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__label__cc	0.632551	0.367449	The Family Reunion Trip: It’s All Relatives By editor on July 3, 2016 How to plan a reunion The Fisher history closely tracks that of many African American families. They are the descendants, by blood or marriage, of Orange and Berry Fisher, two brothers born in the late 1800s in Lancaster County, South Carolina. Both took up cotton and potato farming and, between them, fathered 16 children. The brothers died in the 1950s. Their descendants have been meeting every two years since the late 1990s. The organizing committee expected between 150 and 200 family members to attend in Atlanta. At the registration desk, they traded hugs and picked up their green-and-gold reunion T-shirts (blue for organizers) and the three-day program. The kickoff was low-key — a reception in the ballroom, followed by a buffet supper of fried chicken, potato salad and baked beans served on paper plates. Emotions rolled through the room. When just about any family member spoke, it was clear that the strongest thread that bound them was a respect for family ties. “My grandaddy always talked about how we should all find our way back to be in one place together,” said one. “In some ways, this is the fulfillment of his dream.” Reunions have become more sophisticated, multi-dimensional and, in many cases, grander. Once hosted in private homes or churches, they are now most often held in luxury hotels. Special reunion web sites and customized t-shirts are also common. Some families form nonprofit associations and use the funds raised to offer scholarships, buy real estate or assist family members in need. The Fishers charged $80 per person for adults and $30 for children, not including travel; kids under 6 were free. That rate included most meals and entertainment; t-shirts and bus excursion were extra. The total cost was around $10,000, according to the reunion chair. The first full day of the gathering started with the official family meeting started. This session, a standard feature of reunions, is where family business is discussed, including genealogy research, legal matters and fundraising concerns. The biggest issue was where to hold the next reunion. The reunion organizers had deliberately crafted a program that featured a variety of voices. “We wanted everybody to see how fantastically their cousins sing or how well they make speeches. What better way to generate family pride and inspire the younger generation?” In the afternoon, members visiting Atlanta for the first time, climbed on a bus chartered by the committee to see the city’s African American heritage sites. At the first stop, Ebenezer Baptist Church, a guide spoke about the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., who was pastor of the church during the 1960s. Across the street, at the King Center, the group watched videotapes of civil rights marches. Finally, they stopped at King’s tomb, next door to the church. For many, the day’s richest moment was the formal dinner and dance. Uncles, aunts and cousins fanned into the hotel ballroom dressed in chic evening gowns and natty suits. Over dinner of baked salmon, broiled vegetables and petits fours, they listened to tribute paid to family elders and the names of the eldest and youngest family members, those who had recently graduated from high school and college, and those who had done military duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. No sooner were the tables cleared and the benediction said than an Atlanta deejay broke out the Aretha Franklin, Sam Cooke and other soul and R&B oldies. The dance floor filled quickly and, for three hours, stayed packed. No African American reunion is complete without a worship service. For the Fishers, the kind of loyal Baptists who open the church on Sunday mornings, it would be a centerpiece event. And so, early Sunday morning, decked out in stylish dresses, suits and hats, the extended family filed into the ballroom for the last time. Eventually, though, they began to chat with one another. Three days of reconnecting, dancing, touring and laughing had bonded them, and it was hard for them to get up and leave. From a story by Gary Lee in The Washington Post, Washington DC. Previous ArticleTheme park reunions by Jacky Runice Next Article 4 hot tips for a successful family reunion 5 hot tips for a successful family reunion 8 tips for a great family reunion	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line7895
__label__wiki	0.665109	0.665109	Boats & Seascapes RA Summer Exhibitions GBPEURJPYUSD COVID-19 Update: We are still processing sales and orders worldwide, with FREE Shipping for all UK orders DrypointDrypoint Richard Spare Add to cart £155 Artist Proofs only remaining Drypoint and watercolour Somerset JPP Textured White 300gsm cotton paper Image Size: 150 x 100mm Paper Size: 250 x 215mm Richard Spare Biography I enjoy the almost sculptural quality involved in working a plate and particularly like the rich, velvety quality of line produced by drypoint, which, in combination with vibrant colour, I use for my prints. — Richard Spare Richard studied painting at Maidstone College of Art (1971-74). He has continued to produce his own work ever since and has become intensely involved in printmaking. A Master printmaker, Richard has editioned work for many contemporary artists, including David Hockney, Robert Ryman, Francesco Clemente, Donald Sultan and Keith Haring. In 1977 he worked with David Hockney as his assistant, setting up an etching studio for him. It was an interesting time as Richard was able to watch Hockney at work on his sets for the Glyndebourne 'Magic Flute'. In 1988 Richard spent several months in New York working with Jasper Johns, proofing and editioning complex carborundum prints. Today, Richard concentrates solely on his own work, which derives from nature and travel. The garden he has designed at his studio in Charlton is a rich source of inspiration. Filled with hollyhocks, foxgloves, poppies and wisteria, it is a small haven for wildlife and has been a starting point for many of his prints. Richard's studio is a homage to the art of printmaking, with its lovingly-restored antique etching presses, housed in a converted Victorian coach house. A frequent exhibitor at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition and a twice invited exhibitor at the Discerning Eye exhibition at the Mall Galleries, Richard also regularly shows his work internationally. Solo international shows include a series of annual exhibitions throughout Japan, spanning eleven years, which included Tokyo, Fukuoka, Osaka, Yokohama, Hiroshima, Matsuyama, Sendai, Sapporo, Kobe, Kyoto, Nagoya, Kagoshima, Kawagoe, and Nara. He has also had solo shows in Ballarat and Daylesford, Victoria, Australia. He has been Guest International Artist at the Toorak Village Art Affair, Melbourne. In November 2017 Richard travelled once again to attend 28 solo shows of his work in cities across the whole of Japan, from Hokkaido in the north to the Pacific Islands in the south. This beautiful country, its art and traditions, continue to be an abiding influence on his work. Solo shows in the UK include The Craft Centre & Design Gallery, Leeds City Art Gallery, Trevelyan College, University of Durham and The Burton Art Gallery, Bideford, Devon. Notable mixed shows include The Art on paper Fair at the Royal College of Art and the Originals, Society of Wildlife Artists and Royal Society of British Artists Open exhibitions at the Mall Galleries. Richard's work appears in many collections worldwide; public collections include: The Victoria & Albert Museum, British Library, Museum of London, Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, Royal Cornwall Museum, Trevelyan College, University of Durham, Aston University, Chelmsford Museum, Penlee House Museum and Gallery, Leeds Art Gallery, Maidstone Museum, Imperial Health Charity, Art in Healthcare, The Central and Regional Library of Berlin and Federation University Australia, Ballarat, Victoria. He achieves a dreamlike quality in his work with simple yet very appealing subject matter. — Will Ramsay, Founder of the Affordable Art Fair (AFF) Ramsay, W., ArtReview, Vol. 51 (Oct 1999), pp. 44-5. What's a Drypoint? Richard is primarily a printmaker and draws directly into the copper plate (to the extent of lugging a box of copper plates away on holiday!). In 'drypoint' the image is inscribed into the plate surface (in this case, copper), with a sharp etching needle. Depending on the force and angle used (and Richard likes to incise the surface very deeply - which, unfortunately, is rather painful on the fingers!) fine, sharp pieces of metal are thrown up either side of the line. This burr holds ink, as does the furrow created by the needle, and the result is a warm, velvety line. The copper plate is then electroplated (‘steelfaced’) with a fine layer of iron, to give the burr the strength to withstand the printing process. Inking up and wiping the plate is done by hand, before it is run through an etching press. Years of experience have taught Richard exactly how much ink to leave on the plate to achieve the specific velvety effect he wants. The 100% pure cotton paper is printed damp so that it readily moulds itself to the plate and accepts the ink. His etching press is an antique; indeed the process has changed very little since the days of Rembrandt! The plate is re-inked, wiped and run through the press for each print made, and thus each print will vary slightly. Finally, after the drying process, each print is hand-coloured, signed and numbered. When the edition is completed, the plate is defaced or destroyed. Etching, engraving, aquatint, drypoint and mezzotint techniques are all termed 'intaglio' - i.e. the image is held in marks made into the printing surface. A characteristic of intaglio prints is the 'platemark', an impressed mark around the image, caused by the plate and paper being forced together in the printing press. The meticulous hand painting with carefully selected watercolour, - each colour chosen for its vibrancy with the rich drypoint line, often takes as long as the printing process. So for example the ‘Perching Kingfisher’ will be one of an edition of only 100; each hand-printed, hand watercoloured, then signed, titled and numbered by Richard. There is thus no one original, as there would be with a painting. Each drypoint print is an original, each one being slightly different and sold in a limited edition. Indeed the art world refers to handmade prints as ‘original prints’, as they are not reproductions and not mass/machine-produced. When the edition is completed, the plate is chopped up on the studio guillotine (formerly Sidney Nolan's) and recycled. Goldfinch (oil) Robin (oil) Yucca Leaves Yellow Gladioli © Richard Spare	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line7896
__label__cc	0.741294	0.258706	Tag Archives: biggles NOSTALGIA (or) an answer to “…AND WHERE THE HELL WAS BIGGLES…” Posted on November 14, 2014 by Roy Reddy …AND WHERE THE HELL WAS BIGGLES… “Right here, Right here!!” I rejoiced, on entering the World War section of the Museum of Flight, when my wife and I visited that museum in Seattle a year ago. My exuberance prompted a tolerant smile from her, and, I suppose, a faint hope in her that the other visitors wouldn’t pay much attention to a greybeard behaving like a schoolboy. Since there are mixed contexts here, some backtracking would be in order. In common with many other readers, I began my reading habit with books by Enid Blyton. (Why isn’t there a Nobel prize for Contribution to Childhood?) I soon expanded my reading lists to include a variety of ‘adventure’ books. The two series that captivated me for most of my years in middle and senior school were the Biggles books, by W. E. Johns, and the Hornblower books, by C. S. Forester. What I loved about these books was that they were perfectly suited to my tendency to ‘live the adventure’ in a world of my own. (This was something I believed I was unique in, until I came across Thurber’s Walter Mitty some years later, and, with that, the realisation that I was, almost certainly, only one among many. For the likes of us, intoxicants, psychotropic substances, even Second Life, hold no appeal at all, since we need nothing but a well written book to break free, to draw inspiration from, or as a creative base.) But I digress. Back to the world of Biggles – full name: James Bigglesworth – the subject of this piece. (I’ll introduce you to Hornblower later sometime, in another post.) I’ll leave it to you to find out more about the author and the series (three cheers for Google and Wikipedia), and the stories themselves (read a couple of books). Suffice it to say that, filling his books (especially the WW I stories) with a wealth of simply explained detail, Johns seemed to know exactly what he was talking about. This made it very easy to ‘live the adventure’. With these books my imagination took to the skies. I imagined the bumpy take-offs and landings on rough airfields, the freezing air at 10000 feet, the deafening sound of air-cooled rotary engines (my own and those of passing aircraft), the explosive chatter of machine guns, the pungent smell of lubricant, fuel and cordite, the boom of ground artillery aimed (vainly) at me as I flew overhead. I imagined dogfights involving (what I thought would be) climbs, dives, spins, loops, Immelmann turns. I imagined zeroing in on ‘kills’, and following the screaming and burning aircraft down to the ground in the hope that my adversaries would escape death or fatal injury. (Fantasy apart, I think those books helped me understand, at least in part, what the term ‘an officer and gentleman’ meant, and the values that it implied.) I imagined rough landings, even crashes, from which I walked away (sometimes hurt but always steady). I grew familiar with colourful names like Red Baron and Flying Circus, and with the names of the iconic aircraft of the two WWs (the Bristols, Sopwiths, Nieuports, SPADs, Spitfires, Mustangs, Yaks as well as the Albatrosses, Fokkers, Focke Wulfs, Messerschmitts and Zeroes). I was a regular visitor to libraries, poring over atlases to pinpoint WW locations, and over encyclopedias to find pictures of WW aircraft and flying aces. Simple line drawings of biplanes and Spitfires became my trademark doodles for a few years, and have, since, remained among my favourites. And so, when we stepped into the WW section of that museum of flight, it seemed like a dream come true! They have restored specimens, and some full-scale replicas, of WW I and WW II aircraft, photographs, biographies of air aces, spoken and written accounts by some of them, black and white documentaries, and clips from aviation-based war movies. To complete the atmosphere, they have, playing in the background (as if at some distance in the skies above), recorded sounds of aircraft and dogfights. The icing on this cake is the SIMULATORS (in the form of mock fighter cockpits with controls, that face 72” screens) that, in simulated short flights, dogfights, aerobatic displays, even crash landings (!!) enable you to get the feel of flying and ‘being there’ – and how!! In addition to all this there were, that day, about 15 primary school kids at the museum. In single file behind their teacher and with outstretched arms, they were all (including Teacher) enthusiastically pretending to be planes as they were led past the exhibits, miming banks, yaws, climbs and loops. Some were even giving him correct answers as to which moves by a pilot would result in which actions! The place was a time machine!! I can’t describe it in any other way! In transporting me to the war years it also transported me to the fantasy world that I’d lived in as a boy. Closing time was 5pm and we stayed until the museum security reminded us where the exits were. Needless to say, it was a wrench to leave. (Before you move to the rest of this post, here are some photographs from that visit.) [[– I know half the people on the planet are, or have been, fascinated by flying machines. Jefferson Airplane sang a song for all of us! It’s called ‘Planes’. Here’s a link to a video. (The visuals are just a collage. Listen to the lyrics!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0gnnVcOLNc –]] So, this museum visit – a ‘nostalgia’ trip, would you say? I would say so too! ‘Nostalgia’, the Webster tells us, is ‘the pleasure and sadness that is caused by remembering something from the past and wishing that you could experience it again’. Some say that nostalgia is a temporary escape from reality, some that it results from the belief that one prefers the past to the present, some that it demonstrates one’s inability to relate to the present. However, I have a particular perception of what that word encompasses. I don’t think any of those are the case. I think nostalgia sums up the situations, the experiences and the people that one looks back at fondly because they have armed us with the energy, the attitudes, and the ideals that have helped us, and continue to help us, deal with our circumstances, overcome our fears and difficulties, and go through our lives with a measure of confidence. In short – that of our past that sustains us through our present, and keeps us optimistic as we look to the future. And now to “….where the hell was Biggles….” Some of you would recognise this phrase from Ian Anderson and Jethro Tull’s marathon song ‘Thick as a Brick’. (This is not to be confused with its sequel – Anderson’s TAAB2 of 2012.) If you haven’t heard the song yet, you should – it’s an amazing piece of rock music with lyrics that offer multiple interpretations, (should you be inclined to attempt interpretation). Here’s a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9JEPeeohYs I’ve used the line to start with because, though Anderson may have used it in a different context, every time I hear the song, this particular line brings back to me the image I’ve always had of Biggles, the flying ace – in his cockpit as he taxis in after a sortie, in flying gear,his goggles atop his leather flying helmet, his face generally grimy from oil-spray and exhaust fumes except around the eyes, where the goggles would have provided protection. I’ve brought the line in again to share a different set of thoughts, more in the sense of Anderson’s context. His particular verse is: So! Where the hell was Biggles when you needed him last Saturday? And where were all the sportsmen who always pulled you through? They’re all resting down in Cornwall writing up their memoirs for a paper-back edition of the Boy Scout Manual. Some take this to be Anderson’s averment of the meaninglessness of icons or heroes. Doesn’t the ‘…always pulled you through…’ seem to indicate otherwise, though? But let me contribute my ‘chavanni’s’ worth on the relevance of icons – I think the range between degrees of ‘meaningfulness’ is, in this case, the range between the terms ‘worship’ and ’emulation’. In hero-worship we consider our icons with awe, and believe they are superhuman and therefore beyond emulation. As a result, when in circumstances that we feel are beyond our capabilities, we wish our icons were by our side to see us through. “Wish you were here”, is the thought. And sometimes, the thought that they are by our side helps us bear with these circumstances till they pass (and, one way or another, they do pass). In role-model emulation, while we may consider our icons with awe, we believe that they set certain standards or make us aware of certain possibilities to which we can lift our own capability and effort. “Thanks for showing me the way, I think I can take it from here”, is the thought. And sometimes, in coping on our own, we achieve levels that we think our icons would themselves have been proud of. So, if our heroes weren’t there when we ‘needed them last Saturday’, it was merely because our response to our situation was “wish they were here” when it should’ve been “what would they have done had they been here”. It’s not as if each of us is fixed at a certain point in this range, however. Most of us move between its various points, sometimes praying and hoping (looking to our icons), sometimes learning and performing (looking to ourselves). On occasion, we’re smart enough to realise that we are best served by the latter actions, supported by the former. The thing to do, perhaps, is to increase the frequency and regularity of those occasions! \| Tagged biggles, flying machines, jethro tull, thick as a brick \| 5 Comments	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line7897
__label__cc	0.719666	0.280334	Although it’s tucked away in Colorado’s southwest corner, Telluride parties so much its known as the festival capital of the West. One of its most well known is the Telluride Film Festival, which attracts celebrities and visitors from around the world. It also claims one of the country longest running film fests, the Mountainfilm Festival, held in late May. Carbondale showcases the 5Point Film Festival in late April, catering to adventure. While its Denver counterpart might be more popular, the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs is the most interesting Colorado zoo experience you’ll find. It sits about 6,800ft (2,073m) above sea level and features exhibits built into the mountainside. You can also feed the giraffes, ride an open chairlift over the zoo, walk through an aviary of free-flying birds and expect plenty of animal encounters. Top things to see near me, beaches, cruises, parks near me, underrated tourist attractions downtown, travel blog, attractions, places near me right now, vacations, family weekend breaks, mountains, open now, tonight, breakfast near me, affordable rental, campgrounds near me: Catskills, Pink Sand beaches, Best Places to Visit, Bar Harbor, Destin, Minneapolis, Jacksonville, Wedding, Key West, Nashville, AZ, From LA Located in Central Colorado, Bishop Castle has quickly become one of the most popular roadside attractions in the state. In 1959, fifteen-year-old Jim Bishop dropped out of school and purchased a 2.5 acre piece of land for $450. This piece of land was located alongside southern Colorado’s San Isabel National Forest. In order to earn enough money to purchase the land, Bishop worked random side jobs and helped his father, Willard. Although Bishop funded the land purchase, his parent’s legally owned the land since Bishop was only a teenager. Admission into the Bishop Castle is completely free. It’s important to note that people live and work in the Bishop Castle, so be mindful of that while exploring the Castle. Also, the Bishop Castle is continuously expanding by Mr. Bishop’s own dedication and construction. So, you should proceed with a little bit of caution while touring the castle. If you want to see Mr. Bishop in action, stop by the Bishop Castle during a weekend. Visitors can stroke sea stars and horseshoe crabs in the sea life touch zone, hold Rosie the tarantula, stroll on the outdoor nature trail, and watch bees while learning how vital they are to the future of the planet. The Butterfly Pavilion and Insect Center have educational programs for all ages, from young children to seniors, and a gift shop filled with interesting items. Cheyenne Mountain Zoo is dedicated to conservation, captive breeding of endangered species, and comprehensive animal care. It aims to give every visitor an experience that will last them a lifetime. Founded in 1926, the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo is, as the name implies, on the slope of a mountain, affording both visitors and animals fabulous views, though it requires stout walking shoes and a degree of physical fitness.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line7899
__label__cc	0.551764	0.448236	During the next teen years, Bishop and Willard regularly camped on the land and began planning a design for a family cabin. In 1967, Bishop married Phoebe and began building a cabin for them in 1969. One of the most prevalent natural materials in the area was rocks, so Bishop decided to craft a stone cottage. From 1969 until 1971, Bishop and Willard alternated working on the cabin and running the family business. Book your trip, outside & indoor activities, inexpensive things near me, kid friendly popular scenic places, vegan restaurants, breakfast places near me that are open, affordable biggest cities, getaway, what's near me, romantic getaways tomorrow, excursions, art, tours, towns: Vail Hotels, Cockeysville, Afton, Wellsboro, Blowing Rock, Jaipur, Farmington Hills, Klamath Falls, Marlinton, Fort Washington, Coffee Shops in Anchorage, Day Trips from Minneapolis, Kentucky Day Trips, Bay Area, Central Point, Michigan Day Trips The Denver Museum of Nature & Science began with one man, Edwin Carter, who in 1868 moved to a one-room cabin high in the Rocky Mountains and singlehandedly amassed the largest collection of Colorado fauna in existence. In 1908, the museum in Denver formally opened, and it made world headlines when in 1926 museum researchers found fossil proof that North America was inhabited over 10,000 years ago. Margaret “Molly” Brown is famed for surviving the sinking of the Titanic, but the woman was so much more than that. Born in Hannibal, Missouri in 1867, Margaret Tobin Brown was a socialite, philanthropist, and activist who tirelessly pursued rights for women, workers, and children, passionately believing in universal education and literacy. She helped to establish the first juvenile court in the United States and ran for Senate, albeit unsuccessfully. In addition to beer and art, Colorado loves a jammin’ music festival. Jazz, blues, rock, punk, rap, country, bluegrass, the list goes on and on. There’s not a genre of music you can’t find here on a regular basis. Toast the summer solstice at SonicBoom in Rye, Colorado’s largest electronic festival. Then in August head up funky Nederland for NedFest. Breckenridge is both a mountain town and a ski resort and is packed with plenty of Colorado history. It’s the oldest and largest town in Summit County, with about 250 buildings on the National Register of Historic Places, making its Main Street an absolute dream to wander. There are tons of arts events and festivals all year, plus galleries, studios and shops worth checking out. In summer, you can enjoy the wildflowers in bloom in the surrounding areas, while in winter, Breckenridge Ski Resort provides some 2,908 acres (1,177ha) of the best skiing in the state. The multi-tower buildings are still well preserved after eight hundred years, and seeing them is worth driving to the remote location on the Colorado/Utah border. Dogs are welcome on the hiking trails. The Square Tower Group has a small interpretative center, and rangers are available throughout the park to answer questions and give guidance. Hovenweep has a primitive 31-site campground that fills up on a first-come, first-served basis. Rough it and bring some camping gear – you can sleep under the stars, you’ll be so far away from the city lights that the stars seem to burn even brighter. There are plenty of cliffs if you’re a mountain climber. Hike along the South or North Rims for some excellent vistas, you’ll feel like you’re somehow closer to nature and that time seems to not exist here. Mesa Verde has been inhabited since 7500 BC by nomadic tribes, and the experts estimate that the first pueblos were built in 650 AD. The impressive cliff dwellings that still bring visitors to the park were built in 1200 AD. See the Cliff Palace and spend some time learning about these native americans at the Chapin Mesa Archeological Museum. Don’t forget to explore the Mesa Top Loop Road for some excellent viewpoints and canyon overlooks. File an unemployment claim Colorado COVID-19 info COVID-19 symptom checker Resources for healthcare providers COVID-19 & people living with HIV Read public health & executive orders Latest COVID-19 numbers in Colorado Denver Coronavirus updates Metro Denver Homeless Initiative List of open businesses: We're Open Colorado Colorado Mask Project Cares Act Relief Fund Free SAT testing information Food resources from Hunger Free Colorado Domestic violence resources City of Aurora services They also have ornamental displays of perennial favorites: daylilies, roses, and irises. The Mordecai Children’s Garden encourages hands-on exploration of soil and water and has stroller parking, picnic tables, and year-round programing. There are many gardens dedicated to the serenity of Japanese strolling gardens and bonsai, a South African garden with hardy plants from their steppe region, and a greenhouse overflowing with tropical and subtropical flowers.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line7900
__label__wiki	0.972409	0.972409	Champs last year, SU lacrosse excited about ’17 Feb 6th, 2017 · by Salisbury Independent · Comments: The 2016 season saw the Salisbury University men’s lacrosse team climb back to the top of the Division III lacrosse ranks as its season ended at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia with a 14-13 win over Tufts University in the national title game. The win vaulted Head Coach Jim Berkman to the top of the college lacrosse coaching ranks in terms of championship victories and sent the senior class off with its first championship, securing the fact that every graduating class since 1994 has won at least one title. Prior to the start of the 2016 season the team’s goal was straight forward, make it to Philadelphia and win the program’s 11th national championship. Coming into the 2017 season the Sea Gulls have their eyes set on a Memorial Day Weekend trip to Foxborough, Massachusetts and the opportunity to win the program’s 12th Division III National Championship. “We have a strong contingent of players back from our championship team and the experience necessary,” Berkman said. “Our goal this season is to get back to Boston and win the program’s 12th title.” The 2017 Gulls feature many familiar players from last year’s championship squad as well as some fresh faces that will look to make a name for themselves. The team returns six United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association All-Americans from a season ago as well as 55 percent of the team’s point production. Leading the team will be a group of three captains in seniors Nathan Blondino, Brendan Bromwell, and Andrew Ternahan. The starting three attackmen from the national championship game are back in the maroon and gold this season and will look to be one of the most dangerous attack units in the nation. The senior trio consists of Blondino, Carson Kalama, and Nick Garbarino. Blondino comes back for his senior year after posting 101 points last season. The most balanced offensive option from last season, he posted 54 goals to go along with 47 assists. Blondino combines a mix of size, athleticism, and skill that will be challenging for opposing defenses all season. For his efforts last year, Blondino was a USILA Second-Team All-American. Bringing back Kalama means the attack unit features two USILA All-Americans as he was named an Honorable-Mention All-American last season. With a knack for scoring in tight quarters, Kalama led the team in goals last season with 64 to go along with 21 assists for 85 points. Kalama’s .577 shooting percentage was first in the nation last season. Garbarino became the team’s every day starter midway through last season due to injury and proved his worth immediately, getting a hat trick in four of the team’s last six games. On the season, he put home 29 goals and four assists. Garbarino brings a championship pedigree to the Gulls as after transferring from Onondaga Community College to Salisbury last season and putting in three goals and two assists against Tufts, Garbarino has won a national championship all three seasons he has played college lacrosse. “I expect tremendous things from this group and we are excited to have the entire unit back,” Berkman said. “What’s been great so far is they look even a step ahead of where they were last season and we expect them to score a good chunk of goals and provide a good deal of leadership in the offensive end.” Adding depth at the position is sophomore Kevin Bartenfelter and freshmen Josh Melton and Griffin Moroney who are all highly skilled lefties who could see some action as the season goes on. The offensive and defensive midfield are the only positions for the team that do not return all of their regular contributors from a season ago. Last year’s team had nine All-Americans and only three are not coming back this season, with those three all being in the midfield. Included in the group is last season’s Iroquois Award winner for the National Player of the Year in Preston Dabbs and last season’s Fran McCall Award winner Thomas Cirillo as the nation’s top midfielder. However, Dabbs and Cirillo have exchanged their jersey’s for coaches’ polos this season and will help usher in the new era of midfielders for the Gulls. “Our challenge this season is going to be developing a midfield,” Berkman said. “There is a lot of excitement and enthusiasm for some of the new guys but also still some places where guys need to step up.” At the offensive midfield, the first line will consist of senior Brendan Bromwell, junior Garrett Reynolds, and sophomore Corey Gwin. Bromwell is the team’s most versatile player as both an offensive threat and excellent defender when called upon. An Honorable-Mention All-American last season with 25 goals and 15 assists playing on the first midfield line. Bromwell is a premier athlete and brings an impressive shot that will look to stretch opposing defenses this season. Reynolds anchored the second midfield last season to the tune of 30 goals and five assists. Reynolds has the ability to dodge both alleys and sweep over the top with top-level quickness and has a great shot as evidence from his 45.5 shooting percentage last season. At the start of preseason Gwin found himself on the second line, after being on the team’s third line last season. However, Gwin was able to showcase his abilities and the hard work he put in over the offseason to be bumped up to the team’s top line. “Bromwell had a tremendous fall and it’s great to see how things are coming together with the addition of Reynolds and Gwin to that first line,” said Berkman. On the second midfield line, Berkman sees a logjam of talent where junior Hunter Schaeffer, and sophomores Kyle Richbourg and Zach Pompea have the early edge to fill out the line. Seniors Kevin McDermott and Adam Huber, and sophomore Nick Durtschi will make up the third line. With the loss of two captains and four-year starters at the defensive midfield, a group of four players that Berkman is very high on will fill the void. Juniors Troy Miller and Jeremiah LaClair, sophomore Parker Stevens, and freshman Jared Walls have all impressed throughout the preseason and will fight for minutes. Miller and Walls are the two at the top of the depth chart coming into the spring but LaClair and Stevens add depth at the position that Berkman noted is crucial. “We lost two four-year starters at the defensive midfield but it seems early on we answered the questions at the position,” Berkman said. “With guys like Miller, Walls, Stevens, and LaClair, we are very athletic and skilled at that position again.” The long-stick midfield position for Berkman this season features a returning All-American, and in his words, a transfer who is a “bonafide All-American.” Ternahan comes back for his senior campaign after being named a Third-Team All-American last season with a team-leading 104 groundballs and 47 caused turnovers. Coming in after sitting out last season is Robert Morris University transfer Cory Berry, who has shown the ability to be a physical, takeaway defender with great stick skills. Berkman noted with the overload of talent at the position, it will be hard to not have them both on the field at the same time and that may happen in certain situations. Sophomore Luke Reeder will also see minutes at the LSM position as the team’s third pole as the coaching staff has seen a significant jump in his play since his freshman season. At the faceoff X, Duncan Campbell enters the season as the team’s top option. Campbell was an All-CAC performer last season and won 61.9 percent of his draws in 18 games played. Adding depth will be T.J. Logue who will be able to spell Campbell when need be. Logue had some big games for the team last season and won 55.0 percent of his attempts. Like the attack, the defense returns all three starters, including two All-Americans. The elder statesman of the group will be senior Aaron Leeds who scooped up 61 groundballs and added 38 caused turnovers last year. Alongside Leeds is the junior duo of second team All-Americans Kyle Tucker and Will Nowesnick. Leeds was a second-team All-CAC member last year as he started all 24 games and was able to scoop up 61 groundballs and cause 38 turnovers, while adding one goal and one assist. Tucker comes in as one of the nation’s best defenders and was named by Inside Lacrosse as the preseason choice for National Defender of the Year. During last season, Tucker had 66 groundballs and 49 caused turnovers while often covering the other team’s leading scorers. Nowesnick posted 53 groundballs and added 42 caused turnovers last season and is a rangy, athletic defender who could also find himself in the conversation for National Defender of the Year as the season progresses. “We bring back the same three starters from the championship game, and all are a little bit better this time around,” Berkman said. “They had a great fall and all are a little stronger and a little faster than where they were at the end of last season.” Pax Howard will move down low after playing long-stick midfield last season and will be the team’s fourth pole, while freshmen Kevin Murphy and Drew Borkowicz look to be slotted just below Howard. The Sea Gulls return last year’s starter, Colin Reymann who missed the beginning of last season with an injury before starting the last 14 games. Reymann posted a 6.42 goals-against average last year to go along with a 58.6 save percentage. In the National Championship Game, Reymann was named the game’s Most Outstanding Player as he put up 15 saves, including a save on the door step to seal the win with under 10 seconds to play. “Colin comes back after a strong finish to last season and we are hoping he can stay healthy this season and be our guy,” Berkman said. “He’s a goalie who brings it every day and we will lean on him to be the team’s last line of defense.” Hayden Donnelly is the only other goalie returning from last season and he saw time in five games, picking up a 58.3 save percentage. The team also welcomes two freshman tenders in Brandon Warren and Chandler Dabbs. Coming into the spring Warren has the early nod as the team’s back up. Salisbury opened up its title defense on Saturday, with a game against Methodist University at Sea Gull Stadium. From there five of the Gulls’ next six games will be against nationally regarded out-of-conference opponents. In order, the Gulls play (received votes) Lynchburg College, (RV) Montclair State University, (No. 5) Gettysburg College, (No. 13) Ohio Wesleyan University, Washington (Md.) College, and (No. 12) Stevenson University before CAC action starts up. “We always try to have one of the tougher schedules in Division III and I think it shows here,” Berkman said. “We have a tough out-of-conference schedule and the CAC is getting better every year so we don’t really get any breaks throughout the year.” March 18 against the University of Mary Washington marks the Sea Gulls’ first CAC game. The CAC slate is headlined by a home game against (No. 7) York College of Pennsylvania on April 12, and games against a pair of teams that received votes in the national poll in Frostburg State University and Christopher Newport University. Breaking up CAC play, the Gulls will take on (RV) Roanoke College on March 26 and end the regular season on the road against (No. 8) Cabrini College on April 14.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line7901
__label__cc	0.635077	0.364923	Eucharistic Meditations Extracts from the Writings and Instructions of Saint John Vianney Saint Jean-Baptiste Marie Vianney, known affectionately as The Curé d'Ars, was a peasant priest. In the aftermath of the French Revolution and Napoleonic rule, in a time of anti-clericalism and social and economic disarray, he was appointed parish priest of the obscure and dispirited village of Ars. Over the next forty years, he was the agent of a complete spiritual, social, and material reform of his parish, which became a joyful refuge and a place of pilgrimage. Men and women would travel for weeks simply to confess before the humble and holy man. His particular devotion to the Blessed Sacrament is manifest in this book of twenty-seven meditations, which had its first English edition two years before his canonization in 1925. St. John Vianney is now celebrated as the patron of parish priests.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line7904
__label__cc	0.505974	0.494026	S&R Honors Explore past honorees in the Scrogues Gallery… View scholarsandrogues’s profile on Facebook View scholars_rogues’s profile on Twitter RT @docwintersmith: Yes, Folks, Jill Biden is a Doctor lullabypit.com/2020/12/13/yes… @DrBiden #PhDs https://t.co/fZ3c9iYuhh 1 month ago RT @docwintersmith: The #DarkArt of #Teaching: A #Koan, Almost lullabypit.com/2020/11/22/zen… #Zen 1 month ago RT @docwintersmith: The Ties That (No Longer) Bind lullabypit.com/2020/11/02/the… @realDonaldTrump is a referendum on what kind of human being you… 2 months ago RT @docwintersmith: I'm Glad I Wasn't Black Today lullabypit.com/2020/10/13/im-… @whiteprivilege https://t.co/jHIkWnowwR 3 months ago RT @docwintersmith: #Zen and the Highway lullabypit.com/2020/10/12/the… #rammstein https://t.co/AGfnlckuj3 3 months ago Follow @scholars_rogues Libertarians, engineers, and climate disruption denial: part 1 – libertarians By Brian Angliss on December 13, 2012 • ( 20 Comments ) National Park Service/Will Elder Part One of a series Industrial climate disruption, aka climate change or global warming, is perhaps the most important issue that humanity has ever faced. Scientists have concluded based on an overwhelming amount of data and over a century of well established and verified science that humanity has probably never faced the kind of disruptions to our world that are coming as a result of our emissions of greenhouse gases. But there is small and vocal minority of people who reject the science and data underlying this conclusion, and in the United States those deniers have successfully convinced the bulk of the Republican party to act as if that science is wrong and doesn’t matter. Ever since I encountered my first example of a climate disruption denier I’ve wondered what kind of person could deny the reality that is industrial climate disruption. Over the years of writing on climate, however, it became clear that there were two groups of people who made up the majority of the serious deniers – libertarians and engineers of various stripes. As an electrical engineer myself, however, I didn’t understand how individuals trained in mathematics, science, and logic could fail to see glaring scientific, mathematical, physical, or logical flaws in their own arguments. Eventually, though, something clicked: most of the engineers I work with today and have worked with since earning my MSEE are either libertarians themselves or have some libertarian leanings. This is the first part of a series of posts exploring the personality traits and moral values of libertarians, engineers, and the relationship of those traits and values to the denial of industrial climate disruption. Libertarians: a distinct personality profile and moral ideal If you think about the stereotypical traits we tend to attribute to libertarians – pro-small government, pro-property rights, anti-regulation, and anti-taxes, to name a few – it makes some logical sense that they’d be more inclined to reject the science supporting climate disruption. After all, if climate disruption requires government intervention, higher taxes, and restricts what a libertarian can do with his property, then he’d naturally oppose those types of solutions. But that resistance doesn’t explain why libertarians oppose the science itself instead of simply opposing policies that might be implemented as a result of the science. In August, 2012, several researchers studying the psychology of political ideology released the results of three psychological studies they had performed into the values and personality traits of self-identified libertarians. The researchers compared the self-identified libertarians to self-identified liberals and conservatives and then compared and contrasted their values and personality traits. This paper (hereafter Iyer et al) concluded that libertarians were not merely a point on the traditional liberal/conservative values scale, but rather that libertarianism represented a third, unique approach that is distinct from both liberal and conservative values. This paper served as the starting point for my investigation into why so many libertarians deny the reality of industrial climate disruption. But before we can understand their denial, we must first understand exactly what personality traits libertarians have and what they value. Liberty as the only moral good According to Iyer et al, libertarians really have only a single moral good – freedom from restrictions on their actions, or what Iyer et al call “negative” liberty. This differs from the more common “positive” liberty in that positive liberty means having the opportunity to pursue one’s own interests. In terms that many Americans are familiar with, the right to petition the government for redress of grievances described in the First Amendment of the US Constitution is a form of positive liberty, while having the freedom to do anything you want so long as it doesn’t interfere with the right of others to do the same is a form of negative liberty. But Iyer et al indicate that this moral good is not well measured by traditional studies of morality, writing that “standard morality scales… do a poor job of measuring libertarian values” and that “if liberty is included as a moral value, libertarians are not amoral.” The flip side of this statement, however, means that libertarians do not share a common moral framework with either liberals or conservatives. The data in Iyer et al demonstrate that libertarians have a similar profile (the relative order of importance of various values) to liberals on one test of moral values, the Moral Foundations Questionnaire (MFQ). Specifically, libertarians rate fairness highest, followed by harm, and both groups value authority and purity the least. But Iyer et al indicates that libertarians don’t think about fairness and harm in the same ways that liberals do – harm to a liberal often means injury to someone else, while harm to a libertarian means injury to the libertarian by others. Conservatives valued authority and being associated with the “in” group the most, above both harm and fairness. This pattern of valuing the welfare of others less than one’s own welfare was again seen in the data from the Schwartz Values Scale. Given there are ten different values in this scale (instead of the five in the MFQ), there were more differences between libertarians, liberals, and conservatives. While all three groups valued self-direction the highest, libertarians valued it more than liberals and far more than conservatives. Libertarians valued achievement just after self-direction and over all the other values (benevolence, conformity, hedonism, power, security, stimulation, tradition, or universalism). According to Iyer et al, the libertarian profile looks “somewhat like liberals,” but with lower value placed on benevolence and universalism, the two Schwartz values that relate to caring about the welfare of others. When Iyer et al looked at ethical positions, they found that libertarians were more likely to consider ethics “situational” instead of universal. This means that libertarians are more likely to feel that what is ethically acceptable varies from one situation to another. Iyer et al suggest that this is because libertarians “live in a world where traditional moral concerns (e.g. altruism, respect for authority) are not assigned much importance.” This is supported by the original research upon which Iyer et al’s survey was based, which found that people with ethical profiles like those of libertarians ‘reject moral rules’ and ‘base moral judgements on personal feelings about the action and the setting.’ Iyer et al further investigated the low valuation libertarians of traditional authority with a questionnaire that directly measures “the extent to which people are emotionally resistant to restrictions on their behavioral freedom and to the advice and influence of others.” Conservatives were the least resistant, followed by liberals. Libertarians were the most resistant to accepting restrictions on their behavior and even to listening to the expert opinions of others. When asked specifically about their interest in economic and lifestyle liberty, libertarians valued both types of liberty the highest, well over either liberals (who valued lifestyle over economic liberty) or conservatives (who valued economic over lifestyle liberty). In this case, Iyer et al defined “economic liberty” as the right of successful people to “enjoy their wealth as they see fit” and “lifestyle liberty” as the right of everyone to “be as free as they choose” within the limitation that their freedom not infringe upon others. The Iyer et al studies conclusively demonstrated that the single libertarian moral good of liberty, specifically “negative” liberty, is quite different from the morals of either liberals or conservatives. This single moral good is the driving factor from which all other libertarian values are derived. The rational ethos of libertarianism Beyond the moral good of liberty that libertarians espouse, Iyer et al found that they also feel a greater need to be rational than, and to perceive themselves as more rational than, either liberals or conservatives. When Iyer et al looked at the Big 5 personality traits (an alternative method of determining personality to Myers-Briggs personality types) of libertarians, they found that libertarians were largely open to new experiences, felt a strong need to think about things, and were more introverted than either liberals or conservatives. In more common Myers-Briggs terms, libertarians have an INTx profile, where the “x” could be either judging or perceiving (J/P). When it came to difficult moral choices, libertarians’ need to be rational about their choices produced utilitarian results. For example, libertarians were more willing to sacrifice one person to save many than either liberals or conservatives, with conservatives being the least willing to logically reason out the need for one to die so many could live. When faced with questions that had two different answers, one of which was correct and another that was intuitive, Iyer et al found that libertarians were more likely than either liberals or conservatives to choose the correct answer. Iyer et al was careful to point out that this result does not necessarily mean that libertarians are smarter than liberals or conservatives, only that libertarians are mentally better at suppressing the intuitive reflex. Finally, Iyer et al also found that libertarians needed to formulate their opinions based on arguments and data instead of on “peripheral cues, such as how attractive or credible a speaker is.” Again, libertarians had a slightly greater need to think about things than liberals and a moderately greater need than conservatives. In every case that Iyer et al looked at, libertarians needed to think more about things before forming judgements, usually somewhat more than liberals and much more than conservatives. One possibility for why this is could be that libertarians are psychologically more comfortable with systems that have black and white rules than they are with people who only come in shades of gray. Systemizing over empathizing Iyer et al looked specifically at the preference of libertarians for systemizing or empathizing. According to Iyer et al, the creators of this particular personality scale define systemizing as “the drive to analyze the variables in a system, and to derive the underlying rules that govern the behavior of the system.” Empathizing, on the other hand, is defined as “the drive to identify another person’s emotions and thoughts, and to respond to these with an appropriate emotion.” Given that libertarians tend to be introverts who value being left alone to do as they please, it’s reasonable to expect that libertarians would also prefer systemizing more and empathizing less than liberals or conservatives. What surprised Iyer et al was just how strongly libertarians are systemizers. While liberals valued empathizing more than systemizing, and conservatives valued both about the same (with a slight emphasis on empathizing), libertarians valued systemizing more than empathizing, and nearly as much as liberals valued empathizing. This result describes what Iyer et al and others call a fundamentally “male” mental process, as opposed to the “female” liberal mental process of empathizing. But there’s a problem with this characterization, namely that libertarians are overwhelmingly male – 79.6% in Iyer et al and 67% in polls of the United States as a whole. Since correlation is not causation, it’s not possible to know with the data from the Iyer et al study whether this dominant systemizing mental process is because so many libertarians are men, or whether men are more likely to be attracted to libertarianism because it’s dominant mental process is systemization. Independent and solitary Iyer et al found that libertarians are weak empathizers, have a strong need for rationality over emotion, and value their independence. These traits come together in a number of ways to describe how libertarians relate, or perhaps fail to relate, to other people. One of the Big 5 personality traits that Iyer et al looked at is extraversion, and a low score means that you’re more introverted than extraverted. Libertarians were more introverted than either liberals or conservatives, who were roughly equal with each other. When asked about how they empathized with others, libertarians were the only group to use the “put yourself in their shoes” type of empathizing more than any other type. Not only that, but libertarians empathized with others’ personal distress the least of all. Iyer et al also compared libertarians’ relative level of individualism and collectivism to both liberals and conservatives. As expected, libertarians valued both competitive, hierarchical individualism and peer-to-peer, horizontal individualism more than either liberals or conservatives and more than either form of collectivism. Libertarians valued peer-to-peer collectivism, described in Iyer et al as characteristic of an egalitarian attitude, the least and moderately lower than either liberals or conservatives. Libertarians and conservatives had similar profiles in the Iyer et al data for how much each group identified with the rest of humanity (as broken down into community, country, and the world). Both groups identified the most with their country, followed by their community, and lastly with the rest of the world. Liberals, on the other hand, identified with the world first, then community, and lastly their country. But libertarians identified the least with community and country, and only barely more with the rest of the world than conservatives did. Iyer et al wrote that this finding was “consistent with the libertarians’ desire for personal liberty.” Finally, when Iyer et al looked at the data for how libertarians felt love toward their partners, family, friends, or “generic others,” Iyer et al found that libertarians feelings of love toward all four groups of people were the weakest of all when compared to liberals and conservatives. Libertarians’ feelings were the strongest toward their partners, but even those feelings were slightly weaker than the feelings that liberals and conservatives felt toward their partners. Feelings of love toward “generic others” were the lowest of all for libertarians. Iyer et al considered these results to be “noteworthy” because differences between liberals and conservatives were generally small (except toward generic others). Libertarians were the outliers. [emphasis added] Iyer et al are not able to turn the correlations in values and personality traits they observed among libertarians into causative relationships. The data from Iyer et al cannot say, for example, that libertarians’ focus on negative liberty as their single moral good is because libertarians tend to be introverted and unable to empathize with others. Furthermore, while Iyer et al is based on a large sample of data, it is not necessarily representative of the entire population of libertarians. For example, the demographics of Iyer et al are somewhat different from a nationally representative poll conducted by the Pew Research Center on the People and the Press that also included a breakdown of libertarian demographics. For example, Iyer et al had a significantly greater percentage of men, a slightly greater number of whites, and about the same number of college educated respondents as the Pew poll did. The greater number of whites and males almost certainly skews the data some, but it’s not possible with the Iyer et al data to say how much. But when you look at Iyer et al‘s conclusions, they match well to the profile that Pew used to differentiate between libertarians and other ideological groups in their poll. Pew’s data shows that most libertarians reject strict environmental laws, something that is expected given Iyer et al’s finding that libertarians are resistant to external factors that would impinge upon their personal liberty. Pew found that libertarians were accepting of homosexuality, which is also expected given Iyer et al’s findings that libertarians are relatively unmotivated by emotional “disgust” reactions and highly value horizontal, peer-to-peer individualism. So while a similar study to Iyer et al would almost certainly generate somewhat different results using a nationally representative poll of libertarians, it’s unlikely that the results would significantly change Iyer et al’s overall conclusions. Finally, Iyer et al points out that entirely possible that the moral good of negative liberty that libertarians value more than any other may be a moralization of their personal preference for living free of too many entanglements. In a culture where morality is generally defined along lines that libertarians disagree with and don’t feel, it’s easy to see why libertarians would have an emotional need to redefine morality in a way that reduces their cognitive dissonance. But whether this is the case or not will require more studies than just Iyer et al. As an engineer with some libertarian leanings myself, I found Iyer et al to be fascinating. It explained much about so many of my fellow engineers, so many of whom are also libertarians. In Part Two I’ll discuss how being an engineer and working for a corporation affects the perspectives and values of engineers. Click to share on Fark (Opens in new window) Categories: American Culture, Environment/Nature, Politics/Law/Government, Science/Technology Tagged as: big 5 personality, climate change, climate disruption, climate disruption denial, collective bargaining, collectivism, conservative, demographics, empathizing, engineers, extraversion, global warming, ideology, industrial climate disruption, introvert, jesse graham, jonathan haidt, Liberal, Libertarian, libertarian-engineer-denier, morals, motivated reasoning, myers-briggs, negative liberty, personality trait, personality type, peter ditto, Pew Research Center, psychology, ravi iyer, spassena koleva, systemizing, understanding libertarian morality, values S&R Poetry: Two poems from John Minser Five reasons why soccer will eventually surpass football in the US – #5: Americans love a winner Timothy Chase says: Concerning the passage, “Beyond the moral good of liberty that libertarians espouse, Iyer et al found that they also feel a greater need to be rational than, and to perceive themselves as more rational than, either liberals or conservatives.” I am not sure having a “greater need to be rational” and a “greater need to perceive themselves as more rational” is quite the same thing. I would distinguish between being rational and thinking oneself rational. For example, among young earth creationists, there are individuals who create or at least adopt very elaborate views that are quite at odds with the universe, reminiscent of Ptolemaic epicycles, where the earth is at the center of the universe and stationary, and all evidence is interpreted in that sort of framework. Such individuals spend an inordinate amount of time trying to convince themselves that they are rational whereas the rest of the world is not. But I would suggest that this isn’t an actual acknowledgement or pursuit of being rational so much as of the need to perceive oneself as being rational, because at the core one experiences anxiety over the realization that one is not being rational. But this is more a matter of rationalization, or motivated reasoning, than of rationality. Now I believe that young earth creationists are more likely to be libertarians, at least of a particular streak. But of course this doesn’t necessarily mean that they are at all representative of libertarians. Nevertheless, among libertarians, perhaps as an expression of their “individualism” and “rationality” (conceived along individualist lines) there is a certain willingness to reject the consensus view in different branches of science. These would include evolutionary biology, special and general relativity and quantum mechanics, or for that matter, climatology. Furthermore, there is oftentimes a certain rigidity or unwillingness to genuinely consider alternate views, where to consider alternate views would be to admit the possibility that one is wrong and that others may in fact have equally rational reasons for adopting views that are at odds with one’s own. And further, libertarians are often inclined towards the adoption of conspiracy theories, and when they are willing they adopt conspiracy theories in one area they are more inclined to adopt conspiracy theories in other areas. I should also point out that this isn’t a matter of the irrationality of religion, either. For quite a while, I belonged to a movement centering around an atheistic, libertarian philosophy called “Objectivism”. Among Objectivists, there existed a quasi-conspiratorial view of intellectual history, where mainstream views that they reject are viewed as being at root an expression of a “primacy of consciousness” philosophy that more or less grew out of Kantian Transcendental Idealism. And interestingly enough, they adopted a theory of evasion that isn’t that different from the theory of motivated reasoning. Regardless, the Objectivist view of intellectual history largely made it possible for them to reject the consensus scientific views of special relativity, general relativity, quantum mechanics and climate science. And given their need to think of themselves as rational, where according to their system, rationality is the fundamental virtue, they were already convinced of their rationality and of the correctness of their positions. Which meant that in their view, they didn’t really need to consider other views. And given this, while in some ways it might be possible to describe them as being “largely open to new experiences” (polyamoury was common in some circles, at least once one broke away from the more dogmatic of the two main branches — the movement had various “schisms”), at the same, it might be equally valid to refer to them as being “dogmatic” where by “dogmatic” one would generally mean not being open to new ideas. Now I suppose it might help at this point to ask, “What does it mean to be rational?” To me, it means placing nothing above one’s adherence to reality, not even one’s self-concept. It means being genuinely willing to authentically consider other views and to consider the possibility that one is wrong. It means being willing to learn from the insights of others, even those that one might not consider to be one’s intellectual equal. And socially, it means a willingness to engage in dialog, like the Peripatetics. While I do not consider myself religious, I nevertheless do not see this as being at all at odds with being religious. As I stated in an open letter to Evangelicals within the context of evolution and creationism: “In the existential realm, religion properly provides the individual with the moral courage to act despite the possibility of failure, where failure can sometimes mean the possibility of actual death, and the fear of failure itself can often be experienced as such. Likewise, the fear of being mistaken — where being mistaken may threaten our beliefs about who we are — is at times experienced as a threat much like death itself. Here, too, there is need for moral courage, although of a somewhat different kind. Properly, religion encourages in its own way the view that while recognizing one’s mistakes may be experienced prospectively as a form of death, the act itself brings a form of rebirth and self-transcendence, giving one the courage to revise one’s beliefs when confronted with new evidence.” http://www.bcseweb.org.uk/index.php/Main/ReligionAndScience Whether one is religious or not, I believe this is the proper intellectual stance. And if one adopts this stance, then at root I would consider one rational. Third from last paragraph states, “… at all at odds with being religious.” but should state, ” at all at odds with being rational.” Brian Angliss says: I won’t be able to respond to this right now, Tim. I’m too affected by today’s news out of Newtown, Connecticut, to respond in a way that is fair to the time you put into writing this. It will have to suffice for the moment that I agree with your observation that actually being rational and needing to feel rational are not the same thing. I’ll be covering that in greater detail in part 3 of the series. No worries. It’s been a traumatic day. Also, if you would like to put off responding until the third, that might make sense, too. Take care… Alice Weiss says: Pingback: Dribs & Drabs of Snow (2 in 10 Americans will see a white Christmas) Pingback: “March-ember” for much of USA Two observations, more about science and engineering than about libertarians First scientists are bound by reality, aka conservation laws and theoretical arguments based on such things. Engineers believe that they can make anything work and many have no belief in theory. That certainly extends to our modern breed of financial engineers. Eli has known a whole bunch of engineers who spend their time tinkering with what they think will be a perpetual motion machine of the first or second kind. Scientists who “disbelieve” spend their time filling notebooks with theory of the algebraic kind. Second, and this speaks a bit against your thesis, engineers are trained to work in teams from their first class. Scientists tend to be much less team oriented although with the growth of “big” science, this is no longer quite so strong a limit. Your experience with engineers being trained to work together runs 180 degrees counter to my experience, Eli. I wasn’t trained that way in either my undergraduate or graduate studies, and that certainly hasn’t been my experience with respect to my professional career since. There’s more to being part of a team than being a member of the team. Most engineers I know are “head down, don’t bug me, let me get my work done” types. I go much more into this tomorrow in Part 2. A second point I forgot to make in my first reply – good engineers understand the limits of reality. Bad ones try to work beyond them. As an example, at my first job out of school, the CEO founder of the company and former electrical engineer wanted us to solve a problem with a telecommunications product. He wanted it to be passively cooled at room temperature, need commercial temperature range components, and yet be able to dissipate a massive amount of heat. When the product manager (another EE) and the mechanical/thermal guy ran the math, it was obvious that the circuit boards would overheat and shut down due to overtemperature conditions regularly without either a baffle or a fan. The CEO refused to believe us and essentially told us to figure out a way around the laws of physics. Needless to say, we ended up using a baffle – a fan would have made more sense, but “fan” was a four-letter word. And the CEO ran the company into the ground because he couldn’t let go of the idea that the laws of physics were maleable. I work in aerospace these days, and I’m surrounded by very competent engineers. And one of the reasons they’re all so good at their jobs is that they know when they can push right up to the edge of what’s physically possible, and when they can’t. The kind of engineer who didn’t understand fundamental physical limitations of electronics, temperature, materials properties, and the like wouldn’t even get through the interview process. melior says: As another self-identifying liberal MSEE, I appreciate your thoughtful exploration of this question. My intuition is that the puzzle makes the most sense to me when viewed in terms of tribalism. To put it broadly (but I don’t think too wildly), the key difference comes down to who is perceived as the “other”– as the “us” when it’s “us vs. them”. – For liberals, the tribe onto which we project our altruistic motivations is the human race, and to some extent other Earth creatures. – For conservatives, in contrast, it tends to be people they consider to be “like them”, i.e. who share their race, religion, national (or sometimes even state) citizenship, financial class, or a close genetic relationship. – For libertarians, it’s only those with a close genetic relationship. Everyone else is positioned in opposition to their interests. I am also coming to the conclusion that we live in a world entirely distorted by marketing, which runs everything these days, and most people have no idea how brainwashed they are. Pingback: Libertarians, engineers, and climate disruption denial: part 2 – engineers \| Scholars and Rogues Marc Weiss says: “. . . In more common Myers-Briggs terms, libertarians have an INTx profile, where the “x” could be either judging or perceiving (J/P) . . ” Engineers as a group tend to be INTP which is consistent with the libertarian profile. I’m not sure this means much as I’m a retired engineer (with a similar MB profile) and a life-long committed liberal. I once met an engineer who believed in the healing power of crystals – I don’t know his political orientation and I wasn’t really interested in finding out. When I did some personality profile research on engineers, the papers were all over the map on I vs. E, N vs. S, and P vs. J. It was highly variable on gender and type of engineer. Because there are so many more men than women in engineering, however, there were more INTx types than any other, and the T was pretty constant throughout, but there was a lot more variation than I thought there would be. 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__label__cc	0.621182	0.378818	JIM JEFFERIES: INTOLERANT (2020) – FULL TRANSCRIPT In this new Netflix special, his latest since 2018’s “This Is Me Now,” Jim Jefferies recounts in excruciating detail a date during which he dismissed his lactose intolerance and indulged in cheese. It did not go well. [rock music plays] [cheering and applause] [announcer] Ladies and gentlemen, Jim Jefferies! [cheering and applause] [cheering and applause continues] Hello, Boston! How you doing? Thank you for that. Thank you for that. You all getting fucked up? [cheering] I’m not drinking. I got water. -I can’t drink like I used to drink. Okay? [audience] Aww. I used to drink– I used to be a daily drinker. I used to be five drinks, every day, seven days a week, which is 35 drinks a week. Which the FDA of America says that means I’m an alcoholic. They say anything over 20 drinks makes you an alcoholic. Bullshit. [laughter] That’s less than three drinks a fucking day. That’s a reasonable amount of fucking drinking. You can have three drinks a day. There’s nothing wrong with that. You don’t have a problem. [laughter] Two lines of coke a day isn’t a coke problem. It isn’t a coke problem. That’s less than a gram a week. [laughter] You know why I stopped drinking so much is because I cracked open a beer, and my son, he was five at the time, he looked up at me, he went, “Daddy, are you drinking again?” [laughter] I’m like, “Where the fuck did that come from, you little…?” [laughter] Like, very clearly it was from the woman who I gave a house to, but I was like… [laughter] So, I don’t… I don’t drink… I don’t drink like that anymore. I don’t drink, ’cause I’m a good dad, you know? So, what I do now is I just drink one day a week, but I still get my 35 in. [laughter] That’s how society has pushed me. That’s why if you ever see, like, a woman and she’s like in her mid-thirties and it’s 9:00 p.m. and she’s all dolled up, but it’s like she’s holding her shoes and just stumbling around and vomiting in alleyways, don’t feel sorry for her. She’s just a good mom. [laughter] Found a window of fucking time. [laughter] The Queen of England drinks four cocktails a day. That’s eight standard drinks a day. That means she’s a full-blown fucking alkie. Full-blown. [laughter] My question is, is she a nice drunk or a fucking nasty drunk? Around cocktail three, does she start trawling the palace, just… [laughter] “Philip! [laughter] Philip!” And Philip’s like, “Ah, fuck, Lizzie’s at it again. [laughter] Get my Land Rover ready.” [laughter] She’s just trawling around, “Philip!” [laughter] She goes into one room, she jumps back out with a crown on her head, “Ha-ha! [laughter] I look like the money.” [laughter] I got to tell you a story right now. To tell this story, I have to start off by saying that I’m lactose intolerant. [woman cheers] That means that I will not… tolerate lactose. [laughter] If I eat lactose, 40 minutes later, and you can set your fucking watch by it, [laughter] I will shit myself. [laughter] That sounds like more than just intolerance, doesn’t it? [laughter] I shit myself. [laughter] Like, think about it right now. So, you’re all in groups, right? You’ve probably got groups of three, four friends you’re all hanging out with. And then you have your periphery groups. Like, some cunt in your group has brought some friends from work. Right? And there’s always one cunt in that fucking group where you, like, you turn to one of your good friends and you go, “Can’t tolerate that guy. Can’t tolerate him.” But it’s not like, if he comes near you, [laughter] you shit yourself. [laughter] So, my two biggest nemesisises… Nemesi? -[laughter] -N– The two things that– that I’m not good with… [laughter] are ice cream and cheese. Now, here’s the tragedy that is my life. Ice cream and cheese are also my two favorite things. [laughter] See, I wasn’t always lactose intolerant. No, it happened to me at 35. I’m 42 now. It happened on my 35th birthday. I was sitting down, having my Baskin-Robbins ice cream cake, as I always request. I’m hoeing into it, and then God looked at me and went, “How’s all those atheist jokes going, cunt? -Pew!” [laughter] [cheering and applause] So now I can’t eat ice cream and cheese. Right? But here’s the thing. I still eat ice cream and cheese. [laughter] With the full knowledge that I’m going to shit myself, I still fucking do it. Right? I– I, actually, what I do is if I have a heavy meal, I eat a scoop of ice cream afterwards ’cause then I know I’ll shit everything out, cause… [laughter] I’m a genius, you see? That’s the Jefferies diet. You can fucking take that home with you. [laughter] So, I still eat ice cream and cheese, but I don’t eat them out in the wild. [laughter] You’ll never see me on a boardwalk with an ice cream cone. No, no, no. I eat them at home, amongst people who love me and respect me. Where I know where the toilet is, I know how much toilet paper we’ve got, I’m ready to fucking go. [laughter] So, although I am intolerant of lactose, I still, you could argue, tolerate it. [laughter] In the same way that my dad… doesn’t hate gay people… [laughter] he’s just intolerant of them. [laughter] My father’s a 78-year-old man from rural Australia, and when we were growing up, I heard him say the occasional homophobic slur. When he was young, uh, being gay was a mental illness. He’s a product of his environment. But two years ago, Australia had a referendum, where they voted on gay marriage, and my father voted “yes.” And that’s because I spent time talking to him, going, “Dad, it’s the right thing.” And then my dad said, “Well, I guess they deserve to be as miserable as the rest of us.” [laughter] Now, because my father has done this one forward-thinking thing in his entire life, my dad now thinks he is woke as fuck. [laughter] And my dad says sentences like this. “I’ve got no problems with the gays, they can do whatever they want, in their own homes, behind closed doors, as long as they don’t try to involve me.” [laughter] And I’m always like, “Dad, are they trying to involve you?” [laughter] Is there a scenario… [laughter] …where there’s two gay fellas in the inner suburbs of Sydney, one’s strapped up to a bed with a fucking gag ball in his mouth, the other one’s lubing up his fist, and he’s about to enter, and just as he’s about to go in, this fella goes… [muffled screaming] And he goes, “What’s that, mate?” “Maybe we should try to involve Gary Jefferies.” [laughter] “Oh, that’s a brilliant idea. Why didn’t I think of that?” He unstraps him. They get in their Honda Civic, and they fucking drive. [laughter] It’s a Friday night in Sydney, it’s raining, you’ve got to get around the harbor, it’s fucking– traffic’s horrendous. It takes them an hour 15. They get out to the house where my dad lives. My dad’s just sitting there, watching rugby league. [laughter] He hears a knock on the door. [laughter] [laughter continues] “That’s the second time this month. [laughter] I told you not to involve me.” [laughter] Now, I was, uh, touring in Sydney earlier this year, and I did that routine. My father was in the audience, and he’d brought along all of his bowling friends. My father plays lawn bowls, uh, every day, uh, which is like, uh, curling but with a ball and… You’ll figure it out. Anyway… So he brought these, like, eight mates, and all of his mates were aged between 70 and 90. Right? All these blokes fucking went along. And then my dad came backstage, they’re all sinking piss backstage. My dad comes up to me and goes, “Yeah, I enjoyed the show. Yeah, it was a good show. Good show. Different jokes you’re doing now. Uh… I didn’t like that bit about me and the two gay fellas. I didn’t.” [laughter] And I didn’t understand why, and it turned out the reason he was upset, not because I spoke about him maybe having sex with two men, but because his friends found out that he voted “yes” for gay marriage. [laughter] And now… And now all of his mates take the piss out of him, right? Every time they go to do their shoelaces, they’re like, “Will you marry me, Gary?” [laughter] That’s the thing about my dad, man, he’s trying. At his age, he’s still trying to be progressive and all that type of stuff. And here’s the problem, with young people, right. So… so, he’s backstage, he’s having a few beers, he’s voted yes for gay marriage. Everyone’s teasing him a bit. And then my dad, at 78, says, “Oh, yeah, I’m good with the gays, I like the gays.” And then he goes, “I don’t know about those trans people.” And then a person I know started going, “Well, you’re transphobic. You’re transphobic.” And I was like, “All right, everyone settle the fuck down. [laughter] Settle down.” And I said, “This guy just got used to gay people yesterday. [laughter] Let him have his fucking victory lap. You’re going to scare him off, you cunt.” [laughter] Like, let him be old, you cunt. He goes like this, “Gay people are okay.” And then you go, “Chicks with dicks,” and he’s like, “Fuck off.” [laughter] This is the thing about being progressive and being woke and all that fucking bullshit, right? The-the-the young generations, the millennials, what you’re missing out on is… Let old people be fucking old, right? They’ll be dead soon enough, right? Stop fucking making everyone move as fast as you’re fucking moving, all right? People are trying. Right? Here’s the thing about millennials. You’re the worst people that have ever lived. [laughter] You’re the worst. You’re just a horrible breed of people. And I don’t even blame you, it’s just the society you’re in. You have social media. Every single peanut fucking thought that ever came into your head, “I’ll fucking comment…” [laughter] What type of fucking low-rent cunts are you? [laughter] Like… if you take more than three selfies a week, fucking end it. End it. [laughter] [cheering and applause] All right? [cheering and applause continues] The idea that you think taking a photo of yourself, isn’t there something mentally wrong with that? And it’s not just… That’s– That’s bad. That’s bad as it is. But the fact that when you take that photo, your next thought is, “Other people might want to see this.” [laughter] You’re the fucking worst. I… I’ve tried dating you people. It’s a fucking nightmare, right? I don’t care how smooth your fucking skin is, I’ll take an old person with a better fucking attitude, you pricks. [laughter] [cheering and applause] You know, you date a millennial… I used to have nice outings. You used to go to a beach, and you’d watch the sunset. No, fuck that. Sunsets are ruined because you cunts all want to do yoga poses while I stand back here, going, “Did I do a good photo?” [laughter] Heaven forbid I walk past a wall where someone’s painted some fucking wings on, that’s my whole day fucking ruined. [laughter] See, here’s the thing about you. You are… the most progressive generation that’s ever been. That is true. You are the most progressive generation that’s ever been. But here’s something for you. Every generation before you has also been the most progressive generation that’s ever been. You’re not fucking special. [woman] Yeah! One day, and you don’t even see it coming, in about 40 years’ time, you’re gonna be the old bigots. [laughter] You don’t see it coming, do you? You’ll be the old bigots. You’ll be standing around with your friends, going, “I don’t understand the kids today. When I was young, women had penises and men had vaginas, and it was all very normal. [laughter] But my grandson says he identifies as an Asian woman who wants to be a black man and marry a fucking robot, and I’m not having it.” [laughter] So my point is… I can’t eat cheese. [laughter] So… [cheering and applause] I can’t. I can’t. It’s not good for me. So… So, I-I went on a date with this girl. I went maybe six or seven dates with her. And I took her out to one of those tasting menu restaurants. You know, those fancy restaurants, Michelin-star thing, where there’s, like, 11 or 12 courses. This is a good move. For any young fella out there who wants to take a girl out, take them to a tasting menu, because if you’re like me, I eat my food too quick, and then I’ve got to sit there and watch them try to, you know… Then I think, “How much of that am I gonna get to eat?” You know? And if you go to a tasting menu, the brilliant thing about going to a fancy restaurant is that the conversation never stops. Because there’s so many courses that you can go, “I liked that course. I didn’t like course number three, but I enjoyed seven, so I wonder what’s up next.” It’s a good way of keeping things going. [laughter] -Now… I tried to do… I tried to do this routine in Kansas. Very hard to explain… [laughter] …what a really good meal’s like. They fucking… They couldn’t wrap their brain around it. I was like, “You know when you go to one of those really fancy restaurants?” [laughter] And I went, “Think about the best meal you’ve ever had.” And then one guy yells out, “Ribs!” And I was like, “Yeah… Yeah, ribs are good. [laughter] But think of a meal that’s even better than ribs.” And he thought about it and he went, “Two ribs!” And I went, “Yeah.” [laughter] So these restaurants… they’re pretentious as fuck, right? Every– Every dish includes a foam, a reduction, and a mousse. And there’s always a quail’s egg and a truffle. Always with a quail’s egg. Why can’t they use a fucking chicken egg? [laughter] Every time I go to the supermarket, I always go to the poultry. I’m never like, “Oh, quail or chicken, what will we eat tonight?” Where the fuck are they buying all the quails’ eggs? [laughter] And come to think of it, I’m not sure… if I’ve ever seen a quail. [laughter] I’ve never been out and gone, “Ah, fuck me, the quails are out tonight. [laughter] Better get the car in the garage, don’t want it covered in quail shit. fucking quails.” So it’s always a reduction, a mousse, and a foam, next to a quail’s egg with a truffle on top. And the first course is always called the amuse-bouche. The amuse-bouche is never on the menu. And what this is in fancy food is you eat that, and that’s meant to make you realize what the rest of the meal might be like. It’s to make you go, “Oh, we’re eating. Oh. [laughter] I get what’s going on. This is a small portion of bigger things.” It’s like if before you came to the show, you all went to a smaller comedy club tonight and watched someone do a five-minute set. So you could go, “I get what Jim’s gonna do.” [laughter] And there’s always some French cunt who’s the waiter. [laughter] I can say this on Netflix, the French are a bunch of cunts. I’m not sure if… [laughter] Are you even watching it? -On your French Netflix? [cheering] [applause] Anyway, so there’s always a French fuck. [laughter] He walks out, and the first course is always served on, like, a ceramic white spoon, with the reduction, the mousse, and the foam, and the quail’s egg, and something on top. And he walks up to you, and he’s very patronizing, and he goes, “Okay, now it’s time for the amuse-bouche.” And then he goes, “The chef has prepared this for you.” And you always… you always nod along, like, “Oh, that’s good, the chef,” when you really should just be an asshole to him and just go, “The chef, you say? [laughter] Did you hear that, honey? The chef’s doing the cooking today. [laughter] I thought the busboy had just fucking stepped it up a gear, but fuck me, I think we’re in for a treat.” [laughter] And then he has the audacity to tell you how to eat it. He goes, “Uh, the chef recommends that you put the spoon in your mouth and you eat it all in one bite, and let the quail’s egg explode over the foam, the mousse, and the reduction, and then you swallow.” “All right.” When you should really go, “Thank fuck you came along, cunt. I wouldn’t have known what to do. [laughter] A spoon, you say? A spoon? I would’ve…” [laughter] [chuckles] So then you go through that, then you get a couple more courses. Then there’s always a course that involves something… The ingredients they use aren’t the ingredients that you want to fucking eat, right? If you were to buy a pork product in a supermarket and you were spending money, it would be, like, a pork loin or a chop, right? In these restaurants, it’s always like, “This is the kidney of the thing and the fingernail of the hoof. And… and you are getting the rind from the pig’s eye, the eye socket of the pig.” And you’re like, “Oh, I haven’t got enough socket in my fucking diet.” At the end you’re like, “I’m eating bone marrow, I didn’t know what a bone marrow fan I fucking am.” And it’s all shit. It’s all fucking bad for you. [laughter] I always… I always feel fatter after… This is the deal, right? I’m recording a special right now, so I’ve dropped, like, seven pounds in a week, by just not fucking eating, just not fucking eating, and… I come from a long line of fat people. Right? I come from fat people. The reason I… I lose weight is because of you, the general public, and your comments on the internet. [laughter] Without you and your words of wisdom, I’d be a fat fuck, but thank God you all come along, and you fucking bully the fuck out of me. See, I’m not… I’m not for fat shaming, but I kind of am, I kind of am. [laughter] I’m not for any shaming, really, but I don’t know why we’ve gotten to this moment in society where fat people are immune to being shamed, yet every other addiction in our society is shamed. I watched my mother eat herself to death. I fucking watched it. She hid food, she fucking kept on eating, she denied what she was doing, and she fucking died from it, right? I watched it happen. But for some reason, we have to look at fat people and go, “You be your best self, you’re looking great.” Every other fucking addiction in our society, we shame. You smoke a cigarette… You don’t think smokers feel shame? You don’t think smokers are breathing fucking smoke into their lungs, going, “I’m a piece of shit. I’m a parent, what the fuck am I doing with my life?” We don’t need you to go, “You smell. [laughter] You’re killing yourself, go outside. [laughter] There’s a section for people like you.” [laughter] Like fucking cocaine addicts. You don’t think they feel shame? Every time a cocaine addict has a line, they literally have to look at themselves in the fucking mirror. [laughter] You don’t compliment a fucking meth addict who’s picking scabs off their face, like, “You be you. [laughter] You’re living your best life.” No, but eating, we have to watch people get fat as fuck and compliment them? Fuck off. Should be the same as smoking. A fat cunt comes into a doughnut store, the person behind the counter should be able to go, “You’re gonna have to eat that outside.” [laughter] They’ll go outside with their doughnut… Aww. And they’ll have a little roped-off section. Let’s make it small, give them a fucking incentive. [laughter] They can stand out there with the other fatties and look at each other and go, “Oh.” “Do you remember when we were allowed to eat on planes?” [laughter] So, anyway, then we go on through the menu, course number five. Now, these fancy restaurants always have a foie gras course. Foie gras, it’s fucking delicious. I didn’t know what it was for years. I just enjoyed it. It’s this buttery, fucking fleshy thing. It’s delicious. And then someone showed me a video. Do you know how they make foie gras? They get a goose, then they step on its fucking feet, and then they pull the goose’s neck up, like this, and they get what’s called a foie gras funnel, which is like a funnel with a big, long tube, and they shove it down the goose’s throat until the goose looks like a fucking sword swallower. [laughter] And then they force-feed the goose grains, day and night, right? And then after that, they wire the goose’s mouth shut so it can’t vomit the food back up. Because of doing this, the goose gets cirrhosis of the liver, and the liver gets fat and yellow, and that’s what gives it that buttery taste. [laughter] My big question is… [laughter] …who was the first cunt to figure that out? [laughter] Who… Who was the first bloke just to walk up to his mates and just go, “Hey, guys… [laughter] I was torturing geese… [laughter] …as I always do… [laughter] …and you would not believe the delicious side effects.” [laughter] Now, I don’t believe in animal cruelty, uh, but– but who here, uh, thinks that we should no longer test on animals? All right! They’re what we call fucking idiots. [laughter] If you’re a fucking moron who just applauded, “There should be no animal testing,” you fucking basic cunt. [laughter] Now, I don’t think we should test on animals for something as frivolous as makeup. But when it comes to medicine, what’s our fucking other option? Let’s just think of something really simple, like acne cream. Right? You can’t just get a cucumber… [laughter] …smear the cream on the cucumber and go, “No change to cucumber. [laughter] Ready for people.” [laughter] No, you’ve got to start with a mouse, don’t you? Smear it on the mouse, that mouse dissolves. [laughter] “First cream not good.” [laughter] Then you get another cream. That mouse fucking multiplies like a mogwai hit with water. [laughter] “Better… [laughter] …than first cream. [laughter] Still… not good.” [laughter] Then you get one where it works. Then you go, “That one’s good.” Then you get a rat. Then you get a rabbit. Then you get a cat, then you get a dog, then you get a primate, then you get a homeless person, a student, then us. [laughter] And that’s how we have the medicine. [laughter] So moving on, we go to fucking course number six. The waiter brings up a cart. This thing has a dome on the top. And he rocks up with this fucking thing with the dome. He carried all the other food, but this thing needs a trolley. [laughter] And he pulls it off and there’s all these cheeses there. And he goes, “Your next course is the fromage,” like that. The fro… Actually, I don’t like that. I don’t like that the cunt called it fromage. [laughter] I know it’s a little thing, but it bothers me. He was just doing it to Frenchie the fucking experience up. [laughter] He could’ve said “cheese,” he knows the fucking word’s cheese. Everything else he said in English, and then he had to say fucking fromage. Fuck that cunt. [laughter] You’re telling me… You’re telling me that he’s, uh… he’s learned the entire English language but he’s just one word short? [laughter] I don’t like that. I’ll be honest with you here, and this is being recorded, and I’m happy to say this to the whole world. My most hated group in society… is Italian Americans. [laughter] And… And… And… Look, this is a comedy show, so if there are any Italian Americans in the room with us this evening, please know that you’re not welcome. [laughter] [whistling and applause] You’re a fucking painful bunch of people. [laughter] Pick a fucking accent. Either go Italian or go American, but don’t flip-flop. [laughter] You’ll be in an Italian restaurant, the waiter will seem normal, and then he’ll fucking change, right? You’ll be in an Italian restaurant, the guy will go, “Hey, enjoying your meal? It’s good, right? My mother, she used to make it with the mozzarell…” And you’re like… [laughter] “What the fuck happened to that word, cunt?” You… It’s like he had a fucking stroke in the middle of the fucking word. Mozzarell… Fuck you. [laughter] That’s why I got to give it up for the Asians. I like the Asians. [cheering] They pick an accent, and they fucking stick to it. [laughter] The Asians either go full Asian, or they go full American. They don’t go back and forth. [laughter] You’ll never be in an Asian restaurant and have the waiter walk up and go, “Hey, you enjoyed that? You should try it with some soy-soy.” No, they never do that. [laughter] So kudos, Asians. Kudos. [cheering] Anyway, so he rocks up with his fucking cart of cheese. There’s some soft cheeses there, some Camemberts and Bries and whatnot. The most dangerous cheeses of them all. [laughter] And I look at the cheese. And now, this– this girl, she does not know of my condition. [laughter] And I look at the cheeses, I look up at him, and I went, “How long… [laughter] …is the rest of the meal?” [laughter] And he said, “Uh, maybe, uh, 20 minutes.” I went, “Twenty minutes, I’ve got a 15-minute drive. [laughter] Fromage me.” [laughter] And I got myself a big plate of cheese, and I fucking caned that cunt. I fucking ate all that. We got another couple of courses, they have two dessert courses. One of the courses, the dessert courses, might as well have just been called “lactose.” [laughter] It was a lactose crumble, next to a lactose foam, with a lactose reduction, with a scoop of ice cream, then they freeze-dried some lactose crumble table-side and sprinkled it on top. And I looked at it, and I was like this, “In for a penny, in for a pound.” [laughter] And I ate that bowl of lactose as well. Now, what I didn’t mention is the girl I’m on the date with, she is a very petite girl. She had given up around course six. [laughter] I had also eaten her plate of fromage. [laughter] And her bowl of lactose. [laughter] Lactose is now coursing through my veins. I am on borrowed time. [laughter] And so I’m sitting there, knowing. I’m just sort of like, “All right, we’ll be good here. We’ll be good.” You know? I’m listening to her. “Oh, that’s interesting.” [laughter] And then the waiter comes up and goes, “Would you like a coffee?” And I went, “No! [laughter] Just the check, please.” [laughter] So he gets me the check. Now, we’re gonna go back to my place. Now, I’d been on a few dates with this girl, we’d always gone back to her place. This time was the first night she was gonna come back to my house. I was happy about going back to my place ’cause I know where all the toilets are, I know the distance. There’s a lot of things that were going on there. And because she was staying at my place, she goes to me, she goes, “Oh, we have to stop at the pharmacy… because there’s a-a-a cream that I need, like a lotion type of thing.” And I said, “That you need?” [laughter] And I-I-I said, I said, “Are you sure you don’t want it?” [laughter] And she goes, “No, I… No, I need it.” And I said, “I don’t know if you know the difference between wants and needs. [laughter] Like, if you need it, that means that you’ll die… [laughter] …if you don’t have it. So… Do you need it?” [laughter] And she claimed to need it. So… we drove off to the pharmacy. We get in there, right? We walk in this Rite Aid, and there’s just this wall of fucking lotions and that type of stuff, and I thought she needed it so she would know which one to grab. [laughter] But she’s just sort of looking at them, like this. Right? And I’m doing the “I have to shit myself” box step. -[laughter] -Like this. [laughter] [cheering and applause] And she can’t pick one. Now, this is the thing, she has to get a lotion. I don’t understand what’s going on with the whole lotion thing with women, right? I… Okay, I’ve lived with, uh, six girlfriends in my life. [laughter] In my… In my life, I’ve lived with six women, and all six of them have left me. [laughter] And sooner or later, I’m going to blame myself. [laughter] But not today. [laughter] Now… [cheering and applause] Now, every single woman I’ve ever lived with has a nighttime ritual, where they… See, I have a bedtime ritual. What I do is I go to the bathroom, I have a piss, I brush my teeth, I go to bed. [laughter] I’ve recently figured out that I could do them at the same time. [laughter] I have a piss and I brush my teeth, and I spit over, like that… Now, but the thing with women is you all go into the bathroom for, like, 20 minutes, and you close the door. And then you come out, and the last thing you do is you’re sort of… you’re rubbing something here. [laughter] And then you go like this. [laughter] And then you get into bed, and you tell me what I’ve done wrong that day. [laughter] [applause] And that’s your little nighttime routine. [laughter] Now, I don’t know what goes on in that room. [laughter] But I assume, I can’t be positive, but I assume you are covering your body head to toe in some type of lotion that you think is vital for your existence. [laughter] Now, I’m 42 years old. Um… I-I wear makeup for work. Like, when I’m on TV, they put makeup on me. I never even wipe it off, I just fucking… They give me a towelette, and I go, “Ah, don’t worry about it.” Then… [laughter] It goes away over a week, and they put it back on. [laughter] Apart from that, I-I’ve worn sunscreen, but I’ve never put anything else on my face. Nothing else my entire life. Um, I’m arguably an alcoholic. [laughter] I… I used to be a heavy smoker. I’ve been a cocaine addict. [cheering] [laughter] And my skin is fucking flawless. [laughter] [cheering and applause] And you want to know why? Because my skin learned at a very young age… [laughter] …that it couldn’t rely on me. [laughter] My skin knew that I was not gonna help it, so it was like, “All right… We’re going to have to produce our own oils if we’re gonna keep shit together.” Where women’s skin… Women’s skin… Every day, women’s skin is like this, “I haven’t had my special cream.” [laughter] And that’s why you all age so horribly. [laughter] Yeah, I-I don’t… I don’t do… as many misogynistic jokes as I used to, but I like to whip one in there every now and then. [laughter] It’s funny because I didn’t… I used to do more back in the day. But what happened was, in our society, people started getting angry at me because they didn’t know I was joking. Even though my job description would say… [laughter] …that I was possibly joking. [laughter] So this is what happens now with comedians. For some reason, we’re enemy number one. Every time we do a joke that you don’t like, you all go, “Why did you say that?” “Why…” I get asked at interviews, “Why would you say that joke?” And you go, “I thought it was going to be funny.” [laughter] It’s fucking ridiculous. I’m in trouble now for jokes that I did fucking ten years ago. People ring me up and go, “You said this joke ten years ago.” Now, our job as comedians is, okay, if the line’s here, our job is to go right up to the line, that’s our fucking job. To take risks. To gamble, if you will. Now, what happens when you gamble? You don’t always win. [laughter] Otherwise it wouldn’t be called fucking “gambling.” [laughter] So, what happens is we go all the way up to the line, right, which is fine. So, on my specials, I have jokes that have gotten through standards and practices and lawyers and everything, and still gotten on fucking Netflix, and then you watch it years later, and you’re fucking angry. Well, go fuck yourself, right? Because… Because… When I told the joke, the line was here, and it was socially acceptable, right? Now you moved the line back to here, so I won’t go there anymore, I won’t, but the line’s here. But you can’t get angry because you moved the line and then the fucking joke was over here. [laughter and applause] And then… And then you have the audacity to ask me to maybe apologize for a fucking joke. Here’s the thing, I wanted the joke to work. Sometimes you tell a joke and it doesn’t fucking work. And then people go, “Why did you do that?” You go, “I tried to make the joke work, but it didn’t fucking work, and now you’re all upset with me.” [laughter] It’s like if a pilot smashes a plane into fucking the side of a mountain. You don’t go, “Why did you do that?” [laughter] He’ll go, “My intention was to land the plane safely. [laughter] But it turns out I failed at my job. But I didn’t… I didn’t wake up in the morning going, ‘Smash it!'” [laughter] See, it’s like, I watched Dave Chappelle’s special. I watched his special. I thought it was fucking great. [cheering and applause] It was hilarious. And people got upset, and they got upset by different jokes in it. They get… See, here’s the thing. I didn’t enjoy every joke in his special. Some of the things he said, I didn’t even agree with. But you know what happened? When I watched the jokes I didn’t enjoy, I got over it because I’m not a fucking pussy. [laughter] All right? And I just listened to the ones I fucking enjoyed. See, he said that he thought that Michael Jackson didn’t fuck kids. Eh. [laughter] I think Michael Jackson did fuck kids. [laughter] That’s how me and Dave differ. [laughter] A lot of people have stopped listening to Michael Jackson’s music. They go, “I won’t listen to it anymore. I won’t listen to it anymore.” I still listen to it. [laughter] But I only listen to the Jackson 5. [laughter] ‘Cause if he was fucking kids back then, it was just experimenting, and there’s nothing wrong with that. [laughter] I go all the way to “Blame It on the Boogie,” and I fucking call it a day. [laughter] So, look… [laughter] What I’m trying to tell you is… she couldn’t pick which cream she wanted. [laughter] And she’s looking at all the different creams. I’m doing the “I have to shit myself” box step. [laughter] And I think to myself, “Fuck it, I’ve got to have a shit.” Now, there’s a bathroom in the back of the, uh, pharmacy, so I duck off. Now, at this point of the story, I got to tell you… all right, that this girl’s a germophobe. It’s vital to the story that she’s a germophobe. Now, we may have some people in the room who identify as germophobes and, to those people… go fuck yourself. [laughter, cheering, and applause] I’ve… I’ve never met a person in my life who’s interesting who’s a fucking germophobe. You’re always boring cunts who tell us all the time that you’re a fucking germophobe. Being a germophobe is doing a lot of heavy lifting for your shit fucking personality. [laughter] How dare you act like we’re all diseased. Every time we shake your hand, you go, “I-I can’t because… eh…” Every time you cook with a germophobe, you cook and put some scraps in the bin, you go, “Hey, can you take that out for the trash for me?” And they’re like, “I’d love to, but I can’t. [laughter] Because I’m a germophobe.” And you’re like, “The rest of us are loving it.” You lick the bin, “Aah.” [laughter] You’re not special. While I’m at it, people with peanut allergies can fuck off an’ all. [laughter, cheering, and applause] Now, I’m not saying that there aren’t people with severe peanut allergies. There truly are. There’s people who will die if they eat a fucking peanut. What I’m saying is it’s your fucking problem. [laughter] The rest of us don’t have to be involved. Right, like, have you ever been on a plane lately, and they go like this, they go, “Uh, on today’s flight, we will not be serving peanuts, as there’s a person on the flight with a severe peanut allergy.” And you’re like, “All right, well, don’t give them to them, then.” [laughter] How fucking weak-willed are these cunts? “Oh, I know it will kill me, but the salty goodness…” [laughter] Like, what do they think the rest of us are going to fucking do? Go to the air stewardess, “Uh, excuse me, uh, who has that peanut allergy?” [laughter] [laughter] What do you think’s gonna happen if someone next to you eats a fucking peanut? Do you think peanut particles will get in the fucking air? Guess what? These flights fly back and forth and back and forth all fucking day. In between, they hardly clean the planes. Do you think they’d go on with a special peanut– de-peanut-ing machine and fucking fill the fucking air? [laughter] See, you know what I do? Every time when I’m on a flight where they serve peanuts, what I do is I get six or seven peanuts, and I wedge them down the back of the fucking seat. [laughter] And if someone ever dies, I’ll be the first person to say, “I was wrong.” [laughter] Now, I talked earlier about, like, how I did one misogynistic joke, and how– how, at the moment now, I-I-I don’t know if people know that I’m fucking joking. It’s become very odd now, this tension that we have about what’s right and what’s wrong. I was on a plane and this fucking… This woman was trying to put a bag in the overhead luggage, and she was shaking, and she can’t do it. And I went to help her, and she just looked at me and went, “No, no,” like that. [laughter] And it’s, like, now I’m in trouble for trying to do a nice thing. That used to be my one move. [laughter] I used to open doors, I used to lift bags, I used to stand up for pregnant people on buses. That was my fucking gig. That’s what I had going. -[laughter] And now, because I tried to help her, she’s, like… She’s, like, angry at me? Like I’m trying to do a male patriarchy thing, where I can lift this better than you. So I just told her to fuck off. [laughter] And… turns out, she’s just a woman with Parkinson’s, and she did need my help. [laughter] But that scenario could’ve been different is what I’m saying. [laughter] Like, I was in a movie… I was in a movie with my son. We were watching… A couple of years ago, we were watching the Ghostbusters movie, the new one with the female cast. Watching Ghostbusters. My son, he’s four at the time, and he turns to me watching Ghostbusters, and he goes, “This movie’s not as good as the other Ghostbusters.” And I went, “Shut up, shh. [laughter] You’re not allowed to say that. This movie’s every bit as good as the other Ghostbusters. We’ll talk about it in the car.” [laughter] You know, and on reflection, that movie wasn’t as good. [laughter] It was a shit fucking movie. [laughter] Wasn’t funny, the action sequences weren’t good, it was a fucking shit film. It wasn’t shit because women were in it. It was just shit because it was shit. [laughter] You know what I mean? Like, ’cause that cast… Paul Feig is the director. He directed Bridesmaids, one of my top ten comedies. The rest of the cast was from that movie, they’d made good films together. This one was just a misfire. But the weird thing that happened was no one went to see that film, and then all of a sudden, men were pigs, men are fucking misogynistic assholes because that film didn’t do good. No. It didn’t do good because you women didn’t fucking see it either. If you went and saw the movie… If you went and saw the movie, it would have been a success. But you didn’t fucking see it, then you got angry at us for not fucking seeing it. [laughter] Do you want to know why it didn’t do well? It’s an action comedy, and if you go to any marketing company that talks about how they sell things, action comedies primarily are enjoyed by men. There might be exceptions to the rule, but primarily men like action comedies. Do you want to know why? Because we’re funny, and we do things, and… [laughter] And… And women like dramas because you cause drama. [laughter] So my point is… stop remaking our fucking movies. Leave our movies alone. We don’t remake your films. You don’t see Brad Pitt and George Clooney getting together to make Mystic fucking Pizza of the Sisterhood of the Ya-Ya Fuckhead Traveling Pants Movie. [laughter] We leave your shit alone. [laughter] Although there should be some films that should be remade with, you know, different casts. Like, one of my favorite movies from my childhood was, uh, Nine to Five. Dolly Parton, Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda. Fantastic. It still stands up today. It’s about three women, they have a boss who’s a fucking pig. Like, it’s even poignant right now. They have a boss who’s a pig. So what they do is they drug him, and they put him in bondage gear, and they hang him from the roof of one of their garages for three weeks. It’s a fun film. [laughter] You know, they should do that with a male cast, right? So, there’s a woman, you put her in the position of power. [laughter] The three employees don’t like it, so they drug her, and they put her in bondage gear, and they hang her from the roof of one of their garages. It’s just a fun film. [laughter] Another movie that needs an opposite remake: Brokeback Mountain. [laughter] That movie’s… It needs it! [laughter] The original film is a couple of blokes, they’re working on the land, they ran out of conversation. So they went into a tent, and they fucked each other in the ass. [laughter] My film, it’s a couple of young lasses, they’re working on the land, they’re doing a man’s job. They get bored, so they go into a tent, and they finger-bang each other. [laughter] [laughter] My version doesn’t even need a tent. [laughter] But one of the things that’s happening in cinema at the moment is, and I think we can all agree on this… Okay, so… So we’re done with blackface people. Stop doing that. People don’t like it. If-If you’re getting ready for Halloween and you think, “I might do blackface,” just don’t. [laughter] It’s so much easier to not do blackface. [laughter] Like you don’t have to do anything. Just save yourself time. See, the thing is, with actors now you’ve got in movies… I think we’ve all agreed that you can’t play outside your race. It goes back to, like, Mickey Rooney playing an Asian character in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Don’t play outside your race. You can only play your race. I think we can all agree on that now. Now, there’s another thing happening now, where the gays are getting upset if heterosexuals are playing gay people on film. I’m not sure about that, but I’m open to discussion. But here’s the thing that’s really fucking pissing me off. Taron Edgerton, or Egerton, or whatever, he played Elton John and Eddie the Eagle. Two of the ugliest cunts that have ever lived. [laughter] He’s really good-looking. I don’t fucking like that. [laughter] He’s playing uglyface. How many ugly actors would like that fucking opportunity? [yelling] Do the good-looking people need fucking everything? [laughter] Like, Charlize Theron fucking gains 30 pounds, and all they say is, “How brave.” [laughter] You know what’s brave? Being ugly every single fucking day. So I decide to go off to the toilet, right? And I’m going off… [laughter] And she goes, “Where are you going?” And there’s no point lying anymore, so I just went like this, “Um… I have to shit myself.” [laughter] And she goes, “If you take a shit in a public toilet, then I’ll never fuck you again.” I was like, [exhales] [laughter] “It’s a very good argument. That’s a… That’s what you call a quandary.” [laughter] So, I went, “All right, but just fucking hurry up.” So now I’m doing the “I have to shit myself” jog. I’m like, “Come on. [laughter] Pick a fucking cream. Pick a cream, any cream. They’re all good. All of these creams are good.” She’s not hurrying up, so I did what every man has done in a relationship. Right? And there’s a few men in this room that probably did it this evening to get here on time. This is how you hurry up your wife or your girlfriend. Every man does this. This is our special move. We go out… and we sit in the car. [laughter] And we think, “This’ll send a strong message.” [laughter] Now, I assume women are like, “Ah, thank fuck he’s gone to sit in the car.” [laughter] So, I’m sitting in the car and I do this move, where I’ve leant like this, I leant all the way down, and I’m trying to breathe through it, like I’m in, like, a Lamaze class, like… [exhales] [exhales] And the reason I’m sitting like this is because my theory is if I lay flat like this, the shit won’t come out as quickly -because of gravity, you see? [laughter] If I sit upright, the shit has an easier way to fall. [man] Yeah! And also, sitting like this, I’m clenching my ass cheeks together. [laughter] Because if the shit gets past the sphincter, it won’t get past the impenetrable barrier that is me clenching my ass cheeks together. Because I’m a fucking genius. [laughter] And I’m sitting there, and I’m watching her through the window of the pharmacy. [laughter] And she selects the cream, but then she stops a bit. Right? Then she goes back to get another cream. So I’ve got to hurry this up, so I start honking, just… Honk! Honk! She looks out like she’s really angry with me. Then she’s going to the counter. I think, “Oh, good, she’s coming.” Then she just, like, bumps into a friend. [laughter] Starts fucking talking to someone. So, I thought, “I’d better step this up a gear.” So, I put the window down, and I lean my head out the window, and every time the sliding doors open like this… [laughter] …I went, “I’m gonna shit myself! [laughter] I’m gonna shit myself!” [laughter] Now… I forget that I’m off the telly. I don’t think about it on a regular basis, right? So, I’m leaning out the window, yelling, “I’m gonna shit myself,” and this 14-year-old kid skateboards by and goes, “Good luck with that, Jim.” [laughter] [applause] So I’m sitting there yelling, “I’m gonna shit myself.” Eventually she comes out, she gets in the car, and, like, obviously she’s upset. She has reason. I have been yelling, “I’m going to shit myself,” and honking the horn. [laughter] She sits next to me and she goes, “I cannot believe…” And I went, “No time to fight! [laughter] This is not a drill.” [laughter] And I fucking fishtail out of the fucking car park. Now I’m in Ventura, and I’m whizzing through traffic. She’s holding on, fucking… The cream’s bouncing around. I see the Golden Arches, I see McDonald’s. I turned to her, I said, “Could I please have a shit in the McDonald’s? [laughter] McDonald’s are renowned for how clean they keep their toilets. I won’t even sit on the seat. I’ll just hover and spray.” [laughter] To that, I received a firm, “No.” [laughter] So I have to make a decision. My house is five minutes away. Her house is three minutes away. I-I make a call. I’ve got to go to her house, it’s the only way I’ll make it, right? Now, this… This kills me. Every day I think about this, right? If I went to her house to begin with, I never would’ve had to stop to get the cream. [laughter] So, anyway, we get into her house… we get in the driveway, she has a long driveway. I park the car. I get out. I’m already like this, “Come on!” “Come on!” [laughter] She’s got the keys, so none of my running’s helping. She’s just fucking in heels, just going through her bag. I’m going, “Come on!” Now she’s stopped being angry, she just finds this hilarious. [laughter] She’s just laughing. We get to the door. Right, now, you know when you’ve really… you’ve… you really have needed to do a shit? It could be five minutes, it could be five hours, but there was an amount of time where you were desperate to do a shit. Then you get to within 12 feet of the toilet. [laughter] And your asshole starts to reward itself… [laughter] for all the good work that you’ve put in. [laughter] Your asshole goes, “Yeah, we did it! [laughter] We did it! We did it as a team! And that’s my favorite thing: that we did it together!” [laughter] ‘Cause you always get to the toilet, you always go… “Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah!” Pooooooof! [laughter and applause] You never go… seat… Poof! No. Why is it that you always just made it? You’re not that lucky. There aren’t that many coincidences in the world… [laughter] …that you always just made it. It’s that your asshole has its own brain and a, like, Pavlovian response. So anyway… I get up to the door, and I’m going, “Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on!” And I’m, like, really yelling. She walks up, she gets the keys out, she’s laughing. She goes to put the keys in the door, she drops the keys. -[laughter] -[woman] Oh! The keys hit the ground, and I shit myself. And this isn’t just like a little warning squirt of, like, “All right, there’s more where this came from.” And it wasn’t like a full evacuation either. It wasn’t just like a full… “Pooof” like this. It was the weirdest thing. It was just shit coming out of me in a steady meter, just… [laughter] No pushing. [laughter] No pushing. Everything from liquids to solids and everything in between. [laughter] And I’d gone from being all “Aaagh!” to just a calmness… [laughter] …came over me. I was just… [laughter] And my jeans are filling up. [laughter] And instantly, the… the smell of human fecal matter has filled the air. And for the first time, she gets her ass into gear and she goes, “Oh, fuck!” And she grabs the keys… [laughter] And I went, “Oh, no, no, no, no, no. [laughter] No point hurrying anymore. [laughter] You take your time.” [laughter] All right. Now, before I go, I’m gonna tell a very, very quick little story. Um… My mother passed away a few months ago, and, um, when my mother died… Look, my mother, uh was never… Yeah, look, here’s the deal. My mother’s not a– wasn’t a funny woman. She had no… no sense of humor, never found me funny. She never watched anything that I did and went, “That was funny.” But she was always… [laughter] She was always very supportive of me. And, you know, the only per… she was the only one in my life, the only one, that I bagged on my mother so much, I called her Gunta, she was the butt of so many fucking jokes that I said. And I’ll give her this, she never complained, not fucking once. Not once. So… I’d like to tell one story where she comes out of it a little bit cooler. Right? Now, when I was about 13 and my brother was about 17, we were home watching, uh, Star Wars. Right? We were home watching Star Wars. I was on the Throne of Misery, my brother was on the couch, watching Star Wars. My brother Scott, who’s a fucking nutjob, right, he turns to me and he goes, “Hey, Jim, get me a Coke.” And I went, “Get your own fucking Coke, I’m not gonna get you a Coke.” And he goes, “Get me a Coke or I’ll piss on the carpet.” [laughter] “What? What?” [laughter] “Get me a Coke or I’ll piss on the carpet.” I go, “I’m not getting you a fucking Coke.” And he’s going, “So you’d rather I just pissed on the carpet?” I go, “I guess that’s what I’m fucking telling you.” [laughter] And my brother walks to the middle of the living room, stands in front of me, gets out his cock, starts pissing on the carpet, and he looks at me and he goes, “I don’t know why you constantly find the need to cause trouble. [laughter] It would have been so easy for you just to get a Coke, but, no, not Jim, has to be difficult.” Then he shakes his cock, puts it away, goes back, lies down. Now, this is the bit that fucking kills me. [laughter] He doesn’t get a Coke. [laughter] So, I was sitting there, you know, 40 degrees Celsius, no air conditioning, fucking… a puddle of urine in the middle of the living room, just steaming upwards. Now we’re onto about… We’re probably on Return of the Jedi by now. My mom comes in, and she does that thing that parents do when they have no words. She walks in, just to see the urine in the middle, and she went like this, “Why? [laughter] Who… Who would… Who would… Why?” [laughter] And then she went, “Every fucking day it’s something different. Every day.” [laughter] And then she went, “Who did this?” And I didn’t want to get in trouble, so I went, “Scott did it.” And she turned to Scott and she goes, “What did you do that for?” And he went, “I told Jim to get me a Coke, or I’d piss on the carpet.” [laughter] And my mother turns to me and goes… [imitates hard slap] [laughter] “Why didn’t you get him a Coke? You know he’s fucking mental.” Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much. Good night. I appreciate it, I really do. [cheering and applause continues] More: Jim Jefferies, Stand-up transcripts	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line7909
__label__wiki	0.83853	0.83853	An Interview with Dr. David Wilson (Part 1) On July 15, Professor David A. Wilson of University of Toronto visited the SALON Team as a special guest in our summer outdoor theatre experience, In Sir John A’s Footsteps. Afterwards, SALON actor, Jesse MacMillan sat down with the Ph.D. to discuss their mutual interest, Irish Father of Confederation, Thomas D’Arcy McGee. Although not Wilson’s original interest while finishing his graduate studies, the Irish Rebel-turned-Nation-Builder caught his attention during an unexpected Celtic Studies conference. Since that day in the 1970s, David Wilson has become one of the leading experts on McGee, having published two volumes and countless articles. For actor MacMillan, who regularly portrays D’Arcy McGee in SALON productions, the opportunity to pick Wilson’s brain on facts and stories was an invaluable opportunity. In Part 1 of this two-part interview, find out how Wilson became fascinated with D’Arcy McGee, and why. MacMillan: I had to learn…so that when I was out on the streets as McGee, people would drill me. I always knew that if someone asked me, I was usually able to respond. But as I got to know his story, I thought it was one of the most interesting ones of the Fathers of Confederation. I wonder why you decided to pick McGee as a figure [to study]. Wilson: I first heard of McGee just before my PhD Comprehensive Exams. I was at Queens, but I wasn’t doing Canadian History, I was doing Anglo-American history, late 18th, early 19th century. I had no knowledge of Canadian History whatsoever. I didn’t know which provinces signed Confederation, you know. I went down to Toronto just to clear my head before the [Comprehensive] exams and there was a big conference put on by the new Celtic Studies program at the University of Toronto, called Canada and the Celtic Consciousness…This man, McGee kept coming up…He was being used by the conference organizers as the man who single handedly saved Canada from Fenianism, and the man who single handedly brought the Celts, and the French together, and who actually found a common Celtic consciousness for Canada: French, Irish and Scots. It was a very hagiographical romantic image of McGee. But I was very interested in the use of McGee as this mythic symbol. So that was one side: The Myth of McGee. And then, the Irish politician, who I by now realized, was a latter day version of Thomas D’Arcy McGee—someone who is uncannily similar to D’Arcy McGee in his views, a man by the name of Conor Cruise O’Brien. He gave a speech at that conference, in which he attacked revolutionary Irish Nationalism. He had taken on the provisional IRA in the same way that D’arcy McGee had taken on the Fenians over a century earlier. In the course of a memorable and brilliant speech…he demolished some of the central myths of romantic revolutionary Irish Nationalism. He said at the end of the talk that the greatest Irish Canadian was Thomas D’Arcy McGee. And then, he proposed a toast with water, and said that a scholarly biography of Thomas D’arcy McGee was long overdue. That was 1978, and I thought, File that one away, Wilson. You never know. Two decades had passed before Wilson turned back to McGee. In the meantime, he continued his focus on American History. Wilson: In 2000, I finished another book, and I thought…Irish Canadian history should be explored. I remembered Conor Cruise O’Brien’s remarks. But then I found out, a man by the name of Robin Burns, who was at Bishop’s University had written a Ph.D. on McGee…It was a very scholarly, solid, brilliantly researched piece of work. I just didn’t find the character very appealing. It had come out in 1976. He’s been sitting on it for twenty-six years, and I thought, if he’s going to publish this, there’s no room for me to write a biography on McGee. And then I thought…in twenty-four years, he’s not published it by now; he’s probably not going to do it. In fact, the first biography of McGee that I read, when I was thinking about this project, was by Isabel Skelton[1]who was here in Kingston, and it was published in 1925. After reading the biography, I thought I would abandon the project because I didn’t like McGee very much and I didn’t find him particularly interesting. I think that was Isabel Skelton’s D’Arcy McGee. It was [only] going to be a 200-page book. I got more and more drawn into McGee and his world. By the time David had completed his first volume on Thomas D’Arcy McGee—a piece of literature exploring McGee’s relationship to Ireland and the Fenians—he had already created a list of other themes that he realized were worth exploration. Wilson: To my surprise, I found that McGee and Rep by Pop [aka. Representation by Population], and McGee on Separate schools, the separate schools issue was absolutely fascinating. It’s still with us. Separate schools for Muslims, and the debates around that. Do separate schools mean less acculturation and assimilation or more assimilation and acculturation? I learned a lot of the debates had contemporary resonance. [1] Isabel (Murphy) Skelton, The Life of Thomas D’Arcy McGee (Gardenvale, N.Y., 1925). David Wilson had officially been hooked by the enigmatic figure of Thomas D’Arcy McGee. Captivated by the many seeming contradictions of McGee, Wilson turned to the archives in order to unpack the Irish Father of Confederation’s story. Wilson: The McGee I discovered when I went to the primary sources was really… fascinating—and vibrant and alive, and also full of contradictions. [Reading] newspapers from 1840s and 1850s and 1860s, you find three or four different McGees. You find McGee, the revolutionary, the man who proudly proclaimed himself to be a traitor to the British crown. You find the McGee who was a moral force Reformer, who rejected revolution. You find the McGee who believed that Canada…could, should, and would be, annexed to the United States. You find the McGee who was a fervent Catholic, who rejected secular politics and believed that the Catholic religion should define—not just shape, but define—politics. And you find McGee, the liberal who compromised, who found accommodation, and who…struggled towards the middle way. At the same time, even as he struggled to maintain the middle way, there were still extreme elements in his personality; and they came out paradoxically in the service of moderation. To describe him, as I do in Volume II, as an extreme moderate is clearly a paradox—an oxymoron really: an extreme moderate. Wilson: What I mean by [extreme moderate] is that when he was confronted with the Fenians, and indeed the Orange Order…he took an extreme position against the Orange Order, and extreme position against the Fenians… [McGee] believed [both factions] could, together, tear this country apart and turn it into a North American version of Ireland, with wide and deep ethno and religious tensions—fissures if you like…[McGee did this] all this in the service of moderation and nation building. And [he did it in the service of] building a society in which Moderates and accommodation and kindly feelings would prevail. He believed strongly actually in kindly feelings, personal goodwill, [as well as in] the importance of it in politics and in social interactions. [McGee] realized after a few years in Canada that the Orange Order wasn’t monolithic, that there were moderate elements, that there were “nominal” Orange Men. John A. Macdonald is a classic example of a nominal Orange Man. But there were also extreme, bigoted Orange Men. He was prepared to compromise and accommodate with moderate Orange Men. When it came to the Fenians, he felt that there was, by definition, no moderate component to them. They were revolutionary republicans who, in his view, had adopted a new kind of religion, and one which in its sense of moral absolutism, or if you like, absolute certainty, was intolerant of anything that challenged it, and extremely dangerous. And so he never compromised with Fenianism. Wilson: The more I read on McGee and Confederation, particularly when I started reading the anti-confederation arguments, [the more] I found them very persuasive. I don’t know what position I would have taken at the time, but there were some very good arguments against confederation. [It was interesting] to see how McGee’s Canadian Nationalism fitted (because it does fit) with his intense hostility toward Fenianism…It drew on earlier form of Nationalism he’d expressed in Ireland in his teens. I kept saying, there’s actually some consistency here, because the kind of nationalism that he embraced for Ireland in his teens has been transposed to Canada and transmuted…through [his] experiences in America, his experiences in Ireland, his experiences with Catholicism, and his experiences with reality on the ground in Canada. But the basic principles were constant. MacMillan: You said in the bios [of McGee] that his character didn’t pop out. How did you go about pulling out the character that you knew was there? Wilson: It’s a very good question because there are hardly any personal papers; and that tells its own story as well. We know next to nothing about his relationship with his wife except for one very harrowing letter she writes about her husband’s drinking, and then she breaks off the letter because he’s just come in now and he’s worse than ever. You get glimpses of that. MacMillan: Wasn’t she quoted as saying he was an ugly man, or something? Wilson: I know the story, but there are two well known made up stories about McGee, and that’s one. The other is that there’s only room for one drunkard in this cabinet and I’m not acquitting. Which is a lovely story, and it may be true, but there’s no evidence that Macdonald ever said that, and there’s no evidence that Mary McGee ever said that either, so I don’t know. With absent evidence, skepticism rules here. Although, if you want a good story, they fit well. Wilson: I think he was not only the youngest, most intellectually gifted Father of Confederation, he wrote a dozen books, he wrote hundreds of poems, which aren’t very good by contemporary standards, probably, but which were very popular in his day. He was a brilliant orator and regarded as one of the greatest orators in the English-speaking world, and he has a compelling personality. One person wrote that you always knew where McGee was in the room because that’s where people where laughing. But as Wilson notes, D’Arcy McGee was not a seamlessly perfect figure. In addition to being a heavy drinker, which Wilson suspects was difficult on his wife, Mary and his children, he was also a passionate man, for better or worse. Wilson: I do think he struggled between his passions and his reason. There are stories of him staying late into the night of houses where he was put up, having a heated political arguments with his hosts, and thumping his fists on the table and going at it until seven or eight in the morning, grabbing a couple of hours of sleep and then moving on to the next day’s work. Check out PART 2 to learn where Dr. Wilson drew from to piece together Thomas D’Arcy McGee’s personality. In Part 2 you will also find out what Wilson thinks about SALON Theatre and the collision of history and art. Interview by Jesse MacMillan Transcribed by Allison Ferry Blog written by Allison Ferry Written by SALON Theatre · Categorized: SALON Theatre	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line7911
__label__cc	0.538963	0.461037	Ron's View Home > Elles: Pompidou > valadons valadons Suzanne Valadons, “La Chambre blue,” 1923 Elles: Pompidou Two Roses A Visit to APO Ruby and Charlee Turn One Bar Cantinetta Seattle Sommeliers Miró at SAM, 2 When You Know You’re Old La Grenouille, 3 Chicken Parm Pizza Archive by Month Select Month May 2014 (6) April 2014 (9) March 2014 (11) February 2014 (9) January 2014 (11) December 2013 (14) November 2013 (4) October 2013 (14) September 2013 (19) August 2013 (14) July 2013 (7) June 2013 (20) May 2013 (18) April 2013 (19) March 2013 (23) February 2013 (23) January 2013 (23) December 2012 (24) November 2012 (22) October 2012 (18) September 2012 (18) August 2012 (25) July 2012 (23) June 2012 (25) May 2012 (21) April 2012 (27) March 2012 (26) February 2012 (16) January 2012 (31) December 2011 (27) November 2011 (21) October 2011 (19) September 2011 (21) August 2011 (15) July 2011 (32) June 2011 (20) May 2011 (20) April 2011 (21) March 2011 (26) February 2011 (12) January 2011 (21) December 2010 (30) November 2010 (19) October 2010 (22) September 2010 (28) August 2010 (22) July 2010 (28) June 2010 (14) May 2010 (31) April 2010 (29) March 2010 (15) February 2010 (19) January 2010 (13) December 2009 (26) November 2009 (13) October 2009 (17) September 2009 (31) August 2009 (27) July 2009 (57) June 2009 (26) May 2009 (36) April 2009 (29) March 2009 (24) February 2009 (23) January 2009 (27) December 2008 (25) November 2008 (23) October 2008 (36) September 2008 (30) Categories Select Category Advertising (4) Animals (25) Animation (3) Architecture (24) Art (66) Arts (7) Automobiles (20) Baseball (55) Big Ships (3) Biography (13) Birds (8) Blog (5) Books (216) Business (23) Cartoons (9) Cats (18) Clothing (8) Cognition (1) Communication (2) Computing (22) Crosswords (5) Culture (52) Cycling (34) Dance (2) Design (8) Dogs (1) Economics (15) Economy (14) Education (25) Environment (5) Family (82) Film (10) Flying (7) Food (113) Football (5) Foreign Policy (3) Fraud (1) Games (2) Garden (6) Geography (7) Golf (35) Government (20) Health (2) History (99) Hockey (5) Holidays (5) House (25) Humanities (2) Humor (11) Israel (1) Journalism (62) Labor (4) Language (59) Law (66) Libraries (1) Lies (4) Life (72) Logic (3) Magazines (3) Math (49) Measurement (1) Media (9) Medicine (4) Money (3) Movies (12) Museums (53) Music (54) Newspapers (20) Obituary (38) Philosophy (4) Photography (5) Photojournalism (2) Politics (280) Puzzles (2) Regulation (1) Religion (24) Restaurants (131) Science (23) Security (14) Shopping (2) Skiing (3) Society (11) Sports (130) Stupidity (15) Teaching (4) Technology (30) Television (22) Tennis (4) Theater (15) Time (1) Today’s News (57) Torture (35) Track (3) Translation (1) Transportation (5) Travel (205) Video (12) Video Games (2) War (38) Weather (9) Welcome (1) Wine (26) World (2) Writing (40) © 2008-2012 Ronald S. Irving Gail’s View Clotilde eat.sing.ride Etymologist Larison Rall Life as a Physicist Posnanski	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line7913
__label__wiki	0.877223	0.877223	MIN. PRICE $25,000 $50,000 $75,000 $100,000 $125,000 $150,000 $175,000 $200,000 $225,000 $250,000 $275,000 $300,000 $325,000 $350,000 $375,000 $400,000 $425,000 $450,000 $475,000 $500,000 $525,000 $550,000 $575,000 $600,000 $625,000 $650,000 $675,000 $700,000 $725,000 $750,000 $775,000 $800,000 $825,000 $850,000 $875,000 $900,000 $925,000 $950,000 $975,000 $1,000,000 $1,250,000 $1,500,000 $1,750,000 $2,000,000 $2,250,000 $2,500,000 $2,750,000 $3,000,000 $3,250,000 $3,500,000 $3,750,000 $4,000,000 $4,250,000 $4,500,000 $4,750,000 $5,000,000 $5,250,000 $5,500,000 $5,750,000 $6,000,000 $6,250,000 $6,500,000 $6,750,000 $7,000,000 $7,250,000 $7,500,000 $7,750,000 $8,000,000 $8,250,000 $8,500,000 $8,750,000 $9,000,000 $9,250,000 $9,500,000 $9,750,000 MAX. PRICE DATE SOLD Last 6 Months Last 9 Months Last Year Last 2 Years Last 3 Years Last 4 Years Last 5 Years Last 10 Years RADIUS 0.5 miles 1 mile 2 miles 3 miles 4 miles 5 miles 6 miles 7 miles 8 miles 9 miles 10 miles 15 miles 20 miles Property Type Condo Residential - Multi-Family (2 - 4) Residential - Single Family Unknown Get your free, personalized home valuation report Tell us about your property SQ. FT. < 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 2000 2250 2500 2750 3000 3500 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 10000 Tell us where to send your report Del Mar Sold Homes (500 listings) Get a Home Valuation Listings for sale in Del Mar Del Mar , CA DRAWN REGION MIN. PRICE MIN. PRICE $25,000 $50,000 $75,000 $100,000 $125,000 $150,000 $175,000 $200,000 $225,000 $250,000 $275,000 $300,000 $325,000 $350,000 $375,000 $400,000 $425,000 $450,000 $475,000 $500,000 $525,000 $550,000 $575,000 $600,000 $625,000 $650,000 $675,000 $700,000 $725,000 $750,000 $775,000 $800,000 $825,000 $850,000 $875,000 $900,000 $925,000 $950,000 $975,000 $1,000,000 $1,250,000 $1,500,000 $1,750,000 $2,000,000 $2,250,000 $2,500,000 $2,750,000 $3,000,000 $3,250,000 $3,500,000 $3,750,000 $4,000,000 $4,250,000 $4,500,000 $4,750,000 $5,000,000 $5,250,000 $5,500,000 $5,750,000 $6,000,000 $6,250,000 $6,500,000 $6,750,000 $7,000,000 $7,250,000 $7,500,000 $7,750,000 $8,000,000 $8,250,000 $8,500,000 $8,750,000 $9,000,000 $9,250,000 $9,500,000 $9,750,000 MAX. PRICE MAX. PRICE MIN. PRICE $25,000 $50,000 $75,000 $100,000 $125,000 $150,000 $175,000 $200,000 $225,000 $250,000 $275,000 $300,000 $325,000 $350,000 $375,000 $400,000 $425,000 $450,000 $475,000 $500,000 $525,000 $550,000 $575,000 $600,000 $625,000 $650,000 $675,000 $700,000 $725,000 $750,000 $775,000 $800,000 $825,000 $850,000 $875,000 $900,000 $925,000 $950,000 $975,000 $1,000,000 $1,250,000 $1,500,000 $1,750,000 $2,000,000 $2,250,000 $2,500,000 $2,750,000 $3,000,000 $3,250,000 $3,500,000 $3,750,000 $4,000,000 $4,250,000 $4,500,000 $4,750,000 $5,000,000 $5,250,000 $5,500,000 $5,750,000 $6,000,000 $6,250,000 $6,500,000 $6,750,000 $7,000,000 $7,250,000 $7,500,000 $7,750,000 $8,000,000 $8,250,000 $8,500,000 $8,750,000 $9,000,000 $9,250,000 $9,500,000 $9,750,000 MAX. PRICE Bedrooms BEDROOMS 1+ 2+ 3+ 4+ 5+ Bathrooms BATHROOMS 1+ 2+ 3+ 4+ 5+ Sq Ft (min) SQ. FT. (MIN) 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500 5000 5500 6000 6500 7000 7500 8000 8500 9000 9500 10000 Built After LOT. SQFT ANY VIEW	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line7915
__label__wiki	0.699815	0.699815	Jabberwocky And Other Nonsense: Collected Poems (Clothbound Classic) Author(s): Lewis Carroll Classics (All Ages) \| Poetry & English 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves / Did gyre and gimble in the wabe...' wrote Lewis Carroll, author of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass", in his wonderfully playful poem of nonsense verse, "Jabberwocky". This beautiful, clothbound new edition collects together the marvellous range of Carroll's poetry, including nonsense verse, parodies, burlesques, and more. Alongside the title piece are such enduringly wonderful pieces as "The Walrus and the Carpenter", "The Mock Turtle's Song", "Father William" and many more. Lewis Carroll was the pen-name of the Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. Born in 1832, he was educated at Rugby School and Christ Church, Oxford, where he was appointed lecturer in mathematics in 1855, and where he spent the rest of his life. In 1861 he took deacon's orders, but shyness and a stammer prevented him from seeking the priesthood. His most famous works, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1872), were originally written for Alice Liddell, the daughter of the Dean of his college. Charles Dodgson died of bronchitis in 1898. Gillian Beer is King Edward VII Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Cambridge and past President of Clare Hall College. She is a Fellow of the British Academy and of the Royal Society of Literature. Among her works are Darwin's Plots (1983; third edition, 2009), George Eliot (1986), Arguing with the Past: Essays in Narrative from Woolf to Sidney (1989), Open Fields: Science in Cultural Encounter (1996) and Virginia Woolf: The Common Ground (1996). Publisher : United Book Distributors Imprint : United Book Distributors Availability date : August 2012 Author : Lewis Carroll Illustrator : Design by Coralie Bickford-Smith	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line7923
__label__cc	0.623929	0.376071	The Social Enterprise Podcast Presented by Rupert Scofield , President, CEO and Co-Founder of FINCA International and author of ‘The Social Entrepreneur’s Handbook’ Episode 2: Are You Experienced? (38:46) In this episode of The Social Enterprise Podcast, Rupert is joined by John Hatch, co-founder of FINCA, and Jeff Ashe, microfinance pioneer, educator, and author of “In Their Own Hands: How Savings Groups are Revolutionizing Development”. Through stories of first-hand experience, we explore the evolution of the microfinance, its controversies, and its remarkable impact as a tool to help alleviate global poverty. Subscribe to receive the latest podcast episode in your inbox. Copyright © 2014-2021 The Social Enterprise Podcast	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line7931
__label__wiki	0.974907	0.974907	Taylor Swift Confirms Boyfriend Joe Alwyn Co-Wrote Songs On 'Folklore' By Peyton Blakemore Nov 25, 2020 The Swifties were right! During Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions special, which debuted on Disney+ on Wednesday (November 25), Taylor Swift confirmed a long-standing rumor, revealing that her boyfriend Joe Alwyn is actually the “William Bowery” credited on her latest studio album, Folklore. “There’s been a lot of discussion about William Bowery and his identity ’cause it’s not a real person,” she said while alongside co-executive producers Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner. “So, William Bowery is Joe, as we know. And Joe plays piano beautifully, and he’s just always playing and making things up and kind of creating things." The 30-year-old singer-songwriter went on to discuss Joe's contributions to her album, sharing that he worked on “Exile” with Bon Iver and “Betty.” "'Exile' was crazy because Joe had written that entire piano part and was singing the Bon Iver part," Taylor explained. "He was just singing it, the way that the whole first verse is. So I was entranced and asked if we could keep writing that one. It was pretty obvious that it should be a duet because he’s got such a low voice and it sounded really good sung down there in that register.” She then spoke about the 29-year-old actor's contribution to “Betty,” saying, “I just heard Joe singing the entire fully formed chorus of ‘Betty’ from another room and it was just like, ‘Hello’. It was a step that we would have never taken because why would we have ever written a song together?” Taylor continued, "So this was the first time we had a conversation where I came in and was like ‘Hey, this could be really weird and we could hate this, so because we’re in quarantine and there’s nothing else going on, could we just try and see what it’s like if we write this song together?’” Taylor, Jack, and Aaron filmed the Disney+ special in upstate New York back in September.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line7938
__label__wiki	0.824258	0.824258	Persons born 12 April 1891 MARGARET LEWIS to MARY LAMESFELD Providing for free what some websites charge money for. Home page ... ... 12 April 1891 page MARGARET LEWIS was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 309-30-4642 (indicating Indiana) and, Death Master File says, died June 1966. Research in ZIP Code 47885. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARGARET MACKEY was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 107-36-5011 (indicating New York) and, Death Master File says, died December 1974. Research in ZIP Code 32804. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). Margaret Munroe, wife of Curtis W. Munroe, was born 12 April 1891, died 31 May 1952, and was buried in Section I, Site 13206 in Baltimore National Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America. MARGARET OLSON was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 011-36-7303 (indicating Massachusetts) and, Death Master File says, died January 1979. Research in ZIP Code 02401. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARGARET PICK was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 323-56-1099 (indicating Illinois) and, Death Master File says, died May 1982. Research in ZIP Code 62650. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARGARET PICKREL was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 230-40-8693 (indicating Virginia) and, Death Master File says, died February 1981. Research in ZIP Code 24301. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARGARET PIERCE was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 195-05-1504 (indicating Pennsylvania) and, Death Master File says, died December 1985. Research in ZIP Code 19014. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARGARET RECH was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 173-20-0851 (indicating Pennsylvania) and, Death Master File says, died August 1984. Research in ZIP Code 15232. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARGARET REYNOLDS was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 555-09-4540 (indicating California) and, Death Master File says, died November 1969. Research in ZIP Code 90606. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARGARET SIPUSIC was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 301-20-3719 (indicating Ohio) and, Death Master File says, died June 1969. Research in ZIP Code 44446. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARGARET WILLIAMS was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 303-70-4241 (indicating Indiana) and, Death Master File says, died August 1985. Research in ZIP Code 46131. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARGARET J HEFFERNAN was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 399-18-2416 (indicating Wisconsin) and, Death Master File says, died December 1994. Research in ZIP Code 54720. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARGARET K MURPHY was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 073-07-7977 (indicating New York) and, Death Master File says, died 14 September 1990. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). Margaret Nellie Black, whose mother’s maiden name is Plein, was born 12 April 1891 in Iowa, and died 27 February 1933 in Dallas County, Iowa, United States of America. MARGUERIT KELLOGG was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 454-44-5183 (indicating Texas) and, Death Master File says, died May 1980. Research in ZIP Codes 78404 and 35209. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARGUERITE NEILL was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 510-68-7597 (indicating Kansas) and, Death Master File says, died May 1972. Research in ZIP Code 67432. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARGUERITE L AIKEN was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 554-80-1276 (indicating California) and, Death Master File says, died 15 August 1971. Research in ZIP Code 95642. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARIA AGRESTI was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 547-38-5248 (indicating California) and, Death Master File says, died 16 September 1987. Research in ZIP Code 94014. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARIA DIAS was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 012-26-9108 (indicating Massachusetts) and, Death Master File says, died January 1966. Research in ZIP Code 01852. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARIA DIAZ was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 564-80-7357 (indicating California) and, Death Master File says, died March 1969. Research in ZIP Code 92113. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARIA FALCIONE was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 172-44-5650 (indicating Pennsylvania) and, Death Master File says, died November 1985. Research in ZIP Code 15224. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARIA LABITA was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 052-07-6078 (indicating New York) and, Death Master File says, died March 1980. Research in ZIP Codes 11563 and 11518. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARIA PINCIOTTI was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 159-50-5604 (indicating Pennsylvania) and, Death Master File says, died January 1978. Research in ZIP Code 15009. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARIA PLACANICA was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 213-74-1194 (indicating Maryland) and, Death Master File says, died 08 February 1989. Research in ZIP Code 20783. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARIA SAUNDERS was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 546-09-4137 (indicating California) and, Death Master File says, died June 1976. Research in ZIP Code 94110. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARIA TOLSTOW was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 169-28-2497 (indicating Pennsylvania) and, Death Master File says, died October 1962. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARIA J MARTINEZ was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 580-76-8426 (indicating Virgin Islands or Puerto Rico) and, Death Master File says, died 15 May 1972. Research in ZIP Code 00731. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARIA J RODRIGUEZ was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 458-62-1488 (indicating Texas) and, Death Master File says, died 11 December 1990. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARIAM GARDNER was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 551-03-5923 (indicating California) and, Death Master File says, died January 1978. Research in ZIP Codes 92701 and 90015. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARIAN S CARR was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 135-44-6097 (indicating New Jersey) and, Death Master File says, died 21 January 1990. Research in ZIP Code 02748. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARIE BEAUMONT was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 201-03-2381 (indicating Pennsylvania) and, Death Master File says, died July 1977. Research in ZIP Code 15220. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARIE BOEGER was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 547-36-1141 (indicating California) and, Death Master File says, died 06 July 1988. Research in ZIP Code 33624. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARIE BROWN was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 130-09-9274 (indicating New York) and, Death Master File says, died January 1979. Research in ZIP Codes 06488 and 03833. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARIE DRAEGER was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 192-24-0703 (indicating Pennsylvania) and, Death Master File says, died January 1976. Research in ZIP Code 19126. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARIE FRESE was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 357-30-7601 (indicating Illinois) and, Death Master File says, died December 1963. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARIE GIANNINI was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 077-18-1403 (indicating New York) and, Death Master File says, died December 1985. Research in ZIP Code 11379. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARIE GILLINGHAM was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 578-68-1688 (indicating District of Columbia) and, Death Master File says, died August 1972. Research in ZIP Code 20011. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARIE LEONHARDT was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 034-18-3475 (indicating Massachusetts) and, Death Master File says, died March 1977. Research in ZIP Code 02192. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARIE MURPHY was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 478-52-9498 (indicating Iowa) and, Death Master File says, died August 1966. Research in ZIP Code 50624. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARIETTA TROTTER was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 432-66-6290 (indicating Arkansas) and, Death Master File says, died March 1985. Research in ZIP Code 71667. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARIE V THEESS was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 557-32-7693 (indicating California) and, Death Master File says, died 15 August 1974. Research in ZIP Code 90026. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARIO CAPESTANY was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 108-24-0406 (indicating New York) and, Death Master File says, died March 1984. Research in ZIP Code 10027. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARION ABRAHAM was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 552-03-6242 (indicating California) and, Death Master File says, died July 1968. Research in ZIP Code 93950. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARION HEATH was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 185-14-9516 (indicating Pennsylvania) and, Death Master File says, died January 1973. Research in ZIP Code 44106. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARION JONES was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 058-30-2437 (indicating New York) and, Death Master File says, died April 1971. Research in ZIP Code 11764. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARION MILLER was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 226-18-6258 (indicating Virginia) and, Death Master File says, died August 1979. Research in ZIP Codes 24361 and 24210. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARION SLOAN was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 415-30-7069 (indicating Tennessee) and, Death Master File says, died June 1984. Research in ZIP Code 37066. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARJORIE C KEIM was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 511-52-8169 (indicating Kansas) and, Death Master File says, died 18 August 1988. Research in ZIP Code 67410. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARK HANNA was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 025-03-5677 (indicating Massachusetts) and, Death Master File says, died July 1965. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARTHA CARSON was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 262-34-0439 (indicating Florida) and, Death Master File says, died February 1979. Research in ZIP Codes 33480 and 33405. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARTHA HENSLER was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 110-26-7545 (indicating New York) and, Death Master File says, died March 1984. Research in ZIP Code 06704. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARTHA KOOFER was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 214-24-5889 (indicating Maryland) and, Death Master File says, died October 1964. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARTIN ANDERSON was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 475-16-6566 (indicating Minnesota) and, Death Master File says, died June 1963. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). Martin Dado, Rank: PFC, Branch: US ARMY, War: WORLD WAR I, was born 12 April 1891, died 3 April 1987, and was buried in Section X, Site 4501 in Ft. Snelling National Cemetery in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States of America. MARTIN DADO was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 475-44-1115 (indicating Minnesota) and, Death Master File says, died April 1987. Research in ZIP Code 55412. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARTIN FURONICKA was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 271-07-9971 (indicating Ohio) and, Death Master File says, died October 1968. Research in ZIP Code 91769. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARTIN MIRABUENO was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 575-16-3170 (indicating Hawaii) and, Death Master File says, died April 1974. Research in ZIP Code 96712. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARTINA LUNA was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 329-28-5684 (indicating Illinois) and, Death Master File says, died May 1970. Research in ZIP Code 60090. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARY ANTHONY was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 242-34-5038 (indicating North Carolina) and, Death Master File says, died June 1972. Research in ZIP Code 08232. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARY BARRY was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 043-58-1952 (indicating Connecticut) and, Death Master File says, died May 1982. Research in ZIP Code 06790. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARY BARTZ was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 337-10-0544 (indicating Illinois) and, Death Master File says, died February 1969. Research in ZIP Code 60647. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARY BISSELL was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 549-42-3652 (indicating California) and, Death Master File says, died March 1977. Research in ZIP Code 92670. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARY BORGES was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 015-10-6673 (indicating Massachusetts) and, Death Master File says, died August 1978. Research in ZIP Code 02719. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARY BOYD was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 551-30-2739 (indicating California) and, Death Master File says, died June 1982. Research in ZIP Code 93630. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARY BROMAN was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 302-40-1668 (indicating Ohio) and, Death Master File says, died March 1977. Research in ZIP Code 43952. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARY BROWN was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 323-28-5801 (indicating Illinois) and, Death Master File says, died 10 December 1989. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARY BUTLER was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 215-32-2166 (indicating Maryland) and, Death Master File says, died June 1983. Research in ZIP Code 21787. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARY BYLENOK was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 069-52-3470 (indicating New York) and, Death Master File says, died August 1984. Research in ZIP Code 14150. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARY CALDWELL was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 409-04-3931 (indicating Tennessee) and, Death Master File says, died 24 September 2000. Research in ZIP Code 35215. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARY CASSIDY was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 166-32-2732 (indicating Pennsylvania) and, Death Master File says, died March 1965. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARY CLARK was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 076-10-8865 (indicating New York) and, Death Master File says, died June 1966. Research in ZIP Code 13165. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARY CLARKE was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 218-30-3394 (indicating Maryland) and, Death Master File says, died April 1964. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARY COOK was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 423-68-0740 (indicating Alabama) and, Death Master File says, died April 1979. Research in ZIP Code 36604. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARY DILLABOUGH was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 472-28-9830 (indicating Minnesota) and, Death Master File says, died May 1980. Research in ZIP Code 56716. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARY DOBZANSKI was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 272-66-5481 (indicating Ohio) and, Death Master File says, died October 1980. Research in ZIP Code 44109. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARY ELLIS was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 358-20-7114 (indicating Illinois) and, Death Master File says, died June 1964. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARY ERWIN was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 173-22-6053 (indicating Pennsylvania) and, Death Master File says, died July 1967. Research in ZIP Code 90011. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARY FEIERSTEIN was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 398-18-6773 (indicating Wisconsin) and, Death Master File says, died 14 May 1996. Research in ZIP Code 54937. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARY GANT was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 250-12-4286 (indicating South Carolina) and, Death Master File says, died November 1968. Research in ZIP Code 20016. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARY GOLIO was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 324-56-4544 (indicating Illinois) and, Death Master File says, died January 1973. Research in ZIP Code 62896. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARY GRANKEWICZ was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 012-50-0992 (indicating Massachusetts) and, Death Master File says, died February 1984. Research in ZIP Code 02045. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARY GRAY was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 214-74-5052 (indicating Maryland) and, Death Master File says, died June 1979. Research in ZIP Code 21078. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARY GREELEY was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 015-07-4664 (indicating Massachusetts) and, Death Master File says, died February 1971. Research in ZIP Code 02764. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARY HALL was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 280-42-7598 (indicating Ohio) and, Death Master File says, died August 1979. Research in ZIP Code 43701. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARY HALVORSON was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 025-20-9077 (indicating Massachusetts) and, Death Master File says, died January 1985. Research in ZIP Code 06518. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARY HANDS was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 093-22-6633 (indicating New York) and, Death Master File says, died May 1980. Research in ZIP Codes 08232 and 08401. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARY HELMICK was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 321-03-4760 (indicating Illinois) and, Death Master File says, died September 1973. Research in ZIP Code 33528. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARY HESLEP was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 277-01-9377 (indicating Ohio) and, Death Master File says, died January 1966. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARY HULSEY was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 490-70-2800 (indicating Missouri) and, Death Master File says, died May 1975. Research in ZIP Code 65559. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARY JIAMACHELLO was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 164-50-0952 (indicating Pennsylvania) and, Death Master File says, died July 1972. Research in ZIP Code 15824. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARY JONES was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 329-09-0629 (indicating Illinois) and, Death Master File says, died September 1962. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARY KATOMSKY was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 043-58-1781 (indicating Connecticut) and, Death Master File says, died December 1973. Research in ZIP Code 06511. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARY KEDNEY was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 245-60-2941 (indicating North Carolina) and, Death Master File says, died September 1984. Research in ZIP Code 33841. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARY KERELEJZA was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 041-16-9769 (indicating Connecticut) and, Death Master File says, died December 1974. Research in ZIP Code 06051. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARY KERN was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 314-54-4610 (indicating Indiana) and, Death Master File says, died December 1971. Research in ZIP Code 47876. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARY KERR was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 370-68-5354 (indicating Michigan) and, Death Master File says, died 04 August 1989. Research in ZIP Code 48239. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARY KOZAR was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 268-12-6769 (indicating Ohio) and, Death Master File says, died February 1978. Research in ZIP Codes 44321 and 44319. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARY KRESSLER was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 135-22-5673 (indicating New Jersey) and, Death Master File says, died December 1965. Research in ZIP Code 07017. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARY KRUGER was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 349-26-5959 (indicating Illinois) and, Death Master File says, died April 1977. Research in ZIP Codes 91744 and 90601. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain). MARY LAMESFELD was born 12 April 1891, received Social Security number 378-32-2867 (indicating Michigan) and, Death Master File says, died July 1966. Research in ZIP Code 48224. Source: Social Security Death Master File (public domain).	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line7939
__label__wiki	0.982473	0.982473	Yaogan 29, 33, 33R Yaogan 29 The Chinese Yaogan 29 (Remote Sensing Satellite-29) government remote sensing satellite, likely also used as a military reconnaissance satellite, is likely the first of a successor series to the Yaogan-1 (JB-5) class space-based synthetic aperture radar (SAR) system. The satellite uses the same orbit as the Yaogan-1 class, but has, according to published illustrations, a different design. Yaogan 29, was launched in November 2015 on a CZ-4C rocket into a 615 km × 619 km, 97.8° orbit. A second satellite of this type, Yaogan 33, failed to reach orbit on 22 May 2019. Likely the third satellite of this type, Yaogan 33R, reached orbit on 28 December 2020. It is believed to be a replacement for the lost satellite, although a different launch site was used and a higher orbit was obtained. Earth observation (radar) SAST 615 km × 619 km, 97.8° (#29); 682 km × 686 km, 98.3° (#33R) Yaogan 29 (YG 29, JB-x 1) 2015-069A 26.11.2015 TY LC-9 CZ-4C Yaogan 33 (YG 33, JB-x 2) 2019-F04 22.05.2019 TY LC-9 F CZ-4C Yaogan 33R (YG 33R, JB-x 3) 2020-103A 28.12.2020 Jq LC-43/94 CZ-4C with Weina 2 Further Yaogan missions: Yaogan 1, 3, 10 (JB-5 1, 2, 3) Yaogan 2, 4, 7, 11, 24, 30 (JB-6 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) Yaogan 5, 12, 21 (JB-10 1, 2, 3) Yaogan 6, 13, 18, 23 (JB-7 1, 2, 3, 4) Yaogan 8, 15, 19, 22, 27 (JB-9 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) Yaogan 9, 16, 17, 20, 25, 31 (JB-8 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) Yaogan 14, 28 (JB-11 1, 2) Yaogan 26 (JB-12 1) Yaogan 29, 33, 33R (JB-x 1, 2, 3) Yaogan 30-01, ..., -05 Yaogan 32-01 Further JB missions: JB-1 1, ..., 9 (FSW-0 1, ..., 9) JB-1A 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (FSW-1 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) JB-1B 1, 2, 3 (FSW-2 1, 2, 3) JB-2 1, 2, 3 (FSW-3 1, 2, 3) JB-3 1, 2 (ZY-2 01, 2B, 2C) JB-4 1, 2 (FSW-4 1, 2) JB-5 1, 2, 3 (Yaogan 1, 3, 10) JB-6 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 (Yaogan 2, 4, 7, 11, 24, 30) JB-7 1, 2, 3, 4 (Yaogan 6, 13, 18, 23) JB-8 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (Yaogan 9, 16, 17, 20, 25) JB-10 1, 2, 3 (Yaogan 5, 12, 21) JB-11 1, 2 (Yaogan 14, 28) JB-12 1 (Yaogan 26) JB-x 1, 2, 3 (Yaogan 29, 33, 33R)	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line7943
__label__cc	0.574767	0.425233	Interview · The Human Connection · Wise Words To Be Happy In The Moment: A Conversation With Margo Seibert June 4, 2017 October 5, 2017 StageSLP I’ve been attending a lot of my students’ performances lately—recitals, concerts, and plays. I’ve been to some sporting events, too. Like I’ve said before, speech goes beyond the speech room. And in going beyond the speech room, I have been following the work involved in In Transit. Now this isn’t unusual for me, since I love musicals, so what’s the difference? This is a musical without an orchestra. It’s an entirely a capella musical with an amazing cast. I’m addicted to this idea, and how much articulatory and vocal work went into such a production. I had the opportunity to speak with Margo Seibert, who played Jane in the production, and we spent a lot of time talking about the importance of arts education, being silly, and finding what brings you happiness. StageSLP: What got you into theatre? Margo: I think it was a bit of a surprise to me. My second grade teacher now tells me that I didn’t talk at all until there were auditions for our little second grader musical. There was a lot of music growing up. I was always singing and performing in some capacity. I feel very fortunate to have gone through Howard County Public Schools, because arts were the cool thing to do. It was an honor to be part of it. Arts were important to everyone, so it wasn’t ridiculous to participate in the arts. We took field trips to Toby’s Dinner Theatre, and I saw the Velveteen Rabbit there, and I was like ‘this is it for me!’ I worked there until I was old enough to audition, and I played the mistress in Evita at sixteen. I loved the family of it. S: Did you do other activities in school? M: I did the shows in school. I did plays and musicals and it was a wonderful experience. I didn’t play any sports, but I played the clarinet up until high school, I did a lot of singing. S: Did you feel like you had to keep your theatre friends separate from your other friends? M: I feel like everything was pretty mixed. I would say most of my friends were theatre folks, but people did everything and it all overlapped. If they weren’t in theatre, they were in chorus or in band, so it all worked out. S: That sounds like a great community. Did you ever feel like you didn’t fit in? How did you navigate that? M: I felt like theatre was where I fit in. It didn’t matter what was going on anywhere else. Theatre and the artistic community always helped me to feel accepted. S: A lot of my students are working on perspective taking. How would you put yourself in someone else’s shoes? M: I try to find the similarities between the character and myself. That gives me a way into a character. What they want, and their interests. If I can find things in common with them it’s easier to share their story and bridge what doesn’t make as much sense for me. You might go see a show and think you won’t get anything out of it and think “this is not about me,” and find very true parts of yourself onstage. I think that’s the beauty of theatre—the human experience, we can all relate to what these people want and what these characters want. Look for the similarities. S: Would you encourage kids to pursue theatre? M: Gosh yes. I think we need to be okay with being goofy. Once kids start becoming sensitive or feel like they’re being judged, they lose that, and theatre allows you to just keep playing. In my opinion, there’s not enough emphasis put on play and joy. My nannying and babysitting experience allow me to see what looking goofy and laughing at yourself can do. S: I love that you say that, because it’s a rule in my room that you have to be silly. There’s too much stress, but we’re going to have fun. I hear my kids tell me “You know everything, you’re the teacher and you don’t make mistakes.” I tell them I learn best from them and we are all silly within reason. There’s never a day when I don’t get to laugh with my kids. You just finished In Transit. What was it like doing the first a capella musical? M: I think it’s the hardest thing I’ve done in terms of stamina and vocal athleticism. I can’t believe we pulled it off and we did such a great job. It was such a great family of people and I loved coming to work every day. It was such a joyful cast, and now er have the album and I’m so proud of it. S: With it being as hard as it was, did you ever get frustrated or want to give up? M: Yeah. It happens. You’re really happy because you’re on Broadway, but it can be discouraging. When you’re working towards a goal, you have moment sof wanting to give up. I had to go on vocal rest which was a first. I went to an ENT and she put me on vocal rest for five days and I was out of the show. But I gave myself a break and was kind to myself. S: That’s really hard. As an SLP, sometimes I have to tell people you can’t talk for a week or you won’t heal. What does vocal hygiene look like for you? M: I have a vocal instructor that I go to. We focused a lot on breath support over songs, and releasing muscle tension. I would watch what I ate, make sure I rested, I didn’t talk in loud places, and I warmed up and spent time warming down after the show. S: As someone who works with voice, it’s so nice to hear that people do actually take care of their voice. What keeps you motivated in those moments of frustration? M: Having the family in the cast and being the one who gets to deliver the show every night. I turn to my the people I love who aren’t in the business. I give permission to take care of myself and find other ways to be inspired. I took myself to the museum and looked at art and found stuff outside of myself when I was a little down. S: Yeah, you find your people and you find them quickly. How do you make sure you’re contributing in a collaborative process like theatre? M: The projects that have found me have asked for my input a lot. In the beginning of my career I’d be quiet and ask for help. Now I just have to be confident enough to put in ideas and ask questions and not have it work. That all goes a long with the playing and not taking everyone so so seriously. Yes, it’s Broadway and there’s money onvolved, at the end of the day you’re still putting on a play S: Is it like putting on a show in high school, but with business and money attached? M: Sort of. Like high school, you’re still putting on a show, but you’re working with people who have a real artistic vision and are at the top of their game and can really embody a character, and people who really know what they’re doing. S: Did you know you were going to do this when you were a kid? M: No, I went to college for International Relations. I knew I loved people and storytelling and I wanted to learn people from places other than where I grew up. I didn’t know if theatre was going to work. I didn’t know if it could be a job, but I knew I loved it. S: My students want to know if you have a favorite song to perform or a song that makes you happy? M: Oh yeah. Lots of songs make me happy but Fleetwood Mac’s You Make Loving Fun makes me really happy. For performing, there’s a song called Flight by Craig Carnelia, which is about not taking time that we have for granted. It’s a beautiful song. It’s hard, but it’s really fun to perform. S: What is your most memorable theatrical experience? M: The first show I saw was Cats at the National in Washington, D.C. That was the first time I saw how fantastical theatre could be. My dad had no clue what was going on but I did, even though you can’t really know what’s going on in Cats. I later found out that Andy Karl, who did Rocky with me, was in that touring cast. S: Every week I challenge my students and readers to do something new outside of their comfort zone? M: I want them to do something silly. I challenge them to sing a part of their favorite song in front of someone else and sound like them. They don’t have to be good, it doesn’t matter. I just want them to have fun. I can’t thank Margo enough for taking the time to chat with me. I had so much fun with this conversation, and I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did! There is so much truth in Margo’s responses about silliness. It’s something I encourage in my speech room with my students. Being silly and laughing at yourself is not only the great equalizer, but also the great confidence builder. My students and I had a great time with her challenge. It was full of a few nerves, but mostly laughing, and lots of Disney music. My kids took more than one chance at this, and had so much fun. I can’t wait to hear how you all do with this challenge yourselves! Do yourselves a favor and go listen to the In Transit cast recording. It’s full of such joy, I couldn’t imagine a better album to listen to at the moment. Previous Post I Can Do This! That I Can Do! I Can Do That! Next Post The Music And The Mirror: A Conversation With Karla Garcia One thought on “To Be Happy In The Moment: A Conversation With Margo Seibert” Pingback: Astonishing: A Celebration of Women in the Creative Space – Speech To Stage	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line7945
__label__wiki	0.859141	0.859141	The Eugenicist Doctor and the Vast Fortune Behind Trump’s Immigration Regime Last month, as parents arrested at the U.S.-Mexico border were separated from their children and transferred to detention centers more than a thousand miles away in the Pacific Northwest, as a father of two languished in federal custody after delivering a pizza to a military base in Brooklyn, and as Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents lured undocumented workers in Ohio into a break room with doughnuts before detaining them, Thomas Homan, the acting director of ICE, was speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, at an event hosted by the Center for Immigration Studies. “A lot of people want to attack ICE. I see it every day. They want to call ICE racists, they want to call us Nazis,” he said. However: “We’re simply enforcing the laws on the books.” Homan, who will step down next month, came out of his brief retirement early last year to run ICE at President Trump’s request. A 35-year veteran of law enforcement whose father was also a cop, Homan is every part the jack-booted thug. On this occasion, he was playing the role for an audience of think tank staffers and lanyard-toting nerds. “Don’t vilify the men and women of ICE, don’t vilify the men and women of Border Patrol for simply doing their jobs,” he said. “If you think ICE is racist—is Congress racist because they enacted these laws? Think about that for a minute. The men and women of ICE deserve thanks from this country.” While the Center for Immigration Studies bills itself as an independent, non-partisan research organization, it is in fact a key node in a small network of think tanks and nonprofits, founded and directed by a man whose private correspondence contains praise for anti-Semites, fascists, and race scientists of various ideological backgrounds, many of whom would go on to figure prominently in today’s so-called alt-right and financed largely by one of the oldest and wealthiest families in America. That man is John Tanton, an aging ophthalmologist from Michigan; his benefactor was Cordelia Scaife May, heir to the Scaife family fortune, a branch of the Mellon family. Neither were world-historical political masterminds, but they were vectors for world-historical forces: The institutions they created together show more clearly than most how capitalism and white supremacy are mutually constitutive; how the ruling class uses racial resentment to reinforce its rule; and how the spoils of imperialism are redeployed toward maintaining the internal colonies, racial hierarchies, and economic order of our age. John Tanton, an aging ophthalmologist from Michigan, and Cordelia Scaife May, heir to the Scaife family fortune, a branch of the Mellon family, were vectors for world-historical forces. Between 2010 and 2015, Scaife May’s primary funding vehicle, the Colcom Foundation—the net assets of which are nearing a half-billion—poured more than $72.5 million into the Tanton network, most of which would not have existed without Scaife May’s support in the first place. In 2015 alone, financial filings show, Colcom contributed at least $19.2 million to the Tanton network, including $7.4 million to its flagship organization, the Federation for American Immigration Reform. FAIR’s total revenue in 2015 was $8.5 million. “One of the lasting legacies of John Tanton, aside from building the organized anti-immigrant movement we see in America today, is his devotion to developing revenue streams for these groups,” Heidi Beirich, the director of SPLC’s Intelligence Project, wrote to me in an email. Without Scaife May’s money, “the movement would be much less effective.” In 2007 and then again in 2013, the United States Congress seemed on the verge of passing substantial reforms to the country’s immigration laws, with support in both cases from the sitting president and significant swaths of corporate America. In both instances, the Tanton network managed to kill the possibility of change; now, after decades of work and tens of millions of dollars, that network and its allies are finally in power, its ideas and personnel animating and working within the Trump regime. “Tanton’s long term goal was to get ‘like-minded’ officials to be appointed to the immigration committees in Congress,” Beirich wrote, “but with the election of Donald Trump, we’re now seeing a steady stream of staffers of nativist groups joining the ranks of the administration and helping to shape policy, which is an extremely disturbing trend.” Political appointees in every immigration enforcement agency as well as presidential advisers and an assistant secretary of state nominee include Tanton network posts on their resumes. “What will it take to finally turn the tide decisively in our favor?” Tanton wondered in a September 4, 1997 letter. “Is it a new set of ideas? Is it a new set of arguments about old ideas? Is it some unforeseen disaster? Would developing a population policy do it? Is it just a question of money? What would we do if we had more money?” Two decades later, he would have his answer. John Tanton was born in Detroit in 1934 and grew up on his mother’s family farm, where his father, anticipating the waves of white flight in the decades to come, moved them following a three day “race riot” in 1943. After graduating from high school, Tanton studied agriculture and chemistry at Michigan State University before going to medical school at University of Michigan and becoming an opthamologist. Throughout, he maintained an interest in issues of environmentalism and conservation, which in turn led him to the question of population. “I began to wonder why all of these conservation problems were cropping up,” Tanton recalled in an oral history of himself. “I became convinced, and I don’t recall exactly how, that increasing numbers of people were part of the problem.” Initially, Tanton, along with his wife, Mary Lou, looked to family planning organizations, setting up a Planned Parenthood clinic in northern Michigan and talking to new mothers in the maternity ward of a local hospital about not having more children. “Women who have just had a child are usually highly motivated not to have any more for a while,” he remarked. By the early ‘70s, Tanton had begun looking for further tools of population control, toying with an idea he called “passive eugenics” and eventually beginning to wonder about the impact of immigration on population growth. “I found virtually no one was willing to talk about this!” he said. “It was a forbidden topic. I tried to get some others to think about it and write about it, but I did not succeed. I finally concluded that if anything was going to happen, I would have to do it myself.” And so he did, although not entirely by himself—what Tanton’s archives, held by the University of Michigan, show is a man who sought out and cultivated wealthy benefactors in America’s capitalist class, teasing out their most paranoid fantasies and asking them for money. Contact the Special Projects Desk This post was produced by the Special Projects Desk of Gizmodo Media. Reach our team by phone, text, Signal, or WhatsApp at (917) 999-6143, email us at tips@gizmodomedia.com, or contact us securely using SecureDrop. The largest and most influential of these, the Federation for American Immigration Reform, Tanton founded in 1979. The board of directors included several other advocates for population control, as well as Sidney Swensrud, former president and chairman of Gulf Oil, and William Paddock, an environmental activist who introduced Tanton to Cordelia Scaife May, heir to Pittsburgh’s billionaire Mellon family, one of the richest and most influential in America. In one 1983 memo, between anecdotes about him mocking black women in labor and overweight people trying to fit into eye-exam chairs, an aide notes that Tanton wants to “get close enough to Cordy to become her advisor in a decade or so.” (Cordy was Scaife May’s nickname.) The Mellon family fortune was built on oil, steel, and war, as well as politics and a willingness to protect their wealth by any means necessary. Scaife May’s great-grandfather, Judge Thomas Mellon, a banker and financier described in a Communist Party USA pamphlet from 1933 as a “studious old skinflint,” once wrote that the spreading struggles of the late 19th century between the capitalists and the working class “indicates a demoralized condition of public sentiment, which may require blood to purify.” Her great-uncle, Andrew Mellon, a banker, served as Treasury secretary to Presidents Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover, dedicating himself to rolling back (or working around) the gains of the early 20th century Progressive movement, particularly the income tax. His policies in office encouraged the speculation of the 1920s, which ended in the Great Depression. “During the 11 years he held the office of Secretary of the Treasury, Andrew Mellon’s private fortune and that of his family leaped from the hundreds of millions to over a billion,” the CPUSA pamphlet reads. “Mellon served not merely himself but his class, and in serving his class served himself.” The more the family’s fortune grew, the more hideous their home life became. Cordelia and her brother, Richard, were raised by the family’s staff in a home that was dominated by their mother’s alcoholism. Both siblings would also grow up to be alcoholics, their lives defined by bullying, corruption, and violence: one of Richard’s friends killed himself in front of him; Cordelia’s second husband’s death was also ruled a suicide, and she suspected that Richard had somehow been involved. The two did not speak for nearly 25 years. “I found virtually no one was willing to talk about this!” he said. “It was a forbidden topic. I tried to get some others to think about it and write about it, but I did not succeed. I finally concluded that if anything was going to happen, I would have to do it myself.” All of this old Judge Mellon seems to have foreseen while contemplating the consequences of his accumulated wealth across posterity. In 1885, he wrote, as quoted by Jane Mayer in Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right: “The normal condition of man is hard work, self-denial, acquisition and accumulation; as soon as his descendants are freed from the necessity of such exertion they begin to degenerate sooner or later in both body and mind.” A self-deprecating recluse, Cordelia named her home outside Pittsburgh “Cold Comfort,” a reference to the 1932 novel Cold Comfort Farm, which features a female protagonist “of every art and grace save that of earning her own living.” Like Tanton, Scaife May was an amateur naturalist and avid conservationist—passions that would prove vectors for racist paranoia. Tanton’s letters to her over the years are filled with groveling and obsequiousness, punctuated by encouragement of the reclusive millionaire’s most outlandish fears. A long paragraph toward the end of a March 21, 1995 letter describes pleasant activities like bird watching and visiting with Immigration and Naturalization Services—a precursor agency to DHS and ICE—officers in Nogales, Arizona. “It’s great fun to sit in the yard and watch the acorn woodpeckers, and the half dozen species of humming birds that inhabit the area,” Tanton mused. “We will also want to visit the INS at Nogales, since the illegals are now coming through Arizona following the (more or less) crackdowns that have been instituted at El Paso and San Diego.” (Taking donors and other interested parties on trips to the U.S.-Mexico border is a fundraising tactic that Tanton groups still use “to illustrate dramatically the illegal immigration situation,” as Tanton put it in his oral autobiography. “The best place to see this is at San Diego. We developed a good relationship with the border patrol there. They would take us out late in the afternoon to see the general lay of the land. We looked over the area called the Soccer Field, right down on the border. We could see people collecting on the Mexican side, cooking their meals, getting ready for the dash into the United States when the sun finally went down. Then we would go back out with the border patrol at night and use their infrared night scopes to watch people cross and to see the mounted border patrolmen apprehending them. Some of us went up in the helicopter and also got that view. It’s a very dramatic and telling experience, so much so that we set up a regular system of border tours in order to give people this experience.” One of Tanton’s groups, the Center for Immigration Studies, still hosts these tours.) In a letter to Scaife May from Oct. 6, 1997, Tanton responded to her concerns about “sub-replacement fertility rates in many of the developed countries.” (In other words, Scaife May was worried that white people were not having enough babies—a concern she shares with members of Congress like Paul Ryan and Steve King.) Tanton assured his benefactor that his advocacy of population control would not obscure his commitment to white supremacy: “The idea behind the population movement was not those of us who thought population was a problem would adopt permanent sub-replacement fertility, and eventually disappear from the scene, handing our territory over to the more fertile, and thereby lose the battle.” The relationship was a long and productive one: Just two years after expressing his desire to become Scaife May’s “advisor” in 1983, Tanton described her as FAIR’s single biggest supporter, followed by board member Swensrud, the former Gulf Oil chairman. (The Mellon family held a controlling interest in Gulf Oil for decades.) “That relationship is pretty well under control,” Tanton reported. His notes show that he was already thinking about how the childless scion would distribute her estate. In 2005, facing a terminal pancreatic cancer diagnosis, Scaife May asphyxiated herself with a plastic bag, leaving behind an $825 million estate. In the years following her suicide, filings show, the Colcom Foundation (also named in reference to Cold Comfort Farm), which was Scaife May’s primary funding vehicle in life, received $441,886,012 from Scaife May’s estate and the Cordelia S. May Family Trust—another, more opaque funding vehicle—as well as all of her personal property and more than 450 acres of real estate. Between 2005 and 2015, the most recent year for which records are available, Colcom contributed at least $108 million to the Tanton network, the bulk of it going to Federation for American Immigration Reform, the Center for Immigration Studies, and NumbersUSA, three of the biggest anti-immigration think tanks that Tanton either founded or nurtured. Both FAIR and CIS are SPLC-designated hate groups; Roy Beck, director of NumbersUSA, gave a speech at the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens’ National Conference in November 1997. “My audiences have been all over the map in terms of ideology and interests,” Beck wrote to me in response to questions submitted via a spokesperson. “My speaking never implied agreement with my audiences, nor did it imply that my audiences agreed with me. That’s a wonderful thing about keeping communication open in a pluralistic society. Having said that, I strongly reject the CCC’s racial agenda, and various CCC internet campaigns have condemned NumbersUSA’s insistence that race should play no role in immigration policy or the debate about it.” In response to questions about Tanton’s relationship with Scaife May and Colcom’s funding of the Tanton network, John Rohe, the foundation’s vice president of philanthropy, directed my attention to a biography he wrote in 2002 of Tanton and his wife, Mary Lou. Before working at Colcom, Rohe ran one of Tanton’s foundations, U.S. Inc; his book does not mention Scaife May. FAIR did not respond to multiple requests for comment. A spokesperson for CIS, Marguerite Telford, accused me of writing “some little hit piece” and ignored further inquiries. In 2007, with majorities in both chambers of Congress ahead of the presidential election, Democrats, with the support of President George W. Bush, sought to pass comprehensive immigration reform, intending to override a filibuster from the likes of Jeff Sessions with more moderate Republicans’ help. Their efforts failed, both because many labor unions and immigration justice groups were ambivalent about the legislation—it would have paired a pathway to citizenship for unauthorized immigrants with more draconian border enforcement and a guest-worker program—and also thanks to an astroturf opposition campaign organized by FAIR and CIS as well as NumbersUSA, which had benefited greatly from Scaife May’s death two years earlier. “I believe the foundation had a lot more money after Mrs. May’s death. You can check that,” Beck wrote to me. From 2002 to 2004, the “immigration-reduction organization,” as it describes itself, received $255,000 from the Colcom Foundation; from 2005 to 2007, it received $6.4 million. “We had big work to be done during the period of intense efforts to pass a mass amnesty and to increase the number of foreign workers competing for jobs and wages,” he explained. The money was well spent: The Tanton network, and NumbersUSA in particular, “lit up the switchboard for weeks,” Mitch McConnell later told the New York Times. “And to every one of them, I say today: ‘Your voice was heard.’” Colcom continued funding the network—usually around $10 million per year spread across a half-dozen organizations—and by the time Democrats brought comprehensive immigration reform back onto the agenda in 2013, the Republican Party had shifted such that people like Sessions were no longer an embarrassment but exemplary. In C-SPAN footage from markup hearings on the “Gang of Eight” legislation, a CIS staffer, Janice Kephart, temporarily serving as counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee, can be seen providing notes and whispering in Sessions’ ear. When House Majority Leader Eric Cantor lost a shock primary challenge that many (including CIS) saw as a referendum on immigration, what tepid Republican support there had been for reform evaporated. At the time, it seemed as though this would be the extent of the Tanton network’s influence: impeding reform efforts through the careful cultivation of influence with select members of Congress and a relatively small but mobilized activist base. Then Donald Trump revealed just how deep the nativist current in American politics still runs. It was clear from the outset, of course, that Trump’s presidential campaign would be built around fear of immigrants and people of color; however, the Scaife May-Tanton network’s influence lent an ideological coherence that might otherwise have been lacking. Representatives from NumbersUSA and CIS reportedly met with high-level Trump campaign officials throughout the presidential race, and Trump himself cited CIS research in speeches, campaign ads, and his now-deleted immigration plank. “That’s how you define success if you are a think tank,” CIS director Mark Krikorian said last year. Today, personnel from the Scaife May-Tanton network (or friendly to it) have been installed in key positions throughout the Trump administration; a number of policies the Trump campaign supported and that the administration has pursued appear to be drawn directly from proposals incubated within the Scaife May-Tanton network. Stephen Miller, long a friend of the Tanton network, joined the Trump campaign from Jeff Sessions’ office in January 2016; he would soon be joined by Jon Feere, legal policy analyst at the Center for Immigration Studies. Both men are now working in the Trump administration: Miller, of course, in the White House, and Feere as a senior adviser to acting ICE director Thomas Homan. “It has been an honor to work as a policy advisor for the Donald J. Trump for President campaign and I hope to continue my service within the administration,” a blurb at the top of Feere’s resume, obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request, reads. “An ideal position would allow me to help craft immigration policy while providing a defense against agenda items favored by the Washington establishment.” FAIR’s former executive director, Julie Kirchner, is currently ombudsman at USCIS; before that, she was as an adviser at CBP. During her tenure there, she helped draft the RAISE Act, Trump’s proposed legislation to reduce legal immigration and cut refugee acceptance by half; after it received Trump’s endorsement, Stephen Miller defended the bill by citing CIS. In November, Miller invited Krikorian, who once lamented that Haiti “wasn’t colonized long enough” to benefit from slavery, to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building to discuss the administration’s immigration policies. Miller’s old boss Jeff Sessions has also cited the group’s specious research to defend political claims: When pressed for empirical data to back up the attorney general’s claim last year that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program “denied jobs to hundreds of thousands of Americans by allowing those same illegal aliens to take those jobs,” the Department of Justice provided editorials written by CIS staffers. Various Tanton groups attended ICE stakeholder meetings last year, including CIS, FAIR, IRLI, and NumbersUSA. “We appreciate all chances to represent the public interest on immigration matters,” Roy Beck wrote to me. Two FAIR lobbyists now hold positions in the Trump administration: Robert Thomas Law, who is actually the group’s former lobbying director, is now a senior policy adviser at USCIS; Maya Noronha, who was part of FAIR’s team lobbying against comprehensive immigration reform in 2013, is now a special adviser at the Department of Health and Human Services. Other, more high-profile Trump allies have connections to this network as well: Kellyanne Conway worked as a pollster for FAIR, CIS, and NumbersUSA for decades before joining Trump’s presidential campaign and then the White House; Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who was leading the president’s campaign to prove the existence of massive voter fraud only to find himself held in contempt of court, is counsel to the Immigration Reform Law Institute, FAIR’s legal arm. In February, IRLI claimed in a press release to have filed a recent legal brief “at the request of Attorney General Jeff Sessions.” Many of the policies that have come to define the Trump immigration regime can be mapped onto wishlists produced by the Tanton network at various points in its history. One, prepared for members of Congress by FAIR in 2005 and identified by Rewire.News earlier this year, included demands for an end to family “chain migration,” an end to the visa lottery, and an unprecedented investment in the Border Patrol. Barely two months into office, the Daily Beast reported, the Trump administration had discussed, proposed, or made policy out of more than a dozen items from a 79-point list published by CIS in April 2016. Following one of Trump’s first executive orders on “Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements,” then-Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly issued a memo explaining, in part, how DHS would start detaining more undocumented immigrants, including people seeking asylum. This echoed Item 29 on CIS’s list, which, as the Daily Beast noted, demands that asylum seekers be held in DHS detention facilities. “Doing so will restore integrity to an out-of-control system that encourages both border surges and asylum fraud,” the CIS document alleges. Item 40 on CIS’s list advocates that immigrant families who pay for their children to be smuggled out of countries like Honduras and El Salvador and into the United States—a dangerous journey that some families deem preferable to the violence of letting their children stay where they are—be investigated and prosecuted for “child endangerment in cases where the minor is abused during the northward journey.” A February 2017 DHS memo confirmed that the department would begin pursuing such cases: “Regardless of the desires for family reunification, or conditions in other countries, the smuggling or trafficking of alien children is intolerable.” Item 72 called for the formation of a “victims advocacy unit...providing services to those who have been victimized by illegal alien criminals.” In April 2017, the Trump administration launched the Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement (VOICE) Office; people quickly began using the office’s hotline to report family members, neighbors, and romantic partners they suspected of being undocumented immigrants to the federal government. This Is What It Looks Like When the President Asks People to Snitch on Their Neighbors In April, the Trump Administration launched what it called the Victims of Immigration Crime… Almost a year and a half into his administration, Trump’s immigration policies have continued to reflect the Tanton network’s proposals. Both the CIS document from April 2016 (Items 28-31) and FAIR’s November 2016 recommendations to the Trump transition team recommend a more critical view of asylum claims; specifically, CIS maintains that asylum claims should not be granted to victims of domestic violence, a move that would block tens of thousands of people, mostly women, from finding refuge in the United States. In June, Jeff Sessions ordered immigration judges to stop granting just such claims, agreeing with a brief filed by IRLI, FAIR’s legal arm, at Sessions’ invitation. CIS has applied similar scrutiny to the idea of Temporary Protected Status, which items 32 and 33 of its April 2016 document assert should be “used sparingly and appropriately, if at all.” The CIS document demands that the president “return ‘temporary’ to the spirit of the law, as was intended when the category was created to provide a humanitarian respite for aliens whose home country confronts a calamity such as a hurricane, earthquake, or other act of God.” Late last year, Trump began doing just that, revoking TPS for 300,000 immigrants from Nicaragua, Haiti, El Salvador, Nepal, and most recently Honduras. “The disruption of living conditions in Honduras from Hurricane Mitch that served as the basis for its TPS designation has decreased to a degree that it should no longer be regarded as substantial,” a DHS statement on the decision read. State Department officials who criticized the administration’s evisceration of TPS were ignored, according to the Washington Post. Late last month, Trump nominated Ronald Mortensen, a CIS fellow, to serve as assistant secretary of state for Population, Refugees, and Migration, running the State Department bureau that oversees aid for refugees and stateless people, though his pending confirmation is far from assured. Items 41-43 of the CIS document demand that the administration sharpen its enforcement practices at workplaces, expanding the use of the E-Verify program and ramping up ICE audits and raids: Trump’s 2019 budget proposal includes $23 million to make E-Verify mandatory for employers nationwide; at a press conference in December, Thomas Homan, acting director of ICE, declared that he wanted to see a “400 percent increase” in worksite enforcement operations. “We’re not just talking about arresting the aliens at these work sites,” he said, “we are also talking about employers who knowingly hire people who are unauthorized to work.” At the bottom of the Trump administration’s repressive anti-immigration apparatus is an idea referred to within the Tanton network as “attrition through enforcement.” Clearly, the nativists argue, there are too many undocumented people in the United States to deport them all, and just as clearly to create a path to citizenship would be to reward ostensibly criminal behavior. The solution, according to the Tanton network, is to make life in the United States so intolerable for people fleeing murder, rape, and kidnapping that they return from whence they came. Before Trump came to power, this policy was most fully articulated in Arizona’s SB 1070, drafted by Kris Kobach and passed with support from the private prison industry, the very text of which reads: “The intent of this act is to make attrition through enforcement the public policy of all state and local government agencies in Arizona.” Thanks to litigation brought by groups like the National Immigration Law Center and the American Civil Liberties Union, SB 1070 has largely been defanged since its passage in 2010; neither this nor the fact that hardly anyone ever “self-deports” has dissuaded the Trump administration from enacting an immigration regime animated by this idea. “If you’re in this country illegally, and you committed a crime by entering this country, you should be uncomfortable,” Thomas Homan told Congress last year. “You should look over your shoulder, and you need to be worried.” Trump’s immigration regime has ripped into the country’s already fragile social fabric: attendance at schools in areas where ICE conducts raids dips precipitously in their wake; rates of sexual assault reporting among the Latinx population in Houston and Los Angeles have plummeted, while the fear of deportation caused some undocumented women to drop domestic abuse cases; about 71 percent of people in ICE custody are held in privately owned detention centers rife with sexual violence, run on slave labor, and not subject to transparency laws like the Freedom of Information Act; the worksite raids that Homan promised would increase fourfold have brought devastation to rural communities where economic growth is dependent on populations of immigrants and refugees; and even as Trump demands that his Homeland Security secretary “close down” the border, his administration is separating migrant children from their families, putting them into state custody. Parents detained at the border have been told that they will be reunited with their children if they volunteer to be deported; multiple administration officials have either implied or outright claimed that the current escalation of enforcement tactics is intended as a deterrent to potential future migrants. Refugee shelters have been ordered to direct pregnant teenagers in their care to anti-abortion clinics. Children are torn from their families’ arms and tortured or medicated into submission. “These aren’t people,” the president recently said of unauthorized immigrants. “These are animals.” One only has to look to the cancellation of Temporary Protected Status for over 300,000 people and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals for nearly 700,000 more to see the fundamental contradiction of the nativist immigration regime: In practice, policy and legislation built upon the principle of attrition through enforcement criminalizes more and more people living in the United States simply for being here, increasing the number of people categorized as undocumented without necessarily providing a mechanism to remove those people from the country. Therein lies an opportunity not only for cruelty and sadism but also profit. ‘Immigrant Detention Center’ Is Just a Nice Way to Say ‘Prison’ When Sylvester Owino tells people he spent nine and a half years inside immigration detention… Since the 2016 election, according to a report from the Center for Popular Democracy, Wall Street behemoths JPMorgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo, and BlackRock have all increased their shares in the nation’s two largest prison companies, CoreCivic and GEO Group, financing the growth of a $5 billion industry with gargantuan loans: the two companies are now carrying a total of $1.94 billion and $1.18 billion in debt, respectively. CoreCivic’s most recent annual report to the Securities and Exchange Commission lays out the logic of carceral capitalism in brutal terms. As the February filing explains, the company’s growth is contingent upon obtaining new contracts from the government for prisons and detention centers, which in turn depends on the culture and politics of incarceration. “The demand for our facilities and services could be adversely affected by the relaxation of enforcement efforts,” the report reads, “or through the decriminalization of [immigration].” Last year, CoreCivic and GEO Group made $3.2 billion from government contracts; according to SEC filings, $985 million came from ICE contracts alone. To be an undocumented person in America is to inhabit a living, revenue-generating nightmare. Throughout his life, John Tanton has denied that he was a racist, accusing critics of being “smear merchants.” To be a racist, Tanton seems to have imagined, is to be crude and unsophisticated—impossible to reconcile with his self-conception as a man of science and letters. “I believe that ideas rule the world, and that the pen is mightier than the sword,” Tanton said in one of his oral histories. “I have all along seen the immigration battle as really a skirmish in a wider war, a wider war of fundamental ideas.” Thanks to Tanton’s very own archives, however, we know that the ideas he wielded most masterfully were racist paranoia and the possibilities of a vast reserve of financial capital. His correspondence with donors and political allies reveal a casual anti-Semite and eugenicist of varying vulgarity who expressed his racism in the evasively pseudo-intellectual language of white nationalism. “Does the addition of Santeria and voodoo help things out? How about a larger Muslim population, with all the conflict that applies for some of our values, and with our Jewish population? And what about the general proposition of just having a more highly variegated populace—where is the core that holds the whole thing together? This concept needs a lot of work,” Tanton asked in one letter. “I’m still bothered by the provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment,” he wrote in another, referring to provisions that bestow citizenship to people born or naturalized in the United States. “Looking to the future, this may become a highly undesirable situation.” In a pair of 1998 letters to the FAIR board and to Scaife May, Tanton cited Kevin MacDonald, an academic anti-Semite popular with the contemporary “alt-right,” in explaining the nature of Jewish opposition to immigration reform. A few years earlier, he wrote that anti-racism laws in France and Switzerland “have generally been pushed by Jewish interests who are offended by those who have challenged the received version of the Holocaust.” In another letter to Scaife May, Tanton identified himself as “a devotee of the Austrian ethologist, Conrad Lorenz [sic],” a member of the Nazi Party and its Office for Race Policy. He corresponded regularly with prominent white supremacists of the 1990s, including Jared Taylor, Peter Brimelow, and Sam Francis. In 1995, Brimelow’s book, Alien Nation, was published to much fanfare on the nativist right—Scaife May paid for his research assistant and to promote the book, at Tanton’s behest. In it, Brimelow warned that our “white nation” was under siege: “There is no precedent for a sovereign country undergoing such a rapid and radical transformation of its ethnic character in the entire history of the world.” This resonated so much with Tanton that he thrice offered Brimelow, founder of the VDARE Foundation and publisher of VDARE.com, a job as a spokesperson for English Language Advocates, one of Tanton’s advocacy groups pushing to make English the only official language of the United States. (ELA is now known as ProEnglish and is designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group.) Brimelow did not respond to multiple requests for comment. “I’m still bothered by the provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment.” Tanton offered Brimelow money to support him on his book tour and talking points for interviews as well as analysis of immigration issues. “It’s rather like developing a cough,” he wrote in one 1995 letter, drawing upon his medical training and the long history of racist fear mongering about the fragile health of the body politic. “If one checks into it early, simple inexpensive measures may suffice and one’s lung health may continue unimpaired. However, if you wait until you’re coughing up blood, have lost 20 pounds, and have swollen lymph nodes in the neck, the treatment is likely to be severe, painful, expensive, and perhaps ineffective. Palliation may be the best that can be hoped for.” Tanton continued: “With the immigration problem, we may have missed our chance to nip it in the bud and now only strong measures will suffice.” From Miasma to Ebola: The History of Racist Moral Panic Over Disease On October 1st, the New York Times published a photograph of a four-year-old girl in Sierra Leone.… Later, in a moment of some despair, Tanton would echo Scaife May’s fears about white people’s dropping birth rates. “All of Western Civilization is running at sub-replacement fertility, and will within a generation or two disappear into the history books,” he confided in a 1997 letter to Brimelow. “It looks as if Western Civilization, as attractive as it is in certain respects, is simply unable to meet the evolutionary test of reproductive success.” (Even today, links between the organizations exist: Paul K. Nachman, a retired physicist and member of FAIR’s board of advisers, is a regular contributor to VDARE.com. Last year, an analysis by the SPLC and the Center for New Community found that 450 weekly emails from CIS to subscribers over the course of nearly a decade included 1,700 articles from VDARE.com—an average of three VDARE pieces per week—including 51 pieces written by Brimelow himself. CIS also shared pieces written by Richard Spencer and published by websites he ran.) Over the years, as Tanton and Brimelow secured grants and financial backers for each other, Tanton was advising and supporting a young Jared Taylor as he launched his new magazine, American Renaissance. AmRen would become a refuge of white nationalist “intellectuals” in the decades to come, holding regular conferences for besuited racists like David Duke and Richard Spencer, who reportedly used the event to call for “peaceful ethnic cleansing” in the United States. Among the advice Tanton offered Taylor was how to deal with accusations of racism: “One of my favorite responses is to ask for a definition of the term,” he wrote in a Jan. 6, 1992 letter. “Few of the people who throw it around have thought about it enough to have one ready, and if they do, can often not find racism in such as way as does not include themselves.” Reached via email, Taylor denied that Tanton had had any influence over the magazine. “John Tanton did not contribute in any way to the establishment of American Renaissance,” he wrote to me. “He never wrote for the magazine, never contributed a dime, never made an introduction.” Asked why he shared a rough draft of the first issue of the magazine, Taylor replied: “I was curious to know what he would think.” “All of Western Civilization is running at sub-replacement fertility, and will within a generation or two disappear into the history books.” One AmRen favorite was Sam Francis, a contributor to the magazine and speaker at its conferences, with whom Tanton corresponded directly, mostly exchanging book recommendations. (“I’d like to read a bit of Gramsci. Could you perchance suggest a good first book of his, or perhaps an anthology if there is one?”) Francis wrote the “Statement of Principles” for the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens, articulating their opposition to all forms of race mixing, including affirmative action, and anything else that would “destroy or denigrate the European-American heritage, including the heritage of the Southern people, and to force the integration of the races.” In the March 1995 issue of American Renaissance, Francis suggested that white people ought to consider “imposing adequate fertility controls on nonwhites.” He also edited Pat Buchanan’s book, The Death of the West, although he wanted the title to be The Death of Whitey. Toward the end of his life, Francis received direct financial support from Scaife May—her Colcom Foundation gave him more than $200,000 before his death in 2005. One of on-again, off-again Trump adviser Steve Bannon’s favorite novels, The Camp of the Saints, by the racist French novelist Jean Raspail, exists in English almost entirely thanks to Scaife May and Tanton: After a first English translation failed to gain traction in 1975, Scaife May funded a second print run in 1983, giving $5,000 through the Laurel Foundation to the Institute for Western Values for the purposes of distributing the book. “A million poor wretches, armed only with their weakness and their numbers, overwhelmed by misery, encumbered with starving brown and black children, ready to disembark on our soil, the vanguard of the multitudes pressing hard against every part of the tired and overfed West,” Raspail writes in the novel’s preface. “I literally saw them, saw the major problem they presented, a problem absolutely insoluble by our present moral standards. To let them in would destroy us. To reject them would destroy them.” By 1983, Scaife May had already contributed some $4 million to Tanton’s organizations and causes; $5,000 was a paltry sum in comparison. “Our concern is that huge masses of immigrants are not becoming acculturated and moving into the mainstream,” the foundation’s president told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 1988. “They are not learning English, and we believe it is preventing them from assimilating.” In 1995, Tanton’s own Social Contract Press would publish a third English-language run, again with support from Scaife May, and in January 1999, Tanton would thank Donna Panazzi, a Scaife May aide, for the heir’s money and support for an emerging Camp of the Saints movie project. “I want you to know that I consider my reputation on the line in this project, which I very much want to see succeed,” Tanton insisted. The film was never made. It is clear from Tanton’s archives—both their content and the very fact of their existence—that he considered himself a historical actor, one engaged in activity that scholars and journalists will find significant and worth investigating. “When the time comes to write up our efforts, historians will at least have at hand our ideas of what we were trying to do—not ones that he or she made up in their own head,” he wrote at one point. Obsessed with not being misunderstood, Tanton’s meticulous note-taking reveals his self-consciousness (or at least self-conception) as an agent of history, and moreover that his theory of history is an idealistic one—that he is a soldier in “a wider war of fundamental ideas.” And yet, for all that, and for all his ostensible commitment to free speech and inquiry, little more than half of his archives is accessible to the public. Out of the 25 boxes of papers Tanton has donated to the Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan, 14 are open without restriction and 11 are closed to the public until 2035. According to library records, the sealed boxes contain, among other things, meeting minutes of the board of FAIR beginning in 1979, still more of Tanton’s private correspondence, and nine folders labeled “Pioneer Fund,” a private foundation dedicated to funding race science and eugenics. FAIR received $1.2 million from the Pioneer Fund before it stopped soliciting the organization’s grants in 1994. For Tanton, population control and eugenics were two sides of the same coin. “The Fund has five or six million dollars of capital, which was given to be used on population and eugenic problems,” he wrote in a letter to Garrett Hardin, the nativist ecologist who wrote “The Tragedy of the Commons” and received funding from Pioneer Fund. In a letter to Robert K. Graham, Tanton promised to have “some serious conversations about what might be done to breath [sic] some life back into the eugenics movement.” Graham, the inventor of shatter-proof eyeglass lenses, presided over a $70 million fortune, with which he founded a sperm bank for Nobel Prize winners—a barricade against “retrograde humans” and the threat of communism. (“I should try to find some project that he would like to finance,” Tanton noted in a 1995 memo.) Elsewhere, while contemplating the “effects of population growth on physical and human capital formation” in a letter to one of Scaife May’s aides, Tanton lamented “the fall from favor of eugenics.” He continued: “Somewhere in between this Scylla and Charybdis, society will be forced to decide who will live and who will die, and what the criteria of worth are.” Robert K. Graham, the inventor of shatter-proof eyeglass lenses, presided over a $70 million fortune, with which he founded a sperm bank for Nobel Prize winners—a barricade against “retrograde humans” and the threat of communism. Last year, the University of Michigan denied a request under the Freedom of Information Act for the sealed archives from Virginia-based immigration attorney Hassan Ahmad. In court filings, attorneys for the university have argued that despite being held by a public institution, Tanton’s sealed records are under a “donor’s gift agreement and thus “exempt from disclosure.” Any disclosure before the scheduled date “would breach the donor’s gift agreement and understanding that certain papers would remain private.” Ahmad has rejected the university’s premise and is continuing to appeal its decision. “A gift agreement doesn’t trump the law,” he wrote to me in an email. “Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act imposes a legal obligation on public institutions like the University. It exists precisely so that the public can see what public institutions are doing. I am at a loss to understand why the University is standing in the way of finding out the truth about Dr. Tanton’s role as architect of the anti-immigrant movement, responsible for policies affecting the lives of millions. Mass incarceration and deportation, banning entire religious groups, denial of due process, and fomenting hatred of aspiring Americans - all of it has been the hallmark of Tanton’s hate networks. These groups enjoy a cozy relationship with the likes of Jeff Sessions, Steve Bannon, Steve Miller, Kellyanne Conway, Kris Kobach, and Richard Spencer. We have a right to see what’s in the Tanton Papers, and we should not, and cannot wait until 2035.” The University of Michigan declined to comment. “We have nothing to share,” a spokesperson wrote in an email. The man himself is incapacitated. “Dr. Tanton no longer grants interviews,” a spokesperson for U.S. Inc, one of Tanton’s nonprofit funding vehicles, wrote to me in an email. “He is in an assisted living home with late stage Parkinson’s Disease.” In one of his oral self-histories, Tanton reflected on his best qualities as a political actor. “I have an average mind, but as I look back in on myself, and try to be objective, one thing I have been is very, very persistent,” he said. “If one hangs in there over a long period of time, it’s amazing what can be achieved, especially if the opposition is not as persistent.” Indeed, Tanton has weathered scandals precipitated by reporting from the Arizona Republic, the New York Times, and the Southern Poverty Law Center. As it happens, the current issue of Tanton’s pseudo-academic journal is dedicated to disparaging SPLC’s work. “This is the second time that the editors of The Social Contract have devoted an entire issue to attacking the SPLC,” the Center’s Beirich said. “They even resorted to recycling a number of articles from the original for this latest attack. I think it’s a clear indication that the Law Center has been successful in its efforts to expose the racism that is deeply entrenched in this movement.” Tanton’s individual persistence was at bottom made possible by the greater persistence of wealth across generations in the United States, coming to fruition in the hundreds of millions of dollars that Cordelia Scaife May left to the Colcom Foundation when she died. What endures is not any individual or personality but capital and institutions. Tanton’s best political skill was not his analysis or his rhetoric but his ability to flatter wealthy racists. He was not a great theoretician or leader or organizer, but an adroit servant of capital’s class interests, for this is how the capitalist class exerts power—not by engaging in democratic politics, but by creating a bulwark against it. Ironically, Tanton recognized this dynamic himself, however accidentally, in his striving for an essentially American identity. “I think there is such a thing as an American culture, however difficult it may be to define,” he once mused. “For instance, the United States is the most philanthropic society on the face of the earth, and most of the work that FAIR and our opponents do is supported by philanthropy. Few, if any, other cultures have developed the idea of public philanthropy as strongly as we have here.” What he failed to recognize is that the very idea of public philanthropy as it is practiced in the United States of America is wholly the creation of the American plutocracy—wealthy industrialists and corporate scions seeking ways to consolidate and protect their money over time. While the practice of establishing private family trusts and foundations and of spending copious amounts of money on ostensibly philanthropic (though in fact political) causes is now commonplace among the capitalist class, it was not always so. The first of these, the Rockefeller Foundation, was formed in 1913; a century later, according to political scientist Robert Reich, there were over 100,000 private foundations in the United States, controlling over $800 billion. “The tax code turned many extraordinarily wealthy families, intent upon preserving their fortunes, into major forces in America’s civic sector,” Jane Mayer writes in Dark Money. “In order to shelter themselves from taxes, they were required to invent a public philanthropic role.” Upon their father’s death, Scaife May and her brother, Richard Mellon Scaife, were the beneficiaries of two charitable trusts of $50 million each, structured such that, after 20 years of donating all net income from the trusts to nonprofit charities, the siblings would receive their $50 million principals. Their mother did the same in 1961, setting up a pair of $25 million trusts, and again in 1963, setting up another $100 million in trusts for her grandchildren. Mellon Scaife, who once called a reporter for the Columbia Journalism Review a “fucking Communist cunt,” would go on to make some $1 billion in political and philanthropic contributions over a 50-year period, anticipating the Koch brothers’ current reign and shaping the right-wing of American politics for half a century. In a secret memoir, obtained by Mayer, Mellon Scaife gloated, “Isn’t it grand how tax law gets written?” There is deep and horrible irony in Mellon family money, which powered American imperialism in Central and South America and which grew as a result of that imperial expansion, now being spent to denigrate and punish the children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the men and women whose countries the Mellons helped to colonize, who now come to the United States seeking respite from their nations’ ruin. For people like Tanton and Scaife May or organizations like FAIR and CIS, the point is not to purge the United States of immigrants wholly but to ensure the continued immiseration and suffering of the poor and the dispossessed—the most destitute of whom, it is no accident, are mostly people of color. The activity of the Tanton network and the support it has received from one of America’s oldest imperial families shows above all how one faction of the ruling class, at least, imagines it can create a permanent underclass from which to extract value: first, by dehumanizing migrants in the minds of the citizens; then, by allowing them to sell their labor to employers across the country; and finally, in the prisons and detention centers where they are housed until deportation, and the cycle begins anew. In turn, this contributes to the continued creation of a massive population of surplus labor, which puts downward pressure on wages for all workers. The legal framework upon which the regime rests already existed; what is happening now is entirely compatible with what has gone before. It was only the leniency of the Obama administration that offered any respite—the noblesse oblige of “prosecutorial discretion” to not detain undocumented people at schools or hospitals. In fact, Democratic administrations contributed to the expansion of this framework and the discourse that enables it, not only as a matter of domestic policy but in trade agreements and international monetary policy, as well as by simply granting the notion that the border is something that needs to be policed and immigration something that needs to be restricted. Here Are Some of the Democrats Who Paved the Way for the Family Separation Crisis Some might say that calling out Democrats on immigration is not productive at this moment, when the Capitalism in crisis invites the reaction that racism readily provides: criminalization of the structurally oppressed, subject to heavily militarized control and containment and scapegoating by the culture industries. In constantly producing and reproducing these ideas, reducing them to their most vicious and cynical distillations, we see in the Tanton network, animated as it is by Scaife May’s ghastly largesse, a crucial component in the technology that crafts the discourse of racial capitalism. It is the intellectual crucible of possessive nationalism: the resentful, racist grasping exemplified in the Trump campaign and brought into most acute reality by the administration’s immigration policies, bringing us to a historical juncture in which capitalism and racism’s complementary mechanisms of social control are revealed in all their brutality and abundance. We see in the Tanton network, animated as it is by Scaife May’s ghastly largesse, a crucial component in the technology that crafts the discourse of racial capitalism. The border itself is the most powerful of these mechanisms—or, more specifically, it is from the idea of the border that other mechanisms of social control derive their power. (Race, after all, is itself a kind of border.) It is the border that allows capitalism to work at all; capitalism needs borders, even if capital itself does not adhere to them. This is the unspoken truth contained in the Democratic Party’s breathless reassurances—to whom, one wonders?