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Where Your Profits Grow Sky High.
“Nature Index” considers Austria to be an aspiring knowledge-based nation
© nature
The current “Nature Index” rates Austria’s research system as being one of the most dynamic in the world.
The scientific journal “Nature” considers Austria to be an aspiring knowledge-based country alongside Brazil, China, Iran, Czech Republic and Norway. These countries have displayed the highest growth since 2015 as measured by their contributions to 82 scientific journals. On an institutional level, the University of Vienna, the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (IST Austria) and the Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) in particular have shown an increase in their output.The Index developed by “Nature” is based on publications of scientists in selected important scientific journals in the field of natural sciences. The study concluded that Austria is especially strong in the top-end quality segment of scientific publications.
education austria
research and development austria
research institutes austria
The new Amazon distribution center in Großebersdorf is our first logistics site in Austria It will enable us to create additional and more flexible delivery capacities for the benefit of customers. We feel that we are in good hands, also thanks to the support of ABA – Invest in Austria.
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LAW & ORDER PHOTO GALLERY
“Law & Order” is a blended police procedural and courtroom drama set in New York City. Often derived from real-life headlines, the show’s structure is two-part, with the first half focused on the criminal investigation, and the latter half set in the courtroom. Despite being known for its revolving cast, the series managed to keep a unifying identity even as its familiar faces were replaced with new ones over the years. "Law & Order" creates tension and suspense through the complex interaction of its many characters, from the criminals to the defense attorneys, any of which can have shadowy intentions hidden up their sleeves. In addition to the tension and twists, the chemistry among the cast mainstays kept viewers emotionally engaged over two decades.
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Intra-Cellular Therapies Announces Favorable Results From Long-Term Open-Label Safety Switching Study With Lumateperone in Patients with Schizophrenia at the 57th Annual Meeting of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology
Favorable safety results following administration of lumateperone for up to one year treatment duration are consistent with and extend the safety and tolerability profile previously reported in short-term trials
Intra-Cellular Therapies to Host a Conference Call Wednesday, December 12, 2018 at 8:30 a.m. ET
NEW YORK, Dec. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Intra-Cellular Therapies, Inc. (Nasdaq:ITCI), a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of therapeutics for central nervous system (CNS) disorders, today announced favorable results from the second part of its open-label safety switching study (Study 303) assessing the effects of long-term administration of lumateperone in patients with stable symptoms of schizophrenia at the 57th Annual Meeting of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP) held in Hollywood, FL, December 9-13, 2018.
Poster T184 entitled "Long-Term Safety for Lumateperone (ITI-007) in the Treatment of Schizophrenia" is being presented today from 5:30 pm — 7:30 pm during Poster Session II.
The poster presented data demonstrating that lumateperone, administered for up to one year, was generally well tolerated and exhibited statistically significant improvements from baseline on key safety measures of body weight, cardiometabolic and endocrine parameters, without motor side effects often associated with other antipsychotic medications.
Last year, we presented results from Part I of Study 303, which demonstrated an improved safety profile when patients were switched to a 6-week treatment duration with lumateperone, followed by a loss of this benefit when switched back to standard-of-care (SOC). In the second part (Part II) of Study 303, 603 patients with stable symptoms of schizophrenia were switched from SOC antipsychotic medications to lumateperone (ITI-007 60 mg) for up to one year with no dose titration of lumateperone required.
The data from Part II of Study 303 presented at ACNP reflect a planned interim data analysis that included at least 300 patients who completed at least six months of treatment and at least 100 patients who completed one year of treatment, consistent with Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and International Council for Harmonisation (ICH) safety database guidelines.
In contrast to many other antipsychotics that are associated with weight gain, in this study, mean body weight significantly decreased after switch from SOC antipsychotic treatment at six months (-1.82 kg at Day 175, p < 0.001) and one year (-3.16 kg at Day 350, p < 0.001) of treatment with lumateperone. Of the 603 patients in the trial, 24% experienced a decrease of ≥ 7% from their SOC baseline body weight over the course of the study, whereas only 8% experienced a body weight increase of ≥7%. Long-term treatment with lumateperone also demonstrated a favorable cardiometabolic and endocrine safety profile with stable blood levels of glucose, insulin, and HDL cholesterol and statistically significant (p < 0.001) reductions from SOC baseline in total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and prolactin.
With long-term administration, the most frequent (occurring in ≥ 5% of patients) treatment-emergent adverse events, regardless of whether such adverse event was related to treatment, were decrease in weight (9.5%), dry mouth (7.6%), diarrhea (7.0%), and headache (5.1%). The proportion of patients experiencing motor side effects while on lumateperone was low: any adverse event related to extrapyramidal side effects combined including akathisia (5.3%); and akathisia specifically (0.5%). There were no signs of treatment-emergent extrapyramidal side effects, akathisia, or dyskinesia as measured by the Simpson Angus Scale (SAS), the Barnes Akathisia Rating Scale (BARS), or the Abnormal Involuntary Movement Scale (AIMS), respectively. In addition, there were no signs of treatment-emergent suicidal ideation or behavior as measured by the Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS).
As observed in Part I of the study (6 weeks of treatment), patients treated with lumateperone in Part II (up to one year of treatment) did not worsen with respect to their symptoms of schizophrenia upon switch from SOC. Rather, statistically significant (p < 0.001) improvements from a baseline score of 62.9 were observed on the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale total score (PANSS).
Given the favorable safety profile of lumateperone observed to date, the study has been extended to allow patients to stay on lumateperone for more than one year and study conduct is ongoing.
“These data contribute to the growing body of clinical evidence of the favorable safety and tolerability profile of lumateperone in patients with acute and stable symptoms of schizophrenia over short and long-term treatment periods. We believe lumateperone, if approved, would represent an important new treatment option for patients suffering from schizophrenia," said Dr. Sharon Mates, Chairman and CEO of Intra-Cellular Therapies.
"Schizophrenia places a substantial burden on patients, caregivers, and society. Existing antipsychotic medications, though effective, have significant limitations, including their association with weight gain, other cardiometabolic side effects and motor side effects," said Dr. Christoph Correll, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry and Molecular Medicine, Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine. “An improvement in symptoms of schizophrenia without compromising the overall health of patients would represent a crucial advance in the treatment of patients with schizophrenia.”
In addition, at ACNP, the Company presented a poster on ITI-333, a novel compound that possesses a three-pronged mechanism of action with high affinity at serotonin 5-HT2A, dopamine D1 and mu opioid (MOP) receptors. Poster M270 entitled "ITI-333 for the Treatment of Pain and Psychiatric Co-Morbidities Accompanying a Broad Spectrum of Substance Use Disorders: Pharmacologic and Safety Profile” was presented on Monday, December 10, 2018, 5:30 pm — 7:30 pm during Poster Session I.
The poster provided preclinical data detailing the unique pharmacology of ITI-333, acting simultaneously as a 5-HT2A and D1 receptor antagonist and a µ-opioid partial agonist. ITI-333 exhibits potent analgesia in animal models of acute and inflammatory pain but is not associated with dependence and abuse liability, effects commonly associated with opioid use in animals. ITI-333 also dose-dependently reduces symptoms associated with naloxone-precipitated opioid withdrawal in mice and suppresses cue-induced heroin reinstatement responding in rats, a model predictive of relapse behavior at doses that do not decrease gastrointestinal motility or depress respiratory function. Preclinical development of ITI-333 is currently ongoing. ITI-333 is designed as a potential treatment for substance-use disorders, pain and psychiatric comorbidities, including depression and anxiety.
About the Lumateperone Long-Term Open-label Safety Switching Study (Study 303)
Study 303 was conducted to assess the long-term effects of treatment with lumateperone on weight and other safety parameters and to observe the impact of switching from SOC antipsychotic medications. This study has two parts. Positive results from Part I of the study were reported last year for 302 patients who were switched from SOC antipsychotic medications to a 6-week treatment duration with lumateperone followed by a 2-week period in which they were switched back to SOC. Part II of the study, the Company's long-term safety study in schizophrenia, enrolled 603 patients for a planned treatment duration up to one year with lumateperone following switch from SOC; 137 patients had previous exposure, either from another previous study or from Part I, though none directly rolled over from Part I to Part II as all were returned to SOC; and 466 patients were newly exposed to lumateperone. The data from Part II of the study reflect a planned interim data analysis that includes observed cases for those subjects who have completed each visit, but not all subjects have had an opportunity to complete. At the time of this interim analysis, 329 patients had completed six months of treatment and 108 patients had completed one year of treatment. Given the favorable safety profile of lumateperone observed to date, the study has been extended and is continuing to allow patients to stay on lumateperone past one year.
In Part II of the open-label safety switching study, 603 patients with schizophrenia were enrolled and included in the safety analyses with planned treatment duration of up to one year with lumateperone administered orally once daily in the evening. To be eligible for inclusion in the study, patients must have had a clinical diagnosis of schizophrenia according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) and be stable with respect to their schizophrenia symptoms. The primary objective was to determine the safety of lumateperone. Safety is measured by treatment-emergent adverse events, vital signs including body weight, electrocardiograms, clinical laboratory values, physical and neurological exams and standardized clinical assessments such as the SAS, BARS, AIMS, and C-SSRS. Secondary objectives were to determine the effectiveness of lumateperone as measured by change from baseline on the PANSS and other measures. Analyses in pre-specified subgroups were performed.
No dose titration was needed for the administration of lumateperone when patients were switched from SOC antipsychotics to lumateperone. Patients could be started on an active dose of ITI-007 60 mg from Day 1. Consistent with good clinical care, patients were tapered down from their previous antipsychotic medication during the screening period or switched to lumateperone from one day to the next if no tapering of the previous antipsychotic medication was clinically indicated. In this study, the most recent antipsychotic taken prior to screening, in descending order of frequency, included risperidone, quetiapine, aripiprazole, olanzapine, lurasidone, ziprasidone, haloperidol, paliperidone, perphenazine, asenapine, iloperidone, brexpiprazole and loxapine.
Conference Call and Webcast Details
Intra-Cellular Therapies will host a live conference call and webcast December 12, 2018 at 8:30 a.m. ET, during which management will discuss the corporate update on the schizophrenia program. The live webcast and subsequent replay may be accessed by visiting the Company's website at www.intracellulartherapies.com. Please connect to the Company's website at least 5-10 minutes prior to the live webcast to ensure adequate time for any necessary software download. Alternatively, please call 1-844-835-6563 (U.S.) or 1-970-315-3916 (international) to listen to the live conference call. The conference ID number for the live call is 5289652. Please dial in approximately 10 minutes prior to the call.
About Intra-Cellular Therapies
Intra-Cellular Therapies is developing novel drugs for the treatment of neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases and diseases of the elderly, including Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease. The Company is developing its lead drug candidate, lumateperone (also known as ITI-007), for the treatment of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, behavioral disturbances in patients with dementia, including Alzheimer's disease, depression and other neuropsychiatric and neurological disorders. Lumateperone, is under review by the FDA for the treatment of schizophrenia and is in Phase 3 clinical development for the treatment of bipolar depression and agitation associated with dementia, including Alzheimer's disease. The Company is also utilizing its phosphodiesterase (PDE) platform and other proprietary chemistry platforms to develop drugs for the treatment of CNS and other disorders. The lead molecule in the Company's PDE1 portfolio, ITI-214, is in development for the treatment of symptoms associated with Parkinson's disease and for the treatment of heart failure.
This news release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to be materially different from historical results or from any future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements include statements regarding, among other things, the data supporting the new drug application (NDA) for lumateperone for the treatment of schizophrenia; further clinical conduct in this switching study; our belief that lumateperone has the potential to represent an important new treatment option for patients with schizophrenia; and development efforts and plans under the caption “About Intra-Cellular Therapies.” All such forward-looking statements are based on management's present expectations and are subject to certain factors, risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, outcome of events, timing and performance to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the following: whether the NDA for lumateperone for the treatment of schizophrenia will be accepted and approved by the FDA; risks associated with our current and planned clinical trials; we may encounter unexpected safety or tolerability issues with lumateperone in ongoing or future trials and other development activities; our other product candidates may not be successful or may take longer and be more costly than anticipated; product candidates that appeared promising in earlier research and clinical trials may not demonstrate safety and/or efficacy in larger-scale or later clinical trials; our proposals with respect to the regulatory path for our product candidates may not be acceptable to the FDA; fast track designation by the FDA may not actually lead to a faster development or regulatory review or approval process; our reliance on collaborative partners and other third parties for development of our product candidates; and the other risk factors detailed in our public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All statements contained in this press release are made only as of the date of this press release, and we do not intend to update this information unless required by law.
Intra-Cellular Therapies, Inc.
Juan Sanchez, M.D.
Vice President, Corporate Communications and Investor Relations
Burns McClellan, Inc.
Lisa Burns
agray@burnsmc.com
Patrick Ryan, Esq.
Corporate Media Relations, W2Owcg
pryan@wcgworld.com
Source: Intra-Cellular Therapies Inc.
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Sheikah
Legend of Zelda Theories
October 20, 2018 November 24, 2018 ~ Kathryn
During the past two years I’ve begun to present and publish academic papers on the Legend of Zelda series. During my research I’ve encountered a lot of fan speculation about the many mysteries of the expansive universe of the games. I ended up taking notes on some of the more common theories I’ve encountered, as well as some of the stranger headcanons formulated and shared by fans, and I’ve noticed that these theories tend to fall into six main categories:
Expository Theories
These theories aim to fill in a sizeable gap in the story of a specific game.
Example: The Gerudo became the Twili in Twilight Princess.
Continuity Theories
These theories attempt to impose a sense of order on the shared universe of the games.
Example: Breath of the Wild is set in the distant future of the Twilight Princess timeline.
Meta Theories
These theories offer a deep reading of the stories, characters, and themes of the games.
Example: Majora’s Mask is based on the five stages of grief.
Dark Theories
These theories go out of their way to hurt you by providing the darkest possible interpretation of a specific story element.
Example: Navi dies at the end of Ocarina of Time.
Fridge Horror Theories
These theories go beyond “dark theories” in that their only purpose is to keep you awake at night. Example: Link recovers his energy by eating the bloody raw hearts of the enemies he slays.
What are these theories, what are they even.
Example: Ganondorf and Princess Zelda are secretly dating.
I’m not going to try to organize the theories I’ve collected by this typology, however, because they’re all over the place. Some are silly, some are creepy, some are actually plausible, and some are genuinely bizarre. Like urban legends, these theories have been circulated by word of mouth on online message boards. Some of the oldest appeared on the forums of Something Awful and Albino Blacksheep, and the more recent spread by means of Reddit and Imgur. Essentially, wherever people get together to have conversations about video games, someone always has a Zelda theory to share. In no particular order, here are some of the theories that have caught my attention.
– Paya, Impa’s granddaughter in Breath of the Wild, is shy around Link because she doesn’t often get the chance to interact with people her own age. Almost every Sheikah teenager leaves to join the Yiga Clan, which is why there are so few young people in Kakariko Village and so many Yiga Footsoldiers.
– Groose from Skyward Sword is the ancestor of the Gerudo. He settled in the Lanayru Desert, which is filled with ancient and contemporary technology, because of his love of machines. It’s possible that Ganondorf is a reincarnation of Groose, which is why he was affected so strongly by Demise’s curse.
– Tetra’s pirate crew in The Wind Waker are all reincarnations of the royal aides whose group portrait hangs in Hyrule Castle. This means that Princess Zelda isn’t the only person whose soul is reborn in different eras of Hyrule’s history.
– Agitha in Twilight Princess is Zelda’s sister, which is why she calls herself a princess. Like other princesses of the Hyrulean royal line, she experienced visions of a coming calamity, and these visions were so overwhelming that she lost touch with reality. She had to leave the castle for her own protection, but she is still wealthy enough to reward the hero who appeared in her visions for catching golden bugs that resemble the insects plaguing the Spirits of Light.
– Because only one male is born every hundred years, the Gerudo in Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask reproduce through gynogenesis, which is similar to cloning. This explains the relative lack of phenotypic diversity among the Gerudo, as well as their comparatively large population. The pregnancies following unions with Hylian men result in more noticeable genetic permutations, including those resulting in the rare Gerudo males.
– Link died while protecting Zelda during the Great Calamity that occurred one hundred years before Breath of the Wild. The Shrine of Resurrection created an entirely new body to house his spirit, much like how Ganon attempted to fashion a body for itself using the ancient technology hidden within Hyrule Castle. This is why Link is so weak when he wakes up, and it’s also why he has so much trouble remembering the past.
– According to Hyrule Historia, the “Downfall Timeline” leading to the original 1986 The Legend of Zelda results from Link dying at some point during Ocarina of Time. The world of Termina in Majora’s Mask is a purgatory that Link’s soul moves through on its way to the afterlife. The four main dungeons and final set of dungeons on the moon are therefore meant to represent the five stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance). Everyone Link meets in Termina symbolizes an aspect of the trauma he experienced in Hyrule, and Link must help them in order to heal himself and pass on peacefully.
– Super Mario Bros. 3, which Shigeru Miyamoto has said is a stage performance, is popular in Hyrule, which is why the Happy Mask Salesman in Majora’s Mask has a Mario mask on his backpack. The King of Hyrule in Ocarina of Time is a fan of the play, which is why there are paintings of Super Mario characters in his throne room.
– The Oocca in Twilight Princess, who live in the City in the Sky, are the descendants of the Loftwings in Skyward Sword. The differences in their appearance and level of sapience are due to a divinely facilitated evolution similar to the event that transformed the Zora into the Rito prior to The Wind Waker. There is a related theory that holds that the Rito are the descendants of the Oocca, who used their technology to alter their appearance in order to better acclimate to Hylian society after the existence of their city became widely known in Hyrule.
– Ghirahim, an anthropomorphic weapon who serves as the main antagonist of Skyward Sword, was created by Hylia, not Demise. Hylia knew that Demise would have to be unsealed in order to be defeated, so she created a copy of the Master Sword that would serve its own “master” by working to break the seal she placed on him. Unlike Fi, who remained in stasis while waiting for the chosen hero, Ghirahim gradually developed a personality, but his character became twisted by social isolation and his centuries-long failure to make progress on the task Hylia created him for, which could only be completed once her soul had been reborn.
– The people who were exiled from Hyrule and became the Twili in Twilight Princess were originally Sheikah, as demonstrated by the Sheikah-style eye motif on Midna’s crown and Zant’s throne. Another theory holds that the Twili are what became of Ganondorf’s followers who were imprisoned in the Arbiter’s Grounds.
– The Arbiter’s Grounds in Twilight Princess were built on the site of the Spirit Temple, the sacred site where the Gerudo in Ocarina of Time worshiped the Sand Goddess. The Hyrulean army destroyed the Spirit Temple during the war against Ganondorf and then made use of its ruins to build a concentration camp to house the Gerudo during a mass exile (or execution).
– There is a fourth piece of the Triforce, which is actually the Tetraforce. The fourth piece of the Tetraforce is the empty center of the Triforce, and it is depicted at the bottom of the original Hylian Shield (which the developers supposedly redesigned in response to this theory). The Triforce can be split into multiple parts (as demonstrated by its eightfold split in The Legend of Zelda), and it split into four parts in Ocarina of Time. There are two common theories about what happened to the “missing” piece. One is that it is shared by the Great Fairies, four of whom appear in Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask. The other is that it seals away the darkness in Link’s heart and gives it physical form, which manifests as the Dark Link who appears in the Water Temple.
– The Fierce Deity in Majora’s Mask is, as the eponymous villain says at the end of the game, “the real villain.” Majora gives the Fierce Deity’s Mask to Link in order to corrupt him, knowing that the mask will steal Link’s soul. The Link from Ocarina of Time appears to the Link in Twilight Princess in the form of a rotting corpse because he has been cursed by the Fierce Deity’s Mask and cannot die unless he is struck down by the Master Sword.
– Every episode in the Legend of Zelda series is a dream experienced by the Link who wakes up at the beginning of each successive game. The entire series is therefore a dream inside a dream inside a dream inside a dream (including Link’s Awakening and Majora’s Mask, which are canonically dreams).
– The Zelda series takes place in the same universe as the Silent Hill games. The Order, the evil doomsday cult that performs torture and human sacrifice in the town of Silent Hill, Maine, was originally a renegade faction of the Sheikah that was banished to another world like the Twili in Twilight Princess. The main basis for this theory is the similarity in the Satanic design motifs associated with the Order and with the Sheikah, which include staring eyes, magic circles, and bird-headed imps.
– Linkle, the “female Link” who is a minor playable character in Hyrule Warriors Legends, is the daughter of Tingle, the green bodysuit-clad creeper best known for causing unnecessary delays during the Triforce Quest at the end of The Wind Waker. This implies that Tingle somehow managed to breed. Congratulations! Now you can never unsee it. You’re welcome!
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New York Archive
Welcome Katie Lara: Adelphi Hotel Review, Where to Stay Saratoga Springs, New York: *Disclaimer* As is common in the travel industry, writers are provided with complimentary
Welcome Katie Lara: Best Hotels in NYC: Four Seasons New York Downtown in Tribeca Review: *I was given a complimentary stay for purposes of this review. However,
What You Need to Know About The Grand Paradise: The Latest Immersive Theater Spectacle in New York: *I was given a complimentary ticket for purposes of this review. However,
The Best Afternoon Tea in New York City: The Palm Court at the Plaza: The Plaza in New York is one of NYC’s most iconic luxury
What to Do in Long Island New York: The Nassau County Museum of Art in Roslyn: Fall is my favorite! And I’ve been trying to get out of
The Latest Trend in Immersive Theater: @BBQFilms Brings Your Favorite Films to Life: If you’re anything like me, you’re obsessed with the new trend of
How to Dress When Visiting New York City: I’ve been talking all about New York this month so I’ve dubbed
Tips for Taking the New York City Subway from an actual New York City girl!: For my regular readers, you know I’m based in New York. So
What to Do, Where to Stay, Eat and Play in Long Island’s North Fork: The Perfect Luxury Weekend Getaway from New York City: Living in NYC is amazing…until you want to leave! And then unless
Best Things to Do in New York City: The Jewish Museum on Museum Mile: Located on Manhattan’s Upper, upper East side is the Jewish Museum.
Tokya–A Japanese Restaurant and Nightclub in Unlikely Midtown Locale: Tokya is located on 58th street (between Madison and Park)–an unlikely strip
Best Mediterranean Restaurant in Flatiron District: Pergola Eatery and Hookah Bar: Last night I was invited to the restaurant opening of Pergola, a
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Don Michael Killed My Brother
January 11, 2017 January 10, 2017 Sherry - Petite Over 40
By Karen Brode
When I heard that my nephew, Don Michael, had gotten out of prison I immediately thought of the unfortunate Clutter Family who were massacred back in the 1960’s by psychopathic ex-convicts.
Truman Capote wrote a book about the Clutters called “In Cold Blood.” If I remember the story correctly–my memory is not what it used to be–the ex-convicts traveled cross country to access the Clutter family safe sheerly on information told to them in prison by another inmate who had worked at the Clutter Farm before he went to prison. The inmate had told them there was a safe inside the house with lots of money in it–there was no such safe. The Clutters all died for nothing.
All of the television crime channel stories start out the same. It’s a sleepy little town where nothing ever happens; people don’t even lock their doors!
I have always been a locked door enthusiast. Sometimes when I am almost asleep, I get up to check all the doors, just one more time.
In those dreamy moments after I’ve checked the doors “just once more,” I imagine Don Michael bragging in prison about his Uncle Barry’s gun collection. If Don Michael began to really think about things, he could probably even be able to tell the convicts where the guns were kept.
Don Michael’s father was my brother. His name was Don. Sure, he was a con man and a crooked used car salesman, but I don’t think he was ever involved in any big crimes. His son, on the other hand, started his criminal career not long after my brother and his first wife divorced. Sharon got the kids, but neither she nor Don were equipped to handle children.
I remember all the times I rode in the car with Sharon and the children. There were two older boys from a previous marriage and I don’t think they were ever in control. Sharon screamed and screamed and then tried to spank legs in the backseat while she drove. If I had a nickel for every time she threatened to stop the car…. Let’s just say, I really wanted her to stop the car and do whatever she might’ve done but she never did. The boys thought she was funny.
This made Don’s job as a stepdad so much harder because her total lack of discipline made Don have to be in charge of all disciplinary measures. I tried not to laugh when I saw him sitting in his recliner with a belt in his hands. I never saw him use the belt, but it was there to remind the boys that it could be used, if needed.
Don Michael was my brother’s long awaited dream son. He had daughters but daughters were not sons. He longed for a son and when Don Michael was born it was a happy day for everyone.
I was at the hospital the night Don Michael was born. Sharon and Don has asked me to come, and I wanted to be helpful. Just as Don Michael was beginning to be born I had to leave the room. I had to sit in a chair in the hallway and tremble in fear at my own ineptitude. Why on earth had I thought I could witness a birth? I was out there only a few minutes, though, when Don ran out of the delivery room looking happier than he ever had.
It was a boy! Don gave his son his own name and vowed to put checkered pants on him and have him selling cars the following week. It was a good time for the family.
Don Michael was thirteen when he went to juvie for the first time. Each of the boys had a turn in some sort of correctional facility by the time they were teenagers.
When Don Michael was fifteen, Sharon sent him to live with Don because she could no longer control him. Don lived in Tulsa at that time and Don Michael fell into a gang of other boys bent on criminal behavior. Don Michael held up a convenience store with a knife and the clerk later identified him as the boy who had threatened her. Don was so disappointed.
Don and Sharon went to his court days and listened to lawyers talk about his youth, his impressionability, the belief that with the right kind of help, Don Michael could turn his life around. In the end, they decided not to give him a harsh sentence.
I received letters from Don Michael while he was in the youth facility. He swore he wanted to go to church with me, start a new and better life, and make his parents happy. It made me happy to think we could be a big happy family again, like when he was first born. But then he got out and I never heard from him. It turns out, church was the last thing on his mind by then. He and his girlfriend were pregnant.
Don Michael was sixteen when his first child was born. By then he had other girlfriends and I tried not to think of him. I heard bits and pieces of information about him, and I really didn’t want to know anything about him. Still, you live in a family and you’re bound to hear about your brother’s kids.
Don Michael was rounded up in a meth-cooking mess. He had run and tried to get away but the cops were smart enough to surround the place where the meth was being manufactured. He faced serious jail time.
Don Michael and his family lived in a tent down by the river when all of this happened. He called a lawyer while he was in the county jail and told him that he had a box of money buried at the river. He promised he would go get the box and bring it back if the lawyer would get him out of jail.
I really have to wonder about the intelligence of this lawyer. He did as Don Michael asked and waited for the money. That kid was halfway to Las Vegas by the time the lawyer realized he had been played.
All of these stories make me tired when I think of it. There were so many more arrests, so many more years in jail, so much more heartache for my brother. Don Michael moved among the upper echelon of criminals in Las Vegas, and the last time he was arrested he went to the Clark County jail in Las Vegas.
By then, I don’t think anyone expected Don Michael to be anything but a criminal. I watched my brother cry and finally admit his son wasn’t a good person. I never thought my brother could be broken, but he was. Don Michael was his waterloo.
Don moved back to Texas near to where we grew up. I think a part of me knew he was dying. He had lost his will to live then and stopped taking all of his medications. He had diabetes but he said he felt better when he didn’t take the medication. I look back now and wonder how I could have been so blind. My brother killed himself in plain sight with all of us watching.
It was a sunny day in September when we gathered to remember my brother. No part of Don was at that funeral. There was a box of something in the front of the funeral chapel, but it wasn’t him. The funeral director assured us that people did this all the time. It wasn’t necessary to have the actual body or remains at the funeral.
I glanced around the crowd of attendees and saw so many people that I didn’t expect to be there. May Felton from my church was there. It surprised me to see her there. She didn’t know Don and we weren’t that close. But then it hit me. She thought she would get the scoop before anyone else. She thought she’d be able to take something back to the ladies tea hour at church.
When my brother died, his son was back where it all started, the Mason County jail. We had been told that Don Michael could be given special permission to attend his father’s funeral if the family was willing to pay for two deputies to escort him in chains and shackles to and from his father’s funeral.
This is why May Felton attended my brother’s funeral. I looked around the chapel some more and wondered if maybe that was the reasons others had, too. There was not usually such drama and excitement in our little town.
In the end, I refused to pay two cents for Don Michael to attend his father’s funeral. I didn’t want to see him or hear about him ever again. He had killed my brother. There was no doubt in my mind.
Karen Brode is a senior contributor Jet Planes and Coffee. She grew up in Denison, Texas and graduated from Denison High School in 1972. She took courses at Southeastern Oklahoma State University and worked in a church office for 25 years. She and her husband, Gary, have been married 39 years and they have one son, Brandon. Karen’s hobbies are writing, sewing, and gardening.
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One thought on “Don Michael Killed My Brother”
My favorite writers can mix humor and pathos, so that you are laughing and crying within the same story. This writer does that. “I’ve always been a locked door enthusiast.” “My brother killed himself with all of us watching.” I appreciate so much her skillful tone.
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Ranjani Mazumdar
Centre/School/Special Centre:
School of Arts & Aesthetics
Room No:
3 New Building
ranjani@mail.jnu.ac.in , ranjani.mazumdar@gmail.com
Personal Webpage:
http://www.jnu.ac.in/Faculty/rmazumdar
Ph.D., Cinema Studies. Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, 2001
M.A., Cinema Studies. Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, 1992
M.A., Mass Communications. Mass Communication Research Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia University, 1986
B.A. (Hons.), Geography. Miranda House, Delhi University, 1984
Areas of Interest/Specialization:
Film and Media Theory, Cinema and the City, Nonfiction Film, Histories of Modernity, Film Posters, Globalization and Film Culture, Film and the Historical Imagination
Teaching at the School of Arts and Aesthetics at JNU since 2006
Visiting Professor at New York University Tisch School of the Arts, 2005
Fellow, Shelby Cullom Davis Centre for Historical Studies, Princeton University, 2003-04
Visiting Faculty at Jamia Mass Communication Research Centre from 1992-1995, 2001-2003, 2004-2005
Visiting Faculty at Department of Germanic and Romance Studies, Delhi University, 1995-1996
Research project with India Foundation for the Arts (IFA), 2002-2005
Worked as an Independent Documentary Filmmaker from 1986 - 2001
Founder member of Mediastorm, India’s first women’s film collective which received the Chameli Devi Jain Award for outstanding women media professionals in 1992.
Documentaries include Delhi Diary 2001, on violence memory and the city (2001), The Power of the Image: A Television Series on Bombay Cinema and Prisoner of Gender (1998) which won the Silver Panda second prize at an International Documentary Festival in China (1991)
Awards & Honours:
Marie Curie European Union International Incoming Research Fellowship (IIF), affiliated with the University of Westminster, London, 2013-2014
Indian Council for Social Science Research (ICSSR) India-France Cultural Exchange Programme, Visiting Fellowship to Paris, 2011
British Academy (BA) /Economic and Social Science Research Council (ESRC) Visiting Scholar, affiliated with the University of Westminster, London, U.K, Summer 2007 and 2008
Visiting Professor/Scholar at the Department of Cinema Studies, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, Fall 2005
Fellow at the Shelby Cullom Davis Centre for Historical Studies, Princeton University, 2003-04
India Foundation for the Arts (IFA) Grant for a Study of the Bombay Film Poster, 2002-05
UNIFEM (United Nations Development Fund for Women) & Action Aid Grant, 1997-98 for Another Way of `Knowing` Documentary Production
British Council Travel Grant, 1997 to screen Another Way of `Knowing`
Ford Foundation Grant, 1995-97 for two documentaries, The Legacy of the Angryman & Whatever Happened to the Vamp
DANIDA (Danish International Development Agency) and HIVOS (Humanistic Institute for Cooperation with Developing Countries, Netherlands), 1994-95 for the production of The Hidden Story, a documentary made for the World Conference on Women, Beijing, 1995
NORAD (Norwegian Development Agency) Grant, 1993-94 The Other Half of the Story Documentary Production
Chameli Devi Jain Award for Outstanding Media Professionals among Women, Media Foundation Award given to the Mediastorm Collective, 1992.
Silver Panda (Second Prize), Awarded for Prisoner of Gender, International Television Documentary Festival, Chengdu, China, 1991
International Collaboration/Consultancy:
International Collaboration with Nitin Govil, University of Southern California on a project on Screen Industries commissioned by the British Film Institute. The Publication of a book from the research is forthcoming. 2003-2013
Consultancy Project on Media Industries in Brazil, China and India, United Nations - research paper submitted to the United Nations. Information was included in the Human Development Report of 1999
Best Peer Reviewed Publications (upto 5):
Bombay Cinema: An Archive of the City: Minneapolis & London: University of Minnesota Press, 2007 (U.S.A), Co-publisher, Permanent Black, New Delhi, India, 2007
"Friction, Collision and the Grotesque: The Dystopic Fragments of Bombay Cinema" in Gyan Prakash ed. Noir Urbanisms: Dystopic Images of the Modern City Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 2010, U.S.A
"Spectacle & Death in the Archive of Bombay Cinema" in Gyan Prakash & Kevin Kruse ed. Cities: Space, Society, History Princeton University Press, U.S.A, 2008
"The Bombay Film Poster: The Journey from the Street to the Museum", Film International, Special Issue on Film & Finance, edited by Toby Miller, No.4, Sweden, July 2003
"Memory & History in the Politics of Adaptation: Revisiting the Partition of India in Tamas" Literature and Film: A Guide to the Theory and Practice of Film Adaptation Robert Stam & Alessandra Raengo ed. Blackwell (U.K), Cambridge, USA, 2004
Recent Peer Reviewed Journals/Books (upto 3):
"Stardom after Liveness" in Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies, Vol. 26, No. 6, 2012 Australia
"Aviation, Tourism and Dreaming in 1960s Bombay Cinema" Bioscope 2(2), summer 2011, India
"Terrorism, Conspiracy and Surveillance in Bombay’s Urban Cinema" Social Research: An International Quarterly guest edited by Arjun Appadurai and Arien Mack, Vol.78, No. 1, Spring 2011, U.S.A
Patents (if any):
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← Libraricating
‘Gilead’ by Marilynne Robinson →
‘The Silkworm’ by Robert Galbraith
J.K. Rowling has a sense of humour. After it became public that Robert Galbraith was a pseudonym for her new crime novel series, she came to the Theakston’s Crime Writing Festival dressed in a suit and tie! Rowling has implied that the new series which started with ‘The Cuckoo’s Calling’, will go the distance as long or longer than the Harry Potter series, with at least six or seven instalments. This second in the series was, in my opinion, way better than the first, so I think she is finding her stride in this genre, and with the characters of Cormoran Strike and his assistant Robin. Although I don’t think this series holds any of the genius that she displayed with Harry Potter, I am looking forward to what is coming next. The series definitely now ‘has legs’, a pun in poor taste if you know that the protagonist is a war veteran with a debilitating injury.
‘The Silkworm’ is set in the literary world of authors and publishers and editors, perhaps because the author knows the publishing industry. When Owen Quine goes missing after writing a despicable controversial book, his wife calls Cormoran Strike to investigate. Quine has gone off before, but when it becomes clear that there are several people who are angry about the poisonous portraits he has written into the new book, and when his body is discovered in brutally bizarre circumstances, the investigator realizes there might be several people who wanted Quine silenced. I love how Cormoran gathers all of the suspects into one room near the end and flushes out the culprit – reminds me of the old classic whodunits. Cormoran as a character, in my mind’s eye, kind of reminds me of a younger, more handsome version of Fitz from Cracker (Robbie Coltrane).
Robert Galbraith even has his own website! (Robert Galbraith Website) I especially enjoyed the FAQs there.
This entry was posted in Fiction and tagged J.K. Rowling, Robert Galbraith, The Silkworm. Bookmark the permalink.
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Work, Education and Science
German-American Community Office
Relations between Kaiserslautern and the United States have roots that reach back far into the past. From the 17th to the 20th century, many emigrants left their hometown of Kaiserslautern because of a poor economic situation or political persecution. Many of them found work, protection and freedom in the United States.
After the Second World War, from 1950 to 1955, Kaiserslautern became the largest US military community outside the United States. It was even given its own nickname, "K-Town ", which was used by the Americans as a synonym for Kaiserslautern. Around 51,631 (as of 2014) US citizens and nationals live in the City and surrounding district. Kaiserslautern has active twinning links with Columbia (South Carolina) and Davenport (Iowa).
To promote the coexistence of Germans and Americans, the first German-American Community Office was established in the city center at Lauterstraße 2 (Rathaus Nord) in February 2003.
It is here that you will find the Atlantische Akademie Rheinland-Pfalz e.V.. This cultural institute was founded in 1995 by the State of Rhineland-Palatinate, in order to raise awareness of the links between the European and North American nations through lectures, events and seminars. This institute also runs an American library, which is open to the public.
German-American Community Office (GACO)
© Stadt Kaiserslautern
The Webpage of the German-American Community Office
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As travel has become more accessible, more and more, the genre is opening up to amateurs and professionals alike. Amateur Travel photography is often shared through sites like Flickr, 500px and 1x. Travel photography, unlike other genres like fashion, product, or food photography, is still an underestimated and relatively less monetized genre, though the challenges faced by travel photographers are lot greater than some of the genres where the light and other shooting conditions may be controllable. Traditionally travel photographers earned money through Stock photography, magazine assignments and commercial projects. Nowadays, the stock photography market has collapsed and more and more photographers are using more innovative methods of earning a living such as through blogging, public speaking, commercial projects and teaching.
Content development complements your photography and helps you grow and earn beyond your photos. If you're a gearhead like photographer Colby Brown, you could write in-depth gear reviews, or publish post-processing tutorials like Elia Locardi, or write a how-to book like Nicole S. Young. If you enjoy travel writing, you could build a popular blog like photographer Chris Stevens, who writes travel guides and reviews popular hostels and adventure tours, complete with photos.
Lyn's last tip is to have your own website. "Show off your work on Instagram and Facebook, but do ensure you have a good, easy to use website too. It should have some of your best work (with lots of keywords!), any specialities, and awards/competitions you have won, and your contact details. It's too easy to get carried away, add thousands of images, and forget the basics. Keep it simple."
Zackham got fascinated with manatees while he was writing a screenplay about dolphins. He learned it’s quite easy to swim with the so-called sea cows, and took his family to this spot north of Tampa, where manatees congregate during winter. “To be able to jump in the water with something that big with your 5-year-old? It’s amazing,” he says. discovercrystalriverfl.com
My work as a freelance travel writer has remained sort of a back-up source of income for me since moving into the photography world. I really only do it when I feel like money is tight — so, yeah, I basically do it every month. Most of the travel writing clients these days are online, and they don’t pay like they used to. Still, I make enough in writing to help pay some of the bills. I’ve averaged about $400 a month so far in 2015 through freelance writing.
Although Zackham’s scared of heights, he still wants to visit Algodonales in southern Spain to try parahawking, which involves hang gliding in tandem with a guide, alongside a trained bird of prey. “For me it would be absolutely terrifying. But the notion of being up there with a hawk where it lives and hunts, that takes it to a different level. I would give that a shot.” parahawking.com
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Rosalynn Tay is a travel and fashion (as well as editorial) photographer based in Singapore, and is a peripatetic traveler whose fondness of travel led her to photograph in countless countries. She travels to Sri Lanka, Japan, Mongolia, Bangladesh, China, Malaysia, Siberia, Morocco and even ventured to North Korea. She is a graduate of Spéos, the internationally recognized photography school in Paris. She's also a committed Leica user, and has exhibited her work (Ethiopia -solo- and LeicaXhibition -group).
However, the most challenging of all the tasks involved in producing these photo films is to have the models literally become actors in the stories...not only because I want them to look the part of the betrayed lover, of the returning scorned avenger, of the famous singer haunting her past venues, but because I like them to narrate the story itself.
Copyright © 2019 The Wandering Lens. Unauthorised use and/or duplication of any content or photographs without written permission from Lisa Michele Burns is strictly prohibited. You should consider the information contained in this website and on associated social media accounts as general and consider the appropriateness of this material in regard to your personal objectives or consult a relevant professional prior to making decisions. | Privacy Policy
The deeper you travel into distant lands and cultures, the more varied the people you'll encounter. It can be fun and intriguing to meet people of vastly different cultures. It can also be alienating and even dangerous. I've seen women treated poorly, child labourers hard at work, and helpless animals suffering in the streets. Tolerance for other cultures is necessary to access these places and document the realities within them. Our job as photographers is to observe, with the hope that our images may influence positive social change.
When you really love photographing a certain subject, it shows in your work. If you've built a cohesive collection of images around a particular people or place, consider hanging it in a gallery or selling prints or photo books online. Share your work with artist's galleries in and around relevant locales until you find someone who bites. Southwestern USA photographer Brett Edge took it a step further and opened his own gorgeous fine art gallery in Moab, Utah. Photographer Vivienne Gucwa published a coffee table book featuring her New York City photography. Just getting started? Share your work online for exposure, and upload it to print-on-demand websites for effortless print sales.
So, if travel photography as a traditional career is dying, than how are these people making their money? Well, I wish I could give you the answer to that question, but I can’t. These days, everyone has a different method of money-making. All I can do is tell you my story, and how I manage to keep from sleeping under a bridge every night — though barely.
Some of these 'singalong' parlors still exist, faded and tired but otherwise unchanged, offering a taste of popular and cheap entertainment from a past era. How these survive in anyone's guess. The parlors usually have an organist (who can also play a guitar) and a handful of habitual customers who sing Cantonese songs...and occasionally Western oldies such as "Sealed With A Kiss" by the Canton Singing House organist.
Alessandro Bergamini tells us that he is an Italian travel photographer from Finale Emilia in Italy. He started his photography with an old camera donated by his father, and traveled to some of the most remote regions of the world, capturing the spirit and visual cultures of his encounters. He perfected his post-production techniques to better reflect the atmosphere of the images he gleaned from his travels. During 2019, he offers travel workshops in the Wakhan Corridor (Afghanistan) and Kashmir.
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Course:SOCI 1110:WEB DuBois
From Kumu Wiki - TRU
1 W.E.B. DuBois（1868-1963): Simple Introduction
3 University Life
4 Works of DuBois
5 Later Life
6 Major Points and Conclusions
7 Sources/Bibliography
W.E.B. DuBois（1868-1963): Simple Introduction
the picture of DuBosi
William Edward Burghardt DuBois (1868-1963) an American author, editor, sociologist. He finished his first academic book The Philadelphia Negro, which was concerned with the first case study of a black community in the United States. There were other famous projects such as, The Souls of Black Folk which was concerned about his anger, rage, and sadness of what black people suffered. The books he wrote could serve as valid materials and sophisticated illustrations of intellectual black people making contributions to the American history and human civilization.
William Edward Burghardt DuBois, an American author, editor, sociologist, was born into an impoverished family in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. His parents separated when he was a child, and he stayed with his mother until 1884. Although he suffered a lot, eventually he turned out to be a marvelous student. With a partial scholarship, he was enrolled into the University of Fisk when he was only 15. During that time, he witnessed race discrimination, which had an influence on him and made him determined to become a sociologist and civil rights activist. Later, he went to Harvard University and graduated with a Doctor of Laws and Doctor of Philosophy.
After his graduation, he became a professor at Atlanta University. W.E.B Dubois had devoted all his life to studying the history and society of the United States and Africa. He wrote many books on Racism and independence of Africa.
Works of DuBois
During his life, W.E.B Dubois had published a lot of works. The Philadelphia Negro, published in 1899, in which he was teaching at Atlanta University, was a book that concerned the first case study of black community in the United States. In 1911, he published his first novel The Quest of the Silver Fleece. After two years, he wrote The Star of Ethiopia. In 1915, Dubois published a book concerned about the general history of the black.
DuBois had sympathy for China’s liberation cause and socialist construction. During the time of Sino-Japanese War, he raised money for China Welfare Institute in the U.S. After the foundation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, he wrote to Song Chingling, saying that he was thrilled of the upgrading status of China in the world, and calling China the Real Brother. Later in 1959 and 1962, he visited China twice. In 1961, he joined the Communist Party of the United States, and accepted the invitation of the president of Ghana, becoming a Ghanaian citizen. Later he compiled Encyclopedia of Africa and died in 1963.
Major Points and Conclusions
W.E.B Dubois also wrote poems, fictions and essays. Since 1890s, he plunged into the United States and Africa’s liberation movements. What is worth mentioning is that he was one of the co-founders of the National Association for Advancement of Colored people (NAACP), the most influential civil rights group in American history. He had been the editor of the journal Crisis for 24 years. After that, in 1921, he participated in Socialist Party of America. However, he supported Woodrow Wilson, the Democratic candidate, which was a violation of the rule in the Socialist Party. Later, he was forced to get out of the party. During the Liberation Movement, insisting on positive efforts, he was against giving up. The American Communist leader William Foster regarded him as the greatest spokesman in the African history and the new outstanding leader of the black people (Lewis, 1994). When Dubois attended Paris Peace Conference, he decided that it is a good timing to organize a Pan-African Conference to offer a platform for the world to realize the problems in Africa. Disappointingly, no black organizations showed the slightest interest in it. Eventually, Dubois held the first Pan-African Conference in 1923 but turned out useless. He met Marcus Garvey who was the promoter of Back-to-Africa Movement. After that, he traveled to Russia in 1927 and studied the ideas of a socialist, realizing that he could no longer support conventional integration efforts. DuBois continually examined the history of the black people. He even introduced the concept of “Talented tenth”, which was a group of black elites who helped other poor African Americans (W.E.B, 2013). Additionally, he held the view that higher education was essential for his race. In this way, DuBois gradually became the leading black intellectual in the 20th century.
Sources/Bibliography
Website documents:
W.E.B. DuBois. (n.d.) Retrieved September 9, 2010, from http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1613.html
W.E.B. Dubois (William Edward Burghardt DuBois. (n.d.) Retrieved April 3, 2009, from http://www.24en.com/subject/american_story/category/page/aa/activists/dubois.htm
David, L. (1994). W.E.B. DuBois 1868-1919 Biography of a Race. Henry Holt and Company, 11, 25-34.
DuBois, W. E. B. (2013). The Autobiography of W.E.B Du Bois. Diasporic Africa Press, 20, 10-15.
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Activated Attack Integrated Response Course at Mount Jumbo
If there was an active shooter situation at a Missoula school or public place, law enforcement, fire and medical personnel will have to work seamlessly in their response.
Missoula law enforcement, fire and medical first responders spent the day at Mount Jumbo Elementary School on Monday, to become instructors in ‘Activated Attack Integrated Response’ training.
Missoula County Sheriff’s Office Captain Dave Conway described the training.
“Today, we’re doing an Integrated Response Training to Active Shooter events,” said Conway. “This is really the first time that we’ve integrated law enforcement, fire and medical all into one training event for active shooters. We have an organization that’s funded through the Department of Justice called ‘ALERRT’, that’s Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training that we’ve developed for active attack integrated response.”
Conway said there are three priorities in the training that apply to law enforcement, fire and medical crews.
“This program has three levels of priority,” he said. “The first level is to stop the killing, which is what law enforcement typically does. Then, it’s to stop the dying and evacuate the wounded. All three of those are critically important in an active attack incident. This gives us that structure to be able to train the rest of our first responders to work together to accomplish this as quickly as possible.”
Conway said the training is being paid for through a federal grant.
“To accomplish all this, we’ve received a grant from the Office of Homeland Security for about $304,000 that pays for the overtime to do this training and pays to host the training, and for the equipment that we’ll need to conduct the events.”
Along with props for the training, the funding will also supply things like bulletproof vests and helmets for firefighters.
“We’ve been working on this project for the last couple of years,” Conway said. “Captain Taylor and myself have been going down to Texas and training with ALERT and we’ve been able to bring that back here and talk with all the agency heads for the different first responder agencies and gotten their buy-in and now all the first responders are represented.”
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Moving from Big Pharma to Biotech – Insights from Two Biotech CEOs
External Contributor - 03/09/2018 10 mins - Interviews
According to John LaMattina in Forbes last year, more and more senior scientific executives are moving from pharma to small biotechs or startup initiatives. While the jury is out on whether this observation reflects a real trend or not, we at Labiotech are keen to learn about what drives people to make such a move!
Earlier this year we interviewed David Ebsworth of Verona Pharma about his professional journey from pharma to biotech, the ups and downs of the move, and we also asked what advice he would offer budding biotechnologists. Continuing this theme, I caught up with two more high-profile pharma executives who have recently joined the biotech world. I chatted with Michael Bauer of Cellestia Biotech and Mary Kerr of KaNDy and NeRRe Therapeutics.
Why Did You Make the Move?
After 25 years in senior management at GSK and ViiV Healthcare, Kerr moved into the biotech world in 2015 to become the CEO of KaNDy and NeRRe Therapeutics. Both companies are UK-based clinical-stage biotechs with a pipeline of novel treatments for chronic and debilitating women’s health problems, such as those associated with menopause.
On her career in big pharma, Kerr recalls being very fulfilled and enjoying her time, and says she would recommend it to anyone. However, she wasn’t afraid to make a move when the timing was right: “I was at a stage of my career where I’d always wanted to be a CEO, but I wasn’t going to become CEO of GSK. But I could move into biotech and create something new and exciting at a time when I had energy and experience and a desire to do it. It just seemed like the perfect moment!”
