflammation, autoimmune, oncology, infection and neuroscience diseases. AstraZeneca operates in over 100 countries and its innovative medicines are used by millions of patients worldwide. For more information please visit: www.astrazeneca.com
Vanessa Rhodes
(UK/Global) +44 20 7604 8037
Michele Meixell (US) +1 302 885 6351
Karl Hård +44 20 7604 8123 mob: +44 7789 654364
Eugenia Litz +44 20 7604 8233 mob: +44 7884 735627
Anthony Brown +44 20 7604 8067 mob: +44 7585 404943
Jens Lindberg +44 20 7604 8414 mob: +44 7557 319729
*World Health Organisation Global Status Report on non-communicable diseases 2010. http://www.who.int/nmh/publications/ncd_report_full_en.pdf
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MLB Notes
REDS: Had two runs taken off the scoreboard and Edwin Encarnacion lost a hit when Adam Dunn was called out for missing third base on an apparent two-run single in the fourth inning Thursday night.
With the bases loaded and two outs, Encarnacion hit a line drive to left field. Ken Griffey Jr., who was on third, and Dunn, who was on second, both scored standing up.
But the Pirates successfully appealed that Dunn failed to touch third, and he was called out on what became a force play at third.
ASTROS: Baseball commissioner Bud Selig would like to see Cecil Cooper hired permanently as Houston manager. Cooper was named interim manager after Phil Garner was fired on Monday.
In an interview with Houston television station KRIV, Selig said Cooper has earned the opportunity to be retained as permanent manager. When Selig owned the Milwaukee Brewers, Cooper played for him from 1977-87.
PHILLIES: Freddy Garcia cost the Philadelphia Phillies $10 million for one win. The two-time All-Star right-hander had season-ending shoulder surgery, nearly three months after he threw his last pitch for the Phillies.
Acquired from the Chicago White Sox for two minor leaguers, Garcia was expected to be Philadelphia's ace. Instead, he was 1-5 with a 5.90 ERA in 11 starts.
CUBS: Traded minor league outfielder Buck Coats to Cincinnati for a player to be named or cash.
Coats was optioned to Triple-A Louisville. He had been playing at Triple-A Iowa, where the 25-year-old was hitting .303 with 11 homers, 59 RBI and 18 stolen bases.
RED SOX: Manager Terry Francona was ejected in the seventh inning of Thursday's game against the New York Yankees for arguing with the umpires after they called Boston's Kevin Youkilis out for running outside the basepath. Youkilis was originally ruled safe when he eluded Alex Rodriguez's attempt to tag him on J.D. Drew's grounder to third.
Francona stood on the dugout steps while the umpires huddled, then bolted onto the field when they called Youkilis out. Francona got third base coach DeMarlo Hale and Youkilis away from the umps, then started to argue the call.
After an animated discussion, Francona was ejected for the fifth time this year. He argued a little longer before returning to the dugout.
YANKEES: Mike Mussina was so angry and hurt, he didn't want to speak publicly at first. Two days after losing his spot in the New York Yankees' rotation, he finally could talk about it.
"It's pretty hard," Mussina said. "For somebody that's been in a rotation for 17 years, it's pretty hard. It caught me a little off guard, although I know I was struggling badly, which is probably why I needed a couple days to simmer down."
Instead of starting the 247-game winner on Saturday against Tampa Bay, the Yankees will go with Ian Kennedy, who will be making his major league debut.
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Ballymena paedophile is jailed
Leonard McAuley.
A sex offender from Ballymena who committed sex attacks on two Scottish schoolgirls more than 30 years ago has been jailed for 17 months.
Leonard McAuley (64) had a previous conviction for sex assaults on girls in Northern Ireland when he was jailed for four years in 1994.
Airdrie Sheriff Court was told how McAuley indecently assaulted one of the girls, then aged between nine and 11, on various occasions over a three-year period at two houses in Coatbridge, Lanarkshire, between January 1, 1984 and December 31, 1986.
He forced the young girl to carry out a variety of sordid sex acts on him, indecently attacked her and performed a sex act in front of her.
McAuley, of Devenagh Way, Ballymena, also pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting another young Coatbridge girl, then aged nine, performing a sex act on her and attempting to perform another, at a house in Coatbridge, on one occasion between February 23, 1985 and July 1, 1985.
He was due to go to trial in Airdrie before a jury in January, where his two victims, now aged 40 and 38, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were cited and expected to give evidence.
Following negotiations, he changed his plea to guilty at the last minute, saving the women the stress of having to give evidence and relive the horrific abuse.
He first appeared at Airdrie Sheriff Court charged with the offences on April 15, 2013.
This week both of the women tabled victim impact statements before Sheriff Frank Pieri, for him to consider before sentencing McAuley.
Prosecutor Ann Francis Hilley said: “The first of his Coatbridge victims told how she was indecently assaulted on a number of occasions over a three-year period until she was 11.”
Defence Counsel Tony Lenaghan said: “There were events in the late 1960s and early 1990s, during which time he committed similar offences in Northern Ireland and was jailed in 1994 for four years.
“His time in prison was a time of rehabilitation. These offences pre-date his time in prison in Northern Ireland.”
Sentencing McAuley, Sheriff Frank Pieri told him: “The fact remains these are very serious offences you have pleaded guilty to and prison is the only possible disposal.”
Arson attack: Historic building in Co Antrim destroyed by overnight fire
He was also put on the Sex Offenders’ Register for 10 years.
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Home > Staten Island > Annadale
Annadale Personal Injury Attorney
Nestled on New York’s Staten Island, Annadale blends the best aspects of city living with the natural beauty of the island’s South Shore. Lavish homes, beachfront properties and public parks offer residents a number of amenities that are hard to find anywhere else.
1 Need a Personal Injury Attorney in Annadale?
2 Our Trial Attorneys Fight for the Rights of Asbestos Victims
3 Top-Rated, Award-Winning Lawyers Serving Annadale
4 Our Law Firm Gets Results
5 Providing High-Quality Legal Services to Annadale Residents
6 Key Features of the Area
7 History of Annadale
8 Location & Tourism
9 Directions to Belluck & Fox from Annadale
Need a Personal Injury Attorney in Annadale?
At Belluck & Fox, our nationally recognized personal injury attorneys have been fighting for the rights of Annadale residents for more than 20 years. Our top-rated law firm has the legal skills, the manpower and the resources to hold big corporations and insurance companies accountable. Our lawyers fight aggressively for the maximum compensation our clients deserve.
Our Trial Attorneys Fight for the Rights of Asbestos Victims
Our award-winning litigation team concentrates on complex asbestos claims. For decades, this deadly mineral was used in industrial, commercial and household products, despite its known dangers. Now, years later, those who were exposed to asbestos on the job, in the service or in their homes continue to be diagnosed with mesothelioma, lung cancer, asbestosis and other serious illnesses.
Our experienced New York City mesothelioma attorneys know where asbestos was used in job sites across New York, and we have earned a reputation for holding negligent companies liable for failing to warn the public about the dangers of their products.
Top-Rated, Award-Winning Lawyers Serving Annadale
Our skilled trial attorneys have been widely recognized for our professionalism and success in recovering record-setting verdicts and settlements on behalf of our clients. We are proud to have been recognized by respected legal publications and rating services such as:
The National Law Journal
Our Law Firm Gets Results
If you’ve been harmed or lost a loved one due to negligence or recklessness, you need an attorney who will fight for the full and fair compensation you deserve. The skilled New York trial lawyers at Belluck & Fox have secured more than $1 billion for our deserving clients.
Learn more about our case results.
Providing High-Quality Legal Services to Annadale Residents
Our seasoned personal injury lawyers handle a wide variety of cases involving:
Dangerous pharmaceuticals
Asbestos diseases
Key Features of the Area
Annadale is known for large properties and quiet streets. It is also known for its high-value real estate and small-town atmosphere. Annadale was once mostly forest, but much of that was cleared away for development. Nonetheless, the neighborhood has kept a sizeable nature preserve for those in the area to enjoy. It’s known as Blue Heron Park Preserve. There you can find small ponds and creeks that empty into Raritan Bay.
To top it off, the area boasts a number of smaller parks for residents to enjoy. It’s one of those places you simply don’t want to leave.
History of Annadale
Annadale was named after Anna Seguine, a descendant of the Huguenots. A street known as Seguine Place carries her surname. The Huguenots were among the area’s first settlers. They came to America to practice their religion without fear of persecution in their native France.
