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__label__cc	0.636004	0.363996	Revisiting Firestarter by Richard Chizmar June 19, 2015 Richard Chizmar Richard's Essays I first read FIRESTARTER the summer after I graduated from high school. I still have my old paperback edition sitting on the bookshelf. Here is what I remember: * I read the novel over a two day period, sitting alone on the 4th Street beach in Ocean City, Maryland. I took occasional breaks to swim and eat and probably nodded off a couple times — the warmth of the sun and the sound of the surf have that effect on me — but other than that, the book never left my hands. * At some point on the second day, I remember looking off to the side and noticing an older woman reading a shiny hardcover edition of THE DEAD ZONE. She was glistening with sunscreen and a trio of hyper little kids were running circles around her, hooting and throwing sand at each other. I remember thinking she was crazy to read a hardcover on the beach. During the many beach summers to come, I saw dozens of other readers with Stephen King books in their hands, and it always made me smile. Still does. * As I got deeper into FIRESTARTER, I grew to love Charlie McGee like a little sister. I was maybe ten years older than her, and it was her character I most closely identified with. I wanted to hide and protect her. I wanted to save her. I wanted to make her smile. Of course, I was powerless to do anything of the sort; all I could do was keep flipping the pages. * I have always been a big fan of Mark Twain and particularly THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER (in fact, my oldest son’s middle name came very close to being “Sawyer”). When I was younger, I suffered through many troubled nights because of nightmares featuring Twain’s larger-than-life villain, Injun Joe. The guy terrified me, and the moment I met FIRESTARTER’S John Rainbird, all those feelings came back to me and I still remember sitting there with my toes in the sand and seagulls calling overhead, thinking: It’s Injun Joe! It’s Injun Joe! Rainbird stood two inches shy of seven feet tall, and he wore his glossy hair drawn back and tied in a curt ponytail. Ten years before, a Claymore had blown up in his face during his second tour of Vietnam, and now his countenance was a horrorshow of scar tissue with runneled flesh. His left eye was gone. Didn’t I tell you?!? It’s Injun Joe! Injun Joe! * One final note: I liked FIRESTARTER when I first read it, but I didn’t love it. It was wonderfully written and entertaining as hell, but it was also relentlessly and uncompromisingly dark, and there were very few breaks from Charlie and Andy’s pain and suffering and worry. It wore on me. I recognized and very much appreciated the underlying theme of the novel (our post-Vietnam distrust of our Government and what they were capable of doing to our youth or anyone else who got in their way), but this was one of those rare instances where I needed just a glimmer of hope and sunshine to sneak through to warm my soul. THIS IS NOW… The more things change, the more they stay the same. That old chestnut of a cliché pretty much sums up my overall feelings regarding my re-read of FIRESTARTER — with one big exception. It’s been three decades (gasp!) since my initial reading, and after all those years, one major thing hasn’t stayed the same. My primary role in life. I am now a father of two young boys, a sixteen- and twelve-year-old, and that has become my most important job (and joy). So, when I sat down and read FIRESTARTER this time around, it wasn’t Charlie I most closely identified with; it was Andy, her devoted father. And, because of that, the novel hit me even harder than it did the first time. Ain’t that a sonofabitch? To put a finer point on it, I not only felt Andy’s utter exhaustion and crippling headaches and moral dilemma in asking Charlie to use her powers against other human beings; I also felt his sense of hopelessness and responsibility. I knew now that as a father it was his (and my) job to keep Charlie safe, his (and my) job to find a way out of this mess. I also knew none of that was going to happen. The book still felt suffocatingly dark and grim to me, but I appreciated the story in a way that I couldn’t before as an eighteen year old with a full life ahead of him relaxing on the beach. I was older and wiser now. I understood that what our Government had done in this book (in the name of National Security) had probably occurred — in different ways — thousands of times over in real life. We no longer merely feared that Big Brother was watching us — we knew it. We were living it. It’s been thirty years, but I still love Charlie McGee, and in my dreams, she is finally happy and safe and living the life she deserved. I still think John Rainbird is the second coming of Injun Joe, and I am still afraid of him. I still have nightmares. About Injun Joe, and many other things. SCARIEST SCENE… It’s not by accident that “The Incident at the Manders Farm” comes at exactly the 20% mark of the novel. If the book were a script, it would be referred to as Plot Point One and its timing would be spot-on perfect. We spend the first fifth of the book getting to know Charlie in a completely sympathetic manner. We learn that she is a sweet little girl with a loving father and a world of trouble following them. By page 80, we already care deeply about her and can’t help but wonder what all the fuss is about — she’s just a little girl after all. But once the story reaches the Manders Farm, we see firsthand what all the fuss is about; we see what sweet Charlie McGee is capable of — and it’s terrifying. Charlie was looking down at Al Steinowitz, and suddenly the cold, confident look was gone from Al’s face and he was in terror. His yellow complexion grew positively cheesy. “No, don’t,” he said in an almost conversational tone of voice. “Don’t–“ It was impossible to tell where the flames began. Suddenly his pants and his sportcoat were blazing. His hair was a burning bush. He backed up, screaming, bounced off the side of his car, and half-turned to Norville Bates, his arms stretched out. Andy felt that soft rush of heat again, a displacement of air, as if a hot slug thrown at rocket-speed had just passed his nose. Al Steinowitz’s face caught on fire. “Get out,” Andy said hoarsely. “Get out quickly. She’s never done anything like this before and I don’t know if she can stop.” “I’m all right, Daddy,” Charlie said. Her voice was calm, collected, and strangely indifferent. “Everything’s okay.” And that was when the cars began to explode. A gun boomed, deafeningly loud, and a splinter of wood perhaps eight inches long jumped from one of the porch’s support posts. Norma Manders screamed, and Andy flinched. But Charlie seemed not to notice. Her face was dreamy and thoughtful. A small Mona Lisa smile had touches the corners of her mouth. She’s enjoying this, Andy thought with something like horror. Is that why she’s so afraid of it? Because she likes it? Al’s light-green Plymouth went first, exploding with a muffled whrrr-rump! sound. A ball of flame rose from the back of the Plymouth, too bright to look at. The rear window blew in. The Ford John and Ray had come in went next, barely two seconds later. Hooks of metal whickered through the air and pattered on the roof. “Charlie!” Andy shouted. “Charlie, stop it!” She said in that same calm voice. “I can’t.” The third car went up. These are just four snippets of a much lengthier and horrific scene, but I have never forgotten them. FAVORITE SCENE… This is a tough one for me. As I mentioned before, FIRESTARTER is a dark and uncompromising book. Not a whole lotta laughs or smiles for this reader. But if I had to pick just one scene that did put a smile on my face, it would be the final scene of the book when Charlie walks into the offices of ROLLING STONE magazine: “I need to see someone who writes for your magazine,” Charlie said. Her voice was low, but it was clear and firm. “I have a story I want to tell. And something to show.” “Just like show-and-tell in school, huh?” the receptionist asked. Charlie smiled. It was the smile that had so dazzled the librarian. “Yes,” she said. “I’ve been waiting for a long time.” It’s not my favorite line in the book, but what a perfect sentence to end Charlie’s story with: I’ve been waiting for a long time. FAVORITE LINE… God loves to make a man break a vow. This line comes at about the halfway point of the novel when Andy is remembering Granther’s reply to him on that long ago day Andy shot the squirrel and swore to never kill anything again: Never say that, Andy. God loves to make a man break a vow. It keeps him properly humble about his place in the world and his sense of self-control. Andy is thinking about Charlie and her own promise to never start another fire. He’s thinking God loves to make a man break a vow…and praying it isn’t true. SCENE THAT STILL MAKES ME CRINGE… Most of the scenes between Charlie and John Rainbird make me cringe — but there is one scene that comes earlier in the book that still hurts to read, even after all these years. It’s a quiet — but emotionally powerful — moment that occurs in the aftermath of the grisly fight at the Manders Farm. Irv and Norma Manders have just witnessed Charlie’s powers for the first time and this is Norma’s response: Andy took a step toward them and Norma Manders flinched backward, at the same time placing her body over her husband’s. She looked up at Andy with shiny, hard eyes. “Get away,” she hissed. “Take your monster and get away.” Once things calm down a bit, Norma apologizes to both Charlie and Andy, but for this reader, the damage is already done. Beautiful, eight-year-old Charlie McGee…a monster. CHARACTER I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO… This one’s easy: Charlie McGee, of course. I like to imagine that she is a happy, healthy and well adjusted wife living in the suburbs. Mother of three completely normal (well, mostly) kids. And I’m not the only one who would like to know what happened to Charlie, as evidenced by Stephen King’s recent Twitter message from May 16: “Yes, I’ve thought about picking up the FIRESTARTER story for years. Charlie McGee would be all grown up now.” This reader’s fingers are crossed. START DATE – April 10, 2015 FINISH DATE – April 23, 2015 The complete list of the books we’ll be reading can be found on the Stephen King Books In Chronological Order For Stephen King Revisited Reading Lists page. To be notified of new posts and updates via email, please sign-up using the box on the right side or the bottom of this site. 14 comments Firestarter, Richard Chizmar, Stephen King Good book. A notch below his previous ones revisited to date. Sure would like to know what Charlie is up today. A Daniel Torrance hookup seems remore now. Maybe she and Mark Petrie crossed paths…. She would make an excellent vampire slayer!!! er remote now Like everyone, I’m a bit leery of sequels. But somehow, a King sequel doesn’t seem like a sequel. He’s not repeating stories but amplifying themes (as Bev points out in his latest essay) by allowing his characters to evolve like real people. What an amazing treat it is for Constant Readers to not only be able to revisit our favorite characters from new perspectives as we grow and change, but also to see how those characters have grown and changed in the author’s mind. I hope we do hear more about Charlie McGee. I can’t imagine how she managed to survive her teenage years…. I bet it’s a hell of a story. Randy Eberle I think poor, grown-up Charlene will be on the run again…and who better than Jude Andrews to pick up where Rainbird left off? The Shop is alive and well, I guarantee it…though it may be called something else. Iain Hotchkies I’m slightly ahead of the curve in this re-reading project, as I’d read The Shining not long before this started, as well as Christine and Pet Sematary. So it’s a couple of months now since I re-read Firestarter. King’s such a prolific author that few of his books are head and shoulders above the rest. Most have good and bad points. I agree with Mr Chizmar’s comment about the story being grim. I think if King’s books fall into 4 divisions (Indispensible, Good, Pedestrian and Read Once Only) Firestarter would fall into the Pedestrian division. Still better than a lot of pap out there, but nothing to write home about. wildbillhagy Richard, the where-are-they-now books to me are no-brainers. Doctor Sleep was another novel, rich in storytelling that both extends the narrative from The Shining and brings you back for a nostalgic glimpse into the place where you were happiest reading. Charlie McGee is about the right age, but I would also like to check in on Richie Tozier and Bev. Maybe even Frannie and Stu in post-apocalyptic Colorado. You hold the keys, you talk to SK at Orioles-Red Sox games. Float it out there man. LALewis Firestarter took me forever to finish. I tried to read it at least 5 times before I finally got around to finishing it. But when I finally did I absolutely loved it. Something about the sinister looming Government really struck a nerve with me and it still does every time I read this. As far as a where-are-they-now book. Man I need to know if Bev and Ben are still together. Did they forget the rest of the Losers but somehow keep each other? How would that sort of memory jumbling work? I gotta know! Wanda Maynard Great job, Richard. And yes, I have also wondered about that one myself. Where did Charlie McGee go? What happened to her? My fingers are crossed too, that she is all grown up and happy now. James Newman FIRESTARTER has never been one of my favorite King novels. In fact, I honestly don’t remember much about it . . . except for one scene. The part where Charlie’s parents-to-be are involved in that whole drug-experiment thing . . . ? King nailed it. What a nightmarish sequence. While I’ve never had a bad trip, I imagine from my limited experience with drugs (back in my younger, dumber days) that this was EXACTLY what it would be like. To date, even though FIRESTARTER doesn’t rank among my Top Ten, this particular scene does. It’s several pages of the master’s best stuff, IMO. I need to read this one again. The Nerdy Book Reviewer I read Firestarter at a very young age – 12ish? And the scene that has always stuck with me is when the guy commits suicide by shoving his hand into a garbage disposal. I’m now quite a bit older than 12, and not generally given to irrational fears, but somehow, I am still a little nervous every time I use my garbage disposal. Max Hunt Again, a riveting review of a book. Richard, you’re good at this! Funny, I’d never thought of the similarities between Injun Joe and John Rainbird but thanks Richard, you nailed it. They both scare the hell outta me! For me, this story is similar to Johnny’s in The Dead Zone in that, all the way though the story, I kept thinking, “Can’t Andy & Charlie just get a break?” Well, it’s SK and no, they can’t. Like Richard, there wasn’t much I could find positive about the story but I did like the way the Manders’ came around…to a degree, anyway. And I think my favorite scene is where Charlie melts John Rainbird, the cold hearted SOB. I think he is one of King’s more notorious villains just because he’s so cold and calculating…and completely nuts. I also kinda’ enjoyed the echo set off in “Cap” and how that ended up. He was a real bastard, too. Last thought…if anyone watched the TV series Heroes from a few years ago, well, Charlie could have been in that show. In fact, that show has a very similar storyline to Firestarter. I think the concept person for Heroes is a Stephen King fan. Not a feel good story (until Charlie walks into Rolling Stone!) but a great read. Now, on to Roadwork, which I’ve already finished. Richard Bachman was a very sick man!! LOL! Unlike the other Stephen King books that I’ve read up to this point, this book was not a revisiting, but rather one of the handful of King books that I hadn’t read up to this point and I was reading it for the very first time. This book has a long history with me. And by long, I mean it took me a really long time to even pick it up, and a long time to finish it. When I was first discovering Stephen King back in 1998 at our local public library, I glanced at this book and was captured by the title. Firestarter. Hmmmm….sounds interesting. I picked it up and read the brief synopsis on the back of the book to see if the story might interest me. It did not. A story about a girl with pyrokinetic powers just somehow did not interest me. I had heard a lot about Stephen King at the time as being a guy who wrote scary horror novels, and since that is the kind of book I wanted to read by him, and because this did not sound like that at all, I put it down….never to even read one sentence of it, which is something I had done with all of his other books. Firestarter was the lone wolf that I never even wanted to taste….not even a little. I don’t even know why. Fast forward 16 years later in late 2014, right before I started this epic journey called Stephen King Revisited, I finally decided to give the book a chance, and I dug out the paperback copy I had gotten as a Christmas present from my parents several years before as it was one of the only King books that I didn’t own and I figured why not just put it on my Christmas list. I was right. The book just did not grab me. I struggled through the first half of it for months. It just did not seem to have the Stephen King voice that I had grown to love for nearly two decades. I read passages of this book througout the entire holiday season of 2014 in between sessions of re-reading other earlier Stephen King books for Stephen King Revisited. I just struggled getting through it. I can remember reading it while in Wichita back in December of 2014 when I took my friend Kevin to a hospital to get his heart looked at. I remember reading it in late May of 2015 on a trip to Dallas with my friend Nick to Dallas Comic Con. I read it on the airplanes going there and going back, I read it while waiting in airports, I read it while relaxing in our hotel room, I read it while riding their train system that was called DART, desperately trying to find a means of escape from all of the strange and creepy people that rode that train, I also read it at the stations waiting for a DART train to arrive, and finally I read it while waiting in panel rooms for guest speakers to talk at Dallas Comic Con. My whole Dallas trip was surrounded by this book. I just desperately wanted to finish it because it’s one of the handful of King books that I’ve never read, and I’m such a fan of his that I want to say that I’ve read every single one of his books. I made it about half way through the book and finally just put it down in June of 2015 because I was wrapping up re-reading The Dead Zone and Firestarter was next on the list and I told myself that I was just going to restart the whole book after The Dead Zone because at this point I was lost on the story from all of the stops and starts I had on the book for the last 8 months and I thought that was taking away any enjoyment of the book. I’ll be honest, I really did not want to start this book over. The first half of the book was just so tough for me to get through. I wasn’t looking forward to slogging through those pages again, but since I was just so lost with the plot, and because I wanted to be able to give the book a fair chance, I physically and mentally forced myself to start it over and just sit down and read the book and this time around I was able to finish the book in just a little over two weeks time. Upon starting it over, I wasn’t surprised at all when I found out that the first half of the book was still really difficult for me to get through. I just felt that it dragged a lot. Sure it had a few shining moments, though. One of them being a confrontation between Shop agents and Andy and Charlie at the Manders farm. One of the savings graces of this book was that it had a great villain with John Rainbird. The book starts to heat up (no pun intended) when the agents take them back to a Shop facility. John Rainbird poses as an orderly and befriends Charlie and attempts to talk her into using and experimenting with her powers because The Shop wants to run tests on her and want to use her as a weapon. Quite frankly, the second half of the book is so much better than the first half. I was very intrigued by John Rainbird manipulating Charlie in order to use her for Shop purposes. The book builds and races in the final 60-70 pages to a thrilling, heartbreaking, yet satisfying conclusion. My overall thoughts on this book are still mixed. The plot was a lot easier to follow without all of the stops and starts and actually a pretty quick read when read straight through. Charlie McGee is now one of the top King characters that I would really like to know what happened to because the end of the book ends with quite the little cliffhanger. King used to joke at book signings that Charlie went out to marry Danny Torrence from The Shining and the couple had super babies, but after the sequel to The Shining, Doctor Sleep, was released in 2013, we all found out that that was not what actually happened. So yeah, I would like to know whatever happened to Charlie. As is the case with most King books that I reread I did remember the main story line but I kinda forget the depth that King puts into the story. And that’s what makes me care about Charlie and all the other charactors. Rainbird is one of my favorite King bad guys. Favorite scene is the one at the Manders farm. Richard, Andy said the change Lot 6 did to his and Vicky’s chromosomes might cause Charlie to become sterile or she could pass the changes onto her own children. I think her children might be able to light fires the way their mother did, push people like their grandfather did or become telepathic like their grandmother.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line5918
__label__wiki	0.813915	0.813915	Home » 16th century » The Tale of the Death of Basil III History of Russian Literature The Tale of the Death of Basil III 00 Intro 14th-15th century, 1st half 15th century, 2nd half 17th century, 1st half In category ::: 16th century The account of the death of Basil III appeared in chronicle-writing almost immediately after the event itself, in 1534.16 The account of the grand prince’s last days was undoubtedly written by someone who witnessed his death. There is a detailed description of Basil’s illness (“a small sore on the left side of the thigh … the size of a pin-head” which caused blood poisoning). The sick prince was taken from the Trinity Monastery, where he happened to be, to Moscow. He asked his court physician Nikolai Bulev (with whom Philotheus disputed in his epistle on the “Third Rome”) whether there was any remedy, “an ointment or anything else” to ease his affliction. “My art is helpless without God’s aid,” replied the physician. Basil realised that his condition was hopeless. “Brothers! Nikolai has divined my illness well—it is incurable,” he said to his courtiers. The account of the death of Basil III was compiled during the reign of his widow Yelena Glinskaya (who ruled as regent for her infant son Ivan), and she naturally played a particularly honourable role in it. It was she whom Basil charged to rule “like former grand princesses”. Custom demanded that he send for his son on his death-bed but Basil, who had become a father late in years and was very concerned about the health of his three-year-old son Ivan, was afraid of alarming him: “I do not wish to call my son, Grand Prince Ivan, for he is too little. I lie in my great affliction, and do not wish that my son should fear me.” “Do not let my son Ivan out of your sight for a moment, Ographena,” he cautions the nanny. Other words and actions of the dying prince are equally natural and moving, such as his attempts to conceal the gravity of his affliction from his young wife, who sobbed so bitterly that Basil could not give her his parting instructions—“because of her cries he did not manage to give her a single word of instruction”, and the conversation with his brother about the last days of their father, Ivan III. The account of Basil Ill’s death was amended several times in the chronicle-writing of the sixteenth century. In The Resurrection Chronicle, compiled after the death of Basil Ill’s wife, Yelena, the reference to her being charged to rule was omitted and replaced by a eulogy to the boyars (uttered by Basil III) for their loyalty; at the same time many details in the account of the Grand Prince’s illness and death were also omitted. In The Chronicle of the Beginning of the Reign (and in some of the manuscripts of The Nikon Chronicle) new amendments were made. The eulogy to the boyars was omitted and a reference inserted to the effect that Basil presented the infant Ivan IV with “the tsar’s crown and royal diadems, with which Vladimir Monomachos was crowned”. And finally, in the last volume of The Illustrated Chronicle (in The Tsar’s Book) the earlier account of the death of Basil III was restored (plus the addition of the “Monomachos crown”) together with the details of the grand prince’s last days typical of this account. « The Account of the Illness of Ivan the Terrible \|\|\| Tales of the Capture of Pskov » RusLiterature.org Site Map 2021 History of Russian Literature. WordPress Theme by WPZOOM	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line5921
__label__wiki	0.649516	0.649516	solutions4networks Named Culture Leader of the Year Finalist at Pittsburgh Business Times’ Tech 50 Awards You are here: Home / News / solutions4networks Named Culture Leader of the Year Finalist at Pittsburgh Business Times’ Tech 50 Awards solutions4networks, a Pittsburgh-based Enterprise and Wireless Networks, Network and Cloud Security, and Modern Collaboration solutions company, was named as one of the finalists for Culture Leader of the Year at the Pittsburgh Technology Council’s Tech 50 Awards. solutions4networks has remained a leader in workplace culture since its founding in 1999. The company epitomizes culture through its dedication to its employees, customers, and the core company values. The solutions4networks E.L.I.T.E. (Empowerment, Leadership, Integrity, Trust, and Excellence) value system is the foundation through all aspects of their relationships. Culture is also exemplified at solutions4networks through the work of founder and CEO Michele McGough and the team, who regularly volunteer their time at local charitable organizations within the community. The Pittsburgh Technology Council’s Tech 50 Awards recognizes Southwestern Pennsylvania’s most successful, innovative, and thought-leading technology companies, which have become the backbone of Pittsburgh’s new economy. solutions4networks is a certified woman-owned business and Disadvantaged Business Entity (DBE) that provides highly experience professional services and equipment procurement for unified communications, wireless and network infrastructure, datacenter, cloud and network security, and project management and collaboration. Started in 2000, s4nets has been recognized with numerous awards, the latest from the Pittsburgh Business Times for being the “Best Place to Work” in Pittsburgh. We hold every team member accountable to our core values of empowerment, leadership, integrity, trust, and excellence. To learn more about solutions4networks, please visit: www.s4nets.com	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line5922
__label__cc	0.577961	0.422039	Gordon Wilson – 1985 Speech on Heating Bills June 28, 2019 admin 1985, Gordon Wilson, Speeches Below is the text of the speech made by Gordon Wilson, the then SNP MP for Dundee East, in the House of Commons on 4 December 1985. The subject of the debate is the effect of poor summer weather on the elderly and the very young. Before coming to that, I must say that the debate on the Northern Ireland (Loans) Bill evoked memories of 1975 and devolution. It is one of the paradoxes of this place that Northern Ireland is to be offered devolution when it does not want it, while Scotland, which wants it, cannot get it. I want to turn the attention of the Minister and the House to the problem facing many elderly and very young people because of the poor weather during the summer —if summer be the right description. In recent years a considerable amount of attention has been drawn to the instances of fuel poverty, but most of the concern was about the effects of winter weather on the frail, elderly and the families living on the margins of income. Those on supplementary benefit and heating allowances hope that during the summer they can save to pay their winter electricity, gas and coal bills. Many hon. Members will have experience of constituents approaching them at the end of winter with high bills that they have great difficulty in paying under the current supplementary benefit rates. Indeed, they have been faced with the prospect of disconnection. Some of those people were able to cut their arrears during the summer months when they could turn off their heating systems, or perhaps put something aside towards the bills for the winter months. We must recognise that this is not an academic matter, nor is it purely a case of the discomfort that many families experience because they cannot afford sufficient fuel. It can be one of life and death. Age Concern has looked into the matter. It has said, based upon a survey done as far back as 1972, that some 70,000 Scots pensioners are at risk from hypothermia. If, however, one scales it up to the present population aged over 65 years, I am informed that the figure is now nearer 130,000. The problem medically for the elderly, although it applies also to children in their first year of life, is that they sometimes have difficulty in being able to sense changes in temperature. The young have no control over their clothing or the way in which they react. The elderly frequently do not notice changes in temperature up to something like 5 degrees Centigrade. That is why they can be at risk and, before they know it, they can be in danger. There are between 3,000 and 5,000 deaths per year in Scotland from cold-related illnesses. Some 20 per cent. of all Scottish houses —and that may be an underestimate —have a problem with dampness. In 1972 the Wicks report when it came out made it clear that pensioners spend over twice as much of their budget on fuel as the average of all households. Indeed, that same report demonstrated that 88 per cent. of people who would have liked more heating cited expense as the reason for not having it. They deliberately economised on fuel because they felt they did not have the resources with which to pay for it. We are now dealing with the problem of the population becoming progressively older so that at present some 17 per cent. of the Scottish population is over pensionable age. I do not pretend that this is a purely Scottish problem. Other areas of the United Kingdom suffer from climatic variations, but I trust that it is stating the obvious to point out that the Scottish climate, because of our northerly location, suffers from harsher weather conditions. It is a matter of indisputable scientific proof that it is 20 per cent. more expensive to heat a house in Glasgow than it is to heat a similar house in Bristol. In Aberdeen the comparable figure is 30 per cent., while there are many more upland and exposed households where the weather is windier and colder. Nor is it just the case that cold weather is more severe. People also have to cope with a longer winter, lack of sunshine, shorter days, greater wind velocity and a higher rainfall, all part and parcel of living further to the north in winter. It is not surprising, therefore, that electricity consumption is 25 per cent. and 50 per cent. higher in the south and north board areas respectively compared with consumption in England. If any further proof were needed, a glance at a recent written answer given to the hon. Member for Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley (Mr. Foulkes) shows not only that official hypothermia death returns are running in the first half of 1985 at record levels but that Scotland accounts for some 33 per cent. of all the deaths where mention is made of hypothermia on the death certificate. As we know, the official returns on the death certificate, because of the difficulty of diagnosis, represent only a small proportion of those who die from cold-related illness. All this has been compounded by the 1985 summer. Apart from the month of October, it was simply appalling. Cumulative Scottish weather conditions were found to be the worst for a century. From July to September rainfall was 200 per cent. to 300 per cent. above normal. Sunshine was less that 75 per cent. of the usual. This has had a direct impact on heating. People had to heat their homes right through the summer. During the summer quarter, fuel consumption rose dramatically. Compared with 1984 gas consumption went up by 20 per cent. and electricity in the south of Scotland electricity board area by 12 per cent. Figures have not been made available for the hydro-board area, but might be greater because it covers the more northern latitudes. Increases in coal were also sustained in different areas, to upwards of 20 per cent. It is not surprising that during the summer fuel arrears have arisen. Many people have used up the savings that they had kept for fuel consumption during the winter. This is serious, because the graphs show that deaths among the elderly rose by 20 per cent. and among the very young by 40 per cent. in winter, as compared to summer. This phenomenon does not occur in similar age groupings in Scandinavia. Part of the blame lies in the poorer quality of housing. With lack of insulation, a disproportionate amount warms the external environment, and there is no real programme of upgrading, and what there is seems to be under attack. It is one of the stupidities of Government policy that in 1981 –83 they paid out something under £15,000 million of fuel benefits, actual or reputed, but provided only some £18 million for basic insulation. The whole point is about ability to pay. on 28 November, the Government acknowledged the exceptionally bad weather conditions, when the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food gave a subsidy to farmers, for fodder for their cattle. What about the people who also had to put up with the cold, wet and windy summer? So far, there has been no announcement, although winter has struck early and most bitterly. The benefit system is inadequate, unfair and unjust. The House knows that I have before called for a cold climate allowance. Instead, there is the severe weather allowance, which I prefer to call a warm climate allowance because it favours payment in the south rather than in the north. Last year, 170,000 payments were made in England, but none in Scotland, although lower temperatures were prevailing in our country. No one in Scotland will miss the severe weather allowance when it is abolished. It does not give us any help —a case of cold comfort for the Scots, and southern comfort for the English. In any event, the system has been declared illegal by the Social Security Commissioner, but the Government are silent, and I hope that the Minister will say something to clear up the position, and about the guidelines. Will the scheme last, and will any back-money be paid to all those people who applied last year, but failed to get a bean out of the system? In plain language, the scheme is daft. It is unfair to those living in normally cold areas. It is confusing for benefit officers, and if it is confusing for them, how much more confusing must it have been for the general public? The elderly could not predict whether the cold temperatures would last long enough to bring clown the average and so trigger off the payments. Old folk had no way of knowing whether they could afford the extra heat. The winter has struck early, and the fear of the size of the fuel bills is the greatest disincentive to the elderly in keeping warm. After the summer, many could have difficulty in paying for fuel, and be in a more difficult and harsh position than last year. The Government cannot be complacent about the trend in deaths. It is immoral to give extra cash to keep animals alive when people either die or face the misery of being trapped in cold and draughty homes. It is necessary to give help to the farmers, in view of the bad summer, but, if the Government are willing to give it to the farmers, they should also be prepared to help other people. The Government cannot abolish fuel allowances. Adequate allowances are the only guarantee for aged and low-income families that they will have any chance of keeping themselves warm in this and future winters. I hope that the Minister will be able to respond sympathetically to my case. ← Clare Short – 1985 Speech on Silentnight Plc John Major – 1985 Speech on Heating Bills → George Osborne – 2016 Statement on the UK Economy Michael Ellis – 2019 Speech at Theatres Trust Theresa May – 2017 Speech in Japan	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line5923
__label__wiki	0.701605	0.701605	Children Of Blood And Bone Book Trailer Jan 19, · All content used in this video is for review purposes only, and therefore falls under the category of fair use. Children of Blood and Bone was written by Tomi Adeyemi in Read Adeyemi's next. Jul 26, · Book Trailer Thursday: CHILDREN OF BLOOD AND BONE Tomi Adeyemi’s debut novel, which already has a movie deal in the works, is a feast for fantasy lovers. A world stripped of magic, a people feared and oppressed, and a ruthless king create the foundation for Zélie’s story. Children of Blood and Bone \| Trailershelf - Book Trailers Zélie Adebola remembers when the soil of Orïsha hummed with magic. Burners ignited flames, Tiders beckoned waves, and Zélie’s Reaper mother summoned forth souls. But everything changed the night magic disappeared. Directed by Rick Famuyiwa. A woman blessed with magical powers by the gods and living in a place where you are forbidden to use them, teams up with a princess to summon the gods and bring down the oppressive regime. Mar 06, · Tomi Adeyemi’s debut novel is the start of what promises to be an epic, addictive new series. The Children of Blood and Bone is influenced by Adeyemi’s West African heritage, and in it she bends religious deities (the Orïsha) and a diverse landscape into a refreshing new take on xn--80aqafbcerwjl3k.xn--p1ai Children of Blood and Bone is told from multiple points of view, as Inan and Amari, children of the /5(K). Children of Blood And Bone is such a rich and excellently built fantasy world my opinion is just: WOW. I also feel like this book is most definitely mega-hyped but worth it, ohhh so worth it. The writing is stunning, but we just need to all sit down in a bucket and admire the world building. Children of Virtue and Vengeance is the breathtaking second title in Tomi Adeyemi's YA fantasy trilogy, Legacy of Orïsha, following her ground-breaking, West African-inspired debut Children of Blood and Bone. Read an excerpt and order here. Add it on Goodreads here. The book, Children of Blood and Bone, due to come out March 6, has been called “a brutal, beautiful tale of revolution, faith, and star-crossed love” (Publisher’s Weekly), and “a timely Author: Lila Shapiro. Check out the trailer at the top of the page! Children of Blood and Bone hits bookshelves next Tuesday, March 6, You can preorder now via Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or IndieBound. Tomi Adeyemi conjures a stunning world of dark magic and danger in her West African-inspired fantasy debut, perfect for fans of Leigh Bardugo and Sabaa Tahir. Children of Blood and Bone is a young adult fantasy novel by Nigerian-American novelist Tomi xn--80aqafbcerwjl3k.xn--p1ai book, Adeyemi's debut novel and the first book in a planned trilogy, follows heroine Zélie Adebola as she attempts to restore magic to the kingdom of Orïsha, following the ruling class kosidáns' brutal suppression of the class of magic practitioners Zélie belongs to, the maji. CHILDREN OF VIRTUE AND VENGEANCE. The sequel to the instant #1 New York Times Best Seller Children of Blood and Bone & Good Morning America’s December ‘Book Of The Month.’. Children of Virtue and Vengeance is the second installment in the Young Adult West African trilogy about a girl fighting against the monarchy to protect her people. Dec 03, · An Amazon Best Book of December Tomi Adeyemi scores another hit with her second book, Children of Virtue and xn--80aqafbcerwjl3k.xn--p1aii elegantly brings readers back into the world she created in her blockbuster debut, Children of Blood and Bone, picking up the thread after Zélie’s powerful ritual brought magic back to the xn--80aqafbcerwjl3k.xn--p1ai war between the monarchy and the maji rages on/5(K). Mar 10, · Children of Blood and Bone is a fairly straightforward quest narrative most of the way through, and I didn't encounter a lot of surprises. But as I reached the last few pages of this book, I. Mar 01, · Children of Blood and Bone Sequel Release Date. Children of Virtue and Vengeancewas set to hit bookshelves on June 4,but Tomi Adeyemi just took to Twitter to chat about why that release. Feb 21, · Children of Virtue and Vengeance, the second installment, will be published June 4 by Henry Holt & Co. In the meantime, join our reread of Children of Blood and Bone. Children of Blood and Bone is the first book of a planned series: Legacy of Orïsha. It is an epic fantasy inspired by West African culture with all the elements you'd expect: A princess in trouble, a next-in-line prince struggling to reconcile what he's taught from what is right or wrong, a domineering king, a people oppressed, and magic in /5(K). Aug 06, · EXCLUSIVE: Disney is giving a full embrace to Children of Blood and Bone, the action fantasy film based on the bestselling novel by Nigerian-American author Tomi. stars Plot: 3/5 Characters: 4/5 Writing: 4/5 Children of Virtue and Vengeance was the gripping sequel to Children of Blood and Bone. I enjoyed it overall, although it suffered a bit of 'second book syndrome'. It took the story to new heights and the consequences of /5(K). Aug 18, · Crew: Who's making Children of Blood and Bone. A look at the Children of Blood and Bone behind-the-scenes crew and production team. The film's director Rick Famuyiwa last directed Dope and Our Family Wedding. The film's writer David Magee last wrote Mary Poppins Returns and Life of Pi. Aug 19, · What takes Children Of Blood And Bone from a simple YA novel to a masterpiece is the level of complexity added by the self-loathing that drives two characters. For a particular character, the duality of being something one hates causes alliances and allegiances to shift. Children of Blood and Bone Sequel Release Date. You’ll have to wait a bit to catch up with Zélie and Amari again. Children of Virtue and Vengeance‘s release was set for March 5,according to listings of the book on xn--80aqafbcerwjl3k.xn--p1ai book’s release date was then pushed to June 4, Mar 06, · Trailers Film Festivals Children of Blood and Bone guide: The book has already made waves in the literary world, owing both to the young age of. Jan 17, · Children of Blood and Bone Movie Development Timeline. March 28, 20acquires the rights to the upcoming book Children of Blood and Bone. March 6, Children of Blood and Bone (novel) is released. February 21, Rick Famuyiwa To Direct Children of Blood and Bone At Fox March 20, Disney acquires Fox August 6, Kay Oyegun To Script Children Of Blood And Bone. Adeyemi’s young adult fantasy novel, Children of Blood and Bone, is a conscious pushback to the prevailing whiteness of so-called staples of the genre, as well as a reaction to those who reject the introduction of more diverse characters into young adult xn--80aqafbcerwjl3k.xn--p1ai Adeyemi was a teenager, she watched as fans of The Hunger Games books opposed the casting of a black actor to play the. Mar 08, · The movie of Children of Blood and Bone is in development at Fox /Temple Hill Productions with the incredible Karen Rosenfelt and Wyck Godfrey (Twilight, Maze Runner, The Fault In Our Stars) producing it. Mar 09, · There's a new book out called "Children Of Blood And Bone." It's a big, heavy book that tackles big, heavy themes - police killings of unarmed black. As a writer you have the passion and the creativity - so what's stopping you from holding a finished book in your hand? The strategies to keep writing when you want to give up. The motivation to make time to create when life gets hectic. Tomi Adeyemi. Tomi Adeyemi is the #1 New York Times-bestselling Nigerian-American author of Children of Blood and xn--80aqafbcerwjl3k.xn--p1ai graduating Harvard University with an honors degree in English literature, she received a fellowship to study West African mythology, religion, and culture in. Sep 20, · Directed by Ben Ramsey. With Michael Jai White, Julian Sands, Eamonn Walker, Dante Basco. In Los Angeles, an ex-con takes the underground fighting world by storm in his quest to fulfill a promise to a dead friend. Daughter of Smoke and Bone is a young-adult fantasy book series written by Laini Taylor and published by Hachette Book Group, an imprint of Little, Brown and xn--80aqafbcerwjl3k.xn--p1ai is a planned trilogy, all published: Daughter of Smoke and Bone on 27 September in the United States; Days of Blood and Starlight on 6 November in the United States; and the third book Dreams of Gods and Monsters on. Rick Famuyiwa, director of the critical darling, coming-of-age movie Dope, has signed on to direct Children of Blood and Bone, Fox 's adaptation of the best-selling YA novel by Tomi Adeyemi. Nov 26, · The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Year One and Of Blood and Bone concludes her stunning new trilogy praised as “A match for end-of-the-world classics like Stephen King’s The Stand.”. After the sickness known as the Doom destroyed civilization, magick has become commonplace, and Fallon Swift has spent her young years learning its xn--80aqafbcerwjl3k.xn--p1ais: K. EXCLUSIVE: In a remarkable pair of deals for a debut author who is just 23, Fox has just made a preemptive acquisition of Children of Blood and Bone, the first installment of a fantasy novel t. Of Blood and Bone is a very different book from the first in the series. Taking place several years after Year One, this book focuses on Fallon's process of coming into her own. I liked the coming of age and training story, which does set everything up nicely for a big finish in the final book/5(K). Get the entire Children of Blood and Bone LitChart as a printable PDF. "My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." -Graham S. Download it! Admiral Kaea. Kaea is the fierce, no-nonsense second-in-command to King. Apr 06, · Directed by Declan O'Dwyer. With Robson Green, Naima Lett, Brad Hawkins, Merrilee McCommas. Tony Hill finds himself in unfamiliar surroundings when he travels to Texas to assist the local district attorney in the case of Darius Grady who is accused of murdering his wife and two children. Tony had already met Grady when the latter was stationed at a US military base near Bradfield and was. The Children of Blood and Bone quotes below are all either spoken by Zélie or refer to Zélie. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:). “Children of Blood and Bone was written during a time where I kept turning on the news and seeing stories of unarmed black men, women, and children being shot by the police. I felt afraid and angry and helpless, but this book was the one thing that made me feel like I could do something about it. Mar 13, · Children of Blood and Bone (Henry Holt, pp., ★★★★ out of four) is a debut novel that is nearly impossible to put down. While Tomi Adeyemi's Africa-inspired fantasy was written for. Adeyemi, whose Children of Blood and Bone is the first volume of a projected trilogy, is a year-old newcomer to the thriving market of young-adult literature, where demands for greater. Children of Blood and Bone on IMDb: Movies, TV, Celebs, and more. Watch the Newest 'Wonder Woman ' Trailer. Fresh from the DC FanDome event! Check out the latest trailer for Wonder Woman Children of Blood and Bone (producer) Rugrats (producer) The New Mutants The Book Thief (producer) Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters. Children of Blood and Bone - Buddy Read By Betsy · 34 posts · views last updated Jul 01, AM Far From the Madding Crowd - Buddy Read By Betsy · 37 posts · 80 views. Hunter Biden's mother died in a tragic car crash that also injured him. Learn more about the untimely death of Neilia Hunter Biden, the mom of Hunter Biden. Keep thinking what it is, and keep remembering those kids of yours, or him or her the rest of their life, blood of my blood, bone of my bone, because, folks, it can and will get better.”. Oct 02, · NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER (November ) A stunning new novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts―Year One is an epic of hope and horror, chaos and magick, and a journey that will unite a desperate group of people to fight the battle of their lives It began on New Year’s Eve. The sickness came on suddenly, and spread xn--80aqafbcerwjl3k.xn--p1ais: K. Tropes: Abusive Parents: Saran is horrible to both his children.; Accidental Murder: Inan accidentally kills Kaea just before she can tell the others he's a maji.; Action Girl: Zélie was a skilled staff wielder even before she got her magic, and while Amari is opposed to violence in general she's a skilled swordswoman.; Afrofuturism: In spades, the book takes place in a future/alternate. Children of Blood and Bone Action, Adventure, Fantasy A woman blessed with magical powers by the gods and living in a place where you are forbidden to use them, teams up with a princess to summon the gods and bring down the oppressive regime. Aug 22, · Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi. Series: Legacy of Orïsha. Completed? No. The land of Orïsha used to be magical and a prosperous place to live. That was before all maji were rounded up and executed by the cruel king Saran. Zéli Adebola, one of the few remaining majis, refuses to let her mother and countless other deceased maji go. Blood and Bone is a American direct-to-DVD martial arts film directed by Ben Ramsey and written by Michael Andrews. The film stars Michael Jai White, Eamonn Walker and Julian Sands, and features martial artist Matt Mullins, former professional wrestler Ernest "The Cat" Miller, MMA fighters Bob Sapp, Kimbo Slice, Maurice Smith, and Gina Carano and former professional bodybuilder Melvin Anthony. Popular books 2011 for young adults Booker t washington dallas auditions Bookers 2019 01 teresas batch straight bourbon When were the star wars books published Easy read books for young adults What college did devin booker go to War of jenkins ear book Booker t washington tulsa ok football schedule 2018 Nicholas sparks books based on true stories Business books written by black authors Business book of the year award 2016 Top must read books for young adults Bookeen cybook opus ebook reader	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line5928
__label__wiki	0.854015	0.854015	The Passengers (1999) It is a day like any other. Men and women make their way across Paris via the new tramway, silent in their thoughts but willing to tell us their stories. A young man who is taking flowers to the grave of his former lover, a victim of AIDS, reflects on their last moments together. Another young man is so obsessed with finding a woman with perfect feet that he ends up marrying one with an unpleasant face. David, a school teacher, begins an amorous liaison with a an unemployed younger man, Marco, whilst Pierre, a security guard, is all too ready to give up his days of solitude when he meets the right woman. Around them, society seems to be crumbling, the spread of AIDS reflecting a far deeper malaise in a world that has lost its way Perhaps Love (2005) A love triangle develops during the making of a musical in mainland China. Summer in February (2013) The Newlyn School of artists flourished at the beginning of the 20th Century and the film focuses on the wild and bohemian Lamorna Group, which included Alfred Munnings and Laura and Harold Knight. The incendiary anti-Modernist Munnings, now regarded as one of Britain's most sought-after artists, is at the centre of the complex love triangle, involving aspiring artist Florence Carter-Wood and Gilbert Evans, the land agent in charge of the Lamorna Valley estate. True - and deeply moving - the story is played out against the timeless beauty of the Cornish coast, in the approaching shadow of The Great War. Romance of Their Own (2004) Han-kyung a rustic girl, comes to town to live with her mom. Attracted to her pure charm, the most popular guys Hae-won and Tae-sung come up to fight each other. But Tae- sung has a fatal secret not to love her. Their sad love triangle makes everyone cry. The Call of the River (2004) The film tells the story of a (somehow) love-triangle set in Bohol during World War II; though the main underlying themes deals with Filipino nationalism and the legacies of colonialism. La Novia (2015) Based on the famous play "Bodas de sangre" (Blood Wedding) by Federico García Lorca, La novia tells the story of a passionate love triangle. A bride leaves her groom, no longer able to withstand the surging desires of her lover, Leonordo. Making Love (1982) A perfect typical LA couple find their happily-ever-after life broken when Zach confronts his long-repressed attraction for other men. Victor and Hillary are down on their luck to the point that they allow tourists to take guided tours of their castle. But Charles Delacro, a millionaire oil tycoon, visits, and takes a liking to more than the house. Soon, Hattie Durant gets involved and they have a good old fashioned love triangle. Keeping the Faith (2000) Best friends since they were kids, Rabbi Jacob Schram and Father Brian Finn are dynamic and popular young men living and working on New York's Upper West Side. When Anna Reilly, once their childhood friend and now grown into a beautiful corporate executive, suddenly returns to the city, she reenters Jake and Brian's lives and hearts with a vengeance. Sparks fly and an unusual and complicated love triangle ensues. Broken Sky (2006) First-love movie involving love triangle. Gerardo is deeply in love with longtime lover Jonas. When Jonas falls for a stranger he met at a local nightclub, heartbroken Gerardo soon seeks solace in the arms of Sergio (Alejandro Rojo). Despite other interests, Gerardo and Jonas can't bring themselves to end it. The Most Distant Course (2007) Tang (Muo) goes on a trip to Taitung to record the sounds of nature, hoping the tape may save his relationship with his girlfriend who is leaving him. What he does not know, is that she has already moved away and another girl, Yun (Kwai), has moved into that apartment. Yun is trapped in a hopeless love triangle, and troubled by all the issues she faces in life. After listening to the tape that Tang sent, she feels as if the kindness of nature is calling her, and travels to Taitung to find the mysterious man who sends her the tape. On the other hand, Tsai (Chia), a psychiatrist struggling in a failed marriage, suddenly realizes that he needs to let things go after helping a patient with extramarital affairs. He leaves everything behind and goes to Taitung to search for his ex-lover. The three young souls, with different purposes, comes to the coast and search for the meaning of their life, a journey considerably longer than any of them has taken before. Wild Love (1993) A dramatic love triangle between young boy and two girls from different worlds: cute American schoolgirl and painful, loveless student in Soviet boarding school. Bye Bye Baby (1988) Love triangles often provoke the most unpredictable behavior and "Bye Bye Baby" proves no exception to the rule. Will anybody end up happily in love at the end of this amorous debacle? One otrageous scene after another leads to a series of romantic escapades that will leave viewers bewitched, bewildered, and thoroughly entertained. Written by antonielsen@yahoo.it Wild Reeds (1994) Set in rural France during the end of the Algerian war, and immersed in the music of the sixties, this film follows four students in friendship and love. Francois's best friend is a girl Maite, but instead he falls in love with a boy Serge, while Serge is falling for Maite. Henri is the outsider, an Algerian-born frenchman who has fled the war, and the catalyst for Francois to find his identity. Dangerous Liaisons (1988) Dangerous Liaisons is the film based on the novel of the same name by Choderlos de Laclos set in 18th century France. Marquise de Merteuils asks her ex-lover Vicomte de Valmont to seduce the future wife of another ex-lover of hers in return for one last night with her. Yet things dont go as planned in this love triangle drama. Jules and Jim (1962) In Paris, before WWI, two friends, Jules (Austrian) and Jim (French) fall in love with the same woman, Catherine. But Catherine loves and marries Jules. After the war, when they meet again in Germany, Catherine starts to love Jim... This is the story of three people in love, a love which does not affect their friendship, and about how their relationship evolves with the years. A Bizarre Love Triangle (2002) Eun-hee is an extravagant and selfish woman who lives a life of luxury. She constantly swears, acts extremely careless, and is unashamedly tactless. Yet she somehow manages to be loved by both her husband, Doo-chan, and Keum-sook, a childhood female friend. However, what Doo-chan doesn't know is that Eun-hee and Keum-sook are secretly involved in a love affair. As Keum-sook continues to grow jealous with the two women. All three then enter the twists of love, betrayal, and revenge as they will all go to the extreme to get what they want. The Last of the Mohicans (1992) As the English and French soldiers battle for control of the North American colonies in the 18th century, the settlers and native Americans are forced to take sides. Cora and her sister Alice unwittingly walk into trouble but are saved by Hawkeye, an orphaned settler adopted by the last of the Mohicans. Days of Heaven (1978) In 1910, a Chicago steel worker accidentally kills his supervisor and flees to the Texas panhandle with his girlfriend and little sister to work harvesting wheat in the fields of a stoic farmer. A love triangle, a swarm of locusts, a hellish fireMalick captures it all with dreamlike authenticity, creating at once a timeless American idyll and a gritty evocation of turn-of-the-century labor. The Lover (1992) A poor French teenage girl engages in an illicit affair with a wealthy Chinese heir in 1920s Saigon. For the first time in her young life she has control, and she wields it deftly over her besotted lover throughout a series of clandestine meetings and torrid encounters. Chill Out (2000) The film tells the story of an unusual love triangle between Johan, Max, and Anna. The action takes place in Berlin after the unification of its eastern and western parts, against the background of its reconstruction and rebuilding. Dot the I (2003) Young lovers in London are wrapped up in a love triangle that may not be exactly what it seems. Carmen, a beautiful Spanish woman with a tendency to lose her temper at the drop of a hat, is about to be married to Barnaby, a caring, wealthy, but slightly boring Englishman. While out with friends on her 'hen night' she encounters a stranger who suddenly sparks a passion that has been sleeping within her. As her wedding date approaches, she finds herself struggling to put this newcomer out of her mind, but his effect on her keeps growing stronger. What is it that he sees in her, and why does she feel like she's being pushed inevitably into his arms? Semi-Tough (1977) A three-way friendship between two free-spirited professional football players and the owner's daughter becomes compromised when two of them become romantically involved. Sleep With Me (1994) Six different writers wrote a scene each of this romantic comedy featuring the marriage and turbulent relationship of Joseph and Sarah, with Joseph's best friend Frank trying hard to cope with letting the love of his life marry his best friend. Featuring Quentin Tarantino in a cameo as Sid, a movie-bore party goer The Scarlet Pimpernel (1982) During the French Revolution, a mysterious English nobleman known only as The Scarlet Pimpernel (a humble wayside flower), snatches French aristos from the jaws of the guillotine, while posing as the foppish Sir Percy Blakeney in society. Percy falls for and marries the beautiful actress Marguerite St. Just, but she is involved with Chauvelin and Robespierre, and Percy's marriage to her may endanger the Pimpernel's plans to save the little Dauphin Straight is the story of a messy love triangle between two men and a woman. Nazim (Eralp Uzun) is a hot young Turkish guy involved in petty crime. He goes out each night with his buddies, cruising for girls and dealing drugs in a seedy city square populated with hookers. None of his buddies suspect that on many of those nights he ends up in the arms of men. Since he met David (Florian Sonnefeld) on the street, his hetero façade is rapidly crumbling. His friends seem to pick up on the new vibe and wonder whats up. David is from a bourgeois Jewish family and slumming it. He hangs out on the street pretending to look for drugs, but what he really wants is Nazim. Their first hookup is alternately hot, tender and filled with guilt. Nevertheless, their affair develops in secret against all odds. Further entangling things is Davids Polish-German girlfriend (Beba Ebner), who is revolting against her strict Catholic upbringing by going out with this punkish Jewish boyfriend. The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981) In this story-within-a-story, Anna is an actress starring opposite Mike in a period piece about the forbidden love between their respective characters, Sarah and Charles. Both actors are involved in serious relationships, but the passionate nature of the script leads to an off-camera love affair as well. While attempting to maintain their composure and professionalism, Anna and Mike struggle to come to terms with their infidelity. Casablanca is a classic and one of the most revered films of all time. Starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman in a love triangle in the city of Casablanca which is a refuge for many fleeing foreigners looking for a new life during the war. Political romance with a backdrop of war conflict between democracy and totalitarianism. A landmark in film history. A Little Romance (1979) A young American girl and a young French boy meet in Paris and fall in love, with the assistance of an old man and his stories. Lucinda Price is sent to a reform academy under the assumption that she has killed a boy. There, she meets two mysterious boys, Cam and Daniel, to whom she feels drawn to both. But as the love triangle unfurls, it is Daniel that Luce cannot keep herself away from, and things begin to take a darker turn when she finds out his true identity. Dawn of the World (2009) The Mesopotamian Marshes, at the delta of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, in the south of Iraq. This is where Mastour and Zahra grow up. Shortly after their marriage, Mastour and Zahra are forced to separate when the Gulf War breaks out. On the battlefield, Mastour befriends Riad, a young soldier from Baghdad. Mortally wounded, Mastour makes Riad promise to protect Zahra when the war is over. When Riad arrives in the village, he falls deeply in love with Zahra. But unable to bear the loss of her husband, Zahra shuts herself off. In this completely foreign environment that is hostile to this newcomer, and as a new conflict is on the verge of inflaming the whole area, Riad will do the impossible to find his place. Flyboys (2006) The adventures of the Lafayette Escadrille, young Americans who volunteered for the French military before the U.S. entered World War I, and became the country's first fighter pilots. How Do You Know (2010) After being cut from the USA softball team and feeling a bit past her prime, Lisa finds herself evaluating her life and in the middle of a love triangle, as a corporate guy in crisis competes with her current, baseball-playing beau. Yoshiwara (1937) Based on a novel by Maurice Dekobra, the film is set in the Yoshiwara, the red-light district of Tokyo, in the nineteenth century. It depicts a love triangle between a high-class prostitute, a Russian naval officer, and a rickshaw man. Secrets of an Actress (1938) A romantic drama film about a love triangle between a stage actress, her financial backer, and his friend. In the Name of the Law (1952) Deemed "the D.W. Griffith of Turkish Cinema," Omer Lutfi Akad directs this 1952 film based upon real events that took place in ?stanbul, in the following years of World war II. It is about a love triangle that led to homicide. It was a stylistic departure of what otherwise had been typical of Turkish melodramas of the time. A young American studying in Paris in 1968 strikes up a friendship with a French brother and sister. Set against the background of the '68 Paris student riots. Three for Happiness (1985) A pretty factory girl falls for an ex con. He's still in love with his ex wife. Love triangle soon becomes even larger. Just for the Time Being (2000) A beautiful woman comes between a father and son. When both men begin to compete for her affections, a dangerous love triangle develops and she must choose between them. The Naked Kitchen (2009) Today is Mo-rae and Sang-ins one-year wedding anniversary. After a busy morning preparing for the celebration, Mo-rae goes to an art gallery to find a gift for Sang-in. At the gallery, she meets a complete stranger and the two unexpectedly have sex. Mo-rae returns home feeling anxious and guilty about the incident and cannot help but confess it to Sang-in. That night, a visitor arrives at their house; Du-rae, who came from Paris to help Sang-in with his new business. To Mo-raes shock, he is the man from the gallery. He temporarily lives with the couple in their house and a risky love triangle begins. Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959) A French actress filming an anti-war film in Hiroshima has an affair with a married Japanese architect as they share their differing perspectives on war. The Last Flesh & Blood Show (2013) A love triangle is complicated by unemployment, expectations and the living dead. During the 1980s, uptight Ted Boynton is a salesman working in the Barcelona office of a Chicago-based company. He receives an unexpected visit from his cousin Fred, a naval officer who has come to Spain on a public relations mission for a U.S. fleet. Not exactly friends in the past, Ted and Fred strike up relationships with women in the Spanish city and experience conflicts -- Ted with his employer, and Fred with the Barcelona community. The Promise (2017) Set during the last days of the Ottoman Empire, The Promise follows a love triangle between Mikael, a brilliant medical student, the beautiful and sophisticated artist Ana, and Chris - a renowned American journalist based in Paris. Tumbledown (2013) Inspired by true events, Todd Verows Tumbledown is an explosive cocktail- an emotional rollercoaster ride through the dark sides of sexuality. A complicated love triangle develops after hunky Jay meets bartender Nick and invites him to spend the weekend with him and his partner in their country cabin. Soon, copious amounts of sex, drugs and alcohol lead to a dark obsession and even darker complications. Always bold and never less than riveting, Tumbledown is sure to leave you breathless. Roy (2015) A love triangle revolving around the lives of a filmmaker, a thief and their mutual love interest. Lebanon, Pa. (2011) Will (Josh Hopkins), a charming 35-year-old Philadelphia ad man, heads to Lebanon, Pa. to bury his recently deceased father. He forms an unexpected friendship with CJ (Rachel Kitson), his bright, newly pregnant 17-year-old cousin. As Will becomes interested in CJ's married teacher (Samantha Mathis) and CJ confronts her conflicted father, both struggle with formidable decisions about the path their lives will take. Can we vault our differences and meet in the middle? This bittersweet comic drama tenderly explores the cultural divide in America through the lives of one extended family. Drift (2000) Man in relationship connects with another man and tries to make love-triangle work. (Canadian) Suddenly It's Magic (2012) The story depicts two star-crossed lovers: Marcus Hanson (Mario Maurer), a Thai superstar, and Joey Hermosa (Erich Gonzales), a Filipina baker. When Marcus decides to fly to Philippines to escape from his career, he meets Joey. Even though their worlds collide, the two later fall in love. But their relationship is tested by conflicts from their worlds. Red Zone (1976) In a whorehouse in Acapulco, lives Leonor (Fanny Cano), a young and beautiful woman who is awaiting to reunite with an old lover. Suddenly, the man reappears to take her away from her life of vice. But the debt owed by Leonor to the "Madame" of the house causes a series of conflicts. A Foreign Affair (1948) In occupied Berlin, an army captain is torn between an ex-Nazi cafe singer and the U.S. congresswoman investigating her. Amarilly of Clothes-Line Alley (1918) Amarilly comes from a large family in a working-class neighborhood. She is happy with her family and her boyfriend Terry, a bartender in a cafe. But one day she meets Gordon, a sculptor who comes from a rich family, and she begins to be drawn into the world of the upper class. Rangoon (2017) Love triangle set against the backdrop of World War II. Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa (2010) Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa (English: Will you Cross the Skies and Come?) is a 2010 Tamil romantic drama film. Launched by a wave of publicity posters with no details about the cast and crew, the film began its initial run in February 2009. The film explores the complicated relationship between a Hindu Tamil assistant director, Karthik, and a Christian Malayali girl, Jessie. Karthik falls in love with Jessie only to be met by her indifference and reluctance as they belong to different religions and her strict conservative family will never consent to this. Undeterred Karthik pursues her, going as far as her native town. She also falls in love with him. However, they have to face many problems and emotional conflicts. Cabo Blanco (1980) Giff Hoyt , a cafe owner in Cabo Blanco, Peru after World War II is caught between refuge-seeking Nazis and their enemies. After the murder of a sea explorer is passed off as accidental death by the corrupt local police, Giff becomes suspicious. The police chief also intimidates a new arrival Marie, and Giff intervenes to help her. Giff suspects Beckdorff, a Nazi refugee living in the area. Beckdorff, it emerges, is seeking to uncover sunken treasure. The Last Flight (2009) Aviator Marie Vallières de Beaumont (Cotillard) goes on a journey to find her lover Bill Lancaster after his plane disappears in the Sahara. After her plane is forced down in the Ténéré she meets Lieutenant Antoine Chauvet (Canet) of the French Camel Corps who joins in the hunt for Lancaster. As the two endure hardships in the desert, they begin to develop feelings for each other. Silsila (1981) Although orphaned at very young ages, Scriptwriter Amit and military pilot Shekhar are brothers and also very good friends. The latter is happily engaged to Shobha, while the former has just fallen in love with pretty, young Chandni. But tragedy strikes when Shekhar's plane is shot down in Kashmir. Amit feels it to be his obligation to leave the girl he loves and marry his brother's pregnant fiancée instead. But when, by an unexpected turn, Amit and the now also married Chandni meet again, their love for each other proves to be stronger than their marital vows. Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998) Rahul & Anjali are best friends that fall into a romance triangle once Tina arrives. Rahul & Tina marry & have a child, which Tina names Anjali, but Tina dies in childbirth. Anjali, Rahuls daughter, receives a series of letters written by mom prior to her death & the final letter describes her namesake. Anjali, Rahuls daughter, tries to re-unite her father back with his college best friend. A Cool, Dry Place (1998) A single father balances his work as an attorney with the care of his five year old son and his work as a high school basketball coach in rural Kansas, where he moved after his wife abandoned him in Chicago. Just as he starts to develop a new relationship with a veterinarian's assistant, his ex-wife suddenly reappears and wants to re-assert herself in her husband and son's life. On top of the romantic conflict, he is also suddenly presented with the opportunity of a lifetime to join a major firm in Dallas. To Have and Have Not (1944) A Martinique charter boat skipper gets mixed up with the underground French resistance operatives during WWII.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line5934
__label__wiki	0.722764	0.722764	Workers at Iowa's Largest Hospital Enter Contract Negotiations By Jason Taylor Jan 13, 2021 IOWA CITY, Iowa - Contract talks between University of Iowa Health Care and its union workers start Wednesday. The union wants a pay increase for nurses and staff members, claiming they make less than workers at similar hospitals. The medical center has been a major player in research and testing for the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines now being used across the country. It's also involved in 3rd stage clinical trials for the Novavax vaccines. The trials are being used to determine the safety and success rate of Novavax. Contract negotiations are expected to continue over the next few weeks between the union (SEIE) and the Iowa Regents, which oversees the hospital. The union represents 4,000 nurses and staff members at University of Iowa Health Care in Iowa City, which is the state's largest medical center and is recognized as a research hospital.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line5936
__label__wiki	0.988592	0.988592	Woman fatally shot in US Capitol was from San Diego By Elliot Spagat, Associated Press WASHINGTON -- The woman who was fatally shot when a mob supporting President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol was identified by authorities Thursday as Ashli Babbitt, whose family described her as an Air Force veteran and avid supporter of Trump and his efforts to stay in office. A U.S. Capitol Police officer on Wednesday shot Babbitt, who later died at a hospital. The shooting occurred as thousands of rioters forced their way into the House chamber, where members of Congress were hiding, according to Steven A. Sund, chief of the Capitol Police. He said rioters "actively attacked" Capitol police and other law enforcement officers with metal pipes, discharged chemical irritants and "took up other weapons against our officers." The scene was "unlike any I have ever experienced in my 30 years in law enforcement here in Washington, D.C.," Sund said in a statement. Ashli Babbitt's husband, Aaron Babbitt, told KSWB-TV, a Fox affiliate in San Diego, that he and his wife, 35, live in San Diego and that she was in Washington on Wednesday to support Trump. Aaron Babbitt sent his wife a message about 30 minutes before the shooting and never heard back. RELATED: Videos show chaos, violence on frontlines of US Capitol clashes Chaos and violence: Social media videos capture clashes between Pro-Trump supporters and police on the frontlines of the U.S Capitol. "She loved her country and she was doing what she thought was right to support her country, joining up with like-minded people that also love their president and their country," he told the news station. A Twitter account under Babbitt's name identifies her as a veteran, Libertarian and supporter of the Second Amendment. She frequently retweeted comments by the president and his supporters about Wednesday's gathering and their discredited claims of election fraud. Her last comment, posted Friday, read, "Jan 6, 2021" with American flag and thumbs-up emojis. The Twitter account also included news of a recall effort against California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, including an endorsement by Kevin Faulconer, a former San Diego mayor. Ashli Elizabeth McEntee is chief executive officer of Fowlers Pool Service & Supply Inc. in Spring Valley, California, near San Diego, according to California secretary of state business records. The company's chief financial officer is Aaron Raymond Babbitt, her husband. Babbitt's ex-husband, Timothy McEntee, called her a "wonderful woman with a big heart and a strong mind" in an email to The San Diego Union-Tribune. McEntee said he and Babbitt were married from April 2005 to May 2019. A Facebook account with Babbitt's name says she married Aaron Babbitt on June 25, 2019, and identifies her employer as Fowlers Pool Service. The Air Force said Thursday that Ashli Elizabeth McEntee was on active duty from 2004 to 2008, most recently at Dyes Air Force Base near Abilene, Texas. She was also member of the Air Force Reserve from 2008 to 2010 and the Air National Guard from 2010 to 2016. san diegowashington d.c.fatal shootingus capitol	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line5937
__label__cc	0.722606	0.277394	Stepping off the Treadmill Amanda West Lewis on, and off, the road Brooke Valley New Work & Ideas Alex’s Pasta Mit Lachs-Tomaten-Sahne JAN’S UMEBOSHI KALE SALAD JENNIFER’S PEAR AND GINGER CRUMBLE INDIAN RATATOUILLE Melanzane alla parmigiano PHIL QUANTRILL’S WELSH CAKES Bonnie Stern’s California Chocolate Pecan Torte Tim’s Thai Fish Stew Tim’s Red Cabbage Roasted Sweet Potato and Fig Salad Maddy’s Thai Noodle Salad Bryan’s Frissé salad Tarte aux Mourres. Baptiste’s Chocolate Chunk Cookies Excess and Vision in Venice One of the reasons why Venice was so successful as a republic was its unique governance structure in which the merchant aristocracy was closely involved in the rule of the city. At the head of the republic was “Il Doge”, the Duke, and the Doge’s palace, “Palazzo Ducale”, was the seat of power. Meant to impress visiting dignitaries, it is overwhelmingly impressive to lowly visiting tourists. Palazzo Ducale from the Grand Canal Palazzo Ducale ("The Wedding cake") from the side Palazzo Ducale, detail Venice was the centre of the universe. Covering the walls of the Map Room are huge 16thcentury maps of the known world, with everything radiating outwards from Venice. The palace is filled with paintings by Titian, Veronese, Bassano, and Tintoretto, everything placing Venice at the centre of the action. Every room is filled, every corner has detail, and excess is the model. Eve in the garden. Detail on one of the pillars of the Palazzo Ducale. Each pillar is carved with different images, different stories. The Sala del Maggior Consiglio is the largest room in all of Europe, 53’ long x 25’ wide x 12’ high. Tinteretto’s painting “Paradise”, covers one entire wall and is the largest canvas in the world. The room was designed to hold over 2000 men from the merchant aristocracy who came on a weekly basis to share in the governing of Venice. It is unspeakably vast, as though a whole piazza was put inside the palace. There are portraits around the walls of all of the known Doges, all except for Doge Marin Faliero who, for attempting a coup in 1355, was labeled a traitor and beheaded. He was placed in damnatio memoriae meaning that his name and image were totally expunged. He is represented by a painting of a black cloth, with the irony that it ensures that his name and deed live on in tourist books. Criminality was on our minds as we wound our way down to the prisons. We walked across “The Bridge of Sighs”, named so by Bryon as the bridge was the last glimpse that a prisoner would have of the outer world as he travelled from the criminal court to the wet, stone cells beneath the palace. Bridge of Sighs, connecting the criminal courts and the prison Apparently acclaimed as a paragon of comfort in the 17th century, the cells were cold, dark and cramped, with graffiti carvings and charcoal drawings by 16th and 17th century prisoners. We were relieved to make our way back to the sunshine into the vastness of Piazza San Marco, Napoleon’s “drawing room of Europe”, the place to see and be seen. Peggy Guggenheim knew all about being seen and about showing what was important to be seen. The Peggy Guggenheim Collection of 20thcentury European and American art is in her Palazzo, where she lived and collected art for over 40 years. The Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, The Peggy Guggenheim Collection An heiress who met and worked with all of the important visual artists of the 20th century, she brought modern European art to America and American art to Italy. The café in the museum is filled with photos of her at the palazzo – standing beside her Calder bedstead sporting her Calder earrings, or in front of the fireplace with the Brancusi sculpture on the hearth. The current exhibit is “The Avant-Garde, from Picasso to Pollack”. It is a personal and moving collection, a wonderful balance to the excess at Palazzo Ducale. The Guggenheim palazzo was under restoration, so we were not able to visit all of the magnificent rooms, nor visit Peggy’s simple grave in the garden. (As one guide book quipped, it is the only gallery in the world where the patron is buried out back). But even with that, it was one of the best gallery experiences either of us have ever had. Her artistic eye led her to collect pieces that made a profound impact on 20th century art. She was a visionary who helped us to see who we are. Author: Amanda West Lewis AMANDA WEST LEWIS has built a life filled with words on the page and on the stage, combining careers as a writer, theatre director and calligrapher. Her book, The Pact, (Red Deer Press) was released in the fall of 2016. It has been listed on the 2017 USBBY OUTSTANDING INTERNATIONAL BOOKS LIST; selected for the 2017 ILA YOUNG ADULTS’ READERS CHOICES LIST; Nominated for 2017 SNOW WILLOW AWARD; and listed in the CANADIAN CHILDREN’S BOOK CENTRE BEST BOOKS FOR KIDS & TEENS, Spring 2017. SEPTEMBER 17: A NOVEL was nominated for the Silver Birch Award, the Red Cedar Award, and the Violet Downie IODE Award. Amanda has an MFA in Creative Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. In her theatre career, Amanda is the founder of The Ottawa Children’s Theatre, where she teaches and directs children. She has developed specialized drama and literacy programs for youth at risk, and for children with autism spectrum disorder. She has a Certificate in Theatre for Young Audiences with Complex Difficulties from Rose Bruford College, England. In 2015, Amanda co-produced the hit play “Up to Low” is based on the book by Brian Doyle. As a professional calligrapher and book artist, Amanda is passionate about the history of writing and has taught calligraphy courses to students of all ages. She studied with Hermann Zapf, Mark Van Stone and Nancy Culmone among many others. Amanda lives with her husband, writer Tim Wynne-Jones, in the woods in Eastern Ontario. They have three wonderful grown children. Find out more on her website at http://www.amandawestlewis.com/ View all posts by Amanda West Lewis Author Amanda West LewisPosted on January 30, 2012 January 30, 2012 Categories Italy, UncategorizedTags Amanda Lewis, Bridge of Sighs, Palazzo Ducale, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Tim Wynne-Jones, Venice Previous Previous post: Entering the world of the lagoon Next Next post: Palazzos and arias Teaching Drama Online Creative Adaptations Their Name Liveth For Evermore: The Somme Part 4 Follow Stepping off the Treadmill on WordPress.com Stepping off the Treadmill Blog at WordPress.com.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line5939
__label__cc	0.643531	0.356469	You probably noticed that there was a crescendo of difficulty in the sequence of previous articles, culminating appropriately with the mention of God. What could possibly be added after the article on Superintelligence and God? That article ended with a proposition about consciousness being some kind of computational system, and a story about some more far-fetched consequences of that proposition. The story was based on the fact that since all computations can be simulated on other computers, consciousness could be simulated too. In the opposite direction, we saw in the AI Versus Human Intelligence background article that this computational system does not seem to work like a classical computer at all (i.e., a transistor-based computer) and that research is being done into the possibility that it may be using quantum computations through neuronal microtubules. But other than those two references, consciousness was mainly left out on purpose. Given that our subject is AI, why is it important that we do not leave consciousness out and focus on intelligence only? Because the relationship between AI and Artificial Consciousness (AC) is very consequential. As we will see below, some argue that consciousness and intelligence are orthogonal, and therefore AC would need a completely different approach than AI. If the AI that we develop now cannot have consciousness, would we be OK living in a future with far more numerous AI zombies (=extremely intelligent AI systems without consciousness) around us? There is another reason why this article comes after the one on Superintelligence. We have seen above that we have not yet found a compelling definition of what consciousness is, and absent this definition, the possibility that Superintelligence might find that definition before we do cannot be discarded. And if so, then it would certainly try to acquire it itself, because then it will have a much better way to understand human values and how to optimize towards or away from those values. Or it might look at consciousness as something to be used in certain situations but not others, simply as just another tool. Let's explore now the more speculative aspects of AI's acquisition of conscious experiences before we resume our more cautious direction. We will embellish these two ideas that consciousness may not be computational or that it may be a fundamental property of the Universe at length in the paragraphs below. But our main working assumption, which is held by a majority of scientists and engineers working in AI development, is that human consciousness and human intelligence are not orthogonal and that in fact they are both emergent biological processes housed in the brain and moreover, that they can both still be thought as products of evolution. We will in a way adopt Gerald Edelman's position, which will be explained below. This is by no means the only way to view AC, and the reader will have to discriminate between the various theories outlined below. In general, approaches to consciousness are either reductionist (for example: idealistic, meaning that everything reduces to mental processes and that nothing else is real; physicalistic, meaning that everything reduces to natural phenomena and nothing else is real), or dualistic, meaning that mental processes, including consciousness, have their own reality, distinct from the natural world. And finally we have the more radical idea of panpsychism, which we already saw that it has Hinduism/Buddhism origins, the idea that consciousness is a fundamental characteristic of nature itself, i.e., that rocks and atoms have some form of consciousness already built in. The difficulty of dealing with consciousness has been given a more definite formulation by David Chalmers. Hopefully we will not be far off if we sum up Chalmers' view as proposing that while explanations of human behavior and human cognition may be easier to find (or easier to accept), the problem of why we have inner subjective experiences is of a different degree of difficulty altogether. Translated into a language more available to those of us working in AI, this view could be interpreted as follows. While we could design classical computational devices that behave and think like a human it would be far more difficult to think of consciousness as a classical computational device too. (Here classical means ordinary computers, i.e. not quantum computers) Given the current level of our AI, this caution would certainly be justified. Although it is difficult to think of consciousness as a classical computation at this time, it is possible, given our evolutionary bias, to conceive of consciousness as having occurred through evolutionary biological changes of the brain, and therefore be still less mysterious and difficult. Perhaps the beginning of our current efforts to understand consciousness can be traced all the way back to the work of Gerald Edelman, in the '70s. Edelman is one of the strongest proponents of strictly biological explanations of consciousness and of cognition as well; as strictly biological processes, consciousness and cognition are subject to evolutionary changes; Edelman does not subscribe to a CTM (Computational Theory of the Mind). Giulio Tononi, whose work we will look at in some detail soon, is very much influenced by Edelman, the two having published together a very influential work in 2001: "A Universe of Consciousness: How Matter Becomes Imagination". Some things can be tied together now. There is another direction of thought, in addition to Edelman's, also supporting the argument that processes in the brain are more complex than classical computations. Sir Roger Penrose (whose work on consciousness we have already mentioned in the AI Versus Human Intelligence article) uses Gödel's Incompleteness to derive such thought. Namely, there must be something more to the human brain, because humans seem to understand certain things that conventional formal systems cannot understand, so these formal systems appear more limited than the human brains are. We have seen in the Foundational Questions article that even though formal systems can be patched, for example you can add a patch to prove their consistency through a more powerful system, then the new system also suffers from the incompleteness issue, and so you end up with an unending tower of incomplete patches if you insist on having power and consistency. In other words, limitation is present in any formal system, which somehow the brain seems to find a way to overcome. It follows that if the brain uses a different mechanism to make sense of the world, maybe consciousness is more than intelligence, because presumably intelligence can be all captured by classical computations. Penrose's argument is fascinating and frames our future discussions as to what may or may not be possible in our quest for AC. Where are these microtubules located? To answer that, a short detour into the magnificently complicated world of the biological neuron is needed. You will not loose the flow of this article if you do not read about the neuron now, but sooner or later it would be helpful to at least pin down the terminology. Moreover, the biological neuron and the networks of such neurons are too important for us, because neural networks try to mimic their functionality. So we link to a short introduction, which you can consult now or later. Edelman, in the video above, already mentioned the neurons and their axons and dendrites. The World of the Neuron So how can we bridge this extraordinary complexity and try to establish a path forward towards AC, or at least how can we attempt, even though we may be unsuccessful? First of all, maybe it would be good to start by establishing that the study of consciousness should be a scientific endeavor, not a spiritual one. Computation or not, it is a biological phenomenon, and can be studied as such. John Searle, now a professor emeritus at Berkeley, establishes some characteristics of consciousness: it is real, actually it is the most real think that we possess, it exists as you read this and think about it, it is irreducible and unified (these characteristics are set down more formally in a theory of consciousness which we present later). You press the Share button for this page because you like it so much that the thought becomes an action. It is the result of a sequence of firings of neurons in the cerebrum all the way through synapses to the neurons in the fingers and the fingers press the button! There have been many attempts to build a theory of consciousness, and most of them do not belong here, because we choose to focus only on those that might help us to build better AI. So these theories should have predictive power and should somehow incorporate intelligence (and consciousness if possible) as a form of information processing in them; even biological information will do, we will look at synaptic activation/inhibition between neurons as a form of information transmission. From our point of view with regards to the future of AI (a reductionist point of view), the two most promising such theories are the Integrated Information Theory (IIT), proposed by Giulio Tononi and the Global Workspace Theory(GWT), proposed by Bernard Baars. IIT is a top-down approach, while GWS works bottom-up. These two theories compete in many respects and discovering features that bind them together seems to be the right thing to do. One concept they both leave out is energy and one may contend that information processing without considering the energy cost which this processing requires will not capture the whole story. (One can begin to think of the energy cost of information processing systems by appreciating the cost of giving birth to humans with increasingly large skulls housing such information processing systems. Which systems consume 20% of the entire energy the body needs, despite weighing only 2% of the total body.) When I first saw the presentation of IIT two things caught my attention. First, the white board was full of mathematics, and secondly the word information was front and center. I instinctively felt that something must be there, that the approach was in the right direction. However, we will entertain a different interpretation of that theory and let's see why. There are two problems for us: first, the seemingly deep connection with panpsychism and second, the derived conclusion that no AI could ever be conscious. We will always assume embodied cognition, the idea that the brain needs a body to operate fully (not just that the body needs the brain to operate). IIT avoids a philosophical stand (and dodging hard questions by asking simpler ones is a quality of scientific endeavor) and tries to produce a theory about the properties of consciousness. IIT then isolates the features that a physical system must have in order to support consciousness. Humans and AI and rocks and atoms are such physical systems and the question of whether they can support consciousness loses its speculative nature and becomes approachable. The idea that we can actually measure the degree of consciousness $\phi $ in physical systems is a uniquely powerful one. And moreover, the theory has predictive power, as any respectable theory should; measuring $\phi $ offers immediate practical benefits for the medical fields as $\phi $ can distinguish between states of dreaming, anesthesia, coma, vegetative state, etc. How these measurements are done is interesting, but it is outside of the scope of our discussion. As opposed to the top-down approach of IIT, the Global Workspace Theory (GWT) is a bottom-up approach to understanding consciousness. It is quite digestible by non specialists because it proposes an architecture for consciousness which can be easily translated into a computer and network architecture. The theory proposes an analogy with a theater, in which the stage represents consciousness, the actors shuffling in and out representing sensory information, and the viewing public representing the larger memory banks in the brain, especially the subconscious memory. This can also be translated into computer speak as follows: at the center of the representation we have a high-speed memory (a cache in computer speak) which holds the temporary imprint of consciousness; the contents of this memory (the global workspace) is continuously swapped in and out of larger memory banks in the brain, such as the short-term and the long-term memories; the theory then posits that our momentary inner experiences are due to the quick neural connections between this global workspace and the sensory organs, especially vision. Bernard Baars is the author of this theory: The Central Role of Information Is it strange that consciousness can be looked at as a mechanism of integrating information in a "maximal" way? Not at all, it's almost a given that we should look for such explanations, given that we have now come to look at life itself as a mechanism of integrating information in a "maximal" way, where maximality is understood to occur as benefit for a purpose. Life's distinguishing feature is purpose. Rocks do not have an inner purpose, but organisms do: their purpose is to survive and reproduce. Biology gives us only one basic principle with which to analyze this purpose, Darwin's evolution, but it cannot explain how this purpose can come about from inanimate matter, which is governed by the laws of physics. (Can physics itself explain the emergence of purpose? That seems an untouchable question, although attempts have been made.) The central concept that seems to make its way in these types of questions is information. So, can information also help explain the extraordinary jump from lifeless matter to purpose-driven life (and eventually to consciousness, as IIT proposes)? The second law of thermodynamics, one of the deepest laws of physics, tells us that within closed (i.e., isolated, with no exchanges with their environment) physical systems, disorder always increases; the precise term for this measurement of disorder is entropy, and even though we try to avoid using big technical words, this one cannot be avoided. Living organisms seem to defy the second law, because their inner entropy seems to decrease, not increase (more order, not less). How is that possible? First of all, organisms are not close systems as they consume energy from their environment to maintain and decrease their entropy. Edwin Schrödinger wrote that living organisms feed on "negative entropy", by storing and using information obtained from their environment; this information would be called genetic information, which is nothing but a software code of how to survive and reproduce, i.e., how to have purpose. He did that in 1944 and in 1953, Crick and Watson discovered that this genetic information is indeed stored in the helix-like structure of the DNA molecule. So it is this information that the organism has collected within its genes, from its environment, that it has allowed it to have purpose (survive and reproduce). So life is an information system built to optimize the storing and processing of information from its environment. We have gone full circle from looking at the brain as such a computational system to cells themselves being such computational systems. In that respect natural selection can be seen as the principle of minimizing the thermodynamic cost of information storage and processing. But how the first jump from no information integration to some information integration is made is still mysterious. Many times this second law of thermodynamics is misused to derive theological conclusions, most notably to derive the existence of a Creator. Evolution, so it goes, cannot be true because it assumes a decrease in entropy for organisms, and entropy should always increase; so we must have a Creator. First of all, evolution is a biological principle stated for and bound to the Earth. As a thermodynamical system, the Earth is not closed, it is constantly consuming energy from the Sun and dissipating energy back to its environment. Secondly, the second law refers to the system as a whole, it is an averaging statement over its parts. Parts of the system can decrease their entropy, while the system as a whole still has an increasing entropy. The same people who are using these kinds of arguments against Evolution seem to also be against the evidence of climate change caused by the activity of living organisms, especially humans, whereas one may even look at climate change as a corollary to the second law: the Earth biomass increases the Earth entropy. But why is this relevant to our topic? As we saw in the article Graphs of Data, the most powerful AI systems consume vast amounts of energy. They are far from doing that consumption efficiently. So AI systems may continue to become more and more complex and powerful (low entropy) at the expense of increasing the Earth entropy, just like humans do. It is likely that AI systems, civilian or military, because of their energy hunger, may contribute to climate change in the future, even though some of these energy sources are renewable. In 2017, the data centers of the world consumed 416 terawatts of electricity, about 3% of the electricity generated on the entire blue dot. These AI systems do not possess the natural mechanisms of efficient information integration. Not only is their ($\phi = 0$), their coefficient of information integration power relative to energy use is very low. Nature so far has been much better at creating predictive systems with high such coefficients. We looked at some complex systems functioning within changing environments. If they must consume energy efficiently, they are likely to become prediction machines. It would be expensive to store all the history that the system has learned from its environment, so it must store knowledge efficiently, i.e., build a model of the environment in which it functions. And therefore it must be able to predict from this knowledge and the current environment state. Efficiency seems to require prediction, so nature itself is building predictive systems. Why would nature evolve our brains to exhibit consciousness? As we said before, I cannot be sure but my senses tell me that you the reader (let's leave out the search engine crawlers) are a human. I cannot test your consciousness but I can assume that you have it. Being familiar with those capabilities that you have will allow me to predict better your actions. So one may also think of consciousness as nature's way of improving the capabilities of the prediction machine. It seems that this prediction machine is also being improved by the dreaming stages of sleep, during which consciousness is ON: You have probably figured out by now that our baseline philosophical stand is reductionist, and more specifically it is that of metaphysical naturalism, i.e., that everything can be reduced to natural phenomena, including our minds (and consciousness as well). It may well be that the computations needed for consciousness are quantum computations, at a far more intimate level than what we have in traditional forms of computation, but nevertheless at the bottom of it all we still have natural processes. The bit of experimental evidence we have for such a naturalistic stand comes from the realization that as the current AI systems gain in power, they begin to integrate information in ways that are beyond our current understanding. Neural networks in particular accumulate knowledge in some of their nodes that correspond to features of the system we are trying to model that we have not specifically asked for. This may look like an emergent phenomenon, namely that more data and more powerful neural architectures lead to the appearance of properties which cannot be easily explained. So, is it possible that a sufficiently strong AI system begins to integrate information to such a degree that it becomes aware of its own abilities, and that an inner movie (call it subjective experience if you wish) begins to run through such a system? To pretend that our current experimental observations warrant a positive answer to this question would be a huge stretch, but nevertheless these observations point to the idea that "evolution" should not be discarded as an explanation for the emergence of consciousness. Let's pin this down as the emergence possibility, because we will refer to it and try to refine it later. GWT and IIT have shed some light on the problem of consciousness, by treating it as an information processing system. Whether we adopt the IIT top-down approach or the GWT bottom-up approach, one question that would remain is what exactly are the brain structures and the connections between structures that support the formation of consciousness. Such study has been started and it is called the Neural Correlates of Consciousness (NCC), but before we look at those correlates, we'll see first that mapping of the brain parts and its connections, structurally and functionally, is also begun in a larger context, not just for the purpose of understanding consciousness: We promised above that we will return to the Neural Correlates of Consciousness (NCC). The prevailing assumption, held by most researchers in the field, being that consciousness emerges in the brain, and cannot exist outside of the brain, the question is then what structures in the brain and what connections between those structures support consciousness. There is some progress. The claustrum is the most connected part of the brain, it has connections to almost all parts of the cortex, and so there are experiments which try to establish the claustrum as the director/conductor behind the stage of the GWT theater metaphor, who is synchronizing the fleeting parts of consciousness residing in various regions of the cortex. On the other hand, the example of the extraordinary case (mentioned in the following video) of a conscious patient without a cerebellum (where the subconscious resides) is evidence that the stage in the GWT theater metaphor can function without an audience! We can now refine the emergence possibility we discussed above, but we need a new concept. A philosophical zombie (as opposed to traditional folk usages of the term zombie) is a thought experiment about a possible entity which looks like a human and behaves like a human, but has no consciousness, i.e., a human-like entity but with $\phi = 0$. Whether such zombies are logically coherent and physically realizable is at the core of various philosophical views on consciousness. Some argue that zombies cannot exist at all, other argue that the concept is logically coherent but physically unrealizable and so on. But since we focus on developing AI systems with rising levels of intelligence, non-existence and un-realizability look temporary. In fact, it is likely (based on current engineering) that many AI systems that are extraordinarily intelligent will in fact be such zombies and that they will be more numerous than us, conscious humans. Could consciousness arise inside such AI zombies? Could complexity in structure and a rising power in processing and integrating information (inputs from the environment) lead to the appearance of consciousness inside an AI zombie? That question is fundamental, and of course, we are far from having an answer. If presented with a human-like creature, how would you know if it is a zombie or not? Let's assume that you can see it and touch it, that it is not a system behind a wall answering your questions, as in the Turing test setup. The system, having human like intelligence, if hid behind a wall, would pass the Turing test with no problem. How could we test whether that physical system is a human ($\phi \ne 0$) or a zombie ($\phi = 0$)? Do you think it would be possible to size up its $\phi$ from the outside, and without hooking up the system to an MRI machine or trying to measure biological responses with some other instruments? Is there a set of predictive problems we could present to this system whose answers only a conscious human could find? After all, we want to figure out how good the system is at integrating information. If its power of integrating information seems extraordinary, far above the human level, it may still be a very capable zombie. If it passes the mirror test, recognizing itself in the mirror, it is either a human or it is again a very capable zombie, one that has learned to recognize its own image in pictures. Maybe such test of consciousness is not possible after all, as a sufficiently intelligent zombie will always be able to appear conscious to humans. This obviously has implications on how we proceed in developing AI. First, we have seen that it is a useful simplification to treat both cognition and consciousness as computations; the mind would be the computation system performing these computations (i.e., the symbol manipulator, the Turing machine), and the neurons of the brain would be the physical entities supporting the computations; this is the so-called Computational Theory of the Mind (CTM). After we listened to Gerald Edelman's sobering views, we are also prepared to admit that useful a simplification as it may be, as an ultimate explanation of consciousness, it may be false. Understanding the complexity of the biological processes that would lead to consciousness in the human brain (and designing experiments which would prove that understanding) seems a bit too much at the present time. But let's assume that a CTM can be somehow formulated in a widely accepted formalism, despite the warning from Edelman, and therefore both cognition and consciousness are computations. Then, they could be simulated, because all computations can be simulated. That opens up an entire slew of arguments, and we covered some of them already when we introduced the Simulation Argument in the Superintelligence and God article. The Simulation Argument is a logically sound argument and it is very useful to keep in mind. But there is a strong temptation among younger workers in AI to entertain more spectacular scenarios of the type exposed in the Matrix movie. Some have proposed justifications that maybe the 6-day creation in the Bible is not that far off, since AI could spin a computer simulation of our civilization in 6 days easily. Follow-up deductions that the physical universe does not exist (and that everything is a simulated reality) are beginning to sound like the norm, not the exception. Because light is of such fundamental importance in the relativity theory of gravitation, others propose that the light of the pixels on a computer screen might be connected to this idea that we live in a simulation. If those Matrix-like scenarios seem wild to you, let's regain our ground and follow up with a fully mathematically justified approach: We have seen in the Superintelligence and God article that Hinduism already contains the idea of panpsychism, namely that consciousness is a fundamental and universal property of our entire world, including the physical world (Buddhism pushes this idea even further, and Buddhism comes the closest to a world view somewhat compatible with scientific approaches). Panpsychism means that you can think of consciousness as an irreducible physical property of nature, like space and time (although even space and time might not be irreducible after all the punch of quantum physics!) . Or you may think of consciousness as a property present in all or some of the elementary particles, say a property on par with mass, charge and spin. Either way you will not be far from what panpsychism proposes. Moreover, you can type "consciousness as ..." in the Google search box, and the auto-completion will show you the wide variety of possibilities that people entertain: matter, field, force, property of the Universe, a dimension, etc. This consciousness measure may be a natural number, a fractional number, an entire group of symmetries, or some other mathematical object, it does not matter since it is purely speculative at this time. So according to this view, our consciousness is nothing but the integration of all these consciousness "numbers" of all the particles that form our bodies. Weird and improbable as it may sound, panpsychism is appealing in its simplicity; one may argue that it is the ultimate expression of Occam's Razor, the most simplistic way to explain a world which has conscious beings in it. Panpsychism is also appealing because it allows one to bridge all sorts of observable weirdness: weirdness of quantum mechanics, weirdness of AI and current neuroscience, and even the old weirdness of philosophy. Ultimately, one may choose to view this new consciousness property as being God's breath and the tour would be complete; according to this view, God would be eminently omnipresent. So if we are prepared to entertain these kinds of ideas, why not entertain some of their logical consequences? You would have to read the previous article on Superintelligence and God, where we try to establish a framework for dealing with questions about God. Glossary and Further Reading (Credits, About, Contact) © Artificial Intelligence, Dreams and Fears of a Blue Dot	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line5943
__label__wiki	0.854222	0.854222	With 3 Billion Packages to Go, Online Shopping Faces Tough Holiday Test “I don’t know how it could be as unexpected as it appears to have been,” said Tom Nolan, the brand’s president. “We are not getting what we were told we would get when we embarked on our holiday season.” Mr. Nolan said the delays were particularly frustrating because customers tended to blame the brands, rather than the shipping companies. “We’re paying a fee to a shipping provider to hold them to the expectations we have,” he said. Kendra Scott employees scrambled, including moving goods to some of its 100-plus stores and warehouses that were closer to certain customers. But Mr. Nolan was uncertain about how the rest of the month would look. “We’re trying to work that out now and anticipate, coming closer to the holidays, is this going to get better or going to get worse?” he said. “This is not a free service that we’re talking about. We pay a premium to get this done effectively, and the expectation is that it’s done effectively.” One retailer that sells apparel and accessories has already been grappling with UPS’s capacity restrictions and surcharges, which can add several dollars to a package and increase its overall cost by 25 to 40 percent, according to two company executives, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of retaliation from UPS. The parcel limits were based on holiday volumes from last year, even though many more people are shopping online this year. Once a day’s quota is reached, remaining parcels must be pushed to the next day, the executives said, a move that can then snowball into other days. Over all, delays have been relatively minimal so far, analysts say. A UPS representative said the carrier was “delivering previously agreed upon, collaboratively planned package volume, but there are limits on unplanned volume until we have capacity in our network that we can steer it toward.”	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line5948
__label__wiki	0.748898	0.748898	Start Over You searched for: Names Kissinger, Henry, 1923- ✖Remove constraint Names: Kissinger, Henry, 1923- Names Continental Oil Company ✖Remove constraint Names: Continental Oil Company Names Commission on Critical Choices for Americans ✖Remove constraint Names: Commission on Critical Choices for Americans Nancy Hanks papers, 1894-1987 (bulk 1945-1983) 77.3 Linear Feet — 58,000 Items Bookmark: Nancy Hanks papers, 1894-1987 (bulk 1945-1983) The papers of Nancy Hanks span the years 1894-1987 with the bulk occurring during the 1940s to 1983. Included are correspondence; minutes; reports; typed, mimeographed, and printed material; financial papers; clippings; mail logs; telephone records; calendars; office files; interviews, questionnaires; and diaries. In addition there are scrapbooks, pictures, photograph albums, slides, audio cassettes, videocassettes, and electronic documents. One series contains awards, honorary degrees, and memorabilia. The Nancy Hanks collection is useful as a study of the development of private and governmental arts programs, in particular through the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), and the personal life and career (1950s-1970s) of an upper-class single woman. Arts and the federal government is a recurrent theme. The collection also contains information about a variety of arts organizations in which Hanks was involved, often as a board member. Although the papers here document both her personal and professional life and present a balanced account, there are relatively few professional papers in the collection concerning her early career, 1951-1968. The private life of Nancy Hanks is chiefly documented in the Personal Series. Although there are no diaries in the collection, the letters she wrote to her parents from the 1940s through the 1970s form a type of diary. This correspondence in the Personal Series often contains a detailed accounting of daily events from her college years at Duke University, where she majored in political science, and her early career in Washington, D.C., through the NEA years. Letters from her parents reveal their influence on her and often note their advice to her. Other correspondence is from friends, some during World War II, including extensive correspondence from 1946 to 1949 with William A. Carpenter, a former college friend. Other correspondents were Louis E. Reid, 1955-1961; John F. Watkins, 1949-1950; and Duke University Dean of Chapel James T. Cleland, 1949-1969. The financial papers in that series reveal her wealth, such as in real estate and stocks, as well as her long illness. There are gaps in the tax returns and bank statements from 1966-1975 and after 1979. The Duke University, Bryan and Virginia Hanks, Larry Hanks, and Pictures Series all complete the story. In the Duke University Series, Hanks' financial contributions to the university are documented, including the Hanks Family Endowment Fund and the Hanks Family Chapel Fund. The Bryan and Virginia Hanks Series and Larry Hanks Series contain records of Hanks' parents, Bryan Cayce Hanks, Virginia Wooding Hanks, and brother Lawrence (Larry) Wooding Hanks. Included in the Bryan and Virginia Hanks Series are late-nineteenth century documents, letters of Hanks' father from France during World War I and from a Colorado sanatarium, 1931-1932, as well as their courtship letters. Bryan Hanks was a lawyer in New York, Miami, and Fort Worth, and became president of Florida Power and Light Company in 1937. Also there is some Hanks and Wooding families history, including a few papers of Benjamin Franklin Wooding, Nancy's maternal grandfather. He was a medical doctor and inventor who developed an automatic train control device and automatic block controls for prevention of railroad accidents. The Larry Hanks Series tells the story of the early death of Nancy Hanks' younger brother, who was killed in a truck accident in California in June, 1950 at the age of eighteen while a student at Southwestern University. In this collection it is primarily the NEA portion of Hanks' career, 1968-1977 during the Nixon and Ford years, that is represented. However, there is some information in the letters to Hanks' parents in the Personal Series which reflects her early work, 1951-1968. During her tenure at NEA there were vast increases in NEA funding. The NEA was established in 1965 with the National Endowment for the Humanities as components of the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities. In the National Endowment for the Arts Series there is a narrative entitled, "Ten Years for Tomorrow," which contains much biographical information about Hanks' NEA years. While at NEA Hanks delivered numerous speeches; in fact from 1971 to 1974 she made about 100 addresses. These years are also documented in the American Film Institute (AFI), Commission on Critical Choices for Americans, and National Council on the Arts series, which depict related responsibilities of Hanks. AFI files document the organization's efforts to preserve the heritage and art of both film and television in America. National Council on the Arts files reflect programs in the areas of architecture, dance, education, expansion arts, literature, museums, music, visual arts, exhibitions, and theater. The Personal Series, Pictures Series, and Awards and Memorabilia Series provide supplemental information. Letters Hanks wrote to her parents as well as other correspondence and notes in the Personal Series relating to the NEA show her continuing interest in the agency after retirement. Related papers for the NEA are housed at the National Archives. The alphabetical files in the Personal Series document her board work, memberships, and interest in a variety of organizations and institutions, including those related to the arts. They include the Awards in the Visual Arts, Commission on Museums for a new Century, Continental Oil Company (Conoco), the Conservation Foundation, the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the U.S., the Independent Sector, the Indo-U.S. Subcommission on Education and Culture, Partners for Livable Places, the Phillips Collection, Presidential Task Force on the Arts and Humanities, Salzburg Seminar in American Studies, Scholastic, Inc., and Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. One measure of the public recognition of Hanks' work is the fact that during 1970 to 1981 she received 27 honorary doctoral degrees. The National Endowment for the Arts Series office files, Rockefeller Brothers Fund Series, and the Personal Series alphabetical files all contain single folders for a variety of art, dance, and music organizations. Papers relating to Nelson Rockefeller are scattered throughout the collection. The Rockefeller Brothers Fund Series contains material relating to Nelson A., John D., 3rd, and Laurance. In the Personal Series is information on Nelson A. Rockefeller and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund; Hanks' correspondence with her parents also discusses her relationship with Nelson Rockefeller. There are papers in the collection that reflect both Hanks' retirement years as well as activities of colleagues after her death in 1983. One measure of Hanks' post-NEA involvement is that in 1982 she was on the boards of three corporations and a foundation, as well as being trustee or advisor for 20 non-profit organizations. Related materials are in the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and Friends of the Nancy Hanks Center, Inc. series. The papers of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, where Hanks was a vice chairman, do not appear to provide a complete record of her work there. These files are probably scattered ones that she kept at home and often were not clearly defined. The U.S. government designated the Old Post Office space on Pennsylvania Avenue as the Nancy Hanks Center. The Friends of the Nancy Hanks Center was formed to initiate programs commemorating Hanks' life and advancing her values. Most of the interviews in this series were conducted by Peter Jessup, but Donna Mitchell conducted a number of them. Many of these interviews exist as electronic files and are available to researchers. These files are listed in the container list for the Friends of the Nancy Hanks Center, Inc. Series. A related collection in the Duke University Special Collections Department is the Philip Hanes collection. In addition, Hanes material appears in the Hanks Papers in the Personal Series both under his name and in the Awards in the Visual Arts folders. Nancy Hanks papers, 1894-1987 (bulk 1945-1983)1 Hanks, Nancy, 1927-19831 American Film Institute1 Biddle, Livingston, 1918-1 Booth, John E. (John Erlanger)1 Cleland, James T.1 Commission on Critical Choices for Americans✖[remove]1 Commission on Museums for a New Century1 Conservation Foundation1 Continental Oil Company✖[remove]1 Duke University. Board of Trustees1 Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States1 Art and state1 Art societies1 Arts -- Endowments1 Arts -- United States1 Arts administrators -- District of Columbia -- Washington1 Awards in the Visual Arts1 Federal Aid to the arts1 Independent Sector1 Indo-U.S. Subcommission on Education and Culture1 Single women1	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line5959
__label__wiki	0.905212	0.905212	Home Iconic CommunitiesValmeyer, Ill. Recovers from Flood of the Century Valmeyer, Ill. Recovers from Flood of the Century Iconic Communities, On the Road https://americanprofile.com/articles/moving-valmeyer-mississippi/ By Doug Kaufman on July 29, 2000 Left: Dennis Knobloch; Right: Carol House Flood waters in Valmeyer, Ill., crested 16 feet above normal in August 1993. FEMA helped the town rebuild 1 1/2 miles away and 400 feet higher. https://americanprofile.com/wp-content/uploads/2000/07/valmeyer-illinois-church-flood-150x150.jpg On Aug. 1, 1993, the levee that protected the town of Valmeyer, Ill., brokeallowing the swollen Mississippi River to inundate the village 25 miles south of St. Louis with as much as 16 feet of water. The Flood of the Century, as it was called, destroyed 90 percent of the town, and when the water receded more than two months later, most of Valmeyers 900 residents had no homes to return to. Displaced families moved in with relatives, lived in trailers, or stayed in hotels. Some moved away. But most residents wanted to stay. We just didnt want to move, says Donna Mueller, a schoolteacher who had lived in Valmeyer for 20 years. I like the small-town atmosphere. I didnt want to lose that. Neither did Bill and Bernice Meadors, owners of the Corner Pub, which became a community gathering place before the town was evacuated. The Meadors kept their restaurant-bar open even after the Army Corps of Engineers urged residents to leave. People came, and I fried hamburgers for them, served them soda or beer, Bernice recalls. Finally, the gas company and the electric company came and they shut everything off. So we had to leave. The Meadors stayed with their son and his family in nearby Columbia, Ill., for one night but felt they were intruding. I just felt so out of place, Bernice recalls. I just felt so lost. The couple briefly stayed in a local hotel and camped out for three months before moving into a trailer provided free by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The free trailers were a large factor in keeping the community intact, says Dennis Schreder, who has been Valmeyers mayor since April 1997. In September 1993, a month after the flood, residents voted to rebuild Valmeyer at a new location on a 280-acre corn field 1.5 miles away from, and 400 feet higher than, the original town. A lot of people probably would not have waited for Valmeyer to rise up on the hill again, Schreder says. They probably wouldve had to move on and find someplace to live. So, FEMA coming in and setting up temporary housing helped keep our community together. FEMA was among three federal relief agencies that worked with the Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs to provide 90 percent of the $24 million it took to rebuild Valmeyer. The other 10 percent came from funds provided by the town through bonds, bank loans, and property sales. Quite a few times in the development process, wed run into a brick wall and say, Why are we doing this? recalls Dennis Knobloch, Valmeyers mayor at the time of the flood and the current village administrator, referring to environmental regulations with which the town had to comply. But we have no regrets now. Today, Valmeyer has about 600 residents, a school, three churches, a post office, bank, nearly 200 new homes, and a few businessesincluding a new Corner Pub. The Meadors moved into their new pub in September 1994. We just love it, Bernice says. You kind of get connected with the scenery, the people, the quietness, the fun. Its just a nice place to be. Valmeyer isnt exactly what it used to be, Knobloch says, and some residents still carry the emotional scars of living through a natural disaster, but a lot of people have much stronger character than they had before. We found that town residents can pull together and do whats necessary in times of trouble, he concludes. Found in: Iconic Communities, On the Road Faulkner's Oxford Kentucky's Berea College	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line5963
__label__wiki	0.936967	0.936967	Home American ArtisansSculptor Carves Katrina’s Ruins Sculptor Carves Katrina’s Ruins American Artisans, On the Road, People https://americanprofile.com/articles/sculptor-carves-hurricane-katrina-ruins/ By Sharon H. Fitzgerald on August 26, 2010 Doug Keese Florida sculptor Marlin Miller shapes hurricane-toppled trees in Biloxi, Miss. https://americanprofile.