—that they are of course not calling for “open borders,” even as they issue strident condemnation of the Trump administration’s cruelty and call for the abolition of its most draconian agencies. The borders that separate one country from another are an artifact of politics and history: They have no material reality in themselves but were born of violence; their maintenance demands violence, increasingly so as the cycles of capitalism drive both mass migration and repression. The borders that organizations like CIS, FAIR, and NumbersUSA advocate for do not stop at the borders between countries: Border Patrol’s jurisdiction extends 100 miles inland from any of the United States’ external boundaries, while ICE patrols the interior. Nowhere is safe, not even the most progressive sanctuary city; indeed, the need to police the nation’s borders stretches out past those borders into other countries: As a former Obama DHS official said in 2012, “The Guatemalan border with Chiapas [Mexico] is now our southern border.” Undocumented people bring the border with them wherever they go—so do all migrants under racial capitalism. Any transgression of a political boundary constitutes a threat to the entire system and must be policed accordingly. It is no accident of history that the agencies tasked with enforcing the immigration regime were created, consolidated, and empowered as part of the response to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. As the 9/11 Commission report put it: “The American homeland is the planet.” Foundations controlled by Richard Mellon Scaife in life and funded generously by him in death have contributed millions not only to FAIR and CIS but also to sites of anti-Muslim bigotry like the Center for Security Policy, where the idea of the Muslim ban originated and whose senior vice president, Fred Fleitz, was just appointed chief of staff of the National Security Council. The global war on terror and the war on migrants are one and the same. The world created by the Scaifes and Mellons, the banks and corporations, and by all of their proxies in politics and the media is everywhere shaped by borders, bans, and barriers. “As a practicing physician I know the importance of borders in the human body,” Tanton wrote in the third issue of The Social Contract. “When the Rev. James Jones of Guyana gave his 900 followers cyanide to drink, he was erasing their internal physiological borders and poisoning the enzymes that kept their compartmentalized bodies alive. On the other side of the medical metaphor, there are diseases of the membranes in which their bordering becomes too tight, too impervious, so that the contained cells die from the inability of nutrition to get in or of wastes to get out.” In Tanton’s medical metaphor, immigrants are best represented as poison—cyanide and waste—to which his ideas are the antidote. Trump and his supporters’ fetishization of “the wall” is simply an articulation of their commitment to this world: The wall is white supremacy; the wall is the rule of the wealthy few over the impoverished many; the wall is a quarantine. It separates the United States from Mexico, Europe from Africa, and Israel from Palestine. The wall simply is the border made real, natural, and impermeable. But it is politics that made borders—and walls, and all the separations and segregations of this world—and politics that can unmake them. There is no immigration crisis; there is only a political crisis, wherein the white supremacist plutocracy scrambles to maintain its barbaric dominance over the world it has created however and wherever it can—thus billionaires; thus the Tanton network; thus concentration camps full of children, haunted by the ghosts of capitalists living and dead. Reporter, Special Projects Desk	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line7947
__label__wiki	0.63857	0.63857	Productivity Solutions Grant (PSG) Digital Resilience Bonus (DRB) Starting a business: Singapore versus Sri Lanka Home > Resources > Setting up a company: Singapore versus Sri Lanka Sri Lanka’s economy grew at an average rate of 4.2% between 2013 and 2017. The forecast for 2018 and 2019 are 3.8% and 4.5% respectively. With increased focus on an export-oriented economy, business zones, and knowledge-based industry, the country is vying for the attention of foreign investors. Does this make Sri Lanka a better place for doing business when compared with Singapore? While Singapore’s extraordinarily business-friendly environment is marked by zero tolerance to corruption, high-tech infrastructure, and exemplary support to startups, the Lankan system is struggling to face challenges in social inclusion, economic reform, governance, and investment sustainability. Compared to political and economic stability in Singapore, Sri Lanka suffers from political unpredictability and lack of economic policy consensus. Here is a comparison of the benefits of doing business in Singapore and Sri Lanka. Directors and requirements Shares and foreign ownership Transparency and corruption Grants, tax benefits for startups World Bank’s 2019 Ease of Doing Business Index Business starting Construction Permission Protecting minority investors Cross-border trading Contract enforcing In Sri Lanka, it takes at least 9 days and 7 procedures to register a company. Except for the name selection and approval of the Registrar of Companies, no other procedure is online. Many have cumbersome subprocedures. Fees are not fixed, as you have to spend on different fronts, including about $110-$120 plus 15% VAT, $100 for registration advertisement, and $150-$250 quarterly to hire a company secretary. Lengthy and complex procedures result in paying several times more than the actual fees. In comparison, the incorporation of a company in Singapore is reasonably swift, with a company typically being incorporated in 5 – 7 business days by using a filing agent to submit your application with ACRA (the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority) that governs company incorporation and regulatory matters. (1 local director) (1 local representative without shareholding) 1 shareholder Local address SG$1 paid-up capital Local director Company secretary’s authentication $200,000 deposit for branches of foreign companies Singapore’s economy offers unrestricted 100% foreign ownership. In Sri Lanka, most businesses have 49% foreign ownership though 100% holding is allowed. Foreign ownership is not allowed in money lending, brokerage, coastal fisheries, retail operations below $1 million, and security services. It restricts foreign ownership to 40% in mining, timber, deep-sea fishing, education, shipping, travel, freight forwarding, and many food processing sectors, including tea, rubber, rice, spices, and coconut. The Ease of Doing Business Index ranks Singapore at 8th and Sri Lanka at 141 for taxation regime. A company has to pay 20.6% of its profit as various taxes in Singapore. In Sri Lanka, it may end up paying 55.2% of the profit. Compared to Singapore’s 17% corporate tax while Sri Lanka levies a standard 28% tax. Lankan businesses supplying goods have to pay 1% turnover tax in addition to 3% Nation Building Tax on firms earning more than LKR100,000 (US$550). Singapore has a single 7% GST. Sri Lanka has a 12% VAT plus to excise duties. Even the healthcare sector is subject to VAT. The income tax in Singapore varies from 2% to 22%. In Sri Lanka, it is between 4% and 24% and an extra 5% tax is on bank deposits and foreign earnings, which is exempt in Singapore. No withholding tax is on dividends in the city-state but in Sri Lanka, one has to pay 14% dividend tax. Sri Lanka collects 14% tax on remittances payable compared to zero-tax on branch remittances in Singapore. The Global Competitiveness Report has all praise for transparent and corruption-free business environment in Singapore. The city-state is ranked sixth out of 180 countries on Corruption Perceptions Index prepared by the Transparency International. It has a zero-tolerance policy to corruption backed by technology-assisted approval procedure, clear decision-making process, single-window business facilitation, transparent procedures, no red tape, and the highest regard for law enforcement. Sri Lanka occupies the 91st position on the corruption index. The country is plagued by lingering opaque practices, high-level corruption, red tape, cronyism, risks of approval repudiation, highly fragmented decision-making system, and age-old procedures. A weak legal system fails to uphold law enforcement while facilitation payments are common to clear obstacles in doing business. The Global Enabling Trade Report highlights the demand for bribery, irregular payments and corruption by border officials as factors inhibiting trading across borders there. The Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka provides $5,000 seed funding to each of 10 startups under the Spiralation program. In July 2018, it announced to create LKR 10-billion Development Bank for easier loans to entrepreneurs while increasing the capital expenditure tax relief from 200% to 300%. The government has started the LKR 60 billion Enterprising Sri Lanka project offering concessional loans and interest subsidy up to 75%. However, the grants and exemptions in Sri Lanka, where the government struggles for funds, fail to match that of Singapore, which offers funding up to 70% of startup costs in addition to a S$10 million tech startup fund. Corporate tax exemptions from 50% up to 100% are offered within certain income brackets for the first three years of incorporation – although this regulation is in a phase of change (see our article on tax in Singapore to learn more). Lankan businesses often complain about the starved labor market, small national talent pool, more public holidays, no workforce mobility, refusal for night shifts, and lack of women workforce. Despite efforts to improve the workforce, the country is ranked 131 for labor market efficiency in the Global Competitive Index. For higher education and training, it is on the 78th spot. The World Bank’s Sri Lanka Development Update 2018 highlights the dearth of skilled labor for the private sector. Poor English language is a cause of concern in the country, especially in the services sector. On the other hand, Singapore is the global leader in higher education and training while ranking second in labor market efficiency. With a highly-skilled labor market, the city-state boasts a workforce that is competent, efficient, and productive to reflect the present and future needs of the private sector. Singapore’s transport and logistics network is among the top in the world. Airports and seaports continue to be examples for others. The ICT infrastructure has a mark of excellence everywhere. The city-state is among the top two in the world for the quality of its infrastructure. However, Sri Lanka is at 85th place in the Global Competitive Index for its less-developed infrastructure. Being a part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, it is getting foreign funds for infrastructure upgrade. However, political differences, the lack of national funding, and high debt to GDP ratio impede infrastructure redevelopment in Sri Lanka. The Global Enabling Trade Index puts Singapore as number one compared to the 134th position in the table of 136 countries. According to the Global Competitiveness Report, the Lankan intuitional support is a distant 77th and the technological readiness is at a dismal 106th spot. Singapore ranks second and 14 respectively. In Singapore, the environment is more foreign investor-friendly compared to too many restrictions and a non-English speaking population in the island nation. The city-state has a robust regulatory and intellectual right protection framework, which is yet to take shape in Sri Lanka. Trade regulations favor businesses in Singapore while corruption beset it in Sri Lanka. Unpredictable political and economic environment is eroding the business confidence in Sri Lanka. With efficiency in government, high transaction costs, limit on foreign ownership, restricted private sector, business scalability issues, burdensome import procedures, and problem in land acquisition, the country is still a challenging place to do business. In Singapore, all these problems are put to rest with strong and proactive government initiatives. For companies wanting to create a company in Southeast Asia should look no further than Singapore as a stable, transparent, and business-friendly jurisdiction. Want to learn more about how to get set up? Our incorporation experts can typically get you up and running in 5 – 7 business days if you have all your documents ready. Sign up for a complimentary 30-minute company consultation to find out more. Get your pre-incorporation checklist now Download your free guide and learn what what you need to get started in Singapore. Did you like this? Share it with your networks. Are you ready to register your business in Singapore? Sleek can help you get started today using our online platform VC & Accelerators © 2020 Sleek Tech Pte Ltd \| 28C Stanley St, Singapore 068737 \| +65 6909 2214 \| ACRA Professional No. 201708433H \| MOM EA Licence #17S8937 \| Privacy Policy & Terms and Conditions With PSG, you can now get 80% of your yearly company secretary or accounting fees with us covered! Find out more.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line7948
__label__wiki	0.99054	0.99054	11.07.2014 Business Riverhead Dodge buys mini-golf site next to Costco By Tim Gannon Riverhead Dodge president Tony Strollo (left) with his son T.J. Strollo, vice president, and daughter Jane Millman, secretary and treasurer, at the former Out East Family Fun site on Route 58, which they recently purchased to relocate their dealership. (Credit: Barbaraellen Koch) Riverhead Dodge, which once billed itself as the only Riverhead car dealership not on Route 58, appears to be headed there. Last month, the company purchased the former Out East Family Fun mini-golf and batting cage site on the western end of the busy thoroughfare, with the goal of building a new dealership there and eventually moving from West Main Street, said owner Tony Strollo. “We’re just out of space down there,” Mr. Strollo said of his current location. “We’ve been there for 38 years.” The building was a Dodge dealership for 20 years before he bought it, Mr. Strollo said, and had been the site of Vail Motors for 20 years before that. Being surrounded by all the big shopping centers on Route 58 should be a draw, Mr. Strollo said, but it’s also a big change from when he started. “When I first came to Riverhead in 1976, most of this was open fields,” he said, recalling the section of Route 58 where he plans to build. The West Main Street site is about 1.4 acres and the current dealership is about 10,000 square feet, he said, while the Route 58 property is three acres and zoning there will allow for a 26,000 square foot dealership. The Route 58 site also is located within the town water and sewer districts and can be connected to natural gas. “The plan is to go full fold, build a full dealership here and, when it’s all complete, we’ll move the complete operation up here,” Mr. Strollo said. “We’ll see what we’re going to do with the old property once that happens. We may need it for storage or something like that.” This is not the first time Mr. Strollo has contemplated relocating to Route 58. In 1999, he purchased the 5.5-acre property that now houses P.C. Richard & Son and had considered building two dealerships there. But when he got a $6 million offer from P.C. Richard, he said, he sold the property to them and stayed put on West Main Street. The Out East site was purchased for $3.25 million, according to county records. Riverhead Dodge has about 21 employees, many of whom have been with the company for several years, Mr. Strollo said. His son, T.J. Strollo, is the sales manager and his daughter, Jane Millman, oversees the service department and the office, he said. “My father has two children in the business and we both have a love for the business,” Ms. Millman said. “It’s the progression of one generation to the next. And that’s the whole purpose of moving to Route 58.” “This is for the kids, not me,” Mr. Strollo said. “I’m 78.” Riverhead Dodge will first seek a use permit from the town to allow the company to store some inventory at the Route 58 site before construction, Mr. Strollo said. He anticipates filing a formal site plan application in late December, with the approval process taking six to nine months. The site is zoned Business Center, which permits auto dealerships. Out East Family Fun owner Ed Meier took the pitching machines when he sold the property, but the batting cages remain on the property. “We will donate the batting cages to anyone that wants them,” Mr. Strollo said. “I would just turn them into scrap iron.” He said the giant inflatable hippo water slide is also still on the property and he’s willing to donate that as well. Email Tim Gannon Email Created with Sketch. Email Tim Gannon Out East Family Fun Riverhead Dodge 01.04.2021 Business Peconic County Brewing inches closer to opening in downtown Riverhead This story appears courtesy of our friends at The Southampton Press. Visit 27east.com for more great local news. When... East End Financial, after four decades helping small businesses grow, reaches milestone In 1979, John Kosinski took a leap of faith. Working with just a little more than $10,000, a client... Now hear this: Hearing center opens in Southold It isn’t so much a sound that is like music to David Carr’s ears as it is a look.... Awaiting word from the governor, Riverhead bowling alley says it’s ready to reopen Having done so much to his bowling center, Chris Keller is awaiting one final thing before he can reopen:... 2019 Businessperson of the Year: Marc LaMaina Editor’s Note: The video below was prepared for our 2019 Times Review Media Group People of the Year event... More than $116 million in Paycheck Protection Program loans went to North Fork businesses Just over 1,500 small businesses on the North Fork received more than $116 million in Paycheck Protection Program loans,...	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line7954
__label__wiki	0.716329	0.716329	200,000 Americans die early of air pollution: Study September 2, 2013 By Janet Vasquez Leave a Comment What could be termed as the most adverse effect of air pollution nearly two lakh Americans die early due to the toxic and polluted air, a new MIT study has claimed. According to the scientists, the air pollution reduces the life span of the person. The scientists said that a person who dies from an air pollution-related cause typically dies about a decade earlier than he or she otherwise might have. Researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)’s Laboratory for Aviation and the Environment tracked ground-level emissions from sources such as industrial smokestacks, vehicle tailpipes, marine and rail operations, and commercial and residential heating throughout the US. The study revealed that such air pollution causes about 200,000 early deaths each year. Among all forms of air pollution, emissions from road transportation are the most significant contributor towards polluting the atmosphere. This has caused 53,000 premature deaths, followed closely by power generation, with 52,000. The scientists carried state-by-state analysis to find out its detailed implications across the United States. During the study, the researchers found that California suffers the worst health impacts from air pollution, with about 21,000 early deaths annually, mostly attributed to road transportation and to commercial and residential emissions from heating and cooking. Researchers also mapped local emissions in 5,695 US cities, finding the highest emissions-related mortality rate in Baltimore, where 130 out of every 100,000 residents likely die in a given year due to long-term exposure to air pollution. “In the past five to 10 years, the evidence linking air-pollution exposure to risk of early death has really solidified and gained scientific and political traction,” said Steven Barrett, an assistant professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT. “There’s a realization that air pollution is a major problem in any city, and there’s a desire to do something about it,” Barret said. The researchers collected data from the year 2005, the most recent data available at the time of the study. They then divided the data into six emissions sectors: electric power generation; industry; commercial and residential sources; road transportation; marine transportation; and rail transportation. “It was surprising to me just how significant road transportation was, especially when you imagine [that] coal-fired power stations are burning relatively dirty fuel,” Barrett said. The study was published in the journal Atmospheric Environment. Filed Under: Health Tagged With: Air pollution, air pollution deaths, air pollution in US About Janet Vasquez Janet hasn’t had the happiest of childhoods. Her parents shipped her off to a girl-only boarding school when she was merely a child. After a few years spent with the nuns she unexpectedly remained pregnant and was kicked from the school. But this didn’t hinder her.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line7958
__label__wiki	0.864761	0.864761	St Peter's Church, Woolton: History and Heritage Birthplace of the Beatles and so much more! St Peter’s Church History and Heritage St Peter’s and the Beatles The Day John Met Paul 60th Anniversary Celebrations! Anniversary Celebrations of the Day John Met Paul The Easy Guide to Creating Your Own Celebration of the Day John Met Paul! John and St Peter’s Church Our Eleanor Rigby George Toogood Smith Graham and Dave International Beatle Week #John80 Bob Paisley Remembering the Fallen Davis Photo Galleries Statue Appeal Launched On Brian Epstein’s 85th Birthday A five-week campaign has been launched to raise funds to create a statue to honour the man fondly known as the Fifth Beatle, Brian Epstein. The Brian Epstein Statue Project was officially launched today (Thursday 19 September) – which would have also marked Brian Epstein’s 85th Birthday. The special announcement was made at the Epstein Theatre, located on Hanover Street in Liverpool city centre, to an audience of Press and special guests, including Merseybeat singer Beryl Marsden, Peter Hooton from Liverpool band The Farm, and the Lord Mayor Of Liverpool, Councillor Anna Rothery. The Beatles’ former manager, Liverpool-born Brian Epstein, is credited with catapulting the Fab Four to global success. Yet there is no lasting tribute to recognise and celebrate the vital role he played in the band’s history, nor how he changed the face and sound of popular music. Brian Epstein made history. However, a small group of dedicated campaigners are working tirelessly to redress the balance and create a world first with a statue of Brian Epstein funded by a five-week Crowdfunder campaign – a minimum target of £60,000 has been set. The location for the statue has not yet been confirmed, however the committee welcomes suggestions from interested parties via social media as to where they would like to see the statue sited. Brian Epstein owned NEMS record shop in Whitechapel. It was a lunchtime visit to The Cavern Club in the heart of Liverpool to watch a four-piece rock and roll band on 9 November 1961 which would change the course of history. Music and life in Liverpool would never be the same again. That band was The Beatles – who Brian would go on to manage. In addition to managing The Beatles, Brain Epstein is credited to creating and developing the Merseybeat movement. He also signed a number of other performers including Cilla Black, Gerry And The Pacemakers, Billy J Kramer And The Dakotas, and The Moody Blues. Messages of support from Brian’s Epstein family, and the Willis family representing the late Cilla Black, were also read out at the launch. The Epstein family said: “Brian was a modest and reserved man, but as a family we are in no doubt that he, his brother Clive, and his parents Queenie and Harry, would have been immensely touched by the consistent efforts to pay tribute to his contribution to The Beatles and the city of Liverpool.” The Willis family added: “Cilla had one true love, her Bobby – but Brian came a close second. He moulded and shaped her career, which helped her become one of the UK’s biggest entertainers. Throughout her life, Cilla kept a picture of Brian on her desk and never forgot his commitment to her.” The Brian Epstein Statue Project committee have wealth of experience and expertise across public art, publishing, theatre production, and the local Beatles industry. Collectively they have a strong desire to ensure the project is successful and are passionate that a lasting tribute to Brian and all he achieved in the history of popular music should be created in Liverpool to celebrate his role in history. The committee includes cultural campaigner and activist Tom Calderbank; Beatles’ fan Marie Darwin who was part of a group who campaigned for a plaque to be placed on the birthplace of Brian Epstein; Beatles’ researchers and authors Kevin and Julie Roach, and son Robert; Larry Sidorczuk was the personal assistant to the late Joe Flannery, Brian Epstein’s original business partner and bookings manager; and Bill Elms, a producer of the smash hit play Epstein: The Man Who Made The Beatles, which was staged in Liverpool and London’s West End. Author Kevin Roach recently published his latest book, Brian Epstein And The Beatles 1964: The Year That Changed The World – proceeds of which will be donated to The Brian Epstein Statue Project. Tom Calderbank is leading the project, he explained: “We’re thrilled and very excited to unveil plans for a long overdue statue of the ‘Fifth Beatle’ Brian Epstein in his hometown of Liverpool. We aim to create a unique, beautiful and lasting sculptural tribute to Brian – a world first for one of the world’s great creative individuals. “Brian changed the music world in an extraordinary way. He was instrumental in the development of Liverpool’s music scene, most notably with the Fab Four. His legacy is also largely unseen, even though his impact on popular culture is incalculable – Brain needs this memorial, he needs to stay amongst us and really does deserve this recognition. By raising the funds together, we will celebrate Brian together.” Sculptor Andy Edwards has already been commissioned. Andy is best known for his iconic sculpture of The Beatles located at Pier Head Liverpool, part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site. Andy sculpted The Truce, which can be found in the grounds of St Luke’s Church, depicting the historic moment on Christmas Day 1914 during the First World War ceasefire when a game of football spontaneously broke out between British and German soldiers. He also co-sculpted the statue of Cilla Black on Mathew Street. Andy has produced a clay bust and maquette to show how the 7ft sculpture of Brian will look. Visitors to the recent International Beatleweek in Liverpool were given a sneak preview. Sculptor Andy Edwards commented: “After spending a lot of time staring at Brian Epstein’s face, I see before anything else, the charm and feeling in his eyes. I see a smile born of trust. A smile that elicits a smile back, an exchange of confidence and encouragement in what might happen. This is what I want to capture in Brian’s sculpture to share with everyone who will see it. “At the unveiling of the statues of The Beatles, I made a silent dedication in my mind. This is for all those who love The Beatles – and for all those who don’t. The work gives a gateway to the city, just as Cilla does to The Cavern. An added statue of Brian gives the third dimension to that straight line. No longer signposts of where to go, but a feeling of mapping out in the mind and following in their footsteps. The striding visual link to the Waterfront creates more than a tribute but takes you into the bigger story of what has been achieved. We will be creating something equally as special and fitting for Brian.” The project also has the support of Liverpool-born actor Andrew Lancel, who has appeared in The Bill and Coronation Street. He appears in a short video supporting the statue project, which was played at the launch. Andrew portrayed Brian in the smash hit play Epstein: The Man Who Made The Beatles on stage in Liverpool and London’s West End to critical acclaim. He later played Brian again in the recent tour of Cilla The Musical –and is a huge advocate of recognising all Brian achieved. Andrew Lancel added: “Brian left us far too soon, he was 32-years-old. His contribution to the music industry, The Beatles, Liverpool and the world really was incomparable. And I can think of few people more worthy of a sculptural tribute, a statue in his home city. By making a donation to the Crowdfunding project, you have the chance to share the story of Brian and The Beatles. You can be a part of it by saying, I had a hand in making it. “Brian’s legacy continues, he’s been inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall Of Fame. There has been movies, plays and musicals about him. But this lasts forever. It’s very special and beautiful. I’m so proud to have played Brian, and I’m very proud to support this project. To quote a line from the play Epstein: The Man Who Made The Beatles – Brian is, was, and always will be, one of us.” Donations can be made by visiting https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/the-brian-epstein-statue-project Various levels of donation are also available, including the Hall Of Fame and Certificate Of Support, as well as options to purchase Beatles experiences of which the cost is donated to the campaign. Visit the Crowdfunding page for full details. Website: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/the-brian-epstein-statue-project www.epsteinstatue.co.uk Facebook: @BrianEpsteinStatueProject Twitter: @EpsteinStatue The Gates are Open! Strawberry Field opened to the public today, and the gates are open for good! Work is still going on to fully implement the vision for the grounds, in particular, and here are some of the little touches that we couldn’t bring to you yesterday. The labyrinth is a series of stepping stones laid out in a spiral. Visitors are encouraged to follow the path, walking slowly, thinking and relaxing. As the Fresh Expression Team at Strawberry Field explain, “The labyrinth is a way of allowing ourselves time and space to think about who or what we are following in our own lives.” White feathers in the labyrinth. There are also stepping stones heading from the path into the woods. These are in the corner closest to where John would have climbed over the wall, so in a way his footsteps are in Strawberry Field forever. It’s also a lovely way to encourage children (and adults!) to leave the path and go and play in the woods. Finally for today, there’s a beautiful print of the original house. It’s on glass, so you can see the new building through it! #GatesOpenForGood For more information, visit the Strawberry Field website at www.strawberryfieldliverpool.com Strawberry Field … Forever! Strawberry Field opens to the public tomorrow and we can’t wait! We’ve been lucky enough to attend several of the preview events and we are delighted to be able to share some photos of Strawberry Field with you today! Let us take you down … Work is still in progress in the gardens, but already you can feel the beauty and wonder of the grounds. No wonder John loved playing here as a child! All the pathways at Strawberry Field are fully wheelchair accessible. Strawberry Field: bringing hope to young adults through the Steps to Work programme The cafe is open to all, and serves wonderful food! All the money raised at Srawberry Field, in the cafe or the shop, goes towards the Steps to Work programme, which provides specialist training for young adults that will enable them to live full and independent lives. There is no better cause in our opinion! The visitor experience tells the story of Strawberry Field, the Salvation Army, and John Lennon’s love for the place. The John Lennon mosaic in the Visitor Experience In the grounds at Strawberry Field are several raised beds growing strawberries … of course!! Strawberry jam can be bought in the shop, and will feature in the yummy products available in the cafe! Major Allister Versfeld, Mission Development Officer and Captain Louise Brown, Fresh Expression Leader Visitors can travel from Liverpool to Strawberry Field via minibus! #itmatterstous For more information on the fantastic work being done at Strawberry Field, and to book tickets for the visitor experience, visit https://www.strawberryfieldliverpool.com/ For more photos of Strawberry Field, see our album on flickr! Strawberry Field Original Red Gates Tour St Peter’s Church in Woolton were today honoured to be part of the ‘Red Gates Tour’. We were the last stop before the iconic original red gates were returned to Strawberry Field to become a permanent exhibit at the new visitor centre which opens on the 14th of September. #GatesOpenforGood @RobertsonGroup @strawberryfield Our very own ‘Father McKenzie’ the Rev Kip Crooks pictured with the gates. Louise from the Strawberry Field team, who spent the day touring various locations across Liverpool. You’ll Never Walk Alone January 5, 2021 Happy Christmas! December 24, 2020 Remembering John December 8, 2020 We Will Remember Them November 7, 2020 Woolton L25 5JF Click here for Travel Information (please note that timetables may change and this is intended as a guide only) St Peter’s Church is a lively Anglican church in South Liverpool. We believe in growing in love for God, each other and the World. For more information on our Church ministry, click here to visit the official St Peter’s Church Website	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line7970
__label__wiki	0.930551	0.930551	Lori Stratton in Albums, Artists, Concerts, Songs February 4, 2020 February 10, 2020 1,561 Words Folk Visionaries – Alice Howe, Freebo to Perform Friday at Ann Arbor’s Black Crystal Cafe Alice Howe will make her Black Crystal Cafe live debut Friday in Ann Arbor with Freebo. Photo by Robert M. Ring With a new tour and full-length debut album, Alice Howe will bring her 2020 vision to Ann Arbor’s Black Crystal Café Friday. The Boston singer-songwriter will make her first live appearance at the intimate 48-seat music club with world-renowned bassist Freebo, who’s performed with Bonnie Raitt, Ringo Starr, Neil Young, and Crosby, Stills & Nash. “Freebo and I have been working together for the last three years. He produced my last record, ‘Visions,’ which came out in May of last year, and he and I have been touring together a lot. For this show, we’re billing it as he will be my special guest, so he’ll do an opening set, and then he’ll back me on the bass,” said Howe about her set with Freebo for Friday’s sold-out show. “It’s really fun because I get to sing harmonies on his songs, and it’s a really collaborative thing that we’ve put together that just works out really well for both of us. We’re excited to take that to Black Crystal.” Howe forged a fateful partnership with Freebo nearly four years ago at the Northeast Regional Folk Alliance Conference. After meeting and chatting with him, she went through her record collection at home and discovered his musical collaborations with Raitt, Young and a host of other rock legends. “That was a very cool moment for me where I realized, ‘Wow, I’ve met somebody,’ and we had a lot in common as far as our taste in music and production styles and singing styles and all this stuff was so in line with each other,” Howe said. “I grew up listening to the era of music that he really came up under, so for me to meet somebody from that time was like, ‘Oh my god, I felt like he was sent to me.’” Having Musical ‘Visions’ Those similarities quickly led Howe to enlist Freebo as her musical mentor, collaborator and producer for “Visions,” a 10-track, introspective folk-blues expedition filled with striking originals and smashing covers from Muddy Waters, Sam Cooke, Taj Mahal and Bob Dylan. It’s a gorgeous extension of her 2017 debut folk EP, “You’ve Been Away So Long.” For “Visions,” Howe relocated from Boston to Bakersfield, Calif., to record her full-length debut with Freebo, Fuzzbee Morse (electric guitar), John “JT” Thomas (keys) and John Molo (percussion). In fact, her creative expedition begins with the nature-inspired “Twilight” and includes a much-needed Michigan winter sonic escape to a serene world dotted with dirt roads, sunlight, ocean and trees. “Twilight” is a welcoming soundtrack of mesmerizing acoustic and electric guitars, fretless bass and peaceful piano melded with Howe’s honeyed vocals – “There’s nothing like being along at twilight/The ocean and I each approaching high tide/Held aloft on the waves of pride/I’m better off walking along at twilight.” “It’s the first one that I actually began composing for this album. I was just at a moment of really deciding to commit myself to those tasks that can be so uncertain and just this path of pursuing art and music as a career, which is not something that anyone in my family had done and none of my friends,” said Howe, who features Freebo’s signature fretless bass threaded throughout the album. “It just felt like I was really going out on my own. It was also the first song that I co-wrote with Freebo actually or that I co-wrote with anybody. I’ve never done any co-writing before. I had to kind of let go of feeling very protective of that process.” Howe recorded a beautiful video of “Twilight” with videographer-photographer Jim Shea, who’s also famous for shooting Linda Ronstadt’s iconic 1977 “Simple Dreams” album cover. The video features Howe wearing a flowing red dress while walking through Jackson Browne’s breathtaking childhood stone home in Los Angeles. “For me, it was just very meaningful to be able to spend some time in that space and just walk around and explore. We kept it all really simple, like the whole production team was me and Jim just wandering around together. He’s just a joy,” Howe said. Next, Howe provides exquisite lyrical spring imagery on “Still on My Mind,” a romantic reflection on a lost love from the past filled with delicate, deep acoustic and electric guitars and soft percussion – “Looking out into a sea of green/Thinking on the years and miles that lie between/It seems so long ago/But you’re still on my mind you know.” “Albums capture a moment in time, and in my life, it was a year of a lot of change and reflection, and I really like to explore a lot of the same themes. In my songs, I like to speak about people in my life who’ve influenced me, and I often access that through nature or being outside and looking at a scene and letting my mind wander to wherever that’s gonna go,” Howe said. “That’s kind of why I called the record ‘Visions’ in part because there are a lot of visual elements to the songs on the record, and it shows you different visions of me as an artist.” Celebrating Influential Artists Alice Howe pays tribute to several music legends, including Muddy Waters and Bob Dylan, on her “Visions” album. Photo by Jim Shea While “Visions” celebrates several Howe and Freebo-penned originals, it also pays tribute to brilliant renditions of timeless classics by Muddy Waters, Sam Cooke, Taj Mahal and Bob Dylan. Howe credits her mother with spinning blues records when she was growing up in Newton, Mass. She also sang along with her brother and father, a gifted painter turned successful architect and designer. “There was this old school tradition in my house of putting on an album and listening to it all the way through, and there was a soundtrack of different times of the day, and I just feel that was really in me from the beginning. I would sit and listen and read along, and I always had a memory for lyrics, so I would really focus on that and memorize everything,” said Howe, who’s influenced by Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell and Jackson Browne. Howe brings a stellar blues swagger to Muddy Water’s 1951 track, “Honey Bee,” as electric guitar, electric piano, bass and drums magically fuse together – “Sail on, sail on my little honey bee, sail on/ Sail on, sail on my little honey bee, sail on/I don’t mind you sailing but please don’t sail so long.” “I thought about, ‘What about this Muddy Waters tune?’ and at that time, Freebo didn’t know that I even sang or was interested in singing blues or anything like that. He was like, ‘Whoa, wait you know that?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, I know that,’ which kind of opened up this whole new realm of stuff for us to explore,” Howe said. Another beautiful cover includes Bob Dylan’s 1963 classic, “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right,” as a vibrant acoustic guitar and deep bass form a timeless musical partnership – “When the rooster crows at the break of dawn/Look out your window and I’ll be gone/You’re the reason I’m traveling on/And don’t think twice, it’s all right.” It’s also the first song Howe ever learned on guitar while attending summer camp at age 12. Most importantly, writing and recording tracks for “Visions” allowed Howe to pay homage to her first mentor, her late father, who passed away when she was 18. As her creative champion, Howe’s father promised to go on the road with her and be her manager when she was young. “I would love nothing more than for him to be able to hear it, but I have the feeling that he is with me in what I do. He would be totally all in with what I’m up to, and I think he would be thrilled to hear my songs with a band,” Howe said. Bringing ‘2020 Vision’ to a New Project For Friday’s Black Crystal Café show, Howe and Freebo will debut new material they’re currently writing and recording for her second full-length album in Muscle Shoals, Ala. “I’ve been trying out some of those songs. I think it’s really fun to test them, and it’s like a chance to really learn them and get inside the songs before you put them down for eternity,” she said. After playing several shows along both coasts, Howe and Freebo will return to Muscle Shoals this spring to record additional tracks for the new album, which will come out next year. Together, Howe and Freebo will record with former Bonnie Raitt guitarist Will McFarlane and former Edison Electric Band member and keyboardist Mark Jordan. “It’s going to be a really interesting next step from ‘Visions’ with a band down in Muscle Shoals,” Howe said. “I feel so fortunate now. These people are pros, and they’re there for me, and it’s really exciting.” Black Crystal Cafe Don't Think Twice It's All Right Freebo Still on My Mind The Interpreter – Bettye LaVette Shares Career Favorites, Dylan Cuts at 43rd Ann Arbor Folk Festival Double Groove – Ma Baker Hosts 2-Set Blind Pig Show Saturday with Scüter, Sleezy Hamilton	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line7971
__label__cc	0.50624	0.49376	Hospital Website Associates’ Board Nursing Alumnae Association Fundraise for SCH Associates’ Board Events President’s Society Corporate and Foundation Giving Meet the Foundation Team Meet the Foundation Board 3D Community Members Create Face Shields for Swedish Staff Wed, 8 April, 2020 Donor Stories News Swedish Shield designer, Richard and mother, Deborah Beien When the going gets tough, the tough put their creativity and determination to work and help change the world. Richard Beien and his mom, Deborah Beien, of the Budlong Woods neighborhood in Chicago, are helping protect the staff at Swedish Hospital from COVID-19 exposure with their newly developed 3-D printed Facial Shield. March 19th, while watching Rachel Maddow speak about a community mask drive at Massachusetts General Hospital, Deborah had an idea. Why not do something similar for her neighborhood hospital, Swedish Hospital? She immediately called her son, Richie, who as Founder and Lead Engineer at Limitless Studios (a 3D engineering & manufacturing studio), enjoys a good challenge and helping others. Richie immediately went to work looking for existing online face shield patterns, printing them out, making revisions, and refining the pattern. Deborah and Richie worked throughout the night and into the following morning, adding elastic, creating a shield from an old report cover and finally creating a prototype worthy of critique. The next morning, they contacted Jennifer Blitz, Director of Development at Swedish Foundation, and a neighbor, to ask about the possibility of making them for the hospital staff. Jennifer contacted the hospital’s Chief Medical Officer and brought over the prototype for inspection. On Sunday morning, the medical team at Swedish gave the thumbs-up to the prototype and asked for the community’s help in producing them. While Richie finalized the design, crafted instructions and specs that he would give out free to community members, he also reached out to 3D makers across Chicagoland for help in production. Deborah created a Facebook page devoted to the project, “3D Printed Face Shields for Swedish” and posted on over 20 neighborhood Facebook pages encouraging members to spread the word and solicit donations of filament and elastic. Jennifer, meanwhile, was busy sourcing plastic sheeting which could be used as the shield. After many failed attempts at office supply stores and online searches, she entered a Staples office supply store on Clark Street and found success. General Manager, Peter Pekarek, understood what was needed and generously provided over 400 sheets of plastic, free for the project. As Peter commented, “If we can help keep your staff safe, then that is what we need to do. You tell me how many pieces you need, and I will make sure you have it”. Richie and Deborah worked all Saturday night printing headgear sections, resetting the machine every 1.5 hours, and getting up in the middle of the night to keep printing. On Sunday morning, Richie and Deborah had 10 face shields ready for use, which were immediately delivered to the ED. The Swedish medical staff were delighted with the masks and asked if more could be made by community members. Four days later, Richie and Deborah had provided instructions to over 100 community members; from teachers and engineers to elementary and high school students, retirees and fellow medical personnel. Responses to assist have come in from as far away as Florida and California. Over the past 4 days, Richie and Deborah have slept a total of 10 hours, but they’re happy to be useful in a crisis and delighted that Swedish can use their talents and skills. According to Deborah, “It makes me happy to know that I can help during this crisis. I really want to help those on the front lines, they need it, we can help, and the medical staff at Swedish deserve to feel protected”. When asked why Richie feel so passionate about this project, Richie responds, “I want to help; I was just sitting at home not really contributing but searching for ways that I could get involved. I’m always searching for ways to use 3D technology to help solve a problem. This was a perfect project, because with 3D printing you can respond very quickly with a product that can help keep people safe. I was happy to try and find a way to use my skills to help.” Update: As of April 7h, the 3D Printed Face Shields for Swedish Facebook page has over 470+ members and the team has created and delivered over 3,500 face shields to health care professionals and front-line workers across Chicagoland. From an idea to a community movement. When a community works together, wonderful things can happen. To view a photo gallery of our helpers and the face shields in action, please click here. If you would like to join the 3D Makers community face shield drive, please visit, their Facebook page. If you have new medical supplies you can donate, please click here. For more information about the Swedish Hospital Relief Fund, please click here To learn more about Swedish Hospital Foundation, please click here, or call 773-293-5121. Community Generosity Helps Swedish Prepare for COVID-19 Crisis. Swedish is grateful for the many donations we have been provided, including donations of 200, Oofos clogs and over 1,000, 3D-printed face shields by community members Over the past two weeks, the outpouring of support from our community has been both humbling and inspiring. During this time of crisis, community members have rallied around the hospital and its staff to provide food, supplies and monetary donations. This critical support ensures that Swedish Hospital has the resources needed to help the most people—including our providers and staff— as they combat the COVID-19 pandemic head-on. People from across the city are helping in several ways, including: Donation of Oofos Clogs Oofos, a footwear company founded in Boston, have generously donated 250 pairs of clogs to Swedish staff last Friday, to the delight of nurses and medical staff throughout the building. Made with a special foam insert that reduces stress to a wearer’s feet and knees and crafted from a special material that can be easily disinfected between shifts and machine-washed, these clogs are already a favorite of medical staff here at Swedish. Donation of 3D-Printed Face Shields In an effort to extend the useful life of personal protective equipment (PPE) such as masks for our frontline staff, inventors and innovators in our community have come up with creative solutions. One such project uses 3D printers and simple plastic sheeting to create face shields for healthcare workers to wear over their face masks. Designed by a concerned community member and approved by the Medical staff here at Swedish, the community-driven production of 3D printed face shields has secured over 800 life-saving devices in just 2 weeks. Over 70 individuals have donated hundreds of hours and their own supplies to ensure the safety of Swedish Hospital staff. To learn more about this grassroots effort or to join, please visit the Facebook page, 3D Printed Face Shields for Swedish Donation to Our Relief Fund We have established a Relief Fund which will be used exclusively to provide additional resources to support our staff and clinicians who are working tirelessly to ensure the best possible care for our patients. A Team Member Crisis Fund, has also been established to assist Swedish team members who are financially impacted by COVID-19. To donate to our crisis funds, click here. Meals for Staff The Swedish Hospital staff is working around-the-clock to keep us all safe while we are staying home and practicing social distancing to keep them safe. Generous community members have provided meals from a number of local restaurants to help fuel our staff with meals during this critical time. This is also a chance to support our local restaurants and delivery drivers. No home-cooked meals, please. To donate a meal for our front-line staff, click here to select a date/time and the department to support: Donation of Medical Supplies Over 250 donors have contributed more than 18,000 medical items including goggles, gowns, face masks, gloves, and other medical supplies. We need everyone’s help in obtaining masks, gloves and more during the Covid19 pandemic. If you are or know a local dentist, oral surgeon, surgical center, construction crew or others who may have reduced operations or are closed currently and have a supply on hand of the following, please reach out to by clicking here. Many thanks to the generosity of our donors during this unprecedented time. To view a list of donors, click here. You are helping Swedish staff who dedicate their lives to serving the sick and most vulnerable. They are our heroes, and your kindness during this time is gratefully appreciated. Eileen M. Hallman Scholarship Benefits Swedish Nurses Donor Stories News Recent Gifts and Grants “I heard this lovely voice speaking to me, and I knew I had to find out more about her.” –Dr. George Hallman. And so begins the fairy-tale romance of a young nurse, Eileen McKeever, recently graduated from Swedish Covenant Hospital’s School of Nursing, and a 19-yr old airman, George Hallman, injured during the Korean war and rehabilitating at Hines Veterans Hospital in Chicago. After a chance encounter at a Hospital telephone booth, George was immediately smitten and spent the next several months trying to win her affection. Eileen, who was adamant about adhering to the hospital policy of not dating patients, eventually gave in to his boyish charms and began secretly dating George until his discharge, almost a year later. Once wed, they moved from Chicago to Georgia so George could obtain his degree in Psychology. Eileen went back into the field of nursing and together, they welcomed two sons. The family moved once more to South Carolina, where Eileen worked as an Occupational Health Nurse for the next 25 years, and George worked as a University Professor in Psychology. According to George, life for the Hallman family was happy and full of adventure. George and Eileen spent their free time running marathons and triathlons across the globe, including the Boston Marathon three times and two above the Arctic circle. They were an inseparable couple for 62 years until Eileen passed away in June of 2019. In a loving tribute to Eileen’s life of generosity, compassion, and service to others, Dr. Hallman created the Eileen M. Hallman Scholarship, an endowed scholarship at Swedish Hospital which will provide tuition assistance to a Swedish nurse seeking to continue his/her education. For Dr. Hallman, Swedish Hospital’s School of Nursing was where Eileen’s passion for nursing began and believes that Eileen would have been delighted to provide that same opportunity to another student nurse. To learn more about creating a lasting tribute to a loved one, please contact the Foundation office at 773-293-5121, or email at foundation@schosp.org. Heritage Society Member Profile: Melody Hansen Donors, Heritage Society, News Nursing has shaped Melody Hansen’s life; she’s spent many years in a hospital setting and couldn’t be happier. Melody is not only a valued member of the Swedish Hospital Volunteer Team but also a member of our Heritage Society, thanks to a generous gift to Swedish in her estate plan. With her future gift Melody is helping to ensure that the hospital will continue to be a place of education and healing for the next generation. The call of nursing runs deep through Melody’s blood. Upon graduating high school, Melody immediately started nursing school at Ravenswood Hospital, where she found her life’s passion. Upon graduation, she was hired as a staff nurse at Ravenswood Hospital and stayed for another 45 years, working in a variety of nursing and supervisory positions. “I love nursing,” Melody explains. “I was born at Ravenswood Hospital, went to nursing school there and would have stayed there the rest of my life if not for its closing in 2002.” When Ravenswood Hospital closed, Melody really missed the patients and her life’s purpose. She promptly accepted a position at Kindred Healthcare, where she worked as a Nurse Manager for another 7 years. Melody retired from nursing in 2010, but couldn’t stop thinking about ways to help others and get back into the hospital setting. Luckily for Swedish Hospital, Melody lives nearby. As Melody explains, “I retired in the winter and by summer I wanted to go back to the hospital, that was my life. Swedish was close to home and I was a member of the Covenant Church, so I felt a connection with the hospital.” In 2011, she began volunteering for Swedish and has become an important member of the Volunteer Department over the past 9 years. You can find Melody working every Monday in Wound Care, and every Thursday in the Education Department. When asked what she enjoys most about volunteering at Swedish, Melody is quick to respond, “the staff are very appreciative for what you do, so it makes it very pleasant to work here. I understand how busy the medical and administrative staff are, so I know that anything I do for them is helping. I like to know that I’m making their day less stressful and their life a little easier and I enjoy getting up and having a purpose.” Melody’s generosity to Swedish doesn’t end with her volunteer service. Melody is also a member of the Swedish Hospital Foundation Heritage Society, a group of loyal donors who name the hospital as a beneficiary in their estate plans. When asked why she plans on giving a gift for the future, Melody explains, “I am giving because I believe in the institution. I see what good things are being done and how committed the doctors and staff are to the patients. I also believe in the programs that the Foundation has supported and fostered. There is a family feel here at Swedish; it feels warm and inviting, and you don’t find that everywhere. I think that the programs you have created are compassionate and care about those less fortunate, and I want to see those continue.” To learn more about the Heritage Society and planned giving, contact the Foundation team at (773) 293-5121, email us at: foundation@schosp.org, or visit the planned giving website. The Integrative Cancer Care Program Provides Healing Tue, 5 November, 2019 Amy English knew that she had to do something for herself. With a husband, 2 small children, and a recent diagnosis of metastatic breast cancer, life was suddenly overwhelming. When a friend and fellow cancer patient suggested she look into the Integrative Cancer Care Program (ICCP) at Swedish Covenant Health, Amy didn’t hesitate to become involved. “I realized I had to do something for myself that I could control and getting into programs and classes was something I could do for myself.” The Integrative Cancer Care Program provides a personalized care plan to support patients through their journey. This can include support from a collaboration of people working with the patient such as social workers, chaplains, integrative health practitioners, integrative and functional medicine physicians, an acupuncturist, massage therapists and personal trainers. Provided free to patients through donations to the SCH Foundation, the ICCP connects people to services they need, making the process easier on a person’s emotional and physical well-being. Amy started with a personal trainer and Fundamental Fitness classes. “The Fundamental Fitness classes provided me with the basics of staying healthy (nutrition, exercise and self-care), and allowed me to put my energies elsewhere; it got me out of the house, gave me an opportunity to meet new people, and actually motivated me to join more classes.” Amy has since participated in watsu (a form of aqua therapy), which for her, provided a “very soothing and calming environment, where a lot of my tension was released and it felt wonderful to have a full body stretch.” Amy is also a fan of Mindful Meditation, which helps guide and prepare her for difficult moments in life. According to Amy, “Mindful Meditation has taught me to pause and better assess any situation or thought and then choose how to and when to best handle it.” One of the most impactful programs for Amy has been acupuncture. She goes to acupuncture because, “It helps with my pain and boosts my immune system. Acupuncture is also very relaxing; it helps calm me and puts me in good spirits because I believe I am doing something good for my body. My acupuncturist is like a second therapist for me. She is genuinely concerned for my well-being and has helped guide me through some decisions and thoughts I sometimes struggle with. She is a great listener.” The mental and physical toll of a cancer diagnosis and treatment can be exhausting and emotionally draining, but Amy feels that the ICCP has been a fantastic resource. “I have to learn how to live with this diagnosis and disease for the rest of my life, until there is a medical breakthrough. Being healthy with this is not just about my body, it’s about my mind, and this is what ICCP is giving me. ICCP is providing me a sense of control, enhancing my overall emotional and physical health and providing me a wonderful escape.” To learn more about the ICCP, please visit the SCH web page. You can change a life by making a donation to the ICCP here or contacting the Foundation at 773-293-5121. Page 1 of 8123...8Next › Donate to SCH Foundation Show your support by filling out our secure form. Get involved by attending one of our upcoming events. SCH Foundation News Read up on the latest SCH Foundation news. Subscribe to our email newsletter to receive the latest news and event invitatations. Donor Stories (37) Recent Gifts and Grants (14) Violence Prevention Program (1) ©2021 Swedish Hospital Foundation. All rights reserved. 5145 California Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60625	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line7975
__label__cc	0.692165	0.307835	Automation’s Evolution and Promising Future In its simplest form, automation includes any improvement to a process that reduces human labor while resulting in an outcome that’s the same or better than that of the previous process. The goals of automation include improvements not only in productivity but also in quality and consistency. copyright by www.cmswire.com Most of us are familiar with information systems that automate and streamline decision-making using tools to aggregate, extract and analyze information. All of that has been around for a while. But newer systems — based on cognitive automation — now include natural language processing , machine learning algorithms, real-time computing, big data analytics and evidence-based-learning. This level of automation opens up exciting possibilities. Cognitive automation — basically, the intersection of artificial intelligence ( AI ) and cognitive computing — has become one of the fastest-moving technologies because of the rise of the digital and connected workforce. According to one forecast , the global cognitive robotic process automation market will generate revenue of $50 million in 2017 and will expand at a compound annual growth rate of 60.9 percent from 2017 to 2026. Artificial Intelligence Buzz: C-Suite Interest? The earliest successes in the field of cognitive automation involved products such as warehouse robots powered by AI , automated restocking systems, self-driving cars and systems that predict electricity demand. However, despite the influx of billions of gigabytes of data and vast investments, deployment of AI is still relatively low — though it appears that, thanks to the current wave of AI buzz, C-level executives are taking an interest in how investments in AI can result in greater success. In a Harvard Business Review article, researchers from the McKinsey Global Institute reported that only 20 percent of respondents to their survey said they use one or more AI technologies at scale, while 41 percent said they were experimenting or piloting AI . Nonetheless, a McKinsey report sees AI as a new disruptor that will accelerate “shifts in market share, revenue, and profit pools.” McKinsey identifies early adopters as digitally mature larger businesses that will use AI in core activities through multiple technologies, and that focus on growth over savings. […] read more – copyright by www.cmswire.com TagsAI • DL • ml • NLP	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line7976
__label__wiki	0.776852	0.776852	Justia › US Law › US Case Law › US Supreme Court › Volume 314 › Commercial Molasses Corp. v. New York Tank Barge Corp. Commercial Molasses Corp. v. New York Tank Barge Corp., 314 U.S. 104 (1941) Commercial Molasses Corp. v. New York Tank Barge Corp. Reargued October 16, 1941 Decided November 17, 1941 1. In the case of an unexplained sinking of a vessel under circumstances which may give rise to an inference of unseaworthiness, the party on whom the burden of proof rests must do more than make a case upon the whole evidence so evenly balanced that the trier of fact is unable to resolve doubts as to the validity of the inference. Pp. 314 U. S. 105, 314 U. S. 114. 2. Where the owner of a vessel has not assumed the common carrier's special undertaking to deliver the cargo safely, the burden of proving a breach of the shipowner's duty to furnish a seaworthy vessel rests upon the bailor. P. 314 U. S. 110. 3. The burden of proof in such a case does not shift with the evidence, but remains with the bailor, who must prove his case by a preponderance of all the evidence. P. 314 U. S. 110. 114 F.2d 248 affirmed. This case came here on certiorari, 311 U.S. 643, to review the affirmance of a judgment dismissing petitioner's claim in a proceeding in admiralty brought originally by the respondent for a limitation of liability. The judgment was affirmed here by an equally divided court, 313 U.S. 541; subsequently, a petition for rehearing was granted, the judgment was vacated, and the case was restored to the docket for reargument, 313 U.S. 596. CERTIORARI TO THE CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS MR. CHIEF JUSTICE STONE delivered the opinion of the Court. This is a proceeding in admiralty originating in the District Court upon a petition by respondent as chartered owner of the tank barge T.N. No. 73, for limitation of liability for damage to petitioner's shipment of molasses resulting from the sinking of the barge in New York harbor. Petitioner, the sole claimant in the limitation proceeding, filed, in behalf of the insurer, its claim for loss of the molasses on the barge, which sank on Oct. 23, 1937, while taking on the shipment from the S.S. Althelsultan. The barge sank in smooth water, without contact with any other vessel or external object to account for the sinking. By the contract of affreightment with petitioner's predecessor in interest, extended to cover the year 1937, respondent undertook to transport the molasses by barges in New York harbor from vessels or tidewater refineries to the shipper's customers and agreed that the barges are "tight, staunch, strong, and in every way fitted for the carriage of molasses within the limits above mentioned and [respondent] will maintain the barges in such condition during the life of this contract." The contract also contained an undertaking on the part of the shipper of the molasses to effect insurance on cargoes for the account of respondent, the breach of which, it is contended, operated to relieve respondent from liability for any unseaworthiness of the barge. The T.N. No. 73 was a steel tank barge with four cargo tanks, two forward and two aft, separated by bulkheads, one extending fore and aft and the other athwartship. It had a rake fore and aft beginning 23 inches below the deck, affording space for fore and aft peak tanks. The customary method of stowing the barge was to pump the molasses into the forward tanks until the barge had a specified freeboard, then into the stern tanks until the stern had another specified freeboard, then back into the forward tanks until the barge was trimmed fore and aft. In the case of the present shipment, the customary procedure was followed, and the molasses was first pumped into the forward and then into the after tanks at a rate of from 3 to 3 1/2 tons a minute. When the stern had approximately the desired freeboard, the mate of the barge went forward to open the valves of the discharge pipes connecting with the forward tanks so as to fill them sufficiently to trim the barge fore and aft. On his way, he stopped for a short time, the length of which was not precisely fixed, to carry on a conversation with some of the men on the vessel lying alongside. When he reached the valves for the forward tanks and before the valves for the after tanks had been closed, the barge sank by the stern. Only a small part of the molasses was saved, and the value of that lost largely exceeded the value of the barge after salvage operations. Respondent attributed the sinking to overloading of the after tanks resulting from the mate's delay in shifting the flow of the molasses from the stern to the forward tanks. If, as alleged, over-filling of the stern tanks caused the loss without the privity or knowledge of respondent, it could limit liability. R.S. § 4283, 46 U.S.C. § 183; La Bourgogne, 210 U. S. 95, 210 U. S. 122; The George W. Pratt, 76 F.2d 902. But it was unnecessary to decide any question of limiting liability unless petitioner, the sole claimant, succeeded in establishing its claim. On the issues thus presented. the District Court heard a great deal of testimony by witnesses who testified to all the circumstances attending the loading and sinking of the barge, and by experts as to its theoretical load capacity and the probable disposition of its load at the time the barge sank. There was also much evidence bearing on the seaworthiness of the vessel. This included the testimony of a representative of the cargo interests who had inspected the barge just before she began to receive the molasses and had found the tanks dry and clean, and who admitted he had found no evidence of leakage. There was also testimony by a diver who had examined the barge while she was on the bottom, and of others who had examined her condition after she had been raised and placed in dry dock. After a careful review of all the evidence, the trial judge found that it was not sufficient to establish the fact that the sinking was caused by overloading the after tanks. He also found as a fact that, upon all the evidence, "the cause of the accident has been left in doubt." From all this, he concluded that respondent was chargeable upon its warranty of seaworthiness by reason of the "presumption" of unseaworthiness arising from the unexplained sinking of the barge which would deprive the owner of the right to limit liability. But, as he thought the insurance clause in the contract of affreightment required petitioner to effect cargo insurance for account of respondent, which it had failed to do, he dismissed petitioner's claim. 1939 A.M.C. 673. The Court of Appeals affirmed, 114 F.2d 248, 250, but for a different reason than that assigned by the trial judge for his decision. It held that the burden was on petitioner to prove that respondent had furnished an unseaworthy barge. The court sustained the trial court's finding, which it interpreted as meaning "that the evidence as to whether or not the barge sank because of unseaworthiness was so evenly matched that the judge could come to no conclusion upon the issue." But it held that the "presumption of unseaworthiness," which would arise from the evidence of the sinking of the barge in smooth water without any other apparent or probable cause, did not survive the further proof which left in doubt the issue of the cause of the loss. The court accordingly held that petitioner had not sustained its burden. It thus became unnecessary to consider what burden would rest on the barge owner if he were seeking to limit liability on an admittedly valid claim. We granted certiorari, 311 U.S. 643, to resolve an alleged conflict of the decision below with those of other circuit courts of appeals. Pacific Coast S.S. Co. v. Bancroft-Whitney Co., 94 F. 180; The John Twohy, 279 F. 343; Loveland Co. v. Bethlehem Steel Co., 33 F.2d 655; Gardner v. Dantzler Lumber & Export Co., 98 F.2d 478; cf. The Edwin I. Morrison, 153 U. S. 199, and because of the importance in the maritime law of the principle involved. With respect to the burden of proof, this case is to be distinguished from those in which the burden of proving seaworthiness rests upon the vessel when it is a common carrier or has assumed the obligation of a common carrier. The present contract of affreightment was for private carriage in New York harbor: The Fri, 154 F. 333; The G. R. Crowe, 294 F. 506; The Wildenfels, 161 F. 864; The C. R. Sheffer, 249 F. 600; The Lyra, 255 F. 667; The Nordhvalen, 6 F.2d 883, and thus gave to respondent the status of a bailee for hire of the molasses. Southern Ry. v. Prescott, 240 U. S. 632, 240 U.S. 640; Kohlsaat v. Parkersburg & M. Sand Co., 266 F. 283; Alpine Forwarding Co. v. Pennsylvania Railroad, 60 F.2d 734; Gerhard & Hey, Inc. v. Cattaraugus T. Co., 241 N.Y. 413, 150 N.E. 500. Cf. The Nordhvalen, supra, 887. Hence, we are not concerned with the rule that one who has assumed the obligation of a common carrier can relieve himself of liability for failing to carry safely only by showing that the cause of loss was within one of the narrowly restricted exceptions which the law itself annexes to his undertaking, or for which it permits him to stipulate. The burden rests upon him to show that the loss was due to an excepted cause and that he has exercised due care to avoid it, not in consequence of his being an ordinary "bailee," but because he is a special type of bailee who has assumed the obligation of an insurer. Schnell v. The Vallescura, 293 U. S. 296, 293 U. S. 304, and cases cited. See Coggs v. Bernard, 2 Ld.Raym. 909, 918. For this reason, the shipowner, in order to bring himself within a permitted exception to the obligation to carry safely, whether imposed by statute or because he is a common carrier or because he has assumed it by contract, must show that the loss was due to an excepted cause, and not to breach of his duty to furnish a seaworthy vessel. The Edwin I. Morrison, supra, 153 U. S. 211; The Majestic, 166 U. S. 375; Schnell v. The Vallescura, supra; The Beeche Dene, 55 F. 525. Cf. 39 Stat. 539, 49 U.S.C. § 88; Uniform Bill of Lading Act, § 12. See IX Wigmore on Evidence, 3rd Ed., § 2508, and cases cited. And, in that case, since the burden is on the shipowner, he does not sustain it, and the shipper must prevail if, upon the whole evidence, it remains doubtful whether the loss is within the exception. The Folmina, 212 U. S. 354, 212 U. S. 363; Schnell v. The Vallescura, supra, 293 U. S. 306-307. A similar rule is applied under the Harter Act, which gives to the owner an excuse for unseaworthiness if he has exercised due care to make his vessel seaworthy, for there the burden rests upon him to show that he has exercised such care. The Wilderoft, 201 U. S. 378; The Southwark, 191 U. S. 1, 191 U. S. 12; May v. Hamburg-Amerikanische Gesellschaft, 290 U. S. 333, 290 U. S. 346. But, as the court below held, the bailee of goods who has not assumed a common carrier's obligation is not an insurer. His undertaking is to exercise due care in the protection of the goods committed to his care, and to perform the obligation of his contract, including the warranty of seaworthiness, when he is a shipowner. In such a case, the burden of proving the breach of duty or obligation rests upon him who must assert it as the ground of the recovery which he seeks, Southern Ry. v. Prescott, supra; Kohlsaat v. Parkersburg & M. Sand Co., supra; The Transit, 250 F. 71, 72, 75; The Nordhvalen, supra; Delaware Dredging Co. v. Graham, 43 F.2d 852, 854; Alpine Forwarding Co. v. Pennsylvania Railroad, supra, 60 F.2d at 736; Gerhard & Hey, Inc. v. Cattaraugus T. Co., supra; Story on Bailments, 8th Ed., §§ 501, 504, 410, 410a; Wigmore, op. cit. supra, § 2508 and cases cited, as it did upon petitioner here when it alleged the breach of warranty as the basis of its claim. Petitioner apparently does not challenge the distinction which, for more than two centuries since Coggs v. Bernard, supra, has been taken between common carriers and those whom the law leaves free to regulate their mutual rights and obligations by private arrangements suited to the special circumstances of cases like the present. Nor do we see any adequate grounds for departing from it now, or for drawing distinctions between a private bailment of merchandise on a barge in New York harbor and of goods stored in a private warehouse on the docks. Neither bailee is an insurer of delivery of the merchandise; both are free to stipulate for such insurance or for any lesser obligation, in which case the bailor cannot recover without proof of its breach. The burden of proof in a litigation, wherever the law has placed it, does not shift with the evidence, and, in determining whether petitioner has sustained the burden, the question often is, as in this case, what inferences of fact he may summon to his aid. In answering it in this, as in others where breach of duty is the issue, the law takes into account the relative opportunity of the parties to know the fact in issue and to account for the loss which it is alleged is due to the breach. Since the bailee in general is in a better position than the bailor to know the cause of the loss and to show that it was one not involving the bailee's liability, the law lays on him the duty to come forward with the information available to him. The Northern Belle, 9 Wall. 526, 76 U. S. 529; Gulf, C. & S.F. Ry. Co. v. Ellis, 54 F. 481, 483; Pacific Coast S.S. Co. v. Bancroft-Whitney Co., 94 F. 180; The Nordhvalen, supra, 886. If the bailee fails it leaves the trier of fact free to draw an inference unfavorable to him upon the bailor's establishing the unexplained failure to deliver the goods safely. Southern Ry. v. Prescott, supra; cf. The America, 174 F. 724. Whether we label this permissible inference with the equivocal term "presumption" or consider merely that it is a rational inference from the facts proven, it does no more than require the bailee, if he would avoid the inference, to go forward with evidence sufficient to persuade that the nonexistence of the fact, which would otherwise be inferred, is as probable as its existence. It does not cause the burden of proof to shift, and if the bailee does go forward with evidence enough to raise doubts as to the validity of the inference, which the trier of fact is unable to resolve, the bailor does not sustain the burden of persuasion which upon the whole evidence remains upon him, where it rested at the start. Southern Ry. v. Prescott, supra; Kohlsaat v. Parkersburg & M. Sand Co., supra; Tomkins Cove Stone Co. v. Bleakley Co., 40 F.2d 249; Pickup v. Thames Insurance Co., 3 Q.B.D. 594. Cf. Del Vecchio v. Bowers, 296 U. S. 280; Wigmore, op. cit. supra, §§ 2485, 2490, 2491, and cases cited. Proof of the breach of warranty of seaworthiness stands on no different footing. The trier of fact may in many situations infer the breach from the unexplained circumstance that the vessel, whether a common or private carrier, sank in smooth water. See The Edwin I. Morrison, supra; Work v. Leathers, 97 U. S. 379, 97 U. S. 380; The Harper No. 145, 42 F.2d 161; The Jungshoved, 290 F. 733; Barnewall v. Church, 1 Caines, N.Y. 217, 234; Walsh v. Washington Marine Insurance Co., 32 N.Y. 427, 436; Zillah Transportation Co. v. Aetna Ins. Co., 175 Minn. 398, 221 N.W. 529, and cases cited below; Commercial Molasses Corp. v. New York Tank Barge Corp., 114 F.2d 248, 251; Scrutton on Charter Parties and Bills of Lading, 14th Ed., 105. Whether, in such circumstances, the vessel has the status of a private bailee is of significance only in determining whose is the burden of persuasion. Wherever the burden rests, he who undertakes to carry it must do more than create a doubt which the trier of fact is unable to resolve. The Edwin I. Morrison, supra, 153 U. S. 212; The Folmina, supra, 212 U. S. 363; Schnell v. The Vallescura, supra. The English courts, after some obscurity of treatment, see Watson v. Clark, 1 Dow 336, have reached the same conclusion. Pickup v. Thames Insurance Co., 3 Q.B.D. 594; Ajum Goolam Hossen & Co. v. Union Marine Insurance Co., [1901] A.C. 362, 366; Lindsay v. Klein, [1911] A.C.194, 203, 205; see Constantine S.S. Line v. Imperial Smelting Corp., [1941] 2 All.Eng. 165, 191-192. Proof of the sinking of the barge aided petitioner, but did not relieve it from sustaining the burden of persuasion when all the evidence was in. This Court, in the case of private bailments, has given like effect to the rule that the unexplained failure of the bailee to return the bailed goods is prima facie evidence of his breach of duty, Southern Ry. v. Prescott, supra, 240 U.S. 640, and cases cited; see Chesapeake & Ohio Ry. Co. v. Thompson Mfg. Co., 270 U. S. 416, 270 U. S. 422, and the lower federal courts have applied, correctly, we think, the same rule with respect to proof of unseaworthiness by the shipper where the vessel has not assumed the obligation of a common carrier. Kohlsaat v. Parkersburg & M. Sand Co., supra, 285; Robert A. Munroe Co. v. Chesapeake Lighterage Co., 283 F. 526; The Nordhvalen, supra; Tomkins Cove Stone Co. v. Bleakley Co., supra; Delaware Dredging Co. v. Graham, supra, 854. This is but a particular application of the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur, which similarly is an aid to the plaintiff in sustaining the burden of proving breach of the duty of due care, but does not avoid the requirement that, upon the whole case, he must prove the breach by the preponderance of evidence. Sweeney v. Erving, 228 U. S. 233. The Edwin I. Morrison, 153 U. S. 199, calls for no different result. There, this Court reversed the findings of the lower court on the ground that the explanation offered for damage to the cargo by seawater taken in through a defective bilge pump hole was only a conjecture, supported by no direct testimony, and was not sufficient to sustain the burden of the shipowner to prove that the vessel was seaworthy, saying (p. 153 U. S. 212): "If the determination of this question is left in doubt, that doubt must be resolved against" the shipowner. See The Dunbritton, 73 F. 352, 358; The Alvena, 74 F. 252, 255. The court below had found that the bill of lading signed by the master owner undertook to deliver the shipment in "good order and condition," the "dangers of the sea only excepted." No exception was taken to this finding, and, in this Court, the shipper's contention that such was the contract was not challenged by the owner. The opinion must be taken as proceeding, as in The Folmina and Schnell v. The Vallescura, supra, on the ground that the case was one in which the obligation assumed was that of a common carrier on whom the burden rests of proving that the cargo loss is not due to unseaworthiness. The expressions in the opinion, as to the burden of proof which the shipowner must carry in order to bring him within the exception of perils of the sea, have been cited, in the only instances when approved by this Court, as relating to the burden of proof on those who have assumed the obligations of common carriers. See The Majestic, supra, 166 U. S. 386; The Folmina, supra, 212 U. S. 363; Schnell v. The Vallescura, supra, 293 U. S. 305. Here, petitioner relied on the inference to be drawn from the unexplained sinking of the barge to sustain its burden of proving unseaworthiness. But the evidence did not stop there. To rebut the inference, respondent came forward with evidence fully disclosing the circumstances attending the sinking. Inspection of the barge before the loading began and after she sank, and again after she was raised, failed to disclose any persuasive evidence of unseaworthiness. The method and circumstances of her loading at least tended to weaken the inference which might otherwise have been drawn that the sinking was due to unseaworthiness, rather than fault in stowing the cargo. Upon an examination of all the evidence, of which the sinking, without any proven specific cause, was a part, the two courts below have found that no inference as to the cause of sinking can be drawn. Petitioner has thus failed to sustain the burden resting on it. MR. JUSTICE BLACK, dissenting. It has long been recognized that "courts of admiralty are not governed by the strict rules of the common law, but act upon enlarged principles of equity." O'Brien v. Miller, 168 U. S. 287, 168 U. S. 297. Where, as here, the result of a case in admiralty is made to turn upon the distinction between a common and private carrier, one may well ask whether more respect has been paid to technical niceties of the common law than befits the admiralty tradition. Cf. 87 U. S. 20 Wall. 92, 87 U. S. 105-107. I do not deny that, in many situations, the distinction may be important, nor that legislatures and courts may be compelled from time to time to resurvey the changing line of separation. But here, I am convinced, the distinction is irrelevant to a just disposition of the case before us. In the opinion just announced, the burden of proving seaworthiness is tied up with a common carrier's obligations as an insurer. But in Schnell v. The Vallescura, 293 U. S. 296, although the defendant was a common carrier on whom it was held such a burden lies, no suggestion that the Court rested its result upon the peculiar obligation of the defendant as an insurer can be found in the opinion. And, so far as appears from the briefs and arguments of counsel, as well as the majority opinion here, it would seem that this Court has never before given the insurer's liability of common carriers as the reason for the heavy burden of proof they bear in admiralty cases of this type. On the contrary, the basis usually given for the rule is the one explicitly stated in Schnell v. The Vallescura, supra, 293 U.S. at page 293 U. S. 304: "The reason for the rule is apparent. He is a bailee intrusted with the shipper's goods, with respect to the care and safe delivery of which the law imposes upon him an extraordinary duty. Discharge of the duty is peculiarly within his control. All the facts and circumstances upon which he may rely to relieve him of that duty are peculiarly within his knowledge, and usually unknown to the shipper. In consequence, the law casts upon him the burden of the loss which he cannot explain or, explaining, bring within the exceptional case in which he is relieved from liability." It is difficult to see any persuasive reason for concluding that the rule as thus explained is any less appropriately applied to private carriers than to common carriers. In both cases, the shipper normally has no representative on board the ship, the master and crew being employees of the carrier, with the result that the difficulties encountered by the shipper in seeking to find out how the loss occurred are equally great. See Carver, Carriage of Goods by Sea, 8th Ed., 9. I have found no language in the opinions of this Court in cases holding the burden of proof of seaworthiness rests on a common carrier that even suggests, not to say compels, the inference that a different result would have been reached if the carrier had been a private one. Hence, if the question of this case were one of original impression, I should see no obstacle to a holding that would give to the shipper here, who clearly had no easier access to evidence than did the shipper in the Vallescura case, the benefits of a similar allocation of the burden of proof. But the question is not one of original impression. In The Edwin I. Morrison, 153 U. S. 199, this Court held that the burden was on a private carrier to prove seaworthiness in a controversy distinguishable in no significant respect from that now before us. The opinion of the Court here has suggested that the finding by the Circuit Court in the Morrison case that the bill of lading stated that the carrier would deliver the shipment "in good order and condition" amounted to a finding that the carrier had by contract assumed additional obligations -- i.e., those of a common carrier. Hence, the Court sees in that decision nothing more that the reiteration of the proposition that a common carrier has the burden of proving seaworthiness, and finds in it no indication of what the burden of a private carrier should be. It may seriously be questioned whether the finding that the bill of lading contained the casual phrase just quoted can properly be interpreted as a finding of a contract to assume the peculiar liabilities (whatever they may have been) of a common carrier. But, even on the assumption that the Court's interpretation of the finding is correct, its interpretation of the basis of decision in the Morrison case seems clearly erroneous. Nowhere in that opinion is there the smallest suggestion that the carrier was regarded as having bargained itself into a position of special liability. If the Court had believed a distinction must be made between private and common carriers, I should suppose it would have been explicit in stating that this carrier, although a private carrier, had assumed the obligations of a common carrier by contract. I think it inconceivable that it would have left a fact of such significance to be deduced from an inconspicuous phrase in the findings of the Circuit Court set out in a footnote to the "Statement of the Case" seven pages before the opinion itself begins. The Edwin I. Morrison, supra, 153 U. S. 203, note 1. In The Lottawanna, 21 Wall. 558, 88 U. S. 571, Mr. Justice Bradley stated: "If . . . , with the new lights that have been thrown upon the whole subject of maritime law and admiralty jurisdiction, a more rational view of the question demands an adverse ruling in order to preserve harmony and logical consistency in the general system, the court might, perhaps, if no evil consequences of a glaring character were likely to ensue, feel constrained to adopt it. But if no such necessity exists, we ought not to permit any considerations of mere expediency or love of scientific completeness to draw us into a substantial change of the received law." In the "received law" of this Court at least since 1894, when the Morrison case was decided, no distinction has been drawn between private and common carriers with reference to the burden of proving seaworthiness. If such a distinction had existed, the "new lights" shed by the awareness of ever increasing complexity in modern shipping, a complexity equally incomprehensible to the shipper whether he deals with a private or common carrier, could, perhaps not without propriety, have been taken by this Court as a reason for erasing it. But the contrary procedure, of establishing a distinction which neither was present in our received law nor is demanded "to preserve harmony and logical consistency," seems wholly unjustifiable. Accordingly, it is my opinion that the judgment below should be reversed. MR. JUSTICE DOUGLAS, MR. JUSTICE MURPHY, and MR. JUSTICE BYRNES concur in this opinion.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line7980
__label__wiki	0.607149	0.607149	Graham Nardone talks about community feedback by BlackGarden Sims 3 producer Graham Nardone has posted his personal perspective on community feedback & suggestions, and how he tries to use them to improve future Sims products that he works on. He also discusses why he prefers to answer fan questions on Twitter, and doesn't respond so much on the forums.Full post after the jump Sims 3 producer Graham Nardone has made an interesting post on TheSims3.com about community feedback and how he reads and uses it. If you want to have your ideas heard, or feel like your ideas are always ignored, this is definitely worth reading! He also discusses why he prefers to answer fan questions on Twitter, and doesn't respond so much on the forums. Some interesting posts in this thread… I thought I'd jump in and give my own personal perspective on a few things, although I can't respond to everything for what I hope are obvious reasons. The other challenging thing to address is that people always want answers about why certain things are the way they are, and there's no all encompassing answer I can give you; for every compliment or complaint you can levy at the game, there's a unique reason why each aspect of it is the way it is. First off, people shouldn't think of the Ideas & Feedback section as some corner of our forum that never gets read. It's one of my favorite places to check, the name alone is indicative of exactly the type of posts I find helpful to read around here. Just to give people a general idea of what I personally do, I browse through the forums at least once a day. I like to read this board, the board of the most recently announced product to see people's reactions (aka Sweet Treats), and the board of the most recently released product to see what parts of it people enjoy or what they're struggling with(aka Showtime). On a less frequent basis I also check out the General board, the Technical Discussion board, and the boards that focus on player creations. That being said, I don't post here too often. It isn't that I want to avoid chatting with Sims fans as that couldn't be further from the truth; it just isn't practical a lot of the time. As some in here have pointed out, I (along with other gurus) enjoy using Twitter to chat with fans. Ultimately, it's just much easier for me to see a tweet notification pop up with a quick comment, and immediately write a short reply to it. Those tweets can be anything from chatting about the game, trying to help someone who is having trouble, talking about upcoming Sims stuff, or just discussing various aspects of game design and development. Alternatively, it's a much larger time commitment to come and post on the forums. Coming hear means looking at the different boards, sifting through the various topics, determining what's new and what I've read before… and then if I want to respond it means writing a somewhat substantial post; and making the commitment to respond to the inevitable ten additional questions that will get posted in response to what I say. Then people wonder why I respond to some posts and not others, or misinterpret what I say, and it can all get to be a bit much All of that eats into my time, and I don't get a break from my development responsibilities to come post on here. What I've come to learn is I can't do everyone's job, but when you're a more public figure for the game people will throw every manner of topic at you and expect you to respond. For example, when people have a problem with the game… I'd love to help, but I just don't have that level of understanding of the game. I'm not a programmer, so I don't know what might be going wrong in the code – but I can recognize a problem and bring it to others attention to make sure it gets addressed. I find it difficult to respond when people say that we don't listen to the fans. When we talk about the "fans" and "community", a lot of the time that's in direct reference to the people who frequently post on these forums; you're our most vocal subset of fans. In reality though the forums are a fraction of our overall fan base, and we have to take everyone into account when we develop products and respond to consumers. Even within these forums there may be a majority consensus, but that doesn't mean it's what everyone wants for the franchise. You can look at our most popular expansions – Pets is always a theme that tons of people want – and you'll find those who have absolutely no interest in adding that to their Sims games. Quite frankly I think that's perfectly alright. The Sims encompasses a ton of diverse themes, and each one will appeal to people in different ways. When we announced a pack like Pets, nobody says… "oh, they're listening to what the fans what", they say "oh well that was their plan all along". The truth lies somewhere in the middle. There are a lot of different things that impact the decision of what to make and when to make it, far too many to go into detail within this post, but everything is done for a reason; we don't haphazardly decide on things. Over the course of Sims 3, we knew there were some things we wanted to do like Pets… other expansions were more of a direct response to player feedback. We knew Pets was a theme that everyone wanted, yet it ended up being the 5th expansion, and people say… why did we have to wait so long? To be honest, it would have been impossible to do Pets as the first expansion, it had significant technical hurdles to overcome for that expansion to exist. And that's just an example of one expansion; each one we release has its own challenges or oddities that made it make sense to release when it did. Look at Generations… it was made directly in response to a lot of what the community was asking for with more social interactions, more emphasis on families, more content across all age ranges, etc. That one was a challenge for our marketing team, but we were really happy to get to do that theme for our fans. Look at the most recent release of Showtime, it's packed with a lot of fun interactive objects that fans have been asking for for a long time. Elements of fan requests show up in every single game that we release. Anavastia mentioned how you haven't seen many new rabbitholes lately. She's right, that's a direct response to fan feedback, and I do hope we'll have the chance to open up more of them. We have to walk a fine line sometimes though. A lot of people here really love Sims 2 (and that's awesome if you do!), but we're not trying to release the exact same game with Sims 3. We incorporate elements from the past, but we'll continue to evolve and refine them, and hopefully add fun new aspects to them in the process. We'll do familiar themes like Pets, and brand new things that you've never played in The Sims before like World Adventures. In response to those who want changes to already released expansions, and to have more changed based on your feedback… well, it's something I'm pushing for. I have my own list of things that I take directly from these forums, and when we have small gaps in our schedule or a little extra time, I try and get some of those things in there. It's an ongoing process and it won't happen all at once, but over time I hope you'll see more things get addressed. Things on my list range all the way from adding new options to opt out of the celebrity system, to something as mundane as tweaking the ice cream truck so it doesn't show up at 3am. We don't go out and talk about this sort of stuff commonly, because as soon as we say something about it there's an implied expectation that we will change it, and I can't promise you that. Sk8rblaze you mentioned Vampires previously… it's another thing that's on my list, but I honestly can't tell you what will happen with it. It's something that we technically can change, but I don't know when we'll have the chance to change it, and that's why you don't specifically hear about it. It's the same reason we don't talk about patches in advance; game development in the Sims Studio is a very fast paced and fluid environment. Plans can and will change, and we don't like to discuss things until we're 100% sure we're going to deliver on it; you'd be amazed at some of the last minute emergencies that can disrupt the best plans at times I can assure you that myself and others are paying attention though and do what we can to improve the game while creating great new content as well. It's also difficult because people have the expectation that something should be a simple change or an easy fix, and that often isn't true or we would have done it. The mod community can skew these perceptions as well… people think, well if a modder can do it, why can't EA? Ultimately, someone creating a mod doesn't have the same responsibility that we do when it comes to implementing and testing changes, and doesn't have to deal with scheduling, budgeting, and the wide variety of people's work that is impacted by any change we decide to make. That's not an excuse, but it is a reality of what we do. In a perfect world, I'd love if people felt they only needed to get mods to add content to their game, and not need to get mods that changed aspects of the game we created that they don't like. It's something I think about often when we're implementing new designs (what can we do to provide players options where they feel they don't need to go get a mod to change it). It's always interesting to me when people say that we don't care, or that we're only out to get your money. I really have to thank SimGuruShannon, because she was one of the first to step up and get more actively involved in reaching out to the community directly, and that came from a desire to open more communication with fans like the Sims team has had in the past. It sparked my interest in it as well, and I love interacting with the community. Personally I love to see our games sell well because I'm proud of the products we put out – there are a lot of talented people on the team who go above and beyond with personal effort to do amazing things. I think many devs who are used to traditional game development would find it very challenging to put out the amount of content we do at the pace we do to keep up with continued demand for more things from awesome fans like all of you. As Jarsie so aptly pointed out, there's nowhere in my job description that says I need to interact with the community or post on the forums; it's my own personal choice to get involved (along with the other gurus you see on the forums and twitter) because it's something we enjoy. I wouldn't be reading these forums and writing a long post on a Sunday if I didn't have an interest in what I do that goes beyond my paycheck. I make games because it's something I'm passionate about, and I want to make games that people are thrilled with – and that's a sentiment shared by many members of the team. I know this post is long, but hopefully it didn't ramble too much. What I really enjoy is being able to have conversations with Sims fans, and openly discuss some of the things that are interesting to you all… not just as a company rep with an official response, but as people who enjoy the Sims and want to know more about what goes into it. At Gamescom this past year I had the great chance to just converse with some Sims fans at a party, and it was really nice just having a frank discussion about the game. I like that about twitter as well, where we can be a bit more casual. So please… come talk to me on there, I respond all the time. You'll see me on the forums as well, just less frequently. And I can't prove it to you, but I promise myself and many others on the team are reading your posts here as well One final note; I'm totally welcoming of constructive criticism. It's an opportunity for us to learn as developers and make better products before we release them, as well as improve the games that have already come out. As players of our game, I feel like all of you have every right to voice your opinions of the game. Thank you to those of you who take the time to write posts that go beyond saying you do or don't like something, but also explain why you feel that way. -Graham Taken from here: http://forum.thesims…/45/526460.page Thanks to SimPrograms for the link. The Sims 4 Console The Sims Freeplay Cheats, Hints, and Tips The Sims 4 Seasons - Guide to Plant Harvesting Times - Updated Through Island Living! Changing name in The Sims 4 Walls and Floors for screenshots and videos The Sims 4 Cats & Dogs - Vet Clinics! Which basegame do you prefer? Platinum Simmers Official SimCity Site We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. By continuing to use our website, you agree to our use of cookies.Got it, thanksFind out more	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line7984
__label__wiki	0.725796	0.725796	A Cyber Duty of Due Diligence Gentle Civilizer or Crude Destabilizer? Essay - by Eric Talbot Jensen and Sean Watts Volume 95 - Issue 7 In the final book of Virgil’s epic poem the Aeneid, Latinus, King of Laurentum, delivers a speech to calm his aspirant son-in-law Turnus. Turnus is enraged that his rival Aeneas, cousin to the Iliad’s Hector, will marry the King’s daughter instead. Turnus vows one-on-one combat with Aeneas to avenge the slight and to settle the war between the Trojans and Latins. King Latinus attempts to convince him not to fight Aeneas, imploring the prideful Turnus: This fact: it was not right that I should pledge My daughter to a suitor of other days: Gods, and prophecies of men, forbade. Affection for you, our Rutulian kinsman, Won me over—and my wife in tears. I broke my bonds of duty, stole the girl, Though promised, from her husband, and took arms Against the will of heaven. You see what followed, Turnus: the bloody wars and the defeats, The bitter days you, most of all, endure.[1] However, rather than calm Turnus, King Latinus’s words aggravate him and propel him to fight Aeneas. Virgil describes the effect of the King’s speech: All that he said affected Turnus’s fury Not in the least: it mounted, all the more Fevered at words of healing.[2] Virgil’s original Latin captures the speech’s effect with the phrase aegrescit medendo—the disease worsens with treatment or the cure worsens the disease.[3] The lesson endures as a cautionary tale to well-meaning assistance to intractable predicaments. The predicament of malicious cyber actions is by now well-documented. Harmful cyber activities range from embarrassment of public figures[4] and campaigns to build personal notoriety,[5] to thefts of personal data[6] and even efforts to cripple vital infrastructure upon which lives depend.[7] In financial terms, it is estimated that cybercrime costs the average U.S. company $15 million a year.[8] The problem, of course, is not limited to personal and business relations. Intrusive and malicious cyber operations are now a regular feature of international relations.[9] Cyber operations are thought to have struck at the core of some States’ sovereignty, including the political processes of self-determination.[10] Responses have been many and varied. Governments have passed domestic legislation,[11] generated international agreements,[12] and convened groups of experts[13] to address the cyber predicament. Corporations have lobbied for (but have also resisted) new laws,[14] created and proposed information-sharing entities and norms,[15] and built capacity to respond in like manner to cyber hacks.[16] Meanwhile, academics and jurists have banded together to propose rules and produce manuals such as the Tallinn Manuals,[17] the second version of which is the genesis of this symposium. Even when States are able to achieve either domestic or international consensus to counter harm in cyberspace, technical and legal limitations hinder progress. In particular, the dilemma of attribution, correctly identifying and holding responsible harmful actors, hampers many efforts. The nature of the Internet, including how it is configured and functions, makes attribution one of the most technically difficult and persistent impediments to preventing or mitigating cyber harm.[18] In cyberspace, anonymity is easily achieved and maintained not only in a personal sense, obscuring the identity of the person making keystrokes and clicks, but also in a technical sense, obscuring the location and identity of the cyber infrastructure from which harm originates. A potential solution to the problem of attribution is a response proxy—an entity against whom action is taken when action against a responsible party is not feasible. The proxy system addressed in this Article is imbedded in the international law notion of State responsibility for transboundary harm. As will be explained below, holding a State responsible for allowing harmful activities to emanate from its territory that produce significant effects on another State is increasingly supported by international law. Recognizing a cyber-specific obligation of due diligence to address emanation of such cyber harms might mitigate the attribution dilemma. That is, a primary rule of conduct requiring diligent management of territorial cyber infrastructure could give rise to responsibility on the part of nondiligent States as proxies for unidentified or unreachable malicious actors. Legal recognition of such breaches of diligence permits State victims of cyber harm to take action to induce compliance and terminate harm without necessarily tracing attribution to the original, difficult-to-identify source. Such an approach has gained momentum among both States[19] and commentators.