Similar factors led Bauer to become CEO of Switzerland-based Cellestia Biotech in 2015, after 20 years at Syngenta, Novartis and a few smaller biotech companies: “I always wanted to get into a project as a founder or a co-founder because I enjoy the higher degree of ownership and involvement.”
For Bauer, reflecting on his own journey to Cellestia, it was also a case of right timing: “I think that, for me, collecting experiences in big corporations as well as working in some smaller biotech companies was a better path than going straight to biotech from university.”
What is so Much Better About Biotech?
Many associate a career in pharma with job stability and steady funding, and I was keen to find out what biotech might offer that pharma doesn’t. After chatting to Kerr and Bauer it became clear that for them, fast decision-making and accountability are the main differences between big pharma from biotech, echoing the sentiments of Achillion’s Joel Barrish after his move in 2016.
Kerr loves the fast-moving and dynamic nature of small biotech: “There’s a lot of personal accountability and you’ve got to live and be judged by your decision. It’s thrilling and I like that. In big pharma, because of the broad-reaching impact, most decisions tend to involve lots of analytics, often requiring multiple rounds of discussions and layers of decision-making before the decision is finally taken in a highly calculated fashion. I like the freedom to make decisions in real-time as required.”
Bauer enjoys that Cellestia has “been able to advance the project very rapidly from candidate selection of lead compound to first in-patient, on almost theoretical timelines that are driven by the duration of the required studies.” Instead of waiting for committees to assemble and approve the next step, Bauer and his team sit together, with advisors as required, discuss a topic and make a decision. According to Bauer, “you are in charge and responsible for your own decisions, to take them and to live with them, you can’t blame anyone. Part of the fun!”
What Has Been the Biggest Challenge?
Perhaps not surprisingly, the fundraising side of biotech seems to be one of the biggest challenges!
Bauer found it interesting to “translate the day-to-day scientific jargon into an understandable language,” adding that this was “one of the biggest challenges for us as scientists who were not used to translating the work into plain language without being imprecise, and still being factually correct.”
Although Kerr doesn’t find the new funding landscape a particular challenge, she points out a critical difference between the two environments: “in pharma, if a project has merit, it’s likely to be funded, whereas in biotech, the CEO and the team need to convince investors that it’s worth investing in a project.”
She added: “Even projects with merit may not always get funding for a number of reasons, because the concept isn’t fashionable (that was my experience with women’s health), or the story is not told very well, or they are not speaking to the right investors.”
What Makes Biotech Work?
According to Kerr and Bauer, it’s largely a matter of bringing the right blend of experiences together.
Bauer points out that “PhD students or postdocs can bring a project to a point where there is a patent and you can start a spin-off, but then of course you don’t have the industry experience you need to run a company.” He hints at Celestia’s success being down to the joining of two teams, namely “the founders from the academic environment and my colleagues and myself who complement the management from the drug development side with decades of industry experience.”
Kerr echoes this point of view: “I think biotech works because it attracts very senior people with broad experiences and skill sets built over years in pharma before going to biotech, and they can make that work for them.
“I have a management team of 5 individuals and between us we have more than a century of experience from pharma! We’ve seen many different scenarios, and we can put this into action – from the experiences of many years, many functions, many roles, and many companies.”
Can Anyone Do It?
Neither Kerr nor Bauer believes that anyone can or should make the move, but their reasoning is somewhat different.
Bauer feels that a successful transition to biotech is “largely down to an individual’s personality and mentality, and requires an ability and willingness to take responsibility for decision-making within a small team without hiding behind decision-making committees and corporate processes. Technical skills come with years of industrial experience, but the question is whether or not an individual is able to use these in a dynamic biotech context!”
While Kerr seconds the need for extensive experience before stepping out of pharma and into biotech, she believes that having the right skill set plays a big role. “Biotech tends to be more skewed to scientists or physicians with a discovery or R&D profile. One needs to know enough about science to be able to make the transition! The ideal profile can see how the science can become a vision of a medicine and then turn this into a plan and deliver it.”
While Kerr is confident that “most senior leaders in big pharma, particularly if they’ve always worked in R&D or on the interface, can make the move,” Bauer notes that he has “seen really excellent people who made such a move and less great examples that a startup should try to avoid – in the end it really comes down to the individual.”
Is it Risky?
Not according to Bauer: “Employees in big corporations used to think they had the job for a lifetime, and now they realize that this is not, or no longer, the case.” He thinks that the more people realize that these times are over, the more they might be willing to take their destiny into their own hands. He also points out that “it’s never 100 % in your own hands because you have to find financial resources and scientific or development expertise. You’ve never on your own. No one should have the illusion that you live in complete freedom and independence. You need to know what you can do yourself or with the team, and when you need help from others. I believe that the ability to build support networks beyond the internal core team is absolutely essential”
Kerr thinks biotech is riskier than big pharma, but comes with big rewards: “In early clinical stage biotech the outcome is often binary – it could all be over in 2 or 3 years, but that’s the nature of the game. We want to turn the cards properly and understand what sort of opportunity we have and whether or not it’s worthwhile pursuing in later stage development.
“Biotech is riskier, there isn’t the job security there is in pharma, and the core package may not be as good, but there are many upsides! The potential to turn an idea into a medicine for a patient is very exciting!”
Kerr misses nothing about big pharma 4 years later: “I didn’t want to move into another big pharma company, I felt like I’d been there, done that, and I would rather do something more interesting instead. It’s a refreshing, liberating, career change. There’s an excitement about biotech that you don’t get in big pharma.”
However, as Kerr point outs, “Some people who make the move realize very quickly that they are better suited to the formality, structure and security of big pharma, and you don’t get that with biotech. But for me, the difference is exactly what I was looking for!”.
Bauer is also happy with his move and regrets nothing even though he “had a great time and learned a lot in big pharma for which I am very grateful.”
Cellestia is developing a new class of small-molecule anti-cancer drugs, and Bauer finds this very rewarding: “It’s the feeling that we really do something with a purpose, we are developing a new drug for cancers for which no treatment exists. We have full ownership of the project, we are in charge and responsible for how it goes and how it doesn’t go and that’s really rewarding.”
Advice for Budding Biotech Entrepreneurs
Kerr can’t emphasize enough the importance of managing relationships with investors, particularly as a CEO: “You need to make sure that the investors feel that their money is being wisely invested and that something positive can come out of the investment. Being able to manage that investor interface is very important and you don’t really have to do it in big pharma unless you are the CEO. I think one of the factors that lead people who come into biotech to leave again is that they don’t care to manage such relationships.”
She adds: “As well as the investor interface, biotech is more risky, less secure. Potentially shorter term, but the ride is very exciting and allows for a lot of accountability and independent decision-making with teams and the potential opportunity to turn something into a medicine. That’s the profile of someone who will enjoy it.”
Bauer’s advice is somewhat similar: “If you are used to the elaborate process you have in big pharma and like it very much, you should perhaps carefully think about such a move, because you won’t have the infrastructure you are used to, the life and the style of operation and the style of interaction is different, but again that is down to an individual’s likings.”
To Stay or To Go?
At the end of the day, whether it’s best to stay in big pharma or move to biotech comes down to the individual, their ambitions and their mindset. For many of those who make the move, it seems to be a matter of good timing. However, no matter what drives someone to take the plunge into biotech, one shouldn’t go into it with their eyes closed. If you’re on the fence, perhaps Bauer’s parting words will help: “You have to want it, life is different, you’ve got much more direct responsibility and the freedom and obligation to make decisions. So if you don’t like making decisions and standing for them, then you better not make such a move.”
Karen O’Hanlon Cohrt is a Science Writer and Editor with a PhD in biotechnology from Maynooth University, Ireland. She can be found on Twitter @KarenOHCohrt and you can check out her other work on her portfolio.
Images – E.Resko & Shutterstock
Tags: GSK, Novartis, United Kingdom, Women in biotech
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Second Patient Achieves HIV Remission After Bone Marrow Transplant to Treat Cancer
Jonathan Smith - 06/03/2019 3 mins - Medical
For the second time in history, an HIV-positive patient with blood cancer has achieved HIV remission following a customized bone marrow transplant to treat their cancer from an HIV-resistant donor.
The HIV-positive patient received a bone marrow transplant to treat the blood cancer Hodgkin’s lymphoma, from which he also suffered. The researchers used this cancer treatment as an opportunity to also tackle his HIV infection.
After preparatory chemotherapy, the physicians transplanted the patient with bone marrow from a donor with a genetic mutation that gives them resistance to HIV infection. At 16 months following the transplant, the patient’s antiretroviral therapy was paused, to see if the transplant could confer long-lasting HIV remission.
In the case report, published in Nature, since pausing their therapy, the patient has continued to be HIV-free for 18 months without antiretroviral treatments. His new immune cells carried the HIV resistance mutation and proved resistant to HIV infection in the lab.
While the treatment has been successful at eradicating the cancer and apparently the HIV infection, the patient did experience some side effects. The process caused a mild case of graft-versus-host disease, where the donor’s immune cells attack the recipient’s cells.
“While it is too early to say with certainty that our patient is now cured of HIV, and doctors will continue to monitor his condition, the apparent success of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation offers hope in the search for a long-awaited cure for HIV and AIDS,” stated one of the UK-based researchers involved in the study, Eduardo Olavarria, from Imperial College London.
Another HIV-positive patient, at an earlier stage of treatment than the other two patients, recently received a similar bone marrow transplant at the University Medical Center Utrecht in the Netherlands. This patient was recently shown to be virtually HIV-free three months after ceasing HIV medication, but whether this state of remission will continue remains to be seen.
These cases follow the first known instance of an ‘HIV cure’, which hit the news ten years ago. An HIV-positive person, known as the Berlin patient, received no fewer than two bone marrow transplants and intense radiotherapy to treat his acute myeloid leukemia. The bone marrow transplants came from a donor with the HIV resistance mutation, and he has remained HIV-free since.
While the new study shows that it’s possible to achieve long-term HIV remission with less intensive treatments than with the Berlin patient, this isn’t a viable cure for the majority of HIV-positive people who are otherwise healthy. Bone marrow transplants can carry risks of life-threatening conditions such as anemia, infections and graft-versus-host disease. For now, it’s much safer to continue with existing antiretroviral treatments.
Although stem cell transplants are unlikely to help many patients, one day, scientists could use the HIV resistance mutation in a gene therapy approach. In particular, it could be possible to gene-edit patients to express this mutation using the tool CRISPR-Cas9. Last year, a Chinese researcher controversially claimed that he had already gene edited two human fetuses to express this mutation, with the intention of preventing HIV infections in later life.
There are other, more advanced HIV treatments in development that could apply to many HIV patients. The closest functional cure to the market so far is a small molecule from the French company Abivax, which is designed to destroy viruses hiding within immune cells and in the intestine, providing a functional cure for the disease. The drug has passed several phase IIa clinical trials and the company is starting a follow on phase IIb clinical trial this year.
Images from Shutterstock
Tags: HIV, United Kingdom
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Keystroke Blog
The Book Life
Get your book reviewed
Author Q&A- Brian Herberger
Posted in Author Q & A by Em
Today I had the pleasure of interviewing Brian Herberger, the wonderful author of Miss E. For those of you who missed it, I read Miss E. (and totally loved it!!!). You can check out my review of the book here! Miss E. is a must read for anyone who loves Historical Fiction.
Anywayy… here is my interview with Brian Herberger!
Q: How long have you been writing?
A: I always liked writing in high school and college, and I worked on a couple other YA novels but they were never finished. I was a middle school English teacher for about ten years, and I definitely enjoyed working with students on their writing and getting to read what they wrote. Some incredibly creative and fun stuff. I still work for a school system, but not teaching, I’m working with technology and data… which can still be sort of creative, but not much writing involved other than email. So when I sat down to write Miss E., the book became a great creative outlet, and I always looked forward to working on it.
Q: What inspired you to write? Do you have a muse?
A: I get inspired by a lot of things. I’m fortunate enough to have great family and friends, and two kids who are constantly impressing me with their creativity and questions. They inspire me every day. Even something as unimportant as a Facebook post makes me want to wordsmith and get things just right. There’s a lot of satisfaction that comes from choosing just the right words, and knowing that when someone reads what you’ve written, they’re going to think and feel the same things you did.
Something that really inspired me while I was writing Miss E. was simply the idea of standing up for something you believe in. I’ve always been fascinated by the 60’s and people organizing and demonstrating against a war that they felt was wrong. I was born too late I guess because I missed all that. I did drive a VW bug around the little town I grew up in outside of Buffalo, New York. I’d taped a “NO WAR” sign in the back window and felt pretty good about speaking my two cents.
I also did a lot of research for the character of Miss E. She is based on an amazing woman, who I knew surprisingly little about before I started working on the book. I really enjoyed the research and the chance to learn more about her. I’m trying to avoid a spoiler, so I won’t say too much, but I guess if I had to pick a muse, it would be her.
Q: Tell me about your novel, Miss E. What was the original idea behind it?
A: Miss E. takes place in 1967 California. Bets is the main character. She’s moved to a new town, just started high school, and her father has left for the war in Vietnam. She gets tangled up in an anti-war demonstration, and struggles with her feelings toward the war – wanting to support her father but also beginning to see how wrong the war is. While all that is happening, Bets ends up meeting Miss E. – a woman who lives outside of town and keeps to herself. No one really knows much about her, but Bets eventually figures out who she really is. OK, no spoilers, right? I’ll just say that Miss E. is a real person from American history.
And how I got the original idea? One of my favorite writing stories is the one J K Rowling tells about getting the idea for Harry Potter. Not that I’m comparing myself to her or anything, but it’s a cool story. She was riding a train and suddenly had the idea – “Boy is a wizard, doesn’t know it, goes to wizard school.” And the way she describes it, the idea was just out there and the train went right through it and she happened to be there to catch it. I was driving home from work on a Friday afternoon, and suddenly got an idea – “A girl meets [blank]” Read Miss E. and fill in the blank. I got goosebumps! I started asking all sorts of questions. Where does she meet her? How does she find her? What would it be like to meet her? The more I thought about it, the more I felt that I didn’t just want the story to be about this girl finding [blank]. I wanted the girl to have a story of her own. When I settled on the time period, it made sense to include Vietnam in the story, with her father in the war and Bets getting involved in demonstrations.
Q: Are you working on any writing projects now? If so, what can you tell me about them?
A: I am! I just started writing something new a few weeks ago. At first I was working on an idea for another story similar to Miss E. where a young character meets a historical person, someone with a little mystery around him, where no one else in town really knows who he is. I’m excited about the idea, but before I dug into that story I realized I wasn’t quite ready to say goodbye to Bets yet. I really fell in love with all the characters when I was writing Miss E. It’s amazing how that happens. Maybe some writers plan everything out and know exactly what their characters are going to be like before they start writing. Not me. I think my way’s much more fun! I had some idea of what I wanted them to be like, but then you put them into a part of the story and they do something surprising or say something new, and you get to know them a little bit more. It’s really like meeting someone for the first time and then gradually growing closer and closer to them as you get to know them better. So I’m really excited to be writing another book about Bets.
People have asked about a sequel to Miss E., and at first I didn’t really think that was an option. Things are pretty wrapped up at the end of the book. But I realized there’s still a lot more to Bets’ story, even if Miss E. is no longer a part of it. We left Bets in 1967, but the war’s still going on, there’s still a lot happening in our country, and she’s still figuring out high school. The next book is going to take place two years later, and a lot has changed for Bets. There’s another adventure coming her way, and thankfully, Emmie is part of it. I’m pretty excited to be writing about Emmie again too!
Q: What is something you want the world to know?
A: Wow. That’s a pretty important question. Something I want the whole world to know? I feel like it should be something serious like world peace or global warming. I guess when it comes to books, the former English teacher in me just wants people to find something to read that inspires them or affects them in some way. That’s my measure of success. I’ve discovered that Miss E. is a story that affects generations, young and old. I heard from a middle school student whose father was in the military and she connected with that part of the story, with Bets saying goodbye, missing her father, and wanting him to come home safely. I heard from an older gentleman, who was a college professor in the 60’s. He remembers protests, tear gas lingering on bushes days later. So he was affected in an entirely different way. That’s what I look for when I sit down with a book. Is this book making me think, prompting me to ask questions or see things differently? Can I connect to the characters and story in some way? Well, it also helps if it’s a good story and it’s fun to read! If Miss E. does any of that for a reader, then I’ve done something right!
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Unraveling and Flames
In this episode you will hear about Unraveling, The Fate of Flames, A Shadow Bright and Burning, and much more.
Nightmares and Fairy Tales
In this episode you will hear about Girl of Nightmares, The Infinity of You and Me, Kingdom of Ash and Briars, and a very exciting book exchange! Link for book exchange: https://www.facebook.com/events/1742076739340600/
Drowning and Wand Making
In this episode you will hear about Fear The Drowning Deep, You Don't Know My Name, A Song to Take The World Apart, Harry Potter Wands, and much more.
Love and Vinyl
In this episode you will hear about All The Boys I've Loved Before, The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett, Sophia Elaine Hanson, and much more.
Fangirling and Lies
In this episode you will hear about Fangirl, The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett, Brian Herberger, and much more. To enter the giveaway follow this link: https://keystrokeblog.com/2016/06/11/june-book-haul-and-ottlite-lamp-giveaway/
Interview with J. Manuel
In this special episode of Book Talk I sit down with author J. Manuel and talk about his book, From Filth & Mud, writing, inspiration, and much more. Stay tuned for a chance to win a signed copy of From Filth and Mud! _________ Links: Interview on Keystroke Blog- https://keystrokeblog.com/2016/03/24/author-qa-j-manuel/ J. Manuel's Blog- https://jman […]
Filth and Tides
In this episode you will hear about From Filth & Mud, Beyond the Rising Tide, Kat Reads A Lot, and much more.
Pajamas and Peter Pan
In this episode you will hear about The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Away We Go, The Suspense is Thrilling Me, and much more.
Spies and Octopi
In this episode you will hear about The Travelers, The Shameful Sheep, Lily and the Octopus, and much more.
Crowns and Knights
In this episode you will hear about Sick, The Crown, Typing Templars, and much more.
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Aeronautical Museum Lanzarote Airport
TO DO, TO VISIT
Lanzarote’s original airport building is situated within the grounds of the current airport just next to the dual carriageway into Arrecife, now home to the Museo Aeronáutico del Aeropuerto, or aeronautical museum.
This tiny building handled the passengers from 1946 to 1970 when the larger airport facility was built, which we know now as Terminal 2. Entrance to the aeronautical museum is free, simply give your name and nationality to the staff on reception when you arrive. There are ten rooms within the museum which have been segregated into different areas of information.
Room 1 – Regional History
This explains the early years of aviation in the Canary Islands, the first plane to cross the skies over the Canaries was in 1913, the first airports were not built here until the 1940’s. Due to our strategic geographical location as with the ships, the islands became a stop over point for planes crossing from Europe to America. The Graf Zeppelin airship used to pass over the island dropping mail by parachute on it’s voyage to America. The first regular flights between the islands and Madrid started in 1930 with the company CLASSA operating to Gran Canaria and Tenerife.
Room 2 – The First Flights in Lanzarote
It was seaplanes that first landed in Lanzarote, the first flight was in 1919 when French pilots Henry Lefranc and James Roujand set down on Playa del Reducto in Arrecife in a GL-40 biplane. Five years later in 1924 it was a party including Ramón Franco the brother of the Spanish dictator who landed a military seaplane Dornier Wal in the harbour at Arrecife. Franco was accompanied by Captain Alejandro Más, Commander Guillermo Delgado and a photographer Leopoldo Alonso.
The old airport has an open planned design, the rooms interlinking through rounded archways. The largest room has a stunning colourful mural on the wall entitled “Lanzarote” created by César Manrique specifically for the passenger terminal in 1953. Here we watched a short old film about flying in the 1950’s following the pilot through the checks before flight, take off and landing.
Room 3 – The First Passenger Terminal 1946 to 1970
Rooms 4 & 5 – Audiovisual
Room 6 – Transport and communications 1946-1970
Room 7 – Aeronautics: general and specific history
Room 8 – Tourism, transportation. Airport
The airport was opened on the 12th June in 1946, residents leaving the island would enter the building by the side door on the right hand side of the terminal, exiting to the front of the building where they would climb up the steps of the wall to board the aircraft.
Lots of memorabilia from the airport is on display including pilots log books and old machinery. There were two boards listing the years where individual photographs were pinned depicting historical images and magic moments like the visits from Concorde, the museum would be delighted to add one of your photographs to the collection if you have one to fill in the gaps.
Room 9 – Control tower
Room 10 – Meteorology
You can take the stairs up to the control tower, remnants of the old machinery is still in situ as well as a panoramic view towards terminals 1 & 2.
There is also a library of aviation books which visitors are welcome to sit and browse.
A visit to this aeronautical museum was fascinating, we would suggest that you need an interest in the history of Lanzarote or aviation to enjoy it fully and you do need to take your time to absorb the information available. Both Johann and Coral from the museum were brilliant, we received a warm welcome and offered a guided tour if we would like one, they were also on hand to answer any questions. We learned some interesting facts such as the airport is home to 2 eagles and 9 falcons that fly three times a day to keep the air space free from migratory birds.
The terminal was replaced in 1970 when the building now known as Terminal 2 was opened to cope with the expansion into tourism. There is a photo album in the museum of the new terminal which was decorated in Lanzarote green and white with striped canvas ceiling and bright green check in desks.
The aeronautical museum is open from Monday to Saturday from 10am to 2pm.
airportlanzaroteplacesplaces to visit
Bandama 11, Puerto del Carmen
Bandama 11 is a bungalow in the very popular Los Pocillos area of Puerto del Carmen. It's part of a small community close to shops and bars.
£295 per week
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McGlinchey Lecture hosts leading scholar on presidential powers and federal legislation
Tulane Law School is hosting its annual Dermot S. McGlinchey Lecture on Federal Litigation on Monday, March 25 featuring leading author and scholar Victoria Nourse, the Ralph V. Whitworth Professor of Law at Georgetown Law Center.
Nourse is one of the nation’s leading scholars on statutory interpretation, Congress, and the separation of powers. Her latest book, Misreading Law, Misreading Democracy, was published by Harvard Press in 2016. She has also published widely on the power of the president and the separation of powers, Reclaiming the Constitutional Text from Originalism: The Case of Executive Power, and on constitutional rights, including her book, In Reckless Hands, the story of Skinner v. Oklahoma and American eugenics.
She is co-author with Yale’s William Eskridge and Abbe Gluck of the most up-to-date casebook on legislation: Statutes, Regulation, and Interpretation: Legislation and Administration in the Republic of Statutes (2014 & 2018 Supp.). Nourse has had a distinguished career in government, serving as Chief Counsel to former Vice President Joe Biden. Prior to that she served as an appellate lawyer in the Justice Department and as Special Counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee. The story of her role in the fight for the original Violence Against Women Act is told in the 2009 book Equal: Women Reshape American Law.
Prior to teaching at Georgetown, Nourse held chairs at Emory University and the University of Wisconsin. She has also been a visiting professor at Yale, NYU, Northwestern, and the University of Maryland.
Nourse began her legal career in New York, clerking for a legendary trial judge, Edward Weinfeld, and practicing at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind Wharton & Garrison. She left private practice to serve as junior counsel to the Senate-Iran Contra Committee under Senators Warren Rudman (NH) and Ken Inouye (HI). Professor Nourse is Director of the Georgetown's first Center on Congressional Studies.
The event will begin at 5 p.m. in the John Giffen Weinmann Hall, Room 110 with a reception following.
The McGlinchey Lecture is permanently endowed and sponsored by the law firm of McGlinchey Stafford. Dermot S. McGlinchey (L'57) was a civic activist and ardent supporter of Tulane Law School, and the Tulane community.
He was president of the Tulane Alumni Association in 1992-93. He served the law school as a member of the Dean’s Council, chairman of the Dean’s Council Development Committee, vice chairman of the endowment program of the Maritime Law Center and chairman of the law school’s Building Fund. He devoted much of his life to promoting equal access to the courts.
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Palazzo dell’Associazione cooperativa di credito
A little further ahead, on the opposite side of Corso Verdi, opposite the park, there is a beautiful small palazzo in neo-Gothic Venetian style, designed by the architect Giorgio Polli from Trieste.
It was built at the beginning of 1900’s at the initiative of the Associazione Cooperativa di Credito on land owned by Mulitsch family. The family lived there from 1903 to May 1915 on the ground floor, whilst the first floor was occupied by a bank. After many searches aimed to find the young Arnaldo Mulitsch, a draft dodger and Irredentist, on 15th July 1916 Austrian troops plundered the house’s furniture.
A staging area command Headquarter (Etappenkommando) was in the military barracks in Piazza Grande (today Piazza Vittoria) until the 8th August 1916 when residence of the building continued until the Austrians took back the city at the end of October 1917. With the Italian troops back on 7th November 1918 the palazzo became the Military Staff of the XI Army Corps Headquarter commanded by General Paolini. The Associazione Cooperativa di Credito ceded the building to the insurance institute Istituto Nazionale delle Assicurazioni of Rome, which put on the faҁade its ceramic sign.
Il Palazzo dell’Associazione Cooperativa di Credito in via del Giardino (oggi corso Giuseppe Verdi), 1907 circa.
Cavalleggeri in via del Giardino davanti alla Casa Veneziana, 1917
Soldati italiani davanti il Palazzo dell'Associazione Cooperativa di Credito in via del Giardino (oggi corso Giuseppe Verdi), 1918.
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Maurizio Bignone
Welcome to the composer's official website
Night Dances
Maurizio Bignone was born in Palermo in 1968. He graduated in viola at the Conservatory of Music “V.Bellini” of Palermo under the guidance of M° Carini, subsequently he perfected himself with M° Mihai Spinei and M° Augusto Vismara. In 1992 he began his career as a composer. Initially his music combines classical writing with ethnic language and jazz (Maurizio Bignone is also multi-instrumentalist), then moving towards a more contemporary language. The Kronos Quartet (the most important string quartet of contemporary music) has asked to him to include in their repertoire one of his works entitled “Chador”. Now his musics has a contemporary cinematographic style. Infact he has composed numerous soundtracks for short films, films, theatrical performances, documentaries and advertising at international level, winning numerous first prizes. He has 7 CDs as composer. He composed about 200 works (including pieces for solo instrument, ensemble, orchestra and soundtracks). His music is requested and performed by musicians from all over the world such as the American violist concertist Brett Deubner, the Russian cellist concertist Maya Fridman, the Italian pianist Gilda Buttà, the Italian cellist soloist Luca Pincini, the American solo trumpeter Ralph Alessi, the first solo cello of the Gurzenich -Orchester of Cologne Ulrike Schafer, the concertist and principal viola of the Philadelphia Virtuosi Chamber Dennis Krasnokutsky, the Serbian concert pianist Maja Rajkovich, the Italian jazz pianist Rita Marcotulli, the Tan’g Quartet of Singapore, the Trio Siciliano (with the soloists of the Teatro Massimo of Palermo), the Opera Theater of Astana, the Novosibirsk Philarmonic Chamber Orchestra etc. His music is included in many festivals like “Festival dei due mondi” in Spoleto, the Teatro Massimo of Palermo, the Friends of Music in Palermo, in Novara, in Milan, in Mazara del Vallo, in Trapani, University of Palermo, of Perugia, of Bari, of Aaron Copland School in NYC, Festival of Contemporary Music in Novosibirsk (Russia), Round Top festival (Texas), Festival of Gramado (Brazil), Gibellina Orestiadi (contemporary music festival), Womad, and they are performed in the concert halls of Italy, Germany, France, England, Belgium, USA, Japan, Australia, Brazil, Kazakhstan, Russia, Singapore, Netherland, China etc. In 2007 he created the label “U07 Records”, independent record label that deals mainly with contemporary classical music. He also publishes classical and contemporary classical music. He called as president and sworn in numerous national and international competitions. In 2019 started the new project “Night Dances” where Maurizio plays pianoforte and in trio with the amazing Ukranian flutist Elena Kushchii and the great italian cellist Giorgio Gasbarro. The italian tour will start officially in October 2018 and it will touch differents cities like Milano, Cremona, Palermo, Mazara del Vallo, Ribera and others. The cd “Night Dances” will be released in june 2019. Right now tours are being organized in Ukraine, Netherlands and Belgium.
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Mexico president says Corona beer maker has VAT rebate rejected
MEXICO CITY, Jan 29 (Reuters) - Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Tuesday the country’s Supreme Court had rejected a bid by the makers of Corona beer for a value-added tax rebate worth billions of pesos.
“There was going to be a refund of billions of pesos to the company Corona, to the brewer Corona,” Lopez Obrador told his regular morning news conference. “The Supreme Court decided that the request was inadmissible,” he added.
Corona is made in Mexico by brewer Modelo, a unit of Anheuser Busch Inbev NV, a Belgium-based company. In the United States, production of the beer is licensed to Constellation Brands Inc. Lopez Obrador did not give further details. (Reporting by Dave Graham Editing by Daniel Flynn)
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Autumn Forest Road
Autumn Forest Road Puzzle Details:
About: Join us for a hike on the winding forest road featured in today's puzzle and take in the beautiful and colorful Autumn forest landscape.
Liked "Autumn Forest Road" ?
Beautiful Alpine Meadow
Click start and join us for a hike on a winding mountain trail and take in the view. In this fun new puzzle we feature a beautiful alpine meadow full of yellow flowers and green grass overlooking a breath taking mountain landscape. Put the breathtaking alpine landscape back together piece by piece, complete today's challenge and get your time on our leaderboards. Have fun!
A Day On The Farm
Join us for a day on the on the farm in this fun new puzzle. Start the game and put the old red farm house and barn back together as fast as you can and get your time on our daily leaderboards. Have fun!
Old Wooden Houses By The Lake
Join us in a beautiful mountain landscape, by a small lake, and put the old wooden houses back together as fast as you can and complete this fun jigsaw puzzle. Take your time and reconstruct the idyllic mountain village, the surrounding landscape, and the small lake piece by piece and prove your puzzle solving skills in this landscape themed game. Have fun!
Canoes By The Dock
Choose your difficulty level, click start and jump in one for the canoes featured in today's puzzle game. Put the beautiful mountain landscape and the calm lake back together piece by piece and relax while imagining what a slow relaxing ride on the calm lake waters would be like. If you didn't already know, a canoe is a lightweight narrow vessel, typically pointed at both ends and open on top, propelled by one or more paddlers using a single-bladed paddle. Canoes were developed by cultures all over the world, including some designed for use with sails or outriggers. The word canoe comes from the Carib kenu (dugout), via the Spanish canoa. Have fun!
Tram Going Up A Steep Hill
The history of trams, streetcars or trolley systems, began in early nineteenth century. The world's first passenger tram was the Swansea and Mumbles Railway, in Wales, UK. This first horse-drawn passenger tramway started operating in 1807. The first streetcar in America, developed by John Stephenson, began service in the year 1832. The world's first electric tram line operated in Sestroretsk near Saint Petersburg, Russia, invented and tested by Fyodor Pirotsky in 1880. So what are you waiting for? Click start and jump aboard the streetcar featured in today's puzzle and let's get to the top of the steep hill together. Have fun!
Lisbon Landscape
A beautiful landscape view on Lisbon during sunset. Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of 84.8 km2. Lisbon is one of the oldest cities in the world, predating other modern European capitals such as London, Paris and Rome by hundreds of years.
Old Half-Timbered Houses By The Lake
Timber framing and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional building methods that are commonplace in wooden buildings from the 19th century and earlier.In a half-timbered house the structural frame of load-bearing timber is left exposed on the exterior of the building. The country most known for this kind of architecture is Germany. In today's new puzzle we feature a couple of old half-timbered houses by the a small lake. Pick your difficulty level, click start and enjoy.
Sugarcane Field
In today's new puzzle we feature a beautiful view of a green sugarcane field. Sugarcane is native to the warm temperate to tropical regions of South Asia and is used for sugar production. In India, between the sixth and fourth centuries BC, the Persians, followed by the Greeks, discovered the famous "reeds that produce honey without bees". They adopted and then spread sugar and sugarcane agriculture. It is now the world's largest crop by production quantity.
Villa del Balbianello
The Villa del Balbianello is a villa in the comune of Lenno, Italy, overlooking Lake Como. It was built in 1787 on the site of a Franciscan monastery for the Cardinal Angelo Maria Durini. By the early twentieth century, the buildings had fallen into a state of neglect when American businessman Butler Ames purchased and renovated the villa and its garden. In 1974, Ames's heirs sold the villa to explorer Guido Monzino (leader of the first Italian expedition to climb Mount Everest), who filled it with rich collections, including artifacts acquired on his expeditions. Monzino, who died in 1988, left the villa to the Fondo per l'Ambiente Italiano, the National Trust of Italy. Its grounds now form part of the Grandi Giardini Italiani.
Rocky Landscape
In today's puzzle game we feature a beautiful mountain landscape in the center of which stands a large rock formation basking in the bright sun. The image was captured against the alpine blue sky full of fluffy white clouds.
Sunny Autumn Day In The Park
It's a beautiful and sunny Autumn day, click start and join us for a relaxing walk in the beautiful park featured in today's new puzzle game. Lots of trees with colorful leaves, green grass, blue skies and the warm rays of the Sun make for a fun and challenging landscape themed game. So what are you waiting for? Start putting this beautiful view of the park on a warm Autumn day and get your time on our daily leader boards. Have fun!
Forest Landscape
Let's go for a hike in the quiet and beautiful forest landscape and relax for a few minutes with this fun and challenging nature themed game. Begin putting the moss covered trees, the leaves and branches on the forest floor and complete this nature themed jigsaw puzzle as fast as you can and get your time on our daily leaderboards. Have fun!
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« False Target
Q & A (August 2012) »
The Public Eye
August 30, 2012 by Maggie McNeill
Repression thrives on ignorance; when people see others as human beings they are less likely to support the persecution of those people, and when they see behaviors as normal rather than strange and “scary” they are less likely to support bans on those activities. – Maggie McNeill
As far as I’m concerned, the single most important mission of this blog is to make people understand that whores are no different from anybody else, and that prostitution is part of the normal continuum of female behaviors which is not easily distinguished from others (certainly not well enough to base laws around). As I wrote in “Real People”,
Under the “Real People” tag you’ll find lots of examples of articles which illustrate the humanity of sex workers of all kinds, and under “The More the Better” ones about sex workers moving into the mainstream; last week I found three such articles, so I felt it was time for another column spotlighting them (and calling attention to the others). The first appeared in The Gloss and was appropriately entitled “How I Started Seeing Sex Workers as Real People”:
…the truth is that some of the strongest, most diverse, and compelling women I know are sex workers. For me, this was a revelation…my first novel [was]…about a [prostitute] named Edie…[but] she wasn’t…real…[because] I didn’t know anything about sex workers. After a year of trying to write my way into Edie’s world, I [realized]…that…if I was going to write convincingly, I needed to track down a woman with an honest perspective and experience. So, one night, I began to peruse the now-defunct erotic section on Craiglist for research. There I found the ad that started it all…
The author, Emilie Allen, contacted an escort named Jasmin who not only helped her develop “Edie”, but also inspired her to make a documentary called Sex/Touch/Work about Jasmin’s business, an erotic massage establishment in Ottawa. In the process of filming she discovered exactly what I keep talking about:
…I’ve met some crazy cool ladies from roller derby queens, to the Aussies trying to make a buck on their working holiday, to women studies graduate students, to single moms. Actually, it’s the mothers that I’ve been most impressed with. There are a lot of moms out there who moonlight as sex workers. The good money and flexible hours afford them the time and resources that properly raising a child requires. With mouths to feed, most moms take their job seriously and make the best sex workers because they know a secret: men don’t always come to them for sex. A lot of clients are looking for a far more basic pleasure: a sense of care which touch provides…our filming…has brought this up time and again. Clients of erotic massage parlors speak of the touch aspect of the experience much more than they do of the final release…I’d like to suggest that it’s time we move away from our socially engrained fears of women’s bodies and sexualities. People always want to talk about the sex stuff when I tell them about this project (Isn’t it so degrading?). But the women I’ve come to know and love aren’t anti-feminist in the least; a lot of the time they’re simply being paid to touch, to care, no more no less. I for one, see absolutely nothing wrong with that. To want to be touched is no crime, and to know how to touch in a way that makes another person feel cared for is a gift. And if that touch happens to be erotic, what’s the difference?
Allen’s statement about mothers making excellent sex workers, though obvious to anyone who has ever actually known any sex workers, is apparently inconceivable to the “authorities” who all too often use sex work as an excuse to abduct women’s children. This profile of porn actress Stormy Daniels discusses the subject at length:
…Mothers are a powerful influence in our lives and responsible for raising thriving, well-adjusted human beings. We have created a romanticized image that mothers are supposed to be sexless…so when we hear about a porn star who is a mom, it shatters our expectations, and many draw conclusions that these moms can’t be good parents…the 33-year-old Daniels says, “I had to work really hard and prepare a lot to have a baby because…I can’t work while I’m pregnant. I did two years of work in one year.” Wicked Pictures provided Daniels the extended time off for maternity leave and made it possible for her to return to work when she was ready. Daniels’s fans have been supportive of her becoming a mom…but…[she] has had to contend with some ugly criticism. She kept her pregnancy a secret to avoid negativity, but hateful personal attacks surfaced against her and her newborn child when someone congratulated her on Twitter after the birth of her daughter, who is now 19 months old…moms who work in the adult industry are thought to be incapable of nurturing healthy children and imparting good values because their lifestyles and careers are perceived to be immoral…
When the time is right, Daniels intends to be honest with her daughter about her career. She’s adamant about preparing her for the negative backlash she might experience from people opposed to the adult industry. “I’ll tell her Mommy has a job that some people don’t approve of, but Mommy’s proud of it and it’s for adults,” she says. Yet she also thinks it’s important to describe her career to her daughter in a filtered, age-appropriate way. Just like how police officers, bartenders, and emergency-room doctors wouldn’t share all the details of their job with their children, Daniels believes that discussing the adult industry should be no different…Daniels is not an anomaly in the adult industry, and when I asked if other adult actresses have children, Daniels says at least half do but fans just don’t know it…
If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say close to two-thirds of all escorts have children, and in fact as I’ve explained before many of them enter sex work for precisely that reason. But while most of us in the United States struggle merely to be accepted as normal citizens, some in more enlightened countries have much higher ambitions:
…Penthouse Pet and stripper Zahra Stardust has launched a bid to become Sydney’s next lord mayor by being nominated as the Sex Party’s candidate for the council’s top job…Stardust, a human rights lawyer who wants to be known as a feminist stripper, is joined by four others on her party’s ticket in the upcoming Sydney Council elections…Sex Party president Fiona Patten said…the party wanted to bring its policies into the local arena. The Sex Party wants Sydney to operate as a 24-hour city, increase the presence of drug-injecting rooms, lobby for the decriminalisation of personal drug use and end discrimination against sex industry workers…
I don’t really think Sydney is ready for a stripper mayor, but the very fact that she can run for the office without being persecuted by government actors and crucified by the media says a lot about the comparative immaturity and bigotry of American society.
Posted in Current Events, Perception | Tagged archeofeminism, Australia, Canada, dirty, drugs, ethics, Madonna/whore, massage, naturalness, porn, prohibitionist myths, psychology, Real People, sex work is work, stage names, stereotypes, stripping, The More the Better, The Public Eye | 37 Comments
on August 30, 2012 at 9:47 am | Reply Mermaid Master
Hearing about Zahra Stardust is really encouraging even if she doesn’t win. I had never heard of the Sex Party in Australia and think it is wonderful. It is also flabbergasting to me to learn the truth about sex workers in terms of them being so normal. I was a prison psychologist for many years before I retired and because our women were almost entirely not sex workers, I never got to hear the truth. I knew that they weren’t the crazy people that they are supposed to be but since at least 90% of ALL women have been sexually abused at some point, I assume that is true of sex workers as well. What do you say?
on August 30, 2012 at 10:53 am | Reply GrimGhost
Define “sexually abused.”
If you mean “raped,” I question that statistic.
If you mean “some penis-person failed to grovel in her presence on a date,” I question your definition.
on August 30, 2012 at 10:59 am | Reply Maggie McNeill
I’m with Grim Ghost there; any definition of “abuse” which includes 90% of women in Western society is at least 10x too broad to be of any clinical, legal or practical use. As a psychologist you well know that we stopped pretending all noncomformities should be treated as pathologies decades ago.
on August 30, 2012 at 10:01 am | Reply Dulio Giovanni
A new article this fast, now that is a creative spark to envy.
Well my opinion of Australia’s anti-tobacco movement aside (idiots the lot of them), that its a model of progressiveness that a stripper can run for Mayor on actual issues without having her profession repeatedly thrown back in her face. Frankly though I’d think she’d have a better chance of winning as an MP since it would allow her to draw on a more diffuse voting pool instead of running a single locality. She can in turn parlay her party votes into serving her agenda in a coalition government especially if the ruling party ends up shattered but that’s just the ruthless realpolitik in me talking.
Sensible regulation is always better than criminalization, safety is ensured, everyone gets paid, laid and/or high and the only losers are criminals and prudes. Besides sex work is honest work, infinitely more honorable than the most high bred government official who steals from his own people.
Contrast here when the backward Catholic majority is trying to ban the issuance of condoms by government hospitals and the teaching of sex ed in public schools speaks volumes about the gulf between first and third world. Doesn’t help that its election year.
Check the archives; I publish a new essay every day. And honestly, I’m still not sure how I’ve managed that for over two years! 🙂
on August 30, 2012 at 3:31 pm | Reply Korhomme (@Korhomme)
” And honestly, I’m still not sure how I’ve managed that for over two years!”
None of your regular readers are sure either, but we’re so impressed! 🙂
on September 1, 2012 at 11:49 pm | Reply jdgalt
I’m especially impressed by your level of historical scholarship. I’ve tried to research some of the same stuff and come up with a lot less. I’ll bet being a librarian gave you plenty of opportunity to explore for interesting reading material or even just accidentally run across it.
on September 2, 2012 at 12:07 am | Reply Maggie McNeill
That, and I’m blessed with an exceptional memory. For most of my life I was a voracious reader, and huge volumes of data were stored in my head; so a lot of the time, I can recall enough to help me search out the rest. In other words my memory often gives me a head start on any subject I’ve encountered before so I’m not going into the research “cold”.
on August 30, 2012 at 12:35 pm | Reply doctorpsycho1960
Those who were reading my blog back when it was called Mister Nice Guy, will remember my fond recollections of my lover B, a former call girl who taught me a lot about sexual ethics and, well, ethics in general, and life in general. I like to think that I always thought of sex workers as human beings, but B certainly made it clear to me that she was indeed a human being, working at a certain job, which was indeed a job.
on August 30, 2012 at 4:16 pm | Reply vortex
Escorts can be fantastic moms. I have to be careful how I talk about this, because the persons involved wouldn’t like it widely known, but I know of one supermom who’s been a professional escort for years and raised a child to healthy, successful adulthood. (Sadly, these kind of stories are the ones you won’t hear about, because the Moms who are so great at raising their kids will want to keep “scandal” away from them. Even though this is a woman who should be proud of her professional success, has a loving partner and a nice middle class lifestyle.)
on August 30, 2012 at 4:21 pm | Reply jz
the single most apparent lesson from your blog is that whores can not earn respect. Your blog begs “respect me”.
–the quotes from classic literature
–the “honest” in your blog title
–the pseudo science references
The lack of respect is biologically based. Not religious. Not cultural. Not legislated. We can rationalize or cogitate our way around these, but we have inherited biological repulsion to sexual perversions.
I’ve described this before: when we see a young woman with a baby and a husband, we smile, knowing the future is bright. When we see a young woman trading her sexuality for money, we see a biological dead-end.
on August 30, 2012 at 5:18 pm | Reply GrimGhost
And when we see a troll, we hope that he won’t ever marry our sister.
on August 30, 2012 at 6:08 pm | Reply Dulio Giovanni
Don’t worry I already called Hans the Norwegian, he’ll take care of this. :p
on August 30, 2012 at 6:21 pm | Reply Maggie McNeill
You know what really begs “respect me”? Pop psychoanalysis of someone you’ve never met. You know what blows any chance for that respect? Trying to disguise emotions as facts and a total inability to comprehend Occam’s Razor.
-You do know that I was a librarian before I was a whore, and that my undergraduate degree is in English literature, right?
-You do know that my blog’s title is the literal English translation of the Italian Renaissance term cortigiana onesta (meaning a courtesan who provided real companionship and intellectual stimulation in addition to sex), right?
-You do know that your belief isn’t necessary for scientific facts to be factual, that I have quite a few scientists as readers, and that they never hesitate to call me out if they catch an error or weak spot in my science, right?
The lack of respect from people like you is because you rationalize your own defensiveness and ignorance as an enlightened and rightful view. Fortunately, the journalists and academics who consult me on a regular basis have more sense.
on August 30, 2012 at 10:47 pm | Reply c andrew
Maggie,
Sounds like you’ve just been trolled by a bio-ethic conservative. They like to dress their moralizing up in pseudo-scientific clothing in hopes that the onlookers won’t realize that the emperor is naked.
Rather like how Intelligent Design evolved from Creationism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design
on October 19, 2014 at 5:10 pm | Reply joesantus
“When we see a young woman trading her sexuality for money, we see a biological dead-end.”
Standing aside from the ad hominems and inflammatories for a moment to objectively analyze JZ’s assertion…
HOW does it follow that sex-for-money would trigger a biological aversion?
Using the “woman-with-baby-and-husband-triggers-biological-acceptance,” would JZ likewise assert that humans are similarly averse to ALL female non-committed-relationship sex? For example, that any woman known to pursue or enjoy “no-strings sex” or “non-committment sex-for-free” elicits the same negative response from human biology?
JZ’s premise seems to root in JZ’s definition of human reproductive optimalness.
I agree that human biology seeks reproductive optimalness. We do seem to select sexual partners on a basis of genetic favorabilities and benefits.
However, why humans would be wired to view “woman-with-husband” as most-optimally reproductive; or why humans would be able to distinguish between reproductive acts of “woman-with-husband” and “woman-with-client”, JZ doesn’t explain.
To the contrary, it seems to me that “shotgun-spread” NON-committment sex offers better genetic and reproductive success, and therefore that humans would biologically (although not necessarily consciously) view non-committment sex to be as if not more “bright-futured” as “woman-husband sex”.
ALL heterosexual sex at least indirectly connects to human reproduction; for example, fellatio “works” because it’s ultimately connected to the attraction and excitement hetero/bi men experience as a consequence of our species reproducing heterosexually. Therefore ANY hetero sex, committment or otherwise, carries the potential for reproducing and thus perpetuating the humans species. From a species perspective, the more heterosex interaction of any sort is “optimal”, and “woman-with-husband” is actually limiting.
A prostitute (especially until relatively recent history) can potentially become pregnant hence produce a baby as readily as a “husbanded” woman can. Neither sperm nor ova enquire about relational status. Therefore, from human biological perspective, sex-for-sale contains the same potential reproductive potential as “sex-with-husband”.
So, even if sincerely academically-intentioned, JZ’s hypothesis seems erroneous to me.
on August 30, 2012 at 4:30 pm | Reply twwells
*plonk*
@Maggie, thank you for responding vigorously; your response reveals the truth of my comments. Your blog is a cry for respect; a satisfaction you can never earn.
Yes, it’s a “cry for respect” from bigots who cloak their silly Christian morality in the language of an evolutionary biology they clearly don’t understand at all. Nice try, but no. This pop psychoanalysis is even dumber than your first one.
on September 6, 2012 at 8:09 am | Reply Sailor Barsoom
I always laugh when people fall back on this sort of argument. In effect, jz, you are stating, “The fact that you disagree with me proves that I’m right.” Also, your tone is one of “nanee-nanee-boo-boo,” which seldom earns any respect from people with two digits in their age.
Maggie has a lot of respect from her readers, and she had to earn it because, largely thanks to people like you, few people will give a whore respect by default. She has earned respect with her scholarship and her skill at stating things in a way which expands understanding and knowledge.
You have earned respect by, um… trolling?
@Maggie, please stay on topic. Prostitution is a biological dead-end reproductive strategy, a perversion. We can try hard to understand it, rationalize it, accept it , but our unconscious brains still find it repulsive.
So, jz, does “perversion” interest you, hmmmm?
on August 30, 2012 at 10:13 pm | Reply Dulio Giovanni
Perisistent little troll isn’t he.
Besides to be fair if you are running only on sheer numbers of children monogamy (which likely the terminus of his argument) is the biological dead end.
on August 30, 2012 at 10:25 pm | Reply Maggie McNeill
JZ is a she. Actually, she isn’t a troll; she’s been a regular reader for two years, and sometimes compliments my columns. But every once in a while she gets on this strange “hating whores is natural” hobby horse for a day or two, then lets it go for a while. Despite that, I still trust her to conduct herself politely most of time because she always has.
No, your conscious brain rationalizes it as a perversion. Your ignorance of evolutionary history is appalling, else you would know that prostitution is far older than marriage: the former occurs in chimpanzees, but the latter does not.
on August 30, 2012 at 11:08 pm | Reply GrimGhost
Now _there’s_ a mental image!
“So, Blackfur, if you give me your banana, I’ll let you give me your banana.”