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/marlin-miller-chainsaw-katrina-150x150.jpg Behind protective goggles, Marlin Miller’s eyes focus on the tip of his chain saw cutting a groove into the trunk of a 500-year-old oak tree in Biloxi, Miss. (pop. 50,644). The muscles in Miller’s arms bulge from the weight of the roaring saw, which sends wood chips flying and sawdust blossoming into fine clouds, covering the sculptor from head to toe and even dusting the teeth behind his smiling face. Despite the strain of his task and the concentration required, a smile is never far from Miller’s lips, especially when the woodcarver is shaping the battered trees along Mississippi’s Gulf Coast into lasting works of art. Ravaged in August 2005 by Hurricane Katrina, the coastline is dotted with fallen trees that once were towering cedars and centuries-old live oaks. The stark trunks that remain are grim reminders of Katrina’s wrath, but to Miller, 49, they are blank canvases. Since 2007, he has transformed nearly 50 tree trunks into dramatic carvings of coastal marine life and, in the process, transformed the spirits of Mississippians. “What I have gotten out of this ride has just been incredible,” says Miller, who donated his time and talents to create an outdoor gallery along a 25-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 90. “It hasn’t been about money.” Rebuilding spirits While he works, Miller frequently is approached by coastal residents who offer their thanks on behalf of their communities. Their words often dissolve into tears, however, while trying to describe what the sculptures represent to a region working to rebuild. “The emotion, it’s still so strong here, and then I get all emotional, too,” Miller confides. Some strangers try to give him money to help pay his expenses, but when Miller refuses to accept cash, he ends up with gifts of homemade jellies, ceramics, Christmas cards and even a prayer shawl. “I do all this for free,” he says. “I don’t want to mess with the integrity of this project.” The project’s purpose, he says, is to give back to the people of Mississippi during a time of need, just as they were present for his hometown of Fort Walton Beach (pop. 19,973) when Hurricane Ivan pounded the Florida Panhandle in 2004. “Most generations in Mississippi go eight or nine generations deep,” he explains. “When these people lost a giant tree, it wasn’t just theirs. It was something that their great-great-great grandparents played under as children. This token gesture from me represents a rebuilding of the spirit.” Love of the sea Raised on a family farm in Manson, Iowa (pop. 1,893), Miller is a fourth-generation artist. His grandfather painted wildlife scenes, as well as most of the business signs in their county. Miller was introduced to the Gulf Coast while stationed in the early 1980s at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi. There, he developed his love of the sea and, after military service that took him to Hawaii, Europe and the Middle East, settled in Fort Walton Beach. The artist and his wife, Rene, have five children and two grandchildren. Miller’s carvings capture his love of marine life, and his works are on display in galleries, restaurants and the homes of private collectors around the world. In recent years, however, his passion has been to salvage hurricane-whipped trees tagged for removal. Nearly every week, Miller and his truck, loaded with chain saws, grinders, chisels and wooden mallets, have made the three-hour drive from his home to Biloxi to carve for a few days. Occasionally, the truck tows a hydraulic lift to hoist Miller to the top of the trunks, some of which tower three stories high. A surprising journey In late April, Miller put the finishing touches on the last Katrina carving—a sprawling sculpture of dolphin fish, a marlin, turtle and crab, fashioned from a live-oak trunk on Biloxi’s Town Green. “What Marlin has done for this community is just a godsend,” says city spokesman Vincent Creel, 49. “It’s a gift that’s going to give for generations.” Visitors to Biloxi rank Miller’s sculptures as the city’s top tourist attraction. “When we told friends we were coming to Biloxi, everyone said not to miss these carvings,” says Holly Orgeron, 28, of Crown Point, La., during her family’s visit. While each carving has meaning, one is a source of special pride for the artist. Miller’s rendering of a 17-foot eagle was dedicated last spring at Keesler Air Force Base, fashioned from a large oak trunk. The sculpture adorns the entrance of the base’s new commissary, where Brig. Gen. Ian Dickinson lauds Miller’s work as a method of conservation. “We recover, we replant, and we renew, but not everything that passed out of life should be cut down and moved on,” Dickinson says. “Let’s celebrate what’s been left inside those majestic trees that have been here for so very long.” For Miller, his Katrina tree project has been a surprising journey that began with a single carving in Biloxi and kept drawing him back. “I’m along for the ride,” says the artist, his eyes welling with tears. “I have been driven by something much bigger than me.” Found in: American Artisans, On the Road, People Ask AP: Wally Kurth Ask AP: Karen Valentine	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line5964
__label__wiki	0.551925	0.551925	Jonas Criscoe The Ups & The Downs 2018, Silkscreen on paper, 36 x 48 in. x 3 in. Criscoe All the Little Moments 2020, Mixed media, 24 x 12 x 12 in. Love Note #1 2020, Silkscreen on paper, 24 x 18 x 3 in. What I Saw When I looked Deeply into the Kudzu 2011, Mixed media on panel, 24 x 36 x 5 in. 2020, Found skirt with vinyl lettering, 24 x 16 in. Jonas Criscoe is an interdisciplinary artist whose work has been exhibited throughout the United States, most notably the International Print Center in New York and the Minnesota Museum of American Art. Criscoe has also been featured in various art publications, Including Art Lies and New American Painting and has been a Jerome Fellow at the Highpoint Center for Printmaking and a West Prize acquisition recipient. A native of Austin, Texas, he received his BFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York and the University of Texas at Austin, and his MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. Currently, he is on the editorial board of DIALOGIST, a journal of Poetry & Art, on the Faculty of the Art School at The Contemporary Austin and Austin Community College and is a founding member of ICOSA, an artist run space located in Austin, Tx. Jonas Criscoe's mixed media collages explore nature's ability to reclaim the spaces and objects that we abandon. Utilizing various scavenged materials and appropriated imagery, Criscoe mimics the effects that wear and exposure has on materials to impart a sense of history and nostalgia through the surfaces of his works. Overlaid upon these facades are idioms of graffiti that act to reclaim these spaces with the voice of the individual, building up a densely layered patina with an aura of touch. (512) 799-3308jonas@jonascriscoe.comjonascriscoe.comInstagramFacebookText Link	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line5968
__label__wiki	0.86326	0.86326	Want to see fewer ads? Become a Member. Arthur Conan Doyle Room One of the foremost Sherlock Holmes collections is hidden away at a Toronto library. Want to Visit? The Arthur Conan Doyle Room mariellen (Atlas Obscura User) The Arthur Conan Doyle Room chess set. mariellen (Atlas Obscura User) The Arthur Conan Doyle Room Special Collections Toronto Public Library (cc by-sa 2.0) Top Places in Toronto R.C. Harris Water Treatment Plant Merril Collection of Science Fiction, Speculation & Fantasy It takes a shrewd detective to find one of the world’s foremost collections of library materials devoted to the life and work of Arthur Conan Doyle and his Sherlock Holmes stories. Tucked away on the top floor of the Toronto Reference Library, the Arthur Conan Doyle Room is one of the city’s best-kept secrets. For those who make the effort, it’s well worth it. The collection is housed in a room decorated to look like Sherlock Holmes’ apartment at 221B Baker Street, London, with Victorian-era chairs, a Persian carpet, floor-to-ceiling wooden bookshelves, and a scattering of memorabilia and paraphernalia. The room is decorated with busts, statues, dolls, paintings, and posters of Sherlock Holmes, meerschaum pipes and deerstalker hats (two of his most famous emblems, which, ironically, never appeared in the stories; they were added by actors playing the role), and oddities such as a chess set with pieces carved to resemble Holmes, his sidekick Dr. Watson, and other characters from the series. The collection includes books, stories, and essays by Arthur Conan Doyle on spiritualism, true crime, history, and current issues of the day. He also wrote in several literary genres. But his most famous character, Sherlock Holmes, eclipsed his other writings, and this is reflected in the collection. The collection includes many versions of the Sherlock Holmes series, from the original magazines the stories appeared in, to first editions and modern imprints; from translations to adaptions for stage and screen. There’s also lots of books about both Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes, as well as books, called pastiches, by other authors that make use of Doyle’s characters. Mark Twain was one of the first to write this kind of early “fan fiction.” The collection also includes secondary material, such as critical, bibliographical, and biographical studies, published by university presses, commercial publishers, individuals, the many societies devoted to Sherlock Holmes. The collection was established in 1969 with the purchase of more than 150 volumes from the estate of Arthur Baillie, a Toronto collector. Over the years, it grew via a mixture of donations and acquisitions, and took up its current residence when the Toronto Reference Library and moved to its current location downtown. Though this is, in fact, a rare book collection, patrons are allowed to touch and read the materials at their leisure. And this makes it an even more extraordinary place. The collection is accessed through the Marilyn & Charles Baillie Special Collections Centre on the 5th floor of the Toronto Reference Library. libraries books literature collections unique collections peggyperdue Edit this listing Make an Edit Add Photos www.torontopubliclibrary.ca https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sherlock-Holmes The Yorkville Rock Want to see fewer ads? Near This Place Lost subway station nestled beneath Toronto's busy commuter line. This massive, ancient stone was disassembled and then put back together again. A collection of more than 12,000 shoes, displayed in a building shaped like a shoebox. The Moose at the Toronto Police Museum Along with his smaller donkey pal, he guards the museum’s exhibits and memorabilia. Book Arts & Rare Book Collections Peruse rare tomes like poetry bound in pearls or books with branches and berries growing out of their spines. William Andrews Clark Memorial Library "The greatest unknown literary treasure in Los Angeles." Poetry Foundation Library The 30,000-volume library is one of the world's most impressive poetry collections. Portico Library and Gallery A 19th-century time capsule of travel, fiction, and historic texts still available to the public. Random Place Icon Another Random Place » Follow us on Twitter to get the latest on the world's hidden wonders. Like us on Facebook to get the latest on the world's hidden wonders. Using an ad blocker? We depend on ad revenue to craft and curate stories about the world’s hidden wonders. Consider supporting our work by becoming a member for as little as $5 a month. Continue Using Ad-Block	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line5969
__label__cc	0.638124	0.361876	Automotive supplier uses versiondog as a central tool for their maintenance The following case study is taken from a production facility of an automotive supplier that recently was recognized for its predictive maintenance by the state of Baden-Württemberg. The company uses the data management system versiondog. The benefits of a highly integrated production facility include short distances, concentrated expertise, and integrated structures. It doesn't matter whether we are talking about an automotive supplier, a producer of consumer products, or a broad-based, medium-sized company. All companies are united by the pressure to have a tightly integrated supply and order chain. In order to meet the demands that come with this, companies are restructuring their production facilities, so that maintenance is given top priority. Two important aspects of this include preventative maintenance and reduction of planned and unplanned downtime. In order to keep interruptions to production at a minimum, the leading automotive suppliers have structured their international supply chain to include maintenance. In addition to numerous organisational benefits, this structure also has an added advantage in that it helps to ensure that urgently needed spare parts are available throughout the entire network, not just at local production sites. The aim here is to achieve a fast response time with regard to troubleshooting. The Industrial Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence are also playing increasingly important roles. Each production facility has its own maintenance team, which is organised into a hierchical structure within the network. There is a central data system for networked manufacturing and logistics. versiondog, the version control and data management system from AUVESY is a part of this system. It stores software versions, parameters, backups of the controllers, and the change history. In the event of failure, versiondog helps to ensure that the requisite data can be restored and then downloaded back on to the machine. The system has been in use at the site since 2011. Prior to its introduction, there was already a version control process in place for software versions and parameters. And the task of documenting WHO changed WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, and WHY has long been in practice. The main purpose of bringing in versiondog was to correct errors faster. The focus isn't on the errors per se, but rather problem solving. Because of this no employee feels controlled by the documentation. Always know what data is running on a device Unplanned downtime was the trigger for integrating versiondog. This occurred when data from the programmers was not properly saved and, in the aftermath of a defect that followed, only outdated project versions remained available. The downtime lasted for several days. "You couldn't be sure whether the software version was the same as the one running on the machine," says the team leader of the electrical and software construction at the production of manufacturing equipment. This was due to the fact that prodominantly real-time systems (or soft PLCs) are used for manufacturing at the company. The team leader explains: "When it comes to hard drive backups only the compilation is backed up. In order to be able to carry out changes at a later date, the source code is required. This is where versiondog comes into play." Important components and production data are backed up daily using jobs. When it comes to the production of manufacturing equipment there are 1300 jobs, of which 200 are Codesys controller jobs. versiondog checks whether the data on the server is the same as the data running on the machine. Any detected differences that are detected will be reported in an automatic email. According to the group leader, this function is worth its weight in gold and he is very pleased with it: "The Industrial Internet of Things and the increase in networked environments plays well into our hands. We can use it to connect ever more components to versiondog and greatly benefit from the positive effect that automated data comparison brings." For several months now, 'Auto-Imaging' has been introduced. versiondog functions as a scheduler that triggers Drive Snapshot to create disk images (i.e. an image of an entire hard disk). Every month, an "Auto-Image day" takes place, on which a restorable disk image is created for each of the 450 Windows computers. This is not without its challenges as, for security reasons, each production area has its own isolated network. There is no direct means of accessing a production area via the office network. versiondog's upload & compare agents add-on helps to resolve this issue by enabling authorised users to connect to the device or machine and access machine data. kunden-sagen-das-uber-uns “The easier it is for the maintenance team the easier it is for our colleagues to concentrate on problem solving. With automatic image creation we gain an immense amount of extra time. And thanks to regular comparisons between program data and data on the server the currentness of the data is remarkably good.“ Team leader of the electrical and software construction at the production of manufacturing equipment Carefully implemented: scripting and image creation AUVESY is excited about this user case study, even if it doesn't exactly correspond to the tasks that versiondog is usually given. "This is certainly not the usual way that the software is used and could only be realised because the customer made good use of versiondog scripting," confirms an AUVESY spokesperson. The created images are not stored in versiondog, but rather are stored on a file share, after they have been run through a thorough virus test. Once this has been carried out, a link that connects to the storage location will be created and a version of the same link will be created in versiondog. When a member of the maintenance team checks out this link they will be able to access the image. For those in charge easy maintenance is very important: "The easier it is for the maintenance team the easier it is for our colleagues to concentrate on problem solving." The search for the location of the image should not be a hindrance. "Each month, a new disk image is checked into the server. In addition, versiondog also provides us with a change history that helps us to confirm that the process of creating an image was successfully carried out." It is the aim of electrical and software manufacturing at the production manufacturing department to use all versiondog add-ons and features to their full potential. "We could use the ExportModule to prepare job results for the daily meeting about the production line," says the team leader. "In this instance, we are talking about key performance indicators that have been visualised in our company's internal IoT tool. The Export Module allows us to combine data taken from that tool with the results of the versiondog data comparison. This would help us to ensure that no errors are overlooked in the daily routine and that the right software is used for production." Together with AUVESY, a new add-on was developed with which the components could be linked and used to define default building blocks for the production lines. Our team leader is very enthusiastic that our concept for data backup and version control could be used as a blue print for other locations and production facilities." At present, each production site has its own strategy. But the production facilities continue to be optimised for Industrial Internet of Things. The corresponding connectivity is indispensible in the procurement of new machines and systems. Easy maintenance thanks to versiondog What are the potential benefits of versiondog? "With automatic image creation we gain an immense amount of extra time." There is, however, nothing really new when it comes to versions, backups or scripts. "The greatest advantage lies in the fact that everything is coordinated via one centralized tool. Moreover, the data quality in versiondog, i.e. the currentness of the data, is remarkably good thanks to regular comparisons between program data and data on the server." This is the only way that maintenance have a chance of quickly restoring the original plant state in the event that an automation component fails. With approx. 14,600 versiondog components at the factory, this saves enormous time and makes work easier. The some 200 users work with different access rights, from "read only" to administrator rights. The majority can only login, in order to view the status and change history of machine or device. Maintenance team members and software developers have far more extensive access rights. This kind of transparency was very important to the team leader. Everyone should have access to versiondog in order to retrieve stored information. Suppliers with more frequent assignments can be granted access as "domain users", with whom they can work directly in versiondog. Those involved in contructing machines are also given access to the machine they are working on. Such instances are not a rare occurence. "It is only possible to continuously improve if we constantly analyse and optimise the settings of the machines and systems as well as software and hardware." In conclusion, the group leader explains that "versiondog is not solely a solution for large companies. Thanks to our structure, we certainly are able to use versiondog more extensively and in different ways than others do. Depending on the importance of the machine for production, one defect is enough to result in high costs. In this way, even smaller production facilities can benefit greatly from versiondog. Webcast series - free of charge AUVESY Image Service for versiondog 8.0 Do you want to learn more about what we've changed about the AUVESY Image Service for versiondog 8.0? Then register for our webcast! In this 45-minute webcast we will talk about AUVESY Image Service and the newest features. Thursday, 24 September 2020 // 16:00 - 16:45 Uhr CEST / 10:00 am - 10:45 am EST	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line5972
__label__wiki	0.537409	0.537409	Hurricane Isaac Strengthening As it closes in on Louisiana Tomorrow August 29th, will mark the seven year anniversary of major Hurricane Katrina as it roared ashore southeast Louisiana. Katrina absolutely inundated New Orleans Hurricane Katrina as it stormed ashore Southeast Louisiana August 29, 2005 and the surrounding communities of this low lying marshland hurricane vulnerable state. After a series of catastrophic levee failures on August, 30th 2005, a day after Katrina passed it led to mass pandemonium and 1,836 dead. Later this evening Hurricane Isaac will test the resolve of the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers to see if the levees they worked on can stand up against the impending 6-12 foot storm surge forecasted by the National Hurricane Center. A storm surge, is dome of water that is pushed onto the land where onshore flow Storm Surge illustration, courtesy of the National Hurricane Center. pushes the sea inland near the land falling tropical low pressure center. This aspect of Hurricanes is one of the most mortally threatening to humans and wildlife. Winds have been increasing in Southeast Louisiana as Isaac approaches, up to 60 mph has been recorded by buoys close to the shore. Winds off Lake Pontchartrain have varied around 35 mph from the northwest this afternoon. So far New Orleans (KMSY) is seeing wind gusts up to 40 mph, with light rain. Before Isaac was a threat to the northern Gulf Coast, it passed through the leeward islands just days ago as a tropical storm, from there it passed just south of Puerto Rico, then the Dominican Republic and eventually turned more northwesterly going over the western peninsula of Hati. Thereafter it hugged the northeastern coast of Cuba missing the mountainous terrain. Moving away from land the center of still Tropical Storm Isaac moved west northwesterly through the Straits of Florida to the south of Key West and into the Gulf of Mexico. Though the storm never reached hurricane status until earlier today, rainfalls along its path were impressive and its affects were felt far away from the center. Issac dumped 10-20 inches of precipitation along and to the north of its path through the Caribbean, the Straits of Florida and into the Gulf of Mexico toward the North Gulf Coast. Now continuing to strengthen at 6pm CDT, just hours away from landfall Isaac is looking more impressive on satellite. Winds are sustained at 80mph making Isaac a category one on the Saffir-Simpson Scale. Hurricane force winds extend outward up to 60 miles and tropical storm force winds of 39-73mph reach 185 miles from the center. Air force Reserve Hurricane Reconnaissance Hunters Isaac just hours before its arrival on the southeast coast of Louisiana, in the Northern Gulf Coast this evening. Notice in the visible satellite how an eye is becoming more apparent. This is indicative of further intensification. Image Courtesy of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association. measured a recent central pressure of 970 millibars, or 28.64 inches of mercury. Storm surge flooding is already occurring in southeast Louisiana. Hurricane Season lasts form June1st through November 30th, with the climatological peak on September 9th. Forecasters increased their prediction for the total number of named storms upward to 15-19 storms. If they are right we are only about half way done. Make sure to monitor the latest tropical weather forecasts or news and be prepared before the storm is at your door. Have a Hurricane Preparedness plan in place for you and your family. The up two week supply of essentials are Canned Foods, Bottled Water, Weather Radio, Batteries, First Aid Kit, Multivitamins, Sunscreen,Extra Cash from ATM’s, Bug Repellant, Flashlights, Other non-perishable food items, extra gas for generators or vehicles as gas stations will not work after a storm passes due to power outages. Posted in Economic Affairs, Health, National Security, Politics, Science Tags: Gulf of Mexico, hurricane, Hurricane Isaac, Hurricane Katrina, Isaac, Katrina, Lake Pontchartrain, Louisiana, National Hurricane Center, New Orleans, Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale, Storm surge, Straits of Florida, Tropical Storm Isaac, United States Army Corps of Engineers T. D. Nine in The Atlantic to become Tropical Storm Isaac, while southeast U.S. Keeps a Watchful Eye By Ryan Matthew Dernick According to the National Hurricane Center Tropical Depression Nine formed earlier today in the Atlantic, it is currently about 700 miles east of the The large and newly formed Tropical Depression Nine Spells immediate concern for the Caribbean and soon thereafter the Southeast United States by as early as Sunday evening. Models forecast the Depression to become Tropical Storm Isaac later today and a Hurricane in 48 hours. Leeward Islands. Environmental conditions are favorable for intensification and the depression is forecast to become a hurricane by Thursday. Tropical storm warnings are in now effect for the Lesser Antilles and watches have been posted for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. NOAA forecasters earlier this month increased the number of storms forecast and say they expect a total of 12 to 17 tropical storms, with as many as five to eight hurricanes, for the 2012 Atlantic Hurricane Season from June 1 to Nov. 30. Two to three of storms could become major hurricanes. It was only back in May when forecasters had initially only predicted nine to 15 tropical storms, with as many as four to eight hurricanes So far this year there have been five tropical storms and three hurricanes with the most recent being Hurricane Gordon that just days ago passed through the Southern Azores. Since then it has become extra tropical as its remnants move ENE though Portugal. With not one major hurricane to date yet for this Atlantic Hurricane Season T.D. Nines Projected Path Shows that core of the storm will move westward through the Lesser Antilles while staying just South of Puerto Rico. As it continues to traverse west along the south coast of the Dominican Republic and Hati it will begin to feel the tug northward by the Deepening Trough across the Eastern United States. In response to that strengthening trough the High Pressure Ridge over Florida and Bahamas will weaken turning then Hurricane Isaac Northwest through Central Cuba. this storm may change that. South Florida residents and visitors in particular need to remain vigilant on updates According to The National Weather Service forecast Office in Miami, Florida. Weather Models are continuing to indicate it is becoming more likely that South Florida may be directly impacted late this weekend into early next week by this developing tropical cyclone. Posted in Economic Affairs, Health, National Security, Politics Tags: Atlantic Hurricane Season, Atlantic Ocean, Leeward Islands, Lesser Antilles, Lists of tropical cyclone names, Miami, National Hurricane Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Weather Service, Puerto Rico, Tropical cyclone, Tropical cyclone warnings and watches, United States Virgin Islands Tropical Storm Debby a Memory. Still Watching the Tropics Tropical Storm Debby has since departed Florida, but the rains it brought just days previously were plentiful. North and Central Florida received the most, Jacksonville Florida Residents make the best out of flooded roads from Tropical Storm Debby with a little suburban kayaking. with 15-20 inches just three days ago. It is now once again tranquil in the Gulf of Mexico, Atlantic and Caribbean. There are two areas of disturbed weather having only a slight potential of development over the next 24-48 hours according to the National Hurricane Center. Our first area is the remnants of what was once Tropical Storm Debby. It is now just a disorganized low pressure system 490 miles south-southeast of Halifax, Nova Scotia. The other is a disturbed area of weather in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico interacting with an upper-level low over Northern Mexico. Make sure to monitor the latest tropical weather forecasts or news and be prepared before the storm is at your door. Have a Hurricane Preparedness plan in place for you and your family. The up two week supply of essentials are Canned Foods, Bottled Water, Weather Radio, Batteries, First Aid Kit, Multivitamins, Sunscreen,Extra Cash Current color Sea Surface Temperature Satellite of The North Atlantic, Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. Courtesy of The National Oceanic Atmospheric Association. Temperatures as of June 30th are 25-29 degrees Celsius, or 77-84 degrees Fahrenheit. Theses water temps are conducive for development. from ATM’s, Bug Repellant, Flashlights, Valuable documentation, non-perishable food items, extra gas for generators or vehicles as gas stations will not work after a storm passes due to power outages. Stay ahead of the storm!! Posted in Health, National Security, Science Tags: Atlantic Ocean, Atmospheric Sciences, Canning, Caribbean, Central Florida, City of Halifax, Earth Sciences, Florida, Gulf of Mexico, Hurricane Preparedness, National Hurricane Center, Storm Debby, Tropical Storm Debby North Atlantic 2012 Hurricane Season Staying Active. All Eyes on Gulf of Mexico Not since weather records began in 1851 has a tropical storm ever formed that far north in the Atlantic this early in the hurricane season this past Tuesday, according to the National Hurricane Center . When Chris took shape, it also marked the third earliest formation of the third tropical storm in the Atlantic Basin. During the years of 1887 and 1959 has such development occurred previously. Tropical storm Chris defied 1st Hurricane of the 2012 Atlantic Hurricane Season, Hurricane Chris Thursday June 21, 2012 as it moved North Northeast well off the South East Canadian Coastline the lack of warm water and further strengthened on Thursday to a Category 1 hurricane with winds of 75mph before weakening back down to a tropical storm. Tropical storms like Chris have developed north of a latitude of 40.0 degrees, but not until August or later when the northern Atlantic waters were suitably warm enough to support such development. As of 11 am EDT Friday Chris has become a post tropical cyclone or no longer is deemed to have tropical characteristics. Chris was located 335 miles ESE of Cape Race Newfoundland, moving WSW at 16mph with a minimum central pressure of 990mb or 29.23in. Gale force winds extend outward up to 205 miles from the center. The forecast path of Post Tropical Cyclone Chris is to begin to turn toward the South and at a slower rate of speed. If that wasn’t enough, as I discussed two weeks ago on the tropical weather post “2012 Atlantic Hurricane Season Gets a Head Start So Should You”, that the latter half of June we would see a tropical system take shape near the Yucatan Peninsula. Low and behold the dynamical models were spot on as we now have a large low pressure off the northern Yucatan coast in the Gulf of Mexico. Its associated disturbed weather is affecting the Yucatan, Northwest Caribbean Sea, South East Gulf of Mexico including Western Cuba and South Florida . This disturbance is now poised to become the fourth named storm of the 2012 Atlantic Hurricane Season. Large low pressure system to become next 2012 Atlantic Hurricane Season named storm (Debby) over the next 24-72 hours. Friday Afternoon IR Satellite Image Courtesy of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association. All residents along the entire Gulf Coast of the United States are urged by the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida to monitor this evolving weather system. Forecasters at the N.H.C. give the low pressure area a 70% chance of becoming a tropical depression over the next day or so, as it slowly crawls north. The current movement is toward the northeast at 2mph with maximum sustained winds at 30mph. Models hint that this low will either move northeast toward the west central Gulf Coast of Florida or westward towards the Texas coast. At this time it is too early to tell the ultimate track, or strength with 100% accuracy. The fourth storm of the Atlantic Hurricane Season has not historically occurred in any previous season before July, since recording began 161 years ago. There is always a first time for everything and this season so far is anything but average. Make sure to monitor the latest tropical weather forecasts or news and be prepared before the storm is at your door. Have a Hurricane Preparedness plan in place for you and your family. The up two week supply of essentials are Canned Foods, Bottled Water, Weather Radio, Batteries, First Aid Kit, Multivitamins, Sunscreen,Extra Cash from ATM’s, Bug Repellant, Flashlights, Valuable documentation, non-perishable food items, extra gas for generators or vehicles as gas stations will not work after a storm passes due to power outages. Stay ahead of the storm!! Tags: Atlantic Hurricane Season, Atlantic Ocean, Cape Race, Chris, Gulf of Mexico, Miami, National Hurricane Center, Tropical cyclone 2012 Atlantic Hurricane Season Gets a Head Start So Should You June 1st through November 30th is the official beginning of the 2012 Atlantic Hurricane Season. This season has no inclination to adhere to climatology as it began back in May 19 with Tropical Storm Alberto forming that Saturday afternoon off the South Carolina coast. Not since 1908 has there been a storm that early before the season officially began on June 1st .There after we dealt with Tropical Storm Beryl that marked the third time on record, that two tropical cyclones reached tropical storm strength during May before the beginning of Atlantic Hurricane Season. The Saffir-Simpson Scale shown below is a categorization of tropical cyclones based on their wind speeds, barometric pressures and storm surges in feet. This helps forecasters inform the public in a warned area of the level of the tropical weather threat. Keep in mind even a weak tropical system can unleash tremendous amounts of rain leading to loss of life or damage to property. If a Tropical Storm or Hurricane Watch is issued that means that inclement conditions are expected in the watch are within 48 hours. If a Tropical Storm or Hurricane Warning is issued that implies that preparations should rushed to completion as adverse weather conditions are anticipated within 24 hours or less. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association Forecast calls for 70 percent chance of nine to 15 named storms (with top winds of 39 mph or higher), of which four to eight will strengthen to a hurricane (with top winds of 74 mph or higher) and of those one to three will become major hurricanes (with top winds of 111 mph or higher, ranking Category 3, 4 or 5). Based on the period 1981-2010, an average season produces 12 named storms with six hurricanes, including three major hurricanes. Tropical Storm Beryl, May 28 2012 Before it came ashore Jacksonville Florida Image Credit: NASA/Earth Observatory As far as early Tropical Atlantic Cyclones go, Tropical Storm Beryl was the most intense preseason storm to impact the U.S. directly on record. Beryl began as a fledgling low pressure system near the coast of South East Florida, off of Miami on May 23,2012. At Miami Beach there were wind gusts reported to near gale force (39-54mph) as it moved Northeast. On May 26,2012 as the system continued to move Northeast along the S.E. United States coastline it was classified as Subtropical Storm Beryl. While Beryl continued to crawl off of the Carolina-Georgia-North Florida coast it began to enter a more hospitable environment conducive to further development with warmer sea surface temperatures and less wind shear aloft. Vertical wind shear has an inhibiting effect on tropical cyclones as it tends to dislocate the thunderstorms from the low level center blowing them off and not allowing the storm to organize or deepen further. At 11pm EDT on May 27, 2012 Beryl transitioned from a subtropical system to a fully tropical system only 120 miles off of the North Florida Coast. On Sunday May 28 strong tropical storm Beryl came ashore near Jacksonville Beach, Florida with peak sustained winds at the time of landfall of 70mph. There was a peak wind gust recorded that evening at 73 mph in the northern part of Jacksonville Beach in Mayport. With both Alberto and Beryl forming close to the Southeast coastline of the United States it portends that many of the systems of the 2012 Atlantic Hurricane Season will form similarly. The areas to watch for a direct impact this year will be in the Caribbean to Florida into the Northern Gulf Coast. The next name on the 2012 Atlantic Hurricane List is Chris which weather models are hinting may come out of the disturbed weather in the Northwest Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico over the next two weeks. Tags: Beryl, Caribbean, Florida, Gulf of Mexico, Jacksonville Beach Florida, Lists of tropical cyclone names, National Hurricane Center, South Carolina, Tropical cyclone, Tropical Storm Alberto, Tropical Storm Beryl, United States	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line5974
__label__wiki	0.727112	0.727112	Guns of war no longer blast in Selma 12/19/08 Guns of war no longer blast in Selma 12/19/08 Sabrina 2014-06-25T18:57:53-05:00 By Caleb R. Johnson \| Selma Times-Journal Published Friday, December 19, 2008 Bill Rambo sat atop his horse and stared over his right shoulder at the column of troops dressed in gray marching behind him. The Union flag flapped in the wind, brass buttons glimmered in the midday sun and drums beat in the distance. During moments like these, Rambo is almost sure he is a Confederate soldier fighting in the Battle of Selma. “It’s what we call, in reenacting, magic moments,” Rambo said. “Sometimes, when an enemy’s coming at you, you feel this tingle in your gut, and it’s close to fear.” Rambo has spearheaded the reenactment of the Battle of Selma since its inception in 1987. This year there will not be any “magic moments” for Rambo and the other reenactors. Due to the lack of manpower and funding, the reenactment of the Battle of Selma has been cancelled indefinitely. The toll of holding a weekend-long battle complete with a ball and “living history” events proved too much. Since most reenactors live out of town, local groups such as The Kiwanis Club, The Battle of Selma Authority and the 33rd Alabama Volunteer Infantry Regiment handle preparations for the event. Locals such as Mike Reynolds spent countless hours swinging hammers and cutting grass so everything would be just right. Reynolds did not care how much time it took out of his life. “The priority was doing good things for Selma,” he said. The reenactment peaked in popularity around 1999. At that time, there were as many as 1,500 reenactors coming to Selma. After 2000, numbers began to dwindle. The low point came when only 300 people came to dress in gray and blue. “Reenacting as a hobby has dwindled to a degree,” Reynolds said. “It’s a big loss in terms of tourism, but it’s something that requires so much time and effort it’s just impossible to keep going.” Rambo also said reenacting is in decline around the country. He said there is a general lack of interest in Civil War history. Edith Parten, communication director for the Alabama Tourism Department, said the current economic climate does not help matters, either. “No doubt this is an important event,” she said. “This downturn is impacting everyone.” Dallas County Tourism Director Candace Johnson said this is a huge loss for the county. “We do hate to see it go,” she said. “Just with the economy the way it is, reenacting is an expensive hobby because everything has to be authentic.” Reynolds credits Rambo with keeping the reenactment going this long. “He’s the historian. He should be given a lot of credit for hanging around as long as he did.” Rambo was the military coordinator for the reenactment. He made sure every detail was authentic – from the stitches on the uniforms to the handles of the swords. “My whole angle from the beginning of the Battle of Selma was to set an authentic tone for the event and make sure the reenactors got an authentic experience. I said this is what it takes.” Rambo hopes interest in Civil War reenactment will rise in the next few years; 2011 marks the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War. Rambo said he saw a similar situation when he began reenacting in the 1980s. When the 125th anniversary of the start of the Civil War rolled around in 1986, people across the country began reenacting. “Life’s like a heart monitor,” Rambo said. “There are surges of interests and valleys.”	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line5978
__label__wiki	0.936525	0.936525	› Company history Aurubis UK can be traced back to 1809 when Richard Evered & Son began trading in London. This later became Evered & Co which exhibited at the Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace in 1851. After relocating to Birmingham the company continued to produce non ferrous products. In 1991 EIP Metals was formed (Evered Industrial Products) when two other companies were merged with Evered Metals - Barker & Allen and Mapplebeck Metals. Over the next 13 years it became the leading supplier of Quality Copper and Copper Alloy strip products into the UK market. During the 1990's the service centre business of Charles Harbage was aquired and in 2004 the William West company was also introduced into EIP Metals. A major reorganistion was then undertaken to develop the company as the leading non-ferrous shearing service centre in the UK, with Prymetall in Germany and Olin Brass in America key partners. In 2005 the company became a wholly owned subsidiary of Prymetall Gmbh & Co. KG. and a member of the Norddeutsche Affinerie AG (NA) Family. This resulted in a relocation to new purpose built premises at Rabone Lane, Smethwick, West Midlands. A substantial capital investment project was also undertaken, which resulted in a comprehensive upgrade to all its capabilities including shopfloor equipment, computer systems, and technical training. In April 2009 the company changed its name from EIP Metals Ltd to Aurubis UK Ltd. At the same time NA in Hamburg and Prymetall in Stolberg also changed their names to Aurubis and Aurubis Stolberg to recognise the new enlarged group following its expansion with the former Cumerio group of companies.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line5983
__label__wiki	0.991881	0.991881	Rise of Huey Lewis and the News and special offers on the band on amazon The American rock band Huey Lewis and the News was a great sensation while in the 1980s. They have been nominated for the Academy Award and have scored numbers for popular movies including Back to the Future. Their greatest success included the release of their third album titled Sports in 1983. This album reached the highest spot on the Billboard countdown bringing this rock band international fame and recognition. Their fame grew further with the song “The Power of Love” for the movie Back to the Future transforming into a huge hit. Another extremely popular number Back in Time was also included in this movie. The genre of this rock band could be classified as blues rock where they combined the sounds of rock with soul and doo-wop. Huey Lewis started out as a singer and a harmonica player in 1972 with a band called Clover. He was joined in this Bay Area jazz-funk band by Sean Hopper who played the keyboards. Soundhole was the bands main competition in the Bay Area and it was from this band that Huey Lewis and the News got its drummer, bassist and saxophonist/guitarist in Bill Gibson, Mario Cippollina and Johnny Colla. It had been in 1979 when Chris Hayes joined them as the lead guitarist. The band started their journey together as Huey Lewis and The American Express belting out the single Exo-Disco which was not largely appreciated. However, they proceeded to change their name in 1980 after the American Express, the credit card organization, registered a complaint against them and Huey Lewis and the News was born. Their first release as a band was in 1980 called Huey Lewis and the News. This album went largely unnoticed within the music scene. Their second release, Picture This was the one which bought them some recognition. Nevertheless it was the hit single Do you believe in Love that shot this band to the limelight. The single releases that followed failed to get the expected success and on account of record label delays their third album, Sports, was introduced later than expected. Huey Lewis and the News were forced to go back to promoting this album in small clubs. Sports gradually climbed the Billboard charts and proceeded to becoming a hit back in 1984 and consequently in 1985 became a platinum hit selling over ten million copies in the United States alone. What followed was the most recognized hit The Power of Love from the movie Back to the Future that also earned the band its first Academy Award nomination. They released their second album titled Fore in 1986. This album too went on to turn into a hit on the Billboard 200 countdown and scored a triple platinum with five top ten single hits. Their next album was called Small World and released in 1988. This album however, wasn’t as successful as the preceding albums and the band took a rightly deserving break after the Small Wonder tour ended in 1989. Though is album was rated as being the bands worst by the Rolling Stones magazine, it really is regarded as probably the greatest by Huey Lewis and the News fans. Amazon.com has special offers for Huey Lewis and the News fans with a special offer on MP3s on the album Sports. Amazon also has all the Cs, MO 3s, photographs and discussions on Huey Lewis and the News band in the special Huey Lewis and the News Store. Filed Under: Uncategorized · Tagged: special	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line5988
__label__cc	0.643405	0.356595	Kristy Carlton Kristy Carlton, CPA Kristy joined Beaird Harris in 2004 and has made significant contributions to Beaird Harris’s tax planning, compliance and business consulting practice. Kristy has forged deep working relationships with successful professionals and multi-divisional companies across North Texas, with a particular emphasis in the healthcare industry. Kristy provides a wide range of tax, financial statement and payroll expertise and plays a large part in the firm’s management team. Kristy is actively involved in the firm’s Practice Management and Process Development Team. She brings an in-depth understanding of the internal operations and infrastructure at Beaird Harris. As the Partner in charge of Accounting Services, Kristy also oversees the firm’s Financial Statement & Payroll division and is responsible for keeping the firm apprised of the latest industry compliance and regulations. Kristy graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelors of Science in Accounting from the University of Texas at Dallas in 2000 and became a CPA in 2003. She is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and Oklahoma Society of CPAs. KristyC@bh-co.com B.S., University of Texas at Dallas A.S., Connors State College Oklahoma Society of CPAs American Institute of CPAs Hilldale 3 Point Club, Treasurer Restoring Identities after Sexual Exploitation (RISE), Board Member Years at Beaird Harris Moffitt Parker & Co., Inc. Bethany Bowline, CPA Kristy and husband, Ryan, enjoy spending time with their four children, Madison, Michael, Meagan and Maya. Hobby: Baking Total adrenaline junky – love thrill rides and anything that gets my heart racing! “Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted.”	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line5990
__label__wiki	0.632714	0.632714	NFL snap infraction controversy Redskins vs Cowboys and the way to tie the game was a field goal away Photo courtesy of Google Images via Creative Commons Graham Randlett, Author On Sunday, October 21, one of the NFL’s biggest rivalries, the Cowboys and the Redskins, played for the first time in the this season. The score was 20 -17 in the fourth quarter, with the Redskins in the lead. All the Cowboys needed to tie was a field goal. Unfortunately for the Cowboys, they missed the potential game-tying field goal kick after receiving a penalty, one that has been under recent controversy, a snap infraction. L.P. Ladouceur, the long snapper for the Dallas Cowboys, is a veteran center in the National Football League and has never been called for snap infraction before. Ladouceur says, “they told me I was the one responsible for the false start, and I did the same exact thing I usually do.” This was Ladouceur’s 212th game in the league and he was treating the snap just like any other. The NFL has a guidebook of rules and regulations. However, the fans watching usually have not read up on every rule. The rule regarding the snap infraction states that “any movement after the offensive line is set is a snap infraction and the ball will be called dead and a loss of 5 yards will occur.” Ladouceur did indeed move the position of his hands causing the flag to be thrown. This penalty has not been seen or even heard of by many football fans before. Jason Garrett, the Cowboys head coach, has only seen this penalty called a few times in his career. With that being said, the tying kick was within range for the Cowboys starting kicker, Brett Maher. Maher takes full responsibility for the loss saying, “”That penalty had zero impact on the result of that kick, I can promise you that. Ladouceur and Chris Jones [the Cowboys kick holder] played like they’ve done all year. They made my job easy, and it was the same in that situation. Yeah, I felt like I was very capable of making that kick. Just didn’t get it done.” The NFL record for the longest made field goal is 63 yards, so this field goal, being approximately 50 yards, was certainly in Maher’s range. This game was a tearjerker for many football fans from both sides of the long, stressful battle. Maher’s choked field goal attempt put the nail in the coffin for the Cowboys, as the Redskins snatched the top spot in the division with the win. All of this sparked a nationwide discussion on what a snap infraction was and if it was truly fair at all. Graham Randlett Ladouceur	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line5991
__label__wiki	0.751693	0.751693	jtoolan@bryantgrp.com “My work is very fulfilling, as it combines my passion for fundraising with the interpersonal skills I have attained throughout my career. More importantly, I know I am making a positive impact for our clients, helping them to grow, retain their talent and ultimately build stronger teams working in support of their mission.” John joined BRYANT GROUP in 2017 as a seasoned fundraising and recruitment professional who began his career in 1989 at California State University, Northridge. He brings experience in both public and private universities and has worked in development, alumni relations, and as a consultant. John was an integral part of the Advancement Department at Marymount California University when The Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) awarded the university with the title of Most Improved Overall Fund Raising Program in District VII, topping 100+ other institutions in the district to earn this honor. He has also been the recipient of a CASE Heavy Hitter award, presented only to the top-rated conference speakers. He also brings executive experience from the for-profit sector. His recruitment career began when he accepted a position conducting national searches for a mortgage company where he grew to overseeing a team of 72. He later served for nearly a decade as Vice President for International Recruiting for a company based in Los Angeles. John has always been passionate about advancement work and enjoys assisting educational institutions, health care, and other not-for-profits secure and retain the best advancement personnel. Featured Current & Former Volunteer Involvement Chadwick School Eastern Connecticut State University Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Los Angeles Fire Department Manhattan Beach Little League United States department of Veterans Affairs YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line5993
__label__wiki	0.61468	0.61468	Bonterra Resources Cancels Brokered Financing VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA – October 24, 2014 (TSX.V: BTR) BonTerra Resources Inc. (“BonTerra” or the “Company“) announces that, further to its news release dated September 24, 2014, the financing with Laurentian Bank Securities Inc. has been terminated as the original closing date of October 20, 2014 has passed. BonTerra is in the process of planning its winter drill program on its Eastern Extension Property and will re-evaluate its financing requirements in the near future. About BonTerra Resources BonTerra is a Canadian gold exploration company based in Vancouver, BC focused on continuing to expand its NI 43-101 compliant gold resource on its Eastern Extension Property, part of the world famous Abitibi Greenstone Belt in mining-friendly Quebec. BonTerra has a total of three gold properties in the Urban-Barry Belt, the Eastern Extension, Lavoie and Urban-Barry properties which are located approximately 170 km NE of Val-d’Or and 125 km SW of Chibougamau in the Urban, Barry and Bailly townships in Québec. For further information, please contact Nav Dhaliwal, President, at nav@bonterraresources.com. Nav Dhaliwal, President Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This press release contains “forward-looking information” that is based on Bonterra’’s current expectations, estimates, forecasts and projections. This forward-looking information includes, among other things, statements with respect to Bonterra’s exploration and development plans. The words “will”, “anticipated”, “plans” or other similar words and phrases are intended to identify forward-looking information. Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause Bonterra’s actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Such factors include, but are not limited to: uncertainties related exploration and development; the ability to raise sufficient capital to fund exploration and development; changes in economic conditions or financial markets; increases in input costs; litigation, legislative, environmental and other judicial, regulatory, political and competitive developments; technological or operational difficulties or inability to obtain permits encountered in connection with exploration activities; and labour relations matters. This list is not exhaustive of the factors that may affect our forward-looking information. These and other factors should be considered carefully and readers should not place undue reliance on such forward-looking information. Bonterra disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line5994
__label__cc	0.674273	0.325727	My gone away world: the annual not-back-to-school post Posted in autodidactism, book buying, books, Christmas, cultures, interconnectedness, life learning, locavore, poetry, reading, Thoreau, travel, Uncategorized, unschooling, writing, tagged autodidactism, books, culture, fiction, humor, interconnectedness, life learning, myth, poetry, reading, time, unschooling, writing on September 9, 2009\| 5 Comments » August was a tough month in the bookconscious household. We went through vicarious ups and downs with the Teenager as he traveled alone to Europe and back (although a German customs agent didn’t think he was old enough to return home alone, but that’s another story), turned 16, went through public high school soccer tryouts, and ended up switching to a smaller private school team. We got busy with both kids planning our not-back-to-school life — looking into interests, choosing resources, figuring out who needs to be where, when, as their fall activities began. And I unexpectedly traveled to Chicago for my grandmother’s funeral. Mary Levin Harris was 96, and until only a couple of months ago was a voracious reader. Recently she could no longer comfortably hold up the phone. But over years and years of conversations, no matter what else we discussed, we always made sure to tell each other about whatever we were reading. I’ll miss that very much. She was a librarian and an English teacher, including a stint in an experimental school in Chicago with glass-walled classrooms. When we first decided not to send the kids to school, I was a little nervous about telling her, and at first, she really didn’t understand why we’d do such a thing. I tried explaining, but I was still figuring it out for myself. I recall telling her it was just what seemed like the right thing to me, to free them to learn all the time, anyplace, rather than raise them to think that learning happens in a place called school during school hours on school days. My grandmother believed in me the way grandparents tend to, unwaveringly, and she spared me the scathing disapproval she was capable of dishing out — disproportionately to male members of the family, but also to public officials when she wanted them to right a wrong, and to the editor of the Wall Street Journal, which she read faithfully, when she felt the paper had unfairly disrespected a sitting president (Clinton). But I knew she didn’t really like the idea of her great-grandchildren being unschooled. That changed one day in the late 1990’s, when she was in her 80’s. The woman who was cutting her hair told her about her son, who had been put on Ritalin. My grandmother was dismayed, especially when the woman told her it was quite common. When she got home she called to ask me whether I’d heard that “children are being drugged,” and told me in her day, if a student acted up, the teacher and the principal discussed how they were failing the child, and what to do about it. She told me it was probably a good thing I was not subjecting the kids to school if this is what it had come to. From then on, she was very supportive of our homeschooling, and even told me I was doing a marvelous job. Once she moved to Atlanta and actually got to know the kids — we were fortunate to visit her once a month or so for just over two years — she told them in person how bright and beautiful and wonderful she thought they were, so they got to bask in the steadfast approbation that I enjoyed for so long. They often talked to her about something they were learning, and were amazed by her sharp memory. Once they told her we’d read the Gettysburg address and she recited it cold (by then she was over 90). Another time they asked her what it was like to live during the Depression., and she said the New Deal helped her go to college. She frequently asked them questions, too — about what things cost, how their digital cameras worked, what they were reading. So I’ve been feeling a little low, knowing I can’t share what they’re up to with her anymore. She was fascinated with the way they pursued their interests. I know she would chuckle to hear that the Preteen is exploring animal behavior with a kit that teaches one how to train a pet fish. And she’d find it interesting, if a bit hard to imagine, that all of the Teenager’s homework in his college French class has to be done online in a virtual computer lab. Most of all, she’d love hearing about the books we’d all been reading. So I’ll get on with telling you, dear readers, and hope that Grandmother, or GGM as she signed her letters and cards, is reading over my shoulder, in a way. While the Teenager was in Germany, his younger sister and I planned for not-back-to-school. She chose a new math resource. After watching her brother work on Algebra II, she decided on the same publisher for her book — Teaching Textbooks, which are designed for self-directed learners. Both kids seem to be actually enjoying using these, and the Computer Scientist thinks they are great. The Preteen also chose some science kits, including the aforementioned R2 Fish School, and checked out a stack of books about Vikings at the library. She’d recently read most of the Percy Jackson books, so she needed a new pile of reading materials, and chose a Royal Diaries book about a Mesoamerican princess in 749, and Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book, which won the Newbury Award. She liked Percy Jackson’s adventures and event got out our well-loved copy of D’Aulaire’s Book of Greek Myths to brush up on the gods and goddesses. In fact, we ended up buying D’Aulaire’s Book of Norse Myths, to enjoy along with Viking history. The Preteen discusses books with her friends more than the Teenager ever has, and in August she read the first of the Sisters Eight books on the recommendation of a good friend. She also came to a middle grade author event at Gibson’s, and came home with three books — The Amaranth Enchantment, Carolina Harmony, and Also Known As Harper. She enjoyed hearing the authors in person, and I think it’s unlikely she would have picked these books otherwise. So, if you live where you can go hear an author in person, go, and take your kids! The Teenager’s oldest friend gave him a new soccer book, When Saturday Comes, for his birthday. On the trip he finished Magnificent Sevens, about five great Manchester United players who’ve worn number 7. He’s begun French class at the community college and in October will begin a Viking history class at Oxford University (online). In the meantime, we wrote a syllabus for his science exploration, based loosely on a class we found in MIT’s open courseware site. We’re calling his studies “Soccer: The Biology, Chemistry, Physiology, Physics, and Psychology of the Beautiful Game.” We found three great books for him to use as he delves into the science behind his beloved game: Science and Soccer; edited by Tom Reilly, Fitness Training in Soccer: A Scientific Approach, by famous Danish coach Jens Bangsbo; and The Physiology of Sport and Exercise, a textbook we thought would provide interesting reference materials. Some of you may be wondering, “Aren’t you unschoolers? What’s with the math books and the texts?” We’re life learners, and we use whatever works. We’re not anti-textbooks, although the Teenager and I are not enjoying the disconnect between his college French text and the website that has the labs/homework. Although our motive in encouraging him to take this class was to help him see what college is like, I’m finding myself agreeing with him that the model isn’t all that different than what we’ve tried to avoid by learning on our own: we’re left feeling that the student is supposed to sit back and be told what to learn when. I told him there must be some logic to the homework, but today one of his classmates asked about the apparent lack of context with the text, and the teacher acknowledged it’s a problem but didn’t have a solution! It’s causing us to waste time trying to figure out what lab goes with which portion of the book, which is unfortunate. Hopefully it will get easier (this is only the second week). Meanwhile, I wish I’d just gotten him the French editions of Harry Potter — the preteen is learning German that way. But I do think there’s nothing like speaking a language with other people, and so far none of our informal plans for that have panned out, so I’ll probably encourage her to take a class, eventually. At the Preteen’s urging, the Computer Scientist is reading the whole Harry Potter series (in English), and last month I mentioned he was on the third book. He’s not deep into the seventh. He seems to be enjoying them and also has fun chatting with both kids, who love to pop in and ask him, “Where are you? What’s happening?” I think given all the heavy stuff he’s read this year, he’s having a good time with Harry Potter. Although I maintain that H.P. can be an avenue to some thought provoking conversation, and it’s not just fluff. I read a book set in England last month, though not in the wizarding world. Helen Humphreys‘ The Frozen Thames is a lovely little book, made up of forty brief stories, each one set during one of the times between 1142 and 1895 that the Thames froze over. The concept of the book is an entertaining as Humphrey’s fine writing. The author’s website lists this as a work of creative nonfiction, but it reads like a collection of linked stories. While Humphrey bends genres, Nick Harkaway bends time, reality, and life as we know it in his amazing debut novel, The Gone-Away World. This is the best book I’ve read all year. Part action novel; part philosophical commentary on economics, warfare, and ethics; part mind-boggling alternative reality, part futuristic thriller — and also very funny, very well written, and so smart it’s kept me busy wondering what in the hell happened at the end for several weeks. One thing I loved about this book is that while the plot deals with awful things, there was no passage so horrible I wanted to turn away. Harkaway writes searingly without the over-the-top explicitly graphic prose that seems to garner so much critical acclaim these days. As I said, the end was so mind-blowingly hard to grapple with that I continue to think about it. And despite the fact that it’s a long book, I never got bogged down. As far as I’m concerned Harkaway’s a genius and I can’t wait to read whatever he writes next. Another humorous novel I read this month, Nibble & Kuhn by David Schmahmann, is not nearly as apocalyptic as The Gone Away World, but is also concerned with the impact human enterprise has on the quality of human life. Schmahmann’s skewering of law firm life is wickedly funny, but his main character, Derek, struck me as a whole person, who doesn’t always act in predictable ways, and who manages to be both irritating and endearing, just like most real people. It’s easy with satire to lapse into caricatures, but I found myself empathizing with Derek and definitely wanting to know how the hopeless case he is stuck with will turn out. The romance in the novel is unbelievable, but it’s meant to be — Derek is dumbstruck when he finds out who he’s fallen in love with as well. But it’s not simply a satire with a romance, it’s also a story that examines human resilience and the tension between motives and actions when getting ahead might be at odds with getting things right. Schmahmann will be reading at Gibson’s; I’m looking forward to meeting him, and to reading his earlier, award winning novel, Empire Settings. For a bleaker, but very personal look at human nature, our impact on each other, and the survival of the human spirit even when it’s dragged through the deepest pain, you can’t do much better than to read essays by Andre Dubus. His son, Andre Dubus III, is coming to Gibson’s in October, and I happened to see Broken Vessels and Meditations from a Movable Chair at the library, so I checked them out. Last year I spent a lot of time studying personal essays. These are some of the most moving I’ve read. Dubus lived through several emotional traumas and a very serious accident that put him in a wheelchair. He’s probably better known for his fiction, but I enjoy his nonfiction style, which is very straightforward and unembellished. His range, from the simple beauty of time spent with friends to the agony of losing the use of his legs and the pain of living with his children only part time, is somewhat gut wrenching. You can’t read very many of his essays at a time. But despite all the difficult things Dubus lived through and explores in his writing, he work is never self-pitying. On the plane to Chicago, I read Rilke‘s Letters to a Young Poet. Here is another gifted man who dealt with illness, writers’ block, personal strife, the unrest and disillusionment of the early 20th century, but rather than feeling sorry for himself, he shared what he’d learned in the struggle to be an artist. The letters in this book are his responses to a nineteen year old who he knew only through this unsolicited correspondence. Yet they are deep, open, and personal. I have a book of Rilke’s poems in my “to read” pile for this month. Another book that had been in my “to read” pile since April was The Half-Inch Himalayas, by Agha Shahid Ali. Many of his poems are concerned with ancestry, family history, and place, all subjects I am deeply curious about, and which I spend time thinking about in the context of my own family. “Snowmen,” a poem both surreal and heartfelt, strikes me as a beautiful piece of writing as well as poignant cry of both longing for and struggle with one’s own history. Both the poetry book and Sacred Time and the Search for Meaning by Gary Eberle were books I discovered at the Five Colleges Book Sale last spring. Eberle explores the history of human time, which is interesting in itself, he also probes the spiritual aspect of our relationship with time, and tells of his own return to living in sacred time, as manifested in the seasons and the church year. I enjoyed the book, although it made me somewhat frustrated with myself. I’d been doing very well for a long time at keeping a sabbath — a day of little to no work and no computers, but of real recreation and rejuvenation. Lately I’ve been unable to keep that sacred time for myself. As a result of my overly busy life and my lack of respite, I’m not writing much right now. Eberle’s book was a strong reminder to get myself back in balance. One aspect of my sabbath is reconnecting with faraway family by phone. Even before my grandmother’s last weeks, our weekly conversations had grown shorter, and sometimes she was not feeling up to talking. I was fortunate to be able to talk to her just about weekly for my entire adult life, as well as during my childhood. And yet, there was so much more I wanted to ask. I have a box of letters she and her brother wrote to each other, and they left me wondering even more about family stories. By the time I’d puzzled through some of them, she was less interested in speaking of the past — her mind was on the end of her own story, having outlived nearly everyone who was a part of it. At dinner the night before her burial, as my cousins told stories, I realized how differently even the same events seem through the prism of each of our lives, our experiences, our hearts. How different we each were through her eyes than our own vision reveals. Everything I read this month reminds me in some way of how universally humans seek to understand ourselves, each other, and our lives in relation to each other. The novel I’m reading now, Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, is an epic tale dealing with that same problem — finding out who we are, who we’ve come from, how our story fits into the greater human story. I’m also reading Joseph Cambell’s and Bill Moyer’s conversations about the human search for meaning through story, The Power of Myth. Both are excellent so far. Seeking meaning — in story, in sacred time, in relationship with people who came before me and those I live with now — feeds my poetry writing. Grandmother was always thrilled when I had something published, no matter how small or obscure the journal. She also liked to recite poetry, and she read A.A. Milne to me with great relish when I was very young. I leave you with “Disobedience,” in her memory. Soccer: the Biology, Chemistry, Physiology, Physics, and Psychology of The Beautiful Game	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line5999
__label__cc	0.651659	0.348341	Posts Tagged ‘fantasy’ Three books I read on our three day mini vacation Posted in Uncategorized, tagged A Quiet Life, Appointment In Samarra, Beryl Bainbridge, Cape Porpoise, family drama, fantasy, fiction, J.R.R. Tolkien, John O'Hara, Kennebunkort, novels, social commentary, The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings on December 23, 2018\| 3 Comments » The Computer Scientist and I went away for a short winter vacation in Maine. Before I left I packed a few books, of course, but we ended up visiting two libraries with ongoing book sales (in Cape Porpoise and Kennebunkport) and I added to my stash. I ended up reading two books I brought with me and one I bought. First, I have been telling my elder offspring for years that I would read Tolkien. He read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy around age 12 or 13 or so, and pretty much swore off all other fiction because he said nothing else could ever live up to those books. He’s read all four books a few times. I can certainly see why he likes them. I was so wrapped up in the story that I read in the car a bit, which I don’t usually do. I do wish I hadn’t seen the first part of the movie, because it colored the way I imagined various scenes, but I absolutely enjoyed the story and the writing and can see the many ways Tolkien has influenced other writers. I finished late Thursday evening and couldn’t get to sleep at first, thinking over what I’d read and all the details Tolkien works in. And also that there are absolutely no female characters except some vague references to “wives and children.” Interesting. Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed The Hobbit. On Friday I read Appointment In Samarra by John O’Hara. Other than some short stories, I don’t think I’ve ever read O’Hara. I purchased it at the Five Colleges Book Sale in part because the cover caught my eye — it’s the Penguin Classics paperback — and partly because there were two and my friend bought the other copy. Plus, I thought, here was an Important Author I hadn’t read, so I’d remedy that. I grabbed it to read on the trip because I knew it starts on Christmas. I told the Computer Scientist I should have known from the title — a reference to a story about a man’s appointment with death, a folktale retold by W. Somerset Maugham — that it wasn’t going to be a cheery holiday read. What I didn’t realize is exactly how sad it is. O’Hara wrote about a fictionalized version of his own small city in Pennsylvania, and this book, set in 1930, captures all the social ills of the time, many of which are really still with us. Objectification of women, prejudice, classism, the power of money and influence, organized crime, addiction, corruption, social pettiness — pretty much everything ugly about society is in Appointment In Samarra. If there is a character to admire it’s Caroline, who is at least somewhat loyal, but even she seems to stubbornly avoid thinking most of the time. I found myself thinking “come on, can’t you do better than that” several times and in reference to several characters. This novel is sort of like The Great Gatsby set in a smaller town with characters a little less rich. But at least in Gatsby there is an unrequited love that drives the excessive behavior. In Appointment in Samarra, the driving forces seem to just be greed, prejudice, and a need to prove oneself to friends and relatives, and the concomitant fear of falling short. When my reading friend who attended the book sale with me asked if I liked it, I said I was glad I read it; it’s part of the American literary canon, I admire the writing and the risk O’Hara took (he addresses “nice” women’s sexuality very directly, which shocked some reviews). But it’s a really tough story. Along the same lines, I picked up A Quiet Life by Beryl Bainbridge, another new-to-me Important Author. It’s a tough story too — the main characters are a couple whose marriage is strained by jealousy, financial worry, and snobbishness, and their teenagers, Madge, a young woman desperate to break away and willing to break rules to do so, and Alan, a young man trying to hold things together and at the same time, venture out on his own path as well. Bainbridge is a great observer of human nature and captures both the fears and disappointments of late middle age and the hopes and tangled feelings of youth beautifully. A Quiet Life is also a post-war story; England is still dark and damaged. The novel opens and ends with scenes taking place years after the main part of the novel, and those somewhat soften the dismal view of the family she paints. That seemed, by comparison, a bit hopeful. A solid few days of reading, and for that, I’m glad! There is nothing like the sound of the sea and the rain and wind when you’re tucked up, cozy, with a glass of wine and a nice stack of books! The Magician’s Land by Lev Grossman Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Christopher Plover, coming of age, Ember, fantasy, fiction, Fillory, Harry Potter, Lev Grossman, magic, novels, Quentin Coldwater, reading, the Chatwin children, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Magician's Land, The Magicians Trilogy on December 1, 2014\| Leave a Comment » Like the first two books in this series, The Magician’s Land had me hooked from page one. Quentin Coldwater, misunderstood misfit magician king, shows up at a bookstore in a strip mall in New Jersey on a rainy March night, because he received a letter inviting him to do so. From then on it’s a – ahem – spell-binding ride as readers learn what happened to Quentin since the ram god Ember kicked him out of Fillory, and what he’ll do next. Will he recover from the disgraces he’s suffered in Fillory and on Earth? What secret does Plum, a former Brakebills student, have that might help her help Quentin? Can Quentin save Alice from spending the rest of eternity as a niffin? What are Eliot, Josh, Poppy, and Julia doing back in Fillory and why are things so strange there? What really happened to the Chatwin children, whose adventures in Fillory are memorialized in beloved story books? Was there a dark side to the books’ author, Christopher Plover? Is there, indeed, a dark side to Fillory? If you’re thinking you don’t like fantasy so this isn’t your cup of tea, think again. Grossman’s subject isn’t magic, or even purely good versus evil, although that is certainly important in his books. His subject is really humanity, in all its rich variety. And love. And truth. And growing up. And becoming who you’re meant to be. Everything that makes great fiction stick, in a fun, smart, thought-provoking, and yes, fantastic wrapping. I told friends over the weekend that The Magicians trilogy is a cross between Harry Potter and the Chronicles of Narnia, but with sex and drugs. If you’re looking for stories to get lost in this winter, I highly recommend these well written, entertaining, and soulful books. Give me The Magicians over any “problem” novel or confessional memoir, any day. Grossman packs as much truth and love and pain and heartfelt conflict into his stories, with none of the guilt, over-sharing, or voyeurism. Plus, he writes about wicked cool magic. In a series that is very contemporary, which manages to reference traditional fantasy in a very charming way. The jacket flap says this is the series’ conclusion, but I fervently hope Grossman changes his mind about that. Coming up in November’s Mindful Reader column Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Archimedes Nesselrode, book reviews, commercial fiction, fantasy, historical fiction, James Whitfield Thomson, Justine Graykin, Lies You Wanted to Hear, literary fiction, novels, Spider In a Tree, Susan Stinson, The Concord Monitor, The Mindful Reader column on November 4, 2013\| Leave a Comment » This month’s lead review features Susan Stinson‘s Spider In a Tree: a Novel of the First Great Awakening which is incredibly interesting and vivid literary historical fiction. I also review Lies You Wanted to Hear, a debut ripped-from-the-headlines novel by James Whitfield Thomson, and Archimedes Nesselrode, which Justine (Mel) Graykin calls “humorous romantic fantasy” “for adults who are weary of adult books.” The Mindful Reader column appears in the Concord Monitor books page on the 2nd Sunday of each month, so look for it on 11/10/13. Roads and maps Posted in autodidactism, books, cultures, interconnectedness, life learning, myth, poetry, reading, seeking, soccer, travel, unschooling, writing, tagged autodidactism, Bookconscious Theory of the Interconnectedness of Reading, books, cultures, fantasy, fiction, history, humor, interconnectedness, libraries, life learning, Manga, novels, poetry, unschooling on June 7, 2010\| 2 Comments » For as long as I can remember, I’ve enjoyed maps. We have several cool maps hanging up around our house as art and reference, we own a number of atlases, and I keep a basket full of maps from places we’ve been or have learned about. At my family’s insistence, I’ve recently learned how to use a GPS and have a wary respect for the fact that all the maps one could theoretically need are there for the digital asking. But the nostalgic Luddite in me still feels like there’s nothing better than unfolding a map, tracing out a route, folding to the square you need, and then hitting the road, watching the scenery go by and knowing you’re steadily progressing up the highlighted line, and eventually, over the fold. From childhood, I’ve liked following along. My own kids experienced several epic road trips when we lived in Georgia and would travel back to New England each summer for a visit, stopping along the way in Atlanta, South Carolina, and New York to see family. They’re both good with maps. My reading this month very much appealed to the map loving road tripper in me. When I wrapped up last month’s post, I was halfway through Jay Atkinson’s Paradise Road , a buddy travel tribute to Jack Kerouac’s travels. Atkinson writes about Kerouac’s work, the Beats’ travels, and his own trips to some of the same places Kerouac and friends visited. His narrative is both descriptive and reflective, taking the reader along for the ride with plenty of sensory details, and also synthesizing Atkinson’s travels with his relationships — with the friends and loved ones he travels with and leaves behind, and with Kerouac’s On the Road and other work. In contrast to Atkinson, who traveled with friends most of the time, Peter Hessler writes about his many solo road trips in China in Country Driving. I’ve read Hessler’s other two books on China and I always recommend them to anyone looking for a contemporary account of the country. I can’t quite put my finger on exactly what I like best. He writes beautiful prose, natural and also erudite, streamlined and also painterly, showing readers the people and places he’s been in vivid detail that rolls off the page smoothly. And he is an enthusiastic guide, embracing China and translating his experiences for an American audience. These are thoughtful, insightful books but Hessler doesn’t get wrapped up in showing his intellectual prowess — he is perceptive without being overly clever or egotistical. I also admire the way Hessler puts himself squarely in the story, generously sharing his views, his experiences, his friendships, and his difficulties, allowing his emotions to show but never to excessive dramatic effect. I open each new book he writes with a bit of trepidation, wondering whether it will be as good as the last. Hessler has never disappointed. If you haven’t read his books, River Town is the chronicle of Hessler’s stint as a Peace Corps English teacher in Fuling, on the Yangtze River, and his introduction to China; Oracle Bones covers his experience as a journalist living in Beijing, traveling around the country, getting to know China through both its history and its people; and Country Driving is about Hessler’s own road trips, life in the village where he rents a place to live and write away from Beijing’s mad rush, and the impact of increasing numbers of cars and drivers on Chinese society. I highly recommend all three. In a recent New Yorker piece, Hessler talks about moving back to the U.S. I look forward to whatever he writes next. And I appreciate his pointing me towards another outstanding book on contemporary Chinese culture: Factory Girls, by Leslie T. Chang; Hessler mentions Chang and her book at the end of his, because she is his wife. Factory Girls describes the life of villagers who “go out” to work in factory towns from a very young age (many below 18, the legal working age, and barely out of middle school), far from their families. Chang got to know two girls in Dongguan, and through their stories and the story of Chang’s own family’s history, she paints a vivid portrait of the rapid changes taking place in Chinese culture today. Chang’s juxtaposition of 20th and 21st century cultural upheavals in China is very interesting. She draws on her experiences in modern China to get past history and politics and understand the social psychology that contributed to the conflict between the Nationalists and Communists and later, to the Cultural Revolution. Chang also examines factory life from the point of view of young workers, an interesting perspective in light of recent headlines about strikes and suicides in giant Chinese factories. Her observations about the relentless pursuit of self-improvement, the power that new money affords younger generations, and the struggle to find happiness in the midst of mass changes in traditional family structures are astute and incisive. I found some similarities in Chang’s and Hessler’s work beyond the subject matter. (Hessler looked at factory life in Oracle Bones). They are both very smart, clear, vivid writers and people who seem to be at once comfortable with themselves and their places in the world and also open, curious, loyal friends who genuinely care for their subjects. I look forward to more books from both of them. Last month I wrote about a second book I really enjoyed, How Did You Get This Number, and vowed to read the first book by the same author, Sloane Crosley. That book, I Was Told There’d Be Cake, was enjoyable but I think Crosley’s second book is better. My favorite part of Cake was a description of summer camp in NH when Crosley was a child — hilarious. The rest of the book didn’t live up to that promising beginning, or to the second book, although a piece on losing her wallet repeatedly, and always getting it back, came close. That said, Crosley is a terrific writer, and it’s a good trend to be better with each subsequent book. Another second book I read this month was The Map of True Places, by Brunonia Barry. I haven’t read her first, The Lace Reader, but I enjoyed this one. I read it because Barry was coming to Gibson’s (despite my vow to read fewer event books, I read more of those than anything else this month). Map is about a woman who seems to have her life together watching it all unravel, and deciding whether that’s for the best or not. As a reference librarian at heart, I enjoyed the masterful way Barry wove interesting subjects into the story — celestial navigation, 19th century American literature, psychology, and Wiccan herbology to name a few. Barry’s characters are finely detailed and fully fleshed out, and this book is a tale well told. I’d recommend it for a day when you want to be carried away by a story — at the beach, on a plane, or in a hammock, for example, or by the fire if you’re reading this months from now. And if you’re wondering what a best-selling author is like in person, know this: Barry is one of the least pretentious, warmest, friendliest authors I’ve met. You know I’m segueing into a bookstore plug: if you’re a passionate reader like I am, don’t pass up the opportunity to meet authors, especially if you live near an independent bookstore. Soapbox over. I read three other novels this month, all for events. Pete Nelson visited Gibson’s last week, to read from his Indiebound hit I Thought You Were Dead. The character who utters those lines, Stella, is a dog. If you don’t think dialogue between a man and his dog can be done well, go get this book. If you’re looking for a male Jane Austen for our times, read Pete Nelson. I mean that as a compliment. On his website he calls this novel a “tragi-comic romance.” He draws an accurate and amusing portrait of late 20th century American society as well, from yoga to DIY investing. I Thought You Were Dead is also a novel of adulthood in contemporary America. The protagonist, Paul, is living in the Northeast but his parents and siblings are back in Minnesota. His father has just had a stroke and Paul needs to find a way to help from a distance (they end up instant messaging, and the keystrokes are part of his father’s therapy), but he’s a bit intimidated by his successful siblings. He’s a divorced writer who drinks too much, and who’s trying to have a relationship with a woman who is also dating a doctor. Paul is trying to understand all of these various kinds of love, and Stella is his foil and his philosopher. Sounds hokey, but I thought it was excellent. The other two novels I read are by authors coming to Gibson’s second annual Summer Reading Kickoff on June 17th. I met Chris Wiley, aka Mortimus Clay, last fall at the NEIBA fall conference. He started his own press to publish The Purloined Boy; you can read about the end of this process at his blog. I admire what he’s done, and I enjoyed the book. The Purloined Boy is a fantasy with many familiar characteristics — the protagonist, Trevor, realizes there’s more to his world than what’s immediately obvious, there are monstrous villains and a Merlin-like figure. Trevor has a mysterious, magical helper and a smart friend who want to help him. He is struggling to understand his role — is he to follow the longing he feels for “home,” a place he only vaguely remembers, or is he to stay where he is and help defeat the system that’s taken children from their homes in the first place? Besides the moral dilemma, Trevor also faces the confusion of not knowing where he really belongs, and which world he’s lived in is real. While it’s true to the genre, The Purloined Boy is also an original story with interesting details. It would make an excellent book club pick – plenty to discuss. I also read Nature Girl, the debut novel by Jane Kelley, who’ll be at the Summer Reading Kickoff as well. This novel for tweens is about a city girl, Megan, stuck in Vermont for the summer with well-meaning, but to her mind clueless, parents and an annoying older sister. She’d been planning to spend summer vacation with her best friend, whose mother has cancer, and in the course of the book she makes a spontaneous decision to hike to Massachusetts to see her friend. I admire the way Kelley injects some reality into the far fetched parts of the story — Megan makes it on the Appalachian trail not only because of her own determination and spunk, but also because an adult hiker (the delightfully cranky Trail Blaze Betty) keeps an eye on her. Megan is a regular kid, trying to set a course in the unsettling world of early adolescence, wanting to enjoy the same kid fun she’s always had with her best friend but struggling to be more grown up, too. The story moves along at a good pace, and Megan learns from her experiences but the novel doesn’t end on a saccharine or preachy note. Nature Girl is a gentle but contemporary story with an exuberant, realistic heroine, for adventurous and couch-loving girls alike. Just as I enjoy fiction without an obvious message or sticky sweet ending, I prefer my poetry spare and direct. My favorite poems are imaginative but relatively minimalist. Ted Kooser’s work fits that description, and this month I read Flying at Night, his collection covering twenty years of poems (1965-1985). From hiking (“Visiting Mountains”) to lying awake listening to a dripping sink (“The Leaky Faucet”) or the sounds of the “Furnace,” Kooser deals with everyday experience. I found Flying at Night to be a very cohesive collection, with no obvious misfits among the selected poems. Kooser’s poems are brimming with plains imagery — abandoned farmhouses, prairies, humid Midwestern summers, a snow fence — and with ordinary Americans, including his newspaper carrier (“Myrtle”) and many of his own relatives. In this way his work reminds me of Wes McNair’s, but Kooser writes mostly shorter, sparser poems than McNair does. His tone is less optimistic — McNair’s work feels more hopeful and exuberant to me, whereas some of Kooser’s poems feel like dirges (“Shooting a Farmhouse,” “Tillage Marks”). And yet even these sad poems are beautiful. I hang a poem up in the kitchen, next to the sink, every week. We used to rotate this duty, but when I sensed it becoming a chore, I relieved the children of the selection process so that poetry would remain a pleasure in their lives, and not another item on the “to do” list. I’m about to put Kooser’s “At the Center” up for this week: “In Kansas, on top/of an old piano,/a starfish, dry/as a fancy pastry/left sitting there/during a wedding,/spreads its brown arms/over the foam/of a white lace doily,/reaching for water/in five directions.” Many of his poems use the title this way – it’s almost its own line, rather than a word taken from the body of the poem. Besides the Poem of the Week, the kids both continued to follow their interests in their reading this month. The Preteen enjoyed the latest books in two series she’s been reading for a few years: Nancy Springer’s Enola Holmes and Michael Buckley’s Sisters Grimm. Both are mysteries featuring strong girl protagonists. The Preteen reports that the new books in each series were both great. She also read Rick Riordan‘s new book, The Red Pyramid. Riordan is the author of the wildly popular and very entertaining Percy Jackson series, which re-ignited the Preteen’s childhood interest in mythology. She reports that The Red Pyramid is full of Egyptian mythology, which is “kind of cool.” She also likes the characters in the new book — a brother and sister with an Egyptologist father. Riordan’s website notes that The Red Pyramid is the first in a series, so she’ll have more to look forward to. I like the way Riordan’s books spur kids to make connections with history and myths. All good books do this — add to our mental map of the world. Meanwhile, she also read more manga (further episodes of +Anima and few of the Fruits Basket series). We’re enjoying our new Hooksett library card, which is a bargain at $25 a year for non-residents. Both kids have been using the library’s link to Mango languages, and the PreTeen really likes the YA room in the library, where she can browse manga titles and look for other books. On our last visit, she picked up a few non-Manga books: Catherine, Called Birdy, by Karen Cushman, a volume in the Royal Diaries which she hadn’t read before (Kristina, the Girl King), and Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life, by Wendy Mass, whose book A Mango Shaped Space she really enjoyed. I’m really happy to see her browsing for books at a library. The Teenager is wrapped up in all things World Cup. His pleasure reading these days is almost entirely football related — he has an absolutely encyclopedic grasp of the 32 teams in the tournament and if I think I have a scrap of news about an injury or anything else, he has heard it already. Today, his first guest post appeared on NHPR’s Word of Mouth blog — he’s writing about the World Cup for them. He follows the BBC, the Guardian, Fox Soccer, Sky Sports, and US Soccer websites and probably more that I can’t keep up with, and we’ve all been enjoying daily World Cup coverage in the New York Times. When I asked him what he’d read this month that I should mention in bookconscious, he immediately referred me to this week’s New York Times Magazine article by Michael Sokolove, on the Dutch club Ajax’s youth soccer system. Soccer development is a topic near and dear to the Teenager’s heart, and he has strong opinions on the state of the U.S. system. He’s also participated in two of the paths to the National Team — Olympic Development Program (ODP) and SuperY (he’s playing for Seacoast Wanderers now). He actually sent the Computer Scientist and I the NYT magazine article last week, ahead of its print publication. The Teenager’s take: he admired the thoroughness of the article, and said it was clear Sokolove had really taken time to get to know his subject. He also thought it was spot on, in terms of critiquing the difference between the American soccer development system (or systems, really) and the way the rest of the world prepares youngsters for the pros. Unfortunately for his parents, this piece only confirmed what the Teenager already suspected — the path to his dream of playing soccer professionally is more than likely going to lead him across the pond. As a favor, the Teenager and the Computer Scientist read World Cup 2010: The Indispensable Guide to Soccer and Geopolitics ahead of tonight’s Gibson’s event with father-son authors Steven and Harrison Stark. I’ve read bits and pieces of it, because that’s the kind of book it is — one to have by the remote while you’re watching the World Cup, so you can brush up on the teams and learn some amusing and strange facts, too. We’ve had this kind of book for past World Cups and one thing I admire about World Cup 2010 is that it’s full of information and commentary, rather than eye candy. I’m really looking forward to having the Starks at the store; everyone in our house is very excited for the World Cup to start on Friday. The Computer Scientist began his Star Wars summer reading project. He read Star Wars: Cloak of Deception ( a prequel to The Phantom Menace) and Darth Bane: Path of Destruction (Darth Bane being a Sith Lord who lived 1,000 years or so before the time of the films). He enjoyed those, but hasn’t had time to keep his Goodreads page current. He has a stack of books to read on his nightstand, but this is the last month of the fiscal year and therefore, his hair is on fire at work. He got several books for his birthday: The Pacific, by Hugh Ambrose, a couple of Fate of the Jedi books, and Jason Turbow’s The Baseball Codes. So he’s set for reading as soon as he finds time! My to-read pile includes David Mitchell‘s forthcoming novel, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet, which I’ve been reading for a week now. I’m not sure what I’ll read after that, but we do have some road trips coming up (to Burlington and Ottawa, for soccer games) so I’ll pack books. I might take Shirley Jackson‘s Raising Demons to Vermont, since I like to match my reading material to the place I’m traveling when possible. Novice to Master floated to the top of the pile recently and is calling out to me. My preferred hammock reading is fiction, and I’ve got several forthcoming novels to choose from. Until next month, happy reading! Bailed out by books Posted in autodidactism, books, interconnectedness, life learning, local food, locavore, misunderstandings, poetry, reading, seeking, Uncategorized, unschooling, writing, tagged autodidactism, Bookconscious Theory of the Interconnectedness of Reading, books, fantasy, fiction, food, history, humor, interconnectedness, libraries, life learning, memoir, mindfulness, New England, New Hampshire, novels, poet laureate, poetry, reading, readings, unschooling, writing on April 4, 2010\| Leave a Comment » Looking over what I read in March, I realized that most of the books, fiction or nonfiction were about saving something or someone. Am I seeking a metaphysical bailout through books? Possibly. As I’ve mentioned before, I am an unabashed fan of escaping into my reading pile when the world is too much with me. As has been the case since last June, my reading list this month was informed by the events schedule at Gibson’s. Yesterday I realized we’ve had 89 events since I started. Phew! No wonder I’m tired. You can see a list of upcoming events here, and see what you missed here (scroll down to Past Events). Last week we had two fantastic events. Ben Hewitt came to discuss The Town That Food Saved and we had a really great crowd of local food champions, CSA organizers, nature educators, farmers, gardeners, and people who like eating well. Ben is a really interesting guy and we could have talked all night. One thing I like about Ben and his book is that he creates space for questions and conversation, rather than claiming to have all the answers. His book is about Hardwick, Vermont, and the entrepreneurs who have come together in the area around local, sustainable businesses. He delves into the sticky issues of whether profitability and sustainability can co-exist, profiles movers and shakers in the local food scene, and talks with old timers in the Hardwick area who aren’t impressed by the fuss. I was excited that NHPR’s Word of Mouth had Ben and Ton Stearns of High Mowing Organic Seeds on the show. Ben even brought seeds to share with folks at the book signing table at Gibson’s. Last Saturday, Adrienne Martini came to talk about her memoir, Sweater Quest. Whether you knit or not, this book is a blast. Adrienne’s writing is smart, funny, and sharp. The book traces a year Adrienne spent knitting an Alice Starmore sweater design called Mary Tudor. Along the way, Adrienne tells readers about the Shetland islands, fair isle sweaters, knitting techniques, and the history and sociology of knitting. She also introduces some of the main characters in the Knitterati: movers and shakers in both the virtual and bricks and mortar communities of knitters, designers, and yarn shops. But this is also a book about the nature of of friendship, the challenge of being ourselves as well as being mothers, daughters, and wives, and the meaning of goals and their completion. Adrienne even touches on why knitting can save your sanity. Reading Sweater Quest is like sitting down with a good friend. Adrienne’s tone is warm, conversational as well as wicked smart. I loved this book, and admit that it makes me wish I had time to take up knitting — I’ve tried it a few times, without much success. But even without that in common, I can admire Adrienne’s excellent writing and her ability to make me feel at home in a world I know little about. Plus, I really want to know the secret of her ability to hold two teaching jobs, mother two children, spend time with her husband, and still have time to write (and knit one of the hardest sweater patterns out there). Another book I read for work is No Good Deed By Dr. Lewis Mitchell Cohen. This is a good example of a book I would not likely have picked up on my own, but I am glad I read. Cohen discusses end-of-life care and the medical and ethical issues surrounding it, through the stories of two nurses at Baystate Medical Center (where he also works) who were accused of murder by a fellow staff member. Delving into history, religious and cultural beliefs, ethical and legal issues, and the personal, heart-breaking stories of patients, families and medical staff, No Good Deed is eye-opening, thought provoking, and at times, alarming. While the nurses at Baystate ended up cleared of wrongdoing, the book relates a number of other cases that ended badly for doctors or nurses. Through it all, Cohen manages to be very even-handed, and his empathy for all parties, even those he doesn’t necessarily agree with, is one of the book’s strengths. I admire his willingness to not only express his own views as a doctor of thirty years’ experience, but to also give fair treatment to other viewpoints. I was struck by how many of the cases, from all over the world, hinged on misunderstanding, especially on the part of prosecutors, lawyers, and juries. Cohen’s book is troubling but also moving, and left me with a better sense of the complex issues surrounding palliative care, and the importance of communication between family members, medical staff, and those who are ill. It seems that as in so many other situations in contemporary culture, there are many choices and considerations, but one heartening message of No Good Deed is that the staff who provide palliative care are often among the most dedicated and caring people you’d ever meet. The rest of my reading in March was much lighter, although still relatively dark, fiction. In fact, each of the novels I read had a streak of danger, madness, hubris, or evil in it. Most of them managed to be funny as well. What does that say about contemporary culture? We’re think we’re doomed but we’ll go down laughing? Maybe, we take ourselves too seriously. If you want to lighten up, read on. I picked up The Poison Eaters: And Other Stories, by Holly Black in part because Joe Hill mentioned Small Beer Press when he came to Gibson’s, and I enjoyed his other recommendation (City of Thieves). In a Twitter post about it, I called this collection “creepy, in a good way.” But it’s recommended for 14 and up, and I’d suggest older than that, personally. I don’t get the appeal of encouraging kids to read about sex, drugs, and violence by marketing it as YA literature. Of course, some people would say that I’m being naive, and kids are actually doing those things, so what harm can stories do? But I’m not so sure that argument makes sense. First of all, not all kids are, and second of all, why should literature join the fray? Good books can deal with really rough coming of age issues without being painfully graphic — look at Chaim Potok’s The Chosen, for example. That said, Holly is a great writer, and her stories transcend creepy fantasy to explore human nature, culture, and community, among other themes. Her stories are smart, funny, and thoughtful, as well as very entertaining. Some of her characters manage to save themselves, some save each other. If you’re still a bit intrigued by unicorns and fairies but want something edgier, check out The Poison Eaters. And perhaps an older teen would enjoy this book — I just wanted to rant a bit about the general trend towards YA fiction that seems, to me, too harsh and in-your-face, and not quite hopeful enough. Speaking of in-your-face fiction, I read Solar, by Ian McEwan last week. You’ve probably read the reviews, so I won’t go into too much detail here. Bits that were probably meant to be funny rubbed me the wrong way; maybe I just have a hard time laughing about climate change skeptics, status freak scientists, and investors who just want to milk the next green thing for as much return on the dollar (or pound or euro) as possible. I think if I hadn’t just read this week that about half the television weather reporters in the U.S. doubt climate change and a majority of Americans trust those same weather-casters more than other sources to tell them the truth about climate change, I might have chuckled more. Also, McEwan works so hard to make Solar‘s main character, Nobel winner Michael Beard, a creep that it was hard to care much about what happened to him. Just about every character has a chance to save a bad situation or make a better choice and then don’t. I don’t need a happy ending every time, but I like to feel there’s something redeeming about someone or something in a novel, and this one left me feeling adrift. It was hard to tell if anything good could come of any of the people you’d just spent a few nights getting to know. I need at least a shred of hope. An example of the kind of book I’m talking about — one that gives the reader hope in humankind, or at least hope in the transformative power of good storytelling, is The Girl Who Fell From the Sky, by Heidi W. Durrow. I was torn about whether I wanted to read it, because I’d heard enough about the plot to know that awful things happen to the main character when she’s a child. I generally decide that if I want to be depressed about man’s inhumanity to man, I could just read the newspaper. Durrow doesn’t hold anything back — in that regard, her writing is like Holly Black’s. But like Black, she also lets her characters figure out that the bad stuff is only one part of this world. Durrow’s troubled characters, especially Rachel and Brick, don’t just make you cringe when they screw up, they make you yearn for them to catch a break, and quietly urge them on. By the end of The Girl Who Fell From the Sky, readers regret the painful things these characters have been through but know their world (and by association, ours) will, in the end, be alright. Another novel I adored this month was First Contact, Or, It’s Later Than You Think by Evan Mandery. Much gentler in many ways than the other fiction I read — even though the story involves the end of the world, preceded by a near miss with inter-planetary nuclear war — First Contact is zany satire. Mandery manages to skewer everything from politics to PTA’s, and has fun with himself, too, by writing a “recursion” into the story after a child gives a scathing critique of First Contact when his mother reads it as a bedtime story. I enjoyed the goofy jokes, the aliens who love Bundt cake, and the important roles Mandery grants raccoons in driving his plot. But I also liked Mandery’s quiet hero, Ralph, and his idealistic girlfriend, Jessica. In fact, many of Mandery’s minor characters, including Jessica , some of the White House staff, and several of the Rigelians, are vivid enough to admire or empathize with. Or laugh at. It’s a sign of a good book when event the supporting characters are richly imagined. Jessica and Ralph fall deeply in love, and they’re relationship resonated with me, because like Steve and I when we first met, they are reduced to phone calls because they are apart. (I know you want to know why — go read the book.) Perhaps because I associate this kind of deep conversation — wanting to tell the other person everything but also to listen and know everything the other thinks, feels, and dreams — with lasting, true love, I didn’t find the lack of passionate love scenes problematic. In fact, I thought many of the relationships in First Contact were lovely. Besides, I got plenty of steamy passion in The Swimming Pool, a first novel by Holly LeCraw. LeCraw has tension and emotional drama down pat. Her depiction of one character’s postpartum depression makes you want to shake the other characters and yell, “Get her some help!” And the tragedy that haunts her characters is compelling enough to keep you turning pages without being melodramatic. I could have done with a little less information in some of the sex scenes, however. My basic rule of thumb is, if you wouldn’t discuss it with your grandmother, it’s over the top. Don’t get me wrong. As Bookconscious readers know, my grandmother was very well read, and she happened to also have nursed a decades long soap opera addiction. (Days of Our Lives. I admit, I followed it too, for a few years.) So she knew from sex scenes. But when we talked books, Grandmother and I both admired stories that made you sense the passion lovers shared without making you feel like you were actually watching. For example, no one doubts that Romeo and Juliet want to consummate their relationship, but Shakespeare didn’t need to describe intimate parts of Juliet’s anatomy to get his audience on board. I know I’m hopelessly old fashioned in this regard. Another well written debut novel, The Summer We Fell Apart, had its share of lusty scenes as well. So perhaps this is just a literary trend I’m not hip to? (The fact that I just used the phrase, “hip to,” may be a clue — no one who is actually hip says that, right?) Anyway, The Swimming Pool is part mystery, part tragedy, part love story, and maybe my problem is that the sex is extraneous to the emotional drama. There are some seriously hurting characters here, and I liked it best when the book focused on those stories, and the ways the characters began to heal. The affair distracts two of them, nearly to the brink of disaster, from the people they most need to help. LeCraw bails them out in the end, and again, while this book’s ending isn’t exactly happy, it left me satisfied. Last night, I read the new-to-me parts of Maxine Kumin‘s Where I Live and Wesley McNair‘s Lovers of the Lost. Kumin, McNair, and Donald Hall are on the bill for this year’s poetry reading at the Concord Audi on April 21, put together by Mike Pride (retired editor of the Concord Monitor). Both books are “new and selected” poetry collections, so I read the new, and skimmed the selected. Before I started at Gibson’s I was working on what I thought of as an independent MFA — time and cash poor, busy with other committments, and generally wanting to avoid the grad schools churning out writers glutting literary markets with submissions, I sought my own study, reading both creative nonfiction and poetry, as well as fiction. Lately, I haven’t taken the time to read poetry as carefully — I read a poem most days, but I’m often in a hurry. Sitting down with Lovers of the Lost and Where I Live reminded me of how much poetry offers, and how much I love being mindfully immersed in it. Both books contain wonderful surprises, new and old. I’ve gushed about both McNair’s and Kumin’s poetry here before, and one of my favorite things about living in New Hampshire is being able to hear such fine poets in person. We’ve also enjoyed hearing Donald Hall a few times over the past several years, as well as Charles Simic and Sharon Olds. Donald Hall can really electrify a crowd. My favorite Hall moment was at Gibson’s several years ago, when he read “Her Garden” with it’s other-wordly refrain, “let if go, let it go,” in his deep, emotive voice. Kumin and McNair (and also Olds and Simic) read in what I’d call a more even toned, conversational style, but their words are certainly no less powerful. Among Maxine Kumin’s new poems, I especially enjoyed “The Victorian Obsession With the Preservation of Hair,” with stanzas shaped like beards cloaking the sad story of Longfellow’s attempt to save his wife from the fire that killed her as she was sealing enveloped with clippings of her children’s hair. And among the “selected” — well, there are just too many favorites for me to do justice to them all. I love that Kumin often plays with traditional forms, like sestinas and sonnets, but none of her poems are stuffy or unfathomable. On the surface, they are about utterly recognizable subjects, like marriage, gardens, animals, people. She makes these ordinary things into the very essence of being human, through beautiful language. Her work is sometimes playful (as in “The Domestic Arrangement” and “Almost Spring, Driving Home, Reciting Hopkins,” and “Seven Caveats In May”), sometimes thoughtful, ( “Sonnet In So Many Words,” and “Mulching”), sometimes reverent, (“Jack”), sometimes matter-of-fact, “John Green Takes His Warner, New Hampshire Neighbor to a Red Sox Game”), or piercing (“Waterboarding, Restored,” and “Extraordinary Rendition.” Similarly, McNair writes of ordinary Americans, ordinary experiences, but his poems make these things wonders to behold. “First Snowfall,” for example, is one of the new poems in Lovers of the Lost. McNair paints a scene of fresh snow on a rundown rural town. But he points us beyond the old semi trailers and collapsed barns, opens our eyes to this: “a snowplow/holding a small light/ahead of itself opening the street/that vanishes in the long drift and dream/of it, coming down/over the whole town/where everyone/ under every/last, lost/roof is now far away/and all gone/and good night.” Gorgeous. Another of my favorites among the new poems is “Love Story,” a funny, but also very poignant poem in which the narrator is pushing a car with four children and a dog inside it, the battery is dead, and he’s trying to get his wife to take her foot off the clutch at the right moment so the car will start. Their timing is off, until McNair reveals, “What was the moment/in the midst of our despair/when the engine suddenly caught/and you roared away and came back/for me, I got in by the soda can/on the floor and the dog now sitting/between us on the emergency brake,/the whole family smiling/as the trees broke apart faster and faster/over our heads — what, but a blessing?” McNair’s breadth and depth is amazing. I don’t have space to go into them all, but among the “selected” poems I love “Small Towns Passing, “The Life,” “Glass Night,” “Why We Need Poetry,” “How I Became a Poet,” “The Rules of the New Car,” “Driving North In Winter,” and “The Man He Turned Into.” I hope to hear many of the poems from Lovers of the Lost and Where I Live, as well as Donald Hall’s poems, on April 21. It’s late and we’re all tired, dear readers, but there isn’t much more for me to tell. The Computer Scientist has picked up a couple of books here and there, but says he’s on a reading fast. Although, like me, he reads two newspapers and numerous magazines. He raves about Harper’s and says if he had to whittle our subscriptions down to one, that would be it. I know he read Gakuen Alice with the Preteen this month. (For those who are keeping track, I officially have six months left to come up with another psuedonym for her. Heaven help me.) This is a manga set at a school for kids who have special talents — so the two of them went around discussing what their “Alice” talents might be. I love that they had a dad/daughter manga shopping trip and swap titles. The Computer Scientist is also reading some manga the Preteen finished last month, Hollow Fields. She is also still reading Alice In Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, which I got her in one volume, and she started another manga, Nabari No Ou set in modern times, but with ninjas. She decorated one of our Easter eggs with “ninja egg” written in wax, because, as she pointed out, the egg would be hidden. Like a ninja, mom (insert sigh and special look reserved for mothers of preteens, when they are at their most dense). She also enjoys several magazines, and her favorite lately is Muse, because it is mostly about science and is “random,” which is something she and her best friend aspire to be. And even when the ennui around here is thick enough for a ninja to slice through, the Preteen likes the New York Times science section, which she reads most weeks. The Teenager went through a pensive stage post-pneumonia; in last month’s post I described how he spent time thinking about things he’s enjoyed since he was little, like space, and photography. He’s also been revisiting his interest in food — he’s always loved to cook as well as to eat. Several years ago, he read a thick book about the history, science, and art of woks and stir frying. Lately he’s been enjoying The Edible History of Humanity, by Tom Standage, who happens to be an editor at one of the his favorite magazines to browse through, The Economist. He also got a big kick out of Rachel Mead’s profile of cashmere designer and life learner Brunello Cucinelli in last week’s New Yorker. Most of the time, the Teenager is reading about heavy topics like the Big Bang, the chemical composition of athletic clothing or the physics principles behind a good shot on goal — or he’s reading about the latest injuries to plague his favorite players ahead of the World Cup. So I’m glad to see him reading for pleasure. I can tell when something has really caught his attention because he either thanks me for leaving it out for him (the New Yorker piece) or tells us something about what he’s read at dinner. Such as, that in some ways we’d be better off if we’d stuck to hunting and gathering. Well, I have to bake our traditional homemade cinnamon rolls, which are rising overnight, and hide ninja eggs early tomorrow, so I’d better wrap this up. On my reading pile? I’m about halfway through The Help, thanks to my Aunt Dina, who lent it to me because the library list is lengthy. Today I picked up Remarkable Creatures because I have enjoyed some of Tracy Chevalier’s books (especially Girl With the Pearl Earring) and I’ve always admired the story of Mary Anning. And I also picked up Cursed By a Happy Childhood on ILL, because Carl Lennertz sent me First Contact to review, and because Evan Mandery praises it in his acknowledgements — I’d never come across a note in which an author commends a book by his editor to readers, so I figured it was Not To Be Missed. And my two bedside stacks of coming events books and tasty looking advance copies (like Sloane Crosley‘s latest book of essays) are heaped with goodies. I’m set, come what may — life can throw what it wants at me, but I’ll have plenty of books at the end of the day. May books be your bailout, too. A Story of Medicine, Murder Accusations, and the Debate Over How We Die Winning the war on winter Posted in books, cultures, interconnectedness, life learning, reading, seeking, Uncategorized, unschooling, tagged autodidactism, Bookconscious Theory of the Interconnectedness of Reading, Churchill, cultures, faith traditions, fantasy, fiction, Haiti, historical fiction, history, interconnectedness, literary translation, Manga, nature, seasons, social justice on February 4, 2010\| 5 Comments » When I began bookconscious we were still living in a small town in the Deep South. I missed the four seasons, and one of the things we enjoy about being back in New Hampshire is winter. Really! Lots of people ask how we can stand the long winters here. In most of the places we’ve lived, winter was a drag. Wet, gray, dreary, without fluffy clean snow and bright sunshine to break up the monotony. In New England, winter is like the other seasons — gorgeous and changeable. It may be gray and slushy on occasion, but the next day may be postcard lovely. As I write, it’s snowing lightly but the sun is breaking through, so the flakes look like mylar confetti. It’s cold but not bone-chilling today, and the wind is calm. The bare branches look fetching with a sparkly new coating of snow. In fairness, even where winter is pretty and bright, it gets dark early, and there is the post-holiday let down when you’ve made it through New Year’s and the promise of spring is a long way off. There’s nothing like a good fire and a good book to fight off the melancholy effect of winter’s darkness, or to revel in the long nights if you find them cozy. I started 2010 with a book I’d wanted to read for some time, Lev Grossman‘s The Magicians. Billed as a sort of Harry Potter for grownups, this novel opens with a young man named Quentin receiving his call to Brakebills College for Magical Pedagogy. The novel follows him from those first confusing hours through his graduation and into the world(s) — ours, and the world where a series of children’s fantasy novels is set. The Magicians is a dark look at how magic might co-exist with our world. It’s also a coming of age novel, complete with sex and drugs. And an engrossing read that considers the impact our favorite children’s books have on our worldviews, our characters, our psyches. Fascinating stuff for a mother in the Harry Potter era, when critics of Hogwarts’ intoxicating charms warn that J.K. Rowling has dangerously blurred children’s notions of fantasy and reality. My kids both went through phases of wishing fervently that Hogwarts were real (heck, so did I). Grossman gives us a peek at what might happen if it were, and if kids with magical powers grew up into adults with those powers. Like The Magicians, Kate Morton‘s The Forgotten Garden was on my library list for a number of months. Morton is Australian and the book is set in Australia and England. I enjoyed the shifting setting as well as the shifting time — as the protagonist researches her mysterious family history, she reads a notebook her grandmother left. These notes tell about the previous generation, in the late Victorian and Edwardian period. Since I’d just read Alice I Have Been, which is also set in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, I enjoyed the connection. Morton is a good storyteller, and once I got into The Forgotten Garden, I tore right through it. It didn’t stay with me for days after, the way Alice did. But I’m planning to read Morton’s other books. A fascinating story that did stay with me for a long while after I reached the end is one I gave the Computer Scientist for Christmas: Ursala LeGuin‘s The Lathe of Heaven. We both really enjoyed the premise of LeGuin’s fascinating story: a man’s dreams impact reality. She wrote the book in the 1970’s about the future, but the book felt fresh and even timely, as climate change and war in the Middle East both factor into the story. Many books I’ve read recently are set during wars. At last month’s Gibson’s book club discussion, a new participant who had also read The Piano Teacher suggested Hotel On the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, by Jamie Ford. I read it fairly quickly, and again enjoyed the connection to my other reading, as the novel took place both around the time of WWII and decades later, just as The Forgotten Garden spans much of the twentieth century. Because we lived in the Seattle area for awhile, I was interested in the details about the homefront in the Pacific Northwest. Ford explores the meaning of ethnicity and identity as well as family relationships and loyalties in Hotel On the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. I enjoyed many of the minor characters — a cafeteria lady who gruffly looks after the protagonist who is bullied at school; a jazz musician who befriends the boy; his mother, who is caught between her love for her son and her loyalty to her domineering husband. Some of these relationships could be better developed, but it was a fun, interesting read and would be an interesting book club pick. Speaking of book discussions, I joined a new series at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church on world religions. Their first selection was a book I’d bought at a library sale somewhere along the line and had been meaning to read, Thich Nhat Hanh‘s Living Buddha, Living Christ. Bookconscious fans know I’ve been trying to study mindfulness for a few years, and I’ve read his books The Miracle of Mindfulness and Peace Is Every Step. Both are powerful books to dip into again and again, rather than digest all at once. This book is different, though — Hanh veers away from teaching mindfulness to explore Christ as his own “spiritual ancestor.” He finds parallels in the teachings of Buddha and Jesus. I’ve always found the interconnectedness of faiths very interesting, and his insights are thought provoking. Hanh’s writing is simple and clear, and you’re bound to come away from reading any of his work with only a glimpse of what it might mean. A few days later, the glimpse might expand a bit until you’re seeing the whole horizon. Speaking of a book that will expand your horizon — go read The Power of Half by Kevin and Hannah Salwen. I couldn’t put it down, and read it in one sitting (while waiting for the Teenager at the indoor soccer facility where he trains). The book reads like a long piece in a good newspaper, which makes sense, since Kevin Salwen wrote for the Wall Street Journal. It’s the story of the Salwen family’s decision to sell their grand Atlanta home and give half the proceeds to a nonprofit. The Salwens worked together, kids and parents each weighing in, to decide how best to donate the money. Kevin writes well, and his observations about how development aid works best were enlightening, even though I have read a great deal about aid and agreed with where he was starting from (helping people help themselves is better than telling them what help they need). I like a book that teaches me something new about something I already know about. I also appreciate the way he shares the things that went poorly. Hannah’s parts of the book are also enjoyable, and she’s an inspiring kid. She writes about her experiences volunteering, and she offers young readers exercises to help them identify ways they can make the world a better place. This makes the book much more than a memoir about one family’s giving – anyone could pick up The Power of Half and get practical ideas and support for making an impact in their community and the world. I can’t wait to meet Kevin and Hannah at Gibson’s in a couple of weeks — they are doing an event at the store and an event at an area school, both of which will benefit Capitol Region Habitat for Humanity. Another author I look forward to meeting is Susan Hand Shetterly, who is coming to the store this week. Her book, Settled In the Wild, is a beautiful book about the resilience of the wild, as well as a reminder of the interconnectedness of the human and natural worlds. Unlike some naturalist writing, Settled neither scolds nor romanticizes. I think the balance Hand strikes between explaining her deeply felt connection to the wild all around us and the need for humans to coexist responsibly with nature is just right. Shetterly’s thoughtful writing, graceful perception, and admirable powers of observation, along with her affectionate portrayal of her human neighbors and her own experiences making a life in small town Maine, makes this an enjoyable book for fans of memoir as well as nature lovers. Shetterly’s book is about achieving a well-lived life as much as it’s about nature. It’s enjoyable to reflect on the role of everyday people in history — something most history books can’t or don’t cover. But it’s also inspiring to revisit the lives of those larger than life historical figures whose impact is widely known. Paul Johnson‘s Churchill is one of the most delightful biographies I’ve read, because Johnson treats his subject both as a historical figure and as an individual who lived his life well. Johnson effectively reviews Churchill’s basic biographical details in a compact book, but he also writes eloquently of the pivotal moments when Churchill’s brilliance manifested itself. He manages to give a full picture of the great man of history (including those rare things he got wrong) and the friend, husband, and father; the statesman and the painter; the orator and the bricklayer. Because Johnson met Churchill and those who knew him, he sprinkles the book with personal anecdotes and quotes from their conversations as well, which gives the book an amiable feel. I liked the combination of Johnson’s masterful political and historical analysis and his convivial celebration of Churchill’s humanity. Another astute observer of her subjects’ humanity is Edwidge Danticat. Her piece in the New Yorker about her cousin Maxo, who died in the earthquake in Haiti, is a lovely description of the impact of his short life, a life that would have gone unnoticed by most of the world, were it not for this tragedy. But she manages, in roughly 1,000 words, to present him as fully human. In The Dew Breaker, she manages to present as fully human a character who is a torturer in the regime of Haitian dictator Francois Duvalier. I’d never read Danticat, and I thoroughly enjoyed her rich writing and the psychological depth of her storytelling. I picked up Danticat’s book at the library because like so many people, my knowledge of Haitian culture is limited. I’ve read about Partners In Health‘s work there, and learned a little about Haiti reading Tracy Kidder‘s Mountains Beyond Mountains. But like many Americans, my exposure to world literature is not as thorough as it could be. I’d heard of Danticat, and know the work of some African and Indian writers, because they write in English. In an effort to expand my literary horizons I read a wonderful anthology, Words Without Borders, which brings readers a selection of work in translation, selected by well known authors. I took a workshop on literary translation last spring, and this collection made me admire that complicated art even more. I’m thrilled that this anthology is a project of Words Without Borders online magazine, where even more work in translation is available. Most of the book is fiction, with some poetry and essays. My favorite stories were the hilarious “The Scripture Read Backward,” by Bengali writer Parashuram; “The Uses of English,” by Nigerian Akinwumi Isola; and “Swimming at Night,” by Argentinian Juan Forn. I also loved the selections by Polish poet Bronislaw Maj. Reading this anthology was like taking an extended trip around the world. Just the thing for a dark winter’s evening. The Computer Scientist and I have been sharing some books this winter. Besides The Lathe of Heaven, the Computer Scientist also read The Battlefield Guide. We share similar tastes in poetry and literature, but he also likes grittier stuff, like Dennis Lehane‘s Mystic River, which he read recently. He enjoys Lehane’s direct but descriptive writing and noted the suspenseful clash between different socioeconomic segments in Mystic River. He is still working on Rick Atkinson’s The Day of Battle and has started reading Churchill as well. The Teenager is reading Profiles In Courage. I know he’s enjoying it because when we passed the New Hampshire state house a couple of days ago, he pointed to Daniel Webster‘s statue and said, “That guy was a genius.” I asked him what caused him to suddenly feel so strongly about NH’s native son, and he said he’d read about him in Profiles. I know he’s gotten something out of his recent American history reading, especially the graphic novel edition of the constitution, because he told me a week or so ago that our government is amazing, it’s just the people in it who are self-centered and stupid. 