[20] However, on examination, proxy responses by way of a cyber duty of due diligence may actually be, if aggressively applied, counterproductive and lead to greater instability in the international system. Although development of primary rules of conduct in international law is generally thought to increase stability and cooperation, recognition and refinement of a duty of cyber due diligence might impose significant costs to security, stability, and even to international law compliance. In this Article, an outline of the principles of State responsibility illustrates how international law generally holds States accountable for and manages their responses to legal breaches and harm. A portrayal of the doctrine of countermeasures, a longstanding international law response to illegal acts by another State, highlights one of the most important self-help remedies of State responsibility. Analysis of the principle of due diligence in cyberspace and its relationship to countermeasures illustrates an initially attractive solution to the attribution dilemma. But a concluding cautionary note identifies potential unintended consequences of due diligence-inspired countermeasures as an attempt to close the attribution gap. Ultimately, due diligence could be an effective tool in justifying the use of countermeasures in the fight against the difficulties caused by the inability to attribute harmful cyber acts—but, like King Latinus’s speech, the cure may worsen the disease. II. State Responsibility and Attribution States often evade responsibility for their transnational cyber activities. The Stuxnet worm is rumored to have been the unclaimed work of the United States and Israel.[21] Russia allegedly conducted a cyber operation to shut down power-generation facilities in Ukraine.[22] The United States has accused North Korea of hacking Sony Pictures information systems and communications.[23] And in 2014, the United States indicted five members of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army for alleged hacking into U.S. systems.[24] In none of these cases, and in none of the many others like them, did the supposed “hacking” State admit commission, complicity, or responsibility.[25] The legal notion of State responsibility dates to recognition of the State as the focal point of the international legal system. The State’s monopoly on power within its borders supported the conclusion that external uses of State power were attributable to the State itself.[26] Over time, State responsibility doctrine deepened in its complexity and reach.[27] In 2001, after nearly four decades of work, the United Nations International Law Commission (ILC) adopted and submitted its Draft Articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts.[28] The United Nations General Assembly has since commended them to its member States.[29] States have lodged few substantial objections to the substance of the Articles,[30] suggesting they may, in great part, reflect customary international law. The Tallinn Manual 2.0 acknowledges the validity of the ILC Articles and relies heavily on them to describe existing rules on State responsibility.[31] The widely accepted formula for State responsibility, echoed in the ILC Articles, is: (1) a breach of an international obligation and (2) attribution to a State under international law.[32] To establish State responsibility, an act must not only be harmful, it must also amount to a breach of the offending State’s international legal obligations.[33] Qualifying breaches may be either in the nature of an act or omission.[34] Further, the fact that a harmful cyber activity originates from within a State’s territory does not necessarily mean that the State is responsible. For responsibility to accrue to the State, the act must be attributable to the State, either as an act of “its organs of government, or of others who have acted under the direction, instigation or control of those organs, i.e. as agents of the State.”[35] Attribution attaches most clearly when an organ of a State conducts an act itself.[36] An organ of the State includes “any person or entity which has that status in accordance with the internal law of the State.”[37] In the United States, this would include government entities such as the Department of Defense and its Cyber Command and National Security Agency, as well as the Central Intelligence Agency and Secret Service.[38] Responsibility for acts of State organs even extends to ultra vires acts.[39] The International Court of Justice has observed, “[P]ersons, groups of persons or entities [may be responsible] . . . even if that status does not follow from internal law, provided that in fact the persons, groups or entities act in ‘complete dependence’ on the State, of which they are ultimately merely the instrument.”[40] Acts by persons or entities exercising elements of governmental authority are also attributable to States.[41] However, attribution by such means only arises when the persons or entities are “acting in that capacity in the particular instance.”[42] Such entities might include: public corporations, semipublic entities, public agencies of various kinds and even, in special cases, private companies, provided that in each case the entity is empowered by the law of the State to exercise functions of a public character normally exercised by State organs, and the conduct of the entity relates to the exercise of the governmental authority concerned.[43] An example of such an entity might be a private company employed by a State, with appropriate regulatory authority, to defend State networks.[44] Attribution to a State can also be established through acts by organs of another State placed at the disposal of the offending State, so long as the acting organ is exercising elements of authority of the offending State.[45] To meet this criterion, the organ must “act in conjunction with the machinery of that State and under its exclusive direction and control, rather than on instructions from the sending State.”[46] The organ cannot be serving “the purposes of the former State or even . . . shared purposes” under this method of attribution.[47] So, for example, if a State loaned its Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT) to another State to assist with a cyber activity, but required the CERT to get permission for any action that might have transboundary effects, the action of the CERT would not be attributable to the receiving State under this theory.[48] A final method of State attribution is through acts by persons or groups acting on the instructions of a State or under its direction or control.[49] The ILC Articles describe situations where “State organs supplement their own action by recruiting or instigating private persons or groups who act as ‘auxiliaries’” as well as situations where the conduct by non-State actors was “directed or controlled” by the State and “an integral part of that operation.”[50] The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has determined that control necessary for attribution of a non-State actor’s actions to the State is exercise of “effective control” by the latter.[51] Thus, if a private hacking group conducted malicious cyber activity against another State specifically under the instructions of a State agency or if the State agency exercised effective control of those actions, the act would be attributable to the State. The principal significance of State responsibility is international accountability. In international law circles, State responsibility is often envisioned to attach for purposes of litigation. Subject to jurisdictional requirements, a responsible State can expect to be ordered to cease its conduct and to provide a remedy to a victim State. But State responsibility can be important outside litigation as well. State responsibility may be valuable legal capital in diplomatic negotiations. More significant perhaps, State responsibility can give a victim State the opportunity to respond to the transgressing State’s actions, including resort to countermeasures. III. Countermeasures Countermeasures are otherwise unlawful State acts that are lawful when undertaken to induce another State to cease unlawful conduct against it.[52] Given the decentralized, self-governing nature of international law, countermeasures are an important form of international law self-help.[53] The modern conception of countermeasures grew out of the traditional concept of reprisals and now replaces the traditional concept of nonforceful reprisals that occur outside of armed conflict.[54] They are distinct from acts of retorsion—unfriendly but lawful acts—and would be otherwise unlawful.[55] Because of their potential to undermine international law, countermeasures are subject to important restrictions.[56] First, countermeasures may only be undertaken to induce compliance by a State in breach of international law.[57] Countermeasures may not be undertaken to punish.[58] An important corollary to this restriction, likely a vestige of the State-centric international legal system, is that countermeasures must be directed at another State and may not be undertaken against non-State actors that operate independently from a State.[59] A countermeasure need not, however, involve or be directly linked to the same or any related obligation the offending State breached.[60] Second, only a victim State may resort to countermeasures.[61] Third-party States may not undertake countermeasures on behalf of another State.[62] Third, countermeasures may not rise to the level of force.[63] Use of force by States is restricted to self-defense and actions authorized by the United Nations Security Council.[64] Fourth, countermeasures must be necessary and proportionate to the international wrong that provokes them.[65] Fifth, countermeasures should be temporary and reversible, so when the international wrong ceases, the countermeasures also cease and their effects are reversed.[66] And finally, countermeasures must be preceded by a demand to cease the unlawful activity that gives rise to their use.[67] Thus, a State that suffers cyber harm from an internationally wrongful act by another State may resort to countermeasures when that act is attributable, through any of the various forms of liability, to another State. Or at least that is the case in theory. While wrongfulness may be easily established, as mentioned above, attribution is notoriously elusive and difficult in cyberspace. Cyber means offer actors any number of techniques to mask their identities, to spoof others’ identities, or to otherwise mislead or frustrate victims’ efforts at establishing accountability. A State that suffers harm by cyber means but is unable to establish attribution to another State has not affixed State responsibility, and therefore may not undertake countermeasures. In this sense, the victim State might be said to face an attribution-response gap. IV. Due Diligence and the Attribution-Response Gap The difficulty of establishing attribution sufficient to give rise to responsibility greatly complicates efforts to respond with anything more than measures of retorsion such as sanctions or public diplomatic protests. Without attribution, countermeasures are unavailable or, at minimum, extraordinarily risky. Although international law does not prescribe a prerequisite evidentiary burden with respect to undertaking countermeasures, a State is responsible for countermeasures that are later proved undertaken on the basis of flawed or mistaken evidence.[68] A State that is unable to establish attribution to a reliably certain level thus accepts the risk that its countermeasures will themselves amount to an internationally wrongful act.[69] Greater application of the doctrine of due diligence to cyber activities originating from States, however, may help bridge the attribution gap, making the use of countermeasures available to an aggrieved State. It is possible that increased breadth and clarity to the doctrine of due diligence would ease the ability of the target state to attribute the cyber activity to another State, thus enlarging the opportunity to use countermeasures. A. Definition of Due Diligence In part to address the attribution-response gap, recent enthusiasm has developed for the notion of an international obligation of cyber due diligence. The principle of due diligence is not new to international law and has roots in the ancient maxim sic utero tuo ut alienum non laedas (use your own property in such a manner as not to injure that of another).[70] More recently, a 1949 case decided by the ICJ described something very much like due diligence when it noted “every State’s obligation not to allow knowingly its territory to be used for acts contrary to the rights of other States.”[71] Similarly, a 1941 international arbitral award between the United States and Canada observed, “no State has the right to use or permit the use of its territory . . . to cause injury . . . to the territory of another . . . when the case is of serious consequence.”[72] The obligation to neither commit nor allow harm to emanate from a State’s borders has been codified in numerous international agreements, particularly in the area of international environmental law.[73] This duty of due diligence represents the “standard of conduct expected of States when complying with this principle.”[74] As a standard, due diligence requires a State to do that which is generally considered to be appropriate and proportional to the degree of risk of transboundary harm in the particular instance.[75] In other words, the requirement is one of reasonableness.[76] States cannot be expected to prevent every harm; the principle of sic utere tuo ut alienum non laedas assumes that victim States must accept some harm under the doctrine of good neighborliness.[77] At present, several doctrinal ambiguities surround due diligence, but most of its proponents agree that the duty arises only with respect to known harm[78] and a State need only undertake reasonably feasible measures to cease offending uses of its territory.[79] Most also agree that there is no duty to affirmatively monitor networks or to prevent offending use of cyber infrastructure.[80] Additionally, though international law is unclear as to the precise level of harm required to trigger the due diligence obligation, it is generally accepted that the harm must amount to serious adverse consequences.[81] B. The Application of Due Diligence to the Cyber Context The Tallinn Manual 2.0 concludes that the duty of due diligence applies in the cyber context. Chapter 2 of the Manual contains two rules and significant commentary to support this assertion. The first rule on due diligence, Rule 6, observes, “A State must exercise due diligence in not allowing its territory, or territory or cyber infrastructure under its governmental control, to be used for cyber operations that affect the rights of, and produce serious adverse consequences for, other States.”[82] The commentary to Rule 6 clarifies that for the due diligence obligation to attach, a State must have knowledge (including constructive knowledge), and that the harm must rise to the level of serious adverse consequences.[83] Rule 7 then states, “The principle of due diligence requires a State to take all measures that are feasible in the circumstances to put an end to cyber operations that affect a right of, and produce serious adverse consequences for, other States.”[84] The commentary to Rule 7 emphasizes that the State is only required to take feasible measures in attempting to prevent the harm and that there is no duty to monitor cyber infrastructure in order to comply with the due diligence obligation.[85] Despite any limitations that might apply to the due diligence principle in the cyber context, including those argued for by the International Group of Experts that wrote the Tallinn Manual 2.0, the application of the due diligence principle to cyber operations is an important application of international law to emerging technology. Applying due diligence to cyber operations also implicates the application of State responsibility and may have far-reaching impacts on how States respond to transboundary cyber activities. C. Due Diligence as a Response Measure Scholars have seized on due diligence as a promising way to ensure responsible and secure use of cyber infrastructure and to bolster peaceful and cooperative management of cyberspace by States.[86] A less appreciated advantage of applying due diligence to cyberspace, however, might be alleviation of the attribution-response gap noted above. Consider the following: State A suffers cyber incitements to violence conducted by State B, launched from or routed through cyber infrastructure on territory of State C. Suppose the violence is sufficient to coercively influence political events in State A. Suppose further that State A is unable to determine precisely who is responsible for the cyber incitements. State A is only able to discern that the cyber incitements emanated from infrastructure in State C. Under the law of State responsibility, although State A has suffered an internationally wrongful act, State A could not resort to countermeasures against either State B or State C because it cannot attribute the incitements. Recall that failure of attribution denies an attachment of State responsibility making countermeasures unavailable. If, however, an obligation of cyber due diligence is recognized, as the territorial State, State C could be responsible for failing its duty to stop harm emanating from its territory. If State A informs State C early of the harm and State C, aware that its cyber infrastructure is being used to harm State A, does not terminate the cyber incitements, State C is in breach of its due diligence obligation. State C’s breach of due diligence constitutes an independent internationally wrongful act and State A may, subject to the limitations mentioned previously, resort to countermeasures against State C. In this sense, the duty of due diligence mitigates against the response gap resulting from the failures of attribution so common in cyberspace. V. Costs of the Due Diligence Approach Recognition of a duty of due diligence in cyberspace is, of course, not without potential drawbacks. The countermeasures that become available to States in cases of breach of due diligence are important aspects of self-help in the international legal system. However, because they involve conduct in breach of international law, they may work subtly to undermine the international legal system and its goal of maintaining international peace and security if not carefully applied. Even after a victim State observes the considerable procedural safeguards and prerequisites attendant to lawful countermeasures (e.g., notice, a demand to cease, and proportionality),[87] considerable hazard is involved in their use. Concerns both theoretical and practical associated with countermeasures come to mind, including erosion of State internalization of international law, proliferation of resorts to self-help, hindrance of multilateral and collective capacity, and faulty assignments of culpability. A. Rule Erosion A first, significant concern arising from resorts to countermeasures is that they may condition States and their agents to think more cynically (or, if one prefers, realistically[88]) about international law. Explanations why States follow international law abound. Among many theories is the belief that States comply with international law because they internalize its rules of conduct.[89] There is legitimate theoretical concern that countermeasures may reverse norm internalization and therefore degrade States’ compliance with international law. International law constructivism, and the many variants thereof, observe that States obey international law most of the time and concludes that “[m]uch compliance can be attributed to institutionalized habit.”[90] Constructivists explain that over time State organs and actors develop routine practices in their international decision making drawn from international rules and norms.[91] These practices and institutional habits are often drawn from courses of conduct prescribed by international instruments such as treaties.[92] Other institutional habits form from compliance with binding international custom.[93] Most of this internalization is thought to occur in domestic executive branch agencies—the bureaucrats and legal professionals who chiefly implement States’ international legal policies.[94] However, rule internalization has been extensively documented in domestic courts.[95] Internalization has also been thought to operate at more fundamental and consequential levels. Dean Harold Koh has argued that international law plays a role in the formation of national identity.[96] Observed subconsciously or by default, the constructivist perspective, especially its more recent incarnation, asserts international rules become so ingrained “that possibilities of action contrary to the law do not even rise to conscious decision-making.”[97] If internalization occurs and if, as constructivists maintain, it conditions States to routine, subconscious compliance, one might expect resorts to countermeasures to reverse or at least compromise the phenomenon. At minimum, resorts to countermeasures cause compliance decisions to re-enter conscious thought. Once a State learns it has suffered an international wrong at the hands of another State and resolves to respond with self-help, a countermeasures calculus could be said to begin. Especially with respect to breaches of highly internalized norms, resort to countermeasures involves a deliberate reconsideration of previously rote compliance. The norm selected for breach as a countermeasure is likely to be evaluated methodically and perhaps even reconsidered entirely. In this sense, and because they involve undertaking conduct that would otherwise be internationally wrongful, countermeasures upset the “default patterns of compliance” described by Koh.[98] The range of norms undermined by a countermeasures scenario could be exceptionally broad, far more broad than other means of self-help such as negative reciprocity or treaty suspension.[99] It is especially important to appreciate that countermeasures are distinct from negative reciprocity. Negative reciprocity involves rejection of a specific norm not observed or undertaken by another State.[100] Countermeasures need not involve breach of the same rule or norm that the offending State breached.[101] In fact, a countermeasure may involve a norm entirely unrelated to the rule involved in the underlying breach.[102] It is true that discourse on countermeasures includes in some cases a requirement of “relevance.”[103] Yet in this case, relevance refers only to a logical connection between the breach selected and its propensity to draw the offending State into line with its legal obligations. The countermeasure selected must be relevant to a resumption of legal behavior and need only be selected for its propensity to induce the offending State back to compliance. In this way, decisions involving countermeasures may lead a State to contemplate a far broader array of international norms than mere negative reciprocity.[104] To be sure, not all rules and norms are in play for countermeasures. Countermeasures may not involve breach of peremptory norms.[105] Constructivists might maintain that more deeply internalized international norms are less likely to be the means of countermeasures. Still, because countermeasures need not involve breach of an identical norm, the range of norms available for consideration is enormous, and the potential for reversals of internalization seems great. Reversals of internalization occasioned by resorts to due diligence-minded countermeasures could occur on any number of levels. Although far from identifying with the constructivist theory, Kenneth Waltz identifies three levels at which international relations decisions, including international law compliance, can be analyzed: international, State, and individual or agency levels.[106] Just as international law can be internalized at any of these levels, countermeasures seem capable of undermining internalization at each of these levels of compliance. Breach of an international rule of conduct, although precluded from wrongfulness under conditions of countermeasures, may subtly chip away at the rule’s legitimacy in the broad international community. A State undertaking a countermeasure, especially if successful, would seem more likely to repeat, and even adopt as a matter of policy, its willingness to breach international law norms. Similarly, once the figurative seal, so to speak, on international law breaches has been broken, officials, lawyers, and agents of domestic agencies seem far more likely to consider breach as a policy option in future international relations decisions.[107] Carrying out, or even witnessing, deliberate nonobservance of international norms, whatever the justification, likely erodes identification with those norms, deteriorating whatever compliance effect their internalization had brought about. In short, countermeasures might prompt a worrisome sort of reverse internalization of international law. Once undertaken, reversals of internalization may also extend beyond the distinct scenarios and decision makers initially involved. Actions originally undertaken and justified as due diligence-minded countermeasures may migrate to inapposite contexts if not carefully managed. Employed as countermeasures, otherwise unlawful conduct could become part of the international community’s, the State’s, the agency’s, or an individual’s tactical and operational playbook. Legal analyses premised on countermeasure doctrine present a danger of becoming untethered from their original conditions, and like the policies they support, may migrate to new, unintended international relations contexts. Recent experience bears out the hazard of unintended migrations of legal reasoning. Although not undertaken as countermeasures, controversial and arguably unlawful Guantanamo Bay-detention interrogation standards and their accompanying legal analyses are thought to have migrated to other theaters of U.S. government operations in which their use was unequivocally unlawful.[108] Additionally, countermeasures may incentivize development of physical and technical means by which to breach international law. The technical and intelligence requirements for a cyber countermeasure may not in all cases involve off-the-shelf commodities. It is foreseeable that a countermeasure cyber scenario would require idiosyncratic code or supporting intelligence not ordinarily on hand. Once such means and expertise are at hand they may, as Justice Jackson observed, “lie[] about like a loaded weapon.”[109] And once employed, these means are likely to become more familiar, reducing uncertainties and other prudential barriers to their use. Of course, concerns that countermeasures may compromise respect for international law are not new or peculiar to due diligence-minded countermeasures. During the effort to produce the Articles of State Responsibility (the Articles), some States expressed concern that codification of a countermeasures regime would embolden their use with destabilizing effects.[110] Members of the International Law Commission who produced the Articles and outside commentators observed that, ironically, the Articles’ approach to countermeasures might permit more aggressive forms of self-help by States.[111] Academic work has been conducted to test the institutional-internalization phenomena associated with constructivist explanations of international law compliance by States.[112] Yet the extent to which episodes of calculated noncompliance, such as that involved in resort to countermeasures, can upset internalization is not clear. More work is needed to understand these connections, but the logic seems initially sufficient to provoke legitimate concern. B. Proliferation of Self-Help In a manner illustrated by the scenario in Part IV above, recognition and refinement of a duty of cyber due diligence may result in more frequent resort to self-help. The international legal system infamously lacks dependable enforcement mechanisms.[113] While the United Nations Charter provides textual authority for robust enforcement of collective security norms, political reality has prevented even the Charter’s rudimentary system of primary rules from operating as originally envisioned.[114] The Charter is silent on States’ resort to self-help not involving the uses of force associated with self-defense, leaving interpretive space for capacious notions of self-help short of self-defense.[115] As a result, international law operates through a complex mixture of diplomacy, force, cooperation, compromise, adjudication, and perhaps especially, self-help. In their current, underdeveloped state, norms for cyber due diligence present a difficult case for allegations of breach. A State that suffers harm resulting from another State’s failure to actively monitor or regulate its cyber infrastructure could, at present, point to neither consistent State practice nor firm opinio juris to support a charge that the host State had conclusively violated international law. Similarly it is not perfectly clear, and indeed seems unlikely, that due diligence in cyberspace involves taking active measures to preempt or prevent harm to other States. In short, the law of due diligence is thinly supported and its specific operation in cyberspace is uncertain. The United States and other States have made vague indications that States owe one another a duty not to allow harm to emanate from cyber infrastructure on their territory.[116] Yet as the Tallinn Manual 2.0 provisions addressed above indicate, the specifics of this duty remain unclear and elusive. Thus, at present, States should allege breaches of the duty of due diligence with respect to cyber infrastructure cautiously and should resort to countermeasures in such circumstances with even greater caution. Refinements to and further consensus on a duty of cyber due diligence may reduce uncertainty and risk for States suffering harm. However, it is not clear that more precise or more refined norms of due diligence would produce the stability desired. In fact, it is entirely possible that refined norms of due diligence will simply result in more States being in a condition of breach. For instance, part of a refined conception of diligence might involve a duty to monitor cyber traffic for malicious content or patterns of use. There may be attractive, harm-reducing results from such a duty. But the technical feasibility of such a duty remains doubtful in the case of many States, especially developing States. In such a case, addition or refinement of a duty of monitoring might simply increase occasions of breach, increasing, in turn, occasions for resort to self-help by other States. It is easy to envision devolution into tit-for-tat exchanges of countermeasures or even reprisals. To paraphrase Geoffrey Best on the law of war during the First World War, due diligence might represent an “aid to vilification” rather than a meaningful restraint on conduct.[117] C. Costs to Multilateral Approaches Third, States that are better armed with legal justifications to claim and redress through self-help injuries from other States’ failures of diligence in cyberspace may be reluctant to build or bolster multinational, collective solutions. It seems the more often a State resorts to countermeasures, the more likely that State will develop the capabilities and competencies required to look out for itself. A technically advanced State that aggressively tends to its interests and international law rights might be expected to develop an institutional architecture and culture to support regular resort to countermeasures. That State might be less likely to develop and resort to outside legal and technical institutions such as tribunals or arbitral mechanisms or collective technical response teams. Such a State might also be less likely to prioritize sharing threat intelligence with other States and institutions. To the extent that State achieves competitive advantage from this self-help institutional design, it might be expected to be ambivalent or even hostile to multilateral efforts to level the response playing field. If a refined duty of cyber due diligence presents greater occasions of breach and resulting countermeasures, States may be reluctant to invest the political, diplomatic, and personal capital required to develop collective response structures. Efforts to develop international approaches to cybersecurity, such as the U.N. annual Group of Government Experts (GGE) meetings, have seen only fitful progress. Rather than close the gaps between participating States, it is foreseeable that a duty of due diligence would only highlight and exacerbate what separates the GGE from consensus and cooperation. D. Flawed Assignment of Culpability Finally, by evading attribution for the acts in question and focusing simply on the fact of emanation from or transit through State territory, cyber due diligence misses the mark with respect to culpability. In the scenario described above, the victim State’s resort to countermeasures may interrupt the cyber harm suffered. Although perhaps effective at momentarily addressing harm, the cyber due diligence approach remains a proxy approach. Countermeasures grounded in due diligence breaches may achieve a general deterrent effect against other actors considering harm against that State. However, the responsible actor evades the countermeasures so long as attribution is frustrated. The generally fungible nature of cyber infrastructure also reduces effectiveness of due-diligence-inspired countermeasures. A countermeasure undertaken to induce the cyber diligence required to halt harm may indeed inspire the target of the countermeasures to clean up its act. But it is not certain that the harm suffered by the injured State will actually cease. The malicious actor, State or non-State, may simply relocate or reroute efforts to the next nondiligent State’s cyber infrastructure. This phenomena would also likely highlight the previously mentioned problem of widening the gap between States that are technologically capable and those that are not, as the more capable are less likely to be used by malicious actors, and therefore more likely to be targeted by countermeasures. Despite its difficulties, attribution, both personal and technical, remains essential to addressing malicious cyber activity. Only responses to cyber harm that accurately establish attribution present long-term, sustainable solutions. VI. Conclusion Turnus and Aeneas meet in the final battle of the Aeneid. Their colossal brawl is initially even, but Aeneas soon gains the upper hand. Disarmed and pursued by Aeneas, Turnus overestimates his remaining strength and attempts to hurl an enormous boulder at Aeneas. When the stone falls harmlessly short, Aeneas brings down the exhausted Turnus with a spear. Before Aeneas kills him, Turnus holds out his right hand and utters, Clearly I earned this, and I ask no quarter. Make the most of your good fortune here. Lavinia is your bride. But go no further Out of hatred.[118] A tempestuous spirit and vengeful mind, rather than King Latinus’s well-meaning speech, propelled Turnus to his ill-fated combat with Aeneas. Still, rather than quell Turnus’s fury, Latinus’s lecture surely served to hasten rather than abate his doom. Whether a refined duty of cyber diligence would cure or inflame the ills of cyberspace is still unclear. We are in the early days of cyber due diligence and, frankly, of the relationship between international law and cyberspace. There is some evidence of State interest in refining international law to better address the threats posed by cyberspace generally and even cyber incitements to violence particularly. In recent remarks, U.S. State Department Legal Advisor Brian Egan observed, [A]ll governments must work together to target online criminal activities—such as illicit money transfers, terrorist attack planning and coordination, criminal solicitation, and the provision of material support to terrorist groups. U.S. efforts to prevent the Internet from being used for terrorist purposes also focus on criminal activities that facilitate terrorism, such as financing and recruitment, not on restricting expressive content, even if that content is repugnant or inimical to our core values.[119] The extent to which and how international law regulates cyber harm remains a pressing question. Preserving what is good about cyberspace, especially its capacity to connect far-flung people and ideas, while tempering its capacity to disrupt and harm international relations will obviously prove one of the most important challenges of the twenty-first century. Public international law offers important principles and doctrine to regulate harmful uses of cyberspace by States. However, exactly how existing international legal doctrine should be applied or adapted to operate in cyberspace is less obvious. Initially attractive solutions, such as developing a cyber duty of diligence, may contribute to short-term stability and offer attractive self-help options to States. Yet equal attention should be paid to the potentially destabilizing and long-term structural costs of such solutions. In short, by presenting more opportunities for more States to allege more breaches of international law, due diligence potentially increases the frequency of States’ resort to countermeasures and their accompanying potentially destabilizing effects. Before fully embracing a more refined notion of cyber due diligence and the consequent increased opportunities to allege breach, States are well advised to consider carefully both practical limitations of the international regime of self-help and associated costs to international stability. .Virgil, The Aeneid, bk. XII, ll. 37–47, at 368 (Robert Fitzgerald trans., Vintage Books 2d. ed. 1985) (19 B.C.) [hereinafter The Aeneid]. ↑ .Id. ll. 64–66, at 369. ↑ .The Works of P. Virgilius Maro 349–50 (Levi Hart & V. R. Osborn trans., 1952). ↑ .Benjamin Weiser, Man Who Hacked Celebrities’ Email Accounts Gets 5 Years in Prison, N.Y. Times (Dec. 6, 2016), https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/06/nyregion/alonzo-knowles-celebrity-hacker.html [https://perma.cc/6DLX-DDLL]. ↑ .Sooraj Shah, Sony Facing Huge Challenge to Keep Secure as Hackers Seek Notoriety, computing (Dec. 9, 2014), http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2385791/sony-facing-huge-challenge-to-keep-secure-as-hackers-seek-notoriety-says-sony-music-head-of-digital [https://perma.cc/AJ3P-9ZPJ]. ↑ .Robert McMillan et al., Yahoo Discloses New Breach of 1 Billion User Accounts, Wall St. J. (Dec. 15, 2016), https://www.wsj.com/articles/yahoo-discloses-new-breach-of-1-billion-user-accounts-1481753131 [https://perma.cc/NH3E-7Y8X]. ↑ .Kim Zetter, Inside the Cunning, Unprecedented Hack of Ukraine’s Power Grid, Wired (Mar. 3, 2016), https://www.wired.com/2016/03/inside-cunning-unprecedented-hack-ukraines-power-grid/ [https://perma.cc/9W2U-5DGM]. ↑ .James Griffiths, Cybercrime Costs the Average U.S. Firm $15 Million a Year, CNN Tech (Oct. 8, 2015), http://money.cnn.com/2015/10/08/technology/cybercrime-cost-business/ [https:// perma.cc/NB3M-WX5F]. ↑ .See, e.g., Eric Beech & Ben Blanchard, U.S., Chinese Officials Meet on Cyber Security Issues: White House, Reuters (Sept. 12, 2015), http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-china-cybersecurity-idUSKCN0RC0S420150913?feedType=RSS&feedName=internetNews [https://perma.cc/5MPM-DADF] (reporting on meetings of representatives from the United States and China to discuss cybersecurity and other issues); Developments in the Field of Information and Telecommunications in the Context of International Security, United Nations Off. For Disarmament Aff. (Mar. 15, 2017), https://www.un.org/disarmament/topics/informationsecurity [https://perma.cc/F4H9-XLP5] (collecting submissions of global developments in cybersecurity); NATO Holds Annual Cyber Exercise in Estonia, NATO (Dec. 2, 2016), http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/news_138674.htm [https://perma.cc/B3KG-NC9J] (discussing NATO’s Cyber Coalition 2016, a three-day event where participants were tested and trained in cyber defense). ↑ .Oren Dorell, Russia Engineered Election Hacks and Meddling in Europe, USA Today (Jan. 9, 2017), http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/01/09/russia-engineered-election -hacks-europe/96216556/ [https://perma.cc/4YC8-B6W2] (reporting examples of alleged Russian efforts to influence European election results through the use of cyber attacks); David E. Sanger & Scott Shane, Russian Hackers Acted to Aid Trump in Election, U.S. Says, N.Y. Times (Dec. 9, 2016), https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/09/us/obama-russia-election-hack.html [https://perma.cc/ M3KM-ZDZP] (reporting the “high confidence” of American intelligence agencies that Russia acted to influence the presidential election in Donald Trump’s favor). ↑ .See, e.g., Cybersecurity Act of 2015, Pub. L. No. 114–113, 129 Stat. 2244 (codified in scattered sections of 6 U.S.C.); Cory Bennett, Congress Approves First Major Cyber Bill in Years, The Hill (Dec. 18, 2015), http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/263696-congress-approves-first-major-cyber-bill-in-years [https://perma.cc/3KAX-88DV] (noting that the Cybersecurity Act of 2015 incentivizes companies to provide the government with data on hacking threats while providing protection against consumer lawsuits). ↑ .See, e.g., Convention on Cybercrime, Nov. 3, 2001, S. Treaty Doc. No. 108–11, ETS No. 185 (reflecting coordinated efforts between European nations to combat cybercrime). China and Russia proposed a cyber code of conduct in 2011 and again in 2015. Letter dated 12 September 2011 from the Permanent Representatives of China, the Russ. Fed’n, Taj., and Uzb. to the U.N. Secretary-General, at 3–5, U.N. Doc. A/66/359 (Sept. 14, 2011); Letter dated 9 January 2015 from the Permanent Representatives of China, Kaz., Kyrg., the Russ. Fed’n, Taj., and Uzb. to the U.N. Secretary-General, U.N. Doc. 69/723 (Jan. 13, 2015). ↑ .U.N. Secretary-General, Rep. of the Group of Governmental Experts on Developments in the Field of Information and Telecommunications in the Context of International Security, U.N. Doc. A/70/174 (July 22, 2015) [hereinafter U.N. GGE Report 2015]; U.N. Secretary-General, Rep. of the Group of Governmental Experts on Developments in the Field of Information and Telecommunications in the Context of International Security, U.N. Doc. A/68/98 (June 24, 2013) [hereinafter U.N. GGE Report 2013]. ↑ .See Eric Engleman & Jonathan D. Salant, Cybersecurity Lobby Surges as Congress Considers New Laws, Bloomberg Technology (Mar. 21, 2013), https://www.bloomberg.com/ news/articles/2013-03-21/cybersecurity-lobby-surges-as-congress-considers-new-laws [https://perma.cc/JM7U-TXU2?type=image] (reporting increased corporate lobbying in cybersecurity matters). ↑ .See Scott Charney et al., From Articulation to Implementation: Enabling Progress on Cybersecurity Norms, Microsoft (June 2016), https://mscorpmedia.azureedge.net/mscorpmedia/ 2016/06/Microsoft-Cybersecurity-Norms_vFinal.pdf [https://perma.cc/XS2Y-U2VQ] (discussing organizing models for cybersecurity norm development); Angela McKay et al., International Cybersecurity Norms: Reducing Conflict in an Internet-Dependent World, Microsoft (2014), aka.ms/cybernorms [https://perma.cc/6RKS-836V] (emphasizing the importance of norms in managing cybersecurity risks). ↑ .See Scott Cohn, Companies Battle Cyberattacks Using ‘Hack Back’, CNBC (June 4, 2013), http://www.cnbc.com/id/100788881 [https://perma.cc/3G7M-LPRH] (discussing corporate efforts to hack cybercriminals in order to delete or alter stolen information). ↑ .Tallinn Manual 2.0 on International Law Applicable to Cyber Operations (Michael N. Schmitt & Liis Vihul eds., 2017) [hereinafter Tallinn Manual 2.0]; Tallinn Manual on International Law Applicable to Cyber Warfare (Michael N. Schmitt ed., 2012). ↑ .Thomas Rid & Ben Buchanan, Attributing Cyber Attacks, 38 J. Strategic Stud. 4, 5 (2015). ↑ .See U.N. GGE Report 2015, supra note 13, at 7–8 (reaffirming that States should promote cybersecurity and take actions that consider the challenges of attribution); U.N. GGE Report 2013, supra note 13, at 8 (establishing the principle that States should ensure that their territories are not used for cyber attacks and recognizing the challenges of attribution). ↑ .Scott Shackelford et al., Unpacking the International Law on Cybersecurity Due Diligence: Lessons from the Public and Private Sectors, 17 Chi. J. Int’l L. 1, 19 (2016) (arguing that a State’s failure regarding due diligence may empower victim States to respond with cyber countermeasures). ↑ .See William J. Broad et al., Israeli Test on Worm Called Crucial in Iran Nuclear Delay, N.Y. Times (Jan. 15, 2011), http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/16/world/middleeast/ 16stuxnet.html [https://perma.cc/NH6T-U9G9] (stating that joint American–Israeli operations out of a complex in the Negev Desert “are among the newest and strongest clues suggesting that the virus was designed as an American–Israeli project to sabotage the Iranian program”). ↑ .Zetter, supra note 7. ↑ .See, e.g., Alex Altman & Zeke J. Miller, FBI Accuses North Korea in Sony Hack, Time (Dec. 19, 2014), http://time.com/3642161/sony-hack-north-korea-the-interview-fbi/ [https:// perma.cc/5GTG-728U] (describing how the FBI accused the North Korean government of being involved in the Sony Pictures hack); Andrea Peterson, The Sony Pictures Hack, Explained, Wash. Post (Dec. 18, 2014), https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2014/12/18/the-sony-pictures-hack-explained/?utm_term=.6cd248ebbcab [https://perma.cc/M48M-HBV9] (explaining the Sony hacks and how U.S. government agencies believe that North Korea was responsible). ↑ .Gina Chon, US Pursues Case Against Chinese Army Hackers, Fin. Times (Sept. 24, 2015), https://www.ft.com/content/a378b4c6-62b0-11e5-9846-de406ccb37f2 [https://perma.cc/BU5W-GNHW]. ↑ .See, e.g., Ellen Nakashima, Indictment of PLA Hackers is Part of Broad U.S. Strategy to Curb Chinese Cyberspying, Wash. Post (May 22, 2014), https://www.washingtonpost.com/ world/national-security/indictment-of-pla-hackers-is-part-of-broad-us-strategy-to-curb-chinese-cyberspying/2014/05/22/a66cf26a-e1b4-11e3-9743-bb9b59cde7b9_story.html?utm_term= .391e8d6d33b4 [https://perma.cc/2LXX-4VZN] (noting that the Chinese government denied any connection to hacking by PLA agents). ↑ .See Philip Bobbitt, The Shield of Achilles: War, Peace and the Course of History 80–90, 96–118 (2002) (recounting the Renaissance-era consolidation of power from princedoms to absolutist “kingly states”); Frederic Gilles Sourgens, Positivism, Humanism, and Hegemony: Sovereignty and Security for Our Time, 25 Pa. St. Int’l L. Rev. 433, 443 (2006) (citing sixteenth-century writer Bodin as defining sovereignty as the “absolute and perpetual power of the commonwealth resting in the hands of the state”). ↑ .See James Crawford, Articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts, U.N. Audiovisual Libr. of Int’l L. 1–2 (2012), http://legal.un.org/avl/pdf/ha/rsiwa/rsiwa_e.pdf [https://perma.cc/A2U5-WST2] (discussing the history and development of the articles). ↑ .Int’l L. Comm’n, Draft Articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts, U.N. Doc. A/56/10 (2001) [hereinafter Articles of State Responsibility]; Int’l L. Comm’n, Draft Articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts with Commentaries (2001), http://legal.un.org/ilc/texts/instruments/english/commentaries/9_6_2001.pdf [https:// perma.cc/96QH-EJ6Z] [hereinafter ASR Commentaries]. ↑ .G.A. Res. 56/83, ¶ 3 (Jan. 28, 2002); G.A. Res. 59/35, ¶ 1 (Dec. 16, 2004). ↑ .See, e.g., U.S. Dep’t of State, Draft Articles on State Responsibility: Comments of the Government of the United States of America (1997), https://www.state.gov/documents/ organization/65781.pdf [https://perma.cc/82HM-3JA6] (detailing the United States’ objections to the Articles of State Responsibility where the United States believed certain provisions were not in accord with international law). ↑ .Tallinn Manual 2.0, supra note , at 79. ↑ .Articles of State Responsibility, supra note 28, art. 2. ↑ .ASR Commentaries, supra note 28, at 35; Tallinn Manual 2.0, supra note , at 85–86. ↑ .Articles of State Responsibility, supra note 28, art. 2; ASR Commentaries, supra note 28, at 35. For more on this topic, see Franck Latty, Acts and Omissions, in The Law of International Responsibility 355, 355 (James Crawford et al. eds., 2010). ↑ .ASR Commentaries, supra note 28, at 38. ↑ .Articles of State Responsibility, supra note 28, art. 4; Tallinn Manual 2.0, supra note , at 87. ↑ .Articles of State Responsibility, supra note 28, art. 4.2. ↑ .See, e.g., Tallinn Manual 2.0, supra note 17, at 87 (recognizing the United States’ Cyber Command as a State organ); Articles of State Responsibility, supra note 28, art. 4 (defining conduct of organs of a State). ↑ .Application of Convention on Prevention and Punishment of Crime of Genocide (Bosn. & Herz. v. Serb. & Montenegro), 2007 I.C.J. Rep. 43, ¶ 392 (Feb. 26). ↑ .Articles of State Responsibility, supra note 28, art. 5; Tallinn Manual 2.0, supra note 17, at 89. ↑ .Tallinn Manual 2.0, supra note 17, at 89. ↑ .ASR Commentaries, supra note 28, at 43; see also Tallinn Manual 2.0, supra note 17, at 89 (providing examples of private entities empowered by domestic law to conduct cybersecurity or intelligence operations). ↑ .Articles of State Responsibility, supra note 28, art. 6; Tallinn Manual 2.0, supra note , at 93 (Rule 16). ↑ .ASR Commentaries, supra note 28, at 44; see also Tallinn Manual 2.0, supra note 17, at 93 (clarifying that “if the organ continues to receive any instructions as to its operations from the sending State,” then the actions of the organ are not attributable to the receiving State). ↑ .Tallinn Manual 2.0, supra note , at 93–94. ↑ .Military and Paramilitary Activities in and Against Nicaragua (Nicar. v. U.S.), Judgment, 1986 I.C.J. Rep. 14, ¶ 115 (June 27); see also ASR Commentaries, supra note 28, at 47–48 (identifying circumstances in which personal or group actions are considered State actions); Tallinn Manual 2.0, supra note 17, at 96–97 (indicating under which conditions cyber operations will be attributed to States even when committed by non-State actors). ↑ .See Gabčikovo-Nagymaros Project (Hung. v. Slovk.), Judgment, 1997 I.C.J. Rep. 7, ¶¶ 82–83 (Sept. 25) (discussing the requirements for lawful countermeasures); see also ASR Commentaries, supra note 28, at 128 (commenting that countermeasures must be taken in response to unlawful international acts); Michael N. Schmitt, “Below the Threshold” Cyber Operations: The Countermeasures Response Option and International Law, 54 Va. J. Int’l L. 697, 700 (2014) (defining countermeasures along similar lines). ↑ .See ASR Commentaries, supra note 28, at 128 (observing that countermeasures are an aspect of a decentralized international system that allows States to vindicate their rights when harmed by internationally wrongful acts). ↑ .See id. (describing and defining “reprisals”). ↑ .Id.; see Schmitt, supra note 52, at 701–02 (distinguishing retorsion from countermeasures). ↑ .ASR Commentaries, supra note 28, at 128. ↑ .Articles of State Responsibility, supra note 28, art. 49; see also ASR Commentaries, supra note 28, at 130 (explaining that an internationally wrongful act is a “fundamental prerequisite” for any lawful countermeasure). ↑ .See Articles of State Responsibility, supra note 28, art. 49 (limiting the object of countermeasures to a State responsible for an internationally wrongful act); see also ASR Commentaries, supra note 28, at 129–30 (analyzing limitations on countermeasures undertaken by injured States). ↑ .ASR Commentaries, supra note 28, at 129. But note, “[c]ountermeasures are more likely to satisfy the requirements of necessity and proportionality if they are taken in relation to the same or a closely related obligation . . . .” Id. ↑ .Articles of State Responsibility, supra note 28, arts. 49, 54; Tallinn Manual 2.0, supra note , at 130–33 (Rule 24). ↑ .See Tallinn Manual 2.0, supra note 17, at 132 (explaining that a majority of the Experts took the position that third-party countermeasures are unlawful). ↑ .See Articles of State Responsibility, supra note 28, art. 49 (requiring that a State’s countermeasures be limited to nonperformance of international obligations). ↑ .See U.N. Charter arts. 2, 42, 51 (establishing that while States retain their inherent right to act in self-defense, they must refrain from other uses of force without Security Council approval). ↑ .Articles of State Responsibility, supra note 28, arts. 49, 51; Tallinn Manual 2.0, supra note , at 127 (Rule 23). ↑ .See Articles of State Responsibility, supra note 28, art. 49 (delimiting the acceptable breadth and methods of countermeasures); ASR Commentaries, supra note 28, at 129–31 (stressing that countermeasures should be temporary and reversible because their purpose is only to induce cessation of wrongdoing, not to punish). ↑ .Articles of State Responsibility, supra note 28, art. 52; ASR Commentaries, supra note 28, at 129. ↑ .James Crawford, The International Law Commission’s Articles on State Responsibility: Introduction, Text and Commentaries 285 (2002). ↑ .ASR Commentaries, supra note 28, at 130; see Tallinn Manual 2.0, supra note 17, at 116 (suggesting that countermeasures may themselves constitute a wrongful act if taken against a State mistakenly attributed with cyber activities, but not actually responsible for them). ↑ .Jutta Brunnée, Sic utero tuo ut alienum non laedas, in 9 The Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law 188 (Rudiger Wolfram ed. 2012). ↑ .Corfu Channel (U.K. v. Alb.), Judgment, 1949 I.C.J. Rep. 4, at 22 (Apr. 9). ↑ .Trail Smelter (U.S. v. Can.), 3 R.I.A.A. 1905, 1965 (Trail Smelter Arb. Trib. 1941); see also Tallinn Manual 2.0, supra note 17, at 30–31 (describing the background duty of States to refrain from and control efforts to do harm to other States from within their territories). ↑ .See Convention on Biological Diversity art. 3, June 5, 1992, 1760 U.N.T.S. 79 (acknowledging the right of States to exploit their natural resources but also their duty not to cause damage to the environments of other States); United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change art. 2, May 9, 1992, S. Treaty Doc. No. 102-38, 1771 U.N.T.S. 107 (recognizing the duty of States to refrain from causing harm to the natural environments of other States); Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution art. 2, Nov. 13, 1979, T.I.A.S. 10541, 1302 U.N.T.S. 217 (agreeing to limit and reduce air pollution that emanates from one State and causes harm in another). ↑ .In the Alabama Arbitration of 1872 between the United States and the United Kingdom, due diligence was defined as “a failure to use for the prevention of an act which the government was bound to endeavour to prevent, such care as governments ordinarily employ in their domestic concerns, and may reasonably be expected to exert in matters of international interest and obligation.” Case Presented on the Part of the Government of Her Britannic Majesty to the Tribunal, in Papers relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States 412 (1872); Timo Koivurova, Due Diligence, in 3 The Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law 242 (Rudiger Wolfrum ed., 2012). ↑ .Koivurova, supra note 75, at 236. ↑ .Brunnée, supra note 70, at 190. ↑ .See Tallinn Manual 2.0, supra note 17, at 40–43 (discussing the requirement of knowledge in exercising due diligence). ↑ .Id. at 43 (Rule 7). ↑ .See id. at 45 (explaining that a duty of prevention would place an “undue burden on States” and negate the Rule’s knowledge requirement). ↑ .Id. at 36–37, 40–41. ↑ .See id. at 43–46 (explaining that a general duty of prevention is not required, but a State’s due diligence responsibility extends to preventing cyber operations when material steps to execute the operation have been carried out; however, this duty does not include a duty to monitor). ↑ .See generally Shackelford et al., supra note 20 (discussing the creation of cyber due diligence norms). ↑ .See supra text accompanying notes 51–60. ↑ .See, e.g., Kenneth N. Waltz, Theory of International Politics 88–91 (1979) (noting the sphere of international politics suffers from lack of order and organization); see also Hersch Lauterpacht, The Function of Law in the International Community 400 n.1 (1933) (tracing, though not supporting, a realist view of international law to Hobbes’s Leviathan); Hans J. Morgenthau, Politics Among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace 282 (4th ed. 1968) (arguing that a great power can act against a smaller power under the pretext of taking a countermeasure without fear or retribution from the smaller nation); Raymond Aron, The Anarchical Order of Power, in Conditions of World Order 25, 26 (Stanley Hoffman ed., 1968) (“The society of states is by essence a-social, since it does not outlaw the recourse to force the ‘collective persons’ that are its members.”); Hans J. Morgenthau, Positivism, Functionalism, and International Law, 32 Am. J. Int’l L. 260, 260–61 (1940) (referring to the lay view that there are large gaps between how international law works in theory and how it works out in practice as “realistic”). ↑ .See Harold Hongju Koh, Why Do Nations Obey International Law?, 106 Yale L.J. 2599, 2602 (1997) (examining schools of thought on international law and observing that global norms are “ultimately internalized by domestic legal systems”); see also Ryan Goodman & Derek Jinks, Toward an Institutional Theory of Sovereignty, 55 Stan. L. Rev. 1749, 1752, 1785–86 (2003) (remarking that States tend to reflect and operate off “global scripts”). ↑ .Oscar Schachter, International Law in Theory and Practice 7 (1991). ↑ .See Koh, supra note 89, at 2634, 2646–57 (describing a three-step process in which international actors adopt international customs through interaction, interpretation, and internalization). ↑ .Schachter, supra note 90, at 7. ↑ .See id. (explaining that most actors observe international law because the officials involved have internalized the rules and customs). See generally Edward M. Morgan, Internalization of Customary International Law: An Historical Perspective, 12 Yale J. Int’l L. 63 (1987) (discussing the historical development of the modern internalization doctrine). ↑ .See Amichai Cohen, Bureaucratic Internalization: Domestic Governmental Agencies and the Legitimization of International Law, 36 Geo. J. Int’l L. 1079, 1100–02 (2005) (discussing how executive branch officials converge on and craft policies consistent with international law). ↑ .See Harold Hongju Koh, International Law as Part of Our Law, 98 Am. J. Int’l L. 43, 44 (2004) (tracing internalization of international law to early U.S. Supreme Court decisions by Chief Justice John Marshall). ↑ .Koh, supra note 89, at 2655. ↑ .See Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties art. 60, May 23, 1969, 1155 U.N.T.S. 331 (providing for treaty termination or suspension in consequence of a material breach of a bilateral treaty). ↑ .See Elisabeth Zoller, Peacetime Unilateral Remedies: An Analysis of Countermeasures 20 (1984) (noting the backward-looking nature of negative reciprocity). ↑ .ASR Commentaries, supra note 28, at 129. The Commentaries observe, “There is no requirement that States taking countermeasures should be limited to suspension of performance of the same or a closely related obligation.” Id. ↑ .See David J. Bederman, Counterintuiting Countermeasures, 96 Am. J. Int’l L. 817, 827 (2002) (noting that the proper role of relevance in countermeasures remains a matter of debate “that will need to be closely watched”). ↑ .See Georg Schwarzenberger, 2 International Law as Applied by International Courts and Tribunals: The Law of Armed Conflict 453 (1968) (observing that belligerent reprisals “reverse the operation of the chief working principle behind the laws of war from positive, to negative, reciprocity”). ↑ .Articles of State Responsibility, supra note 28, art. 50 (cataloging international obligations that may not be breached as countermeasures, including the prohibition on the use of force, fundamental human rights, obligations of a humanitarian character, and peremptory norms of international law). ↑ .Koh, supra note 89, at 2649 (citing Kenneth Waltz, Man, the State, and War: A Theoretical Analysis (1959)). ↑ .See Antonio Cassese, The Role of Legal Advisers in Ensuring that Foreign Policy Conforms to International Legal Standards, 14 Mich. J. Int’l L. 139, 155 (1992) (arguing that “[e]very time a State elects to ignore or reinterpret an existing international standard . . . it runs the risk of being unable to invoke the rule in the future”). Professor Cassese observes, “According to most [legal advisers], it is difficult to breach clear, fundamental, and prohibitive rules, even in extreme and unusual situations.” Id. at 154. ↑ .U.S. Dep’t of Def., Review of Department of Defense Detention Operations and Detainee Interrogation Techniques, Unclassified Executive Summary 6–7 (Mar. 7, 2005) (concluding that in early 2003, interrogation techniques intended only for use at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, migrated to operations in Afghanistan where higher legal standards applied). ↑ .United States v. Korematsu, 323 U.S. 214, 246 (1944) (Jackson, J., dissenting). ↑ .Bederman, supra note 103, at 826 (citing State Responsibility, Comments and Observations Received from Governments, U.N. Doc. A/CN.4/488 (1998)). ↑ .See, e.g., Morgan, supra note 93, at 81–82 (discussing a modern example of customary law internalization by a U.S. federal court). ↑ .See Morgenthau, supra note 88, at 263–64 (asserting that a worldwide focus on national interests has stifled international peacekeeping efforts); Waltz, supra note 88, at 88 (arguing that international systems are decentralized and anarchic). ↑ .See, e.g., U.N. Charter arts. 41–43, 51 (establishing protocols for international use of force). ↑ .See U.N. Charter art. 51 (stating that nothing in the Charter “shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defense” but not discussing any other form of self-help). ↑ .U.N. Secretary-General, Developments in the Field of Information and Telecommunications in the Context of International Security, at 19, U.N. Doc. A/66/152 (July 15, 2011). The U.S. submission asserts, “States are required to take all necessary measures to ensure that their territories are not used by other States or non-State actors for purposes of armed activities . . . against other States and their interests.” Id. at 19. The United States reaffirmed its submission in 2012–13. See U.N. Secretary-General, Group of Governmental Experts on Developments in the Field of Information and Telecommunications in the Context of International Security, at 2, U.N. Doc. A/68/98 (June 24, 2013) (reaffirming member States’ commitment to reduce risk and enhance security). ↑ .Geoffrey Best, War and Law Since 1945 47 (1994). ↑ .The Aeneid, supra note 1, ll. 1266–76, at 402. ↑ . Brian J. Egan, Legal Adviser of the U.S. State Dep’t, Remarks on International Law and Stability in Cyberspace at Berkeley Law School (Nov. 10, 2016) (transcript available at https://www.law.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/egan-talk-transcript-111016.pdf [https://perma.cc/B6TH-232L]). ↑	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line7985
__label__wiki	0.886139	0.886139	Removing DDT & taxing dividend in shareholders/unit holders hand \| Income Tax - Articles Removing dividend distribution tax (DDT) and moving to classical system of taxing dividend in the hands of shareholders/unit holders. Section 115-O provides that, in addition to the income-tax chargeable in respect of the total income of a domestic company, any amount declared, distributed or paid by way of dividends shall be charged to additional income-tax at the rate of 15 per cent. The tax so paid by the company (called DDT) is treated as the final payment of tax in respect of the amount declared, distributed or paid by way of dividend. Such dividend referred to in section 115-O is exempt in the hands of shareholders under clause (34) of section 10. In case of business trust, specific exemption is provided under sub-section (7) of section 115-O, subject to certain conditions. Similarly, exemption is provided for distributed profits of a unit of an International Financial Service Centre, on fulfilment of certain conditions, under sub-section (8) of section 115-O. Similarly under section 115R, specified companies and Mutual Funds are liable to pay additional income-tax at the specified rate on any amount of income distributed by them to its unit holders. Such income is then exempt in the hands of unit holders under clause (35) of section 10. The incidence of tax is, thus, on the payer company/Mutual Fund and not on the recipient, where it should normally be. The dividend is income in the hands of the shareholders and not in the hands of the company. The incidence of the tax should therefore, be on the recipient. Moreover, the present provisions levy tax at a flat rate on the distributed profits, across the board irrespective of the marginal rate at which the recipient is otherwise taxed. The provisions are hence, considered, iniquitous and regressive. The present system of taxation of dividend in the hands of company/ mutual funds was reintroduced by the Finance Act, 2003 (with effect from the assessment year 2004-05) since it was easier to collect tax at a single point and the new system was leading to increase in compliance burden. However, with the advent of technology and easy tracking system available, the justification for current system of taxation of dividend has outlived itself. In view of above, it is proposed to carry out amendments so that dividend or income from units are taxable in the hands of shareholders or unit holders at the applicable rate and the domestic company or specified company or mutual funds are not required to pay any DDT. It is also proposed to provide that the deduction for expense under section 57 of the Act shall be maximum 20 per cent of the dividend or income from units. Therefore, it is proposed to- (i) amend section 115-O to provide that dividend declared, distributed or paid after 1st April, 2003, but on or before 31st March, 2020 shall be covered under the provision of this section. (ii) amend clause (34) of section 10 to provide that the provision of this clause shall not apply to any income, by way of dividend, received on or after 1st April, 2020. (iii) amend section 115R to provide that the income distributed on or before 31st March, 2020 shall only be covered under the provision of this section. (iv) amend clause (35) of section 10 to provide that the provision of this clause shall not apply to any income, in respect of units, received on or after 1st April, 2020. (v) amend clause (23FC) of section 10 so that all dividends received or receivable by business trust from a special purpose vehicle is exempt income under this clause. (vi) amend clause (23FD) of section 10 to exclude dividend income received by a unit holder from business trust from the exemption so that the dividend income is taxable in the hand of unit holder of the business trust. (vii) amend sub-section (3) of section 115UA to delete reference to sub-clause (a) so that distributed income of the nature as referred to in clause (23FC) or clause (23FCA) of section 10 shall be deemed to be income of the unit holder and shall be charged to tax as income of the previous year. Thus dividend income distributed by a special purpose vehicle to business trust would be taxed in the hands of unit holder. (viii) remove reference of section 115-O dividend income in various sections like section 57, section 115A, section 115AC, section 115ACA, section 115AD and section 115C. (ix) remove the opening line of clause (23D) of section 10, as mutual fund no longer required to pay additional tax. (x) insert new section 80M as it existed before it removal by the Finance Act, 2003 to remove the cascading affect, with a change that set off will be allowed only for dividend distributed by the company one month prior to the due date of filing of return, in place of due date of filing return earlier. (xi) amend section 115BBDA which taxes dividend income in excess of ten lakh rupee in the hands of shareholder at ten per cent., to only dividend declared, distributed or paid by a domestic company on or before the 31st day of March, 2020. (xii) amend section 57 to provide that no deduction shall be allowed from dividend income, or income in respect of units of mutual fund or specified company, other than deduction on account of interest expense and in any previous year such deduction shall not exceed twenty per cent. of the dividend income or income from units included in the total income for that year without deduction under section 57. (xiii) amend section 194 to include dividend for tax deduction. At the same time the rates of ten per cent. is proposed to be prescribed and threshold is proposed to be increased from Rs 2,500/- to Rs 5,000/- for dividend paid other than cash. Further, at present the mode of payment is given as “an account payee cheque or warrant”. It is proposed to change this to any mode. (xiv) amend section 194LBA to provide for tax deduction by business trust on dividend income paid to unit holder, at the rate of ten per cent. for resident. For non-resident, it would be 5 per cent for interest and ten per cent. for dividend. (xv) insert a new section 194K to provide that any person responsible for paying to a resident any income in respect of units of a Mutual Fund specified under clause (23D) of section 10 or units from the administrator of the specified undertaking or units from the specified company shall at the time of credit of such income to the account of the payee or at the time of payment thereof by any mode, whichever is earlier, deduct income-tax there on at the rate of ten per cent. It may also be provided for threshold limit of Rs 5,000/- so that income below this amount does not suffer tax deduction. It is also proposed to defined “Administrator”, “specified company”, as already defined in clause (35) of section 10. It is also proposed to define “specified undertaking” as in clause (i) of section 2 of the Unit Trust of India (Transfer of Undertaking and Repeal) Act, 2002. It is also proposed to provide that where any income is credited to any account like suspense account, in the books of account of the person liable to pay such income, the liability for tax deduction under this section would arise at that time. (xvi) amend section 195 to delete exemption provided to dividend referred to in section 115-O. (xvii) amend section 196A to revive its applicability on TDS on income in respect of units of a Mutual Fund. It is also proposed to substitute “of the Unit Trust of India” with “from the specified company defined in Explanation to clause (35) of section 10”and “in cash or by the issue of a cheque or draft or by any other mode” with “by any mode”. (xviii) amend section 196C to remove exclusion provided to dividend under section 115-O. It is also proposed to substitute “in cash or by the issue of a cheque or draft or by any other mode” with “by any mode”. (xix) amend section 196D to remove exclusion provided to dividend under section 115-O. It is also proposed to substitute “in cash or by the issue of a cheque or draft or by any other mode” with “by any mode”. Amendments at clause (i) to (xii) above will take effect from 1st April, 2021 and will, accordingly, apply in relation to the assessment year 2021-22 and subsequent assessment years. Amendments at clause (xiii) to (xix) will take effect from 1st April, 2020. [Clauses 7,30,40,47,48,49,50,54,55,59,60,62,74,80,81,85,86,87 & 88] Extract of Relevant Clauses of Finance Bill, 2020 Clauses 7 “Clause 7 of the Bill seeks to amend section 10 of the Income-tax Act relating to incomes not included in total income. First proviso to clause (23C) of said section provides for application to be made in prescribed form and manner to the prescribed authority for exemption in respect of income of the fund or trust or institution or any university or other educational institution or any hospital or other medical institution referred to in sub-clause (iv) or sub-clause (v) or sub-clause (vi) or sub-clause (via) of said clause in a case where such income is applied or accumulated during the previous year for certain purposes in accordance with the relevant provisions. It is proposed to substitute said proviso so as to provide that the exemption to such fund or trust or institution or any university or other educational institution or any hospital or other medical institution shall not be available unless it is approved under the proposed second proviso on an application made in the prescribed form and manner to the Principal Commissioner or Commissioner, for grant of approval where the fund or trust or institution or any university or other educational institution or any hospital or other medical institution is approved under the second proviso (as it stood before its amendment by the Finance Act, 2020), within three months from the date on which this clause has come into force; where the fund or trust or institution or any university or other educational institution or any hospital or other medical institution is approved and the period of such approval is set to expire, at least six months prior to expiry of said period; where the fund or trust or institution or any university or other educational institution or any hospital or other medical institution has been provisionally approved, at least six months prior to expiry of period of the provisional approval or within six months of commencement of its activities, whichever is earlier; in any other case, at least one month prior to commencement of the previous year relevant to the assessment year from which said registration is sought. Second proviso to clause (23C) of said section thereof provides for the inquiry to be made by the prescribed authority before approving the fund or trust or institution or any university or other educational institution or any hospital or other medical institution referred to in sub-clause (iv) or sub-clause (v) or sub-clause (vi) or sub-clause (via) of said clause. It is proposed to substitute the second proviso so as to provide that the Principal Commissioner or Commissioner, on receipt of an application made under the proposed first proviso, shall, where the application is under clause (i) of said proviso, pass an order in writing granting it approval for a period of five years; where the application is under clause (ii) or clause (iii) of said proviso, call for such documents or information from it or make such inquiries as he thinks necessary in order to satisfy himself about, the genuineness of activities of such fund or trust or institution or any university or other educational institution or any hospital or other medical institution and the compliance of such requirements of any other law for the time being in force by it as are material for the purpose of achieving its object; and after satisfying himself about the objects and the genuineness of its activities, under item (A), and compliance of the requirements under item (B), of sub-clause (a), pass an order in writing granting its approval for a period of five years; if he is not so satisfied, pass an order in writing rejecting such application and also cancelling its approval after affording it a reasonable opportunity of being heard; where the application is under clause (iv) of said proviso, pass an order in writing granting it approval provisionally for a period of three yearsfrom the assessment year from which the registration is sought, and send a copy of such order to the fund or trust or institution or any university or other educational institution or any hospital or other medical institution. Eighth proviso to clause (23C) thereof, inter alia, provides for period for which a notification issued by Central Government under sub-clause (iv) or sub-clause (v) of said clause shall have effect. It is proposed to substitute the eighth proviso so as to provide that the approval granted under the proposed second proviso shall apply in relation to the income of the fund or trust or institution or any university or other educational institution or any hospital or other medical institution, where the application is made under clause (i) of the first proviso, from the assessment year from which approval was earlier granted to it; where the application is made under clause (iii) of the first proviso, from the first of the assessment years for which it was provisionally approved; in any other case, from the assessment year immediately following the financial year in which such application is made. Ninth proviso to clause (23C) of said section thereof, inter alia, provides for the period within which a notification under sub-clause (iv) or sub-clause (v) shall be issued or approval under sub-clause (iv) or sub-clause (v) or sub-clause (vi) or sub-clause (via) shall be granted or an order rejecting the application made in this behalf shall be passed. It is proposed to substitute the ninth proviso so as to provide that the order under clause (i), sub-clause (b) of clause (ii) and clause (iii) of the proposed second proviso shall be passed, in such form and manner as may be prescribed, before expiry of period of three months, six months and one month respectively, calculated from the end of the month in which the application was received. These amendments will take effect from 1st June, 2020. The tenth proviso to the said clause provides that where the total income, of the fund or trust or institution or any university or other educational institution or any hospital or other medical institution referred to in sub-clause (iv) or sub-clause (v) or sub-clause (vi) or sub-clause (via), without giving effect to the provisions of the said sub-clauses, exceeds the maximum amount which is not chargeable to tax in any previous year, such trust or institution or university or other educational institution or hospital or other medical institution shall get its accounts audited in respect of that year by an accountant as defined in the Explanation below sub-section (2) of section 288 and furnish the report of such audit along with the return of income for the relevant assessment year. It is proposed to amend the said proviso so as to provide that such trust or institution or university or other educational institution or hospital or other medical institution should get the accounts audited before the specified date referred to in section 44AB (i.e. one month prior to the due date for filing of return under sub-section (1) of section 139) and furnish the report of audit by that date. This amendment will take effect from 1st April, 2020 and will, accordingly, apply in relation to the assessment year 2020-2021 and subsequent assessment years. Sixteenth proviso to clause (23C) of said section thereof, inter alia, provides for the period within which application for exemption has to be made by the fund or trust or institution or any university or other educational institution or any hospital or other medical institution under the first proviso. It is proposed to omit the said proviso. It is further proposed to substitute the existing eighteenth proviso so as to provide that all applications made under the existing first proviso, pending before the Principal Commissioner or Commissioner, on which no order has been passed, shall be deemed to be an application made under clause (iv) of the proposed first proviso on that date. Clause (23D) of the said section exempts the income of Mutual Fund registered under the Securities and Exchange Board of India Act, 1992 or such other Mutual Funds. This exemption is subject to the provisions of Chapter XII-E relating to special provision relating to tax on distributed income. It is proposed to omit the reference of the said Chapter in the said clause so that Mutual Funds are not required to pay additional tax under that Chapter. Clause (23FC) of the said section exempts certain income of business trust including income by way of dividend referred to in sub-section (7) of section 115-O. It is proposed to amend the said clause so as to exempt all dividend received or receivable by business trust from a special purpose vehicle under the said clause. Clause (23FD) of the said section exempts income distributed by business trust to a unit holder except the interest and rental income. It is proposed to amend the said clause so as to exclude dividend income received by a unit holder from business trust from such exemption. It is proposed to insert a new clause (23FE) in the said section so as to provide exemption in respect of any income of a specified person in the nature of dividend, interest or long-term capital gains arising from an investment made by it in India, whether in the form of debt or equity, if the investment–– (i) is made on or before the 31st day of March, 2024; (ii)is held for at least three years; and (iii) is in a company or enterprise carrying on the business of developing, or operating and maintaining, or developing, operating or maintaining any infrastructure facility as defined in the Explanation to clause (i) of subsection (4) of section 80-IA or such other business as may be notified by the Central Government in this behalf. It is further proposed to insert an Explanation to the said clause so as to define “specified person” for the purposes of this clause to mean–– (a) a wholly owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority which–– (i) is a resident of the United Arab Emirates; and (ii) makes investment, directly or indirectly, out of the fund owned by the Government of the United Arab Emirates; (b) sovereign wealth fund which shall qualify the conditions specified therein. Clause(34) of the said section exempts income by way of dividends referred to in section 115-O except the income by way of dividend chargeable to tax in accordance with the provisions of section 115BBDA. It is proposed to amend the said clause so as to provide that the provisions of the said clause shall not apply to any income, by way of dividend, received on or after the 1st April, 2020. Clause(35) of the said section exempts income received in respect of the units of a Mutual Fund, units from the Administrator of the specified undertaking and units from the specified company. It is proposed to amend this clause to provide that the provisions of the said clause shall not apply to any income, in respect of units, received on or after the 1st April, 2020. It is also proposed to omit clause (45) of the said section, which provides that any allowance and perquisite as may be notified by the Central Government, paid to the serving or retired Chairman or Members of Union Public Services Commission shall be exempt from income-tax. These amendments will take effect from 1st April, 2021 and will, accordingly, apply in relation to the assessment year 2021-2022 and subsequent assessment years. It is proposed to insert a new clause (48C) in said section so as to provide exemption in respect of any income accruing or arising to Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Limited, being a wholly owned subsidiary of Oil Industry Development Board under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, as a result of arrangement for replenishment of crude oil stored in its storage facility in pursuance of directions of the Central Government in this behalf. It is further proposed to insert a proviso to newly inserted clause so as to provide that nothing contained in this clause shall apply to an arrangement if the crude oil is not replenished in the storage facility within three years from the end of the financial year in which the crude oil was removed from the storage facility for the first time. “Clause 30 of the Bill seeks to amend section 57 of the Income-tax Act relating to deductions. Clause (i) of the said section allows deduction of any reasonable sum for the purpose of realising such dividend except the dividend referred to in section 115-O. It is proposed to omit the reference of dividend referred to in section 115-O. It is further proposed to insert a proviso to the said section so as to provide that no deduction shall be allowed from the dividend income, or income in respect of units of a Mutual Fund specified under clause (23D) of section 10 or income in respect of units from a specified company defined in the Explanation to clause (35) of section 10, other than deduction on account of interest expense and in any previous year such deduction shall not exceed twenty per cent. of the dividend income, or income in respect of such units, included in the total income for that year without deduction under that section. “Clause 40 of the Bill seeks to insert new section 80M relating to deduction in respect of certain inter-corporate dividends. Sub-section (1) of the said new section provides that where the gross total income of a domestic company in any previous year includes any income by way of dividends from any other domestic company, there shall, in accordance with and subject to the provisions of this section, be allowed in computing the total income of such domestic company, a deduction of an amount equal to so much of the amount of income by way of dividends received from such other domestic company as does not exceed the amount of dividend distributed by the first mentioned domestic company on or before the due date. Sub-section (2) of the said section provides that where any deduction, in respect of the amount of dividend distributed by the domestic company, has been allowed under sub-section (1) in any previous year, no deduction shall be allowed in respect of such amount in any other previous year. It is further proposed to clarify the expression “due date” to mean the date one month prior to the date for furnishing the return of income under sub-section (1) of section 139. “Clause 47 of the Bill seeks to amend section 115A of the Income-tax Act relating to tax on dividends, royalty and technical service fees in the case of foreign companies. The said section, interalia, provides for taxation of dividend excluding dividends referred to in section 115-O. It is proposed to omit the reference of dividends referred to in section 115-O so that all dividend income is taxed in the hands of non-resident (not being a company) or a foreign company. Sub-section (1) of the said section provides for the determination of tax in case of a non-resident whose total income consists of dividends or interest payments as specified in clause (a) of the said sub-section and royalty or fees for technical services as specified in clause (b) of the said sub-section. Sub-section (5) of the said section provides that a non-resident will not be required to furnish its return of income under sub-section (1) of section 139 of the Income-tax Act, if the conditions in clause (a) and clause (b) of said subsection are satisfied. The condition under clause (a) of said sub-section requires that the total income of a non-resident should consist only of income in the nature of dividends or interest as referred to in clause (a) of sub-section (1) of the said section. It is proposed to amend clause (a) of the said subsection so as to provide that the total income of the non-resident should consist only of the income in the nature of dividend or interest as referred to in clause (a) of sub-section (1) of the said section or income in the nature of royalty or fee for technical services as referred to in clause (b) of subsection (1) of the said section. The condition under clause (b) of said sub-section requires that the tax deductible at source on such income as referred to in clause (a) of sub-section (1) of the said section has been deducted as per the provisions of Part B of Chapter XVII of the Income-tax Act. It is further proposed to amend clause (b) of the said sub-section so as to provide that the tax deductible at source on income referred to in clause (a) or clause (b) of subsection (1) of the said section, has been done under the provisions of Chapter XVII at the rates which are not less than the rate specified under clause (a) or clause (b) of subsection (1) of the said section. “Clause 48 of the Bill seeks to amend section 115AC of the Income-tax Act relating to tax on income from bonds or Global Depository Receipts purchased in foreign currency or capital gains arising from their transfer. The said section, inter-alia, provides for taxation of dividend excluding dividends referred to in section 115-O. It is proposed to omit the reference of dividends referred to in section 115-O so that all dividend income is taxed in the hands of non-resident. “Clause 49 of the Bill seeks to amend section 115ACA of the Income-tax Act relating to tax on income from Global Depository Receipts purchased in foreign currency or capital gains arising from their transfer. The said section, inter alia, provides for taxation of dividend excluding dividends referred to in section 115-O. It is proposed to omit the reference of dividends referred to in section 115-O so that all dividend income is taxed in the hands of non-resident. “Clause 50 of the Bill seeks to amend section 115AD of the Income-tax Act relating to tax on income of Foreign Institutional Investors from securities or capital gains arising from their transfer. The said section, interalia, provides for taxation of dividend excluding dividends referred to in section 115-O. It is proposed to omit the reference of income by way of dividends referred to in section 115-O so that all dividend income is taxed in the hands of Foreign Institutional Investors. “Clause 54 of the Bill seeks to amend section 115BBDA of the Income-tax Act relating to tax on certain dividends received from domestic companies. The said section provides for taxation of dividend exceeding ten lakh rupees in the hands of specified assessee resident in India at the rate of ten per cent. It is proposed to amend the said section so as to restrict the applicability of the provisions of that section to dividend declared, distributed or paid by a domestic company or companies on or before the 31st day of March, 2020. Sub-clause (iii) of clause (b) of Explanation to aforesaid section provides “specified assessee” for the purposes of said section, to mean a person other than a trust or institution registered under section 12A or section 12AA. It is proposed to make a reference to section 12AB in the said sub-clause so as to provide that “specified assessee” for the purposes of said section, shall mean a person other than a trust or institution registered under section 12AB, as well. This amendment will take effect from 1st June, 2020.” “Clause 55 of the Bill seeks to amend section 115C of the Income-tax Act relating to definitions. Clause (c) of the said section defines the expression “investment income” for the purposes of Chapter XII-A to mean any income derived other than dividends referred to in section 115-O from a foreign exchange asset. It is proposed to amend the said clause to omit the reference of dividend referred to in section 115-O so as to define “investment income” to mean any income derived from a foreign exchange asset. “Clause 59 of the Bill seeks to amend section 115-O of the Income-tax Act relating tax on distributed profits of domestic companies. The said section provides for levy of additional income tax on any amount declared, distributed or paid by a domestic company by way of dividend (whether interim or otherwise), whether out of current or accumulated profits. The dividend declared, distributed or paid on or after the 1st day of April, 2003 is covered under the provisions of the said section. It is proposed to amend sub-section (1) of the said section so as to provide that dividend declared, distributed or paid on or after the 1st day of April, 2003 but on or before the 31st day of March, 2020 shall be covered under the provisions of the said section. “Clause 60 of the Bill seeks to amend section 115R of the Income-tax Act relating to tax on distributed income to unit holders. The said section, interalia, provides for levy of additional income-tax on any income distributed by the specified company or a Mutual Fund to its unit holders. It is proposed to amend sub-section (2) of the said section so as to provide that the income distributed on or before the 31st day of March, 2020 shall only be covered under the provisions of that section. “Clause 62 of the Bill seeks to amend section 115UA of the Income-tax Act relating to tax on income of unit holder and business trust. The said section enables pass through of the income of certain nature from business trust to its unit holders. Sub-section (3) of the said section provides that if in any previous year, the distributed income or any part thereof, received by a unit holder from the business trust is of the nature as referred to in sub-clause (a) of clause (23FC) or clause (23FCA), of section 10, then, such distributed income or part thereof shall be deemed to be the income of such unit holder and shall be charged to tax as income of the previous year. It is proposed to omit the reference of sub-clause (a) of clause (23FC) of section 10 from the said sub-section so as to provide that the distributed income of the nature as referred to in clause (23FC) or clause (23FCA) of section 10 shall be deemed to be income of unit holder and shall be charged to tax as income of the previous year. “Clause 74 of the Bill seeks to amend section 194 of the Income-tax Act relating to dividends. The said section, inter alia, provides that the principal officer of an Indian company or a company which has made the prescribed arrangements for the declaration and payment of dividends (including dividends on preference shares) within India, shall, before making any payment in cash or before issuing any cheque or warranty in respect of any dividend or before making any distribution or payment to a shareholder, who is resident in India, of any dividend within the meaning of sub-clause (a) or sub-clause (b) or sub-clause (c) or sub-clause (d) or sub-clause (e) of clause (22) of section 2, deduct from the amount of such dividend, income-tax at the rates in force. It is proposed to amend the said section so as to bring the payment by any mode within the ambit of that section and also to provide for deduction at the rate of ten per cent. instead of the rates in force. It is further proposed to amend the first proviso to the said section so as to provide for payment of dividend by the company by any mode and to increase the threshold limit thereof from two thousand five hundred rupees to five thousand rupees. It is also proposed to consequentially omit the third proviso to the said section. These amendments will take effect from 1st April, 2020.” “Clause 80 of the Bill seeks to insert a new section 194K relating to income in respect of units. The said section, inter alia, provides that any person responsible for paying to a resident any income in respect of–– (i) units of a Mutual Fund specified under clause (23D) of section 10; or (ii) units from the Administrator of the specified undertaking; or (iii) units from the specified company, shall, at the time of credit of such income to the account of the payee or at the time of payment thereof by any mode, whichever is earlier, deduct income-tax thereon at the rate of ten per cent. It is further proposed to provide that the provisions of the said section shall not apply where the amount of such income or, as the case may be, the aggregate of the amounts of such income credited or paid or likely to be credited or paid during the financial year by the person responsible for making the payment to the account of, or to, the payee does not exceed five thousand rupees. It is also proposed to define the expressions “Administrator”, “specified company” and “specified undertaking” and to clarify that where any income referred to in the said section is credited to any account, whether called “Suspense account” or by any other name, in the books of account of the person liable to pay such income, such crediting shall be deemed to be credit of such income to the account of the payee and the provisions of this section shall apply accordingly. This amendment will take effect from 1st April, 2020.” “Clause 81 of the Bill seeks to amend section 194LBA of the Income-tax Act relating to certain income from units of a business trust. The said section, inter alia, requires business trust to deduct tax on distribution of income, referred to in section 115UA, being of the nature referred to in sub-clause (a) of clause (23FC) or clause (23FCA) of section 10, at the rate of ten per cent. to a resident and at the rate of five per cent. to a non-resident (not being a company) or a foreign company, respectively. It is proposed to amend the said section so as to omit the reference of sub-clause (a) of clause (23FC) of section 10 from the said section. Thus, liability to deduct tax shall be applicable on distribution of income referred to in section 115UA, being of the nature referred to in clause (23FC) or clause (23FCA) of section 10, to a resident and to a nonresident (not being a company) or a foreign company. It is further proposed to amend sub-section (2) of the said section to provide that the tax is to be deducted at the rate of five per cent. in case of income the nature referred to in sub-clause (a) of clause (23FC) of section 10 and at the rate of ten per cent. in case of income of the nature referred to in sub-clause (b) of the said clause. “Clause 85 of the Bill seeks to amend section 195 of the Income-tax Act relating to other sums. The second proviso of sub-section (2) of the said section provides that no deduction under that section shall be made in respect of any dividends referred to in section 115-O. It is proposed to consequentially omit the said proviso. “Clause 86 of the Bill seeks to amend section 196A of the Income-tax Act relating to income in respect of units of nonresidents. Sub-section (1) of the said section provides that any person responsible for paying to a non-resident, not being a company, or to a foreign company, any income in respect of a Mutual Fund specified under clause (23D) of section 10 or of the Unit Trust of India shall, at the time of credit of such income to the account of the payee or at the time of payment thereof in cash or by the issue of a cheque or draft or by any other mode, whichever is earlier, deduct income-tax thereon at the rate of twenty per cent. It is proposed to amend the said sub-section to substitute the expression “Unit Trust of India” referred to in the said sub-section with “specified company referred to in the Explanation to clause (35) of section 10; and to enable credit of income or payment thereof by any mode. Proviso to this sub-section provides that no deduction shall be made under this section from any such income credited or paid on or after the 1st day of April, 2003. It is further proposed to omit the proviso to the said sub-section. “Clause 87 of the Bill seeks to amend section 196C of the Income-tax Act relating to income from foreign currency bonds or shares of Indian company. The said section provides that where any income by way of interest or dividends in respect of bonds or Global Depository Receipts referred to in section 115AC or by way of long-term capital gains arising from the transfer of such bonds or Global Depository Receipts is payable to a nonresident, the person responsible for making the payment shall, at the time of credit of such income to the account of the payee or at the time of payment thereof in cash or by the issue of a cheque or draft or by any other mode, whichever is earlier, deduct income-tax thereon at the rate of ten per cent. It is proposed to amend said section so as to enable credit of income or payment thereof by any mode. It is further proposed to omit the proviso to the said section. “Clause 88 of the Bill seeks to amend section 196D of the Income-tax Act relating to income of Foreign Institutional Investors from securities. The said section, interalia, provides that where any income in respect of securities referred to in clause (a) of sub-section (1) of section 115AD, not being income by way of interest referred to in section 194LD, is payable to a Foreign Institutional Investor, the person responsible for making the payment shall, at the time of credit of such income to the account of the payee or at the time of payment thereof in cash or by the issue of a cheque or draft or by any other mode, whichever is earlier, deduct income-tax thereon at the rate of twenty per cent. It is proposed to amend sub-section (1) of the said section so as to enable credit of income or payment thereof by any mode. It is further proposed to omit the proviso to the said sub-section. Extract of Relevant Amendment Proposed by Finance Bill, 2020 7. Amendment of section 10. (I) in clause (23C),– (A) with effect from the 1st day of June, 2020,– (a) for the first and second provisos, the following provisos shall be substituted, namely:– “Provided that the exemption to the fund or trust or institution or university or other educational institution or hospital or other medical institution referred to in sub-clause (iv) or sub-clause (v) or sub-clause (vi) or sub-clause (via) under the respective sub-clauses shall not be available to it unless such fund or trust or institution or university or other educational institution or hospital or other medical institution makes an application in the prescribed form and manner to the Principal Commissioner or Commissioner, for grant of approval,–– (i) where such fund or trust or institution or university or other educational institution or hospital or other medical institution is approved under the second proviso [as it stood immediately before its amendment by the Finance Act, 2020], within three months from the date on which this clause has come into force; (ii) where such fund or trust or institution or university or other educational institution or hospital or other medical institution is approved and the period of such approval is due to expire, at least six months prior to expiry of the said period; (iii) where such fund or trust or institution or university or other educational institution or hospital or other medical institution has been provisionally approved, at least six months prior to expiry of the period of the provisional approval or within six months of commencement of its activities, whichever is earlier; (iv) in any other case, at least one month prior to the commencement of the previous year relevant to the assessment year from which the said approval is sought, and the said fund or trust or institution or university or other educational institution or hospital or other medical institution is approved under the second proviso: Provided further that the Principal Commissioner or Commissioner, on receipt of an application made under the first proviso, shall,— (i) where the application is made under clause (i) of the said proviso, pass an order in writing granting approval to it for a period of five years; (ii) where the application is made under clause (ii) or clause (iii) of the said proviso,– (a) call for such documents or information from it or make such inquiries as he thinks necessary in order to satisfy himself about (A) the genuineness of activities of such fund or trust or institution or university or other educational institution or hospital or other medical institution; and (B) the compliance of such requirements of any other law for the time being in force by it as are material for the purpose of achieving its objects; and (b) after satisfying himself about the objects and the genuineness of its activities under item (A), and compliance of the requirements under item (B), of sub-clause (a),–– (A) pass an order in writing granting approval to it for a period of five years; (B) if he is not so satisfied, pass an order in writing rejecting such application and also cancelling its approval after affording it a reasonable opportunity of being heard; (iii) where the application is made under clause (iv) of the said proviso, pass an order in writing granting approval to it provisionally for a period of three years from the assessment year from which the registration is sought, and send a copy of such order to the fund or trust or institution or university or other educational institution or hospital or other medical institution:”; (b) for the eighth and ninth provisos, the following provisos shall be substituted, namely:–– “Provided also that any approval granted under the second proviso shall apply in relation to the income of the fund or trust or institution or university or other educational institution or hospital or other medical institution,–– (i) where the application is made under clause (i) of the first proviso, from the assessment year from which approval was earlier granted to it; (ii) where the application is made under clause (iii) of the first proviso, from the first of the assessment years for which it was provisionally approved; (iii) in any other case, from the assessment year immediately following the financial year in which such application is made: Provided also that the order under clause (i), sub-clause (b) of clause (ii) and clause (iii) of the second proviso shall be passed, in such form and manner as may be prescribed, before expiry of the period of three months, six months and one month, respectively, calculated from the end of the month in which the application was received:”; (B) in the tenth proviso, for the words and figures “section 288 and furnish along with the return of income for the relevant assessment year”, the words, figures and letters “section 288 before the specified date referred to in section 44AB and furnish by that date” shall be substituted; (C) with effect from the 1st day of June, 2020,– (a) the sixteenth proviso shall be omitted; (b) for the eighteenth proviso, the following proviso shall be substituted, namely:– “Provided also that all applications made under the first proviso [as it stood before its amendment by the Finance Act, 2020] pending before the Principal Commissioner or Commissioner, on which no order has been passed before the date on which the first proviso has come into force, shall be deemed to be an application made under clause (iv) of the first proviso on that date:”; (II) with effect from the 1st day of April, 2021,– (a) in clause (23D), in the opening portion, the words, figures and letter “subject to the provisions of Chapter XII-E,” shall be omitted; (b) in clause (23FC), in sub-clause (b), for the words, brackets, figures and letter “referred to in sub-section (7) of section 115-O”, the words “received or receivable from a special purpose vehicle” shall be substituted; (c) in clause (23FD), the words, brackets and letter “sub-clause (a) of” shall be omitted; (d) after clause (23FD), the following clause shall be inserted, namely:– ‘(23FE) any income of a specified person in the nature of dividend, interest or long-term capital gains arising from an investment made by it in India, whether in the form of debt or equity, if the investment– (ii) is held for at least three years; and (iii) is in a company or enterprise carrying on the business of developing, or operating and maintaining, or developing, operating and maintaining any infrastructure facility as defined in the Explanation to clause (i) of sub-section (4) of section 80-IA or such other business as the Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, specify in this behalf. Explanation.—For the purposes of this clause, “specified person” means– (b) a sovereign wealth fund which satisfies the following conditions, namely:– (i) it is wholly owned and controlled, directly or indirectly, by the Government of a foreign country; (ii) it is set up and regulated under the law of such foreign country; (iii) the earnings of the said fund are credited either to the account of the Government of that foreign country or to any other account designated by that Government so that no portion of the earnings inures any benefit to any private person; (iv) the asset of the said fund vests in the Government of such foreign country upon dissolution; (v) it does not undertake any commercial activity whether within or 15 outside India; and (vi) it is specified by the Central Government, by notification in the Official Gazette, for this purpose;’; (e) in clause (34), after the proviso, the following proviso shall be inserted, namely:- “Provided further that nothing contained in this clause shall apply to any income by way of dividend received on or after the 1st day of April, 2020;”; (f) in clause (35), after the proviso, the following proviso shall be inserted, namely:– “Provided further that nothing contained in this clause shall apply to any income in respect of units received on or after the 1st day of April, 2020;”; (g) clause (45) shall be omitted; (III) after clause (48B), the following clause shall be inserted, namely:– “(48C) any income accruing or arising to the Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Limited, being a wholly owned subsidiary of the Oil Industry Development Board under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, as a result of arrangement for replenishment of crude oil stored in its storage facility in pursuance of directions of the Central Government in this behalf: Provided that nothing contained in this clause shall apply to an arrangement, if the crude oil is not replenished in the storage facility within three years from the end of the financial year in which the crude oil was removed from the storage facility for the first time;”. 30. Amendment of section 57. In section 57 of the Income-tax Act, with effect from the 1st day of April, 2021,–– (a) in clause (i), for the words, figures and letter “dividends, other than dividends referred to in section 115-O”, the word “dividends” shall be substituted; (b) the following proviso shall be inserted, namely:–– “Provided that no deduction shall be allowed from the dividend income, or income in respect of units of a Mutual Fund specified under clause (23D) of section 10 or income in respect of units from a specified company defined in the Explanation to clause (35) of section 10, other than deduction on account of interest expense, and in any previous year such deduction shall not exceed twenty per cent. of the dividend income, or income in respect of such units, included in the total income for that year, without deduction under this section.”. 40. Insertion of new section 80M. Deduction in respect of certain intercorporate dividends. After section 80LA of the Income-tax Act, the following section shall be inserted with effect from the 1st day of April, 2021, namely:– ‘80M. (1) Where the gross total income of a domestic company in any previous year includes any income by way of dividends from any other domestic company, there shall, in accordance with and subject to the provisions of this section, be allowed in computing the total income of such domestic company, a deduction of an amount equal to so much of the amount of income by way of dividends received from such other domestic company as does not exceed the amount of dividend distributed by the first mentioned domestic company on or before the due date. (2) Where any deduction, in respect of the amount of dividend distributed by the domestic company, has been allowed under sub-section (1) in any previous year, no deduction shall be allowed in respect of such amount in any other previous year. Explanation.– For the purposes of this section, the expression “due date” means the date one month prior to the date for furnishing the return of income under sub-section (1) of section 139.’. 47. Amendment of section 115A. In section 115A of the Income-tax Act,– (I) in sub-section (1), in clause (a), the words, figures and letter “other than dividends referred to in section 115-O” at both the places where they occur, shall be omitted with effect from the 1st day of April, 2021; (II) in sub-section (5),– (i) in clause (a), for the word, brackets and letter “clause (a)”, the words, brackets and letters “clause (a) or clause (b)” shall be substituted; (ii) for clause (b), the following clause shall be substituted, namely:– “(b) the tax deductible at source under the provisions of Part B of Chapter XVII has been deducted from such income and the rate of such deduction is not less than the rate specified under clause (a) or, as the case may be, clause (b) of sub-section (1).”. 48. Amendment of section 115AC. In section 115AC of the Income-tax Act, for the words, figures and letter “dividends, other than dividends referred to in section 115-O” wherever they occur, the word “dividends” shall be substituted with effect from the 1st day of April, 2021. 