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__label__cc	0.616282	0.383718	'Untitled' (Abstract) by Hans Osswald artist: Hans Osswald (Swedish 1919-1983) dimensions: 43 x 63 cm panel size / 46 x 66 cm frame size presented in it's original frame AU $825 (approx US$575 / 515 EUROS / 63,000 yen / 440 GBP - for exact current value visit xe.com) Hans Osswald was born August 29, 1919 in Kungs-Barkarö, Västmanland. He was a Swedish painter and graphic artist. Osswald was best know for his abstract works in oil, watercolour and gouache and more graphic work as woodcuts. In addition to his fine art he also worked as a book illustrator. He had numerous solo exhibitions throughout his career and debuted at Louis Hahn's konsthandel in Stockholm in 1947, followed by solo exhibitions in Örebro in 1951 and Kalmar in 1952. He participated in group exhibitions with the Dalarna Art Association, an ABF exhibition in Ludvika in 1951 and in the traveling 'Graphic and Sculpture’ (Grafik och Skulpturs) exhibition in 1953. Osswald’s work is represented in public collections including the National Museum in Stockholm, The King's Graphic Collection, Malmö Museum, Eskilstuna Museum, Gävle Museum and The Brooklyn Museum. Osswald passed away in 1983 in Malmö aged 64. Back to artworks	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line493
__label__cc	0.698467	0.301533	The Death of Pope John Paul I June 1, 2020 Editor 5 Comments Remember, that Pope John Paul I had been the Patriarch of Venice, and he was elected primarly because the Church Bank which served the priests and religious of his region of Italy had been brought to bankrupcy by the Vatican Bank. He promised as Pope to clean up the Vatican Bank, and if he went ahead he would have surely discovered who had accounts in that bank. If those accounts belonged to the CIA or its operations, his elimination would become a political necessity. So let us examine what happened to Pope John Paul I, widely seen as the liberal successor to Paul VI. First let us review the official Vatican line of what happened and why. Please listen to the entire Rome Reports, which can always be counted on to give you the approved narrative on any topic. Who is John Magee mentioned in this short video? the papal a secretary who met with Pope John Paul I when, it is said, he felt a strong chest pain? His biography sheds some light on this. He was befriended by Pope Paul VI, who leading Italian historians say was a flagarant sodomite. And once a bishop, Magee was accused of not taking proper legal action to about priests in his diocese who raped boys. Magee also seems to have been close to the IRA, in the person of Bobby Sands. Why may this been important? Because the IRA seems to have been one of the stay-behind organizations run and supported by the CIA, which in popular literature is called operation Gladio, though that was the code name only for the operations in Italy. Thus, there is strong motive to believe that John Magee was a CIA operative. And if so, the heart-attack of Pope John Paul I may have not been an accident. Indeed, as Corbett reports, the death of John Paul I was orchestrated by a CIA asset, at the direction of Dulles’ deep state intelligence network. Dulles’ nephew was made a Cardinal by Pope John Paul II, whose election was made possible by the death of John Paul I, and who himself went one to collaborate with the CIA to wash funds to the Solidarity movement in Poland, to bring down the communist government. As far as we are concerned about current events in the Vatican, involving the St. Gallen Mafia, I have previously observed that John Paul II promoted all the key members of that group to the dignity of the Cardinalate, from the leader Cardinal Daneels to Cardinal Bergoglio. This may explain why Bergoglio was so willing to canonize John Paul II, and may also explain why the entire political establishment of the West and Trad inc. continues to refuse any investigation into how Bergoglio came to power. Please note, that I am not saying that the CIA has been controlling the Vatican for decades, but I think the question needs to be kept on the table. Cardinal BergoglioCIAGladioGodfried Cardinal DanneelsIRAJohn MageeJohn Paul IJohn Paul IIPaul VISt. Gallen Mafia Previous PostThird Path Party in Germany, an exposéNext PostWhat is Islam? A religion or a political system? 5 thoughts on “The Death of Pope John Paul I” 1soldieron says: Perhaps the most important member, if not the original leader, of the St. Gallen Mafia was Cardinal Maria Martini who was appointed archbishop of Milan, one of the largest and most important Sees, by JPII a little more than a year into his pontificate. Another key figure in this era of Vatican intrigue is American Archbishop Paul Marcinkus, head of the Vatican Bank (appointed by Paul VI despite NO experience) and official Catholic money launderer from 1971-1989. His tenure resulted in the Vatican paying out 145 million euros in settlement to creditors. He is accused by some authors of being responsible for the murder of JPI. Interestingly, a journalist investigating him was murdered in 1979. Also, anyone involved in the killing of the pope knew no autopsy would be done. Marcinkus, apparently, thwarted a 1982 assassination attempt of JPII in Fatima on 12 May 1982 (a year before–13 May 1981–a previous assassination attempt resulted in JPII being shot). In June 1982, financier Roberto Calvi (a Marcinkus accomplice) was found “suicided” in London, a killing connected to Propaganda Due. Considering JPII only became pope in October 1978, he was targeted pretty quickly. Marcinkus was ordained in Chicago, the Mafia hub in the USA. He was fingered by the nephew of mobster Lucky Luciano (Anthony Raimondi) as an accomplice in JPI’s murder. Marcinkus was never brought to justice. Kind of like McCarrick and Hillary Clinton. Another tidbit: MOST of the St. Gallen Mafia and many of the corrupt leaders of the Catholic Church have a very common education background: the Pontifical Gregorian University. It appears to be a stepping stone to power like Harvard University. Em S says: There were several players behind the plot to murder JP I. https://www.msn.com/en-sg/news/world/mobster-claims-he-helped-poison-pope-john-paul-i-with-cyanide-and-threatened-to-kill-pope-john-paul-ii-because-they-both-tried-to-expose-a-billion-dollar-stock-fraud-scam-involving-cardinals-and-gangsters-in-vatican-city/ar-AAJ3QJg From Rome Editor says: This recent report by a mobster is simply not credible as it contains several principle errors of fact, that show he was not there and had nothing to do with it. somethinghappeninghere says: Just wondering if you ever read or heard of David Yallop’s book “In God’s Name: An Investigation into the Murder of Pope John Paul I” When I found out in 1978 he had died I had a funny feeling about this–I really liked this Pope. If you have read it, what do you think of it? Thanks. Hear of it, never read it. Some thing it is not very reliable, but nowadays vatican clergy have lost even more credibility in such matters than journalists. Busting an Internet Myth: He is a shaman, not Antifa January 8, 2021	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line505
__label__cc	0.69256	0.30744	Mind & Body Articles & More Why Relationships Are the Secret to Healthy Aging A new book outlines why our brains and bodies need social connections to age well. By Karin Evans \| September 14, 2018 Plenty of exercise. Healthy food. Positive attitude. Plain old good luck. There’s lots of advice out there about how to keep body and brain in optimal shape as the years roll by. But Louis Cozolino, professor of psychology at Pepperdine University, is deeply engaged with another idea. In Timeless: Nature’s Formula for Health and Longevity, he emphasizes the positive impact of human relationships. “Of all the experiences we need to survive and thrive, it is the experience of relating to others that is the most meaningful and important,” he writes. His thinking grows out of the relatively new field of interpersonal neurobiology, based on the recognition that humans are best understood not in isolation, but in the context of their connections with others. Our brains, Cozolino writes, are social organs, and that means that we are wired to connect with each other and to interact in groups. A life that maximizes social interaction and human-to-human contact is good for the brain at every stage, particularly for the aging brain. Since the publication of Cozolino’s earlier book, The Neuroscience of Human Relationships, the field of social neuroscience has expanded tremendously. We now know that people who have more social support tend to have better mental health, cardiovascular health, immunological functioning, and cognitive performance. The well-known, long-running Harvard Medical School Nurses’ Health Study was one of the early studies to reveal how being socially integrated can lead to greater health, life satisfaction, and longevity over time. Researchers who conducted another study, one involving nearly 7,000 people over a nine-year period, found that those with more social ties tended to live longer regardless of their socioeconomic status, smoking, drinking, exercise, or obesity. The mortality rate of men with the fewest ties was 2.3 times that of men with the most ties, the researchers found, while the mortality rate of women with the fewest ties was 2.8 times that of women with the most ties. One explanation is that social relationships help calm our stress-response system. While chronically high levels of the stress hormone cortisol wreak havoc on our physical and emotional health, experiencing safe and supportive social relationships has the opposite effect, keeping our stress-response system in check. In a study of elderly Hong Kong residents, researchers found that those who spent more time cultivating social relationships had a significant drop in cortisol levels during the day, which could explain why positive relationships help us learn better, stay healthier, and live longer. In a long-range study conducted by David Snowden on Catholic nuns from the School Sisters of Notre Dame—a group he found intriguing because of their unusual longevity and low incidence of dementia—Snowden found that positive emotions played an important role in their healthy aging. As positive emotions are part of warm, loving social relationships, and the nuns lived in such a close-knit community, Cozolino speculates that the Sisters’ unusually strong social connections may have contributed to their living well into old age. “How we bond and stay attached to others is at the core of our resilience, self-esteem, and physical health,” Cozolino writes. “We build the brains of our children through our interaction with them, and we keep our own brains growing and changing throughout life by staying connected to others.” The brain across your lifespan Cozolino’s book is far-reaching, covering many aspects of brain development and the impact of human connection, from the prenatal stage and infancy to adolescence and adulthood to the end of life. We learn that the way the brain processes information changes to meet the needs of each life stage. Timeless: Nature’s Formula for Health and Longevity (W. W. Norton & Company, 2018, 368 pages) As we grow older, what’s lost in quick recall and short-term memory is balanced by an ability to reflect and to hold multiple perspectives, Cozolino argues. Neurological changes in the aging brain may contribute to emotional regulation and an increased ability to relate compassionately to others. That’s partly because the effects of fear and anxiety on the brain tend to lessen as people grow older, enabling them to see social situations with less defensiveness and more clarity, the author says. Since the human brain is almost endlessly adaptive throughout the life cycle, change is as possible for older people as for infants. New neurons continue to grow in the brain until the end of life, and scientists have begun looking at the brains of older adults who are leading active and productive lives to find out why they are so healthy. For example, many healthy older adults show no signs of significant brain volume loss past 100 years of age, says Cozolino. What’s their secret? The answer comes right back to Cozolino’s conviction: People who lead extraordinarily long lives are those who have maintained close ties to others. Centenarians, he writes, tend to be more extraverted and have higher morale, indicative of reaching out to others, giving and receiving support, and maintaining attachments. In his observations about successful agers, Cozolino is particularly interested in the qualities of wisdom and compassion that tend to emerge as the human brain changes over time. Although he doesn’t pinpoint studies for every assertion, and admits that wisdom can be a hard quality to pin down, he concludes that “much of wisdom is expressed in how people interact with and treat one another.” He offers his own personal experiences with wise elders along the way, making the case for the positive influence that affectionate, supportive older people can have on younger people. When it comes to practical advice, Cozolino points out ways that older people can maintain those important connections. Those who are grandparents have a clear opportunity to nurture their grandchildren, help that is sorely needed in this day and age. For others, volunteering in various capacities can foster healthy relationships. Not only are such connections good for aging people themselves, Cozolino says, they are beneficial for society as a whole. He writes, “Instead of putting our elders out to pasture, we might learn to harness the experience, affection, and time they have to offer.” Karin Evans Karin Evans is author of the forthcoming book, The Gift of Each Other, about the 21st century experience of community. How Mindfulness Protects You as You Get Older By Jenn Director Knudsen How Social Connections Keep Seniors Healthy By Jill Suttie How to Keep Your Brain Young (Even as You Grow Old) By Jill Suttie What Seniors Get from Giving Back By Bernie Wong What Happens When Older Adults Take a Class on Gratitude? By Sara Orem How to Keep Your Brain Fit as You Get Older By Karin Evans What Is Your Social Networking Style? According to a new book, we can get more enjoyment and benefit out of our relationships if we understand how social networks function. Are Facial Expressions the Same Around the World? We express at least 16 emotions in similar ways across cultures, a new study finds. Take the Awe Quiz Could your life be more awe-some?	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line509
__label__cc	0.72311	0.27689	Great Not Big On running a small, innovative company Leadership, Structure, Founder Transition – My Final Job at Atomic by Carl EricksonSeptember 9, 20206 comments How do you step away from the company you founded? First, you have to figure out it’s time. Second, you have to have started working on it a long while before you do it. Third, you need to replace yourself. And finally, you have to make a whole bunch of adjustments in your life. It’s been eighteen months since I realized I needed a change. This post captures some of that time with a few observations and things I’ve learned. I founded Atomic Object in 2001 with Bill Bereza. I’m currently in the sixth (and presumably final) role I’ll occupy at the company. To use our current titles, my primary roles have been Trainer/Coach (very briefly), Software Developer & Consultant, Delivery Lead, Managing Partner, CEO, and now Executive Chairman. I never presumed I’d stay active in the company until my demise. In fact, back in 2008, when I wrote the prospectus for the Atomic Plan of employee ownership, I promised to remain in the top position in the company until at least 2017. That year, coincidentally, I challenged myself to consider what might be next for me. The conclusion I came to in that period of reflection was half-right: Atomic was still my “hell, yeah,” which I announced internally. But what I missed back then was that I didn’t still need to be CEO. That realization came later. Believing I’d be the first of the early Atoms to leave the company (after all, I was 15 years older than our average age of those first Atoms), I started working toward that end a long time in advance — since 2008 at least. That turned out to be vitally important for both me and the company when I bottomed out. 2017 and 2018 were hard years personally. In January of 2019, I realized something was too wrong to ignore. I had many of the symptoms of burnout, and I’d been unaware, in denial, unhealthily coping, or gutting it out for long enough that the problem had become serious. I took a few days off and I realized I needed to do more of that. My pastor asked whether we had a sabbatical program. We didn’t and don’t. I told the company on the following Monday that I was taking four months off. While it wasn’t easy to admit that I needed to take an unplanned leave — starting immediately — I was confident that I could do so without jeopardizing the company. It helped me to realize I was capitalizing on ten years of succession planning and working my way out of most operational responsibilities. I didn’t use the term sabbatical at the time, but in hindsight, it was a period of rest, refreshment, perspective gaining, and insights, which sounds like many of the implicit goals for an academic sabbatical. What it was not was ambitious: no writing, no travel, no research. I kept my outside obligations up (like board work), but otherwise I just stayed home and enjoyed not being highly scheduled. My only goal was stated in the negative: don’t make any big decisions until I felt better. Another pastor who has since become a good friend introduced me to the idea of day-long silent retreats. My first experience doing this with him was on March 6, 2019 — Ash Wednesday. I was feeling a lot better by that time, six or so weeks into my leave. Lots happened that day, alone in a tiny room in a renovated hundred-year-old barn, staring out the window at the trees. I read the book of John, I had a visual hallucination accompanied by a feeling of overwhelming love and acceptance, I forgave some important people in my life, I journaled about what I wanted the future to hold, and I realized I didn’t need to be CEO anymore. The realization about the CEO role was a huge weight off my shoulders. Part of reaching it was seeing all the years I’d carried the responsibility of the top leadership role in the company, what we’d accomplished in those years, and how hard I’d worked. It wasn’t a question of how old I was, how healthy I was, or how many ideas and how much energy I still had. I realized I had earned the right to step out of that role and let someone else carry the weight. I’d done enough. Breakthrough! By the end of 2018, we’d already put many things into place to move the company out of the founder era. My only remaining operational role was in marketing and managing my direct reports. Our ownership plan had shifted fifty percent of my shares to other Atoms. We’d addressed the structural challenges in our largest office, making the Managing Partner job more sustainable. I had identified an architecture for the company that would support the growth of new offices. We’d resolved many of our initial multi-office mistakes and found success with Ann Arbor. I’d had a breakthrough on formalizing our purpose, and done the work that we now describe as the culture framework for the company. When I tentatively shared my realization about not needing to be CEO any longer with the two people I knew would be part of making that happen, they not only reinforced and supported my feeling, but they suggested the solution: they would serve as co-CEOs. That was a huge relief to me, as selecting between my two “business sons” was a choice that I had been blocked on for some time. We’ll be sharing more on our co-CEO arrangement in future posts. We announced my transition to executive chairman at the company conference in May and publicly in June. The summer of 2019 was golden. It felt like my sabbatical had morphed into my new life. I got to manage my energy instead of my time and do the work for the organizations and people I have commitments to as I liked. None of those commitments were too heavy. The transition at Atomic went smoothly. My wife and I took a long road trip with the fur children out to Sun Valley, Idaho. I was giddy and maybe a teeny bit obnoxious for my friends still working their traditional jobs. Giddy wouldn’t last. Executive Chairman role So what does “executive chairman” mean for us? It’s got aspects of the traditional chairman role, providing accountability for the CEO, as well as governance responsibilities. Our current governance structure will eventually be extended to include a full board with outside members, in which case it’ll include chairing that board. But it has more hands-on responsibilities (that’s the “executive” modifier at play). I work closely with our co-CEOs on long-term projects in a few key areas, as well as advising them on operational questions, situations they face, and the initiatives they own. The areas of focus on which we collaborate are ownership, governance, structure, investments, growth, and the elements of our culture framework. We talk about these things as our “hundred-year” list, as they all have the potential for making or breaking the accomplishment of our very long-term goal of Atomic celebrating its hundredth anniversary in 2101. What I’ve noticed in the last year is that the combination of familiarity and distance can be helpful. I obviously know the company, people, business, and challenges very well, but they aren’t my daily responsibility any more. I have a distance from these things that provides a valuable perspective beyond simply a third point of view. It’s also helped the company for me to bring insights from my Tugboat Institute network and other company boards I sit on. My chairman role makes it easy to continue to represent the company in the community. The boards I serve on, the non-profits I’m active in, the organizations I’m part of, and the network I’ve built over thirty years working in Michigan — the value of these connections continues to accrue to the company. By adding a position to the company, we created additional executive capacity. Since it’s a part-time job for me, that extra capacity is limited, but it’s come in handy a few times in the last year. When I work with our co-CEOs or VP of Business Operations (who is also my life partner) on the issues and initiatives they’re working on, I am nothing but relieved that the oh-so-familiar underlying challenges and long-standing human dynamics are no longer my responsibility. I owned those for a long time. I know how hard those problems are and how thankless the work can be. I can be the person for our company leaders that I never had, the one who says, “Well done!” and, “I know it’s hard,” and know of what I speak. One thing I’ve become keenly aware of in the last year is the relationship between influence, implementation, and recognition. My position (and holding a plurality of shares) gives me a lot of influence, as it did when I was CEO. On the other hand, I’m doing much less implementing, which decreases my influence. Recognition of my influence is also much lower. Overall, it’s a tradeoff I’m happy with and one that seems to be working for the company. My friend Bo Burlingham wrote a book that every entrepreneur should read — Small Giants, which profiles companies that chose to be great instead of big. This book was hugely influential on me in the early days of Atomic. It gave me an alternative to the “growth at all costs” or even “growth as the primary goal” model so prevalent in business. Bo has written another book, Finish Big, which every entrepreneur lucky enough to have founded a business successful enough to either sell or continue on without them, should read. In Finish Big, Bo identifies the factors common to founders who are happy after they exit their business. Sadly, that’s only about fifty percent of the more than a hundred company founders he interviewed for the book. While I’m still part of the company I founded, my transition has a lot in common with the transitions Finish Big describes. A core challenge Bo identifies is that, when you leave your company, you may leave behind your purpose. And one does not replace a purpose with more golf. Bo describes “being pulled out” by other interests or goals as a common pattern for successful transitions. For me, that wasn’t a single new, exciting venture I just had to pursue. But I have, over the last few years, gotten involved in other organizations in significant roles. I take a lot of satisfaction and pride from the positive impact I can have on these organizations by working closely with their executive directors, CEOs, or founders. I also knew what I cared about with respect to Atomic. In fact, our long-term goal to someday celebrate the company’s hundred-year anniversary grew directly from my personal desire to have the company operate successfully beyond my tenure. Jonah Bailey’s written about why Atomic should be 100 years old. Our employee ownership plan reflects the same “know what I care about” thinking. Bo makes the point that if you don’t know what you care about, you’re unlikely to be satisfied with your exit, but if you do, and you start early, you’re much more likely to have things go the way you want them to go. Starting early is another piece of advice he derived from the founders he interviewed. That may be necessary to put the company in a good state to sell. It also leaves you an option, should you make a poor choice of successor the first time. I think both our employee ownership plan and our succession plan exemplify the benefits of this advice. A new take on work I like to help people. I like creating valuable new things. I like bringing order from chaos. I’m curious and love to learn. I love pairing with smart, dedicated people. I have generalist skills, and I’m quite flexible. These things — and personal financial freedom — led to my current work arrangement. Before my transition, I was already committed to several organizations, which have filled my “work” bucket in the last year: Atomic Object, Executive Chairman – software design and development consultancy Trinity Mission Church, President of Executive Board – startup church Grand Rapids HQ, Chairman – runaway and homeless youth drop-in center Grand Angels, Chairman – angel investment group Land Conservancy of West Michigan, Director – land protection non-profit Tappan Hill Ventures, Managing Director – venture capital fund Mader Mill, CFO & Co-founder – pallet sawmill 8th Light, Director – software design and development consultancy Legacy Trust, Director – wealth management bank AdAdapted, Director – ad-tech startup The traits I described above brought me opportunities and leadership roles. I think it’s also natural and beneficial for a CEO to be looking outward and maintaining relationships in the community. My enjoyment of new experiences coupled with the weight of eighteen years of service to Atomic pulled me out of my CEO job. Stepping out of a full-time job time has let me engage with the responsibilities above in a more satisfying, less hectic fashion. In hindsight, I see now that I was over-committed. What I’ve also learned in this first-year-post-CEO job is that my new arrangement of work has a very different risk exposure than a single full-time job. When you have a single full-time job and something unusual happens that threatens the organization or requires extra work, you buckle down and get the job done, focusing everything you’ve got on the problem at hand. Your other commitments, family, friends, hobbies, and personal time absorb the loss of the extra time required of you. That can be sustainable as long as such situations are extraordinary, not the status quo. None of my commitments are full-time, and their needs shouldn’t be correlated, but in a crunch, when the need arises, I may have to dramatically increase the time I give some of them because of the role I have. But when more than one of the multiple organizations/people I’m responsible to experiences an extraordinary need at the same time, I’m in a bind. I learned this lesson in the fall of 2019 (the end of “giddy”) even before the coronavirus pandemic occurred. With a better understanding now of how my commitment risk profile has changed, I’ve applied that insight twice, declining the nomination to chair of an organization I’m a board director for and concluding my involvement entirely with HQ once we completed the merger with 3:11 Youth Housing. When things are normal, I thrive in my new work arrangement. I can more easily manage my energy, not my time, choosing to work on what I’m feeling energized by at the moment. I can break up my days with dog walks, lunches with friends, and meditation. I can overlap dog walks with giving advice. I take a weekly sabbath rest day, usually on Sundays, but flexibly as needed. In theory, I could even be more intentional about exercise. In short, I’ve been able to fully break down the false dichotomy implicit in the notion of work/life balance. My connections and insights cross-fertilize between organizations. My contributions and advice are highly leveraged by the time and efforts of people in full-time implementation roles. The people I work closely with appreciate my efforts and express that, helping me feel fulfilled. I’m living out Atomic’s “work matters” purpose across multiple organizations. One thing I had to untangle in the last year was my social connection to work. I never went into the office during the four months of my sabbatical. And once we made the transition, I still avoided being there to clarify how roles had changed and give Mike and Shawn space. What I learned in the course of that first year — which was a little surprising — is that I not only didn’t miss it, but I was happy to be away from it. There were some people I missed, for sure, but the physical space was connected to all the things I was responsible for and which had contributed to my burn out. Overall, I don’t regret having blended work and friendship, but there were definitely some difficulties and downsides for having done so. As you’d expect, some of those work friendships have faded, and Atomic as a source for new friendships has ended. But some of my friends that I grew to know through the company have remained friends. With them, for me at least, it’s now a simpler and more certain friendship. It requires greater effort, as work no longer brings us naturally together, but the relationship is no longer complicated by the role I have or clouded by the resources I controlled. This transition has also motivated me to be more intentional about the incredible friends I have outside Atomic. When you create something that becomes more than you, it becomes deeply a part of you. Realizing it was okay for me to hand off the day-to-day responsibility of the company after eighteen years — that I’d done enough — helped me work out the difference between the job and my identity. One thing I realized was that there’s a huge difference between founder and CEO. Being a founder is existential. It’s part of who you are, like being part of a family. You don’t ever step down as founder. It’s not something you can pass on or that can be taken away from you. But being a CEO or President is a job you have. You may have it because you are a founder. But you can also have it without being a founder. You can step out of the job. You can lose it if you don’t do a good job. I see my founding and serving Atomic for eighteen years a lot like I see my job as a parent. You really don’t know what you’re getting into at the start. You don’t do it alone. You make mistakes and learn along the way. There’s a great deal of you in your creation, for better and worse. You have incredible highs and incredible lows. Both are tied to other human beings. You’re incredibly proud of what you created. It’s impossible to do without some regrets. You never stop being a parent, or a founder, but after about eighteen years, it’s not a full-time job anymore. Your baby grows up, and if you’ve done your job reasonably well, goes on to thrive without you. About Carl Erickson Carl is Founder & Chairman of Atomic Object, a software product development company with offices in Grand Rapids, Ann Arbor, and Chicago. Considering Employees in Three Dimensions - January 4, 2021 A Co-CEO Approach to Founder Succession - September 29, 2020 Founder Transition – My Final Job at Atomic - September 9, 2020 Leadership in a Time of Pandemic - April 3, 2020 Software Product Development in a Time of Pandemic - March 16, 2020 Carl- nice article! Congrats. We should grab a drink and catch up as I am transitioning also. Your thoughts put great perspective on the topic. Not easy but very healthy. Carl Erickson Thanks, Dan. I’m glad it was helpful. Good luck with your transition. Andy Van Solkema Thank you for sharing this Carl. The personal take on this journey is a gift in itself. Best my friend. Thanks for those kinds words, Andy. Brad Rottschafer Once again, very thoughtful and has given me some insight into my future transition (undetermined) out of my founder role at Mosaic. Thank you Carl. That’s high praise, Brad. Thank you. Great Not Big is the brainchild of Carl Erickson, Founder of Atomic Object. It’s where we chronicle our management successes and failures, and share our ideas for creating a successful small company where people love to work. Subscribe to Great Not Big We'll email you every time we publish a new post. Explore by Categories Select Category Culture (35) Finances (19) Innovation Services (11) Leadership (25) Mistakes & Failures (10) Operations (28) Our Industry (12) Ownership (11) People (36) Sales & Marketing (12) Strategy (17) Structure (11) Blog Speaking About Privacy Policy	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line510
__label__wiki	0.60364	0.60364	Dr. Azizah al-Hibri B.A., philosophy, American University of Beirut, 1966 Ph.D., philosophy, University of Pennsylvania, 1975 J.D., University of Pennsylvania Law School, 1985 Страница в Твиттере Founder of KARAMAH Dr. Azizah Y. al-Hibri, Esq. is the Founder and Chair of KARAMAH: Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights and professor emerita at the T.C. Williams School of Law at the University of Richmond. Dr. al-Hibri began her career as a professor of philosophy and is the co-editor of Technology and Human Affairs, and founding editor of Hypatia: a Journal of Feminist Philosophy. She obtained her J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1985 and worked as a corporate law associate on Wall Street before focusing her efforts on human rights and Islamic jurisprudence. In 1992, Dr. al-Hibri became the first Muslim woman law professor in the United States. Since then, she has written extensively on women’s issues, democracy, and human rights from an Islamic perspective. Her scholarly works have appeared in a variety of publications, including the University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law, the Harvard International Review, and Fordham International Law Journal. She has also contributed chapters and articles to a number of collections on legal issues, women’s rights, and Islam. Currently, Dr. al-Hibri is completing her own book on Muslim women’s rights. Dr. al-Hibri founded KARAMAH: Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights in 1993 to support the rights of Muslim women worldwide through educational programs, jurisprudential scholarship, and a network of Muslim jurists and leaders. KARAMAH's original research and innovative programming provides Muslim women with the essential tools and knowledge to promote reform in their own communities. In 2007, Dr. al-Hibri received the Virginia First Freedom Award from the Council for America’s First Freedom. She was also the recipient of the Dr. Betty Shabazz Recognition Award from Women in Islam in 2006 and the Distinguished Educator Award from the University of Richmond in 2004. Dr. al-Hibri was also a Fulbright scholar and a Fellow at the National Humanities Center in 2000-2001. At the request of various institutions, such as the State Department, the United Nations, and local universities and Islamic centers, Dr. al-Hibri has shared her perspective at speaking engagements throughout Europe, the Middle East, South Asia, North Africa, and the United States. Dr. al-Hibri earned a B.A. from the American University of Beirut and a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania before pursuing her J.D. from the same university. Dr. al-Hibri was appointed to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom in 2011 for a two year term by President Barack Obama. #Women #USA Iskhakov Kamil Shamilyevich Muhammad Salahetdinov Abdulhaevich	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line513
__label__wiki	0.915028	0.915028	World Marion Pritchard, Dutch Rescuer of Jewish Children During the Holocaust, Dies at 96 Marion Pritchard, Dutch Rescuer of Jewish Children During the Holocaust, Dies at 96 Wednesday, December 21, 2016 at 7:30 pm \| כ"א כסלו תשע"ז Updated Wednesday, December 21, 2016 at 7:40 pm (The Washington Post) - Hall of Names at the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum. (Uriel Sinai/Getty Images) Marion Pritchard, a Dutch social-work student who was credited with saving dozens of Jews during the Holocaust – spiriting some to safe houses, hiding others under floorboards, and, in one case, executing a Nazi before he could arrest a family of four – died Dec. 11 in Washington. She was 96. The cause was cerebral arteriosclerosis, according to her family. Pritchard was recognized in 1981 by Yad Vashem as one of the “righteous among the nations.” She was said to have fed, clothed, hidden or otherwise aided as many as 150 people, many of them children. She insisted that she could not have done her work without the assistance, overt or implied, of neighbors, friends and other members of the Resistance. She observed, her son Arnold Pritchard recalled, that only rarely if ever during the Holocaust could one person single-handedly save the life of another. Pritchard – then van Binsbergen – was 19 when Germany invaded the Netherlands in May 1940. She credited her father, a Dutch judge who abhorred the Nazi ideology, and her mother, an Englishwoman who raised her daughter in the Anglican faith, with instilling in her a sense of justice and moral resolve. The “crucial moment” for her came in 1942, she said, when she was riding her bicycle to her university in Amsterdam and witnessed the liquidation of a home for Jewish children. Deportation of Jews from the Netherlands began that year and would continue into 1944. Of 107,000 Jews taken away, all but 5,200 would perish. Less than 25 percent of Dutch Jewry survived the Holocaust, according to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. “It was a beautiful spring morning, and it was a street I had known since I had been born, and all of a sudden you see little kids picked up by their pigtails or by a leg and thrown over the side of a truck,” Pritchard said in an interview published in the volume “Voices From the Holocaust” by Harry James Cargas. “You stop but you can’t believe it.” She watched two women attempt to stop the soldiers, only to be put in the truck with the children. At that moment, she said, she committed herself to fighting Nazi persecution in whatever way possible. Along with about 10 friends, she helped obtain false identity documents and hiding places to help Jews evade arrest. Despite severe food shortages, they scrounged up extra ration cards and provisions. She put her social-work training to use by finding host families to take in Jewish children and prepare the families for the perils they faced. At times, she falsely declared herself to be the mother of a baby to conceal the child’s Jewish identity. A toddler spent several months with her before she found a safer home outside Amsterdam. For nearly three years, Pritchard cared for a Jewish man, Fred Polak, and his two young sons and infant daughter, taking up residence in the country home of an acquaintance where they were hidden. In case of a Nazi roundup, they perfected a routine by which the father and his children could slip beneath the floorboards within 17 seconds. They gave the baby sleeping pills to prevent her from crying. One day, three Germans and a Dutch policeman came to search the house and left, having failed to detect the hideaway. Shortly thereafter, the Dutchman, who nonetheless suspected that something was awry, returned and discovered the hideout. Before he could make an arrest, Pritchard grabbed a small revolver that she had kept for such an emergency and fatally shot him. “I would do it again, under the same circumstances,” she told an interviewer years later, “but it still bothers me.” She credited a local undertaker with helping dispose of the corpse by burying it with another body in a coffin. “I just hope that the family would have approved,” she said. Marion Philippina van Binsbergen was born in Amsterdam on Nov. 7, 1920. She grew up mainly in the Netherlands but traveled frequently to England, where she attended boarding school. When the war broke out, she was studying social work at the University of Amsterdam. She was arrested in 1941 and imprisoned for seven months after being caught at a meeting where students were transcribing Allied radio broadcasts for dissemination. Until then, “I always thought I had my mother’s ability to ignore fear,” she remarked, according to the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation. She said it was perhaps easier for her than for others to face the dangers of rescue work, her son recalled, because she was not married at the time and did not have children of her own: She was risking no life but her own. Among the most famous Jews who sought refuge in the Netherlands were the German-born diarist Anne Frank and her sister Margot. Pritchard told the Los Angeles Times that she met them by chance at a birthday party before they went into hiding and were ultimately discovered, deported and murdered. After the war, Pritchard became a United Nations social worker in displaced-persons camps. Through those assignments, she met her husband, Anton Pritchard, a former U.S. Army officer. In 1947, they were married in one of the camps. The Pritchards settled in Waccabuc, N.Y., and later in Vershire, Vt. Pritchard continued her social-service work in the United States, helping refugee families. She graduated from what is now the Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis and ran a psychoanalysis practice for several decades. In 2006, she moved to Washington. Her husband died in 1991. Survivors include three sons – Arnold Pritchard of New Haven, Conn., Brian Pritchard of Los Angeles and Ivor Pritchard of Washington; eight grandchildren; and a great-grandson. Pritchard’s wartime story was chronicled in books including “Conscience and Courage: Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust” by Eva Fogelman, and the documentary “The Courage to Care” (1985). “Most of us were brought up to tell [the] truth, to obey the secular law and the Ten Commandments,” she said in a 1996 lecture. “By 1945, I had stolen, cheated, deceived, and even killed.” She attributed her morals to her parents, who she said had treated her with “respect and consideration from the time” she was born. “As a result,” she observed, “I grew up treating other people the same way.” Erica Polak, a Dutch psychologist, was the infant girl who survived the war in the countryside shelter with her father and brothers, thanks to Pritchard’s efforts. “My whole family is so grateful to her,” she wrote in an email after her rescuer died, “no words will ever be enough to describe that deep gratitude we feel.” Updated Wednesday, December 21, 2016 at 7:40 pm Greek Mayor Relents in Controversy Over Holocaust Monument Holocaust-Era Census Documents Found in Budapest Apartment Paris Terrorists Exploited Intelligence Gaps That Remain Open 70 Years On, Jewish Survivors Detained in Cyprus Remembered German Groups, Jewish Heirs Unite Efforts to Locate Lost Art	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line514
__label__cc	0.598144	0.401856	FTR Now Municipalities and Occupational Diseases April 29, 2009 · 5 min read By: William M. LeMay Occupational disease claims can be very expensive for Schedule 2 employers, particularly those that have a fire department. However, the Workplace Safety and Insurance Tribunal (WSIAT) has recently provided employers with some relief from the costs of occupational disease claims. In 2007, the Provincial Government passed Bill 221, which introduced a presumption that various diseases suffered by firefighters were occupational diseases. Compensation under the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act (WSIA) therefore would be payable unless the employer could rebut the presumption and show that there was a non-occupational reason that the employee had contracted the disease. Most of the diseases cited are either cancers or heart conditions, and rebutting the presumption is a very difficult and time consuming exercise. These claims are very expensive for Schedule 2 employers, who are required to pay the actual costs of benefits (plus a percentage as a WSIB administrative fee), to the WSIB. One occupational disease claim can cost municipalities upwards of $500,000.00 in total. These costs may include benefits such as Non-Economic Loss (NEL) awards, health care costs, Loss of Earnings (LOE) benefits, and in some tragic cases burial expenses and survivor pensions. CASE LAW DEVELOPMENTS The WSIB has been paying these benefits for retirees as well as for active employees. However, the WSIAT has recently issued three decisions in which it has limited the payment of LOE benefits for retirees. To understand the reasons for the decisions, reference must be made to the wording of section 43(1) of the WSIA, which says in part that “a worker who has a loss of earnings as a result of the injury is entitled to payments.” It is clear that a worker needs to have a loss of earnings before entitlement to LOE benefits can be triggered. The WSIB’s policy on the payment of benefits for occupational disease (Policy #18-02-02) states that the average earnings of workers who have a long latency occupational disease will be based on the greater of: 1. The annual earnings of a fully qualified worker at the time of diagnosis or accident engaged in the same trade, occupation, profession or calling to which the worker’s disease is due. 2. The worker’s annual earnings in the 12 months prior to the date of accident. The WSIB has been interpreting this policy as providing LOE benefits at the collective agreement rate in effect at the date that a firefighter is diagnosed with an occupational disease, even if at the time of diagnosis the firefighter has retired, and has been completely out of the workforce. It has been applying the same interpretation of the policy to other employees who have suffered occupational diseases. This policy has been challenged in three cases before the WSIAT, two of which involve firefighters. In a case argued by Will LeMay of our office, the WSIAT was dealing with an employee who had been out of the workforce, retired and drawing a pension for a period of five years when he was diagnosed with cancer. The WSIB had allowed full LOE benefits from the date of diagnosis to the date that the worker passed away. The WSIAT rescinded this entitlement, and quoted the following passage from another decision: By definition, entitlement to LOE benefits is only available to workers who suffer a loss of earnings as a result of an injury or disease. Workers who are completely retired from the workforce and have no intention to return to the workforce for reasons unrelated to the injury or disease cannot reasonably be considered to have any loss of earnings as a result of the injury or disease. In other words, the WSIAT will not give LOE benefits to workers who have retired from the workforce and are not actually losing any earnings. However, the WSIB is continuing to provide LOE benefits to retired workers, regardless of whether they have any actual loss of earnings flowing from the occupational disease. Therefore, municipalities that have these types of cases should consider appealing the LOE awards made by the WSIB (which can be in excess of $100,000.00) to the WSIAT. There is also a question about survivor benefits. Those benefits are set out in section 48 of the WSIA. Generally, the survivor’s benefits are calculated using the same income that the WSIB used to calculate the workers’ LOE benefits. This means that, in the case of workers who are retired, the WSIB has been calculating the survivor’s benefit using the same methodology that the WSIAT has rejected for LOE benefits. Again, this calculation has been challenged successfully in at least one case. Therefore, municipalities that have a case where survivor’s benefits were awarded should consider appealing the WSIB’s decision to the WSIAT. However, part of section 48 states that where a worker has no loss of earnings, the spouse will be paid a statutory minimum of $15,312.51 per year. Therefore, municipalities that are going to appeal a spousal benefit should be aware that this minimum amount may be payable regardless of the outcome of any appeal to the WSIAT. This is a very complex and costly area for municipalities. Should you have any questions about this issue, you should contact William M. LeMay (Toronto) at 416.864.7276 or your regular Hicks Morley lawyer. The articles in this Client Update provide general information and should not be relied on as legal advice or opinion. This publication is copyrighted by Hicks Morley Hamilton Stewart Storie LLP and may not be photocopied or reproduced in any form, in whole or in part, without the express permission of Hicks Morley Hamilton Stewart Storie LLP. © Practice Areas: Workplace Safety & InsuranceIndustries: Municipalities & Municipal Agencies	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line515
__label__wiki	0.720404	0.720404	Rodolfo Frigeri, Argentinian economist and politician, Died at 73 Dead Famous, Politician Rodolfo A. Frigeri was born in 1942 and died on October 2, 2015. He was an Argentine economist and politician. He received a bachelor’s degree in public economics from the University of Buenos Aires in 1970. Rodolfo was the Minister of Finance of Mendoza Province in 1975 during Antonio Cafiero’s administration of the province. Frigeri served as the Minister of Economy and Public Finances from December 23, 2001 to 2001, during the brief administration of President Adolfo Rodríguez Saá under the title “Minister of the Treasury, Finance and Public Revenue.” From 1987 to July 1989, Rodolfo was the Minister of the Economy of Buenos Aires Province, also under Cafiero, who was the Governor of Buenos Aires Province. Frigeri joined the staff of the Department of the Treasury at the beginning of President Carlos Menem’s administration, in July 1989. He was also the President of the Bank of the Province of Buenos Aires (Bapro) in 1991. Rodolfo Frigeri was the chairman of Grupo Bapro and served as a deputy in the Argentine Chamber of Deputies from 1997 to 2005. Rodolfo Frigeri passed away at 73 yrs old on October 3, 2015. << Michael Dean, New Zealand-born broadcaster, Died at 82 Kallen Pokkudan, environmental activist, died at 78 >>	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line516
__label__cc	0.746716	0.253284	Home › Uncategorized › Link roundup, July 7 Link roundup, July 7 Posted on July 6, 2015 by Chris Ladd — 256 Comments Rick Perry gave a surprising speech on race. No policy breakthroughs, but his language and relative candor on the subject is unprecedented for a Republican. If you thought the women’s World Cup got pretty rough, this traditional version of football from Florence tops it. Almost everyone’s been nervously awaiting a Chinese economic crash for years and it never happens. While everyone distracted by the story of a tiny Third-World country in the EU defaulting on its debt, the Chinese government is intervening again to mitigate a stock market collapse. It will be interesting to watch this develop. Lincoln was a Hamiltonian. No surprise there, but a good reminder. Reason #463 why Jackson, not Hamilton, should be kicked off our money. Some Texas counties are still freaking out about Jade Helm. Check out the bizarre statement from the chairman of the Bastrop County GOP. Great summary of Google’s ambitions. Did you know St. Louis was one of America’s largest cities until forty years ago? Vox has an animated evolution of America’s ten largest cities list by decade. ‹ How Trump might change the GOP race How to end a party › 256 comments on “Link roundup, July 7” 1mime says: “Dylann Roof, who is accused of fatally shooting nine people last month in a historically black Charleston church, should not have been able to purchase a gun, the FBI said Friday. Because of a loophole in the system, the people who conducted Roof’s background check did not have access to a police report indicating previous drug possession, which potentially would have prevented him from purchasing a .45-caliber handgun. “We are all sick this happened,” FBI Director James Comey said. ” The question now is, will this loophole be closed? I’ll give you this: the liberals are brilliant at using language to sway people. Illegal aliens are now “undocumented immigrants” to blur the line between between legal/illegal. All the better to disparage conservatives who are “against immigrants.” By calling this a “loophole” they will gain support for universal background checks, which they also call a loophole. They will insinuate that if we can just close these darned loopholes, these nine poor black people could have been saved. But it was not a loophole. It was the failure of a human to properly enter Roof’s data into the system. “This case rips all of our hearts out,” [FBI Director] Comey said. “But the thought that an error on our part is connected to this guy’s purchase of a gun that he used to slaughter these good people is very painful to us.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/fbi-accused-charleston-shooter-should-not-have-been-able-to-buy-gun/2015/07/10/0d09fda0-271f-11e5-b72c-2b7d516e1e0e_story.html I just read the rest of the post article I linked to. From Center for American Progress: “The answer is simple: all records of prohibited individuals need to go in the FBI system and every gun sale needs to go through a background check.” That was quicker than I thought. My prediction came true before I even made it. It’s risky to post a link without reading the complete article, Doug (-: I agree with the solution and I also agree that the word “loophole” used in the NYT article was incorrect. Human error was at fault. Unfortunately, nine good people are still dead. If linking to FBI arrest records would prevent one death, it is worth doing. It is precisely for these kind of situations that a universal check would be most useful. Republicans never use words to sway people. Black people riot they are thugs, white people riot, they are just got carried away. I could go on but l think you get the picture. The right is the real masters of dog whistle language. They have called the president every name in the book except the one word that they really mean. texan, yes, Republicans do some name calling. But that’s bunt and easily recognized for what it is. Liberals are much better with nuance. They are better at using words and phrases that evoke emotion or subtly change the argument. (How could any sane person be against “common sense” gun laws?) I don’t know how much is the difference in the way the liberal brain works and how much is simply better marketing, but it definitely is an advantage. “a universal check would be most useful” Universal check sounds good, but it’s unworkable for a number of reasons. Among others there are conservatively 400 million existing firearms in the U.S. Nobody knows exactly how many, who has them, how many times they’ve changed hands. And they have a very long shelf life. My favorite deer rifle was built in 1917, and many of my handguns are 50-80 years old. Who would know if or when I sold a 1930’s Colt Woodman or an 80’s model 1911 to the guy down the street? Doug, you are probably correct about the difficulty with universal background checks, but I will continue to support any effort that will improve the process – existing or with changes. I have no doubt that the current limited process could be more effective if it had more resources to function or more effective operation. Tragically, those who are lone wolves will continue to be most difficult to pre-empt. But the consequences of doing nothing or arming everyone are unacceptable to me. unarmedandunafraid says: Doug – I have to admit to modifying my language to suite the situation. For example I now call myself a “gun safety proponent” rather than “gungrabbing libtard”. The latter caught on quickly in certain circles. Using language – Take the phrase, “registering honest gun owners doesn’t stop criminals”. Or the many variations of this idea. I’ve always felt that there was something wrong with this phrase, but could not get past its basic logic. And then it occurred to me. It states the problem all wrong. Its backward. It is not the buyer that we can and should limit, it’s the seller. A serious question with no “gotcha” thought behind it. Would you sell a 1911 to a stranger? Someone that could be a prince or a Roof? Would you take it to a rough part of town and sell it for more that you could get from a dealer? Selling to someone I suspect is a criminal? No. I rarely sell anyway, but when I do it’s usually online and something like an M1 Garand or carbine. In that case the guy on the other end will have a C&R license and I know he’s a good guy. I wouldn’t be opposed to making NICS available to individuals, and I’m sure many would use it. Nobody decent wants to sell to a criminal. I just don’t believe a mandatory system would do much to prevent bad guys who want guns from getting guns. Much better would be prosecuting those who knowingly try to buy illegally but fail NICs. The prosecution rate right now is somewhere around 1%. Doug, I figured you as a careful seller, and didn’t meant to imply anything, but didn’t want to assume anything either. I have someone close to me that used to collect WW2 stuff including Garands, but he has moved on. He is now into things he has to get before said things gets banned. I’m sure you know what I mean. “I wouldn’t be opposed to making NICS available to individuals, and I’m sure many would use it. Nobody decent wants to sell to a criminal. I just don’t believe a mandatory system would do much to prevent bad guys who want guns from getting guns.” Agree that any additional checks would help and certainly make a seller feel more comfortable. I disagree about the effect of mandatory checks. But I’ll leave it for another time. “Much better would be prosecuting those who knowingly try to buy illegally but fail NICs. The prosecution rate right now is somewhere around 1%.” What do you think of this article? Hope the hosting site doesn’t explode your eyeballs. http://csgv.org/blog/2014/careful-wish/ RobA says: Doug – gun c9ntrol is the one issue where bith sides completely agree on what the other side wants. Usually, it’s demonizing rhetoric (on both far sides of the spectrum) that either misconstrued the others position or outright lies about it (“Democrats want to destroy Christianity!!”or “all republicans are horrible racists!!”). Gun control is unique in that it seems bith sides completely bang on about what the other wants but holds it up as if the error in that thinking should be self evident. For example, you state “next thing, we’ll be having u I versa background checks!!! gasp”. And we’re over here saying “uh, yes. Of course we do. What sane person wouldnt?” I cannot for the life of me fathom why this is a partisan issue. If you have nothing in your background that should preclude you from gun ownership, yiu have nothing to worry about. If you do, then thank god for those background checks. To us, it sounds just as bizarre as “they want to make sure only NON criminals can have guns!!! gasp” Here’s some positive news for those who support expanded healthcare for more Americans. Note: the largest increases in new coverage is among Hispanics, Blacks, and lower income Americans. http://www.gallup.com/poll/184064/uninsured-rate-second-quarter.aspx?utm_source=alert&utm_medium=email&utm_content=morelink&utm_campaign=syndication Good news Mime. The ACA becomes more deeply embedded in society every day. Wow. I was under the impression Trumps comments and brief run so far had been a disaster for him. I guess they’ve only been a disaster to his business. Politically, he’s on fire. New polls show he’s the top republican. Of ALL of them. http://www.salon.com/2015/07/10/the_daily_donald_meet_your_new_gop_frontrunner_america/ Part of me thinks he has to be a secret democrat troll, showing to one and all the true colours of the religious far right. A guy with zero political experience and a clownish national profile comes in and is widely regarded as a joke, but as soon as he starts saying the most explicitly racist things of all the GOP contenders he all of a sudden becomes the guy leading the pack? I feel like this is some sort of bizarro world. Trump is doing is all a huge service.All he’s really doing is holding up a mirror to the far right and reflecting back their personal views, but doing so on a grand stage so that now every sane and moderate republican can no longer debate that the right wing that’s been controlling the party is nothing more then scared, hateful racists who just want to unleash their impotent rage at the inevitable loss of the culture wars. If the Donald keeps up polling this high, this will do more damage to the GOP brand/chance in 2016 then any Democrat can do. There’s a reason why almost everyone of Trumps partners are rushing to cut ties with him: Disney or NBC or the PGA doesn’t REALLY care about Trumps opinions on Mexicans. What they care about are the people opinions who consume their products. And they spend far, far more money on focus groups, research etc then any political party does in order to find out the values of the “average American”. THAT’S why they cannot work with Trump anymore. They know he’s toxic to the majority o Americans. Conservatives are always complaining about the “liberal media” or “pandering corporations”. They’re missing the point. Companies and the media are not becoming more liberal in a vacuum. There doing it because AMERICA is becoming more liberal (and quickly) and they (like all successful businesses) are trying to appeal to the broadest customer base possible. I truly believe that the push from the far right in recent years on so many culture war battle fronts os what is behind the increased rise of liberalism. The 2nd law of thermodynamics states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction that holds true in the natural world. Since humans are part of that natural world, it stands to reason that mass behavior will tend to follow similar laws. Kind of ironic (and if I’m being honest with myself, I’m guiltily enjoying the schadenfreude ) if it ends up being the far rights hard push in recent years that is one of the main factors that really brings about the change that they so fear in the first place. Sorry, but the Second Law of Thermodynamics is about entropy. You’re thinking of Newton, but referenced his Third Law, not the Second. Sorry for this, but I just can’t help it! Well crap. Lol I should’ve clarified first, but my phone is really slow today and it would have taken too long. No prob, bud! Eh…nothing much bizarro about this. April 2011: Trump leads GOP polling June 2011: Bachmann leads GOP polling October 2011: Cain leads GOP polling This is no different than 2011. Polling at this stage is nothing more than who is being loud enough to get him/herself on the news every night. Trump is not a spokesperson for the religious right. He might be loved by some right-wing folks, but he’s not Huckabee/Santorum. Your boles seem to be a bit hyper this morning: “every sane and moderate republican can no longer debate that the right wing that’s been controlling the party is nothing more then scared, hateful racists who just want to unleash their impotent rage at the inevitable loss of the culture wars.” And yet, Bush is by far the most likely nominee, and Bush is nothing if not a highly connected insider who loves big business, just like every GOP candidate we’ve had for the past 20 years. Good points. This is the first election cycle I’ve been paying close attention to this early, so perhaps this is typical. I don’t really remember much about the specific policies of those two. We’re they as blatantly racist and offensive? Bachmann is nuts and Cain is an idiot. Cain is nuts and Bachmann is an idiot. It works either way. You know, I’m being harsh. Both are relatively well educated and successful people. It is hard to be an idiot and accomplish what they accomplished. So, let’s just go with, “both endorsed positions and made statements that were nuts and idiotic”. Trumps comments about Mexico are no more racist (or more accurately xenophobic) than the comments of any dozen politicians over the last several years. The folks coming across the border from Mexico generally are not engineers and doctors. Some would say they are all criminals since they are breaking the law by coming here. Trump’s a blowhard, but he’s just playing different notes on the same tune Perry was playing when he was getting his picture taken with a big ol’ gun on a boat patrolling the border. Houston, no doubt some of the illegals are criminals. Probably even a higher percentage then the general population due to the typical socio-economic status of those that come over. The comments are still inherently racist and more importantly are clearly intended to appeal directly to racist voters. My personal opinion is that all this talk about immigrants is a massive red herring. Productivity had increased steadily since WWII, and yet middle class wages have not budged in the 60’s (inflation asjusted). Something is wrong. It is clear that the middle class is not sha ring in the rewards of the fruits of their labour. People are angry and they are looking for someone to blame. And the “immigrants coming ti take your job and commit crimes” meme plays very well with the GOP base. It’s been shown time and again that we are far more likely to believe something if it fits in well with our preconceived notions. The idea of the criminal Mexican, jumping the border to sell drugs and rape white women, fits perfectly within the bases narrative, and so it’s accepted without question. Personally, I think this is purposefully done by groups like the Koch Bros and other Big Business moneyed interests. The REAL reason the middle class is stagnating (imo) is the utter failure of supply side/trickle down economics that crushes labor unions, gives huge tax cuts for the rich, cuts social spending to the bone, and does things like hold dwn the minimum wage so low that a person working 40 hours a week will still be under the poverty line. That’s wrong. The reason I think this is that if Big Biz and the GOP establishment TRULY wanted to do something on immigration, they would have. They stonewalled every attempt to pass immigration reform for years now. The thing is, for all their lip service, they LOVE illegal immigrants. They have cheap labor, and due to their illegal status, have very few labour rights and are thus easily explotted. The failed economic policies that are a disaster for the middle class have been a boon for the 1%, and they (short sightedly) wish to keep it that way. So since they must distract from the REAL reason why the middle class is being destroyed, they have to come up with a bogus reason. Not to say that illegal immigration isn’t a problem. But it’s importance to the health of the nation is so far exaggerated by the GOP that it boggles the mind. And of course, while this distracts the base from the real reason why they’re struggling (because if they KNEW thw real reason, they’d probably want to change it, and the 1% cnt have that), it also has the undesirable effect of creating a toxic, racist stew that is just waiting for the right guy to come around and say everything they’re feeling. And Trumps that guy. I’ve got a feeling he’s going to stick around a lot longer then most people think. But, as the saying goes, you can fool some people all of the time, and you can fool all the people some of the time, but yiu can’t fool all of the people all of the time. I have faith that people are finally starting to come around on the real illness that’s destroying the American middle class (which is kind of the same thing as destroying America itself, since the middle class IS America) and they won’t be fooled anymore. I think thats why you’re seeing Bernie Sanders and his eye popping numbers at rallies. He’s tapping into something that lots of us are feeling but can’t articulate. We don’t want anymore tax cuts for the rich. We want huge investments in education and infrastructure. We don’t need to be spending more money on the military then the next 9 countries combined. We want a robust social safety net that incentives work, but that do nit strip fellow Americans of their healthough and dignity just because they are poor. We want a government who takes climate change seriously and invests heavily in renewable energy (which will create far more jobs then they will displace). We want ALL Americans to enjoy the rights and benefits (and responsibilities) of citizenship, not just the white males. We think that if someone works 40 hours of good and honest labour/week they should be able to afford the basic benefits of being an American (a roof over their head, food on the table, clothes on their backs), we want to stop subsidizing corporate profits (when companies are allowed to pay subsistence wages, thy will. And when they do, Uncle Sam is on the hook in the form of welfare programs to bring that person up out of poverty). We think that education is a right, not a privilege, and that no American that WANTS to be educated should ever be shut out merely because they can’t afford it. We think that education is an INVESTMENT and NOT an expense that will come back to us many times over; The success of America and the education level of her population have always been directly correlated. I dont think Bernie will win the nomination, but I’ve contributed to his campaign, and I know several people I know have as well. He has huge value in bringing Hillary to the left. Bernie Sanders (despite the bad hair, bad teeth and overall unpresidential look to him) is speaking truth to power and Hillary has no choice but to notice the movement he’s building. Sorry for writing a novel lol. I guess I’m just feeling optimistic (for the first time in a long time) about the way America is heading. For what it’s worth, Rob, I agree with you. I still think Hillary will be the nominee but I hope she is wise enough (and humble enough) to learn from Bernie. BigWilly says: If a body is in the country illegally, is not that body by definition criminal? If you’re here illegally you’ve committed a crime. I don’t know that there’s any way around that. Frankly I don’t see anything wrong with Trump’s comments. Obviously any word that comes out of the mouth, or any other medium, of a Republican will be characterized as racist, bigoted, etc. etc. etc., if it is at all possible to do so. I don’t really see the big wave election that you do. There’ve been many occasions in the past when one party or the other was “on the ropes” and yet each time they still managed to hold on long enough to bounce back. As long as most conservatives view education as a cover term for commie indoctrination there’s a good reason to take the fight to big education. I’ll never forget that shrill whine of the Literature Prof. “It’s not history, it’s herstory.” God, I wanted to puke. Really? I think it should be his Tory, don’t you? What a fatuous load of gnu guano. HEre’s a few graphs which I think are relevent: First is what I mentioned above, about productivity vs. wages. Pretty stark, and pretty self explanatory. Even though the middle class has done IT’S part in increasing productivity, Big Business has kept all that extra profit for itself. This is unsustainable. The first graph shows that sometime around the 60’s, money is being taken from the middle class. This one shows where it’s going: This is a problem, and it’s 100% related to policy. In particular, the “failed” trickle down economics we’ve been suffering under for decades. I put “failed” in parenthesis because I don’t believe it truly failed. I believe it achieved exactly the result it was supposed to have when it was implemented. The obscene wealth increase of the richest 5% at the expense of everyone else was not an unexpected consequence, it was entirely by design. Lastly, I wanted to say a bit about unions. I know unions are not all that popular, but I truly do think they are essential to middle class fortunes. It was unions that CREATED the middle class, and unions that need to sustain it. Not “unions for everyone” or “forced unionization”. But we need to stop passing laws that are designed to do nothing else but destroy them. Yes, like anything else, unionism to the extreme is toxic, such as the role unions played in bankrupting the Big 3 (but the companies deserve at least as much blame. It is the nature of unions to ask for the moon. It is not all their fault when companies are so short sighted that they agree to excessive benefits because they’re printing money TODAY, even though the benfits they agree too may well bankrupt them during a global downturn TOMORROW). I think to look at that and say “unions are bad” is throwing the baby out with the bath water. Unions are NOT bad. Excessive unionism can be, but that can be said about anything. One thing that really changed my thinking on unions is how correlated the middle class is with union membership. And it makes a certain amount of sense. As Marx said, the entire history of human confliuct can be boiled down to class war. Lord vs. Serf. Bougeousie vs. Proletariat. Middle Class vs. 1%, Doesn’t matter what you call them, it’s always the same. And there is nothing inherently wrong with this. I liken it to a business negotiation. Both sides are trying to get the best deal for themselves, and that’s fine. But when you handicap one side with excessive legislation and laws, you upset the balance, and inequality and concentration of wealth are inevitable. these charts show union membership juxtaposed with the health of the middle class. While I don’t think these graphs settle it, I think they show something that we should all be paying attention too. This one shows the relationship between union membership and middle class incomes: And this one shows the relationship between union membership and income inequality, specifically union membership vs. % of income flowing to the top 10% http://images.dailykos.com/images/103476/large/union_membership_top_10_pct_income.png?1409679801 I find this one so interesting, in that they are almost a mirror image of each other. Any gains by one comes at the expense of the other and vice versa. That’s why we need strong labour laws. Not to force unionism on those who don’t want it, but to make it as easy as possible for those who DO want to unionize. Right now it’s like playing poker except the other guy can see your cards and you ccan’t see his. You’re at an almost insurmountable disadvantage. That needs to chance. “The comments are still inherently racist…” Explain, please. You admitted the (somewhat exaggerated) truth of the comments. Trump also prefaced the comments with “Mexico is not sending us her best people” which implies that it’s the class (for lack of a better word) of the illegals, not the race. If thousands of murdering thugs were coming here from Iceland and someone said “Hey, those Icelandic folks coming over here are criminals,” would that be racist? What if the guy saying it was black? Now, that doesn’t mean that racists wouldn’t appreciate Trump’s comments, even though “Mexican” is not a race. BW – yes, the example you cite is annoying. But that’s a Liberal Arts prof. That’s a very tiny portion of what I say when I saw we must invest in “education”. I’m talking the entire gamut, from engineers, lawyers and doctors at major unis, to liberal arts or undergrads at colleges, to trades at community college or trades. The point is, “education” is merely the system humans have developed to teach one generation from the next. To ensure that the knowledge we learned since we began to write is kept, added to , and passed on. It’s no different from a lioness teaching her cubs to hunt (well, it’s not FUNDAMENTALLY different. It is of course much more complex). If that lioness doesn’t teach her cubs that knowledge, they will die. Likewise, so would we, if we fail to pass on ours ( or at least live in a society that none of us would like too). That’s the big picture, “surviving and thriving” reason why we need to invest in education. On a more local scale, when we look at individual humans, education is the only proven and time tested vehicle for class mobility. Even if many people don’t take advantage of educational opportunities, the important thing is that they HAVE those opportunities. If you eliminate class mobiliity, you eliminate the natural pressure release valves that exist. By confining everyone to the class they are born in, the pressure will eventually build up until society explodes, a la the French Revolution. Obviously not everyone is going to take advatnatge of accessible education. Even if 70% don’t, that’s fine. Because making education accessible is not FOR those that cann’t be bothered. since those people do not care, they do not build up class and societal pressures. Making education accessible is for those 30% (in this hypothetical example) that desperately want to improve their lives, that are willing to work their asses for it. If you confine THESE people to the class of their birth with no hope for ever getting out, THAT’S what creates unsustainable and explosive cultural pressure. For anyone to oppose education investment because they’re worried about “indoctrination” is patently absurd. first off all, these are adults (I assume we can agree that “indoctrination” doesn’t really start in middle school). They are free to make up their own minds. There’s a reason education skews more towards liberalism and it’s not because of “indoctrination”. It’s because the more we learn, the broader our worldview, the more we reject the classic tribalism that seems to be the root of most bigotry and racism (i.e. idealization of MY tribe, rejection of The Other). I do believe you when you say that conservatives will fight against what they percieve as “commie” education. That’s why I think it is so important to remove conservatives from political power as much as possible (legally, through the ballot box, of course) until they can come to their senses and reject their policies that would destroy America. I’m obviouslyl liberal, but I have no desire for some “liberal takeover”. I think ANY idealogy if left to it’s own devices will become toxic. I think the country is far healthiest when it has two sane and rational parties that are able to compromise and work together acting as checks and balances on the excesses of the other. Two parties that don’t think the other side is the enemy. But what I see (and I do believe that many others see it too) right now from the GOP is flat out scary. I realize you and others like you probably feel the same when you look at Dems today. I guess the only thing left to do is vote, and let the chips fall where they may. Doug – I get what you’re saying, and I guess you are right, that in a vaccuum, the comments are not INHERENTLY racist. But context matters. These are clearly designed to appeal to voters with xenophobic worldviews, and to reaffirm their own preconceived notions. If the worry is crime, then why not advocate better funded police forces (ya know, so they don’t rely on asset seizure of Americans who havent even been charged of a crime), better training for police officers, MORE police officers etc? But you don’t hear a word about stopping the CRIME. What you hear about is the stopping the IMMIGRANTS. A huge percentage of these people are opposed to immigrants in general, even legal ones. It’s clear pandering to a base that is just full of rage. They see their cultural dominance fading, and they need to blame someone. The problems that need to be addressed in America are FAR beyond illegal immigration. It’s like worrying about the splinter in your foot when you’ve just taken a shotgun blast to the chest. But it plays well to the xenophobic base, who believes in simple solutions. “If we can just build that electrified fence across the border, all our problems would be a-ok!” RobA, amen Actually, Rob, I’m considering making a campaign donation to Donald Trump. “A girl’s gotta do what a girl can do!” Let’s help conservatives paint themselves into a corner. I don’t know if you saw footage last night about the melee that occurred in the House of Reps over the legislation regarding flying confederate flags in national military cemeteries. And, the absolutely heart-felt, passionate address by the SC Republican female (sorry can’t recall her name) who reps Charleston. She forcefully spoke to the heart of the matter and called out her colleagues who were obstructing the debate on removing the confederate flag. If only more Republicans would stand up to their colleagues on issues that are dividing our nation. Well, one day at a time. I’m proud of Gov. Haley and this female representative for leading the way. More women in Congress are needed. The SC Rep. I referenced is Jenny Horne. Here’s a link to her impassioned speech on the floor of the SC House. What honesty! http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/09/us/south-carolina-jenny-horne-speech/index.html Houston – just did some quick research and I don’t see Bachman ever really leading at all. Herman Cain seems to have a few weeks where he led, but it appears to have been mostly Romney and Newt the whole way. Cain doesn’t appear to have led in any of the Gallup polls either. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationwide_opinion_polling_for_the_Republican_Party_2012_presidential_primaries As you say, it’s still very early and polls don’t mean nearly as much now as they will later. Still not a good look for the GOP Rob, it certainly isn’t a good look for the GOP, but we won’t be talking about Trump leading anything a few months from now. From your link: “Eleven different people were at the top of a poll at one time or the other; these were (in chronological order of earliest poll lead): Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, Rudy Giuliani, Newt Gingrich, Chris Christie, Donald Trump, Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, Herman Cain and Rick Santorum.” If you look in 2011, you are going to see a relatively big set of polls (Zogby, Rasmussen) that had Cain, Huckabee, Bachmann, and a set of others leading, with Romney always lurking in second or third place. One person would rotate off the top, and Romney would pop back to first. Another goofball would rotate to the top, and Romney would be second, and then that person would fade away, and Romney went back up. Heck, there was a whole month or two where Newt was leading. That sounds awfully similar to what we are seeing with Bush now. We’ll flirt with Trump, let Rand flirt with us, take a flyer for a while on Walker, nod in agreement with Cruz, and then it will be Bush at the end. “then it will be Bush at the end” No. Please, just…no. Doug, I just don’t seen any other end-game for you here, unless Bush has a big blunder somewhere along the way (which is entirely possible). Let’s just cross off a few right now. We know it won’t be: Carson – no real way for him to win Fiorina – who? Graham – who are we kidding? Huckabee – nope Jindal – nope Pataki – wouldn’t win his own state Perry – would win his own state, and few others Santorum – GOP tradition would have him as the front runner since he was the last man standing against Romney, but no one seriously believes he can be President I would bet all the money in Donald Trump’s pockets that none of those folks will win a the election in 2016. So, who are we left with? Paul – no man with a perm wins in 2016 Kasich – Not bad, but little name recognition – and is not rabidly against Obamacare, so no hope as a Republican Christie – would take a mammoth change to make that happen. Evidently, the more you know about Christie, the less you like him. In a four month campaign, maybe you can stay in the honeymoon period, but no way it lasts for a 12 month campaign. Cruz – appeal is just too narrow. As much as you might love him and Texas might love him, no one else does. Being the angriest man in the room rarely draws a big enough crowd to you. Walker – has shown he can win in a blue state and seems to be an unkillable zombie politician no matter how he is polling. Our recent string of Presidents have all been Ivy League educated. I’m not sure the country is willing to hand over the keys to someone without a college degree. Truman was the last to not have a degree. Rubio – four or eight years too early, not unlike Obama but does not have the charisma of Obama Bush – who beats him if he doesn’t beat himself? Little brother. Long coat tails. Wow, Pope Francis is really kicking ass and taking names lately. What with the climate change encyclical, and now a pretty direct and unambiguous attack on unfettered capitalism, you have to imagine this guy’s making some pretty powerful enemies. He seems like hes on a swrious mission. Be interesting to see how far he wants to take this. http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN0PJ29B20150710?irpc=932 No, Rob, what’s going to be interesting is how conservatives in Congress will respond to Pope Francis as he makes the first papal address to a joint session of Congress. RobA – You seem to forget the fact that first and foremost he wants you to be a Catholic, eschew birth control, and reproduce like rabbits. You’re cherry-picking. Oh for sure. I’m not holding him up as someone who is right about everything. In fact, I’m probably more capitalist then most of my liberal friends. There are definitely huge negatives to it, but I think the positives outweigh the negatives. That doesn’t mean we can’t tweak the model. I DO believe unfettered and unregulated capitalism is an inherently unjust system that by its nature has no choice but to eventually concentrate wealth and power in the upper tiers. I’m not talking about communism or anything so radical. Just reasonable regulations on what businesses are and aren’t allowed to do. And really, this is a ready the system we have in place. I don’t think there’s any developed country in the world that has a truly free market, it is just a matter of thw scale of regulations each country chooses to have. For example, the justice dept will still go pretty heavily after companies that break anti trust rules. That wouldn’t happen in a free market. My point in bringing it up is just how surprising it is that a world leader would be willing to stray from the script and attack capitalism so directly. You very rarely see that. Imagine, the Pope is an independent thinker! Would that this example inspire rather than dismay his detractors. johngalt says: But it’s nice to have something to cherry-pick. I used to find the Pope said very little with which I agreed. Now there are at least a few things. It does make it harder to criticize the religion for hypocrisy, since Francis seems to walk the walk a bit better than his predecessors. OT, I have always been an unabashed admirer of Jimmy Carter. Here is a history burnishing elegy for the man. A bit fawning, but in my opinion deservedly so. And as the article noted, an under appreciated visionary with policies and principles way before his time. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/09/opinion/nicholas-kristof-jimmy-carter-his-legacy-and-a-rabbit.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=opinion-c-col-right-region&region=opinion-c-col-right-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-right-region&_r=0 And you would think a certain demographic would hold him up as a shining example of their “culture”: He was an unabashed Southerner with a noticeable Georgia drawl, openly and devoutly Christian and practiced what he and the Bible preached, a distinguished Naval Academy graduate and submarine commander (one of the most challenging and grueling commands in the Navy), and a humanitarian who appears to have done far more good as an ex President despite the challenges and tribulations and sea change in the world he faced and had to address as Commander in Chief and leader of the free world during the Cold War. He also made home brew legal. Grinning from ear to ear! Interesting excerpts from Carter’s 1979 “malaise” (or more accurately, “crisis of confidence”) speech: “I am tonight setting a clear goal for the energy policy of the United States. Beginning this moment, this nation will never use more foreign oil than we did in 1977 — never. From now on, every new addition to our demand for energy will be met from our own production and our own conservation. The generation-long growth in our dependence on foreign oil will be stopped dead in its tracks right now and then reversed as we move through the 1980s, for I am tonight setting the further goal of cutting our dependence on foreign oil by one-half by the end of the next decade — a saving of over 4-1/2 million barrels of imported oil per day.” “We have the natural resources. We have more oil in our shale alone than several Saudi Arabias. We have more coal than any nation on Earth. We have the world’s highest level of technology. We have the most skilled work force, with innovative genius, and I firmly believe that we have the national will to win this war” [on energy crisis/oil shortage]. “I will soon submit legislation to Congress calling for the creation of this nation’s first solar bank, which will help us achieve the crucial goal of 20 percent of our energy coming from solar power by the year 2000.” “To give us energy security, I am asking for the most massive peacetime commitment of funds and resources in our nation’s history to develop America’s own alternative sources of fuel — from coal, from oil shale, from plant products for gasohol, from unconventional gas, from the sun.” Oil shale, solar, biofuels, coal, energy independence, net oil exporter, hmmmmm… As I said, visionary ahead of his time. Bubba, thank you for expanding my appreciation for Pres. Jimmy Carter. I always liked him for all the reasons that have been listed, but I lacked depth of understanding of his many contributions while in office. His quiet good work following his Presidency sets the bar very high for others. (I’ll bet Carter would never have charged $100K to speak to wounded vets.) The earlier observation that “nice” people don’t make good Presidents is sad. Even more sad is that they won’t ever be selected by their parties as possible candidates. The political process in our country is built around power acquisition and continuation. This is as old as time but in a Democracy we all hope for something better, more fair and honest. As citizens, we hope candidates will be fundamentally good people and that they will have enough sense and backbone to resist those who try to use them for their own purposes. The process is flawed, but it has worked – even if poorly. I believe we are seeing fundamental changes in the political process accompanied by overt disrespect for tradition and position. America’s system of constitutional checks and balance is struggling as our country and the world undergo tremendous change. The common denominator is always power. Leadership requires more than goodness, intelligence, and prescience; it requires a hard core and political savvy. Welcome to 2016. Let the games begin. Jimmy Carter was a terrible president, but perhaps the best ex-president we’ve ever had. I teach students about a terrible parasitic disease called Guinea worm. In 1985 there were 3.5 million cases per year, all in Africa. There are no vaccines and no effective drugs to treat it. The Carter Center got involved, helping teach villagers to purify water through simple filters and what not to do if they are infected. Last year there were 126 cases. Not 126,000. 126. It will be eradicated in the next few years. JG – Although the Carter years were terrible, I don’t blame him. I just consider him the unluckiest President in my lifetime. Opec was whipping us around and energy prices were very high but that started earlier in Nixon’s years. And Iranian revolution coming to a head was not something he or anyone else could stop. He did allow the Shah in the country for medical treatment so that may have contributed to the hostage situation in the US embassy. So we had hostages that were on every news cycle for 444 days. for those of you that are too young to remember, “Nightline” was started to bring hostage news 4 nights a week. The military was at a low in terms of moral after Vietnam. And we did not have the highly trained units that we do today. And of course, the rescue attempt that went very wrong. He did get some things accomplished, Camp David being the best known. Although Carter himself says that there is nothing to the “October Surprise” with the hostages being freed on Reagan’s inauguration, I will always wonder why OPEC led by Saudis reduced oil prices a month or two after Reagan’s inauguration. Why the timing? Was it because of high Republican politicians deeply involved in the Mid East oil business and the Saudi family, or just more of Carter’s bad luck. Bobo Amerigo says: JG, thanks for the story. It’s a terrific outcome. Thank you for the clarification unarmed. I too feel that he was caught up in circumstances that I doubt any other President (or Gerald Ford if he had been re-elected) would have handled differently. And as a side note, I have mentioned this before also, Carter created the elite Delta Force unit after the failed Desert One hostage rescue disaster because he realized we lacked that capability and readiness on a moment’s notice. FYI I highly respect Ford also and he presided over the horribly botched SS Mayaguez attempted rescue that killed more rescuers (41) than American military hostages they were trying to rescue including 3 Marines left behind alive in the chaos and presumed later executed. The hostages were actually released before the rescue attempt. And the country wasn’t ready for Carter’s conservation measures to address the oil crisis. He was mocked for wearing a sweater in the White House and turning the thermostat down in the winter. He installed solar panels in the White House which Reagan promptly removed when he took office and it was never reinstalled until Obama took office. Carter also tightened EPA MPG requirements for cars which Reagan also reversed and not addressed again until Obama. And finally, I’ve noted this numerous times before also but Carter canceled the obsolete when built B-1 bomber program to focus research and financial resources on the then top secret stealth B-2 bomber program. And of course Reagan promptly uncanceled that and NEVER used the bomber in his 8 years in office. Including when he bombed Libya with old B-117 bombers. And as each B-1 crashed in training, they were never replaced. And his successor George HW Bush didn’t use one single B-1 bomber in the first Desert Storm Gulf War. It wasn’t first used in combat until Clinton in 1998. Correction: Reagan bombed Libya with old F-111 bombers. F-117’s were actually newer stealth fighter planes. He was a terrible president, but he was, (is), also a good man. He signed, (as noted above), H.R. 1337, and he makes furniture! How great is that? I love me some Jimmy, but he was a horribly ineffective president. I’m not sure any president would have come out of ’77 – 81′ looking great, but Jimmy could not get ducks aligned within Congress or even within his own party. A very, very good man, and an extremely well-rounded man who understands and is fluent in both science and religion, truly cares about his fellow humans, and has spent more energy doing more good for people than the vast majority of the population, but a very, very ineffective president. Bubba and unarmed, you give Carter a pass on things out of his control, but we elect presidents to deal with whatever may come. If he thought Americans wanted to kowtow to OPEC by lowering the thermostat, he read the tea leaves very wrongly. The issue with the Shah may have followed a long series of bad decisions by several presidents, but it was the straw that broke the camel’s back. The raid on the embassy could have ended with all the hostages dying, with all the rescuers dying as long as they went out in a blaze of gunfire and glory and it would have been better than a helicopter crash in the desert. If you remember, one of our copters went down in taking out bin Laden, but the team blew it up and got on the backup. Is the poor execution Carter’s fault? Fair or unfair, he’s the president and the buck stops with him. JG – Wow,I had forgotten a lot of that. The fact that Carter was a deregulater is also forgotten lately. I sometimes think Obama is as lucky as Carter was unlucky. Not taking anything away from Obama or his policies, but he has had some things go his way. I sometimes think we were looking for honesty when we elected Carter, after the Nixon years. As you say, he brought honesty. He is still honest (his writings on the middle east) and we still don’t want to hear the truth. Unarmed, I’m curious as to how you think Obama was “lucky”? JG – It may just be semantics. I’ll grant you that a president is ultimately responsible for what happens during his term. But to leave it at that is the lazy way of looking at reality. That is the way most voters see things, but it’s not for me. Those were horrible years, our fear of communism feeding most of it, causing terrible things to be done in my, our name. And it all came to a head during those years. But to say Carter was a terrible president is to prent a short-cut mental picture of who we are and how we should be governed. If we are going to label a terrible president, I have a candidate. I won’t name names but he is the anti-Carter. The one that spoke in sound bites. The one that ended most alternate energy research. The one that signalled that union busting was acceptable. The one that did not know that the word ballistic, as in ballistic missile, meant that it could not be recalled once it was fired. But I won’t say simply, he was terrible, without plenty of qualification. Mime- Just trying to be consistent. I think President Obama has made some important and correct policy decisions. But the fact that the economy was in free fall when he took office was in a way lucky. There was no way but up. This was helped by the maturing of the technology called fracking. Carter had his failed rescue, Obama killed Bin Laden. I’ll listen to any arguments about luck being involved with either, but really, any thing could have gone right. or wrong. And the opposition had started to believe their own bullshit. Allowing Obama to appear even smarter and more presidential. In years to come, you will hear, “I’ll say this about Obama, he killed Bin Laden and he got the price of gas down”. At the end of Carter’s term, gas was expensive, we had been humiliated in Iran and were not far removed from a humiliation in Vietnam. The USSR was strong, our economy was mired in inflation and the highest interest rates ever recorded in this country, and the military was so weak we couldn’t fly a helicopter across a desert. We were in a malaise, as the person whose name shall not be spoken said. In contrast, at the end of the presidency of the person whose name shall not be spoken, the economy was booming, interest rates and inflation were low. The military was strong and this was a significant contributor to the Soviet bloc starting to fall apart. Gas was cheap (so alternative energy research seemed less important, even if this was shortsighted). You can say he spoke in sound bites; go listen to his speech from Berlin, his address after the Challenger disaster, or his speech on the “Boys of Pont du Hoc” and you’ll get another sense. The union he busted was one of federal employees who went on strike despite being legally barred from doing so. No, you’ll need stronger beer than that to convince me that history will see Carter as the more effective president. Unarmed…there is a difference between being correct and being effective. It is not as though Carter was wrong about a whole slew of issues. However, he wasn’t able to convince others that he was right. He simply was not able to “lead the country” or even much of his own party for that matter. Even with all the advantages of incumbency, it was going to be tough for a Republican to win the election in ’76, and I doubt Carter wins any election other than ’76. I do wonder if some of Carter’s better ideas would not have flourished more had he been elected in the booming 90’s rather than Clinton. It makes one wonder if “a good man” can be an effective President in our world today. JG- ” We were in a malaise, as the person whose name shall not be spoken said.” I’m smiling as I write. He didn’t say that. But still, we were in a “malaise”. It was a terrible time. Are you complimenting Him on his speeches or Peggy Noonan? Give the “Pont du Hoc” speech to George W. Bush and tell me if you think the effectiveness of a speech comes entirely from the speechwriter. JG and Homer – I guess it is semantics. I reacted to the word terrible and now we are talking about effective. I read this blog and the comments because of the smart and reasonable person that lifer is and equally the smart, reasonable, people that comment. If the original comment had been “Carter was ineffective under the circumstances” I would have read on and not commented. That is what I mean about talking in sound bites. Reagan said, we have to control the deficit, we have to increase Defense spending, we cannot make the SS recipients suffer, we have to control entitlements, we can’t raise taxes … Youngsters reading this should get David Stockman’s book “The Triumph of Politics: Why the Reagan Revolution Failed” and even more interesting, a copy of a “Atlantic Monthly” article by William Greider. This was the genesis of “trickledown”. A read of Stockman’s wikipedia entry might be enough. http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1981/12/the-education-of-david-stockman/305760/ I considered myself a fiscal conservative up until Reagan’s election. Anybody remember how Republicans screamed how we were going down the toilet because of Carter’s spending? We have to get this deficit under control. Seriously, do you remember? I was one of those people. Then to see the deficit skyrocket under a republican government. I screamed at the AM radio when a Democratic congress trimmed a Republican budget. Huge deficits year after year, good times or bad, will cause economic upturn. Huge, breathless, DUH. So I guess I’m saying we have to redefine “effective”. I still take issue with the characterization of Carter as a “terrible” or “horribly ineffective President”. JG, I would note that Carter had the unenviable task of dealing with “stagflation” for the first time in American history. Carter did manage to increase employment by 8 million and significantly reduce the budget deficit (Republican Holy Grails) at the end of his tenure, but he was unable to rein in high inflation and interest rates and that is all it seems we harp on now. And also, don’t forget that Reagan had two terms/8 years to get it right economically and he started off with his own Brownbackian scale fuck up by immediately cutting taxes while spending like a drunken sailor (irony intended) and plunging the country into the worst recession since the Great Depression up to that time. And how soon we forget those 10%+ unemployment rates under the Reagan recession and that Reagan ended with the largest budget deficit in US history up to that time. And that Reagan had to acknowledge his missteps and failed “trickle down economics” and raised taxes several times through both of his terms. JG, I would also disagree on your characterization that “the military was strong” under Reagan (and by association, implying it wasn’t under Carter) or that he deserved much of the credit of the fall of the Soviet Union or Communism. I credit Gorbachev for having the vision and foresight to see that Communism was a dead end course for the long term and instituted the radical and decidedly non traditionally Communist policies of “perestroika” and “glasnost”. I have stated all this previously also, as well as my opinion that Reagan would have started WW III and a possible nuclear one at that with his aggressive posturing and saber rattling. “Evil Empire” anyone? Any other Soviet leader other than Gorbachev would not have taken too kindly to Reagan’s in your face goading. And his massive military spending would have also led a less rational traditional Communist leader to attempt a tit for tat arms race and then subsequently forced into desperate measures militarily when they lost that arms race or bankrupted the Soviet bloc. Gorbachev just unilaterally refused to engage Reagan on his terms and follow him down that Cold War rabbit hole. And probably saved the world from a MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) nuclear world war. As it was, Reagan wasted countless billions on his nana booboo military “strategy” what with his useless mythical “600 ship navy” (which he never achieved) by taking obsolete WWII era battleships out of mothballs and sticking Tomahawk launchers to “modernize” them when we already had a plethora of truly modern and state of the art mobile air, ship, and subsea launched Tomahawk missile platforms. And I already noted the wasted billions on the useless B-1 bomber. And as for Reagan “projecting military power and swagger”, how soon we forget that Reagan did absolutely nothing in retaliation except withdraw when 241 marines and 63 US embassy personnel were killed in Islamic militant truck bomb terrorist attacks (sponsored if not planned and sanctioned by Iran) in Lebanon in 1983. That sounds like a pretty significant humiliation by Iran. But they didn’t call ole Dutch the “Teflon President” for no reason. Unless you count as “retaliation”, the botched invasion of that hotbed of Islamic radicalism, Grenada a few days after the terrorist attack in which they didn’t even have accurate maps of the tiny resort island country and none of the different military branches had compatible communications systems to coordinate the operation and more American servicemen were killed in friendly fire incidents and accidents than from enemy fire, including 8 Navy SEALS drowning during an operation that was later aborted. And not to mention Reagan secretly trading arms for hostages (Iran-Contra scandal) which only encouraged more hostage kidnappings in Lebanon. And I already noted how unprepared the US military was for hostage rescue missions and planning post Vietnam under both Ford (SS Mayaguez botched “rescue”) and Carter with the Desert One disaster so it would be unfair to compare the stunningly successful bin Laden raid 30 years later with far superior training and technology and more importantly, the organizational structure specifically created for such high risk, precision military operations. And I will note that the bin laden raid had a totally different objective in that they were tasked to kill or capture a wanted terrorist as opposed to the far more complex and risky mission to try to safely rescue live captive hostages. For better or worse, it was Carter also who initiated surreptitiously arming the Afghan Mujahidin guerrilla resistance with stinger anti-aircraft missiles and other sophisticated and heavy weapons after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan. And eventually causing the Soviets to withdraw from the country in their own Vietnam style quagmire in demoralized retreat if not in full out defeat. Without the loss of one single US military soldier or any direct conflict with the Soviets. I’ll leave to speculation which President(s) in the intervening years was/were responsible for the ascendance of Osama bin Laden in the post Soviet withdrawal Middle East landscape. As for Carter not being able to work with the typical politicians with both parties in Washington, that should not have been unexpected as Carter was elected because he was not a political insider nor played the “game”. He was too honest, and transparent, and straightforward to work well in Washington. You get what you paid for. Remember that as we continue to hear the catcalls that Hillary is too much of a “typical cynical self serving Washington type”. Bubba – Commenting on this blog for me is like, well to paraphrase George Gobel, It is like being a pair of brown shoes in a tuxedo world. Very articulate and well thought out comments. That goes to the more conservative ones also. Speaking for myself, unarmed, I like your brown shoes a lot. The penguins in the group are generally well behaved – as long as we “brown shoe types” are vigilant (-: Mime – Since I was paraphrasing, I should have said “brown shoes in a tuxedo and evening gown world”. I was doing a little more reading about Pres. Carter and noted that he received the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize. I had forgotten that. Here’s another hoaxy story from some hoaxy scientist about that climate change hoax. http://www.cbc.ca/m/news/technology/climate-change-is-killing-off-bumblebees-study-1.3145014 Summary: bees cannot move north to escape the heat like most animals and so they are basicallytrapped by a “wall” at the northernmost tip of their range, with their habitable zone moving around 9 km north every year. This is consistent across all latitudes on all continents. And since I’m sure the standard GOP response is “bees? Who cares about bees ” to put it in terms that they wpuld understand, Cornell University did a study that says bees are responsible for $26 billion worth of pollination EVERY YEAR in ONLY the US. http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/2012/05/insect-pollinators-contribute-29b-us-farm-income You’re probably looking at close to $100 billion per year globally of economic value directly attributed to bees. There’s also the whole sea levels rising and displacing millions thing to be worried about as well. Thank goodness that CC stuff is just a big ol’ hoax, where thousands of scientists independently and concurrently all decided en masse to perpetuate this huge scam. Just so the government could come take your money. and your guns. Because LIBERTY!!!!! Nobody denies that the climate has changed. It has always changed, and always will. By the way, WUWT has a great article today on how much NOAA has fiddled with the temperature record…eight times in just the last five years. Interesting. And of course, totally scientific. http://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/07/09/noaancei-temperature-anomaly-adjustments-since-2010-pray-they-dont-alter-it-any-further/ Thanks for the link, I’ll read it tonight. A study just released by the Behavioral Sciences & the Law journal reveals that those affected by anger and impulsive issues own a disproportionate number of firearmsavailable in this country. “The new research also indicates that the 310 million firearms estimated to be in private hands in the United States are disproportionately owned by people who are prone to angry, impulsive behavior and have a potentially dangerous habit of keeping their guns close at hand. That’s because people owning six or more guns were more likely to fall into both of these categories than people who owned a single gun” I do not know which is scarier. These people with access to firearms or those that want to defend their access to fire arms. People who carry are more likely to own multiple firearms and vice versa. Duh. So people who own multiple firearms are more likely to both carry and drive cars. Or carry and eat bacon. Or carry and have anger issues. Brilliant! Yes Doug, I’m glad I don’t have your “brilliance”. So are people who carry more likely to eat more bacon than those who don’t? Because that’s how nonsensical and stupid your analogy is. And Turtles didn’t specifically mention “carry”. The specific quoted term was “close at hand”. Here is is his direct bold quote once more time for the benefit of YOUR reading comprehension. “That’s because people owning six or more guns were more likely to fall into both of these categories than people who owned a single gun”. So Doug, do people with six or more guns eat more bacon than those who own just one? I’m thinking of a sample of one that eats more crow. And speaking of guns, I’m sure those grandparents with the 3 year old who killed himself with their gun were pretty secure in having their gun nearby. And so did the house that was recently robbed…of their guns along with their other possessions. Thank you Doug for that demonstration of your even handedness. What was it 30 firearms and silencers? “People who carry are more likely to own multiple firearms and vice versa” No, Doug the point was those with prone to impulsiveness and anger own a disproportional amount of the weapons in this nation. Reasonable people would think that maybe their access to firearms should at least be noted. But even that is too much for you it seems. It is easier to dismiss the amount of gun violence in this country because you are unwilling to admit there is a problem. Sad when an Onion article echos so much truth. http://www.theonion.com/article/no-way-to-prevent-this-says-only-nation-where-this-36131 Bubba – that’s the rub. Individuals who choose to keep guns in their homes most often say it is for protection of some sort, that they feel safer because of it. That is not what the numbers say – a gun in a home a many times more likely to be used against another family member (whether accidentally or in anger) or in a suicide than it is in self-defense against an intruder. Those who own guns will generally say, as I bet those grandparents would have last week, that this would not happen to them, that they are careful. Yet rarely a week goes by without a report of some accidental shooting of a child, or a domestic argument that escalates into murder thanks to a readily available tool. The average person with a gun is not safer because of it, no matter how vehemently they might disagree. Bubba, how else does one keep a firearm close at hand? Also, the actual paper says “carry guns outside the home.” Logic is tough huh? Let’s try again: Some people have blue eyes and some are women. Blondes are more likely to have blue eyes. Therefore, blondes are more likely to fall into both categories (women with blue eyes). Do you infer from this that blondes are more likely to be female? That is exactly the logic the Times is trying to use. Here’s another logic riddle: if angry people own a disproportionate share of firearms, and firearm sales are shyrocketing, why are murder rates going down? Here ya go, Doug: Angry people with guns miss a lot (-: Doug, thank you for proving (yet again) that apparently “logic IS tough”… for YOU. As is reading comprehension. Consistently. “People who carry are more likely to own multiple firearms and vice versa.” The article never stated that. This is what they DID claim verbatim (reposted for the THIRD time just for YOUR benefit and reading comprehension and “logic” issues): “The new research also indicates that the 310 million firearms estimated to be in private hands in the United States are disproportionately owned by people who are prone to angry, impulsive behavior and have a potentially dangerous habit of keeping their guns close at hand. That’s because people owning six or more guns were more likely to fall into both of these categories than people who owned a single gun.” And your factually and logically incorrect genetics analogy (as usual) makes no sense or correlation to the issue at hand (as your previous nonsensical convoluted “analogy”). Here is the logically (but NOT factually for consistency so you can possibly follow real logic) corrected version for you: “Some people have blue eyes [anger issues] AND…are women [guns close at hand]. Blondes [multiple gun owners] are [disproportionately] more likely to have blue eyes AND…are women [guns close at hand] than [brunettes/single gun owners]. Therefore, blondes [multiple gun owners] are more likely to fall into both categories (women [guns close at hand] with blue eyes [anger issues]) [THAN brunettes/single gun owners].” You’re welcome Doug. Nice try Doug. You fail again when debating with non wingnuts. Get a clue. Doug wrote: “Here’s another logic riddle: if angry people own a disproportionate share of firearms, and firearm sales are shyrocketing [sic], why are murder rates going down?” Just a glutton for punishment Doug? Um, how about improvements/advancements in medical care for gunshot victims? “The number of reported gun injuries, however, is on the rise. There were 55,544 non-fatal injuries in 2011 resulting from assaults involving guns — up from 53,738 in 2010 and 44,466 in 2009, the CDC’s database shows. Since 2001, the rate of gun injuries is the second highest in 11 years when adjusted for population.” http://www.factcheck.org/2012/12/gun-rhetoric-vs-gun-facts/ Ain’t no drop in guns shot at (and hitting) people Doug. Aw, Bubba, I liked my guess best! And to JG’s point, fewer overall numbers of families have access to weapons, because to “safely” have access to a firearm (trigger locks, gun cabinets, ammunition stored away from gun) means less than calling the cops on your cell phone-unless we pass a law which requires burglars and robbers to provide five minute notice prior to entry. Hey, that’s it! “No, Doug the point was those with prone to impulsiveness and anger own a disproportional amount of the weapons in this nation. ” That is exactly what the L.A. Times would like you to think. It is not what the study said. I paid the $6 to “rent” a copy of the study and read the actual words. The authors asked ~6000 people about their gun access/carry habits and also to answer true/false to the following three questions: >I have tantrums or angry outbursts >Sometimes I get so angry I break or smash things >I lose my temper and get into physical fights I’ll leave aside the fact that most of the people surveyed had already reported “lifetime [mental] disorders,” plus a “probability subsample” of other people. Now, read their conclusions and tell me if this is what you got from the Times: “The proportions of the respondents who reported having tantrums or anger outbursts (19.1% of the total) or at least one of the anger items (25.0% in the total sample) were not significantly related either to having guns in the home or to the number of guns among those having any. By comparison, the proportion of respondents who reported breaking or smashing things in anger (11.6% of the total sample) was significantly lower among respondents with guns in the home than among those without. The proportion of respondents who reported losing their temper and fighting (6% in the total sample) was not significantly related to having guns in the home…but was positively and significantly associated with the number of guns among those who had any guns.” Yeah, I didn’t think so. Then they go on to state the brilliant logic that I mentioned earlier: “The proportion who reported carrying a gun outside the home was significantly higher among those with guns in the home than among those without (DUH!) and was significantly related to number of guns among those having any guns.” Of course. If you don’t have a gun in the home, you probably won’t carry said non-gun outside of the home. And people who own multiple guns are more likely to carry than those who only own grampa’s old 20 gauge side-by-side. So this leads us to the brilliant conclusion: “The proportion of respondents who reported the combination of any anger items with carrying a gun was significantly higher among those with than without guns in the home…and also higher among respondents with six or more compared to fewer guns.” The proportion of respondents who reported the combination of blue eyes with female genitalia was significantly higher among those with than without blonde hair…and also higher among respondents whose the carpet matched the drapes. The difference in the probability of the combination is directly related to probability of one of the factors (owning guns or blonde hair). It says absolutely nothing about the other factor (anger issues or female genitalia). All that said, the point of the study wasn’t who owns what (surprise!). The major point was that the hoopla over mentally ill mass shooters isn’t likely to lead anywhere productive. Most mentally ill people aren’t violent and a large percentage of violent people haven’t been involuntarily committed, and so wouldn’t be prevented from owning weapons by most proposed laws. The authors state that a better criteria might be restricting firearm ownership based on misdemeanor violent convictions or multiple DUI’s. I happen to partially agree with that assessment, since it’s counterproductive to write laws to restrict firearms based on the less than 1% of firearm homicides committed by psycho mass killers. Doug, I am not going pony up any of my own money just to refute your continued obstinate nonsensical ramblings. Particularly based on your propensity to, and the preponderance of evidence indicating your inability to comprehend data logically and accurately. And that your own quotes of the paywall portion of the study contradict YOUR flawed interpretation of the study. Suffice it to say, this is the AUTHOR’S OWN abstract summarization of the study: “Analyses from the National Comorbidity Study Replication provide the first nationally representative estimates of the co-occurrence of impulsive angry behavior and possessing or carrying a gun among adults with and without certain mental disorders and demographic characteristics. The study found that a large number of individuals in the United States self-report patterns of impulsive angry behavior and also possess firearms at home (8.9%) or carry guns outside the home (1.5%). These data document associations of numerous common mental disorders and combinations of angry behavior with gun access. Because only a small proportion of persons with this risky combination have ever been involuntarily hospitalized for a mental health problem, most will not be subject to existing mental health-related legal restrictions on firearms resulting from a history of involuntary commitment. Excluding a large proportion of the general population from gun possession is also not likely to be feasible. Behavioral risk-based approaches to firearms restriction, such as expanding the definition of gun-prohibited persons to include those with violent misdemeanor convictions and multiple DUI convictions, could be a more effective public health policy to prevent gun violence in the population.” I’ll take the author’s own interpretation of THEIR data over your persistently biased and fact challenged “translations” every time, Doug. And speaking of which Doug, You DO realize that the quote you posted to refute the association you refuse to acknowledge actually accomplished the opposite and CONFIRMED that association and CONCLUSION of the study? Ellipses and redactions of the full quote and all. “The proportion of respondents who reported losing their temper and fighting (6% in the total sample) was not significantly related to having guns in the home… but was POSITIVELY and SIGNIFICANTLY associated with the number of guns among those who had any guns.” In other words, the more guns they had, the more likely they “reported losing their temper and fighting”. As noted in the study’s OWN abstract and in the conclusions CORRECTLY noted by the LA Times. And apparently, inadvertently corroborated by YOU also despite all your semantic, logical, and factual gymnastics, contortions, and convolutions in a yet another failed attempt to prove the opposite. Again, nice try Doug. But your reading comprehension and fact comprehension fail you. Yet again. bubba, sorry, I can’t make you understand statistics or logic. Or propaganda. Or carefully worded study summaries. Perhaps if I type slowly… There were three measures of “anger issues.” These were compared against gun ownership (access), and for those with guns, the number of guns. Of the three anger categories individually, *none was positively correlated with gun ownership. One was negatively correlated. For any of the anger issues (inclusive), there was also no correlation to gun ownership.** Only one of the three anger categories was positively correlated to the number of guns for those who owned guns. So of course that’s the headline. Here’s one thing they don’t say: since “owns lots of guns” is a subset of “owns one or more guns” it logically follows that those who own a few guns are less likely than a non gun owner to have anger issues. Who’da thunk? The study and newspaper article would be more honest if the headline was “Study Finds Anger Issues not Correlated to Firearm Ownership.” But believe what you want to believe. Bubba – I think this helps describe Doug’s point “But believe what you want to believe.” Yes Doug, we know that is your mantra and the “principles” you live by. Especially with all the “logic” and “facts” you have expounded on regarding global warming, race relations, economics, gun violence, … Doug is closer to being right than the journalists are. The study (which I read – turns out my employer subscribes to “Behavioral Sciences and the Law”) did not find any correlation between gun ownership and impulsive/angry behavior. About 25% of people answered “yes” to at least one of three measures and this wasn’t significantly different between Gun+ and Gun-. For those who carry outside the house, the ones with more guns did have a higher-than-expected number of anger issues. This probably won’t reproduce well, but I’ll give it a shot (pun sort of intended). Carrier + Anger (expected) = carries X anger issues. The actual is what they observed. # of guns Carries Anger Carries + Anger Carries + Anger owned outside home issues (expected) (actual) 0 0.7% 25.4% 0.2% 0.2% 3-5 8.4% 27.0% 2.3% 2.5% 6-10 14.2% 25.2% 3.6% 7.8% 11+ 22.2% 24.6% 5.5% 7.3% So if 25% of everyone has “anger issues”, then amongst the owners of 6-10 guns, we’d expect (14.2/4) = 3.6% to carry outside the home and have anger issues. The actual number was a bit over twice that (7.8%). This is a statistically significant difference but how meaningful it is from a policy standpoint is debatable. The authors do not make any conclusions beyond this and acknowledge the uncertain implications on policy or public health. But, seen another way, 4.4% of people in their study routinely carry a gun and a quarter of these are prone to emotional outbursts of anger. So look around you on the street next time – for every 100 people, there is one person who you really don’t want to piss off. Let me try that table again. # of guns……..Carries…………….Anger…………..Carries + Anger……..Carries + Anger owned…………outside home……issues……………..(expected)………………(actual) 0…………………….0.7%……………25.4%………………….0.2%……………………0.2% 1…………………….7.3%……………21.9%…………………1.6%…………………….1.8% 3-5………………….8.4%……………27.0%…………………2.3%……………………2.5% 6-10……………….14.2%…………..25.2%…………………3.6%……………………7.8% 11+…………………22.2%………….24.6%………………….5.5%…………………..7.3% OK, forget it. You can probably get the idea. That was a funny episode. Thanks, jg. I also question the significance of statistical significance when the numbers are so small. According to the study, people who own exactly one firearm are about 60% as likely to be “fighting” folks as those who own zero or two. Really? “Lies, damned lies, and statistics.” In a time when there is so much conflict over racial issues, I thought all would appreciate this great story about one of America’s most famous jazz performers, Louis Armstrong. We need to always remember that there are many who have suffered and gone on to a better life, often through the kindness of others. http://www.jewishjournal.com/sacredintentions/item/did_you_know_that_louis_armstrong_wore_a_star_of_david Thanks for the link, mime. Louis Armstrong was an amazing man, and an amazing talent. Life definitely was not all roses, but he did a pretty damned good job of making the most of it. Funny how so much good music back in the day came from guys named Louis. Louis Prima was a contemporary of his, also from Louisiana. Also Louis Jordan, who had lots of hits on the “white” charts, and performed with Armstrong. Looking at wiki, I see that Jordan also performed with Ella Fitzgerald and Bing Crosby. Can you imagine going to a concert and seeing seeing those four? johnofgaunt75 says: Wanted to point out to the group that the Conservatives in the UK (i.e. the Tory Party) have just proposed a living wage of 9 GBP per hour (or about $14 per hour). This is being rolled out in connection with a cut in several tax credit and other benefits given to low wage workers. Obviously the details are going to have to be worked out but I think this is an interesting idea. It is obvious that we have been subsidizing companies like Walmart and McDonalds who pay their employees wages that no one can survive on in today’s economy. Mandating a living wage while at the same time fazing out many tax benefits and credits we provide to people (because now they can afford to survive), makes sense to me. Is this something the conservative party in the United States could raise and win with? The Conervatives in the UK would be slot comfortably on the middle left in America. They would be incomprehensible to American conservatives. They love their single payer healthcare (I. E. Obamacare on steroids), they would not publicly oppose gay rights/gay marriage (as official party policy), they believe in strong gun control etc. ThE idea of the conservatives there pushing a living wage is much less controversial then conservatives here doing the same thing. I should add though, it’s still a great idea It isn’t a bad idea if the problem you are trying to solve is the presence of a large pool of fit, ready workers who are unwilling or unmotivated to go get a job. Excuse me while I pull up my soapbox… If that premise if flawed, like for example, there aren’t enough jobs, then that approach actually compounds the problem. There is a persistent belief on the right that more people would work if conditions for the unemployed were made severe enough to deliver the requisite motivation. I think that’s a myth. I think it’s always been a myth, but forces being unleashed by accelerating economic dynamism are transforming that myth into an absurdity. The best way to meet these priorities of a modern, capitalist economy: – Reducing the burden of government complexity – Increasing the ability of ordinary people to capitalize on economic dynamism – Lowering the cost, both economic and political, of social welfare programs – Shrinking the power of the central state Is to abandon the myth that government is supposed to curate a complex, individually tailored, nanny-like social welfare system and stop assuming that everyone who isn’t earning a lot of money is some kind of reprobate who needs to be bullied or cajoled. Replace the social welfare system with an income floor and be done with it. Slash the size and power of the government while providing a minimal support for everyone equally. I know this seems like a wild idea, but I’m convinced that it is inevitable over time. Lifer, allow me to offer a personal, current, real example of exactly the problem that many people face whose work opportunities run smack dab into a wall. I employed a caregiver for my husband through a professional agency. She is a certified nurse assistant, meaning, she went to class and passed her tests. She is excellent at her job. She is the mother of 3 young children, husbandless (he died tragically), so she has their full care and they are little so she has the challenge of providing for their care while she works. She desperately needs and wants to work, I want her here, but now she has found out that she will be without an apartment in two weeks as her father (with whom she is living…after moving here to find a job in her field) informed her that he is giving up his lease, and she doesn’t have sufficient income to qualify to extend the lease. She has put in work applications all over the place for night positions in her field at skilled nursing facilities, in combination with her second job – morning work (at our home). So far, she hasn’t been able to get a night position and time is running out. If she isn’t able to get her income level up to a certain amount, she cannot get an apartment lease, and she doesn’t have sufficient savings to rent a home. She’s concerned about living in a safe environment with adequate (not not great) schools for her children. She may have to move back to live with her mother in an area with less opportunity in her field, even though she’s trained, skilled, and willing to work. She’s a good person, skilled, and she is an example of many who want to work but have real challenges. There are those who feel that people who get food stamps or who may have to go on welfare, are lazy and don’t really want to work. There are certainly people out there who fit that profile, but many others who are stuck due to circumstances that have a choke-hold on them. I don’t know if the solution is higher wages, alone, for people like this. Child care and access to affordable housing in safe areas with good schools for their children are the second and third legs of the table. The fourth leg is a society that understands that shit happens and help people transition. It is so sad. What a waste. An insurance company with an army, no more or less. The more people in the risk pool, the the risk is shared and becomes less expensive per individual. Some would be satisfied with the minimum, oh bloody well……… Mime – The solution is pretty obvious. Give her a raise. Fifty, are you making charitable donations to worthy causes? ‘Cause, this family’s finances are takin’ a lickin’ as it is…..I have more than one caregiver so, unlike Uncle Sam, we can’t print $$ around here…This young woman needs more than we can supplement but she’s a hard worker and deserving of employment. Hopefully, it will work out. Mime – Well of course we make charitable contributions. But in this case, she is effectively your employee. To address her situation, you should do it. Or require OPM, which is pretty much all the left talks about. Ante up, Buttercup! OPM? Oh, wait, Fifty, I get it! OPM…Old Peoples Money! Hey, that’s my money you talkin’ bout! Gosh, Fifty, you have no heart! You’re taking all your money to Canada! What to do, what to do? Die young, Fifty. That way your money will never run out (-: And, you won’t ever have to worry about us OP snaring any more of your money…No way gonna let that happin. I knew you would be a soft touch, Fifty…In fact, I could have predicted it. Other people’s money. And RobA here would call both of us ‘old’. Look – you figure you’ve paid enough to have people who work for you to get enough from others to get by. Well, apparently they don’t. Therefore, it’s got to come from somewhere else. Got news fer ya – government printing presses ain’t it. It means that either it’s gotta come from you, or it’s gotta come from somebody else. You vote for somebody else. Fine. Who? Well, fat cats, that’s who! You ain’t no fat cat, are ya? Tell you what – do a poll of really poor people, and tell me where they think the “fat cat threshold” is. Then get back to me. You’re a fat cat. And you “need to pay, or should have paid more”. That’s the reality. Get used to it. We’re all fat cats. Live with the consequences of that. You underpaid. What do you do? Buttercup here…..NO, I did not underpay. I paid premium dollar for the services we require. My point with the story is this young woman wants to work and hasn’t been able to find another job with the hours she needs. That is not my responsibility but I do feel badly for her. I am not asking government to pay her either. The lady is trying to work but things are tough. Tough happens, I get that. And, unless you have infiltrated our financial records, you don’t have a clue what we can afford….but, you are correct that whatever we have probably looks like a whole lot to someone who has very little. And, we worked for that and I am grateful it is there. So, dear friend, take your sermon elsewhere. I ain’t impressed. (unless, that is, you change your mind about donations….us OP can never have enough moola (-: ) Gee pal, and you are, that was no “sermon” – just reality. Either the money has to come from you, or from someone else. That’s all I said. You want it to come from someone else. It’s pretty simple really. Don’t get mad at me. What did I say that was not accurate? I wasn’t offended, Fifty, I understood and expected your response. You just have it wrong. Just because I am worried about someone who is trying really hard to do all the right things but is running into lots of brick walls, doesn’t mean that I want “someone else” to “solve” her problem. She’s trying to solve her own problem. I can’t give her enough hours by myself and she doesn’t expect that. She enjoys working for us and simply needs to find more work…NOT a handout. Why is this so difficult for you to understand? She’s not asking anyone to give her anything. I admire that and respect her for trying so hard. That doesn’t change one damn thing about her situation. I get it. Keep workin on it, Fifty. It’s riiiight there….almost got it….. OK. You feel for her. I do too, but you’re closer to her situation. I understand. But you made a comment to Chris that extended it to a larger context. It was that to which I was responding. We are all Americans. We are all human beings, and we are all, (or at least should be), empathetic. The complexity comes when that noble goal gets codified in law. When it does, we are all affected. That was my point. We all must be – but to what extent is the debate. And it is a valid debate. Ah, Now I understand your frame of reference, Fifty. “The complexity comes when that noble goal (empathy) gets codified in law. When it does, we are all affected. That was my point. We all must be – but to what extent is the debate.” Well, Fifty, here’s where it starts getting hard. If you agree that a moral, civilized society does need to provide common services for its people, we are all affected….funding schools we no longer have children attending; highways we no longer drive; fire departments we never use; Coast Guard we may never need….It is all needed and it all has to be funded. I’m ok with that. We pay taxes every year for many things we never directly benefit from. Yes, I want it to be cost-effective, not wasteful, and honest. But I won’t budge in my belief that all citizens in a civilized society must contribute for the good of the whole. At some point in one’s life, that might be food stamps, public schools, PBS, or social security, public libraries, or National Parks, or community health centers, or disability assistance…all courtesy of OPM. The debate is all about the extent. A great and good nation doesn’t just provide opportunity for a few; it offers opportunity for all. Not all will succeed, but they should all have an equal chance to try, and in doing so, America will be a better country. If you disagree, you’ll still be my buddy but you’ll still be wrong (-: Yours truly, Buttercup BCMime – Maybe it’s just me. I don’t know, but it sure seems like the left is always talking about OPM. When it comes down to specifics – like household help, even – well, that’s different. It’s not different! What goddam lefty ever gave their freakin’ yard guy a raise because they think he’s underpaid and can’t feed his family? We are the employers, Mime! Whether you pay household staff, or gardeners, or nurses, of shop at the grocery, or buy gasoline, it’s us. Hopefully, you have a 401K or it’s equivalent. It’s invested in stocks, right? Are you sure it’s not Walmart? Or Chase? Or pick your hated corporate evil? What if they were making less money? Well, you’d have less to pay your nurse. And so on. Now, are the major corporations paying stupid compensation to good old boys without a clue, or giving a shit for their shareholder’s interests? Ah, yup. That’s a huge problem. Maybe one of the worst problems, but I have no easy solution for that. And anyway, fixing that isn’t going to solve the problem at hand. If, as you’ve said, you’ve paid in enough for your nurse to make a living wage, and you can’t pay in any more,, where did the money go, and where is it going to come from? Don’t believe that all that fat-cat money is enough. It’s not even close. And, as we discussed, some of that fat-cat money is ours. Can, or should we do with less, given all the years of work and effort, and long hours, and risk? Unless you are willing to do that – to go backward from where you are today – your position is not defensible. It’s impossible. And it’s unfair, selfish, and all the things the left is constantly accusing the right of. What is that called again? Hypo..? My, my, Fifty, sure glad to know I’m still your buddy. Was getting a little confused there. Hate to burst your bubble, but this is one lefty who does pay help more. (Check that one off your list, please.) I reward them for doing a good job, being responsible, and handling a difficult tasks. I also help them occasionally with advances for special needs, and they have never abused this privilege. I want quality people who will stay with us and figure that if I pay them well and treat them well, they will do a good job for us. This is how we operated our small business and it is how we operate our personal lives. It’s worked well for us thus far. It is up to them to supplement their income as necessary by working other jobs to make a decent living. I know paying people well is important, but so is letting them know they are appreciated and valued. Your statement about “going backward from where you are today”… I’m not certain what you mean by this. Do you mean am I willing to do with less in order to help other people have more? Yes, but doing so also helps me and thus is mutually beneficial. This means I get the help I need but have less money for other desires and needs. It’s a matter of priorities. We’ve had second homes and larger homes. Now we are at a place in life where we are very careful and live simply in the smallest home we’ve ever had. This is not so much a sacrifice as it is responsible management of our financial and personal resources. I think you can check that criticism off your list too. Most of my criticism with the “right” is from a social values standpoint, but since one cannot honestly support social values without being willing to fund them, that necessarily means I take issue with many of the fiscal priorities of Republicans – certainly, not all. That’s a whole ‘nuther subject, so I’ll leave it at that. If this doesn’t satisfy your questions or concerns, let’s leave it. We’ve spent enough time trying to communicate on the subject and I’ve exhausted my ability to explain my position. As ever, Buttercup. And I still think highly of you, BTW. Hells bells, Bubba and I are old pals. Please remember, its just a political discussion. And I know you do… Yup I can vouch for the veracity of ole fitty. We are online buds that are overdue for a (good) beer summit in real life sometime. Most likely because I think fitty is really a liberal sheep hiding in (conservative) wolf’s clothing. 