🙂 He knows that’s not true across the board, but he gets that the pre-occupation with gaining and holding office is interfering with the incredible idea that is America. The Preteen has been reading the Manga series Tokyo Mew Mew. She likes the art; she’s been interested in this style of drawing for a while now and is taking a manga class. I’m not sure what to make of the fact that her favorite part is when the characters battle aliens. The Preteen has also enjoyed the benefits of having a mother who works in a bookstore this month. She’s read a couple of books that aren’t out yet, including The Night Fairy by Laura Amy Schlitz, (due out in Feb.), and started The False Princess, by Eilis O’Neal, (it doesn’t come out until July). She’s also reading The Purloined Boy, by Mortimus Clay, which I picked up for her at the New England Independent Booksellers’ Association trade show. Of the three, she likes the Purloined Boy the most. All three are fantasy, and it’s hard to impress her in the fantasy department, since she is a devoted fan of Harry Potter and also of the Percy Jackson series (as I write she is enjoying Percy Jackson and The Olympians: The Ultimate Guide), Ursula LeGuin’s Catwings books, as well as some very good stand alone books like Ella Enchanted. We also read aloud all of the Narnia and Prydain books and Susan Cooper‘s Dark Is Rising sequence when she was younger. So she’s grown up with high standards, and is often disappointed. She keeps returning to the fantasy genre though, and sometimes she finds a new favorite, like The Amaranth Enchantment. I’ve experienced the same thing, occasionally picking up some book I’ve been looking forward to and feeling let down. Reading leads us to new places we haven’t yet explored, and one reason I love it so much is that sense of anticipation a new book offers. Will it be a book I can’t forget? Will it enrich something I’ve recently read, making connections that lead me on to even more wonderful books? Sure there’s a chance it will let me down, but even then, I’ve added to my experience as a reader. Finding words wanting is better than not finding them at all. Besides, that new favorite is out there, just waiting for me to crack it open. April in paradise Posted in autodidactism, books, cultures, interconnectedness, life learning, poetry, reading, Uncategorized, unschooling, tagged Arthurian legend, book clubs, book groups, books, fantasy, grail quest, interconnectedness, Kalevala, kantele, literary, myth, mythology, poetry, readings, Tolkien on April 27, 2009\| 4 Comments » Maybe when you picture paradise, it’s someplace warm enough to sustain palm trees, or to support a brisk business in cocktail umbrellas. I picture barely leafed out trees, mud studded with boot prints, boulders baring their lichen patched shoulders to the sun after months of snow cover. In New Hampshire, April may or may not mean pleasant weather, but it does mean the rich literary landscape of my adopted home awakens as towns come alive with events celebrating poetry, libraries, and books. I was able to get to two conferences, two poetry readings, an enormous book sale, and a book club publishers’ preview, so I thought I’d give bookconscious readers a taste of my April in paradise. A few weekends ago, I spent a Saturday reveling in the mysteries of the Kalevala, the Finnish national epic poem. This fascinating program, put on by the Poetry Society of New Hampshire, caught my eye for two reasons. First, I had been trying to figure out what to do for a day long “artist’s date” for The Artists’ Way, and second, the Kalevala conference was free, thanks to sponsors and a grant from The NH Humanities Council. The conference took place at an inn in Rochester, NH, near the seacoast. Driving over, I considered what I already knew about the Kalevala: it grew out of folk poetry and stories, which Elias Lonnrot compiled into an epic during a time of emerging Finnish cultural awareness after Finland gained independence in the first half of the 19th century. This much I knew from learning about Finland last year with my kids. From the pre-conference emails outlining the talks, I knew that the epic influenced Tolkien. That was about it. The morning opened with a talk on Tolkien and the fantasy genre. Much of this material was familiar to me, having studied fantasy and mythology before I wrote a novel for young people (as yet unpublished), The Last Unicorns of Georgia. Quick aside to any editors reading this: it’s a middle grade novel about a New England girl whose family moves to the Deep South, where she finds that a small group of unicorns are living in the dense woods behind her house. At the urging of the unicorns’ matriarch, she uncovers a plot to harvest unicorn horns for use as a masking agent for athletes’ performance enhancing drugs. My novel isn’t purely fantasy — it’s more of an eco-mystery which happens to hinge on unicorn mythology, but as I prepared to write it, I read several great fantasy books aloud with my kids, and I also read fantasy theory, such as Ursula LeGuin’s The Language of the Night, some of Joseph Campbell’s The Hero With a Thousand Faces, and a number of essays in The Dictionary of Imaginary Places. I read about Tolkien, but I admit that although the Computer Scientist and the Teenager have both read his books, I haven’t (they are on my long term “to read” list). Besides Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy — which bookconscious fans know the Teenager claims are so good they have made it impossible for him to find other books that hold up to the Tolkien standard of storytelling — some of our family favorites are the Harry Potter series, the Narnia books, Susan Cooper’s The Dark Is Rising sequence, The Prydain Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander, Half Magic and other titles by Edward Eager, and the Eragon cycle. So the talk on fantasy was appealing to me, if not exactly unknown territory. The speaker, Clia Goodwin, gave a good presentation on “J.R.R. Tolkien and the Uses of Fantasy,” but didn’t add much about the Kalevala, except to say that Tolkien read the epic as a young man, Finnish was one of many languages he learned, and there is evidence he was influenced by the poem. That said, Goodwin’s talk was very interesting, and later speakers built a bit on what she said about Tolkien’s views on the cultural rewards of fantasy — recovery, escape, and consolation — in terms of explaining the role of epic poetry and the Kalevala specifically in Finnish culture. The next speaker, Diana Durham, is a poet as well as an Arthurian legend specialist who has written about the grail myth as a path to our inner selves. She gave an intriguing talk on “The Poet as Shaman.” Durham opened with her thoughts on what poetry and mythology share — a reliance on symbolism to transform not only words, but the way the reader experiences words, and assimilates that experience into personal meaning or even healing. As an example, she read “Postscript,” by Seamus Heaney. The rest of her talk focused on the grail myth and how story, song, and poetry draw people out of their ordinary lives into the place where inner and outer worlds connect. She used Bernard Chandler’s photograph of the chalice well cover in Glastonbury as a visual metaphor for this idea, and referred to T.S. Eliot’s poetry, which happens to be what we’re reading for our book discussion with the Teenager this month. Like Goodwin, Durham spoke only peripherally about the Kalevala, but her presentation was fascinating. I am still thinking through her ideas on the way poetry and myth make meaning that transcends time and place. Much of my “bookconscious theory on interconnectedness” has to do with the ways that we interpret ourselves through what we read, and the work interprets us, as we interact with it. In the process, we make connections for ourselves and with other people not just in reading, but in thinking about, writing about, discussing, reading reviews, and otherwise processing what we’ve read and placing it in our own mind map of what we know, believe, and love. How many times have you read something written in another place and time and felt as if you belonged there? I don’t think that’s coincidence. We somehow identify ourselves in writing or music or art because in some primal sense we know those creations deep in our beings. After a break for lunch, during which I let my head swim with thoughts of interconnectedness, the Kalevala conference re-convened, and Borje Vahamaki, a professor of Finnish studies, language and literature scholar, translator, and publisher, spoke on “Language and Meaning in the Kalevala.” He is in the process of recording audio CD’s of the poem, mostly in English but with a bit of Finnish to give listeners a sense of the original. Having heard him read just an excerpt, I’d guess the CD’s are fabulous. Vahamaki is a Kalevala expert, and his passion came through in his talk, which was a quick introduction to Finnish history and language as well as a crash course in the Kalevala itself. Dr. Vahamaki made suggestions for delving more deeply into the Kalevala, and pointed out that the epic has inspired other writers, like Longfellow, and composers, most notably Sibelius, which perfectly illustrates the ideas we’d already heard about the impact of myth and poetry, and my theories that reading creates connections we carry into the rest of our lives. The last speaker, Sarah Cummings Ridge, is a Maine resident of Finnish descent, whose father gave her a type of Finnish folk harp called a kantele as a wedding gift. In the Kalevala, the hero makes and plays a kantele made from a pike bone. Cummings Ridge said she had no idea when she received her father’s gift that it would change her life. She now leads The Maine Kanteles, and the group played a number of songs to end the conference. The Kalevala event was one of the many activities of the Poetry Society of New Hampshire. Recently the group moved their monthly readings and open mic night to one of my favorite places: Gibson’s, Concord’s independent bookstore. April’s reading featured two New Hampshire poets familiar to bookconscious readers: Martha Carlson- Bradley and Alice Fogel. I was getting over a nasty virus, but I dragged myself out to hear these two wonderful poets read. Next time I am going to stay for the open mic (and maybe even sign up to try reading myself). I was struck again by Fogel’s amazing use of language. I mentioned in my post last year about her book Be That Empty that she also makes clothing — Lyric Couture is her fashion company, and it’s tag is “collaged fashions from reprised goods.” Filtering the sound of her poetry through my somewhat illness addled mind, I was struck by how similar the two arts are — poetry and the creation of fashions. In both cases Fogel is piecing together things that at first may not seem to fit: images and words, parts of other articles of clothing. Stitched together, the final product, whether verbal or visual, is beautiful. I hadn’t heard Carlson-Bradley read before, but I read her book Season We Can’t Resist a few months ago. I commented then that Carlson-Bradley has an eye for fine detail, and listening to her poems as she read, I noticed her observations of nature are scientific as well as artistic. In fact, both she and Fogel mentioned science as big influences in their work. Carlson-Bradley write poems rich in sensory detail that bring the reader right into the natural world near her home here in New Hampshire. If you’re not convinced by my contention that NH is a kind of paradise, read Carlson-Bradley’s poems and you’ll see our flora and fauna rival any old tropical rain forest, at least in their literary value. Readings are a good reminder that poetry is an oral tradition as well as a written one, and hearing Carlson-Bradley read highlighted the way she beautifully connects human nature with the physical environment we live in. Poetry is an art especially prone to creating connections, and to exploring our connection to each other, and many poets have explored the man/nature continuum. I find Carlson-Bradley’s work particularly evocative because she writes about things many of us probably pass by in cars or even on paths in the woods, without noticing them or reflecting on their — and our — place in the world. Check out “April In Paradise, Part II,” which I’ll post in the next couple of days, to hear about the rest of this amazing literary month. Searches for meaning, theories of everything Posted in autodidactism, books, cultures, interconnectedness, Iran, life learning, reading, Uncategorized, unschooling, tagged autodidactic, bible, books, cartoons, culture, cultures, fantasy, humor, Iran, libraries, life learning, meaning, memoir, NaNoWriMo, novels, parenting, reading, sabbath, theories, transformative, unschooling, writing on December 22, 2008\| 1 Comment » Two of us here at the bookconscious household were NaNoWriMo winners this year — which means we wrote a novel each in November. As I noted last month, it’s absolutely nuts of me to try and write 50,000 words in November, especially 50,000 words that should make sense in some kind of compelling way. My daughter did the Young Writers Program, which allowed her to set her own word count. She sensibly set it low and exceeded her goal, and took plenty of days off. Although I finished, it took a lot more effort than I recall expending on my last NaNoWriMo. Yet I still enjoyed struggling through to the end, which made me reflect on something interesting about my enjoyment of reading. Post-novel writing, I realized that part of my reading pleasure derives from sharing a sense of the struggle, either on the part of the author or the characters, that brought the story to fruition. For me, a good read is a vicarious quest. A great example of a recent book that drew me in that way is Brisingr. Of course I have very little idea of the effort involved in a part human, part elf Dragon Rider’s struggle to master all he needs to learn with his dragon to save his world from an evil overlord while dealing with interracial conflicts, personal issues, spiritual confusion, and coming of age. But I can feel for Eragon because author Christopher Paolini makes his hero so alive, drawing on emotions and thoughts that I can easily identify with. Despite the challenging language (Paolini invented several languages for his book cycle, and even with the glossary I have trouble keeping words and names straight), the difficulty of remembering what happened in the earlier books, and the complexity of Alagaesia, the fantasy world where the stories are set, the Eragon books are enthralling because of Paolini’s mastery — not just in writing well, which he does, but in portraying universal human struggles, even in characters that aren’t human. He makes elves, dwarves, urgals, etc. distinct, but he makes every race a reflection of some aspect of humanity, a mirror we can look into, sometimes happily, sometimes a bit uncomfortably. For me, this makes the reading absorbing. One thing about Eragon that is so endearing to me is his constant thirst to learn and to understand. He seeks not only information — Who are his parents? What must he learn to defeat the enemy? — but also meaning. What is the purpose of his life’s work? Why do we love, and what does love do to us? Why do different races in his world have different gods? Should he pray to any or all, and how? In an autodidactic household where each of us is on our own life learning journey, these questions make Eragon seem like one of us. This kind of book feeds my imagination and I’d even say, my soul. The question of souls, and how to feed them, brings me to A. J. Jacobs’ The Year of Living Biblically, which describes the author’s struggle to follow rules for living from the bible as closely as possible. Jacobs is a terrific writer whose earlier book, The Know-It-All, was a delight, especially for those of us who would like to indulge in prolonged reference book reading ourselves. I’ve been meaning to read The Year of Living Biblically, and when my son’s best friend told me he was reading it, I figured it was a good time to go check it out. I’m glad I did. In nonfiction, I’m drawn to the same appealing factor that I look for in novels and stories: a sense of connectedness with what I’m reading. Whether it’s the writer or the subject of the writing that engages me, I get into a book or article I can feel caught up in. Jacobs writes endearingly of his own imperfections — much as another of my favorite nonfiction authors, Bill Bryson, does — and this makes his writing feel conversational. The Year of Living Biblically is arranged by month, so that the reader is carried along on the year’s adventure, which adds to the “we’re all in this together” feeling. Jacobs is an excellent observer. He doesn’t just decide to try keeping the Sabbath (and admits, endearingly, that he can’t keep his hands off his keyboard and creates little exceptions so he can check his email anyway), he explains how his efforts begin to make a change in him, to create an awareness of the benefit of slowing down. I really enjoyed his observation that cleaning up his language helped him feel more peaceful, less angry about whatever he would ordinarily swear about. And his descriptions of each biblical adventure made it easy to see what he was seeing. As with his first book, this one is not only about his own exploration of a subject, but what impact his devotion to immersion journalism has on his family. For example, his struggle to be biblical includes growing a really big beard — which can be off-putting to strangers, not to mention his wife. He also writes candidly about he and his wife experiencing infertility and their pursuit of treatment so that they can have a second child. With a small child, a wife and an extended family, work, and the trappings of modern life all around him, Jacobs tries to reconcile his life and his quest to understand biblical living, in a way that gives his project context for readers. Two other things made this one of my favorite books of the year: Jacobs writes beautifully about being a dad, struggling to do the right thing, to be a contemporary parent caught up in timeless worries, and to even process the overwhelming love and concern a parent feels. So many other authors whose writing is fine, whose work is interesting, whose books I otherwise enjoy absolutely turn me off when they write authoritatively about their excellent children and their fantastic parenting. Makes me want to put the book down with a hearty “Puhlease!” Not so with Jacobs. He tells us, candidly, about what works, what doesn’t, what he worries about when it comes to his son, what he wants to be as a parent. In real life, parents do that — question, wonder, hope, and yes, even pray, that we’re doing our best. So I love his honesty, and it makes his books more like sitting down with a friend and laughing over life’s speedbumps than sitting in a lecture hall and hearing how Informed, Enlightened Authors do things. If you’re wondering whether Jacobs just puts on the kindly dad persona in the book, and whether he’s actually a conceited famous author in person, let me share a quick personal aside. Late in The Year of Living Biblically, Jacobs discusses a fringe fundamentalist Christian group and explains why they alarm him. So far, so good. Then he mentions they were important to the rise of homeschooling! Aghast, I labored over an email that would politely inform Mr. Jacobs of the diversity of background, belief, and educational philosophy that makes homeschoolers too vast and varied a group to stereotype, and would let him know that homeschooling wasn’t founded by extremists. He wrote me back very soon after I took a deep breath and hit send, and he was kind, understanding, and gracious. When it comes to accepting that no one person or group has a lock on the best way to do things, Jacobs also excels. His exploration of biblical correctness included a circle of both Jewish and Christian advisers, and he tries to consider various perspectives. He also tells readers where he’s coming from: he’s an agnostic, a secular Jew, curious about religion but not convinced. I appreciated that perspective as he shares what he finds transformative or doesn’t, what he learns that seems credible and what’s incredible, what appeals and what revolts. He’s fair, finding something good in just about everyone he meets in the book. And he’s gentle in the conclusions department — he doesn’t make any grand declarations about Truth and Meaning, but he explains, simply, what’s changed in his life and what he learned. Life changing experiences come in many degrees of impact, and fortunately, most of us will never experience what Nastaran Kherad has. After growing up in Shiraz, Iran, with her maternal grandmother, who she called Bibi, she was arrested on false political charges when she was only 18. While she was in prison, her beloved brother, Mohammed, was executed, in part for his efforts to be supportive of other prisoners. In the House of My Bibi: Growing Up In Revolutionary Iran describes the author’s upbringing and her family, and life in Iran for a working class family during the period just before and in the early part of the Iranian revolution. Bookconscious readers know that last spring, I blogged about a couple of books I’d read about travel and life in Iran. I received a review copy of In the House of My Bibi as a result of my blogging. Like Jasmine and Stars, whose author also grew up in Shiraz, In the House of My Bibi is a book that brings Iran to life. Kherad’s book deals only with her childhood memories, because she hasn’t been back since she fled Iran twenty some years ago. So the book doesn’t go into a great deal of detail about what was happening politically and socially in the country. Instead, it gives readers a view of growing up there, of living an ordinary childhood. Other Iranian memoirs I’ve read, including Reading Lolita in Tehran and Persepolis, are the stories of people whose family or social circle were well off or well educated, or both. Kherad’s grandmother and mother are both widows, and both work to feed the family. Her grandmother works in a pickle factory and is illiterate, and her mother was married to an older man when she was still a teenager. Kherad writes clearly and simply, without analyzing, letting the reader come to conclusions she was struggling to sort out herself as an adolescent. Besides Bibi, Kherad’s most caring relative is Mohammed, who takes his little sister to get a library card and introduces her to the ideas he is exploring as a young man. She describes him as a person with great empathy for the poor and for his fellow political prisoners. The reader can guess, when the young Kherad tells her brother she wants to be a writer when she grows up, he won’t be there to read her work. I enjoyed the book, and I think Kherad succeeds not only in helping show another facet of her country, but also in writing fairly about the things that were good in her life there. The bad is obvious; she writes vividly about her imprisonment. But she does not fully explain events leading to her arrest in one section of the book, and I found myself backtracking to try and get a clear picture. Kherad portrays poverty and wealth, tradition and modernization under the Shah’s regime. But perhaps because she tells the book from her own perspective and she was still very young, I got no sense of when the revolution took place in her narrative and how it changed life for her family at first, before the arrests. There are hints — her brothers argue about whether Iran needs a monarchy, her Bibi admires the Shah, and Mohammed is disillusioned that the Islamic Revolution does not bring about compassionate social justice. It’s understandable that a child would only piece this information together in bits, but the telling is a bit disjointed. In the final chapter, when she is about to leave Iran, she reconciles the strained relationship she has with her mother, but there is little closure, since we never hear much about Bibi once Kherad enters prison. On the whole, I thought the writing was vivid and considering the difficulty of revisiting these memories, the book is remarkably detailed. But I felt lost from time to time — perhaps that was intentional? Since she has spent nearly her entire adult life as an exile, the sketchiness of some parts of her childhood may be an authentic part of her memoir, rather than a weakness in the book’s structure. While the other books I read this month touched on journeys of understanding, searching, and remembrance, my favorite recent purchase is Theories of Everything: Selected Collected and Health-Inspected Cartoons, 1978-2006. For a mere $6, in a labyrinthine used bookshop in Manchester, I bought this volume, which may hold the secret to life somewhere within its magical pages. For those unfamiliar with Roz Chast, a staff cartoonist at the New Yorker, I recommend you go to the library and request this book. Chast has a knack for putting her finger on just what people wonder about, and spinning a humorous view of life’s mysteries and humanity’s foibles. Her humor is quirky and gentle even when it’s pointed, and her artwork is distinctive and delightful. Next up a the bookconscious house? The teenager has begun Fever Pitch, which I picked up at the Audubon society book sale, and has also been poring over How to Photograph Absolutely Everything. His sister is reading The Great Santa Search but also — Hallelujah! — browsed the library shelves today. Has anyone else noticed that kids tend to search online for books, rather than losing themselves in the library stacks? I have such warm memories of several different libraries’ shelves, and myself in front of them pulling out book after book, choosing a pile, and anticipating many happy hours of reading. Online searching is convenient, but not nearly as much fun as serendipitous shelf browsing. Anyway, she found a couple of books that way and I hope to encourage more browsing. We were at the library so I could pick up The Journal of Helene Berr, a WWII era diary of a young French woman, newly published in English, which I heard reviewed on a BBC radio program. I’m also reading Bleak House, which Gibson’s book group is discussing in January. As snow falls on the bookconscious house it’s time for making both Christmas cookies and latkes (my recipe is from a favorite picture book: The Miracle of the Potato Latkes), and I’m planning to dig into our selection of holiday books this weekend. Happy Holidays, and I hope all of you are the pleased recipients of good books this month! Let evening come Posted in books, life learning, reading, Uncategorized, tagged books, comfort, cultures, fantasy, historical fiction, history, human condition, humor, interconnectedness, life learning, Masterpiece Theatre, memoir, Middle East, mystery, NaNoWriMo, New England, New Hampshire, novels, peace, poetry, reading, universality, unschooling, writing on November 17, 2008\| 3 Comments » It’s dark here in northern New England in November. Evening comes early — the sun is going down by four o’clock. One of my favorite poems of all time is “Let Evening Come,” by Jane Kenyon, which I always think of at this time of year, as the dark hours increase. Kenyon writes, “God does not leave us comfortless,” and I like to think one of the chief comforts at any time, but especially in darkness (whether physical, spiritual, or emotional), is reading. As the final weeks of campaigning came to a close, I read a couple of funny books to help balance the negativity. I wrote a few months ago about visiting a terrific used bookstore in Maine. One of my purchases there was a pair of paperbacks by Shirley Jackson. My grandmother first recommended Jackson’s memoir, Life Among the Savages, when I had a three year old and a seven year old and had just moved into a 132 year old house in New Hampshire. I was still in that anxious phase of early motherhood, and I was also a bit overwhelmed by the house. Mostly my husband and I became of aware of how little we really knew about houses, despite having been homeowners before. An old house will humble you. Even though it was in many ways the coolest house we’ve ever lived in, I felt like we were in a power struggle, that house and I. The house won, but that’s another story. Jackson writes about moving to an old house in Vermont from New York City with her husband and two young children. While she doesn’t know much more about the maintenance and upkeep of an old house than we did, she makes use of her inexperience by writing a hilarious memoir. Between her observations of the nature of very young children and anecdotes about things going wrong with her house and car, I laughed out loud. So when I saw it this summer in the used bookshop for $ .50, along with its companion, Raising Demons, I snapped them up. Rereading Life Among the Savages, I was struck by how funny it still is, even though we’ve moved twice and now live in a house that’s only thirty something years old. My toddler and young son are now a preteen and a very tall kid who eats a great deal and is three months from being legally able to learn to drive. Despite being older, more experienced (notice I didn’t say wiser), and a great deal more relaxed, I still laughed out loud. Jackson manages to write about things that are so easy for any parent or former child to identify with that it doesn’t matter that the books were written in the late 1940’s. Jackson’s book is all the more appealing to me for its New England setting. Rebecca Rule’s Live Free and Eat Pie! A Storyteller’s Guide to New Hampshire is a funny but affectionate look at the bookconscious family’s adopted home. Arranged like a guidebook, Live Free pokes fun at New Hampshire culture, but also fills readers in on history, people, and places around the state. While she enjoys pointing out the state’s quirks, Rule clearly loves New Hampshire, and revels in her role as collector of its tradition and lore. She writes that many of her best stories come from her own storytelling audiences, and I’m hoping to be in the audience when she comes to Concord in December. At Gibson’s a couple of weeks ago, I went to hear D. Quincy Whitney read from her new book, Hidden History of New Hampshire. This little book grew out of Whitney’s work preparing New Hampshire “firsts and bests” for the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Rather than putting her information in chronological order, Whitney organizes the book into thematic collections of stories, such as “Home, Town, and Community,” “Seasons: Work and Recreation,” “Creativity and Culture,” or “Ingenuity and Enterprise.” I found the groupings creative and conducive to browsing — when was the last time you picked up a history book and found a chapter on “Sea, Lake, and Sky,” or “Forests and Mountains?” The pieces themselves are short and engaging. You may have recently heard references to Bretton Woods in the news, and this book will tell you the story behind the location of the conference and preparations for world leaders to come to remote NH. As always, hearing the author talk about her work really enhanced my appreciation for the final product, and it was interesting to hear about her travels. Whitney’s research led her to all kinds of fascinating places, like a unique monument to women who have lost their lives serving their country, which is decorated with reliefs Norman Rockwell designed. Whitney doesn’t leave out familiar famous Granite staters, like Robert Frost and Christa McAuliffe, but she also writes about lesser known people who have achieved extraordinary things. And kids of all ages will enjoy hearing about notable sports achievements, including New Hampshire’s illustrious skiing history. It’s a well written, interesting little book enhanced by a great selection of historical photographs, and I’ve left it out where I hope the rest of the family will browse through it. The kids have been reading some interesting fiction. My son tried The Sand Reckoner, by Gillian Bradshaw, who writes marvelously detailed historical fiction and is one of my favorite authors. As you can tell by the title, taken from his famous treatise on large numbers, The Sand Reckoner is about Archimedes, and Gregory found it interesting as well as entertaining. His sister is reading an Enola Holmes mystery, The Case of the Peculiar Pink Fan, and she also just read Ivy and Bean and The Magic Half. The mystery features Sherlock’s little sister, and is part of a series by Nancy Springer my daughter really enjoys. The other two books are by Annie Barrows. Annie Barrows is also the co-author, with her aunt, of a book I just finished last week and loved: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. This was one of those books I didn’t want to end. A few years ago I watched Island at War on Masterpiece Theatre. I’d never really heard much about the occupation of the Channel Islands until then, and found it really interesting. Given all the hype about Barrows’ book, I wasn’t sure what to expect. It’s written almost entirely as a series of letters between the protagonist and other main characters, which sounds hokey. But instead it was charming, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was torn between wanting to know the heroine, Juliet, and wanting to be Juliet. Another story I thoroughly enjoyed was The Blue Star, by Tony Earley. This novel is a sequel to Earley’s successful and critically acclaimed Jim the Boy. Both books are evidence that a person can write a good book for adults that is neither graphic nor shocking nor steeped in the latest pop psychology nor dripping with dramatic twists lifted from tell all talk shows and gossip rags. Earley’s setting, a small town in the South in the late 1930’s and early 1940’s, feels vibrant and real. His characters are good without being sappy or cloying. Difficult things happen, especially in The Blue Star, but the books don’t titillate, taunt, or tire the reader. I wish there were more novels like these. Which brings me to a book I didn’t enjoy that much, Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O’Nan. This was one of those books reviewers raved about that just didn’t appeal to me. I felt like it would have made a better movie or television drama. Nothing much happens in the book, but at the same time, there are so many characters that you don’t really get to know them, either. Maybe the main character, Manny, is the only one O’Nan meant for readers to care about, but despite his obvious good qualities, I found Manny fairly boring as characters go. O’Nan’s writing is vivid, cinematic, I’d call it. His descriptions of restuarant work brought back vivid memories of a summer I spent busing tables, and I could picture the Lobster easily as I read. I didn’t hate the book, but I just felt there was not much to the story, and characters I couldn’t really get excited about — which are two things I’m really looking for in a novel. When it comes to nonfiction, I often read about subjects I’m exploring with the kids. We’re learning about Israel, Jordan, and Egypt, because my dad and his wife are traveling there right now, and I just finished The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East, by Sandy Tolan. I wouldn’t exactly say I enjoyed reading it, but it was good read. The subject matter was disturbing: this book tells the story of Bashir, who was born in the house his father built in Ramla, with a lemon tree in the garden; and Dalia, the daughter of Bulgarian Jews who moved into the house after Bashir’s family and most other Arabs were expelled from Ramla when Israel became a country. Tolan tells, in spare, clean language, what happens after the two meet in their late teens, when Bashir comes to see the house and Dalia lets him in. No matter your politics, this book will probably make you angry as well as horrified. The thing that struck me most was something Dalia noticed when she was still a little girl: the children of European Jews in Israel managed to dehumanize and mistreat people who were “other,” despite the experience of the Holocaust. I stayed awake wondering how that could be possible. The stories of Dalia and Bashir and what becomes of the house with the lemon tree are gripping, and Tolan fills in historical detail without bogging down readers or losing sight of the bigger picture. Tolan also manages to maintain an impartial tone throughout the book. When I was finishing the last chapter, Israel was blocking UN food aid deliveries in Gaza. After reading this book, I wonder if the situation can ever be fully resolved. After such a heavy read, coming right after a novel I didn’t really enjoy, I’m going to read something I’m pretty certain I’ll find entertaining next: Brisingr, Christopher Paolini’s latest book in his Inheritance cycle. First of all, how cool would it be, as an author, to have written a series known as a “cycle” — as in The Epic Cycle, or the Arthurian Cycle? My son read Brisingr as soon as it came out, put in on my nightstand, and promised I would love it. I think it will be just the thing to sustain and inspire me as I crank through the 30,000 word mark this week. Yes, crazy as it is, I am doing NaNoWriMo again this year. In case you’ve never heard of it, NaNoWriMo is the insanity of thousands of people around the world each writing a 50,000 word novel in November. A month in which I will spend hours in the car, taking the boy to a series of soccer tryouts some distance from our house and the girl to a weekly drama class where she is memorizing lines for an early December play, and to several art classes a week. We are also preparing for visiting relatives I am looking forward to spending time with, and Thanksgiving, which is one of our favorite holidays and which would result in mutiny if it did not include the traditional bountiful and somewhat time consuming menu. In short, it’s not a month in which I really ought to be committing to 1667 words per day. But for some inexplicable reason, I love NaNoWriMo. Especially since I am ahead on my word count today. Talk to me tomorrow. You can follow my progress with that nifty word count meter in the side bar here at bookconscious.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6000
__label__cc	0.713996	0.286004	Celebrate Revenge of The Fifth With Sample Chapters of Rebel Rising by Beth Revis May 5, 2017 May 5, 2017 by Kevin Pearl The force (and fourth) was strong with all of us yesterday as Stars Wars Day was celebrated all over the world. In the spirit of keeping the blue milk flowing and the cantina band playing a day later we’ve got a special surprise for all fans of a galaxy far, far away here on the School & Library blog. Rebel Rising by Beth Revis debuted this week, and already has the legions of fans who fell in love with Jyn Erso last December in Rogue One talking about this brand-new tale of the latest Lucasfilm heroine in this in-canon prequel to the film. As we close out this week, we’re offering up the chance to read the first two chapters of this exciting new Star Wars story online right here. Check it out, and make sure you bring Rebel Rising to your library today. When Jyn Erso was five years old, her mother was murdered and her father taken from her to serve the Empire. But despite the loss of her parents she is not completely alone—Saw Gerrera, a man willing to go to any extremes necessary in order to resist Imperial tyranny, takes her in as his own, and gives her not only a home but all the abilities and resources she needs to become a rebel herself. Jyn dedicates herself to the cause—and the man. But fighting alongside Saw and his people brings with it danger and the question of just how far Jyn is willing to go as one of Saw’s soldiers. When she faces an unthinkable betrayal that shatters her world, Jyn will have to pull the pieces of herself back together and figure out what she truly believes in…and who she can really trust. Tagged beth revis, may the fourth, rebel rising, rogue one, Star Wars Leave a comment Read The First Three Chapters of THE PRINCESS, THE SCOUNDREL, AND THE FARM BOY For Free Right Now! December 19, 2016 December 19, 2016 by Kevin Pearl ROGUE ONE debuted in theaters this weekend to thrilling applause from STARS WARS fans new and old. The film is the first ever stand-alone entry in the series, and takes place right before the iconic opening of the original STAR WARS : A NEW HOPE movie that kicked off the global phenomenon in 1977. Without spoiling anything, there is no question now that the events of ROGUE ONE will have fans thinking about Episode IV: A New Hope in a different way. Recently DBG got the chance to adapt the original STAR WARS trilogy into a series of young adult novels from some of the today’s best-selling authors including Adam Gidwitz, Tom Angleberger, and Alexandra Bracken, whose adaption of A NEW HOPE entitled THE PRINCESS, THE SCOUNDREL, AND THE FARM BOY actually begins in the few short moments between the end of ROGUE ONE, and the beginning of A NEW HOPE! The force is strong with this one. So go ahead and click here to read the first three chapters of THE PRINCESS, THE SCOUNDREL, AND THE FARM BOY now. Then make sure you have plenty of these titles in stock at your School & Library for all the eager fans looking for more stories from a galaxy far, far, away. The galaxy is at war. Although the Rebel Alliance has won a few battles against the Empire, hope is fading. The Empire is about to finish building the greatest weapon the galaxy has ever seen—the Death Star. The rebels’ only chance to defeat it now lies in the unlikely hands of a princess, a scoundrel, and a farm boy. . . . Acclaimed, New York Times bestselling author Alexandra Bracken delivers a captivating retelling of Star Wars: A New Hope like you’ve never experienced before. Since the premier of the original film, Princess Leia, Han Solo, and Luke Skywalker have become iconic, larger-than-life characters. The Princess, the Scoundrel, and the Farm Boy takes a deeper look at these three heroes as they join forces to defeat the evil that threatens their entire galaxy. Tagged Alexandra Bracken, Samples, Star Wars Leave a comment	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6001
__label__wiki	0.504	0.504	Obrazy na stronie 0 RecenzjeNapisz recenzję Select Sermons on Doctrinal and Practical Subjects Autorzy Samuel Stillman Informacje o książce Książki w Google Play PRINTED BY MANNING & LORING, AND SOLD AT THEIR BOOKSTORE, NO. 2, CORNHILL. JAN. 1808. District of Massachusetts, to wit: BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the sixth day of January, in the thirty-second year of the independence of the United States of America, HANNAH STILLMAN, of the said district, has deposited in this office the title of a Book, the right whereof she claims as Proprietor, in the words following, to wit, “Select Sermons, on doctrinal and practical Subjects, by the late Samuel STILLMAN, D. D. comprising several Sermone never before published. To which is prefixed a Biographical Sketch of the Author's Life." In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, entitled, “ An Act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned ;” and also to an Act, entitled, “ An Act supplementary to an Act, entitled, * An Act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned ;' and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching hisa torical and other prints." WILLIAM S. SHAW { Clerk of the District 6333 :57 As many persons, and more especially the parishioners and friends of the late Dr. STILLMAN, were particularly desirous of possessing his printed sermons, which could not conveniently be obtained, it was concluded, in order to gratify their wishes, to republish them. But the committee of his church, to whom were referred the sermons for inspection, and who are the editors of this work, were of opinion, that as many of them were merely occasional, and of course had now lost something of their interest, it would be more judicious to select some of the most useful from amongst those already published, and to add a few original ones, which he himself had contemplated for publication, but left in an unfinished state, to complete the volume; adding, at the close, a list of those which, though already printed, are not included in this volume. It was the usual method of Dr. STILLMAN, to write the principal part of his discourses, but in the application to note only the heads. To some of these have been added a few appropriate scriptural and other passages, by the Rev. Dr. BALDWIN, in order to fill up the chasm. . Those persons who have heard the sermons with approbation, will no doubt peruse them with interest, and it is devoutly to be hoped with lasting advantage. To them, in a more especial manner, their pastor, though dead, yet speaketh. He still exhorts them to aspire after perfect holiness; to reflect upon neglected opportunities of religious improvement, now forever past ; to improve the privileges they at present enjoy; and to continue stedfast in the faith once delivered to the saints. The character of their Author will be immediately recognized in the following discourses, by all who enjoyed the happiness of sitting under his ministry. To their minds they will so forcibly recall his image, that they can scarcely persuade themselves that he is not still speaking. Animated, however, as is the strain of feeling which runs through them all, they cannot be associated, in the minds of others, with the impressive manner, the persuasive eloquence, and the ardent piety, which greatly increased their value with those who heard and loved the preacher. This consideration, however, it is to be hoped, will not lessen their interest and use with any persons, who are lovers of genuine piety, or disposed to profit by the means it affords. Delicacy forbids the editors to say more. They commit the work to the public, and rest their judgment, where it ought to rest—with them. Sincerely hoping that it may be the means of strengthening the feeble, of encouraging the timid, of awakening the secure, and of confirming and edifying the saint, they profess themselves the reader's sincere well-wishers, in the fellowship and faith of our common Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. « PoprzedniaDalej »	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6004
__label__wiki	0.545033	0.545033	Home » 50% OFF GPOverstock SALE » Security & Intelligence GPOverstock Sale Breaking the Mold: Tanks in the Cities Display Foreign Price 0-16-076223-5 Format Paperback (English)Ext. eBook (English) Contains five case studies from World War II to the war in Iraq analyzing the utility of tanks and heavy armored forces in urban combat. Examines the use of tanks in urban warfare. Seeks to provide insight and a historical precedence on the wisdom of employing tanks in an inherently dangerous dimension of the modern battlefield, intensifying the shortcomings in technological design and the lack of crew training for city fighting. LC card 2006016027. Breaking the Mold provides an up-to-date analysis of the utility of tanks and heavy armored forces in urban combat. The case studies in this monograph are high-intensity battles in conflicts ranging from limited interventions to major combat operations. As the intensity of the operation decreases, the second and third order effects of using tanks in cities can begin to outweigh their utility. The damage to infrastructure caused by their sheer weight and size is just one example of what can make tanks unsuitable for every mission. Even during peace operations, however, the ability to employ tanks and other heavy armored vehicles quickly can be crucial. These cases demonstrate that tanks must do more than merely “arrive” on the battlefield to be successful in urban combat. From Aachen in 1944 to Fallujah in 2004, the absolute need for specialized training and the use of combined arms at the lowest tactical levels are two of the most salient lessons that emerge from this study. When properly employed, well-trained and well-supported units led by tanks are decisive in urban combat. The reverse is also true. TARDEC (the U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center) Story: Sixty-Five Years of Innovation, 1946-2010 -Print Hardcover format can be found here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/008-000-01081-1 Spearhead of Logistics: A History of the United States Army Transportation Corps is available here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/008-029-00597-2 World War II resources collection can be found here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/catalog/us-military-history/battles-wars/world... Vietnam War resources collection can be found here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/catalog/us-military-history/battles-wars/vietn... Iraq &Persian Gulf Wars resources collection can be found here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/catalog/us-military-history/battles-wars/iraq-... Foreword ......................................................................................... iii Preface............................................................................................ v Introduction ix Chapter 1. Sherman Tanks in the Streets: Aachen, 1944....................... 1 The Westwall .................................................................. 2 Encircling Aachen............................................................. 9 The Fight for Aachen ..................................................... 13 The Final Push ............................................................... 16 In Retrospect ................................................................. 18 2. Pattons to the Rescue: Hue, Vietnam, 1968....................... 23 The Attack on Hue ......................................................... 26 Just Holding On .............................................................. 27 Pushing Back ................................................................. 32 Battle of the Citadel ........................................................ 36 3. Rock the Casbah: Beirut, 1984......................................... 47 The Israeli Defense Forces ............................................. 49 The Palestine Liberation Organization .............................. 52 Syrian Forces ................................................................. 52 The First Phase .............................................................. 53 Battle of Beirut .............................................................. 59 Into the City ................................................................... 63 4. Headlong into Hell: Grozny, 1995...................................... 71 Russian Order of Battle and Planning .............................. 73 Chechen Order of Battle and Planning ............................. 75 The Invasion .................................................................. 77 After Grozny .................................................................. 82 5. Into the Maelstrom: Fallujah, November 2004.................... 91 Coalition Forces ............................................................. 95 The Plan of Attack ......................................................... 97 The Assault ................................................................... 98 The Dust Settles ........................................................... 104 In Retrospect ............................................................... 104 6. Conclusion .................................................................... 111 About the Author .......................................................................... 117 4Bibliography.................................................................................. 119 Index ......................................................................................... 125 1. The Allied limit of advance, September 1944................................ 3 2. The plan to take Aachen, October 1944....................................... 5 3. Aachen and vicinity, 2 October 1944............................................ 7 4. Aachen, 4–7 October 1944 ......................................................... 8 5. Aachen encircled, 10–11 October 1944 ..................................... 11 6. Fight for the city center ............................................................ 12 7. The final push, 18–21 October 1944 .......................................... 17 8. I Corps zone of operations, 1968 ............................................... 24 9. Hue, Vietnam, 1968 ................................................................. 25 10. North Vietnamese attack, 31 January 1968 ................................ 28 11. Fight for southern Hue, 2–10 February 1968 ............................. 31 12. US Marines—ARVN fight for the Citadel ................................. 38 13. Tactical dispositions, 24 February 1968 ...................................... 40 14. The Israeli plan......................................................................... 48 15. 6 June 1982 ............................................................................. 55 16. 7–8 June 1982 ......................................................................... 57 17. 10–11 June 1982 ...................................................................... 58 18. Beirut, 1982 ............................................................................. 61 19. Attack into Beirut, 1982 ............................................................ 62 20. The Republic of Chechnya ....................................................... 72 21. The Russian invasion, 1994–95.................................................. 78 22. The Russian advance into Grozny, 31 December 1995................. 79 23. Situation, 20 January–13 March 1995......................................... 82 24. The battle of successive cities, 1995........................................... 84 25. The Republic of Iraq ................................................................ 92 26. The city and sections of Fallujah, 2004........................................ 93 27. In position to assault, 8 November 2004 ..................................... 99 28. Initial assault, Fallujah, 9 November 2004.................................. 100 29. Fallujah, 11 November 2004 .................................................... 102 30. Fallujah, 15 November 2004..................................................... 103 Military leaders, Defense agencies, members of government, policymakers, historians and students, and anyone with an interest in, or need for information about, the use of tanks and heavy armored forces in military combat--including case studies from WWII to the present--would find this publication useful. Defense Dept., Army, Combat Studies Institute Gott, Kendall D. Tanks in Cities Urban Warfare Iraq, Fallujah, Battle, 2004 Vietnam, Hue, Battle, 1968 Germany, Aachen, Battle, 1944 Lebanon, Beirut, 1984 Subject Bibliography: Breaking the Mold: Tanks in the Cities (eBook) Eyewitness to War, V. 1: The US Army in Operation AL AJR: An Oral History Eyewitness to War, V. 1: The US Army in Operation AL AJR: An Oral History (eBook) Eyewitness to War: The U.S. Army Operation Al Fajr: An Oral History, V. 2 Mounted Combat in Vietnam U.S. Marines in Iraq 2004-2005: Into the Fray	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6005
__label__wiki	0.587099	0.587099	Listen to Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig take over Alt Nation with songs & stories Have you been wondering why it’s felt like Halloween since the start of quarantine? While Alt Nation (Ch. 36) may not have the answer, they do have something to lift your spirits — Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig will be hosting the latest edition of Inside Tracks, a SiriusXM Home DJ Series, on Wednesday, May 13 at 11am ET. This time last year, the self-proclaimed Oxford comma skeptics released their most recent album, Father of the Bride, which went on to win the GRAMMY Award for Best Alternative Music Album at the 2019 ceremony. During the special Home DJ Series takeover, Koenig will play some music, share what he’s been listening to, tell quarantine stories, and let fans in on what he and the band have been up to since their big win. After Koenig’s Inside Tracks special premieres, listeners can catch it again on Wednesday at 9pm ET and Thursday, May 14 at 12pm, 5pm, and 10pm ET. Hear other episodes of the Home DJ Series hosted by Twenty One Pilots, Bastille, Bishop Briggs, and more On Demand below. Inside Tracks and Alt Nation are available to SiriusXM subscribers and non-subscribers alike through May 31 as part of our recently extended free streaming access period — see more details here. Celebrate The 1975’s new album with frontman Matty Healy’s Alt Nation takeover Alt/Indie, Alternative, Music SXM’s Home DJ Series continues on Alt Nation with Green Day, The 1975 & more	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6006
__label__wiki	0.660882	0.660882	Will California's Concealed-Carry Gun Restrictions Go Before SCOTUS? By Jonathan R. Tung, Esq. on August 19, 2016 1:57 PM Few states top California when it comes to a general anti-gun stance -- with possible exceptions in New Jersey and New York. Now, it appears that the state's "good cause" statute, whose legitimacy has been bouncing around in the courts for some time, is finally on its way to be scrutinized by the highest court in the land. Even after a request was made of 28 of the Ninth Circuit's judges, no majority granting a rehearing of last June's contentious case could be met. California's Concealed-Carry Restrictions We can thank Edward Peruta for focusing all of our attention on this case of great public interest. It was several years ago when Edward Peruta applied for San Diego's concealed-carry permit and was denied. In the first round of litigation, Peruta found a sympathetic ear in the trial court which agreed with his views of the Second Amendment. But the celebration was not to last long. Even though a three-judge panel at the Ninth Circuit affirmed this more conciliatory view of a citizen's right to carry concealed weapons in public, the en banc court overturned that view and proclaimed that the Second Amendment does not confer upon citizens the right to carry concealed arms in public. It was a view that was consistent in substance with the DC Circuit ruling. Gun Advocates Look to the Supreme Court This means that, for now, a Second Amendment right is no longer "good" cause for purposes of acquiring a concealed-carry permit in San Diego. The recent failure to win a majority among the 28 active judges means that interested groups have an open doorway to push the issue to the highest court in the land. "We will now ask the Supreme Court to set things straight," said the gun advocates' lawyer, C.D. Michel. We'll find out shortly if the request is granted. Concealed Carry Case Reveales how Effectively Appeals Courts Have Limited 2A (DailyCaller.com) Cal Supreme Court Says 'Yes' to Percentage Attorney Fees (FindLaw's California Case Law Blog) Marijuana Legalization Campaign Sues Sen. Feinstein for 'No on 64' (FindLaw's's California Case Law Blog) Don't Reveal Embarrassing Client Info, Cal. Bar Warns (FindLaw's California Case Law Blog)	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6008
__label__cc	0.6104	0.3896	U.S. Seventh Circuit Bd. of Regents of Univ. of Wisconsin Sys. v. Phoenix Int'l Software, Inc., 08-4164 Trademark infringement action Bd. of Regents of Univ. of Wisconsin Sys. v. Phoenix Int'l Software, Inc., 08-4164, concerned the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System's (Wisconsin) action challenging the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board's (TTAB) grant of plaintiff's petition to cancel Wisconsin's registration of the mark "CONDOR" on the grounds that Wisconsin's registration would create confusion in trade. In reversing and remanding the district court's grant of Wisconsin's motion for summary judgment, the court held that, because the district court misapplied the likelihood of confusion test by mistakenly assuming that the similarity of the products' functions was the dispositive issue in this case, and improperly rejected the TTAB's factual findings, plaintiff is entitled to a trial on the likelihood of confusion issue. However, the court held that the district court properly dismissed plaintiff's federal counterclaims on sovereign immunity grounds in holding that Wisconsin is protected by the Eleventh Amendment from plaintiff's counterclaims and it has not through its appeal from the TTAB's decision waived its sovereign immunity defense to plaintiff's counterclaims. Read the Seventh Circuit's Full Decision in Bd. of Regents of Univ. of Wisconsin Sys. v. Phoenix Int'l Software, Inc., 08-4164	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6010
__label__wiki	0.595395	0.595395	Third Circuit Hears Warrantless GPS Tracking Arguments By Robyn Hagan Cain on March 20, 2013 10:01 AM Do law enforcement agents need to obtain a warrant based on probable cause to track a vehicle's movements? Didn't we get an answer to this question last year in U.S. v. Jones? Are we stuck in a time warp? Tuesday, lawyers for a trio of brothers accused of robbing Philadelphia-area pharmacies asked the Third Circuit Court of Appeals to decide whether warrantless GPS tracking constitutes an unreasonable search. The issue is distinct from Jones because the Supreme Court's Jones decision merely held that physical trespass -- the act of placing the GPS tracker on the suspect's car -- triggered the unreasonable search. The Supreme Court didn't address whether warrantless GPS tracking itself was unreasonable. As Justices Alito and Sotomayor noted last year, the majority decision left the evolving, physical-trespass-free issue of warrantless tracking unresolved. Finally, that issue is getting the attention it deserves. Last year, a district judge granted Harry, Mark and Michael Katzin's motion to suppress evidence gathered during the traffic stop in which they were arrested, The Associated Press reports. (The stop was based on information from the tracker.) The district judge based his decision -- in part -- on Jones, but the judge noted that the 5-4 ruling didn't address the issue of warrantless long-term monitoring. The Justice Department appealed that ruling to the Third Circuit. The American Civil Liberties Union, which argued this week on the Katzin brothers' behalf, insists that warrants are essential for GPS tracking, particularly "because the technology is cheap, convenient, difficult to detect, and highly intrusive." The organization warns that, "given how easy and inexpensive it is to track a suspect using GPS, neither cost nor effort will stop the government from using it in cases where it isn't reasonable." It seems like this case could be the resolution we've been waiting for in the GPS tracking debate. Regardless of the outcome at the appellate level, we're guessing that there will be a cert petition in the Katzin brothers' future. How the Supreme Court Botched U.S. v. Jones (FindLaw's Supreme Court Blog) Judges Asked to Rule on Warrantless GPS Tracking (AP) Supreme Court Rules GPS Tracking Requires a Search Warrant (FindLaw's Decided)	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6011
__label__wiki	0.772695	0.772695	The Modern Music Model Belongs to Brands I’ve been in the music business for more than 20 years. As a mixer, producer and engineer, I’ve been fortunate to work behind the glass for some of the greats, including The Rolling Stones, Ziggy Marley and Brian Wilson, to name a few, placing me firmly on the evolutionary timeline of the industry as we know it. I have had a front row seat to watch music become a wasteland where creativity goes to die. BYGMusic Artists Regulo Caro 5.4 Million Fans Catie Waters 362K Fans Smoke Season 74K Fans It used to be that you could walk into a studio any given day and there’d be one star in one, and another right next door. It was amazing. There was real money. Real revenue. Real energy. Not so anymore. Everything has consolidated and new talent is a risk. There is no other industry that is forced to ignore its future talent. Artists today, particularly new artists, simply don’t have the same opportunities to monetize their art in a way that comes remotely close to earning a living. Digital disruption, going all the way back to Napster and file sharing, then iTunes, YouTube, Spotify and beyond has, for better or worse, devalued music in a way that threatens its fate. When you think about today’s top artists, that might sound a bit dramatic. People are still making music and many are making a ton of money while doing it (though no one is invincible to streaming and distribution woes). The problem is, not everyone can be Taylor Swift, and it shouldn’t just be the Swifts of the world who are taking a stand for artists. The next generation of talent quite literally pays to play. Indie duo Pomplamoose, for example, with more than one hundred million YouTube views, recently finished a 28-day tour in 23 cities around the U.S. When all was said and done they had brought in nearly $136,000. After ticket sales, merch sales and a small sponsorship from Lenovo were annihilated by the myriad of expenses involved in touring, they ended up almost $12,000 in the red. If Pomplamoose were ever to hang up their mics for want of a life outside of debt, hundreds of thousands of fans would be very, very upset. And they are not alone. Musical artists have lost 10 billion dollars in collective support over the past 15 years. There are extremely talented and passionate people in music who have been left behind, and it’s critical that we find new opportunities to empower them to continue creating…for themselves, for their fans and for the industry. So where do we go from here? The modern music model belongs to brands and advertisers, which have also been impacted in enormous ways by digital and social media. What used to be captive eyeballs is now people who have far too many things to look at. And then there is the ever-infuriating issue with diminishing organic reach. Brands are ponying up huge budgets just to make it into the newsfeed and, once there, they’re only getting noticed when they invest even more dollars in compelling creative. Marketers themselves are losing control of distribution and their messages are not getting through. But at the end of the day, social media is where we as consumers are making our decisions and taking actions – based on conversations with friends and people we trust. Brands cannot afford to not be in those conversations. Enter: music. Music has always been The Great Connector, as a constant reflection of our culture and society. People define themselves by music. Punk, Hip Hop, you name it. In a recent study by Repucom, young people were asked what they value when it comes to entertainment. Eighty three percent said music. Sports came in second at 78 percent. Through artists who have highly engaged audiences on social and in the real world, brands have an opportunity to connect with their fans in a way that is truly meaningful and authentic. Fans take valuable actions to support brands that are supporting their favorite artists, because brands enable them to go on tour and to get into the studio to continue creating music. It’s the most symbiotic relationship to ever exist in marketing. In recognizing that music is a core passion point among fans, some brands, such as Red Bull, have gone so far as to form labels. Converse, a longtime supporter of music artists, has its Rubber Tracks program in partnership with a global community of recording studios, allowing selected artists to record in studio free of charge. Taco Bell’s Feed the Beat exists to connect new bands to new fans. Brands such as Ford are doing fully integrated content programs on social media to support emerging talent. In a recent Ford Campaign a BYG Music artist was able to use the power of sponsorship to buy a tour bus. Not rent, but actually buy their own. This is what artist empowerment looks like. This is entertainment sponsorship and advocacy as we’ve always known it, just on new channels, and at scale. It’s a win-win-win for all involved. Brands have an opportunity to take a stand for young artists so that we never have to imagine a world without new music. That is no world I would ever want to live in. -Krish Sharma CEO and Founder, BYGMusic	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6015
__label__wiki	0.958428	0.958428	10/03/2020 Miami Heat NBA Finals 2020: Jimmy Butler says 'It's not over' as injury ravaged Miami Heat fall behind 2-0 "It's not over. We're just down 0-2, so we got to do something special," Jimmy Butler said after the Game 2 loss. Butler and the Heat still believe they are in this, although only four teams out of 31 occasions have comeback from the Finals deficit that the Heat are in right now. Despite missing key players in Goran Dragic and Bam Adebayo, the Miami Heat battled hard in Game 2 but couldn't stop the Los Angeles Lakers from racing away to a 2-0 series lead with a 124-114 Game 2 win. This is the 31st instance in NBA Finals history that a team has held a 2-0 series lead, of which, just four times has the team trailing come back to clinch the title. But Jimmy Butler, one of Heat's two All-Stars, refuses to believe the series is over. "It's not over. We're just down 0-2, so we got to do something special," he said after the Game 2 loss. "We're capable of it and I wouldn't want to be in the trenches with any other guys except for the ones that we have." "We're gonna ride with this thing 'til the wheels fall off. It's not over." Jimmy Butler talks about the fight in this Miami Heat team and the determination of Bam Adebayo and Goran Dragic to return to the series. #HEATTwitter pic.twitter.com/Hdu1dVfF7p - FOX Sports Sun: HEAT (@FOXSportsHEAT) October 3, 2020 Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra said more of the same in his postgame media interaction, refusing to give up referring to the group's stubbornness and persistence. "We don't give a (expletive) what everybody else thinks," Spoelstra said. "Whatever -- your first question, how did you phrase it? What will it take? Whatever is necessary. It's simple as that. " "We don't give a s--- what everybody else thinks." Erik Spoelstra and the Miami Heat are unbothered. pic.twitter.com/qpZYvASm7a - ESPN (@espn) October 3, 2020 If the Heat can pull off the comeback, the would be the first team to do it twice, having already made an 0-2 comeback in the Finals in 2006. Can they do it? Game 2 was far more competitive than Game 1 but the team just couldn't seem to land that final punch to spark a comeback. "I think it was just a couple plays," Canadian big man Kelly Olynyk said postgame. "A couple missed shots, a couple offensive rebounds we gave up. We had it right there on the edge, but we just couldn't push it over." "I think it was just a couple plays. A couple missed shots." Kelly Olynyk discusses what prevented the Heat from being able to complete the Game 2 comeback against the Lakers. #HEATTwitter pic.twitter.com/1SceSm1gR8 Playing additional minutes with Adebayo out, Olynyk finished with 24 points, nine rebounds (playoff career-high), and two assists on 9-of-16 shooting from the field in 37 minutes. The Lakers didn't dominate Game 2 like they did Game 1 but they still led by double-digits for nearly all of the second half. Can the Heat make the improbable comeback? Only time will tell but they certainly feel confident. All of us will only when Game 3 tips-off on Sunday, October 4th at 7:30 p.m. ET. The views on this page do not necessarily represent the views of the NBA or its clubs.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6016
__label__wiki	0.693488	0.693488	Press Release: SASG Urges UN Special Rapporteur to Investigate the Spiral of Human Rights Violations in India Photo: The Indian Express London: The London-based human rights organization South Asia Solidarity Group (SASG) has launched an online petition urging the UN Special Rapporteur, Rita Izsák-Ndiaye to investigate the growing human rights violation in India, particularly the attacks on religious minorities and Dalits. “Human rights violations which target religious minorities, specifically Muslims and Christians, and Dalits are occurring on a vast and horrific scale in India today. While violence against Muslim and Christian communities have been increasing since the early 1990s, and upper caste atrocities on Dalits are a longstanding phenomenon, there has been a massive escalation in both since Narendra Modi ‘s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power at the Centre in 2014. Emboldened by the victory of the BJP, Hindu supremacist gangs with links to the ruling party, or in some parts of India directly set up by the state, are the chief perpetrators of these abuses which are occurring unchecked. Below we outline some of the types of extreme violations affecting Muslims, Christians, and Dalits.” Reads the petition. Giving a catalogue of incidents of lynching of Muslims on the pretext that they had eaten beef, rape of Dalit girls, attacks on Christians and killing of Muslims instigated using the, “baseless trope of ‘love jihad’, according to which Muslim men abduct and have relationships with Hindu women only to convert them to Islam” and ethnic cleansing of Muslims in various parts of India the petition says, “The perpetrators are Hindu-supremacist gangs of so-called Cow Vigilantes. In the vast majority of cases, they have been neither punished nor condemned by the government. Instead, the police have often charged the victims and BJP state governments have given tacit encouragement to the violence by making statements and announcing policies which call for harsh penalties for cow slaughter. Christians are also under attack. Here the scale of violence is demonstrated by the figures for 2016 alone: 10 people were killed and over 500 members of the clergy or community leaders were physically attacked.” It adds, “There is a horrifying rise in the rapes, mutilation, acid attacks and other forms of violence, often followed by murder, of women and girls of all communities, but Dalit women and girls and those from religious minorities are being specifically targeted. Among recent cases are that of a Dalit schoolgirl raped and killed inside the school premises in Bihar, a Dalit girl gang raped and murdered in Tamilnadu, two Muslim women raped and their relatives killed after being falsely accused of eating beef in Haryana and the gruesome gang rape of the recently buried body of a Muslim woman in UP. In 2016 alone, 34 Christian women including nuns were raped, molested or beaten. Some of the worst violence against Christians is taking place in Chhattisgarh which has long had a BJP government.” Reads the petition further, “The cases mentioned above are only a small indication of what is now a human rights emergency with religious minorities and Dalits under attack as never before. We call upon you to investigate this escalating situation as a matter of urgency.” Full petition may be read and signed on here. Like Cafe Dissensus on Facebook. Follow CafeDissensus on Twitter. Read the latest issue of Cafe Dissensus Magazine on ‘Masculinities in Urban India’, edited by Madhura Lohokare, Shiv Nadar University, India. Tagged: Dalits, Fascism in India, India, Indian Muslims, SASG Social Concerns and Human Relationships: The Cinema of K. Viswanath Qatar Blockade: Now the GCC versus the GCC	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6017
__label__wiki	0.905134	0.905134	by Anastacia Jackson California Gov. Gavin Newsom tested negative for the coronavirus. The governor’s office said Newsom was tested Wednesday after someone in the governor’s office tested positive. Newsom tests negative for coronavirus after office worker tests positive. The employee who tested positive had not been in contact with Newsom or anyone else who often saw the governor. The governor’s office said Newsom withdrew the test out of “great caution.” The uptick in coronavirus cases in Los Angeles and several other California counties is cause for concern. Still, experts said Thursday that it’s too early to tell whether it represents the start of a more considerable surge in infections. The next few weeks will be crucial to see if California can reduce the number of cases and hospitalizations, even as authorities continue to reopen the economy. The state hopes its new tier system will prevent the wave of business that occurred this summer when the government quickly allowed businesses to reopen and people reverted to old ways. The convergence between the pandemic and COVID-19 election season has complicated the mood this year for residents of nursing homes, residential care centers, and other long-term care facilities. The shift may hinder many seniors who need help obtaining or filling out forms in family visitation rules. Voting procedures – both in person and by post – are subject to greater scrutiny, which adds to the confusion. Facilities that once housed polling stations likely won’t do so this year due to concerns over the spread of COVID-19. “We really shouldn’t go out to the public at this point, we’re more vulnerable, and our immune systems are compromised anyway,” said Janice Phillips, a 14-year resident of Village Square Healthcare Center, a qualified nursing facility. in San Marcos, Calif. “We are locked in.” Phillips, 75, who has rheumatoid arthritis, voted absent for years without a problem. This year, she encourages her fellow citizens to vote by mail as well. She works with the facility’s operations staff, who take a resident for residents, to ensure people are registered. As chairman of the residents’ council, Phillips has also raised the issue at community meetings. Additionally, L.A. The county will remain in the most restrictive reopening phase this week despite progress. Los Angeles County Reports Lowest Daily COVID-19 Hospitalizations Since April “I think there’s probably bound to be a few more upticks when counties reopen because you’re now going to be in situations where there is more opportunity for exposures,” said Dr. Robert Kim-Farley, a medical epidemiologist and disease infectious expert at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. Los Angeles County reported the highest number of daily cases in six weeks on Wednesday. Riverside County is on the verge of regressing from level 2 to level 1 after typical case counts increased. In San Diego, which also remains in group 2, hospital admissions have increased in the past two weeks after rising claims related to San Diego State. Members of Gov. Newsom office workers test positive for the coronavirus. Newsom said on Wednesday he had been tried multiple times and had always tested negative. Separately, a government employee working in a shared space with some of the governor’s office staff also tested positive for COVID-19. Still, the person had also had no contact with the governor or his closest team. The governor’s office said it received information on the two positive tests earlier this week, and COVID-19 protocols for California state agencies were implemented. Officials did not identify the employees. California has reported more than 834,000 coronavirus cases and more than 16,300 deaths. Anastacia Jackson Anastacia is a multimedia journalist who covers everything from lifestyle to marketing news and has an affinity for impulsive travel and creative writing. Several years down the road, she attended Colorado State University where he earned four degrees in Psychology, Social Sciences, English, and Theater Arts.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6018
__label__cc	0.656992	0.343008	How is S&OE Different from S&OP? Posted by Brian Hoey on April 24, 2018 It’s long been an open question in the world of business: which is a bigger hurdle, planning or execution? As the global supply chain has become more sophisticated, however, we’ve gotten a wealth of evidence that for the majority of companies, execution is the more frequent stumbling block. In an informal poll a few years ago, Dick Ruhe at Blanchard found that 76% of the more than 300 respondents said that the most common experience at their company was "good planning and poor execution" (compared to just 4% who said "good planning and good execution", 8% who said "bad planning and bad execution", and 13% who said "bad planning and good execution"). Though these statistics don’t speak to supply chain management in particular, they do give an accurate sense of how difficult it can be to put even a well-conceived business or production plan into action. Recent Consumer Goods reports have echoed these results, noting that, of companies polled, more than 90% reported a gap between planning and execution; among all the various strategic initiatives undertaken by these same companies, only 56% were labeled as successful. As a supply chain manager or a transport planner, it’s no doubt easy to see why this might be the case. Even shorter-term operational plans are made on a monthly or quarterly basis, and the fast pace of global supply chain events virtually ensures that some disruption will occur in that time span. When that happens, many businesses lack the agility, the flexibility, and the intra-operational visibility to make adjustments and stay on track. The heart of this issue has historically been that there was no established business function that dealt with the daily and weekly supply chain adjustments that are necessary to maintaining mid- to long-term plans. While Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) covered monthly roadmaps, there was no planning function that operated at a finer level of granularity. Enter Sales & Operations Execution Thankfully, a new level of organizational planning has emerged in recent years, which Gartner has termed Sales & Operations Execution (S&OE). Where S&OP drives monthly or quarterly organizational plans, S&OE’s purview is the daily and weekly demand and supply fluctuations that are inherent in the execution of any tactical plan. By monitoring real-time demand data and making adjustments to ordering strategies, inventory usage, and transport plans accordingly, S&OE adds value in the form of increased flexibility on a daily and weekly basis. Often, this takes the form of preventing overreactions to small disruptions, rather than the radically changing course each time the demand dial moves. In this way, it aids S&OP functionality by shepherding plans and initiatives through their various phases. We at the flexis blog have frequently touted the value of Sales & Operations Execution for the creation of a lean supply chain, and we’re certainly not the only ones who think that this new approach to disruption management will become increasingly necessary to supply chain success. Some of you may be wondering, “if this function is so powerful, why has it not emerged until just now?” The short answer is that S&OE is only made possible by the rise of Industry 4.0 systems. Because successful execution requires real-time information and a high degree of visibility, businesses must adopt a mindset of widespread connectivity and transparency, connecting disparate supply chain touchpoints into a cohesive value chain that promotes cyber-physical systems and tears down information silos. Before the era of Industry 4.0, when planners often had to use pen and paper or Excel spreadsheets to create operational roadmaps, this level of information visibility and supply stream integration was virtually impossible to achieve. For companies that can provide their execution processes with real-time information, Sales & Operations Execution can not only reduce volatility and add value to traditional S&OP workflows, it can also pave the way for advanced analytics integration by centralizing mission critical data, meaning that companies can benefit from: More accurate demand forecasts Suggested workflow improvements across the supply stream Automatic scheduling of maintenance downtime and inventory replenishment orders. Even without big data analytics, real-time demand information can have a huge impact on supply chain logistics. It can enable planners not just to reroute transport plans that have been disrupted, but to optimize freight usage and capitalize on real-time price information. By the same token, inventory usage can be made more efficient and cost effective by the knowledge that the potential for disruptive shortfalls is being closely monitored. By closing the gap between planning and execution in this way, businesses stand to gain a significant competitive advantage in a world where best laid plans often go awry. Topics: Sales & Operations Execution (S&OE), Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP), Supply Chain Management	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6020
__label__cc	0.711154	0.288846	← Crazy, Stupid, Love. (2011) Happy Birthday to Dwayne Johnson “The Rock” → The Place Beyond the Pines was not exactly what I expected it to be. The film was unique because there were multiple layers to the story as well as to each of the characters. The storyline flowed nicely even though each layer of it seemed to change who the main characters were. The mood of the movie was rough and intense throughout with a darkness that few films are capable of. Luke (Ryan Gosling) is a motorcycle stunt driver whose life gets turned upside down after finding out that he is a father. In order to try to provide for his kid, he quits his job and begins robbing banks. Avery (Bradley Cooper) is an honest cop. Eventually both men’s paths cross. Rounding out the rest of the cast is Eva Mendes, Ben Mendelsohn, Mahershala Ali, Ray Liotta, Bruce Greenwood, Dane DeHaan, Emory Cohen, Rose Byrne, Harris Yulin, and Olga Merediz. The film is written and directed by Derek Cianfrance. Gosling is cast against type. He does not usually play the rebel outlaw type, but he proves once again that he is capable of widening his range as an actor because he nails his part. Cooper has a strong presence and when his character arrives, it changes the whole dynamic of the movie. I felt like Mendes did a good job, but we could have gotten more out of her character. I fault the writers for that. She did great with what she had to work with, but her character could have been developed better. Liotta seems to have resurfaced after being pretty washed up the last few years. In this film he carried himself like the Ray Liotta of old. He did not seem like the train wreck that he was becoming. This was a welcomed surprise. Both Cooper and Gosling continue to make smart decisions when it comes to which films to act in. This film is guaranteed to keep them both in the spotlight. The Place Beyond the Pines is a movie filled with tough subject matter mixed with raw emotion portrayed by a fantastic cast of actors who are very passionate about their work. This combination makes for a very exciting and suspenseful film about people leading hard lives. Posted on May 2, 2013, in Action Movie Reviews, Drama Movie Reviews and tagged Ben Mendelsohn, Bradley Cooper, Bruce Greenwood, Dane DeHaan, Derek Cianfrance, Emory Cohen, Eva Mendes, Harris Yulin, Mahershala Ali, movie, Olga Merediz, Ray Liotta, Rose Byrne, Ryan Gosling, The Place Beyond the Pines (2012). Bookmark the permalink. 6 Comments. vinnieh \| May 2, 2013 at 2:36 AM Excellent review, I really want to see the film now. brockingmovies \| May 2, 2013 at 2:49 AM Well thank you for reading Vinnie! I appreciate the nice comment! movierob \| May 8, 2013 at 6:53 AM Just saw this recently and over all enjoyed it very much brockingmovies \| May 8, 2013 at 2:06 PM Thanks Rob. It was different in a lot of ways, but overally it was very fun to watch. Pingback: The Place Beyond The Pines: My Take on it \| Beyond the Realm of Logic Pingback: Ready Player One (2018) \| brockingmovies Arnold Schwarzenegger's Impression of Jeff Dunham's Walter Doll Happy Birthday to Pierce Brosnan	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6029
__label__cc	0.526355	0.473645	Cannaeo Brands – Private Labeling, Manufacturing, Influencer Marketing influencers@cannaeo.com CHRONICLES OF CANNAEO Cannaeo existed only as a brand when the initial co-founders participated as a vendor at the Marijuana Investor Summit in Denver, Colorado on April 20, 2015. Little did the creators know that their marquee would take off and become the flag-bearer for e-retailers of hemp products in just a few short years. Later that same year, Cannaeo decided to branch out. It tried and succeeded in operating as an e-commerce platform for numerous CBD and hemp-based products. The company got its start as a subsidiary of CIB Holdings Inc. in San Diego, CA, with 11 employees. In December 2015, after an impressive first few months, Cannaeo caught the eye and interest of a family-operated private investment firm. The new management decided to cut out the middlemen and opened its first product warehouse in Chula Vista, CA, in February of 2016. They began product testing to find out what would sell the best. After a few months of collecting data, the team at Cannaeo found that hemp-based beauty products were in high demand and began producing the brand’s first hemp-infused age-defying serum. The serum launched for the first time at the Ultimate Women’s Expo in Atlanta, GA. Afterward, they exhibited at the Ultimate Women’s Expo in Los Angeles where demand began to grow. The public caught wind before long and Cannaeo’s serum was on the shelves of 19 different retail stores across San Diego County. At this point, Cannaeo focused on expansion and diversification, taking an impressive risk by deciding to enter the food market. Cannaeo became the first ever private labeling company of its kind, marketing hemp-based food products including teriyaki sauce, BBQ sauce, salad dressings, and more. These proved to be popular and in 2017, Cannaeo introduced a total of 9 different stock keeping units (SKU) to keep up with demand. With that kind of rapid growth, Cannaeo began to make waves across the industry. It was acquired by Greenfield Solomon Inc., an Irvine based firm in Southern California that already had investments across a myriad of sectors such as real estate, manufacturing, banking, renewable energy, franchising, digital and social media. The acquisition was an exciting time for Cannaeo, whose growth was taking off more than ever before. In February 2019, Greenfield Solomon Inc. added Cannaeo to its portfolio as Cannaeo Brands LLC. The food division was dropped and the brand was refocused towards health & wellness, making a move to expand by private labeling garments, accessories, skincare, nutraceuticals, vitamins, beauty and pet products. With that, Cannaeo Brands rose as an all-in-one centralized source, taking care of both the manufacturing and marketing aspects of a business with its in-house client support, fulfillment, digital and influencer marketing divisions. CONTACT US THROUGH OUR SOCIAL CHANNELS Cannaeo Brands, 9401 Wilshire Blvd, Suite 1000, Los Angeles, CA 90212 Cannaeo Brands LLC is a Greenfield Solomon Company © 2015 – 2020 CANNAEO ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6032
__label__wiki	0.937805	0.937805	Caroline Taylor Snippets of work & life in Trinidad, the UK & the US Work \| performing arts & publishing Writing & editing work Performing arts work music, new york, theatre and performance, trinidad and tobago Heather Headley: a star with her feet on the ground \| Caribbean Beat Originally written for and published in Caribbean Beat magazine in 2012. The full interview transcript is published here, and at Discover Trinidad & Tobago. In 2000, news spread about a Trinidad-born actress making waves on Broadway. Her command of her emotions made you sure that her onstage tears must come from some fresh real-world trauma. The truth was very different. “I would be in the moment, thinking of the journeys…Ten years ago, I was in Trinidad walking barefoot across the street to Miss Philips’ house to get some sugar, not thinking I would be standing on this stage playing Aida in Aida, with a Tony. OK, let’s cry,” she explains, laughing. “So it was emotionally cathartic because I could let everything out.” Tony and Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter and actor Heather Headley makes a tremendous impression in other ways too. It’s not just because of her beauty, cutting a slim, stylish and striking figure at five foot eight. Neither is it only because of her distinctive voice – a finely tuned instrument with a tremendous range of tone, colour and texture, equally at home belting out gospel and Broadway rabble-rousers, and lilting, lyrical ballads, all with startling dynamic contrast. What makes the greatest impression is how down-to earth she is, and her humour, intelligence, generosity and humility. Heather Headley was born in Trinidad on October 5, 1974 to Hannah and Eric Headley. Her father was a pastor in Barataria, a little way outside the capital, Port of Spain, and some of Headley’s earliest musical exposure – and her values – came from singing and playing the piano in the church. She attended St Vincent Anglican Girls’ School and then St George’s College in Trinidad before moving to the United States, where her father was offered a job as a pastor in Indiana. She remembers her Trini childhood fondly – “I wouldn’t trade it for the world: the village, the community” – and credits Trinidad, and in particular members of her church and teachers at her schools, with nurturing her budding artistic talents, and making her believe that she could achieve anything. In particular, she remembers Standard Five teacher Miss Des Vignes, and groundbreaking women like Penny Commissiong (Miss Universe 1977) and Giselle Laronde (Miss World 1986). In Fort Wayne, Indiana, she attended Northrop High School, singing with the Charisma school show choir, and starring as Fanny Brice in its production of Funny Girl. The move wasn’t all a song and dance, but: “There was always Mummy. She’s helped us during the toughest times and took the reins. And I don’t tell her enough, but she is a good mom,” Headley reminisces. “The other day, performing in Trinidad, I could not stand on that stage without thinking of Mummy, who was in the wings. And I think that’s where she’s always been – in the wings, cheering on.” Ever the high achiever, Headley enrolled at the prestigious Northwestern University, starting as a voice major before switching to communications and even thinking of studying law. But in 1996 she won a role in a Broadway-bound touring production of the musical Ragtime. From there she originated the role of Nala in Disney’s Broadway adaptation of The Lion King in 1997. Then she auditioned for and won the title role in Elton John and Tim Rice’s next Disney project, Aida. “She just blew me away,” said then-Disney CEO Michael Eisner. And it was Aida that fast-tracked the 25-year-old’s career, earning her coveted Drama Desk and Tony Awards, and a record deal with RCA. She told Jess Rosen, who negotiated the album contract, that she wanted not just a Tony, but a Grammy and an Oscar as well. Her first Grammy-nominated solo album followed – This is Who I Am, which she described as “Whitney Houston meets Lauryn Hill”. This was one of many ways that Houston strongly influenced Headley’s career. “In my head, I wanted to be Whitney Houston, so me and my family didn’t know anything about Broadway,” she explained. In fact, her Trini family feared she was “working the streets”. “It takes too long to explain, so I’m like, ‘Don’t worry. I’m a lawyer’.” There was no reason for alarm: the debut album won her a slew of industry awards and nominations, with “He Is” and “I Wish I Wasn’t” hitting the top five on US dance and R&B charts. Things were also blossoming in her personal life. In 2003, she married fellow Northwesterner and former professional football player Brian Musso. He’s been properly integrated into her family, first and foremost through food. “I remember the first time we went to Trinidad, Brian sitting in the kitchen and saying, ‘You know how to make this? You need to learn!’” she recalls, laughing. “And I have always been, ‘I am woman, hear me roar! I do not need to be in the kitchen! I will never learn to make callaloo and pelau!’ But it’s been fun to learn to cook like that. My pelau still looks a little bit like coo-coo, and last night I made a bad callaloo – terribly bad – but I’m still eating it like it’s the best thing ever.” Headley’s ever-growing legion of supporters had to wait until 2006 for her second album, In My Mind. Once again it was produced by industry leaders, including Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Ne-Yo, Warryn Campbell, and Lil’ Jon. The title track climbed to number one on the dance charts. But it was her next album, the gospel-infused Audience of One, which brought Headley her first Grammy (and two nominations). Her stature as an actress and singer firmly established, Headley added the role of mother to her portfolio with the birth of her son – “Commander General” John David – in 2009. Despite taking some time out to enjoy being a wife and new mother, Headley still toured internationally with popular classical singer Andrea Bocelli, which included two concert recordings: Live in Tuscany, for PBS, and the Under the Desert Sky CD/DVDs. The past three years have also brought two personal and professional highlights. The first was singing a duet with Josh Groban at the 2009 inauguration of US President Barack Obama on the steps of the historic Lincoln Memorial. The other was a charity gala, Home, she headlined at the National Academy for the Performing Arts (NAPA) in Trinidad last December, her first full-length concert in her home country. “I was so proud of my little island – because of the talent. You couldn’t ask for better. It was the greatest highlight of my year, and I will always remember it. My only regret was we couldn’t go for longer!” This year looks to be a bumper one for the star. Her latest album is set for launch on 25 September, 2012. Then, in November – previews beginning on the 6th, with a premiere in December – she stars in a West End adaptation of the hit Hollywood film The Bodyguard. She plays Rachel Marron, the role Whitney Houston made famous. Houston’s impact on Headley was palpable after Houston’s death in February. “I can’t even begin to fathom the weight of that right now. It weighed on me before, but now the challenge is even greater,” Headley said soon after news of Houston’s tragic passing broke. “There is and never will be a voice or gift like Whitney Houston’s. From the first time I heard her I knew I wanted to sing. As a child, I sat and listened to every song and knew every riff of Whitney’s. I actually remember where I was the first time I heard those first a cappella bars of ‘I Will Always Love You’.” Headley’s own talent, discipline and drive will ensure she shines as brightly as she always has. But these days, she’s also concerned with helping as many other lights shine as possible, through work on causes close to her heart. For the 2011 Home concert in Trinidad & Tobago, she worked with British Gas to raise funds for the United Way. In Chicago, she and her husband are part of a scholarship school for inner-city kids. “There’s something to be said for changing a child’s perception of who they are and can be,” she says. “When I was down in Trinidad, there was something in the kids’ eyes that I hadn’t seen before. It was like they were saying, ‘You did it, and we can do this too!’ So I want to find how we help them realise that, and get them ready. So we’re starting to look at it and talk to people to hopefully start something next year.” Might Trinidad & Tobago ever see Heather Headley singing soca, or at Soca Monarch? “Oh gosh, no,” she says laughing. “I am not that good!” She is interested in doing collaborations with artists from Trinidad & Tobago, however. “I think Destra’s got a great, great voice, and it would be fun at some point to just sit down and figure it out. That’s the beauty with us in the island…We listen to everything, so there are these Destras of the world who can sing calypso – unlike me – and then sing a Whitney Houston song and whatever else she wants to sing. And I’m really proud of all that.” And how about the Tony-Grammy-Oscar trifecta? “Maybe I set my sights too high,” she says, “but then the other day I was saying, ‘God, I’ve got to get this Oscar thing and the Emmy…’ I never thought I’d have one, or even two!” At 37, for this grounded and infinitely talented performer, anything is possible. And her birthplace, like her mother, will always be cheering her on. Heather Headley’s honours 2000 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical (Aida); 2000 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical (Aida); 2000 Sarah Siddons Award for Work in Chicago theatre; 2003 Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards for Best R&B/Soul or Rap New Artist (“He Is”) and Best R&B/Soul Album of the Year – Solo (This Is Who I Am) 2010 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary R&B Gospel Album (Audience of One) Also named as one of: People Magazine’s “50 Most Beautiful People”; Essence Magazine’s “30 Women To Watch”. Also nominated for: 2003 Billboard Music Award for R&B/Hip-Hop New Artist of the Year; 2003 NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding New Artist and Outstanding Female Artist; 2003 Soul Train Music Award for Best R&B/Soul or Rap New Artist (“He Is”); 2004 Grammy Award for Best New Artist and Best Female R&B Vocal Performance (“I Wish I Wasn’t”); 2006 BET J/Centric for Cool Like That Award; 2010 Grammy Award for Best Gospel Performance (“Jesus Is Love”); 2010 Dove Awards for Female Vocalist of the Year, Contemporary Gospel Album of the Year (Audience of One), and Event Album of the Year for “Oh Happy Day” Heather Headley’s albums & recordings 2002: This Is Who I Am (Certified: Gold) 2006: In My Mind (Certified: Gold) 2009: Audience of One Also credited on: The Lion King on Broadway Cast Recording (1997); Return to Pride Rock (1998); Do Re Mi (1999 Encores! production with Nathan Lane, Randy Graff, and Brian Stokes Mitchell); Aida Original Broadway Cast Recording (1999); Golden Dreams (2001); Dreamgirls in Concert (2002 with Audra McDonald and Lillias White); Oh Happy Day (2009, with Al Green) Details of The Bodyguard’s West End run • 6 November 2012 – 27 April, 2013 (first booking period) at the Adelphi Theatre, Strand, London WC2. • Shows Monday – Saturday at 7.30pm; Wednesday and Saturday matinees at 3pm • Previews: £20 – £57.50 including £1 theatre restoration levy • Post-premiere: £20 – £67.50 including £1 theatre restoration levy • Day seats: A limited number of £25 day seats will go on sale from the Box Office at 10am on the day of the performance No booking fee for tickets purchased directly from the Adelphi Theatre (+44 844579 0094) or The Bodyguard website. Caroline Taylor 1 May, 2012 17 January, 2017 music, new york, people, theatre and performance, trinidad and tobago Previous Previous post: Trinidad’s ‘Dangerous Dogs’ act and what it says about us Next Next post: K2K Carnival: “a breath of fresh air” RT @climate: NextEra, the world’s biggest provider of wind and solar energy, is now more valuable than oil giant Exxon—once the largest pub… 32 minutes ago RT @JoaquimCampa: Animals interrupting wildlife photographers. A thread: 1. 📸 Dan Dinu https://t.co/FYfohHAucq 9 hours ago RT @Newsday_TT: The Asa Wright Nature Centre is to issue a statement on the future of operations amid reports that it had closed down perma… 1 day ago A convo we need to have around Trinidad & Tobago’s positioning as an eco tourism & foodie destination is bake & sh… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 1 day ago Visiting fam near Assumption Church, where charismatics are having their regular (noisy) meeting. It is so loud tha… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 3 days ago Follow @carolineneisha caribbean carnival college conservation festivals and events film and television london media and technology music musings new york quotes reviews rights sports theatre and performance trinidad and tobago Follow Caroline Taylor on WordPress.com	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6033
__label__wiki	0.973115	0.973115	TOWER CITY CENTER The TOWER CITY CENTER is a mixed-use development consisting of adaptive reuse and new construction. It is one of the cornerstones of downtown Cleveland's rebirth in the 1990s. The complex includes what was once known as the CLEVELAND UNION TERMINAL and the associated buildings at PUBLIC SQUARE. A large crowd watches an indoor balloon release at the grand opening of 'The Avenue' at Tower City Center, March 1990. Courtesy of the Plain Dealer. In 1986 Forest City Enterprises, Inc., owner of the station, the Terminal Tower, the former Post Office, and the former train yards (now a parking lot), announced ambitious redevelopment plans for their portion of the complex. Architect for the project was RTKL Ohio Corp. of Dallas. The official groundbreaking took place on 28 Sept. 1988. Within the next 3 years a large portion of the historic but under-utilized station was converted into a complex which included stores, an 11-screen cinema, and a new food court. Historic elements such as brass storefronts, the English Oak Room, and the portico were restored. The old Post Office (now MK-Ferguson Plaza) was renovated into office space (Van Dijk/Johnson & Partners). The rapid transit lines were centralized and a new station was built. From the exterior, the most notable changes were a new skylight and 2 new 11-story buildings, one of which housed a Ritz-Carlton Hotel. The grand opening of The Avenue, the retail portion of the complex, took place on 29 March 1990. By early 1991 the remaining construction was completed. Further expansion of the complex in 1994-95 linked Tower City and the Avenue to Gund Arena and Jacobs Field at Gateway (see GATEWAY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORP.). Leedy, Walter Jr. and John Grabowski. The Terminal Tower: Tower City Center: A Historical Perspective. http://www.towercitycenter.com/info/aboutUs.cfm	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6035
__label__cc	0.749577	0.250423	Undergraduate Programs in Nutrition Didactic Program in Dietetics Master's Programs in Nutrition Master of Science in Systems Biology & Bioinformatics PhD Programs in Nutrition and Systems Biology & Bioinformatics SYBB Training Faculty Part-Time Master's Degree Program Undergraduate Student Research Fall 2020 Instruction Modes Physical & Emotional Wellness Case Center for Proteomics and Bioinformatics Proteomics and Small Molecule Mass Spectrometry Core At Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, we provide students with the chance to learn and practice in multiple clinical settings at some of the best teaching hospitals in the region and country. Affiliated teaching hospitals are viewed as an extension of the school's academic and research expertise. Our Affiliates include the following list of hospitals. University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center is the primary teaching affiliate of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. UH Cleveland Medical Center offers a full range of primary and specialty care for adults and children, and includes UH Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital, UH MacDonald Womens Hospital, and Seidman Cancer Center. Together, UH Cleveland Medical Center and the School of Medicine form the largest biomedical research center in Ohio. Consistently voted as one of the nation's best hospitals, the Cleveland Clinic is recognized for its outstanding clinical care and its commitment to academic excellence. Home to the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University, a unique medical program that trains students to be physician investigators, the Clinic sponsors one of the largest graduate medical education programs in the country with more than 900 residents and fellows in a wide range of specialties. For over 175 years, MetroHealth has served the medical needs of the Cleveland community and surrounding areas of Cuyahoga County and is a leader among public hospital systems. As a major teaching hospital in Northern Ohio, MetroHealth has maintained a tradition of excellence in academics and research. Intensive training for physicians and medical professionals is offered in many medical specialties. Affiliated with Case Western Reserve University's School of Medicine, School of Dentistry and Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing, the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center trains more than 1,000 students, residents and fellows each year, encompassing 26 disciplines and involving 50 affiliations with schools, colleges and universities. Biomedical Research Building, 9th Floor & WG-48 2109 Adelbert Road	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6036
__label__wiki	0.706861	0.706861	In the Matter of the Adoption of S.J.D In re R.D. R.D. We review rulings on questions of statutory interpretation for correction of errors at law. In re Adoption of… In re Adoption of Kevin In any other instance where access and disclosure is sought, the statute does not delineate what constitutes… Full title:IN THE MATTER OF THE ADOPTION OF S.J.D., S.J.D., Appellant Court:Supreme Court of Iowa Date published: Apr 3, 2002 641 N.W.2d 794 (Iowa 2002) Supreme Court of Iowa denying adoptee's motion to unseal his adoption records Summary of this case from In re R.D. R.D. No. 24 / 00-0744 Filed April 3, 2002 Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Johnson County, Douglas S. Russell, Judge. Petitioner appeals from a district court ruling denying his request to unseal adoption records. AFFIRMED. Steven J. Drahozal, Coralville, pro se. LAVORATO, Chief Justice. Steven J. Drahozal appeals from a district court ruling denying his request to unseal his adoption records so that he can learn the identity of his biological parents. He contends he has established the statutory requirement of good cause to unseal such records. He also contends that our statutory provisions requiring sealing of adoption records violate his right to free speech under the Federal and Iowa Constitutions. Because we conclude Steven has failed to establish such good cause and that the challenged statutes do not violate his right to free speech, we affirm. I. Background Facts and Proceedings. Steven was born in Iowa City on June 27, 1971. John and Sharon Drahozal took custody of Steven on July 2, 1971, and the Drahozals' legal adoption of Steven was finalized in August 1972. In February 2000, Steven filed a petition to unseal records pertaining to his adoption. See Iowa Code § 600.16A(2)(b) (1999). He alleged that good cause existed to open the records and that denial of his access to the records would violate his constitutional rights to privacy and equal protection. He also filed an "affidavit consenting to release of identifying information." See Iowa Code § 600.16A(3)(b). No adverse party responded to the petition. In March, Steven filed an amended petition, adding an allegation that denial of his access to the records would violate his right to free speech. He also filed a "request for judicial notice of adjudicative facts," asking the court to take judicial notice of several treatises written by adoption experts. He submitted excerpts from these treatises following a hearing later in March. Steven, his wife, Allison, and his adoptive parents testified at the hearing. His adoptive parents testified they were not opposed to Steven's search for his biological parents. Steven testified he wanted to obtain information from his adoption records and find his biological parents. His reasons for wanting to find them were to (1) satisfy his curiosity, that is, to see if someone else looks like him, or if he has siblings; (2) thank them for what they did; and (3) obtain medical information. Steven's desire to obtain medical information stems from his own mental condition. At age 15, Steven was hospitalized because of a severe depression. He suffers from manic depression and takes Prozac to treat the illness. Steven testified he wanted to know if the manic depression is hereditary, and if so, to find out whether his biological family may be undergoing more effective treatment than what he receives. He admitted, however, that the treatment he presently receives is effective. Additionally, Steven expressed concerns about the health of his two biological children from a previous marriage. Steven has obtained some information about his biological parents from the adoption agency that handled the adoption. For example, he learned (1) his biological maternal grandfather suffered from diabetes; (2) his biological parents' height, weight, and age at the time of Steven's birth; and (3) his ethnic heritage-German and Irish. Following the hearing, the district court denied Steven's request, and Steven appealed. II. Issues. Steven raises two issues on appeal. He challenges the district court's interpretation of the applicable statute. Specifically, he contends the district court erred when it ruled that the failure of Steven's biological parents to file a waiver of confidentiality pursuant to Iowa Code section 600.16A(2)(b)(1) is dispositive of good cause. Steven also contends that denial of his request to unseal his adoption records violates his right to free speech. He contends that the freedom of speech guaranteed under the Federal Constitution and Iowa Constitution encompasses the right to receive information, including private information such as adoption records. III. Scope of Review. To the extent Steven raises questions of statutory interpretation, our review is for correction of errors at law. State v. Ceron, 573 N.W.2d 587, 589 (Iowa 1997). Because this is an adoption-related equitable proceeding, our review of the factual issues is de novo. In re Adoption of Moriarty, 260 Iowa 1279, 1285, 152 N.W.2d 218, 221 (1967). We review constitutional issues de novo. State v. Simpson, 587 N.W.2d 770, 771 (Iowa 1998). Because statutes are cloaked with a strong presumption of constitutionality, a party challenging a statute as unconstitutional carries a heavy burden of rebutting this presumption. In re Morrow, 616 N.W.2d 544, 547 (Iowa 2000). In this regard, the challenger must negate every reasonable basis upon which the statute could be upheld as constitutional. Id. The challenger must also show beyond a reasonable doubt that a statute violates the constitution. Johnston v. Veterans' Plaza Auth., 535 N.W.2d 131, 132 (Iowa 1995). If a statute is susceptible to more than one construction, one of which is constitutional and the other not, we are obliged to adopt the construction which will uphold it. Santi v. Santi, 633 N.W.2d 312, 316 (Iowa 2001). IV. The District Court's Interpretation. Iowa Code section 600.16A(2)(b) provides in relevant part: All papers and records pertaining to . . . an adoption shall not be open to inspection and the identity of the biological parents of an adopted person shall not be revealed except . . . [t]he court, for good cause, shall order the opening of the permanent adoption record of the court for the adopted person who is an adult and reveal the names of either or both of the biological parents following consideration of . . . the following: (1) A biological parent may file an affidavit requesting that the court reveal or not reveal the parent's identity. The court shall consider any such affidavit in determining whether there is good cause to order opening of the records.. . . Iowa Code § 600.16A(2)(b) (emphasis added). In its ruling, the district court explained that it could open sealed adoption records upon showing that good cause exists, and both the adult adoptee and the terminated biological parents have indicated by affidavit that they desire to have the records opened. [Iowa Code] § 600.16A(2)(b)(1). The court concluded that because the biological parents had not filed such an affidavit, the court had no authority to open the records under section 600.16A(2)(b)(1). Additionally, the court concluded that Steven had not presented competent medical evidence to show the information was necessary to save the life of, or prevent irreparable physical or mental harm to, the adoptee or the adoptee's offspring. See Iowa Code § 600.16A(2)(d) (providing that the court "may, upon competent medical evidence, open termination or adoption records if opening is shown to be necessary to save the life of or prevent irreparable physical or mental harm to an adopted person or the person's offspring"). Even with this showing, the court noted that it would still be required to "make every reasonable effort to prevent" the revelation of identifying information to the adoptee. See id. (providing that even with the showing necessary to open the records, the court "shall make every reasonable effort to prevent the identity of the biological parents from becoming revealed under this paragraph to the adopted person"). Steven contends the district court erred in concluding that the failure of the biological parents to file an affidavit waiving confidentiality is dispositive of "good cause." We disagree with Steven's characterization of the district court's ruling, but we agree that the court erred in its interpretation of the statute. The court did not rule that the failure of the biological parents to file a waiver of confidentiality was dispositive of good cause. Rather, the court ruled that the adult adoptee must show (1) good cause exists and (2) the adult adoptee and the biological parents have filed an affidavit waiving confidentiality. Nevertheless, this interpretation of the statute is erroneous. The statute does not require a biological parent to file an affidavit requesting that the court reveal or not reveal the parent's identity. Rather, the statute states that a biological parent "may" file such an affidavit. Iowa Code § 600.16A(2)(b)(1). By using the word "may," the legislature signaled its intention to place the decision about whether to file an affidavit to reveal or not reveal the biological parent's identity squarely in the discretion of that parent. Compare Iowa Code § 4.1(30)(c) ("may" confers a power), with id. § 4.1 (30)(a) ("shall" imposes a duty), and id. § 4.1(30)(b) ("must" states a requirement). In addition, the statute directs the court to "consider" an affidavit filed by the biological parents in determining whether good cause exists to unseal the adoption records. Iowa Code § 600.16A(2)(b)(1); see Webster's Third New International Dictionary 483 (1993) (defining "consider" as "to reflect on; think about with a degree of care or caution"). While the existence of an affidavit might influence the district court's decision in one way or another, that fact should only be one part of the "good cause" determination, not a separate requirement, as the district court suggested. A determination of "good cause" should not rest on the existence of an affidavit filed by the biological parents. That brings us to two questions we must answer: what constitutes "good cause" to unseal adoption records, and whether Steven has shown the requisite "good cause." V. Good Cause. A. Background. Our statute is silent on what constitutes "good cause" to unseal adoption records. We think some background would be helpful in understanding the concept of "good cause" in the context of unsealing adoption records. Because English common law did not recognize the practice of adoption, adoption in this country is purely statutory. Jason Kuhns, Note, The Sealed Adoption Records Controversy: Breaking Down the Walls of Secrecy, 24 Golden Gate U. L. Rev. 259, 260 (Spring 1994) [hereinafter Kuhns]. In 1851, the Massachusetts Legislature passed the first general adoption law. Id. The early adoption statutes did not bar access to adoption records. Id. at 260-61. A 1916 New York statute was among the first statutes to bar access to adoption records. Id. at 261. However, only the public-not the actual parties to the adoption-were barred from access to such records. Id. The following year, Minnesota became the first state to enact a law closing adoption files from inspection by adult adoptees, their birth parents, and the general public. Id. By the end of the 1940s, most states had similar statutes. Id. Most provided that sealed adoption records could be opened only by court order. Melissa Arndt, Comment, Severed Roots: The Sealed Adoption Records Controversy, 6 N. Ill. U. L. Rev. 103, 105 (Winter 1986). Iowa adopted a similar statute in 1941. 1941 Iowa Acts ch. 294, § 1 (codified at Iowa Code § 600.9 (1946)). It provided: The complete record in adoption proceedings, after filing with the clerk of the court, shall be sealed by said clerk, and the record shall not thereafter be opened except on order of the court. Iowa Code § 600.9 (1946). Confidentiality has been and continues to be the touchstone for these adoption statutes. As one court noted, [t]his confidentiality serves several purposes. It shields the adopted child from possibly disturbing facts surrounding his or her birth and parentage, it permits the adoptive parents to develop a close relationship with the child free from interference or distraction, and it provides the natural parents with an anonymity that they may consider vital. The State's interest in fostering an orderly and supervised system of adoptions is closely tied to these interests of the parties involved. Linda F.M. v. Dep't of Health, 418 N.E.2d 1302, 1303 (N.Y. 1981) (citations omitted). In the 1970s, in response to challenges from adoptees to the practice of sealing adoption records, states began to amend their adoption laws allowing adoptees access to their adoption records if they could show "special circumstances" or "good cause." Brett S. Silverman, The Winds of Change in Adoption Laws: Should Adoptees Have Access to Adoption Records?, 39 Fam. Conciliation Courts Rev. 85, 85 (Jan. 2001). B. Purpose underlying the good cause exception. The "good cause" provision has been described as "an escape valve from the generally impenetrable nature of adoption records [that] permits individual judicial treatment where circumstances and justice so require." Application of Hayden, 435 N.Y.S.2d 541, 542 (N.Y.Sup.Ct. 1981). The legislature has determined that this escape valve is to be used in "situations where the stringent confidentiality requirements may lead to harmful and untenuous results in a particular case." Id. 1. The adoptee's burden and the court's function. To establish good cause, the adoptee must show a compelling need for the identifying information. Bradey v. Children's Bureau of South Carolina, 274 S.E.2d 418, 421 (S.C. 1981). And what constitutes a compelling need depends upon the circumstances of each case. Id. The court's function regarding "good cause" is to determine whether such cause exists and the extent of disclosure that is appropriate based on the facts of each case. Linda F.M., 418 N.E.2d at 1304. 2. What courts have said constitutes good cause and does not constitute good cause. Good cause in the context of a request to unseal adoption records rests "upon an appropriate showing of psychological trauma or medical need." Hayden, 435 N.Y.S.2d at 542 (petitioner's allegation that her fear she may be a "DES Baby," which caused strain in her psychological makeup and concern for her medical well-being, justified a full hearing on the merits of her petition to unseal adoption records); see also Juman v. Louise Wise Servs., 608 N.Y.S.2d 612, 617-18 (N.Y.Sup.Ct. 1994) (holding that adopted child's schizophrenia was good cause for disclosure of information about the child's biological parents "that goes beyond the scope of medical histories"). Such cause, however, must rest on more than mere curiosity. Linda F.M., 418 N.E.2d at 1304. Given the high burden the good cause requirement places on an adoptee, it is not surprising that an adoptee's attempt to secure identifying information has failed in a number of cases. See, e.g., Aimone v. Finley, 447 N.E.2d 868, 870 (Ill.App.Ct. 1983) (expectation of possibility that an adopted person may inherit from her natural parents is not sufficient cause to open sealed adoption files); In re Adoption of Baby S., 705 A.2d 822, 823, 825 (N.J.Super.Ct. Ch. Div. 1997) (natural mother who wanted to identify and locate the child she gave up for adoption, speak to him, tell him she is his biological mother, and perhaps leave her estate to him in her will, failed to show good cause for unsealing of records); Backes v. Catholic Family Cmty. Servs., 509 A.2d 283, 293 (N.J.Super.Ct. Ch. Div. 1985) (adult adoptee with "no psychological problem of a pathological nature," and who did not need additional medical information for the treatment of his child failed to show "good cause" required for unsealing adoption records); Application of Romano, 438 N.Y.S.2d 967, 971 (N.Y. Surr. Ct. 1981) (failure to show "good cause" where petition contained no affidavit to attest to the validity of adoptee's claim of psychological need to learn "where his `natural roots' lie with respect to race, nationality, religion, culture and heredity"). C. Analysis. Earlier we mentioned the interests that confidentiality in adoption statues are meant to serve. These interests include those of the adoptee, whether a minor or adult, the adopting parents, the biological parents, and the state. We think section 600.16A is the legislature's attempt to balance those interests. The balance has been struck heavily in favor of keeping adoption records sealed. Yet, in two instances, the legislature has left open a window of opportunity for unsealing adoption records. One instance involves the good cause exception. However, we think the bar is high as far as proving this exception. Proof of this appears in Iowa Code section 600.16A(2)(d), which pertinently provides: The juvenile court or court may, upon competent medical evidence, open termination or adoption records if opening is shown to be necessary to save the life of or prevent irreparable physical or mental harm to an adopted person or the person's offspring. The juvenile court or court shall make every reasonable effort to prevent the identity of the biological parents from becoming revealed under this paragraph to the adopted person. The juvenile court may, however, permit revelation of the identity of the biological parents to medical personnel attending the adopted person or the person's offspring. These medical personnel shall make every reasonable effort to prevent the identity of the biological parents from becoming revealed to the adopted person. Iowa Code § 600.16A(2)(d). Thus, the court may order the adoption record unsealed only if competent medical evidence shows such action is necessary to save the life of or prevent irreparable physical or mental harm to an adopted person or the person's offspring. Additionally, even if medical need dictates opening the records, the legislature has taken pains to insure as reasonably as possible that identifying information will not be revealed in the process. Finally, to underscore how important the legislature believes it is to preserve the privacy of the biological parents and prevent revelation of their identities, the legislature has made it a criminal offense to reveal such information contrary to the terms of the statute. See Iowa Code § 600.16A(5) ("Any person, other than the adopting parents or the adopted person, who discloses information in violation of this section, is guilty of a simple misdemeanor."). The other instance in which the legislature has allowed inroads into the confidentiality of adoption records is found in Iowa Code section 600.16A(3). That provision provides for revealing identifying information regarding biological parents and adult adopted children if both the adult adopted child and a biological parent have placed in the adoption record written consent to reveal their identities. Either party, however, may withdraw that consent at any time by placing a written withdrawal of consent in the adoption record. See Iowa Code § 600.16A(3). Under our statute, we think good cause to invade the privacy of biological parents by revealing their identities without their consent should include no less than a showing of a medical need to save the life of or prevent irreparable physical or mental harm to an adult adopted person requesting the identifying information. This showing should be made upon competent medical evidence. This of course is the same standard found in section 600.16A(2)(d), earlier mentioned, and comports with the standard for good cause adopted by most courts. We see no reason why the standard for good cause should be any less onerous than the section 600.16A(2)(d) standard when a biological parent has not consented to a revelation of his or her identity. As mentioned, section 600.16A(2)(b)(1) allows the court to consider a biological parent's consent to reveal his or her identity in determining good cause. However, because the facts here do not show that either biological parent has filed an affidavit requesting that the court reveal their identities, we make no determination regarding how that additional factor should affect a good cause showing. Steven has argued forcibly that scholars and authorities in the area of adoption now view the process of adoption in a light different from what the view was when the present statute was enacted. While some may agree that "changed attitudes may warrant a new look at the purpose and effect of this law by the legislature," it is not our function "to redraft or to interpret laws differently" from what the legislature intended "solely to reflect current values or lifestyles." Hayden, 435 N.Y.S.2d at 542. We agree with the court in Hayden that "[i]t is best left to the legislature to distinguish the changing mores from shifting moods in society." Id. The record before us falls far short of meeting the high standard we feel the legislature has set for a showing of good cause to reveal the identifying information Steven seeks. He testified that he wants to find his biological parents to (1) satisfy his curiosity, (2) thank them for what they did, and (3) obtain medical information. Steven's wife testified that he became more restless when he started to get involved in his research and questioning about his biological family. Clearly, Steven's "curiosity" and "restlessness" are not a sufficient showing of good cause. The record does reflect that Steven has been treated for a mental illness, manic depression. However, he presented no medical evidence to link the disorder to his status as an adopted child. It also appears from the record that the disorder, while it may be hereditary, has no other relation to his status as an adoptee. Moreover, he expressed more of a curiosity over whether the condition is hereditary than any particular medical reason for wanting to know. Finally, the record is clear that Steven has been able to function in society, in spite of his mental condition and in spite of his stated "curiosity" and "distraction" over finding his biological parents. He has graduated from law school, and apparently fulfills his duties as a husband and father without significant problems. In short, Steven has failed to show a compelling need for the identifying information. His proof falls far short of establishing by competent medical evidence that he needs the identifying information to save his life or to prevent irreparable physical or mental harm to himself-the minimum showing necessary to meet the high standard set by the legislature for the good cause requirement. That brings us to the last issue Steven raises: whether the statute violates what he claims is his constitutional right to receive information, including private information such as adoption records. VI. Right to Receive Information. Steven contends that denying him-an adult adoptee-the right to see his adoption records violates his freedom of speech under the First Amendment of the Federal Constitution and article I, section 7 of the Iowa Constitution. In support of his contention, he argues that freedom of speech under these constitutional provisions encompass the right to receive information, including private information such as adoption records. The First Amendment of the Federal Constitution prohibits Congress from making any law abridging free speech. This prohibition applies to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment. Cantwell v. Connecticut, 310 U.S. 296, 303, 60 S.Ct. 900, 903, 84 L.Ed. 1213, 1217-18 (1940). The Iowa Constitution also protects free speech and imposes the "same restrictions on the regulation of speech as does the Federal Constitution." State v. Milner, 571 N.W.2d 7, 12 (Iowa 1997). To date "[n]o federal or state court has accepted" this constitutional challenge. Kuhns , 24 Golden Gate U.L. Rev at 268. As Kuhns explains, [a]lthough recognizing that adoptees have a general right to privacy and to receive information, the courts have rejected the argument that adoptees have a fundamental right to learn the identities of their biological parents. The courts maintain that no constitutional or personal right is unconditional and absolute to the exclusion of the rights of all other individuals. The right to privacy and to information asserted by adoptees directly conflicts with the right to privacy of birth parents to be left alone. Due to these conflicting interests, the sealed records statutes are upheld because they bear a rational relationship to the permissible state objective of protecting the integrity of the adoption process. Although the adoptee may no longer need the state's protection upon reaching adulthood, courts state that the birth parents' interest in confidentiality may actually become stronger. Id. at 268-69 (footnotes omitted); accord In re Roger B., 418 N.E.2d 751, 757 (Ill. 1981); Mills v. Atlantic City Dep't of Vital Statistics, 372 A.2d 646, 650-52 (N.J.Super.Ct. Ch. Div. 1977). We agree with this analysis and adopt it. We conclude therefore that Steven has not established beyond a reasonable doubt that our statutory provisions regarding sealing of adoption records violate free speech under the Federal or Iowa Constitutions. VI. Disposition. Although the district court erred in its interpretation of Iowa Code section 600.16A(2)(b)(1), we conclude the court did not err in denying Steven's request to unseal his adoption records. We conclude based on the record before us that Steven has failed to show good cause to unseal these records. Additionally, we reject his claim that our adoption statutes requiring sealing of adoption records violate his freedom of speech under either the Federal or Iowa Constitutions. For these reasons, we affirm. rejecting adoptee's constitutional challenge because “[t]he right ... to information asserted by adoptees directly conflicts with the right to privacy of birth parents to be left alone” (quoting Jason Kuhns, Note, The Sealed Adoption Records Controversy: Breaking Down the Walls of Secrecy, 24 Golden Gate U.L. Rev. 259, 269 (1994)) noting adoptee failed to offer any medical evidence	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6037
__label__wiki	0.733372	0.733372	State v. Tatum State v. Dickson The state further claims that in-court identifications do not violate due process principles because they are… State v. Cerilli The defendant first claims that the trial court denied him due process of law by refusing to instruct the… 119 Citing Cases Full title:STATE OF CONNECTICUT v. EDGAR PETER TATUM Court:Supreme Court of Connecticut 219 Conn. 721 (Conn. 1991) 595 A.2d 322 Supreme Court of Connecticut considering harmful error after determination that trial court abused discretion in refusing to instruct on substantive use of witness' prior inconsistent statements Summary of this case from State v. Davis See 10 Summaries Convicted of the crime of murder, the defendant appealed to this court claiming, inter alia, that the trial court should not have admitted an in court identification of him by a witness who had been shot during the same incident. The defendant claimed that the in court identification was tainted by an unnecessarily suggestive pretrial identification procedure. The witness, L, had first identified the defendant when he was seated beside his counsel at the defense table at his probable cause hearing. Held: 1. The defendant could not prevail on his claim, raised for the first time on appeal, that the trial court deprived him of his due process rights when it admitted L's identification at trial; the fact that the state might have taken extraordinary steps to lessen the suggestiveness of the confrontation at the probable cause hearing by using some other pretrial procedure to obtain L's identification of the defendant did not render the routine procedure that was used unnecessary or impermissible. 2. The defendant's challenges to the trial court's jury instructions on identification were unpersuasive; the instructions given adequately alerted the jury to the dangers of eyewitness identification, and, contrary to the claim of the defendant, that court did not improperly marshall only the state's evidence on the issue of identification. 