As reformist protestants, they faced heavy persecution, and in 1620, the French government abolished the Huguenots from joining the military or holding political office. When Louis XIV took power, the persecution intensified. When they landed in America, they established their settlement on the South Shore.
Location & Tourism
While Annadale itself is its own area, locals benefit from much of the city life associated with Staten Island and New York City. Many of the storefronts you will find in Annadale will remind you of small towns. They’re owned and managed by locals and have a traditional small-town feel to them. Each year, Annadale hosts a Christmas tree lighting and family day featuring inflatable castles and fun for the kids.
Though Annadale has its own kind of vibe going on, the area also has access to Staten Island malls and other city-life attractions.
Directions to Belluck & Fox from Annadale
Belluck & Fox’s Manhattan office is located in Midtown at 546 Fifth Ave., 5th Floor, New York NY 10036. From Annadale, get onto the NY-440 / West Side Expressway going north. In about four miles, use the right two lanes to merge onto I-278 / Staten Island Expressway East. From there, you will cross the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge into Brooklyn, and will continue north on I-278 / Gowanus Expressway for about 2.5 miles. Exit on the left of highway to join I-478N and then take the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel into Southern Manhattan. When you exit the tunnell, merge onto the FDR Drive, heading north until you reach Exit 9 / East 42nd Street. Merge onto irst Avenue/United Nations Plaza, and then make a left on West 47th Street. Follow that street until you reach Fifth Avenue, where you will take a left and drive south two blocks. Our office is at the corner of Fifth Avenue and West 45th Street.
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let us into his life, his new LP Weak After Next goes deeper.
"I want my fans to go on a journey with me and I want them to grow with me. And I feel like if anyone’s ever seen my live shows it’s no different from my recordings. It’s a connection that I’m trying to have — I want them to feel the passion, I want them to feel the energy that I'm putting out because they give it to me."
Beyond introducing his fans to another side of himself, Marcel was very specific about what songs to put on the album, eventually narrowing down 30 tracks to a very specific 16.
"It’s not like let me just record this and record that. It’s like, this is why I do this song, this is what this song means, it all has a purpose and to have to chop some down to bring them into one bundle is the hardest process."
For now, Adrian Marcel is promoting his LP on the road with Oakland's own Keyshia Cole. And the tour has come with lessons and unexpected inspiration.
"Watching her, you're able to be inspired because she knows what she wants," Marcel noted. "...Watching her control her destiny I think that's the most inspiring thing about her."
Watch Adrian talk about getting a co-sign from Raphael Saadiq in the video below.
(Photo: Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images)
Written by Taj Rani, Reporting Dan Reagans
Adrian Marcel
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Erchembert (or Erchempert)
an Italian historian, was descended from the dukes of Benevento. The castle of Pilau, where he resided with his father, Adelgair, was taken in August 881, by Pandonulf, count of Capua, and Erchembert was carried away a prisoner, but escaped and took the habit of a monk at the-convent of the Benedictines of Monte Cassino. At the age of twenty-five he was elected abbot of a convent near by; but was driven from it by Arnulf, and returned for the rest of his days to his cell. He wrote a Chronicle, or an extended history of the Lombards, which is believed to be lost, although an abridged edition, from 774 to 888, as a continuation of the work of.Paul Diacre, was published by Antonio Caracioli (Naples, 1626); by Camillo Peregrini, in his Historia Principum Longobardorum, etc. (ibid. 1643). There is also attributed to Erchembert, De Destructione et Renovatione
Cassiensis Cocnobii: — De Israelitarum Incursione: — Vida Landulfi I, Episcopi Capuae, extending from 851 to 879, in verse: — Acta Translationis Corporis St. Matthaei, Apost. See Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, s.v.
← Erbkram, Heinrich Wilhelm
Ercnat →
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A cookie is a piece of information in the form of a very small text file that is placed on an internet user's hard drive. It is generated by a web page server, which is basically the computer that operates a web site. The information the cookie contains is set by the server and it can be used by that server whenever the user visits the site. A cookie can be thought of as an internet user's identification card, which tell a web site when the user has returned.
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Can cookies threaten users' privacy?
Cookies are stored on the computer's hard drive. They cannot access the hard drive - so a cookie can't read other information saved on the hard drive, or get a user's e-mail address etc. They only contain and transfer to the server as much information as the users themselves have disclosed to a certain web site.
A server cannot set a cookie for a domain that it is not a member of. In spite of this, users quite often find in their computer files cookies from web sites that they have never visited. These cookies are usually set by companies that sell internet advertising on behalf of other web sites. Therefore it may be possible that users' information is passed to third party web sites without the users' knowledge or consent, such as information on surfing habits. This is the most common reason for people rejecting or fearing cookies.
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Grandfather cycles from London to Paris to raise funds for Birmingham St Mary's Hospice
Graham Butler, 71 from Birmingham, will be cycling over 300 miles in four days in aid of Birmingham St Mary's Hospice.
Graham's wife Aoibheann was cared for at the Hospice after being diagnosed with a terminal illness in 2010.
Following Aoibheann's passing in 2010, keen cyclist Graham decided to undertake the challenge to raise funds for the Hospice alongside his daughter, Helen.
Graham said: “Helen and I were keen to embark on a challenge like the one Aoibheann faced in those 10 months of her illness. This really is a huge task for me, so I am hoping to raise as much money for the Hospice as possible.”
Whilst Graham’s event takes place in April, the Hospice still has places for the July 2014 London to Paris challenge.
Lucy Watkins, Events Manager, Birmingham St Mary's Hospice said: “This is a great challenge suitable for cyclists of any ability, you will get to see some of the most beautiful cycling routes in Europe, whilst getting fit, meeting new people and most importantly raising funds for the Hospice”
You can find out how you can take part in the London to Paris challenge here or by contacting [email protected].
You can sponsor Graham by visiting his JustGiving page
Updated: 2nd January, 2015
Author: Rebecca Wright
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Benoît Cœuré: Interview with France Info
Interview with Mr Benoît Cœuré, Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank, and France Info, conducted by Mr Jean Leymarie on 9 April 2018 and published on 10 April 2018.
by Benoît Cœuré
We are still seeing growth in Europe, there is certainly growth, but it seems increasingly clear that it is slowing down. Does that worry you?
I don't think we are seeing a slowdown in growth. This is something that we monitor very closely, we follow all the indicators. We are seeing indicators that had risen to very, very high levels, levels that had not been seen for many years, in some cases 10 or 15 years. And these indicators are now undergoing a slight correction that was fairly inevitable, as there comes a point when growth stops accelerating and stabilises on a certain trajectory. Moreover, this was already incorporated in our forecasts. So we will not be revising our forecasts at present as a result of this correction. I can't speak for the future - we will continue to monitor these developments - but, for now, it's a stabilisation, and it's not something that particularly concerns us.
Could it result in a change in your monetary policy?
No, for the reasons I have just given. Again, I'm not going to speak for the future, since everything is completely dependent on the data we receive on an ongoing basis. But monetary policy follows a long-term trajectory, one that requires patience. We know that monetary policy will need to remain very accommodative for quite some time.
Just to remind our listeners: there is, in particular, the huge asset purchase programme you launched three years ago, which has involved buying public and private sector securities for the vast sum of €2,500 billion. When are you going to end this programme?
That is a discussion that we will certainly be having soon, since the programme is currently proceeding at a monthly pace of €30 billion until at least September. We haven't said any more than that. So, we'll need to have a discussion fairly soon about what comes next-
Will it have come to a stop by the end of the year?
I don't know yet, because the Governing Council of the ECB has not yet discussed it, let alone reached a decision. But the discussion is not just about asset purchases, it's also about the right combination of instruments that allows us to support economic activity and bring inflation back towards 2%. There are not just the asset purchases, there are also interest rates. And on this, we have been clear that interest rates will remain at their current levels, that is, very, very low, close to zero - even below zero - for a long period, even beyond the horizon of our asset purchases. So we need to look at the longer term.
In the event of an economic slowdown - and, again, it is a possibility - do you have the means to respond effectively?
It's not a possibility that we are currently talking about, because right now there is no reason to worry about growth in the euro area. Growth is very strong, very robust and very broad-based across the euro area. But whatever the circumstances, the ECB has a clear mandate: to bring inflation back towards 2%. We will do whatever needs to be done to bring inflation back towards 2%. But at the moment there is no need to adjust the path that has been decided on by the Governing Council.