49. Amendment of section 115ACA. In section 115ACA of the Income-tax Act, for the words, figures and letter “dividends, other than dividends referred to in section 115-O” wherever they occur, the word “dividends” shall be substituted with effect from the 1st day of April, 2021. 50. Amendment of section 115AD. In section 115AD of the Income-tax Act, in sub-section (1), in clause (a), the words, figures and letter “other than income by way of dividends referred to in section 115-O” shall be omitted with effect from the 1st day of April, 2021. 54. Amendment of section 115BBDA. In section 115BBDA of the Income-tax Act,–– (a) in sub-section (1), for the words “or companies”, the words, figures and letters “or companies on or before the 31st day of March, 2020” shall be substituted with effect from the 1st day of April, 2021; (b) in the Explanation, in clause (b), in sub-clause (iii), for the words, figures and letters “under section 12A or section 12AA”, the words, figures and letters “under section 12A or section 12AA or section 12AB” shall be substituted with effect from the 1st day of June, 2020. 55. Amendment of section 115C. In section 115C of the Income-tax Act, in clause (c), the words, figures and letter “other than dividends referred to in section 115-O” shall be omitted with effect from the 1st day of April, 2021. 59. Amendment of section 115-O. In section 115-O of the Income-tax Act, in sub-section (1), after the words, figures and letters “on or after the 1st day of April, 2003”, the words, figures and letters “but on or before the 31st day of March, 2020” shall be inserted with effect from the 1st day of April, 2021. 60. Amendment of section 115R. In section 115R of the Income-tax Act, in sub-section (2), after the words “or a Mutual Fund to its unit holders”, the words, figures and letters “on or before the 31st day of March, 2020” shall be inserted with effect from the 1st day of April, 2021. 62. Amendment of section 115UA. In section 115UA of the Income-tax Act, in sub-section (3), the words, brackets and letter “sub-clause (a) of” shall be omitted with effect from the 1st day of April, 2021. 74. Amendment of section 194. In section 194 of the Income-tax Act,–– (A) for the words “in cash or before issuing any cheque or warrant”, the words “by any mode” shall be substituted; (B) for the words “at the rates in force”, the words “at the rate of ten per cent.” shall be substituted; (C) in the first proviso,–– (i) in clause (a), for the words “an account payee cheque”, the words “any mode other than cash” shall be substituted; (ii) in clause (b), for the words “two thousand five hundred rupees”, the words “five thousand rupees” shall be substituted; 80. Insertion of new section 194K. After section 194J of the Income-tax Act, the following section shall be inserted, namely:- Income in respect of units. ‘194K. Any person responsible for paying to a resident any income in respect of– (a) units of a Mutual Fund specified under clause (23D) of section 10; or (b) units from the Administrator of the specified undertaking; or (c) units from the specified company, shall, at the time of credit of such income to the account of the payee or at the time of payment thereof by any mode, whichever is earlier, deduct income-tax thereon at the rate of ten per cent.: Provided that the provisions of this section shall not apply where the amount of such income or, as the case may be, the aggregate of the amounts of such income credited or paid or likely to be credited or paid during the financial year by the person responsible for making the payment to the account of, or to, the payee does not exceed five thousand rupees. (a ) “Administrator” means the Administrator as referred to in clause (a) of section 2 of the Unit Trust of India (Transfer of Undertaking and Repeal) Act, 2002; (b) “specified company” means a company as referred to in clause (h) of section 2 of the Unit Trust of India (Transfer of Undertaking and Repeal) Act, 2002; (c) “specified undertaking” shall have the meaning assigned to it in clause (i) of section 2 of the Unit Trust of India (Transfer of Undertaking and Repeal) Act, 2002. Explanation 2.– For the removal of doubts, it is hereby clarified that where any income referred to in this section is credited to any account, whether called “suspense account” or by any other name, in the books of account of the person liable to pay such income, such crediting shall be deemed to be the credit of such income to the account of the payee and the provisions of this section shall apply accordingly.’. 81. Amendment of section 194LBA. In section 194LBA of the Income-tax Act,–– (a) the words, brackets and letter “sub-clause (a) of” at both the places where they occur shall be omitted; (b) in sub-section (2), for the words “five per cent.”, the words, brackets and letters “five per cent. in case of income of the nature referred to in sub-clause (a) and ten per cent. in case of income of the nature referred to in sub-clause (b), of the said clause” shall be substituted. In section 195 of the Income-tax Act, in sub-section (1), the second proviso shall be omitted. In section 196A of the Income-tax Act, in sub-section (1),– (a) for the words “of the Unit Trust of India”, the words, brackets and figures “from the specified company referred to in the Explanation to clause (35) of section 10” shall be substituted; (b) for the words “in cash or by the issue of a cheque or draft or by any other mode”, the words “ by any mode” shall be substituted; (c) the proviso shall be omitted. In section 196C of the Income-tax Act,–– (a) for the words “in cash or by the issue of a cheque or draft or by any other mode”, the words “by any mode” shall be substituted; (b) the proviso shall be omitted. 88. Amendment of section 196D. In section 196D of the Income-tax Act, in sub-section (1),–– Source- Finance Bill 2020 / Union Budget 2020-21 Tags: Budget, Budget 2020, Budget Common Man, Income Tax Return, personal income tax, personal income tax changes More Under Income Tax Providing of accommodation & food & beverages by Trust not constitutes commercial activities Notice: It seems you have Javascript disabled in your Browser. In order to submit a comment to this post, please write this code along with your comment: e8dd27305c39f6fff7ab08a9fbfa7f21	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line7987
__label__cc	0.578045	0.421955	hello@teachspeechinc.com Neuro Training Neuro Modules Washington football team NFL $3B 16 boston red I used to love ‘Fortnite’ and the new ‘Call of Duty’ was really fun too. According to MSG, a variety of text messaging campaigns will be Custom Jerseys Cyber Monday Sale to ensure a fun, exciting and participatory audience experience, including Text-2-Win promotions, Text-2-Vote polls and surveys, and Text-2-Screen. Denver Broncos NFL $3B Source: Forbes By Barry Janoff March 15: Based on strong recommendations issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on March 15 – that for the next eight weeks, organizers cancel or postpone in-person events that consist of 50 people or more throughout the United States – MLB, the NBA, NHL and MLS might not return to action until mid-to-late May, if then. 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Naomi Osaka tennis $37M 2. These are big companies that want to help us grow and want … Two people hall their entourages get to part Lacrosse is a sport whose … MD Portal ©2018 TeachSpeech, Inc. \| All Rights Reserved. Please login/signup to access Modules Please login/signup to access video series A voice impairment is a term used to describe an abnormal production and or an absence of voice. Vocal quality, pitch, loudness, resonance, and duration may be affected. The condition can present itself as a vocal cord dysfunction, a pathology, whereby which full or partial closure of the folds is negatively impacted. Vocal cord dysfunction, along with the associated disorders found in this clustered category, require the multi-disciplinary integration of a laryngologist. Swallowing disorders, also known as dysphagia, is a term used to describe the difficulty an individual has at the oral, physiological and esophageal stages of deglutition. The condition is often attributed to a structural or functional weakness. Yet at times is an indirect result of cognitive deficits. Whereas, a feeding disorder is a general term used to describe a child’s difficulty accepting an age-appropriate diet. Stuttering is a term used to describe an interruption in the flow of speech. Primary characteristics include one or more of the following: (a) audible or silent blocking; (b) sound and syllable repetitions; (c) sound prolongations; (d) interjections; (e) broken words; (f) circumlocutions or (g) words produced with an excess of tension. Secondary characteristics include the habitual use of speech musculature or other body parts (e.g., eye blinking) thought to be initiated to release, conceal or modify the dysfluency. Social pragmatic deficits is a term used to describe an individual’s inability to understand, and as a result, adhere to the rules governing the use of language in communal contexts. In children, this can be seen as difficulty making comments, requesting objects or actions, informing, taking turns and sustaining proper posture and attention, during discourse. A resonance disorder is a term used to describe speech sound deficits characterized by physiological anomalies, such as hyper and hyponasality and malformed or malfunctioning palates. A reading delay is a term used to describe a condition, whereby which an individual has difficulty with written print. When prolonged, the delay is deemed a disorder. The conditions of which can include: Developmental Dyslexia, Alexia (acquired dyslexia), and Hyperlexia (word-reading ability well above normal for age and IQ). Phonological processes is a term used to describe the techniques applied by children, when attempting to produce adult language. Deficits occur, when these developmental processes, which are expected to fade by a given age, are developmentally prolonged. They include: Deletion of Final Consonants occurs when the speaker deletes the final consonant from a word e.g. cat = ca; Syllable Reduction is the deletion of a syllable from a word e.g. banana = bana; Stopping is the replacement of fricatives with a stop consonant, e.g. soup = dup; Cluster Simplification occurs when one or more consonants is deleted from a sequence of consonants, e.g. blue = bu; Liquid Simplification is the substitution of /w/ or /j/ for /l/ and /r/, e.g. rock = wok; Velar Fronting is the substitution of /t/ and /d/ for /k/ and /g/, e.g. cat = tat; Palatal Fronting is the substitution of palatal consonants with nonpalatal consonants, e.g. shovel = sovel; Deaffrication is the deletion of the stop feature of an affricate, e.g. matches = mashes; Initial Voicing is the inappropriate voicing of initial voiceless consonants, e.g. pen = ben; Final Devoicing is the substitution of a voiceless consonant for the final voiced consonant, e.g. bed = bet. An orofacial myofunctional disorder is a term used to describe impairments of the muscles and functions of the face and mouth. Orofacial myofunctional disorders may affect, either directly and or indirectly, facial skeletal growth, chewing, swallowing, speech, occlusion, temporomandibular joint movement, oral hygiene, stability of orthodontic treatment, facial esthetics, and more. A neurological impairment is a term used to describe a limited and or impaired capacity of the nervous system. The difficulties exhibited include one or more of the following domains: the use of memory, the control and use of cognitive functioning, sensory and motor skills, speech, language, organizational skills, information processing, affect, social skills, or basic life functions. A language disorder is a term used to describe an impairment of comprehension and or the oral application of written, symbolled systems. This disorder may involve (1) the form of language (phonology, morphology, syntax), (2) the content of language (semantics), and or (3) the function of language in communication (pragmatics). Dyslexia is a term used to describe a cluster of symptoms that result in individuals having difficulty with reading. Both oral and written language, such as writing and annunciation of print, may be affected. Dysarthria is a term used to describe a collection of motor speech disorders, whose impairment originates in the central or peripheral nervous system. As a result, the domains of respiration, articulation, phonation, resonation, and prosody may all be affected. Cluttering is a term used to describe a speech and language processing disorder, which results in rapid, dysrhythmic, sporadic, unorganized and frequently unintelligible speech. Though accelerated speech may not always be present, an impairment in formulating language most commonly is. Childhood apraxia of speech is a term used to describe an impaired ability to generate the motor programming for speech movements, as a direct result from a central nervous system lesion. The child in this instance has the ability to produce sounds, yet it is inconsistent and at times random. Normatively, substitutions and omissions are the most common errors. Whereas, speech rate and rhythm may be affected. Identification is typically made between the ages of three and five, although it can be later. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a term used to describe a developmental disorder that affects communication and behavior. The condition encompasses a wide range of symptoms characterized by challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviors, speech and nonverbal communication, as well as, unique strengths and differences. An auditory processing disorder, also known as a Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD), is a term used to describe an impaired ability to recognize and interpret sounds. It involves difficulty with the perceptual processing of auditory information in the central nervous system, and as a result impacts the assignment of meaning. An articulation impairment is a term used to describe a speech disorder that affects the phonetic level, specifically an individual’s ability to say particular sounds. Identification of this disorder is generally made between the ages of 5 and 8. Though, the impact on communication will depend on the type, severity, and number of errors. Notably, the causes vary and may be linked to transient hearing loss due to otitis media (frequent ear infections) or allergies; structural or functional problems with the lips, teeth, tongue, or hard palate; or a medical condition such as cleft palate or cerebral palsy. Accent reduction, also known as accent modification, is a term that refers to a systematic approach for learning or adopting the speech sound system of a non-native language, which includes its phonology and melodic intonation.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line7988
__label__wiki	0.841907	0.841907	China’s Tiangong-2 space station is officially no more Chinese space station Tiangong-2 has officially ended its mission, and the orbital research facility’s entire existence. The platform de-orbited and burned up as planned at just after 9 AM ET on Friday, coming down over the South Pacific Ocean, as confirmed by the official Chinese space agency. The station weighed around nine U.S. tons at the time it re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere, but even so it was small enough that it almost entirely burned up in the process. Tiangong-2 was relatively small for a space station (when measured against the ISS), consisting of just a research module with enough space on board for only two astronauts. After about 1,000 days in space, Tiangong-2 had exceeded its planned lifespan, and China’s space agency planned this de-orbit — in contrast to Tiangong-1’s de-orbit last year, which was not planned (though ultimately not a risk to anyone on the ground, either). Both of these, and the forthcoming Tiangong-3, are intended as temporary orbital stations designed for testing key technologies in pursuit of the “real” Chinese space station — which is set to begin its mission life in 2020 with the launch of the Tianhe-1 core module.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line7990
__label__cc	0.580185	0.419815	TechnicalNow.in Pushpinder Pal Singh / Technology The Timeline: Delhi Metro Sitting in the Deli metro many of use may have thought, “yaar ye kitna deti hogi“ (“ How much mileage will it give”).Delhi metro has been awarded the title to be one of the cleanest and least polluting trains in the world by using techniques such as Regenerative Braking and Using electricity generated by solar plants owned by DMRC (Delhi Metro Rail Corporation). Many of us might not know that the project to build a sustainable transport started in 1998. If you are old enough you might have stuck in the traffic or dodge the buses which was poorly managed and even poorly driven or even worse waited for a bus while you were being late to reach somewhere and when the bus arrived it was overcrowded, with guts you stepped on the bus only to find that the driver is crazy, driving the bus as his father’s Ferrari. These were the major problems back in the 90s (not that it’s completely solved now but the condition have improved tremendously in past couple of decades) which was increasing day by day with increase in population , which increased 5 folds between 1981 and 1988, ti conquer this problem the Central Government and the Government of Delhi together founded a company which will improve the condition of transportation in the capital and its surrounding area. DMRC, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation was set up by Government of India and Government of Delhi on 3 May,1995. You might have seen this seen on metros and metro station, many relate this symbol to Delhi Metro but it’s actually the symbol of DMRC. All the planning and execution is under the jurisdiction of DMRC. This may be a surprise to many of you but like Marvel Cinematic Universe have phases (comment down below your favourite character in the MCU, mine is Black Panther WAKANDA FOREVER!!?) Delhi Metro also have phases. And coincidentally or intentionally Delhi Metro is also on its fourth phase. The cost of construction of first phase was around 10,571 crores according to DMRC reports, which rose to 41,079 crores in phase 3. And as you may have been thinking or you should be thinking is how the hell those our government can afford this with many other projects going simultaneously? The major funding came in the form of loans from japanese government (over 60%) and 28% from central and state government jointly for the phase 1.The japanese government provided 55% and 48% in phase 2 and 3 respectively. The construction of first phase of delhi metro began in 1998 and DMRC was given full authority over to hire to people, decide on tenders and control funds.They hired the Honk Kong MTRC as a technical consultant on rapid transit operation and construction techniques. And i am guessing that none or maybe every few of you may know what MTRC is. MTRC or MTR Corporation Limited is a company that runs Hong Kong’s Mass Transit Railway, or in other words, The Hong Kong Metro. The first line of the Delhi Metro was inaugurated in the december of 2004 by our then Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee. By the way for you information NOT everything in India is delayed, and talking about Delhi Metro , it’s first phase was completed 3 years earlier than plan and on budget. History aside, now let’s talk about the technological advances of Delhi Metro. Delhi Metro is considered to be one of the most advanced and sustainable project. DMRC has installed nine new solar power generation facilities on stations and depot of Badarpur- Faridabad metro corridor for partial fulfillment of the energy requirements of that corridor. Also using Regenerative Braking in metro, it can return 30%(this figure is although tentative) of the energy to its source while braking. Regenerative Braking is braking using motors which will convert vehicle’s kinetic energy into electrical energy. This technique is used in many cars including the Teslas and a version of Maruti Suzuki Ciaz, which is ny the way available to buy in India.Electric Motors are used in reverse which make them act as a generator. Delhi Metro has saved over 112,500 megawatt-hours during a three year period. The Delhi Metro is the first project to be registered for carbon credits by the United Natons in 2007 for the same reasons. DMRC plans to reduce the carbon emissons from 39,000 metric tons, growing to 1,00,000 tons in the coming years. Now, many western countries, are aiming to use this technology to reduce carbon emission, which include New York’s transit system for its fleet and some UK based transit companies. Which is a huge compliment to DMRC. Conclusion TIme Delhi Metro play an extremely crucial part in the Delhiites Life, which include me, and we can’t imagine our lives without this service. And the development of such a transport with sustainable methods and travelling in it makes a huge impact on the environment in a positive way.If you are delhiite and never travel in the delhi metro, then what are you waiting for? It’s about time you do because once you do you will never want to use another transport for transportation.And that’s a pretty BIG claim. Also i wanted to mention, that Delhi Metro, or rather any metro and its stations in the county are much cleaner than transit system you will come across in some of the europian contries.Which is another huge win for INDIA Previous Post How does PUBG mobile make Money? Next Post 5 Upcoming Technologies in 2019 CategoriesTechnology The Timeline Written by:Pushpinder Pal Singh I am an engineering student in NSUT, formerly NSIT. Currently living in New Delhi and hope to live here till my last breath. I am a technology nerd and a photographer. I also love reading books while cuddled in my blanket, although I don't get enough time to read. Everything Technical….. Maintained by Pushpinder Pal Singh	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line7992
__label__cc	0.633541	0.366459	IV Infusions Whether you come to The Wellness Edge seeking energy, recovery, stress relief, or anti-aging therapy, our trained staff will guide you through the process every step of the way, ensuring outcomes that help you achieve the results you seek. Our talented, sympathetic, and caring accredited health professionals begin by working up a health profile of your concerns, needs, and goals, and develop a treatment program to speak to that. Rose Ann Wade An entrepreneurial mother of two and grandmother of five, Rose Ann Wade is a registered nurse who devoted more than a decade to caring for patients in surgery, oncology and other medical situations as a member of trusted health teams. As a Registered Nurse, Rose Ann cared for patients at Detroit Medical Center, Mt. Clemens General Hospital, American Surgical Center, and St. John’s Hospital. Before she became a nurse, Rose Ann worked in a doctor’s office and as a phlebotomist, and then sold real estate and fine jewelry. In 2014, Rose Ann became a business owner in the wholesale and retail market in Detroit for four years. She sold her interest in the company in 2018 and set out to create The Wellness Edge. A 2018 graduate of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses entrepreneurial intensive, Rose Ann created The Wellness Edge to fulfill her lifelong devotion to alternative health. “I believe in people taking care of themselves and taking responsibility for their health care,” she says. “Millennials see the wisdom in guiding their own health journey. I’ve always known that our bodies have a brilliant ability to heal, when given the proper situations, foods, and nutrients. The Wellness Edge was created out of this belief, making the world a healthier place one person at a time.” Rose Ann grew up in Grosse Pointe, Mich., and now resides in St. Clair Shores, Mich. Dr. Steven Katzman Board Certified Internal Medicine Dr. Katzman graduated from the Des Moines University in 1990. Dr. Katzman specializes in Internal Medicine. Dr. Katzman is affiliated with Beaumont Hospital – Farmington Hills, Beaumont Hospital Dearborn Oakwood Campus and Huron Valley-Sinai Hospital. The Wellness Edge, a premier holistic health center in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, empowers people to take charge of their health by making choices that invigorate energy levels and boost well-being. Services include IV vitamin infusions and injections, available on-site or through a convenient concierge service that brings wellness to client homes and offices. The Wellness Edge info@thewellnessedge.net Copyright © 2021 The Wellness Edge All Rights Reserved.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line7997
__label__wiki	0.744211	0.744211	Incredible Sports & Entertainment Autograph Auction Turkey Creek Auctions 13939 North Highway 441 Citra, FL 32113 Saturday Feb 23, 2019 Presented by Turkey Creek Auctions and Marion Antique Auctions commencing at 12 noon. Viewing Friday Feb 22nd from 1 pm to 5 pm and Saturday 9 am to 11:30 am. This is one of the largest private collections of sports and entertainment autographs and memorabilia ever assembled. It is a single owner estate auction. Leland Campbell was a marketing professor at Bentley College and one of the original volunteers that started the New England Sports Museum now the Boston Sports Museum at TD Garden. Before his death he spent 40 years assembling his collection. He was a frequent visitor to the Baseball Hall of Fame and got to know many of the Sports figures on a personal basis. There are hundreds of interesting items related to baseball, football, hockey, basketball, tennis soccer, golf, Nascar, NASA, the movie industry and the music industry. Some of the more important items include a Mickey Mantle signed bat, numerous Hall of Fame bats signed by the likes of Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Nolan Ryan, Frank Robinson, Ernie Banks, Carl Yastrzemski, and many more. Signed baseballs by Roger Clemens, Billy Martin, Sandy Koufax, and all three DiMaggio brothers. There is a rare Ted Williams game used undershirt, a Joe DiMaggio signed New York Yankees uniform jersey, a Carl Yastrzemski signed glove and bat, an autographed home plate signed by Carlton Fisk, a Yogi Berra signed jersey, a 1975 team signed Red Sox jersey, a NY Giants team signed photo, a football signed by the Rams Fearsome Foursome. Other footballs include one signed by Bob Griese, Don Shula and Mike Haynes. Basketballs signed by Pete Maravich, K.C. Jones, Kevin McHale, and Larry Bird, boxing gloves signed by Marvin Hagler, Mohammad Ali, and Joe Frazer. Entertainment items are highlighted by a Bob Dylan signed Epiphone guitar and a Rolling Stones autographed drum head. Many Beatles items, some signed. 1960 signed soccer World Cup jersey signed by Nobby Stilies. Many signed baseball gloves, seats from Dodger and Yankee Stadium. Dale Earnhardt Sr. limited edition racing wing. Hockey sticks signed by Bobby Hull and Gordie Howe. Great lots of signed photos and much much more. Items can be viewed online beginning February 1. Go to: antiqueauctionsfl.com or marionantiqueauctions.com Online bidding at: liveauctioneers.com or invaluable.com For info call Frank at 508-498-7136 or email info@marionantiques.com Turkey Creek Auctions, 13939 North U.S. Highway 441, Citra, FL.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8005
__label__wiki	0.8732	0.8732	By Editor \| September 17, 2015 — Joe Davis, Rafael Cruz, Richard Land, Sam Rohrer, E.W. Jackson Join Nearly 35 Legislators at 11 a.m. CT Rally This Morning — Later this morning, an impressive lineup of standouts will converge at the Legislative Plaza in Nashville for the Tennessee Pastors Network’s (TNPN, www.tnpastors.net) “Stand in the Gap for Truth” Rally at 11 a.m. CT today—Sept. 17, Constitution Day. Headlining the rally will be Joe Davis, husband of Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis; Rafael Cruz, father of presidential hopeful Ted Cruz; evangelical leader Dr. Richard Land; Bishop E.W. Jackson; and American Pastors Network (APN, www.americanpastorsnetwork.net) President Sam Rohrer, along with nearly 35 state legislators, led by Tenn. Rep. Judd Matheny. The rally will help motivate Tennesseans to defend their religious freedom and uphold God’s design for the nation, as well as engage pastors and citizens to address the most talked-about issues of the day, such as shifting marriage and family foundations, an unworkable immigration system, weak terrorism laws, failing education, a damaging nationalized health care system, lack of religious freedom protections and the blatant violation of the U.S. Constitution. WHO: Tennessee Pastors Network WHAT: “Stand in the Gap for Truth” Rally WHERE: Legislative Plaza, 301 6th Ave N, Nashville WHEN: 11 a.m. CT Thursday, Sept. 17—Constitution Day WHY: To motivate Tennesseans to defend their religious freedom INFO: www.tnpastors.net Besides Joe Davis as a special guest, who will be introduced by TNPN President Dale Walker, the top-name speakers at the rally include: Rafael Cruz, father of presidential hopeful Ted Cruz. Cruz is a powerful example of the American dream. Born in Cuba, he lived and suffered under a cruel, oppressive dictator, began fighting the regime as a teenager, and was imprisoned and tortured for his role in that fight. He arrived in Texas on a student visa, worked his way through college, learned English and built a business. Today, Cruz is an ordained minister and president of Kingdom Translation Services. He travels the country sharing his story and speaking on the biblical foundations of the nation, while encouraging Christians to return the country to the principles that made America exceptional. Dr. Richard Land, president of Southern Evangelical Seminary and past president of The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, the Southern Baptist Convention’s official entity assigned to address social, moral and ethical concerns. In 2005, Land was named as one of Time Magazine’s “25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America.” He was the 2013 Watchman Award recipient from the Family Research Council for his leadership on moral and cultural issues. In 2014, he was appointed as a Senior Research Fellow of the ERLC’s Research Institute, and in 2015, was in the top 15 of Newsmax’s “Top 100 Christian Leaders in America.” Bishop E.W. Jackson, president and founder of STAND (Staying True to America’s National Destiny), a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving Judeo-Christian values and bringing Americans together across racial and cultural lines. He is also the 2013 Republican Nominee for Lt. Governor of Virginia. After service with the U.S. Marines, Jackson was ordained a pastor in 1979 and consecrated a bishop in 1998. He is the author of “Ten Commandments to an Extraordinary Life” and is a senior fellow with the Family Research Council. Sam Rohrer, former longtime legislator and president of the American Pastors Network (APN, www.americanpastorsnetwork.net). The former candidate for Pennsylvania governor and U.S. Senate is the host of several APN radio programs, “Stand in the Gap Minute,” “Stand in the Gap Today” and “Stand in the Gap Weekend,” which are collectively heard on hundreds of stations throughout the country. APN is uniquely providing the structure and encouragement for pastors to speak biblical truth with a united voice into family, the church and civil government. Rep. Judd Matheny (R-Tullahoma), who serves District 47, in Coffee and part of Warren counties. He is an eight-year veteran of the U.S. Army and the Tennessee Army National Guard and an eight-year veteran of state and local law enforcement. Matheny is a member of the House Health Committee, the House Insurance and Banking Committee and the House Health Subcommittee. He is chairman of the Coffee County Republican Party and a past chairman of the Davidson County Crimestoppers, as well as a member of the Tennessee Farm Bureau, National Rifle Association, Master Mason and Tullahoma Rotary. Matheny, who will speak from the lawmaker perspective at the rally, has been gathering his fellow legislators in support of the issues presented at the event. Representatives include: Bill Dunn, Bryan Terry, Dennis Powers, Mark White, Glen Casada, James (Micah) Van Huss, Jay Reedy, Mark Pody, Courtney Rogers, Susan Lynn, Sheila Butt, David Byrd, Curtis Halford, Jeremy Durham, Roger Kane, Dale Carr, Terri Lynn Weaver, Jeremy Faison, Jimmy Matlock, Barry Doss, Jason Zachary, Debra Moody, Matthew Hill, Timothy Hill, Billy Spivey and Rick Womick. Senators scheduled to attend the rally include: Mae Beavers, Jim Tracy, Kerry Roberts, Mark Green, Dolores Gresham and Janice Bowling. Following Thursday morning’s rally, TNPN will also host its annual conference at Hillcrest Baptist Church, 621 Hartsville Pike in Lebanon, Tenn. (The dinner at 5 p.m. CT is full, but the conference, which is free on a first-come basis, will begin at 7 p.m. CT at the church. Media may interview rally/conference speakers from 6:15 to 6:45 p.m. CT). There, rally speakers will be present to give an in-depth account of what Tennesseans can do to protect and speak up for the Volunteer State. For more information on Thursday’s events, visit www.tnpastors.net/events or email patriotpastorstn@gmail.com. TNPN is a state chapter of APN, the largest national network dedicated to equipping pastors to be a voice for truth in the public square. For more information on the rally or the conference, visit www.tnpastors.net. TNPN and APN offer pastors numerous online resources that help clergy choose sermon topics and find information for other church ministries. With some free and some paid resources, topics include abortion, apologetics, creation, the culture war, economics, education, the environment, history, homosexuality, Islam and marriage, along with many others. The Tennessee Pastors Network encourages pastors to bring together biblical and constitutional principles in their sermons and provides resources to pastors throughout the state. For more information on TNPN, visit its Facebook page or call (931) 267-0816. TNPN is a group of biblically faithful clergy and church liaisons whose objective is to build a permanent infrastructure of like-minded clergy who affirm the authority of Scripture, take seriously Jesus’ command to be the “salt and light” to the culture, encourage informed Christian thinking about contemporary social issues, examine public policy issues without politicizing their pulpits and engage their congregations in taking part in the political process on a non-partisan basis. The American Pastors Network is the largest, national network of pastors who believe in the authority of scripture; who boldly preach the whole counsel of God with a disciplined application of a biblical worldview to public policy; who are building a permanent infrastructure of biblically faithful pastors and lay leaders; and who are mobilizing congregations to participate in the political process on a non-partisan basis. For more information on APN, visit www.americanpastorsnetwork.net, its Facebook page or follow APN’s Twitter feed, @AmericanPastors. Those interested in forming a chapter in their state may contact amy@americanpastors.net. The American Pastors Network is a Ministry Program Affiliate of Capstone Legacy Foundation (a 501(c)(3) non-profit Christian Public Community Foundation registered nationwide). APN’s daily short radio feature, “Stand in the Gap,” airs on more than 40 stations, and the American Family Radio Network airs the one-hour “Stand in the Gap Weekend” on 140 additional stations nationwide. A live one-hour program launched in 2015, “Stand in the Gap Today,” airs on several Pennsylvania radio stations. To interview Dale Walker from the Tennessee Pastors Network or a representative of the American Pastors Network, contact Deborah Hamilton at 215-815-7716 or 610-584-1096, ext. 102, or Beth Harrison at 610-584-1096, ext. 104, Media@HamiltonStrategies.com. Faith Leaders of Tennessee Announce Unanimous Endorsement of Dr. Manny Sethi for U.S. Senate Tennessee Pastors Network Addresses Threats to Houses of Worship in State TONIGHT! Tennessee Pastors Network Co-Hosts Press Conference Regarding Birth Control Flyer Distributed at Elementary School in Piney Flats Tennessee Pastors Network Hosts Oct. 24 Meeting to Address Opioid Crisis in Celina, TN Tennessee Pastors Network Commends Announcement of ‘Day of Prayer and Fasting’ After Petitioning Library for Equal Representation, Tennessee Pastors Network Celebrates Victory Tennessee Pastors Network: Drug and Alcohol Addictions and Gambling Are Detrimental to Families State Senate Fails to Recall Heartbeat Bill TN pastor: Lawmakers need to hear from silent majority Tennessee Pastors Network and 162 Pastors Urge Support for Rule 63 Heartbeat Bill Vote	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8008
__label__wiki	0.757961	0.757961	Oceana Calls For Halt Of Mercury Use Health Biosecurity Food safety & handling Politics 11 July 2011, at 1:00am SPAIN and GLOBAL - The call by Oceana for the immediate halt of mercury use by chlor-alkali plants comes after Oceana won a long court case to unveil data which was being hid by the Spanish Government. The halt would reduce hazards to consumers and ecosystems from contaminated fish. According to the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) Directive, mercury use should have been phased out by 2007. Oceana wants chlorine plants using mercury cells, the main source of mercury contamination in the seas and pollution of fish species, to immediately adapt to Best Available Technologies (BATs), such as asbestos-free diaphragm cells and membrane cells. The call comes following the revelation of a report, which was kept confidential by the Spanish Government, showing above legal levels of mercury in several fish species sold on the market. The international conservation organisation was able to access this document after requesting the information in 2007 and the ensuing legal battle. The use of mercury is obsolete and should have been eliminated in accordance with the Industrial Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) Directive, which required the application of BATs, providing a period of 11 years to adapt existing facilities. The adaptation period ended in October 2007, however, in March 2011, the EU Council invited the industry to delay the conversion until 2020. "As an immediate step, Spanish retail outlets must, in accordance with the Aarhus Convention, offer consumption recommendations particularly to the most vulnerable consumers, such as pregnant women and children under the age of three, making note of those species which the highest mercury levels, including blue sharks, swordfish and mako," said Xavier Pastor, Executive Director of Oceana Europe. "However, the key long-term solution is to adapt all chlor-alkali plants to mercury-free technologies, which have existed for years and which, according to European law, should have been implemented since 2007. Mercury from industrial sources enters the marine food chain where it becomes concentrated mainly in predators located at the top of it, such as shark and swordfish. When consumed, it affects the neurological system and can cause damaging health effects, such as lack of coordination, tremors, irritability, memory loss, blurred vision, headaches and depression. It is therefore necessary to limit the consumption of those species which contain the highest levels of bioaccumulation. In Spain, the Food Safety Agency recently provided recommendations, following a long legal process carried out by Oceana. In 2007, the international marine conservation organisation requested, and was denied, a 2003 report on levels of arsenic and metals in fish and shellfish of commercial interest, by the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (Estudio de Arsnico y Metales Pesados en Pescados y Mariscos de Inters Comercial). In December 2009, the Spanish High Court ruled in favor of Oceana and against the Ministry of Environment and Rural and Marine Affairs, which had been hiding the report. However, it delayed delivery of the full report until March 2011. Shortly thereafter, on 14 April, the Carlos III Health Institute released a study that showed high levels of mercury in the blood of Spanish citizens, higher than in other countries. In 2009, Oceana reported Spain to the European Commission for breach of European Union law referring to the IPPC Directive after the voluntary agreements it signed with the Spanish autonomous regions for the continued use of mercury cells.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8011
__label__cc	0.685228	0.314772	Visual Culture Blog My Take on Modern Visual Culture Pears’ Soap Advertisement Analysis Categories: Image from Before 1900 (This image is from 1783), Commerical Advertising Pears’ Soap Advertisement Caucasian Baby helps clean the “Other” baby Through the Pears’ Soap advertisement, it is extremely apparently that the Victorian societal values were deeply embedded in the advertising industry. During this time, Britain had experienced enormous development in their economy due to their colonization of islands like New Guinea and West Africa to produce cheap cotton and palm oil. (McClintock 34) This lead to the creation of the first bar of mass produced soap. As mentioned in Imperial leather, ” Soap was credited not only with bringing moral and economic salvation to Britain’s “great unwashed” (McClintock 34) but also with magically embodying the spiritual ingredient of the imperial mission itself. ” Here, the strict Victorian rules about cleanliness were personified into a bar of Pears’ soap, to ‘clean’ these so-called impure people. Ads had the ability to supress coloured people in the working class, as their negative stereotypes were carried from the advertising world and onto people’s lives. Although not explicitly stated, the coloured person is always represented as “different,” even in the positioning between the two characters in this ad. To top it off, the characters are not realistic portrayals of actual toddlers. In Pear’s ad, the impression of a black person’s skin is exaggeratedly dark, and is paired with bright red lips to create this caricature of a typical black person would look and act like as a comedic effect. This gives an illusion to white consumers, that they should view black people as lazy, dumb, or dirty. The white boy is well dressed and the black boy is half naked with only a cloth covering his lower body. The posture of the well-to-do-white boy suggests that he is assuming the role of a teacher towards the other boy. Pears is implying that the first boy, or white boys in general, are more knowledgable than those of coloured skin, therefore he should teach others about pears soap to become more white like himself. After coming out of the bath, the black child’s body is completely white due to the suggested purification effects of Pears’ soap. The black boy has a goofy smile on his face, which enhances society’s preexisting negative bias towards black people being a very primitive bunch, in contrast with Caucasians. Unlike the black boy, the white boy has a calm expression, to show that he is elegant and of a higher class. The world that is represented to us in the advertisement suggests that white people are naturally more powerful and intelligent than those with coloured skin. This suggests that it is part of the white person’s duty to show others how to clean themselves, and their metaphorical dirty feeling of being a coloured person. McClintock’s Imperial Leather, talks about another ad from Pears’ soap, about how the White Man’s Burden is all about “teaching the virtues of cleanliness.” Apparently, back in the day, “Soap and cleaning rituals became central to the demarcation of body boundaries andthe policing of social hierarchies.” (McClintock 33) Using Pears’ soap was equivalent to having a high status, which is what the typical white person was born privileged with. Pears’ soap was more than just a bar of soap; it embodied the ideals of the upper class into a consumer products and acted as an ethnic cleanser. Spectators view this ad in the white, upper class and typically male’s gaze. The target audience of this product is directed towards either white people or black people who want to be white. The formal, upper class language used here suggest that the soap is not something that is able to be purchased by low class. The color white is associated with purity, innocence and cleanliness while black is associated with dirt, negativity, evil and all that is opposite of the colour, white. The slogan, “I have found PEARS’ SOAP matchless for the Hands and Complexion ” assumes that all people want to be white as it is associated with the higher classes. Near the edge of the advertisement, the words “pure, fragrant, and durable” are used to describe the white person and the soap’s practical and metaphorical usages. Pears’ Soap is suggesting that if you use this soap, you can become as innocent as pure as a white person, to the point where you can even clean off your natural skin colour. In stuart Hall’s book, he talks about how we must analyze the privileged meaning in the visual texts we are analyzing. (Hall 229) Specifically, he’s asking if the subject in our medium is seen as a hero or villainous character. The white child in Pears’ advertisment is seen as a hero to the black child, which is important because it seems like the latter child is being saved from his own skin colour with the aid of the white child. Just because they are different, does not mean that they are subpar to white people. “The racialized discourse is structured by a set of binary oppositions. There is the powerful opposition between ‘civilization’ (white) and ‘savagery'(black). There is the opposition between the biological or bodily characteristics of the ‘black’ and ‘white’ ‘races’, polarized into their extreme opposites-each the signifiers of an absolute different between human ‘types’ or species.” (Hall 232). Hall says “the discourse of written language and the discourse of photography-are required to produce and ‘fix the meaning.” (228) This means that visual images do not mean very much when it is standing alone. Images tell us a story about the cultural narratives of our society, which are stories that we tell ourselves for us and for other people. (Lecture 3) Stereotyping, not only fixes meaning to preserve discourse, but is a reflection of power imbalances in our society and reduces the entire ethnic group of people into a flat, typical type of character. (Lecture 5) We may understand the ad differently if our society was not so racist. Through science, we know such a thing like ‘race’ doesn’t exist, as everyone is the same on a biological level. To the black community and everyone in general, this ad is seen as racist and makes no sense whatsoever due to the exaggeration of the soap’s effects as a cleanser. We all know that black people are not white underneath the soap, that is why it is so appauling. As advertisements become more mass produced and people buy into the ads, it confirms the act of being racist. Having these stereotyped ideas of black people put on print gives it more authenticity than just words. Advertising is not a one way street; ads are an amplified version of the values from the reality we live in. Tags: McClintock, Pears, pears soap « Judith slaying Holofernes (Comparison of Two Art Pieces) Judith slaying Holofernes (Comparison of Two Art Pieces) Playstation 2 Ad The Tragedy of the man in the Train Tracks BMW AD	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8012
__label__wiki	0.882626	0.882626	Tag Archives: matthau Life Becomes Them In her formative years, Monica Bellucci’s most intimate desire was to follow in the footsteps of Gina Lollobrigida, Silvana Mangano, Anna Magnani and Sophia Loren, four Italian muses that, (as she finally also achieved) became magnificent actresses in their country and abroad. Monica began her modeling career at Elite+ Models Agency working with several important brands like Revlon. The Most Unforgettable Women in the World Wear Revlon, Ad Campaign phots by Richard Avedon, 1989 Legendary filmmaker Dino Risi (who directed movies starring by Monica Vitti, Sophia Loren and Ornella Mutti) offered her a leading role in 1990’s Vita coi Figli. Francis Ford Coppola, after watching photos of her in a portfolio offered her a small but arresting cameo in Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992). Bellucci played one of Dracula’s brides who, in one particularly erotic scene, practically devoured Jonathan Harker, the fictional character performed by Keanu Reeves. Producer Franco Rossellini, Isabella’s cousin, also appears in the Ad Campaign By that time, Steven Meisel made this Dolce Gabbana’s Spring Summer Collection 1992 Ad Campaign inspired by La Dolce Vita (Federico Fellini, 1960), depicting playful mischief and self-indulgence behaviors along glittery outfits. The collection higlighted the trends of that season: short dresses, embroidered accents, bustiers with lifelike flowers, along with D&G’s stylistic signatures over the years, lingerie, lace and so on. Goldie Hawn wearing a costume for the frisky photo shoot by Annie Leibovitz. Vanity Fair, March 1992. Isabella Rossellini began her career as a model at 28, photographed by Bruce Weber for British Vogue. From 1982 to 1996, she became the exclusive face of Lancôme. Around October 1992, Rossellini made appearances in two of Madonna’s projects: her outrageous book Sex and the Erotica music video. British Vogue cover by Bruce Weber, circa 1982 Lancôme Ads That same year, in Death Becomes Her (Robert Zemeckis, 1992) she played Lisle, a mysterious, wealthy socialite who seems to be in her thirties. However, Lisle discloses her true age as 71, and reveals to Madeline (Meryl Streep) the secret of her beauty: a potion that promises eternal life and an ever-lasting youthful appearance. It has been said that after her appearance in that film, Lancôme was considering not renewing their contract with Rossellini. Death Becomes Her Theatrical movie poster The comedic film, Cactus Flower (Gene Saks, 1969) marked the return of Ingrid Bergman (Isabella Rossellini’s mother) to the movies. This, her first role in a comedy, garnered critical praise. Goldie Hawn won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Advertisements Cinema Fashion Muses Photography Leave a comment	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8013
__label__cc	0.534115	0.465885	SAT and ITBS Scores The Highlands Journal Request Admissions Packet Tuition and Schedule Primary School (K-2) Grammar School (3-6) Latin & Greek American Modern Studies Logic & Rhetoric HLS Spirit Wear The Horatius Society The Nova Roma Cottage School Sister Schools 21% of HLS Seniors Honored by National Merit Scholarship Corporation Posted on October 17, 2019 January 29, 2020 by Highlands Latin Highlands Latin School would like to congratulate the four HLS seniors who were recognized by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation for their performance on the 2018 PSAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. Congratulations to Madison Miller, Tanay Neotia, and Chloe Walrad, who were named National Merit Semifinalists, and to Alex Harris, who was named a Commended Student. Madison Miller Tanay Neotia Chloe Walrad According to a press release, the nationwide pool of Semifinalists represents less than 1% of U.S. high school seniors. To become a Finalist, a Semifinalist and his or her high school must submit a detailed scholarship application providing information about the Semifinalist’s academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards received. From the approximately 16,000 Semifinalists, about 15,000 are expected to advance to the Finalist level, and in February they will be notified of this designation. Commended Students are also named based on their Selection Index score. Commended Student scores fall just below the level required to be named Semifinalists in their respective states; however, they are still honored as high scorers. The 2019 PSAT/NMSQT, taken by all HLS 10th and 11th grade students, will allow juniors the chance to compete in the 2020 National Merit Scholarship Competition. Scores will be released in December, and any student meeting the state cutoff score for Semifinalist or Commended Student will be notified in September 2020. Over the last decade, Highlands Latin has maintained the highest percentage of National Merit Semifinalists and Commended Students in Louisville, Kentucky. 24% of 2019 Senior Class Recognized by National Merit Scholarship Corporation 20% of 2018 Seniors recognized as National Merit Semifinalists/Commended Highlands Latin School invites you to our upcoming Open House at one of our three campuses. Join us on Sunday, November 3, to learn more about a classical Christian education. HLS is an excellent choice for students and families who enjoy the challenge of learning. Meet our teachers. Tour our classrooms. View our award-winning curriculum. Crescent Hill Campus (K-8): 2800 Frankfort Ave., Louisville, KY 40206 – 1:00-3:00 p.m. Short presentation beginning at 1:15 p.m. Spring Meadows Campus (K-12): 10901 Shelbyville Rd., Louisville, KY 40243 – 2:00-4:00 p.m. Southern Indiana Campus (K-3): 2023 Ekin Ave., New Albany, IN 47150 – 2:00-4:00 p.m. Three HLS students accepted to Governor’s Scholars Drama Troupe’s production of It’s a Wonderful Life Copyright 2021 © Highlands Latin School	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8014
__label__wiki	0.79995	0.79995	Japan And South Korea Agree To Hold Summit In December December 3, 2019 in Current Events / Japan / South Korea by Ruby Shealy On Saturday, the foreign ministers of Japan and South Korea agreed to hold formal peace talks between Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and President Moon Jae-in. Japan Times reported that the talks are set to take place in China during the Japan-China-South Korea trilateral meeting scheduled for next month. The summit was agreed upon during the G20 meetings in Nagoya after a series of conflicts sparked by a decades-long disagreement about compensation for South Korean laborers forced to work for Japanese firms during World War II led to trade disputes and uncertainty about the future of the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA). Relations between Japan and South Korea have been strained since Japan’s colonization of Korea and the use of forced labor in Japanese firms during World War II. Ties between the two countries became more tense after a South Korean court ordered Japanese companies to compensate former forced laborers. Japanese officials argue that the issue was settled in 1965 when the countries restored diplomatic ties. Japanese foreign minister Toshimitsu Motegi warned that the relationship would worsen if South Korea attempted to liquidate assets seized from Japanese companies. This political disagreement turned into a trade dispute after Japan removed South Korea from its ‘whitelist’ of countries that enjoyed simplified export procedures. South Korean foreign minister Kang Kyung-Wha expressed discontent with these export curbs because they have hurt South Korea’s chip industry which remains heavily reliant on specialized Japanese chemicals. These disputes led to South Korea threatening to pull out of the GSOMIA intelligence-sharing deal. The GSOMIA allowed Japan and South Korea to share military secrets and counter mutual threats including those posed by North Korea’s nuclear capacity. At the last minute, South Korea decided to conditionally extend the agreement but warned that it could be “terminated” at any moment. Following this decision, Motegi and Kang agreed to arrange a summit in December to deescalate the mounting tensions that nearly led to the dissolution of the GSOMIA. A South Korean official called the summit a “breakthrough” after months of escalating tensions and Motegi told reporters, “I aim to hold a candid exchange of views on the matter of laborers from the Korean peninsula, which is the core problem, and other bilateral issues.” At the same time, Kang also acknowledged that a large gap remains between the two countries over the issue of forced labor. Tobias Harris, an analyst for Teneo consultants expressed doubts about the effectiveness of the proposed talks pointing out that “Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has signaled no shift in his government’s position on either the whitelist or the dispute over compensation for colonial-era forced labor that triggered this year’s crisis in bilateral relations.” Washington has welcomed Seoul’s decision to renew the GSOMIA but also urged the two to “continue sincere discussions to ensure a lasting solution to historic issues.” A senior official at South Korea’s foreign ministry told Reuters that the decision on the information-sharing pact was the result of a three-way discussion that included the United States and asked Washington to play a “constructive role” in resolving issues with Japan at the December summit. Despite these agreements, South Korea and Japan got into another dispute on Sunday after Japan rejected a South Korean complaint about the wording of the announcement of the December summit. South Korea accused Japan of changing the agreed timing of the talks and mischaracterizing South Korea’s position on the issue. Though the renewal of the GSOMIA and the proposed peace talks are promising steps towards a closer relationship between Japan and South Korea, as long as both countries refuse to make compromises on the issue of compensation for forced labor, it is unlikely that substantial progress will be made at the summit. Continued disputes over things like the timing and wording of the summit announcement are also likely to decrease the possibility of a civil and productive discussion in December. Ruby Shealy Ruby Shealy is a sophomore at Wellesley College pursuing a bachelor's degree in international relations. Latest posts by Ruby Shealy (see all) Refugee Camps Struggle To Prevent Coronavirus Outbreaks - May 1, 2020 Coronavirus in U.S. Jails And Prisons - March 31, 2020 Locust Swarms In East Africa Threaten Millions With Food Shortages - March 1, 2020 ← China’s Mass Surveillance Program: The Key To Uyghur Detainment New Zealand National Party Releases Law And Order Agenda →	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8016
__label__wiki	0.899141	0.899141	ROC’s 102nd National Day observed in Banjul Oct 14, 2013, 8:56 AM \| Article By: Nfamara Jawneh The 102nd National Day of the Republic of China (Taiwan) was on last Thursday 10 October celebrated in The Gambia with a reception hosted by Ambassador Samuel Chen. Before the dinner, the chief Taiwanese diplomat in Banjul addressed his guests gathered for the celebration held at Paradise Suites Hotel. Among the celebrants were foreign diplomats, senior government officials including the Speaker of the National Assembly, cabinet ministers, religious leaders and cross-section of Taiwanese community resident in the country. According to Ambassador Chen, since becoming the first democratic republic in Asia, ROC step by step, continued to develop not only a strong economy but also upholds the principles of democracy, freedom and human rights and the rule of law. He noted that President Ma Ying-Jeou is pursuing Taiwan to play among others the role of a peacemaker, promoter of international humanitarian aid, promoter of international cultural exchange and a creator of new technology and business opportunities. “Taiwan used to be a recipient of international development aid from 1950 to 1965. Using this aid during the 15 years, we were able to build up our infrastructure, reservoirs, highways, import substitution industries and developing agricultural reviving programs,” he said. Ever since, he added, they have being sending agricultural missions abroad to help their many friends mainly in Africa. “We understand that developmental aid is vital to a country’s development. Taiwan now is sharing her experiences with dozens of countries through hundreds of projects including agricultural technical support, medical assistance, capacity building, vocational training among others,” remarked Ambassador Chen. The ROC top diplomat stressed that The Gambia is not only a very important diplomatic ally of Taiwan in Africa, but also their very respectful cooperation partner. He used the opportunity to express Taiwan’s appreciation to the Government of The Gambia for her continued support for their meaningful participation in the international arena. For her part, Mrs Susan Waffa-Ogoo, Minister of Foreign Affairs of The Gambia, on behalf of President Jammeh, his government and people of The Gambia, congratulated the government and people of Taiwan for the national day. According to her, the success of Taiwan in becoming an economic superpower was as a result of the hard work and resilience of her people. She recognised the contribution of Taiwan to The Gambia’s health, education, agriculture and other sectors’ development. “The establishment of Taiwan Culture Centre in The Gambia, Youth Ambassadors’ Exchange Program and Gambia Cultural Week held in Taiwan amongst others signifies a stronger Taiwan-Gambia relation,” she said. She raises her dismay with what she called great injustice when the people of Taiwan are not given the opportunity to be a full member of the international community while reaffirming The Gambia’s commitment to continuing to advocate for the due recognition of Taiwan in the international arena. Meanwhile, as part of the event, students of Taiwan Culture Centre and staff of the Taiwanese embassy sang songs to the glory of ROC National Day while video documentaries were also made about Taiwan and also their 2013 intervention programmes in The Gambia. Cemiyatul Hayre relief organization distributes over 400 cattle to Muslims No winner of 2013 Ibrahim Prize Man in court for allegedly stealing cell phone worth US$100 National Water and Sanitation Working Group holds bi-annual meeting Benedict Jammeh, others charged at High Court New Senegalese Ambassador presents credentials	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8018
__label__cc	0.621744	0.378256	by Mariya Ali \| Sep 24, 2019 \| Safari Planning \| 0 comments What You Need to Know About a Kenya Safari A safari is on the bucket list of a surprising number of people. From exotic bird watching to the chance of seeing lions, a safari appeals to one's sense of wonder and adventure. Whether you want to take an exciting honeymoon or go on a solo adventure, we're here today to help you decide if a Kenya safari is right for you. What Is a Safari? Features of a Kenya Safari Image via Pexels A safari refers to a trip that is taken to observe or hunt animals in their natural habitat. While most safaris occur in East Africa, there are also excellent safaris offered in South Africa. When planning your safari, you must consider factors such as the animals you want to see, safety, price, and accommodations. Traveling in groups or during the off-season will save you money. However, the off-season is more affordable because there are fewer popular animals around. Whenever or wherever you choose to have your safari adventure, keep your wits about you, get vaccinated and you'll be just fine. Kenya is less popular than South Africa and Tanzania. This translates into more bird watching and wildlife watching in true wilderness. The seasons are also very clear. This means there is no question when you should go to see certain species of animals. There is also a great variety of wildlife. Some of the most popular are the pink flamingo congregation on Lake Nakuru and the Great Migration of wildebeest. The cost to go on a safari depends on many factors. These include the time of year you want to go, how many people are in your party, how many nights you want to stay, the accommodations you're looking for, the tours you want to go on, and the country you want to visit. You can find a three-day Kenya safari package for around $300 per person. You can also find nine-day safaris costing well over $4,000 per person. We picked a few similar products available on the market to see how they compare. Swaziland Safari Wildlife and Birds Kenya is one of only 15 countries in the world that has over 1,000 recorded species of birds. Besides DR Congo and Tanzania, it has the most avian diversity in all of Africa. Among Kenya's birds are the two largest birds in the world: the common ostrich and the Somali ostrich. You can also see the Kori bustard (the world's bulkiest flying creature), raptors, and bee-eaters. With a well-planned 14-day itinerary, you can expect to see between 350 and 400 bird species. Popular Parks The three most popular parks in Kenya are Mount Kenya National Park, Samburu Trails, and Kisite-Mpunguti Marine National Park. Each park has something special to offer, and all three are worth a visit. Popular Tours: 5 Stars One of the most popular Kenya safari tours is a package that includes gorilla tracking in Rwanda and game drives in Masai Mara. Another extremely popular tour is the Great Tour of Kenya, which will allow you to see Masai Mara, Nakuru, Amboseli, Tsavo, and Mombasa. It includes visiting the beaches of the Kenyan coast, a Masai village, Lake Nakuru, and Masai Mara National Reserve. Travel and Safety Over a million people visit Kenya annually without any trouble. However, there are countries bordering Kenya, such as Somalia, Ethiopia, and South Sudan, that are not safe due to the threat of terrorist attacks. Walking through Nairobi alone is inadvisable, but staying overnight at a reputable hotel or lodging during your safari is perfectly safe. Just make sure you're vaccinated against malaria. Variety of birds Density of mammals Beautiful beaches Breathtaking vistasMt. Kilimanjaro Annual wildebeest migration Some tours are fairly pricey Borders dangerous regions Fewer big cats than Tanzania Southern Kenya is flooded with tourists Uganda safaris are available year-round. With a warm, tropical climate, there really isn't a bad time to visit this country. During the rainy seasons of March to May and October to November, there is an abundance of wildlife to be seen. With rain comes an abundance of food. When the weather is warm, migratory birds flock to the region. Uganda is famous for its abundance of hippos, buffalo, zebras, and elephants. Gorillas, chimpanzees, and lions are also common. Depending on the time of year, you may see the occasional giraffe or leopard. However, there are no black rhinos or wildebeests, and white rhinos and cheetahs are rare. Three of the most popular Ugandan parks are the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Queen Elizabeth National Park, and Kibale National Park. Bwindi is famous for its mountain gorilla treks and biodiverse forests. Queen Elizabeth National Park is home to the Kazinga Channel and Mweya Peninsula. Finally, Kibale National Park is famous for its rainforest and density of chimpanzees. The most popular Uganda safari tour is The Ultimate Gorilla Experience in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. Another popular tour is Journey to the Mighty Falls, which includes a boat cruise to the bottom of the falls in Murchison Falls National Park, a game drive, and a hike to the top of the falls. In April, Uganda issued a travel advisory warning visitors to exercise increased caution, especially in larger cities like Entebbe and Kampala. Regarding modes of travel, driving through Uganda is extremely affordable, but flying is safer and more convenient. Affordable tours Mountain and volcano climbing Stunning lakes English is commonly spoken Long drive times Not as clean as other countries No coffee or cultural dances Home to the famous Serengeti National Park and Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania is one of the most popular safari destinations. Whether you want to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro or gaze upon the chimpanzees in Gombe National Park, there is something in Tanzania for you. Tanzania offers the second most diverse avian diversity in Africa. If seeing hundreds of bird species is your priority, a Tanzania safari may be the ideal choice. It is also densely populated by the Big Five species - the lion, African leopard, rhinoceros, African elephant, and African buffalo. The most popular park, Serengeti National Park, is a sight to behold. However, we love the less popular parks, such as Katavi National Park, Selous Game Reserve, and Ruaha National Park. These parks are just as awe-inspiring as the popular ones. The accommodations are just as good. The only difference is you can sight-see without all the crowds. The most popular Tanzania safari tours are an eight-day tour of Tanzania and Kenya, a one-week tour of Tembo, and a three-day tour of Mikumi National Park. Travel in Tanzania is safe, especially by plane. On the ground, however, you'll have to be careful. In February, Tanzania issued a travel advisory recommending tourists exercise increased caution, especially for members of the LGBT community and those visiting parts of the country that are frequented by Westerners. A dense population of Big Five species Sublime beauty One-third of the country is wildlife preserves Brush vibe The Kingdom of Swaziland is the smallest country in the southern hemisphere, but it is home to 17 protected wildlife areas and over 132 species of mammals, including predators. With over 500 bird species in Swaziland, this small, landlocked country is home to 52 southern Africa endemics. If you want to view wildlife, the best time to visit is during the dry season. If you're dying to see the southern bald iris, you need to plan a trip for June to October. These are the winter months of the Southern Hemisphere. For the best birdwatching overall, go from November to April when European and northern African birds migrate, including the blue swallow. Swaziland has many popular parks and reserves. While Hlane Royal National Park has elephants, giraffes, hippos, zebras, and wildebeests, there are no black rhinos, cheetahs, or wild dogs. Game reserves are ideal for walking, mountain biking, and world-class tours while Malolotja Nature Reserve is best for hiking and camping in the wilderness. Every year, over half a million tourists choose to safari in Swaziland. Its cities are tiny and safe compared to large South African cities like Durban and Johannesburg. If you remain aware of the potential for pickpockets in large, bustling markets, you should be fine. Rich and active culture Retains a down-to-earth feel Varied accommodations to choose from Rich, active culture SmallA wide array of activities Serious about wildlife protection A wealth of bird life and wildlife Medical facilities are substandard Security checks are common Image by Fearscare from Pixabay There is no doubt a safari is the adventure of a lifetime. The best safari for you will depend on your personal preferences, but our recommendation is the Kenya safari. In fact, we have to rate it five out of five stars. If your vaccinations are up-to-date, Kenya is perfectly safe. However, you should always be cautious when visiting foreign countries. Keep your wits about you when you are in densely populated tourist locations. When on safari, whether you are getting a private tour or sight-seeing with a group of other people, you can enjoy breathtaking beaches, beautiful lakes, and all kinds of primates, felines, and birds. If you can afford it, we recommend the Kenya and Tanzania Great Migration safari so you can watch the wildebeest and zebras migrate to Kenya. Featured Image by HowardWilks from Pixabay	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8019
__label__wiki	0.752438	0.752438	PMO budget gets 1.3% increase The Prime Minister's Office allocates $431 million for 2020/2021 fiscal year Nabilah Haris File photo shows the Prime Minister's Office building located on Jalan Perdana Menteri. March 21, 2019. Photo: Hazimul Wa'ie/The Scoop BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN – The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has tabled a budget of $431 million for the fiscal year 2020/21, a 1.3 percent increase from the previous financial year. Speaking on the third day of the 16th Legislative Council session, Minister at the Prime Minister’s Office YB Dato Seri Setia Hj Awg Abdul Mokti Hj Mohd Daud attributed the $7.91 million increase to the establishment of two new organisations – Manpower Planning and Employment Council (MPEC) and Balai Khazanah Islam Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah. PMO has also absorbed the Brunei Intellectual Property Office (BruIPO) from the Ministry of Energy. The majority of the budget — $366 million — is set for staff salary and recurring expenses. A total of $65.49 million has also been allocated for PMO’s projects under the 11th National Development Plan. YB Dato Hj Awg Abd Mokti said the budget will focus on improving investment activities, facilitating business, producing competent and employable human resources and preserving public welfare. The minister said Brunei’s ongoing efforts in boosting investments and facilitating business have resulted in marked improvements in the World Bank’s ease of doing business rankings in 2019, specifically in enforcing of contracts and resolving insolvencies. “The Prime Minister’s Office is ensuring the level of government service is maintained through our ongoing programmes such as the Client’s Charter and the Civil Service Performance Programme,” he said. “For our efforts in improving investment activities and diversifying the economy, we will continue to strengthen our close ties with Singapore through the Young Leaders’ Programme so we may benefit from the sharing of Singapore’s best practices as they are a strategic business hub in this region,” YB Dato Hj Awg Abd Mokti added. To improve human capital, the minister said programmes such as executive development programmes for senior government officials and middle-level officials and young executive programmes are still ongoing, while the Civil Service Institute is currently refining its curriculum to cultivate excellence. Legislative Council 2020 Reports from LegCo 2020 Latest from Legislative Council	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8020
__label__wiki	0.717662	0.717662	Cristina D. Hernandez Joins The Long Law Group April 27, 2016 \| All News The Long Law Group, PC is proud to announce Cristina D. Hernandez has joined the firm as a Partner in our new Litigation Practice Group. Cristina is a skilled trial lawyer with almost 20 years experience who represents corporations in all types of business disputes – internal investigations, securities matters, class actions, employment arbitrations, contract disputes and complex business disputes. She was lead counsel for the seller in a $8.6 billion proposed transaction, where she and her team successfully defeated several motions in federal court to enjoin the shareholder vote brought by putative class representatives. Cristina also acts as a trusted advisor for clients on business issues, working to stop litigation before it starts. In addition to a successful law practice, since 2012 she has also worked as a Senior Consultant and VP with the Verna Myers Consulting Group, a leading boutique in the growing field of diversity and inclusion consultancy. Cristina describes herself as a “a trial lawyer who always keeps the big business picture in mind.” “I joined The Long Law Group because Toni and her team share the same vision of what it means to be a great lawyer – that a true advocate learns our clients’ business, gives advice that preserves and advances our clients’ business goals, and acts both zealously and ethically.” Cristina has practiced law throughout the nation, starting her career in Massachusetts after graduating from Harvard Law School. She then practiced in Wisconsin, including a a decade practicing with Quarles & Brady LLP, and now calls California home. Cristina has received numerous honors during her career, including being named the Latina Attorney of the Year by the Hispanic National Bar Association in 2009 and serving as the President of the Eastern District of Wisconsin Bar Association that same year. She has been listed in Best Lawyers in America for Securities Litigation and Commercial Litigation each year since 2012. Cristina received both her undergraduate degree in U.S. History (cum laude) and her law degree from Harvard, where she served as Editor in Chief for the Harvard Latino Law Review.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8022
__label__wiki	0.836614	0.836614	Canada's Alberta cuts corporate tax rate, unveils C$10 billion infrastructure program TC Energy CEO and Alberta premier discuss construction Keystone XL pipeline in Calgary By Jeff Lewis TORONTO (Reuters) - The Canadian province of Alberta, home to the world’s third-largest oil reserves, said on Monday it will accelerate a corporate tax cut and invest C$10 billion ($7.31 billion) in infrastructure projects to jump start an economy badly damaged by the coronavirus pandemic. Premier Jason Kenney, who said the tax cut would take effect July 1, described the program as the largest infrastructure investment in Alberta's history. The corporate tax rate will fall to 8% from the current 10%, two years sooner than scheduled. Economic shutdowns due the virus outbreak added to challenges in the oil-rich province from lower crude prices <CLc1> and pipeline congestion, pushing the unemployment rate as high as 25%, Kenney said. "Given the severity of the economic crisis, we must act now," he said during a press conference. Canada is over the worst of the coronavirus outbreak but a spike in cases in the United States and elsewhere shows Canadians must remain vigilant as the economy reopens, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Monday. Alberta's recovery program will create an estimated 55,000 new full-time private sector jobs, and stimulate C$13 billion in economic growth, the province said. The province will also invest an additional C$175 million to expand access to venture capital for early stage start-up companies while seeking to limit the use of temporary foreign workers to boost local employment, according to the plan. Alberta Finance Minister Travis Toews said the financial supports could jeopardize the province's credit rating. Fitch cut Canada's rating last week. Toews said the tax cut will cost an estimated C$200 million to C$300 million in the current fiscal year and between C$100 million and C$200 million next year. Before the pandemic, Alberta's deficit was forecast at C$6.8 billion for the 2020-21 fiscal year. (Reporting by Jeff Lewis; Editing by Chris Reese and Marguerita Choy)	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8024
__label__wiki	0.511897	0.511897	Un-Block The Music Beyond Top 40 Producers/Studios Women Wonders WFYL1180AM’s ’s Sgt. Dan McCaughan Hopes “Santa Will Bring Broadway Back” As He Chats With The Foys About Their Song Premiere On A Virtual Holiday Show: Rebroadcast Dec. 19th If you have been reading “Un-Block The Music” and listening to WFYL 1180Am’s “From Bullets To Broadway,” you know what a fan I am of Dr. Jeff and Jacob Foy. You also know that I have a daughter who is a musical theater writer/actress. You may also know that Debbie Galante Block was a pop music/pro audio journalist for a lot of years. HOWEVER, this radio show is my first foray in broadcasting (That might be obvious after hearing me on the show this past weekend! LOL) During the episode, you heard, The Foys’ “Santa Bring Broadway Back,” then you got to hear me gush about the amazing virtual holiday show that Holly Block and Elizabeth Jerjian put together to raise money for Toys For Tots and for their original musical Safe & Sound. What “Un-Block The Music” loved most about the live streamed show, is that we got to hear brand new songs in a live format, something I believe music enthusiasts have been craving in the last 9 months. On this episode, Dr. Jeff and Jacob Foy talked about writing this song, which is a laughing tribute to the Broadway shows still on pause during this pandemic. Jeff and Jacob talked extensively to show host Sgt. Dan McCaughan about how they put this song together and how writing it was a lot different than the songs they have written for Emergency and One Night Only. At last look, the Foys’ song, sung by Jacob, had over 600 views on YouTube and 800 views on Facebook. Want to hear it again? Holly said, “Jacob is dear friend who is extremely talented. I asked him to be part of the show because I knew he would come up with something not at all typical, and of course he offered to write an original song with his dad Jeff! He has always been supportive to me, and I thought this could be a way I could be supportive to him as well. I was so excited when I first heard it, and I listened to it over and over again so I could analyze it. Pure brilliance!” In addition to “Santa Bring Broadway Back,” the virtual holiday presentation also featured holiday music sung by upcoming Broadway talent as well as three songs from Safe & Sound (“I’m Not Ashamed,” “Hold This Love” and “Safe & Sound”). On “From Bullets To Broadway,” Sgt. Dan questioned Jacob about the livestream process which you may or may not know is a lot different than just putting out a video. Holly, who lives in NYC, asked Mom if she could come up to the suburbs and basically turn the family home into the North Pole. While all of the songs were prerecorded, Holly and Elizabeth were live. With a little help (or rather a lot of help) from their friends Cooper Aquilino and Ryan Doyle, they used OBS (Open Broadcast Software,) which is free. OBS is sponsored by companies such as YouTube, twitch and Facebook. Check it out at: https://obsproject.com/ Why not just offer a video? “The best part of theater is that it is live so the livestreaming (even with the early technical difficulty) kept the energy up and enthusiasm the entire time,” Holly said. “This was the first-time trying livestreaming, and it turned out even better than I expected. I can’t wait to do it again.” As “Un-Block The Music” and everyone else has been reporting, Broadway’s future may seem precarious, but younger and emerging artists are helping to change the way their art is viewed, and I have no doubt they will bring us into the future…and bring Broadway back even if Santa doesn’t follow through! Holly and Elizabeth were so excited to report that they surpassed their goal for the amount of money they hoped to raise, and Holly said, “we were able to buy lots of toys for kids who need it more than ever this year.” If you didn’t hear this episode of “From Bullets To Broadway, The Anatomy of A Broadway Show, featuring Emergency The Musical,” you are in luck, it will be rebroadcast at noon this Saturday December 19, 2020 at noon. To hear music from Emergency The Musical, go to https://www.emergencymusical.com/ To hear music from One Night Only, go to https://www.onenightonlythemusical.com/ To hear “I’m Not Ashamed” from Safe & Sound, go to https://www.safeandsoundmusical.com/ BTW, if you have missed any of the other past episodes of the radio show, it’s not too late to hear them. Go to https://www.1180wfyl.com/ and hit “podcasts.” Published by unblockthemusic If you have found me for the first time...I am glad to make your acquaintance, but chances are if you love music, we have met at least in print. I have been a music journalist for 25+ years, and I thought it was about time to write about who and what I want. I love music. I love musicians. Whether you are 15 or 85, I want to talk to you about what you are doing in music. It's not all about those who win GRAMMYs or those on the Hot 100 chart. There's lots of music for all the generations. Make sure I know about it! Let nothing stand in the way...Un-Block The Music! View all posts by unblockthemusic Artists, Theater WFYL’s From Bullets To Broadway Offers A Holiday Show Dec. 12th With A New Hilarious Song By The Foys Music Supervisor Nicholas Skilbeck From Broadway’s “Tina” Talks About Honoring Tina Turner’s Live Performance Legacy	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8026
__label__cc	0.55349	0.44651	Bulgarian Interpreting, London We have a highly qualified team of Bulgarian interpreters. Interpreting refers to the translation of signed language or spoken words into a target language for the purpose of facilitating live communication between two or more people. At Universal Language Solutions, our highly experienced Bulgarian interpreters facilitate communication with the verbal rendition of languages for meetings, conferences, court hearings, HR reviews, formal assessments, training sessions, film shoots and many other scenarios. We also supply and install the necessary equipment including sound insulated booths, sound consoles, microphones and headsets. There are different types of interpretation of which Simultaneous Interpreting and Consecutive Interpretation are the most common ones. While simultaneous interpreters translate the spoken messages almost instantaneously, as the speaker is speaking, consecutive interpreters translate the messages as and when the speaker pauses to allow interpretation. Up until the end of World War II, consecutive interpreting was the preferred mode of interpretation. Nuremberg war trials of 1945 are regarded as the first large scale international usage of simultaneous interpreting in several languages. But what led to the successful entry of simultaneous interpretation in the international landscape were three events of huge international importance. First, the founding of the United Nations in 1945, second, the establishment of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949, and third, the establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community in 1952. As United Nations had allowed discussions to happen in five official languages which were, Chinese, French, English, Russian and Spanish, simultaneous interpretation during such meetings had become a necessity. However it was the rapid expansion of European communities, which held almost 9000 meetings every year in 9 languages, that helped propagate and sky rocket the need of armies of simultaneous interpreters. Further due to technological advancements such as the widespread use of televisions, where seconds counted and additional time needed for consecutive interpreting was disliked, simultaneous interpreting further advanced and gained importance. Simultaneous interpretation allows communication of speech from one language to another in real time. It allows multi lingual presentations and conversations to flow naturally and without delay. Listeners of simultaneously interpreted speech generally use wireless audio receivers to hear the translated speech. This unique advantage of simultaneous interpreting over consecutive interpreting has helped fuel its dramatic gitemth in all spheres of interpretation, including multilingual conferences of international organizations or during multilingual meetings between businessmen, scientists and professionals. For conferences and larger meetings. Delegates are provided with headsets and microphones so that their contributions can be transmitted to the interpreting team who often work from soundproof booths situated nearby – their spoken interpretation is then instantly broadcast back to the appropriate delegates. Universal Language Solutions can provide the entire set-up including the interpreting booths, microphones, consoles and engineers. Industry standard best practice for simultaneous interpreting is to work with teams of at least two interpreters per language. Interpreters work for alternating thirty minute periods. When not interpreting the resting interpreter remains in the booth to prepare for the next speech and help the other interpreter if required. This is skilled and specialist work and experienced conference interpreters are in high demand so advanced booking is advisable. High levels of education, training and preparation are a prerequisite for this type of assignment. In consecutive interpreting, the interpreter is given sufficient time to analyze the context of the source speech. This additional time aided along with the consecutive interpreters memory and special interpreting notes, consecutive interpreters facilitate far more detailed translation. Thus consecutive interpreting is required in meetings of foreign ministries and large corporation, where accuracy is of crucial importance. For example, consecutive conference interpreting was extensively used during arms control negotiations between the United States and the former Soviet Union, which also led to the SALT and START treaties. The reason why consecutive conference interpreting was used during these meetings was because of the grave importance of details which if lost during the course of interpretation, could have meant losses amounting to billions of dollars and loss of lives as well. For meetings and presentations with a small audience. Appropriate scenarios for consecutive interpreting are presentations, press conferences, speeches, court hearings, public inquiries, conference calls and interviews. The interpreter often takes notes while a participant speaks, and an interpretation is then given after the speaker has finished, or during appropriate pauses during the speech. No specialist technical equipment is required Whispering Interpreting Whispered interpreting is a form of simultaneous interpreting in which the interpreter sits in the conference room, next to the delegate or delegates, who need the interpreting or translations. Whispered interpreter first listens to the speech and then interprets the speech simultaneously and whisper it into the ears of delegate or delegates. Whispered interpreting can only be used for very few delegates sitting or standing together and is often used in bilateral meetings. Whispering interpreting or ‘chuchotage’ is used when one or two people do not understand the source language. The interpreter is seated next to the meeting participants and simultaneously renders the interpretation in a low voice. No technical equipment is required. Liaison or bilateral interpreting Consecutive interpreting requires collaboration between the speaker and the consecutive interpreter. It begins with the interpreter listening to few minutes of a speech segment, taking notes and then delivering that segment into the target language. Once the first segment is complete, speaker resumes and completes the second segment after which the whole process is repeated, right until the end of the speech. For small business meetings. Interpreting is undertaken on a one to one basis where the interpreter will interpret both ways and enable effective communication between two languages and two or more parties. Best Bulgarian Interpreting Translation, London Universal Language Solutions is the best Bulgarian Interpreting Translation company in London. We are specialist Bulgarian Interpreting Translation Service providers. London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom. London has been a major settlement for two millennia. The City of London, London’s ancient core and financial centre − an area of just 1.12 square miles and colloquially known as the Square Mile − retains boundaries that closely follow its medieval limits. London exerts a considerable impact upon the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism and transportation. The main metropolitan of London includes Bromley, Croydon, Ealing, Harrow, Hounslow, Ilford, Kingston, Romford, Shepherd’s Bush, Stratford, Sutton, Uxbridge and Wood Green. List of boroughs includes Barking and Dagenham, Barnet, Bexley, Brent, Bromley, Camden, Croydon, Ealing, Enfield, Greenwich, Hackney, Hammersmith and Fulham, Haringey, Harrow, Havering, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Islington, Kensington and Chelsea, Kingston upon Thames, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Newham, Redbridge, Richmond upon Thames, Southwark, Sutton, Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest, Wandsworth and Westminster. The Bulgarian language belongs to the Slavic family of Indo-European languages. It is the official language of Bulgaria and is widely used by all classes of people. Other main languages spoken in Bulgaria are Turkish and Romani. Bulgarian is written using the Bulgarian alphabets which is closely related to the Cyrillic script. The two main dialects of the Bulgarian language are the Western dialects and the Eastern dialects. Other notable Slavic languages include Russian, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Slovene, Serbo-Croatian and Macedonian. History of Interpreting Interpreting of oral translations has existed since early times. Some studies hint that it even existed in ancient Egypt. But we know from documented sources that interpreting services were used extensively during exploration and invasion campaigns. For example, it was used by Spaniards when they arrived in Central and South America. What is Interpreting? Interpretation is oral translation of oral communication, as opposed to sight translation, which is oral translation of written texts. Few specialized fields in professional interpreting are business interpreting, court interpreting, community interpreting and signed language interpreting. How Interpreting helps? Interpreting services are used to help people, belonging to diverse backgrounds, communicate during activities such as meetings, training, interviews, mediation, court hearings, news conferences, immigration services, social services, private business communication, community legal education or other group situations. Who are Interpreters? Interpreters are highly qualified professionals who can fluently speak in at least more than one language and can convert messages accurately and objectively from one language into another. It is the job of the interpreter to convey the information with accuracy. Universal Language Solutions is a leading translation agency in London. Our experienced team of interpreters are highly experienced and knowledgeable in the specific fields for which they perform interpretation, can easily manage the pace of communication between the speaker and listeners and provide essential advice about the cultural differences between the source and target language. An interpreter should successfully be able to convey the intent and underlying meaning of the speaker. They are highly experienced language experts who can understand, analyze and process the spoken words or messages in sign language, and thereafter translate the message into the target language. Our leading interpreting services London are trusted by a wide range of clients, who come from different backgrounds and cultures. As leaders in Bulgarian Interpreting services we specialize in Bulgarian Interpreting for all major Industries, which includes: We provide expert Bulgarian translation services for over 200 major Languages, which includes: We also provide Bulgarian translation services for:	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8028
__label__wiki	0.720803	0.720803	Intel shares drop on report that Apple will move Macs to in-house chips in 2020 Jeremy Horwitz@horwitz April 2, 2018 10:56 AM Apple is actively planning to move away from using Intel-series processors in its Macintosh computers, according to a new report today from Bloomberg. The move to Apple in-house chips is expected to take place in 2020, and the story led Intel’s stock to drop as much as 9.2 percent since publication. Shares have since recovered some of their losses. According to Bloomberg, Apple’s move from Intel Core-series CPUs to Apple-developed processors is code-named “Kalamata,” and it’s planned to increase the seamlessness of transitioning between the company’s various computing platforms — desktop, laptop, tablet, phone, and watch alike. An earlier report said that Apple is developing “Marzipan,” a version of MacOS that will run iOS apps, blurring the line between the Mac and iPad platforms. Rumors of an Apple desire to move Macs away from Intel processors have circulated since shortly after the Cupertino company first announced its A-series processors for iPhones and iPads eight years ago. While Apple has consistently downplayed those rumors over the years, its latest iMac Pro and MacBook Pro computers have added Apple-developed T1 and T2 coprocessors to handle various OS- and BIOS-level features, including security authentication of both users and components. Despite its own chipmaking advances, Apple currently depends on Intel for both Mac CPUs and the LTE modems found in many of its iPhones and iPads, accounting for around 5 percent of Intel’s annual revenues. A disagreement on patent licensing fees with Qualcomm reportedly led Apple to give Intel an exclusive on modems for 2018’s iPhones, leading Qualcomm’s stock to drop in February. However, it’s unclear whether Intel’s chips will be able to match Qualcomm’s as the mobile industry begins to transition to 5G wireless hardware later this year. From a performance standpoint, Intel’s low-end Mac chips and the iPad’s top-of-line A-series processors began to overlap over the past year or so, with Apple’s processors steadily gaining ground. In today’s review of the entry-level 2018 iPad, we noted that the entry-level $329 tablet now rivals Apple’s $1,299 12-inch MacBook in single- and multi-core processor performance. Moving Macs from Intel- to Apple-developed processors comes with clear risks and benefits. Apple’s integrated CPU and GPU chips have become capable of delivering console-quality visuals for games, as well as outstanding energy efficiency, but fall well short of the upper end of raw horsepower delivered by PC-class CPUs and GPUs. The shift is expected to be a “multi-step transition,” according to the original report. In other words, Apple could first move its lowest-powered Macs to self-made processors, followed by its Pro models, or simultaneously pair Apple and non-Apple chips in certain models to let users toggle between them as needed for performance or compatibility. Register for GamesBeat's upcoming event: Driving Game Growth & Into the Metaverse	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8032
__label__wiki	0.895133	0.895133	Koch Brothers Loom Over Maryland’s Purple Line Fight Look whose envoy has been dispatched to undermine Maryland’s Purple Line. Once again, Randal O’Toole of the Koch brothers-funded Cato Institute has been deployed to attack a light rail project in distress. Newly appointed Maryland DOT chief Pete Rahn will play a large role in deciding the fate of the Purple Line. At Rahn’s confirmation hearing, lawmakers questioned him about a fishy contract awarded to Koch Industries when he was running New Mexico DOT. On Monday, the Maryland Public Policy Institute, a right-wing think tank, is hosting a debate on whether to construct the light rail project in the DC suburbs, which newly elected Governor Larry Hogan has threatened to kill. The debate will pair Rich Parson, vice chair of the Suburban Maryland Transportation Alliance, with O’Toole, professional rail critic. O’Toole works for the Cato Institute, founded and funded by the Koch brothers. Cato dispatches O’Toole to political squabbles involving rail transit around the country, from Indianapolis to Honolulu. He’s so rabidly anti-rail that after Hurricane Sandy, he suggested New York City should replace its subway system with a network of underground buses. Despite dispensing ridiculous advice, O’Toole continues to be treated as a serious thinker by American media outlets. The Washington Business Journal recently printed an O’Toole broadside against the Purple Line, replete with his typical arguments, like light rail is worse for the environment than driving. Hogan’s appointee to head the state DOT, Pete Rahn, was scheduled to give opening remarks at the MPPI event. But sources tell us that Rahn has since backed out prior to a bruising confirmation hearing with Maryland’s Democratically controlled legislature. At the hearing, Maryland lawmakers raised questions about a highway project in New Mexico, where Rahn was previously DOT chief. NM-44, a 118-mile, $420 million road-widening that Rahn oversaw in New Mexico — the most expensive highway project in the state’s history at the time — awarded a huge and unusual contract to Koch Industries. An investigation by the Albuquerque Business Journal [PDF] reported that Koch Industries was the only bidder on the project and approached Rahn directly with the proposal before bids had been requested. Koch Industries was also awarded an unprecedented $62 million contract for a 20-year maintenance warranty. Former New Mexico Republican State Senator Billy McKibben told the Illinois Business Journal (which reported on the controversy after Rahn was installed as the head of Missouri DOT) that the deal would have bankrupted the state if it wasn’t for a well-timed oil and natural gas boom. Correction 2:51 p.m. February 26: The original version of this story included the wrong date for the Maryland Public Policy Institute debate. It is March 2. Filed Under: Maryland, Transit The Koch Brothers’ War on Transit By Angie Schmitt \| Sep 25, 2014 Transit advocates around the country were transfixed by a story in Tennessee this April, when the state chapter of Americans for Prosperity made a bid to pre-emptively kill Nashville bus rapid transit. It was an especially brazen attempt by Charles and David Koch’s political network to strong-arm local transportation policy makers. But it was far from […] Koch Brothers Tentacles Reach Out to Squelch Albuquerque BRT By Angie Schmitt \| Oct 16, 2015 Albuquerque, like many cities, is looking at bus rapid transit as a cost-effective way to improve mobility and create a more walkable city. Its BRT plan calls for frequent service on a center-running bus lane along Central Avenue, the city’s busiest bus route, which passes through the heart of downtown. The city has applied for funding from the […] Kochs Want to Kill Light Rail in Phoenix A group presenting themselves as neighborhood residents and business owners is receiving funding from Koch-backed groups. We have receipts. Ha! Cato’s O’Toole to Detroit: Don’t Repeat Portland and Denver’s “Mistakes” By Angie Schmitt \| Dec 9, 2011 The Cato Institute’s resident transportation pundit Randal O’Toole is best appreciated as a comedian. A forestry expert with a penchant for 19th Century neckwear, O’Toole’s latest gag, published in The Michigan View, warns that Detroit is poised to repeat the transportation mistakes of — get this — Portland and Denver. Let that sink in for […] And the Best Urban Street Transformation of 2015 Is… Queens Boulevard The year is coming to a close and the votes are in for the 2015 Streetsie awards. We asked readers to choose the most transformative street transformations, the most villainous villains, the dodgiest boondoggles of the year — and some of the races were razor close. Only a few can go down as the worst of the worst […] Surprise Attack on Phoenix Light Rail Expansion Reeks of Koch Brother Interference The 11th-hour opposition campaign seeks to stop a project supported by 75 percent of neighborhood residents just three years ago.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8035
__label__wiki	0.53853	0.53853	BDS and the Israeli Left Posted on September 16, 2009 Categories: BDS News, Boycott, Israeli Academia Comments are off for this post PACBI Column BRICUP Newsletter #20 The recent declaration by Neve Gordon, an Israeli academic at Ben-Gurion University, in support of BDS [1] has generated a great deal of commentary and controversy, ranging from demands that he be dismissed from the university to a celebration of Israeli democracy and the upholding of academic freedom. Here, PACBI takes a sober look at Israeli support for BDS and comments on its potentials and pitfalls. Israeli support for BDS, and in particular academic and cultural boycott of Israel, is to be welcomed. Long before Gordon”s statement supporting BDS, staunch Israeli supporters of Palestinian rights such as Rachel Giora, Ilan Pappe, Haim Bresheeth, Oren Ben-Dor and Tanya Reinhart had embraced boycott and defended it against Israeli critics particularly leftists in the academy [2]. Israeli artists” and academics” endorsement of concrete boycott actions called for by international academics and artists in the past few years is well known. The recent formation of the group Boycott! Supporting the Palestinian BDS Call from Within [3] is particularly noteworthy, as it unconditionally accepts BDS as defined and guided by the Palestinian BDS National Committee, BNC, unlike some “BDS supporters” in Israel who are trying to set their own, restrictive parameters for the campaign or qualifying their support for it to serve their political agendas. PACBI believes that increasing Israeli support for BDS or a recognition of its inevitability as a strategy in the struggle against Israeli colonialism and apartheid is an indicator of the growing legitimacy, moral superiority and success of the Palestinian-initiated and led BDS campaign. It shows that persistent and effective pressure on Israel, particularly in the form of BDS, has a real potential for generating political change within Israel, beginning with academics, artists, and other public figures. However, it is important to distinguish among different variants of such support or recognition, particularly insofar as they relate to the Palestinian call for BDS, including the PACBI call for academic and cultural boycott of Israel. First, it should be noted that some Israeli supporters of BDS studiously avoid the political framework set by the Palestinian BDS movement by casting their support for BDS as a strategy to end only the 42-year military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. For example, while some Israelis do employ the term colonialism or apartheid, they limit these terms” application to the Palestinian territory occupied in 1967, not to historic Palestine which now encompasses the state of Israel. Such a formulation sidesteps the issue of the right of return of Palestinian refugees, as well as that of the legalized and institutionalized system of racism and discrimination against the Palestinian citizens of the Israel It thus not only fails to adhere to the comprehensive rights-based approach adopted in the 2005 Palestinian Civil Society Call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel, but also ignores the UN-sanctioned rights of the great majority of the indigenous people of Palestine. The Palestinian call advocates nonviolent punitive measures to be maintained until Israel meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to selfdetermination and fully complies with the precepts of international law by ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall; recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194 [4]. This raises an important issue concerning the leadership of the BDS movement. Palestinians assert their right to set the parameters and overall strategy of the BDS movement and to remain at the forefront of the movement as its legitimate frame of reference and its anchor. Some Israeli attempts to restrict the scope of BDS, whether in geopolitical or tactical terms, can only be seen as an instance of the well-known Israeli “Zionistleft” penchant for defining the terms of the struggle and authorizing appropriate solidarity actions to bring about an end to Israel”s oppression of the Palestinian people, as they define it, irrespective of the aspirations and needs of the Palestinians themselves. We reiterate the need to keep this a Palestinian-centered movement in terms of basic principles and overall strategy, supported by the international BDS movement whose diverse, context-sensitive and often creative actions and tactics are critical to the success of the overall BDS strategy, as well as being valued as a form of principled solidarity with the Palestinian people. Some of the Israeli discourse about BDS betrays a related attribute of the Zionist left”s political discourse, which is its Israel-centered rationale for supporting BDS. In this view, the underlying principle and main justification for calling for BDS is to “save Israel from itself,” out of a concern for the country’s future, including the prospects of normalizing Israel”s presence in the Arab world. Such an overriding concern for guaranteeing Israel”s future, without questioning its apartheid and racist character, reveals that not all members of the Israeli left or “peace camp” can be counted on as solid allies of the Palestinian and international BDS movement. However, we believe that the formulation of the need for BDS in these terms vindicates one aspect of the logic of the BDS movement, which is to make Israelis realize that nothing short of sustained pressure on Israel will bring about a change in the political status quo. Whether out of Israeli self-interest or based upon a principled commitment to comprehensive Palestinian rights, such Israeli support for BDS cannot be ignored and is to be welcomed. [1] http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-gordon20-2009aug20,… [2] See, for example, Tanya Reinhart”s 2002 letter to Israeli academic Baruch Kimmerling at http://www.mediamonitors.net/tanya13.html [3] http://www.boycottisrael.info	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8036
__label__cc	0.603847	0.396153	Posts Tagged ‘energy’ fracking hell A very very brief piece in New Scientist back in August reported some research to the effect that hydraulic fracturing, aka fracking, is mostly responsible for a rise in atmospheric methane since 2008. Having just spotted this today, I was somewhat shocked. I’ve heard news about fracking of course, and the damage report has grown – but it seemed to me mostly about local geological instability, overuse of water, and site pollution. So what’s the methane issue? National Geographic reports on the same research (published in the journal Biogeosciences) here. Methane is a major greenhouse gas, of course, heating the atmosphere as much as eighty times the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide, but the question surely is – just how much methane does fracking release? The NG article also mentions a 2015 NASA study that found a sharp rise in methane levels from 2006, growing by about 25 million tons per year. It calculated that at least half of this increase came from fossil fuels. These findings happen to coincide with the growth in the use of fracking technology from around that time. Most of the emissions come from shale gas – that’s mostly methane – operations in the USA and Canada. The article describes the process: Fracking involves drilling an oil or gas well vertically and then horizontally into a shale formation. A mixture of highly pressurized water, chemicals, and sand is injected to create and prop open fissures, or pathways for the gas to flow But as more has become known about fracking, opposition has grown. While most fracking is done in the USA and Canada, a number of US states have either banned the practice or are considering doing so. It’s banned in France and Germany, and has become a hot issue in Australia, with the ‘unconventional gas’ producers, mostly operating in Queensland, seeking to expand operations throughout much of northern Australia. The NT government decided to lift its moritorium on fracking in 2018 after a comprehensive enquiry claimed that fracking could be brought to safe levels if 135 recommendations were followed. The government promised to follow the recommendations, of course, but the process smells horribly of back-door dealing. And in the USA the Trump anti-administration is doing all it can to further the practise, auctioning off drilling rights in large swathes of land to oil and gas developers. It seems to me that fracking is by its nature a short-term, stop-gap technology, which seeks to ferret out smaller and smaller reserves through applying more and more pressure, risking increasing damage to the environment, and to the health of local people exposed to under-reported leakages of the 650 or so chemicals used in the process, many of them well-recognised carcinogens. Australia’s Business Insider website has an article on the 10 scariest chemicals that have been used in hydraulic fracking. They are: methanol, BTEX compounds (benzene, toluene, xylene and ethylbenzene), diesel fuel, lead, hydrogen fluoride, naphthalene, sulphuric, crystalline silica, formaldehyde and ‘other unknown chemicals’. Now it’s likely true that any operations which employ chemicals would be found wanting under scrutiny, but it’s also true that the fracking industry, especially in the USA currently, operates under very little oversight, and will be seeking maximum benefit from a rogue regime. And it seems to me that some science-based organisations, such as the US Geological Survey, are minimising the damage and extolling the virtues, always pointing out that risks will be minimal ‘if proper practises are in place’. That’s an impossibly big ‘if’ when talking about the USA’s current dictatorship. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jun/18/not-safe-not-wanted-is-the-end-of-nt-fracking-ban-a-taste-of-things-to-come https://www.businessinsider.com.au/scary-chemicals-used-in-hydraulic-fracking-2012-3#methanol-1 https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/08/fracking-boom-tied-to-methane-spike-in-earths-atmosphere/ Posted in energy, fossil fuels, fracking Tagged with energy, environment, fracking, gas reflections on base load, dispatchable energy and SA’s current situation just to restate the point that SA’s power outages are due to transmission/distribution lines being damaged, nothing to do with renewable energy Canto: So now we’re going to explore base load. What I think it means is reliable, always available energy, usually from fossil fuel generators (coal oil gas), always on tap, to underpin all this soi-disant experimental energy from solar (but what about cloudy days, not to mention darkness, which is absence of light, which is waves of energy isn’t it?) and wind (which is obviously variable, from calm days to days so stormy that they might uproot wind turbines and send them flying into space, chopping up birds in the process). Jacinta: Well we can’t think about base load without thinking about grids. Our favourite Wikipedia describes it as ‘the minimal level of demand on an electrical grid over a span of time’. So the idea is that you always need to cover that base, or you’ll be in trouble. And an electrical grid is a provision of electrical service to a particular community, be it a suburb, a city or a state. Canto: Right, I think, and what I like about Wikipedia is the way it sticks it to the back-facing thinkers, for whom base load always means provision from traditional providers (coal oil gas). Jacinta: Yes, let’s rub it in by quoting Wikipedia on this. When the cheapest power was from large coal and nuclear plants which could not be turned up or down quickly, they were used to generate baseload, since it is constant, and they were called “baseload plants.” Large standby reserves were needed in case of sudden failure of one of these large plants. Unvarying power plants are no longer always the cheapest way to meet baseload. The grid now includes many wind turbines which have such low marginal costs that they can bid lower prices than coal or nuclear, so they can provide some of the baseload when the wind blows. Using wind turbines in areas with varying wind conditions, and supplementing them with solar in the day time, dispatchable generation and storage, handles the intermittency of individual wind sources. Canto: So the times are a-changing with respect to costs and supply, especially as costs to the environment of fossil fuel supplies are at last being factored in, at least in some parts of the world. But let’s keep trying to clarify terms. What about dispatchable generation, and how does it relate to base load? Jacinta: Well, intermittent power sources, such as wind and solar, are not dispatchable – unless there’s a way to store that energy. Some renewable energy sources, such as geothermal and biomass, are dispatchable, but they don’t figure too much in the mix at present. The key is in the word – these sources are able to be dispatched on demand, and have adjustable output which can be regulated in one way or another. But some sources are easier, and cheaper, to switch on and off than others. It’s much about timing; older generation coal-fired plants can take many hours to ‘fire up’, so their dispatchability, especially in times of crisis, is questionable. Hydroelectric and gas plants can respond much more quickly, and batteries, as we’ve seen, can respond in microseconds in times of crisis, providing a short-term fix until other sources come on stream. Of course, this takes us into the field of storage, which is a whole other can of – what’s the opposite of worms? Canto: So this question of base load, this covering of ‘minimal’ but presumably essential level of demand, can be a problem for a national grid, but you can break that grid up presumably, going ‘off grid’, which I’m guessing means going off the national grid and either being totally independent as a household or creating a micro-grid consisting of some small community… Jacinta: Yes and this would be the kind of ‘disruptive economy’ that causes nightmares for some governments, especially conservative ones, not to mention energy providers and retailers. But leaving aside micro-grids for now, this issue of dispatchability can be dealt with in a flexible way without relying on fossil fuels. Energy storage has proven value, perhaps especially with smaller grids or micro-grids, for example in maintaining flow for a particular enterprise. On the larger scale, I suppose the Snowy 2 hydro project will be a big boon? Canto: 2000 megawatts of energy generation and 175 hours of storage says the online ‘brochure’. But the Renew Economy folks, who always talk about ‘so-called’ base load, are skeptical. They point to the enormous cost of the project, which could escalate, due, among other things, to the difficulties of tunnelling through rock of uncertain quality. They feel that government reports have over-hyped the project and significantly downplayed the value of alternatives, such as battery electric storage systems, which are modular and flexible rather than this massive one-off project which may be rendered irrelevant once completed. Jacinta: So let’s relate this to the South Australian situation. We’re part of the national grid, or the National Energy Market (NEM), which covers SA and the eastern states. This includes generators, transformers (converting low voltage to high voltage for transport, and then converting back to low voltage for distribution), long distance transmission lines and shorter distance distribution lines. So that’s wholesale stuff, and it’s a market because different companies are involved in producing and maintaining the system – the grid, if you like. Canto: I’ve heard it’s the world’s largest grid, in terms of area covered. Jacinta: I don’t think so, but it depends on what metric you use. Anyway, it’s pretty big. South Australia has been criticised by the federal government for somehow harming the market with its renewables push. Also, it was claimed at least a year ago that SA had the highest electricity prices in the world. This may have been an exaggeration, but why are costs so high here? There are green levies on our bill, but I think they’re optional. Also, the electricity system was privatised in the late 90s, so the government has lost control of pricing. High-voltage transmission lines are owned by ElectraNet, part-owned by the Chinese government. The lower voltage distribution lines are operated by SA Power Networks, majority-owned by a Hong Kong company, and then there are the various private retailers. It’s hard to work out, amongst all this, why prices are so high here, but the closure of the Northern coal-fired power station in Port Augusta, which was relatively low cost and stable, meant a greater reliance on more expensive gas. Wind and solar have greater penetration into the SA network than elsewhere, but there’s still the intermittency problem. Various projects currently in the pipeline will hopefully provide more stability in the future, including a somewhat controversial interconnector between SA and NSW. Then there’s the retail side of things. Some retailers are also wholesalers. For instance AGL supplies 48% of the state’s retail customers and controls 42% of generation capacity. All in all, there’s a lack of competition, with only three companies competing for the retail market, which is a problem for pricing. At the same time, if competitors can be lured into the market, rather than being discouraged by monopoly behaviour, the high current prices should act as an incentive. Canto: Are you suggesting that retailers are profiteering from our high prices? Jacinta: I don’t know about that, but before the Tesla battery came online the major gas generators – who are also retailers – were using their monopoly power to engage in price gouging at times of scarcity, to a degree that was truly incredible – more so in that it was entirely legal according to the ACCC and other market regulators. The whole sorry story is told here . So I’m hoping that’s now behind us, though I’m sure the executives of these companies will have earned fat bonuses for exploiting the situation while they could. Canto: So prices to consumers in SA have peaked and are now going down? Jacinta: Well the National Energy Market has suffered increased costs for the past couple of years, mainly due to the increased wholesale price of gas, on which SA is heavily reliant. It’s hard to get reliable current data on this online, but as of April this year the east coast gas prices were on their way down, but these prices fluctuate for all sorts of reasons. Of course the gas lobby contends that increased supply – more gas exploration etc – will solve the problem, while others want to go in the opposite direction and cut gas out of the South Australian market as much as possible. That’s unlikely to happen though, in the foreseeable, so we’re likely to be hostage to fluctuating gas prices, and a fair degree of monopoly pricing, for some time to come. Posted in clean energy, electricity, energy, South Australia, technology Tagged with baseload, clean energy, energy, gas, South Australia some chatter on the National Energy Guarantee and our clouded energy future Sanjeev Gupta – making things happen Canto: I think we need to get our heads around the National Energy Guarantee, the objections to it, and the future of energy in Australia – costs, viability, environmental issues and the like. Jacinta: Oh no. So what is the National Energy Guarantee? Canto: Well if we go to the government’s website on this we’ll get a spinned version, but it’s a start. They say it’s an attempt to guarantee reliability, affordability, baseload security, reduced emissions and further investment into the nation’s energy system. They describe it as a market-based, technology-neutral response to the Finkel Review. They estimate a savings of around $120 between 2020 and 2030. Jacinta: Sounds a bit vague. Canto: Well there’s quite a bit of vagueness on their website frankly, but they present information on future projects, such as Snowy 2.0, which sound exciting but we’ll have to wait and see. Jacinta: So, going to our favourite website on these matters, Renew Economy, I find outrage from the renewable energy sector about the latest government decision on the NEG: Federal Coalition MPs voted on Tuesday [August 14] to support the National Energy Guarantee that proposes to ensure no new investment in large-scale wind, solar or battery storage for nearly a decade, and also expressed their support for a new government initiative they hope will support new coal-fired generation. A lot of the critics’ ire is directed at modelling by the ESB (Energy Security Board) – established a year ago ‘to coordinate the implementation of the Finkel reform blueprint’ – which fails to account for major state and corporate investments in renewables. Canto: And apparently the claimed savings to the consumer are partly based on the reduced cost of renewables which the federal government wants no part of! It’s like not having their cake but eating it too. Interested parties and opposition leaders have asked to see the modelling, and have received nothing beyond a single spreadsheet. Jacinta: And since we’ve been talking about the OECD lately, this new NEG’s target for renewables puts us behind the majority of OECD nations. Only five of them – including the USA and Canada – have lower targets than us. And yet the potential for reduced emissions here is greater than just about anywhere else. Canto: Well it’s no wonder that states such as Victoria and Queensland are unwilling to sign up. They have major renewable energy plans in store, and are challenging what would seem to be a baseless federal assumption, that bringing prices down means excluding renewables. In fact the Feds are quite contradictory and confused on the subject. Jacinta: Well there’s a good chance the conservatives will get rolled at the next election, so I’m hoping that Federal Labor have all their energy plans ready. And speaking of optimism, here in South Australia we’re apparently still on target to be 100% renewable, energy-wise, by 2025. The AEMO has made this prediction in its Integrated Systems Plan, which is a 20-year blueprint for renewables around the country. There are quite a few projects being developed here in SA, including a 280 MW solar plant in Whyalla, courtesy of British billionaire Sanjeev Gupta… Canto: Yes, Gupta has argued that the Federal proposal, or promise, to underwrite new power stations, which the conservatives have seized on as a way of advancing the coal agenda, can actually be used to build more solar farms with storage – what he calls ‘firm solar’. I don’t think it’s going to be much of a battle though. There’s no appetite for investing in new coal power stations among the cognoscenti. And another company looking to take advantage of the underwriting mechanism is Genex, which is building solar and hydro projects in Queensland. Jacinta: Yes, the conservative dinosaurs can bellow all they like, and they may even have some popular appeal, but the smart developers and investors are the ones who’ll carry the day, and they won’t be investing in coal. Anyway, Gupta has very ambitious, transformative plans for Australia’s energy system, which he sees – irony of ironies – as being green-lighted by the Federal underwriting proposal, which is neutral as to the source of the energy used. I don’t know how all this works out financially, but obviously Gupta does, and he’s suggesting we could become a truly cheap energy producer, particularly in solar. He envisions 10GW of solar capacity across the country. He’s also keen to build electric vehicles in Australia, which we may have mentioned before, though maybe not in South Australia, which was the original idea. Canto: And he’s also planning a storage battery near Port Augusta, due to commence later this year, which will out-biggen the recent Tesla battery. And speaking of the Tesla battery, which has been in operation for around nine months now, it might be worth having a look at how successful, or not, it has been. Jacinta: Well, I’ve found an analysis of its first four months of operation here, on a blog called Energy Synapse, though it’s a bit difficult to follow. It points out that the battery has two essential purposes; first, to provide stability to the grid, and second, to ‘trade in and arbitrage the energy market’. Energy Synapse was only looking at its success in trading. I would’ve thought its first role was more important, but I suppose that’s because I’m not much of a trader. Canto: What does arbitrage mean? Jacinta: Well, it’s about trading in a commodity with a fluctuating price. The key for making a quid, of course, is to buy low and sell high. In the battery’s case, you have to buy energy to recharge it, and you sell it to the grid when need arises. That may not be something under your control, so I’m not sure how you can successfully arbitrage in such a situation. From what I can work out, during the period December to March, the battery was getting plenty of use. December can largely be ruled out as a testing period, but January – a high volatility period – and February were pretty successful, March less so. Estimated net revenue for the 4-month period was $1.4 million, which sounds pretty good to me. But presumably the summer months are better for the battery as that’s when the grid is under greatest pressure? It would be great to have a measure of its performance over the winter. In fact, a full 12 month review would probably be necessary, if not sufficient, for testing how well it trades. But the battery’s efficiency, its rapid response time and proven capability in smoothing out the effects of outages elsewhere, has captured the attention of the public and of other investors. People and companies much smarter and more onto this ball than I am, are getting into big batteries – not just Gupta’s Simec Zen Energy, but CWP Renewables in Victoria, and individuals throughout the country who are installing home battery storage to combine with solar. Canto: And very recently the federal government has been under attack from its ultra-conservative wing for providing any comfort at all to the clean energy sector, and it’s even possible that the Prime Minister will lose his job over it. It’s bemusing to me that a party which always claims to be the pro-business party is at odds with the business community over this, with Abbott arguing for a hostile takeover of AGL’s Liddell coal-fired power station – a kind of nationalisation… It seems Abbott wants the whole nation to be operated on what he calls ‘reliable baseload power’, essentially from coal. Jacinta: Well, NSW seems to be going through the horrors at present regarding reliable energy. Its a state heavily reliant on black coal, and it’s been suffering power shortages recently because power stations are undergoing maintenance or units are non-operational. It seems the dependence of industry on a few key providers is causing problems, and dispatchable supply from solar and wind is variable. It seems that leadership in co-ordinating the state energy system is lacking. And of course, that’s where Abbott is coming from. So maybe he’s half-right, he’s just hampered by his pro-coal, anti-renewables tunnel vision. Canto: Meanwhile the NEG is being roundly criticised, indeed summarily dismissed, by all and sundry, and all we can really be sure of is that leadership in the field of energy will come from particular state governments and private corporations for the foreseeable future. https://www.afr.com/news/sanjeev-gupta-crashes-negplus-coal-party-with-14b-green-energy-plan-20180817-h144kr https://reneweconomy.com.au/gupta-accc-underwriting-idea-may-help-slash-solar-costs-to-20s-mwh-19171/ https://energysynapse.com.au/south-australia-tesla-battery-energy-market/ https://theconversation.com/a-month-in-teslas-sa-battery-is-surpassing-expectations-89770 https://www.smh.com.au/business/markets/tomago-aluminium-warns-of-energy-crisis-as-power-supply-falters-20180608-p4zkbw.html https://reneweconomy.com.au/full-absurdity-of-national-energy-guarantee-laid-bare-75082/ Posted in battery storage Tagged with batteries, clean energy, energy, environment, hydro, NEG, South Australia, storage Useful stuff on extremophiles and their tricks A tardigrade or water bear, emblematic creature for extremophile-philes everywhere. Look em up, cause they’re not mentioned in this article I’ll try to wean myself from the largely thankless task of writing about politics by picking a topic, almost at random, though one that I know will keep me engaged once I get started. I was reading an article on the geology of the Earth’s crust and upper mantle (aka lithosphere) the other day, which mentioned the possibility of life in the mantle. Little is known for sure about the mantle’s composition and activity, because until recently drilling down to that level has been just a pipe dream, so to speak. The mantle’s distance from the earth’s surface varies considerably from region to region, but the average depth of the crust at its thinnest, ie under the ocean, is about 6 kilometres. In 2011, microscopic nematodes, or roundworms, were found some 4 kilometres below the surface in a gold mine in South Africa. Other single-celled micro-organisms were found in the region, at depths of 5 kms. Since we’ve rarely plumbed such depths, it’s not unreasonable to suppose that life down that far may be commonplace. We already know that life exists under the sea floor, at immense pressures. At the bottom of the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific, bacteria thrive 11 kilometres below sea level, and some bacteria have been tested in the lab as tolerating 1000 atmospheres of pressure. Of course, the term extremophile, applied to such life forms, is typically anthropocentric, as they would presumably shuffle off their mortal coils tout de suite when subjected to our torturous environment. Then again… Extremophiles are of course termed as such when found in conditions that are far from what we would term normal. Such conditions include extremely hot or cold environments, highly acidic or alkaline environments, anaerobic environments, and extreme pressure. They include archaea, the earliest living organisms we know of, some of which have been found to be halophilic (thriving in high salt conditions) or hyperthermophilic (lovers of temps around 80°C). So how far down can these organisms go? What do they live on? What do they look like and how do they relate to other organisms on the bush of life? This article from National Geographic online suggests the possibility of an ecosystem existing some eight or nine kilometres below the Mariana Trench. The trench is a subduction zone, a region known to provide pro-life environments of sorts. Analysing such regions requires geological as well as microbiological expertise. A geological process known as serpentinisation provides an ecosystem for methane-consuming microbes. Serpentine is a mineral formed deep in the lithosphere ‘when olivine in the upper mantle reacts with water pushed up from within the subduction zone’, according to the article. Hydrogen and methane are by-products of this reaction, and this serpentinisation process is already known to create microbial habitats at oceanic hydrothermal vents. Furthermore, in recent years, serpentinisation has been found ‘everywhere’, at subduction zones and within mountain ranges, suggesting that methane-supported life may be commonplace, and may even exist elsewhere in the solar system where there is tectonic activity, and an abundance of olivine. Organisms living at great depths, under great pressure, are called piezophiles. So what is it that permits these bacteria, archaea and other unicellular organisms to thrive – or perhaps only just survive – in such conditions? There’s no one-size-fits-all answer, as some, such as xenophyophores, which are found at depth throughout the world’s oceans, are relatively complex creatures that appear to have adapted over time to increased pressure in order to benefit from benthic provender, while others like Halomonas salaria, a proteobacterium, are obligate piezophiles, unable to survive in under 1000 atmospheres. Unsurprisingly the outer membranes of these organisms are necessarily different in structure and composition from your common or garden microbes, but also unsurprisingly, it has proved difficult to analyse the structural features of piezophiles under lab conditions, though it’s clear that regulation of membrane phospholipids is key to maintaining a stable internal environment, which can not only withstand pressure, but also extremes of heat or cold or acidity. Proteins are also modified to maintain function. Although little is yet known about these organisms, the variety of their environments suggest a variety of adaptations independently arrived at. Most are autotrophs, or self-feeders, able to build organic compounds such as proteins through chemosynthesis in the absence of light. Many of them appear able to slow their metabolism and their reproduction rate by many factors. Researchers are becoming increasingly interested in extremophiles in general, as they’ve widened the possibilities of life in environments hitherto dismissed as unviable – in boiling water or under mountains of ice for example – just as we’ve begun to discover or further explore other planets (and moons) within and beyond our solar system. The field of microbiology has also made great strides in recent decades. Don Cowan, a senior researcher at the University of Pretoria, describes the microbiological ‘revolution’ of the eighties: In less than a decade, a combination of conceptual, scientific and technical developments all came together. These included the ability to purify total environmental DNA, the development of special marker sequences that can identify different microbial species, and the advent of very fast, very cheap DNA sequencing techniques. Collectively known as metagenomics, these developments hugely stimulated the field of microbiology. They have done so across diverse areas of science, from biological methods for cleaning up environmental pollution and contamination, to human disease. Researchers are applying these techniques to the examination and possible exploitation of extremophiles, for example to improve drought or temperature tolerance in plant species, for various pharmaceutical applications and possibly for the development of biofuels, as heat-tolerant enzymes enable plant tissues to be broken down more readily. The range of products and processes that can be improved by tapping into the enzyme production of various types of extremophiles is potentially vast, according to James Coker, a researcher at the University of Maryland’s Department of Biotechnology. In a 2016 paper, Coker admits that research in this field is new, but real progress has already been made: Four success stories are the thermostable DNA polymerases used in the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) 17, various enzymes used in the process of making biofuels 18, organisms used in the mining process 19, and carotenoids used in the food and cosmetic industries 20. Other potential applications include making lactose-free milk 1; the production of antibiotics, anticancer, and antifungal drugs 6; and the production of electricity or, more accurately, the leaching of electrons to generate current that can be used or stored 21 That last-mentioned application is of particular interest (as are all the others), as clean electricity production and storage is a high priority issue for some. Extremophile microbial catalysts can be used to drive microbial electrochemical systems (MES), a new TLA which may or may not catch on. Related TLAs include the MFC (microbial fuel cell) and the MEC (microbial electrolysis cell). Without losing myself in too much detail here, the exploitation of these microbes to help drive reactions at the electrodes has a number of useful applications, such as the remediation of waste-water, desalination, biosensing and ‘generating electrical energy from marine sediment microbial fuel cells at low temperatures’ (Dopson et al, 2016). None of this is, as yet, set to revolutionise the clean energy industry, but these are just some of the largely unsung incremental developments that are, in fact, moving us towards more clever and efficient use of previously untapped renewable resources. I was about to use the metaphor ‘at the coalface’ – which would’ve been appropriately inappropriate. It’s impossible for we dilettantes to keep up with all these discoveries and developments in a detailed way, but we can at least feel the excitement of work being done and advances being collaboratively made, as well as sensing the many obstacles and unforeseen complexities involved in transforming the viability of these amazing life-forms and their products into something viable and possibly life-transforming for the humans who have discovered them and unlocked their secrets. When politics and our inhumanity to others (human and non-human) lets us down, we can still marvel at our relentless drive and ingenuity. Posted in piezophiles Tagged with electricity, energy, extremophiles, microbiology, science the second law of thermodynamics – some preliminary thoughts the essential battle – to be more effectively productive than consumptive Early on in his book Enlightenment Now, Steven Pinker makes much of the second law of thermodynamics, aka the law of entropy, as something way more than an ordinary law of physics, citing others who’ve claimed the same thing, including Arthur Eddington, C P Snow and Peter Atkins. Soaring rhetoric about pinnacles and ‘without which nought’ tend to be employed, tempting dilettantes come moi to wonder, if it’s so effing over-arching why is it only the second law? So the first law of T is about conservation of energy, the third is about the impossibility of dropping to absolute zero. Maybe it’s just prosaically about chronology? Maybe. The first law, first made specific by Rudolf Clausius in 1850 but much refined since, essentially states that in a closed system the internal energy is equal to the amount of heat applied minus the work done on the system’s external environment. Basically, you can’t get more out of the system than you put into it. The second law also involves many contributors, including Sadi Carnot in 1824, and Clausius again in 1850. Pinker attributes its largely up-to-date statistical iteration to the physicist Ludwig Boltzmann, whose work on the law dates to the 1860s and 70s. The third law, which also employs the concept of entropy, wasn’t formulated until the early twentieth century, firstly by the chemist Walter Nernst. So maybe it’s a chronological thing, but it certainly seems uncertain. Anyway, the mystery attached to its title is just the start for the second law. It’s been formulated in multiple ways by scientists and popularisers. It’s mystical, hard-nosed, ineluctable, basic, obvious, magnificent and, according to Eddington, supreme. Entropy can be applied usefully to everything, from the universe to a cup of coffee and its consumer. The first point to always keep in mind – and for me that’s not easy – is that, left to itself, any system, such as those just mentioned, drifts inexorably from low to high entropy. To put it more succinctly, beds don’t make themselves. This obvious point may seem depressing, and often is, but it opens up the intriguing possibility that, if not left to itself, a bed can be made in many mysterious and inspiring ways. Energy into the system, systematically directed, creates art and science, life and intelligence, natural and synthetic. Natural selection from random variation, as we have so intelligently discovered, provides just such a system, through solar energy complexly distributed. Of course, before we get too excited, there are problems. Although solar energy is the ultimate ‘without which nought’ of our systematic existence, or at least the emergence of it, we human energumens tamper with and lay waste to a great deal of other complex systems, including what we so euphemistically term ‘livestock’, in order to order ourselves in increasingly ordered, soi-disant civilised ways. From farming to fracking, from radioactive atolls to space debris, we leave many a wreck behind, and it’s still and may always be an open question whether we end up drowning in our own crap, species-wise. Animals are born exploiters, as Pinker writes, and maybe we should celebrate the fact that we’re better at it than other animals. Certainly we need to acknowledge it, with due deference and responsibility, while trying to temper the reckless excitement with which we often set out to do things – though they may be our best moments. The point is that the principal human battle, the main game, is the battle against the inexorability of entropy, and that is why globalism, for as long as this globe alone is our home, and humanism, as long as we see, as Darwin so clearly did, that our existence is due to, and dependent on, the evolutionary bush of living organisms on this planet, must be our highest priorities. William Faulkner famously expressed an expectation that humanity would prevail, but there’s nothing inevitable about it, and far from it, given the energy that needs to be constantly supplied to keep the consequences of the second law at bay. Perhaps the analogy of bacteria in a petri dish is just a little oversimplified – for a start, the nutrients in our particular petri dish have increased rather than diminished, thanks largely to human ingenuity. As a result, though the human population has increased seven-fold over the past 200 years, our per capita caloric intake has also increased. But of course there’s no guarantee that this will continue – and far from it. One of the problems is being too smart for our own good, always arguably. In the early fifties, the Pacific, and Micronesia’s Marshall Islands in particular, was the scene of unprecedented damage and contamination as the USA tried to improve and perfect its new thermonuclear weaponry there. Not much concern was shown, of course, for the locals, not to mention the undersea life, at a time when the spectacular effects of the atom bombs on Japan had created both a global panic and a thrill about super-weaponry. The nuclear fusion weapons tested in that period dwarfed the Hiroshima bomb by many factors in terms of power and radioactive effects, and there was much misinformation even among experts about the extent of those effects. We were playing not just with fire, but with the most powerful and transformational energies in the universe, within a scant few decades of having discovered them. And today the USA, due to various accidents of history, has a nuclear arsenal of unfathomable destructive power, and a political system sorely in need of overhaul. With galloping developments in advanced AI, UAV technology and cyber hacking, it would be ridiculous to project complacent human triumphalism even a decade into the future, never mind into the era of terraforming other worlds. Einstein famously said, at the dawn of the nuclear era, ‘everything has changed except our way of thinking’. Of course, ways of thinking are the most difficult things to change, and yet we have managed it to some extent. Even in the sixties, hawks in the US and other administration were talking up nuclear strikes, but apart from the buffoonish Trump and his counterpart Kim of North Korea – people we’re sadly obliged to take seriously – such talk is now largely redundant. After the horrors of two global conflicts, and through the growing realisation of our own destructive power, we’ve forced ourselves to think more globally and co-operatively. There’s actually no serious alternative. Having already radically altered the eco-system that has defied entropy for a blink of astronomical time, we’ll need all our co-operative energy to maintain the miracle that we’ve so recently learned so much about. Tagged with energy, entropy, evolution, nuclear weapons, second law of thermodynamics, survival the continuing story of South Australia’s energy solutions In a very smart pre-election move, our state Premier Jay Weatherill has announced that there’s a trial under way to install Tesla batteries with solar panels on over 1,000 SA Housing Trust homes. The ultimate, rather ambitious aim, is to roll this out to 50,000 SA homes, thus creating a 250MW power plant, in essence. And not to be outdone, the opposition has engaged in a bit of commendable me-tooism, with a similar plan, actually announced last October. This in spite of the conservative Feds deriding SA labor’s ‘reckless experiments’ in renewables. Initially the plan would be offered to public housing properties – which interests me, as a person who’s just left a solarised housing association property for one without solar. I’m in community housing, a subset of public housing. Such a ‘virtual’ power plant will, I think, make consumers more aware of energy resources and consumption. It’s a bit like owning your own bit of land instead of renting it. And it will also bring down electricity prices for those consumers. This is a really important and exciting development, adding to and in many ways eclipsing other recently announced developments in SA, as written about previously. It will be, for a time at least, the world’s biggest virtual power plant, lending further stability to the grid. It’s also a welcome break for public housing tenants, among the most affected by rising power bills (though we’ll have to wait and see if prices do actually come down as a result of all this activity). And the announcements and plans keep coming, with another big battery – our fourth – to be constructed in the mid-north, near Snowtown. The 21MW/26MWh battery will be built alongside a 44MW solar farm in the area (next to the big wind farm). South Australia’s wind farms Now, as someone not hugely well-versed in the renewable energy field and the energy market in general, I rely on various websites, journalists and pundits to keep me honest, and to help me make sense of weird websites such as this one, the apparent aim of which is to reveal all climate scientists as delusionary or fraudsters and all renewable energy as damaging or wasteful. Should they (these websites) be tackled or ignored? As a person concerned about the best use of energy, I think probably the latter. Anyway, one journalist always worth following is Giles Parkinson, who writes for Renew Economy, inter alia. In this article, Parkinson focuses on FCAS (frequency control and ancillary services), a set of network services overseen by AEMO, the Australian Energy Market Operator. According to Parkinson and other experts, the provision of these services has been a massive revenue source for an Australian ‘gas cartel’, which has been rorting the system at the expense of consumers, to the tune of many thousands of dollars. Enter the big Tesla battery , officially known as the Hornsdale Power Reserve (HPR), and the situation has changed drastically, to the benefit of all: Rather than jumping up to prices of around $11,500 and $14,000/MW, the bidding of the Tesla big battery – and, in a major new development, the adjoining Hornsdale wind farm – helped (after an initial spike) to keep them at around $270/MW. This saved several million dollars in FCAS charges (which are paid by other generators and big energy users) in a single day. And that’s not the only impact. According to state government’s advisor, Frontier Economics, the average price of FCAS fell by around 75 per cent in December from the same month the previous year. Market players are delighted, and consumers should be too, because they will ultimately benefit. (Parkinson) As experts are pointing out, the HPR is largely misconceived as an emergency stop-gap supplier for the whole state. It has other, more significant uses, which are proving invaluable. Its effect on FCAS, for example, and its ultra-ultra-quick responses to outages at major coal-fired generators outside of the state, and ‘its smoothing of wind output and trading in the wholesale market’. The key to its success, apparently, is its speed of effect – the ability to switch on or off in an instant. Parkinson’s latest article is about another SA govt announcement – Australia’s first renewable-hydrogen electrolyser plant at Port Lincoln. I’ve no idea what that means, but I’m about to find out – a little bit. I do know that once-hyped hydrogen hasn’t been receiving so much support lately as a fuel – though I don’t even understand how it works as a fuel. Anyway, this plant will be ten times bigger than one planned for the ACT as part of its push to have its electricity provided entirely by renewables. It’s called ‘green hydrogen’, and the set-up will include a 10MW hydrogen-fired gas turbine (the world’s largest) driven by local solar and wind power, and a 5MW hydrogen fuel cell. Parkinson doesn’t describe the underlying technology, so I’ll have a go. It’s all about electrolysis, the production of hydrogen from H2O by the introduction of an electric current. Much of what follows comes from a 2015 puff piece of sorts from the German company Siemens. It argues, like many, that there’s no universal solution for electrical storage, and, like maybe not so many, that large-scale storage can only be addressed by pumped hydro, compressed air (CAES) and chemical storage media such as hydrogen and methane. Then it proceeds to pour cold water on hydro – ‘the potential to extend its current capacity is very limited’ – and on CAES ‘ – ‘has limitations on operational flexibility and capacity. I know nothing about CAES, but they’re probably right about hydro. Here’s their illustration of the process they have in mind, from generation to application. Clearly the author of this document is being highly optimistic about the role of hydrogen in end-use applications. Don’t see too many hydrogen cars in the offing, though the Port Lincoln facility, it’s hoped, will produce hydrogen ‘that can be used to power fuel cell vehicles, make ammonia, generate electricity in a turbine or fuel cell, supply industry, or to export around the world’. So how does electrolysis (of water) actually work? The answer, of course, is this: 2 H2O(l) → 2 H2(g) + O2(g); E0 = +1.229 V Need I say more? On the right of the equation, E0 = +1.229 V, which basically means it takes 1.23 volts to split water. As shown above, Siemens is using PEM (Proton Exchange Membrane, or Polymer Electrolyte Membrane) electrolysis, though alkaline water electrolysis is another effective method. Not sure which which method is being used here. In any case, it seems to be an approved and robust technology, and it will add to the variety of ‘disruptive’ and innovative plans and processes that are creating more regionalised networks throughout the state. And it gives us all incentives to learn more about how energy can be produced, stored and utilised. Posted in batteries, electricity, energy, hydrogen Tagged with batteries, clean energy, electricity, energy, hydrogen the battle for and against electric vehicles in Australia, among other things Toyota Camry hybrid – hybrids are way outselling pure EVs here, probably due to range anxiety and lack of infrastructure and other support I’ve probably not been paying sufficient attention, but I’ve just learned that the Federal Energy minister, Josh Frydenberg, is advocating, against the naysayers, for government support to the EV industry. An article today (Jan 22) in The Australian has Frydenberg waxing lyrical about the future of EVs, as possibly being to the transport sector ‘what the iPhone has been to the communication sector’. It’s a battle the future-believers will obviously win. A spokesman for the naysayers, federal Liberal Party MP and AGW-denier Craig Kelly, was just on the gogglebox, mocking the idea of an EV plant in Elizabeth here in South Australia (the town I grew up in), sited in the recently abandoned GM Holden plant. His brilliantly incisive view was that since Holdens failed, a future EV plant was sure to fail too. In other words, Australians weren’t up to making cars, improving their practice, learning from international developments and so forth. Not exactly an Elon Musk attitude. The electric vehicles for Elizabeth idea is being mooted by the British billionaire Sanjeev Gupta, the ‘man of steel’ with big ideas for Whyalla’s steelworks. Gupta has apparently become something of a specialist in corporates rescues, and he has plans for one of the biggest renewables plants in Australia – solar and storage – at Whyalla. His electric vehicle plans are obviously very preliminary at this stage. Critics are arguing that EVs are no greener than conventional vehicles. Clearly their arguments are based on the dirty coal that currently produces most of the electricity in the Eastern states. Of course this is a problem, but of course there is a solution, which is gradually being implemented. Kiata wind farm in Western Victoria is one of many small-to medium-scale projects popping up in the Eastern states. Victoria’s Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change (an impressive mouthful) Lily D’Ambrosio says ‘we’re making Victoria the national leader in renewable energy’. Them’s fightin words to we South Aussies, but we’re not too worried, we’re way ahead at the moment. So clearly the EV revolution is going hand in hand with the renewable energy movement, and this will no doubt be reflected in infrastructure for charging EVs, sometimes assisted by governments, sometimes in spite of them. Meanwhile, on the global scale, corporations are slowly shuffling onto the renewables bandwagon. Renew Economy has posted a press release from Bloomberg New Energy Finance, which shows that corporations signed a record volume of power purchase agreements (PPAs) for clean energy in 2017, with the USA shuffling fastest, in spite of, or more likely because of, Trump’s dumbfuckery. The cost-competitiveness of renewables is one of the principal reasons for the uptick, and it looks like 2018 will be another mini-boom year, in spite of obstacles such as reducing or disappearing subsidies, and import tariffs for solar PVs. Anyway, the press release is well worth a read, as it provides a neat sketch of where things are heading in the complex global renewables market. Getting back to Australia and its sluggish EV market, the naysayers are touting a finding in the Green Vehicle Guide, a federal government website, which suggested that a Tesla powered by a coal-intensive grid emitted more greenhouse gas than a Toyota Corolla. All this is described in a recent SMH article, together with a 2016 report, commissioned by the government, which claimed that cars driven in the Eastern states have a “higher CO2 output than those emitted from the tailpipes of comparative petrol cars”. However, government spokespeople are now admitting that the grid’s emission intensity will continue to fall into the future, and that battery efficiency and EV performance are continuously improving – as is obvious. Still, there’s no sign of subsidies for EVs from this government, or of future penalties for diesel and petrol guzzlers. Meanwhile, the monstrous SUV has become the vehicle of choice for most Australians. While there are many many honourable exceptions, and so many exciting clean green projects up and running or waiting in the wings, the bulk of Australians aren’t getting the urgency of climate change. CO2 levels are the highest they’ve been in 15 million years (or 3 million, depending on website), and the last two years’ published recordings at Mauna Loa (2015 and 2016) showed increases in atmospheric CO2 of 3PPM for each year, for the first time since recording began in 1960 (when it was under 1PPM). This rate of CO2 growth, apparently increasing – though with variations due largely to ENSO – is phenomenal. There’s always going to be a see-saw in the data, but it’s an ever-rising see-saw. The overall levels of atmospheric CO2 are now well above 400PPM. Climate Central describes these levels as ‘permanent’, as if humans and their effects will be around forever – how short-sighted we all are. The relationship between atmospheric CO2 and global warming is fiendishly complex, and I’ll try, with no doubt limited success, to tackle it in future posts. Mustn’t forget my update on Trump’s downfall: the Mueller team has very recently interviewed A-G Sessions, who’s been less than honest about his meetings with Russians. Nobody knows what Sessions was asked about in in his lengthy session (haha) with the inquirers, but he’s a key figure when it comes to obstruction of justice as well as conspiracy. Word now is that Trump himself will be questioned within weeks, which could be either the beginning of the end, or just the end. Dare to hope. Posted in Australia, clean energy, climate change, electric vehicles, electricity Tagged with Australia, climate change, electric vehicles, electricity, energy, science all renewable energy by 2050? Hang on a tick Sir David McKay, who died in 2016 of stomach cancer, aged 49. A great loss. The late Sir David McKay, physicist, engineer, sustainable energy expert, Cambridge professor and Royal Society Fellow, has just become known to me through his 2012 TED talk and a lengthier exposition of the same ideas presented at Harvard. These talks were designed, to ‘cut through some of the greenwash’ and provide a realistic account of what can be done, on both the supply and the demand side, to reduce fossil fuel consumption and transform our energy economy. As I need to keep saying, I’m far from an expert on this stuff, and I’m always impressed by the ingenious developments in the field and the promise of new technology, in batteries and other storage systems – like the compressed air underwater energy storage system being trialled in Lake Ontario, Toronto. But McKay’s contributions are helping me to think more realistically about the enormity of the problem of weaning ourselves from fossil fuels as well as to think more practically about my own domestic usage and the demand side more generally. While McKay was no renewable energy sceptic or climate change denier, his ‘arithmetical’ view of the future poured a lot of cold hydro on the rosy idea that we’d be living in an all-renewables-powered biosphere within x decades. So I want to take a closer look at some aspects of what he was saying (he also wrote a highly-regarded book, Sustainable energy – without the hot air, available free online). I particularly want to look at two forms of renewable energy that he talked about; wind and solar. He also talked at some length about two other energy sources, biofuels and nuclear, but I’ve never been much keen on biofuels, which in any case seem to have been largely taken off the menu in recent years, and nuclear, as McKay admits, has a popularity problem – a massive one here in Australia, unfortunately. What I say here about wind and solar will be gleaned largely fromMackay’s Harvard talk, but I’ve downloaded and plan to read his book in the near future. Mackay has calculated that the current energy production of wind turbines in windy Britain is about 2.5 watts per square metre, and by multiplying per capita energy consumption by population density, you get power consumed per unit area, which for Britain is about 1.25 watts per square metre. This suggests that to cover the consumption of Britain solely by wind, you’d need an area, on land or sea, half the area of Britain. This is clearly not feasible, though of course nobody in Britain, I hope, was ever expecting to have all their energy needs provided by wind. The situation is vastly different for South Australia, two thirds of which is currently powered by wind. SA has vastly more land than Britain and vastly less people. Though I’m sure it’s possible to quibble with Mckay’s figures and calculations, what he brings to the issues, I think, is a global, as well as a particular perspective that can be lost when you focus, as I have, on local success. For example, South Australia has been very successful in its deployment of wind power over a short period of time, and it’s easy to get carried away and think, if we can do it, why not state x or country y? But SA is a state with a small population and a very large area, and plenty of wind to capture. This just can’t be replicated in, say, Massachussetts, with more than three times the population, a thirtieth of the area, and little wind. So McKay wasn’t offering global solutions, nor was he dismissing local ones. He was simply pointing out the complexity of the problem in physical and arithmetical terms of weaning ourselves from fossil fuels, as well as getting us thinking about our personal responsibilities on the demand side. Solar isn’t much of a national solution in Britain, though it could be in Australia, which could be a net exporter of renewables, as Elon Musk has suggested, but to which countries, and how exactly do you export solar energy? You’d need conversion and transmission and bilateral agreements. All of this while fighting entrenched interests and upsetting long-standing arrangements. Having said this, more people are hopping on the renewables bus and it’s almost becoming unfashionable, in most western countries outside of Australia, to be dismissive of them, a noticeable change in the last decade. So what’s the point of this post? It’s to heed McKay’s advice that we need to recognise the complexity of the problem, to keep all possible reasonable solutions on the table, to become more aware, as individuals, communities and states, of our energy consumption, and to recognise that there’s never going to be a one-type-fits-all fix. Environments and needs vary widely, so we need to find particular solutions and we also need to find ways of joining and mixing those solutions together in effective networks. It all sounds pretty daunting, but the fact is, we’re already moving in the right direction, and there’s much to be positive about. Technology and engineering are international, and those in the business are hunting out solutions across the globe and thinking of harnessing and adapting them to their own region, in the process building communication, sharing information and expertise and raising consciousness about energy supply and consumption. And another positive is the endless innovation that comes with thinking about energy solutions in new ways, like small, cheap solar panels to provide energy in developing regions, backyard or small-scale wind-turbines in suitable locations, processing waste to fuel, new developments in batteries and EVs, and so on. So, while there aren’t major, mind-blowing solutions to our fossil-fuel dependence in the offing, we are making progress, incrementally, and the effects of climate change, as they become more impactful, will no doubt accelerate our progress and innovation. We have no option but to think and act positively. portable solar panels can be surprisingly useful, and cheap In a future post I’ll look at the demand side, following McKay and many others. Having just moved house, and sadly leaving solar panels behind, it’s time to find out where my meter is, and check our consumption. On Trump’s downfall: Fire and Fury, the overly-discussed tell-all book about Trump and the White House, is unlikely to affect Trump’s base though it will hopefully toughen the opposition. Trump’s rating remains below 40% and nothing much has happened so far this year. There’s talk of Oprah Winfrey standing for the Presidency in 2020 – please no! – but Trump will be in jail by then and Americans will have lost their appetite for ‘celebrity’ candidates. I’m looking out for Elizabeth Warren. Posted in climate change, globalism, renewable energy, solar, wind power Tagged with climate change, David McKay, debate, energy, energy solutions, pragmatism, skepticism the battery, Snowy Hydro and other stuff Let’s get back to batteries, clean energy and Australia. Here’s a bit of interesting news to smack our clean-energy-fearing Feds with – you know, Freudenberg, Morrison and co. The Tesla Big Battery successfully installed at the beginning of summer, and lampooned by the Feds, turns out to be doing a far better job than expected, and not just here in South Australia. Giles Parkinson reported on it in Renew Economy on December 19: The Tesla big battery is having a big impact on Australia’s electricity market, far beyond the South Australia grid where it was expected to time shift a small amount of wind energy and provide network services and emergency back-up in case of a major problem. Last Thursday, one of the biggest coal units in Australia, Loy Yang A 3, tripped without warning at 1.59am, with the sudden loss of 560MW and causing a slump in frequency on the network. What happened next has stunned electricity industry insiders and given food for thought over the near to medium term future of the grid, such was the rapid response of the Tesla big battery to an event that happened nearly 1,000km away. The Loy Yang brown coal fired power station is in south eastern Victoria, so why did South Australia’s pride and joy respond to a problem in our dirty-coal neighbouring state? It surely wouldn’t have been contracted to, or would it? Parkinson also speculates about this. Apparently, when a power station trips, there’s always another unit contracted to provide back-up, officially called FCAS (frequency control and ancillary services). In Loy Yang’s case it’s a coal generator in Gladstone, Queensland. This generator did respond to the problem, within seconds, but the Tesla BB beat it to the punch, responding within milliseconds. That’s an important point; the Tesla BB didn’t avert a blackout, it simply proved its worth, without being asked. And it has been doing so regularly since early December. It seems the Tesla BB has cornered the market for fast frequency control. Don’t hold your breath for the Feds to acknowledge this, but they will have taken note, unless they’re completely stupid. They’ll be finding some way to play it (or downplay it) politically. As Parkinson notes in another article, the energy industry has been slow to respond, in terms of regulation and accommodation, to the deployment of battery systems and their rapid charge-discharge features. Currently, providing FCAS is financially rewarded, which may have to do with costs involved but the cost/reward relationship appears to be out of kilter. In any case, battery response is much more cost-effective and threatens the antiquated reward system. The AEMC is planning to review frequency control frameworks, but it’ll no doubt be a slow process. This is an incredibly complex area, combining new, barely-understood (by me) technologies of generation and storage, and the transformation of long-standing energy economies, with a host of vested interests, subsidies and forward plans, but I intend to struggle towards enlightenment, as far as I can. Neoen’s Hornsdale Wind Farm Regardless of regulation and grid problems, renewable energy projects keep on popping up, or at least popping into my consciousness through my desultory reading (NY resolution: inform myself much more on what’s going on, here and elsewhere, in clean energy). For example, the Murra Warra wind farm’s first stage will have an output of 226MW, which has already been sold to a consortium of Australian corporations including Telstra and ANZ. The farm is near Horsham in western Victoria, and will finally have a capacity of up to 429MW, making it one of the biggest in the Southern Hemisphere. And of course there are many other projects underway. Back in August, the Renewable Energy Index, a monthly account of the renewable energy sector, was launched. Its first publication, by Green Energy Markets, was a benchmark report for 2016-7, all very glossy and positive. The latest publication, the November index, shows that rooftop solar installations for that month broke the monthly record set in June 2012 when subsidies were twice to three times what they are today. The publication’s headline is that the 2020 RET will be exceeded and that there are ‘enough renewable energy projects now under development to deliver half of Australia’s electricity by 2030’. The Clean Energy Council, the peak body for Australian dean energy businesses, also produces an annual report, so it will be interesting to compare its 2017 version with the Renewable Energy Index. Hydro is in fact the biggest clean energy provider, with 42.3% of the nation’s renewable energy according to the 2016 Clean Energy Australia Report. Wind, however, is the fastest growing provider. This brings me to a topic I’ve so far avoided: The $4 billion Snowy Hydro 2 scheme. Here’s what I’m garnering from various experts. It’s a storage scheme and that’s all to the good. As a major project it will have a long lead time, and that’s not so good, especially considering the fast growing and relatively unpredictable future for energy storage. As a storage system it will be a peak load provider, so can’t be compared to the Hazelwood dirty coal station, which is a 24/7 base load supplier. There’s a lot of misinformation from the Feds about the benefits, eg to South Australia, which won’t benefit and doesn’t need it, it’s sorting its own problems very nicely thanks. There’s a question about using water as an electricity supplier, due to water shortages, climate change and the real possibility of more droughts in the future. There are also environmental considerations – the development is located in Kosciuszko National Park. There’s some doubt too about the 2000MW figure being touted by the Feds, an increase of 50% to the existing scheme. However, many of these experts, mostly academics, favour the scheme as a boost to renewable energy investment which should be applied along with the other renewables to transform the market. In saying this, most experts agree that there’s been a singular lack of leadership and common-sense consensus on dealing with this process of transformation. It has been left mostly to the states and private enterprise to provide the initiative. With each post I’ll add something on the projected Trump downfall. Just watched a CNN special report: The Trump Russia Investigation. It suggests to me that the notorious Trump Tower meeting, while nothing much in itself, is but a small piece of the growing case against Trump. It filled me in muchly on the much-discussed ‘dossier’ released just before Trump’s inauguration, the commandeering of Facebook by Russian operatives for a disinformation campaign, stirring up issues on immigration, gays, guns, etc, and much more. I still maintain that he won’t be in office by year’s end. Posted in Tesla Big Battery Tagged with batteries, climate change, energy, Renewable Energy Index, RET, Tesla Big Battery more on Australia’s energy woes and solutions the SA Tesla Powerpack, again Canto: So the new Tesla battery is now in its final testing phase, so South Australia can briefly enjoy some fame as having the biggest battery in the world, though I’m sure it’ll be superseded soon enough with all the activity worldwide in the battery and storage field. Jacinta: Well I don’t think we need to get caught up with having the biggest X in the world, it’s more important that we’re seen as a place for innovation in energy storage and other matters energetic. So, first, there’s the Tesla battery, associated with the Hornsdale wind farm near Jamestown, and there are two other major battery storage systems well underway, one in Whyalla, designed for Whyalla Steel, to reduce their energy costs, and another smaller system next to AGL’s Wattle Point wind farm on Yorke Peninsula. Canto: Well, given that the federal government likes to mock our Big Battery, can you tell me how the Tesla battery and the other batteries work to improve the state? Jacinta: It’s a 100MW/129MWh installation, designed to serve two functions. A large portion of its stored power (70MW/39MWh) is for the state government to stabilise the grid in times of outage. Emergency situations. This will obviously be a temporary solution before other, slower reacting infrastructure can be brought into play. The rest is owned by Neoen, Tesla’s partner company and owner of the wind farm. They’ll use it to export at a profit when required – storing at low prices, exporting at higher prices. As to the Whyalla Steel battery, that’s privately owned, but it’s an obvious example, along with the AGL battery, of how energy can be produced and stored cleanly (Whyalla Steel relies on solar and hydro). They point the way forward. Canto: Okay here’s a horrible question, because I doubt if there’s any quick ‘for dummies’ answer. What’s the difference between megawatts and megawatt-hours? Jacinta: A megawatt, or a watt, is a measure of power, which is the rate of energy transfer. One watt equals one joule per second, and a megawatt is 1,000,000 watts, or 1,000 kilowatts. A megawatt-hour is one megawatt of power flowing for one hour. Canto: Mmmm, I’m trying to work out whether I understand that. Jacinta: Let’s take kilowatts. A kilowatt (KW) is 1,000 times the rate of energy transfer of a watt. In other words, 1000 joules/sec. One KWh is one hour at that rate of energy transfer. So you multiply the 1000 by 3,600, the number of seconds in an hour. That’s a big number, so you can express it in megajoules – the answer is 3.6Mj. One megajoule equals 1,000,000 joules of course. Canto: Of course. So how is this working for South Australia’s leadership on renewables and shifting the whole country in that direction? Genex Power site in far north Queensland – Australia’s largest solar farm together with a pumped hydro storage plant Jacinta: Believe me it’s not all South Australia. There are all sorts of developments happening around the country, mostly non-government stuff, which I suppose our rightist, private enterprise feds would be very happy with. For example there’s the Genex Power solar, hydro and storage project in North Queensland, situated in an old gold mine. Apparently pumped hydro storage is a competitor with, or complementary to, battery storage. Simon Kidston, the Genex manager, argues that many other sites can be repurposed in this way. Canto: And the cost of wind generation and solar PV is declining at a rate far exceeding expectations, especially those of government, precisely because of private enterprise activity. Jacinta: Well, mainly because it’s a global market, with far bigger players than Australia. Inputs into renewables from states around the world – India, Mexico, even the Middle East – are causing prices to spiral down. Canto: And almost as we speak the Tesla gridscale battery has become operational, and we’ve gained a tiny place in history. But what about this National Energy Guarantee from the feds, which everyone seems to be taking a swing at. What’s it all about? Jacinta: This was announced a little over a month ago, as a rejection of our chief scientist’s Clean Energy Target. Note how the Feds again avoid using such terms as ‘clean’ and ‘renewable’ when it talks or presents energy policy. Anyway, it may or may not be a good thing – there’s a summary of what some experts are saying about it online, but most are saying it’s short on detail. It’s meant to guarantee a reliable stream of energy/electricity from retailers, never mind how the energy is generated – so the government can say it’s neither advocating nor poo-pooing renewables, it’s getting out of the way and letting retailers, some of whom are also generators, deliver the energy from whatever source they like, or can. Canto: So they’re putting the onus on retailers. How so? Jacinta: The Feds are saying retailers will have to make a certain amount of dispatchable power available, but there is one ridiculously modest stipulation – greenhouse emissions from the sector must be reduced by 26% by 2030. The sector can and must do much better than that. The electricity sector makes up about a third of emissions, and considering the slow movement on EVs and on emissions reductions generally, we’re unlikely to hold up our end of the Paris Agreement, considering the progressively increasing targets. Canto: But that’s where they leave it up to the private sector. To go much further than their modest target. They would argue that they’re more interested in energy security. Jacinta: They have a responsibility for providing security but not for reducing emissions? But it’s governments that signed up to Paris, not private enterprises. The experts are pointing this out with regard to other sectors. More government-driven vehicle emission standards, environmental building regulations, energy efficient industries and so forth. Canto: And the Feds actually still have a renewable energy agency (ARENA), in spite of the former Abbott government’s attempt to scrap it, and a plan was announced last month to set up a ‘demand response’ trial, involving ARENA, AEMO (the energy market operator) and various retailers and other entities. This is about providing temporary supply during peak periods – do you have any more detail? Jacinta: There’s a gloss on the demand response concept on a Feds website: From Texas to Taiwan, demand response is commonly used overseas to avoid unplanned or involuntary outages, ease electricity price spikes and provide grid support services. In other countries, up to 15 per cent of peak demand is met with demand response. Canto: So what exactly does it have to do with renewables? Jacinta: Well get ready for a long story. It’s called demand response because it focuses on the play of demand rather than supply. It’s also called demand management, a better name I think. It’s partly about educating people about energy not being a finite commodity available at all times in equal measure… Canto: Sounds like it’s more about energy conservation than about the type of energy being consumed. Jacinta: That’s true. So on extreme temperature days, hot or cold – but mostly hot days in Australia – electricity demand can jump by 50% or so. To cope with these occasional demand surges we’ve traditionally built expensive gas-based generators that lie idle for most of the year. For reasons I’m not quite able to fathom, at such extreme demand times the ‘spot price’ for wholesale electricity goes through the roof – or more accurately it hits the ceiling, set by the National Energy Market at $14,000 per MWh. That’s just a bit more than the usual wholesale price, about $100/MWh. Demand management is an attempt to have agreements with large commercial/industrial users to reduce usage at certain times, or the agreements could be with energy retailers who then do deals with customers. Of course, bonuses could be handed out to compliant customers. The details of how this offsets peak demand usage and pricing are still a bit of a mystery to me, however. Posted in economics, electricity, Elon Musk, energy, renewable energy, solar, South Australia Tagged with ARENA, economics, electricity, energy, hydro, solar, South Australia, technology	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8038
__label__cc	0.526286	0.473714	S-Bahn sets the smart transport standard: groundbreaking Synectics operational management system goes live Posted On Monday, 11 January 2021 01:06 Sheffield, United Kingdom: The first phase in a pioneering smart transport project to transform security, passenger service, and operational management across Berlin’s S-Bahn rail network has officially gone live. Teams based at S-Bahn’s ‘4S’ operational headquarters are now — via the latest developments in Synectics’ Synergy hybrid cloud software platform — able to connect, respond, and collaborate with passengers and staff on-board trains, at stations, and with field personnel working anywhere across the network. The new capabilities, including an innovative mobile application, mark a revolutionary step forward in the way operational command, control, and communications are carried out within urban rail environments. The project, which went live as scheduled on 1 January, is the result of an innovative partnership between S-Bahn Berlin GmbH (a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn) and command and control solutions expert, Synectics. The two companies’ combined ambition has led to the development of a tailored system that delivers a positive customer experience both now and well into the upcoming decade. Leveraging powerful tools to form custom API gateways, Synergy integrates to and interoperates with S-Bahn’s proprietary systems, as well as all third-party technologies, devices, and communication solutions vital to passenger service, safety, and security. This is achieved in real time, and continuously informed by sensor data obtained from integrated systems crucial to operating safe and efficient passenger services. The new Synergy mobile application will enable S-Bahn’s workforce to receive automated task assignments based on their role, skills, and location, and to directly update the system on their delivery of those tasks — the sophisticated level of integration and interoperability achieved is unprecedented. Henning Oelze, Project Manager, S-Bahn, said: “Synergy’s powerful integrations, intelligent digitisation of workflows, workforce management capabilities, and computer-aided dispatch functionality combine to deliver a hugely exciting outcome. The platform offers complete visibility of network-wide activity and the ability to coordinate and automate the right response, at the right time, to any requirement. “It was with huge pleasure that we saw our first trains and Security and Service teams utilising the new Synergy system, especially given how challenging this last year has been. It really is a revolutionary step forward in our mission to deliver outstanding passenger service, while at the same time, making life much easier for our personnel through the advanced automation of operational processes.” From fulfilling a planned maintenance task to sending people with the most appropriate training to deal with an evolving security or safety issue, Synergy will facilitate the rapid communication, deployment, and appropriate action of different teams. This will equip S-Bahn to process and react to events within pre-defined response times, and to manage its workforce as effectively as possible. The project is scheduled to continue during 2021, with the two organisations building further technical capabilities and driving ahead with continuous improvement. Key enhancements will see extensions to the workforce management functionality and more developments to improve operational efficiency within incident and task management assignments. Greg Alcorn, Director, Global Sales & Customer Success at Synectics, said: “S-Bahn Berlin is viewed as a technological trail-blazer and we’ve thoroughly enjoyed working with such a well-organised team to deliver the first step in their truly inspirational vision for urban transport. Some of the software developments driven by this project will have long term implications for the sector. I have no doubt that there are new standards being set here for smart transport systems of the future.” In addition to the ground-breaking technology used, the project also demonstrates the advances that can be achieved through international collaboration. Henning Oelze added: “Having such direct access to Synectics’ product development team in the UK and knowing that they understood how agile we needed this solution to be, has made a huge difference. They shared our vision for the future of smart transport operations in a major European capital and worked in close partnership with the S-Bahn team, successfully navigating their way through the technical, logistical and cultural challenges of a major international project. “The close nature of this collaboration is the reason we have reached this crucial go-live milestone, despite all the hurdles that 2020 put in our way.”	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8040
__label__wiki	0.949852	0.949852	USC Viterbi Freshman Fights On In Journey Towards Self-Discovery Savanna Mesch \| October 21, 2019 First-year student finds strength in community USC freshman Carlos Lao poses for a photograph for My USC story, September 11, 2019. (Photo/Gus Ruelas) Carlos Lao is many things. He’s an international student at USC Viterbi studying computer science. He’s a freshman living in the McCarthy honors dorms. He’s a foreign language aficionado. He’s an entrepreneur. Carlos has also experienced in the past a lot of pain and prejudice on his journey to self-discovery. Lao was raised in a traditional Catholic Filipino family in the Philippines. Identifying as a queer man, he was led to live a closeted, inauthentic life for much of his youth. “I couldn’t get to the point of coming out because I always denied myself,” he said. The bullying started early on the playground using vulgar words, far too mature for a kindergartener to comprehend. His mother, a kindergarten teaching assistant, was shocked, but not surprised. But the malice was still all too plain. Lao officially came out to friends as a high school freshman, but not to his parents. “Finally, I could tell someone, and it was cool,” he said. “That attitude spurred me to think I can live my life like this, without needing people’s approval.” But when he came out to his parents earlier this year, they confessed that they had heard him coming out to friends. At first, his mother tried to convince her son it’s just a phase. “I don’t think anybody has thought of this as much as I have,” he told her. She came to accept her son’s sexual orientation, yet still the subject was taboo. “Every time something hinted at it, we’d avoid the topic,” he said. While the Philippines has been deemed Asia’s most gay-friendly country, acceptance is highly conditional. “Everyone’s fine with you being gay as long as you’re not related,” Lao said. Lao found acceptance in a supportive school environment. “In the international bubble I lived in, everybody was super open and accepting,” said Lao, who graduated from Shanghai American School, an international school, in Pudong, China. “Everybody kind of knew, but it was just waiting for me to come to terms with it, too.” Lao’s high school experience certainly prepared him for USC. First, there was his stacked roster of Advanced Placement exam scores. Then there was his involvement with student life. Lao, ex-president of the international thespian society in his high school, took on lead roles in musicals, sang in the school choir, and organized a school-wide talent show. Outside of theater, Lao ran cross-country and coded a club’s website. In his free time, Lao self-studied constructed languages such as Esperanto and Toki Pona. He also studied foreign languages such as Korean, Spanish, and Filipino Sign Language, even volunteering as an interpreter for a computer literacy course in Manila. Lao was a high school freshman when he and his older sister began visiting colleges in the U.S. They first went to California. “I just remember when I got to USC, and it was exactly what I expected college to be like,” he said. He recalled his tour guide boasting about the Trojan family network. “I love being spiritual and that stuck with me,” he said. “I never forgot USC since freshman year.” His sister, Isabelle, who studies chemistry and oceanography at the University of British Columbia, inspires him to advocate for the environment. “Hearing her passion,” he said, “taught me the importance of the situation.” With computer science, he said, there are multiple potential applications for technology to protect Mother Nature, such as using drones to scan for biodiversity or analyze where soil is best for reforestation. “Even though it’s not the first thing you’d think of for everything, it’s always there,” he said. “No matter what I do, I’ll find one way, shape or form to implement CS,” he said. The combination of computer science and business courses sparks Lao’s entrepreneurial spirit. What lies for Lao after graduation is unknown, except for one sure thing. “I just want to be doing something that makes a difference,” he said. Lao said he will continue to pursue his interests in linguistics, the performing arts, and computer science at USC. He plans to audition for a cappella, join the student organization Undergraduate Students in Linguistics, and explore entrepreneurship at the USC Viterbi Startup Garage. Lao is ready to start his collegiate journey at USC. “I’m excited to be around so many like-minded people who want to grow and are willing to take chances,” he said. “I’m excited to live out my college dream.” He’s Worked His Entire Life To Support His Family; Now, He’s Pursuing A Dream Of His Own Incoming freshman Dresden Kershaw reflects on the uphill journey that has brought him to USC Viterbi. USC Viterbi freshman Jovani Esparza, a first-generation scholarship student, has worked since age 10 to support his family Dreaming Big Pays Off Computer science student turned entrepreneur Drake Rehfeld is flying high with five ventures under his belt before he’s even graduated—but it didn’t happen without hard work.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8045
__label__wiki	0.793987	0.793987	From the Viterbi Magazine: Q & A with Geena Davis: If She Can See It, She Can Be It Caitlin Dawson \| June 7, 2020 Academy Award winner and activist Geena Davis is working with USC Viterbi researchers to help build a more inclusive world, starting with the silver screen. In 2016, Geena Davis launched the Geena Davis Inclusion Quotient (GD-IQ), which uses artificial intelligence to identify gender, speaking time and additional details about characters in the media. Photo/Geena Davis. Despite the fact that women make up half the population and female-led movies have dominated the box office in recent years, women — and their voices — remain conspicuously underrepresented in film. Geena Davis, Academy Award winner and star of such classic female empowerment movies as “Thelma and Louise” and “A League of Their Own,” plans to change that — with a little help from artificial intelligence and a team of USC computer scientists. In 2016, she launched the Geena Davis Inclusion Quotient (GD-IQ), which uses artificial intelligence to identify gender, speaking time and additional details about characters in the media. The software, designed by USC Viterbi Professor Shrikanth Narayanan, the Niki and Max Nikias Chair in Engineering, and his team at the Signal Analysis and Interpretation Laboratory (SAIL), caused ripples across Hollywood and beyond when its analysis found that in recent popular films, men had almost twice as much speaking time as women. The Engineer of 2020 The USC Viterbi graduate of 2020 is the fulfillment of a national vision. Shri Narayanan Named Inaugural Holder of the Niki and C.L. Max Nikias Chair in Engineering The chair, established by anonymous donors, honors in perpetuity, the Nikias’s legacy How Often Are Women Seen/Heard on Screen? New Software Co-Developed By SAIL Lab Will Tell You	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8046
__label__wiki	0.949394	0.949394	•Alison Simpson •Current Affairs for Women, Featuring on WATC Sophie Walker resigns as leader of the Women’s Equality Party Home > News > Current Affairs for Women > Sophie Walker resigns as leader of the Women’s Equality Party Sophie Walker, the leader of the Women’s Equality Party, has announced that she is stepping down after four years at the helm. Walker, who was elected in 2015 as the first leader of the newly established party, said she was stepping in order to make space for new voices. During her term, Walker ran twice for office – once during the London Mayoral and Assembly elections in 2016 and as the parliamentary candidate for Shipley in the 2017 snap general election. In March 2018, she was re-elected as leader of the Women’s Equality Party with more than 90 per cent of the vote. In a statement, Walker said, “After four years of helpin to build and lead the Women’s Equality Party, I have decided that it’s time to move on.” “It’s a hard decision to resign but I do so in order to practise a key part of the job – making space for new voices.” “Making change happen is an immense challenge.” “But the size of the challenge does not render it impossible.” “I am proud of what WEP has achieved since our first public meeting and grateful to the dedicated, determined staff and campaginers who work so hard for every election and campaign advance, step by step.” “It’s been a privilege to travel the first part of this journey with you all.” In a joint statement, Women’s Equality Party co-founders Sandi Toksvig and Catherine Mayer said, “We are hugely sorry to see Sophie go, but as we look back over her tenure as leader of the Women’s Equality Party, we also thank our lucky stars that she was there from the beginning.” “We set up the party because we were impatient for equality and we wanted to open politics to the talents it routinely excludes.” “We knew these untapped talents were out there.” “That didn’t mean we dreamed of finding an untapped talent of the magnitude of Sophie’s at the very first Women’s Equality Party meeting in 2015.” “Sophie came into politics, as we did, not with a desire to be heard but to create a platform for others and not to succeed within the culture but to change it.” “This is not an easy process.” “We thank her for the courage she has shown and for her wonderful legacy.” “Today, there are thousands of women across the UK who are politically active because Sophie inspired them.” Walker will stay as leader of the WEP for an interim period to support a smooth transition and the party will be publishing details for the leadership election shortly. Catherine MayerElectionpolitical leaderPolitics NetworksresignsSandi ToksvigSophie WalkerWEPWomen's Equality Party Alison Simpson Alison is the Digital Content Editor for WeAreTheCity. She has a BA Honours degree in Journalism and History from the University of Portsmouth. She has previously worked in the marketing sector and in a copywriting role. Alison’s other passions and hobbies include writing, blogging and travelling. Previous PostHas the time come to relaunch your career?Next PostNorthern Power Women announce the 2019 Power and Future Lists 15/10/20 – 18/10/20: Build Back Equal – Women’s Equality Party Conference Ellie O'ConnorARCHIVE Recommended Read: Five Rules for Rebellion: Let’s Change the World Ourselves \| Sophie Walker Alison SimpsonRecommended Books Record number of female MPs elected \| 2019 General Election Alison SimpsonCurrent Affairs for Women, Featuring on WATC Women’s Equality Party announces interim leader and London Mayoral Candidate Alison SimpsonCurrent Affairs for Women, Featuring on WATC, International Women's Day News	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8048
__label__wiki	0.782783	0.782783	Share this Story: Lee Westwood crowned European number one; Matthew Fitzpatrick wins in Dubai Lee Westwood crowned European number one; Matthew Fitzpatrick wins in Dubai Westwood won $2 million for finishing at the top of the Race to Dubai leaderboard Lee Westwood of England celebrates after winning the Race to Dubai following Day 4 of the DP World Tour Championship at Jumeirah Golf Estates on Dec. 13, 2020 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Photo by Ross Kinnaird /Getty Images Englishman Lee Westwood was crowned Europe’s number one golfer for the third time in his career with a second-placed finish on Sunday behind compatriot Matthew Fitzpatrick, who won the European Tour’s season-ending DP World Tour Championship. Westwood won the Harry Vardon Trophy again 20 years after he first lifted it, with a steady final-round 68 at Jumeirah Golf Estates in Dubai to go 14-under for the tournament and finish one stroke behind Fitzpatrick, who took home $3 million for his victory. Lee Westwood crowned European number one; Matthew Fitzpatrick wins in Dubai Back to video Westwood won $2 million for finishing at the top of the Race to Dubai leaderboard, while overnight co-leader Patrick Reed lost the chance to become the first American to claim the honor as he ended tied in third place with Viktor Hovland at 13-under. “It’s been a bizarre season… The European Tour have done an incredible job to pick the season up again from July and have tournaments on every week,” Westwood, who made five birdies and had one bogey, said. “The culmination of it all here, it was a great finish, sat there watching it. Thrills and spills, the Race to Dubai up for grabs and the tournament up for grabs. “It’s been 20 years since I sat there at Valderrama, to win the Order of Merit as it was then. It’s not getting any easier, I’m not getting any younger.” Westwood said he would love to play in the Ryder Cup again, with the event pushed to next year due to the COVID-19 crisis. “At some point I’m hoping the captaincy is going to be offered,” Westwood added. “I’ve played 10 Ryder Cups, at certain times you have to move into different chapters of your life. If I did qualify, I would give it my all and be ready for it.” Fitzpatrick, who had a share of the lead before the final round, began with birdies on the opening four holes and added a further gain before the turn and finished steadily to seal his first Rolex Series win.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8051
__label__wiki	0.772239	0.772239	Season 1 Season 2 Season 3 Season 4 Season 5 Episode 01: A Trip to the Moon Episode 02: Come Back Little Shiksa Episode 03: Take a Left at the Altar Episode 04: Tale in Two Cities Episode 05: Cool Hand Dave: Part 1 Episode 08: Los Dos Dipestos Episode 09: Fetal Attraction Episode 10: Tracks of My Tears Episode 11: Eek! A Spouse! Episode 12: Maddie Hayes Got Married Episode 13: Here's Living with You, Kid Moonlighting - Season 4, Episode 01: A Trip to the Moon David and Maddie have been together for four weeks and Maddie is wondering where their relationship is going. She thinks all they do is sleep together. David expresses his love for her but she doesn't know what she wants. Genre: Drama, Comedy, Romance, Mystery Actors: Cybill Shepherd, Bruce Willis, Allyce Beasley, Curtis Armstrong, Kristine Kauffman, Jonathan Ames, Daniel Fitzpatrick, Jamie Taylor, Willie Brown, Jack Blessing, Inez Edwards, ...» Director: Allan Arkush, Christian I. Nyby II, Paul Krasny, Dennis Dugan, Will Mackenzie, Christopher Hibler, Jay Daniel #Moonlighting, #Season 4, #Cybill Shepherd, #Bruce Willis, #Allyce Beasley, #Curtis Armstrong L.A.s Finest - Season 2 Gold Rush: Alaska - Season 11 S.W.A.T. - Season 4 Teen Wolf - Season 1 Actors of "Moonlighting - Season 4" Birthdate: 18 February 1950, Memphis, Tennessee, USA Birthdate: 19 March 1955, Idar-Oberstein, West Germany Birthdate: 6 July 1954, Brooklyn, New York, USA Birthdate: 27 November 1953, Detroit, Michigan, USA Kristine Kauffman Daniel Fitzpatrick Jamie Taylor Willie Brown Jack Blessing Birthdate: 29 July 1951, Baltimore, Maryland, USA Inez Edwards Birthdate: 4 July 1924, Newark, New Jersey, USA Birthdate: 14 October 1924, Santa Ana, California, USA Birthdate: 24 August 1949, Bangor, Maine, USA Clinton Allmon Birthdate: 13 June 1941, Monahans, Texas, USA Birthdate: 2 September 1951, Burbank, California, USA Birthdate: 5 September 1946, Wheaton, Illinois, USA Birthdate: 11 September 1961, Chicago, Illinois, USA Birthdate: 8 February 1949, New York City, New York, USA Bill Marcus Ronald G. Joseph Birthdate: 1944, Sacramento, California, USA Tracey Walter Birthdate: 25 November 1947, Jersey City, New Jersey, USA Tony Bill Birthdate: 23 August 1940, San Diego, California, USA Julia Jennings R.H. Thomson Birthdate: 24 September 1947, Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada Howard Mann Birthdate: 20 June 1923, New York City, New York, USA Will Nye Birthdate: 1 September 1953, USA Henry G. Sanders Birthdate: 18 August 1942, Houston, Texas, USA Frantz Turner Pamela Bowen Allan Kolman Kate Murtagh Birthdate: 29 October 1920, Los Angeles, California, USA Michael E. Dawdy Jensen Collier Cleavant Derricks Birthdate: 15 May 1953, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA Leigh Webb Birthdate: October 19, 1949 in USA Rob Wickstrom Rocky Giordani Zack Phifer Jack Murdock Birthdate: 28 October 1922, Ohio, USA Tammy Brewer Chris Rennolds Darwyn Swalve Birthdate: 20 August 1946, Iowa, USA Fred Ottaviano Jack Bannon Birthdate: 14 June 1940, Los Angeles, California, USA Vincent Schiavelli Birthdate: 11 November 1948, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA Caitlin Clarke Birthdate: 3 May 1952, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA Nicholas Cascone Birthdate: 20 April 1963, Queens, New York, USA Ed O'Ross Birthdate: 4 July 1946, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA Birthdate: 20 September 1956, Park Ridge, Illinois, USA Nicholas Pryor Birthdate: 28 January 1935, Baltimore, Maryland, USA Birthdate: 9 September 1965, Anchorage, Alaska, USA Birthdate: 4 September 1938, Brooklyn, New York, USA Chino 'Fats' Williams Birthdate: 26 July 1933, Louisiana, USA Christine Haber Birthdate: 4 August 1944, Bridgeport, Connecticut, USA Jon Cedar Birthdate: 22 January 1931, Detroit, Michigan, USA George Coe Birthdate: 10 May 1929, Jamaica, Queens, New York City, New York, USA Birthdate: 1 June 1930, Dallas, Texas, USA Birthdate: 13 March 1956, New York City, New York, USA Robert Ellenstein Birthdate: 18 June 1923, Newark, New Jersey, USA Judith Hansen Gregg Henry Birthdate: 6 May 1952, Lakewood, Colorado, USA Alexandra Johnson Dan Lauria Birthdate: 12 April 1947, Brooklyn, New York, USA Mark Lonow Birthdate: 11 May 1944, Brooklyn, New York, USA Cotter Smith Birthdate: 29 May 1949, Washington, District of Columbia, USA Birthdate: 1 July 1957, Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA Birthdate: 18 March 1950, Huntington, West Virginia, USA Ellen Geer Birthdate: 29 August 1941, New York City, New York, USA Stephen Godwin Jim Haynie Birthdate: 6 February 1940, Falls Church, Virginia, USA Nora Heflin Birthdate: 2 February 1950, Los Angeles, California, USA Marilyn Jones Birthdate: 6 June 1953, Grosse Pointe, Michigan, USA Richard Libertini Birthdate: 21 May 1933, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA Will MacMillan Birthdate: 25 November 1944, Steubenville, Ohio, USA Kenneth McMillan Birthdate: 28 November 1959, Portland, Maine, USA Birthdate: 13 November 1933, Washington, District of Columbia, USA Paul Roebling Birthdate: 1 March 1934, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA Birthdate: 13 April 1939, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA Granville Van Dusen Birthdate: 16 March 1944, Grand Rapids, Minnesota, USA Birthdate: 8 October 1936, New York City, New York, USA Donna Dixon Birthdate: 20 July 1957, Alexandria, Virginia, USA Rhoda Gemignani Birthdate: 21 October 1940, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA Ann Hearn Birthdate: 27 June 1953, Griffin, Georgia, USA Alan Blumenfeld Birthdate: 4 September 1952, Rockville Centre, New York, USA Birthdate: 29 November 1947, Staten Island, New York, USA Joel Colodner Birthdate: 1 May 1946, Brooklyn, New York, USA Sid Conrad Birthdate: 10 August 1923, Otsego, Michigan, USA Birthdate: 21 May 1923, New York City, New York, USA Robert Joy Birthdate: 17 August 1951, Montréal, Québec, Canada Lenore Kasdorf Birthdate: 27 July 1948, Queens, New York, USA James MacKrell Birthdate: 12 October 1937, Little Rock, Arkansas, USA Joel Polis Birthdate: 3 October 1951, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA Birthdate: 16 October 1958, West Covina, California, USA Phil Rubenstein Birthdate: 3 August 1940, Bronx, New York, USA Jonathan Stark Birthdate: 16 February 1952, Erie, Pennsylvania, USA	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8059
__label__wiki	0.914492	0.914492	Brazilian Fitness Brand Track & Field Plans U.S. Push Track & Field, a high-end fitness and lifestyle apparel brand with 36 stores in Brazil, wants to tap into the $30 billion U.S. fitness industry. By Sharon Edelson on December 23, 2009 from WWD issue 12/23/2009 Download PDF View Gallery — 3 Photos This story first appeared in the December 23, 2009 issue of WWD. Subscribe Today. The company, which uses innovative fabrics such as material that stays dry and fabric that stretches comfortably, will launch an 850-square-foot store next month at 977 Madison Avenue and 77th Street in Manhattan. “When I look at the U.S. market, most companies investing in [innovative] fabrics are very big, like Nike,” founding partner Frederico Wagner said. “It’s hard to think of these companies as being very exclusive.” Wagner said Brazil, which will host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, ultimately could support a chain of 70 units, but he sees the potential in the U.S. for as many as 300 to 350 stores. Track & Field sells athleticwear for indoor and outdoor sports, and casualwear that can be worn anytime. There are also collections for cross-training, triathlons, yoga, running, swimming, biking and winter and summer sports. Prices range from $40 to $180 with the average price point at $75. Performance-enhancing athleticwear that’s also stylish is where Track & Field hopes to differentiate itself. “The challenge is to be fast and adapt our products for the U.S. consumer,” Wagner said. “The Brazilian culture is about the style. Bringing fashion into the gym or park has really grown in Brazil. This has huge potential in the U.S. There’s a big percentage of consumers who could add style to technical products. Our goal is to promote wellness and health and encourage people to feel good when they are working out.” Track & Field is divided into four collections for women and men, including basics. A new store concept will be tested on Madison Avenue. It features 1,100 merchandise-filled clear capsules with color-coded lids covering an entire wall. Only one size of each product will be displayed on hangers. Sales associates will retrieve products for consumers from the capsule wall in the proper size and color. “We didn’t want to do a store that is self-service in the U.S.,” Wagner said. “That’s not exclusive.” About 75 percent of Track & Field styles are in capsules. In addition to the 1,100 capsules on the wall, 4,000 will be stored in the basement. The capsules are a visual element in the store, just as a video wall streaming scenes from popular sporting destinations gives the store a “you are there” quality. Track & Field looked for retail space in Manhattan for two years before settling on Madison Avenue, where the company is projecting sales of $2 million in the first year, Wagner said. “After the change in the economy, our Brazilian exchange rate has been really strong,” he said, also noting a 30 to 40 percent reduction in rents. “The investment is cheaper now. You can also negotiate at a slower pace. You have time to look around. Two years ago, it was so competitive that even if you agreed to pay the asking price, it was like an auction.” Three months after the Madison Avenue store bows, Track & Field will open an e-commerce site for the U.S. Wagner said New York would support five to six stores, citing SoHo, the Upper West Side, the Meatpacking District and Union Square, among other locations. The retailer plans to expand to Boston; East Hampton, N.Y.; Florida; Chicago, and Atlanta before heading West. Track & Field has gained credibility by launching events such as the Grand Series of 10K runs throughout Brazil. It also sponsors Iron Man Brazil, as well as adventure camps and running clubs. With every collection, the retailer chooses a social cause to endorse. “We’ll probably use the same strategy in the U.S.,” Wagner said. “We will try to create one or two runs in New York and try to bring them to a higher level. We’ll start small initially.”	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8060
__label__cc	0.553447	0.446553	5 ways we could make buying a house more doable By Michael Collett Posted SunSunday 12 FebFebruary 2017 at 11:10pmSunSunday 12 FebFebruary 2017 at 11:10pm , updated WedWednesday 15 FebFebruary 2017 at 10:17pmWedWednesday 15 FebFebruary 2017 at 10:17pm It's easy to see why young Australians might feel like they'll never catch up to rising house prices. After all, a parliamentary inquiry spent almost two years looking into the affordability problem (/crisis) and came to the conclusion that there was nothing it could recommend. But there are ideas out there. It's just whether or not they'd a) work and b) have any chance of actually being implemented given the political firestorm that erupts every time someone so much as mentions the words "negative gearing" or "assets test". We've listed the pros and cons of some of the top suggestions, along with their likelihood of ever actually happening. Taking mansions into account re: the pension Did you know you can live in a multimillion dollar beachside manor and still get the age pension? That's because the family home is exempt from the assets test for this payment. This means there's an obvious incentive for retirees to have as much of their wealth tied up in their home as possible... which means they could still be living in a big five-bedroom house when a two-bedder would be more suitable. Removing the family home exemption (or making it only apply to less pricey houses) would get rid of this market distortion and put more of these houses up for sale, which would be a good thing for the younger people who want to buy them. It's not grandma's fault that the home she's owned since forever is now worth a fortune. And the whole point of removing the exemption would be to force her to sell up and relocate, essentially. So it's about weighing this up against the fact that the oldies have all the houses (between 1982 and 2011, home ownership went down for every age group except over 65s). Likelihood of this ever actually happening: The Coalition Government says this would go against its principles. It's not on the agenda for Labor either. Make negative gearing not a thing A big part of the reason why so many homes are owned by investors is negative gearing. Basically, this allows investors to reduce their taxable income if they make a loss on their housing investments. So if they lose $10,000 over the course of a year, they can reduce their taxable income by that same amount. It's pretty clear that getting rid of negative gearing would make investing in property less attractive, which would push down prices and free up more of the market for owner occupiers. The justification for negative gearing is that it increases housing supply and keeps the cost of rent down. According to the Grattan Institute, though, these are both myths. However, what's definite is that getting rid of negative gearing wouldn't be popular with investors (and one in 10 taxpayers uses negative gearing). Labor went to the last election with a promise to limit negative gearing to new properties. The Coalition currently has no such plans. Goodbye stamp duty, hello land tax If you don't have to pay stamp duty, you're thousands of dollars closer to being able to afford a house (though there are already first home buyer exemptions and/or concessions in all states and territories except Tasmania). Stamp duty also makes the market less efficient by discouraging existing owners from moving house. So parents whose children have moved out might choose to hold onto their bigger home instead of getting a smaller one. If stamp duty was replaced with a land tax, that would also encourage people who own empty plots of land to get a move on with their developments. And there's another advantage to getting rid of stamp duty: in 2015, the Treasury released a paper which singled out stamp duty as the least efficient tax in Australia (that hypothetical land tax, meanwhile, would be the most efficient and actually contribute to economic growth). Stamp duty is a big revenue raiser for the states, so they'd need to make up the shortfall somehow (again, a land tax seems the most likely contender). This is a tricky one because stamp duty is a state tax. It's been suggested that the Federal Government could step in to help them transition to a land tax. Tax mega estates and give young'uns the money A 35 per cent inheritance tax on estates worth over $10 million would raise at least $3.5 billion, according to the Community Council of Australia. Last week Tim Ayres, the NSW Secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, proposed that this could be used to give all young people a one-off payment when they turn 25 — which they could then use as a deposit for a house. The idea of an inheritance tax isn't a new one either: America and Britain already have them. People could transfer their wealth (or part of it) before they die to avoid having to pay the tax, which would make the tax less effective. This isn't on the agenda for either the Coalition or Labor. But Mr Ayres says people in the ALP, of which he's a member, "are interested". Just build more houses, duh This one is a no brainer when it comes to lowering house prices. That's because it deals with one of the fundamental reasons for why they cost so much in the first place. This is the problem in a nutshell: If the number of houses available doesn't keep pace with the number of people who want houses, there's generally only one direction that prices will go. But the reverse is also true. Build more houses and you put downward pressure on prices. That's why investors are being warned about what a possible glut of apartments could mean in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. The problem is, there's really only so much land. That means you either have to build on undeveloped land (which tends to mean the outer 'burbs) or you have to build up (which tends to mean smaller apartments). As well, city planners can't just open the flood gates. These things take... planning, to make sure new developments are sustainable and services will be up to scratch etc. And of course, supply is only ever part of the problem. If investors are the only ones who can afford any of the new houses, well, that doesn't really help first home buyers. Supply is never not being increased. It's just a matter of whether it's increasing fast enough. Posted 12 FebFebruary 2017SunSunday 12 FebFebruary 2017 at 11:10pm , updated 15 FebFebruary 2017WedWednesday 15 FebFebruary 2017 at 10:17pm Why are Millennials worried about the future? Why Gen Y should hold off buying a home Live: Rain forces early tea with Australia's lead at 276	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8062
__label__wiki	0.971207	0.971207	Trump the unreliable partner confounds both foes and allies by: LISA MASCARO, Associated Press Posted: Jun 24, 2019 / 06:21 PM EDT / Updated: Jun 24, 2019 / 08:31 PM EDT President Donald Trump speaks at the White House in Washington, Monday, June 24, 2019. Trump’s sudden decision against military strikes may have prevented open conflict with Iran, but it also showed him to be an unpredictable, if unreliable, partner at home and abroad. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s abrupt decision against military strikes may have prevented open military conflict with Iran, but it also showed him anew to be an unpredictable, unreliable, partner at home and abroad. Trump won his job partly on his claims to be a great dealmaker. But the celebrity businessman-turned-president’s negotiating style — repeatedly pushing toward a brink only to pull back at the moment of action — leaves the U.S. lurching from crisis to crisis. On trade tariffs, immigration raids and now the standoff with Iran, his course reversals confound allies as well as adversaries, and his own party in Congress. As fallout from Trump’s actions reverberated around the globe on Monday, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo jetted to the Middle East i n search of a coalition of allies against Iran, the president offered a fresh round of equivocation, defending his decision not to attack Iran even while issuing new threats. “I think a lot of restraint has been shown by us. A lot of restraint. And that doesn’t mean we’re going to show it in the future, but I felt that we want to give him this chance,” Trump said. “We would love to be able to negotiate a deal if they want to. If they don’t want to that’s fine too.” His backing off on military strikes that were about to be launched in retaliation for the shootdown of an unmanned U.S. drone was just one of several recent tactical shifts by the White House on significant issues. Over the weekend, Trump changed course over immigration raids that had stoked fear among people and families living in the country illegally. He postponed steep tariffs he had announced on Mexico earlier this month, giving immigration talks more time. The Iran standoff, however, is perhaps the most dangerous, as the two countries escalate rhetoric and actions that raise concerns in Congress and the world at large that Iran and the U.S. could stumble into broad military conflict. When lawmakers asked the president last week how he would be making his decision on Iran, he responded, “My gut.” While that decision not to order military strikes appears to have calmed tensions with Iran, at least somewhat, Trump’s messages leave uncertainty about next steps. “We’ve never seen anything like it,” said Rep. Tom Malinowski, D-N.J., a newly elected freshman who served as an assistant secretary of state in the Obama administration. “I’m glad that he changed his mind about the strike, made the right decision, but he made it in the worst possible way,” Malinowski said in an interview Monday. “I don’t think anyone has any clue what our policy is.” GOP defense hawks, including Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the former vice president’s daughter, warn against Trump’s approach, too. She told a radio host that “weakness is provocative” when it comes to confronting Iran and other adversaries. Other Republicans say Trump is merely keeping his options open as he pushes Iran to negotiate. That’s different, they say, from his predecessor, Barack Obama, who drew a red line against Syria, but then wavered against taking military action. Ohio GOP Rep. Mike Turner, a member of the Armed Services Committee, said in an interview Monday that Trump’s style is more like one you’d see from a litigator trying to get an outcome in talks. “It sort of sends a signal to Iran that if you continue, do expect a military response,” he said. Trump’s shifting tactics have drawn mostly silence from U.S. allies across the globe, who have declined to publicly assess the president’s decision making or his “maximum pressure” campaign that is using economic sanctions in an effort to force Iran to the negotiating table over nuclear issues. The tensions with Iran come amid deepening divisions between the United States and its European allies over foreign policy and trade, with the allies appearing to talk past each other on a matter that all view as a crucial security issue. While European leaders have been careful not to criticize Trump’s actions, they’re also cool toward U.S. talk of building a global coalition against Iran. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told ZDF television over the weekend, “The strategy of maximum pressure can’t be the right one, because one of the consequences is that we are all talking about how serious the situation is, and that there is a danger of war.” Germany, France and Britain, as well as Russia and China, remain part of the nuclear deal that Trump abandoned last year as he tries to cut a new accord that would further curtail Iran’s nuclear capability. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a close friend of the president, has welcomed Trump’s tough line toward Iran, including last year’s U.S. pullout from the nuclear deal. But the Israeli leader has said little in public during the recent crisis, apparently wary of being seen as pushing the U.S. toward war. Yoel Guzansky, a former adviser on Iran policy in the prime minister’s office and now a senior fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies in Israel, said the administration’s decision against a strike essentially sent Iran the message that “if you don’t kill Americans you can do whatever you want in the Gulf.” But Tzachi Hanegbi, a Cabinet minister close to Netanyahu, played down Trump’s last-minute decision to call off last week’s airstrike. “The real big story is that the American policy toward Iran, which has changed to our delight in the last two, three years, is a policy that completely serves the world’s and Israel’s interests, to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons,” he told Israeli public radio on Sunday. That’s a sentiment shared by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which are also supportive of Trump’s tough talk on Iran. The Gulf allies have not commented on Trump’s about-face. Indeed, they have been reluctant to publicly criticize him over any of his policies. Danielle Pletka, a senior vice president at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said Trump has made his decisions all about himself, and that means some allies will stick with him while others will have concerns. “That would be the case if he bombed Iran or if he didn’t bomb Iran.” “For Donald Trump, he’s damned if he’s does, damned if he doesn’t,” she said by phone from a security conference in Hamburg. “He’s so personalized everything in terms of Donald Trump.” Associated Press writers Shahar Golan in Jersualem, Geir Moulson and Frank Jordans in Berlin and Deb Riechmann and Kevin Freking in Washington contributed to this report.