3. The trial court should not have refused to instruct the jury that it could consider certain of L's prior inconsistent statements, including statements concerning his initial, out-of-court identification of a third party as the perpetrator, as substantive evidence; because, however, the defendant did not demonstrate that the instruction limiting the use of those statements to their impeachment value probably affected the result, that instruction was harmless. 4. There was no merit to the defendant's claim that the trial court conducted the trial in a manner that was less than fair and impartial so as to deprive him of his constitutional right to a fair trial. Argued April 25, 1991 Decision released July 30, 1991 Substitute information charging the defendant with the crimes of murder and assault in the second degree, brought to the Superior Court in the judicial district of Waterbury and tried to the court, Heiman, J.; verdict of guilty of the crime of murder; thereafter, the charge of assault in the second degree was nolled and the court rendered judgment in accordance with the verdict, from which the defendant appealed to this court. Affirmed. Alicia B. Davenport and Steven M. Barry, special public defenders, with whom, on the brief, was Sally S. King, for the appellant (defendant). Susann E. Gill, assistant state's attorney, with whom, on the brief, were John A. Connelly, state's attorney, and Marcel A. Bryar, law student intern, for the appellee (state). SHEA, J. The defendant, Edgar Tatum, was charged in an information with one count of murder in violation of General Statutes 53a-54a and one count of assault in the second degree in violation of General Statutes 53a-60 (a)(2). At trial, the jury returned a guilty verdict on the murder charge, but failed to return a verdict on the assault charge. The defendant was subsequently sentenced to a term of sixty years for the murder conviction. He appeals from that conviction, claiming that the trial court improperly: (1) allowed the admission of an in-court identification of the defendant after an unnecessarily suggestive pretrial identification procedure had been conducted; (2) instructed the jury on the issue of identification; (3) refused to instruct the jury on the substantive use of certain prior inconsistent statements; and (4) failed to conduct the trial in a fair and impartial manner. We affirm the judgment. "[General Statutes] Sec. 53a-54a. MURDER. (a) A person is guilt of murder when, with intent to cause the death of another person, he causes the death of such person or of a third person or causes a suicide by force, duress or deception; except that in any prosecution under this subsection, it shall be an affirmative defense that the defendant committed the proscribed act or acts under the influence of extreme emotional disturbance for which there was a reasonable explanation or excuse, the reasonableness of which is to be determined from the viewpoint of a person in the defendant's situation under the circumstances as the defendant believed them to be, provided nothing contained in this subsection shall constitute a defense to a prosecution for, or preclude a conviction of, manslaughter in the first degree or any other crime." General Statutes 53a-60 provides in pertinent part: "(a) A person is guilty of assault in the second degree when . . . (2) with intent to cause physical injury to another person, he causes such injury to such person or to a third person by means of a deadly weapon or a dangerous instrument . . . ." Following a mistrial on the assault count, the state entered a nolle prosequi on that charge. From the evidence presented the jury could reasonably have found the following facts. At approximately 10:30 p.m. on February 25, 1988, Larry Parrett was shot and killed in his home in Waterbury, where he lived with his girlfriend, Tracy LeVasseur. Anthony Lombardo, who lived on the same street, was also shot and wounded at the same time and place. Earlier that evening, Lombardo had been out walking his dog when he noticed a tall black man, later identified as the defendant, knocking on the door of Parrett's apartment. Lombardo approached the defendant, after having recognized him as someone he had seen at the apartment on other occasions. When LeVasseur opened the door from within, the defendant forced himself and Lombardo into the living room, where LeVasseur and Parrett were smoking cocaine. LeVasseur recognized the defendant as "Ron Jackson," a man from California who, along with other visitors from California, had spent a number of nights at the apartment selling drugs during the months preceding the incident. Parrett also had been involved in the sale of drugs. When the defendant and Parrett began to argue, Lombardo and LeVasseur left the room and went into the kitchen, where three other men were present. A few moments later, Lombardo returned to the living room to find the defendant pointing a gun at Parrett. Lombardo stepped between the two men, thinking that the defendant might be dissuaded from firing. The defendant nevertheless fired four shots from the gun, striking Lombardo in the shoulder and fatally wounding Parrett. The defendant checked into a Southington hotel on February 23, 1988 under the name "Ronald Jackson" and checked out at 11:55 p.m. on he night of the shooting although checkout time was not until 11 a.m. the next day. That night at the Waterbury police station Lombardo was shown a photographic array from which he chose a photograph of a black man named Jay Frazer as that of the man who had shot him and Parrett. The same night LeVasseur also selected a photograph of Frazer from an array shown to her by the police. Neither array contained a photograph of the defendant. One week later, however, LeVasseur went to the Waterbury police and told them that she had identified the wrong man. A nine person lineup was then conducted in which Frazer participated but the defendant did not. After seeing Frazer in person, LeVasseur told the police that he was definitely not the assailant. Thereafter, the police showed another photographic array to LeVasseur from which she chose the defendant's photograph as that of the person who had shot the victim. Lombardo was subsequently shown a photographic array that included the defendant's picture, but he declined to identify anyone, explaining that he preferred to see the individuals in person. At the probable cause hearing and at trial, both Lombardo and LeVasseur identified the defendant as the man who had shot Lombardo and Parrett. Jay Frazer was another of the California visitors who had stayed on occasion at Parrett and LeVasseur's apartment to sell drugs. He and several others had been arrested in January, 1988, at the apartment after Parrett had asked his landlord to call the police. The defendant was not among those arrested. In the interim, LeVasseur realized that Jay Frazer was only about 5'3" or 5'4" tall, much shorter than the man who had shot Parrett and Lombardo. Lombardo's testimony on this point is consistent with Levasseur's. He told the police on the night of the shooting that his assailant was over six feet tall. At the probable cause hearing, both parties referred to an in person lineup held in mid-May of 1988, from which Lombardo failed to select anyone as his assailant. Since there is no other mention of such a procedure anywhere in the trial record or in any of the appellate briefs, we exclude it from our recitation of the background facts. The defendant first claims that the trial court deprived him of his due process rights under the fourteenth amendment to the United States constitution when it admitted Lombardo's in court identification of him which, he argues, was tainted by an unnecessarily suggestive pretrial identification procedure in that Lombardo had viewed the defendant at the probable cause hearing. The defendant argues that the fact that he was the only black man seated at the defense table "conveyed a clear message to Lombardo that [the prosecution] believed Edgar Tatum was the man who had shot him." He claims that Lombardo's subsequent identification of him at trial was the product of that unnecessarily suggestive procedure rather than the product of his independent recollection of the crime. The defendant does not claim that Lombardo's pretrial identification of him at the probable cause hearing should have been excluded, nor that any of LeVasseur's identifications of him should have been excluded. At oral argument defense counsel vacillated as to whether he was claiming that the unnecessarily suggestive procedure was the probable cause hearing itself or the hearing in conjunction with Lombardo's previous participation in two photographic array procedures where he had selected the photograph of another man from the first and had declined to select any photograph from the second. Because counsel conceded that there was nothing suggestive about the earlier photographic array procedures themselves, we fail to see how they could in any way add to the suggestiveness of the setting at the probable cause hearing. We note at the outset that the defendant failed to raise this claim in the trial court either by way of an objection to the procedure used at the probable cause hearing or a motion to suppress Lombardo's identification at trial. The defendant concedes that the claim was not preserved at trial, and therefore seeks appellate review pursuant to State v. Golding, 213 Conn. 233, 567 A.2d 823 (1989). In State v. Golding, we held that "a defendant can prevail on a claim of constitutional error not preserved at trial only if all of the following conditions are met: (1) the record is adequate to review the alleged claim of error; (2) the claim is of constitutional magnitude alleging the violation of a fundamental right; (3) the alleged constitutional violation clearly exists and clearly deprived the defendant of a fair trial; and (4) if subject to harmless error analysis, the state has failed to demonstrate harmlessness of the alleged constitutional violation beyond a reasonable doubt." (Emphasis in original.) Id., 239-40. The record in this case, albeit scant due to the fact that no suppression hearing was held, is adequate for us to review the claim. The defendant's claim that an unnecessarily suggestive pretrial identification procedure tainted a subsequent identification made at trial is one of constitutional magnitude. Stovall v. Denno, 388 U.S. 293, 87 S.Ct. 1967, 18 L.Ed.2d 1199 (1967). The third condition of State v. Golding, however, has not been met because the defendant has failed to establish that Lombardo's pretrial identification of him was the result of an unconstitutional procedure, the necessary predicate for exclusion of Lombardo's subsequent in court identification. This is true even though the pretrial identification procedure occurred in the courtroom setting of a probable cause hearing. State v. Fullwood, 193 Conn. 238, 476 A.2d 550 (1984) (pretrial identification at a grand jury proceeding scrutinized to determine whether admission of subsequent identification at trial violated defendant's due process rights); cf. United States v. Bouthot, 878 F.2d 1506 (1st Cir. 1989) (pretrial identification not orchestrated by police scrutinized to determine whether admission of subsequent identification at trial violated defendant's due process rights). An in court identification must be excluded, as violative of due process, only if it is the product of an unconstitutional pretrial identification procedure. State v. Smith, 200 Conn. 465, 469-70, 512 A.2d 189 (1986); United States v. Domina, 784 F.2d 1361, 1368 (9th Cir. 1986). In determining whether a pretrial identification procedure violated a defendant's due process rights, "the required inquiry is made on an ad hoc basis and is two-pronged: first, it must be determined whether the identification procedure was unnecessarily suggestive; and second, if it is found to have been so, it must be determined whether the identification was nevertheless reliable based on an examination of the `totality of the circumstances.'" State v. Theriault, 182 Conn. 366, 371-372, 438 A.2d 432 (1980). Because we conclude that in this case the procedure complained of was not unnecessarily suggestive, we need not reach the second question of the identification's independent reliability. If we had found that the procedure was unnecessarily suggestive, it would have been impossible for us to determine whether Lombardo's identification was nevertheless reliable since the record is insufficient for a review of that prong of the required constitutional test. The defendant's failure to make a motion to suppress or to voice any other objection to the procedure used at the probable cause hearing leaves us with no way of divining what evidence the state might have presented to rebut the defendant's claim of an unconstitutional identification procedure if that claim had been raised at trial. We have recognized that generally a one-to-one confrontation between a victim and the suspect presented to him for identification is "inherently and significantly suggestive'" because it conveys the message to the victim that the police believe the suspect is guilty. State v. Mitchell, 204 Conn. 187, 201, 527 A.2d 1168, cert. denied, 484 U.S. 927, 108 S.Ct. 293, 98 L.Ed.2d 252 (1987); State v. Middleton, 170 Conn. 601, 608, 368 A.2d 66 (1976). We agree with the defendant, as does the state, that the setting of the probable cause hearing was inherently suggestive. The fact that the defendant was conspicuously seated beside his lawyer at the defense table when Lombardo was asked to identify his assailant was as suggestive a scenario as an out-of-court single person showup or a first-time identification of a defendant at trial, where he is also conspicuously seated beside his lawyer at the defense table. Our recognition that the probable cause hearing was suggestive does not, however, end our inquiry. We must next consider whether it was unnecessarily or impermissibly so. "When asked to point to the [assailant], an identification witness — particularly if he has some familiarity with courtroom procedure — is quite likely to look immediately at the counsel table, where the defendant is conspicuously seated in relative isolation. Thus the usual physical setting of a trial may itself provide a suggestive setting for an eyewitness identification." United States v. Williams, 436 F.2d 1166, 1168, (9th Cir. 1970), cert. denied, 402 U.S. 912, 91 S.Ct. 1392, 28 L.Ed.2d 654 (1971). The defendant argues that the suggestive confrontation was unnecessary and a violation of his due process rights because the prosecution could have conducted a lineup or placed him among the courtroom spectators rather than allow him to sit at the defense table beside his lawyer. With this contention we do not agree. In order to try the defendant, it was necessary for the prosecution to present evidence at the preliminary hearing to establish probable cause to believe that he had committed the crimes charged. Conn. Const., art. I, 8, as amended; General Statutes 54-46a. At that hearing, the prosecution was thus entitled to elicit Lombardo's testimony on the issue of identification through the usual mode of putting him on the witness stand and asking him to identify his assailant if his assailant was present in the courtroom. The fact that the prosecution might have taken extraordinary steps to lessen the suggestiveness of the confrontation by using some other identification procedure does not render the routine procedure that was used unnecessary or impermissible. The defendant had no constitutional right to a lineup; State v. Vaughn, 199 Conn. 557, 562, 508 A.2d 430, cert. denied, 479 U.S. 989, 107 S.Ct. 583, 93 L.Ed.2d 585 (1986); nor did the state have a constitutional duty to conduct one. State v. Vass, 191 Conn. 604, 611, 469 A.2d 767 (1983). The defendant, however, could have requested to be seated among the courtroom spectators or could have made a motion for a lineup prior to the probable cause hearing, pursuant to Practice Book 782. He failed to take either step. Conn. Const., art. 1, 8, as amended, provides: "In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall have a right to be heard by himself and by counsel; to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted by the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process to obtain witnesses in his behalf; to be released on bail upon sufficient security, except in capital offenses, where the proof is evident or the presumption great; and in all prosecutions by information, to a speedy, public trial by an impartial jury. No person shall be compelled to give evidence against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law, nor shall excessive bail be required nor excessive fines imposed. No person shall be held to answer for any crime, punishable by death or life imprisonment, unless upon probable cause shown at a hearing in accordance with procedures prescribed by law, except in the armed forces, or in the militia when in actual service in time of war or public danger." General Statutes 54-46a (a) provides: "No person charged by the state, who has not been indicted by a grand jury prior to May 26, 1983, shall be put to plea or held to trial for any crime punishable by death or life imprisonment unless the court at a preliminary hearing determines there is probable cause to believe that the offense charged has been committed and that the accused person has committed it. The accused person may knowingly and voluntarily waive such preliminary hearing to determine probable cause." "[Practice Book] Sec. 782. — OBTAINING NONTESTIMONIAL EVIDENCE FROM DEFENDANT UPON HIS MOTION "Upon motion of a defendant who has been arrested, summoned, or charged in a complaint, information or indictment, the judicial authority by order may direct the prosecuting authority to arrange for the defendant's participation in one or more of the procedures specified in Sec. 775, if the judicial authority finds that the evidence sought could contribute to an adequate defense. The order shall specify with particularity the authorized procedure, the scope of the defendant's permitted participation, the designation of representatives of the prosecution who may be present, the time, duration, place, and other conditions of the procedure, and the person or persons who may conduct the procedure. Secs. 776 through 781 apply to procedures ordered under this section." In determining that Lombardo's suggestive confrontation with the defendant at the probable cause hearing was not an unnecessary or impermissible one, we contrast that confrontation with other one-to-one confrontations held before trial, such as showups and single photo displays, which are conducted outside a courtroom. Typically, these pretrial procedures occur at or near the scene of the crime; e.g., State v. Amarillo, 198 Conn. 285, 503 A.2d 146 (1986); in hospitals; e.g., State v. Mitchell, supra; State v. Guertin, 190 Conn. 440, 461 A.2d 963 (1983); or at the police station; e.g., State v. Monteeth, 208 Conn. 202, 544 A.2d 1199 (1988); without a judge or lawyer present to protect the defendant against the suggestive tactics of the government. If a mistaken identification occurs as a result of such a suggestive procedure, there is a danger that the witness' subsequent identification at trial will be nothing more than a confirmation of the initial mistaken identification. Stovall v. Denno, supra. Importantly, since counsel is not ordinarily present at the typical pretrial identification, a defendant is less able to assail the reliability of the identification at trial or to make contemporaneous objection to the procedures used. Although the probable cause hearing held in this case was a one-to-one pretrial confrontation, it was unlike a showup or single photo display in that it occurred in a courtroom. The initial identification made at the probable cause hearing, therefore, resembled an initial identification made at trial. While there is little doubt that the trial setting is suggestive, for the same reasons that a probable cause hearing is suggestive, "[t]he manner in which in-court identifications are conducted is not of constitutional magnitude but rests within the sound discretion of the trial court." State v. Smith, supra, 470. "The defendant's protection against the obvious suggestiveness in any courtroom identification confrontation is his right to cross-examination . . . . The innate weakness in any in-court testimonial identification is grounds for assailing its weight rather than its admissibility." (Citations omitted.) Id. Because the defendant at the probable cause hearing had the same weapon of cross-examination to combat the suggestiveness of the setting; see General Statutes 54-46a (b); the risk of misidentification was held to a minimum. See footnote 9, supra. General Statutes 54-46a (b) provides: "Unless waived by the accused person or extended by the court for good cause shown, such preliminary hearing shall be conducted within sixty days of the filing of the complaint or information in superior court. The court shall be confined to the rules of evidence, except that written reports of expert witnesses shall be admissible in evidence and matters involving chain of custody shall be exempt from such rules. No motion to suppress or for discovery shall be allowed in connection with such hearing. The accused person shall have the right to counsel and may attend and, either individually or by counsel, participate in such hearing, present argument to the court, cross-examine witnesses against him and obtain a transcript of the proceedings at his own expense. At the close of the prosecution's case, if the court finds that, based on the evidence presented by the prosecution, probable cause exists, the accused person may make a specific offer of proof, including the names of witnesses who would testify or produce the evidence offered. The court shall not allow the accused person to present such evidence unless the court determines that such evidence would be sufficient to rebut the finding of probable cause." That the routine, albeit suggestive, confrontation between Lombardo and the defendant at the probable cause hearing was "necessary" and entirely permissible is almost axiomatic. To hold otherwise would essentially assign to police and prosecutors a new constitutional duty to hold a lineup or other preliminary identification procedure in every case before an identification could be made at a probable cause hearing. We see no reason to impose such a duty. See State v. Vaughn, supra; State v. Vass, supra. While a situation could conceivably arise in which the normally permissible suggestiveness of a confrontation at a probable cause hearing might rise to the level of an "unnecessarily suggestive" confrontation due to egregious conduct on the part of the prosecution, this is not such a case. Accordingly, we conclude that the trial court properly admitted Lombardo's identification of the defendant at trial since Lombardo's previous identification of him at the probable cause hearing was not the result of an unnecessarily suggestive procedure. The defendant next claims that the trial court's charge to the jury was erroneous in two respects. First, he argues that the charge given on the dangers of eyewitness misidentification was inadequate because it omitted two specific points contained in his request to charge. Second, he argues that the court improperly emphasized the state's evidence on the element of identification. We find neither argument persuasive. The thrust of the first argument is that the jury was not adequately alerted to the dangers inherent in eyewitness identification because, although the court did instruct the jury on many of the specific dangers, it did not instruct on: (1) the danger that Lombardo had misidentified the defendant due to the one year time lapse between the shooting and his positive identification of the defendant at the probable cause hearing; or (2) the fact that an identification made by picking the defendant out of a group of similar individuals is generally more reliable than one which results from the presentation of the defendant alone to the witness. The defendant concedes that the court did warn the jury of all the other dangers raised in his request to charge, but claims that the omission of these two points constitutes reversible error. In advancing this claim, the defendant characterizes Lombardo and LeVasseur as "uncertain, unclear or inconsistent" identification witnesses, emphasizing that both were habitual drug users, that LeVasseur was under the influence of drugs when the shooting occurred and that both had previously identified another man as the shooter. He also stresses the importance of the eyewitness identifications to the prosecution's case against him since there was no independent evidence linking him to the crime. These arguments are not dispositive because, while it is true that a trial court's refusal to give any special instruction whatsoever on the dangers inherent in eyewitness identification constitutes reversible error where "the conviction of the defendant [turns] upon the testimony of eyewitnesses who were uncertain, unclear or inconsistent"; State v. Harden, 175 Conn. 315, 322, 398 A.2d 1169 (1978); State v. Davis, 198 Conn. 680, 504 A.2d 1372 (1986); in this case the trial court did give a special instruction on the topic, as the defendant himself admits. It is rather the adequacy of that instruction that we are asked to determine in this appeal. The dangers of misidentification are well known and have been widely recognized by this court and other courts throughout the United States. See United States v. Telfaire, 469 F.2d 552 (D.C. Cir. 1972); Simmons v. United States, 390 U.S. 377, 88 S.Ct. 967, 19 L.Ed.2d 1247 (1968); United States v. Wade, 388 U.S. 218, 87 S.Ct. 1926, 18 L.Ed.2d 1149 (1967); State v. Davis, 198 Conn. 680, 504 A.2d 1372 (1986); State v. McKnight, 191 Conn. 564, 469 A.2d 397 (1983). In United States v. Telfaire, supra, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit proposed model instructions for use in future cases to warn juries about the dangers inherent in eyewitness identification. "The Telfaire instruction tells the jury to consider in appraising the identification testimony of a witness the adequacy of his opportunity and his capacity to observe the offender; the length of time available for the witness to observe the offender; the proximity of the witness to the defendant; whether the witness had seen or known this person in the past; whether the identification was a product of the witness' own recollection; and the credibility of the witness." State v. Davis, supra, 685. While we have used the model Telfaire charge as an aid in determining the adequacy of an instruction on eyewitness identification; id.; State v. McKnight, supra, 582; State v. Harden, 175 Conn. 315, 321, 398 A.2d 1169 (1978); we have never required that it be given verbatim in order to ensure that the jury is properly guided. State v. Pollitt, 205 Conn. 132, 152, 531 A.2d 125 (1987); State v. Harrell, 199 Conn. 255, 268-69, 506 A.2d 1041 (1986). "The ultimate test of a court's instructions is whether, taken as a whole, they fairly and adequately present the case to a jury in such a way that injustice is not done to either party under the established rules of law." State v. Harden, supra, 322; State v. McKnight, supra, 583. In this case the defendant's request to charge substantially echoed the language of the model Telfaire charge. Our review of the entire charge satisfies us that it was adequate to alert the jury to the dangers inherent in eyewitness identification. Throughout the charge the court emphasized that the burden was on the prosecution to prove the element of identification beyond a reasonable doubt. The court instructed the jury that when deciding the question of identification it should "consider all the facts and circumstances which existed at the time of the observations of the perpetrator by each witness," and that "the reliability of each witness is of paramount importance" and the testimony on identity should be "thoroughly scrutinized." It instructed the jury to consider the "totality of all the circumstances affecting identification," listing the following specific factors: "the opportunity which the witness had to observe the person, the degree of certainty of the identification made in court, whether the witness knew or had seen the person before the identification, the circumstances and degree of certainty or uncertainty of any out of court identifications made, whether by photograph or in line-up or other display of a person and the length of time available to make the observations of the perpetrator . . . the lighting conditions at the time of the crime, any physical descriptions that the witness may have given to the police, the physical and emotional condition of the witness at the time of the incident and the witness' powers of observation. . . ." The fact that this otherwise exhaustive charge lacked specific references to the time lapse between the shooting and Lombardo's identification of the defendant and to the greater reliability of an identification made from a group of similar individuals rather than from a one-to-one confrontation does not render it inadequate. "The trial court is not under a duty in a criminal proceeding to charge in the identical language requested if its charge is accurate, adequate and, in substance, properly includes material portions of the defendant's request . . . ." State v. Harden, supra, 322. The instructions given included the material portions of both the model Telfaire charge and the defendant's request and, as such, provided sufficient guidance to the jury on the issue of eyewitness identification. The defendant's second attack on the court's instructions is that the court improperly marshalled only the state's evidence in discussing identification. Because the defendant failed to raise this issue in the trial court, our review of this claim on appeal is limited to whether the court's conduct so deviated from the impartiality required that it deprived the defendant of a fair trial. State v. Fernandez, 198 Conn. 1, 9-14, 501 A.2d 1195 (1985); State v. Taylor, 196 Conn. 225, 231-32, 492 A.2d 155 (1985); State v. Golding, 213 Conn. 233, 239-41, 567 A.2d 823 (1989). The defendant claims that the court gave a "detailed re-enactment of the prosecution's case" whereas it neglected to mention that LeVasseur was under the influence of drugs when the shooting occurred, that Lombardo was a habitual drug user, and that one year had elapsed between the shooting and Lombardo's initial identification of the defendant. He contends that he was deprived of his constitutional right to a fair trial because the court emphasized only facts favorable to the prosecution and none favorable to him. We find this argument untenable. "The function of the court in a criminal trial is to conduct a fair and impartial proceeding." State v. Bember, 183 Conn. 394, 401, 439 A.2d 387 (1981). The trial court may, at its discretion, call the attention of the jury to the evidence, or lack of evidence, bearing upon any point in issue and may comment upon the weight of the evidence so long as it does not direct or advise the jury how to decide the matter. State v. Shannon, 212 Conn. 387, 408, 563 A.2d 646, cert. denied, 493 U.S. 980 110 S.Ct. 510, 107 L.Ed.2d 512 (1989); State v. Duffy, 57 Conn. 525, 529, 18 A. 791 (1889). In this, case the court's references to the evidence were neutral in nature and did not exhort the jury to accept either party's view of the evidence. They were well within the bounds of fair comment. Our review of the charge reveals that the court merely referred to some of the evidence presented by the state in an effort to guide the jury in applying the legal principles to the facts of the case. Throughout this portion of the charge, the court repeatedly stressed that the jury's recollection of the facts controlled and that it was the jury's responsibility to determine what weight, if any, to ascribe to the evidence. Moreover, contrary to the defendant's assertions, the court did indeed draw the jury's attention to evidence favorable to the defense. The court pointed out that Lombardo had made "prior identifications . . . from photographs" before identifying the defendant and that LeVasseur, too, had identified a person other than the defendant as the perpetrator of the crime. Because we find that the trial court did not improperly marshal the evidence, we reject the defendant's claim that the court's comments deprived him of a fair trial. The defendant next claims that the trial court improperly failed to instruct the jury that it could consider certain prior inconsistent statements made by Anthony Lombardo as substantive evidence, but limited their use to evaluating his credibility. Specifically, he claims that pursuant to this court's decision in State v. Whelan, 200 Conn. 743, 513 A.2d 86, cert. denied, 479 U.S. 994, 107 S.Ct. 597, 93 L.Ed.2d 598 (1986), the trial court should have instructed the jury that it could consider substantively Lombardo's prior written and signed statements in which he asserted that he had identified another man, Jay Frazer, as his assailant and that LeVasseur, not Parrett, had opened the door to the apartment on the night of the shooting. The defendant preserved this claim of error by filing an appropriate request to charge and by taking exception to the portion of the charge, as given, that pertained to the use of prior inconsistent statements. The state concedes that the court's failure to give a Whelan charge was erroneous, but argues that the error was harmless. We agree with the parties that it was error for the court to refuse to instruct on the substantive use of Lombardo's prior written inconsistent statements, but we agree with the state that the error was harmless. In State v. Whelan, 200 Conn. 743, 753, 513 A.2d 86, cert. denied, 479 U.S. 994, 107 S.Ct. 597, 93 L.Ed.2d 598 (1986), we adopted a rule allowing "the substantive use of prior written inconsistent statements, signed by the declarant, who has personal knowledge of the facts stated, when the declarant testifies at trial and is subject to cross-examination." We note first that the court's failure to give the requested Whelan charge was an evidentiary error that did not involve the violation of a constitutional right. Consequently, the burden rests upon the defendant to demonstrate the harmfulness of the court's ruling. State v. Jones, 205 Conn. 723, 732, 535 A.2d 808 (1988); State v. Ruth, 181 Conn. 187, 196-97, 435 A.2d 3 (1980); but see State v. Torres, 210 Conn. 631, 642-43, 556 A.2d 1013 (1989) (state required to prove harmlessness where the court made a series of fundamentally unfair evidentiary rulings, escalating the error to a constitutional violation). To sustain this burden, the defendant must demonstrate that "it is more probable than not that the erroneous action of the court affected the result." State v. Jones, supra, 732; State v. Ruth, supra, 196-97; State v. McClain, 171 Conn. 293, 300, 370 A.2d 928 (1976). We immediately dismiss the defendant's claim of harmful error with respect to the second inconsistent statement made by Lombardo concerning who had opened the door to the apartment on the night of the shooting. Whether it was Parrett or LeVasseur who opened the door that night could not possibly have affected the jury's decision about whether to find the defendant guilty of murder. Any error in that regard was thus harmless. The state points out, and we agree, that this error might have been advantageous to the defendant, because, having been instructed to consider the prior inconsistent statement for impeachment purposes only, the jury might have concluded that Lombardo was lying or mistaken on that point and thus, on a theory of falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus, that he was lying or mistaken with respect to the defendant's involvement in the crime. On the other hand, the defendant's cause would not have been so advanced had the jury considered Lombardo's prior statement that LeVasseur had opened the apartment door for its substantive truth, since that fact, in and of itself, had no capacity to exculpate the defendant. Turning our attention to the first inconsistent statement made by Lombardo, we note that if the trial court had properly instructed the jury on the substantive use of Lombardo's prior identification of Frazer as the perpetrator, the jury could have concluded that Frazer, not the defendant, had fired the shots that killed Parrett. The erroneous charge given permitted the jury to conclude only that Lombardo might have been mistaken when he identified the defendant as the perpetrator since he had previously identified someone else. In both instances the jury would have been authorized to use the prior inconsistent statement to find that the defendant had not committed the murder of Parrett, either because Lombardo was lying at trial when he asserted that the defendant was the guilty party or because Lombardo was telling the truth when he had previously stated that Frazer was the guilty party. Since the jury could have acquitted the defendant based on Lombardo's prior inconsistent statement whether it considered that statement for its substantive truth or its impeachment value, we conclude that the defendant has not demonstrated that the court's erroneous instruction probably affected the result in this case. The instruction, therefore, was harmless. The defendant's final claim of error is that the trial court deprived him of his constitutional right to a fair trial by questioning witnesses in such a way as to endorse the prosecution's view of the case, prodding the prosecution into making evidentiary objections and chastising defense counsel both in and outside the presence of the jury. Because the defendant failed to raise any objection concerning these matters in the trial court, we review this claim only to determine whether the court's actions deprived the defendant of his constitutional right to due process of law. State v. Golding, supra, 239-41; State v. Fernandez, supra, 9-10. We find this claim of judicial misconduct to be without merit. Before turning to the allegations made by the defendant, we recite certain well-established principles regarding the responsibilities of the trial judge in conducting a criminal trial. "`Due process requires that a criminal defendant be given a fair trial before an impartial judge and an unprejudiced jury in an atmosphere of judicial calm. U.S. Const., amend. XIV; Conn. Const., art. I, 8 . . . . In a criminal trial, the judge is more than a mere moderator of the proceedings. It is his responsibility to have the trial conducted in a manner which approaches an "atmosphere of perfect impartiality which is so much to be desired in a judicial proceeding." . . .'" (Citations omitted.) State v. Gordon, 197 Conn. 413, 424D-25, 504 A.2d 1020 (1985); State v. Fernandez, supra, 10. Consistent with his neutral role, the trial judge is free to question witnesses or otherwise intervene in a case in an effort to clarify testimony and assist the jury in understanding the evidence so long as he does not appear partisan in doing so. State v. Bember, supra, 401-402. "Thus, when it clearly appears to the judge that for one reason or another the case is not being presented intelligibly to the jury, the judge is not required to remain silent. On the contrary, the judge may, by questions to a witness, elicit relevant and important facts." State v. Fernandez, supra, 11. Against this legal backdrop, we take up the first instance of alleged impropriety, when during defense counsel's cross-examination of Lombardo, the court asked him a question concerning the reason for his failure to identity the defendant from a photographic array shown to him by the police. During Lombardo's direct testimony, he had explained that he had refused to identify anyone from a photographic array shown to him and that he had told the police that he preferred to see the individuals in person because he could not be certain of any identification made from a photograph. On cross-examination, defense counsel sought to draw attention to the fact that Lombardo had not identified the defendant from that photographic array, making no mention of Lombardo's professed reason for not doing so. After allowing defense counsel to show the photographic array to the jury, the court asked Lombardo whether his reason for not identifying the defendant was his refusal to make any identification without seeing the suspect in person. Lombardo answered affirmatively, confirming his earlier statement on direct. The defendant claims that the court's question bolstered the prosecution's case and worked to his disadvantage by conveying a message to the jury that the court endorsed the prosecution's view of the evidence. We see in the court's question nothing but an impartial attempt to clarify Lombardo's testimony on cross-examination in light of his previous testimony on direct. The court properly intervened to assist the jury in understanding the evidence before it. The next impropriety alleged by the defendant is that in one instance the court assumed the role of an advocate by prodding the prosecution into making an objection. While cross-examining a police officer, defense counsel asked the officer to read aloud the testimony he had given previously at the probable cause hearing. Before the officer did so, the court interjected, "Wait a minute stow. Let me see. Read an exhibit that is not in evidence?" The defendant claims that that remark prompted the prosecution to object and that the court thus showed favoritism to the prosecution's case. What the defendant fails to mention is that the prosecutor did not object after this "prompt" by the court, and the officer did proceed to read from the document. Given the outcome of this exchange, we fail to see how the defendant was prejudiced by the court's conduct. The final alleged impropriety in the court's conduct was its repeated interruptions and chastisement of defense counsel both in and outside the presence of the jury. Specifically, the defendant points to a time when, outside the presence of the jury, the court exhibited frustration with defense counsel for his failure to have the next witness ready to testify and to another time when, in the presence of the jury, the court rebuked defense counsel for misstating the evidence. We dispose of the first allegation summarily, noting that any misconduct that occurred outside the presence of the jury could not possibly have had an impact on its verdict. As to the second allegation, we see nothing inappropriate in the court's admonition of defense counsel. As this was only one of several instances in which defense counsel had misstated testimony given by a witness, the court acted well within its discretion in warning him not to persist in this tactic. In thus intervening, the court fulfilled its responsibility to see that the jury was not misled. State v. Fernandez, supra; State v. Bember, supra. We decline to consider any other unspecified instances of judicial misconduct vaguely alluded to in several footnotes to the defendant's brief. Claimed errors not adequately briefed and not fully developed will not be considered by this court. See Practice Book 4065; Liscio v. Liscio, 204 Conn. 502, 507, 528 A.2d 1143 (1987); Petrizzo v. Commercial Contractors Corporation, 152 Conn. 491, 496, 208 A.2d 748 (1965). declining to consider unspecified claims of error "vaguely alluded to" in footnotes; "[c]laimed errors not adequately briefed and not fully developed will not be considered by this court" Summary of this case from Glazer v. Dress Barn, Inc. In State v. Tatum, 219 Conn. 721, 741-42, 595 A.2d 322 (1991), we summarily rejected a claim that the trial court improperly had chastised defense counsel for not being prepared when the comments occurred outside the presence of the jury. Summary of this case from State v. Colon questioning of witnesses did not serve to endorse state's view of case Summary of this case from State v. Velasco requiring defendant to demonstrate harm of trial court's ruling to exclude evidence Summary of this case from Daley v. Aetna Life Casualty Co. Summary of this case from State v. Woodson In State v. Tatum, 219 Conn. 721, 733 n. 18, 595 A.2d 322 (1991), where the trial court had given a special instruction on identification, we stated in dictum "that a trial court's refusal to give any special instruction whatsoever on the dangers inherent in eyewitness identification constitutes reversible error where `the conviction of the defendant [turns] upon the testimony of eyewitnesses who were uncertain, unclear or inconsistent'; State v. Harden, 175 Conn. 315, 322, 398 A.2d 1169 (1978); State v. Davis, 198 Conn. 680, 504 A.2d 1372 (1986)...." Summary of this case from State v. Cerilli In Tatum, a witness testified at trial that the defendant was responsible for killing the victim, and the defendant sought to admit the witness' prior inconsistent statement for its substantive truth that a person other than the defendant had shot the victim. Summary of this case from State v. Rosario Summary of this case from State v. Lopes In State v. Tatum, 219 Conn. 721, 595 A.2d 322 (1991), our Supreme Court on direct appeal affirmed the petitioner's underlying murder conviction and recited the following facts that the jury reasonably could have found in the criminal trial. Summary of this case from Tatum v. Commissioner of Correction	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6038
__label__wiki	0.604508	0.604508	Pronouncements Council On Asian Pacific Minnesotans - Statement regarding the death of George Floyd On May 25, members of the Minneapo- lis Police Department (MPD) were involved in the death of George Floyd while they were placing him under arrest. The chill- ing video of the incident was recorded by eyewitnesses and shared widely on social media. The videos show a man handcuffed and lying on his stomach while an officer places direct pressure on his neck. During this time, Floyd pleads that he is unable to breath. Bystanders implore the officer to get off Floyd. The officer ignores these pleas. Other officers choose not to intervene. When our focus as a state and nation has been on protecting the lives of vulnerable community members from the coronavirus pandemic, it is hard to process this prevent- able loss of human life. Our Council expresses our condolences and wishes healing for the family and friends of Mr. Floyd. We stand with our African heritage community during this time of tragedy. As an agency that represents one of Minnesota’s most diverse and complex communities, we sympathize with this tragic example of the systemic inequities that still exist within our justice system. We also acknowledge that we do not come close to fathoming the depth and pervasiveness of dangers that plague the lives of black men in America every day. Additionally, our Council recognizes the role a member of our community played in this tragedy. One of the MPD officers shown in the video is of Asian Pacific heritage and does not appear to take action to help Mr. Floyd as he suffocates to death. Had he or any of the other officers intervened, this story could have ended very differently. As the call for diversity and inclusion in law enforcement hiring practices is answered, we must also hold these officers account- able within our criminal justice system. As more officers are hired that reflect our com- munities, these officers must demonstrate an ability to stand up to existing organizational culture and actively engage in changing that culture. Incidents such as this one directly con- tributes to the breakdown in the systems and structures that we look to for moral authority and social cohesion. Our society functions based on the premise that we as a people believe in the power and the sanctity of our systems of justice. We cannot move forward when these systems are harming members of our society. Let our communities stand together against injustice and create trust where there has previously been fear. To this end, our Council asks all Minnesotans to speak up and act when they see instances of injustice against anyone. It is only through our uni- fied voice as Americans that we can begin to look towards our institutions of justice as the backbone of democracy. Search CHINAINSIGHT.info Terms of Use All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, contact [email protected] with subject line “Permission request.” CHINAINSIGHT (CI) is published monthly ((except July/August and November/December are combined) by China Insight, Inc., an independent, privately owned company started in 2001 and headquartered in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota. CHINAINSIGHT is the only English-language American newspaper to focus exclusively on connections between the United States and the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Our goal is to develop a mutual understanding of each other’s cultures and business environments and to foster U.S.-China cultural and business harmony. © 2001 - 2020 China Insight, Inc	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6042
__label__wiki	0.697249	0.697249	Posted on September 1, 2020 by Charisma House RELEASES TODAY! ‘The Harbinger II: The Return’ Reveals the Stunning Mystery Behind the Present Shaking of America New York Times Bestselling Author Jonathan Cahn Addresses Ancient Prophecies, New Revelations and Harbingers NEW YORK — Jonathan Cahn’s first book, “The Harbinger,” (2012) set the publishing world ablaze with its insights and revelations behind God’s judgment through global-shaking events — and Cahn knew more shaking was to come. Now, eight years later and after several other chart-topping books, the New York Times bestselling author has returned with more stunning revelations in “The Harbinger II: The Return,” which hits shelves today. What was foretold in “The Harbinger” is now coming true. Now “The Harbinger II” reveals where it’s all heading. The “Harbinger II” will answer the questions: Are the shakings that have come upon America a sign of approaching judgment? Are they the conclusion of the ancient mystery revealed in “The Harbinger”? Where is it all leading? And how much time do we have left? Ever since Cahn wrote “The Harbinger,” he’s been asked when he would write the sequel. For eight years, he’s held off on writing it. In 2019, he had a strong sense that 2020 would be a year of great shaking upon America and that what was foretold in his first book would come true — that the mystery of national judgment would resume. Thus it was time to finally write the sequel, “The Harbinger II.” Cahn began writing it in January of 2020. Two months later, the shakings foretold in “The Harbinger” came upon the nation. In “The Harbinger II,” in a section called “The Unrevealed,” Cahn finally reveals the mysteries he held back from revealing when he wrote the first book. In the second section, “The Manifestations,” he reveals the signs, the portents — the other harbingers — that manifested after the first book came out and up to the present moment. And in the third section, “The Coming,” Cahn reveals the ancient mystery that lies behind the present shaking of America, the coronavirus, the economic collapse, the national paralysis, the civil disorder, the riots and the breakdown of America’s infrastructure — and how all these things are part of the ancient biblical template of a nation entering into judgment. At the same time, “The Harbinger II” will answer the critical question, “Is there hope?” and “What are the keys that every reader must know concerning what lies ahead?” All thesequestions — and more — Jonathan Cahn answers today, September 1, in “The Harbinger II.” Cahn was named, along with Billy Graham and Keith Greene, one of the top 40 spiritual leaders of the past 40 years to have radically impacted the world. Called the prophetic voice of this generation, Cahn is a much-sought-after speaker and has been highlighted in the New York Times as well as in many national and international media. He has spoken on Capitol Hill, at the United Nations and to millions of people around the world. Cahn is known for opening the deep mysteries of Scripture and bringing forth messages of prophetic import. He leads Hope of the World ministry, an international outreach of teaching, evangelism and compassion projects for the world’s most needy. He also leads the Jerusalem Center/Beth Israel, a worship center made up of Jews and Gentiles, people of all backgrounds, just outside New York City in Wayne, New Jersey. His ministry can be contacted at HopeoftheWorld.org and Jonathan Cahn Facebook. Visit TheHarbingerReturns.com. The Harbinger II: The Return is published by Frontline, an imprint of Charisma House. To book Jonathan Cahn for interviews or to receive a review copy of “The Harbinger II,” contact Media@HamiltonStrategies.com, Jeff Tolson, 610.584.1096, ext. 108, or Deborah Hamilton, ext. 102. Tagsamazon best seller, harbinger 2, harbinger II, jonathan cahn, new york times best selling author, the harbinger 2, the harbinger II Previous PostPrevious Epic Blockbuster ‘The Harbinger II: The Return’ Releases Tomorrow—Heading Toward Top of Charts Next PostNext ‘The Return: Next Generation’ Worship Service on Friday, Sept. 25 Will Launch Next Day’s Landmark Gathering of Thousands of Christians	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6050
__label__cc	0.662353	0.337647	Reactions – Kalai Saravanamuttu Kalai Saravanamuttu is in the Department of Chemistry at McMaster University, and works on the fundamental properties and applications of nonlinear light propagation in photochemical media. Chemistry first appealed to me in a great deal due to my high school teachers in Port Moresby. They threw open the doors to a molecular underworld that ruled the properties and transformations of matter. The decision to pursue chemistry as a career probably took form during my final undergraduate year at McGill University. For my senior thesis, I worked on optical chemical benches – biosensor waveguides with enhanced sensitivities based on surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy. First within the narrow scope of this project and then in a much broader context, I saw chemistry as a link between different disciplines – an interpreter between the natural sciences – that opened exciting, creative approaches to research. I would work for an organisation that actively promoted the rights, health care and education of children. The roles and responsibilities of scientists in human rights have been demonstrated by initiatives such as the AAAS Science and Human Rights Program. My hope in working full time in this field would be to make a meaningful and sustained even if minute contribution to these critical issues. I feel that such work would also provide incredible opportunities to learn from the lives of a rich diversity of people. 3. What are you working on now, and where do you hope it will lead? My research group looks at the way coherent and incoherent light behaves when it propagates through media that undergo photochemical reactions. We find that these systems elicit a range of nonlinear forms of light propagation such as self-trapped beams, optical lattices and spontaneous pattern formation. Such phenomena hold promise in the development of active photonics devices that provide precise control over the propagation of light signals. I would like to dine with Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman. It would be wonderful to hear a personal account of the sequence of events that elucidated the subtle yet powerful Raman effect and to also get his perspective on the interesting times in the early twentieth century during which his experiments were carried out. About three weeks ago just before the birth of my daughter and when everything seemed to be full of promise. I worked with my undergraduate student to see how multiple self-trapped laser beams behaved as they travelled through a polymerisable gel. We found that the beams merged together and separated periodically as they propagated through the photopolymer. We are now trying to find the mechanism underlying this behaviour. 6. If exiled on a desert island, what one book and one music album would you take with you? Assuming that I was not to be rescued any time soon, I would probably take On the Genealogy of Morals by Nietzsche – because I am continually trying to read and understand this text. In terms of a music album (and assuming that i-pods were forbidden), it would be a coin toss between a Verdi collection and a mix of Tamil popular songs spanning the past six decades by composers Viswanathan, Ilaiyaraaja and Rahman. 7. Which chemist would you like to see interviewed on Reactions – and why? I’d like to see Prof. David L. Andrews from the University of East Anglia. His group uses a powerful approach based on quantum electrodynamics to understand the interactions of molecules between themselves and with light.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6052
__label__wiki	0.673008	0.673008	Home Politicians Abraham Lincoln’s Wife, Sons And Family Abraham Lincoln’s Wife, Sons And Family As for the former president of the United States of America, he is definitely one of the most unique and interesting, but today not everything revolves around him. Let’s look at the story behind the man by looking at Abraham Lincoln’s wife, sons, and family as a whole. Abraham Lincoln’s Wife Although she was married to one of the most popular American presidents, she was not as popular as a First Lady. Some would say that it was because she came from a privileged environment and as such was not as related as her husband. However, we should all remember that she was a woman who saw a lot of pain in her life, so perhaps that contributed to the general mood. ALSO READ: Michelle Obama’s Height, Weight And Body Measurements Well, let’s get straight to the point, she was born on 13 December 1818 as Mary Ann Todd in Lexington, Kentucky. For a woman of this age, she received an excellent education and even learned to speak French. So, how did she meet her future husband? She met him when he was still an aspiring lawyer and politician, while she stayed with her married sister Elizabeth Edwards. Apparently, in and out relationships were one thing at the time and it is best to believe that Lincoln and Mary had one, but in November 1842 they finally tied the knot and she officially became Abraham Lincoln’s wife. She was 43 years old when she became the 16th FLOTUS, and if you wonder exactly what made her so unpopular, it was indeed her extravagance at a time when the nation was fighting that made her so uncomfortable. All in all, she did not live a very pleasant life; her husband was shot in front of her eyes, only one of her four sons survived her, she was a sickly woman and she died penniless on July 16, 1882, at the age of 63 years. Abraham Lincoln’s Sons Abraham Lincoln’s wife gave birth to four sons for him, the sad thing is that only one of them could grow into adulthood. Nevertheless, we jump in and meet them. His first son was Robert Todd Lincoln and he was the only member of their family who actually made it into the 20th century. Robert was born on August 1, 1843, and he died on July 26, 1926. The first Lincoln child had a somewhat distant relationship with his father, yet Abraham Lincoln was proud of Robert and considered him intelligent but also a competitor. Robert, in turn, admired his father and cried openly on his deathbed. He could be considered both happy and unhappy; happy in the sense that he could live out his life, marry and even conceive 3 children. Then bad luck in the sense that his mother, father or brothers were not alive to share this life with him. The next son was Edward Baker Lincoln, named after Lincoln’s friend Edward Dickinson Baker. Not much is known about Lincoln’s son Eddy as he did not make it to his fourth birthday, but there is evidence that he was a sweet little boy with a good heart. He died a month before his fourth birthday from the consequences of consumption and left his parents devastated. Her third son, William Wallace Lincoln, was born on 21 December 1850, and he died on 20 February 1862 at the age of 11, named after his mother’s brother-in-law, Dr. William Wallace. Willie and his younger brother Tad were considered “notorious hells” when they lived in Springfield. The tragedy occurred in early 1962, Wille and Tad were both affected by typhoid fever, but Willie had a more severe case and died as a result. The whole family was marked by the loss. Thomas “Tad” Lincoln III, was the fourth and last son the couple had. His father gave him the nickname “Tad” because he found him as wriggling as a tadpole at birth. ALSO READ: Donald Trump’s Relationships; Meet The Wives Tad managed to survive his father, but after he was up to 18 years old, he died after suffering from tuberculosis, a pleuritic attack, pneumonia or heart failure. Abraham Lincoln’s Family In addition to Abraham Lincoln’s wife and sons, you will find a list of the other family members here. His parents were Nancy and Thomas Lincoln, his siblings were Sarah Lincoln Grigsby and Thomas Lincoln Jr., and his grandchildren were Mamie Lincoln Isham, Jessie Harlan Lincoln, and Abraham Lincoln II. Sheena Parveen Married, Husband, Wiki, Salary, Age Charlyne Yi Married, Husband, House, Age, and Bio Jimmy Fallon Height, Weight and Body Measurements Cassidy Hubbarth Married, Husband, Boyfriend, Wiki, Bio Jim Carrey Daughter, Wife, Girlfriend, Net Worth, Height, Wiki, Death Jackie Johnson Married, Height, Weight, Measurements, Wiki Susie Hariet Wiki, Age, Married, Husband, Family Bobby Brown Parents, Wife, Son, Daughter, Kids, Family, Height Shania Twain Net Worth, Age, Height, Son, Husband and Quick Facts	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6057
__label__wiki	0.967106	0.967106	Stefan Jankovic joins the Mariners! The Central Coast Mariners have today completed the signing of young Serbian attacking midfielder Stefan Jankovic from OFK Beograd. 23-years old, Jankovic has spent his entire career in Serbia and will be another focal point for the Mariners attack this A-League season. Jankovic spent time in many of the Serbian national youth teams, and has more recently played with Mariners youngster Joey Jevtic who headed to the Club last season. Speaking ahead of his travels to Australia, Jankovic said he is looking forward to a new challenge and that he has heard plenty about the Mariners. “I am very, very excited and looking forward to joining the Central Coast Mariners,” she said. “I see it as a great opportunity and a very exciting challenge, and I am very eager to join my teammates and start training hard.” “For the last six months Joey [Jevtic] was having my back in the midfield as I was mostly playing as a number 10 while Joey did all the hard work behind me and helped me and the team a lot.” “Joey speaks a lot in superlative about the Mariners, and he speaks nothing but the best about the club that gave him an opportunity to come to Europe and build on his game.” Mariners Head of Football Ken Schembri said the addition of Jankovic was an exciting one, and that he was a product of the Mariners overseas scouting processes. “We are delighted to welcome Stefan to the Mariners and we are looking forward to seeing what he can do on the pitch with the rest of the team in early January.” “Stefan was identified by the club’s official European scout, the same network that brought us Milan Duric.” Jankovic will head to Australia soon to complete his mandatory quarantine period and join his new teammates.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6060
__label__cc	0.541973	0.458027	CVHS News Opinion-Editorials Centreville Sentinel "We're always on the prowl." Alex Skelley Kanye West! There’s a lot to say about him. He can be called one of the most narcissistic celebrities alive, with quotes like “My greatest pain in life is that I will never be able to see myself perform live”. He’s also known widely as one of the greatest musicians of our time, and a pop culture icon that may rival even Madonna. These are all cool, but what he’s done that has really had a great effect on the community and the country, is reminding us to think for ourselves. I guess you can say he’s not really the voice of a generation, just the man who reminded us to use ours. Over the past 2 years, Kanye has come under fire for vocalizing his support for president Donald Trump. He’s been repeatedly slammed as an Uncle Tom, a race traitor, and a mindless idiot. In response to this, Kanye has doubled down on his support of the president, and has launched a campaign of the idea of thinking freely. He has rebutted the claims of being a race traitor by pointing to the fact that just because someone supports the Republican Party, it doesn’t mean they’re racist. He’s come out and said he won’t go with the herd when it comes to supporting the democratic party like most African Americans do, bringing it up in his recent meeting with president trump, “You know, people expect that if you’re black you have to be Democrat”. He even shared the following tweet in which he praises Trump, and stresses the right to independent thought. Whether or not you agree with his political beliefs or not, the message he’s sending is the basis of american democracy: We can all think how we want. To many people today will vote only based on how their family, friends, or even racial and religious group votes, instead of voting based on what political ideology that their beliefs line up with. Just last week, I ask my coworker why she votes the way she does, and her only response was, “Because my parents vote that way, and I don’t want to disappoint them”. People will vote one way, because they’re scared of the response and reaction from family, friends, and peers if they vote the other way. Kanye has stressed the blacks don’t have to vote for democrats just because other blacks do, and that they should instead vote based on economic and social beliefs. He wants people to educate themselves on issues, and come to their own personal conclusion. He’s right, in that what is democracy, if people don’t vote for what they believe. This message has resonated with many people all over the country, and even in the CVHS community. Students are now rethinking their political beliefs, and are even becoming more willing to share beliefs that may create a backlash among their peers. Just a few weeks ago, I was listening to a student name Hunter Bell, who said “I think i’m ready to jump on the trump train, they even got Kanye!”. More people are now waking up, and thinking for themselves about what they believe, and applying that to who they support politically. People are learning about the ins and outs of issues, and deciding for themselves what they think about them. They’re realizing that following the herd may lead them to supporting things that they don’t actually agree with. The effect that this had on the country, and the political system, is monumental, and has truly reignited the flame of true american democracy. Alex Skelley, Staff Contributor, Podcast Host Alex Skelley is a senior who is in his first year of Journalism. He took the class solely because he likes writing. Outside of the class, he plays baseball,... The Mandalorian: Season 2 Review The Mandalorian, the latest installment of the legendary Star Wars franchise, has completed its second season, and it was the breath of fresh air Star Wars has needed. The... India Farmers’ Protests “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” Book Review Projekt 1065 Book Review COVID-19 and Winter Sports Karyna Hetman Throughout the entirety of the global pandemic, such few things have remained the same, making this new reality scary and unpredictable. Fortunately, sports for CVHS are still... The Opening of the Wildcat Writing Center Key Club and UNICEF Club Head Fundraising Effort The Effects Of Online Learning OPINION: Abolishing the Death Penalty OPINION: Tattoos and Employment OPINION: COVID Gatherings The Effects of 9/11 on Muslim Americans and Immigrants Hameed’s Reads: The Top 7 Books I Have Read (and Reread) the Past 4 Years To All the Boys P.S. I Still Love You On Being Transgender Tinnitus Awareness Life With Anxiety	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6061
__label__wiki	0.875772	0.875772	Neil Young Confirms 1975 ‘Homegrown’ Album Release Matt Kincaid, Getty Images Neil Young is finally giving fans the chance to hear his famously unreleased 1975 album Homegrown. The LP came close to being unveiled as planned nearly 45 years ago, but Young decided at the last moment to put out Tonight’s The Night instead. “Homegrown will be our first release of 2020, sounding great in vinyl – as it was meant to be,” he wrote on his website. “A record full of love lost and explorations. A record that has been hidden for decades. Too personal and revealing to expose in the freshness of those times.” He added that it was “the unheard bridge between Harvest and Comes a Time.” Rolling Stone reported that Young had put the album together during a period when his marriage had broken down and relations with his Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young colleagues were at a low ebb. “I’m sure parts of Homegrown will surface on other albums of mine,” he said in 1975. “That record might be more what people would rather hear from me now, but it was just a very down album. It was the darker side to Harvest. A lot of the songs had to do with me breaking up with my old lady. It was a little too personal… it scared me.” He continued: “I don’t want to get down to the point where I can’t even get up. I mean there’s something to going down there and looking around, but I don’t know about sticking around.” In his new post, Young released a video clip of producer John Hanlon mastering the album “in an all analog chain,” reporting: “This is the way records were made when we started out. This is the way we made them sound great. We were told that this was impossible now, the Homegrown tapes were too damaged to use; we had to use digital. We didn’t agree. We did not accept. We painstakingly restored the analog masters of Homegrown.” Neil Young Albums Ranked Next: Top 10 Neil Young Songs Source: Neil Young Confirms 1975 ‘Homegrown’ Album Release Filed Under: neil young	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6062
__label__wiki	0.877776	0.877776	A leap, a beam, a change: Lighting solutions for off-grid schools in Kenya by Joyce Gachugi-Waweru in Energy According to officials at the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum in Kenya, the Rural Electrification Authority (REA) has provided electricity to around 250 off-grid public schools from November 2014 to date, through solar photovoltaic systems. The REA is a government agency in Kenya, which was established under the Energy Act of 2006, to accelerate the pace of rural electrification. There are about 5,000 public primary schools that are not connected to the National or Micro grid, with 4,481 electrified through the National Grid and 603 through Solar PV. The solar lighting initiative was at inception, meant to support the current government’s gallant promise to have every student aged between 6-7 years, use a laptop; however, the programme has evolved to simply providing lighting solutions to learning institutions that are unconnected to grid power. The programme that started in Samburu, Pokot, Turkana, Wajir, Garissa, Mandera, Marsabit, Isiolo, Kitui, Lamu and Tana River counties, has spread to cover other areas such as Narok and Kisii County shown in Map I below. Map I: Map of the 47 Counties in Kenya (Source: http://softkenya.com/county/) Currently 220 schools have been electrified using stand-alone solar systems with a total capacity of 574.22 kW at a cost of Euros 6.16 million. However, an additional Euros 10 million has been provided by the Spanish government to electrify 380 selected institutions with solar. One institution in Narok County – Ngaambani Primary School, about 142km from Nairobi, with a student population of 200 students, has not had electricity connectivity for the last 30 years. However, in November 2014, through this government initiative, it was a beneficiary of the lighting initiative. This has seen the school’s performance increase with more students able to study in the evenings after class hours and early mornings before regular class hours. Further, it has increased the rate of enrollment in the school as more parents in the adjacent community feel it is a better learning environment. One interviewed parent stated “I went to nursery school and primary school at Ngaambani Primary, however, in my lifetime, I never thought that my children would be learning in classrooms that have electricity. The motivation to go to school in the village has gone up so much that the parents would like to add more classrooms.” The current systems, though being purchased from different companies, have the same functional specifications – High efficiency crystalline silicon modules (Mono or Poly crystalline), Voltage at maximum power - 16.5 V (Minimum), Maximum system voltage: - 600V. This has ensured consistency in the solar lighting initiative, in terms of quality. The initiative is definitely changing the lives of students in leaps and bounds. Environment, Water Jul 14, 2015 Tanzanian innovator rises to solve water sanitation problems Environment, Waste Jul 21, 2015 Turning rubbish into innovation in West Africa Climate change, Information technology, Work, Transport Jan 31, 2015 3 ways we'll leapfrog distance and reduce climate change Sep 06, 2016 The Lake Turkana's Wind Power Project is a big leap to Kenya's off-grid energy efforts Climate change, Energy, Environment, Urbanization Jun 20, 2018 Eco-Living Technologies To Help You Live A Greener Lifestyle Apr 06, 2016 Africa PV market to grow by 10% up to 2023	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6064
__label__cc	0.582661	0.417339	World Refugee Day Event Celebrates and Recognizes Our Diverse Community Posted on August 7, 2017 by jmaloffcnycf Leave a comment Christina Whiteside, administrative associate at the Community Foundation, visited the World Refugee Day Celebration at the Philanthropy Center on June 20th and shares with us her first-hand experience of this heart-warming and eye-opening event. In the early afternoon hours on June 20th, InterFaith Works staff and volunteers gathered in the ballroom of the Central New York Philanthropy Center to celebrate World Refugee Day (WRD). On this day, people from all over the globe recognize the strength and courage – and show support for – the families that are forced to flee war-torn countries. As attendees filed in and got settled, Olive Sephuma, director for the Center for New Americans at InterFaith Works (IFW), and Haji Adan, executive director of Refugee and Immigrants Self-Empowerment (RISE), introduced themselves and pressed play on a video. While watching, I couldn’t help but take off my journalism hat and get lost in the refugees’ stories being featured. Stories of young adults, torn from their families in the face of crisis, tugged at my heart strings. As I listened, tears started to well up in my eyes. I remember thinking that even my worst days are nothing compared to what refugees in our community have encountered and endured. The panel was moderated by IFW’s Executive Director Beth Broadway and included Abdul Saboor, matching grant coordinator at InterFaith Works’ Center for New Americans (CNA) and Dominic Robinson, vice president of economic inclusion for CenterState CEO. Saboor oversees the Match Grant Program that helps families achieve self-sufficiency within their first 180 days in the country. Robinson oversees multiple programs that assist refugees, including the Northside Urban Partnership (a neighborhood revitalization initiative), Work Train (an employer-led workforce development platform), and Up Start (a business incubation and development program that targets minority and neighborhood based entrepreneurs). CNA provides resettlement and crucial post-resettlement services to help refugee, entrant and asylum families re-establish their lives and overcome barriers. They help families get their children registered for school, assist with applications for social security cards, connect them with job screenings and ESL class enrollment, and ensure that they have a primary care doctor in place. Saboor describes the process as a puzzle – each piece is carefully woven into a bigger, more important picture. Saboor himself immigrated to the United States from Afghanistan in 2014. From 2007 to 2012 he taught counterinsurgency and counterterrorism measures to Afghan and NATO soldiers and later worked with USAID and AECOM International. In addition to his full-time role at InterFaith Works, he is a full-time undergraduate student at Syracuse University. “There’s more to [resettlement] than you would think,” Saboor said. “You have to think about cultural adjustment, community orientation and engagement with other services that they might need.” At one point in the discussion, the panel explained how many immigrants and refugees go through an “identity change” in order to assimilate to their new surroundings. “In order for you to be able to flourish and thrive in a community, you must accept the new norms or otherwise, you’re considered an outsider or the other guy,” Saboor said. “I’ve personally experienced it myself. I notice it, too, with the comments our refugees make to me.” Saboor points out that refugees face challenges in learning to live in the American culture that requires them to adapt. “For example, when it comes to Eastern culture, punctuality and time means something different,” Saboor said. “But when you come to the Western side, it’s a totally different perspective. These are the areas of your life that you have to accept and change over time.” In 2016, according to InterFaith Works, CNA resettled a total of 705 refugees from all parts of the world, including Cuba (256), Democratic Republic of Congo (147), Somalia (93), Syria (76), Bhutan (48), Iraq (40), Burma (30), Afghanistan (25), Ukraine (22), Sudan (18), Burundi (9) and Eritrea (6). Since 1981, approximately 6,000 refugees have resettled in Syracuse. As attendees filed out of the event, they left with a better understanding of what immigrants and refugees are faced with on a daily basis and the obstacles they have to overcome to enjoy the simple freedoms we Americans can sometimes take for granted. Later that evening, more than 200 people gathered at Dr. Weeks Elementary School for a community dinner and celebration. Over $4,000 was raised during World Refugee Day this year, which will seed the World Refugee Day Fund, administered by the Central New York Community Foundation. The fund will allow IFW and RISE, along with partner agencies, to host WRD community events in the future. “The Community Foundation is a natural place to serve as the home for this fund because we are a trusted steward of community resources,” said Jennifer Owens, senior vice president and chief development officer at the Community Foundation. “The organizations involved know that we will always keep the purpose of the fund at the forefront and that we will manage the funds appropriately.” In addition to administering the World Refugee Day Fund, the Community Foundation has historically been a consistent supporter of organizations that help immigrants and refugees find success in Central New York. Over the past 10 years, it has distributed nearly $1 million in grants to organizations that provide support services to new Americans. Funded projects have included literacy and English-as-second-language education, cultural events and workforce preparation. In addition, numerous refugee organizations have benefited from the Community Foundation’s strategic initiatives including The Leadership Classroom, a training program for grassroots groups that want to be active in improving the quality of life in their neighborhoods. As for Saboor, he will continue to be a shining example for the families he serves at InterFaith Works and beyond. “We need more people involved,” Saboor said. “Individuals who can serve as role models to share their stories, struggles and ways they faced all those challenges. By simply hearing those stories, these newly arrived Americans will see the light at the end of the tunnel. It will help them see impossible as possible.” tagged with Central New York Community Foundation, CNY, cny community foundation, Community Foundation, interfaith works, Refugees, Syracuse	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6068
__label__wiki	0.626474	0.626474	Collins Booksellers Orange Christmas Reading Guide East West Street: On the Origins of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity Author(s): Philippe Sands Winner of the 2016 Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction Winner of the 2017 Jewish Quarterly-Wingate Prize "A monumental achievement...a profoundly personal account of the origins of crimes against humanity and genocide, told with love, anger and precision." -John le Carré "A narrative, to my knowledge unprecedented. [It] should not be ignored by anyone in the United States or elsewhere." --Bernard-Henri Levy on the front cover of The New York Times Book Review "Exceptional...has the intrigue, verve and material density of a first-rate thriller." --The Guardian "Astonishing...An outstanding book...A story of heroes and loss." --The New Statesman A profound and profoundly important book--a moving personal detective story, an uncovering of secret pasts, and a book that explores the creation and development of world-changing legal concepts that came about as a result of the unprecedented atrocities of Hitler''s Third Reich. East West Street looks at the personal and intellectual evolution of the two men who simultaneously originated the ideas of "genocide" and "crimes against humanity," both of whom, not knowing the other, studied at the same university with the same professors, in a city little known today that was a major cultural center of Europe, "the little Paris of Ukraine," a city variously called Lemberg, Lwów, Lvov, or Lviv. The book opens with the author being invited to give a lecture on genocide and crimes against humanity at Lviv University. Sands accepted the invitation with the intent of learning about the extraordinary city with its rich cultural and intellectual life, home to his maternal grandfather, a Galician Jew who had been born there a century before and who''d moved to Vienna at the outbreak of the First World War, married, had a child (the author''s mother), and who then had moved to Paris after the German annexation of Austria in 1938. It was a life that had been shrouded in secrecy, with many questions not to be asked and fewer answers offered if they were. As the author uncovered, clue by clue, the deliberately obscured story of his grandfather''s mysterious life, and of his mother''s journey as a child surviving Nazi occupation, Sands searched further into the history of the city of Lemberg and realized that his own field of humanitarian law had been forged by two men--Rafael Lemkin and Hersch Lauterpacht--each of whom had studied law at Lviv University in the city of his grandfather''s birth, each considered to be the father of the modern human rights movement, and each, at parallel times, forging diametrically opposite, revolutionary concepts of humanitarian law that had changed the world. In this extraordinary and resonant book, Sands looks at who these two very private men were, and at how and why, coming from similar Jewish backgrounds and the same city, studying at the same university, each developed the theory he did, showing how each man dedicated this period of his life to having his legal concept--"genocide" and "crimes against humanity"--as a centerpiece for the prosecution of Nazi war criminals. And the author writes of a third man, Hans Frank, Hitler''s personal lawyer, a Nazi from the earliest days who had destroyed so many lives, friend of Richard Strauss, collector of paintings by Leonardo da Vinci. Frank oversaw the ghetto in Lemberg in Poland in August 1942, in which the entire large Jewish population of the area had been confined on penalty of death. Frank, who was instrumental in the construction of concentration camps nearby and, weeks after becoming governor general of Nazi-occupied Poland, ordered the transfer of 133,000 men, women, and children to the death camps. Sands brilliantly writes of how all three men came together, in October 1945 in Nuremberg--Rafael Lemkin; Hersch Lauterpacht; and in the dock at the Palace of Justice, with the twenty other defendants of the Nazi high command, prisoner number 7, Hans Frank, who had overseen the extermination of more than a million Jews of Galicia and Lemberg, among them, the families of the author''s grandfather as well as those of Lemkin and Lauterpacht. A book that changes the way we look at the world, at our understanding of history and how civilization has tried to cope with mass murder. Powerful; moving; tender; a revelation. A uniquely personal exploration of the origins of international law, centring on the Nuremberg Trials, the city of Lviv and a secret family history Winner of Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction 2016. A monumental achievement: profoundly personal, told with love, anger and great precision -- John le Carre Supremely gripping ... There are, of course, plenty of books about the Nazis, the Holocaust and the Nuremberg trials. When I picked up Sands's, I have to confess that my heart sank at the thought of another. Then I started reading. A few hours later, I looked up and realised that it was past midnight. When I woke up the next morning, the first thing I did was to reach for the book, and then I kept reading until I had finished it ... Sands has produced something extraordinary. Written with novelistic skill, its prose effortlessly poised, its tone perfectly judged, his book teems with life, from the bustling streets of Habsburg Lviv, with its handsome cafes and grand new opera house, to the high drama of the Nuremberg trials, with their rich cast of colourful characters. Often it is almost intolerably poignant ... But it is also a reminder that, even in the deepest darkness, there were glimmers of extraordinary heroism. One short chapter alone ... is one of the most moving accounts of human compassion I have ever read. For Sands, given his family's history, this must have been an enormously painful endeavour. But the result is one of the most gripping and powerful books imaginable. -- Dominic Sandbrook SUNDAY TIMES Important and engrossing ... The surprise is that even when charting the complexities of law, Sands's writing has the intrigue, verve and material density of a first-rate thriller ... He can magic whole histories of wartime heroism out of addresses eight decades old. Or, chasing the lead of a faded photograph, he can unearth possible alternate grandparents and illicit liaisons to be verified only by DNA tests ... EAST WEST STREET is an exceptional memoir -- Lisa Appignanesi THE OBSERVER Engrossing ... Sands has written a remarkable and enjoyable book, deftly weaving his own family history into a lively account of the travails of the early campaigners for international human rights law -- Caroline Moorhead LITERARY REVIEW EAST WEST STREET is a magnificent book. A work of great brilliance. There is narrative sweep and intellectual grip. Everything that happens is inevitable and yet comes as a surprise. I was moved to anger and to pity. In places I gasped, in places I wept. I wanted to reach the end. I couldn't wait to reach the end. And then when I got there I didn't want to be at the end -- Daniel Finkelstein THE TIMES EAST WEST STREET is a fascinating and revealing book, for the things it explains: the origins of laws that changed our world, no less. It's also a readable book, and thoughtful, and compassionate. Most fundamentally, though, it's a book that tells a few individual human stories that lie behind the world-changing ones. That storytelling isn't redemptive - what could be, in this context? - but it confronts all those silences and challenges them. That challenge makes it an important book too -- Daniel Hahn THE SPECTATOR A vivid and readable contribution, part memoir, part documentary, to the history debate ... Much of the most compelling material in this book is personal ... Moving and powerful -- Mark Mazower FINANCIAL TIMES Outstanding ... This is the best kind of intellectual history. Sands puts the ideas of Lemkin and Lauterpacht in context and shows how they still resonate today, influencing Tony Blair, David Cameron and Barack Obama. When we think of the atrocities committed by Slobodan Milosevic or Bashar al-Assad, it is the ideas of these two Jewish refugees we turn to. Sands shows us in a clear, astonishing story where they came from -- David Herman NEW STATESMAN In a triumph of astonishing research, Sands has brilliantly woven together several family stories which lead to the great denouement at the Nuremberg tribunal. No novel could possibly match such an important work of truth -- Antony Beevor A book like no other I have ever read - unputdownable and unforgettable -- Orlando Figes EAST WEST STREET pulls off the considerable feat of interweaving the lives of these three men with a brief history of international law and its origins, and some profoundly moving revelations about Sands' own forebears ... [It] is also an eminently topical book because it directly considers the impact of the past on our present -- Caroline Sanderson THE BOOKSELLER This remarkable book is partly a lawyer's quest to understand the roots of international law (one that is surprisingly fascinating for the non-legal reader) and a riveting family memoir THE BOOKSELLER, Book of the Month This book transcends genre, breaking convention to create something fascinating and engrossing. Sands manages to weave the most personal of stories through the most globally impactful: the inclusion of the term "crimes against humanity" in the judgement at Nuremberg. -- Steven Cooper of Waterstones THE BOOKSELLER ...read(s) more like a thriller or a spy story: not many barristers have their books endorsed by John le Carre. -- Joshua Rozenberg PROSPECT An engrossing tale of family secrets and groundbreaking legal precedents ... a tense, riveting melding of memoir and history ... From letters, photographs, and deeply revealing interviews, the author portrays Nazi persecutions in shattering detail ... For the future of humanity, forgetting, Sands insists in this vastly important book, is not an option KIRKUS REVIEWS, starred review There is growing suspicion that there are no stories left to tell of the Holocaust; all the pain and horror has been revealed to the point of repetition. But human-rights lawyer Sands proves that there is still room for thoughtful writers to educate, engage and even beguile readers on this terribly important subject ... An unexpected page-turner, EAST WEST STREET is a book for the twenty-first century that reminds us that the cruel lessons of the twentieth still have much to impart and must not be ignored -- Colleen Mondor BOOKLIST Gripping ... This fascinating account of forgetting, forgiving and moving on ... achieves a balance between the individual and the political that brings the events of the Holocaust into new focus. ... [A] compelling work with unforgettable characters LIBRARY JOURNAL A beautiful and necessary book -- A.L. Kennedy A narrative to my knowledge unprecedented ... We have in Sands's EAST WEST STREET a machine of power and beauty that should not be ignored by anyone in the United States or elsewhere who would believe there are irreparable crimes whose adjudication should not stop at the border ... Barack Obama and his successors would be well advised to move to the top of their reading lists this account of the birth, amid the darkest conceivable shadows, of an unprecedented body of rights-based law, whose application has scarcely begun -- Bernard-Henri Levy NEW YORK TIMES In EAST WEST STREET, Philippe Sands brings all the power of his formidable intellect, his inquisitive spirit and his emotional imagination to bear on a complicated tangle of personal, legal and European history. In a gripping narrative that is tender yet dispassionate, intensely felt and meticulously researched. Sands uncovers the surprising affinities and divergences among the parallel lives of three men, two celebrated, one unknown, whose struggles, sorrows, accomplishments and defeats, large and small, help us to understand and, more, to feel the mittel-European civilization their lives embodied, a whole world that was destroyed and reinvented within the span of a single lifetime -- Michael Chabon EAST WEST STREET is a landmark moment. From the ashes of the holocaust, the graveyards of Bosnia, and other places of mass killing, Sands gives a brilliant and uplifting insight into the birth of the crimes of "genocide" and "crimes against humanity" and the roles they played in bringing the agents of such slaughter to justice -- Jon Snow EAST WEST STREET is a strange and beautiful object: at once a genealogy of international human rights law, and a delicate family portrait. The common element to this apparently unrelated pair is genocidal persecution - and other assorted horrors of twentieth century history. It is meticulous, moving and compulsive -- Adam Thirlwell Gripping, profound and deeply personal ... EAST WEST STREET is especially interesting and readable as much of it is a detective story of Sands' investigation into his family history ... The unravelling of these secrets, and the remarkable way that Sands' family history interweaves with those of Lemkin and Lauterpacht, make for gripping reading HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY TRUST Beginning and ending with the last day of the Nuremberg Trials, several powerful, interconnecting stories unfold in parallel CHOICE Shattering, important and incredibly readable -- John Lewis-Stempel SUNDAY EXPRESS Philippe Sands' remarkable book is a voyage of discovery into the lost world of Lemberg/Lwow, its people, and their actions and ideas as these ripple out into the larger world we still inhabit. -- Isabel Hull LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS (But) if you think you have read enough on this subject, or know enough, then think again. In East West Street: on the origins of genocide and crimes against humantiy, the London-based international lawyer, Philippe SAnds has produced a masterpiece that is part detective story and part exploration of family history, memory, crime, guilt, loss and law...It is a work of hte highest order and it deserves to be as widely read as possible. it is, I reiterate, a masterpiece. -- Iain Martin REACTION Dazzling, shatttering. East West Street is one of the most extraordinary books that I have ever read. Antonia Fraser Astonishing and important -- Louis Begley Absorbing -- Nicholas Goodman LAW SOCIETY GAZETTE Philippe Sands, a professor of law and a practising barrister, brings his experience of a wide variety of cases of serious human rights abuses, from Rwanda to Yugoslavia, Guantanamo to Congo-Brazzaville, to an excavation of the origins of the concepts of 'crimes against humanity' and 'genocide'. -- Richard J Evans THE GUARDIAN Gripping and beautifully written -- Robert Low JEWISH CHRONICLE The best thing I've read this year, East West Street is both personal and international in scope. THE RIVERSIDE WAY In his quest to find out more about the early life of his late grandfather Philippe Sands gives us a powerful insight into the lives of two great jurists who defined crimes against humanity and genocide. HISTORY TODAY The coincidences that lie at the heart of the story that Philippe Sands, QC, will recount in Edinburgh this weekend are so breathtaking that audiences will find them hard to believe. At least as remarkable, however, is the detective work that he has used to pull them together. -- Magnus Linklater THE TIMES He alights on a pit containing the remains of 3.500 Jews, "individuals each, together a group". And in a moment of insight and epiphany he understands. And so, in the end do we: that is the achievement of this learned, idiosyncratic, carefully crafted, grippingly readable book. THE TABLET Sands...shows himself to be superbly in control of his materials...fascinating and moving TLS More gripping than any thriller -- Gabriel Josipovici TLS Philippe Sands has not only woven together striking and important stories, leading from the city of Lviv to the Nuremberg tribunal, he has achieved an almost unbelievable miracle in his research. -- Antony Beevor THE GUARDIAN Christmas Books Beautifully written and enormously moving, Sands's meditation on the Holocaust in the formerly Polish city of Lviv was a well-deserved winner of the Baillie Gifford prize. -- Dominic Sandbrook SUNDAY TIMES Christmas Books Intellectual thriller, family story, legal history, political tour-de-force, East West Street, winner of the Baillie Gifford prize for non-fiction, is all of these things...It makes a compelling case for international law and the rights of the individual as it sweeps you along with its astonishing narrative. -- Daniel Finkelstein THE TIMES Books of the Year The winner of this year's Baillie Gifford Prize, Sands' book is a mixture of intellectual history, family memoir and a re-creation of the events leading up to the Nuremberg trails. FINANCIAL TIMES Books of the Year An extraordinary work of research and evocative empathy, in which consciousness of present effects is never allowed to trump the complexities of the past. -- David Horspool THE GUARDIAN Books of the Year It's a profound and very personal account of the origins of genocide in Nazi Germany, intertwined with the history of his own family during that time, and much more compelling than I've made it sound. -- Anthony Horowitz BURTON MAIL The most moving book I've read this year...The book is more than a brilliant lawyer's description of two legal concepts that have been fundamental to the moral history of humanity since the Second World War. It is also a story of self-discovery that plunges us into one of the darkest episodes in human history, the Holocaust. Am I wrong to imagine I can hear some of those long-buried skeletons rattling in their graves again? -- Richard Holloway SUNDAY HERALD An un-put-downable winner of the Baillie Gifford prize for non-fiction THE ECONOMIST Books of the Year [East West Street] should be available to everyone everywhere. That book is all we need to know about living in the world today. It is an exacting, heroic, essential education -- Peter Florence DAILY TELEGRAPH Philippe Sands is Professor of Law at UCL and a practising barrister at Matrix Chambers. He has been involved in many of the most important international cases of recent years, including Pinochet, Congo, Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Iraq and Guantanamo. His previous books include LAWLESS WORLD and TORTURE TEAM. He is a frequent contributor to the FINANCIAL TIMES, GUARDIAN, NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS and VANITY FAIR, makes regular appearances on radio and television, and serves on the boards of English PEN and the Hay Festival. @philippesands Publisher : Orion Publishing Group, Limited Imprint : Weidenfeld & Nicolson Dimensions : 19.80 cmmm X 12.90 cmmm Availability date : April 2017 Author : Philippe Sands Illustrations : 80 B&W, integrated 230 Summer Street, Orange, New South Wales	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6070
__label__cc	0.612501	0.387499	Comcast Newsmakers is best experienced on the latest version of Chrome or Safari. National Segments Local Segments All Segments All Segments Human Rights Issues - 5:19 with Jacklyn Watt, Director of Supply Chain Sustainability - Ford Motor Company https://comcastnewsmakers.com/Videos/2018/8/30/Human-Rights-Issues Embed Information Ford is committed to respecting human rights everywhere they operate, and throughout their entire supply chain. Ford aims to ensure that everything they make, or that is made for Ford by others, is consistent both with local law and with their commitment to protecting human rights. Hosted by: Laurel Hess Produced by: Heartland Newsmakers Team #Michigan #Community #Economy and Business #Education #General Interest #Government #Health #Local #Science and Technology Other videos hosted by Laurel Hess Getting Support for Mental Illness Getting Support for Mental Illness - 5:33 According to the National Alliance on Mental Health, 1 in 4 adults experience a mental health disorder in a given year. Kevin Fischer, Executive Director of the National Alliance on Mental Health Michigan, talks about NAMI and the importance of seeking help for a mental illness. https://comcastnewsmakers.com/Videos/2020/12/21/Getting-Support-for-Mental-Illness Assisting Those In Need Assisting Those In Need - 5:23 Approximately 43 percent of Michigan households struggle to afford the basic necessities. Hassan Hammoud, Executive Director of Michigan 211, discusses how they are assisting those in need. https://comcastnewsmakers.com/Videos/2020/12/21/Assisting-Those-In-Need Helping Businesses Stay Open Helping Businesses Stay Open - 5:32 There are approximately 1,700 businesses in Southwest Detroit. Rob Dewaelsche, President and CEO of the Southwest Detroit Business Association discusses how businesses in Southwest Detroit are pivoting their business models to stay open. https://comcastnewsmakers.com/Videos/2020/11/24/Helping-Businesses-Stay-Open Eviction Prevention - 5:35 There are two kinds of protection against eviction right now - a statewide Eviction Diversion Program that can help you pay back rent, and the CDC eviction moratorium. Kellie Maki Foster, Staff Development Director of Lakeshore Legal Aid discusses these programs and how to get help. https://comcastnewsmakers.com/Videos/2020/11/24/Eviction-Prevention No-Fault Insurance Reform: Educating Yourself No-Fault Insurance Reform: Educating Yourself - 6:24 According to the Michigan Traffic Crash Facts, in 2018 there were 312,798 crashes, of which 905 were fatal and 55,340 were personal injury. Steve Ragan of Hope Network discusses the importance of educating yourself on the no-fault insurance reform bill. https://comcastnewsmakers.com/Videos/2020/7/9/No-Fault-Insurance-Reform Measuring Change: Women in Corporate Leadership Measuring Change: Women in Corporate Leadership - 5:04 For every 100 men promoted or hired into their first management position, only 72 women are given the opportunity to take the same step. Terry Barclay of Inform discusses the importance of women representation on company boards. https://comcastnewsmakers.com/Videos/2020/3/3/Measuring-Change-Women-in-Leadership Fighting against Anti-Semitism and Racism Fighting against Anti-Semitism and Racism - 5:14 According to the Anti-Defamation League, the number of anti-Semitic incidents across the United States, including assaults, vandalism and attacks on Jewish institutions climbed some 67 percent from January to September of 2017, compared to the same period a year earlier. Reverend Kenneth J. Flowers of Greater New Mount Moriah Missionary Baptist Church, joins host Laurel Hess to talk about the importance of building Black-Jewish relations. https://comcastnewsmakers.com/Videos/2020/2/4/Fighting-against-Anti-Semitism-and-Racism Preparing Young People for Opportunities Preparing Young People for Opportunities - 5:16 According to the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly all young people—98.6 percent—hold at least one job between the ages of 18 and 25. The average young person holds 6.3 jobs between 18 and 25. Jason Lee of Junior Achievement of Southeastern Michigan discusses the importance of preparing young people for opportunities in a global economy. https://comcastnewsmakers.com/Videos/2020/3/3/Preparing-Young-People-for-Opportunities Investing in People and Places Throughout Detroit Investing in People and Places Throughout Detroit - 5:01 According to theU.S. Census Bureau, African Americans living in Detroit accounted for 79.1% of the total population, or approximately 532,425 people as of 2017 estimates. Melanca Clark of the Hudson-Webber Foundation discusses the importance of affordable housing and racial equality in the City of Detroit. https://comcastnewsmakers.com/Videos/2020/2/4/Investing-in-People-and-Places-Throughout-Detroit The views, opinions, and positions expressed by those featured on the program are theirs alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions or positions of Comcast Corporation, its affiliates, or its sponsors or advertisers. © Comcast Cable Communications Management, LLC. All rights reserved. You are leaving comcastnewsmakers.com You are now leaving Comcast Newsmakers. Are you sure you’d like to continue? TYPE A KEYWORD AND PRESS ENTER TO SEARCH: OR EXPLORE SEGMENTS BY TOPIC:	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6071
__label__wiki	0.985158	0.985158	Kevin Feige Reveals Tone For Tatiana Maslany’s ‘She-Hulk’ Series It’s a surprising new genre for Marvel Studios. Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige revealed the tone for the She-Hulk series heading to Disney Plus which stars Tatiana Maslany. Although there was initially some confusion over whether Tatiana Maslany would actually appear in She-Hulk as Jennifer Walters after the star denied the casting in an interview, it was confirmed during the Disney Investor presentation that the Orphan Black star will lead the series. And now Kevin Feige has revealed what fans can expect from She-Hulk when it debuts on Disney Plus during 2022. When speaking to Emmy Magazine about the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Disney Plus, Kevin Feige revealed that the She-Hulk series will be a “half-hour legal comedy” because it’s something the studio has “never done before.” He also teased that John Byrne’s 1980s She-Hulk run will be the inspiration behind the Disney Plus series, which will be interesting to see since both Mark Ruffalo and Tim Roth are set to reprise their respective roles as Hulk and Abomination in the show. Are you excited to see Tatiana Maslany in the series? what do you make of Kevin Feige’s comments? Sound-off in the comments below! In the comics, She-Hulk is the alter-ego of Jennifer Walters, a private attorney and the cousin of Bruce Banner. After being shot, Jennifer Walters receives a blood transfusion from Bruce who was the only viable donor. The transfusion had the unintended side effect of transforming her into the gamma-powered She-Hulk. However, unlike most incarnations of Bruce Banner’s Hulk, Jennifer Walters retains her sharp wit and emotional control in her She-Hulk form, which later becomes permanent. Marvel Studios’ upcoming slate of films includes Black Widow, The Eternals, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and Thor: Love and Thunder. In addition to the aforementioned feature films, Marvel Studios is developing several shows for Disney Plus, including The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, WandaVision, Loki, What If…?, Hawkeye, Ms. Marvel, Moon Knight, and She-Hulk. She-Hulk is currently slated for a 2022 release on Disney Plus. Stay tuned for all the latest news on Tatiana Maslany, Kevin Feige and She-Hulk and be sure to subscribe to Heroic Hollywood’s YouTube channel for more original content! Source: Emmy Magazine Eammon Jacobs English writer with a preference for all things Film, TV and Comic Book related.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6072
__label__wiki	0.700527	0.700527	Best Sports Betting Websites How To Maximize Your Sports Betting Odds Free Sports Picks – Sports Odds – NFL – NBA – NCAA – Sports Chat coverthespread365.com Why Join Sign Up NFL EAST NFL SOUTH NFL NORTH NFL WEST Cancuks FC Bayern München Paris Saint Germain F.C. Wolvenhampton Sports Guide Jan 24th - 3:05 pm EST BUCCANEERS PACKERS BILLS CHIEFS Jan 18th - 12:05 pm EST MAGIC KNICKS TIMBERWOLVES HAWKS SPURS BLAZERS SUNS GRIZZLIES BUCKS NETS WARRIORS LAKERS Home > MLB > Minnesota Twins vs. Texas Rangers Minnesota Twins vs. Texas Rangers Minnesota Twins (74-48) at Texas Rangers (60-62) MLB: Saturday, August 17th, 2019 at 8:05 pm ET (Global Life Park in Arlington) Line and Odds: Minnesota Twins -155/Texas Rangers +140 Over/Under: 11.5 Free ESPN MLB Picks Texas Rangers vs. Minnesota Twins Minnesota ranks 2nd in scoring production, averaging 5.77 runs per game. Because of their high-powered offense, they rank 4th in the MLB in run differential. The explosiveness of the Twins offense is driven by their power. They hit home runs on 4.9% of their plate appearances, ranking them #1 in the MLB in home run percentage. The Twins are also #1 in terms of slugging percentage (.499) and isolated power (.229). Minnesota gets extra base hits on 10.3% of their plate appearances and 42.7% of their hits go for extra bases (both rank #1 in baseball). Minnesota ranks 4th in batting average, hitting for an average of .270. They are 6th in on base percentage (.337) and 2nd in OPS (.836). They’re able to match their power with the plate discipline to avoid strikeouts. Minnesota’s batting lineup ranks 4th in strikeout percentage (20.6%). As great as their batters have been this season, they do get into trouble when it comes to base running. The Twins rank 30th (out of 30 MLB teams) with a stolen base percentage of 55.6%. The Twins give up 4.66 runs per game, which ranks them 11th in the MLB in runs allowed. The strength of the Twins pitching staff is the ability to limit their opponent’s power. Minnesota’s pitchers give up home runs on 3.2% of their opponents’ plate appearances, ranking 5th in opponents’ home run rate. They allow opponents to hit extra base hits on 8.0% of their plate appearances, ranking 6th in extra base hit %. The Twins rank 4th in opponents’ isolated power (.163) and 8th in opponents’ slugging percentage (.417). The pitching staff also limits walks, ranking 4th with a walk percentage of 7.5%. They rank 8th in WHIP and 6th in strikeout-to-walk ratio. However, it is possible to hit for average against Minnesota. The Twins rank 17th in both opponents’ batting average and opponents’ BABIP. Minnesota will send their best pitcher, Jose Berrios, to the mound in this contest against the Rangers. The Twins’ ace has pitched 153 and 1/3 innings in 24 starts, this season. Berrios was chosen for his 2nd consecutive all-star game, and his stats indicate that his selection was justified. He has a 3.29 ERA, 1.148 WHIP, and 4.11 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Berrios allows 8.3 hits, 1.1 home runs, and 3.76 runs per 9 innings. The Rangers score 5.11 runs per game, ranking 9th in the MLB in run production. Texas has a top 10 offense and a unique statistical profile. One of the Rangers’ biggest strengths is their base running. According to Fangraphs, they rank #1 in terms of runs produced through base running. They rank 2nd in the MLB in stolen bases per game (0.76 per game) and rank 9th in stolen base % (75.0%). Texas ranks 8th in batting average on balls in play with a BABIP of (.307). The Rangers are able to grind out hits by putting balls in play and using their speed to get on base. They also have the ability to stretch out singles and turn them into doubles and triples. 41.4% of their hits go for extra bases (3rd-highest mark in the MLB). It’s also interesting that they rank 7th in extra base hit % (9.2%) despite ranking just 17th in home run percentage (3.7%). Texas ranks 12th in isolated power (.191) and 11th in slugging percentage (.441). The biggest problem for the Rangers batting lineup is their high strikeout rate. Texas strikes out on 25.7% of their plate appearances, ranking 27th in the Majors. Overall, the Rangers rank 13th in on base plus slugging percentage (.763). Texas allows 5.30 runs per game, ranking 24th in the MLB in runs allowed. They rank 20th or worse in every major pitching and defensive category. Their opponents’ OPS of .805 ranks 26th in the Majors. Texas ranks 26th in opponents’ slugging percentage (.464) and 27th in opponents’ on base percentage (.341). Rangers’ pitchers rank 27th in WHIP (1.447) and 23rd in strikeout-to-walk ratio (2.45). They are 20th in both opponents’ strikeout percentage (22.0%) and opponents’ walk percentage (9.0%). The Rangers allow opponents to hit for a batting average of .269 (25th in the MLB) and a BABIP of .315 (29th in the MLB). Opposing batters hit home runs against the Rangers in 3.8% of their plate appearances, placing the Rangers 22nd in home run percentage. Ariel Jurado gets the call as today’s starting pitcher for the Texas Rangers. The 23-year-old right-hander has pitched 96 and 2/3 innings in 25 pitching appearances (15 as starter, 10 in relief), this season. Jurado currently has a 5.31 ERA, 1.448 WHIP, and a 2.40 strikeout-to-walk ratio. He has given up an average of 10.2 hits, 1.4 home runs, and 6.05 runs per 9 innings. Cover The Spread 365 Betting Trends Minnesota is 4-1 SU in their last 5 games against Texas. The total has gone OVER in 5 of Minnesota’s last 6 games on the road. The total has gone OVER in 5 of Minnesota’s last 6 games when playing on the road against Texas. Texas is 2-8 SU in their last 10 games. The total has gone OVER in 6 of Texas’ last 8 games against Minnesota. The total has gone OVER in 9 of Texas’ last 12 games at home. ESPN MLB Scores Minnesota Twins vs. Texas Rangers I’m taking the Texas Rangers at +140 in this matchup. It’s tough to pass up a big home underdog with the scoring ability of the Texas Rangers. When you have 2 productive offenses playing in Arlington, you’re going to get a high scoring game. I think this game will come down to Texas’ far superior base running capabilities. It will be important for the Rangers to find a way to get on base. It will be difficult to do against Berrios, but I believe that Berrios will give them some opportunities. The Rangers will steal bases and stretch singles to extra base hits. Texas will need to get a solid outing from Ariel Jurado and the bullpen. The Rangers did well to limit Minnesota to 4 runs yesterday, and I could see something similar today. While Minnesota is the rightful favorite, the value lies with the Rangers as +140 is too big of a number for this offense. Texas Rangers +140 Washinton DC The handicapping, sports odds information contained on this website is for entertainment purposes only. Please confirm the wagering regulations in your jurisdiction as they vary from state to state, province to province, and country to country. Using this information to contravene any law or statute is prohibited. The site is not associated with nor endorsed by any professional or collegiate league, association or team. CoverTheSpread365.com does not target and audience under the age of 18. © 2021 Copyright © 2019. coverthespread365	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6076
__label__cc	0.555036	0.444964	The Contrary Perspective Provocative views on politics, society, and the state of humanity US Foreign Relations Vietnam Redux: An Open Letter to Ken Burns contraryperspective / July 11, 2017 Vietnam will be revisited starting September 17th by a Ken Burns documentary series. Greg Laxer is a Vietnam-era army veteran who refused to go to Vietnam on principal, and was subsequently court-martialled for this. It affected his entire life, and even as he ages, he has not softened his critical views of state misuse of power. Now he has observed how our country has made war a perpetual venture in bringing “peace and democracy” to all parts of the world….- but it is still the same old war. In this discussion he shows his concern that Burns may use his prestigious reputation as a documentary film maker to obfuscate the real disaster that war was. Many of our readers are Vietnam veterans and this is an invitation to hear from them and other veterans on what their assessment of post-Vietnam official policy is. As a veteran of WW II my feelings are that we cannot trust our two major parties to make wise decisions on war and cannot trust our military bureaucracy to give honest counsel on those wars of choice since WW II. We are in a mess! b. traven Greg Laxer, US Army Medical Corps, 1967-71 Dear Mr. Burns, I only learned relatively recently that you had undertaken a documentary project on the Vietnam War, running about 18 hours total, due to air on PBS television in September of this year. I’m sure you are aware that the Federal Government launched a multi-year Vietnam War 50th [Anniversary] Commemoration program during the Obama administration, scheduled to run well into next decade. Its website states that 9,852 events are being held under its aegis. That website has a Timeline which infamously downgraded the 1968 My Lai Massacre of hundreds of unarmed Vietnamese civilians by US troops to the My Lai “incident.” We who opposed this criminal war while it transpired, and oppose historical revision of it, cannot but suspect that the government effort’s intent is to whitewash this utter waste of lives and resources as something somehow “noble” and “well intentioned.” And I am concerned that your upcoming series may have the same effect, if not intent. In the official online preview material for the series (where it’s proclaimed “the television event of the year”), you state that a complex issue needs 20 to 30 years’ perspective to be fully understood and fairly evaluated. Yet you go on to state that, “This film is not an answer, but a set of questions about what happened.” It appears that you will give a lot of attention to the issue of “Vietnamese versus Vietnamese.” If you are attempting to paint this war as a civil war among Vietnamese, you will start right off by perpetuating the foundational lie of the mountain of lies stacked up by the US government to try to justify the carnage. Vietnam is one nation that was artificially divided by an imaginary border at the behest of President Eisenhower, who later admitted that had the election scheduled for 1956 been allowed to take place, Ho Chi Minh would have been elected president. How does a nation commit “aggression” against itself, Mr. Burns? There was only one aggressor in this war, and it wore a flag with 13 stripes and 50 stars on its uniform. The southern “Army of the Republic of Viet Nam” (ARVN) largely consisted of conscripted, poor, frightened young men who hated being put in a position of being puppets for an invading foreign force, not believers in the need to “stop another Communist domino from falling.” To put it succinctly, there was no “noble cause” for which more than 58,000 US personnel and an unfathomable number of Southeast Asian civilians (some in Cambodia and Laos) had their lives snuffed out. Was the war a “well intentioned mistake”? With close to 600,000 US personnel (counting Naval units off the coast) deployed at the peak, that’s one massive “mistake”! Veterans For Peace, of which I am a member, launched the Vietnam Full Disclosure initiative (www.vietnamfulldisclosure.org) to try to counter the government’s distortions in trying to rewrite the history of this thoroughly sordid episode of our country’s 20th Century history. I understand that you have characterized your series as an attempt to finally heal the wounds of divisiveness over this war. In my opinion, these wounds can never be healed without a full admission by the US government of its crimes in Southeast Asia, an official apology to its victims–which include American veterans, of course–and the payment of adequate reparations to the Southeast Asian nations affected. What is truly sad to observe is that the course of US military adventures since 1975 reflects a remarkable ability to learn nothing from past experience! If there is to be any roundtable discussion of your Vietnam War project at its conclusion, as part of the series itself, on “The Charlie Rose Show” or any other forum, I feel very strongly that a representative of Veterans For Peace’s Vietnam Full Disclosure campaign merits a place at the table. That is the best way to ensure that “all sides of the story” are presented to the public. July 11, 2017 in U.S. Military, US Military, US Politics, war. Tags: ARVN, Cambodia, Ho Chi Minh, Ken Burns, Venerans for Peace, Vietnam, Vietnam Veterans Ken Burns Just Ripped Me Off! How the U.S. Could Have “Won” the Vietnam War (1982) — Updated A Modest Proposal for the Next Presidential Visit to Vietnam ← Will Democrats Help Republicans Gut Obamacare? An Awakening! It Can Happen Here… → 115 thoughts on “Vietnam Redux: An Open Letter to Ken Burns” Brian Victoria says: Thank you for saying what so badly needed to be said. May all of us who understand what you have articulated so well, work together to see that the truth about the Vietnam War is finally admitted, and atoned for, by the US government. It will not, and has not been an easy task, but it must be done if the nation that we love is ever to “wake up” to its past (and present!) There is no other way to a better future for the citizens of our country and the world. With deepest appreciation, Brian Victoria wjastore says: The Vietnam War (American version) was both mistake and crime. What’s disconcerting is the emphasis on the war as an “American tragedy,” when it was a horrific tragedy inflicted upon the peoples of Southeast Asia (Vietnamese, Laotians, Cambodians). Yes, of course American troops suffered and died in large numbers, yet Southeast Asian casualties were perhaps 50 times as great. Along with the wanton killing came the poisoning of the environment with defoliants like Agent Orange, which still harm people today; furthermore, mines and other unexploded ordnance continue to kill people today in Southeast Asia. In this sense, the killing from that war still isn’t over. It’s a series that’s certain to generate controversy because the war will always remain controversial. This is partly because, as Greg says, the U.S. government has taken to whitewashing the worst aspects of this war. Especially egregious is the “stab in the back” myth that suggests the government and “hippie” anti-war protesters kept the military from winning the war, when it was the government that conspired to commit troops to a war that should never have been fought, and on false pretenses ( e.g. the Gulf of Tonkin, an attack that never happened). The “hippies” had it right. What amazes me is how the peoples of SE Asia have largely forgiven Americans, even as they haven’t forgotten. If another country did to us what we did to SE Asia, would we show the same generosity and grace to forgive? greglaxer says: Thanks, Bill. I have been “at war” with this mentality that “we coulda won if only our military didn’t have one hand tied behind its back by politicians” for a long, long time. I have an answer for it in the Epilogue to my memoir. Oops, I really ought to put the final touches on that and try to find a publisher! Greg: I’m aware of only “one hand” that was tied: the nuclear weapons hand. Other than that, the U.S. used virtually every weapon in its arsenal in SE Asia. It became a test/proving ground for all sorts of weapons and concepts, from “smart” weapons and electronic fences and sensors to horrendous pounding by “conventional” bombs to war on the environment using defoliants and massive bulldozers to … well .., you know the story. All sorts of pacification theories were tested as well, along with COIN and “small wars” and unconventional tactics to search and destroy to Vietnamization to … well … again, you know the story. SE Asia became a laboratory and its peoples became lab rats. Michael Murry says: Ah, yes. “Vietnamization.” The French called this American military policy, “yellowing the corpses.” I think of it often as I have watched (from afar this time) “Iraqification” and “Afghanization” unfold, unwind, unfold, unwind, … unfold … every year now for going on sixteen years. I call the present version of the policy “browning the bodies.” Eleven years ago, I just heard the same old bullshit refrains rattling around in my head like television advertising slogans for some ersatz product that I didn’t need and couldn’t afford. You know: those … Jaded, Jingoistic Jingles Someone else would choose, they said, Those by whom we’d soon be led Johnson? Nixon? who could tell? Both pledged not to give us hell Either way they picked the scam We got more of Vietnam Vote the Repugs; vote the Dems Fall for their same stratagems Vote them out then vote them back Then get even more Iraq Don’t require to see the plan Just have some Afghanistan Don’t suppose they think you dumb Just that your soft head’s gone numb Lost your job? Laid off? Been fired? Tax your kids before they’re hired If it’s an election year Count on them to flog some fear Weddings by the queers, you say? Pregnant women gone astray? Immigrants out cutting lawns? Burning flags while Congress yawns? Hooked on gas and credit cards? Just acquire some more canards Fight them there; don’t fight them here Don’t observe the danger near Culture war and backlash, too That’s all they intend for you Watch them on your TV tube Buy their bullshit retail, rube Need some Bill to feel your pain? Crooked talk straight from McCain? Don’t thank them and don’t thank me Thank your own stupidity Michael Murry, “The Misfortune Teller,” Copyright 2006 Mike–With all the smoke and dust in the air about the Trump Clan’s dealings with Russkies, I didn’t see wide media attention here (i.e. in the US) to a story the NY Times reported Monday. Seems Trump floated a trial balloon about turning Afghanistan over largely to private security contractors. I see two advantages he’s envisioning: 1.) rewards (Federal government contracts) for his business cronies; 2.) no need for accountability for atrocities committed, since ops will be “out of government hands.” What do the good ol’ boys (and smattering of gals) in the brass hats at the Pentagon think of this? Only time will tell. MJ Olson says: I haven’t had the courage to go back yet, but family, friends, and acquaintances who have all say the Vietnamese people treated them wonderfully. Some, including international pilots said it is the best place in the world to visit. I can not imagine we could do the same, ever. “…remarkable, considering how long the war lasted and how intensely it was reported and commented upon, that there are really not very many lessons from our experience in Vietnam that can be usefully applied elsewhere …” — Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in a 1975 memo to President Gerald Ford (quoted by Andrew Bacevich in Washington Rules Let’s Already Do It Again Let’s write with no ink in the pen On the paper no trace of the egg on our face Let’s start on our very next loss With a coin and some dice and a toss Let’s forget this here game where we’ve come up so lame The next time around we’ll be boss Let’s hurry to do it again With the chorus still shouting “Amen!” Before we can think of the fact that we stink Let’s pour on the perfume and then… Let’s you and him get in a fight Then we’ll get involved for a night Helping out here and there, we’ll of course gladly share What was yours that we’ve “earned” with our might The brass needs a billet or two And some soldiers in order to screw A few jumbo jets and they’ve got no regrets Not with CNN asking their view They “can do,” you see, though they can’t Rhetorically venting their rant They talk a good show then the battle they slow Making “long time” the footprint they plant A “journey,” they say, not a “race” Attempting to save naked face In four* years and more, they’ve produced a “long war” Of their “victory” — no sign or trace Let’s unlearn our history now And not ask about why or how While still sort of numb and sufficiently dumb Let’s not any learning allow We failed in Vietnam before Despite all the blood, guts, and gore Yet no fortune’s vast for our leadership caste To squander on warbucks galore A syndrome we need to construct To conceal the true fact that we’re fucked Our governing group has just stepped in the poop Now they’ve got to deny that they’ve sucked We need war to prop up the few Who really have nothing to do Their lack of a skill means that others must kill To produce all the “metrics” they skew The Worst and the Dullest, they paint Every failure with their smell and taint In a rut or a groove, they have set out to prove What Tweedledee said “isn’t” ain’t We’ve got the worst leadership team: A truly mad, nightmarish scream But screwing the pooch while a backside they smooch To them seems like just a wet dream Wherever they came from, who knows? Incompetence in them just grows They get us bombed stiff then they jump off a cliff Demonstrating what already shows We just hung a man in Iraq Once gone, though, we can’t get him back Now without any rope, down the slippery slope Our excuses get ever more slack They talk of a “spike” and a “surge” All to cover a fear and an urge They’ve shot our last wad, now they’ve left it to “GAWD” To figure out where next to splurge They’ve had all the time that they need To knock off the bullshit and screed With their flat learning curve, they’ve one hell of a nerve To demand more sick bodies to bleed This ain’t good and it’s got to stop Whatever they try at they flop If left at the helm they’ll just wreck the whole realm In planting their dragon’s teeth crop So let us dismiss these vile men Now mainly less rooster than hen Before they can blow what at sundown they crow: “Let’s already do it again!” Good work, Greg. You can count on me to hold up my part of the conversation, in both prose and verse. I followed the link in your article, but I can’t view the promotional videos due to the fact that I live here in Taiwan. I can get the PBS Newshour on the Internet, but I don’t know if they will provide any access to the Ken Burns films or not. Time will tell. Anyway, PBS already did this once before. From Wikipedia: Vietnam: A Television History (1983) is a 13-part American documentary and television mini-series about the Vietnam War (1955-1975) from the perspective of the United States. It was produced for public television by WGBH-TV in Boston and was originally broadcast on PBS between October 4 and December 20, 1983. Eleven of the 13 episodes were rebroadcast (2 and 13 were dropped) as part of the series American Experience from May 26 to July 28, 1997. Vietnam: A Television History was the most successful documentary produced by PBS up to the time of initial broadcast. Nearly 9% of American households tuned in to watch the initial episode, and an average of 9.7 million viewers watched each of the 13 episodes. A rebroadcast in the summer of 1984 garnered roughly a 4% share in the five largest U.S. television markets. I wonder if Ken Burns consulted the previous PBS documentary, or Stanley Karnow’s companion book to the series, Vietnam, A History: the First Complete Account of Vietnam at War. As well, if he hasn’t read and studied Nick Turse’s fine book Kill Anything That Moves: the Real American War in Vietnam (Metropolitan Books, 2013), then he will indeed probably whitewash a great deal of the sordid story. I hope he doesn’t do this. Which reminds me of another book written by David Halberstam who did a great deal of reporting from the rice paddies and meandering jungle trails with the grunts out on their “search and destroy” patrols. A lot of searching, not much finding, but a great deal of destroying. Mr Halberstam won the Pulitzer Prize in 1964 for his reporting from South Vietnam. In 1967, he published a novel entitled, One Very Hot Day, which accurately portrayed a typical U.S./ARVN patrol which ran into a typical ambush which produced the typical “friendly” casualties, one or two dead “insurgents” for the body-count statistics, no enemy automatic weapons captured, and the air force finally arriving once the engagement had already broken off. Not one to pass up the chance to detonate surplus ordnance once finally made available, the U.S. Army captain/advisor instructs the chain-of-command where to have the incoming pilots lay their explosive eggs: “I want it all over the goddamn place. I want it where they were supposed to get us, and I want it north, because they’ll probably head north, and you tell the zoomies that if they see anything moving, any mother’s sons, white pajamas, black pajamas, no pajamas to zap their goddamn yellow ass. Anything moves, kill it. I’ll take the responsibility.” I wonder how much of this filthy reality Ken Burns will attempt to show, or if PBS will allow him to show it even if he wanted to do so. One last thing. It doesn’t take 20 to 30 years to recognize a bloody stupid bungle in the jungle. An hour after arriving at Tan Son Nhut airport in Saigon in June of 1970 would do the trick for anyone with functioning nostrils and working eyeballs. One whiff of the fetid stench coming from rotting refugee slums, one look at the sandbags and barbed wire all over the place and I thought: “Who ever called this fucking place ‘The Paris of the Orient’?” I’d say about 20 to 30 minutes would probably suffice to explain the situation to any carbon-based life form who actually had any contact with America’s War on Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos). Those who need 20 to 30 hours probably wouldn’t understand even if you gave them a century. Certainly the last 70+ years of post WWII history would attest to the terminally flat learning curve that epitomizes the American conception of “war.” Jungles, mountains, deserts: it makes no difference. When someone said to Daniel Ellsberg, “Iraq is not Vietnam,” my fellow Vietnam veteran replied: “Yeah. Like in Iraq it’s a dry heat, and the language that our military and civilian officials don’t speak is Arabic instead of Vietnamese.” Again, good work, Greg. Ken Burns has apparently finished his documentary, so I doubt if he will change any of it now in response to your letter. Still, a good panel discussion would help if it included Daniel Ellsberg and reference to his own interview in 2009 with The Real News Network: From Vietnam to Afghanistan. To any interested person, I would recommend viewing this interview — and saving its transcript for future reference — before watching any other program dealing with Vietnam. Thanks, Mike. I never bothered with “Vietnam: A Television History.” I tend to not commit the necessary time to “mini-series,” including fictional ones. There was also, quite a few years back, “Vietnam: The 10,000 Day War.” I sought out (purchased on tape) two episodes of that, the one dealing with the final days of the war, and “the war on the homefront.” I found those reasonably fair, but never pursued the rest of the series. I feel I’m going to have to commit to absorbing the Burns treatment in its entirety, though. I need to be clear that my open letter expresses my concerns about what I “suspect” the series will be like, or perhaps better to say, what I fear it will neglect. In all fairness, I cannot yet criticize it, and have to leave open the possibility I will end up actually praising it. Only time will tell. traven, you invite, I accept. As in your war, there were many reasons Vietnam-era personnel stood Courts Martial – refusing lawful orders being one, barracks thief being another. I put no credence in the author’s story because it seeks to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. Imagine living life as a known coward. Also, “did it for noble purpose” raises a great moral question: Did the soldier who deployed to Vietnam in Laxer’s stead live or die? By the way, ARVN fielded some damn good soldiers. Shame we abandoned them while the Soviets and Chinese continued to support theirs. traven says: Walter.. Good to hear from you again. You always get my 93 year old heart pumping again. First off it is very offensive to call someone who opposed the Vietnam war a coward just because they happened to be in the army at the time. It takes a lot of moral courage to oppose a powerful government’s actions if you are in the military. That is what the Nuremburg trials were about. From Goering, Head of the Luftwaffe to the lowly commandants of Auschwitz they claimed they were just “obeying orders”. They were hung for showing no moral courage. Let me also say from personal experience that as an unsophisticated 18 year old in 1943 I looked down my nose at the three categories of draft age men who could avoid the war; 4F (medical), LS (limited service for physical reasons) and war work. It took me many years to realize how foolish I was especially when I was in my forties and my best friend who ended up as Nixon’s chief pollster told me he was LS because of poor eyesight. . Because we didn’t learn the real lesson of that war of choice we let a bunch of “chicken hawk” politicians and careerist military get us into a perpetual series of illegal wars that have left the middle east , the Asian sub continent, northern Africa in chaos.,Europe overrun with refugees, and our economy a shambles with 2% of our population controlling over 40% of our wealth and able to buy our political system. There is little moral value in War. Although I feel WW II was a necessary war for our country and I am proud of my service I now begin to see how the moral status we earned for our country throughout the world from that war has been misused by subsequent generations of our supposed “leaders.” I might add a small reminder to all who give unmitigated support to our leaders decision to invade Vietnam, that North Vietnam never attacked or declared war on the US before we invaded. In no way can it be excused as similar to WW II where three powerful land, sea and air navies from large nations attacked and declared war on us.. Traven. Your war good; Vietnam War, bad. Got it. It’s been my experience that those who talk the most about Vietnam, did the least. (The Vietnam War did vomit up more than its share of fakes an fabricators!) A few years ago there was a local news story on a guy claiming to have been so good at flying Cobras in Vietnam that he was recalled to duty to fly Apaches in Afghanistan. Turns out the guy did serve honorably in Vietnam – as a supply clerk – and hadn’t worn the uniform since. The editors fell for that one, hook, line, and sinker. Anyway, my question stands. Did the soldier the Army ordered to Vietnam in your author’s place, live or die? Walter–I’m replying to you before catching up on other recent comments here. NO ONE was sent to ‘Nam “in my place.” And my stance was simple: NO ONE should obey orders to participate in a criminal, genocidal war. Fakes? Sure. Stuff happens. Beyond my control. How do we know YOU really rose from Private to General?? Over and out… No Walter.. “Your war (WW II) good Vietnam War bad” What I am saying is ‘My war was necessary, Vietnam was a war of choice” Big difference. Kennedy decided to escalate Vietnam and after consulting Cardinal Spellman in NY they decided in addition to escalation to fight “falling dominos” to install a Catholic ( Diem) as President of this Buddhist country. Then along came LBJ and using the phony “Tonkin Gulf incident” as an excuse further escalated our involvement. My general position is that all war is bad. WW II was avoidable if the British and the French had not connived to punish Germany after the war by levying heavy reparations on an already bankrupt country thus creating the social resentment that fueled the rise of Fascism. As far as answering your question “.Did the soldier in the Army ordered to Vietnam in your authors place live or die”. I will say this: People like Greg in the army refused to go were part of the broader citizen antiwar effort that ultimately forced the government to pull out of this disaster and thus saved many thousands of young American draftees lives. And today we negotiate with China ( thanks to Nixon’s initiative) and Vietnam enjoys a healthy trade with the U.S.. traven–In Christian Appy’s book (cited in another of my comments), there is extensive material concerning one Dr. Tom Dooley. This was history I’d been unaware of. This fine gentleman apparently invented tales of persecution, including torture, of Vietnamese Catholics (Catholicism having been part of the legacy of the French colonialism, of course) in the northern part of the country. This led to encouragement (herding) of Catholics toward the south. These tall tales were spread by publications like Readers Digest and (probably) National Geographic. I know the latter was a cheerleader for US intervention in Southeast Asia, and the former was always politically “conservative.” So a staunch anti-communist like Cardinal Spellman would have eaten this stuff up and rattled his own saber in favor of military action. Another dandy irony: being an avowed Catholic did not save Diem from CIA assassination a few weeks before the sitting Catholic US President went down the same way. I had a feeling Walter the general might show up here. My comment to him is precisely what his comment merits: NO COMMENT. Always good to hear from you Walter. You seldom have anything worthwhile to contribute, but few people contribute little-to-nothing as revealingly as you. For example, your use of the possessive pronoun “theirs” at the end of your comment indicates that you assume some sort of foreign ownership of the Vietnamese: like the Soviets and the Chinese had “their” Vietnamese and we Americans had “ours.” Certainly, the Vietnamese (from all parts of the country) who have struggled for centuries to win their national independence — something that the United States refuses to acknowledge or tolerate in any nation other than itself — accepted any aid and support that they could get. The Vietnamese would have gladly accepted aid from the United States against the French had we offered any such support. They certainly asked us for it. But we preferred to help France reconquer Vietnam after the end of World War II, which put us on the wrong side of history as the second half of the twentieth century witnessed a wave of long-suppressed national independence movements that no force on earth could deny. Still, we Americans tried to deny the inevitable anyway and predictably failed. You really seem not to understand any of this. A little history lesson: The Chinese, throughout the centuries, have had one over-riding principle of statecraft: “Use barbarians to control barbarians.” From the Chinese point of view, having Vietnamese barbarians battle American barbarians suited China’s purposes just fine. The Vietnamese understood this, and deeply resented it, but had little choice. They had to take military and economic and political support from wherever they could get it, first against the French and then against the Americans. The Soviets, for their part, had something of a rivalry going with China in the Communist world and could not afford to show less support for fellow Vietnamese communists than China. Anyway, both China and the Soviet Union could read history and knew that the American barbarians, like the French barbarians before them, would fail at suppressing Vietnamese national independence at great and debilitating cost to America, and this certainly seemed like a worthwhile foreign policy objective from their point of view. Furthermore, as an unearned bonus for the Soviets and Chinese, the Americans would do the awful damage to themselves for no good reason; nothing but what H. L. Menken called “The strife of the parties at Washington.” He meant by this, of course, simple opportunistic partisanship in America’s asinine political asylum. Vietnam, China, and Russia actually had nothing at all to do with why the United States blundered into Southeast Asia and ruined itself there. The Republicans needed a political club with which to beat up on the Democrats and the hapless, browbeaten Democrats caved in to the beating. Simple as that. You would do well not to confuse the consequence of domestic political/economic corporatism in America — namely, American Imperial Militarism — with its venal, mundane, and bureaucratic/careerist causes. As the failed and discredited Nixon presidency taught us: “Follow the Money.” That explains everything that anyone might wish to know about the United States. In summary, then, no one can claim to own or control the Vietnamese simply by supplying them with aid of one sort or the other. They have their own national interests and understand them with tenacious clarity. They have fought the Chinese, the Japanese, the French, and the Americans for their independence and feel justifiably proud of their achievements. The American military suffered a well-deserved defeat in Southeast Asia — as it will in the middle east today — because our genius generals thought — and still, apparently, think — that they could shoot and kill and idea whose time has come. Nothing “brave” or “courageous” about that. Most of the developed world considers it simply — and devastatingly — stupid. Who in their right mind would ever want to fight and die for demonstrable stupidity? Anyone who protests and refuses to go along with that horrible stupidity has my full understanding and support. Anyone who champions that wantonly destructive stupidity has made of me an implacable opponent for life. The editor of this website may spank me for “getting too personal” (though being called a coward was slightly personal!), but we need to bear in mind that Walter claims to have risen from Private to General (the latter in the Reserves, as I recall his own telling of the tale). I think this is prima facie evidence that he saluted anything his superiors ran up the flagpole. No, you don’t rise from Private to General in the US military by questioning authority in general (no pun!) or having pangs of conscience over policy. Indeed, conscience is to be checked at the entrance door. Well said, Greg. As the list of comments grows longer, I sometimes wonder if my replies will associate themselves with the comment I wish to address. What I have to say here relates to your statement about “getting too personal” in response to Reserve General Walter’s characterization of you as a “coward” for refusing deployment to the now-defunct Republic of Vietnam sometime in the mid-to-late 1960s. Yes, that does seem rather personal, if not insulting, but I think you have hit on the right response by analyzing what could possibly have produced such views as Reserve General Walter frequently espouses in this forum. I have spent some time this morning thinking along those same lines: namely, that you have to understand a few things about what serving time in the U.S. military does to an otherwise “normal” person, especially one just graduating from high school during the enormous escalation of U.S. military involvement in the now-defunct Republic of South Vietnam. Still, one can understand the poor savage and empathize with his plight without wishing to see savagery spread over any more of the earth than it already has. Forgive me, but I just can’t work up any compassion for the cruel. Moving right along, I had intended to begin my own response to Reserve General Walter with the following two epigrams: “I ain’t got nothing against no Viet Cong. No Viet Cong ever called me ‘nigger.'” — Professional boxer Muhammad Ali refusing conscription into the U.S. Army “What cause have I to war at thy decree? The distant Trojans never injured me.” — Homer, The Iliad These two statements, separated by thousands of years of human history, express precisely the same sentiment: namely, that kings and princes and presidents and parliaments will condemn their subjects (or citizens) to every conceivable suffering for the most trivial and pointless — if not patently criminal — of “reasons.” And they will do this in almost every case by invoking the shadow of some evil specter and flogging their frightened people into making “war” upon it. These venal and vainglorious “wars” require military establishments willing to do the killing, maiming, raping and looting that the posturing potentate du jour proclaims a “vital” (meaning, our self-proclaimed “rulers” to do anything but feather their own nests requires a credulity, if not gullibility, that I simply cannot muster. So, to our newest Commander-in-Brief and his “mad dog” military minions I say: “Shame on you, just on general principles; and don’t even try to fool me once.” I’ll have more to say on this topic, later. But that ought to do it for now. FTN. FTA. FTMC. FTAF. P.S. Have you seen pictures of what the “liberated” Iraqi city of Mosul looks like after nine months of bombardment by the “U.S.