Inflation is currently at 1.4%...
Yes, it's just under 1.5%.
Is that a good level?
It's not enough, it's disappointing. But we know the reasons: it's because unemployment is still high and there is a lot of economic slack in Europe. But we want to bring inflation back towards 2% in the medium term, and that is why monetary policy will remain accommodative.
The major issue at present are the threats issued by the US President, Donald Trump, who blows hot and cold on trade policy, and in particular this power struggle he has embarked on with China. Should Europe get involved at this stage?
As a large trading power, Europe is bound to be affected-
For now, Trump is saying "I'll threaten Europe but without specific customs barriers on European products"-
Europe has a single trade policy and that means it has to react, and not just to the threat of import tariffs. It also needs to look at the source of the problem, that is, overcapacity throughout the world, and in particular overcapacity in China. This is not a matter for the ECB, of course; it's a matter for the European Commission and for EU governments. What's important for us, from an economic perspective, is that we avoid an escalation and avoid belligerent language. If there were to be a trade war, it could be very damaging for the global economy-
Is what we are experiencing a trade war?
Not yet. There are threats, skirmishes, you might say, but it is not yet a trade war. If we were to plunge into a trade war, that could have a very damaging effect, also on the US economy-
Have you put a figure on it at the ECB, have you drawn up a scenario?
Yes, we have drawn up a scenario - which is worth as much as scenarios and models are worth - but it's a scenario that does not reflect the current situation and the current declarations of the US President. Rather, it's a scenario in which all countries increase their import tariffs by 10%: a true trade war scenario that is very severe. In this scenario, we see a significant drop in global activity that also affects the United States, and that is precisely what we now need to avoid.
How large a drop?
2.5% of GDP in the United States, and 1% of GDP on a global level.
Would that be a serious situation?
It would be a very serious situation and it must be avoided. Governments are responsible for avoiding it, and above all for resolving these differences on a multilateral basis.
But that's exactly what Donald Trump doesn't want - he rejects such multilateral frameworks-
It's not what Mr Trump wants, true, but it's what Europe wants. Europe wants the world to be managed in an inclusive way where everybody gathers round the table for discussions.
Would you urge Europeans to "make themselves heard"? What is your message to them?
They are speaking up. They don't need the ECB to lecture them, a trade policy already exists. Discussions between countries are under way in Brussels and the European Commission has already started working on it.
I'd also like us to talk about another subject entirely - the cryptocurrency bitcoin. It's an important issue that was the subject of much discussion a few weeks ago. Bitcoin rocketed in value several months ago before falling back; at one point one bitcoin was worth almost USD 20,000, but today it's around USD 7,000. Is this the end of bitcoin?
It's undoubtedly the end of an illusion - that bitcoin could become a global currency that would eventually replace the dollar or the euro. We can clearly see that bitcoin, and cryptocurrencies in general, cannot be considered reliable assets, or as economists like to say, a "store of value", when their value fluctuates so much. This isn't how you go about investing your savings for your retirement. But we shouldn't disregard the possibilities opened up by bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, particularly on the technological front. It's something that all central banks are looking at. For example, we're investigating whether "blockchain" technology, which underpins bitcoin, could one day support our payment systems. This sort of thinking is useful, important and positive.
But for bitcoin defenders it's not just about the technology. It's almost a philosophy for them - they see it as a free currency that can throw off the shackles of states and central banks. Do you understand that?
Yes, and I think we must take heed of that. Investors should be warned about the specific dangers of investing in bitcoin, and everybody has done so. But we also have to understand what this tells us - technologies exist that can transform the world of payments and currencies, and these technologies should be incorporated. It's also telling us that there is a certain amount of defiance towards the traditional financial system, and potentially that everything we have done since the financial crisis to reform the banks, clean up the financial system and reduce risks may not have been enough, or may not have been understood. And that's something we have to take on board.
Benoît Cœuré
More speeches from "European Central Bank"
Country page: Euro area
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Geosphere, Biosphere to Noosphere
by Ganganand Jha
The earth was formed about 4,5 billion years ago ( with an uncertainty of 1%and was largely completed within 10-20 million years. The earliest undisputed evidence of life dates at least 3.5 billion years ago. With the origin of life on this planet the earth got transformed from geoshere (inanimate matter) to biosphere.
Dictionary meaning of biosphere is “the regions of the surface and atmosphere of the earth or another planet occupied by living organisms”
The earth may be considered as a biosphere. It is the global sum of all ecosystems. It is an autonomous system which is sustained by solar energy. Various living animals and plants compose its living (biotic) component while the physical constituents such as soil, climate, space etc. constitute its abiotic component. It is an integrated whole. A nonstop continuous movement of energy and matter goes on between various components of the system.. A study of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and water content of the biosphere and of biological processes reveals that chains of cycles of each substance are involved..In which matter and energy are transferred from one organism to another and from living organism to abiotic components of the system and vice versa. Nothing is wasted and almost nothing is transformed in such state as to get lost to the system. Almost nothing, because a very insignificant amount gets deposited as geological leftover in the form of coal and oil and so gets out of the cycle.
It is now an accepted fact that the living and non living components of the biosphere are intimately interrelated. We know that presence of oxygen and carbon dioxide is prerequisite for the existence of life on this planet. But simultaneously we need to be aware that their presence in the atmosphere is a consequence of the activities of living organisms. Our present understanding is that the initial composition of the atmosphere of the earth was radically different. Most probably it contained methane and ammonia among few other gases. Structure and composition of the living matter synthesized in such an environment was different from the present one. The process of organic evolution triggered a simultaneous process of change in the chemical composition of the environment. The present composition of the atmosphere was perhaps reached at the time since when fossil records in this planet begin. Most probably this time span extends between the time of the origin of life and the present time. It has been calculated that total carbon dioxide and oxygen of the atmosphere complete one cycle through the living system every 300 and 2,000 years respectively.
Just like the composition of the atmosphere the structure of the water of seas and oceans is also a consequence of life processes and a prerequisite too. Formerly it was understood that salt content of sea water is is continuously increasing due to soil erosion.. Therefore the age of the sea can be calculated by measuring its concentration. By this method we may be able to determine the time taken for salt to accumulate up to the present level in the sea. But by this method of calculation the age of the seas comes up to merely a very few millions of years even though other indicators point it to be many billion years.
So it appears that the composition of sea water prior to the birth of life remained constant in spite of accumulation of soil in it. Change in the composition of sea water occurred only after life was born in sea water. Ionic contents of all the types of protoplasm and sea water bear close resemblance. Te cells of terrestrial and fresh water organisms may be considered to be sacs of sa water which have invented a mechanism to maintain the evidences of their primitive sea water habitat.
Clinching knowledge of all the chemical cycles of the sea has not been obtained up till; now; even though we may understand calcium cycle quite easily. Through this cycle calcium is regularly deposited in the form of limestone through corals, seashells oysters and other molluscs and then they are dissolved in sea water through the ages. Sodium is dissociated relatively slowly, perhaps through the inorganic processes, which have resulted in. huge deposits of salt in various regions of the earth. Thus each chemical of the sea has its own independent cycle.
Vegetation growing at a place is determined by a number of factors. Soil is one among them. It is also true that the character of soil is determined by the vegetation growing there Different types of soil are formed by different types of soil forming rocks, climate of the place and interaction between living organisms, earthworms and plants.
Thus biosphere, or the living area of the earth’s surface, is a dynamic system in which living and nonliving processes are closely interwoven. To the best our knowledge these processes have remained constant during the whole period of geological fossil records. Presence of several producer, consumer and decomposer chains of present times can be detected in the earliest fossil records, although this identification can be done conclusively only in the marine environment. Extension of this system to fresh water and terrestrial environs can also be observed and can be detected in the complex systems and subsystems of flowering plants and insects.
Biomass, the total mass of all the living organisms on the planet, has been constant over a considerable length of time, (most probably from the beginning of Cenozoic era or since Mesozoic era) Though a number of species have become extinct and quite new species have appeared during this time span. G. G. Simpson has named it “relay effect”. In this process a species has been handing over its role to another species. Existing species go on getting extinct while new species continue appearing, but the nature of the processes does not change. The system remains intact.
With the advent of man as a maker of tools and as a producer of food, new relationships were introduced into the system. The biosphere started to transform into the noosphere, which started to become dominated by the phenomenon of the human mind. In another way, we could say that the biosphere started changing from a system-in-itself into a "resource" for one of its component species, Homo sapiens. This raises many problems for the biosphere and for Homo sapiens.