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8063
__label__wiki	0.631333	0.631333	Home » Momentive Donates Moon Boot to Children's Museum Momentive Donates Moon Boot to Children's Museum Momentive Performance Materials Inc. has donated a prototype of the moon boot used by NASA for the historic 1969 Apollo 11 mission, which landed man on the moon for the first time. Moon boots developed for NASA missions featured silicone rubber soles made possible by Momentive, then known as GE Silicones. The moon boot was presented to The Children’s Museum of Science and Technology in Troy, NY, and will be part of a new exhibit in the Museum’s Space collection. “Walking on the moon’s surface and being exposed to its unique environment demanded the most advanced technology in protective wear,” said Samuel Conzone, Ph.D., Director of Transformational Growth. “Silicone’s ability to perform under the harshest conditions, including rocky terrain and extreme temperatures, made silicone a necessity in the space boots, gloves and suits worn by Neil Armstrong and his fellow astronauts.” Seventy years ago, a team of GE scientists discovered and patented the process for transforming silicone into a useable substance, making modern-day commercialization of silicone possible. In the decades that followed, that research focused on honing silicone’s properties into innovative material applications that have, in turn, made breakthrough products possible in a range of industries, including agriculture, automotive, construction, consumer electronics, medical devices, personal care, and solar energy. For additional details, visitwww.momentive.com. Scheugenpflug Donates to Shriners Hospital for Children PPG Donates $15,000 to Air Force Museum Foundation PPG Donates $5,000 to Frontiers of Flight Museum Scheugenpflug Donates to Shriners’ Hospital	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8065
__label__wiki	0.524136	0.524136	Case of slain grandmother, toddler still unsolved 7 years later Raelynn and Fabian Gonzalez were stabbed to death in their Adams County apartment on Jan. 3, 2014. Author: Nate Lynn Published: 8:41 PM MST January 3, 2021 Updated: 8:43 PM MST January 3, 2021 ADAMS COUNTY, Colo. — Metro Denver Crime Stoppers is asking for the public's help solving a seven-year-old double homicide case. According to a Crime Stoppers Facebook post Sunday, 50-year-old Raelynn Gonzalez and 18-month-old Fabian Gonzalez were killed on Jan. 3, 2014. Crime Stoppers said the woman and her grandson were stabbed to death in their apartment at 2812 W. 66th Place in unincorporated Adams County between 4:30 and 8 p.m. Anyone with information that can help the Adams County Sheriff's Office solve the case is asked to contact Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-913-7867 or at metrodenvercrimestoppers.com. The Adams County case number is 14-107. Tipsters can remain anonymous and may be eligible for a reward of up to $2,000. Credit: Metro Denver Crime Stoppers Metro Denver Crime Stoppers works by assigning a code to people who anonymously submit a tip. Information is shared with law enforcement, and Crime Stoppers is notified at the conclusion of the investigation. RELATED: Hospital maintenance worker identified as suspect in 1999 cold case SUGGESTED VIDEOS: Latest from 9NEWS	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8068
__label__cc	0.742179	0.257821	Master's Programme in Mechanical Engineering In Mechanical Engineering Master’s Programme you can become an expert in Arctic Technology, Engineering Materials, Marine Technology, Mechatronics, Product Development, Production Engineering and Solid Mechanics, or create your own combination. We empower students follow their interests in the field of mechanical engineering as their professional skills are needed for creating more effective and safe solutions for the society. Master of Science (Technology) 1.12.2020 – 4.1.2021 2 years, full-time Relevant Bachelor's degree Organising school: Tuition fees: For non-EU/EEA citizens, €15000/y (Master’s studies) The application period has closed Applying to master’s programmes You have not yet given permission to place the required cookies from YouTube.com. Accept the required cookies to view this content. Hear students talk about their experiences of the programme. Today's society relies on mechanical engineering for effective, sustainable and safe solutions everywhere. The field covers a wide range of activities and technology sectors, from energy and transportation to medical devices and environmental protection. There is no shortage of tasks, challenges, and opportunities where mechanical engineers create innovative solutions. Mechanical engineering applies to everything from the smallest components to the largest assemblies, resulting in a persistent demand for mechanical engineering expertise. Through high quality teaching the programme combines hands-on study methods with theory, in order to educate graduates with a variety of skills that correspond to the challenges of future society. As an Aalto University Mechanical Engineering graduate, you will have: Own specialization in the field. We have teaching in seven different topic groups: Arctic Technology, Engineering Materials, Marine Technology, Mechatronics, Product Development, Production Engineering and Solid Mechanics, which allows you to specialize in one of these fields or to create your combination of skills from different topic groups. The programme is flexible and versatile, offering many possibilities for specialization or multidisciplinary combination as well as support in plotting your personal study path. Relevant technical, mathematical, computational and analytical knowledge and skills. When completing the programme, you will understand the principles and methods of mechanics in engineering, and their practical applications. You will know how to solve engineering problems in your chosen area of specialization, and you can correctly apply a combination of creativity, systematic analysis, computational tools, and critical judgement to such tasks. Good interpersonal skills. As a student in an international environment, you will learn to justify your choices and methods, communicate clearly and collaborate effectively. Understanding of the societal context. By solving practical real-world cases with the relevant industries, you will also learn the broader societal impact of the field. You will learn to apply mechanical engineering for effective, sustainable and safe solutions, which benefit society in different levels, which our specialization fields reflect. Experience from industry. We have close ties to industry, which allows our students to learn in co-operation and to work with the relevant companies and public institutions already during their studies. Content of the studies Aalto University's Master's Programme in Mechanical Engineering builds upon a thorough understanding of core mechanics subjects, which is complemented through advanced studies. Studies provide a solid engineering basis for working in an international, competitive and highly innovative environment. Our teaching is based on problem-based learning, often solving practical real-world cases in co-operation with industry. Specialisation in the programme is offered through advanced studies courses, which are organised into topic groups. You may follow pre-defined study paths within those topics or pick a less conventional mix of courses in accordance with your individual profile. To help you plan your studies, we offer a comprehensive system of academic support. Arctic Technology Solid Mechanics The programme begins with a project course in which you tackle a prototypical mechanical engineering problem. Over the course's duration you will work and learn as a team and construct your individualized professional profile as a mechanical engineer. This profile forms the basis for your study path going forward. The project course is part of the 30 credits of common studies in the programme. In addition, you choose 30 credits of advanced studies in the field to build your own area of expertise. 30 credits of elective studies are also included, to be chosen from within or beyond mechanical engineering. The master's thesis completes the programme. For more information about the programme's course offering, visit Aalto University's student portal  Into. The demand for engineers with specific Arctic competence is rising as marine traffic and industrial activities in ice-covered seas increase. The Arctic environment, including the Baltic Sea, is very fragile and it imposes strict requirements for the safety and sustainability of all operations. You will gain a deep understanding of different engineering issues related to cold marine environments, including the design of ships for the harsh Arctic environment and the behaviour of sea ice. Courses deal with winter navigation, ice loads on ships and structures, design of structures, hydrodynamics, ice mechanics and applied mechanics in general. Aalto University is one of the leading institutions in research related to Arctic Technology. The studies will give you the opportunity to participate in model-scale experiments in a unique test facility, Aalto Ice Tank, and learn the state-of-the-art in analytical and numerical methods. For example, you might choose the arctic marine technology study path or arctic offshore and ice engineering. Graduates of Arctic Technology typically find work in consulting and design companies, classification societies, governmental bodies, shipyards, or in research institutes and universities. Materials are "the stuff that stuff is made of". Advances in the science and technology of the materials we can use are key enablers of technological progress. Mechanical engineers specialised in the science of our most important engineering materials keep these advances coming and understand which advances to focus on from a user's as well as a producer's perspective. You can complement this specialisation with, for example, application-specific courses for a particular industry, or with design and modelling skills, or with materials-related courses from other programmes and schools. Graduates with an engineering materials focus are typically find work in large and small companies, start-ups, research institutes, universities and government agencies in roles like product development, research, analysis, and management. Courses in the Marine Technology topic group give you an in-depth understanding of maritime engineering. Teaching provides principles for ship construction and design, including hydrodynamics, loads, structural analyses, stability, risk of marine traffic and winter navigation. Experimental work complements theory studies and computer simulations are used to convey concepts. You can modify and focus your studies based on your interests through specialisation courses from other topic groups or other master's programmes. For instance, the cross-disciplinary Cruise & Ferry Experience minor connects engineering studies with design and business. Marine Technology studies provide you with the capabilities required to perform design and research work in the marine industry. The majority of graduates work in design and research positions at shipyards, research institutes, design offices, shipping companies and regulatory institutions. Mechatronics is a multidisciplinary field that integrates mechanical, electrical, telecommunications, control and computer engineering. By choosing the advanced studies of this topic group and the recommended courses for elective studies, you will develop a strong conceptual and theoretical background as well as practical expertise in the different technology areas of the subject: machine design, electronics, fluid power, automation, control engineering, programming, modelling and simulation. Your studies will involve solving multidisciplinary problems creatively through various methods; critically evaluating the adaptability of alternative technologies; analysing system characteristics, operation and quality with measurements and simulations; and designing and building energy-efficient and requirements-compliant mechatronic systems, apparatuses and machines. Following graduation, your typical career options include working as an expert, e.g., as system designer, product developer or research engineer in the service of a component manufacturer, an engineering office or a research institute. With accumulated work experience, graduates typically move over to more challenging design, research, teaching or management duties in the service of industry or academia. A good product developer has expertise and competence in at least one additional field, such as machine design, engineering materials, manufacturing, structural engineering, electronics, mechatronics, industrial design or business development. Product development courses focus on three main areas. First, the theoretical foundation in the methods and tools of product development. Second, more practical approaches for communicating, prototyping, and testing ideas and solutions. Third, the capstone course takes you through a complete experience, from an idea to a prototype, in partnership with an industrial partner and based on a real-world challenge. Product development courses are aimed at those who adapt well to team settings and who are interested in the processes of developing investment and consumer goods from planning to completion. Matters of management and leadership, as well as working in an interdisciplinary team, are components of the capstone course. If you are interested in product development, you will typically find yourself in a position of team leader soon after graduation. Further career paths may lead to development manager positions, technical expert roles or product manager positions with more business responsibilities. A production engineer has a wide set of skills for managing production at factories. The Production Engineering topic group focuses primarily on manufacturing in the metal industry. Courses in the topic group cover the following general subjects: manufacturing and machine tool technology, additive manufacturing, quality management and metrology, production systems, modelling and optimisation in production technology. Studying production engineering is often practical, involving hands-on laboratory exercises, projects and individual assignments. Close co-operation with the industry is common. The focus areas of research include modelling and optimisation of production systems, material removal processes and additive manufacturing technology. As a student, you may also use the shared research facility ADD – the Aalto University Digital Design Laboratory – which provides 3D printing, laser cutting and robotics services to the university. Experts in the field of solid mechanics are needed in the design of structures and machinery to ensure their safety and efficiency. The studies provide a comprehensive framework of the theoretical and numerical aspects of applied mechanics. As a future expert in this field, you will not only learn the fundamental theories related to the behaviour of structures and materials under loads, but you are also able to apply these theories – together with numerical tools – to effectively and reliably solve practical hands-on tasks. Complementary studies in materials science, machine design, product development, and production engineering may also prove useful. Our courses in Solid Mechanics provide students with the capability to perform structural design and research related to the mechanics of structures. Graduates will find work in companies designing and manufacturing products or structures, in consulting and design companies or in governmental bodies. Research institutes and universities are typical working environments as well. Recent graduates in solid mechanics from Aalto University have specialised, for example, in lifts, vehicles, marine propellers, and steel structures in civil engineering. The programme begins with a project course in which you tackle a prototypical mechanical engineering problem. Over the course's duration you will work and learn as a team and construct your individualised professional profile as a mechanical engineer. This profile forms the basis for your study path going forward. The project course is part of the 30 credits of common studies in the programme. For more information about the programme's course offering, visit Aalto University's student portal Into. The finished degree opens doors to a multitude of career paths in consulting, design, product development, research and management, or to a postgraduate position within Aalto University or elsewhere. Graduates of Mechanical Engineering Master’s programme can work as: Systems engineers  understanding and designing complex systems of different scales, from atomic to global.  Entrepreneurial engineers  creating innovative design necessary to develop products, processes and services that are competitive in a global economy. Engineering scientists  conducting basic research, which is necessary to address compelling global challenges such as energy sustainability.  Engineering managers leading global projects and businesses. These are just some examples, as the number of career paths available for graduates are nearly endless. Our students work closely with industry already during their studies, which enables them to start their careers before graduation. Get to know our alumni "Ice is a very complicated material to work on. We are trying to study the causes of ice fracture and its effect on the design of marine offshore structures in the arctic region. For this, we are employing computer vision along with conventional fracture mechanics." Waqas Ahmad, Doctoral student at Aalto University "To me, ships were and still are the ultimate engineering product in a sense that they combine the full range of engineering disciplines that together form a highly complex floating city." Eetu Kivelä, Project Manager at Foreship Ltd. "I felt a little bit out of place during the first years and basic courses, but things got interesting after discovering the product development opportunity: I wanted to design things based on deep insight on human mind and behavior." Mikko Koskinen, Co-founder at Kyrö Distillery "Originally, I wanted to specialize in mechatronics, but materials stole my heart during my undergraduate degree. I decided to write my bachelor’s thesis in materials science and haven’t looked back since!" Aino Mäntyranta, Doctoral student at Aalto University "I acquired a bachelor’s degree in plastics technology, and I wanted to broaden my analysis and design skills and to gain a deeper understanding of materials and structures. With that goal in mind, I applied to a master’s programme in Mechanical Engineering at Aalto, where I chose to major in Solid Mechanics." Lien Tran, Concept Designer at Deltamarin Post-graduate opportunities Master’s programme in Mechanical Engineering is considered a great foundation for doctoral studies and post-doc positions. Mechanical Engineering students are actively encouraged to spend a semester abroad, studying at one of the top-tier international partner universities of Aalto University. Aalto University's student selection process is competitive and paper-based. Applications that pass the eligibility check (administrative evaluation) conducted by Aalto University Admissions Services proceed to the school's programme-specific academic evaluation. The following are used as criteria for academic evaluation 2021: What is evaluated: Grades of the previous degree/CGPA Admission requirements: Grades need be to mainly good or excellent Evaluated documents: Transcript of records Criticality: Critical Relevance of previous studies What is evaluated: Content and quantity in relation to the applied study-option-specific requirements What we look for in an applicant: Previous studies should prepare for very well or excellent study performance in the study option Evaluated documents: Transcript(s) of records, degree certificate(s) Recognition and quality of institution What is evaluated: Recognition and quality of the applicant's previous institution Admission requirements: Recognized for high quality of education and research Method of demonstrating competence: International and national rankings of higher education institutions Criticality: Not critical What is evaluated: Applicant’s further applicability to the study option, motivation, and commitment for studies What we look for in an applicant: Should be clearly in connection with the study option Evaluated documents: Motivation letter Other ares of competence What is evaluated? Work experience and other acquired knowledge/achievements e.g. publications, formal and non-formal education, competitions What we look for in an applicant Context situating the motivation in connection with the study option Evaluated documents Curriculum vitae and (if applicable) supporting documents Criticality Not critical Applicants are expected to hold a high-quality bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering or a related discipline. Study-option-specific documents requested The documents requested from all applicants are listed here (https://www.aalto.fi/en/study-at- aalto/applying-to-masters-programmes). In addition, applicants to the Mechanical engineering programme are requested to provide the following study-option-specific documents: A motivation letter, with reflections on what you hope to learn from the topics you can study in this programme and on the connection between your interests, relevant prior experience, career goals, and intended studies A curriculum vitae and (if applicable) supporting documents as evidence of prior experience relevant to the motivation for applying to this programme Tips for writing a motivation letter Master’s Admissions at the School of Engineering 2021 The motivation letter is an important part of your application. It gives you an opportunity to present relevant pieces of information that cannot be provided elsewhere in the application. Examples of questions to consider when writing the motivation letter: Why are you applying for the master’s programme in question? What do you expect to gain from studies in the master’s programme? Why do you think you are the right person for this master’s programme? How will your previous education, work experience, knowledge and skills support your success in your master’s degree studies? Describe your professional goals. How do you think the master’s programme you are applying for would support the development of your professional profile? In which sector would you like to work in the future? What kind of career are you planning? Why do you want to study at Aalto University and in Finland? For enquiries regarding the application process: [email protected] For enquiries regarding the content of the programme and studies: Katri Koistinen Sven Bossuyt Professori (Associate professor) Published: 6.9.2018	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8070
__label__cc	0.664723	0.335277	Story : Owners of the Garden DailyTenMinutes 10:44 AM EnglishArticle Edit this post Story : Owners of the Garden The following story is mentioned in Surah Qalam, Chapter 68 of the Holy Quran. Once there was a w... The following story is mentioned in Surah Qalam, Chapter 68 of the Holy Quran. Once there was a wealthy and pious man. He had a big garden full of green trees laden with fruits. After the fruits were picked, this rightful man used to distribute some fruits among the poor who would gather at the garden every season to take their share. Allah SWT liked this act of the man. By the grace of Allah the garden used to give rich harvest every season. Truly, one who spends for the sake of Allah gets the reward in the hereafter as well as in this life. This man had many sons who were not so pious as him. When their father died, they discussed a plan and said to each other that their father was not a wise man. He did not know how it was difficult to earn livelihood. They did not like the habit of distributing some of the fruits among the poor. They felt as if all their efforts would go to vain if the poor had some share. One of the sons had a concern. What will they tell the poor people when they gather to take their fruits next time? They thought over its implications, as they were worried about losing their prestige. However, they were not afraid of Allah's wrath. One of them suggested removing all the fruits in the night and thus clearing the garden before dawn so that nobody could come and ask for his share. Everyone agreed to this suggestion. Since they were not even afraid of Allah, they forgot to say 'Insha-Allah', which means if Allah Wills, "...they swore to pluck the fruits of the (garden) in the morning, without saying Insha-Allah ('if Allah Wills')" (Verses 17-18). If a Muslim does not say Insha-Allah before doing something Allah may not fulfill his wish. But those who have no faith in Allah fail to remember this and get stuck up in their act. Allah is all Powerful. He knows no bounds in His Governance. All the brothers went to sleep with a view to getting up early in the morning and gather the ripe fruits. In the meantime, with the Will of Allah "...there passed by on the (garden) a visitation (fire) from your Lord at night and burnt it while they were asleep." (Verse 19) In the early morning, all of them got up and hurried up and "...called out one to another as soon as the morning broke, Saying: 'Go to your tilth in the morning, if you would pluck the fruits.' So they departed, conversing in secret low tones (saying), No Miskin (poor man) shall enter upon you into it today." (Verses 21-24) As they were proceeding towards the garden, they were quite unaware that Allah had willed otherwise. Because the garden had become "black by the morning, like a pitch dark night (in complete ruins)" (Verse 20). So when they reached the garden, they said this was not their garden, and that they had strayed away from the right path to the garden. But when they saw there was no other way around, they were wonder struck! Soon they realized the situation and yelled: "Verily, we have gone astray," "Nay! Indeed we are deprived of (the fruits)!" The best among them said: "Did I not say to you 'Why not glorify (Allah)'?" (Verses 26-28). He had been advising them earlier against this act, for he had said it is only Allah who would enhance their fruits if they continued to give away some of them in charity. All of them felt regretful over their misdeed. They turned, to one another, in reproach and said: "Glory to our Lord! Verily we have been doing wrong. Alas for us! We have indeed transgressed!" All of them, then, sought Allah's pardon and said: "We hope that our Lord will give us in exchange a better (garden) than this. Truly, we turn to our Lord (wishing for good that He may forgive our sins, and reward us in the Hereafter)." (Verses 31-32) It is very beloved to Allah SWT that we share with the less fortunate whatever we have. While some of us only feel hungry during the month of Ramadan, there are many who are hungry everyday. Let us be more generous with our wealth and help all those who are in need. We will not lose anything by giving away some of our wealth, we will only gain. EnglishArticle	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8072
__label__wiki	0.851969	0.851969	AIM Column Communist Party Backs Obama by Cliff Kincaid on July 3, 2008 Barack Obama’s patriotic tour has run into a snag. More evidence of communist backing for the candidate has surfaced. The latest to emerge publicly in Obama’s camp is Joelle Fishman, the chairman of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) Political Action Commission. In a column titled, “Big political shifts are underway,” Fishman says that Obama could lead “a landslide defeat of the Republican ultra-right” this November and that he is “ready to listen” to the “left and progressive voters” backing him. Fishman makes it clear that the CPUSA is part of this coalition. Meanwhile, admitted CPUSA member Alan Maki, writing on the official Barack Obama website, in the “community blogs” section under an “Obama 08” banner, has mentioned the unmentionable. That is the role of CPUSA member Frank Marshall Davis in mentoring Obama during his formative high school years in Hawaii. Although fine print at the bottom of the page says that “Content on blogs in My.BarackObama represents the opinions of community members and in no way should be interpreted as endorsed or approved by the campaign,” the information provided by Maki is deadly confirmation that a hard-core CPUSA member played a key role in helping raise Obama. It is a story that most media, including some “conservative” news outlets, have shied away from. Davis, who died in 1987, was a Stalinist who stayed with the CPUSA when others were abandoning it, and he refused, as late as 1956, to deny his membership in the party. He was selected by Obama’s white grandfather to be the future candidate’s role model and father-figure. Obama showed his gratitude by going to socialist conferences and selecting Marxist professors as his friends in college. Later, of course, he would arrive in Chicago and launch his political career in the arms of communist terrorists Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, who, according to declassified intelligence information (PDF), were members of a group with connections to the CPUSA, foreign communist regimes, and even the Soviet KGB. The information shows that their close terrorist associate, Kathy Boudin, attended Moscow University and was subsidized by the Soviet government. Her father was a CPUSA member and a registered Cuban agent, documents show. Praise for the CPUSA Figure Announcing the “Frank Marshall Davis roundtable for change” on the Obama website, Maki, a Democratic Party activist and casino worker organizer, explained, “Reading Barack Obama’s book I learned about his mentor, Frank Marshall Davis.” He went on, “Of course, as we all know, Frank Marshall Davis was a Communist and he had a very good understanding of the underlying source of problems which all too often goes unstated and unchallenged and remains hidden because of the high fear-factor level in this country; I am referring to capitalism―a thoroughly rotten system. Frank Marshall Davis also understood through his thorough studies of the situation that socialism provided the only workable alternative to capitalism.” Saying that he has been “active in the Minnesota DFL and the Democratic Party most of my life,” Maki still wants to know about the specifics of the “change” Obama is promising. Maki goes on to say, “There really isn’t much for us to learn about ‘change’ from Obama, but there is quite a bit to be gleaned from the writings of Frank Marshall Davis and I thank Barack Obama for bringing him to my attention… now I can say that Frank Marshall Davis is in many ways my mentor, too.” In a telephone conversation, Maki admitted being a CPUSA member and claimed the FBI had thousands of pages on him. A friendly fellow, he maintains more than a dozen blogs. One of them is simply titled, “Communist manifesto.” For her part, CPUSA official Fishman seems to have more insight into Obama’s notion of change. “In sharp contrast” to John McCain, Fishman writes, “Obama speaks of strengthening government to provide health care and jobs, address global warming and end the war in Iraq.” Drudge Plays Role of Censor While Obama’s far-left support seems to be worthy of news and comment, Matt Drudge of Drudge Report fame has just rejected two paid ads submitted by my group America’s Survival, Inc. about the influence that CPUSA member Davis exerted over a young Obama. The ads featured a photo of Davis and a communist hammer and sickle. They asked, “Who is this man?,” and urged viewers to click to “Meet the mysterious Red Mentor” so they could be directed to two reports on the subject. The ads were “too controversial,” Drudge’s representative told me. A recent article in Politico suggested Drudge was moving into the Obama camp. Matt Drudge, the article said, has been “trumpeting Obama’s victories and shrugging at his scandals.” The rejection of my ads is proof of that. While Drudge protects Obama to the extent of rejecting paid advertising which draws attention to his Frank Marshall Davis connection, the “progressives” are openly talking about it. A “progressive” blogger named Rita responded to Alan Maki and says she checked out a copy of Davis’s book, Livin’ the Blues, from the library, and has been “reading it every day and sharing this with my kids…Frank Marshall Davis was a journalist and social activist of tremendous courage. I want to point out that Frank Marshall Davis was not only a voice for civil and human rights; his voice was a solid voice for the rights of all working people.” She reproduces Maki’s email on Davis, which notes that copies were sent to such left-wing luminaries as Rep. Keith Ellison, Carl Pope of the Sierra Club, and Robert Borosage of the Institute for America’s Future and the Campaign for America’s Future. Borosage, who writes for the Huffington Post, is also the founder and chairman of the Progressive Majority Political Action Committee, which “recruits, staffs, and funds progressive candidates for political office.” If Davis was indeed a “voice for civil and human rights,” why didn’t Barack Obama proudly identify Frank Marshall Davis by his full name in Dreams From My Father? Instead, Obama refers repeatedly to somebody named “Frank” giving him advice on various matters. Obama does note, however, that “Frank” was a contemporary of black poets Richard Wright and Langston Hughes. This is a hint of his real identity. The reference is significant because Wright and Hughes broke with the CPUSA while Davis did not. Indeed, Davis, in Livin’ the Blues (page 243), refers to Wright’s “act of treason” for exposing the CPUSA. Davis favored cooperation between what he called “Reds and blacks.” This demonstrates how much of a committed communist Davis really was. And this may be why Obama didn’t want readers to know his true identity. A writer for a communist publication, Gerald Horne, first identified the mysterious “Frank” as Frank Marshall Davis. The ident ity was confirmed by Dr. Kathryn Takara of the University of Hawaii. Now, Alan Maki confirms it as well, saying that “progressives” should be proud of his legacy. Praising Foreign Reds, Too In addition to glorifying Davis as a source of sound ideas, the “progressive” Minnesota blog that favorably cites Maki also features a picture of “Raul Reyes…heroic leader of the Columbian resistance.” This is the dead leader of the communist narco-terrorists known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Documents found in Reyes’ computer after his death disclosed that “gringos” representing Barack Obama wanted to meet with the FARC and that they were opposed to U.S. military aid for the Colombian government. Obama had been publicly critical of the Colombia government’s human rights record. By contrast, the Bush Administration has helped the Colombia government in its war with the FARC. Fortunately, and no thanks to Obama, the FARC has suffered a series of setbacks, the most recent being the spectacular liberation of 15 people, including 3 Americans, held by the group. Just a decade ago, there was speculation that the FARC might be getting so strong as to actually be able to defeat the military forces of the government of Colombia. The FARC is now in ruins, but their “gringo” friends with communist and “progressive” support might be able to take power in the U.S. The communists and their “progressive” allies appreciate the stakes. It’s too bad that Drudge does not. Cliff Kincaid is the Director of the AIM Center for Investigative Journalism and can be contacted at cliff.kincaid@aim.org. View the complete archives from Cliff Kincaid.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8073
__label__wiki	0.786238	0.786238	Judaism: Hebrew Learn Hebrew Series Hebrew Language 101 Home » Judaism 101 » Hebrew » Learn Hebrew Series https://www.aish.com/jl/heb/s/66338222.html Learn Hebrew: Nobel by Shira Cohen-Regev Israel’s tenth Nobel laureate is a woman. Everyone knows that Barack Obama has won the Nobel Peace prize. Also this month, Professor Ada Yonath of the Weizmann Institute in Rechovot, Israel, received a Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her pioneering work on the structure and function of the ribosome. She became the first Israeli woman to win a Nobel Prize, and the first woman in 45 years to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Yonath’s research was to determine the detailed three-dimensional structure of the ribosome (the producer of proteins in any cell), which is useful in finding ways to improve antibiotics. We all know that DNA carries our genetic code. However, modern biology realizes the critical role of translating the DNA into proteins. This process is not obvious and is carried out by the ribosome. Although the importance of this process was acknowledged, very few had the guts to tackle this huge challenge. The ribosome exists only in a liquid environment of cells and it was impossible to investigate it under the known technology. Yonath first attempted to crystallize ribosomes to reveal their structure by X-rays at low temperature. After reading about the way ribosomes are rearranged on the cell membrane of hibernating polar bears, she thought, “If bears can do it, I can do it, too." In the beginning, very few believed in her, and for many years she was considered the "crazy scientist" in her field. Well-acclaimed scientists had failed before, and she was told that her research had no chance of success. But she did not lose her faith. She faced many obstacles until she and her team, after 25 years of research, reached a series of breakthroughs that made it possible to determine the detailed three-dimensional structure of the ribosome. She used her courage, creativity and persistence to help make the world a better place. Shai Agnon The first Israeli to win a Nobel Prize was author Shmuel Yosef Agnon (known by the acronym, Shai Agnon), who received the 1966 Nobel Prize in Literature. Agnon was born in Ukraine, the son of an ordained rabbi. At age 20 he moved to Israel and adopted a secular way of life. Shortly afterwards, however, he returned to Jewish tradition and remained an observant Jew for the rest of his life. His writings deal with the conflict between traditional Jewish life and language, and the modern world. Some of his books are collections of rabbinic lore and chassidic tales; one well-known collection is Days of Awe, a treasury of traditions and commentaries on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. In his speech at the Nobel award ceremony, Agnon introduced himself in Hebrew: "As a result of the historic catastrophe in which Titus of Rome destroyed Jerusalem and Israel was exiled from its land, I was born in one of the cities of the Exile. But always I regarded myself as one who was born in Jerusalem." For anyone who’s been to Israel, you will recognize Agnon as the person featured on the 50-shekel bill. The design includes an excerpt from his Nobel Prize acceptance speech. More Laureates In a nation well-known for its longing for peace, it is not surprising to find three Nobel Peace Prize laureates: Menachem Begin (1978) who signed a peace agreement with Egypt; and Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin (1994) who entered into the Oslo Accords with the Palestinians. Two other Israelis won the Nobel Prize in Economics. Surprisingly, one of them, Daniel Kahneman is a psychologist who applied behavioral science to economics and won the prize in 2002 for his work on Prospect Theory. The other laureate, Robert Israel Aumann of Hebrew University, received the prize in 2005 for his work on conflict and cooperation through game-theory analysis. In 2004, Avram Hershko and Aaron Ciechanover from the Technion (Israel Institute of Technology) shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation that plays critical role in maintaining chemical stability in human cells. This discovery has aided research of diseases such as cancer, immune and neurological diseases. Related Vocabulary Words Translation: prize Transliteration: pras Part of speech: noun, masculine Translation: science Transliteration: mada Translation: chemistry Transliteration: chimiya Part of speech: noun, feminine Translation: literature Transliteration: sifrut Translation: economy Transliteration: kalkala Related Hebrew Names There are two women in the Bible called Adah. One of them is the wife of Lamech, Cain's offspring (Genesis 4:19). The other one is Esau's wife. Sagie A modern name which means lofty, tall, immense. Hebrew Word Search See if you can find all the words in the puzzle below: Article 8 of 15 in the series Learn Hebrew Learn Hebrew: Spring Renewal Learn Hebrew: Celebrating Shavuot Learn Hebrew: Pirkei Avot Shira Cohen-Regev Shira Cohen-Regev has a Masters Degree from the University of Pittsburgh in Child Development and Social Work. She taught and tutored Hebrew as a Second Language both online and in academic settings. She is currently employed by the Israeli Ministry of Education. (6) Abram, November 12, 2009 10:43 AM Excellent to explore insight within oneself (5) Dov Ber, November 4, 2009 11:13 AM Jonny Von Newman, a Jew, may he rest in peace, introduced the power of game theory and brother Aumann has brought it to intellectual fruiiton and coming true.Ttransmission/Communication among all Jews will bring us closer to truth and reality. Br'uch HaShem Peace is a movement and it should be become enjoyable to everybody. Peace begins as an idea in the mind. (4) Monica, November 2, 2009 5:10 PM You are right on one point: Yonath is right there next to Rabin, Peres and Arafat She may be a genius in chemistry, but in politics, concerning her own people, she is a 3 year old in her mental development. I for one am not proud of her, same as I am not proud of Rabin or Peres. They are not on the same moral level with Auman or Agnon. (3) DAVID RUBINSTEIN, November 1, 2009 11:07 PM this information should be published for world consumption (2) Beny, November 1, 2009 7:01 PM True dat, except The bill featured is by far not a modern one. The picture is that of an old bill that was only briefly used, and is now used only in Israeli "Monopoly" currency. The current bill is also purple and features Agnon, but looks slightly different (1) , November 1, 2009 5:18 PM Thank you for letting me and all your subscribers know! I love to hear when Israel has been honored by the world! Most Popular In Hebrew Learn Hebrew: Dogs Learn the Hebrew Letters Learn Hebrew: Olives Learn Hebrew: Cats Learn Hebrew: Brit Milah Receive the Aish.com Weekly Email Sign up to our Aish Weekly Update Newsletter.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8074
__label__wiki	0.691702	0.691702	American Jewish Committee Hails Abraham Accords, Attends White House Signing American Jewish Committee (AJC), the leading global Jewish advocacy organization, saluted today’s signing at the White House of the Abraham Accords, formalizing the normalization of relations between the United Arab Emirates and Israel, and between Bahrain and Israel. AJC CEO David Harris and Chief Policy and Political Affairs Officer Jason Isaacson attended the signing ceremony on the White House South Lawn. Isaacson has led AJC engagement with Bahrain, the UAE and other Arab countries in the region for more than 25 years. AJC Salutes Bahrain, Israel Peace Agreement American Jewish Committee (AJC) praised the Kingdom of Bahrain for its momentous decision to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel – capping years of increasingly public contacts and affirmations of shared interest between the countries’ leaders. How Can Israel Boost Haredi Higher Education? Beit Berl College, one of Israel’s top colleges of education, has been making strides. “Ninety-nine percent of our haredi students graduate with a bachelor’s of education degree, essential for professional advancement and higher salaries,” says Orit Lehrer Kanfo, director of Beit Berl’s Center for Haredi Educators. An Israeli Success Story In the past decade, a number of pundits talked about Israel’s growing isolation under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. To the contrary, I have repeatedly said that Israel’s diplomatic position globally has been on the upswing. American Jewish Committee Will Open Office in the United Arab Emirates American Jewish Committee (AJC), which for more than 25 years has advanced understanding and fostered cooperation between Arab states and the Jewish people, today announced its plans to open an office in the United Arab Emirates. (-) Podcast (5) (-) Israel	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8076
__label__cc	0.529159	0.470841	Get a Crappy Present? Zappos Will Trade You a $100 Gift Card and Give the Gift to Charity Regardless of where it was bought Face it, we all end up with the occasional unwanted gift, and returning them can often be more trouble than it's worth. But Zappos is trying to fix that. For the first 500 callers to (800) 927-7671 between 11 a.m. and 11 p.m. Eastern on Saturday, Dec. 26, the online retailer will offer a $100 Zappos gift card in exchange for any unwanted present you might have received, regardless of where it was purchased. If you're one of the lucky 500, Zappos will send you a pre-paid return label that you can use to mail in the gift (which still needs to be in its original packaging). Items sent to Zappos will be donated to a charity appropriate for the type of gift, company representatives said. The "Happy Returns" idea was created by Zappos in partnership with agency Mullen Lowe. The concept was meant to highlight the retailer's commitment to customer service. "At Zappos, we consider ourselves to be a customer service-focused company—more than just an online retailer—and as such, we're always looking for new and exciting ways to engage with and give back to our customers in an effort to build meaningful relationships," said Kristin Richmer, a member of Zappos' Awareness Marketing team. "Happy Returns is an exciting spin on our already great return policy."	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8077
__label__wiki	0.572001	0.572001	The Weeknd And Vevo Announce Official Live Performance Trilogy by ABR : November 24, 2020 News Vevo and The Weeknd have announced a trilogy of Official Live Performances, beginning today through November 25, featuring songs from The Weeknd’s chart-topping album After Hours (XO Records / Republic Records). Directed by La Mar Taylor at Vevo’s studio in Los Angeles, CA, Part I, “Alone Again,” premieres today. Vevo and The Weeknd first worked together in 2016 with exclusive “Vevo Presents” performances. Since then, The Weeknd has established himself as one of the world’s most multifaceted artists. He has recently been named one of the most influential people of 2020 by Time Magazine, announced as the 2021’s Super Bowl Halftime Performer, and was the winner of three American Music Awards. Regarded for his creative vision, The Weeknd is known for his genre-bending music, and redefinition of storytelling, both sonically and visually. // Continue to the full article Miley Cyrus Had to ‘Protect’ Herself This Year to Avoid Joining a Heart-Breaking Club Playboi Carti’s “They Thought I Was Gay” Lyric Appears on CNN	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8078
__label__cc	0.510166	0.489834	Payroll-Related Provisions of the New COVID-19 Law January 3, 2021 /in COVID-19, Tax /by Bill The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (the CAA, 2021) was signed into law on December 27, 2020 and is a further legislative response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The more than 5,500 page law contains numerous provisions that relate to payroll. These provisions are primarily found in the following areas of the CAA, 2021: (1) Division N – Additional Coronavirus Response and Relief (ACRR); (2) Division O – Extensions and Technical Corrections (ETC); and (3) Division EE – Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief (TCDTR) Act of 2020. These areas of the CAA generally extend and expand previous provisions found in the Families First Coronavirus Relief Act (FFCRA) and Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which were signed into law in March of 2020 . Extension of Paid Sick and Family Leave Credits Section 286 of the ACRR extends the refundable tax credits available to employers who provide paid sick and family leave related to the COVID-19 pandemic as enacted in the FFCRA through March 31, 2021, and extends the corresponding employer mandates through the end of March 2021. Adjustments to provisions for self-employed individuals. Section 287 similarly extends the credits available to self-employed individuals, and allows them to use their reported wages from tax year 2019 instead of tax year 2020 to compute the credit. Technical adjustments to definitions and taxability for paid sick and family leave. Section 288 aligns the definitions of qualified wages for paid sick and family leave with the IRC and excludes leave payments from employer Social Security employment taxes. Extension of Certain Deferred Payroll Taxes On August 8, 2020, President Trump signed a Presidential Memorandum directing Treasury Secretary Mnuchin to permit the postponement of the withholding, deposit, and payment of the employee’s share of Social Security tax (6.2%), as well as the employee’s share of Railroad Retirement Tax Act (RRTA) Tier 1 taxes on wages and compensation paid from September 1, 2020 through December 31, 2020 for employees whose amount of wages or compensation, payable during any biweekly pay period generally is less than $4,000, or the equivalent amount with respect to other pay periods. Section 274 of the TCDTR extends the repayment period of the deferred employee taxes through December 31, 2021. It also provides that penalties and interest will not begin to accrue on the deferred amounts until January 1, 2022. Employee Retention Credit Expansion and Extension Under the CARES Act, the employee retention credit (ERC) provides a refundable payroll tax credit for 50% of qualified wages of up to $10,000 per employee for a maximum credit of $5,000 per employee. Section 206 and 207 of the TCDTR extends and expands the following ERC provisions from January 1, 2021 through June 30, 2021: (1) increases the ERC rate from 50% to 70% of qualified wages; (2) expands the eligibility for the credit by reducing the required year-over-year gross receipts decline from 50% to 20% and provides a safe harbor allowing employers to use prior quarter gross receipts to determine eligibility; (3) increases the limit on per-employee creditable wages from $10,000 for the year to $10,000 for each quarter; (4) increases the 100-employee delineation for determining the relevant qualified wage base to employers with 500 or fewer employees; (5) allows certain public instrumentalities to claim the credit; (6) removes the 30-day wage limitation, allowing employers to, for example, claim the credit for bonus pay to essential workers; (6) allows businesses with 500 or fewer employees to advance the credit at any point during the quarter based on wages paid in the same quarter in a previous year; and (7) provides rules to allow new employers who were not in existence for all or part of 2019 to be able to claim the credit. Unemployment Extensions The FFCRA and CARES Act both contained unemployment-related provisions. Most notably, COVID-19 relief included the addition of $600 per week in pandemic unemployment compensation through July 31, 2020. This was partially extended by an August 8, 2020 Presidential Memorandum that created a “Lost Wages Assistance” program from August 1, 2020 through December 27, 2020. The ACRR extends and expands on several of the unemployment provisions from the FFCRA and CARES Act. Extension of pandemic unemployment compensation. Section 203 of the ACRR restores the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) supplement to all state and federal unemployment benefits at $300 per week, starting after December 26, 2020 and ending March 14, 2021. Pandemic Unemployment Assistance. Section 201 of the bill extends Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) to March 14, 2021 and allows individuals receiving benefits as of March 14, 2021 to continue through April 5, 2021, as long as the individual has not reached the maximum number of weeks. It also increases the number of weeks of benefits an individual may claim from 39 to 50. Extension of relief to reimbursing employers (i.e., governmental entities and nonprofit organizations. Section 202 extends through March 14, 2021, a provision in the CARES Act which amended the Families First Coronavirus Response Act to provide federal support to cover 50% of the costs of unemployment benefits for employees of state and local governments and non-profit organizations. Extension of no waiting week for benefits. Section 204 extends through March 14, 2021 the CARES Act provision which reimbursed states for the cost of waiving the “waiting week” for regular unemployment compensation. It sets the reimbursement percentage for weeks ending after December 26, 2020 at 50%. Extension of short-time compensation. Section 207 extends through March 14, 2021 the CARES Act provision that provided temporary 100% federal financing for short-time compensation (“worksharing”) programs which are established in state law. Section 208 of the bill extends through March 14, 2021 the CARES Act provision that provided a 50% subsidy to nonstatutory, temporary state short-time compensation programs. Return to work reporting. Section 251 requires states (30 days after enactment) to have methods in place to address situations when claimants of unemployment compensation refuse to return to work or refuse to accept an offer of suitable work without good cause. Temporary assistance for states with advances. Section 221 extends through March 14, 2021 the accumulation of interest on federal loans states have taken in order to pay state unemployment benefits. The loans allow states with low balances in their unemployment trust funds to delay employer tax increases or other employer surcharges while the economy is struggling. Paycheck Protection Program Second Draw Loans The ACRR allows certain small businesses who received a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan ) and experienced a 25% reduction in gross receipts to take a second PPP loan of up to $2 million. These prior PPP borrowers must meet the following conditions to be eligible: (1) employ no more than 300 employees per physical location, (2) have or will use the full amount of their first PPP loan; and (3) show at least a 25% reduction in gross receipts in the first through third quarters of 2020 relative to the same 2019 quarter. Applications submitted on or after January 1, 2021 are eligible to use gross receipts from the fourth quarter of 2020. Eligible entities for the loans include for-profit businesses, certain non-profit organizations, housing cooperatives, veterans’ organizations, tribal businesses, self-employed individuals, sole proprietors, independent contractors, and small agricultural co-operatives. Loan forgiveness. As with the first PPP loan, the second loan can be 100% forgivable if it is used for payroll costs (with some exceptions) of up to 60% and nonpayroll costs (i.e., rent, mortgage, interest and utilities) of up to 40%. Application of exemption based on employee availability. The ACRR extends current safe harbors on restoring full-time employees and salaries and wages. Specifically, it applies the rule of reducing loan forgiveness for the borrower by reducing the number of employees retained and reducing employees’ salaries in excess of 25%. Paycheck Protection Program Continuation Under the CARES Act, a PPP loan is generally 100% forgivable if the loan is used to pay certain payroll and nonpayroll costs. PPP loan forgiveness doesn’t give rise to taxable income and the Internal Revenue Code generally doesn’t allow a taxpayer to deduct expenses that are paid with tax exempt income. Section 276 of the CAA makes a clarification that gross income does not include any amount that would otherwise arise from the forgiveness of a PPP loan. This provision also says that deductions are allowed for otherwise deductible expenses paid with the proceeds of a PPP loan that is forgiven and that the tax basis and other attributes of the borrower’s assets will not be reduced as a result of the loan forgiveness. This is true as well for the second draw PPP loans. Additional PPP loan expenses. Section 304 provides additional allowable and forgivable uses for PPP funds such as covered: operations expenditures, property damage costs, supplier costs, and worker protection expenditures. Definition of seasonal employer. Section 315 defines a seasonal employer to be an eligible recipient which: (1) operates for no more than seven months in a year and (2) earned no more than 1/3 of its receipts in any six months in the prior calendar year. News organization eligibility Section 317 makes eligible FCC license holders and newspapers with more than one physical location, as long as the business has no more than 500 employees per physical location or the applicable SBA size standard; and makes eligible section 511 public colleges and universities that have a public broadcasting station if the organization certifies that the loan will support locally-focused or emergency information. It also waives affiliation rules for newspapers, TV and radio broadcasters, and public broadcasters, as long as the organization has no more than 500 employees per physical location or the applicable SBA size standard. Other Provisions Related to Payroll Airline worker support extension. Section 4113 of the CARES Act authorizes the Treasury Department to provide payments to passenger air carriers, cargo air carriers, and certain contractors exclusively for the continuation of payments of employee wages, salaries, and benefits, known as the Payroll Support Program (PSP). The CAA includes an extension of the PSP for a four-month period, from December 1, 2020 through March 31, 2021. The financial assistance for employee wages, salaries and benefits is an aggregate amount of $15 billion for passenger air carriers and $1 billion in aggregate for contractors. Immigration extension. The CAA also includes a provision regarding the H-2B visa program, which permits employers to temporarily hire non-immigrants to perform non-agricultural labor or services in the United States . The increase may not be more than the highest number of H-2B non-immigrants who participated in the H-2B returning worker program in any fiscal year in which returning workers were exempt from such numerical limitation. Minimum age for distributions during working retirement. Section 208 of the TCDTR discusses the minimum age for distributions during working retirement. Specifically, it reduces the age from 59 and one-half to 55 for certain employees in the building and construction industry in the case of a multi-employer plan described in Code Sec. 4203(b)(1)(B)(i) of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974. Payroll-Related Tax Extenders Work Opportunity Tax Credit. Section 113 of the TCDTR extends the work opportunity tax credit through 2025. The amendment applies to individuals who begin work for their employer after December 31, 2020. Employer tax credit for paid family and medical leave. Section 119 of the TCDTR extends the credit allowing eligible employers to claim a general business credit on their 2018 and 2019 income tax returns based on wages paid to qualifying employees while they are on family and medical leave through 2025, applying to wages paid in tax years beginning after December 31, 2020. Exclusion for certain employer payments of student loans. Section 120 of the TCDTR extends the up to $5,250 exclusion from employee income for educational assistance provided for under an employer’s qualified educational assistance program through 2025. Indian employment credit. Section 135 of the TCDTR extends the credit on the first $20,000 of qualified wages and qualified employee health insurance costs paid to or incurred by the employer with respect to each qualified employee who works on an Indian reservation by one year, through December 31, 2021, applicable to tax years beginning after December 31, 2020. Temporary allowance of full deduction for business meals. Section 210 of the TCDTR amends Code Sec. 274(n)(2) to allow for full deduction of expenses for food and beverages paid or incurred to a restaurant after December 31, 2020 and prior to January 1, 2023. The credit was limited to 50% from December 31, 2017 through December 31, 2025. https://www.armcpa.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/logo.png 0 0 Bill https://www.armcpa.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/logo.png Bill2021-01-03 14:10:572021-01-03 14:11:39Payroll-Related Provisions of the New COVID-19 Law ARM ALERTS Additional 2020 economic impact payments PPP Round #2 2020 COVID Relief Bill Provisions Affecting Businesses ©2021 Ary Roepcke Mulchaey, P.C. All Rights Reserved.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8081
__label__cc	0.668504	0.331496	Budweiser Revisits Its Sexist Ads From The 50s And 60s And Updates Them For 2019 This year, in honor of International Women’s Day, Budweiser revisited three of their adverts from the ’50s and ’60s that they are not exactly proud of. The outdated ads portrayed objectified women in a subservient role to their husbands. But media and advertising was only a reflection of the world we lived in. Although today’s reality is not perfect, we’ve come a long way in the battle with gender stereotypes and Budweiser took an opportunity to celebrate this and course-correct its work by modernizing it and showcasing gender balance and women’s empowerment. It might be difficult to imagine for younger generations but back in the 1950s, women conformed to clear gender roles. Popular culture and mass media were only reinforcing the messages of traditional ideals with patterns of repression and sexualization of women by men, and we still notice the result of that in many third-world countries and more conservative households, and it affects the self-confidence of women around the world. More info: budweiser.com A diligent wife and mother who takes care of the household and supports the hardworking husband unconditionally – was a classic example of a stereotypically perfect woman in the 1950s. This image was reflected in many vintage ads, which always placed men at the forefront. A masculine brand like Budweiser was no exception. However, the brand was serious about making up for those advertisements – revamped versions of the ads now unbiasedly adapt to a modern woman who lives in a well-balanced relationship and takes time to relax and enjoy herself. Although the ads have the same colorful vintage aesthetic, updated versions are free of sexist messages and assigned roles. A slogan on an old ad from 1956 which reads “She found she married two men” is replaced with an empowering one: “She found she has it all”. Another reprinted ad from 1958 shows a couple enjoying pizza and beer together and reads “Home is where life happens and life happens when you build it together,” while the original depicts woman serving a beer to her working husband. The last updated ad from 1960 where a woman had just prepared dinner for her husband and served him a beer, now shows the same woman enjoying her evening and reads “It’s Friday, your favorite takeout just got here. Crack open a cold Bud and enjoy some time to yourself.” The campaign is a part of a long-term partnership with the Association of National Advertisers’ “#SeeHer” initiative, which aims to improve how women are portrayed across all media and advertising. There is definitely more diversity, accuracy and respect in the portrayal of women comparing to the mid-twentieth century, but according to #SeeHer data Budweiser is including into the campaign ads, only 61 % of ads positively portray women. The brewery brand collaborated with VaynerMedia agency on the implementation of the idea. The campaign’s creative was run by three women illustrators Heather Landis, Nicole Evans and Dena cooper with the goal of representing one theme: independence, equality and fulfillment. More From: Design Epic Design Fails That Are So Bad, We Can’t Believe They Actually Happened Unique colorful playground Designer Documents Ugly Houses He Sees And They’re So Bad, It’s Hilarious Enthusiast Documents The Most Epic Bus And Van Conversions	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8083
__label__wiki	0.516465	0.516465	Every linguistic act involves choice, and choices are made on many scales. Page "Michael Halliday" ¶ 7 Every and linguistic Every ten years, when the general census of population takes place, each citizen has to declare which linguistic group they belong or want to be aggregated to. Every year the association coordinates the day of French language within International Organisations ( 2010 ). It also organizes seminaries to increase awareness about the importance of linguistic, cultural and conceptual diversity. Every large society contains ethnic minorities and linguistic minorities. Every linguistic community has the right for its language to be used as an official language in its territory. Every category has a host of untranslatable jokes that rely on linguistic puns, wordplay, and Russian's vocabulary of foul language. Every word is spelled as in written English, and as with written English, certain linguistic and paralinguistic elements such as intonation are not represented. Every and act Every mental phenomenon, every psychological act, has a content, is directed at an object ( the intentional object ). They draw three conclusions from Austin: ( 1 ) A performative utterance does not communicate information about an act second-hand — it is the act ; ( 2 ) Every aspect of language (" semantics, syntactics, or even phonematics ") functionally interacts with pragmatics ; ( 3 ) There is no distinction between language and speech. Every type of reward that has been studied increases the level of dopamine transmission in the brain, and a variety of highly addictive drugs, including stimulants such as cocaine and methamphetamine, act directly on the dopamine system. Every one of us regrets and suffers when blood is shed anywhere and nobody regrets more than the Israeli government the fact that innocent people were killed in the retaliation act in Kibya. Every mental phenomenon, every psychological act has content, is directed at an object ( the intentional object ). Every male over the age of 21 who was the occupier of a rateable property under the act was entitled to vote at the election of the Commissioners. Every act alters the soul of the doer. Every level is timed ; the player must act quickly to finish each level before the time expires. Every act of government was left to the individual States. Every act performed by someone in the usual way of things has some kind of reward attached whether it is financial, power, love, status or just feeling good about oneself. * Loyolapalooza: Every spring, the SGA hosts a festival on the Quad, which includes carnival-like rides, food, and a musical act. Every act passed by the Senate is examined and signed by the secretary. Every 6 months Stucco holds massive social events that act as fundraisers for issues and groups that are seen as in need by the co-operative members. Every act is about something, but also every presentation goes together with an act of presentation. Every act of service is a witness to the worth of the human person and thus promotes the progress of the whole human race. ' Every act of rebellion denounces the law. Every one of the Forsaken demands that the Uratha who belong to his Tribe act in accordance to a certain ban. Every religious attribute is filled with culture ; every cultural act filled with religiosity. Every class that I missed was an act of resistance, a slice of liberty conquered. Every monad is active (“ to be is to act ”) in the universe consisting of simple psychic monads, but the monads do not interact ( only seem to ) by virtue of a pre – established harmony. : Every person who under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory or the District of Columbia, subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, Suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress, except that in any action brought against a judicial officer for an act or omission taken in such officer's judicial capacity, injunctive relief shall not be granted unless a declaratory decree was violated or declaratory relief was unavailable. Every Local Co-organization has in advance decided how representatives should act in the questions that are to be decided on the congress, and the representatives are bound to act as such. Every and involves Every four years, the Cricket World Cup involves all the Test-playing nations and other national sides who qualify through the ICC World Cup Qualifier. Every five or six years since 1964, the town has played host to the Bollington Festival which runs for two and a half weeks and involves various community activities, from concerts, theatrical, opera, art exhibitions, to local history events, science events and competitions. Every Salsa composition involves complex African percussion based around the Clave Rhythm ( which has four types ), though there can be moments when the clave is hidden for a while, often when quoting Charanga, Changüí and Bomba. Every lift involves at least two terminals and — usually — intermediate supporting towers. Every activity that the firm performs has the potential to imbed information technology because it involves information processing. Every album focuses on a particular color and usually involves themes of small town rural America. Every July locals and visitors enjoy the Praze Fair, which involves a parade of local residents and pupils from Crowan School, and a local marching band, and is preceded by a week-long visit from a touring funfair. Every edit to the database involves making two changes, one to the record being changed and the other to the zone serial number. Every summer since 1988 ( usually in February ), this exercise in fitness and balance involves athletes running from the base of the street to the top and back down again. Every death sentence involves first an eligibility determination and then a selection of an eligible defendant for the death penalty. Every year, an international students ' exchange involves about 500 students of the Warsaw School of Economics and the university hosts over 300 students from foreign universities. Every episode involves Time Maniac arriving at a turning point in history, but being thrown back through time just as he tries to mention future events. Every tier involves an exam at the end of the final year, called Esame di Maturità, required to gain a diploma and have access to further education. In Quebec, which makes use of civil law, there is a general duty to rescue in its Charter of Rights: " Every human being whose life is in peril has a right to assistance ... Every person must come to the aid of anyone whose life is in peril, either personally or calling for aid, by giving him the necessary and immediate physical assistance, unless it involves danger to himself or a third person, or he has another valid reason. Every story in the Little Ego comic book involves erotic imagery, with Ego appearing half-naked or fully naked in at least one point.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8086
__label__wiki	0.571909	0.571909	Updated 17 August, 2014 - 02:59 ancient-origins British Police Join Search for Legendary Holy Grail By Paul Darin , Epoch Times The search for the legendary “Holy Grail,” the cup that Jesus used during his last supper before his crucifixion and/or the cup that caught his blood during his crucifixion, has inspired storytellers since the tales of King Arthur were first told in medieval Europe. Over the centuries, many have indeed gone looking for the legendary cup and there are many theories as to when and with whom it may or may not have ended up. But, a raid of The Crown Inn Pub in Herefordshire, England, earlier this month added a bit more modern intrigue the grail legend. According to PBS, 12 British officers raided the building, which dates back to the 15th century, peering under floor boards and using fiber optic cameras in search of a cup some say may be the Holy Grail of legend The grail candidate is called the “Nanteos Cup,” after the Nanteos Mansion in Wales where the cup resided until 1952. The mansion was used by Christian monks during the 16th century as a place of refuge after King Henry VIII dissolved England’s monasteries. King Arthur’s knights, gathered at the Round Table to celebrate the Pentecost, see a vision of the Holy Grail. This scene is depicted in a 15th century manuscript of “Lancelot and the Holy Grail.” Source: Wikimedia Commons The cup went missing this past July and is believed stolen. The cup disappeared from the care of Fiona Myers, a descendent of the family who once owned the Nanteos Mansion. She is said to have loaned the cup to an ill woman who was using it for its alleged healing power. The police received a tip that the cup had been seen at the pub, but they did not find it there. The Nanteos Cup is believed to have been brought to England by Joseph of Arimathea, the biblical figure who sacrificed his own tomb so Jesus would have a resting place after his crucifixion, and who also is believed to have brought Christianity to England. Before the cup’s alleged abduction, it was inspected by scientists. According to these experts, the cup is most likely not the one used by Jesus, as it dates from a few centuries after the believed date of the last supper. In addition, the cup is not made from olive wood, the wood expected to be used for a cup of that period. Holy Grail Already Found in Spain? In March, two historians announced they had found the Holy Grail in Spain. An onyx chalice stored in the Basilica of San Isidoro in Leon, Spain, was on display as property of the 11th century Queen Urraca. Margarita Torres, a history professor at the University of Leon, and art historian Jose Ortiza del Rio identified it as the legendary grail after reading medieval Egyptian documents referring to the chalice of Christ. Goblet of the Infanta Dona Urraca in the museum of the Basilica of San Isidoro in Leon, northern Spain. Some historians now say it may be the Holy Grail. Photo credit: Diario Última Hora Torres and Ortiza del Rio say Muslims stole the chalice in Jerusalem and gave it to Christians in Egypt. It was sent as a gift to King Fernando I of Castile in 1050, as thanks for aid during a drought. By this time it had been adorned with jewels and medieval decoration. Fernando passed it on to his daughter, Queen Urraca. The historians say they have dated the cup, showing it was made between 200 B.C. and 100 A.D., though they could not track the first 400 years of its history and are thus unable to definitively prove it is the Holy Grail. Other Grail Leads in Britain The Nanteos Cup isn’t the only object in Britain that many believe could be the Holy Grail. In Glastonbury, legend holds that Joseph of Arimathea buried the grail deep within the hillside of Glastonbury Tor for safekeeping. The legend continues that a spring welled up from the hillside, flowing through the grail and stained red from the blood of Jesus. A spring of red water is indeed found there, but today the red color is explained by the presence of Iron oxide in the Glastonbury soil. The summit of Glastonbury Tor. On the hillside is a spring of red water, which, according to local legend, flowed through the Holy Grail buried there. Source: Tony Grist via Wikimedia Commons Another British grail legend involves the Marian Chalice, and it writes out Joesph of Arimathea entirely. It suggests that Mary Magdalene caught the blood of Jesus in a cup during his crucifixion and later stored that cup and the body of Jesus in Joseph’s tomb. The cup was later excavated from his tomb and taken to Rome. When Rome was sacked by Visigoths in 410, the cup was taken to Britain. At this point the grail legend parallels aspects of the King Arthur legend, with Payne Peveril (corresponding to Percival in the Arthurian legends) being the first of many grail guardians. Legend traces the movement of the Marian Chalice from Whittington Castle, Shropshire, to Alberbury Priory, to a hiding place inside a statue of St. John that stood in Hawkstone Park. A small Roman onyx scent jar was discovered there in 1934, which many believe to be the Marian Chalice. Sir Percival is depicted holding the Holy Grail as a devil disguised as a woman tries to tempt him, in this painting by Arthur Hacker, painted in 1894. Source: Wikimedia Commons Another legend claims the Roslin Chapel grail is the Holy Grail. During the Crusades, the monastic order of the Knights Templar discovered treasure, including the legendary relics from the Temple of Solomon hidden a thousand years earlier. The most precious of all the artifacts among the recovered treasure was the grail, which was brought back to Scotland and entrusted with Henry Sinclair, Earl of Orkney, according to the legend. It remained entrusted with the family until the Roslin Chapel was constructed in 1446 where it was encased in the very ornate Prentice Pillar. The Roslin Chapel was built as a reproduction of the original Temple of Solomon. Roslin or Rosslyn Chapel, founded in the early 15th century. The Holy Grail is said to be buried here. Photo source: Ronnie Leask via Wikimedia Commons The article ‘ British Police Raid Pub in Search of Legendary Holy Grail’ was originally published on The Epoch Times and has been republished with permission. Featured image: Artist’s depiction of a Knights Templar holding the Holy Grail. Image source . Nanteos Cup Joseph of Arimathea Infanta Dona Urraca Basilica of San Isidoro angieblackmon wrote on 21 August, 2014 - 17:43 Permalink i love grail stories! i love the adventure and history, fantastic and real life. i feel like the grail offers a sense of hope...i mean come' on people are still looking for it. that's amazing! love, light and blessings poppy.mullan wrote on 21 August, 2014 - 06:13 Permalink I once read a very interesting article about the holy grail being his blood line... very interesting dragonseeker wrote on 19 August, 2014 - 06:35 Permalink is this the one by laurence gardner? if so, then aye, it is worth the read. Deni WOm wrote on 19 August, 2014 - 05:16 Permalink A British expert wrote "Bloodline of the Holy Grail" that seems well worth reading on many many levels. I highly recommend it. Justbod wrote on 17 August, 2014 - 08:54 Permalink The search for the Holy Grail is such a great story, both metaphorically and literally, and this article with its brilliant and humorous title, is a great continuation of the tradition! Sculptures, carvings & artwork inspired by a love of history & nature: www.justbod.co.uk 22 December, 2020 - 00:43 ashley cowie A Secret Grail Crypt Under A London River? The Search Is On An amateur archaeologist in England claims the Holy Grail is buried in a secret “Grail crypt” under a river in Hounslow, London. And an environment agency plans to drain the river to find out if the... Read more about A Secret Grail Crypt Under A London River? The Search Is On 28 October, 2020 - 21:30 ElynAviva The Quest For The Holy Grail: Celtic Magic Cauldrons Growing up reading Arthurian legends, one would probably think the Grail is a cup. Not just any cup, of course, but a holy cup associated with Jesus and the Last Supper. One would probably also know... Read more about The Quest For The Holy Grail: Celtic Magic Cauldrons Greed and Decline: The Treasure of the Knights Templar and Their Downfall The ‘Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon,’ more commonly known as the Knights Templar, or the Templars, was one of the most renowned military orders during the Middle Ages. The... Read more about Greed and Decline: The Treasure of the Knights Templar and Their Downfall 7 April, 2020 - 14:01 dhwty Arthurian Legend – Medieval Literature Laced With Truth? Arthurian legend refers to the body of works surrounding King Arthur and his knights. Arthurian legend forms the centerpiece of the Matter of Britain, which is the body of medieval literature and... Read more about Arthurian Legend – Medieval Literature Laced With Truth? 11 June, 2019 - 00:22 Roberto Volterri Psychic Archaeology Uncovers Lost Structures at Glastonbury ‘The Company of Avalon’ was a group of monks who allegedly directed excavations at Glastonbury Abbey from behind the scenes, so far behind the scenes in fact from the ‘other side’. In the early 1900’... Read more about Psychic Archaeology Uncovers Lost Structures at Glastonbury 4 April, 2018 - 15:35 ashley cowie Teutonic Knights’ Castle Turned into Nazi Cult Site? The word ‘crusader’ conjures up images of scarlet-cross Knights Templar. Although these heroes of the 12th century may dominate popular culture, their Order was rivalled by the black-cross Order of... Read more about Teutonic Knights’ Castle Turned into Nazi Cult Site?	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8089
__label__cc	0.570945	0.429055	ASAHARA FINANCIAL GROUP 745 Fort Street, Suite 2121 E-mail address: gasahara@cfiemail.com Printed from: www.asaharafinancial.com How COVID-19 Has Changed Consumer Behavior and the Future of Retail U.S. retail sales suffered in the spring of 2020 due to safety concerns, government-mandated lockdowns, and economic uncertainty wrought by the coronavirus pandemic. Sales — including purchases at stores, restaurants, and online — plunged from $483.95 billion in March to $412.77 billion in April, a record 16.4% drop.1 Fortunately, retail sales rebounded sharply after the economy began to reopen in May, matched pre-pandemic levels in June ($529.96 billion), and continued to rise steadily from July through September. But sales softened in October, ticking up just 0.3% to $553.33 billion.2 The arrival of an effective vaccine could inspire some holiday cheer, though it probably won’t be widely available until next spring.3 Until then, consumers will likely spend more time at home. U.S. consumer spending accounts for about two-thirds of all economic activity, so it’s good news that many businesses and consumers have adapted quickly to the new normal created by the pandemic.4 Here’s a look at recent changes in consumer behavior, the state of the retail industry, and what these trends could mean for the broader U.S. economy. Stay-at-Home Spending Shifts Some workers with stable incomes have been able to save money they would normally spend on transportation, gym memberships, restaurant meals, and expensive “experiences” such as vacations, concerts, sporting events, and other live shows. On the other hand, many households are spending more on home improvements, household goods, fitness equipment, and other lifestyle purchases that make sheltering in place more tolerable.5 For example, huge demand for bicycles resulted in surprising shortages.6 And with offices closed and most special events cancelled or postponed, a preference for casual and comfortable clothing has decimated consumer demand for more formal attire like business suits and dresses.7 A swift expansion of e-commerce was also unleashed. New online habits were created in the first three months of the pandemic, accelerating the adoption of digital technologies that might have taken 10 years to achieve otherwise.8 When lockdowns and social distancing measures were put in place, many consumers were compelled to shop online and use other digital services (e.g., video chat, virtual doctor visits, and online classes) for the first time. Surveys suggest that a vast majority of new users found online services to be useful and convenient; many said they will continue to use them permanently.9 But anxious consumers have also been boosting their savings. The personal saving rate — the percentage of disposable income that people don’t spend — hit a record 33.6% in April before falling to 14.1% in August, far above February’s 8.3% rate.10 When consumers prioritize saving, it may help individual households build financial stability and prepare for retirement, but it can also hold back the nation’s economic growth. Traditional Retailers on the Ropes Big-box retailers that sell groceries and other goods in one place and home-improvement stores were deemed “essential” in the spring. Regardless of local virus conditions, these businesses have remained open for a steady flow of customers eager to stock up on food and other necessities. As a result, they have generally been able to book healthy profits.11 Meanwhile, temporary closures, capacity limits, and a drop-off in overall customer traffic have taken a toll on nonessential retailers that couldn’t offer a convenient online shopping experience with home or curbside delivery. The pandemic may land the blow that knocks out some familiar brick-and-mortar retailers, many of which were already buckling under excessive debt and fierce competition from e-commerce giants. Retail bankruptcies and store closings are on track for a record year in 2020. By mid-August, 29 U.S. retailers had filed for Chapter 11 protection, including several long-standing department-store chains. More than 10,000 permanent store closings have already been announced in 2020, vacating roughly 130 million square feet of physical retail space.12 A Holiday Season Like No Other Higher unemployment and wage cuts might have had a more severe impact on consumer spending from March to October were it not for the expanded unemployment benefits and stimulus checks delivered to consumers by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. At the time of this writing, Congress had not passed a follow-up stimulus package, and consumers were facing new challenges going into the holiday season. More than 11 million U.S. workers were still unemployed in October, before a nationwide surge in virus cases and hospitalizations sparked a new round of business restrictions and closures in mid-November.13–14 CARES Act provisions that offer financial support for affected consumers and small businesses expire by the end of December. Holiday sales figures are often considered an economic barometer, reflecting consumer confidence and funds for discretionary spending. In 2019, holiday spending in November and December rose 4.1% over 2018, suggesting that economic growth was picking up steam.15 But holiday shoppers were blissfully unaware that a pandemic was on its way. Black Friday holiday deals are designed to create a frenzy and lure throngs of shoppers into stores. But retailers seemed to agree that a different approach was needed in 2020: Promotions were offered online and earlier; store hours were shortened and capacity was limited; and unlike in past years, most stores stayed closed on Thanksgiving. The prospects for holiday retail sales in 2020 are murky, but consumers are expected to purchase more gifts online than ever before — and possibly too many for shipments to be delivered on time. To be on the safe side, the National Retail Federation is recommending that consumers get their shopping done early and take advantage of curbside pickup.16 1) The Wall Street Journal, May 15, 2020 2) U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 3) The New York Times, November 17, 2020 4) U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, 2020 5) The Wall Street Journal, November 17, 2020 6) The New York Times, June 18, 2020 7) The Wall Street Journal, August 27, 2020 8–9) The Wall Street Journal, November 15, 2020 10) The Wall Street Journal, October 25, 2020 12) The Wall Street Journal, September 29, 2020 13) U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2020 14, 16) Associated Press, November 11 and 17, 2020 15) National Retail Federation, 2020 Securities and Advisory Services offered through Centaurus Financial Inc., Member FINRA & SIPC. Centaurus Financial Inc. and Asahara Financial Group, LLC are not affiliated companies.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8092
__label__cc	0.662676	0.337324	A Waltz Through Disney The Tales The Tales Blog The Shorts Classic Shorts New Mickey Mouse Shorts The Shorts Blog Colorful Shop Mickey Mouse Short: Surprise! Season 5, Episode 4: “Surprise!” 11/18/18 Starring: Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Goofy, Donald Duck, and Daisy Duck Costarring: Pete, Ludwig Von Drake, Horace Horsecollar, Clarabelle Cow, Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Pluto Setting: Around Town Plot: In lieu of a surprise party, Mickey’s pals effort in building him a cartoonishly large birthday cake. This is Mickey’s third birthday episode after “!Feliz Cumpleanos!” (S3, E7) and “The Birthday Song” (S4, E9). Here is a list of the characters who have attended all three of Mickey’s birthday episodes: Minnie, Donald, Goofy, Horace Horsecollar, and Clarabelle Cow. This is the series’ sixth seven-minute-long episode after: “Potato Land” (S1, E13), “Wonders of the Deep” (S3, E8), “Ku'u Lei Melody” (S3, E16), “Split Decision” (S3, E19), and “New Shoes” (S4, E15). I’m loving Mickey’s fourth-wall-breaking, VCR-motif’d storytelling. Why does Mickey always schedule a dental appointment on his birthday? Pluto makes the briefest of appearances during a flashback to one of his earlier surprise parties. This begs the question; why isn’t Mickey’s best pal a part of all the present day festivities? Hanging on Donald’s wall in his house boat is a portrait of Malcolm “Matey” McDuck. Matey, a high-ranking officer in the British Navy during the mid-16th century, made his first of many appearances in Carl Barks’ 1956 Uncle Scrooge comic “Back to Long Ago.” Among the items In Goofy’s swampside shack are a Tractor Pull wall calendar, a Twister mat, bottles of wine (what else is corked in such a manner?), and a sandwich/girlfriend(?) (presumably from “Goofy’s First Love” (S2, E13)) As evidenced by the monogrammed “M M” awnings, are we to assume the Minnie own her apartment building? Ludwig Von Drake’s shrinking contraption is similar to the one from “Down the Hatch” (S2, E5). One of the short’s more clever gags occurs when the flying bicycle starts getting dragged down and Mickey declares they must “lose weight,” only for the gang to start exercising and working out. Final Grade: B While not nearly as great as “!Feliz Cumpleanos!,” this birthday episode is about on par with “The Birthday Song.” The first half, with Mickey explaining why he doesn’t want anymore surprise parties, is cleverly done and well executed. The end is fun, but also kind of a bloated mess that didn’t necessarily pay off or live up to its premise. We love Disney. Period.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8101
__label__cc	0.584729	0.415271	Car rental Akrotiri Car rental Chania Town Car rental Maleme Car rental Kissamos Car rental Platanias Car rental Agia Marina Lake Kournas in Chania, the only freshwater lake in Crete! Kournas lake, is located 49 kilometers far from the town of Chania, and is the only natural lake in Crete with fresh water. It is considered a protected area, as it gives shelter to many species of rare birds, and a rare species of turtle. At the lake also exist water snakes and eels. The size of lake Kourna is about 579 acres and the deepest point reaches 22 meters while the landscape in which the lake was created is magnificent, between the hills. There are two natural sources, while the lake is fed by the waters that descend from the surrounding hills. There are two natural springs, while the lake is also supplied by the waters that descend from the hills and the surrounding mountains. The visitors, during the summer season, can enjoy a swim in the clear waters of the lake, as well as many activities, like a walk around the lake, or a ride on a pedal boat. Those who love photography, will find a rich thematic material in the landscape. Around the lake, there are many restaurants and cafes where you can enjoy a coffee overlooking the lake or eat a traditional Cretan lunch. On some parts, the lake forms natural beaches, so you can enjoy a sunbath after swimming. There are also sunbeds and umbrellas for those who like to have more comfort. Rent a car from Autohire Chania and explore Crete! Select Offers (Hyundai Getz or Hyundai Accent) Group A (Citroen C1, Fiat Panda or Similar) Group B (Opel Corsa, Toyota Yaris or Similar) Group C (Ford Fiesta, Fiat Grande Pundo or Similar) Group D (Skoda Scala, Opel Astra or Similar) Group E (Jimny or Similar) Group G (207CC or Similar) Automatic (Hyundai i30, Ford Focus or Similar) Diesel (Skoda Fabia SW, Skoda Roomster or Similar) Station Wagon (Skoda Fabia SW, Fiat Tipo SW or Similar) SUV (Skoda Kamiq or similar) Mini Vans (Hyundai Trajet, Fiat Doblo or Similar) Luxury (Mercedes A Class 180) Select Skoda Fabia Hyundai i20 Skoda Roomster Skoda Fabia S.W. Select Fiat Doblo Hyundai Trajet Volkswagen Transporter Select Hyundai Getz Hyundai Accent Pickup Time 00:00 00:15 00:30 00:45 01:00 01:15 01:30 01:45 02:00 02:15 02:30 02:45 03:00 03:15 03:30 03:45 04:00 04:15 04:30 04:45 05:00 05:15 05:30 05:45 06:00 06:15 06:30 06:45 07:00 07:15 07:30 07:45 08:00 08:15 08:30 08:45 09:00 09:15 09:30 09:45 10:00 10:15 10:30 10:45 11:00 11:15 11:30 11:45 12:00 12:15 12:30 12:45 13:00 13:15 13:30 13:45 14:00 14:15 14:30 14:45 15:00 15:15 15:30 15:45 16:00 16:15 16:30 16:45 17:00 17:15 17:30 17:45 18:00 18:15 18:30 18:45 19:00 19:15 19:30 19:45 20:00 20:15 20:30 20:45 21:00 21:15 21:30 21:45 22:00 22:15 22:30 22:45 23:00 23:15 23:30 23:45 Pickup Location Chania Airport Chania Port Chania long-distance bus station Other place in Chania Heraklion Airport Heraklion Port Heraklion long-distance bus station Other place in Heraklion Other place in Crete Dropoff Details Dropoff Time 00:00 00:15 00:30 00:45 01:00 01:15 01:30 01:45 02:00 02:15 02:30 02:45 03:00 03:15 03:30 03:45 04:00 04:15 04:30 04:45 05:00 05:15 05:30 05:45 06:00 06:15 06:30 06:45 07:00 07:15 07:30 07:45 08:00 08:15 08:30 08:45 09:00 09:15 09:30 09:45 10:00 10:15 10:30 10:45 11:00 11:15 11:30 11:45 12:00 12:15 12:30 12:45 13:00 13:15 13:30 13:45 14:00 14:15 14:30 14:45 15:00 15:15 15:30 15:45 16:00 16:15 16:30 16:45 17:00 17:15 17:30 17:45 18:00 18:15 18:30 18:45 19:00 19:15 19:30 19:45 20:00 20:15 20:30 20:45 21:00 21:15 21:30 21:45 22:00 22:15 22:30 22:45 23:00 23:15 23:30 23:45 Dropoff Location Chania Airport Chania Port Chania long-distance bus station Other place in Chania Heraklion Airport Heraklion Port Heraklion long-distance bus station Other place in Heraklion Other place in Crete Chania Crete Destinations Visit Golden beach with a rental car Rent a car and visit the village Vamos Rent a car and visit beautiful Stalos Rent a car and visit Gramvousa islands Rent a car to the ancient city of Cydonia Rent a car Chania and visit Samaria Gorge 2018© Autohire Rental company since 1996. License number 1042Ε81000107200 Κατασκευη ιστοσελιδων Web Builders	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8102
__label__cc	0.54254	0.45746	News Archive February 2018 Bringing Rock and Roll to life Earlier this month, we were very lucky to have this 1950s Dansette Record player in full working order, with BSR parts made in the Black Country and further donations of some 1950s records. These items will help to bring the story of Stanton's Music Shop to life as part of BCLM's Forging Ahead. See the record... In 1845, just like today, jewellery was an expensive way to show your affection for somebody. Perhaps particularly so in the mid-19 th century, where even costume jewellery would have been out of the reach for the working classes of the Black Country. Not letting this get in the way, one romantic Black Country... Do you remember Stanton's Music Shop? We're currently seeking any memories of Stanton's Music Shop prior to 1960. Once occupying Dudley Town Centre in the 1950s, we have plans to recreate the once popular local haunt as part of our £21.7m Forging Ahead project. The shop was originally opened by James Stanton at 10 Castle Street in Dudley in...	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8106
__label__cc	0.518359	0.481641	Project Management Consultant and Coach Email: alex@becauz.com As a development coach, Alex Wright has more than fifteen years of experience at leading Fortune 100 companies and coaches senior directors, general managers, presidents, and their teams worldwide. His background includes the successful delivery of global systems and support for Human Resources, Leadership Development, Finance, Operations, and Treasury systems. Alex combines his years of business success with a personal passion for unlocking leadership and team potential. His award-winning work has been recognized in industry journals such as Treasury and Risk Magazine and Directions on Microsoft. Alex’s coaching is distinguished by the use of emotional intelligence, consistency, and kindness to get the most out of people. He’s found that even in today’s technology-rich work environment, success in business is still based on functional interpersonal relationships. From his earliest days as a cable TV personality to living in a remote Eskimo fishing village on the Alaskan tundra to surviving a near-fatal parachute malfunction, Alex values “measured” risk-taking and embracing change for growth – both of which he calls prerequisites for getting the most out of people and realizing one’s own potential. Alex received his education from the University of Washington, with a focus on English and Communications, a degree in Computer Information Systems from Bellevue College and multiple Leadership Development certifications. More Associates	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8107
__label__cc	0.634129	0.365871	Recordings/shop Concert calendar & ticket sales Floor plan & price list Lunch concerts Easter Festival in Baden-Baden Orchestra history Chamber music groups Karajan Academy UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Philharmonie Berlin The Chamber Music Hall Live in Cinemas The Education Programme Vocal Heroes HomeThe OrchestraMusicians Noah Bendix-Balgley, 1st Concertmaster back to the Orchestra overview Marie-Pierre LanglametDaishin Kashimoto Born in Asheville, North Carolina 1. Prize at the Concours International de Musique Vibrarte (2011), Laureat of the Koningin Elisabethwedstrijd in Brüssel (2009), 3. Preize and special prize at the Concours International Long-Thibaud in Paris (2008) http://www.noahbendixbalgley.com/ “The concertmaster is a leader among equals in the orchestra, and must serve to facilitate communication between the conductor and the orchestra, and between different sections of the orchestra. The symphony orchestra is a huge organism. The concertmaster must keep his ears and eyes finely attuned to many things at once, and then make the necessary adjustments to provide clarity and leadership that brings the ensemble closer together.” At the age of four, Noah Bendix-Balgley loved reading the book The Philharmonic Gets Dressed and was thrilled when he first saw other children playing violin. He was fascinated by the singing quality of the instrument and persuaded his parents to let him try it. Thanks to the progress he made, he played as a nine-year-old before Yehudi Menuhin and later studied at Indiana University under Mauricio Fuks and at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich under Christoph Poppen and Ana Chumachenco. He considers it his life-long pursuit as a violinist to find a personal sound that is not only beautiful, but also meaningful and which speaks to the audience. He has won awards at numerous competitions, including the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition in Brussels (Laureate), the Concours International Long-Thibaud and the Concours International de Musique Vibrarte in Paris. From 2011 to 2015 he was concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, where he delighted audiences not only as an orchestral musician, but also as a soloist. As a soloist he has performed with various renowned orchestras including the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and the Orchestre National de Belgique. As a chamber musician, he has worked with the Miro and Athlos string quartets, and performed at many festivals, such as the Sarasota Music Festival, the ChamberFest Cleveland, the Nevada Chamber Music Festival and the Moritzburg Festival. In his spare time he enjoys klezmer music and is an active sportsman. In addition to basketball, he loves outdoor sports such as hiking and skiing and is a fan of basketball and baseball. The website of the Berliner Philharmoniker uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Settings While we do not provide an English newsletter for the Berlin Philharmonie, you might be interested in the English Digital Concert Hall newsletter. Friends of the Berliner Philharmoniker Minister of State for Culture and the Media Senator for Culture and Europe	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8110
__label__cc	0.69202	0.30798	We Came Here to Play by Dawn Griffin The time on Earth was intense. For those still fully in the dream, it was about struggle with a range of external conflicts. For those more ready to shift into a new story, the stumbling block was internal and stemmed from patterned conditioning and loyalty to mind as the only way to make sense of what was changing. I came into this world to be Chris Carver, but that was only a half-truth and half-truths create confusion and an endless looping back of energy in an attempt to complete an interrupted circuit. It’s really all a game . . . and when you find the answer to your primary question you are ready to move on to the next level of play . . . Welcome to “the game.” The recounting of this story begins when I was a 16-year-old girl in foster care and I met a woman named Bree who saw through the protective facades I was hiding behind. One person who really sees you is all it takes to help you remember who you really are. Sometimes that one person just has to be yourself. We Came Here to Play takes place in a futuristic community in the Escalante of southern Utah. It is a story of empowerment, connection, and triumph, as six interdimensionals separately find their way through a time-space wormhole to “play the game” hosted by the community. They are the millennials from this time-space reality—each with unique gifts. The questions they seek to answer in the game weave their paths together and anchor them in what it is to live in a world free of fear, separation, and not-enoughness, so they can return and help pull us through to that possibility. Dawn Griffin has spent her adult life following guidance to answer the question, “Who are we really, and how do we realize our greatest potential?” That quest has led her to explore a range of disciplines, as a way to hold a larger picture of a thriving, interconnected whole. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Policy and Planning and has worked in the field of optimal human health as a quantum biofeedback practitioner. In the late 90’s, she created an uplifting, multi-image show for a conference on spirituality and the environment to highlight positive approaches being offered for many of the social and environmental issues we face. That presentation, entitled, On Wings of a Dream, was later transferred to a video format and distributed. Her adventures have taken her from a small coral atoll in the South Pacific to a journey across Siberia. Currently, her primary focus is writing and storytelling. She returns periodically to her childhood home in Denver, Colorado to reconnect with family. "This book is a modern classic engaging us in the daily life in a genuine 5D community. Escalante is a living, working, entirely recognizable world one far from the cartoon Jetson fantasy, yet one which will be extremely comfortable to the reader, in fact somehow quite familiar. Reading it gifts us with a sense of anchoring to a world we wish for with all our hearts without drama, violence or hyperbole. This is one for your personal library. Ronald S. Ross Former Publisher The New Age Press" "Very interesting and thought provoking book. Fun and engrossing to read and well written. Nicely tackles some really thorny issues in a hopeful way such as why we are here, alternative economic theory, alternate realities, the nature of relationships, etc. Presents powerful ideas yet is disarmingly unassuming. Wonderful description of a plausible future utopian society. Highly recommended!" Lance Ekhart "We Came Here to Play, awakens our heart, ears, eyes and soul to the joy and purpose of why we are on the Earth at this time. Ms. Griffin?s poetic novel depicts an existing ?future? world of harmony, cooperation, peace and prosperity that speaks to all ages. Experiencing this book allows us to feel our individual and collective truth, of how we can, right now, create this beautiful, sustainable world that we long for. This seminal book is a must read for the millennial generation and for everyone who is committed to personal and planetary change." Adrienne Ross The New Age Press " "Very interesting and thought provoking book. Fun and engrossing to read and well written. Nicely tackles some really thorny issues in a hopeful way such as why we are here, alternative economic theory, alternate realities, the nature of relationships, etc. Presents powerful ideas yet is disarmingly unassuming. Wonderful description of a plausible future utopian society. Highly recommended! " This seminal book is a must read for the millennial generation and for everyone who is committed to personal and planetary change. "	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8112
__label__wiki	0.769982	0.769982	Bangor Savings Bank and Granite Bank Announce Completion of Merger Carol Colson carol.colson@bangor.com Bangor Savings Bank Further Expands its Footprint in Northern New England BANGOR, ME and COLEBROOK, N.H. – Bangor Bancorp, MHC, parent company of Bangor Savings Bank, announced today the successful completion of its previously announced merger with First Colebrook Bancorp, Inc. (OTCQX: FCNH), parent company of Granite Bank. Under the terms of the transaction, shareholders of First Colebrook Bancorp will receive $45.00 in cash in exchange for each outstanding share of First Colebrook Bancorp common stock they own, for a transaction valued in the aggregate at approximately $45 million. In 2017, Bangor Savings Bank expanded its footprint into New Hampshire by opening a limited service branch in Portsmouth offering mortgage and business/commercial lending, along with payroll and merchant services. The merger with Granite Bank complements Bangor Savings Bank’s long-term vision to provide highly accessible, trusted local financial services to customers across northern New England. “I am excited about our merger with Granite Bank. The values that Scott Cooper and his team have instilled at Granite are comparable to our own, which will make the cultural integration seamless. As always, our focus will be to deepen the relationships with employees and customers,” said Bob Montgomery-Rice, President and CEO of Bangor Savings Bank. “We are confident that the larger scale and broader presence of our organization will make us competitive in the markets we serve. We look forward to getting to know the people of New Hampshire and are excited about the value that this merger creates for employees, customers and communities across northern New England.” Effective immediately, Granite Bank President and CEO Scott Cooper will serve as Executive Vice President, Chief New Hampshire Development Officer at Bangor Savings Bank. “The merger will create an optimal experience for our customers, as we combine forces to offer enhanced banking and financial services to key markets throughout northern New England,” said Mr. Cooper. “It will also tremendously benefit our staff who will realize further opportunities for growth and development.” Bangor Savings Bank is committed to the success of the communities it serves. That commitment will extend to the existing Granite Bank footprint and communities it has served for so long. Bangor Savings Bank is currently constructing a multimillion-dollar corporate campus on the waterfront in Bangor, Maine, where it was founded more than 165 years ago. The new campus will consolidate several existing sites around the city, position the Bangor Savings Bank for future growth, and house more than 350 Bangor-based employees when completed in January 2019, with capacity for up to 500 employees. FIG Partners, LLC served as financial advisor to Bangor Bancorp, MHC and Hogan Lovells US LLP served as its legal counsel. Sander O’Neill + Partners, L.P. served as financial advisor to First Colebrook Bancorp, Inc. and provided a fairness opinion to its Board of Directors and Cranmore, FitzGerald & Meaney served as its legal counsel. Bangor Savings Bank, with more than $6 billion in assets, offers retail banking to consumers as well as comprehensive commercial, corporate, payroll administration, merchant services, and small business banking services to businesses. The Bank, founded in 1852, is in its 169th year with more than 60 branches in Maine and New Hampshire and on the Web at www.bangor.com. The Bangor Savings Bank Foundation was created in 1997. Together the Bank and its Foundation invested more than $2.5 million into the community in the form of sponsorships, grants, and partnership initiatives last year. Bangor Savings Bank is an equal opportunity employer. Jaclyn Fish \| Bangor Savings Bank Jaclyn.Fish@bangor.com	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8113
__label__wiki	0.594369	0.594369	Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeye's fast food restaurant on Google Maps. • “Did you know 14 muscles are activated when opening a bottle of wine? Fitness is my passion” (1/16) • “George Washington is the only president to have been drawn and quartered” (1/16) • “Sprinkles are just glitter for food” (1/16) • “I had a lot of stuff to do today. Now I have a lot of stuff to do tomorrow” (1/16) • “Am I perfect? No. But am I trying to be a better person? Also no” (1/16) More new entries... Follow @barrypopik Above, Big Apple Corner at 54th Street and Broadway in Manhattan. Google Maps. Above, John J. Fitz Gerald, from the Aug. 15, 1931, Binghamton (NY) Press, pg. 14. Listen to Robert Emmerich introduce "The Big Apple," a hit song from 1937. Music written by Bob and performed by Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven with Bob on piano. Lyrics written by Buddy Bernier and sung by Edythe Wright. Audio provided by Dorothy Emmerich. Also listen to a 1937 "The Big Apple" song by Ozzie Nelson and his Orchestra. See a 1929 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald and a 1931 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald. This site is edited by Barry Popik. Entry from March 08, 2012 “I cried because I had no shoes until I saw a man who had no feet” (aphorism) "I cried because I had no shoes until I saw a man who had no feet” means that, while one can despair about one’s wealth or situation, there is always someone poorer or less fortunate. The aphorism has been cited in print since at least The Gulistan, or The Rose Garden (1259) of the Persian poet Sa’di. English citations of the saying have been in print since at least the 1800s. “I felt bad because I had no shoes, then I saw someone with really ugly shoes” is one of several humorous variations from the 1990s. Wikipedia: Gulistan of Sa’di The Gulistan (Persian: گلستان‎ Golestȃn “The Rose Garden") is a landmark of Persian literature, perhaps its single most influential work of prose. Written in 1259 CE, it is one of two major works of the Persian poet Sa’di, considered one of the greatest medieval Persian poets. It is also one of his most popular books, and has proved deeply influential in the West as well as the East. The Gulistan is a collection of poems and stories, just as a rose-garden is a collection of roses. It is widely quoted as a source of wisdom. The well-known aphorism still frequently repeated in the western world, about being sad because one has no shoes until one meets the man who has no feet “whereupon I thanked Providence for its bounty to myself” is from the Gulistan. The minimalist plots of the Gulistan’s stories are expressed with precise language and psychological insight, creating a “poetry of ideas” with the concision of mathematical formulas. The book deals with virtually every major issue faced by mankind, with both optimism and subtle satire. There is much advice for rulers, in this way coming within the mirror for princes genre. But as Eastwick comments in his introduction to the work, there is a common saying in Persian, “Each word of Sa’di has seventy-two meanings”, and the stories, alongside their entertainment value and practical and moral dimension, frequently focus on the conduct of dervishes and are said to contain sufi teachings. Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989. AUTHOR: Sadi (1184–1291) QUOTATION: I never complained of the vicissitudes of fortune, nor suffered my face to be overcast at the revolution of the heavens, except once, when my feet were bare, and I had not the means of obtaining shoes. I came to the chief of Kfah in a state of much dejection, and saw there a man who had no feet. I returned thanks to God and acknowledged his mercies, and endured my want of shoes with patience, and exclaimed, “Roast fowl to him that’s sated will seem less Upon the board than leaves of garden cress. While, in the sight of helpless poverty, Boiled turnip will a roasted pullet be.” ATTRIBUTION: SADI, The Gulistan, or Rose Garden, trans. Edward B. Eastwick, chapter 3, story 19, p. 129 (1880). I was sad because I had no shoes until I met a man that had no feet where is this from and is it the complete story? This quote is most certainly based on poetry from the Gulistan (or “Rose Garden") of Sa’di (or at least this is the earliest example this researcher was able to find). The book is from 1259 CE, so this will predate any other attribution out there. At one time, my full answer to this question was available online, but the Stumpers library reference archive changed to Wombat, and I couldn’t find my original answer in this new format. The original source for this saying reads: I never lamented about the vicissitudes of time or complained of the turns of fortune except on the occasion when I was barefooted and unable to procure slippers. But when I entered the great mosque of Kufah with a sore heart and beheld a man without feet I offered thanks to the bounty of God, consoled myself for my want of shoes and recited: ‘A roast fowl is to the sight of a satiated man Less valuable than a blade of fresh grass on the table And to him who has no means nor power A burnt turnip is a roasted fowl.’ The Gulistan, or, Flower-Garden, of Shaikh Sadi of Shiraz: Translated into English by James Ross London: J. M. Richardson Pg. 272: APLOGUE 19. I HAD never complained of the vicissitudes of fortune, nor murmured at the ordinances of heaven, excepting on one occasion, that my feet were bare, and I had not wherewithal to show them. In this desponding state, I entered the metropolitan mosque at Cufah; and there I beheld a man that had no feet. I offered up praise and thanksgiving for God’s goodness to myself; and submitted with patience to my want of shoes.—“in the eye of one satiated with meat, a roast fowl is less esteemed at his table than a salad; but to him who is stinted of food, a boiled turnip will relish like a roast fowl.” 13 September 1856, New York (NY) Ledger, “Common Blessings” by William Roderick Lawrence, pg. 6, col. 3: A philosopher who was complaining because he had no shoes to his feet, was imediately cured of his murmuring at the ways of a kind providence, by meeting with a poor fellow who had no feet at all. We can be placed in but few situations in life, where we shall not find others worse off than ourselves, giving us reason for being contented with out lot. May 1908, The Labor Digest, pg. 35: Contentment and peace of mind is often gained by comparing our lot in life with that of others who are not as well off as we. Hafiz, the Persian poet, had this in mind when he wrote, “1 murmured against Allah that I had no shoes. I went abroad and met a man who had no feet, and I went home contented.” 