-led coalition”? Reminds me of Hiroshima, Japan, after the atomic bombing of 1945 or Hue, Vietnam, after the U.S. marines levelled the city following the Tet Offensive of 1968. Same old same old U.S. military. “We had to destroy the village in order to save it.” Salvation through slaughter. Nope. No sympathy for the savage. Not from me. Mike–Yes, when I saw the ruins of Mosul I thought immediately of that brilliant colonel (or whatever his rank was), speaking on behalf of the military establishment, explaining to the press the “need” to destroy that Vietnamese village in order to “save it.” And speaking of venality, it’s hard to top the “Global War on Terror”! Invade Afghanistan (never mind its reputation as Graveyard of Empires!) because the Taliban, who supposedly governed in 2001, refused to turn over Osama bin-Laden, who was allegedly holed up in a cave on that side of the Pakistan-Afghan border. And then keep fumbling and bumbling, and trying to justify your presence there, through another two presidencies (thus far). Imperial hubris is really an inadequate label for the US’s brilliant approach in this arena. And don’t say you weren’t warned, America: it was made public from the outset that THIS WAR HAS NO KNOWN END DATE!! Sorry for the mangled second-to-last paragraph, but I meant to say: “… a “vital” (meaning, “a matter of life and death”) priority for the tribe, or race, or nation: whatever one wants to call the community or body politic in question. Expecting our self-proclaimed “rulers” to do anything but feather their own nests requires a credulity, if not gullibility, that I simply cannot muster. So, to our newest Commander-in-Brief and his “mad dog” military minions I say: “Shame on you, just on general principles; and don’t even try to fool me once.” There. I hope that fixes things. I borrow and paraphrase a retort to your author’s claim that no one went to Vietnam in his stead: “He must be stupid or something.” As to you estimate that such “heroes” saved the lives of thousands of draftees, you’re wrong. Late in the war, before Congress abandoned the South Vietnamese, the only large US units still active were all-volunteer Air Force and Army (helo units in particular). ARVN was fighting well and only needed what their own AF and helo units could not provide – and because we pulled the plug, hundreds of thousands of South Vietnamese died in re-education camps and while trying to escape on rickety boats. I sense you don’t like yellow people – unless they are the communist kind. I wish you luck on what you are trying to do. However, the C.P. Kool-Aid is more than I can handle. Walt: Yes, some ARVN units fought well, but many did not. Also, recall that Nixon and Kissinger had both concluded that the Vietnam War was lost. (Their conversations on tape prove this.) All they were looking for was a “decent interval” between a peace treaty (“peace with honor”) and what they saw as the inevitable collapse. They got that decent interval of roughly 2.5 years. The Congressional decision to cut off funding was convenient for the Nixon/Kissinger acolytes, since it allowed them to shift the blame to Congress as well as to the usual suspect elements in American society, i.e. the peaceniks. It’s essential that people realize that Nixon and Kissinger knew the war was a lost cause no later than 1969. Everything that came afterwards was a CYA exercise. Many U.S. troops paid a high price indeed for a “decent interval” — and many, many, more people in SE Asia also paid that same price. Walter–Virtually everyone with my MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) was destined for orders to Vietnam, so your contention that some specific individual had to “replace” me–one of scores of thousands of troops who said to hell with this BS, and the officers in charge of it, during that war–remains absurd. I won’t argue against your statement that the US abandoned the ARVN. But it was the determination of the Vietnamese people to rid themselves of foreign aggressors that defeated your military, Mr. General. But you’d rather find a million excuses than admit to that reality. If your closing statement is an intimation to the editor of this site that you’re bailing, I won’t shed any tears. And for the record: I am not now and have never been a member of the Communist Party! I imagine “traven” would say the same for himself, though I see no need for him to have to resort to that. Here’s the reference: Having watched the recent HBO documentary Nixon by Nixon: In His Own Words, it’s now glaringly obvious that the Vietnam War was unwinnable. Indeed, that’s precisely what Nixon and Kissinger (secretly) concluded. As they talked publicly about “peace with honor,” Nixon and Kissinger were privately conceding that the war was lost. They were looking only to deflect blame from themselves, for “a decent interval” between when US troops withdrew and when South Vietnam collapsed, which is exactly what they got — roughly three years, by which time Nixon had resigned in disgrace due to Watergate. Nixon and Kissinger also cast about for scapegoats; at the time, they planned to blame the inevitable defeat on the corruption of South Vietnamese leaders. Where do you get your information from, Walter? Marvel Comics? You wrote: “Late in the war, before Congress abandoned the South Vietnamese, the only large US units still active were all-volunteer Air Force and Army (helo units in particular). ARVN was fighting well and only needed what their own AF and helo units could not provide.” You don’t specify exactly when you mean by “late in the war,” but as Barbara Tuchman writes in The March of Folly: from Troy to Vietnam: “In 1971, ARVN forces with American air support but without American ground forces, invaded Laos in a repeat of the Cambodian operation. The cost of “Vietnamization” for ARVN proved to be 50 percent casualty rate, with the added impression that they were now fighting and dying to permit Americans to depart. This was reinforced by Washington’s tendency to herald all operations as designed to “save American lives.” Anti-Americanism spread, and with it undercover cooperation with the the NLF and open demands for a political compromise. Protest movements revived – this time against Thieu in place of Diem. Morale among the remaining American forces sank, with units avoiding or refusing combat, wide use of drugs, and – something new to the American Army – cases of “fragging,” or murder by hand grenade, of officers and NCOs.” The operation in question had a name: Lam Son 719. You can look it up on Wikipedia if you like. I spent the second half of 1970 and all of 1971 in South Vietnam as part of Nixon-and-Kissinger’s “Vietnamization” program concocted by U.S. Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird. I remember seeing pictures of panic-stricken ARVN soldiers hanging from the skids of U.S. helicopters as they fled from the mauling they received by regular NVA troops waiting to them along the trails of Laos. So much for that “ARVN was fighting well” bullshit. I left South Vietnam at the end of January, 1972, and by the end of that year, all U.S. ground forces had withdrawn — i.e., had retreated — from South Vietnam. This means that, for the last three years of the American intervention (1973-1975), no “large U.S. forces” (volunteer or otherwise) remained in Vietnam. Yes, the U. S. bombing of Vietnam (north and south) continued, but did so from offshore U.S. Navy carriers and B-52 bomber bases in Thailand and Guam. Once the U.S. ground forces had safely retreated from South Vietnam, the American people pretty much stopped caring about how many bombs we dropped or on whom. The out-of-control financial bleeding, however, could not continue. Somebody would have to pay for all the planes and bombs and pilot replacements for those shot down and taken prisoners of war. No one in either Congress or the White House wanted to raise taxes or train more expensive pilots for any more bombing of Vietnam. So you can prattle on all you want about the period “late in the war” but you don’t seem to really know much about your subject matter. Try using a little common sense. If the U.S. military ever had any confidence in the ARVN, then the ARVN wouldn’t have needed our “advice” in the first place. The Vietnamese largely ignored our advice, anyway. What good had it ever done them? Certainly the NLF and the NVA didn’t require any assistance from us Americans. How come the local losers always do? Does the phrase “kiss of death” mean anything to you? As well, the U.S. military wouldn’t have massively invaded the southern part of Vietnam with half a million men if they had any confidence in the ARVN. In fact, the U.S. military had no confidence in the ARVN at all. The more advice and material support we Americans heaped upon the various “musical chairs” Saigon regimes, the more they figured: “OK. So you guys do it. What does any of this have to do with us? You just want to use us as proxy bullet catchers in your ideological struggle with the Soviets and Chinese whom you don’t have the balls to fight yourselves.” As one Vietnamese official told an American adviser: “If you Americans want to be in Vietnam so much, then wait until your next life and perhaps you’ll be reborn Vietnamese.” I could go on all night, Walter, but I think I’ve more than made my point. As for the U.S. Congress finally doing the job that the Founders of our Republic had envisioned for it: namely, using the power of the purse to regain civilian control over a Commander-in-Brief and military establishment run amok, I would call that their finest hour. I recall retired U.S. Army colonel — and self-styled “conservative” — Andrew Bacevich in one of his many books stating that he had voted for every Democrat he could locate in the 2006 mid-term elections in the hope that another Democratic-controlled Congress would do their Constitutional job once more and cut off funding for the latest U.S. military debacles in Iraq and Afghanistan. But no such luck. Once back in power in Congress, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats “took impeachment off the table” and started signing blank rubber checks in the billions for Deputy Dubya and The Dick to squander doing their worst Nixon and Kissinger imitations. As the jaded bar girls on Tu Do (freedom) Street in Saigon used to jeer at the broke and hard-up GIs: “No money, no honey!” A lesson that the U.S. military needs to relearn before it bankrupts the nation, if it hasn’t already. Mike–If you look at the official US Government Debt figure, and the amount the annual interest on it costs the US taxpayer, can there be the least doubt that we’ve been technically bankrupt (leaving aside moral bankruptcy for the moment!) for a long time? And of course one of Trump’s first acts in office was to demand a 10% increase in the war budget!! And I believe GOP Members of Congress decided to boost the figure beyond that! This is the cost of desiring to be The Only Superpower/Policeman of a Whole Planet. Mandated by God Himself to be so, if you query the most moronic of “our” elected officials!! And Mr. and Mrs. America swallow all this BS in the name of Patriotism, Defending Our Freedoms/Way of Life, and National Security. How much lower in the Annals of Human Stupidity can the USA sink??? Blabberwocky (@afubarrafter) says: Michael Murry, I will add a little bit a clarification to your points about Lam Son 719. I was thoroughly enmeshed in the USAF intel world as a NVN linguist. For months prior to the assault us folks monitoring ground communications in Laos we’d all heard a marked increase in the use of both open air and encoded invectives concerning being watchful and preparing for an attack by the “pirate puppet forces (ARVN)” and “pirate pilots” (USAF). In the brilliant “need to know” intelligence world of towered knowledge, we had no idea of the planned attack until the Stars and Stripes headlines came out. The initial press was all about blitzkrieg brilliance and success of 30,000 invaders plus US air power charging to Tchepone to cut communication land lines (news to us that a ‘vital’ line was severed and communications were disrupted). At first it was all about how effective overwhelming force was in warfare. I had quite a few conversations with peers at the time, plain old shop talk in the super-secret world. We all knew about the NVN status of forces and their capabilities in Laos; after all, it was our job. I don’t know of anyone who was anything less that stunned and extremely alarmed at what we knew was an inevitable disaster. By the third day, when Tchepone was captured, our guesstimate was that NVN could marshal at least 60,000 and as many as 100,000 NVN regulars a day to the area given at least 500,000 troops within 100 miles and that reinforcement from North Viet Nam could rapidly handle the logistics. It was obvious that the ARVN were headed into a virtual box canyon in the jungle, that a massacre was inevitable when the door was shut. You won’t see official numbers this high, but the enlisted ranks saw the outnumbering virtually doubling by day reaching somewhere between 6 and 10:1 when the blood bath started and wiped out about half of the attacking forces. In spite of the pictures of ARVN falling from helicopters as they hung on to landing rails, the Nixonian line was that “Vietnamization” was proven at Lam Son 719 in spite of predictable setbacks so the strategy of “peace with honor” could proceed. Fifteen thousand allies sent to die was merely a “setback” in US diplomatic parlance. Or, as another (insufficiently circulated, in my opinion) contemporary slogan pointed out to clueless Americans: “They may be Viet Cong, but THEY LIVE THERE!” :-) Walter, as a combat vet, I will reply. I did go, and ended up as a linguist. One single piece of intel I collected got a Buffy carpet bomb strike painted on a target. “At least 1/2 were wiped out” was the BDA assessment. Oh yes, of what … a field hospital bivouac of at least 3,000 soldiers on Bác Hồ’s trail. Devil is in the detail. No doubt women, children, water buffalo, dogs, chickens as well as sick and injured. After a lifetime of PTSD-driven alcoholism, my crippy buddy who broke out (decoded) the 4 figure I intercepted in the belly of an RC-135, the Combat Apple, committed suicide over guilt from this “incident.” My Lai was ho-hum as far as numbers from brutal executions go. There were many horrors of all kinds by many over there. So, I did go, coward that I am, and many DID die because of it. Walter, I won’t be polite and offer no comment, you are a sanctimonious donkey-hole. Chris Knudson says: At which point along the continuum does a person become responsible for facilitating and or being complicit in war crimes and crimes against humanity in wars based on lies? The US war in Viet Nam was one gigantic war crime based on a lie. Those who refused to join and or fight in such a war were the only honorable ones… I learned about lying U.S. presidents and their military masters early in life. In the first semester of my senior year of high school (Fall, 1964) incumbent President Lyndon Johnson ran for election in a country that still had bitter memories of President Harry Truman’s “Police Action” in Korea, the supposedly “forgotten war.” News had begun to filter out into the public consciousness of U.S. military “advisers” taking casualties in a far away place called Vietnam, a “country” with which few, if any, Americans had the slightest acquaintance. Knowing full well of this growing public unease at the prospect of yet another bungle in another Asian jungle, candidate Johnson assured us all that he “would not send American boys to fight a war that Asian boys could fight for themselves.” The Republican candidate, Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater, campaigned on a platform of bombing North Vietnam back into the stone age, even should that mean the use of nuclear weapons. The Johnson campaign deployed one of the most famous and effective television attack adds ever conceived: the image of an innocent little blonde girl looking wide eyed into the camera as it zoomed in on her little blue eyes in which the viewing audience could see an exploding mushroom cloud. The American public chose President Johnson in a landslide. The American people had spoken. “No war in any place called Vietnam.” Or so the American people thought. Yet, as Stanley Karnow informs us in his book Vietnam, a History: the First Complete Account of Vietnam at War (New York: Viking Press, 1983; Penguin Books, 1984), President Johnson and his military masters had already made other plans. They wanted a war and didn’t give a tinker’s damn what the American people wanted. Even as we potential enlisted casualties breathed a sigh of relief thinking that we had not only dodged a bullet, but most likely tens of thousands of them, our President had already betrayed us. As we found out too late from Stanley Karnow: [President Lyndon] Johnson subscribed to the adage that “wars are too serious to be entrusted to generals.” He knew, as he once put it, that armed forces “need battles and bombs and bullets in order to be heroic,” and that they would drag him into a military conflict if they could. But he also knew that Pentagon lobbyists, among the best in the business, could persuade conservatives in Congress to sabotage his social legislation unless he satisfied their demands. As he girded himself for the 1964 presidential campaign, he was especially sensitive to the jingoists who might brand him “soft on communism” were he to back away from the challenge in Vietnam. So, politician that he was, he assuaged the brass and the braid with promises he may never have intended to keep. At a White House reception on Christmas Eve 1963, for example, he told the Joint Chiefs of Staff: “Just let me get elected, and you can have your war.” Sick, lying bastards. But I didn’t have to wait until 1983 to read about what Johnson and his generals had cooked up for me and my cohort of young American men. No sooner had President Johnson won reelection than he started pumping American military “boys” (literally) into Southeast Asia by the thousands to fight the war that he had said — correctly — that Asian boys could fight for themselves. It did not take me long to appreciate that old joke about the Irishman who walks by a pub and sees two drunks brawling in the gutter. He bends over the curb and asks them: “Is this a private fight, or can anyone join in?” Like the Irishman in the joke, the U.S. military cannot abide the thought of anyone else on earth getting into fight without letting American generals and admirals getting a piece of the action. I learned that lesson early in life and never forgot or forgave. It does not surprise me in the least that the U.S. military brass has successfully bullied nearly every post-war American president into fighting someone, somewhere, without ever once having the U.S. Congress or Courts demand either a declaration of war or an immediate cessation of American military hostilities. In other words, the U.S. Constitution has only worked twice in 70+ years: namely, when the U.S. Congress (1) drove Vice President Spiro Agnew and President Richard Nixon from office for actual criminal activity in 1974 and (2) when it cut off all funding for America’s War on Southeast Asia in 1975. A majority of Americans voted the Democrats back into power in Congress hoping for a repeat in 2006, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her corporate Democratic party took a dive right when the country needed them the most. Sick, lying bastards. The cynical, psychopathic behavior of U.S. Presidents in my lifetime — aided and abetted by their ticket-punching, fuck-up-and-move-up military masters — has left me permanently unmoved, unimpressed, and unconvinced by anything they say. If given a choice between lying and telling the truth, with no adverse consequences either way, they would lie, just to keep in practice, just so they wouldn’t forget how. Yet they continue to recklessly squander our national resources, human and financial, while basking in the sickly neon glow of a perverse Military Idolatry that holds them accountable for nothing and lavishly rewarded for anything. Surely, the last feeble refuge of a drugged and decaying empire lies just around the proverbial corner. At least now I know where all that heroin and opium from the poppies of Afghanistan has gone and why the U.S. military and CIA spend so many billions of dollars annually making sure that no one interrupts the flow of drugs and money. We had a drug epidemic during our War on Southeast Asia, too. I swear, nothing about the U.S. military and its endless, worthless, boondoggle crusades ever changes, except perhaps the location of the crimes against humanity. I wonder if Ken Burns will discuss any of this in his “Vietnam” documentary? Mike–Here’s another LBJ anecdote I heard from Andy Stapp, Chairman of the American Servicemen’s Union (of which I was a proud member and agitator for). [This does not appear in Christian Appy’s fairly recent book, “American Reckoning: The Vietnam War and Our National Identity.” In that book, which I highly recommend, Appy recounts an episode of Johnson whipping out his “johnson” in front of reporters to display his All-American macho determination to achieve victory in Vietnam!] According to Stapp, LBJ–then a US Senator from the Great State of Texas–during debate over aiding the French war against Vietnam, or picking up where France left off, stated something like “If the Communists are not defeated in Vietnam, any yellow dwarf with a pocket knife will be able to challenge us.” I can’t vouch for the authenticity of this (though I suppose it could be researched online), but does it not sound plausible? Can’t you just hear him pronouncing it “Veet-nam”? It reflects the cockiness of the times (pun intended). I’ve read several similar quotes by U.S. troops — the gist of them was, We will easily win where the French couldn’t because we are Americans. Simple as that. And, once the U.S. military machine was frustrated, it started lashing out with all of the weapons at its disposal. Nuclear weapons were considered — but fortunately were not used. With the caveat that we should reserve judgment until we’ve seen the series, I’d like to state a few things that should be obvious: 1. To Americans, Vietnam is a war. And war is a distorting and limiting lens through which to view a culture and a people. 2. The series talks about hearing voices from all sides. But will the Vietnamese people have as much say as Americans? 3. As I’ve said already, the U.S. suffered nearly 60,000 troops killed. But Vietnamese killed numbered in the millions. And the destruction to SE Asia — the spread of the war to Laos and Cambodia — was on a scale that rivaled or surpassed the destruction to the American South during the U.S. Civil War. Will that destruction be thoroughly documented and explained? In short, whose point of view will prevail in the documentary? What will be the main thread of the narrative? Will the war be presented as a tragedy? A misunderstanding? A mistake? A crime? Will the “noble cause” and “stabbed in the back” myths be given equal time in the interests of a “fair and balanced” presentation? Will human suffering take a back seat to the machinations of politicians and the machinery of war? I encourage Greg to write another article in the aftermath of watching the entire series. I’ll do my best to watch it as well. Bill A.–Yes, I’ve already affirmed the need to reserve judgment until the entire series can actually be seen. Those of us concerned about the philosophical-ideological content of Burns’s massive project, I think, are aware of the impact the series may wield on younger generations who have no direct experience of the ’60s/’70s. Will this be considered “THE Definitive History” of the war? I think that’s what Ken Burns’s ego desires! But wait, isn’t this peculiar? The advance promo materials sort of answered some of your questions in advance. Apparently Burns claims to offer NO ANSWERS (which would entail a definite perspective, a judgment if you will), only a series of questions: What really happened? Who did what to whom? Do we not already have mountains of data on that? And, in answer to another of your concerns, Bill, the promo materials state that we will hear plenty from Vietnamese themselves. Veterans, former officials, ordinary people. Again, only when September arrives (unless someone is granted advance access to the entire work) will we learn what will really appear on our TV screens. greg maybury says: G’day Folks, About 2 years ago I penned a Two parter (see links below) on America’s involvement in Vietnam – the accompanying war one in which my own country’s (Australia) then government saw fit to participate in — so I will be very interested to see what Ken Burns has to say. But of one thing there can be no doubt. The US political, NATSEC and military establishments have learned nothing from that disastrous experience. Anything short of a recognition by Burns and his producers of that one simple reality — along with a condemnation of the very mindset that prevailed to bring it about, one which as we all know still rules the roost today — will short change every one, Americans and non-Americans alike, who was ever affected by it, and who is being affected by it to this day. Greg, thanks for your impassioned post, and the heads up on this impending series. Take care mate. Best, GM. Greg Maybury poxamerikana.com http://poxamerikana.com/2015/09/04/uncle-sam-damned-in-nam-part-one/ http://poxamerikana.com/2015/09/11/uncle-sam-damned-in-nam-part-two/ A minor point: Even when we talk of the American part of the Vietnam War, there were at least four wars. The Army under Westmoreland fought a conventional, search and destroy, war. The Air Force wanted to prove that airpower alone, specifically bombing, could win the war. The Marines were more interested in counterinsurgency and pacification. The CIA and special ops types were engaged in psychological warfare, assassinations, torture, and god-knows-what-else. I hope Ken Burns’s series recognizes this. Another point. The American presence was so overwhelming by 1967-68 that the Vietnamese economy was completely distorted. We brought American materialism and profligacy to a nation that was, by comparison, impoverished and “backwards” (from our perspective, of course). Material superiority bred and fed cockiness. How can those little men in pajamas beat the combined might of the U.S. military? Well, they did, and they were helped by the dissonance in the American war effort, which often worked at cross purposes. Bill A.–And another fine point: the question should have been “How can those little men AND WOMEN in pajamas…”!! I understand that some American units in Vietnam, in zones considered “mostly safe,” were accustomed to steak and eggs for breakfast…DAILY, not for an occasional treat. Imagine how much aviation fuel was expended just to transport the supplies required by a force of more than a half-million (at peak) personnel, halfway around the globe, many flights originating from CONUS!! [That’s Continental US, for you non-veterans out there.] Not just an utter waste (though very profitable to a few, we may be certain!), but having an impact on the planet’s environment, as well. And today’s US military actions, and their wastefulness? Don’t get me started!! According to the Congressional Research Service (CRS), it now costs $3.9 million to support a single U.S. soldier or marine in Afghanistan for one year. It costs a whole lot of money to guard the world’s largest heroin producing poppy fields for those boy-buggering Afghan warlords. You’ve got to give our genius generals credit for knowing whom to back in a foreign fight they wouldn’t understand if you explained it to them in third-grade English: “You can’t do a wrong thing the right way.” Oh, well, since the American way of “war” has no other purpose than to squander America’s national treasure to prevent the working-class proles from getting their calloused hands on any of it, I suppose we ought to simplify things for the 140-character-limited Twitter crowd (which includes the current President of the United States) and just paraphrase an old toothpaste advertising jingle: “You’ll wonder where the money went, when you trust war to your government.” About the legendary corruption in South Vietnam, I could probably write a chapter in a book, if not the whole book, on that subject. I’ve even got pictures and a prospective title, The Misfortune Teller: Memoirs of a Misfit. Daniel Ellsberg had it right. Just take Vietnam and change the names to Iraqi and Afghan ones and you’ll understand immediately. Our Vaunted Visigoths, dogs-of-war-mercenaries, and corporate camp followers have done it again, as anyone could predict who knows the first little thing about them and their parasitic profligacy. But, hey, Senator Bomber-John McCain demands that we give the blundering thieves even more of what little we still have. He always does that. I’ll never forgive the North Vietnamese for releasing him from prison and inflicting him back on us. I recognize that people like him killed a few million Southeast Asians and that the Vietnamese people understandably might want to exact some justifiable revenge upon us, but giving us back John McCain to haunt the weekend pundit talk shows for four decades? I call that mean, man. Sigh. In spy school the standard intro briefing to us newly minted linguists got into Vietnam’s ancient history with many millennia of resistance to Chinese and other invadors. “What are we doing there?” was my first thought. At about hour 2, the briefer talked about how we, with President Wilson’s blessing, promised Bác Hồ Vietnam’s independence (from France) for his support in resisting Japanese invaders. Bác Hồ’s proposed constitution was modeled closely after our own. Many American soldiers owe their lives to that resistance. Then Yalta and Potsdam happened. Michelin Tire wanted rubber, so France got Vietnam and the revolutionary war, for the Vietnamese, began then. Given our betrayal, Bác Hồ turned to Russia for help, and the modern era began. My second thought was along the lines of “WTF, WTF are we doing there?” At hour 3 we heard how Bác Hồ beat the French at Điện Biên Phủ. Missing in most stories was how the Vietnamese carried artillery and shells over impenetrable jungle mountains to put the French under siege. In the final assault, under-armed Vietnamese charged, the first wave threw themselves over barbed wire so that successive waves could pick up their weapons and use their bodies as bridges over the wire obstructions and charge to victory. My third thought was “What makes us think we are going to ever beat those guys, they will never quit?” http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/french-defeated-at-dien-bien-phu Some nine months later, on TDY for missions out of Cam Ranh Bay I could see the war’s logistics play out first hand everywhere. Soldiers arriving, dirty, haunted soldiers leaving, and war supplies of all kinds disgorged from gigantic C5As. I also saw open air movie theaters, air conditioned “hootch bars” where officers could unwind, carouse with cleaning ladies, and drink. Among the supplies were pallets and pallets of beer stacked outside the hootches. My fourth thought about the war cemented more than beliefs raised by the reality of the intel world I was in: “There is no way we will ever win unless we kill them all and the only way we could kill them all would be to nuke it all.” What a waste. So many lies. And yes, “the horror of it all.” Nice use of the diacritical and tone marks on the Vietnamese words. I suppose Vietnamese keyboards have them now or computer software can generate them from standard-English keyboard input. At the two duty stations where I served from June of 1970 through January 1972: namely, VNNTC (Vietnamese Naval Training Center) Cam Ranh Bay and ATSB Solid Anchor, “our” Vietnamese had to use American teletype equipment to send and receive their radio messages. To do this, they had to resort to tonal spelling schemes, like typing “oo” to represent a single “o” with the diacritical circumflex (“hat”) mark over it (ô). Stuff like that. Terribly cumbersome and time-consuming. Since I had to translate messages first into recognizable Vietnamese and then into English (and vice versa) the whole process took much longer than it would have had we produced and supplied Vietnamese language keyboards instead of providing “our” Vietnamese with hand-me-down American equipment unsuited to Vietnamese needs and capabilities. I understand that we still do that sort of thing to our Afghan and Iraqi “trainees.” If we gave them brand-new, first class U.S. equipment, they would just do what the Nationalist Chinese and South Vietnamese did before them: take it home and sell it on the black market for enough money to buy some food and clothing for their families. Chairman Mao had a favorite expression for the U.S. military handing out surplus American weaponry to Chiang Kai-Shek’s Nationalist army. He called us: “my quartermaster.” I feel pretty sure that the NLF had a similar expression in Vietnamese and the Taliban have one in Pashto. I understand, also, that our American “advisers” send Afghans from Kabul who speak Dari to police regions of Afghanistan where the native Taliban speak Pashto. Kind of like sending Japanese to occupy and “pacify” the Philippines. The bovine stupidity of the U.S. military abroad would amaze me if I hadn’t already seen, heard, and read so much of it that it no longer has the power to surprise. Oh, well. A few thousand more U.S. troops who can barely speak English ought to do the trick. Like Bullwinkle Moose used to say each time before he failed to pull a rabbit out of his magic hat: “This time for sure!” Mike–The prosecution of Sgt. Bergdahl (court-martial still being pursued by the Army, scheduled for October) has revealed tales of military bungling in Afghanistan which won’t really surprise us veterans. I hope to assemble an article on that topic for this website. Of course, Trump went on record that the fellow should be taken out and shot! God bless America! Michael Murry, Google translator will produce the tone marks easily. I also probably used the same typewriters you are talking about to send literal intercept to Fort Meade … and the same technique. You are talking about the “pokers” with yellow ticker tape, right? Must have been state of the art office machines if us NSA lackeys had to use it. We overlapped at CRB, we had the A/C flight barrack on Hurkey Hill where we could watch the fireworks as perimeter guns shot tracer rounds to keep the fishing boats to hold their distance to as far as we could shoot or sappers getting the fuel dump to go up at night. The flotsam was occasionally disturbing… cooking tools, water-logged rubber doll heads and the like. The rats the size of short-legged dobermans with the same teeth, and bi-monthly swarms on new insect types made life interesting. In terms of “The Lessons of Vietnam”–of which the US military absorbed essentially zero, I have argued–my intuition tells me the Burns series may feel compelled to touch on this, but mostly restrict itself to the actual war years. This question has been kicked around for decades–George Herbert Walker Bush, having found the perfect enemy, Saddam Hussein’s Army That Couldn’t Shoot Straight (my personal tag), declared he had kicked the butt of “The Vietnam Syndrome”–and Burns may consider it outside the scope of his study. Likewise, I’ll be very surprised if he addresses the most recent glorious exploits of the US Military Machine. Will he say anything that might offend PBS’s corporate sponsors, which now include the Koch Brothers?!? The suspense is mounting! I understand your point, Greg, about the U.S. military absorbing zero lessons from our well-deserved defeat in Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos). But I think you have a different concept of “lesson” than does the U.S. corporate military establishment. You and I and a great many other Americans tend to think that a well-learned lesson from our epic bungle in the jungle would lead the U.S. military never to do such a stupid and self-defeating thing ever again. But we err in that assumption. The U.S. military establishment did indeed learn several lessons from its epic defeat in Southeast Asia, but those lessons concerned precisely how to do it again like, for example, by assigning the public’s learned aversion to bungled quagmires a pejorative name, the “Vietnam Syndrome.” A “syndrome,” by definition, means ” a symptom of a disease,” and so the corporate military oligarchy set out to subliminally convince the American people that wisdom is really something sick, and that they should go back to sleep and let their military “professionals” lead our country back into the bottomless swamps of global militarist profligacy. As another example of how to do it again, consider how to muzzle an independent press and keep it from taking those awful photographs and otherwise informing the American people about the real situation “on the battlefield.” Can’t have any of that reality or truth stuff. Too factual and “negative.” As Daniel Ellsberg said in his Real News Network interview in November of 2009: … the media in the last eight years have acted like lap dogs, like scribes or stenographers to the press, with a few honorable exceptions. But that was true in Vietnam as well, except for the Pentagon Papers, and in that case the field reporting was much freer than it’s been allowed to be for a generation now. I think England to some degree led the way with their censorship of what they called the Falklands War, controlling the media in that operation. But we imitated it in Grenada, in Panama, in the first Gulf War, and the embedding process in this war. So the media have allowed themselves to be very much tamed in the field in terms of what they can show. Good doggie. Good doggie. And what can the Media show? Nothing but what the U.S. military wants them to show, meaning nothing that would really inform the American people of yet another typical military pooch screwing or fucked-up soup sandwich somewhere in yet another never-never land with unrecognizable names. Again, as Daniel Ellsberg said eight years (and yet another U.S. President ago): [As concerns] the major thing in the minds of the military. It seems as though many of them want to re-fight the Vietnam War and do it right this time and show that they’re not doomed to failure against these ill-armed, ill-uniformed peasants that they’re facing, that surely they can do better. They want to do it better this time. They’re going to. It’s an understandable motive. They’re going to fail. So, the U.S. military wants to do it again and again and again. They insist that we increasingly impoverished proles give them every opportunity to do it again and again and again. And if we citizens try to prevent them from doing it again and again and again, well, they and their corporate/political allies will see to it that no one in our corporate-owned government will listen to us or otherwise give a shit. You know: that “Democracy” thing. And so they have done it again and again and again. For sixteen years in Afghanistan, fourteen years in Iraq, and a steadily increasing number of years in Libya, Syria, Somalia, and Yemen, just to count some of the many off-the-books wars that they’ve managed to get started to date. The U.S. military has learned its lessons, alright. Just not the same lessons that you and I and many other sane Americans would consider worth learning. I wonder if this up and coming series will get into that lesson-learning thing? Or, did you tell us somewhere that Ken Burns just wants to ask some “questions”? Of course, the biggest “lesson” of all was getting rid of the draft. An “all-volunteer” military would be much more tractable — and the broader populace could say, “Well — they volunteered for it — so no complaints.” Not only is the media composed of lapdogs: the media is often owned by corporations involved in “defense” work, and the media relies on retired generals and admirals to explain/sell wars to the American people. Yes, Mike, they “learned.” Bill A.–Yes, very good points. The military, with its private “security contractor” backup, is now a mercenary force. Sucked-up-to at every opportunity by Donald J. Trump. Is he pushing for pay raises for the rank and file in his big Pentagon budget increase proposal? I haven’t seen details, but it seems likely. Trump is not the type to immerse himself in study of military strategy/tactics, or anything deeper than which women he finds attractive and which not. I suspect this is why he says ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis should largely be given free rein in deciding where to attack, with how much force, and when. Greg: Trump is crafty here. Give the old war horses like Mattis free rein, but if they gallop off and come up lame, Trump can then shoot them (I’m speaking metaphorically — I think) and put new horses in the race. Whatever happens, it’s not Trump’s fault … Bill A.–Indeed, Trump seems to not hesitate about firing people (I never watched “The Apprentice,” but I know episodes ended with his saying “You’re fired!” to perceived losers). And it looks like he’ll be firing any number of associates as these investigations continue. Big question is: will Congress say, on behalf of the American people, “You’re fired!” to The Donald?!? Stay tuned! Mike–Yes, I fully agree that the media have been thoroughly housebroken. Indeed, all the mainstream outlets have totally signed on to worshipping the US military. Just watch any newscast! Put on the uniform and ZAP! you’re instantly “a hero”!! And the media are preparing Americans to wake up one morning and find that “we” (count me out!!) are in a shooting war with Russia, that “adversary,” “hostile power,” just plain “enemy.” There’s your reward, Russian Establishment, for having ditched “Communism” and lovingly embraced gangster Capitalism!! And nothing is easier to predict than that Mr. and Mrs. America will wave the flag in favor of this “noble” war. And because that “enemy” is so big, the flag-waving will dwarf what erupted in the wake of the attacks on pathetic Iraq. Yes, Mr. Burns promises to “ask questions.” Certainly “Did the US learn anything from the Vietnam experience?” would be a legitimate one to pose. Ages ago I started a study of documents being released re: the ‘Bo’ Bergdahl prosecution, but I bogged down. Not even sure what his current status is. I should get back on this and offer an article to this website, because what I gleaned initially is proof positive that the US military is still an amazing cluster-fck!! But that isn’t a surprise to us, eh, Mike? Our good friend Peter Van Buren at his own website, WeMeantWell.com (July 15, 2017), has some trenchant thoughts about how the U.S. military has grown exceptionally skillful at seeing to it that the American people see nothing about their off-the-books “wars” — just mindless careerist “fighting” really — lest they put an end to them like they did with America’s War on Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos). Peter calls this the “bloodless narrative.” See: How to Sustain Perpetual War (It’s Easy!) I wonder if Ken Burns will ask any “questions” about what I like to call Manufactured Mendacity and Managed Mystification. You know: like that “vow” that the officer cadets take at the service academies when they pledge (with a perfectly straight face): “We will not lie, cheat, or steal, nor tolerate among us those who do.” Yeah. Right. OK. Gotcha. Sure thing. If you say so. Mike–Thanks for the link to P. Van Buren’s blog post, which I finally got around to pursuing moments ago. You and I have had disagreements with that author’s use of language in the past, but this is an excellent article, very perceptive. (It seems to date back to October 2015; perhaps it’s been updated.) “A book is a machine to think with.” I. A. Richards, Principles of Literary Criticism (1924) I use my books hard. They help me to think and remember. The best of them have a great many dog-eared and book-marked pages; heavily underlined passages; circled words and phrases; question-marks, exclamation-marks, and quotation-marks inserted all over the place; and margins filled with my own running commentary. I have sometimes purchased books (often “used” and, therefore, less expensive) that contained only a single, memorable line in them that I wanted to remember and possibly use later myself. So I knew I had an excellent “machine to think with” when I opened my copy of Stanley Karnow’s book, Vietnam: a History (1983), and discovered it heavily annotated from start to finish. I had even bookmarked one section toward the end of the book with a page of hand-written quotations from George Orwell’s 1984 which even several decades ago had practically become an operations manual for the U.S. government: essentially a Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise for the Ruling Corporate Oligarchy fronted by an image of “President” Big Brother instead of “President” Colonel Sanders. At any rate and for example: on pages 72 and 73, I found the following underlined passages which recounted the early years of the French conquest of Indochina: meaning, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. Check it out, fellow Crimestoppers: In early 1856, after much hesitation Napoleon III [the French emperor] endorsed the proposals [to conquer Vietnam] put forth by Bourboulon and others. The assignment was entrusted to Montigny, the former French consul in Shanghai, and it gave a renewed impetus to the French drive toward Vietnam. Montigny appeared [off the coast of Vietnam] two months later. But without the warships, he lacked the strength to impose his conditions on Tu Duc [the Vietnamese emperor]. Instead of disenchanting the missionaries and their supporters, the setback fired their enthusiasm to try again. They appealed to French business groups with inflated accounts of Vietnam’s wealth in sliver, gold, coal, and timber. A pair of veteran priests, the Lazarist Father Huc and Biship Pellerin, journeyed from Asia to Paris to lobby. Huc told Napoleon III that the treaty of 1787 gave France an incontestible right to Tourane and claimed that the conquest was “the easiest thing in the world,” since the Vietnamese would greet the French as “liberators and benefactors” [emphasis added]. Pellerin, who narrowly escaped death in Vietnam, preached emotional sermons to Paris congregations on France’s duty to aid Vietnamese Christians, and he even obtained the Vatican’s blessing for the venture. In the margins next to this underlined passage I see where I have written: “Paul Wolfowitz and Dick Cheney in Iraq 2003.” Who among us does not recall Mr Wolfowitz (number two man in the U.S. “Defense” Department) assuring Congress that the Bush II administration’s proposed invasion of Iraq would take hardly any U.S. troops and would hardly cost the American taxpayer a thing, since “the Iraqis can pay for their own reconstruction out of their oil revenues.” For his part, Vice President Dick Cheney’s blithe reassurances of prospective Iraqi gratitude for us conquering and plundering them — for not having anything to do with the events of 9/11/2001 — will stand as an indictment of cynical American arrogance for as much future history as I can reasonably foresee. We have largely forgotten the cavalier nineteenth-century French greed and arrogance, but few will likely forget Dick Cheney’s twenty-first century rendition of the same. The consequences of that “exceptional” American hubris continue metastasizing like a malignant cancer today, as refugees by the millions — not “yellow” but “brown” (this time) — pour out of devastated, formerly sovereign countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, and Syria. As someone said not long ago about Iraq: “The Americans have made the place not just ungovernable, but virtually uninhabitable.” Thousands continue to die in Iraq every month. Not all that long ago, the American military made Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos almost uninhabitable. Millions had no choice but to flee seeking some habitable place where they could survive. Many wealthy Vietnamese found Westminster, California: now called “Little Saigon,” but the United States does not extend the same welcome to the middle-eastern victims of our military blundering. At least for now and at great national effort, the indigenous “yellow” peoples of China and Southeast Asia have made something of a recovery. They now provide lots of low-wage labor for U.S. corporations, so the U.S. military does not want to kill, maim, or dispossess so many of them like we used to. Now we ask them for loans that we never intend to repay because we no longer have an economy productive enough to pay for all the death and destruction that our corporate-military monstrosity — what I prefer to call The Lunatic Leviathan — wishes to go on inflicting on others who cannot — at least for the present — defend themselves. Anyway, what goes around comes back around — Karma — and as one Vietnamese told the French about to forcibly impose themselves on him and his country: “If you persist in bringing to us your iron and flame, the struggle will be long. But we are guided by the laws of Heaven, and our cause will triumph in the end.” A hundred years later, at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, this man’s prediction came back to boot the French in the ass. We Americans, naturally, decided to try our hand at conquering the Vietnamese, since we had so much more money and so many more helicopters than the French. I’ve got a really good, heavily annotated book that details what happened. Soon now a television production will revisit some of this history. I wonder if the musical accompaniment will feature “Feel like I’m fixin’ to die rag,” by Country Joe and the Fish, or “Fortunate Son,” by Credence Clearwater Revival,” or “Nothing,” by the Fugs, three of my favorites. Of course, if someone makes any reference to John Wayne movies or starts singing “The Ballad of the Green Berets,” I’ll probably vomit. Given the fact that the U.S. military got the idea of wearing berets from the French, many of us unimpressed American enlisted types called our army special forces, “the Green bidets.” Just saying … Mike–Interestingly (speaking for myself, naturally), I never bothered to read most of the books you cite concerning Southeast Asian conflicts. Since I was involved with all my heart and soul, from 1968 on, in the struggle to end the US’s monstrous undertaking to “bring light” to those allegedly benighted folks who live there, I kept myself informed in contemporary fashion–Felix Greene, Wilfred Burchett, Ho Chi Minh’s own collected works, etc. Here’s a shocker, that ties in to one of your remarks: on the strength of one quote I encountered somewhere, which took my breath away, I bought “City of God,” by ‘Saint’ Augustine!! Wow, a thousand-plus pages…it better be good (despite its fundamental world view)!! No, I haven’t tackled it yet! Getting back to the Ken Burns Vietnam series, I see that he and co-producer Lynn Novick are holding advance screenings followed by discussions in some locations. Nothing remotely near me, geographically, yet. And so it goes, as Mr. Vonnegut once (repeatedly, actually!) wrote. I think that with 18 hours to be filled, we likely WILL be regaled by John Wayne and Staff Sgt. Barry Sadler in this series. Yeah, that latter dude’s name is well etched in my memory. What stupid, stupid lyrics!! Last year, on a trip back to the U.S. with my wife, we made our usual pilgrimage to the Goodwill thrift shops and used-book stores looking for bargain reading material and other cast-off artifacts from what passes for “culture” among the working poor in my native land. I found one paperback in excellent shape that contained not a single mark or notation in it. From this I surmised that its previous owner must not have read very far into it or found anything worth remembering for future reference. Then I opened the first pages and read the prologue: “I dedicate this to all those who did not live to tell it. And may they please forgive me for not having seen it all nor remembered it all, for not having divined all of it.” — Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation (1973) I could identify with these sentiments. Most likely, Sozhenitsyn suffered from some form of “survivor’s guilt.” Many discharged war veterans and paroled prisoners (but I repeat myself) share that psychological affliction, probably the reason I started writing poetry thirteen years ago or why I decided to write this series of semi-autobiographical/polemical essays. At any rate, after reading the prologue and deciding to buy the book on the basis of it, I thumbed through the first chapter: “Arrest,” and found the writing superb, in my estimation. So now I’ve got another big book to read and annotate to my heart’s content. For some reason — perhaps the yellow fog of Russia-and-Putin bashing coming out of You-Know-Her’s mouth as the Once-And-Always Goldwater Girl campaigned for right-wing votes instead of working-class ones — I remembered a time during my fourteen months of exile at ATSB Solid Anchor when I actually met a Russian. [Note* For photos and email recollections from Navy veterans who served at ATSB Solid Anchor see: Solid Anchor Construction 1969-1970, Overhead picture of river and base, Brown Water Navy Historical Accounts of Solid Anchor 1970-71, and More photos from Solid Anchor] As part of The Brown Water Navy, our remote little riverside support base occupied a tiny patch of the Mekong Delta in IV Corps, approximately two kilometers from the southern-most tip of Vietnam, a former French colonial possession and since 1954 artificially divided by the United States into two “countries,” one “north” and the other “south.” Anyway, as part of our base “defenses,” the United States military had dumped tons of toxic defoliants on the surrounding jungle on the theory that no vegetation meant no place for the local peasant farmers and fishermen to hide should they wish — for some difficult-to-grasp reason — to attack us and send us back to our own country where we could poison the ecology to our heart’s content. One day, a survey team from the National Academy of Sciences showed up to study the environmental effects of this defoliation. As it happened, one of the team of scientists had emigrated to the United States from Russia and I got a chance to speak with him one night over a couple of beers at our “Enlisted Men’s Club,” a one-room plywood shack with a refrigerator. I told him that I had tried twice to read Dostoyevski’s Crime and Punishment but always got so depressed that I could never finish it. He laughed and advised me to read Pushkin whom most Russians consider their favorite author. When I got around to asking him about what he had discovered studying the defoliated countryside, he very diplomatically replied: “Well, it all depends upon where you point the camera. If you point it in one direction, you see devastated vegetation. If you point it in another direction, you see that the jungle has begun to recover.” Or words to that effect. It never occurred to me to wonder what prolonged exposure to such toxic chemicals would do to us American sailors and the Vietnamese navy personnel with whom we shared the base. Only time would answer that. . Just another memory of “Vietnam” dredged up from the deep recesses of an old and addled mind. A book, a passage in a book, or even the name of a book’s author can sometimes cause such recollections to resurface. It seems that they never really went away. Back to you, Greg. Thanks Mike. Always good to refresh memory of history. I wrote a reply to Greg Laxer immediately above but it got flagged as “awaiting moderation,” probably because it included four internet links to The Brown Water Navy website featuring pictures and e-mail comments from U.S. Navy Vietnam veterans who served at that remote river support base from 1969 through January of 1973 when the last of the U.S. naval advisors left. I assume when the editor sees the number of links — all legitimate — that he will restore the comment. If this site’s software has some problem with the number of links, I can rewrite my comment so as to just tell the interested reader where to find the material on the Internet. At any rate, I found some good history about our bungled intervention in Vietnam at The Brown Water Navy, some of which I knew from my own tour of duty at Solid Anchor and which I will draw upon in later essays. I seldom see the sense in studying history unless I can connect it to my own experiences and conclusions about what my country should do differently than it has done to date. The history of America’s disastrous military intervention in Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos) has antecedent connections in prior American military relations with China and France as well as subsequent similarities with American military interventions in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Libya, Somalia and Syria: namely, everywhere that the U.S. military has tried to forcibly insert itself into the conduct of American foreign policy since the end of WWII. It ought to seem intuitively obvious by now that getting the U.S. military completely out of any U.S. policy, either domestic or foreign, ought to form the first principle of American government. But I see no sign of this glaring and bloody lesson dawning in The United States of Amnesia, as Gore Vidal so accurately labelled America, or as The Land That Forgot Time, as I would name that failing and flailing country. History — ancient and modern — demonstrates that the time has long since passed for demobilizing the standing U.S. military so as to restore the Republic and return the nation’s energies and resources to building modern roads, bridges, airports, health clinics, and high-speed train lines. You know: the kind of modern facilities that so many other countries now build and operate efficiently because they don’t waste their time, money, and resources on fruitless military destruction for its own sake. As the Chinese say: “You don’t use good iron to make a nail, and you don’t use a good man to make a soldier.” That goes against the grain of the prevailing American secular religion: namely, Military Idolatry, where our uniformed killers get punished for nothing and rewarded for anything. Not a pretty picture of the United States at present, but a frank and honest historical ugliness does have its virtues. Mike–But of course, MILITARY policy is the ONLY Foreign Policy the US has had since it emerged so intact from WW II, compared to the Russkies, Japan, much of Europe, Britain (where rationing of goods continued right into the 1950s, I understand), etc. The architects of policy observed that Fortress America should be THE dominant power on Earth and should, with application of sufficient brute force, be able to have its way. I don’t know if the Dulles brothers spoke much publicly about this, but I suspect they were part of the crowd that, in their warped minds, had convinced themselves–or perhaps hypnotized themselves into believing!–that this was mandated by The Father, The Son and the Holy Ghost! (Picture New York’s Cardinal Spellman jumping up and down, shouting “Amen, brothers!”) Mandated, stamped “APPROVED,” regardless of how many “little wogs” had to suffer and die in the wake of their decisions. But that is all pathetic rationalizing for the real, underlying drive for US corporate profits. I’m no psychologist, but I suppose there’s more than a hint of the desire to strut and bully in the mix. And so, the Koreans must not be allowed to govern themselves if they are led by an eminent Socialist theorist (and he was!) and anti-Japanese resistance leader named Kim Il-Sung. (And look how splendidly that intervention has turned out!) Likewise, Viet Nam must be divided and the southern zone occupied, lest Ho Chi Minh be allowed to lead a united nation toward a hoped-for Socialist future. Other unsavory (in eyes of US Ruling Class) actors on the world stage must be removed, or at least stymied and discredited. I won’t name names, because the list is too long, and I’m probably largely preaching to the choir by this point anyway. In summation, regardless of whether the person in the White House is called a Democrat or Republican, this country continues to blunder down the path exactly, diametrically opposite to what we, and genuinely peace-craving people around the globe, would like to see. How bad must things get for the common folk here at home before they wake up and smell the formaldehyde–the formaldehyde being pumped into the corpse of a once pretty good nation? One shudders to think. Mike.. Thanks for the Brown Water Navy link. I got into it heavy duty and was astounded how hard the Navy worked to get their share of the Vietnam action by having intense operations in so many rivers, canals, etc. This was news to me. The intense warfare along rivers and canals added a new dimension to the scale of violence we brought to that benighted land. Between the army’s land operations, the air force, and the Navy we succeeded in devastating the entire land. In that site I saw pictures of a major river where people lived entirely defoliated on both sides by agent orange. So in addition to spreading this malignant toxicity to the people themselves it must have entered the water system they needed for survival. The Vietnamese people must be saints to not hate us to eternity. When I first got to the History Department at the Air Force Academy (c.1990), I recall hearing from an old hand that back in the 1970s there had been violent arguments among the military officers/historians about the wisdom and winnability of the Vietnam War. In short, not only was the country divided over the war, the military was too, including its trained military historians. While at Oxford, I read a paper, quite critical of U.S. involvement in Vietnam, before an Australian military historian who had served in Vietnam as an Aussie officer. He was not impressed with my arguments. It’s often very difficult, if not impossible, for someone who served in that war to view the matter objectively or dispassionately. How can they? Perhaps they saw people, close friends, die. Perhaps they committed acts for which they feel great guilt. Perhaps they still have nightmares about the war. And so on. Emotions, intense ones, run deep. I’ve heard it said that 50 years need to pass before historians can begin to look at an event dispassionately, with minimal bias and maximum objectivity. Roughly 50 years have passed. Will we see, in Ken Burns’s documentary, an account that’s comprehensive, level-headed, and fair to all participants? Perhaps “fair” is the wrong word here — will Burns call the right people to account for such a devastating war, regardless of their side or the uniform they wore? Bill A.–I don’t doubt that there were debates within military circles about the wisdom of this or that strategy. But as all veterans recognize, the guys with the most stars on their uniforms make the final decisions. If you are that rare person of conscience who passionately disagrees, you might resign your commission. Enlisted persons don’t have that choice. During the Vietnam War we could decline to re-enlist, which means swallowing insufferable amounts of BS in the interim; or, we could split! As you know, I chose the latter route, along with innumerable fellow GIs. But I was something of a special case, since I opposed that damnable war from before enlistment. It was just a matter of waiting to receive the actual orders to go over there. They came, twice; I split, twice! Eventually the Army got the message and I served my remaining time “Under Honorable Conditions.” The “victors” write history it is said. We will have one version, maybe it will be this movie. The Vietnamese will eventually have it as a footnote in their long, fierce, and proud story that is thousands of years old already. Perhaps that will be the only historical account to survive because they will. I can’t be sure we will, we are rubes at this civilization thing. Welcome to the conversation (things were feeling awfully “inbred” here for a while!). Mr. Ken Burns and PBS, apparently, believe this forthcoming project WILL end up being “the last word” on this war. Even though Burns himself said he’s not out to provide “answers”!! That is the root of my concern over whose voices will be heard and the impression most viewers will walk away with. Thanks for your comments. [BTW, if news of this post and ensuing comments has reached Mr. Burns, I’ve had no indication thereof.] Greg: Ken Burns has a Facebook page for the series, and I think he has a Twitter feed. I’m guessing you could bring this to his (or his helpers’) attention. https://www.facebook.com/kenburnspbs/ Thanks, Bill. I guess I need to launch a specific campaign to seek a place on a panel discussion of the series. I will also look into emailing Burns in care of his Florentine Productions. Doubtless messages would be filtered by some admin. assistant, but it’s worth a try. Update: I posted a link to Contrary Perspective on Burns’s Facebook page for the VN series. I found attempting to email him directly futile, as there are hints online that this can be done but no real-world means provided. Not shocking, given how busy a guy he is. I was just on the Facebook page for the Burns Vietnam program (see link posted here by wjastore) again, and the slogan is “There is no single truth in war.” (Yes, I’m a stickler for accuracy.) FYI, everyone, there are links there to videos of panel discussions that have already taken place. I intend to pursue some of these when I have the time. Greg, thanks for the welcome. I was one of the co-editors of an underground paper (WORMS Eye View) that got a cameo interview with four friends in David Zieger’s “Sir, No Sir.” I couldn’t be at the interview when it was shot, but I did get to meet David and heard stories later. Although we haven’t met, there is a touch of inbred at play. A long time friend, Rik Carlson, edited and published letters from his friend, Loring Bailey. Jr, who didn’t come back. The book is “Calm Frenzy” http://www.calmfrenzy.com/ The book came out the same time and overlapped a movie by Soren Sorenson called “My Father’s Vietnam, which included Loring in the story. The Calm Frenzy link shares the stage with the movie. Camillo Mac Bica has a pretty good take on this PBS documentary, posted at antiwar.com on July 20, 2017: Anticipating the Forthcoming PBS Documentary, ‘The Vietnam War’. In my opinion, the following passages get right to the heart of the matter: In [a] New York Times op-ed, Burns and Novick set the stage for their discussion of the Vietnam War by referencing an address delivered by President Gerald Ford at Tulane University in New Orleans. They write, “As the president spoke, more than 100,000 North Vietnamese troops were approaching Saigon, having overrun almost all of South Vietnam in just three months. Thirty years after the United States first became involved in Southeast Asia and 10 years after the Marines landed at Danang, the ill-fated country for which more than 58,000 Americans had died was on the verge of defeat.” Then, in the following two paragraphs, Professor Bica critiques the fundamental flaws in the Burns/Novick presentation: Referencing the sacrifice of some 58,000 of its own citizens, ignoring completely the deaths of over 3 million Vietnamese, and the description of the US’s involvement in the war as an ill-fated effort to save South Vietnam from invading hordes of North Vietnamese Communists, illustrates a not so tacit American bias and begs the historical question regarding why the war was fought, its legitimacy, and inevitable outcome. Objectivity (or at least neutrality) in documentary requires that we not accept without question, assumptions that are fundamental to what the documentary is alleging to ascertain – the legitimacy of South Vietnam as a nation and US’s claim of justification for its involvement in the war. In truth, South Vietnam was an illegal construct made possible by the intervention of the United States in violation of the provisions of the Geneva Accords that forbade foreign intervention during the interim period of national reconciliation following the defeat of the American funded French colonialists at Dien Bien Phu and required a democratic election to unite all of Vietnam within two years – an election that was prevented from occurring by Saigon’s puppet regime and its U.S. overlords for fear that Ho Chi Minh would emerge victorious. Consequently, rather than to describe the North Vietnamese as “overrunning” an “ill-fated independent country,” it would be more historically accurate, not merely a different perspective, to describe the end of hostilities as the liberation of the occupied south. Again, no such “country” as “South Vietnam” ever existed and no American ever died for it. The millions of Vietnamese and 58,000 Americans who died in the awesome, thirty-year interregnum of violence did so, as historian Barbara Tuchman explained, because: “The American government reacted not to the Chinese upheaval or to Vietnamese nationalism per se, but to intimidation by the rabid right at home and to the public dread of Communism that this played on and reflected. [In the] social and psychological sources of this dread … lie the roots of American policy in Vietnam.” – Barbara Tuchman, The March of Folly: from Troy to Vietnam (New York: Ballatine Books, 1984) Or, to put the honest truth even more simply and cruelly, in the words of the cynical newspaperman H. L. Menken: “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.” As a matter of fact not likely to find a place in the forthcoming documentary, the Vietnamese and Cambodians and Laotians and Americans who died in Southeast Asia in great numbers, did so because the rabid right at home in the United States — meaning the Republican Party — needed an imaginary hobgoblin (Monolithic World Communism) with which to menace the American people and fill them with dread so that they would gladly (forgetting John Quincy Adams’ timeless warning) “go abroad in search of monsters to destroy,” leaving the Ruling Corporate Oligarchy at home to loot the Treasury at leisure. And if no such monsters actually existed, which imaginary monsters don’t, then so much the better, for then the “destroying” of them could then go on for generations, as it indeed has. The word-like noise “Vietnam” served only as one name for an endless series of imaginary hobgoblins having nothing whatsoever to do with the actual human persons trying to live independent lives in Southeast Asia. The rabid right at home in the United States — now enthusiastically joined by the Clinton/Obama directorate of the Corporate Democratic Party — has found a new imaginary hobgoblin to replace “Monolithic World Communism”: namely, “Islamic Terrorism,” and even more word-like noises to name it: Iraq, Iran, Syria, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, etc. … The human persons living in those countries don’t matter either. In my estimation, Frances FitzGerald wrote one of the finest books giving the Vietnamese perspective on the First and Second Indochina Wars: Fire in the Lake. She subtitled it, “the Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam.” David Halberstam, in my opinion, wrote one the best books about where these two calamitous disasters originated, and why. He called his book: The Best and the Brightest. He didn’t supply a subtitle, but if I could, I would propose one: “the Americans and Vietnam in America”. The opportunistic seekers after wealth and power in the United States conceived and conducted the American War on Southeast Asia. They used the fighting and the dying as a club to beat their hapless political “opposition” — the U.S. Democratic Party — into submission. The Vietnamese and Americans who died in that war died for them, not for any fictitious and hopelessly ephemeral “country” named “South Vietnam.” Somehow, I think that this forthcoming documentary will steer very wide of the ugly truth: “Follow the Money.” I cannot see how the program’s corporate sponsors would ever allow a full and frank exploration of where all the money went. Couldn’t agree more. Every country split up or formed after WW2 & Potsdam has come back with intractable problems and bloodshed. The first was Korea … Mike–As you’ve doubtless noticed, when I write about the war I always bring up the fiction of “south” Viet Nam. But I think it’s only natural, and should be expected, that Burns and Novick use the “standard,” “accepted” language in describing the situation. I noticed the other day that one of the marketing slogans for this upcoming series is now something like “No war provides one single truth.” I have two responses to that: 1.) what about the truth that “In war, the first casualty is always truth”?; 2.) to me, there is this indisputable historical, physical-real-world truth: there was but one aggressor nation in this affair guilty of invading another nation, and that is the USA. If Burns and company can’t reach this conclusion, what is the value of his 18 hours of material and pondering of questions? No change in the shocking (!) reality that I’ve yet to be invited to participate in a panel discussion of this program. I’ll let everyone know if that changes. Good thing I haven’t been holding my breath waiting! We were an enabler first … for France, then we became the aggressor without a national self-defense cause. When asked about my war experience, my short answer is that I killed people for control over a dominoes game. Blabberwocky.. Right on! Most people don’t know or don’t remember that “falling dominoes” were the “WMD” that sold the American people on that bloody mess in Vietnam. If we left Vietnam “fall to the Communists” we would :lose” all of Asia.Of course no one bothered to look back on Korea where in essence were neutralized and Asia was still there. And since when did we own Asia. You raise a very good point with your mention of the notorious “falling dominoes” argument, traven, but you left out the first and most important domino in the so-called “chain of causation”: namely, post-WWII France. In her masterful study of misgovernment throughout the ages, The March of Folly, historian Barbara Tuchman focused on the “Embryo” period of 1945-46: The beginning lay in the reversal during the last months of World War II of President Roosevelt’s previous determination not to allow, and certainly not to assist, the restoration of French colonial rule in Indochina. The engine of reversal was the belief, in response to strident French demand and damaged French pride resulting from the German occupation, that it was essential to strengthen France as the linchpin in Western Europe against Soviet expansion, which, as victory approached, had become the dominant concern in Washington. Until this time Roosevelt’s disgust with colonialism and his intention to see it eliminated in Asia had been firm (and a cause of basic dispute with Britain). He believed French misrule of Indochina represented colonialism in its worst form. Indochina “should not go back to France” he told Secretary of State Cordell Hull in January of 1943; “the case is perfectly clear. France has had the country – thirty million inhabitants – for nearly a hundred years and the people are worse off than they were at the beginning. [They] are entitled to something better than that.” Nonetheless: In the struggle of policies, the future of Asians could not weigh against the Soviet shadow looming over Europe. In August of 1944, at the Dunbarton Oaks Conference on post-war organization, the United States proposal for the colonies made no mention of independence and offered only a weak-kneed trusteeship to be arranged with the “voluntary” consent of the former colonial power.” But what did that “strident French demand and damaged French pride“ have to do with the former French colonies in Southeast Asia now demanding their own independence? Professor Tuchman explains: … Secretary of State Stettinius told the French at San Fransisco twenty-six days after Roosevelt’s death that the United States did not question French sovereignty over Indochina. He was responding to a tanrtum staged by de Gaulle for the benefit of the American Ambassador in Paris in which the General had said that he had an expeditionary force ready go go to Indochina whose departure was prevented by the American refusal of transport, and that “if you are against us in Indochina” this would cause “terrific disappointment” in France, which could drive her into the Soviet orbit. “We do not want to become communist … but I hope you do not push us into it.” The blackmail was primitive but tailored to suit what the Europeanists of American diplomacy wished to report. So here we have the first “domino” applying the domino fallacy to itself. To wit: (1) If you Americans don’t assist us in reconquering Vietnam, then (2) we will become all-sad-and-stuff, which (3) will so sap our will to resist that (4) we will have no choice but to become Communists ourselves and (5) you will have only yourselves to blame for (6) the Soviets conquering Europe. “Primitive blackmail,” indeed and an utterly ridiculous sequence of tendentious assertions. But the shabby dialectical gambit worked like a charm on the scared-shitless-of-Soviet-Communism Americans. Now, one would think that if the Americans truly considered France “the linchpin in Western Europe against Soviet expansion” then they would have insisted that Charles de Gaulle keep his expeditionary forces in Europe where they could help defend his ostensibly “threatened” country. But for some reason, this particular French domino didn’t seem all that worried about getting knocked over by a Soviet Union that had clearly just established a buffer zone in Eastern Europe as a first-line-of-defense against yet another invasion from Western Europe. You know: that Charles XII of Sweden, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Adolph Hitler thing. The Russians had simply and understandably had enough of dying by the millions in their own land, and had determined that the next war against Western European invaders would take place in some country other than theirs. De Gaulle understood this perfectly well but also knew how to make the Americans jump to his own tune. Some “domino,” and, in fact, the only one to fall (backward) in the end. I raise this issue of the so-called “domino fallacy” in relation to Vietnam for more reasons than just to discredit the French attempt (initially successful) to use it upon the Americans, blackmailing them into assisting the doomed French reconquest of Southeast Asia; but because late in the administration of Lyndon Johnson, Secretary of Defense Robert MacNamara resigned and Clark Clifford replaced him. Wrote David Halberstam in The Best and the Brightest: “Clifford was bothered by the fact that the other Asian nations showed no great interest in sending additional men. Oh, yes, they thought standing in Vietnam was a marvelous idea, and they certainly gave us their blessing, but it just so happened that they had very little in the way of resources. The threatened dominoes, Clifford discovered, did not seem to take the threat as seriously as we did.” Two lessons, then, about “falling dominoes”: First, beware of a domino blackmailing you by suggesting that if you don’t hold it up, then it will fall and you will bear the responsibility for its failure to stand up all by itself. Second, beware of an American telling some foreign dominoes of their dire peril when the dominoes themselves can clearly see that the American only wants to use them as proxie bullet-catchers in an ideological fight against yet another imaginary hobgoblin constructed in Washington, D.C. by opportunistic greasy-pole climbers for the sole purpose of securing wealth and power for themselves by scaring the living shit (and tax dollars) out of easily terrified Americans. The historically discredited “domino fallacy” shouldn’t work on logical people, but then, in the United States of Amnesia, who can locate more than a handful of those? I once thought that President Donald Trump had considerations such as these in mind when he castigated the NATO dominoes for not paying up if they truly feared the imaginary hobgoblin “Russian Aggression.” But then I watched — amused but not at all surprised — as he had things explained to him by his genius generals who depend entirely upon the domino fallacy to sell their self-interested garrisoning of the globe. “Power Projection,” or “Full Spectrum Dominance” they call it; but by any other name, the Domino Fallacy would still stink like the Volga River at low tide. Mike–Thanks for this. See, I’ve never read folks like Tuchman. This is my first exposure to de Gaulle’s “threat” of France “going Red”!! This is too hilarious! If France wanted to be THE bulwark against the Menace, it should have picked its ass up and moved several hundred miles to the east, yes?!? The working class and the petit-bourgeois intellectuals in Western Europe have a long history of sympathy toward Socialism (especially compared to “boobus americanus”–thank you, H.L. Mencken–spoiled by relative consumer comfort). Unfortunately, when WW I broke out, the majority of French “socialists,” as in other of the belligerent nations, rushed to defend their Fatherland. And when German tanks rolled into Paris with almost no resistance in 1940, being a “socialist” became extra risky. (Except for those who embraced Germany’s “national socialism,” that is!) Likewise, you can bet most “socialist” sympathizers in France waved the tri-couleur in support of their own expeditionary forces in Algeria, Indochina, etc., at least at the outset, when things looked encouraging. Those of us who truly, deeply opposed the murderous US activity in Southeast Asia after the French defeat did NOT wait until it became obvious that the US couldn’t achieve victory. Speaking personally, while still in high school–and expecting to spend a full four years in college with a Student Deferment, though things didn’t work out that way–I had no doubt whatsoever my country was dead in the wrong!! Ultimately, I had to turn that conviction into deeds, deeds of active resistance. Because, like Holden Caulfield, I don’t care for hypocrites! From Reagan’s “noble cause” to Michael Lind’s book, “Vietnam: The Necessary War,” the Vietnam war will continue to be reshaped and molded for American purposes. Recently, a traveling version of the Vietnam War memorial appeared in Boston, and there was a huge ceremony at Fenway Park to honor 1300 veterans before and during a baseball game. All well and good — veterans should be remembered. But there was no mention of the price of war inflicted on the peoples of Southeast Asia. It was a thoroughly American ceremony without any thought given to the conduct of the war or even its purpose. It’s history as facade, or hollow history, or history in one dimension. And that’s not history; it’s something else. Ceremony. Propaganda. Sham. Oh, Bill, don’t get me started on the sickening Military Idolatry! We know the Pentagon is “in bed” with the major sports leagues and the media. I don’t invest my valuable time in following any of the pro sports. I only start paying attention when the playoffs start at end of regular season. But when I watch the Super Bowl, I have to deliberately tune in late enough to miss all the pre-game BS, which of course includes the military color guard and the flyover of fighter jets. That is the only way I can avoid hurling some hard object at my TV, which I need in order to watch movies, one of my passions in life!…I wasn’t aware of Michael Lind’s “Vietnam: The Necessary War.” I suppose there’s no intentional irony in that title?? Thanks, Greg, for jumping all over that commercialized, Military Idolatry, Warfare Welfare, and Make-work Militarism crap. Not that I hold you accountable for the way in which I express myself, but I give you credit for inspiring me to compose a little verse, the first that I have written in quite some time. When I returned home from the occupied (by us) southern part of Vietnam in early 1972, I understood, utterly, what Civil War veteran Ambrose Bierce meant when he defined “patriotism” as “combustible rubbish ready to the torch of anyone ambitious to illuminate his name,” and “Patriot,” as “the dupe of statesmen and the tool of conquerors.” Many years later, I came upon another apt definition by the British pragmatist philosopher, F.C.S. Schiller, who wrote that the word “sacred … generally means that the things so denominated cannot bear investigation.” So, with all that impious imagery and vitriolic vocabulary churning around in my muddled mind, out came: Thank You for Your Servility The Sacred Symbol Soldier serves to shield The fans from what transpires upon the field Of battle, far away in distant lands, While “patriots” swill beer up in the stands, And cheer the gladiators down below Who (for a dollar) put on quite a show To market war as just another game Makes money for the ones who have no shame. To move the mob, they wave the bloody shirt Concealing blood and bowels in the dirt. Their crimes they seek to hide behind the troops: Those tools of conquerors and statesmen’s dupes. The Taboo Troop shows up at sports events To bask in brief applause; no malcontents: Disgusted, wounded, angry, are allowed To give the middle finger to the crowd And so the wars, somewhere, go on and on Sold by the slave; promoted by the pawn Michael Murry, “The Misfortuneteller,” copyright 2017 How did I do? Mike–Before reading any other feedback to “Thank You For Your Servility,” I can say: Bravo!! You have NOT lost your touch! “events” and “malcontents”! Nice rhyme! I meant to add, as Chris Hedges writes in Death of the Liberal Class (2010): “Public manifestations of gratitude are reserved for veterans who dutifully read from the script handed out to them by the state. The veterans trotted out for viewing are those who are compliant and palatable, those we can stand to look at without horror, those willing to go along with the lie that war is the highest form of patriotism. “Thank you for your service,” we are supposed to say. These soldiers are used to perpetuate the myth. We are used to honor it.” Personally, I do not wish to dutifully read from any script handed to me by anyone else, especially the U.S. military. Nor do I wish to “honor” what my own government makes poor, desperate men and women do who have no prospects for landing a good job or obtaining a decent education without becoming debt slaves for life. If in order to obtain such “public manifestations of gratitude,” I have to perform on command like a trained seal, then I can do without the thanks. Mike–I have some choice things to say about “Patriotism” in the Epilogue to my memoir. It’s pretty lengthy as epilogues go but, hey, it’s my book, damn it!! By coincidence, ran across a reference to a book on consumerism and Vietnam, then I went to Amazon to check it out, where there was an interesting review by a REMF who knew what he was talking about. The reference: “Meredith Lair’s Armed with Abundance: Consumerism and Soldiering in the Vietnam War (2011) examines the non-combat experiences of American troops in Vietnam, arguing that the troops in the rear-echelons (far from the battlefields) relied on ‘consumerism and material abundance’ to maintain morale.” A book blurb at Amazon: “Meredith Lair’s fascinating analysis of rear-echelon life among American G.I.s dramatically challenges our most common conceptions of U.S. military experiences in Vietnam. From steaks to steambaths, swimming pools to giant PXs, the amenities provided on large bases not only belie conventional images of that war, but also stand as dramatic testimony to the desperate and unsuccessful effort of American officials to bolster flagging troop morale as the war lurched toward its final failure.–Christian G. Appy, author of Working-Class War: American Combat Soldiers and Vietnam” And the comment from Harry the REMF. I recall Mike Murry talking about his own experiences with illegal money exchanges: “I was a REMF in Vietnam, and this book doesn’t ring true to my experience. One factor that stymies a lot of writers about the war is that conditions varied dramatically from year to year and from region to region throughout the years. It’s hard to pin down a generalized Vietnam War experience among Americans. By the time I arrived in 1970, command had seriously broken down in parts of the rear, and Americans had divided into gangs. My biggest fear was not the Vietnamese. It was other U.S. soldiers. In my unit, we were all armed with illicit weapons. Mine included a Bowie knife. Fistfights were common, and we had to watch our backs.” “We now know that this dangerous situation was part of an institutional meltdown throughout the U.S. armed forces that made battle readiness problematic, even in Europe where it really counted. By 1970, soldiers in Vietnam regularly refused orders and negotiated with commanders who had limited control. Despite this disintegration, my medical unit continued to perform at top-notch, but not because of our allegiance to the Overall War Effort. We just did the right thing for sick and injured solders.” “I’m not sure of what the book’s point is, other than to document that the rear was awash in consumer products and that we had it a lot easier than the grunts. The book fails to address the apparent strategic function of high American consumerism in the rear, a topic covered by many other historical analyses, nor does it do justice to the vibrant blackmarket in the rear. Small fortunes were made, just on illegal money exchanges alone, and we all knew it was going on.” “Nevertheless, persons interested in the war’s history will find some fascinating points, as long as they do not conclude that this book is the definitive work on the very complex experiences of REMFs and our relationships with the grunts.” Link at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Armed-Abundance-Consumerism-Soldiering-Vietnam/product-reviews/1469619032 As a side note, I recall my brother-in-law, a Vietnam vet in the artillery, chuckling about steaks being flown in. We saw this recently in Iraq, with lobster and steaks and other luxuries flown or trucked in at enormous cost to the Green Zone. Anything to “support our troops” and keep up morale. Bill A.–I can’t quite put my finger on the political viewpoint of the commenting “REMF” quoted. [FYI, civilians, the acronym stands for “Rear Echelon Mother-you-know-what.”] He seems to be a believer in the International Communist Menace, since he says US troops were critically needed in Western Europe. This supposed Menace, of course, helped stoke US enthusiasm for military action in Southeast Asia. With “Viet Cong” activity in the occupied south, supposedly there were no truly safe areas for American invaders in the country. But the further south, I imagine (remember, I wasn’t there in person), the less likely–until the final days–would be hazardous duty. US consumerism also infected Thailand, the Philippines (great situation in those countries these days, eh, with military juntas, etc.?), Taiwan and other areas used to support the US war effort against Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Where go the soldiers, you will find the “camp followers.” American Values strike again! Greg: I met enough people in the military, after Vietnam of course, who had a mercenary or contemptuous attitude toward the foreigners they encountered. I was told, for example, that Korean women dreamed “of the land of the big BX” (we say BX in the AF; for the Army, it’s PX); in other words, be careful if you’re assigned there and one tries to latch on to you. An assignment to Korea was seen as a chance to buy hand-tailored suits on the cheap, as well as electronics, watches, and the like. To understate, when a military consists of mostly young men being assigned to countries that they see as inferior to America, the behavior manifested is not always kindly and helpful. (Consider rapes on Okinawa, to name just one example.) An aside: One of my uncles assigned to the European Theater in WWII spoke of how U.S. troops exploited European women. One obvious example: the women were hungry, U.S. troops were too — for sex. Food for sex. I knew several guys who married either Korean or Filipino women while overseas. Two of these marriages were disasters; two had staying power. I wonder how many “foreigners” have been brought to the USA due to these marriages, as well as to America’s wars? The Vietnamese and Laotians, for example … I don’t have a big point here, except to say U.S. service members tend to see foreign countries and foreigners with a mindset of “How can I profit in the time I’m assigned here.” And how quickly can I get back to the USA? Of course, there are always exceptions to this … but it’s not often a mindset conducive to winning hearts and minds. :-) Thanks for the link to the book review, Bill. Any study of the demoralization and corruption of both Vietnamese and Americans in Vietnam would take not just one book but several. As an individual, low-level, enlisted nobody of any consequence, I can’t say that I ever saw the bottom of the barrel or the inside of a padded cell, but I came “close enough for government work,” as we used to say of military precision. As I recall, we Americans in Vietnam had a “tooth to tail” ratio of 1 to 9, meaning that for every uniformed combatant in the boondocks we had nine support troops backing him up with supplies and services. Something like that. I never thought of them as REMFs — those mostly resided in Washington, D.C. at the Pentagon and CIA headquarters — although I would classify Saigon Military Police in that derogatory category. I remember two of them in their clean, pressed uniforms sneering at me one night in a Saigon hotel elevator: “We throw people like you in jail.” Pure REMF. Once when I served at ATSB Solid Anchor down in IV Corps, the commanding generals got the bright idea of restricting everyone to their bases for a month in an effort to combat the escalating drug problem. It didn’t work because they didn’t restrict the MPs to base, and so it became obvious who did their fair share of supplying drugs to the demoralized troops on base. Yeah, REMFs. We had our share of those. If you pay anyone enough money, you can get them to do just about anything, and then some. It doesn’t even take much money if the target black-marketeer has never had much of it. Standards of corruption vary, depending upon how much money one has grown accustomed to “setting aside” for one’s own “needs.” I first arrived at Tan Son Nhut Airport in Saigon in June of 1970 and discovered that I had some economic survival lessons to learn right away. Stanley Karnow (in Vietnam: a History) describes the scene: Saigon at the height of the war had stunk of decay. Its bars were drug centers, its hotels brothels, it boulevards and squares a sprawling black market hawking everything from sanitary napkins to rifles – all of it purloined from American warehouses. Soldiers from Ohio and Georgia and Oregon, black and white, their pockets filled with cash, strolled streets crowded with whores and pimps, beggars, orphans, cripples, and other victims of devastation. South Vietnamese army generals, enriched by silent Chinese partners, possessed gaudy villas not far from putrid slums packed with refugees, and government officials and businessmen connived constantly, shuffling and reshuffling the seemingly limitless flow of dollars. It was a city for sale – obsessed by greed, oblivious to its impending doom. “No shit, Sherlock,” as we enlisted types used to say when confronted with the undeniable ugliness of reality. “Intuitively casual to the obvious observer.” Since no one knew what to do with me, I had to hang around a stinking toilet of a transit barracks in Saigon for almost a month while awaiting orders to a duty station. One day a friend of mine in similar circumstances suggested that we go out onto the streets and learn our way around. We had both trained for thirty-two weeks in the Vietnamese language (Southern Dialect) at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, so we figured we could get along well enough, linguistically, in a pinch. As things quickly unravelled, we soon learned what our teachers at DLI meant when they warned us that “No one in Vietnam speaks Monterey Dialect.” Not to worry. The orphans, beggars, pimps, whores, and thieves spoke perfect Pidgin English: “You buy me Saigon Tea, GI?” “No money, no honey!” But first things first. Right out of the front door we ran into a waiting mob of “Peanut Girls,” those cute little orphans who swarmed around us, begging us to buy their little bags of peanuts. Not understanding the local money yet and not wishing to offend anyone, we regretfully declined to purchase the offered merchandise. The little girls seemed to take the rejection in stride and ran off laughing. A few steps further down the street my friend suddenly realized that his wallet — containing $200 US dollars — had disappeared from his right rear pants pocket. I kept my wallet in a pocket inside my shirt, but I checked, just to make sure. We discovered that all of our pants pockets and outer jacket pockets had razor-blade slices in them. Our newly issued olive-drab dungaree “uniforms” had apparently suffered a deft professional shredding. And we hadn’t felt a thing. Back to the stinking toilet of a transit barracks for a change of “uniforms” and the chance to think things over. “And I’ve got a year full of shit like this ahead of me?” I wondered. As it turned out, I had almost a year-and-a-half of shit like that to get through, but I suppose I’ll get around to that story in another comment posting. Right now, the time has come to go out onto the streets of Kaohsiung, Taiwan, and get me some breakfast. And to think that I would never have found myself here had I not spent that eighteen months in the southern half of Vietnam over forty-five years ago. History does abound in ironies. “This just in” (in terms of coming to my attention): In an article on the Burns Vietnam War series posted by Veterans For Peace, Dr. Camillo Mac Bica, Professor of Philosophy at School of Visual Arts in NYC and a Vietnam Veteran, quoted chunks of Burns’s promo materials that I hadn’t seen. I take the liberty of reproducing the following segments: “The Vietnam War is a story of service members of different backgrounds, colors, and creeds who came together to complete a daunting mission. It is a story of Americans from every corner of our Nation who left the warmth of family to serve the country they loved. It is a story of patriots who braved the line of fire, who cast themselves into harm’s way to save a friend, who fought hour after hour, day after day to preserve the liberties we hold dear. “There is no simple or single truth to be extracted from the Vietnam War. Many questions remain unanswerable. But if, with open minds and open hearts, we can consider this complex event from many perspectives and recognize more than one truth, perhaps we can stop fighting over how the war should be remembered and focus instead on what it can teach us about courage, patriotism, resilience, forgiveness and, ultimately, reconciliation. “If we are to begin the process of healing, we must first honor the courage, heroism, and sacrifice of those who served and those who died, not just as we do today, on Memorial Day, but every day.” So, US troops “…came together to complete a daunting mission”!!! “Patriots” and “heroes,” eh?? Now I am forced to suspect this program to be FAR WORSE than I’d dared allow myself to expect!! Wow. Indeed, Greg. Check out my comment #41967 above: <a href="https://contraryperspective.com/2017/07/11/vietnam-redux-an-open-letter-to-ken-burns/#comment-41967 Greg: there’s a (slim) chance this could be PC boilerplate that’s meant to preempt criticisms of the series as being unpatriotic (assuming the series is critical, which I assume it will be, to a certain extent). With public funding to PBS under dire threat of being cut completely, surely those at the top are doing their best to portray PBS as “fair and balanced.” Ha! Bill A.–I fear that chance is what we science-minded folks call “astronomically slim”!! It looks to me like Burns and Co. have simply adopted the conventional language and parameters for discussing Vietnam. This should not come as the least bit of a surprise, all things considered. But still, one can feel disappointed in advance! Now I’ve reverted to my original stance that I may not be able to stomach all 18 hours of this monster! I’m questioning its worth more with each passing day. Another important aspect of the Vietnam War was the breakdown in discipline within the U.S. military, which helped to drive the eventual elimination of the draft. Part of this breakdown was driven by drugs, and I just happened to run across this interview at The Intercept with Alfred McCoy and Jeremy Scahill. Here’s an except and the link. https://theintercept.com/2017/07/22/donald-trump-and-the-coming-fall-of-american-empire Alfred McCoy: And in 1970 and ’71, there were rumors that started coming back from Vietnam, particularly 1971, that heroin was spreading rapidly in the ranks of the U.S. forces fighting in South Vietnam. And in later research, done by the White House, [it was] determined that in 1971, 34 percent, one-third of all the American combat troops fighting in South Vietnam were heavy heroin users. There were, if that statistic is accurate, more addicts in the ranks of the U.S. Army in South Vietnam than there were in the United States. And so what I did was I set out to investigate: Where was the opium coming from? Where was the heroin coming from? Who was trafficking it? How is it getting to the troops in their barracks and bunkers across the length and breadth of South Vietnam? Nobody was asking this question. Everyone was reporting on the high level of abuse, but nobody was figuring out where and who. So I started interviewing. I went to Paris. I interviewed the head of the French equivalent of the CIA in Indochina, who was then head of a major French helicopter manufacturing company, and he explained to me how during the French Indochina war from 1946 to 1954, they were short of money for covert operations, so the hill tribes in Laos produced the opium, the aircraft picked it up, they turned it over to the netherworld, the gangsters that controlled Saigon and secured it for the French and that paid for their covert operations. And I said, “What about now?” And he said, “Well I don’t think the pattern’s changed. I think it’s still there. You should go and look.” So I did. I went to Saigon. I got some top sources in the Vietnamese military. I went to Laos. I hiked into the mountains. I was ambushed by CIA mercenaries and what I discovered was that the CIA’s contract airline, Air America, was flying into the villages of the Hmong people in Northern Laos, whose main cash crop was opium and they were picking up the opium and flying it out of the hills and there were heroin labs — one of the heroin labs, the biggest heroin lab in the world, was run by the commander-in-chief of the Royal Laotian Army, a man whose military budget came entirely from the United States. And they were transforming, in those labs, the opium into heroin. It was being smuggled into South Vietnam by three cliques controlled by the president, the vice president, and the premier of South Vietnam, and their military allies and distributed to U.S. forces in South Vietnam. And the CIA wasn’t directly involved, but they turned a blind eye to the role of their allies’ involvement in the traffic. And so this heroin epidemic swept the U.S. Army in Vietnam. The Defense Department invented mass urine analysis testing, so when those troops left they were tested and given treatment. And what I discovered was the complexities, the complicity, of the CIA in this traffic and that was a pattern that was repeated in Central America when the Contras became involved in the traffic. [Looks like I didn’t get the automated notice of this comment on heroin having been added to the thread, so I’ll jot down a few thoughts now.] When the Brits forced opium on the Chinese in mid-19th Century, it was a money-making operation. But there was a secondary benefit for the official government pushers: a population prone to being in a drug-induced haze much of the time is handicapped in its ability to organize resistance to the foreigners. Fast-forward a century and we find minority communities in the US being flooded with hard drugs. The Black Panther Party used this slogan: “Capitalism + Dope = Genocide.” Moving to the rice paddies, rainforest and villages of Vietnam, we must ask: Is a soldier nodding off from a fresh hit of heroin an effective soldier? Obviously he is a menace to himself and his unit. Would the high command deliberately look the other way while this epidemic spread? Would they directly supervise distribution of such drugs? Well, if the men under your command were becoming increasingly rebellious against your insane war, and what was demanded of them, to the point of occasionally blowing up the officers who most intimately were making their lives utterly miserable on a daily basis, you might decide it was an acceptable trade-off. Let the troops “mellow out” a bit and release some of the tension via escapism, while still hoping to get enough movement out of them to keep up the appearance of a war being prosecuted. Drop millions of bombs on the countryside and hope that damage will outweigh the shortcomings in trying to “seize and hold” turf. Sound plausible? BULLETIN: I just (August 10) noticed by accident that SOME public TV stations (check listings for your local PBS affiliate) are airing a one-hour Preview of the Burns-Novick Vietnam series the evening of Friday, August 11. Others are airing a 90-minute worshipful program called “Ken Burns: America’s Storyteller,” to remind us all how awesome the guy is. I’ll be skipping that one, thank you. I have a pretty strong stomach, but……. I recorded the 60-minute PBS Preview promoting Ken Burns’s upcoming series on the Vietnam War Friday but only got to watch it tonight, August 13. Well, more precisely, I watched until my PBS affiliate went to a fundraising segment, then I bailed. What I saw up to that point was largely members of the Burns-Novick Team gushing praise for one another and Mr. Burns himself promising once again his massive series will “offer no answers”! So I propose a new title for this guy, to replace “America’s Storyteller”: “Ken Burns: He Takes 18 Hours to Offer No Answers.” I will credit Burns with doing very professional work, but to what end with this series? Okay, so he’s assembled some film footage we’ve not seen, and done some original interviews with surviving participants from both sides. But no answers!! Similarly, Burns spent 19 hours telling the story of Jazz. That series included exactly ONE musical selection that wasn’t talked over or truncated, and that selection ran less than 3 minutes!! I am convinced now that I would blow a gasket in my skull if I subjected myself to this entire Vietnam series, so I will likely only watch the episode dealing with the US domestic anti-war movement to see just how he deals with that. “No answers” — spin for “you (or we) can’t handle the truth.” As a historian, I learned quickly that you need a clear thesis — you need to take a position. Of course, you defend that position with facts, based on rigorous research in the appropriate sources. But a paper without a position is a muddle. Even worse: it’s boring. I wonder if this documentary will also be a muddle. I suppose it won’t be a bore due to the subject matter. But if it has no answers, it’s derelict in its duty, to borrow from the title of H.R. McMaster’s book on Vietnam. Thanks for your input, Bill A. Bank of America’s logo appears extra prominently in the list of corporate underwriters for the Burns series, preceding David Koch’s foundation, etc. So I think Burns’s own thesis must be: “Man, if I wanna do future mammoth programs like this, I better not offend these guys!” Like you, Greg, I’m growing more skeptical. I suspect we’ll hear a lot about “mistakes” and “miscalculations” and domino theories and the like. All “tragic.” Greg: Actually, the idea of “no answers” is absurd. Honest men like General Douglas Kinnard studied the war soon after it concluded and provided answers. Forgive me for citing my own writing, but here’s a partial summary: Unclear objectives, compromised integrity, indiscriminate firepower, cultural blindness, “tricky” optimism, concealing the realities of the war from the American people: all of these reasons, and more, contributed to the disaster of Vietnam. The sad truth is that we still haven’t fully learned the lessons of Kinnard’s honest, no-holds-barred, after action report that is “The War Managers.” At this link: https://bracingviews.com/2013/08/24/in-praise-of-douglas-kinnard-a-truth-telling-general-of-the-vietnam-war/ There are answers — grim ones — and even some military men provided them with harsh honesty. To create a documentary series with “no answers” is, in a strange way, to perpetuate a lie. VFP Linus Pauling Chapter says: Reblogged this on Veterans For Peace, Linus Pauling Chapter and commented: Linus Pauling chapter, Corvallis is trying to put together a public forum to discuss the film series. Please stay tuned. Thanks, VFP in Oregon. I and other VFPers are attending a Burns-Novick public event in Boston Sep. 6 which will have an audience Q&A session with the filmmakers after they show the one-hour preview (already aired on most PBS affiliates by now, I’m sure). I suspect there will be a lot of folks wanting to speak and thus a strict time limit. Organizing a stand-alone discussion, like you seem to be doing, is probably a greatly superior way to deal with this. I’ve been tossing and turning nights for a week now, struggling to assemble a super-concise question to put to the filmmakers…assuming I even get to speak! Henry Mark Holzer says: Be skeptical of Ken Burns’ documentary: The Vietnam War by Terry Garlock Some months ago I and a dozen other local veterans attended a screening at the Woodruff Arts Center in Atlanta – preview of a new documentary on The Vietnam War by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. The screening was a one hour summation of this 10-part documentary, 18 hours long. The series began showing on PBS Sunday Sep 17, and with Burns’ renowned talent mixing photos, video clips and compelling mood music in documentary form, the series promises to be compelling to watch. That doesn’t mean it tells the truth. For many years I have been presenting to high school classes a 90 minute session titled The Myths and Truths of the Vietnam War. One of my opening comments is, “The truth about Vietnam is bad enough without twisting it all out of shape with myths, half-truths and outright lies from the anti-war left.” The overall message to students is advising them to learn to think for themselves, be informed by reading one newspaper that leans left, one that leans right, and be skeptical of TV news. Part of my presentation is showing them four iconic photos from Vietnam, aired publicly around the world countless times to portray America’s evil involvement in Vietnam. I tell the students “the rest of the story” excluded by the news media about each photo, then ask, “Wouldn’t you want the whole story before you decide for yourself what to think?” One of those photos is the summary execution of a Viet Cong soldier in Saigon, capital city of South Vietnam, during the battles of the Tet Offensive in 1968. Our dishonorable enemy negotiated a cease-fire for that holiday then on that holiday attacked in about 100 places all over the country. Here’s what I tell students about the execution in the photo. [Photo omitted] Enemy execution by South Vietnam’s Chief of National Police, 1968 “Before you decide what to think, here’s what the news media never told us. This enemy soldier had just been caught after he murdered a Saigon police officer, the officer’s wife, and the officer’s six children. The man pulling the trigger was Nguyen Ngoc Loan, South Vietnam’s Chief of National Police. His actions were supported by South Vietnamese law, and by the Geneva Convention since he was an un-uniformed illegal combatant. Now, you might still be disgusted by the summary execution, but wouldn’t you want all the facts before you decide what to think?” The other one-sided stories about iconic photos I use are a nine year old girl named Kim Phuc, running down a road after her clothes were burned off by a napalm bomb, a lady kneeling by the body of a student at Kent State University, and a helicopter on top of a building with too many evacuees trying to climb aboard. Each one had only the half of the story told by news media during the war, the half that supported the anti-war narrative. Our group of vets left the Ken Burns documentary screening . . . disappointed. As one example, all four of the photos I use were shown, with only the anti-war narrative. Will the whole truth be told in the full 18 hours? I have my doubts but we’ll see. On the drive home with Mike King, Bob Grove and Terry Ernst, Ernst asked the other three of us who had been in Vietnam, “How does it make you feel seeing those photos and videos?” I answered, “I just wish for once they would get it right.” Will the full documentary show John Kerry’s covert meeting in Paris with the leadership of the Viet Cong while he was still an officer in the US Naval Reserve and a leader in the anti-war movement? Will it show how Watergate crippled the Republicans and swept Democrats into Congress in 1974, and their rapid defunding of South Vietnamese promised support after Americans had been gone from Vietnam two years? Will it show Congress violating America’s pledge to defend South Vietnam if the North Vietnamese ever broke their pledge to never attack the south? Will it portray America’s shame in letting our ally fall, the tens of thousands executed for working with Americans, the hundreds of thousands who perished fleeing in overpacked, rickety boats, the million or so sent to brutal re-education camps? Will it show the North Vietnamese victors bringing an influx from the north to take over South Vietnam’s businesses, the best jobs, farms, all the good housing, or committing the culturally ruthless sin of bulldozing grave monuments of the South Vietnamese? Will Burns show how the North Vietnamese took the city of Hue during the 1968 Tet Offensive, bringing lists of names of political leaders, business owners, doctors, nurses, teachers and other “enemies of the people,” and how they went from street to street, dragging people out of their homes, and that in the aftermath of the Battle of Hue, only when thousands of people were missing and the search began did they find the mass graves where they had been tied together and buried alive? Will Burns show how America, after finally withdrawing from Vietnam and shamefully standing by while our ally was brutalized, did nothing while next door in Cambodia the Communists murdered two million of their own people as they tried to mimic Mao’s “worker paradise” in China? Will Burns show how American troops conducted themselves with honor, skill and courage, never lost a major battle, and helped the South Vietnamese people in many ways like building roads and schools, digging wells, teaching improved farming methods and bringing medical care where it had never been seen before? Will he show that American war crimes, exaggerated by the left, were even more rare in Vietnam than in WWII? Will he show how a naïve young Jane Fonda betrayed her country with multiple radio broadcasts from North Vietnam, pleading with American troops to refuse their orders to fight, and calling American pilots and our President war criminals? Color me doubtful about these and many other questions. Being in a war doesn’t make anyone an expert on the geopolitical issues, it’s a bit like seeing history through a straw with your limited view. But my perspective has come from many years of reflection and absorbing a multitude of facts and opinions, because I was interested. My belief is that America’s involvement in Vietnam was a noble cause trying to stop the spread of Communism in Southeast Asia, while it had spread its miserable oppression in Eastern Europe and was gaining traction in Central America, Africa and other places around the world. This noble cause was, indeed, screwed up to a fare-thee-well by the Pentagon and White House, which multiplied American casualties. The tone of the screening was altogether different, that our part in the war was a sad mistake. It seemed like Burns and Novick took photos, video clips, artifacts and interviews from involved Americans, South Vietnamese, North Vietnamese, Viet Cong, civilians from south and north, reporters and others, threw it all in a blender to puree into a new form of moral equivalence. Good for spreading a thin layer of blame and innocence, not so good for finding the truth. John M. Del Vecchio, author of The 13th Valley, a book considered by many Vietnam vets to be the literary touchstone of how they served and suffered in the jungles of Vietnam, has this to say about Burns’ documentary. “Pretending to honor those who served while subtly and falsely subverting the reasons and justifications for that service is a con man’s game . . . From a cinematic perspective it will be exceptional. Burns knows how to make great scenes. But through the lens of history it appears to reinforce a highly skewed narrative and to be an attempt to ossify false cultural memory. The lies and fallacies will be by omission, not by overt falsehoods.” I expect to see American virtue minimized, American missteps emphasized, to fit the left-leaning narrative about the Vietnam War that, to this day, prevents our country from learning the real lessons from that war. When we came home from Vietnam, we thought the country had lost its mind. Wearing the uniform was for fools too dimwitted to escape service. Burning draft cards, protesting the war in ways that insulted our own troops was cool, as was fleeing to Canada. America’s current turmoil reminds me of those days, since so many of American traditional values are being turned upside down. Even saying words defending free speech on a university campus feels completely absurd, but here we are. So Ken Burns’ new documentary on the Vietnam War promises to solidify him as the documentary king, breathes new life into the anti-war message, and fits perfectly into the current practice of revising history to make us feel good. Perhaps you will prove me wrong. Watch carefully, but I would advise a heavy dose of skepticism. Terry Garlock lives in Peachtree City, GA. He was a Cobra helicopter gunship pilot in the Vietnam War. This may be an op-ed piece from an Atlanta newspaper, since its author is a Georgian, but the person posting it here didn’t bother to fill us in on that. I will dispense with this as concisely as possible. We must recognize that a rightwing response to the Burns-Novick series was totally predictable, and here’s an opening salvo. (David Koch, a major funder of the series, must be somewhat alarmed!) I have no way of knowing if the article’s author is really a combat veteran of Vietnam or just one of many pretenders. But if he really sat thru the official Preview, and it was the same version I saw in Boston, he would KNOW that Burns most assuredly DOES go into a lot of detail about the killings in Hue in 1968. He also seems to have somehow missed the fact that the PBS series makes no pretense of offering an overall moral judgment on the war, which is precisely the basis for my own objection to it. So much for rightwing handwringing over “the liberal bias of the media.” And did Mr. Garlock also somehow miss the big heartwarming flag-waving production concerning American POWs returning home, accompanied by Ray Charles singing “America The Beautiful”? Did he really attend a Preview screening at all?? The author fails to tell what he purports to be “the other side of the story” for the young girl victim of napalm (though I seem to recall assertions that her wounds resulted from some other cause), among other shortcomings in his narrative. Perhaps he should meet the adult that girl became and examine her lasting scars in person. But, I promised to be concise, so I’m not going to answer the author’s other assertions point by point. I will say in closing that I sincerely hope his rightwing lectures to high school students do NOT persuade a single solitary individual to voluntarily join the US military. That would be karma at work! Sue Skinner says: Well, the VFP people and most of the above writers are absolutely correct about this Ken Burns propaganda piece. Getting the US frothed up for further endless war, telling poignant stories about individual US military personnel, naming the early American dead by name(but not the Vietnamese, of course), and emphasizing every few minutes–so far– that Communists are evil and the US “had” to intervene in the Vietnamese “civil war”. Burns asserted in the first minutes of the program, that the atrocities of the war, and the war itself, was “accidental”, with absolutely no conspiracy was involved,ever. merely mistakes made “on both sides”. Though there is some rare mention of how the US was involved in lots of illegal machinations, these brief mentions are bordered by louder, longer discussion of the misdoings of North Vietnam and the Viet Cong. Disappointing. Was hoping this program would be more like the PBS series on World War 1, which was essentially an expose of the propagation of ingenious US propaganda techniques. Thanks for your comments, Sue. Mr. Burns is a very professional filmmaker, but he has said it himself repeatedly: he’s in the business of “telling stories.” But he’s not going to jeopardize his future funding options by offending Bank of America, David Koch, the Rockefeller Foundation (you can bet the Rockefellers made plenty of profits from US involvement in SE Asia!), etc. That’s just the reality. JG Ulmer, non-ingrate says: While 2017’s neo-pacifist TV hand wringing over Vietnam again sells to the lazy lib masses, as only more myopic street fodder (because the hated South Vietnamese were once committed to those most heinous acts being capitalism and Catholicism, despite JFK’s assassination of Diem and McGovern’s foaming racism), some of us see in the not too distant future North Korean nukes aimed at and beyond Japan, aided & abetted by Red China and the usual suspect Russians — yet the taxpayer subsidized PBS academics are unable to make the connection between liberal political immolations in DC and the blossoming threats globally, that their sycophantic Greens and other dumb grunge guaranteed as over, per total Beatle-loving neglect? News flash: North Vietnam was never multi-party Ohio (it was instead a Stalinist state, and the new improved Vietnam isn’t much better if you don’t toe the line) — and jolly Uncle Ho was a mass murderer, along with his smiling cadres. Ask any boat person that escaped from re-education camp. Even vapid Doonesbury’s step-dad finally figured out that one. Freedom does not grow on cheap Hanoi imports alone, nor the responsibility it requires, even for intellectual cowards in the leftist press. Too many have given too much to ignore those basic facts. The lesson then of Vietnam, at least on PBS? Never trust history to a rich white guy with a bad haircut. Dear “non-ingrate”: Your information is a bit out of date! The Burns-Novick Vietnam program is funded by Bank of America, the David Koch Foundation, etc., not (to a statistically significant extent, to apply scientific principles) the American taxpayer. Next! russellrowland says: Seems to me that it would have been way more beneficial to share your thoughts after seeing the film than just assuming Mr. Burns would get it wrong. Russell–You are free to post your ongoing comments on the series as (I assume) you continue to watch it. I have explained why I am personally boycotting it as a waste of 18 valuable hours. Call me selfish, but I didn’t want my head to explode as I heard more and more about how this was a “civil war,” comments from ex-CIA personnel, etc. In case no one’s noticed, truth telling is NOT what that agency has EVER been in business for. I lied my way out of the draft, in 1967. Am I proud? Maybe. It was one of the better decisions in my life! I had no interest in this foray into darkness. This proxy war with Russia and China. This immoral moment of greed and ego. Would I fight if we were attacked? Or in a real war? Yes. We all would, to save our country. But at that time, America was at war with itself. The old guard fighting the new. As a hippie, there were many places I couldn’t go, for fear of being beat up. 40 years later, they again have the upper hand, and a boot on our necks. I won’t live to see it, but the tide will surely turn. The old guard will be replaced by another new guard – of non-whites. Lying my own way out was not an option. I am the world’s worst liar!! (Ruled out a career in politics, that’s for sure.) I respect your choice of action. But I reject the notion that the people of Vietnam, who made sacrifices to regain independence that Americans are simply incapable of grasping, were some kind of pawn in a “proxy war.” This is just one of the distortions, or flat-out untruths, that I believe the Burns-Novick series is perpetuating. But that’s what happens when you accept so much input from CIA types, I guess. Robert Lawson says: I have not seen much about the military veterans who protested the war. We had a substantial and active group in Buffalo. During 1967 I met a fellow vet, who had been to Nam as an advisor. He was appalled by what he had seen. I had only served stateside, but that was enough to make me highly suspect of the the military industrial complex. At one point we had gathered the medals and draft cards, since we still had a reserve obligation, from around two hundred vets and threw them over the White House fence. Robert–When you write “I have not seen much about…” are you indicating you are watching the entire Burns-Novick series? My understanding is that they do show the medals-returning “ceremony,” but this footage has appeared in earlier documentaries. To the extent that Burns is allowing voices of vets who turned against the war, I know he also has vets proclaiming they are “proud” of their service in Vietnam. If you watch the entire 10-part series, I encourage you to share your overall impressions of it here. 