The noosphere is the third in a succession of phases of development of the earth after the geosphere (inanimate matter) and the biosphere (biological life). Just as the emergence of life fundamentally transformed the geosphere, the emergence of human cognition fundamentally transformed the biosphere and threatened its survival. Thanks to his mastery of developed technology he is interfering effectively in the functioning and maintenance of various ecosyestems and thereby threatening the dynamic and delicate structure. It has become imperative for our own survival that we develop our knowledge and respect for nature , Man is a component of nature and not its master.
More by : Ganganand Jha
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Ted Cruz: ‘Under No Circumstances Should the TPP Be Voted on During a Lame Duck Session’
Michelle Fields
12 Nov 2015 Washington, D.C.
Ted Cruz told Laura Ingraham Thursday that “Under no circumstances should the TPP be voted on during a lame duck session.”
Cruz believes that the controversial 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) should be voted on when members are the most accountable to their constituents.
“I’ll tell you, I am very, very skeptical about TPP” he said on the Laura Ingraham show. “This thing is six thousand pages… It is negotiated by a president who has undercut American workers at every level and I think it is a mistake to be undercutting the working men and women of this country.”
Cruz also suggested that Congress shouldn’t have a lame duck session.
“And in fact, if a Republican wins in 2016, which I believe will happen, I don’t think we should have a lame duck session… No conservative would want a bunch of members who have just been defeated or [are] retiring passing big government liberal policies with Obama in office. TPP needs to be voted on when members are accountable.”
There is concern that the 5,544 page bill will be voted on during the lame duck session, making it easier for President Obama to get the votes needed to pass it.
TPP received a brief mention in the GOP’s fourth presidential debate. Ohio Gov. John Kasich said that he believed the bill was “critical” in terms of developing economic alliances.
But Cruz told Ingraham that he hopes that there will be more opportunity for the Republican presidential candidates to debate the bill.
“I hope in the next debate we get into more substance on TPP, because I disagree with a number of the folks on that stage.”
EconomyPoliticsDonald TrumpJohn KasichLaura IngrahamTed CruzTPPTrans-Pacific Trade Partnership
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Annie Leibovitz (American, b. 1949). Nicole Kidman, 2003. Photograph © Annie Leibovitz. Courtesy of Vogue. From Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer’s Life, 1990–2005
Annie Leibovitz (American, b. 1949). Susan at the House on Hedges Lane, 1988. Photograph © Annie Leibovitz. From Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer’s Life, 1990–2005
Annie Leibovitz (American, b. 1949). Monument Valley, 1993. Photograph © Annie Leibovitz. Courtesy of Condé Nast Traveller. From Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer’s Life, 1990–2005
Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer’s Life, 1990–2005
October 20, 2006–January 21, 2007
Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer’s Life, 1990–2005, an exhibition of more than 200 photographs, debuts at the Brooklyn Museum, where it will be on view from October 20, 2006, through January 21, 2007, prior to an international tour. The exhibition, sponsored by American Express, is being organized by the Brooklyn Museum. Among the other venues it travels to are the San Diego Museum of Art, the High Museum of Art, the Corcoran Gallery, the de Young Museum, Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris, and London’s National Portrait Gallery.
The material in the exhibition, and in the accompanying book of the same title, published by Random House, encompasses work Leibovitz made on assignment as a professional photographer as well as personal photographs of her family and close friends. “I don’t have two lives,” Leibovitz says. “This is one life, and the personal pictures and the assignment work are all part of it.” The material documents the birth of her three daughters and many events involving her large and robust family, including the death of her father.
Portraits of public figures include the pregnant Demi Moore, Nelson Mandela in Soweto, George W. Bush with members of his Cabinet at the White House, William S. Burroughs in Kansas, and Agnes Martin in Taos. The assignment work also includes searing reportage from the siege of Sarajevo in the early 1990s and a series of landscapes taken in the American West and in the Jordanian desert.
One of the most celebrated photographers of our time, Annie Leibovitz has been making witty, powerful images documenting American popular culture since the early 1970s, when her work began appearing in Rolling Stone. She became the magazine’s chief photographer in 1973, and ten years later began working for Vanity Fair, and then Vogue, creating a legendary body of work. In addition to her magazine work, Leibovitz has created influential advertising campaigns for American Express, Gap, Givenchy, The Sopranos, and the Milk Board. A retrospective of her work from the years 1970 to 1990 was presented at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. and at the International Center of Photography in New York.
Leibovitz is the recipient of many honors, including the rank of Commandeur in the French government’s Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and the Barnard College Medal of Distinction. She was named a Living Legend by the Library of Congress in 2000 and one of the thirty-five Innovators of Our Time by Smithsonian magazine in 2005.
Charlotta Kotik, John and Barbara Vogelstein Curator of Contemporary Art, is the curator of the exhibition.
Organized by the Brooklyn Museum
Additional support has been provided by Richard Meier On Prospect Park, an SDS Procida/Gordon Group Holdings Development
As part of the Annie Leibovitz Talk Series, Jane Sarkin O’Connor, Features Editor of Vanity Fair magazine, shares her insight into her personal relationship with Annie Leibovitz and her own extensive experience with commercial photography.
The following recording of photographer Annie Leibovitz is from an interview that took place at the artist’s studio on September 28, 2006, related to the exhibition Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer’s Life, 1990–2005.
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Belgian abuse commission reports; court says raid on bishops was illegal
A Belgian court has made public its ruling that the June 24 police raid on the headquarters of the Belgian bishops’ conference was illegal.
The Court of Appeals said that no evidence seized in that raid could be used in court, and demanded that prosecutors return all confiscated files to the bishops. The Belgian courts had already issued a similar ruling regarding the search undertaken on the same day of offices and files belonging to an independent commission set up by the bishops to investigate sex-abuse complaints. The Court of Appeals ruled that the surprise search—in which police held the Belgian bishop for several hours, took away cell phones, seized laptop computers, and carried off hundreds of files—had been made without clear evidence that any criminal act had been committed by representatives of the bishops’ conference or the Brussels archdiocese, or by Cardinal Godfried Danneels, the retired Archbishop of Brussels. The police had also thoroughly searched Cardinal Danneels’ residence.
Archbishop André-Joseph Leonard, the new Archbishop of Brussels, voiced his satisfaction that the court had vindicated the bishops’ protest against the conduct of the raid. He emphasized that the Catholic hierarchy is “in no way opposed to a properly run judicial investigation.” The Belgian bishops issued a statement echoing that thought, saying that their conference “welcomes and fully supports the judicial investigation and prosecution of child abusers.” The statement added: “Such investigations should however always be focused and carried out in a correct legal manner, which, as the Court now confirmed, has not been the case up to present.”
Meanwhile the Church's own inquiry into sex-abuse complaints produced a report. The chairman of the commission formed by the Belgian bishops said that nearly 500 witnesses had come forward with complaints about sexual abuse by clerics in 300 cases, and that abuse was a factor in at least 13 suicides.
Peter Adriaenssens, who chaired the independent commission, presented a final report on behalf of the body. The commission members had resigned after the police raid, saying that the seizure of their files had made further work impossible. Many of the witnesses who had testified before the commission, having been promised anonymity, protested that the policy had compromised their confidentiality.
The commission reported 300 credible complaints of abuse by clerics. Many of the cases were from years ago, and a number of the accused priests are now dead. Roughly two-thirds of the victims were boys: a proportion substantially lower than in the US. The commission asked for “a courageous Church” to confront the reality of abuse and punish perpetrators.
Belgian court bins church paedophile raids evidence (AFP)
Belgian report: 100s come forward on church abuse (AP)
Belgium church abuse detailed by Adriaenssens report (BBC)
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The death of a rhino symbolizes the catastrophe of the 'sixth extinction'
Quirks & Quarks
The death of Sudan, the last male northern white rhino, is part of a mass extinction comparable to those from past global catastrophes.
Humans are causing extinctions at a rate comparable to past global catastrophes
CBC Radio · Posted: Mar 24, 2018 12:00 PM ET | Last Updated: March 23, 2018
Named Sudan, he was euthanized due to failing health 1:02
One dying species
The world bid goodbye to the last male northern white rhino this week. Sudan, the rhinoceros, died in his reserve in Kenya, leaving a daughter and a granddaughter as the only remaining members of their sub-species. With no breeding pairs left, they are, effectively, extinct. Sudan's demise was a a vivid example of what's been called the "sixth extinction." Humans are driving the extinction of species at a rate that can only be compared to what's happened in Earth's past with an asteroid impact or global supervolcano devastated our planet.