Bananas are cheap; they charge meat.
on August 31, 2012 at 7:46 pm | Reply johnl
Also marriages involving one or more old people. Dead end perversion. That’s why churches have never sanctioned them.
on September 1, 2012 at 12:30 pm | Reply Bill
Ok, I’ll bite. How is it a biological dead-end? Does your body self-steriilize or something if you get paid to have sex? Also, BIOLOGICALLY Speaking of course, I want to make sure we stick to the science, since it’s a dead-end reproductive strategy, how does the body differentiate between a guy handing over 1k for a date, and a guy spending 1k on gifts and enticements which directly lead to him getting laid? Also, if you’d be so kind, can you show me, SCIENTIFICALLY of course, exactly where my unconscious brain is? I’ve been trying to smack the sh*t out of my ID for a while, not sure if he’s hiding behind my prefontal cortex or between my temporal lobe and cerebellum.
on February 23, 2013 at 10:53 am | Reply drachefly
> Prostitution is a biological dead-end reproductive strategy…
In what sense? I don’t suppose you think that prostitutes can’t get pregnant – and the practice helps maintain the resultant offspring children.
So… what do you mean?
> but our unconscious brains still find it repulsive.
I’m sorry to hear that. How carefully did you isolate this impulse as biologically rather than culturally rooted?
on February 23, 2013 at 11:25 am | Reply Maggie McNeill
No, it’s true! Prostitutes really can’t get pregnant! Despite the fact that the majority of women in nearly every young settlement in history (New Orleans, San Francisco, mining towns all over the world, many early cities in Australia) are prostitutes, later generations only claim descent from the small minimum of “good” women! Clearly this means whores must all be infertile, and that bigotry toward us is therefore justified. Because, evolution!
on August 31, 2012 at 7:45 am | Reply Peter Nolan
I have been injured and not able to comment for a few days, sorry.
“As far as I’m concerned, the single most important mission of this blog is to make people understand that whores are no different from anybody else,”
This strikes me as a very strange thing to say. Firstly, whores are almost all women, right? So for a start whores are not like everybody else because you are not like men. I think you will concede the point that women are not like men. Never have been and never will be.
Secondly. Why would you want to be considered like other western women? Why would you stoop so low and set your sites so low? When I first came here I made a crack about I was married to a prostitute for 18 years but I just did not know it. One of your readers took that as an insult to prostitutes when it was, in fact, a compliment.
Prostitutes, in my opinion, are far SUPERIOR to 99.9% of western women. How are you superior?
1. You will actually do what a man wants for a set fee (apart from the odd disputes I would guess).
2. You are therefore basically honest in your dealings with men.
3. You appreciate men are the source of your income and, from what I have read here for more than a year, most prostitutes actually like men to at least a tolerable extent. There does not seem to be rage and hatred in the writings of the women on this site.
4. You do not expect men to be your sock puppets providing for your every whim and desire.
That list right there would put any prostitute for whom it was true in front of 99.9% of western women.
What has troubled me is that prostitutes also condone crimes by women by staying silent about them. Prostitutes know full well other women commit crimes such as false rape allegations but there are no women sex workers claiming that false rape allegations are a crime that needs to be punished severely so that REAL rape allegations are taken seriously. Prostitutes know full well women lie in family courts to get the children but they say nothing about that either.
So prostitutes, while being well in front of the average woman, could just as easily take the moral HIGH GROUND and make the claims and back them up.
1. Sex work is LAWFUL.
What two consent adults do is THEIR business and not the business of the state….and especially NOT the business of other women who openly condone and support other crimes by women that are well established as crimes like perjury, kidnapping, extortion, theft and child abuse where there are most definitely non consenting victims.
2. Sex workers stand for the agency of women and we stand for the claim that women are not only able to make oaths and sign contracts and keep them, but we claim and insist that women must make remedy for broken oaths and contracts on an equal before the law basis to men.
3. Sex workers stand for the possibility that ALL PEOPLE are entitles to be treated with dignity and a measure of respect as human beings and those who prove themselves more worthy may be treated with more dignity and respect. Sex workers stand for the possibility that no man or woman can be criminally victimised with impunity for any reason.
If you and your readers and co-workers took the HIGH moral ground over and above other women and other MEN then I think that would be a MORE effect approach.
You could bash the hypocritical men and women with
“While you openly condone false allegations, perjury, kidnapping, extortion, theft and child abuse by OTHER WOMEN where men and children are most assuredly the non consenting victims of criminal women……you persecute HONEST WOMEN of honour and integrity for providing a service that BOTH parties are happy with, BOTH parties consent to and there is NO VICTIM OF A CRIME? You hypocrites. Go deal with the REAL CRIMINAL WOMEN before attempting to invent a crime where none exists and persecuting us sex workers.”
Just my 2 cents…..this is pretty much what I tell people only I use fathers in there rather than sex workers.
on August 31, 2012 at 8:23 pm | Reply Mermaid Master
Maggie, I really don’t understand why when people come here to offer you little known scientific facts that they just made up to support their arguments, you deal with them in such a difficult way. It’s especially aggravating when you have the unmitigated gall to bring in the truth just to confuse people. (Shakes head disparagingly.)
on September 1, 2012 at 5:31 am | Reply Richard Gadsden
Ilona Staller was first elected to the Italian Parliament in 1987. Other nations are slowly catching up.
on September 1, 2012 at 12:21 pm | Reply MaMu1977
Stormy Daniels’ feminist logic is confusing to me. I’ve never been able to figure out that one tic: how can a woman who is regularly producing children be seen as “sexless”? (I’m basing this on her comments on motherhood.) It’s the equivalent of someone complaining about the low protein levels of buffalo meat, or the lack of power in their Testarossa. Saying that our culture doesn’t see motherhood as sexy is shortsighted; in my time, I’ve met more than a few pregnancy admirers, husbands who had to be dragged out of their post-partum wives’ beds and various men who would suddenly find a woman attractive if she was fit and a mother. If anything, procreation sans fertilization feeds the virginity complex of some men.
That comment always strikes me as equal parts projection (“I don’t feel sexy, therefore no one thinks I’m sexy.”), and attention seeking (“I’m still hot, y’all, even though I had this schmuck’s kid!”)
on September 1, 2012 at 1:14 pm | Reply Maggie McNeill
That’s not really a feminist issue per se, but rather the old Madonna/whore duality. Yes, it’s irrational, but it exists and is still quite prevalent.
It’s too bad that you have to tell the world that “whores are like everybody else,” when this should be obvious. But it’s also obvious that somebody does have to tell the world this, so I’m glad that you’re doing that.
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Executive Vice President for Health Affairs: Dr. Mark Newman
As Central Kentucky's largest employer, the University of Kentucky supports the recruitment and retention of unparalleled talent - individuals who inspire learning, teaching, service and healing through innovation in work solutions, initiatives, policies and programs. Impressive benefits at the University include an excellent retirement package, with an employer match that doubles the employee's contribution, a dynamic work-life program to assist employees in balancing their work with their personal lives, a wellness program to protect, maintain and promote the health of employees, and a strategic plan that nurtures diversity of thought, culture, gender and ethnicity. For more information regarding benefits, visit http://www.uky.edu/hr/benefits.
Ranked as one of the nation's best places to live and work, Lexington offers many diverse educational, cultural and commercial opportunities. With a population of more than 314,000 people, Lexington supports cultural attractions such as opera, ballet, theater and musical events. Surrounded by rolling hills and horse farms, the Bluegrass Region is known for its natural beauty. For more information: http://www.uky.edu/hr/employment/working-uk/life-in-lexington.
In fiscal year 2016, the University of Kentucky was awarded $316.5 million in external grants and contracts. UK is one of only eight universities across the country with the full range of undergraduate, graduate, professional and medical programs on one contiguous campus, leading to groundbreaking discoveries and unique cross-disciplinary research and scholarship. Moreover, UK is currently one of only 22 public institutions with a trifecta of federal designations of excellence in research: for aging, in cancer and in translational science. A new $265 million research facility, due to open in 2018, will bring together clinicians, scientists and scholars from across UK’s campus to reduce health gaps in Kentucky. These health gaps include cancer, cardiovascular disease & stroke, diabetes & obesity, substance abuse, and neuroscience & aging.
Research at UK is a dynamic enterprise encompassing both traditional scholarship and emerging technologies. UK is one of eight universities in the U.S. that has well-established programs in agriculture, engineering, medicine and pharmacy on a single campus, leading to groundbreaking discoveries and unique interdisciplinary collaboration.
In 2013, the UK Markey Cancer Center announced its designation as a National Cancer Center by the National Cancer Institute. This designation places UK among an elite group of 22 research universities that can boast the "Triple Crown" of federal research awards: NCI designation, the Clinical Translational Sciences Award, and a federally supported Alzheimer's Disease Center.
UK HealthCare has strategically developed an incredible capacity to serve the Commonwealth through its state-of-the-art patient care pavilion and emergency rooms, advanced biomedical and biological research, and a network of affiliate health care agencies throughout Kentucky. Passion for people and a vision for the "medical campus of the future" have inspired leading physicians and researchers from across the United States to join UK. Their research agenda is balanced with outreach to affiliated and partner hospitals, so Kentucky families can receive high-quality health care at home and travel to Lexington for only the most advanced, complex medical care and procedures.
The University is driven by the promise it has made to Kentucky, one that honors its land-grant mission and a heritage honed through 150 years of service to the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Six principles guide our efforts. They are: creating a vibrant undergraduate learning community, advancing a high-quality graduate and professional education portfolio, cultivating a robust research environment, developing a strong and sustainable UK infrastructure, fostering a positive work environment for faculty and staff, and ensuring a meaningful impact on the Commonwealth and the community.
Nursing Care Technician/ UKHC
Emergency Transport Comm Tech/ UKHC
Staff Nurse/ Ambulatory/ UKHC
Administrative Services Asst/ UKHC
Staff Support Associate I
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EXCLUSIVE Artist Spotlight: Audio FX
AUDIO FX
Tell us about your group dynamic?
A. The dynamics of Audio-FX are pretty complicated, in terms of who we are, but in short we have Nyx who would be considered as the director of our ops, and I, Hondo, would be the mechanic putting theory into practice (in other words Nyx is the bossy one (laughs)).
Where you from?
A. We are based in York UK and although Hondo was born here, Nyx grew up in a very small but beautiful village on the east coast.
How did you start getting into music?
A. We have always had a keen interest in music so needless to say we both started very young. Hondo began by playing the guitar from the age of 11 and has been part of various, locally well known, bands ever since. He really found his calling when he got his first laptop and began to digitally produce music at the age of 14. I, Nyx, began by playing the violin from the age of 7 and have been a collector and amateur player of various instruments ever since. I have always enjoyed singing so jumped at the chance to be part of the school choir, and loved it. I have dabbled in many different areas of music and performance but have only been part of two bands, including this one, so this has been a new and very exciting experience, one that I hope continues!
Any tips you can give to up and coming producers?
A. I think the best advice we could give anyone is to keep trying, learn from your live performances e.g. What worked well, what you think needs adjusting, which tracks maintained the audiences attention and what else could you add live that will make you memorable. Performing live is the best way to find out where you're at. We always say we live on the learning curve as you can never quite tell what you have until you open it upto objective ears. Something that we also think is very important to remember is to be professional and organised e.g. If something goes wrong live, like it often will, don't react and strategise quickly! And try not to get involved in idle gossip, rumours can cause a lot of damage to those involved. Being organised can be difficult, especially under pressure, so the first step is to maintain your calm so you can think clearly.
What is your vision for the project?
A. We have just played YO1 FESTIVAL which was one of our biggest gigs so far and had you asked before we may have answered differently! It was great to get out there and gather some real live feedback on what we have been working on and the direction we have been going. After much discussion over this last week we are going to be heading more towards jumpy, energetic and fun tracks and Nyx is going to be on the front line singing much more again. In the long term the vision we share for our project is to bring people together in a love for music so that in those brief moments they forget their differences and bounce in unison, there's to much fighting there needs to be an opposite and we hope we can make a difference. When is your next release expected to drop? A. Well that is a tricky question (laughs), I'm sure this question will make some of our fans chuckle too! We couldn't really answer this question without addressing the past failures to launch! There were various factors involved in these situations but the simple explanation would be that we wanted to ensure that we provide the best quality for our fans and we were not completely happy with the outcomes so have been holding them back. We are very close to reaching our goal on that one! But I think the best person to ask would be Tony Gonzo
How would you describe your style?
A. I would probably say complicated (laughs) maybe a little too much at times as people don't always know what to expect, which we kind of enjoyed , we are going to become a bit more predictable in the future though. As many of our fans know Audio-FX was born from the industrial underground and have transitioned through various styles during our time together but we still have a touch of each genre in everything we do as it's what we love and part of who we are. As I mentioned earlier there are going to be some changes in direction and because we are going to attempt to fuse another two genres together we're going to leave what's in store as a surprise Where do you see electronic music in 5 years? A. I think it will continue to grow and merge with other genres. I think that over the course of the next five years the music industry in general is going to become very diverse again which will be exciting as we could see other genres being revived which would be brilliant. It could spawn an entirely new sound altogether!
What is the craziest thing that has happened to you on this maniacal musical journey?
A. The whole journey has been like a crazy rollercoaster for both of us! Nyx suffered terrible stage fright in the early days and used to be in bits before going on but thankfully over time has gained confidence, we're pushing past our obstacles which feels pretty amazing! I think the craziest thing that has happened to us is after we had played a big gig in London and, due to the hotel we booked double booking us, sleeping on the sofa in the back room of the all hours venue then only to find out that I was pregnant with our daughter Lyra and had been for about 3 weeks! So it must have felt very bouncy in there during that gig! She has been a little dare devil from the minute she arrived, perfect little girl! I have to mention that the support we have had from all of our friends, family and all of the fans and supporters is the most amazing to us we just couldn't do what we do without you and we're pleased that people are enjoying it as for us that's what it's all about.
Where can people download your music?
You get can some free musical goodies here: https://www.facebook.com/audiofx.official/app_190322544333196 or http://www.soundcloud/a-fx
Are you a maniac?
A. HELL YEAH! we're like maniac 1 and maniac 2!
For collaborations or contact visit them at:
https://www.facebook.com/audiofx.official
http://www.soundcloud/a-fx
Watch this interview about A-FX and their production process:
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Archive for the tag “Governmet of USA”
Press Statement: “Some African leaders to blame for conflicts” – Obasanjo
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, March 21, 2016 – Some of Africa’s leaders are responsible for instability on the continent because they have failed to manage diversity in their societies, the former Nigerian President, General Olusegun Obasanjo, has said. By the same token, he noted, outside interference in Africa has been responsible for conflicts, citing the NATO air strikes in Libya in 2011 that led to the removal from power of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.
“The repercussions are now being felt in Mali, Nigeria and the Sahel,” Gen. Obasanjo told a press conference on the upcoming Tana High-Level forum on Security in Africa (TanaForum.org) in Ethiopia. Asked whether African leaders were to blame for the conflicts on the continent, he said: “Yes and no.”
He said leaders were failing their people because they had not been able to prevent marginalisation in their societies, prevent injustice, reduce unemployment, reduce poverty, and that they had not embraced democracy and good governance.
The theme of this year’s Forum is Africa in the Global Security Agenda.
This is apt, given the continuing fallout from the NATO intervention in Libya, for which US President Barack Obama recently criticised the British and French governments for getting rid of Gaddafi without having plans in place for effective “follow-up”.
On the issue of African peacekeeping operations, he agreed that the lack of funding from African Union member states was a major setback for peace and security on the continent.
He said that when he was head of state, he was in charge of a high-level panel to search for alternative sources of funding for the AU, but this came to nothing.
He noted that when the AU was looking for funds to counter the Ebola virus in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, member states failed to provide the money. “The AU eventually had to turn to the private sector and it was able to raise $40 million,” said Gen. Obasanjo, who is Chairman of the Tana Forum.
He was critical of AU member states for not contributing to the AU’s general budget, adding, “I think this is down to the lack of political will.”
Gen. Obasanjo noted that Ebola and migration from Africa had security implications not just for the continent “because we now live in a global community whereby if something happens in Africa, it affects the rest of the world”.
This was why Africa had to take a serious look at its security infrastructure, what Africans could do themselves to deal with these issues, and what should be the continent’s role in formulating security policies globally.
The Deputy Chairman of the Forum, Professor Andreas Eshete of Ethiopia, said that Africa had to have not only a stronger voice in the global security architecture but also for its perspectives to be taken into account and incorporated into the global security agenda.
The 5th Tana High-Level Forum will take place on 16-17 April 2016 in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia. More than 150 participants are expected to attend, including current and former Heads of State and Government, high-ranking government officials, academics, civil society representatives, experts and policymakers from the AU, UN and other international institutions.
Posted in Africa, Agriculture, Aid, Army, Business, Civil Service, Development, Economic Measures, Economy, Ethics, Governance, Government, Law, Leadership, Politics and tagged African Leaders, African Leadership, African Union, Andreas Eshete, AU, AU General Budget, Barack Obama, British Government, Civil Society, Civil Society Organizations, Col. Gadaffi, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, CSO, Ethiopia, France, Gadaffi, Global Community, Global Security Agenda, Gobal Security Architecture, Good governance, GoUSA, Government of France, Governmet of USA, International Institutions, Lack Political Will, Libiya, Libya, Marginalisation, Muamar Qadhafi, NATO, Nato Intervention, Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo, Poverty, President Obama, President Obasanjo, Prevent Injustice, Qadhafi, Security, State Security, TANA Forum, Tana High-Level Forum, UK, UN, Unemployment, United Nations, United States of America, USA | Leave a comment
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Home Attorneys Reg P. Wydeven
with Reg
Direct Dial:
Purity Can Be Taxing
San Fran Ban
The Press Rocks
Trade Claw Marks
New Claws in New York Pet Statutes
Hoping to follow in his father’s footsteps from a young age, Reg’s practice primarily consists of advising individuals on estate planning, estate settlement and elder law matters. His dad, Dennis, retired from McCarty Law in 2004 and the two worked closely in these areas until that time. As Reg represents clients in matters like guardianship proceedings and long-term care admissions, he feels grateful to be able to offer families such thorough legal help in their time of need.
Reg has been honored as a “Rising Star” for his work in elder law and also received the local “Future 15 Young Professional Award.” He also writes a weekly FYI column for The Post Crescent, which provides legal commentary on a wide array of topics including estate planning, product liability, investments, and unconventional legal news.
J.D., 1998, University of Wisconsin-Madison
B.A., magna cum laude, 1995, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire
Director, SOAR Fox Cities (formerly known as The ARC of the Fox Cities)
Member, Kimberly Historical Committee
Member, National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys
More About Reg
Reg was raised in Kimberly and this is where he and his wife, Mary, have made a home with their two children today. He plays rec league basketball and softball, proudly representing McCarty Law’s “Legal Eagles” teams. Reg is also an avid Star Wars fan with just a fraction of his galactic-themed memorabilia on display at the office. A little-known fact? Reg graduated from law school with the 14th Dalai Lama in 1998 when the University of Wisconsin awarded him an honorary degree.
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Pennsylvania: Philadelphia Mayor may be “completely off his rocker” with soda tax proposal
DAVID KALL TAX AND BENEFITS CHALLENGES MAR 11, 2016
On March 3, 2016, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney gave his first budget address as mayor. Among other things, he proposed an additional $26 million investment over the next five years in the city’s pension fund, which is currently financed at less than 50 percent. The governor expects it to cost $3.4 billion to fix that deficit, “nearly the cost of [Philadelphia’s] current annual budget.”
One way that Mayor Kenney hopes to pay for this is by implementing a 3 percent sin tax on the distribution of sugary soda beverages. In addition, the mayor wants to use the annual proceeds of $95 million to pay for quality pre-k, community schools, and investments in community infrastructure and energy efficiency. Although he thinks that those who populate Big Soda companies are “good people,” he opposes the fact that they charge “our citizens, small businesses, and distributors much, much more than what it costs for them to make the soda.”
The mayor also disputes Big Soda’s claim that a tax on their products would hurt low-income, minority communities, when “the truth is that soda companies are actually targeting their advertising at low-income, minority communities.” To support his contention, Mayor Kelley cited a Yale study in his speech that found that African-American kids are 80-90 percent more likely to see ads for sugary beverages than their white counterparts.
Beyond this, Mayor Kelley contradicted the argument that the tax would cause an employment crisis by analogizing the city’s experience with a recently implemented liquor tax, which did not adversely affect employment rates.
Scott Drenkard, an economist at the Tax Foundation, notes that the 3 percent sugar tax, which works out to about 3 cents per ounce or 36 cents per can, is 48 times higher than the excise tax on beer. It is also three times larger than the only other soda tax in the nation, in Berkeley, CA, where the 1 cent per ounce tax went into effect in March 2015. This huge differential caused one Philly.com journalist, Will Bunch, to wonder whether Mayor Kenney is “completely off his rocker.”
There are good reasons to tax sugary beverages, mainly related to mitigation of diseases suffered by people who consume diets with a lot of added sugar, like diabetes, heart and liver disease, obesity, and tooth decay. However, this is not Mayor Kenney’s rationale; as noted above, he is focusing on revenue generation to pay for education, infrastructure, and pensions. But as Drenkard points out, if people actually did stop consuming sugary beverages, revenue generation would come to a halt, and the intended beneficiaries would be back where they started. Or, more likely, consumers would buy their soda outside of Philadelphia, in which case “you’ve got the same hole in your pre-K budget, and there are still people drinking soda.”
Drenkard asserts that “[i]f public pre-K is worth funding, it’s worth funding with real, broad based taxes like income and sales taxes. Those taxes provide much more stable revenue. You can’t lean on a gimmick like this to sustain an ongoing important educational program.”
Bunch has a different problem with the proposal, which he characterizes as a “terrible, terrible idea” – some soda drinkers would simply switch to diet soda, which also causes obesity, diabetes, and other health problems.
One thing that both can likely agree on is that sin taxes are regressive, and thus have a disproportionate effect on poor people, as Bunch recognizes in his piece. Bunch suggests that there should at least be a tax on diet soda as well to make the surcharge “more palatable…politically.”
One other potential problem is that the tax may not generate the revenue Mayor Kelley expects it to. Six months after the Berkeley soda tax went into effect, we addressed the fact that consumers were largely spared from the price increases: two big distributors, Coke and Pepsi, only passed on 22 percent of the tax to consumers.
TAGS: PENNSYLVANIA, SODA TAX
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5 Questions: Feldman on risk of bisphenol A in plastic bottles
Bisphenol A - an estrogenlike compound in polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resin - has been popping up in the news a lot lately. On April 18, Canada announced that it would ban baby bottles containing bisphenol A beginning in mid-June. The action would make Canada the first country in the world to set exposure limits on the chemical. In addition, the U.S. National Toxicology Program, which is part of the National Institutes of Health, recently concluded that there is 'some concern' that fetuses, infants and children may be harmed by the amounts of bisphenol A that leach out of many brands of baby bottles, hard-plastic water bottles and food cans lined with epoxy resin. In the early 1990s, David Feldman, MD, and his team at the School of Medicine were the first researchers to identify and call attention to the possible impact of low levels of bisphenol A on human health. Science writer Krista Conger catches up with Feldman, an emeritus professor of endocrinology, to learn more.
1. How did you first identify bisphenol A?
Feldman: It was basically an accident; we were not looking for it. We study receptors for steroid hormones like estrogen, and wondered if they had originally evolved in yeast. Although that turned out not to be the case, we were looking for both receptors and hormones when we found what looked like an estrogenic molecule in the yeast tissue culture medium we grew the yeast in. However, the medium had been sterilized by autoclaving (a process that involves very high heat and pressure) in 'autoclavable' polycarbonate flasks. We identified the estrogenic molecule as BPA using mass spectrometry, and discovered it was present even in samples of pure water that had been autoclaved in the flasks. At that point we realized that we had identified a molecule that was leaching out of the plastic that, because of its estrogenic hormonelike properties, had the potential to be important and perhaps even dangerous to people who were eating or drinking out of containers made of this type of plastic, polycarbonate. Since polycarbonate has so many uses as a clear and strong plastic, it is ubiquitous in packaging food and beverages, and epoxy resin is used in lining metal cans.
2. What did you do next?
Feldman: We wanted to let people and governmental authorities know what we found. We sent samples to the company that made the polycarbonate flasks to warn them of the problem, but they couldn't find the bisphenol A. Our biological tests were more sensitive than the tests they were using, which were meant to identify levels of more than 25 to 50 parts per billion. Anything under that amount was considered to be safe. In contrast, we were picking up levels, and seeing estrogenic biological effects, at 5 to 10 parts per billion.
3. So, were the former regulations wrong? And why has it taken so long - nearly 15 years - to get attention?
Feldman: It's very difficult to know what 'safe' levels are. Although we published our findings in 1993, it was unclear for a long time how much of the bisphenol A was absorbed by humans, how fast it accumulated and even whether or not it was damaging to human health. In fact, to date there have been no studies showing that bisphenol A exposure affects human health. Although subsequent studies have shown that the levels to which humans are exposed do have adverse biological effects in laboratory animals, it would of course be unethical to conduct similar dosing studies in humans.
One thing we do know is that, in the 2003-04 National Health and Nutrition Survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control, 93 percent of about 2,500 people ages 6 and above had detectable levels of bisphenol A in their urine. So almost everyone is exposed. We also know that bisphenol A is similar in chemical structure to diethylstilbestrol, a synthetic estrogen that has been linked to the development of vaginal cancer and other toxicities in the daughters of women who took the drug during the '50s and '60s to prevent miscarriage. So we know that it is possible for some of these synthetic estrogenlike compounds to have bad effects many years after initial exposure. We also need to remember that the effects of these so-called 'environmental estrogens' or 'endocrine disrupters' are additive. There are many different ways we can be exposed to these various compounds and they are cumulative.
4. Do you feel it is time for the individual consumer to take protective action?
Feldman: Well, I feel there's enough evidence to support a 'better safe than sorry' approach, particularly for fetuses, infants and children. Not only do they weigh much less than adults, making their relative exposure greater, but they are also still developing estrogen-sensitive breast and prostate tissue. In my opinion, the prudent thing for current or expectant parents or those planning a pregnancy to do would be to limit their child's exposure to bisphenol A by avoiding bottles and cups that are made of polycarbonate, and to microwave food in glass containers whenever possible. For adults, however, canned foods and beverages may be the most important source of bisphenol A.
Manufacturers are already responding to this change in consumer demand. For example, Nalgene has just announced that it will no longer make reusable drinking containers with plastic containing bisphenol A, and Wal-Mart will no longer sell baby bottles with bisphenol A. Once these major merchants begin demanding bisphenol A-free alternatives, we can hope the use of polycarbonate to package food and beverages will decline.
5. Have you changed your own habits in the lab or at home because of your bisphenol-A findings?
Feldman: Yes, to some extent. I do strongly advise my children to avoid exposing our grandchildren to bisphenol A. I don't microwave food in plastic containers, or wash the containers in the dishwasher because heat and some detergents cause leaching. I try to limit the amount of canned food I eat, or rinse the food before consuming the contents. Of course, we no longer autoclave laboratory materials in plastic. Overall, it is safest to try to be careful and avoid bisphenol A and other endocrine disrupters.
By Krista Conger
Krista Conger is a science writer for the medical school’s Office of Communication & Public Affairs.
Bisphenol A facts
Bisphenol A is a component of polycarbonate plastic and epoxy resin. Epoxy resins are used to coat metal food cans and bottle tops.
Painkiller-vitamin D combo slows prostate cancer growth
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Home | Press Releases | ARCHDIOCESE OF LOS ANGELES ANNOUNCES SPECIAL COLLECTION, EMERGENCY DROP BOXES FOR TYPHOON HAIYAN VICTIMS
ARCHDIOCESE OF LOS ANGELES ANNOUNCES SPECIAL COLLECTION, EMERGENCY DROP BOXES FOR TYPHOON HAIYAN VICTIMS
November 14, 2013 | By: newsroom | Press Releases |
Parishes across the Archdiocese of Los Angeles will be taking up a second collection during
Masses over the next two weeks to assist Catholic Relief Services in their efforts to aid victims
of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines.
All masses Sunday at Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, 555 W. Temple St., will include the
second collection. Masses are at 8 a.m., 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. (Spanish).
“Please keep the people of the Philippines in your prayers as they start to rebuild from this
storm,” said Auxiliary Bishop Alexander Salazar, the Archdiocese’s Director of Life, Justice and
Peace. “They need financial support and prayers more than ever.”
Additionally, the Archdiocese’s Office of Filipino Ministry, in partnership with the Knights of
Columbus, is calling on parishes to set up drop boxes for people to donate emergency items, such
as clothing, MRE (Meals, ready-to-eat like Power bars, Clif bars, Ensure), blankets and toiletries
that will be shipped Nov. 29 from the Port of Los Angeles to the Philippines.
So far, in addition to the Cathedral, the following parishes are confirmed drop-off locations for
relief goods and donations:
St. Anthony Catholic Church, 215 Lomita St., El Segundo
Our Lady of Perpetual Help, 23233 Lyons Ave., Newhall
St. Madeleine Church, 931 E. Kingsley Ave., Pomona
St. Anthony Catholic Church, 600 Olive Ave., Long Beach
St. Philomena Church, 21900 S. Main St., Carson
Holy Family Church, 18708 Clarkdale Ave., Artesia
St. Genevieve Church, 14061 Roscoe Blvd., Panorama City
St. Lorenzo Ruiz Church, 747 Meadow Pass Rd., Walnut
Sacred Heart Church, 2889 N. Lincoln Ave., Altadena
St. John’s Seminary, 5012 Seminary Rd., Camarillo
Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, 4950 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles
Catholic Relief Services (CRS) is the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic
community in the United States. For the latest information about CRS’ response to Typhoon
Haiyan, or to donate online, please visit
www.crs.org
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All posts for the month June, 2015
Note: The following includes an extensive excerpt from the author’s unpublished thesis entitled, “Unconditional Loyalty to the Cause: Southern Whiteness, Jewish Women, and Anti-Semitism, 1860-1913” for the MA in Judaic Studies program at Concordia University.
After the shooting attack on the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina on Wednesday, June 17, 2015 where Dylann Roof, 21 shot and killed nine African Americans, in what is being deemed a racist attack, the debate over South Carolina‘s official usage of the Confederate flag is again heating up. On Saturday, June 20, protesters gathered objecting to the flag remaining at the capital, thousands signed a petition on moveon.org. There are now calls for the flag to be removed from its official spot in South Carolina’s state capitol of Columbia.
Mitt Romney, the 2012 GOP Presidential nominee set the bar high calling for the flag’s removal in a tweet on Saturday, June 20, 2015, where he called it a “symbol of racial hatred.” Romney shares the same views as President Barack Obama, who has long called for the flag’s removal. One by one, the Republican presidential candidates weighed in on the issue, many called an issue for the state to decide, a few called for its downright removal including front runner Jeb Bush. In the wake of the movement to remove the flag, SC governor Nikki Haley, Charleston’s mayor, and a group of bipartisan legislators agreed on Monday, June 22, the flag has to go. The state started the process by removing the flag from the Citadel just a day later on Tuesday, June 23.
South Carolina is not the only state to look to end the Confederate flag’s continued life; Virginia will no longer allow the flag to appear on any license plates. The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday, June 18 that it was not a violation of the first amendment for the government deny certain images or words be placed on specialty license plates. The case revolved around the Texas Motor Vehicles Board refusing the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) a license plate design with the Confederate flag on it. Retailers including Walmart, Etsy, Sears and Amazon.com will no longer sell any items with the Confederate flag on them. The calls are not just to remove Confederate flags, but statues and monuments relating to the Confederacy trying wipe away a major part of American history.
In a long held tradition sacred for the state, South Carolina flies in addition to the American flag the Confederate flag. South Carolina has fought to keep flying the flag, which they deem an important part of “their heritage.” For many others it is a symbol of the Civil War and slavery, a “dark” time in American history. After the Charleston church shooting, and the perpetrator’s racist motives and plans becoming clearer, many are calling for the flag to be removed from the state capitol grounds in Columbia. In 2000, after a similar fight, civil rights activists had a minor victory when the flag was removed from inside the statehouse and capitol dome, however, it remained flying on the grounds.
For Southerners the flag has historical significance for other especially after the shooting it is considered even more so a symbol of racial hatred and a reminder of slavery. The Confederate south was not racially hostile to every racial group that did not fit the mold of a white Christian, in fact American Jews found an oasis in the antebellum and Civil War south, free of the anti-Jewish prejudice that was prevalent in the North at that time. Part of the reason was that American Jews joined and found common ground with Southern White Christians and partook in every aspect of Southern life, the good, the bad, slavery, racism, participating in every aspect of the Civil War on the side of the South and the Confederacy.
Even from Colonial times, life in America for Jews offered more freedom than they could hope for in Europe. In North America, the division of society was based less on religion, as had been the case in Europe, but on skin color. The first slaves arrived in Virginia in 1619, even before the arrival of the first Jews in 1654, and although slavery was not the system that it would become, by the time Jews began arriving, the distinction between black and white was set in colonial society. Slavery spread throughout the American colonies with Rhode Island acting as an exemption. There are two primary reasons that motivated a slavery system in America; slave labor was a driving force behind economic development, as well as the main method in determining class status.
Whiteness equaled to freedom, while slave ownership, and the number of slaves owned indicated wealth and social status; it allowed the poorest of whites to remain always above blacks in the social ladder. In a society were race was more important than religion, Jews believed they could escape religious persecution because they were white, and they could exploit this fact to gain freedom and social acceptance. Fifty years after their entrance into America, Jews had already integrated and assimilated themselves through the practice of owning slaves; Jewish involvement in the slave trade and slavery was another way to integrate with America’s Christian population. The South’s peculiar institution of slavery touched every Jew that chose to live in the South in the antebellum period, and in the antebellum period, this was a large portion of America’s Jewish population.
The population of Jewish in the southern colonies and then states was practically old as their founding. Robert Rosen writing in The Jewish Confederates points out, Southern Jews were an integral part of the Confederate States of America and had been breathing the free air of Dixie for 200 years” by the time the Civil War ended.[i] The historian Steven Hertzberg recounts in Strangers within the Gate City: The Jews of Atlanta, 1845-1915, “Jews had resided in the South since the seventeenth century, and a party of 42 Jews landed at Savannah in July 1733, just five months after the arrival of Georgia’s first colonists. At the time of the first federal census in 1790, nearly half of the approximately 1,300 to 1,500 Jews in the United States lived below the Mason-Dixon Line, and Charleston, with an estimated 200 Jewish inhabitants, sheltered the second largest Jewish community in the country.” [ii]
By 1820, Charleston would surpass New York as the most populous Jewish city in the new nation with a total 700 Jews living there. Although during this period, a good portion of America’s Jews made their home in the South their numbers were small in comparison to the Southern white majority. Clive Webb argues in Fight Against Fear: Southern Jews and Black Civil Rights, “Jews never constituted more than a tiny percentage of the southern population. Their desire for social acceptance ensured their compliance with the laws and customs of their adopted homeland. In particular this involved their acceptance of slavery and then racial segregation.” [iii]
Jews thoroughly accepted slavery; its practices and rules, and ingrained it into the fabric and day to day living of their lives. Whichever economic pursuit Southern Jews were involved in, or their economic status in Southern society; they were fervent advocates of slavery. Jews participated in the plantation lifestyle; adhered to Southern norms in their treatment of their slaves, and were even involved in slave trading. On Jewish owned plantations, slaves would work as either field hands, or house servants, while urban dwelling Jews would own slaves that worked in their homes and businesses or hired them out, while a smaller number of Jews even participated in the slave trade.
Jews participated in these practices because they wanted to feel they belonged to the chivalry and elite Southern society. Participating in the slave system was the primary method for Southern Jews to belong to white Southern society, but also partaking in the South’s code of honor, and duels were another, historian “Mark I. Greenberg points out that Jews adopted the Southern way of life, including the code of honor, dueling, slavery and Southern notions about race and states’ rights.”[iv]
Adhering to the majority allowed Jews to be as “white” as Southern Christians, and they also could contrast sharply with the slave population, move up in American society, and take part equally in the American democratic dream; a position of equality continually denied to Jews in their European countries of origin. Historians Marvin Perry and Frederick Schweitzer write in Antisemitism: Myth and Hate from Antiquity to the Present, “The views of southern Jews on race and slavery differed little from other white southerners who regarded slavery as the natural condition of blacks. An insecure minority eager to be accepted as equals by the society which they dwelled, southern Jews, like other southerners, did not challenge the slave system.” [v]
Many Jews were recent immigrants who did not want to instigate the segregationist anti-Semitism they experienced in Europe by their opposition. As Webb argues “Confronted with such a hostile political climate, Jews had little choice but to accept slavery. Those who did harbor doubts about the ethics of the slave system kept such thoughts to themselves for fear of provoking an anti-Semitic backlash. Gary Zola has indeed suggested that at times this determination to avoid conflict caused southern Jews to support slavery even more aggressively than other whites.”[vi]
This whiteness allowed many Southern Jews to shared similar experiences and beliefs about slavery as their Christian counterparts did, and were devoted to the cause. America’s Jews as Jacob Rader Marcus writes had “a readiness, if not an eagerness, to adapt themselves to the life and culture about them”[vii] In fact Southern Jewry’s participation in the South cultural and societal norms such as slavery and the honor code did serve as Jews’ acceptance into the Christian society as white Southerners. As Lauren Winner claims, “Recent scholarship has attempted to argue that Jews were accepted fully into the society of the Old South. One recent enterprising scholar claimed that Jews in antebellum South Carolina, because they dueled, sported hoop skirts, and owned slaves, were full participants in Southern society.”[viii]
Southern Jews did enjoy a relative prejudice free life in the antebellum South, “Nowhere else in the United States had Jews been as fully accepted into the mainstream of society. Nowhere else in the United States had Jews become as fully integrated into the political and economic fabric of everyday life.”[ix] In their opinion, it was a privilege they held dear, and supported the South’s peculiar institutions to hold on to this acceptance.
There was still one aspect however; Southern Jews differed from the rest of the Southern white population: religion. Jews could not participate in Christian evangelism that was so prevalent in the South during that period. As Lauren Winner points out in her article “Taking up the Cross: Conversion among black and white Jews in the Civil War South”, “That Jews could not engage in that essential feature of the South’s social landscape-evangelicalism-is, in this scholar’s estimation, inconsequential at best.” [x] That was why is was so essential in Southern Jewry’s opinion to integrate and participate in the South’s other customs to ensure they would be considered white, and avoid any religious animosity, and anti-Jewish prejudice was more prevalent in the North.
In nineteenth century, America slavery became probably the most divisive issue both politically and socially, and one of the main causes leading to the Civil War (1861-1865). As the doyen of history of Jews during the Civil War Bertram Korn indicates, “had Negro slavery not been an integral aspect of the life of the Old South, there would have been no conflict, no secession, no war. Differences there might have been, but not violence and bloodshed. Slavery was the single indigestible element in the life of the American people which fostered disunion, strife, and carnage, just as the concomitant race problem has continued to an important degree to be a divisive force in American life to this day.”[xi]
Its effects were not unnoticed on America’s small but ever growing Jewish population. Slavery was predominately a Southern issue although its moral and political ramifications affected the entire American population. Americans took positions on the issue, while many remained indifferent. There was however, a small minority of northern reformers who believed that slavery should be abolished in the South, and they worked towards this goal much to the resentment of Americans both in the North and much more vehemently in the South.
As relative newcomers to America, the majority of the Jewish population did not speak out against slavery; essentially all of the South’s small Jewish population supported slavery, since it was their entrée into acceptance by the Christian majority. Korn, notes “No Jewish political figure of the Old South ever expressed reservations about the justice of slavery or the rightness of the Southern position.”[xii]
Even when slavery was becoming more controversial, and Civil War loomed Southern Jews still continued their support of slavery. As Arthur Hertzberg writes in The Jews of America: Four Centuries of an Uneasy Encounter : A History, “In the 1850s most people in America hoped that the issue of slavery could be avoided; so did most Jews. In the Southern states Jews almost unanimously supported the proslavery interests.”[xiii] Hasia Diner concurs explaining in The Jews of the United States, “Nothing demonstrated this fact better than the Civil War and the issue of slavery. Southern Jews regarded the matter no differently than did their neighbors. Three thousand Jewish men fought in gray uniforms, and Jewish women aided the cause with volunteer work.”[xiv]
Jews were loyal to slavery, the Southern way of life, and the Confederate cause. As Abolitionist Rabbi Bernhard Felsenthal observed “Israelites residing in New Orleans are man by man—with very few exceptions—ardently in favor of secession, and many among them are intense fanatics.” [xv] Most Southern Jews supported the South’s secession from the Union and the newly established Confederacy, whether they were citizens of the South for many years or recently arrived immigrants. The South had been good to its Jewish population they flourished economically, politically and socially in a Christian society, essentially without anti-Semitism.
Most Jews however, believed their support for the Confederacy; states’ rights, and slavery were the key to maintaining acceptance as a part of the white majority. As Oscar R. Williams in “Historical Impressions of Black Jewish Relations Prior to World War II” writes, “During the Civil War Jews defended the system which insured them acceptance and success in the South.” [xvi] While Webb writes that “Through their loyal support for secession, southern Jews therefore hoped to reinforce their social acceptance.”[xvii] As Robert Rosen describes in Confederate Charleston, “The Charleston Jewish community gave its enthusiastic support to the Confederacy. Having found in South Carolina from colonial times a haven from religious persecution, a freedom to practice their religion, and the freedom to engage in all forms of commerce, the Jews of Charleston showed great devotion to the Confederate cause.”[xviii]
All over the South, Jews heeded the call to support the Confederate cause. The obvious choice for most men was to join a company in the Confederate army, many Southern Jews could not physically give their support, they used the other means they had in the powers to help in the Confederacy, for some it was political and most often monetary contributions. Southern Jewry’s devotion to the Confederacy translated into the actions in support of the Southern cause approximately two to three thousand Jewish men fought for the gray, while on the home front the women worked as loyal volunteers, as nurses resisting Northern, Yankee troops’ growing occupation of their beloved South. Rosen claims, “Thus, overwhelmingly, and almost unanimously, some with fear and trepidation, others with courage and enthusiasm, some with reservations, others with a firm unflinching resolve, Southern Jewry cast its lot with the Confederate States of America.”[xix]
So fierce was Jewish devotion to Southern ideals that when as Rosen writes “in April 1861 the Jewish messenger of New York City called upon American Jewry to “rally as one man for the Union and Constitution,” the Jews of Shreveport responded with a resolution denouncing the newspaper and its editor
“We, the Hebrew congregation of Shreveport,” the resolution began, “scorn and repel your advice, although we might be called Southern rebels; still, as law-abiding citizens, we solemnly pledge ourselves to stand by, protect, and honor the flag, with its stars and stripes, the Union and Constitution of the Southern Confederacy, with our lives, liberty, and all that is dear to us.”[xx] Southern rabbis agreed with the congregations’ support of the war and preached and prayed for the Confederacy in their services: “This once happy country is enflamed by the fury of war; a menacing enemy is arrayed against the rights, and liberties and freedom of this, our Confederacy;…Here I stand now with many thousands of the sons of the sunny South, to face the foe, to drive him back, and to defend our natural rights, O Lord…Be unto the Army of the Confederacy as though were of the old, unto us, thy chosen people-Inspire them with patriotism!”[xxi]
Southern Jewish men that remained on the home front during the war also made tremendous contributions in support of the war. Many men continued their mercantile businesses, or as peddlers or in their stores, supplying the troops as well as those that remained on the home front. They also worked as innkeepers, tanners, apothecaries, doctors or teachers.[xxii] Many who unable to literally go off to fight in the war would join the home guard or militia to protect the city or town where they lived. The Jewish men who remained on the home front were also involved in philanthropic efforts.
The most common form of philanthropy was the creation of benevolent societies to help the poor affected the war, donate money to hospitals, and bury dead Confederate Jewish soldiers in Jewish cemeteries. Southern rabbis remained fervent advocates of the South and the Confederacy throughout the war, as were their Christian counterparts; they prayed for and praised the Confederacy in their services. Rabbi James Gutheim of Montgomery, AL, had recently arrived in the South 1843, prayed for it at the onset of the war, asking for divine intervention for “our beloved country, the Confederate States of America. May our young Republic increase in strength, prosperity and renown.”[xxiii]
Southern Jews supported the Confederacy because they believed they had a haven from the anti-Semitism that hounded them in Europe this was especially true for new and recent immigrants from Central Europe, whom compromised a majority of Southern Jews serving in the Confederate Army. Rosen continues, “Many like “Ike” Hermann, had found the land of Canaan. Others, like Gustavus Poznanski, had found their Jerusalem, their Palestine. Still others, like Marcus Baum, Jacob Samuels, Adolph Proskauer and Herschell Kempner, had finally found their Fatherland.”[xxiv] Leopold Weil a Jewish cotton merchant wrote at the time “This land has been good to all of us…I shall fight to my last breath and to the full extent of my fortune to defend that in which I believe.”[xxv] Weil did he enlisted in the Confederate Army as a lieutenant.
Southern Jewry was motivated to support the Confederacy as Webb explains, “there were a number of reasons why Jews championed the Confederate cause. Like many southern Jews, Leopold Weil attained privilege and prosperity through the exploitation of slave labor. The South also offered safe haven to thousands of Jews who fled persecution in Europe. Although Weil recognized that slavery was immoral, he was not prepared to abandon a land that “has been good to all of us.”[xxvi] Even many years after the war Southern Jews could declaring how good the South was for immigrant Jews Isaac “Ike” Hermann, a private 1st Georgia Infantry proclaimed “I found in [the South] an ideal and harmonious people; they treated me as one of their own; in fact for me, it was the land of Canaan where milk and honey flowed.” [xxvii] Testifying that Southern Jewry in the antebellum period had found in the South the haven from prejudice they had been looking for.
When Civil War erupted after the Southern states seceded from the Union, women in the South faced an upheaval as their way of life was threatened to be changed forever. For Southern Jewish women were fiercely attached to the Southern way of life, and this manifested itself into a deep loyalty for the Confederacy and support that it would win the war. As historians Hasia Diner and Beryl Lieff Benderly indicate in Her Works Prise Her: A History of Jewish Women in America from Colonial Times to the Present, “When the Civil War split America, Jews, as Americans, supported both sides, either as passionate proponents of the Union or devoted sons and daughters of the Confederacy.” [xxviii] Jacob Rader Marcus, the doyen of American Jewish history concurs in Memoirs of American Jews, 1775-1865, “The apogee of patriotism was reached by the Southern women, including Jewesses.”[xxix] While Marli F. Weiner explains in Mistresses and Slaves: Plantation Women in South Carolina, 1830-80, “In the antebellum South gender and race were the two most significant shapers of individual experiences. Other factors such as class, region, religion, family skill, personality even appearance, were also important, of course but being born free or enslaved, male or female determined the possibilities and limitations for each individual.” [xxx]
The majority of these Jewish women were not recent immigrants, but American born and shared the lifestyle and values of their Christian counterparts. As Diner and Benderly recount, “Rosana [Osterman], the Levy sisters, and the Natchez M[a]yer daughters were not, of course, recent immigrants but rather the American-born descendants of earlier migrant generations. But they, like Jews throughout the country, both newly arrived and long established, saw themselves as wholehearted Americans and fashioned their lives and identities in response to an American reality quite unlike anything Jews had ever experienced elsewhere.”[xxxi] These women were Jewish southern belles and lived their lives accordingly.
These Southern Jewish women were integrated in Southern society, and were attached to lifestyle they had become accustomed to, and as the war, demonstrated Southerners and the Confederacy were more tolerant of Jews than the Union army that ravaged the South, Southern Jewish recognized this and devotedly aligned themselves with their beloved South at all costs. Marcus writes, “The Southern Jewesses were fanatically, almost hysterically, passionate in their sympathies for their new regime. Were they trying to prove that they were more ardent than their neighbors? Why?”[xxxii]
Like many other Christian women in the South, Southern women contributed on many levels through volunteer work, as war supply collectors, sewing circles, and nursing, but the far more committed chose to rebel against the Union officials. Jewish women especially took advantage of this new politicizing position the war granted women by demonstrating their loyalty to the South, through fiercer methods, often through illegal means including, smuggling, espionage, and belligerency. Practicing slavery and being perceived as white, and generally adhering to the South’s social norms helped Southern Jewry escape Anti-Semitism.\
When Civil War erupted the North was threatening the Southern oasis Jews had created, virtually free of old prejudices. The North in contrast, was more anti-Semitic and welcomed less its Jewish population into the Christian majority. Although the majority of Southerners Jews tried to defend the Confederacy and the land that had been so good to them, Southern women left on the home front were supporters that were even more ardent. As Catherine Clinton explains, “The Civil War, many Southern Jews felt, would change all this. Not unlike African Americans, who have believed throughout U.S. history that military service would guarantee them rights of full citizenship, Southern Jews expected that if they embraced the Confederate cause wholeheartedly, they would in turn be embraced by the Confederacy and accorded a new role in the society of the new nation.”[xxxiii]
Southern Jewish women adhered to the similar place other Southern women took in society, but also in supporting the Confederacy, Southern Jewish women took on added role defending Southern Jewry whiteness and place in Southern Christian society with their war efforts. To the end, Southern Jews were even more enthusiastic towards their allegiance to all Southern practices, especially Jewish women.