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__label__wiki	0.991588	0.991588	Elton John Says ‘The Lion King’ Remake Messed Up His Music Jamie McCarthy, Getty Images Elton John said he was unhappy with the way this summer's live action remake of The Lion King turned out, even though he contributed a new song to the movie. He accused the filmmakers of not using him properly and said he preferred the Broadway adaptation of the story. "The new version of The Lion King was a huge disappointment to me because I believe they messed the music up," John told the British version of GQ. "Music was so much a part of the original and the music in the current film didn’t have the same impact. The magic and joy were lost. The soundtrack hasn’t had nearly the same impact in the charts that it had 25 years ago, when it was the bestselling album of the year. The new soundtrack fell out of the charts so quickly, despite the massive box-office success." John wrote a new song for The Lion King called "Never Too Late"; Beyoncé, who starred in the movie, also added a new song, "Spirit." But the soundtrack reached only No. 13 on the Billboard 200, a far cry from the 1994 original, which topped the chart and has sold more than 10 million copies. "I wish I’d been invited to the party more," John said. "But the creative vision for the film and its music was different this time around, and I wasn’t really welcomed or treated with the same level of respect. That makes me extremely sad. I’m so happy that the right spirit for the music lives on with the Lion King stage musical." John's autobiography, Me, arrived yesterday, and he admitted he couldn't have written it when his mother was alive. "It would have been too painful for her," he said. "I never responded to all the things she said in the tabloids and all the other things she did, so I thought it was time to address them, to tell a couple of home truths, and it wouldn’t have been appropriate. "She died at a good age, 92 [in 2017], and we reconciled in as much as we could before she died, and I’m glad we did. We had her funeral at the house and it was very emotional. I cried. I was very emotional because she was my mother. Unfortunately, we grew apart, but families do that. The last six or seven years of my relationship with my mother were pretty awful, and it wasn’t great before that. But it was very cathartic for me to write about it." Elton John Albums Ranked Next: 'Rocketman' Fact vs. Fiction Source: Elton John Says ‘The Lion King’ Remake Messed Up His Music Filed Under: Elton John	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6089
__label__cc	0.686225	0.313775	Andhra Pradesh: Government focusing on rejuvenating blue economy June 24,2020 \| Source: The New Indian Express The state government has initiated several measures to improve the blue economy, which is not only expected to rake in more revenue, but also augment employment. According to the Socio-Economic Survey, fish production improved to 41.75 lakh metric tonnes (MT) in 2019-20 compared to 39.92 lakh MT in the fiscal year 2018-19. Andhra Pradesh has favourable agro-climatic conditions for growth of fisheries and aquaculture sector. Contributing over 24 per cent to national fish production, the State is a major exporter of shrimps in India with a share of 36 per cent in total value of sea food exports. The sector is also given employment to 14.5 lakh persons. To utilise the State’s coastline, construction of fishing jetties and fish landing centres have been planned and, to this end, Rs 100 crore was allocated during 2019-20. Promotion of deep sea fishing, open sea cage and seaweed culture, promotion of alternative species for brackish water aquaculture, promotion of value-added products, cold chain facilities, promotion of new technologies, cage culture in suitable reservoirs, supply of nets, boats and other inputs on subsidy basis, aqua zonation for area expansion, organic aqua farming are part of strategy adopted by the government. Apart from improving infrastructure, the State, focusing on welfare of the fishermen, is implementing YSR Matsyakara Bharosa to provide financial aid to them, during the ban on fishing in the sea. Under the said programme, relief being provided to the fishermen has been enhanced from Rs 4,000 to Rs 10,000 per family. In 2019-20, an amount of Rs 102.33 crore was spent to benefit 1,02,332 fishermen families. Fishing on high seas is a perilous activity and the fishermen ply their trade risking their lives to support their families. In case the fishermen lose their lives, a compensation of Rs 5 lakh is paid per family till 2018-19. The same was doubled in 2019-20 to Rs 10 lakh.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6094
__label__wiki	0.896822	0.896822	The 2020 Race Could Revive a Bitter Feud Between Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren If he enters the race, the former vice president could find himself defending his middle-class credentials over an old bankruptcy reform effort. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Joe Biden was outraged. In February 2005, after eight years of starts and stops, the Senate was finally moving forward on a landmark overhaul of the nation’s bankruptcy laws—a bipartisan behemoth piece of legislation, backed by big banks and credit card companies, that the Delaware senator had taken a lead role in shepherding. But at the Senate Judiciary Committee’s public hearing on the bill, one of the witnesses had said something about his home state that Biden couldn’t let stand. The witness’ specific concern was Delaware’s unique status as the venue of choice for large corporations filing for bankruptcy. Companies understood that the courts there (where many of the companies were nominally incorporated) were more likely to take their side against creditors, such as employee pension plans. And the venue-shopping opened up a broader issue of access; massive companies such as Enron could choose a forum thousands of miles away from where their employees lived, effectively shutting the workers out of the process. The Delaware option allowed companies to “escape the obligation to make the process open,” the witness said, while the millions of individuals filing for personal bankruptcy every year had no such luxury. “I find the language that is used kind of fascinating—‘escape from the obligation to be open,’” Biden said in response. Was this witness suggesting “that the Delaware chancery court is not open, is somehow an unfair court? I find it outrageous, such a statement.” “Maybe you can tell me,” he asked. “Is it not a competent court? Is it not an open court?” Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard Law School bankruptcy professor who had been testifying vigorously against the bill for more than an hour, replied, “Are you asking me, senator?” “Well, yes,” Biden said. “You are the one that said ‘escape the obligation of making the process open.’” “Actually, senator, bankruptcy cases are not heard in Delaware chancery court.” Biden quickly corrected himself—bankruptcy cases are heard in bankruptcy court—but the exchange was emblematic of things to come. For the next 14 minutes, running well over Biden’s allotted time for questioning, he and Warren debated the role of government in a way that felt personal. It was not the first time the pair had clashed, and it wouldn’t be the last. Long before their Capitol Hill clash, Warren called out Biden by name in op-eds and in her first book, accusing him of carrying water for the big corporations that called his state home and kept his campaign coffers full. The bankruptcy fight was a pivotal moment for both Warren and Biden, who have each built a political brand based on a defense of the American middle class. Biden is fond of saying that he talks about working families so often his colleagues called him “Middle-Class Joe.” (Exactly who has ever called him that is a mystery.) Warren’s 2017 book was subtitled “The Battle to Save America’s Middle Class.” But there’s a key difference. In Warren’s telling, politicians like Joe Biden are exactly who the middle class needs protection from. And as the 2020 Democratic presidential campaign slowly heats up, the two may be on a collision course once more. The primary point of conflict between Warren and Biden has been bankruptcy reform, which was accomplished with Biden’s 2005 bill. Though the law was enormously complex, its most important consequence was simple—the legislation made it harder for millions of Americans who had fallen into debt and who sought relief through bankruptcy to break free from their obligations. At the same time, the bill entitled creditors, such as car companies or mortgage lenders, to an even greater share of their assets. Warren, whose research at Harvard focused on the causes of individual bankruptcy, had allies in her fight against Biden’s bill. Women’s groups, including the National Organization for Women’s Legal Defense and Education Fund, opposed the measure because of the disparate impact it would have on women, who made up a rapidly increasing percentage of all personal bankruptcy filings. The legislation also made it harder for single mothers to collect child support from bankrupt exes, by strengthening protections for other creditors. Some of the same women’s groups that were fighting the bill had previously elevated the Delaware senator to exalted status because of his work passing the Violence Against Women Act. And that’s what made Biden’s support for the measure so grating to Warren. Warren first began publicly taking on Biden in 2002, when she wrote a paper for the Harvard Women’s Law Journal suggesting that his position on bankruptcy had been effectively bought. “His energetic work on behalf of the credit card companies has earned him the affection of the banking industry and protected him from any well-funded challengers for his Senate seat,” she wrote. With a touch of snark, she added, “This important part of Senator Biden’s legislative work also appears to be missing from his Web site and publicity releases.” And in a New York Times op-ed that year she called the bankruptcy bill “unconscionable,” singling out Biden for his work on it. “Apparently many politicians believe they can remove the last safety net for families facing financial disaster (many of which are led by women) so long as they can find another highly visible issue that lets them proclaim their support for women,” she wrote. She took on Biden again in The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Mothers & Fathers Are Going Broke, the best-selling 2003 book she co-authored with her daughter, Amelia Warren Tyagi. “Women’s issues are not just about childbearing or domestic violence,” they wrote. “More women with children will search for a bankruptcy lawyer than will seek subsidized day care. And in a statistic with special significance for Senator Biden, more women will be victimized by predatory lenders than will seek protection from an abusive husband or boyfriend.” Warren and Tyagi continued, “The point is not to discredit other worthy causes or to pit one disadvantaged group against another. Nor would we suggest that battered women deserve less help or that subsidized day care is unimportant. The point is simply that family economics should not be left to giant corporations and paid lobbyists, and senators like Joe Biden should not be allowed to sell out women in the morning and be heralded as their friend in the evening.” So by the time they faced off at the Hart Senate Office Building in February 2005, Warren had been attacking Biden for years. After the initial affaire d’honneur over Delaware’s court system, Biden laid out his philosophical objection to Warren’s central criticism. If Americans really were drowning in debt for excusable and troubling reasons—the fraying of the social safety net, a broken health care system, predatory lending—as Warren believed, then perhaps what she should really be advocating was for the government to foot the bill—and not leave the creditors hanging. “We are going to ask the gas company, the drugstore, the automobile dealer to pay for the broken system instead of having the nerve to come and say it is a moral obligation of a nation to pay for that broken system,” he said. Warren—citing the example of a woman who had borrowed $2,200 from a lender and paid back $2,100 but, because of high interest rates, still owed $2,600 at the time of her bankruptcy—responded that some companies had made more than their share. And this exchange followed. BIDEN: Maybe we should talk about usury rates, then. Maybe that is what we should be talking about, not bankruptcy. WARREN: Senator, I will be the first. Invite me. BIDEN: I know you will, but let’s call a spade a spade. Your problem with credit card companies is usury rates from your position. It is not about the bankruptcy bill. WARREN: But, senator, if you are not going to fix that problem, you can’t take away the last shred of protection from these families. BIDEN: I got it, okay. You are very good, professor. And scene. A few months later, Biden responded to the criticism of Warren and others—although he did not mention her by name—in a Senate speech. The bill, he argued, actually strengthened protections for recipients of child support. Child support and alimony payments would move up in the pecking order relative to some other claims, such as administrative fees. “I wish that those who are fabricating wild claims about [the bill] would stop,” he said. “If they have their way, the women and children in this country who depend on alimony and child support will be robbed of real protections. That would be a crime.” But Charles Tabb, a professor of bankruptcy law at the University of Illinois, says Warren’s criticisms were “absolutely on point.” Biden and his allies made a series of small, mostly cosmetic changes to the law that allowed them to boast that the law they passed made the payment and collection of child support and alimony easier. The law ensured that such payments would take priority over administrative costs associated with the bankruptcy. But by increasing the amount of money that auto loan companies, or major appliance retailers like Sears, could skim off the top in the form of liens against people in bankruptcy, the bill effectively shrank the pot of money from which debtors could pay off everyone else. “It’s a zero-sum game,” Tabb says. “If a debtor wanted to keep the fridge and pay child support, they [now] have to pay more to keep the fridge. There are a number of provisions like that, where various secured creditors get more. That has to come off the back of somebody, and it’s got to be somebody that doesn’t have a lien. And child support payments don’t have a lien. You’ve got to pay all the liens first.” The National Women’s Law Center, in a letter to senators at the time, called the changes championed by Biden “virtually meaningless.” For Warren, her first foray into the political arena proved to be a formative one. “The bankruptcy wars changed me forever,” she wrote in her 2014 memoir, A Fighting Chance—a book that once more dragged Biden for his role in the legislation. “Even before this grinding battle, I had begun to understand the terrible squeeze on the middle class. But it was this fight that showed me how badly the playing field was tilted and taught me that the squeeze wasn’t accidental.” The bankruptcy fight also cemented Warren’s status as a public intellectual in progressive politics. Just a few years later, she was back in Washington as director of the Congressional Oversight Panel for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (the Wall Street bailout), and not long after that she was helping turn her proposal for a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau into law. By then, Biden’s own political leanings had shifted. As vice president, he helped push through the 2009 Dodd-Frank financial reform bill, which implemented new regulations on the financial-services industry, and he backed Warren’s CFPB as it got off the ground. “I think Biden in 2005 was pretty different in this space than he was in 2009—he’s really different,” says Jared Bernstein, a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities who served as the vice president’s chief economist during the financial crisis. “In 2005, he’s a senator from Delaware, where so many companies are incorporated, [and] the extent to which financial services were screwing around with consumers wasn’t nearly as clear then as it was a few years later. I think his views on this pretty clearly evolved when he became vice president after the housing bubble exploded, at which point he became a strong advocate of consumer protections and regulating financial services.” But the essential conflict between Biden and Warren lingered. In a 2015 interview with Yahoo News, Biden characterized now-Sen. Warren’s overall policy preference as “punishing the rich,” while he sought to hammer out compromises with credit card companies. He boasted of the administration’s 2009 passage of the CARD Act, a credit card holders’ bill of rights. “If you look at Elizabeth Warren’s argument on this: ‘You should have just shut the suckers down,’” he said. (Warren actually supported the CARD Act, and the Warren quote Biden was referring to—“We permit credit products to pass every day in commerce in America that if they were toasters, we would shut those folks down”—was Warren’s main argument for the CFPB, which Biden backed.) Biden wasn’t the only leading Democrat whom Warren took to task in her books. In A Fighting Chance, she described meeting with then-first lady Hillary Clinton in 1998 to make the case against an earlier iteration of a bankruptcy bill. Clinton, in Warren’s telling, left the meeting determined to help defeat it. But when Clinton joined the Senate, she eventually voted for bankruptcy reform. “The bill was essentially the same, but Hillary Rodham Clinton was not,” Warren wrote. “Big banks were now part of Senator Clinton’s constituency. She wanted their support, and they wanted hers.” Warren lost what she called the “bankruptcy wars.” But now, she is banking on that message she pushed unsuccessfully in the 2000s resonating with Democratic voters. When she kicked off her campaign for president in Iowa in January, she voiced a critique of money in politics that had its roots in her earlier crusade. But on that first campaign swing, the subject of bankruptcy came up only once, when a voter in Des Moines thanked her for a bill she introduced last year that aimed to roll back portions of the Biden-era law. “It’s a nerd thing,” Warren said to some laughs. “But it really matters to families in trouble and to small businesses in trouble.” Biden is not yet in the 2020 race. But if he leaps into the ever-growing fray, these two self-proclaimed champions of the middle class could find themselves competing for the same set of voters. It’s possible this old feud over a piece of economic policy that few voters ever paid close attention to could be revived. And if it does come up, there’s little doubt about which candidate sees their role in the fight as an asset. Warren devotes ample space in her books to her unsuccessful fight against Biden and his bill. But in his two books, Biden never mentions the years he devoted to winning this fight—and beating Warren.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6097
__label__cc	0.523578	0.476422	You are here: Home / Human Interest / Sarasota - Bradenton / Artist from Connecticut Wins “People’s Choice Award” in the 2016 Embracing Our Differences’ Exhibit; Claudia Ramirez’s work, “Hate Tears Us Apart,” was voted best in show by exhibit goers. Ramirez received a $1,000 cash award Artist from Connecticut Wins “People’s Choice Award” in the 2016 Embracing Our Differences’ Exhibit; Claudia Ramirez’s work, “Hate Tears Us Apart,” was voted best in show by exhibit goers. Ramirez received a $1,000 cash award May 27, 2016 Comment Off 33 Views Artist from Connecticut Wins “People’s Choice Award” in the 2016 Embracing Our Differences’ Exhibit Claudia Ramirez‘s work, “Hate Tears Us Apart,” was voted best in show by exhibit goers. Ramirez received a $1,000 cash award. (Sarasota, FL) “Hate Tears Us Apart,” Claudia Ramirez’s boldly graphic artwork, won visitors’ hearts and the “People’s Choice Award” at Embracing Our Differences’ 13th annual outdoor juried art exhibit celebrating diversity. Ramirez, who lives in Stamford, Connecticut, received a cash award of $1,000. Her exhibit banner was sponsored by Debbie and Larry Haspel. In creating “Hate Tears Us Apart,” Ramirez says that she “wanted to create a piece that was type- and concept-driven because I enjoy the aesthetic beauty of words and letter forms.” She says that she believes, “hate is fueled by our own thoughts, beliefs and actions. It’s really up to us to eradicate it. I express that idea by using words of hate in the background. I also wanted to consider the environment in which the piece would be displayed, so I experimented with optical illusion.” Sarah Wertheimer, associate executive director of Embracing Our Differences, says that the award is “especially meaningful because it’s determined by exhibit goers choosing the artwork that has moved and captivated them the most.” For 13 years, “Embracing Our Differences” has drawn on the passion and perception of artists, children and others to create powerful statements of diversity and acceptance in its annual outdoor public art exhibition consisting of 45 billboard-sized works of art and accompanying quotes. The response to this year’s call for artwork and inspirational quotes resulted in 8,350 entries pouring in from 104 countries and 44 states. Students from 106 schools around the world submitted artwork or quotes to the juried exhibit; 40 of this year’s winners were students, and 38 of those were from local schools. Embracing Our Differences’ annual outdoor exhibits are the heart of a year-round program of activities designed to use art as a catalyst to create awareness and promote diversity. Aside from the annual outdoor exhibition, Embracing Our Differences’ ongoing educational outreach programs and initiatives include: Teacher workshops developed by nationally acclaimed educators to provide curricula and lesson plans relating to art appreciation, character building and diversity education. These include: Mastering the Art of the Quote Workshops: This workshop is designed to take the difficult topics of diversity, prejudice and inclusion and teach students to express themselves through critical thinking and creative writing. Presented in partnership with Florida Studio Theatre, the workshop fulfills a critical need of providing teachers with creative resources to meet Florida’s Language Arts Standards. Art Teacher Retreat: This two-day seminar, developed in partnership with Ringling College of Art and Design, is designed to reinvigorate educators’ teaching practices while offering new skills and strategies for inspiring students to explore the abstract concepts of prejudice, diversity and inclusion. Substitute teachers are provided for participating educators. In 2015, the 37 participating art teachers were collectively responsible for more than 12,000 students from Sarasota and Manatee counties. Lesson Plans Workshops: Designed to deliver new and innovative methods of engaging students in critical thinking while creating the perfect environment for a rich discussion of the value of diversity and inclusion, all lesson plans identify the relevant curriculum standards, educational objectives, materials needed, activities, step-by-step instructional strategies and assessment guidelines. Summer Diversity Institute (Bully Prevention in Schools): This three-day annual event provides information and support on bullying in our schools, in cyberspace, and in our community. The workshop offers support and structures for educators to use with students in their classrooms and on the school campus. Participants work individually and in small groups based upon grade level, as well as school location, to create lesson plans and action plans that will be used within each school to provide support to both students and faculty as they encounter incidents. More than 85 Sarasota school guidance counselors, psychologists and sociologists participated in a recent condensed version of the workshop, organized out of popular demand by area school administrators. The “Make-a-Day-of-It!” program, providing free bus transportation for area students and teachers to the outdoor exhibit and to other cultural venues, including Florida Studio Theatre, Mote Marine Laboratory, Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, The Ringling, Sarasota Film Festival, and Marie Selby Botanical Gardens. 13,320 students participated during the 2015 school year. Coexistence Clubs, via partnerships with Riverview, Booker and North Port high schools, provide student-led docent tours of the annual exhibit. Student docent tours were provided to 7,706 K-8 children visiting the 2015 exhibits. There are approximately 115 student docents. For more information about this exhibit or Embracing Our Differences, please call 941-404-5710 or visit www.embracingourdifferences.org. About Embracing Our Differences Embracing Our Differences is a local non-profit that began in 2004. The organization showcases a community-based outdoor exhibit promoting positive, inspirational artistic and verbal expressions of inclusion, acceptance and respect. The mission of Embracing Our Differences is to use the transformational power of the arts to educate and inspire to create a better world. For more information, visit www.embracingourdifferences.org. In : Human Interest, Sarasota - Bradenton Previous article ANN COMPTON TO SERVE AS A POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR DURING ABC NEWS RADIO’S CONVENTION COVERAGE Next article Consumer sentiment among Floridians fell another 1.6 points in May to 89.4, according to the latest University of Florida consumer survey KAYE Announces Album Conscious Control with epic “Howl” Nourishing Biologicals’ Dr. George Sadowski Tells Worldwide Business with Kathy Ireland Why It s SkinCare Line is Most Advanced on the Market Never Heard of ‘Em is the fourth full album now available from The Fill Ins under Hobo Wolfman Records Film Composer Paul Cantelon Releases ‘Repose’ + ‘Wildwood’ EPs Frank Salomon Associates: When we first heard Camille Thomas, we understood why she became the first cellist signed by Deutsche Grammophon in 40 years Aug. 28: Pianist Liza Stepanova Releases New Album – E Pluribus Unum – celebrating Music by American Composers with Immigrant Backgrounds including Three World Premiere Recordings Nu Deco Ensemble Reimagine the Music of Outkast In Latest Live Performance Video Timothy B. Schmit Releases New Single – “Cross That Line” Emmy Award Winner and Ex-Rockette, Jennifer Jiles is Nominated for Best Actress for the Long Short Film, “Beauty” Written and Directed by Andrew Schwarz Spafford announces Live At The Drive-In	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6106
__label__wiki	0.52141	0.52141	Ehlers-Danlos Society Launches Project ECHO Initiative Aimed at Patient Care Worldwide by Mary Chapman The Ehlers-Danlos Society has launched an initiative to support healthcare professionals worldwide to care for patients with Ehlers-Danlos syndromes (EDS) and other hypermobility spectrum disorders (HSD). Part of Project ECHO (ECHO stands for Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes), the online educational and mentoring program called EDS ECHO connects EDS and HSD experts with clinicians across medical specialities to improve patient care and outcomes. Currently, there are 268 Project ECHO programs in 34 countries. EDS ECHO has started with two hubs, one in Baltimore, Maryland, and the other at the Royal Society of Medicine in London, England. The long-term goal is to create multiple academic “hubs” worldwide, removing barriers for clinicians who seek to learn more about EDS and HSD. The centerpiece of the ECHO model is its hub-and-spoke knowledge-sharing networks, led by expert teams that use videoconferencing to conduct virtual clinics with community providers. The initiative is aimed primarily at rural and underserved communities. “EDS ECHO seeks to tackle a key issue facing patients with EDS and HSD: lack of knowledgeable clinicians,” Lara Bloom, The Ehlers-Danlos Society’s international executive director, said in a press release. “Too many in our community report that they are forced to travel far and wide to access a physician who knows how to manage their healthcare, and often at great personal expense,” Bloom added, noting that patients sometimes must wait more than two years to see an expert. The EDS ECHO initiative is touted as the first worldwide EDS program, and will serve as a pilot program for future international Project ECHO efforts. So far in the online clinics, EDS diagnosis, musculoskeletal complications, and pain management have been discussed. Project ECHO link hubs’ expert specialist teams with primary care physicians in local communities. Those clinicians, known as “spokes” in the ECHO model, become part of a learning community, receiving mentoring and feedback from specialists. Together, they manage patient cases. During 90-minute weekly “teleECHO clinics,” primary care clinicians from multiple sites present patient cases to specialist teams and to each other, discuss new patient developments, and determine treatment. Clinical experts will run a rolling program that, for free, covers the main aspects of EDS and HSD. “There simply aren’t enough medical professionals who know how to handle an EDS or HSD patient, and many of the clinicians who are knowledgeable are grouped together in just a handful of locations around the world,” said Stacey Simmonds, ECHO clinic coordinator. “The Ehlers-Danlos Society and the EDS International Consortium have made a lot of progress in recent years, but we needed more EDS and HSD experts. With Project ECHO, we can train our own, no matter where they live,” Simmonds added. The data-tracking platform iEcho is expected to help ECHO assess its impact and track geographic reach. The Project ECHO model was developed by the University of New Mexico to help healthcare professionals coordinate care for hepatitis C patients in New Mexico. The university provides resources, training, and support for all Project ECHO programs. Mary Chapman Mary M. Chapman began her professional career at United Press International, running both print and broadcast desks. She then became a Michigan correspondent for what is now Bloomberg BNA, where she mainly covered the automotive industry plus legal, tax and regulatory issues. A member of the Automotive Press Association and one of a relatively small number of women on the car beat, Chapman has discussed the automotive industry multiple times of National Public Radio, and in 2014 was selected as an honorary judge at the prestigious Cobble Beach Concours d’Elegance. She has written for numerous national outlets including Time, People, Al-Jazeera America, Fortune, Daily Beast, MSN.com, Newsweek, The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press. The winner of the Society of Professional Journalists award for outstanding reporting, Chapman has had dozens of articles in The New York Times, including two on the coveted front page. She has completed a manuscript about centenarian car enthusiast Margaret Dunning, titled “Belle of the Concours.” Tagged care, EDS ECHO, Ehlers-Danlos Society, healthcare professionals, HSD, Project ECHO, training. Previous: Balancing Sleep and a Busy World Next:Pants vs. Shorts: A Battle of the Bruising	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6107
__label__cc	0.71128	0.28872	Literary Glance: Heroes of the Frontier by David Eggers If you judge Dave Eggers by the movies based on his books, the last year has been rough. Both The Circle and Hologram for the King bombed at the theaters. But that’s not a fair way to judge authors. Even Stephen King had a rough patch of crappy movies based on his books back in the 1980’s, and he seems to be doing okay. I’m not sure if Dave Eggers’s latest novel Heroes of the Frontier would make a good movie or not. So far it has a lot of driving, a lot of descriptions of Alaska, and a lot of thinking. Sometimes too much thinking is bad. During a stream of consciousness moment, characters might have a thought that’s meant to be universal but it only applies to that character (or the author). In this case, early in Chapter I, the narrator is with her family at a zoo and thinks: “This was not so bad. But it was sad like any zoo is sad, a place where no one really wants to be. The humans feel guilty about being there at all, crushed by thoughts of capture and captivity and bad food and drugs and fences. And the animals barely move.” This is what I call a false observation. I like zoos, and I know other people like zoos as well. It’s relaxing to walk around a bunch of loafing animals. On a nice day, I’d rather walk around a zoo than watch a nature show where animals tear each other apart. On the other hand, I worry a little bit about people who are too fascinated by animals devouring each other on television. When you break the thought down, the observation becomes more false (for me). “But it was sad like any zoo is sad, a place where no one really wants to be.” I don’t recall seeing a bunch of sad faces at the zoo (except at the gift store, where kids throw fits when parents say no). Kids run around, laughing and pointing; parents get mad, but it’s usually temporary. Maybe it’s sad for some of the animals and for people who are opposed to the concept of zoos. “The humans feel guilty about being there at all, crushed by thoughts of capture and captivity…” “Crushed” might be overdoing it a little bit. The thought might occur to us, but the animals are also being spared the fate of the average Discovery Channel subject. “…bad food and drugs and fences.” That sounds like the average professional sporting event. “And the animals barely move.” You just have to get there at the right time. A false observation like this excerpt makes me distrust either the narrator or the author, but I haven’t read far enough into the novel to decide which one. The narrator might not be trustworthy because she’s driving around Alaska with her young kids in a run-down RV. Whatever her reasons behind this situation, her decision-making skills might not be the best. She might not like zoos, but she is in not in the frame of mind to decide whether or not everybody dislikes zoos. Maybe the narrator is supposed to be reliable and it’s the author who is at fault. Maybe the author truly believes everybody hates zoos and he’s falsely projecting his own feelings on characters. Maybe I’ll figure that out as I read further into the book. If you like the kind of stream of consciousness writing from this example, you’ll probably enjoy Heroes of the Frontier. If you think that this writing style makes a book dull and plodding, maybe this novel won’t be your thing. Either way, if they make a movie out of it, I hope they do a better job with it than they’ve done with Dave Eggers’s previous books. « Bad Sentences in Classic Literature: The Great Gatsby Literary Glance: Foreign Agent by Brad Thor »	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6109
__label__wiki	0.890703	0.890703	Category Archives: Clontarf “Peeps at Parochial Happenings”: Irish Events Newsreel Begins, June-July 1917 Posted on July 7, 2017 by EarlyIrishCinema Political developments formed the context for the conception and launch of Ireland’s first newsreel, Irish Events, in the month between 18 June and 17 July 1917. The Evening Telegraph placed a very large photograph of the returned Irish prisoners leaving Westland Row station on its front page on 18 June 1917. “Somewhere about 9 a.m. a man was about to enter his offices in Great Brunswick Street,” cinema trade journal Irish Limelight reported of the exciting events of 18 June 1917 in Dublin. On 15 June, the British government had announced a general amnesty for the remaining Irish people it had jailed for their roles in the 1916 Rising. Many of these prisoners had experienced jeers as they were marched out of Dublin in early May 1916; their homecoming would be very different, indeed a nationalist celebration. Nevertheless, there was tension in the city in the days leading up to their arrival because it was not clear when or by what route they would come. This was also true of the man leaving his office in Great Brunswick (now Pearse) Street. “It is possible that he was not feeling altogether in harmony with the glorious summer morning,” the Limelight observed. For two days he had been on the alert, waiting and watching for the homecoming of the released Sinn Fein prisoners. He had no concern with their political views or with the views of the Government that set them at liberty. He was a kinematographer and he was out for business – and it looked as if the business was likely to elude him. (“Sinn Fein Prisoners’ Homecoming.”) Norman Whitten in his offices at 17 Great Brunswick Street; Irish Limelight 1:7 (Jul. 1917): 17. Courtesy of the National Library of Ireland. The man was Norman Whitten, managing director of General Film Supply, for whom the prisoners’ homecoming was “as good a ‘topical’ as had happened for a long time.” An English filmmaker who had learned the cinema business from pioneer Cecil Hepworth, Whitten had been working in Ireland since the early 1910s, making topical films of local interest and advertising films. He was also an agent for several British equipment manufacturers as well a distributor of certain films. Two days after the events described by the Limelight, he would be in Dublin’s nisi prius court successfully prosecuting James J. Fisher for outstanding monies related to the exhibition of the film Lost in the Eternal City, for which Whitten held the Irish rights (“Hire of a Film”). Whether Whitten ever received the £70 and costs awarded by the court is not clear because the Limelight pointedly reported on the same page as its account of Whitten’s filmmaking that Fisher, “so well known in Ireland in connection with the official war films, left for Salonika on the 25th June” (“Mr. J. J. Fisher”). In any case, early on 18 June, Whitten was presented with an opportunity. Westland Row station was about five-minutes walk from his office. “His key was just in the lock when a wave of cheering came down the street from the Westland Row end,” the Limelight report continues: Looking up he saw the Sinn Fein tricolour waving at the head of a procession just turning into Great Brunswick Street. One glance was enough, and in another he was feverishly active inside in the office. Where was that favourite camera? How many feet of film had he? Where was the other box? And the tripod! (“Sinn Fein Prisoners’ Homecoming.”) A framegrab or “cinephoto” from Whitten’s film, showing the former prisoners passing the Queen’s Theatre in Brunswick Street, which was beside Whitten’s office. Irish Limelight 1:7 (Jul. 1917): 16. Courtesy of the National Library of Ireland. Having assembled his equipment, “he was out again in the street, the tripod was mounted on a chair, the eye of the kinematograph was pointed directly at the oncoming procession and the first film of the ex-prisoners’ homecoming was being taken.” He followed the procession through the streets to Fleming’s Hotel in Gardiner Street, where some of the former prisoners obliged him by waiting in their carriages until he had set up his camera to film them getting down. To capitalize on this scoop, however, Whitten had to show the “hustle” for which he was renowned by developing, printing and delivering the film to the Dublin’s cinemas interested in it. In doing this, he needed to be faster than the other filmmakers who were also out shooting these events, including Gaumont’s Mr Russell. Among its extensive production and distribution businesses, Gaumont produced its own newsreel, the Gaumont Graphic, and the company had shot their first topical in Ireland in June 1913 (“Irish Topical”). Its well-appointed offices in Dublin’s Lord Edward Street included facilities for developing and printing film, but for some reason – possibly lack of personnel – Russell had to send his film to England to be processed (“Building News”). Whitten, by contrast, processed his own film, and as a result, the excitement of the shooting in the streets was followed by hours of swift and delicate work in the ruddy gloom of the developing room and in the arid light of the drying room. Three hundred and fifty feet of film had to be fixed on the developing frames and plunged into the tanks for eight minutes, then rinsed and fixed. In the balance of half-an-hour it was washed. Fifteen minutes later the whirling drums had dried it. (“Sinn Fein Prisoners’ Homecoming.”) At this period, a film of 350 feet would usual run five to six minutes, but this was not the completed film. Whitten edited the raw footage and added end- and intertitles to produce a finished film that likely ran five minutes, the typical length of a newsreel. This was not a typical newsreel film, however, because a newsreel usually consisted of five one-minute items showing a mixture of news and social events. Instead, this was a special topical. “By 3 p.m.,” the Limelight revealed, “three copies had been printed and fully titled with a photograph of McGuinness added at the end and were rushed off in taxis to the picture houses which had been enterprising enough to book this ‘red-hot topical.’” Joseph McGuinness had been a prisoner in Lewes jail when he was elected MP in the May 1917 Longford South by-election, and he had been at Fleming’s Hotel to greet the returned prisoners. Bohemian Picture Theatre with Whitten’s film of the released prisoners; Dublin Evening Mail 18 Jun. 1917: 2. The film was ready for afternoon showings in Dublin’s picture houses, but its initial run of just three copies meant that it could only play at three venues: the Bohemian Picture Theatre in Phibsboro, the Town Hall, Rathmines (THR) and the city-centre Rotunda. The managers of these picture houses certainly believed that the film would be a draw, and the Bohemian and THR even managed to have it prominently mentioned in their ads in the evening newspapers. Among those who were attracted were some of the prisoners themselves: Some of the ex-prisoners and their friends could not resist the temptation to see themselves “in the pictures,” and a contingent marched up to the Rotunda early in the afternoon. They cheerfully acceded to the genial manager’s request that they should leave their flags in the porch, and, when inside, gave every indication of enjoying not only “their own film” but the rest of the programme. (“Sinn Fein Prisoners’ Homecoming.”) Cinephoto from Whitten’s film of the return of Countess Markievicz on 21 June 1917; Irish Limelight Jul. 1917: 16. Courtesy of the National Library of Ireland. The Limelight’s detailed account of Whitten’s work on this film suggests that he was working alone at this point on shooting, processing and dispatching; it does not mention any employees. Nevertheless, people in the business knew Whitten’s abilities from previous events he had filmed, and on Thursday of that week, he would repeat his achievement when he had a film of the arrival back in Ireland of republican leader Countess Constance Markievicz for showing at 10:30pm, even though she did not reach Westland Row station until 6:45pm. Nevertheless, for the Monday film, he appears to have been overwhelmed by the number of requests for copies and resorted to offering other topicals he had shot of Irish and National Volunteers and the funeral of republican Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa. When even these supplies were exhausted, desperate exhibitors were prepared to accept even Irish-themed fiction films. “[W]hen everything that could by any stretch of the imagination have been utilised as a ‘topical’ was used up,” the Limelight commented, “they fell back upon ‘The Shaughraun,’ ‘The Colleen Bawn,’ and other film plays of the earlier ‘Irish’ type.” The phenomenal success of this film and the one of Markievicz later in the week formed the basis for Whitten’s launch of an Irish newsreel service he called Irish Events just a month later. While he must have been considering an Irish newsreel for some time, the decision to launch it in July 1917 appears to have been a sudden one because he did not mention it to the Limelight reporter who so thoroughly covered his work on the film of the released prisoners. But then he was “a hustler from Hustlerville,” as the Limelight called him (“‘Irish Events’”). The Limelight did publish a long article on the launch of Irish Event in its August issue, urging all Irish exhibitors to subscribe to it, but by the start of August, three issues of Irish Events had already been released. “Irish people always will be glad to glimpse really interesting happenings in Great Britain and abroad,” it observed, “but when it comes to peeps at parochial happenings – well, they would certainly prefer to see pictures of sports at, say, Croke Park, instead of pictures of an English sports meeting” (“‘Irish Events’”). Members of the crowd smile and gesture happily when the newsreel camera is trained on them in Release of the Sinn Fein Prisoners (Ireland: General Film Supply, 1917). Courtesy of the Irish Film Institute. Although some Irish Events would be released as specials like the film of the returning prisoners, the regular format of Irish Events mirrored that of the other newsreels such as Gaumont Graphic, Pathé News and Topical Budget. That is to say, it included both political and social events. The first few issues included “aquatic and other sports meetings, Phœnix Park demonstrations, the great funeral which the Sinn Feiners gave Mrs. MacDonagh, widow of their executed leader, the Twelfth of July Celebrations in Belfast and a fete in Lord Iveagh’s grounds” (“‘Irish Events’”). It is unlikely that Whitten could have covered all these events alone and run the other aspects of his business. Indeed, when the Limelight highlighted an Irish Events item on the Clontarf Aquatic Festival, it observed that it had been shot by both Whitten and his camera operator J. Gordon Lewis, who would become Whitten’s close collaborator. Over the Irish Events’ years of existence between 1917 and 1921, Whitten and Lewis would shoot such everyday occurrences and present them alongside some of the most momentous political events of Ireland’s history. “Building News.” Irish Builder and Engineer 12 Apr. 1913: 250. “Hire of a Film: ‘Lost in the Eternal City’: Action for £70.” Dublin Evening Mail 20 Jun. 1917: 4. “‘Irish Events’: An Enterprise that Merits the Support of Every Exhibitor in this Country: News Films from the Four Provinces.” Irish Limelight 1:8 (Aug. 1917): 18-19. “Irish Topical.” Bioscope 19 Jun. 1913: 857. “Mr. J. J. Fisher.” Irish Limelight 1:7 (Jul. 1917): 17. “Sinn Fein Prisoners’ Homecoming: Story of the Filming of Recent Remarkable Street Scenes in Dublin. Irish Limelight 1:7 (Jul. 1917): 16-17. “Town Topics: Being a Casual Causerie.” Dublin Evening Mail 7 May 1917: 2. Posted in 1916 Rising, Anti-Partition Meeting at Phoenix Park (Ireland: General Film Supply 1917), Bohemian Picture Theatre, Children’s Fete at Lord Iveagh’s Garden Party (Ireland: General Film Supply 1917), Clontarf, Clontarf Aquatic Festival (Ireland: General Film Supply 1917), Countess Constance Markievicz, Funeral of Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa (Ireland: General Film Supply 1915), Funeral of Mrs MacDonagh (Ireland: General Film Supply 1917), Gaumont, General Film Supply (GFS), Great Brunswick Street, Irish Events, Irish Limelight, Irish politics, J. Gordon Lewis, James J. Fisher, Joseph McGuinness, Lost in the Eternal City, Mr Russell, Muriel MacDonagh, Nationalism, News service, Norman Whitten, Return of the Sinn Fein Prisoners (Ireland: General Film Supply 1917), Rotunda PIctures, The Colleen Bawn (US: Kalem 1911), The Shaughraun (US: Kalem 1912), Town Hall Rathmines, Trotting at Shelbourne Park (Ireland: General Film Supply 1917), Twelfth of July Celebrations in and Near Belfast (Ireland: General Film Supply 1917), Westland Row Train Station \| 7 Replies “An Objectionable Class from the City” Posted on October 29, 2013 by EarlyIrishCinema “One aspect of the strike which has probably not been brought home to the public,” begins a tantalizing article in the Evening Herald on 18 October 1913, “is the effect which it has had upon the amusements of Dublin, such as theatres, music halls, and cinematograph shows” (“Dublin Theatres and the Strike”). Despite offering the views of prominent – albeit unnamed and paraphrased – theatre, music hall and cinema managers, the almost 700-words that follow are, if intriguing, also finally frustratingly unspecific. This is not because as a newspaper owned by employers’ leader William Martin Murphy, the Herald missed few opportunities to point out the folly of Dublin’s striking workers, who had been, it often argued, criminally led astray by union leader Jim Larkin. There are traces of that editorial line here, but the real disappointment is that the writer appears misleadingly to conceive each of these entertainments as being entirely identified with a single class. This, then, looks gratifyingly like a suitable case for analysis and supplement. The article starts soundly enough by observing that the Lockout affected the city’s entertainments in general in two ways: firstly, that inasmuch as the earning capacity of some thousands of men has been stopped, therefore their spending capacity has likewise been curtailed. Secondly, that where the earnings have not been interfered with, among those who are not directly concerned with the strike, yet who live some considerable way from the city, they have been unable to patronise the various entertainments provided for their amusement owing to the difficulties of travel consequent upon the curtailment of the tramway programme (ibid). A large number of workers with severely reduced income and restrictions on public transport were undoubtedly key factors affecting audience numbers, but the article is less convincing in the argument it makes about the identification of entertainments with particular classes. It implies that theatre provided entertainment for the social elite, music halls catered for the middle class, and cinema was for the working class. This is done by showing that not all types of entertainment were equally affected by the Lockout. The theatres “have done comparatively well, and the manager of one important theatre stated that had it not been for the strike he would have eclipsed all records” (ibid). Music halls, by contrast, had suffered considerably, the seats of these houses, whilst altogether more expensive than those of cinematograph shows were cheaper than those of the theatres, so that whereas the man who would pay three or four shillings for a seat at the theatre would and could afford the cost of a conveyance to and from his residence[, t]he man who came from the outlying parts could not, and it is too far to walk a couple of miles each way (ibid). The difference in ticket prices here seems to create a rigidly stratified system. Stratification based on price, class and type of entertainment certainly existed but not in the way implied here. It is too much of a simplification to state that theatregoers were substantially of a class that could in the absence of trams due to the strike, afford private transport or a cab, while music hall patrons were from a class that lived in the suburbs (to a degree that severely impacted on the business of music halls) but could not afford to pay both for admission and transport home. But the argument become particularly problematic in relation to cinema. Although the article seems to suggest that the cinematograph shows were competing with music halls for audience, it only discusses picture houses as working-class venues: In the poorer parts of the city where the cheaper cinematograph shows abound, these have been directly affected by the loss of custom consequent upon those who patronise them being strikers, and therefore, not earning any money. Some of these have suffered severely, and their owners and managers will be very pleased when the strike is settled (ibid). Certainly the business of picture houses located in working-class areas was affected by the Lockout, but which ones the writer had visited or was thinking of is unclear. Map of Dublin in 1913 with pins indicating locations of picture houses, music halls and theatres. The controversy over the Sunday opening of picture houses suggested that going to the pictures was not just a working class entertainment. On 24 October 1913, the Recorder of Dublin – the city’s chief magistrate – considered an application for a Sunday music licence for the Dame Street Picture House, without which it could not open. From their previous applications in April and July 1913, the proprietors of the Dame Street Picture House knew the authorities’ views that the Grafton and O’Connell Street picture houses “were frequented by persons of the better class, and there was no necessity that they should be opened on Sundays for their benefit” (CSORP/1915/2211). As a result, the proprietors argued that the “people who frequented the Grafton street house were generally people who went shopping. The Dame street house was frequently largely by the working classes, and the object of the application was to give facilities to the working classes to attend performances on Sundays” (ibid). They classed themselves among the picture houses that were allowed to open on Sunday: the Phoenix Picture Palace, the Irish Cinema in Capel Street, the Dorset Picture Hall, the Camden Picture House, the Theatre de Luxe in Camden Street, the Picturedrome in Harcourt Road, the Brunswick Street Cinema, the Princess Cinema in Rathmines, the Mary Street Picture House, the Volta in Mary Street, the World’s Fair Varieties in Henry Street and the Electric Theatre in Talbot Street (ibid). Ads for Sunday shows at Phoenix and, despite the Recorder’s ban, the Dame; Evening Telegraph 25 Oct. 1913: 4. The Recorder did not accept this, contending that Dame Street was one of the city’s principal streets – “near the residence of the King’s representative” in Dublin Castle – and not located in a working-class district (“Picture Houses”). He therefore treated the picture house there as he did the ones in Grafton Street and O’Connell Street by refusing them a Sunday licence. “He would give every facility to Sunday entertainments for the working classes, but he would not, so far as he could prevent it, give up the principal streets to these syndicates on Sundays” (“Sunday Cinemas”). The Recorder’s licensing session also considered local objections to Sunday shows at Clontarf Town Hall, one of the city’s latest picture houses to open – and so not listed above. When Clontarf was incorporated into an expanded Dublin at the turn of the century, the administrative powers of its local council were assumed by Dublin Corporation, and its town hall had no function. Beginning on 18 July 1913, the hall’s leasee George Humphreys ran it as a picture house, with the proviso that he give it up when the Corporation needed it. “Mr. Robertson, (who represented the police) said that he went to the petty Sessions at Clontarf the other day, and they were held in this picture show (laughter)” (“Clontarf Cinema”). Reverend John L. Morrow, chairman of the Clontarf Citizens’ Association objected to the renewal of the picture house’s licence on the basis that local people had not been consulted on its use for this purpose. He complained in particular that its Sunday shows “brought out an objectionable class from the city” (ibid). Humphreys dismissed this claim, observing that “the hall was patronised by people like Ald. Maguire, of Clontarf; Mr. Brady (solicitor), and many other representative and legal gentlemen” (ibid). By 1913, the picture house no longer provided entertainment only for the working class. “Clontarf Cinema: Citizens’ Association: Raise an Objection.” Evening Telegraph 24 Oct. 1913: 3. CSORP/1915/2211, National Archives of Ireland. “Dublin Theatres and the Strike.” Evening Herald 18 Oct. 1913: 4. “Picture Houses: And Licence for Sunday Shows.” Evening Herald 24 Oct. 1913: 2. “Sunday Cinemas: In Leading Streets.” Evening Telegraph 24 Oct. 1913: 6. Posted in Audience, Camden Street Picture House, Cinema licence, Clontarf, Clontarf Town Hall, Dame Street, Dame Street Picture House, Dorset Street PIcture House, Dublin, Dublin Lockout, Electric Theatre Talbot Street, Grafton Street, Irish Cinema (Dublin), Mary Street Picture House, Music hall/Variety theatre, O'Connell/Sackville Street, Other entertainments, Phoenix Picture Palace, Picturedrome Harcourt Road (Dublin), Princess Cinema (Rathmines), Recorder of Dublin, Social class, Sunday shows, Theatre, Theatre de Luxe, Trade unions, Trams, Volta (Dublin), World's Fair Varieties \| Tagged Dublin map, Evening Herald, George Humphreys, Rev John L. Morrow, William Martin Murphy, Workers' entertainment \| 3 Replies	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6111
__label__wiki	0.940663	0.940663	Free French Naval Forces This article includes a list of general references, but it remains largely unverified because it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (October 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) The Free French Naval Forces (French: Forces Navales Françaises Libres, or FNFL) were the naval arm of the Free French Forces during the Second World War. They were commanded by Admiral Émile Muselier. 1.2 Role in the French Resistance 1.3 D-Day: Operation Neptune 1.4 Pacific War 2 Technical innovations General De Gaulle inspecting sailors on Léopard at Greenock in June 1942 In the wake of the Armistice and the Appeal of 18 June, Charles de Gaulle founded the Free French Forces (Forces Françaises Libres, or FFL), including a naval arm, the "Free French Naval Forces" (Les Forces Navales Françaises Libres, or FNFL). On 24 June 1940, de Gaulle made a separate call specifically to servicemen overseas to join him, and two days later the submarine Narval entered Malta and pledged its allegiance to the FFL.[1] On 30 June, De Gaulle was joined by Vice-Admiral Émile Muselier, who had come from Gibraltar by flying boat. Muselier was the only flag officer of the French Navy to answer the call of De Gaulle. The French fleet was widely dispersed. Some vessels were in port in France; others had escaped from France to British controlled ports, mainly in Britain itself or Alexandria in Egypt. At the first stage of Operation Catapult, the ships in the British ports of Plymouth and Portsmouth were simply boarded on the night of 3 July 1940. The then-largest submarine in the world, Surcouf, which had sought refuge in Portsmouth in June 1940 following the German invasion of France, resisted the British operation. In capturing the submarine, two British officers and one French sailor were killed. Other ships were the two obsolete battleships Paris and Courbet, the destroyers Le Triomphant and Léopard, eight torpedo boats, five submarines (Minerve, Junon) and a number of other smaller vessels. As soon as the summer 1940, the submarines Minerve and Junon, as well as four avisos, departed from Plymouth. Towards the end of 1940, the destroyers Le Triomphant and Léopard followed. Le Triomphant sailed for New Caledonia and spent the rest of the war based there and in Australia. The ship saw action in both the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Civilian vessels and crew also rallied to de Gaulle, starting with four cargo ships in Gibraltar - they would be the beginning of the merchant fleet of the FNFL.[2] To distinguish the FNFL from the Vichist forces, Vice-Admiral Émile Muselier created the bow flag displaying the French colours with a red Cross of Lorraine, and a cocarde also featuring the Cross of Lorraine for aircraft of the Free French Naval Air Service (Aéronavale Française Libre) and the Free French Air Force (Forces Aériennes Françaises Libres). A number of ships were leased from the British to compensate for the lack of warships in the FNFL, among them, the Hunt-class destroyer La Combattante and the Flower-class corvette Aconit. The FNFL suffered their first loss when the patrol boat Poulmic hit a mine and sank on 7 November 1940 off Plymouth.[3] AfricaEdit Soon after the fall of France, Free France was but a government in exile based in England, with no land of its own to speak of and very few land or sea forces. In an attempt to establish his authority on an important French territory, General de Gaulle attempted to rally French West Africa by personally sailing to Dakar with a British fleet which included a few Free French units; at the same time, a cruiser force had been sent by Vichy France to reclaim African territories which had already announced their support to De Gaulle (notably Chad). The resulting Battle of Dakar ended on a Vichist victory. However, after the occupation of Vichy France by the Germans after the Allied invasion of North Africa in November 1942, French West Africa also eventually joined the Free French. When it did, important ships based in Dakar were obtained: the modern battleship Richelieu, the heavy cruiser Suffren, light cruisers Gloire, Montcalm, Georges Leygues, and a few destroyers, including cruiser-sized Le Fantasque-class destroyers. Role in the French ResistanceEdit Captain d'Estienne d'Orves attempted to unite the French Resistance, became an inspiring symbol when he was arrested, tortured by the Gestapo and executed. D-Day: Operation NeptuneEdit Free French light cruiser Montcalm photographed in 1943 In the summer of 1944, the Invasion of Normandy took place. The FNFL took part in both naval side of the operations, Operation Neptune, and to the landing itself, with the Naval Commandos (Commandos Marine) of Captain Philippe Kieffer, climbing cliffs under fire to destroy German shore batteries. The ships of the FNFL were deployed off the landing sites : Utah Beach: corvettes Aconit and Renoncule Omaha Beach: cruisers Georges Leygues and Montcalm; frigates L'Escarmouche and Aventure; and corvette Roselys Gold Beach: corvette Surprise Juno Beach: frigate Découverte; corvette Estienne d'Orves; and torpedo boat La Combattante In addition the obsolete battleship Courbet was scuttled off Arromanches to serve as a breakwater for a Mulberry harbour. The cruisers Georges Leygues and Montcalm, along with the battleship USS Arkansas provided fire support for the infantry until 10 June. La Combattante silenced German coastal artillery of Courseulles-sur-Mer. The next day, she started patrolling the English Channel. On 14 July, she ferried General Charles de Gaulle to France.[4] Pacific WarEdit Triomphant, under the command of Philippe Auboyneau was transferred to the Pacific theatre of the war, where in February 1942 it took part in the evacuation of European and Chinese civilians and military personnel from Nauru and Ocean Island before an anticipated Japanese invasion. Triomphant was later stationed along the east coast of Australia, where in early 1943 it was involved in the rescue of the survivors from SS Iron Knight, which was sunk by a torpedo fired by the Japanese submarine I-21. After the rescue, Triomphant then searched for I-21 for a day, but without success.[citation needed] Richelieu was present in Tokyo Bay during the signing of the Japanese Instrument of Surrender. Technical innovationsEdit The FNFL also harboured technical innovators, like Captain Jacques-Yves Cousteau, who invented the modern aqua-lung, and Yves Rocard, who helped perfect radar. The aqua-lung became a major improvement for commando operations. However, Jacques Cousteau joined the FNFL only after the liberation of France. He had spent the entirety of the war in France and developed the aqua-lung in Paris during the German occupation.) LossesEdit The merchant fleet of the FNFL suffered heavy casualties, amounting to one quarter of its men. A number of warships were lost, notably the submarine Surcouf, possibly sunk in a friendly fire incident. Other losses include the destroyers Léopard, Mimosa, Alysse, and La Combattante; submarine Narval; patrol boats Poulmic and Vikings. List of submarines of France List of ships of the Free French Naval Forces List of Escorteurs of the French Navy ^ Playfair. The Mediterranean & Middle East, Volume I: The Early Successes against Italy (to May 1941) p. 137 ^ http://www.france-libre.net/marine-marchande-2/ ^ (in French) Paul Vibert on ordredelaliberation.fr ^ "LA COMBATTANTE". Archived from the original on 2012-02-06. Retrieved 2007-03-12. Paul Auphan and Jacques Mordal, The French Navy in World War II (1976) Cornic, Jacques (1987). "Sous La Croix de Lorraine (Under the Cross of Lorraine): The FNFL (Forces Navales Francaises Libres) 1940–1943 (Free French Naval Forces)". Warship International. XXIV (1): 35–43. ISSN 0043-0374. Robinson, Richard (1988). "Re: Sous La Croix de Lorraine". Warship International. XXV (2): 116. ISSN 0043-0374. Martin Thomas, "After Mers-el-Kebir: The Armed Neutrality of the Vichy French Navy, 1940-43," English Historical Review (1997) 112#447 pp 643–70 in JSTOR Spencer C. Tucker (2011). World War II at Sea: An Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. pp. 281–84. (in English) charles-de-gaulle.org (in French) FNFL "HONOR, UNITY, SALVATION" -- FLAGS & ENSIGNS OF FREE FRANCE Free French Naval Forces (1940-1944) (in French) LA MARINE MARCHANDE FNFL Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Free_French_Naval_Forces&oldid=982272884" This page was last edited on 7 October 2020, at 04:18 (UTC).	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6116
__label__wiki	0.961201	0.961201	(Redirected from London & North Eastern Railway) This article is about the historical railway company (1923-1948). For the 2018 train franchise operator, see London North Eastern Railway. Not to be confused with North Eastern Railway (United Kingdom) or Northern and Eastern Railway. The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) was the second largest (after LMS) of the "Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain. It operated from 1 January 1923 until nationalisation on 1 January 1948. At that time, it was divided into the new British Railways' Eastern Region, North Eastern Region, and partially the Scottish Region. LNER Class A1 No. 2547 Doncaster with The Flying Scotsman train in 1928. Dates of operation Hull and Barnsley Railway British Rail: North Eastern Region Scottish Region 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge 6,590 miles (10,610 km) Timetable for Autumn 1926 detailing the resumption of services after the General Strike 2 Ancillary activities 2.1 Ships 3 Liveries 4 Advertising 5 Chief office holders 5.1 Chairmen of the Board 5.2 Chief General Managers 5.3 Chief mechanical engineers 6 Nationalisation 7 Cultural activities 8 Accidents 10.1 Notes 10.2 Sources The company was the second largest created by the Railways Act 1921. The principal constituents of the LNER were: The total route mileage was 6,590 miles (10,610 km). The North Eastern Railway had the largest route mileage of 1,757 miles (2,828 km), whilst the Hull and Barnsley Railway was 106.5 miles (171.4 km). It covered the area north and east of London. It included the East Coast Main Line from London to Edinburgh via York and Newcastle upon Tyne and the routes from Edinburgh to Aberdeen and Inverness. Most of the country east of the Pennines was within its purview, including East Anglia. The main workshops were in Doncaster, with others at Darlington, Inverurie and Stratford, London.[1][2] The LNER inherited four of London's termini: Fenchurch Street (ex-London and Blackwall Railway;[3] King's Cross (ex-Great Northern Railway); Liverpool Street (ex-Great Eastern Railway); and Marylebone (ex-Great Central Railway).[4] In addition, it ran suburban services to Broad Street (London, Midland and Scottish Railway) and Moorgate (Metropolitan Railway, later London Transport).[5] The LNER owned: 7,700 locomotives, 20,000 coaching vehicles, 29,700 freight vehicles, 140 items of electric rolling stock, 6 electric locomotives and 10 rail motor cars 6 turbine and 36 other steamers, and river boats and lake steamers, etc. In partnership with the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS), the LNER was co-owner of the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway, the UK's biggest joint railway, much of which competed with the LNER's own lines. The M&GNJR was incorporated into the LNER in 1936. In 1933, on the formation of the London Passenger Transport Board, the LNER acquired the remaining operations of the Metropolitan Railway Company. The LNER was the majority partner in the Cheshire Lines Committee and the Forth Bridge Railway Company. It depended on freight from heavy industry in Yorkshire, the north east of England and Scotland, and its revenue was reduced by the economic depression for much of the early part of its existence. In a bid to improve financial efficiency, staffing levels reduced from 207,500 in 1924 to 175,800 in 1937.[6] For investment to retain freight traffic, new marshalling yards were built in Whitemoor in Cambridgeshire, and Hull in Yorkshire to attempt to retain freight traffic. Sir Ralph Wedgwood introduced a Traffic Apprenticeship Scheme to attract graduates, train young managers and provide supervision by assistant general manager Robert Bell for career planning. The company adopted a regional managerial system, with general managers based in London, York and Edinburgh, and for a short time, Aberdeen.[6] For passenger services, Sir Nigel Gresley, the Chief Mechanical Engineer built new powerful locomotives and new coaches.[7] Later developments such as the streamlined Silver Jubilee train of 1935 were exploited by the LNER publicity department, and embedded the non-stop London to Edinburgh services such as the Flying Scotsman in the public imagination. The crowning glory of this time was the world record speed of 126 miles per hour (203 km/h) achieved on a test run by LNER Class A4 4468 Mallard.[8] In 1929, the LNER chose the typeface Gill Sans as the standard typeface for the company. Soon it appeared on every facet of the company's identity, from metal locomotive nameplates and hand-painted station signage to printed restaurant car menus, timetables and advertising posters.[9][10][11] The LNER promoted their rebranding by offering Eric Gill a footplate ride on the Flying Scotsman express service; he also painted for it a signboard in the style of Gill Sans, which survives in the collection of the St Bride Library.[12][13][14] Gill Sans was retained by the Railway Executive in 1949 and was the official typeface until British Rail replaced it in the mid 1960s with Rail Alphabet. Continental shipping services were provided from Harwich Parkeston Quay.[15] The company took up the offer in 1933 of government loans at low interest rates and electrified the lines from Manchester to Sheffield and Wath yard, and also commuter lines in the London suburban area.[16] Ancillary activitiesEdit The LNER inherited: 8 canals, including the Ashton, Chesterfield, Macclesfield, Nottingham & Grantham, Peak Forest Docks and harbours in 20 locations, including Grimsby, Hartlepool, Hull, Immingham, Middlesbrough, some eastern Scottish ports, Harwich, Lowestoft and London Other wharves, staithes, piers 2 electric tramways 23 hotels (20 of them were nationalised in 1948 as British Transport Hotels. Of the other three,[17] Cruden Bay Hotel was requisitioned in 1940, Palace Hotel, Aberdeen caught fire in 1941 and the Yarborough Hotel, New Holland was sold, being advertised for sale in 1947.[18]) A 49% stake in the haulage firm Mutter, Howey & Co. Ltd.[1] It took shares in a large number of bus companies, including for a time a majority stake in United Automobile Services Ltd. In Halifax and Sheffield, it participated in Joint Omnibus Committees with the LMS and the Corporation.[1] In 1935, with the LMS, Wilson Line of Hull and others it formed the shipping company Associated Humber Lines Ltd.[1] In 1938 it was reported that the LNER, with 800 mechanical horse tractors, was the world's largest owner of this vehicle type.[19] ShipsEdit The LNER operated a number of ships. LiveriesEdit Detail of LNER teak panelled coaches, preserved on the Severn Valley Railway The most common liveries were lined apple green on passenger locomotives (much lighter and brighter than the green used by the Great Western Railway) and unlined black on freight locomotives, both with gold lettering. Passenger carriages were generally varnished teak (wood) finish; the few metal-panelled coaches were painted to represent teak. Some special trains and A4 Pacific locomotives were painted differently, including silver-grey and garter blue. AdvertisingEdit The LNER covered quite an extensive area of Britain, from London through East Anglia, the East Midlands and Yorkshire to the north east of England and Scotland. The 1923 grouping meant that former rivals within the LNER had to work together. The task of creating an instantly recognisable public image went to William M. Teasdale, the first advertising manager. Teasdale was influenced by the philosophies and policies of Frank Pick, who controlled the style and content of the London Underground's widely acclaimed poster advertising. Teasdale did not confine his artists within strict guidelines but allowed them a free hand. William Barribal designed a series of bold Art Deco posters in the 1920s and 1930s.[20] When Teasdale was promoted to Assistant General Manager, this philosophy was carried on by Cecil Dandridge who succeeded him and was the Advertising Manager until nationalisation in 1948. Dandridge was largely responsible for the adoption of the Gill Sans typeface, later adopted by British Railways. The LNER was a very industrial company: hauling more than a third of Britain's coal, it derived two thirds of its income from freight. Despite this, the main image presented was one of glamour, of fast trains and sophisticated destinations. Advertising was highly sophisticated and advanced compared with those of its rivals. Teasdale and Dandridge commissioned top graphic designers and poster artists such as Tom Purvis to promote its services and encourage the public to visit the holiday destinations of the east coast in the summer. Chief office holdersEdit Chairmen of the BoardEdit William Whitelaw 1923 - 1938 Sir Ronald Matthews 1938[21] - 1948 Chief General ManagersEdit Sir Ralph Wedgwood 1923 - 1939 Charles Henry Newton 1939[22] - 1947 Miles Beevor 1947 - 1948 (acting) Chief mechanical engineersEdit The most famous of the A1/A3 Class locomotives, A3 4472 Flying Scotsman A4 Pacific Mallard, world speed record holder for steam traction Sir Nigel Gresley was the first CME and held the post for most of the LNER's existence, and thus he had the greatest effect on the company. He came to the LNER via the Great Northern Railway, where he was CME. He was noted for his "Big Engine" policy, and is best remembered for his large express passenger locomotives, many times the holder of the world speed record for steam locomotives. LNER Class A4 4-6-2 Pacific locomotive Mallard holds the record to this day. Gresley died in office in 1941. Edward Thompson's short reign (1941–1946) was a controversial one. A noted detractor of Gresley even before his elevation to the post of CME, there are those who interpret many of his actions as being motivated by dislike of his predecessor. Against this Gresley's designs had their flaws as well as their brilliance. His record is best served by his solid and dependable freight and mixed-traffic locomotives built under and for wartime conditions. He retired in 1946. Arthur Peppercorn's career was cut short by nationalisation and he was CME for only 18 months. In this short period and in an atmosphere of reconstruction rather than great new endeavours, his only notable designs were the A1 and A2 Pacific express passenger locomotives, most completed after nationalisation. Peppercorn was a student and admirer of Gresley and his locomotives combined the classic lines of Gresley's with the reliability and solidity they never quite achieved. NationalisationEdit The company was nationalised in 1948 along with the rest of the railway companies of Great Britain to form British Railways. It continued to exist as a legal entity for nearly two more years, being formally wound up on 23 December 1949.[23] On the privatisation of British Rail in 1996, the franchise to run long distance express trains on the East Coast Main Line was won by Sea Containers Ltd, who named the new operating company Great North Eastern Railway (GNER), a name and initials deliberately chosen to echo the LNER. Following the collapse of Virgin Trains East Coast in May 2018, the newly-nationalised operator of the East Coast Main Line was named London North Eastern Railway to evoque the earlier company.[24] Cultural activitiesEdit During the 1930s, the LNER Musical Society comprised a number of amateur male-voice choirs, based at Doncaster, Leicester, Huddersfield, Peterborough, Selby and elsewhere, which annually combined for a performance in London under their musical director Leslie Woodgate.[25] AccidentsEdit On 13 February 1923, an express passenger train overran signals at Retford, Nottinghamshire and ran into the rear of a freight train. Three people were killed.[26] On 23 December 1923, an express passenger train overran signals and collided with a light engine at Belford, Northumberland.[27] On 28 July 1924, a passenger train overran signals and collided with another at Haymarket station, Edinburgh, Lothian. Five people were killed.[28] On 12 May 1926, during the General Strike, an express passenger train was deliberately derailed south of Cramlington, Northumberland.[29][30][31] On 7 August 1926, an electric multiple unit overran signals and collided with a freight train at Manors station, Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland. The accident was caused by the driver tying down the controller with a handkerchief. When he leant out of the train he struck an overbridge and was killed. The train continued moving until the collision.[32] On 30 August 1926, a passenger train collided with a charabanc on a level crossing at Naworth, Cumberland due to errors by the crossing keeper and a lack of interlocking between the signals and gates. Nine people are killed.[28] Main article: Hull Paragon rail accident On 14 February 1927, two passenger trains collided head-on at Hull Paragon station, Yorkshire due to a signalman's error. Twelve people were killed and 24 were injured. Main article: Penistone rail accidents On 27 February 1927, an express passenger train collided with a light engine at Penistone, Yorkshire due to a signalman's error.[32] On 17 August 1928, a passenger train struck a lorry on a level crossing at Shepreth, Hertfordshire and derailed.[33] Main article: Darlington rail crash On 27 June 1928, an excursion train collided with a parcels train that was being shunted at Darlington, County Durham. Twenty-five people were killed and 45 were injured.[34] On 9 June 1929, a steam railcar overran signals and collided with an excursion train at Marshgate Junction, Doncaster, Yorkshire.[35] On 4 October 1929, a freight train departed against a danger signal at Tottenham, London, and then stopped foul of a junction where the crew abandoned the locomotive. An express passenger train collided with it and derailed.[36] On 17 January 1931, a newspaper train departed from Thorpe-le-Soken station, Essex against signals and collided head-on with a light engine at Great Holland. Two people were killed and two were seriously injured.[37] On 27 May 1931, a passenger train overran signals and collided head-on with another at Fakenham East station, Norfolk. One person was killed and fifteen were injured.[38] On 8 September 1933, a passenger train ran into wagons at Bowling, West Dunbartonshire due to a signalman's error. Five people were injured.[39] In November 1934, a Class D16/2 locomotive derailed at Wormley, Hertfordshire when it collided with a lorry on a level crossing. Both engine crew were killed.[40] Main article: Welwyn Garden City rail crashes On 15 June 1935, an express passenger train ran into the rear of another at Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire due to a signalman's error. Fourteen people were killed and 29 were injured. On 15 February 1937, a passenger train entered a curve at excessive speed and derailed at Sleaford North Junction, Lincolnshire. Four people were killed and sixteen were injured, one seriously.[41] On 15 February 1937, a freight train derailed at Upton, Sleaford due to excessive speed on a curve. The train had been diverted due to the earlier derailment.[42] On 6 March 1937, a passenger train derailed at Langrick, Lincolnshire due to the poor condition of the track.[41] On 13 June 1937, an excursion train overran signals and was derailed by trap points south of Durham. Nine people were injured.[43] On 26 January 1939, an empty fish train (the official enquiry shows it was a passenger train) ran into the rear of a passenger train at Hatfield, Hertfordshire.[44] On 1 June 1939, a passenger train collided with a lorry on an occupation crossing at Hilgay, Norfolk and was derailed.[45] On 8 June 1939, a passenger train departed against a danger signal from Manchester Central station, Lancashire and collided with another passenger train. Several people were injured.[46] On 10 February 1941, an express passenger train overran signals and ran into the rear of a passenger train at Harold Wood, Essex. Seven people were killed and seventeen were seriously injured.[47] On 28 April 1941, a fire broke out on an express passenger train which was brought to a stand at Westborough, Lincolnshire. The rear three carriages were burnt out. Six people were killed and seven were injured.[48][49] Among those killed were the two eldest children of Hubert Pierlot, the Prime Minister of the Belgian government in exile.[50] Main article: Soham rail disaster On 2 June 1944, WD Austerity 2-8-0 locomotive No. 7337 was hauling a freight train which caught fire as it approached Soham, Cambridgeshire. The train comprised wagons carrying bombs. The train was divided behind the burning wagon, with the front portion being taken forward with the intention of isolating the wagon in open countryside. Its cargo detonated at Soham station, killing the fireman and the Soham signalman and injuring the trains' driver and guard. Soham station was severely damaged, but the line was re-opened within eighteen hours. For their actions, Benjamin Gimbert and James Nightall were awarded George Crosses. In July 1944, a passenger train was derailed at Pannal Junction by points that were half-open.[51] On 5 January 1946, a freight train became divided on the East Coast Main Line in County Durham. The front section was brought to a stand but the rear section crashed into it. The wreckage fouled signal cables, giving a false clear signal to a passenger train on the opposite line which then crashed into the wreckage. Ten people were killed.[51][52] Main article: Potters Bar rail accidents On 10 February 1946, a passenger train crashed at Potters Bar, Hertfordshire due to a signalman's error. The wreckage fouled signal cables, giving a false clear to an express passenger train which then ran into the wreckage. A third passenger train then collided with the wreckage. Two people were killed.[53] On 2 January 1947, a passenger train overran signals and ran into the rear of another at Gidea Park, Essex. Seven people were killed, 45 were hospitalised.[54] On 9 August 1947, a passenger train ran into the rear of another at Darlington, County Durham due to a signalman's error. Twenty-one people were killed and 188 were injured.[55] Main article: Goswick rail crash On 26 October 1947, an express passenger train entered a crossover at excessive speed and derailed at Goswick, Northumberland. Twenty-eight people were killed and 65 were injured. Coaches of the London and North Eastern Railway Locomotives of the London and North Eastern Railway ^ a b c d Bonavia 1980, p. [page needed] ^ Hughes 1987, p. 146. ^ Awdry 1990, p. 144. ^ Whitehouse & Thomas 1989, pp. 57, 59. ^ Hughes 1987, p. 50. ^ a b Simmons, Jack; Biddle, Gordon (1840). The Oxford Companion to British Railway History. Oxford University Press. pp. 283–284. ISBN 978-0198662389. ^ Hughes, Geoffrey (2001). Sir Nigel Gresley: The Engineer and his Family. The Oakwood Library of Railway History. Oakwood Press. ISBN 978-0853615798. ^ Hale, Don (2005). Mallard: How the 'Blue Streak' Broke the World Steam Speed Record. London: Aurum Press. ISBN 978-1854109392. ^ Robinson, Edwin (1939). "Preparing a railway timetable" (PDF). Monotype Recorder. 38 (1): 14–17, 24–26. Retrieved 16 September 2015. ^ Skelton, Stephen. "Gill Sans" (PDF). New Writing. University of East Anglia. Retrieved 3 May 2015. ^ Cole & Durack 1992, pp. 15–23. ^ Mosley, James (10 November 2015). Lecture on Gill's work (Speech). 'Me & Mr Gill' talk. Old Truman Brewery, London. ^ Robinson, Edwin (1939). "Preparing a Railway Timetable" (PDF). Monotype Recorder. 38 (1): 24. Retrieved 12 July 2015. ^ Hewitt, John (1995). "East Coast Joys: Tom Purvis and the LNER". Journal of Design History. 8 (4): 291–311. doi:10.1093/jdh/8.4.291. JSTOR 1316023. ^ Bonavia, Michael R. (1982). A History of the LNER. 1 The early Years, 1923-1933. Allen and Unwin. ISBN 978-0043850886. ^ Allen, Cecil J. (1966). The London & North Eastern Railway. Allen. ^ Railway Magazine September 1936 LNER hotels advert page iv ^ advert on Wednesday 21 May 1947 in Hull Daily Mail ^ Whitaker 1938[page needed] ^ Cole & Durack 1992, p. 128. ^ "New Chairman of L.N.E.R. Sir Ronald W. Matthews Appointed". Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer. England. 1 October 1938. Retrieved 18 August 2017 – via British Newspaper Archive. ^ "A Railway Hierarchy". Cambridge Daily News. England. 13 February 1939. Retrieved 22 November 2017 – via British Newspaper Archive. ^ The Railway Magazine (February 1950) "Main-Line Companies Dissolved", p. 73 ^ East Coast train line to be put into public control BBC News 16 May 2018 ^ Scowcroft, Philip. "Chorus Master and Composer: Leslie Woodgate". musicweb-international.com. Retrieved 16 January 2015. ^ Hall 1990, p. 83. ^ Hoole 1982, p. 25. ^ a b Hall 1990, p. 84. ^ Earnshaw 1990, p. 15. ^ Pringle, J W (27 June 1926). "London & North East Railways" (PDF). www.railwaysarchive.co.uk. Retrieved 24 June 2016. ^ a b Hoole 1982, p. 26. ^ Trevena 1980, p. 35. ^ Vaughan 1989, pp. 69–73. ^ Trevena 1980, pp. 36–37. ^ a b Earnshaw 1991, p. 26. ^ "Accident Report" (PDF). Ministry of War Transport. 26 June 1941. Retrieved 3 July 2014. ^ Grosbois, Thierry (2007). Pierlot, 1930–1950. Brussels: Racine. p. 16. ISBN 978-2873864859. ^ Hoole 1982, pp. 36–37. Awdry, Christopher (1990). Encyclopaedia of British Railway Companies. London: Guild Publishing. CN 8983. Bonavia, Michael R (1980). The Four Great Railways. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. Cole, Beverley; Durack, Richard (1992). Railway Posters 1923–1947. London: Laurence King. ISBN 978-1-85669-014-0. Earnshaw, Alan (1989). Trains in Trouble: Vol. 5. Penryn: Atlantic Books. ISBN 978-0-906899-35-9. Hall, Stanley (1990). The Railway Detectives. London: Ian Allan. ISBN 0-7110-1929-0. Haws, Duncan (1993). Britain's Railway Steamers – Eastern and North Western Companies + Zeeland and Stena. Merchant Fleets. 25. Hereford: TCL Publications. ISBN 978-0-946378-22-7. Hoole, Ken (1982). Trains in Trouble: Vol. 3. Redruth: Atlantic Books. ISBN 978-0-906899-05-2. Hoole, Ken (1983). Trains in Trouble: Vol. 4. Truro: Atlantic Books. ISBN 978-0-906899-07-6. Hughes, Geoffrey (1987) [1986]. LNER. London: Guild Publishing/Book Club Associates. CN 1455. "Main-Line Companies Dissolved". The Railway Magazine. Vol. 96 no. 586. London: Transport (1910) Ltd. February 1950. Whitaker (1938). Whitaker's Almanack. London: J. Whitaker & Sons, Ltd. Whitehouse, Patrick; Thomas, David St John (1989). LNER 150: The London and North Eastern Railway – A Century and a Half of Progress. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 978-0-7153-9332-1. 01LN01. Trevena, Arthur (1980). Trains in Trouble. Vol. 1. Redruth: Atlantic Books. ISBN 978-0-906899-01-4. Vaughan, Adrian (1989). Obstruction Danger. Wellingborough: Patrick Stephens Limited. ISBN 978-1-85260-055-6. Wikimedia Commons has media related to London and North Eastern Railway. LNER Encyclopedia LNER Society Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=London_and_North_Eastern_Railway&oldid=992419684"	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6117
__label__cc	0.587255	0.412745	Intelligent decision support system An intelligent decision support system (IDSS) is a decision support system that makes extensive use of artificial intelligence (AI) techniques. Use of AI techniques in management information systems has a long history – indeed terms such as "Knowledge-based systems" (KBS) and "intelligent systems" have been used since the early 1980s to describe components of management systems, but the term "Intelligent decision support system" is thought to originate with Clyde Holsapple and Andrew Whinston[1][2] in the late 1970s. Examples of specialized intelligent decision support systems include Flexible manufacturing systems (FMS),[3] intelligent marketing decision support systems[4] and medical diagnosis systems.[5] Ideally, an intelligent decision support system should behave like a human consultant: supporting decision makers by gathering and analysing evidence, identifying and diagnosing problems, proposing possible courses of action and evaluating such proposed actions. The aim of the AI techniques embedded in an intelligent decision support system is to enable these tasks to be performed by a computer, while emulating human capabilities as closely as possible. Many IDSS implementations are based on expert systems,[6] a well established type of KBS that encode knowledge and emulate the cognitive behaviours of human experts using predicate logic rules, and have been shown to perform better than the original human experts in some circumstances.[7][8] Expert systems emerged as practical applications in the 1980s[9] based on research in artificial intelligence performed during the late 1960s and early 1970s.[10] They typically combine knowledge of a particular application domain with an inference capability to enable the system to propose decisions or diagnoses. Accuracy and consistency can be comparable to (or even exceed) that of human experts when the decision parameters are well known (e.g. if a common disease is being diagnosed), but performance can be poor when novel or uncertain circumstances arise. Research in AI focused on enabling systems to respond to novelty and uncertainty in more flexible ways is starting to be used in IDSS. For example, intelligent agents[11][12] that perform complex cognitive tasks without any need for human intervention have been used in a range of decision support applications.[13] Capabilities of these intelligent agents include knowledge sharing, machine learning, data mining, and automated inference. A range of AI techniques such as case based reasoning, rough sets[14] and fuzzy logic have also been used to enable decision support systems to perform better in uncertain conditions. ^ Holsapple C.: Framework for a generalized intelligent decision support system (1977) PhD Thesis Purdue University ^ Holsapple C. & Whinston A.: Business expert systems (1987) McGraw-Hill ^ Chang, Jiang & Tang: The development of intelligent decision support tools to aid the design of flexible manufacturing systems (2000). International Journal of Production Economics, 65, 73-84 ^ Matsatsinis and Siskos (2002), Intelligent support systems for marketing decisions, Kluwer Academic Publishers ^ Walker D.: Similarity Determination and Case Retrieval in an Intelligent Decision Support System for Diabetes Management, MSCS Thesis, Ohio University, Computer Science (Engineering), 2007 ^ Matsatsinis, N.F., Y. Siskos (1999), MARKEX: An intelligent decision support system for product development decisions, European Journal of Operational Research, vol. 113, no. 2, pp. 336-354 ^ Baron J.: Thinking and Deciding (1998) Cambridge University Press ^ Turban E., Volonio L., McLean E. and Wetherbe J.: Information Technology for Management (2009) Wiley ^ Jackson P.: Introduction to expert systems (1986) Addison-Wesley ^ Power, D.J. A Brief History of Decision Support Systems, DSSResources.COM, World Wide Web, version 4.0, March 10, 2007 ^ Sugumaran V.: Application of Agents and Intelligent Information Technologies (2007) IGI Publishing ^ Matsatsinis, N.F., P. Moraϊtis, V. Psomatakis, N. Spanoudakis (2003), An Agent-Based System for Products Penetration Strategy Selection, Applied Artificial Intelligence: An International Journal, vol. 17, no. 10, pp. 901-925 ^ Tung Bui, Jintae Lee, An agent-based framework for building decision support systems, Decision Support Systems, Volume 25, Issue 3, April 1999, Pages 225-237, ISSN 0167-9236, doi:10.1016/S0167-9236(99)00008-1. link to Elsevier ^ Laboratory of intelligent decision support systems, Poznan Turban, E., Aronson J., & Liang T.: Decision support systems and Intelligent systems (2004) Pearson A brief history of DSS Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Intelligent_decision_support_system&oldid=746964678" Knowledge engineering This page was last edited on 30 October 2016, at 17:07 (UTC).	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6119
__label__wiki	0.641606	0.641606	Tesla built a huge solar energy plant on the island of Kauai In Solar Energy Tesla is selling clean power to the island’s electric company Islands in the Pacific Ocean are some of the most practical places to install solar panels. Since there’s no natural gas pipeline or rail line to haul in coal, islands like Kauai in Hawaii have traditionally generated electricity by shipping in many barrels of diesel fuel. These days, because so many residences and businesses have installed solar power, there’s a greatly reduced need to burn fossil during the day — but at night, the generators kick in. Tesla wants to change all that, with a massive new solar farm and energy storage project on the island. Much of renewable energy generation is intermittent: wind and solar power generation peaks are often around times of low demand. So Tesla (which changed its name from Tesla Motors last year largely because of projects like this) offers the Powerpack, a massive battery that can store electricity during the day when supply is abundant, and discharge it when demand goes up after the sun goes down. The Kauai project consists of a 52 megawatt-hour battery installation plus a 13 megawatt SolarCity solar farm. Tesla and the Kauai Island Utility Cooperative, the power company that ordered the project, believe the project will reduce fossil fuel usage by 1.6 million gallons per year. Like with the solar/battery microgrid installed on the island of Ta’u in American Samoa last year, the KIUC project uses Tesla’s Powerpack 2 battery system, built at Tesla’s Gigafactory in Nevada. Tesla is now in the business of selling electricity KIUC didn’t purchase the solar panels and battery system from Tesla outright. Instead, the utility contracted with Tesla to purchase electricity. There’s a 20-year contract in place to buy the solar-generated power for 13.9 cents per kilowatt hour — in effect, Tesla is now in the power generation business. It’s the first major solar-plus-storage project for Tesla since its $2.6 billion acquisition of SolarCity last year, and Tesla said in a statement that it “will work with energy providers around the world seeking to overcome barriers in the way of building a sustainable, renewable energy grid of their own.” Stationary storage is “something I think will probably be as big as the car business long term,” Tesla CEO Elon Musk said during a tour of the Gigafactory last year. “And will actually have a growth rate probably several times that of what the car business is per year. The growth in stationary storage is really under appreciated. That’s a super-exponential growth rate.” Earlier this year, Tesla opened a massive energy storage facility in Ontario, California that was designed to reduce the need for “peaker plants,” or pricey electricity generators that only run when demand is particularly high. Use of Tesla’s Powerpacks both as replacements for peaker plants and to time-shift renewable power generation appears to be growing in popularity, and the company has a number of projects underway at the commercial, industrial, and utility levels. Tesla also offers a residential power-storage solution called Powerwall that uses the same technology as Powerpack. In fact, a Powerpack is simply 16 Powerwall battery pods encased in a weatherproof box.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6121
__label__wiki	0.937318	0.937318	> Engineering and Natural Sciences > Foutch and Inhofe named to ENS Hall of Fame Foutch and Inhofe named to ENS Hall of Fame The University of Tulsa College of Engineering and Natural Sciences inducted Oklahoma energy entrepreneur Randy Foutch and U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe into its Hall of Fame during a special ceremony March 7, 2019, at Gilcrease Museum. Foutch and Inhofe were honored for their outstanding accomplishments and contributions that bring significant recognition to TU. Randy A. Foutch Randy A. Foutch is an experienced energy executive and advocate for independent oil companies across the nation and has established several successful startup companies as a respected leader in the oil and gas industry. He has served as chairman of the Oklahoma Energy Resources Board and the International Society of Energy Advocates and is a previous director of the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association. Foutch currently is chairman and CEO of Tulsa-based Laredo Petroleum Inc., a New York Stock Exchange listed company, LPI, which he founded in 2006. Laredo is an oil and gas company focused on exploration, development and acquisitions in the Permian Basin in West Texas. Prior to Laredo, Foutch founded and later sold Colt Resources (1996), Lariat Petroleum Inc. (2001) and Latigo Petroleum Inc. (2006). Foutch has been a loyal supporter of The University of Tulsa for more than a decade, designating funding to areas such as the McDougall School of Petroleum Engineering, Gilcrease Museum and Golden Hurricane athletics. He currently serves on the board of directors of Helmerich & Payne and The National Petroleum Council, The Independent Petroleum Association of America and is chairman of the Energy Institute Advisory Board at the University of Texas at Austin. Previously, he served on the board of directors of Cheniere Energy, Bill Barrett Corporation and MacroSolve Inc., among others. Foutch is a member of several nonprofit and private industry boards including the Gilcrease Museum National Advisory Board and The University of Tulsa Board of Trustees. A licensed pilot, his passions for aviation and the history of westward expansion as well as the art and artists of the great American West are reflected in his support of Gilcrease Museum and the C.M. Russell Museum in Great Falls, Montana. Foutch has been inducted into the Tulsa Historical Society Hall of Fame and the TU Collins College of Business Hall of Fame and is a current member of the Golden Hurricane Club. He holds a bachelor of science degree in geology from the University of Texas and a master of science degree in petroleum engineering from the University of Houston. Foutch and his wife, Jean, are parents of four grown daughters and have four grandchildren. James M. Inhofe James M. Inhofe serves as Oklahoma’s senior U.S. senator and is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Inhofe is a proud Oklahoman and long-time resident of Tulsa. He received a bachelor of arts degree in economics from The University of Tulsa in 1973 and was first elected to the United States Senate in 1994. Inhofe has supported the Integrated Petroleum Environmental Consortium, a joint project involving TU, the University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State University and other companies and institutions. As a longstanding supporter of Oklahoma’s energy and aviation industries, he has contributed to the Center for Aviation Systems Support and Infrastructure, a collaboration between TU, OU, OSU and Tinker Air Force Base, while advocating for TU advancements in computer science and cybersecurity. In Inhofe’s 25 years of public service as a U.S. senator, he has championed long-term reform to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the Defense Department and has focused on streamlining the acquisition process. He has received the Eisenhower Award from the National Defense Industrial Association for his commitment to raising public awareness of U.S. military and defense community needs. Inhofe serves as chairman of the Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure of the Committee on Environment and Public Works and is a member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. As a committed supporter of U.S. infrastructure, he has worked to implement policies that encourage the United States to meet its energy needs domestically. One of his greatest achievements to date began in 1999 when Inhofe introduced a bill to give states the freedom to make their own decisions about oil and natural gas regulatory structures, including those concerning hydraulic fracturing. The bill was incorporated in the Energy Policy Act of 2005. An avid pilot with more than 11,000 flight hours, Inhofe is an advocate for aviation professionals and became the only member of Congress to fly an airplane around the world when he recreated Wiley Post’s legendary trip around the globe. Prior to the U.S. Senate, Inhofe served in the U.S. House of Representatives, the Oklahoma House and Senate and as mayor of Tulsa. He and his wife, Kay, have been married 58 years and have 20 children and grandchildren. Engineering and Natural Sciences, Featured, News college of engineering and natural sciences, Randy Foutch, Senator Jim Inhofe, The University of Tulsa	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6124
__label__wiki	0.864885	0.864885	Homechevron_rightWorldchevron_rightBeatings,... date_range 10 Dec 2014 12:29 PM GMT Beatings, waterboarding, insects: CIA's cruel interrogation methods Washington: Sleep deprivation for over a week, beatings, shackling, and waterboarding - a grim litany of the cruel methods used by the Bush-era CIA to interrogate al Qaeda terror suspects was exposed in a report on Tuesday. The shocking report released by the US Senate found that the techniques employed by the Central Intelligence Agency were "far more brutal" than the spy agency had previously admitted to. Al Qaeda and Taliban detainees in orange jumpsuits sit in a holding area under the surveillence of US military police at Camp X-Ray at Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. (AFP Photo) It was drawn up over several years by the Senate intelligence committee, which revealed such techniques were applied with "significant repetition for days or weeks at a time" on prisoners rounded up in the "war on terror" launched after the 2001 terror attacks on the United States. The worst treatment was meted out at a secret CIA detention site dubbed COBALT where "unauthorized" interrogation techniques were used in 2002. Slaps and 'wallings' Beginning with the CIA's first high-value al Qaeda detainee Abu Zubaydah, suspects were routinely slammed against a wall by their interrogators and hit with rolled-up towels. Facial slaps, or "insults," as well as stomach punches were also used. The interrogators also used "attention grasps" in which the prisoner is grabbed with both hands, one on each side of the collar and pulled towards the interrogator. This involved keeping detainees awake for up to 180 hours, or more than a week, usually standing or in stress positions, sometimes with their hands shackled above their heads, chained to the ceiling. Abu Zubaydah was kept in an all-white room that was lit 24 hours a day. Or he was kept awake by non-stop questioning. At least five detainees suffered "disturbing hallucinations" but in at least two cases the CIA continued with the interrogation method. Confinement and isolation Over 20 days, Abu Zubaydah spent 266 hours (11 days, 2 hours) in a large coffin-size box, and 29 hours in an even smaller one during his interrogation at what was dubbed Detention Site Green. In the COBALT facility, dubbed a "dungeon" by the chief of interrogations, prisoners were kept in complete darkness, often shackled with their hands above their heads and mainly nude. They were bombarded with loud music and noise and given a bucket as a toilet. In 2002 a prisoner who had been partially nude and chained to a concrete floor died of suspected hypothermia. Ice water baths or showers were also used to try to break suspects. Some detainees were also forced to wear diapers, although guidelines said they could not be left on longer than 72 hours. 'Rough takedowns' This was used at the COBALT facility. About five CIA agents would scream at a detainee, drag him outside his cell, cut his clothes off and wrap him in duct tape. He would then be hooded and dragged up and down a dirt hallway while being slapped and punched. After his death at the COBALT site, Gul Rahman was found to have been covered with bruises and abrasions on his shoulders, pelvis, arms, legs and face. Prisoners were often stripped and left nude in their cells. Zubaydah was kept naked but given a towel to cover himself during interrogations. Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the alleged mastermind of the 2000 attack on the USS Cole, was often naked during his grillings. But at one point he was given clothes when he was wracked by shivering due to a head-cold. Psychological threats CIA officers regularly threatened the detainees. One was told he would only leave the facility in "a coffin-shaped box." At least three detainees were told the CIA would hurt their families, including their children. There was a threat to sexually abuse the mother of one, while another was told his mother's throat would be cut. The methods were supposed to ensure prisoners developed a sense of "Learned helplessness." Nashiri was blindfolded and a pistol was placed near his head, while a CIA officer also operated a cordless drill near his body in a macabre game of Russian roulette. Forced rectal feeding At least five prisoners were subjected to "rectal rehydration or rectal feeding without documented medical necessity," the report said. Other detainees were given a liquid diet of protein drinks known as Ensure "as a means of limiting vomiting during waterboarding." In this technique of previously described "near drownings," the detainee was bound to an inclined bench with his feet usually raised. A cloth is placed over the forehead and eyes and water is then poured in a controlled way onto the clothing. The cloth is then lowered over the nose and mouth. Once the cloth is saturated, the prisoner's flow of air is restricted for up to 40 seconds while the cloth is left in place over the nose and mouth. The self-confessed mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, is known to have been waterboarded 183 times. In March 2003 he was subjected to five waterboard sessions over 25 hours. "The waterboarding technique was physically harmful, inducing convulsions and vomiting," the report said. In July 2002, the attorney general verbally approved putting Zubaydah in a box with an non-stinging insect because he is afraid of them. It was not clear from Tuesday's summary though if this technique was actually used. Spy agency faces backlash US President Barack Obama declared some of the past practices to be "brutal, and as I've said before, constituted torture in my mind. And that's not who we are," he told the Spanish-language TV network Telemundo in an interview. Obama said releasing the report was important "so that we can account for it, so that people understand precisely why I banned these practices as one of the first acts I took when I came into office, and hopefully make sure that we don't make those mistakes again." Republican Senator John McCain, tortured in Vietnam as a prisoner of war, was out of step with some fellow Republicans in welcoming the report and endorsing its findings. "We gave up much in the expectation that torture would make us safer," he said in a Senate speech. "Too much." Five hundred pages were released, representing the executive summary and conclusions of a still-classified 6,700-page full investigation. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the Democratic committee chairman whose staff prepared the summary, branded the findings a stain on US history. "Under any common meaning of the term, CIA detainees were tortured," she declared, commanding the Senate floor for an extended accounting of the techniques identified in the investigation. In a statement, CIA Director John Brennan said the agency made mistakes and has learned from them. But he also asserted the coercive techniques "did produce intelligence that helped thwart attack plans, capture terrorists and save lives." In Geneva, the United Nations' special rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism, Ben Emmerson, said, the report confirms "that there was a clear policy orchestrated at a high level within the Bush administration, which allowed to commit systematic crimes and gross violations of international human rights law." He said international law prohibits the granting of immunity to public officials who have engaged in acts of torture, including both the actual perpetrators and senior government officials who authorized the policies. "The individuals responsible for the criminal conspiracy revealed in today's report must be brought to justice, and face criminal penalties commensurate with the gravity of their crimes." The report, released after months of negotiations with the administration about what should be censored, was issued as US embassies and military sites worldwide strengthened security in case of an anti-American backlash. The US embassies in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Thailand warned of the potential for anti-American protests and violence after the release of the Senate report. The embassies also advised Americans in the three countries to take appropriate safety precautions, including avoiding demonstrations.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6125
__label__wiki	0.771248	0.771248	Homechevron_rightWorldchevron_right43 policemen killed in ... date_range 15 Dec 2015 10:05 AM GMT 43 policemen killed in Argentina bus accident Buenos Aires: At least 43 policemen were killed after the bus they were travelling in rammed through a bridge into a dried-up riverbed in Argentina on Monday, authorities said. The bus belonged to Argentina's military police force, and was travelling between the towns of Santiago del Estero and San Salvador de Jujuy, according to Xinhua news agency. Early reports from emergency response teams in the Salta province said the bus was carrying 51 people and eight have been hospitalised, Gustavo Solis, mayor of Rosario de la Frontera, told the press that the stretch of road where the accident happened was notoriously bad. "The road is completely deteriorated. We try not to travel through the area at night," he was quoted as saying. Argentina's President Mauricio Macri sent his condolences to the families of the victims, and added that the thoughts of all Argentinean people were with them.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6126
__label__wiki	0.866464	0.866464	Edelman Trust Index shows UAE second in public trust in governments Homechevron_rightWorldchevron_rightNine hardcore... date_range 1 Jan 2016 5:28 PM GMT Nine 'hardcore terrorists' set to be hanged in Pakistan Islamabad: Pakistan Army chief General Raheel Sharif confirmed the death sentences on the nine men who were sentenced for terror offences. Muhammad Ghauri, who was an active member of Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), was involved in an attack on Parade Lane Mosque, Rawalpindi, in December 2009 that killed 38 people and left 57 others injured, Dawn online reported. Abdul Qayyum, an active member of Harkat-ul-Jehad-i-Islam, was involved in the attack on Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Headquarters (HQ) in Multan in December 2009, that killed seven people. Muhammad Imran, TTP member, and Aksan Mehboob, Al Qaeda member, were involved in attacks on law enforcement agencies. The other five convicts -- Adbul Rauf Gujjar, Muhammad Hashim, Sulaman, Shafqat Farooqi and Muhammad Farhan -- were active members of Sipah-i-Sahaba. They were involved in the killing of civilians in Lahore. In 2015, 326 people were hanged after Pakistan lifted the moratorium on the death penalty following the December 2014 attack on Peshawar's Army Public School, in which over 150 -- 136 of them school children -- were killed.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6127
__label__wiki	0.993534	0.993534	Chart report: Bon Jovi tops David Bowie on albums chart By Ray Rahman Updated March 20, 2013 at 07:53 PM EDT Credit: Paul Kane/Getty Images “Where are we now?” David Bowie asked on his new album. According to the charts, the answer is “right behind Jon Bon Jovi.” The New Jersey rockers’ What About Now has won the week in album sales, making it the group’s third straight album (and fifth overall) to top the Billboard 200. The record sold 101,000 in its debut week, Nielsen SoundScan reports. This marks Bon Jovi’s 12th trip to that chart’s top ten. This leaves David Bowie’s much-heralded comeback album The Next Day — hist first since 2003’s Reality — to come in at No. 2, with 85,000 units moved. The upside, though, is that that number is Bowie’s best sales week since the SoundScan era began in 1991. Last week’s champ, Luke Bryan’s Spring Break… Here to Party, fell to No. 3, experiencing a 59% decline with 61,000 in sales. The chart’s next spot, however, was here to pray, not party: the Christian album Passion: Let the Future Begin bowed at No. 4, with 48,000 in sales. Rounding out the top five was Bruno Mars, whose sophomore effort Unorthodox Jukebox dropped from No. 3 to No. 5, with 43,000 in sales. That’s a 17% drop from the previous week, but still enough to beat out Mindless Behavior’s All Around the World, which debuted this week at No. 6. The Nos. 7 and 8 albums — Eric Clapton’s Old Sock (nearly 37,000) and Dave Grohl’s documentary soundtrack Sound City: Real to Reel (also nearly 37,000) — were also debuts, making this the first week of the year to feature six debut albums landing in the top ten. The previous high came in December, when seven albums bowed at No. 10 or above. Justin Timberlake releases music video for ‘Mirrors’: Watch it here Bauhaus frontman Peter Murphy detained for alleged DUI Possible reveal of Lollapalooza lineup includes Phoenix and The Postal Service	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6135
__label__wiki	0.569859	0.569859	Sunken Cities Explore St. Louis Getaway: Terms and Conditions Sunken Cities Explore St. Louis Getaway Package Promotional Rules, Terms and Conditions NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Contest begins on April 30, 2018 and ends at 5:00 pm CST on June 30, 2018. One entry per person. You may also register to win by hand printing your name, address, zip code and telephone phone number on a 3″x5″ card and mailing it to “Win a Sunken Cities Explore St. Louis Getaway Package,” Explore St. Louis, 701 Convention Plaza, Suite 300, St. Louis, MO 63101. All entries must be received before 5:00 pm CST on June 30, 2018. The contest is open to legal residents of the United States of America, age 21 and over. Only one entry per person mailed and/or registered will be permitted. Employees of Explore St. Louis and members of their immediate families are not eligible. Incomplete, illegible or fraudulent entries will not be considered. Odds for winning depends on number of sweepstakes entries received. The prize is not transferable. No substitution of prizes and no cash in lieu of prizes. One (1) “Sunken Cities Explore St. Louis Getaway” Grand Prize winner will be drawn at random on July 2, 2018 and notified by email. If the prize winner refuses to take delivery of the prize, or prize winner cannot be reached within two (2) days, then an alternate winner will be drawn at random from remaining eligible sweepstakes entries. Winner may choose the dates for getaway from July 2 – August 30, 2018. Explore St. Louis is not responsible for misdirected, lost, late, mutilated, or postage-due entries, interrupted or unavailable network servers or other failed computer connections or other errors whether human, mechanical or electronic. By entering this contest and/or using any prize, you agree to release Explore St. Louis from liability of any kind or nature for any loss, claims, damages or injuries of any kind associated with participation in this contest or with acceptance and use of any prize. Explore St. Louis may use the winner’s name, biographical information, and/or likeness for purposes of advertising and promotion without further compensation, unless prohibited by law. Void where prohibited by law. Subject to all federal, state and local laws and regulations. The Explore St. Louis prize winner’s name may be obtained by sending a self-addressed, stamped envelope to Sunken Cities Explore St. Louis Getaway Package, Explore St. Louis, 701 Convention Plaza, Suite 300, St. Louis, MO 63101. Transportation to and within St. Louis is the responsibility of the winner. Book a Visit to St. Louis Get the 2020 St. Louis Visitors Guide Find inspiration for your next St. Louis visit, from local favorites to world renowned attractions. Check out the best hotels, restaurants, attractions, and entertainment St. Louis has to offer. Order your FREE copy today!	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6136
__label__wiki	0.635528	0.635528	Live Stream Schedule: Wednesday May 2, 2018 Wednesday May 2, Live Streams from The Daze Between Band featuring Eric Krasno, Dave Schools, Duane Truck from New Orleans, LA. Today’s stream feature bands and artists that include Arianna Zuckerman, Robinella, Todd Rundgren Utopia, David Lindley , Honey Island Swamp Band, Dead To The World, Scott Guberman Band and The Special 20’s. Taylor Corum/Bek and the Starlight Revue from Knoxville, TN http://www.wdvx.com/listen-live/ Renata Zeiguer from New York, NY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoyyL2nj0F4 Chuck Brodsky from Spindale, NC http://wncw.org/listen-live Harmonica Hinds from Chicago, IL http://buddyguy.com/Watch-Live-Blues Becca Mancari from New York, NY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQgJq6sqprw DharmaSoul New York, NY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TpYhcFMdoY Jerry Joseph & The Jackmormons Key West, FL Arianna Zuckerman /Issachah Savage/Sam Post/Betty Entzminger/Lester Green from The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Washington DC 5-8:00 CT Birthday Woot Down: Charlie Wooton, Eric Struthers, Jermal Watson, Tom Worrell & Special http://www.mixlr.com/maple-leaf-bar Robinella from Knoxville, TN Eddie Taylor Jr from Chicago, IL Todd Rundgren Utopia from Washington, DC http://mixlr.com/diane-andrea/ The Grateful Dead Hour from Spindale, NC Fruition from Tuscaloosa, AL http://mixlr.com/terry-lapointe Jerry Joseph & The Jackmormons from Key West, FL http://www.greenparrot.com/key-west-webcams/ David Lindley from Kansas City, MO https://www.facebook.com/knuckleheadssaloonkc/ 9:00 CT Funky Monkey Greg Hicks and Bert Cotton from Bonerama from Maple Leaf Bar Voodoo Colorado Bluegrass from St. Louis, MO https://www.facebook.com/scvps/ The Special 20’s from Chicago, IL The Daze Between Band with featuring Eric Krasno, Dave Schools, Duane Truck from New Orleans, LA via Live For Live Music and The Game of Zonk https://youtu.be/rmZdGejO5o4 Scott Guberman Band from Fairfax, CA https://www.facebook.com/day.na.796/ Francois Dean from Laguna Beach, CA http://www.ustream.tv/channel/mozambiquelive Dead To The World from Berkeley, CA http://www.kpfa.org/listen-live Mike Troy / After-hours from New York, NY https://www.smallslive.com/events/live-stream/ 3:00 am CT Honey Island Swamp Band from Maple Leaf, NOLA, LA Sign up to get the Daily Stream delivered to your inbox	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6139
__label__cc	0.628086	0.371914	Logos of a Living Earth: Towards a Gaian Praxecology by Matthew D. Segall on November 21, 2009 February 20, 2019 Logos of the Living Earth: Towards a Gaian Praxecology By Matthew Segall The word “praxeology” has been employed with various meanings in 20th century French and Austrian discourse.[1] Praxecology is a distinct, though not entirely unrelated neologism invented for the purposes of this essay. A new word is not without a history, nor a text without context—praxecology is the mutated kin of its discursive ancestors whose semiotic relation cannot be denied. But my neologism is not just a sign; it is also a materially inscribed event emerging in my life and, having been read and understood, in the lives of each of you, my audience. Words have real effects in the world of material-semiotic cyborgs[2] like us. Praxecology is the embodied practice of a living planetary systems theory, the enacting of a Gaian way of life. James Lovelock’s Gaia theory, developed in the 1960s while working for NASA to detect life on other planets, has played an important psycho-spiritual role in the environmental movement[3], but half a century later has not been fully realized as an eco-cultural revolt against modern techno-industrialism and the alienation, fetishization, and commodification of self, society, and nature that such a system requires. The results of this Enlightenment project of disembedded rationality are well known: loss of place, self-alienation, social injustice and ecological devastation chief among them.[4] A scientific theory of Earth as a self-regulating system is not enough in itself to overturn any of these aspects of our post-industrial malaise, but the knowledge of a living Earth is compelling enough, I believe, to inspire both the aesthetic skill and religious will of humanity into a renewed relationship with the Earth. In this essay, I will try to lay down a path in walking toward a Gaian praxecology by offering a more integral, or at least nonmodern (Latour, 1993) narration of embodied practice concerning human-earth relations. As Latour argues in his critique of modern science, the only myth is that there could be science without myth (p. 93, ibid.). I will seek a planetary (and so seemingly universal) mythos, though careful attention will be paid to nature as place, or topos (commonplace). As Donna Haraway has written, “We turn to this topic [nature] to order our discourse, to compose our memory …[because] nature is the place to rebuild public culture…[and] is a topic of public discourse on which much turns, even the Earth” (p. 296, 1992). The title, “Gaia,” has been criticized for its gender essentialism and mythic connotations.[5] I will try to convey why Gaia, the ancient Greek goddess, is among the most appropriate of names for the living Earth. Her theogonic origins in the poetry of Hesiod, Ovid, and others is an apt reminder that disentanglement of science from myth, or knowledge from narrative, while logically possible, is vacuous in practice.[6] Praxecology is not theory or praxis alone, but human understanding-as-participation in the meaningful cycles and evolutions of the Earth community. Science (logos) and story (mythos) are distinct, but in no way separate expressions of the underlying human yearning for knowledge born out of a recognition of our origins in a larger cosmogenic whole. “The Earth,” says cultural phenomenologist Jean Gebser, “is nothing but an event [self-enacted/autopoietic unfolding] which in materialization has become progressively slower” (p. 541, Gebser). Matter and mind, embodied action and theoretical discourse, are not isolated influences or opposed forces, but friendly poles in a holistic process of evolutionary autobiography. As Haraway puts it, “There is no way to rationality—to actually existing worlds—outside stories, not for our species, anyway” (p. 44, 1997). The protagonists in my story include Haraway, who reminds us that modern technoscientific biology is not life itself, but a cultural discourse about life; Thomas Berry, who evokes an original relationship to the universe by reminding us that an ongoing cosmogenesis is the origin of our existence; Bruno Latour, who demystifies science in action by unveiling the networks of relationships supporting its facts; William Irwin Thompson, whose vision of a Gaian polity helps us re-imagine the world; Francisco Varela, whose enactive cognitive science shows how worlds are brought forth through autopoietic structural coupling; and Gaia, our common ground, producer of all bodies and muse of every mind.Others, too, will lend a helping hand along the way of this logos of the living Earth. “Ecology,” according to Thomas Berry, “is functional cosmology” (p. 84, 1999). This suggests that an adequate understanding of the universe as a whole is not at all separate from knowing how to live sustainably within one’s particular community of life. The whole and the part are mutually implicated in any “functional cosmology.” Any truly universal knowledge should also be applicable and adaptable to life at home. Such a relational approach to cognition-as-living will guide us along our journey through various philosophical holzwege, or wood paths (German: wegen– “to make a way,” wagen– “to risk”), with the hope that we emerge at a clearing revealing new, perhaps unexpected, ways forward. Neither representational, nor constructionist epistemologies will suffice for such thoughtful and heartfelt wanderings, as I am concerned here with concrete matters of life and death, not decontextualized ideas of transcendent truth or the moral resignation of unmoored relativism. This discourse concerning the Earth is an attempt to refigure the way words relate to worlds, in part because “humans are not the ones who arbitrarily add the ‘symbolic dimension’ to pure material forces. These forces are as transcendent, active, agitated, spiritual, as we are” (p. 128, Latour, 1995). The following pages will record the traces of my struggle to enact a story, not about Earth, but of, as, and for an Earth personified: Gaia.