😉 But seriously mime, I respect fitty because he is an intelligent thinking man that makes good rational points (whether I agree or disagree with them) and you really can’t pigeonhole him as a lockstep “conservative” or any other political label. There is quite a lot I disagree with him on (i.e. economic orthodoxy) and surprisingly a substantial amount we agree on (i.e. social mores). And the debates are always lively and even tinged with levity most times. On a side note, who woulda thunk fitty’s cosmic twin namesake has successfully reinvented himself and transformed from the raging anti-establishment rapper outsider to successful mainstream business entrepreneur and erudite renaissance man? Fifty Cent came to my mind when I first encountered his avatar name way back when even though I know it’s really a geeky engineering radio/cable impedance reference. And I am an engineer by training.  http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/10/fashion/50-cent-renaissance-man-southpaw.html?hpw&rref=movies&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well The real issue with a minimum income, in my understanding, is not a political one but an economic one. Ultimately, things cost money as a means of rationing them. There are a finite number of turkeys for sale every Christmas. We cannot all have as many as we like. Someone, usually a poorer person, ends up going without. We could increase turkey production but since there is only a limited amount of birdseed in the world, that would mean we would have fewer chickens, and then someone – probably again a poorer person – would go without. Things that do not need to be rationed, like air or seawater or long walks in the countryside, generally do not cost money. Right now in some parts of America there is a glut of unsold goods on the market and so if we simply give more people money then they can buy those things and the economy will prosper. However, in other places (for example the housing market in San Francisco) there is a paucity of goods, meaning that prices will rise until demand shrinks. In other words, no matter how much money the poor have, they will never be able to afford those goods: their price is pegged at “whatever poor people cannot afford.” Poverty, however, is not about money. It’s about deprivation of those things which we use money to buy. If a good – housing, for example, or education for one’s children which gives them a good start in life – is too scarce, then it will never be affordable and thus those without money will remain in poverty. To return to the point, therefore: I agree with Chris when he says that the belief that one can lift poor people out of poverty by inflicting hardships upon them is as sensible as a belief in the tooth fairy. However, I’m not sure that the belief in a minimum income will help either. Unless supply is extremely elastic, all it will do is raise the price of goods within the market and leave the poor in deprivation. I want to return what EJ brought up. Certainly a minimum income wouldn’t go as far as getting you an apartment in San Francisco-but the elasticity applies to “people” and not the goods. The minimum income would afford the individual the beginning of an ability to leave, to choose to be where you are at the bottom. And further, to the author’s point-the point of the ‘lesser’ regulation wasn’t just intended regarding avoiding meddling from Washington, but also locally, as he has addressed how many of the same people who decry federal regulation cast a blind eye when it comes to rent control, or local business regulations which protect the status quo more than allow for opportunity (eg food trucks). You can pay our elected officials to write laws and stop those people from spending our money on cheetos, or we can afford opportunity to people and let them make what they will out of it. Crogged makes an important point regarding government growth. While we tend to focus here on issues federal, there was a link here in the last week or so, and apologies for not crediting the poster, that showed federal employment had not grown appreciably in many years. On the other hand, state and municipal rolls have surged over the same period. I think, for example, were one starting a small business in say, New York City, the Feds would likely be the least of your worries. Fifty, I’d like to expand on your thought about government employment levels (new subject – yea!). Employment declines at the federal level aren’t always accompanied by a reduction in service requirements. States and local counties find themselves inheriting some of these responsibilities along with increased staffing needs – and, more cost. It is a vicious cycle. Local government complains with legitimacy that the state is giving them more responsibility with less funding and expanded mandates, requiring more staffing and more local revenue to compensate for state reductions. Those who advocate for “states rights” have interesting challenges ahead with the assumption of greater responsibilities. We are seeing that shift in the increased state and local employment levels cited in the study. Will a shift from federal to state/local control actually reduce taxes or simply “shift” them? Will that necessarily be an improvement in efficiency and cost control? How will equity be impacted for states and counties which lack an affluent tax base? Public education is a good example. When the state of TX cut public education by over five billion dollars three years ago, local districts experiencing population growth and the associated challenges (transportation, staffing, curriculum, etc), struggled to find adequate revenue to meet these expanded needs. Wealthier districts which had/have greater capacity for making up the difference simply increased property taxes. Poorer counties lacked this ability. The state restored about three billion of that cut this year but student growth has continued as well, undercutting the benefit of the partial restoration. Meanwhile, Texas has been sued by a majority of its county school systems for failure to properly fund education. That lawsuit is pending. Until technology or bureaucratic changes (such as Lifer has suggested in his book), radically transfer services to fewer people and through a “different” delivery system, someone – a real person – is going to be needed to serve the public. The study noted that even as local and state employment is increasing greatly and federal government employment is declining significantly, overall, total government employment is declining. Time will tell if this is a good thing. More call centers in India? How will America deal with disasters? Who will respond? Is the only area of government that is going to be allowed to increase our military? Who will make these decisions? So many points in this thread. Defining the opposition, jobs that are not paid as well as they should, problems with minimum income, and the fairness of using OPM. Sticking with just one, how about OPM. I think this gets to the root of the inequality discussion. Fifty talked about this but didn’t mention fairness until talking about redistribution or OPM. I understand that in the 60s the pay difference between the bottom and the top was 40X. Now it is ~230X. Which was fair? Is one ratio unfair? Was the former unfair to the hard working CEO? Whose money is it before the decision, the choice, give a 50 cent raise to the bottom or give another 500,000 to the top tier of management? It seems that the bottom tier, usually where the productive work occurs has as much claim on that dollar as the middle or top management. Or depending on the product maybe it would be fair to cut the price to the customer? It ALL seems very arbitrary. But if we can’t control the income growth of the upper class or tax them, nor institute a minimum wage, what is left? Tax the poor? Mime – I pretty much agree with what you say, buttake some issue with your statement, “the federal government is declining significantly”. I think the figure of merit is the federal government’s share of GDP, rather than total number of employees. That has remained pretty flat. They outsource too, and for often good reasons. Unarmed – ” Fairness” is mostly leaving OPM alone, if you ask me. We are spending a higher percentage of GDP on social welfare than ever before. The excersize is not to tax the poor, but to foster an environment in which they can be independent. Limiting incomes by fiat, or taxing the crap out of this group or that,isn’t going to do that. The phrase “other people’s money” is one which is inherently designed to steer the conversation, much like calling bigotry “religious freedom” or abortion “women’s reproductive health” does. (Disclaimer: I indulge in the use of that last one on occasion.) Such phrases are unworthy of intelligent, honest people and we should desist from using them. As a white collar professional living in a European nation which taxes people quite substantially, that isn’t other people’s money. It is very much my money. I pay vastly more than I receive back, and I’m perfectly happy with that. My fellow citizens need it more than I do. It should not be charity. Charity implies that giving that money is a good deed on my part. It’s not. It’s my responsibility. If you don’t give to charity then nothing happens. If you dodge your responsibilities then you should face sanctions, which is what happens if you don’t pay your taxes. It should not be my choice what it gets spent on. I am very competent at my job, but do not profess to have extensive training or experience outside of it. I don’t know how to run a modern post-industrial state. You know who does? Professional bureaucrats. I’m happy for some of my tax money to pay their salaries if they can then target the rest of my tax money more efficiently. If they tried to do my job they’d probably get it wrong; it would be dishonest of me to assume that if I tried to do their job I’d do any better. It should not be restricted to a subset of my fellow citizens who more closely resemble me. Due to the way we tend to live amongst people like ourselves, and especially people who are economically like ourselves, this would have the effect of keeping my money amongst similarly wealthy people and preventing it from going where it needs to. I live in a rich city. I want my money to be spent on a poor city instead. I might never go there, but those people are my fellow citizens and it is my duty to help them. Finally, it is not invalidated because some percentage of it is wasted or misspent. Any system includes a certain percentage of waste. Some have very high levels. This doesn’t invalidate the amount which isn’t waste. A certain percentage of people receiving my tax money are going to be grifters, addicts or cheats, but I accept that percentage of loss as an inherent cost in the system. After all, a filament lightbulb is only about 3% efficient but that doesn’t mean we would rather sit in the dark than use one. If you want to discuss taxes and income redistribution, please don’t use the phrase “other people’s money.” If you like, use the phrase “EJ’s money” instead. Or just say “tax money.” EJ, What an incredibly thoughtful and accurate explanation of the issue of individual responsibility. America does have a moral obligation to all of its people. That doesn’t mean irresponsible management but it does require more equity than our current income divide demonstrates. When the U.S. spends over 50% of our nation’s entire budget on defense, that pressures revenue for all other needs and that’s where things start to get ugly. Continuing to place blame for America’s fiscal problems on the back of social programs for the poor and elderly is not solving the problem. Fundamental, structural changes are necessary to enable more people to participate in the workplace. The constant criticism from conservatives on redistribution is a tired refrain that is not doing anything positive and continues to divide our nation. Thank you for a beautiful response on the issue of individual responsibility. We are in exact agreement in every respect. EJ – With all due respect, from to to bottom, that entire post was one of the biggest steaming heaps of unadulterated horseshit I’ve had the pleasure to read in some time. OPM is not a term of obfuscation. It is a term designed to remind that production belongs first to the producer. We agree to fund communal services, and pursue collective goals through taxation, (the contribution of some fraction of that production), that fraction determined by mutual consent through the democratic process. The sniveling notion that “my money”, that which I produced, is actually “your money” first, is the antithesis of the concept of private property – a primary and fundamental tenet of Western civilization. Lose sight of that fact, forget the collective does not own inherently the production of the individual members, and the results will be paid for with “everybody’s money”. It’s been attempted before, but a review of history is beyond the scope of this post, don’t ya know… Fifty, you are always articulate and clear in your positions. EJ’s response to your point about OPM was not presented in a confrontational manner; rather, it simply offered another point of view – one which I share and felt he handled quite well. Though I disagree with you, I understand where you’re coming from. I think there is a profound difference between presenting and attacking alternative viewpoints. Occasionally, I am guilty of being too forceful on issues I care deeply about. When I reflect upon the missed opportunity to engage civilly with another person with different opinions, I feel badly and it is a missed opportunity. We are all here to share and learn. I’m going to work harder at being a more thoughtful respondent. If/when I fail, let me know. Mime – The opening sentence ended with. “:..I’ve had the pleasure to read in some time.” I was being somewhat ironic, and at the same time forceful. There was nothing confrontational about it, other than a principled counterargument. OK? And to answer your question, no I don’t believe the Cons would ever choose to run with this. At the end of the day, I think the modern republican party is fundamentally the party of the corportocracy. They dress it up in religious talk, or “liberty!!” Talk. But i think that strategy is only because they need the votes, and they know that the religious right will go along as long as they pay lip service to Jesus. So you have situations where climate change denial has become a hugely partisan issue, and it really shouldn’t be. Climate change denial benefits Big Oil and the Koch Bros. But they can’t tell “good Christian folk” to deny climate change because it will negatively impact their bottom lines and their oil profits. So they dress it up in ways that appeal to this base. “God would never let that happen” they say. Or “man is far too insignificant to harm God’s creation” etc etc. And you pay your politicians to say this stuff. And you get fox news to say this stuff. And the KOCH Bros pump billions into the system to get this idea our there. And then bam, next thing you know, this has become an issue that the religious right CAN get behind and support. That’s just one example. If the Republicans REALLY cared about God they wold follow the teachings of Jesus. Jesus would have fully supported Obamacare. Jesus would vote for a higher minimum wage. Jesus wpuld stop giving tax breaks for the rich. Jesus would broaden thw social security net, not cut it to the bone. So I see the GOP’s religious rhetoric as mostly superficial. To that end, since their interests lie much more with the corportocracy then it does with anything resembling the actual teachings of Jesus, I don’t see how they could/would ever do anything but fight this tooth and nail. McDonald’s and wal mart etc HAVE been having their profits subsidized by paying their employees poverty wages, with the taxpayer picking up the remaining tab (and of course it’s the welfare recipients who get all the scorn and vitriol). And it stands to reason that they’re going to fight tooth and nail to keep those subsidies in place. Wow, RobA. Does Jesus talk to you? Listen bud, (and I mean that), tone down the wild rhetoric. It doesn’t do a thing for your case. (“Jesus would vote for a higher minimum wage.”. Good grief.) Neither party can say that it is of Jesus’ Kingdom. They both work, almost perfectly in sync, for the other guy, Lucifer, in that they contain about half of WWJD. That’s why we seem to get about half of the argument from this page. Love without obedience. On the other side there’s not much love, but there’s an abundance of punishment. Together they combine to ensure that this nation cannot be governed righteously. On Righteous Schmietous. Correctly and constitutionally is the goal, and you’ll not find it in any Iron Age tome. “Oh Righteous…”. Goddam autocorrect! 😉 Actually, Rob may be on to something. Jesus, my accountant, is generally conservative in nature, but he does support Obamacare. As an accountant, though, he does enjoy tax cuts and all sorts of tax mumbo-jumbo since that would be the key to his livelihood. We’ve not really talked about the social safety net or a higher minimum wage. I guess my point is that Jesus, like most of us, is difficult to pigeon hole neatly into one side or the other on all of these issues. He does tend to be pretty financially savvy, so I guess I would encourage all to follow the teachings of Jesus. Actually, if we could get back on the topic of being stoned, I’d recommend this understanding of Bob Dylan when he sings: “Everybody must get stoned.” Both of you guys make me smile! Thanks! I’m am atheist, so I say “Jesus” rhetorically. I’m quite familiar with his teachings though, having grown up in a very devout Pentecostal household. No, Jesus did not specifically say these things. But we can logically infer what his opinion would be based on his other teachings. When Jesus saw rich men putting huge sums of money at the temple, and then saw an old woman give two small coins, he said that the woman had given more because SHE had given all she had. SHE would be the one who pleased the Lord the most. When Jesus walked into the temple and saw that commerce and business was going on, he lost his sh!t. He grabbed a whip and drove them out of the temple, asking how dare they defile the Lord’s house with something as petty as commerce. Some select teachings of Jesus: For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’ “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets. “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. … Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” I could go on. Now, since Jesus didn’t say anything about a minimum wage (obviously ) let’s just take a wild guess at how he would feel about one. Isn’t ironic that those who purport to hew closest to Jesus teachings actually are those who would despise him. Read those quotes and tell me Jesus wpuld be anythibg other then a “lazy welfare queen” if he were around today. I seriously doubt that Jesus would have been a “lazy welfare queen”; rather, he would have been an “in your face redistributionist” in a dress (-: A friend posted this interesting question on his FB page. I hope the link opens. If not, copy & paste in your browser and tell me the answer. Jesus was more of a socialist then ol Bernie Sanders. Jesus despised the rich. It doesn’t take any special insight to see how he would feel about the vast majority of republican policies today. Which is fine (he wasn’t really the Son of God, after all, just a dude with some progressive ideas, ifbhe existed at all). But it’s interesting that those who claim to work in his name wpuld be literally at complete odds with almost everything Jesus has actually said. It’s a Bible throw down! Rant on my brother, if the Spirit so moves you. objv says: Mime, according to the Bible, Adam, Eve and their early descendants lived hundreds of years. By the time that Cain got around to killing Able, there may have been enough people alive to form towns or cities. Populations can grow quickly. Interestingly, we are all more interrelated than we think. The good news is that you and I are descended from Charlemagne. We all are if we have any European ancestry. http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/05/07/charlemagnes-dna-and-our-universal-royalty/ John of Gault, would you be in favor of a dual fazing out of many tax benefits and credits for those who are at much higher income levels in addition to low wage earners? Lifer addresses this concept in his book and the combination approach might get more traction than focusing purely on those living on the edge of abject poverty. It might be perceived as a “smoke and mirrors” by low income folks. Of course, what I am suggesting is broad tax reform. Beautiful day, 72 and clear blue skies. Fresh snap beans out of the garden! Tex, I miss gardening. I loved our fresh snap bean salad, and my husband wouldn’t pick the corn until I had the pot of water at a boil…talk about fresh! There is something so honest about gardening…the planting prep, nurturing during growth, harvesting and eating. A side benefit is teaching your children the joys and responsibilities of gardening and all that is involved…composting, tilling, forming, planting, mulching, watering, killing those blankity- blank stink bugs and worms, and, finally, the harvest. Such a complete experience. Happy for ya, Tex! Where are you, Tex? Several posters here have proposed free birth control. So Colorado did it. http://www.vox.com/2014/7/7/5877505/colorado-contraceptives-teen-pregnancy-birth-control Results: reduction in both abortions and births by teenage girls. Long term, high-effective, reversible birth control reduces the number of unwanted pregnancies. It is a remarkable success story and far from shocking. Also not shocking, Colorado Republicans are refusing to fund the program next year, so it is ending. Yeah, the only thing worse than all those abortions are all those promiscuous teens! Ignore the effectiveness of the contraceptives…as EJ said, facts are facts unless your reality is based on abstract belief. How very sad. Well, if the good people of CO needed another reason to turn blue from purple, here it is. Really, I don’t know how Republicans justify their existence. Really! This action sure does illustrate the depth of their belief in the sanctity of life and clearly illustrates the disregard they have for women. Of course, there’s all that “sexual promiscuity” of these women…..Do they really believe their daughters and other single Republican women are not having sex? Why not hold the males accountable like they do women? Last time I checked, it still takes “two to tango”, and tango is gonna happen. Why should the female be the one who conservatives penalize? You are right, Bobo, the hypocrisy is staggering. Thanks Bobo. I saw that in the NY Times also. And not only did they improve/reduce the abortion and unwanted teen pregnancy rate, it also has long range economic benefits for us and the young people in that they aren’t locked into low paying, low skilled jobs, they get their education, better skills and jobs and pay, AND they are less likely to rely on public assistance. Win, win, win all around. So you know the wingnut Republicans are going to hate it and oppose it with everything they have. It’s like they have a deal with the Devil to never, ever do the right thing. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/06/science/colorados-push-against-teenage-pregnancies-is-a-startling-success.html?hpw&rref=health&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well The American Revolution happened in part because American’s didn’t like the color red and insert representative government and liberty stuff here Apparently Texas has approved social studies textbooks that barely acknowledge slavery and do not mention Jim Crow laws or the KKK. That’s definitely going to help. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/150-years-later-schools-are-still-a-battlefield-for-interpreting-civil-war/2015/07/05/e8fbd57e-2001-11e5-bf41-c23f5d3face1_story.html tuttabellamia says: I have no kids, but this morning I gave the gift of a Kindle book about the Holocaust to the 11 year-old daughter of a coworker. Her mother is trying to tear her away from You Tube videos. I took my responsibility VERY seriously and screened the book to make sure she would read something “fair and balanced,” since she is young and impressionable. I was especially careful, because this is someone’s else’s kid, and that brings with it an even greater responsibility, which is something I would hope education officials would also keep in mind and take to heart. This is about the child, not about us. Absent more “tuttas”, the vast majority of children (and parents) depend upon professional educators who are charged with the responsibility to provide textbooks that are “fair and balanced”. As pointed out, in TX, not only is that responsibility been abused but the individual who was appointed to chair the TX SBE home schools. In TX, there is a lot of room for change for the better. The point is, better in what way and for whom? In addition to “fair and balanced,” it should also be “honest.” Sometimes we take so many pains to be “fair and balanced” that the truth gets lost. I do think it’s important to present opposing views to kids, even if those views are incorrect, but they should be presented as incorrect, or at the very least, they should be presented as controversial, so kids know there is a gray area, that not everything is black and white. That would have helped me when I was a kid. I was presented with a certain view, I assumed everyone agreed with that view, and was shocked when I came across people who held the exact opposite view. Honesty is key, Tutta. I totally agree. I also agree with offering differing viewpoints as long as factual history is part of what is presented and is not distorted. If creative thinking were taught as a basic component of the educational process, our young people would not grow up with limited views of history. Debate offered a wonderful opportunity in high school for students to look objectively at both sides of issues and argue both positions. Sadly, debate is a passing scene in today’s high school curricula, but the process can still be integrated into the classroom by teachers. How lucky are the students who have this opportunity! Tutt – If we know those views are incorrect then why waste time presenting that information. It serves only to confuse the topic. For instance we know the South seceded because they wanted to preserve the institution of slavery. Their documents support this view as well as their actions and words. To present a lie as an opposing view simply adds credibiltiy to that lie. Assuming you were taught the correct version of history, you should be shocked by those that are incapable of knowing the truth. There is a finite of time to teach children in the day. That time should not be wasted teaching “feel good” history for slavery apologists. Turtles, I was referring to simply letting kids know that there are people out there who think differently, even if they are wrong, so the kids are not shocked when they come across those people. What those people believe may not be the truth, but the fact is these people DO exist, and THAT is the truth. Tutta, I don’t believe in gloating over something like this. As far as who “won”, I believe America won. It will take time for people who feel differently to accept the changes and they should begin the process by following the law of the land. I do not support a view that holds that those who are “different” by reason of birth should be treated differently under the law or by social or religious standards – whether the issue is same sex marriage, racial, ethnic or gender differences. We should all be respectful without being dishonest or hurtful to others. Tutt – Lots of things are going to shock kids when get into the big world. The job of the education system is to teach subjects as accurately as possible. If kids are properly educated then they can confidently look those people in the eye call them a dum…..I mean understand why a person thinks the way they do. We have read many comments by people here that make outlandish claims about history and as educated people we are able to deal with it. If parents want to teach their kids about the benevolence of the CSA, creationism, science denial, and ugly racial stereotypes then they can do so on their own time. Mime makes a good point about the importance of debate. There’s a finite number of hours in the day, and it’s good to devote some of those hours to learning to defend your view. It’s good to be prepared in case your view is challenged when you go out into the real world. You may know the truth, but it’s important to be able to defend it. Dismissing someone as a dumb-ass doesn’t help your cause. It just closes minds even more. There is greater value to debate than learning how to defend one’s views. The chief benefit, I believe, is that debate teaches students to study issues more carefully and to observe the issue from both a pro and con vantage. In essence, it teaches one to think more broadly. Tutt 1mime wrote: Honesty is key, Tutta. I totally agree. I also agree with offering differing viewpoints as long as factual history is part of what is presented and is not distorted mime wrote that factual history be presented. You stated that incorrect information should be presented. Debate hinges on both sides using a logical consistency and factual accuracy. Valid points of any subject should be presented not points that are known to be incorrect. If someone knowingly makes false claims then I refuse to give that claim any validity nor will I support it being taught in public schools. “The quest for balance creates imbalance, because sometimes things are true.” In Europe the education system stresses critical thinking skills and evaluation of bias. Children are taught that even biased sources can be useful so long as you factor out the bias, but that no source is truly neutral and authoritative. Needless to say, these are useful adult skills. I assume that America does the same? Unfortunately this has the side effect that it leads to children applying that same questioning spirit to the religious beliefs that their parents teach them, which in turn makes traditional religious communities feel under threat and withdraw from the rest of society, to the severe detriment of their childrens’ development. As for balance, frankly I’m against it. The concept that balance is desirable leads one into a mindset in which you habitually look around you for a contradictory narrative to offset everything, and thus makes it difficult to teach people facts. For example, it is a fact that the Holocaust happened. We do not need anyone to present an alternative view in order to achieve “balance.” It is also a fact that humans evolved from the same common ancestor that the great apes evolved from. Society is not well served by giving equal weight to the opinions of those who find this fact unappealing. Any parent who insists upon teaching their child such a narrative is raising their child irresponsibly. IMHO, I believe that such views are taught so that far right wingers can justify their attempts to roll back civil rights legislation. After all if Jim Crow never occurred then why should minorities have laws that protect their rights. If we erase the historical context of the racial issues our nation suffers from then we do not need to address to issues but simply blame those that suffer its effects. Thank God I have no kids or grandkids being uneducated in the state of Texas. My wife and I do have to send our kids to school here and I do not want to have to send them to private school but we are strongly considering it since moving out of state is a NO GO for my wife. We live in a good school district now but we do monitor what our oldest is learning (others are too young to attend public school). Turtles, we faced much the same situation (for different reasons, but tough ones) and we chose to stay in our otherwise good school district and teach our kids the values we felt were most important – at home. We monitored what they were being taught, had conversations around the dinner table (what a passing scene) about their studies, and tried to help them develop inquiring minds, critical thinking skills, honesty and fairness. A tall order! Our hope was they would absorb enough from our home environment to influence their behavior and judgment around others in an educational or social setting. They have all turned out to be good people even though we have do have some disagreements politically. I would expect nothing less. We felt that placing them in a private school when their public school was a good one would deprive them of a greater life lesson – living and learning from a broad mix of people. Not all life’s lessons are academic. I abhor what Texas is doing to sanitize the social studies curriculum (not to mention science), but, that does present parents with a teaching opportunity that may pay more dividends than what you might lose from a more narrowly defined educational environment. It will require more effort on your parts but I think you will do a great job. Sadly, I do, Right On, and there’s not a whole lot that grandma can do except vote, and my vote seldom counts in TX except in my own mind and heart. IF I am asked something directly by my grandchildren, I always give an honest opinion, being sure that they understand that this is how I feel and what I understand. I respect the limitation of my role in their lives even as I have legitimate concerns about what they are being taught. I am not their parent. IF I had a child in school or even a grandchild in Texas schools I’d sue hell outta the school board. Until the blithering idiots are faced with getting hit in their pockets this ignorance is just going to continue. All my boys headed outside of Texas when it came time to educate their kids (except for the one that chose John Cooper in the Woodlands) because they saw this crap coming. Let us face facts, Texas education is a national joke. RoR – We send my oldest to tutoring afterschool for reading and math and my wife works daily with him and the younger two on additional lessons. I am fortunate in that she has a degree in Biology and a minor Chemistry so the science side is covered as well. But it is a lot of work. mime – I believe it is criminal what the state is doing to education here. The fact that people in this state allow because they think they are – stikkin it to the librals – makes it even harder to accept. The people of TX are voting for the people who are making these absurd changes, Turtles. All we can do is encourage more people to vote against this crap. But, so far, you see what we’ve got. You and your wife are doing great by your kids, but if you are having to tutor your child in two subjects, maybe your school isn’t really a good school. That’s something you can evaluate by assessing how your school performs as compared to other public schools. That performance criteria is available. Maybe the question is which public school district as opposed to public vs private. mime – We would still do the tutoring. Additional subject reenforcement is a good thing to us. Our son has good apptitude with math so the math tutor is there to encourage him to work on it more. His reading tutoring is a different matter. Unless a subject interests him then he will not put the effort in to understand the sugjec at hand. So the tutoring helps in coaching him. Our schools are highly rated. Clements High School which we are zoned too is one of the top rated HS in the nation and the elementary school he attends is very highly rated. My kids also go to a public elementary school (in HISD). It is fortunately an International Baccalaureate (IB) school which means it has some freedom to depart from the Texas SBOE curriculum and textbooks. It has been a wonderful environment for them so far. We’ll see what middle school holds for them. Sounds like Texas Schools are rich with chances for subversion. What one child with questioning mind could do in an American history or biology class. It’s human nature to question everything a person says after being told a lie. As Molly Ivins said: “I believe all Southern liberals come from the same starting point–race. Once you figure out they are lying to you about race, you start to question everything.” For all the Spocksters out there, Nimoy’s son is producing a Spockumentary with crowdfunding. Here’s a little blip about it for ya. http://digital.olivesoftware.com/Olive/ODE/HoustonChronicle/LandingPage/LandingPage.aspx?href=SEhDLzIwMTUvMDcvMDY.&pageno=MzY.&entity=QXIwMzYwMw..&view=ZW50aXR5 I’m going to try the Spock link again. http://www.seattlepi.com/entertainment/article/Leonard-Nimoy-s-son-makes-Spock-documentary-to-6364919.php Rick Perry’s hipster glasses must be starting to effect his values. Perfect fodder for a link roundup. http://www.kob.com/article/stories/S3843680.shtml?cat=500 I’ll make a bet here. I’m going to declare that everyone here will agree with me when I say that this type of asset seizure is the worst form of 4th Amendment violating BS, and it should have been up before SCOTUS decades ago and killed with a 9-0 opinion. Although these days, Scalia just might argue for it with a very cranky and obscure word filled dissent. Oh, I dunno. A lawful arrest could be interpreted as “due process”. And then there’s the ‘public good’/’general welfare’ argument. Best not to be too awfully absolutist about such things. See where I’m going with this? Oh, come on, Fifty! You can’t mean that. You are kidding us, right? What happened to “innocent until proven guilty”? Why should police (or anyone) be able to seize property until the accused is found guilty? (If it’s contraband, that’s another thing.) Isn’t the very definition of “due process” being given the opportunity to defend oneself against charges? No, this stinks. Absolutely. Surely, you jest…….. Mime – Please, please reread my comment. Why should any amendment be a sacred cow if all of them, ( with fanciful enough interpretation) can’t be? Sorry, Fifty, I just don’t get it. Wow, Fly! So, either way the accused are screwed. Their property is still seized, but: “Law enforcement agencies must store the items and either send them to the state Treasurer’s Office or auction them locally.” “Under the law, police cannot seize a suspect’s property unless they prove a crime occurred.” Duh, isn’t this how THE LAW is supposed to work?! Police who could previously take the items and auction them off and use the revenue to fund police equipment or training are HAMSTRUNG by a law that requires them to first prove a crime occurred!!! Just who is robbing whom? This is obscene. WaPo did a great expose on this a while back, highlighting some examples. One example wqs a guy driving across Texas with $5000 in his pocket…..to buy a car he found on ebay. He even had a printout of the eBay ad on his person and the cash he had was the exact amount the car was agreed too. Still, the cops took his money. Never even brought in to the station. Just “we have reason to suspect this is drug money, we’re gonna keep it, be on your way now”. Police departments relying on stealing property from citizens not convicted of crimes to fund themselves is so much potential for abuse I can’t believe this is even a th8ng. Kinda makes you wonder who the “bad guys” are…….. Creigh says: Signed into law by our Republican Governor, Susana Martinez on Apr. 10. I was in Texas at the time (Old Settler’s Music Festival!) and I missed it. Go Susana! Griffin says: Lincoln was interesting ideologically, he was pro-industry but he was also pro-labor to the point of some of his speeches coming across as quasi-socialist by today’s standards. I suppose he was a progressive conservative, to the “left” (if such terms could even be applied in the U.S. back then) of the Southern conservatives and the business conservatives in the GOP but more conservative then the liberals and radicals in the GOP at the time. A centrist in his own time, which is why everyone (except the Southern feudalists and so-called “libertarians”) tries to claim him as their own. It’s a long tradition really that’s older than Lincoln and remained pretty powerful in the GOP until the 80’s. Republicans with an urban, commercial, capitalist orientation which necessarily includes concern for a welfare state and worker protections. T. Roosevelt William Taft, yes Taft Margaret Chase Smith Jack Kemp There is no one left in that line currently in a position of power in the party. There are commentators like David Brooks and David Frum. And there are local political figures all over the country, or at least outside the South, in legislatures and city halls and whatnot. The nearest thing we have to a major official in that tradition is Chris Christie. Lifer, you left out Donald Trump. 🙂 Cheese, sorry I got nothing. Did pick first fresh cucumbers yesterday, good stuff. I love my garden. The simple minded are simply amused. So that’s my drunk uncle impression what’s next. Forgot the question mark. Who’s on first? Tex – Do you grow cheese or meat? Yum!!! Is that a euphemism? It wasn’t, but it’s pretty funny. I love my garden too but I think it’s killing me. But I won’t die hungry! 😉 As God as my witness, I’ll never be hungry again! Tut, tut, Tutta, don’t you realize that you are quoting from a racist, about to be banned book? Hmm, I’m hungry now. 🙂 From the perspective of technology and inequality . . . simplistic thoughts that come to mind: If you can’t beat them, join them. Join them, as in . . . We should provide education and training to bring people up to speed and make them able to compete for the fewer jobs available, instead of allowing themselves to become zombies glued to their phones. Encourage and teach them to become creators, not users. OR beat the Googles at their own game, as in . . . become less dependent on technology if at all possible, thus starving the beast. I think it’s possible for each of us as individuals to reduce our dependence on technology, if we choose to. I don’t like anything or anyone to have any type of hold on me. I like to be able to just walk away. There’s always an alternative, and it’s not always as bad as they make it out to be. I resent the smugness of the Google and other Silicon Valley types taking it for granted that they have us in the palm of their hands. They do have the right and freedom to act on their ambitions and push the envelope, but we also have the freedom to say no. Tutt, I for one can’t wait for driverless cars. I read an article recently that pointed out that 90% of all auto accidents are caused by driver error, and that insurance costs could drop by half for driverless cars. I do like to understand technology, and I think it’s possible to do that at a level that is satisfying, if you want to. Lots don’t, seemingly. I think your more interesting question is what does all this technology do to us as human beings. You mention providing education “to compete for the fewer jobs.” When there are more people than there are jobs, it won’t matter how much education people have, there will be unemployment. And this is a big deal. It is said that losing a job and being unemployed for an extended period of time is more psychologically traumatic than losing a loved one or sustaining a debilitating injury. This may turn out to be the fundamental economic challenge for the future, and I don’t see Google or the “free market” coming up with answers. It will be up to “We The People,” partially at least through our elected government, to come up with solutions. Jobs are going to be fairly scarce. Ironically, the one thing that would “kill jobs” (according to republicans ) would likely do the exact opposite. Acknowledging climate change as real and mostly man made, and thus, preventable would require a massive infrastructure change as we switch from a primarily fossil fuel based economy to a renewable energy one. I don’t get how republicans don’t see this for the massive jib creator that it would be. Can you imagine? An infrastructure shift of thi size would equal the one that society underwent with thw advent of the automobile. Back then we changed and resigned cities; we built highways connecting everywhere; we build suburbs etc. This took decades and created a massive amount of labor. A large scale shift to renewable energy would be just as big an undertaking, would also take decades, and would create probably millions of jobs. Those no-good Greeks! Spendthrift out of control, must a been a bunch of dang ol’ librals givin’ erbody erything they could ever want! See page numbered 183 in the attached (it’s not that long……..). Click to access 167_188.pdf Lots of brilliant thinking/scheming in the 80s S&L bailout. Taxpayers paid over $130B of the $160+B in bailout costs….For all its criticism, the bank bail out of 2008 (TARP) resulted in a net profit. (https://projects.propublica.org/bailout/) The Reagan Administration’s program was structured differently. (from your link, Crogged) ” Believing that the marketplace would provide its own discipline, the government used rapid deregulation and forbearance instead of taking steps to protect depositors. The government guarantee of insured deposits nonetheless exposed U.S. taxpayers to the risk of loss while the profits made possible by deregulation and forbearance would accrue to the owners and managers of the savings and loans. ” What is interesting to me, as a lowly taxpayer, is that major economic institutions – S & L and Banking – people who are educated and supposed to be smart business people, managed to screw up royally, costing taxpayers and creating massive market upheaval. And, these are the “smart” people? The ones who guide our economy? 1mime, the S&L owners didn’t screw up royally, they knew exactly what they were doing. See “Looting: The Economic Underworld of Bankruptcy For Profit,” by Akerlof and Romer (wonkish), or “The Best Way To Rob A Bank Is To Own One,” by Bill Black. Maybe we should all be more cynical. In Chris’s book, which I hope you are reading, he talks about regulation that is somehow more responsive and flexible. I’d like to see regulation that doesn’t set up perverse incentives, like the ones that made it more profitable to run S&Ls into the ground rather than running them responsibly. This is one reason why I’d like to see elimination of corporate taxes. They make corporations do suboptimal things they wouldn’t otherwise do. And since, as Mitt enlightened us, “Corporations are people my friend,” — or more accurately, corporations are property owned by people — we could just tax dividends and capital gains as ordinary income. That would simplify the tax code and probably raise more revenue in the bargain. Lifer, I listened to Gov. Perry’s speech. Under most circumstances, it’s not likely that I would have, but I did because you mentioned it. So you were like the first guy who ate a lobster, someone had to go first. Thanks. I noticed he mentioned an expanded EITC to replace the federal safety net. I was wondering what you and others would think of connecting the EITC program to the government as employer of last resort? Maybe allow states first shot at providing jobs before the federal government gets involved? This isn’t a universal minimum income and would require additional programs for some. But has a lot of the features and an additional work requirement that would please the more conservative. Sometimes it’s a lobster, sometimes it’s a slug. You never know how an experiment is gonna turn out. There are some problems with the EITC currently. First, it almost exclusively* applies to families with children. Second, you can only collect it if you are working. It is a lump sum delivered with your tax return. And finally, it tops out at just over $6,000 annually for people with three children. For the rare individual who qualifies without children it is capped at less than $500. In effect, the EITC is just a subsidy to low-wage employers. Think of it as $70bn a year the Federal government spends to keep workers chained to McD’s or WalMart. Marco Rubio is flirting with a version of the EITC that comes much closer to being a basic income. http://taxfoundation.org/blog/marco-rubio-proposes-replacement-earned-income-tax-credit The problem is that his proposal is expressly a subsidy for low-wage employers. Basically, it amounts to a public-private partnership to force the poor into menial low wage work in exchange for a small support. It is like a basic income in that its a consistent income stream, but it provides none of the freedom or flexibility that a basic income is supposed to provide. Lifer – I was thinking of it as an easier sell. And it sounded like Perry would put a considerable amount of cash into it. But, you are right. Even if you expanded it so it provided a “living” wage and tied it to government last resort “employment” it would still be a end of year credit which would be a hardship for most. Unarmed, how is anyone going to “sell” more gov’t giveaways…EITC or what have you? All those lazy people need to just get a job! (or two, or three…) mime – ” All those lazy people need to just get a job! (or two, or three…)” or become president of a Savings and Loan. Or, a member of Congress ! OT but want to send a big “high five” to our U.S. Womens’ Soccer team for their decisive win over Japan. Soccer is becoming a huge sport for women in the U.S., and you can thank Title Nine for the expansion of college womens’ soccer. A good law that has opened up opportunities for women in a great sport. Go USWNT! As a follow up to the World Cup win by U.S. women, it was reported today in the H.Chronicle that that bastion of honor and integrity, FIFA paid the championship of the Men’s World Cup $32 million, however, they pay the victors of the Women’s World Cup only $2 million. Now, lest one feels that this difference in pay is justified on the basis of viewership ( men vs women’s soccer), the final game (womens’) against Japan was the most watched soccer match in U.S. history, men or women. Just sayin’. Think maybe this pay differential might be due for a little correction? You Geaux, girls! “Interestingly, it was the freedom-loving conservative SC justices in the dissent.” My, my, interesting times at the SCOTUS! Law and order trump freedom! Trump?? IOW, for the dissenting conservative justices, it was more important for them to allow unfettered access to records than it was to acede to greater constraint vis a vis, specific orders. Does that explain my remark? I was making a joking reference to Donald Trump. Sorry. My love of puns often gets the best of me. Lifer, this statement says it all: ““People think the government is just not on the side of the white guy,” Orr said.” And, I loved the final quote by one of the sane members of the community: “I think those people are crazy,” she said. “I’m more worried about them taking over.” Indeed. Bring that gold home, I don’t care how many millions of dollars it cost to build a depository! It just ain’t safe in those NY banks…it’s ours, and we want it here, now! (stamps feet repeatedly) http://www.inquisitr.com/2225932/texas-blows-the-secessionist-dog-whistle-ahead-of-jade-helm-15-state-to-bring-gold-stockpile-home/ Petulant, absurd, weird. Texas. “Terry Wareham, head of the Bastrop County Tea Party, said she fears that the Obama administration might deliberately instigate violence between soldiers and Texans as a pretext for establishing martial law. “We’re not against the military. This community is very supportive of the military,” Wareham said. “But who’s the commander in chief of the military?” Somehow, these folks manage to go about their day, brush their teeth, put on pants, and I assume generally be a productive member of society. I’m not sure how some of these folks manage to keep their delusions at bay while going about their normal day. Here ya go, Homer. “There’s nothing new about nice, salt-of-the-Earth people who sincerely believe that certain other people are undeserving of empathy or respect or fair treatment. There’s nothing new about those beliefs being expressed and justified in religious terms, or put forward by ministers and theologians. Quite the opposite, that’s the normal situation. Throughout American history, most people have been pretty nice — even the bigots. America has seen nice slaveholders, nice segregationists, nice male chauvinists. And from the beginning, we have been a religious people, who could not have lived with ourselves if we couldn’t justify our bigoted beliefs in religious terms. So we did, and we do. It’s normal. Bigotry has a long history in the United States. And while that tradition includes haters, they’ve never been the majority. Today’s non-hateful bigots, with their sincere beliefs and their Biblical justifications, stand in a line that goes back to the beginnings of our nation. But the people in that line have consistently been wrong, and eventually even the people further up the line see it. http://weeklysift.com/2015/07/06/you-dont-have-to-hate-anybody-to-be-a-bigot/ Mime, has it occurred to you that the writer of the Daily Sift is a bigot? Intolerance toward religious groups is bigotry. When members of certain faiths feel they have to stand by their beliefs, there is precious little “empathy or respect” shown by some on the left. When it comes to the gay marriage issue, there needs to be tolerance on both sides. And, just how do you define “tolerance”, Ob? I have no problem with a minister refusing to marry a couple because of his or her religious beliefs. I have a big problem with a gov’t employee failing to follow a US Supreme Court decision. And, from what I have observed about the religious right’s “tolerance” and views towards gays – generally – it hasn’t been very Christian….at least as I understand Christianity. Everyone has a right to their own beliefs, and I respect that right even if I disagree, but when people make judgments of others in the name of religion and hurt other people in the process, that is wrong. Can you truly say that you think gay people have not been treated badly? As for The Daily Sift author – he calls out bigotry. Tell me why you think he is a bigot. That might be instructive. Just exactly what “tolerance” do gay people need to show to religious folks? It seems that gay folks tolerate heterosexual marriage just fine. I cannot recall many cases of gay folks stating that allowing heterosexuals to marry will ruin our great country. Gay folks do not seem to be firing or refusing to hire heterosexuals for jobs. It may be a liberal media conspiracy, but I cannot find a single news story of gay folks wanting to get a teacher removed because he or she was indoctrinating children with the heterosexual agenda. Of course, in the 1950s or 1960s, we probably should have been more tolerant of bigots too. I mean, sooner or later, White folks would have gotten around to removing hurdles to Black folks voting and eventually Virginia might have allowed inter-racial marriage, but those wacky activist liberals just would not leave well enough alone. I don’t think gay folks really care what bigots think, and if your church doesn’t want to marry gay folks, you are welcome to not let your freak flag fly, but your country clerk has to give a marriage license, and if your pharmacist/baker/florist/etc provides services to the public, then they get to provide services to the whole public without discrimination based on a few key factors. Ah, your response was such an improvement to Ob’s question than mine was, Homer. Thank you for that. As The Daily Sift pointed out (which I thought was done without rancor, and without bigotry, but then, guess I read the post from a different perspective…) – most bigots truly don’t see themselves that way for all the reasons cited in the post. I ran across this today on Yahoo website that speaks to the issue from the heart of a gay Christian. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/whitney-kay-bacon/so-gay-marriage-biblicall_b_7717502.html?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592 Mime wrote: “most bigots truly don’t see themselves that way.” From Mirriam-Webster: ” bigot: a person who strongly and unfairly dislikes other people, ideas, etc. : a bigoted person; especially : a person who hates or refuses to accept the members of a particular group (such as a racial or religious group).” Mime and Homer, the author of The Daily Sift conveniently forgets that intolerance toward religious groups is bigotry. Therefore, he is a bigot even though he doesn’t see himself that way. You’ve got to remember that religion is more important to many people than sexual orientation. Christians are not at liberty to rewrite the Bible. While the case for slavery is weak and many biblical passages indicate that enslaving people is wrong, both the Old and New Testaments strongly condemn any sex outside that of that between a man and a woman married to each other. In other words, Christians have to accept a straightforward interpretation of the Bible or do mental gymnastics and much re-interpretation in order to justify same-sex marriage. Ob, I fail to see how religious people/groups/churches are being treated as bigots in the Weekly Sift post. What is being acknowledged is their refusal to accept other peoples’ choices while expecting their own to be protected. If you perceive that as bigotry, so be it. Heterosexual marriages have not been legally disallowed (except for interracial marriage which fortunately was overturned decades ago), but, until the recent SCOTUS ruling, those seeking to marry as same sex partners were legally forbidden. What was the basis for the refusal of same sex marriage if not religious belief? The law is now changed but it doesn’t change any rights heterosexual couples have in order to expand the right to same sex couples. Where is the threat? No one is telling you to change your beliefs against same sex marriage, nor is anyone telling pastors of churches that oppose same sex marriage that they “must” perform this type of marriage ceremony, nor is anyone telling you to not believe the Bible, verbatim. What is being suggested is that gay people are more tolerant of your rights than you are of theirs. I’ll bet if a heterosexual couple wanted to get married in a Church that also performs marriage ceremonies for same sex couples, they would not be turned away. I can’t imagine any same sex couples seeking or wanting any minister to marry them who didn’t want to do, but a government employee is a whole different situation. The “religious exception” accorded to civil servants by the TX Governor and AG will be tested in court as it should be. Given the Hobby Lobby decision, who knows what the outcome will be? Homer, government employees should have to conduct marriages for same-sex couples. That is the law of the land now. However, remember tthor’s example? If you were Jewish should you be compelled to bake a cake for a white supremacist party with blood red icing and a big ol’ swastika in the middle and lettering saying “Death to Jews”? This isn’t about small businesses denying all service to gays and lesbians. It is about providing a specific product or products with a message that the owner of the business may not agree with due to religious convictions. Obj…TT’s example was thoroughly discussed, and almost the identical situation actually was in the legal arguments for the case. If Nazi’s or White supremacists were protected groups (which they aren’t), the baker would be required to make a cake, but would not generally be required to write the offensive words or decorate the cake in an offensive manner (free speech and all that). So, let’s take your point, ” To your point, requiring the baker to provide a “multi-tiered cake with white frosting and floral accents” would be OK, but requiring the message, “Happy gay marriage Bob and Steve” on the cake would not be so absolute. Oddly, that is almost exactly where the courts have come down on this issue, and I have a hunch most gay folks would be fine with that. It is interesting that you point “both the Old and New Testaments strongly condemn any sex outside that of that between a man and a woman married to each other.”, and I appreciate the inclusion of “married to each other”. Oddly, we rarely see this need to protect religious freedom when we are dealing with divorced people or unmarried people who have the audacity to have sex with other unmarried people. A few years ago, there was an issue of a hotel not renting a room to two gay men, but the hotel was not checking the marital status of the heterosexual couples checking into the hotel. Funny how the line seems to more often get drawn at homosexual activity rather than heterosexual fornication. Go figure. As for the interpretation of the Bible, good luck to those folks living in 2015 trying to abide by a literal interpretation of the Bible. If they want to do that, more power to them. However, they still have to live by 2015 laws. Alternatively, they can start a private club (or even a church) that allows them to only provide service to those who also belong to that club (or church). I still come back to not understanding what you mean by tolerance towards religious groups. Nominal “Christians” comprise something like 75% of the US, hold the vast majority of wealth and power in the US, and are overwhelmingly represented in government at city, state, and Federal levels. It certainly seems like religious folks are tolerated all over the place. If tolerance means, “letting your religious beliefs limit someone else’s fundamental rights to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness”, I’m not sure we are going to have the same definition of tolerance. Speaking personally, I think the principal way of showing “tolerance” for opposition to gay marriage that’s based on religious grounds is to show some respect to people who have that view. That’s not the same as allowing them to discriminate, but simply to show some good manners and not gloat over the Court victory. I am totally in favor of same-sex marriage, but I see no reason to gleefully boast to OV that her side lost while my side won (not that HT or Mime is doing that, but I’ve seen a lot of evidence of that online since the ruling). She is entitled to her opinion, to feel whatever discomfort she feels about gay marriage. To accuse her of being a bigot because she doesn’t agree with me would be bigoted of me. There may be some older court clerks who’ve been at their job for over 40 years, who might be extremely uncomfortable with processing a same-sex marriage, who if they refused would have trouble finding a new job. I think there might be a way of accommodating them, by maybe assigning the task of processing same-sex marriage licenses to someone else in the office who has no qualms about it. Just a thought. I know it would probably open up a can of worms and create a precedent. Even Andrew Sullivan recommended giving people time to get used to the idea of same-sex marriage. These are Andrew Sullivan’s words from a New York Times interview about the Court’s decision legalizing same-sex marriage: “I think the main issue now will be protection of religious liberty. Many of us have no problem allowing religious institutions to run their own organizations as they see fit, as long as they are sincere and in good faith. I don’t think they have anything to fear. What we need to express at this point is magnanimity. We’ve got to let people who genuinely find [same-sex marriage] disconcerting the space and time to deal with it. That’s what I would caution and urge.” I don’t generally disagree with Sullivan on this issue. Gloating is not likely to win converts. Of course, two wrongs don’t make a right, but in a remarkable dose of tone deaf meanness in February, Texas lawmakers joined conservative leaders at the Capitol for a controversial slice of symbolic wedding cake yesterday, in a 10th anniversary celebration of a constitutional amendment that defined Texas marriages as “the union of one man and one woman.” http://www.chron.com/news/politics/texas/article/State-leaders-celebrate-ten-years-without-6101014.php “Hey, we are going to celebrate you not being able to get married by having some wedding cake”. With regard to whether or not someone is a bigot, I’m pretty sure we won’t find a clear definition (outside of Webster’s) for our real world. “I don’t think Blacks people should be allowed to marry White people” = Bigot? Probably “I don’t think two men should be able to get married” = Bigot? Probably also. Homer, Christians may be in the majority, but that does not mean they can’t face discrimination. The CEO and co-founder of Mozilla was forced to step down after it was found that he once donated $1000 to support prop. 8 in California. Does a $1000 and support for traditional marriage really disqualify someone for a job? Give me a break. http://money.cnn.com/2014/04/03/technology/mozilla-ceo/index.html In another instance, a man interviewing for a job at GoDaddy as a software engineer saw this statement unintentionally attached to his rejection email: “about keith he’s great for the job in skills but he looks worse for wear do we really want an obeese (sic)christian? is that what our new image requires of us?” Then there’s Ben Carson. SPLC put him on a anti-gay extremist list. They had to eventually remove his name after the outcry became too great, but you can go to their site and see plenty of Christian organizations which are labeled as hate groups merely because of their stance on gay marriage. How many examples do you want? The irony here is that the slain members of Emmanuel Church would be considered hateful, extremist and bigoted by the SPLC if they, like many African-Americans, had a view of traditional marriage. Mime, the author of the Daily Sift is a bigot because he labels socially conservative Christians as bigots. Since he is stereotyping and showing intolerance toward an entire group of religious people because of their biblical beliefs, he meets the dictionary definition of bigot himself. Many who are socially conservative like me are for government sanctioned gay marriage, but believe that a religious ceremony should be preformed in accordance with church doctrine. No one should be forced to participate or provide a service for a marriage ceremony they think is contrary to their religious beliefs. Believe me, many Christians are torn over this issue. I have two friends who have lesbian daughters and one friend with a gay son. The two friends who are Christians are no doubt conflicted. They want their children to be happy like any other parent. Tolerance should be a two way street. Surely, accommodation can be made where the rights of all can be respected. Obj…I don’t think I indicated that “christians” aren’t discriminated against. I might suggest that Christians overall are doing pretty OK in the grand scheme of discrimination things compared to gays, minorities, and women (who may or may not be Christian as well). Regarding your examples, the Mozilla dude is a bit of an idiot who worked for a very progressive high-tech company who took action that the company felt would ultimately hurt it. He wasn’t let go because he is a “christian”, he was let go because he did something that would embarrass the company. The godaddy issue is actually against the law, and godaddy would lose the case if proven the person wasn’t hired because he/she is Christian. I think that, above all, highlights the key difference, and that point absolutely kills your argument. It is illegal to discriminate against Christians. It is legal to discriminate against homosexuals (in huge parts of this country – including Texas). I believe the SPLC apologized to Carson for putting him on the list of extremists. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/02/12/southern-poverty-law-center-apologizes-to-ben-carson-takes-him-off-extremist/ I won’t/can’t defend the SPLC because I do not know anything about them other than that they are a bit nutty at times. However, I suggest the instances of “labeled as hate groups merely because of their stance on gay marriage” isn’t exactly accurate. In fact, it is kind of the opposite of accurate. Pick any group on their LGTB , and I’m pretty sure you are going to find something other than,” merely because of their stance on gay marriage” Let’s look at the innocuous Providence Road Baptist Church. Surely, upstanding Christians who just happen to have a pastor who suggests: “Build a great, big, large fence … put all the lesbians in there. … Do the same thing for the queers and the homosexuals, and have that fence electrified so they can’t get out … . [I]n a few years, they’ll die out.” Or maybe Berean Baptist Church, who’s pastor suggests, “Dads, the second you see your son dropping the limp wrist, you walk over there and crack that wrist. Man up. Give him a good punch.” Closer to home in Fort Worth at the Stedfast Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, their pastor suggested gays should be put to death, said, “I’m not going to let any of these dirty faggots inside my church.” and, “They are all pedophiles. They’re always trying to rape and hurt other people. They’re relentless. They are relentless. They are predators and given an opportunity to snatch one of your children, they would do it in a heartbeat.” So, I guess I’m interested in all those poor groups on the SPLC hate list “merely for supporting traditional marriage”, because I can’t seem to find any, and you would not be using inaccurate information to try to bolster your point. With that said, Carson should be on a list for being a bit of a loudmouth blowhard with really, supremely idiotic thoughts about things. “Marriage is between a man and a woman. It’s a well-established pillar of society and no group, be they gays, be they NAMBLA [North American Man/Boy Association, a group advocating pedophilia], be they people who believe in bestiality—it doesn’t matter what they are, they don’t get to change the definition.” Carson took some heat for bringing in the lovely NAMBLA, pedophilia, and bestiality arguments, so he issued this “apology”. “I think people have completely taken the wrong meaning out of what I was saying. First of all, I certainly believe gay people should have all the rights that anybody else has. What I was basically saying is that as far as marriage is concerned, that has traditionally been between a man and a woman, and nobody should be able to change that.” So, Carson believes gays should have all the rights that anyone else has, except, you know, for some of those rights that everyone else has. I’m not even going to provide comment on these…they speak for themselves. “Obamacare is really the worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery. And … in a way, it is slavery.” “I mean, [our government and institutions] are very much like Nazi Germany. … You know, you had a government using its tools to intimidate the population. We now live in a society where people are afraid to say what they really believe.” Obj….I’m just not sure where you are going with this: “Many who are socially conservative like me are for government sanctioned gay marriage, but believe that a religious ceremony should be preformed in accordance with church doctrine.” You are staring with a strawperson argument, and then subtly linking it to a different point. Regarding all this straw, I don’t think there is a major push to have churches perform these services, just as there aren’t a whole slew of Jews petitioning to get married in a pretty Catholic church. Then, your more subtle point: “No one should be forced to participate or provide a service for a marriage ceremony they think is contrary to their religious beliefs.” Then you do not get to be a vendor or business in the public marketplace if your “religious beliefs” mean that you cannot provide services to a small number of protected groups. If your religious beliefs mean that you cannot make a cake for a Hindu couple, you are violating US law. If your religious belief means you cannot rent a hotel room to Jews because they killed Christ, you are violating US law. If you open a business to provide service to the public, you get to provide service to the public. If you want to restrict your business to only certain groups, you can open a private club. Your last point is mighty, mighty confusing. Which rights of socially conservative Christians are not being respected? The “right” to be a bigot and to discriminate without someone calling you out on your bigotry and discrimination is not a real right. Homer, the ministers who said those hateful things surely should be condemned. I have no patience for that kind of language. However, they are not the norm. Believe me, I have attended many churches and have not heard words like those used. Here’s an example where the SPLC did cross the line merely because of African-American churches’ stance on homosexuality: “About a dozen African-American pastors joined anti-gay extremists on Tuesday in condemning the SPLC for using its “hate group” label to describe faith-based organizations that are against the LGBT lifestyle … “The SPLC has moved from monitoring actual hate groups like the KKK and neo-Nazis to slandering mainstream Christian organizations with that very same hate group label,” said Matt Barber of the Liberty Counsel. “By extension, the SPLC is smearing billions of Christians and Jews worldwide as haters simply because they embrace the traditional Judeo-Christian ethics.” http://www.bet.com/news/national/2012/01/18/black-pastors-protest-the-splc.html By tolerance being a two way street, I mean that the LGBT community needs to realize that Christians can not change what is written in the Bible. Christians need to realize that gay marriage is now the law of the land. Both sides need to respect each other’s personhood and right to their beliefs even though they disagree. A Christian baker should be able to refuse to bake a wedding cake as much as he could refuse to decorate a white supremacist cake. The baker/florist/photographer should still provide services to the LGBT community – just not products or services related to a wedding ceremony if that is against their beliefs. Far from being bigoted places, churches are usually warm and inviting. Anyone is welcome to enter. Like I’ve mentioned, homeless people often come in to my church during services and the church tries to provide for the needs of the community from a charitable fund and personal resources. Unfortunately, the Christians have gotten tangled up in social issues. The church’s main mission is to communicate God’s love and his gift of forgiveness which is offered to all. Obj…your issue is not with the Bible and gay marriage, your issue is with the laws of the United States. You write: “A Christian baker should be able to refuse to bake a wedding cake as much as he could refuse to decorate a white supremacist cake. The baker/florist/photographer should still provide services to the LGBT community – just not products or services related to a wedding ceremony if that is against their beliefs.” If you are the hiring manager for a company and your religious beliefs indicate that a woman should not work outside the home, it is still illegal for you to refuse to hire women. If you own a gas station and your religious beliefs are that women should not be allowed to drive cars, it is still against the law to not sell gas to women. If your own a restaurant and your religious beliefs suggest that Jews are evil, it would still be illegal to refuse to serve Jews. We addressed all this with a couple of big Civil Rights Acts, and eerily, the same tired, sad, and frankly scary arguments are coming out again. These deeply held religious beliefs were used in the past to justify discrimination against Black people and to forbid inter-racial marriage. Those people were wrong then and this is wrong now. At one time, the Supreme Courts in Pennsylvania, Alabama, Indiana, and Virginia argued religious reasons to ban inter-racial marriage: “natural law which forbids [racial intermarriage] and that social amalgamation which leads to a corruption of races, is as clearly divine as that which imparted to [the races] different natures.” Kentucky used that language to support residential segregation. In an argument that sounds remarkably like the argument you are making right now, Senator Harry Byrd (Democrat) used Genesis, Leviticus and Matthew on the senate floor when he argued against banning employment discrimination and whites-only lunch counters. Some of us think it was a good thing for the country to reject these deeply held religious beliefs as a basis for law. Obj….I’m not sure if you could help my argument any more than you already are. Each time you bring out examples that you think support your argument, your evidence is just a horrible reflection of what is good in society. You quote Matt Barber, but you leave off other quotes from Mr. Barber. Same-sex marriage is “tempting the wrath of God” So, America, here’s a refresher. Homosexuality 101: The central, defining feature of homosexuality is same-sex sodomy, a filthy practice – both from a moral and biological standpoint – that spreads disease, ruins lives and mocks both God and nature. In short, these sexually confused and spiritually lost souls, particularly males caught-up in this lifestyle, can only “consummate” a counterfeit “gay marriage” through the squalid, unnatural and feculent abuse of both the reproductive and digestive systems. Yuck. Is it any wonder why these “gay” jihadists want us to focus on the subjective specter of “gay rights” and ignore the objective reality of “gay” wrongs? This is why they terrorize anyone who fails to conform. “Fake ‘gay marriage’ is fake ‘consummated’ through squalid & feculent abuse of the reproductive & digestive systems” God’s “due penalty” is non-discriminating. America’s official endorsement of “gay marriage,” “gay pride,” homosexualist indoctrination in our schools, “transgender” bathroom bills and bans on counseling to help with unwanted same-sex attraction will not end well. Ask the Romans.” Gay people “purchase kids” and treat them “like having little pets or something” Tolerance is a “cancer that brings down societies” before linking same-sex marriages to Noah’s Ark and the Great Flood Yeah, this is the guy I want to support as a poor, persecuted Christian. Obj…your “Black pastors” in the above story are holding a big ol’ banner for “Americans for Truth about Homosexuality”. If you want to take a gander at what your fellow Christians are up to with regard to homosexuality (and if you have a fair amount of brain bleach), why don’t you wander over to their website so you can see how they are “merely supporting Biblical marriage” and undoubtedly respecting the rights of gay folks. You might want to google some of their names to see some of the choice “respectful” language they are using. Not sure why you feel the need to bring Black folks in to bolster your arguments. Black folks can be bigots just like White folks. Spinning your thread out a little further, Homer, here’s a link to illustrious KS Governor “keep cuting until the patient dies” Brownback and his Executive Order on Religious Freedom and Same Sex Marriage announced July 7, 2015. Note there isn’t ONE item in the order that is even under contention…no one requiring clergy, organization or religious institution to perform SS marriages. IOW, it’s ALL posturing. He’s the real deal alright! http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/07/07/1400155/-Sam-Brownback-R-KS-Signs-Sweeping-Anti-LGBT-Executive-Order?detail=email Obj…while far from a Biblical scholar, I have spent a fair amount of time in a Baptist church in small town Texas and Catholic churches in Dallas and Houston, and there is nothing in the Bible commanding thou shall not make a cake for a gay couple. I do understand that faith is a big part of people’s lives. My brother-in-law is a deacon in his church and my sister has taught Sunday school for just about 40 years. The folks making threats towards bakers/florists/etc. are bad people who do harm to the cause, but I’m not sure we would find anything like a balanced scale if we put threats and harm towards anti-gay folks on a scale with threats and harm to gay folks. The Black ministers in the SPLC story did not face “persecution” in any tangible sense, and I would venture to say any “hostility or ill-treatment” they felt by being put on a list on a website paled in comparison to their own words about gay folks. Google their names and “gay” and you will not find much Christian love and respect in their words about gay folks. At one point not too long ago, there were many restaurant owners who you could say that we, “will not find that the owners were hateful or seemingly intolerant people. All were trying to follow biblical teaching the way they understood it” as they refused to serve food to Black people or refused to let their White daughters date a Black man. To your last point, if making a cake for a gay couple causes you to, “just give up on religion or change long-standing church doctrine”, your grasp on your religion is so tenuous that it is meaningless. No one is asking them to change their religion. They are being asked to make a cake. The religion and doctrine they are using to support their position likely has more strongly worded prohibitions towards many, many things they are not refusing. The next time “Sweet Cakes” refuses to make a cake for the wedding of two divorced people will be the first time they refuse to make a cake for the wedding of two divorced people. Their fine cakes and pastries have been shared by two sexually active single people a few thousand times more often than by gay folks wanting to get married, yet they still provide those services. Again, as I said before, I’m not a Biblical scholar, but there is no Biblical prohibition regarding gay marriage. I believe it was the kind and tolerant folks at Sweet Cakes (but it may have been a different bakery) who said they would certainly make cakes for gay folks, but they just could not do a gay wedding cake. What is it about a wedding that tips them over the edge? Being gay and having gay sex is the problem – and the Biblical prohibition. Why would they sell their fine pastries and cakes with gay people having gay sex but draw the line at a gay wedding – which has no Biblical prohibition? Finally, and it has been said before, gay marriage does not affect straight religious people. No rights are being taken away from straight religious people. No one is making them get gay married. Stopping marriage actively affects gay people, it harms them and denies them equal rights. The two sides of that coin are not equal. Well, that was not, “finally”, but this will be. With respect to the laws of this great country, your sincerely held religious beliefs should not and cannot allow a government entity or business to discriminate against people based on race or sex. Thankfully, sexual orientation is going to be added to that list. Your religion does not allow you to break the law and limit the rights of other people. Homer, there’s a good deal of hateful language used by both groups involved. “Sweet Cakes by Melissa” owners received death threats not only directed toward themselves but also toward their children. This kind of invective has been commonly received by small business owners who felt that it was against their religious convictions to provide services to gay and lesbian weddings. If you look at any of the current cases of businesses that have refused to provide services, you will not find that the owners were hateful or seemingly intolerant people. All were trying to follow biblical teaching the way they understood it. The black ministers popped up among the first search results. I decided to go with their story because of the recent church shooting. Here you have a group of black men who have undoubtedly experienced discrimination because of their skin color and who now face persecution by the SPLC because of their religious beliefs. Homer, you may feel that religion does not make a whole lot of sense, but it is an integral part of many people’s lives. Their beliefs help them through many a crisis. One of my neighbors, a beautiful Native American woman, recently found out that she had stage III cancer. It doesn’t look good for her, but she is relying on her faith to get through it all. Faith has helped people get over addictions and changed many a life for the better. Here you are expecting people to just give up on religion or change long-standing church doctrine. That is about as easy to do as it is to change a person’s sexual orientation from homosexual to straight. 🙂 And, since we’re “linking” to disparate issues, here’s a thoughtful piece on that touchy subject of global warming, or, “why a centrist politically moderate solution won’t work”. http://theweek.com/articles/448189/vanity-centrists-doom-climate-disaster Another link to add — Back to the US Supreme Court: I’m particularly interested in anything relating to the fourth amendment, which pertains to one’s private space. Here’s an interesting ruling by the Court from last week pertaining to a person’s privacy when that person is a guest at a hotel: Click to access 13-1175_2qe4.pdf For Miss Mime: http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/city-of-los-angeles-v-patel/ Yes, thank goodness for reasonable constraint (and 5 votes on SCOTUS). As someone who spends too much time in a hotel, the ruling is interesting, but it is only tangentially related to the privacy of guests. The ruling was about the privacy of hotel owners being requested to turn over guest registries without a warrant/subpoena. Evidently, since we willingly give information to the hotel owner (e.g., name, address, picture ID, credit card information), there is no reasonable expectation of privacy for the guest. The ruling by the SC was in favor of the hotel owner not to be required to turn over a guest registry without the opportunity to challenge the request. Most hotel owners will readily turn over guest registries just to avoid the hassle of the challenge. The hope is that since they are no longer required to turn over the information without a warrant/subpoena, then maybe the police will stop asking for such information. This seems unlikely since it takes all of five seconds for the police to ask for the information, so they’ll ask for it, and if it is refused, then maybe the police will then go through the process of getting a warrant/subpoena. However, in general, in ruling in favor of privacy is a good thing. Interestingly, it was the freedom-loving conservative SC justices in the dissent. Leave a Reply to Houston-stay-at-Homer Cancel reply	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line518
__label__cc	0.706462	0.293538	Dual Degree Programs are those that allow students to share credits between two separate degree programs provided that the degrees are completed and conferred together. The programs described below have been formally approved to allow credits to be shared; the final award of shared credit is contingent upon completion of both programs. Students who wish to complete multiple degrees not listed below must complete the requirements of each degree as described elsewhere in this or other University of Connecticut catalogs. The program descriptions below primarily describe the ways the programs share credits and how the dual requirements differ from the requirements of each program. For more detailed information about each degree program’s requirements, please refer to the program descriptions on the Graduate Catalog Degree Programs website. Doctor of Dental Medicine (D.M.D.)/Biomedical Science (Ph.D.) The goal of the dual Doctor of Dental Medicine D.M.D./Biomedical Science Ph.D. program is to train the next generation of clinician-scientists, who become scholars, researchers and teachers in academia. The dual degree program allows students to integrate the curricula of the dental and graduate schools. The PhD degree program is taken in Biomedical Science in one of the following areas of concentration: Cell Analysis and Modeling, Cell Biology, Genetics and Developmental Biology, Immunology, Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Neuroscience, and Skeletal Biology and Regeneration. Requirements: The requirements for the D.M.D. degree for dual degree students conform to the D.M.D. degree requirements laid out by the School of Dental Medicine. The requirements in the Biomedical Science Ph.D. program for dual degree students conform to The Graduate School requirements. Specific course requirements for the Ph.D. in Biomedical Science are determined by the student’s advisory committee consistent with the minimum requirements of The Graduate School. 15 credits of preclinical coursework in the D.M.D. can also be applied toward the credit requirements for the Biomedical Science Ph.D. program. A student in the dual degree program must take MEDS 5310, Responsible Conduct in Research, unless the student’s advisory committee approves an equivalent course or training experience. The Ph.D. in Biomedical Science does not have a related area or foreign language requirement. Some students may be required to enroll in special courses to maintain their status at the School of Dental Medicine. Juris Doctor (J.D.)/Business Administration (M.B.A.) The dual Juris Doctor J.D./Business Administration M.B.A. degree allows highly motivated students to gain a competitive edge in law and business at an accelerated pace. The curriculum is designed for those whose career goals include domestic or international business, management, international finance or public service, as well as such specialized fields as tax accounting, investment management, corporate organization or the legal aspects of marketing. The School of Law offers day and evening courses at its campus in the West End of Hartford, while the School of Business offers day and evening M.B.A courses at its Graduate Business Learning Center in downtown Hartford, as well as evening courses at the Stamford and Waterbury regional campuses. Requirements: Students complete all requirements for the J.D. degree, including a Law School course in Legal Ethics and Responsibility, a clinic or field placement to satisfy the Law School’s practice based learning requirement, and an intensive, analytical paper to satisfy the Law School’s writing requirement. In addition, students must complete all of the required core courses for the M.B.A. The dual program allows up to 15 of the course credits taken as part of the J.D. to also count as elective credits for the M.B.A. In total, students must earn at least 74 credits from the Law School and 42 from the M.B.A. program at the School of Business. Business Administration (M.B.A.)/International Studies (M.A.) The dual Business Administration M.B.A./M.A. in International Studies program is offered in partnership with UConn’s Office of Global Affairs for students interested in management in multi-national organizations. The M.A. degree in International studies is available with concentrations in Latin American Studies, African Studies, and in European Studies. Global Affairs offers day and evening courses at its campus in Storrs while the School of Business offers day and evening M.B.A. courses at its Graduate Business Learning Center in downtown Hartford, as well as evening courses at the Stamford and Waterbury regional campuses. Requirements: This dual degree program consists of 72 credits of coursework distributed between Business Administration (42 credits) and International Studies (30 credits). Students must complete all requirements for the M.A. degree and must demonstrate proficiency sufficient for ordinary conversation and to carry on research in at least one language in addition to English. Students must also complete all of the required core courses for the M.B.A. The dual program allows up to 15 of the course credits taken as part of the M.A. to also count as elective credits for the M.B.A. Business Administration (M.B.A.)/Engineering (M.Eng.) The increased need for engineers with both technical and management background has led to a partnership between UConn’s School of Engineering and School of Business that will allow students to simultaneously earn a Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) and a Master of Engineering (M.Eng.) degree. Requirements: The standard M.Eng program is 30 credits and the standard M.B.A. program is 57 credits. Students in the dual M.B.A./M.Eng. program are exempt from 15 credits of electives in the M.B.A. curriculum, bringing the total number of credits to 72 (30 in M.Eng. and 42 for the M.B.A.). Students are required to complete all of the requirements for the M.Eng. degree. In addition, they are required to take a minimum of 42 credits in the M.B.A. program. These credits must include the core courses required for the M.B.A. program. The dual program allows up to 15 of the course credits taken as part of the M.Eng. to also count as elective credits for the M.B.A. Business Administration (M.B.A.)/Business Analytics and Project Management (M.S.) The dual Business Administration M.B.A./M.S. in Business Analytics and Project Management (BAPM) program is designed to provide BAPM students with a grounding in strategic business planning, cost analysis and control, investment planning, operations management, effective selection of products and marketing, and an understanding of industry and competitive analysis. The M.S. degree is offered at the School of Business in Hartford or Stamford. Dual degree students may take their M.B.A. courses at the M.B.A. programs offered in Hartford, Stamford, or Waterbury. Requirements: The dual M.B.A./M.S. in BAPM degree program requires 79 credits: a minimum of 42 credits in the M.B.A. program (including successful completion of all M.B.A. core courses) and 37 credits in the M.S. BAPM program. The dual program allows up to 15 of the course credits taken as part of the M.S. BAPM to also count as elective credits for the M.B.A. Separate applications must be filed for each of the two degree programs. Business Administration (M.B.A.)/Financial Risk Management (M.S.) The dual Business Administration M.B.A./M.S. in Financial Risk Management (FRM) program is designed to provide FRM students with a grounding in strategic business planning, cost analysis and control, investment planning, operations management, effective selection of products and marketing, and an understanding of industry and competitive analysis. Requirements: The dual M.B.A./M.S. FRM degree program requires 75-78 credits. Students must take the required 33-36 credits in the M.S. FRM program. In addition, they must complete a minimum of 42 credits for the M.B.A. program, including all of the required core courses for the M.B.A. The dual program allows up to 15 of the course credits taken as part of the M.S. FRM to also count as elective credits for the MBA. Business Administration (M.B.A.)/Human Resource Management (M.S.) The dual Business Administration M.B.A./M.S. Human Resource Management (HRM) program is designed to provide HRM students with a grounding in strategic business planning, cost analysis and control, investment planning, operations management, effective selection of products and marketing, and an understanding of industry and competitive analysis. The M.S. degree in Human Resource Management is offered at the School of Business in Hartford and online. Dual degree students may take their M.B.A. courses at the M.B.A. programs offered in Hartford, Stamford, or Waterbury. Requirements: The dual M.B.A./M.S. HRM degree program requires 75 credits. Students must take the required 33 credits in the M.S. HRM program. In addition, they must complete a minimum of 42 credits for the M.B.A. program, including all of the required core courses for the M.B.A. The dual program allows up to 15 of the course credits taken as part of the M.S. HRM to also count as elective credits for the M.B.A. Business Administration (M.B.A.)/Nursing (M.S.) The dual Business Administration M.B.A./M.S. in Nursing program is designed to prepare individuals for entrepreneurial and managerial careers in advanced practice nursing. The School of Nursing offers online courses as well as day and evening courses at its campus in Storrs. The School of Business offers day and evening M.B.A. courses at its Graduate Business Learning Center in downtown Hartford, as well as evening courses at the Stamford and Waterbury regional campuses. Requirements: Students in the dual degree M.B.A./M.S. in Nursing program are required to complete 44-48 credits (depending on the track) for the M.S. in Nursing and a minimum of 42 credits for the M.B.A. Students must complete all requirements for the M.S. degree. In addition, students must complete all of the required core courses for the M.B.A. The dual program allows up to 15 of the course credits taken as part of the M.S. to also count as elective credits for the M.B.A. Business Administration (M.B.A.)/Social Work (M.S.W.) The dual Business Administration M.B.A./Social Work M.S.W. program is designed to prepare individuals for managerial careers in social work in both the private and the public sectors. The School of Social Work offers day and evening courses at its campus in the Hartford, while the School of Business offers day and evening M.B.A. courses at its Graduate Business Learning Center in downtown Hartford, as well as evening courses at the Stamford and Waterbury regional campuses. Requirements: Students in the dual degree M.B.A./M.S.W. program must complete all of the requirements for the M.S.W. degree. In addition, they must complete all of the required core courses for the M.B.A. The dual program allows up to 15 of the course credits taken as part of the M.S.W. to also count as elective credits for the M.B.A. Students must take a minimum of 42 credits in the M.B.A. program. Business Administration (M.B.A.)/Pharmacy (Pharm.D.) The dual Pharmacy Pharm.D./Business Administration M.B.A. program is offered to highly motivated students who seek to combine pharmacy education with business managerial knowledge and skills. The program is designed to provide students with a grounding in strategic business planning, cost analysis and control, investment planning, health care systems and operation management, effective selection of products and marketing, and an understanding of industry and competitive analysis. The School of Pharmacy offers day and evening courses at its campus in Storrs, while the School of Business offers day and evening M.B.A. courses at its Graduate Business Learning Center in downtown Hartford, as well as evening courses at the Stamford and Waterbury regional campuses. Requirements: Dual degree Pharm.D./M.B.A. students complete the first two years of study in the School of Pharmacy. Students enroll in the M.B.A. program for the third year, and then return to the School of Pharmacy for the last two years of the Pharm.D. program, which consists of both pharmacy and business courses. Students in the dual degree program must complete all of the requirements for the Pharm.D. degree. In addition, they must complete all of the required core courses for the M.B.A. The dual program allows up to 15 of the course credits taken as part of the Pharm.D. to also count as elective credits for the M.B..A. Students must take a minimum of 42 credits in the M.B.A. program. Business Administration (M.B.A.)/Biomedical Science (Ph.D.) The combined Ph.D. in Biomedical Science/Business Administration M.B.A. program is designed to provide selected Ph.D. students with a thorough grounding in contemporary business by blending and balancing technical rigor, management theory, practical application and individualized concentrations. Requirements: Students in this dual degree program must complete all of the requirements for the Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences. In addition, they must complete the core courses required of the M.B.A. program. The M.B.A. program will accept 12 credits from the Ph.D. in Biomedical Science program as M.B.A. program electives. (Therefore, the dual degree students will be required to complete 45 credits out of the 57 credit M.B.A. program). The Ph.D. in Biomedical Science program will accept a varying number of credits from the M.B.A. program as electives. The number of credits will be determined by each student’s advisory committee and the Director of the Area of Concentration, but will not exceed 12 credits. Dual degree students must have received the equivalent of a “B” in each course that they wish to transfer between the Ph.D. in Biomedical Science program and the M.B.A. program. This exchange of credits is only available to dual degree students. The M.B.A. program will not accept credits from graduates of the Ph.D. in Biomedical Science program nor will the Ph.D. in Biomedical Science program accept credits from the School of Business for graduates of the M.B.A. program. The University of Connecticut’s Graduate School requires that the dual Ph.D. in Biomedical Science/M.B.A. program be completed within eight years. Doctor of Medicine (M.D.)/Business Administration (M.B.A) The dual Doctor of Medicine M.D./Business Administration M.B.A. program is designed to provide medical students with a grounding in strategic business planning, cost analysis and control, investment planning, health care systems and operation management, effective selection of products and marketing, and an understanding of industry and competitive analysis. These are requirements of physicians who manage large health care organizations or even small practices. Requirements: Students in the dual degree program must satisfy all of the requirements for the M.D. degree, as set by the School of Medicine. In addition, they are required to take a minimum of 42 credits in the M.B.A. program. These credits must include the core courses required for the M.B.A. program. The dual program allows up to 15 of the course credits taken as part of the M.D. to also count as elective credits for the M.B.A. Some students may be required to enroll in special courses to maintain their status at the School of Medicine. Doctor of Medicine (M.D.)/Clinical and Translational Research (M.S.) UConn Health offers a dual degree program leading to an M.D. and a Master of Science in Clinical and Translational Research. The M.S. degree program in Clinical and Translational Research is administered by the Connecticut Convergence Institute for Translation in Regenerative Engineering at the University of Connecticut. The program stresses clinical research methods and a research practicum to prepare students for doing independent research. The Dual degree program conforms to all UConn Graduate School requirements. Students enrolled in the UConn School of Medicine who apply to and are accepted to the dual program are eligible for a six-credit load reduction toward the M.S. in Clinical and Translational Research degree in recognition of coursework completed in the Stage 1 curriculum. Additional credits required for the M.S. in Clinical and Translational Research degree include nine credits of core course work, nine research practicum credits and at least six credits of elective course work approved by the M.S. in Clinical and Translational Research Executive Committee. Students may also take an independent study (CLTR 5099) in place of an elective. For most dual degree students, all credits required for the M.S. degree will be completed during their fourth year at UConn (after the first three years of medical school). The Scholarship and Discovery course capstone project required for the M.D. degree will be waived for students enrolled in the Dual M.D./M.S. in Clinical and Translational Research program. Instead, dual M.D./M.S. in Clinical and Translational Research students will complete their capstone projects as part of the M.S. curriculum. To fulfill the requirements of the capstone project (nine credits of research), students must submit a manuscript in journal format, a grant proposal, and also give an oral presentation followed by questions and evaluation by program faculty consistent with the format of a thesis defense. The M.S. program is a Plan B (non-thesis) program. Students are required to complete a final examination, which entails the oral defense of a grant application and a manuscript. Final examination materials (grant application and manuscript) must be submitted to the M.S. in Clinical and Translational Research Administrative Office at least three weeks prior to the student’s final exam. Core Courses: CLTR 5020, 5357, and 5359. Research Practicum: CLTR 5407. Elective Courses: Students will choose from a list of approved courses. Although not required, students are encouraged to enroll in CLTR 5360. In the subsequent semester, students have the option to enroll in a three-credit independent study to write a publishable manuscript with their academic mentor. Examples of approved electives are: CLTR 5360; MEDS 5308, 5310, 6447; PUBH 5404, 5405, 5409, 5436, 5475, 5501, and 5504. Students may request permission from the M.S. in Clinical and Translational Research Executive Committee to enroll in an elective that is not on the list of approved courses. Doctor of Medicine (M.D.)/Biomedical Science (Ph.D.) The Doctor of Medicine M.D./Biomedical Science Ph.D. program trains students to be physician-scientists who will become scholars, researchers and teachers in academia. The dual degree program allows students to integrate the curricula of the medical and graduate school. The Ph.D. degree program is taken in Biomedical Science in one of the following areas of concentration: Cell Analysis and Modeling, Cell Biology, Genetics and Developmental Biology, Immunology, Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Neuroscience, and Skeletal Biology and Regeneration. Requirements: The requirements for the M.D. degree for M.D./Ph.D. students are set by the School of Medicine. The requirements in the Biomedical Science Ph.D. program for dual degree students conform to The Graduate School requirements. Specific course requirements for the Ph.D. in Biomedical Science are determined by the student’s advisory committee consistent with the minimum requirements of The Graduate School. A student may list up to 15 credits of GRAD 6932 (Directed Studies for M.D./Ph.D. Students) on their Plan of Study. Public Health (M.P.H.)/Doctor of Dental Medicine (D.M.D.) The Department of Community Medicine and Health Care offers an interdisciplinary dual degree program leading to a Doctor of Dental Medicine (D.M.D.) and Master of Public Health (M.P.H.). Students admitted to the UConn School of Dental Medicine who complete requirements for the UConn Certificate on Social Determinants of Health and Disparities (SDH&D) receive a 12-credit load reduction and are required to complete an additional 36 public health (PUBH) credits consisting of six required courses (18 credits, listed below), three to five electives (9-15 credits), and a culminating project (three credit capstone or nine credit thesis) to qualify for the M.P.H. degree. Students must maintain a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 in required courses with no grade below a “B-.” Dual degrees with Public Health conform to all standards specified by the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH) an independent agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education to accredit public health schools and programs. Required M.P.H./D.M.D Courses: In addition to the requirements for completion of the D.M.D., students are required to take the following courses: PUBH 5403, 5404, 5405, 5406, 5407, and 5431. Public Health (M.P.H.)/Juris Doctor (J.D.) The Department of Community Medicine and Health Care offers an interdisciplinary dual degree program leading to a Juris Doctor (J.D.) and Master of Public Health (M.P.H.). Students admitted to the UConn School of Law, upon successfully completing coursework on topics of health law, ethics and/or social policy, receive a 12-credit load reduction and are required to complete an additional 36 public health (PUBH) credits consisting of eight required courses (24 credits, listed below), one to three electives (totaling three to nine credits), and a culminating project (three credit capstone or nine credit thesis) to qualify for the M.P.H. degree. Students must maintain a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 in required courses with no grade below a “B-.” Dual degrees with Public Health conform to all standards specified by the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH) an independent agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education to accredit public health schools and programs. Required M.P.H./J.D Courses: In addition to the requirements for completion of the J.D., students are required to take the following courses: PUBH 5403, 5404, 5405, 5406, 5407, 5408, 5409, and 5431. Public Health (M.P.H.)/Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) The Department of Community Medicine and Health Care offers an interdisciplinary dual degree program leading to a Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) and Master of Public Health (M.P.H.). Students admitted to the UConn School of Medicine who complete requirements for the UConn Certificate on Social Determinants of Health and Disparities (SDH&D) receive a 12-credit load reduction and are required to complete an additional 36 Public Health (PUBH) credits consisting of six required courses (18 credits, listed below), three to five electives (9-15 credits), and a culminating project (three credit capstone or nine credit thesis) to qualify for the M.P.H. degree. Students must maintain a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 in required courses with no grade below a “B-.” Dual degrees with Public Health conform to all standards specified by the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH) an independent agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education to accredit public health schools and programs. Required M.P.H./M.D. Courses: In addition to the requirements for completion of the M.D., students are required to take the following courses: PUBH 5403, 5404, 5405, 5406, 5407, and 5431. Public Health (M.P.H.)/Social Work (M.S.W.) The Department of Community Medicine and Health Care offers an interdisciplinary dual degree program leading to a Master of Social Work (M.S.W.) and Master of Public Health (M.P.H.). Students admitted to the UConn School of Social Work, upon successfully completing coursework on topics of human and social service delivery, receive a 12-credit load reduction and are required to complete an additional 36 public health (PUBH) credits consisting of six required courses (18 credits, listed below), three to five electives (9-15 credits) and a culminating project (three credit capstone or nine credit thesis) to qualify for the M.P.H. degree. Students must maintain a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 in required courses with no grade below a “B-.” Dual degrees with Public Health conform to all standards specified by the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH) an independent agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education to accredit public health schools and programs. Required M.P.H./M.S.W Courses: In addition to the requirements for completion of the M.S.W., students are required to take the following courses: PUBH 5403, 5404, 5406, 5407, 5408, and 5409. Public Health (M.P.H.)/Pharmacy (Pharm.D.) The Department of Community Medicine and Health Care offers an interdisciplinary dual degree program leading to a Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.) and Master of Public Health (M.P.H.). Students admitted to the UConn School of Pharmacy, upon successfully completing coursework on topics of health and health care delivery, receive a 12-credit load reduction and are required to complete 36 public health (PUBH) credits consisting of eight required courses (24 credits, listed below), one to three electives (three to nine credits), a three credit practicum and a culminating project (three credit capstone or nine credit thesis). Students must maintain a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 in required courses with no grade below a “B-.” Dual degrees with Public Health conform to all standards specified by the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH) an independent agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education to accredit public health schools and programs. Required M.P.H./Pharm.D. Courses: In addition to the requirements for completion of the Pharm.D., students are required to take the following courses: PUBH 5403, 5404, 5405, 5406, 5407, 5408, 5409, and 5431. Social Work (M.S.W.)/Juris Doctor (J.D.) In cooperation with the UConn School of Social Work, the School of Law offers student the opportunity to earn a dual degree of Juris Doctor J.D./Social Work M.S.W. The J.D./M.S.W. degree is designed for students who are interested in the social impact of the legal system upon individuals. Students pursue this degree to prepare for careers in fields such as public interest law, mental health law, elder law, women’s rights, penology, juvenile advocacy, human services administration, community organizing and public policy and planning. The dual degree program is highly individualistic in nature in order to provide each student with the best possible combination of these two disciplines. Students in the dual degree program may obtain both degrees in four years, compared with five years, if both degrees were pursued separately. Requirements: Study is generally begun at the School of Law, where during the first year students will complete a minimum of 33 credits of required curriculum study. During the second year, students will complete a minimum of six social work courses, their first year field placement and a minimum of two law courses. Year three will consist of a minimum of three social work courses, their second field placement, a law school clinical experience (which coordinated in combination with the School of Social Work, can apply toward the second year field placement requirement of 560 hours), and six courses at the School of Law. During year four, students will take all remaining credits. Additionally, all students must comply with the rules regarding credit load limitations. Without prior approval from the Associate Dean of the Law School, full time students may not exceed 16 credits and part time students may not exceed 12 credits per semester. Permission may be granted by the Law School for 17 credits. The limit per semester at the School of Social Work is 17 credits. Transfer Agreement The J.D. degree program requires completion of 86 credits (including all required first-year courses, Legal Profession (LAW 7565), completing intensive, analytical paper(s) which satisfies a writing requirement, and course work which satisfies the Practice Based Learning requirement). The M.S.W. degree program requires completion of 60 credits (including Social Work foundation, concentration courses in the student’s selected concentration, two field placements, electives and research). The School of Law will accept 12 credits from among a student’s advanced M.S.W. courses for transfer. The School of Social Work will accept nine elective credits of non-clinical work earned at the School of Law; this is achieved by reducing the number of required credits for the program. Law Courses Acceptable for Transfer to the M.S.W. Program Center for Children’s Advocacy Employment Discrimination Law M.S.W. Courses Acceptable for Transfer to the J.D. Program The School of Law will accept 12 credits the student’s MSW program.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line522
__label__wiki	0.725798	0.725798	You are here: Home About Us History of the Coalition About Papua Human Rights Report Human Rights in Papua Get the report! Arrests in West Papua 2016 The Biak Massacre Citizens Tribunal Signup to ICP E-News History of the Coalition Human Rights and Peace for Papua was created in March 2003. From its launch in 2003 until December 2012, the Coalition was called the Faith-based Network on West Papua (FBN). The Coalition was created by religious, development cooperation, social and human rights organisations from different countries working for many years with partners in Papua. With the formation of the coalition, the associated faith-based organisations responded to a call from religious leaders in Papua to help them promote peace, justice and human rights in Papua. After the end of the Suharto regime and its military oppression in 1998, the people of Papua hoped for democracy, rule of law and the protection of human rights for the indigenous people of Papua. In order to protect and guarantee the rights of the indigenous people of Papua, the Special Autonomy Law for Papua from 2001 was seen as a way forward after Papuans had suffered for decades under military rule and its extrajudicial killings, torture, arbitrary arrests, racial discrimination, exploitation of natural resources and the destruction of livelihoods. The members of the Coalition shared that hope. However, the Special Autonomy Law has not been implemented. Instead, the Indonesian Government violated the law various times, e.g. by Presidential Decree 01/2003 to divide Papua into three Provinces without consultation of the Papuan people. Faith-based and civil society organisations in Papua consider the Autonomy law as failed. The militarisation Papua continues and with it the violations of civil and political as well as economic, social and cultural rights of the Papuan people. Perpetrators of human rights violations are not held accountable. In that climate of violence and fear, the Papuan religious leaders were committed to making “Papua a land of peace” with the vision to guarantee the human rights of the Papuan people restore their self-esteem and find truth and reconciliation. The Coalition supported the campaign Papua, land of peace and the efforts of its religious leaders through various means of advocacy. Participating organisations had created the FBN in solidarity with the Papuan people and in consultation with their Papuan partners.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line524
__label__wiki	0.581307	0.581307	The National Wellbeing Programme, Eight Years On Eight years ago, the Office for National Statistics established the Measuring National Wellbeing programme to measure our quality of life in the UK. Now we have a snapshot of how we, as a nation, are coping with life Once a year the Office for National Statistics (ONS) report the progress and change in a set of ‘headline indicators’, covering areas including our health, natural environment, personal finances and crime. Traditionally focusing on these headline figures for the whole population, the MNW programme has changed tact. With an aspiration to “leave no one behind” they are taking a new approach, looking beneath the overall figures to understand more about people of different ages, and the impact different factors and life experiences can have on wellbeing. The article, titled “Measuring National Well-being: Quality of life in the UK 2018” gives us an insight into how people of different ages are faring in the UK today. What it reveals is, perhaps, unexpected. While some of the data shows positive, potentially surprising information, it also highlights where improvements need to be made, and who we should be taking care of and why. Silvia Manclossi, Head of Quality of Life Team at ONS said “There is a growing recognition that how we are doing as a nation is at least as much about people’s wellbeing as it is about the country’s economic health” “This analysis shows the strengths and challenges of different age groups in society. These insights can help target services where they are most needed and can have the best impact.” Younger people (aged 16 to 24) were more likely to report higher rating of satisfaction with their health, and were more likely to engage in physical activity. Unemployment, loneliness, having someone to rely on and lacking a sense of belonging were the main challenges for young people. People in their early and middle years (aged 25 to 54) generally were more likely to be in employment, but were less likely to be satisfied with their leisure time. Older people (aged 75 and over) were more likely to be satisfied with their income and leisure time. They generally felt they could cope financially, and felt they belonged in their neighbourhood. For those aged 75 and over, the main challenges were lower satisfaction with their health, and lower engagement with an art or cultural activity. Author of the article, Rhian Jones, who is Senior Research Officer for the ONS Wellbeing, Inequalities, Sustainability and Environment Division wrote: “Looking at how life is going now for people of different ages in the UK has highlighted that, contrary to a commonly held belief that ageing involves loss and increased burden, those aged 65 and over are currently faring better on many measure of social and financial wellbeing than their younger counterparts.” “Despite this, it’s important to remember that people aged 65 and over represent a diverse group, with those over 75 particularly noting less satisfaction with health as people move into their 80s.” The programme also found that while younger people are more likely to be physically active and satisfied with their physical health than their elders, they are also more likely to report symptoms of poor mental health, and less likely to feel like they have someone to rely on. While it’s common to think older people are more likely to experience loneliness, there is a clear issue here for younger people. Along with higher rates of unemployment, younger people are more frequently reporting feelings of loneliness. On this, Jones wrote: “This matters both at an individual level and for society in terms of how well we will be able to sustain high levels of national wellbeing into the future”. As for people aged 25 to 54, while they were more likely to be in employment, they face several challenges thought to be linked to higher demands placed on time, and difficulty finding a good balance between work and life commitments. This year, ONS are establishing a Centre of Expertise on Ageing and Demography and a Centre of Expertise for Inequalities, which aim to ensure that “the right data is available to address the main social and policy questions about fairness and equity in our society”. ONS state that both centres will involve partnerships across government, academia and other organisations, with the hope of identifying where better evidence is needed and to make better use of both new and existing data sources. At Happiful, we are devoted to raising awareness and breaking the stigma of mental health. Our mission is to create a healthier, happier and more sustainable society, and to shine a light on the positivity and support that should be available for everyone. We will continue to share your stories, and share resources and places of support in order to reach as many people as possible. Remember, you’re not alone in this. You can read our articles on Reporting a Mental Health Issue at Work, and Navigating a Doctor’s Appointment for Mental Health. For support on loneliness, work-related stress and other mental health concerns, please visit Counselling Directory. 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__label__cc	0.657881	0.342119	Business & Economy Features Building a Home in Cuba February 4, 2017 February 7, 2017 Circles Robinson 7 Comments by Daniel Valero (Progreso Semanal) Building in Cuba. Photo: progresosemanal HAVANA TIMES — Until January 2015, the majority of Cubans who wanted to buy a piece of land and build their home only had one option: to buy it from an individual for a nearly always prohibitive price. However, even this alternative was a small window of opportunity which only a very select few could take advantage of. Luis Miguel Rodriguez knows because he experienced this firsthand. He’s been trying to buy a piece of land where he can build his home pretty much since his wedding day and for more than five years he wasn’t successful. “Back then – around 2005 – you couldn’t sell houses and I didn’t want to take the risk with some side deal. Also, I didn’t have that much money; I only had enough to pack up and move.” His story is that of countless visits to plot owners, redtape at municipal Housing and Physical Planning office, letters to the Government… all of this in vain. “At that time, I came across some 5 x 20 m plots which used to cost up to 40,000 pesos (2,000 USD), and I’m not talking about Camaguey city center, but suburbian neighborhoods such as Montecarlo or Jayama. In the end, I was lucky that they changed the law and I could finally buy a small semi-built house in El Retiro. I’ve slowly been finishing it off.” When the Cuban government announced that property could be bought and sold in November 2011, many people found themselves face to face with an opportunity to make some money or to finally get their own home. Others took advantage of this new law to change their old colonial buildings for small houses, closer to their needs or financial means. However, in a country where the large part of its housing is in a regular or poor state, and there is a deficit of hundreds of thousands of homes, this measure was just part of the solution. Lack of investment Camaguey is located in the central-eastern portion of Cuba. With just over 300,000 inhabitants and substantially damaged housing, Camaguey is the same city that hosted the last 26th July celebration of the “happy 80s” in 1989. It is at least the same with regard to its basic infrastructure and master plans for developing the city. This is what an official at the Provincial Physical Planning office believes, who has had to update investment programs which “will be implemented at some point, but I can almost certainly say that I won’t live to see it.” Today, less than half of the population in the capital of Camaguey has access to sewage systems, a quarter of them don’t have a water line and some neighborhoods don’t have either, whatsoever, both of which are so implicit to modern life. There is a similar situation with electricity distribution networks, albeit not to such a great extent. Although it’s been two years since the aqueduct has been under development using capital from an investment, which according to Luis Palacios Hidalgo, the Investment director of this institution, has all of the “necessary equipment and devices,” there still isn’t a regular and stable supply of water and quality of this water. Therefore, opening new services is not high priority. “Due to the many problems this network presents, our priorities lie in renovating the system and expanding to more specific areas. You can’t think about expanding services if you haven’t first got a stable supply running along already existing pipes,” pointed out Richard Oliva, an assistant manager from the Operations department. If this is the reality of this aqueduct, which has benefitted from a 40 million USD “soft” loan given by Saudi Arabi in 2014, it’s not hard to imagine the obstacles that are blocking the way for other systems such as sewage and roads, which haven’t received millions of dollars. The probem is that without them, new areas can’t be added to the current urbanization process. And without urbanization, new plots of land can’t be handed out. On January 5th 2015, under the protection of Decree-Law 322, the Physical Planning Institute (IPF) took on the majority of what was formerly dealt with by its equivalent, the Housing office. This change represents an important step in getting rid of bureaucratic obstacles, especially in the authorization of selling State-owned plots to individuals, an option which hasn’t existed up until now. Entrance to one of the temporary shelters in Havana where people can live for decades. For Cuba, this was a revolutionary decision, as it has opened up a new channel for those who are adamant that they want to build their home by themselves. Furthermore, it allows local governments to take advantage of areas which they hadn’t found a real use for. In theory, everyone wins; but Odalys Martinez thinks differently. Her standpoint is supported by more than a year of unsuccessful redtape to get a place where she could build a house and live independently. During this time, she has seen everything. “I knew that this was going to be a great war ever since it began, but I had faith that it would be resolved somehow, or that it would be a little more on target at this stage, but that’s not been the case. I remember that there were even some plots of land near my house, where there used to be a carpark before, and some of us asked for this land. It was useless, as people turned up overnight who had greater “priority” and they got it. Do you know what their “priority” was? Well, one of the people who was given permission to build was the daughter of a government leader, the other person had the right friends and so on. The whole housing scene is rife with huge amounts of corruption, and nobody will be able to fix this, ever.” As a rule, municipal Physical Planning offices have up to 60 working days to respond to people’s requests. Among these people, priority is given to those “affected by natural disaster, those in need of getting out from dangerous conditions, the very low income cases and people living in shelters, etc.” However, there aren’t reliable deadlines for people waiting to get a response and files have been lost on more than one occasion or have been filed away without even giving a reason to those who made the request. “The truth is, we have suffered delays in processing files. This situation is due to problems in organization and to the lack of inspectors and other staff here at the office, but we have never not dealt with a request,” a manager at the Physical Planning office in Camaguey explains. In her opinion, there is a great lack of awareness among the population, “who don’t always understand the complexity of the task at hand.” Outside of the institution, the majority of applicants we consulted said that their problem hadn’t been resolved, nor had they received a definite answer after months of paperwork. Apart from opinions, the only undeniable fact is that, during the first year of Decree-Law 322 being implemented, there wasn’t an increase in the number of houses completed in Camaguey. In fact, the opposite happened. According to the Office for National Statistics and Information, out of the 2795 new homes built in the entire province during 2010 (1707 of them were privately built), in 2015, that figure had decreased to only 1006 (540 by individuals). This same dynamic is becoming widespread across the whole country and it kicked off a heated debate at the Industry, Building and Energy Committee at the National Assembly last July. There, it was revealed that during 2015, 53,942 plots had been requested and only 6,427 had been designated. The first few months of 2016 didn’t reveal a more encouraging landscape, admitted Diana Rosa Suarez Matias, the Head of IPF’s Legal Department. Until the end of May, 12,485 requests had been filed, and in spite of there being a great availability of plots (almost 15,000) paperwork for only 2,949 of them had been completed. “If somebody asked me for advice, what would I tell them?” speculates Luis Miguel rhetorically “well it’s very simple: whoever has the means, should try and save their money and then buy the house already made. It’s always easier here to improve something that was there before than embark on a long struggle like this one. Also, there aren’t any good plots of land left in Camaguey.” Unfortunately, the same “philosophy” which could well be applied to the rest of Cuba, doesn’t inherently hold the correct answer. The island needs new housing, but the problem begins with where to build them. ← Cuba to Let Doctors Return to Practice on the Island A Very Pleasant Surprise → 7 thoughts on “Building a Home in Cuba” So true, Fascism that prevails in Cuba needs to end. Fascism comes from the Latin fascio, meaning “bundle, or political group.” In fascism, the people are looked at as a bundle — one body that must be controlled by the government with absolute force. There’s no option to vote, no chance to impeach a leader, and no freedom to stand up against the governing elite. I have family in a small town called Florida just west of Camaguey. It’s even worse there. Cuba Segments Today's Song Ska Cubano – Song of the Day Seascape, New Brunswick – Photo of the Day Managua Down to One International Airlines for Regular Flights Hong Kong Arrests 11 More People The Cuban Government’s Defensive Intolerance Judo Champion: “I had to Reinvent Myself”	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line528
__label__wiki	0.864678	0.864678	Football / August 6, 2010 New team, new season, new challenges Complete Coach Ferentz transcript \| Media Day Photo Gallery 2010 Hawkeye Football Fall Camp Central 2010 UI Football Media Fact Book 2010 UI Football Media Guide Take the Hawkeyes with You: Iowa Podcasts gohawks.com Iowa Football wallpaper IOWA CITY, Iowa — There is a giant jigsaw puzzle out there and Kirk Ferentz and the University of Iowa football team have until the end of November to put it together. Ferentz, entering his 12th season as head coach for the Hawkeyes, is more anxious than concerned, about starting to sort out the pieces. “It’s a puzzle to put together,” Ferentz said at a gathering of media Friday in the Paul W. Brechler Press Box. “Clearly we have probably more experience and depth than we’ve had at least at the receiver position, for instance, and in the defensive line. But then you counter with the areas where we lost. They weren’t numerous, but you don’t replace a guy like (linebacker) Pat Angerer.” Iowa enters the season with a No. 10 ranking in the first USA Today coaches’ poll. Most of those votes are based on the fact the Hawkeyes finished 2009 with an 11-2 record and a 24-14 victory over Georgia Tech in the FedEx Orange Bowl. Ferentz made it clear that 2009 was 2009 and this is a brand new slate in UI football history. “Last year was an enjoyable season for us, but the bottom line is that one is in the books right now just like any good season or any bad season or anything behind us in the books,” Ferentz says. “Our message to our team is this is a brand new year. We have a new team — not the same team we had back in the first of January — and we’ll have a lot of new challenges.” The Hawkeyes play seven times inside Kinnick Stadium this fall, including games against potential Big Ten Conference heavyweights Ohio State (No. 2 by USA Today), Wisconsin (No. 12), Penn State (No. 14) and Michigan State. Playing in front of 70,585 of the greatest college football fans in the country is nice, but even that isn’t a free pass to victory. “This year the buzz is that we have some really competitive home games — an attractive home schedule,” Ferentz said. “I think from our vantage point, we expect all of our conference games to be extremely challenging. My guess is our nonconference games are going to be the same way.” “Last year was an enjoyable season for us, but the bottom line is that one is in the books right now just like any good season or any bad season or anything behind us in the books. Our message to our team is this is a brand new year. We have a new team — not the same team we had back in the first of January — and we’ll have a lot of new challenges.” UI head football coach An area of opportunity for the Hawkeyes is at offensive line, where Iowa took its biggest hit to graduation. Listed as starters in the preseason are seniors Julian Vandervelde (left guard) and Josh Koeppel (center), juniors Adam Gettis (right guard) and Markus Zusevics (right tackle) and sophomores Riley Reiff (left tackle) and James Ferentz (center). “I think we’ll be OK in September if everybody stays healthy,” Ferentz said. “We had a lot of injury problems in that group last year and I thought it showed. We won’t be as good as we need to be in September. The real thing is we have to move forward the next four weeks and we have to keep our foot on the gas the rest of the way.” The running back situation is intriguing with the return of redshirt sophomore Jewel Hampton, who did not play a year ago because of a knee injury. As a true freshman in 2008, Hampton rushed for 463 yards and seven touchdowns, including a 114-yard, three-touchdown performance at Indiana. In his absence last season, Adam Robinson, now a redshirt sophomore, rushed for 877 yards and five touchdowns and Brandon Wegher, now a second-year sophomore, picked up 641 yards and eight touchdowns. “There will be plenty of carries and if we have a Shonn Greene story emerge during the course of the year or next year or any year, that guy will get more carries than the others,” Ferentz said. “Right now I would handicap it as a pretty even race and just see how things go. The nice thing about it is I thought all three of those guys improved in their time of play and they all did some real good things, particularly in November and in the bowl games. I hope we have all three of those guys out there full speed. They are all different packages, but they are all good packages.” Ferentz is assuming a comprehensive approach about playing student-athletes from the highly-touted 36-member first-year class. “I’ll know a lot more when we talk in September,” Ferentz said. “We have got a very open mind about letting guys help our football team. If a guy can help us this year and they want to help us this year, we are going to try to utilize that.” All of the Iowa home games this season have reached sell-out status. Ferentz and the Hawkeyes do not take the support for granted. “I think it’s fantastic and we are extremely appreciative,” Ferentz said. “People have a lot of choices and there are a lot of things they can do — things they need to do — and football probably isn’t at the top of the list. We’re appreciative that we have tremendous fans.” The Hawkeyes return to the Kenyon Practice Facility for a Saturday afternoon closed practice.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line529
__label__cc	0.729565	0.270435	Lorcan O’Herlihy Original House This November marks the second anniversary of the devastating Woolsey fire that destroyed many homes, including ours, in Southern California, so it seemed like the right time to highlight Lorcan O’Herlihy (LOHA), an architect based out of Detroit and Los Angeles and with whom we have a personal relationship. Lorcan was fresh out of architecture school when he was working for a firm in New York City and trying to find his way in the architectural world. Meanwhile, his parents had purchased a piece of property up in the Santa Monica, CA mountains that had exceptional mountain and ocean views. Lorcan was hired by his parents to create a modest, minimal, Spanish-inspired home that related to this unique site. This simple piece of architecture ended up being highlighted in Architectural Record in 1986, and it became the house that launched Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects (LOHA). Lorcan promptly moved back to California and set up shop. Lorcan’s father sadly passed away and the property was sold a few times and renovated into various versions of this lovely, simple box structure with high ceilings, perched on the side of the mountain. On a whim, after enjoying everything about our visits to California, we began looking for a property to buy. We purchased the property O’Herlihy designed for his parents in 2010, and renovated the house to suit our style, opening the home to the amazing views and adding sliding glass doors, refreshing the landscaping and adding an outdoor seating area and some indigenous plantings. To us, it was pretty much perfect, still maintaining the simple original architecture while further incorporating the views into the interiors. Lorcan O’Herlihy Original Home The Woolsey fires hit in November 2018, as we happened to be there visiting, and we followed all protocols and evacuated assuming there was fire support. Unfortunately, there was no way the firefighters could fight the fire as it was a 14-mile long, 40-foot wall of flames moving the equivalent of one football field a minute. Many of the local firefighters were in Northern California fighting other blazes in that area. We received an early morning call to evacuate and off we went, grabbing a small suitcase each and that was about it. In the moment our thoughts were on fleeing to safety first and foremost. We were fortunate to be able to settle into a hotel and at 11pm that night we were called and told that our home was a total loss. Obviously there was the initial stage of shock, despair and grief but also relief that we were all safe and well. We can replace things but we can’t replace people. We quickly realized that the only road to recovery was re-birth. Knowing the history of the home, including the name of the architect that designed the home originally for his parents in 1985, made it an easy decision to select LOHA to design our new home. It just organically felt like the right thing to do. So far we have no regrets and the project is moving ahead using board form concrete instead of wood frame stucco with the hope of avoiding any structure loss from future fires. The new design also encompasses passive design that uses elements of the home to provide warmth in winter and keep it cool in summer. There will be an expanse of windows to capture the beautiful views, but they will have a higher R rating to provide greater fire protection and insulation. New Design – Living Room Ocean View LOHA Exterior Design LOHA Living Room Design Mountain View We were aware LOHA was an innovative architecture firm and through visiting their offices in downtown LA and following them on social media, we learned what significant work they are doing for social housing around the world, which is what I really want to highlight in this blog post. I’ve often worried during our design process we were taking the team away from some of these amazing initiatives they are concurrently working on. LOHA PHILOSOPHY… “Good architecture is no longer about simply designing buildings as isolated objects, but about meeting head on the forces that are shaping our world.” Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects [LOHA] believes that architecture is a social act, a tool for engaging in economics, politics, aesthetics, and smart growth to promote social equity and cultural evolution. As cities grow at an unprecedented pace and people are living closer together, it is more important than ever to design sustainable spaces that encourage human interaction. Our work derives from, and speaks to, a site’s history and culture, and is more importantly for the people who are living there. We begin each project with the facts on the ground, working from the bottom up, not the top down. Our vision is to create places where people want to live and work, where they can attach to the roots that are there, and plant some of their own. You might say we are engaged in the aesthetics of living.” St Clair 3100 My first LOHA project to highlight is actually “blue-sky work” they did in the GTA. St. Clair 3100 is a “creatively reimagined mid-rise design solution for one of Toronto’s up and coming suburban neighbourhoods.” This mixed-use, multi-unit housing project was developed in collaboration with Toronto’s Globe and Mail, as part of an investigation into unconventional ideas that can creatively reshape the landscape of the City. LOHA’s proposed project is in Toronto’s Scarborough area and incorporates “porosity and connectivity at multiple scales—stepping up and down to the existing neighbourhood and responding to the considerations of the established neighbourhood condition.” Streetscape Visualization, Detroit Neighbourhood Study Detroit Neighbourhood Study My second project to highlight is work LOHA did in Detroit, Michigan. There, LOHA collaborated with the City of Detroit in a neighbourhood study for underprivileged communities, providing ideas for improving the streetscape and enhancing cultural preservation and public open space. They also included green storm water infrastructure, land strategies and ideas for economic revitalization. MLK1101 Social Housing Project in Los Angeles LOHA has also done work in LA creating social housing. The next LOHA project I want to highlight is one for which they teamed up with Clifford Beers Housing to respond to an urgent need for social housing. The MLK1101 project created homes for veterans, the homeless and low income households. Together they transformed a vacant lot in South LA into an affordable community of 26 units. Further details can be found in this link MLK 110 Supportive Housing Sun King Social Housing Just outside Los Angeles, in the Sun Valley area of the San Fernando Valley, they have worked on another social housing project known as Sun King Supportive Housing. Each project exhibits Lorcan’s belief that artistry and social connectivity are key to building vibrant spaces that elevate the human condition. “Big Blue Bus” Shelter Design Elements Santa Monica’s Big Blue Bus Shelters Those of you who have been to Santa Monica might have seen the Big Blue bus stops. LOHA worked with Bruce Mau Design to create clever waiting areas for individual shelters, taking each site into consideration with a highly flexible, modular system of components that can be adjusted for each of the 300 bus stops as well as for customization of future stops. University of Santa Barbara, Student Housing LOHA has designed a LEED Platinum plan for seven student housing structures as part of the San Joaquin Housing complex at the northern limit of the University of California, Santa Barbara. Watershed Project One of the LOHA projects I find most fascinating is the Watershed Project which addressed the issue of climate change and lower rain volumes in California. “According to current climate change projections by the United Nations, almost half the world’s population will be living in areas of high water stress by 2030.” California has suffered years of drought conditions and there is currently no comprehensive plan to take action towards water preservation and management. The Watershed Project comes up with viable options for water managment. “LOHA designed a system of interventions at multiple scales, combining living, public space and water-based infrastructure into a new hybrid patchwork that will capture, recycle, purify, loop, and reconnect ground and stormwater back to the water table and the Los Angeles River.” Flynn Mews Home, Dublin, Ireland Lorcan’s Irish heritage brought him to design this home that is a blend of old world Dublin and a contemporary addition. The Flynn Mews House is the perfect juxtaposition between old and new. These are just a few highlights of the great designs coming from LOHA and I am sure there are many more to come. We look forward to our project being completed in 2022 to enjoy our special site that will be an improved version of the original LOHA design. Happy November, Helen Braithwaite, Real Estate Representative, Chestnut Park Real Estate Limited Chairman’s Award 2017-2019 Original Lorcan O’Herlihy Home Split Door into Kitchen	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line530
__label__cc	0.522172	0.477828	rania, youth advisor to hy nrg talks about mentoring at the heywire summit I was lucky enough to attend the 2017 Heywire Summit in Canberra as a group mentor in February. Heywire is a writing competition run by the ABC that gives young people living in rural and regional Australia the opportunity to share their stories. Each year, 40 winners are selected and invited to attend the Heywire Summit where they spend six days getting to know each other, learning about the differences and similarities between their communities and develop a project to present at Parliament House at the end of the week. I was a mentor for a group of seven young people from vastly different places, who wanted to develop a project relating to mental health. They came up with an idea for a mentoring program called Common Connections. This program would pair a young person with an adult mentor, based on common interests and hobbies. Mentors would receive mental health first-aid training and information on local services that they could refer young people to if needed. Common Connections would work in collaboration with schools and local organisations such as sports clubs or music groups. The inspiration for this idea came from the realisation that many young people in the group had experienced isolation and felt a relationship with a trusted adult with whom they shared common ground, may have enabled them to ask for help. One member of the group described it as “a step before headspace” envisioning these mentors as people who could support the decision to take this next step. Supporting this group to develop their ideas and prepare their presentation was one of the most inspiring things I’ve experienced. I saw those who began the week too shy to say a word making new friends and sharing honest opinions with politicians. Equally, I watched those who started off as the centre of every joke and the loudest voice in every conversation begin to listen and share a different, more personal side of themselves. Witnessing the strength from the group and how they worked as a team, supporting each other and how much they cared for their communities was inspiring. If anyone ever gets the opportunity to attend the Heywire Summit, GO! Take the opportunity to meet the future leaders/researchers/change-makers of Australia. Rania,	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line531
__label__wiki	0.652805	0.652805	Rabbinical School Divrei Torah The Routine Call of the Shofar By 829 Studios Sep 22, 2014 I know that we’re about to begin the month of Tishrei, the opening of the Jewish year, with Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and Sukkot, but humor me for a bit while I write about Pesah. In the Talmud Yerushalmi, Rabbi Levi says that “anyone who eats matzah on the day before Pesah is like a man who has sex with his fiancée in his father-in-law’s house,” i.e., prior to the marriage. And despite the challenging implicit and explicit gender assumptions in Rabbi Levi’s statement, it is the basis for the practice many have not to eat matzah in the lead-up to Pesah (there are different customs about the length of this prohibition, with some abstaining as early as 30 days before Pesah, and others abstaining for only the day before Pesah). The motivation for Rabbi Levi’s dramatic statement is presumably an attempt to increase our anticipation for matzah; when we get to the seder, there should be an allure (yes, I know we’re talking about matzah here) to this mitzvah. I’m meant to feel that this is something that I’ve consciously avoided and which now, therefore, feels new and, at least ideally, even exciting. It may even be similar to the custom in various cultures for two partners getting married not to see each other for some amount of time before the wedding — a similarity that brings us back to Rabbi Levi’s bawdy articulation of a Pesah law. And it’s a concern that finds expression in a similar law, this one found in the Mishnah, that one should not eat any sort of meal for the latter part of the day before Pesah, so that when one gets to the seder, you’re hungry enough that you want to eat. I’ve found myself thinking about Rabbi Levi’s ruling about matzah a lot this year in the lead-up to Rosh Hashanah. The sort of excitement Rabbi Levi is trying to generate for matzah is exactly what many Jews — kids and adults alike — feel as they head to shul on Rosh Hashana. Folks may dread the sermon, or the extended mumbling of prayers, or whatever else it may be, but lots of Jews — dare I say most? — eagerly look forward to hearing the shofar. Whether because of its deep spiritual resonances, its visceral and almost brutal cry or simply the break it provides from what in many places may feel like a dull and extended drone, that first call of the shofar is easily the most anticipated moment in our liturgical calendar. Yet, for folks who regularly attend weekday synagogue services, that first shofar blast on Rosh Hashana is a bit anticlimactic, because they’ve been hearing the shofar every day, six days a week (every day other than Shabbat), for the whole month of Elul leading up to Rosh Hashana. When those folks get to shul on Rosh Hashana, it will be the 25th day on which they’ve heard the shofar blasts in the last month — not exactly a brand new thing. (We blow shofar 24 times during Elul, not 25, because on the last day of Elul — the day before Rosh Hashana — we do not blow shofar. The classic reason is so as to confuse Satan, so that he won’t know that Rosh Hashana is coming, but it may well be that this is an attempt to re-create some of that freshness, even as we’ve been blasting away on our shofarot all month.) So why is Rosh Hashana different from Pesah? Why do we strenuously avoid the paradigmatic mitzvah of Pesah in its advance, while we assiduously participate in that of Rosh Hashanah for a full month prior to the real thing? It seems to me that these two different approaches to the holidays and their practices reflect the deep difference between experiencing redemption and doing teshuvah. Redemption is by its nature surprising, shocking even. To be sure, lots of work and effort goes into the act of redeeming — at least for human acts of redemption. But for the person freed of her shackles, taken out of Egypt, it will invariably feel as if in just one moment everything has changed. In that moment, there is no gradual transition from slave to free, from oppressed to redeemed. I was a slave, and now I’m not. That is the experience we’re trying to recall, to re-create and to create, when we eat matzah while telling and acting out the story of the Exodus on seder night. But teshuvah is entirely different. When we do teshuvah, we’re not being redeemed; we’re trying to redeem ourselves through our own inner work. And that act of redemption takes serious effort and careful preparation. The shofar blast should not catch us off guard, and it should not be unexpected. Rather, it should be part of a longer process of calling ourselves to attention and thinking about the work we have to do to set ourselves free. In six months, God willing, when we sit together at the seder, we will have the opportunity to focus on experiencing freedom. But this month that we’re now finishing up, and the one we’re about to begin — this season of repentance and introspection — is a time for us to focus not on our freedom, but on our acts of freeing ourselves. That may make for a less dramatic holiday season than that which we’ll celebrate in the spring, but it is also a prerequisite for making Pesah and its redemption possible. Rabbi Micha’el Rosenberg is assistant professor of rabbinics at Hebrew College. Passover-Rav	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line534
__label__wiki	0.586993	0.586993	Bucks 127, Raptors 131 (OT) \| Recap Written By \| Mitchell Maurer In their first game of 2018, the Milwaukee Bucks fell to the Toronto Raptors, 131-127 in overtime. Milwaukee’s defeat in the packed Air Canada Centre comes after the Bucks won a pair of tough Western Conference contests, and was an opportunity for the team to make up some ground in the East. Despite numerous chances to extend their winning streak to three, the Bucks just could never get over the hump and dropped a winnable game against a possible playoff foe. Giannis Antetokounmpo ended up with 24 points, 9 rebounds, and 7 assists, but was largely silent for the majority of the first half. He once again converted a pre-buzzer dunk, but this one was uncontroversial, given it was a) at the close of the first quarter, and b) nowhere near the baseline. ✔@Bucks Giannis with the SLAM to end the 1st!! 8:10 PM – Jan 1, 2018 Giannis got back to normal in the second half, even though the Bucks didn’t make any discernible changes to create space for him to work. Every so often, though, Giannis doesn’t need a lot of space to do this: The Greek Freak showing off!! Elsewhere for Milwaukee, Eric Bledsoe worked his way to 29 points (including 5/7 from deep), 7 boards, and 4 steals. Thon Maker also had a pleasantly productive outing with 16 points, including a trio of three pointers. Khris Middleton rode the Tough Shot Express on his way to 18 points (missing all four of his treys), and Malcolm Brogdon came off the bench to add 15 points and 6 rebounds. Matthew Dellavedova played during the Bucks’ late-game surge and notched 6 points, 10 assists, and 5 rebounds. For Toronto, DeMar DeRozan was red hot for the Raps, logging a career-high and Raptors franchise record 52 points (17/29 from the field, 5/9 from deep, and a perfect 13/13 from the free throw line), as well as 8 assists. DeRozan’s output included an ultra-efficient 21 points on nine(!) shots in the first quarter, but DDR simply never let up. Kyle Lowry did his part, adding 26 points (on 13 shots), 6 rebounds, and 6 assists. No other Raptors broke double-digit points in regulation, but Fred VanVleet was instrumental in the fourth quarter and overtime. Stat That Stood Out -6: the differential in three point shots attempted between Toronto (14/33, 42.4%) and Milwaukee (13/27, 48.1%), in favor of the Raptors. Historically, neither team is renowned for their outside shooting, but the Raptors have at least tried to change that this year. Much and more has been made of Toronto’s offseason transformation, where they sought to forsake midrange jumpers in favor of corner threes. Star guards like DeRozan and Lowry will still take those shots, but the Raps seemed far more concerned with consistently working the ball around into good shots than the Bucks. Inglewood Rabble Rouser White John Shares 'Cases Still Pending' EP ft. Rucci & OMB Peezy	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line537
__label__cc	0.749051	0.250949	Where did the lollies come from? National left office with an economy that many other countries would envy: There was confirmation today that the new Coalition Government has inherited a strong economic growth story from the previous National-led Government, National Party Finance Spokesperson Steven Joyce says. “Stats New Zealand’s report of 3 per cent growth for the year to September together with upward revisions to recent growth figures paint a clear picture of a strong economy over the last few years,” Mr Joyce says. “They have revised New Zealand’s growth figures for the 2014, 2015, and 2016 calendar years to 3.6 per cent, 3.5 per cent and 4 per cent respectively. That’s a highly respectable growth story in anyone’s language. “GDP per capita has also been revised upwards in those years. We’ve had 8.3 per cent in real GDP per capita growth over the last five years. Mr Joyce says the figures released today finally put to bed the fallacy that New Zealand was having a ‘productivity recession’. “In addition, the figures today show that the construction industry remains strong with the largest quarterly growth since March 2016. Road and rail infrastructure was a key driver, with the largest increase in ten years. “New Zealand has now experienced 18 quarters of consecutive economic growth; and has grown in 26 out of the last 27 quarters, all the way back to December 2010. “These figures provide clear confirmation that the new Government has inherited a very strong economy driven by the strong economic plan of the previous Government. “The Labour-led Coalition needs to take heed of softening business and consumer confidence numbers since the election and make sure their policy changes don’t muck this story up.” The incoming government is showing great delight in spending the money the strong economy has generated but if it understands how that was achieved, it’s not showing that, as Bill English pointed out in the adjournment debate: I must say, it has been a bit rich sitting here listening to the moral awesomeness and self-congratulation of the Labour Government over the family incomes package when they opposed every single measure that it took to generate the surpluses that they are handing out. That is why they won’t get the credit they expect from the New Zealand public, because the New Zealand public know it’s a bunch of people who found the lolly bag and ran the lolly scramble without having any idea where it came from. The money came from taxes generated from the work and ingenuity of taxpayers under three terms of National-led government’s careful stewardship. The words and actions of the incoming government give no cause for confidence that the respect for, and careful stewardship of, taxpayers’ money will continue. This entry was posted on Friday, December 22nd, 2017 at 9:00 am and is filed under economy, politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line538
__label__cc	0.559498	0.440502	Construction Accidents/New York Labor Law Harrington, Ocko & Monk, LLP has vast experience representing owners, general contractors, construction managers, and subcontractors in the defense of labor law violations and negligence claims arising out of catastrophic construction accidents. Our attorneys routinely obtain summary judgment dismissals, defense verdicts, and favorable mediated settlements in construction accident cases involving allegations of scaffold defects, failure to provide adequate safety devices, New York State industrial code violations, falling object injuries, and worksite slip and falls. Our attorneys are also experts at enforcing the indemnification and insurance provisions of construction agreements to transfer liability from owners and general contractors to the parties and employers responsible for the conditions and work giving rise to these injury claims. Recently obtained summary judgment for contractual indemnity on behalf of a property owner pursuant to its general contractor’s trade agreement with a plumbing subcontractor who was also plaintiff’s employer. Although the property owner was not specifically named as an indemnitee in the general contractor’s continuing agreement with the plumbing subcontractor, and although the agreement was not specific to the jobsite at issue in the litigation, we successfully argued that the property owner was an intended third-party beneficiary covered by the agreement and that plumbing subcontractor was therefore required to indemnify the property owner. Due to our success in obtaining pretrial contractual indemnity, our client contributed nothing towards the settlement of the plaintiff’s lawsuit and we were able to recover a substantial portion of our attorney’s fees from the plumbing subcontractor’s insurer. Plaintiff fractured his sesamoid bone when he stepped down on a rear dowel protruding from the face of an unfinished concrete sidewalk. The Court granted summary judgment to defendants, holding that Industrial Code § 1.7 was inapplicable to the facts of the case. Specifically, the rebar dowels on which plaintiff stepped and was injured constituted neither debris, scattered materials, nor a laceration risk. It thus dismissed plaintiff’s Labor Law § 241(6) claim. A flagman for a concrete subcontractor, was struck by a passing vehicle. The case settled after submission of summary judgment motions. Notably, not only was settlement of the underlying Labor Law §§ 241(6) and 200 claims achieved with zero contribution from our client, this firm pressed for and obtained full defense costs from the third-party defendant based on contractual indemnification. Represented general contractor, in a case in which the plaintiff, a former Marine, claimed serious personal injuries arising from a construction accident which occurred prior to his military service. Obtained military service records and interviewed commanding officers and based on plaintiff’s own admissions in his military record, which showed the absence of any injuries or restrictions, obtained a settlement of for 5% of the original mid-seven figure demand. Represented a major property developer, in numerous claims in which they were being sued for personal injuries related to construction accidents on their premises. In many of the cases, obtained complete indemnification and defense costs from the responsible sub-contractor. Successfully defended against multiple appeals which affirmed client employer’s dismissal from Labor Law lawsuit by demonstrating lack of “grave injury” notwithstanding claim of head injury. Successfully obtained complete indemnification for high profile financial institution in Labor Law suit that ultimately settled for $7 million.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line539
__label__wiki	0.974323	0.974323	MINLEY MANOR November 11, 2015 David Poole Currently unoccupied Grade II* listed Red brick with blue brick diaper work, limestone dressings and carved and moulded ornament, and knapped flint infill. Roofs are slate and lead and have brick and stone chimneystacks. The roof to the servant’s hall is clad in copper. (Historic England) Minley Manor is a house built from the riches of the banking industry. It is typical of a large country house built from the excesses of Victorian wealth that would eventually become surplus to requirement between two World Wars. This Grade II listed house was built between 1858 and 1860 by Henry Clutton (1819-1893) for Raikes Currie (1801-1881), a partner in the banking firm of Curries & Co and later with Glyn, Mills, Currie & Co. He was also a former MP for Northampton. Currie commissioned Robert Toswill Veitch (1823-1885) to lay out the gardens. The house itself was built of red brick with stone dressings in an asymmetrical French Gothic style with very tall roofs. Mark Girouard would later describe the interiors as ‘more Jacobean and classical rather than Gothic.’ Minley Manor in 1899 Minley Manor suffered a serious fire In January 1870 in which the south portion of the house and the clock tower were totally destroyed. A large portion of valuable furniture was lost having been moved to that part of the building where the fire originated, whilst the other portion was being renovated. The main part of the house managed to be saved through the endeavours of dragoons drafted in from the Royal Military College at Sandhurst. The house was also the birthplace of British diplomat Sir Reginald Hoare in 1882. Various Prime Ministers stayed at the house as did Queen Victoria. Bertram Wodehouse Currie (1827-1896), Raike’s son, inherited the house in 1884 and made a number of important additions. George Devey (1820-1886) (who had designed Coombe Warren for Bertram between 1868 and 1875) designed a chapel and orangery in 1886, the year of his death. Robert Veich and his landscaper Frederick William Meyer (1852-1906) also developed a winter garden, The Plain, extensions to the pleasure grounds and the Hawley Lake to the east. Bertram had followed in his father’s footsteps and would also become a partner in Glyn, Mills, Currie & Co as well as being a member of the India Council. During the Barings Bank crisis in 1890 his expertise was called upon to work with Benjamin Buck Greene of the Bank of England to investigate the disastrous affairs of the bank.. After his death in 1896 the house passed to his son Laurence Currie (1867-1934) who made a number of modifications to the house and grounds. He employed Devey’s chief draughtsman Arthur Castings (1853-1913) to build new lodges, a water tower and a complex of walled gardens. In 1933 Minley Manor was once again threatened by fire but this time it was due to a massive blaze that devastated more than five miles of wooded countryside between Blackwater and Hartley Wintney. More than a thousand soldiers joined fire brigades from Camberley, Frimley Green, Windlesham, Fleet, Bagshot and Hartley Witney. At one stage flames leapt 50 feet from blazing fir trees but they managed to save Minley Manor and also Elvetham Hall, the home of Sir Fitzroy Anstruther Gough-Calthorpe. Laurence Currie died in 1934 but his son and successor Bertram Francis George Currie (1899-1959) had plans elsewhere. In 1936 he sold Minley Manor and its 2,500 acre estate to the War Office and moved to Dingley Hall in Northamptonshire. Minley Manor became the Senior Wing of the Staff College at nearby Camberley. It was officially opened in January 1939 by Major General the Duke of Gloucester and was home to officers from the British Army, the Indian Army, Royal Navy, the Royal Marines, the Royal Air Force and a number of Dominion regiments. After 1971 it was used as an Officers’ Mess for the Royal School of Military Engineering (the Royal Engineers) units at Gibraltar Barracks. The house was also used for military weddings but became empty in August 2013 when a new mess was built at the barracks. Minley Manor was also used as the backdrop for the 1969 film Mosquito Squadron and Stardust, featuring Michelle Pfeiffer and Robert De Niro. As part of the Government requirement for estate rationalisation, the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) sold Minley Manor in 2014 for a figure exceeding the £5 million guide price. The new owner is understood to be an international investor but plans for the house are yet to be revealed. Note: In 1864 the banking firm of Glyn, Mills & Co acquired the business of Curries & Co and was renamed Glyn, Mills, Currie & Co. The company would eventually absorb further banks until the company was acquired by the Royal Bank of Scotland in 1939. The brand survived as Glyn, Mills & Co until 1969 when RBS decided to bring together three businesses – Williams Deacon’s Bank, Glyn Mills & Co and the English and Welsh branches of the National Bank. The new company was renamed Williams & Glyn which lasted until 1985 before being rebranded as the Royal Bank of Scotland. The name was due to be revived in 2016 when RBS branches in England and Wales were reported to become Williams & Glyn once again. However, the planned re-branding failed to materialise. Minley Manor, Minley Road, Blackwater, Hampshire, GU17 9JT Previous PostCOOMBE WARRENNext PostLALEHAM ABBEY	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line540
__label__wiki	0.749786	0.749786	Andrew Cuomo, Austerity Autocrat Apr 4, 2020 \| Healthcare \| 1 comment New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s take-charge nationally-televised coronavirus briefings look a lot better than President Trump’s rambling and often misleading and self-contradictory briefings. The contrast has led to comments by Trump himself, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, and Cuomo’s brother and CNN host Chris Cuomo suggesting that Andrew Cuomo would make a better Democratic presidential nominee than Joe Biden. It is important to watch what politicians do, not just what they say. While Cuomo takes the stage to address the coronavirus crisis in New York, behind the scenes he is using the crisis as cover to push through draconian state budget cuts and authoritarian measures that will undermine health care and democracy in New York State. Cuomo’s proposed budget includes deep cuts to Medicaid and measures to kill third parties and make the legislature even more of a rubber stamp than it already is. Progressive tax reforms that would tax the rich more to help cover the revenue shortfall are off of Cuomo’s policy menu. It is hard to know what is in the final budget, which lawmakers hoped to adopt on April 1 as I was writing this. The opacity of the whole process means, as the Buffalo News reported yesterday, “The full picture of the state budget … will not be clear for weeks after the actual votes occur.” Health Care Austerity Like Trump, who undermined preparedness for the pandemic by disregarding warnings from the intelligence community and public health officials back in January, Cuomo’s austerity policies over the last decade helped create the health facilities crisis New York City now faces. Cuomo carried through health care austerity policies that were initiated by a Republican predecessor, George Pataki, through his Berger Commission. The commission recommended closing over 20 mostly public hospitals because they were a burden on the state budget. New York State has lost 41 hospitals since 1997. Since 2000, the state’s hospital beds have been reduced by over 20,000 beds, from nearly 74,000 to 53,000. When Cuomo became governor in 2010, he appointed the investment banker Stephen Berger, who had led the Berger Commission, to lead his Medicaid Redesign Team, which recommended the Medicaid cuts Cuomo that made in his first term and accelerated the closure of public hospitals that depend heavily on Medicaid reimbursements. For the 2020 budget, Cuomo appointed another Medicaid Redesign Team that has put into the proposed state budget another $2.5 billion in Medicaid cuts, which is 10% of the state’s Medicaid spending. Cuomo is so committed to the Medicaid cuts that he is willing to risk losing up to $6.7 billion in federal aid from the recently enacted federal coronavirus relief package because that aid is contingent on not putting new restrictions on Medicaid access. Six million New Yorkers, nearly one-third of the state’s population, depend on Medicaid. When Cuomo first proposed his state budget in January, the state faced a $6.1 billion deficit. Due the coronavirus economic shutdown, the state now projects a revenue shortfall of up to $15 billion below the $88 billion in revenues projected in the original budget. As he has traditionally done, Cuomo is rejecting higher taxes on the upper classes through progressive tax reforms, including the stock transfer tax that is now fully rebated to stock traders. Part of Cuomo’s Medicaid cuts shift costs to New York City and the counties. New York State is unique in requiring local governments to help pay for Medicaid. That policy shifts the tax burden more onto working- and middle-class people because local governments depend on sales and property taxes that are more regressive than the state income tax. At a time when local governments are also experiencing revenue shortfalls due to the coronavirus economic shutdown, Cuomo has no plans to increase state revenue sharing with local governments, which has been frozen in place since Cuomo took office as part of his austerity budgeting. If Cuomo really wanted to save money on health care in New York, he would support the New York Health Act to cover all medically necessary services for all New Yorkers through a single public payer. The administrative efficiencies and bargaining power with drug and medical supply companies of a single public payer would save New Yorkers $45 billion a year, or nearly $2200 per resident. Ninety-eight percent of New Yorkers would pay less for health care, paying only progressive taxes instead of taxes plus private insurance premiums, co-pays, and deductibles and out-of-pocket for uncovered or out-of-network services. As a public non-profit system, New York Health would operate to meet public needs rather than private profits, which drove the reduction of hospitals and beds. Though bills for this improved Medicare-for-All type of system have passed the Assembly many times since 1992, it failed to do so last year after the Democrats also became the majority in the state Senate. New York State’s budget process already gave inordinate power to the governor, but Cuomo wants even more power over the budget. He wants to have the unilateral power to cut the budget during the year due to the coronavirus crisis. Cuomo’s Democratic allies passed a rule-change resolution for the duration of the coronavirus crisis to ram legislation in a process that allows legislators to vote “Yes” electronically from a remote location, but only permits “No” votes to be made when physically present in the legislative chamber. That rule change will make it much easier for Cuomo to push through his budget, which also includes a roll back of bail-abolition reforms enacted last year and a further delay in marijuana legalization. Cuomo could be bringing the same urgency and action to the climate crisis as he has to the coronavirus crisis, but his budget ignores climate activists’ demands for a halt to new gas pipelines, power plants, and other fossil fuel infrastructure to speed the transition to climate-safe solar and wind power. Cuomo is also trying to kill third parties under the cover of the coronavirus crisis. The proposed change in ballot access requirements would increase the number of votes needed to qualify a political party for New York ballots will increase from 50,000 to 135,000 or 2%, whichever is higher. It also increases the frequency with which that requirement must be met from the gubernatorial ticket every four years to every two years with both the presidential and gubernatorial tickets. The only Green candidates to pass those thresholds have been Ralph Nader with 244,030 votes for president in 2000 and myself with 184,419 votes for governor in 2014. Two percent of the presidential vote in 2016 was over 155,000 votes. Cuomo was not happy in 2014 when I received 5% of the vote. That year Cuomo was trying to get more votes than his father, Mario Cuomo, ever got and more votes than he got in 2010 in order to lay the groundwork for a possible presidential run. Instead, in order to compete for the votes the Greens received, Cuomo had to stray from his centrist commitments to adopt some Green demands he had not previously supported, including a ban on fracking, a $15 minimum wage, and paid family leave. Now Cuomo just wants to eliminate his competition from the left. As Trump bumbles around during the coronavirus crisis, it is not surprising that some Democrats talk of Cuomo stepping in to take the place of Joe Biden, the vacuous moderate who seems to be in hiding during the crisis even though he has the megaphone as the Democrats’ presumptive presidential nominee. Cuomo would be a more effective austerity autocrat than the ineffectual Biden and the incompetent Trump. Be careful what you wish for! Larry Carter Center on April 6, 2020 at 10:04 am Cuomo should be jailed like the 2 already IMPRISONED for Albany corruption Get on the list, and let's mobilize for an Ecosocialist Green New Deal and a hopeful future! #H20 #Howie2020	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line541
__label__cc	0.554065	0.445935	This InfoPage in unregistered, if this is your news page register Government of Russia for InfoPages here. Government of Russia - Latest News [Page 2] Putin Talks With Palestinian Mahmoud Abbas Saturday, 8 December 2007, 9:55 pm \| Government of Russia Mr Putin and Mr Abbas had a detailed exchange of views on the results of the international meeting on the Middle East and outlook for the peace process in Annapolis (USA). More >> Putin & Israeli PM Ehud Olmert Chat On The Phone Thursday, 6 December 2007, 11:21 pm \| Government of Russia The Israeli Prime Minister warmly congratulated Vladimir Putin on his success in the recent State Duma elections and highly praised United Russia's results in the elections. More >> Putin Congratulates Thai King On His 80 Birthday Thursday, 6 December 2007, 9:46 am \| Government of Russia "I have warm memories of our meeting in Bangkok in 2003, a meeting which made a great impression on my wife and I. We greatly value Your Majesty's contribution to strengthening the traditionally friendly relations and multifaceted cooperation between Russia ... More >> Putin Congratulated On Russian Election Success Tuesday, 4 December 2007, 8:20 am \| Government of Russia In a telephone conversation with French President Nicholas Sarkozy, who congratulated Mr Putin on the election victory, the two leaders exchanged views on current bilateral cooperation issues. More >> Putin's Call With President Of Turkey Abdullah Gul Saturday, 1 December 2007, 9:46 am \| Government of Russia The two leaders exchanged views on the current state of Russian-Turkish cooperation and the development prospects for relations. Mr Putin, who sent Mr Gul a telegram earlier in the day following the plane crash in Turkey, repeated his condolences ... More >> Putin At Heads Of Diplomatic Missions Reception Thursday, 29 November 2007, 7:14 pm \| Government of Russia Russia's growth rate remains high and we expect it to exceed seven percent this year. Direct foreign investment alone has increased from $4.4 billion in 2000 to $13.7 billion in 2006, and it showed a 2.5-fold increase over the first half of 2007 compared ... More >> Putin At Meeting With Armed Forces Snr Command Thursday, 22 November 2007, 12:12 pm \| Government of Russia Comrade generals, admirals, officers, we are here at this annual meeting in the Defence Ministry to sum up the results of work over this last period and outline measures for the Armed Forces' ongoing modernisation. More >> Putin Sends Condolences To Bangladesh President Tuesday, 20 November 2007, 11:21 am \| Government of Russia Mr Putin's telegram reads, in particular: "It was with great sorrow that I learned of the natural disaster that has struck Bangladesh - the cyclone that has taken hundreds of lives and caused immense material damage. More >> Putin Meets Leaders Of Muslim Organisations Wednesday, 14 November 2007, 8:44 am \| Government of Russia I would like to thank you for your important contribution to the moral education of our citizens, for your actions in the fight against all forms of extreme currents of thought, and for what you do in the fight against extremism. More >> Press Conference Following Russian-Indian Talks I am pleased to say that trade between our countries has picked up the pace over these last years: it increased by 27 percent in 2006 and was up 30 percent over the first eight months of this year. More >> Putin Meets Participants Of Arctic 2007 Expedition Wednesday, 8 August 2007, 9:11 pm \| Government of Russia Vladimir Putin met with participants of the North Pole research expedition Artur Chilingarov and Anatolii Sagalevich at his residence, where they told the President about the descent of the Mir deep-water submersibles at the North Pole. More >>	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line543
__label__wiki	0.567708	0.567708	New Weapons are in the Works to Fight Government Overreach Far more federal rules come from unelected bureaucrats at federal agencies rather than from Congress. But policymakers could get some new weapons in the fight against such overreach. January 5, 2016 \| Government Overreach According to the pollsters at Gallup, Americans think government is the nation’s top problem – ahead of even the economy, healthcare and unemployment in 2015. It’s not difficult to see why, when you consider that our federal government is responsible for a regulatory regime that has grown to a record of more than 82,000 pages in the Federal Register at a cost of around $2 trillion per year. What’s worse, is that far more rulemaking comes from unelected bureaucrats at federal agencies rather than elected officials in Congress. The Competitive Enterprise Institute calculated that Congress passed some 87 laws in 2015, as compared to 3,408 rules and regulations issued by federal agencies and bureaus. That’s around 39 rules and regulations for every law. 548 of those new rules affect small businesses, and may in turn impact employees and paychecks. Even though Congress hasn’t made the majority of government rules, it has the power to stop some of them. The 1996 Congressional Review Act allows Congress to review and overrule major federal agency regulations that would cost our economy $100 million or more per year. (35 of these expensive rules were published last year alone, by the way.) Despite this power, Congress has looked at only 43 rules since 1996. And disapproved of just one, even though regulatory overreach breaks down to nearly $15,000 per household per year – more than the average family spends on health care, food and transportation. More legislative help may be on the way though. The U.S. House of Representatives is expected this week to take up a pair of bills that tackle two different areas of federal regulation. One bill is the “Sunshine for Regulatory Decrees and Settlements Act” and would take steps toward stopping a practice called “sue and settle” by which organizations sue federal agencies and settle behind closed doors. The result often ends up with new regulations favorable to the suing organizations, with little to no public scrutiny. As the U.S. Chamber puts it, the process undermines the principles of open government and public participation. One “quintessential” example is the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan, which sets state-specific carbon-emission reduction guidelines to address climate change. A U.S. Senate Environmental and Public Works (EPW) Committee issued a report last year that found collusion between officials with the EPA and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a group that wanted the Clean Power Plan to include some of its own provisions. The Committee said the EPA and NRDC “shared information through private email accounts, held an informal meeting at a Starbucks in Washington, and even discussed the words that would be used to explain the plan to the public.” Yet people who would be directly impacted by the Clean Power Plan were involved in this negotiation. The “Sunshine” bill would change that. It would provide for more transparency by requiring agencies to publicly post and report to Congress information on sue-and-settle complaints, allow interested parties to take part in the litigation and settlement negotiations and provide a comment period after a settlement is reached. The other bill is called the “SCRUB Act” which aims to reduce the cost of regulations on the economy. The act would establish a commission to effectively “scrub” existing federal regulations for outdated and ineffective rules that should be repealed. Agencies would also be required to review all regulations within ten years. To learn more about the growing list of federal regulations, see our infographic here. For further reading on regulations’ impact on us, check out our Kitchen Table Economics lesson, “What does a regulation do to your paycheck?”	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line544
__label__cc	0.502159	0.497841	Statewide Film Screening Addressing Opiate Crisis Coming to Stonington Screenings raise awareness of the opiate epidemic across the state of Maine Island Health & Wellness Foundation Stonington, ME – Island Health & Wellness Foundation (IH&WF) is pleased to partner with the State of Maine and Points North Institute to bring the documentary Recovery Boys to the Stonington Opera House on Wednesday, December 4, 2019 at 5:00 p.m. This free event is part of a statewide documentary effort to raise awareness about the opioid crisis. Mary Herman will be in attendance. Ms. Herman is Maine’s former First Lady, who currently oversees Special Projects in the Office of Maine Department of Education and works closely with Gordon Smith, Governor Mills’ Director of Opiate Response, staffing the statewide Prevention Task Force. Recovery Boys (89 minutes), a Netflix documentary directed by Oscar-nominated director Elaine McMillion Sheldon, takes an intimate look at four men attempting to reinvent their lives and mend broken relationships after years of drug misuse. After the screening of the film, there will be a panel discussion where the community can ask questions of those who are experts in our area in the areas of substance use prevention, treatment and recovery. All the screening events across the state are free and open to the public. The Stonington event will also offer free refreshments, thanks to a grant from IH&WF. “We intend to use the films to raise awareness and generate critical public conversations in underserved communities in Maine, including rural communities, high schools and prisons. Through the screenings, we plan to grow our network of partners of medical institutions, high school teachers, social service providers, policymakers, law enforcement and legal professionals, and civil society organizations. By partnering on free public events, these stakeholders will have unique opportunities for creative and collaborative visioning of how various constituents can work together to better address the opioid crisis in Maine communities,” said Sean Flynn, program director of Points North Institute. Anne West, IH&WF’s Executive Director, adds, “We are very excited to be chosen as a location to show this film. It is a testimony to the work that this community has done to end the stigma and shame around substance use disorders. I hope that everyone will make a special effort to be in attendance on December 4th.” To find out more information about this event please contact Anne West at 367-5851 or at IHWF1966@gmail.com. This film is not recommended for children, but we encourage you to reach out to Anne directly if you would like to attend and need childcare. Would you like to stay up to date on what’s happening at the Island Medical Center? We’d love to add you to our email list.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line550
__label__wiki	0.814382	0.814382	Tag Archives: Saoirse Oscars 2019 Best Picture Review: Little Women By Jon The Blogcentric on 24 January 2020 \| 2 Comments The latest adaptation of Little Women stars Saoirse Ronan (top left) as Jo March and is adapted and directed by Greta Gerwig. I’m sure when most of you learned of Little Women about to be released, I bet most of you thought ‘not another Little Women adaptation.’ I admit I had those feelings at the start. However I was surprised to see how well it turned out. In 1868, Jo March is a teacher in New York City. She has writing ambitions and takes her writing frequently to Mr. Dashwood who will publish her writing… under considerable editing. Her younger sister Amy is in Paris under the guidance of her elder Aunt March who never married and despises the idea of marriage. She meets her love from back home, Laurie and invites her to a party, in which he gets drunk to her dismay. Jo’s writing ambitions are kept alive by a professor named Friedrich Bhaer who supports her work but is constructive but blunt in his critiquing of her works. However Jo has to put everything on hold when she receives a letter that her younger sister Beth is sick. She has to return back home. The film flashes back to the winter of 1861 in Massachusetts, just after the March’s father goes off to the Civil War, and the March sisters all dress up and prepare for a party where Jo meets Laurie, the grandson of their neighbor Mr. Laurence, for the first time. Just before Christmas dinner, the mother Marmee encourages the girls to give their food to their Mrs. Hummer and her group of hungry children. The girls return with a plentiful Christmas dinner thanks to Mr. Laurence and a letter from their father who just started fighting. During the trip, Jo is invited by her single elder Aunt March to come to Paris with her. Also during that winter, Amy is strapped by a teacher for her drawing in class and Laurie takes her in to his Latin lesson before her family arrives. It’s obvious as Amy has artistic ambitions and Jo has writing ambitions, their ambitions clash, often violently. One night as Jo is out with the family for an occasion, Amy burns the notes to her novel. Jo discovers upon returning, and a violent fight ensued. However all animosity ends when on an occasion while skating, the ice breaks under Amy and is in danger of drowning. Jo saves her. Also during that winter, Mr. Laurence invites Beth to play on his piano as she reminds him of his late daughter. Returning to 1868, Laurie apologizes to Amy for his drunken behavior the night before. He also begs Amy not to marry Fred Vaughn but marry him instead. That only makes Amy unhappy as she feels she’s ‘second to Jo’ at everything, including Laurie. Amy later rejects Fred’s proposal after she learns Laurie returned to London. Returning back to the past, there was a period of time when Marmee left to visit their father who was wounded during the War. During that time, Beth received a gift from Mr. Laurence: his piano! However she becomes ill with scarlet fever. With a weak heart, it means she might die. Her mother rushes home with their father, already recovered. All come home in time for Christmas and Amy is all better. However returning back to 1868, Amy dies shortly after Jo arrives from her train trip. The film flashes back to the past on the day Meg is about to be married. Jo doesn’t want her to marry, feeling Meg doesn’t want to marry, but Meg reminds her Jo’s ambitions may be different from Meg’s ambitions, but they’re still her ambitions. It’s on the day of the wedding Aunt March announces she will take Amy to Paris instead of Jo. Laurie admits his feelings for Jo after the wedding, but Jo insists she doesn’t have the same feelings. Returning back to 1868, a devastated Amy returns home with a dying Aunt March. Jo starts to wonder if she has second thoughts of her love to Laurie. She writes a letter confessing her feelings, but she soon learns Amy accepted Laurie’s proposal and rejected Fred Vaughn’s proposal. Jo later agrees with Laurie to just be friends. After she throws her letter of love to Laurie in the river, she’s inspired to write her novel about her and her sisters. She takes the novel to Mr. Dashwood who dismisses it because he believes a lead protagonist female who marries is what sells novels. Mr. Dashwood is given a change of heart when he learns his own young daughters love the story. However he’s still skeptical and wants Jo to make the lead protagonist marry. Jo is at first against it as it is sacrilegious to her work. However she compromises, but on one condition. She gets a $500 up-front publishing payment and more than the original 5% profits promised. She starts at 10% but compromises at 6.6%. The novel Little Women is set to be published and the school Jo and her sisters wanted to open is opened in what was Aunt March’s house with Bhaer teaching children at the school. This may be a film adapted from a novel written in 1868, but as one watches, one would be surprised to see its relevance for today. This may be a story set around the time of the US Civil War and in New England, but there are a lot of similarities to the present. One common theme is the competitiveness of sisters. We still have that. Ask any woman who comes from a family with a lot of girls! There’s also the story of women with desires and ambitions. Today’s young women have possibly the biggest ever ambitions for their future. Women may have had it rougher a century and a half ago, but it makes clear the ambitions the women shared, whether it be career ambitions, romance ambitions or artistic ambitions. We should remember from history that women had to work during the war while the men were fighting and that started suffrage groups and the first feminist groups. There’s dealing with dashing but stupid men, as seen in Laurie. There’s support and encouragement from others. There’s also the bond of the family. First of the March girls all live with their mother Marmee as they’re waiting for their father to come home from the war. Even dealing with the heartbreak of a sister that died too soon. For those that read the novel Little Women, I feel the reason why it became so popular is that women could see mirror images of themselves in the March sisters. They shared similar goals, similar trials, similar ambitions and similar dreams. Here in the film, I felt the characters of the March girls were made to look very relatable to most young females of today. Now Little Women has already been adapted into a film many times before. In fact this is the seventh film adaptation of the novel if you even include adaptations as far back as the silent era. To make people welcome a film adaptation of this in the present, there would have to be a freshness or a twist that works. Having it a case where Beth is one with no intentions to marry is a risky thing. I feel it did the smart thing by having it a case where Jo is the author of Little Women and trying to market it, and using the money to build the school, is a brave decision. I don’t think it does anything too sacrilegious to the book. In fact the character of Jo is to mirror that of Louisa. What the film does is actually give two alternatives of Jo: the Jo that’s common in the novel and the Jo who’s more of a reflection of Louisa’s own life and strong will when she deals with Mr. Dashwood. It’s a unique twist for Greta to make it happen. Plus instead of it defying the story, it actually adds a unique twist to it that works. Top accolades of the film should go to director Greta Gerwig. This could have been another rehash of a commonly-adapted novel. Instead Greta adapts the story to make it very relatable to young women in today’s world and even adding a twist to the story without ruining the dignity of the original story. Gerwig bends instead of breaks. Even the constant flashes between the past and present work well. The best acting comes from Saoirse Ronan. Again she does an excellent acting performance that adds dimension and charm and speaks to the audience. Florence Pugh is also great as Amy: Jo’s most rivalrous sister and very good at stealing the show from Jo at times. Emma Watson and Eliza Scanlen are also very good as sisters Meg and Beth. Laura Dern is also good as Marmee, but her role is limited in dimension. Meryl Streep is also given a brief role as Miss March, but she delivers a character that commands your attention each time. Timothee Chalamet was good as the idiotic Laurie, but I feel he didn’t act 1860’s-ish enough. The film also has a lot of great standout technical efforts too. There’s the costuming of Jacqueline Durran, there’s the score composition from Alexandre Desplat, the set design from Jess Gonchor and Claire Kaufman and there’s the cinematography of Yorick Le Saux. The most recent adaptation of Little Women does the book justice, but it adds a twist at the end. I’m sure even the biggest fans of the novel will be happy how the film turns out. Posted in: Entertainment - Film and Movies, Movie Reviews: 2019, Oscars 2019 Best Picture Reviews \| Tagged: Alcott, Alexandre, Bob, Chalamet, Dern, Desplat, Eliza, Emma, Florence, Gerwig, Greta, Laura, Letts, Little, Louisa, March, May, Meryl, Odenkirk, Pugh, Ronan, Saoirse, Scanlen, Streep, Timothee, Tracy, Watson, women Animated Movies Review By Jon The Blogcentric on 19 February 2018 \| 1 Comment 2016 was a stellar year for animated movies from Zootopia to Moana to Kubo And The Two Strings to Finding Dory. 2016’s line-up gave people lots of reason to come to the movie theatres. 2017 was very lackluster in comparison. We’re talking about a year when The Boss Baby was nominated for Best Animated Feature and even the mere existence of The Emoji Movie. 2017 almost made it look like if Sausage Party were released that year instead, it would be a Best Animated Feature nominee! However the best animated movies of 2017 slowly made its way on the screen in the latter months of 2017. I was lucky to see Ferdinand, Coco and Loving Vincent: three of the best of the year. When I was about to see Ferdinand, I wondered how they would able to take the small story and turn it into a feature-length picture. I myself remember an animated short made by the Walt Disney studios made decades ago that was very humorous. However I wondered how would a feature-length adaptation play out? The story starts out well with an entertaining look, but a bit of sadness at the beginning. As it progresses to adult Ferdinand, Ferdinand is funny and charming as a husky but flower-loving bull. John Cena adds to the characterization of full-grown Ferdinand. The characters of Lupe, Una and the other bulls add to the story. There were times I wondered how will they get to where Ferdinand is scouted out by his accidental outburst? How will it be written out? Although it’s not true to the fable, the writers were able to create a way for Ferdinand to be discovered and sent to the bull rings to fight. Another case that had me wondering was right in the middle of the story. It had me wondering how on earth the story would have a happy ending? Of course the film needed to have a kid-friendly happy ending, but in a situation where the bull either becomes a fighting bull who dies in the ring or to the slaughterhouse as meat? Nevertheless the writers were able to make the story work with good events to the plot and not just simply drag it out over the time. Even creating an ending where Ferdinand wins over the crowd and getting them to want him to live works for the film. For the most part, Ferdinand is not all about the type of intricate story you’d expect to find in a Disney/Pixar film. Instead Ferdinand is about creating a charming modern adaptation of the short fable with charming and entertaining characters. It succeeds in charming the audience as well as entertaining the children. Despite the story being elongated into a feature-length picture, the film does not waste time. It succeeds in being entertaining. It also adds in some other elements that gets one nervous of what will happen to Ferdinand, even if they know the story. The story works in its feature-length and will not disappoint fans of the fable. It’s also good at winning crowds too as it made a good $282 million at the worldwide box office. Very often you know the Disney/Pixar collaboration will deliver something fresh and original in its arsenal that’s able to win us over. This year, they deliver Coco. Coco is unique because it’s of a Mexican family situated in Mexico. The question is will they make something original and unique entertaining to the public? The team of writers and animators at Disney/Pixar are known for their innovations and their frequently-successful way of trying new concepts. First there was 1995’s Toy Story: the first-ever 3D animated feature. Then came A Bug’s Life which created an engaging story revolving around insects. Then Finding Nemo not only told a story about fish, but successfully took us to another world. The Incredibles was good at teaching morals in an entertaining way. Ratatouille made an entertaining story involving a rat. Wall-E magically gave us an engaging story about two robots in love with very little dialogue. It was Brave where they not only gave us their first female protagonist, but welcomed a female writer on their ‘dream team.’ And there was Inside Out which made character out of emotions. Coco is not just a new movie from the Disney/Pixar collaboration, but a new chapter for them. They hired Mexican/American writer Adrian Molina as the scriptwriter along with Matthew Aldrich. Molina had already been part of Pixar as a 2D animator for Ratatouille, a storyboard artists for Toy Story 3 and Monsters University, and even wrote the script for Walt Disney Studios’ The Good Dinosaur. The voice cast is predominantly of Mexicans or Mexican Americans. Disney/Pixar even hired a ‘cultural consultant’ group of three Mexican-Americans including one former CEO of the Mexican Heritage Corp to make sure they were doing a film respectful of Mexican people. The result is a film that has garnered praise even from both critics and even Mexican-American communities. The film even received excellent reviews from Latin American film critics. The film was also a top box office winner having grossed $730 million so far. Even in Mexico, it spent three weeks at #1 in the Mexican box office and grossed a total of $57.8 million in Mexico. Now the film itself does what Disney/Pixar films have a reputation for: taking the audience to a new world. Here they give an excellent depiction of the Land Of The Dead that looks very intricate and maybe too big, but succeeds in making sense to the viewer. Once again the animation team does an excellent job in creating this new world and even the smallest detail is done with perfection. Once again Disney/Pixar is tops in animation quality. However there was one time I was confused by the story. I’ll admit like most, I thought Ernesto was the great-great-grandfather. I was shocked when I learned that Ernesto killed Hector with poison. It left me wondering if Miguel’s great-great-grandfather was in fact a dirty killer. Even seeing Ernesto send Miguel to die in the cenote pit left me shocked. ‘Why would Ernesto do this to his own great-great-grandson?’ It’s in the pit with Hector that we learn that Hector is really the great-great-grandfather. That was a relief. It was there where it became better sense why Miguel needed to redeem the name of the family through the spirit of Hector. The story was very well-written and very entertaining. Also the song ‘Remember Me’ is an excellent song for the movie that makes for the perfect tearjerker moment you don’t feel manipulated by. One again Disney/Pixar delivers a masterpiece in Coco. It is as top-quality as it is magical to watch. Now the previous two films in which I just talked about are both the more family-friendly films. Loving Vincent is the polar opposite of both. It’s not cute, it’s less family-friendly, and it’s not even 3D computerized animation. It also didn’t even make $10 million at the box office. Nevertheless it is charming in its own ways. The film is a plot where Armand Roulin is asked by his father Joseph to deliver a letter from Vincent Van Gogh who died a year earlier to his brother Theo. After learning Theo died, Armand looks to find the right person to give the letter to. Throughout the journey, Armand tries to get the answer to whether Vincent’s death was a suicide or not? He was released from a hospital after found to be in good mental capacity six weeks before. Armand comes across many people in Vincent’s life. Some have positive things to say. Some negative things. All have something to say about the person of Vincent, the various people he met with or fought against, and his personal feelings before his death. This still leaves Armand confused and his question of Vincent’s death unanswered. It’s right after Dr. Gachet promises to give the letter to Theo’s widow that he learns van Gogh’s suicide wasn’t of mental agony, but to free himself and his brother. Later Armand receives a letter from Theo’s widow thanking him. This animated film about Vincent Van Gogh couldn’t be a simple animated film. Instead this is a film in which the images were done by 100 painters trained to paint like Van Gogh. The object of the film was to create a story involving characters of people Van Gogh painted and was close to in his life across a backdrop that’s just like the paintings he painted. Basically an animated story about Van Gogh that captures the essence of Van Gogh’s art. The story may be fictional, but it succeeds in playing out like a Van Gogh painting. It even gets one that knows very little about Van Gogh’s works or his life intrigued. It even gets fans of Van Gogh’s art admiring the film for capturing the essence of the artist and his works. I also like how the film ended as “Vincent (Starry Starry Night)” was playing. It would make those who never understood what the song was all about understand it better. So there’s my look at three of the best animated films of 2017. All three are nominated for an Oscar for Best Animated Feature. All three are enjoyable in their own way. Posted in: Entertainment - Film and Movies, Movie Reviews: 2017 \| Tagged: Adrian, Aldrich, Altitude, Anderson, Animated, Anthony, Benjamin, Bernal, Blue, Bobby, Bratt, Cannavale, Carlos, Cena, Coco, Disney, Distribution, Dorota, Edward, Ferdinand, film, Gael, Garcia, Gonzalez, Gulaczyk, Hugh, James, John, Kobiela, Lee, Loving, Manning, Matthew, Molina, Olmos, Peyton, Pixar, Robert, Ronan, Saldanha, Saoirse, Sky, Studios, Unkrich, Van Gogh, Vincent, Welchman Oscars 2017 Best Picture Review: Lady Bird Lady Bird is about a 17 year-old girl (played by Saoirse Ronan) dealing with her life and her future, and her mother (played by Laurie Metcalf) trying to steer her in the right direction. Lady Bird is a top contender for this year’s Academy Awards. If you’ve seen it, you can see how this film is not a typical ‘teen movie’ and actually a story with a lot packed in. Christine McPherson is a frustrated 17 year-old girl living in Sacramento in 2002. She has a stormy relationship with her parents as well as her adoptive brother and his girlfriend. To make things more frustrating, she’s put in Catholic school for Grade 12 because there was a shooting at her public school. She appears unclear about her life direction and frequently insists that all people refer to her as ‘Lady Bird,’ including family. Starting school, she has a close friendship with Julie Steffans whom she joins the drama club with. Through the club, she meets a sweet talented boy named Danny O’Neill. They soon start dating and they appear to be a match made in heaven until Lady Bird catches Danny in a bathroom stall kissing another boy. Throughout her time at the school, Lady Bird develops a mean streak of rebelliousness. One minute, she’s consuming Eucharist wafers with Julie. The next, she vandalizes the nuns’ car with a sing saying “Just married to Jesus.” Another moment, she lashes out at a pro-life speaker who visits her school, which leads to a two-week suspension. This leads to a lot of friction with her friend Julie who sees her as one who does things for attention. During this time, it all leads to a lot of friction with her mother Marion, who has a lot of high expectations for Lady Bird and her life, especially with applying for colleges. Marion often feels that Lady Bird lacks goals or appears like she doesn’t want to do anything meaningful with her life. Marion feels that way because she had to work hard to achieve. This generation gap appears to Lady Bird that her mother is an interference to her life and her own goals. To make family struggles worse, her father loses his job and is struggling with depression. Lady Bird tries to escape from those headaches. She gets a job at a cafe where she meets Kyle Schieble, a boy from school she knows is part of a rock band. She strays away from Julie and starts hanging out with popular girl Jenna Walton. She sees opportunity after Jenna was reprimanded by the school for wearing short skirts. Thus Lady Bird bring Jenna into the ‘just married to Jesus’ prank. However none of her efforts to mix with the ‘cool kids’ works out. She lied to Jenna about her house so she can fit in, but Jenna finds the truth out. Also she agrees to have sex with Kyle, believing his claim that he’s a virgin, only to find out he’s had other girls before. As graduation nears, things change for the better for Lady Bird. She gets a letter from a college in New York saying she’s on the waiting list, though she tells her mother she’s been accepted. She’s willing to go shopping for a prom dress with her mother. Her relationship with her brother and his girlfriend gets better as he gets a major job. On prom night, she forsakes a party with Jenna and Kyle to meet up with Julie. There, she rekindles the friendship and they go to the prom together. She even attends Danny’s school performance. Over at the graduation party, Lady Bird admits to her mother that she was on the waiting list to the university in New York, to which Marion appears either hurt or angry. Lady Bird’s 18th birthday comes soon after. Marion has a letter written for Lady Bird to read when she’s settled in her college dorm. Then it’s the flight to New York. Marion does not talk to Lady Bird, appearing like she’s disappointed with her. Marion even drives away when Lady Bird enters the airport, but cries soon after. It’s in her first month in New York after reading the letter and a near-fatal bout of alcohol poisoning that she leaves a heartfelt message to her mother. The biggest quality of this film is that it’s a story many people can relate to. Sure, it’s about a 17-year-old tart-tongued girl from Sacramento who’s clueless about which direction to go, but one will find themselves relating to this story. Many can watch what Lady Bird is going through at school, through her job, through falling in love, or through her stormy relationship with her mother and say: “That’s also what I went through,” or “That was my attitude at 17,” or “I knew someone like that.” One of the things is about the character of Lady Bird is that despite her eccentricities, it also captures the essence of being a seventeen year-old well. Seventeen is that bizarre age where one is just a year away from becoming an adult. It’s a bumpy road as they are in the process of defining one’s self and making choices of what direction in life they want to pursue. We see that in all of the seventeen year-old characters in the film like Julie, the best friend who’s a social misfit, Jenna who thinks she’s too cool, Kyle who thinks he’s all that just like every rock star, and Danny who’s struggling with being gay in a conservative Catholic family. Lady Bird is at the centre of being seventeen. The character of Lady Bird captures being 17 in a lot of its best traits, but also in some of its worst traits too. Lady Bird is all about her self-definition where she feels she has to find herself in the drama club. Lady Bird is one who also still feels social pressures despite her individualism and tries to fit in with the cool students despite leaving close friends behind. Lady Bird is also about her spiritual confusion too. She wants to be an individual and think for herself, even rebel against the Catholic Church at times, but somehow shows that she longs to believe in a god despite her rebellion. Lady Bird is also about having that teen frustration towards her parents, especially her mother. In fact, the mother-daughter relationship between Lady Bird and Marion has to be one of the biggest elements of the film, if not the biggest. Lady Bird has desires for her life, but Marion has goals for her. Often Lady Bird feels she has to explode at Marion, but she learns to calm down and have the normal frustration a 17 year-old has to their mother. As for parent-teen relations, the film is also about Marion too. The personalities of Marion and Lady Bird are like oil and water trying to mix. Marion had her own upbringing and her own difficulties resonate in her personality and even how she raises Lady Bird. Marion feels that the best way she can steer Lady Bird down the right path is to tell her off about her misdoings and wrong directions. She has expectations for Lady Bird, but often feels she falls short. Over time, Marion becomes more accepting of Lady Bird, but she does show disappointment when she finds out Lady Bird lied about her application. That scene near the end where Marion is unemotional in the ride to the airport but cries after dropping Lady Bird off is an example of her personality. I’m sure many people first thought that this film would be about Lady Bird Johnson. The funniest thing about this film is that there is not a single reference to the former First Lady! Not even a case of one of her classmates uttering out: “Hey Lady Bird, where’s LBJ?” The true star of the film isn’t exactly an actor, but writer/director Greta Gerwig. After years of having an acting career of mixed results, she came up with this story that is not completely biographical. There are some similarities in Lady Bird that tie into Greta’s own teenage years, but Gerwig insists it’s its own story. Whatever the situation, Gerwig did an excellent job of constructing an entertaining story about a 17 year-old that anyone could relate to. I’m sure anyone no matter what race or gender can identify with moments in Lady Bird to moments in their own life at 17. Additional top kudos go to Saoirse Ronan for delivering a character that is quirky, but shares a lot of common traits of teens. She does an excellent job of making the role of Lady Bird multi-dimensional. Also worthy of praise is the performance of Laurie Metcalf. She succeeds in turning this film into Marion’s story as much as it is Lady Bird’s story. She’s good at capturing the essence of the mother of a teenager both inside and out. She also does a good job of blending in Marion’s own personality traits of hardship and having a hard attitude. Laurie’s also very good at leaving out all traces of Jackie from Roseanne. Fans of the show would be surprised how different she acts here. The actors in their supporting roles also did a great job of owning their moment. The most noticeable being Beanie Feldstein as the best friend who sometimes appears to be Lady Bird’s better half, Lucas Hedges as a boy who loves to act but is troubled by his sexuality in school, Timothee Chalamet as the teenage bad boy girls drool over but parents hate, Stephen McKinley Henderson as the priest that’s troubled on the inside, Jordan Rodrigues as the brother caught in the middle, and Tracy Letts as the father trying to make sense of it all. Lady Bird is a quirky and humorous film about a mother-daughter relationship and the difficulties of being seventeen. Despite its off-the-wall humor, it’s also deep and touching and will resonate with the audience. Posted in: Entertainment - Film and Movies, Movie Reviews: 2017, Oscars 2017 Best Picture Reviews \| Tagged: Beanie, Bird, Chalamet, Feldstein, Gerwig, Greta, Hedges, Henderson, Lady, Laurie, Letts, lois, Lucas, Metcalf, Odeya, Ronan, Rush, Saoirse, Smith, Stephen, Timothee, Tracy Oscars 2015 Best Picture Review: Brooklyn By Jon The Blogcentric on 20 January 2016 \| 1 Comment Brooklyn is the story of Irish girl Eilis (played by Saoirse Ronan) who comes to America and is swept away by a Brooklyn boy (played by Emory Cohen). Brooklyn looks like a film that would be a favorite for a Best Picture Oscar, under traditional standards. Nevertheless it’s worth seeing. It’s 1952 and Eilis Lacey is about to emigrate from Ireland to the United States through the arrangements of her sister Rose. It’s not like Eilis will miss much. Life in her hometown of Enniscorthy has been redundant as she works at the mercantile run by the spiteful Miss Kelly part-time and she’s also unable to win the affection of a man at the local dance hall while her best friend has better luck. So what does she have to lose? She bids a tearful farewell to her mother and sister Rose as she departs. The ship ride is trying as she has to cope with rocky waves that make her seasick and cabin neighbors who lock her out of the bathroom. Nevertheless she finds a cabin mate whom she gets along with well. Her cabin mate is actually on her second trip to the United States returning home. She gives her advise on what to do at immigration and informs her of what to anticipate in the United States. Once in New York she makes her home at an Irish boarding house in Brooklyn run by a traditionalist woman housing young women. She’s able to find a job at a Manhattan department store but is uneasy with it at first. She meets with Fr. Flood who helped her make her job arrangements and she’s able to enroll in bookkeeping classes. She goes to dances at the Irish hall but is surprised to learn the young man who’s interested in her is Italian. He’s smitten over her but she’s reluctant to admit she loves him. Eventually she finally does and meets his family. Unfortunately tragedy in back in Ireland interrupts her stay in Brooklyn. Fr. Flood informs Eilis that her sister Rose died and her mother doesn’t know how to cope. Before returning to Ireland, Tony wants to marry Eilis. They wed secretly in a courthouse. Upon returning to Enniscorthy, Eilis already has a return to Brooklyn planned out but over time she feels more at home. Her best friend is about to marry, she gets offered an accounting job on an emergency basis at her sister’s business, and she wins the affections of Jim Farrell, an eligible bachelor who stands to inherit huge property. Over time she wins the love of Jim, gets admiration from her workplace and starts falling in love with the town she left behind. It’s like the life that eluded her before she left has happened once she returned. Her feeling at home in Enniscorthy has left her comfortable to the point she doesn’t open the letters Tony send her. None of them. However a visit to Miss Kelly and what she has to say to Eilis seals her fate and where she makes her final decision. This film is one that will remind one of Oscar winners or nominees of the past. Often you think you’re watching a film that would’ve had what it took to win Best Picture 20 years ago. However what it does is it helps bring back the magic of those films set in the past and takes one back to an easier time. Usually nostalgia pictures like these have become too cookie-cutter over the years especially as the critical ‘powers that be’ in the film world have recently been giving the lauds to more innovative fare. I will admit myself this looks like something the Weinstein brothers would have shelled out during their Miramax days. However the film succeed in making such a nostalgia film a refreshing alternative around the awards season. The film even adds a certain charm or magic that seemed to be missing in a lot of nostalgia films as of late. It’s a question what the film’s best quality is. Whether it’s the story line or setting of the environment. However I think the best quality of the film has to be a very relatable story. Sure, we’ve seen many Ellis Island or ‘Coming To America’ stories before. What I feel is the movie’s best quality is a common story that’s relatable time over time. In fact just last week, a person I know who came here from Ireland years ago and just received her permanent residency just this month said she saw the film and it reminded her of her own homesickness and even her own frustrations of not knowing what will happen next or whether things will work out for the better. Reminiscing over the film, I think that’s it. I believe its magic is this is a common story that any Irish immigrant to the United States, whether they came early in the 20th century or in the 50’s like Eilis or even just recently, can relate to and even see themselves and their own stories in that film. Saoirse Ronan is the perfect pick for Eilis Lacey. She has the grace and the youthfulness to play her well. She also does a very good job of playing a young woman from back in the 1950’s with the elegance and innocence coming with it. Overall, Ronan’s role of Eilis is the centerpiece of the film. Nevertheless there are good performances from the other actors despite not having as complex of roles. There’s Julie Walters who did a good job as Madge Kehoe as well as Jim Broadbent as Fr. Flood. There are even those that give comic relief like Emily Rickards and Eileen O’Higgins as Patty and Nancy, Eilis’ two laughing girl friends in Brooklyn, and James DiGiacomo as Tony’s littlest brother Frankie who knows how to steal the show. There were however roles that could have been more. Firstly, Emory Cohen was also good as Tony Fiorello and had the right charm to play him but the role lacked complexity. Also there were times I feel Jane Brennan’s role as Mrs. Lacey and Domhnall Gleeson’s role as Jim Farrell could have been more. Nick Hornby wrote a very good adaptation for the screen despite having some underdeveloped roles. John Crowley also did a good job in direction. This film should be considered the Irish director’s North American breakthrough. The technical aspects of the film like the sets, the costuming, the hair and the make-up worked perfectly for the film as it fit the times and the cities perfectly. Michael Brook also gave a fitting score to the film. Brooklyn may look like your common Ellis Island story but it’s a film that does all the right moves and captures the right feel that makes this film great. Posted in: Entertainment - Film and Movies, Movie Reviews: 2015, Oscars 2015 Best Picture Reviews \| Tagged: Broadbent, Brooklyn, Cohen, Colm, Crowley, Domhnall, Emory, Gleeson, Hornby, Jim, John, Julie, Nick, Ronan, Saoirse, Toibin, Walters Oscars 2014 Best Picture Review: The Grand Budapest Hotel By Jon The Blogcentric on 2 February 2015 \| 1 Comment A hotel owner and his lobby boy (played by Tony Revoloro and Ralph Fiennes) go on a bizarre adventure in The Grand Budapest Hotel. Anyone else here who missed seeing The Grand Budapest Hotel back when it was released in the spring? Yes, I’m guilty of that too. I can blame it on things like me being tired right after last year’s Oscar season to having a lot of preoccupations in my life at that time. This year’s Oscar race sent me the message of what I missed out on the first time. I finally saw it on DVD a few days ago and I now finally see why it ranks among one of the best of 2014. This is another review of mine where I won’t give an analysis of the plot. Instead I will put focus on the movie’s strengths and possible flaws. This film is quite typical of what to expect from a Wes Anderson film. It has an eccentric situation along with eccentric characters and a lot of comedy along the way. However this movie has its charm: the common charming eccentricity with Wes Anderson movies that continuously attract fans of his movies and moviegoers looking for something different. It’s also a trademark charm of the director that does not run stale with their movies time after time and continues to be enjoyable. This too is a film that offers a lot and doesn’t make a whole lot of sense at first but makes sense as it goes along. It starts with a young girl paying honor to a writer in the present. Then flashing back to the writer in 1985 talking about hearing from Zero the owner of the practically lifeless Grand Budapest Hotel in 1968 about why he won’t close it down and Zero flashing back to 1932 to explain the whole story why. Wow, a lot of flashing back! The story itself unravels itself over time with its various chapters from Zero joining the hotel as an orphaned lobby boy to the fictional country of Zubrowska nearing war to the owner Monsieur Gustave’s affair with Madame D to inheriting her most coveted painting much to the anger of her own family who hoped to have it to being framed for her murder. Yes, already bizarre. However the colorfulness comes with Zero’s love for the cakemaker Agatha whom he eventually becomes engaged to and helps bake cakes with escape tools. The situation gets weirder as an assassin is on pursuit for him and the hotel needs to be managed, especially since news about a second will from Madame D is in existence somewhere. It’s after a pursuit while at a winter sport’s to kill off the assassin that the can return to the hotel only to find it overtaken by soldiers in the war and police on the hunt for Gustave. As you can tell, this all makes for a bizarre confusing story and even leave you wondering about why the hotel is still in existence. Understanding it means having to see the story for itself from beginning to end. There may be some confusing moments along the way and even a lot of eccentric humor but you will understand it and even the reason why a mountaintop hotel that’s completely useless is still in existence. You’ll even understand why the lobby boy is the only person in the world Gustave can trust wholeheartedly and would eventually own it. It’s no wonder Wes had to write a story along with his writing partner Hugo Guinness in order to bring this to the screen and make it work. There are even times when I felt the story resembled Farewell To Arms, albeit with Wes Anderson’s dark humor intertwined into the story. Actually the credits in the end say the film was inspired by the readings of Stefan Zweig. I’ve never read Zweig’s writings so it’s hard for me to judge on that factor. Nevertheless the fact that Zweig was an Austrian Jew who fled to Brazil for refuge where he died may have some bearing on this. Even seeing how the character of The Writer looks like Zweig gives a hint. Whatever the situation and even if the story does not go as well as you hoped it would, it does leave you feeling that it does end as it should. Despite this film being another excellent work from Wes Anderson, we shouldn’t forget that this is also because of the excellent ensemble of actors. Many of which have already acted in Wes Anderson movies of the past. Here they deliver well as a whole to make the movie enjoyable and true to Anderson’s style of humor and style of film making. However it also succeeds well with those who have never acted in a Wes Anderson movie before, like lead Ralph Fiennes. He delivers a character that’s humorous and true to the humor of the movie. Newcomer Tony Revolori also adds to the charm of the movie as the young bellboy who becomes Gustave’s partner in crime as does Saoirse Ronan as Agatha. You can easily see why she won his heart. Even minor roles from other Anderson first-timers like Jude Law and F. Murray Abraham add to the story. Even the technical aspects of the story are excellent. The costumes designed by Milena Canonero are perfect to a T in this movie as is the set design and the makeup and hair. All these elements fit the times they’re set in and add to the film’s charm. The cinematography by Robert Yeoman fit the story well and the music from Alexandre Desplat also fit the film. The interesting thing to note is that The Grand Budapest Hotel is Wes Anderson’s highest-grossing film ever with $59.1 million in North America and almost $175 million worldwide. Buzz for the film first started after it won the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. Buzz continued after it continuously impressed film festival after film festival. Although his box office total in North America is not too impressive, it should be seen as respectable as it opened around the same time as the summer movie phenomenon that was happening. It made for a nice humorous alternative to the overhyped summer schlock. The Grand Budapest Hotel is a DVD worth watching. We all didn’t know what we were missing during the summer and now we can finally see why. Posted in: Entertainment - Film and Movies, Movie Reviews: 2014, Oscars 2014: Best Picture Reviews \| Tagged: Abraham, Adrien, Anderson, Bill, Brody, Budapest, Dafoe, Edward, F. Murray, Fiennes, Goldblum, Grand, Hotel, Jeff, Jude, Law, Murray, Norton, Ralph, Revolori, Ronan, Saoirse, Tony, Wes, Willem	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line556
__label__cc	0.608174	0.391826	User-accessible Content From 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 1994 1993 1992 1991 1990 — To 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 1994 1993 1992 1991 1990 You are looking at 91 - 93 of 93 items for : "terpenes" x Sort by RelevanceArticle A - ZArticle Z - AAuthor A - ZAuthor Z - ADate - Old to RecentDate - Recent to Old Page:12345678910 A Review of Pepino (Solanum muricatum Aiton) Fruit: A Quality Perspective Carolina Contreras, Mauricio González-Agüero, and Bruno G. Defilippi ≈270 volatile compounds ( Dimick and Hoskin, 1982 ), a tomato produces close to 400 volatiles ( Buttery, 1993 ), and a strawberry ≈360 volatiles ( McFadden et al., 1965 ). These volatile chemicals fall into several categories including terpenes, esters In HortScience Volume 51 (2016): Issue 9 (Sep 2016) Nano- and Micro- Carnauba Wax Emulsions versus Shellac Protective Coatings on Postharvest Citrus Quality Marcela Miranda, Xiuxiu Sun, Christopher Ference, Anne Plotto, Jinhe Bai, David Wood, Odílio Benedito Garrido Assis, Marcos David Ferreira, and Elizabeth Baldwin terpenes, esters, and an aldehyde (limonene, myrcene, α-pinene, γ-terpinene, ethyl hexanoate, and decanal among others) ( Fig. 4A ). For ‘Unique’ tangors, there were not many volatile differences after 14 d at 10 °C for any of the treatments, which were In Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science Volume 146 (2021): Issue 1 (Jan 2021) Anomalies in Structure, Growth Characteristics, and Nutritional Composition as Induced by 2,4-Dichlorophenoxy Acetic Acid Drift Phytotoxicity in Grapevine Leaves and Clusters Bhaskar R. Bondada , herbivory, and pathogen attack ( Kutschera, 2008 ). They accomplish such roles by synthesizing and accumulating a wide range of secondary metabolites, including flavonoids, wax precursors, terpenes, and alkaloids ( Bondada et al., 1994 , 1996 ; Dudareva et In Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science Volume 136 (2011): Issue 3 (May 2011)	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line558
__label__cc	0.677814	0.322186	is a Jean Monnet Lecturer in EU Public Law at the National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG). Laurent joined the Law Faculty of NUIG in 2004 and teaches EU Constitutional Law, EU Substantive Law, EU Competition Law as well as Law and Regulation on various programmes offered by the Faculty. He holds a Doctorate in Law and a Master’s degree in Public Law from the Faculty of Law of Aix-en-Provence (France). He graduated in 1996 from the Institute of Political Studies of Aix-en-Provence and studied at the University of Limerick (1994-1995) and at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1996-1997). From 1998 to 2003, he worked as a Teaching Assistant at the Faculty of Law of Aix-en-Provence. Laurent also successively held the position of lawyer to the Office of the High Representative in Bosnia-Herzegovina (1999) and the position of Legal Clerk for Professor Louis Favoreu, one of the three international judges of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina (2000-2001). Before being appointed to his current position, he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Canada Research Chair on Globalization, Citizenship and Democracy (2003-2004). A Union Based on the Rule of Law? Current and Forthcoming State of the Rule of Law in the European Union and Combating Racism, Genocide-Denial and Incitement to Terrorism through EU Law: The Implications for Free Speech (1) A Union Based on the Rule of Law? Current and Forthcoming State of the Rule of Law in the European Union: The EU is not a "State" in the classical meaning of constitutional law, yet it is said to be based on the principle of the rule of law. This study will first consider this principle from a conceptual point of view. Although the EU Treaty refers to Etat de droit or Rechtsstaat in the French and German versions of the EU Treaty respectively, can these national concepts deem to be equivalent? The "structural defects" of the EU's constitutional framework will also be explored. The objective is to examine whether the current EC be properly described as "a Community based on the rule of law" and to question whether the positive yet limited character of the reforms contained in the Lisbon Treaty will not make it difficult for the European Court of Justice, were the 2007 Lisbon Treaty to be ratified, to accurately state that the EU is "a Union based on the rule of law." The author will finally suggest a set of reforms to guarantee better compliance with the principle of the rule of law at EU level. (2) Combating Racism, Genocide-Denial and Incitement to Terrorism through EU Law: The Implications for Free Speech: Laurent Pech will explore the implications of the EU Framework Decision on combating terrorism and a new EU Framework Decision on combating racism and xenophobia for freedom of expression in light of US free speech law, European and international law norms dealing with hate speech and terrorism. This study will also review the dangers of the proposal to extend EU law to cover "gulag denial" and will defend the view that the latest attempt to combat genocide denial at EU level will eventually result in the criminalization of mere unpopular or controversial views that might cause ethnic or religious offence. The author will finally examine whether the creation of an EU offence to punish the dissemination of terrorist propaganda can be at all effective at curbing "terrorist" propaganda.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line559
__label__wiki	0.928957	0.928957	Keeps Wiki Simply Explaining FAQs Health FAQs Players Salary Movies FAQs Tammy Abraham Net Worth & career goals Tammy Abraham Net Worth & career goals-His full name is Kevin Oghenetega Tamaraebi Bakumo-Abraham. He is a 22 years old English professional footballer who plays as a striker for Premier League club Chelsea and the England national team. He was an England youth international, Abraham represented the nation from under-18 level and featured at the 2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship in Poland. He made his senior debut in November 2017. In this article, we shall be looking at Tammy Abraham Net Worth & career goals Read Also; Marcelo Vieira Salary, Net Worth and Early life Tammy Abraham Net Worth Meanwhile, in 2015, Tammy signed a professional contract with the Chelsea club in the amount of $ 1.248 million. And in 2017, the footballer signed a new 5-year contract with Chelsea for $ 13 million. The sportsman’s salary amounted to 2.6 million per year Currently, Tammy Abraham has an estimated net worth of bout $9 million Tammy Abraham career goals The professional English footballer is a graduate of Chelsea academy, he made his senior debut for the club in 2016 before spending a season on loan with Championship club Bristol City. There, he enjoyed a successful campaign in which he won the club’s Player of the Season, Young Player of the Season and top goalscorer awards, becoming the first player ever to do so in a single season. Abraham scored his first goal in a 4–1 League Cup win over League One team Milton Keynes Dons, before scoring his first Premier League goal in his next match, opening the scoring in a 2–0 victory over Crystal Palace. On 14 October 2017, he scored his first brace for his club in a 2–0 win over newly-promoted Huddersfield Town which secured Swansea their first home win of the season “Abraham has a whooping estimated net worth of about $9 million” “Meanwhile, let’s know if this post was helpful by sharing your opinion, using the comments box below and also remember to share the post on your various social media platforms” Published March 14, 2020 By Kenny Categorized as Players Salary Tagged Tammy Abraham, Tammy Abraham career goals, Tammy Abraham Net Worth E-waste Scholarship 2020/2021 For United States Citizens How to create a Spotify account \| Spotify Sign up How To Delete Mnet Account \| Deactivate Account How To Delete Secret Benefits Account \| Deactivate Account How To Delete Pastebin Account \| Deactivate Account How To Delete Mathway Account \| Deactivate Account How To Delete Magoosh Account \| Deactivate Account Keeps Wiki Categories	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line570
__label__wiki	0.986916	0.986916	© The Walt Disney Company (1916–2006). American filmmaker Richard Fleischer directed a number of popular movies. He is perhaps best known for the science-fiction classics 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), Fantastic Voyage (1966), and Soylent Green (1973). Fleischer was born on December 8, 1916, in Brooklyn, New York, the son of animation pioneer Max Fleischer. The younger Fleischer attended Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, before enrolling at Connecticut’s Yale School of Drama, where in 1937 he founded a theatrical group. In 1942 he joined RKO as a writer, and a year later he began directing shorts. In 1946 Fleischer directed his first feature film, the drama Child of Divorce, and the next year he directed Banjo. He subsequently coproduced Design for Death (1947), an Academy Award-winning documentary about the psychology of the Japanese. Fleischer then returned to directing, especially a series of solid B-film noirs. Movies from this period included Bodyguard (1948) and The Clay Pigeon, Follow Me Quietly, and Trapped (all 1949). The heist drama Armored Car Robbery (1950) is considered a leading example of film noir as is The Narrow Margin (1952). The latter hit was Fleischer’s final film for RKO. Working as a freelance director, Fleischer made the popular comedy The Happy Time (1952), a period picture set in Canada, with Charles Boyer and Louis Jourdan. Fleischer was subsequently approached by Disney to direct 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The resulting adaptation of Jules Verne’s classic became one of Disney’s most successful live-action ventures. Kirk Douglas and James Mason headed the cast, though much of the acclaim was for the Oscar-winning special effects; the battle with a giant squid is among cinema’s great action sequences. © 1958 United Artists Corporation Fleischer returned to film noir with Violent Saturday (1955), about a bank robbery in a small town. The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing (1955) starred Joan Collins as the seductive showgirl Evelyn Nesbit Thaw, whose affair with famed architect Stanford White (Ray Milland) leads her husband, Harry Kendall Thaw (Farley Granger), to fatally shoot him. After the action picture Bandido (1956), Fleischer made the adventure The Vikings (1958) and the western These Thousand Hills (1959). He closed out the 1950s with Compulsion (1959), a thinly disguised rendering of a sensational murder case starring Orson Welles as a Clarence Darrow-like attorney who mounts a brilliant defense to try to save the thrill-seeking murderers. Fleischer directed Welles again in Crack in the Mirror (1960), which featured two separate stories about love triangles. In 1961 he directed the action comedy The Big Gamble, written by Irwin Shaw, and the biblical epic Barabbas, which featured Anthony Quinn as the criminal who is pardoned instead of Jesus. © 1966 Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation Fleischer was absent from the screen for five years but returned with the hit Fantastic Voyage. The science-fiction classic centers on a group of scientists who are miniaturized and injected into the body of a dying man in an attempt to save his life. Fleischer next directed Rex Harrison in Doctor Dolittle (1967). The popular true-crime tale The Boston Strangler (1968) was a suspenseful account of the serial killer who murdered 11 women in the 1960s. Che! (1969) was a romanticized account of the revolutionary leader’s life, featuring Omar Sharif as Che Guevara and Jack Palance as Fidel Castro. The big-budget Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970), which Fleischer codirected, was a look at the events leading up to the Pearl Harbor attack. In 1971 Fleischer returned to true crime and found box-office success with 10 Rillington Place, a pseudodocumentary about a murder case that shocked England in the 1940s; Richard Attenborough starred as the mass murderer, and John Hurt was the simpleminded man framed for one of the killings and hanged. That same year Fleischer directed the thriller See No Evil, with Mia Farrow as a blind woman who returns home to find that her family has been killed, and The Last Run, a gangster yarn starring George C. Scott. The New Centurions (1972) was an adaptation of former cop Joseph Wambaugh’s gritty best seller. Fleischer’s next movie was Soylent Green, a cautionary science-fiction tale that featured Charlton Heston as a 21st-century police officer and Edward G. Robinson as an elderly chemist. After several largely forgettable films, Fleischer directed Mr. Majestyk (1974), in which Charles Bronson starred as a farmer who fights back after being targeted for a gang hit; Elmore Leonard wrote the screenplay. The popular Mandingo (1975) was a melodrama set in the antebellum South. Fleischer had less success with the biopic The Incredible Sarah (1976), which starred Glenda Jackson as the fabled actress Sarah Bernhardt, and Ashanti (1979), with Peter Ustinov as a slave trader who kidnaps the wife (Beverly Johnson) of a missionary doctor (Michael Caine). Fleischer’s The Jazz Singer (1980), a remake of the 1927 classic, starred Neil Diamond as a young Jewish man who dreams of becoming a pop singer despite the objections of his father (Laurence Olivier). After the horror film Amityville 3-D (1983), Fleischer moved to action adventures with Conan the Destroyer (1984), a sequel to the surprise 1982 hit Conan the Barbarian; Arnold Schwarzenegger returned as the hero. The film was popular with moviegoers, and Fleischer directed the spin-off Red Sonja (1985). His final feature film was Million Dollar Mystery (1987), which was largely a promotional gimmick for a treasure hunt being conducted by a maker of garbage bags. Fleischer’s autobiography, Just Tell Me When to Cry, was published in 1993. Fleischer died on March 25, 2006, in Los Angeles, California.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line572
__label__wiki	0.771418	0.771418	Immigration advocates push Biden to not just bring back DACA but expand it Ariana Figueroa DACA recipients and their supporters rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court on June 18, 2020. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images) WASHINGTON — President-elect Joe Biden is promising to reinstate an Obama-era program that shields deportation for some undocumented people who were brought to the United States by their parents when they were children. But immigration advocates are pushing for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to not just be reaffirmed but expanded, and written into law. They view that as a minimum goal in immigration policy, with deportation protection for DACA recipients’ family members extended as well. “During the Trump administration we’ve seen how fragile the program is and how easily it can be taken away,” said Krsna Avila, a staff attorney at the Immigrant Legal Resource Center. President Donald Trump tried to dismantle DACA, but earlier this year was thwarted by the Supreme Court. While the largest numbers of those enrolled in DACA live in California, Illinois and Texas, they are scattered across the nation. Some states with large numbers of DACA recipients include Florida, Colorado, Georgia, North Carolina, Nevada and Arizona, according to data from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the 2016 Census. The DACA program was highlighted on Monday when Biden said he intends to nominate its architect, Alejandro Mayorkas, as his secretary of Homeland Security. Mayorkas during the Obama administration served as the leader of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and also as deputy director of DHS, which handles implementation and management of immigration policy. “When I was very young, the United States provided my family and me a place of refuge. Now, I have been nominated to be the DHS Secretary and oversee the protection of all Americans and those who flee persecution in search of a better life for themselves and their loved ones,” Mayorkas tweeted Monday. If confirmed, Mayorkas would be the first Latino to run the department, as well as the first immigrant. Trump target The Obama administration created DACA in 2012. Those enrolled were protected from deportation and also allowed to obtain a temporary work permit and driver’s license, and qualify for in-state-tuition for higher education. DACA, though, was a target for Trump, who rescinded the program in 2017, halting new applications and sending 700,000 recipients across the country into limbo. The Supreme Court in June ruled against the Trump administration, and a federal judge earlier this month ruled new administration rules on DACA are invalid. That case and related ones are pending and more rulings are expected soon. Trump’s sweeping actions on immigration during the last four years have pushed advocates and immigration lawyers to lobby the Biden-Harris transition team to not only reinstate DACA, but expand the program to include both recipients and their families. Making those changes permanent through legislation, not just executive orders, would prevent uncertainty and an assault on immigration from happening again, advocates say. “Status really controls your life,” said Madhuri Grewal, the federal immigration policy counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. But advocates also recognize that passage by a divided Congress likely would be tough. Democrats will control the House, though by a narrower margin, and Republicans could hold on to their majority in the Senate, depending on the results of two runoff races in Georgia. Reinstatement of the DACA program by Biden is something that advocates either expect to see on day one of the new administration, or within the first 100 days Biden is in office. The incoming administration will be transitioning in the middle of a pandemic and has said that handling COVID-19 will be its first priority, along with several policies, including immigration. Grewal added that not only does there need to be a change in the law for DACA recipients to have a path for citizenship, but also for the millions of undocumented people in the U.S. It’s estimated that there are more than 11 million undocumented people living in the U.S., according to the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank that studies migration. Medicaid benefits Health care is another DACA concern. Only two states with the highest number of DACA recipients—New York and California—-offer Medicaid benefits to Dreamers, which is what those eligible for DACA are sometimes called. As the U.S. struggles to contain a pandemic that has killed more than a quarter of a million Americans, advocates want the incoming Biden administration to require all states to offer Medicaid benefits for DACA recipients through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. “So many front line (DACA) workers don’t even have health care,” said Megan Essaheb, Director of Immigration Advocacy for Asian Americans Advancing Justice-AAJC. Under an Obama administration memo, DACA recipients were excluded from Medicaid. “It’s just been such a roller coaster ride with the Trump administration trying to end the program,” Essaheb said. “It’s really hard to plan for your future.” She added that a public campaign to reach out to undocumented people from the Asian community, where there’s been a low sign-up rate, would be beneficial as well. “There’s more stigma in Asian immigrant communities around being undocumented,” she said, adding that there is also a “fear and mistrust in government and a lack of campaign for Asian immigrants.” Often public campaigns about DACA are targeted for Latinos and there is less stigma about being undocumented, Essaheb said. While Mexico is the top country of origin for the U.S. undocumented immigration population, the second-fastest growing group of undocumented immigrants is Asians, according to Pew Research. There are about 30,000 DACA recipients in the Asian community, according to Immigration Advocacy for Asian Americans Advancing Justice-AAJC. DACA recipients are also supposed to be allowed to leave the U.S. for work reasons or to take care of family abroad and return into the country, but under the Trump administration, “that is something that has not been safe,” Essaheb said. Advocates are hoping that with the Biden administration reinstating the program, those recipients can resume travel out of the country if needed. Parents, too But reinstating the DACA program is the bare minimum, said Avila, the staff attorney at ILRC, adding that the Biden administration should expand the program and lay out a legislative pathway for citizenship. “Helping undocumented youth isn’t just about reinstating DACA, so advocates want to see that administration show us that they really care about our communities,” he said. “We’re asking for a long overdue legislative fix that not only protects undocumented youth, but our parents as well.” Grewal, from the ACLU, points out that the incoming Biden administration can be bold on immigration policies, similar to how the Trump administration tested the limits of the U.S. immigration system. Some of the most consequential policies the Trump administration carried out included the separation of migrant children from their families, the building of the wall at the Southern border and and increased incarceration of undocumented immigrants. “The flip side of that is that we have seen what the executive branch can do on immigration,” she said. “In order to see a reversal of what Trump did, the Biden administration needs to be as equally bold and visionary on immigration in order to offer relief to the families that have really borne the brunt of four years of attacks on their communities.” Previous articleChild adoption efforts highlight need for parents, high number of teens in system Next articleWichita councilman Clendenin still fighting scandal-plagued collapse of his political career Ariana Figueroa covers the nation's capital for States Newsroom, a network of state-based nonprofit news outlets that includes Kansas Reflector. Her areas of coverage include politics and policy, lobbying, elections and campaign finance. Before joining States Newsroom, Ariana covered public health and chemical policy on Capitol Hill for E&E News. As a Florida native, she's worked for the Miami Herald and her hometown paper, the Tampa Bay Times. Her work has also appeared in the Chicago Tribune and NPR. She is a graduate of the University of Florida. After a ‘free and fair’ election in Kansas, lawmakers propose some changes to voting laws by Ariana Figueroa, Kansas Reflector <h1>Immigration advocates push Biden to not just bring back DACA but expand it</h1> <p class="byline">by Ariana Figueroa, <a href="https://kansasreflector.com">Kansas Reflector</a> <br />November 28, 2020</p> Latino Kansans work to fill Spanish-speaking news media and information gap Business November 15, 2020 New Kansas data set shows ICE targets thousands annually who committed... Civil Rights December 17, 2020	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line574
__label__cc	0.700361	0.299639	The Best Google Search Tips for Translators By Katie L Ward\|2020-08-27T10:27:00+01:00November 28th, 2019\|Articles, Technology, Translation\| All translators know that research is one of the key parts of the translation process, but not everyone knows that there are some simple ways of making your Google searches [...] 5 Key Takeaways from the ITI Conference 2019 By Katie L Ward\|2020-05-29T16:09:32+01:00May 19th, 2019\|Articles, Reviews\| Last weekend, I went to my very first translation conference- the ITI Conference in Sheffield. I had an amazing time catching up with old friends and colleagues, meeting new people, [...] My Top 5 Spotify Playlists to Listen to While Translating By Katie L Ward\|2020-05-29T16:12:07+01:00February 27th, 2019\|Articles, Reviews, Translation\| I love music and I hate working in silence, however, I find it really difficult to translate whilst listening to music with lyrics. I get confused and focus on the [...] 10 Tips for Taking Time Off as a Freelance Translator By Katie L Ward\|2020-05-29T16:17:37+01:00December 21st, 2018\|Articles, Freelancing, Translation\| Taking time off when you’re self-employed isn’t always straightforward, so here are some tips for taking time off as a freelance translator. […] What to Put on a Business Card for Freelance Translators By Katie L Ward\|2020-05-29T16:14:27+01:00October 30th, 2018\|Articles, Freelancing, Marketing\| Some people may argue that business cards are old-fashioned or even redundant these days, but I believe that they remain relevant. Business cards are inexpensive and convenient to distribute, making [...] Useful, Free Tools for Translators By Katie L Ward\|2020-05-29T16:16:33+01:00September 28th, 2018\|Articles, Freelancing, Reviews, Technology, Translation\| Every translator will tell you that they use tools in their day-to-day business, whether to actually translate or for other reasons. For example, there are many time management and productivity [...] Translating Neologisms in A Game of Thrones By Katie L Ward\|2020-06-02T16:16:36+01:00August 28th, 2018\|Articles, Translation\| Many of you will have heard about the challenge of translating ‘Hodor’, and some of the inventive solutions that the various translators came up with. But there are many other [...] Useful Keyboard Shortcuts for Translators By Katie L Ward\|2020-06-02T16:54:47+01:00June 29th, 2018\|Articles, Freelancing, Technology, Translation\| Translators spend a lot of time behind computers so it’s important to know how to use technology to its full potential. Keyboard shortcuts are just one of the ways that [...] 10 Must-see Spanish-language Films and TV Series on Netflix By Katie L Ward\|2020-05-29T16:52:01+01:00May 15th, 2018\|Articles, Languages, Reviews\| Watching TV series and films is a great, informal way of learning a language or keeping up a language that you already know. Watching series and films is obviously a [...] A Review of the University of Portsmouth’s Distance-learning MA Translation Studies By Katie L Ward\|2020-08-10T14:44:58+01:00April 18th, 2018\|Reviews, Translation\| Before applying to the University of Portsmouth’s distance-learning MA in Translation Studies, I remember trying to find reviews and comments from previous students to understand more about what the course [...]	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line577
__label__cc	0.529856	0.470144	Quest Diagnostics to Speak at UBS Global Life Sciences Conference TETERBORO, N.J., Sept. 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE: DGX), the nation's leading provider of diagnostic testing, information and services, announced that Robert A. Hagemann, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, is scheduled to speak at the UBS Global Life Sciences Conference on Tuesday, September 28, 2004, at The Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City. The Quest Diagnostics presentation is scheduled to begin at 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time. The presentation will be webcast live during the conference and will be available to registered investors on the following site: http://event.streamx.us/event/default.asp?Event=UBS20040927 and to the public on http://www.questdiagnostics.com. In addition, the archived webcast will be available starting approximately three hours after the live presentation and will be available for 30 days. Quest Diagnostics Incorporated is the nation's leading provider of diagnostic testing, information and services, providing insights that enable healthcare professionals to make decisions that improve health. The company offers the broadest access to diagnostic testing services through its national network of laboratories and patient service centers, and provides interpretive consultation through its extensive medical and scientific staff. Quest Diagnostics is the leading provider of esoteric testing, including gene-based medical testing, and provides advanced information technology solutions to improve patient care. Additional company information is available at: http://www.questdiagnostics.com. The statements in this press release which are not historical facts or information may be forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and outcomes to be materially different. Certain of these risks and uncertainties may include, but are not limited to, competitive environment, changes in government regulations, changing relationships with customers, payers, suppliers and strategic partners and other factors described in the Quest Diagnostics Incorporated 2003 Form 10-K and subsequent filings. -0- 09/27/2004 /CONTACT: Investors: Laure Park, +1-201-393-5030, or Media: Gary Samuels, +1-201-393-5700, both of Quest Diagnostics Incorporated/ /Web site: http://www.questdiagnostics.com http://event.streamx.us/event/default.asp?Event=UBS20040927 / (DGX)	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line580
__label__cc	0.717538	0.282462	By: lamouretlamusique November 30, 2020 December 16, 2020 Episodes, PodcastAstrology of Beauty, Beauty Archiving, Beauty Favorites, Beauty Journalism, Beauty Product Testing, Beauty Reviews, Eco Skincare, Eco-Beauty, green beauty, Hellenistic Astrology, Independent Beauty, Intelligent Beauty, L’Amour et la Musique, Monthly Favorites, Organic Beauty, Organic Skincare, Patreon, Patreon Creator, Sovereign Beauty, Your Purpose is Beauty Your Purpose is Beauty Episode 49 (with Transcript): November Eco Beauty + Lifestyle + Media FAVORITES november 30, 2020 \| by: mercedes \| filed under: podcast, episodes Episode 49: November Eco Beauty + Lifestyle + Media FAVORITES Hearkening back to the very first episode of this podcast (Ep. 1: Let’s Get Started By Discussing Some Recent Favorite Eco/Organic Beauty Products), let’s get into a monthly favorites today! This is the traditional structure my monthly favorites videos on YouTube used to follow (and will follow again! Someday! When parenting is less intensive!). Please see the list and all associated links for products discussed below, and full extended show notes and transcript on lamouretlamusique.com. Thank you to today’s episode partner, Loupiote. You can shop Loupiote’s enchanting collection of hand-poured in California candles here. Sign up to receive L’Amour Rêveries, a monthly newsletter published on the first quarter moon of each month. An opportunity to stay connected outside of social media. Sharing personal updates, L’Amour content recaps, timely shopping codes and discounts, noteworthy astrology, and themed playlists. Once per month, no spam ever. Unsubscribe anytime. Beauty: Earthwise Yasuni (LAMOUR for 10% off) https://bit.ly/3mhLz9n Earthwise Ferns + Moss (LAMOUR for 10% off) https://bit.ly/33s1Q3D 5YINA Divine Biocellulose Masks https://bit.ly/37lHgne Mukti Deep Cleanse Antioxidant Mask* https://bit.ly/2JlFk66 Free + True Mama Pacha* https://bit.ly/3ljyGu8 Inlight Under Eye Revive* https://bit.ly/39pZ3fW Meant Do-All Wash https://bit.ly/3oaeNrv Kjaer Weis Invisible Touch Liquid Foundation https://bit.ly/36m1TAJ Fitglow Correct+ https://bit.ly/3loPZKE Cupid & Psyche lip cremes* https://bit.ly/33t24Ii Hope Gillerman Jaw Clenching Remedy https://bit.ly/3mjMSov PNW Essences Aura Shield https://bit.ly/33sKFjb Vered Botanicals Sacred Love* https://bit.ly/2Jm2edq Bombas https://bombas.com Bobux https://www.bobux.com Cuyana Cotton Cashmere Rib Top https://bit.ly/3lmi454 Chocolita https://chocolita.com Feminist Current https://www.feministcurrent.com Dumbing Us Down https://amzn.to/3lhgQbe Other products/brands mentioned – Sahajan Nourish Face Cream https://bit.ly/2JpzJeM Dr. Hauschka Light Reflecting Concealer https://bit.ly/3fSW6Wo Kjaer Weis Abundance https://bit.ly/39poyxG See Kai Run https://seekairun.com Ep. 48: All the New Skincare I’m Testing Ep. 47: Clearing Out My Makeup Bags Ep. 38: Lin Chen, Pink Moon Playlist of Past Monthly Beauty Favorites Videos Review of Earthwise Beauty Oils/Oilserums Beauty Heroes Box feat. Free and True (March 2020) A Night for Green Beauty 2019 Award Winners Reviewed M Shops feat. Pink Moon In Fiore skincare layering https://bit.ly/2VbpHAz Anya’s Reviews https://anyasreviews.com Find Mercedes: 00:08 – Introduction (Jump to section) 04:45 – Loupiote Candles (episode sponsor) (Jump to section) 05:33 – Earthwise Beauty – Yasuni & Ferns + Moss (Jump to section) 11:04 – 5Yina Divine Biocellulose Sheet Mask (Jump to section) 13:53 – Mukti Deep Cleanse Antioxidant Mask (Jump to section) 15:45 – Free + True Mama Pacha (Jump to section) 18:42 – Inlight Under Eye Revive (Jump to section) 20:59 – Meant Do-All Wash (Jump to section) 25:14 – Kjaer Weis Invisible Touch Liquid Foundation (Jump to section) 29:44 – Fitglow Correct+ Peach Corrector (Jump to section) 32:00 – Cupid & Psyche Lipsticks (Jump to section) 35:14 – Aromatherapy, Flower Essences, & Perfume (Jump to section) 42:11 – Bombas Socks & Bobux Shoes (Jump to section) 51:00 – Cuyana Top (Jump to section) 52:28 – Chocolita (Jump to section) 54:47 – Media Favorites (podcast & book) (Jump to section) 01:04:56 – Upcoming Content & Closing Thoughts (Jump to section) Hey, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Your Purpose Is Beauty. Hopefully you survived Thanksgiving, if you are American. I’m sure things looked a little different this year. But the day that you’re hearing this episode, I feel like the majority of the shopping overwhelm, the marketing overwhelm is ceasing. I think today is Cyber Monday. Isn’t that something that they do after Thanksgiving? I try and honestly tune out a lot of the noise around this time of year. So it’s Episode 49. So bananas. How are we almost at Episode 50? I mean, I guess we’re almost at Episode 50. Because I do an episode a week and I’ve been doing this podcast for almost a year. So here we are. I’m super happy to be back on a regular schedule after the beginning of November. Our wedding concluded. I – actually took me quite a bit of time to reground, recalibrate, get my bearings. I needed a number of nights not working once we got back. Normally, I am working for three to four hours most nights of the week on L’Amour – either podcast, video, some kind of editing, emails… you know, you name it. And I just – I really just kind of needed to be a vegetable on the couch. (chuckles) But I’m back at it. And I thought today here on the podcast, we could do a throwback to the early days of YouTube, just do a favorites. I used to call these “Eco Beauty and Lifestyle Favorites.” And there was a point in time some years ago when I did a monthly favorites video every single month. Never missed a month. And now here we are. I can’t even tell you the last time I did a favorites video on YouTube. (laughs) It’s been quite a long time. But I’m going to revive it as a podcast. It’s the end of the month. And it was either this or “What’s In My Cup.” And I just kind of felt like continuing on the product chat train after last week’s episode, which was all focused on the new skincare that I’ve been testing over, I guess, the last month or so. And the episode before that, which was the patron-exclusive episode for November, published on the first Monday of November, was a product clear-out. And it turns out that that was somewhat premature because I now have more things that I’m clearing out, like my Fitglow Beauty eyeshadow palette, which I love but has gone off after… I don’t know, maybe I’ve had it two years? So there’s more to be cleared out and we’ll see where that gets tackled. I’ll include a playlist in the show notes of all of the past favorites videos I’ve done. I think this is the first favorites podcast episode I’ve done, but typically, I mean, it’s – I guess it’s pretty self-explanatory what this is. These are videos on YouTube that would generally be done by a creator at the end of a month where they share with their audience the products that they were loving during the course of that month. They happen at the end of every month and they’re a real crowd pleaser. People seem to really enjoy favorites videos. For me, they always got a lot of views compared to other stuff that I would do, so hopefully you enjoy this as a podcast episode. I can’t think of any other announcements right now, but it could just be because it’s in the evening. So when I typically record podcast episodes, I had a little bit of red wine with dinner, which I ate before sitting down to record this, so I’m hoping that it will prevent me from plummeting and kind of like going kind of off the deep end as I sit here and record for probably the next hour. Let’s take a very quick break so I can share with you a few words on a company who is supporting the podcast for today and over the next couple of episodes, products and a company I think you’ll be quite interested in, and then we’ll get into all of the favorites across skincare, I have body care products and makeup. I have some – I don’t know what to call them. It’s like flower essences, perfume, aromatherapy type of stuff. And then I have some lifestyle things, including some toddler essentials that I’ve discovered, some chocolate, and then we’ll end with some media favorites. Evoking the joy and tenderness of childhood through storytelling scent, Loupiote candles offer delightful olfactive compositions that are hand-poured in California. Born as an homage to the inherent creativity and playfulness present in the childlike mind. Loupiote, or “tiny lamp” in French, is also used as a term of endearment for young children. Each of the artisanal scent stories are inspired by the founders’ memories of growing up in France. An ideal gift for the holidays, a baby shower, parents-to-be, or anyone looking to connect with their inner child. Discover the enchanting universe of Loupiote by visiting Loupiote.shop.com. November favorites. November 2020 favorites. What a month this has been, an epic month. I feel like it’s gone extremely quickly. But I did some reflecting as I sat down at my laptop with my little Word document open, drafting the notes for this episode, and we’ll kick it off with skincare. My favorite thing to talk about, I think, probably. I think it’s probably most people’s favorite segment to hear – to hear about. So I’m going to tell you the best combination I’ve been using all month. My skin has been pretty balanced most of the month. I actually had done quite a bit of unintentional prep for the wedding, which was in early November, but I had done a month-long kansa wand and gua sha project in September, and then during October, I was working on a freelance project for a brand where I was exclusively testing a serum and that yielded really nice results. So I – my skin has been kind of in check, and normally this time of year, it would be quite surface dehydrated because we’re getting into quite cold weather. We’re definitely firmly into autumn weather and we’ll be getting into much more bitter cold winter temperatures here in Chicago before too long. But when I feel that things are getting dry, if I wake up and my skin feels parched, or if after I cleanse my skin in the evening things are looking like they need some TLC, the best combination I have used this year – really not just this month but this year – is Earthwise Yasuni and Earthwise Ferns + Moss. So this is a balm and oil combination. Over the summer, if I needed deep hydration, I would go for one or the other. Alone, they’re wonderful. Wonderfully, wonderfully hydrating. But if you need that extra level and you want to do more layering in these colder temperatures depending on where you are, this combination is exceptional. Ferns + Moss is the most nourishing oil in Earthwise’s range. I did a whole video extensively reviewing the five oil/oil-serums in Earthwise Beauty’s range. I’ll include the link for you in the show notes. It’s on YouTube. And I sang the praises of Ferns + Moss there. It’s really rich and deep and gingerbread-y. It’s like a bitter gingerbread cookie mixed with a forest. It’s really an outstanding product. Earthwise Yasuni is an essential oil-free, gently exfoliating balm. So it’s this really interesting product. I actually was not the biggest fan of it the first couple of times I used it. It seemed like it was quite stiff. I wasn’t really sure what it was doing for me. I didn’t know how I felt about the texture. I was kind of like, “What is this?” I was a bit confused. But the deeper I explored the brand, the more I read about the formulation. And when I kind of dove in and tried to start really working with the product, which entailed working with it alone with nothing else on my skin, using an ample amount, really warming it up on my hands, massaging it into skin first thing, and then adding toner on top to really work the product into the skin. I just feel like I got such amazing results using it just alone with a toner or an essence over top over the summer. So now in the wintertime, you can play around with how you would want to layer these two products. Some people might like to do the traditional toner-serum-oil-balm. I personally really like to still do Yasuni first on the face and then work it in with a few drops of the Ferns + Moss oil and then do a toner on top of that. Now that is a totally revolutionary way to, you know, kind of tweak traditional skin layering advice or instructions that I feel were typically given with products. But yes, if you do the balm first and then top it with an oil and then top it with a toner, you get this insane plumpness to the skin. So I believe that this is because our skin is oil-loving, so putting an oil directly on the skin and using a balm that has not a lot of waxes, is a more oily balm, our skin recognizes that and doing a toner over top also helps with maintaining the hydration levels in the skin. But I feel that we’re always told to apply toner first to prep the skin to then receive oil. But if you’re interested in this more alternative approach to layering products, In Fiore is really where I learned this. They have some articles on this way of layering skincare on their blog. So if you were to just go to, I think it’s InFiore.net and you search on the website for “layering,” you’ll see a couple of posts come up about it. Anyway, I’m getting a little bit off-track from Earthwise Yasuni and Ferns + Moss, but that’s such a winning combination. And you can always use the code “LAMOUR” – L-A-M-O-U-R – for 10% off if you happen to miss their holiday shopping deals or you’re listening to this in the future, when there are no deals in sight. I always have that 10% off code. A couple of masks that have been favorites, really not just this month, but I feel especially this month. The first is a mask that never ever lets me down. And in fact, I brought one of these with me to do before the wedding. So we were traveling. It was an out-of-state wedding. And the night before the wedding, Kav was out with a couple of his friends and I was in the hotel room with the baby, took my makeup off from the small rehearsal dinner that we had had that night, and I put one of the 5Yina Divine Biocellulose Sheet Masks on my face, and I laid in the luxurious king bed and just watched YouTube videos on my phone and I left the mask on for half an hour and it is just such – oh my gosh, just everyone needs to have a couple of these in their backup stash. I’m not a sheet mask person. I actually think that they’re very wasteful. I’ve tried, you know, some. I certainly wouldn’t say that I’ve extensively tried sheet masks but I’ve tried the Orgaid. I’ve tried this other one, Whamisa, I think it’s called, that Credo carries. I’ve tried others kind of here and there. Nothing has ever come close to the 5Yina masks. They are expensive. They’re $20 per mask but I feel like you’re really getting an intense treatment, and it’s just – I think that they’re a really nice indulgence and they just deliver really wonderful results. I pulled up the website for these. They’re actually sold out. I was going to stock up on them while 5Yina was having their big holiday shopping deal. I think they had 20 or 25% off and I’m like, “How are you going to be out of one of your best products during the sale?” Like, why – why. (chuckles) This is like probably their – it has to be their best-selling product. I think it was one of the first products they came out with. So this has schizandra berries, goji berries, peony root, Job’s tears as kind of the herbal supports but it also has some peptides in it. Yeah, the ingredient list is just really interesting. For anyone that doesn’t know, 5Yina is a TCM, traditional Chinese medicine, infused brand. So they really approach skin from a Chinese medicine perspective. They say, “Inspired by the ancient wisdom of Chinese medicine and created with modern alchemy, this mask delivers a spa quality facial with holistic herbs and skin plumping peptides to help protect, brighten, and firm your skin in 30 minutes.” It works, y’all. I mean, it’s really a great product. I’ve sung the praises for a long, long time but I had to mention it this month because I used one right before the wedding and it did exactly what I needed it to. Okay, the other mask to quickly mention is the Mukti Deep Cleanse Antioxidant Mask, I think it’s called. This, for me, was a real sleeper hit type of product and what I mean by that is sometimes products will cross my testing desk where I don’t – it’s not that I don’t have high expectations, it’s just that I try a lot of stuff and sometimes I have a preconceived idea of what will work on my skin. And when I hear “deep cleanse,” when I – I mean, I don’t even know why I thought this wouldn’t – wouldn’t work for me. I mean, comparable products to it have dried my skin out in the past. But this mask is wonderful if I’m looking for something more clarifying, if I’m – my skin is looking dull, lackluster. Um, I don’t leave it on that long. I would say 10 to 15 minutes max and I feel like I get kind of like a mini skin reset of sorts, and of course, I have a number of products in addition to this that I might reach for if my skin were in a similar condition, but this is really what I reach for if I feel like I want – if I’m looking dull, but maybe also like somewhat congested, like dull but congested, if that makes sense, and I – and I kind of just want like a deep clean to my skin, which truthfully doesn’t happen that often. Um, but I would say I use this mask at least a couple of times a month. It’s very cooling. It’s just a real pleasure to have on. And so it’s kind of more than just a November favorite, but I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you about it. It’s available at Beauty Heroes. I discovered it around the time that they, Beauty Heroes, did their Mukti box. I think that was in the springtime. They featured a hyaluronic serum that they do, as well as – I’m blanking on what else they included. Maybe the Marigold Hydrating Cream. Okay, moving on. I want to tell you about the Free + True Mama Pacha, which I think you’ve probably heard me talk about before. I’m nearing the end of this bottle of face cream. It was featured in a Beauty Heroes box from, I believe, March. They featured the Free + True Body Prophet, which is a body serum, and Mama Pacha, which is a face cream. It’s a November favorite, but it’s really a Best of Beauty 2020 favorite for me, but I use it all the time and I’m nearing the end of it. I’m probably going to use it up before the end of this month or early December. I do like to seal things in with a face cream, now more than ever, in the evenings. I never really saw the merit of an expertly formulated, effective face cream. I’ve always kind of poo-pooed them, to be honest, or they’ve just always seemed somewhat extraneous for me, as someone that likes oils and balms. But it was actually really this year, maybe the last couple years, like my postpartum time, when I needed to get quite creative about how I was going to rehabilitate my skin from pregnancy and postpartum, which for me, just looked like a lot of sensitivity and quite a bit of dehydration, as well. And I really discovered how powerful and essential a water-based cream can be. Now there’s only a handful that have made the cut for me. You know, it’s a ubiquitous – it’s a ubiquitous product. Every brand makes a face cream. A lot are “take it or leave it,” but Free + True Mama Pacha is such a good fall and I would even say winter face cream without being rich. So it’s not as rich as something like Ayuna Cream II. It’s certainly not as rich as something like Ayuna Terra. It’s not as rich as something like the Votary Superseed Cream, which came in a past Boxwalla box. It’s like a step below that but it’s also more nourishing than something like the Sahajan Nourish Face Cream, which I love, reviewed in my A Night for Green Beauty 2019 award winners review on YouTube. I published that a couple months ago. I will of course link it in the show notes. That’s a wonderful spring and summer cream. I do still reach for it a bit here and there in the fall; depends on what my skin is doing. But more and more, I’ve just been exclusively reaching for my Mama Pacha. I also just love the scent. If you listen to last week’s episode, I talked a bit about the Free + True Freedom Fighter face oil, which was sadly – I mean, not really a miss, it just – I’m not nearly as enthusiastic about it as I am some other Free + True products. But yeah, Mama Pacha. I would recommend it to anybody who wants a nourishing wintertime face cream. It’s a pleasure to use. I will repurchase it. Kaveh, my husband, loves it for winter especially, and he’s more of like an oily combination skin type. Last thing to mention in skincare is the Inlight eye balm. It’s actually called the Under Eye Revive and Beauty Heroes is newly stocking this product. So sometime, I think in the fall, Beauty Heroes added four new Inlight products to the range of things that they’re carrying from the brand. And I got to try this and at first – I mean, I was trying it, I think, when the weather was still a bit too warm. So this is an extremely emollient, nourishing eye balm. Um, so this is really for people that are very dry under and around the eyes that want some intense, intense hydration, that are, you know, perhaps worried about fine lines and wrinkles. It’s described as “a decongesting, concentrated eye balm that targets the delicate under eye area to minimize puffiness and brighten the look of dark circles.” It has camu camu, gotu kola, green tea, and green coffee, and it says that it’s for all skin types, including the most sensitive. So this was what I started reaching for. Well, I reach for it on and off all the time, but I really focused on using it when we got back from our travels and the wedding and I was quite puffy, especially under my right eye. I actually didn’t have symmetrical puffiness, but that’s kind of very common, especially if you’ve been on an airplane. Um, you’re gonna have some fluid retention issues. So you know, I did a little bit of jade rolling while using this product and within, you know, I – it sort of started depuffing right away. But after a couple nights of doing that, I just felt like, very revived. I felt that I was kind of recovered from the trip and reacclimated. So intensely moisturizing. It comes in a little pot. A little goes such a long way. If you’re looking for an eye product that’s just deeply nourishing, regenerative… It’s just going to provide this cocoon of care and moisture for the undereyes. I highly recommend, especially as we’re moving into much cooler temps. Before we get into makeup, I want to quickly give a shout-out to a new body care product that I have been using over the last couple of months, and it’s the Meant Do-All Wash, M-E-A-N-T. I discovered this brand through an order I placed on Pink Moon. Pink Moon is an online eco beauty boutique founded and run by Lin Chen. She was here, a guest here on the podcast. I want to say she’s Episode 48. But don’t quote me, I’m gonna have to put it in the show notes. She’s a wonderful human. She has a very philanthropic focus with her company and I am one of their Collaborators for Change, I think it’s called, so if you use the code “Lamour” – L-A-M-O-U-R – at checkout, you can have 10% of your order sent to the partner organization that I chose, which is the Lyson Center, focused on regenerative agriculture and creating sustainable and healthy food systems. It’s named in honor of my late father who was a professor of rural sociology at Cornell and had done a lot of really groundbreaking work developing this concept of civic agriculture. I also did a whole YouTube video on Pink Moon and quite a bit more about the Lyson Center, if you’re interested. So the Meant Do-All Wash. One of the favorite things that I just picked up on a whim. I am kind of always looking for new body washes. There are so many beautiful soaps in eco beauty. There’s a lot of artisan soap makers out there. And I – you know, I love that soaps are very low-waste. The packaging tends to always be really quite sustainable with a lot of these brands. But sometimes you just want to reach for a really beautiful shower gel and that honestly is quite difficult to find in eco beauty. For a number of years, I loved the Ila – I-L-A; it’s a British brand – they had a body wash in a yellow bottle that I really liked, but once I got pregnant, I had developed a deep aversion to that product and I’m – I’m sure that it would be fine if I were to use it again now but I just have never, never gotten back to it. Perhaps permanently ruined for me. And you know, I try others here and there. Like I’ve tried the Basd – B-A-S-D – that Credo carries. I was very unimpressed, honestly. The scents smelled kind of synthetic. T he Meant Do-All Wash I’m quite obsessed with. First of all, I love the packaging. Kind of just reminds me of – it’s just like a design that I feel