Southern Jewish women knew that the Southern way of life was integral to maintaining the racial equilibrium for Jews and for avoiding anti-Semitism. As Steven Hertzberg writes in Strangers Within The Gate City: The Jews Of Atlanta, 1845- 1915, “While suspicion engendered by their foreign birth and alien religion may have induced some Jews to conform outwardly to regional values as a means of protective coloration, most willingly embraced Southern attitudes because they had a consuming desire to succeed in their new home.”[xxxiv] These women would go to great lengths to support the Confederacy in the manner they best knew how, and within the limits of the white womanhood, they wished to maintain. They felt if they would defend the Confederacy on the home front, after the war they would keep being defined as white Southerners, and find a sense of belonging in the land they were living in.
The Jews’ harmony living in a Southern Christian society however was not without anti-Semitism. Seth Forman explain in his article “The Unbearable Whiteness of Being Jewish: Desegregation in the South and the Crisis of Jewish Liberalism,” “All of this does not mean that the position of Southern Jews was not in any way precarious. Living in a region characterized largely by an overpowering caste system and fierce racial bigotry, Southern Jews treaded lightly and made their way in a place that was largely ambivalent about their presence.” [xxxv] Webb concurs, “Southern Jews did not succeed entirely in eroding anti-Semitism.” [xxxvi]
Even with all Southern Jewry’s efforts and support for Southern institutions, they could not entirely escape anti-Jewish prejudice in the South, since it essentially began with their arrival in 1733, as Hertzberg claims “even in the colonies which were hospitable to Jews.”[xxxvii] Winner explains, “The new nation did not come to fruition, and neither did Southern Jews’ expectations of their support of the Confederacy. To the contrary, they found that during wartime, their support was not welcomed but, rather, received warily. Protestant Confederates blamed Southern Jews when any aspect of the war effort went wrong, accusing them of espionage, racketeering, and conspiracy.”[xxxviii]
With trying times, and the increase of the Jewish population in 1850 caused an increase in anti-Semitism. A general dislike of all aliens and foreigners increased during the Civil War. Korn describes, “Additional social factors peculiar to life in the South tended to strengthen and heighten the reaction to Jews: a general dislike of all aliens and foreigners which, during the War, created the legend that the Union Army was a band of German and Irish hirelings and mercenaries, while the Confederate Army was said to be exclusively native; a wide-spread suspicion of the merchant and storekeeper, typical of a society dominated by the plantation owner and farmer.”[xxxix]
Jews however, hoped that their strict adherence to Southern norms, with either keep anti-Semitism to a minimum or restrict any further occurrence of anti-Jewish activity. As the Civil War was becoming a reality, Jewish support for the Confederacy, states’ rights, and ultimately slavery was the key according to the Southern Jewish population to acceptance as a part of the white majority. Forman writes, “For the most part, however, these kinds of actions were mitigated by countervailing Southern ideas concerning the equality of all white men, the overriding concern with the subordination of black Americans, and the usefulness of the Jews as merchants and artisans. Spread thinly throughout the vast region, the Jews in the South tended to avoid taking public stands on controversial issues. When the issue of slavery tore the country in two during the Civil War, for example, Southern Jews largely accepted slavery and supported the South.[xl]
The rise in anti-Semitism commenced as the war turned towards the worse for the South, defeat was imminent, and the economy worsened with food and supplies difficult to acquire as the war raged on. Jews were blamed because their religion differed, clashing with the Christian Fundamentalism of the Confederate South, Jews roles as merchants and Judah P. Benjamin prominent political role in the Confederate government as attorney general, secretary of state and secretary of war. This only magnified after the South lost the war, the blame shifted over to the Southern population, despite the fact that very few Jews had any political or economic power.
Leonard Dinnerstein explains in Antisemitism in America, that Southern Jews despite living among evangelical Christian only sporadically experienced Anti-Semitism, and this was usually just in the most trying economic times. “Thus Jews as a group, despite their opportunities in the United States, never quite relaxed, and always kept a watchful eye open for Christian bias. Such prejudice was not uniformly exhibited and it often depended on historical circumstances and the strengths or trials of distinct Christian groups at different times in history as to how the beliefs would be exercised. Sometimes numbers made a difference; when Jews were strong in number they often felt more secure and comfortable. Other times local values dictated their reception and demeanor.”[xli]
Although the South had always been a Christian and religious area, the war was only reinforced this, and brought religion to the forefront. As the war raged on Southerners began invoking Christian religious language in relation to the Southern cause, and the Confederacy, which separated Jews from the pre-war unified white majority; classifying them as foreigners both religiously, and with the implications that Jews were Yankees, Northerners. Myron Berman states, “public demonstrations of piety and the use of Christian concepts became more pronounced in the course of the war.”[xlii]
This was because of the fundamentalist style that Southerners were invoking in their religious practices. Diane Ashton explains in her article “Shifting Veils: Religion, Politics and Womanhood Among Jewish Women During the Civil War,” “First in the North and later in the South, the belief that America played a pivotal role in bringing the second coming of Christ reached an apogee just before and during the Civil War. Southern anti-Semitism was fueled in part by a more fundamentalist style reading the New Testament than was common in most Northern Churches. The Confederacy went so far as to define itself as a Christian nation in its constitution. Southern clergy mounted frequent revivals among the troops, both to obtain God’s favor and to enable soldiers to fight without fear of death. Historian Harry Stout explained that the Confederacy declared many fast days, a practice previously more common in the North, to bind the civilians troops alike to display their patriotism and piety-then defined as the same thing.”[xliii]
As the situation in the Civil War was becoming increasingly worse for the Confederacy, Southerner’s anti-Semitism arose, when before the before the war these sentiments had publicly been kept to a minimum, and Jews were for the most part tolerated in Southern society. Korn explains, “Granted an original suspicion and dislike of the Jew before the War, the four-year-long travail of the Confederacy was certain to emphasize it.”[xliv] Southern Christians began to blame to the Jewish leaders of the Confederacy for the South’s loses. Diane Ashton writes that “Denunciations of Jews became more commonplace during the Civil War and Reconstruction. Southerners explained their defeat as God’s chastisement for widespread sinfulness.”[xlv] The Confederate anti-Jewish feelings however, were mostly reserved for Judah Benjamin and Jewish merchants. Southern newspapers and magazines would refer to Jews as “Yankees among us” or as shylocks.[xlvi]
Judah Benjamin was the Secretary of War and then State for the Confederate government, and he took the blame for many of the South’s defeats and problems. The fact that he was a Jew led a citizen of North Carolina, John Beauchamp Jones to swear that “all the distresses of the people were owing to a Nero-like despotism, originating in the brain of Benjamin, the Jew.”[xlvii] Henry L.
also reiterates that Benjamin was blamed for war loses because of his religion as opposed to his actually polices and military decisions. As Feingold writes in Zion in America: The Jewish Experience from Colonial Times to the Present, “In 1862 Judah Benjamin, who had suffered much calumny because of his being Jewish, was censured by the Confederate Congress for failing to send war supplies to Roanoke and thus causing its loss to the Union Army. He did not reveal that if he had complied with Roanoke’s request, Norfolk would have been left vulnerable.”[xlviii] Winner states, “Benjamin was only one of the many Confederate Jews whom Confederate Christians plugged into age-old stereotypes of the Jew qua extortionist, thief, shylock, of Jews driven by, in the words of historian John Higham, “cunning” and “avarice.”[xlix]
This anti-Jewish prejudice also was seen in the Confederate military. Jewish Confederate’s in the military were faced with prejudice and ridicule, and were often prevented from receiving promotions that were due to them or they were reluctantly given to them. Winner writes, “Captain R. E. Park recounted that his colonel attempted to block the promotion of Mobile’s Captain Proskauer because the Colonel was suspicious of Jews’ loyalty to the Confederacy. A Jewish Colonel assigned to a Texas regiment experienced such ridicule and antagonism that within forty-eight hours of joining up with his new regiment, he left.”[l]
On the home front, the situation was not quite different; Southern Jews faced anti-Jewish prejudice in their daily lives. In the United States at the time is not uncharacteristic for Jews to be scapegoats blamed for an economic situation, which was out of their control, and a product of the war rather than anything else. In these desperate times Christian Southerners were looking for scapegoats and the rising prices for living essential made the Jew and particularly the Jewish merchant the ideal scapegoat, and the fact that most Jews were merchants, an important component of the Confederate economy did not help the increase of anti-Jewish prejudice. Ashton claims this economic blame was widespread writing “Across the South, both small merchants and public figures like Benjamin were blamed for the region’s economic woes and its military defeat. Although Richmond‘s major industries were not in Jewish hands, Jews were among those blamed for the South‘s economic ills as the war dragged on.”[li]
Southerners often saw the high prices merchants charged as extortion, and they viewed the Jewish merchants as “extortionists.” George Rable notes in The Confederate Republic: A Revolution against Politics, “Many Confederates looked for scapegoats and discovered an ancient one: foreign-born Jewish merchants. Henry S. Foote denounced “shylocks,” Examiner editorials deplored “synagogue” influences, and Texas vigilance committees harassed Jewish businessmen.” [lii] While Winner explains, “Confederate Christians, as Gary L. Bunker and John Appel have shown, portrayed Jews as vultures hoping to gain from wartime shortages.”[liii] The majority of anti-Jewish sentiment experienced in America was in direct relation to economics. As Leonard Rogoff clarifies in his article “Is the Jew White?: The Racial Place of the Southern Jew,” “The Jewish racial question was not a social or political issue in the antebellum South: whatever anti-Semitism Southern Jews encountered was primarily economic or religious.” [liv]
Southern women had additional responsibilities resulting from the men being away at war, and dealing with the desperation in the South’s situation at home. The women were faced with providing for their families while the war that kept dragging on, without the men to provide for them many women had little to go on to survive, even the wealthier ones dealt with these issues. This also contributed to the image of the image of the Jewish merchant as a profiteer of the poor. As Feingold notes, “Jewish merchants in the Southland felt the sting of anti-Semitic slander as civilian goods became scarce.”[lv]
These women actively and most time violently attacked the Jewish merchants for raising the cost of food and supplies. The most violent occurrence was in Georgia, where Jewish merchants were accused repeatedly as Winner explains of “unpatriotic conduct.” Fear and suspicion of Jewish merchants was only exacerbated by the extreme shortages that became frequent as the war progressed.”[lvi] In desperation, these women blamed their unfortunate situation on the merchants particularly Jewish buying into the anti-Semitic rhetoric about Jewish merchants. The women went in at gunpoint, justifying their criminal activity by as Winner writes accusing “the owner of speculating and making a fortune while their husbands died in defense of their country;”[lvii] they then proceeded to steal all the supplies and goods they possibly could from the store. Korn claims, “These examples indicate a trend which was characteristic of many sections of the Confederacy — the Jews being held responsible for the inflation of prices and the shortages of goods a pattern which bears a remarkable likeness to the background of the Grant Order.”[lviii]
Southerners seemed to believe that Jews controlled on its commerce and trade. A leader in this anti-Jewish opinion was Congressman Hilton of Florida. To illustrate his point Hilton would recount the story of a blockade-runner, who although was found out by the authorities, but before they could confiscate his goods. Winner writes “Florida Jews, however, had somehow learned the whereabouts of the blockade runner, and “at least one hundred” Jews, flocked there, led even to this remote point of the scent of gain, and they had to be driven actually at point of bayonet.”[lix]
In Richmond, Virginia, the Christian population had a similar opinion of its Jewish merchants; that they had the ability to acquire goods and luxury items that were impossible for anybody else in the South to acquire when a blockade was enforced. Winner writes, “they called one store, one by a German Jew, “Noah’s Ark” because it “seemed capable of producing anything from a needle to firearms.”[lx] Although this opinion of Jewish merchants as profiteers was prevalent in South, by those who were suffering from the war, this opinion was common with outsiders as well. As Miller explains “One Englishman described how Jews stood by the Confederacy only in hopes of turning a profit: “The Israelites, as usual, far surpassed the Gentiles in shrewdness to the auspicious moment, and laid in stocks.”[lxi]
Jews were also accused of other illegal activities however, including passing counterfeit money and running the blockade. This anti-Jewish prejudice manifested itself in the South’s newspapers, particularly the Richmond Examiner. As Feingold explains, “The Richmond Examiner filled its pages with anti-Semitic diatribes which began by complaining about Jewish war profiteering and ended by accusing them of being responsible for Confederate defeats on the field of battle.”[lxii] One particular instance was on January 7, 1864, when the paper printed a rumor that an unnamed Congressman had obtained passports for three Jews to leave the Confederacy. Congressman Henry S. Foote of Tennessee took this as an opportunity to vent his prejudice towards Jews. As Korn writes Congressman Foote “was generally known that he disliked Jews and took advantage of every opportunity to vent his hatred upon them, no matter how flimsy the evidence.”
Foote called for an investigation, but Congress was not interested in pursue the matter. Additionally the Richmond Daily Examiner, Jan. 8, 1864 reported another instance where Jews appeared as balking their responsibilities to the Confederacy: “very recently, two immensely wealthy Israelitish merchants on Broad Street, departed for the North leaving their wives and daughters to carry on the business of their stores.” [lxiii] The anti-Jewish prejudice above all accused Jews of being unpatriotic and supportive of the South, especially during the Confederacy’s most trying times. These accusations often led to South Christians demonstrating fierce anti-Jewish prejudice towards their Jewish neighbors. One town; Thomasville, Georgia passed a legal resolution to banish all of their Jewish resident, while another town found the Jewish residents guilty of “evil and unpatriotic conduct.”[lxiv]
Upper class Southern Jewish women for the most part did not experience anti-Semitism, but as Ashton states, “For Jewish women of this period, anti-Semitism could not be said to have been universal and open, but rather sporadic and threatening.”[lxv] There always the possibility that anti-Semitism could occur and that altered the behavior of Jewish women. Ashton recounts, “To navigate that social and political turbulence, to maintain established ties, or to forge new alliances, Jewish women displayed either their patriotism, their religious piety, or their common understanding that good women are supposed to maintain family and social ties. Their personal perception of their own needs and of the degree of danger they faced determined their highly individualized shaping of their community during the Civil War. After determining whom they loved and needed and whom they could trust, they displayed those aspects of their own identities that would in turn enable them to present themselves as trustworthy.” [lxvi]
Despite the sporadic incidents towards the end of the war Jews in the South faced less anti-Semitism on a whole than then their Northern counterparts did. Southern Christians did in fact accept individual Jews into kinship, developing friendships with them, and socializing with Jews. Jews were more accepted into the South by the Christian majority, because of slavery and the racial issue but also as Rosen claims, “It was OK to be anti-Semitic in Boston in the 19th century. Jewish immigrants were discriminated against in New York. There was less of this in New Orleans and Charleston, I think because of the diversity of religions in Southern cities, the lack of Puritanism, which was anti-Semitic generally.”[lxvii]
The North’s Union Army committed the worst incident of anti-Semitism during the Civil War. The Shylock stereotype was behind Union General Ulysses S. Grant’s reasons for ordering General Order Number 11, on December 17, 1862 , expelling Jews from areas of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky. General Order Number 11stands out in American history as the first instance of a policy of official anti-Semitism on a large scale. The anti-Semitic order had deeper roots; many Northerners and Union army officials harbored anti-Jewish resentments. Jews in Union occupied Southern cities and towns faced the brunt of this prejudice. As Korn explains in his authoritative work, American Jewry and the Civil War (1951); “Some of the most prominent people in the Union were imbued with prejudice against the Jews.”[lxviii]
The racial situation in the South and the practice of slavery were one of the primary reasons Jews were able to avoid widespread anti-Semitism; Seth Forman points out “But the racial divide was the most substantial reason why anti-Semitism in the South remained tempered.”[lxix] While Korn writes, “The institution also furthered the Jew’s social acceptance. By providing a class of defenseless victims, slavery acted as an escape valve for frustrations which might otherwise have been expressed more frequently as anti-Jewish sentiment.” [lxx] Southern Jewry truly believed they could avoid anti-Jewish prejudice in the South by complying with the slavery system, and adhering to rest of Southern society.
It was primarily the issue of shared whiteness the smoothed the way for, and elevated Jewish social status at all levels. Southern Jews reached higher levels in the Confederate government, than they would see for nearly 75 years in any administration in the United States government. Southern Jews took up preeminent positions in the new Confederate nation, reaching ranks that were unheard for Jews anywhere even in the North. Judah Benjamin took up the most important positions, essentially being Confederate President, Jefferson Davis’ right hand man. Benjamin held numerous positions in the Confederate cabinet including, Attorney General, Secretary of War, and Secretary of State.
Although Jews represented a small portion of the Southern population, they disproportionately held high-ranking positions in the Confederacy, including, “the Quartermaster General, the Surgeon General, several Congressmen, and other high public and military officers of the Confederacy.”[lxxi] Other Southern Jews that reached high positions included David Camden De Leon who was appointed the Surgeon General after the outbreak of the Civil War. His brother Edwin also held a prominent position, as an overseas representative for the Confederacy. De Leon was responsible for persuading European nations to recognize the Confederacy.
Now 150 years after the Civil War ended, and the Confederacy took its last breath, immortalized in a life “Gone with the Wind,” and a mythology still referred by many Southern states, including South Carolina, it is widely forgotten, that the Confederacy was not entirely a nation of hatred for all who were not White Christians. American Jewry found a haven in the South, experiencing some anti-Semitism, but not nearly at the level, they did in the North, or that Southern Jewry ever faced in the hands of the Confederate government or their southern neighbors as they did by the Union army and a future President of the United States, Ulysses S. Grant.
The Confederacy did imbue subservience for African Americans in the form of slavery, but Jewish activists now, need to remember their own participation in the full life of the slave holding antebellum South and Confederacy. The white supremacist hatred that caused the Charleston Church shooting historically was not born in the Confederacy, but in its death, during Reconstruction and its aftermath resulting in the rise of Jim Crow segregationalist laws, and vicious hatred of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) where a defeated South could not find its footing after losing the life they loved.
In mourning a mythological Confederacy, this hatred was born, but with the civil rights movement’s victories, and the election of the first African American president, this hatred is but sporadic. Removing every monument or reminder of the Confederacy is not the solution to the problem, we need to learn from history not erase it. Although the Confederacy and its flag and confederate symbols and monuments are bearing the brunt of the blame now, the United States as whole is facing continuing problems with race relations. The epidemic of police shooting African Americans is predominately in the North or so-called border states. Unfortunately, persistent racism in the North has no symbol like the Confederate flag to blame, but it is still there, and is still a problem. As President Obama stated in his famous speech in March 2008 as a Democratic candidate, the country as a whole needs to strive for a “More Perfect Union” in order to end racism in the entire United States of America.
[i] “Robert Rosen, The Jewish Confederates,” Susannah J. Uralp, ed. Civil War Citizens: Race, Ethnicity, and Identity in America’s Bloodiest Conflict, 157.
[ii] Steven Hertzberg, Strangers within the Gate City: The Jews of Atlanta, 1845-1915, (Jewish Publication Society of America, 1978), 13-14.
[iii] Clive Webb, Fight Against Fear: Southern Jews and Black Civil Rights, (University of Georgia Press, 2001), 2.
[iv] Robert N. Rosen, The Jewish Confederates, (University of South Carolina Press, 2000), p. 15-16
[v] Marvin Perry and Frederick M. Schweitzer, Antisemitism: Myth and Hate from Antiquity to the Present, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2002), 241.
[vi] Webb, Fight Against Fear, 7.
[vii] Leonard Dinnerstein and Mary Dale Palsson, eds., Jews of the South, (Louisiana State University Press, 1973), 25.
[viii] Catherine Clinton, Southern Families at War: Loyalty and Conflict in the Civil War South, (Oxford University Press, 2000)p. 194.
[ix] Arthur W. Bergeron Jr., Lawrence Lee Hewitt, Louisianians in the Civil War, (Columbia, MO.: University of Missouri Press, 2002, 73.
[x] Lauren F. Winner, “Taking up the Cross: Conversion among black and white Jews in the Civil War South” in Catherine Clinton, ed. Southern Families at War : Loyalty and Conflict in the Civil War South, (Oxford University Press, 2000), 194.
[xi] Dinnerstein, Jews and the South, 89, 90.
[xii] Dinnerstein, Jews and the South, 27.
[xiii] Arthur Hertzberg, The Jews of America: Four Centuries of an Uneasy Encounter : A History, (Columbia University Press, 1998), 111.
[xiv] Hasia Diner, The Jews of the United States, 1654 to 2000, (University of California Press, 2004), 155.
[xv] Bergeron, Louisianians in the Civil War, 2002. 75, 76.
[xvi] Maurianne Adams and John H. Bracey, eds., Strangers & Neighbors: Relations between Blacks & Jews in the United States, ( University of Massachusetts Press, 1999), 35.
[xvii] Webb, Fight Against Fear, 11.
[xviii] Robert Rosen, Confederate Charleston, University of South Carolina Press, 88.
[xix] Rosen, The Jewish Confederates, 14.
[xx] Rosen, The Jewish Confederates, 38.
[xxi] Lewis M. Killian, White Southerners, (University of Massachusetts Press, 1985), 73.
[xxii] Rosen, The Jewish Confederates, 219.
[xxiii] LTC John C. Whatley VI, Jews in the Confederacy.
[xxiv] Rosen, The Jewish Confederates, 14.
[xxv] Webb, Fight Against Fear, 11.
[xxvi] Webb, Fight Against Fear, 11.
[xxvii] Isaac Hermann, Memoirs of a Veteran Who Served as a Private in the 60s in the War Between the States, (CSA Press, 1911). The biblical reference is to Exod. 3:17.
[xxviii] Hasia R. Diner and Beryl Lieff Benderly, Her Works Prise Her: A History of Jewish Women in America from Colonial Times to the Present, (Basic Books, 2002), 100.
[xxix] Jacob Rader Marcus, Memoirs of American Jews, 1775-1865, (Jewish Publication Society of America, 1955), 21
[xxx] Marli F. Weiner, Mistresses and Slaves: Plantation Women in South Carolina, 1830-80, (1997), 1.
[xxxi] Diner and Benderly, Her Works Praise Her, 106.
[xxxii] Jacob R. Marcus, The American Jewish Woman: A Documentary History, 31.
[xxxiii] Clinton, Southern Families at War, 195.
[xxxiv] Hertzberg, Strangers Within The Gate City, 26
[xxxv] Seth Forman, “The Unbearable Whiteness of Being Jewish: Desegregation in the South and the Crisis of Jewish Liberalism,” 121.
[xxxvi] Webb, Fight Against Fear, 8.
[xxxvii] Arthur. Hertzberg, The Jews in America: Four Centuries of an Uneasy Encounter : a History, (Simon and Schuster, 1989), 47.
[xxxviii] Clinton, Southern Families at War, 195.
[xxxix] Korn, “Jews and Negro Slavery in the Old South, 1789-1865,” in Dinnerstein, Jews in the South, 136.
[xl] Seth Forman, “The Unbearable Whiteness of Being Jewish: Desegregation in the South and the Crisis of Jewish Liberalism,” 121.
[xli] Leonard Dinnerstein, Antisemitism in America, (Oxford University Press, 1994), xi.
[xlii] Diane Ashton, “Shifting Veils: Religion, Politics and Womanhood Among Jewish Women During the Civil War” in Pamela S. Nadell and Jonathan D. Sarna, eds., Women and American Judaism: Historical Perspectives, (University Press of New England, 2001), 83.
[xliii] Nadell and Sarna, Women and American Judaism, 82.
[xliv] Dinerstein, Jews in the South, 136.
[xlv] Nadell and Sarna, Women and American Judaism, 83.
[xlvi] Nadell and Sarna, Women and American Judaism, 83.
[xlvii] Dinerstein, Jews in the South, 137.
[xlviii] Henry L. Feingold, Zion in America: The Jewish Experience from Colonial Times to the Present, (Twayne Publishers, 1974), 93.
[xlix] Clinton, Southern Families at War, 196.
[l] Clinton, Southern Families at War, 196.
[li] Nadell and Sarna, Women and American Judaism, 83.
[lii] George C. Rable, The Confederate Republic: A Revolution against Politics, (University of North Carolina Press, 1994), 185. (Michelbacher, Sermon Delivered, 3-14.)
[liii] Clinton, Southern Families at War, 196.
[liv] Leonard Rogoff, “Is the Jew White?: The Racial Place of the Southern Jew,” 195.
[lv] Feingold, Zion in America, 93.
[lvi] Clinton, Southern Families at War, 196.
[lvii] Clinton, Southern Families at War, 196.
[lviii] Dinnerstein, Jews in the South, 141, 142.
[lix] Clinton, Southern Families at War, 196.
[lx] Clinton, Southern Families at War, 196.
[lxi] Clinton, Southern Families at War, 196.
[lxii] Feingold, Zion in America, 93
[lxiii] Dinnerstein, Jews in the South, 150.
[lxiv] Feingold, Zion in America, 93.
[lxv] Nadell and Sarna, Women and American Judaism, p. 83.
[lxvi] Nadell and Sarna, Women and American Judaism, p. 83.
[lxvii] http://www.truthinstitute.org/AJC_010701J_Conf.htm
[lxviii] Bertram W. Korn, American Jewry and the Civil War, (Jewish Publication Society of America, 1951), 164.
[lxix] Seth Forman, “The Unbearable Whiteness of Being Jewish: Desegregation in the South and the Crisis of Jewish Liberalism,” 121.
[lxx] Adams and Bracey, eds., Strangers & Neighbors, 175.
[lxxi] Dinnerstein, Jews in the South, 239.
by bonniekgoodman on June 23, 2015 • Permalink
Posted in American Civil War & the Jews, American Jewish History, JBuzz Musings, Jewish History Eras, Modern Judaism, Obama Presidency
Posted by bonniekgoodman on June 23, 2015
https://jbuzz.wordpress.com/2015/06/23/jbuzz-musings-june-23-2015-the-confederacy-hostile-to-african-americans-safe-haven-for-american-jews/
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10 Failed Sports Leagues That Changed The Game
Geoffrey Asmus January 23, 2015 0
As we all learned through high school dating, it takes a tremendous amount of failure to learn anything worthwhile. The same lesson applies to modern sports. Sports would not be where they are today without the mind-boggling failures of many other leagues. These upstart leagues made the same mistakes over and over again, all while leaving behind important touchstones which still resonate in modern sports.
10Coloured Hockey League
The National Hockey League (NHL) fielded its first black player in 1958 when Willie O’Ree signed with the Boston Bruins. Eight years earlier, a player named Art Dorrington signed with the New York Rangers in 1950, but he never played in the NHL. This was nearly five decades after the formation of the Coloured Hockey League (CHL), which was Canadian as the spelling shows. Founded in 1895, the CHL featured only black players along with an incredibly modern style of play.
Hockey at the turn of the 20th century was a stale, low-scoring affair, lacking in both speed and agility. And slap shots. There were no slap shots before the CHL. Eddie Martin, a CHL player, is believed to have invented the slap shot decades before it was introduced into the NHL.
The CHL was also innovative in how goalies were used on the ice. Previously, goalies never left the crease, and played the entire game standing up. CHL goalies changed this by chasing pucks out of the crease and dropping to their knees to stop pucks. The goalies quickly became the team leaders in the CHL, a role they still hold today. These CHL tactics were quickly co-opted by neighboring white leagues, who were, of course, averse to giving credit to the black players.
The CHL toiled as a moderately successful regional league in eastern Canada until World War I robbed it of many of its best players, and the league folded in 1925.
9Federal League
Only once in Major League Baseball’s history has anyone attempted to challenge “America’s Game.” Naturally, the attempt ended in dismal failure, but it led to some interesting footnotes which still reverberate in modern baseball.
In 1913, the Federal League (FL) enacted its plan to become the “third” professional baseball league—after the American League (AL) and National League (NL)—in 1913. The FL offered players exponentially higher salaries than the other major leagues, and started franchises in major baseball markets to compete directly with already established franchises.
The plan was unsustainable since the FL could never hope to make enough money to pay the players in already saturated markets. It didn’t help that many FL teams lacked official nicknames and instead went by “Brooklyn Feds,” “Kansas City Feds,” etc. These factors caused the Federal League to disband in 1915, but not before suing the AL and NL for being “illegal monopolies.”
This case was decided by the Supreme Court in 1922 in Federal Baseball Club v. National League in favor of Major League Baseball. The Supreme Court ruled the MLB was a legal monopoly since it was primarily entertainment, and the Sherman Antitrust Act did not apply to it. This ruling effectively ended all future attempts to create rival baseball leagues, and gave the MLB the freedom to do whatever it wanted.
Additionally, the forgotten Chicago Whales of the Federal League built a stadium which came to be known as Wrigley Field, a minor cultural touchstone in baseball history.
8World Football League
The World Football League (WFL), begun in 1974 as a rival to the upstart NFL, immediately ran into trouble after the Philadelphia franchise gave away tens of thousands of tickets, but then marked them down as “paid for” in the accounting books. This caused many to view the league as illegitimate and amateurish. These naysayers were supported by the constant financial problems which plagued the league. Players were not paid during the season, and at least one team used McDonald’s coupons as meal money. The Birmingham Americans’ jerseys were even repossessed immediately after they won the championship.
Amid all of this turmoil, there was the bizarre situation of the Houston Texans’ John Matuszak. While Matuszak played in the WFL, the NFL’s Houston Oilers, who Matuszak had previously been under contract with, filed an injunction banning him from playing in the WFL. This injunction caused federal marshals to force Matuszak off the field in the middle of a game immediately after he sacked the opposing quarterback.
Additionally, the schedule (a blistering 20 games long) was so poorly formatted that teams often played each other in back-to-back weeks. And the league instituted a bizarre new rule where touchdowns were worth seven points and a bonus “action point” made them worth eight.
But the WFL achieved notable success in luring nearly 60 players, including Super Bowl Champions Ken Stabler and Larry Csonka, to switch leagues. However, like many upstart leagues, the salaries they offered (a combined nearly $3.5 million to Larry Csonka, Jim Kiick, and Paul Warfield)—in an era without multimillion-dollar contracts—were unsustainable.
Besides exorbitant salaries, the league was years ahead of the NFL with many other innovations. The WFL added an overtime period for games tied at regulation, and outlawed bump-and-run coverage after three yards (changed to five yards in the NFL). Most importantly, the WFL changed the location of the field goal to its modern location. Until then, the field goal was puzzlingly located at the front of the end zone. This helped to end the dominance of field goal kickers at the time and just makes complete sense.
7Continental League
By the 1950s, baseball was a stale game. There had been no new franchises since the MLB’s formation, and the Yankees won every single year. Also, when the Brooklyn Dodgers moved to Los Angeles they discovered that people west of the Mississippi liked baseball, too, but they simply had no other teams in that half of the country. This state of affairs prompted Branch Rickey, the guy who signed Jackie Robinson, to orchestrate his Continental League (CL) “scheme.”
In 1960, the CL publicly announced its plans to add new franchises in major cities currently without baseball teams, such as Houston. No one knows if Rickey was serious about the Continental League or if he simply wanted to force MLB’s hand to expand. Either way, his plan worked and the mere threat of a new major league caused Major League Baseball to immediately expand into Minnesota, Houston, and Washington, D.C. All of these cities were chosen since they would have been the homes of Continental League teams. Over the next 15 years, the MLB added teams in Seattle, Toronto, Kansas City, Montreal, and San Diego, and threw in the New York Mets for good measure. Without a single pitch being thrown, the Continental League shoved baseball into the modern era.
6United States Football League
Donald Trump has been the part of many failures over the years—often marriage-related—and his forays into sports have been no different. In the mid-1980s, Donald Trump, then a legendary real estate tycoon, decided he had had enough of the National Football League. He teamed with David Dixon, the guy who built the Superdome, to create the United States Football League (USFL) in 1983.
Dixon had a conservative plan, which called for moderate spending, a spring schedule, and slow expansion into NFL markets, to allow for the USFL to successfully compete. The Dixon Plan was moderately successful over the league’s first two seasons as the USFL signed three straight Heisman Trophy winners, including Herschel Walker, and began to generate interest from major networks for a network television deal.
The deal with Herschel Walker, valued at $5 million over three seasons, foreshadowed the USFL’s demise, as it greatly exceeded the $1.8 million salary cap established for each team by Dixon. Once the Walker deal was allowed, other teams began signing exorbitant contracts, some to future Hall of Famers like Steve Young and Jim Kelly. These deals gave the league credibility but made it financially unstable.
But the league could have perhaps survived if “The Donald” had not convinced the other owners to switch the USFL to a fall schedule in 1985 to compete directly with the NFL. The results were disastrous, and the league decided to stake its future on filing an antitrust lawsuit against the NFL. Shockingly, the USFL won the lawsuit, but were awarded only three dollars in compensation. The jury found the NFL was an illegal monopoly, but that the USFL had failed based on its own poor management, so they did not deserve any compensation. Almost immediately after this, the USFL folded in disgrace.
But the dispirited league left behind the legacy of the two-point conversion, instant replay reviews, and a salary cap, all of which the NFL adopted within a decade.
5American Basketball League
The American Basketball League (ABL) was founded when Abe Saperstein, the owner of the Harlem Globetrotters, was spurned for the new Los Angeles NBA franchise in 1960. Naturally, as revenge, he decided to create his own league, because that’s how rich tycoons settle grudges. To enact his plan, Abe enlisted the help of a relatively unknown young man named George Steinbrenner, who would lose boatloads of money in this venture before finding success with the New York Yankees.
The ABL was doomed for failure from the start since many of the players were amateurs, washed-up stars, or players previously banned from the NBA. To worsen matters, the owners clearly did not know how to run professional teams. Such was the chaos that Steinbrenner, owner of the Cleveland Pipers, sold player Grady McCollum’s contract at halftime. These wild moves caused Steinbrenner to personally lose over $2 million and taught him well for his future sporting ventures.
However, the ABL was instrumental in introducing two new innovations to the game of basketball. They added a three-point line and a wider free throw lane to curb the dominance of big men like Wilt Chamberlain. In time, both of these changes were implemented in the NBA, providing for a more energetic and high-scoring game.
4World Hockey Association
Surprisingly, the National Hockey League was made up entirely of North American players before the late 1970s. That all changed after the upstart World Hockey Association (WHA) attempted to, and failed to, compete with the NHL. As with many upstart leagues, the WHA signed its players to lucrative contracts which forced NHL owners to pay their players more. The WHA’s higher salaries had a major impact on the NHL since, until then, NHL players had been by far the worst paid of the Big Four leagues.
These high contracts eventually caused the WHA to fold in 1979, but it allowed the WHA to achieve playing parity with the NHL. The WHA won the majority of interleague exhibition games during its existence.
Most importantly, though, the WHA decided its best bet was to sign players from Europe. Until then, Europe had been a surprisingly overlooked market considering how dominant European teams were in the Olympics. This flood of foreign talent forced the NHL to do likewise, and changed the game into a more fast-paced and high-scoring affair, more like European hockey.
Wayne Gretzky started as an unknown player in the WHA before becoming “The Great One,” and five modern teams (among them the Edmonton Oilers, who became an NHL dynasty in the 1980s) originated in the WHA. Hollywood is even indebted to the WHA, as the Hanson brothers from Slapshot are based on the Carlson brothers who played for the WHA’s Minnesota Fighting Saints.
3North American Soccer League
Before the North American Soccer League (NASL) began in 1968, soccer was a mostly unknown and, at times, reviled sport to many Americans. The game’s mechanics, such as a clock which counted up, and a plethora of draws, made no sense to traditional American viewers. However, the English victory in the 1966 World Cup captivated English-speaking viewers around the world and gave the NASL the boost it needed to slowly bring soccer to America.
By 1973, the NASL was popular enough for the Philadelphia Atoms to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated, the first time soccer had been profiled by a major American sports publication.
Then, in 1975, the New York Cosmos signed Pele—arguably the greatest soccer player ever—and American soccer exploded. Soon, the Cosmos were regularly drawing crowds of 50,000 people and Pele was a media sensation. Pele was the sort of famous where his mere presence caused Nigeria to pause its civil war for 48 hours when he visited.
Such a star attraction caused CBS to pick up the Soccer Bowl (the NASL championship), and other networks began broadcasting regular season NASL games. Other NASL teams also signed aging European stars such as Franz Beckenbauer and Johan Cruyff to create a truly cosmopolitan league.
Pele’s popularity during three seasons with the Cosmos created a youth soccer boom, which catapulted soccer to the top of many youth sports statistics. The ensuing popularity led FIFA to award the US the 1994 World Cup. Of course, the NASL was still unable to make soccer a fully profitable league, and the high salaries to European players, along with the 1980 economic downturn in the US, led to its demise in 1983.
However, the lessons learned from the NASL were remembered by those in Major League Soccer (MLS), which began in 1994 and still operates today. The MLS imposed a strict salary cap, while still maintaining a high level of play and luring in past-their-prime-but-still-famous European players. Thanks to the NASL, soccer finally “made it” (kind of) in America.
2National Basketball League
The modern day National Basketball Association (NBA) was formed in 1949 when the Basketball Association of America merged with the National Basketball League (NBL). Yet, in 1996, the NBA celebrated its 50-year anniversary, which marked the 50th anniversary of the BAA, completely ignoring the NBL’s contribution to modern-day basketball.
This historical disregard for the NBL is unfathomable since the NBL was the league which first welcomed African Americans into the basketball world. The NBL also was where George Mikan, whose athletic prowess and star power practically saved the NBA in its unstable early years, began his career. Mikan’s scoring dominance eradicated the dead ball era of basketball, where scores were routinely in the 20s and 30s.
The Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons (which became the Detroit Pistons), a stand-out NBL team, were owned by Fred Zollner, an automobile magnate, whose money was integral to the NBA in its infancy. Additionally, five current NBA franchises—the Detroit Pistons, Denver Nuggets, Los Angeles Lakers, Sacramento Kings, and Philadelphia 76ers—can trace their lineage to the NBL. Without the NBL, there might not be Christmas Day basketball.
1American Basketball Association
Plain and simple, the American Basketball Association (ABA) is one of mankind’s greatest creations, and certainly the only truly successful upstart major league. There was an ABA coach named Slick and a star player named “Bad News.” They played with a red and white ball, the Indiana Pacers even used a wrestling bear as a halftime show, and a franchise called the Memphis Tams offered all their players $300 to grow a mustache. All those novelties, combined with frequent financial chaos, created the most colorful sports league in history.
The ABA, founded in 1967, brought NBA basketball out of the doldrums and into the modern era by redefining how basketball was played. Like the ABL, the ABA instituted a three-point line which dramatically increased scoring by forcing defenses to defend the perimeter. This, in turn, created more space for drives and dunks. Given how obsessed modern basketball is with dunking, its shocking to know that dunks were not a major part of the game until the ABA’s flashy playing style began. The ABA capitalized on the popularity of dunks with a yearly slam dunk contest.
Furthermore, the ABA revolutionized the financial structure of basketball by allowing free agency, eliminating the reserve clauses which tied players down, and recruiting players directly out of high school. This allowed the ABA to grab talent before the NBA, and gave them a competitive balance most upstart leagues never achieved.
The list of NBA legends who began their career in the ABA is simply ridiculous: David Thompson, George “Ice Man” Gervin, Connie Hawkins, Spencer Haywood, Artis Gilmore, Jerry Lucas, Moses Malone, Dan Issel, and the human highlight reel—Julius (Dr. J) Erving. Future NBA coach Larry Brown also began his career coaching the ABA’s Denver Nuggets.
Yet, for all its flashiness and innovation, the ABA still failed because it was poorly managed, and put franchises in places like Pittsburgh and Baltimore. In 1976, amid dwindling revenue and only nine remaining teams, (most of) the ABA merged with the NBA in 1976. From the ABA came the Indiana Pacers, Denver Nuggets, San Antonio Spurs, and the New York Nets, along with an influx of talent which resurrected the NBA from declining attendance and TV sponsorships in the early 1970s.
Geoffrey earned seven worthless liberal arts degrees before deciding to become a comedian. Follow his missteps on Twitter @filthyson.
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Lesser Known Facts About Pawan Kalyan
Published On: 02 September 2018 | Tollywood | By: Rohan M
He is an actor, producer, writer and a politician. The actor has a huge fan following not just in Hyderabad but worldwide as well. Apart from films, he has also formed a political party called Jana Sena in 2014, which will contest in 2019 general elections.
Here are some of the lesser known facts of the actor:
1. The actor was born as Konidela Kalyan Babu, he is the brother to the megastar Chiranjeevi. The name “Pawan” was adopted because of his fascination with Karate during his young days. He has a black belt in Karate.
2. He wanted to enter Tollywood with the intent of becoming a director but Chiranjeevi convinced him to be an actor as it would be helpful for him in the future, he has directed a few films and has managed to garner quite a praise for it too.
3. The actor was the first person to endorse Pepsi in the Telugu film industry while his brother Chiranjeevi endorsed Coca-Cola meanwhile. This commercial came out in the year 2001.
4. In his 23 years of his career, he has acted in almost 23 films so far and most of them happened to be remakes of super hit films from Kollywood and Bollywood. Gabbar Singh, the remake of Dabangg was one of the highest grossing films of 2012 and also manage to garner a large number of fans.
5. Apart from acting, Pawan Kalyan happens to make an alliance with the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi. Modi had appreciated his vision of creating a better future for Telangana and Seemandhra.
6. He has been involved extensively in humanitarian work where he has given at least Rs 20 Lakhs for the relief operations for the Uttarakhand floods which took place in 2013. He made a contribution of worth 50 Lakh rupees when Telangana was hit by the Hudhud cyclone in 2014.
7. The actor is a health freak and he frequently practices yoga and naturopathy, his nephew Allu Arjun has been defending him for a very long time from the allegations made by the media.
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Rohan M
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Katrina Kaif goes floral for Bharat Promotions
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Mungret Community College will be a non-designated Community College. In its recommendation to the Minister, the New Schools Establishment Group says the establishment of a new school under the model proposed by Limerick Clare Education Training Board LCETB will increase co-educational provision and provide additional multi-denominational education, resulting in greater diversity and plurality of post-primary provision. LCETB is already Patron to a number of Community Colleges in Limerick City and environs including: Coláiste Ciaráin, Gaelcholáiste Luimnigh, Castletroy College and Thomond Community College.
LCETB was awarded patronage of the new Community College in November last year. The school is scheduled to open to receive First Year students in September 2017 and has a long-term projected enrolment of 800 students. It is a participant school of the Limerick Area Post-Primary Schools Common Application System (CAS).
Mungret Community College aims to foster a community that learns together in a happy, safe, supportive and healthy environment where education is a partnership between School, Home and the Community with the Well-Being of the student at its core.
Mungret Community College aspires to provide an inclusive, nurturing, fulfilling and dynamic educational experience which aims to promote the academic, social, physical, emotional, cultural and moral development of each student.
We are committed to the highest standards of Learning and Teaching, offering a broad and balanced curriculum to empower students to maximise their potential and develop a love of learning in a safe secure positive environment.
The College seeks to cultivate a spirit of justice and compassion for others through fostering a community of respect, integrity, responsibility and concern for others.
These ideals can only be realised in an environment where the dignity of the individual is cherished and there is a mutual respect and cooperation between Students, Staff and Parent/Guardians.
Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board (LCETB) appointed Liam O’Mahoney to the position of Principal of Mungret Community College in February 2017.
Mr O’Mahoney is passed Principal of St. John Bosco Community College, Kildysart, Co. Clare, where he has played a significant role in developing the school. Liam has 28 years teaching experience – initially in Tarbert Comprehensive and then in Castletroy College where he gained broad experience in school management, a graduate of NUI Maynooth, has an Honours Bachelor of Science Degree; Honours H. Dip.; Graduate Diploma in Educational Mentoring; Honours Certificate in Educational Leadership and Management and an Honours Masters of Education. He has a keen passion for sport and Education. Mr O’Mahoney is also Chair of the Munster Post Primary Schools GAA Committee.
Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board (LCETB) appointed Ms. Helen Ryan to the position of Deputy Principal of Mungret Community College. This is a great appointment for our new school, as Helen has huge experience in all facets of Post-Primary School education.
Ms. Ryan is a Graduate of the University of Limerick and has an honours degree and Masters in Education. She has experience of teaching and leading learning both in Dublin and in Limerick. Ms. Ryan gained great experience in leadership in education in Castletroy College, where she played a key role in developing teaching and learning.
Interm Board Of Management
@Mungretcc
Our Patron Body
LCETB is Patron to a number of Community Colleges in Limerick City and environs including: Coláiste Ciaráin, Gaelcholáiste Luimnigh, Castletroy College and Thomond Community College.
Department of Education and Skills
Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board
Mungret Raheen Parish website
Mungret Village
St Pauls GAA Club Mungret
Mungret CC Facebook
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History, Law, Politics
The President and the Chief Justice: No Big Deal
Posted by Brian R. Merrick on November 24, 2018 November 24, 2018
The hearts of the chattering classes have been all aflutter this week over an exchange between President Trump and Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts this week. The President criticized what he described as an “Obama judge” for a ruling against the administration’s attempt to bar migrants who cross the border illegally from seeking asylum. Trump has frequently commented on adverse judicial decisions, probably all his adult life and certainly since his description during the 2016 campaign of U.S. District Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel, the judge of a class-action lawsuit against the President’s now-defunct Trump University, as a “Mexican judge.”
In an apparent response Chief Justice Roberts stated, ‘‘We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges. What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them.’’
The Chief’s second sentence is generally right but the first one is wrong. Trump responded to Roberts on Twitter, saying, ‘‘Sorry Chief Justice John Roberts, but you do indeed have ‘Obama judges,’ and they have a much different point of view than the people who are charged with the safety of our country.’’
Roberts has famously and correctly analogized a good judge as “an umpire who calls the balls and strikes.” Rule 2.00 of the Major League Baseball rule book, defines a strike zone as “that area over home plate the upper limit of which is a horizontal line at the midpoint between the top of the shoulders and the top of the uniform pants, and the lower level is a line at the hollow beneath the kneecap” Every baseball player and knowledgeable fan knows that each umpire has his own strike zone. Like the law, it’s a matter of interpretation.
Lawyers and judges must interpret the Constitution and statutes based upon existing case law. There are indeed sharp differences on some issues between the views of most Clinton-Obama judges and most Bush-Trump judges. They do, like umpires, have different philosophical approaches to that interpretation, which tend to be influenced by their own political, and worldviews. The questions are often the extent of deference to the elected branches, supposed to represent popular will, and administrative agencies, assigned to manage matters delegated by statute. The issues affected on the national level are things like government authority, states’ rights, immigration, discrimination and voting rights. At the local level they tend to be more approaches, in criminal cases, to police procedures, rights of persons charged with crimes, pretrial detention and sentencing and, in civil cases, personal injury claims by sympathetic plaintiffs against “deep pocket” defendants.
These viewpoints are a reality. Chief Justice Roberts certainly knows there are differences in the approach of different judges to certain issues. That is, after all, why we have all these Senate confirmation fights over judicial nominees. What Roberts is actually saying is that the judges decide cases in good faith based on the law as they interpret it. For the most part I think he is right. When the law is not clear that can produce different results from judges with different understandings. The Supreme Court is there to resolve those differences. The number of split decisions from the Supreme Court itself evidences that these are legitimate differences.
Trump is hardly the first President to complain about judicial decisions. What makes his comments seem unprecedented are their harsh edge, heightened by the limits on the forum of Tweeter.
Such outspoken animus goes back to the harsh inter-branch relations between President Thomas Jefferson and Chief Justice John Marshall. The long-serving Marshall was still around to spar with President Andrew Jackson, inspiring the probably apocryphal Presidential rejoinder, “John Marshall has made his law. Now let him enforce it.”
The revered President Franklin D. Roosevelt complained bitterly about the conservative Supreme Court striking down his New Deal measures during the Depression. At the peak of his power, just after the record-setting reelection in 1936 in which he carried 46 of the 48 states and retained overwhelming majorities in both Houses of Congress, Roosevelt attempted to “pack” the Court by legislation increasing its size, allowing him some appointments to change the balance. Characteristically devious, FDR couched his proposal in terms of “helping” elderly judges keep up with the workload, by having the Court temporarily enlarged by one judge for every sitting judge over the age of 70. It was all too much for the nation to swallow. The measure failed and FDR’s domestic power was never the same again.
In 1968 Richard Nixon was elected in good part on his promise to appoint “law and order” judges in reaction to a perceived increase in crime and disorder following the Warren Court’s revolutionary decisions, expanding the ability of criminal defendants to have evidence from searches and confessions excluded from their trials.
It is well known among lawyers that the 9thCircuit Court of Appeals, by the accident of the timing of the appointments of its members is exceptionally liberal. Only by that fluke, has it seemed on occasion since the 2016 election that the 9thhas joined The Resistance. What is unusual about the President’s comments is, as I have said, not their substance but their tone.
The Chief Justice’s reply to Presidential comments is unusual but it has been done. Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes replied to FDR’s Court-Packing plan with statistics plainly demonstrating that the justices were quite productive. He told Congress that the oldest Justices turned out the most opinions and that the Justices required no “help” to keep up with their workload.