Sudan, a northern white rhino, on his arrival at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya in 2009 from a zoo in the Czech republic. (Riccardo Gangale/Associated Press)
Evaluating the damage
Brian Keating is a naturalist and retired head of conservation at the Calgary Zoo and gives wildlife tours through his company, Goingwild.org. He visits Africa at least every year, and has visited the reserve where Sudan lived and died. During his time as a naturalist, he's seen tragic declines in numbers for many species, which could put them on the trajectory to extinction. In Africa, most of the big animals are in trouble. The big cats have seen massive declines, as cheetahs have dropped to only about 7,000 animals, and occupy only ten per cent of their former habitat. As for the lions, Keating says, "Since I've been travelling to Africa, the population of lions has halved, and halved, and halved again," down to 20,000 animals from the 300,000 that existed when he began visiting the continent in 1982.
A cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus raineyii) walking at Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania. (Pharaoh Hound - CC BY 2.0)
But counting individual species are just a small part of the story. It's the overall damage that is really tragic. "It's not species extinction, it's extinction of populations."
Keating is an avid birdwatcher, who began as a boy. And he mourns the fact that during his life as a birdwatcher, it's estimated that half of the biomass of birds on the planet has disappeared. Similarly, says Keating, globally large animals, the "megafauna," have also declined in biomass — perhaps as much as 60 per cent.
A baby mountain gorilla rides on its mother's back on the slopes of Mount Mikeno in the Virunga National Park, Eastern DRC, Dec. 12, 2008. (Peter Andrews/Reuters)
Keating describes himself as an "optimistic pessimist," and suggests there are a few examples where we've been able to pull species back from the brink — that might serve as models for doing better in the future. He points to the famous mountain gorillas of Rwanda and the Uganda, who experts predicted would be extinct by the year 2000. Keating says that thanks to conservation work, there are about 900 mountain gorillas alive today, "which is still a razor blade edge of survival, but it beats the heck out of the three or 400," that were left in the sixties.
He says it's still possible to preserve the remaining jewels on the planet, "and there are still many of those jewels left."
Interview with Elizabeth Kolbert, author of The Sixth Extinction
The Antarctic did not escape the mass extinction
When our magnetic field flips, say goodbye to modern life
Alien-looking skeleton revealed as a human who lost the genetic lottery
Scientists say it's time to make '3-parent baby' technology legal in Canada
Novichok and the science of assassination with chemical weapons
Bats teach other bats what a good meal sounds like
Why does ear hair grow as men age?
FULL EPISODE: March 24, 2018: An alien-looking skeleton, 'Three-parent' families in Canada and more
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« 6/19 The Wisdom of Crowds
» 6/19 Building a diverse casino industry
Gambling Regulators – Who is the Best?
By David Clifton, Director, Clifton Davies Consultancy Limited
I spoke as a panellist two months ago at SBC Events’ Betting on Sports America conference, held in New Jersey, USA, on the subject of “Avoiding the pitfalls – Lessons to be learned from other regulated markets”. The moderator of that panel, William J Pascrell III, partner at Princeton Public Affairs Group, made very clear his view that the New Jersey gambling regulatory model is far superior to that in any other jurisdiction in the world.
Last year, Neil McArthur, the Chief Executive of the UK’s Gambling Commission (UKGC), said that he wants it to be “the most respected gambling regulator in the world”. Recent experience has indicated that the UK regulator considers the route to the top is to set ever-higher regulatory standards for its licensees to achieve.
Well-respected online gambling jurisdictions such as Alderney, the Isle of Man, and Malta vie to attract new licensees, competing not only on standards of regulation but also on tax incentives, comparative levels of licence fees, and ease of access to new markets.
All of this prompts the question, “What makes a good gambling regulator?”. Once upon a time, in what already seems like the distant past, the UK’s Department of Culture, Media & Sport (as it was then called) evaluated regulatory standards when determining which international gaming jurisdictions should be included within a ‘whitelist’ granting their licensees authorisation to advertise their gambling facilities in the UK.
The results of that process raised questions such as why were Tasmania and Antigua & Barbuda whitelisted when other applicants, namely Curacao, Kahnawake, and Alexander First Nation, were refused inclusion on the list? Readers of this article will no doubt have their own views. Regardless, applications to join the ‘whitelist’ were closed in 2009 and the ‘whitelist’ itself was consigned to history in 2014, when new legislation required all gambling operators wishing to transact with or advertise to British consumers to obtain a licence from the UKGC.
So we can reframe the question above, into this: “What criteria should be used to determine what makes one gambling regulator better than another?”. Some criteria should be givens: effective implementation of mechanisms designed to keep crime out of gambling, ensure fairness and transparency on the part of gambling operators, and protection of children and vulnerable people.
Let me pause for a moment on the last of those criterion because it serves well to display contrasting regulatory approaches on either side of the Atlantic Ocean. My business partner Suzanne Davies moderated a “Betting on Sports America” panel session in April entitled “Tacking problem gambling – what is effective?”. Both that and my above-mentioned session were highly illuminating, not least because they shone a very insightful light on the quite different approaches taken (historically at least) in relation to the issue of player protection by gambling regulators in the UK on the one hand and the USA on the other.
Putting it as succinctly as I can: although the overturn of PASPA has led to bodies such as the American Gaming Association and others involved in the Responsible Gaming Collaborative charting new player protection territory, it will be some time yet before U.S. regulators move the focus of debate from responsible gambling to safer gambling, as has occurred on this side of the pond, where the UKGC takes the view that “responsible gambling suggests that the individual customer is principally in charge of keeping themselves safe. By focusing on safer gambling … there is a clear onus on gambling operators to protect their customers.”
What is also driving the UKGC’s direction of policy is the fact that public trust in the UK’s gambling industry has plummeted to a record low, with latest statistics showing that 69% of people consider gambling to be dangerous for family life and only 33% think that gambling is fair and can be trusted. By way of contrast, recent AGA research indicates that an all-time high proportion (88%) of American adults view gambling as an acceptable form of entertainment.
Another quite major difference is that, with U.S. gambling activities being taxed and regulated at State level, a very positive view is taken of the industry’s role as a community partner, with that same AGA research indicating that 80% of people recognise gambling’s role as a job creator, and 60% believe that casinos help their local economies. As matters stand, a similarly positive public reaction seems a forlorn hope in the UK, where as many as 41% of people take the view that gambling is associated with crime.
Perhaps the criteria for determining the relative merits of different international gambling regulators should include an assessment of how efficiently and effectively they each implement principles of regulatory inspection and enforcement of the type advocated within the UK’s 2005 Hampton Report entitled “Reducing Administrative Burdens: Effective Inspection and Enforcement”. Those principles are often summarised as “proportionality, accountability, consistency, transparency and targeting”.
The UKGC set out its stall in April 2009 when responding to the Hampton Report implementation review. It said: “The Commission is committed to regulating in a manner that is consistent with the Hampton principles and the Macrory characteristics of better regulation. The Commission will therefore seek to work in a transparent, accountable, proportionate, consistent and targeted way. Its approach to regulation is risk-based, with a focus on required outcomes and avoidance of fine prescriptive detail.”
Ten years later, it would be illuminating to see how the UKGC measures its performance against the Hampton Report’s recommendation that “regulators should recognise that a key element of their activity will be to allow, or even encourage, economic progress and only to intervene when there is a clear case for protection”, not least because a Government-sponsored review conducted in October 2008 had concluded that the UKGC “could be clearer about its responsibilities with regard to the economic vitality of its regulated sector”. In particular, the review had “found some conflicting views within the Commission as to the extent to which the Commission is responsible for setting a regulatory framework within which (other things being equal) members of the gambling industry can operate effectively as businesses”, adding that “while some employees accept this, other parts of the Commission appeared to the Review Team to be less comfortable with this role. We believe that this may be partly due to perceived sensitivities regarding the ethical issues associated with the gambling sector. The Commission should work to clarify its responsibilities here, and to improve the economic modelling of the likely impacts of regulations on the sector”.