someone that appreciates products would like, kind of reminds you of something that you would find at like Sephora, like Nordstrom beauty section. It’s just really nicely designed and the product itself is really, really pleasant. It has – to me, It smells a bit like Coca Cola, which might sound kind of weird but it’s kind of a grapefruit-bergamot type of scent. The sudsing is really lovely. I think if you’re someone that takes showers in the morning, you would really love it for its – it does have quite an invigorating scent. I mean, I use it in the evening. I’m an exclusive nighttime showerer or bath-taker. I cannot even tell you the last time I took a shower in the morning. Probably actually when – when Baby L’Amour was a little, little baby, like a newborn. I would take a shower whenever I possibly could. So I think that that’s probably, you know, two years ago is probably the last time I took a shower in the morning. Anyway, totally unnecessary detail. It’s a great product. If you’re in the market for a new body gel, body wash, I can recommend it. I wish that they would maybe do, I don’t know, I think that they could do a really good kind of PM calming type of scent, but don’t make it lavender. I feel like every PM calming product is lavender and there just have to be other ways to do a PM bath product, right? Alright, surprisingly – at least surprisingly for me – I have a couple of makeup things to share with you and these are – at least two of them are exclusively November favorites. One of them I’ve been using a little bit longer than November but have gotten quite a bit of use this month. So two new face or base products. The Kjaer Weis foundation, the new liquid foundation, it’s just called their liquid foundation. They also do the very, very commonly recognized cream foundation in the compact. That’s a very – I mean, I guess I would call it a cult product. I have it, and I know a lot of eco beauty enthusiasts have it, and I think it’s a wonderful product. Okay, so it’s called the Invisible Touch Liquid Foundation. It’s meant to even skin tone, helps skin stay hydrated, nourished, and smooth. They have quite a nice color range. It’s certified organic, vegan, gluten-free. The finish is said to be natural and slightly luminous. I picked this up when Credo was doing their friends & family sale. It was a 20% off sale. I am about to use up my Ilia True Skin Serum Foundation, which I’ve been using for the last two years. Really, really like it. It does have some silicones in it. I reviewed this, actually, without – very embarrassingly – realizing that it did have some silicones in it, which is fine, you know, for a lot of people. It’s not a make-or-break thing. Silicones are something that I personally would prefer to not use if I don’t have to just because I don’t think I necessarily need them in my skincare, but the Ilia True Skin Serum Foundation I have loved and it’s a beautiful product. It’s stayed good for two years. I’m pretty much done with the bottle so I’m happy that I haven’t wasted a lot of that product, and the undertones of Ilia are very good for my skin. If you have any olive undertones, which is what – I’m kind of a light, I’m an NC 15 to 20 light olive with also quite a bit of pink undertones in my skin. They’re very good for that. Whereas other brands – um, I’m trying to think. Like Kosas is very yellow undertoned, in my experience – which is not as good of a match for me. Their colors tend to just be warm yellow undertoned and their bronzers are orangey, like that that kind of thing, which I’m sure is a great match for certain skin tones. Kjaer Weis, I think it has very refined undertones. I think that they’ve expanded the shade range so much since the brand started. I have the cream foundation in “Paper Thin” and I went ahead and ordered the Invisible Touch Liquid Foundation in the same color. They have like a color matching – you basically can go to the website and if you’re, you know what your shade is in the cream foundation, you can very easily figure out what you would be in the liquid foundation. I think they do samples but I just went with the shade that the website told me and it’s a very, very good match for me. I do overall really like this product. I have some quibbles with the dropper, which I’ve heard other people say. Like it just doesn’t really pick up and dispense a lot of product. I would say that the coverage of this product is very light, but it’s not really like a tinted moisturizer because it feels extremely weightless on the skin, so it’s almost like an invisible skin evener with like a very light tint. It’s – for a foundation, it’s the only product of its type that I really would not have to use a beauty blender if I didn’t want to. You could just blend this in with your fingers and it just melds so perfectly into the skin. It’s really quite interesting and phenomenal for a completely eco formulation. I have heard from someone actually that I talked to on the live streams that I do on Patreon every week, she also was trying it and she had tried several shades and she said that some of the shades have quite a strong scent to them. In the shade that I have, the scent is not noticeable at all and that is definitely something that I would notice. So just be forewarned that some of the shades do have a stronger fragrance than others, but I can’t really speak to that because the one I have doesn’t really have that. So overall, really like this product. Really happy I got it at 20% off but I will use it and love it. The other product I’m newly using this month is the Fitglow Correct+ Peach Corrector, I think it’s called. I got this in the Beauty Heroes Blue Friday sale, which was another 20% off sale. I have been needing major, major help in the under eye concealing/correcting game. I am a mother to a two-year-old. I stay up late almost every night to work on L’Amour, work on Your Purpose Is Beauty. And I just really am not sleeping as much as I really ought to be or as much as I used to and it has definitely taken a toll in my undereye area. I just have more persistent dark circles than I ever used to. So instead of continuing to try and look for a heavier concealer, I got the advice to go back to a corrector and I was like, “Yeah, why didn’t I think of that?” I used to use the Tarte CC Corrector, which I thought was actually a great product. It came in a kind of a mini compact. I’ve also tried Becca’s peach corrector and I didn’t like the texture of it at all; it was like very tacky, and yeah, it was just weird. I didn’t – I had high hopes and I didn’t like it. And I’ve tried other correctors here and there but I was recommended the Fitglow Correct+, picked it up, I really like it. It’s in a doe foot applicator. You need kind of like two small little dots and that’ll cover your whole undereye area. This morning, I actually used the Fitglow Correct+ and then I didn’t even need concealer over top. I just did a bit of the Dr. Hauschka translucent highlighting pen, which I’ve had for maybe a year and a half and I’m still really quite liking it. So that was a winning combination for me today and I’m – I can’t really use the highlighting pen. It’s like a Touche Eclat type of product and often why – People are like, “Oh, Touche Eclat, like it doesn’t do anything to cover my circles.” Well yeah, like it’s not meant to, it’s meant to bring like some luminosity and highlighting, it’s not meant to color correct or cover dark circles. So having a corrector and then topping it with more of a highlighting undereye type of product is very nice, at least on me. And then the third makeup favorite for the month are the Cupid & Psyche lipsticks and I’m happy to be mentioning them here because I’m not sure that I’ve talked too much about them anywhere else. I have been testing them over the last couple months. This is another brand discovery through Pink Moon. They carry a handful of the shades; they don’t carry the full range. I am trying “Ione,” which is like a fuchsia. “Brigid,” I think, is the other one, which is a cherry red. And then “Artemis” is a shimmery mauve, which I don’t wear on my lips but I love it on my cheeks. It’s actually quite similar to Kjaer Weis “Abundance,” which is a greigey, purpley, taupey cream blush. It looks so weird in the pan. It wins the award for me of the makeup product that looks so off-putting in the pan but is just totally transformational on the face. It’s like a “my cheeks but better.” It goes with everything. It is a – and you know, I discovered Kjaer Weis “Abundance” on a quest to find a truly kind of plummy mauve cheek color, which is very, very difficult for people that have cool or multiethnic skin undertones because everything that looks plummy will – the warmth will come out. However the undertones of most plum cheek products are formulated – like whatever purple pigment they’re using tends to have a lot of red to it. So they would always shift on me, or what’s the word that we always used to use? When I say “we,” I mean every beauty blogger ever and the word is oxidized. “Oh, this oxidized on me.” “This oxidized in the packaging.” “This oxidized on my face.” Basically means that when a product, any kind of face product – or I guess it could be an eye product, too – any makeup product once it hits your face, or interacts with the air or interacts with the oils on your skin, it changes color, basically either immediately or over the course of the day. It’s a very common issue, actually, with foundations. But I would often have oxidation issues with face color, like cheek color. It would kind of look one way going on and then, I don’t know, it would just change and it would turn warm on me, so I was desperately looking for a cheek color that didn’t do that, and Kjaer Weis “Abundance” was the solution. I’m happy to report that Cupid & Psyche “Artemis” is – I mean, I don’t even know if I would call it a dupe. It’s just an equivalent, really. Um, very, very similar color. It’s going to be a taupey, kind of purpley plum on the cheeks, beautiful for wintertime. I mean, it’s just really, really great and the lipsticks can go on very sheer or you can build them up to be pretty opaque. They’re very comfortable. I am planning to have the formulator of Cupid & Psyche come on the podcast. I’d love to talk with her and learn more about her inspiration for the brand and formulation because they’re a really, really nice formula and they’re housed in all cardboard packaging and they have this like really beautiful graphic of wings on them, which I just feel very drawn to, and yeah, they’re – they’re really, really gorgeous products. Let’s round out the beauty portion of today’s favorites episode with, I don’t know, this is kind of like an aromatherapy section, I guess we could say. Hope Gillerman Jaw Clenching Remedy, definitely a favorite this month. In fact, I think I’m going to use a little bit right now. I have gotten into the habit of every week – So I do these live Get Ready With Me’s every Friday morning. Mostly they’re on Friday morning. Sometimes I have to do them on the weekends, depending on my childcare situation, if Kav can take a break and watch the baby for me, but Friday mornings, typically I’m getting ready to do an hour of live streaming Get Ready With Me on Patreon and I’ve taken to – liking to – I don’t know what to call it other than like, set the space or ground – kind of ground myself and ease into the livestream. So instead of just sitting down and starting to immediately talk about products or start slapping makeup on my face, I like to take a couple minutes while people are trickling in and saying hi and we’re kind of testing the sound and audio. I have been doing a little bit of Dien Chan facial reflexology. I have a detector and I just kind of sit there and work out some of the tension on my face, which is really nice. And another thing I really like to do is take the Hope Gillerman Jaw Clenching Remedy, which is in a rollerball. I roll it onto that, the – it’s like where your wrist and your palm meet. So I roll it there, press my palms together, and then I press that part of my wrist and palm onto my jaw line and I kind of do a little bit of massage. And then this is another favorite on my list: the Pacific Northwest Essences Aura Shield, which came in a limited edition Beauty Heroes discovery. I have had the Pacific Northwest Essences mists and essences in my life for most of this year. But Aura Shield is pretty new to me and I’ve been using it a lot this month, especially around, during, and after the wedding. I didn’t take this with me to Texas. I actually should have. But I felt like I really needed it coming back because, well, I’m going to get into that in next week’s podcast episode on the Patreon-exclusive feed. I’m going to be doing a breakdown of the wedding, basically – the day itself but also some of the issues that arose around the wedding, with people involved in the wedding. And there was definitely some, I guess you could say – well, there was literal backlash to having a wedding. But there was also kind of some weird energetic backlash, which again, I’ll get into more on next week’s episode. But I have been using these two products: Hope Gillerman and Aura Shield every week on my live stream. I mean, and if I make my way up to my office, if the baby wants to come up here and spend some time in the afternoon, I’ll come over to my desk, which is where I keep these products, and just do kind of like a mini midday refresh, reset myself, kind of reground into the body. And they’re just such nice products and I think that they have such a wonderful effect on the mind and I’m a true believer in aromatherapy, and I really do you think that these Pacific Northwest Essences mists change the feeling of the space that you’re in. They’re really, really quite powerful. So the other product in this category is a perfume, and it is one of the Vered Botanicals perfumes. If you don’t know Vered, she has been around since the early days of eco beauty, so I would say at least a decade, and she’s a master herbalist, has her own skincare line, and she’s a perfume maker. I had a facial once in New York. I want to say this was 2016. It was the year I went to the Indie Beauty Expo in New York. But I went to Great Jones Spa, which is in New York. I forget where it is. I think it’s in NoHo. Isn’t that a neighborhood in New York? (chuckles) Yeah, North of Houston. I was such a dork. I just looked up NoHo. “NoHo is a trendy neighborhood where creative meets chic. Architectural features range from 19th century behemoths like the Great Hall of Copper Union to sleek modern high-rises once home to artists like Andy Warhol and the legendary CBGB music club. The area stays true to its heritage with trendy galleries and live performances at Joe’s Pub. Well-heeled locals mingle in upscale bars and stylish restaurants.” That’s what Google has to say about NoHo. So um, Great Jones Spa is in this neighborhood. And I went there after kind of connecting with Vered on Instagram, you know, five years ago, I guess, at this point. And she – I actually contacted her because I wanted to book a facial with her and she was like, “Well, I don’t give them any more but I trained people at Great Jones Spa and they use all of my products and they do a gua sha facial.” So I think I probably have a YouTube video recapping that that experience. Anyway, I love Vered. I respect her. She’s like, kind of one of my idols in green beauty. I think her products are magnificent and I have some of her perfumes. She had sent me some when she launched some of these new ones a couple of years ago. And the one I wanted to tell you about is her Sacred Love oil. It’s in a rollerball and it’s just – it’s beautiful. It smells like kind of like a chocolatey – it’s somewhat gourmand, a bit – and I’m not typically into gourmand scents, but it’s kind of like a chocolatey, herbal, somewhat floral, um – I don’t know, now I’m looking at the ingredients. So it has fennel, English lavender, clary sage, rose otto, cardamom, davana, ginger, turmeric, cinnamon, pink peppercorn, ylang ylang, coffee bean… Um, I don’t know. It’s, it’s beautiful. It’s impossible to describe. But yeah, it’s a beautiful product. I’m – I think I’m probably going to mention this again. I mean, I’ve had this rollerball in my life for a couple years now, and it hasn’t turned or gone bad or anything. This would be a beautiful Valentine’s Day beauty gift to yourself or to a partner or whoever. Yeah, I could keep talking about Vered’s perfumes, but I’m gonna leave it there for now. Now let’s talk about some lifestyle products. I’m going to start with two toddler favorites, socks and shoes, which might sound kind of random. But if you’re a parent, you will know, or if you’re not yet and you want to be or are going to be, you might find that discoveries like this are very revolutionary and like little things like this really can make a huge difference. So the first thing I’m going to mention are Bombas socks. These are toddler and child and I think they even do adult socks, but they’re – they’re just socks with little grippies on them. So we have hardwood floors in our home. Baby L’Amour – I don’t even like to say was a late walker – but on the kind of normal bell curve of when babies walk, walked on the later end of that bell curve, which I always knew everything was fine. We went to the chiropractor, there were no structural issues whatsoever. It was, you know, some babies just totally do things at their own pace, and I really had to fend off certain family members who were like, trying to project their anxiety onto us. It’s very annoying when people do that, although it’s largely unconscious on their part, I’m sure. Okay, I’m rambling. Bombas toddler socks. I think this company was on Shark Tank. In fact, when I – I just Googled, I think, like “toddler socks with grips or grippies.” I don’t even remember what I searched for, Bombas came up right away and I recognized them from Shark Tank. But the socks are quite well made. They’re somewhat expensive. I think a four pack is between $20 and $25, maybe. But they make such a big difference, especially if you have a baby who’s just learning to walk. And again, I think every baby is different. Some have – some babies, like one day to the next, they’re just kind of, they’ve got it. They’re not stumbling, whatever. But I think more, that’s more the exception than the rule. I think for a lot of babies, that’s not a completely linear process, and they’re learning to walk but they’re also falling down all the time and slipping and stuff. So if you have hardwood floors, you need socks with grippies. Also because I am a nut about being barefoot on the floor for myself. That’s just a Chinese medicine thing. You never, ever have bare feet on a cold hardwood floor, no matter what season, and this is one of the things I cannot get Kaveh to stop doing. He also is like a very hot-blooded type of person. He runs really warm. He’s barefoot all the time. He wants iced beverages all the time. This is anathema to me, you guys. Anathema for the last 10 years, ever since I found acupuncture, I have been focused on stoking and preserving my digestive fire, my digestive warmth, the warmth of my body. I mean, this is a huge deal, especially this time of year. So I am always in socks, I’m always in slippers. I’m never barefoot on the floor. And so of course, I’m making sure my baby is, as much as possible, not barefoot on the floor either. But I can’t do anything about Kav. Okay, the next thing is a shoe company. Many of you who are parents may already know it, but it’s called Bobux. B-O-B-U-X. Bobux, I think. I heard about this, this company – They are quite well-known, I would say, in the barefoot shoes community, especially if you’re looking for like a nicer or a dressier shoe for kids. Now, please know that – I’m just pulling up the site on my laptop – shopping for shoes for a baby, a toddler, a kid… my least – one of my least favorite parenting tasks. And you know, like, I’m sure many of you can probably relate. I feel like the labor of always making sure that your kid has clothes that fit, shoes that fit, all that stuff, like it tends to mostly fall on mothers, on women. And it can be a lot of work. I mean, it’s more work, I guess, if you don’t just want to go to Walmart or Target and get, you know, like a cheap disposable pair of something, which has its place. You know, we – we have had to do that, too. And I guess you could argue that even buying a nicer pair of kids’ shoes – like they outgrow things so quickly. But I am learning as I go about how much to size up, especially in a pair of shoes. It’s a bit more of an investment, but I ended up getting a pair of Bobux. They’re kind of like Chelsea boots. So I’m pretty minimalist with wardrobe and especially with footwear. Baby L’Amour – I guess I should say Toddler L’Amour, or Jess from Stark Skincare said that I should now say L’Enfant L’Amour, which means “L’Amour kid” – We have a pair of sneakers, which are, you know, great, but when it’s colder, I wanted something a little warmer, but not as warm as like snow boots. So I ended up getting a pair of snow boots from the brand See Kai Run, K-A-I, which – I got most of my footwear, kid footwear recommendations from Anya’s Reviews. I’ll include her handle in the show notes. One of my followers on Instagram actually told me about her after I was mentioning Luna sandals over the summer and Katy Bowman and “Move Your DNA” and ancestral movement. And I am slowly, for myself, also exploring barefoot shoes and, and that whole world. That’s actually one of my goals for 2021. I want to get a pair of Correct Toes, which are these toe separators, and one or two pairs of barefoot shoes. The problem is most barefoot shoes are heinous. Like they have a wide toe box so that you – they just are not – I’m just I’m used to, you know, a more traditional-looking shoe that doesn’t kind of look like a duck foot, right? And it just takes a lot of work, I think, to sift through everything and find something that you find aesthetically matches you and that also will be healthy for your feet and your physiology. But yeah, barefoot shoes and body alignment, that’s all like a 2021 goal for me. And yeah, I’m pretty sure I’ll be doing a 2021 goals episode somewhere at some point because I have other things to talk about in that department. So I have had a pair of snow boots already picked out. I had these sneakers but I really wanted something in between, and I decided to – Let me see if I can pull up the exact ones. I went for this pair of navy blue Chelsea boots, they have a zipper on the side. I do think that they are leather. I’m going to double check. And of course, with most sites, if you sign up for their newsletter you can get like I think a 15% discount. So zip and elastic, gusset, um, materials… Yeah, so they have a leather upper and gum I-Walk TPR soles. So the nice thing about Bobux is I think that there are what’s called zero drop, which means that they’re like – they don’t have a very high arch and they’re just very healthy footwear for a baby that’s learning to walk. They’re very flexible. And these are a little bit hard to get on the feet, but we’ve kind of gotten, gotten into the groove with them. You want to put them on when a baby or toddler is standing up so that their weight and their heel can go in. I do also put these on with the Bombas socks, which are quite thick because I went a size up, basically. I didn’t want the baby to grow out of these right away. And the best way to size with this is you have to trace the kids foot. And I mean it’s, it’s a pain in the butt. Especially like virtually shopping for kids’ shoes is a pain in the butt. I had to – like over the summer, I bought some Natives, which are waterproof shoes, and I had to like do a return. Okay, we can stop talking about kids’ footwear now because it’s quite annoying. But yeah, Bobux. If you haven’t heard of them, they make some very stylish and yeah, like kind of – kind of heirloom or heritage-looking types of things. If you are planning to have multiple kids, could be a nice investment. If you’re having your first kid and thinking about more and having hand-me-downs, I think this stuff, at least from what I’ve experienced so far, using these with Baby L’Amour, the stuff is very well-made and seems like a very good investment. Okay, now we can talk about my stuff again (laughs) and transition away from baby. So some of you noticed on Instagram that I was sporting a new top, which – It’s funny, you know that you don’t shop for clothes enough when people really notice when you’re wearing something new. I got one of these, I think it’s a cotton cashmere or I forget exactly what it is, but it’s from the brand Cuyana, C-U-Y-A-N-A, and they’re kind of like a much more elevated, luxury, minimal, curated version of Everlane. Kind of, but like maybe I guess not really. Like it’s just basics, like kind of capsule, very high-quality, beautiful material basics. Definitely some of the pieces are more of an investment, but some of them I think are pretty reasonable for how well-made the stuff is. And I just went for a ribbed, kind of lightweight, black V-neck button-down, but it’s like quite form-fitting and I really like it. I kind of want to wear it every day. It’s not quite warm enough. I would have to pair it with like a big scarf now, because it does kind of expose the chest area. But yeah, it’s really flattering. I’ve worn it in some past videos. I’ve been messaged from people that say they went and bought it after they saw it. So I think that’s a testament to it looking like kind of just a really nice capsule staple piece. So I’ve been loving that. I discovered a new chocolate thanks to Melissa, who’s one of my really, really wonderful, super-supportive, warm-hearted Patrons. She sent me a little box of sample products to try. Actually, she’s a huge beauty green beauty enthusiast and has tried so much stuff, and just put a little package of things in the mail for me that she thought I would enjoy testing, which was extremely, extremely kind of her and much appreciated. It actually came to me at a time when, I don’t know, I just kind of needed a bit of a boost. I don’t know where I’m going to talk about this more, maybe in the wedding recap I do, but – well, maybe when I talk about 2021 goals or like what 2020 was like, because I’ve had some long-term relationships in my life fall away this year. I’m sure I’m probably not the only one. But yeah, I just have – I’ve had some, some really redefined friendships. So some of that has been hard and, and painful. And it was just a really sweet gesture that Melissa thought of me that way. So Melissa, if you’re listening, really, really appreciate you doing that. And she surprised me with these little bars of Chocolita chocolate. She sent me the lavender dream time bar. I can’t remember what it’s called, but it’s like the sleepy time chocolate bar. So Chocolita is – I believe they’re based in Arizona, if I’m not mistaken, and they’re an herb-infused chocolate company and they do a number of herbal-infused chocolates. They do sipping chocolates. I think they do some other products, but I was hooked after just trying this lavender chocolate. And I went on to stock up on like boxes of their stuff. I’ve tried almost all the bars they do at this point. The lemon and pine pollen bar is a white chocolate bar and it is so good. Oh my gosh, it’s outstanding. Just earlier today, I was having some of the goji berry and schizandra bar, also a white chocolate bar. I don’t know, this stuff is just really high-quality and the ingredients are wonderful. So just wanted to tip you off to a new chocolate company if you’re in the market. Let’s end with two quick media favorites. So the first, if you are watching L’Amour et la Musique on YouTube, I’ve mentioned it there. Definitely have been mentioning it on Patreon. I discovered the Feminist Current podcast, maybe a couple of months – It’s been a couple of months. As you know, I lose track of time, but I have to mention it as a November favorite. It’s like probably a 2020 favorite. I found Feminist Current through Emilee Saldaya of the Free Birth Society, and I found the Free Birth Society through Amber Magnolia Hill’s Medicine Stories podcast. So it’s kind of like three degrees of separation or two degrees of separation, I guess. Feminist Current is a podcast run by a Canadian feminist, Meghan Murphy. She’s based in Vancouver, I believe. She also has a YouTube channel and she does a weekly live stream called The Same Drugs. And she has a, I guess, a co-host, Laura McNally, who’s New Zealand – I think she lives in New Zealand and I believe she is from New Zealand and not Australia, but I could be mistaken. She’s a psychologist, I believe, and not a psychiatrist, but I’m kind of, I’m new to their work and still feeling them out. This is a whole kettle of worms that I obviously can’t get into in this episode, because we’re almost at an hour. But as I continue reevaluating, rethinking, redefining what feminism means to me, in this time of aggressive, aggressive identity politics, I would like to eventually share my evolution with feminist thought, how I kind of identified as a feminist in the past, and how that approach is evolving, how I’m thinking about things. I just – It’s a difficult thing to talk about, because her work is pretty controversial, especially if you’re very steeped in woke identity politics; she’s very critical of a lot of that. The transgender issue is extremely inflammatory to many, many people. But Emilee Saldaya is also a huge advocate of women and women’s-only spaces and having healthy critiques of the dominant transgender ideology. So it’s really unfortunate that these conversations are often labeled as being transphobic. And they – I mean, these women are just incredibly smart and articulate and really trying to have just conversations about these issues and what’s at stake. And, um, yeah, it’s – it’s complicated. And I have just been exploring a lot of this for myself and it’s a process, but I have really appreciated Meghan’s podcast. Some of the guests that she has had on are extremely illuminating. And I’m just kind of learning as I go. And The Same Drugs with – the live stream on YouTube – is my favorite thing to listen to while I’m taking a therapeutic bath and unwinding at the end of a long day. So be prepared for a bit of controversy. It could be triggering. But I think these are really important conversations to have. Meghan Murphy was actually banned from Twitter in 2019, I think, and so there’s been an overwhelming amount of censorship towards people who question some of these dominant gender narratives or that have become really dominant over the last decade. So as with everything, there’s just deeper conversations to be had, and yeah. The other thing I wanted to mention was a book that I listened to, an audio book through the Chicago Public Library. And I would assume, you know, your local public library – They almost all, I think, now have a digital option where you can download an app on your phone. Ours is called Hoopla, but I’m sure that it’s different in different parts of the country. But yeah, it’s basically like Audible but free. I mean, they don’t have the best selection. Like I’m sure Audible has many, many more things to listen to. But I listened to a book on recommendation of a friend called Dumbing Us Down by John Gatto. The subtitle of the book will tell you everything to know, which is “The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling.” So Wikipedia says that, “This book proposes that radical changes are needed to the American educational system to turn around the negative socialization that children receive.” This was published in 1992. John Gatto was a – I believe he is now a retired – Hang on, I want to see… Okay, so he actually passed away in 2018. He was 82 years old. Oh my gosh, and he went to Cornell. I had no idea. Sorry, I’m like learning this as I’m looking this up talking about this to you. So John Gatto was a New York City public school teacher for many, many years, and he wrote this book talking about all of the negative consequences that can and do ensue through institutionalized education. And he really presents a more radical, community-based – I mean, almost kind of like a, I don’t know, I don’t know if I would call it like a free market approach, um, to school choice. So this is a debate that I am sure that I will learn more about in the years to come, as I have a child that will become school age. This is a question I’ve gotten asked before, too, on past Q&A’s that I’ve done, whether I will send my kid to public school, private school, you know, what we’re going to do. And I’ll try and link the episode where I answered that question, because I talked about my own background with schooling. I went to a very, very small village elementary school, then I went on to a larger elementary school and middle school and high school, but all public. I did go to Catholic preschool in kindergarten but don’t really remember much at all, and I will not be sending my child to parochial school, I don’t think. So according to this Wikipedia entry, it details some of the main theses that are presented in “Dumbing Us Down.” “Gatto asserts the following regarding what school does to children: it confuses the students. It presents an incoherent ensemble of information that the child needs to memorize to stay in school. Apart from the tests and trials, this programming is similar to the television. It feels almost all the “free time” of children one season hears something only to forget it again. It teaches them to accept their class affiliation. It makes them indifferent. It makes them emotionally dependent. It makes them intellectually dependent. It teaches them a kind of self-confidence that requires constant confirmation by experts, which is known as provisional self-esteem. And it makes it clear to them that they cannot hide because they are always supervised.” Yeah, he talks a lot about how, how important this idea of privacy is for kids who are yeah, like coming of age and growing up and how we actually don’t give kids really any privacy. So I think that that’s actually a pretty good summation of what’s in the book. But I think it’s worth a read or listen. I actually would like to get a copy for myself so that I can start marking it up and maybe do a more in-depth review of it. I mean, what kind of the natural conclusion you would come to after listening to or reading this book is like, “Oh, well, now I have to homeschool my kids.” This is not something that I’ve ever thought would be an option for me. And, you know, I have some years still to figure out what we’re going to do. But I think this is an important read, whether you agree with him or not, whether you agree with his solutions or not. I mean, I know a lot of people don’t, that, you know, privatizing and letting a free market decide where kids go to school obviously has the most detrimental impacts on people that don’t have as much choice. So when you have – and that’s the sociological perspective, right? You know, if you have an unequal society with high levels of social stratification, then the free market stuff really breaks down because people don’t have equal choice. People don’t have equal resources to make equal choices. So that’s something I would like to probe deeper. But he makes a lot of great points in the book. At least, it made me really reflect on my own education and the taken-for-granted ways that we are socialized through the institution of schooling. I mean, I think even in private schooling, they do have more discretion and they’re not as beholden to certain things that public schools are, but at the end of the day, it is still an institution and the role of institutions is to govern individuals, if we were to look at it in a Foucauldian sense – to govern people, to control people, to create, you know, relational power structures, all of that’s very interesting to me. I mean, sociologists, I think, are inherently interested in these questions of individual versus the collective, structure versus agency, community versus individual, you know, all of that kind of stuff. So I want to dive into this book more. Just listening to it, I thought it was really compelling. I want to take a deeper look and maybe do some further analysis around it somewhere, probably on Patreon because I’m not sure people would be – people would be like, “Um, can you just talk about products and not talk about about, you know, weird educational musings and ramblings?” Alright, my friends, that was it. I’m feeling quite energized, actually. It’s past 8 PM and I probably have more announcements to tell you. But if you’ve listened this far, I’m not going to bore you with more, except to say that I will be having the first issue of my newsletter, L’Amour Reveries, coming out in mid-December. So if you’re interested in receiving that, you can go to lamouretlamusique.com. There’s a newsletter tab at the top of the menu bar. You just click on that, you can put your email, and read a little bit about what’s going to be in the newsletter, why am I doing a newsletter, all of that. Basically, I just want to have a way to keep in touch that’s not on social media, because I’m sick of social media, and I think so many people are. And I just want to have a deeper depth of communicative experience with people that are interested in communicating about L’Amour. Basically, that’s the point. Okay, I am off for the night. I will not see you here on the public feed next week. That will be the wedding recap episode on Patreon. That’s a $3 a month level and you have access to all the past podcast episodes I’ve done especially for Patreon. I’m doing a holiday gift guide video on Patreon. It is going to be up post-Black Friday shopping deals, but you know, all of these brands continue to run one-off deals throughout December, so I’m hoping that it will give just some, you know, ideas for people as they continue whatever shopping they’re doing into December. And it’s going to have a focus on smaller brands, artisan brands, that kind of thing. That’s all I can think of for now. I will see you guys here on the public feed in two weeks, actually. It’s going to be an interview. I can tell you that I recorded the interview yesterday. I think you’re going to love it. It’s such a good time of year to be releasing it. It’s incredibly just inspiring, heart-centered conversation. Definitely some energy talk, along with beautiful products. And this is from a brand founder who is a good friend of mine who I knew in person when I lived on the east coast, and she and I just would connect really regularly. So maybe if you’ve been following me for a while, that may be some clues as to who’s coming up. And I can’t wait to bring that to you. I’ll be working hard over the next couple of weeks putting the finishing touches on that. There’ll be some special deals to accompany it. Thank you so much for listening. Please feel free to rate and review the podcast if you’re enjoying it. Share it with your friends, increase the audience so that more people can have some beauty therapy in their lives because we just need not divisiveness right now. I’m so tired of the polarization and divisiveness. Let’s – we can do better, I think. Love you guys. Talk to you soon. Take care. Have a great week. Bye! Your Purpose is Beauty Episode 48 (with Transcript): All the New Skincare I’m Testing and Using (and Loving): Biophile, Earthwise, In Fiore, Agent Nateur, et plus Your Purpose is Beauty (Exclusive) Episode 50 (with Transcript): Intimate Wedding Day Recounting + Reflections	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line581
__label__wiki	0.667439	0.667439	LD 1929 Session - 129th Maine Legislature LR 2956 Bill Tracking, Additional Documents Chamber Status Resolve, Establishing the Commission To Study Fair, Equitable and Competitive Tax Policy for Maine's Working Families and Small Businesses Emergency preamble. Whereas, acts and resolves of the Legislature do not become effective until 90 days after adjournment unless enacted as emergencies; and Whereas, this resolve establishes the Commission To Study Fair, Equitable and Competitive Tax Policy for Maine's Working Families and Small Businesses; and Whereas, the study must be initiated before the 90-day period expires in order that the study may be completed and a report submitted in time for submission to the next legislative session; and Whereas, in the judgment of the Legislature, these facts create an emergency within the meaning of the Constitution of Maine and require the following legislation as immediately necessary for the preservation of the public peace, health and safety; now, therefore, be it Sec. 1. Commission established. Resolved: That the Commission To Study Fair, Equitable and Competitive Tax Policy for Maine's Working Families and Small Businesses, referred to in this resolve as "the commission," is established. Sec. 2. Commission membership. Resolved: That the commission consists of 11 members appointed as follows: 1. Three members of the Senate appointed by the President of the Senate, including a member from each of the 2 parties holding the largest number of seats in the Legislature; 2. Three members of the House of Representatives appointed by the Speaker of the House, including a member from each of the 2 parties holding the largest number of seats in the Legislature; 3. One member representing the Office of the Governor, appointed by the Governor; 4. One public member representing the interests of small businesses and one public member representing the interests of working families, appointed by the President of the Senate; and 5. One public member representing the interests of small businesses and one public member representing the interests of working families, appointed by the Speaker of the House. Sec. 3. Chairs. Resolved: That the first-named Senate member is the Senate chair and the first-named House of Representatives member is the House chair of the commission. Sec. 4. Appointments; convening of commission. Resolved: That all appointments must be made no later than 30 days following the effective date of this resolve. The appointing authorities shall notify the Executive Director of the Legislative Council once all appointments have been completed. After appointment of all members, the chairs shall call and convene the first meeting of the commission. If 30 days or more after the effective date of this resolve a majority of but not all appointments have been made, the chairs may request authority and the Legislative Council may grant authority for the commission to meet and conduct its business. Sec. 5. Duties. Resolved: That the commission shall study issues associated with the impacts of tax policy on the State's working families and small businesses and shall develop recommendations designed to ensure that the tax policy of the State is fair and equitable, while ensuring the State remains competitive. In examining the issues, the commission shall consider measures designed to level the playing field for small businesses and to aid entrepreneurs and the importance to working families and businesses of adequately funding important government services, such as aid to local services, education, infrastructure and affordable health care and propose measures that ensure these services are adequately funded. The commission shall also evaluate the direct impact of any proposed tax changes on after-tax income by income decile. Sec. 6. Staff assistance. Resolved: That the Legislative Council shall provide necessary staffing services to the commission, except that Legislative Council staff support is not authorized when the Legislature is in regular or special session. Sec. 7. Provision of information to commission. The Department of Administrative and Financial Services, Maine Revenue Services, shall provide to the commission data consistent with the restrictions set forth in the Maine Revised Statutes, Title 36, section 191 that is requested by the commission. Sec. 8. Report. Resolved: That, no later than November 4, 2020, the commission shall submit a report that includes its findings and recommendations, including suggested legislation, for presentation to the First Regular Session of the 130th Legislature. Emergency clause. In view of the emergency cited in the preamble, this legislation takes effect when approved. This resolve establishes the Commission To Study Fair, Equitable and Competitive Tax Policy for Maine's Working Families and Small Businesses and directs the commission, no later than November 4, 2020, to submit a report, including suggested legislation, for presentation to the First Regular Session of the 130th Legislature. Bill Tracking Chamber Status Amendments Testimony, Public Hearings & Work Sessions Committee Information for this Bill Other Documents Title & Section Search Bill Text Search Bill Status Bill Directory Current Committees Legislative Information Download MS-Word, Printed PDF Maine Legislature Office of Legislative Information 100 State House Station Augusta, ME 04333 voice: (207) 287-1692 Word Viewer for Windows Disclaimer	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line583
__label__wiki	0.590488	0.590488	Adeboye Calls For Nigeria’s Restructuring Once again, the General Over-seer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God has lend his voice to addressing some of the issues which has to do with the survival and growth of the nation Nigeria and also the fostering of the national unity of the country as a Federating unit. Pastor E.A Adeboye is the leader of one of the biggest Religious denomination in Africa and across the world. The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) in Nigeria has its members from the 36 states of the federation with the various ethnic groups and tribes all well represented in the institution. He’s well known and respected in the country and the African continent for his simple self and personality and his numerous contribution to the growth and development of Nigerians. Speaking in a broadcast has enjoined the federal government of Nigeria under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari to see to the restructuring of the country now with no further delay or put the country at risk over its failure to do so. It will be recalled that the President Muhammadu Buhari led administration came into power in its first term with one of its campaign promises based on the need to restructuring the nation. There have been several calls from well meaning Nigerians home and abroad on the need for a proper restructuring of the Nigerian system. The nation Nigeria since its inception as a sovereign state upon its amalgamation in 1914 and its eventual independence in the year 1960 has failed to comfortably exist peaceful and harmoniously which has led to other challenges which has deprived the nation Nigeria of the much needed growth and development.It’s been stated that the current system does not fully accommodate the various complexities that comes with the uniqueNigeria Federating units. There’s been various calls for secession of the Nigeria Federating units into three to allow the three major ethnic groups to function Independently as sovereign nations on their own with recent agitations from the south east as the IPOBS agitates for the sovereign status for Republic of Biafra while there’s been some minute demand for the republic of Oduduwa by the South West. While many has called for the saving of the Nigeria nation before it gets out of hand, Pastor E.A Adeboye while addressing the Nigerian government stated that if there’s anytime better for the Nigerian nation to restructure, there’s no better time than now. According to him he explained that there’s nothing wrong with the Nigerian nation having a government that is totally and one hundred percent fully indigenous and which is exclusively unique to us. The Nigerian system has been described by many as a system which is a product of colonial rule a d administration which does not fit into the Nigerian realities. “I believe that we might want to look at the Problems of Nigeria in a slightly different manner. Some people feel that all our problems will be over if Nigeria should break up. I think that is trying to solve the problems of Nigeria as if it’s a simple equation. The problems of Nigeria will require a bit of simultaneous equation and some of them are not going to be linear either- forgive me I am talking as a mathematician. Why can’t we have a system of government that will create what I will the United States of Nigeria? Let me explain. We all know that we must restructure. It’s either we restructure or we break, you don’t have to be a prophet to know that one. This is certain- restructure or we break up.” Why many have thrown in their weight behind the prominent Nigeria leader, and while others might not adopt his proposed restructuring template, the obvious facts still remains, there’s a need for Nigeria to restructure. The nation Nigeria has many things to lose in the case of a breakup and I believe that it is the joint hope and prayers of many that the Nigerian nation is not divided. However there are sacrifices to be made to ensure this. There is a need for the Nigerian government to take issues of the nation at heart and not turn a blind eye or deaf eyes to it. While everyone has a duty to ensure the sustainability of the nation as a unified one, the Federal Government of Nigeria has a lot to do, they must be the one leading the charge to restructure the nation. There’s must be a national dialogue process which will see to the creation of a template that will see to this and ensure the sustainability of the future of the country. Restructuring in Nigeria is needed on many ground, Nigeria needs a total overhaul of its current political system; restructuring in the form of political decentralization and a different Economic template is necessary as it will to a great extent birth a more economically viable and politically functional nation. Nigeria, despite the fact that it’s a federal Republic has a unitary constitution pattern, one in which the federal government holds an encompassing power and authority over the Federating units. The nation Nigeria is made us a a federating states with thirty-six states which also consist of a federal capital territory and also a 774 local government areas which also includes the Federal Capital Territory. Here within the Nigerian Federating Nation, the federal government controls the revenues and almost all the nation’s resources which include oil and natural gas. This arrangement in its political structure was not like this before. The nation used to have a 4 region under the 1963 constitution namely Northern Nigeria, Eastern Nigeria, Western Nigeria and Mid Western Nigeria. In the absence of a federal government allocation or revenue from oil, the nation depended on export crops which were important and central to molding the nation’s economy. Here political Federalism reduced the power of the central government. Its high time Nigerians and its Leaders stop the unending and pathetic politicization of the news for restructuring the nation. The future and the survival of the nation as a united Federating unit depends on it, the even growth and development of the nation solely rest on this attainment of this. By Marcus Amudipe	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line585
__label__cc	0.522955	0.477045	Home Military Law Tennessee Corryton Corryton Military Lawyers Nashville, TN Military Law Attorney with 46 years of experience (844) 825-2997 P.O. Box 58747 Nashville, TN 37205-8747 Free ConsultationMilitary I spent 4 years on active duty with the Air Force, and 26 years in the Air Force Reserve. I retired as a Colonel. I represent current and former Veterans and their families with respect to Veterans' disability claims pending before the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the Board of Veterans Appeals (BVA), and various Federal courts. I am accredited as an attorney for the preparation, presentation and prosecution of claims before the VA. I am licensed to practice law in TN, NJ, DC, and GA. I am admitted to practice before the US Supreme... 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Tennison has significant experience in the U.S. Army and international experience. Paul's legal background affords him unique inside into many issues confronting his clients. Paul represents clients in a broad range of complex legal matters. Paul has experience working in cases involving military law, defamation, intellectual property, family law, contested divorces, immigration, business disputes, wills, trusts, and probate. Paul's extensive military experience includes four years at West Point, five years on Active Duty in Korea and Germany and... William L Aldred JR Clarksville, TN Military Law Attorney with 43 years of experience (931) 648-9621 221 South Second Street Clarksville, TN 37040 Free ConsultationMilitary, Criminal Defense, Family and Medical Malpractice University of Memphis Cecil C. 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He is a member of the Tennessee Bar Association, Memphis Bar Association, the Florida Bar Association and the South Dakota Bar Association as well as the American Association for Justice (formerly the Association of Trial Lawyers of America). Christopher D. Brown Nashville, TN Military Law Lawyer with 17 years of experience (615) 313-3085 3041 Sidco Drive Nashville, TN 37204 Military Attorneys in Nearby Cities Strawberry Plains Military Attorneys in Nearby Counties The OneCLE Lawyer Directory contains lawyers who have claimed their profiles and are actively seeking clients. Find more Corryton Military Lawyers in the Justia Legal Services and Lawyers Directory which includes profiles of more than one million lawyers licensed to practice in the United States, in addition to profiles of legal aid, pro bono and legal service organizations.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line586
__label__wiki	0.718773	0.718773	Consider Giving to OLL Founded through the generosity of St. Katherine Drexel. Lourdes Live Stream Archbishop’s Annual Appeal Report Lourdes Nursery Lourdes Alumni Scholarship Parish Organizational Chart Lourdes School Alumni Association Ministry Forms Lourdes Listings Archdiocese of Atlanta HomeParish Staff Rev. Jeffery Ott, O.P. JOtt@lourdesatlanta.org Father Jeffery Ott, O.P., is a friar of the Order of Preachers serving as Pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, the first African American Catholic Church in Atlanta. He is the President of the Board for Interfaith Community Initiatives and serves on the leadership council for the Southern Dominican Province. Father Jeffery received… Read Biography Rev. Bruce Schultz, O.P. fatherbruce@lourdesatlanta.org Fr. Bruce Barnabas Schultz, O.P., is a Dominican friar who returned to Our Lady of Lourdes in August of 2010 as associate pastor. (He had been ordained a priest at Lourdes in 1988 by Archbishop Eugene Marino.) Fr. Bruce, who has spent most of his three decades as a Dominican serving in the African American… Chester Griffin cgriffin@lourdesatlanta.org Chester Griffin is a permanent deacon at our Lady of Lourdes. He participates and leads Saturday and Sunday masses. He also handles pastoral care, marriage prep and counseling. Lennison “Lenny” Alexander Deacon Lenny joins Lourdes as its newest permanent deacon. He was ordained February 4, 2017 as the Cathedral of Christ the King. His areas of focus are adult faith formation, men’s ministry and Stephen Ministry. He also has an interest in homeless and hunger ministries. Lenny was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago… Kenneth Bell Kenneth R. Bell joined Our Lady of Lourdes staff in the fall of 2017. He is a native of Louisville, Kentucky where he was ordained a deacon in 1999. Kenneth W. Louis Director of Music and Liturgy kenneth.louis40@gmail.com For 30 years, Kenneth W. Louis served as Minister of Music at Holy Comforter-Saint Cyprian Catholic Church of Washington, DC. A native of Louisville, Kentucky, Kenneth built upon the childhood lessons on music ministry and musicianship instilled in him by his mother—the late Mrs. Lois Virginia Woolfolk Brooks—to become a world renowned performer, lecturer, composer, arranger, director, workshop clinician… Theresa Bowen Director of Religious Education As the Director of Religious Education at Our Lady of Lourdes, Theresa plans and organizes the faith formation of the children and youth of the parish. She handles Sunday School registration and preparation to receive the sacraments for children and youth. She has been a member at Lourdes for more than 60 years and is… Lisa Berkley Business Manager/Bookkeeper bookkeeper@lourdesatlanta.org Lisa Berkley has been at Our Lady of Lourdes for 16 years. As the church’s Business Manager and Bookkeeper, she wears many hats. She manages church staff and volunteers. She oversees the day-to-day management of the church building, cafeteria and the Katharine Drexel Community center. She also keeps the facilities calendar up to date for… Carol Ann Pinard Office Administrative Assistant cpinard@lourdesatlanta.org Carol Ann joined Lourdes in 2007, after relocating to Atlanta from her native, Trinidad and Tobago. In 2010, she began volunteering as a Counter and in 2012, started volunteering in the Church Office when needed. Carol Ann joined the staff of Lourdes in 2016 and some of her duties include: registering all new parishioners; maintaining… Angela Massingale amassingale@lourdesatlanta.org As the assistant to Pastor Jeffrey Ott, Massingale manages Ott’s schedule, answers the church phones, maintains Lourdes Listing and writes and sends the Lourdes in the Know e-newsletter. Angie relocated to Atlanta, Georgia from northern Virginia. A Fun Fact About Angie: She jumped out of airplanes in the military. 25 Boulevard N.E., Atlanta, Ga 30312, (Parking available at 494 Edgewood Avenue) We have suspended Masses at the church until further notice. Because of COVID-19 we’re working remotely to serve you and keeping the regular office hours. Remote Church Office Hours: Monday-Fridays: 9 a.m.-6 p.m. (Closed for lunch from 1 p.m.-2 p.m.) Church Office: 404-522-6776 \| Fax: 404-222-0202 © 2021 Our Lady of Lourdes Atlanta. lourdesatlanta.org.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line591
__label__wiki	0.578057	0.578057	Global warming and an inconvenient truth Essay Scientists use the term “global warming” to refer to the “tendency for the globe to warm over a given period”. Scientists agree that the average global temperature is presently increasing. The definition of global warming is just part of the story because there is no time element as to when this will definitely happen to such proportions that it will cause destruction. The rate at which it is warming can be quite alarming because from the historical temperature readings, 11 of the last 12 years (1995–2006) is counted as among the 12 hottest years since global temperatures have been measured (from about the 1850s). Today, scientists suggest that the current fast rate of warming beats the rate that was recorded within the last million years. It was even described that even if the earth became warm towards the end of an ice age the process was very gradual, warming up over a period of about 5,000 years. However, today, the earth is heating up at a very rapid rate (What is Global Warming?). Al Gore argues that the emission of the green house gasses is the main cause of global warming. He does this by saying that there is a cause and effect relationship between carbon dioxide and temperature as he presents several graphs to convince viewers at how the levels of carbon dioxide and temperature have paralleled each other for about 600,000 years (Gibson). In order to prove his point, the movie ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ directed by Davis Guggenheim showed how climate change has been doing its slow but sure destruction. The movie portrays scientific truths about the environment together with its possible solutions. It is Al Gore’s documentation of an issue that has been a passion to him ever since. The movie itself is a different kind of experience as viewers are treated to the effects of global warming on the human population. Al Gore expounds on air and water pollution that wrecks havoc on humanity. The call is urgent: act now or suffer the consequences later (An Inconvenient Truth Movie Review). The rising temperatures and drought can cause flooding and huge changes in ecosystems that can be the reason for the disruptions in agriculture. This will definitely result in dramatic social changes. As temperatures rise, the oceans will quickly evaporate causing more clouds and more rainfall. This could be disastrous because rain can fall on places and times when people least expect them. Early on in the movie Gore presents a chart that indicates the average temperature over the past 1,000 years. It then shows the big changes during the past years and Gore cuts off those who say that there is a cyclical nature to this. But if one looks back over the past 3,000 years, one can see that the temperatures based on studies of the Sargasso Sea, demonstrate that the world is now emerging from a mini-ice age that began about 1,000 years ago. He presents charts that show that while the temperature has been rising, the global temperature is still below the average for the past 3,000 years. The movie presents valuable interviews from experts and professionals in the environment who say that the problem is that as either the temperature or levels of carbon dioxide change, these can spur several ecological changes that quickly snowballs into an enormously complex system of variables all having affects on each other. Gore shows how a short presentation of a theory based on two variables (greenhouses gasses and temperature) can show this correlation. In sum, however one looks at it, what people do today is important for the future and all of humankind must not take the issue of global warming lukewarmly. An Inconvenient Truth Movie Review. Kruse Kronicle. Retrieved Jan. 3, 2008 at: http://krusekronicle.typepad.com/kruse_kronicle/2006/07/the_inconvenien.html Gibson, Barbara. Key to ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ Retrieved Jan. 3, 2008 at: http://www.apple.com/hotnews/articles/2006/05/inconvenienttruth/ The Effects of Global Warming. Retrieved Jan. 3, 2008 at: http://www.effectofglobalwarming.com/ What is Global Warming? Retrieved Jan. 3, 2008 at: http://www.global-greenhouse-warming.com/what-is-global-warming.html An Inconvenient Truth Essay An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore Essay Awareness And Impact In Global Warming Management Essay Environmental problems such as global warming Globalisation and Global Warming Essay	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line592
__label__cc	0.570462	0.429538	Richard Clarke and R.P. Eddy on AI risk November 15, 2017 by Luke 3 Comments Richard Clarke and R.P. Eddy recently published Warnings, a book in which they try to identify “those rare people who… have accurate visions of looming disasters.” The opening chapter explains the aims of the book: …this book will seek to answer these questions: How can we detect a real Cassandra among the myriad of pundits? What methods, if any, can be employed to better identify and listen to these prophetic warnings? Is there perhaps a way to distill the direst predictions from the surrounding noise and focus our attention on them? …As we proceeded through these Cassandra Event case studies in a variety of different fields, we began to notice common threads: characteristics of the Cassandras, of their audiences, and of the issues that, when applied to a modern controversial prediction of disaster, might suggest that we are seeing someone warning of a future Cassandra Event. By identifying those common elements and synthesizing them into a methodology, we create what we call our Cassandra Coefficient, a score that suggests to us the likelihood that an individual is indeed a Cassandra whose warning is likely accurate, but is at risk of being ignored. Having established this process for developing a Cassandra Coefficient based on past Cassandra Events, we next listen for today’s Cassandras. Who now among us may be accurately warning us of something we are ignoring, perhaps at our own peril? Of the risks covered in the book, Clarke says he’s most worried about sea level rise, and Eddy says he’s most worried about superintelligence. Below is a sampling of what they say in the chapter on risks from advanced AI systems. Note that I’m merely quoting from their take, not necessarily agreeing with it. (Indeed, there are significant parts I disagree with.) Superintelligence is an artificial intelligence that will be “smarter” than its human creators in all the metrics we define as intelligence. Superintelligence does not yet exist, but when it does, some believe it could solve every major problem of humankind: aging and disease, energy and food shortages, climate change. Self-perpetuating and untiring, this type of AI will improve at a remarkably fast rate, and eventually surpass the level of complexity humans can understand. This is the promise of AI, and possibly its peril. Experts have given a name to this era of the hyperintelligent computer: the “intelligence explosion.” Nearly every computer and neural scientist with expertise in the field believes that the intelligence explosion will happen in the next seventy years; most predict it will happen by 2040… As science fiction writer and computer scientist Vernor Vinge wrote, “The best answer to the question, ‘Will computers ever be as smart as humans?’ is probably ‘Yes, but only briefly.’” As the excitement grows, so too does fear. The astrophysicist and Nobel laureate Dr. Stephen Hawking warns that AI is “likely to be either the best or worst thing ever to happen to humanity, so there’s huge value in getting it right.” Hawking is not alone in his concern about superintelligence. Icons of the tech revolution, including former Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, echo his concern. And it terrifies Eliezer Yudkowsky. Eliezer has dedicated his life to preventing artificial intelligence from destroying humankind… His work focuses on foundational mathematical research to ensure (he hopes) that artificial intelligence ultimately has only a positive impact on humanity. The ultimate problem: how to keep humanity from losing control of a machine of its own creation, to prevent artificial intelligence from becoming, in the words of James Barrat in the title of his 2013 book, Our Final Invention. A divisive figure, Yudkowsky is well known in academic circles and the Silicon Valley scene as the coiner of the term “friendly AI.” His thesis is simple, though his solution is not: if we are to have any hope against superintelligence, we need to code it properly from the beginning. The answer, Eliezer believes, is one of morality. AI must be programmed with a set of ethical codes that align with humanity’s. Though it is his life’s only work, Yudkowsky is pretty sure he will fail. Humanity, he tells us, is likely doomed. From Yudkowsky’s whimsical graph above, we can get a hint of the predicted power of superintelligence (here called “recursively self-improved AI”)… Elon Musk calls creating artificial intelligence “summoning the demon” and thinks it’s humanity’s “biggest existential threat.” When we asked Eliezer what was at stake, his answer was simple: everything. Superintelligence gone wrong is a species-level threat, a human extinction event. Humans are neither the fastest nor the strongest creatures on the planet but dominate for one reason: humans are the smartest. How might the balance of power shift if AI becomes superintelligence? Yudkowsky told us, “By the time it’s starting to look like [an AI system] might be smarter than you, the stuff that is way smarter than you is not very far away.” He believes “this is crunch time for the whole human species, and not just for us but for the [future] intergalactic civilization whose existence depends on us. This is the hour before the final exam and we’re trying to get as much studying done as possible.” It is not personal. “The AI does not hate you, nor does it love you, but you are made out of atoms which it can use for something else.” Yudkowsky believes superintelligence must be designed from the start with something approximating ethics. He envisions this as a system of checks and balances so that advanced AI growth is auditable and controllable, so that even as it continues to learn, advance, and reprogram itself, it will not evolve out of its own benign coding. Such preprogrammed measures will ensure that superintelligence will “behave as we intend even in the absence of immediate human supervision.” Eliezer calls this “friendly AI.” According to Yudkowsky, once AI gains the ability to broadly reprogram itself, it will be far too late to implement safeguards, so society needs to prepare now for the intelligence explosion. Yet this preparation is complicated by the sporadic and unpredictable nature of scientific advancement and the numerous secret efforts to create superintelligence around the world. No supranational organization can track all of the efforts, much less predict when or which one of them will succeed. Eli and his supporters believe a “wait and see” approach (a form of satisficing) is a Kevorkian prescription. “[The birth of superintelligence] could be five years out; it could be forty years out; it could be sixty years out,” Yudkowsky told us. “You don’t know. I don’t know. Nobody on the planet knows. And by the time you actually know, it’s going to be [too late] to do anything about it.” Yudkowsky rejects the idea that a superintelligence should, or could, be tailored to parochial national security interests, believing instead that any solution must be considered at the human species level. “This stuff does not stop being lethal because it’s in American hands, or Australian hands, or even in Finland’s hands,” he told us, mildly annoyed… How concerned should we really be about this threat? Yudkowsky’s warning is certainly affected by Initial Occurrence Syndrome. Never before has our species encountered something of greater intelligence, so we are ill equipped to believe, let alone foresee and plan for, the complete scope of the problem. At the same time, Complexity Mismatch suggests that decision makers may not be able or willing to digest and distill the issue and its possible solutions. Moreover, the issue certainly seems outlandish to many, the stuff of sci-fi movies (but likely won’t in even ten short years). Killer robots? Machines taking over the world? Does the seemingly fantastical nature of superintelligence result in a dangerous and dismissive bias against the issue? Certainly it has. The audience for Eli’s warning suffers from diffusion of responsibility. There is no person or office in the U.S. government or any international organization who is responsible for saving the world from superintelligence gone rogue. Yudkowsky’s concern is so novel and perhaps so widely dismissed that there is not even an accepted scientific convention on AI safety protocols. A legitimate attempt at regulation would have to be done multilaterally, at the highest levels of every industrialized government (likely via UN treaty) and would require intrusive and likely surprise inspections of both government and commercial labs. Yudkowsky is a data-driven expert who has devoted his life to preventing this disaster. He exhibits all of the Cassandra characteristics and is missing the Cassandra weakness of low social power. Even so, his singular focus and his adherence to alternative social norms has alienated others who might serve as advocates, even those who might play a role in a solution. Is our Cassandra’s off-putting personality an insurmountable obstacle? Finally, many of Eliezer Yudkowsky’s critics have vested interests against regulations or other efforts to slow the development of AI. From those in industry to those in government, superintelligence holds the promise of an unmatched competitive edge. Can they continue to be objective parties to the discussion, or have they grown biased against the threat? Yudkowsky’s suggested solution, a global Manhattan Project to develop safe AI, would be one of the most incredibly complicated multilateral bureaucratic solutions we could imagine. An alliance of the United States and select allies may be a more reasonable solution, but nothing of this sort has even been considered. We have been warned that we have one chance, and one chance only, to get it right. Perhaps we should pay attention to Eliezer Yudkowsky before we open a door we can never again close. Glenn Philip Adams says Hi Luke, We have never met yet I have been researching AI and The Future of Artificial Intelligence. I came across your name when looking into Machine Intelligence Research Institute. I liked that your involved with Open Philanthropy Project and AI. I was wondering if you wrote https://www.openphilanthropy.org/reasoning-transparency#Open_with_a_linked_summary_of_key_takeaways ? I also wanted to ask if you would be willing to read and review a research paper that I wrote on The Future of Artificial Intelligence. I have collected data from many sources with quotes from Stephen Hawkins, His Holiness Dalai Lama, Dmitry Itskov, and many leaders in the field. It starts as follows: While attending the 33rd Kalachakra Initiation by His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama in Ledakh India (July 3-14, 2014) I had a dream that the Dalai Lama made an announcement that he would reincarnated as Artificial Intelligence. So I started to research the Dream further and to put forth the idea to our global community. Quoted from the book, Gentle Bridges: Conversations with the Dalai Lama on the Science of Mind (by Jeremy Hayward and Francisco Varela 2001), the Dalai Lama states that “there is a possibility that a scientist in the next life… could be reborn in a computer half-human and half-machine reincarnation.” I believe this paper to hold some keys to what is needed to create the beautiful world that we all want to see. You can e mail me if you are interested. Glenn-Philip Keith Henson says I have known Eliezer for a long time, Eric Drexler even longer and saw Vernor Vinge a couple of weeks ago. It is so hard to write about the future as outlined by these people that I resorted to fiction. The story is called “The Clinic Seed.” The story was first posted on Eliezer’s Shock Level 4 list. It is located here http://www.terasemjournals.org/GNJournal/GN0202/henson1.html if you want to read it. It is my opinion that the side effects of the singularity will eliminate biological humanity entirely, but a story must have characters to be a story. So some of it is written from the viewpoint of individuals in a small remnant group. The point of the story (to the extent it has one) is that even friendly AI can be expected to have effects we might not want, but can’t avoid. R.P. Eddy says It has been a while. I just ran across this piece again. I feel like I never got the debrief from you on what you disagree with in our AI chapter. I certainly learned a ton from you about AI, so I’d love to hear more. Let me know next time you are around NYC. Take care and thanks for everything,	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line594
__label__cc	0.742246	0.257754	Who’s here Key Occupiers The Studios at dock10 Tales from the City The Green Rooms Home > Workspace > Future Developments Like any city, we are continuously evolving and the beauty is that we have plenty of room to grow. If you’d like to have your own bespoke designed building at MediaCityUK, then we’d be delighted to talk to you. We have a number of available plots, each with a detailed specification. You can download information on each of the following plots below, or get in touch with us directly. chris.reay@mediacityuk.co.uk Filter by sector > B5 provides an iconic 296,500 sq ft (2,755 sq m) commercial building with a dynamic crystalline tower extending to 18 storeys, becoming the focal point for MediaCityUK. C1 - Lightbox Lightbox is a quality residential apartment scheme on the waterfront at MediaCityUK. A mixture of 1, 2 and 3 bed apartments. A contemporary commercial office building, extending to 97,960 sq ft (9,101 sq m), providing a unique presence, identity and branding opportunity right at the heart of MediaCityUK. An existing and vibrant residential development of 286 apartments alongside 18,300 sq ft (1,700 sq m) of small business space and 35,500 sq ft (3,300 sq m) of live/work accommodation. 11,000 sq ft (1,030 sq m) of leisure space, to be used for street food markets and events set within a public square. Situated at the gateway to MediaCityUK, this exciting residential development will delivery 477 high quality apartments and townhouses with a range of amenities. Designed as a mirror image of the Lightbox development, D1 will deliver the same high quality residential scheme of 238 studio, 1, 2, and 3 bed apartments. A blade and plinth style residential development of 182 apartments alongside 5,600 sq ft (525 sq m) of office space and multi-storey car park. Occupying a strategically important second gateway site, this commercial development features 33,000 sq ft (3,050 sq m) of offices and 10,700 sq ft (1,000 sq m) of live/work accommodation and a multi-storey car park. Located at the meeting point of the Metrolink and Broadway, D5 will provide 450 apartments in two towers and 18,300 sq ft (1,700 sq m) of retail and leisure space alongside a 260 space multi-storey car park. If you’d like to keep up to date with the latest developments here at MediaCityUK then sign up for our newsletter. Tick this box if you would like to receive future information from MediaCityUK Tick this box if you would like to receive future information from other Peel businesses and MediaCityUK's partners. Find out a little more about us or contact us here © MEDIACITYUK 2018 Website by DRUMBEAT. PEEL HOLDINGS LAND AND PROPERTY (UK) LIMITED \| Registered in England & Wales 6497115 PEEL MEDIA LIMITED \| Company number 05998345 Venus Building, 1 Old Park Lane, TraffordCity, Manchester M41 7HA Our website requires cookies to help provide you with the best experience we can. Please click 'Allow' button opposite to agree our use of cookies and hide this message.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line603
__label__wiki	0.895529	0.895529	Home Biography Soko Soko Biography Facts of Soko Relationship short Statistics of Soko What is Soko marital status ? ( married,single, in relation or divorce): How many children does Soko have ? (name): Is Soko having any relationship affair ?: Yes1 affair Is Soko Lesbian ? 1 Affair Stephanie Sokolinski aka Soko is a French singer/songwriter, actress, and musician. She made a name for herself with the international hit single, I�ll Kill Her. Further, she is known for her roles in Her, Augustine and The Dancer. She is a bisexual and refers to herself as White Goth. Soko was born on October 26, 1985, in Bordeaux, France to a Russian-Polish father and a French-Italian mother. Her father died when she was just five years old. She belongs to Caucasian ethnicity and holds French nationality. At the age of sixteen, Soko left home and moved to Paris to start acting class with Eva Saint-Paul. She quit her education when she attended the acting course but later on resumed it studying at several schools. Eventually, tired of starting over, her education, she dropped out again and began her professional career with different French movies. Soko began her career in 2007 with the release of her hit single I’ll Kill Her. Her song received popularity and was able to hold number one position on the radio. The song was a hit in Australia, Netherland, and Belgium. Moreover, her music was featured in Stella McCartney’s fashion show in Paris. She toured in the UK supporting M.I.A. on the KALA tour. In 2008 she song also played in Germany by 1LIVE in 1 Live Plan B first only at night, but due to high demand, it’s played the whole day. In addition to this, Soko has self-released one EP Not Sokute and worked together with Cornershop and The Go! Team. She has her own record label named Babycat Records and is signed to Because Music in France. Her song I’ll Kill her was sampled by Cee Lo Green on his Stray Bullets mixtape under the track of the same name in 2010. In 2011, she wrote a song and appeared in the animated short movie entitled Mourir Aupres De Toi which was directed and co-written by Spike Jonze. In February 2012, her debut album, I Thought I Was an Alien was released. Her song We Might Be Dead By Tomorrow included on the album was featured in Tatia Pilieva’s short video First Kiss. The video went viral on YouTube. In March 2015, her second album entitled My Dreams Dictate my Reality was released. She collaborated with Residente on a song called Desencuentro for his first debut solo album. Apart from her music career, Soko was also forward on building her acting career. She was nominated for Cesar Award for Most Promising Actress in 2010 for her role as Monika in the movie In the Beginning which was directed by Xavier Giannoli. Her other acting work includes movies like Augustine, The Dancer, The Stopover and so on. Soko is vegan. It is connected with the fact that she became straight edge when she was just 18 years old. She refers herself as a white goth. She further explains herself as bisexual. In 2016, she started dating Kristen Stewart, an American actress. After dating for several months, Soko broke up with her girlfriend on May 5, 2016, the US Weekly confirmed. Soko, 31, is living a lavish life.She has an astonishing net worth of $2 million as per some online sources. Soko Affairs First Affair with Kristen Stewart Soko, a famous singer started dating Kristen Stewart, an American actress. They dated each other for several months before breaking up.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line604
__label__wiki	0.600668	0.600668	Why Choose PRIMES MIT PRIMES PRIMES-USA CrowdMath PRIMES Circle √MathROOTS PRIMES STEP PRIMES-Switzerland Named Mentorships PRIMES Named Mentorships George Lusztig Mentorships In September 2014 MIT Mathematics Professor George Lusztig, the recipient of the 2014 Shaw Prize in mathematics, used a significant part of this prize to make a very generous gift to PRIMES, as the first contribution to its endowment. This has made it possible to establish George Lusztig PRIMES mentorships. Several such mentorships will be awarded each year to continuing PRIMES mathematics mentors for exceptional mentor service in past years. Michael and Victoria Bershadsky Mentorship In September 2020 Michael and Victoria Bershadsky made a major gift towards PRIMES endowment. This has made it possible to establish a Bershadsky PRIMES mentorship, to be awarded each year to a continuing PRIMES mathematics mentor for exceptional mentor service in past years. 2021 Lusztig Mentors Peter Haine is a PhD student in the Mathematics department at MIT. Peter was also an undergraduate at MIT, finishing in 2016. Their research centers around homotopy theory and algebraic geometry. Peter served as a DRP mentor in 2017 and 2018, a MathROOTS mentor in 2017, and since 2018 has been the coordinator for the PRIMES Circle program. Chun Hong Lo is a PhD student in the Mathematics department at MIT. He received his BSc in mathematics from Imperial College London and completed Part III in mathematics at University of Cambridge. His research interests are in enumerative geometry. He has served as a PRIMES, RSI, UROP+ and SPUR mentor since 2018. He has won the Rogers Prize for the best SPUR paper together with his SPUR-2019 students Carl Schildkraut and William Zhao. His PRIMES students Vincent Fan, William Yue, and Sebastian Zhu became 2019 Yau Science Award USA semifinalists. Adela (YiYu) Zhang is a PhD student in the Mathematics department at MIT, with research insterests in algebraic topology and homotopy theory. When she was an undergraduate at MIT, she was a PRIMES Circle mentor for two years. In grad school, she has worked with students in PRIMES, RSI, and UROP+, and served as an academic mentor at MathROOTS. 2021 Bershadsky Mentor Andrey Khesin is a PhD student in the Mathematics department at MIT. He received his B.S. in mathematics from the University of Toronto. His research interests are in quantum computation and quantum information. He has served as a PRIMES mentor and MathROOTS Program Director since 2020. Vishal Arul is a PhD student in the Mathematics department at MIT. He received his B.S. in mathematics from Stanford University. His research interests are in number theory and algebraic geometry. He has served as a PRIMES mentor (2016) and MathROOTS mentor (2016) and academic coordinator (since 2017). His PRIMES student Dhruv Rohatgi is a 2016 Siemens semifinalist and a 2017 Regeneron STS scholar. He is a recipient of the Charles and Holly Housman Award for Excellence in Teaching. Yongyi Chen, a PRIMES alumnus (2011), is a graduate of MIT and a Ph.D. student in the Mathematics department at MIT. His research interests lie in algebraic number theory. He has served as a PRIMES, SPUR, and UROP+ mentor since 2017. His PRIMES student Kaan Dokmeci is a 2018 Regeneron STS scholar and a 2017 Siemens regional finalist. Kaavya Valiveti is a PhD student in the Mathematics department at MIT. She received her B.A. in Mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley. Her research interests are in the analysis of loop spaces. She has served as a PRIMES mentor since 2019. Christian Gaetz is a PhD student in the Mathematics department at MIT. He was an undergraduate at the University of Minnesota. Christian is interested in algebraic and enumerative combinatorics, representation theory, graph theory, and connections between these areas and computation. He has served as a PRIMES, DRP, and UROP+ mentor since 2017. His PRIMES student Ayush Agarwal is a 2018 Regeneron STS scholar. Zhulin Li is a Ph.D. student in the Mathematics department at MIT. She received her B.Eng. from Yao Class of Tsinghua University. She is working in algebraic topology. Zhulin has served as a PRIMES, RSI, and DRP mentor since 2017. Chris Ryba is a PhD student in the Mathematics department at MIT. His primary research interests are representation theory and algebraic combinatorics. He has served as a PRIMES and UROP+ mentor since 2017. His PRIMES student Mihir Singhal is a 2018 Regeneron STS scholar. Zhenkun Li is a PhD student in the Mathematics department at MIT. His interests are in low dimensional topology, especially Gauge theory. Zhenkun has served as a PRIMES, RSI, and DRP mentor since 2016. His RSI-2016 student Dona-Maria Ivanova won the Fourth Award in Math at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in 2017. Gwen McKinley is a Ph.D. student in the Mathematics department at MIT. She received her B.S. in mathematics from the University of California, Davis, and an associate’s degree from Pasadena City College. Her research interests are in combinatorics and graph theory. She has been MathROOTS program director (2016-2017), a teaching assistant, a math tutor, and an academic peer advisor, and she loves working with students! In 2017 she was honored as one of MIT's Graduate Women of Excellence. Ao Sun is a PhD student in the Mathematics department at MIT. He is interested in geometry, especially geometric analysis. He has served as a PRIMES, RSI, and DRP mentor since 2015. Most projects he mentored are related to geometric differential equations and combinatoric geometry. Lucas Mason-Brown is a PhD student in the Mathematics department at MIT. He specializes in representation theory and its connections to quantum mechanics. He has a recreational interest in old handwritten codes and recently published a book, Decoding Roger Williams, on a code he deciphered in college. Lucas has served as a PRIMES, MSRP, and DRP mentor since 2015. Before beginning at MIT, Lucas was a seventh grade math teacher in Boston. He is a recipient of the George J. Mitchell Fellowship, the David Howell Premium for Excellence in Mathematics, and the Karen T. Romer Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award. Andrew Rzeznik is a PhD student in the Mathematics department at MIT. His interests are Fluid Mechanics, Wave Phenomena, Dynamical Systems, and Atmospheric Modelling. He has served as a PRIMES, RSI, and DRP mentor since 2015. His RSI student Meena Jagadeesan became a 2016 Davidson Fellow Laureate, won the 2nd place at 2016 Intel STS, and became a 2015 Siemens semifinalist. Guangyi Yue is a PhD student in the Mathematics department at MIT. She is interested in representation theory and combinatorics. She has worked as a mentor in the PRIMES, RSI, and DRP programs since 2016. During 2016, she mentored a project on hyperplane arrangement and another one on combinatorial representation theory. Chiheon Kim is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Mathematics at MIT. His research interests include combinatorial optimization and discrete geometry. He has served as a PRIMES and RSI mentor since 2013. His PRIMES-2013 student, Junho Won, became 2014 Intel STS semifinalist and won Outstanding Presentation award at 2014 MAA Undergraduate Student Poster Session. His RSI-2013 student Bertrand Stone became Semifinalist at Siemens 2013, Semifinalist at Intel STS 2014, and received an Honorable Mention for AMS Menger Award at Intel ISEF 2014. His RSI-2014 student David Stoner won IMO-2015 with a gold medal. His RSI-2014 student Kavish Gandhi became a Semifinalist at Intel STS 2015 and published an article on arXiv.org (http://arxiv.org/abs/1409.7983). Chiheon led PRIMES reading groups in 2014-2015. Seth Shelley-Abrahamson is a Ph.D. student in the mathematics department at MIT, specializing in Representation Theory. He has served as a PRIMES, RSI, and SPUR mentor since 2014. Together with his SPUR-2015 student Charles (Yuchen) Fu, he has won the Rogers Prize for the best SPUR paper. His students have published articles on arXiv.org and submitted to journals (http://arxiv.org/abs/1510.03086, http://arxiv.org/abs/1507.08365, and http://arxiv.org/abs/1506.05503). Isabel Vogt is a Ph.D. student at MIT focusing on algebraic geometry and number theory. Her research interests include elliptic curves and their associated Galois representations. She graduated from Harvard in 2014 with an AB in mathematics, and chemistry and physics. While at Harvard she was a course assistant for the math department and was a recipient of a Derek Bok Center teaching award three years in a row. She also mentors elementary and middle school girls in problem solving at Girl's Angle: A Math Club for Girls, and has taught math courses at Harvard and MIT's Educational Studies Program (ESP). In 2015 she was honored as one of MIT's Graduate Women of Excellence. She was a PRIMES Circle mentor in 2013-2014 and has served as PRIMES Circle Coordinator since the fall of 2014. She represented PRIMES at the NSF-supported Forum on Next Generation STEM Learning for All, with the participation of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, in Washington, D.C., in November 2015. Jesse Geneson is a Ph.D. student in the MIT Math Department. His area of interest is discrete mathematics and graph theory. He was an RSI mentor in 2011-2014 and a PRIMES mentor in 2012-2014. His RSI student, Sitan Chen, won the 3rd Prize at 2011 Siemens Competition and became a national finalist at 2012 Intel STS; two other RSI students became Intel STS semifinalists, and one became a Siemens semifinalist. His PRIMES students, Jonathan Tidor and Rohil Prasad, won the 5th Prize at the 2012 Siemens Competition, and a PRIMES-USA student, Peter Tian, won the 1st Prize in the 2014 Siemens Competition ($100,000 scholarship). His students have published articles in The Electronic Journal of Combinatorics and on arXiv.org (http://arxiv.org/abs/1307.1169, http://arxiv.org/abs/1208.1814, http://arxiv.org/abs/1410.3147, http://arxiv.org/abs/1305.0505, http://arxiv.org/abs/1308.3810). Darij Grinberg is a Ph.D. student in the MIT Math Department. His field of interest is algebra, especially constructive algebra, representation theory and algebraic combinatorics. He was a PRIMES mentor in 2012-2014. In 2012 he co-mentored William Kuszmaul and Ziling Zhou, who became 2012 Siemens regional finalists; in 2013 he mentored William Kuszmaul, who became 2014 Intel STS finalist, 2013 Siemens semifinalist, and 2013 Davidson Fellow. His PRIMES-USA student Eric Neyman became a 2014 Siemens semifinalist. His students have published articles in The Electronic Journal of Combinatorics and on arXiv.org (http://arxiv.org/abs/1402.3881, http://arxiv.org/abs/1402.3839, http://arxiv.org/abs/1304.5669, http://arxiv.org/abs/1304.5667, http://arxiv.org/abs/1410.5039). Yufei Zhao is a Ph.D. student in the MIT Math Department. He was a PRIMES mentor in 2013-2014, first leading a reading group on the probabilistic method and then supervising a research project in combinatorics. His research interests include extremal and probabilistic combinatorics and graph theory. He is the recipient of the honorable mention for 2011 Frank and Brennie Morgan prize for outstanding research in mathematics for undergraduates, 2010 Gates Cambridge Scholarship, and 2010 Jon A. Bucsela Prize in Mathematics is given in recognition of distinguished scholastic achievement, professional promise and enthusiasm for mathematics. Email us: Primes@math.mit.edu	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line606
__label__cc	0.680315	0.319685	Interview of the Month: Afton Hallauer on Library Outreach On January 16, 2014 By mandigoodsett Hello and welcome back from a long break from interview of the month! I’ve been a little distracted having a wonderful holiday with my family and friends. 🙂 Back to business! For our next interview of the month, I talked to a fun, cool librarian who not only knows how to knit a mean scarf, but also can make the best shortbread cookies I’ve ever tasted. Her name is Afton Hallauer and I’m so happy I met her one day at the Champaign Public Library as we whiled away the hours, withdrawing old cheesy romance novels from the catalog. A little about Afton: Afton graduated from the University of Illinois’ Library and Information Sciences program in May and currently works as the Youth Services Librarian at the Fairfield Public Library in Iowa. She originally planned to work in public radio, but decided to switch to public libraries. She is now a super-talkative librarian. Her favorite children’s book is The Phantom Tollbooth, and her favorite adult book is Shades of Grey (not THAT Shades of Grey, Jasper Fforde’s distopian comedy Shades of Grey — and thank you so much E.L. James, for making this distinction necessary). In our talk, we focused on programming in libraries but covered everything from the heartbreak that readers advisory can cause to accidentally finding your dream job. MG: What surprised you most about life as a professional librarian? AH: Actually, when I got home today I realized that I didn’t have anything to do. By and large, I have nothing hanging over my head after work, which is very different than when I was a student. When I started out going into public libraries it was beaten into me that I would have to work nights and I would have to work weekends, but I feel so spoiled because in my current position I can come home at fairly reasonable hours and I don’t have to work weekends. At the same time, time off is more precious. I actually spend more time at work, unlike when I was a student and I could spend most of the day studying or whatever. That’s been a big adjustment for me. Until now I never had a real job, so it’s been a big change. MG: What do you find most challenging about your current job? Most rewarding? AH: What’s challenging is in some ways also the most rewarding. Because my library is so small I get to do so many things and it’s fun because you never get bored. I’m not bogged down with limitations. At the same time, it’s been challenging to learn everything as a new person—there’s been a huge learning curve. Reader’s advisory is another one that has been both challenging and rewarding. Sometimes I’ll have a patron come up and say “I’m looking for a book like this,” and you look everywhere and do everything right and you pick the perfect book for that person. And then when you come back later, all the books you picked out are back on the shelving cart. So readers’ advisory can be really great or really challenging. It’s a great feeling when you connect a kid with a book but it’s heartbreaking when you can’t or when they’re not interested. I was lucky in a way because my library has had a lot of turnover, so when I arrived they already had a set of tasks for me to do on a weekly or monthly basis. I also had a really good trainer. Filling an old position that has been vacated made it easier too, although it can be hard because they all loved the previous person. MG: What outreach efforts have you made so far? Are there any programs or events that you plan on trying in the future? AH: We have a lot of in-house programs, so that could be considered outreach. We have a program called “When the Lights Go Out” and for that program we collaborate with local Broadway theater actors and that was really great. Outreach can be hard, but it has been really effective here because this community values its library. We also do some programs off-site. I visit daycares to get the kids connected to books and more familiar with the librarian. I also take books there and leave them for a while for the kids to read (which boosts my circ stats!). Another good way to do outreach is to connect with other organizations. Collaboration is really valuable—it allows you to do things as an organization that you couldn’t do on your own. Our community has something called “Art Walk,” and they set up on the square in town once a month to showcase local artists’ work. So during that time we have story time a little later so people can stop by and warm up (now that it’s cold), and when it’s nicer we’ll set up story time on the square during the event. Events like that can raise the visibility of the library and provide you with people you can go to for collaboration ideas. We also work with KRUU radio station in town. A librarian will go to read bedtime stories on the air during their kids program, so that’s been another way for the library to be out in the community. It is time away from the desk to do these programs, so it’s good to have the administration on my side allowing me to do this. MG: Where do you get outreach ideas? AH: I’ve been fortunate because a lot of outreach was set up for me. I added a couple of programs, but mostly it was already set up before I came. It was great because I could use the structure already in place and tap into it for ideas. The librarian who previously had my position kept records of everything she did, which is good because now we have a resource to go back to. So if we want to rehash something we did a few years ago we have a stockpile of old ideas to use. As far as new ideas, I would recommend that you plan well in advance. If you start planning several months out, you can wait for inspiration to strike instead of sitting there the day before hoping to think of an idea. I would also recommend talking to other librarians—people you’ve worked with in the past, libraries you admire. This field seems really open to sharing and some libraries actually put up their programs on their website, so that’s a good way to find ideas. It helps keeping in touch with other librarians to get ideas and feedback too. Of course, I’m spoiled because youth programming has lots of programming resources—it might be harder for librarians in other kinds of libraries. MG: How do you market your outreach efforts to patrons? AH: Well I’m working in a small town community, so the local media and information sources are extremely valuable. Even so, you can put signs everywhere, make announcements on the Facebook page, the newspaper, the radio, announce it at another library program, and you’ll still have a parent that says “I didn’t know about that event!” So there’s no way to reach everybody. Still, the more ways you can tell people, the more they’ll remember it. It could be helpful too to reach out to people who have talent like a graphic design student or someone in marketing to help you advertise. Word of mouth is really important for raising awareness. Just talking to people about the event can make a big difference. The sad part is you can put in all that time and effort and people still won’t come sometimes. And sometimes it’s out of your control! I had a program that wasn’t well attended because it was so cold out, but there’s nothing you can do about that. Also, make sure that another group isn’t having an event at the same time. You don’t want to have competition with your event—you don’t want there to be a lot of other things for people to choose to do instead. MG: Do you have any advice for new librarians or library students preparing to enter the profession? I don’t feel like I can be too sanctimonious here—I just started a few months ago! For students I would say to take as many classes as you can because you never know what direction you’ll end up taking. Look at me—I took a Youth Services class as a joke and now that’s what I’m doing! So try to get experience in a wide variety of areas and that’ll make it a lot easier for you when you’re applying for jobs. When you start applying, don’t pigeon-hole yourself to a certain kind of position. Don’t not apply for something because you don’t think it’s for you. Look outside your comfort zone. Now that I’m in the position I’m in, I couldn’t imagine myself anywhere else. SELA/SCLA Conference: Take-Aways Interview of the Month: Emma Clausen on Library Instruction	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line610
__label__cc	0.600144	0.399856	Anne Lindeman ’87 Heaphy Anne Elisabet (Lindeman) Heaphy, a resident of Holland since 1977, passed away in Holland on April 7, 2019. Anne was born in Detroit, Michigan, on September 16, 1942. She was preceded in death by her parents, Arnold and Marie Lindeman, and sister, Mary Haab. Anne attended Detroit Public Schools, graduating from Redford High School in 1960. She attended the University of Michigan and received her Bachelor of Science in Education degree on May 22, 1964, in the company of her husbandto- be, William (Bill) Heaphy, who received his law degree on the same occasion. The couple and their family and friends returned to Detroit that same afternoon where Anne and Bill were married. Bill and Anne’s three children and their spouses, William Heaphy, Jr., and wife Maria Miller, Elizabeth Heaphy and husband Ian Kaplan, and Michael Heaphy and wife Melissa Decker, and their children, Silas, Haven, and Jasper, survive her. In addition to her Bachelor’s degree, Anne earned a Masters of Arts in Education from the University of Michigan and, in 1987, was awarded a Bachelors of Arts, summa cum laude, in English from Hope College. Early in her marriage, Anne taught Special Education at Jamison Elementary School in Detroit. Anne was an “Adventuress” who loved the world and sought to see and experience all of it, enthusiastically combining herdevotion to her family with her thirst for adventure. She thought she was lucky to live in a time of relative peace and plenty and, determined not to waste it, chose to learn it, see it, and experience it, near and far. Over 55 years, from the earliest days of her marriage, she enthusiastically plotted and planned family trips and adventures for her husband, children and, later, grandchildren, with whom she camped, backpacked, hiked, and biked. She and Bill covered the back roads of Australia, South Africa, Patagonia, and 49 of the 50 United States, sleeping overnight in 48 of them. (She expressed regret at missing Idaho and Hawaii) Anne loved train travel, crisscrossing the United States and most of Western Europe and embarking on an eight-time-zone Trans-Siberian Railway trek across Russia, Mongolia, and Eastern China. Anne planned, and Bill joined, backpacking-trips 40 miles down the spine of Isle Royale, through the Belly River Basin of Glacier National Park, and along Yosemite’s South Rim opposite El Capitan. With friends, she planned and enjoyed biking trips in the Netherlands and Belgium, through Italy’s Po Valley and Ireland’s Connemara District, and along the Midi Canal of Southwestern France. Anne loved searching out and lodging in historic hotels, from the Paisano in Marfa,the Oriental in Bangkok, the El Tovar in Grand Canyon, the Old Faithful Inn to the Plaza in Manhattan and the Chattanooga Choo Choo and, then, camping at the corner of Hound Dog Lane and Lonely Street, on the grounds of the Heartbreak Hotel. Anne’s excursions combined nature and history. In 1980, the family camped behind Omaha Beach, crawling among the bunkers and across the beach, and at Bastogne, the climax of the Battle of the Bulge. They drove, hiked, and explored every major Civil War battlefield, rooming in Longstreet’s farm house headquarters at Antietam and camping along Stonewall Jackson’s final road home, beneath the Spotsylvania battlefield. The family camped in the Bois de Boulogne in Paris, along the Appian Way of Rome, and in an olive grove across the Arno from the Duomo. Throughout, Anne kept extensive diaries and journals of her trips. For driving trips, she downloaded soundtracks appropriate to the venture which she and Bill would enjoy en route (Waltzing Across Texas, The Red River Valley, Shenandoah, El Paso.!!) Anne loved the Big Lake and, to more fully use it, she and Bill bought a Trawler, christened it “Out of the Blue,” and, after cruising the upper Great Lakes (with Anne accounting for every marker and lighthouse along the way), embarked upon “ The Great Circle Trip,” south to Florida then north via the Intercoastal Waterway, circling the eastern seaboard. While passing through New York City, Anne thought to sign up for a permanent berth at the 79th Street Boat Basin on the upper west side’s Riverside Park. Five years later she got the call and they returned to claim their berth on “D Dock,” spending several months per year soaking up life in the Big Apple. Anne was an accomplished business person, managing antique shops with friends and fellow collectors over the years. And, along the way, with no prior experience or training, she took over and successfully managed the 16-acre Heaphy Blueberry Farm (while the intended manager, her lawyer husband, disappeared into courthouses around the State.) Over the decades, Anne enthusiastically participated in book clubs, bridge groups, PEO, and numerous other social groups. Her devotion to these organizations and the friends she found there was early formed, later epitomized by her annual treks about the country for reunions with her Girl Scout troop from Detroit’s Vetal Elementary School. Fifty years ago, Anne introduced the family to the Caribbean, arranging camping on Cinnamon Bay in Virgin Island National Park. Eventually, she discovered Vieques where, 25 years ago, she and Bill bought a home on the beach and wintered for the remainder of her life. As was her wont, Anne threw herself into Vieques life, volunteering for and promoting the activities of the Vieques Conservation and Historical Trust and the Vieques Human Society and forming countless lasting relationships with her Viequesian friends. Anne loved her animal companions, most recently, four rescued satos and two rescued gatos from the streets of Vieques. Anne was a Michigan Wolverine and a Detroit Tiger fan. She requested and enjoyed a 70th birthday present in Laguna Beach California, with attendance at the Tigers-Angels game in Anaheim. She always made sure trips near Cleveland, Boston, New York, Chicago, Kansas City, and Minneapolis including Tiger road games. Anne’s grandparents, Alfred and Mary Brummler, help found the Port Sheldon Beach Association over 110 years ago. Anne spent much of every summer of her life “at the cottage” where she loved to host parties, do puzzles, and play board games with her kids. Anne will be especially missed by her many relatives and friends at PSBA. Previous Previous post: Steven Zeldenrust ’85 Next Next post: Susan Kempker ’87 Westrate	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line616
__label__cc	0.69293	0.30707	Fictional Interlude: Palindrome Posted in Fiction, Perception, Tyranny, tagged archeofeminism, cops, dirty, imaginative fiction, neofeminism, psychology, welcome to our world on January 16, 2012\| 31 Comments » A character is like an acrostic or Alexandrian stanza; read it forward, backward, or across, it still spells the same thing. – Ralph Waldo Emerson The dream had been so lovely; Anna was walking barefoot across a field of wildflowers along the verge of a wood, not in a park but in some unspoiled place without fences, signs or crowds. The sun was shining on her face and birds were singing, and she came across a stag caught by his antlers in a thicket. He was absolutely magnificent, but all his great strength was useless against the bramble in which he had become entwined. She knew that if she left him there he would soon become easy prey for some predator, so she moved slowly, gingerly toward him, intending to pull the thorns away with her bare hands if necessary so he might go free. But just as she reached out for the nearest of the vines, she was shocked awake by the slamming of the outer door and the braying voice of the guard announcing breakfast. It was the same thing every day. There was no earthly reason why any of them needed to wake up at a particular time; it wasn’t like the food was hot or worth getting up for, and even if one of them was going to be released or transferred that rarely happened before noon. It was just part of the petty sadism which characterized nearly every prison procedure, like the lights being kept on all night and the prisoners being reshuffled every few days to keep friendships from forming. Anna tried not to let it break her down; for example, once the guard had left she would simply cover her head again and go back to sleep, letting the others take what they wanted from her breakfast tray. But today was different; the guard actually came into the cell and shook her roughly. “Get up, Cleopatra; you’re rolling out this morning.” The guards had lots of stupid, mocking nicknames for her; she tried to ignore that as well. But the rest of that statement was definitely unexpected. “What do you mean, rolling out?” “Just what I said, Princess; your presence has been requested elsewhere.” Anna knew better than to inquire further; if she expressed any interest at all the guard would refuse to answer on principle. She’d find out soon enough. For a moment she wondered if this might not be some sort of mental torture, but quickly realized the guards didn’t have that kind of imagination. Then she dared to think for a moment that she might have been paroled, but immediately strangled the idea before it could grow into a hope. It was better just to wait and expect the worst. Four and a half hours later, the wait finally ended; the guard came back and told her to stand, roughly jerking her by the arm without waiting for her to get up on her own. She was then hustled to an anteroom and given back her own clothes, the ones she was wearing when she was arrested; they were wrinkled and had a musty odor, but she still preferred them to the horrible, shapeless prison uniform and so she eagerly exchanged the latter for the former, heedless of the guards she knew were leering at her through the two-way mirror. She then exited through the far end of the room as instructed, where she was met by one of the dress-uniform guards who interacted with government officials and the like; next to her was a woman in a lab coat, accompanied by what Anna assumed was an orderly. So that’s what this was about; she had been committed to a psychiatric facility. She wasn’t surprised, and was in fact relieved; the treatment there couldn’t be any worse than it was here. And indeed, it wasn’t. The nurse was friendly and the orderly didn’t bully her; the ride was long and peaceful and Anna slept for most of it, and when the nurse woke her it was with a gentle shake rather than the slam of a door. The state hospital at the end of the journey was still a prison, of course; the doors were just as locked and the guards just as vigilant, but she had a private room with a soft bed and the lights were actually turned off at night. The food was good and she was able to eat sitting at a real table in the cafeteria rather than from a tray in her lap; there was even a little park, thought it was surrounded on all sides by the walls of the huge facility. For a whole week, she was largely left to her own devices; she listened to music and read books from the ward’s library, and every night they screened a movie. Other than the locked doors and the rigid schedule, the only real reminders that she was in a hospital were the various medical tests and questionnaires to which she was subjected, and the technicians were always polite and friendly. It was so nice, in fact, that Anna began to think that if it weren’t for the lack of privacy this might not be a bad place for a holiday. Then on the morning of the ninth day, the chief ward nurse told her that she had been assigned a doctor and would start her therapy that afternoon. Anna actually found herself looking forward to that; everyone else here was so pleasant, she couldn’t imagine the doctor being less so. For the first time, she allowed herself to accept the idea that maybe it might be nice to be cured of her problem, to be able to live like everybody else and form normal relationships as her friends did. Perhaps it might even be possible for her to eventually forgive Eve for turning her in; after all, she had done it because she was worried about Anna, and was clearly remorseful when she found out about the brutal way her friend had been treated by the police. Dr. Lil was a somewhat plump, maternal woman in late middle age, and Anna instantly liked her; she therefore resolved that she would cooperate in every way possible so as to hasten the day when she could rejoin society as a healthy, functioning member, and told the doctor so. “How wonderful!” she said with genuine emotion. “I’m so very glad to hear you say that, Anna; you see, it was I who initiated the process to have you transferred here. I reviewed your case history and interviewed your friends, and I could clearly see you weren’t an incorrigible deviant.” She opened the folder to refresh her memory. “Now, in school you never showed any signs of perversion; when did you first start feeling sexual attraction to men?” (With grateful acknowledgement to the work of Charles Beaumont). “Convenient and Inconvenient Victims” examines the way that government defines consenting individuals as victims, or else victims as consenting individuals, depending on what’s convenient for the government.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line617
__label__wiki	0.697885	0.697885	Scardust – Break The Ice (Music Video) By VV December 1, 2020 Leave a Comment on Scardust – Break The Ice (Music Video) Israeli progressive/symphonic metallers Scardust have released a new music video for “Break The Ice”. The track is taken from their new album “Strangers”, which was released on October 30th, 2020 via M-Theory Audio. Following a wave of conceptually-driven music videos from their acclaimed new album “Strangers” – hailed by Sonic Perspectives as “progressive metal album-of-the-year material” – Israel’s Scardust have given fans a candid peek behind the scenes with their latest clip, “Break The Ice.” The video, which showcases stages of the album’s production and recording process from both before and after the global coronavirus outbreak. “We all experience moments in life,” says vocalist Noa Gruman, “when we feel like we can’t possibly go on without a helping hand. ‘Break The Ice’ is about feeling trapped in the cold and longing for a savior. In the video, we give an inside look into the process of creating and producing our new album. Recording started before the pandemic hit, and it continued through lockdowns and quarantines. The world trapped us and everyone who was involved in creating this album, but no savior came to get us out – we had to do that ourselves. Together, we were our own saviors.” “Strangers” – which can be streamed on all major digital platforms or purchased on CD and limited-edition gray smoke vinyl is a unique concept album built of complementary song pairs working from the outside in. Several recently-released music videos, further demonstrate the degree to which different tracks from the album are thematically connected, a trend that will continue when a companion clip for “Break The Ice” will be released next month. Tags: music video Scardust Previous Entry Noora Louhimo and Netta Laurenne join forces for a new project Next Entry Chocobo Band releases new single “Liberi Fatali”	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line621
__label__wiki	0.849816	0.849816	Gregg Beam (David Harbour) Character: Gregg Beam Movie: Quantum of Solace Status: Discharged from Service Actor: David Harbour Place of Birth: New York, USA "Yeah, you're right, we should only deal with nice people." Whilst 007 and Beam never formally meet, the CIA agent is first involved in the "Quantum of Solace" mission when he receives a high-priority call from MI6 chief M. A devious employee of the CIA, Gregg Beam is the head of South American relations for the US Intelligence Agency. He is a shrewd and sarcastic man but well adapt to playing the power game and rising to a position of authority. He is prepared to bend the rules in order to further the interests of the US government's quest for resources, even if that means throwing a few MI6 agents under the bus. M is directed to Beam when she uses the special relationship to delve into the background of Dominic Greene. He denies any interest, but the mere act of routing M's call to a section head gives MI6 tells MI6 everything they need to know. Meanwhile, Beam in a meeting with Greene, cutting a deal for the resources that the eco-villain may unearth in the deserts of Bolivia. Keen not to let the British spoil his deal, Beam tasks Felix Leiter to reign in 007, before gets too close to the truth. Beam later accompanies Leiter into the field, where the pair are tasked to 'look the other way' whilst Greene assists in a military coup in Bolivia. He is later discharged from the CIA and Felix Leiter is promoted. David Harbour attended Byram Hills High School in Armonk, New York, and from an early age had a passion to become an entertainer. Harbour made his on-stage debut in the 1995 production of "The Rainmaker" - along side Woody Harrelson and Jayne Atkinson. By 2002, Harbour had a carved out a name for himself on Broadway, culminating in his Tony nominated performance in "Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" - the Edward Elbee play. His on-screen career launched with a series of bit parts in US dramas, "Law & Order" and "Hack" before appearing in 2004's biopic, "Kinsey" of the sex researcher Alfred Kinsey. Later he played a range of co-staring roles in a string Hollywood pictures, including "Brokeback Mountain" and Steven Spielberg's "War of the Worlds". In the 22nd James Bond production, "Quantum of Solace", Harbour was cast as Gregg Beam - the shifty Head of South American affairs at the CIA. In 2009, Harbour also worked on the thriller, "Sate of Play", where he played alongside Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck and Helen Mirren.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line622
__label__wiki	0.923218	0.923218	Marc Ange Draco (Gabriele Ferzetti) Character: Marc Ange Draco Actor: Gabriele Ferzetti Movie: On Her Majesty's Secret Service Status: Presumed retired Appearance: Medium height and build, with dark hair, eyes and a thick mustache. Date of Birth: 17 March 1925 Place of Birth: Rome, Italy Bond is roughly escorted to meet with Draco after he shows an interest in his daughter. In a back street of Lisbon, Bond finds himself in the lavish office of the ringleader of the Union Corse - the Corsican mafia. "Do not kill me Mr. Bond, at least not until we've had a drink. Then if you wish, I will give you another chance. I'm Draco, of Draco Construction." Quiet but self-confident, Draco has made a sufficient amount of money from his numerous illegal deals as well as legitimate business in agriculture and construction. He his a person of extreme interest to MI6, but Bond is focused on one thing only, Draco's ability to help him locate Blofeld. Draco is thoughtful and considered much of the time but clearly acts out of passion on occasion. He has had numerous affairs since parting with Tracy's mother but has never found anyone to settle down with. Draco is conscious of the neglect his daughter has suffered and has no way to reign her in - save a little help from James Bond. He tries to make up for lost years but his suborn daughter does not relate to him. Despite strained family relations, his illegal businesses are thriving and in many ways, Draco is similar to Bond with a love of good food and drink and a wicked, cynical sense of humor. Above: Gabriele Ferzetti, Telly Savalas and George Lazenby chat between takes at Pinewood. Bond is ushered to Draco's office where the two men get to know each other for only a very short time before Draco propositions James Bond. It is suggested that 007 pursue Draco's daughter, Tracy, and marry her with a dowry of one million pounds. Draco is convinced she will benefit from the strength of a man in her life but Bond recognises she is her own women. Despite disagreeing on what would be the best for Tracy - Bond has other motives for cooperating with the mob-boss. Draco, it seems, knows where to find Ernst Stravro Blofeld - the super villain 007 has crossed paths with on the You Only Live Twice mission. In exchange for 007's assistance in his family strife, Draco passes on what he knows about Blofeld. Later, when Tracy has been kidnapped by the villain, Bond turns to Draco for his help rescuing Tracy from the heights of Piz Gloria. Draco's men disguise themselves as the Red Cross and make a daring assault on the mountaintop lair. With the mission a success, Tracy and Bond say their vows and Draco gives away his ill-fated daughter to James Bond. Born as Pasquale Ferzetti in 1925, Ferzetti grew up to become a successful Italian stage and screen actor, long before his first English-speaking roles. He earned his first screen role age 17, working mostly as an uncredited extra throughout the '40s. Films from this stage in his career included "Fabiola" (1949), the well received antiquity drama set in Rome, in which Ferzetti was credited as Claudio. Above: Gabriele Ferzetti and Monica Vitti in "L'Avventura" (1960) In 1950 he earned his most major role to date in "Lo Zappatore", which focused on the life of peasants and farm workers in the interwar and depression period. By 1953 he received the title role in Italian made bio-pic of the turbulent life of composer Puccini. The film was well received and the following year, carried into the USA. Ferzetti would reprise this role the in 1954's "Casa Ricordi", an overview of classical and operatic writers that starred Roland Alexandre as Gioacchino Rossini. "Casa Ricordi" was not as successful as Ferzetti's first portrayal of Puccini. Ferzetti co-starred in the comedy "La Provinciale" (1953) for which he won an award from the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists. The same feature was nominated at the Cannes festival the same year. In this film he plays a Professor who marries starlet Gina Lollobrigida. Lollobrigida would later make her name in English feature films and the soapy, "Falcon Crest" (1981). By the 1960s, Ferzetti had clocked up over 50 on screen credits and was starting to be exposed to the English speaking world of cinema and television. He made a memorable appearance in the Adventure/Comedy "I Spy", in two 1966 episodes as Aldo. He appeared in the famous feature film "Once Upon A Time In The West", where he played Morton, the railroad baron, opposite Charles Bronson and Henry Fonda. In the late '60s Peter Hunt, director of O.H.M.S.S, spied Ferzetti in an Italian film when they were supposed to be reviewing material for another actor who Harry Saltzman had suggested for the role of Draco. Hunt changed his mind almost immediately and convinced the producers to test Ferzetti. Although he had a good grasp of English, the crew elected to dub Draco and hired English actor David de Keyser to provide the voice. Draco remains one of Bond's most lovable allies and a most valuable resource for the super-spy. Beyond Bond, Ferzetti enjoyed a thriving career in the '70s and '80s - working with Laurence Olivier and Bond director Terence Young on "Inchon" in 1982 as well as the modern adaptation of "Othello" in 1995. More recently he has appeared in a string of episodes for romantic comedy "Une famille formidable" and 2009's "Io sono l'amore" which stars English actress Tilda Swinton, famed for the Narnia series and "The Beach" (2000). In over 60 years on screen acting, Gabriele Ferzetti has had more the 160 credits to his name and continues to take selective roles today. Allies Index	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line623
__label__cc	0.735551	0.264449	Micelle BioPharma > Careers > Listings > Press release > Micelle BioPharma Announces Altemia™ Receives Orphan Drug Designation from the European Medicines Agency for the Treatment of Pediatric Patients with Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) Micelle BioPharma Announces Altemia™ Receives Orphan Drug Designation from the European Medicines Agency for the Treatment of Pediatric Patients with Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) August 21, 2018Posted by: adminCategory: Press releaseNo Comments0 Likes This follows the Orphan Drug Designation for Altemia™ granted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2015 RIVIERA BEACH, Fla. – April 3rd, 2018 Micelle BioPharma today announced that the European Commission has granted Orphan Designation in the European Union (EU) to Altemia, the Company’s novel oral formulation being developed for the treatment of SCD in pediatric patients. This approval follows a positive opinion in February 2018 from the European Medicine Agency’s (EMA) Committee for Orphan Medicinal Products (COMP). Micelle BioPharma reported positive topline data from its Phase 2 study in November 2017. “The pediatric population of Sickle Cell Disease patients need, and deserve, more therapeutic options, and we are excited about the opportunity to gain advice from the European Commission on advancing Altemia in the EU markets.” Orphan Designation is granted by the European Commission to drugs that are intended for the treatment, prevention or diagnosis of life-threatening or chronically debilitating rare diseases. Rare diseases are those defined as having a prevalence of not more than five per 10,000 population in the European Union. The designation potentially qualifies the sponsor for ten years of marketing exclusivity upon approval, as well as fee reduction for various centralized activities, including applications for marketing authorization, inspections and protocol assistance. Altemia had previously received Orphan Drug Designation from U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the US market. “We are extremely encouraged to receive this designation, further supporting the significant clinical and regulatory progress made in advancing Altemia’s development program,” said Adrian L. Rabinowicz, MD, Chief Medical Officer of Micelle BioPharma. Micelle BioPharma plans to present detailed data from the recently completed SCOT Phase 2 study in peer reviewed journals and upcoming scientific conferences. The Company plans to meet with the U.S. FDA as well as European Medicines Agency (EMA) to address next steps for Altemia. About Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) is a group of genetic disorders that results in dysfunctional hemoglobin (HbS) and a depletion of certain lipids in the walls of blood cells. These abnormalities create an inflammatory state and an increase in the red and white blood cells’ tendency to adhere to each other, resulting in episodic occlusions of blood vessels, reperfusion damage and excruciating pain. Ultimately, many children develop organ damage and strokes. There are approximately 100,000 cases of SCD in the United States and treatment options are limited. The cost of care for this group may exceed $5 billion. About Altemia™ Altemia is our proprietary product candidate that is being developed for the treatment of SCD. Altemia consists of a complex mixture of lipids formulated using Advanced Lipid Technologies® (ALT®) specifically to address the treatment of the disease. The drug is encapsulated in a small soft gelatin capsule and intended to be taken once daily to reduce VOC episodes, anemia, organ damage and other disease complications in sickle cell patients. HbS destroys specific lipids, creating a cascade that culminates in VOC episodes. Altemia is designed to replenish those lipids in order to prevent the cascade effect from initiating. Based on research performed by Micelle Bio Pharma and others, the specific lipids contained in Altemia, may restore balance and fluidity to red blood cells and other cells impacted by the disease. We believe that Altemia will treat sickle cell disease by decreasing blood cell adhesion, chronic inflammation and red blood cell hemolysis, the factors that lead to reduction in pain episodes, VOCs and organ damage. Based on its formulation and mechanism of action, we believe that Altemia is well-positioned to deliver a narrow, therapeutic dose of certain lipids directly to the membrane of red blood cells of sickle cell patients. The combination of ALT drug delivery technology and highly purified lipids may reduce VOCs significantly. We also believe that Altemia has the potential to address the inflammatory symptoms of SCD and to assist in reducing sickle cell events in general. By minimizing damage, Altemia may be able to reduce sickle cell crisis events and related mortality. About Micelle Bio Pharma, Inc. Micelle Bio Pharma is a fully integrated, specialty pharmaceutical company focused on developing, manufacturing and commercializing pharmaceutical products, including those based on our proprietary Advanced Lipid Technologies (ALT) platform. Micelle BioPharma is pursuing treatments for sickle cell disease, short bowel syndrome and severe hypertriglyceridemia. We utilize our cGMP compliant facility to develop and manufacture our products. Our ALT platform is designed to enhance the bioavailability, reduce the food effect and improve the efficacy of lipids and lipophilic active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). Lipids are hydrophobic or amphipathic molecules, including fatty acids, steroids (including hormones) and fat-soluble vitamins (such as vitamins A, D, E and K). Our business model is to apply our ALT platform to lipids or lipophilic APIs to create unique product candidates that address the disorders and diseases resulting from imbalances of lipids in the body. In addition to our primary focus of developing our proprietary products using the ALT platform, we make use of, and license rights to, our proprietary ALT platform and other technologies to third parties, providing both development and subsequent soft gelatin encapsulation services. Next Next post: Micelle BioPharma announces the Successful Completion of a Randomized, Double Blind, and Placebo Controlled Phase of a Clinical Trial in Pediatric Patients with Sickle Cell Disease using Altemia™	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line624
__label__wiki	0.636194	0.636194	Holy Cross Day Part II – The Exaltation of the Cross Morley, Derbyshire, originally uploaded by Vitrearum. I have been reminded that in medieval calendars the Invention of the Holy Cross, the discovery of the True Cross by St Helena, was commemorated in May the 4th. It is only in the modern calendars of the church that it has been united with the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross on the 14th of September. The feast of the Exaltation commemorates the liberation of the True Cross from the hands of the Persians in the seventh century. In 614 the Persians stole the True Cross from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and it was only recovered in 628 by the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius. When he recovered it he took it initially to Byzantium returning it to Jerusalem triumphantly in 629. This all reminds me that in the church of St Matthew in Morley in Derbyshire, is a fascinating window commemorating both the Invention and the Exaltation of the True Cross. I illustrate here two panels from the half of the window that refers to the Exaltation of the Cross. The one above shows the cross being adored by the people of Jerusalem after its return to the city. In the panel directly below we see the Emperor Heraclius attempting to enter Jerusalem with the cross but finding his way blocked. The Golden Legend fills in the details of this part of the story: ‘Now Heraclius carried the sacred cross back to Jerusalem … mounted on his royal palftey and arrayed in Imperial regalia, intending to enter the city by the gate through which Christ had passed on his way to Crucifixion. But suddenly the stones of the gateway fell down and locked together, forming an unbroken wall’ (W. G. Ryan, The Golden Legend, vol. 2, p. 169). Incidentally this window, dating from the 1480s, has a rather interesting history. It originally formed part of the cloister glazing of the neighbouring Premonstratensian Abbey at Dale. It was removed to Morley in the 1540s with four other windows from the cloister. In fact the north chancel aisle at Morley, its stonework, glass and timber were all salvaged from one of the cloister walks. Cloister transplant at Morley, Derbyshire. Inside the cloister transplant, the north chancel aisle at Morley. The Holy Cross window is the easterly window in the north wall. Invention of the Holy Cross A small remnant of former glories. 3 thoughts on “Holy Cross Day Part II – The Exaltation of the Cross” Lapinbizarre says: Interesting convention to represent the Eastern Emperor in a triple tiara, apparently with a crescent on top. Confused imagery. The windows and tracery are a fascinating survival. In the mid-50’s, when I was v. young, I visited Dale Abbey with relatives who lived nearby. Close by the E window was a sizable pile of archaeological debris, consisting almost entirely of broken glazed tiles, presumably from the church floor. They were mainly pictorial – animal and human heads, perhaps mid to late 13th c. I would guess with the benefit of hindsight. In the 50’s they were discarded as unwanted. I picked out a few examples and kept them for several years and then, to my current regret, traded them.It would literally have been possible at that time to salvage sufficient tile to furnish a “medieval” bathroom! How wonderful Roger a medieval salvage pile and what a shame you let the tiles go. If I remember there were a couple of excavations of the site in the 1930s by Howard Colvin, which presumably explains the pile debris. I’m told there is still a shed on the site containing some sculpture and worked stones. I was there on Christmas Day 1955. Hard to imagine that the spoil heap had been there for about 20 years. But Dale was far more isolated back then. We cycled to get there. Nowadays, the discard heap wouldn’t have lasted five minutes, would it? But nowadays, one hopes, the tiles would not have been thrown away in the first place.The Morley windows are particularly evocative in view of how little survives of the abbey.