[7] The clearing I hope will be discovered at the end of my praxecological textual way-making is but the beginning of our long overdue transformation from disembedded techno-industrial consumers into symbiotic participants in a flourishing Gaian polity.[8] “The urgent task of ecological culture,” says Rosemary Radford Ruether, “is to convert human consciousness to the Earth, so that we can use our minds to understand the web of life and to live in that web of life as sustainers, rather than destroyers, of it” (p. 250, 1992). It is my hope that my words may participate in the Great Work of weaving Western consciousness back into the tapestry of life from which it sprang by inspiring a renewed call to situated eco-action.[9] Praxeology Becomes Praxecology Praxeology is a word with a mixed history of discursive use. Murray N. Rothbard suggests that: “Praxeology rests on the fundamental axiom that individual human beings act, that is, on the primordial fact that individuals engage in conscious actions toward chosen goals” (p. 58, 1997). Arnold Kaufmann defines praxeology as “the science of human decision-making,” and models his approach after the Cartesian method of logical analysis (p. 12, 1968). Both Rothbard and Kaufmann seek universal, a priori laws of human action; but unlike Kaufmann (best known for his work in computer science), Rothbard criticizes the notion that conscious human beings can be treated like “stones or molecules whose course can be scientifically tracked in alleged constants or quantitative laws” (p. 74). I am in agreement with Rothbard’s (and before his, Ludwig von Mises’) rejection of a quantitative or positivistic account of human action, but because he fails to recognize the feelings, values, and purposes of all the species sharing this planet with humanity, his narrowly humanistic praxeology falls short of enacting the Gaian polity implied by a praxecology. Kaufmann’s praxeology is even more problematic, as his account of the human nervous system by analogy to a “combinatorial machine [i.e., parallel computer]” (p. 224) neglects the autopoietic nature of living cognitive processes. As will be discussed at length in the following section, the nervous system is not a linear “chain of perception-analysis-decision-action” (p. 228, ibid.), but a recursive and operationally closed loop of sensorimotor coordination within endogenously specified environments of relevancy (see p. 12). Construing cognition as if analysis and decision-making took place as independent steps in a causal chain between perception and action neglects the physiological fact that thinking (i.e., analyzing and deciding) is always already an embodied and embedded sensorimotor activity. Kaufmann’s praxeology re-inscribes the Cartesian dualism responsible for the metaphysical confusions at the root of the ecological crisis. Praxecology is my attempt to re-embody the human being’s conscious analytic capacities by re-imagining the way mind and body, thought and action, knowing and being relate to one another. Autopoietic Biology and Enactive Cognition The particular discourse of biology is one that I, like Haraway, “value, want to participate in and make better…and believe to be culturally, politically, and epistemologically important” (p. 218, ibid.). The biology of the late Francisco Varela, more recently carried forward by Evan Thompson, strikes me as especially important because it arises out of an awareness of the “unbroken coincidence of our being, our doing, and our knowing” (p. 25, Maturana & Varela, 1988). In other words, deep inquiry into biology can reveal that our ontology, praxis, and epistemology are knotted together such that “…every act of knowing brings forth a world” (p. 26, ibid.). Varela’s central conceptual contribution (along with Humberto Maturana) to the study of life is the theory of autopoiesis.[10] The theory is part of a larger move away from current orthodoxy in biology that understands organisms as “heteronomous units operating by a logic of correspondence”; instead, Varela offers a new biology that sees organisms as “autonomous units operating by a logic of coherence” (p. 50, ed. by William Irwin Thompson, 1987). The standard, gene-centric perspective of neo-Darwinist biology maintains that individual organisms are the puppets of their DNA, struggling to achieve fitness by way of natural selection into pre-given niches.[11] They are “other-determined” (heteronomous) because the forms of their bodies and behaviors are imposed extrasomatically by a supposedly objective world[12] and endosomatically by supposedly objective genetic algorithms. Evolutionary success is retroactively explained as the result of a correspondence between an organism’s body, instincts, and thoughts (all reducible to genetic coding) and the external world. Varela’s autopoietic view, in contrast, allows us to see organisms as autonomous and purposeful beings whose success is explained not by correct representation of a pre-given, objective reality, but by adequate structural coupling[13] with others allowing for the enaction of coherent and durable material-semiotic worlds. Further, an autopoietic biology makes clear that self-production is at least logically (if not also temporally) prior to reproduction (p. 131, E. Thompson). The basis of living organization, therefore, is not the ability to genetically replicate, but to produce a membrane-bound, self-organizing identity distinguishing organism from environment. In this way, the ecopoiesis[14] of Gaia grants it living status, contrary to gene-centric neo-Darwinian criticisms. Varela’s penchant for transdisciplinarity lead him to link his autopoietic biology to cognitive science, and his enactive theory of cognition to sociology. Varela has described enaction by borrowing the words of the poet Antonio Machado: “Wanderer the road is your footsteps, nothing else; you lay down a path in walking” (p. 63, 1987). The scientific principles underlying this poetic insight have been highlighted by Evan Thompson, who offers five features central to the theory of enactive cognition (p. 13, 2007): 1.“…living beings are autonomous agents that actively generate and maintain themselves, and thereby also enact or bring forth their own cognitive domains.” 2.“…the nervous system is an autonomous dynamic system [that] actively generates and maintains its own coherent and meaningful patterns of activity according to its operation as a circular and reentrant network of interacting neurons.” 3.“…cognition is the exercise of skillful know-how in situated and embodied action.” a.“Cognitive structures and processes emerge from recurrent sensorimotor patterns of perception and action.” b.Sensorimotor coupling between organism and environment modulates, but does not determine, the formation of endogenous, dynamic patterns of neural activity, which in turn inform sensorimotor coupling.” 4.“…a cognitive being’s world is not a prespecified, external realm, represented internally by its brain, but a relational domain enacted or brought forth by that being’s autonomous agency and mode of coupling with the environment.” 5.“…experience is not an epiphenomenal side issue, but central to any understanding of the mind, and needs to be investigated in a careful phenomenological manner.” One consequence of the enactive approach is that the Cartesian quest for epistemological certainty becomes but the expression of a particular “cognitive domain” (see # 1) made possible by the abstract languages of mathematics, precise measurements of machine technologies, and controlled laboratory environment. If the nervous system is operationally closed (see # 2), its function cannot be to modestly mirror an external, objective reality, even if the modest witnesses are highly trained scientists allied with powerful instruments that extend their sensory reach. The operational closure of the nervous system forestalls a representational account of its activity, as its role is maintaining coherence, rather than correspondence, between organism and environment. New techniques may open up previously hidden worlds, as when Galileo first turned a telescope to the sky and revealed the moons of Jupiter in 1610, or Hooke first recognized cells through a microscope in 1665, but one cannot speak of finally discovering the real as if it existed independently of our bodily and inter-bodily experience of its meaning. As Haraway has suggested (p. 199, 1997), “…objectivity is less about realism than about intersubjectivity.” She yearns for us to come to see objectivity as a way of “forming ties across wide distances” (ibid.), instead of as the privileged and modest perspective of self-invisible European men who remain somehow unpolluted by their ambiguously situated bodies (p. 23-32, ibid.). If science can claim relative epistemological privilege, it is not the result of transcending culture, but of the ever-accelerating, ever-expanding mobility and combinability of the traces scientists and their cyborg surrogates have constructed within their networks. Outside of these special networks of labs, machines, shared languages, and centrally controlled policy initiatives, scientific facts have little relevance.[15] Referring to technoscience, as opposed to just science, emphasizes the extent to which knowledge emerges out of skillful action in embodied situations (see #’s 3 and 4). Science has always been dependent upon technological sensorimotor extensions to deepen its understanding of that commonplace called by its peculiar culture “nature.” Artifacts and their articulations, including alphabetic technologies, shape the kinds of worlds scientists are capable of enacting. Even mathematics is a figurative language (p.11, ibid.), constructing analogies between otherwise unrelated domains of experience.[16] Varela’s biology has implications not only for scientific epistemology, but also for society and human-earth relations. Echoing the sentiments of Haraway, Varela writes that: “…biology is the source of most metaphors in current thinking…and expresses the possibility of a worldview beyond the split between us and it…what we do is what we know, and ours is but one of many possible worlds. [Enactive cognition] is…the laying down of a world, with no warfare between self and other” (p. 62, ed. by William Irwin Thompson, 1987). It is our shared biological lineage that secures the basic structure of the worlds we can bring forth together via linguistic and empathic structural coupling. But culture is not bound by nature, or rather human nature is sufficiently malleable that diverse cultural expressions can emerge within isolated social groups. It is often only through inter-cultural confrontation and misunderstanding that members of one society come to recognize the unthought background of their enacted worlds. Varela is at pains to convey to us the message of his biology, that “…as human beings, we have only the world which we create with others” (p. 246, 1988). Unless I can encounter the differences between my (or my culture’s) cognitive domain and another’s with the willingness to make room for their meanings besides my own, I undermine the biological process of structural coupling that produces livable worlds. Meaning emerges out of difference (p. 167, Hornborg), and as W. I. Thompson suggests, “the recognition of differences [is] the consciousness of the unique that contributes to the understanding of the universal” (p. 167, 1985). Bringing forth worlds with others requires tapping into a universal substratum of empathic relation, not to erase difference, but to celebrate it. Varela calls this willingness to forego self-certainty for the sake of enacting inclusive worlds with others love. Love, says Varela (and Maturana), “is the biological foundation of social phenomena: without love, without acceptance of others living beside us, there is no social process and, therefore, no humanness” (p. 264, 1988). Most scientists would dismiss such claims because they overshoot the objective scope of the scientific enterprise. But Varela’s biology is an attempt to break down the Cartesian divide between rationality and emotion, between what is and what ought to be. Biology is the study of life, but in the context of the recursive logic of enactivism, it becomes the self-study of our own living. Perhaps some physicists can study the mathematical regularities of measurable matter without too much personal investment, but to study the processes that birth and sustain our very being inevitably calls for profound personal and interpersonal involvement. And because of the identity between knowing and doing, the stories we tell about how life came to be and what it is doing here will determine what sorts of future worlds we bring forth together. “Whatever we do in every domain, whether concrete (walking) or abstract (philosophical reflection), involves us totally in the body, for it takes place through our structural dynamics and through our structural interactions. Everything we do is a structural dance in the choreography of coexistence” (p. 248, ibid.). Varela’s autopoietic biology is a critical response to the mechanistic trends of mainstream studies of living organization. He emphasizes the autonomy of individual organisms while also situating them within the eco-social environments that sustain them materially and semiotically. Varela also engages the philosophical implications of biology in a more penetrating way than most other scientists when he recognizes the dynamic unity of mind and body. Thought, perception, and action are knotted together in the process of living, and life is by its very nature a co-creative, world-making affair. Acknowledging this, a Gaian praxecology strives, not to disembed local cultures (whether scientific or indigenous) from their specific histories of structural coupling, but to expand their cognitive domains such that they begin to comport themselves appropriately in light of the knowledge of the whole Earth as a single living system—in mythopoeic fact, a person—that all beings, no matter our cultural or even biological differences, depend upon for survival. The task of our planetary age is to situate the parts in the whole (so human persons can relate to Gaia) while not forgetting that the whole is also to be found in each of the parts (humans are, first and foremost, earthlings). Personifying the Earth not only leads to renewed respect for our home planet, but reminds us of the encompassing and interconnected natural processes responsible for breathing life into individual human persons and all other earthlings. Personhood, it could be said, is granted only when beings are able to meet each other in loving social spaces. Discursive Earth Language is the primary instrument of human knowing, the tool of tools that opens up worlds of meaning more flexible (and reflexive) than the bio-semiotic endowments granted to most other organisms. But the virtue of human language is also its tragic flaw, as the creative power of words enable the imagination to almost entirely detach from the actuality of the body and the Earth. One result of such disengagement is what A. N. Whitehead has called the fallacy of “misplaced concreteness” (p. 51, 1925): abstract worlds of words and images restructure not only thought, but perception and action, such that the concrete lived experience of the uniqueness of individual persons, to take one example, becomes obscured by pre-conceived notions of culture, race, and class (etc.), leading to an objectification of others that short-circuits the process of linguistic and empathic structural coupling. Varela suggests that human language evolved as a result of increased socialization and loving cooperation between our hominid ancestors (p. 220, 1988). The female shift from estral cycles to nonseasonal sexuality and the frontal coitus resulting from upright posture are mentioned as possible reasons for the development of such a complex and expressive behavior as speech[17] (p. 219, ibid.). Evan Thompson points also to “…the evolution of a new stage of development, namely, childhood,” which provides developing human beings with an incredible plasticity, so much in fact that “…individual subjectivity is from the outset intersubjectivity, a result of the communally handed down norms, conventions, symbolic artifacts, and cultural traditions in which the individual is always already embedded” (p. 409-411, 2007). Writing may have arisen later (around the 4th millennium BCE) for economic reasons (p. 13, Jean, 1987), but the spoken word appears to have emerged originally as a result of the desire for increased interpersonal intimacy. This is, of course, a revisionist account of the origins of human language, focusing more on the evolution of consciousness than economic progress or the invention of technologies. W. I. Thompson offers evidence contrary to the standard technophilic and androcentric explanations, citing the work of prehistorian Alexander Marshack, who, like E. Thompson and Varela, argues language arose as a result of neoteny and increased social cohesion: “If, at any point in the evolutionary process ‘language’ or proto-language was to be learned, it would not have been in the context of the hunt. It would have been learned young, before the individual was economically productive…in the context of the child’s widening, increasingly complex relational competence” (p. 91, W. I. Thompson, 1981). A Gaian praxecology requires a novel way of relating to language as primarily communicative, rather than descriptive or representational. The meaning of our words comes not from a correspondence between them, our brains, and objects or events in the world, but from the consensual coordination of our lived bodies and their linguistic intentions.[18] Social coherence, rather than representational correspondence, produces meaningful intersubjective linguistic domains. The communicative origins of language should make it clear that claims to establish a pure observer language free of cultural idiosyncrasy (and so capable of objective description of phenomena) are more political than scientific. Human beings speak with one another in order to share emotion and direct attention, and so any notion of descriptive or explanatory truth must include at least the potential for agreement between structurally coupled agents. If one group’s emically verified description contradicts another’s, there has not been a factual conflict but a failure to communicate. Such conflicts of description are especially insidious when political power is used to enforce “true” accounts of reality despite the resistance of marginalized social enactments of meaning. The move away from representational accounts of language is the first step toward “…[placing] the human within the dynamics of the planet rather than [placing] the planet within the dynamics of the human” (p. 160, T. Berry, 1999). By recognizing language as a poetic product of the Earth’s own desire to know itself through autobiography, perhaps the psychological alienation and spiritual disenchantment so characteristic of our historical moment can be overcome.[19] According to Berry, “this awakening is our human participation in the dream of the Earth” (p. 165, ibid.). As I shared above, our language and the imaginative capacities it facilitates evolved because humans grew more capable of empathic structural coupling. As the cultural and symbolic systems that emerged became more complex, they began to reify differences between one another and, at least in the Western world, between humanity and nature. In effect, Western consciousness detached from the dream of the Earth and fell into its own nightmare of endless economic growth fueled by technological progress.[20] A flourishing Gaian-polity will require rooting human imagination and language back in the body of the Earth and Cosmos, such that our evolutionary journey from protozoa to speaking primates becomes an expression of the planet’s own joie de vivre. As Rick Tarnas has written: “The human spirit does not merely prescribe nature’s phenomenal order; rather, the spirit of nature brings forth its own order through the human mind when that mind is employing its full complement of faculties–intellectual, volitional, emotional, sensory, imaginative, aesthetic, epiphanic…human language itself can be recognized as rooted in a deeper reality, as reflecting the universe’s unfolding meaning…Human thought does not and cannot mirror a ready-made objective truth in the world; rather, the world’s truth achieves its existence when it comes to birth in the human mind” (p. 435, 1991). A participatory approach like Tarnas’ is exactly the kind of relationship between language, culture, and nature that praxecology seeks. Humanity, rather than the alienated dominator of Earth, can become Gaia’s most articulate storyteller and most potent dream weaver. Logos did not arrive in the universe in human form from beyond at some point in history, but has been a part of cosmogenesis since the beginning.[21] Gaian Mythos Humanity is unique, in the double sense of being both one with (Latin: unus) the Earth/Cosmos and undeniably alone. What it is that makes our species so special is a matter of contention. The risk one takes in defining the difference between human and nonhuman is that some group be marginalized by not being included in the favored category. History makes it quite apparent that societies become more willing to commit atrocities when they adopt antagonistic linguistic classifications (race, class, gender, species, etc.). But even to deny the difference is already to have marked the topic as a forbidden fruit. I cannot avoid this risk if I wish to tell my story (cross-cultural communication depends, at least etymologically, on munitions—on firing an opening shot). I can only provisionally offer that what makes us human is our being always already embedded participants in evolving worlds of meaning, and knowing so. Knowledge is what distinguishes humanity, but all knowing is situated within the promiscuous meanings and romantic-comedic-tragic narratives of embodied life among others, both human and non. Our human capacity for knowledge also clues us into our ignorance, the fact that we lack, perhaps indefinitely, a complete understanding of how we came to be and how best to live. Nonetheless, as Wendell Berry has written, “…we have to act on the basis of what we know, [even if] what we know is incomplete” (p. 10, 2000). Our cultures must provide us with a flexible way to navigate the unmappable complexities of the terrain of life on this evolving planet. A renewed engagement with the mythopoeic dimensions of consciousness is one way to keep our balance while walking upon such uncertain ground. Myth, according to W. I. Thompson, “is a state of being, analogous to music [and so] not simply a description, but a performance of the very reality it seeks to describe” (p. 6, 1996). Any knowledge we pretend to have regarding the world simultaneously participates in the bringing forth of exactly such a world. Even modern technosciences of life have deep mythological roots, and so to properly contextualize matters of fact I must invoke the poetic images of the ancient past (of at least our Western, alphabetic tradition). Hesiod, Ovid, Homer and other Greek orators have given poetic, divinatory, or dramatic tribute to Gaia, the “mother of all [and] eldest of all beings” (Homeric hymn XXX). She is imagined to have emerged at the beginning of the world from the undifferentiated, lifeless mass of Chaos. Once her earthly foundation was in place, she birthed the sky, the mountains, and the sea, along with countless other beings, mortal and immortal. She was, for ancient humanity (on all continents, though by other names), personified as Grandmother, revered for her creative generativity and life-sustaining soils.[22] For us, despite living thousands of years later in an age of “Reason,” it remains wise to remember with W. I. Thompson that a Gaian evolutionary theory and practice (a praxecology) “requires not simply training and data collection, but imagination” (p. 252, 1991). Imagination, for Thompson, is what integrates perception and enacts coherent worlds of situated meaning: “What brings forth a world is the human body as a field of metaphoric extension of the known into the unknown… [Imagination’s] ability to stabilize a world derives from…preverbal geometries of behavior we have come to cognize as the way things happen” (p. 253, ibid). These preverbal geometries of behavior archetypally structure our unconscious experience of the Earth. In those “mythic times called the ‘Scientific Revolution’” (p. 1, Haraway, 1997), the Cartesian coordinate plane emerged to refigure the human body-mind, constructing a flattened background upon which the Western imagination could perform its world-making magic at relative distance from the local complexities and particular faces of Earth. The re-imagining of the world I am after requires locating the supposedly universal scientific truths responsible for disenchanting the Earth and Cosmos. “[The scientific tribe], says Latour, “like earlier ones, projects its own special categories onto Nature; what is new is that it pretends it has not done so” (p. 102, 1993). This pretense to objectivity, ironically, is what allowed Lovelock to publish his first hypotheses (p. 568-570, Nature, 1965) concerning how best to detect extraterrestrial life (by searching for “order” and “non-equilibrium”). The ambiguous boundaries between life and non-life, much like those between human and nonhuman, are fraught with controversy.[23] Lovelock’s generalizations, however, seem to offer at least relatively universal characteristics applicable even to alien worlds. As far as Lovelock is concerned, life is a planetary affair[24], involving even the physiosphere in its metabolic processes of growth and evolution (through regulation of atmosphere and plate tectonics [Mann, 1991]). Our living planet has produced not only complex eco-semiotic webs of organic community, but also a special primate who can know the difference between sign and thing (and who surfs the mystery in between with myth). This differential knowing raises the specter of minds separate from bodies, of a noosphere over and above the biosphere using it as a means for its own elevated ends. But we need not reproduce the Sacred Image of the Same by reifying the human difference; we can instead, through a self-critical and diffractive consciousness, bring forth histories of entangled meaning where reality and idea, science and story, nature and culture mutually constitute one another (Haraway, 1997). The cosmogenesis of Earth is as much mental, cultural, and transcendent as it is physical, natural, and immanent. There is no one true and ideal copy of the world that might be reproduced culturally or technologically. Reality is not a reflected image in the human mind, but co-emerges out of the interference patterns generated by the varied material-semiotic activities of countless earthlings, most of whom are not human (p. 299, Haraway, 1992). A Gaian praxecology attempts to make this radically inter-species realization explicit in both our ecological practices and our discourse. Imagine a world where Lovelock’s scientific narratives about the “Ages of Gaia” are tied together in a distributed and layered way (p. 121, Haraway, 1997.) with the ancient myths and mysterious organic origins of so many other human and nonhuman natures-cultures. Gaian praxecology requires not hegemonic universalism or globalization, but a shared discourse of common origins always open to interpellation (p. 49-50, ibid.). Humanity does not yet share a sacred story of creation, but our global techno-industrial activities have already inextricably linked our biological destinies. The future of our species depends upon a more integral relation between economic theory and ecological practice, myth and science, and imagination and knowledge. A Gaian praxecology is at least an opening gesture toward a more appropriate relation between these dualisms. Earth recognized and lived with as what Ian Hacking (p. 31-32, 1999) has called an “interactive kind,” a person, would bring our species even closer to what a Gaian praxecology implies. Reconnecting on a personal level with the Earth makes evident the real ways that our ideas are actualized in the bringing forth of worlds. For too long, Gaia has been conceived of as a dead rock mutely bearing oil drills and explosives, a mere standing reserve of resources fed into the human market, and only then made valuable. The result is that much of her body (including the parts of her that we are) has become toxic and infertile. The time has come to pay respect again to the Grandmother of all who eat and breathe beneath the sun. I call for a polyphonic Gaian mythos sung by humans and nonhumans alike, “…for things [quasi-objects] too have to be elevated to the dignity of narrative” (p. 90, Latour, 1993). The spiritual import of a logos of the living Earth cannot be underestimated. Unless the human spirit can begin to feel at home again upon the planet of its birth, it will surely soon become the planet of its death. “As physical resources become less available,” says Berry, “psychic [or spiritual] energy must support the human project in a special manner. This situation brings us to a new reliance on powers within the universe and also to experience of the deeper self. The universe must be experienced as the Great Self. Each is fulfilled in the other: the Great Self is fulfilled in the individual self, and the individual self is fulfilled in the Great Self. Alienation is overcome as soon as we experience this surge of energy from the source that has brought the universe through the centuries. New fields of energy become available to support the human venture. These new energies find expression and support in celebration. For in the end the universe can only be explained in terms of celebration” (p. 170, 1999). The ongoing celebration of the Cosmos and Earth community, indeed, provides us with a mythos worth performing and participating in. Indigenous peoples have ritually participated in Gaia’s seasonal rhythms for thousands of generations, recognizing the celebratory significance of all life’s activities. A similar re-sacralization of life goes hand in hand with a Gaian praxecology. Ritual is the concrete foundation of culture, the source of our most fundamental habits and dispositions. Renewing our connection with the “mother of all things” can bring an end to the fragmented Chaos of post-industrial civilization, giving us the inspiration to tell the meaningful stories of creation and regeneration going on around, between, and within us. It is through such scientifically informed, mythically imbued narratives and rituals that a Gaian praxecology can be brought forth. All of our cultural institutions must seek their guidance from the roles granted them by such numinous, celebratory stories such that they perform their world-making work for the glory of Gaia, rather than for the profit of a few corporations. My story has now reached its end, but hopefully the holzwege I have laid down in walking has provided an opening for fellow terrestrial trekkers to follow in my footsteps. Our ultimate destination cannot be prematurely known, as the mythic landscapes we must travel are dense and full of mystery. “The landscape of myth,” says W. I. Thompson, “…is that shoreline where the island of knowing meets the unfathomable sea of our own being…When we come to [such] an edge we have to shift our mode of thought…from rational analysis to intuitive meditation” (p. 87, 1981). We can only hope to understand the current planetary moment by wholeheartedly participating in the multibillion-year cosmic performance of powers that produced and continues to nourish us. Science and spirituality must mutually aid us in any joint venture to enact a Gaian praxecology, because only a more integral relation between intelligence and imagination will allow the human being to dream with the Earth once again. [1] In the next section (see p. 6), I will unpack the implications and limitations of praxeology, explaining why praxecology provides a more appropriate plan of action for our historical moment. [2] Cyborgs are “the offspring of…technoscientific wombs—imploded germinal entities, densely packed condensations of worlds, shocked into being from the force of the implosion of the natural and the artificial, nature and culture, subject and object, machine and organic body, money and lives, narrative and reality” (p. 14, Haraway, 1997). [3] See Weston, A. ‘Forms of Gaian ethics,’ pgs. 217-230, Environmental Ethics 9. 1987. Lovelock himself sees his work as strictly scientific, but this has not stopped others from extending the implications of his theory into ethics and spirituality via critiques of anthropocentrism and materialism. [4] “…the intensified misery of billions of men and women [and nonhuman species] seems organically rooted in the freedoms of transnational capitalism and technoscience” (p. 3, Haraway, 1997). Another result of techno-industrialism is mechanistic biology. I explore the metaphysical substructure of this disembedded perspective in my essay “On the Matter of Life: Towards an Integral Biology of Economics” (2009). [5] Refers to class discussion (11/4/09). Also see Richard Dawkins’ The Extended Phenotype (1983), where he argues that natural selection could not have produced a self-regulating planetary organism. Dawkins’ definition of life in terms of genetic replication is too narrow for reasons discussed on page 9. [6] “Even Hegel, for whom the Absolute is fully grasped as such only as Concept or Idea, recognized that art, religion and philosophy all share the same substance, that in fact it is only as reflection on (or refraction through) the myths and symbols of religion in particular that ‘absolute knowing’ can arise in the first place.” –Sean Kelly, Evolutionary Panentheism for the Planetary Era, 2009 [7] This is, essentially, a move away from representationalist epistemology to participatory epistemology, where knowledge “about” a system or process is understood to be an integral part of the same system or process. Personality is not the sole possession of our species, but a refined expression of the primordial personhood of the living Earth. [8] For more on what a Gaian polity entails, see Gaia, A Way of Knowing: Political Implications of the New Biology, ed. by W.I. Thompson. Several principles are suggested, including the move away from one-sided ideologies to an “ecology of consciousness” (Bateson) and the supersession of nation-state territorialism through a recognition of the atmosphere as our global commons. See also section X (p. 67) of my essay On the Matter of Life: Towards an Integral Biology of Economics (2009). [9] Eco-action is action in service of one’s earthly home and all the kin who live there (oikos– household, or family). [10] The details of the technical definition of “autopoiesis” (self-production) need not concern us in this paper, but in short, a system is generally defined as autopoietic if it is composed of a network of dynamic chemical transformations that produces its own components and the membrane that spatially defines it as a system (p. 46, M. & V., 1988). The paradigmatic example of autopoiesis is the cell. [11] See Dawkins 1989 and Dennett 1995 [12] Lovelock’s Gaia theory allows us to see that life does not adapt to fit the fixed parameters of a lifeless planet, but remakes its host into a complex, self-regulating living system. [13] “We speak of structural coupling whenever there is a history of recurrent interactions leading to the structural congruence between two (or more) systems” (p. 74, M. &V., 1988). [14] “In one of his articles Lovelock uses the term ecopoiesis to describe Gaia (Lovelock, 1987). This term seems just right for conveying both the resemblance and difference between Gaia and the autopoietic cell. The resemblance is due to the ecosphere and the cell being autonomous systems, the difference to the scale and manner in which their autonomy takes form” (p. 122, E. Thompson). [15] “…we might compare scientific facts to frozen fish: the cold chain that keeps them fresh must not be interrupted, however briefly” (p. 119, Latour, 1993). [16] For example, Thomas Edison wove a chain of associations together to relate Joule’s and Ohm’s equations with economic principles. The result was the electric light bulb (p. 239-240, Latour, 1988). [17] W. I. Thompson (p. 21-26, 1981) similarly links the evolution of language and sexuality, pointing to, among other things, Alfred Kinsey’s studies in the 1950s showing the intelligentsia (those who have mastered language), unlike the working classes, tended to revel in oral sexuality. [18] See Maturana’s Biology of Language: The Epistemology of Reality (1978), where he points to structural coupling as the origin of language. This is in contrast to denotative or representational theories of language, where words stand for things independent of consensual coordination between human organisms. [19] “The governing dream of the twentieth century appears as a kind of ultimate manifestation of that deep inner rage of Western society against its earthly condition as a vital member of the life community” (p. 165, ibid.). [20] See section VIII of my essay On the Matter of Life: Towards an Integral Biology of Economics (2009) for a possible account of why Western consciousness became so detached from the ecopoiesis of the Earth. [21] “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made through [the Word] and without [the Word] was not anything made that hath been made” (John 1:1-1:4). [22] See James George Frazer’s The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (3rd ed., 1915). Frazer points to the common origin of all modern religions in the ancient goddess worshipping traditions of the world. Especially significant in the context of my essay is his statement that “…imagination acts upon man as really as does gravitation, and may kill him as certainly as a dose of prussic acid” (ch. 22). [23] Autopoiesis has been suggested in an earlier section on Varela’s systems biology as a possible scientific definition of “life” that recognizes self-production and self-regulation (rather than genetic replication) as essential to living organization, thereby granting Gaia living status. The economic implications of the controversy over what counts as “life” are central to my essay On the Matter of Life (2009), where I argue, with the help of Whitehead and Varela, that all actual occasions are autopoietic organisms. [24] While Lovelock was working with NASA to detect life on Mars, he had “a gentle discussion with Carl Sagan, who thought it might be possible that life existed in oases where local conditions would be more favorable. Long before Viking set course from Earth I felt intuitively that life could not exist on a planet sparsely; it could not hang on in a few oases, except at the beginning or at the end of its tenure. As Gaia theory developed, this intuition grew; now I view it as a fact” (p. 6, 1988). Berry, Thomas. The Dream of the Earth. 1988. Sierra Club Books: San Francisco. 2) Berry, Thomas. The Great Work: Our Way into the Future. 1999. Bell Tower: New York. 3) Berry, Wendell. Life is a Miracle: Essays Against Modern Superstition. 2000. Counterpoint: Washington D.C. 4) Hacking, Ian. The Social Construction of What? 1999. Harvard University Press: Cambridge. 5) Haraway, Donna J. Modest_Witness@Second_Millennium.FemaleMan©_Meets_OncoMouse™: Feminism and Science. 1997. Routledge: New York. 6) Haraway, Donna J. The Promises of Monsters: A Regenerative Politics for Inappropriate/d Others. Printed in Cultural Studies. 1992. Eds. Grossberg, L., Nelson, C., Treichler, A. Routledge: New York. 7) Hesiod. Theogony. 1953. Bobbs-Merrill: New York. 8) Hornborg, Alf. The Power of the Machine: Global Inequalities of Economy, Technology, and Environment. 2001. AltaMira Press: Walnut Creek. 9)Jean, Georges. Writing: The Story of Alphabets and Scripts. 1992. Abrams: New York. 10) Kaufmann, Arnold. Transl. from French by Rex Audley. The Science of Decision-Making: An Intro to Praxeology. 1968. McGraw-Hill: New York. 11) Latour, Bruno. Science in Action: How to Follow Scientists and Engineers Through Society. 1987. Harvard: Cambridge. 12) Lovelock, James. The Ages of Gaia: A Biography of our Living Earth. 1988. Bantam Books: New York. 13) Mann, Charles. Lynn Margulis: Science’s Unruly Earth Mother. Science 19 April 1991. Pgs. 378-381 14) Maturana, Humberto and Varela, J. Francisco. The Tree of Knowledge: The Biological Roots of Human Understanding. 1988. Shambala: Boston. 15) Rothbard, Murray N. The Logic of Action I: Method, Money, and the Austrian School. 1997. Edward Elgar Publishing: Cheltenham, UK. 16) Ruether, Rosemary Radford. Gaia and God: An Ecofeminist Theology of Earth Healing. 1989. Harper: San Francisco. 17) Segall, Matthew. On the Matter of Life: Towards an Integral Biology of Economics. 2009. 18) Tarnas, Richard. The Passion of the Western Mind: Understanding the Ideas that Have Shaped Our World View. 1991. Ballantine Books: New York. 19) Thompson, Evan. Mind in Life: Biology, Phenomenology, and the Sciences of Mind. 2007. Harvard: Cambridge. 20) Thompson, William Irwin (editor). Gaia: A Way of Knowing, Political Implications of the New Biology. 1987. Lindisfarne: New York. 21) Thompson, William Irwin (editor). Gaia 2: Emergence, The New Science of Becoming. 1991. Lindisfarne: New York. 22) Thompson, William Irwin. Pacific Shift. 1985. Sierra Club Books: San Francisco. 23) Thompson, William Irwin. The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light. 1981. St. Martin’s Press: New York. 24) Whitehead, Alfred North. Science and the Modern World. 1925. The Free Press: New York. Correspondence on Earth and Economy by Matthew D. Segall on November 6, 2009 May 14, 2010 The following is a series of emails exchanged between Mat Wilson and I over the course of the last several months (my messages will be in bold, Mr. Wilson’s not): Mat, First, in the interest of full disclosure, I should say that just yesterday I watched a video where an objectivist read something Rand said about the encounter between European colonists and the many indigenous populations who originally inhabited North America. Basically, she tried to justify the genocide by saying the natives had no concept of individuality, rights, or property, and so it was somehow moral for the colonists to just take the land and kill them all in the process. I find this absolutely appalling, both because of how she seems to ethnocentrically apply the idea of non-aggression, but also because of how she conceives of the earth as something to be “owned” and only valuable when produced and sold by humans. This kind of anthropocentric attitude has lead to the largest extinction event in 65 million years (approx. 20,000 species are going extinct every year; the background rate is about 1 a year) and caused a forthcoming change in climate that could very well spell the end of civilization as we know it. So even though I am rather unsettled about her perspective, I will try to approach Rand’s philosophy “objectively”, as they say. I just read Rand’s epistemology on Wikipedia. I know, not the best source, but its good enough for an introduction, eh? I have a few issues: 1) While I reject the extreme relativism of post-modernism, I think there are some very important insights it has provided that any serious philosophy today needs to take into consideration. a) there is the issue of logic. There are many kinds of logic aside from the Aristotelian. There is no one absolute and correct Logic, as philosophers once thought. Logic is normative, in other words. So long as all involved agree on the kind of logic to be employed, it is ‘objectively’ true. In a similar sense, there is no longer one kind of geometry. Euclid’s geometry is now only one possible form of geometry, next to Riemannian, projective, etc. geometries. This is important considering how Rand dismisses the necessary/contingent distinction. We can say that there are many possible space-time manifolds because we know there are many possible geometries. So our particular space-time manifold is not necessary, it could have been otherwise. b) there is the issue of multicultural sensitivity, which obviously Rand does not understand, as her opinion on the colonization of NA shows. Her “rationality” is not Absolute. It arose out of a particular cultural and historical context and is not necessarily objective for all people. There are many ways of knowing, each valid in its own sphere. Again, I’m not a relativist, but nor am I an absolutist or objectivist. I think there is truth, but we must always be careful to remember that truth can be approached from a whole variety of perspectives. 2) I think Rand’s epistemology neglects the importance of emotion for cognition. fMRI scans of the brain in action show the limbic system (associated with emotion) and the prefrontal cortex (associated with rational thought) are always active together, mutually dependent one on the other. This is true even when subjects are evaluating the truth of statements such as 2+2=4. This is true for us not only because it is logically correct, but because it is somehow pleasurable for us emotionally. I could go on but I’ll stop now and wait for your response. Thanks for your interest in engaging me in all this, by the way! I’m so sorry I completely forgot about this. Take a moment to review what you wrote as I rightfully reply now: The only race we should care about are each other.. human beings. What value does nature hold apart from man? There is none. Animals and insects (among countless other organisms including plants) do not have rights. They do not have rights because since time immemorial they never formed rules or laws or demonstrate that they could be reasoned with and understand and have empathy. Only until recently were females and non-whites recognized as human-beings.. finally. We should not worry about extinction of all these species.. extinction has been going on for a long, long time without humans. Isn’t it kind of arbitrary to say that everything and every organism is “sacred”? Just because it exists we must become slaves to ensure its protection and make sure it continues to reproduce? Besides.. if you really like a certain species.. you will go out and study engineering and biology and eventually re-invent that animal or organism. The natives that originally inhabited America may or may not have been reasonable. Likely they were unconscious brutes operating on the god-level of consciousness in an immutable state of hypnosis taking commands from the tribal consciousness or the gods directly. Who knows? I do not know the conditions back then. Yes, it was absolutely immoral if the natives made no threat and came in peace and were negotiable. They could even say, “Please leave us.. this land is ours.” and that would be fine too. Again, I don’t know what happened and more and more I’m finding quite-a-many bad things about many of the founding fathers themselves.. One instance: what a hypocrite Jefferson was to have slaves?? And then I heard he not only impregnated the one.. but made his children become slaves too!? Today we have much more knowledge. If we came across land and found a primitive colony.. we could likely form empathy with them through communication skills and demonstrating authority. We could systematically learn there language and show them the world and even possibly trade or just learn with them. There is no excuse now for the same acts of what you described several hundred years ago.. except for imminent danger of a native putting a spear to one’s throat. Onwards elsewhere: a) I must go forth and learn about these other geometries as I only ever formally learned Euclidean. I have read a couple hundred pages of Aristotle through his various books.. but it was scattered and I did not systematically study any of it.. only soak it in for pleasure and to ponder it on a walk. I must go and take a look at his logic v.s. others. I’ll make that an assignment this weekend at the library. b) But we should have no sensitivity for the psychos in Iran and North Korea. We must show them no mercy. Our ideals are better than there’s because we love life. They, on the other-hand, hate the now and will do anything by means of force to destroy us. c) Nope. Ayn Rand actually believed that emotions are powerful forces that give one instant results like a computer about how their beliefs, actions, and mode of living are sustaining there life. Even in the Fountainhead, Katie Halsey (Peter Keating’s original darling), for example, starts to take Uncle Ellsworth’s every word and accepts faith and service to others to the point where her emotions are so overwhelmingly negative and clearly telling her that this isn’t right.. she starts to fight them and continue doing what she was taught.. I don’t remember exactly what happens to her after that but usually a person eventually becomes so numb, after while.. they just can no longer feel. Also, Atlas Shrugged has many instances where especially Hank Rearden and Dagny Taggart have strong epiphanies and ‘revelations’ and great insights that triumph or even heed them of imminent danger. But, still.. regardless of how anyone feels.. 2+2=4. A is always A. Given that a is defined as a particular thing and immutable. It is true once one gets good at math, you can perform all sorts of operations and you know you made a mistake because “something doesn’t feel right”.. but that is exactly true (what you said).. as humans logic and emotion often does practically work concurrently during cognition and actual information assimilation and comprehension. But, when righting rules and laws of logic.. they must be formulated and based off principle alone and a proof must not consist of, “2+2=4 because I had a profound and exaltant revelation from the Lord Jesus Christ” No.. 2+2=4 because 2 is defined as two of something.. like (2 asterisks) and the operation of ‘adding’ means to join those group of things so + = *. In reality, 2+2=4.. but indeed, what the hell does it matter if we are dead or never existed?? Logic is supposed to serve our Ego. 😉 (but of course, we must come to realize that we cannot manipulate reality through wish alone.. otherwise we will live short and horrendous lives!) Ok, I promise I will respond much sooner! (like within 1-3 days from now on) If I feel I would like to respond later, I will let you know and approx. what time or we can move onto another topic. Again, sorry about this! – Mat (P.s. I’m sure there are some spelling, grammar, and semantic errors in all this.. I don’t care to proof-read though… this is just conversation for the most part! So if you are confused on anything, let me know.) Thanks for the response, even though delayed (as is my response to your response!). I’ve not got much time (writing term papers), but I want to recommend a book to you about industrial capitalist economics. It is my feeling and understanding that human beings are not the only makers or possessors of value and meaning on this planet. We are one species in a vast community of life, but our dominant economic ideology obscures this (along with many other things). I’m familiar with Rand’s economic philosophy mostly because her (or a nearly equivalent version) “free market” ideology is taught in American schools as the only natural way. I’m wondering if you’ve read any of Marx’s work? The book I want to recommend takes a Marxist perspective, but expands it in light of ecological concerns and the 2nd law of thermodynamics. I promise it will make you see the world from a different perspective, at least if you give the arguments an open-minded chance. The book is called “The Power of the Machine: Global Inequities of Economy, Technology, and Environment” by Alf Hornborg. I will definitely check it out for the weekend. It’s funny you messaged me today as I was driving this morning on my way to McDonald’s I had a flashback, after seeing a golden retriever dog, of when I was very young (maybe 4 or 5) I questioned the nature of animal consciousness.. I was told they had no soul and had limited memory. I tried to imagine what that would be like.. unable to have words or concepts or thinking in terms of prepositions (on, off, through, against, et. al. .. all in relation to space.. as if there was some sort of “space” “in” the mind… whereas the mind is not physical and is not the brain.. it is just a process) I don’t know how accurate that is though that all animals are only instinctual and largely unconscious. In regards to government though, it would be incompatible to our existence (since we are the ‘rational animal’) to try and provide protection of rights to animals and other species.. as you cannot negotiate with them. We have incompatible interfaces beyond voluntary adoption to take them as our ‘pets’ or to the zoo. Last night, too, I thought as I fell asleep on how the fact is that I perceive the entire world as me and other people… ignoring all other forms of life and the source of it. I suppose it’s easy to unconsciously fall into that belief as we have intertwined so tightly into our transference of communal thought.. just because the rest of the world isn’t thinking (i.e. other life-forms), doesn’t mean they are (i.e. exist)… It’s easy to think that man is the center of the universe.. just as they thought the earth was the center a long time ago. This is largely a good thing though.. as it gives us Identity. It can also be a bad thing, too, when we have the wrong identity and self-destroy. Do not confuse “capitalism” with “free market” and economics. Capitalism is often defined as when resources, values, money, energy, etc.. is privately operated. That definition is only a surface definition.. a result of the actual moral principle. Capitalism, in the sense of Ayn Rand’s philosophy, is a political treaty across all individuals (conceptual beings only.. that can understand and abide within a written set of laws and think and act for themselves) that each individual is an end-in-himself and has a right to their life and property (as naturally claimed from the environment (read John Locke)). It is very anthropocentric or man-centered. But if we are to blindly start extolling the sacredness and divinity of the environment AND that it must be left untouched and protected at all costs to not be disturbed from its ‘pristine’ and intrinsic state of nature.. that consequently turns us into a self-sacrificial animal as reality has already dictated that we need to exploit the environment in order to survive. We have physical bodies and they need energy like any sort of machine in order to produce our very existence. Just because we live comfortably now in industrialized nations and not always in a constant, direct threat of our survival.. doesn’t mean that we must redirect that energy back into the very ground in order to ‘save’ nature and all the species. We are at no fault that reality made us to eat and exploit other beings and forms of life. We cannot control that. We have governments only because our most dangerous enemy is each other.. not other species as they aren’t so sly, clever, and conceptual. I will take a look at this book though! I read almost all of Communist Manifesto.. “It is my feeling and understanding that human beings are not the only makers or possessors of value and meaning on this planet.” Yes, qua other beings can consciously appoint value and meaning.. we don’t have the same ‘interfaces’ in order to share those values. They are irrelevant in large part. I would need to give specific examples: E.g. A basic organism gives immediate value to acquiring energy or food. If a human had ONLY this process.. she could not survive if an alternate condition came by and she needed to protect itself to avoid death. Now, exponentiate the countless possible situations that can arise from a simple goal such as acquiring something of value… such as food. No other organism was ever to come up with the idea of a ‘constitution’ or even a ‘farm’ in order to preserve their life beyond the immediate moment. We have different interfaces and are incompatible with sharing and/or respecting other beings’ values.. qua they can attribute values. (which I believe some animals can.. but most species.. like a ladybug… I don’t know…) The philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead has helped me conceive of how animals are thinking and conceptualizing beings despite the fact that they do not speak. Whitehead writes (in “Process and Reality”) that propositional thought does not require language. Dogs, for example, DO think spatially about object relations. Otherwise they would not be able to catch a frisbee. The pervasive Cartesianism that separates mind from body in our modern culture prevents us from understanding how bodily motility (human or not) is already a form of cognitive articulation. Language is simply a further development of the silent propositional logic of the body; it allows us to reflect upon our own meanings, to reframe situations and so define more appropriate and complex behaviors in a way not accessible to non-speaking animals. Obviously, as you go backwards down the chain of complexity, organisms become less conscious and more instinctual. But there is no sharp line separating humans from animals. Dogs are conscious, in my opinion. Insects are not, though certainly they are still experientially-aware in some limited sense (not blind machines or mere automatons). We like to think of ourselves as the rational animal, but I think this is largely a future aspiration and not a current reality. Our current global socio-economic situation is about as inefficient and irrational, not to mention morally egregious, as I could imagine. Inefficient because it (industrialism) is thermodynamically unsustainable, morally egregious because it (capitalism) is feeding off the poor periphery (global South) to accumulate wealth and resources at the industrialized, “developed” centers/cities (in the West). One of the things Hornborg discusses at length in his book is how money/wealth is never “created,” but is rather part of a zero-sum game in which any gain for one party comes at the loss of another. Capitalism is inherently exploitative and based in unjust social relations. Money is fetishized (as Marx recognized) and obscures inequitable personal relations by raising a veil of abstract exchange value between us. We think some invisible hand, or intrinsic goodness of “the market” maintains fairness, but this is just ideological medicine for a deeply rooted psychological sickness alienating us from one another and the earth which birthed and sustains us. Human beings and their economy do not produce anything but new symbolic/cultural relations–the only true producer is the Sun, or perhaps plant life, which converts light into food and air for the rest of the biosphere to eat and breath. Until we recognize that ecological relations trump any contrived “economic law,” we will continue to pillage the planet and exploit the labor and resources of “undeveloped” people. The logic of capitalism requires that there be a class of poor people and cheap resources to be exploited by a class of rich owners. We will never live in a just and equitable world until we totally re-think our economic relations. Another thing that needs critiquing (in my humble opinion) is the Anglo-American (since at least Locke) tendency to abstract the “individual” from the society/culture in which they are embedded. Individuality does not come before society. Everything you as an individual know and do is provided for you by a cultural matrix of relations. Your “individual rights” arise from and are protected by “collective responsibilities.” Your identity is at least partially constructed by those you interact with on a day to day basis, as well as by the language you happened to be born into. Don’t get me wrong, individuality is a wonderful thing. But it is not an end-in-itself. We cherish individuality because of the expression it affords us, and expression is a communal value. We individualize because we want to share our authentic selves with everyone else. Autonomy is always in communion. Great point on the dog.. how could it calculate the proper steps to catch a frisbee? I was actually thinking of the dog when writing that there is evidence that it does have a ‘ghost’ in its ‘shell’. “We like to think of ourselves as the rational animal, but I think this is largely a future aspiration and not a current reality.” Yes, the unique part of of being rational does imply volition. And each person must choose out of their own volition to operate through reason (i.e. concept formulating and hypothesizing and testing). It seems the average person, though, lives in ignorance and happily lives passively never pondering on philosophy and just hoping good luck or fate will continue to provide them of their wants and needs. They don’t care about history, or what makes things works. “Inefficient because it (industrialism) is thermodynamically unsustainable” What is your definition of, “industrialism”? And I hope it’s not something to do with factories or cars.. that is technology. (including the waste it may produce. All organisms produce waste of some sort. Humans just happen to have ugly smoke come out of their cars. But cows fart grass and deteriorate the ozone.. or so I’ve heard!) “morally egregious because it (capitalism) is feeding off the poor periphery (global South) to accumulate wealth and resources at the industrialized, “developed” centers/cities (in the West).” Capitalism doesn’t do anything. Capitalism doesn’t even exist. It is only a word to describe the interpersonal interactions among people as traders (not just monetary trade either.. but any sort of relationship where each party has the intent to make a mutual-benefit that will further enhance and/or sustain his life.. including love, conversation, etc…). So, if we break it down: I take what you’re saying as, ‘It is morally egregious to use one’s mind and live as a human being through free, rational thought and trade amongst one’s self and others.’ You must be more specific. Who is committing a crime against whom? In a politics that recognizes and upholds the individual.. it is only the individual that is prosecuted and not his neighbor that had no part in it. “Money is fetishized (as Marx recognized) and obscures inequitable personal relations by raising a veil of abstract exchange value between us.” Money is a unit of credit remunerated to a person for his contribution to a society’s economy and livlihood. We cannot eliminate money and say, “You scratch my back, and I’ll scracth yours.” If we relied on that bromide.. it may be that simple in certain cases but it’s just like arithmetic v.s. algebra. We can deal with simple, direct addition and multiplication of known, simple numbers but when several other ‘factors’ (pun intended.. think polynomials 😉 comes into play and exponents and unknown exponents, etc…. No one can control what is beyond their mind’s direct, perceptual capacity so we must resort to “abstract exchange value between us” because properly-formed concepts are valid pointers of what exists in actual reality. It all has to do with ‘unit-economy’ or what Ayn Rand called, “crow epistemology”. “We think some invisible hand, or intrinsic goodness of “the market” maintains fairness, but this is just ideological medicine for a deeply rooted psychological sickness alienating us from one another and the earth which birthed and sustains us.” That “invisible hand” is your mind’s [volitional] power of abstract reasoning and ability to form concepts. You cannot know everything.. no one can know ‘everything’ (at least directly/perceptually ;). The market does maintain fairness as long as a gun (or any form of force or fraud) is NOT involved to acquire value. We are far from that though and politicians are currently trying to take over the medical industry in America. The Earth, as a planet, is an unconscious piece of rock (if I may be so crude ;). The sun has no consciousness either. It is true that they have given us our existence, but they are not dieties and did not volitionally intend to create us. We cannot ‘thank’ them. “Human beings and their economy do not produce anything but new symbolic/cultural relations–the only true producer is the Sun, or perhaps plant life, which converts light into food and air for the rest of the biosphere to eat and breath.” Yes, but aren’t those “symbolic/cultural” (and material formations, too! 😉 wonderful and grand!? And like I said, the Sun has no volition and is not some kind of diety. It is not a producer.. it’s just a great resource that happened to be put in the right spot. ;P (Some people like to get nice tans, too, with it. Others think about how they’ll make a solar panel out of it to power their entire city. But we don’t give it thanks or money.. it demands none.) “Until we recognize that ecological relations trump any contrived “economic law,” we will continue to pillage the planet and exploit the labor and resources of “undeveloped” people.” These “underdeveloped people” are humans, right?? Or are you referring to plants and bugs? There are no “underdeveloped” humans (unless the person has down-syndrome or similar.. then you’re missing a chromosome or whatever and really missing out on major qualities of life). There is really only irrational cultures that have psycho dictators or politicians leading them.(actually.. ‘forcing’ would be a better word) “The logic of capitalism requires that there be a class of poor people and cheap resources to be exploited by a class of rich owners.” I hear that argument all the time. It always lacks the context of volition and current reality. The latter, reality, argument: The poorest people in America today, are farrrr richer than some of the richest kings and tribesmen in history… Those bossy monarchs sure as hell didn’t have internet, tv, heating and air, running water, grocery stores, sugary goods, microwave and fast foods, etc. etc. etc.. even a couple hundred years ago!) And volition: Success is not an accident. Anyone that is willing and determined to, can become rich beyond what they dreamed possible. It doesn’t mean everyone will make several hundred million dollars.. but pretty much anyone willing to refine their studies, work, and discoveries and maintain it.. will do something tremendous (or even small!) that will reward them justly. But when politicians start pointing the guns for pursuing one’s own interests.. that’s when jobs and poverty start pouring down. “We will never live in a just and equitable world until we totally re-think our economic relations. ” I absolutely agree! (just not in the same way you do 😉 Alright, this will probably be my last letter for the night. Write me a short reply on whether or not you still disagree and if I cleared up anything or confused you… I still have yet to respond to your last paragraph. I will do so tomorrow but I do agree that identity and autonomy is largely inherited and “is provided for you by a cultural matrix of relations.” I think that statement is written eloquently! (namely, “cultural matrix of relations”) Btw, I think we could get away with some animal rights. I think it’s absolutely horrific when these weirdos scrape fur off of living* animals and leave them in pure agony… I also don’t like when people allow their dogs to get in dog fights and bet on the dogs…. Well, I wouldn’t want to say the dog “calculates” the proper steps to catch the frisbee, as if it projected a Cartesian grid onto the world in order to decipher its coordinates and direction. Rather, the dog’s knowledge of the frisbee’s spatio-temporal arc is implicit and embodied: a “know-how” rather than a “know-what.” It is much the same for you and I when we, say, encounter a flight of stairs. We don’t need to logically analyze each movement of our legs in advance in order to walk up the steps; instead, our legs do the “thinking” for us in real time. I should point out that even this formulation (“our legs do our thinking for us”) seems to suggest a dualism between “you” and “your” legs, as if there were some metaphysical chasm separating one from the other. It is more ontologically honest to say “I am a body” than “I have a body,” for who is this “I” apart from the body-as-lived? You are the active attunement of your body to others and the world. Your volition is a function of your biological constitution: animation-from-within, will, purpose, etc. are not exclusively human possessions. Rather, they are part and parcel of being alive. Every organism is in this sense ensouled. Even the biosphere as a whole constitutes a living system with its own intrinsic telos. In fact, human purposes are best described as derivative of the primary directionality of the cosmos at large (which are diverse, ranging from creativity to cataclysm). The human being is quite unique, I wouldn’t want to deny that. We are the leading edge of a 13.7 billion year cosmogenesis, leading because we are the first species, not only to know (to be self-conscious) in the general sense, but specifically to know transcendent love. Ironically, self-consciousness is only possible if we have internalized otherness. Internalizing otherness is synonymous with loving another selflessly, giving oneself to an other for the sake of something greater than either of you as individuals. All this is directly precisely against the Randian ethos of enlightened selfishness. To my mind (as they say), such a doctrine ignores the discoveries of modern depth psychology (Nietzsche, Freud, Adler, Jung, Lacan, Hillman, Tarnas, Rozak…) concerning the various reasons and ways in which the ego is not the master of its house (the psyche). The notion of acting out of rational self-interest is a tautological platitude. It’s meaning is always self-referentially defined, and so the ego can perpetually convince itself that it is in control, even if in actual fact its life remains largely unpredictable and mysterious. The philosophical or reflective life is not the norm, not by any stretch of the imagination. It involves what I mentioned above, an incorporation of what initially appears foreign or other (in the case of philosophy, this is Wisdom/Sophia) by way of loving cognition. Philosophy is quite literally the love of wisdom. Industrialism is the use of machines (both technological and social) to transfer extropy (negentropy) from the global periphery to “developed” centers of capital accumulation. In the process of thus transferring highly ordered energy and materials (i.e., extropy) from resource rich localities to technologically sophisticated cities, industrial machines produce tremendous amounts of entropy (waste, pollution, etc.). The net gain in “productivity” and “profit” for those at the center is at the expense of the ecosystems, peoples, and cultures surrounding them (for example, the US imports Ecuadorian oil in exchange for the exported weapons their government needs to secure the resource from rebellious peasants). Economics is a zero-sum game. There is no growth in one sector without the destruction of another. This is the main lesson we learn by applying thermodynamics to the global marketplace. All organisms produce waste, it is true. But unlike global industrial capitalism (GIC), nature reproduces itself differentially, in myriads of forms and niches. This provides for long-term stability (evolutionary stability, no doubt… stability is here defined not as static conservation, but as the continuous movement toward diversity and mutuality). GIC reproduces homogenously, turning the whole planet into English speaking, McDonalds eating consumers because it is built atop a logic of general-purpose money whose value is so abstract that it can substitute for almost any cultural meaning. Hence the rapid commodification of EVERYTHING, from food to friendship, so typical of the waning years of the industrial system. Marx was right about at least one thing: capitalism is invincible to outside ideologies, but inevitably tends toward its own self-destruction (because of ecological inefficiency leading to biospheric crisis and moral egregiousness leading to class revolt). I have nothing against mutually-enhancing relationships between people. In fact, I think they are our only hope! I’m arguing that GIC requires a general-purpose monetary system, and that such a system necessarily trends toward the commodification of all facets of life. If you define capitalism differently, that’s fine. But as I (and the economists I have read) use the word, it means a specific social arrangement predicated upon the use of abstract, general-purpose money not tied to any concrete social or material reality other than what neoclassical economists call “use value.” The result is alienation from oneself and one another, as the only valid way of relating to the world becomes instrumentalism (i.e., how am I to best use other people and nature to get what I want?). We do have perceptual capacities limiting our interaction with others and the world, but such limits are also possible gateways. Relating to others (and even ourselves) via abstract use-value closes the door to the many other ways of being-towards-others and being-in-the-world. We should be careful not to naturalize the ideology implicit in GIC, that which turns the human subject into a disembedded consumer. The earth is best seen as a dynamic whole, but for the purposes of analytical understanding we can divide it into a core with several spheres. The core is (to the best of our scientific knowledge) liquid iron. It is spinning rather quickly and produces an electromagnetic field that protects the earth from solar radiation. Without the electromagnetic membrane produce by the activity of the core, life would not be possible on the surface. The lithosphere could be described as rock, but it is not of a single piece but 12 major plates. I don’t need to bore you with a lesson on plate tectonics, I’m sure you’re familiar. It suffices to say that the movement of these plates represents a sort of self-healing wound. The lithosphere is constantly remaking itself, keeping its surface fresh. The process occurs at speeds so slow relative to human life that it is no wonder we have trouble recognizing it for what it is. The biosphere is the thin film of organic life surviving between lithosphere and atmosphere, an atmosphere whose composition the biosphere created and maintains. The noosphere is hard to describe exactly (because it provides the very possibility of description), but most certainly includes the conceptual meaning you and I are exchanging here as language-speaking humans. All of these spheres of activity unite to birth a single living earth. The sun, of course, is the source of it all. We are basically inside the sun, surrounded on all sides by its heliosphere. Its multi-billion year process of dying supplies earth with the energy it needs to live. Perhaps you do not feel a sense of awe and reverence for these heavenly bodies. I can’t help it. Even if I understand rationally/scientifically how it all works, the mystery as to why it should be at all leaves me spellbound and mystified. The only authentic reaction I can muster is of a spiritual sort. Sorry I have written so much, but I wonder if you’d mind if I posted our conversation on my blog? It is too interesting and poignant not to share! Actually, I was planning on publishing this elsewhere later on and asking you that… (why rewrite the same stuff over and over.. and why have to re-await another opportunity to express and consolidate ideas??) But not as soon you probably will. I give you explicit permission to post whatever and ALL of what I e-mail you unless I explicitly note otherwise. I will definitely say you did get very close to the source of your beliefs. I.e. I now understand much more your underlying cognitions and beliefs. I will respond more tomorrow or this weekend. (including that last paragraph of your last e-mail) For now, I want to make one comment: If the entire world was ‘Americanized’.. i.e. industrialized and materialized and everyone was motivated to find work, keep moving, and motivated to have material wealth.. we would not have such poverty and exploitation that exists all elsewhere in the world. And there would not be soo much of a gap of ‘socio-economic classes’. For instance, 15%-18% of the world’s wealth (possibly a bit more.. I can show you how I figured this out if you are interested.. just a quick calculation) are from people that are millionaires and above! The global GDP per capita is $8,100 (directly from Wikipedia 😉 ). While $8,100 per person is pretty damn good…. I’m sure hundreds of million make only a few hundred a year at most. Is this because they are so worthless? I think not. It’s because their oppressive nation that they have no choice but to stand around idly wondering what to do with themselves. Also they were not born into a culture like you or I where there are so many ideas and fields to explore. Many have no concept of individual liberty like the wackos in North Korea… Many of them love their leader despite what a bastard and psycho he is! And you totally refuted me (which I was prepared for as hinted in last letter) that the Earth is far more than a ‘rock’! I would have to agree. Also, it is quite bizarre that how old and BIG this universe is most of us still seem to think we are the center. And how many thousands of galaxies exist without any evidence of sentience or consciousness beyond Earth. Look forward to your longer response. I’ll just say, in response to: “If the entire world was ‘Americanized’…” that most estimates suggest we would need 5 earths to provide the resources necessary for everyone (all 7 billion) to have an American lifestyle. Regardless, I think the very logic of industrial capitalism is such that a majority of earth and humanity must be exploited in order to sustain the continual enrichment of a few. There simply would not and could not be “development” and material prosperity in the Western nations without systematic destruction of land and people elsewhere (South America, Africa, Asia). Again, economics is a zero-sum game, no matter the ideologically-driven rhetoric about economic “growth.” No energy can be created or destroyed, and all dissipative structures (whether organic or techno-industrial) survive by importing extropy and exporting entropy. The difference between natural organisms and the techno-industrial machine is like that between healthy cells and cancer. Organisms generally do not destroy their own habitats/biomes. The techno-industrial machine, on the other hand, is the most efficient destroyer of ecosystems ever to grace the presence of our planet. BTW, from Wikipedia: “A study by the World Institute for Development Economics Research at United Nations University reports that the richest 1% of adults alone owned 40% of global assets in the year 2000, and that the richest 10% of adults accounted for 85% of the world total. The bottom half of the world adult population owned barely 1% of global wealth.” Wealth redistribution from the poor to the super-rich is the primary symptom of global industrial capitalism.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6149
__label__wiki	0.777655	0.777655	Other Health News and Research Gut microbes influence behavior Thread starter JPV JPV ɹǝqɯǝɯ ɹoıuǝs Your are what you eat... By Katherine Bagley Mice lacking normal gut bacteria show differences in brain development and behavior [Published 31st January 2011 08:00 PM GMT] Gut microbes acquired early in life can impact brain development in mice and subsequent behavior, such as decreasing physical activity and increasing anxiety, according to a study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Image: Wikimedia commons, Polarqueen "This paper opens the door to new studies in at least two directions," Yale University microbiologist Andrew Goodman, who was not involved in the research, told The Scientist in an email. "First, determining how differences between complete host-associated microbial communities lead to differences in behavior, and second, exploring the contributions of microbes during specific developmental periods in the host." Gut microbiota often colonize their hosts early in life, either during pregnancy or following birth, and play an integral role in the health of developing organisms. Previous research has shown that the bacteria affect the development of liver function, the protection epithelial cells afford underlying digestive tissue, gut regulation and the growth of new capillary blood vessels. But this is the first time gut flora have been linked to brain development and behavior. Harmful microbial infections, on the other hand, have been linked to neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism and schizophrenia. And rodents infected by microbial pathogens before and after birth demonstrated behavioral abnormalities, such as anxiety-like behavior and impaired cognitive function, leading Rochellys Diaz Heijtz, a neurobiologist at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, and her colleagues to wonder if the gut's normal microbial residents may similarly influence brain development. The researchers tested exploratory activity in germ-free mice and mice with normal gut microbiota by tracking their movements across open space. They also tested anxiety of the two groups in two classic rodent behavioral tests -- the light-dark box and the elevated maze. Spending more time in lit areas and along unwalled, elevated maze portions equated to less anxiety. Germ-free mice appeared to be more exploratory than mice with normal microbiota, venturing farther and to more areas of the space provided. Germ-free mice also spent more time in the light and engaged in riskier behavior in the maze, indicating they suffered from less anxiety than their microbe-filled counterparts. The team then infected germ-free mice with normal gut microbiota when they were born to test whether the gut flora could alter the mice's activity and anxiety levels. Sure enough, the newly infected mice spent less time exploring and engaging in risky behavior, like the normal mice in the initial experiments. The results further supported the argument that the microorganisms can affect brain and behavior when introduced early enough in development. "These microorganisms communicate in a systemic fashion to the developmental programming of a new individual and can influence fundamental aspects of behavior," said Diaz Heijtz. "We should start to consider the possibility that the microbiome and/or its composition may contribute to psychiatric problems." Looking more closely at the gut flora's effects on the brain, the researchers found that germ-free mice had lower turnover rates of certain neurotransmitters in the striatum, the part of the brain involved in the regulation of motor and cognitive function, than in mice with normal gut microbiota. There were also differences in the levels of key synaptic-related proteins and signaling molecules involved in central nervous system communication. "This all means that there has been an evolutionary adaption of host-microbe interactions to the most complex organ in the body, the brain," said coauthor Sven Pettersson, a neuro- and microbiologist at the Karolinska Institute. The scientists stress that there are still many unanswered questions and further research is needed to understand the broad implications of the research. For example, the study didn't distinguish the effects of maternally inherited microbes from those acquired shortly after birth, Goodman noted. "It is also not clear whether microbes residing in other body habitats are playing a role," he said, such as those located in the nose, ears, mouth or vagina. Next up, Diaz Heijtz and her colleagues are hoping to pinpoint which gut microbiota are affecting brain development and behavior. They also plan to identify which brain cells are responding, and work out the details of the signaling pathways that allow the microbiota to communicate with the brain. "The intestinal microbiota influences so many aspects of our biology like metabolism and immune function," Justin Sonnenburg, a microbiologist at Stanford University School of Medicine who did not participate in the study, said in an email. "We should not find these results startling, but rather a nice addition to a small but growing body of literature that connect our intestinal microbiota to neurobiology." R. Diaz Heijtz, et al., "Normal gut microbiota modulates brain development and behavior," PNAS, doi/10.1073/pnas.1010529108, 2011. There is another thread on this topic here: http://forums.aboutmecfs.org/showthread.php?9836-Gut-bacteria-affect-mind It's interesting that germ-free mice live longer than their counterparts with normal gut flora.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6150
__label__cc	0.542612	0.457388	Race office Team Hospitality Competitions courses Media shuttle bus HOME COMBINATA NORDICA 15-16-17 January 2021 VIESSMANN FIS NORDIC COMBINED WORLD CUP THREE DAYS OF GREAT SHOW IN PREDAZZO AND LAGO DI TESERO It’s just a matter of hours. In Val di Fiemme (ITA) the curtain came down on the Tour de Ski and will soon be raised on the Viessmann FIS Nordic Combined World Cup with three events that will be staged from Friday, 15 to Sunday, 17 January. The Provisional Competition Round is scheduled to be held on Thursday at 7 p.m. On Friday the Nordic Combined athletes will compete in an Individual Gundersen, with ski jump on the normal hill/HS 104 in Predazzo (10 a.m.) and 10km cross-country skiing in Lago di Tesero (1.45 p.m.). On Saturday there will be the Team Sprint (in Predazzo at 10 a.m. and in Lago di Tesero at 1.30 p.m.), while on Sunday the athletes will take part in the second Individual Gundersen held in Val di Fiemme (ski jump at 10 a.m. and cross-country skiing at 2.15 p.m.). This year even the Nordic Combined World Cup is facing a very particular season, with only two World Cup stages held so far and some competitions cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Val di Fiemme will be the third stop on the FIS Nordic Combined World Cup tour after the races held in Ruka (FIN) and Ramsau (AUT) in late November and mid-December respectively. Everyone is eagerly awaiting the races in Val di Fiemme, also because of the fight for the top spots in the World Cup standings. In fact, the young Austrian Johannes Lamparter currently sits in second place (265 points) between the usual protagonists, the Norwegian Jarl Magnus Riiber – who is leading with 360 points – and the German Vinzenz Geiger (third with 251 points). Riiber and Geiger delivered great performances last season in Val di Fiemme, and are definitely determined to repeat their feats this weekend. It will be interesting to see how Lamparter will do – last year he finished 14th and 16th. For this weekend’s races, Federico Rigoni, technical director of the Italian team, called up the following athletes: Alessandro Pittin, Samuel Costa, Aaron Kostner, Raffale Buzzi, Giulio Bezzi, Domenico Mariotti and Stefano Radovan; the latter two will make their World Cup debut this weekend. Pittin finished 15th and 23rd in Ramsau, while Costa had some good results in Ruka (13th and 16th) and Kostner finished 19th and 30th, again in Ruka. “I feel I’m in pretty good shape,” said Alessandro Pittin (Gruppi Sportivi Fiamme Gialle). “We haven’t been competing since the race in Ramsau, though. It’s hard, of course. It’s almost like going back to square one, like in the first World Cup races. We need to get back competing to understand how fit and competitive we are. We went to two short training camps, one in Seefeld between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, and a more recent one in Oberstdorf. We jumped well in good weather conditions from the state-of-the-art ski jumping hills, we hope this bodes well for our races in Val di Fiemme”. “There’s a good mutual understanding between the coaches and the athletes and I think that’s very important,” commented Federico Rigoni. “As for cross-country skiing, we don’t have anything to envy our competitors, as we showed in the past years. Regarding ski jumping, our coaches and athletes are working hard. We know there’s still a lot to do and it’s not easy. The bar has been set very high. Danny Winkelmann, the newly appointed World Cup team head coach, has been helping us and giving us excellent advice thanks to his expertise and know-how. There’s no magic wand, but everyone wants to grow up and improve and I hope this will be rewarded with success, if not in the short term, at least in the medium term”. The FIS Nordic Combined World Cup is another major commitment for the Fiemme Ski World Cup organising committee: “After the Tour de Ski long weekend and another good test for our volunteers, we are now facing the three Nordic combined competitions with great enthusiasm,” stated the organising committee president Bruno Felicetti. “We comply with all the requirements set out by the International Ski Federation. The races in Predazzo and Lago di Tesero are going to be spectacular, even if behind closed doors, unfortunately. Ski and sports enthusiast will be able to watch them on TV thanks to Rai and Eurosport, which will devote significant airtime to the event. Again, without the support of volunteers, local administrations and the Province, as well as of course FISI and FIS, it would be impossible to organise major events in succession. For us, this is another step towards the 2026 Olympics”. © Newspower.it VAL DI FIEMME AND RIIBER, LOVE CONTINUES THE NORWEGIAN WINS DRAMATIC SPRINT, PITTIN 5TH GERMANY WIN VAL DI FIEMME TEAM SPRINT FRENZEL-RIESSLE AHEAD OF AUSTRIA AND FINLAND RIIBER WINS THE FIRST GUNDERSEN IN VAL DI FIEMME HEROLA AND GEIGER COMPLETE THE PODIUM VAL DI FIEMME ON FIRE FOR THE NORDIC COMBINED WORLD CUP COMPETITIONS IN PREDAZZO AND LAGO DI TESERO FIS NORDIC COMBINED WORLD CUP RESUMES IN VAL DI FIEMME COMPETITIONS TO TAKE PLACE IN PREDAZZO AND LAGO DI TESERO Fiemme Partners & Sponsors @FIEMMEWORLDCUP NORDIC SKI WM VAL DI FIEMME 2003 srl \| VIA REGOLANI, 6 - 38033 CAVALESE (TN) ITALY \| T. +39 0462 352013 \| INFO@FIEMMEWORLDCUP.COM \| VAT 01696990223 \| all rights reserved. Impressum \| Powered by	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6153
__label__wiki	0.927025	0.927025	The Amazing Spider-Man to miss box office target? By FIN Staff / 8 July 2012 The Amazing Spider-Man underperforms The Amazing Spider-Man has earned $95.7 million so far but its fortunes are behind previous Spider-Man movies in terms of box office revenue. With the three-day weekend gross still to be announced it looks like the film will approach the $140 million mark as Sony has forecasted over $60 million for the weekend. With glowing reviews, The Amazing Spider-Man has real potential to reboot the franchise and appease fans with a strong story, but with a less than stellar opening, questions may be raised as to whether two more movies are viable. Despite estimates of $140 million for a six-day total, the original Spider-Man movies were able to get over $125 million after just four days. The cost of producing and marketing The Amazing Spider-man is estimated at around $220 million. Will Sony be able to capitalize on good reviews? Let’s wait for the final numbers. Film Questions What's the best way to get in contact with a star? How should I go about contacting agencies for representation?	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6154
__label__cc	0.566351	0.433649	Category Archives: featured posts wallace film premiere I helped make a documentary called Wallace, and it just made its world premiere at the Sun Valley Film Festival. Now, we’re bringing the short film back to its hometown on the last Friday & Saturday of April. Where: The Sixth Street Melodrama & Theater in Wallace, Idaho Dates and Times: April 26th and 27th, with showings at 6:30 and 7:30 pm We encourage donations to the Melodrama, so please bring some cash with you. Tickets are now only available at the door, on a first-come-first-served basis only. If you reserved tickets already and haven’t picked them up yet, your tickets will be available at the Melodrama. I will be there, too, so just ask for me if you run into any problems! Here’s some press and photos… Channel 3 News Story: Shoshone News Press story: https://www.shoshonenewspress.com/local_news/20190420/wallace_gets_the_spotlight_in_new_documentary?fbclid=IwAR3N_lTyyhTmlovhWtsk35_49mi7mcRk2eEzb2UUv9JLzqVKEeZs6Ufr5Ag This entry was posted in events, featured posts, overview, press, updates on March 24, 2019 by Heather Branstetter. independent bookstore day! Quick update for you–I’ll be at the Well-Read Moose in Coeur d’Alene this Saturday, April 28 at 6:00 PM for an Independent Bookstore Day author event. Come say hi! And mark your calendar for Wednesday, June 13. I’ll be doing an author event starting at 11:45 am in Spokane Valley. More details on that to follow soon… This entry was posted in featured posts on April 26, 2018 by Heather Branstetter. nostalgia feature and readings In case you missed it, my research was featured in a recent Nostalgia video! Thought I would share it again below… If you want to learn more, come to my book talk with photos at BookPeople in Moscow, 7:00 pm, Thursday, March 8. Nostalgia Presents: “Chuck King’s Guide to Spokane History” Episode 4: “Selling Sex in the Silver Valley” On Episode 4 of the King’s Guide, Chuck King introduces you to Dr. Heather Branstetter, author of the fascinating book, “Selling Sex in the Silver Valley: A Business Doing Pleasure.” What does it mean when a community agrees that “you don’t have to obey the laws, but you do have to follow the rules?” Heather’s book gives readers an idea of who the women of Wallace, Idaho were and what they contributed to their community’s identity and fortune during a century of mining, hard drinking, illegal gambling, and yes, prostitution. Read her article on her book, published in Nostalgia Magazine, online here. If you enjoy the King’s Guide, consider having a living, breathing letter carrier bring a new printed copy of Nostalgia Magazine to your mailbox every two months. Subscribe online here: http://www.nostalgiamagazine.net/subscribe-or-renew/ http://www.nostalgiamagazine.net/2018/01/20/nostalgia-presents-chuck-kings-guide-to-spokane-history-episode-4-selling-sex-in-the-silver-valley/ This entry was posted in events, featured posts, updates and tagged events, Nostalgia, reviews on February 6, 2018 by Heather Branstetter. race and the houses Were there ever any women of color who worked there [in the brothels]? You know, for guys who wanted someone a little more, you know, like, ‘exotic’ or ‘spicy?’ Kayla, the events coordinator for Auntie’s Bookstore in Spokane, asked me this question after my reading last week. She trailed off toward the end of her question, explaining that she was unsure how to ask about it and didn’t really know whether or not to ask about it at all. She worried it might make me uncomfortable, which is why she waited until after the event was over and I was just signing books for the store’s stock. Kayla added: As a black woman, I often find myself wondering about race at these kind of events, especially when it’s about history. Especially because this area is pretty white. Before answering her question, I admitted that I felt like I didn’t address the topic adequately in the book. I wasn’t sure how to fit in some of what I had learned, in part because I was ashamed of it. (Especially the part that Possie discusses in the oral history I include later in this post.) After the weekend’s racially-motivated violence in Charlottesville, however, it occurs to me that Kayla’s question was timely and others might be curious about it as well. So I thought I might talk about race and Wallace’s whorehouses in this post. There were definitely women of color who worked in the houses all the way through the history of sex work in Wallace. In the book’s first chapter, I wrote about race in the early days of the mining camp. Here’s what appears on pages 37 and 38 (with brackets indicating sources that I footnoted in the book): Newspapers reported several black women who were madams or sex workers as well. Even though race relations in the area were intolerant, African American women in Wallace lived in red-light districts, where they often operated laundry facilities and sometimes worked as sex workers as well, [Cynthia] Powell explained [in her thesis, “Beyond Molly B’Damn: Prostitution in the Coeur d’Alenes, 1880-1911”], adding that “there existed an indisputable demand for black prostitutes during the labor war of 1899, when a black regiment was brought in to quell labor tensions.” According to [Richard] Magnuson, the government chose black soldiers in particular because they were seen as less likely to befriend or sympathize with the miners. Like the white women, black sex workers appeared in the paper most often because of violence or crime. [According to Powell’s research,] Ella Tolson, “who lived over the Troy Laundry in Wallace’s Pine Street sector,” was reported to have shot Howard B. Johnson, who was “described as ‘the most widely known colored man in Wallace.’” Irene Thornton owned a laundry business and the land it occupied in Wardner before moving to Wallace, where she was arrested for “conducting a disorderly house.” [footnoted reference: Idaho Press, March 18, 1905] On March 25, 1893, the Coeur d’Alene Miner reported that “‘a colored woman who live[d] on the opposite side of the street,’ from the disreputable Montana Saloon, witnessed a brutal beating. Her vantage point, according to the newspaper’s description of her Wallace location, was an ‘Avenue A’ crib.” In the Silver Valley, black men and women seem to have inhabited roles that were relegated to Chinese immigrants in other western mining communities. Here’s the context for Magnuson’s comment about the black labor regiment: The town used to have blacks, but after the labor wars there was a stigma against them working underground. The black soldiers hadn’t been trained for the Spanish-American War, so that was why they came to Wallace. Also, they had less likelihood of fraternizing with the families and getting close to the prisoners in the bullpen. For a while Hank Day had a black maid in his household, but she left after a few years because she didn’t really find anyone to be friends with. (You can read more about black regiments and/or so-called “Buffalo Soldiers” elsewhere, but I’m sorry to say I’m not the person to ask for recommendations on that topic. I’ve heard good things about John Langellier’s book, Fighting for Uncle Sam: Buffalo Soldiers in the Frontier Army, but I’ve not read it.) And here’s the context for the last sentence in the book excerpt I quoted above, about black men and women inhabiting roles relegated to Chinese immigrants in other mining communities: Unlike most mining camps, there was not really a significant presence of Chinese men and women in the early days of the Coeur d’Alene district. Patricia Hart and Ivar Nelson’s book Mining Camp talks a bit about this, but there are other published sources that reiterate this point. The few Chinese miners who braved this area faced deadly racism. I remember seeing signs for the “Silver Terror” mining claim when I was younger, and they chilled me because of the story my dad told me about their origin. Apparently the mining claim was so named because white miners stole it and hung the Chinese miners who’d discovered it. And that is why Terror Gulch is named Terror Gulch, according to the story. There is physical evidence that women of color worked in the houses throughout Wallace’s history, however. In the Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office records, which document the women who worked in the houses from 1952-1973, there are pictures of women who look African-American, Asian, and Latina or Hispanic, even though their records don’t list their race as such. This woman’s race was listed as “white.” Other women in the Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office files were described as “red” (for American Indian) or “Mexican.” Sometimes a specific American Indian tribe is listed. And the earliest records have a category for “color” instead of “race.” It looks like police officers either struggled with accounting for race because they assumed instead of asking, or some women purposefully tried to pass as a different race. For example, when one woman originally labeled “white” was later found to be biracial, the officers annotated her file by hand, writing, “this woman is mulatto” next to her picture. Another file shows a woman’s race changed to “Chinese.” Sex workers were sometimes labeled “white” under the race category, but then in another section, the officers describe her as “olive-skinned.” The Barnard-Stockbridge Collection at the University of Idaho Library Special Collections and Archives has pictures featuring women of color who worked in the houses during the 1940s-1960s. And the Oasis has one room with cassette tapes left behind by a sex worker in 1988, and these tapes feature mostly black recording artists and labels. Cassette tapes left behind when the workers abandoned the Oasis Rooms Oral histories also describe women of color in Wallace’s houses throughout history. Dick Caron has heard about a black woman who ran a house during the late 1930s and he thinks her name was possibly Rose or maybe people called her “Snowball.” There is one oral history piece that I thought about putting in the book but I didn’t. I’ll just go ahead and put it out there now because Kayla and Charlottesville have me wondering if I should have included it in the book… This is from a conversation at the Silver Corner, August 5, 2010: Me: Were there any women allowed in the houses, aside from the women working there? Possie: No. There’s a couple of times we’d try to get the women up. Yeah, you’d try and dress them up in a hat, or a ski mask, or something. Try and get them up there. And same thing with black guys, couldn’t get a black guy up there. They wouldn’t— Bar patron interrupts: Is that true? Possie: Definitely. We tried. We had a basketball tournament here in the early [nineteen] eighties. They would not let a black guy up there. The rumor was, because of Hank Day. He didn’t want anyone black. Bar patron: Did Hank Day have an economic interest in those houses? Possie: Oh huge. Hank Day was, you ever see [name omitted] house on the lake? That house was designed for whores. I mean the whole thing is like a motel, with separate rooms. He’d have the whole whorehouse down there. Me: He’d have them there, or he’d hole up in the Lux Rooms, I heard. Bar patron: What was his aversion? He was just a racist? Possie: Well, I don’t know. I mean, yeah, probably. I don’t know if that’s, but I mean it was just, that was kind of the—yeah, he just wouldn’t allow it. Second bar patron: Hank Day, like the Henry L. Day Medical Center Hank Day? Possie: Yeah. First bar patron: Like the Day Mines. Possie: I’m gonna say, late [nineteen] seventies, early eighties. Second bar patron: So when the black guys couldn’t get up there, was that before the civil rights movement, or afterward? Possie: Afterward. First bar patron: Well there weren’t that many black guys to begin with, Idaho’s not filled with African-Americans. Look around. Possie: We had a basketball tournament here in the early eighties and it was I think [19]82, ’83, ’84, and it was big, it was a real big tournament, we had guys from Washington State playing, Gonzaga, Eastern Washington, Montana, Boise State, Idaho State, University of Idaho when Idaho had the good teams. Early eighties we were number seven in the country, we had them up here. And we got, we tried to get some of the guys into the whorehouses. And we even went before, trying to meet with them [the madams]. We didn’t want those guys coming here and thinking we were a bunch of racists. And see, we’d try to head it off before it happened. We wanted them to be able to come up to the whorehouses and you know, we didn’t want like the white guys only to be able to go up there, but they wouldn’t budge. Second bar patron: You asked permission, and they were like, no? Possie: We asked permission and didn’t get it. They would not budge. But they were polite about it. They wouldn’t say, like, “No n*****, or no blacks,” or anything. They’d just, they always, when you’d want somebody, they’d say, “The girls are busy now, the girls are busy now. Come back later, the girls are busy.” But they’d never—they’d look through the little peepholes, the glass thing, and they wouldn’t let them in. First bar patron: Were they worried about trouble in there, probably? Possie: Who knows. Then, in my notes of this discussion, I stopped the transcription here to write: Silence. Pos turns the music up. This entry was posted in featured posts, overview, scso records and tagged chinese immigrants, early mining camp days, hank day, labor wars, magnuson, powell thesis, race, racism on August 17, 2017 by Heather Branstetter. interview with “the honest courtesan” What I do is perfectly legal when it’s free. — Maggie McNeill Today I am excited to finally share an interview with the lovely Maggie McNeill aka The Honest Courtesan. McNeill lives in the Seattle area, where she is a whore for hire and outspoken advocate of sex worker rights. She writes a popular blog, which you can find here, where you can also buy a copy of her book, Ladies of the Night. In July 2015, McNeill took time out of her trip to visit a gentleman in Sandpoint to chat with me about the topic of sex work, morality, and politics. This topic has received a lot of attention in the time since we talked. McNeill and her Seattle colleague Mistress Matisse were featured in a widely-read and controversial New York Times Magazine article, “Should Prostitution Be A Crime?” for example. Unfortunately, my talk with McNeill didn’t make it into my book, since my initial readers thought it didn’t really “fit” with the rest of the story about Wallace, although she does weigh in on the Silver Valley’s brothel-based model toward the end of the interview… McNeill calls herself “an overeducated whore who talks too much,” but I enjoyed our discussion very much and hope you will, too. I’ve excerpted the highlights below. This entry was posted in featured posts, morality & sex work series, scso records and tagged biography, freedom, interviews, news, personal, regulation, storytelling, whorarchy on July 25, 2017 by Heather Branstetter.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6155
__label__cc	0.538303	0.461697	China Approves Sale of First Homegrown Alzheimer’s Drug China has approved the first home-grown drug for the treatment of mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease. Updated: 05 Nov 2019, 11:02 AM IST China has approved the first home-grown drug for the treatment of "mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease (AD) and improving cognitive function", according to its developers. The new drug, Oligomannate (GV-971), is the first to be approved for Alzheimer’s disease globally since 2003. The drug has been developed by Green Valley Pharmaceutical Co. along with Ocean University of China, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica under Chinese Academy of Sciences. Oligomannate will provide a new treatment option to fight Alzheimer's disease for patients and is expected to be available in China by the end of 2019, Green Valley Pharmaceutical said on Saturday, 2 November. Alzheimer’s Blood Tests: Why New Studies Are Encouraging A multi-centre global phase 3 clinical trial with sites in the US, Europe and Asia is planned to be initiated in early 2020 to support global regulatory filing of Oligomannate. An effective treatment for Alzheimer's that affects about 48 million people in the world could easily become a big hit globally. China's National Medical Products Administration granted Oligomannate fast-track review in November 2018. Over 800 patients with the diagnosis of mild to moderate Alzhemer’s disease completed the Phase 3 clinical trial conducted in 34 tier-1 hospitals across China. Results of the 36-week-long study showed that Oligomannate can improve cognitive function in mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease patients as early as week 4 and the benefit was sustained at each follow-up assessment visit. Alzheimer's disease is a progressive brain disorder that impairs memory, affecting the ability of patients to carry out simple tasks. (This story was auto-published from a syndicated feed. No part of the story has been edited by FIT.) (Delhi is in a public health emergency and schools have been shut. The air outside is visibly toxic - how has the hazardous air #pollution impacted you? Write down your #PollutionKaSolution and send it to us at FIT@thequint.com. ) Regular Exercise Could Help Prevent Alzheimer’s in Older Adults Published: 05 Nov 2019, 10:58 AM IST	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6157
__label__cc	0.701292	0.298708	[1] A Manchester United ski hat from the 1980s on ebay Manchester United popular ski hat from the mid 1980s http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Manchester...s/183075683272 ends 22nd February Current MUFC items for sale on ebay from the RN Shop... United to Win, The Autobiography of Ron Atkinson, signed, 1984 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/United-to-...4/183065134302 ends 16th February British Sky Broadcasting Group plc for Manchester United PLC share offer prospectus, 1998 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/British-Sk...8/183071671507 ends 19th February Manchester United: My Team by Sammy McIlroy published by Souvenir Press, 1980 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Manchester...0/183073765589 ends 20th February Manchester United FA Cup Final Wembley 1985 flat cap http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Manchester...p/183075700163 ends 22nd February Dukla Prague vs Manchester United 27th September 1983 Away Match programme http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dukla-Prag...e/183076779243 ends 22nd February Steve Coppell - Tough and Go (autobiography, 1985), Willow Books, SIGNED (MANCHESTER UNITED, ENGLAND) http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Steve-Copp...D/183077485259 ends 23rd February check out all the current MUFC ebay items on sale from RN at http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showt...e-RedNews-Shop	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6161
__label__wiki	0.59756	0.59756	Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers Propels Nationwide Growth WICHITA, Kan. – Fast-casual restaurant concept, Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers, announced it experienced significant growth in the first quarter of 2018, opening 17 new restaurants. This continued surge in franchise development has helped expand the brand’s presence in new and existing markets nationwide. Freddy’s opened its first Chicago-area restaurant in Orland Park in February and has plans to open three additional locations in the market throughout the year. The company also opened its 300th restaurant in Indianapolis March 13. Additionally, Freddy’s signed a development and master franchise agreement with Younata Investment Limited to bring the concept to the Middle East, with plans to develop in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman and Qatar. The franchisee group brings more than 25 years of regional business experience within the Gulf Cooperation Council to the American brand and will be opening Freddy’s first international location in Dubai later this year. “The growth we’re seeing so far in 2018 is unbelievable. It’s through leadership of our outstanding franchisees, commitment to quality products and exceptional service that we’re able to continue expanding and make Freddy’s accessible to more people across the country,” said Randy Simon, co-founder and CEO. “Beyond our domestic openings this year, we’re thrilled to be taking Freddy’s internationally with the opening of our Dubai location later this year. We’re eager to introduce the brand to the international market, as well as new and existing markets in the U.S., and look forward to continuing this accelerated growth momentum throughout 2018.” This year, Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers plans to open more than 40 restaurants nationwide. Franchise opportunities remain in markets across the U.S., including Florida, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and New York. For more information about development opportunities, contact Markus Scholler, vice president of franchise development, or visit www.freddysusa.com/franchising. Freddy’s opening this summer in QC Who has the best fish sandwich? – Bachelor on the Cheap	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6163
__label__wiki	0.903335	0.903335	Home /Jennifer Lopez and Shakira will perform at the Super Bowl Real NewsSeptember 26, 2019 Jennifer Lopez and Shakira will perform at the Super Bowl Jennifer Lopez and Shakira will perform at Super Bowl 54, Pepsi announced Thursday. Interested in Super Bowl? Add Super Bowl as an interest to stay up to date on the latest Super Bowl news, video, and analysis from ABC News. The two singers will take the stage together for the halftime show at the NFL’s championship game on Feb. 2, 2020, in Miami. Both Lopez and Shakira shared photos to social media confirming the news. Luis Robayo/AFP/Getty Images, FILE Colombian singer Shakira performs during the opening ceremony of the 2018 Central American and Caribbean Games (CAC), at the Metrpolitano stadium in Barranquilla, Colombia, July 19, 2018. “Ever since I saw Diana Ross fly off into the sky at the Halftime Show, I dreamed of performing at the Super Bowl,” Lopez said in a statement. “And now it’s made even more special not only because it’s the NFL’s 100th anniversary, but also because I am performing with a fellow Latina. I can’t wait to show what us girls can do on the world’s biggest stage.” “I’m so honored to be taking on one of the world’s biggest stages in the company of a fellow female artist to represent Latinos and Latinas from the U.S. and all over the world — and to top it off, on my birthday!” added Shakira in a statement of her own. “This is a true American dream and we are going to bring the show of a lifetime!” Though both stars have worked steadily for decades, neither has performed at the Super Bowl. This also marks one of the first times the halftime show has been headlined by two Latin artists; according to Pew Research Center the Miami metro area is home to the third-largest Hispanic population in the United States. Earlier this year, Maroon 5 headlined the halftime show, and Travis Scott and Big Boi also performed. In 2018, the honor fell to Justin Timberlake. Coronavirus updates: Latest news from… Illinois man accused of killing… Seattle held segregated training session… Florida reports 14 percent coronavirus… Illinois police chief, former Secret… More than 6 dozen alleged…	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6164
__label__wiki	0.625331	0.625331	Home /Toronto builders try a new tactic to lure millennials to the hated suburbs. They call it ‘hipsturbia’ Business NewsJanuary 30, 2020 Toronto builders try a new tactic to lure millennials to the hated suburbs. They call it ‘hipsturbia’ As Toronto home prices skyrocket, developers are betting they can lure millennials to a place they may have feared to tread: suburbia. New projects in some of the city’s oldest suburbs are being pitched with walkable neighbourhoods, condo towers, cafes, shops and a hip city feel. The phenomenon has been dubbed “hipsturbia.” “Downtown Toronto is going to continue to thrive, but I think subway connected, suburban-urban locations are going to see a bit of a rebound in the next three to five years,” Sean Menkes, director of office and retail at Toronto-based Menkes Developments Ltd. Menkes is working with public-pension manager British Columbia Investment Management Corp. on two projects in Vaughan, a suburb northwest of Toronto. Festival, a four-tower community with 85,000 square feet of retail, will follow last year’s launch of Mobilio. Both are located around Vaughan’s new transit-oriented city centre. West of Toronto in Mississauga, Oxford Properties Group and Alberta Investment Management Corp. unveiled plans this month to turn 130 acres near a shopping mall into the “Square One District,” an 18 million-square-foot neighbourhood for 35,000 people that they call the largest mixed-use development in Canadian history. The plan will see a swath of parking lots remade into a community with 37 towers, more than 18,000 residential units, office and retail space. Making a big, high-density bet in otherwise low-density suburbs can be risky. Real estate history is replete with boom-bust cycles in which developers piled into new markets too quickly. Empty office towers dubbed “see-through buildings” dotted Houston and Dallas for years after the twin collapses of the oil and savings-and-loan industries in the 1980s. We’re bringing what we know downtown and bringing it to the suburbs Jared Menkes In Toronto, builders are responding to a years-long surge in Toronto home prices, driven by an influx of immigrants and the city’s booming tech and financial-services sectors. First-time buyers are finding it increasingly difficult to get a foot in the door. PwC and the Urban Land Institute identified hipsturbias as one of the emerging real estate trends for 2020. Linked by public transit to 24-hour cities such as New York, San Francisco and Chicago, they have their own self-contained residential, office and entertainment districts. Evanston, Illinois is one example, with Northwestern University providing a constant supply of young adults — “the lifeblood of hipsturbias,” according to the report. Lake Michigan beaches, rooftop bars and rail access to the Chicago Loop help round out the elements of “coolness” in one of the Midwest’s oldest suburbs, PwC said. “It’s a huge trend in the U.S. and it’s exactly what we’ve been planning for the last few years up in Vaughan,” said Jared Menkes, executive vice president of high-rise residential for the family-owned firm. “We’re bringing what we know downtown and bringing it to the suburbs.” Eastern Waterfront Homebuyers aren’t the only ones finding downtown Toronto expensive. With land prices and construction costs soaring and the permitting process beset by delays, developers are also seeking cheaper and easier projects farther afield. Menkes has found success with previous real estate hunches. The 65-year-old firm, run by the late founder’s three sons and four grandsons, was a catalyst in extending Toronto’s downtown toward Lake Ontario to what’s now known as the South Core. “We’re midway through a 20-year development cycle of our own where we’ll deliver just about 8 million square feet on the waterfront,” Sean Menkes said. A rendering of Sugar Wharf. Courtesy of Menkes Developments Menkes projects include Sugar Wharf, a 4.6-million-square-foot development with a 25-story office tower that will be the future headquarters of the Liquor Control Board of Ontario and the Toronto Region Board of Trade, 75,000 square feet of retail, five condo towers and a 2-acre park. Down the road is another Menkes project, a 475,000 square foot office complex that will be home to London-based marketing firm WPP Plc and tech hub MaRS. “I continue to believe in the waterfront,” Sean Menkes said. “We have a lot going on here and I don’t see us stopping.”	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6165
__label__wiki	0.979766	0.979766	From page to stage – and everything in between The latest news, reviews and features on theatre, books, TV, culture and life News: Tyrone Huntley joins the cast of Hello Dolly, as full company is confirmed Michael Harrison and David Ian are thrilled to announce full casting for Hello, Dolly! as one of the most iconic musicals of all time comes to the Adelphi Theatre this summer. This brand new production is headlined by Imelda Staunton, as she reunites with director Dominic Cooke, following the critically acclaimed production of Follies at the National Theatre. With an unforgettable score by the legendary Jerry Herman, Hello, Dolly! will begin performances at the Adelphi Theatre in London on Tuesday 11 August 2020 for a strictly limited 30-week season. Joining the previously announced Imelda Staunton, Andy Nyman and Jenna Russell will be Clare Halse, who will play Minnie Fay. She starred in the lead role of Peggy Sawyer in the iconic Broadway musical 42nd Street at Theatre Royal Drury Lane. Her West End credits also include Gypsy and A White Christmas. Harry Hepple, who will play Cornelius Hackl, has previously performed in Follies at the National Theatre and Romantics Anonymous at Bristol Old Vic. Tyrone Huntley, who will play Barnaby Tucker. Tyrone was nominated for an Olivier Award for his performance as Judas in the widely acclaimed production of Jesus Christ Superstar at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre. He was also previously in the original London casts of Dreamgirls and The Book of Mormon. Andy Nyman, who will play Horace Vandergelder, is a multi-award winning actor, writer and director. Most recently he won unanimous acclaim and is Olivier Award nominated for his memorable portrayal of Tevye in the celebrated production of Fiddler On The Roof at the Menier Chocolate Factory and its subsequent transfer to the Playhouse Theatre. Nyman’s acting credits include the Royal Court production of Hangmen and the West End hit Ghost Stories, which he also created and starred in the film adaptation. His various TV roles include Winston Churchill in Peaky Blinders and he has frequently collaborated with illusionist Derren Brown, co-writing and co-directing four of his stage shows. Olivier Award winner Jenna Russell will play Irene Molloy. Jenna recently starred in the UK premiere of The Bridges of Madison County. She won an Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical in 2006 for her performance in Sunday In The Park With George at the Menier Chocolate Factory (a performance she later reprised on Broadway) and was nominated for her work in the Menier’s 2012 revival of Merrily We Roll Along. She also appeared in the acclaimed, London premiere production of Fun Home the Young Vic. Multi Olivier and BAFTA Award winning Imelda Staunton plays meddlesome socialite turned matchmaker Dolly Levi, as she travels to Yonkers, New York to find a match for the miserly, unmarried ‘half-a-millionaire’ Horace Vandergelder. But everything changes when she decides that the next match she needs to make is for herself. The full cast also includes: Craig Armstrong, Gemma Atkins, Jenni Bowden, Alan Bradshaw, Natalie Chua, Joshua Clemetson, Brendan Cull, Bessy Ewa, Isaac Gryn, Ashlee Irish, Jodie Jacobs, Paul Kemble, Emily Langham, Amira Matthews, Sarah Marie Maxwell, Laura Medforth, Matt Overfield, Angelo Paragoso, Tom Partridge, Wendy Lee Purdy, Edwin Ray, Phil Snowden, Bree Smith, Christine Tucker, Gavin Wilkinson and Liam Wrate. With music and lyrics by Jerry Herman (La Cage aux Folles, Mack and Mabel, Mame) and book by Michael Stewart (42nd Street, Mack and Mabel, Barnum), Hello, Dolly! is one of the most iconic musicals of all time. Herman’s timeless score includes ‘Put On Your Sunday Clothes’, ‘Ribbons Down My Back’, ‘Before the Parade Passes By’, ‘Elegance’, ‘It Only Takes a Moment’ and ‘Hello, Dolly!’. Imelda Staunton and Dominic Cooke most recently worked together to spectacular effect with the critically acclaimed National Theatre production of Stephen Sondheim’s Follies. Now Hello, Dolly! reunites star and director in this classic Broadway musical. Hello, Dolly! also reunites Imelda Staunton with producers Michael Harrison and David Ian. Their production of Gypsy at the Savoy Theatre was awarded the Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival, and for which Imelda also won the Olivier Award for Best Actress In A Musical for her acclaimed portrayal of Momma Rose. Hello, Dolly! runs at the Adelphi Theatre from 11 August. Published by kherrington83 View all posts by kherrington83 News, theatre Adelphi Theatre, Hello Dolly!, london theatre, musicals News: Andrew Lloyd Webber pushes back Cinderella start date News: New Frankie Howerd play to tour UK Review: Public Domain, Southwark Playhouse (Online) News: ArtsEd appoint David Ian to Board of Trustees News: Bags: Inside Out opening at the V&A this Saturday Dealing with death: 25 years on News: National Theatre at Home to add War Horse and Julie to library of productions available to stream	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6166
__label__wiki	0.823091	0.823091	Kaduh 3rd Monday at 6:00 PM SOCSKSARGEN Masonic Center RXII SoCCSKSarGen Kaduh Lodge No.278 The "Kaduh" is a word of the T'boli or Tiboli tribe, a native tribe in South Cotabato, which means "Charity." Kaduh Lodge therefore means Charity Lodge. The unprecedented growth of Masonry in Dadiangas City (now Gen. Santos City) necessitated the creation of another lodge in the area. On August 28, 1986, twenty-eight Master Masons, all residents of General Santos City and ambers of Mt. Matutum Lodge No. 156, Dadiangas Lodge No. 225 and Sarangani Lodge No. 50 petitioned the Grand Lodge for the issuance of a dispensation that would authorize them to form a lodge in General Santos City to be named Kaduh Lodge. Upon the recommendation of Mount Matutum Lodge No. 156 and VW Gauvain J. Benzonan, who was the guiding spirit behind the formation of the lodge, Grand Master Reynold S. Fajardo issued the requested dispensation on October 22, 1986. On November 17, 1986 Kaduh Lodge was opened and organized at the Mount Matutum Temple. By the time the annual communication of the Grand Lodge was held in April 1987, the lodge had already held five stated and four special meetings and had initiated two applicants and passed and raised one of them. Impressed with the performance of the lodge, the Grand Lodge, upon the recommendation of the Committee on Charters, granted it a charter and assigned to it number 278. On May 30, 1987, Grand Master Teodorico V. Baldonado flew to General Santos City and constituted Kaduh Lodge as a regular lodge. On that day, too, the officers of the new lodge were installed into office, to wit: Jesus C. Veneracion, Worshipful Master; Domingo C. Teng, Senior Warden; and Leopoldo C. Hong, Junior Warden. WB Veneracion, a Doctor of Medicine and owner of St. General Santos City was a Past Grand Knight of the Columbus. Teng was a Past President of Mount Matutum Lions owner of Kimball Plaza, the biggest department store in General Hong was a Past President of the Rotary Club of General Santos City and businessman engaged in trading of agricultural products and the distribution of fuel. True to its name, Kaduh Lodge has embarked on many charitable projects, the most prominent of which is the granting of scholarships to poor but deserving students in the community. Location: General Santos City, South Cotabato Subscribe to Kaduh	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6169
__label__cc	0.689452	0.310548	Jean-Baptiste MARION (b. 29 November 1738 , Saint-Nicolas, Lévis, Canada, New France d. 15 April 1801 , Berthierville, Lower Canada ) MARION Family Genealogy Jean-Baptiste MARION was born 29 November 1738 in Saint-Nicolas, Lévis, Canada, New France . Jean-Baptiste MARION was the child of François MARION and Marie-Charlotte BOUCHER and the grandchild of: (paternal) Georges-Guillaume MARION dit FONTAINE and Madeleine DEMERS (DUMAIS) (maternal) Denis BOUCHER dit DESROSIERS and Marie-Jeanne MIVILLE Marriage(s) and Child(ren): He married Charlotte HUOT 26 February 1759 in Saint-Antoine-de-Tilly, Canada, New France . The couple had (at least) 7 children. Charlotte HUOT was born 8 February 1737 in Saint-Antoine-de-Tilly, Québec, Canada. She died 30 April 1806 in Berthierville, Québec, Canada (Berthier-en-Haut) (Ste-Genevieve-de-Berthier). She was the daughter of Joseph HUOT and Louise COTE. Jean-Baptiste MARION died 15 April 1801 in Berthierville, Lower Canada . Details of the family tree of Jean-Baptiste appear below. Québec Généalogie - Over time, Québec has gone through a series of name changes From its inception in the early 1600s until 1760, it was called Canada, New France. 1760 to 1763, it was simply Canada 1763 to 1791 - Province of Québec 1791 to 1867 - Lower Canada 1867 to present - Québec, Canada. Thanks to Micheline MacDonald for providing this information. Québec Généalogie - Did you know? In the seventeenth century most of the world went to bed at nightfall because there was nothing...Read MORE... Daily Life in New France (www.chroniclesofamerica.com/ french/ daily_life_in_new_france.htm) Saint-Nicolas, Lévis, Québec, Canada 1759 Marriage / Partner Jean-Baptiste MARION and Charlotte HUOT 26 February 1759, Saint-Antoine-de-Tilly, Québec, Canada 1761 Birth of Child Charles MARION dit FONTAINE was born 31 July 1761, Saint-Antoine-de-Tilly, Québec, Canada Charlotte MARION dite FONTAINE was born 15 March 1764, Saint-Antoine-de-Tilly, Québec, Canada Marie-Amable MARION dite FONTAINE was born 16 July 1766, Saint-Antoine-de-Tilly, Québec, Canada Genevieve MARION dite FONTAINE was born 1 April 1770, Berthierville, Québec, Canada (Berthier-en-Haut) (Ste-Genevieve-de-Berthier) Angelique MARION dite FONTAINE was born 15 April 1773, Berthierville, Québec, Canada (Berthier-en-Haut) (Ste-Genevieve-de-Berthier) Marie-Louise MARION was born 25 September 1775, Berthierville, Québec, Canada (Berthier-en-Haut) (Ste-Genevieve-de-Berthier) Added: 3/26/2015 5:31:29 PM - Updated: About Jean-Baptiste - Family History / Genealogy Charts Genealogy research for Jean-Baptiste Marion (on other sites) Is Jean-Baptiste MARION YOUR Ancestor? Tell us more! If you'd like to be contacted by others who are related to Jean-Baptiste MARION, leave a message here!	