Chief Justice Roberts is properly very protective of independence of the courts and his remarks seem to be directed more to showing his judges, who are generally not allowed to comment on such things, that he is looking out for them.
Chief Justice John RobertsDonald TrumpSupreme Court
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Excellent piece
Rob Sennott says:
Typically well reasoned with depth and history…and your conclusion is apt. Thanks.
Kites fly highest against the wind – not with it. Winston Churchill
Rob Sennott (M) 508.330.3801 (H) 508.420.0795 14B Southpoint Drive Sandwich 02563
Paul Mahoney says:
Well done Brian.
Doug louison says:
The system works if those appointed recognize the awesome responsibility they have regardless of who appointed them.
I know of a terrific retired Judge who I admire personally and professionally. He was appointed by a liberal governor -prompting a conservative columnist , noting the politics behind the appointment , to comment that the nominee seemed like a good fellow despite being a ‘Dukakis ‘appointee.
You can’t brand the Judge solely with the views of who nominated them.
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Urbanism briefing
Why the UK leads the way in city security and the public baths in Denmark that are making a splash.
Public art, Urban renewal, Urban security
Safe in the city
UK [URBAN SECURITY]
Perhaps one of the most chilling aspects of July’s attack in Nice, which left 84 people dead and more than 300 injured, is that even the most ordinary of objects – in this case a lorry – could be used for terrorism.
The other side of that coin, however, is that even the most ordinary of objects in urban design can be used to prevent such attacks. Security firms are now predicting that cities across Europe will be reviewing their own need for embedded counter-terrorism measures.
City halls will be looking for examples from the UK, where it’s not just bollards and concrete barriers that are preventing vehicle attacks. In cities across the country, street furniture – such as park benches, bus stops, public statues and railings – work double time. Designed with reinforced materials, they are sturdy enough to prevent vehicles from getting close to major buildings or areas crowded with people.
“We’re world leaders in vehicle-defence measures because we needed to be,” says Chris Phillips, managing director at Ippso, a consultancy firm that specialises in counter-terrorism. During the 1990s, when the threat of the Irish Republican Army loomed large, car bombs became a potent threat. “We realised very early on that you can put a much larger bomb inside a vehicle, and a vehicle bomb can actually bring down buildings,” he says. After the 1996 truck bombing in Manchester, which devastated part of the city, experts including Phillips began to think how they could prevent such events from happening – and how they could integrate these security measures into the fabric of cities.
This method has allowed safety measures to sit in plain sight without appearing to be safety measures at all. A prime example is the Emirates Stadium in London’s Holloway neighbourhood, which is the home of football club Arsenal. The stadium, which was completed in 2006, needed to integrate protective measures. The answer? Large reinforced concrete letters that spell out the team’s name on the pavement outside the stadium. “It looks like a statue,” says Phillips. “But it’s actually vehicle defence.”
London [PUBLIC ART]
Too often public art is an afterthought, shoehorned into a square or park at the last minute. But what if the artist had a hand in building public infrastructure from the ground up? That’s the idea that inspired Mark Davy, the founder of London-based urban place-making agency FutureCity, and Mollie Dent-Brocklehurst, the president of Pace Gallery’s London branch, to launch Future/Pace earlier this year.
Future/Pace matches artists such as Michal Rovner and Kohei Nawa with public projects from the outset; art is embedded in the fabric of urban design. “There’s a hunger from city authorities to see artists involved,” says Davy. “A bridge could be just a bridge or also a sculpture that you can walk across.”
Soak it up
Hasle, Denmark [PUBLIC SPACE]
The town of Hasle, on the Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea, was once considered an important stop-off for Denmark’s trawlers. However, since the ships ceased docking here in the 1980s the municipality has been left high and dry, working to bring new life to the area. The year-round Hasle Harbour Baths, built in 2013, have finally done the trick, helping to draw new crowds as well as inspiring further growth.
“Young people loved it – they started cycling over from the nearest town,” says architect Gugga Zakariasdottir, who co-managed the project. The baths now boast a sauna and a sunbathing platform; meanwhile a raft of beachside cafés and bars, as well as a maritime museum, are also cropping up.
Q&A – Lin Jou Min
Urban commissioner, Taipei
After 32 years working as an architect, first in New York and then in Taipei, Lin Jou Min joined the Taiwanese capital’s administration in 2014.
What tempted you to leave the private sector?
My previous architecture practice undertook a lot of public building projects so I know what the public sector is about – although the government is one of the reasons why Taipei is not as good as it should be. In 2014 I started contributing articles to a monthly periodical. I said Taipei is not as beautiful as you think; it’s horrible and we have huge room for development. After that my phone rang and now I am sitting here.
What is city government’s role in urban planning?
It all starts with a grand vision; think of Tokyo 2020. But most mayors of Taipei have simply been solving problems. Our city should also have a grand vision, which is why we came out with Taipei 2050 last year. Mayor Ko [Wen-je] has two major missions: public housing and urban renewal.
What long-term projects do you have in mind?
We want to relocate Taipei’s second airport out of the city centre. Songshan Airport and the surrounding green areas have the same footprint as Central Park in New York – it could be the greatest park in the world.
Holy water?
California’s drought has inspired the City of Angels to live up to its name: Los Angeles has launched a benevolent pilot programme to dispense recycled water to residents for free, for use in their homes.
The Monocle Travel Guide, London
Our London guide will take you on a journey around the sprawling metropolis that we call home, taking you away from the obvious and into the hidden. This is for those who want to make the most of their stay, feeling like…
A school of cities in Toronto, São Paulo tries to do dockless bikes right and can a park in South Carolina bridge racial divides?
Affairs / Urbanism
Oceania Briefing
Renewing urban Australia, choosing a new Aussie Governor-general and saving Tonga's tourism.
Munich’s reputation rests largely on history, luxury and beer. But for 2013, the Bavarian city is setting a new focus, on public art. It has invited an outside force – artist duo Elmgreen + Dragset – to playfully carry out…
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Starting a new term
— Toronto
Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau swept to power with a landslide. Advertising guru David Rosenberg helped him get there while journalist Rosemary Barton had a front-row seat. Together they navigate this new political era.
Advertising, Journalism, Justin Trudeau
Tomos Lewis
Masao Yamazaki
The political year in Canada has been a whirlwind. The surprise election of a wildly popular, poster-boy prime minister not only set political pulses racing but has reinvigorated the notion of “Brand Canada” too, both at home and abroad.
Justin Trudeau’s election and the campaign that preceded it marked a change in how politics is both advertised and reported in the country. Trudeau’s opponents attacked him, portraying him as “Just not ready” to be prime minister. His response was positive: listing the failings in the country that he was “not ready” to tolerate any longer. And it worked. The TV campaign is now regarded as one of the most successful in recent political history in Canada. It was produced by independent advertising agency Bensimon Byrne, spearheaded by David Rosenberg.
Rosemary Barton is a journalist at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and hosts the flagship daily news programme Power and Politics. She witnessed Canada’s longest general election campaign in more than a century up close.
So how do you sell politics and how do you report it in a revitalised political climate? Barton and Rosenberg sat down to unpick the challenges and the opportunities of Canada’s new political moment.
Rosemary Barton: I think there’s a uniquely Canadian approach in the way we cover politics in this country. We tend not to stray into people’s private lives. It’s much more based on what politicians are doing, what they’re promising and whether they’re delivering on their promises. That’s changed now though, I think because of the particular fascination with this prime minister.
David Rosenberg: Well when it comes to political advertising, particularly negative advertising, while they’re not explicitly based on politicians’ private lives, the vitriol in these ads speaks to character and therefore to the personal. Former prime minister Stephen Harper used it very effectively and in fact tried to do it with Trudeau himself.
RB: I’d say that those attack ads actually helped Trudeau because they created this constant narrative of expectation around him. And those expectations were quite low so he had to do very little to overcome them.
DR: But for the Conservatives, it backfired. I think the Harper attack ads against Trudeau…
RB: …The ones with the “Just not ready” slogan?
DR: Yes. They failed. The message wasn’t genuine. When they’re done properly, negative ads work. They’re effective. But they’ve got to be rooted in a certain truth about a candidate. In this case, ultimately, they didn’t ring true.
RB: Why?
DR: When we brought our focus groups together and conducted our research into what people were feeling we found that when people went to Trudeau’s rallies and saw him in the debates, saw his leadership qualities with their own eyes, they felt that his own story was genuine. And they came to their own conclusions about whether Justin was ready or not to be prime minister.
RB: I’m no advertising expert but yes, I think the tone of the attack ads misread the public mood. I understand why the Conservatives did it: it had worked very effectively for them previously.
DR: But I think Trudeau showed a particular kind of strength in rebutting those attacks head on and we wanted to capture that in our own ad campaign. We only wanted to work with a positive message.
RB: I’ve never really seen the kind of engagement we saw during the last election before. It was the longest election campaign we’ve ever had in Canada and people’s interest really didn’t fall away. It was sustained. And that’s carried on after the election too. There’s a personal connection people still feel towards him.
DR: So much of that is about branding, I think. This guy has an immense amount of energy, a personal style, youth. To promote any brand effectively you’ve got to cut through and differentiate your message from the prevailing mood elsewhere. I didn’t foresee the worldwide superstardom that Trudeau would engender but there’s this sense that Canada is now this outpost of optimism. I think he’s doing a great job of promoting those things.
RB: I’d say a word of caution. You always have to spend that political capital at some point. You do have to actually govern. No one’s going to deny that it’s good that people are now looking to Canada for ideas, whether it be selling our refugee sponsorship programme to other nations or the way we’re managing the economy. But in government you have to make a lot of difficult decisions. And I think that this government is only now on the cusp of doing some of those things. It could be problematic to the image that’s been created so far. It’ll be interesting to see.
DR: Absolutely, there’s no question about that. And I say that as an interested observer; I don’t have anything to do with Trudeau any more.
RB: The one thing I would say is that people tell me, “Oh you must be so happy now, reporting on this government, it must be so much easier.”
DR: Because as prime minister Stephen Harper controlled his government’s message so firmly?
RB: Yes but I couldn’t disagree more. It’s certainly a different kind of communications management. Stephen Harper was famous for not taking many questions from the press. It was a deep, centralised message control. It might look different now, it may look more open and transparent, but that same message control still exists.
DR: So when you’ve interviewed the prime minister do you get a sense in him of a genuine openness, that you might be able to get something more from him than you might have from his predecessor?
RB: I’d say if he has a particular thought or message he wants to get across, he doesn’t tend to expand on it any more than he needs to. There are ways around that for a journalist but no, he’s not the longest talker on the planet.
DR: I think the best advertising is the truth well told. I ultimately believe that consumers and voters are smart and see through artifice. In one of the television ads we did with Trudeau, we had him walking up an escalator that was moving downwards. It was a good example of a visual metaphor. It was meant as a metaphor for the struggle of the middle class, stuck on a treadmill. Politicians rarely say yes to ads where they have to “act” but the way Trudeau delivered the message in that context, it worked so well.
RB: Did you ever worry that he was going to fall down the stairs?
DR: Yes, I was absolutely worried. I was the body double at the start of the shoot. I can say now it’s pretty difficult walking up a downward escalator for a long period of time. I mean unlike you, Rosemary, I’m a background guy, so nobody knows me. And that’s the way I like it.
RB: Well I don’t think there’s a general adoration of journalists in Canada. We’re one rung above politicians. But I’m not in this business to be loved. I love politics and the payoff is knowing that you’ve asked the things that needed to be asked. And hopefully got some of the answers too.
Rosemary Barton
Barton is one of Canada’s most prominent political interviewers. As host of CBC’s daily Power and Politics, her heavyweight political guests have included prime minister Justin Trudeau and his predecessor Stephen Harper, IMF chief Christine Lagarde and US secretary of state John Kerry. Her disarming interview style is admired across the political spectrum.
Rosenberg is a partner and chief creative officer at Bensimon Byrne, Canada’s largest independent advertising agency. It is one of the only agencies to have bought itself back from a multinational, which it did in 2006. In 2015, Rosenberg oversaw the television campaign for Justin Trudeau’s Liberal party, which went on to win the election by a large margin.
State of the nation: Canada
Standing firm in the face of a flailing US president, Canada’s immigration policies, burgeoning economy and soft-power initiatives set a far more positive tone.
The betc founder has never read a management book – and probably never will. Yet over the past 24 years his trusting and laidback approach has helped build an advertising giant that is not only rewriting the business rul…
Business / Industry
With millions of listeners tuning in, the early-morning current-affairs slot is a competitive one in French radio. We hear what stations are doing to make their show stand out and set the nation up for the rest of the day…
Culture / Media
A harmonious shared workspace in London, a newsy new start-up in Zürich and a snapshot of the world’s biggest publishing markets.
Business / Media
My last meal: John Hegarty
One of the best-known faces in advertising, Hegarty has made celebrated work for Audi, Levi’s and Johnnie Walker. Over supper at his French vineyard he talks grapes and great ideas.
Entertaining / Industry
Leading the flock
Swedish adman Pelle Sjoenell shepherds a global band of ‘black sheep’ alongside a tight-knit team in Los Angeles.
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The US Public Broadcasting Service is one of the country’s most-trusted national institutions. From dogged reporting on everything from the election to antics in the White House, its flagship news programme is a beacon in…
Affairs / Media
As one of Mexico’s leading advertising directors, Raúl Cardós took a leap into the unknown when he decided to strike out on his own. Luckily his efforts have paid dividends.
✕5 ESSAYS
What does it really mean to be Canadian? Is it an open-minded acceptance of refugees, being a leader on the world stage or perhaps even an affinity with an imagined idyll? We ask five natives to shed some light on this ever…
Affairs / Society
Hitting the mark
As Canada assumes a greater role on the world stage, the nation’s companies need to promote a positive impression of the country. From maple leaves and mountains to beavers and bears, we give the best of the bunch our…
My last meal: Olivier Royant
We meet ‘Paris Match’ editor in chief Olivier Royant at Café de l’Homme to talk journalism, James Ellroy and the joys of crêpes.
Edits / Food & Drink
There’s no love lost between journalists and politicians but at least Portland is in a caring, sharing mood.
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Dance On The Lawn Is Back to Make Montclair Move
By Joseph Michalitsianos, Journalist on August 29, 2017 1 Comment
Dance On The Lawn, an annual celebration of dance and community in Montclair, is back again on September 9, 2017.
Montclair has historically been extremely supportive and encouraging when it comes to the performing arts. Places like Glenfield Middle School, where there is an emphasis on expression and performance, plant the seeds of showmanship within students, who then blossom at Montclair High School. Montclair High School provides dancing teams, theatre classes and countless groups to be involved in.
Photo courtesy of Dance On The Lawn.
It should then come as no surprise that the people of Montclair can come up with something as joyful and inclusive as Dance On The Lawn, a free outdoor dance festival that seeks to expose residents and children to the wonders of dance. The festival will be held on September 9, on the front lawn of St. Lukes Episcopal Church.
Eleven dance companies from the NJ/NYC area are participating in the event. The companies that are from New Jersey include Randy James’ 10 Hairy Legs, Donna Scro’s Freespace Dance, Maurice Chestnut’s Dance Therapy, and Dance On The Lawn’s 2015 “Emerging Commissioned New Jersey Choreographer” Robert Mark Burke. Acts from New York City include special choreography by Troy Powell, Stephen Petronio Company and Project 44 Dance. In addition, Lauren Connolly – winner of Dance On The Lawn’s 2017 “Emerging Commissioned New Jersey Choreographer,” will present a new work created specifically for Dance On The Lawn.
Audience at St. Luke’s at Dance On The Lawn 2016. Photo courtesy of Dance on the Lawn.
This celebration of dance was started in 2014, when Charmaine Warren devised a way to get Montclair and New Jersey residents maximum exposure to dance. Warren has an impressive list of qualifications pertaining to her experience in dance, including a masters degree in Dance Research, Reconstruction and Choreography. Warren has been involved in dance companies for over 15 years, and consistently teaches. She teaches dance, she teaches yoga and she directs Dance On The Lawn.
Warren figured that by exposing residents to professional companies and emerging students of dance, she could inspire some interest in the general public that perhaps was not there before. The idea was a great success, as the lawn of St. Lukes is annually packed with people who have come to see great dancing in a community setting.
Due to the success of the celebration, Warren was awarded Dance NJ’s JETE Award, an award given to honor those who have had a strong impact on New Jersey’s dance community. Dance NJ is a service organization that advocates and supports the excellence of dance and dance education in New Jersey.
Dance On The Lawn will take place on Saturday, September 9, 2017. The celebration will begin at 3pm and will last until 5pm, and is free of charge. The address for the event is 73 South Fullerton Avenue – St. Luke’s Episcopal Church.
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annual, celebration, charmaine warren, dance, dance on the lawn, dance show, free, glenfield middle school, Joe Michalitsianos, Joseph Michalitsianos, montclair, montclair high school, new jersey, nj, performing arts, September, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church
Dance On The Lawn Is Back to Make Montclair Move added by Joseph Michalitsianos, Journalist on August 29, 2017
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I need help understanding the concept of chord inversions.
This article from wikipedia, states:
In the first inversion of a C major triad the bass is E—the 3rd of the triad—with the 5th and the root stacked above it (the root now shifted an octave higher), forming the intervals of a 3rd and a 6th above the inverted bass of E, respectively. A first-inversion triad is also known as a 6/3 chord.
I don't understand this part: forming the intervals of a 3rd and a 6th above the inverted bass of E. The root position chord is C E G. The first inversion would be E G C. But to form an interval of 3rd and 6th over E it would need to be E G C# not E G C.
Can someone clarify this for me?
theory chords chord-inversions
DinushanM
André Pena
Wikipedia says "a 6th". It doesn't say what kind of 6th. An interval from any "flavor" (my word) of an E (such as Eb, E, or E#) up to any flavor of C (Cb, C, C#) is a sixth, because E-F-G-A-B-C is six notes. But the kind of 6th---major, minor, augmented, diminished, double augmented, double diminished, etc.---depends on the respective flavors of the E and C involved.
In the case of a C major chord, both the E and the C are natural, because those are the flavors of E and C that occur in C major (in fact, what distinguishes one key from another are precisely the flavors of the seven notes for that key; in the key of C, all notes are naturals.). Therefore the interval from an E to a C is a minor 6th, not a major 6th.
This will be true for inversions of the root triad of any other key as well. For example, in the key of D, the root triad is D-F#-A. So the first inversion is F#-A-D. F#-G-A-B-C-D is six notes, so an F#-to-D interval must be a sixth. But it's only eight half-steps between them, so it's a minor sixth instead of major sixth.
Alex BassonAlex Basson
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interval_(music)
An interval is simply the count of notes from one to another. So a sixth just means that, including the root, you've counted up six notes in that scale. It's not the count which determines the sharp/natural/flat-ness of the note. The scale determines that. If the scale contains C, then it will always be C, no matter the note from which you start counting.
Once you've determined the notes, then the specific distance between them can be qualified with a quality (minor, major, etc) that says exactly how many half-steps are between the notes. In the case of E to C, it is a sixth just by virtue of the note names, but that particular distance happens to be a minor sixth, a half step shorter than the major sixth of which you're thinking, which is why it doesn't have to be C#.
Binary PhileBinary Phile
This is correct. A minor 6th above E is C and a major 6th above E is C#. So an interval of 3rd and 6th over E is E G C, as you are in a key where a minor 6th above E is needed. I hope I helped.
mad_nassos
To help you understand where we get the numbers from take the tonic of C for instance. If you would write it on paper it would be C then above it E and then G. Inversions always care about what note is on the bottom. Composers can change the notes above the bottom note as need be without changing the inversion.
If count from C to E you get three (C being number 1) C,d,E. If you count from C to G you get five C,d,e,f,G So that is why you sometimes see a chord in root position noted as I 5/3
If you take that same chord and throw it into first inversion you get the notes E/G/C Let us count from the bottom note now. E,f,G - 3 and then E,f,g,a,b,c - 6 Hence first inversions are sometimes noted as 6/3
Lastly second inversion in this case it would be the notes G/C/E Let us count from G to C. G,a,b,C. That is four Now from G to E. G,a,b,c,d,E. That is six Hence why second inversion chords are sometimes noted as 6/4
Neil MeyerNeil Meyer
Reading this thread is a good reminder for me that music can be approached either mathematically or intuitively. When we talk about intervals, we are basically taking a mathematical approach. Another way of looking at chord inversions is to identify the notes in the chord and combine these with the basic chord "shapes" to determine the different inversions. While I know my theory, I approach music in a more intuitive manner, and this is more helpful and quicker for me than counting intervals.
treeofpain
Yes E to C is a sixth. A minor sixth, but a sixth.
Indeed sixths and thirds have an inverse relation since both sum a complete octave.
So if C to E is a major third, E to C is a minor sixth.
.....If C to Eb is a minor third, Eb to C is a major sixth.
Both are called indistiguishly thirds and sixths. For instance, they are usually present when you sing a chorus over a main vocal line.
WhimusicalWhimusical
How to identify the root note of a chord
Why is bass note so important in harmonic analysis of music?
Correct terminology for chord inversions
Common Practice Music Theory - Easier method to memorize 4-part harmony doubling rules?
Fm7 Drop 2 1st inversion confusion
Need help with understanding the Fifth of a chord
How would you calculate the name of this C/A# 7th chord?
Is 'fundamental frequency' the same thing as 'fundamental bass' (chord root?)
Is there a way to determine the flatness (or sharpness) of the 4th note of a chord from its name?
Is there a name for a chord with a major 3 and b5? When can it be used?
chord voicing with arpeggiations and inversions
What should one keep in mind when writing the Neapolitan 6th chord in a chord progression?
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More HPD Crime Lab Problems; This Time it’s the Crime Scene Unit
JoAnne M. Musick / 2 Comments /
Forensic Sciences,
hpd,
Yes, I said HPD Crime Lab rather than Houston Forensic Science Center. Despite the fancy new name and claimed independence, it’s the same old game. This time the Lab commissioned an audit of its crime scene unit related to officer-involved shootings. The purpose of the audit was to address complaints by the District Attorney’s Office and HPD’s own homicide division. The audit focused solely on the crime scene unit and their performance during the investigation of officer-involved shootings. And the results reveal anything but independence.
Hat tip to the Houston Chronicle for revealing this audit and reporting on its findings.
Set aside for a minute the technical problems with the crime scene unit, the audit highlights a continued lack of autonomy expected of an independent and forensic agency. This “independent” crime scene unit is comprised of 26 employees: a civilian director, a civilian administrative employee, four civilian investigators, and 20 HPD officers and sergeants. 77% of their staff are commissioned officers from the Houston Police Department – the very entity it largely investigates and is supposed to remain independent of. The crime scene investigators even wear HPD uniforms or insignia as they collect evidence and process scenes. They are in fact HPD officers and employees who are subject to transfer out of the crime scene unit and back into the regular ranks. That’s not an independent agency.
Additionally, the crime scene unit personnel are directed largely by the homicide detectives on the scene as well as the officer involved in the shooting. The audit noted that the decision to stop evidence collection was made to appease the homicide detective who determined he “had enough” evidence and an iron clad case. The involved officer, the shooter and apparent target of the independent investigation, is present telling his colleagues “what happened,” it is difficult for crime scene investigators to look past those words and search for additional, or dare I say contradictory, evidence.
On a side note, this is the same bias faced by prosecutors and their investigators – they too are on scene and inside the scene listening to the officer describe what happened. They too will have difficulty looking past those words. Outside of the walk through and witnessing the charting of the officer’s weapon, they sit back and wait on reports from the crime scene unit, homicide, and internal affairs. They conduct no other independent investigation. Instead, they serve as only a somewhat independent review.
Having been on many of these scenes, both as a representative of the District Attorney’s Office and as an involved officer’s legal counsel, the “walk through” by the officer always leads the evidence collection. Sure the scene is secured prior to the walk through and some evidence may already be marked, but everyone is looking for the officer’s rendition to know where else to look and what might be there. To be fair, where a foot chase proceeds a shooting, the scene can be rather large and spread out, necessitating some direction by the officer involved. But for independence, his involvement and direction in the scene must be minimal. Investigators must be free to disregard his words and explanation as they search independently for evidence.
Back to those technical problems: the internal audit found that crime scene unit technicians lack basic forensic skills and training. That’s kind of a big problem given their role in evidence collection. They are not trained specifically in bloodstain patterns and trajectory analysis. This could mean they miss the significance of bloodstains found on the scene. They may guess at or misread an angle of fire as a bullet traveled from the officer’s gun through an object or into a person. They overly rely on two-dimensional photographs to document facts rather than notes, data, and measurements. In fact, they rarely use the sophisticated FARO Focus 3d X330 laser scanners available to capture millions of measurements within the scene and provide a three-dimensional view.
This is not to say that skills and training cannot be improved; it’s simply to point out that they must be strengthened. There is no need for their training to come at the Houston Police Academy. They need not work alongside and with “colleagues” who share the same experiences, badge, and paycheck. Much like the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences hires its own employees, the Lab’s crime scene investigators should not be linked to or tied to the Houston Police Department – at least not if they want to claim independence.
view and download the audit report: Findings of CSU Audit
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At Sun Records: The Collected Works (18-CD Box Set( By Jerry Lee Lewis
“You shake my nerves and you rattle my brain, too much love drives a man insane, you broke my will, oh what a thrill, goodness gracious great balls of fire.”
Several days ago, with those words firmly implanted in my mind, I opened the definitive, and I mean definitive, Sun box set by Jerry Lee Lewis. The 18 discs contain every session and track recorded by Lewis during his seven years with the Sun label, 1956-1963. That’s 623 tracks if you are keeping count. Also included are two 300 page books; one contains a complete discography with comments and notes and the other presents hundreds of pictures, with 100 being previously unpublished.
Today, Jerry Lee Lewis in one of the grand old men of rock and roll. He was one of the original ten inductees into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. While his career is now into its sixth decade, his time with Sun produced a body of work that helped create the fabric of rock and roll.
This is not a release for the faint of heart but for hard core aficionados of good old rock and roll. There are multiple tracks of many songs that will only appeal to the person who wants everything either by Lewis or from the Sun label, but if you fall into that category there is a gold mine to be explored.
His well-known material is the roots of 1950’s rock. “Great Balls Of Fire,” “Breathless,” “High School Confidential,” “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On,” and others are a music history lesson. While many people may not need a dozen versions of these songs; the subtle differences and the final master create a traceable journey of how his songs took their final form.
His lesser known material and a few obscurities share the stage with his hits. He was never afraid to tackle songs outside his comfort zone as rock, pop, blues, country, and gospel all mingle together and emerge with his personal stamp. “Ooby Dooby,” “Love Letters In The Sand,” “Honey Hush,” “Singing The Blues,” “Mean Woman Blues,” “The Ballard Of Billie Joe,” and even “The Marine Hymn” all point to his flexibility as a musician.
The two books are a treat in and of themselves. The discography is a companion to the music as one is able to trace the various recording sessions in detail. The book of photographs is a trip in a time machine back to a very different era.
This is not a set for everyone. If you are not connected to Lewis or 1950’s rock and roll, there will probably be little interest. The other issue is the price given the enormity of the box set. If however you want to completely explore the early career of one of the legends of rock and roll and have a few dollars to spend; then this is a must purchase.
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Rock & Roll Time By Jerry Lee Lewis
Jerry Lee Lewis is one of the grand old men of rock and roll. His career now spans seven decades. He was 79 when he entered the studio to record his latest album Rock & Roll Time.
His last two studio efforts, Last Man Standing (2006) and Mean Old Man (2010) were duet albums. His latest release is all Jerry Lee. It is still heavy in star power but the likes of Keith Richards, Neil Young, Nils Lofgren, Robbie Robertson, Doyle Bramhall II, and Shelby Lynne are regulated to guitarists and background vocalists.
The title of the album is somewhat misleading. While he can still rock as seen on covers of Chuck Berry’s “Little Queenie” and “Promised Land;” much of the album is more in tune with the country side of his career.
The title track, written by Kris Kristofferson, has a plaintive and nostalgic feel. Lynyrd Skynrd’s “Mississippi Kid” is transformed into an emotional country-tinged performance. “Keep Me In Mind” is a pure country ballad, reminiscent of many of his country hits during the 1970’s.
He reaches deep in the Bob Dylan catalogue with a sincere version of “Stepchild.” In a tribute to his Sun label days, he straddles the line between rock and country with “Folsom Prison Blues.”
His voice may not have the explosive power of his younger days but he more than makes up for it with a laid back and smooth approach. He can still play the piano but also uses the array of guest guitarists to fill in the sound.
Jerry Lee Lewis has produced a remarkable album at an age when most of his contemporaries have retired or passed on. It may not shake your nerves and rattle your brain but there is still some fire in the music.
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Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On 45 by Jerry Lee Lewis
Jerry Lee Lewis and His Pumping Piano was one of the original early rock ‘n’ roll madmen. His high octane live performances and high energy music were some of the highlights of 1950s rock ‘n’ roll.
His debut chart single was “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On.” It first reached the BILLBOARD MAGAZINE Pop Singles Chart June 24, 1957 and peaked at number three. It was the second biggest hit single of his career.
Jerry Lee Lee Lewis is now a member of The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame and The Rockabilly Hall Of Fame.
His Sun Label bandmates, Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, and Johnny Cash may be gone but now in his late 70s, Jerry Lee rocks on.
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Blue Suede Shoes 45 by Jerry Lee Lewis
Jerry Lee Lewis released his version of “Blue Suede Shoes” while he was with the Sun Label. It did not become a hit as the original by Carl Perkins remains the standard for this classic rock ‘n’ roll song with Elvis’ a close second.
Still, during the late 1950s, Jerry Lee Lewis really did not produce any bad rock ‘n’ roll songs for the Sun label. While “Blue Suede Shoes” will never be associated with Lewis, it was still a rocking cover of a classic song.
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Rock & Roll Medley/Drinking Wine Spo-Dee O’ Dee 45 by Jerry Lee Lewis
Jerry Lee Lewis has had a lot of ups and downs during his career but this single and its parent album, THE SESSION, were a definite up.
I always flip this single over. “Drinking Wine Spo-Dee O’Dee” was was a excellent country cover of the old 1949 rhythm & blues hit by Stick McGhee.
The B side was Jerry Lee Lewis at his rocking best. He combined a number of classic rock ‘n’ roll songs into an explosive medley.
The single would peak at number 41 on the BILLBOARD MAGAZINE Pop Singles Chart and while his albums have continued to sell well, this was the last of his 18 pop charting singles.
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25 All Time Greatest Sun Recordings by Jerry Lee lewis
Jerry Lee Lewis is the last man standing among his famous Sun labelmates. Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, and Johnny Cash are all gone, but old Jerry Lee rocks on. He is also one of the last of a rapidly vanishing list of 1950s superstars who helped form the foundation of rock ‘n’ roll.
His career has now reached the 55-year mark. He has produced dozens of pop and country hit singles, and his albums have sold tens of millions of copies. He has toured constantly for over a half century and been married seven times (including once to his 13 year old cousin once removed, which almost ruined his career). He has been elected to the Rock And Roll and Rockabilly Halls Of Fame.
While his career has moved in many directions and included rock, country, and rockabilly styles of music, it was his time with the legendary Sun label that has defined his career. 25 All Time Greatest Sun Recordings is a fine short overview of his almost seven years with the label. If you have the cash and the inclination, there is always the Bear Family label’s Classic: The Definitive Edition Of His Sun Recordings 1956-1963, which covers 244 tracks spread over eight CDs. If that box set is overkill, then this single disc compilation should do just fine.
The sound is just about as clear and pristine as its going to get, given the age of the songs and the recording equipment of the day. The producers wisely went back to the original source tapes and used modern technology to enhance the quality as much as is possible.
Most fans of early rock ‘n’ roll should be very familiar with his better known songs. If you fall into that category but don’t have any of his early material in your collection, then this is a good place to start. If you are unfamiliar with his music, then this album will be a real treat.
His biggest hits are some of the finest to emerge from the 1950s. “Great Balls Of Fire,” “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On,” “Breathless,” and “High School Confidential” are essential to understanding the early evolution of rock music. The energy and underlying sexual tension have remained an essential part of rock’s make-up. Add his pumping piano and showmanship to the mix and you have some of the best high octane rock of its era.
As with any compilation album, there will always be controversy as to what was included and what was left out. Once you get past his essential hits, there are any number of songs that could have been included. The material chosen tended to be somewhat haphazard, which worked well as it gave a taste of the many sides of his early career. There are rock covers (“Sweet Little Sixteen” and “Good Golly Miss Molly”), country covers (“Crazy Arms” and “You Win Again”), and the somewhat obscure (“Drinkin’ Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee” and “Lewis Boogie”).
Jerry Lee Lewis has always considered himself the greatest musician in rock history. Many of these tracks show that he was very close to being right.
Article first published as Music Review: Jerry Lee Lewis – 25 All Time Greatest Sun Recordings on Blogcritics.
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Mean Old Man by Jerry Lee Lewis
If ever two album titles described an artist at a specific point in his career, Jerry Lee Lewis’ Last Man Standing (2006) and Mean Old Man (2010) are it. He is the last of the major Sun Label artists still alive, as Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash are all gone. Now in his mid-seventies, he still has the attitude and fire of his youth.
Jerry Lee Lewis burst upon the music scene during 1957 with such hits as “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” and “Great Balls Of Fire.” His rock ‘n’ roll career came to an abrupt halt when he married his thirteen year old cousin. He made his living as a noted country artist for the next three decades, as he charted 65 songs on the C&W charts in the United States during 1957-1989. He was inducted into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 1986. Today, the “Mean Old Man” of rock ‘n’ roll continues to record and tour.
Mean Old Man is similar to his last release in that except for one track, it is an album of duets. Let me also say that I am reviewing the deluxe edition, which contains 18 tracks as opposed to the regular version, which contains only ten. A word of advice is spend the extra couple of bucks and buy the longer one.
He really brings his sound into the modern age with his selection of songs and partners. Ronnie Wood, Kid Rock, Slash, Eric Clapton, John Fogerty, Mick Jagger, Sheryl Crow, and a host of others all lend a hand here.
His voice may not have the suppleness of his youth, but he still more than gets by. He can still play his piano with skill and ferocity when needed.
“Rocking My Life Away” features some nice boogie woogie piano by the old master, plus guitar work by Slash and vocal assistance from Kid Rock. The best vocal fit is with Sheryl Crow on the old standard “You Are My Sunshine.” He combines with John Fogerty on his classic “Bad Moon Rising.”
He goes in a country direction on a number of tunes. “Whiskey River” with Willie Nelson and “Swinging Doors” with Merle Haggard return him to one of his comfort zones.
There are also some inspired choices. The old Roy Hamilton tune, “You Can Have Her,” features two of the great living guitarists, Eric Clapton and James Burton. The most eclectic choice was the somewhat obscure Rolling Stones song “Dead Flowers” but Mick Jagger’s presence gives it legitimacy. The most poignant combination is with Solomon Burke on “Railroad To Heaven.” Burke recently passed away and this is a final reminder of his talent and vocal skill.
The album comes to a fitting conclusion with just Lewis and his piano with a performance of “Miss the Mississippi And You.”
Mean Old Man proves that Jerry Lee Lewis is alive and still kicking in his mid-seventies. If this album is any indication, there is hope that his story will have more chapters in the future.
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« How Parents in India Are Keeping Their Girls in School, and Away from Early Marriages | District Energy: A Secret Weapon for Climate Action and Human Health »
Child Marriage – ‘If Efforts Are Not Accelerated, More than 150 Million Girls Will Marry before Their Eighteenth Birthday by 2030’
By UNICEF*
Child marriage threatens the lives, well-being and futures of girls around the world
UNICEF/UN0280307/Boro
Child marriage refers to any formal marriage or informal union between a child under the age of 18 and an adult or another child.
While the prevalence of child marriage has decreased worldwide – from one in four girls married a decade ago to approximately one in five today – the practice remains widespread.
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals call for global action to end this human rights violation by 2030.
Child marriage is often the result of entrenched gender inequality, making girls disproportionately affected by the practice. Globally, the prevalence of child marriage among boys is just one fifth that among girls.
UNICEF/UN060345/Sokhin
Nigerian refugee Hafsa Oumar, 16, stands outside a classroom in Dar es Salam camp, Lake Region, Chad. Hafsa enrolled in school for the first time when she arrived in Chad, but stopped attending once she was married.
Child marriage robs girls of their childhood and threatens their lives and health. Girls who marry before 18 are more likely to experience domestic violence and less likely to remain in school.
They have worse economic and health outcomes than their unmarried peers, which are eventually passed down to their own children, further straining a country’s capacity to provide quality health and education services.
Child brides often become pregnant during adolescence, when the risk of complications during pregnancy and childbirth increases – for themselves and their infants. The practice can also isolate girls from family and friends and exclude them from participating in their communities, taking a heavy toll on their physical and psychological well-being.
Because child marriage impacts a girl’s health, future and family, it imposes substantial economic costs at the national level, too, with major implications for development and prosperity.
Addressing child marriage requires recognition of the factors that enable it. While the roots of the practice vary across countries and cultures, poverty, lack of educational opportunities and limited access to health care perpetuate it.
Some families marry their daughters off early to reduce their economic burden or earn income. Others may do so because they believe it will secure their daughters’ futures or protect them.
“If a girl of my age gets married, it’s not good. I have a different perspective from many. Going to school doesn’t spoil a girl – quite the contrary.”
Aydoudate Abdoulaye, 15, from Menaka, Mali
Norms and stereotypes around gender roles and marriage age, as well as the socio-economic risk of pregnancy outside of marriage, also uphold the practice.
UNICEF/UNI199292/Dubourthoumieu
“My step-mother wanted to marry me off to a man when I was 13. I refused since I was still a little girl and I wanted to study. So she took me to the market and abandoned me there. I didn’t come back…Now, I’m in the last year of primary school. I want to go to high school and become a tradeswoman.” – Florence, 14, from Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Because UNICEF works with a range of stakeholders – from grassroots community organizations to high-level decision makers – across a scope of human-rights issues, it is uniquely positioned to identify and address the systemic factors posing a challenge to reproductive health and gender equality.
In 2016, UNICEF, together with UNFPA, launched the Global Programme to Accelerate Action to End Child Marriage.
Empowering young girls at risk of marriage or already in union, the programme reached more than 1.1 million adolescent girls in 2017 with life-skills training and school attendance support.
Over 4 million people, including key community influencers, engaged in dialogue to support adolescent girls or other efforts to end child marriage.
UNICEF/UN043144/Rich
Syrian refugees aged 12–17 meet in a small tent in the corner of the Saadnayel informal settlement for refugees in the Bekaa valley in Lebanon. They come to discuss how to better protect their community – and children and youth in particular – from harm, including violence, sexual abuse and child marriage.
*SOURCE: UNICEF. Go to ORIGINAL.
LEADS Approach to Ending Child Marriage
Efforts to end child marriage in Africa need to be accelerated. This brief highlights one approach for doing so.
Review of the African Union Campaign to End Child Marriage
This summary notes key highlights and challenges in the implementation of Phase I of the African Union Campaign to End Child Marriage.
UNICEF and the Government of Canada: Accelerating the Movement to End Child, Early and Forced Marriage
In 2014, UNICEF, with funding from the Government of Canada, focused on policy making, community mobilization and evidence generation to end child marriage. This donor report summarizes UNICEF results and activities from 2014 to 2017.
UNICEF Data on Child Marriage
As the custodian agency for monitoring progress towards ending all harmful practices by 2030, UNICEF generates periodic global estimates of child marriage.
Girls Not Brides Resource Centre
Girls Not Brides is a global partnership of more than 900 civil society organizations committed to ending child marriage.
Posted on 10/03/2019 at 14:41 in Africa, Asia, Latin America & Caribbean, Middle East, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples, War Lords | RSS feed | Reply | Trackback URL
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Saying Goodbye to Samhain
Yesterday, the authors received word from Samhain Publishing’s President, Christina Brashear, that their doors were closing.
“It’s with the heaviest of hearts and a great sadness I bring you the news of Samhain beginning the process of winding down due to our market share’s continuing decline.”
The signs had been there over the past few months that this day was coming, but it didn’t make it any easier to hear the news. Samhain will gradually wind down this year. They’re not closing up shop right away. Books that are in their queue for publication, like my upcoming I Kill In Peace, will still be released. I just can’t tell you how long it will be available. I’m hoping for the remainder of 2016.
It’s truly sad to see Samhain go. They, and editor Don D’Auria, were the first ones to give me a chance. They nurtured my growth as a writer, giving me free reign to be as creative and twisted as I wanted, providing the means for my stories to be told and, hopefully, enjoyed by thousands of readers. I remember when I got my acceptance letter for my first novel, Forest of Shadows, way back in early 2011. I was over the moon. To be asked to be part of the premier of a horror line was just astounding to me. I mean, I was a total nobody, and they wanted to print my book next to Ramsey Campbell. What the fuck were they thinking? I still have a hard time wrapping my mind around it. But I’m damn glad they did it.
Over the next 4+ years, I made it a point to write 2 books for Don and Samhain. I wanted Samhain’s horror line to succeed and grow. And grow it did. In the end, I’ve published 10 books with them. And I wasn’t even the most prolific! Samhain gave voice to some of the best new talent in the business – writers like Jonathan Janz, Kristopher Rufty, Brian Moreland, Russell James, David Bernstein, Frazer Lee, Catherine Cavendish, Aaron Dries, Adam Cesare. The list goes on and on. This gang is no longer the future of horror. They are the present.
Samhain gave you that.
It was an honor and a pleasure meeting my fellow writers at conventions like Horrorhound, Scares That Care and Horrorfind. We’ve formed bonds that I know will last well beyond the Samhain era. And the people who work at Samhain were top-notch. You couldn’t find a more likable bunch. There was Jacob and his kilt, Amanda, Kaitlyn, Tera, Tanya. All good people with enough enthusiasm to power a V2 rocket.
Unfortunately, the sales never matched expectations. I see it when I go to horror cons. Horror fans are devout and loyal as hell. They are the best people I know. But I also know that most would rather spend $40 on a terribly produced movie or signed headshot of the woman who guest starred in Maniac Cop 2 than buy a book or two.
I’m not complaining. I can’t complain. So many of you have bought my books, I’ve been astounded. Though I can’t count the number of times people have told me, “I don’t read horror” or “If they make that book a movie, I’ll watch it”. Really, it’s not just the horror genre. We’re not a nation of big time readers, especially in a world with limitless distractions. We never have been. Don’t believe me. Next time you go to the beach, count how many people lay on their towel reading a book. You’ll get an accurate percentage from just one visit. Last time I was at Orchard Beach in the Bronx, a one mile stretch of white sand with thousands of sun worshippers, I counted only 2 other people in my immediate area, which encompassed about 200 or more people. I made book lover #3.
Could Samhain have tried better? Sure. Maybe lowering the cost of books and working at better distribution would have helped. But then again, Dorchester/Leisure books were everywhere, and even they collapsed.
If you love horror, I encourage you to read more in the genre. Don’t just wait for the next insipid tits-n-zits slasher flick to pop on-demand. I guarantee you, any book you read from a Samhain author will be better than that $5 movie.
And now is the time to pick up print copies of the Samhain books you either love and have in ebook or have on your wish list. There’s no telling when they will be no more and maybe someday become collector’s editions.
Thank you, Samhain, for the opportunities you’ve given me, and the career you helped me build. I can’t repay you enough for that (though my Samhain logo tattoo should come close). And for introducing me to a posse of wonderful writers and your amazing staff. It’s been a wonderful 5 years. I just wish it could have been many, many more.
Tags: horror authors, horror publisher, Hunter Shea, publishing, samhain horror, Samhain Publishing closing
9 responses to “Saying Goodbye to Samhain”
ANNN33 says : February 27, 2016 at 4:04 pm
AWWW DUDE IAM SO SORRY
On Sat, Feb 27, 2016 at 8:05 AM, Hunter Shea wrote:
> Hunter Shea posted: “Yesterday, the authors received word from Samhain > Publishing’s President, Christina Brashear, that their doors were closing. > “It’s with the heaviest of hearts and a great sadness I bring you the news > of Samhain beginning the process of winding down due t” >
Hunter Shea says : February 28, 2016 at 2:08 pm
I knew it was going to happen around now. Already talking to new publishers. 🙂
jackiekingon says : February 27, 2016 at 6:02 pm
You gave it your best shot and so did they.
We sure did. Onward and upward!
Pamela Morris says : February 28, 2016 at 1:00 pm
Your accomplishments are nothing to sneeze at, Hunter. I’m sure you know that. I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve read of yours and hope to be able to read more. When the publisher of my first paranormal murder-mystery went belly
up within two years of opening I was crushed. My book barely got to see the light of day and suddenly it was no longer available. But, I press on, as I know you will. We have to. It’s what we do. For me, writing is as much a choice as breathing. I can can quit any time I want, but not starting again would prove fatal. Write on, my friend!
Thank you so much! Oh yes, I’m not sitting around. Already talking to other publishers. There’s plenty more to come. I need to write to keep my sanity.
jmh says : February 29, 2016 at 6:28 am
Well said, Hunter. I wish I’d been with Samhain earlier, but I’m grateful for every single moment I got.
rxena77 says : March 3, 2016 at 4:07 pm
It is a stunning blow I know. I hope some of those talks with other publishers prove fruitful. Have you thought of self-publishing?
Hunter Shea says : March 24, 2016 at 1:11 pm
It’s something I’m considering for next year.
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KIDNAPPING OF ABIA STATE
Posted by (VAL202) in SOCCER BETTING TIPS August 24, 2012
The failure of governance at every level of administration coupled with other factors has been perceived as the possible cause(s) of kidnapping especially in third world countries.
In Nigeria (Abia State) kidnapping has assumed an alarming dimension which has received wide spread condemnations from well meaning people of Nigeria and even the international community. In Abia State, kidnapping have had some negative implications on the youth and the women which has become imperative for this project to address in order to drastically reduce the effect of this menace.
This project is expected to discuss the possible causes of kidnapping, implications and the practical solutions for the betterment of the society.
However, many reasons have been adduced by various scholars/commentators for the rise in the cases of kidnapping in Nigeria. (Abia State) while some attributed it to the failure of governments at all levels, others associated it to poor moral upbringing of children.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
The phenomenon of kidnapping has assumed an alarming dimension leading to loss of lives, properties, money and has had some negative implications on the society especially on the women and children. If this trend continues unabated, the negative effect which includes high rate of delinquency will certainly encourage the morally upright to be involved in this demonic trade. In Nigeria such that it has attracted widespread condemnation by both Nigerians and the international community. Kidnapping hitherto known only in the Niger Delta, is now a national occurrence. If this trend continues unabated, it will have far reaching consequences on mostly the women and the youth.
The high rate of kidnapping coupled with the break down of law and order, militancy, insecurity and most times the loss of lives and properties is a cause for concern for the contemporary Nigerian society. The extent of social disorder experienced in Abia State have reach an alarming position making it necessary for both the government and all well meaning people to be involved in the process of restoring a peaceful society where law and order reigns. There is therefore the obvious need for this research to trace the genesis of this monster, causes, implication as well as proffer possible solutions, as no serious authority can fold it’s arms and allow it to continue.
1.3 Purpose of the Study
The objectives of this study are:
To identify the factors that causes kidnapping in Abia State.
To ascertain the implications of kidnapping on the children and women in Abia State.
To examine and proffer possible solutions to the menace of kidnapping in Abia State.
This research adopted the tripartite approach for data collection and analysis. We relied on secondary sources of information gathering which include books, journals, magazines, dailies, projects, thesis etc.
We complimented this with the use of oral interviews as we interviewed some Abians and non-indigenes who were either victim of kidnapping or conversant with the issues associated with kidnapping. This enabled us ascertain the factors that ensured a peaceful environment and those that have eventually led to the near breakdown of law and order.
1.5 Scope of the Study
The scope of this study is analyzing the implications of kidnapping on the women and the youth in Abia State with particular reference to Aba town, the commercial nerve centre of Abia State, south-East Nigeria.
1.6 Limitation of the Study
This research posed some challenges especially in data collection. It was a Herculean task getting some books, journals and other published and unpublished works for this research. It was also difficult interviewing people who were victims of kidnapping since they feared that such information could endanger their lives. The constant visits to Aba for this research also posed a serious challenge due to the frequent cases of armed robbery, kidnapping and the cost of transportation. We also encountered the problem of interviewing the non-literates who find it difficult to understand certain aspects of this menace. In any case, we made frantic effort and got some books, journals and dailies for this research. We equally interviewed those who volunteered information and some were equally induced with financial gratification.
1.7 Significance of the study
This project will contribute in no small measure in understanding the factors that gave rise to kidnapping and other deviant behaviours especially in Abia State.
This work will also help in understanding the implications of kidnapping on the women and youth in Abia State.
This research is also important in trying to proffer solution to the government, religious bodies and the citizenry on how to curb the menace of kidnapping not only in Abia State but the Nigerian nation as a whole. Findings of this research will help these bodies to put in measures that will ensure a harmonious and peaceful society.
Finally, findings of this research will serve to stimulate further researches on this and related topics.
2.1 Meaning and Types of Kidnapping
The phenomenon of kidnapping has taken an alarming dimension in Nigeria, such that it has become a big business. It therefore becomes necessary to look at the meaning at the meaning of kidnapping, identify some scholarly definitions and possible types or forms of kidnapping.