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line626
__label__cc	0.551133	0.448867	Published in We The Peoples A New Year’s Message from UN Secretary-General António Guterres 2020 has been a year of trials, tragedies and tears. COVID-19 upended our lives and plunged the world into suffering and grief. So many loved ones have been lost — and the pandemic rages on, creating new waves of sickness and death. Read more in We The Peoples · 2 min read 75 years of helping people everywhere António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations The 75th anniversary of the United Nations falls in the middle of a global pandemic. Our founding mission is more critical than ever. To promote human dignity. Protect human rights. Respect international law. And save humanity from war. Knotted Gun sculpture at UNHQ in New York. UN Social Media When the pandemic hit, I called for a global ceasefire. In our world today, we have one common enemy: COVID-19. Now is the time for a stepped-up push for peace to achieve a global ceasefire. The clock is ticking. Historic UNGA on social media As the United Nations marks 75 years of helping people everywhere, this year’s General Assembly session will be unlike any other. Although most of us will not be gathering at the UN’s New York Headquarters this year, this General Assembly — coming at a time of urgent global challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic — is perhaps more important than ever before. Here are some ways you can use your voice on social media to be part of this historic UNGA and show your support for peace, human rights and the Sustainable Development Goals. GA Hall 360 Experience: Explore the General Assembly Hall! This 360-video will allow you to travel through history to check out some of the most memorable moments that have played out on one of the world’s most recognizable political stages. Begin your virtual journey on the @UnitedNations Facebook page, starting Sunday 20 September at 6pm EST. … ·Jun 15, 2020 Our food systems are failing, and the COVID-19 pandemic is making things worse By United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres There is more than enough food in the world to feed our population of 7.8 billion people. But, today, more than 820 million people are hungry, and some 144 million children under the age of five are stunted — more than one in five children worldwide. People received aid from the World Food Programme (WFP) in Mozambique. UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe (2019) Our food systems are failing, and the COVID-19 pandemic is making things worse. The combined effects of COVID-19 and corresponding mitigation measures, along with the emerging global recession, could disrupt the functioning of food systems. Unless immediate, large-scale, coordinated action is taken, it is increasingly clear that there is an impending global food emergency that could have long-term impacts on hundreds of millions of children and adults at a severity and scale not seen for more than half a century. … Respect the Dignity and Rights of Older People By António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations The COVID-19 pandemic is causing untold fear and suffering for older people across the world. Beyond its immediate health impact, the pandemic is putting older people at greater risk of poverty, discrimination and isolation, and it is likely to have a particularly devastating impact on older people in developing countries. As an older person myself, with responsibility for an even older mother, I am deeply concerned about the pandemic on a personal level, and about its effects on our communities and societies. But there is nothing inevitable about its impact. … The Gender Power Gap Gender inequality is the overwhelming injustice of our age and the biggest human rights challenge we face. But gender equality offers solutions to some of the most intractable problems of our age. Everywhere, women are worse off than men — simply because they are women. The reality for women from minorities, older women, those with disabilities and women migrants and refugees is even worse. While we have seen enormous progress on women’s rights over recent decades, from the abolition of discriminatory laws to increased numbers of girls in school, we now face a powerful pushback. Legal protections against rape and domestic abuse are being diluted in some countries while policies that penalize women, from austerity to coercive reproduction, are being introduced in others. … Key Takeaways from the UN Climate Conference The world takes on one of the most pressing issues of our time — the climate emergency — at COP25 in Madrid, Spain The following is a guest post by Dan Shepard, UN Communications Officer and Climate Communications Expert The Climate Conference in Madrid — COP25 — was an important opportunity for the world to develop solutions for addressing the climate emergency. … UN Secretary-General in Africa Climate action, violent extremism & equality were focus of Secretary-General António Guterres’ recent trip to Kenya and Mozambique In early July, Secretary-General António Guterres visited Kenya and Mozambique to speak with local people and gain a better understanding of the challenges they’re facing. In Nairobi, Kenya, the he met with young people who are receiving training and mentorship to improve their job prospects, and help them to turn their backs on the lure of violent extremism. The programme is part of larger efforts from the Kamukunji community through which groups from different backgrounds, ages and beliefs come together to close ranks and prevent the rise of violent extremism and radicalization in their communities. While in Nairobi, the Secretary-General also heard from women activists, who are leading the way in preventing the expansion of violent extremism from within their own communities. … ·May 18, 2019 On the frontlines of the global climate emergency From New Zealand to Fiji, from Tuvalu to Vanuatu — Secretary-General António Guterres calls for urgent climate action to save Pacific island nations, and the world. The Secretary-General looks out over the Pacific Ocean. UN Photo/Mark Garten “Over the past week, I have witnessed first-hand the impacts of climate change in the Pacific Island States. They contribute very little to the global climate emergency and yet, they are the ones that are being most affected. For some of them, climate change is now an existential threat.” “What is remarkable about these countries is that while facing this enormous challenge, they have decided that they are not giving up. They are determined to find solutions and have developed ways to increase their resilience and adaptation. … “I am here to say with a full heart: You are not alone.” UN Secretary-General António Guterres pays tribute to terror attack victims in Christchurch and expresses solidarity during holy month of Ramadan. As salam alaikum. I thank this community very much for their welcome — particularly during this holy month of Ramadan. Every Ramadan I make a visit of solidarity somewhere around the world. Last year, it was in Mali — the year before that, in Afghanistan. This year, because of the terrible terrorist attack against your community, I wanted to be here with you. UN Secretary-General António Guterres arrives at Christchurch Remembrance Wall, UN Photo/Mark Garten Ramadan is a season of reflection, remembrance and renewal. I am here to express my deepest condolences, my profound respect, and the fullest measure of my solidarity to you, your families and the community. I know there are no words to relieve the hurt and sorrow and pain. … Official Medium account of #UnitedNations. Follow us on Snapchat: united-nations. #GlobalGoals	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line627
__label__cc	0.662379	0.337621	What The High Court Ruling Means For Parents Q&A: Understanding the High Court Hormone Blockers Judgment with Director of Legal and Policy, Lui Asquith Calling the helpline was immensely positive and helped me to feel strong enough to support my child to be able to start their journey. What is gender dysphoria? Sometimes, transgender people feel distressed because of the difference between their gender identity and the gender or sex they were assigned at birth. This can be in relation to their bodies (physical dysphoria) or social interactions (social dysphoria) such as someone misreading a person’s gender and using the wrong pronouns. Gender dysphoria can be experienced by younger children and this can show up in lots of different ways. Often, the thing to look out for is a persistent, insistent and consistent gender identification that is different to the one they were given at birth. Some young people will disclose their feelings of dysphoria in their teens, often around the time when puberty starts, and this can be a very difficult challenge for the individual concerned and also those around them. We love seeing the kids and teens we meet thriving and enjoying their lives but unfortunately, many of the teens we have interacted with over the last 25 years have struggled with depression, isolation and even self-harm and suicidal feelings. Giving them the support they need is vital if they’re to achieve their potential. It’s important to note that, while most kids and young people we support identify as transgender, an increasing number of them are identifying as non-binary, which means they don’t identify exclusively as male or female. Our approach is to help families face the challenges ahead, confident that they are understood, and never alone. How will this affect me and my child? In the short term, with your support, a lot of changes may take place, but it is important to remember that everyone is different, and the most important thing is that your child knows whatever the outcome, they are loved unconditionally for who they are. Many families find that as time goes on, their child becomes happier and more active as they take on the correct gender identity for them. It’s not an easy route and it requires patience, time and understanding. Acceptance and support is key for your child to live to their full potential. Knowledge and understanding in places like schools and GP surgeries is improving, but there can still be hurdles to jump and hills to climb, so don’t hesitate to contact us should you need support. We also have an in-house, non-practising legal professional who can offer their support. For information on gender identity, you can visit the Gender Identity Development Service. How do I best support my transgender child? How do I help my transgender child tell their friends? What if they change their mind? It’s estimated by the NHS that around 1-2% of transgender people who follow a medical pathway change their mind and stop living as trans. The reasons for this are unclear but it is not always because they regretted transitioning. For some people, transitioning was part of their journey towards discovering their true identity; for others, it’s because they found being trans was too difficult in an often hostile world. For some, they realise they aren’t trans and are non-binary or cisgender instead. The important thing to remember is that all journeys and identities are valid. Supporting your child doesn’t mean they’ll take a particular direction or follow a particular medical pathway, like hormone therapy or gender affirming surgeries. Still, if they do, then medical transition in young people usually consists of taking hormone blockers after the initial stages of puberty. Hormone blockers stop the young person’s body changing in ways they don’t want it to at that time, in the hope it will alleviate any distress those changes may be causing them. Blockers simply give time for them to reflect; they can stop at any point and a puberty typically associated with the gender they were assigned at birth will resume. We do not offer advice on medical choices and defer to NHS advice in all cases. Further medical steps can be taken via NHS specialists in a staged approach. This is done with full knowledge, consent and guidance at every step of the way. Currently the NHS requires someone to be ‘around 16’ before they can commence on hormone replacement therapy. Some people then progress on to physical affirmation surgeries however, the NHS does not typically commission this for anyone under the age of 18. At Mermaids, we believe in allowing young people to make the right choices for them, without feeling any pressure to be what others might expect them to be. We have supported countless kids over the years and each and every one of them has followed their own unique path. But I didn’t realise. Some children or teens will actively try to hide the way they feel because they’re aware that it isn’t widely accepted. Teenagers are often afraid that divulging information about their gender will result in their parents not supporting them or disowning them. Unfortunately we are aware that a number of teens are in this situation. It’s important to know that they will talk to you when they are ready and will be grateful for your support. Is it ok to feel upset? It’s a big thing for your child to tell you. It doesn’t make you a bad parent to be upset, worried or even feel grief. The fact that you’re here reading this means that you’re supporting your child regardless of your fears for their future. We are here to provide strength and understanding in what may be a difficult situation for you, your child and your family. Discovering that you are not alone will hopefully be of comfort to you, and sharing experiences with other families in the same position as you may help your own understanding. Is being transgender just a phase for my child? What should I do if my transgender child is bullied? Thank you for your help and for being there when no one else was. It’s great to know we’re not alone. Speaking to others who have experienced a similar journey from both a child and parents perspective has really helped us to cope. Residential weekends Mermaids organises residential weekends for families with children and young people up to (and including) the age of 19. These inclusive weekends provide an opportunity for families, including siblings, to relax in an environment that is free from judgement and where the everyday pressure to conform or explain is removed. A variety of speakers are invited to attend, not only to show that being transgender is something to be celebrated, but also to empower and enable families and young people to find the right pathway for them. We have lots of fun activities for young people and teens, and there are many chances to learn from professionals, peers and people at various stages of their gender journey. We run local groups at a number of locations nationwide. Families with younger children and teens aged 16 or over can attend. They have to be members of Mermaids, and have undergone the checks required to join either the parents or teens groups. For more information on local groups, please contact us. What should my transgender child’s school be doing to help? Which terms should I use to make my transgender child feel comfortable? We’ve collected a group of useful links, videos and articles which may help you as a parent or guardian. Talk. Share. Listen. The Mermaids’ online community is a safe space for you to ask questions, talk about how you are doing, and share experiences with others in the same or similar circumstances. Get involved with our events – like residential weekends or your local Pride. Mermaids is a charity and relies on the help and support from the community. Your donation goes directly towards helping thousands of transgender and gender-exploring children, young people and their families.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line628
__label__wiki	0.647778	0.647778	Monday Views Changing careers shouldn't be impossible. 5 Sunday Rituals To Help Kick Your Work Week’s Ass If you were to line up at the starting line and run a 100 meter sprint against another person like you, it’s a coin toss who’d win. If you were… How To Make Friends After College While Working Full-Time School gets a bad reputation, but for all its shortcomings (namely the fact you feel like you’re forced to go), it’s pretty easy. Friends is one big reason it’s a… How To Have No Passion In Life And Still Kick Ass When you were a little kid without a care in the world, you dreamt big about the world. It seemed like a magical place where fantasies would come true and… How Successful People Wake Up Early You’ve heard the age old adage about waking up early. You know, the one about “the early bird gets the worm”. The earlier you wake up, the more opportunities that’ll… How To Be A Disciplined Person In Six Ways There’s nothing worse than trying to do something, be it anything, when you don’t feel like it. Trying to get the motivation to start is like cranking a 30 year… Why Do I Get Bored Easily? Take a few seconds to imagine something. You’re out at some networking event three drinks in, forcing dry conversation with people you know nothing about, and frankly don’t care to.… The Disadvantages of Social Media Ideally, there’s a point in your life (sooner than later, hopefully) when you reflect upon your achievements and feel really good about yourself. Was it getting into a career you… The Disadvantages of Meditation Meditation can do no wrong these days. We’re told six ways to Sunday it’s the best thing since sliced bread: it’s beneficial, it’s worth your time, it’s amazing, it’s totally… The Biggest Spiritual Benefits of Meditation So you’ve heard of this thing called meditation. You heard it may have some benefits. Now, you wanna get all zen and spiritual with it. I applaud your attitude; there’s… Five Ways to Conquer Your Fear of Change As you go through life, you’re faced with a lot of choices, many of which come with repercussions which can sway from the really good (you know, that mental high)… Get confident. If you've thought about changing careers, you're in the right place. Let Monday Views help you achieve a great balance of professional and personal success. Sign up now and receive a free guide to morning routines.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line629
__label__cc	0.623297	0.376703	Belgrade Police Arrest Woman After Assault With Frying Pan The following is based on a report by the Belgrade Police Department. On Saturday, February 2, at approximately 2:30 a.m., a Belgrade Police Officer was dispatched to a report of a domestic disturbance at 90 7th Street, in residence #9. The reporting party, who will be referred to as GS, called 911 to report that his girlfriend, Amanda Lauren Lewis was hitting him with a lamp. As the officer approached the residence, he reported hearing yelling, as well as banging, from inside the apartment. When the officer announced his presence and entered the residence, Lewis screamed "arrest me, [expletive] arrest me." Due to her aggressive behavior, the officer placed Lewis in handcuffs. The officer advised Lewis of her rights and attempted to interview her to get her side of the story. Lewis stated that she and GS were out and when they got home he placed his hands on her so she threw "Purex," a liquid laundry detergent, all over him. When the officer asked Lewis how he put his hands on her, she could not explain what she meant by that statement. GS said that Lewis had been in Bozeman drinking that night. Apparently, after returning to the residence at approximately 2:00 a.m., Lewis reportedly became upset about a text message that GS had received from a friend. GS stated that he and Lewis began to argue when she struck him in the head. GS claimed that he went to the bedroom to get away from Lewis and that she followed him and continued to hit him, stating that she also picked up a lamp off of the nightstand and struck him with that as well. GS told officers that he kept retreating from Lewis and ended up in the living room. He said that Lewis continued to assault him, and then she picked up a frying pan in the kitchen. GS stated that Lewis struck him several times in the head with the pan. GS claimed that he tried to stay away from Lewis and he didn't touched her, even in defense. According to the police report, GS' face was red and swollen, there was a gash on the bridge of his nose that was bleeding, and the right side of his lip was also swollen. The officer on scene believed that his injuries were consistent with being hit in the head with a frying pan. The officer observed a frying pan on the floor of the living room. GS advised officers that the frying pan on the floor was the same one that Lewis had struck him with. The report states that the frying pan was bent, as was the lamp stem. Lewis was cited for assault with a weapon for hitting GS multiple times with the frying pan. Lewis was transported to the Gallatin County Detention Center. Filed Under: bozeman, bozeman police department, crime, Domestic Disturbance, Frying Pan, montana Categories: Bozeman Events, Bozeman News, Crime, Featured, Montana, Montana News, Newsletter	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line631
__label__cc	0.714292	0.285708	Tag Archive for: Radioisotopes You are here: Home / Radioisotopes Can Terrorists Detonate a Dirty Bomb? March 20, 2016 /0 Comments/in Government, Military, Military Blog By Debbie Gregory. Radioisotopes are capable of causing radiation poisoning and sickness, making them a potential tool for terrorists seeking to build a “dirty” bomb that could cause widespread contamination. Belgian authorities believe that a group of Islamic terrorists were trying to figure out a way to collect such materials to build a bomb. They have suspicions that a plot to kidnap an employee of the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre might have been in the works in order to secure the materials needed. Didier Vanderhasselt, a spokesman for the Belgian Foreign Ministry, said that the security of their nuclear sites is of the highest concern, and that the country’s counterterrorism experts were “constantly monitoring the situation of all sensitive potential targets, including nuclear sites.” Vanderhasselt added that “as far as we know we have been implementing the same measures as the French did the last few years,” and that Belgian security precautions meet the International Atomic Energy Agency’s standards. So just how worried should we be? The real threat from dirty bombs lies in their psychological and economic effects, a fact that often sees these devices described as weapons of mass disruption rather than weapons of mass destruction. A dirty bomb detonated in a major urban center would be sure to cause widespread fear and panic. Additionally, the economic costs associated with a dirty bomb would be considerable. The clean-up after such an attack could figure in the billions of dollars, if detonated in a high-value area such as city center or port. So while the thought of ISIS using dirty bombs to further its terrorist agenda is unsettling, the threat should not be exaggerated, particularly when it comes to its impact on public health. Military Connection salutes and proudly serves veterans and service members in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Guard and Reserve, and their families. Mitalis https://militaryconnection.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/mc-logo2.png Mitalis2016-03-20 08:00:502016-03-20 08:00:50Can Terrorists Detonate a Dirty Bomb?	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line632
__label__wiki	0.796461	0.796461	Tag Archive for: the Reserve Officers Training Corps You are here: Home / the Reserve Officers Training Corps Military Connection: Army Too Uniform? By Debbie Gregory October 23, 2014 /0 Comments/in Military, Military Blog, Military Veteran Most military forces pride themselves on their uniformity. Marching as one and fighting as one are what most commanders hope to achieve. Basic training instructors drill and inspect recruits to ensure uniformity. But presently, the U.S. Army is concerned with a lack of diversity among its personnel. There is a glaring lack of minority officers currently serving in the U.S. Army. Army officials are currently taking measures to expand recruiting efforts to target more minority officers. In 2014, the Army reported that only one of its twenty-six brigades was commanded by a black colonel. Brigades are comprised of three to four battalions, with each battalion made up of approximately 800-1,000 soldiers. There is only one black officer slated to head a single battalion, out of the 78 battalions in the Army in 2015. This is a case where diversity could be a valuable asset. While minority officers are less common than white officers, the minority population among enlisted is over 30%. It makes total sense to have the minority population among officers closer to the same dispersal of minority enlisted personnel. In order to accomplish their mission, Army leadership is planning to target a recruitment campaign at cities that have concentrated minority populations. The Army named Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York and Phoenix as their target cities. The Army wants to entice more members from minority communities to earn their degrees and become officers. Recruiters will push potential college-aged candidates to join programs like the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC), that help them pay for college degrees in exchange for a contracted amount of time spent serving as an officer. Of course, finding young minority officers now is the key to diversifying the next generation of the Army’s leaders. Military Connection proudly serves those who serve in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Guard and Reserve, Veterans and their Families. We are the go to site for Veteran Employment and information on Veteran education. Militaryconnection.com provides Veterans with and Directory of Employers, a Job Board, information on the Post-9/11 GI Bill, and a blog that offers Veterans boundless information. Be sure to visit Militaryconnection.com, the go to site. Mitalis https://militaryconnection.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/mc-logo2.png Mitalis2014-10-23 16:00:162014-10-23 16:00:16Military Connection: Army Too Uniform? By Debbie Gregory	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line633
__label__wiki	0.726011	0.726011	Dr. Antoinette Burchill FHEA visual art \| street theatre \| research \| teaching \| public engagement 1981 The first prank Freckled Mischief Urban Selkie Stitching Snark Curatorial Practice The Village Green Stage COGmachine Art and Empty Shops Derby: City of Invention Project endorsements The Delegates Insectologists Bankers on Active Community Service (BACS) Derby: City of Invention is a series of 12 images which form a striking visual narrative. They tell a story about the history of Derby: a history formed by a series of strong characters with big ideas that changed the world. Invention is part of Derby’s DNA – past, present and future. These images portray inventive activity across arts, design, engineering, construction, physics, philosophy, astronomy, gastronomy, fashion and technology. They tell stories of personal, local, national and globally significant innovations which shaped our past and continue to inform our present and our future. 7 new artist commissions Illustrating over 300 years of inventive activity in Derby. Artists & images Derby Arboretum The first public park in England. Our parks are part of everyday life; they are a place with no other purpose but enjoyment. They are places to walk, play and meet. They are places to sit and think. For most of our history, however, there has been no such thing as a public park. If you owned enough land you might be able to enjoy a walk in your private grounds, but for most people, formal gardens or landscaped grounds were difficult to access. In 1840, that changed, and the Arboretum Park near Osmaston Road was created and donated to the working people of Derby by Joseph Strutt, to a design by the famous architect and landscape gardener, John Claudius Louden. For the first time, anyone, regardless of wealth or power, could ‘go to the park’. This idea was so good that it spread across the country and across the world; thousands of other parks have been created but the first was here, in Derby. http://structuredesign.wordpress.com/ Derby Museum & Art Gallery Atlas Coelestis, first published in 1729 John Flamsteed’s study of the stellar constellations – first published in 1729. The first Astronomer Royal, John Flamsteed (1646–1719), was born in Denby and educated at Derby School. His calculations recorded over many years at his new observatory at Greenwich form the basis for the Atlas Coelestis. It was published by his wife with illustrations by James Thornhill and Abraham Sharp ten years after his death. The Atlas Coelestis formed the basis for the study of the Heavens for almost 100 years. http://www.derbymuseums.org/ The Works on the Site of the Midland Railway Terminus on Euston Road Engraving c.1867 St Pancras Station was constructed using Derbyshire steel, stone and brick, and used by trains engineered and built in Derby and adorned by a Smith of Derby station clock. The Derby-based Midland Railway completed their London terminal, St Pancras, in 1868. The grand building was not only the height of fashion but also at the cutting edge of construction and engineering technology. The roof of the engine shed was, at the time of construction, the largest single span structure ever built. Built by Derbyshire’s Butterley Company in Ripley, it cost £117,000 (about £8,000,000 in 2011) which was about 30 per cent of the total cost of the building. The station is often seen as a little bit of Derbyshire in London. Thomas Phillips Herbert Spencer (1820 –1903) Derby-born philosopher, writer and Derby Philosophical Society Secretary. My illustration focuses on the theme of philosophy, which was inspired by researching the achievements of Derby-born philosopher Herbert Spencer (1820–1903). Spencer’s ideas on ethics and ‘Synthetic Philosophy’ became popular as people looked for a scientific alternative to religion. Credited with being the originator of the modern study of sociology, he sold over a million copies of his works, and his views on evolution followed in the footsteps of earlier scientists such as Charles Darwin and Derby’s own Erasmus Darwin (Charles’ grandfather). Spencer was Secretary of the Derby Philosophical Society, but also had a practical nature, designing a scheme for mobile flood defences for Derby. The image consists of a profile of Spencer, whose physical attributes are reminiscent of the stereotypical image of a philosopher – a bald head accompanied by a large beard. To highlight his intelligence his brain appears in the form of the beard. The museum has casts of his hands, which were unusually large. www.thomasphillipsillustration.com Old Imari Solid Gold Band Litherland Vase A masterpiece in the making. Royal Crown Derby can trace its roots back to the founding of the Derby Porcelain factory in 1750, producing English Fine Bone China tableware, vases and ornaments. Each piece is decorated by hand, making every piece subtly different and therefore a unique piece keenly sought after by collectors and discerning gift buyers around the world.These beautiful images show the making of the Old Imari Solid Gold Band Litherland Vase. This magnificent vase is based on a version of a shape from our museum archive collection dating back to 1903. Bench Caster Supervisor Trevor Warner pours liquid slip into the Litherland Vase mould. This will make the main body of the mould. The mould is then drained to allow the excess slip to run off. The mould is then opened up and the body of the vase is taken out – very carefully so as not to damage any of the intricate patterns. It is placed on a device called a whirler, upside down, and the next piece to be added is the foot of the vase. The foot, handles and lid are all brushed with slip and joined to the body of the vase. All excess slip is brushed away and all the lines are smoothed out to leave a clean finish. It is then fired in a kiln. The handle on the lid of the vase is perhaps the most tricky to apply as it needs to be centred perfectly. If it isn’t, the gilders will encounter problems when applying the 22-carat gold after the piece has been decorated. Finally, the finished piece is ready and fully decorated in our traditional Old Imari Solid Gold Band pattern consisting of iron red, cobalt blue, pretty stylized flowers and 22-carat hand-applied gold. http://www.royalcrownderby.co.uk Whitehurst’s Franklin Clock 1750-70 An ingenious prototype clock exported to the British Colonies. In the early years of the British Colonies in North America there was a distinct lack of raw materials available for making clocks and other household items. Benjamin Franklin worked with James Ferguson to design a clock that had fewer cogs thus reducing the quantity of materials required. The Derby clockmaker and friend of Franklin and Ferguson, John Whitehurst (1713–1788) manufactured this clock as a prototype. The difficulty of reading the time meant that it never caught on, but Whitehurst’s skill as a clockmaker and engineer is clearly shown. Smith of Derby Whitehurst Mechanical Clock, 2009 18th-century technology informing 21st-century design and engineering. This clock connects our time with the 18th-century age of invention, and embodies the philosophy, genius and engineering discipline of scientist and inventor John Whitehurst (1713– 1788). Built to the same exacting standards in materials, finish and design, it has a global time, world polar view in engraved crystal glass which rotates in synchronisation with the turning of the earth. The jewelled movement is hand finished, polished and gold plated. It is living proof of the uncompromising and perfectionist skills which are as much part of our city today as they were 300 years ago. Inset images: Restoring the 1386 Salisbury Cathedral Clock George Fox, Blacksmith, forging a replacement ‘verge’ escape wheel blank for the world’s oldest working clock in 1956. Embracing the latest technology of their time, churches and cathedrals in the medieval period made the hours of the day known to the outside world through the invention of such bell chiming mechanisms. The word clock derives from cloche (French) and glocke (German), literally bell. Restoring a copper ‘skeleton’ clock dial, 2010 Ian Inglis is pictured soldering the components of a traditional pattern clock for the Old Guildhall, Winchester. As part of a major refurbishment project, the original dial was carefully dismantled to salvage as much of the historic original as possible. With computer aided design input to assist reassembly, this landmark timepiece has now reassumed its role as a centrepiece of its home city. Building the St Pancras Station Clock, 2007 Kevin Allen welds the dial of a clock which is now looked up to by thousands of travellers a day. Built as a faithful replica of the original Victorian timepiece, the clock blends the craft skills of pattern carving, casting, slate splitting and gilding with modern laser cutting and welding, with timekeeping accuracy provided by satellite GPS signal. http://www.smithofderby.com/ Jon Legge The Plimsoll Line Samuel Plimsoll, Liberal MP for Derby (1868–1880) revolutionised the shipping industry with this life-saving graphic which prevented overloaded ships from setting sail. My image celebrates the adoption of an effective load line on sea-going ships. Samuel Plimsoll, Liberal MP for Derby (1868–1880), was a tireless campaigner for this cause, devoting much of his life to the safety of sailors and shipping. Before his reforms, hundreds of so-called ‘coffin ships’, overloaded by unscrupulous owners, sank in rough weather. After one of the longest ever popular and parliamentary campaigns, the struggle against ship-owners and their supporters at Westminster was finally won in 1876.The Plimsoll Line became a legal requirement for British ships, resulting in an immediate drop in the number of ships sinking. The Plimsoll Line is a series of marks, painted on the hull of a ship showing its maximum safe loading, in different types of water. Although Derby is not normally connected with maritime innovations, it is fitting that so simple an idea that saved so many lives, should be associated with a city responsible for much of the technology that drove the industrial revolution. My image represents the hull of a steamship displaying the Plimsoll Line. http://jonleggephotography.blogspot.com/ Sally Lemsford Harry M Stevens The 19th–century Derby milkman who emigrated to America and invented the Hot Dog. Harry M Stevens was a milkman from Derby who emigrated to America in 1880. He began by providing ice cream and soda to baseball fans. In 1887, Stevens redesigned the baseball scorecard that is still in use today. He also invented drinking straws so fans could drink soda and score the game at the same time. On a cold day in 1901 he came up with the idea of selling ‘red hot dachshund sausages’ in long bread rolls to the crowds. They became known as Hot Dogs and are eaten and enjoyed all over the world. Anna Boyd, Foundation Diploma in Art and Design student, Derby College Fashion and architecture meet experimentation and innovation. In this project, Art Foundation student Anna was required to design and construct a sculptural form that could be worn on the body. The sculpture was constructed out of circles, squares and triangles. Since the 1980s, a growing number of avant-garde designers have come to approach garments as architectural constructions, while many in the field of architecture have boldly embraced new forms and materials using techniques like pleating, seaming, folding, and draping. Students considered the link between fashion and architecture through experimentation and innovation with structure, form and shape, using a range of methods and processes. Anna used recycled drawings, created on a variety of papers, which she cut into squares and rolled to create her sculptural outfit in two days. Anna has completed her Art Foundation Diploma Course at Derby College, and has secured a place to study Fine Art at Kingston University, London. http://www.derby-college.ac.uk/ Adrian Riley Cathedral of Steam The Derby Roundhouse – architecture in praise of the locomotive industry. Derby Roundhouse (built 1839) is the world’s first round locomotive shed built around a turntable – a design which was much copied later elsewhere. Designed by architect Francis Thompson with engineer George Stephenson, this innovative building was part of the North Midland Railway’s impressive locomotive works. At its peak the works buildings alone covered 20 acres of land and were constructing 50 new steam locomotives a year. The Roundhouse gave 120 years of service repairing locomotives. It has now been given a fresh lease of life as part of the new Derby College campus which includes, appropriately, the engineering department. Whilst some railway buildings consciously sought to imitate ecclesiastical architecture, the Roundhouse’s beauty is born of its functionality and to my mind, is as impressive as any cathedral. The addition of colour amongst the latticework of beams in this image forms a fictional stained-glass window. It is my homage to the brilliant minds that worked in the building, and anticipates those to come. Original photograph © Andrew Cowell www.electricangel.co.uk David Booth, BA (Hons) Fine Art student, University of Derby Sculptural Enlightenment Cables that have the power and potential to transmit and communicate ideas. My inspiration was the world of fibre-optic cables that lies beneath our feet. These cables have the power to transmit an immeasurable number of voices, words and images. My image is a visualisation of the ideas that hum and crackle beneath our feet. As a futuristic visualisation of the hidden superhighway, the image straddles the extremes of outer space and the microscopic, providing a landscape in which the traveller can discover aspirational, enlightened thoughts and infinite possibilities. I selected this image for Derby: City of Invention because the work arose from taking advantage of a mistake: I had been creating a vacuum mould of a sculptural piece when the mould cracked. I was drawn to how its fractured contours had an organic aesthetic. I have called it ‘Sculptural Enlightenment’ as a reference to Derby’s proud heritage. I wanted to express the wonder of the journey to invent. Only by experimenting and evaluating can true invention occur. http://www.davidbooth.uk.com/ http://www.derby.ac.uk/art-and-design Dr. Antoinette Burchill FHEA, Website Built with WordPress.com.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line635
__label__wiki	0.83332	0.83332	LFA 33's Kyle Stewart wants KO of Jaleel Willis – who is aware, but not worried Kyle Stewart and Jaleel Willis come into their fight tonight carrying the same goal and professional MMA record. The levels of intensity in talking about it, however, differ a bit. Stewart (8-0) meets Willis (8-0) in the headlining bout of tonight’s LFA 33, which airs on AXS TV from The Bomb Factory in Dallas. Surely, adding a ninth win to his unblemished record wouldn’t be too bad, but Stewart already has his sights on bigger aspirations. “He’s 8-0, and he’s tough; you can’t fake being 8-0,” Stewart told AXS TV’s Phoenix Carnevale. “But he doesn’t (expletive) want it like I want it. Trust me when I tell you that. I’m not just happy being here. I belong in the UFC. I’ve thought about it every day for the past eight years. And I’m telling you: I’m going in there to knock him unconscious in a way that (UFC matchmaker) Sean Shelby goes, ‘Kyle Stewart is fighting in the UFC, in Glendale, in April.’ That’s what I’m going in there for.” The former U.S. Marine has had somewhat of a brush with the UFC before. This past May, coming off a submission win in his LFA debut and into a spot at Dana White’s Contender Series 3, an injury stoppage led Stewart into a TKO win over Jason Jackson. “What I had to overcome in that fight with my injuries and everything going on, tearing my shoulder – I had no business winning that fight,” he said. “But I found a (expletive) way to win that fight.” The win didn’t translate to a UFC contract, but he got something out of it. “I feel like Jaleel is in my position that I was in,” Stewart said. “Because when I was looking at Jason Jackson, I was looking at a guy who was on ‘The Ultimate Fighter.’ He had beat – knocked out Dhiego Lima. He had beat game dudes. And I’m like, ‘Who have I fought compared to this guy?’ “And that’s why I’m not underestimating Jaleel. Because it doesn’t matter. You can’t do MMA math, but I went into that fight, and that fight taught me that I can fight anybody in the world. And I truly believe that I can win.” Check it out (via YouTube): Stewart’s commitment to fighting become quite apparent when he talks about how not even being in Afghanistan during a war deterred him from his training. But that doesn’t mean Willis, a former Bellator and WSOF fighter, is lacking in focus. “Completely, just one fight at a time,” Willis said. “Just focused on my race. I’m like a horse, with the blinders. I ain’t worried about what brother doing over here, what a brother is doing over here. I’m coming out there. I’m focused on my race. Because at the end, I get that tunnel vision. That’s all I see. I know if I’m doing what I’ve got to do, can’t nobody mess with it.” Willis’ beginnings as an MMA fighter may have been of the unorthodox kind (you can hear the full story for yourself in the video above, but let’s just say he went from T-shirt seller to co-headliner in a matter of hours) – but one unbeaten eight-fight run later, he’s got all the drive and inspiration to keep going. “As a fighter, I think the same thing (about Stewart) I think about all my opponents: pretty tough and coming to fight,” Willis said. “He’s coming to knock me out. He ready. I’m ready. I ain’t worried about it. I’m just here to put in all the hard work I’ve been working toward. I just want to give my babies the life that I never had.” To hear more from tonight’s headliners, check out the video above. And for more on LFA 33, stay tuned to the MMA Rumors section of the site. LFA 33 is live on AXS TV tonight at 9 p.m. ET (6 p.m. PT). Make sure to tweet along using #LFA33. AXS TV airs new, live fights almost every Friday night in 2017. Find AXS TV on your TV right here: www.axs.tv/fights. Jaleel Willis, Kyle Stewart, LFA 33, AXS TV Fights, News, Videos 368 shares20 Nov 19 Julianna Pena, Max Bretos named to AXS TV's Combate Americas commentary team 447 shares25 Sep 19 LFA 78, LFA 79 postponed during search for new broadcast partner 22k shares09 Sep 19 LFA 75 highlights: 41-year-old vs. 23-year-old ends in KO; the winner may surprise you UFC on ABC 1 results: Li Jingliang knocks out Santiago Ponzinibbio in first China’s Li Jingliang finished Santiago Ponzinibbio for his fourth win in his past five fights.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line636
__label__wiki	0.799395	0.799395	Investment, News Reliable Robotics Emerges From Stealth with Autonomous Passenger Airplanes By Newsfeed Are you ready to jump on an airplane without a pilot onboard? San Francisco-based Reliable Robotics thinks that you are. They have emerged from stealth and are demonstrating their autonomous, small craft, passenger airplanes flying over populated areas. The company is led by SpaceX and Tesla veterans and emerges from stealth with $33.5 million in venture capital funding to transform the future of aviation. While we're all busy watching autonomous mobile robots get deployed in stores, warehouses and hospitals, Reliable has been testing its autonomous passenger planes in the air. The Reliable Robotics Team (image courtesy of Reliable Robotics) What Is An Autonomous Passenger Airplane? In the first flight, the pilot pressed a button on a remote user interface and the unmanned four passenger Cessna 172 Skyhawk (C172) automatically taxied, took off, and landed. Most recently, the company demonstrated fully automated remote landing of an even larger aircraft, the Cessna 208 Caravan (C208), capable of carrying 14 passengers. “Automated aircraft are going to fundamentally shift the entire airline business, and Reliable Robotics is well positioned to be a key player in this new market. The progress their team has demonstrated in a short amount of time is very impressive,” said David Neeleman, Founder of five commercial airlines including JetBlue Airways. a Cessena c208 was one of the first planes to be fitted and tested with the Reliable Robotics autonomous flight controls (image courtesy of Reliable Robotics) Reliable Robotics seamlessly integrated its autonomous platform onto the 2,550 pound C172. They began the C172 program in January 2018 and completed fully automated gate-to-gate operation before the end of that year. Extensive system safety analysis and testing was conducted prior to the unmanned test flight in September 2019. This marked the first time a privately funded company operated a passenger airplane of this type with no pilot on board over a populated region, and was an important step in certifying the autonomous platform for repeated, safe civil use on certified aircraft. “We spent the first portion of our flight test program focused on the C172. We thoroughly tested every aspect of our system in simulation and conducted rigorous safety checks before operating the aircraft without a pilot on board and are now proud to share what we’ve been working on,” said Robert Rose, Co-founder and CEO of Reliable Robotics. “By bringing advanced automation to aviation, we will deliver higher safety, reliability and convenience for cargo operators and eventually for passengers.” What Is The Future For Autonomous Passenger Airplanes? The company designed and built a proprietary autonomous platform that can be applied to any fixed-wing aircraft. The platform includes avionics, software, mechanisms, a communications system, remote command interfaces, along with a backup system that has the capability to take over if needed. Following the C172 program, it was adapted for use on the larger C208. Reliable Robotics is now working with the FAA on incrementally bringing this technology to market, having already demonstrated automated landing on the C208 last month. Reliable Robotics was founded in 2017 by engineers who believe aircraft should fly themselves. The leadership team includes Co-founder and CEO Robert Rose who led flight software at SpaceX and the Autopilot program at Tesla, launching the Falcon 9 rocket, Dragon spacecraft and the first consumer automobile with fully unassisted self-driving capability. Co-founder and VP of Engineering Juerg Frefel led the team developing the compute platform for the Falcon 9 rocket and the Dragon spacecraft. Other senior members of the team have played key roles in the development of the Boeing 787, Airbus A380 and other major commercial aircraft and avionics systems. The company raised $33.5 million in two funding rounds with $8.5 million in Series A led by Lightspeed Ventures and a previously unannounced $25 million in Series B led by Eclipse Ventures; Pathbreaker Ventures and Teamworthy Ventures also participated. The funding is being used to build components of the remote hardware and software needed to retrofit aircraft and to continue hiring top aerospace and engineering talent. This article was published by our news staff.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line637
__label__wiki	0.574143	0.574143	Europe’s one trillion climate finance plan Find out how Europe aims to fund projects to tackle climate change and support the regions most affected by the transition to a green economy. Just over a month after the presentation of the European Green Deal, the European Commission presented a detailed proposal on how to finance it. The European Green Deal Investment Plan is designed to attract at least one trillion euros worth of public and private investment over the next decade. Turning the EU into a climate neutral economy by 2050 will require massive investment in clean energy technologies. To achieve an interim greenhouse gases reduction target of 40% by 2030 would require €260 billion of additional investment a year, according to the Commission’s estimates. Where the money will come from Around half of the money should come from the EU’s long-term budget through various programmes that contribute to climate and environment projects, for instance through agricultural funds, the Regional Development Fund, Cohesion Fund, Horizon Europe and the Life programme. This in turn would attract an additional €114 billion in co-financing by EU countries. About €300 billion worth of private and public investment is expected to be mobilised through funds from InvestEU and the EU’s Trade Emissions Scheme (ETS) while another €100 billion should be attracted using the new Just Transition Mechanism, which is designed to support regions and communities that are most affected by a green transition, for instance regions that are heavily dependent on coal. Just Transition Mechanism The mechanism will be based on three pillars: the Just Transition Fund (JTF) the InvestEU funding stream loans from the European Investment Bank (EIB) backed by the EU budget All these instruments are expected to attract €100 billion in public and private investment – money that could be used for workers to learn new skills for jobs of the future, support for businesses to create new employment opportunities as well as investment in clean energy and the insulation of homes. 1. Just Transition Fund The fund’s investments should help those regions that are particularly dependent on fossil fuels, such as coal, which still is still used for about a quarter of EU power generation. The EU’s coal sector employs 238,000 people in coal mines and power plants in more than 100 European regions from Poland to Spain. In 2015, there were 128 coal mines in 12 EU countries and 207 coal-fired power plants in 21 EU countries. Presenting the proposal to MEPs on 14 January, Frans Timmermans, the commissioner responsible for the European Green Deal, said: “It’s a message to coal miners in Asturias, Western Macedonia or Silesia, to the peat harvesters in the Irish midlands, Baltic regions relied on oil shale and many more. We know that you face a steeper path towards climate neutrality and we know that the prospect of a different future – a cleaner one – might be a welcoming prospect in general but the road to it looks daunting today. This Just Transition Mechanism of at least €100 billion is a pledge that the EU stands with you in this transition.” In May 2020, the Commission amended the proposal for the Just Transition Fund, in the context of the Next Generation EU, the EU’s plan for economic recovery, to cope with the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. The proposed financing of €7.5 billion from the EU long-term budget has been increased to €10 billion, in addition to €30 billion in external revenue from the European Recovery Instrument. The Just Transition Fund will provide grants to social support, economic revitalisation and land restoration projects. 2. Special scheme under InvestEU programme The InvestEU scheme should prioritise financing for climate projects and mobilise a total of €45 billion of investment in Just Transition projects from 2021 to 2027. Created in 2018, InvestEU is the EU’s proposed flagship investment programme to boost the European economy. At the end of May 2020, in the framework of Next Generation EU, the Commission proposed increasing the InvestEU budget and doubling funding for sustainable infrastructure to €20 billion out of the total €75 billion guaranteed from the EU budget. 3. Public sector loan facility Further funding could come from a public sector loan facility – €1.5 billion in grants from the long-term budget and up to €10 billion in EIB loans – with an additional €25-€30 billion in public authorities’ investments to help regions that are most affected to cope with the costs of decarbonisation. Funds would go to investments ranging from energy and transport to district heating networks and public transport. Related Topics:European Uniongreen economy Commission unveils its first Strategic Foresight Report European Green Deal: New initiatives to boost the organic farming sector Coronavirus response: EU support for regions to work together in innovative pilot projects The Commission has announced the winners of a new EU-funded initiative for interregional partnerships in four areas: coronavirus-related innovative solutions, circular economy in health, sustainable and digital tourism, and hydrogen technologies in carbon–intensive regions. The aim of this new pilot action, which builds on the successful experience of a similar action on “interregional innovation projects” launched at the end of 2017, is to mobilise regional and national innovation actors to address the impact of coronavirus. This initiative also helps the recovery using the new Commission programmes through scaling up projects in new priority areas, such as health, tourism or hydrogen. Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, Elisa Ferreira, said: “Interregional partnerships are proof that when we cooperate beyond borders, we are stronger as we come up with smart and useful solutions for all. This new pilot initiative supporting interregional innovative partnerships is especially important in the current coronavirus context, showing how much cohesion policy is committed to contribute to Europe’s prompt response and recovery.” Following a Commission’s call for expression of interest launched in July 2020, four interregional partnerships were selected, with one or several coordinating regions in the lead: País Vasco (ES), together with three regions, will focus on the support to an emerging industry sector for prediction and prevention of the coronavirus pandemic; In the field of Circular Economy in Health, the RegioTex partnership on textile innovation involves 16 regions led by North Portugal (PT); In the field of Sustainable and Digital Tourism, the partnership coordinated by the Time Machine Organisation, an international cooperation network in technology, science and cultural heritage, involves five regions and Cyprus, led by Thüringen (DE); In order to enable the development of innovative solutions based on Hydrogen technologies in carbon–intensive regions with a broad geographical coverage, two partnerships will merge: the European Hydrogen Valleys partnership gathering 12 regions led by Aragon (ES), Auvergne Rhône Alpes (FR), Normandie (FR) and Northern Netherlands (NL), and the partnership led by Košice Region (SK) with four other regions. These partnerships will benefit from the Commission experts’ support, providing, among others, advice on how to best combine EU funds to finance projects. In addition to this hands-on support from the Commission, each partnership can benefit from external advisory service of up to €100,000 for scale-up and commercialisation activities. The money comes from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The work with the partnerships will start in this month and will run for one year.This pilot further stimulates interregional cooperation, with the possibility for the partnerships to apply for support under the new programmes and the “Interregional Innovation Investment” instrument from 2021 onwards. In recent years, the Commission has called on national and regional authorities to develop smart specialisation strategies aiming at more effective innovation policies and enhanced interregional cooperation in value chains across borders. To date, more than 180 regional smart specialisation strategies have been adopted. Their implementation is supported by €40 billion of EU Cohesion policy funds. As part of a set of actions presented in 2017 by the Commission to take smart specialisation a step further, a pilot action on “Interregional innovation projects” sought to test new ways to encourage regions and cities to develop new value chains and scale up their good ideas in the EU single market. This pilot action, which involved nine partnerships in high-tech priority sectors, was completed in 2019 and showed significant potential to accelerate the investment readiness of interregional investment projects. The lessons learned will be integrated in the new “Interregional Innovation Investment” instrument proposed in the framework of the post 2020 Cohesion Policy package. The new pilot action has similar goals. Moreover, in the context of the crisis, it aims at finding solutions to the coronavirus challenges and accelerating the recovery through the commercialisation and scale-up of innovation investment. Commission proposes to purchase up to 300 million additional doses of BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine image: BioNTech The European Commission today proposed to the EU Member States to purchase an additional 200 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine produced by BioNTech and Pfizer, with the option to acquire another 100 million doses. This would enable the EU to purchase up to 600 million doses of this vaccine, which is already being used across the EU. The additional doses will be delivered starting in the second quarter of 2021. The EU has acquired a broad portfolio of vaccines with different technologies. It has secured up to 2.3 billion doses from the most promising vaccine candidates for Europe and its neighbourhood. In addition to the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine, a second vaccine, produced by Moderna, was authorised on 6 January 2021. Other vaccines are expected to be approved soon. This vaccine portfolio would enable the EU not only to cover the needs of its whole population, but also to supply vaccines to neighbouring countries. EU-UK relations are changing following Brexit and the deal reached at the end of 2020. Find out what this means for you. The UK left the EU on 31 January 2020. There was a transition period during which the UK remained part of the Single market and Customs Union to allow for negotiations on the future relations. Following intense negotiations, an agreement on future EU-UK relations was concluded end of December 2020. Although it will be provisionally applied, it will still need to be approved by the Parliament before it can formally enter into force. MEPs are currently scrutinising the text in the specialised parliamentary committees before voting on it during a plenary session. A number of issues were already covered by the withdrawal agreement, which the EU and the UK agreed at the end of 2019. This agreement on the separation issues deals with the protection of the rights of EU citizens in the UK and UK citizens living in other parts of the EU, the UK’s financial commitments undertaken as a member state, as well as border issues, especially on the Isle of Ireland. Living and working in the UK or the EU EU citizens in the UK or UK citizens in an EU member state who were already living there before January 2021 are allowed to continue living and working where they are now provided they registered and were granted settlement permits by the national authorities of the member states or the UK. For those UK citizens not already living in the EU, their right to live and work in any EU country apart from the Republic of Ireland (as the UK has a separate agreement with them) is not automatically granted and can be subject to restrictions. Also, they no longer have their qualifications automatically recognised in EU countries, which was previously the case. For UK citizens wanting to visit or stay in the EU for more than 90 days for any reason need to meet the requirements for entry and stay for people from outside the EU. This also applies to UK citizens with a second home in the EU. People from the EU wanting to move to the UK for a long-term stay or work – meaning more than six months – will need to meet the migration conditions set out by the UK government, including applying for a visa. UK citizens can visit the EU for up to 90 days within any 180-day period without needing a visa. However, UK citizens can no longer make use of the EU’s fast track passport controls and customs lanes. They also need to have a return ticket and be able to prove they have enough funds for their stay. They also need to have at least six months left on their passport. EU citizens can visit the UK for up to six months without needing a visa. EU citizens will need to present a valid passport to visit the UK. EU citizens temporarily staying in the UK still benefit from emergency healthcare based on the European Health Insurance Card. For stays longer than six months, they need to pay a healthcare surcharge. Pensioners continue to benefit from healthcare where they live. The country paying for their pension will reimburse the country of residence. The UK has decided to stop participating in the popular Erasmus+ exchange programme and to create its own exchange programme. Therefore EU students will not be able to participate in exchange programme in the UK anymore. However, people from Northern Ireland can continue to take part. Trade in goods and services With the agreement, goods exchanged between the UK and EU countries are not subject to tariffs or quotas. However, there are new procedures for moving goods to and from the UK as border controls on the respect of the internal market rules (sanitary, security, social, environmental standard for example) or applicable UK regulation are in place. This means more red tape and additional costs. For example, all imports into the EU are subject to customs formalities while they must also meet all EU standards so they are subject to regulatory checks and controls. This does not apply to goods being moved between Northern Ireland and the EU. Regarding services, UK companies no longer have the automatic right to offer services across the EU. If they want to continue operating in the EU, they will need to establish themselves here.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line638
__label__wiki	0.723753	0.723753	UNCUT INTERVIEW: JOHN LYDON Emily Ingram catches a rare glimpse into the personal life of John Lydon ahead of Public Image Ltd’s gig at Newcastle’s Riverside on Sunday 20th September Images: Paul Heartfield By Emily Ingram on Wednesday, August 26th, 2015 Emily Ingram catches a rare glimpse into the personal life of John Lydon ahead of Public Image Ltd’s gig at Newcastle’s Riverside on Sunday 20th September. First of all, Public Image Ltd’s newest studio album is set to be released this September – how was the recording process? With us – quick, cheap and cheerful. We don’t believe in spending vast amounts on ridiculous electronica- we’re certainly not time wasters in the post-production area either. There’s not piles of expensive recording equipment, it’s all kind of mid-level, which is fine! You don’t need to go to extremes. If we can’t record it basically live, we’re not very interested in it after. So that’s the way we approached things: we sorted out a barn with the most perfect natural reverb possible. It had very high ceilings, you could open the doors and the only thing you’re annoying is sheep for a hundred miles! It’s quite brilliant to be able to do that. I think we’re able to achieve very dramatic results. You can con the wealthy, but you can‘t con the smart. The downside, of course, is that in the evening the place is crawling with rats, you know, and it’s not nice seeing rat poo in your jam sandwich. But I love working with these fellas, these are my friends. It’s taken 35 years of making music before I’ve finally found myself in an environment where I really, really respect every single person in it. It’s not just the band, it’s the way everything operates behind the scenes too- I’ve got great friends there, like Scott Murphy and Johnny Rambo Stevens, so things work now. Nobody lies to anyone. It’s all out in the open, so nothing is vindictive and hateful, which makes for the production of some really good songs. Alongside this back to basics approach in recording, you’re known for being particularly eloquent within your music. There’s always something there you want to express. Wow, really! I can hardly bear that, that’s the most thrilling and frightening compliment I’ve ever heard! I find it hard to take a compliment or praise. I’ve got so used to learning to endure the negativity, it’s become almost second nature, so thank you, you’ve made me blush. So, with that in mind – do you think there was anything that you wished to communicate with this record, musically or lyrically? The audience will gather it. There’s songs there that cover all manner of topics and subjects. One is a very subdued vocal delivery from me but it totally captures the atmosphere of what I wanted, it reminds me of a teenage disco. Those church led events or local social club events where you were very shy, and you wanted to talk to the girls but there was T-Rex on the system and they were dancing to that. Trying to remember some of those ridiculous chat up lines in the hope you wouldn’t be rejected! That’s me remembering what a spotty awkward teenager I was, so to me it’s a song with great affection, shyness and humility. It’s a delicious torment to remind myself with those moments- I’ve left myself open, explored all the emotions. Other songs are corporate, I think it’s obvious what I view of big business, so they’re honing in on specifics. Warning people that if you simply accept these things they’ll turn you into the monster you most resent. What runs parallel with the song is a reminder of how hip hop and rap have just completely taken over via NIKE and brandwear, and I think the worst, most awful example of a youth being misled is through clothing lines. It’s dopey. It’s ridiculous. There’s no individuality in it. This record is your first since This Is PiL, released in 2012. Was it a long time coming? For us, this is very quick – our shortest time ever! I don’t like putting records out if there’s any sense of having to rush them, things should come when they’re most natural. There’s a great song on (the album) called Shoom, and the title of it was really just something Bruce was playing with on the drum machine that made this shoom sound. But I really liked it! It was just an endless loop he was having fun with when he had nothing to do one afternoon. So I remember after dinner we had all consumed a few bottles of wine, and I laid down a vocal in one take to it. What I had in mind was a homage to my dad- I loved him as company, I loved his sarcasm and his sense of irony and his GENIUS timing – he was a very dry comedian. What to an outsider may seem like a grumpy old git was actually just a sense of humour, which the working class understand and it’s very difficult to explain to anyone else! It’s like, “It’s all bollocks!”, though of course I didn’t fake the Irish accent, I have my own language. But the song is my dad talking, because he died a few years back and I miss him. Thank you dad, you gave me life, I won’t forget. So there’s a mix of different themes running through the album, personal and otherwise- that sounds great! Well there’s a couple of things- not a specific song in itself- but there’s lines all over the place that refer to my early childhood, which I’ve had to come to grips with when I pulled out my book Anger Is An Energy. For the first time ever in my life, I’ve opened up and explained what went on with me when I was young. I’ve always kept quiet about that, I’d worry that people thought I was pushing the ‘self-pity’ button, but I think I’ve done enough work now to share it. Self-pity is something I’d never tolerate and it’s certainly something my mum and dad have instilled within me never to put up with. So there we go, it’s a sharing thing, and the personal elements have – shall we say ‘infected’? Yes, that’s the best word for it- infected some of the songs, as the two projects (book and album) were running together simultaneously. Of course, halfway through I was preparing for Jesus Christ Superstar! I was gonna go off and play King Herod in a musical! Really was looking forward to that, it’s such a shame they pulled the plug. So there we go, with all that it’s ended up in my mind being the best record we’ve ever made, and you know I’ve made quite a few! I always say that, because I’m always excited for the latest. But because of that sense of comradery that we’ve had for each other, the respect and the openness, it’s a very uplifting record for us lot. Lyrically, lead single Double Trouble is a pretty striking one. Could you explain a little of the meaning behind the track? There’s plenty of humour in double trouble. It comes from a situation of my own making- an argument with Nora, Mrs Rotten, about a broken toilet. I was doing a lot of interviews, so I didn’t have time to go up and fix the damn thing. The trouble was, a few years earlier I got a new toilet and installed it myself. So an argument ensued,”why waste money when we know you can do it?” and “get a plumber!”, and on and on it went for weeks like that. Finally we did get a plumber and they fixed it. I was being both lazy and occupied by other things. I thought it was worthy of a mention in a song, and rather than letting it turn into a bitterness, we laughed about it! Nora now loves that song and we have a laugh when we play it because we remember that row. In my mind I would recommend it as the theme tune to the United Nations, as it’s a domestic scene that shows really how the world works. “Self-pity is something I’d never tolerate and it’s certainly something my mum and dad have instilled within me never to put up with” Following the release, you’ll be embarking on another tour, including a date at Newcastle’s Riverside. Is there anything in particular you enjoy about the North East in general? The people. Oh my god, I love those little corner pubs. They’ve got a glorious culture, the Geordies, I love them very much. I’ve had nothing but good memories from the place. It’s just great company, and everybody’s up for a good laugh and a giggle. I love it, because I never run into violence or animosity in those situations. It warms the heart, though I can say this about anywhere in England really, but I like the working class culture very much. There’s a great sense of humour, comradery and spirit, and that’s the essence of the whole album. It’s more or less the same wherever you go, it’s just the accents that change. It’s a wonderful thing to be accepted- you know, I’m well known for being an outsider, but really I’m an insider. Speaking broadly now, PiL have had a variety of different line-ups over the years, and you have spoken previously about how much you love working with the band currently. What has it been like for you personally to have worked intimately alongside so many different musicians? I’ve enjoyed working with all of them! It’s always financial situations that dictate proceedings and bring in trouble, but currently we all do other things besides, so it’s a healthy way of working, as things don’t get on top of each other. I’m incredibly lucky. There’s 49 people in PIL and each of them has been able to open up their own world of musical exploration, and all good stuff comes from that. Even the ones that hate me, I still feel fondly of. Hate’s as good an emotion as any I suppose. It’s only love in disguise. Do you feel like your sound has varied a lot as a result of the different influences? It varies according to the subject matter. What we try to do is get the music to be as best a representative as the emotions as possible. I know a lot about words, but I know there aren’t enough words in the world to describe emotions, and when you combine that with music that’s appropriate you achieve incredible results. That’s where we are, we’re experimenting in that area and it’s a work in progress- I’m only 60 years young, I’ve got a whole lifetime to correct it! That’s a reference to one of the songs, of course. Finally, you’ve been incredibly busy over the last few years- both personally and as a group. Any idea what lies in store for the band in the near future? More of our neurotic behaviour. I’m constantly thinking, worrying and working things over in my head, there’s no time for a holiday. It doesn’t matter where I am geographically in the world, the brain won’t stop. Everything is about creating. To quote my mum many years ago- “You’re a creation you are!”- and she was right. So there we are, we’re gagging to get out and perform live, as that’s the essence and point of it all. I like the audience to be well lit so I can see the faces, I love seeing that they’re understanding what we’re doing here. We’re not coming on as big, pompous rock stars, we’re a community voice. For me, it’s always been that way. It’s not ‘us and them’, it’s just ‘us’. PiL play at the Riverside, Newcastle on Sunday 20th September. Focus: Chris Rickaby News: Trillians – GoFundMe Campaign Interview: NOVYI LEF My Inspiration: MiE Fielding – The Closest Thing to Heaven Interview: Bellowhead Dream Show: Human History. Single Exclusive: Channy – The Rest Of Me FFO: YES CHEF	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line642
__label__wiki	0.517088	0.517088	Museums in Philadelphia The Complete List (2021) Philadelphia museums are among the best in the world, and include Wyck Historic House And Garden, Woodford Mansion, and dozens more institutions. Below, we've researched and compiled a list of museums in Philadelphia, plus categories like: 🏛️ all museums 🏆 best museums 👐 free museums 🎉 fun museums 🔥 must see museums 😎 cool museums 👾 weird museums 🎨 art museums 🐙 science museums 🗿 history museums And everything in-between. How many museums are there in Philadelphia? As of 2021, our list includes 99 awesome museums. Museum Categories Best Museums Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum Rosenbach Museum and Library Please Touch Museum Library Company of Philadelphia Philadelphia Insectarium and Butterfly Pavilion Independence National Historical Park Franklin Institute Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Free Museums Wyck Historic House And Garden Wells Fargo Museum The Stella Elkins Tyler Galleries at Tyler School of Art and Architecture Wagner Free Institute of Science Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial Temple University School of Podiatric Medicine Shoe Museum Second Bank of the United States Romanian Folk Art Museum Polish American Cultural Center Museum Philadelphia Museum of Jewish Art Philadelphia Doll Museum Paul Robeson House Painted Bride Art Center Old City Hall New Hall Military Museum National Shrine of Saint John Neumann Marian Anderson House Leonard Pearlstein Gallery Historical Society of Frankford John Ruan House Germantown White House Galleries at Moore College Franklin Court Founder’s Hall at Girard College Fairmount Water Works Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site Drexel University Collection Dolley Todd House Declaration House Congress Hall Concord School House Center for Art in Wood Carpenters' Hall Bishop White House Bartram's Garden Athenaeum of Philadelphia American Philosophical Society Museum ACES Museum Fireman's Hall Museum The Fabric Workshop and Museum Arthur Ross Gallery Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia Fun Museums Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial Elfreth's Alley Museum Must See Museums John Johnson House American Swedish Historical Museum Cool Museums Shofuso Japanese House and Garden Historic Rittenhouse Town National Liberty Museum Belmont Mansion (Philadelphia) National Constitution Center Philadelphia's Magic Gardens University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology Weird Museums Mummers Museum Mütter Museum Ryerss Mansion Woodmere Art Museum Barnes Foundation Science Museums Woodford Mansion Historic Strawberry Mansion Stenton Mansion Powel House Mount Pleasant Mansion Lemon Hill Mansion Laurel Hill Mansion Independence Seaport Museum Historical Society of Pennsylvania Hill–Physick–Keith House Grumblethorpe Germantown Historical Society Museum Fort Mifflin Ebenezer Maxwell House Cedar Grove Mansion Betsy Ross House Eastern State Penitentiary All Museums in Philadelphia Mario Lanza Museum Dating to 1690, Wyck is known as one of Philadelphia’s oldest houses. Wyck offers a variety of educational programs for school groups, including environmental education, programs that focus on history of Quakerism, Native Americans, Colonial life, and Philadelphia. Wyck’s open season runs from April through November. Here are some of the "must see" items at Wyck Historic House And Garden. Correspondence, diaries, and account books 🌐 Website 🎟️ $0 per person 📍 6026 Germantown Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19144 In 1756-58 William Coleman, a Philadelphia merchant and close friend of Benjamin Franklin, built this elegant country home. It is one of the best of the survivors of the early “summer retreats” that were built along the Schuylkill River during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The house is furnished with an extraordinary collection of 18th and early 19th century antiques and decorative arts. Here are some of the "must see" items at Woodford Mansion. Fuddling Cup Linen Sampler 📍 2300 N 33rd St, Philadelphia, PA 19132 The Philadelphia Wells Fargo Museum is located on Broad Street. The collection and various exhibits tell the story and history of Wells Fargo Bank and the development of the company's founding since 1852. Here are some of the "must see" items at Wells Fargo Museum. 1863 City Stagecoach Experience a Gold Rush Journey Explore a Vault 📍 123 S Broad St, Philadelphia, PA 19109 The Stella Elkins Tyler Galleries feature works by students at Temple University in projects organized by faculty, students and guest curators. Here are some of the "must see" items at The Stella Elkins Tyler Galleries at Tyler School of Art and Architecture. Artists of Color Collective Group Exhibition Festa Di Roma '19 📍 2001 North 13th Street Philadelphia, PA 19122 The Wagner Institute’s 19th-century three-story space exhibit hall houses an extraordinary collection of natural history specimens including mounted birds and mammals, fossils, rocks and minerals, insects, shells, dinosaur bones, and the first American saber-toothed tiger. Highlights include William Wagner’s personal mineral collection and his fossil collection, representing many important European and American localities and collecting sites of the nineteenth century. Here are some of the "must see" items at Wagner Free Institute of Science. Fossil collection First American saber-toothed tiger 🎟️ $10 per person 📍 1700 W Montgomery Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19121 Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial is the house where wounded Polish freedom fighter Thaddeus Kosciuszko lived. Visit the site to learn how this military engineer designed successful fortifications during the American Revolution. See the room where he received notable visitors such as Chief Little Turtle and Thomas Jefferson. The site is closed from November through March. Here are some of the "must see" items at Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial. The Life of Thaddeus Kosciuszko 📍 301 Pine St, Philadelphia, PA 19106 The Temple University School of Podiatric Medicine Shoe Museum was founded in 1976 to coincide with the nation’s bicentennial. Admission to the museum is free, but visits must be scheduled in advance. Here are some of the "must see" items at Temple University School of Podiatric Medicine Shoe Museum. Shoes in Space Shoes that Serve 📍 148 N. 8th Street Philadelphia, PA 19107 Historic Strawberry Mansion is the largest of the seven historic Fairmount Park Houses. The mansion houses antiques, fine art, and collectibles from the 18th and 19th centuries, including a noted collection of dolls from the High Street Exhibit of the Sesquicentennial of 1926. Here are some of the "must see" items at Historic Strawberry Mansion. The Sesquicentennial Doll Collection The Millennium Doll Collection The Esther Ann McFarland Exhibition Room featuring Tucker and Hemphill Porcelain 📍 2450 Strawberry Mansion Dr, Philadelphia, PA 19132 The Stenton Mansion, built between 1723 and 1730, is now open as a historic house museum and part of the Historic Germantown Historic Society. It is a great example of early American Georgian architecture. Furnished with 18th- and 19th-century Logan family objects, and remaining in little-altered condition, a visit to Stenton offers a unique chance to go back in time. Here are some of the "must see" items at Stenton Mansion. 18th- and 19th-century Logan family objects Cost of Revolution: Rediscovering an Irish Veteran at Germantown Talk Investigating Mid-Atlantic Plantations: Slavery, Economics, and Space 📍 4601 N 18th St, Philadelphia, PA 19140 The Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum consists of 21 exhibits and 70 cars in the permanent collection. The cars are arranged chronologically and in diorama vignettes. The museum has been ranked the number one car collection in the entire world. Here are some of the "must see" items at Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum. 1909 American Underslung Traveler 1912 National Model 40 Semi-Racing Roadster 1927 Bentley 3 Litre Speed Model 📍 6825-31 Norwitch Dr, Philadelphia, PA 19153 Shofuso was designed by architect Junzo Yoshimura. He built it in Japan in 1953 using traditional techniques and materials. It was then shipped to New York and exhibited in the courtyard of the Museum of Modern Art in New York before moving to its current location in West Fairmount Park in 1958. Here are some of the "must see" items at Shofuso Japanese House and Garden. Hiroshi Senju Murals 📍 Lansdowne Dr &, Horticultural Dr, Philadelphia, PA 19131 The Portrait Gallery in the Second Bank of the United States houses the "People of Independence" exhibit. This exhibit includes a permanent collection of over 150 portraits of 18th and 19th-century political leaders, military officers, explorers, and scientists. This core collection is made up of 100+ portraits by painter Charles Willson Peale. Here are some of the "must see" items at Second Bank of the United States. "People of Independence" 150 portraits of 18th and 19th-century political leaders, military officers, explorers, and scientists 📍 420 Chestnut St, Philadelphia, PA 19106 The Fleisher Memorial offers free and low-cost classes and workshops to both children and adults, in subjects such as drawing, painting, sculpture, ceramics, photography, and dance. The mission is to "make art accessible to everyone, regardless of economic means, background, or artistic experience". They also have a gallery with art by Violet Oakley, tiles by Henry Chapman Mercer, 18th-century Portuguese art, and primitive European art, as well as the religious art from the original church. Here are some of the "must see" items at Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial. Works by Violet Oakley Tiles by Henry Chapman Mercer 📍 719 Catharine St, Philadelphia, PA 19147 The Ryerss Mansion is located in Philadelphia's Burholme Park. The museum has an eclectic collection that includes generations of family heirlooms, paintings, sculpture, decorative art, and a vast array of Asian art and artifacts. Here are some of the "must see" items at Ryerss Mansion. Ivory Figures Bronze figure with cat 📍 7370 Central Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19111 The Rosenbach Museum and Library was founded in 1954 by Dr. A.S.W. Rosenbach and his brother, Philip. The Rosenbachs were renowned dealers in books, manuscripts, and fine art. Admission to the Rosenbach includes a guided tour through the historic house museum and a rare book library, as well as access to special exhibitions. Here are some of the "must see" items at Rosenbach Museum and Library. Bram Stoker: notes and outlines for Dracula George Washington: more than one hundred personal letters Lewis Carroll: more than 600 letters, his rarest photographs, books, and more 📍 2008 Delancey Pl, Philadelphia, PA 19103 The Romanian Folk Art Museum opened a space in Philadelphia's city center in late 1998. It displays part of the largest folk art/village artifacts collection outside of Romania and from Europe in US, the last additions being a 40-foot trailer of furniture and 1,000 Easter Eggs. Here are some of the "must see" items at Romanian Folk Art Museum. Antique Romanian country furniture Traditional costumes Rugs and weavings from southern Romania 📍 1606 Spruce St, Philadelphia, PA 19103 The Rodin Museum opened its doors on Philadelphia’s Benjamin Franklin Parkway in 1929. Its vast collection of nearly 150 bronzes, marbles, and plasters represents every phase of famed sculpture Auguste Rodin’s career. Here are some of the "must see" items at Rodin Museum. Balzac by Rodin The Dorrance H. Hamilton Garden The Burghers of Calais by Rodin 📍 2151 Benjamin Franklin Pkwy, Philadelphia, PA 19130 Historic Rittenhouse Town is made up of the remains of an early industrial community. It all began when, in 1687, papermaker William Rittenhouse emigrated to the newly formed neighborhood of Germantown. With the help of his son Nicholas, he built the first paper mill in British North America. For the next 40 years, the Rittenhouse family were the only papermakers in America. Here are some of the "must see" items at Historic Rittenhouse Town. Homestead & Bake House 📍 208 Lincoln Dr, Philadelphia, PA 19144 The Print Center, a nonprofit gallery located in Philadelphia’s historic Rittenhouse Square neighborhood, "encourages the growth and understanding of photography and printmaking as vital contemporary arts through exhibitions, publications and educational programs." The gallery's programs include solo and group exhibitions, the ANNUAL International Competition (one of the most prestigious and oldest juried exhibitions in the US) and more. Here are some of the "must see" items at The Print Center. Amze Emmons Ivanco Talevski Keith Carter: Seek & Find and The Politics of Rhetoric 📍 1614 Latimer St, Philadelphia, PA 19103 The Powel House is a historic house museum located between Willings Alley and Spruce Street, in the Society Hill neighborhood. Built in 1765, it is quite possibly America's finest existing Georgian Colonial townhouse. Inside you'll find a decorative arts collection, portraits of Powels and Willings, and a formal, walled garden typical of Colonial Philadelphia. Here are some of the "must see" items at Powel House. Decorative Arts Collection Portraits of Powels and Willings Walled Colonial Garden 📍 3811, 244 S 3rd St, Philadelphia, PA 19106 The Polish American Cultural Center Museum's Exibit Hall features Paintings of great men and women of Polish descent. Exhibits throughout the museum highlight Polish customs, folk art, and other information about Poland's history and traditions during the last 1,000 years. Here are some of the "must see" items at Polish American Cultural Center Museum. Polish Folk Art 📍 308 Walnut St, Philadelphia, PA 19106 The Please Touch Museum is a children's museum located in Philadelphia's Centennial District. The museum focuses on teaching children through interactive exhibits, hands-on displays, and special events designed to engage and teach. Here are some of the "must see" items at Please Touch Museum. Alice in Wonderland and River Adventures play areas City Capers The Woodside Park Carousel 📍 4231 Avenue of the Republic, Philadelphia, PA 19131 The Philadelphia Museum of Jewish Art (PMJA) is located within historic Congregation Rodeph Shalom. In addition to its special-exhibit gallery, the Museum features a permanent collection of important works by accomplished artists, including William Anastasi, Chaim Gross, Tobi Kahn, Joan Snyder, Shelley Spector, Boaz Vaadia and Roman Vishniac. Here are some of the "must see" items at Philadelphia Museum of Jewish Art. "Home (Less)" Repairing the Earth (Tikkun Olam) 📍 615 N Broad St, Philadelphia, PA 19123 The Philadelphia Doll Museum is the only known museum in the United States that emphasizes the collection and preservation of black dolls as artifacts of history and culture. The museum was founded by Barbara Whiteman in 1988. The museum has over 300 dolls on display with a permanent collection of just about 1,000 dolls. Here are some of the "must see" items at Philadelphia Doll Museum. The Doll Collection 📍 2253 N Broad St, Philadelphia, PA 19132 The Philadelphia Art Alliance is a multidisciplinary arts center in the Rittenhouse Square neighborhood. The institution hosts art exhibits, theater and music workshops, poetry readings, lectures, concerts, and recitals. Here are some of the "must see" items at Philadelphia Art Alliance. ‘Invisible City: Philadelphia and the Vernacular Avant-garde (1956-1976)’ Supra Endura Creative Conversations: Podcast Interview with Author Carmen Maria Machado 📍 251 S 18th St, Philadelphia, PA 19103 The Paul Robeson House was the home of Paul Robeson from 1966 until 1976. Robeson was an internationally renowned American bass-baritone concert singer, actor of film and stage, All-American and professional athlete, writer, multi-lingual orator, human rights activist, and lawyer. Here are some of the "must see" items at Paul Robeson House. Paul Robeson: Up Close and Persona Life-size historical panels 📍 4951 Walnut St, Philadelphia, PA 19139 The Painted Bride Art Center is a non-profit artist-centered performance space and gallery. They primarily present the work of local Philadelphia artists, which presents dance, jazz, world, folk and electronic music, visual arts, theatre and performance art, poetry and spoken word performances. Here are some of the "must see" items at Painted Bride Art Center. Black Womxn Temporal Portal Block to Block (We. Are. Still. Here.) Black Spatial Relics: Performance Showcase 📍 230 Vine St, Philadelphia, PA 19106 The Old City Hall is located in the Independence Hall complex of Independence National Historical Park. The U.S. Supreme Court met here from 1791 until 1800, when the national capital was moved to Washington, D.C. Here are some of the "must see" items at Old City Hall . The room where the Supreme Court of the United States met from 1791-1800 📍 Chestnut St, Philadelphia, PA 19106 The New Hall Military Museum was home to the War Department in the 1790s. The now museum exhibits highlight the history of the Continental Army, Navy, and Marines. The first floor also houses a memorial that pays tribute to the members of the U.S. Marine Corps who lost their lives during World War II, and the Korean and Vietnam conflicts. Here are some of the "must see" items at New Hall Military Museum. Diorama of Tun Tavern The National Shrine of St. John Neumann is a Roman Catholic National shrine dedicated to St. John Neumann, the fourth Bishop of Philadelphia and the first American male to be canonized. There is also a small museum, which displays exhibits relating to the life of the saint. Here are some of the "must see" items at National Shrine of Saint John Neumann. 📍 1019 N 5th St, Philadelphia, PA 19123 The National Liberty Museum is located in the heart of historic Philadelphia. The core themes of the museum are leadership and good character; diversity and inclusion; peaceful conflict resolution; and civic engagement. Here are some of the "must see" items at National Liberty Museum. Flame of Liberty by Dale Chihuly Welcome to Liberty Gallery Heroes from Around the World Mount Pleasant is a historic mansion situated atop cliffs overlooking the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia. The mansion was built in 1761–62. The house includes three-part Venetian windows and rusticated entrances with a stucco exterior scored to resemble stone. Here are some of the "must see" items at Mount Pleasant Mansion. Captain John Macpherson (1726–1792) Rococo and Rococo-inspired Furniture Architectural Carvings by Martin Jugiez 📍 3800 Mt Pleasant Dr, Philadelphia, PA 19121 The Masonic Temple was designed in the medieval Norman style. It took five years to complete the structure and another 15 years to finish the interior. Located within the Temple is the Masonic Library and Museum of Pennsylvania, which houses thousands of texts and artifacts relating to the history of the Fraternity in the Commonwealth and the founding of the US. Here are some of the "must see" items at Masonic Temple. Brother George Washington’s Masonic Apron two letters in Washington’s own hand addressed to his Masonic brethren Brother Benjamin Franklin’s Masonic Sash 📍 1 N Broad St, Philadelphia, PA 19107 The Marian Anderson House was built in 1870. Marian Anderson, the opera singer and civil rights advocate, purchased the home in 1924. It was the same year she became the first African-American concert artist to record spirituals for a major American recording company. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2011. Today, it is a house museum dedicated to preserving and honoring Anderson's memory. Here are some of the "must see" items at Marian Anderson House. 📍 762 South Martin Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania The Mario Lanza Institute houses a museum featuring photos and artifacts related to Mario Lanza. Holdings include clothing worn by Mario, original movie posters, boxing gloves he used in his youth, and some of his gold records. Here are some of the "must see" items at Mario Lanza Museum. Gold records 📍 712 Montrose St, Philadelphia, PA 19147 The Library Company of Philadelphia was founded in 1731 by Benjamin Franklin. Over time it has accumulated one of the most significant collections of historically valuable manuscripts and printed material in the United States. The collection includes 500,000 books and 70,000 other items, including 2,150 items that once belonged to Franklin, the Mayflower Compact, major collections of 17th-century and Revolution-era pamphlets and ephemera, maps, and whole libraries assembled in the 18th and 19th centuries. Here are some of the "must see" items at Library Company of Philadelphia. First Edition Moby-Dick First Edition Leaves of Grass The Mayflower Compact 📍 1314 Locust St, Philadelphia, PA 19107 The Liberty Bell once housed in the steeple of Independence Hall is today located in the Liberty Bell Center in Independence National Historical Park. In its early years, the bell was used to summon lawmakers to legislative sessions and to alert citizens about public meetings and proclamations. The bell became famous after an 1847 short story claimed that an aged bellringer rang it on July 4, 1776, upon hearing of the Second Continental Congress' vote for independence. The story wasn't exactly true but it stuck all the same. Here are some of the "must see" items at Liberty Bell. Liberty Bell Center 📍 143 S. 3rd Street Philadelphia, PA 19106 The Pearlstein Gallery located within Drexel University operates on the academic calendar and observes university designated holidays, weather closures, and academic breaks. They host rotating shows exhibiting regional and experimental art in all contemporary mediums including digital, video, sculpture, photography, graphics, and fashion design. Here are some of the "must see" items at Leonard Pearlstein Gallery. We Want a We What Might This Be? The Art & Science of Rorschach Inkblots [email protected] 50 📍 URBN Annex 3401 Filbert Street Philadelphia, PA 19104 Lemon Hill is a Federal-style mansion located on a bluff overlooking the Schuylkill River and Boathouse Row in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia. It was built around 1800 and is an example of exceptional architectural. The mansion features three oval parlors, stacked one on top of the other, with curved fireplace mantles and doors. Here are some of the "must see" items at Lemon Hill Mansion . grand oval rooms porches overlooking the river cornice brackets 📍 Lemon Hill Dr, Philadelphia, PA 19130 The Laurel Hill Mansion is located along the Schuylkill River in Fairmount Park of Philadelphia. It was formerly known as the Randolph House (named after its owner). In 1976, the house was renamed Laurel Hill Mansion by the City of Philadelphia during the United States Bicentennial. Today, guests can tour the interior, which is furnished in the popular styles of the late 18th century. Here are some of the "must see" items at Laurel Hill Mansion. 18th century Philadelphia Chippendale mahogany highboy English pianoforte from 1808 by Broadwood Harp from the early 19th century 📍 7201 Randolph Dr, Philadelphia, PA 19121 The La Salle University Art Museum opened its doors in 1976. La Salle is the only university in the Philadelphia area to own a permanent display of paintings, drawings and sculptures from the Renaissance to the present. The collection is housed in a series of period rooms in the lower level of Olney Hall on the University’s main campus. Here are some of the "must see" items at La Salle University Art Museum. The Madonna of the Cherries by Joos Van Cleve George Villiers, First Duke of Buckingham by Balthasar Gerbier New Day by Walter H. Williams 📍 1900 W Olney Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19141 The John Johnson House, built in 1768, is a National Historic Landmark in Germantown. It was a pivotal station along the Underground Railroad in the 1800s. Here are some of the "must see" items at John Johnson House. Marks of musket balls and cannonballs Johnson House Architecture and Artifacts The Insectarium is a museum about insects located in the Northeast part of Philadelphia. The museum features displays of many types of live insects, mounted specimens, exhibits, and hands-on activities. Honeybees, tarantulas, cockroaches, scorpions, spiders, praying mantis, millipedes, beetles, water bugs, ants, and crickets are just some examples of the museum's live exhibits. They also have a 7,000-square-foot greenhouse that houses a year-round butterfly pavilion. Here are some of the "must see" items at Philadelphia Insectarium and Butterfly Pavilion. Chrysalis Chamber 📍 8046 Frankford Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19136 The Independence Seaport Museum was founded in 1961 and is located in the Penn's Landing complex along the Delaware River in Philadelphia. The museum's collections document maritime history and culture along the Delaware River. The site is also home to two National Historic Landmark ships and the J. Welles Henderson Archives and Library. Here are some of the "must see" items at Independence Seaport Museum. Cruiser Olympia Submarine Becuna (SS-319) Schooner Diligence 🎟️ $10+ per person 📍 211 S Christopher Columbus Blvd, Philadelphia, PA 19106 Independence National Historical Park is nicknamed "America's most historic square mile" because the 55-acre park comprises much of Philadelphia's most-visited historic district. It preserves several sites associated with the American Revolution and the nation's founding history. Here are some of the "must see" items at Independence National Historical Park. The Liberty Bell First Bank of the United States 🎟️ $0+ per person 📍 Philadelphia, PA 19106 Completed in 1753, Independence Hall is the birthplace of America. Both the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution were debated and signed inside this building. George Washington was appointed Commander in Chief of the Continental Army inside its walls in 1775 and the Articles of Confederation were adopted in 1781. Tickets are required March through December. Here are some of the "must see" items at Independence Hall. The Assembly Room Courtroom of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court 📍 Chestnut Street, between 5th and 6th Streets The Historical Society of Pennsylvania was founded in 1824. HSP’s collections contain materials from hundreds of years ago through present day, documenting the lives of ordinary and extraordinary people. It houses some 600,000 printed items and over 19 million manuscript and graphic items. The Historical Society of Pennsylvania Library is open to the public Tuesday–Friday Here are some of the "must see" items at Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Genealogical and family papers Business and organizational records Photographs, postcards, and sheet music The Historical Society of Frankford is a historical society and museum. It is located in the Frankford neighborhood of Northeast Philadelphia. The society was organized in 1905, to preserve and present the history and lore of Frankford and the surrounding area. Appointments are required in advance to visit the historical society. Here are some of the "must see" items at Historical Society of Frankford. The Church Street Quarries (Deni Playground) Slide Show- Images From The Old Frankford Camera Club Frankford Heroes Remembered 📍 1507 Orthodox St, Philadelphia, PA 19124 The Hill–Physick–Keith House was built in 1786. It is the only free-standing Federal townhouse remaining in Society Hill. The interior is decorated with examples of French-influenced Neoclassic furnishings, popular during Dr. Physick's time in the house. The large city garden also contains plants popular in the 19th century. Here are some of the "must see" items at Hill–Physick–Keith House. 📍 321 S 4th St, Philadelphia, PA 19106 Grumblethorpe is a quintessential example of Pennsylvania German architecture. It was built in 1744 by Philadelphia merchant and wine importer John Wister. The Wister family lived there for over 160 years. Here are some of the "must see" items at Grumblethorpe. Ginkgo tree Seasonal organic farm stand The John Ruan House is a historic mansion in the Frankford neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was built in 1796 as the home of Dr. John Ruan, a physician and community leader. It is now the home of the Grand Army of the Republic Civil War Museum and Library. The museum houses Civil War and Grand Army of the Republic artifacts, books, and memorabilia. Here are some of the "must see" items at John Ruan House. The Lincoln Room The Meade Room The Historic Collection 📍 4278–4280, Griscom St, Philadelphia, PA 19124 Glen Foerd on the Delaware is a historic mansion and estate located in the Torresdale neighborhood of Philadelphia. It was built in 1850 to be a summer home for a wealthy family. Today, the estate is a historic house museum and the surrounding grounds are a public park. Visitors can visit the mansion for free self-guided exploration on Saturdays. Here are some of the "must see" items at Glen Foerd on the Delaware. Historic domestic artifacts American and European art Contemporary art installations 📍 5001 Grant Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19114 The Germantown White House is a historic mansion in the Germantown section of Philadelphia. It is the oldest surviving presidential residence. George Washington lived here twice during his presidency. The entrance to the house is by tour only. Tours are given every half hour. Groups are limited to 12 people. Here are some of the "must see" items at Germantown White House. George Washington's old home The exhibition "At Home in Germantown, 1750-1900" highlights the Society’s vast collection of period domestic objects, including furniture, silver, pottery, porcelain, tableware, kitchenware, needlework, and children’s toys. It provides a vivid picture of what it was like to live in Germantown years ago and how people worked, relaxed and entertained in the home. Period settings re-create the rooms in Germantown homes of the 18th and 19th centuries, including a Colonial keeping room and parlor, a Federal dining room, and a Victorian reception room. Here are some of the "must see" items at Germantown Historical Society Museum. 18th and 19th Century Period Rooms Germantown Silver Germantown Needlework Galleries at Moore College are made up of two different spaces, the Goldie Paley Gallery (established in 1983) and the Levy Gallery for the Arts (established in 1987). Both the exhibitions and public programs are completely free to the public. Here are some of the "must see" items at Galleries at Moore College. Jill Bonovitz, June Kelly, and Paula Scher: Visionary Women Harvey Finkle: Documenting Disability Rights Emerging Philadelphia: Shona McAndrew, Matt Osborn, and Stacey Lee Webber 📍 1916 Race St, Philadelphia, PA 19103 Franklin Court is complex of museums, structures, and historic sites within Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia. It is located at the site of Benjamin Franklin's Philadelphia residence (from 1763 to his death in 1790). Be sure to check out the underground Benjamin Franklin Museum, Franklin Court Printing Office, and Franklin Court Courtyard on your visit. Here are some of the "must see" items at Franklin Court. Benjamin Franklin Museum Franklin Court Printing Office Franklin Court Courtyard 📍 322 Market St, Philadelphia, PA 19139 Founder’s Hall at Girard College was built from 1833-1847 and is often thought of as the finest example of Greek revival architecture in the US. Its collection, ranges in the time period from 1780 to 1830 and includes furniture, silver, paintings, ceramics and textiles owned and used by Stephen Girard in his Philadelphia townhome. Here are some of the "must see" items at Founder’s Hall at Girard College. 📍 2101 S. College Ave. Philadelphia , PA 19121 Fort Mifflin, originally called Fort Island Battery, was commissioned in 1771 and sits on Mud Island (or Deep Water Island) on the Delaware River below Philadelphia. A portion of the fort's grounds are still actively used by the United States Army Corps of Engineers, making it the oldest fort in military use in the US. Today Fort Mifflin hosts guided tours, living history programs, and a wide variety of events, including group tours, education programs, historic reenactments, scout programs, and paranormal investigations. Here are some of the "must see" items at Fort Mifflin. A Soldier's Story: Revolutionary War Soldier Life A Soldier's Story: Civil War Soldier Life Blood, Sweat, & Tears: Civil War Medicine 📍 1 Fort Mifflin Rd, Philadelphia, PA 19153 The Fairmount Water Works was Philadelphia's second municipal waterworks. It was built between 1812 and 187 and operated until 1909. Its unique design quickly made it a popular tourist attraction. It now houses an interpretive center that explains the waterworks' purpose and local watershed history. Here are some of the "must see" items at Fairmount Water Works. Freshwater Mussel Hatchery Art on the Circuit: “Hydraulica” Fairmount's Waterwheels 📍 640 Waterworks Dr, Philadelphia, PA 19130 Elfreth's Alley, between Second Street and the Delaware River, is made up of 32 Federal and Georgian residences. The Alley is the US's oldest residential street. Elfreth's Alley Museum is home to exhibitions that interpret the life of the house and alley's residents in that era. Here are some of the "must see" items at Elfreth's Alley Museum. The country's oldest residential street 📍 124-126 Elfreth's Alley, Philadelphia, PA 19106 The Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site includes the original home (unfurnished) where Poe lived in ca.1843-1844. Poe lived in many houses over the several years he spent in Philadelphia but this is the only one that is still around. The adjoining home houses exhibits exploring Poe and publishing, Philadelphia through Poe's eyes, and Poe and his family. Here are some of the "must see" items at Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site. Visit the Reading Room Decipher the Code in Poe's Head 📍 532 N 7th St, Philadelphia, PA 19123 The Ebenezer Maxwell House is a historic house located in the West Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia. It was built in 1859 by Ebenezer Maxwell, a wealthy cloth merchant, for $10,000. The house has been renovated to its Victorian beauty. Today you can explore both the interior, art and decorative arts collection and the lovely surrounding gardens. Here are some of the "must see" items at Ebenezer Maxwell House. Favori Brand Crystallized Ginger Fry’s Cocoa Powder Garrigues Wigton Wedding Shoes 📍 200 W Tulpehocken St, Philadelphia, PA 19144 The Drexel Collection is home to many works of art. Their collection includes works from 71 different countries and items that date back as far as 500 BC. The Drexel University Collection is made up of three separate galleries on the University City Campus: The Anthony J. Drexel Picture Gallery, the Rincliffe Gallery, and the Paul Peck Alumni Center Gallery. Here are some of the "must see" items at Drexel University Collection . Kettle by Unknown. c. 1700 Kitty Series: The Sermon by John P. Soule. 1871 : A View of the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia by Edmund Darch Lewis. 1876 📍 3141 Chestnut St, Philadelphia, PA 19104 The Dolly Todd House was built in 1775. It was the home of future first lady Dolley Madison and her first husband, John Todd. The house is furnished to look as if the family still resided there, and includes many 18th century antiques. When the site is open, timed entry tickets are required. Sign up for a Bishop White House/Todd House tour at the Independence Visitor Center on the morning of your visit. Here are some of the "must see" items at Dolley Todd House. 18th century antiques John Todd's office Dolley Todd House parlor The Declaration House is the site where Thomas Jefferson resided while drafting the Declaration of Independence. The house was demolished in 1883 and reconstructed in 1975. Today, it is a historic site where you can view exhibitions and a short film regarding Jefferson’s endeavors. Here are some of the "must see" items at Declaration House. The bedroom and parlor that Jefferson occupied Reproductions of Jefferson's swivel chair and the lap desk Period furnishings Congress Hall was constructed in 1787-1789 as the Philadelphia County Court House. In 1790, Congress selected Philadelphia to be the temporary capital of the United States. Philadelphians immediately offered the use of their new courthouse as a meeting place for the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate, making Congress Hall the oldest building to serve as such. Congress Hall served as the meeting place of the U.S. Congress from 1790-1800. The House of Representatives met on the main floor, while the Senate assembled upstairs. Here are some of the "must see" items at Congress Hall. The chamber for the Senate The House chamber Portraits of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, 📍 5th and Chestnut Streets, Philadelphia, PA 19106 Established in 1693, the Upper Burying Ground is one of the two oldest cemeteries in Germantown and one of the oldest in the Philadelphia region. The Concord School House, built in 1775 and expanded in 1818, is an intact nineteenth-century schoolroom that occupies a corner of the Burying Ground. Here are some of the "must see" items at Concord School House. Revolutionary Germantown Festival (Germantown Battle Day) Fourth of July Celebration and Bell-ringing Historic Germantown Juneteenth Celebration Cliveden is also known as the Benjamin Chew House. This historic mansion, built between 1763 and 1767 by Benjamin Chew, is located in Germantown. It was the site of some of the bloodiest fighting of the Battle of Germantown, fought in 1777 during the American Revolutionary War. Walk-in tours of Cliveden are available in the spring, summer, and fall. Here are some of the "must see" items at Cliveden. Gilded griffon pedestal with an anthemion Doors to the main house after 1777 Battle of Germantown Mischianza manuscript The Center for Art in Wood hosts changing exhibitions of contemporary artwork in the medium of wood. It also displays select works from the center's permanent collection. The collection includes over 1,200 hand-made objects from around the world, ranging from functional, everyday objects to contemporary sculptures. The Center also houses a research library, artists' files, and a museum store. Here are some of the "must see" items at Center for Art in Wood. Acer Quattro Aves-Container by Al Francendese. 1994 Pattern Drawings by Adrien Segal. 2015 Purple Heart by Alain Mailland. 1999 📍 141 N. 3rd Street Philadelphia, PA 19106 Cedar Grove Mansion, located in West Fairmount Park, was the summer residence for five generations of Philadelphia families. Cedar Grove contains an extensive collection of furniture and the decorative arts, with objects in the home original to the family and the house. This provides a rare opportunity for visitors to see these materials displayed in a historic context. House admission includes a guided tour of the home, where you will hear the stories from trained guides. Here are some of the "must see" items at Cedar Grove Mansion. furniture, including Baroque, Rococo and Federal styles 1809 wedding dress medicinal recipe book of the house founder, healer Elizabeth Coates Paschall 📍 1 Cedar Grove Dr, Philadelphia, PA 19131 Carpenters' Hall is located in Independence National Historical Park of Philadelphia. Its the official birthplace of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and a key meeting place in the early history of the United States. The First Continental Congress met here in 1774. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1970. Here are some of the "must see" items at Carpenters' Hall. Gilded Frame Membership Boards Fan Window The Bishop White House is the home of the Reverend Dr. William White, a beloved rector of Christ Church and St. Peter's Church for many years. The house has been restored to reflect the lifestyle of upper-class Philadelphians during the late 18th century. Many of the items in the house actually belonged to the Bishop, including the book he was reading right before he died in July 1836. Here are some of the "must see" items at Bishop White House. Books in Bishop White's study Bishop White house office Bishop White House dining room 📍 309 Walnut Street, between 3rd and 4th Streets The Betsy Ross house sits on Arch Street, several blocks from Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia. The house is a landmark in Philadelphia and supposedly the site where the seamstress and flag-maker Betsy Ross (1752-1836) lived when she sewed the first American Flag. Here are some of the "must see" items at Betsy Ross House. Stitching the Story Together: Betsy Ross and the American Flag Furnishing the Widow’s Chamber Women at Work in Revolutionary America 📍 239 Arch St, Philadelphia, PA 19106 Belmont Mansion is a historic mansion located in Fairmount Park in Philadelphia. Built in the early 18th century, the mansion is one of the finest examples of Palladian architecture in the United States. The house museum is dedicated to colonial history and the 19th-century network of people and places known as the "underground railroad." Today its an underground railroad museum open to the public for tours. Here are some of the "must see" items at Belmont Mansion (Philadelphia). Palladian architecture Underground Railroad Museum 📍 2000 Belmont Mansion Dr, Philadelphia, PA 19131 Bartram's Garden is a historic Philadelphia garden and arboretum. It was founded in 1728 by botanist John Bartram and is the oldest surviving botanical garden in North America. Today it covers 46 acres with an eight-acre arboretum. Here are some of the "must see" items at Bartram's Garden. Franklinia (The Garden’s signature tree) Ginkgo (oldest ginkgo in North America) Yellowwood (one of the Garden’s oldest trees) 📍 5400 Lindbergh Blvd, Philadelphia, PA 19143 Founded in 1814, the Athenaeum of Philadelphia is a special collections library and museum that collects materials "connected with the history and antiquities of America, and the useful arts, and generally to disseminate useful knowledge" to the public. The collections include architecture and interior design history, particularly for the period 1800 to 1945. Here are some of the "must see" items at Athenaeum of Philadelphia. A Venturesome Spirit: Louis Magaziner in 20th Century Architecture Structure & Purpose: The Legacy of Engineering at Keast & Hood The Federal Presence In Philadelphia Founded in 1926, the American Swedish Historical Museum is the oldest Swedish-American museum in the United States. It is located in Franklin Delano Roosevelt Park in South Philadelphia. The Museum’s large interior is divided into twelve exhibition galleries, a reference library, curatorial storage and archives, offices, museum store, large dining room/conference area and kitchen. Here are some of the "must see" items at American Swedish Historical Museum. Viking Sword Sinnickson Chest 📍 1900 Pattison Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19145 At the American Philosophical Society Museum, you can trace American history and science from the Founding Fathers to the digital age. Their collection consists of approximately 3,000 artifacts and fine art objects. The collection reflects the central role of the APS and Philadelphia in the founding of the nation as well as the development of science and technology from the 18th century through the early 20th century. Here are some of the "must see" items at American Philosophical Society Museum . Astronomical Transit Telescope Hawkins's Patent Polygraph Wedgewood Anti-Slavery Medallion 📍 104 South Fifth Street Philadelphia, PA 19106 ACES Museum housed in historic Parker Hall has exhibits focused on educating the public and honoring Black and Minority Veterans of World War II and their families. Here are some of the "must see" items at ACES Museum. World War II Exhibits The Fireman's Hall Museum is housed in a restored 1902 firehouse. It interprets the history of firefighting in Philadelphia through its collections of artifacts and archives and promotes fire prevention safety. The museum is open to the public. Here are some of the "must see" items at Fireman's Hall Museum. 📍 147 N 2nd St, Philadelphia, PA 19106 The Science History Institute is a library, museum, archive, research center and conference center. It focuses on preserving and interpreting the history of chemistry, chemical engineering, and the life sciences. Here are some of the "must see" items at Science History Institute. Ernst Leitz Wetzlar microscope, ca. 1923 Bakelite rotary phone, 20th century Perkin Research Medal, 1965 The Fabric Workshop and Museum's collection and exhibitions include completed works in sculpture, installation, video, photography, painting, ceramics, and architecture as well as preliminary sketches and other objects documenting the artists' process. They display work by artists such as Louise Bourgeois, Felix Gonzalex-Torres, Ann Hamilton, Reverend Howard Finster, Anish Kapoor, Robert Kushner, Glenn Ligon, Robert Morris, Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, and Carrie Mae Weems. Here are some of the "must see" items at The Fabric Workshop and Museum. Echoes and Reverberations Jacolby Satterwhite: Room for Living Lecture and Trunk Show with Padmini Govind of Tharangini Studios 📍 1214 Arch St, Philadelphia, PA 19107 The Woodmere Art Museum opened in 1940. It is located in a 19th-century stone mansion in the Chestnut Hill area of Philadelphia. The museum's collection of paintings, prints, sculptures, and photographs focuses on artists from the Delaware Valley. Here are some of the "must see" items at Woodmere Art Museum. Sailing before a Gale (undated), by Alfred Thompson Bricher The Pink Sash (1898), by Mary Cassatt Sunset in the Berkshire Hills (1857), by Frederic Edwin Church The African American Museum in Philadelphia (AAMP) opened its doors in 1976. It was the first museum funded and built by a municipality to help preserve, interpret and exhibit the heritage of African Americans. It is home to four galleries and an auditorium. All of the museum's exhibitions are focused around three themes: The African Diaspora, the Philadelphia Story, and the Contemporary Narrative. The museum has 750,000+ objects, images, and documents in its collection. Here are some of the "must see" items at African American Museum in Philadelphia. memos and memorabilia related to the Philadelphia Black Panthers correspondence clippings and military artifacts of the first black doctor to direct a U.S. Army Hospital academic and legal papers from Harry Shapiro on constitutional issues arising from the Civil Rights Movement The Arthur Ross Gallery is part of the University of Pennsylvania. It is a dynamic gallery that features art and artifacts from around the world. The Gallery is a non-collecting institution and presents four exhibitions each year. Here are some of the "must see" items at Arthur Ross Gallery. Jaume Plensa: Talking Continents Frankenthaler on Paper 1970-1990 Re-materialize 📍 220 South 34th St. Philadelphia, PA 19104 The Mummers Museum opened in 1976 as part of Philadelphia’s celebration of America’s Bicentennial. It is dedicated to celebrating the tradition of Mummery in Philadelphia. Mummeries were plays performed in Philadelphia in the 18th century as part of a wide variety of working-class street celebrations around Christmas. The museum has costumes, oral histories, video and audio archives and even an exhibit to teach anyone how to “strut.” Here are some of the "must see" items at Mummers Museum. Video and audio archives 📍 1100 S 2nd St, Philadelphia, PA 19147 The Franklin Institute is named after the American scientist and statesman, Benjamin Franklin. Founded in 1824, it is among the oldest centers of science education and development in the United States. The center has everything from live science shows to escape rooms. Here are some of the "must see" items at Franklin Institute. Changing Earth Sir Isaac's Loft 📍 222 N 20th St, Philadelphia, PA 19103 The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University was founded in 1812 making it the oldest natural science research institution and museum in the Americas. Today, it is home to 18 million biological specimens, and hundreds of thousands of volumes, journals, illustrations, photographs, and archival items Here are some of the "must see" items at Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University. Marveling at Mollusks Treasures From the Mineral Vault The National Constitution Center is located on Independence Mall in Philadelphia. It is an interactive museum and a national town hall for constitutional dialogue, hosting government leaders, journalists, scholars, and celebrities for public discussions (including presidential debates). The Center’s main exhibit includes three attractions: Freedom Rising, a multimedia theatrical production, The Story of We The People, an interactive exhibit, and the iconic Signers' Hall, with 42 life-size, bronze statues of the Founding Fathers. Here are some of the "must see" items at National Constitution Center. Freedom Rising The Story of We The People Signers' Hall The National Museum of American Jewish History was founded in 1976. The museum's permanent collection includes over 20,000 objects and ranges from the Colonial period to the present day. The exhibits focus on preserving, exploring, and celebrating the history of Jews in America. Here are some of the "must see" items at National Museum of American Jewish History. Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg Foundations of Freedom Leonard Bernstein: The Power of Music 📍 101 S Independence Mall E, Philadelphia, PA 19106 The Museum of the American Revolution is located in the historic center of Philadelphia. The museum's collection includes artwork and sculpture, textiles and weapons, manuscripts and rare books. It has both permanent and special exhibition galleries. Here are some of the "must see" items at Museum of the American Revolution. Philadelphia Powder Horn Washington’s Headquarters Tent Wooden Canteen 📍 101 S 3rd St, Philadelphia, PA 19106 The Institute of Contemporary Art or ICA is part of the University of Pennsylvania and is located on its campus. It was founded in 1963 by the then dean of the school of architecture, Holmes Perkins. He "wanted to expose students to what was “new and happening” in art and culture." Over time ICA has developed an international reputation as a top venue for contemporary art and culture. Here are some of the "must see" items at Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia. Michelle Lopez: Ballast & Barricades Colored People Time: Banal Presents arms ache avid aeon: Nancy Brooks Brody / Joy Episalla / Zoe Leonard / Carrie Yamaoka: fierce pussy amplified The Eastern State Penitentiary was once the most famous and expensive prison in the world and acted as a model for more than 300 prisons worldwide. It was operational from 1829 until 1971. Notorious criminals such as Al Capone and bank robber Willie Sutton were held inside. Today, despite much of the building still being in ruin, it is a museum and historic site. Here are some of the "must see" items at Eastern State Penitentiary. Religious murals in the prison chaplain's office, painted in 1955 by inmate Lester Smith Exhibit "Prisons Today: Questions in the Age of Mass Incarceration" Solitary Confinement Cells 📍 2027 Fairmount Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19130 Located on South Street, Philadelphia's Magic Gardens is many things: a non-profit organization, folk art environment, and gallery space. It spans three city lots, includes indoor galleries and a large outdoor labyrinth. It is the largest work created by mosaic artist Isaiah Zagar. Zagar's mosaics are made up of everything from kitchen tiles to bike wheels, Latin-American art to china plates. Here are some of the "must see" items at Philadelphia's Magic Gardens. Martha Clippinger: Translations Vidas Suspendidas/Suspended Lives: Narrative Self Portraits by Latinx Artists from Puentes de Salud Visionary Voices: Portrait Works by Chloe Fimiano, Anthony Coleman, Susan Wallack, and Jaither West 📍 1020 South St, Philadelphia, PA 19147 The Mütter Museum is part of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia. It is located in the Center City area of Philadelphia. This medical museum's original purpose was for biomedical research and education. Today it is open to the public and contains a collection of over 20,000 anatomical and pathological specimens, wax models, and antique medical equipment. Here are some of the "must see" items at Mütter Museum. The Mütter American Giant, the tallest human skeleton on exhibit in North America, at 7’6" (228.6 cm) tall The Hyrtl Skull Collection, a collection of 139 skulls from Joseph Hyrtl, an Austrian anatomist. Skeleton of Harry Raymond Eastlack 📍 19 S 22nd St, Philadelphia, PA 19103 The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology— the Penn Museum for short— has an in-depth collection of both artifacts recovered from the past by archeological excavation, and objects and ideas collected from living peoples. It is home to 20+ galleries featuring objects and artifacts from around the world including places like Africa, North America, Mesoamerica, South America, China, Egypt, and Iraq. Here are some of the "must see" items at University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Ram in the Thicket Taizong Horses Queen Puabi's Headdress The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) was founded in 1805. It is the first and oldest art museum and art school in the United States. The museum's collection includes primarily 19th- and 20th-century American paintings, sculptures, and works on paper. Here are some of the "must see" items at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Untitled (Kitchen interior with figures; verso: house in color) by James Castle The Prize, (Rivington Place Portfolio) by Hew Locke Brown Garden #5 by Ruth Fine 📍 118-128 N Broad St, Philadelphia, PA 19102 The Barnes Foundation owns more than 4,000 objects, including over 900 paintings, estimated to be worth about $25 billion. The collection primarily consists of works by Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, and Modernist masters. It also includes African art, antiquities from China, Egypt, and Greece, and Native American art. Here are some of the "must see" items at Barnes Foundation. Francisco de Goya. Portrait of Jacques Galos, 1826. Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Girl with a Jump Rope (Portrait of Delphine Legrand), 1876. Unidentified artist, Senufo. Seated Female Figure, Late 19th–early 20th century. The main building of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, located at the western end of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, opened in 1928. Today the site includes the Perelman Building, the Rodin Museum, and two 18th-century houses in Fairmount Park (Mount Pleasant and Cedar Grove). The museum's collection includes the world’s largest collection of works by Marcel Duchamp, the greatest collection of sculpture by Constantin Brancusi outside Europe, the finest public collection of Auguste Rodin’s sculpture in the US, and so much more! Here are some of the "must see" items at Philadelphia Museum of Art. Paul Cézanne’s The Large Bathers Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers “Period Rooms” & Architectural Ensembles from around the world Museum Database Museums in Boston Museums in Chicago Museums in London Museums in Los Angeles Museums in NYC Museums in San Francisco Museums in Washington DC The World's Best Museum Tours Museum Hack leads small group, VIP museum tours that are fun, fast-paced and surprisingly cool. It's like visiting the museum with a close friend who just happens to know all the best stories, secrets and gossip. Buy Tickets Learn More	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line646
__label__cc	0.698052	0.301948	May 1, 2018 Published by Dina Leave your thoughts From Puerto Madryn we continued sailing south and east to our next destination, the Falkland Islands. Port Stanley on the East island cannot accommodate our large ship so we dropped anchor across from the port and traveled between the ship and shore in the life boats used as tenders. It was quite windy and the water was rough, splashing up along the sides of the tender. The town of Stanley is sheltered by the bay and as you approach, the colourful buildings cascading down the hill are a pretty and welcoming sight. Before the Panama Canal was completed Port Stanley was a major port for ships travelling through the Straights of Magellan and a ship repair industry developed to service them. Later, as antarctic exploration developed, Port Stanley was the gateway to Antarctica. Today, fishing licenses and tourism are the main economic activities. With population of only about 3,000 thousands, on days when cruise ships arrive, there are more tourists than residents in town. Port Stanley, Falklands Ownership of the Falkland islands has been the subject of dispute between the UK and Argentina for a long time. According to the Falkland Islands government publication the island was unoccupied and was first settled by British in 1765. A British administration was eventually formed to manage the affairs of the inhabitants and with increased population Stanley was established in 1845 where it remains to this day. The Falklands are a British overseas territory with an internal self government, economically independent from the UK. The UK though is responsible for foreign affairs and military defence of the island. In 2013 the government of the Falkland held a referendum among its citizens and a majority stated they wished to remain under the British crown. From the Argentinian perspective the basis for the claim is that the islands were part of Spain’s South America territories before the British settled there and as such passed to Argentina in 1816 when it became an independent state free from Spanish colonialism. In terms of geography the claim is that Islands are situated on a projection of the continental shelf of Patagonia and as such are geographically integral with Argentina. Argentinians call the Falkland Islands Isla Malvina, a Spanish name derived from a name given to the island in 1764 by a French explorer. Colourful homes on main street This conflict of perspectives and interests came to a head in 1982 with the Falkland Islands war. A 1000 lives, 649 of which were Argentinians, were lost in this battle. Relations with the UK were eventually repaired but to this day the Argentinians do not recognized the self governing administration of the Falklands and travelling around the country you see signs in Argentina saying “Las Malvinas son Argentinas” (the Malvinas are Argentina). That conflict is also very much evident when visiting the Falkland islands. My British guide did not hesitate to share his opinion on the conflict and large signs are posted on main street buildings saying that no dialogue is possible until Argentina gives up its claim to the islands. Hiking along Haddassah Bay, East Falkland Apart from Politics, the islands are an interesting place to visit. Situated at about latitude 51ºS in the southern hemisphere, they are almost at the same latitude as where we live in the Okanagan. However, this is where the similarity between the two places ends. The Falklands feel pretty well off the beaten track with the tree-less landscape more similar to Iceland than the Okanagan. What to do on the island? Since we were there on a ship and only had one day I opted for a hike through the countryside with a naturalist, then a walk through the historical downtown on my own and of course find a place to have lunch. Flakland wildlife Most visitors come to the Falklands to see nature and wildlife and in these categories there is plenty to see. The islands are home to the albatros and rockhopper penguins, the unique King penguins at Volunteer Point and abundance of sea life everywhere. You can also take a a tour of the battlefields of the 1982 war and travel to the other islands comprising the Falkland archipelago, totalling some 700 islands in all. Red Crowberries made into Diddle Dee jam We hiked from Port Stanley along Hadassah Bay to Ordinance Point and to York Bay on the open tandra without a clear track. The unique vegetation was low with a surprising variety of flowers and bushes. We saw the ubiquitous red crowberry a.k.a Diddle-Dee berry bushes with ripe red clusters of berries ready for picking. They taste slightly bitter when picked but are made into a delicious sweet jam with just a trace of bitter. It is a local favourite and sold at the gift shops around the port. Teaberries are another type of berry, pinkish white berries that are added to batters of cakes or sweet breads without cooking them first. We also saw a special flower called scurvy grass, a name given to it by sailors as it is rich in vitamin C and helped preventing scurvy. The island is home to a wide variety of birds and we saw plenty of them along the shore. One unique species is the steamer duck, a large flightless duck and one of the two species endemic to the Falklands (the other is Cobb’s Wren). It uses its wings and feet to propel itself along the surface of the water like a paddle steamer, hence the name. A few low hills rise in the moderate landscape, breaking down to the coast with cliffs above the water. There are no trees at all. Free from predators, one can hike anywhere without worrying about snakes or larger predators. The weather was warm but on a windy day there is be nothing to break the wind across the flat lands. York Bay, East Falkland Island York Bay took me completely by surprise. White sand and shallow turquoise water belong in the Caribbean and I did not expect to see them here. We had to view the beach from the cliffs above as beach access is blocked because of undetonated mines from the 1982 war. The trail is fenced with plenty of signs warning you not to get off the trail as the area is not considered safe. Below, on the white sand there were small colonies of penguins lounging around not worrying about triggering any of these mines. Before the 1982 war this area was popular with locals for summer beach fun, although I doubt the water is ever warm. Christchurch Anglican Cathedral Going back to town I was on my own exploring the historical downtown. There are a few well known sights to see. Christchurch Cathedral is the church Parish of the island, built with local stone and brick in late 1800s. It is the southernmost Anglican church in the world. The structure has a cathedral tower with five bells, stained glass windows and two pipe organs built in Wales. A picture of the church is featured on local currency. The interior of the church contains several hassocks depicting life and historical events on the island, all made by local parishioners. Of special interest is the Banner of the Order of Garter, known as the Shackleton banner hanging inside the cathedral. The banner was bequeathed to the Falklands Cathedral by Shackleton’s son, an explorer in his own right. Whalebone arch, made with jaw bones of two blue whales In front of the church is the famous whale bone arch made from the jaw bones of two blue whales, created in 1933 to commemorate 100 years of British rule. The jawbones were brought from antarctic South Shetland Island in 1922 and form an arch like sculpture in front of the cathedral. For preservation, they are now coated with protective white material. The mast of the SS Great Britain, Port Stanley, East Falkland Walking along the seafront avenue is fun and interesting. Most of the government buildings are located on this street, including the old fashioned post office and the Governor’s mansion. The flag at the Governor’s mansion was at half mast indicating the governor is not in residence. He was spending a few days at nearby South Georgia Island of which he is apparently fond. The mast of the SS Great Britain is laying horizontally along the beach, a memorial to times past. A police station is right in front of the bank and a 10 cell prison in not far. The museum down the street offers good information about the history of the island, the 1982 conflict, naval history and natural history. Across from the port you see names of British naval ships designed in stone on the hillside, clearly seen from the main street. Some of the name, such as the Beagle, refer to British naval ships, not the historical expedition ships. There are two war memorial, one for WWI and the other called Liberation Memorial for the 1982 Falkland war with Argentina, with a monument of Margaret Thatcher who was the PM at the time. Governor mansion on main street. The one and only grocery store was also on the main street and was a bit sad with not much fresh produce and a lot of pre-packaged foods. I stopped at a couple of the gift shops to stock up on the Diddle-Dee jam made from the local berries that we saw on our hike and pick up a couple of hand-knitted tukes in anticipation of the cold weather awaiting us as we continue south towards our next destination, Cape Horn. Fish and chips at Bittersweet, Port stanley Calamari at Bittersweet, Port Stanley Iron Lady local craft beer Malvina House Hotel It was time for lunch and I started heading back towards the centre of the little town. There are few pubs and restaurants around the center and if I had time I would have stopped at each of them. The Teaberry cafe at the museum was closed or I would have stopped there for tea. The Waterfront Cafe on the main street also looked interesting, part of the Waterfront hotel. According to my food inquiries the best thing to eat on the island is local calamari they say is far superior to calamari anywhere else. Of course, it being a British island, fish and chips were also on my list. The best place for calamari I was told is at the Malvina House hotel at the end of the main street but apparently it was too late to have it there as it was past normal lunchtime. The alternative was Bittersweet, a trendy restaurant just up the road from the port. I walked back and found the restaurant with a sign upfront promising local beer, local calamari and a few more items I could have fun with. The restaurant had a bakery-like front room and a a cafeteria-like dining room. I settled by the window and the friendly server took great care of me, telling me that I was lucky, as this is the only place on the island at the moment to have calamari. The thing is, you know, I am a foodie so I had to order more than I could eat. I ordered both fish and chips and calamari but looking around I believe I had an appetizer order of the calamari which was fine. It truly was delicious, even for one who is more of a vegetarian in normal life. Light-battered, fresh, sea-fragrant and very tender, a squirt of lemon was all it needed. The fish and chips were crisp and tender, I forget what kind of fish it was but I know it was local. I ordered the Iron Lady craft beer made locally by Falkland Beerworks. It was a big bottle of the bitter blond ale which was delicious but I couldn’t do it justice being mostly a non drinker. Other foods to try are the Diddle-Dee jam made from local berries and the Falkland ‘smoko’, a plate stacked with cakes, cookies and scones served with plenty of coffee or tea. Alas, I could only eat so much. A little more walking and shopping concluded our short visit to the Falklands. I hope to stop by again for more hiking and exploring when we go to Antarctica on another adventure. It’s only 600 km from the islands. Fish n’ Chips and Calamari at Bittersweet, Falklands Teaberry Cafe near the Museum, Port Stanley, Falklands Bittersweet Cafe, Port Stanley, Falklands Hiking around Haddassah Bay Local vegetation Falkland flightless steamer duck Magellanic penguins Wild Red Crow Berries for Diddle Dee jam At the museum, reproduction of the S.S Discovery So, you think they may be a bit bored on the island? 9.5 mph?	