23 June 1917, THe TImes-Picayune (New Orleans, LA), “Eve Up-to-Date,” pg. 6, col. 7: THERE is a Hindu proverb which gives a good deal of satisfaction to a thinking person. It runs thus: “I had no shoes to my feet and I murmured until I met a man along the road with no feet.” Putting “it” in the column By Melville Clemens Barnard Los Angeles, CA: DeVorss & Co. You might make your philosophizing more effective by perhaps quoting the old Arab proverb, “I had no shoes and complained — until I met a man who had no feet.” 2 March 1941, The Sun (Baltimore, MD), “Wally’s Wagon” by Wally Boren, Pg. WM15: Maybe, you think it’s silly, but Jake an’ me like it. It reads: “I complained because I had no shoes—Then I saw a man who had no feet.” WALLY BOREN October 1946, The Rotarian, pg. 59, col. 1: There is a quotation posted in various offices which reads: “I complained because I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no feet.” 23 March 1952, Chicago (IL) Daily Tribune, “Davey inspires Lew Tendler to share wisdom” by Robert Cromie, pt. 2, pg. A5: “You know, when I sold papers I felt very discouraged and blue because I had no shoes. Then I saw a guy with no feet.” 21 June 1954, Youngstown (OH) Daily Vindicator, “Welch Was ‘Star” at Capital Hearings” by H. I. Phillips, pg. 13, col. 6: “The Unconquered,” a movie of the life of Helen Keller, is a tremendously moving “movie” and unforgettable is the line, “I cried when I had no shoes...until I met a man who had no feet.” 1 April 1966, Nashua (NH) Telegraph, “Look at Washington: The Lady From New Delhi” by James Reston (New York Times News Service), pg. 4, col. 5: She (Indira Gandhi—ed.) quoted an old Indian proverb: “I complained that I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet.” My Point—and I Do Have One By Ellen DeGeneres New York, NY: Bantam Books Pg. ?: (Remember the saying: “I felt bad because I had no shoes, then I saw someone with really ugly shoes?”) Memorable quotes for “Will & Grace” Sweet (and Sour) Charity (2000) Karen Walker: Maybe it’s like it says in the Bible - I felt bad because I had no shoes, but then I met someone who had really bad shoes. I cursed my fate because I had no shoes, and then I met a man who had no feet. Who the hell said that? I can’t even figure it out with Google. Anonymous, apparently. One used to hear that old saying all the time. It was a big cliché, but I don’t think people know it anymore. mcg said… “I cried because I had no shoes, ‘till I met a man who had no feet. So I said, ‘You got any shoes you’re not using’?” --- Stephen Wright Posted by {name} New York City • Banking/Finance/Insurance • (2) Comments • Thursday, March 08, 2012 • Permalink That is so true, all people have problems, no one is exempted and there’s always someone who has a bigger problem than you so just fight and move on and stay content. Posted by: h2b visas on 04/09 at 09:02 AM I don’t know how who said those words. I agree with the saying. If we related it with the sadness of life. People always think about how we can own the things and get upset. When we saw the sadness of other people that time we came to know that our life is good than other. So I think we should enjoy each and every moment of life instead of being sad. Posted by: Daal mein Kuch Kaala Hai on 06/14 at 01:39 AM	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8115
__label__cc	0.510645	0.489355	143 total incidents logged at Glen Park 243.35(a) PC, Warrant Arrest Glen Park - 2101-0266 Alasan Green (9/15/71, San Francisco) was booked into the S.F. County Jail on the listed charges and several outside agency warrants. Green was also issued a Prohibition Order. Warrant Arrest General Prohibition Order Issued Assault/Battery Wednesday, Jan. 06, 7:51 PM 243(d) Arrest Ricardo Estupinian (8/13/1955 San Francisco) was arrested for the listed charge. Estupinian was issued a prohibition order and booked into the San Francisco County Jail. Thursday, Dec. 31, 4:26 PM 369(i)(b) PC Ryan Ford (1/26/85, San Francisco) was arrested and booked into the SF County Jail. Ford was also issued a Prohibition Order. General Prohibition Order Issued Violation of Prohibition Order Chandra Arvinash (1/14/83, Millbrae) was arrested and booked into the SF County Jail on the listed charge. General Violation of Prohibition Order Tuesday, Sept. 08, 9:59 PM Jeremiah Humphrey (9/15/92, San Francisco) was arrested and booked into the SF County Jail on a no bail warrant held by SFPD, for PC 211. Wednesday, May 27, 5:46 PM Train Delay, Sick Patron The Glen Park Station was temporarily closed from 1136 hours to approximately 1230 hours. A patron was transported to a local hospital for further medical treatment as a result of the incident. General Train Delay Wednesday, March 04, 11:36 AM 11352 H&S, 11378 H&S and 11379 H&S Arrest Christopher Mabalot (8/8/1960 San Francisco) was arrested for 11352 H&S, 11378 H&S and 11379 H&S. He was transported and booked into the San Francisco jail. General Narcotics Wednesday, Feb. 26, 9:34 PM Elijah Kurdy (4/8/81, South San Francisco) was arrested on a No Bail warrant for 3455(A) PC. He was booked into San Francisco County Jail. A 49 year old adult male was found unresponsive outside of the station. Despite efforts by medical personnel to revive the male, he was pronounced deceased at the scene. All indications at this time lead to the likelihood the death was due to a drug overdose. The SF County Coroner responded and took possession of the deceased male. General Unattended Death Thursday, Nov. 21, 1:20 AM 273.5 PC, 245 PC & 1203.2 PC (Prohibition Order) Alexander Matthews (3/19/96, Transient) was placed under arrest and booked into jail for 273.5 PC, 245 PC $ 1203.2 PC. Matthews was issued a prohibition order. Assault/Battery Domestic Violence Probation Violation Saturday, Aug. 24, 5:24 PM Marcelle Binns (5/2/94, San Francisco) was arrested on an outstanding $1,000 warrant out of BART PD for 369(i)(b)PC. He was booked into San Francisco County Jail. Wednesday, Aug. 21, 11:05 AM 487(c)PC Arrest Stephon Dixon (12/28/99, San Francisco) was arrested for the above listed charge at the Glen Park Station. He was booked into San Francisco County Jail. General Theft From Person Monday, July 08, 9:36 AM 487(c)PC A report was taken from a victim who stated on Sunday, 6/16/19 at approximately 2330 hours that her cell phone was taken from her while riding a SFO train departing the Glen Park Station. The loss was an Iphone. Monday, June 17, 8:41 AM 243.3 Pc, 243.35 Pc A BART Station Agent reported that they were the victim of the above related offense at the Glen Park Station. A BART patron attempted to intervene and was also assaulted by the suspect. The suspect left the scene and responding officers were unable to locate him after an area search. General Assault/Battery 148.9 PC, Warrant Arrest Daryl Brinkman (1/10/81, San Francisco) was booked into the SF Jail on the above listed charge and three outside agency warrants. Warrant Arrest General False Identification Thursday, March 14, 12:17 AM 243(e)(1) Arrest A female subject was arrested for the above charge and a prohibition order was issued. She was transported and booked at San Francisco County Jail. General Prohibition Order Issued Domestic Violence Monday, Jan. 28, 4:45 PM 422P.C./22610(a)P.C. Michael Leon (33 years, San Francisco) was arrested for the above violations and issued a Prohibition Order. He was arrested at San Mateo jail. 148(a) P.C., 243(b) P.C., 243(c)(2) P.C. A female juvenile (17 years old, San Francisco) was arrested for 148(a) P.C., 243(b) P.C. and 243(c)(2) P.C. The female juvenile was issued a prohibition order and booked at the San Francisco Youth Guidance Center. General Prohibition Order Issued Resisting Arrest Crimes Against BART Employees Assault/Battery Monday, Sept. 24, 1:38 PM 487(a) PC The victim reported the theft of their motorized bicycle while it was U-locked at the station. Grand Theft/Pickpocket Thursday, Sept. 20, 5:01 PM 212.5 P.C. Arrest Shabaka L. Thurman (18 years old, transient) was arrested for robbery and booked at the San Francisco County Jail. General Prohibition Order Issued Robbery Saturday, July 21, 4:52 PM Battery (Prohibition Order) Alfred Degroat (46, San Francisco) was issued a BART prohibition order after being cited and released for battery. Thursday, Feb. 15, 8:38 AM Adrian Morales (38, San Francisco) was arrested for a $50,000 warrant. Tuesday, Jan. 16, 7:45 PM Violation of a Court Order A male subject (Antoine WAGNER, 34 years old) who was contacted for fare evasion was taken into custody for violation of a court order and booked into San Francisco County jail. Violation of Court Order Saturday, Dec. 23, 7:48 AM A person cited for fare evasion (Andrew Collins, 34, Missisippi) was arrested for a no bail warrant. A victim reported the theft of his bicycle and helmet while they were locked to the racks at the station with a cable lock. Occurred on 8/3/2017 between 0900 - 1800 hours. Late report, as victim initially filed an online report with the San Francisco Police Department. Sunday, Sept. 10, 4:54 PM	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8116
__label__wiki	0.684733	0.684733	Recovery from opioid addiction: What research says about role of steady employment Chloe Reichel Journalist's Resource Are workplace recovery programs successful in helping people to quit abusing drugs and avoid relapsing? A growing field of research suggests the answer is yes, though their success may have more to do with incentives than the nature of work itself. There are a few ways that scholars have studied the relationship between employment and recovery, according to Matthew Walton, an instructor at the University of Louisville’s Kent School of Social Work. He is also the author of “The Effects of Employment Interventions on Addiction Treatment Outcomes: A Review of the Literature,” which looks at 12 studies on workplace recovery programs and concludes that they tend to be effective. Recovery from opioid addiction in Vermont:Battling the epidemic Walton described the two dominant approaches: one views employment as benchmark of successful recovery. The other area of research focuses on whether being employed is a therapeutic intervention in and of itself. Paid work as incentive to abstinence Kenneth Silverman, professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore, is a leading researcher in this latter field. Silverman has developed an experimental therapeutic workplace that offers paid employment to poor, unemployed people with opioid dependencies and other substance use disorders — with the understanding that the researchers will be studying them. “We’re studying access to paid work as reinforcer or incentive to abstinence,” Silverman explained. In this model, which has been the subject of study since 1996, participants have to provide drug-free urine samples to keep their jobs and/or avoid a dock in pay. The model has proven effective in promoting and maintaining abstinence from heroin and cocaine among people who have been unable to stop on their own, he said. Silverman was careful to say that his research shows that work alone does not keep employees from using drugs. Money and accountability matter, too. “When we randomly assign people to just work and get paid, but they don’t have to provide drug-free samples to obtain maximum pay, they work a lot, but they continue to use heroin or cocaine,” he said. Only when paid work is contingent on abstaining does it serve as powerful incentive to maintain sobriety. “I’m not sure that it’s right to say that work is a powerful incentive. Paid work is a powerful incentive,” Silverman said. “It’s probably the money that’s the most important thing.” Doctors with opioid addiction Anthony DeFulio, an assistant professor of psychology at Western Michigan University who studies workplace recovery programs, offered a similar perspective regarding treatment for physicians with opioid addictions. DeFulio cited research on the national system of Physician Health Programs, which involves outpatient treatment and random drug testing over a period of five years. The results of these tests are reported to employers, insurers and state licensing boards, and if participants test positive, they can lose their license to practice medicine. These programs are quite successful, with only 22 percent of physicians testing positive at any point in the five-year follow-up screening period, according to a 2009 study involving 49 medical directors in charge of their state-run programs. “When someone has a lot to lose, then that alone seems to be sufficient,” DeFulio said in a recent phone call. According to DeFulio, research has shown that successful substance abuse treatment requires ample contact with patients on an ongoing basis, which are conditions the workplace offers. He explained that incentive-based interventions tend to work better with high-value incentives. And, he added, “Recovery outcomes are better the longer you can keep an intervention in place…There’s a practical puzzle there — how do we deliver high value incentives for a very long time? And employment is a great answer to that question.” The value of work itself There might be something about work itself, though, that helps people with substance use disorder in their recovery. DeFulio noted that there are some work therapy programs in which participants’ pay or employment status was not contingent on the results of drug screens. One example he offered was the Department of Veterans Affairs compensated work therapy (CWT) program, formulated with what DeFulio described as the “idea in part that being gainfully employed is going to help in the road to recovery.” A 2002 study of this program involving 142 participants found that compared with veterans who did not participate in compensated work therapy, “patients in the CWT program were more likely to (1) initiate outpatient addictions treatment, (2) experience fewer drug and alcohol problems, (3) report fewer physical symptoms related to substance use, (4) avoid further loss of physical functioning, and (5) have fewer episodes of homelessness and incarceration.” A 2009 study, which focused on employment and recovery outcomes among 500 drug court clients – people participating in a specialized court docket program targeted toward individuals with substance use disorder — found that participants who were assigned to and remained active in an intervention that helped them find a job, keep it, and then find a better job, showed better outcomes in recovery — less substance use and less criminal activity — than those who received less or no career assistance. However, the specifics of the relationship between work and recovery are difficult to disentangle. “Generally, when you look at people who are in regular community workplaces, there is a relationship between staying abstinent and staying employed,” Silverman said. “But it’s not clear whether employment causes abstinence, or people who are abstinent are also more likely to get employed.” Nevertheless, some researchers are interested in the idea of employment as a benchmark — in other words, a measure of recovery. Meaningful activity and abstinence Robert E. Drake, a professor of community and family medicine at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine, explained in a phone call that a focus on short-term episodes of stabilization and abstinence as a measure of recovery is “short-sighted.” “It doesn’t really address what we know and have known for more than half a century about recovery,” Drake said. “When people get abstinent, they have a high rate of relapsing.” To promote long-term recovery, Drake suggested that involvement in meaningful activities is essential. Those meaningful activities include work, per findings from a survey of 356 individuals at various points in their recovery. In the 2010 study “What Are Your Priorities Right Now? Identifying Service Needs Across Recovery Stages to Inform Service Development,” researchers Alexandre Laudet and William White asked participants, “What are the priorities in your recovery and in your life right now?” About one-third of respondents in each stage of recovery cited employment as a priority. The only priority that was more popular than employment was recovery from substance use. “‘Recovery,’ the ultimate goal of services, requires more than abstinence,” Laudet and White write. “Therefore substance use disorder services must give clients the tools to improve their life in all areas, not only to help them achieve abstinence.” But in another study conducted by Laudet in 2012 involving 311 people at various points in recovery, less than half were employed. Impact of helping people in recovery find and keep jobs Researchers suggest programs that help people find and keep jobs might help boost employment among people with substance use disorder. One such model is Individual Placement and Support (IPS), which was designed for people with serious mental illnesses. IPS offers job training and counseling, among other services. A 2017 pilot study of IPS among 45 people enrolled in an opioid treatment program found that 50 percent of those who were assisted in finding work through IPS attained competitive employment within six months, compared with 5 percent of the participants who were waitlisted for IPS. The study concludes that IPS “holds promise as an employment intervention for people with opioid use disorders.” (The study was not concerned with whether the program helped users quit.) “Employment always has been intimately intertwined with psychological health,” Drake said. “We have to be helping people to stay abstinent and really rebuild their lives.” Vt. struggling to meet need for drug counselors Will Vermont start regulating sober houses? Why is fentanyl so prevalent? The economics of a crisis Heroin: Why few call 911 when someone overdoses Police chief reacts to obit: 'I have a problem' Chloe Reichel is a research reporter for Journalist’s Resource. Follow her on Twitter @chloereichel. In the interest of examining this topic through a research lens, The Burlington Free Press has collaborated with Journalist’s Resource, an open-access project of Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy. Find out more at journalistsresource.org.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8117
__label__wiki	0.906819	0.906819	Desperate Kiwis exploit loophole in fair go fight A Kiwi campaigner has found a loophole which she wants up to 50,000 New Zealanders to exploit in the fight to gain access to government support. by Emily Toxward A KIWI campaigner wants up to 50,000 Gold Coasters to exploit a political loophole to ensure a better deal for "hardworking" New Zealanders forgotten during the coronavirus pandemic. Community leader Vicky Rose says she has seen first-hand the pain Kiwis have endured during the crisis because they are ineligible for government support despite living and working full-time here for a number of years. In a stunning move, she's called for Kiwis to join an Australian political party in a last-ditch attempt for New Zealand migrants to get a direct pathway to Australian citizenship. KIWIS TOLD TOO BAD SO SAD BY AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT For 12 years New Zealander Vicky Rose has helped her fellow Kiwis as head of the Nerang Community Centre, now she’s fighting to ensure they have a direct pathway to citizenship, something offered to nationals from other countries. Picture: Tertius Pickard Ms Rose migrated to the Gold Coast 12 years ago and is the co-ordinator of the Nerang Neighbourhood Centre. She fields daily phone calls from people in crisis including desperate New Zealanders on the brink of homelessness. "Women who are being abused by their partners, new mums who have children born right here on the Gold Coast with a disability, cancer patients and Gold Coasters who were working one to three casual jobs before COVID but because they have been here for only nine years cannot get JobSeeker," she said. "There's no support for these kiwis anyway, let alone in this global and unprecedented crisis, despite the fact they've lived and worked here for years, volunteered at their local sports clubs, paid taxes and call the Gold Coast home." SISTERS HELP STRUGGLING KIWIS STRUGGLING DURING COVID-19 Sisters Marama Gray and Awhi Gray, are part of a small group of Kiwis on the Gold Coast who are working behind the scenes to raise money, get food to Kiwis who aren't entitled to any Centrelink benefits but have lost jobs because of COVID-19. Picture: Jerad Williams For example, to be eligible to join the Australian Labor Party, you must be a citizen and on the electoral roll. However, non-citizen Kiwis who are Special Category Visa (Subclass 444) holders can also qualify. This is the automatic visa given to any New Zealander upon arrival. Most of the near 300,000 New Zealanders who migrated to Australia after February 26, 2001 do not, and will not qualify for social security benefits, despite paying taxes. Income tax from Kiwis in Australia was about $5 billion in 2015 alone. Other internationals living and working in Australia on permanent visas are eligible for supports in times of crisis. Australians are not excluded from Social Security support in New Zealand and can access benefits after two years of living in New Zealand without any visa applications or paperwork. In March, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern asked the Australian Government to relax the rules and extend their federal COVID supports to those Kiwis experiencing hardship during the pandemic as they were doing for their Australian residents in New Zealand. AUSTRALIA GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS TELL KIWIS TO "GO HOME" New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has previously called on the Australia Government to relax rules during COVID-19 to help Kiwis experiencing hardship during the pandemic. It has fallen on deaf ears. Photo by Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images Ms Rose said even before COVID she received up to 10 calls a week, every week, from Kiwis wanting to know how to become a permanent residents and/or Australian citizens. But because of the limited visa streams and strict criteria, one visa requiring annual earnings of at least $53,900 (about $1036 a week) each year for four consecutive years (exemptions may apply), a large chunk of New Zealanders will not meet the visa requirements to gain permanent residency and therefore will not have a pathway to Australian citizenship which would give them the rights and benefits enjoyed by their fellow taxpayers. Currently the minimum wage in Australia is around $39,197 or $753.80 per week. "Kiwis who migrate here (and anywhere else) don't do it to go on benefits. They come to the Gold Coast to work hard, build homes and make meaningful contributions to the community" Ms Rose said. "We pay the same taxes as everybody else. We even pay the NDIS levy that we are cruelly not allowed to access. I've been constantly telling people for 10 years it's not a benefit argument, it's a reciprocity argument." TRAPPED KIWIS UNABLE TO ACCESS SUPPORT DESPITE PAYING TAXES HERE Nerang Neighbourhood Centre co-ordinator Vicky Rose is joining the ALP party to fight for Kiwis rights for a direct pathway to citizenship. Picture: Tertius Pickard After lobbying for nearly a decade and getting nowhere, Ms Rose said she's changed tactics and joined the ALP as a non-citizen. "I am getting active within the party here with the aim to attend both their state conference and national conferences and be fully present and heard at the conference(s) where the ALP decide on their party policies. "I will be actively aiming to get a commitment from the ALP to a direct pathway to Australian citizenship for New Zealand migrants. This is something I believe is in their best interests as most Kiwis would likely vote Labor in Australia. There are 50,000 of us on the Gold Coast alone!" "Any New Zealand migrant can join the ALP and support this. It's only $25 which is a small price to pay to have your say and be part of change." WHEN WILL FLIGHTS BETWEEN NZ AND AUSTRALIA RESUME There’s more than 650,000 New Zealanders in Queensland, with more than half of those not eligible to become permanent residents, something they must have before becoming citizens "I encourage all passionate Kiwis to join up and be heard. We might not be able to vote, but we can definitely influence party policy." To be eligible to vote and support Ms Rose to get to these ALP conferences, people must have been an ALP member for six months. August would be the cut off for next year's scheduled ballot. "If the Australian Government's response to us during a global pandemic isn't enough for Kiwis to want to get active, then nothing will be." WHY THERE IS NO DIRECT PATHWAY TO CITIZENSHIP FOR NEW ZEALANDERS NEW Zealand citizens don't need to apply for a visa before coming to Australia, they are automatically given a temporary Special Category Visa subclass 444 (SCV 444). But this visa does not offer a direct pathway to citizenship and while Kiwis can work and stay in Australia indefinitely, they don't have the same rights and benefits as other permanent residents and they can't vote. In order to apply for citizenship, they must first apply to become permanent residents, except for those who arrived on a protected SCV visa before February 26, 2001. Those migrants have a direct pathway to Australian citizenship and are considered "eligible New Zealand citizens" if they: • Spent at least 12 months in the two years immediately before February 26, 2001 in Australia. • Have a Centrelink certificate from before February 26, 2004 that shows you were living in Australia. GOVERNMENT SAYS IT'S "GENEROUS" TO NEW ZEALANDERS A spokesman from the Department of Home Affairs said Australia visa arrangements for New Zealand citizens are "more generous than those for citizens of any other country". "The 1973 trans-Tasman Travel Arrangement has allowed Australian and New Zealand citizens to enter each other's country to visit, live, work and study, without the need to apply for a visa to enter the other country before travelling," he said. Under this arrangement they are granted a Special Category Visa (subclass 444) subject to requirements. A spokesman for the Department of Home Affairs, of which Peter Dutton is the Minister, says Australia its immigration options for New Zealanders are “generous”. Picture: NCA NewsWire /Gary Ramage "While this visa is not part of the permanent migration program, visa holders are able to remain in Australia indefinitely," he said. The spokesman said "special bilateral relationship between Australia and New Zealand" introduced in 2017 streamlined pathway to Australian permanent residence". But only for New Zealand citizens "who have been living in Australia for at least five years and shown a commitment and contribution to Australia". If they are eligible for this permanent Skilled Independent Visa, they can then apply for Australian citizenship by conferral, "provided they meet the general eligibility requirements". Originally published as Desperate Kiwis exploit loophole in fair go fight Premium Content $849m loss: Flight Centre decimated by COVID coronavirus income support new zealand visas	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8119
__label__wiki	0.66653	0.66653	NETGEAR APPOINTS LAURA DURR TO THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS SAN JOSE, California — January 9th, 2020 —NETGEAR®, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTGR), the leading provider of networking technology for small businesses, the smart home and online game play, today welcomes Laura Durr to join the company’s board of directors. Ms. Durr joins the board with a valued background in finance and strategy for leading Silicon Valley technology companies. Laura Durr, a director on the board of TiVo, most recently served as the EVP and Chief Financial Officer of Polycom, Inc. from May 2014 until the acquisition of Polycom by Plantronics Inc. in 2018. Prior to becoming CFO, Ms. Durr has held various finance leadership roles at Polycom between 2004 and 2014, including Senior Vice President-Worldwide Finance, Chief Accounting Officer and Worldwide Controller. Prior to joining Polycom, Ms. Durr held executive positions in finance and administration at Lucent Technologies and International Network Services and also spent six years at Price Waterhouse LLP. Ms. Durr was a certified public accountant and holds a B.S. in Accounting from San Jose State University. “We welcome the addition of Laura Durr to the NETGEAR Board of Directors,” said Patrick Lo, chairman and chief executive officer of NETGEAR. “We are excited to now have the board back to nine members with the recent additions of Laura, Janice and Mickey. It is with great pleasure that we have assembled a powerful and diverse team of board members to help drive the direction for NETGEAR.” ©2019 NETGEAR, Inc. NETGEAR and the NETGEAR logo are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of NETGEAR, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and/or other countries. Other brand and product names are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holder(s). The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. NETGEAR shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein. All rights reserved.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8120
__label__cc	0.664552	0.335448	Volume 7 • Winter 1997 Regional Review The Impact of Inflation By Rebecca Hellerstein Inflation is the most commonly used economic term in the popular media. A Nexis search in 1996 found 872,000 news stories over the past twenty years that used the word inflation. "Unemployment" ran a distant second. ¶ Public concern about inflation generally heats up in step with inflation itself. Though economists do not always agree about when inflation starts to interfere with market signals, the public tends to express serious alarm once the inflation rate rises above 5 or 6 percent. ¶ Public opinion polls show minimal concern about rising prices during the early 1960s, as inflation was low. Concern rose with inflation in the late 1960s and early 1970s. When inflation twice surged to double-digit levels in the mid and late 1970s, Americans named it public enemy number one. Since the late 1980s, public anxiety has abated along with inflation itself. Yet even when inflation is low, Americans tend to perceive a morality tale in its effects. A recent survey by Yale economist Robert Shiller found that many Americans view differences in prices over time as a reflection of fundamental changes in the values of our society, rather than of purely economic forces. Economists think of inflation more plainly as a "sustained rise in the general level of prices." Their concerns focus on questions such as whether inflation distorts economic decisions. Very high inflation adversely impacts economic performance, as evidence from cross-country studies shows. Likewise, moderate levels of inflation can distort investment and consumption decisions. Recent U.S. experience with low, stable levels of inflation, in the range of 2 to 3 percent, has spurred policy makers to consider the possibility of achieving zero percent inflation. Reducing inflation however has costs in lost output and unemployment during the adjustment. Thus, an important question is whether zero percent inflation is sufficiently better for the economy than 2 to 3 percent inflation to warrant the effort of getting there. PUBLIC PERCEPTIONS Americans are most concerned that inflation may lower their standard of living -- that their incomes will not keep up with the rise in prices. This anxiety is particularly pronounced for retirees, uneasy about inflation adjustments to their pensions and financial investments. To plan for retirement requires forming expectations of prices in the future. Inflation makes this more difficult because even a series of small, unanticipated increases in the general price level can significantly erode the real (adjusted for inflation) value of savings over time. Shiller finds that worry about inflation's costs increases dramatically as individuals near retirement age. Americans born before or after 1940 differ more in their evaluation of inflation's effects than do the U.S. and German populations as a whole. Social Security payments are now indexed to inflation, a policy change that has reduced somewhat the effects of inflation uncertainty on retirement. Thus, anxiety now focuses more on savings in long- term maturities such as bonds and on employer pensions which typically are not indexed. Concern about living standards also stems from the widespread belief that inflation pushes up prices before it pushes up wages. Many people understand prices rise because of inflation. But they seem to attribute nominal increases in their wages more to their own accomplishments than to the feedback effect of inflation. To the extent that they acknowledge feedback effects, most Americans seem to believe in a "lagged wage-price" model of the economy. That is, they assume that price increases occur first and wage increases follow, often much later. Shiller's survey found a striking number of people -- over 75 percent of respondents -- believe that their income would not fully adjust for several years after an inflationary episode. Economists have tried to measure whether wage increases lag price increases since the 1890s but have consistently found the relationship difficult to estimate. Many people also dislike inflation because they feel it makes it easier for the government, employers, financial institutions, and others to deceive them. Thus, over 70 percent of Shiller's respondents agreed that "One of the most important things I don't like about inflation is that the confusion caused by price changes enables people to play tricks on me, at my expense." Thus, some employers may "forget" to raise their employees' wages as much as inflation thereby giving them a real pay cut. There is evidence that people do get fooled, at least initially, about their real wages. Economists Peter Diamond, Eldar Shafir, and Amos Tversky argue in their recent paper, "On Money Illusion," that people seem to base their sense of satisfaction on nominal earnings, rather than real earnings. Similarly, Shiller found that over half of his respondents agreed with the statement that, "I think that if my pay went up I would feel more satisfaction in my job, more sense of fulfillment, even if prices went up just as much." Inflation creates other opportunities for sophisticated institutions to unfairly take advantage of the average individual, in many people's minds. Inflation can increase the complexity of evaluating financial assets, from CDs and insurance policies to stocks and bonds. This shifts the distribution of power in the financial marketplace to the more sophisticated and knowledgeable actors to the detriment of the average person, in this view. Thus, the government might "forget" to change the tax brackets after an inflationary episode, so the average person would end up paying higher taxes. Similar issues of getting confused or fooled can operate within firms. Some monetary policy makers have hypothesized that managers may be lulled into complacency about profits by increases in the general price level. In his testimony last year before Congress, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan observed that firms' productivity may rise more quickly with price stability, as the "inability to pass cost increases through to higher prices provides a powerful incentive to firms to increase profit margins through innovation." Inflation thus may weaken our judgment about how well we are doing, both as individuals and as firms. People's immediate concern is with how their incomes hold up with changes in their expenses. Businesses care about how the prices of their products do in relation to their costs. Americans' recent memory of high inflation stems from the 1970s, a time when changes in relative prices, specifically the spike in oil prices, combined with a rise in the general price level. This combination of relative and general price changes in the 1970s, in Shiller's view, confused many people's perception of inflation. The two oil shocks did result in higher inflation. But equally damaging was the relative price change. Oil was used pervasively to fuel machinery and other technology operated by workers; so when the price of oil went up, the productivity of many American workers fell and their real wages shrank. People today may confuse the experiences of the 1970s -- falling wages, gas rationing, and the redistribution of income -- with the effects of any rise in the general price level. Overall, Shiller's respondents uniformly view inflation as harmful -- that it lowers standards of living by pushing up prices before wages and pensions, and that it facilitates deceptive behavior. Because inflation may benefit some people, say by its redistribution of wealth from creditors to debtors, Shiller was surprised that not a single respondent mentioned any benefit gained due to inflation. DISTORTED BEHAVIOR Economists tend to emphasize that inflation can do economic damage by distorting investment and consumption decisions. Distortions result first from households' and businesses' uncertainty about inflation's future course, and second from inflation's interaction with the U.S. tax code. Inflation's interaction with personal income taxes, for example, can distort decisions about how much income to spend on housing. This interaction plays out with owner-occupied housing, where mortgage interest payments are deductible. Inflation gets built into nominal interest rates; so even a moderate rise in the price level increases this deduction. And housing services, that represent part of the return to housing investment, escape taxation. Moderate to high inflation thus prompts households to spend more on housing than would be optimal in a low-inflation environment. Thus, the real estate boom in the 1970s was fueled in part by inflation-induced distortions, wrote Lynn Browne of the Boston Fed. High rates of inflation accelerated home buying by increasing the real, after-tax returns to investment in owner-occupied housing relative to alternative investments. A lag in interest rates reinforced this uptick in demand. As house prices in turn began to rise faster than the general price level, people rushed to buy rather than face higher prices later. These distortions in the housing market reverberated across other markets. In the forestry industry, for example, housing starts are watched closely to project future sales. Many firms responded to the housing boom in the mid-1970s by expanding sawmill capacity. The St. Regis Corporation, now a subsidiary of Champion International, based in Stamford, Connecticut, decided in the mid-1970s to build a sawmill in Costigan, Maine. The sawmill initially did poorly, as it came on-line when the housing market's boom turned to bust. Vice President Bob Turner recalls that the Costigan mill lost money through the early 1980s, in part because of the firm's misperceptions about future demand. Distortions in economic activity also may result from the uncertainty that arises about inflation's future course. When inflation is stable, people are more likely to have roughly the same anticipation of its future level. When inflation is highly volatile, however, people have different guesses. Most turn out to be wrong. Inadvertently, some end up winners and others losers. This occurs whether inflation's level goes up or down. Among the losers in the early 1980s were numerous small mills in the forestry industry. These mills bid for timber based on the assumption that inflation would continue to be high. These bids, made primarily for United States Forest Service timber, locked in prices between the purchase and harvest date, usually three to five years. After 1981, when inflation fell dramatically, the real cost of such contracts rose significantly, leaving many firms with contracts for timber they could not afford to harvest. Forestry lobbyists argued that the difficulty in anticipating the dramatic fall of inflation in the early 1980s justified their release from the contractual obligation. In an unusual move, Congress passed a bill, in the early 1980s, directing the Forest Service to renegotiate all timber contracts from the late 1970s, to minimize their impact on small forestry companies. The congressional bailout was highly unusual. Most contracts are not renegotiated. Thus, when inflation is unanticipated, businesses' relative prices can be distorted either because contracts are set and not renegotiated or because it takes time for firms to distinguish between relative and general price changes. This makes it difficult for businesses to invest in a high inflation environment, where relative prices are variable. Firms may misinterpret the ability to raise their product's price as stemming from an increase in demand for their good relative to others, and invest too much. Or they may be less confident that they will earn a return sufficient to pay off debt, and thus may curtail investment. Uncertainty is always present in markets, of course. No one can predict the future. To the extent that inflation even at low levels adds to this general uncertainty, it is costly. IS ZERO THE MAGIC NUMBER? Does the fact that inflation can be costly mean zero inflation is optimal? Many economists and policy makers argue that zero inflation would allow consumers and firms to write simpler contracts and make long-term plans for retirement or future investment with less worry. The debate focuses on two questions first, whether the costs of getting to zero inflation outweigh the benefits of being there; and second, whether there are significant costs as well as benefits to being at zero inflation. Getting to zero inflation can be costly, involving lost output and higher unemployment during the transition. Some economists argue that the costs of getting to zero may be greater than the benefits of being there. They point to the six postWWII episodes in which inflation came down significantly and note that output fell each time. Reducing inflation lowers output and raises unemployment during the adjustment because wages and prices are slow to respond, in this view. Many of those who argue for zero inflation emphasize that little sacrifice in unemployment or lost output is necessary if the central bank makes credible statements about the intended disinflation, and the public believes these declarations and incorporates them into its plans. In his recent book, Macroeconomic Policy in a World Economy, Stanford economist John Taylor argues that the reductions in output necessary to achieve zero inflation are smaller than suggested by traditional models. The problem with traditional estimates, writes Taylor, is their failure to account for the effects of credibility gaps in past disinflations by the Federal Reserve. Harvard economist Martin Feldstein argues that the costs of a disinflation from 2 percent to zero percent inflation would be far outweighed by the long-term benefits. These arise, Feldstein argues, because even low rates of inflation exacerbate the biases in favor of current consumption and owner-occupied housing created by our tax system. Others claim that zero inflation has costs of its own. A recent Brookings Institution paper by George Akerlof, William Dickens, and George Perry argues that moderate inflation yields significant efficiency gains by "greasing" the wheels of the labor market. Firms use inflation to "cover" adjustments in real wages and at zero inflation nominal wage cuts, never popular among workers, would necessarily be more common. The difficulty of adjusting real wages in the absence of moderate inflation has cumulative negative effects, they claim, including permanently higher unemployment and lost output. This argument, while interesting, is nevertheless controversial and evidence from labor market studies by David Card, Dean Hyslop, and others does not confirm the potential for such clear efficiency gains from the presence of moderate inflation. Another argument against zero inflation is the risk of deflation, a drop in the nominal price level, which could be quite costly to the degree that some prices and wages might not easily adjust downward. From the late nineteenth century until World War II, long downward trends in the price level and shorter periods of falling price levels were common in the industrialized world. But they were generally associated with falling output and rising unemployment. Declines in the general price level have been rare in industrialized countries since the end of World War II, although Sweden did sustain a mild deflation in 1996 with few apparent negative consequences. Larger deflations could be more costly, notes Princeton economist Ben Bernanke, in part because the potential for deflation is not written into most contracts. Interest rates cannot be negative, so the real interest rate can quickly become high when nominal prices are falling. And the ability of monetary policy to respond to recessionary shocks may be constrained. Some cite Japan's recent experience as an example of how low nominal interest rates (close to zero) were less stimulative than might be expected because prices were falling. MONEY AND MORALS The debate among policy makers and economists on inflation's impact at 3 percent versus zero percent is quite vigorous, at present, but no clear consensus has been reached. What the public believes is also unclear. Opinion polls since World War II consistently show that Americans regard inflation as a more serious problem than unemployment. Evidence from a number of public opinion surveys is contradictory, however, on whether the public would be willing, if necessary, to sustain higher levels of unemployment and a loss of output to achieve price stability. What the public believes about inflation matters because such beliefs affect the economy's performance. Once inflation has become embedded in economic behavior, it has been quite difficult to remove its influence. Whether the initial cause is a supply shock, such as the oil crisis in the 1970s, or a demand shock, such as the increased spending on the Vietnam war in the late 1960s, individuals come to expect inflation and incorporate these expectations into their plans. By reinforcing the original change in inflation's level, notes Johns Hopkins economist Laurence Ball, public expectations become one of the chief causes of inflation's persistence in the economy. Letting inflation creep up also threatens to erode public faith in the reliability of political leaders. All the nominal contracts we have today were made possible through trust that the government would not allow massive inflation. Americans' feeling of pride in national institutions depends in part on low inflation or "sound money" as a signal of healthy fiscal and monetary institutions. Finally, inflation can discourage saving and encourage consumption. It thus is perceived as an attack on certain moral virtues -- a strong work ethic, deferred gratification -- that support a healthy economy. John Maynard Keynes made his famous attack on the Victorian virtue of saving -- always "jam tomorrow and never jam today" -- for economic reasons. Consumption in a depression or a recession could strengthen the economy, in his view. But British society took Keynes's mockery as an assault on the core of Victorian morality. Many Americans likewise feel that inflation assaults the legacy here of the Protestant work ethic that places a moral premium on saving over consumption. Fighting inflation thus is seen by many as a moral as much as an economic duty. Americans want their public officials to fight inflation to increase long-term output and employment but perhaps also to strengthen society's moral foundation. Rebecca Hellerstein Is Inflation Dead? Inflation Expectations and the Evolution of U.S. Inflation Intrinsic and Inherited Inflation Persistence	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8123
__label__cc	0.616847	0.383153	Division of Women's Health Back to Research BIRCWH: Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health Ursula Kaiser, MD, Program Director Jill M. Goldstein, PhD, Multi-PI Kathryn Rexrode, MD, MPH, Multi-PI The Division of Women’s Health at Brigham and Women’s Hospital is the home site for the Harvard Medical School-wide award “Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health (BIRCWH)” from the NIH. Entitled “Hormones & Genes in Women’s Health: From Bench to Bedside”, the BIRCWH program is a K12 training grant which supports scholars involved in investigating the role of hormones and genes in understanding sex differences in vulnerabilities to clinical disorders and those disorders specific to women. Socio-environmental factors modulating the impact of hormones and genes in understanding these sex-specific vulnerabilities may also be investigated. Scholars will be sponsored for up to three years of mentored research from Harvard faculty in basic, translational, or clinical aspects of women's health, and will combine, if applicable, clinical work in the scholar's specialty. Women and men are at different risks for the onset, expression, course and treatment response for a number of disorders that occur at different stages of development and through aging. The mechanisms that explain many of these sex differences or disorders specific to women are still unclear. The mission of this BIRCWH program is to develop the next generation of scientists and scientist-clinicians as leaders in the field of women's health/sex differences in medicine who will contribute to understanding sex-specific or sex-dependent vulnerabilities to general medical and psychiatric disorders or disorders specific to women. The work of BIRCWH scholars focuses on the impact of hormones and/or genes in understanding these vulnerabilities. The training is based on a translational approach and modeled in the context of a lifespan perspective to identify etiologic mechanisms during fetal development, puberty, adulthood, and aging, with some focus on periods specific to women such as child-bearing, perimenopause and menopause. Socioenvironmental factors modulating the impact of hormones and genes in understanding these vulnerabilities may also be investigated. Scholar applicants can be preclinical, clinical, or translational investigators. The Division of Women's Health is the home site for this endeavor in the broader context of a Harvard Medical School (HMS) and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (HSPH)-wide training program. Scholars participating in this program represent a number of Harvard institutions including BWH, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), Children's Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI), McLean Hospital, and HSPH. The program provides access to research and academic mentors at these institutions and a vast array of biomedical resources in the Harvard-affiliated system that will be used to address scientific questions essential to improving women's health and sex differences in medicine. This training program accepts applications every few years from potential scholars for a full-time or part-time faculty position for a MD or PhD/ScD to develop an academic career in women's health. The next deadline to apply is: September 15, 2020. Successful applicants will have prior relevant research training in research methodology, potential to obtain independent research funding, and evidence of publication in peer-reviewed journals. Faculty appointments will be at the Instructor or Assistant Professor level, commensurate with qualifications. Applications from women and minorities are highly encouraged and desired. BIRCWH: Eligibility and Application The BIRCWH scholar position is a junior faculty appointment, not a fellowship. At the time of the award, candidates for support as BIRCWH Scholars must: have a clinical doctorate or PhD degree or its equivalent; have completed any postgraduate training normally expected for a faculty appointment in their field (including clinical or postdoctoral fellowship training, or residency if they have chosen not to subspecialize); not have more than six years of research or research training experience beyond their last doctoral degree; identify a mentor with extensive research experience who will support the applicant for the remaining 25% of his/her salary if full-time; be able to spend at least of 75% of full-time professional effort conducting research and research career development; not be or have been a Principal Investigator on an R01, R29 or subproject of a Program Project (P01), Center (P50, P60, U54) grant, mentored career development (K-series) grants, or other equivalent research grant awards; except for R03 and R21; be a U.S. citizen or noncitizen national, or must have been lawfully admitted for permanent residence and possess an Alien Registration Receipt Card (I-151 or I-155) or some other verification of legal admission as a permanent citizen. Individuals on temporary or student visas are not eligible. Six (6) page research proposal, excluding references. Font size must be at least Arial 11 point and margins must be no less than 1/2" on all sides. Include the following in the proposal: Preliminary Data, if available One-page career development plan Two written references Next application deadline: September 15, 2020 Send your full application to Kwan Quach: KQuach@bwh.harvard.edu 221 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115 If you have any questions about the BIRCWH Program or application process, please contact Kwan Quach (KQuach@bwh.harvard.edu). Find A DoctorRequest AppointmentLocationsServices LEARN MORE ABOUT BRIGHAM AND WOMEN’S HOSPITAL For over a century, a leader in patient care, medical education and research, with expertise in virtually every specialty of medicine and surgery.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8125
__label__cc	0.690408	0.309592	CCHE Seminar Series: The Affordable Care Act, marriage penalties and marital status Lauren Jones Friday December 4, 2020, 10am-12pm, Zoom Abstract: Policies that decouple benefits from marriage are said to be marriage neutral, and create equal access to the economic, social and health advantages of marriage, as well as the freedom for all people to opt out if they choose. In the United States, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) provided publicly funded and subsidized health insurance to millions of Americans. However, because of program eligibility and generosity rules – which vary nonlinearly with family size – the ACA is not marriage neutral. Depending on a couple’s income level, income distribution across partners, family size, state of residence, and age, ACA insurance benefits may grow or shrink if the couple chooses to marry, creating so-called marriage penalties. In this study, we explore marriage penalties imposed by the ACA by simulating marriage subsidies and penalties for various couple types. Then, using data from the American Community Survey (ACS), we explore whether the ACA marriage penalties causally affect marriage decisions. We find that a 1,000 USD increase marriage penalty reduces marriage rates among couples by about 2 percentage points, or by about 3 percent. We estimate larger effects among less educated couples, and when we include singles (whom we match with potential partners using a simulated marriage market). Our results suggest that one flaw of the ACA is that it does not achieve marriage neutrality in its benefit structure. Lauren Jones is an Assistant Professor of Consumer Science at The Ohio State University. She conducts quantitative, policy-based research on child and family wellbeing, especially in the areas of health and household economics. Her work has been featured in high-quality academic journals, such as the Journal of Health Economics and the Journal of Applied Econometrics, selective conferences, and the media. Before joining OSU, Lauren completed a post-doctoral fellowship in inequality and social mobility at the Martin Prosperity Institute at University of Toronto. Lauren completed her B.A. in philosophy at the University of Toronto, an M.S. in applied economics at OSU and her Ph.D. in Policy Analysis at Cornell University.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8127
__label__cc	0.642702	0.357298	A look at Google's smart city Urbanist Robin Mazumder reviews Quayside, the new ‘smart’ neighbourhood on Toronto’s eastern waterfront A view of Toronto's eastern waterfront, where the Quayside neighbourhood will be developed. (Photo: Quayside Toronto) By Robin Mazumder Imagine being able to build a neighbourhood from scratch in the heart of Toronto, the country’s most populous city; to experiment with innovative urban design in the midst of a housing shortage and what Mayor John Tory has called a citywide mental health crisis, as many citizens struggle with issues related to a lack of city resources and a coordinated national approach. What would that neighbourhood look like? How could it be built to support the well-being of the people living there? Enter Sidewalk Toronto, an ambitious mixed-use community project on a nearly five-hectare stretch of Toronto’s eastern waterfront called Quayside, created in partnership with developer Waterfront Toronto and Alphabet’s Sidewalk Labs, a Google sister company specializing in urban innovation. The project, which will integrate modern technology and best urban design practices, is currently in consultation, with plans to break ground in 2020 and see its first residents as early as 2022. As an outspoken urbanist, advocate for healthier cities and a former mental health occupational therapist completing my doctorate in cognitive neuroscience at the University of Waterloo, where I study the psychological impacts of urban design, I’m excited about the neighbourhood’s possibilities. If done well, Quayside can set the tone for how we build future urban centres in the age of open data and smart technology. Here are some elements I think are essential to Quayside’s success. Illustration by Chelsea Peters 1) Commerce While online shopping makes life easier, it can have detrimental impacts on local businesses, a crucial element of urban life. Sidewalk Toronto is attempting to revolutionize retail, offering flexible spaces with design elements that can be reconfigured based on the retailer’s needs, such as a floor of small independent pop-up shops that can be converted into an open-plan community craft market. Sidewalk Toronto is also looking to merge brick-and-mortar stores with digital technology, such as automatic billing to eliminate checkout lines. 2) Social Connection Sidewalk Toronto has suggested a neighbourhood assistant application that would connect neighbours through an online platform. But as social isolation is a major problem in most cities, I think a well-designed, inclusive public space can help address that problem. You need to physically make those community connections through face-to-face time with residents. 3) Food Access Food deserts are urban areas with little or no access to high quality, affordable and healthy food, and they’re a mounting concern for many communities. To combat this, Sidewalk Toronto plans to create a public garden space, which is an excellent way of ensuring access to fresh, healthy foods. Not only do they provide a space to grow food, but they also encourage community engagement. 4) Inclusion We know that Sidewalk Toronto has proposed retractable canopies and heated paths to make the city’s long winters more accessible. Inclusive design must be implemented at every step, and no one should be barred from engaging in their community because they have a disability. Furthermore, this project will only be successful if it is inclusive, so affordable housing should be a top priority. 5) A Smart City Layer Smart sensor technology can help improve efficiency and optimize services, such as waste management and energy use. Quayside will be outfi tted with adaptive traffi c lights that sense pedestrians and cyclists, prioritizing their movement at intersections — a technology that’s long overdue in many cities. 6) Mobility Every effort should be made to reduce our dependence on cars through good design, such as separated bike lanes, reliable public transit and people-first pedestrian infrastructure such as narrower streets and speed bumps to reduce traffic flow. Sidewalk Toronto has a goal of having the lowest car-use of any neighbourhood in Toronto, aiming for foot, bike and public transit to account for 75 per cent of all travel. 7) Sustainability It is imperative that cities of the future prioritize sustainability. Sidewalk Toronto has proposed energy efficient housing and a multi-source district heating and cooling thermal grid system that harnesses heat from geothermal sources and waste energy from the nearby Portlands Energy Centre, and cooling from the depths of Lake Ontario. This system will have to be adaptive, given Toronto’s temperature swings.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8128
__label__cc	0.544608	0.455392	Get Checked for Cancer Ontario Cancer Plan Funding & Reimbursement Drug Safety & Information Pre-Printed Orders Guidelines & Advice Browse Guidelines Modality of Care Cancer Continuum What’s New in Guidelines & Advice About Guidelines Browse Pathway Maps Ontario’s cancer survival rates among the best and getting better Cancer Care Ontario Blog About Cancer Care Ontario Email Media Team Michael Sherar Insights & Perspectives 6 minutes President & CEO, CCO “Will I live?” When a person is diagnosed with cancer, this is often their first question. A new international study offers a promising answer for the people of this province: Ontario has among the highest cancer survival rates in the world. The study, by the International Cancer Benchmarking Partnership (ICBP), reviewed almost four million cancer cases from 19 jurisdictions in seven high-income countries (Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Norway, Ireland and Denmark) and compared the one-year and five-year survival rates for seven types of cancer (colon, esophageal, pancreatic, stomach, rectum, lung and ovarian). Compared to the other participating jurisdictions, Ontario’s five-year survival rate ranks third overall. In terms of specific cancers, compared to other jurisdictions, Ontario ranks: Third highest in survival for stomach cancer Fourth highest for lung and colon cancers Fifth highest for both ovarian and pancreatic cancers The table below shows the relative rank of all jurisdictions in five-year survival, by cancer type. Importantly, survival rates for all seven types of cancer improved in Ontario for the period 2010 to 2014, compared to 1995 to 1999 (as reported in the ICBP’s 2011 study). The five-year survival rate for colon cancer, for example, improved by 10 percent. As a result, almost 70 percent of people in Ontario diagnosed with colon cancer will survive at least five years; this is the highest rate in Canada (tied with New Brunswick). Even small improvements in population-based survival rates (e.g., a one-percent improvement in five-year survival for esophageal cancer) can translate into preventing a significant number of premature deaths. Trends offer insights In addition to being hopeful news for people with cancer, these results tell us that our work with our partners is making a positive difference. What are we doing right? Ontario expanded organized cancer screening programs, for a total of four (cervical, colon and breast cancer, as well as a pilot for high-risk lung cancer screening). Clinical guidance, in the form of standards and guidelines, ensures that people across Ontario receive care based on the best available evidence. Evolving knowledge and technologies for the screening, diagnosis and treatment of cancer are continually assessed, and those that deliver best outcomes are adopted. In addition, our capital investments, infrastructure, support for research and continuous performance evaluation all contribute to improved clinical practice and cancer service delivery. The findings from ICBP, along with other performance indicators such as Ontario’s annual Cancer System Quality Index, also show us where we need to focus our improvement efforts. The Ontario Cancer Plan 2019 – 2023 provides a road map for how Cancer Care Ontario (in time, Ontario Health), the Regional Cancer Programs and health system partners, will work together to continue to reduce Ontarians’ risk of developing cancer and improve outcomes for those affected by the disease. Progress begins with data This study was made possible due to the collection and analysis of high-quality population-level data from Cancer Care Ontario’s partners across the province. By sharing reliable, standardized data and participating in international benchmarking studies, all participating jurisdictions in the ICBP – including Ontario – have the opportunity to identify opportunities for improvement, prioritize action and learn from the best health systems in the world. Relative rank of all jurisdictions in 5-year survival, by cancer type, 2010-2014 Australia-Victoria 1 2 3 1 3 3 4 1 Australia-Western Australia 2 1 1 2 1 5 1 1 Australia-NSW 5 4 2 5 2 10 7 3 Ontario 8 3 4 6 5 4 5 3 Norway 4 7 8 4 9 9 2 5 British Columbia 5 9 5 9 6 6 10 6 New Brunswick 9 5 4 8 13 1 9 6 Manitoba 12 11 9 13 4 2 3 8 Alberta 7 12 7 12 7 7 14 9 Saskatchewan 14 10 8 10 8 8 8 9 Denmark 11 14 6 3 10 13 6 9 Ireland 3 6 13 15 10 11 16 12 Prince Edward Island 5 18 14 7 8 19 13 13 New Zealand 6 13 12 11 11 14 15 13 Nova Scotia 13 8 11 19 15 12 11 15 UK-England 8 15 16 16 12 15 12 15 UK- Northern Ireland 5 15 10 18 16 18 17 17 UK-Scotland 13 16 15 14 15 16 18 18 UK-Wales 10 17 17 17 14 17 17 19 Notes: 1 is highest. CCO determined the overall rank based on the average of the ranks of each cancer site by jurisdiction. Questions about this blog post? Email us at publicaffairs@cancercare.on.ca. You're visiting Cancer Care Ontario CCO tips Visit CCO Health Cancer Care Ontario is the Ontario government’s principal cancer advisor and a division of CCO. The Ontario Renal Network advises the Ontario government on chronic kidney disease and is a division of CCO. Visit the Ontario Renal Network Clinician Engagement First Nations, Inuit & Métis Breast Screening Locations Regional Cancer Centres My CancerIQ PET Scans Ontario PTCC	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8129
__label__cc	0.627538	0.372462	John's story “Once you've had cancer, you always think you're going to get it again…well, I did. It really gutted me.” - John At 26, John was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma, a blood cancer of the lymphatic system. It was just two weeks before he was set to marry his fiancé Leigh. The couple were devastated. After months of treatment, John finally went into remission. “You beauty!” he thought. Things were looking up. But then some unusual pain in his chest rang alarm bells. The doctors were frank – he’d relapsed and it wasn’t good. The stakes were even higher this time – Leigh was pregnant. The thought of leaving Leigh a single mum, and his baby without a father, was terrifying. Meet John and Leigh and their lovely family. It’s now been over ten years, and John and Leigh have three kids and a cat named Rascal. John knows that he wouldn’t be here without the researchers who work to discover new treatments for cancer. “Researchers are the ‘unsung heroes’ of cancer. Without research, there’s no treatment. Without treatment there’s no survival, there’s only death… Research is the gateway to a new life,” John says. While John and Leigh live life with gratitude and optimism, the fear of relapsing is always there. They now hope that new treatments will be available if their greatest fears are realised and the cancer returns. This research couldn't happen without people like you. Your gift may be critical to someone like John. Donate to cancer research	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8130
__label__wiki	0.826312	0.826312	Smith, Carroll help Oklahoma State outlast Tulsa, 71-59 STILLWATER, Okla. (AP) Coming off a big 71-70 win over then-No. 19 Florida State on Saturday, Oklahoma State didn't respond well to all the accolades they received. Tuesday night, they started slowly, falling behind by as many as eight points in the first half, but Kendall Smith scored 13 of his 16 points in the second half to help the Cowboys rally for a 71-59 victory over Tulsa. Three days after scoring 23 points and being named the Orange Bowl Classic MVP, Jeffrey Carroll recorded his first double-double of the season, with 14 points and 11 rebounds, for Oklahoma State (9-2). ''I was a little disappointed in our focus,'' said Cowboys coach Mike Boynton. ''For the first time this year, over the last 48 hours, people have been telling them that they're actually good, and people don't always handle that the best. And it's something we need to learn from, because we want to have more success and we've got to make sure that we follow that up with proper preparation. You don't get to start off slow and figure it out at the end. With that said, I'm proud of the win.'' Junior Etou scored 18 points and had six rebounds for Tulsa (7-5), which saw its three-game winning streak snapped. Sterling Taplin added 14 points for the Golden Hurricane. ''I thought our guys competed hard,'' said Tulsa coach Frank Haith. ''I thought our defense was outstanding the first half. For 35 minutes of this game, I thought we were right where we needed to be. They made a couple of 3s in the second half, but the last five minutes were where the separation came.'' Tulsa led for most of the opening half, going up 25-18 when Etou sank two free throws with 3:47 left, but Oklahoma State responded with a 20-5 run over the next five minutes to seize the advantage early in the second half. The Golden Hurricane pushed back with a 13-5 run of their own over a five-minute span to regain the lead at 43-42 when Curran Scott knocked down a 3-pointer from the right corner with 13:13 remaining. Oklahoma State held a 57-53 advantage after Tulsa's Corey Henderson sank a 3-pointer with 5:25 left, but the Cowboys outscored the Golden Hurricane 18-6 the rest of the way to claim the triumph. Smith scored eight points during that span. ''Just taking what the defense was giving me,'' said Smith of his late success. ''We have a great deal of confidence in each player on this team. It was just my night tonight.'' Tulsa: The Golden Hurricane played a strong first half, especially defensively, limiting Oklahoma State to just 26.7 percent shooting (8 for 30) over the game's first 13 minutes, and 35.3 percent for the opening half. Tulsa certainly looked like they were able to compete with a good OSU squad, but they were unable to sustain it, allowing the Cowboys to shoot 56.3 percent (18 for 32) in the second half. Oklahoma State: The Cowboys experienced some offensive frustration for most of the first half, and then just when it looked like they found their stride early in the second, they allowed Tulsa back into the game. For much of the night, Oklahoma State looked like a team still tired after their big win in Sunrise, Fla. But they say the mark of a good team is one that can still pull out the victory when not playing their best and the Cowboys did that. Tulsa led 46-44 after Scott put home a layup to complete a 16-6 Golden Hurricane run with 11:30 remaining. Oklahoma State then responded with a 9-0 run over the next three minutes to take control of the contest. The one play that exemplified the Cowboys' resolve occurred when Mitchell Solomon mishandled a pass just beyond the top of the key, but dove for the loose ball. In one motion, Solomon grabbed it and flipped it to Lindy Waters, who then fed Brandon Averette for a 15-foot jump shot. That put OSU ahead 50-46 with 9:04 to go and Tulsa never got closer than four the rest of the way. ''I tried to make the pass to him and it got tipped and he dove on my ball,'' said Waters, who had nine points and three assists. ''It would have been a turnover on me, but I feel like that got us going, just seeing somebody dive on the floor.'' STAT OF THE NIGHT Oklahoma State took just one free throw for the entire game. It was from Smith, who made it with 30.5 seconds remaining to complete an old-fashioned 3-point play, and it tied the game 28-28. By contrast, Tulsa was 11-for-14 from the free throw line. Tulsa: The Golden Hurricane are off through the holidays, taking on East Carolina on Thurs., Dec. 28 at home. Oklahoma State: The Cowboys remain home, hosting UT-Rio Grande Valley in a Friday matinee contest Tulsa 7-5 28 31 59 Oklahoma State 9-2 28 43 71 Gallagher-Iba Arena Stillwater, OK Tulsa 7-5 73.5 PPG 41.5 RPG 12.6 APG Oklahoma State 9-2 76.6 PPG 40.8 RPG 14.3 APG	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8134
__label__wiki	0.861652	0.861652	Back to The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America guides Guide: How to cite a Report in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America style Cite A Report in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America style Cite in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America Use the following template to cite a report using the The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America citation style. For help with other source types, like books, PDFs, or websites, check out our other guides. To have your reference list or bibliography automatically made for you, try our free citation generator. Black text = text required by the The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America style. Author Surname, Author Initial. (Year Published). Title Series Number,City: Publisher, p. Pages Used. Retrieved from http://Website-Url Askaboutireland.ie, (2015). Climate Change?, Available: http://www.askaboutireland.ie/enfo/irelands-environment/Change/climate-change/, (date last viewed: 29- Apr- 15). Retrieved April 29, 2015, from http://www.askaboutireland.ie/enfo/irelands-environment/Change/climate-change/ Climate change is a significant change in the climate that a region experiences. Climate change can be caused by natural factors such as variations in solar intensity or volcanic eruptions. However, the term climate change is now generally associated with changes in our climate due to the build up of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere as a result of human activities. GHG build up is caused by excess emissions from activities such as burning fossil fuels for energy, transport, heating and cement manufacture, and methane emissions from agriculture. GHGs let sunlight pass through the atmosphere to reach the earth, but then trap the outgoing energy from the heated surface of the earth like a blanket. This causes a warming of the global atmosphere generally, although it is very hard to anticipate exactly how this will affect climates at more regional scales. (Askaboutireland.ie, 2015) Popular The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America Citation Guides How to cite a Book in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America style How to cite a Website in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America style How to cite a Journal in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America style How to cite a DVD, video, or film in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America style How to cite a Online image or video in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America style Other The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America Citation Guides How to cite a Archive material in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America style How to cite a Artwork in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America style How to cite a Blog in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America style How to cite a Broadcast in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America style How to cite a Chapter of an edited book in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America style How to cite a Conference proceedings in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America style How to cite a Court case in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America style How to cite a Dictionary entry in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America style How to cite a Dissertation in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America style How to cite a E-book or PDF in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America style How to cite a Edited book in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America style How to cite a Email in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America style How to cite a Encyclopedia article in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America style How to cite a Government publication in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America style How to cite a Interview in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America style How to cite a Legislation in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America style How to cite a Magazine in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America style How to cite a Music or recording in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America style How to cite a Newspaper in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America style How to cite a Patent in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America style How to cite a Podcast in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America style How to cite a Presentation or lecture in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America style How to cite a Press release in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America style How to cite a Religious text in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America style How to cite a Report in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America style How to cite a Software in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America style	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8142
__label__wiki	0.57366	0.57366	Asheville Genealogy: Researching military pensions By Dee Gibson-Roles; Special to the Citizen-Times; Military pensions are very important to family researchers and are much more than just the name of the veteran and when he served. Beginning with the Revolutionary War, pensions have been approved and paid to qualifying veterans. From these applications genealogists can glean a treasure trove of information about ancestors and their families. The earliest acts granting pensions for service in the Revolutionary War were usually for disabled soldiers or their widows. It was not until the Pension Act of 1832 that general pensions were granted. The earliest act was in 1776 and granted half pay to soldiers who were unable to earn a living because of disabilities incurred as a result of the war and to widows of those whose death was a direct result of service. This pension was granted for life to eligible soldiers. In 1800, these early pension records were destroyed by fire. A few survived as Congressional reports, etc., and sometimes can be found in American State Papers. Another pension act was passed in 1818 for Revolutionary War service, but it was amended to include only those soldiers who were disabled. Many of these applications are dated in the 1820s, and some painted a rather gruesome picture of the physical shape these pensioners were in, which was done in an effort to show that the veteran was indeed disabled. In 1832 another pension act was passed, based on service and not necessarily on service related disabilities. Widows of Revolutionary War veterans were also eligible to apply for a widow’s pension and could apply even if her husband was deceased before the pension act and did not receive a pension. The information provided in these applications is invaluable to the researcher. An applicant was required to make a deposition. He was asked to describe when and where he served, in what battles he participated, who might have served with him and other details of the service. Widows’ applications often provide even more information than the application of the soldier. She had to prove when they married, where they had lived, etc. She also had to show that she had not remarried after the veteran passed away. Quite often, she produced family or friends who actually witnessed her marriage and who provided the date and place of the same. More than one widow tore the pages containing the family information such as births, death and marriages from the family Bible and submitted them with the application. Only a genealogist can imagine the thrill of obtaining the application of an ancestor and/or his widow and discovering that it contains those Bible pages from 200 years ago! Personal information in a soldier’s applications may include a physical description of the applicant, when and where he married and to whom, and may even include the names and birthdates of his children. Often his residence(s) since the war may be given and sometimes a physician’s statement of health issues if applicable. One application we recently reviewed gave the veteran’s description (black hair, fair complexion and blue eyes.) Since these men were applying in a time when photographs were relatively rare and even if one exists, it was certainly not of the man as a youth or young adult. How wonderful to be able to put “flesh on the ancestor’s bones” by using the description found in the application. In addition, this man’s first wife had passed away during the Civil War, and he had remarried. His widow’s application gives the name of his first wife, the date she died and the date that he was remarried to the applicant and the date of his death. While some of this information was already known, the application served not only to provide new information but to also confirm previous research results. These records can be ordered from the National Archives, but this can be time-consuming and expensive. Most are now available online, on some free sites and some subscription sites. Most public libraries offer Heritage Quest, which houses numerous records, including the Revolutionary War pension and bounty land applications. Anyone holding a library card from one of these libraries can use their card number to access this data base from their home computer. Family search (www.familysearch.org) also offers a great deal of information on military pensions and includes links to other sites. Family Search is free, and the only requirement for Heritage Quest is a valid library card. Fold 3 (www.fold3.com) is a subscription site which is full of military information. The entire application for the Revolutionary War pensions is available, while Heritage Quest’s data base contains the pages with “genealogically significant” information. Fold 3 is beginning to offer the pension applications for the War of 1812. We will cover pensions for later wars in next month’s article. If any reader has a question or a research experience involving military pensions that he/she would like to share, please contact us at info@obcgs.com. ABOUT THIS COLUMN Through this monthly column, Old Buncombe County Genealogical Society volunteers address particular family histories as well as genealogical research in general. To submit questions about your family or others, please specify that it is for the Family History column and send to the society via snail mail to P.O. Box 2122, Asheville, NC 28802-2122 or via e-mail to info@obcgs.com. For more information, call 253-1894. The Old Buncombe County Genealogical Society will hold its monthly meeting at at 2 p.m. Feb. 22 in the society’s library at 128 Bingham Road, Suite 950, in Asheville. Brenda Bagwell Coates will present “At the End of the Road the Journey Begins,” a Powerpoint history of Fletcher —once known as Murrayville — and of the life of Samuel Murray. Everyone is invited to this free event. To learn more, call 253-1894 or e-mail info@obcgs.com. • The Madison County Genealogical Society will meet at 7 p.m. Mondayin the meeting room of the Madison County Public Library in Marshall. Local historisn John A. Phillips will present “Area History After the Civil War.” To learn more, contact 371-7752 or mtnmist53@aol.com. Free and open to the public. • The Jackson County Genealogical Society will meet at 7 p.m. Feb. 14 in the community room of the library annex in the Historic Jackson County Courthouse on Keener Street in Sylva. The program will be Mountain Music, provided by Jesse and Friends. To learn more, visit www.jcncgs.com or contact 631-2646 or jacksongenealogy@dnet.net. Free and open to the public.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8143
__label__wiki	0.786938	0.786938	Chicago Auto Show concept comes to the rescue Posted by: Mark Bilek On May 02, 2012 If you happened by the Ford Exhibit at the 2012 Chicago Auto Show, no doubt you saw the F-550 Super Duty Rescue Truck. After a flurry of tornadoes devastated the Dallas area on April 3, Ford pressed the Rescue Truck into service. Called the F-550 Super Duty Rescue Truck, the rig was built ground-up from Ford's cab and chassis for the Chicago auto show, held in February, to generate interest in Ford's commercial trucks. Since then, it had been making the rounds at events around Texas. Just a week before the tornadoes struck, the F-550 was on display at a rodeo in Houston. Unlike many one-off custom vehicles brought to auto shows, the 2012 F-550 is fully functional. With a 19,500-pound gross weight rating, the Rescue Truck features two thermal-imaging cameras, Doppler radar and a generator strong enough to power a small house, which can be used while the truck is in motion. Check out these quotes that first appeared in a New York Times article. "We were scared when we took it out there, because it had never been driven more than three miles," Brad Snyder, vice president of marketing for NewScope Marketing, the branding and design company that customized the truck for Ford Motor, said. "It came through with flying colors." "We had set up our command post there because we needed to evacuate 150 patients," Darryl Whitfield, who manages disaster services for the City of Arlington, said in a telephone interview. "The truck pulled up - I had no idea why it was there - and it looked like our truck. They said they were there to give us assistance." "We can raise a tower like the TV stations 37 feet into the air and can use thermal imaging to do searches of up to a half mile for heat sources," he added. "Plus we have a high-rising night-vision camera that can be used day or night, and a set of oxygen tanks for backs." The truck was deployed for 10 hours, until 2 a.m. Check out the full story here: http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/30/ford-show-truck-is-drafted-into-service-after-texas-tornadoes/	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8146
__label__cc	0.63749	0.36251	The Point of Life Is Each Other By Michael Thaddeus Doyle on April 26, 2016 • ( 1 Comment ) As a longtime blogger, I’ve often witnessed the power of storytelling to positively impact the lives of others. Yet equally often I’ve encountered people who doubt their stories would have any real meaning for others. The truth is, there’s no such thing as ordinary–and no such thing as a lack of meaning, either. I founded Benami Media to help empower individuals and organizations to tell their stories–and along the way discover, articulate, and begin accomplishing their missions to make the world a better place. I was inspired to found Benami Media by the intersection of the Jewish concepts of Tikkun Olam and personal Torah. Ancient Jewish teaching instructs that we have a duty to do Tikkum Olam–our part in healing the world. Some contemporary Jewish scholars suggest that the way we live our lives brings Torah, or (imprecisely) truth and Godliness, into the world. I interpret those two Jewish ideas to suggest the world is a closed system, leaning inexorably towards Torah. Not only do we have a duty to make the world a better place, but we accomplish that through the very lives we lead, either directly or by serving as examples–both positive and negative–for others. The more we connect with our personal truth, the better able we are to heal the world. And the more we connect with our personal truth, the better able we are to help others connect with theirs. Everything we do is Torah. Everything we do aims at Torah. The world literally self-corrects towards Torah, in a miraculous and inescapable way. With that in mind, I believe that everyone is on a mission to make the world a better place whether they realize it or not. Everything we do and every action we undertake either impacts the world in a positive way, or serves as a cautionary example to others. But one way or another, our actions and our stories have meaning and impact. I believe that the point of life, all of us together on this planet spinning in space, is to overcome our differences by finding the commonalities that can allow us to connect with each other, foster respect, empathy, and compassion, and build community. I believe that brave and audacious storytelling is a powerful vehicle, accessible to all, offering the people who engage in it unlimited potential to uncover shared narratives, overcome prejudices, and connect in ways that help make the world a better place. I believe that the same people who doubt their stories have meaning are often the same people whose stories, once shared, help positively transform the lives of others and improve the world. Often, others reach back to thank these people for sharing their stories, and to tell these people that their stories gave them hope, made them feel less alone, helped them find a greater sense of peace, and empowered their own journeys. I believe the more we are empowered to acknowledge, honor, and tell our own stories, the more we are empowered to help others tell theirs. I believe that all of this applies to organizations as equally as it does to individual people. Most fundamentally, I believe that audacious storytelling by individuals and organizations, married with the courage of vision, can heal the world. That’s my Torah. What’s yours? When Lives Matter, Shout Out, Not Down A Mohel Among Friends Pingback: Passover From the Archives \| CHICAGO CARLESS	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8147
__label__wiki	0.767194	0.767194	Home › Cases › Care order for mother with mental age of a ten year old Care order for mother with mental age of a ten year old A Care Order until 18 was granted for an eight month old child whose mother was described by psychologists as having the mental age of a ten year old. The mother had another child who was in the care of the Child and Family Agency (CFA). The mother was present in court and unusually had an advocate and a foster carer assigned to her. The mother had been known to the social services since she was six years old and was formally taken into care when she was 16 amid allegations of abuse. The CFA solicitor told the court that the evidence on which the Care Order was being sought was the same as that relating to the previous child who had been taken into care and referred to “static factors that cannot change.” The barrister for the mother raised the issue of whether the mother had capacity to instruct. The court was told that a psychologist had said she had capacity to instruct but had recommended that she be allowed have “adults with her” that can help her, and that she be permitted to leave the court if she got too upset. A psychologist gave evidence that he had met the mother when she was about 18 years old and she was moving from a special education system into the “services system”. The psychologist said that the mother had unilaterally removed herself from the services around this time and that there would have been a lot of meetings and case conferences about her. The CFA solicitor asked the psychologist about the mother’s diagnosis and her difficulties. The psychologist replied that her difficulties were recurring ones and that her involvement with the services was fraught. He said that her ability, in terms of her ability to engage and make use of the services, was compromised because of her abilities and social/emotional makeup. The psychologist went on to say that her past was difficult; she had a history of abuse and being placed in care. He said that she formed close attachments to individual staff members and then she would go onto the next relationship and that this led to bad choices and decisions. The psychologist said: “When it came to any kind of decision making capacity there was always a problem, there was always risks. The level of input she required was very high. When she left the residential services, that scaffolding was no longer there….she was very much at risk and she was exploited and that’s why we are here.” The CFA solicitor asked the psychologist whether he could say that the mother’s difficulty managing her own life was foreseeable. The psychologist replied that he saw her as someone who is very compromised in terms of her functioning, with a highly impulsive nature and as someone who has shown a failure to engage with services/individuals and who shows a lack of stability. The CFA solicitor asked the psychologist what a person with such difficulties does in stressful situations and what the symptoms were of such traits. The psychologist described the woman as “pre-adolescent, functioning as a ten year old, highly egocentric, her own needs would dictate [other concerns] and her own overriding concerns will dictate how she interacts with the child at access.” He said that the woman’s four year old daughter was beginning to make more sense of the world around her and he said that the mother was “only slightly ahead of the child, in practical terms.” The CFA solicitor asked the psychologist whether the four year old child would pass out her mother in not a huge amount of time and the psychologist replied that he would. The psychologist said that the mother’s needs were primary and that when she is with the child she will dictate things from her perspective and the child’s needs would be secondary. The psychologist described a “lack of fit between the mother on the one hand and the child on the other. She needs help to choreograph her relationships with the child.” He said that she had to receive a lot of input to deal with rather simple things of a daily nature and that perhaps looking after children was a step too far. The mother’s barrister interjected to complain that the evidence that was being relied upon related to a time before the woman had children. The CFA solicitor asked the psychologist whether the evidence being given now was different to the situation that prevailed in 2005 when the psychologist was working directly with the woman. The psychologist replied that it was possible to draw on the evidence of the education of the woman and the fact that she had been involved with the social services for ten years. He said that over the course of those years the mother had made small gains relative to the amount of input and education she received. “I don’t think her status changed much, the same difficulties remain, along with fractious relationships with services, front line staff.” The CFA solicitor asked whether the psychologist was saying that if at 25 years old the mother was operating at the level of functioning of a ten year old whether at 35 years old she would still be operating at the level of functioning of a ten year old. The psychologist replied that this was the case. The psychologist said that since he first came across the woman she was self- focussed, egocentric and her needs superseded those of others. He also said that she needed a lot of input to manage basic living and that nothing had changed in that regard and he did not see much changing in that regard. The CFA solicitor told the court that the evidence of the social work department would be that the mother was putting herself at high risk in terms of her sexual exploits and that the argument of the CFA was that if it was not possible for the mother to be safe with the level of support she was receiving, then she could not safely take care of a child. The mother’s barrister asked the psychologist whether he believed that the mother had the capacity to instruct legal representatives. The psychologist did not think that the mother was capable of giving instructions given that she had difficulty making basic decisions. Another psychologist had said that the mother did have such a capacity. The mother’s barrister asked the psychologist whether it was possible for the mother to have improved in the ten year period since he had been working with her. He replied that the discussion before the court related to children and that it would be difficult for the mother to look after children given that her emotional needs are primary and the child’s are secondary. The mother’s barrister pointed out that the psychologist had not observed her with her children. The psychologist replied that he thought that he could predict with some level of certainty how the woman would behave and that it would be very difficult for the mother to change. When asked by the mother’s barrister about her ability to read and write the psychologist replied that he thought that these were not issues relating to reading/writing but issues relating to the mother’s emotional development. The mother’s barrister pointed out the fact that the mother has literacy difficulties was being put forward as a practical problem for her parenting e.g reading food/clothing labels. The psychologist told the court that it may have been the case that the mother’s literacy problems were insurmountable. The mother’s barrister noted that the mother demonstrated an extreme mistrust of people in authority and in this regard asked the psychologist, considering the mother had endured abuse at home and possibly in a foster placement, whether he would consider that she might have felt let down by the authorities in light of these circumstances. The psychologist replied that this was possible. The mother’s barrister pointed out that the only IQ test that was ever carried out on the mother was done by this psychologist and the woman was found to be in the mild range of intellectual disabilities. The barrister asked the psychologist whether IQ tests are entirely reliable in respect of people who had a chaotic background. The psychologist replied that if a person was from a culturally deprived background they might underperform. A second psychologist gave evidence that she was was hired to do a parenting capacity assessment of the mother. She said that the mother was very suspicious towards her but that the psychologist understood this. This psychologist said that although the mother did not give her very much information at their meetings the assessments did indicate that the mother did not have sufficient knowledge of child development. For example, the mother could not tell her how old her child was or what to give the child for breakfast or what to do when the child has a temperature, issues the psychologist described as very basic. The psychologist said that there was a high risk that the mother did not have the capacity/knowledge to look after a child. The psychologist agreed with the previous psychologist who gave evidence and said that the mother most likely had an intellectual disability in the mild range. The CFA solicitor asked the psychologist how such a difficulty would manifest itself in daily living. The psychologist replied that very often people with mild learning difficulties present with impulsiveness, frustration, self-centredness, stubbornness and poor judgment associated with that type of cognitive ability. She also said that it was difficult for people with such difficulties to anticipate the consequences of their actions. She said that there were high risks associated with minding an eight month old child. The child has certain needs in relation to feeding, eating, being entertained and that the mother might put her needs over the needs of a child. She said that when someone “is so self-centred it will not have a good impact on the child and it will result in unintentional neglect. It is unintentional neglect that we have to take into account.” The CFA solicitor asked the psychologist whether she thought if the mother were constantly shown how to do something would she be able to do it. The psychologist replied that from the reports and the mother’s cognitive capacity level she did not think that the mother was able to retain that knowledge. The psychologist said that she felt very sorry for the mother. “It has nothing to do with her that her ability is what it is. She is hitting a brick wall, she is constantly facing the same issues. Things are being modelled to her and the same difficulties are recurring.” The CFA solicitor asked the psychologist whether it would it be possible for the mother to have the baby 24 hours a day. The psychologist said that “if we are looking at capacity, I wouldn’t leave my ten year old looking after children. If there is nothing impairing the child cognitively the time will come where she will surpass her mum.” She went on to say that raising a child would be challenging for the mother in that there would be so many questions that the mother would not be able to answer and it was not possible for the mother to gain more skills in this regard as the issue was one of intellectual capacity. The mother’s barrister asked the psychologist whether she had considered the circumstances in which the baby had been taken into care. The barrister argued that the taking of the child from the hospital where she was born would likely cause the mother a lot of distress. The psychologist replied that her assessment was completed on the basis of asking the mother questions rather than observing her with her child. The mother’s barrister asked the psychologist whether, in her experience, people with an intellectual disability such as the mother in this case, could usually take care of their children. The psychologist replied that people of the mother’s ability are usually unable to parent their children. The mother’s barrister further asked the psychologist whether she thought she should conduct an updated assessment. The psychologist replied that cognitive ability does not change. This barrister asked the psychologist whether she thought that the mother’s difficulties could be overcome with the required supports. The psychologist replied that she would need assistance 24 hours a day because anything could happen, for example the child could wake up in the middle of the night. “We can’t train a person to know how to react in unpredictable situations.” The psychologist gave as an example an incident where the mother needed to call an ambulance but did not know her own address. She said: “We are dealing with health and safety. There will always be a situation where the mother will not have the formula.” The psychologist said that if the mother did not have help 24 hours a day there was a risk of unintentional neglect. The judge asked the psychologist at what stage did she think the child would be ahead of her mother? The psychologist replied that from a purely clinical point of view, when the child surpasses 10 years old she would be ahead of her mother. A social worker gave evidence of the concerns that the social work team had in relation to the mother. These included concerns about the levels of support the mother needed to live independently, lack of family support and a history of difficulties in engaging with support services. The same risk factors existed in the case as had been prevalent some time earlier. These included cognitive and intellectual functioning; adaptive functioning and volatility; high level of support that she needed to meet her own needs; her own experience of childhood abuse and placement in institutions; relationships and lack of protective judgment around these; lack of family support (which has worsened) and an innate mistrust of social work support. The social worker also told the court that the mother had had a relationship with a man who had a history of domestic violence and the HSE had sought a protection order or a barring order. The social worker told the court of an intensive piece of work done with the woman which comprised a 12 week programme, two days a week, helping her to develop parenting skills. She was referred to Barnardos and they undertook an intensive parenting programme too. The social worker told the court that as the baby’s needs developed it was very difficult for the mother to change with her baby’s needs. The access was impacting on the baby’s nap times and feeding. The mother always had a keenness to learn but each task had to be broken down step by step. The social worker said that if anything changed then she could not adjust and would get frustrated. She said that the intense parenting programme ceased and the social work department concentrated on access being a relaxed and enjoyable experience. The CFA solicitor asked the social worker whether she thought the mother had the tools or equipment to deal with a child who is constantly developing. The social worker replied that she had not seen the mother’s skills developing. The CFA solicitor asked the social worker whether she thought it would have been safe for mother to leave the HSE building with the baby and go around town for a few hours. The social worker replied that it would not have been envisaged due to the mother’s lack of insight into safety issues, “she can get upset and the baby’s needs get neglected.” The social worker allocated to the baby gave evidence that the baby had arrived early and when the mother had telephoned for an ambulance she was unable to give her address. The social worker said that the mother knew that there was a plan in the social work department to make an application to take the child into care once she was born. The social worker told the court about the mother’s interaction with the baby at access. She said that the mother suffered from shaking of the hands which can be associated with an intellectual disability. The mother’s cognitive disability struck her when the mother was asked what age her child was and she replied that the child was five years old rather than five months old. She also said that the mother had difficulty telling the time and determining when to feed the child or reading food labels. She said that when the baby was being weaned the mother did not seem to understand what was happening. The social worker said that they had used a comic strip picture type approach but that the mother couldn’t adjust and adapt and change the nappy in a restaurant situation, for example, after being shown how to change a nappy. She said that there was concern about the mother’s retention of instruction and she described the mother’s difficulties as “fixed risk factors, things that aren’t changing.” The social worker said that the mother had been shown how to hold a baby but the next stage of the baby’s development was beginning to pose problems; the mother learned how to hold the baby and was trying to hold him in a sleeping position even when he wanted to be sitting up. The social worker said that the mother’s relationships with men were also a concern. “She just wants someone to love her but she goes for men that tend to exploit her.” The social worker told the court that the mother had relationships with men through Skype. She was taking pictures in access and sending them to men. The social worker said that one man in particular was of great concern as there was a history of violence against the mother perpetrated by that man and he did not seem to respect the mother or the baby. She added that the mother clearly loved her children. The social worker said that if the child remained with her mother the child’s health, development or welfare was likely to be avoidably impaired or neglected. She said that the mother herself needed help on a daily basis with the mother’s own foster carer buying her food. The social worker said: “The mother can’t care for herself let alone a child. It’s beyond her capacity.” The judge granted the order sought.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8148
__label__cc	0.612385	0.387615	Two New Supreme Court Decisions Deal Blows to Employee Rights Posted on August 31, 2020 \| by California Civil Rights Law Group On July 8, 2020, the United States Supreme Court handed down its decisions in Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Beru and Little Sisters of the Poor Saints Peter and Paul Home v. Pennsylvania. The first case bars teachers at religious schools from bringing employment discrimination claims against their employers. The second case allows employers with religious or moral objections to covering no-cost contraception for their employees under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to obtain an exemption. Both hurt employees. Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Beru, 140 S.Ct. 2049 (2020) The Court combined two employment discrimination cases in this decision. Agnes Morrissey-Berru and Kristen Bell were elementary school teachers at Catholic schools who taught secular and doctrinal subjects. Ms. Morrissey-Berru brought an Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA) claim against her employer, Our Lady of Guadalupe School, while Ms. Biel brought suit against her employer, St. James School, after she was terminated because she requested a leave of absence to undergo breast cancer treatment. The question before the Court was whether teachers at religious schools fall within the “ministerial exception,” which bars judicial intervention into “certain key employees[’]” employment discrimination claims. (140 S.Ct. at 2055.) The “ministerial exception” comes from religious institutions’ First Amendment right “‘to decide for themselves, free from state interference, matters of church government as well as those of faith and doctrine.’” (Id. [quoting Kedroff v. Saint Nicholas Cathedral of Russian Orthodox Church in North America, 344 U.S. 94, 116, 73 S.Ct. 143, 97 L.Ed. 120 (1952)].) Justice Alito wrote the majority opinion, which held that, “When a school with a religious mission entrusts a teacher with the responsibility of educating and forming students in the faith, judicial intervention into disputes between the school and the teacher threatens the school’s independence in a way the First Amendment does not allow.” (Id. at 2069.) This means that teachers at parochial schools fall within the “ministerial exception” and have no legal recourse when their employer discriminates against them based on characteristics such as race, gender, age, or disability. This decision sets a dangerous precedent where hundreds of thousands of employees of religious institutions, not just clergy, will be unable to seek redress for discrimination that would otherwise be actionable in court. As of the 2017-2018 school year, there were nearly 300,000 teachers at over 13,000 religious primary and secondary schools in the United States. In light of this decision, religious schools can completely sidestep anti-discrimination laws and target teachers based on protected characteristics that have nothing to do with the tenets of their faith. Little Sisters of the Poor Saints Peter and Paul Home v. Pennsylvania, 140 S.Ct. 2367 (2020) In this case, seven Justices held that employers with religious or moral objections to providing no-cost contraceptive coverage under the ACA are allowed to obtain an exemption. In his plurality opinion, Justice Thomas wrote that “no language in the [ACA] itself even hints that Congress intended that contraception should or must be covered.” (140 S.Ct. at 2382.) According to the Court, because the ACA does not explicitly enumerate contraceptives as a form of “‘preventive care’,” employers can freely deny employees no-cost contraception based on their religious or moral objections. (Id. at 2373.) This decision poses a serious threat to women’s health. For instance, oral contraceptives can lower the risk of ovarian cysts and “hormonal birth control methods can reduce the incidence of certain cancers in women.” In light of this decision, even women who need contraceptives for health reasons other than preventing pregnancy can be denied covered care because their employer has a religious or moral objection to it. Health benefits aside, this decision permits employers’ religious beliefs to encroach upon employees’ private health care decisions. Working Americans must ask themselves: Should my employers’ religious beliefs govern what type of health care I can receive? Unfortunately for employees who need contraceptives for a variety of reasons, the Court has answered this question with a resounding yes. If you are concerned about your health or bodily autonomy as a result of the Court’s decision, please contact your representatives and urge them to propose and support bills that specifically require employers to provide no-cost contraceptive coverage in their health plans Posted in Blog, Employment Law Blog \| Tagged religious discrimination, Supreme Court 100 Years of Women’s Right to Vote Reflections on Labor Day	cc/2021-04/en_head_0015.json.gz/line8151

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