The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 6th edition defines kidnapping as the act of taking somebody away illegally and keeping them as a prisoner, especially in order to get money or something else for returning them.
Hakeem Jamiu (Media wikipedia) defines the term thus:
It refers to forceful abduction of a human being with the intention to hold them for ransom, or seize them away for the motive of harassment (physically or mentally or sexually), taking them hostage and various other motives. It is done by the way of taking the kidnapped person to a place where they are unlikely to be found and is unlikely to be released till abductors demands are satisfied.
In a related development, Ukwu Elems, a US trained lawyer in a paper presented as part of the end of year programme of the league of friends of Akwa-Ibom State in Port Harcourt saw kidnapping as the unlawful act of capturing and carrying away persons against their will and holding them in false imprisonment.
Kidnapping has become a second criminal problem in Nigeria especially in the south-south and south-east geo-political regions of this country.
In criminal law however, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against the person’s will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority. This may be done for ransom or in furtherance of another crime, or in connection with a child’s custody dispute.
In modern usage, kidnapping or abduction of a child is often called child stealing or parental kidnapping particularly when done not to collect a ransom but rather with the intention of keeping the child permanently.
Kidnapping in which ever form has become a common occurrence in various parts of the world today and certain cities and countries are often described as the kidnapping capital of the world. Although, statistics are harder to come by, reports suggest that Nigeria has the highest rate of kidnapping cases especially since the wake of the agitation by the people of the rich oil Niger Delta region.
Kidnapping of people in the Niger Delta, is now a daily occurrence especially that which involves expatriates, women and children and has been identified as a source of restiveness and the eventual breakdown of law and order. Kidnapping of expatriates in the Niger Delta is one of the major weapons employed by the various ethnic militias operating in the area. It’s extension to children of prominent citizens in the area has however cost the habitants the sympathy of Nigerian as it is now obvious that the Niger Delta struggle has been bastardized.
The spread of kidnapping to other parts of the country is believed to be a fall out of the military confrontation between the militants and the federal government. The militants who were dislodged from the Niger Delta bases like Gbaramatu kingdom etc; were forced to relocate to other areas where they have continued their trade of kidnapping as a means of survival.
The other probable groups of kidnappers are those who, though not militants, believe that kidnapping pays with minimum risk of being caught. This second group follows the general trend of Nigerians who like to go into any business that they consider lucrative at the moment, not minding if such would endure or not. The signs are ominous; as we are approaching a situation where wives who would went to fleece their husbands of their hard-earned money could organize their own kidnapping and share the loot with the kidnappers. Husbands may also do so if their wives are rich. Wayward children could also do this to their rich dads. Employees may do it to get money from their companies. Politicians may also do it to raise money. The reason for this is simply that the chances of apprehending kidnappers by the law enforcement officers are very remote, so it encourages the trade. In any case, it is still part of the symptoms of a failed state.
It is important to mention the fact that contemporary social vices called kidnapping, militancy and hostage taking had their roots in the Bible which has affected the whole human race. In the book of Genesis, we read of Cain and Abel, the two brothers. The action of the younger brother, Abel and the acceptance of God attracted the anger of the elder brother. The anodyne action of Cain killing his younger brother brought about the curse of the Almighty God who declared in Gen 4:11 – 13:
…and now, thou art curse from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother’s blood from thy hand, when thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee the strength; a fugitive and vagabond shall thou be on earth.
2.2 Scholarly views about Kidnapping and Crime
Over the years, a number of scholars (anthropologist sociologists, religionist and philosophers) have commented on the issue of kidnapping and the crime problem generally leading to theories to ascertain the possible causes of kidnapping and crime. Iwarimie-Jaja (2010:133) summed it up when he said that Most of such theories have focused attention on anti-social behaviour or deviance which is a broad conceptual framework for understanding and explaining delinquency and criminality.
For the purpose of clarity and to enable us adopt a theoretical framework for a better review of literature crime and deviance, two major theories which fall under the structural-functional theory shall be discussed.
Functionalism: The functionalist perspective tends to argue that the crime problem in Nigeria emanates from the social imbalance especially on the line of the two major classes of people. Because of the pressure on certain people to meet up the challenges of satisfying their economic needs, it is the view of this theory that such persons are likely to commit crime of different types. The argument of this theory is that there is a moral question and the disregard to the core values of integrity, love and respect for the rule of law.
Marxism: This theory contends that the problem of crime in Nigeria is linked to the problem of the existence to the intensity of class conflict and contradictions in the economic order, mainly due to the depressive, oppressive and dehumanizing effects. Hence, the increase in capitalist behaviour for the aim of profit maximization and unequal economic and social status is responsible for the continuous rise in crime rate in Nigeria which seems to have defiled all government efforts at addressing the crime problem.
The Marxists also believe that the crime problem could be linked to the economic gap between “the haves” and “the haves not”, causing the inordinate desire for the lower people to try to rise to the next economic level through any available obnoxious way. Accordingly, the Marxists contend that the Nigerian scenario where people who occupy government offices loot government treasuries for their personal aggrandizement leaving the rest of Nigerians impoverished and without any of the basic amenities-shelter, food and clothing, which this school of thought concerned was a major factor that has lead many Nigerians to crime. Having looked at these theories which fall under the structural-theoretical framework, it is the view of this research to align with the Marxists view that states that the increased measure of capitalist behaviour especially unequal economic or social relations is responsible for the unabated nature of Nigeria’s crime-problem. It could be said to be true that factors such as greed, marginal and outright unemployment, abject and relative poverty, high inflation rates, disorganized homes and insecurity to life and property are the basic crime problem in Nigeria. It is from this stand point that this research will be discussing the crime of kidnapping and other deviance behaviour in our country. Understanding this theory accordingly will help us achieve the task of proffering solutions to the problem of kidnapping not only in Abia state but the whole of Nigeria.
Even the recent upsurge in the activities of the Boko Haram is not unconnected with what the northerners perceived as marginalization of their region and also a reaction to the level of poverty, deprivation occasioned by the near collapsed of the president Goodluck led government of Nigeria.
Sociologists have also adopted other strategies at explaining crime and deviance behaviour. For a school of thought, criminals or those involve in crime already have an innate tendency for crime or better still inborn. Others share the view that delinquent or criminal behaviour emanate from the physical nature of the offenders themselves and concluded that the human genetic and environmental factor as schools, homes, peer groups could produce anti-social behaviour. There is also another school of thought which opined that crime can best be associated with mental disorder or malfunctioning of the brain, leading to the thought of evil and thereby community crime. This could be referred to as psychosis. Furthermore, there is also another thought which is the socio-genetic or sociological theory which advocated that the society has a like to crime.
This theory as submitted by Iwarimie-Jaja (2010:174) states:
That the sociological perspective exposes the situation or social context in which delinquency and crime takes place. The central thrust of this theory is that attention is focused on the relationship between a person’s socio-economic condition and the possibility that the person would commit either crime or delinquency.
Having looked at these theories, it is not enough to conclude that all these are relevant to the Nigerian (Abia State) scenario in explaining kidnapping and crime. However, it has been established in many fora that poverty, frustration, unemployment and disorganized families are not the only reasons why people commit crime like theft, burglary, fraud, murder or armed robbery.
Iwarimie-Jaja (2010:193) had opined:
Infact, though these hold, the major cause of criminal acts is the association of the adolescent, or adult, with persons who have a need that is not different from those of his peers, but the desire to satisfy, this need does not explain why he should engage in delinquent act, or why at an adult age, he may commit crime.
This simply alludes to the fact that kidnapping which as a crime could have come into existence as a result of many factors such as bad governance/corruption, unemployment, lack of development, structural deficiency of the Nigerian federalism, environmental damage, human rights violations etc.
The wiktionary, the free dictionary listed the following as the possible types of kidnapping.
i) Bride Kidnapping: This is a term often applied loosely, to include any bride “abducted” against the will of her parents, even if she is willing to marry the “abductor”. It still is traditional among certain nomadic peoples of central Asia. It has been a resurgence in kyrgyztan, since the fall of Soviet Union and the subsequent erosion of women rights.
ii) Child Kidnapping: This happens to be one of our cardinal focus and has to do with the abduction or kidnapping of a child (or baby) by an older person mainly for ransom, to settle political scores and a means of undoing one another. This is the current trend in the south-east where children (youth) of prominent businessmen and politicians have been victims.
iii) Express Kidnapping: This is a situation in which the kidnappers demand a certain ransom where the families, company or government can pay. This type originated from Latin America, where a small ransom, that a family or company can easily pay. This perhaps is the trend in Abia State where it is revealed by John Owechi (oral interview 04/07/2011) whose colleague’s son was kidnap for the sum of N100,000 naira only.
iv) Tiger Kidnapping: This is the taking of a hostage to make a loved one or associate of the victim do something for instance, a child is taking hostage to force the shop keeper to open the safe. The term originates from the usually long preceding observation like a tiger does on the prowl.
2.3 Cases of Kidnapping in Nigeria
i) Kidnapping of Four Foreign Workers Including Two Britons: As reported in the Nation Newspaper of 14th February, 2006.
This case of kidnapping took place in a night club in Port Harcourt good fellas bar at about 10pm along the GRA axis of Port Harcourt.
The report has it that this was the fifth case of kidnapping in the oil rich Niger Delta of Nigeria. As in most cases, hostages are believed to have been released unharmed, usually after a financial deal is struck but analysts say the ransom payments fuel the violence. The report further stated that these expatriates were taken away through the water ways to an unknown destination. Many reasons have been adduced for this upsurge in kidnapping but Wilson Minin (oral interview 04/06/2011) opined that the Delta is awash with weapons, unemployment is high and communities feel aggrieved at the lack of development. The four expatriates were later freed (7 days after) and handed over to Nigeria Liquidified Natural Gas (NLNG) in Bonny through the Philippine and British embassies respectively.
ii) Kidnapping of five South Koreans in Port Harcourt on the 7th of June, 2006 (www.news.com.an/heradsun/story)
According to the report, a militant group in Nigeria’s oil-producing Niger Delta claimed responsibility for kidnapping five South Koreans during an attack on a gas plant operated by Royal Dutch shell. The movement for the emancipation of Niger Delta (mend) claimed that the region has been impoverished and underdeveloped by the federal government. According to this source, these South Koreans were released unharmed but not without emotional trauma due to the dehumanizing experience of these expatriates. They were release 6 days later unharmed.
iii) Kidnapping of a three-year old British girl in Nigeria. July 6, 2007 in Aba, Abia State. This kidnapping case occurred on the above date while the girl was traveling to school by car to Port Harcourt, along the Aba-Port Harcourt express way. Margaret Hill, daughter of oil worker Mike Hill was snatched by unknown gun men who demanded ransom. It was not clear whether any ransom was paid at the time of this report. This particular case triggered a frantic diplomatic activity to obtain her release. The report also has it that she was unharmed at the time of her release.
iv) Kidnapping of pa. Chinedu the Father of a Senior Accountant of Abia State on the 7th of October 2008, reported in the daily sun of 8th October, 2010.
According the sun report, the man was kidnapped in his home town by some unknown gunmen who demanded N20 million. The report continued that this elderly man was held hostage for over two weeks and eventually died in the custody of the kidnappers who dropped the corpse at the at a Bridge. It was indeed a sad news as it was the first case of the death of a victim in the custody of the kidnappers in Abia State.
THE CRIME OF KIDNAPPING IN ABIA STATE
3.1 Origin of Kidnapping in Abia State
It is difficult to determine exactly when kidnapping started in Abia State without taking a holistic view of it’s origin in the whole of the Niger Delta.
Abia State has been under the siege of kidnappers who have in the last few years made life unbearable for the residents especially the wealthy and foreign nationals.
The illicit trade, which began in the troubled oil rich Niger Delta started in the year 2006 in Bayelsa State south-south geographical zone. It was first experienced in the south east zone at the industrial town of Nnewi, Anambra State, where two Chinese nationals attached to a private auto manufacturing firm were taken hostage on March, 17, 2007. (Daily Champion 2nd June, 2008). The report hinted that one of the victims was released after the payment of ransom while the other was missing till date and he is believed to have been killed by his abductors.
The first reported case o kidnapping took place on September 27, 2008 at Aba involving the kidnap of 15 school children who were later released perhaps after the payment of ransom (Daily champion 02/06/2009). Since then, there have been cases of kidnapping involving women, children, the wealthy and foreigners. Different authorities and individuals have adduced various reasons for the high rate of kidnapping and crime in the area.
Iwarime-Jaja (2010:158) simply asserted that:
Infact, it is the harsh conditions experienced by people that motivate them to seek for extra-legal ways to come out of their deplorable state of survival. This explains why there is a chronic and recalcitrant crime situation that has a systematic occurrence and characterized as dangerous.
Oloruntimehin (1984) seems to agree with the above assertion when he wrote that:
Nigeria is besieged with normlessness. The country has replaced dignity and honor with disrespect and dishonor as a standard of behaviour. There is an overt display of immorality and power, violence and ill gotten money.
The fact is that, there is societal decadence. Nigeria has unwittingly provided the conducive and enabling environment for all sorts of crime which has engendered it’s crime-problem (Iwarimie-Jaja 2010:159).
Today, Aba the commercial nerve centre of Abia State is a state of abject lawlessness, prompting residents to flee the town in droves, while schools, banks, markets and business premises have been shut down. No wonder president Goodluck Jonathan promptly ordered the inspector general of police Hafiz Ringim and heads of other security agencies to “take necessary steps to restore peace and order in Abia State.
3.2 Types/Strategies of Kidnapping in Abia State
Some of the types of kidnapping in Abia State could be summarized under the following sub-headings.
i) Kidnapping from Bushes: This is the type of kidnapping where the victims are normally abducted along the road leading to either a village or town and kept in the bush. This is the most used method as the bush provides a safe haven for the kidnappers who also perfect their mission in the bush. The victims could be any body depending on the target of the kidnappers. For instance, the kidnap of 15 pupils along the Aba-Port Harcourt expressway by one of the notorious kidnappers Osisikana and taken to unknown destination. The hoodlums where later apprehended and their captives released. (Daily Guardian 02/06/2008).
ii) Kidnapping in the Sea: This happens when the victims are kidnapped in the sea while traveling in the Nigerian waterways. The victims were mostly taken to the bush for ransom. An example of this kind of kidnapping was one that took place at the Bonny Sea on the 14th of April 2009 at about 7:30pm involving a staff of NLNG. There were cases were the kidnappers board the boat of travelers in order to perfect their heinous crime.
iii) Kidnapping from the Church: Sometimes, the kidnappers resort to the kidnapping of Church members especially the wealthy ones for the purpose of ransom. The kidnappers either pretend to be worshippers or hang around the Church premises to perpetrate their plan. In most cases, the victims are mostly children and women of wealthy Church members or the clergy perceived to be very rich (Guardian 02/06/2008).
iv) Kidnapping from Houses: This is the most widely used method of kidnapping of victims from their houses or offices and taken to unknown destinations. The Sun Newspaper of 14th February, 2010 reported the kidnapping of a medical Doctor Sunday Uche along the Ugwuati and Ogwe area of Ukwa-West Local Government Area of Abia State. He was allegedly killed after his abductors had collected N20 million ransoms from his relatives. The police according to that report fingered the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra.
3.3 Government and Community Response to Kidnapping
Government at all levels and the various communities in the area had made frantic efforts at eradicating the scourge of kidnapping. The government of Abia State led by Theodore Orji had intensified efforts through the instrumentality of local vigilante groups and the law enforcement agencies. We shall briefly look at the various ways the government and the communities of Abia State had responded to this menace.
1) The Use of Government Security Agents
The Abia State Governor had intensified efforts at eradicating the scourge of kidnapping. They go by various names like operation sweeps, operation wipe and anti-kidnapping squad. They go by various names like operation sweeps operation wipe and anti-kidnapping squad. The police in Abia State have however taken up the gauntlet and recorded successes by bursting three major kidnap cases involving children and the women in Aba, Abia State. It is also on record that the police in Abia State paraded 32 pregnant inmates mostly teenagers arrested when they invaded clinic (Baby factory) known as the cross foundation. The Osisikama kidnappers were also arrested and crushed by a joint military taskforce. The police also foiled various attempts at kidnapping different people in Abia State.
2) The use of Vigilantee Groups
The communities on their part have also resorted to the use of local vigilante for the purpose of curbing kidnapping. The various communities of Abia State had instituted different groups to curb the menace. For instance, the popular Bakassi boys in Aba have assisted the government to eradicate kidnapping.
3) Media Sensitization
The government has also intensified efforts at the sensitization of the populace on the need to be watchful or the look out for kidnappers. This has assisted the people to be careful on how they travel especially at odd times. The media has a great task in this regard. It is important to continue sensitizing the people on the need to allow decency in governance and citizen’s responsibilities. The media also has a duty to investigate cases of kidnapping and other vices that are ingenious to the economic growth of the state.
4) Resort to Prayers
It is also of on record that the wife of the Governor of Abia State has on severed occasions called for prayer sessions to seek the face of God. The people on their part must compliment government’s action by ensuring accountability on the part of the state government who are the custodians of the revenue accruable to the states. The time to indulge in corruption by any State Governors under any guise should be over.
3.4 Effect of Kidnapping in Abia State
Kidnapping has had and still has some effect in Abia state.
i) Kidnapping as a Source of Unemployment
At the wake of kidnapping especially when it concerns the kidnapping of foreign expatriates when the governments at the state and federal levels are calling for investors has affected Abia state negatively. Some companies have either folded or relocated to other parts of this country or outside the shores of Nigeria leading to unemployment occasional by loss of jobs. A social commentator Uche Onye once asked.
How will any reasonable investor come and invest in a country where several other international companies are winding up? (Punch 8th August, 2010).
The resultant effect is that more people are lured into crime as the saying goes; an idle mind is the devils workshop.
ii) Battered the Image of Abia State
Also of great concern is the negative picture the menace has created of the Nigerian society at international level. This has affected virtually all aspects of life of the people especially the tourism industry is adversely affected. The revenue expected from the tourism sector could not be realized in the midst of insecure environment. Most foreign governments on monthly basis post travel warnings on their websites, warning their citizens against traveling to the Niger Delta region, Abia State inclusive, owing to the growing insecurity in the region.
iii) Loss of Revenue to the State Government
The menace of kidnapping has affected the revenue generation of Abia State. Some of the revenue accruable from the companies/businesses in Abia State has continued to diminish drastically. Government continues to spend huge sums of money to provide security making other sectors of the economy to suffer. The Abia State government is reported to have decried the loss of billions of naira to the fight against kidnapping and the reduction of the presence of companies in Abia State. In the midst of these, the Abia State economy is the ultimate victim.
iv) General Insecurity
There is general sense of insecurity leading to loss of lives and properties. The result is that many youth are now interested in the kidnapping business. The urge to be part of the money-spinning racket thus emboldened many desperate youths to defy the risk and embrace kidnapping as a pastime. Funny enough, kidnapping which could be likened to glorified armed robbery, has today graduated from fighting for the right of the region to include all forms of criminalities including killing and maiming.
This according to Iwarimie-Jaja (2010:172) lamented the security implications of kidnapping when he wrote:
Enforcers of law (the police, the immigration services, drug law enforcement agency, customs, and state security services) in attempt to reduce Nigeria’s crime-problem, have arrested children, young persons and adults, public-office holders and non-public office holders but their efforts have not stopped Nigeria’s crime problem from increasing astronomically.
Furthermore, the continuous confrontation between the military and the kidnappers has far reaching security implications on the people and residents of Abia State.
WOMEN AND CHILDREN KIDNAPPING IN ABIA STATE
4.1 Children Kidnapping
Kidnapping which started in the Niger Delta had as it’s target the foreign expatriates either as agitation for the control of the resources of the region and later for ransom. In Abia State, it degenerated to the issue of kidnapping women and children for reasons ranging from ransom taking to strategy to weaken political opponents. According to Ogechi Chinedu (oral information, 08/07/2011) the vicious syndicates which have various detention camps in different states of the region kidnap human beings principally to extract ransom from the helpless relatives. Sometimes, they rake in millions of naira from their wealthy victims and hundreds of thousands from the middle class.
The kidnapping of 15 school children in Aba, Abia State on the 27th September, 2007 one of the reported cases of kidnapping in Abia State (Daily Sun 8th October, 2008). The paper further reported that these children were held hostage for 5 days and eventually released on the eve of the independence day. The incident once again alerted Nigerians, and particularly the people of Abia State, to the brutality of prowling kidnappers.
There was another case of kidnapping of 20 pupils of Abayi International School, Osisioma in Aba. They were taken them to unknown destination. While demanding a N20 million ransom, the hoodlums later abandoned the kids following a military operation mounted to rescue them. As, the 20 pupils were released, another six students of the Federal Government College, Ikot Ekpene Akwa-Ibom State, were kidnapped in Abia State (Daily Sun 8th October, 2011).
4.2 Women Kidnapping
The Daily Champion of 2nd June, 2011 reported the kidnap of the wife of a Bishop of the Anglican Communion along the Aba – Port – Harcourt express way demanding a ransom of N15m. The Abia State police command on the 7th of July 2010 announced the arrest of Dr. Hyacinth Orikara accused of allegedly harboring pregnant women until they are delivered of their babies with a settlement of between N30,000 and N25,000. These babies were alleged to have been used for commercial purposes. It was reported that the act continued until the Abia State police command acting on a tip off stormed that hospital, made some arrest while Dr. Hycient was charged to court and imprisoned. Today, the target of the kidnappers is mainly women and children, especially those of the wealthy and influential in the society. The United Nation’s children’s fund called the incidents of women and children kidnapping a “craven kidnap”. UNICEF declared that “under no circumstances should children be the target of violence, and kidnapping children for financial gain is simply heinous”. (universal declaration of human rights, article 3,4 and 5). The kidnappers often leave in their trail blood, tears and anguish.
4.3 Implications of Women and Children Kidnapping in Abia State
Kidnapping women and children could have certain implications socially, economically, culturally and religiously too. For the purpose of this research, we shall limit ourselves to the religious and cultural implications of women and children kidnapping in Abia State.
4.3.1 Religious Implications
The incessant cases of kidnapping of both women and children have affected the worship of God (church activities) negatively due to the fear of children and women to be kidnapped.
Ugochukwu Asiegbu (oral information 07/07/2011) hinted why the people are always afraid of being kidnapped:
Not all those that were kidnapped were lucky enough to leave the kidnappers den alive. Some of them actually died either in the process of resistance or as a result of the trauma they went through.
There was a report on the Thisday Newspaper of (11th January, 2009) on an attempt by a group of armed men to kidnap a pastor of The Redeemed Christian Church of God within Aba Metropolis. The effect according to the report was not only the death of some persons (Church members) who attempted to prevent the supposed kidnappers but a decline in the number of members for fear of another attack. There was even suspicion among members who felt that some of their “members” were informants to the kidnappers.
Religiously too, money that could have been used to support the work of God was diverted to the payment of ransom to the kidnappers. Some Christians hide under the guise of being identified by the kidnappers to withhold their financial support for the church in Abia State.
For John Umegwali (Oral Information 07/07/2011) who was kidnapped and released after about six days had this to say:
When the kidnappers dropped me around 11pm, the question that comes to my mind was whether God existed at all or whether God hast not seen anything good in my relationship with him.
4.3.2 Cultural Implications
There are negative cultural implications of women and children kidnapping. In the first place, kidnapping of children and other categories of people is a source of the violation of human rights guaranteed by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. In most cases of kidnapping, the right of association, freedom of movement and the right to life are normally violated. It is a crime against humanity and the rights of persons and nations as guaranteed by the universal declaration of human rights especially articles 3, 4, 5 as indicated herein. Article 3- every one has the right to life, liberty and security of person. Article 4- no one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms. Article 5 – no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. The African charter on human and peoples rights adopted June, 27, 1981 and entered into force October 21, 1986 also domesticated the principles and articles of the universal declaration of human rights to the effect that every person is entitled to freedom of movement, respect for his life, protection, and the right to liberty and security of his person.
Kidnapping, no doubt negates all these rights as person are captured, detained against their wish, tortured and sometimes murdered.
Secondly, kidnapping is a threat to the survival of the society or the governments as people are innocently embarrassed on daily basis. This according to Uzoma Nosike (oral information 08/07/2011) causes tension and disregard to laid down cultural norms of the society. This leads to increase in crime rate as kidnapping is infectious. This is because many unemployed graduates will be tempted to take to kidnapping (crime) for the purpose of making money to cater for their homes. This could be attributed to the fact that ransoms are paid before the release of victims. More and more people are tempted to constitute themselves into nuisance, leading to disobedience of the laws of the land, embezzlement of public funds and destruction of lives and properties. Activities of these kidnappers disrupt socio-cultural and recreational events in the society, especially in Aba and it’s environs. The daily sun of 12th March, 2010, reported how the Port Harcourt – Aba express way was behive of activities of these armed bandits who thrones the road users there causing mayhem. If this trend is not check, even cultural activities like masquerades or festival will be affected. It will be suicidal for any community to engage in any gathering due to the fear of the unknown. Kidnapping according to Ogechi Chinedu (oral information 08/07/2011) has also affected the family institution. He maintained that:
There is the tendency of lives of wealthy persons to stage their husbands for the purpose of sharing the ransom to be paid and vice versa.
Children are made to imbibe some form of negative orientations and seem to believe that kidnapping is lucrative venture that ought to be embraced. Children were highly traumatized and tend to see a beclouded future of military, thurgery and killings.
SUMMARY, RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION
This project discusses the cultural and religious implications of women and children kidnapping in Aba-Abia State with emphasis on the need for the government and the people to rise to the occasion in order to stop this menace for the benefit of society.
Chapter one is the introduction of the work with the following sub-headings -background of the study, Statement of the Problem, Purpose of the Study, Research Methodology, Scope of the Study, Limitations as well as Significance of the Study.
Chapter two is the review of literature with two major sub-heading meaning and types of kidnapping in Nigeria and certain cases of kidnapping in Nigeria.
Chapter three dealt with Abia State and patterns of kidnapping-types, history of origin, government and community response to kidnapping, strategies as well as effects of kidnapping in Abia State.
Chapter four dealt with the trend of women and children kidnapping, religious and cultural implications in Abia State.
Chapter five is the summary, recommendations and conclusion.
5.2 Recommendations
The need for the eradication of kidnapping and other social vices cannot be over emphasized. This research recommends the following.
Government should tackle the problem of unemployment to reduce the rate at which the youth of today embrace kidnapping as a lucrative venture.
Government at all levels should intensify efforts through a joint police and vigilante patrol to forestall wandering at odd times, thereby reducing the risk of kidnapping of especially in the night.
The community members should teach their members especially the youth morals to discourage their indulgence in atrocious activities like kidnapping.
The federal government should intensity the war against corruption which scholars seem to have agreed is the root of kidnapping in the country.
The Niger Delta issues of deprivation, cheating and underdevelopment should be addressed in order to reduce the rate of agitation by the people, leading to kidnapping for ransom.
There is need to apply traditional religious method of identifying and punishing kidnapper to serve as deterrents to others who could have resorted to such atrocious deeds.
It is important to mention the fact that people always have a way of dragging God into every man made problem in this country. The celebration that heralded the release of most victims is infectious that even the police have joined the alleluia chorus. What has the government done to address this menace? Is the police or better still the joint military task force done to address the situation especially in Aba-Abia State?
According to Lawrence – Hart 2009: 31:
Africans are religious people, so the aspect of crime detection and other social vices should not only be handled secularly but religiously too. The job of crime detection should not be handled by the police alone. The Dibias, Babalawos, the traditional priest etc. should be called upon to help out in cases where the police cannot succeed. These traditionalists have the spiritual abilities to fish out those who are responsible for social disorder in the society.
Lawrence-Hart (2009:31) continued this on the religious dimension of kidnapping in the Niger Delta region thus:
This is because in traditional African societies, peace is not an abstract poetic concept, but rather a down-to-earth and practical concept. It is a religious value in that the order, harmony and equilibrium in the universe and society is believed to be divinely established and the obligation to maintain them is religious. It is also a moral value since good conduct is required of human beings if the order, harmony and equilibrium are to be maintained.
The above discussed religious implications are application to the other religions practiced by those residing in Abia State including Islam.
5.3 Conclusion
As earlier stated in the background and part of the literature review which borders on the factors that necessitated crimes which kidnapping is not an exception, against the backdrop of popularly held theories that crime is associated with the gap between the “rich” and the “poor”, unequal economic conditions, unemployment, poverty etc.
This study agrees with the Marxist theory that kidnapping is a reaction to this obvious socio-economic gap due to the obnoxious attitude of our political leadership in Nigeria. It is also safe to say that this study also align totally to the views of some scholars/commentators that the solution to this problem lies in government’s sincerity to addressing the identified problems of poverty greed, corruption and the failure of government at the different levels to providing the basic needs of the society.
The fact that kidnapping is a threat to the survival of the society and associated with the violation of the rights of the people as entrenched in the universal declaration of human rights and the African charter on the people’s rights which guarantees the right to life, dignity of human person etc.
On the part of the citizens, there is need for re-orientation to the effect that kidnapping is a crime against society and should be discouraged by all and sundry to ensure a peaceful, harmonious and crime free society.
In any case, the dominant religions in Nigeria-Christianity and Islam should intensify efforts at propagating the core values of love, togetherness and unity.
However, the menace of kidnapping has assumed a dangerous proportion, if not check is capable of balkanizing the entire country. It is the considered opinion of this research that the root cause of kidnapping should be addressed by both the government and the community, at least to ensure a harmonious society devoid of rancour and acrimony. On the part of the citizens, there is need for re-orientation to the effect that kidnapping is devilish and that kidnappers are bound to suffer death penalty when caught.
Oral Interview
Date of interview
Place of interview
Jeremiah Uchenna
Ugochukwu Asiegbu
John Umegwali
Ogechi Chinedu
Uzoma Nosike
Okoro Okoro
Johson Amara
Okeke Uche
Okonkwo Chidi
Published works (Books)
Akama, E.S. (ed) (2001) “Owh’oyede Festival of the Isoko
people” Studies in Arts, Religious and Culture among the Urhobo and Isoko people. Port Harcourt, Pam Unique Publishers.
Awolalu and Dopamu (1979), West African Traditional Religion.
Ibadan, Onibonoje Press and Book. Industries (Nig.) Limited.
Ejizu, C.I. (2007) “The Meaning and Significance of Festivals in
Traditional African Culture and Life”. C.I. Ejizu ed. Kiabara Readings on Religion and Culture. Faculty of Humanities, University of Port Harcourt.
Ikenga Metuh (1987), Comparative Studies of Africa
Traditional Religions. Onitsha, Imico publishers.
Mbilit, J.S. (1969), African Religions and Philosophy, London,
Heinemann Educational books Ltd.
Tasie, G.I.K (ed) (2007), “From Living Elders to Ancestors, A
case of Isiokpo-Ikwerre Rites Relating to the Installation of Ancestors and the Ancestral Cult”. In aspects of Niger Delta Indigenous Religions. Port Harcourt, University of Port Harcourt Press.
Peter, Chimaobi Peters (2009), “Structure of African
Indigenous Religions. In aspects of Niger Delta Indigenous Religions. Tasie, G.I.K (ed), Port Harcourt, Cladik press.
Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary.
Dinne, Chukwuma O. (2009), “Sources and Stages in the
Study of African Traditional Religion”. Tasie, G.I.K ed. Port Harcourt, Chadik press.
Ukwu, Elems (2010), “The evil of kidnapping in Nigeria;
implications on the economy”. A paper delivered as part of activities making the end of year party of Akwa-Ibom League of friends, Port Harcourt.
Holy Bible, New living translation.
Iwarimie-Jaja, (2010), Criminology, Crime and Delinquency in
Nigeria, Port Harcourt, Pearl Publishers.
Abrahanson, D. (1945), Crime and the Human Mind. New
York; Columbia University Press.
Oloruntimehin, F.O. (1984), Social Reactions to Deviance in
Nigeria. Institute of Comparative Criminology, Montreal, Canada.
Lawrence – hart, (2009), Neglect of the gods, the cause of
insecurity in the Niger Delta, Ijebu-Ode, Miklas Prints.
Internet Sources
Hakeem Jamin (2009) Media wikipedia.
The Logitech G700 RF wireless mouse is a candidate for one
of the best wireless mouse ratings because it offers 13 different programmable buttons, making it perfect as a gaming mouse.
Indians are inventing so many things day by day and giving the users full satisfaction.
Don’t worry, you can go back to Firefox or Chrome after you download your drivers.
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about-usTim Ward2019-01-31T00:12:50+00:00
About Hurst Lending’s No PMI Loan Experts
No PMI Loan is a part of the Hurst Lending & Insurance family, dedicated to serving our clients with loan products that help make buying a home an achievable dream. Expanding on that vision, No PMI Loan and Hurst now also offer home and auto insurance, as well as a realtor referral service to help make the process of buying, owning and selling a home as safe and straightforward as it can be.
We have helped hundreds build or buy the home of their dreams, and we are proud that 70% of our business comes from repeat or referred customers.
We have strong Aggie roots, and our parent company Hurst Lending & Insurance has been named twice to Texas A&M’s Aggie 100 list.
Hurst Lending & Insurance History
Hurst Lending was founded in 2006 as Moneysafe, a full-service mortgage lending company. After adding several specialty lending divisions and an insurance brokerage, the company changed its name in 2014 to Hurst Lending & Insurance to better communicate its full range of services.
Mortgage Lending and Niche Loans
We offer rates well below national averages in most cases, and while we offer great rates and personal service on conventional loans, our special expertise is in meeting unique lending needs. If there is a situation that is creating a barrier to getting a loan, such as details about the property, a pending divorce, expat status, or other logistical challenges, we can usually find a solution. We do this by developing relationships with investors who have specific interests, and in some cases by lending our own funds.
See more of Hurst Lending’s specialty mortgage solutions
In 2013, Hurst added an insurance brokerage business, offering home and auto insurance from major providers. As an insurance broker, we work for you to find the best policy and rates for your needs, saving our customers an average of $450/year.
We are family owned and operated, and we experience very little employee turnover. We believe in building relationships, and our team aims to go beyond providing a great experience on the loan you need today. We want to earn our place as your long-term lending and insurance team.
Jay HurstCo-founder, Hurst Lending and Insurance
Experience: Jay Hurst is a Residential Mortgage Loan Originator (NMLS# 323441), Real Estate Agent, and Financial Planner.
He has founded multiple successful businesses in the mortgage lending space, and is dedicated to helping consumers avoid the red tape and limitations faced in working with larger lenders. Together with Mr. Bialek, Mr. Hurst has driven Hurst Lending’s niche loan program by identifying unmet market needs and identifying investors eager to help address them.
Mr. Hurst is also the founder and President of Advanced Educators Financial LLC, a financial planning firm focused on the education marketplace.
Education: Mr. Hurst holds a BBA in Finance from Texas A&M University, Class of 2000.
Scott Bialek Co-Founder, Hurst Lending and Insurance
Experience: Mr. Bialek co-founded Hurst Lending in 2006. He is a licensed Attorney, Residential Mortgage Loan Originator (NMLS# 284767), and Real Estate Broker. In addition to his role with Hurst Lending & Insurance, Mr. Bialek also founded a real estate company that owns and manages a portfolio of retail centers, apartments, and single family homes.
Mr. Bialek has also held senior legal and operations positions at Dell and USAA.
Education: Mr. Bialek holds a J.D. from St. Mary’s School of Law and a BBA from the University of Texas at Austin.
Chris JandrainVice President at Hurst Lending and Insurance
Experience: Mr. Jandrain is a Residential Mortgage Loan Originator (NMLS #1001967) and has been with Hurst Lending since 2006. He specializes in conventional, FHA, VA, Texas Vet, Texas Cash Out, Jumbo loans, 2nd lien, and Reverse Mortgages. Mr. Jandrain has been instrumental in launching several of Hurst’s niche lending programs, including the 2014 introduction of one-time close VA loans for new construction – a first in Texas.
Prior to joining Hurst, Mr. Jandrain held senior finance positions at Dell.
Education: Mr. Jandrain holds an MBA from the University of Texas and a BA from the University of Michigan.
Dat Nguyen Equity Partner, Hurst Lending & Insurance
Experience: Dat Nguyen is a Dallas-area real estate investment professional, but is perhaps more widely recognized as a football and media personality.
Mr. Nguyen was an NFL All-Pro for the Dallas Cowboys for seven seasons and was an All-American from Texas A&M University. He currently co-hosts an ESPN radio show.
In addition, he is an Honorary Co-chair for the American Heart Association Heartwalk, Co-chair of the Vietnamese American National Gala, Chair of Athlete in Action, and serves on the Board of Texas A&M University
Press. Mr. Nguyen has received numerous awards including the Bednarik and Lombardi Awards. He has published a book, Dat: Tackling Life and the NFL, an inspirational story of his faith, his family, and his career.
Education: Mr. Nguyen holds a degree in Agriculture from Texas A&M University, Class of 1998.
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Assistant police chief reflects on FBI experience
University Park, Pa. -- After six months in the nation’s capital, Tyrone Parham is back in his office planning for the day’s concert at the Bryce Jordan Center and preparing for football home games.
Sitting at his desk, he describes his time in Washington D.C. as “eye opening” and looks forward to sharing his newfound knowledge on terrorism and event preparation with his colleagues and the community — not to mention a slew of new contacts from across the country.
“It’s nice to be back,” the assistant University Police chief said with a smile. “It was a great experience. I got to work with the FBI for half a year and I came out understanding a whole new outlook on safety and terrorism.”
The program Parham participated in was the Police Executive Fellowship Program — a prestigious fellowship with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that selects management-level law enforcement officials from all over the country to work at FBI headquarters from March to September. Parham was nominated by University Police Chief Steve Shelow, who was briefed about the program by President Graham Spanier. Spanier chairs the National Security Higher Education Advisory Board.
“This is a great honor and I can’t think of a better officer for the job,” Shelow said. “We missed having him here at the office, but I know the experience was worthwhile and will be an immense credit to the force.”
During the majority of the program, Parham worked with the National Joint Terrorism Task Force. He collaborated with several agencies in the intelligence, law enforcement, public safety and homeland security communities.
“Instead of reading it in a newspaper, I was able to see things in an international perspective firsthand,” Parham said. “The FBI oversees and touches base with all the field offices across the country. I would normally just hear about incidents at other U.S. campuses, but with terrorism, we look at things around the world.”
Parham was able to share his proficiency and knowledge of campus police and security with other law enforcement personnel from around the country. He also attended conferences based on topics like campus safety and university investigations.
Through traveling to these conferences and having access to nearly 50 government agencies, Parham was able to build strong connections and relationships that he felt were especially important.
“You make the world smaller by making connections,” he said. “When you go to a place with all these perspectives, from national to local, you work together, you learn things, and you become smarter and stronger.”
Presently, Parham said several government agencies are focusing on campus safety. He said the relationships between the federal and university levels demonstrate that public safety is a priority. He added that some universities are more communicative with federal agencies than others, but hopes colleges will be more open due to the unique challenges facing university communities.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms has been reviewing past college shootings to help improve safety and community communication. Also, the Secret Service has been studying behavior of students and making threat assessments for university use.
“You might not think of the federal government as interested in campus safety,” Parham said. “They are and they are making it a top initiative.”
Now back in State College, and away from the busy metropolis of Washington D.C., Parham has returned to his routine of preparing for football games and the weekend nightlife — but now he looks at his to-do list with “new eyes.”
“Basically, I was an FBI employee for six months,” he said. “I am looking forward to sharing that experience with the people here. I’d like to use that experience to make Penn State safer and better prepared.”
Tyrone Parham
IMAGE: Annemarie Mountz
tap3@psu.edu
Assistant police chief taking part in FBI fellowship in Washington
University Police Chief Tyrone Parham to leave Penn State for position at UMass
Bicyclists reminded to register, secure bikes and follow traffic laws
diversity, FBI, Police Executive Fellowship Program, Tyrone Parham, University Police
Faculty and Staff, Students
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South Texas College Seeking Partnership with Department of Homeland Security Agencies Ahead of Center Opening
FLETC group
Francis Atwell, Office of Congressman Henry Cuellar; Wanda Garza, South Texas College; David Higgerson, Director, Office of Field Operations, CBP; Mario Reyna, South Texas College; Eugene Crawford, Asst. Director (Mission Support), CBP; Bradd Skinner, Asst. Director (Trade), CBP; (Not Shown) Ana Garcia, Office of Senator John Cornyn
Maintaining security on the border requires the highest level of advanced specialized training.
South Texas College has begun a series of law enforcement stakeholder meetings with Hidalgo and Starr County mayors, city managers, police chiefs, and Texas Department of Public Safety Commissioner Cynthia Leon as part of Phase II for its Regional Center for Public Safety Excellence (RCPSE). The latest phase includes the expansion and development of professional continuing education training for federal agencies within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
To accomplish this, STC is pursuing a partnership with the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC), which is reviewing the College’s master plan for the upcoming Regional Center Public for Safety Excellence in Pharr, slated to open June 2018.
Based in Glynco, GA, FLETC is the name of the interagency law enforcement training body for 91 federal law enforcement agencies. With an annual budget of $272 million, it also provides tuition-free and low-cost training to state, local, campus and tribal law enforcement agencies through its Rural Policing Institute (RPI) and the Office of State and Local Training.
STC is now moving on to Phase II, which includes site visits with officials at the federal level who stand to benefit from the services of the RCPSE. Meetings are currently taking place with federal stakeholders, including FLETC, RGV Sector Border Patrol, Laredo Field Operations, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
STC President Dr. Shirley A. Reed is extending an invitation to leaders of the law enforcement community to become members of the President’s Advisory Council for the RCPSE. The Council will regularly provide input and recommendations for professional continuing education and degree programs.
“Everybody agreed that this is absolutely needed, and it will be a benefit for all law enforcement officials, local, state and federal,” said Dr. Reed. “When we did the master plan, law enforcement professionals identified for us what their priorities were. We incorporated these priorities into the master plan, and when you’re developing a master plan you do some dreaming and some visioning but we are now in the reality phase.”
Meetings are currently being spearheaded by the offices of U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) and U.S. Congressman Henry Cuellar (TX-28).
Representatives from STC briefed officials at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Laredo Field Office, a border agency within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, during a recent meeting in Laredo, who were then informed on the RCPSE masterplan. There are currently 1,000 agents based in the Rio Grande Valley needing Advanced Professional Skills training.
In attendance at the meeting in Laredo was David Higgerson, Director of the Office of Field Operations for CBP; Anna Garcia, Deputy Regional Director for U.S. Sen. John Cornyn; Francis Atwell, representative from the Office of Congressman Henry Cuellar; Wanda Garza, Executive Officer for External Affairs at South Texas College; Mario Reyna, Dean of Business, Technology and Public Safety at South Texas College; Eugene Crawford, Assistant Director (Mission Support), CBP; and Bradd Skinner, Assistant Director (Trade), CBP.
Representatives from STC will now travel to FLETC headquarters in Glynco, GA on Nov. 30.
Through a potential partnership, STC seeks to be the first community college FLETC provider along the Southern Border to offer Advanced Professional Continuing Education Training.
“I congratulate South Texas College for your commitment to bringing this high level of law enforcement training to South Texas,” said U.S. Congressman Henry Cuellar (TX-28), “By combining the expertise of our local, state and federal law enforcement, fire safety, and public safety officers, we will have a better trained police workforce.”
Located at 4300 S. Cage Blvd. in Pharr, the RCPSE will make STC the first border community college in the nation to establish integrative training for local, state and federal professionals in law enforcement, public safety, fire science and Homeland Security along the US/Mexico border.
The $71 million master plan is slated to transform the RCPSE into a Public Safety, Law Enforcement, Fire Science and Homeland Security campus by 2030. The facility is located on a 64 acre site in Pharr with 180 additional acres available for future expansion. The master plan includes 534,385 square feet of buildings, structures and a driving track to be completed in three phases over the next decade.
“We need more advanced specialized training. At the end of the day, it’s about having access to that training for law enforcement officers as well as fire departments,” said Mario Reyna, Dean of Public Safety at STC. “They need continuous training, and that’s something that will only better serve the residents in our communities across the Valley. Whether it’s Rio Grande City, McAllen, Edinburg or Pharr; it’s all about having highly skilled trained public safety officers.”
STC held its first business consortium meeting in August 2017 with city leaders, as well as with law enforcement professionals to discuss the proposed development of its $4 million Emergency Vehicle Operations Course (EVOC) and $3.2 million Covered Shooting Range as Phase II of the RCPSE gets underway.
Together with its partners, including Valley cities and law enforcement agencies, STC has developed a $71.28 million long-range master plan for building its regional center in three phases.
Phase One includes a $9.9 million investment. Set for completion in Fall 2018, it includes a training center, driving/skills pad, shooting simulation lab and a driving simulation lab.
Phase Two includes $10.6 million investment for fire science and Homeland Security. It includes a multi-story fire training structure, two story residential training structure and a confined space/search and rescue training area. This phase also includes the EVOC, a cityscape with non-lethal training capacity, and a covered shooting range with firearm training classrooms.
Phase Three is a $50.6 million investment in Integrative Homeland Security, which will add a physical plant and expansive growth with new education and student services buildings.
“Over the course of several meetings with our congressional leaders, federal agency heads, and regional partners, we have impressed upon our federal partners the significance of our regional efforts to enhance public safety and border security with our South Texas College campus in Pharr,” said Pharr Mayor Dr. Ambrosio Hernandez. “Thanks to our joint efforts between South Texas College, PSJA ISD and the City of Pharr, we are proud to have attracted the interest of CBP and other federal agencies to further augment the public safety education and training opportunities that will be available at the Regional Center for Public Safety Excellence.”
Key to that development is the EVOC that will enable sheriff’s departments, police departments, fire departments, federal agencies and DPS to use the facility for a wide variety of vehicle training including driving skills practice and collision avoidance.
“We thank our regional and federal partners for their continued support,” said Mayor Hernandez. “We look forward to the enhanced security that will develop out of this collaborative partnership and benefit the safety of the entire region.”
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Commentary On Lessons From The ZMD: Efficiency And Accountability Don’t Work Well Together
By Lana Stein • Mar 31, 2014
American governmental structure began to take on its present form during the Progressive Reform Era, 1900-1915. Progressives decried the waste and corruption in government at all levels and desired professional administration based on fixed principles.
Their enemy was the political party, and they believed administration could be separate from politics. Some of their accomplishments — line-item budgeting and civil service — took root everywhere. Their desire for professional management led to the creation of independent commissions such as the Interstate Commerce Commission and the Federal Trade Commission. Appointed board members serve staggered terms. They have flexibility in setting their budgets and are staffed by strong teams of experts (i.e., lawyers, engineers).
This particular form of bureaucracy provides an excellent illustration of a continuing administrative conflict. Efficiency can be gained only at the expense of accountability and vice versa.
The more removed an administrative entity is from legislative oversight, the freer it is to pursue its professional goals without interference. At the same time, it is not answerable to the people through their elected representatives.
Credit Harris & Ewing White House portrait
Woodrow Wilson recognized this conundrum. In “The Study of Administration,” he acknowledged the need for oversight but said that it should not be “meddlesome.” He had no ready answer on how to achieve accountability without sacrificing operational achievement. He hoped the ennobling nature of the tasks would keep administrators in harmony with the laws.
Yet, human beings often fit their labor to their convenience and/or to the reward system in their workplace. Interestingly, some of the early regulatory commissions were captured by the industries they regulated. This was not a single conscious action but came about as those with shared backgrounds found it easy to work together.
Regrettably, bureaucrats may often forget the purposes of their bureaus and, instead, work to ensure their own comfort and stability. To ensure accountability means, legislators must use time and resources to check on the agencies. This work is seldom welcomed And often, reforms only come after independent audits.
Accountability becomes more difficult when bureaus cross jurisdictional lines. For instance, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which administers area bridges and tunnels, sets its own mission and goals. The governor of each state appoints staff. But it’s not clear to whom the authority is beholden – though it is now clear that political manipulation is possible.
We have similar arrangements. St. Louis and St. Louis County joined together to create the Metropolitan Sewer District and the Zoo-Museum District with its 5 institutional members. These are often viewed as a wonderful coming together but none is answerable to elected officials in either the city or county.
These institutions raise their own money, from dedicated taxes, user charges or donations. They spend as their boards decide. It is only audits by the state auditor that have revealed certain very questionable undertakings.
The entities in the Zoo-Museum district often receive plaudits from those in their fields and have a wide following among the wealthy and connected as well as the general public. But their decisions often do not see the light of day and, in the case of land acquisition on Delmar by the History Museum, can be very questionable.
Is this a model for future city-county cooperation? In some ways it is. We enjoy the benefit of the institutions. But we sacrifice accountability in the process.
Woodrow Wilson did not have solution for the problem and neither do I. However, as we think about recasting institutional arrangements, we should not downgrade the need to hold bureaucrats of all kinds accountable.
Lana Stein is a professor emerita of political science at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
Lana Stein talks about the perils of removing politics from public functions.
Missouri History Museum
Report Critical Of ZMD Adopted By St. Louis Aldermanic Committee, Debated By ZMD
By Nancy Fowler • Jan 23, 2014
Nancy Fowler | St. Louis Public Radio
A report sharply criticizing St. Louis’ Zoo-Museum District (ZMD) was adopted by the parks committee of the city’s board of aldermen Thursday.