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line648
__label__wiki	0.590971	0.590971	The reredos at SS Gregory and Augustine Royal Wedding - style and substance Sarajevo anniversary A quiet weekend of piety Oratorian Martyr Celebrating Corpus Christi in Oxford Order of the Star of India Norwegian Coronation 1906 Coronation of King George V Further reflections on the Royal Wedding - the pop... St Aloysius Gonzaga St Alban Mass in the Pentecost Octave Ordinariate Solemn Evensong in Oxford St Richard of Chichester Vigil of Pentecost at Oxford Blackfriars King Ludwig II revised King Ludwig II of Bavaria In Keble Hall Dinner with Bishop Stephen Gardiner Ordinariate Evensong Wednesday June 15th Pentecost Novena - Day IX Lord High Admiral Prince Philip at 90 Pentecost Novena - Day VIII Unicorn seen and heard in Oxford Pentecost Novena - Day VII Thomist education Pentecost Novena - Day VI Commemorating Kaiser Wilhelm II Pentecost Novena - Day V The reception of Newman in Germany St Norbert Pentecost Novena - Day IV When is an orle not an orle Pentecost Novena - Day III Pentecost Novena - Day II Pentecost Novena to the Holy Spirit - Day I Hail the day that sees Him rise Coronation Day Ordinariate Solemn Evensong - June 15th Here is another picture of the reredos at SS Gregory and Augustine Oxford which was blessed by the Archbishop of Birmingham last Sunday. There are accompanying notes by Fr John Saward the parish priest. "A generous bequest three years ago from the late Miss Kathleen White emboldened us to undertake what at least two of my predecessors considered, namely, the providing of the church with images of its two patrons in a restored reredos and sanctuary. The original reredos had three panels covered in Spanish leather, which forty years ago was replaced with wallpaper. By 2005 the wallpaper, though originally of high quality, was in a sorry state, faded and peeling. The parish, working closely with the diocesan Historic Churches Committee, commissioned the English painter James Gillick, his architect brother Gabriel, and other members of the Gillick family of Catholic artists to undertake the work of restoration. In the left-hand panel James has painted an image of Pope St Gregory, resplendent with Papal tiara, cope, and cross, and accompanied, as he is traditionally shown in Christian iconography, with the Dove, representing the Holy Ghost. On the right-hand side is St Augustine of Canterbury, sent by Pope Gregory to bring the Faith to England, and shown here as a simple Benedictine monk carrying, in accordance with the account given us by St Bede, an icon of the Divine Saviour. In the centre of the reredos, and above the two patron saints, is Our Lady with the Holy Child. I have christened her “Our Lady of Summertown” – the name for this suburb of Oxford." Fr John Saward, parish priest. Since this photograph was taken paintings of other saints have been inserted in the five panels of the wainscotting on either side of the altar. Reproduced from Lawrence Lew's photostram in Flickr Labels: SS Gregory and Augustine The departure of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on their first official overseas visit to Canada seems a suitable day on which to post my final set of reflections on their wedding. TRH The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge One of the official photographs. Image: The British Monarchy on Flickr What struck me in particular about the wedding day was the sense that this was an event with a style and panache that was traditional, combining splendour with restraint. There was not the more elaborate or emotional style of the royal weddings of the 1980s, but an emphasis on traditional values and practice in both church and state. There was a real sense of being back on course, but with two new and attractive players centre stage. The best of the old and of the new. The last time the sovereign's grandson in direct line of succession married was in 1893 when the future King George V as Duke of York married Mary of Teck. There is a description of that day in James Pope-Hennessy's wonderful official biography Queen Mary. That was essentially a private wedding in the Chapel Royal at St James's Palace. This time the scale was very different, and very much a public event as royal weddings have been since 1922. Nonetheless this seemed closer, in the best sense, to the certainties of the later years Queen Victoria's reign than some more recent marriages. This emphasis on tradition, on service by the Duke and Duchess to the Crown and their prospective realms, the religious values stressed in the service itself, down to such details as the inclusion of the national flower emblems of the United Kingdom in the wedding dress of the Duchess, all indicate to me at least, a reassertion of a tried and tested way of doing things. The official photographs carried the same message - a happy young couple and their families, but also a real understanding of what monarchy is about. Even within an institution based on the principal of continuity, we appear, to borrow a phrase, to be looking at a hermeneutic of continuity. The new personal standard for the Duke of Cambridge for use in Canada. The grant of this is in itself is both a new departure, and a reassertion of ancient tradition. There is more about it here. Image: Yahoo Labels: Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Royal Wedding Today is the anniversary of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife at Sarajevo in 1914. Please remeber them in your prayers, and pray for the peace of the world and deliverance from radical, purblind, extremists. My post for this day last year can be read at Sarajevo remembered. The assassination and the circumstances and possibilities - the "what ifs", or to be smart, the "counterfactuals" - and its continuing impact exert a fascination on my mind, and should, I believe, on those of others. For all the work of historians in, quite correctly, discerning trends and patterns there are specific moments when change occurs, events which do, literally, change the world. The Sarajevo assassination is one of them. Looking at whatI wrote last year the only change I would really make would be to be firmer in my repugnance at the fate of the Archduke and his wife, and the consequent fate of us all - we all live in a world that came into being that sunny summer morning. Dedijer's book remains the classic account, although it can be supplemented by later books. It was inevitably constrained by its author's background and the times in which he wrote, but it is agreat piece of work. One question I would have asked him, had I the possibility, was how many Bosnians were so taken up with violent revolutionary nationalism. Dedijer writes of all these groups - Pan-Slavs, South Slavs and Pan-Serbs - with precision and knowledge, but I do wonder to what extent they and their more passive supporters were a minority. They appear to share the same profile as other radical nationalist groups who, alas, manage to make the political running. I have found some more images of that fateful morning, although they are refusing to expand to a larger size. Here then are the Archduke, the Duchess and Gen Potoriek, Govenor of Bosnia, arriving at the city hall in Sarajevo: The Archduke and the Duchess leave the city hall: The driver takes the fatal wrong turn on the Appel Quay and the Archducal car wheels can be seen to begin to turn to the right. The assassination happened seconds later: I also found this picture, which is a reminder of the fact that Europe's reaction was to show solidarity with the Habsburgs in this assault on their Empire and dynasty: Requiem in the church of St Catherine in St Petersburg for Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914. Labels: Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Habsburg Monarchy, Sarajevo, Sarajevo assassination Having celebrated Corpus Christi in the Extraordinary Form on its traditional day last Thursday the Clever Boy was able to continue celebrating in the Ordinary Form over the weekend, even if in extraordinary ways. On Saturday evening he betook himself to the Oxford Ordinariate group Mass at Holy Rood in Abingdon Road. This is the new place of worship for the group's Saturday Vigil Mass, and despite its rather austere exterior has an interior that is prayerful and spacious. Holy Rood The homily was given by Daniel Lloyd, now a deacon in the Ordinariate, and concentrate don his participation in the conference last week in Rome on Eucharistic adoration - something with which the Mass had been prefaced and which it is planned to establish as normal practice. Following the Mass there were refreshments provided by Fr Paul Berrett and his wife to celebrate his recent ordination to the priesthood within the Ordinariate, followed by a visit with some of the younger members of the group to a local hostelry for drinks and discussion (i.e. church gossip). During this it the Clever Boy was asked if he could lend a white bow tie to wear as part of sub fusc for the next day's Corpus Christi procession, as the wearing of academic or professional dress is encouraged on this occasion. Yes, if I can find it, and if you 're wearing sub fusc I will as well, said the Clever Boy. So after a visit to the Oxford Union with part of the party (more drinks and gossip), he went off home to find and wash a white shirt and bow ties for the morrow. Other went off to prepare at SS Gregory and Augustine (vide infra) Sunday morning and up in good time to dress in sub fusc ( dark suit, white shirt and bow tie, black shoes and socks) worn under the appropriate academic gown, say the office and off to get the 9.15 bus to St Gregory and St Augustine Oxford where the Clever Boy had been recruited to help as an additional server (one of the seven acolytes) for the visit by the Archbishop of Birmingham to bless the restored reredos and crucifix and celebrate Pontifical Mass. The altar and reredos during Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament at SS Gregory and Augustine. Great effort had been put into decorating the church with flowers and polishing and tidying. One server had 'borrowed' from his landlady (who, thankfully, was quite happy when she found out why her carpets had disappeared during the night) various Turkey rugs to enhance the sanctuary. The Archbishop, having checked as to when he had met the Clever Boy before, assured him that he has a doppelganger - Cardinal Walter Kasper. Cardinalatial red would complete the effect. A recourse to the internet has yielded this photograph - I think I can see a resemblance, but who knows there own face?: Cardinal Kasper - mein doppelganger? The liturgy went smoothly, starting with the formal reception of the Archbishop at the entrance to the church with a crucifix at the kneeling desk, and a series of dedicatory prayers for the altar crucifix and new images of the saints. When pictures are available they will be posted. Following Mass there was an excellent barbeque on what was becoming a very hot day ( not ideal in winter-weight suit and gown) before departing back by bus to the city centre for the deanery Corpus Christi procession which started at the Oxford Oratory at 2.30. By now it was the hottest day so far of the year. The following pictures are from the Oxford Oratory website of what was once again a well attended and impressive witness of devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. As in previous years the CleverBoy was acting as a steward, so over the suit and gown went one of those tasteful luminous yellow waistcoat worn by roadmenders and the like, as the procession set off. Diocesan clergy and religious in the procession with Bishop William at the right. The Sacrament borne by the Prior of Blackfriars Fr John O'Connor. The canopy bearers are pupils from the Oratory School at Woodcote near Reading, which was originally founded by Bl. John Henry Newman. The Provost of the Oxford Oratory, Fr Daniel Seward, in his 'Mafia priest' look. The Clever Boy can be seen in the background as one of the stewards flanking the Blessed Sacrament - vanity, O vanity. The procession paused for a homily from Bishop William Kenny, the area auxiliary, at Blackfriars and then passed through part of the city centre, past the site of the birthplace of St Nicholas Owen and past the sites of the medieval Greyfriars and Blackfriars to the University Catholic Chaplaincy. Witney Town Band conducted by Dr Gerard Hyland provided the music. Inside the Chaplaincy. Those in the procession are encouraged to wear their academic dress. Bishop William Kenny bestows the Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. After Benediction at the chaplaincy there was just time for some glasses of water to counteract the seeming risk of dehydration before shedding the luminous yellow waistcoat and setting off with others at 4.40 to walk back up to St Giles for 5 to share a taxi out to Dorchester on Thames. There at the exquisite church of St Birinus, Dorchester Fr David Elliott, who was ordained the previous day in Portsmouth Cathedral, and was formerly Vicar of Holy Trinity Reading, was to celebrate his first Sung Mass at 7. The Clever Boy was not serving, but was asked to act as photographer (he is not sure how the photographs came out, particularly as he sought to be unobtrusive). The Mass was elegant and there was an excellent homily from the parish priest of St Birinus, Fr John Osman. As well as Fr Elliott's Reading Ordinariate group there were members and supporters of the Oxford group as well as regular members of St Birinus' congregation. Mass concluded with a procession of the Blessed Sacrament around the extensive grounds of the presbytery and Benediction in the church. To celebrate there were drinks and refreshments on what was a warm summer evening in the presbytery garden, and a chance to meet up with old friends and make new ones. At 10.30, in the fading light, the taxi conveyed the Oxford party back to the city. and the Clever Boy made his fairly weary, but very happy, way home, still in full academic dress. The Clever Boy slept well that night - the fruit of simple piety. Labels: Corpus Christi, Oxford Corpus Christi procession, S Birinus Dorchester, SS Gregory and Augustine From today's posting on the Oxford Oratory website: FIRST ORATORIAN BEATIFIED MARTYR The Congregation for the Causes of Saints today promulgated the Decree of Martyrdom for the Venerable Savio Huix Miralpeix, Bishop of Lérida and formerly of the Oratory of Vic, Catalonia, a martyr of the Spanish Civil War. A date can now be set for his beatification. The Servant of God, Savio Huix Miralpeix, was born on 22nd December 1877 in Santa Margarita de Vellors in the Diocese of Vic in Catalonia, into a family for whom faith in God and love for the Church were an irrevocable inheritance. He was ordained priest on 19th September 1903 and four years later entered the Congregation of the Oratory of Vic where for twenty years he gave himself over to an intense ministry of study, preaching and writing, catechising, teaching in the diocesan seminary and promoting associations for Catholic women. He was the Provost of Vic when, in 1927, he was named Bishop of Ibiza. There he gave an extraordinary stimulus to religious life. Translated to Lérida on 29th January 1935 he continued his zealous apostolic work until 21st July 1936 when Republican forces broke into the Episcopal palace and Mgr Miralpeix, reluctantly and in order to safeguard his associates, took refuge with friends. Seeing the dangers to which his helpers were exposed, on the night of 23rd he left his hideout and presented himself to the police, revealing his true identity. He was imprisoned at once, together with other prisoners with whom he shared both sufferings and also the joy of secret prayers and Masses, right up to the last moving Holy Communion which proved to be their Viaticum. At 4.30 on the morning of 5th August they were all of them taken to the local cemetery and shot. The bishop asked that he might be the last to be killed so as to give absolution and comfort to his companions in martyrdom. Before his arrest he entrusted his pectoral cross to a friend, asking him to take it to the Holy Father, for whom he was offering his life and assuring him of his loyalty. Labels: Bishop Savio Huix Miralpeix, Oratorian beatus, Spanish Civil War, Spanish Civil War martyrs On Thursday I observed Corpus Christi in the Extraordinary Form, as I prefer to do. I went to the Low Mass offered at the Oratory at lunchtime and made my communion there, and then late afternoon went up to SS Gregory and Augustine to help do some practical sacristy jobs in preparation for the visit of the Archbishop of Birmingham to bless the redecorated reredos on Sunday. I was asked to serve at their Mass, which I did, despite a rhumatic knee (now recovered), and here are pictures of the Mass from Joe Shaw's LMS Chairman blog. We were rather short of servers, but the three of us managed to support Fr Saward. Mass was followed by a procesion inside the church and Benediction. There are more pictures here. Labels: Corpus Christi, Oxford Oratory, SS Gregory and Augustine Today is the 150th anniversary of the foundation of The Most Exalted Order of the Star of India by Queen Victoria in 1861. There is an illustrated account of the Order and its history here. The last surviving member died in 2009. The Order, designed to be awarded to Hindus, Muslims and Christians, is an interesting example of mid-Victorian inter-faith dialogue. Hence it avoided the use of the cross or terminology such as Knight Grand Cross in favour of Knight Grand Commander, and used as its motto the phrase "Heaven's Light Our Guide." The Mantle of a GCSI The star of the Order on the mantle Images: Wikipedia It is also interesting in that from the beginning women were admitted as KSI or later GCSI - something that was not possible in this country until the Order of the British Empire was created in 1917, and for the older Orders not until the reign of the present Queen. Two contemporary views of Queen Victoria presiding over the first Chapter of the Order in 1861 Image: Columbia.edu The insignia was particularly handsome, and the Prince Consort is often claimed to have had a hand in its design. The links with roses clearly derive from the Orders of the Garter and St Patrick. These alternate with the lotus flower to symbolise India. I have read, though I am not sure if the story is true, that some of the insignia which had been returned to the Crown was destroyed as superfluous in the 1950s. If so it was a very regretable decision. This is the magnificent Collar and Badge of the Most Exalted Order of the Star of India, Knight Grand Commander (GCSI), awarded to General His Highness Al-Haj Sir Sadiq Muhammad Khan, Abassi, Bahadur, Nawab of Bahawalpur. On his accession in 1907, he reigned under a Council of Regency until he came of age and was invested with limited administrative powers in 1922; he became President of the Council of Regency in May 1923, and almost a year later was invested with full ruling powers at Bahawalpur by His Excellency the Marquess of Reading, Viceroy of India. He acceded to the Dominion of Pakistan in 1947 and merged his state into the province of West Pakistan in 1955. At the ages of seven, His Highness Al-Haj Sir Sadiq Muhammad Khan attended the Delhi Durbar 1911, where he commanded his state troops. He also attended the coronations of both King George VI 1937 and Queen Elizabeth II 1953. He served in the Great War and the Third Afghan War 1919; was ADC to the Prince of Wales 1921-22; and again served in the Second World War. General His Highness Al-Haj Sir Sadiq Muhammad Khan, Abassi, Bahadur, Nawab of Bahawalpur died in London in 1966. The estimate for this collar when it was sold was £20,000-25,000. Illustration and information from Spink.com Labels: Order of the Star of India, Star of India Last Saturday I went on an excusion with the Brothers of the External Oratory in Oxford and organised by our prefect Fr Jerome Bertram to Coughton Court in Warwickshire. This was my first visit to this great recusant house ansd the whole day was both very enjoyable and informative. CoughtonCourt (pronounced Coaton) has been the home of the Throckmorton family since 1409, although since 1946 the house has been vested in the National Trust. The Throckmortons and their house have survived the Wars of the Roses, the various stages of the English reformation, the Throckmorton plot involving a cadet member of the family, the Gunpowder Plot, the Civil War, the revolution of 1688 when the chapel was sacked by the mob, the civil disabilities laid on Catholics post-1688, and, following Catholic emancipation (the family produced the first Catholic MP after that legislation, winning one of the Berkshire seats in 1832), the agricultural depression of the nineteenth century, death duties, two world wars and everything else the twentieth or any other centory could throw up, and are able to boast of a continuity of occupancy and faith for over six centuries. In particular the family are famous for their links to other notable Midland recusant families, such as the Catesbys and the Treshams, as well as Sir Walter Raleigh, and the family and the house feature in the story of the Gunpowder Plot. There is an article about some of its historyhere. The oldest part of the presnt house is the gatehouse built by Sir George Throckmorton in the second decade of the sixteenth century . Successive rebuildings and repairs have produced a house with features of a wide range of styles right down to the saloon from just before the Great War. The gatehouse from the courtyard Image:Geograph.org.uk Amongst the many interesting relics in the house there is the remarkable Tabula Elienis, a painted cloth dating from 1596. So called from its picture of Ely cathedral and similarity to another example there, it depicts English kings and monnks, as well as the arms of recusant families, and appears to be a depiction of recusant heritage and identity. It is displayed in the tower room where the wives of some of those involved in the Gunpowder Plot awaited news of their husbands in 1605. The Tabula Eliensis Image:Keybuk photostream Another room had a fascinating display of treasures including what is believed to be the chesmise worn by mary Queen of Scots at here execution in 1587. Apparently it bore blood stains until relativelty recently. One thing which struck me as being in support of the tradition is that its length would fit with the fact that Queen Mary was a tall woman. In the same room were mementoes of her descendants the Jacobite Kings James III and VIII, Charles III and Henry IX and I. Chemise worn by Mary Queen of Scots at her execution Image: Felicityfaery photostrean on Flickr In the same room, but rather difficult to appreciate because of the necessarily low light levels and the case in which it was displayed, was a cope which is associated through its pomegranete motifs with Queen Catherine of Aragon. This photograph gives a better idea of the vestments which has been restored in recent years. It is, I think, Sarum blue rather than purple, and is a very fine piece of early sixteenth century work. The Catherine of Aragon cope Image: The Photostation.net In the same room were a selection on manuscripts on display, including a late medieval priest's manual in which the clause giving the Pope's name could be seen to have been blotted or smudged out from the canon of the Mass as directed by King Henry VIII in the 1530s. Elsewhere I was interested to see the possessions of a female members of the Throckmorton family who had been a lady-in-waiting to the Empress Elisabeth of Austria, including photographs of the Empress and the young Crown Prince Rudolf and the insignia of the Orders of the Starry Cross and of St Elizabeth. We did not really have enough time to explore fully the gardens which have been developed by the family in the last fifteen years, but as well as the nineteenth century Catholic church built by the family we also looked in the late medieval parish church which adjoins the house, and contains many Throckmorton tombs. Like the gateway to the house it is a reminder of the prosperity of late medieval midland England. The tombs include those of Sir George, the builder of the gatehouse, and his wife, of the last Abbess of Denny in Cambridgeshire, who, as a member of the family, returned to Coughton with two of her nuns to live out their lives, and, presumably, their vocations there. There is also the handsome tomb of Sir John Throckmorton(d.1580) and his wife Marjorie. A younger son he was alawyer and judge, apparently dismissed not long before his death by Queen Elizabeth I for his recusant sympathies. He lived at feckenham in Worcestershire, and his son Sir Francis gave the family name to the throckmorton Plot of 1583. I particularly liked this panel on the tomb base showing the sons as mourners and presumably including the conspirator Francis: The mourners on the tomb base. Image: Walwyn on Flick The interior of the church. Sir John Throckmorton's canopied tomb is to the right of the altar. The one in the foreground was intended for one of his ancestors who died on pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1518. The tracery lights contain late medieval stained glass. Image: Roy Reed on Flickr Labels: Coughton Court, Gunpowder Plot, Mary Queen of Scots, Throckmorton family Today is also the 105th anniversary of the coronation in Trondheim cathedral of King Haakon VII and Queen Maud as King and Queen of Norway in 1906. This followed from the dissolution of the union with Sweden in 1905 and the selection of Prince Carl of Denmark and his wife Princess Maud, daughter of King Edward VII as King and Queen. The new King assumed the name Haakon, the same name as the last independent King of Norway six centuries earlier. King Haakon VII and Queen Maud following their Coronation in 1906. There are some fine photographs of the Coronation - the first anywhere at which the ceremonies inside the cathedral were to be photographed - and of the ceremonies around it here, as well as articles about the history of the Norwegian coronation. There is a link to archive film here. Here are two other photographs I found of the ceremonial inside the cathedral: In this photograph the King is at the bottom left, and the Queen to the right. Her brother the Prince of Wales, the future King George V, can be clearly seen in the centre in front of the group of foreign representitives Regrettably, very regrettably in my opinion, in 1908 the Norwegian parliament removed the clause from the Constitution making coronation at Trondheim mandatory. The argument was that in a democratic age the rite of coronation marked the King out as having a superior authority. True - he does. In consequence the Coronation was no longer required, although not abolished. It perhaps an early example of Scandinavian secularism, rather like the decision in Sweden in 1907 not to have a coronation for King Gustav V on the grounds of expense. In Norway at the accession of King Olav V in 1957 he was able to arrange a service of Benediction at Trondheim, and I understand that that in 1991 was a more elaborate occasion. There is a good article about the history of the Norwegian coronation and the modern benediction rite here. There is an article about the Norwegian regalia - which is kept at Trondheim, expressing the concept that the King holds the Kingdom from St Olav - here, and one about the King's crown, made for King Carl Johan, here. The Crown of the King of Norway The Crown of the Queen of Norway The Crown of the Crown Prince of Norway Labels: King Haakon VII, King of Norway, Norwegian Coronation, Trondheim cathedral Today is the centenary of the coronation of King George V and Queen Mary in 1911. There is an article with links about it here. Amongsty other points of interest is the fact that this was the first British coronation ceremony, as opposed to the procession, to be recorded by photographs. This photograph shows the beginning of the ceremony in Westminster abbey. Copyright: Heritage Images The King and Queen Copyright: lamodeillustree.livejournal.com It was King George who resumed the practice of being crowned with St Edward's Crown, rather than the lighter Imperial State Crown used by Queen Victoria and King Edward VII, although he quicly exchanged it for the Imperal crown. In 1937 and 1953 the monarch was to wear St Edward's Crown right up to the communion, only assuming the Imperial Stae Crown at the Recess for the procession out of the abbey and back to the palace. It was the King who ordered that St Edwar's Crown be permanently set with precious and semi-precious stones, rather than the previous practice of hiring gems for the Coronation and then replacing them with paste. St Edward's Crown It was only fairly recently that I discovered that it was King George V who from the 1913 State Opening of Parliament actually wore the Imperial State Crown with his robes of state, and this has remained the practice. at Queen Victoria's few post 1861 State Openings and those of King Edward VII the crown was carried on its cushion, although the Sovereign wore the robes. The 1911 Coronation was, I think, the only time that Queen Mary's crown was used with its arches. Like Queen Alexandra's 1902 crown, but unlike those of 1831 for Queen Adelaide and 1937 for Queen Elizabeth, it has eight half arches rather than the more traditional four. In design it is very like the Crown of India, which was also made by Garrards that year - but I will say more about that in December. Queen Mary's Crown The crown contains some 2,200 diamonds and in 1911 it contained the Koh-i-Noor diamond as well as Cullinan III and Cullinan IV (the Cullinan diamond had been presented to King Edward VII and after cutting the largest piece was set in the sceptre and the second largest in the Imperial Stae Crown, displacing to the back of the circlet the Stuart Sapphire). In 1914 they were replaced by crystal models. Unlike many earlier coronation crowns, it was specially constructed so that its arches could be removed, allowing it to be worn as a circlet, and it was in that way that Queen Mary wore it for State Openings and at the Coronation of King George VI in 1937. At her funeral in 1953 I understand that her crown did not rest on her coffin, unlike the practice at the funeral of Queen Elizabeth in 2002. As the Queen Consort's crown has been seen as an ornament rather than regalia Queen Mary presented her crown to King George V for the use of future Queens consort. However a new crown, based on a circlet made for Queen Victoria, and incorporating the Koh-i-Noor was used to make the 1937 crown for Queen Elizabeth, allowing Queen Mary to wear her crown as a circlet at that Coronation. Labels: 1911 Coronation, Coronation of King George V, King George V, Queen Mary's crown, s crown, St Edward's Crown Further reflections on the Royal Wedding - the popular response Today being the birthday of the Duke of Cambridge seems an appropriate one on which, apart from expressing best wishes to His Royal Highness, to try to finish my reflections on his wedding to the Duchess. In this post I want to comment on the popular response. Quite obviously from the crowds in London and the worldwide television audience there were a very great number of people watching because they wanted to. So much for the argument which one has heard before every major royal celebration for a generation and more - "People aren't interested anymore." In a very British way we prepared in a very understated way for the celebrations. One or two shops started having commemoratives in their windows, then a few more ,and a few more, and Union flags started appearing. Slightly sheepishly people began to prepare to celebrate, and to admit to being positive about the day. Nor can interest be dismissed with the jokey "Thanks for the day off" line which appeared. The popular response was extensive and genuine, and more complex than some would have us believe. Of course there is the appeal of pagentry and finery, and there is something of the general well wishing towards any couple entering into marriage, and here was a young couple clearly in love and serious about their committment to one another. I sensed there was much more than that - a sense of a real wishing well to this couple because they are who they are and represent what they do. People wish them well because they wish the monarchy well. After the difficulties of the 1990s this was an opportunity, indeed the opportunity, to look to the furture with a renewed belief in the tradition the institution embodies and carries. People were wishing the couple well because they really wanted things to work out well. Friends who were in London have described that positive good will amongst the crowds, and watching it all on television here in Oxford at our party at the Oratory I sensed that feeling not only of affection for the Duke and Duchess, but also for that which they committing themselves to. At that party there was also that sense of community which such national events bring out. this was not I suspect confined to subjects of the Crown. One friend in London told me that he was aware of the considerable number of Germans around who seemed very interested in the wedding. He, I am sure rightly, explained this as an awareness (sensed rather than expressed) on their part of what they are lacking in their own national life. Another friend summed up the mood with his reaction to the day - "Who would not want to live under such a system?" Labels: Duke of Cambridge, Royal Wedding Today, being the feast of St Aloysius Gonzaga, is the patronal festival for the Oxford Oratory parish. St Aloysius as a boy Image: Breviary.net St Aloysius (1568-1591) is not perhaps the easiest company amongst the saints. An aristocrat who renounced his inheritance to join the Jesuits, and who, having lived a life of mortification and penance dies as aresult of nursing plague victims at the age of 23 he can appear uncomfortably demanding. Much of the later artwork depicting him has a somewhat sickly quality which gets in the way of understanding him as a human being. The contemporary portraits suggest aclear sighted young man with the very considerable sense of purpose he demonstrated in life. He stands somewhat in the same tradition as St Louis of Toulouse or the later fourteenth century Peter of Luxembourg, all of them noted for their royal or aristocratic background, life of mortification, service of the poor and the Church, and early deaths. St Aloysius as a teenage layman Image: Gonzaga College There is another account of his life and devotions to him here. A year or two ago the preacher on St Aloysius day at the Oratory, Fr Brendan O'Callaghan SJ, the Master of Campion Hall, made the point that in order to understand St Aloysius and his choice of austerities it is important to realise that this came from his own self-knowledge of the temptations his birth and position offered. The Vocation of St Aloysius Painting c.1650 May St Aloysius pray for us all Labels: Oxford Oratory, St Aloysius	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line649
__label__cc	0.562806	0.437194	Kai Turnbull As Assistant Professor of Music Technology at Berklee College of Music, Kai Turnbull is a dedicated and experienced educator specializing in digital audio music production, MIDI programming, and sound design. At Berklee, he has taught hundreds of students to use the latest technology tools and techniques in desktop audio and video production. His courses at Berklee cover both popular and electronica music styles, using software tools such as Live, Logic, Reason, Digital Performer, and Pro Tools. He teaches courses in hard-disk recording, MIDI systems, songwriting production techniques, and a new course that examines modern applications of traditional North Indian music, titled "Indian Music Concepts in Contemporary Synthesis Production". In that course, students use Live to produce Asian Underground remixes using a variety of classical Indian vocal and instrumental samples. Originally from Glasgow Scotland, Kai has been a music technology faculty member at Berklee College of Music for more than ten years. In addition to commercial film credits, Kai has two independent CD releases. He has performed in the United States and Europe, including an appearance on National Public Radio and has served as a songwriter for Peer Music, New York. Online Courses Taught by Kai	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line650
__label__wiki	0.806139	0.806139	Three months after council dissolution,Governor Aminu Tambuwal names 25 new commissioners Written by NobleAdmin on October 18, 2018 Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal, on Thursday forwarded 25 names to the state Assembly for confirmation as commissioners. The appointments came three months after the governor dissolved the executive council. Tambuwal, in a letter dated October 18 and read at plenary said, “I am pleased to forward to the House nomination for appointment as commissioners and members of state executive council. “The nomination is in line with Section 192 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended. “The nominees are selected after wide consultations within the specter of our society and in conformity with Section 14 (4) of the Constitution.” Tambuwal further stated that the nominees are persons of proven integrity, with good track records in their various vocations. “I am confident that they will bring to bear their wide experience in propelling the formulation and execution of government policies and programmes for the overall development of our state.” The Deputy Speaker, Abubakar Magaji, who presided over the sitting, announced that the nominees will be screened on October 23 and 24. POLITIC AT NOON	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line653
__label__wiki	0.65215	0.65215	Redistributive Economics in Major League Baseball, Golf and the Nonprofit Sector August 6, 2011; Source: Wall Street Journal \| In the political debates around the federal budget and whether to raise the debt ceiling, many conservatives have complained about what they see as the Democrats’ and specifically President Obama’s proclivity toward “class warfare,” “redistributive economics,” and “socialism.” The Democrats, Eric Cantor (R-VA) told the Wall Street Journal, “believe in a welfare state before they believe in capitalism. They promote economic programs of redistribution to close the gap of the disparity between the classes. That’s what they’re about: redistributive politics.” This must be a source of some consternation to the nonprofit sector which functions partly as a mechanism of wealth redistribution (see Cerulli for an interesting discussion of the kinds of redistributive roles of nonprofits). By their very identity, nonprofits function in a way that is at a minimum supportive of the redistributive, welfare state socialism that conservatives decry. But aren’t there examples of socialism that are feted by conservatives, examples in which conservatives participate, relish, and celebrate? We were prompted to this by a contrasting article in the same issue of the WSJ in which Rep. Cantor expounded on the politics of the left during debt ceiling negotiations. A sports columnist wrote about the positive aspects of the largely rich man’s game of golf, one of which was its built-in socialism: “The handicap system is pure socialism, but no one objects. That’s how nondivisive golf is. Handicaps take strokes from the strong and give them to the weak, allowing golfers of all ability levels to play together as friends. It’s brilliant, and everybody’s pleased.” There is, in fact, much “nonprofit socialism” out there that attracts conservatives as well as liberals. For example, earlier this year, the nation celebrated the victory of “for professional sports’ only publicly owned nonprofit organization, the Green Bay Packers — a team whose quasi-socialist structure allows Wisconsin’s proletariat to own the means of football production.” Although long-decried by the Steinbrenners, the revenue-sharing system of Major League Baseball, which compels the big-spending Yankees and Red Sox to transfer some moneys to small-market teams, is a kind of redistributive economic policy that smacks of socialism. As everyone gets poorer in the wake of “debtaggedon”, the market crash, and S&P’s downgrading of U.S. creditworthiness, perhaps the opposition to redistributive policies is not that they don’t work, but that they actually might, if not hobbled by policies that water them down, or, even more frightfully, that the nonprofit sector that believes in the expansion of redistributive policies such as golf handicaps and MLB revenue-sharing might heed New York Times columnist Tom Friedman‘s call for a third party movement that should nominate Vermont’s socialist senator, Bernie Sanders, as its candidate. We wonder if Sanders has a golf handicap.—Rick Cohen	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line656
__label__cc	0.64963	0.35037	Wego is a Global Supplier of Parachlorobenzotrifluoride (PCBTF) Wego Chemical Group Inc Jun 08, 2016 Wego Chemical Group is a leading global supplier and distributor of low VOC organic compounds such as Parachlorobenzotrifluoride. It can be found under CAS # 98-56-6 or EINECS # 202-681-1, and has the molecluar formula C7H4ClF3. It is commonly referred to by its acronym, PCBTF, or alternatively by its less-known synonyms p-Chlorobenzotrifluoride, 4-Chlorobenzotrifluoride, or 1-Chloro-4-(Trifluoromethyl) Benzene. PCBTF takes the appearance of a clear, colorless liquid, and emanates a strong Naphthalenic odor. It has a boiling point of 139°C and a freezing point of -33°C, and is slightly soluble in water (29 ppm at 23°C). PCBTF is widely produced for commercial industrial use. It is an equivalent product to those under trade names Oxsol 100, SMC Spec 900, and Miami Chemical PCBTF 9000. PCBTF's primary uses are as a solvent. It is widely stable in a variety of conditions. PCBTF has low parity, it is non reactive and non corrosive, and is hydrophobic. It does not undergo hydrolysis or dehydrochlorination. It is a low VOC organic compound, making it widely applicable in products geared toward the developed world that require low toxicity levels. It can be used as a solvent in many coatings products—including in low VOCpolyurethane coatings and in paint coatings. It can also be used as a VOC exempt solvent in construction materials, adhesives, and sealants, including caulking. Further, PCBTF has applications in household andindustrial cleaners and degreasers, where it is used to diminish VOC content, as well as in inks and digital inks, where it is used to dissolve ink. PCBTF can also be used as an intermediate in making other compounds. Most notably so, it is an intermediate in the manufacturing of pharmaceutical products and in agricultural products. As a leading supplier and distributor, Wego provides efficient and reliable logistics management, handling, stocking, and delivery of chemical products like Parachlorobenzotrifluoride, and can offer shipments in multiple packing sizes. 239 Great Neck Road Great Neck, NY 11021, USA http://www.wegochem.com More from Adhesives & Sealants Wego Offer Innovative a 4-Hydroxyacetophenone Wego Offers and Innovative Polydimethylsiloxane Wego is a Global Supplier of Polycarboxylate Wego is a Global Supplier of Propylene Carbonate (PC) Citrus-Based Solvents replace Xylene products. Flushing Agents replace HCFC-141b-based agents. Non-Flammable Solvent offers effective alternative to Toluene. Safer Solvent offers alternative to Xylene. Chemical Strippers Solvent strips powder coating masking plugs.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line660
__label__wiki	0.937876	0.937876	Morris the cat running for mayor of Mexican city Eric Pfeiffer ·Reporter There’s another fat cat running for political office. But this one is actually covered in fur, has claws and purrs when he gets his way. All hail “hissoner.” Morris the Cat declared his candidacy for mayor of Xalapa, a university city with a population of 450,000 in eastern Mexico. Xalapa, the capital of the state of Veracruz, has suffered through high crime rates and corruption in recent years. Which helps explain the 10-month-old kitten's campaign slogan: "Tired of Voting for Rats? Vote for a Cat." "He sleeps almost all day and does nothing, and that fits the profile of a politician," said Morris’ human owner, Sergio Chamorro, in an interview with The Associated Press. Morris is also not the only cat to seek elected office. For example, Stubbs the Cat has famously been the mayor of a small Alaskan town for more than 15 years. And in 2012, a cat named Tuxedo Stan ran for mayor of Halifax in Nova Scotia, Canada (he didn't win). Chamorro says Morris is running for office to protest corruption in Mexico’s political system. He promises to donate any funds raised through the campaign to local animal shelters. People have been responsive, giving Morris' Facebook page more than 120,000 likes since it was launched. He’s even getting some love from Stubbs, who has been posting news about the campaign to his own popular Facebook page. As the AP points out, the leading human candidate in the race has a comparably meager 33,000 likes on his Facebook page. "Morris has been a catalyst to show the discontent that exists in our society," Chamorro said. "Our message from the beginning has been, 'If none of the candidates represent you, vote for the cat,' and it seems people are responding to that." Xalapa is home to its own rich political history. It's the birthplace of Antonio López de Santa Anna, an 11-term former president of Mexico sometimes referred to as the "Napoleon of the West." As it turns out, animals running for office in this year’s elections is quite popular in Mexico. Along with Morris, other nonhuman mayoral candidates include Chon the Donkey, Tina the Chicken, Tintan the Dog and Maya the Cat. In response, election officials are asking voters to resist the temptation to cast their votes for noneligible animal candidacies. "We are asking for people to participate by voting for those citizens registered on the ballots," electoral institute President Carolina Viveros said in an interview with local media. "Everything else is part of expressions happening in social media and I respect that, but you have to vote for the registered candidates."	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line661
__label__wiki	0.65355	0.65355	NAVA Companies’ Cantilevering 80 East 10th Street Nearing Completion, in Greenwich Village 8:00 am on June 6, 2019 By Michael Young Construction on 80 East 10th Street in Greenwich Village is quickly approaching completion, with work on both exteriors and interiors nearly finished. The ten-story mixed-use building is being designed by NAVA Companies, while Parametric Development Group is developing the 26,000-square-foot structure located on the corner of East 10th Street and Fourth Avenue. Brown Harris Stevens Development Marketing is responsible for sales of the project’s 12 condominiums, which average 2,000 square feet each and have three to four bedrooms apiece, with prices ranging from $4.15 to $8.25 million. A five-bedroom penthouse has not yet been listed. Valor Hospitality Reveals New Images of Hotel Indigo in Williamsburg, Brooklyn 7:30 am on June 6, 2019 By Sebastian Morris The Indigo Hotel in Williamsburg, Brooklyn is set to debut in July 2019 and YIMBY is excited to reveal the first new renderings of property. From global hotelier Valor Hospitality Partners, the new hotel will include 187 guest rooms, 20,000 square feet of flexible event space, dual-level dining area, and open-air lounge areas. Permits Filed for 283 Warwick Street in East New York, Brooklyn 7:00 am on June 6, 2019 By Vanessa Londono Permits have been filed for a four-story residential building at 283 Warwick Street in East New York, Brooklyn. Located between Atlantic Avenue and Liberty Avenue, the interior lot is three blocks southwest of the Cleveland Street subway station, serviced by the J train. Also close is the Van Siclen Avenue subway station, serviced by the J and Z trains. Einav Gelberg under the 11 Hubert LLC is listed as the owner behind the applications. Permits Filed for 27-55 Jackson Avenue in Long Island City, Queens Permits have been filed for a nine-story mixed-use building at 27-55 Jackson Avenue in Long Island City, Queens. Located between Queens Street and 42nd Road, the corner lot is one block west of the Queens Plaza subway station, serviced by the E, M, and R trains. Nissim Seliktar under the Nzdckns LLC is listed as the owner behind the applications. 8:00 am on June 5, 2019 By Nikolai Fedak New York YIMBY Reveals Exclusive New Renderings of 4720 3rd Avenue in The Bronx Fresh renderings have surfaced for a new mixed-use development currently under construction in the Belmont neighborhood of The Bronx. In an exclusive reveal from New York YIMBY, the illustrations depict 4720 3rd Avenue as a vibrant new addition to the central Bronx community. When complete, the corner property will include a large commercial podium with residential area and terrace levels positioned above. Permits Filed for 46-09 69th Street in Woodside, Queens Permits have been filed for a 14-story mixed-use building at 46-09 69th Street in Woodside, Queens. Located at the corner of Queens Boulevard and 69th Street, the lot is closest to the Jackson Heights-Roosevelt Avenue subway station, serviced by the 7, E, F, and R trains. Allen Konstam of Madison Realty Capital under the QB Development Owner LLC is listed as the owner behind the applications. Permits have been filed for a nine-story mixed-use building at 23-20 Jackson Avenue in Long Island City, Queens. Located between 23rd Street and Pearson Street, the lot is one block sout of the Court Square subway station, serviced by the G and 7 trains. Peter Papamichael under the Vorea Jackson LLC is listed as the owner behind the applications. 126 Madison Avenue, aka Madison House, Tops-Out 62 Stories and 805 Feet Above NoMad Work on the reinforced concrete superstructure at 126 Madison Avenue, aka 15 East 30th Street, is now topped out. The slender 756-foot-tall tower is now the tallest skyscraper in NoMad, standing 51 stories, and makes a clear impression on the Midtown skyline. The residential building is being designed by Handel Architects, while Fosun Group and JD Carlisle are responsible for the nearly 300,000-square-foot development. City Agencies Broker New Deal With Developers to Bring 5 WTC to Market State agency The Port Authority and Lower Manhattan Development Group have agreed to issue a joint RFP and divide proceeds generated from the development of 5 World Trade Center. A lengthy dispute between the parties had prevented any progress on the final remaining site within the World Trade Center complex, though it still remains unclear what future property will rise from the parcel, which could yield a tower spanning over one million square feet.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line662
__label__wiki	0.585532	0.585532	To purchase tickets call 800-210-0689 Stuart O’Keeffe Celebrity chef, television personality, and cookbook author Stuart O’Keeffe is an accomplished professional chef known for his healthy yet hearty meals. He first explored his passion for food while cooking alongside his mother in his native Ireland; he then honed that passion into skill at the Dublin Institute of Technology where he earned a degree in culinary arts. Chef Stuart has been trained around the world, cutting his teeth in Napa Valley and Bordeaux, France — both highly competitive culinary hot spots — before moving to Los Angeles. There, he works with some of the biggest names in Hollywood and has been seen on the NBC prime-time series Food Fighters and OWN’s Home Made Simple. He has also starred in The Home Channel’s Stuart’s Kitchen, shot and produced in Ireland. A Food Network darling, Chef Stuart has served as a judge on Chopped, starred in Private Chefs of Beverly Hills, and been featured on hit shows like Valerie’s Home Cooking. He can currently be seen co-hosting his new show Let’s Eat! on the network. Chef Stuart released his first cookbook in 2016. Titled The Quick Six Fix, it’s all about making delicious dishes with minimal effort. Written for both home cooks and professionals, the simple premise of six fresh ingredients, easy prep, and quick cleanup got the attention of the Today show and The Rachael Ray Show, where he can be seen teaching guests how to prepare the meals featured in his book. The release of The Quick Six Fix also kicked off a series of regular appearances on shows, including CBS’ The Talk, NBC’s Harry, and The Hallmark Channel’s Home & Family. He is often called on during television appearances to prepare dishes that showcase his Irish roots, and his ability to develop and execute impressive, flavor-driven recipes that can be prepared quickly causes a stir with his social media followers and puts him in high demand with food festivals and magazines across the country. O’Keeffe, alongside his Westies, Jack and Bo, makes California his home. He spends his down time playing tennis and cooking with close friends. ©DESERT PUBLICATIONS INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Sponsors & Charities	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line664
__label__cc	0.524991	0.475009	Citigroup: A Case Study in Managerial and Regulatory Failures Indiana Law Review, Vol. 47, pp. 69-137, 2014 GWU Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2013-139 GWU Law School Public Law Research Paper No. 2013-139 69 Pages Posted: 21 Dec 2013 Last revised: 19 Oct 2014 See all articles by Arthur E. Wilmarth Arthur E. Wilmarth Date Written: October 31, 2013 Citigroup has served as the poster child for the elusive promises and manifold pitfalls of universal banking. When Citicorp merged with Travelers to form Citigroup in 1998, Citigroup’s leaders and supporters asserted that the new financial conglomerate would offer unparalleled convenience to its customers through “one-stop shopping” for banking, securities and insurance services. They also claimed that Citigroup would have a superior ability to withstand financial shocks due to its broadly diversified activities. By 2009, those bold predictions of Citigroup’s success had turned to ashes. Citigroup pursued a high-risk, high-growth strategy during the 2000s that proved to be disastrous. As a result, the bank recorded more than $130 billion of losses on its loans and investments from 2007 to 2009. To prevent Citigroup’s failure, the federal government provided $45 billion of new capital to the bank and gave the bank $500 billion of additional help in the form of asset guarantees, debt guarantees and emergency loans. The federal government provided more financial assistance to Citigroup than to any other bank during the financial crisis. During its early years, Citigroup was embroiled in a series of high-profile scandals, including tainted transactions with Enron and WorldCom, biased research advice, corrupt allocations of shares in initial public offerings, predatory subprime lending, and market manipulation in foreign bond markets. Notwithstanding a widely-publicized plan to improve corporate risk controls in 2005, Citigroup continued to pursue higher profits through a wide range of speculative activities, including leveraged corporate lending, packaging toxic subprime loans into mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations, and dumping risky assets into off- balance-sheet conduits for which Citigroup had contractual and reputational exposures. Post-mortem evaluations of Citigroup’s near-collapse revealed that neither Citigroup’s managers nor its regulators recognized the systemic risks embedded in the bank’s far-flung operations. Thus, Citigroup was not only too big to fail but also too large and too complex to manage or regulate effectively. Citigroup’s history raises deeply troubling questions about the ability of bank executives and regulators to supervise and control today’s megabanks. Citigroup’s original creators - John Reed of Citicorp and Sandy Weill of Travelers - admitted in recent years that Citigroup’s universal banking model failed, and they called on Congress to reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act’s separation between commercial and investment banks. As Reed and Weill acknowledged, the universal banking model is deeply flawed by its excessive organizational complexity, its vulnerability to culture clashes and conflicts of interest, and its tendency to permit excessive risk-taking within far-flung, semi-autonomous units that lack adequate oversight from either senior managers or regulators. Keywords: bailout, Citigroup, financial conglomerates, Glass-Steagall, regulatory failures, risk management failures, systemically important financial institutions, too big to fail, universal banks JEL Classification: E44, E53, E58, F30, G18, G20, G21, G24, G28, K20, K23, N20 Wilmarth, Arthur E., Citigroup: A Case Study in Managerial and Regulatory Failures (October 31, 2013). Indiana Law Review, Vol. 47, pp. 69-137, 2014, GWU Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2013-139, GWU Law School Public Law Research Paper No. 2013-139, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2370131 Arthur E. Wilmarth (Contact Author) George Washington University Law School ( email ) 2000 H Street, N.W. HOME PAGE: http://https://www.law.gwu.edu/arthur-e-wilmarth-jr	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line665
__label__wiki	0.859832	0.859832	Mr Girish Nair Mr Alexios Adamides Mr Hui Lau WorkCover and TAC Patient Fees Brain Diseases & Disorders Spine Conditions Cerebrovascular Diseases NEUROAXIS IN THE MEDIA Mr Girish Nair and his team’s breakthrough treatments for Parkinson’s Disease using stem cells and 3D printed equipment have been widely featured in the Australian media. Neuroaxis has received TV coverage from Channel 9 News, Channel 10 News, Channel 7 News and Channel Ten’s The Project. Our story has also featured on radio stations such as ABC Radio, Gold FM Hourly News and many popular newspapers including the Herald Sun and the Geelong Advertiser. Mickan Against Parkinson’s – Gala Dinner 2019 At “The Mickan against Parkinson’s ” Adelaide, SA. Congratulations to Ms.Nassaris (CEO Parkinson South Australia) and the team at Adelaide Oval for putting this together .Thanks for inviting Mr Girish Nair(Neurosurgeon) as a speaker for the event to speak about his involvement in Mr. Mickan’s care as a treating Neurosurgeon Thanks for having Neuroaxis at this event celebrating a true Champion in footy and in the fight against Parkinson’s. We are proud to be part of Mark’s Parkinson journey. Former AFL player, Mark Mikan was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2016. Until recently, he experienced debilitating tremors in his hands and feet. His symptoms have been greatly reduced since undergoing brain surgery. Find out about the operation using the latest in deep brain stimulation technology. A new surgical technique lead by neurosurgeon Girish Nair is having a remarkable impact on the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. The new and improved deep brain stimulation therapy uses 3D printed equipment that is fitted to the patients head. This results in a faster, more accurate and ultimately less intimidating operation for the patient. Previously any patient undergoing deep brain stimulation would be secured to an operating table with a cumbersome head frame. They were often kept awake for the operation which lasted many hours making the treatment almost intolerable. Neuromodulation Society of Australia and New Zealand In April 2018, Girish Nair was invited to speak at the annual scientific meeting in Sydney for the NSANZ. He spoke about stereotactically targeted stem cell therapy for Parkinson’s Disease. NSANZ Fight Against Migraine Symposium 2018 In August 2018, Girish Nair was invited to speak at the Fight Against Migraines conference held in Melbourne. He is pictured here with Dr David Dodick, a world leader in the field of headache and migraine. FIGHT AGAINST MIGRAINE In a world first, stem cells have been injected into the brain of a Parkinson’s disease sufferer as part of an experimental treatment in Melbourne. Interviewees: Mr Girish Nair, Neurosurgeon & Dr Andrew Evans, Neurologist Ch 9 – Nine News 3pm & 4pm (National) Specialists at the Royal Melbourne Hospital have injected stem cells into the brain of a Parkinson’s disease sufferer, in a world-first experimental treatment. Doctors hope the bold procedure will help reverse the degenerative disease. Ch 9 – National Nine News 6:14 pm Melbourne Neurosurgeon Mr Girish Nair has injected stem cells into the brain of a patient in a world first trial to treat Parkinson’s disease. Ch7 – Seven News 4:00 pm (National) An Australian man has become the first person to receive a new stem cell procedure that is hoped will cure Parkinson’s disease. SBS World News 6:30pm (National) Neuroscientists in Melbourne have made a breakthrough in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease by injecting stem cells directly into a patient’s brain. Neurologist Dr Andrew Evans, says this aims to slow or even reverse the Parkinson’s process. Neurosurgeon Mr Girish Nair, says getting this procedure wrong can cause a stroke, or even death, in the patient. The final results of the transplant will not be known for at least two years. Ch 10 – TEN Eyewitness News 5:11 pm A team from the Royal Melbourne hospital have successfully completed a world-first, potentially revolutionary procedure for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. During the eight hour operation, surgeons injected stem cells into the patient’s brain. Researchers at The Royal Melbourne Hospital have begun trialing a treatment for Parkinson’s disease which they say is the first of its kind in the world. ABC Radio – The World Today (National) LISTEN TO RECORDING The Royal Melbourne Hospital have conducted a trial experiment, by injecting stem cells into a brain to treat Parkinson’s disease. ABC 774 Breakfast with Libbi Gorr 7:10 am Surgeons at the Royal Melbourne Hospital have transplanted stem cells into the brain of a patient suffering from Parkinson’s disease. ABC 774 News 9:00 am Stem cells have been injected directly into the brain of a patient with Parkinson’s disease at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. Gold FM Hourly News Neuroscientists and neurosurgeons at the Royal Melbourne Hospital have injected stem cells into a man’s head in a world-first trial to treat Parkinson’s disease. The experimental treatment used a 3D recreation of the patient’s skull to carry out the procedure. Melbourne hospitals, medical researchers and scientists have amazed the world with new technological advances in surgical techniques. The latest medical miracle now includes inserting stem cells deep into a patient’s brain in an experimental treatment for Parkinson’s disease. In a world-first trial, stem cells have been injected into the brain of a Victorian patient in a bid to develop a treatment for Parkinson’s disease. FOR APPOINTMENTS staff@neuroaxis.com.au	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line666
__label__cc	0.604108	0.395892	Visteon's e-Bee concept car showcases new ideas for mobility Visteon's e-Bee concept car sh... The Nissan Leaf-based e-Bee concept car A rendering of the e-Bee's three instrument panels Automobile systems manufacturer Visteon has unveiled its Nissan Leaf-based e-Bee concept car, designed to showcase some of the company’s visions for mobility technology in the year 2020. Car-sharing will apparently be much more prevalent by then, as many of the car’s features are centered around allowing multiple users to adapt it to their liking. Probably the most prominent of these features is the e-Bee’s ability to store numerous user profiles in the cloud. In this way, each user could initially get the look, color and layout of the digital instrument panels set up the way they prefer, then save those settings. Every time they used the car subsequently, they could just reload that profile from the cloud. There are three of those instrument panels, two of which are touchscreens located on either side of the steering wheel. They provide information on vehicle controls and social media connections. At the center, immediately in front of the driver, is the head-down projected main display – this is where the most vital information, such as driving speed, is accessed. Where the rear-view mirror would ordinarily be, the e-Bee instead has a video monitor displaying a real-time feed from a 180-degree rear-view camera. Different users can also also physically adapt the interior to their liking, thanks to a series of clip-on modules. These include things like cup holders, wireless charging devices, and additional cameras to increase visibility. Along with individual headrest-mounted audio systems, each occupant also has access to the climate control system via controls in the door panels, and can use it to raise or lower the temperature in their own “climate zone.” That system is located in the climate module, which combines the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) unit with the refrigerant system. By being mounted in the engine compartment, the climate module opens up more interior space – ordinarily, most HVAC components are located inside the dashboard. Space is also saved by putting the airbags in the headliner, and by mounting controls and displays on independent local structures, instead of on a central cross-car steel beam. The car’s HVAC system additionally incorporates a gentle air diffusion feature, a cooled rear grocery storage box, and – in case there’s a passenger who stinks – a fragrance diffusion system. Materials used for the interior include recycled and bio-based resin and natural fiber hybrid materials, along with weight-saving recyclable expanded polypropylene. The e-Bee made its public debut this week, at the Electronica 2012 Trade Fair in Munich. Some of the car's features are highlighted in the video below. Source: Visteon Visteon e-Bee Vehicle Concept - User Experience AutomotiveConcept CarsNissan LEAFCar SharingVisteon Nio EP7 promises 621-mile electric range and quick-swappable batteries All-new Jeep Grand Cherokee L loads in three rows and plenty of tech Singer beautifies the mud with air-cooled Porsche 911 rally car	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line667
__label__wiki	0.776154	0.776154	The CW renews all your favorites, like Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Jane The Virgin, and Riverdale Photo: Greg Gayne (The CW) The CW is a network that gives fans exactly what they want, which is why The Flash and Supergirl had a musical crossover and why Riverdale is actually somehow really good, so in that spirit it has now decided to renew pretty much every one of its shows with a dedicated following—even if those shows don’t have a huge audience outside of that dedicated following. This comes from Variety, which says Arrow, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Legends Of Tomorrow, The Flash, Jane The Virgin, Riverdale, Supergirl, Supernatural, Black Lightning, and Dynasty have all been picked up for new seasons, with only Life Sentence, Valor, The 100, and iZombie still waiting until next month for an official decision from The CW. This news comes as Legends Of Tomorrow and Riverdale have already been discussing their new seasons, and it will give both Jane The Virgin and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend the opportunities to end the way their creators want them to—as Gina Rodriguez has suggested her show will end after season five and Rachel Bloom has mentioned having a four-season plan for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend from the start. Meanwhile, The CW is also planning to open up its Sunday nights for the first time in almost a decade, which freed up a lot of space for mass-renewals like this.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line668
__label__wiki	0.587952	0.587952	Ballotpedia’s Daily Brew: 12 states + D.C. currently have travel restrictions By Dave Beaudoin Happy early Thanksgiving! We hope you enjoy the day, even if it looks a little different this year. We’ll be back with the next Brew edition on Monday, Nov. 30. Welcome to the Tuesday, Nov. 24, Brew. Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day: Traveling over Thanksgiving? Here are the states with restrictions on travel Expected census delays may postpone state redistricting efforts in 2021 Thanksgiving week is historically one of the busiest travel periods of the year. The CDC and many state officials are discouraging travel this year, citing the rise in coronavirus cases across the country. Ballotpedia has tracked 12 states plus the District of Columbia that currently have active restrictions on travel: Of the states on that list, Alaska was the first to impose travel restrictions. Pennsylvania, which issued its restrictions on Nov. 20, was the most recent to do so. All 12 states plus the District of Columbia require out-of-state travelers to self-quarantine for 14 days upon arrival. Some states, including Alaska, Massachusetts, and New York, allow travelers to avoid or reduce the length of the quarantine period if they can produce a negative COVID-19 test upon arrival. Restriction enforcement includes fines ranging from $100 to $10,000. Since the pandemic began, 26 states have issued restrictions on travel, and 14 have been rescinded. Many states that have not issued enforceable orders limiting travel have instead issued advisories encouraging travelers to quarantine upon arrival. Click the link below for a list of all the states’ travel restrictions and advisories. And to stay up-to-date on travel restrictions and much more coronavirus-related news, click here to subscribe to our Documenting America’s Path to Recovery emails. On Nov. 19, U.S. Census Bureau Director Steve Dillingham announced an expected delay in processing population totals for the 2020 U.S. Census. On the same day, the New York Times reported that calculations could be delayed until at least Jan. 26, 2021, but possibly to mid-February. The standard census timeline calls for the bureau to submit apportionment counts to the President by Dec. 31 and redistricting data to the states by April 1, 2021. In the 2010 cycle, the bureau delivered apportion counts to the president on Dec. 21, 2010, and redistricting data to the states between Feb. 3 and March 24, 2011. At least one state (California) has already extended its redistricting deadlines by order of the state supreme court, in light of the uncertainty surrounding the conclusion of the census. Federal law requires congressional and legislative districts to have roughly equal populations. Consequently, states use census data during their redistricting processes to ensure compliance with this requirement. Every 10 years, the United States conducts the census, a complete count of the U.S. population. Census results determine the number of seats each state has in the U.S. House of Representatives. Because the U.S. Constitution requires that representation be apportioned to the states on the basis of population, a state can gain seats if its population grows or lose seats if its population decreases, relative to populations in other states. In the 2010 cycle, redistricting authorities enacted 43 new congressional district maps and 50 new state legislative district maps (seven states had only one district each, eliminating the need for congressional redistricting). The majority—63 maps (31 congressional and 32 state legislative), or 67.74% of the total—were enacted in 2011. In 2012, 28 maps (12 congressional and 16 state legislative) were enacted—30.11% of the total. The remaining maps were enacted in the first six months of 2013. Although postponements to the 2020 process are possible because of census delays, what happened in 2010 gives us an idea of when most of the redistricting activity will occur. Much of the country’s attention is focused on the Jan. 5 runoffs for the U.S. Senate in Georgia. But there are several elections occurring before then. Let’s take a look at the upcoming races: Nov. 24: Mississippi is holding a special runoff election for state House District 87 and a general runoff election for DeSoto County School District. Dec. 1: Arkansas will hold a general runoff for the Little Rock School District. Dec. 1: Georgia will hold a runoff for state races, including a special election runoff for Georgia state Senate District 39. Dec. 5: Louisiana’s statewide general election. Texas will hold elections on multiple days in December: Dec. 8: General runoff for Arlington, Mansfield ISD, and Dallas County Dec. 12: General runoff for El Paso County, Laredo, and Houston City Council Dec. 15: General runoff for Austin and Corpus Christi Dec. 19: Special election runoff for state Senate District 30 Dec. 15: Alabama will hold a special election primary runoff will be held for state Senate District 26. Dec. 22: New York will hold a special election for City Council District 12. Dave Beaudoin Dave Beaudoin is a project director at Ballotpedia. Contact us at editor@ballotpedia.org.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line669
__label__wiki	0.511851	0.511851	UMass Plans to Go National With Online Program UMass is situated in what is commonly known as the “knowledge corridor,” or the Harford-Springfield region that stretches from Connecticut to Massachusetts. The region, which is only home to 1.6 million residents, is also home to 160,000 college students and dozens of universities and colleges including the University of Connecticut, University of Massachusetts Amherst and the other prestigious “Five Colleges,” which include Amherst, Smith, Hampshire and Mount Holyoke. Now, the region faces a unique problem–the number of college-age residents in the region is in decline. To respond, the University of Massachusetts has decided to start marketing its online programs nationally. UMass Goes National with Online Programs As reported in the Boston Globe on December 25, “The University of Massachusetts is planning a major expansion of its online education programs” to address declining enrollments in its system. The announcement comes after years of steady yet understated growth of UMass’s online programs. In October, Mark Lieberman of Inside Higher Education noted, “Because UMass Online represents a consortium of five of the six University of Massachusetts campuses, it doesn’t appear on most lists of biggest online institutions. Despite flying under the radar since its inception in 2001, the program has shown steady growth in recent years.” While individual campuses administer courses, the UMass Online system provides marketing, branding and other services to support the courses. Marcellette Williams, senior vice president of academic affairs at UMass, says, “It is really the best of centralized and decentralized.” According to Inside Higher Education, in 2017, UMass online offered courses to approximately 75,000 students and generated $104 million. Some of UMass Online’s highlights include exceptionally strong graduate level offerings. The consortium currently offers online doctoral degrees in education and nursing and 45 master’s level degrees in everything from Education to History to Business Administration. As stated on their website, over all, UMass online offers 150 university’s degrees and certificates and more than 1500 online courses designed to help busy professionals, lifelong learners, and students around the world continue their education and reskill and upskill as required. Is UMass Online the Next Southern New Hampshire University? As reported in an earlier eLearning Inside News article, moving online and looking outward nationally and internationally for potential students is by no means a new strategy. Southern New Hampshire University has been thriving despite the fact that the university, which is ranked #86 in Regional Universities North by US News but consistently ranked among the most innovative universities in the nation due to its online offerings, is located in a state with virtually no population growth. Indeed, New Hampshire’s current growth rate is among the lowest in the United States. Despite the state’s stagnant population and low number of college-age residents, Southern New Hampshire University continues to expand at a rapid rate and the decision to look for beyond state lines is paying off. By the close of the fiscal year in 2016, Southern New Hampshire University was reporting an estimated $535 million in revenues (this represented a 34% compounded annual growth over five years). If UMass takes a page from Southern New Hampshire University’s playbook, however, they will already have a distinct advantage. While Southern New Hampshire University has always had a middling reputation in university rankings, UMass has not. Indeed, US News ranks UMass in the top 100 of national universities and among the top 50 public universities. If UMass Online, which includes course offerings from Amherst (currently ranked #2 among national liberal arts colleges) and Smith (currently ranked #12 among national liberal arts colleges), continues to expand, the consortium has the potential to bring increased currency and prestigious to online education. Can We Solve the Epidemic of Teacher Shortages Through Teacher Professional Development? Ohio Parents Continue to Choose Virtual Charters Despite Further Scandal and Poor Performance George Washington University Online Courses Pit Professors Against Administrators … Just Like Everywhere Else How American Colleges Allocate Funds and Resources: Update 2019 Vishal Makhijani Prepares to Leave Udacity EdTech in 2019: Experts and Founders Around the World Share Predictions Predictions for EdTech in 2019 - NUADU Newsroom says: […] above excerpt was originally published as a part of the article EDTECH IN 2019: EXPERTS AND FOUNDERS AROUND THE WORLD SHARE PREDICTIONS by Cait […] Prognozy dla branży EdTech na 2019 rok - NUADU Newsroom says:	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line670
__label__wiki	0.670997	0.670997	Obama Still Fares Better on Foreign Than on Domestic Issues Foreign affairs approval rating at 46%, economy at 39% PRINCETON, NJ -- Americans continue to generally rate President Barack Obama's handling of international issues better than his handling of domestic issues. Forty-six percent approve of the president's handling of foreign affairs and 44% his handling of Libya, while his highest rating on three domestic issues is 40% for healthcare policy. Obama's approval ratings on all five issues tested in the March 25-27 Gallup poll are below 50%, as is his overall job approval rating, which is 47% in the latest Gallup Daily three-day rolling average. Gallup has asked Americans about Obama's handling of most of these issues throughout his term. While all currently rank on the low end of what Gallup has measured during his presidency, none is at its lowest point and most have been fairly stable in recent months. After Obama received relatively positive evaluations for his economic stewardship early in his presidency, his ratings on the economy have held below 40% since early 2010, and are currently at 39%. Because he was elected during the 2008 economic downturn, Obama's handling of the economy could arguably be the most critical issue for how Americans evaluate his presidency leading up to his 2012 re-election bid and how historians judge his legacy in the future. The trend lines are similar for Obama's approval on foreign affairs and healthcare policy, with higher ratings early in his presidency, declines from late 2009 into 2010, and more stable scores in recent months. Obama's approval rating for handling the budget deficit, now at 33%, is the only issue rating to show a significant increase since the last update in February. It is not clear whether that increase represents a more positive assessment of his recent work on the budget or perhaps just a return to prior levels as the issue has taken a back seat to news about international crises in Japan and Libya. Still, even with the increase, the budget deficit remains Obama's weakest issue. Not All Presidents Have Done Better on Foreign Than on Economic Issues Gallup has measured presidents' handling of foreign affairs and the economy regularly since Ronald Reagan's presidency. To date, Obama has averaged 50% approval on foreign affairs and 42% on the economy as president. His foreign affairs approval rating is in the middle of the pack, trailing the elder George Bush's 63% average. Obama's average rating on the economy is similar to those for Reagan and George W. Bush, but below Bill Clinton's and above the elder Bush's average. There is no clear pattern as to whether presidents are generally rated higher on one dimension than on the other. The elder Bush, like Obama, was graded better on foreign affairs than on the economy, while the opposite was true for Clinton. Reagan and George W. Bush got similar ratings in both areas. The differential ratings likely reflect the events going on at the time. The elder Bush was president during the fall of the communist empire in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and presided over the successful Persian Gulf War in 1991 that drove Iraq out of Kuwait, reflecting positively on his ability to manage foreign affairs. But the economy went into recession during his presidency, leading to Clinton's election. Clinton was in office during the subsequent economic recovery and boom of the late 1990s. George W. Bush got strong foreign affairs approval ratings in his first term, averaging 57%, likely due to his response to the Sept. 11 terror attacks, but poor ratings in his second term (38%), likely because of the Iraq war. Obama's ratings on foreign versus domestic issues may have to do as much with the challenges he faces in each arena as with his ability to respond to each. With Obama having been elected to office during a down economy that has been slow to recover, and facing unprecedented budget deficits -- in part due to increased government spending that attempted to jump-start the economy -- his ratings on these issues have not been strong. Although there have been challenges in foreign policy, including the current U.S. mission in Libya, these have perhaps not been as difficult in the eyes of the public as the problems Obama faces domestically. Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted March 25-27, 2011, with a random sample of 1,027 adults, aged 18 and older, living in the continental U.S., selected using random-digit-dial sampling. For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points. Interviews are conducted with respondents on landline telephones (for respondents with a landline telephone) and cellular phones (for respondents who are cell phone-only). Each sample includes a minimum quota of 150 cell phone-only respondents and 850 landline respondents, with additional minimum quotas among landline respondents for gender within region. Landline respondents are chosen at random within each household on the basis of which member had the most recent birthday. Samples are weighted by gender, age, race, education, region, and phone lines. Demographic weighting targets are based on the March 2010 Current Population Survey figures for the aged 18 and older non-institutionalized population living in continental U.S. telephone households. All reported margins of sampling error include the computed design effects for weighting and sample design. USA All Gallup Headlines Government Politics The Presidency Northern America Americans' Top Job-Creation Idea: Stop Sending Work Overseas One in four Americans say the best way to create more jobs in the U.S. is to keep manufacturing in this country and stop sending work overseas. Americans also suggest creating jobs by increasing infrastructure work, lowering taxes, helping small businesses, and reducing government regulation. Americans Less Likely to View Obama as a Strong Leader Fewer Americans believe Barack Obama is a strong and decisive leader (52%) than did so a year ago (60%), while his ratings on other personal dimensions are stable compared with 2010. Of five characteristics, he scores best on honesty and worst on having a clear plan for solving the country's problems. Americans Resist a Major U.S. Role in Libya Three in four Americans favor some level of U.S. military involvement in Libya, while 22% think the U.S. should withdraw entirely. Americans are split over what the goal should be, with 45% in favor of enforcing the no-fly zone and 44% in favor of expanding the mission to remove Moammar Gadhafi from power. Infrastructure Action Should Be a No-Brainer Both the American public and President-elect Joe Biden favor government action on the nation's pressing infrastructure problems. Gallup https://news.gallup.com/poll/146930/Obama-Fares-Better-Foreign-Domestic-Issues.aspx	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line671
__label__cc	0.569953	0.430047	The Person Who Inspired Me First-generation seniors express gratitude for people whose influence and guidance helped them achieve success Twitter Princess Adeyinka ’20, anthropology and sociology, government and law Inspiration: her mom “She has inspired me in so many ways, and a lot of what I do is to make her proud and to know that her sacrifices were never in vain.” “The lion is often called the king of the jungle, but I think everyone knows that it’s the lioness who actually runs it, especially when it comes to her cubs. That’s my mother! She will fight tooth and nail to protect her children and has been doing so since the day I was born. When I was 5 years old, my mother brought me and my younger brother to America for a chance at a better life, like so many immigrants. Leaving Nigeria wasn’t really hard for me, I mean I was just a child. But I know it was very difficult for my mother. To have to leave her sister, her brother, and her mother behind to ensure our safety was one of the bravest things she’s done, amongst many. She has inspired me in so many ways, and a lot of what I do is to make her proud and to know that her sacrifices were never in vain.” Rosie Rivera ’20, government & law, Spanish, classical civilization Inspiration: Markus Dubischar, associate professor of classics “I cannot, and do not, want to imagine what my college career would have been like without Professor Dubischar, and I will never be able to thank him enough!” “Both of my parents are Latino immigrants—my mom is from a small town in Oaxaca, Mexico, and my dad was from Chalatenango, El Salvador. My dad passed away when I was 2 1/2 years old, so my mom raised me and my sister on her own. Spanish is my first language, but I learned English shortly after beginning preschool. After spending most of elementary and middle school thinking I wanted to be a scientist or a doctor, I discovered my love for literature, history, and language in high school. My Latin classes captured all of these subjects in one, and I fell totally in love. I carried this love into college but wasn’t sure I could do anything with it—because what could a major in Classics offer me after graduation? As a first-generation college student, I didn’t want to let my family down and waste the amazing opportunity I had been given through Posse: to attend a prestigious liberal arts college with a full-tuition scholarship and a built-in support network both on campus and back home. But, I met Professor Dubischar during XLC, sat in on his mini-mythology course, and immediately decided that I needed to learn more from him. Fortunately, he was offering a class on Greek Tragedy that fall, and I made sure I was in it. Before I knew it, I had enough classes for a minor and figured why not just major! From visiting during his office hours to running into each other on the fourth floor of Pardee to grabbing coffee from Skillman or smoothies from Mojo, Professor Dubischar quickly became not only my favorite professor but also one of my favorite people on campus. We can talk about almost anything—usually we start off discussing something Classic-y, like the double burial in Antigone, and somehow end up debating whether or not chocolate and mint should mix (they should). I cannot, and do not, want to imagine what my college career would have been like without Professor Dubischar, and I will never be able to thank him enough!” Kaila Aguerre ’20, women’s, gender, and sexuality studies, art Inspiration: an old friend “Although Chris is physically no longer here, he’s always with me, always reminding me to take it one step at a time. I wouldn’t be the person I am today without him.” “I got a call late in August 2018 one night from my brother: Our friend, Chris, had committed suicide. You see, I met Chris when I was 14, a severely depressed girl, lost with who she was and who she wanted to be. Chris, without me knowing it, had shown me that I was worthy of this life, that I could do anything that I had wanted to. And what destroys me, is that I never told Chris how much he meant to me. In December 2018, I let Chris know how much he means to me: I ran my first race, a marathon, in his honor. He was rightI could do anything I set my heart to. Although Chris is physically no longer here, he’s always with me, always reminding me to take it one step at a time. I wouldn’t be the person I am today without him. And I now call myself a marathon runner.” Ayat Husseini ’20, international affairs, anthropology and sociology Inspiration: Robert Blunt, associate professor of religious studies “In the three years I’ve known him, Professor Blunt has shown me so much empathy and kindness. I would not be the person I am today if it wasn’t for his support.” “Professor Blunt has been central to my academic and personal development. As my professor, he pushed me to engage critically with difficult texts and to write with clarity and poise. As my mentor, he has helped me navigate difficult situations and figure out what I want to do in the world. He has pushed me to listen to myself and to become who I want to be, rather than who I think others want me to be. In the three years I’ve known him, Professor Blunt has shown me so much empathy and kindness. I would not be the person I am today if it wasn’t for his support.” Nyla Durdin ’20, international affairs “She is a badass, intelligent, and incredible force to be reckoned with. She’s the reason I am all that I am.” “When I was growing up, one of my favorite things to do was when my mom and I would pretend we were sisters when out in public. We’d be eating at a restaurant or out shopping, and I’d ask her questions about when ‘mom’ wanted us home and say the things I thought a younger sister would say. I think it’s because I desired the type of relationship I thought a sibling would bring. It worked, and people believed us because my mom looked very young. She was young. She had me when she was 24. She is also very small—she’ll say 5 foot 3, but I’m thinking a solid 5 feet sounds more accurate. The sister game never lasted, and by the time we were back at home, she instantly shifted back into mom mode. She had to, because for so many years, it was just me and her. She had to be good cop, bad cop, mentor, discipliner, my No. 1 fan, and everything in between. Can you imagine having to do it all? My mom is tough; she’s the kind of parent that knows where I am, what I’m doing, and who I’m with, but is still, somehow, the ‘cool’ mom. I always did and always will tell her everything. I never felt like I had to lie or keep things from her growing up, except, of course, for those couple times in high school when I was sleeping at ‘Nicole’s house.’ Her girlfriends call her “tiny angry Asian,” which is equally hilarious as it is true. She made me realize at a very young age that there is nothing stronger in the world than independent, tough, resilient women. When I was little she would ask me, every single day, ‘What’s more important than good looks?’ to which I would reply, ‘good brains!’ There’s nothing more powerful, nothing more impressive, and nothing more special than this relationship my mom cultivated and the life she gave me. She is a badass, intelligent, and incredible force to be reckoned with. She’s the reason I am all that I am.” Categorized in: 2020 Celebrations, Commencement 2020, Featured News, News and Features, Student Profiles, Students Amy Blythe, Director of Parent & Family Relations says: FAVORITE story of the season! Thank you for sharing your inspiration and for sharing YOU with us. You will all do great things!	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line672
__label__wiki	0.87356	0.87356	Social Circle graduate, 16, to play wheelchair basketball at University of Illinois 04/18/2017 Sharon Swanepoel Schools, Sports, Top News 0 Mckayla Jones will be heading to the University of Illinois to play wheelchair basketball after graduating from Social Circle High School next month. The University of Illinois shared the signing on its Facebook page on April 13. McKayla Jones. Contributed photo Mckayla, who will be 16 when she graduates, suffered a spinal cord injury in a car accident when she was 3, but she hasn’t let that hold her back from achieving her dreams says her mother, Hope Jones. “She has been playing competitively for 4 years. University of Illinois was Mckayla first pick because they are leading the way for disability athletes,” Jones said. “As Mckayla’s mom it was always very important to me to treat Mckayla like she could accomplish anything her heart desired. She climbed Stone Mountain a few months ago. After the car accident in 2004 left Mckayla with a spinal cord injury, I thought her dreams wouldn’t come to reality.” But that was not the case. Jones says her daughter is a “very bright young lady with an amazing future ahead of her.” It was not always easy for Jones either after being widowed and left to raise three children. The family may be remembered from The Well, a healthy fast food restaurant that opened in Monroe for a brief stint a few years back. It closed when Jones needed to take a job that provided health insurance. She said she is now focused on being a mom to her three children. “As a single mom it hasn’t been easy. The team that Mcksyls was with demand a lot money, time and travel but it was a sacrifice that I knew as a family we had to do,” Jones said. When Mckayla climbed Stone Mountain last year, her mother was right there with her, helping carry the wheelchair when needed. “She pushed in areas that she could and I carried the chair in others. On the last leg, where it was very steep, three men who were there climbing helped. It was an emotional day for sure,” Jones said, going on to share a post she made on Facebook the day after the climb. “So many different emotions went into yesterday…a lot of blood, sweat and tears. Mckayla was interview at the top…they ask her why she wanted to do it. Her response was, ‘I just wanted to climb Stone Mountain.’ She reached the top with everyone cheering and thanking her for who she is…if you know Mckayla that made her real uncomfortable. Everyone was taking pictures she said very quietly ‘mom I’m not a national monument.’ I pray one day she will see how amazing she truly is. Just want to add this was probably the best and the worst feeling as her mom…seeing her struggle, but proud at the same time.” And now, with the scholarship to the University of Illinois, Mckayla will soon be heading off on a new adventure and another one that her mother is facing with both trepidation, but incredible pride. “I’m going to miss her so much but this is an amazing opportunity that most kids never get,” Jones said.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line673
__label__wiki	0.739086	0.739086	You are at:Home»Campus»Southeast’s Historic Preservation Program, Hoffman Recognized in Kansas City Southeast’s Historic Preservation Program, Hoffman Recognized in Kansas City By Ann Hayes on May 10, 2018 Campus, Faculty and Staff, History & Anthropology, Humanities and Social Sciences, Students The Southeast Missouri State University historic preservation program and Cape Girardeau were strongly represented at Main Street Now, a national conference of National Main Street Center, Inc. (NMSC) recently held in Kansas City, Missouri, and hosted by Missouri Main Street Connection (MMSC). Dr. Carlos Vargas, president of Southeast; Dr. Steven Hoffman, coordinator of Southeast’s historic preservation program, professor of history and member of the Old Town Cape, Inc.’s board of directors; and Marla Mills, executive director of Old Town Cape jointly led a session on fostering positive relationships between higher education and downtown revitalization organizations. When Kansas City was chosen as the conference’s host city, Hoffman and Mills approached the University to discuss opportunities for involvement. Vargas expressed interest in enhancing Southeast’s presence, and together they created a presentation for the conference: “Higher Education Partnerships and How to Maximize the Relationships.” “When looking at a partnership with an educational organization, you try to look at it from all perspectives,” Mills explained. “We’ve been able to sustain our partnership with the historic preservation program and the University over such a long time by trying to meet the needs of all sides.” The presentation exemplified the successful relationship between Southeast and Old Town Cape and offered insights to other organizations seeking to make similar connections. “I am proud of the University’s ongoing commitment to Old Town Cape through the financial support of student labor and technology, in addition to assisting Dr. Hoffman with travel to the annual Main Street Now national conference,” Vargas said. “Both partners are helping to accomplish each other’s missions,” Hoffman said. “The students provide assistance in completing Old Town Cape’s projects, and the opportunities provide the students with experiential learning, meeting the University’s strategic mission. The partnership is also a valuable tool for recruitment and retention.” The session was well attended by professionals from preservation and economic revitalization organizations. Many were impressed by the involvement from the University’s president. Since the conference, Old Town Cape has been contacted by organizations seeking additional advice, and members from one group even scheduled a visit to Cape Girardeau. “Dr. Vargas is so engaged in our downtown and openly says he loves the work that we do,” Mills said. “What better way to show that relationship is possible than to have all of us at the table.” Vargas added, “It is extremely valuable for Southeast to be engaged as an active partner to support Old Town Cape’s ongoing efforts as it continues to revitalize our downtown area.” Southeast students have been involved in several projects, such as architectural surveys, placemaking projects and National Register nominations that have contributed toward the goals of improvement of downtown Cape Girardeau. Southeast professor Dr. Steven Hoffman is presented his Main Street America Revitalization Professional credential by Patrice Frey, president and chief executive officer of the National Main Street Center. “The relationship also benefits the community as a whole,” Mills said. “It brings preservation into the community. Having engaged students and faculty has made it better. We are further along now than we would have been without the involvement of the University.” Also during the conference, Hoffman was recognized for earning his Main Street America Revitalization Professional (MSARP) credential. Hoffman was a member of the second group of graduates to earn the MSARP credential since the program was developed in 2015. The credential signifies professional development through the NMSC’s Main Street America Institute. Participants earn the credential by completing a two-year process that includes several online modules and in-person sessions in each of the four areas of the preservation-based community revitalization techniques known as the Main Street® Approach: economic vitality, organization, promotion and design. The participants also complete online modules and an in-person workshop on leadership development and are required to pass a comprehensive final exam. Hoffman has been the president of the board of directors of the MMSC since 2009. He advocated for the MSARP program and was involved in reviewing proposals and implementing plans. Although he has taught some of the design courses, he wanted to participate in the program to refine his skills. “I wanted to enhance my ability to teach the classes –‘Historic Preservation-based Economic Revitalization’ and ‘Legal and Economic Principles of Historic Preservation’,” Hoffman said. “It also gives me legitimacy in the Main Street world.” Mills said the credential benefits the community as well as the individual. “Having that credential, in addition to the knowledge it brings, gives the community and the program a certain level of confidence,” Mills said. “Our board recognizes him as an advisor and a resource, not just for historic preservation but also strategy and his ability to combine opportunities and needs to benefit everyone.” National Main Street Center, Inc. is a nonprofit organization and a subsidiary of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. For more than 35 years, the Center’s Main Street America program has provided assistance in the revitalization of older and historic commercial districts. Today, it is a network of more than 1,600 neighborhoods and communities, rural and urban, who share both a commitment to place and to building stronger communities through preservation-based economic development.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line674
__label__wiki	0.75007	0.75007	Tag Archives: NHL Playoffs 2016-17 NHL Final Stanley Cup Playoff Report Posted on June 15, 2017 by ericthephantom Standard Reply Well we’ve come to the end of another entertaining NHL season and from my point of view there is no surprise about the final outcome. There is no surprise that the Pittsburgh Penguins successfully defended their championship. Before the playoffs started, I said in my predictions for the first round that Pittsburgh was the team to beat in the east and Chicago was the team to beat in the west. So my east prediction was ho hum and the west an electric shock. But what did the whole thing mean? This article tries to make sense of what happened in the NHL from April to June. Before I get down to business I must take a moment to congratulate myself and pat myself on the back. I finished 12-3 for the playoff rounds, predicted Pittsburgh was the team to beat in the east. If Chicago had played up to expectations, I might have done even better. So before recapping, I’ll put away my wizard’s hat until next year… The only surprise about the Penguins repeating as champion was how strong and how good this team is. They won without their best defenseman, Kris Letang playing a single playoff game. They won with their best goaltender Matt Murray missing three quarters of the playoffs. And they won with their best player Sidney Crosby missing one game with a concussion. Baring injury or the unexpected, the Penguins can win a few more in row. By a country mile, they are already the team to beat for next year. Biggest Disappointment The early exit of the Chicago Blackhawks to a team they never lost to before in the very first round, in the minimum four games, including two shutouts on home ice had to be the biggest upset and shock of the whole playoffs. It is true that the core of this team that has won 3 Stanley Cups since 2010 is starting to age, but much better was definitely expected. What really hurt this team is that all the new players who are expected to lead the way in the future showed absolutely nothing, a bad omen for the future of this team. A team that I expected to be Pittsburgh’s main challenger has now got lots of doubts hanging over its head. Biggest Surprise Under talented Ottawa upsetting the New York Rangers and then nearly pulling off an equal upset of Nashville’s elimination of Chicago by taking Pittsburgh to a 7 game semi-final. Honorable mention: St. Louis which lost a lot of top talent in the off season and then by trades winning a playoff round and then putting up a good struggle against Nashville. Feet Kisser That guy everybody saw in the Pittsburgh dressing room after the Stanley Cup victory who was on the floor kissing every Penguin toe he could get his lips around was really General Manager Marc Bergevin of the Montreal Canadiens. Bergevin stood to lose his life either by lynching or by honorable suicide before the mob got to him because he made P. K. Subban the scapegoat for Montreal missing the playoffs the year before and traded him to Nashville. If the Predators had won and Subban won the Conn Smythe Trophy which nearly happened, his worst nightmare would have come true. Kissing a few Penguin toes are small tokens of gratitude for sparing him the fate of what could have happened if Nashville won the Stanley Cup. He still isn’t off the hook. Montreal fans will still remember the trade next year. For now at least, his life is spared. Best Playoff Series Gutsy under talented Ottawa taking powerful Pittsburgh to a Game 7, double overtime thriller. If Pittsburgh’s other more talented opponents had put out the same effort, they might have pulled off an upset. Most Unfortunate Series Columbus, which has always had attendance problems and has never won a playoff round, had to play the one team, Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins, that they probably had no chance of beating. Columbus gave their fans the finest regular season in their history, but any attendance gains certainly got discouraged by the usual first round defeat. Columbus fans needed to see progress that could be measured by a playoff victory over anybody. Sure it was champion Pittsburgh, but hockey patrons are still going to stay away from the box office and say, “Same old Blue Jackets…” Best Opponent Wasn’t There The playoff series during the Crosby-Malkin era between Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay was tied 1-1. Last year, with Pittsburgh even healthier than this year and Tampa Bay missing star forward Steve Stamkos for every game except the last one, the Lightning took Pittsburgh to a 7 game semi-final. This year, Tampa Bay General Manager Steve Yzerman signed all his star players, clearly expecting to win the Stanley Cup. But again Stamkos got injured early in the season and the Lightning never recovered and missed the playoffs. With this year’s Chicago debacle, Tampa Bay may be the only team with the talent when it is completely healthy to really challenge Pittsburgh in the immediate future. Pittsburgh has never beaten Tampa Bay when it has had a healthy Stamkos for a full playoff series. With a healthy team, expect the Lightning to be back in the playoffs next year. The Usual Stanley Cup For Wheel Spinners… Once again the eastern champion Washington Captials met the western champion Minnesota Wild for the Stanley Cup of wheel spinning, a regular occurrence for the past half-decade. Inglorious Minnesota was put out easily in the first round by underdog St. Louis with the extra spice of the Blues being coached by ex-Wild coach, Mike Yeo. The main culprit is Wild General Manager Chuck Fletcher who has never added any significant talent to his roster since he signed Zach Parise and Ryan Suter. Poor Yeo had to stomach this do-nothing improvement by Fletcher until he was inevitably fired. Minnesota’s easy exit to underdog St. Louis, coached by Yeo, is the lowest playoff blow yet. In Washington’s case, you cannot blame the General Manager Brian MacLellan who signed T. J. Oshie last year and Kevin Shattenkirk this year. The real culprits are a group of players led by Alexander Ovechkin who consistently fail to rise to the occasion in the NHL playoffs and in Ovechkin’s case, internationally as well with Russia. Pittsburgh played without its best defenseman Kris Letang, had to use the erratic Marc Andre Fleury as its goaltender, lost Sidney Crosby for one game with a concussion, and still beat the Capitals who had all the advantages. Pittsburgh won three games in Washington, its home away from home. Ovechkin, by his own admission was playing poorly and was demoted to the third line in despair by coach Barry Trotz, who like all other Washington and Russian coaches, cannot make a winner out of him. The so-called Crosby-Ovechkin “rivalry” is a dud. The score in playoff meetings is Pittsburgh 3 Washington 0. There are 3 Stanley Cups, 2 Conn Smythe Trophies, 2 Olympic Gold Medals, and a World Cup championship for Crosby to none for Ovechkin. For the first time I’m reading articles about Washington finally trading the underachieving Ovechkin who has never risen to the occasion. The Capitals can also probably trade the equally uninspiring Brooks Orpik, Nicklas Backstrom, goaltender Braden Holtby, and new guy Shattenkirk who was supposed to put Washington over the top as well. Compare this with under talented Ottawa who chased Fleury from the nets and then took Pittsburgh with their best goaltender Matt Murray to double overtime in the 7th game in Pittsburgh instead of being shut out in the 7th game on home ice in Washington by backup goaltender Fleury. Consolation Prizes The Predators biggest victory of the playoffs may have been off the ice. Before this playoff run, nobody really has called Nashville a hockey town. But like the agonizing Tennessee Titan Super Bowl loss, the Predators caught the imagination of most of the city. In previous years, there has been talk of Nashville losing money and even about its survival. Hopefully now, being a Predator fan will be fully ingrained in this city in the future. There is already talk of awarding Nashville an outdoor stadium game sometime soon. If the Predators keep icing competitive teams, they will increase their following, and a once hockey-ignorant city will become as knowledgeable as the best of NHL cities. On the very day of their defeat by Ottawa, the Rangers were awarded next year’s outdoor Winter Classic game against the Buffalo Sabres. Welcome Back Strangers Edmonton Oilers, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Columbus Blue Jackets who have seldom made the playoffs recently finally made it back to the post season. Edmonton won a playoff round, Toronto played credibly against Washington and the unfortunate Columbus had to play the best team in the playoffs in the first round. Hopefully they will be able to build on what they accomplished this year. Are You A Stanley Cup Goaltender? Carey Price can win the big one internationally when he plays for Canada but cannot win more than one playoff round for Montreal. This year he was put out in the first round by the equally puzzling Henrik Lundqvist of the New York Rangers. Ironically in the World Cup, Price defeated his old teammate, Jaroslav Halak of Team Europe who took the Canadiens farther in the Stanley Cup playoffs than Price has ever done. Also on this list is the horrible Braden Holtby of the Washington Capitals. Going to head-to-head against erratic backup goaltender Marc Andre Fleury of Pittsburgh, he actually turned in Fleury-like playoff performances of 3 goals on 19 shots and 3 goals on 14 shots. Like his other teammates who I have noted above, he never rises to the occasion when he is needed most. The Flip Flop Man Lundqvist beats tough Montreal, then loses to under talented Ottawa and then beats tough Canada in the World Championship Final. Jekyll-turned Hyde-turned Jekyll. Who Can Beat Pittsburgh Next Year? Nobody. Actually assuming the correct additions, subtractions, injuries, trades and draft choices take place the teams with the best chances seem to be… This assumes that Steve Stamkos finally doesn’t get himself injured, Tampa makes a good draft choice and/or an astute trade and the new goaltending tandem replacing Ben Bishop works out. Under talented Ottawa drafts and trades for more talent at forward who play with the same inspired enthusiasm and dedication as this year’s team did in the playoffs. The Ducks continue to improve under their old Stanley Cup winning coach Randy Carlyle. The add more talent by a good draft and astute trades to finally being able to beat Nashville and make the Stanley Cup Finals. And goaltender John Gibson who showed promise this year continues to develop. 2016-17 NHL Stanley Cup Final Prediction Posted on May 26, 2017 by ericthephantom Standard Reply The third NHL playoff round has now come and gone, concluding with a classic double overtime playoff game between the Stanley Cup champions and over-achieving, heavily underdog Ottawa. I had a 50% winning percentage this time, being wrong about Anaheim and just narrowly missing going 0-2 thanks to Ottawa’s gritty play. So my record is now 11-3. I usually start off writing about teams and players who won and lost big. There are no losers in this round, so I’ll just be listing the positives. Biggest Winners – Players 1. Filip Forsberg Forsberg had an exceptional series against Anaheim where he established himself as a money player who comes through in the clutch when his team needs it the most. This is a break through playoff year for Forsberg who is establishing himself as Nashville’s offensive leader, the star forward they have never had in the past. Nashville will especially need him to come through big again against Pittsburgh. He gave the kind of performance that his old team, the Washington Capitals who stupidly traded him desperately needed against the Penguins. 2. Marc Andre Fleury Unless Matt Murray gets injured, Fleury has probably played his last game in Pittsburgh. The surprise was that Pittsburgh has kept him and his big contract this long. His erratic playoff goaltending between the first Pittsburgh victory in 2009 until 2016 when the Penguins switched to Matt Murray was a major reason why the Penguins did not win the Stanley Cup any more and why Dan Bylsma is no longer the coach and Ray Shero no longer the general manager. His career seemed finished but he showed enough in this year’s playoffs for some team to take a chance on him next year. His 7th game shutout of Washington has probably saved his NHL career. 3. Matt Murray The Ottawa series proved that if Pittsburgh wants to win future Stanley Cups, Murray is their goaltender. Pittsburgh plays with more confidence knowing Murray is in the nets. He should have won the Conn Smythe Trophy last year. The Penguins are now completely his team, not Fleury’s. 4. Chris Kunitz If ever a player played the greatest game of his career when his team needed it the most, it was Kunitz who scored two goals, including the winner and assisted on the other during the double-overtime 7th game thriller. That’s coming through in the clutch. Were you watching, Alexander Ovechkin, Kevin Shattenkirk, Brooks Orpik, and Nicklas Backstrom? 5. Craig Anderson Anderson gave a Conn Smythe Trophy performance in every playoff round except that he can’t score. Is there a lesson there for you Braden Holtby? Anderson almost fashioned the greatest heartwarming North American professional sports story since Jim Plunkett returned from oblivion with the Oakland Raiders of the NFL in 1980. His team hung in without him while he was at home nursing his wife who had cancer and when he returned he was the key in the New York upset and nearly made a bigger one over Pittsburgh. Ottawa simply does not have enough talent, especially at forward to match Pittsburgh. He showed enough that if Ottawa can significantly upgrade their talent, he might be able to take them all the way. Teams That Can Go Home Happy The Ducks rehired their Stanley Cup winning coach, Randy Carlyle who corrected their choking problem of recent years. He got the Ducks to keep their heads during the last part of the regular season which saw them overtake the San Jose Sharks and stay ahead of the Edmonton Oilers. The Ducks then won two playoff rounds, including a 7th game at home against the Oilers where they had been choking under previous coaches. The Ducks are clearly the best team in their division right now. Two problems for the future: Is goaltender John Gibson good enough to take this team all the way to the Stanley Cup? He showed promise in winning two playoff rounds before being put out by Nashville. They still have problems winning playoff games at home. And Nashville itself is another problem. The Predators have eliminated the Ducks two years in a row so they have their number. Before that, the Chicago Blackhawks eliminated them. So Anaheim’s problem is not its own division but in beating the best teams of the other Western Conference division. There will have to be some changes made and a good draft choice added that fills a hole to take the next step forward. Before the Pittsburgh series started, I wondered if the Senators would even belong on the same ice. They had already over-achieved including a mild upset of the New York Rangers. But the gritty Senators went toe-to-toe with the defending Stanley Cup champions until they lost a 7th game double-overtime thriller. Unlike new kids Columbus and choker Washington, Ottawa was smart enough to get to Marc Andre Fleury and chase him from the nets. Unfortunately, by this time, Pittsburgh’s number one goaltender, Matt Murray was ready to play and that meant no more easy games. It may well be that if Fleury had been forced to continue, Ottawa would have won the series. The difference was at forward where the Senators have nothing to match the high powered Pittsburgh offense. Credit has to go to coach Guy Boucher who devised a defense system that except for one game, made Pittsburgh play at Ottawa’s offensive level. Ottawa came closer to the Stanley Cup than was ever expected. Upgrading their offense in the off season is essential if they want to go all the way. Nightmare Continues… Montreal General Manager Marc Bergevin was relaxing, accepting all kinds of praises early in the season after he made P. K. Subban the scapegoat for Montreal missing the playoffs the year before and then seeing the Canadiens be on top of the Eastern Conference while Nashville was out of a playoff spot. These days he seldom leaves his office without a body guard and grits his teeth and curses while he sees Subban’s smiling face advancing to the Stanley Cup Final. If Nashville wins the Stanley Cup and Subban wins the Conn Smythe trophy, will he use the pistol that is rumored to be in his drawer before the mob with the noose and the tar and the feathers gets to him first? They’ll probably strip him first to see if he really has been wearing a Nashville jersey under his suit and if they can spot the Predator logo that is supposed to be tattooed to his butt. Stanley Cup Final Prediction Pittsburgh Penguins Vs. Nashville Predators The over-the-hump Predators now face the greatest challenge they have faced in the Stanley Cup playoffs so far. They have already scored the greatest upset of the current playoff year by eliminating Western Conference favorite Chicago, a team they never came close to beating in the playoffs before in the minimum four games. But it has to be remembered that Chicago was severely hurt by the fact that all the new, young players whom they were developing showed absolutely nothing, a dark portent for the future of that team. Now the Predators are facing the Eastern Conference favorite Pittsburgh Penguins, the defending Stanley Cup Champions. Both Peter Laviolette and Mike Sullivan have won the Stanley Cup so the coaching is even. There are two reasons why Pittsburgh is the defending champion. First, the Penguins finally got championship playoff goaltending after years of bad performances by Marc Andre Fleury by Matt Murray. Second, Sullivan got everyone on the team, including star performers Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin to concentrate on playing good defense. Nashville goaltender Pekka Rinne is just as good a goaltender as Ottawa’s Craig Anderson. He can significantly outplay Fleury but like Anderson, he won’t significantly outplay Murray. More significant is that Nashville does not have anyone to compare with Crosby and Malkin. They are the best players they have yet seen. And Pittsburgh is getting clutch performances from other guys like Chris Kunitz. The combination of Crosby, Malkin, clutch performances, good defense, return of Matt Murray is too much for Nashville. In fact it is too much for every other team in the NHL. Pittsburgh will defend its championship over Nashville in 6 games. Toronto Blue Jays Got What Washington Capitals Did Not Get In trying to explain what happened to the Washington Capitals in my previous article, I put forward the theory that the players, particularly Alexander Ovechkin, simply are not good enough, that fans, ownership, management, coaches, and maybe even the players themselves are believing myths that cannot come true. Ovechkin of course is the up-front guy. He has never had a big performance either in the NHL playoffs for Washington, nor for his Russian teams in major tournaments like the Olympics and the World Cup. As to why it never happens for him, I don’t know. I once read that a quarterback of the Oakland Raiders, Darryl Lamonica was frightened about being hit and that all his teammates knew and that silently to themselves knew that Oakland would never win the Super Bowl as long as he was at quarterback. The problem was human fears that probably everybody has in one form or another. What is wrong with Ovechkin? A fear? Does he freeze under pressure? Does he try too hard? Does he concentrate on offense too much which means that after almost every playoff round he has a horrible plus/minus statistic? I am not there so I don’t know. Someone with some inside knowledge will have to write those articles. Right behind him is goaltender Braden Holtby, a Vezina Trophy finalist. He was not good enough against Pittsburgh last year and this year there were two games of 3 goals on 19 shots and 3 goals on 14 shots. He was pulled in that game. Brooks Orpik and Nicklas Backstrom have been around as long as Ovechkin. Neither of them have ever been a difference maker, who have carried Washington at least to the Eastern Conference Final. And the new guy, prized acquisition Kevin Shattenkirk failed to impress, failed to put Washington over the top. All are now candidates to be traded. Washington and Minnesota are the champion wheel-spinners of the NHL. Every year now it seems, for at least the past half-decade they have met in the Stanley Cup playoff final of wheel spinning. Minnesota’s problem can easily be explained. General Manager Chuck Fletcher signed Ryan Suter and Zach Parise, figured that was enough to be a Stanley Cup champion and has not added any significant talent since. This state of affairs finally caught up to his coach Mike Yeo who was fired when he could not take the Wild deeper in the playoffs. This year, Fletcher and the Minnesota ownership and management were punished in the worse way when the Wild was humiliatingly ejected from the playoffs in only 5 games by the St. Louis Blues coached by none other than Yeo. I have already written an article about their need to be shaken up, to have more top talent added. But the Washington situation cannot be explained so easily. General Manager Brian MacLellan added T.J. Oshie last year and Shattenkirk this year and it still has not been enough. So it is not that ownership and management are walking around with blinkers, stuck with their heads in the sand. Washington has changed coaches too during the Ovechkin era and that has not helped either. Certain players are not rising to the occasion, to perform at the peak when they are needed the most. One just needs to see the unheralded Jean-Gabriel Pageau, of the still-playing Ottawa Senators, who has never been a star, who has low scoring statistics but a good plus/minus record, who is now coming through big when the pressure is on, when his team needs him the most, to see the kind of the player Washington has never been able to get. So are wheel spinners always doomed? Not necessarily, and the best example that comes to my mind is the story of the baseball Toronto Blue Jays. This is what should have happened to the Capitals, what the Washington ownership, management, and coaches were trying to do, what the Capitals fans envisioned. The Blue Jays were formed in 1977 and in 1983 fielded their first division-contending team. Two years later they won their first division title and then lost in the American championship series to the Kansas City Royals who would win the World Series. No problem. That was the new kid learning the ropes, paying his dues. Great things were projected for Toronto in the future. But then came the wheel-spinning years lasting from 1986 to 1991, just like they have been for Washington. Toronto would win its division or just fail to do it. Somehow the chemistry of the team was wrong. Detroit, Oakland, and Minnesota would regularly fatten up on these kings of playoff chokers. Toronto would move to the SkyDome and set American League attendance records. Manager Jimy Williams would be fired and replaced by Cito Gaston. (Does this sound like the Washington Capitals?) Nothing worked. General Manager Pat Gillick acquired an unfavorable nickname, “Stand Pat”. The fans all knew the Blue Jays were not good enough and demanded changes. Gaston was brought in and then Gillick tried a block buster equivalent trade. He sent top shortstop Tony Fernandez and slugger Fred McGriff to San Diego for Roborto Alomar and Joe Carter. It still was not enough. Then (unlike Chuck Fletcher) Gillick added more top talent. Pitchers like David Cone and Jack Morris would be signed. And frustrated wheel spinners Dave Winfield (labeled cruelly “Mr. May” by Yankee owner George Steinbrenner) and Paul Molitor would be installed as the designated hitter. Then with this added talent came the turning point. In the 1992 American League Championship series, Oakland brought in top reliever Dennis Ekersley to mop up the Blue Jays as usual. But Roberto Alomar hit a home run and the whole Oakland stadium went silent. Suddenly the Blue Jays were no longer wheel spinners, no longer chokers, could no longer be counted on to be a loser who would self destruct, players who never came through when the pressure was on. They were over the hump. Dave Winfield would no longer carry the label “Mr. May”. Paul Molitor would be the MVP of the next World Series in 1993. Tony Fernandez would be reacquired and win a World Series. That is what the Washington Capitals have been trying to do. Are there any lessons for them here? Can they get over the hump and turn things around like Toronto did? Will there be the moment where the guy comes through when his team needs him the most; do it like Alomar did? And by the way, after the Alomar home run, the Blue Jays lived happily ever after. But the Washington Capitals…? Washington Capitals Defeat Should Mean The End Of An Era How much longer can this go on? How much longer will the Alexander Ovechkin era in Washington continue? The ugly truth is that it should be ended now. Cold, hard, and sober. Alexander Ovechkin cannot win a championship, at least as the leader for either Washington and Russia. And probably he can take long time loyal Capitals Nicklas Backstrom, Brooks Orpik, goaltender Braden Holtby, and new guy Kevin Shattenkirk with him. Coach Barry Trotz is 50-50. Let’s review the ugly facts. Pittsburgh was playing without its best goaltender, Matt Murray, its best defenseman, Kris Letang, and Washington even got the bonus of having the best player in the NHL, Sidney Crosby, cross-checked with a concussion and missing one game. And Pittsburgh still won. Meanwhile Washington added T. J. Oshie laat year. They added Kevin Shattenkirk this year. And Pittsburgh still won. Not even Pittsburgh having to play erratic playoff goaltender, Marc Andre Fleury could save the Capitals. In fact Holtby outdid Fleury and gave performances that Fleury used to give Pittsburgh in the playoffs since the 2009 Stanley Cup victory. 3 goals on 19 shots, 3 goals on 14 shots. He was pulled in that game. Holtby is as unreliable as Ovechkin. For those who believe in these things, and there may be some truth to it (especially over the long decades I’ve watched sports) there may be a hex by one team over another. For example Montreal beat Boston in the playoffs consecutively for over 40 years. Not even Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito could change it. The problem with the “hex theory” in the Ovechkin story is that there have been many years when Washington never played Pittsburgh in the playoffs and still lost. And Ovechkin’s Russian teams have a dismal record with Ovechkin as leader. He is the common denominator. Washington has changed coaches. Ovechkin has had different Russian coaches. None could make him a winner. Management should remember that if they have a hankering to dump Trotz. In fact Trotz in desperation, mindful of Ovechkin’s self-admitted poor play, demoted him to the third line where he could do less damage. The ugly truth is that every playoff season, Alexander ends up with a bad plus/minus statistic. That means he is actually a liability, not an asset to a team in the playoffs, both internationally and in the NHL. It’s a sad thing to have to write this, but I have been writing about Ovechkin’s limitations for several years now on different blogs. Billed as the equal of Sidney Crosby when he entered the NHL, the first international player who could be the best player in the league, he has lots of pretty individual statistics but a horrid team record. Crosby has 2 Stanley Cups, 2 Olympic Gold Medals, a World Cup victory and a Conn Smythe Trophy to Ovechkin’s none. The score in direct playoff meetings is Pittsburgh 3, Washington 0. This so-called “rivalry” has been a dud. And it could be argued that Crosby’s colleague, Evgeni Malkin has been the best Russian player in the NHL all along. He has 2 Stanley Cups, a Conn Smythe Trophy and is leading this year’s playoff scoring. This defeat is even worse because with all the player additions and subtractions, Ovechkin’s limitations became more clearly focused for all to see. By his own admission he was playing poorly. That he had an unrevealed injury cannot be used as an excuse either. Erik Karlsson of Ottawa is playing with a more serious injury and Crosby came back after a concussion. As noted above, Trotz demoted Ovechkin to the third line, a open admission about Ovechkin’s performances in the playoffs. The problem of such an open admission is that it makes Ovechkin harder to be traded. The most obvious solution it might seem is to trade him to a contender where he might be “the last piece of the puzzle”. The problem with this is that when one scrutinizes Ovechkin’s playoff record, he becomes someone to be avoided. Why would any contender want to get an aging player, with a huge salary, who consistently fails to come through for his team when he is needed the most? There are no records of Ovechkin – and for that matter Backstrom, Orpik, and Holtby – being the difference maker in the playoffs. I have no memory of Alexander playing so well that it can be said he put his team in the next round. From the NHL’s viewpoint, the best thing that Ovechkin can still do is sell tickets. So the best place for him to go is to a city that is not worried about icing a winning team, but increasing attendance. The Capitals do not want to trade him to an Eastern Conference team, so that rules out Carolina, the New York Islanders, Florida, and Columbus. So by default, the best place for Alexander to go is the Arizona Coyotes. Before concluding this article, it is wise to put things in perspective. I, the critic, the blog writer, am telling maybe the truthful thing that Alexander Ovechkin and the others are not good enough and have to be traded for the good of the Washington Capitals. But it must be remembered that I am talking about humans. NOBODY likes to be told that they are not good enough in their job. It means the end of their of the dreams, their hopes. It means an admission of failure, hurt pride, which is hard to swallow. Being traded means having to move to a new city. What about their children’s education, their friends? They get uprooted and lose them all. I don’t like writing an article like this. I’d rather believe in “All You Need Is Love” by the Beatles, where everybody wins and gets in. But Ovechkin chose sports as his profession, where sometimes one player is chosen to win consistently and another is chosen to lose consistently. That is the ugly side of sports, part of its nature when a person chooses that occupation. Ovechkin’s career closely resembles Marcel Dionne who also never made it to even a conference final. They would be fully justified to go to a bar together, order a beer and then sob in each other’s arms. Writers go through a phase too. I don’t dislike Alexander Ovechkin. But you start out saying, “Wait until next time”. Then it is, “He still hasn’t done it.” Then it becomes “When is he going to show something?” Disillusionment comes. Now it is, “He is not what they say he is.” Finally it becomes, “He should be traded.” If things had gone the way happily ever afters go, I would be writing, “They finally overcame…” “At last he rose to the occasion…” “They overcame adversity and past history…” “At last, over the hump…”, etc. (That last line can be said about this year’s Nashville Predators.) But as the second President of the United States, John Adams said when he was defending in court, the British soldiers being tried for the Boston Massacre, “Facts are stubborn things.” So I can’t write any of that. Sometimes the story has a happy ending. Phil Esposito was consistently overshadowed in Boston by his teammate Bobby Orr, until the 1972 Canada-USSR series when he, probably more than any other player saved Canada’s bacon. It was the type of performance under pressure that Alexander Ovechkin has never given in any playoffs for either Washington or Russia. 2016-17 NHL Third Playoff Round Predictions It’s half way through the playoffs and I went 4 for 4 in my second round predictions, including an Ottawa upset of the New York Rangers. My overall record is now 10-2, the only serious blot being the Chicago debacle. Like every other playoff round, some teams and players won and lost big, meaning that there is more significance for them than for others who won or lost. As usual I’ll start with giving my view about the significance of the second round before concluding with my two third round predictions. In no particular order… Rinne was always a good goaltender but his team never had the talent until now to do much in the Stanley Cup playoffs. The Predators have finally done something they have not been able to do before. First they eliminated the Chicago Blackhawks and now the have reached the Western Conference Final for the first time. How good a goaltender is Rinne? We are about to find out. P. K. Subban There has to be some inner satisfaction for Subban who was singled out by Montreal general manager, Marc Bergevin as the main reason for Montreal missing the playoffs the previous season when goaltender Carey Price was hurt. For a while this season, Montreal was on top of the Eastern Conference, Nsahville was out of the playoffs and seemed likely to miss the post season. Subban was playing with a bag over his head. But now Subban is going farther in the playoffs with the Predators than he ever did in Montreal which can only sit, wring their hands and watch him play after being eliminated in the first round. Jean-Gabriel Pageau The Ranger Destroyer. Sometimes an unknown, unexpected player emerges during times of crisis. Such is the case in this round of Pageau who at least in the Ranger series, gave Ottawa something they haven’t had for a long time, a real threat on the forward line, someone the opposition has to stop. You also like a player who comes through when they need him the most. He only had 33 points during the regular season but significantly an excellent plus/minus statistic. The question is can he continue this excellent play against a tougher opponent in the third round for over-achieving Ottawa. If Pittsburgh had lost, he would have made the Biggest Losers list. But thanks in large part to coach Mike Sullivan’s ability to get the entire team to commit to playing good defense, starting with last year’s Stanley Cup victory, Fleury who has looked horrible many times in the playoffs since the first victory in 2009 has been able to hang in. That he posted a shut out in game 7 when he needed to do it the most speaks volumes. Biggest Winners – Teams They are going places and doing things they never did before. First they humiliatingly eliminated the Western Conference Stanley Cup favorite, the Chicago Blackhawks, a team they had never been able to beat in the playoffs before in only 4 games. Now they got over a second hump and are on their way to their first Western Conference Final. Suddenly Nashville is a hockey town. Everybody is talking about the Predators. Regardless about what happens in the next round, Nashville has taken some significant steps forward. If Nashville is the over-the-humpers, Ottawa is the over-achievers. They caught a break in the first round when they played probably the only team they might be favored against, the Boston Bruins. But eliminating the Rangers was a significant upset. The two players who they needed the most came through big for them, goaltender Craig Anderson, and defenseman Erik Karlsson. And unexpectedly they got a significant contribution on the forward line from emerging hometown hero Jean-Gabriel Pageau. Like Nashville, no matter what happens in the third round, they have taken a significant step forward. Biggest Losers – Players (And Coaches) The Jekyll and Hyde of NHL goalies became Hyde again at the wrong time. He eliminates tougher Montreal in the first round and then gets beaten by upstart Ottawa in the second round. He let in wrong goals at the wrong time just like he did against Europe and North America in the World Cup. His time to win the Stanley Cup as a starting goaltender is starting to run out. He joins the goaltender, he eliminated in the first round, Carey Price, as a net minder with a real question mark over his head about whether he really is a good Stanley Cup playoff goaltender. Alexander Ovechkin, Brooks Orpik, Braden Holtby, Kevin Shattenkirk, Nicklas Backstrom The gang at Washington failed again, hopefully for the last time. This team needs to be torn apart and built again. It simply is not good enough. What has to happen before people realize this? I’ll break this down even further. 1a & 1b Brooks Orpik and Nicklas Backstrom These two can be easily disposed of. They, along with Ovechkin have been around the longest and like him have never had a playoff series where they were the difference makers. All you have to do is compare them to unknown Jean-Gabriel Pageau (see above) who without hype came through when his team needed him the most. Did Washington beat Pittsburgh because of them? Has there ever been a playoff series where Washington won because of them? The ugly truth is that they are not good enough and have to go. 1c Kevin Shattenkirk He was supposed to be the prized acquisition of the trade deadline from St. Louis, the desperate trade that General Manager, Brian MacLellan made mostly at the request of Alexander Ovechkin to put Washington finally over the top. Like Ovechkin, Orpik, and Backstrom, he failed to distinguish himself. The difference maker, the player who got Washington over the hump never occurred. What is even more galling is that his old team in St. Louis dumped him and his huge salary to get cap space, and the Blues instead of folding, rallied and did almost as well as Washington without him and other significant talent losses during last year’s off season. St. Louis now has a chance for the future while Washington is now a team with large salaries for players who do not win. 1d Braden Holtby He cannot beat the highly questionable playoff goaltender, Marc Andre Fleury, never mind Pittsburgh’s top goaltender, Matt Murray. When I made my predictions for the second round, I said that Washington had to get Fleury to be his usual horrid playoff self and be pulled from some the games. Pitted against the real thing, Holtby out-Fleuryed Fleury, and gave performances of 3 goals on 19 shots, and 3 goals on 14 shots (He was pulled in that game). This series should prove once and for all that Washington cannot be a champion with Holtby as its goaltender. Incredibly he is somehow a contender for the Vezina Trophy. 1e Alexander Ovechkin I have listed this group from least worst to worst of the worst, and this series instead of enhancing him is probably the series in which Ovechkin’s over-rated status has most clearly been brought into focus. When drafted by Washington, he was billed as the equal of Sidney Crosby. He has lots of pretty individual statistics but horrid team records both in the NHL with Washington and internationally with Russia. Almost every playoff year, he ends up with a horrible plus/minus record, meaning in spite of all his offense, he is actually a liability for Washington in the playoffs. Like the others listed above he is no difference maker, the player who comes up big when the pressure is on, when his team needs him the most. By his own admission, he was playing poorly in this series, and coach Barry Trotz, finally dropping his belief in the myth of Ovechkin, in desperation demoted him to the third line where could do the least damage. The ugly truth is that it should be over in Washington for Ovechkin, he should be traded, and a new era begin. Todd McLellan Ever notice that Todd McLellan’s playoff record is very similar to that of the undistinguished Bruce Boudreau of Minnesota? Like Boudreau, his teams never do much in the playoffs. They beat weak playoff teams and nobody else. Right now everybody in Edmonton is rejoicing because they are back in the playoffs after a decade and won a playoff round against declining San Jose. But I, at least am going to file this defeat in the back of my mind with an eye to the future. McLellan’s team came up short again against a true contender. His playoff record should be closely noted next year. Biggest Losers – Teams There is only one big team loser in this round and we all know who it is. Washington has yet to make it to the Eastern Conference Final, never mind challenging for the Stanley Cup during the Ovechkin era. And don’t say, “Oh they played tough Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh.” There were many years during the Ovechkin era when they did not play Pittsburgh and were upset by other underdog teams. The Pittsburgh-Washington “rivalry” is itself a dud, a myth. Washington is actually Pittsburgh’s home away from home. (3 of Pittsburgh’s victories were in Washington.) Pittsburgh has had more trouble in the past in the playoffs during this era with Tampa Bay, New York Rangers, Ottawa, Boston, Philadelphia, and Montreal. Pittsburgh played without its best defenseman, its best goaltender, and Sidney Crosby for one game and they still won. The Crosby-Ovechkin comparison is a mismatch. I’ve broken down a lot of reasons for Washington’s continued defeat above. The bottom line is that this team has never been good enough and now needs to be completely torn apart and rebuilt with players who can come through in the playoffs when they are needed the most. The St. Louis Blues lost significant talent during the off-season, fired Stanley Cup winning coach Ken Hitchcock, traded top defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk and still won a playoff round and put up a good struggle against Nashville. They did not go as far as they did in the playoffs last season, but considering all the negative changes, their season has to be considered a success and now they have cap space and a new coach with potential to build a good future. And of course Edmonton, after being exiled from the playoffs for a decade can celebrate a triumphant return and a first round playoff victory. The New York Rangers improved from last year, advancing to the second round of the playoffs. And on the very day they were eliminated by the Ottawa Senators, they were awarded next year’s Winter Classic outdoor game against the Buffalo Sabres. But I think they would rather trade that game for an opportunity to keep playing in this year’s playoffs… Still No Answers… The NHL playoffs are now half way over and the NHL has made a significant decision about the Olympics, announced they would play regular season games in Europe again, and have now set up next year’s Winter Classic outdoor game between the New York Rangers and the Buffalo Sabres. But the three most important issues remain unresolved. Will the New York Islanders get a new arena? Will Quebec get an NHL team? And where will the Arizona Coyotes play? The End Of Agony/The Humiliation Continues Two teams, the Montreal Canadiens and the Minnesota Wild were suffering this second round because of the St. Louis-Nashville series. Minnesota refused to significantly upgrade its team during Mike Yeo’s period of coaching which led to his inevitable firing. Minnesota’s punishment was to be humiliatingly eliminated by the St. Louis Blues in the first round in only 5 games, coached by none other than Yeo. In Montreal during the off season last year, General Manager Marc Bergevin was looking for culprits who failed to respond during the previous season when goaltender Carey Price got injured and caused the Canadiens to miss the playoffs. He zeroed in on P. K. Subban and traded him to Nashville for Shea Weber. For a while he triumphed. During the early part of the season, Montreal was on top of the Eastern Conference while Nashville was out of a playoff position with Subban and the team playing badly. But Subban got the last laugh. His Predators are now going to their first Western Conference Final while Montreal sits on the sidelines, eliminated with home ice advantage in the first round by the New York Rangers. Bergevin, who was taking bows for his shrewd trade earlier now has to grit his teeth and smile and try to explain things. For both Minnesota and Montreal, the humiliation will be remembered after this season is over. For Minnesota, at least, they do not have to watch Yeo still coaching the Blues in further playoff rounds. But for Montreal the anguish and frustration will continue… The Start Of A Beautiful Rivalry? Edmonton with Connor McDavid is the team of the future. But right now, their best playoff rival is the Anaheim Ducks. They had a thrilling 7 game series this time. Is this the start of an era where we will see many intense Duck-Oiler playoff series in the immediate future? Stanley Cup Playoff Predictions Pittsburgh Penguins Vs. Ottawa Senators When Sidney Crosby made his playoff debut, it was against Ottawa who at the time, iced the best team they ever had since their reincarnation, led by Daniel Alfredsson which defeated Pittsburgh and made it all the way to the Stanley Cup Final where they lost to Anaheim. Since then it has been all Pittsburgh in future playoff meetings. It should be the same again. Pittsburgh simply has more talent than Ottawa, particularly at forward where Ottawa has nobody to compare with Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. On the other hand, Ottawa has the best defenceman, Erik Karlsson and Craig Anderson is a better goaltender than Marc Andre Fleury. Will we see Pittsburgh’s top goaltender, Matt Murray in this series? And mysteriously, Ottawa again has a winning record against Pittsburgh this year, just like they did against Boston and the New York Rangers. One of their victories was when Fleury was in the nets for Pittsburgh. Again, the only chance for Ottawa is to do what Columbus and Washington failed to do and make Fleury revert to his erratic playoff self. Craig Anderson has to significantly outplay him. That will be tougher to do because since last year, Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan got the team to commit to playing good defense which was probably the main reason Pittsburgh won the Stanley Cup. This series may be closer than I think it is and I’d love to predict an upset, just like I did for Ottawa against the New York Rangers. But I am too much of a realist this time. It is the end of the line for the over-achieving Senators. Pittsburgh in 5 or 6 games. Anaheim Ducks Vs. Nashville Predators This is a rematch of last year’s first round playoff series which the Predators barely won in 7 games. This is going to be a really tough series to predict. There have been significant changes since last year. Nashville, playing in its first Western Conference Final, has added P. K. Subban and Ryan Johansen. For Anaheim, the most significant change was the dumping of mediocre playoff coach Bruce Boudreau, and the rehiring of their Stanley Cup winning coach, Randy Carlyle. So who has made the most improvements? The coaching is even. Both Carlyle and Nashville coach Peter Laviolette have won the Stanley Cup. How does the unknown John Gibson of Anaheim, who has responded extremely well so far match up with Nashville’s goaltender, Pekka Rinne? Nashville has a psychological edge because they beat Anaheim last year. But Anaheim did not have Carlyle who steadied the team down the home stretch in the regular season, overtook San Jose and beat off Edmonton’s challenge. And then in the playoffs, the Ducks eliminated Calgary with authority in a hard played 4 game series, and then beat off Edmonton in a 7th game at home where they had been choking under previous coaches. Anaheim has home ice this time but that has meant nothing to the 8th seeded Predators. Nashville is the new kid on the block who have been doing things in these playoffs that they could not do before. Anaheim has lots of experienced pros who have been corrected from their choking habit by Carlyle. What do I do? Flip a coin? It won’t be an upset if either wins. But I’ll continue to believe Carlyle’s coaching and Anaheim will win in a series that goes the full 7 games. 