The UKGC’s response at the time was as follows: “As we have access to improved data, we will work with the industry to improve the economic modelling of the likely impacts of regulation on the sector and with Commission employees to ensure regulatory policymaking takes proper account of the economic impact of proposals”.
It is clear that the UKGC has for some considerable time had “access to improved data”. I suspect that opinions may vary on the extent to which its regulatory policy-making has taken proper account of the economic impact of its proposals on gambling businesses. A key factor in this respect is surely how well a gambling regulator understands (a) the sector it is regulating and (b) the nature of the businesses (and challenges facing those businesses) that are operated within that sector.
As others have commented, since the decision of the UKGC not to attend the annual ICE event in February, it has been notable by its absence from a variety of other industry-sponsored events. That may be because it is under-resourced and/or because it has set itself too great a work burden, with ever more frequent consultations on proposals for yet more robust regulation, ongoing investigations into regulatory failings by operators and, most recently, with it taking over ownership of the UK’s Gambling Harm Reduction Strategy and the accompanying responsibility for its implementation.
In that strategy, the UKGC justifiably says that “working collaboratively in a coordinated manner to focus efforts and share more widely what does and does not work, will achieve greater impact than more isolated efforts”. In a rare nod in the direction of the industry, it also acknowledges that “the gambling industry is increasingly collaborating on activities to promote safer gambling”, adding that “even more can be achieved through active targeting, direction and support for this collaboration by the Gambling Commission as the industry regulator”.
Achieving greater collaboration necessarily involves the UKGC participating in that collaborative effort. This demands a large commitment from the regulator in terms of both time and work. Some collaboration already takes place. The UKGC’s new co-creation workshops and recent feedback to the largest 40 or so gambling operators that have participated in its three-year pilot Annual Assurance Statement (AAS) programme provide examples of that. It has just launched its Gambling Harm Reduction Strategy in Cardiff and Edinburgh with the promise of a future such event in London. However, with a view to achieving a better balance between the “stick” and the “carrot” in terms of its regulatory approach, I hope that the UKGC will find the available resources to enable its active re-involvement with the gambling industry’s own events. By so doing, not only will it learn more about the implementation of striking new initiatives to achieve best practice in the field of player protection (as was exemplified by the recent KnowNow Player Protection Forum and Workshop events in London, for example), but it will also help dispel the myth in some quarters that the UKGC has developed an anti-gambling mentality.
I hope that my comments will be regarded by the UKGC as constructive criticism. They are certainly intended as such. It is in the interests of the industry, those who advise it (such as my business), its customers, the gambling regulator, and the public at large that honest dialogue takes place freely and openly on all matters of regulatory concern. Room for improvement will always exist and I believe that this is now well-recognised by the UK’s gambling industry, with major operators leading by example clear for all to see.
That does not mean that there will be no future regulatory failings. Human error will always occur from time to time, but I do feel that the UK industry has now fully woken up to the need to ensure that systemic errors are avoided at all costs. If nothing else, financial penalties imposed by the UKGC for AML and social responsibility failings, totalling £7.3 million in the last month alone, should most certainly have served to drive that message home to those who have still to wake up and smell the coffee.
Slightly further afield, recent enforcement action in Sweden, culminating in revocation by that country’s regulator (Spelinspektionen) of Global Gaming’s licence, will have served to deliver a similar message there. We will see whether the Malta Gaming Authority takes any regulatory action of its own against each of Global Gaming and those operators licensed by both the MGA and the UKGC that have recently incurred very substantial financial penalties with the UK regulator for serious regulatory failings.
My final comment is that, despite the title of this article, I do not for one moment advocate a competition to determine which gambling regulator is better than the rest or indeed that anyone should assert that one is better than another. Far more important is that gambling regulators work together and in close collaboration with their respective licence-holders to ensure that, in an increasingly global gambling environment, consistently high standards of proportionate regulation apply to gambling operators wherever in the world they undertake business.
David Clifton is the co-founder of Clifton Davis Consultancy Ltd: www.cliftondavies.com. He can be reached at dc@cliftondavies.com.
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Fox Winery wants to impress from the get-go
A new winery will open its doors in Galion next month and the goal is to impress from opening day.
Fox Winery wants to impress from the get-go A new winery will open its doors in Galion next month and the goal is to impress from opening day. Check out this story on bucyrustelegraphforum.com: http://ohne.ws/2vSusAy
Zachary Holden, Reporter Published 11:04 a.m. ET July 24, 2017 | Updated 11:21 p.m. ET July 24, 2017
Ron Fox is co-owner of Fox Winery in downtown Galion. Fox is looking forward to selling his own wine later this summer from the downtown location. (Photo: Brian J. Smith/News Journal)Buy Photo
GALION - Almost 30 years ago, Ron Fox bought a house with a pair of grape vines in the back yard. After being overwhelmed by the number of grapes growing on them, he wanted to figure out a way to utilize them.
He and his wife decided there were too many to eat outright or to make jelly with, so a co-worker at then-Mansfield General Hospital suggested he make wine out of them.
"I told her, you can't make wine at home," Fox said. "She told me her grandfather had been doing it for years."
When she gave him her grandfather's recipe, he tested out a batch and the rest is history.
"I've been doing it ever since; it turned out really well," Fox said. "I had my mother-in-law taste it in a coffee cup and I asked her what she thought. She was drinking it and asked for more, then after more, she says 'I do believe my face is numb.'"
Not a huge wine drinker himself, Fox discovered he had a talent and wanted to see how far he could take it.
"About 15 years ago a buddy in Newark asked if I wanted to go tour some vineyards," Fox said. "At the last one we stopped at a guy had just trimmed some vines and told us to take some and put them in the ground with root starter. Mine started growing right away and Larry Wilson, who owns Buckeye Winery in Newark, got his to grow and a couple years later called me and asked me about the recipe for making wine.
"He said, 'Them grapes we planted have come up and I have a bunch of grapes so I'm going to try it.'
"I gave him the recipe, didn't think about it anymore and was in the area for work and he called me and told me to come to 3 South Main Street to see him. I stopped by and he was doing the same stuff we're doing now. Long story short, he just celebrated his 10th anniversary and he's doing very, very well."
Fox Winery idea grows
After making his own wine at home for several years, Fox wanted to expand further and that would begin with him buying the back yard of Steve Arlen's father's house to plant vines.
Arlen was about to move down to the Galion area into the house and his father told Fox to get in touch with him about the vines. Arlen agreed almost instantly.
"We were sitting back at one of our campfires before I moved here and Ron said 'Your back yard would look great with a lot of vines back here'," Arlen said. "Once he showed me (how to make wine), I was addicted."
Fox Winery in downtown Galion is scheduled to open later this summer. (Photo: Brian J. Smith/News Journal)
Three years later, the pair boasts 325 plants and said it has flourished even more so over the past 18 months.
"Most of them have only been in the ground for three years and they're producing," Fox said. "We switched to an organic fertilizer last spring ... I tried it on the first row last year just to see what it would do and they produced like gangbusters ... now I've fertilized with the same stuff on both … and they're off and running."
Now that the duo has a building, they're just waiting for the final step of approval — the state permit. Once they get that, they'll begin making wine immediately.
"The wine that we sell here, under our license, has to be made here," Fox said. "We can't even start a batch here until the state gives us our permit.
"In 8-10 weeks we'll have 100 batches of wine, which is equivalent to about 3,000 bottles of wine."
Fox and Arlen said they expect to be open by the end of August, but it could be as soon as the middle of the month, depending on how quickly the state permit comes in.
Currently working as a vascular sonographer at the Chalmers P. Wylie VA Ambulatory Care Center in Columbus, Fox admits he isn't sure how much longer he'll be there, especially if Fox Winery takes off like he's hoping.
"We'll probably be closed Monday and Tuesday," Fox said. "Within six months if it takes off, I might be a full-time employee and we'll be open Monday."
Once they get things up and running, Fox said they plan on having food trucks, similar to Eighteen-O-Three Taproom just down the street, for visitors to eat while they sample the vast variety of wine. That's just the start of it, too.
"We're going to have a patio in the back once we get some drainage problems solved," Fox said. "We're going to have limited wine dinners, a special occasion type of thing."
As for now, Fox's eye is on the Crawford County Fair, where he'll enter his wine one final time as an amateur, including his signature jalapeno wine that he sort of stumbled upon after having a familiar problem — too many jalapenos.
"My wife said we still have a lot of jalapenos and we didn't know what to do with them ... into a bucket they went and I made jalapeno wine," Fox said. "It's a jalapeno lover's dream."