Alderman Joe Roddy, parks committee chair, released a draft of the report this week following a year of investigation.
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Missouri Bill Would Require Teens Under 18 to Be Prosecuted in Juvenile Court
By Luke Brodarick • Apr 5, 2018
Originally published on April 3, 2018 6:40 pm
A bill to be heard in the state House committee today would prevent 17-year-old defendants from being tried for minor and non-violent offenses in adult courts.
Missouri Senate Bill 793 would require children under the age of 18 to be prosecuted in juvenile court for most criminal offenses unless the child is certified as an adult. The 17-year-olds charged with more serious and violent crimes could still be tried as adults.
The bill was approved unanimously in the Senate and will head to the House floor if the committee approves.
Several decades ago, most states routinely tried 17-year-olds as adults, but in recent decades a majority of those states have passed laws requiring courts to process 17-year-olds in juvenile court. Missouri is one of five states that has yet to do so.
“Most of those states changed their laws. Missouri lagged behind, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t be fixed now,” said Josh Rovner of The Sentencing Project, an organization based in Washington, D.C., that advocates for justice system reform.
When minors are sentenced as adults, they end up with criminal records that juveniles in other states do not have, Rovner said.
"If two teens are both applying for a job, and they both get arrested for vandalism, at age 17, the kid from Missouri is going to have to check that box that says ‘I’ve been arrested,’” Rovner said.
The harsher sentencing practices can also disadvantage teenagers on college applications who would have to report criminal records that teens from other states don't, he said.
Teenagers processed through the adult criminal system are also far more prone to recidivism.
"if you're trying to get a teenager on a better path, then you really need to connect them with rehabilitation services and counseling and the juvenile system is much more equipped to offer those services than adults," Rovner said.
Juvenile crime rates have been on a steady decline since the mid-1990s, according to a report from the Office of Justice Programs in Washington. The current arrest rate for teens has fallen about 70 percent over a period of 20 years.
Missouri's own juvenile system handles less than half the number of offenders than it did a decade ago.
Rovner argues that the system would be equipped to handle 17-year-olds prosecuted as juveniles under the bill.
The bill's sponsor, Sen. Wayne Wallingford, did not respond to requests for interviews.
Copyright 2018 KBIA. To see more, visit KBIA.
2018 Missouri legislature
Advocates see Missouri case as the next frontier in juvenile sentencing reform
By Rachel Lippmann • Mar 15, 2018
File photo | Rachel Lippmann | St. Louis Public Radio
Bobby Bostic was 16 when he committed several felonies in the course of an armed robbery. Two years later, he was sentenced to 241 years in prison.
Advocates for juvenile sentencing reform say that runs contrary to earlier U.S. Supreme Court decisions limiting how harshly the courts can punish young defendants who have not killed anyone, and they are now asking the justices to weigh in.
Advocates for Missouri's young criminal defendants eye two major changes in 2018
By Rachel Lippmann • Dec 26, 2017
Susannah Lohr | St. Louis Public Radio
Groups that advocate for juvenile defendants in Missouri hope the state General Assembly and the U.S. Supreme Court act next year to provide young criminal defendants with additional legal protections.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri wants the high court to consider the constitutionality of long sentences for juvenile defendants. The ACLU is also part of a coalition that wants to change what it means to be a juvenile in the state.
Bill designed to reduce juvenile population in adult jails gets first-round approval from Mo. Senate
By Erin Achenbach • Mar 2, 2018
s_falkow | Flickr
The Missouri Senate has given initial approval to a bill that raises the age to be tried as an adult from 17 to 18.
An exception would be if the minor is certified as an adult for serious crimes.
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National prize honors report on Yakima water projects
PULLMAN, Wash. – A report outlining the benefits and costs of proposed water management efforts in Washington’s Yakima Basin has won a national prize from the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
The Bruce Gardner Memorial Prize for Applied Policy Analysis went to a research team led by Jonathan Yoder (http://people.ses.wsu.edu/yoder/), professor in the Washington State University School of Economic Sciences and director of the State of Washington Water Research Center.
The prize was awarded for the team’s report, “Benefit-Cost Analysis of the Yakima Basin Integrated Plan Projects” (https://swwrc.wsu.edu/2014ybip), and related outreach efforts.
The annual award (http://www.aaea.org/about-aaea/awards-and-honors/aaea-annual–awards/bruce-gardner-memorial-prize-for-applied-policy-analysis) recognizes outstanding impact on agricultural and related policy based on sound foundations in economic theory. The prize focuses attention on research, education and public service that facilitate policy and improve public performance and understanding.
Other WSU research team members include Jennifer Adam and Keyvan Malek, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering; Michael Brady and Qingqing Yang, School of Economic Sciences; and Stephen Katz, School of the Environment. Those outside WSU include Joseph Cook and Shane Johnston, University of Washington; and Daniel Brent, Louisiana State University.
Irrigation / Water Management
CAHNRS
national award
Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture
water plan
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One of the creators of the Ford Mustang Died Today
International media reported that Lee Iacocca, the executive who helped conceive the iconic Ford Mustang and avoided Chrysler’s bankruptcy, died at his home in Bel-Air (Los Angeles, USA) at age 94 on Tuesday.
He was one of the most recognized industrialists in the automobile business in the United States. He directed the company Ford in 1960 and his management marked a milestone with the arrival of the sporty Mustang (1964), a success in sales.
In 1978 he was fired for differences with Henry Ford II, heir of the family empire. However, his exit took him to the address of Chrysler , a company that helped him out of bankruptcy and that years after his crisis would launch the famous Minivan.
“To save the company, I had to fire some workers, sell our European division and close several plants. And, of course, I had to secure the now famous loan that we received from Congress, which I paid early with interest, “Iacocca said on his website.
The businessman, recognized in the sector for being a great seller and innovator, spent his last years writing his memoirs and consulting, in addition to devoting part of his time to its foundation, the Iacocca Institute.
According to the Washington Post, the businessman died of complications of Parkinson’s disease. He is survived by two children.
Cameron Hills is the Lead Editor for News Herder with 12 years of experience.
Henry To Be Released From Jail If He Confess Truth
West India Panic With Stray Dog Attacks
A four-story residential building collapsed on Tuesday in the Dongari area of south Mumbai, so far 12 people were killed and five were injured. Many people are feared trapped in the debris. Five people, including an innocent, have been safely evacuated from among the people buried in the rubble. Housing Minister Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil has said that 12 people have died in this accident so far. A lot of local people are engaged in the rescue.
An official of the disaster management cell of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said that according to the preliminary information, a large part of this four-storeyed ‘Kesharbai Building’, in addition to the ground floor situated on the road in Ghori, fell down at around 11.45 am in the morning.
Police said that 12 people have died and five others have been injured in the accident. A lot of people were living in this building located in a very densely populated and narrow streets area. Many people are feared trapped in its debris.
Fire brigade department, Mumbai police and body officials have reached the spot but due to narrow roads, there are problems in relief and rescue operations. A large number of local people are also engaged in rescue work and are helping to remove debris.
Ambulance is not able to reach the spot, it has to stand 50 meters away. This building is owned by the Maharashtra Housing and Development Authority. Officials of the organization have reached the spot. National Disaster Response Force teams have also reached the spot to help in rescue work.
According to a media report, BMC has declared 499 buildings in Mumbai unsafe. During the monsoon, there are 500 such buildings which are threatening. Many people living in these buildings who are headache for BMC do not want to vacate them.
In this case Mumbai’s Andheri-Jogeshwari (West) is at the forefront. Where 51 buildings are unsafe. After this, Viru Parel is in second place with 38 buildings, which were kept in the C1 category this year. Last year, BMC had described 619 buildings as dangerous. Although this number has decreased by 19 percent this year.
In most parts of the country heavy rains have made the situation uncontrollable. Many states have come under the grip of floods. Due to rising water levels of rivers, many areas of Amas and Bihar have become submerged. At least 43 people, including 18 women, were killed in floods and landslides due to torrential rains in Nepal.
Heavy rainfall of monsoon has flooded the Northeast state of Assam. Due to which nearly 10 lakh people have been displaced from their homes and at least ten people have died in the last 72 hours. The information was given by officials on Saturday. Officials say the situation may worsen in the days to come.
Flood situation has remained critical in 33 districts of Assam state which is battling water from Brahmaputra and its tributaries. As many as 1800 villages of the state are affected. In the bulletin of the state government floods, it has been said that these ten people have died in different drowning incidents.
It is believed that due to rain, the water level of the Brahmputra can increase further. The Minister of Water Resources of Assam says that the situation of the flood is still very serious. Assam tea is known for the gardens.
These states have been experiencing floods and heavy rains for years. Due to which dozens of people are killed and thousands of people have to be displaced from their homes.
The figure of people who died in floods in Bihar has reached 13. Heavy rains alert has been issued in the next 24 hours. Due to floods, public life has become totally disrupted.
Home Minister Amit Shah also held a high-level meeting with officials on Saturday on the condition of floods after rain in many states of the country. In this meeting, the situation of floods and preparations for the state and central ministries and agencies have been reviewed to deal with it.
National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) have been deployed for relief and rescue work.
Floods in Nepal kill 43 people
At least 43 people, including 18 women, were killed and 20 others injured in floods and landslides due to torrential rains in various parts of Nepal. police gave this information. According to the Himalayan Times news on Sunday, 24 people have been missing in the rain-related incidents.
Due to the rain people got displaced and the traffic was also interrupted. More than 25 districts of the mountainous regions along the southern plains across the country are experiencing heavy rains since Thursday, affecting 10,385 families.
Police saved 1,104 people from many places across the country. 185 people were rescued alone from Kathmandu. According to the Nepal Police, a total of 27,380 policemen have been deployed across the country for search and rescue operations.
According to the report, Flood Forecasting Section (FFS) said that monsoon is active and the rain will continue for two to three days in most places across the country. Due to torrential rains the rivers are on the boom.
First total projection weight was 3250 kg, now it will be 3850 kilograms vehicle’s orbiter weighs 2379 kg, the lander will have 1471 kilograms and the rover will have 27 kilograms Chandrayaan-2 has a total of 14 payloads.
There are 13 Indians, 8 orbits, 3 landers and 2 rover. Lander also has a payload NASA. Indian Space Research Organization ISRO has prepared ‘A Band Radar Ultimeter of Payload’ critical for second moon mission Chandrayaan-2.
This pay-load will take place in Chandrayaan-2 lander. The integration of this payload will be done in the lander and after that the testing procedures will start. KA Band radar ultimeter and HDA processor is a major payload of Chandrayaan-2 lander, which has been developed by Ahmedabad’s space application from a completely indigenous technology.
Chandrayaan-2 Lander has been named ‘Vikram’ after ISRO’s founder Vikram Sarabhai.
Starting with Thumba, India’s space journey has now gone a long way, and we are counting in the top countries of the world.On October 22, 2008, Bharat successfully launched Chandrayaan-1 under the first moon mission. Ten years ago the first moon mission has been completed on October 22, 2018.
The international competition in the space sector will be switched on Monday, when Bharat will launch its low-cost mission and become the fourth country in the world, which has launched a search on the moon.
Only 50 days before the 50th anniversary of a human being to reach the moon, Chandrayaan 2 will fly from an island adjacent to Andhra Pradesh after preparations made up to the entire decade. This mission will also show how much space science has passed since Neil Armstrong has taken an important step towards human civilization through the Apollo 11 mission.
Bharat has spent Rs 960 crores in preparing ‘Chandrayaan 2’ for a trip of 3,84,400 kms (2,40,000 miles), and it flies from Satish Dhawan Space Center on Monday to the Moon’s South Pole on 6 or 7 Will land on September. Knowing the mysteries of the Moon, the only natural satellite in the Earth, has helped not only India but also the knowledge of the scientists of the world has expanded.
It is notable that in just eight months of launch Chandrayaan-1 had achieved all the goals and objectives of the mission. Even today, the study of data collected by this mission is being done by the scientists of the world.
Through this mission, Bharat credibility has increased in the world and the morale of the scientists too. The result of this is that the Indian Space Research Organization (IIS) has completed its preparations for the launch of ISRO Chandrayaan-2.
During the mission, study the elements present in the surface of the Moon to find out what its rock and clay are made of. Study of the structure of trenches and peaks present there. Study of the density of the Moon’s surface and the change in it.
The thermal properties near the poles, the study of the amount of electrons in the moon’s ionosphere. Watering on the surface of the Moon, finding 3D marks of the moon surface, besides finding the marks of hydroxyl.
The US has spent 25 billion US dollars on its 15 Apollo missions, which are about $ 100 billion in today’s values. Among these missions are six missions, through which Neil Armstrong and other astronauts have landed on the Moon.
China has spent US $ 8.4 billion on its Chengyang 4 ship to be sent to the Moon. Apart from these, spending more than $ 20 billion in terms of today’s values on the Moon-related campaigns run in the 1960s and 1970s.
Since the success of ISRO had been preparing for his own challenging space mission Chandrayaan-2. Under Chandrayaan-II, ISRO is sending orbiter, rover and lunar landers for the first time in the moon. This campaign will also encourage new experiments with the use and testing of new technologies.
After 40 days of launch, it will land on the moon. Under this mission, ISRO will first try to bring its vehicle to the south pole of the Moon. Earlier Chandrayaan was to be sent to space this year, but due to some changes in its design it is delayed.
There has been an increase of about 600 kilograms in the new design. Actually, during the experiments, it was discovered that the satellite will start moving when the part of the moon descends on the moon. For this, the need to improve the design and increase the weight felt.
Nokia 6.1 and Nokia 8.1 Price Cut Down in India
Uber Helicopter Service to be Started in New York From July
Dantewada Police Making Films to tackle Naxalism
Drinking Sweet Drinks Daily May Increase Risk Of Cancer
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Global Perspectives: Estonia – A Shining Light in Eastern Europe
Posted May 27 in Top of the Class Newsletter by CIEB
By Austin Delaney and Jackie Kraemer
Estonia has emerged as a top-performer on PISA, raising the question of how this former Soviet Republic created one of the strongest education systems in the world over the past twenty years. The innovative education reforms in Estonia highlight how changing an education system can contribute to the economic development of a country.
Since regaining independence in 1992, the Estonian economy has grown nearly tenfold and is deemed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to be an advanced economy. A key component of this success story is the well-developed information technology sector, exemplified by the global prominence of Skype which was started in Estonia. An important policy lesson from Estonia is that these outcomes are not spontaneous or random, but rather a result of a national strategy to develop an education system to support a high-tech, high-skill, high-wage economy. This kind of forward planning can be clearly seen in the 1998 “Estonian Education Scenarios” strategy which envisioned developing an information society by 2015 and in the Tiger Leap (Tiigrihüpe) project aimed at teaching computer science to Estonian secondary students.
The educational reforms in the 1990s likely contributed to the country’s high PISA ranking in each of the subject domains in the past three rounds of PISA (2006, 2009 and 2012). The table below shows how Estonia has been a consistent top-performer. Among the EU member states, Estonia was ranked second in both mathematics and science on PISA 2012. This is a remarkable result compared to western European countries given their much more well-developed education systems and more disposable financial resources throughout the 1990s and early 2000s.
This impressive and steady rebuilding of the Estonian education system occurred in three main areas: the development of a new national curriculum adapted to the needs of a new economy; revamping teacher training to focus on innovative teacher practices and teacher mentorships; and upgrading the status of vocational education and training (VET).
Curriculum and School Management Reform –Empowering and Trusting Local Schools
The education system in Estonia consists of primary and lower secondary education, upper secondary academic education and upper secondary vocational education. Primary and lower secondary education is compulsory, while upper secondary education is optional. The students who finish upper secondary education obtain the Secondary School Leaving Certificate and have access to higher education. About 30 percent of students in upper secondary education choose the vocational education track and on completion, can obtain a Certificate in Vocational Education. There are also two language streams in Estonia: the Estonian language stream and the Russian language stream, to reflect the fact that the Russian minority makes up approximately one quarter of the population. There are 63 Russian-language schools currently in Estonia, where subjects are taught 40 percent in Russian and 60 percent in Estonian.
The development of the framework of the national curriculum is the responsibility of the Ministry of Education and Research. The Government approved and adopted the national curriculum for basic and secondary education in the academic year 1997/98. An OECD review of the Estonia education system notes the five goals of the national curriculum:
– Defining learning and educational objectives, including at different stages of study;
– Identifying cross-curricular and interdisciplinary topics;
– Recommending ways to organize the learning environment;
– Specifying the areas of assessment of pupils’ knowledge and skills and defining requirements for graduation from compulsory school; and
– Determining the methods and structure of preparing school curriculum.
The new national curriculum includes the following eight subjects: language and literature, foreign languages, mathematics, science, social studies, art subjects, technology and physical education. The curriculum emphasizes traditional academic subjects as well as skills such as self-management, learning-to-learn, communications and entrepreneurship. The fact that the curriculum was fostering these skills in the 1990s, before they became mainstream across OECD countries, shows significant foresight and adaptability to changes in the modern global economy.
The national curriculum makes a number of subjects compulsory (Estonian literature for Estonian stream of schools, Estonian language for the Russian stream of schools, mathematics and a foreign language) and includes a syllabus and the number of lessons per subject for each of these compulsory topics. However, schools have the responsibility to develop their own specific curriculum, within the boundaries of the national framework. Schools are also entrusted with designing and implementing their own plan to change and improve education to take into account the needs of the local area, school staff, parents and students and the schools’ resources and capacity. Amendments to the school curriculum can now be submitted to the school’s board of trustees, students’ board or teachers’ council.
The autonomy of schools can also be seen in a number of additional areas. Schools have significant autonomy in teacher selection, induction and professional development. Schools can use their own assessment and grading system. However, when the student graduates, the student’s grades have to be converted to a national five-point scale. This provides useful and comparable information about student academic performances to higher education institutions and facilitates access to higher education. School leaders are also now allowed to allocate additional pay to teachers and other school personnel for extra work or for effective results, as long as pay increases are in line with the conditions agreed to by the staff and within the national regulations governing teacher pay.
School autonomy in Estonia goes hand-in-hand with school accountability, mirroring good practices in other OECD countries. Estonia’s schools are overseen by a school inspection system. Inspectors assess schools by regularly reviewing their leadership and management, planning and preparation, teaching and learning, student data collection and attendance, the learning environment and extracurricular activities. Inspectors identify a school’s strengths and areas in need of improvement. The school inspectors provide feedback to the school on areas in need of improvement and can, if necessary, revoke the school’s license if it is not abiding by the educational regulations.
The Teaching Profession in Estonia
In 1998, the government of Estonia, teacher education institutions and the teacher unions drafted a Memorandum of Understanding on Reform of Teacher Education in Estonia. The Soviet model of teacher education, which Estonia had adopted, focused mainly on subject knowledge and traditional pedagogical practices. With the reform, teacher education now prepares Estonia’s teachers, not only in the subject they will teach using particular approaches to teaching those subjects, but for a job where they will develop curriculum, use new pedagogical approaches to serve more diverse student needs, engage in self-assessment activities with teacher mentors and promote an interest in life-long learning among their students.
Teacher education currently consists of two routes: a five-year BA/MA program of study for primary and secondary subject teachers and a one-year teacher education program for adults that have already completed an MA in a field other than education. Both programs focus on subject knowledge, pedagogy and understanding the professional standards in the Teacher’s Standard of Professional Competence of Estonia. Teachers have a practice year following completion of teacher training.
Teacher education and training at the Master’s level takes place in three stages: Pre-service education that provides basic pedagogical knowledge and skills, an induction year that supports the students’ introduction to educational organizations and promotes the development of skills through practice and analysis, and in-service training once the student has graduated. The induction year restricts new teachers to a maximum of 18 working hours a week and all new teachers also have access to mentors. After completing the induction year, novice teachers acquire a certificate of teaching, issued by a certification board, while a certificate of completion of the support program is issued by the university. The latter requires an individual development portfolio and an evaluation of the new teacher’s performance.
The Ministry of Education now mandates an individual professional development plan for teachers which outlines educational and training targets for professional development, based on teachers’ qualifications and work experiences. Under this plan, teachers must undergo at least 160 hours of continuing education in five years. The funding for the continuing education of teachers is provided from the state budget. Professional development in teaching plays an important role for the different salary levels and in progression up the career ladders, as in other top-performing countries.
Estonia has also developed teacher career pathways. These pathways aim to enable teachers to stay motivated in the profession by seeking new opportunities, engaging in skills development and self-reflection and assisting new and beginning teachers to improve their practice. The teacher career ladder system in Estonia consists of four positions: junior teacher, teacher, senior teacher and teacher-methodologist. Teacher pay increases linked to the four positions fall under a thirty-four step career ladder that covers all educators in the country from classroom aides to directors of post-secondary institutions.
Vocational education has also been one of the key areas of reform in Estonia since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Around thirty percent of upper secondary students in Estonia are in the vocational track. In 1999, Estonia created a national qualification system, and developed national standards for vocational education.
Vocational education standards are developed by professional councils, which include representatives from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Employers´ Confederation, the Confederation of Trade Unions, members of the non-profit sector and representatives from the teacher and trainer workforces. There are 16 professional councils in the following sectors: Transport and Logistics, Commercial Service, Construction, Real Estate, Energy, Mining and Chemical Industry, Information Technology and Telecommunication, Forestry and Wood Industry, Engineering, Metal and Machine Industry, Folk Art and Handicraft, Health Care and Social Work, Light Industry, Justice and Internal Security, Food Industry and Agriculture, and Culture and Services. Vocational education standards are competence-based, measure learning outcomes and form the basis for the school curricula in vocational educational. Estonia does not have a national curriculum for vocational education. VET institutions develop curriculum in compliance with the relevant professional standards. All VET programs include a work-based component.
The new vocational education system led to the development of multifunctional regional centers of vocational training across the country. There are now 43 VET institutions in Estonia, three of which are municipally owned and ten that are privately owned. In addition, there are 8 applied higher education institutions, which also provide vocational education. These VET providers must provide training places and appropriate work placements that align with the curricula objectives.
Each vocational education institution has a subject council and a teaching council, which evaluate the student results and works to improve student learning in each subject. There is also a county-level council for vocational education, which analyzes and decides on the education and training areas to promote in the region and implements changes and reforms in the schools in order to align training with the demands of the local economy.
The teaching staff in vocational centers is assessed internally within the school in collaboration with the Department of Education in the county and with the Board of Trustees of the institution. The Inspectorate of Education of Estonia, the Ministry of Education and the county council are responsible for supervision of the education and training in these institutions and for evaluating the effectiveness and quality of the system.
Graduates of vocational educational institutions account for approximately 12 percent of the labor force. Employer and company engagement in vocational education is developing with almost all large firms and 60 percent of small firms (10-49 employees) participating in vocational training programs.
Estonia’s success in education illustrates how a country can adapt to both a dramatic societal transformation and changing trends in the global economy. Changes in the national curriculum, school organization and management, school accountability, professionalization of teaching, and in vocational education are among the reforms boosting the performance of Estonia’s education system. Other nations wanting to move in this direction should keep a close eye on Estonia as it continues to improve on its successes. For more information, see our last feature on Estonia’s investment in IT skills.
curriculum, Estonia, PISA, teacher quality, VET
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Conservatives Continue To Fight Freedom of Religion
Filed under: Religion — trp2011 @ 3:14 PM
Tags: Air Force oath, climate change, freedom of religion, Hobby Lobby, Mark Driscoll, Raelians, rainbows, Satanic Temple
Air Force enlistees and commissioned members will no longer be forced to swear “So help me God” in their oath, after a review of the policy by the Department of Defense, possibly because someone read the Constitution:
“No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.”
The revised policy has greatly disappointed religious right members. Bryan Fischer had already praised the oath that included his God, stating that “a man who doesn’t believe in the Creator … most certainly should not wear the uniform.” In this manner, Fischer dismisses the value of soldiers such as Pat Tillman, an open atheist who lost his life after he left his professional football career to fight al-Qaeda.
Televangelist Pat Robertson claims that it’s “crazy” to remove the requirement. He blames “a left-wing radical named Mikey Weinstein who has got a group about people against religion or whatever he calls it, and he has just terrorized the armed forces.” Robertson went on to describe Weinstein as “one little Jewish radical.” Weinstein is the President of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation.
Robertson has also added to the blessings of Jesus on the poor and hungry in his Sermon on the Mount. The televangelist added, “Blessed are the fully armed because theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.”
There’s more information about the 14-year-old boy who could go to prison for two years because he posted a photograph of himself simulating oral sex on a statue of Jesus. DA Bill Higgins of Bedford County (PA) called him a “troubled young man” and used a law from 1972 for punishment higher than simple vandalism. “Troubled” might also refer to Higgins: he admitted to having an extramarital affair in his office with a woman who sued him for sexual harassment but was then “convinced” to drop the charges. In addition, he seems to be fan of pornography. The ACLU is looking into the boy’s case.
The Mars Hill (Seattle) is megachurch no longer led by Mark Driscoll; he’s taking a leave of absence after it was revealed that he considers men to be God’s “tool” and women the shelter for the “tool.” In 2001, under the name William Wallace II, Driscoll wrote:
“Ultimately, God created you and it is his penis. You are simply borrowing it for a while. Knowing that His penis would need a home, God created a woman to be your wife and when you marry her and look down you will notice that your wife is shaped differently than you and makes a very nice home.
“Therefore, if you are single you must remember that your penis is homeless and needs a home. But, though you may believe your hand is shaped like a home, it is not… And, if you look at a man it is quite obvious that what a homeless man does not need is another man without a home.”
More recently Driscoll said that women need to serve their husbands with oral sex, he would not have married his wife if he knew she was a victim of sexual abuse, and masturbation is homosexuality unless the man’s wife is watching him. He also accused a parishioner of having “sexual demons” and asked her, in front of her husband, “which one of my husband’s friends I had imagined sleeping with.” Forty percent of the Mars Hill staff has been laid off, and the executive elder has resigned.
Continuing its support for separation of church and state, the Satanic Temple announced its plans to provide its own materials to public school students in Orange County (FL). The action would be a response to a Christian group’s distribution of Bibles to students. In its decision for evangelical groups showing Christian films on school property in Lamb’s Chapel v. Center Moriches Union Free School District (1993), the Supreme Court ruled that “the First Amendment forbids the government to regulate speech in ways that favor some viewpoints or ideas at the expense of others.” Unlike many Christians, the Satanic Temple does not believe the devil to be real and “advocates for religious tolerance and pluralism.”
Earlier an atheist group sued the school district’s refusal to leave its pamphlets after the distribution of Bibles. The district dropped the case, allowing the pamphlets in the school. Joining the Satanic Temple are the Raelians, a UFO cult that claimed in 2002 that they had cloned a human baby. As Rael said, “Religious freedom is either for everybody or it doesn’t exist,” Rael declared in his statement. Raelian Guide Ricky Roehr, head of the group’s North American branch, said, “Children should … be exposed to a variety of spiritual beliefs and philosophies, and to experience them as well if they wish. That way, they can make their own choice when they reach adulthood, without the pressure of their parents or their social environment.”
The bombs spread across the country from the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in support of Hobby Lobby’s religion have started to explode. U.S. District Court Judge David Sam ruled that because of Vergel Steed’s religious belief, the member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) can avoid naming church leaders who took children out of school and sent them to harvest pecans in violation of child labor laws. Government officials have also been investigating FLDS for several years because of their forced marriage between underage girls and adults males. Warren Jeff, FLDS’ former president, is in prison for life because of several sex crimes including incest and pedophilia.
Meanwhile Hobby Lobby CEO Steve Green is moving forward with his $800 million, eight-story Bible museum in Washington, D.C. His only concern is that he wants it closer than two blocks from the National Mall. To a retailer, location is all.
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has defined faith as “belief without proof.” Bryan Fischer now has the proof (scientific evidence?) that the United States is meant to be a theocracy and not a secular country. In one word, bacon. He told his radio audience:
“You want one single item of proof that America is a Christian nation and not a Jewish nation and not an Islamic nation? One single bit of proof is all you need: we freely allow restaurants and grocery stores to sell and to serve bacon. That can only happen in a Christian country.”
In his follow-up article, “The Blessings of Bacon,” he complains about attacks from the God-hating left and libertarian right. No mention of the idea that a secular society would also sell bacon. That’s because selling bacon is in the Bible: Mark 7:19 says of Jesus, “Thus he declared all foods clean.” Leviticus 18 bans bacon, which bothers Fischer not one whit although he uses Leviticus to blast his hatred against same-sex relationships.
According to Fischer’s rationale, China must be a very Christian nation. Each person in that country eats 39 kilograms of pork a year, about 45 percent more than people do in the United States. Actually, fewer than 4 percent of people in China are Christians. Of those believing in religion, about 12 percent are Christians whereas 66.1 percent are Buddhists, Taoists or worshippers of legendary figures such as the Dragon King and God of Fortune. Fischer is the Director of Issue Analysis for Government and Public Policy at the American Family Association which annually receives $20 million in donations.
Fischer has other pronouncements. Although scientists have support for the threat of a sea-level rise, he denies any problem. Climate change is causing the rise of temperatures which are melting ice caps and glaciers at a rapidly growing rate. Increase in water from decrease in ice causes higher sea levels that are putting thousands of miles of coastline underwater. Rainbows remind God to not flood the planet, according to Fischer, because he read it in Genesis 9. God might not flood the planet, but humans are certainly doing this. By the way, rainbows are both a reflection and refraction of light in water droplets. That’s science, not faith.
The Catholic church is expressing an ambivalent attitude toward same-sex marriage. It refuses to recognize marriage equality, but it demands that a gay couple, together for over 30 years and legally married in Washington state, must be legally divorced before they can receive communion. Rev. Samuel Spiering served four days as administrator of St. Leo the Great Catholic Church in Lewistown (MT) four days before he issued his directive to the couple. The next day he dismissed them from their volunteer posts in the church.Two weeks later, the couple agreed to write a restoration statement supporting the church’s definition of marriage as between a man and a woman, but they refuse to get a legal divorce. About 50 percent of the parishioners support the gay couple.
Christians should celebrate the actions of 13-year-old Kyle Bradford (Weaverville, CA) who gave his lunch to a friend assigned to the cheese sandwich for “non-paying” children. “It seemed like he couldn’t get a normal lunch so I just wanted to give mine to him because I wasn’t really that hungry and it was just going to go in the garbage if I didn’t eat it,” Bradford said. Kyle got detention. And we wonder why we have problems in the United States.
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Toxic Spill a Lesson for Protecting the Environment
Filed under: Pollution — trp2011 @ 9:45 PM
Tags: abandoned mines, Animas River, environment, EPA, Gold King Mine, Grand Canyon, heavy metals, Silverton (CO), Todd Hennis, toxic spill, uranium mining
The Tang-colored Animas River in Colorado has recently been the subject of media mutterings with conservatives blaming the EPA for all the problems. Conservative officials, including New Mexico Gov. Susanna Martinez, are demanding that the EPA pay for all the cleanup and accusing the agency of incompetence.
For those who haven’t kept up with the disaster that started in Colorado and moved downstream, the EPA was investigating an idled mine, the Gold King Mine near Silverton (CO), and trying to drain the heavy-metal-laden sludge that had been slowing leaking out into the Animas River. Instead, workers breached an unstable dam eight days ago, releasing three million gallons of the waste. The agency made no announcement for almost 24 hours and then underestimated the amount by two-thirds.
The Gold King, out of operation since 1923, is one of approximately 22,000 abandoned hard rock mines leaking toxic substances into the state’s waterways. (There may be 500,000 of these in the United States.) Mining exposes acidic minerals, and heavy metals and groundwater can wash them into rivers. This particular spill includes aluminum, lead, arsenic, and cadmium with tests downstream at Durango showing arsenic and lead levels peaking at 300 and 3,500 times historic levels. Despite the current fear, however, the levels of metal dissipated rapidly and only one fish of 108 in cages died during the first 24 hours. Prior to the spill, the Animas and San Juan Rivers had alarmingly high levels of human fecal bacteria. About 40 percent of Western headwaters have already been contaminated by these mines.
Within four days, the 500 gallons per minute emitted from the dam was diverted into two nearby settling ponds. The EPA plans to treat the waste so that it can be released into the river. By that time, however, the materials already in the river had gotten to Farmington (NM), more than 80 miles downriver where the Animas feeds into the San Juan River, on its way to Lake Powell and into the Colorado River. Towns shut off intake valves before the water arrived, but residents with wells within the floodplains of the Animas and San Juan have been directed to have their water tested before using it. The rivers will also be closed to drinking, irrigation supply, fishing, and recreation until at least August 17.
The water color has gone back to normal, but toxic metals settling in the river bottom can cause problems when disturbed by storm runoffs. Contamination in the area is not new: the Cement Creek where the problem originated was declared undrinkable in 1876. During most of the history of the West, miners were not regulated in their burrowing for gold, silver, and other valuable minerals. As they dug, they hit water that reacted with air and pyrite (iron sulfide) to create sulfuric acid and dissolved iron before it dissolved other metals such as copper and lead. The result is water with heavy metals.
Miners just dumped the water in creeks or put it in ponds with their tailings, making the water more acidic. The mines near Silverton are the worst, causing the largest untreated mine drainage in the state. Ronald Cohen, an environmental engineer at the Colorado School of Mines, said, “Problematic concentrations of zinc, copper, cadmium, iron, lead, manganese and aluminum are choking off the Upper Animas River’s ecosystem.” For several years, the EPA wanted to declare the area as a Superfund site to bring funding for cleaning up the mess. The people in the area resisted, worried that the label would be toxic to tourism. Recently, the town agreed that the EPA could call the site “the National Priority List” and let the EPA work to improve water quality near the mines.
The conspiracy crowd decided that, based on a letter to the editor of a local newspaper, the EPA deliberately caused the spillage “to secure Superfund money. If the Gold King mine was declared a Superfund site it would essentially kill future development for the mining industry. The Obama EPA is vehemently opposed to mining and development.” The EPA takes full responsibility for the debacle, but Gina McCarthy, the head of the agency, is almost sure to be appearing before a Congressional hearing.
The accident started when the EPA tried to plug the Red and Bonita Mine just below the Gold King mine. To keep water from flowing out of that interconnected mine, the EPA tried to reconstruct the portal at the Gold King to check changes in discharge caused by the Red and Bonita Mine bulkhead. Workers started in July, and the toxic water flowed on August 4.
Todd Hennis, Gold King’s owner, said that he predicted for the past 14 years that the situation was getting worse and tried to do something about the discharge. He blames Kinross Gold, a deep-pocketed Canada-based multinational mining giant, for using influence to reduce its liability for treating polluted water and passing the risks to nearby mines. The Kinross-owned Sunnyside Mine is at fault for the accumulation of wastewater, according to Hennis. In the mid-1990s, Kinross received permission to plug a part of the Sunnyside Mine called the American Tunnel after Hennis complained about the discharge of 165 gallons a minute from Sunnyside when he tried to reopen the Mogul gold mine. Before that time, Gold King discharged seven gallons a minute, but the Kinross project increased that to 250 gallons of water a minute. Hennis claims that the wastewater came from Sunnyside Mine through drill holes and natural fractures in the ground.
Although no actual mining is being done at the Gold King, Hennis completed $10 million in exploration during the 1990s, including 400,000 ounces of gold and four million ounces of silver. The mine also has large deposits of tellurium, used in high-tech alloys. Hennis just wants to find a buyer.
Locals aren’t the only people to blame the EPA and the president, and the message has gone viral in right-wing Internet blogging. Even the less conservative media fails to point out that the mining industry had no regulation until 1970. Since then, conservative members of Congress have fought for no regulations, claiming that it’s just “big government.” With a large majority in Congress and many states, lawmakers are constantly attacking the EPA and its mandate to “protect” the environment. While the Koch brothers pay for legislators to deregulate, the mainstream media reports nothing. For example, Republicans pushed deregulation in West Virginia responsible for the chemical spill because they want businesses to make more money.
Jonathan Thompson pointed out that pollution in the Animas is not new. Miners didn’t stop pouring their tailings into the creeks and rivers until the 1930s, and portals and shafts blasted into the mountainsides pull water flowing through fractures into mine tunnels and cause the contaminated water. When a huge tailings pile northeast of Silverton was breached in 1975, the 50,000 tons of heavy-metal-loaded tailings turned the Animas into aluminum color. Three years later, the American Tunnel was bored at Sunnyside Mine, and Lake Emma burst through, sending 500 million gallons of water throughout the mines, picking up tailings and sludge before blasting it out of the tunnel and sending it downstream. By 1991, many of the 400 mines released unmitigated discharges into streams. No fish could be found downstream from Silverton.
There is no doubt that the EPA made a mistake. If they had done nothing, however, the same thing would likely have happened with water and sludge breaking through the faulty dam. Many people believe that the disaster alerted people in Durango to the current problems; they may pressure those up in Silverton to accept Superfund and get some of the mess cleaned up. Durango cleaned up in the early 1990s with no problems to tourism and property values, and the tourism mecca of Moab (UT) is also being cleaned up.
The disaster could also save the Grand Canyon, one of the “Most Endangered Places” in the United States. Last April, U.S. District Court Judge David Campbell ruled against a request by the Havasupai tribe and a coalition of conservation groups to halt new uranium mining next to Grand Canyon National Park, just six miles from the Grand Canyon’s South Rim. The U.S. Forest Service is allowing the Canadian mining firm Energy Fuels Inc. to reopen a uranium mine without formally consulting with tribal authorities or updating a 30-year-old federal environmental review. Wildlife, including the endangered California condor, will be threatened, and toxic uranium mining waste, a toxic heavy metal and source of radiation, will contaminate aquifers and streams that maintain the Grand Canyon and Colorado River. Geologists say that cleaning up such contamination will be “next to impossible.”
Uranium mining also spreads radioactive dust through air and leaks radioactivity and toxic chemicals into the environment. Every uranium mine ever operated in the United States has required some degree of toxic waste cleanup, and the worst have sickened dozens of people, contaminated miles of rivers and streams, and required the cleanup of hundreds of acres of land.
President Obama could protect the Grand Canyon by proclaiming its watershed a national monument. But Boehner would issue another press release complaining about the president’s “overreach.” Take a good look at this photograph of our national treasure because it, like many other important parts of our legacy, will disappear if conservatives get their way.
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Original VS Remake: Final Fantasy IV
Cory Clearman 2 years ago
With the unexpected rise in the number of HD re-releases and remakes of certain games, it got me thinking about one of my favorite games for the SNES and how many re-releases and enhanced ports it had over the years. The game I'm referring to is Final Fantasy IV, one of the better games in the series. One particular remastering of it especially stood out due to how much effort was put into it, so I'll point out the differences from the original release on the SNES and its updated remake on the Nintendo DS and see which one is better worth your hard earned cash.
When the game was first released on the SNES back in 1991, it was considered quite the step up from the previous Final Fantasy game(s) released on the NES a year (or so) prior. It had a great art style that really set the tone for how the game was going to play, how the story would play out, and the overall feel and color of the environments that you would traverse. It was quite impressive for a 16-bit game that could only display around 256 colors at a time.
Now the DS version released in late 2007 was much different as it has fully polygonal characters, enemies, and environments which made everything feel much more alive and vibrant. Plus it allowed for much more detailed character animation which was shown quite prominently from the game's many dancers scattered around the world's many towns and kingdoms (I'm quite partial to the City of Troia myself). Overall, the DS version a much better visual treat than the SNES version.
If Final Fantasy's spinoff series Theatrhythm has shown anything, then the music is just as iconic as everything else in the game. The music in the SNES version is especially good, ranging from atmospheric, to intense, to melancholy and even climactic. It certainly does its job considering the hardware limitations imposed by the console's specifications.
The DS version however is honestly not much different. Aside from having some slightly better audio files for the game's midi tracks, the music is virtually identical. There are a couple of songs in the game where the music is noticeably higher quality than its SNES counterpart (Most noticeably Fabul Castle) which is I guess a pretty nice bonus if you happen to remember what the orginal sounded like. All in all, I'd say the DS version wins this category, but not by much.
Because of the SNES's strict hardware limitations, some corners were cut when this Japanese RPG was translated into English. As such, many lines of dialog had to be simplified, changed or even censored before it was released for a western audience. One such censored line was, "You spoony bard!" which was spoken by the sage, Tellah when he was trying to kill the bard, Edward. This line had reached an unusually high amount of fan support and had survived even into the many remakes of the game.
Now because the DS had a much more memory, a more accurate and faithful translation of the original story could be used in the game allowing for a much better understanding of the plot which was also accompanied by cut-scenes with stellar voice acting. In addition to this, more of the story that had been left on the cutting room floor during the SNES version's development period was able to be re-added allowing for even more back story to be told on the game's antagonist, Golbez. Gonna have to give the scoring point to the DS version here.
As with most Final Fantasy games, gameplay is mostly just customization, strategizing your attacks and memorizing how certain enemies react to certain actions. However, when the game was released in other territories for the first time, the difficulty was dumbed down to make it more accessible for American and European audiences. Many items and pieces of equipment were boosted in strength and several enemies had their power cut so they would be easier to defeat. It worked, but it also made the strategy kind of dull and uninspired.
Now if you want a REAL challenge, the DS version is where it's at. The enemies are much more threatening and items and characters can actually be customized further to better suit your needs. The boss battles are also require much more thought involved as well as many of them either counter half of what you throw at them, or they they are immune to everything else. Also, exclusive to the DS version are special side missions with Namingway, and a special little Eidolon that you can also customize and have fight in place of your summoner, Rydia. This Eidolon can be trained to become stronger through minigames that are played with the touch screen and can also be used in a special one-on-one battle mode with another player a la Pokemon. The DS version is definitely the way to go here.
The DS version is hands down the winner of this contest. It just has so much more to offer than the original and it really shows. While the SNES version has a special place in my heart, it just can't hold a candle to this exceptionally well made remake. Plus, since it is a DS game, it can be played on 3DS systems without any problem. Don't have a 3DS either? Well there is also a PC version available that is basically the same version as the DS one, minus the special Eidolon and the associated minigames. Not really a big loss, but I like to have my games with as much content as possible. Maybe you do too, who knows? But until then, I'll see you next time.
SNES Score:
DS Score:
FFIV Final Fantasy SNES DS 4 Remake Square Enhanced
Review: Donkey Kong Jungle Beat (GCN)
My Bottom 10 Nintendo Franchise Games
Cory Clearman 1 year ago
How to Deal with Fangames the RIGHT Way
Review: Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy
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Tag Archives: Team Finland
Sochi Chronicles: Part THREE
The 22nd Winter Games: SOCHI 2014
Canada’s Medal Count has doubled in the gold category since the last post!- 24 MEDALS: 9 GOLD, 10 SILVER, and 5 BRONZE.[As of February 22nd, 2014]. **Rumor has it there is another a medal to be added to that total following an event that will have all of Canada on the edge of their seats!**
Women’s Bobsleigh: GOLD Kaillie Humphries & Heather Moyse
HUMPHRIES & MOYSE showing off their 2014 hardware!
Kaillie Humphries and Heather Moyse came from behind in the 4th and final run to seal their GOLDEN fate and successfully defended their 2010 Gold medal with a Sochi GOLD performance.
Men’s Curling: GOLD – Team Jones (Brad Jacobs, Ryan Fry, EJ Harnden, Ryan Harnden, & Caleb Flaxey)
The Men’s Curling team didn’t start strong with a 1-2 record and then went on to win 8 straight to seal a GOLDEN victory and successfully defending Canada’s 2010 gold.
Team JACOBS leaping for GOLD onto the podium!
Women’s Curling: GOLD – Team Jacobs (Jennifer Jones, Dawn McEwen, Kaitlyn Lawes, Jill Officer & Kirsten Wall)
Team JONES leaping for GOLD onto the podium!
Team Jones did something that no women’s team has done before in the Olympics in leading her team to an undefeated 11-0 record on their way to GOLD medal. Team Jones is also the first Canadian Women’s curling team to win the gold medal since 1998.
Ladies Ski Cross: GOLD – Marielle Thompson & SILVER – Kelsey Serwa
Thompson & Serwa celebrating their 1-2 podium finish in the Ladies Ski Cross finals!
Women’s Hockey: GOLD!!!!!!!!!!!!
Canada’s GOLDEN GIRLS won their 20th straight Olympic hockey game in an OT thriller!
Men’s 500m Short Track: BRONZE – Charle Cournoyer
Charle Cournoyer celebrating his BRONZE medal podium finish!
Now let’s take a closer look at the hockey that has taken place over the last few days. The Women’s hockey medals as you see from the above spoiler picture have been handed out.
The Women’s Bronze medal game featured Team Sweden and Team Switzerland. Florence Schelling backstopped Switzerland brilliantly the entire tournament and is the reason they earned their spot in the bronze medal game. It looked like Sweden was in control of the game taking a 2-0 lead into the third period BUT as we ALL know…2-0 leads are the worst to have in hockey. Switzerland made sure to make their presence known scoring 4 straight goals to take the lead and despite one last goal from Sweden, Switzerland was able to hold on for the win! Florence Schelling was the star for this team as they won their first ever Olympic hockey medal!
The GOLD medal stage was set for another amazing match up featuring Team Canada and Team USA for the 2010 GOLD medal rematch! Coming into Sochi, Team USA had won more games against Team Canada than they had lost and they were looking to translate that into a gold medal.
Team USA took the lead and carried a 2-0 lead with them late into the 3rd period. The writing was on the wall with the clock winding down and it seemed inevitable that the USA was on their way to their first gold medal since 1998. With just 3:26 remaining in regulation Canada found itself on the board and the lead suddenly cut in half…but would it be enough time to change their fate?
Canada pulled Szabados in an attempt to tie the game with just under two minutes left, the USA sent the puck down center ice to the net BUT it hit the POST! Canada swarmed on the puck and surged to the USA end…and with 56.5 seconds left Marie-Philip Poulin TIED the game 2-2! Cue the insanely LOUD cheers from the bench, the arena, and across Canada!
Remember what I said about 2-0 leads not being safe?!
Olympic overtime in a gold medal game is a full 20 minute period followed by a shoot out if needed. It was an extremely intense 8:10 of overtime with chances on both sides before the ever clutch Marie-Philip Poulin SCORED AGAIN and ended this game with the GOLDEN GOAL!! COMEBACK COMPLETE!
MARIE-PHILIP POULIN SCORES THE GAME WINNING GOAL!! GAME OVER!!
The Canadian team scramble from the bench to huge POULIN as they are GOLDEN GIRLS once more!
Just in case you want to relive that GOLDEN moment one last time, here you go:
THIS game will be long remembered for the epic comeback and the tenacity that these women play with. On one side of the ice there was absolute elation as they celebrated their incredible comeback and the other side there was devastation as they looked at what could have been. They say that you don’t “win” silver in hockey…but it is an incredible accomplishment none the less. It may not seem like it in the moment…but “winning” that silver medal is something to be proud of and will long inspire young girls for years to come. Congratulations to team USA for playing a great game and a continuously helping to show the world that women CAN play hockey at a high level!
The Men’s quarterfinals and semifinals have taken place and saw some very dramatic outcomes: Finland beat Russia in their quarterfinal game that stunned the hometown arena into complete silence. Sweden beat Slovenia in the quarterfinal to earn a date in the semifinals with Finland setting up a rematch of the 2006 Olympic gold medal game. It was an incredibly tight game between these two teams but it would be Sweden that walked away with spot in the gold medal game as they beat Finland 2-1.
The USA scored 5 goals yet again to beat the Czech Republic and earn their way in to the semifinals. Canada earned a win in a tight game against Latvia to earn their spot in the semifinal and date with the USA. The last time the USA and Canada met in the Olympics it was in the 2010 gold medal game…this time they would play to see who would get to play for gold and who would fight for bronze.
Everyone on both sides of the border had their eyes glued to this game. Everyone said that it would be impossible to stop the offensive scoring machine that the USA had become in Sochi and everyone was worried about Canada’s “lack” of offense in comparison. While everyone worried about the offense that would or wouldn’t come…we overlooked one very important aspect of Canada’s game…their impeccable defense. It is true that offense wins championships…but it is also true that strong defense can do the same. Both goal-tenders were incredible in this game…but it came down to one goal and one goal only that made the difference. Jamie Benn had the goal and Carey Price had the shutout as Canada shut down the unstoppable USA offense to earn a spot in the gold medal game and send the USA to the bronze medal game.
The bronze medal game set up Finland being led by captain Teemu Selanne in his final Olympic games against the USA who never expected to be there. The first period was a battle and seemed like it was going to be a nail biter for who would end up victorious….and then 11 seconds and 2 missed penalty shots changed everything. Finland score 11 seconds apart early in the second period while Patrick Kane missed his 2nd penalty shot in the middle frame. It seemed as though somewhere along the second period that the USA’s heart wasn’t in this game and Finland played as though it was championship game. Finland took full advantage of the mistakes being made by the USA and skated away with a 5-0 victory and the bronze medal after 60 minutes. It was a tale of two teams in this game: one that never wanted to be there and the other played as if it meant everything. It was an incredible game for Finland…and Selanne only further cemented his legend status as he showcased one last time for his country why he is the #FINNISHFLASH!