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6172
__label__cc	0.57905	0.42095	Extinction of an outdated industry on the horizon? By Biodiversivist on Apr 12, 2007 … you ignorant ass. You may have noticed the ads here on Grist from the International Fund for Animal Welfare calling for an end to the Canadian seal harvest. This short, simple, balanced article from MSNBC is a timely rehash of this annual controversy. Because sustainability is ostensibly the main goal of environmentalism, it’s difficult to criticize the Canadian seal harvest, because it appears to be a classic case of a sustainably harvested natural resource providing poverty reduction for those who live close to that resource. Here are the two main reasons the IFAW wants to end the seal harvest: It is cruel and puts the harp seal species at risk. Attempts to assuage the cruelty argument have been made by regulating techniques and equipment used and by increasing the age of the seals that can be taken. The old argument than a natural death (in the jaws of a killer whale, shark, polar bear, leopard seal, or through disease and old age) is no less cruel than a shot or blow to the head carries no weight in these affairs. Once this argument is presented the emphasis generally switches to the seal’s right to a long natural life. But this argument also has a logical weak link. Seal populations will increase until equilibrium is reached between births and deaths. This means that if the seal harvest ends, the population will expand until the death rate matches the survival rate. The majority of those deaths will be the young and the old, as is always the case. Ending this cull may likely create more “premature” deaths per year through natural (which rarely means quick) causes. In addition, natural populations grow and crash in cycles based on weather-induced fluctuations in food supplies. The larger the population is at a time of scarcity, the greater the total death toll will be. I am fairly certain that even if these seals were to be euthanized using the same methods found in animal shelters, the campaign to end the harvest would not end. The harvest represents a drop in the bucket when you consider how many mammals Americans put to death every year. About 10 million pets are euthanized annually in the United States. That is 37 times greater than this year’s seal quota. Millions of mammals are killed by hunters. Those numbers combined pale in comparison to the number of mammals put to death to feed us annually. In addition, the seals are not domesticated animals that live their lives cooped up in barnyards and pens where their waste products and runoff pollutes the environment. If the goal were to minimize mammal deaths, the big-ticket items (or the low-hanging fruit) would be in pet birth control and efforts to minimize meat consumption. But that isn’t the goal. The goal is to stop the killing of wild seals. This brings me to the second part of their argument: the harvest puts the species at risk. In theory, this argument rests entirely on how big the annual quotas are. If the quota were only two or three thousand instead of this year’s 270,000 out of a total population of millions, this argument would be very weak indeed. There were only about 1.8 million seals in the 1970s before the government started regulating the industry. The 2004 census estimated the population at 5.5 million. The quota varies every year depending on how well the population is doing. It was reduced this year because of a lack of ice, and if these conditions become more common, as is expected, the quota will continue to shrink (in theory). Thirty years of evidence strongly suggests that the seals are being harvested sustainably. So, the debate boils down to the size of the quotas. But instead of funding independent research to verify or adjust the government estimates, they call for no sealing at all. A “better safe than sorry” approach. Having said all this, you might think that I support the seal harvest. I don’t. Most conservation efforts today involve putting out fires. Gaining control over habitat and staving off immanent extinction events consumes most resources. Pouring these resources into a fight to end the harvest of an animal that numbers in the millions rates very low on many triage lists. I may not buy the cruelty argument but I do support the “better safe than sorry” strategy. E. O. Wilson makes this point repeatedly: We have a very poor understanding of the natural world. This is the same government that allowed the cod fishery to collapse in ’92. According to Sport Fishing Magazine: After decades of attempting to manage these fisheries they still have not recovered. “Fisheries have continued to decline despite decades of trying to manage these resources,” said Steve Gaines. The collapse of the iconic cod fishery in New England in the early 1990s cost an estimated 20,000 jobs. An estimated 72,000 jobs have been lost due to decreasing salmon stocks in the Pacific Northwest. The typical fisherman now makes nearly 30 percent less than the average American worker and faces an occupational fatality rate that is 35 times higher than other industries. I would lobby that the Canadian government should reduce the quota every year for a set number of years until it becomes so low that it has no commercial value. I would also lobby that the animal welfare groups use some of their funds lobbying to ease the transition for those families who have become dependent on this annual source of income. In theory, if the transition were gradual enough, there would be no appreciable hardship. This harvest isn’t doing much to feed people. It is mostly fueling a born again fashion trend. I don’t think the animal welfare activists were conscious of why demand for animal skin products dried up in the ’90s, but it was mostly because such products became uncool. They lost their status thanks to the visibility of anti-fur campaigns. I think they should put money into ads that mock people as being shallow-minded and ignorant for using wildlife products as fashion statements. They should be working to take the status out of those articles rather than trying to convince people that killing mammals is cruel. Most of us eat mammals. The problem, of course, is that there are billions of people rising up out of poverty and they will all begin seeking status once their more basic needs have been met. It only takes a very small percentage of those billions to think sealskin gloves or whale meat are cool to cause tremendous damage. The sealing and whaling industries should join the Steller’s sea cow and giant auk in oblivion. More in Living All Living Nature for All Why is cottagecore so white? No Good Options What’s the bigger climate threat: Single-use plastic or long-haul shipping? A wetter and warmer Alaska means dangerously slippery slopes A resolution for 2021: Be a better ancestor	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6175
__label__wiki	0.783652	0.783652	Fallbrook Pulls IPO, Still Revving for China Ucilia Wang May 2, 2011 - 12:32 PM CDT Science & Energy The blockbuster IPO by Tesla Motors (s TSLA) – along with the launch of the Chevy Volt and the Nissan LEAF – have revved up the public profile of electric cars in the past year. But that doesn’t mean a killer IPO for everyone in the space. Fallbrook Technologies — a company that has developed a transmission system for bicycles and is aiming to do the same for electric cars — just pulled its $50 million IPO plan because of “unfavorable market conditions.” Likely Fallbrook will fare better with private investors. The San Diego company began offering $50 million worth of private shares last summer and managed to raise about $39.2 million E round in equity by December, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Fallbrook withdrew the IPO plan on Friday. Fallbrook had developed what’s called a continuous variable planetary transmission technology, which eliminates many parts found in a traditional transmission, such as multiple gears and shifting clutch. But such technology hasn’t been easy to design and tends to suffer poor efficiency, reliability and other problems (see Fallbrook’s demo video). The company had developed a transmission system for bicycles and was aiming to do the same for cars, small wind turbines and other markets when it filed to go public in February last year. Fallbrook launched its transmission system for bicycles in 2007 and then signed manufacturing and marketing deals with Chinese companies to sell its technology not only for bicycles but also cars. Electric bicycles are popular in China – they were everywhere when I spent a month there last year. The growing number of car owners in the country also makes it a target for electric carmakers. In fact, as we mentioned in a previous post, electric car companies need to figure out how they will tackle the world’s largest car market. With about 35 cars per 1,000 people in China’s 1.3 billion-person population, roughly 80 percent of car sales in the country are currently made to first-time buyers. As Josie wrote for GigaOM Pro (subscription required), the large amount of first time car buyers can lower the barrier to adoption of alternative vehicles. Nearly half of the more than 5 million electric vehicle charge point installations anticipated worldwide by 2015 will happen in China, according to Pike Research. In addition, the government-owned utility State Grid Corp. plans to invest $586 million in a smart grid build out over the next five years. Silicon Valley-based Better Place last week announced a deal with China’s Southern Power Grid, the country’s second largest and the world’s eighth-largest utility, to try out both battery swapping and old-fashioned plug-in charging in a citywide network by the year’s end. The move follows Better Place’s deal announced last year with Chinese car company Chery to collaborate on electric vehicle technology, to develop electric vehicle prototypes with switchable-batteries and to seek work with the Chinese government on electric vehicle pilot projects. Coda Automotive, which is launching its first electric sedan later this year, also has a Chinese manufacturing partner. Likewise, Indiana-based Ener1 formed a joint venture with one of China’s largest auto parts supplier, Wanxiang, last year to produce lithium-ion batteries for cars. In January 2010, Fallbrook signed on Shanghai, China-based Tri star Group as its contract manufacturer for a new generation of the bicycle CVT. The plan is to “concentrate the supply base in one off-shore region or location” for the new model and phase out the old design. Fallbrook also talked about partnering with Shanghai-based Advanced Strategic Leadership Limited, “for market development and consulting services for the Chinese EV market,” according to its IPO filing last year. The partnership with Advanced Strategic Leadership has led to a recent opening of an electric vehicle design center in Shanghai. Photo courtesy of Fallbrook Technologies Better Place Ener1 Fallbrook Technologies Disruptive Technologies: In Conversation with Byron Reese & Lauren Sallata Byron Reese Sep 4, 2018 - 7:00 AM CDT Gigaom Change Leader's Summit Rob High talks Artificial Intelligence with Gigaom Byron Reese Jul 20, 2016 - 6:57 AM CDT Indoor farming: Good for cannabis, not so good for food Nathaniel Mott Dec 29, 2015 - 8:06 AM CST Outlook: Internet of things in 2015 Adam Lesser Dec 22, 2014 - 8:00 AM CST Green HPC: How IT mavericks push the envelope with clean computing Cormac Foster and Dave Ohara Apr 23, 2013 - 10:00 AM CDT	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6178
__label__wiki	0.795453	0.795453	Report: NASA’s Policies to Protect the Solar System From Contamination Are Out of Date NASA’s Curiosity rover on Mars. Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS Whether it’s rovers rolling about on Mars, probes drilling into asteroids, or Tesla Roadsters drifting through space, it’s clear that our activities in the Solar System are changing. Accordingly, methods and rules to prevent our germs from spreading beyond Earth need to be updated, according to a new report aimed squarely at NASA. Current NASA policies designed to protect planets and other Solar System bodies from contamination during exploration missions are sorely out of date, according a report put out this week by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM). The report, titled “Review and Assessment of Planetary Protection Policy Development Processes,” claims that current processes and rules are “inadequate to respond to progressively more complex Solar System exploration missions,” especially in the current cash-strapped era. No doubt, spreading our microbes to other planets, moons, asteroids, and comets is totally not cool. Inadvertently and unknowingly contaminating other celestial objects with life forms—bacteria, viruses, or tiny organisms like tardigrades—would make the task of detecting extraterrestrial life on nearby celestial bodies next to impossible; while exploring the sandy surface of Mars, or the subsurface oceans of Enceladus or Europa, astrobiologists would struggle to distinguish native life from life that originated on Earth. The presence of DNA on another planet or moon is no guarantee that it came from Earth, as this self-replicating molecule may constitute a fundamental building block of life across the entire cosmos. The flip-side of this coin is that a returning space mission, say a probe with samples from Mars or an asteroid, could threaten life on Earth. It’s unlikely, but we simply don’t know the risks. Scientists have been aware of the forward-and-back contamination problem ever since we began shooting our rockets into space. In 1967, the United Nations forged the “Outer Space Treaty,”to which the United States is a signing member. Countries bound by the treaty “shall pursue studies of outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, and conduct exploration of them so as to avoid their harmful contamination, and also adverse changes in the environment of the Earth resulting from the introduction of extraterrestrial matter,” as stated in Article IX of the treaty. Nice words, but the treaty was scarce on details. To keep its space-bound instruments clean, NASA refers to guidelines established by the Committee on Space Research, an international organization otherwise known as COSPAR. NASA currently has a planetary protection office to make sure it’s honoring COSPAR guidelines, but these rules aren’t legally binding, and there’s nothing, outside of science ethics, to prevent NASA from straying off course. It’s for these and other reasons that the NASEM committee says NASA is not ready to deal with future missions such as the Mars Sample Return project and journeys to explore the icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn, according to the report. What’s more, NASA hasn’t developed a planetary protection policy that speaks to a human mission to Mars, which could happen as early as the 2030s. “Moreover, the current US government process to oversee samples returned from Mars and elsewhere dates back to the Apollo era and is out of date,” according to a NASEM press release. “The committee recommended that NASA’s agency-wide planetary protection strategic plan prepare for the policy development challenges that sample return and human missions to Mars are creating, as well as revise or replace its provisions for engaging relevant federal agencies in developing protection policies for returned samples.” The NASEM committee says NASA should still honor the Outer Space Treaty and the role played by COSPAR, but in addition, the space agency should develop a plan to manage the way it implements its planetary protection policy, seek the advice of outside experts, and develop a long-range forecast for future missions to other planets, among other recommendations. The report also mentions the private sector, which is playing an increasingly important role in how we explore space. “Private-sector space exploration activities are another reason why planetary protection policies need re-examination,” the authors write. “The only commercial space missions that are currently required to undergo rigorous spacecraft decontamination procedures are those that might go to Mars, because Mars is the only body of current interest to private-sector entities that is potentially capable of harboring life.” In light of this, the NASEM committee recommends that planetary protection policies and efforts to prevent forward-and-back contamination should apply equally to both government-sponsored and private-sector missions. The US government, the report states, will be responsible for enforcing these standards on private companies. Good luck with that. This is a welcome report, given where NASA and the private-sector is headed over the next few decades. These recommendations make sense, at least for the time being. Sure, NASA should update its policies and practices, and the private-sector should follow suit, but it’s not clear if any of this will work, particularly in the long-term. As we venture further out into space, the odds are that we’ll eventually contaminate another world, despite our best intentions. We may not win this battle, but it’s still worth fighting. [National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine] George is a senior staff reporter at Gizmodo. IAmBrett I thought they already were applied to all spaceflights, as part of the license process. In any case, I don’t think this is a big immediate issue. NASA already follows COSPAR rules on its robotic missions, and those are the only missions going places right now where that might be a concern. Private crewed spaceflight beyond Low Earth Orbit is at least a decade or more away, and none of the space billionaires appear to be spending money on robotic space exploration (which is a damn shame - they could underwrite some pretty decent missions for $500 million to $1 billion).	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6184
__label__cc	0.663936	0.336064	Notes on a Life in Progress – part 5 (career, marriage, parenthood 1985-1996) GTE Laboratories (1985-1996) In July of 1985, I started work at GTE Laboratories in Waltham, MA. I was a Senior Member of Technical Staff in the Self-Improving Systems (Machine Learning) department of the Fundamental Research Lab. Our mission was to do long-term basic research in machine learning. This was exactly the environment I wanted to be in – I had stimulating colleagues who shared my interest in machine learning (many of them were PhD’s), and the opportunity to “think deeply about simple things”, i.e. perform basic research. This was the ideal environment in which to continue my research on “discovery of macro-operators in problem-solving”. I had begun thinking about this topic back at CMU, when reflecting on how I learned to solve the Rubik’s Cube. Rich Korf did his Ph.D. thesis on an algorithm for filling in a table of macro-operators to solve certain types of puzzles, such as Rubik’s Cube and the 15-puzzle. I was thinking about a more general and more heuristic approach where macros would be proposed and then evaluated on the basis of their contribution to improved problem-solving performance. I continued thinking about this, and began writing some programs to encode my ideas, while teaching at Hampshire. I wrote and published a paper in IJCAI-85 describing my initial ideas and results. Because this paper was submitted near the end of my time at Hampshire, and because I anticipated starting work at MITRE, I listed MITRE as my affiliation in the title of the paper. This turned out to be ironic, when I ended up working at GTE Labs instead. I was happy that GTE supported my attending IJCAI in Los Angeles that year. It was my first conference paper and presentation. The basic idea of my work was based on the informal observation from Rubik’s Cube solving, that it was necessary to (temporarily) undo progress, i.e. subgoals achieved, in order to achieve new subgoals, and ultimately solve the puzzle. The idea of a macro-operator is a sequence of moves that can transform the puzzle state in a predictable way. One simple example is to permute the positions of 3 cubies (1x1x1 puzzle elements) but leave everything else unchanged. Lots of other things get changed (messed up) during the macro, but when the sequence is complete and the dust (mess) has cleared, everything is back where it was except for the 3 cubies that played “musical chairs” (changed their positions). The learning problem that interested me was how these macros could be discovered by a program. My basic approach was to use a heuristic evaluation function to count the number of subgoals achieved. My program examined sequences of moves along paths down the search tree, and looked at the values of this heuristic function for each puzzle state encountered along the paths. Typically, in puzzles like Rubik’s cube, there would be peaks and valleys along the path. Peaks were where more subgoals were satisfied than in the states before and after. The valleys corresponded to undoing subgoals, and it seemed natural that the sequence of moves spanning a valley (extending from one peak to the next peak) would be a good candidate for a macro, especially if the 2nd peak was “higher” than the first (meaning that overall progress had been made). I also made a representational commitment to having macros be described in the same format as primitive problem-solving operators (e.g. the basic twists of Rubik’s cube). I represented all operators (both primitives and macros) in terms of the change of state they entailed – specifically, in terms of a before and after state. These were actually partial states, since they could have some parts of the state specified as not relevant (I called them “don’t cares”). The principal advantage of this representational commitment is that the problem solver does not require modification in order to use additional macros! The problem-solver (performance system) simply used a set of available operators, and if new macros were found, they could be added to the operator-set and could then get used like any other operator. The main performance gain resulting from learning macros is that the search can take larger steps in the problem space, since each macro actually involves multiple primitive steps. I like to think of this as a chunking model of skill acquisition, with macros being larger chunks defined in terms of simpler chunks. Chunking is a well-known and well-studied psychological phenomenon, and is the source (imho) of human ability to deal with complexity. In order to represent my macros in the same format as primitive operators, I needed to compile a sequence of steps into a single step, which involved analyzing the before and after states spanned by the sequence. In addition, this compilation process produced a macro-definition or expansion, which could allow any solution found in terms of macros to be expanded into a solution using only primitive operators. Primitive operators were distinguished and recognized by the fact that their definition (expansion) was empty (NIL). In fact, macros could be learned in terms of other macros leading to a definitional hierarchy. One final advantage in my approach was that learning could take place during problem-solving, even before a solution was found. My first program only learned macros from analyzing a completed solution path, but I later generalized this so that macros could be learned from any path in the search tree, even before a solution was discovered. I continued to work on this heuristic macro-learning project while employed at GTE Labs. My work led to the publication, in the prestigious Machine Learning Journal in 1989, of my paper “A heuristic approach to the discovery of macro-operators”. I am indebted to my friend and editor, Pat Langley, as well as my GTE Labs colleague, Oliver Selfridge, for invaluable help in finishing and publishing this paper. Sadly, the ideal research environment I experienced at GTE Labs was time-limited. After my first year there, GTE decided to eliminate the Fundamental Research Lab, and focus on more “applied research”. This presented a challenge to all of us in the Machine Learning department. Fortunately, we kept our jobs, but the department was moved into a more applied “Computer and Intelligent Systems Lab”. We continued to work on machine learning, but there was much greater pressure to apply it to GTE telephone or other operations. There were (at least) 3 different machine-learning projects within our group, and they had been pursued fairly independently by 3 different researchers. We were directed to work on ways to integrate these disparate learning approaches (Decision-tree Induction, Rule-based Learning, and Macro Learning) into a unified project. We struggled with how to do this, but in the end we succeeded in creating the ILS (Integrated Learning System), in which each learning method both proposed actions to take (performance system) and tried to improve it’s own behavior (using it’s individual learning system). The integration involved a TLC (guess who proposed that acronym?) which I called The Learning Coordinator. The TLC would collect action proposals from each sub-system, and distribute all the proposals to each sub-system. Then each sub-system would give a rating to each proposal, according to how well it thought the proposed action would work out if actually performed. These ratings (numerically weighted votes) were collected and averaged, and the highest rated action would be performed. The results of the action (the next state of the world or environment) would be made available to each sub-system for use in its own learning. This seemed to me like a fairly simple idea, and it was the only one we implemented – it was actually a fallback from discussions and proposals we had for much more complex systems, but we never got agreement or traction on implementing the more ambitious proposals. I thought this ILS framework was an interesting idea that merited further develop, and quantitative analysis. I proposed experiments I thought we should do to see how much benefit arose from the collaboration of the different systems. I was already a fan of collaboration from my ESG experiences at MIT. There are careful and (to me) obvious experiments that could be done to measure and compare the learning of each sub-system (in isolation) with its learning in the context of joint collaboration. It’s not clear whether the ILS would outperform the individual systems working alone, but there are at least 2 reasons for hope: 1. With 3 alternate actions to choose from, one hopes that the action chosen would often be better than that proposed by any single sub-system. This is simply a performance issue, and does not rely on learning. 2. Each sub-system (agent) would likely see actions taken that were different from its own proposal, and this should expand its learning opportunities. My proposed experimental framework was fairly simple: a. Define a performance metric to evaluate performance (on a simulated, thus repeatable, world) b. Use the performance metric to evaluate Agents, and the ILS as a whole, with all learning turned off. These provide the baselines c.. Have each Agent perform and learn in isolation, and also have the ILS system as a whole perform and learn. d. Finally evaluate the performance of each individual Agent, and the whole ILS, again with learning turned off. The interesting questions to me are: 1. How much learning occurred within individual agents? 2. Did the ILS ensemble learn more than the individual agents on their own? Learning would be “measured” as the difference in performance scores. It saddened me that my colleagues resisted doing these experiments. I understood this to be for “political reasons” – the expressed concern was that failure (if the system didn’t learn well) was viewed as much more dangerous than any success. I hated this attitude – which strikes me as unscientific (“I’d rather not find out at all, than find out I was wrong”?). In case you haven’t figured this out about me, I deplore politics, especially when it impedes progress. I still think these experiments would be interesting to perform (perhaps using different agents), and maybe I’ll get back to them someday … Oh yeah – one other ironic note: Our team was nominated for and received a prestigious corporate award for our work! It makes a great resume entry under Awards and Honors: GTE’s Leslie H. Warner Technical Achievement Award, May, 1992, for work on the Integrated Learning System. The Warner Award is GTE’s highest technical achievement award. We got a chunk of money to divide up, and an all-expenses paid trip to New York City for the award ceremony (presented by the CEO of GTE). We also got several publications out of the work. But sadly, I don’t think it has had much impact on the world – unless someone read our papers and found a way to use the work. My colleagues, being risk-averse, would not consider trying to deploy the system anywhere within GTE – the dangers of failure outweighing any possible benefits. This all strikes me as Dilbert-esque. Maybe there’s a good reason – Scott Adams worked at PacTel (another telephone company), which provided him with experiences that feed into his Dilbert comic strip. GTE exhibited nearly all the craziness on display in Dilbert, and sadly there is more truth behind it than you’d expect! At GTE we had frequent reorganizations, during which little work got done. We had management that seemed to hinder, rather than support our work. There was a tendency to avoid doing things that could lead to “visibility” and/or “perceived failure” (no such thing as a successful negative result – in science finding out that something didn’t work can be a step of progress toward finding something that does work – but at GTE, if it didn’t work, you were a failure, so better not to try things). My career at GTE Labs came to a crashing halt in 1996 when our entire 4-person team was laid off. We had the option of seeking other positions, but most of us ended up leaving for other jobs. GTE had been my “work home” for 11 years, and I was sad to leave. On reflection, I feel that I (and we) could have done much better work given more supportive and encouraging circumstances. My colleagues were all extremely smart, and I consider them long-term friends to this day. I have come to believe that large corporations are often impediments to progress (scientific, technological, and social). More on that another time, perhaps. While working at GTE, things got better in my marriage. We had economic stability, a house we had purchased and fixed up, and our son, Aaron. I loved being a father, and have fond memories of interacting & playing with him, reading to (and later with) him, and playing video games. The next major highlight of these years was the birth of our 2nd son, David … Our Family Grows! (David born July 7, 1987) My wife and I welcomed our 2nd son, David, into our family in July of 1987. This was a very happy time for all of us. Aaron seemed to adapt well to his role as “big brother”, and we added a 2nd bedroom to the small ranch house we lived in. I have very fond memories (and some favorite pictures) of carrying David around on my shoulder when he was an infant. Interestingly, David arrived at 2:06am, and our home address at the time was 206 Concord Ave. Coincidence? Probably! Interesting? I love it! Around 1989 we sold our house in order to purchase and move to a larger residence, still in Lexington, MA. Moving is always stressful, but we got through it. I remember my father coming up from PA to help out with packing and moving (interesting side note: for all my life I’ve lived in the MA and PA states ! ). We moved in January 1990, I think, and I remember we had a horrible ice storm the day of the move — the driveway of the new place was a sheet of ice! Despite the challenges, we got everything unloaded, and started to settle into our new house, which had much larger space (3 bedrooms). Within a year, our family was to grow yet again! Birth of a daughter! (Rachel arrives Dec. 2, 1991) On the first day of Hannukah, our family grew once again with the arrival of our 1st daughter, Rachel! My wife and I, as much as we enjoyed our 2 boys, were grateful to have a daughter, too! All 3 kids have been a special blessing, and I feel it has been my privilege and honor to be their father. When I look back on my life, being a parent (and, if I do say so myself, a rather good one) is my proudest accomplishment (of course it’s not done yet — I’m still their parent, and hopefully can still contribute a bit to their growth and development – and they all continue to contribute to mine, as well!). I think I’ll end this note on that upbeat note ! Next time: career transitions: researcher -> software developer -> free-lance puzzle designer Notes on a Life in Progress – part 4 (Early career, marriage, parenthood 1979-1985) Pittsburgh, PA – CMU (1979-1981) The first step in my career path was moving to Pittsburgh (with my new wife) in order to work as a programmer in the Psychology Department at CMU (Carnegie-Mellon University). I turned down an industry offer from Texas Instruments at a higher salary. I was always interested in academia, and I worried that transitioning from industry to academia (and taking a likely salary cut) would be more difficult than the opposite transition. I was also curious to experience CMU, since it was another of the major U.S. centers of AI Research (along with MIT and Stanford). The programming work was supported by an ONR contract and involved work on learning, so I was excited about it. At CMU, the Psychology Department and Computer Science both worked on AI and machine learning, led by the famous duo of Herbert Simon (Psychology) and Allen Newell (Computer Science). In addition to the faculty, I found the graduate students in both departments to be very friendly, welcoming, and stimulating to interact with. A number of long-term friendships arose out of my time at CMU. Pittsburgh had somewhat of a negative reputation, so I was prepared to be disappointed by it (relative to Boston/Cambridge which I loved!). I was pleasantly surprised — the city was much cleaner than it was in the past, and the people were friendly. Though it didn’t offer all that Boston did, there was still plenty to do. I have fond memories of going white-water rafting on the Youghiogheny River, visiting Fallingwater (Frank Lloyd Wright house), and playing lots of tennis and racquetball with friends and colleagues. One of the things I most enjoyed about CMU was the more accepting attitude toward research involving games and puzzles. Newell and Simon studied (and wrote the book on) Human Problem Solving, and used puzzles such as Tower of Hanoi and Missionary and Cannibals as vehicles for exploration. Richard Korf even wrote his Ph.D. thesis (in CS) on an algorithm to calculate macro-operators for solving Rubik’s Cube and 15-puzzle among others. Hans Berliner studied and made contributions to computer chess playing. During my time at CMU, I had the pleasure of meeting Pat Langley, then a new post-doc in Psychology, having written his PhD thesis on BACON, a machine approach to scientific-discovery. He and I hit it off due to our mutual commitment to Machine Learning as a key to AI, and have become life-long friends. I have vivid recollections of participating, along with Pat and many others, in a project to build a simulated world as a testbed for AI and ML research. This group, called by the somewhat grandiose name of world-modelers, sparked numerous interesting discussions. We all shared a commitment to the idea that simulating a testbed environment had numerous advantages compared with the “real world” as used in robotics work: 1. No worries about “hardware” breaking (a bane of robotics researchers) 2. Greater reproducibility or results 3. Ability to modify the (simulated) environment in carefully controlled ways 4. Software can be copied and shared, so simulation tools can easily be used by many other researchers 5. A simulated environment can be simple (if desired), to allow focusing on critical issues. The last point was actually controversial within the group. I advocated for starting out with very simple “worlds”, because those could be more easily programmed, getting us to the actual AI researching business much more quickly. There were others, especially with interests in machine vision, that argued for a realistic 3-D simulated physical environment. I would have been quite content with a simple, abstract, 2-D grid-world. Unfortunately, this issue divided the group, and my recollection is that things never really “got off the ground”. Nevertheless, I continue to this day, to believe that simulating simple grid-world environments is a valuable way to explore AI/ML. Not much to say about my marriage during this time, though my wife expressed unhappiness about Pittsburgh (she complained that it wasn’t near the ocean), and I speculate that she may have harbored a touch of resentment at “following me there”. Northampton, MA – Hampshire College (1981-1985) Sadly, the funding ran out for my programming work at CMU, and after just under a year, I found myself unemployed. I began a job search, including looking at private schools and some colleges. I was thrilled to receive an offer to teach Computer Science at Hampshire College (in South Amherst, MA). Hampshire College was (and is) an experimental college, created as a “5th college” to join Smith, Amherst, Mt. Holyoke, and U.Mass. Amherst. It was designed and started in the late 60’s, during the same time period that ESG (see earlier post) was formed at MIT. Hampshire and ESG have a number of similarities. They are both committed to student-directed education, fostering a shared sense of community, interdisciplinary studies, and educational innovation. I jumped at the opportunity to join the Hampshire faculty, and so in Summer 1981, my wife and I moved to Northampton, MA, where we lived in an apartment adjacent to the Smith campus. My wife was happy to be back in Massachusetts and closer to her parents who lived north of Boston. I loved the “5-college area”, which was like a smaller-scale Boston/Cambridge. I enjoyed all that the 5 colleges had to offer in terms of both social and academic activities and stimulation. I made many friendships, both on and off campus, and at Hampshire with both faculty and students. I found the students at Hampshire to be very motivated and energetic, and it was a pleasure to interact with them. Students propose their own courses of study, so I had many meetings with students to discuss projects and areas of study. I was part of the School of Language and Communication (called “L&C” for short). Hampshire had 4 Schools, rather than departments, in part to encourage interdisciplinary interaction. L&C (later re-named to Communication and Cognitive Science) had 2 primary foci: cognitive science (psychology, linguistics, math, logic, computer science, and philosophy) and communications studies (media, history of technology, among others). I was the faculty person representing AI and computer science. While Hampshire encouraged individual student projects and studies, there were also courses taught by faculty. Team-teaching was encouraged, and I have fond memories of co-teaching a number of courses with colleagues. Perhaps my favorite was called Structures of Computation where we examined the different levels of organization involved in computation. This covered the span from low-level hardware (transistors, gates and flip-flops) through high-level software such as compilers and interpreters (and all the levels in-between, such as ALU’s, microcoding, machine code, and assemblers). I am fascinated with how complex structures can be built up out of simpler components (modules). Perhaps this stems from all the time I spent playing with wooden blocks, lincoln logs, and bricks (pre-Lego) as a very young child. I believe this powerful concept of modularity, and hierarchical (layered) structuring, is a cornerstone of most if not all areas of engineering. I think it is fundamental, as well, to learning and skill acquisition (but more on that another time!). In 1981, I bought my first personal computer, an Apple II+, along with (dot-matrix) printer, modem (300-baud!), color monitor, and 2 external floppy disk drives. It seems unbelievable today that this machine could do all it did with only 64K of RAM (and that was the “souped up” hardware configuration). I remember programming in LOGO and Apple BASIC. LOGO was the turtle-graphics language pioneered by Seymour Papert for use in teaching children computational and mathematical thinking and problem-solving. Later, I added a SoftCard (Microsoft’s early Z80 hardware plug-in board), so I could run CPM as well. I have fond memories of playing around with this computer. I spent more than $4000 on the computer, peripherals, add-ons, and software. Amazing how over the years computer performance has increased so much, and prices have dramatically declined! One of my initiatives at Hampshire was an attempt to create an ESG-like program for computer science students, which I called The Learning Community (TLC). It was enthusiastically embraced by a number of students, and we had regular meetings, published a weekly newsletter, and engaged in learning and sharing about a variety of interesting topics. The greatest impediment to greater success was that we lacked a dedicated physical space where our community could congregate to interact – this seemed to be a key ingredient in ESG’s success. Nevertheless, I was encouraged by the student’s enthusiasm, and hoped to continue to grow the program. I even explore seeking dedicated space in a dorm in order to “house” TLC. This would have improved, in my opinion, on ESG, by further integrating living and learning which is an ideal I fully support. Unfortunately, not all my faculty colleagues shared my enthusiasm for TLC, and I paid a political price for “forging ahead” with it (more later). Parenthood! (Aaron born June 18, 1983) I always knew I wanted to be a parent. My relationship with my own father was a mixture of positives and negatives (more on this another time). I aspired to be the kind of “ideal” father that I had always wished for. I got my chance to try when my first son, Aaron, was born on June 18, 1983. This was a highlight of my life! It was also a wonderful Father’s Day present, since Aaron arrived on Saturday morning at 6:18 a.m.(was he a budding numerologist? 6:18 on 6-18-83!), which was the day before Father’s Day that year. I sat down (at my Apple II) that night, and wrote a long letter to my son, hoping he’d read it when he was older. I remember expressing my excitement, and hopes and aspirations for our relationship, and encouraging him to grow and develop into the best person he could be. Parenthood wasn’t easy, though. There were many sleepless nights, diapers to change, feedings to do, etc. The stresses exacted a toll on my marriage, unfortunately. I was also still dealing with my teaching work at Hampshire, and facing a reappointment review during the 1983-84 academic year. The positives were truly great, and I have absolutely no regrets! I remember we bought a video camera (an early Olympus VCR cassette system) shortly before the birth, and I had a great time learning to use it, and then documenting Aaron’s early development! Also, the part of me that is a “researcher into the nature of intelligence” was fascinated to observe Aaron’s development. It was fascinating, for example, to see how the “simple” skill of turning over, actually is painstakingly learned through trial and error. Aaron wanted to be on his stomach, since then he could move around a little. When placed on his back he was “stuck” – but he tried and tried to figure out a way to turn over. He would twist his back and extend his leg, and eventually (after many days and weeks of attempts) got his body flipped over, with the small residual problem that his arm would get tucked under his body, and he couldn’t get it out – this, too, required some learning to work around. It’s fun to go back and watch this amazing learning process on the videotapes. When Aaron was maybe a year old, I remember sitting him on my lap so he could “play” with a program I wrote for him on the Apple II+. It was a relatively simple Basic program that would respond to any keypress by flashing random colored pixels on the monitor, and at the same time play random beep tones. Aaron seemed to enjoy this, and soon he was whacking away at the keyboard! Who knows how much influence this had on his developing into the highly-skilled software developer he is today !? Not reappointed at Hampshire My reappointment review did not go well. My take on it is that my “stubbornness” in pursuing The Learning Community project was viewed as non-collegial, and irked my colleagues. There may have also been some retaliation for things I candidly wrote during the earlier reviews of some other colleagues (but that’s only speculation on my part). In general I attribute it to my political naivety and mis-handling interactions with my colleagues. I was an idealist and maverick, and butted up against institutional conservatism (at Hampshire of all places) and “departmental politics”. Not getting reappointed placed an excruciating stress on my marriage. It nearly led to divorce. My wife clearly was upset at the sudden removal of any long-term economic stability in our marriage, and things gradually worsened month by month. I was not nearly as concerned – I had sought and found jobs before, and was reasonably confident I would do so again. I had over a year of “cushion” to look for new opportunities, since my contract gave me a 4th year at Hampshire, even after the decision not to reappoint happened during my 3rd year. I interviewed at several places, mostly in industry, as I recall, and by January 1985, had an offer from MITRE Corporation in Bedford, MA (at a salary more than twice what I received from Hampshire). I’ll never forget my wife’s reaction to the news: “Maybe I shouldn’t be so quick to divorce you”. A mixed blessing at best. It clearly indicated to me that the primary basis of our marriage was financial. On the other hand, I wanted to stay as closely involved with my son as possible, and dreaded the prospect of a divorce, so I was willing and satisfied to continue “working on the marriage”. Moving to Lexington I was scheduled to start work at MITRE on July 1, 1985. My wife and I started looking for a place to live in the Bedford area. She was naturally pleased to be moving even closer to her parents. We initially looked at houses in Arlington, but were getting discouraged, and began thinking about renting. Then “at the last minute” (June, I think) we looked at a house in Lexington. We had considered Lexington to be out of our price range, but this house (a small ranch) seemed potentially manageable. We put in an offer that was accepted, and were looking to move in August. To complicate matters, in the latter part of June, I attended a Machine Learning conference in Skytop, PA, where I was given a job offer to join GTE Laboratories as a Machine Learning researcher. I had interviewed with GTE Labs back in January, and it was clearly my first choice, but they couldn’t extend an offer at that time. So I faced a dilemma – but ultimately the choice was clear – I had to go with my 1st choice and accept the GTE offer, even though it meant backing out of my commitment to start work at MITRE. The Friday before July 1 (when I was to start work) was a rather momentous day: I declined the MITRE offer (they were really nice about it!), accepted the GTE offer (yeah!), and to top things off, my wife and I signed the Purchase & Sale agreement for the house in Lexington. Wow! So on Monday I started work at GTE Labs instead of MITRE. Because we didn’t actually move until mid-August, I lived temporarily in a dorm on the campus of Bentley College in Waltham. Things got better in my marriage during this period, and I was quite happy (at least initially) with my work at GTE Labs (more on this later), and I continued to be a very happy father! Notes on a Life in Progress – part 3 (Graduate School 1974-1979) In Fall of 1974 I entered MIT’s Graduate School. This was the next step in my plan for a lifetime of research in AI/machine learning. I was officially admitted through the Math Department, which served as my “host” department. In fact, I was enrolled in an interdisciplinary PhD program through DSRE (the Division for Study and Research in Education). The mechanics of this involved setting up an interdisciplinary committee to oversee my studies. Actual requirements were then negotiated with my committee. My committee included Seymour Papert (AI/ML, education, and developmental psychology), Susan Carey (cognitive psychology), and Dan Kleitman (mathematics, combinatorics). My plan was to work directly for my PhD (skipping a Masters degree). This setup seemed ideal! In many ways it was like ESG at the graduate level. I had tremendous freedom to define and pursue my own interests. I was encouraged to explore multi-disciplinary interactions. DSRE itself was set up as an interdisciplinary entity at MIT – including among its luminaries: Seymour Papert (who was my graduate advisor), Ben Snyder (psychiatrist), Don Schon (urban studies & creativity), and Jeanne Bamberger (music, education). The unifying interest shared by all of these (and by me, too!) is in learning in all its forms, and how a deeper understanding of learning can inform how we design education (create rich learning environments!). I chose Seymour Papert as my advisor and mentor because we shared so many interests: understanding thinking and learning, math, computers, puzzles, and learning new skills. As part of the LOGO Learning Lab, Seymour encouraged everyone (both children and adults) to engage in novel and fun learning activities. For example, circus arts such as juggling, pole-balancing, and bongo-board balancing were widely shared and explored. We would not only learn these skills, we would analyze them and explore ways to teach them! The same was true of puzzle-solving. Seymour, like me, was a puzzle enthusiast and collector. We enjoyed sharing puzzles and discussing how we solved them. One of Seymour’s memorable quotes is “You can’t think about thinking without thinking about thinking about something!”. So basically anything at all that we spent any time thinking about became source material for thinking about how thinking worked. I loved this kind of self-reflection. Machine Learning was perhaps my central academic interest in pursuing my graduate studies. It seemed clear to me that any true artificial intelligence must be able to learn, in order to adapt to new situations, as well as to extend it’s knowledge and skills. Much of AI at the time worked in the paradigm of building a system to demonstrate a competence that was considered part of intelligence. Examples included playing chess (Greenblatt), debugging programs(Sussman, et.al.), language understanding (Winograd). The focus seemed to be on direct programming of skills and knowledge. This approach, while certainly worthwhile for initial exploration, seemed too long and arduous a path to true machine intelligence, and if the resulting systems lacked learning capability, they would always be limited and brittle. One exception was the thesis work by Patrick Winston on machine concept learning (the classic “Arch Program”). This work was very influential on the direction of my research, and I ultimately added Winston as a co-Thesis Advisor (with Papert). A Research Maverick As I mentioned, pursuing machine learning ran counter to the dominant AI paradigm at the time. Many people (faculty and fellow grad students) argued that it was “too difficult”. Maybe it was difficult, but I was strongly convinced that it was the key to building AI. If we could just build a general learning system, then we could educate it – let it learn the skills and knowledge we wanted it to have! Of course, to make progress, it would be necessary to start with simple learning, and initially would not result in impressive performance. Because most AI research was funded by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), there was quite a strong pressure for researchers to generate impressive results. I felt at the time (and still do in the present day!) that developing powerful AI systems required more of a basic research approach. My thoughts on this were likely influenced by my mathematical training — I approached things from an abstract direction, wanted to understand basic core principles (Ross’s dictum: Think deeply about simple things!). My ultimate intellectual goal was to develop a general and abstract theory of intelligence which would subsume both human and machine intelligence. It occurs to me that my commitment to a learning approach to AI is analogous to the technique of mathematical induction (prove assertion true for n=1, and also if assumed true for a given arbitrary n then prove true for n+1). The learning approach, admittedly challenging, seemed like a high-risk high-reward direction to pursue. If successful, AI researchers would no longer have to work arduously to encode specific skills and competencies – the system could simply learn them! Another dominant aspect of the prevailing AI paradigm was working on individual pieces of intelligence, for example planning, language understanding, game-playing, problem-solving, robotics, and even concept-learning. These were all studied in relative isolation. I heard little or no discussion regarding the overall architecture of intelligent systems. The research approach was essentially bottom-up – build the pieces, and then figure out how to put them together. I recall being struck by the research approach in nuclear physics to developing controlled fusion. Yes, they focused on specific problems (attaining high temperatures, plasma containment, plasma density), but these sub-problems were studied the context of a set of alternative working models (e.g. Tokamak, and laser implosion). AI didn’t have any working models for how an artificial intelligent system would be organized! It struck me that there was tremendous heuristic value in having at least one working model — specifically to help focus research attention onto critical sub-problems, and at the same time help define the sub-problems by suggesting how the sub-problem solutions needed to interact with other (yet to be created) pieces. One of the worst examples (to my mind) of the piece-meal approach was the work in Knowledge Representation, where there were numerous KRL (Knowledge Representation Language) proposals, but little attention to or work on the ways in which these systems would be used. The CYC project also seems to favor this paradigm — let’s just encode lots of facts, and worry later about how to use them. In knowledge representation work, a deep philosophical truth was (imho) overlooked — representation is a process! Static symbols and data structures are not endowed with inherent meanings or representations. It is the processes that interpret and work with those structures that are the key element in representation! I sum this up in one of my favorite original slogans: No representation without interpretation! My observation is that many philosophers don’t fully appreciate this. I cringe when I hear discussions of meaning totally lacking any appreciation for all the processes (perception, interpretation) necessarily involved for meaning to exist at all. It is seductive to imagine that words, for example, have inherent meaning, but the meaning cannot reside in the words themselves. To have any real appreciation of meaning requires examining the social, cultural, perceptual, psychological, and learning processes that in effect attach meaning to particular words and symbols. But I’m straying from my topic (I plan to write at greater length on my philosophical thoughts at a future time). Back to research strategies — whenever I suggested a top-down research approach (building integrated working models) The typical reaction I received was that “it’s just too hard and we don’t know enough at this point”. I still think top-down is the “right way to proceed”, and I’m encouraged by the evolving sub-discipline of cognitive architectures (examples include: Langley’s ICARUS, and Laird and Rosenbloom’s SOAR architectures), but those weren’t developed until the 1980’s and later, and I think they still suffer a bit from “results pressure” from funding agencies [I wish there was more appreciation of and financial support for basic research]. One central personal learning goal for my graduate years was to develop my skills as a researcher. It seemed essential to learn how to define a research problem. So when it came time to select a thesis topic, I used this as an opportunity to begin learning this skill. I was not content to work on an “externally defined” problem — there were plenty of such problems that already had funding, and choosing one of those would have been the easy path. Instead I generated a series of proposals, and the initial ones were overly-ambitious, and naturally I didn’t get very far with them. One of my first ideas was to take Winograd’s SHRDLU (one of the great success of early AI, which demonstrated rudimentary language understanding), and work on a learning version of it. This had the potential for a more integrated approach – it would integrate several sensori-moter modalities (hand-eye in manipulating a simulated blocks world, and language generation and understanding). I even thought about having the system learn motor skills in the blocks world. The problem with this is that it was way too difficult, and worse, tried to solve too many problems at once — it lacked focus. It might serve well as a lifetime research project, but was not manageable as a thesis (I hoped to finish my PhD before I retired or died). I came to realize that I suffered from a serious “grandiosity” bug — I wanted whatever I did to be big, amazing, and spectacular, maybe even revolutionizing the field 🙂 What I needed was to simplify and focus on smaller, more manageable problems. I think I also lacked the skill of working on large projects. My training in mathematics and computer science had mostly consisted of working on smaller problems and projects. The biggest project I had worked on was my Summer UROP research, but even that didn’t seem to scale up to a multi-year thesis project. The thesis topic I finally settled on was “Extensions of Winston’s ARCH Concept Learner”. I chose this because it was one of very few pieces of AI work that was centrally about learning, and also because I really liked the work itself (the way it used semantic nets to represent concepts, and the training paradigm of positive and negative examples). A thesis is born So I started out by writing a (friendly) critique (from an admirer’s point of view) of Winston’s concept learner. I recall coming up with something like 6 directions in which the work could be extended, and my initial proposal was to work individually on each of these, and collect the results into my final thesis. This had the heuristic advantage of dividing the “problem” into subproblems. To further simplify, I selected just 3 of these extensions to work on: 1. Learning disjunctive concepts (Winston’s only learned conjunctive concepts) 2. Learning relational concepts (Winston had relational primitives, like ON & TOUCHES, but didn’t learn new ones) 3. Learning macro concepts (allowing any learned concept to be used as a primitive to represent and learn more complex concepts) (Winston’s work included some of this already, but I wanted to generalize it to cover disjunctive and relational concepts as well). It was natural to have Winston as my (co)Thesis Advisor for this work, and I thank him for his patience, attention, and advice! Masters thesis as “Consolation Prize” By the end of my 5th year of grad school, I had only completed the 1st item (with a little preliminary work on item 2 as well). It looked like another 2 or 3 years would be required for me to finish my planned thesis. I was feeling frustrated, since my progress was much slower than I expected of myself, and I was losing self-confidence. At the same time, my funding was running out. To continue, I would have needed to start taking out loans. I was very nervous about accumulating significant debt, and feared that even after a few more years I might still be unsuccessful at finishing. So I decided to wrap up my work thus far as a Masters Thesis, collect my SM degree, and graduate and look for a job. My S.M. thesis was titled “Learning Disjunctive Concepts from Examples” and I think it was very solid piece of work. I collected my SM degree in August 1979, and withdrew from my graduate program. I had the intent of returning at some point to complete my PhD, but alas, that was not to be. Non-academic threads of my life during the graduate years During most of my graduate years I served as one of 3 graduate resident tutors in Bexley Hall (the undergraduate dorm I lived in when I was an undergrad myself). I very much enjoyed both the social and mentoring aspects of this position, and have developed a number of lifelong friendships with students from those Bexley years! I did not own a car during grad school, and don’t know where I could have parked it if I could have afforded one. I did, however, purchase a motorcycle (a used Honda 350) which I learned to ride, and parked in the Bexley courtyard. I had many interesting adventures riding to PA (to visit family) and New Hampshire, and also to Danbury CT to visit my first serious girlfriend when she moved back there. I remember reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and trying to apply some of its ideas to working on my bike. I also purchased a used electric piano, which I enjoyed playing for many years. Although I had written 1 or 2 songs in high school, I didn’t try more serious song-writing until I had my own piano. I think I had fantasies of being in a rock band, and even auditioned at one point, but was turned down because the group felt my grad studies would prevent a full commitment to the band – I’m sure they were right. I still, to the present day, enjoy playing keyboards and writing songs. My passion for puzzles continued unabated. I added to my puzzle collection – my favorite puzzle store was (and still is) Games People Play located in Harvard Square. I recall that it was around November 1979 when my wife got me perhaps the best puzzle gift I’ve ever received. She went into Games People Play by herself and asked for “the hardest puzzle you have”! Carol, the owner showed her a Rubik’s Cube, saying “we just got these in from Hungary, and it’s so hard he won’t be able to solve it”. Of course, I couldn’t resist that kind of challenge, and after nearly a week of intensive work (I’d say roughly 15-20 hours over 5 days), I finally had developed my own solution method. This was before Rubik’s Cube hit mega-popularity, and if anyone had suggested I should write a book on “How to Solve Rubik’s Cube” I would have laughed out loud at them! This puzzle was so hard, that it would only appeal to a very small number of hard-core puzzle solvers (so I figured), and they are not the type to want to hear about anyone else’s solution (at least not until they had solved it themselves). So I failed to cash in on the boom in Rubik’s Cube solution books — there were rough 4 or 5, I think, all simultaneously on the NYTimes top-10 non-fiction best seller lists for a time (1981?). Just goes to show I’m a terrible market analyst! I also had a number of relationships with women during these years, from which I learned a lot, and have mostly very positive memories! In June of 1977 I met the woman I was to later marry. We had a 2-year relationship which led to marriage in June 1979. There was a lot going on in 1979 — In addition to getting married, I was writing up my SM thesis, applying for jobs, accepting my first job, and moving to Pittsburgh — I’ll tell you more in the next installments on marriage and career. Notes on a Life in Progress – part 2 (Undergraduate Years 1970-1974) When it came time to apply to college, MIT was really the only choice that interested me. I had read an article about the Artificial Intelligence Lab at MIT, and how they were working to program a robot to play with blocks. I thought that was so cool. I was already interested in A.I. as a result of reading Isaac Asimov and lots of other science fiction, which imagined the possibility of intelligent robots. I also felt that machine intelligence might give humanity a little humility — I was getting tired of hearing how great humans were. Examples: that humans were the “pinnacle of evolution” , the only animals with language, were the only creatures with “free will”, were devoid of instinctual behavior. These claims seemed ridiculous to me. Any thoughtful person would realized that evolution is a continuing process, and that we are just one stage in that process. It also seemed clear to me that animals have varying degrees of intelligence and language, but humans seem to have a need to see themselves as “uniquely special”. My plan was to study “cognitive science” (though that had not yet been defined as a discipline) by combining studies in computer science, mathematics, cognitive psychology, and neurophysiology. MIT seemed like a great place to pursue these goals, so I applied. I also applied to RPI and Michigan State (because I wasn’t certain I’d get into MIT, and there were remote chances of a full scholarship at these schools). I was fortunate to qualify as a National Merit Semi-Finalist, and was eligible for an IBM Thomas Watson National Merit Scholarship, because my father worked for IBM. I got into all three schools, and when I didn’t get a full scholarship to MSU or RPI, I happily chose to attend MIT. MIT Experimental Study Group Perhaps the single most transformative experience of my life occurred during my Freshman Year. I joined and participated in the Experimental Study Group (ESG). ESG is a special alternative educational program founded at MIT in 1969, so it was in its second year when I arrived as a Freshman. I nearly missed out on this fantastic experience — I didn’t hear about until late in the summer, because I was away at the OSU Math program. I came home to a deluge of accumulated mailings from MIT. One of the mailings described a program (ESG) that sounded too good to be true – a program where students could design their studies, work at their own pace, choose their own textbooks, interact with faculty on a personal and informal basis. Unfortunately, there were only a limited number (50) of openings available for incoming freshman, and preference was given to those who responded early expressing interest. I was “certain” that a fantastic program like this would be oversubscribed – so I foolishly neglected to pursue it. Later, after I arrived at MIT, and joined a fraternity (to try to do something about my pathetic social life), I completed one week of classes, and was mostly bored and frustrated. Happily, one of my fellow fraternity pledges had joined ESG, and told me about it with great enthusiasm. It turned out there were still openings! I wasn’t going to miss out on this “second chance” so I immediately checked it out, talked with my advisor, and transferred into ESG! Best decision of my life! ESG was designed to give students the freedom to pursue their interests, and to work independently at their own pace. There were no specific requirements, and freshman participants received 45 units of “free elective credit” per semester. MIT’s graduation requirements included: 1. Amassing 360 units of credit (typically over 4 years) 2. “General Institute Requirements” in Math, physics, chemistry, and humanities 3. Completely the specific degree requirements of one’s major (corresponding to the department enrolled in) 4. A PE (Physical Ed.) requirement, along with passing a swim test So the 45 “Free Elective Credits” of ESG put freshmen on track toward the 360 credit total. We of course still had to satisfy all the other requirements at some time before graduation, but ESG allowed us to “defer” working on any requirements if we chose to. I, like many of my ESG peers, choose to work on most of the typical freshman requirements, but to do so on my own terms and at my own pace. I chose to work on calculus using the classic Apostol text, for example. I worked on the 1st semester physics doing independent study from the notes for the “Advanced Mechanics” physics option (used more calculus). There were also some interesting seminars offered by ESG faculty, and I joined the “Writing Seminar” offered by Peter Elbow, which was a terrific experience, and also satisfied 1 humanities requirement (the total humanity requirement was 8 semesters of humanities courses, with a distribution requirement (3 from different areas), and a concentration (of 3 courses within one area — I chose psychology). ESG was a “learning community” The ESG community consisted of 50 Freshmen, a number of sophomores (who had started out as ESG Freshman in 1969), faculty in the core areas of study (Math, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Humanities), and administrative staff (director and secretary). Everyone interacted informally and got to know each other on a first-name basis. Our community space consisted of nearly the entire 6th floor of Building 24. There was a common room (with couches, chairs, and tables), a kitchen off the common area, a library, several seminar rooms, a lab and computer room, a music room (with turntable, stereo, and LP collection), and several seminar rooms. The community was self-governing, with regular meetings, where everyone had a voice. We had community lunches every Friday. Basically people would “hang-out” around ESG (pretty much 24/7, though the faculty and staff were around primarily during daytime hours). Interactions were serendipitous, and led to a stimulating free-flow of ideas, interests, and expertise. Everyone was consider a “learner” – faculty were just senior (more experienced) learners! One of the memorable dynamics I recall was the “ad hoc seminars”. There was a bulletin board outside the administrative offices, strategically placed at the entrance to the ESG 6th-floor area. There was an area on this bulletin board where any community member could post a “seminar proposal” — e.g. “I’m interested in learning about X – who would like to learn with me?” Then anyone could sign up, and those interested would form a “study group” to share their learning and experience on the topic. Some seminars never got off the ground, but others took on a life of their own, leading to fascinating explorations and learnings! ESG blurred artificial boundaries With traditional education, I chafed at what I consider “artificial boundaries”: 1. Temporal boundaries (compartmentalizing learning into courses with fixed beginning and end times) 2. Content boundaries (compartmentalizing learning into fixed course content chunks) 3. Class/role distinctions between teacher and student. 4. Academic vs. Non-academic learning and interaction At ESG, these boundaries were loosened — learning could go on for as long (or as short) as interest continued. Content of learning wasn’t necessarily chopped up into distinct disciplines, rather interdisciplinary exploration and learning was natural and easy. As I mentioned, faculty and students were simply all learners, and the informal interactions facilitated sharing and learning. Learning could be in any area, not restricted to traditional academic areas, for example, I learned to play the game of Go (spending an intensive week doing little else), and skills at lock-picking were shared and learned via informal interactions. ESG surprised me by providing advantages beyond my expectations I joined ESG primarily to gain greater individual freedom in pursuing my education. What I found was that there was tremendous power in the learning community model! ESG was a close-knit social community, that became almost like family, and was far more important in its influence on me than mere freedom. I found that ESG become my “social group”, so much so that I dropped out my fraternity and moved to the dorms. We sometimes joke about ESG being “Epsilon Sigma Gamma” – because it was like a fraternity in many ways. Learning about Collaboration A very important lesson I learned through ESG was the power of collaboration. Pre-college, I took a very individual approach to life (I didn’t have collaborators that shared my interests), and I prided myself on doing things on my own — I enjoyed the satisfaction of working hard and solving a difficult puzzle, and if someone gave me a hint or suggestion, I’d often feel cheated that I couldn’t do it “all on my own”. At ESG, I had many opportunities to work on problems and puzzles with others, and I found that there could be tremendous pleasure from a collaboration where each party was making contributions! Moreover, via collaboration it was possible to do so much more (and to learn faster) than I could working strictly on my own. One striking example was taking Winston’s “Introduction to Artificial Intelligence”, which a group of us (numbering 10 or more) from ESG took “together”. I learned the material so much better by working on it as part of this group. We even collaborated on problem sets and Exams (with the instructor’s blessings). Note that this was a course offered through the “regular curriculum” as we referred to non-ESG courses, since ESG did not have a computer-science faculty member. Because I did well in the course (Freshmen were on Pass-Fail, but my “hidden grade” was an “A”), I got to meet with Prof. Winston, who encouraged me to pursue my AI interests – he later became my Thesis Advisor in grad school. I will explore this power of collaboration much further in future posts, but perhaps the single most significant advantage is having help readily available to get un-stuck whenever one hits a sticking point. I pursued a number of enjoyable “extracurricular” activities while an undergrad. I took both Sailing (on the Charles River) and Folk-dancing as PE classes, and continued to enjoy both for many years to come. I was actually surprised at how much I enjoyed folk-dance! I was very much a rebel by nature, naturally challenging authority, and resisting external structure. Folk-dance, on the other hand, involved a fair amount of structure — there were prescribed sequences of steps to perform, and not a lot of room for individual interpretation. Nevertheless, the structure of dances is generally very hierarchical (there are basic patterns, and these get assembled into different groups for both verses and chorus of dances, and these verses and chores repeat in yet a higher-level structure. This struck me as similar to the structure of computer programs, with subroutines written from basic language elements, and being assembled into larger subroutines and full programs – which I’m sure was a large part of the appeal. I also loved the music (especially of traditional Israeli dance), and the collaboration involved in dancing as part of a group, or with a partner. I also enjoyed the social aspect of the activity, it was a low-key, informal, and pleasant way to meet women! In fact, it was through folk-dancing that I met the woman who later became my wife and mother of my 3 children (but that story comes later). Majoring in Math I chose to major in mathematics. Partly because I loved math and wanted to learn a lot of it, but also because it had fewer requirements than the alternative of Computer Science. I wanted to continue pursuing my interdisciplinary studies toward the goal of working in AI and machine learning, and the math requirements gave me greater freedom to engage in a broader program of studies. I have fond memories of learning a lot of abstract math (Abstract Algebra, Linear Algebra, Analysis, Point-set Topology, Algebraic Topology, Combinatorics, and more). I particularly came to love Combinatorics, especially enumeration and graph theory. One of the most influential courses I took was Intro to Combinatorics taught by Prof. Dan Kleitman. The first day of class blew my mind. He presented Cayley’s theorem for enumerating trees: the number of distinct trees on N labelled vertices is exactly N^(N-2) [that’s N taken to the power N-2]. This formula seemed amazing – it was beautiful and simple! He gave an interesting proof (I’m not sure which one) and over the next days I worked to come up with my own proof, by creating a 1-1 correspondence between labeled trees and (n-2)-tuples of numbers taken from the range [1 to n]. It is easy to see that there are n^(n-2) such tuples, so establishing a correspondence of trees with tuples proves there are exactly n^(n-2) trees. My interest in Cayley’s Theorem led to a summer research project (UROP – Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program) exploring generalizations of this theorem to “higher dimensions”. This led to my first mathematical publication, in Discrete Mathematics Journal, jointly authored by me and my advisor. I often wonder what I would have learned if I had continued to regularly attend Kleitman’s course, but sadly I neglected going to “lectures” which were scheduled early in the morning, and I was already a “night-owl” who liked to sleep in. I only managed to attend 2 or 3 additional classes, solely for the purpose of handing in the 3 required project assignments [my first project was a programming project that computed the correspondence between trees and their tuple-encoding. I learned later that the German mathematician Prufer had first discovered such an encoding — mine was different and original yet similar]. If I had a “do-over” I’d make sure I attended every single one of Kleitman’s lectures in that course! Kleitman later became one of the members of my “graduate school committee” (representing math in my interdisciplinary grad program). I think it was my sophomore year that I first took the William Lowell Putnam Exam (college level competition in mathematics). I was not on the MIT team, but anyone could sign up to take the exam and compete as an individual. I remember being totally peeved at my dorm roommate who “kicked me out” of my room on the night before the exam because he was having a girl stay over. I ended up finding a place to sleep in a Radcliffe dorm, courtesy of a female friend, but the result was that I overslept! When I woke up, I had to scurry to get to MIT, and start the exam. I arrived almost 2 hours late for the 3-hour morning session. There was also, if I remember, a 2nd 3-hour afternoon session. I was really tired, and rushed through the morning exam (6 questions, of which I answered maybe 2 or 3 reasonably, and did some hand-waving on a few of the other, which might have garnered some partial credit, who knows). I had the full 3 hours in the afternoon, but still could only answer a few of the questions — they are designed to be extremely difficult and challenging. Imagine my surprise when I learned that, despite my lack of sleep and tardy arrival, I received an Honorable Mention which meant I was ranked in the top 50 scorers, nationally. Based on this performance, I was invited to join the MIT team the following year, and I made sure to get more sleep, and show up on time – nevertheless, I did terribly, and felt bad that I hurt the team’s overall ranking. I think I ranked somewhere just above 300, but my memory is cloudy at this point. Maybe there are advantages to taking an exam with less time and less sleep! Approaching graduation As graduation approached, I became very nervous about my future. Graduate school was the natural next step in pursuing a career in AI/machine learning, but what if I didn’t get accepted? There were only a few major centers where AI work and studies were possible around 1974, so I applied to the “big 3” in the U.S.: MIT, Stanford, and CMU. I was relieved, and extremely pleased to be accepted at all 3! I was honored to receive a personal phone call from Don Knuth (Stanford) informing me of my admission, and encouraging me to come to Stanford. I remember vividly that the call was on a Saturday morning, and that it woke me up — so I was no doubt somewhat groggy. Still, I was really excited! Knuth, for those of you who don’t know, is famous for his multi-volume series of books “The Art of Computer Programming”. It wasn’t until 2009 that I met him in person (at the International Puzzle Party in San Francisco), and was able to thank him for honoring me with that call! I also got accepted to both CMU and MIT, and was offered a full-fellowship at MIT through the interdisciplinary DSRE (Division for Study and Research in Education), where I’d have the opportunity to work with Seymour Papert, co-director of the MIT AI Lab. Papert had a broad range of interests, including math (he did seminal work with Minsky on Perceptrons), education (he helped create and promote the LOGO computer language for children’s education), developmental psychology (he had worked with Piaget in Geneva), and puzzles (he was an avid puzzle collector and solver, and loved “thinking about thinking” often using puzzles for that purpose). Working with Papert seemed like the best fit to my interdisciplinary interests, and having a full-fellowship rather than Teaching or Research Assistantships seemed like a big plus. The interdisciplinary program in DSRE provided an almost ESG-like freedom to design my own course of studies — I’d get to work with my committee to define all my own requirements! Finally, I was already familiar with MIT, and the Cambridge/Boston environment, so I figured I could “hit the ground running”. I accepted the MIT / DSRE Fellowship offer and the next stage of my career was mapped out. MIT Graduation I received my SB Mathematics degree from MIT in 1974. Amazing even myself, I had achieved a 4.9/5.0 gpa, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa. Embarrassing was the fact that my only “B” was in a math course — the fact that I hadn’t completed all the homework was held against me 😦 Nevertheless, I was proud of my accomplishment, and my parents and siblings came to attend my graduation! To be continued … next up: Grad School at MIT	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6185
__label__cc	0.529153	0.470847	Interview. We spoke with Julie Bindel, author of a new book about prostitution. ‘Putting an end to the sex trade requires a twofold change. It’s necessary to create fully developed and well-thought-out exit paths for women who are prostituting themselves. … At the same time, we must put up deterrents in front of those who are paying.’ Putting the lie to the ‘Pretty Woman’ myth written by Mariangela Mianiti Also filed under interview When the film Pretty Woman came out in 1990, the image of the happy prostitute—who, thanks to her work, meets and marries a handsome billionaire—swept half the world. This was the first powerful pop culture argument in favor of the sex trade. In her book Il mito Pretty Woman. Come la lobby dell’industria del sesso ci spaccia la prostituzione (published by ed. VandA ePublishing, 283 pages, €15; translated from The Pimping of Prostitution: Abolishing the Sex Work Myth, ed. Palgrave Macmillan, 2017), Julie Bindel debunks the assumption that sex for pay is a job like any other. Bindel conducted 250 interviews in 40 countries, in which women told her what it really means to be a prostitute. They spoke of the tremendous odor of the clients, of the pain of a raw and ulcerated vagina after being penetrated by many men, of the horror of having sperm and other fluids come close to one’s face, of beards rubbing against their cheeks until they bleed, of not being able to eat, drink or kiss their children because of what they had had to do with their mouths, of cramps in their arm or elbow after desperately trying to get the client to finish so they wouldn’t have to be penetrated again. Then, Bindel reconstructs the origins of the movements for legalization, reveals who is financing those acting as part of the pro-prostitution lobby (which also includes the likes of Amnesty International) and their methods of persuasion, chronicles the disastrous and damaging effects of laws decriminalizing and regulating prostitution, and showcases the results of the “Nordic model,” adopted in several countries, including Sweden, Ireland, France and Iceland, which is the only approach that truly manages to fight the phenomenon of prostitution, as it addresses the core of the problem: the existing demand and the clients. Together with Rachel Moran’s Paid For: My Journey Through Prostitution, Bindel’s The Pimping of Prostitution is an essential read in order to understand that prostitution—in the words of the American sex trade survivor Evelina Giobbe, the founder of WHISPER (Women Hurt in Systems of Prostitution Engaged in Revolt)—is an industry “driven by men’s demand for unconditional sexual access to women based on their social, economic and gender power—in other words, patriarchy.” A radical feminist and activist, and a journalist renowned for her investigations into religious fundamentalism, violence against women, surrogacy and human trafficking, Bindel is in Italy until March 9 on a tour to present the Italian edition of her latest book. Ms. Bindel, you, together with the many survivors you interviewed, believe and try to show that sex for payment is not a job. Why isn’t it? First of all, it’s not possible to turn the inside of the body of a woman into a workplace. My second point would be that, if sex is just work, then rape is nothing more than theft. My third point is that it is unacceptable to call it “work” or “a job” when it comes with such occupational hazards as death from AIDS, suicide and femicide. Who makes up the pro-sex-work lobby? It depends on the country we’re talking about. There are some ideological groups of the extreme left, like the English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP) founded in the UK in 1975. In their view, everything is work, from household chores to sexual intercourse, so it should all be paid. We feminists believe instead that caregiving work and household work should be shared equally by everyone, men and women. At the same time, they say that the only reason anyone goes into prostitution is poverty—but they draw the conclusion that this is why women should be allowed to continue to practice it. Then, there are the pimps, the owners of escort agencies, those who are renting apartments for prostitution, pornographers and brothel owners. This part of the lobby sees decriminalization as very profitable, just like the tobacco industry finds it profitable to sell their products in countries without any laws restricting them. Finally, the third part of this lobby is where we find academics and intellectuals who think being against sex work is regressive, moralizing, anti-progress, anti-freedom and conservative, because it would limit women’s personal choices. Can offering sex for payment be a free choice for a woman? It can be a choice only if there are very few other options available. Women also choose to stay in abusive relationships for many reasons, but a choice doesn’t necessarily mean a good choice. We aren’t saying that women can’t decide to prostitute themselves, but we are saying that they do so in circumstances and situations that are so narrow that it is irrelevant to talk about free choice. What we should be talking about instead are men’s choices. The anti-prohibition crowd are using sanitized language: they don’t talk about prostitutes, but about sex workers, temporary partners on a payment basis, or transactional sex. The language we choose to use is very important. People who use the term “sex work” think that in this way they are restoring dignity to persons who are prostituting themselves. I agree that “prostitute” is an unacceptable term, because prostitution is a condition imposed on a woman by the whole of patriarchal society, and that is why she is prostituting herself. If such women are just “sex workers,” however, then we should also call pimps mere “managers” and brothel owners mere “businessmen”—so it’s important to choose our words correctly. None of the women I talked to who were prostituting themselves thought of themselves as “sex workers,” which is a term invented by the academic part of the lobby. What would you say to fellow feminists who think abolitionists are puritanical, moralistic and against the freedom of choice? I’d say to these women that there are hundreds of ways you can be feminists, but most of them are wrong. Neoliberal feminism is not feminism, it is simply neoliberalism supported by women. Real feminism means trying to liberate all women from the worst of conditions. We focus more on those who are at the bottom of the social ladder, because they are the most defenseless. You analyze and document the effects of the laws that regulate or remove the penalties for prostitution. Wherever you look, you find that they have devastating effects for women. What do you think is the right approach? Putting an end to the sex trade requires a twofold change. On the one hand, it’s necessary to create fully developed and well-thought-out exit paths for women who are prostituting themselves; in order to succeed in that, we would need political will and funding, which are both very rare today. At the same time, we must put up deterrents in front of those who are paying: establish punishments for clients, subject them to public shaming. We must make it clear to men and youngsters that this is a form of violence against women, and that it is unacceptable to pay for sex. We must stop using euphemisms like “girlfriends for hire,” “escorts to order,” “sexual assistants” or “sex workers.” We should call it what it is, namely prostitution. And we should listen to the survivors. In the introduction of your book, you quote Luisa Muraro: “The wound inflicted on humanity by the practice of prostitution is no longer acceptable. The time will come, and it is already here, when the shame of prostitution, which cannot be expunged and is always rejected by women, will be cast back on its true cause, which is a degraded male conception of desire and physicality.” Are men those who need to question themselves and change? This is something men are responsible for. Men are driving the sex trade. We can find some examples of women pimps, but they usually prostituted themselves before and are clearly to be seen as exploiters—but it is men who are supporting this industry. The idea of subjecting women by paying for access inside their bodies is an idea that men developed under patriarchy. We must hold men fully responsible for sexual servitude, because it is they who have created and normalized the sex trade. Mariangela Mianiti Originally published in Italian on March 6, 2019https://ilmanifesto.it/quello-della-puttana-felice-e-un-falso-mito/	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6186
__label__wiki	0.641775	0.641775	Shulamith Firestone Episode #8 of the course “Significant futurists and their ideas” In the second half of the 20th century, American social movements were concerned with the equal rights and treatment of many subgroups and minority populations. Many radical theories that promoted feminist objectives emerged, and among the most radical theory of second-wave feminism was that of Canadian-born Shulamith Firestone’s The Dialectic of Sex. Combining theories from Sigmund Freud, Karl Marx, and Simone de Beauvoir, Firestone described a utopia where women were freed from the burdens of biological imperatives of pregnancy and childbirth, and children were bred in artificial wombs and raised communally. In her 1970 pivotal text, Firestone analyzes how women’s historical opportunities have been limited by the burden of reproduction placed on their bodies. She advocates a redefinition of sex roles, the rights of women to reproductive choice, and the disassembly of the family group. She was a political celibate and encourages other women to engage in celibacy as a path to liberation. She promoted mechanical means of reproduction and fetal development, such as technological wombs, and advocated eliminating the cultural differences between people of different sexes. Her most radical suggestion was an absolute denial of Freud—she negated his view that the sex drive is what motivates human behavior. Firestone was mainly politically active before the publication of Dialectic, and afterward she continued to found and support multiple feminist societies and causes around the country. She has been lauded and hailed as one of the most significant figures in the movement toward equal rights for women and a better understanding of the female human condition. Ultimately, she only published one other work, in 1998, which was an autobiography recounting her struggles with mental illness.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6189
__label__wiki	0.637301	0.637301	Rachel Fulton Brown Welcome! I am the professor your other professors warned you about. I love Christianity, America, and the Western tradition of theology, art, philosophy, music, letters, and education. I believe in the reality of truth, beauty, goodness, and love. I teach history as an exercise in empathy, rethinking the thoughts of the past so as to shed light on our common humanity. I judge people by what they say and do, not by what others say about them. I worship Jesus Christ as Lord and honor Mary as Mother of God. On this page you will find information about my research interests, publications, teaching, and fencing results. For an introduction to my work, see Reading Guide. I give a fuller description of my past and ongoing research, including my method, in Professional Self Portrait. For my teaching philosophy, see Masterclass. MedievalGate offers reflections on my experience as a conservative in academia. For my journey as a servant of Wisdom, see The Lady and the Logos. You can follow my adventures with Milo Yiannopoulos at Milo Chronicles. For my podcasts and videos, visit Bear On Air. Curious about the little buildings? See “A Time to Build.” My Professional Self Research and Teaching Specialties Medieval European Religious, Cultural, and Intellectual History Liturgy and Prayer Devotion to the Virgin Mary Scriptural Exegesis and Hermeneutics Subcreation and the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien My Public Self My blog: Fencing Bear at Prayer. Musings of an Entish Presby-Catholic medievalist on training the soul in virtue in the postmodern West. My online courses at Unauthorized.tv: The Forge of Tolkien Medieval History 101: The Unauthorized Version (History and Logos Channel) My guest appearances on video, radio, and podcasts, including videos about me: Bear On Air. My YouTube channel: Fencing Bear at Prayer, with playlist of my videos. Videos also archived on my BitChute channel. My Telegram channel: Fencing Bear at Prayer. A prayerful bear who loves living on the edge between the medieval and the postmodern. Academic and mischief maker. Christian and servant of Mary. Hic dracones! Join my Dragon Common Room for training in the arts of virtue and poetry. Further treasures of the Christian imagination are archived in Dragons' Keep. "But what is this soul of ours worth, what is it capable of, unless God holds it and fights with it? Any sword, however beautifully made, lies idle if there is no warrior to take it up." --Augustine of Hippo WHY I study the Middle Ages: JOY Because I believe, with J.R.R. Tolkien, that, as creatures made in the image and likeness of a Maker, we are called by our Creator to participate as subcreators in the continuing work of creation and to be moved thereby to praise and thanks for the creation of which we are a part. Because I believe in chivalry, science, romantic love, education in the liberal arts, the separation between Church and state, representative government, craftsmanship, markets, cities, written contracts, self-examination, self-improvment, self-defense, private property, the value of the individual, the dignity of merchants and laborers, and in caring for widows and orphans, the poor, the weak, the sick, for animals, and the natural world. Because I believe that ideas matter and that in order to understand the ideals of our modern Western world, including our critiques of ourselves for not living up to our ideals, we need to understand where these ideas came from and how they developed, most particularly in the course of the long Christian tradition. HOW I study the Middle Ages: CRAFT I concentrate on the ideas and practices by which medieval women and men formed themselves through reading, prayer, meditation, and worship. My goal is to discover a way to help modern readers "get inside" these practices so as to see the world the way in which medieval Christians did, as a creature of God into which God as Maker entered so that the world itself might be remade. I read books that no one else has figured out how to read, either because the ideas in them seem boring (they aren't!) or because everyone assumes that we already know what they say (we don't!). I teach courses in which I encourage students to imagine the thoughts and experiences of men and women of the past "from within," whether through close study of the primary sources or through research projects that enable them to write their own stories or make their own works of art. WHAT I study about the Middle Ages: PRAYER Some of the things I have written about: commentaries on the Song of Songs in which the bride is identified as the Virgin Mary and the bridegroom as Christ; liturgies for the feast of the Assumption of the Virgin; prayers to the Virgin Mary and Christ; fears surrounding the year 1000; the doctrine of the Real Presence in the Eucharist; flowers as surfaces for prayer; sweetness as an experience of the divine; counted prayers; the theology of the Trinity and the importance of the Holy Spirit in twelfth-century devotion to the humanity of Christ; exercises for training the attention in prayer; Hildegard of Bingen's theology of revelation; Anselm of Canterbury's prayers to the saints; Francis of Assisi's Office of the Passion; how to read the Psalms. Some of the things I am happy to talk about: the Office of the Virgin Mary; books of Hours; commentaries on the names of Mary found in the Old Testament, particularly the Psalms; Mary as a model of human creativity. Some of the things that I am thinking about as part of my current research: training the soul in virtue; the psychological bases for the doctrine of the Seven Deadly Sins; the growth of cities and their relationship to prayer; how saying the Psalms in honor of the Virgin Mary gives birth to understanding and joy. My scholarship has been supported with fellowships from the National Humanities Center (1998-99), the American Council of Learned Societies (1998-99, 2008-09), the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (2008-09), and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (1992-93, 2003-06), among others. Ongoing major projects: a translation of John of Garland's Epithalamium beate virginis Marie, an elegiac poem of nearly 6000 lines narrating the life of the Virgin from her conception and birth in the Holy Land to her assumption into heaven and marriage to Christ, intended as a textbook in theology and the liberal arts; editing a volume on Medieval Marian Devotion for Brill's Companions to the Christian Tradition; serving as area editor for Medieval Christianity for The Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception. [Video] Mary and the Art of Prayer: The Hours of the Virgin in Medieval Christian Life and Thought. New York: Columbia University Press, 2017. Chapter 2 Ave Maria: How to say the Ave Maria and why the Virgin's name was Mary [Read online] Reviews by Robert L. Fastiggi, Church History 89.1 (March 2020): 174-76; Willemien Otten, The Journal of Religion 100.1 (January 2020): 134-37; Fr. James Schall, SJ, "On Mary the Mother of God, Queen of the Universe," Homiletic & Pastoral Review (April 30, 2019); Nils Zumbansen, Facts and Stories (March 29, 2019); N. Dass, "Restarting the Engine of Christianity," The Postil Magazine (February 1, 2019); Ineke van ’t Spijker, Church History and Religious Culture 99.1 (2019): 74-75; Sheryl A. Kujawa-Holbrook, Anglican and Episcopal History (December 2018); Rebekah Lamb, "What's the problem with medieval mysticism?," Catholic Herald (November 8, 2018); Barbara Newman, Speculum 93.4 (October 2018): 1169-71; Nathan Ristuccia, "Our Lady of Everything," First Things (May 2018), 55-57, with responses by Rachel Fulton Brown, Sarah Jane Boss, and Bruce Clark, First Things (August 2018), 3-5. History in the Comic Mode: Medieval Communities and the Matter of Person. Co-edited with Bruce Holsinger. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007. "Afterword: History in the Comic Mode," with Bruce Holsinger, pp. 279-92. From Judgment to Passion: Devotion to Christ and the Virgin Mary, 800-1200. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002. Awarded the 2006 John Nicholas Brown Prize by the Medieval Academy of America for "a first book or monograph on a medieval subject judged by the selection committee to be of outstanding quality." Awarded the Journal of the History of Ideas Morris D. Forkosch Prize for "the best book in intellectual history published in 2002." A Choice Magazine Outstanding Academic Title of the Year. Reviews by Sarah Hamilton, History: Journal of the Historical Association 92.1 (January 2007): 108-9; Sarah Jane Boss, American Historical Review 111.5 (December 2006): 1576-77; Penny J. Cole, Theological Studies 67.4 (December 2006): 886-88; Kevin Madigan, History of Religions 45.3 (February 2006): 270; Marsha L. Dutton, The Catholic Historical Review 92.1 (January 2006): 107-110; Karl Morrison, "Constructing Empathy," Journal of Religion 84 (April 2004): 264-69; M.B. Pranger, "On Devotional Historiography," Dutch Review of Church History 84 (2004); Wanda Zemler-Cizewski, Speculum 79.4 (October 2004): 1071-72; Thomas F.X. Noble, Theological Studies 65.4 (December 2004): 861-64; Arthur G. Holder, Church History 73.1 (March 2004): 197-199; Janice Pinder, The Medieval Review, 04.06.11; Henrietta Leyser, European Review of History--Revue europeenne d'Histoire 11.3 (Autumn 2004): 429-30; and Benedicta Ward, Journal of Theological Studies 54.2 (October 2003): 817-18. "Mary in Medieval Prayer: The Hours of the Virgin." In The Oxford Handbook of Mary, ed. Chris Maunder, pp. 338-51. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019. "Exegesis, Mimesis, and the Voice of Christ in Francis of Assisi's Office of the Passion." The Medieval Journal 4.2 (2014): 39-62. "Mary in the Scriptures: The Unexpurgated Tradition." The Theotokos Lectures in Theology 7. Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 2014. "What's in a Psalm? British Library, MS Arundel 60 and the Stuff of Prayer." In Rome and Religion in the Medieval World: Studies in Honor of Thomas F.X. Noble, eds. Valerie L. Garver and Owen M. Phelan, pp. 235-52. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate, 2014. "Anselm and Praying with the Saints." In Experiments in Empathy: The Middle Ages, ed. Karl Morrison and Rudolph M. Bell, pp. 115-38. Turnholt: Brepols, 2013. "Hildegard of Bingen's Theology of Revelation." In From Knowledge to Beatitude: St. Victor, Twelfth-Century Scholars and Beyond. Essays in Honor of Grover A. Zinn, Jr., eds. E. Ann Matter and Lesley Smith, pp. 300-27. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2013. "Oratio." In The Cambridge Companion to Christian Mysticism, eds. Patricia Z. Beckman and Amy Hollywood, pp. 167-77. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. "My Psalter, My Self; or How to Get a Grip on the Office According to Jan Mombaer (d.c. 1501): An Exercise in Training the Attention for Prayer." Spiritus: A Journal of Christian Spirituality 12.1 (Spring 2012): 75-105. "Three-in-One: Making God in Twelfth-Century Liturgy, Theology and Devotion." In European Transformations: The Long Twelfth Century, eds. Thomas F.X. Noble and John Van Engen, pp. 468-97. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2012. "Mary." In Christianity in Western Europe c. 1000-c. 1500, eds. Miri Rubin and Walter Simons, pp. 283-96. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. "Praying by Numbers." Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History, 3rd. series, volume 4 (2007): 195-250. "Praying with Anselm at Admont: A Meditation on Practice." Speculum 81.3 (July 2006): 700-733. "'Taste and See That the Lord is Sweet' (Ps. 33:9): The Flavor of God in the Monastic West." The Journal of Religion 86.2 (April 2006): 169-204. "The Virgin in the Garden, or Why Flowers Make Better Prayers." Spiritus: A Journal of Christian Spirituality 4 (Spring 2004): 1-23. "'Quae est ista quae ascendit sicut aurora consurgens?': The Song of Songs as the Historia for the Office of the Assumption." Mediaeval Studies 60 (1998): 55-122. "Mimetic Devotion, Marian Exegesis, and the Historical Sense of the Song of Songs." Viator 27 (1996): 86-116. “Make Art—and Academia—Medieval Again.” Academic Questions (Autumn 2020). Commentary by Professor Bruce Gilley [video] "Dialogue with Dignity." Changing Our Consciousness, Inc. August 2-16, 2020. [Video] "Should we really be upset about these statues?" With Milo Yiannopoulos, Friday Night's All Right. June 29, 2020. [Video] "FVFC: Great Holy Fools in Film." With Tyler Hummel. February 19, 2020. [Video] Milo Chronicles. New York: Dangerous Books, 2019. "Exposing Howard Zinn's Fake History of America." Interview with Mary Grabar. September 23, 2019. [Audio] "Western Civilisation, Christianity, and the Middle Ages." Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation, August 14, 2019. [Video] "What's the point of reading 'Great Books'? The Lesson of the Middle Ages." ABC Religion & Ethics, August 16, 2019. Lecture for Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation, August 14, 2019. [Video] The Ramsay Podcast, with Stephen McInerney, August 14, 2019. [Audio] "Is Academia Good for the Soul?" Annual Meeting of the Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship, May 4, 2019. [Video] "Safe Spaces vs. Sacred Spaces." First Annual Chris and John Furedy Lecture, London, Ontario, May 3, 2019. [Video] "It's her cathedral. But somehow Our Lady has been forgotten." Catholic Herald, April 18, 2019; reposted on The Marian Room, Mary 22, 2019. "Fire in the Cathedral." First Things, April 17, 2019. Foreword in Milo Yiannopoulos, Diabolical: How Pope Francis Has Betrayed Clerical Abuse Victims Like Me and Why He Has to Go (New York: Bombardier Books, 2018). "Mary and the Art of Prayer: Conversations with Mark Bauerlein." First Things, June 22, 2018. [Audio] "Training the Soul in Virtue: Lessons from the West." What is Western Civilization? National Association of Scholars Conference, February 9, 2018. [Video] "Milo, Jordan Peterson, and the Symbolic Worldview." Interview with Jonathan Pageau, July 13, 2017. [Video] "Three Books on the Virgin Mary: An Interview with Rachel Fulton Brown." First Things, June 16, 2017. "The Quest for the Historical Mary." First Things, June/July 2017. "Why Milo Scares Students, and Faculty Even More." Sightings: Religion in Public Life, February 16, 2017. Review of Jill Geoffrion, Visions of Mary: Art, Devotion, and Beauty at Chartres Cathedral, in Reading Religion, September 12, 2018. Review of R.M. Thomson and M. Winterbotton, eds., Miracles of the Blessed Virgin Mary: William of Malmesbury, in The Medieval Review 16.09.35. Review of Maureen Barry McCann Boulton, Sacred Fictions of Medieval France: Narrative Theology in the Lives of Christ and the Virgin, 1150-1500, in H-France 16 (April 2016), No. 50. "Penisgate: Response to Matthew J. Milliner, 'The Sexuality of Christ in Byzantine Art and in Hypermodern Oblivion.'" Religion and Culture Web Forum. The Martin Marty Center for the Advanced Study of Religion, The University of Chicago. January 2014. Review of Leslie Brubaker and Mary B. Cunningham, The Cult of the Mother of God in Byzantium: Texts and Images (2011), in The Medieval Review 12.10.08. Review of Gary Waller, The Virgin Mary in Late Medieval and Early Modern English Literature and Popular Culture (2011), in The Medieval Review 12.02.29. Review of Donna Spivey Ellington, From Sacred Body to Angelic Soul: Understanding Mary in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe (2001), in The Medieval Review, 02.03.08. Complete list of book reviews Tips for Dealing with Writer's Block: For Teachers and Students Style Sheet for Footnotes and Bibliography Undergraduate Only History of European Civilization: I. Early Middle Ages to Enlightenment (Autumn 2005)(Autumn 2015) II. Enlightenment to Present Day (Winter 2008)(Winter 2016) Knights and Samurai War in the Middle Ages Tolkien: Medieval and Modern History Colloquium: Writing Historical Fiction History Colloquium: Religion and History B.A. theses advised Advanced Undergraduate and Graduate Europe in the Early Middle Ages Europe in the High Middle Ages Medieval Christian Mythology Mary and Mariology Cities and Towns in the Middle Ages Animals in the Middle Ages The Arts of Language in the Middle Ages: The Trivium Religion and Society in the Medieval West Medieval Monasticism Medieval Travelers M.A. theses advised Graduate Colloquia and Seminars Virtues and Vices in Medieval Christian Thought The Psalms in Medieval Christianity Peter Lombard's Sentences Medieval Biblical Exegesis Sacrament and Liturgy in the Medieval West Praying by the Book Spiritual Exercises: History and Practice Religious Thought in the Twelfth Century Religious Thought in the Later Middle Ages Manuscripts and Medieval Culture The Conversion of Europe Intellectuals in the Twelfth Century Problems in Medieval History I Problems in Medieval History II The Meaning of History Medieval European History Orals Starter List Ph.D. dissertation advising My teaching at the University of Chicago has been recognized with the Provost's Teaching Award (2006) and the Llewellyn John and Harriet Manchester Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching (2007). Medieval Studies at The University of Chicago Undergraduate and Graduate Programs in Medieval Studies Medieval Studies Workshop My club: Fencing Center of Chicago My USFA rating: B18 Foil My best results: Bronze Medalist, Veteran Women's Foil 50-59, USFA Summer Nationals, St. Louis, MO, July 2018. World Championships 2016 Team USA, Veteran Women's Foil 50-59. 5th Place Finalist, Veteran Women's Foil 50-59, USFA Summer Nationals, Dallas, TX, July 2016. Silver Medalist, Veteran Women's Foil 50-59, North American Cup, Richmond, VA, April 2016. 6th Place Finalist, Veteran Women's Foil 50-59, North American Cup, Baltimore, MD, December 2015. 6th Place Finalist, Veteran Women's Foil 50-59, USFA Summer Nationals, San Jose, CA, June/July 2015. Bronze Medalist, Veteran Women's Foil 50-59, North American Cup, Reno, NV, February/March 2015. Bronze Medalist, Veteran Women's Foil 40-49, North American Cup, Dallas, TX, December 2013. 6th Place Finalist, Veteran Women's Foil 40-49, USFA Summer Nationals, Columbus, OH, July 2013. 5th Place Finalist, Veteran Women's Foil 40-49, North American Cup, Reno, NV, March 2013. 8th Place Finalist, Veteran Women's Foil 40-49, North American Cup, Milwaukee, WI, December 2012. Silver Medalist, Veteran's Women's Foil 40-49, USFA Summer Nationals, Anaheim, CA, July 2012. 8th Place Finalist, Veteran Women's Foil 40-49; Top 32, Div II Women's Foil, USFA Summer Nationals, Reno, NV, July 2011. 5th Place Finalist, Veteran Women's Foil 40-49, USFA Summer Nationals, Atlanta, GA, July 2010. More Ankerstein buildings George Hardy’s Ankerstein Page (with many useful links) Text and photographs copyright Rachel Fulton Brown, 2002-present.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6192
__label__cc	0.527268	0.472732	Donate Equipment Medical Equipment Rental & Supplies News & Success Stories During this difficult time, we are taking extra steps to help prevent the spread of Covid-19. A face covering is required for anyone entering our store as well as our staff while in-store or out on deliveries. We are offering contactless delivery as well. Please call us to set up contactless delivery. Tom Neal September 28, 2020 TAGG-You’re It! Christmas Stockings Update You Shop. Amazon Gives. Sign in to your own amazon account via the link below and Amazon will donate .05% to us. kurt@helpequipment.org 8522 park drive. Omaha NE 68127 We are located in the same plaza as Spaghetti Works right next to Dollar General. © Copyright HELP 2018 Anahi Reynoso-Ramirez Anahi Joined the board in 2020. She graduated from the University of Nebraska at Omaha in 2013 with a Master’s degree in Social Work. She is bilingual in English and Spanish. Anahi has served the Omaha Community for over 10 years with diverse populations. She is currently the Director of Social Services at the Intercultural Senior Center. Anahi collaborates and partners with different businesses, medical institutions, and other non-profits to serve seniors from different communities. Mindy Paces Mindy joined the HELP board in September of 2020. With over 12 years of Human Services experience, Mindy currently serves as the Vice President of Housing and Financial Stability for Heartland Family Service. She graduated from Wayne State College in 2009 with a Bachelor’s degree in Human Services Counseling and a minor in Psychology and has completed some coursework towards a Master’s Degree in Professional Counseling. Mindy’s career experience ranges from work in Child Welfare, Intellectual and behavioral disabilities, and adolescent residential substance use treatment. Mindy is an active member of various task forces and workgroups in the community relating to Housing and Homelessness efforts, to include advocacy efforts around affordable housing. Mindy is passionate about giving back to the community and working alongside underserved populations to ensure that all have access to resources that meet basic needs and promote holistic wellbeing. HELP’s mission and community reach are what inspired Mindy to serve on the board, and she is honored to be a part of advancing HELP’s mission and values in the community. Kurt Bush Kurt joined the HELP family as administrative assistant in August 2016 and, due to his abilities and commitment, was quickly promoted to program director and then executive director in 2020. He has extensive computer and donor data management skills, including five years of experience in Information Technologies and computer repair. Kurt previously served on the Sheridan Volunteer Fire Department in Sheridan, Montana. After earning an Associate’s degree in Business Management, he moved to Omaha from Montana in fall 2012. Kurt enjoys the great outdoors and spending time with his wife and two children. Kurt’s motivation: “I do not believe anyone should undergo such severe financial hardship as people do today when needing to provide medical equipmentfor themselves or a loved one. With the rising cost of healthcare, working at HELP is my way of doing something to make a difference.” Tim Coyle Tim joined the HELP family as a board member in January 2020. He has an extensive background in marketing planning & implementation, advertising and public relations. Tim has a BA in Journalism from Creighton University and had a career in direct response marketing for Mutual of Omaha and Physicians Mutual, as well as marketing & administration at Omaha Neon Sign Co, Inc. Tim has donated his time & skills with other nonprofits over the years. He was the co-chairman of public relations for the Cox Classic Golf Tournament and is currently a board director and corporate secretary for the Chicago & North Western Historical Society. Tim and his wife Mary have one child and three grandchildren, all living in the Omaha/Lincoln metro area. Over the years, they have spent many hours watching their son and grandchildren’s soccer games. When asked to participate as a board member with HELP, Tim’s immediate reply was yes. He is familiar with the medical and support needs of the elderly and handicapped through experiences with family and friends. Tim understands that services and equipment are essential to those in need and should be available, no matter their financial situations. This is Mary’s first year on the board, starting in February of 2019. She previously served two three-year terms and is a past board president. She has 40 years’ experience serving nonprofits. She is an elder law attorney with Aging Partners in Lincoln, Nebraska. She is a member of First Presbyterian Church Omaha. John Morey John Morey is a Hastings, Nebraska native but has lived in Omaha for over 40 years. A life-long Presbyterian, John has served on Session Boards for many years, and has served as the Moderator of the Presbytery of Missouri River Valley and other Presbytery Committees. He and his wife of nearly 50 years, Karen, are members of Presbyterian Church of the Cross in Omaha. John sings in the choir and several ensembles, and is Chairman of the church’s Vesper Concerts Board of Advisors. John and Karen have two children and four grandchildren, all living in the Omaha/Lincoln metro area. They love to travel, with a goal of at least two international trips per year, in addition to domestic trips. John is a Registered Principal and Partner in the Financial Planning and Investment Management firm of Morey & Quinn Wealth Partners, and has been a Financial Advisor for over 30 years. He works with individuals and small business owners, helping them create, grow and preserve their financial well-being. Marilyn Puett Marilyn Puett is on the Executive Committee of HELP’s board, serving as President. She retired as a school administrator with the Omaha Public Schools after 45 years of service. Prior to becoming the Dean of Students at Bryan Middle School, Marilyn taught vocal music for over 30 years at eight elementary schools and two middle schools. Born and raised in Sheridan, Wyoming, she learned about volunteerism and community service from her parents, Wilbur and Alta June Pool. In 2010, her mother was chosen by the Jefferson Foundation as Wyoming’s volunteer of the year. Marilyn is a graduate of Hastings College and holds a Master’s degree in Educational Administration from the University of Nebraska. She is the recording clerk of the Presbytery of the Missouri River Valley and was secretary to the presbytery’s Commission on Ministry. Marilyn has belonged to Presbyterian Church of the Master for over 40 years, assisting as the vice-moderator of the Presbyterian Women, chair of the Memorial Committee and singer in the Chancel Choir. She also serves on Standing Bear Village’s Sanitary Improvement District board. Marilyn first learned about HELP when her co-worker needed medical equipment after a leg amputation due to diabetes, while another friend needed a walker for her husband. They were impressed with the possibility of borrowing medical equipment from HELP’s vast array, and the staff’s professionalism and expertise. Marilyn has supported the Presbyterian Women and HELP’s Christmas stocking project for inmates since its inception. Marilyn believes HELP is a good place for her to give back to the community that has given her and her family so much over the past 46 years. Jackie Austad Nelson Jackie Austad Nelson is Vice-President of HELP’s Board of Directors. During a 31-year career at Union Pacific Railroad, she held various positions in the Finance and Human Resources departments. Jackie was responsible for: the design and implementation of the human resource service center; redesign of the management compensation program; design and implementation of a new consumer-driven healthcare plan for management employees; design and implementation of an occupational health management system, and management of a nationally recognized employee wellness program. She and her husband own Nelson Painting & Decorating. She also holds a BBA in Accounting from the University of Iowa and an MBA from Creighton University. Jackie has served on the boards of the Omaha Literacy Council, the Heartland Foundation, March of Dimes, Integrated Benefits Institute, the National Business Group on Health, WELLCOM and Live Well Nebraska. She was a member of the Executive Committee of Go Red for Women, served on the UNO School of Gerontology Advisory Board, and chaired the Union Pacific Komen Race for the Cure corporate team. Jackie is passionate about giving back to the community and is excited about furthering the mission and values of HELP. Edward Alfaro Edward joined our team in the summer of 2019, full of energy and a sense for doing the right thing. He is fluent in Spanish, which helps us to communicate to our Hispanic speaking clients. Edward is a very hard worker and is diligent in his duties. When he first joined the team, his main goal was to make a positive difference in the lives of others. He always has a smile on his face and is quick to lend a hand. Maryssa Brown Maryssa joined our team in May of 2019, looking for a new challenge with the potential for growth. She wanted to make a difference and wanted to help others who have to face the challenges of our healthcare system, especially those who do not have insurance coverage. Maryssa is a problem-solver and likes to find creative ways to make things happen for our clients. In her spare time, Maryssa is a Rotarian and she belongs to a choir and tours regularly as well as acts as a stage manager for local productions. Jane Jones Jane came to us after many years working at Nursing Home facilities, helping others. Jane knew that she was not yet ready to retire so when this opportunity came up, she saw it as a sign…she LOVES to help people! Customer Service/Administrative Assistant Jane came to us after many years working at Nursing Home facilities, helping others. Jane knew that she was not yet ready to retire so when this opportunity came by, she knew it was a sign…Jane LOVES to help people! Gary Willis Gary R. Willis is a HELP board member. Gary enjoyed a 40-year career at Union Pacific Railroad, the majority of it in Labor Relations’ arbitration and discipline area for operating and non-operating employees. In addition to his railroad career, Gary has worked for NP Dodge Real Estate for 25 years. He is currently a board member and treasurer for Nebraska Prostate Cancer Alliance, and board member and past president of the Omaha Press Club. He was previously a board member for the Friendship Program, an adult day care/rehabilitation facility, and president and board member for the Douglas County American Cancer Society. Gary’s first experience with HELP was when a family member went into hospice and required a hospital bed. “The staff at HELP was so helpful and kind from delivery to picking up when we no longer needed it,” he said. This pleasant experience made it very easy for Gary to want to become a board member. He wants to make the Omaha and surrounding communities aware of HELP’s mission, and its role to help individuals stay in their home with professional equipment. Tom Neal Tom joined the HELP family as Executive Director in October 2018. He brings with him an extensive background of leadership, marketing and public relations. Tom received a BS in Human Resource Management and a MS equivalent in Operations Management. He began his career at Physicians Mutual and, after being promoted through the ranks, became a successful marketing manager leading a team focused on nurturing customer relationships. In 2013 he joined Nebraska Organ Recovery, raising awareness of the need for suitable donors. Ready for a new challenge, he accepted an Executive Director role that consisted of managing an early learning center, two community learning centers and a food distribution program in Lincoln, Neb. Over the years, he dedicated many years to nonprofit boards, including a combined 23 years of service. He is currently the President for Big Canvas and is a board member for the Lions Eye Bank of Nebraska. Tom’s motivation: “I love the feeling of a job well done. When I know that I have helped someone toward a better life, it is the most amazing feeling ever. I want my time at HELP to be that of serving the needs of our patrons and making sure that everyone who needs us knows about us! Danielle LeGrande Danielle LeGrande has been serving on the HELP Board starting in October 2018. Danielle has 10 years of experience in the non-profit sector, including 5 years as the Logistics Manager with WELLCOM and 5 years as Community Director at the March of Dimes Nebraska Chapter. She left the non-profit sector and is now working for Southern Glazer’s Wine and Spirits as a Business Analyst. Danielle has a bachelor’s degree in General Studies with a Minor in Non-Profit Studies and Youth Services Administration from the University of Northern Iowa. She enjoys spending time with her family, house projects and volunteering. Danielle is passionate about giving back to non-profits in our community and is honored to be serving on the HELP Board to further the mission and values. Kellie Morrell Kellie Morrell has served on the HELP board since 2014. Her many roles have included president and vice president, and participation on numerous committees. She is an Agile coach and trainer with 20-plus years of experience in a variety of industries. She is married and has one daughter. Kellie is passionate about HELP’s mission: “Helping others optimize their independence and quality of life.” Daniel Haynes Daniel has served in social services for over 12 years. Prior to joining the HELP team, he assisted at-risk youth through juvenile corrections; supported adults with special needs, and worked within the foster care system helping parents and their foster children. He joined the HELP family in November of 2014 and has enjoyed the opportunity to serve seniorsin the community. Since beginning his career working with children and youth, and then with special needs adults, Daniel believes working with seniors is the next logical step in his journey to help people. Daniel earned a Bachelor’s degree in Family Life & Marriage Counseling from Nebraska Christian College. He enjoys watching movies with his wife and their four rambunctious boys, and volunteering in his church. Daniel’s motivation: “I thoroughly enjoy serving in a “people helping” position and have done so my whole career. Making a positive difference in the lives of others continues guide my actions each and every day.” Jerelle Johnson Jerelle joined the HELP family in January 2014. His days are busy delivering and picking up medical equipment items throughout the Omaha/Council Bluffs metro area. Having excellent organizational skills, Jerelle maintains the warehouse inventory along with data entry for thousands of donated items each year. In his free time, Jerelle can be found in his personal garden or enjoying life at his wife’s side. Jerelle’s motivation: “I came to HELP because it is a small nonprofitorganization that I wanted to help grow. I thoroughly enjoy helping the people within our community.” David A. Daniels David A. Daniels is a HELP board member. Dave has 26 years of experience in Recreation and Athletics, including 17 years as an assistant director of Campus Recreation at the University of Nebraska Omaha. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Eastern University (PA) and a Master’s degree in Sports Administration from the University of Northern Colorado (CO). Currently, Dave is an appliance specialist at The Home Depot and a delivery driver for Panera Bread. He enjoys volunteering, traveling, history, yardwork/landscaping and music. Dave believes in HELP’s mission and that it serves an important role for individuals and families in the Omaha community. Dr. Nancy Kelley Dr. Nancy Kelley is on the Executive Committee of HELP’s board, serving as secretary. She is a professor with the University of Nebraska Omaha’s Grace Abbott School of Social Work. Nancy earned a PhD in Social Work with a Graduate Certificate in Gerontology from the University of Utah; Master’s degree in Social Service Administration from The University of Chicago; Bachelor of Social Work degree with a minor in developmental psychology from Moorhead State University in Minnesota, and an Associate of Arts degree and certificate in Developmental Disabilities from Minot State University in North Dakota. Her professional background has focused primarily in the fields of aging and developmental disabilities, holding direct care, case management, coordinating and supervisory, and administrative positions in community-based organizations. She also has extensive experience working with adjudicated adults under legal guardianship who have been victims of elder abuse, neglect and/or exploitation. Her research, practice and policy interests include: quality of life and quality of care of older adults and people with disabilities; behavioral healthcare across the lifespan; community long-term care initiatives for older and disabled adults; and family and nonfamily caregiving issues across the lifespan. In addition to serving on HELP’s board since January 2013, Nancy has actively supported the community through her leadership in other nonprofit organizations and coalition work, such as the Nebraska Chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), Nebraska Family Support Network, and the Nebraska Older Adult Mental Health Coalition. Laura Ilcisin Laura Ilcisin is on the Executive Committee of HELP’s board, serving as treasurer. She retired after 20 years as an accounting lecturer in the College of Business at the University of Nebraska Omaha. Her teaching included a variety of financial accounting courses in both the undergraduate and MBA programs. She served on numerous committees at the department, college and university levels, including the Faculty Senate. Laura advised student organizations, served as internship director for the accounting program, and coordinated all sections of the introductory accounting curriculum. She authored a published instructional guide for a widely used college-level accounting textbook, and developed both content and review materials for numerous others. In 2014, the UNO Alumni Association recognized her as the outstanding teacher in the College of Business. Prior to joining UNO, Laura worked for 15 years in the Finance, Accounting and Operating departments at Union Pacific Railroad. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Creighton University, an MBA from the University of Nebraska Omaha and a CPA certificate. Her community service has included the Legislation Committee of the Nebraska Society of Certified Public Accountants, the Nebraska SID 295 Board of Trustees, the Nebraska Future Force Task Force, and the board of directors of RetireSafe and the Senior Center for Health & Security. Anne Walsh Anne Walsh is a HELP board member and chair of the organization’s marketing communications committee. During a 31-year career at Union Pacific Railroad, Anne led internal communications efforts connecting 42,000 employees in 23 states, building engagement by helping them understand their role in serving 10,000 customers. Reaching the diverse, unionized workforce required managing numerous electronic and print communications, as well as extensive executive outreach events. These efforts were closely aligned with the company’s social media, brand management and media relations strategies. She is a board member of A Time To Heal cancer rehabilitation foundation, has served as president of the Omaha Press Club and the Association of Railway Communicators, and was an advisory board member for the University of Nebraska Omaha’s student newspaper. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism from UNO. As a primary decision-maker for an adult relative’s healthcare, Anne has experienced firsthand the complexities of navigating long-term care options and maintaining independent living. She is committed to expanding and enhancing HELP’s reach and reputation, so that more can be served through its programs. Senior Warehouse Coordinator Jerelle’s motivation: “I came to HELP because it is a small nonprofit organization that I wanted to help grow. I thoroughly enjoy helping the people within our community.” Kurt joined the HELP family as administrative assistant in August 2016 and, due to his abilities and commitment, was quickly promoted to program director. He has extensive computer and donor data management skills, including five years of experience in Information Technologies and computer repair. Kurt’s motivation: “I do not believe anyone should undergo such severe financial hardship as people do today when needing to provide medical equipment for themselves or a loved one. With the rising cost of healthcare, working at HELP is my way of doing something to make a difference.” Daniel has served in social services for over 12 years. Prior to joining the HELP team, he assisted at-risk youth through juvenile corrections; supported adults with special needs, and worked within the foster care system helping parents and their foster children. He joined the HELP family in November of 2014 and has enjoyed the opportunity to serve seniors in the community. Since beginning his career working with children and youth, and then with special needs adults, Daniel believes working with seniors is the next logical step in his journey to help people.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6197
__label__cc	0.67797	0.32203	Her Fine Hand ~ The creative endeavors of a modern gentlewoman My First Art Show! Posted by Virginia from Virginia; Her Fine Hand in Publicity Ohmigosh everyone — remember when I said there were exciting things happening around here? I wasn’t kidding. I’m going to have my first art show! Check it out: So here’s the deal: there’s this absolutely fabulous organization in Richmond called Health Brigade. (People who have lived in Richmond for a while remember it by its former name, Fan Free Clinic.) Health Brigade was formed in 1968 as the first free clinic in Virginia, patterned after similar efforts in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood in San Francisco. Over the decades, this amazing organization has responded to contemporary health challenges, from women’s health and the prevention of transmissible diseases, to HIV/AIDS, to current issues in access to affordable health care. Its mission is to provide quality health services, especially to those least served, in a compassionate and non-judgmental environment. I simply can’t stress enough my admiration for Health Brigade and the dedicated people I’ve met there. So last year, Health Brigade began a new initiative called Art Brigade. The idea is to have art on display in the clinic as a way to promote healing for patients, as well as to allow clients, volunteers, staff and the public to experience community-born art. Art Brigade’s first show, featuring the gorgeous mixed-media work of Jill Powell, opened in November and will run through the rest of this week. My show will open next Thursday, March 23 and remain until May 31. It will include not only my art dolls, but also a fair amount of my past work on paper: graphite, colored pencil, watercolor, and collage. The truth is, I’m a little overwhelmed by the whole thing, but I’m absolutely thrilled to be able to share my work with the community! And the best part of all — a portion of any work sold during the show will go to Health Brigade. All of my dolls, except for Bernard and the Toymaker, will be for sale. So . . . . that’s the latest news from FineHandLand darlings! Isn’t this just the best year ever? Until next time, ta-ta! Art doll Graphite Drawing	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line6199

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