He took home first place in two categories, one with his concord blend, the other with his elderberry, while also taking second overall with his concord blend.
Fox and Arlen want Fox Winery to be a destination for wine drinkers since it's such a niche crowd. They both said they're in the business for the same reason — the people.
"The thrill is seeing somebody's face when they taste the wine and taste the fruit," Fox said.
"And can't believe that we made that," Arlen added. "Just seeing people get wowed, that's what made me do it."
zholden@gannett.com
Twitter: @Zachary_Holden
Currently, Fox Winery in downtown Galion sells equitment so people can make homemade wines. (Photo: Brian J. Smith/News Journal)
Read or Share this story: http://ohne.ws/2vSusAy
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Harry Potter Wizard Unite Now, Unites The World
Good news for Harry Potter lovers! Now, Wizards unite available in India for all the ones who are crazy fans of it. It is even available in 143 more countries like France, Germany, Spain, South Africa, Pakistan, Singapore, Mexico, and many more. It rolled out on Friday after testing it in Australia and New Zealand. It is a reality game which has made people go mad at it. It is made by the same developers who worked on Pokémon Go in 2016, which was a significant hit in the gaming industry. Pokemon Go is available now in 148 areas around the world. Now, all can play it by downloading the app from play store in android and Samsung galaxy store or via App store for iOS.
Harry Potter Wizards Unite was launched in 144 new countries starting from India on 22nd June at 10 pm IST including 24 other regions at the same time. Around approximately 9 hours, this game was rolled out in 119 more areas of the world and created a big launch. In the official post of Harry Potter, Wizards Unite website, WB games and Niantic mentioned that game would continue to be launched in other countries as well. You must be wondering whether your place is covered up or not or your territory is included or not.
You can check its official website to know more about countries, and we will name here
Harry Potter: Wizards Unite countries
Related Topics:Harry Potter
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American Ancestors
Scottish Ancestors
Emily Paradice Jones1
#15721, b. 30 March 1843, d. 28 May 1932
Emily Paradice Jones was born on 30 March 1843.1 She married Robert Greer Morgan, son of John Henry Morgan and Elizabeth Parker, on 5 July 1859 in Marshall County, Mississippi, USA.1 She died on 28 May 1932 in Oxford, Lafayette County, Mississippi, USA, at age 89.1
Morgan Family
Children of Emily Paradice Jones and Robert Greer Morgan
James Benton Morgan1 b. 31 May 1861, d. 13 Jan 1928
Cordelia Honeywood Morgan1 b. 18 Apr 1863, d. 27 Dec 1945
George Washington Morgan1 b. 13 Jan 1865, d. 20 Dec 1937
Beulah Morgan2 b. 8 Jan 1867, d. 30 Jul 1868
Erasmus Richard Morgan1 b. 15 Dec 1868, d. 2 Feb 1937
Oscar Dallas Morgan1 b. 5 Apr 1870, d. 17 Feb 1945
Pearl Morgan2 b. 7 Mar 1873, d. 5 Aug 1876
Turner Bradley Morgan1 b. 30 Mar 1874, d. 15 Nov 1936
Sylvia Diamond Morgan1 b. 24 May 1877, d. 13 Dec 1966
Donnie Lee Morgan1 b. 7 Mar 1880, d. 21 Aug 1965
Myrtie Stovall Morgan1 b. 26 Jan 1882, d. 16 Oct 1962
Ballard Walthall Morgan1 b. 22 Feb 1884, d. 13 Jul 1970
Lottie Elizabeth Morgan1 b. 27 Jan 1887, d. 5 Jun 1965
Bessie Townsend Morgan1 b. 22 Feb 1889, d. 13 May 1970
RootsWeb WorldConnect (WorldConnect: Bob Davis).
Research of Terry Mason.
James Benton Morgan1
#15722, b. 31 May 1861, d. 13 January 1928
James Benton Morgan was born on 31 May 1861 in Marshall County, Mississippi, USA.2 He was the son of Robert Greer Morgan and Emily Paradice Jones.1 He died on 13 January 1928 in Lafayette County, Mississippi, USA, at age 66.2
George Washington Morgan1
#15723, b. 13 January 1865, d. 20 December 1937
George Washington Morgan was born on 13 January 1865 in Marshall County, Mississippi, USA.2 He was the son of Robert Greer Morgan and Emily Paradice Jones.1 He died on 20 December 1937 in Lafayette County, Mississippi, USA, at age 72.2
Cordelia Honeywood Morgan1
#15724, b. 18 April 1863, d. 27 December 1945
Cordelia Honeywood Morgan was born on 18 April 1863 in Marshall County, Mississippi, USA.2 She was the daughter of Robert Greer Morgan and Emily Paradice Jones.1 She died on 27 December 1945 in Marshall County, Mississippi, USA, at age 82.2
Erasmus Richard Morgan1
#15725, b. 15 December 1868, d. 2 February 1937
Erasmus Richard Morgan was born on 15 December 1868 in Marshall County, Mississippi, USA.2 He was the son of Robert Greer Morgan and Emily Paradice Jones.1 He died on 2 February 1937 in Panola County, Mississippi, USA, at age 68.2
Oscar Dallas Morgan1
#15726, b. 5 April 1870, d. 17 February 1945
Oscar Dallas Morgan was born on 5 April 1870 in Marshall County, Mississippi, USA.2 He was the son of Robert Greer Morgan and Emily Paradice Jones.1 He died on 17 February 1945 in Lafayette County, Mississippi, USA, at age 74.2
Turner Bradley Morgan1
#15727, b. 30 March 1874, d. 15 November 1936
Turner Bradley Morgan was born on 30 March 1874 in Marshall County, Mississippi, USA.2 He was the son of Robert Greer Morgan and Emily Paradice Jones.1 He died on 15 November 1936 in Louisiana, USA, at age 62.2
Ballard Walthall Morgan1
#15728, b. 22 February 1884, d. 13 July 1970
Ballard Walthall Morgan was born on 22 February 1884 in Marshall County, Mississippi, USA.2 He was the son of Robert Greer Morgan and Emily Paradice Jones.1 He died on 13 July 1970 in Mississippi, USA, at age 86.2
Sylvia Diamond Morgan1
#15729, b. 24 May 1877, d. 13 December 1966
Sylvia Diamond Morgan was born on 24 May 1877 in Marshall County, Mississippi, USA.2 She was the daughter of Robert Greer Morgan and Emily Paradice Jones.1 She died on 13 December 1966 in Arkansas, USA, at age 89.2
Myrtie Stovall Morgan1
#15730, b. 26 January 1882, d. 16 October 1962
Myrtie Stovall Morgan was born on 26 January 1882 in Marshall County, Mississippi, USA.2 She was the daughter of Robert Greer Morgan and Emily Paradice Jones.1 She died on 16 October 1962 in Lafayette County, Mississippi, USA, at age 80.2
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More than 100 top private and boarding schools have started a campaign to kill high-school transcripts
Scott Jaschik,
The organizers of the effort believe all kinds of high schools and colleges are ready for change.
Facebook/phillipsexeter
What if traditional high school transcripts — lists of courses taken, grades earned and so forth — didn't exist?
That's the ambition of a new education reform movement, which wants to rebuild how high schools record the abilities of students — and in turn to change the way colleges evaluate applicants.
Sounds like quite a task. But the idea is from a group with considerable clout and money: more than 100 private schools around the country, including such elite institutions as the Dalton School and the Spence School in New York City, plus such big guns as the Cranbrook Schools in Michigan, the Phillips Academy in Massachusetts and Miss Porter's School in Connecticut.
The organizers of the effort believe all kinds of high schools and colleges are ready for change, but they argue that it will take the establishment to lead this particular revolution. Organizers believe that if more than 100 such elite private schools embrace a new transcript, they will attract supporters in higher ed who will embrace the approach for fear of losing top applicants (both in terms of their academics and ability to pay).
And then the plan could spread — over perhaps a decade — to public high schools as well. Along the way, the group hopes to use the ideas of competency-based education — in which demonstration of mastery matters and seat time does not — to change the way high schoolers are taught.
The model envisions that each credit earned would be backed up by examples of student work.
The Dalton School
The group is called the Mastery Transcript Consortium, and the product it hopes to create is the mastery transcript. It would not include courses or grades, but levels of proficiency in various areas. Instead of saying a student earned a certain grade in Spanish 2, the mastery transcript might say the student can understand and express ideas in some number of languages. And there could be different levels of mastery.