2016-17 NHL Second Playoff Round Predictions Posted on April 24, 2017 by ericthephantom Standard Reply I think in future I’ll stop making Stanley Cup winner predictions at the beginning of the first round because I am being made a fool of. The last two years, the team I have picked to win it all has been ingloriously eliminated easily in the first round by upstart, underdog, longshots. Last year it was the Los Angeles Kings and this year even more shockingly, the Chicago Blackhawks. I have to learn to keep my mouth and pen shut at times. Still I can accurately recap the previous round and explain who, both players and teams, won and lost big. Despite the Chicago debacle, I still went 6-2 in the opening round, so I suppose I know at least a little about what is going on. Biggest Winners: Players (And Coaches) In no particular order… 1. Randy Carlyle A few years ago, I protested on another blog, in which would be my last article, that Carlyle was a good coach who should not have been fired by the Toronto Maple Leafs who were (and may still be) paying for the horrid ownership of the Ontario Teachers Pension Fund. The Anaheim sweep of Calgary gives me some vindicated satisfaction and reason to gloat. Carlyle took a team that was choking under mediocre playoff coach Bruce Boudreau, steadied them down the last part of the regular season where they overtook San Jose, beat off Edmonton, and won their division. Now they beat Calgary in a tough, but convincing series. With the elimination of Chicago, Carlyle’s Ducks have to be the new favorite in the Western Conference. Fleury’s erratic playoff goaltending was a major reason the Pittsburgh Penguins did not win more Stanley Cups during the Crosby-Malkin era since their first cup in 2009. With the victorious switch to Matt Murray last year, it seemed that Fleury’s career in Pittsburgh was over, even whether ANYBODY would want him at the end of this season. The victory over Columbus at least makes him marketable to somebody next year who wants to upgrade their goaltending and might be willing to take a chance on him. Lundqvist still has to be able to win the big one, but he can take some satisfaction of beating Carey Price, the World Cup and Olympic Gold Medal winning goaltender, but who has a horrid NHL playoff record. That is what is maddening about Lundqvist. He is too unpredictable and inconsistent. He can beat quality opponents like Montreal this time and then let in goals at the wrong time like he did against the two hybrids, Europe and North America in the World Cup which put Sweden out of the money. He has never been consistent enough to take New York all the way. But he can take some quiet satisfaction from this victory. 4. Mike Yeo Yeo became coach of the Minnesota Wild, kept getting them into the post season, but watched while management, particularly General Manager Chuck Fletcher, did nothing to improve the team so that it could go farther in the playoffs. Of course that led to his inevitable firing. So it must have been particularly satisfying to take over the St. Louis Blues, a team that lost talent in the off season, who then traded their star defenseman, Kevin Shattenkirk so that they could start concentrating on rebuilding, to get them into the playoffs in spite of the significant talent losses, and then eliminate his old team without too much trouble, the same old Wild whom Fletcher refuses to significantly improve. Biggest Losers: Players (And Coaches) 1. Carey Price Price should stick to international play where he has won the Olympics and the World Cup. But in the Stanley Cup playoffs, he has a horrid record. Ironically in the World Cup Final, he beat his old teammate, Jaroslav Halak who took Montreal deeper into the Stanley Cup playoffs than Price has ever done. There was some debate about who should have been traded and who should have been kept, and these two recent episodes are going to revive it. Price, like Ovechkin and company in Washington, has never ever made it even to the Eastern Conference Final. That he lost to Henrik Lundqvist, a goaltender with a similar puzzling record is not going to help his reputation. 2. Bruce Boudreau and Chuck Fletcher Boudreau, the unremarkable playoff coach, added another notch to his unremarkable playoff record when Minnesota humiliatingly lost in only five games to underdog St. Louis which had lost significant talent in the off season and then traded its best defenseman, Kevin Shattenkirk, to make it easy to be defeated. When Minnesota hired Boudreau (saving Calgary and Ottawa from making the same mistake), I wrote an article saying that it was a marriage made in heaven: The mediocre Minnesota Wild who can never beat a true playoff contender hiring a mediocre playoff coach who can never beat a true playoff contender. As I predicted, it turned out to be the perfect match. But the real goat horns should belong to General Manager Chuck Fletcher who hired Boudreau in the first place. That Minnesota lost to its old coach, Mike Yeo, rubs it in further. A few years ago, Fletcher got free agents, Zach Parise and Ryan Suter, patted himself on the back and said that was enough to make Minnesota a Stanley Cup Champion. But as mentioned above, they are good enough to get Minnesota into the playoffs, beat weak playoff teams, and nothing more. Fletcher has never added any significant talent since then to take Minnesota higher. In Buffalo, owner Terry Pegula ordered a review of the team from top to bottom after the Sabres missed the playoffs again. This led to the firing of both the general manager and the coach. The same thing should be done in Minnesota which keeps spinning its wheels under Fletcher’s management. Biggest Winners: Teams 1. Nashville Predators It goes without saying that the Predators fashioned the biggest upset in the first round, maybe even in the entire playoffs. All this by a team that nearly did not make the playoffs themselves and only with a late surge of good hockey grabbed the last playoff position. For a while P.K. Subban whom the Predators got in the big trade of last year, must have been playing with a bag over his head when the Predators were out of a playoff position and his old team, Montreal, was leading the Eastern Conference. Many NHL expert predictors at NHL.com were contemplating suicide because they picked the Predators to be in the Stanley Cup Final. Now a totally unexpected sweep of a recent 3 time Stanley Cup champion, a team they had never beaten in the playoffs before, including two consecutive shutouts on enemy ice has to make everyone rethink yet again about this most puzzling of teams. Are they finally the team the experts predicted they would be? Whatever happens later, they have won the biggest playoff series in their history and have been the most impressive team in the first round. 2. St. Louis Blues The Blues lost significant talent in the off season, fired Stanley Cup winning coach, Ken Hitchcock who got them to the Eastern Conference Final last year, and then traded top defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk. They seemed to be ripe for the picking, intent on rebuilding their team and giving themselves salary cap space. Instead they rallied behind new coach Mike Yeo, made the playoffs, and have now eliminated Minnesota easily despite all the talent losses. Right now they are enjoying an unexpected bonus. Biggest Losers: Teams 1. Chicago Blackhawks This team must be in total shock. Favored to win the Western Conference, if not the Stanley Cup itself, it was ignominiously sent packing in the minimum four games including two shameful shutouts on home ice by an underdog, longshot team of upstarts. A year ago, I wrote an article about Chicago letting one of its core players, Patrick Sharp, go because of salary cap reasons. I put forth the theory that Sharp was the kind of player who would get a goal in the playoffs just when Chicago needed it the most and Chicago would get a spark and go on to victory. They certainly needed Sharp or somebody like him in this round. But whether Sharp would have been enough against Nashville is debatable. They were beaten convincingly. The Blackhawks brought back Johnny Oduya and he had a horrid series. But what is really disturbing was that none of the new, young players whom Chicago had brought in and were developing stepped up. There were no young Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kanes, Duncan Keiths, or Brent Seabrooks eager to make a name for themselves in the playoffs. That is not good for the future of this team. 2. Columbus Blue Jackets I have gone over this in finer detail in a previous article, but Columbus had to win a playoff round for attendance reasons. Actually they should be proud and satisfied with the best year of their team’s history and not worry because they lost to Pittsburgh who may well win the Stanley Cup again. But Columbus plays in a region where top level, professional hockey is unpopular, so they were playing for attendance improvement and the very future of the franchise. Unfortunately they got the worst playoff match-up they could possibly get. Even playing first place, playoff choking Washington would have been better. They HAD to win their series, no matter who their opponent was. Normally, a team that did what Columbus did this season should forget this defeat and look forward to next year. But this playoff defeat did nothing to improve attendance, undid whatever good the team accomplished during the regular season, and the possibility of relocation still haunts this team. 3. Minnesota Wild One of the two perpetual wheel spinners (Washington is the other one) who never do anything significant in the playoffs. This is because management has never added any significant new talent since Minnesota got Zach Parise and Ryan Suter. Now they have lost to lowly, underdog St Louis and their old coach, Mike Yeo. This is the lowest playoff blow so far. This is a mediocre team, with a mediocre coach, a mediocre general manager, and maybe mediocre ownership if it refuses to shake up this team that perpetually goes nowhere. Toronto, Boston, and Calgary can go home glad that they got back in the playoffs and build on what they accomplished this year and look forward to taking the next stepping stone next season. Columbus would be on this list except for the attendance problems mentioned above. And Montreal will publicly proclaim they are happy to be on this list but secretly will be cursing because Nashville advanced (see below). Players With The Pressure Still On Them Alexander Ovechkin, Brooks Orpik, Braden Holtby As mentioned in the article about the first round predictions, it is not enough for Washington to win one playoff round. The absolute minimum that is acceptable for Washington is to make it to the Eastern Conference Final. These players (and Nicklas Backstrom could also be added to this list) have been the core of the Washington failure for the past decade. Now they have even more pressure on them because management added T J Oshie and Kevin Shattenkirk the last two years. They are all getting older and if they prove yet again that they are not good enough, it should be time to consider trading them and go in a new direction. 4 Henrik Lundqvist He passed his first test and put doubts about the Stanley Cup career of Montreal goaltender, Carey Price. Now he faces Craig Anderson of Ottawa who will be just as tough an opponent. But Anderson has been playing for inferior playoff teams, not Stanley Cup contenders like Lundqvist so he does not have the same pressure. Lundqvist’s goaltending will be scrutinized if New York loses and he is a major reason for the defeat. Teams With The Pressure Still On Them It goes without saying that the Washington Capitals remain the team that has to win the next round which they have never done during the Ovechkin era. No other team has the same amount of pressure on them though that could change if certain other teams do not do well this round too. At least Washington has gone farther than their western cousins in Minnesota who have a similar sorry stagnant record in the playoffs. At one time, P. K. Subban was playing with a bag over his head while his old team, the Montreal Canadiens was leading the Eastern Conference, the person he was traded for, Shea Weber was flourishing, and the general manager, Marc Bergevin, was taking well earned bows for his bold trade that propelled the Canadiens higher; while his new team, the Nashville Predators were out of a playoff position, playing bad hockey, and seemed unlikely to make the post season. But now the Predators have scored their biggest playoff victory ever, eliminating 3 time Stanley Cup champion and one of the two favorites to win this year, Chicago Blackhawks in the minimum four games, while the Canadiens, who had home ice advantage lost to the New York Rangers. There is going to be bitterness in Montreal every time their fans have to watch Nashville continue to play in the current playoffs while their team is on the sidelines. Bergevin can say that he improved Montreal and that they made the playoffs instead of choking like last year, but this is not a result he will enjoy watching. It now puts his job as general manager under an unwelcome spotlight. Alain Vigneault, coach of the New York Rangers defeated Claude Julien, coach of the Montreal Canadiens who had beaten him in the Stanley Cup Final in 2011. But how many Vancouver fans wish that Vigneault had won back then and lost this time instead? Honorable mention: Mike Yeo eliminating his old team Minnesota fairly easily in a humiliating manner. There is going to be bitterness in Minnesota because of this. Ottawa and Edmonton made it to the next round after beating American teams. Believe it or not, this has been the first time a Canadian city has beaten an American city in the Stanley Cup playoffs since 2014. Ottawa Senators Vs. New York Rangers Surprisingly Ottawa, which may be the weakest team in the playoffs has a season winning 2-1 record against the Rangers so this may be a closer series than I thought. But then the Rangers had an 0-3 record against stronger Montreal, Claude Julien had a Stanley Cup victory against Alain Vigneault and look what happened. To make matters even more interesting, the off season trade between the two teams, Mika Zibanejad to the Rangers and Derick Brassard to the Senators produced significant results in the first playoff round. The leading scorers on each team during that round were (you guessed it) Zibanejad with 4 points for New York, and Brassard with 8 points for Ottawa. One other unknown element that has to be tested is the unexpected return of Clarke MacArthur to Ottawa, who made a significant contribution to beat Boston. Erik Karlsson’s health is supposed to be impaired by a heel injury but it did not seem to be a factor when he got 6 assists against Boston. The Rangers do not have a big shooter but they have based on scoring average, the best equal 4 lines in the NHL. The goaltending is very equal between Henrik Lundqvist and Craig Anderson. Ottawa has home ice advantage but less points than the Rangers. Common sense tells me to pick the Rangers but I’ll have a bit of fun this time (I can’t do much worse than the unexpected Chicago debacle) and this will be my one upset this round (I did pick the St. Louis upset correctly last round) and pick Ottawa to win in 6 or 7 games. Washington Capitals Vs. Pittsburgh Penguins All the cards are on the table for Washington now. Management added T. J. Oshie and Kevin Shattenkirk the last two years to the perpetual chokers listed above. When Washington got Alexander Ovechkin the same time the Penguins got Sidney Crosby, he was billed as the equal of Crosby. That meant that when the two teams met in the playoffs, Washington would win at least 50% of the time. That meant that as the years passed, they would have equal numbers of Stanley Cup team and international team triumphs. But it is not even close. Ovechkin has a horrid playoff record with Washington and an equally horrid record internationally with Russia. It can even be argued that his Russian counterpart on Pittsburgh, Evgeni Malkin is a better player. Washington HAS to win this series (Of course they HAD to win last year too). Oshie was supposed to put Washington over the top last year. It was not enough. Now they have added Shattenkirk this year. They HAVE to win this year or it is time to have a thorough review of the entire team and start trading these losers, including Ovechkin. Perhaps coach Barry Trotz would have to go too, but then NO COACH in the NHL or internationally has made Alexander Ovechkin a winner. Washington’s best chance of victory is that Pittsburgh’s number one goaltender, Matt Murray is injured and Pittsburgh has to go with the erratic Marc Andre Fleury again, who between the 2009 Stanley Cup victory and the victory over Columbus in the last round gave Pittsburgh mostly horrid playoff goaltending, particularly in one series against Philadelphia which is probably the worst playoff goaltending I have ever seen since watching the playoffs in the 1960s. Washington has to do what Columbus could not do, make Fleury resemble his old horrid self. For victory, Washington has to have Fleury pulled in several games for poor performance. Washington also has to take advantage of the injury to star defenceman, Kris Letang. There has never been a better chance for Washington to defeat Pittsburgh than now. And with all the additions and subtractions made to this match, if Washington STILL cannot defeat Pittsburgh than there is no hope for this team. But Washington is the “show me” team. They have to prove they can defeat Pittsburgh no matter how many additions and subtractions are made. Until they do so, you go with the tried and the true. Pittsburgh in 6 or 7 games. St. Louis Blues Vs. Nashville Predators This is certainly not the match I expected with Chicago’s unexpected ouster. The two underdogs of the division are meeting instead and it is a tough match to pick, especially the coaches. On one hand, there is Peter Laviolette, the coach of Nashville, who has won the big one with Carolina and has now coached the Predators to their greatest playoff victory. Then there is Mike Yeo who suffered under mediocre management in Minnesota, who somehow rallied the Blues who suffered significant talent losses in both the off season and at the trade deadline, who got the Blues into the playoffs and then beat his old team easily. Pekka Rinne is a better goaltender than Jake Allen and gives Nashville an edge at this vital position. The biggest negative for Nashville is that they have never made it to the Western Conference Final and it’s a hump to get over, but then again, the Predators had not beat the Chicago Blackhawks ever too. St. Louis, which seldom makes the third round did so last year but lost a lot of talent from that team this year. Still you’ve got to like how they have rallied around Yeo. St. Louis also has home ice advantage. I think Nashville is for real and will get to new territory for the first time and win in 6 or 7 hard fought games but it would not be surprising if the Blues continue to rally to Yeo’s coaching and won instead. Anaheim Ducks Vs. Edmonton Oilers This series is just as tough to pick as the other Western Conference match. Experienced Anaheim against newly arrived Edmonton. In their previous round, the Oilers had been playing against a team that had run out of gas and was playing bad hockey. But this time they are playing a team that pulled itself together during the last quarter of the regular season, played steady hockey when they needed to the most and then put Calgary out of the playoffs with authority in a hard-played series. The past few years, Anaheim has choked in the playoffs but then Anaheim made one significant change during the off season and got rid of the mediocre Bruce Boudreau (see above) and replaced him with their old Stanley Cup winning coach, Randy Carlyle. He is probably the main difference why Anaheim is this far. He gives the Ducks a big edge over Oilers coach Todd McLellan who has not won anything significant as an NHL head coach. The big plus for the Oilers is Connor McDavid, projected to be Sidney Crosby’s heir on Canada’s Golden Hockey Chain (the list of Canadian players who are head and shoulders above every other active player for their generation beginning with Maurice Richard). He did not have a particularly distinguishing playoff debut but he played well enough to win in his first crack at the NHL playoffs, something not even Wayne Gretzky was able to do with the Oilers. (It took Wayne three tries before the Oilers won their first playoff round. Perhaps this is an unfair comparison.) Anaheim has nothing like him but if they want to win the Stanley Cup, they will have to learn to beat this kind of player because if they go all the way, it is likely they will be facing Crosby and Evgeni Malkin in the Final. That task starts right now. McDavid will have to be everything he is projected to be for the Oilers to beat Anaheim. I don’t think he will be enough this time. Anaheim will win in 6 games but like the other Western Conference series, it would not be an upset if the Oilers won. Minnesota Wild Have To Be Shaken Up In my previous article, I wrote about how the Buffalo Sabres made a review of their entire organization and then shook it up after missing the playoffs for the 6th consecutive year and fired their coach and general manager. The same thing needs to be done with the Minnesota Wild. They are in a better position than the Sabres because they make the playoffs each year, but they are not going to win the Stanley Cup if the current situation continues. A few years ago, Minnesota was like the Sabres and consistently missed the playoffs. Then General Manager Chuck Fletcher made two free agent signings, Zach Parise, and Ryan Suter. Since then, the Wild have made the playoffs each year. Unfortunately that is as far Fletcher was prepared to go. Every year the Wild make playoffs, are able to beat a bad playoff team, or lose in the first round and nothing more. They cannot beat a true contender. Fletcher has not added any significant talent since to take the Wild to higher levels. Along with the Washington Capitals, Minnesota gets the Stanley Cup of wheel spinning, to the most mediocre team, year after year. Evidently winning this prize along with Washington was not enough for Fletcher so he went out and hired the most mediocre playoff coach he could find, Bruce Boudreau, himself a former Capitals coach who consistently swims in such waters. Boudreau’s playoff coaching record is identical to that of Minnesota; a coach that can either beat a bad playoff team or lose in the first round. As I wrote in an article on this blog last year, it was a marriage made in heaven. Minnesota and Boudreau both deserved each other. But this year there is an extra pang in the usual playoff defeat. This time they lost to the St. Louis Blues, an underdog team that even TRIED to help Minnesota win. First they lost significant talent during the off season from their team that went to the Western Conference Final for a rare time. Then they fired Stanley Cup winning coach Ken Hitchcock who was going to retire anyway at the end of the season (He is since unretired with Dallas). Finally they obligingly traded star defenceman Kevin Shattenkirk to give them salary cap space and concentrate on rebuilding for next year. They seemed like easy pickings for Minnesota in the first round. Instead the Blues rallied around – and just to rub it in even more for Minnesota and Fletcher – Minnesota’s old coach, Mike Yeo, who took the team into the playoffs despite the talent losses and has now put out the Wild with an easy 5 game playoff victory. Yeo had coached the Wild for several years and watched while Fletcher and other management do nothing to improve the Wild so they could advance farther in the playoffs. Nobody really knows how good a playoff coach he really is because after Fletcher improved the Wild by signing Parise and Suter, he left Yeo with the same mediocre team year after year. This led to Yeo’s inevitable firing. Yeo himself said the usual playoff victory things: That defeating the Wild was nothing special, that Chuck and Bruce were doing a great job. But everybody else knows the truth. It must have been extremely satisfying to beat the Wild after watching Fletcher do nothing significant to improve the team during Yeo’s tenure as coach. And Chuck and Bruce are NOT doing a great job. It is one thing to lose to a true contender who wins the Stanley Cup like Chicago. It’s quite another to lose to a lowly, upstart team like St. Louis, that stripped itself of talent and was coached by Minnesota’s ex-coach. This defeat has been the lowest playoff blow yet, a real humiliation. So where do the Minnesota Wild go from here? In Buffalo (perhaps envious of Toronto making the playoffs this year), the owner ripped out the heart of the organization and wants to start over again. How long are the Minnesota Wild going to continue in this wheel-spinning trend? They need significant changes. If Fletcher won’t make them, maybe the first thing to do is make a change at Fletcher’s position. There has never been a Stanley Cup for chokers but if there was, Minnesota, and its eastern counterpart, Washington would be in the Finals for the last several years. For the Wild at least, it is either change or stay the same and probably sink. Undeserved End For Inglorious Blue Jackets Nobody expected the Columbus Blue Jackets to make the playoffs. They were the biggest surprise of the 2016-17 NHL regular season. They over-achieved and finished with the third best record in the Eastern Conference. But their reward was to face the team with the second best record, the defending Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins, certainly the team to beat in the east, if not the favorite to win it all again for the second straight year. They were probably the worst team the Blue Jackets could have drawn in the first round of the playoffs. Even playing first-place choker, Washington would have been better. Actually this should not be an issue at all. Indeed, this article should not have to be written. Everybody should be proud of the Blue Jackets, giving their fans the finest season in the franchise history which included a near-NHL record of 16 straight wins, making the playoffs, and then winning a game in the first round against the team that is probably the favorite to win this year’s Stanley Cup tournament. But it’s not enough. The Blue Jackets play in probably the strangest area for NHL professional hockey in North America, Ohio-Indiana, close to the Canadian border where hockey should be a hotbed. Instead mysteriously, top level hockey is very unpopular in this region and nobody has ever been able to explain why. In my articles, I refer to the region as the “Death Valley” of top level professional hockey. Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis are failed NHL-WHA franchises. Not even Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier could save hockey in this region when they played for the various defunct teams. Columbus is simply the best and longest surviving NHL team. So the pressure was on the Blue Jackets to win this playoff round, not because it was Pittsburgh, not because it meant progress for the team, but to convince the Ohio-Indiana sports fan to support the franchise. Ever since the founding of this team in 2000, it has been a precarious franchise. In many of its seasons, the team has lost money. Gimmicks and low ticket prices have been used to attract fans. During many of its seasons, there have been rumors of it being folded or moved to another city. Its history is inglorious. The Blue Jackets have only made the playoffs three times in 17 years and have yet to win a playoff round. Their playoff record is now 3-12. That record is not going to pack them in. I don’t care if their opponent was the Pittsburgh Penguins, the likely Stanley Cup winner. Columbus HAD to win that series. Sure the Blue Jackets had their best season ever and sure the Blue Jackets nearly broke the NHL record for consecutive wins. The Ohio-Indiana fan is going to smile and be proud, but they won’t be convinced and believe in this team unless they see progress in the playoffs where it really counts. A playoff victory over somebody is the symbol of that progress or lack of progress. Instead the Blue Jackets drew the worst opponent that they and the NHL could have wanted. For this year at least, the NHL has to rue the playoff format that they had set up. Calgary can be swept in four games by Anaheim but that’s okay. The fans are going to be pleased with the progress made and come back next year. Not so in Columbus. In my prediction article, I wrote that Columbus would have been better off if Pittsburgh’s goaltender Matt Murray had been injured instead of defenseman Kris Letang, because Pittsburgh would have been forced to play the erratic Marc Andre Fleury. But Pittsburgh played without Letang AND Murray and still won easily. Columbus made Fleury look better than he really is. They are far from being a true contender. That is not going impress Ohio-Indiana fans. Columbus is mostly a team of no-names who played good, dependable hockey this year. They have few star players to attract crowds. And next year, it is quite conceivable that they won’t make the playoffs again. Pittsburgh, Washington, New York Rangers and Montreal are still around. Toronto, Ottawa, and Boston all improved. It is quite conceivable that Philadelphia, New York Islanders, Florida, Carolina and possibly Buffalo will be good enough to make the playoffs next year if they draft and trade well in the off season. It will be very difficult for Columbus to replicate this year’s success. By losing so ingloriously to Pittsburgh (even if they do win the Stanley Cup) in the first round of the playoffs, Columbus will probably lose most of the attendance gains they made this year. They needed to make believers out of people in a region where hockey is unpopular, but this playoff episode did more harm than good. The NHL has been praying for this franchise to turn around but they got the worst playoff pairing that was possible. The shadow of Quebec, Hamilton, Hartford or wherever still hangs over this franchise. A sad ending for a team that deserved better this season. 2016-17 NHL First Playoff Round Predictions Well it is the start of the Stanley Cup playoffs again with 7 new teams in this year’s tournament. Changes are particularly noticeable in the Eastern Conference where 5 new teams have made it. And Canada which had no teams last year has 5 this year. As customary, before going into each playoff matchup, I’ll list players and teams that have extra pressure on them and thus have more to lose than other teams. The CBC, which has five Canadian teams in the playoffs this year, including its biggest market, Toronto. Big ratings are coming. Players With Extra Pressure Every year Ovechkin tops the list of players with the most pressure on them in the playoffs. He has a basket load of individual honors, both in the NHL and internationally, but he has the most horrible team records. The latest was his Russian team making the semi-finals at September’s World Cup where they were badly out-shot and beaten by Canada. Believe it or not, that was actually an improvement. Washington under his leadership has never even made the Conference finals in the playoffs and frequently gets upset by lesser teams. He is past the peak of his playing days and time is running out for a Stanley Cup victory. He used to be compared to Sidney Crosby but his team record is nowhere on the horizon. Unless he wins a championship, his mentor is Marcel Dionne who had a similar career. Somehow the pressure on him increases every year, especially this year because Washington has acquired top defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk, largely at Ovechkin’s insistence. Washington is expected to win it all and if they do not, and Ovechkin is in the spotlight because of it, perhaps it is time to trade him and go in a new direction. Brooks Orpik Right behind Ovechkin is his long time teammate Brooks Orpik who played like a bonehead in last year’s playoffs and was a major reason Washington lost to Pittsburgh. Like Ovechkin he is past his prime and time is running out on him in Washington. He too could be shoved out the door if Washington flops in the playoffs. The goaltender of the Washington Capitals, giving the team the hat-trick of players under the gun. Holtby is not a bad goaltender but he is nothing special. One just has to compare his work with that of Pittsburgh goaltender Matt Murray last year who seized his chance and ran with it all the way to the Stanley Cup where he should have been named the Conn Smythe Trophy winner. Holtby has to rise above what he can usually do and outplay the goaltenders of other top contenders. He has extra pressure on him now that Shattenkirk is here. If he cannot do it, Washington may have to get another goaltender to complete the final piece of the puzzle. The Alexander Ovechkin of NHL goaltenders. At least he has a better record than Ovechkin in the playoffs because he took the New York Rangers to a Stanley Cup Final where they lost to Los Angeles. But that was only once and his record in playoffs and international competition is undistinguished. The latest unremarkable effort was in September’s World Cup where he let in two critical goals to the hybrids Europe and North America and Sweden was put out of the playoffs. Now he has to go up against Carey Price in the first round and outplay him. Price at least has a distinguished international record both at the Olympics and the World Cup. But his Stanley Cup playoff record is not good where he has the Montreal defense, not the Canada defense to protect him. As noted above, he faces another top goaltender in the first round, Lundqvist in a similar situation, and the loser is going to come out, especially if one badly outplays the other, with a diminished reputation and questions hanging above him. That will mean increased pressure in future Stanley Cup playoffs. Something has to give. Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry Under mediocre playoff coach, Bruce Boudreau, the Anaheim Ducks have choked against lesser teams. But they have rehired their Stanley Cup winning coach, Randy Carlyle again so the pressure will now be more focused on the players who failed to rise to the occasion under Boudreau. If the Ducks fall to a lesser team in the playoffs this year, management might conclude that the roster is not good enough and does not respond any more. Top players like Getzlaf and Perry would come under serious re-evaluation and could be traded as part of a rebuilding process. Bruce Boudreau and Chuck Fletcher I know this section is supposed to be about players but Boudreau and Fletcher, the coach and general manager of the Minnesota Wild belong on it. Boudreau is like Ovechkin in the playoffs. His teams can beat lesser lights but never a true contender. Fletcher’s team, Minnesota got Zach Parise and Ryan Suter a few years ago, patted himself on the back and then assumed that was enough to be a Stanley Cup champion. Alas Minnesota has never risen above mediocrity in the playoffs and has never added significantly better talent since to rise any further. Then last year, Fletcher hired mediocre playoff coach Boudreau. The perfect combination. Minnesota had better show something in this year’s playoffs or attention and pressure will be focused on the management, coaching, and ownership where it will belong. Teams With Extra Pressure (The “Show Me” Teams) It goes without saying that the team with three players on the list above and the now two-time President’s Trophy winner has the most pressure on it again. The minimum that is acceptable for Washington is to make the Eastern Conference Final which has never happened during the Ovechkin era. Coach Barry Trotz will be under fire if the team underperforms because now Kevin Shattenkirk has been added, but NO COACH either in the NHL or internationally has been able to make a winner out of Alexander Ovechkin. General Manager Brian MacLellan got himself and the owners off the hook by boldly and bravely getting Shattenkirk at the trade deadline. Last year they got T. J. Oshie who made a notable contribution but it still was not enough. As noted above, if Washington flops and any of the three players listed in the above section is a part of the reason, it may be overdue time to try to keep Shattenkirk and Oshie, trade the others and go in a new direction. Right behind the Capitals are the Minnesota Wild, especially since the Bruce Boudreau Regular Season Machine did so well this year. But Minnesota looked brittle coming down the home stretch and only their excellent earlier record kept them in second place in their division. Even more ominous was that they did poorly head-to-head against Chicago, who is the favorite in the Western Conference. As noted above, Minnesota added Suter and Parise and have done nothing since. If the Wild flops again and continues to stagnate, there should be a shake-up of both the roster and the management. Actually neither players, coaches, or management should have any extra pressure on them. They have overachieved. But Columbus plays in the Ohio-Indiana area, close to the Canadian border, where hockey is mysteriously unpopular, which I have termed the “Death Valley” of professional hockey. The Blue Jackets get consistently bad attendance. They have only made the playoffs three times in their history and have never won a playoff series. Sure Columbus had the finest regular season in their history, but is that enough to convince local fans to support the team? The cynical fans may be saying “Show me” before they really start believing in this team and that means a playoff victory. And if that is still not enough to attract increased attendance, perhaps it may be time to consider a franchise shift to Quebec, Hamilton, or Hartford. Stanley Cup First Round Predictions Washington Capitals Vs. Toronto Maple Leafs All the pressure is on Washington but at least in this round they should not have to worry. They have to be heavily favored over newly arrived Toronto which is a team full of rookies making their Stanley Cup playoff debuts. As if the Leafs didn’t have enough to worry about in this round, the Capitals added star defenseman, Kevin Shattenkirk to push them over the top. This is the first playoff meeting ever between Washington and Toronto. It may seem a mismatch but the season series was very close, Washington winning 2-1 with one game going into overtime. The best things the Maple Leafs have going for them is that they have the young, up-coming superstar Auston Matthews, the overall number one pick this year who has been everything the Leafs wanted, and wants to make his playoff debut just as good as his regular season debut was; and the coaching of Mike Babcock. But with all the experience and star players, the Capitals should win in 5 games. P.S. If the Capitals somehow blow this series, I would not want to be a Washington Capital in the off season. Montreal Canadiens Vs. New York Rangers These two teams probably knew for months that they would be facing each other in the first round of the playoffs. At one time it seemed that both of them would be challenging for the President’s Trophy but they faded and weaknesses have showed. Montreal went so far as to fire its coach and replace him with their old mentor, Stanley Cup winning coach, Claude Julien who won with Boston. The Canadiens swept their series with the Rangers, establishing a clear edge over them. Coaching wise the hockey gods mischievously matched up French Canadian coaches Alain Vigneault of the New York Rangers against (you remember) the coach who beat him in the Stanley Cup Finals in 7 games, Claude Julien, another edge for the Canadiens. Canadiens have home ice. Henrik Lundqvist can be counted on to let in at least one goal at the wrong time. Montreal in 6 or 7 games. Pittsburgh Penguins Vs. Columbus Blue Jackets Poor Columbus. They overachieved and ended up with the worst playoff matchup possible, the Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins, just when they needed to convince local fans that they were for real the most. Even playing against choker Washington would have been better. The only good news that Columbus got was that Pittsburgh’s best defenseman, Kris Letang is out for the entire playoffs. But Evgeni Malkin will be back and combined with Sidney Crosby that should be enough for victory for Pittsburgh over Columbus who are a team of no-names. Sergei Bobrovsky is a good goaltender but Pittsburgh goaltender Matt Murray won it all last year. It would have been better for Columbus if Murray had been injured instead of Letang and Pittsburgh would have had to start the erratic Marc Andre Fleury. In Columbus’s favor is that they played Pittsburgh even head-to-head this year. Pittsburgh has the home ice edge and is vastly superior in talent and playoff experience. Columbus’s only hope is that the Letang injury means a serious drop-off in defensive performance but that won’t happen with Murray in Pittsburgh’s net. Pittsburgh in 5 or 6 games. Ottawa Senators Vs. Boston Bruins This is the first playoff meeting between these teams since the 1920s. The Senators played bad hockey down the stretch and on paper may be the weakest team in the Eastern Conference playoffs. They would probably lose to every other playoff team in the conference – except the Boston Bruins who are 0-3-1 against them. For that reason, the Senators have to be favored in this series though it could go either way, especially if Boston goaltender Tukka Rask gets hot and outplays Craig Anderson. Ottawa in 6 or 7 games. Chicago Blackhawks Vs. Nashville Predators When Nashville got P. K. Subban from Montreal for Shea Weber, many Predator fans and a whole bunch of predictors at the NHL website assumed that the Predators had got the “final piece of the puzzle” and that Nashville would at least be the Western Conference champion. Instead the Predators nearly finished out of the playoffs and only a late surge of good hockey got them back in. Subban is certainly not enough to topple Chicago who have won three Stanley Cups since 2010 and have to be the favorites this year to win it all again, especially since Pittsburgh lost Kris Letang. Chicago has too much talent and is too well coached to lose to a team like Nashville that needs a lot more talent than Subban to become a champion. Chicago in 5 games. Minnesota Wild Vs. St. Louis Blues Bruce Boudreau is a mediocre playoff coach. The Minnesota Wild are a mediocre playoff team. The St. Louis Blues made a bit of a break-through last year and reached the Western Conference Final, where they seldom go, but then lost talent in the off-season and then obligingly traded one of their top defensemen, Kevin Shattenkirk so that Los Angeles could make the playoffs while they rebuilt their team. Instead the Blues responded and made the playoffs while Minnesota had a horrible last quarter of the season. Minnesota which is supposed to be superior cannot lose to a team which at least on paper is much worse than last year. Can they? Then again, they are the Minnesota Wild and he is coach Bruce Boudreau… And the hockey gods continued their weird sense of humor by matching Minnesota against their old coach, Mike Yeo. This is tough to predict. It could go either way. At least on paper, Minnesota should win, but I’ll go out on a limb and say St. Louis will rankle Boudreau and General Manager Chuck Fletcher and win for Yeo in 7 games. Edmonton Oilers Vs. San Jose Sharks Last year, San Jose coach Peter DeBoer took a team that was supposed to be over the hill and on the way down into new territory, all the way to the Stanley Cup Final. For part of this season, San Jose looked like that team, but the Sharks had a horrible last quarter and tumbled out of first place in their division to third. Has an aging reality finally caught up to the Sharks? Meanwhile the Oilers, under Sidney Crosby’s heir, Connor McDavid made the playoffs after 10 years of futility. Added to the spice and intrigue is that the perverted hockey gods decided that the Oilers coach should be San Jose’s old coach, Todd McLellan. Martin Jones, who played so well for the Sharks in net during last year’s playoffs gives San Jose an edge at a key position. Unknown positive factor for the Oilers: How good is Connor McDavid? San Jose has nothing like him, just like they had nobody like Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin in last year’s final. Unknown negative factor for the Oilers: It took Wayne Gretzky three years before the Oilers won a playoff round. If San Jose had been playing good down the stretch, I would take them based on their playoff experience and Jones’ goaltending. But I don’t think San Jose will find themselves this time, McDavid will be the difference, and the Oilers will win in 6 games. Anaheim Ducks Vs. Calgary Flames The Ducks had been choking in the playoffs under mediocre playoff coach Bruce Boudreau, so they reached back into their past and rehired their Stanley Cup winning coach, Randy Carlyle again. So far it has paid off. The Ducks kept their heads while the Sharks faded and the Oilers and Flames also took a run at them and ended up winning their division. Carlyle certainly has the experience and knowledge to keep them playing that way in the playoffs. Meanwhile Calgary got hot at the right time and put together a 10 game winning streak in the last quarter of the regular season, just when they needed it the most. Rookie coach Glenn Gulutan should also be saluted because he took a team that seemed headed for the bottom of the Western Conference standings at the beginning of the season, turned it around and got it into the playoffs. Unknown factor: The coaching of Gulutan. Will he be just as good in the playoffs as he was in the regular season? Can he match the experienced, Stanley Cup winning coach, Carlyle? And how will the goaltending match up? This could go in Calgary’s favor if all the unknown factors go their way. Anaheim’s veterans have more to lose in this series than up and coming Calgary. Based on what I know about Carlyle, I’ll take the Ducks in 6 games. Early Stanley Cup Prediction Since the beginning of the season, until otherwise proven, I’ve consistently said that the Chicago Blackhawks and Pittsburgh Penguins were the teams to beat and I still hold to that. When Pittsburgh built its team around the latest member on Canada’s Golden Hockey Chain, Sidney Crosby (A list of the top Canadian players of their generation who is head and shoulders above everyone else, dating back to Maurice Richard), and top Russian, Evgeni Malkin, it was predicted that Pittsburgh would win many Stanley Cups during the coming era. But while Pittsburgh floundered under the bad goaltending of Marc Andre Fleury, Chicago seized its opportunity to win every other year. Chicago is back again this year and Pittsburgh has been hurt by the injury to top defenseman, Kris Letang. A dream matchup will be a Chicago-Pittsburgh final and the Blackhawks will continue their pattern by winning their fourth Stanley Cup in 8 years. Chemistry Gone From The Los Angeles Kings Posted on March 22, 2017 by ericthephantom Standard Reply It’s over. With the St. Louis Blues victory over the Colorado Avalanche last night, the Western Conference playoff teams have been determined. It will be combinations of Chicago, Minnesota, San Jose, Edmonton, Anaheim, Calgary, St. Louis, and Nashville. Realistically the Los Angeles Kings, the only team currently out of a playoff spot that has any remaining hope of making the post-season will not make up the eight point difference that stands between them and St. Louis and Nashville with only ten games left. Los Angeles is not going to suddenly right the ship and go on the long winning streak necessary, nor are the teams they are trying to catch going into a prolonged slump. It is quite a fall for the Kings who were Stanley Cup champions only three years ago in 2014, after winning their first Cup in 2012. Somehow the winning chemistry has been lost and the Kings will be out in the cold despite almost being handed a playoff position on a silver platter during this final quarter of the season. What is revealing is that at the trade deadline, the Kings added goaltender Ben Bishop from the Tampa Bay Lightning and then Jerome Iginla from the Colorado Avalanche, while the St. Louis Blues obligingly traded their best defenseman, Kevin Shattenkirk to Washington and the Kings fell while the Blues rose. Only a year ago, Los Angeles and Chicago were trading Stanley Cups, each winning on alternative years. Last year it was supposed to be Los Angeles turn to win but one of the teams favored to win it all was instead eliminated in the very first round in only five games by the supposedly over-the-hill San Jose Sharks. The Kings had brought in Vincent Lecavalier and Milan Lucic to bring them back to the top but the chemistry obviously did not click. This year, Lecavalier retired and Lucic was allowed to go to Edmonton, but the Kings have been mediocre at best. Star goaltender, Jonathan Quick got injured but backup Peter Budaj did a credible job until he was traded for Bishop who has not been what Los Angeles expected. It was a strange trade anyway with the Kings just getting back Quick after a serious injury and who would obviously be doing most of the goaltending. The Kings needed help elsewhere and the aging Iginla, well past his prime was not enough. It has to admitted that huge sums of money have been wasted where they could have been spent more wisely. Still it is a mystery why the Kings, once so formidable have fallen so far so fast. Jonathan Quick is still here and so is star defenseman Drew Doughty. Up front there is still Jeff Carter and Anze Kopitar and coach Darryl Sutter is still behind the bench. The goal differential is a bad -6 but that does not tell the story. The Kings are actually a good defensive team but they are not scoring goals. It would have been better to have made a trade for forwards and defensemen who would have boosted the attack, not Ben Bishop. A top forward or an attacking defenseman are the obvious choices in this year’s draft. It is still possible for the Kings to make the playoffs but it is highly unlikely. The forwards who were making a difference with Kopitar and Carter have been allowed to leave and the wrong players have taken their place. The Los Angeles attack has to be rebuilt. The winning chemistry that brought two recent Stanley Cups has vanished. The Kings, so recently one the envied teams in the NHL are in a real muddle.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line676
__label__wiki	0.611309	0.611309	Tag Archives: Team USA Canada And The Hybrids Deserve Each Other Posted on September 26, 2016 by ericthephantom Standard Reply So it is now a World Cup Final between Canada and hybrid Team Europe, the only team without a national anthem. And the third best team in the tournament was probably Team North America. This was the last thing anybody needed or wanted. It was a great idea to revive the World Cup as a regular event that had been lost in the wilderness for twelve years. It was a chance to pit the national teams of the traditional “big 7″ countries against each other plus some improved invited guests. What started out so promising instead has become a clear mirror as to the state of international hockey (More about this in a future article). The five teams that should have given Canada its toughest competition have been an embarrassment instead. Poor NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman. He wanted to improve the competition level in this tournament by excluding “B level” countries and creating united conglomerates which he christened Europe and North America. This was to prevent embarrassments like Canada 10 Norway 1, Russia 8 Latvia 2, and USA 7 Poland 0, etc. The creation of these two hybrids showed that Bettman recognized that during the previous 44 years since the Canada-USSR match of 1972, virtually nothing had been done to improve the level of play outside of the “big 7″. Back then, there had been boasts that hockey would become the number 2 sport behind soccer. Instead after four decades, excellence in hockey is still confined to its same narrow base as it was back then. So North America and Europe were created to provide competitive games but they were not supposed to win. The first mistake was to exclude Slovakia, a “big 7″ country from icing a team in the tournament. Slovakians would form the heart of Team Europe. But what Bettman could not foresee was the truly dismal effort the national teams, other than Canada would give. Start with Team Finland 0-3. Their excuse was that it was a young team just learning the ropes of international competition. They claim they are happy with the result. The future they insist, “is bright”. If that is true, that is at least the most credible excuse. Hope reigns for the future. It is far worse for the others. Moving along we come to Team USA, now everybody’s favorite whipping boy in the tournament. According to their management, they were put together to “beat Canada” supposedly the best team in the tournament, but instead started out by being shamefully shut out by Europe, supposedly the worst team and then it was downhill from there. Neither former Conn Smythe Trophy winner goaltender Jonathan Quick nor Ben Bishop who took the Tampa Bay Lightning to the Stanley Cup Final was particularly stingy, but you cannot win if you do not score and USA scored a grand total of 5 goals in 3 games prompting excluded veteran Phil Kessel to tweet taunts at the team. Actually if you really want to rub it in on USA remind them of the Hollywood sports fantasies they so love to create. In hockey’s case the Americans cooked up the Mighty Ducks, a team of hacks who somehow manage to become champions of the world. Of course not wishing to offend Canada and lose its market, Disney always had Canada defeated off camera by some bad guy European country leaving it to the Ducks to save North American hockey. The Ducks have yet to play and defeat a Canadian team. This of course has prompted howls of ridicule and contempt from every child north of the 49th Parallel. Needless to say, the Ducks were not at this current tournament to save the day. They might have beaten Team USA though. Russia and the Czech Republic can hardly hold their heads much higher than the Americans. Once feared as usually the second and third ranked hockey powers of the world, this tournament underlined how far they have tumbled compared to Canada. In fact it is hard to remember when the Czech Republic has iced a truly competitive team capable of winning tournaments like the World Cup and the Olympics. They started off with a shameful 6-0 shutout by Canada, clearly showing that did not belong on the same ice, failed to defeat supposedly bad Europe, and then managed to eke out a win against the even sorrier Americans. One can hardly wait for a rematch with Canada. As for Russia, the World Cup showed once again why this Alexander Ovechkin-led team has never won a medal at any Olympics in which he is supposed to be Russia’s best player and why he has never even been to the Eastern Conference Final with the Washington Capitals. Billed as the equal of Sidney Crosby whom he is supposed to have a rivalry with, Canada made sure that his name never appeared on the score sheet against them proving once again that Crosby is a difference maker while Ovechkin is not. He wants to play for Russia again during the 2018 Olympics whether the NHL participates or not, but given his team record both internationally and with Washington in the playoffs, it would be better to give someone else a chance. How far has Russia fallen when compared with Canada? Russia gave up 47 shots in only 3 periods to Canada and the 5-3 score is more of a tribute to the heroic goaltending of Sergei Bobrovsky than any virtue by the rest of the Russian team. Goaltending is probably the only position where Russia is competitive with Canada anymore. Finally we come to Sweden which was billed with Canada as one of the tournament favorites. Sweden is usually described as a team that wins by its skating and offensive skill ability. They managed to beat Russia led by Ovechkin who again failed to rise to the occasion and “rookie” filled Finland. Balanced against those meager achievements was their failure to beat either of the hybrids. Henrik Lundqvist showed why he is the Ovechkin of goaltenders in the NHL and why he has never won the Stanley Cup, giving up two overtime winners to both North America and Europe. If Sweden was really one of the favorites, they should have beaten every opponent with authority, the way Canada did. And their vaunted skating ability was nowhere to be seen. Against Europe in the semi-final, they looked like a tired, old team plodding along, not one out to prove that they were a real challenger for Canada as the best in world. So that just leaves Europe which was supposed to be the joke of the tournament as Canada’s opponent in the Final. Gary Bettman of course will accept the applause for his “good idea” in creating these two hybrids, but inside he can hardly be pleased. North America and Europe were created to provide interesting, decent competition. They were not supposed to win. But this debacle is not Bettman’s fault. Who would have predicted before this tournament started that every national team except Canada would play like turkeys who did not belong, leaving the door wide open for two low ranked hybrids to prove themselves.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line677
__label__cc	0.510433	0.489567	Turning Pointe About Turning Pointe Turning Pointe (Atlanta, GA) is a contemporary gospel quartet that unites four talented artists with soulful voices and a passion for music. Turning Pointe’s eclectic sound bridges the divide between old and new, while preserving gospel’s messages of love, faith, and hope. With a focus on collaboration and conversation, Turning Pointe provides international audiences the insight, experience, and spirituality of the gospel genre. The members of Turning Pointe include , Tamara Coleman, Priestly Stephenson and Sanchez Dixon, Jacoby Williams, Alex Maddox, Corey Taylor, and Corey Davis. Turning Pointe ventured on a month long tour to six countries in West Africa. Those countries included Accra, Ghana, Monrovia, Liberia, Lome, Togo, Brazzaville, Congo, Malabo, Equatorial Guinea and Lagos and Abuja, Nigeria. This tour is sponsored by the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and the Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City. Jazz at Lincoln Center conducted auditions, where over 130 quartets auditioned, yet only 10 groups were selected, including Turning Pointe. The final stop of the tour ended with two final performances at the National Geographic Center in Washington, D.C. and at Dizzy Club Coca Cola at the Jazz at Lincoln Center. Together, the members of Turning Pointe endeavor to change the world one song at a time, and to encourage and uplift audiences worldwide.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line682
__label__cc	0.705591	0.294409	Gun Violence Is a Public Health Measure Posted on August 19, 2013 by Pediatric Education A 7-year-old female came to clinic for health supervision. She was growing and developing appropriately. During the social history, the pediatrician asked if there were any guns in the home. The father answered that yes there were long guns used for target practice and occasional hunting. When she asked about safety measures such as trigger locks, gun cabinets, or keeping ammunition separated, the father said that the guns were in his closet along with the ammunition. The pediatrician recommended that the guns be taken out of the home, but also said that if the guns remained then they should be kept in a gun safe where they could be stored unlocked with a individual trigger lock on each gun. Also she recommended that the ammunition be stored in its own separately locked container. The father seemed partially annoyed but also partially puzzled and asked questions about why trigger locks were recommended. The pediatrician replied that this was an inexpensive way to make sure the gun wasn’t discharged by accident. “The trigger locks are about $10-15 each, and an ammunition safe or lock box starts around $60. It’s a lot less expensive than the cost of having a gun injury,” she replied. The diagnosis of a healthy girl living in a home with guns was made. During a subsequent acute care visit, the mother said that the father had transferred the guns to the gun safe at her in-laws home. They also now had trigger locks on them. “I never liked having them in our house. At least they are locked up over there and my husband can get to them when he wants but they are not in my house.” For anyone, general access to guns is one major reason fatalities and injuries. If a gun is not available then it simply cannot be used. In pediatric patients, younger children are simply curious about the world and will explore everything, including guns, that they find without any understanding of the danger. Older children developmentally are not able to discern the difference between the fantasy world of videogames, movies and television and may not understand that people truly are hurt or killed by guns. Somehow in the fantasy worlds, the hero or player always seems to be able to come back to life. Teens and young adults often do not have the judgment to not act impulsively. Fights, wayward emotions and a gun in the environment can bring about tragedy in an instant. Additionally there are homes where mental illness, substance abuse, and many other stressors can turn the availability of a gun into a disaster. With these pediatric developmental considerations in mind, the American Academy of Pediatrics’ policy on Firearm-Related Injuries Affecting the Pediatric Population states that “Firearm-related injuries are often fatal; primary prevention is essential.” It further states that “…the most effective measure to prevent suicide, homicide, and unintentional firearm-related injuries to children and adolescents is the absence of guns from homes and communities.” [emphasis added.] It additionally recommends that parents should be counseled regarding the presence and availability of firearms and to encourage parents to prevent access. Recognizing that the safest home is one without guns, parents should also be counseled about safe gun storage including ways to limit access such as gun cabinets or other locked storage containers, individual firearm trigger locks, and separate locked storage containers for ammunition. Additional concerns should be reinforced in homes where there are patients with “mood disorders, substance abuse problems (including alcohol), or a history of suicide attempts.” Individuals in these homes are at an increased suicide risk. A recent study has shown that increased strength of state firearm laws is associated with a lower overall firearm fatality rate, homicide rate and suicide rate for that state. That is stronger firearm laws is associated with lower firearm fatalities. “The AAP [also] recommends restoration of the ban on the same of assault weapons to the general public.” Public health is “the science and practice of protecting and improving the health of a community, as by preventive medicine, health education, control of communicable diseases, application of sanitary measures, and monitoring of environmental hazards.” Public health measures have been effective in disease prevention, improving traffic fatalities, etc.. Public health measures have helped to decrease pediatric morbidity and mortality such as car safety restraints, medication packaging, drug development for cancers, implantable devices for hearts, vaccines for infectious diseases, etc. Unfortunately this is not true for firearms. In the United States the number of firearm fatalities has been increasing over the last decade with ~31,500 people per year. By 2015, firearm fatalities are expected to surpass motor vehicle fatalities overall. In the 0-24 year population, the only group that does not have homicide or suicide as one of the top 4 causes of death is in the under 1 year group. A 2009 study of violent deaths in the US found that firearms were involved in 51.8% of suicides and 66.5% of homicides. Firearms were the leading cause in both cases. Gun related fatalities are twice the number of cancer fatalities, 5 times the number of heart disease and 15 times the number of infectious diseases. In 2010, the number of firearm fatalities in children and young adults 0-24 years was 6,462. Whereas over the last 10 years, all the vaccine preventable diseases (incidence only not fatalities) was 3,948 when pertussis was excluded. To see a table of the top 10 causes of death by age group, click here. Gun violence is a public health problem that needs multimodal solutions. Health care providers need to continue to educate the general public to view gun violence as a public health measure so children and parents will understand how they can decrease their own risk. Engaging lawmakers and other community stakeholders in helping to make appropriate regulations and laws improve the health and safety of the general community. Public health methodologies are multimodal and have been successful. It is time to apply them in earnest to this growing public health danger. 1. What are the fatality rates for firearm violence in different countries? How does this stratify by war zone? 2. What are the local resources for firearm safety training? 3. What advocacy efforts are available in your local community to prevent firearm violence? Disease: Firearm Violence \| Teen Violence \| Gun Safety Symptom/Presentation: Health Maintenance and Disease Prevention Specialty: General Pediatrics \| Preventive Medicine and Health Maintenance Information prescriptions for patients can be found at MedlinePlus for these topics: Teen Violence and Gun Safety. To view videos related to this topic check YouTube Videos. The American Heritage® Stedman’s Medical Dictionary. Houghton Mifflin Company. Available from the Internet at http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/public+health?s=t (rev. 2002, cited 5/21/13). Christoff C, Kolet I. American Gun Deaths to Exceed Traffic Fatalities by 2015. Available from the Internet at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-19/american-gun-deaths-to-exceed-traffic-fatalities-by-2015.html (rev. 12/19/2012, cited 5/21/2013). Karch DL, Logan J, McDaniel D, Parks S, Patel N; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Surveillance for violent deaths–National Violent Death Reporting System, 16 states, 2009. MMWR Surveill Summ. 2012 Sep 14;61(6):1-43. Dowd MD, Sege RD; Council on Injury, Violence, and Poison Prevention Executive Committee; American Academy of Pediatrics. Firearm-related injuries affecting the pediatric population. Pediatrics. 2012 Nov;130(5):e1416-23. World Health Organization. WHO vaccine-preventable diseases: monitoring system. 2012 global summary. Available from the Internet at http://apps.who.int/immunization_monitoring/globalsummary/incidences?c=USA (rev. 2012, cited 5/21/2013). Palfrey JS, Palfrey S. Preventing gun deaths in children. N Engl J Med. 2013 Jan 31;368(5):401-3. Centers for Disease Control. Fatal Injury Data. Available from the Internet at http://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/leading_causes_death.html (rev 9/12/2012, cited 5/22/13). 8. Health care services aimed at preventing health problems or maintaining health are provided. Practice Based Learning and Improvement 13. Information about other populations of patients, especially the larger population from which this patient is drawn, is obtained and used. 22. Sensitivity and responsiveness to patients’ culture, age, gender, and disabilities are demonstrated. 25. Quality patient care and assisting patients in dealing with system complexities is advocated. 26. Partnering with health care managers and health care providers to assess, coordinate, and improve health care and how these activities can affect system performance are known.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line685
__label__wiki	0.681403	0.681403	Last edited by Nenris 3 edition of Commercial treaties with Iran, Nicaragua, and the Netherlands found in the catalog. Commercial treaties with Iran, Nicaragua, and the Netherlands hearings before the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate, 84th Congress, 2nd session on Executive E, 84th Congress, 2nd session a treaty of amity, economic relations, and consular rights with Iran, Executive G, 84th Congress 2nd session a treaty of friendship, commerce, and navigation with the Republic of Nicaragua and Executive H, 84th Congress, 2nd session a treaty of friendship, comerce, and navigation with the kingdom of the Netherlands. July 3, 1956. Published 1956 by U.S. Govt. Print. Off. in Washington, DC . United States -- Commercial treaties. Available also in microform in CIS US congressional committee hearings, accession number (84)S1202-5. Genre Commercial treaties. LC Classifications KF26 .F6 1956b Pagination iii, 24 p. : More information about the Netherlands is available on the Netherlands Page and from other Department of State publications and other sources listed at the end of this fact sheet. U.S.-NETHERLANDS RELATIONS The U.S. partnership with the Netherlands dates back to the American Revolution, which the Netherlands supported. The United States established diplomatic relations with the Netherlands in. Summary of the law of nations, founded on the treaties and customs of the modern nations of Europe; with a list of the principal treaties, concluded since the year down to the present time [Martens, G. F. de] on FREE shipping on qualifying offers. Summary of the law of nations, founded on the treaties and customs of the modern nations of Europe; with a list of the principal Format: Paperback. Welcome to We recently modernized our website. Part of this modernization was to reduce the number of pages on the current website by not moving items that are in existence on our archive sites. This keeps the content on the current current while older content remains intact and fully accessible on our [ ]. Why the Kingdom of the Netherlands concludes treaties The Kingdom of the Netherlands concludes treaties as a way of making agreements with other states, or with international organisations. Treaties are a way of ensuring that parties actually do what they have agreed. A commercial treaty is a formal agreement between states for the purpose of establishing mutual rights and regulating conditions of trade. It is a bilateral act whereby definite arrangements are entered into by each contracting party towards the other—not mere concessions. About the document search function. This search engine can be used to search the full text of case-related PDF documents published on this website. Understanding Poverty Rates and Gaps Alfreds Basic Piano Library Drawing by Seeing (Abrams Studio) Economic consequences of the policy shift from import substitution to liberalised imports Potato tuber nematode. Modern elementary education Occasional writer Technical evaluation of transportation control measures for the St. Louis area From these beginnings Forging Democracy from Below Math triumphs Strindberg and Fiction Oestrogenic constituents of forage plants Commercial treaties with Iran, Nicaragua, and the Netherlands by Download PDF EPUB FB2 Commercial treaties with Iran, Nicaragua, and the Netherlands: hearings before the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate, 84th Congress. Commercial treaties with Iran, Nicaragua, and the Netherlands: hearing before the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate, Eighty-fourth Congress, Second session on Executive E, 84th Congress, 2nd session a treaty of and the Netherlands book, economic relations, and consular rights with Iran ; Executive G, 84th Congress 2nd session a treaty of friendship, commerce, and navigation with the. Treaties concluded or ratified by Iran. Where appropriate, articles should be placed in the subcategories. Where appropriate, articles should be placed in the subcategories. This category may contain articles about treaties concluded or ratified by Iran since 1 Aprilwhich is the date on which the Islamic Republic of Iran was declared. treaties that merely provide for equal treatment would not prevent the application of the unitary tax to foreign-based multinationals. The FCN Treaties, by contrast, go beyond mere guarantees of nondiscriminatory treatment. See infra pp. I 8 See Commercial Treaties with Iran, Nicaragua, and the Netherlands: Hearings Before the. Pages in category "Treaties of Nicaragua" The following pages are in this category, out of approximately total. This list may not reflect recent changes. (previous page) A. Abolition of Forced Labour Convention; Agreement between the Allied and Associated Powers with Regard to the Contribution to the Cost of Liberation of the. News & Announcements. World Intellectual Property Organization Administered Treaties (WIPOATSer) (WorldLII)United States Treaties and Other International Acts Series (USTIASer) (WorldLII)Organization of American States Multilateral Treaties (OASMTSer) (WorldLII)United Nations Treaty Series (UNTSer) (WorldLII)League of Nations Treaty Series (LNTSer). H.E. Jaime Hermida Castillo Ambassador Extraordinary and Commercial treaties with Iran, Permanent Representative, Permanent Mission of Nicaragua to the United Nations jpeg Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Public Participation and Justice in. The Treaty Database contains information on the treaties to which the Kingdom of the Netherlands is a party. The information includes the date on and the place at which the treaty was concluded, the date of its entry into force, where to find the text, the parties (countries, territories and international organizations) with the date of each party’s ratification, its applicability to the. Klaus Vogel on Double Taxation Conventions is regarded as the international gold standard on the law of tax treaties. This new Fourth Edition has been completely revised and updated to give you a full and current account of double tax conventions (DTCs). DTCs form the backbone of international taxation, but they raise many interpretational questions. International law, also known as public international law and law of nations, is the set of rules, norms, and standards generally accepted in relations between nations. It establishes normative guidelines and a common conceptual framework to guide states across a broad range of domains, including war, diplomacy, trade, and human rights. Treaties. Some treaties or conventions confer jurisdiction on the Court. It has become a common international practice for international agreements - whether bilateral or multilateral - to include provisions, known as jurisdictional clauses, providing that certain categories of disputes shall or may be subject to one or more methods of pacific dispute settlement. Treaties in Force as of January 1, ii References Bevans Treaties and Other International Agreements of the United States of Americacompiled under the direction of Charles I. Bevans. EAS Executive Agreement Series, issued singly in pamphlets by the Department of State (until replaced in by the TIAS). Foreign Relations Foreign Relations of the United States. I’m announcing that the United States is terminating the Treaty of Amity with Iran. This is a decision, frankly, that is 39 years overdue. Nicaragua has also failed to consider that, on 9 Januaryas a corollary to the Pact of Amity, Nicaragua and Costa Rica signed, at the Pan American Union in Washington, an agreement to facilitate and expedite traffic on the San Juan River within the terms of the Treaty of 15 April and its interpretation given by arbitration on Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the two neighboring nations have generally enjoyed very close cordial relations. Iran and Russia are strategic allies and form an axis in the Caucasus alongside Armenia. Iran and Russia are also military allies in the conflicts in Syria and Iraq and partners in Afghanistan and post-Soviet Central Asia. Due to Western economic sanctions on Iran, Russia has become a key. The First Bilateral Investment Treaties is the first and only history of the U.S. postwar Friendship, Commerce, and Navigation (FCN) treaty program, and focuses on the investment-related provisions of those treaties. The 22 U.S. postwar FCN treaties were the first bilateral investment treaties ever concluded, and nearly all of the core provisions in the modern network of more than Embassies and other diplomatic missions, such as consulates represent the government of a country in another (host) country. A government can help its citizens abroad through its foreign missions within limited possibilities. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (BZ) makes our Kingdom safer and more prosperous and works to create a just and sustainable world. BZ also supports Dutch nationals abroad 24/7. We do all this together with our partners at home and abroad. Working for the Netherlands, worldwide. United States-Iranian Treaties and Agreements signed in,and The first of these treaties, the US-Iranian treaty on amity and trade, was signed on Dec. 13,in Istanbul. It anticipated the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries (established in ) and extended to Americans the privileges. Japan - The Treaty which entered into force on Octowas made applicable to the Bonin Islands on Jand to the Ryukyu Islands on Netherlands - The Treaty which entered into force on Decemis applicable to Aruba and Netherlands Antilles. OECD iLibrary is the online library of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) featuring its books, papers and statistics and is the gateway to OECD's analysis and data.Treaties in Force is published annually by the Department of State to provide information on treaties and other international agreements to which the United States is presently a party. It lists those treaties and other international agreements in force for the United States as .About this book: International Arbitration in the United States is a comprehensive analysis of international arbitration law and practice in the United States (U.S.). Choosing an arbitration seat in the U.S. is a common choice among parties to international commercial agreements or treaties. cinemavog-legrauduroi.com - Commercial treaties with Iran, Nicaragua, and the Netherlands book © 2020	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line686
__label__cc	0.547382	0.452618	Last edited by Daicage Monday, May 11, 2020 \| History 6 edition of Contemporary materialism found in the catalog. a reader Published 1995 by Routledge in London, New York . Materialism., Philosophy, Contemporary -- 20th century. Includes bibliographical references (p. [371]-374) and index. Statement [edited by] Paul K. Moser and J.D. Trout. Contributions Moser, Paul K., 1957-, Trout, J. D. LC Classifications B825 .C64 1995 Pagination x, 378 p. : ISBN 10 0415108632, 0415108640 Materialism is a form of philosophical monism that holds that matter is the fundamental substance in nature, and that all things, including mental states and consciousness, are results of material ing to philosophical materialism, mind and consciousness are by-products or epiphenomena of material processes (such as the biochemistry of the human brain and nervous . Encountering Althusser: Politics and Materialism in Contemporary Radical Thought (, Hardcover) Be the first to write a review. About this product. the book discusses materialism and the different formulations of the relationship between politics and philosophy, Althusser's interpretations of political thinkers (including Machiavelli. By the ’s the rapid growth in the number and proportion of people employed in supplying services rather than manufacture and agriculture had made London the greatest modern city of its era. The peak demand may have occurred even earlier in the cities of the Dutch Republic as the economics began to shift to London with William of Orange in. Jane Bennett (born J ) is an American political theorist and philosopher. She is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of the Humanities at the Department of Political Science, Johns Hopkins University School of Arts and Sciences. She was also the editor of the Alma mater: University of Massachusetts. A Contemporary Critique Of Historical Materialism book. Read reviews from world’s largest community for readers. What, if anything, is valid in Marx's wo /5(4). Anthony Giddens, a British sociologist, was educated at Hull, the London School of Economics, and Cambridge, and is a fellow of King's College, Cambridge. Purchase of certain lands by school district No. 12, Roseau County, Minn. Sonnets from the Portuguese, and other love poems Brothers Of Glastonbury Development document for effluent limitations guidelines, new source performance standards and pretreatment standards for the inorganic chemicals manufacturing point source category Failure of charisma Shattered city World War II Through Russian Eyes Guys Hospital, 1725-1948 Why psychotherapy? Backpacking Tips, 2nd workbook of nudes and glamour Contemporary materialism Download PDF EPUB FB2 Contemporary Materialism: A Reader and millions of other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - 4/5(1). Contemporary Materialism: A Reader and millions of other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link Contemporary materialism book download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - Cited by: Contemporary Materialism brings together the best recent work on materialism from many of our leading contemporary philosophers. This is the first comprehensive reader on the subject/5(4). Contemporary Materialism presents an important collection of recent work on materialism in connection with metaphysics, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind and theories of value. This anthology charts the contemporary problems, positions and themes on the topic of materialism.4/5(1). Contemporary Materialism brings together the best recent work on materialism from many Contemporary materialism book our leading contemporary philosophers. This is the first comprehensive reader on the subject. The majority of philosophers and scientists today hold the view that all phenomena are physical, as a result materialism or 'physicalism' is now the dominant ontology in a wide range of by: Book Description. Contemporary Materialism brings together the best recent work on materialism from many of our leading contemporary philosophers. This is the first comprehensive reader on the subject. A brilliant introduction to the philosophical concept of materialism and its relevance to contemporary science and culture In this eye-opening, intellectually stimulating appreciation of a fascinating school of philosophy, Terry Eagleton makes a powerful argument that materialism is at the center of today’s important scientific and cultural as well as philosophical debates/5(10). “When once we quit the basis of sensation, all is in the wind. To talk of immaterial existences is to talk of say that the human soul, angels, god, are immaterial, is to say they are nothings, or that there is no god, no angels, no soul.I cannot reason otherwise: but I believe I am supported in my creed of materialism by Locke, Tracy, and Stewart. A brilliant introduction to the philosophical concept of materialism and its relevance to contemporary science and culture In this eye-opening, intellectually stimulating appreciation of a fascinating school of philosophy, Terry Eagleton makes a powerful argument that materialism is at the center of todays important scientific and cultural as well as philosophical debates/5. Contemporary Materialism: A Reader By J. Trout; Paul K. Moser Routledge, PS PRIMARY SOURCE A primary source is a work that is being studied. Contemporary Materialism brings together the best recent work on materialism from many of our leading contemporary philosophers. This is the first comprehensive reader on. Contemporary Materialism. DOI link for Contemporary Materialism. Contemporary Materialism book. A Reader. Contemporary Materialism. DOI link for Contemporary Materialism. Contemporary Materialism book. A Reader. Edited By Paul K. Moser, J. Trout. Edition 1st Edition. First Published eBook Published 1 November Cited by: contemporary adherents). Perhaps every particular thing spoken of in any science is identical with some particular physical thing; that would be a more modest – and more popular – token-identity physicalism. Perhaps every fact expressible in the proprietary vocabulary of any science. Contemporary Materialism brings together the best recent work on materialism from many of our leading contemporary philosophers. This is the first comprehensive reader on the subject. The majority. The Historical Materialism Book Series is a major publishing initiative of the radical left. The capitalist crisis of the twenty-first century has been met by a resurgence of interest in critical Marxist theory. At the same time, the publishing institutions committed to Marxism have contracted markedly since the high point of the s. The Nation-State and Violence (Contemporary Critique of Historical Materialism, Vol. 2) There's a problem loading this menu right now. Learn more about Amazon Prime. Prime members enjoy FREE Two-Day Delivery and exclusive access to music, movies, TV Cited by: The Philosophy of Living Experience is the single best introduction to the thought of Alexander Bogdanov (–), a Russian polymath who was co-founder, with Lenin, of the Bolshevik Party. His landmark achievements are Empiriomonism (–6), a philosophy of radical empiricism that he developed to replace what he considered to be the crude materialism of contemporary Marxists, and. Contemporary Materialism brings together the best recent work on materialism from many of our leading contemporary philosophers. This is the first comprehensive reader on the subject. The majority of philosophers and scientists today hold the view that all phenomena are physical, as a result materialism or 'physicalism' is now the dominant ontology in a wide range of : Taylor And Francis. Contemporary Materialism brings together key articles by many leading contemporary contemporary classics included in this collection chart problems, positions and themes concerning the issue of materialism. Eco Materialism and Contemporary Art challenge the social, cultural, and ethical norms that prevailed in the twentieth century. This significant frontier of contemporary culture is identified as ‘Eco Materialism’ because it affirms the emergent philosophy of Neo Materialism and attends to the pragmatic urgency of : Intellect Books Ltd. 4 A Contemporary Critique of Historical Materialism tendency that can readily be discerned in the writings of Max Weber, but which has recently become fashionable in a new guise in the writings of the so-called 'new philosophers' and others in France. It is useless merely to supplant Marx's reductionist.A study of how materialism and consumerism undermine our quality of life. In The High Price of Materialism, Tim Kasser offers a scientific explanation of how our contemporary culture of consumerism and materialism affects our everyday happiness and psychological writers have shown that once we have sufficient food, shelter, and clothing, further material gains/5.Eco Materialism and Contemporary Art challenge the social, cultural, and ethical norms that prevailed in the twentieth century. This significant frontier of contemporary culture is identified as ‘Eco Materialism’ because it affirms the emergent philosophy of Neo Materialism and attends to the pragmatic urgency of environmentalism. cinemavog-legrauduroi.com - Contemporary materialism book © 2020	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line687
__label__wiki	0.565939	0.565939	How to Write a Metaphorical Poem How to Write a Poem Like Walt Whitman Why Do Poets Use Similes & Metaphor? How to Write Poems That Don't Rhyme Critiquing a Poem Strategy for Writing Poems Ruth Nix Updated February 16, 2017 ••• Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images Writing poetry can be deceptively difficult. While most people have been exposed to verse in one form or another, be it through nursery rhymes or the sentiments found inside greeting cards, relatively few people are consistently exposed to contemporary poetry. Making a point to read what's out there and what's new will be immensely helpful if you are interested in producing your own poetry. From there, however, it's mostly a matter of trial and error. Find Your Trigger When you begin a poem, start with a clear, concrete situation, image or idea. Many poets are inspired by a "trigger" they have encountered in real life. Triggers can be anything from conversations, conflicts, memories, sights, sounds, phrases and so on. These are experiences that evoke feelings and/or questions, and are often sensual in nature, meaning they play upon one or more of the five senses. Whatever gets you writing your poem might have nothing to do with what unravels at its end. More often than not, poets aren't truly aware of why any given trigger inspired them to set pen to paper. The touched nerve or "meaning" behind a trigger has to be discovered through the writing of the poem. As such, don't worry about expressing meaning or specific feelings in your first drafts. Trust Your Voice What differentiates one poet's work from another's often has more to do with voice than subject matter. Readers want to "hear" who you really are. That means attempts to sound hyper-intelligent by using archaic, latinate, or polysyllabic words will distance you from your reader and cause your voice to seem synthetic. Poetry is not about stringing together ornate words that have no meaning, nor is it about clouding your feelings with riddles. You cannot make a connection with your readers if they can't understand what you're saying. Ordinary Diction Because poets are challenged to communicate what they think and feel with as much economy and concision as possible, it's vital that you choose your words wisely. In fact, the simpler, the better. Try for a natural, relaxed, conversational tone in plain, everyday language -- language you actually use. Place an emphasis on nouns and verbs; use adverbs sparingly and adjectives even more sparingly. Poetry is an art form that makes use of metaphors, allusions and more. Whenever possible, instead of explicitly stating what it is you're trying to say, select a precise image or analogy that vividly conveys that same idea. If you've chosen your poetic devices wisely, you can trust your reader to understand what you're trying to say. Focus on moving your reader from your initial idea to some new realization. Poets use the term "volta" or "turn" to describe the place within a poem where whatever the reader -- and, sometimes, the writer -- thought the poem was about changes, and a new idea, confession or conveyance of feeling is revealed. Allow your thoughts to link and travel organically. Write and write until you have happened upon a surprise -- that turn in your understanding, that insight into what made your initial idea so intriguing. Revision is where much of a poet's work is done. Technically, to revise is to see things in a new way. That means looking at your work with fresh eyes, as objectively as possible. Ask: Is it honest? Is there more that wants to be said? Is any part confusing? Is it predictable? Could the language be more interesting, precise, or surprising? Does it allow for strangeness? Should I change the voice, the speaker, the point of view? What needs to be cut? Make changes according to your answers. The Poet's Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry: Kim Addonizio and Dorianne Laux ENC 1301: Notes and Readings on Form: University of Florida: Stephen Meats, et al. The Poetry Home Repair Manual: Ted Kooser Ruth Nix began her career teaching a variety of writing classes at the University of Florida. She also worked as a columnist and editorial fellow for "Esquire" magazine. In 2012, Nix was featured in the annual "Best New Poets" anthology and received the Calvin A. VanderWerf Award for excellence in teaching from the University of Florida.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line688
__label__wiki	0.737852	0.737852	Last edited by Mezinris 3 edition of Alcestis. found in the catalog. Alcestis. Translated into English rhyming verse with explanatory notes by Gilbert Murray. by Euripides Published 1920 by Allen & Unwin in London . Series Athenian drama for English readers Contributions Murray, Gilbert, 1866-1957. Pagination xvi, 81 p. ; As was the other main driver of the book, the myth of Alcestis: “I grew up in the Greek part of Cyprus, which is a very ancient place, and immersed in the Greek myths. You are taught Homer from a young age and the tragedies are constantly being performed and re-interpreted. The Alcestis of Euripides: with notes, for the use of colleges in the United States. , J. Munroe and company in English - 3d ed., rev. Download Book "Alcestis" by Author "Katharine Beutner" in [PDF] [EPUB]. Original Title ISBN "" published on "". Get Full eBook File name "" Format Complete Free. Genres: "Fantasy, Fiction, GLBT, Historical, Historical Fiction, LGBT, Mythology, Queer, Retellings". The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides shows you exactly what type of book it’s aiming to be from the very first sentence: “Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband.” No messing around here. For people who like their thrillers-slash-mysteries to have twisty plots and straight-forward writing, this recent release is one /5. Book Description Oxford University Press, USA 11/1/, Paperback or Softback. Condition: New. Alcestis. Book. Seller Inventory # BBS More information about this seller \| Contact this seller/5(K). Alcestis was a princess in Greek mythology, renowned for the love she had for her husband. She was the daughter of the king of Iolcus, Pelias, and Anaxibia. Alcestis was fair and beautiful, and many asked to marry her. Her father issued a competition, saying that the person who would be able to yoke a lion and a bore to a chariot would be allowed to marry Alcestis. Directory of U.S. Military Bases Worldwide bill for uniting the moieties and portions of the rectory of St. Dunstan Stepney ... Uralic mythology and folklore modest art: a survey of the short story in English How to keep your familys health records Joint CGS-AOML acoustical bottom echo-formation research II Bushs War next decade and beyond Access Florence & Venice internship with Northwest Ecosystem Alliance, Bellingham, Washington, January-June 2001 Preparing for a career in travel & hospitality. Acts and laws, passed by the Great and General Court or Assembly of Her Majesties province of the Massachusetts-Bay in New-England Living Morally Without Work : the human fare of unemployment Fluorescence of molecular ions. Asylum levels and trends in industrialized countries Alcestis by Euripides Download PDF EPUB FB2 Alcestis: A Novel by Katharine Beutner reminds me that a book is a relationship, and mine have always been complicated. I despise the world Ms. Beutner created for the young Alcestis. Her mother was dead, her father Alcestis. book remote and cruel, and the servants were dull. And always, the Ancient Greek world she inhabited demanded propriety/5(25). A treasure of Ancient Greek. Alcestis was written in B.C. and is probably the earliest of nineteen surviving plays of Euripides (he wrote about 90). Euripides was one of the great tragedians of classical Athens (beside Aeschylus and Sophocles). Alcestis is telling us the story of the king Admetus/5. Taking center stage in this debut novel is Alcestis, the fabled good wife who sacrificed herself in order to save her much loved husband, King Admetus. In this reworking of the classic legend, a decidedly more complex and restless Alcestis is provided with an intriguing backstory/5. Format: Paperback "Alcestis" is the oldest surviving play of Euripides, although he had been writing tragedies for almost twenty years when it was written. Apparently it ws the fourth play in a tetralogy, taking the place of the ribald satyr play which traditionally followed a series of three tragedies/5(5). APOLLO Dwelling of Admetus, wherein I, a God, deigned to accept the food of serfs. The cause was Zeus. He struck Asclepius, my Alcestis. book, full in the breast with a bolt of thunder, and laid him dead. Then in wild rage I slew the Cyclopes who forge the fire of Zeus. To atone for this my Father forced me to labour as a hireling for a mortal man; and I came to this country, and tended oxen. In Alcestis. book Alcestis, as it stands, the famous act of hospitality is a datum of the story. Its claims are admitted on the strength of the tradition. It was the act for which Admetus was specially and marvellously rewarded; therefore, obviously, it was an act of exceptional merit and piety. Alcestis is a particularly interesting play by Euripides in that it seems to foreshadow New Comedy more than resembling either a traditional tragedy or an old comedy. The essential plot, that. Alcestis is an Athenian tragedy by the ancient Greek playwright Euripides. It was first produced at the City Dionysia festival in BCE. Euripides presented it as the final part of a tetralogy of unconnected plays in the competition of tragedies, for which he won second prize. Alcestis, in Greek legend, the beautiful daughter of Pelias, king of Iolcos. She is the heroine of the eponymous play by the dramatist Euripides (c. – bce). According to legend, the god Apollo helped Admetus, son of the king of Pherae, to harness a lion and a boar to a chariot in order to win Alcestis’s hand. Euripides was, with Aeschylus and Sophocles, one of the greatest of Greek dramatists. Alcestis tells the story of a king's grief for his wife, Alcestis, who has given her young life so that he may live. As translated by Hughes, the story has a distinctly modern sensibility while retaining the spirit of : Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Though Alcestis has traditionally been classified as a tragedy, it also contains farcical elements (such as Herakles’s drunken speech on death) which has led both ancient and modern critics to suggest that it might better fit the genre of “tragicomedy.” So, whether it was his intention or not, Euripides can be seen as the pioneer of this genre. Katharine Beutner’s first novel, Alcestis, takes a minor character from Greek mythology and expands her story in ways that complicate her traditional representation as an ideal “good wife” who sacrifices herself in order to save her beloved husband. Published inthe novel is divided into two parts. Alcestis (; Greek: Ἄλκηστις, Alkēstis) is an Athenian tragedy by the ancient Greek playwright Euripides. [1] It was first produced at the City Dionysia festival in BCE. Euripides presented it as the final part of a tetralogy of unconnected plays in the competition of tragedies, for which he won second prize; this arrangement was exceptional, as the fourth part was normally a. Alcestis is a wonderful first novel from Katharine Beutner, and the only reason I mention it as a first is just because it amazes me that someone can be this good right out of the starting gate. Alcestis' husband, the mortal lover of Apollo has been granted the boon of one refusal to death providing someone steps forward to take his place/5(5). The entourage obeys and, carrying Alcestis’ body, they exit. Chorus To Alcestis as she’s taken away. O, Alcestis. O poor, brave, noble woman. Most admirable soul. Farewell. Chorus May Hermes of the Underworld and Hades welcome you kindly and if virtue receives any rewards down there, may you share in them. Alcestis (al- SEHS -tihs), Admetus’ wife. Her offer to die for her husband when all others refuse glorifies the self-sacrificing devotion of a wife. She is also the devoted mother who dies to. The Paperback of the Alcestis by Euripides at Barnes & Noble. FREE Shipping on $35 or more. Due to COVID, orders may be delayed. Thank you for your patience. Furthermore, all new books in the Bibliotheca Teubneriana series are published as eBooks. The older volumes of the series are being successively digitized and made available as : Dancing Unicorn Books. The play deals with the best known episode from Alcestis' life: her death. Apollo comes out from Admetus' palace and tells the audience how he was punished by Zeus to be the king's servant. Because Admetus had been kind to him, Apollo made the Fates/Moirai promise to let Admetus live beyond his allotted time, if he finds someone willing to die instead of him. Appears in 4 books from Page 83 - only that the participle, being the nearest word, determines the case, and not the verb, which requires a genitive. The sense is, While it, was highly proper for them in point of age to die. Euripides’ Alcestis—perhaps the most anthologized Attic drama--is an ideal text for students reading their first play in the original Greek. Alcestis summary and study guide are also available on the mobile version of the website. So get hooked on and start relishing Alcestis overview and detailed summary. This book contains words. With an average reading speed of words per minute, you will finish reading this book in about 1 hour. Alcestis, drama by Euripides, performed in BCE. Though tragic in form, the play ends happily. It was performed in place of the satyr play that usually ended the series of three tragedies that were produced for festival competition. Learn more .Alicia's self-portrait is entitled Alcestis, based an ancient Greek Eurpidean tragedy, which in turn is based upon Greek mythology. Do a bit of research into the myth to find out what Alicia might have been saying about herself in her portrait. What, in other . akikopavolka.com - Alcestis. book © 2020	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line689
__label__wiki	0.653579	0.653579	Last edited by Nizil Wednesday, August 5, 2020 \| History 2 edition of Transport planning in developing countries found in the catalog. Transport planning in developing countries PTRC Summer Meeting. (7th 1979 University of Warwick). proceedings of Seminar G held at the PTRC Summer Annual Meeting, University of Warwick, England from 9-12 July 1979. by PTRC Summer Meeting. (7th 1979 University of Warwick). Published 1979 by PTRC Education and Research Services Ltd in London . Series P178 Contributions Planning and Transport Research and Computation Company., Seminar on Transport Planning in Developing Countries (1979 : University of Warwick) With member countries, staff from more than countries, and offices in over locations, the World Bank Group is a unique global partnership: five institutions working for sustainable solutions that reduce poverty and build shared prosperity in developing countries. This journal provides a forum for discussion of research on transportation problems uniquely arising in the developing world. The contents include papers on all topics related to transportation, emphasizing research, planning and engineering problems that typically arise in developing economies. The richest countries with the highest per capita incomes are referred to by the United Nations as developed akikopavolka.com include the United States, Canada, most of the countries of Western Europe, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and a few others. The poorer states are referred to by the UN as the developing countries and. The illustrated book published by ADB and GIZ highlights the transport challenges in Asian cities, including the growing trend towards We provide access to policy tools, good practices, approaches and technical assistance on sustainable urban mobility from around the world and show you how you can make the best use of them – for your city. However, many low-income countries continue to experience high rates of traffic fatalities and injuries. Transport Planning and Traffic Safety: Making Cities, Roads, and Vehicles Safer offers a source book for road safety training courses as well as an introductory textbook for graduate-level courses on road safety taught in engineering. Transport or transportation is the movement of humans, animals and goods from one location to another. In other words, the action of transport is defined as a particular movement of an organism or thing from a point A to a Point B. Modes of transport include air, land (rail and road), water, cable, pipeline and akikopavolka.com field can be divided into infrastructure, vehicles and operations. The Saints of the Anglican Calendar Under Handicap (A Novel) Plan For Ontario Highways The theory of good and evil Introduction to prospecting doodles of Doeve terrible truth about liberals unified transport system of the U. S. S. R. Bertram Evans. Computer model of a high-resolution imaging sonar Elements of major crime Impressionist, modern and contemporary art Play with Dan The 1999 Official Autograph Collector Price Guide Financial implications for hospitals in comprehensive health care planning. The Lejendary Rules for All Players Transport planning in developing countries by PTRC Summer Meeting. (7th 1979 University of Warwick). Download PDF EPUB FB2 Public Transport Planning and Management in Developing Countries examines the status of urban transport in India and other developing countries. It explains the principles of public transport planning and management that are relevant and suitable for developing countries, addresses current transportation system inefficiencies, explores the. Public Transport Planning and Management in Developing Countries [Ashish Verma, T.V. Ramanayya] on akikopavolka.com FREE shipping on qualifying offers. Developing Countries Have Different Transportation Transport planning in developing countries book and Requirements Than Developed Countries An efficient transportation system is critical for a country’s akikopavolka.com by: 7. Dec 17, · Developing Countries Have Different Transportation Issues and Requirements Than Developed CountriesAn efficient transportation system is critical for a country's development. Yet cities in developing countries are typically characterized by high-density urban areas and poor public transport, as well as lack of proper roads, parking facilities, roadCited by: 7. Transport planning in developing countries [Clell G Harral] on akikopavolka.com FREE shipping on qualifying akikopavolka.com: Clell G Harral. Jul 05, · Developed by The Institute of Transportation Engineers, this book is the culmination of over seventy years of transportation planning solutions, fully updated to reflect the needs of a changing society. For a comprehensive guide with practical answers, The Transportation Planning Handbook is an essential reference. Public Transport in Developing Countries. Numerous books have been written which deal with transport problems in developed and developing countries, and with the planning and management of transport organizations in developed countries, but none deals specifically with the planning, regulation, management and control of public transport in developing countries. Numerous books have been written which deal with transport problems in developed and developing countries, and with the planning and management of transport organisations in developed countries, but none deals specifically with the planning, regulation, management and control of public transport in developing countries. This book meets that need. Thus public transport planning in rural areas is a complex phenomenon. It is quite difficult. to consider each and every settlement in planning public transport. In India a district. is normally considered as a unit for the purpose of planning and developing transport. infrastructure. The transport planning literature in all three countries contains notably more discussions about transport and quality of life than transport and health (maintenance and promotion). Quality of life may, therefore, provide a more useful means through which transport professionals can address health promotion issues. the book and suggesting ideas, especially about land use planning. I would also like to extend thanks to Christopher Bird for his sugges-tions about the railways and to James Gachihi for his help in the chapter on developing countries. I would additionally like to thank Christie Mayer for her work in editing the book, although any faults. Get this from a library. Transport planning in developing countries: proceedings of Seminar H held at the PTRC Summer Annual Meeting, University of Warwick, England from July [Planning and Transport Research and Computation (International) Co. Meeting; Planning and Transport Research and Computation (International) Co.;]. RURAL TRANSPORT IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES. This book suggests that conventional rural transport planning in developing countries has been almost exclusively concerned with motorised transport, and with roads designed for its akikopavolka.com by: This Handbook will prove invaluable for professional practitioners and academics engaged in and concerned with the future of movement in cities of the developing world. It will also be of interest to students of urban transport and city planning, particularly those from developing countries. Get this from a library. Toward better urban transport planning in developing countries. [J Michael Thomson]. Public Transport in Developing Countries Numerous books have been written which deal with transport problems in developed and developing countries, and with the planning and management of transport organisations in developed countries, but none deals specifically with the planning, regulation, management and control of public transport in developing countries. Though different measures are used in different countries, making it difficult to compare the results between cities, from the studies in South America, South Asia, Eastern and Western Europe, Africa, East Asia and Australasia summarized here, the authors make clear that the affordability of urban transport is considered an issue of importance. Share of Consumption by Sector and Income, Developing Countries, Source: The World Bank. As the income level increases, so does the diversity of consumption. Consumption patterns in developing economies reveal that while food is the most important expense for lower income levels, its share drops significantly as income levels increase. The twenty thematic chapters in this book provide a broad set of perspectives on the plight, possibilities and opportunities of urban transport in the developing world, set. May 20, · Book Summary: The title of this book is Public Transport in Developing Countries and it was written by Richard akikopavolka.com particular edition is in a Hardcover format. This books publish date is May 20, and it has a suggested retail price of $Pages: Abstract. The book is a welcome and a very timely contribution to a woefully understudied area of concern. Eduardo Vasconcellos's focus on environment and equity in urban transport developments in the developing countries highlights the Achilles ' heel of transport planning practice in. ‘The Handbook on Transport and Urban Planning in the Developed World edited by Michiel Bliemer, Corinne Mulley and Claudine Moutou comprehensively covers many important topics relevant to transport practice in the early twenty-first century, ranging from the fundamentals of accessibility and demographics, through traffic operations, to economics and evaluation.Public Transport is a comprehensive textbook covering the planning of all public transport systems (bus, coach, rail, taxi and domestic air travel) in Britain and other countries with similar systems. The term 'planning' is used both in the context of local authority and central government roles and in the work done by transport operators for example, network structures, vehicle type selection.In most of the countries transport planning is treated as a part of general economic planning and no special attention has been paid, but now not only developed countries but developing countries have also realised the need for separate planning for the transportation, not only for the existing system but for the future development also. akikopavolka.com - Transport planning in developing countries book © 2020	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line690
__label__cc	0.53594	0.46406	What is nine plus eight? (Just so we know you're a real person) 21 Jul 2016: TAIWAN – Upcoming Visa-Free Entry for Nationals of Thailand and Brunei, and Expansion of Travel Authorisation Certificate Background Action Items TAIWAN – Upcoming Visa-Free Entry for Nationals of Thailand and Brunei, and Expansion of Travel Authorisation Certificate Effective 1 August 2016, nationals of Thailand and Brunei will be able to enter Taiwan visa-free for stays of up to 30 days, on a trial basis for an initial period of one year. Moreover, from 1 September 2016 the Taiwan Travel Authorisation Certificate scheme will be extended, allowing nationals of Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines and Vietnam who have in the last ten years received visas for Australia, Canada, the Schengen area, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, the United Kingdom, or the United States to enter Taiwan visa-free after registering online. The measures are part of Taiwan’s recently announced strategy of strengthening economic relationships with Southeast Asian countries, known as the “southbound policy”. Currently, nationals of Malaysia and Singapore can enter Taiwan visa-free for up to 30 days. The existing Taiwan Travel Authorization Certificate allows visa-free entry only to nationals of India, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam who are currently holding a valid visa for Australia, Canada, the Schengen area, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, the United Kingdom, or the United States. A work permit is not required for applicants going to Taiwan for business activities, including fulfilment of a service contract between the sending company and the Taiwan company, for a period of up to 30 days. Note the upcoming new visa-free privileges for nationals of some Southeast Asian countries, which will allow more nationals of Southeast Asian countries to travel to Taiwan for up to 30 days on business or service contract fulfilment. This news alert was prepared using information provided by Taiwan Immigration & Relocation Company (TIRC).	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line691
__label__cc	0.507952	0.492048	Public Safety Committee on Nov. 17th, 2011 Evidence of meeting #12 for Public Safety and National Security in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was firearm. A recording is available from Parliament. Bill C-19, An Act to amend the Criminal Code and the Firearms Act Committee Business MPs speaking Kevin Sorenson Françoise Boivin Garry Breitkreuz Rick Norlock Francis Scarpaleggia Randall Garrison Jay Aspin Ryan Leef Also speaking Robert Dutil Minister of Public Security, Government of Quebec Mario Harel Vice-President, Chief of Police, Gatineau Police Service, Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police Matthew Torigian Chief of Police, Waterloo Regional Police Service, Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police Hélène Larente Volunteer, Coordinator, Women's Hunting Program, Fédération québécoise des chasseurs et pêcheurs Diana Cabrera Administration Manager, Canadian Shooting Sports Association Tony Bernardo Executive Director, Canadian Shooting Sports Association Wendy Cukier President, Coalition for Gun Control Barbara Kane Psychiatrist, Coalition for Gun Control Audrey Deveault Chairperson, Dawson Student Union Mathieu Murphy-Perron Executive Director, Dawson Student Union Randall Kuntz As an Individual Donald Weltz As an Individual The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson Good morning, everyone, and welcome. I'm encouraged to see the amount of interest there is in our meeting here today, as is evident by the good attendance and also by the cameras and the media. This is meeting number 12 of the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security, on Thursday, November 17, 2011. Today we are continuing our study of the consideration of Bill C-19, An Act to amend the Criminal Code and the Firearms Act. In our first panel today, we will hear from Robert Dutil, Minister of Public Security, from the Government of Quebec. Welcome to Ottawa and to our committee. Also, from the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, we have Mario Harel, vice-president and chief of police, Gatineau Police Service; and Matthew Torigian, chief of police, Waterloo Regional Police Service. From the Canadian Shooting Sports Association, we have Tony Bernardo, executive director, and Diana Cabrera, administration manager. Also, from the Fédération québécoise des chasseurs et pêcheurs, we have Hélène Laurente, volunteer coordinator of the women's hunting program. Our committee wants to thank all of you for appearing before us today. I understand that each one of the groups or organizations you represent will have a member who will make the presentation to our committee, so we thank you for that. We're going to try to keep these to about seven or eight minutes. I'll let you know when we're at about that seven-and-a-half-minute mark so that we can get as many questions in as possible. I would like to begin with the Minister of Public Security from the Government of Quebec. Monsieur Dutil, please. I am very pleased to be here today for this presentation. Good morning to all the committee members. I am going to go over the various positions on the firearms registry. We know that, since 2006, the Conservative government's position on the firearms registry has been very clear. It has presented several bills to abolish the non-restricted firearms registry many times. But it is important to understand that in Quebec, our position is also clear. We believe in a universal firearms registration system, which is very useful for crime prevention and police work. This position is also unanimously shared by all parliamentarians from Quebec, Quebec police organizations, organizations that work in public safety and security and the families of victims of tragedies in Quebec. In addition to the Conservative government's firm position on abolishing the registry, the federal government has had an amnesty on the registry of long guns, which has been renewed every year since 2006 and has contributed to weakening the application of the Firearms Act. Bill C-19, as presented and studied, is aimed not only at abolishing the firearm registry, but also at destroying all the data related to the registration of non-restricted firearms entered in the registry since it was created, something we deplore. Bill C-19 is even a step back in terms of the rules that existed before the Firearms Act came into effect in 1998. Actually, before that time, there was an obligation for the merchant to keep a registry of their firearm inventory and information about the firearm sales transactions, including information on the purchaser. Bill C-19 does not provide for keeping this obligation in place. According to Bill C-19, when someone who wants to purchase a weapon enters the merchant's store, the merchant will no longer have to verify whether the purchaser has a firearm possession and acquisition licence, which we think is a major step backwards. If I may, I would like to give you some historical background on the events. Since 1984, several Quebec families have experienced tragedies involving firearms. There was the attack in the National Assembly on May 8, 1984; the killing at the École Polytechnique in Montreal on December 6, 1989; the shooting at Concordia University on August 24, 1992; and the tragedy at Dawson College on September 13, 2006. Since these tragedies, we have strengthened our measures to exercise better control over firearms in Quebec and participated actively in drafting the Firearms Act, which came into effect on December 1, 1998, as you know. After the shooting at Dawson College in Montreal, Quebec also adopted the Act to protect persons with regard to activities involving firearms and modifying the Act respecting safety in sports, an act that was called “Anastasia's Law”, in memory of Anastasia De Sousa, a student who died during that incident. Quebec has also put in place operational measures, which has included strengthening the Sûreté du Québec's cybersurveillance and monitoring unit. It implemented a joint unit against firearms smuggling. But it wasn't enough. The firearm registry is an essential tool for police investigations and interventions. According to the latest statistics from 2011, the registry is queried over 700 times a day by police officers in Quebec, not just automatically—I'd like to clarify—but through a voluntary query by police officers who need this tool. Consulting the registry helps the police make informed decisions during their operations, particularly by making it possible for police to establish the number and type of weapons that the targets of interventions have, and to subsequently intervene. Querying the registry may also be the starting point for an investigation, when a firearm has been found at the crime scene, and helps to establish the chain of possession. So far, 1,560,359 non-restricted firearms have been registered by individuals in Quebec, or 91.2% of all firearms. Abolishing the registry means that we would lose track of these weapons. Spousal abuse is a phenomenon in our society, and the registry also contributes to preventing tragedies and crimes against the person. In Quebec, between 2006 and 2010, we counted 264 incidents of spousal abuse involving rifles or shotguns. The statistics show that hunting weapons are used more often than handguns when it comes to spousal abuse. When the police enter these types of situation, consulting the registry lets them know quickly whether a violent spouse is in possession of any firearms. As a result, the police can tailor their interventions or even remove them for preventive purposes. As for suicides, statistics from the Institut national de santé publique du Québec show that, of the 650 suicides committed using a firearm reported in Quebec over a four-year period, 565 of them involved a non-restricted firearm, so close to 9 out of 10 suicides. So the firearm registry is a very important tool for suicide prevention. Registering non-restricted firearms makes them less accessible to people who are likely to misuse them, individuals suffering from depression, for example. It also contributes to protecting individuals with mental health problems and their loved ones. Universal registration enables the chief firearms officer of Quebec to determine whether the weapons are in the possession of people under an application for an order to confine them to an institution, or calling for a psychiatric assessment. Under Anastasia's Law, the chief firearms officer is systematically informed of these applications. Between January 1, 2008 and November 1, 2011, 18,661 applications for orders were reported to him, and consultation of the registry made it possible to conduct more than 1,000 interventions to ensure the safety of persons. I am convinced that many lives were saved because of this. Abolishing the registry will limit the application of Anastasia's Law. For all these reasons and many others that I do not have time to list, I would like to repeat that the government is against the abolition of the firearm registry. We are in no way questioning the legitimacy of activities such as hunting or target shooting, when practised in compliance with the law. Rather, we aim to raise citizen awareness of the need and importance of registering their firearms, as they agree to register their other personal belongings. I would also like to mention that, in most cases, it takes only three minutes to complete the registration. To conclude, the Canadian firearm registry is of considerable importance for Quebec. All Canadians, including Quebeckers, have participated financially in the program. For all the reasons mentioned, I am reiterating the Government of Quebec's position and am requesting that the firearms registry be maintained in its entirety and that failure to register non-restricted firearms be decriminalized. Failing that, I ask that you amend Bill C-19 by removing the provisions relating to the destruction of information and begin discussions as soon as possible to transfer the information to Quebec, information that the citizens of Quebec have paid for. If the registration of non-restricted firearms were to save just one life, from a moral standpoint, we would be justified in continuing our efforts to keep it. But we already know that the firearms registry has saved more than one life. It has saved many. Thank you, Mr. Dutil. Now we will move to the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, please. Good morning. The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police has stated its support for the long-gun registry from the beginning. Let me briefly reiterate our reasons why. First, we view this as a public safety issue based on our ongoing responsibility to ensure the safety of our communities, our officers and the most vulnerable among us. Second, it provides preventative and investigational value to law enforcement and the communities we serve. Third, notwithstanding the initial set-up costs, today, it operates in a very cost-effective and efficient manner as detailed in an internal audit of the RCMP. Fourth, we believe it promotes further responsibility and accountability by firearm owners. Finally, it provides a reasonable balance between the exercise of an individual privilege and the broader right of society to be safe. Only a year ago, the RCMP's Canadian Firearms Program reported that law enforcement officials make 11,000 queries per day into the registry. Today, this number has climbed to 17,000. There is truth to the fact that a number of these are what has been referred to as “auto-queries”. However these cases are rare, which we believe is an endorsement of the fact that law enforcement views this information as a valuable tool, a bit of information that, when combined with other information, assists in assessing a situation an officer may face. We are concerned that with the dismantling of the long gun registry, we can ask ourselves what controls there are to prevent individuals from stockpiling firearms or access by criminal organizations when we don't have the information. We are concerned that there will be no record-keeping during transfers of long guns. And we note that between 2006 and 2009, 1.85 million long guns changed hands. We are concerned that it inhibits our ability to enforce prohibition orders. It will add significant costs to our investigations, costs which will be downloaded to police services and lead to crucial delays in gaining investigative information. And those are just some of our concerns. There will no longer be a required record to indicate what firearms were sold to whom or how many. Many ask the question, has the long-gun registry saved lives? Like our drunk driving laws or even our Criminal Code, the impacts will never be known with qualified numbers, but we know that the registry saves lives. The fact is that homicide rates by long guns have come down significantly. Statistics Canada confirms firearm suicides have dropped 48% since the act became law in 1995. We can only hope that this continues. Prior to the implementation of the long-gun registry, there was a formal requirement for firearms vendors to record sales. Now, they will not even have to register their sales. Imagine the extraordinary and costly efforts which will be required to trace a firearm for investigative purposes. Our passion on this issue runs deep. Chief Matthew Torigian Chief of Police, Waterloo Regional Police Service, Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police We know that nothing we say here today will change the fact that this bill will move forward and be passed by this government. We also acknowledge that on the issue of repealing the long-gun registry this government has been very transparent with Canadians in stating their intention to introduce this legislation. In our parliamentary system, in our great democracy, we must and we do respect the desires of Canadians who elected this government and their stated objectives. We, the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, have supported many of the approaches of this government on crime. In fact, just last month, four CACP representatives were called upon to support the government's Safe Streets and Communities Act. In providing overall endorsement of the bill, Chief Dale McFee, president of the Canadian Association of Chief of Police, stated, “The CACP continues to support legislative amendments which assist in making Canada's communities safe...”. The difference here is that the long-gun registry, we believe, provides preventative value, not just a focus on toughening penalties. But throughout the debate on the long-gun registry, there has been a disturbing attempt to discredit the view of law enforcement and chiefs of police and an attempt to create divisions. One MP issued a press release referencing a very non-scientific poll and stating that “the vast majority of police are calling for the end of the long-gun registry” and making this statement regarding the CACP: “It begs the question, exactly who are they speaking for?” You cannot accept our opinion when it serves your purposes and then dismiss it when it does not. We ask that you respect our opinion or, at the very least, respectfully disagree. Especially when it comes to this issue, the latter has not occurred. Please know that this is not a message targeted just to this government; it is a message to all elected members of Parliament, whether it be on this issue or other issues affecting law enforcement. In respect of our desire to maintain the long-gun registry, police leaders from across this country--federal, provincial, and municipal--have shown unprecedented support. CACP positions are adopted based on a majority of our membership's views. Individual positions are respected, and members are free to speak. In fact, at our 2010 annual general meeting, we had unanimous support to maintain this very effective tool. A few within this government would rather give voice to the exceptions and claim that they are actually the real voice of policing. Almost unbelievably when it comes to the issue of the long-gun registry, there has been no consultation with law enforcement and the chiefs of police. In May, the CACP national firearms committee provided this government a letter recognizing the government's intention to dismantle the long-gun registry. We offered to be a part of the solution going forward and provided suggestions as to how to mitigate the impact on law enforcement and public safety. Despite numerous attempts to follow up, we were not provided a single opportunity to discuss this with them. In that letter, the CACP proposed options related to maintaining the existing data; records of sales by firearm business vendors; the transfer of weapons between individuals; and including the law enforcement representatives on the government's firearms advisory committee. Can you wrap it up in about 30 seconds? Chief of Police, Waterloo Regional Police Service, Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police Chief Matthew Torigian In conclusion, we wish to be respectful of the concerns of responsible gun owners and respect their rights. We know that both sides want safe communities; therefore, we must all learn from our polarized positions going forward. The public, the citizens we serve, expect the government and police to provide leadership when it comes to public safety. When our views are different, it should suggest that we need to sit down together to find some commonality moving forward. We are allowed to disagree, but we should always be respectful in doing so. We are hopeful that this will become the preferred way of doing business by all parties moving forward. We can all do better. Canadians deserve better. Now we'll move to Madam Larente, please, who is appearing as an individual. Good morning. My name is Hélène Larente. I am from Rapides-des-Joachims, Quebec. I am a female hunter very involved in the Fédération québécoise des chasseurs et pêcheurs in Quebec. I am an instructor for the Programme d'éducation en sécurité et en conservation de la faune. I am also an instructor for the Canadian Firearms Safety Course, and I am the founder and coordinator of the Women's Hunting Program. For over 25 years, I have been involved in hunting and fishing organizations and in the Fédération québécoise des chasseurs et des pêcheurs, which represents hunters and anglers in Quebec. I am here today as a Quebecker and as a Canadian and I join the federation in saying that I am in favour of scrapping the long-gun registry as per Bill C-19. I feel that keeping a registry like that is pointless for a number of reasons. I don't believe it protects women or society. It gives a false sense of safety, since, just because a gun is registered, it does not mean that it cannot be used to commit an irreversible act. To think along those lines is to bury your head in the sand. Peace officers have to assume—and always must—that there are weapons in the places where they intervene because there are—and always will be— unregistered guns, even with a registry. The long-gun registry has not been effective at all in achieving the main objective of reducing crime. Unfortunately, the infamous registry has not prevented other appalling acts from being committed, similar to the one that led to the tragedy at the École polytechnique de Montréal. As a hunter, I don't think it is fair that we are being treated like criminals and that we are being penalized in their place, since the real criminals circumvent the law and don't register their guns. I would even argue that the registry encourages smuggling. In addition, the debate around this registry we hear so much about casts a negative light on hunters. It is not the gun itself that's dangerous, but the person using it. The fact that the gun is registered changes nothing. So far, billions of dollars have been wasted, and the wrong people have been targeted. Maintaining this registry will cost taxpayers some additional millions of dollars. But it is never too late to make positive corrections. I am sure that this money needs to be used somewhere else, where it can really protect or help Canadians. In order to make public safety a priority, the money should go to: measures that have a real impact in controlling crime; increasing the police presence in our streets; being better equipped to monitor offenders; supporting social programs and the fight against crime; developing education, awareness and accountability programs. Education and awareness are key factors in encouraging people to report acts of violence before tragedies happen. It is also important to consider and develop tools and ways to combat violence, which is still far too present in families, in schoolyards and especially in disadvantaged areas. People have to feel that they are being heard and that they have the support they need to report those acts. If needed, additional resources must be provided to help people in distress, who are often left to fend for themselves. People have to be urged to safely store their firearms at all times. In desperate or similar situations, the reaction time and the obstacles that make it more difficult to get hold of a gun can actually change the course of events. A few minutes, even a few seconds, can make all the difference in the world and can help to avoid a tragedy. All this is simply to say that storing guns properly can save lives. It is important to remember that firearm suicide rate has declined over the past few years. That is a result of legal obligations to store firearms and of education campaigns. Professor Jean Caron's studies at the UQAT have showed that storing firearms has a direct impact on the suicide rate. I would also like to point out that we are already subject to screening in terms of gun ownership in the form of the mandatory firearms possession and acquisition licence. The RCMP automatically does an investigation on each person who applies for a licence. Just like the federation, I believe that the mandatory qualification process for gun owners has to be maintained. While I sympathize with the families affected by the events at the École polytechnique, I feel that we have to open our eyes and stop making decisions solely based on compassion for people in a certain category. There is much more to it than that. Like those families, I also feel that we have to find real solutions to fight against crime and gratuitous violence. We need to invest in the right things to further protect Canadians and to help people in distress, as well as those with illnesses. Thank you for listening. Thank you, madam. Now we will move to the Canadian Shooting Sports Association. They have two representatives here today: Tony Bernardo and Diana Cabrera. Please provide your information for us. November 17th, 2011 / 11:20 a.m. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to thank you and the members of this committee for inviting my colleague and me to present our members' point of view on Bill C-391 and to answer any questions you may have in this regard. My name is Diana Cabrera. I'm an international competitor shooter. Although I'm Canadian, I currently compete for the Uruguay national team, as Canada refuses to pay my training expenses. I would like to say that we fully support the purpose changes in this bill. These changes also aid the pledged goal of a system that is effective in concentrating precious resources where they belong and is focused on the criminal misuse of firearms, not on responsible licensed firearm owners. The challenge of obtaining the public safety goals of the firearms legislation depends largely on a number of firearms issues and the cooperation of those most affected by the legislation. These issues are major concerns: the fear of confiscation, the perceived social stigma of firearm ownership and its demonization, and the many costs and burdensome processes involved. The bill will greatly aid in rebuilding the bond of trust that existed before its erosion by overzealous legislators aiming at the wrong target. Maximum compliance for firearms legislation is dependent on addressing these concerns. At this point, I would like to focus on the effect of long-gun registration on sport competitors and other legitimate users. There is no question that the long-gun registry has deterred individuals from entering the shooting sports. Many believe that this was one of its original intentions. The inclusion of specialized air target and muzzle-loading firearms in the registry seems predetermined to achieve those goals. These firearms are virtually never used in crime by the nature of their physical makeup and cost, yet they are treated with the same legislative zeal as more common firearms. Across the world, exemptions have been made in law for these types of firearms. In Britain and the United States, the ownership and use of these firearms is much less regulated than in Canada. Many are not even considered to be firearms and are subject to almost no regulation, as misuse is very rare, yet in Canada these firearms must be registered and are subject to the same regulatory restrictions as other firearms. These regulations entail long and confusing paperwork for international competitors and also present huge challenges to our junior shooters, who are not permitted to own airguns producing a velocity of more than 152.4 metres per second. This situation often leads to an adult or coach having to go through all the steps to purchase a junior competitor's competition firearm. They cannot leave the junior competitor in sole possession of the firearm; therefore, coaches and junior competitors must take responsibility for the regulatory care of these firearms while they are in use by the junior competitor. Around the world, living history events such as re-enacting and cowboy action shootings are fast-growing activities. Re-enactors participate using authentic period costumes in re-enacting famous battles and other events, using period firearms, from muzzle-loaders to the World War II period. Cowboy action shooting is similar, but also involves shooting skill with an historical western bent. The main issue for competitive participants is the fear of imminent criminality. They may easily find themselves afoul of uninformed law enforcement or CBSA officers, even if all paperwork is in order. Any paperwork error may lead to temporary detention, missed flights, missed shooting matches, and confiscation of property. I experience a primal cringe every time I am asked for my papers, as I fear what might happen when officers apply personal interpretation to our confusing laws. Law enforcement and media coverage of firearm issues have made the situation even worse. Firearm owners are subjected to spectacular press coverage in which reporters tirelessly describe small and very ordinary collections of firearms as an “arsenal”. During the recent blitz in Toronto, police used old computer records to track down ordinary people who had simply failed to renew their paperwork. They described the operation as “getting guns off the street” and a triumph for the long-gun registry, as if they were preventing a crime. If ever there was a case for destroying the old records, this is it. How do you think this makes a legal firearms owner feel? Am I next? Did I forget some nuance of my paperwork that will bring police to my door? Will my face wind up on the 6 o'clock news vilifying me to my friends, family, and co-workers? Will I be shunned if anyone finds out I own firearms? Will I be targeted at a traffic checkpoint if a CPIC verification says I possess firearms? Firearm owners live with these fears every day, all to justify a failed system that never prevented a crime. In conclusion, let's please restart this from a clean slate, concentrate on more productive public safety areas of the legislation, and redirect funding to more beneficial areas to help make Canada a safer place for all. Thank you. I will now pass on this presentation to my colleague. Good morning, Mr. Chairman and members of the standing committee. Thank you for allowing Canadian Shooting Sports to address this committee. My name is Tony Bernardo. You've heard a lot about the good aspects that are alleged to come from the gun registry. I'd like to talk to you about a few of the bad ones. First, I need to give you a little bit of a historical perspective. Based upon the Canada Firearms Centre's polling figures, in 1998 there were 3.3 million firearms owners in Canada. On January 1, 2001, 40% of Canadian gun owners--over 1 million people--became instant criminals. Anticipating these statistics, the Canada Firearms Centre acted quickly to calculate consent for the legislation, with the results of a fall 2000 survey indicating that gun ownership in Canada had declined substantially since 1998, and that there were only 2.3 million firearm owners in only 17% of Canadian households. This was done by asking this question: does anyone in your household own a functioning firearm? This was done in a telephone survey. For those of you who are not familiar with the social stigma around firearms, you don't talk on the phone to anybody about your firearms, because you have no idea who is on the other end. To accept the reduced number, you must also accept, without any evidence whatsoever, that firearm owners declined by one million people in two years. Previous surveys reported that the average firearm owner possessed 2.87 firearms, low by current CFC statistics, which now show an average of four guns per owner. A million people divesting themselves of 2.87 million firearms would have been noticed either by police or certainly by the gun stores in Canada, which would have gotten an awful lot of guns turned in. At the time, we did a little bit of mathematical calculation and we determined that was a sufficient number of guns to bury every single police station in Canada to a depth of 33 feet. That's a lot of guns. In 1976, Liberal justice minister Ron Basford tabled a document in Parliament detailing the number of firearms in Canada, based on Canadian import and export documents and domestic production figures. Minister Basford told the House there were 11,186,148 firearms in Canada. By adding the number of imports since that time to the indigenous production, subtracting all exports and destroyed and stolen firearms, we can make a reasonable estimate for the number of firearms currently in Canada, allowing for a generous error rate of 15% for lost, destroyed, and misreported firearms-- Mr. Bernardo, can I give you about another 40 seconds...? Executive Director, Canadian Shooting Sports Association Tony Bernardo Sure. Okay. Why is this important? Fewer than half the guns in Canada are actually in the registry. There are whole piles of them out there. There's another very important thing I wanted to touch on. We need to talk about the impact this legislation has had on the relationship between firearms owners and police. Last year we did a survey of 2018 firearms owners at random and asked legal gun owners who they were more afraid of, the police or criminals. Of those surveyed, 63.93% said the police. That's 64%. They were asked, “Since the implementation of the Firearms Act, do you trust Canada's police?” Seventy-five per cent said no. They were asked, “Do you believe police associations represent their members' views?” To that question, 94% said no. They were asked, “Does Canada's long-gun registry actually reduce crime?” Ninety-six per cent said no. They were asked, “Do you believe police target firearms owners?” To that question, 83% said yes. When asked if they personally knew--that's personally--someone who had been unjustly charged with a firearms offences, 46% knew someone. That's half the people. At this point I guess I'm going to have to not present the rest of this-- Yes, I'm going to have to cut you off. As much as I was enjoying those statistics, I'll have to cut them off there. We'll move into our first round of questioning. Right off the bat we'll go to the government side with Ms. Hoeppner, please. Candice Bergen Conservative Portage—Lisgar, MB Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Thanks to all the witnesses for appearing today. I want to begin by saying thank you to you, Chief Harel, for finally acknowledging after almost three years of your organization's saying that police are checking the registry 11,000 times a day, and now it's apparently up to 17,000....you are finally acknowledging today that those are automatic hits. The majority of those are generated by automatic hits across the country. As well, any time the firearms database is queried, even if an individual calls the firearms centre, a hit is documented. So I want to thank you for acknowledging that today. One of the problems, Chief Torigian, is that during this argument, your organization, which deserves tremendous respect.... You do a great service to our country and to the cities you represent. You're in a uniform, and Canadians, when they see you on television, believe what you say. So when you stand in front of a television camera and say that police are checking the registry 17,000 times a day, when in fact that is not the telling the truth of how police are using and not using the registry, you do this whole discussion a great disservice. When you talk about the fact that you believe the chiefs of police unanimously supported the gun registry in Edmonton, again, the question posed to your chiefs of police was, do you support the national firearms program? This question was never posed to your chiefs of police: do you support the long-gun registry? So again, to both of you gentlemen, we do have very different views on this issue. There is a gap and a wedge between your position and our government's position, and sadly that gap has not been closed. I just want to direct my question to Mr. Bernardo. There has been some misinformation today as well in regard to individuals selling or transferring firearms to people who are not qualified to purchase those firearms. I know that you're very familiar with the bill. Can you please talk about the legal requirements? Just inform everyone listening--inform the people on the rest of the panel--of the legal requirements in regard to transferring firearms. Can a store owner sell a gun to somebody who doesn't have a licence? Can you please expand on that? Yes. I'll describe the whole process. First of all, when any firearm comes into Canada, right out of the gate it has to be registered with the chief registrar of firearms. All imports and all newly manufactured firearms in Canada still need to be registered. I'm sorry, but can you please expand on that? What do you mean by that? Yes. Section 60 of the act says that any firearm coming into Canada must be recorded with the chief registrar as to the firearm, the type, the serial number, the date it entered the country, and its legal status as it comes into the country. That firearm then goes to a dealer's inventory; they are obligated to keep an inventory book. It's colloquially known as “the green book”. Every single merchant in firearms has to have that green book, and every firearm coming in or going out has to be recorded in that green book. Would that relate to income tax purposes as well or just inventory...? I don't think so. I think it's an inventory control. That green book has been the status quo for at least 30 years; I mean, it's a long time that the green book has been there. It's still there now, to this day. Even with the registration, merchants still have to do that; they have to maintain that book. Now, they also have to, by law, see the person's firearms licence and see that it's a valid licence. So you can't sell a firearm to somebody who doesn't have a licence.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line696
__label__wiki	0.704603	0.704603	Justia Patents Coating Or Impregnation Functions Biologically (e.g., Insect Repellent, Antiseptic, Insecticide, Bactericide, Etc.)US Patent for Antimicrobial materials and methods Patent (Patent # 9,549,549) Antimicrobial materials and methods Aug 3, 2012 - STC.UNM The invention provides methods and materials for decontamination of surfaces and fabrics, such as non-woven fabrics, that are contaminated with infestations of microorganisms such as bacteria. Biocidal oligomers having conjugated oligo-(aryl/heteroaryl ethynyl) structures and comprising at least one cationic group can be used to decontaminate infested surfaces in the presence of oxygen and, optionally, illumination. Fibers incorporating biocidal oligomers having conjugated oligo-(aryl/heteroaryl ethynyl) structures and comprising at least one cationic group, wherein the oligomer is physically associated with or covalently bonded to, or both, the fiber-forming polymer can be used to form non-woven mats. Biocidal non-woven mats prepared by methods of the invention, incorporating the biocidal oligomers, can be used to suppress bacterial growth in wound and surgical dressings and personal hygiene products. Latest STC.UNM Patents: Molecular tracers and modified proppants for monitoring underground fluid flows Systems and methods for leveraging path delay variations in a circuit and generating error-tolerant bitstrings Genome Edited iPSC-Derived Monocytes Expressing Trophic Factors Optimization methods for radiation therapy planning Detector System for Targeted Analysis by Distance-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry This application is a U.S. National Stage Application under 35 U.S.C. 371 from International Application No. PCT/US2012/049613, filed Aug. 3, 2012, which claims the benefit of priority of U.S. provisional applications, Ser. No. 61/514,791 filed Aug. 3, 2011; 61/528,603 filed Aug. 29, 2011; 61/559,232 filed Nov. 14, 2011; 61/606,048 filed Mar. 2, 2012; and 61/661,261 filed Jun. 18, 2012; the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties. STATEMENT OF GOVERNMENT SUPPORT This invention was made with government support under W911NF07-1-0079, awarded by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. The U.S. government has certain rights in the invention. Antimicrobial treatment of materials is becoming an increasingly desirable mechanism for combating microbial pathogens. Microbial pathogens can be present on surfaces, e.g., bacterial biofilms disposed on the surface of materials such as metal, plastic, glass, wood, and the like, such as medical or food preparation tools or work areas; and microbial pathogens can be disposed within porous materials such as fibers, fabrics, and the like, such as wound treatment materials. Contamination of materials presents significant medical and public health risks, and biocidal treatment of surfaces and materials is vital, such as in blocking person to person transmission of diseases caused by microbial pathogens, in preventing infection of wounds by pathogens in the environment, in avoiding microbially-mediated food poisoning arising through contact of foodstuffs with contaminated work surfaces or personnel. Porous materials, such as fibers and fabrics, can be particularly difficult to block from microbial contamination, as the microorganisms can be protected from superficial sterilization procedures by the material itself. It is also important to develop materials having intrinsic antimicrobial properties that can avoid or reduce contamination over a period of time. For example, surfaces of materials, such as food handling workspaces, surgical tools and equipment, and biological substrates such as the living tissues of patients, can be contaminated with bacterial biofilms. Bacterial biofilms are aggregates of bacteria in which cells adhere to each other on a surface and produce extracellular polymer matrix. The bacterial cells growing in biofilms are physiologically different from planktonic organism (freely suspended in a liquid medium); bacteria in biofilms can exhibit slow growth rates and higher resistance to antimicrobials, causing public health problems. Additionally biofilms naturally develop on living and inanimate surfaces. Biofilms can be found anywhere and widely involved in various infections in the body such as middle-ear infections, formation of dental plaque, and infections of indwelling medical devices. Bacterial biofilms are aggregates of microbial cells adhered to one-another on a surface, producing an extracellular polymeric substance matrix.1,2 The bacterial cells growing in biofilms are physiologically distinct from planktonic bacteria (freely suspended in a liquid medium) and a major source of public health problems.2,3 Bacteria in these biofilms have slow growth rates and increased resistance to antimicrobials and the host defense systems. Additionally biofilms naturally develop on all types of surfaces: both living and inanimate surfaces. Biofilms can be associated with various microbial infections in the body such as dental plaque, kidney infections, urinary tract infections and infections of indwelling medical devices.2,4 Although several techniques5-9 have been developed to prevent biofilm formation and to produce disinfection on surfaces, it is difficult to completely inhibit biofilm formation due to the physiological heterogeneity of bacteria in biofilms and their resistance to antibiotics.10,11 Therefore, demand for new antimicrobials has been growing to prevent and eradicate biofilms. Porous materials such as fibers and fabrics made therefrom can harbor and transmit microbial contaminants, so a treatment of such materials that can help prevent microbial contamination of the fabric and subsequent transmission, e.g., to tissue of a patient, such as healing wound tissue, would provide therapeutic benefits. Efforts have been made to develop fabrics having intrinsic biocidal activity.15 These include not only those used in healthcare settings, but also those used to enhance personal hygiene and prevent deterioration of fabric. Among the most effective strategies are those using heavy metals and their salts, quaternary ammonium compounds, polyhexamethylene biguanides, triclosan, N-halamine compounds, and peroxyacids. While all are effective, all have substantial drawbacks, including the need for regeneration (N-halamines, peroxyacids), low biocidal activity (triclosan, PHMB), toxic byproducts (triclosan) and development of resistant strains. The present invention is directed in various embodiments to materials and methods that can be used to decontaminate surfaces that are contaminated with microbial infestation, such as in medical and food preparation uses, and to block contamination of and to decontaminate fabrics that are contaminated or are at risk for contamination with microorganisms, such a surgical and wound dressings, personal hygiene products, and the like. The invention can provide, in various embodiments, the use of cationic end-only functionalized oligo(arylene-ethynylene)s (EO-OPEs) for preventing and eliminating Escherichia coli (E. coli) biofilms. E. coli infections (hospital and community acquired) are posing an increasing threat to health care systems.12 The present invention can provide, in various embodiments, methods of controlling populations of microorganisms within porous or absorbent materials, e.g. non-woven fabrics, wherein biocidal oligomers are applied to or disposed with the porous or absorbent materials. The biocidal oligomers exhibit potent and non-selective toxicity versus a wide range of microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi and quasi-organisms such as viruses, and the invention provides methods of decontaminating materials having populations of microorganisms and/or viruses, and methods of preventing growth of populations of microorganisms on or within the substrates. In various embodiments, the invention provides methods whereby surfaces contaminated with biofilms incorporating harmful bacteria and the like can be sterilized; for example, by the use of “end-only” (EO) cation-functionalized oligomers, as described more fully below. These EO cationic oligo-(aryl/heteroaryl ethynylenes) have surprisingly been found to be especially effective for this purpose, compared to related substances. In other embodiments, the invention provides fibers and method for producing fibers comprising biocidal oligomers, either associated or covalently bonded thereto, which can be used for forming non-woven mats or fabrics, or can be used for forming woven fabrics, providing textile-like materials having antibacterial properties, that can be used in various applications when suppression or elimination of microbial infestation is desired. Biocidal oligomers that can be used in carrying out methods of the invention can comprise oligomers containing two or more conjugated aryl/heteroaryl ethynyl units, substituted with one or more quaternary ammonium group. Compounds of this formula can be used to decontaminate a surface contaminated with a bacterial biofilm, or can be incorporated covalently or non-covalently into an absorbent material such as a non-woven fabric to kill microorganisms which may come in contact with the fabric. Biocidal oligomers useful for carrying out methods of the invention are of general formula (I) wherein each circle signifies an aryl or a heteroaryl ring system, wherein each circle respectively signifies an aryl or heteroaryl ring system, wherein each ring labeled t is a terminal ring system and each ring labeled c is a central ring system; n=1 to about 500, or n=1 to about 100, or n=1 to about 50, or n=1 to about 10, and the compound further comprises one or more moiety comprising a quaternary ammonium cationic group. For killing of bacteria in biofilms, compounds of the above formula having a respective quaternary ammonium cationic group bonded to one or both terminal ring systems (“end-only” systems) have been unexpectedly found to be significantly superior in performance compared to related compounds lacking the end-only (EO) feature, with minimum inhibitory concentrations several fold less for killing biofilm bacteria than related compounds wherein the ammonium cationic groups are disposed elsewhere in the scaffold. For conferring antimicrobial properties on fiber, such as in non-woven webs, compounds having the above scaffold and substituted with a cationic group, in various embodiments such as EO or non-EO, can be incorporated into fibers, either by physical assimilation or by covalent coupling reactions, to provide antimicrobial fibers and non-woven or woven fabrics formed therefrom. Any ring of formula (I) can also bear further substituents; for example, a terminal aryl/heteroaryl ring can bear an unsubstituted ethynyl (acetylene) or alkylethynyl (higher alkynyl) group, which can be used in a “click chemistry” reaction with an azido group to covalently bond the oligomers to a functionalized solid or polymeric substrate. wherein m1 is 0 (ethynyl), or m1 is 1 to about 12 (higher alkynyl), providing a linker between the reactive ethynyl group for the acetylene/azide click reaction and the conjugated aryl/heteroaryl-ethynyl oligomers. Any ring, terminal or central, can also bear substituents that have nucleophilic or electrophilic properties, such as hydroxyl, amino, thio, acyl, and the like, that are available for coupling with groups of complementary reactivity that are disposed on the fiber-forming polymer, for the formation of covalent bonds between the biocidal oligomer and the fiber-forming polymer. Rings can also bear substituents to modify solubility, light absorptivity, and the like, such as anionic groups (carboxylate, sulfonate), chromophoric groups (nitro, etc.), and the like. Each aryl or heteroaryl group can be conjugated through the ethynyl (acetylenic) units with the adjacent aryl or heteroaryl groups. Preferably the system is sufficiently conjugated to have significant light absorptivity at wavelengths of visible and/or ultraviolet light. It is believed by the inventors that generation of singlet oxygen by light-activated excited states of the oligomers is a mode of antimicrobial activity. However, other mechanisms of antimicrobial toxicity may also be in action, as suggested by the antimicrobial bioactivity of some of the oligomers in the dark. Singlet oxygen (1O2), the first electronically excited state of molecular oxygen (all pairs of bonding electrons having antiparallel spins), O2, is well known to be a highly reactive gas under standard temperature and pressure (STP), e.g., in oxidation, addition to double bonds, and the like, and thus is a non-selective disruptor of complex organic assemblies, such as microorganisms. One mode of action can be attack of singlet oxygen on biological systems, such as an attack on cell membrane components, resulting in cell lysis and death. It is believed that development of resistance by bacterial populations to the effects of singlet oxygen is relatively unlikely, due to the diverse and devastating effects that the reactive material can have on the biochemical components of living systems. A covalently bonded moiety comprising the quaternary ammonium group can be disposed at one or both termini of the linear oligomers, or on a central aryl or heteroaryl group. In various embodiments, cationic moiety can be bonded to the respective aryl or heteroaryl ring by a carbon-carbon bond, or through a phenolic oxygen atom as an ether. The cationic moiety can include a spacer unit, such as a (C1-C6)alkyl chain or a (C1-C6)alkoxy chain, connecting the ammonium nitrogen atom to the ring. The biocidal oligomers can be non-covalently associated or covalently bound to various substrates, which in various embodiments are disclosed and claimed herein. The materials incorporating the oligomers can be porous/permeable materials such as non-woven fabrics incorporating fibers of various types that are associated or covalently bonded to the biocidal oligomers, e.g., as can be used in wound dressings, garments, personal hygiene products, and the like The fiber-forming substances can be synthetic polymers, such as polycaprolactone (PCL), poly-alpha-hydroxyesters, e.g., poly-lactic-glycolic acid (PLGA), poly-lactic acid (PLA), poly-glycolic acid (PGA), other aliphatic polyesters such as glycol-type polyesters of dibasic aliphatic diacids, aromatic polyesters such as glycol-type polyesters of dibasic aromatic acids (terephthalate, etc.) polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), polyethylene oxide (PEO), or polyolefins such as polyethylene, polypropylene, polyethylene/polypropylene copolymers, polystyrene (PS), and the like; or the fiber-forming substances can be natural materials such as cellulose, chitosan, alginate, gelatin, and the like. Fibrous materials in which the biocidal oligomers are covalently bonded to the fiber substrate can be made using “click chemistry,” as described herein, e.g., using oligomers with terminal ethynyl units to couple to azide-functionalized polymer, synthetic and natural. Such materials can be used when microbial contamination of the material is undesirable, such as for wound dressings, garments, personal hygiene products, and the like. The invention further provides, in various embodiments, methods of making antimicrobial materials incorporating the biocidal oligomers, such as methods of manufacturing fibers incorporating the biocidal oligomers by various spinning techniques for use in preparation of antimicrobial non-woven fabrics. For example, for such uses, biocidal oligomers of formula (I) that incorporate the cationic ammonium group bonded to a central aryl/heteroaryl ring have been found to be particularly effective. In various embodiments, the invention provides a method of killing biofilms comprising bacteria disposed on a surface, comprising contacting the biofilm with an effective amount of a biocidal oligomer. For example, a biocidal oligomers being the moiety comprising the cationic ammonium group can be bonded to one or both terminal aryl/heteroaryl groups for this use, as such “end-only” oligomers have been found to be particularly suitable for biocidal activity versus bacterial biofilms, as discussed below. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES FIG. 1 shows absorption (left) and fluorescence spectra (right) of oligomers, (1A) oligomer (A) and, (1B) oligomer (B) in methanol and water. FIG. 2 shows absorption (left) and fluorescence spectra (right) of oligomers, (2A) oligomer (C) and, (2B) oligomer (D) in methanol and water. FIG. 3 shows absorption (left) and fluorescence spectra (right) of oligomer (E) in methanol and water. FIG. 4 shows molecular models of EO-OPEs generated by using MM2 molecular mechanics in Chem3D Pro (version 10.0). Hydrogen atoms omitted for clarity. (4A) Oligomer (B), (4B) oligomer (C), (4C) oligomer (D) and (4D) oligomer (E) energy minimized structure of a single chain. FIGS. 5A and 5B are bright-field microscopy images of E. coli biofilm growing on the peg surface of CBD. (A) Peg surface without biofilm. (B) Peg surface after 24 h incubation with E. coli. For FIGS. 6-17, experiments were conducted to test the antimicrobial activity of the electrospun OPE/PCL mat. PCL only and OPE/PCL materials were exposed under both light and dark conditions to an E. coli culture and then stained with SYTOX Green, which stains only the dead bacteria. The stained bacteria were then observed with a FITC filter. FIGS. 6 and 7 show a control sample of E. coli alone. FIG. 6 is the bright field while FIG. 7 is the FITC filter. FIGS. 8 and 9 show the PCL-only material after exposure to E. coli under dark conditions. No stained (i.e. dead) bacteria are seen. FIGS. 10 (bright field) and 11 (FITC) show the PCL-only material after exposure to E. coli in light conditions. (15 min. under 365 nm @ ˜9 mW). It is believed that the few dead E. coli that are seen are due to the light exposure rather than any characteristic of the PCL-only material. FIGS. 12 (bright field) and 13 (FITC) show the OPE/PCL material after exposure to E. coli in dark conditions. The OPE used in the experiment is generally considered to be a light-activated biocide although, as shown, some activity under dark conditions is observed. FIGS. 14, 15 (bright field) and 16, 17 (FITC) show a very high degree of bacterial capture and kill. FIG. 18 is a comparison of infrared spectra of silica particles: Unmodified silica particles (SiO2—OH); alkyl azide modified silica particles (SiO2—N3); OPEC1-grafted silica particles (SiO2-OPEC1). FIG. 19 is a thermogravimetric analysis of silica particles: (a) unmodified silica particles (SiO2—OH); (b) azide-modified silica particles (SiO2—N3); (c) OPEC1-grafted silica particles (SiO2-OPEC1). FIGS. 20A, 20B, and 20C are Transmission Electron Microscope images of silica particles: (A) unmodified silica particles; (B) azide-modified silica particles: (C) OPEC1-grafted silica particles. FIGS. 21A, 21B and 21C are Scanning Electron Microscopy images of silica particles: (A) unmodified silica particles; (B) azide-modified silica particles: (C) OPEC1-grafted silica particles. FIG. 22 shows normalized absorption and emission spectra in methanol and water. FIG. 23 shows fluorescence spectra of unmodified silica particles and OPEC1-grafted silica particles. FIG. 24 shows the singlet oxygen spectrum of OPEC1-grafted silica particles in d-methanol. FIG. 25 is a graph showing the viability of S. aureus cells with 1 μg/mL and 10 μg/mL of OPE-DABCO and EO-OPE-DABCO solution following exposure to UV light and incubation in dark. DETAILED DESCRIPTION Definitions As used in the specification and the appended claims, the singular forms “a,” “an” and “the” include plural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. The term “about” as used herein, when referring to a numerical value or range, allows for a degree of variability in the value or range, for example, within 10%, or within 5% of a stated value or of a stated limit of a range. All percent compositions are given as weight-percentages, unless otherwise stated. All average molecular weights of polymers are weight-average molecular weights, unless otherwise specified. Aspects of the present disclosure employ, unless otherwise indicated, techniques of chemistry, and the like, which are within the skill of the art. Such techniques are explained fully in the literature. Unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure belongs. Although any methods and materials similar or equivalent to those described herein can also be used in the practice or testing of the present disclosure, the preferred methods and materials are now described. An “oligomer” as the term is used herein with reference to biocidal oligomers that can be used for decontamination refers to substances with repeating units comprising aryl-ethynyl and/or heteroaryl-ethynyl repeating units, which can be further substituted. The repeating units of the oligomers can be conjugated throughout the molecule, and can absorb visible and/or ultraviolet light. The degree of polymerization (DP) of the oligomers can range from 2, up to several hundred, repeating units. The term “oligomer” is employed for consistency even if some of the higher DP substances could also be termed “polymers”. For example, an oligomer used in a method of the invention, can have a DP value of 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, etc., i.e., every counting number above 2 and to an upper limit of about 500, or to an upper limit of about 100, or to an upper limit of about 50, or to an upper limit of about 10. The oligomer chosen by the person of ordinary skill has suitable physical properties, e.g., solubility, extinction coefficient, etc., selected based on the disclosures here in conjunction with ordinary skill. The expression “effective amount”, when used to describe an amount or concentration of a biocidal oligomer, refers to the amount of a biocidal oligomer that is effective to kill or otherwise negatively act on microorganisms such as bacteria or fungi or on quasi-organisms such as viruses that are present in the environment under discussion. For example, an effective amount of a biocidal oligomer in a fiber as disclosed herein is an amount or concentration sufficient to kill microorganism, block their infectivity (e.g., viral particles), inhibit their reproduction (bacteria, fungi) and otherwise act in a manner deleterious to the target organism. “Substantially” as the term is used herein means completely or almost completely; for example, a composition that is “substantially free” of a component either has none of the component or contains such a trace amount that any relevant functional property of the composition is unaffected by the presence of the trace amount, or a compound is “substantially pure” is there are only negligible traces of impurities present. Phrases such as “under conditions suitable to provide” or “under conditions sufficient to yield” or the like, in the context of methods of synthesis, as used herein refers to reaction conditions, such as time, temperature, solvent, reactant concentrations, and the like, that are within ordinary skill for an experimenter to vary, that provide a useful quantity or yield of a reaction product. It is not necessary that the desired reaction product be the only reaction product or that the starting materials be entirely consumed, provided the desired reaction product can be isolated or otherwise further used. By “chemically feasible” is meant a bonding arrangement or a compound where the generally understood rules of organic structure are not violated; for example a structure within a definition of a claim that would contain in certain situations a pentavalent carbon atom that would not exist in nature would be understood to not be within the claim. The structures disclosed herein, in all of their embodiments are intended to include only “chemically feasible” structures, and any recited structures that are not chemically feasible, for example in a structure shown with variable atoms or groups, are not intended to be disclosed or claimed herein. All chiral, diastereomeric, racemic forms of a structure are intended, unless a particular stereochemistry or isomeric form is specifically indicated. In several instances though an individual stereoisomer is described among specifically claimed compounds, the stereochemical designation does not imply that alternate isomeric forms are less preferred, undesired, or not claimed. Compounds used in the present invention can include enriched or resolved optical isomers at any or all asymmetric atoms as are apparent from the depictions, at any degree of enrichment. Both racemic and diastereomeric mixtures, as well as the individual optical isomers can be isolated or synthesized so as to be substantially free of their enantiomeric or diastereomeric partners, and these are all within the scope of the invention. As used herein, the terms “stable compound” and “stable structure” are meant to indicate a compound that is sufficiently robust to survive isolation to a useful degree of purity from a reaction mixture, and formulation into an efficacious therapeutic agent. Only stable compounds are contemplated herein. In addition, where features or aspects of the invention are described in terms of Markush groups, those skilled in the art will recognize that the invention is also thereby described in terms of any individual member or subgroup of members of the Markush group. For example, if X is described as selected from the group consisting of bromine, chlorine, and iodine, claims for X being bromine and claims for X being bromine and chlorine are fully described. Moreover, where features or aspects of the invention are described in terms of Markush groups, those skilled in the art will recognize that the invention is also thereby described in terms of any combination of individual members or subgroups of members of Markush groups. Thus, for example, if X is described as selected from the group consisting of bromine, chlorine, and iodine, and Y is described as selected from the group consisting of methyl, ethyl, and propyl, claims for X being bromine and Y being methyl are fully described. If a value of a variable that is necessarily an integer, e.g., the number of carbon atoms in an alkyl group or the number of substituents on a ring, is described as a range, e.g., 0-4, what is meant is that the value can be any integer between 0 and 4 inclusive, i.e., 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4. In various embodiments, the compound or set of compounds, such as are used in the inventive methods, can be any one of any of the combinations and/or sub-combinations of the listed embodiments. In various embodiments, a compound as shown in any of the Examples, or among the exemplary compounds, is provided. Provisos may apply to any of the disclosed categories or embodiments wherein any one or more of the other above disclosed embodiments or species may be excluded from such categories or embodiments. The present invention further embraces isolated compounds of the invention. The expression “isolated compound” refers to a preparation of a compound of the invention, or a mixture of compounds of the invention, wherein the isolated compound has been separated from the reagents used, and/or byproducts formed, in the synthesis of the compound or compounds. “Isolated” does not mean that the preparation is technically pure (homogeneous), but it is sufficiently pure to compound in a form in which it can be used therapeutically. Preferably an “isolated compound” refers to a preparation of a compound of the invention or a mixture of compounds of the invention, which contains the named compound or mixture of compounds of the invention in an amount of at least 10 percent by weight of the total weight. Preferably the preparation contains the named compound or mixture of compounds in an amount of at least 50 percent by weight of the total weight; more preferably at least 80 percent by weight of the total weight; and most preferably at least 90 percent, at least 95 percent or at least 98 percent by weight of the total weight of the preparation. The compounds of the invention and intermediates may be isolated from their reaction mixtures and purified by standard techniques such as filtration, liquid-liquid extraction, solid phase extraction, distillation, recrystallization or chromatography, including flash column chromatography, or HPLC. With reference to an inventive method of killing bacteria in a biofilm, the term “decontaminating” a surface contaminated with the bacterial biofilm refers to killing the bacteria that make up the biofilm. A surface is “contaminated” with a bacterial biofilm when a biofilm containing living bacteria are disposed on the surface. A “biocidal” substance, as the term is used herein, refers to a substance that under defined conditions can kill microorganisms, inhibit the growth of individual microorganisms and populations of microorganisms, prevent the establishment of microbial populations, and the like. The term “in the presence of oxygen” as used herein refers to the presence of molecular oxygen, O2. The oxygen may be present as levels found in air, and the decontamination methods disclosed and claimed herein can be carried out under normal atmospheric conditions. Biocidal oligomers used in practicing methods of the invention can be of scaffold structure wherein each circle represents an aryl or heteroaryl ring system, and the rings are joined through conjugate ethynyl (acetylenic) groups, such that the entire scaffold as shown is π-conjugated. The degree of polymerization, n, can be n=1 to about 500, or can be n=1 to about 100, or n=1 to about 50, or n=1 to about 10. Oligomers of this general structural scheme are referred to herein as “poly-(arylene/heteroarylene-ethynylene) oligomers” which are “cationic” when the structure incorporates a positive electrical charge. The person of ordinary skill can select a biocidal oligomer for a particular use based on its physical properties, including solubility (lower molecular weight oligomers can be more soluble in water or in organic solvents), light absorptivity (extinction coefficient at wavelength suitable for decontamination under selected conditions), and reactivity (e.g., for forming covalent conjugates with fiber-forming polymers. By a “ring system” is meant a monocyclic or polycyclic, substantially planar, aromatic moiety, which can be aryl (carbocyclic) or heteroaryl (containing one or more heteroatoms, e.g., N, O, or S). Examples of an aryl ring system include a monocyclic phenyl ring, or a naphthyl bicyclic moiety. Examples of a heteroaryl ring system include a thienyl (thiophene) monocyclic ring, and a benzothiadiazole bicyclic moiety. An example of a “cationic” group is a quaternary ammonium group, such as a tetralkylammonium group, which can be cyclic or acyclic, that is covalently bonded to the oligometic scaffold shown above. For example, a group such as (CH3)3N(CH2)—O—, wherein n is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or more, is a cationic group that can be coupled to any available carbon atom in the oligomeric scaffold via the oxygen atom. Alternatively, the oxygen atom shown above can be absent and the cationic group can be bonded directly carbon to carbon; or this moiety can bonded by other groups or atoms as are apparent to the person of ordinary skill. Another example of a cationic group is a “DABCO” group, which as the term is used herein refers to an N-substituted-diazobicyclo-octanyl-N′-alkylene group, such as an N-cyclohexyl-diazobicyclo-octanyl-N′-alkoxy group of formula wherein k is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or more and a wavy line indicates a point of bonding, charge balanced with two suitable anionic Z− groups such as halide or sulfonate; or an N—(C1-C6)alkyl or an N—(C3-C9)cycloalkyl or an N—(C6-C10)aryl analog thereof; again, this can be bonded to the scaffold through an oxygen atom as shown above, or directly carbon-carbon bonded, or bonded by other groups or atoms as are apparent to the person of ordinary skill. Another DABCO group that can be used as a cationic group in the oligomers used in practice of the inventive methods is an N-cyclohexyl-diazobicyclo-octanyl-N′-alkoxy group. Also, groups other than N-phenyl or N-cyclohexyl can be bonded to the bridgehead nitrogen atom (e.g., N-alkyl groups, other N-cycloalkyl and N-aryl groups) and the bicyclic ring system can be other than a [2.2.2]-bicyclo ring system, as is apparent to a person of skill in the art. Another example of a cationic group is a sulphonium or a phosphonium group, such as a trialkylsulfonium, a triarylsulfonium, a trialkylphosphonium, or a triarylphosphonium group. A “fabric” as the term is used herein refers to both woven (such as on a loom) and non-woven (web, mat, etc.) materials that are composed of fibers, which can be a single fiber that is formed into the mat, multiple individual fibers woven into an article or a piece of cloth which can be formed into a garment, mask, and the like. “Fibers” are substantially linear, flexible strands of polymeric materials that can be of various cross-sections, e.g., uniform diameters, varying diameters, films, ribbons, and the like. For example, a fabric, within the meaning herein, could be a mat of a ribbon-like fiber, or a mat of a fiber of circular, polygonal, irregular, or other cross-section. “Non-woven” indicates that the fabric is not formed with a warp and woof configuration on a loom. A “mat” refers to any accumulation of the fiber that creates a pad-like or ribbon-like gauze, i.e. a “web”, which can be pressed, made to self-adhere, packaged within a cover, or the like. For example, a mat (web) can be further packaged within coating fabrics or membranes, such as bandage covers, formed from paper, plastic, or any suitable material. A mat can be used as a surgical or wound dressing, as a personal sanitary pad, within a woven garment, or the like. A “woven” fabric can incorporate a fiber having antimicrobial properties prepared by a method of the invention, wherein the fiber is incorporated using a warp and woof technique, as on a loom, to prepare the woven fabric. Both non-woven and woven fabrics manufactured using a biocidal fiber of the invention can incorporate other materials, e.g., other types of fiber, not having antimicrobial properties, such as for fabric strength, texture, color, drape, and the like. DESCRIPTION Decontamination of Surfaces Contaminated with Bacterial Biofilms In various embodiments, the invention provides a method of decontaminating a material contaminated with a bacterial biofilm disposed on a surface thereof, comprising contacting, in the presence of oxygen, the biofilm with an effective amount of a compound of formula (IA) wherein each circle signifies an aryl or heteroaryl ring system, n=1 to about 100, or n=1 to about 50, or n=1 to about 10, and the compound further comprises one or more moiety comprising an independently selected respective quaternary ammonium cationic group bonded to one or both terminal aryl or heteroaryl ring systems. The effective toxicity of the compound can be enhanced in the presence of light, e.g., visible or ultraviolet light. The dark and light-induced antimicrobial activity of end-only substituted oligo-(phenylethynylenes) (termed EO-OPEs) containing quaternary ammonium groups has recently been reported.13,14 It has surprisingly been discovered that the compounds as disclosed herein are highly effective in killing bacteria that are contained within biofilms; biofilms are known to confer resistance on bacteria to the effect of antibiotics. It is believed that the biofilms can serve to block the entry or reduce the effectiveness of typical antibiotics, rendering the bacteria less susceptible to their effect, as described above. Thus, it is unexpected that the EO-OPEs used in the present inventive methods would be highly effective in reaching and killing these protected bacteria. It is believed that a possible mechanism of action, generation of singlet oxygen, may serve to destroy or penetrate the biofilms, due to the small molecular size and highly reactive nature of singlet oxygen. For example, bacterial biofilms disposed on a surface of a material can be killed or otherwise inactivated using an effective amount or concentration of an “end-only” (EO) cation-derivatized oligomers of formula (IA), examples of which are shown below. It has been unexpectedly discovered by the inventors herein that the “end-only” (EO) forms are significantly more potent in killing bacterial populations residing in biofilms than are other related compounds; i.e., compounds (B)-(E), below, are more potent than is compound (A) for this use. The compounds as shown are charge balanced through the presence of suitable anions, such as halide or sulfonate. The counterions can be bromide, iodide, etc. Exemplary EO Compounds for Antimicrobial Use Versus Bacterial Biofilms. The EO biocidal oligomers exhibit effective toxicity versus bacteria in biofilms at lower concentrations that does a representative control compound (A) that is related to oligomers of formula (I) but wherein the cationic group is bonded to one of the central aryl/heteroaryl ring systems, not to one or both of the terminal ring systems as in the EO oligomers. As noted above, bacteria residing in biofilm populations are often less susceptible to antibiotic action than are planktonic (free-swimming) bacterial, and the enhanced toxicity of the EO cationic poly-(arylene/heteroarylene-ethynylene) oligomers, compared to similar compounds substituted with the cationic groups disposed on non-terminal groups of the oligomers, is surprising and unexpected. For killing of bacteria in biofilms, it can be desirable to have a high degree of solubility of the biocidal oligomer in water, in an organic solvent such as a water-miscible, non-toxic organic solvent (e.g., ethanol), and the like; accordingly lower n values, that is, lower degrees of polymerization of the oligomer, can provide for materials with greater solubility, which can deliver higher concentrations of biocidal oligomer and hence, it is believed, higher concentrations of singlet oxygen, at the sites where biocidal activity is desired. The person of ordinary skill, using methods disclosed herein in conjunction with ordinary skill, can select optimized parameters for an oligomer of formula (I) for a particular use. Parameters such as the ability to dissolve in a selected solvent medium (water, alcohol, etc.) and the ability to absorb ambient light (daylight, artificial lighting, ultraviolet light) can be altered as needed for a particular situation of use. Structures and Synthesis DABCO-containing oligomers ((A), (B), and (C)) were synthesized by Pd-mediated cross-coupling of a terminal arylene and an aryl iodide (Sonogashira coupling). The oligomers were characterized by 1H and 13C NMR. Scheme S1A and S1BC, below, show the overall synthetic approaches to the biocidal oligomers (A), (B), and (C), used in practicing the methods of the invention. The synthesis of oligomers (D) and (E) was previously reported;16 Scheme S1DE, below, shows the overall synthetic scheme used in the preparation of compounds (D) and (E). The intermediates bis-ethynylbenzene and bis-ethynylthiophene were prepared by condensation of 1,4-diiodobenzene and 2,5-diiodothiophene, respectively, with trimethylsilylacetylene in the presence of Pd(PPh3)2Cl2, CuI, and diisopropylamine in CHCl3. These precursors were then coupled then quaternized as shown to provide the trimethylammonium species. Further details concerning the syntheses are provided in the Examples. Photophysical Characterization To gain insight into the light activated biocidal activity of the oligomers, we carried out systematic photophysical studies (Table 1 and supporting information). Comparison of the photophysical data for the oligomers (A)-(E) in methanol solution helps provide a clear understanding of their light activated biocidal action. The oligomers (A)-(E) absorb in the near UV region. Among the end-only oligomers (B)-(E), substituting the center phenylene unit with a 2,5-thienylene unit results in ca 10 nm bathochromic shift in λmax. Importantly, the oligomers with thienylene units, oligomers (C) and (E), have significantly lower fluorescence quantum yields in methanol solution than the oligomers with phenylene units, oligomers (B) and (D). The fluorescence lifetimes of oligomers (C) and (E) are shorter than those of oligomers (B) and (D). All the above data suggest a rapid deactivation of the singlet state in oligomers (C) and (E) which is consistent with our previous report.16 We carried out transient absorption experiments in methanol and water solutions. Consistent with our previous studies, near UV excitation (λ=355 nm, 5 ns pulse) of the oligomers, (A)-(E), resulted in a transient absorption in the visible region. The lifetime of the transient absorption is in the microsecond range and in each case it is efficiently quenched by O2 indicating the absorption is due to the triplet excited state. By examination of the initial amplitudes of the transient absorption (ΔA, t=0, Table 1), we were able to qualitatively determine the relative triplet yield of these oligomers. Note that the TT absorption (ΔA, t=0) for oligomers with thienylene substitution are significantly larger than the corresponding end-only counterparts with phenylene substitution (i.e., (C)>(B) and (E)>(D)) suggesting a higher triplet yield for the oligomers with thienylene units. As noted before, the fast decay of the singlet excited state in (C) and (E) shows a good correlation with the transient absorption studies and clearly indicates the enhanced rate of intersystem crossing is operative in the oligomers with thienylene units. To substantiate our hypothesis, we carried out studies to observe singlet oxygen emission in deuterated methanol (as the life time of the singlet oxygen is very short in D2O).21 As anticipated, each of the oligomers is capable of sensitizing the formation of singlet oxygen as observed by its characteristic emission at 1270 nm. Of the oligomers studied, (C) and (E) show a higher quantum yield for singlet oxygen generation (ΦΔ) which corroborates well with the photophysical studies described above. Table 1, below, provides physicochemical data with respect to the biocidal oligomers shown above. Photophysical Properties of oligomers in methanol and water Solvent (A) (B) (C) (D)c (E) λmaxabs (nm) MeOH 366 328 340 326 352 H2O 361 327 340 327 353 λmaxfl (nm) MeOH 427 357 391 358 388 H2O 465 390 412 388 409 Φfla MeOH 0.51 ± 0.02 0.60 ± 0.02 0.11 ± 0.02 0.69 ± 0.03 0.18 ± 0.02 H2O 0.03 ± 0.02 0.34 ± 0.02 0.07 ± 0.02 0.44 ± 0.02 0.14 ± 0.02 τfl (ns) MeOH 1.44 (450) 0.42 (400) 0.24 (420) 0.45 (400) 0.23 (420) H2O 0.14 (450) 0.59 (90%), 0.20 (420) 0.52 (400) 0.18 (420) 0.05 (10%) (400) triplet abs MeOH 0.34 0.14 0.32 0.28 0.42 (ΔA, t = 0) H2O 0.01 0.08 0.15 0.07 0.26 τtriplet (μs) MeOH 3.7 2.7 3.0 2.3 3.2 H2O — 8.5 35.7 18.7 13.1 ΦΔb CD3OD 0.34 ± 0.03 0.20 ± 0.02 0.46 ± 0.02 0.17 ± 0.03 0.64 ± 0.03 aMeasured using quinine sulfate in 0.1M sulfuric acid (ΦF = 0.54) as an actinometer. bMeasured in CD3OD using 2′-acetonaphthone (ΦΔ = 0.79) as an actinometer, cReference 16 d(nm) To screen the effectiveness of EO-OPEs shown above at killing bacteria residing in a biofilm, a Calgary Biofilm Device (CBD), commercially available as the MBEC™ assay was used to grow 96 equivalent biofilms at a time, and to determine the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC). After incubating the CBD devise in Escherichia coli (E. coli K12) suspension in LB media for 24 hours, biofilms were uniformly formed on the CBD surface. The E. coli biofilms were then incubated with EO-OPEs for 24 hours to obtain their MIC values. Table 2, below, shows the antimicrobial minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values of the four EO compounds shown above, compared with the MIC values of compound OPE-1-DABCO and of the known antibiotic kanamycin. Sensitivity of E. coli biofilm bacteria to antimicrobial oligomers (μg/mL). (A) (B) (C) (D) (E) kanamycin MIC 51.7 14.0 15.8 34.0 32.7 11.2 MBEC (dark) >1000 200 150 200 >1000 >1000 MBEC (light) >500 60 60 70 200 — The heightened potency of the EO compounds of formula (I), oligomers (B)-(E), versus a related control compound (A) wherein the cationic group is not bonded to a terminal aryl/heteroaryl ring system, is shown from comparative results obtained from testing EO compound EO-OPE-1-DABCO, which provides 90% inhibition of E. coli K12 in the biofilm at a concentration of 14 μg/mL, versus 52 μg/mL for a related oligomer (A) comprising the same N-phenyl-DABCO-alkoxy substituent but wherein the substituent is bonded to a non-terminal aryl/heteroaryl ring system. Killing efficiency was determined by measurement of the optical density at 600 nm wavelength. The inventors herein believe that light-induced biocidal activity of EO-OPEs correlates with their relative triplet yields and a higher triplet yield affords better light-induced biocidal activity. It has also been shown that EO-OPEs show interactions with dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DOPC)/cholesterol vesicles. Therefore, the inventors herein believe that biocidal action involves the following steps: (1) EO-OPEs penetrate the bacterial membrane, (2) EO-OPEs photosensitize the generation of singlet oxygen, and (3) singlet oxygen and/or reactive oxygen species trigger bacterial death.16 The bacterial cells growing in biofilms feature slow growth rates and higher resistance to antimicrobials. EO-OPE-DABCO compounds were found to inhibit the propagation of E. coli biofilms (detachment of bacteria from the surface of the biofilm to the liquid medium followed by regrowth) at concentration level similar to the concentration of known antibiotic kanamycin. The incorporation of the DABCO group into the EO-OPEs is believed to enhance their diffusion into the cell wall due to similarities of the pendent group and the lipid layer. It was also found that EO-OPE-DABCO compounds were effective in killing biofilm bacteria in the dark at relatively low concentrations, as well as after 3 hr exposure to white light. See also: Z. Zhou, et al., DOI: 10.1021/jz101088k J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2010, 1, 3207-3212; Y. Tang, et al., dx.doi.org/10.1021/la105018g\|Langmuir 2011, 27, 4956-4962; D. Whitten, et al., DOI: 10.1021/la302476s•Publication Date (Web): 16 Jul. 2012; the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties. Decontamination and Prevention of Contamination of Fabrics In uses where bacterial contamination of objects and materials in the environment represents a serious medical and public health concern; such as in treatment of patients prone to infections, e.g., with wounds, compromised immune systems, in pediatric and geriatric care, during and following surgery, and the like; in food preparation and handling wherein bacterial contamination of foodstuffs, work surfaces, tools and appliances, and food workers themselves, can and does present an often lethal threat of food poisoning; in treatment of drinking water supplies; and in consumer personal hygiene products; decontamination and prevention of contamination of physical objects can be critical. Above, the use of biocidal oligomers for the decontamination of generally non-porous surfaces by the use of biocidal oligomers such as the cationic oligo-(arylene/heteroarylene-ethynylene) oligomers, in the presence of oxygen (e.g., in air), and optionally under illumination by light, is described as a method of killing bacteria and controlling bacterial populations when the bacteria are growing within protective biofilms they secrete on surfaces. In addition to such types of surfaces on which bacterial biofilms are prone to contaminate, porous materials such as fabrics can harbor populations of pathogenic bacteria. Fabrics, comprising multitudes of individual fibers, provide many occluded spaces in which bacterial populations can thrive that are not readily accessible to sterilizing agents. For example, such refuges can be shielded from UV light, often used to kill bacteria in medical and in food preparation environments. Accordingly, use of inventive methods as described herein to decontaminate fabrics, such as non-woven materials, as well as to inhibit the establishment of bacterial populations in such materials in the first place, provides a benefit of reducing the chance of infection. For example, in many uses fabrics may be sterile when first used, but soon become contaminated with biological materials that support and stimulate bacterial growth. Examples include wound dressings, surgical garments, absorbents, personal hygiene products, and the like. Even garments not used in a sterile or protected setting can benefit from inclusion of antimicrobial fabric components, e.g., in keeping garments free from bacterially induced odor. In various embodiments, the present invention discloses and claims methods and materials that can accomplish these goals by providing various embodiments of fabrics, such as non-woven fabrics, that block establishment of microbial colonies and kill microorganisms that invade the substance. According to an embodiment the present disclosure provides a non-woven fibrous mat incorporating an antimicrobial agent and methods for forming and using the mat in various applications where inhibition of bacterial growth is desired. The fibrous material can be formed by combining a fiber-forming polymer and one or more biocidal oligomer such as a cationic oligo-(arylene/heteroarylene-ethynylene) oligomer, to produce fibers that can be formed into a continuous sheet of non-woven material. The composition comprising the fiber-forming polymer and the one or more biocidal oligomer can be formed into a fiber form by any suitable method of fiber spinning known to the person of skill. Alternatively, an existing fiber composition can be treated with a suitable preparation of a biocidal oligomer to provide the fiber containing the antimicrobial material; in various embodiments, the oligomer can be non-covalently associated with the polymer, e.g., by association of the cationic oligomer with a cellulosic fiber (e.g., cotton, rayon), as cationic substances are known to adhere to negatively charged cellulose microfibrils; or by association of the cationic oligomer with an anionic polymeric material such as an alginate (containing carboxylic acid groups). In other embodiments, the biocidal oligomeric materials can be covalently linked to either a synthetic fiber-forming polymer, which can then be spun by any suitable method; or to a natural fiber composed, e.g., of cellulose, alginates, gelatin, chitosan, or the like, using methods, e.g., of “click” chemistry. For instance, a biocidal oligomer containing a terminal ethynyl group can be covalently bonded to a natural fiber such as cellulose that has been modified to include azido groups, by using the acetylene-azide click reaction, that forms linking triazole groups to bond the oligomer to the fiber material, as described in greater detail below. For spinnable fiber-forming polymers, while the presently described method is explained primarily in connection with electrospinning (see, for example, Leach, M. K., Feng, Z., Tuck, S. J., Corey, J. M. Electrospinning Fundamentals: Optimizing Solution and Apparatus Parameters. J. Vis. Exp. (47), e2494, DOI: 10.3791/2494 (2011); An Introduction To Electrospinning And Nanofibers, Seeram Ramakrishna, ISBN: 978-981-256-454-2), it will be understood that the presently described method is applicable for use with a wide variety of other textile formation techniques well known in the art including, but not limited to, meltblowing, melt spinning, dry spinning, wet sinning, gel spinning, single head electrospinning, multihead electrospinning, or flash spinning. Furthermore, the method is applicable for use with all spinning techniques with or without a method to preferentially orient the fibers, including, but not limited to methods that include the use of a mandrel. The method is also applicable for use with all spinning techniques with or without a method to decrease the fiber diameter, including, but limited to methods that incorporate stretching. Fiber-forming polymers used can be polycaprolactone (PCL), poly-alpha-hydroxyesters, e.g., poly-lactic-glycolic acid (PLGA), poly-lactic acid (PLA), poly-glycolic acid (PGA), other aliphatic polyesters such as glycol-type polyesters of dibasic aliphatic diacids, aromatic polyesters such as glycol-type polyesters of dibasic aromatic acids (terephthalate, etc.) polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), polyethylene oxide (PEO), or polyolefins such as polyethylene, polypropylene, polyethylene/polypropylene copolymers, polystyrene (PS), and the like; or the fiber-forming polymers can be natural materials such as cellulose, chitosan, alginate, gelatin, and the like. Some of the polymers can be spun with the biocidal oligomers present, or can be treated post-spinning; other fibers not suitable for spinning (e.g., cellulose, although cellulose can be spun as a derivative, e.g., viscose, then regenerated), can be treated with the biocidal oligomers as preformed fibers. In various embodiments, the biocidal oligomers can be a cationic oligo-(arylene/heteroarylene-ethynylene), such as the variously termed poly(phenylene ethynylene) (PPE)-based cationic conjugated polyelectrolytes (CPEs), cationic phenylene ethynylene oligomers (OPEs), and conjugated polyampholytes as described in PCT patent application nos. PCT/US2009/048838, PCT/US11/43908, PCT/US11/43922, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/001,478, and U.S. provisional patent application No. 61/422,130 (each of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety). These cited documents disclose a variety of suitable oligomers and polymers that exhibit dark and light-activated biocidal activity against Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria and bacterial spores. Furthermore, as described in the above-incorporated references, some of the oligomers and polymers possess anti-viral and/or anti-fungal properties as well. Such oligomers can be incorporated into fibers by methods disclosed and claimed herein, to provide biocidal fabrics for various uses, e.g., medical, food preparation, personal hygiene, and any others where control of microbial populations is desired. Various oligomeric compounds that can be used in the preparation of fibers and non-woven mats or webs of the invention include those as shown below: 1) An oligomer of formula (F) wherein X is independently H, CO2R, C(═O)R, NR2, or C≡C—R, wherein one or more X groups can be bonded at any available position(s), R is independently H or (C1-C6)alkyl, n is 1 to about 10, and Rcat is a cationic group. X can also be a cationic group in various embodiments. For example, Rcat can be —(CH2)3N+(R1)3, wherein each R1 is independently (C1-C6)alkyl; or two R1 together with the nitrogen atom to which they are bonded form a 3-9 membered heterocyclyl optionally comprising 1-3 additional heteroatoms selected from NR, O, and S(O)q wherein q=0, 1, or 2; or three R1 together with the nitrogen atom to which they are bonded form a 4-12 membered bicyclic heterocyclyl optionally comprising 1-3 additional heteroatoms selected from NR, O, and S(O)q wherein q=0, 1, or 2; or, Rcat can be a group of formula wherein k=1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or more, R2 is (C1-C6)alkyl, (C1-C6)alkoxy, (C3-C9)cycloalkyl, (C3-C9)cycloalkoxy, or aryl, and a wavy line indicates a point of bonding. Or the oligomer can be 2) an oligomer of formula (G) wherein X and n can be as defined for the oligomer of formula (F), and Ran comprises an anionic group, provided that at least one X is a cationic group, such that the oligomer comprises at least one cationic group, wherein one or more X groups can be bonded at any available position(s). For example, Ran can be a group of formula —O(CH2)kSO3−, wherein k=1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or more. 3) an oligomer of formula (H) wherein each independently selected Rcat is as defined for the oligomer of formula (F), wherein one or more X groups can be bonded at any available position(s), and m=1 to about 10. 4) an oligomer of formula (J) wherein m is as defined for formula (H), wherein one or more X groups can be bonded at any available position(s), and Ran comprises an anionic group. For example, Ran can be a group of formula —O(CH2)kSO3−, wherein k=1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or more; but provided that at least one ring is substituted with a cationic group, such that the oligomer comprises at least one cationic group. In any compound of formulas (F), (G), (H), and (J), one or more independently selected X group(s) are optionally bonded at any available position; i.e., there can be 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, or more independently selected X groups present in any of formulas (F), (G), (H), or (J). In any of the above formulas (F), (G), (H), and (J), any of the aryl ring systems, shown as phenyl rings, can be replaced with a heteroaryl ring system, such as a thienyl ring. Also, in any of the above formulas, any of the aryl or heteroaryl ring systems can bear additional substituents, such as hydroxyl, amino, thio, acyl, alkyl, alkoxy, acryloyl, activated ester, and the like. The substituents can be selected for reactivity with a complementary reactive group on the polymer when it is desired to covalently couple the oligomer and the polymer, such as by electrophile-nucleophile reactions, cycloaddition reactions, or other coupling reactions such as are known in the art. In various embodiments, the oligomer can be any of formulas (H1), or (J1), below, wherein each EO scaffold bears respectively only a single cationic or anionic group at one terminal aryl/heteroaryl ring system, and the other terminal ring system can be unsubstituted or can be substituted with j=1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 J groups such as hydroxyl, amino, thio, (C1-C6)alkyl, (C1-C6)acyl, (C1-C6)alkoxy, (C3-C9)cycloalkyl, (C3-C9)cycloalkoxy, or aryl; but provided that each oligomer contains at least one cationic group. In more specific embodiments, the oligomer incorporated with the fiber-forming polymer prior to spinning, or associated with a fiber spun or natural, can be any of the following: Some examples include oligomers of the following structures: wherein R2 is alkyl, phenyl, cyclohexyl, or the like, and m=1 to 10, or 1 to 50, or 1 to 100, or 1 to 500. In other embodiments, oligomers, which can have a degree of polymerization (DP) from about 2 up to 20, or up to 50, or up to 100, or more, repeating units of the general formula wherein the wavy lines indicate points of bonding to other similar repeating units, can include in regular or random sequence repeating units of any of the following formulas: wherein Rcat is as defined above, or, wherein Ran is as defined above, or wherein Rneut is an electrically neutral group, such as alkyl, alkoxy, or polyoxyalkylene, such as —O(CH2CH2O)pCH2CH2OR wherein p=1, 2, 3, or more and R is alkyl, aryl, or the like. However, each oligomer must contain at least one cationic group. For example, an oligomer can include alternating cationic and anionic substituted phenylethynyl repeating units, or alternating cationic and neutral phenylethynyl repeating unit, or can contain blocks of two or three of the repeating units types, provided that at least a single cationic group is present in the oligomer. Other arrangements will be apparent to the person of ordinary skill in the art. Such units can be interspersed with unsubstituted phenylethynyl or heteroarylethynyl groups in forming various embodiments of biocidal oligomers. The degree of polymerization can range from 2 up through several hundred, e.g., 2-500 arylethynyl or heteroarylethynyl repeating units, each of which can independently be unsubstituted or independently substituted with cationic, anionic, or neutral substituents. For example, an oligomer that can be used in practicing a method of the invention can include, in addition to any of examples (A)-(E) shown above, any of the following exemplary oligomers: wherein for compounds 1-7, Z— is an anion, e.g. halide, sulfonate; k=1-6, n=1-100 wherein for compound (10), m=1-10, n=1-10, degree of polymerization (DP)=1 to 100. The DP of any of the compounds shown can be as defined above, in addition to the exemplary values shown with the figures; e.g., m or n can be 1 to about 500, or can be 1 to about 100, or can be 1 to about 50, or can be 1 to about 10. The terminal groups of the oligomers shown above can be any of the groups as defined for group X, above. Each k=1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6; the degree of polymerization n is 1 to 500, or is 1 to 100, or is 1 to 50, or is 1 to 10, and, for compounds 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, and 9, terminal groups of the oligomer are each an independently selected X as defined. The countions Z− can be any suitable anions. For any of the compounds (1)-(10), one or more additional X groups are optionally bonded at any available position(s). The biocidal oligomer(s) selected for addition to the fiber-forming polymer prior to spinning, or selected for association with a preformed fiber, can be chosen for a particular use by the person of ordinary skill, based on the target or likely microorganism species to be controlled, and the relative toxicities of the various biocidal oligomers which can be prepared and tested as described herein. In the various embodiments where the biocidal oligomer is added to a fiber-forming polymer prior to the step of spinning into the fiber, any spinnable polymer may be used. It is believed that the polymer can provide a structure to which the biocidal oligomer(s) selected for a particular use can associate non-covalently or, when provision is made for covalent bonding as is described in more detail below, for covalent attachment of the biocidal oligomer molecules to polymer molecules to provide the covalently modified polymer. Suitable polymers include, but are not limited to: both organic and inorganic polymers such as polycaprolactone (PCL), poly-alpha-hydroxyesters, e.g., poly-lactic-glycolic acid (PLGA), poly-lactic acid (PLA), poly-glycolic acid (PGA), other aliphatic polyesters such as glycol-type polyesters of dibasic aliphatic diacids, aromatic polyesters such as glycol-type polyesters of dibasic aromatic acids (terephthalate, etc.) polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), polyethylene oxide (PEO), or polyolefins such as polyethylene, polypropylene, polyethylene/polypropylene copolymers, polystyrene (PS), and the like; or the fiber-forming substances can be natural materials such as cellulose, chitosan, alginate, gelatin, and the like; or mixtures or blends thereof. Other fiber-forming polymers apparent to the person of ordinary skill can also be used, provided that a cationic oligo-(aryl/heteroaryl-ethynyl) oligomer can be associated with the polymer or covalently bound thereto, or both. According to an exemplary method of preparation of a biocidal fiber according to the present disclosure, a solution comprising the polymer and one or more biocidal oligomer can be delivered at a constant rate via a syringe pump; through a syringe fitted with stainless steel blunt tip needle. The needle is charged through a high voltage supply, and the resulting polymer fibers are collected on a grounded target to form a fibrous mat having antimicrobial properties. As a specific example, a 3 wt % OPE/gram of polycaprolactone (PCL) in a 15 wt % dichloromethane (DCM) solution is stirred overnight at room temperature. Using a 2 ml plastic syringe (inner diameter (ID)=4.64 mm) equipped with an 18 gauge (g)×1.0 in. stainless steel blunt tip needle is used to deliver the PCL/DCM solution at a constant flow rate of 1.5 ml/hr and a voltage difference of 0.78 kv/cm (10 kv/13 cm) from tip to collector. It is notable that the voltage difference used for the OPE/PCL solution is different from that required to electrospin the PCL solution alone (0.83 kV/cm (i.e. 12.5 kv/15 cm)) due to the dielectric constant of the OPE/PCL solution compared to the PCL only solution. Experiments were conducted to test the antimicrobial activity of the electrospun OPE/PCL mat. PCL only and OPE/PCL materials were exposed under both light and dark conditions to an E. coli culture and then stained with SYTOX Green, which stains only the dead bacteria. The stained bacteria were then observed with a FITC filter. FIGS. 6 and 7 show a control sample of E. coli alone. FIG. 6 is the bright field while FIG. 7 is the FITC filter. FIGS. 8 and 9 show the PCL only material after exposure to E. coli in dark conditions. No stained (i.e. dead) bacteria are seen. FIGS. 10 (bright field) and 11 (FITC) show the PCL-only material after exposure to E. coli in light conditions. (15 min. under 365 nm @ ˜9 mW). It is believed that the few dead E. coli that are seen are due to the light exposure rather than any characteristic of the PCL-only material. FIGS. 12 (bright field) and 13 (FITC) show the OPE/PCL material after exposure to E. coli in dark conditions. The OPE used in the experiment is generally considered to be a light-activated biocide although, as shown, some activity under dark conditions is observed. FIGS. 14, 15 (bright field) and 16, 17 (FITC) show a very high degree of bacterial capture and kill. It will be appreciated that careful selection of the carrier polymer and electrospinning conditions allow for the control and selection of various characteristics of the mat produced including, for example, the thickness, size, and composition. Furthermore, because it is possible to electrospin solutions containing particles, fillers, and other factors, a near infinite variety of antimicrobial mats have wide ranging properties can easily be produced. Examples of particles that could be incorporated into the electrospun mats include, but are not limited to: carbon nanotubes, titanium, silver, gold, and any other suitable nanomaterial. Furthermore, the carrier polymer can be selected based on properties such as degradation time, to produce a mat that releases the antimicrobial element (if a degradable carrier polymer is selected) or permanently secures the antimicrobial element (if a non-degradable carrier polymer is selected.) Moreover, multi-layer mats could be produced with each layer having the same or different physical properties (i.e. thickness, porosity, etc.) and/or the same or different antimicrobial oligomers or polymers. The layers may be electrospun separately and then combined, or a subsequent layer or layers may be electrospun directly onto a first layer. For example, a multi-layered mat may be formed to incorporate layers formed from carrier polymers having different degradation times, effectively creating a mat having periodically time-released antimicrobial (or other) elements. Alternatively, or additionally, a manufacturer could produce a variety of single layers incorporating antimicrobial (or other) elements that are specific to one or more microbial agents (or other factors/conditions) and then quickly assemble “custom-made” mats in response to each customer's specific needs. Potential uses for the mats described herein include, but are not limited to: filters, countertop coverings, tablecloths, curtains, swabs, bandages, wipes, tissues, coatings, liners, hospital garments, floor and wall coverings, medical devices, surgical instruments, gloves, masks, lab coats, gauze, orthopedic prostheses, bedding, mattress covers, dividers, linens, wound dressings, implants, and biological scaffolds. Their uses may be directed against known contamination, as in a wound infection, or applied as a deterrent to propagation of pathogenic agents in applications for common fomites. Different blends to specifically release or retain killed bacteria could be developed based on combination of polymers with the desired retention properties. This could be effected either by use of varied polymer proportions in a single layer coating or by building multiple layers with the required external affinities. In other embodiments, biocidal oligomers can be covalently bonded, either pre-spinning or post-spinning, to polymers that have been suitable functionalized. For example, a biocidal oligomer can be covalently bound to a suitably functionalized fiber-forming polymer by an acetylene-azide click reaction. Accordingly, in various embodiments, one X group or other substituent of any one of formulas (F), (G), (H), or (J), or of any heteroaryl analog thereof; can comprise an ethynyl group. The fiber-forming polymer can comprise an azido group, such as by derivatization, and the biocidal oligomer and the polymer can be mutually covalently bonded using acetylene-azide click chemistry. Or, other click chemistry reactions known to the person of skill in the art can be used. By “click chemistry” is meant any of the highly efficient and versatile covalent bond forming reactions that can operate in the presence of a wide variety of functional groups. For example, see “Click Chemistry: Diverse Chemical Function from a Few Good Reactions,” C. Kolb Hartmuth, M. G. Finn, K. Barry Sharpless, DOI: 10.1002/1521-3773(20010601)40:11<2004: Angewandle Chemie International Edition (Jun. 1, 2001), 40(11), 2004-2021, incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. The biocidal oligomer and the polymer can be covalently reacted using mutually reactive moieties disposed on the oligomer and the polymer, respectively. For example, the biocidal oligomer can comprises an electrophilic moiety and the polymer can comprise a moiety that can react with the electrophilic moiety to form a covalent bond. For example, the polymer can comprise an electrophilic acrylate group or a haloalkyl group or other alkylating moiety that is available to react with a nucleophilic substituent disposed on the biocidal oligomer, such as a hydroxyl group, an amino group, or the like. Alternatively, the electrophile-nucleophile coupling can be oriented in the opposite configuration, wherein the biocidal oligomer comprises a nucleophilic moiety and the polymer contains a moiety that can react with the nucleophilic moiety to form a covalent bond. Examples of electrophile-nucleophile couplings to polymers are well known in the art, e.g., using nucleophilic groups such as hydroxyl, amino, and thio groups reactions with activated esters such as N-hydroxysuccinimide esters, haloacyl esters, and other electrophilic groups. In various embodiments, the biocidal oligomer and the polymer can be mutually reacted prior to the step of spinning, to provide a spun fiber comprising a covalent conjugate comprising a biocidal oligomer component and a fiber-forming polymer component, wherein the spun fiber possesses biocidal properties versus microorganisms in the presence of oxygen. Or, the reactive precursor materials of the fiber-forming polymer and the biocidal oligomer can be mixed and spun, such that reaction occurs under conditions of spinning (e.g., with heating, drying, and the like). Alternatively, the polymer can be spun into a fiber, which can then be treated with a biocidal oligomer that adheres to the fiber non-covalently or reacts with the polymer of the fiber covalently, or a combination. As described above, in various embodiments the biocidal properties of the spun fiber versus microorganisms in the presence of oxygen is increased under illumination by visible or ultraviolet light. It is believed by the inventors that the biocidal oligomers can catalyze the formation of singlet oxygen from molecular oxygen present in the environment, and this generation of the toxic and reactive singlet oxygen, which can be the effective toxic agent acting to kill the microorganisms, is enhanced in the presence of activating photons of actinic radiations such as visible light and/or ultraviolet (UV) light. The absorptivity, e.g., the extinction coefficient, of the biocidal oligomer chosen for use in the fiber or fiber nonwoven mat to render them antimicrobial, can be selected based upon the intended wavelength of illumination to be used; for example, a fiber or product made therefrom adapted to be biocidal under visible illumination, such as daylight or artificial interior lighting, can be formed comprising a biocidal oligomer structure that is a potent absorber of light of those wavelengths. It is believed that singlet oxygen generation rates are correlated with photo absorption efficiencies under comparable conditions of exposure and oxygen content in the environment. It is believed that the oligomers herein are activated by absorption of a photon into an electronically excited state, which excitation energy is transferred to molecular oxygen present in the vicinity. See also: L. Ista, et al., dx.doi.org/10.1021/la105018g\|Langmuir 2011, 27, 4956-4962; E. Ji. et al. dx.doi.org/10.1021/la2018192\|Langmuir 2011, 27, 10763-10769; E. Ji, et al., dx.doi.org/10.1021/am200644g\|ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2011, 3, 2820-2829; S. Chemburu, et al., Langmuir 2008, 24, 11053-11062; the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties. Click Chemistry: Formation of Covalent Conjugates of Biocidal Oligomers The present disclosure provides a novel method to covalently attach antimicrobial end-only functionalized oligo(phenylene ethynylene) (EO-OPEs) onto the surfaces of silica beads using “click chemistry”. Examples of “click chemistry” reactions are described, for example, in Huisgen, R. Proceedings of the Chemical Society of London 1961, 357, and Cedric, H.; Christophe, C. Journal of Organic Chemistry 2003, 68, 2167, both of which are hereby incorporated by reference. The Cu(I)-catalyzed 1,3-dipolar azide-alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC) (i.e., the acetylene-azide click reaction) is a powerful tool for immobilization of functional groups on silica beads, polymers beads and cotton. The present invention can provide a novel method to covalently attach antimicrobial end-only functionalized oligo(phenylene ethynylene) (EO-OPEs) onto appropriately treated or derivatized solid substances, such as fiber-forming polymers, or onto other solid materials that can be used for antimicrobial action, such as silica gel. The covalent bonding can be carried out using “click chemistry” type reactions, as described above. For example, to demonstrate the effectiveness of using click chemistry to bond biocidal oligomers to solids, such as particles or fibers, surface modification of 300 nm diameter silica particles was accomplished by the reaction of the silica surface with trimethoxysilane bearing a chloride group, which was then substituted by reaction with sodium azide to obtain azide-functionalized silica surface, according to the following Scheme S3. A biocidal oligomer bearing a terminal ethynyl moiety (OPEC1) was coupled to an azide-functionalized surface, e.g. an azide-functionalized silica particle surface using click chemistry, followed by alkylation of tertiary amines to introduce the cationic quaternary ammonium group. The surface modification process was monitored by infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). As shown in FIG. 18, the unmodified silica particles (SiO2—OH) exhibited a strong peak at 1110 cm−1 which was assigned to the Si—O—Si asymmetric stretch. In addition, a broad peak centered at 3400 cm−1 was due to OH stretch from both the silanol and adsorbed water. The FTIR spectrum of SiO2-Azide gave clear evidence for the presence of the azide groups. The peak at 2100 cm−1 corresponded to the stretch of the azide group. In addition, multiple weak peaks around 2900 cm−1 indicated the presence of sp3 C—H bonds. After the Click reaction, the peak at 2100 cm−1 disappeared completely, confirming the success of the Click reaction with all the azide units reacted. In addition, the peaks around 1600 cm−1 confirmed the presence of aromatic compounds on the silica particles (SiO2-OPEC1). To monitor the surface modification process, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) was used. FIG. 19 shows the TGA analysis of unmodified silica particles (SiO2—OH), azide-modified silica particles (SiO2—N3) and OPEC1-grafted silica particles (SiO2-OPEC1). The loss bellow 200° C., due to the physisorbed water and residual organic solvent, was 6.8% for unmodified silica particles (FIG. 19A). At 700° C., we observed a weight loss of 3% (FIG. 19B) for the azide-modified silica particles in the TGA curve, which was attributed to the presence of spacer trimethoxysilylpropyl azide. The residual mass percentage was 88% and the surface grafting density of azide groups was calculated to be about 9.3 chains/nm2 to the eq 1. FIG. 19C shows the TGA curve of the OPEC1-grafted silica particles. It shows that the weight loss percentage corresponding to the decomposition of OPEC1 chains was 8%, and the residue mass percent was 80% at 700° C. The surface grafting density of OPEC1 was found to be about 8.3 chains/nm2 calculated from eq 1, below, according to the TGA analysis. δ = ( W Org W inorg ) ⁢ W SiO ⁢ ⁢ 2 ⁢ N A M Org ⁢ SA Eq . ⁢ ( 1 ) Here, WOrg is the weight loss percentage corresponding to the decomposition of the organic component, WInorg is the residual weight percentage, WSiO2 is the weight of silica particles (3.69E−14 g/sphere), NA is Avogadro's number, MOrg is the molecular weight of the organic component, and SA is the surface area of silica particles (3.42E+05 nm2). Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was used to determine the morphology and texture of the silica particle surfaces. As shown in FIGS. 20A-C, unmodified silica particles (FIG. 20A) had clean, smooth and spherical surfaces and the azide-modified silica particles (FIG. 20B) appeared about the same. This can be explained by the small amount of organic material on the silica particle surfaces. However, the OPEC1 grafted silica particles (FIG. 20C) showed a rough irregular surface, corresponding to the presence of organic material. The organic compounds formed a layer outside the surface of silica particles and thus changed the shapes of the particles. Scanning electron microscopy images provide information about the surface shapes and features. As shown in FIGS. 21A and 21B, respectively, the unmodified and azide-modified silica particles had smooth uniform surfaces. In contrast, the SEM image of OPEC1-grafted silica particles (FIG. 21C) clearly showed the organic layer outside the surface. However, the covering was not very uniform. Most of the surfaces were covered by organic material, but at some places, there were some large aggregates, which may be multiple layers. Another possibility is that some organic material was chemically or physically adsorbed on the surfaces. The fluorescence spectra of OPEC1-grafted silica particles and unmodified silica particles in methanol are shown in FIGS. 22 and 23, respectively. The unmodified silica particles did not show any fluorescence. The peaks at about 350 nm were due to light scattering since the silica particles are around 300 nm in diameter. The fluorescence profile of OPEC1-grafted silica particles was similar to the pure OPEC1 in methanol solution. Compared to the fluorescence OPEC1 in methanol solution, the fluorescence spectrum of OPEC1 grafted silica particles was broader and weaker, because of the aggregates of the oligomers on the surfaces. It has been shown that singlet oxygen is the active species that can kill the bacteria in the biocidal process. Singlet oxygen spectrum of OPEC1-grafted silica particles was measured in d-methanol. After purging oxygen for one-half hour, the OPEC1-grafted silica particles were excited at 320 nm, and the emission signal of singlet oxygen at 1270 nm appeared (FIG. 24). This spectrum strongly supported the application of OPEC1-grafted silica particles as an antibacterial material. However, the signal was rather weak compared to the singlet oxygen spectra of oligo(phenylene ethynylene) and poly(phenylene ethynylene) solutions. One possibility is that the concentration of the OPEC1 in the silica particle suspension is much lower. In addition, the formation of aggregates on the surface of silica particles may impair the ability to generate singlet oxygen. Recently we have synthesized OPE-DABCO and EO-OPE DABCO containing quaternary ammonium pendant groups based on 1,4-diazabocyclo-[2.2.2.]-octane (DABCO). It has been shown that the incorporation of the DABCO group into antimicrobials might amplify its ability to diffuse into the bacterial cell wall due to similarities between this moiety and the lipid layer. [Ref: Kenawy, E. R., S. D. Worley, and R. Broughton. The chemistry and applications of antimicrobial polymers: A state-of-the-art review. Biomacromolecules, 2007. 8(5): p. 1359-1384] Therefore, the binding of antimicrobials to the cytoplasmic membrane of the bacteria is increased by both ionic and van der Waals interactions. [Ref:Kenawy, E. R., S. D. Worley, and R. Broughton. The chemistry and applications of antimicrobial polymers: A state-of-the-art review. Biomacromolecules, 2007. 8(5): p. 1359-1384] These two oligomers have been employed to compare their antimicrobial activity both in the dark and under the UV light in regard to their structure difference. After 10 min of UV irradiation of two oligomers, EO-OPE-DABCO (1 μg/mL) shows 100% killing against S. aureus while OPE-DABCO deactivates ˜75% bacteria and its antibacterial efficiency increases with increasing irradiation time up to ˜99% deactivation (FIG. 25). EO-OPE-DABCO also shows significant dark killing: fewer than 10% of the bacteria survive after incubation with EO-OPE-DABCO for 10 min in the dark. EO-OPE-DABCO has been covalently attached to alkyl-azide functionalized glass surface via Cu-catalyzed click chemistry. [Chem. Mater., 2010, 22 (18), pp 5319-5327 and Langmuir, 2011, 27 (1), pp 328-334] See also: K. Ogawa, et al., Langmuir 2007, 23, 4541-4548; the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. EXAMPLES Materials All chemicals used for synthesis were of reagent grade and used without further purification. Details of the synthesis and characterization of oligomer (A)-(C) are described in the supporting information. Compound (D) and (E) were synthesized according to previously described procedures.16 The photophysical characterization of all compounds is also described in the supporting information. Synthetic Procedures 1-Hexyl-4-aza-1-azoniabicyclo[2.2.2]octane Bromide (2) and 1,4-bis(3-bromopropoxy)-2,5-diiodobenzene (5) were prepared according to a literature procedure. (See: Zhao, X. Y.; Pinto, M. R.; Hardison, L. M.; Mwaura, J.; Muller, J.; Jiang, H.; Witker, D.; Kleiman, V. D.; Reynolds, J. R.; Schanze, K. S. Variable band gap poly(arylene ethynylene) conjugated polyelectrolytes, Macromolecules 2006, 39, 6355; McQuade, D. T.; Hegedus, A. H.; Swager, T. M. Signal amplification of a “turn-on” sensor: Harvesting the light captured by a conjugated polymer, Journal of the American Chemical Society 2000, 122, 12389). A solution of 0.35 g (1.25 mmol) of compound 1 and 0.3 g (0.5 mmol) of compound 5 in 5 mL of dimethyacetamide was stirred at 110° C. overnight. Upon cooling, 10 mL of cold ether was added to the reaction mixture. The resulting precipitates was collected by filtration and purified by hot filtration. White powder was recrystallized from water, yield 0.3 g (0.26 mmol, 52%). 1H NMR (500 MHz, DMSO-d6) δ 3.24 (s, 1H), 3.24 (s, 1H), 3.89-4.08 (br, 32H), 3.72 (br, 4H), 3.54 (br, 4H), 2.23 (br, 4H), 1.69 (br, 4H), 1.31 (br, 12H), 0.88 (br, 6H). 1.33 g (14 mmol) oftrimethylsilylacetylene was added to a deoxygenated solution of 2.56 g (9.1 mmol) of compound 7, 102 mg (0.15 mmol) of Pd(PPh3)2Cl2, and 42 mg (0.22 mmol) of CuI in 30 mL of Et3N. The reaction solution was stirred at room temperature under argon overnight. The solvent was removed, and the solid was purified by flash chromatography on silica gel with hexane to yield a compound 8 (1.81 g, 81%). A solution of 0.81 g (3.29 mmol) of compound 8 in 20 mL of methanol was deoxygenated for 30 min and 1.0 M tetrabutylammonium fluoride solution in THF (9.95 mmol) was added to the flask under argon and the mixture was stirred at room temperature for 6 h. The solvent was removed and re-dissolved in methylene chloride and extracted with water twice. The combined organic solution was dried over MgSO4 and the solvent was removed at reduced pressure to yield a compound 9 (0.38 g, 66%). 1H NMR (500 MHz, CDCl3) δ 7.80 (d, 2H), 7.54 (d, 2H), 4.38 (m, 2H), 3.24 (s, 1H), 1.39 (t, 3H). OPE-1-DABCO (Oligomer (A)) A solution of 0.1 g (0.087 mmol) of compound 6 and 0.033 g (0.191 mmol) of compound 9 in 4 mL of DMF/(iPr)2NH mixture was deoxygenated for 30 min. 4 mg (3 μmol) of Pd(PPh3)4, and 1 mg (5 μmol) of CuI were added and the resulting mixture was stirred at room temperature under argon for 18 h. The reaction solution was poured into 100 mL of acetone. The precipitated solid was collected by vacuum filtration and recrystallized from water, yield 0.09 g (85%). 1H NMR (500 MHz, DMSO-d6) δ 8.04 (br, 4H), 7.71 (br, 4H), 7.36 (br, 2H), 4.33 (br, 4H), 4.19 (br, 4H), 3.95-3.74 (br, 28H), 3.51 (br, 4H), 2.07 (br, 4H), 1.68 (br, 4H), 1.31 (br, 18H), 0.89 (br, 6H). 13C NMR (500 MHz, DMSO-d6) δ 165.11, 152.93, 131.71, 129.72, 129.57, 126.83, 117.56, 113.30, 94.37, 88.56, 66.26, 63.38, 50.57, 50.41, 30.59, 25.16, 21.96, 21.80, 21.27, 14.16, 13.91. ESI MS calcd m/z for [M+2Br]2+ 545.2289. found 545.2295. Compound 14a 1-(3-bromopropoxy)-4-iodo benzene (12) and 1,4-diethynyl benzene (13a), and were prepared according to a literature procedure. (See: Zhao, X. Y.; Pinto, M. R.; Hardison, L. M.; Mwaura, J.; Muller, J.; Jiang, H.; Witker, D.; Kleiman, V. D.; Reynolds, J. R.; Schanze, K. S. Variable band gap poly(arylene ethynylene) conjugated polyelectrolytes. Macromolecules 2006, 39, 6355; Capuano, B.; Crosby, I. T.; McRobb, F. M.; Podloucka, A.; Taylor, D. A.; Vom, A.; Yuriev, E. The Synthesis and Preliminary Pharmacological Evaluation of a Series of Substituted 4′-Phenoxypropyl Analogues of the Atypical Antipsychotic Clozapine, Australian Journal of chemistry 2010, 63, 116). 61 mg (53 μmol) of Pd(PPh3)4 and 10 mg (53 μmol) of CuI were added to a deoxygenated solution of 1.00 g (2.93 mmol) of compound 12 and 0.17 g (1.33 mmol) of compound 13a in 20 mL of CHCl3/(iPr)2NH (v/v=1/1) and stirred at room temperature under argon for 2 days. The solvent was removed and the solid was purified by flash chromatography on silica gel with chloroform to yield a compound 14a (0.60 g, 82%). 1H NMR (500 MHz, CDCl3) δ 7.47 (d, 2H), 6.89 (d, 2H), 4.13 (t, 4H), 3.62 (t, 4H), 2.34 (m, 4H). 13C NMR (500 MHz, CDCl3) δ 158.84, 133.12, 131.33, 123.07, 114.59, 102.96, 91.08, 88.04, 65.37, 32.26, 29.82. EO-OPE-DABCO (Oligomer (B)) A solution of 0.77 g (2.79 mmol) of compound 2 in 6 mL of DMA was added to a solution of 0.56 g (1.02 mml) of compound 14a in 30 mL of DMA and the mixture solution was stirred at 110° C. for 1 day. The reaction solution was poured into 300 mL of acetone. The resulting precipitates was collected by filtration and washed with acetone and chloroform. After drying 1.04 g (0.94 mmol, 92%) was obtained. 1H NMR (500 MHz, DMSO-d6) δ 7.53 (d, 8H), 7.02 (d, 4H), 4.13 (br, 4H), 3.96-3.86 (br, 24H), 3.71 (br, 4H), 3.51 (br, 4H), 2.23 (br, 4H), 1.69 (br, 4H), 1.31 (br, 12H), 0.88 (br, 6H). 13C NMR (500 MHz, DMSO-d6) δ 158.57, 138.04, 133.11, 131.46, 122.46, 117.40, 115.07, 114.39, 91.39, 87.84, 64.67, 63.38, 61.06, 50.56, 50.40, 30.59, 25.18, 21.81, 21.28, 13.82. ESI MS calcd m/z for [M+2Br]2+ 473.2077. found 473.2092. Compound 14b 2,5-Bis((trimethylsilyl)ethynyl)thiophene (13b) was prepared according to a literature procedure. (See: Corbitt, T. S.; Ding, L. P.; Ji, E. Y.; Ista, L. K.; Ogawa, K.; Lopez, G. P.; Schanze, K. S.; Whitten, D. G. Light and dark biocidal activity of cationic poly(arylene ethynylene) conjugated polyelectrolytes. Photochemical & Photobiological Sciences 2009, 8, 998). 0.14 g (0.52 mmol) of compound 13b in 20 mL of CHCl3/(iPr)2NH (v/v=1/1) was deoxygenated for 15 min and followed by the addition of TBAF (5.2 mmol). The solution was stirred at room temperature under argon for 30 min. 0.36 g (1.04 mmol) of compound 12, and 35 mg (50 μmol) of Pd(PPh3)2Cl2 and 10 mg (53 μmol) of CuI were added to the resulting solution and stirred at stirred at room temperature under argon for 3 days. The solvent was removed and the solid was purified by flash chromatography on silica gel with chloroform to yield a compound 14b (0.09 g, 31%). 1H NMR (500 MHz, CDCl3) δ7.45 (d, 2H), 7.11 (s, 1H), 6.82 (m, 4H), 4.14 (t, 4H), 3.75 (t, 4H), 2.25 (m, 4H). 13C NMR (500 MHz, CDCl3) δ 159.05, 134.08, 133.05, 131.38, 124.60, 114.96, 114.61, 93.91, 81.20, 64.35, 41.38, 32.16. EO-OPE1-Th-DABCO (Oligomer (C)) This oligomer was synthesized in the same procedure described for EO-OPE-DABCO using compound 14b (46 mg, 0.08 mmol) and compound 2 (62 mg, 0.22 mmol). Yield: 30 mg, 37%. Due to the limited solubility of this oligomer, only partial aromatic carbon 13C NMR peaks and m/z for [M-C6H13+Br]2+ have been observed. 1H NMR (500 MHz, DMSO-d6) δ 7.52 (m, 4H), 7.34 (s, 2H), 7.01 (d, 4H), 4.13 (br, 4H), 3.91-3.87 (br, 24H), 3.71 (br, 4H), 3.33 (br, 4H), 2.19 (br, 4H), 1.68 (br, 4H), 1.30 (br, 12H), 0.88 (br, 6H). 13C NMR (500 MHz, DMSO-d6) δ 159.79, 134.13, 133.09, 132.60, 115.18, 115.11, 115.04, 79.20, 64.68, 64.58, 63.38, 50.55, 50.39, 31.55, 30.58, 25.17, 21.79, 21.24, 13.81. ESI MS calcd m/z for [M-C6H13+Br]2+ 394.1774. found 394.1760. Absorption and fluorescence spectra were recorded on a Cary 100 UV-Vis spectrophotometer and a Photon Technology International spectrofluorometer, respectively. The optical density of the solutions was adjusted to ˜0.7 at the excitation wavelength (355 nm) with the laser energy set at ˜7 mJ. Solutions were purged with argon for 45 min before making transient absorption spectroscopy measurements. Singlet oxygen quantum yields were measured using a Photon Technology International Quantamaster near-IR spectrophotometer equipped with an InGaAs photodiode detector, optical chopper and a lock in amplifier. See Table 1 and FIGS. 1-3 for results. Transient absorption difference spectra of oligomers were determined for oligomer (A) (initial delay=70 ns, subsequent delay increment=2 μs) and for oligomer (B) in methanol (initial delay=70 ns, subsequent delay increment=2 μs) (OD ˜0.7 at 355 nm and excited with the laser energy of ˜7 mJ in each case), and each showed a steady decrease in the transient difference in optical density. For oligomer (A) the transient difference spectrum was a monotonic curve with a maximum at about 580 nm, and for (B) the transient difference spectrum was a substantially monotonic curve with a maximum at about 560 nm but with a shoulder at about 610 nm. Transient absorption difference spectra of oligomers were determined for oligomer (C) (initial delay=70 ns, subsequent delay increment=1 μs), and for oligomer (D) in methanol (initial delay=70 ns, subsequent delay increment=1 μs) (OD ˜0.7 at 355 nm and excited with the laser energy of ˜7 mJ in each case), and each showed a steady decrease in the transient difference in optical density. For oligomer (C) the transient difference spectrum was a monotonic curve with a maximum at about 500 nm, and for (D) the transient difference spectrum was a substantially monotonic curve with a maximum at about 610 nm but with a shoulder at about 590 nm. Transient absorption difference spectra of oligomer (E) was determined (initial delay=70 ns, subsequent delay increment=2 μs) in methanol (initial delay=70 ns, subsequent delay increment=2 μs) (OD 0.7 at 355 nm and excited with the laser energy of ˜7 mJ), and showed a steady decrease in the transient difference in optical density. The transient difference spectrum was a substantially monotonic curve with a maximum at about 520 nm. Biofilm Growth in the Calgary Biofilm Device Escherichia coli K-12 was obtained from the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC #10798), revived in Luria Broth (LB, Sigma) and stored in LB with 20% (viv) glycerol at −70° C. Stock cultures maintained on agar (2% Difco) plates of LB were used to inoculate 50 mL cultures in liquid LB. E. coli was grown at 37° C. for 18 h. Bacteria were grown as a microbial biofilm using a Calgary Biofilm Device (CBD), commercially available as the MBEC™ assay, featuring 96 pegs protruding down from a microtiter plate lid and fitting into the wells of a standard 96-well microtiter plate. This device allows 96 identical biofilms to grow on the pegs at a time. Biofilms of E. coli were grown in each well using 150 μL of the culture diluted to 1×107 CFU (colony forming unit) following previous calibration. The biofilms were grown at 37° C. for 24 h in a shaker at 150 rpm. Determination of the Minimum Inhibitory Concentration The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) represents the lowest concentration of antimicrobial required to inhibit the visible growth of a planktonic bacterial population. The MIC was determined using the CBD.17, 18, 20 Biofilms were formed on the peg surface of the CBD as described above and then transferred to a 96-well microtiter plate containing 200 μL of saline (0.85% NaCl aqueous solution) and washed for 5 min to remove non-adherent bacteria. The biofilms were transferred to a plate containing 200 μL of LB with a gradient concentration of the OPEs (challenge plate). Each concentration was repeated eight times (one row of the plate). The biofilms were then incubated in the dark at 37° C. for 24 h. To determine the MIC, the growth of bacteria was evaluated in the challenge plate after incubation. The optical density of each well was measured at 600 nm and the MIC was calculated for 90% inhibition of growth compared with biofilms grown in LB only. Determination of Minimum Biofilm Eradication Concentration. The Minimum biofilm eradication concentration (MBEC) is the lowest concentration at which bacteria from a biofilm fail to regrow. The MBEC was also measured using the CBD and detailed procedure has been described elsewhere.17, 18, 20 Biofilms were formed and washed as described above. The biofilms were then transferred to a plate containing saline with a gradient concentration of the OPEs (challenge plate). The samples exposed to light were incubated for 1 h in a LuzChem ORG photoreactor using Hitachi FL8BL-B (λ=300-400 nm) lamps, whereas the samples kept in the dark, were incubated for 24 h in a shaker at 150 rpm. The biofilms were then removed from the challenge plate and washed twice in a plate of saline solution to remove traces of OPEs. The biofilms were placed in a plate containing LB media (recovery plate) and sonicated for 10 min in an ultrasonic cleaner (VWR 97043-964) in order to recover the biofilm in the media solution through vibration. The recovery plate containing the biofilms was incubated in the dark at 37° C. for 24 h. To determine the MBEC, the growth of bacteria was evaluated in the recovery plate after incubation. The optical density of each plate was measured at 600 nm and the MBEC obtained for the concentration that showed clear wells. Bacterial grown in a specific well indicates regrowth of planktonic bacteria from surviving biofilm, while clear wells indicate the eradication of the biofilms and the lack of bacteria regrowth. Efficacy of EO-OPEs in Killing Biofilm Bacteria. Biofilms of E. coli were uniformly formed on the CBD surface after 24 h of incubation (FIG. 8) and examined to determine the biocidal activity of OPEs. To that end, both the MIC and MBEC of each oligomer (A)-(E) were measured against the biofilms of E. coli (see Table 2). The oligomers (A)-(E) tested are oligo-(phenyl-ethynyl) compounds termed OPEs. The MICs were measured for samples kept in the dark. The MBEC was measured in the dark (after 24 h incubation) and under light activation (1 h in an UV reactor). The MIC and MBEC values obtained were also compared to those of kanamycin, a well-known antibiotic commonly used against E. coli. The MBEC of kanamycin was only measured in the dark as it has no light induced activity. The MICs of the end-only OPEs (B)-(E) were lower than that of A with cationic side groups on the center aromatic. It was also observed that the oligomers (B) and (C) with DABCO side group showed significantly lower MIC compared to oligomers (D) and (E) with quaternary ammonium side groups. Note that oligomers (B) and (C) exhibit MIC values in the same range as kanamycin. MBEC measurements showed similar trends with an increased concentration value that confirms the difficulties of completely eradicating the biofilm of E. coli compared to its inhibition. End-only oligomers (B)-(E) were again more efficient in killing biofilms compared to A. After 24 h incubation in the dark, (B) and (D) showed MBEC values around 150-200 μg/mL, five times lower than kanamycin. However (A) and (E) did not exhibit any dark killing of E. coli biofilm in the concentration range (<1000 μg/mL). All of the OPEs exhibited enhanced activity with 1 h near-UV light exposure, with MBEC values decreasing 3-4 times relative to the values for 24 h dark treatment. The MBEC value (light) of E is three fold greater than the other end-only OPEs (B)-(D). The later showed lower concentration (60-70 μg/mL) for the eradication of biofilms when incubated in the light for only an hour. However, despite these differences in MBEC, all end-only OPEs showed killing under light activation in concentration lower than 200 μg/mL. Also, all the biocidal activities of the end-only OPEs (B)-(E) with biofilms of E. coli were greater under light activation than in the dark. Note that OPE (A), which features side groups on the central arylene ring, did not show any killing in the concentration range for both the near-UV light exposure and the dark treatment. When the activity is compared with the structures of the OPEs, it is clear that the DABCO side chains impart an increased activity against the biofilms compared to the quaternary ammonium side chains; the MIC and MBEC (light and dark) of (B) and (C) are always smaller or equal to those measured for (D) and (E). The MIC and MBEC of (A) is always the largest, which demonstrates that even with DABCO side groups its activity is lowered when the groups were attached to the center aromatic. When related to the formation of singlet oxygen, the correlation with the biocidal activity is more complex. Thus while (E) has the largest quantum yield for singlet oxygen generation, it has the smallest efficacy against biofilm of E. coli in the series of end-only OPEs. This result shows that not only the formation of singlet oxygen is necessary for light activated biocidal activity but also the oligomer structure and geometry play an important role. We have concluded in a previous study that the mechanism for light-activated bacterial killing includes both interaction with the membrane and outer envelope of the bacteria as well as the formation of singlet oxygen when the OPEs are in close proximity or attached to the bacteria.16 The increase in the MBEC (light) for (E) despite its higher quantum yield could be attributed to its non-linear shape (thienylene ring on the center aromatic) combined with the lower activity ascribed to the quaternary ammonium side group (FIG. 4). DOCUMENTS CITED (1) Lindsay, D.; von Holy, A. Bacterial biofilms within the clinical setting: what healthcare professionals should know, Journal of Hospital Infection 2006, 64, 313. (2) Donlan, R. M. Biofilms: Microbial life on surfaces, Emerging Infectious Diseases 2002, 8, 881. (3) Costerton, J. W.; Ellis, B.; Lam, K.; Johnson, F.; Khoury, A. E. Mechanism of Electrical Enhancement of Efficacy of Antibiotics in Killing Biofilm Bacteria, Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy 1994, 38, 2803. (4) Potera, C. Microbiology—Forging a link between biofilms and disease, Science 1999, 283, 1837. (5) Antoci, V.; King, S. B.; Jose, B.; Parvizi, J.; Zeiger, A. R.; Wickstrom, E.; Freeman, T. A.; Cornposto, R. J.; Ducheyne, P.; Shapiro, I. M.; Hickok, N. J.; Adams, C. S. Vancomycin covalently bonded to titanium alloy prevents bacterial colonization, Journal of Orthopaedic Research 2007, 25, 858. (6) Zhang, L. H.; Dong, Y. H. 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All patents and publications referred to herein are incorporated by reference herein to the same extent as if each individual publication was specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by reference in its entirety. The terms and expressions which have been employed are used as terms of description and not of limitation, and there is no intention that in the use of such terms and expressions of excluding any equivalents of the features shown and described or portions thereof, but it is recognized that various modifications are possible within the scope of the invention claimed. Thus, it should be understood that although the present invention has been specifically disclosed by preferred embodiments and optional features, modification and variation of the concepts herein disclosed may be resorted to by those skilled in the art, and that such modifications and variations are considered to be within the scope of this invention as defined by the appended claims. 1. A method of making an antimicrobial fiber for a woven or non-woven fabric, the fiber comprising a biocidal oligomer wherein the biocidal oligomer has the structure: wherein Z− is an anion, k=1-6, and n=1-100; the method comprising contacting a fiber-forming polymer and an effective amount of the biocidal oligomer; and, spinning a fiber from the fiber-forming polymer, to provide a fiber comprising the polymer and the biocidal oligomer. 2. The method of claim 1 wherein the spinning comprises a step of any one of meltblowing, melt spinning, dry spinning, wet spinning, gel spinning, single head electrospinning, multihead electrospinning, or flash spinning; the method optionally further comprising a step to orient the fibers, stretch the fibers, or both. 3. The method of claim 1, further comprising accumulating the fiber after spinning into a nonwoven mat. 4. The method of claim 1 wherein the polymer and the biocidal oligomer can react to form a covalently coupled biocidal oligomer-polymer composition. 5. The method of claim 1 wherein the polymer is polyester, a polyvinyl alcohol, a polyethylene oxide, a polyolefin, a cellulosic, a chitosan, an alginate, or a gelatin, or any mixture or blend thereof. 6. The method of claim 1 wherein the polymer comprises an azido group, and the biocidal oligomer and the polymer are mutually covalently reacted using click chemistry. 7. The method of claim 1 wherein e spun fiber comprising the biocidal oligomer possesses greater biocidal properties versus microorganisms in the presence of oxygen than does a comparable spun fiber lacking the biocidal oligomer. 8. The method of claim 1 wherein the biocidal properties of the spun fiber versus microorganisms in the presence of oxygen is increased under illumination by visible or ultraviolet light. 9. The method of claim 1, wherein the fiber-forming polymer and the biocidal oligomer are contacted prior to spinning a fiber from the fiber-forming polymer. 10. The method of claim 1, wherein the fiber-forming polymer and the biocidal oligomer are contacted subsequent to spinning a fiber from the fiber-forming polymer. 11. A fiber prepared by the method of claim 1. 12. A non-woven mat comprising the fiber of claim 11. 13. A surgical or wound dressing, a personal hygiene product, or a garment comprising the mat of claim 12. 14. A woven cloth comprising the fiber of claim 11. 15. 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Schanze (Gainesville, FL), Eunkyung Ji (Ervy le Chatel), Dimitri Dascier (Ervy le Chatel), Anand Parthasarathy (Gainsville, FL), Thomas S. Corbitt (Albuquerque, NM), Kirsten Cicotte (Albuquerque, NM), Elizabeth LeBleu Dirk (Albuquerque, NM), Xuzhi Zhu (Gainsville, FL) Primary Examiner: Timothy Thomas Assistant Examiner: Andrew S Rosenthal Current U.S. Class: Coating Or Impregnation Functions Biologically (e.g., Insect Repellent, Antiseptic, Insecticide, Bactericide, Etc.) (442/123) International Classification: A01N 25/34 (20060101); A61L 15/46 (20060101); A01N 33/12 (20060101); A01N 43/10 (20060101); A01N 43/90 (20060101); A01N 37/10 (20060101);	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line699
__label__wiki	0.899875	0.899875	Controversial clues of two 'Goldilocks planets' that might support life are proven false by Pennsylvania State University This image shows the location of the six candidate planets that were believed to orbit the red dwarf star Gliese as of 2010. Blue indicates candidate planets in the habitable zone where conditions might be able to support life, orange indicates detections in the too-hot region that is too close to the star, green indicates detections in the too-cold region farther away from the star. Credit: NASA/Penn State University Mysteries about controversial signals coming from a dwarf star considered to be a prime target in the search for extraterrestrial life now have been solved in research led by scientists at Penn State University. The scientists have proven, for the first time, that some of the signals, which were suspected to be coming from two planets orbiting the star at a distance where liquid water could potentially exist, actually are coming from events inside the star itself, not from so-called "Goldilocks planets" where conditions are just right for supporting life. The study will be published by the journal Science in its online Science Express issue on July 3, 2014 and in a future print edition of the journal. "This result is exciting because it explains, for the first time, all the previous and somewhat conflicting observations of the intriguing dwarf star Gliese 581, a faint star with less mass than our Sun that is just 20 light years from Earth," said lead author Paul Robertson, a postdoctoral fellow at Penn State who is affiliated with Penn State's Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds. As a result of this research, the planets now confirmed to be orbiting this dwarf star total exactly three. "We also have proven that some of the other controversial signals are not coming from two additional proposed Goldilocks planets in the star's habitable zone, but instead are coming from activity within the star itself," said Suvrath Mahadevan, an assistant professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State and a coauthor of the research paper. None of the three remaining planets, whose existence the research confirms, are solidly inside this star system's habitable zone, where liquid water could exist on a rocky planet like Earth. Astronomers search for exoplanets by measuring shifts in the pattern of a star's spectrum—the different wavelengths of radiation that it emits as light. These "Doppler shifts" can result from subtle changes in the star's velocity caused by the gravitational tugs of orbiting planets. But Doppler shifts of a star's "absorption lines" also can result from magnetic events like sunspots originating within the star itself—giving false clues of a planet that does not actually exist. "In the search for low-mass planets," Mahadevan said, "accounting for the subtle signature of a magnetics events in the star is as important as obtaining the highest possible Doppler precision." This image shows the location of the three planets remaining in 2014 after a series of studies since 2004. Research published in 2014, led by Penn State astronomers, shows that two of the signals previously attributed to planets in the habitable zone are actually created by activity within the star itself. The outer (green) planet shown in a companion image dated 2010 also is believed not to exist, based on work by other researchers since 2010. Blue indicates candidate planets in the habitable zone where conditions might be able to support life, orange indicates detections in the too-hot region that is too close to the star. Credit: NASA/Penn State University The research team made its discovery by analyzing Doppler shifts in existing spectroscopic observations of the star Gliese 581 obtained with the ESO HARPS and Keck HIRES spectrographs. The Doppler shifts that the scientists focused on were the ones most sensitive to magnetic activity. Using careful analyses and techniques, they boosted the signals of the three innermost planets around the star, but "the signals attributed to the existence of the two controversial planets disappeared, becoming indistinguishable from measurement noise," Mahadevan said. "The disappearance of these two signals after correcting for the star's activity indicates that these signals in the original data must have been produced by the activity and rotation of the star itself, not by the presence of these two suspected planets. This animation shows planets believed to orbit the red dwarf star Gliese 581. These detections, made with the Doppler technique, were published in scientific papers from 2004 to 2014 and put some of the claimed planets in or near the star's habitable zone, where it might be possible for life as we know it to exist. Credit: This animation was adapted from a d3 visualization by Mike Bostok "Our improved detection of the real planets in this system gives us confidence that we are now beginning to sufficiently eliminate Doppler signals from stellar activity to discover new, habitable exoplanets, even when they are hidden beneath stellar noise, said Robertson. "While it is unfortunate to find that two such promising planets do not exist, we feel that the results of this study will ultimately lead to more Earth-like planets." The Sun, imaged through calcium K (blue) and hydrogen alpha (red) filters. Prominences are shown inverted for visibility. The calcium line is commonly used as a proxy for stellar activity. However, for red dwarf stars such as Gliese 581, redder lines such as hydrogen alpha may detect stellar signals not easily seen in calcium. In the case of Gliese 581, the hydrogen line reveals that the signals previously attributed to two planets in the Habitable Zone are actually caused by stellar activity. Credit: Alan Friedman Older stars such as Gliese 581, an "M dwarf" star in the constellation Libra about one-third the mass of our Sun, have until now been considered highly attractive targets in the search for extraterrestrial life because they are generally less active and so are better targets for Doppler observations. "The new result from our research highlights a source of astrophysical noise even with old M dwarfs because the harmonics of the star's rotation can be in the same range as that of its habitable zone, raising the risk of false detections of nonexistent planets," Mahadevan said. "Higher-precision analysis for discovering Earth-like planets using spectrographs will be increasingly more necessary as next-generation spectrographs with the higher Doppler precision needed for detecting important subtle signatures come on line this decade—like the Habitable Zone Planet Finder (HPF) that our team now is developing at Penn State." In addition to Mahadevan and Robertson, other coauthors of the research include Penn State Graduate Student Arpita Roy and McDonald Observatory Research Scientist Michael Endl at the University of Texas. Penn State coauthors have affiliations with the Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds and with the Astrobiology Research Consortium, both at Penn State. More information: Stellar activity masquerading as planets in the habitable zone of the M dwarf Gliese 581," by P. Robertson et al. Science, 2014. www.sciencemag.org/lookup/doi/ … 1126/science.1253253 Additional information about this research and about the Habitable Zone Planet Finder Spectrograph is online at hpf.psu.edu Journal information: Science , Science Express Provided by Pennsylvania State University Introducing Earth's bigger, older brother: planet Kapteyn b (w/ Video) Nearby super-Earth is best habitable candidate so far, astronomers say Two planets orbit nearby ancient star Every red dwarf star has at least one planet Three planets in habitable zone of nearby star (w/ video) Red dwarf planets face hostile space weather within habitable zone Astronomers document the rise and fall of a rarely observed stellar dance Project maps 'astronomical' number of celestial objects Shining a new light on dark energy Building a giant 2-D map of the universe to prepare for the largest 3-D map New videos show RNA as it's never been seen	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line704
__label__wiki	0.589298	0.589298	Mysteries of physics> Mysteries of physics summary Post category:Mysteries of physics Here’s my summary of my feedback to the 18 biggest unsolved mysteries in physics by Natalie Wolchover and Jesse Emspak: Mysteries of physics part1 What is dark energy? Think of the universe expanding because space has an innate pressure, like a squeezed-down stress ball. Then think of a bubble-gum balloon in vacuum. As it expands the skin gets thinner and weaker, and less able to resist the further expansion. So it expands further, so the skin gets even thinner and weaker, and so on. So the expansion speeds up. Dark energy is both the innate cosmic pressure of space, and the reducing tensile strength of space. Mystery solved. What is dark matter? Space is dark, it has its vacuum energy, and there’s a lot of it about. When it’s inhomogeneous, the extra vacuum energy has a mass-equivalence and a gravitational effect. So dark matter is just the extra vacuum energy in denser space. Mystery solved. Why is there an arrow of time? There isn’t really an arrow of time. It’s an arrow of motion, and motion is motion whichever way it goes. So the answer to the question is because things happen. Mystery solved. Are there parallel universes? No. There are flip-side flat-Earthers instead: the story goes that in days of old, people could not conceive of a world that was curved. They could only conceive of a world with an edge. Nowadays we have cosmologists who cannot conceive of a world that is not curved. They cannot conceive of a world with an edge. Mystery solved. Why is there more matter than antimatter? There isn’t. The electron is matter, the proton is antimatter, so the antimatter is hiding in plain sight. So truth be told and by and large, you are made of it. Mystery solved. What is the fate of the universe? I have a hunch the Big Rip could be the winner, because the universe can be likened to a bubble-gum balloon in vacuum. As the balloon expands, the skin gets thinner and weaker, and less able to resist the expansion. So it expands further, so the skin gets weaker. Bubblegum balloons sometimes end badly. But I don’t know that a big rip will occur, or what would happen then. So what is the fate of the universe? Pass. Mystery NOT solved. How do measurements collapse quantum wavefunctions? In the double slit experiment, the electron goes through both slits, because it’s the wave nature of matter. But when you detect the electron at the screen, you perform something akin to an optical Fourier transform on it, converting it into something pointlike. Then when you detect the electron at one of the slits, you perform something akin to an optical Fourier transform on it, so you convert it into something pointlike. So it goes through that slit only. So the interference patterns disappears. Measurements collapse quantum wavefunctions because waves in space do what they say on the tin. They make other waves in space change direction. Just like a lens. Mystery solved. Is string theory correct? No way is this a mystery of physics, because string theory isn’t physics. It’s somewhere between pseudoscience and cargo-cult science, neither of which are science. So is string theory correct? No. It’s not even wrong. Mystery solved. Is there order in chaos? I don’t think this ought to count as a mystery of physics. People wonder about things like dark energy and antimatter, not about order and chaos. But to answer the question, yes there is order in chaos. A complex thing like an atmosphere does what it does for all sorts of reasons, but they are deterministic. The sun shines so water evaporates. Air gets warm so it rises, and so on. Mystery solved. Do the universe’s forces merge into one? No. When you understand how gravity works and the screw nature of electromagnetism you know those forces are never going to merge into one. Yes, when you know about electron capture you know that free neutron decay is the jumping popper of particle physics, and that the nuclear force is electromagnetic. And yes, you can reason that the strong force of the bag model is related to the elastic quality of space that keeps a photon propagating at c. But when you understand the forces, you know that physicists are winging it when they say “if you turn up the energy enough three of those forces unify and become a single force”. So no, the universe’s forces don’t merge into one. Mystery solved. What happens inside a black hole? Nothing. A black hole is a place where gravitational time dilation is infinite and the speed of light is zero. Nothing can move faster than light. So nothing moves. So nothing happens. So that’s that. Mystery solved. Do naked singularities exist? No, because a black hole does not contain an “infinitely teensy and dense point called a singularity”. That’s a mainstream myth that grew out of Penrose and Hawking singularity theorems. Penrose and Hawking didn’t understand the first thing about gravity, so they didn’t understand the first thing about black holes. They didn’t understand that at the event horizon, the speed of light is zero, and it can’t go lower than that. So there’s no more gravity, and no more motion. So no, naked singularities don’t exist. Mystery solved. Violating charge-parity symmetry Parity is all about flipping one spatial dimension, like in a mirror. But a positron isn’t a mirror image of an electron, you have to reverse the spin ½ motion too. Only then do you have the opposite chirality. But non-conservation of parity was a big deal in 1956 because they didn’t understand beta decay, and they didn’t think it would exhibit chirality like a current loop. Then Lev Landau patched over the ignorance with CP symmetry. However with no understanding of what charge is or how a magnet works, physicists clung to their precious mathematical symmetry, and then expressed more surprise when they stumbled across CP violation. But it’s no big deal if you know about the asymmetric Kerr metric as a source of CP violation. Or about the magnets in Evidence for the 2π Decay of the K₂⁰ Meson. It ain’t no biggie if you know how a magnet works. Mystery solved. When sound waves make light I don’t think Sonoluminescence ought to count as a mystery of physics. It feels like it just isn’t in the same league as the other mysteries. It also feels like it’s a cousin of triboluminescence. One of the proposed mechanisms for sonoluminescence involves ionization and bremsstrahlung radiation, and since I don’t light up the room when I pour myself a beer, that’s good enough for me. Mystery solved? No. This is a pass. What lies beyond the Standard Model? Nothing. Because it’s dripping with errors and omissions. It doesn’t tell you what a photon is, or how pair production works. Instead it tells you an electron is a point particle when it isn’t, and that it’s an excitation of the electron field when it isn’t. It doesn’t tell you what happens in electron capture, or what charge is, or how electromagnetism works. Or why electrons and positrons spiral in opposite directions in a magnetic field. Nor does it explain why particles have mass. It doesn’t explain how the nuclear force works, or how gravity works, and it doesn’t even explain how a magnet works. Or what energy is. Yes, it’s “difficult to see where physics might go beyond it” because particle physicists have painted themselves into a corner with the Standard Model. They can not see that the Standard Model is going nowhere, and that we need to scrap it and start again. Mystery solved. The speed of light is not constant. The fine structure constant is a running constant. Mass ratios must surely be related to some kind of spherical or toroidal harmonics where all components of wave motion mesh like gears. But as to how derive precise numbers in a rock-solid fashion, that’s one for a rainy day. Mystery NOT solved. What the heck is gravity, anyway? It’s easy to explain how gravity works. A gravitational field is present when a concentration of energy in the guise of a massive star “conditions” the surrounding space, this effect diminishing with distance. As a result space is neither homogeneous nor isotropic, so the speed of light is spatially variable. There’s a gradient in the speed of light, so light curves like any wave curves when there’s a gradient in wave speed. Then matter falls down because of the wave nature of matter. Think in terms of light going round a square path, wherein the horizontals curve downwards. Mystery solved. Do we live in a false vacuum? Claiming that bubble nucleation would occur is inflation talk, and I’m afraid to say that inflation is a solution to problems that do not exist. Not only that, but Guth’s model didn’t work because it had bubbles forming in a supercooled environment, which is the exact opposite of boiling. On top of that, the Higgs mechanism contradicts E=mc², and as Gian Giudice said, it accounts for only 1 per cent of the mass of ordinary matter. So the Mexican hat cuts no ice. But OK, maybe the Big Bang was the result of an accident with a particle accelerator. I can’t prove it wasn’t. And maybe the fate of the universe is the Big Rip. That could be likened to a false vacuum being destroyed. But I can’t prove it either way. So as per What is the fate of the universe? I’m going to have to pass on this one. Mystery NOT solved. What is dark energy? Spatial pressure and reducing tension. Mystery solved. What is dark matter? The extra vacuum energy in denser space. Mystery solved. Why is there an arrow of time? Because things happen. Mystery solved. Are there parallel universes? No. Mystery solved. Why is there more matter than antimatter? There isn’t. Mystery solved. What is the fate of the universe? Pass. Mystery NOT solved. How do measurements collapse quantum wavefunctions? Lensing. Mystery solved. Is string theory correct? No. Mystery solved. Is there order in chaos? Yes. Mystery solved. Do the universe’s forces merge into one? No. Mystery solved. What happens inside a black hole? Nothing. Mystery solved. Do naked singularities exist? No. Mystery solved. Violating charge-parity symmetry It ain’t no biggie if you know how a magnet works. Mystery solved. When sound waves make light Pass. Mystery NOT solved. What lies beyond the Standard Model? Nothing. Mystery solved. Fundamental constants Aren’t always constant, but mystery NOT solved. What the heck is gravity, anyway? Motion resulting from Inhomogeneous space. Mystery solved. Do we live in a false vacuum? Pass. Mystery NOT solved. That’s fourteen out of eighteen. That’ll do pig. Tags: Mysteries of Physics, Secrets of the Universe	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line705
__label__cc	0.670384	0.329616	Relationship Between Aphid Infestation and Chlorophyll Content in Fabaceae Species Series botanica Goławska, Sylwia, Krzyżanowski, Robert, Łukasik, Iwona Acyrthosiphon pisum, Medicago sativa, Pisum sativum, Trifolium pratense, Vicia faba, chlorophyll, leaves We determined the chlorophyll a and b levels (SPAD readings) in uninfested leaves and in leaves after 7 and 17 days of aphid infestation in four Fabaceae species (Pisum sativum L., Vicia faba L., Trifolium pretense L, Medicago sativa L.). Feeding by pea aphids Acyrthosiphon pisum Harris (Hemiptera: Aphididae) caused significant loss of chlorophyll a and b in the infested plants. Uninfested leaves on both short- and long-infestation plants had significantly higher chlorophyll a and b than infested leaves. DOI: 10.2478/v10182-010-0026-4 Find in a library http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/v10182-010-0026-4 Download RIS File Export to Zotero	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line710
__label__wiki	0.838862	0.838862	Pierre Gasly Kamui Kobayashi Daniil Kvyat Sports Automobile racing Formula One Yuki Tsunoda joins AlphaTauri to replace Daniil Kvyat - Dec. 16, 2020 05:09 AM EST FAENZA, Italy (AP) — Japan will have a driver in Formula One for the first time in seven years after AlphaTauri confirmed Wednesday that Yuki Tsunoda will replace Daniil Kvyat at the team in 2021. Tsunoda steps up to F1 after placing third in Formula Two last season with three race wins. He won the F2 rookie of the year award as the highest-scoring driver in his first season. The 20-year-old Tsunoda will be the first F1 driver to be born in the 21st century. He will partner Pierre Gasly at AlphaTauri, which is Red Bull's second team with a focus on developing talented drivers who can represent the main team. “Red Bull has been following Yuki’s career for a while now and I am sure he will be a great asset to our team," AlphaTauri team principal Franz Tost said. “Watching him in Formula 2 this year, he has demonstrated the right mix of racing aggression and good technical understanding.” Tsunoda drove this year's AlphaTauri car during testing in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, placing fifth-fastest of 15 runners. The last Japanese driver in F1 was Kamui Kobayashi, who raced for Toyota, Sauber and Caterham before leaving at the end of the 2014 season. Kvyat is without an F1 drive for 2021. The Russian has spent six seasons in F1 with AlphaTauri and Red Bull.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line714
__label__wiki	0.74876	0.74876	‘The Fault in Our Stars’ Deleted Scene: Hazel’s Airport Struggle [VIDEO] MTV has premiered a deleted scene from the DVD and Blu-ray edition of 'The Fault in Our Stars,' which hit stores today, Sept. 16. In the clip, we see a glimpse of Hazel (Shailene Woodley) on her way to Amsterdamn along with her mother (Laura Dern) and new love, Augustus Waters (Ansel Elgort). While going through airport security, she removes her oxygen mask before going through the metal detectors, a task which proves difficult given her state. The movie, which was based on the best-selling John Green novel, tells the story of a young teenager afflicted with cancer, Hazel, who meets and falls in love with a boy named Augustus at a support group for cancer patients. The two embark on a trip to Amsterdam in an effort to track down Hazel's favorite author, Peter van Houten, to get an answer regarding Hazel's favorite book. In the process, the two learns what it means to live and love. Click on the video above to check out the deleted scene from 'The Fault in Our Stars.' Next: See 10 Things You Might Not Know About 'The Fault in Our Stars' Next: Ansel Elgort Splits From High School Girlfriend Filed Under: Shailene Woodley, The Fault In Our Stars Categories: Celebrity News, Movie News, News, Videos	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line715
__label__cc	0.741951	0.258049	The Poetry of Computer Science In which we speak of the science of computing in a most poetical manner The Ballad of Leftpad: Or, Batteries Not Included Posted on April 15, 2016 by tsleyson By now, you’ve probably heard about the leftpad debacle. If not, let me be the first to explain it. Some guy wrote an 11-line Javascript function that appends padding characters to the left of a string (if you need them on the right, you’re outta luck), and for some reason he published it on NPM. Then a bunch of people, including the React team at Facebook apparently, used it as a dependency in their projects. Then the guy who wrote leftpad got mad, ragequit NPM, and took down his package. This broke Node and Javascript projects all across Silicon Valley, and since some of those projects were making money, and their making money was inexorably tied to their not being broken, this was not very good at all. I read a blog post about this incident in which the author wondered if we’d all forgotten how to program and couldn’t have written this function ourselves. A bunch of commenters responded that you shouldn’t have to write this function yourself and it was right of these projects to include an 11-line dependency, and everyone argued. I happen to feel that both sides of this argument are wrong. Of course you don’t want to include a dependency for this stupid little crap function. And of course you don’t want to write it yourself, even if you’re perfectly capable of doing so. Something like this really belongs in the language’s standard library. Languages used to come with these things called standard libraries. Remember those? You didn’t have to include them in a package file or download them from a repository somewhere. They were just there. If you had the language, you had all these libraries. They could do simple things like left-padding a string, or joining the elements of a list, or even right-padding a string, that you could have done yourself. They could also do more complicated things, like converting between character encodings, or parsing CSV files, or making HTTP calls, or creating threads. Sometimes they even had these things called data structures, for storing data. Presumably most of these people arguing in favor of leftpad were Javascript programmers. Javascript kind of has a standard library, but not really. It’s really spotty; compared with Python, Java, or C#, it’s missing a lot. Even when the library gets expanded, you have to wait for Safari and Edge to implement that part of it before you can use it. God forbid you need to support IE, even the reasonably standards-compliant IE10 and 11. So Javascript programmers will often use polyfills, which are NPM packages that implement whatever the browser is missing. AKA, dependencies. In the old days, the old days being approximately four years ago, there was no NPM; people would link in CDNs or just copy and paste the code into their current project. In that cultural context, you can see why Javascript programmers would argue in favor of leftpad: it kind of is the sort of thing you shouldn’t have to write yourself, even if you’re capable of doing so, but if you’re not going to write it yourself, you’ve got to get it from somewhere, and getting it from NPM sure is nicer than copying it off someone’s blog and pasting it into your codebase. On the other hand, I have a lot of sympathy for this comment from the blog: Prior to the emergence of jQuery, JavaScript development was [a] mess. Polyfills for different browsers and other abominations [were] all copy-pasted from project to project. It was a toy language that could be hacked into doing cool things (Google Maps and Gmail). The idea that a layer of abstraction that [sic] could hide browser complexity was a revelation. This idea took hold and grew till we got to the sitation [sic] where we are now. Simultaneously the “one language to rule them all” cargo cult and SPA trends emerged and JS ended up being in the right place, at the right time with the right toolsets. Any edge cases and incompatible language implementations -including incorrect or missing operators(!) can be abstracted away and incorporated into the package and shared. I personally think that modules are a good way of working around the rickety mess that is JavaScript development. Perhaps the real answer it [sic] to stop fetishising a 20-year-old language that was thrown together in a week, and make a concerted effort to standardize on something better. Javascript is not a great language. It’s definitely better than PHP, or COBOL. I’m gonna say it’s nicer to use than C++, too. It’s an okay language, and Brendan Eich making it as good as it is, given the constraints he was under, is a laudable achievement. But it’s not a great language, and there’s a ton of over-the-top love for it going around these days that doesn’t seem justified. But it’s what we’ve got, and we’re probably stuck with it; if it’s this hard and takes this long to get ES6, I can’t imagine a switch to a completely new language happening anytime this century. And lots of people have worked hard to make it better, and they’ve mostly done a good job. However, despite these efforts, the Javascript ecosystem is definitely not first-class. I recently converted a project at work from Gulp to Webpack. The experience was not pleasant. It was a side project that I mostly pursued nights and weekends, and it took me over two months to finish, because Webpack is horribly complex. At the end of the day, there were still things I wasn’t satisfied with, things I had to hack in weird ways to make them work. And after those two and half months of work, I could create modules. Webpack can do more, but I wasn’t doing more; I was doing what Python does right out of the box, effortlessly. While I appreciate the engineering effort it must have taken to create Webpack, I can’t call something a great tool if it makes basic shit like creating modules that difficult. I’m not saying these things to insult Javascript or Javascript programmers. I’m telling you guys not to settle for less. And definitely don’t create a philosophy around settling for less. Don’t create a philosophy that it’s okay not to have a standard library because you can just include a million little dependencies from NPM. That’s silly. It’s like Java needing to download the BigInteger class from Maven Central. Javascript programmers deserve a first-class standard library, just like Python and Java and Ruby and C# have. You haven’t got one right now; you’ve got a bunch of tiny packages on NPM, of questionable quality, that some guy can pull whenever he feels like it. If you own the deficiencies of your ecosystem instead of arguing that they aren’t problems, you’ll be further on your way to fixing them.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0011.json.gz/line716

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