Instead of a grade in algebra or geometry, the mastery transcript would indicate whether a student can understand and use various kinds of concepts. The document above is a model for what a list of credits might look like, but officials stressed this could change considerably.
Further, the model envisions that each credit earned would be backed up by examples of student work, so an admissions officer could see lab reports, essays and so forth.
In some ways, the project sounds like the "digital locker" the Coalition for Access, Affordability and Success is promoting as an option for college applicants — one that could start well before someone is ready to apply to college. And the mastery project organizers have been in touch with coalition leaders. But the difference with mastery is that there is no additional digital requirement to build something — this would be the natural result of going through high school.
The Edward E. Ford Foundation on Tuesday announced a $2 million grant to support the effort, and the initial schools involved have pledged to raise money to match that grant.
Patricia Russell has taken a yearlong leave from her position as a dean at Phillips Academy to help get the effort moving toward pilots with a small group of high schools and colleges. Among the requirements to participate: no grades and no standardization. She said each high school would be required to come up with its own system for evaluating student knowledge and skills. "It has to vary from school to school," she said, and the idea is to move away from identifying students by some number representing their achievement.
Mastery in this context is closely related to the competency idea much discussed these days in higher education. A student could earn mastery after completing a program of study with a teacher or simply by showing mastery gained independently. "What the mastery transcript does is completely disentangle seat time and course credits," she said.
Public high schools should be part of the process, Russell said, and they are already being consulted. But she said private schools, with their ability to operate free from politicians who might interfere, are best suited to get this process off the ground. She also said the great respect of top colleges for the graduates of these schools means the process will be taken seriously.
"The distinct reason why this project is being founded by a group of independent schools is that we are more nimble and have had disproportionate access to highly selective higher education."
But she said "absolutely this can scale" and the long-term goal is to have this approach do away with traditional high school grades and transcripts.
The original idea for the project came from Scott Looney, head of school of the Hawken School, a private institution in Cleveland. In an interview, he said that he wanted to experiment with a transcript of the sort the consortium is designing. When he spoke to contacts in the college admissions world, they said that if his school acted alone, they would hate the idea, as they would need to figure out how to read the new transcript and how to compare applicants using it with those at schools with more traditional transcripts. So he asked them how they would feel if he got 25 other schools to join in the effort, and they liked the idea. (The model above comes from the initial efforts at Hawken.)
Looney said he realized then that he couldn't act alone.
He also said he wants all students — including those at public schools — to have the options being created. One possibility, he said, is that if public schools lag a bit in producing these new mastery transcripts, teachers at his school (and others) could review portfolios of their work and certify their masteries. "Why do you have to attend Hawken to have Hawken certify you?" he asked.
Once the new mastery transcript takes hold, he said, colleges will value it over traditional materials they currently receive.
Looney said that, initially, he expected the use of the mastery transcript might encourage colleges to pay more attention to standardized-test scores. Admissions officers "may default to measures that they know," he said.
But once they get comfortable with the new transcript, Looney predicted, they will find it superior to any information they currently get from test scores. In some cases, state legislation would be needed to allow public universities to alter admissions standards, but he said he thought that could happen in time.
Eventually, he said, many of the elements that make up rankings methodologies could be challenged as well. The transcript is designed to avoid not only grades but class rank (part of the U.S. News & World Report methodology). If more colleges drop standardized-test requirements, something happening already, that could undercut another part of the rankings methodology.
Much work remains to be done, he said, describing the process as taking up to 10 years, and longer in states where laws would need to change to permit high schools to report student achievement in new ways. In some cases, schools might use both approaches. But Looney said that when top colleges embrace this idea, which he predicted they would in time, the current system would be replaced. Already, he said, the organization has been having discussions with college admissions leaders and presidents anxious for change.
He pledged one thing amid the pilots and work ahead: "We will design this intentionally to make it impossible to distill a student into a single number."
Reactions and Questions
Several admissions experts, reached late Tuesday, said they were just learning about the concept and needed to study it.
Michael Reilly, executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, said via email that he saw both potential and challenges in the idea, about which he said he needs to learn more.
"My initial read is that this would be a good set of information to augment a traditional transcript but, by itself, could harm students seeking to attend institutions that are mandated to evaluate admissions, at least in part, on completion of a core set of courses and the performance (grades) in those courses," he said. "It is not unlike the challenge of higher education institutions looking to develop outcome or competency transcripts. Until these are common currency, students would be negatively impacted when they seek to transfer to more traditional institutions if that is the only document they present. Promising, but I'd like to hear how it would be transitioned into the existing processes."
Read the original article on Inside Higher Ed. Copyright 2019. Follow Inside Higher Ed on Twitter.
SEE ALSO: Students, civil rights, and education groups want to block Betsy DeVos' graduation speech at a historically black college today
More: Private School Boarding Schools College Admission Inside Higher Ed
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Tampa Bay-Lakeland
Business Observer Monday, Jun. 21, 2010 9 years ago
Rays: Anywhere but the Trop
Owner Stuart Sternberg says his team is willing to move anywhere in Tampa Bay.
by: Business Observer Staff
Winning is no longer enough for the Tampa Bay Rays, so team owner Stuart Sternberg says his team wants to consider all other location options for a new stadium to replace St. Petersburg's Tropicana Field.
"A Major League Baseball team's ability to compete, and quite frankly survive, rests on its ability to attract fans and businesses to its ballpark,” Sternberg said during a brief news conference Monday afternoon. “Our customers are our fans. We need to be in a location that is convenient for our fans to reach, and we need to be in a place that makes us attractive to the region's businesses.”
The Rays' current lease at Tropicana Field expires in 2027, but Sternberg is already certain of the ball club's future — the Rays' current relationship with downtown St. Petersburg will not last beyond that date. “We will consider any potential ballpark site in Tampa Bay,” he said.
At the same time, Sternberg hopes to achieve a level of regional collaboration to provide some support for the Rays, who find themselves competing in the same division as Major League Baseball's two highest-earning clubs, the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. The Rays enjoyed the best record in MLB for most of this season so far, yet crowds at the Trop have fallen far short of capacity while cable television ratings are setting local records.
“It is my strong conviction that if baseball is to survive and flourish in Tampa Bay for the long term, we must rise above municipal boundaries and work together with a common interest,” Sternberg said.
Pat Bean fired
Tampa bank buys partner
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Our Families, Family Support, Early Learning
Jennifer Parsons
Coming full circle with Children's Home Society of Washington
As a teenager, Kendie Jackson had only heard of Children’s Home Society of Washington in passing. However, in a seemingly fated turn of events, this mother of two became not only a Children’s Home Society of Washington participant, but a valued staffer as well.
Years ago, an aunt visited Children’s Home Society of Washington's facility in Kent—now the South King County Family Resource Center (SKCFRC)—to pick up some diapers and other household items, and had 18-year-old Kendie in tow.
“Fast forward to 2013; after five and a half years of working at a dental office I got laid off, and over the course of time I had two sons,” Kendie said.
Kendie enrolled in Career Paths Services, which provides job search assistance and pairs unemployed workers with an organization that aligns with their professional skillset. Kendie was placed at Children’s Home Society of Washington, where she helps manage the front desk at the SKCFRC.
“I’m always about making people happy and putting a smile on their face, and working at Children’s Home Society of Washington didn’t stop that for me—it enhanced that,” she said.
Kendie has enrolled her sons—Kendall, 4, and Kenderrick, 9 months—at the Children’s Home Society of Washington's Early Learning Center at Highline Community College. The center provides individualized learning plans for children, so they can learn at their own pace. They are guided by trained educators to build their cognitive, language, motor and social skills so they excel in kindergarten.
“When I drop my boys off, I feel like I’m leaving them with one of my family members,” Kendie said. “Children’s Home Society of Washington as a whole is very unique in that they show love and support for the families—not just the child at the facility—but the family as a whole.”
As her Children’s Home Society of Washington internship ends, Kendie looks forward to being a full-time employee again, and will be managing the front office at a dental firm. “Now that I’m back on my feet, I’m able to contribute and give back,” she said. “If I get calls in my dental office from people who need help, I know what’s available out there and can point them to Children’s Home Society of Washington.”
Tagged: South King, Early Head Start/Head Start
Newer PostHelping families grow stronger together
Older PostFinally, finding a home
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