It’s a tough loss for the USA because their last two games with zero offense are NOT the way they envisioned their Olympic journey ending. The USA was so dominant in the early part of the tournament and to have it end in a 5-0 loss is heartbreak for the players and their fans. This is not how it was supposed to go…and while finishing 4th overall is still an accomplishment, it is not the ending that they desired. The USA had a talented roster and while some will critique the players that were on it and the ones the were left off…I tip my hat to the USA on one heck of a tournament [despite the 5-0 loss] and look forward to seeing them come back strong in 2018!
GOLD MEDAL GAME: The stage has been set. SWEDEN vs. CANADA. The only two undefeated teams going head to head with GOLD on the line. We are in store for one heck of a game from two great hockey nations no matter what the outcome. Best of luck to BOTH teams!
T-minus 4 hours to puck drop! Are you ready for the 4:00 AM wake up call west coast?! I know I’m not the only crazy one getting up to watch this game?! Where will you be watching?
Can you believe that there is just ONE day left of the 22nd Winter Games? As quickly as the Olympics arrived, they are nearly gone and within a few days we will be back to the regular scheduled NHL.
Posted in Hockey, Olympics | Tagged 2014 Olympics, BRONZE medal, GOLD medal, mens hockey, Olympic hockey, Sochi 2014, Team Canada, Team Finland, Team Sweden, Team USA, womens hockey | Leave a reply
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Diamond, royal cat and former party figurehead, dies aged 17
November 29, 2015 March 26, 2016 Überstadt1 Comment
ROSEWOOD – Diamond, the pet cat of the Überstadti royal family and once a symbolic political leader, died Saturday evening at the age of 17 years.
Around 5:00 PM local time, the cat suddenly became partially paralyzed and was taken to a veterinarian in the nearby American city of Shoreline. There, several health conditions were diagnosed, including diminished kidney function and a heart murmur. The veterinarian determined the most likely cause of the paralysis to be a severe blood clot. Diamond had recently suffered neurological problems, and these combined conditions led the family to decide to euthanize him. He died around 7:00 PM in the company of the king’s parents.
The family, including the future King Adam, adopted Diamond in February 2002, and he quickly developed affection for them. In the earlier periods of Überstadt’s parliamentary democracy under the new monarchy, Diamond was the symbolic “leader” of the Cat Party, the country’s largest right-wing faction, controlling 40% of Parliament at its height. At the time, domestic cats were allowed Überstadti citizenship, and Diamond himself was elected an MP.
Diamond’s most serious health scare came when he was struck by the royal family’s car in August 2013. The worst of his injuries proved to be a pelvic fracture that healed without treatment, although his rehabilitation took several months and he was left with a crooked right hip. As he aged, though, his health gradually declined. On at least one occasion, he experienced involuntary head tremors, and in the days leading up to his death, his behavior became unusual. Prince Aaron of Überstadt reported that earlier Saturday, Diamond seemed to have difficulty recognizing him and the familiar surroundings of the Royal Residency’s yard.
Diamond is to be buried in Rosewood on Sunday.
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Showing all profiles
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Assoc Professor Paolo Acquaviva
Associate ProfessorSchool of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics
Paolo Acquaviva is a graduate of the University of Pisa and of the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, where he obtained his doctorate in 1993. He worked at UCD from 1990 to 1996, and then again since 1999, after 3 years at the University of Venice. He...
Dr Eamonn Ahearne
Lecturer/Assistant ProfessorSchool of Mechanical and Materials Engineering
Dr Ahearne has a primary degree in Mechanical Engineering, a Master’s Degree in Engineering Management and a Doctor of Philosophy Degree by research in the field of manufacturing engineering. He has over 20 years experience in industry, and 17 in aca...
Professor Aoife Ahern
College Principal, Head Of SchoolCollege of Engineering and Architecture Administration Office
I am currently the Head of the School of Civil Engineering in University College Dublin. I graduated from Trinity College Dublin (TCD) in first place in my civil engineering class in 1998. From there, I went on to do a PhD in University College Lo...
Dr Deepak Ajwani
Lecturer/Assistant Professor In Computer ScienceSchool of Computer Science
Dr. Deepak Ajwani is Lecturer/Assistant Professor at the School of Computer Science, University College Dublin. His research is at the confluence of diverse areas such as algorithms and data structures (with a focus on scalable graph algorithms), alg...
Dr Junaid Akhlas
Post Doc Research Fellow Lvl ISchool of Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering
Dr Nebras Al Attar
Postdoc Research Fellow Lvl IiSchool of Biosystems and Food Engineering
Education: MSc in Optics and laser Technology, University of Baghdad, Iraq 2002. PhD in Physics, University College Dublin, Ireland 2015. Employment history: Assistant Lecturer, University of Technology, Iraq, 2006-2010. Post Doc, University College...
Ms Werd Al-Najim
Post Doc Research Fellow Lvl ISchool of Medicine
Dr. Werd Al-Najim is a Nutrition Consultant specialized in the treatment of obesity and obesity-related diseases. She holds a bachelor's degree in Nutrition Science from Kingston University/UK and a PhD from Imperial College London/UK where she inves...
Assoc Professor Kieran Allen
Associate ProfessorSchool of Sociology
Dr Elise Alonzi
Post Doc Research Fellow Lvl ISchool of Archaeology
Dr Ester Rani Aluri
Post Doc Research Fellow Lvl ISchool of Chemistry
Material Chemist; Synchrotron based spectroscopic techniques; Functional nanocomposite materials and Polymers and their many uses; Structure-electrical property determination
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October 1, 2015 CLHOF Inductee, New Westminster, Player, VancouverNew Westminster Salmonbellies, Patchell, Vancouver Terminals, WillisOld Boot Dave
Willis Patchell with New Westminster in 1921.
WILSON DOUGLAS (WILLIS) PATCHELL
(April 22, 1893 – February 24, 1973)
New Westminster Salmonbellies (1914; 1918-1921; 1924)
Vancouver Terminals (1923)
One of the few players who could match up and effectively shut down the great ‘Newsy’ Lalonde, Willis Patchell was perhaps best remembered back in his day for his incredible and inspiring comeback effort after being wounded during the First World War.
He made his professional debut in 1914 with the New Westminster Salmonbellies and played in 6 games that season alternating between coverpoint and first defence. The coverpoint, the second deepest defender on the field, would be his usual position although he could fill in at first defence and point when occasion required.
The First World War would then take him away from the playing field for the next three or so years. It almost took him away from the game permanently.
A member of the 29th Battalion from British Columbia, Patchell suffered a broken right leg during the intense fighting on the Western Front in 1916. Doctors said that he would never play lacrosse again, yet he persevered and returned to the playing field two years later when lacrosse action resumed on the Pacific Coast in 1918 – the long, jagged scars on his leg the only evidence on the field of his wounds.
From 1918 onward, Patchell would play in six of the following seven professional seasons between 1918 and 1924. He was absent completely from the 1922 season and he then signed with Vancouver late in the 1923 season. The Terminals were having roster problems with some absentee bodies in their defensive zone and were desperate for help. While he showed some rust in his first game, no doubt on account of his long lay-off, it was felt Patchell could nevertheless provide some needed veteran experience to the Vancouver squad. He played the month of September 1923, suiting up three times for the Vancouver Terminals. He then returned to the Salmonbellies the next year, in what turned out to be the final professional season played on the Pacific Coast.
His professional field lacrosse career would see him play in 62 games – all but 3 of them played with New Westminster Salmonbellies. He managed to score one lone goal – which came on July 25, 1921. His 18 penalty infractions clocked up 81 minutes to his name. Willis Patchell would win four Minto Cup professional championships, although two of them – in 1914 and 1924, his first and last professional seasons – were won by New Westminster through defaults.
Patchell would regain his amateur status in 1927 and return to play for New Westminster Senior ‘A’ teams – first the Salmonbellies, and then later, the Adanacs – to extend his lengthy career which would span 20 years. He then followed up with another 11 years during when he would intermittently suit up in what must have been emergency situations. During that time he witnessed the transition from the old field game to the faster box version. His final 2 games were played in 1945, at the age of 52 for the New Westminster Adanacs, to book-end a senior career which had begun its first chapter some 31 years previous. Not a bad career for someone who was told he was done in 1917.
Willis Patchell played on the 1928 New Westminster Salmonbellies senior team that traveled to the Amsterdam Summer Olympics for the lacrosse demonstration. His brother Bill Patchell was the coach of the team – himself unable to play in the Olympics on account of his former professional status not yet rescinded like his younger brother.
A fireman by trade, he retired as assistant chief of the New Westminster Fire Department in 1953. Three years after his passing in 1973, Willis Patchell was inducted into the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame in the field player category.
(PHOTO SOURCE: CLHOF X979.150.1)
← Jimmy Gifford From Cigarettes to Salmon Tins →
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Tag Archives: Dianne Feinstein
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.
[1 Peter 5:8]
You may notice I use the pronoun “they” frequently. Perhaps that’s sloppy journalism. No problem. According to Senator Dianne Feinstein, I’m not a real journalist anyways, because I didn’t go to school to earn a degree in Journalism and I’m not employed by a mainstream media corporation. By this twisted logic, she argues that I’m not protected by the “freedom of the press” clause in the First Amendment of the Constitution. No problem. I’m still protected by the “freedom of speech” clause. Of course this is just one more attempt to weaken the Bill of Rights and further suppress dissenting voices, this time by attacking bloggers and independent media. Regardless, I do possess a sense of journalistic integrity and I feel obligated to provide as much for my readers. So who are “they”? Is Dianne Feinstein among their ranks?
What is a good definition of “they”? If you happen to listen to Alex Jones, you’ll hear him refer to “globalists” a lot, which is less vague, but I tend to avoid that term. The globalists Alex Jones exposes are not the kum-ba-ya, one-love, utopian types, they’re more like the psychopathic, evil, world-domination types. When I think of globalists, I think of hippies. But clearly, “they” are not hippies, or ex-hippies even, although many masquerade as Liberals. Maybe globalism doesn’t sound threatening enough.
Up until recently I viewed the idea of world government as a necessary and positive progression of civilization; moving away from Nationalism toward a more global, human community. Once that was accomplished, I figured, the human species could then begin to solve the problems that have plagued us for centuries: war, famine, disease, poverty, etc. The United Nations was a step in the right direction, naturally. And, in a few hundred years perhaps we’d inhabit a universe like Star Trek, where these problems are long gone for the human race and what constitutes scandalous behavior is a starship Captain procuring a special vintage of real alcohol, racing off at warp eight to save a doomed planet, defying the Prime Directive of non-interference. The prognosis? Grim. What would it take to unite the world? An alien invasion? A global catastrophe? These are questions “they” have surely considered.
“They” are not the people of the world. The people of the world have always languished under authoritarian control, in every era, in every place on Earth. “They” are not strictly the civilian governments or politicians or business people of the world. “They” are not the rich. “They” are not the whites. “They” are not American. “They” are not you, or me. “They” are a hard group to identify, but there are clues. The clues are in their actions. Their actions reveal who they serve, as enemies of mankind. In this sense, “they” are individuals and groups of individuals, working surreptitiously to undermine humanity and enslave us for the sole benefit of themselves, and are found operating in all sectors of society.
The enemies of mankind are deceitful. Often their actions are in direct contrast to their rhetoric. We find many examples of this in the federal government. For example, if they really wanted to win the so-called “war on drugs” then they would stop using the CIA to manage the drug trade, importing illicit drugs into the country. They would legalize marijuana, thereby slashing the power of the drug cartels along the Mexican border. But the “war on drugs” is too lucrative. So is the “war on terror” and the innumerable other conflicts being waged around the world. If they were truly interested in peace and stability, then they would stop supporting unpopular, despotic leaders as long as they are malleable to American interests, and they would stop using radicals to stir up tensions and spark revolts in those same countries when they need to install a new puppet they can control. “They” play both sides. The past century is replete with examples of the CIA manipulating political outcomes in other countries: Greece, Iran, Guatemala, Vietnam, Laos, Haiti, Congo, Ecuador, Bolivia, Cambodia, El Salvador, Panama and Iraq- just to name a few.
Little has changed in the twenty-first century. Our leaders speak about spreading freedom and democracy while systematically toppling democratically elected leaders around the world. They portray themselves as humanitarians rushing to the aid of the oppressed, while ignoring human rights abuses and genocide. Why? Because “they” hold positions of power and influence within the civilian government. George W. Bush said in remarks about his presidential legacy, “I surrounded myself with good people… I carefully considered the advice of smart, capable people and made tough decisions.” Even our President is a puppet “they” control. If you’re not particularly bright when it comes to foreign policy or economics, you merely appoint advisers and “experts” to your Cabinet who make those tough decisions for you. These “experts” are more accurately cronies– former defense contractors, pharmaceutical and biotech industry leaders and Wall Street bankers- who are not elected by the American people and therefore do not have the American people’s interests in mind. “They” are totally unaccountable to the people and are frequently behind such legislative monstrosities as the Affordable Care Act, which has little to do with providing affordable healthcare and everything to do with expanding the federal government’s control over our lives. If they really wanted to help rescue the nation’s healthcare system, the FDA would stop allowing poisons to be added to our food and water supply. They would stop approving drugs and vaccines that destroy our body’s immune and neurological systems. They would stop harassing companies that produce natural remedies and doctors who promote nutrition to prevent diseases like cancer, heart disease and diabetes. They would stop legislating against home gardens and farmer’s markets.
The list of problems that could be righted by eliminating this corrupt influence is long. If they wanted to help relieve the pressure on the failing and overcrowded public education system, they would encourage more homeschooling, instead of seeking to ban it in states like California. If they wanted to bolster homeland security against terrorist threats and foreign invasions, they would encourage the proliferation of civilian militias instead of seeking to limit the Second Amendment and treating American citizens like criminals. If they wanted to empower citizens against disasters, both natural and man-made, they would encourage self-reliance, survival skills and preparation, instead of targeting preppers and survivalists and building FEMA camps to imprison the population in the event of chaos and civil unrest. If they wanted to create jobs, they would stop forcing manufacturing companies to leave for China, India and Mexico, and small business growth to stagnate because of draconian federal regulation and taxation.
What do they want then? Nothing short of complete control.
Call them globalists or authoritarians or criminals. Call them evil, call them satanic if you must. But follow the money and examine the legislation they support. These clues will help identify who “they” are. The United States government is not the only example of an institution that has been infiltrated. Many private companies, non-profit organizations, universities, churches and nations of the world are in the grip of corruption. The myth of the United Nations as a means of achieving global harmony is crumbling. Standing in the way of their agenda will help defeat them and restore freedom and self-rule to the people of the planet.
Be sober. Be vigilant.
Leave a comment | tags: Affordable Care Act, Alex Jones, authoritarian, Bill of Rights, CIA, Constitution, Dianne Feinstein, evil, First Amendment, globalism, journalism, shadow government, United Nations, war on drugs | posted in Government, Politics, The Big Picture, War
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Tag Archives: Kent Hovind
Never Forget, Again
As we approach the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks, once again we hear emboldened calls to “never forget.” But what exactly are we being asked to remember? If your answer is the brave firefighters, police and individuals who acted heroically that fateful day, then I say fair enough. The lessons of 9/11 have been long forgotten however, mostly because we have never understood the realities of 9/11 to begin with. We have forgotten about the ineptitude of our intelligence agencies. We have forgotten about all the incongruencies in The 9/11 Commission Report. Indeed, we have forgotten the sense of national unity and patriotism that followed 9/11. But most significantly, we have forgotten our own values of liberty and justice. We have forgotten who we are as Americans. We have forgotten that we are one nation, under God. This makes us vulnerable to another attack.
Following the astonishing attacks of 9/11, the world stood with America. Multitudes in the international community wept for knowing what the attacks, focused squarely on our symbols of financial and military might, represented. The world prayed for America, only to watch her implode. Now, the world has forgotten America because our response to the attacks has accomplished nothing but to further the spread of terrorism and erode the foundations of democracy worldwide.
As I recalled in my very first post One American (An Introduction), after the attacks I expected our jets to be in the air within hours, mounting a response. That didn’t happen. I figured surely, with the scope of our intelligence gathering worldwide, we would instantly know who was responsible. How naive I was, but even then I sensed something was off. What I came to understand through several years of research and observation, is that a long-standing globalist plan to destabilize the Middle East was secretly deploying; 9/11 was the needed catalyst. Through Neo-con accomplices in the Bush Administration and especially the Pentagon’s Office Of Special Planning, created in 2002, a dubious justification for the invasion of Iraq and the removal of Saddam Hussein was pieced together. The American media, perhaps out of a sense of loyalty to the Administration or perhaps through coercion, was complicit in conveying the “evidence” to the American people. In reality, Saddam Hussein had no connection to the 9/11 attacks. An astute and independent media would have investigated these claims. Instead, the media acquiesced to the will of the government, and today serves merely as a propaganda tool to shape public opinion.
Just tune in to FOX News or CNN and you will discover that Muslim extremists are no longer the primary threat to national security, rather, it is the American citizen that poses the greatest danger, especially if they are a veteran, a gun owner, a Christian or just someone who dares invoke the Bill of Rights or Declaration of Independence. It took just over a decade; the seeds of the so-called “Arab Spring” were planted and al-Qaeda metastasized into the Islamic State as the new chaos control.
Keep in mind, in 2003, on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln, in front of a banner declaring “Mission Accomplished,” then President George W. Bush declared, “The battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror that began on September the 11th, 2001 and still goes on.” Similarly, the Obama Administration marked the end to U.S. combat operations in Afghanistan in December of last year, but 13,500 troops remain in “support roles” which still include airstrikes, raids and engaging Taliban fighters. American soldiers are also tasked with protecting Afghanistan’s ever-more-productive opium fields from the Taliban, who have sought to destroy the crop because of Islamic prohibitions on drug use. Operation Enduring Freedom was replaced with Operation Resolute Support, but what has really changed?
“Never forget!” cannot possibly be a patriotic battle cry, because the “war on terror” which came as an outgrowth of the attacks is a fraud; what we have endured for the last fourteen years is a war on freedom. We no longer follow our own Constitution. We no longer honor the principles on which our nation was founded. The phrase “never forget” is used to rejuvenate the fear state that holds our people captive. And every year it is repeated, and paired with images of the Twin Towers burning and collapsing. The goal is nothing more than to create an atmosphere of paranoia where people willingly accept liberty-crushing legislation like the Patriot Act and NDAA. Regrettably, we cannot reminisce about 9/11 with any honor and recall that the terrorists acted with cowardice and hit us good, but we stood firm and recovered in the face of evil. Truth be told, we have given ourselves over to cowardice, lawlessness and evil. We made excuses. Are we any safer now? No. We are perilously close to destruction. We have accepted more government bureaucracy, by creating the Department of Homeland Security and Transportation Security Administration and expanding the powers of the NSA and IRS to criminalize American citizens.
9/11 was a revelation of the perversion that America had become. It exposed the hypocrisy of the greatest nation on Earth. I suppose you could say we should “never forget” the day that marked the onset of America’s judgement. I’m not blaming America for the attacks as others have done. 9/11 was a wake up call that went unheeded, a lost opportunity to root out the corruption and evil that have mutated our representative republic. Instead of a real investigation, we were given The 9/11 Commission, who’s official report on the attacks served not to uncover the truth, but merely to create a framework in which we would execute the phony “war on terror.” The 9/11 Commission Report is not an investigation, but a narrative- a blueprint for expanding the faculties of a government poised for complete tyranny. Curiously, the report never mentioned the collapse of the 7 World Trade Center building and only recently were twenty-eight pages of the report declassified, revealing that Saudi Arabia (our supposed ally) funded and coordinated the operation. And here we are, fourteen years later. It took all of these years to complete the One World Trade Center (with the observatory at the tower’s top finally opening just this Spring), not as a monument to American tenacity or faith, but instead, as a repugnant erection to our globalist deities. By comparison, it took just over a year to complete the Empire State Building in 1931- during the Great Depression.
If only we were not as vain and prideful. While the attacks may have been carried out by Islamic terrorists (if you care to believe the official story) it served as a warning from God. I’m no Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson mind you, but there are numerous accounts in the Bible where God lifted his hand of protection, allowing a nation’s enemies to overwhelm them. Most notably is the destruction of the Northern Kingdom of Israel by Assyria in 722 B.C:
And the children of Israel did secretly those things that were not right against the Lord their God, and they built them high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city.
And they set them up images and groves in every high hill, and under every green tree:
And there they burnt incense in all the high places, as did the heathen whom the Lord carried away before them; and wrought wicked things to provoke the Lord to anger:
For they served idols, whereof the Lord had said unto them, Ye shall not do this thing…
… And the Lord rejected all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of spoilers, until he had cast them out of his sight.
[2 Kings 17:9-20]
God has a problem with towers it seems. In other translations of this Bible passage, it is revealed that the Israelites sinned against God by setting up Asherah poles (translated groves in the King James Version), which were sacred trees (think: totem pole) to honor the pagan goddess of fertility, Asherah. I shouldn’t have to mention the Tower of Babel in the Book of Genesis; countless comparisons have already been made between that ancient tower and the Twin Towers, so I wont bother.
The point is, God allowed the destruction of Israel- his chosen people- because of their blatant disregard for His commandments and their spirit of rebelliousness. Part of that process of destruction involved Israel’s borders being overrun with invaders. Now, in discussing our judgement, I’m not suggesting that illegal immigrants are warring for America, but they are being used by the enemy as an instrument of our destruction. Our country was built by immigrants, who once endured a rigorous process to enter America. But now, with our deranged immigration policy, which screens for nothing yet offers everything in the form of government assistance, America may very well be taken down by immigrants. Our enemy uses our sense of fairness, charity and justice to hamstring us. While most illegal immigrants are hard working people seeking a better life in America, many are hardcore criminals seeking to escape jurisdiction in their countries of origin, which not only include countries in Latin America, but Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Those with no identification are recklessly given new identities. If we do not have a common sense immigration policy in place that at least screens for felons and those with links to terrorism, how do we have any clue who is entering our country and what their intentions are? What infectious diseases will see a resurgence as a result of unchecked immigration? We are already witnessing strange outbreaks of tuberculosis, dengue fever and legionaries disease. How does the government justify its ongoing, illegal surveillance of American citizens, enhanced pat-downs, body scanners, roadside checkpoints, etc. while allowing our borders to be wide open? These things would be unfathomable to our founding fathers. The only possible explanation? We are no longer living under the Constitutional authority of the United States of America.
Should we be surprised? These policies come from the same resident of the White House who releases known terrorists and drug lords from prison to appease rival criminal elites. These policies originate from a person who sees fit to arm and train radical Islamic militants against Syrian President Assad, who, despite objectionable policies, commands his army to protect Christians and other religious and ethnic minorities in his country against the advance of ISIS, backed by the U.S., Saudi Arabia and Turkey. We should be outraged. Russia is lending support to Assad now, and France is preparing for airstrikes against ISIS targets in Syria. How is it that the rest of the civilized world recognizes that ISIS is the enemy? Could it be because we had more than a little bit to do with their expansion? Well, according to the Pentagon, that’s precisely the case. Kinda hard to win a war on terror when you’re fighting on both sides, eh?
Many European nations already have a major dilemma on their hands with Muslim immigrants who have no desire to assimilate into European society. This is now compounded by a raging refugee problem, as people flee war ravaged stretches the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia. Their plight is a direct result of our reprehensible foreign policy, orchestrated at the top by those who’s goal is to topple the strongholds of Western, Judeo-Christian civilization. What happens when refugees start fleeing Western Europe as migrants wreak havoc on their culture? On one level, you might conclude that our enemy are Islamic militants, but again, they are merely another weapon in the arsenal of globalist authoritarians, who will use any means to conquer America and the rest of the world. All conflict in the world is a reflection of the greater war occurring in the spiritual realm; it is Satan who is our true enemy, and that battle is raging in the soul of humankind. We have fallen under the spell of the Great Deceiver.
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
[Ephesians 6:12]
So, what is our current trajectory? Persecution and violence against Christians is rapidly becoming an international crisis. This crisis has now spread to the U.S. on the heels of the Supreme Court’s illegitimate decree that the definition of marriage is now to include the bondage of homosexual partners. Any objection to this perversion means you can lose your job, your business, your home, your children and perhaps soon, your life. Kim Davis, the Rowan County, Kentucky clerk, was jailed for six days without bail for refusing to issue a marriage license to a gay couple. Put her Christian faith aside for a moment and consider, Kim Davis broke no law. Supreme Court opinions do not equate with legislation; under Kentucky law, marriage is exclusively recognized as between a man and a woman. Ordinarily, you might expect a person to lose their job for refusing to perform the duties of their job, if it were not for our society’s disdain for God’s redeeming Word. “The idea of natural law superceding this court’s authority would be a dangerous precedent indeed,” said Judge David L. Bunning before tossing Davis in jail. Judge Bunning apparently believes he is above the law- even God’s law. Evangelist Kent Hovind, founder of Creation Science Ministries and Dinosaur Adventureland in Pensacola, Florida was recently released from prison following a ten-year sentence for charges related to tax evasion and “structuring,” which is breaking up a large sum of money into smaller deposits, to avoid scrutiny. Whether you agree with Hovind’s literal view of Creation or not, it is clear he was targeted for his faith. Under Lois Learner, the IRS illegally singled out for extra scrutiny, Christian, Libertarian and Tea Party organizations applying for non-profit status, for which nobody was punished. These assaults on religious liberty will increase in intensity and frequency unless true Christians stand up and speak out.
We have turned to idols like Kali, who’s frightful image was projected on the face of the Empire State Building in New York City on August 1st, as part of an exhibition focusing on endangered species. The idea behind the ominous display? According to artist Andrew “Android” Jones, Mother Earth needs a fierce avatar to fight pollution and extinction, reports the Times of India. Kali, Hindu goddess of time, change and destruction, is often portrayed as a multi-armed, blood-thirsty cannibal, standing upon the body of her consort, Shiva, and wearing a necklace of severed heads and a belt made from human limbs. Interesting choice of defenders, but Kali doesn’t care about endangered species, she wants to devour you. Clearly, the artist’s intention was not to actually summon Kali, but the event, to me, was a clear foreshadowing of the terror that’s about to be unleashed in our country. The image of Kali concluded a series of images which featured various endangered species, one of which was the bald eagle. It is a grave mistake to (literally or figuratively) call upon demons and false gods to aid in any human endeavor, even charitable ones. The one sin that always results in destruction is the worship of false idols.
Have we forgotten the fate of ancient Babylon? Prophetic chatter regarding the judgement of America is off the charts for September 2015. From blood moons to eclipses to Shemitahs, asteroids and rouge planets, everyone is abuzz about when the collapse will occur and by what means it will be brought about. Jade Helm 15 concludes this month, but the laying of the grid continues. Pope Francis is set to visit the United States this month and will address Congress and the United Nations, no doubt to rubber stamp the globalist takeover of America by authority of the Vatican. This convergence of events (and there are more) has everyone holding their breath and, hopefully, praying. We have already seen the stock market tumble, what lies in wait for us next? We are in the midst of another Cold War, because of our policies in the Ukraine, Syria and beyond. An all out war is looming, but this time we don’t have the moral high ground. It is my belief that judgement comes in waves, like the plagues the Lord sent against the Pharaoh of ancient Egypt. Whether a major event will occur in September nobody knows for certain, but there is little denying that we are entering into very turbulent times. A great, black cloud of deception has descended over the land, people are oblivious to their unfolding fate; the apathetic haze of ignorance and impotence is preferred to vigilance and strength. In this strange, scorched land, whistleblowers are traitors and prophets are lunatics. Is this the beginning of the Great Tribulation? Are we in the end times or is this just the end of America as we know it? Or will God grant us a little more time? Hold on tight and stand firm in your faith, you are going to need it.
Leave a comment | tags: 9/11, America, Empire State Building, God, immigration, ISIS, judgement, Kali, Kent Hovind, Kim Davis, prophecy, Saudi Arabia, Syria, terrorism, tower | posted in Culture, Government, Politics, Religion, War
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Physical Review X
Physical Review X (PRX) is APS's newest, online-only, and fully open access journal. Its broad scope encompasses all areas of pure, applied, and interdisciplinary physics. PRX carefully applies highly selective editorial standards comparable to those of the top journals in physics and aims to attract, select, and publish papers that are exceptional in originality, substance, and significance. With its open access model and through innovation in content delivery, PRX disseminates important new results, both broadly and effectively, across the global science and engineering community.
http://prx.aps.org/
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Nixing the Fix – Lessons from U.S. Elections Past
The video co-production that heads this blog edition is a fast-paced cautionary report on how investigative reporting, the Green Party, the Election Protection movement, pre-emptive litigation and just plain angry voters saved the Dems from Karl Rove in a key 2012 battleground state – Ohio – which is also a key swing state in the upcoming 2016 election.
Investigative reporters Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman, Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein, election protection attorney Cliff Arnebeck and Columbus community activists tell how election theft was – and CAN BE – prevented.
Is Democracy Possible in America? Just maybe.
A recent study of three decades of data by liberal mainstream political scientists Martin Gilens of Princeton, and Benjamin Page of Northwestern, found that the U.S. political system has become “an oligarchy,” where wealthy elites and their corporations “rule,” regardless of which party is in Congress and the White House.
“The central point that emerges from our research, Gilens and Page wrote, “is that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while mass-based interest groups and average citizens have little or no independent influence.”
As Gilens explained in an interview, “ordinary citizens have virtually no influence over what their government does in the United States.”
Former President Jimmy Carter, famous for his work assessing election systems around the world, agrees. “We’ve become now an oligarchy instead of a democracy,”
Says Carter, who ought to know whereof he speakes.
Vote Rigging – American as The Flag, Motherhood, and Apple IPads
Since the beginning of the Republic, vote rigging has been as integral a part of American elections as flag-waving, dirty tricks and un=kept campaign promises. But, never before has it reached the level of dysfunction which has increasingly infected the entire electoral system now for over a decade. The advent of ‘Citizens United,’ manipulatable social Media, electronic voter roles, privately owned electronic ‘black box’ voting machines and tabulation systems with ‘man-in-the-middle’ cyber fraud impenetrable to citizen oversight, and a whole host of means for disenfranchising entire demographic blocks of voters makes the reported outcomes of America’s elections dubious at best, if not totally fraudulent.
When ‘Healthy Skepticism’ Becomes Dysfunctional Denial
More sobering for those of us who have studied the workings of this system in depth, is the level of denial on this most fundamental of all issues common to otherwise well-informed people across the political spectrum. “EEUUU! Conspiracy theory!” is the almost universal response to the mention of this thousand pound gorilla in the corner of our election system. Widespread denial of human-caused climate chaos, and denial of the existential risks of nuclear energy, weapons and waste, are matched by denial of a broken election system. And, without the integrity of electoral choice, how can the policies that cause climate change and nuclear brinksmanship ever be changed?
Curing Electoral Dysfunction and Preventing Unwanted Presidencies
Given this state of affairs, how can we hope to cure electoral dysfunction and prevent unwanted presidencies?
The first of several video offered in this Election Protection blog edition tells one of the few recent success stories from the growing election protection movement.
Since 2004, EON has been honored to collaborate with the FreePress.org team of investigative reporters and election protection litigators on a series of video reports on the election protection movement – over 50, in fact, on our YouTube Election Protection playlist. We offer some highlights below.
The Ohio Plan for Election Protection
This election season, FreePress.org investigative reporters Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman are working hard to forewarn voters and election protection advocates of the ‘Strip & Flip’ dirty tricks already in play and provide what they call ‘The Ohio Plan’ to defend against them.
As they explain, the Ohio Plan is this:
1. Voter registration must be universal and automatic for all citizens as they turn 18;
2. Electronic poll books are banned, with all voter registration records maintained manually;
3. All elections happen over a 4-day weekend—-Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday—-which together comprise a national holiday, preferably around Veterans Day in November.
4. All voting happens on paper ballots, using recycled or hemp paper;
5. All vote counting is done manually, with ballots preserved at least two years;
6. Polls are run and ballots counted by the nation’s high school and college students, who will get the days off and be paid a “scholarship” for their work at $15/hour. Read more
Will the GOP Strip & Flip the 2016 Election?
By Mimi Kennedy, Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman, Reader Supported News
Why Can’t The Nation & the Left Deal With Election Theft?
By Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman, Reader Supported News
Highlights of EON’s Election Protection Series
Code Red – No More Stolen Elections
Harvey Wasserman & Jonathan Simon
Our election system is rigged. Here’s how it got that way,… and how to fix it.
For more info: CodeRed.com facebook.com/electronicelectionfraud
The Price of Liberty – America’s Election Protection Movement 2008
58-minute DVD documentary produced in cooperation with the Columbus Institute for Contemporary Journalism & FreePress.org.
This fast-moving 58-minute documentary by award-wining filmmakers James Heddle and Mary Beth Brangan explores the issues and strategies embodied in America’s growing grassroots, people-powered ‘Election Protection’ movement.
Scientists, journalists, activists, attorneys and whistleblowers reveal how, why and by whom the last two presidential elections were stolen, even as they fight to keep it from happening again.
The Price of Liberty – America’s Election Protection Movement 2008 from Ecological Options Network on Vimeo.
Help America Vote…On Paper
– A citizen call for election integrity 18 mins.
An empowering, fast-moving 18-minute briefing on the dangers to democracy posed by privately owned electronic voting machines, what patriotic citizens, activists and officials of all parties are doing about it – and how you can help.
Got Democracy?
Leading researchers, journalists and activists from around the country present massive evidence of the unacknowledged electoral crisis in the United States… and what we can do about it.
A Little Light’ll Do Ya
Blacked out or dismissed as ‘conspiracy theories’ by corporate news outlets, reports of massive vote fraud in the 2004 presidential election circulated on the internet and independent media.
As the Jan. 6th, 2005 deadline for a challenge to the Electoral College vote drew near, a tiny village on the California coast raised funds to send a delegation of its citizens and an award-winning documentary team to Ohio and Washington, D.C. to get the facts.
They found overwhelming evidence of a stolen election – and a small, diverse group of committed people from the street and the elite who were defending democracy against overwhelming odds.
This is their report – a precursor of the subsequent Election Protection movement that is still growing today and that is making a difference in upholding our right to accurate vote counts.
This film was translated into Urdu and broadcast in Pakistan during the 2007 election in which Benizir Bhuto was assassinated.
Cheated – The Comic
Wake up and save your country…
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Nixing the Fix – Lessons from U.S. Elections Past
12 Nuclear Realities Whose Names Must Not Be Spoken
President Obama speaks at the recent White House Nuclear Security Summit.
Beyond Obama’s ‘Nuclear Security’ Hokus POTUS
By James Heddle
[ First published on Counterpunch.org ]
‘Nuclear Security’ – The Quintessential Oxymoron?
It ended, with no apparent sense of irony, on April Fools’ Day. Obama’s much-heralded ‘Nuclear Security Summit’ came to a close on April 1st in Washington, D.C., having drawn representatives from about 50 countries…minus Russia, which declined to attend citing a “shortage of mutual cooperation” and the exclusion of some of its allies from the invitation list.
Compared to the lofty vision outlined in Obama’s famous 2009 Prague speech of a ‘world without nuclear weapons,’ the POTUS conference marked a sad measure of how far short of his stated intentions his actual accomplishments have fallen.
To be fair, by no means all of that failure can be said to be Obama’s fault. There are many counter-forces.
There’s a global system that profits handsomely from the combined nuclear energy-weapons-waste economy.
There’s a worldwide elite whose members derive much power and privilege from it.
There’s the domestic ‘deep state’ system of the ‘defense and security’ industry with its revolving door to government, which is heavily invested in the permanent war economy.
Then there are the people the President has chosen to surround himself with, some of whom disagree with him and work to undermine his stated policies.
https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2016/03/obama-disappointing-nuclear-weapons-legacy/127068/
It remains to be seen if the controversial ‘Iran Deal’ will stand as a signature accomplishment of Obama’s tenure. But the facts remain that, despite his boasts that he has ‘reduced’ the U.S. nuclear arsenal, the actual cuts amount to a mere 5% – from 4,950 operational nuclear warheads to 4,700, according to the Federation of American Scientists. As former Defense Secretary William Perry points out, that’s more than enough to destroy the world many times over.
https://www.planetarianperspectives.net/?p=2741
https://www.edcast.com/wjperryproject
And, as Perry and other former U.S. officials disapprovingly observe, Obama’s plan to spend over $1 trillion to ‘upgrade’ America’s stockpile of nuclear bombs and their delivery systems not only makes their use more likely, but has also triggered a New Arms Race.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/warnings-of-global-arms-race-ahead-of-nuclear-security-summit/5517478
Finally, the President’s ‘all of the above’ energy policy treats nuclear energy generation as ‘clean,’ ignoring the massive carbon footprint of the atomic fuel chain that makes uranium essentially a fossil fuel. It also gives massive funding and support to developing a new generation of nuclear reactors, as well as marketing existing U.S. designs world-wide to such clients as warring Arab oil states. https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/middle-east/2015-05-25/nuclear-power-people
12 Unspeakable Realities
Those who advocate for nuclear energy as a response to climate change, or for new nuclear weapons in pursuit of ‘national security,’ must ignore or deny an overwhelming burden of facts from the history and legacy of these nuclear technologies so far.
Here are just a few:
The Ultimate ‘Kill Switch:’ Power Grid Black Out
Celebrated former anchorman Ted Koppel’s recent book LIGHTS OUT extensively documents the extent to which our country’s aging power grid is subject to being knocked out in whole, or in serious part, by cyber attack, physical attack or an electro-magnetic pulse (EMP) – either from solar eruption or nuclear air-burst.
But the book is strangely silent about the fact that nuclear power plants’ attendant used fuel cooling pools are dependent on off-site power from the grid. Back-up generators and battery arrays would be unlikely to outlast an extended grid collapse. Lethally radioactive ‘spent fuel’ storage pool explosions would be at high risk of happening with devastating effects on surrounding communities and environments.
[See Patrea Patrick’s documentary BLACK START ]
Power Reactors as WMDs-in-Place
Want to take out Wall Street and the whole New York metropolitan area? A cyber hack or physical attack on the rickety Indian Point nuclear plant just 30 miles up the Hudson could do the trick. Imagine Wall Street and 5th Avenue as empty and deserted as the abandoned radioactive ghost towns in Japan’s devastated Fukushima prefecture. Imagine Connecticut being uninhabitable for generations.
Recent cyber attacks on nuclear reactors in Ukraine and the discovery that the alleged perpetrators of the Brussels explosions were casing a nuclear power plant as a possible target have sharpened public awareness that all operating reactors world-wide are potential weapons-in-place for would-be terrorists. Karl Grossman calls them ‘pre-deployed weapons of mass destruction.’
https://www.counterpunch.org/2016/03/28/nuclear-power-plants-pre-deployed-wmds/
Genocidal Impacts on Indigenous Peoples
· Uranium mining and the deadly radioactive wastes left behind continue to have devastating effects on Native Americans and Aboriginal Australians. In the U.S., thousands of abandoned open pit uranium mines contaminate drinking and irrigation water and the air breathed by tribes across the Great Planes and the Four Corners Area. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsZ70OEzsr4
· Nuclear weapons testing has done lasting genetic and environmental damage to Pacific Islanders in the Marshall Islands and Polynesia. https://www.nuclearzero.org/
Nuclear Disasters
The Guardian lists and ranks 33 serious incidents and accidents at nuclear power stations since the first one was recorded in 1952. Of those, six happened in the US, five in Japan and three apiece in the UK and Russia. That’s an average of nearly 5 per decade.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2011/mar/14/nuclear-power-plant-accidents-list-rank#data
But a report by Cornell University researchers Spencer Wheatley, Benjamin Sovacool, Didier Sornette entitled Of Disasters and Dragon Kings: A Statistical Analysis of Nuclear Power Incidents & Accidents has a database of 174 major atomic accidents worldwide since 1946 – each with over $1 million in damages and at least one death.
“In fact, the damage of the largest event (Fukushima; March, 2011) is equal to 60 percent of the total damage of all 174 accidents in our database since 1946. In dollar losses we compute a 50% chance that (i) a Fukushima event (or larger) occurs in the next 50 years, (ii) a Chernobyl event (or larger) occurs in the next 27 years and (iii) a TMI event (or larger) occurs in the next 10 years.”
See also: ‘10 Devastating Radiation Accidents They Never Tell You About’
https://listverse.com/2016/03/26/10-devastating-radiation-accidents-they-never-tell-you-about/#.Vvhw73VeUc4.twitter
Nuclear energy accidents – US meltdowns
There have been 8 nuclear meltdowns so far in the U.S. Contrary to popular belief, the meltdown at Three Mile Island was not the worst. That dubious honor goes to the little-reported July 12, 1959 meltdown at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory located a couple of miles from the city of Simi Valley and only about 30 miles north of Los Angeles. The radioactive contamination of the surrounding communities and environment from that event have yet to be fully acknowledged or dealt with.
https://www.truth-out.org/news/item/20975-remembering-rocketdyne-discussing-americas-worst-nuclear-meltdown-not-three-mile-island-with-erin-brockovich
Nuclear weapons incidents
As part of his research for his book on the nuclear arms race, Command and Control – Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety, Eric Schlosser used the Freedom of Information Act to discover that at least 700 “significant” accidents and incidents involving 1,250 nuclear weapons were recorded between 1950 and 1968 alone. The Business Insider has a useful interactive site based on Rudolph Herzog’s A Short History of Nuclear Folly on which you can track 32 nuclear weapons accidents since 1950.
https://www.businessinsider.com/list-of-broken-arrow-nuclear-accidents-2013-5
In its Status of World Nuclear Forces, the Federation of American Scientists reports the existence of
Approximately 15,350 warheads as of early-2016. Of these, more than 10,000 are in the military stockpiles (the rest are awaiting dismantlement), of which almost 4,200 warheads are deployed with operational forces, of which nearly 1,800 US, Russian, British and French warheads are on high alert, ready for use on short notice.
Approximately 93 percent of all nuclear warheads are owned by Russia and the United States who each have roughly 4,500-4,700 warheads in their military stockpiles.
Former U.S. Sec. of Defense, William J. Perry says the situation is even worse:
“Today we still have over 20 thousand real world nuclear weapons. Enough to blow up everybody on the planet several times over. Those weapons pose the immediate problem of a danger of terrorism, the immediate problem of the possibility of nuclear war.
“The antagonism between Russia and the United States has reached a point now where I believe we are on the brink of a new nuclear arms race. It breaks my heart.
“Today, the danger of a nuclear catastrophe is actually higher than it was during the cold war. Let me say that again…”
Nuclear Brinksmanship – A ‘Nuclear Winter’ in South Asia?
Perry and his colleagues are not only worried about a nuclear WWIII triggered by a U.S.-Russian, or Israel-Iran confrontation. There are other potential atomic flashpoints as well between nuclear-armed states – the Korean Peninsula is one top candidate.
Even more worrisome at the moment are recent developments on the India-Pakistan border. Pre-armed tactical nuclear weapons line the Pakistani side under the command of individual local commanders. India’s strategic nuclear arsenal is targeted at Pakistani population centers. As tensions heighten, the ‘threat level’ of a mutually suicidal nuclear exchange between the two neighboring countries goes up. The result could be a global ‘nuclear winter’ caused by the smoke and ash from the conflagration. [See: ‘Dilip Hiro, Flashpoint for the Planet’ https://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176123/tomgram%3A_dilip_hiro%2C_flashpoint_for_the_planet/#more ]
Again, the take-home message is clear: Individual local nuclear weapons, reactor and waste sites each pose a potential risk to the entire planet.
Human death toll from Chernobyl
In 2013, the book Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment was published by the New York Academy of Sciences. Its lead author was the celebrated Russian biologist Dr. Alexey Yablokov, former environmental advisor to the Russian president.
Based on some 5,000 health data, radiological surveys and scientific reports in several languages, concludes that based on records now available, some 985,000 people died, mainly of cancer, as a result of the Chernobyl accident between when the accident occurred in 1986 and 2004. It projects that more deaths will continue follow.
It blows away the specious claim by the International Atomic Energy Agency that the expected death toll from the Chernobyl accident will be 4,000. The book shows that the IAEA is seriously under-estimating, in the extreme, the casualties of Chernobyl – good reason to doubt its pronouncements on Fukushima.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/new-book-concludes-chernobyl-death-toll-985-000-mostly-from-cancer/20908
Nuclear worker health impacts
Irradiated, a December, 2015 McClatchy investigative report by Bob Hotakainen, Lindsay Wise, Frank Matt and Samantha Ehlinger, reveals that 70 years of U.S. atomic weaponry production has so far left at least 33,480 Americans dead, with more to come.
Additionally, a recent study by an international team of nine researchers looked at 308,297 workers in the nuclear industry from France, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Of 66,632 known deaths by the end of the study, 17,957 were due to solid cancers. The authors report, “The risk per unit of radiation dose for cancer among radiation workers was similar to estimates derived from studies of Japanese atomic bomb survivors.” They conclude that their results “suggest a linear increase in the rate of cancer with increasing radiation exposure.” Translation: There is no ‘safe’ dose of nuclear radiation. https://www.bmj.com/content/351/bmj.h5359
Environmental/Biological impacts
Evolutionary biologist Dr. Tim Mousseau shares his alarming findings from his unique research on the biological effects of radiation exposure to wildlife, plants, trees, birds and insects from the nuclear disasters at Chernobyl & Fukushima. He is finding similar catastrophic effects in both disaster areas. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xnj5QYBzLs
Genetic Damage from DU Weapons
U.S. use of so-called ‘depleted uranium munitions’ in its wars in the former Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan have left a devastating trail of monster fetuses, grotesquely deformed babies and a permanently damaged gene pool in the affected populations, as well as in the thousands of U.S. and NATO military personnel and their family members sequentially contaminated by exposure to these toxins.
https://www.rt.com/news/iraq-depleted-uranium-health-394/
https://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/dod/du_factsheet_4aug98.htm
Waste storage build-up, storage incidents
Then there’s the energy-weapons-waste connection, the real ‘nuclear triad.’ Not only are nuclear energy and weapons production joined at the hip from birth, but they share a dysfunctional excretory system. After more than 70 years of trying, no reliable method has been found to keep tons of still- accumulating radioactive waste isolated from the environment for longer into the future than human civilization has yet existed has been found.
An Australian study estimates there are 390,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste in the world, and nearly 10 million cubic meters of intermediate-level waste — all of it produced from nuclear power generation. That amount is growing by approximately 10,000 tons annually. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-15/sa-nuclear-waste-dump-to-meet-‘global-need’-recommended/7167412
It is produced at every stage of the nuclear fuel chain, from uranium mining and enrichment, to reactor operation and the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel.
Despite over seven decades of trying, no proven location or method of keeping the waste isolated from the environment has yet been found.
According to the Nuclear energy institute, by the middle of 2015, 30 countries worldwide were operating 438 nuclear reactors for electricity generation and 67 new nuclear plants were under construction in 15 countries. https://www.nei.org/Knowledge-Center/Nuclear-Statistics/World-Statistics
The inevitable decommissioning of the aging world reactor fleet will create huge amounts of radioactive wastes. Once they are closed down, most of the world’s nuclear sites will require monitoring and protection for centuries. Wherever and however it is eventually stored, most of the waste will remain hazardous for hundreds of thousands of years – longer than civilization has yet existed.
For a look at how radwaste management is playing out at California’s recently shut down San Onofre , see Donna Gilmore’s excellent site: SanOnofreSafety.org
Popular Push Back
The rise of the global nuclear establishment has been paralleled by waves of massive and often effective public resistance. In the days of the first nuclear arms race and during the Cold War people around the world – joined by American civil rights leaders like W.E.B. DuBois, Bayard Rustin, Martin and Coretta Scott King – organized and demonstrated against nuclear energy and for abolition of nuclear weapons. The Nuclear Freeze Campaign, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and massive campaigns in Europe mobilized millions.
Without their work, and the roll-backs and treaties it generated, the current nuclear energy-weapons-waste challenges we face would have been even greater.
We owe it to their legacy to continue the work in our generation. As the 5th anniversary of the still-ongoing Fukushima disaster’s beginning occurred on March 11, 2016, solidarity is growing between those working for abolition to nuclear energy and power in Japan, the U.S. and around the world. What might be called ‘nuclear consciousness’ is on the rise again in spite of, or because of, renewed propaganda efforts by the nuclear establishment.
That ‘resistance is fertile’ is shown by the fact that – even in Japan’s current repressive climate – because of massive public pressure and legal efforts, three executives of TEPCO, the nuclear power utility responsible for Fukushima, have been brought to trial.
As the President himself seems, on some level to understand, the abolition – not just reduction – of nuclear weapons is a human survival issue. So are the phase-out of nuclear power reactors and the responsible containment and sequestering of nuclear waste.
Hokus POTUS or a Basis for Future Progress?
This year’s POTUS Nuclear Security Summit is the last of seven meetings held in various venues during Obama’s two terms. As he closed the Conference – which had focused not on the new nuclear arms race, but narrowly on keeping civilian commercial nuclear materials ‘out of the hands of terrorists,’ the President harked back to his 2009 Prague speech. He pointed out that he had stated at the time that the goals he was calling for might not be achieved in his lifetime. Perhaps it was his way of acknowledging the shortfall of his initiatives.
He cited the progress in reducing the availability of nuclear materials and in strengthening treaties and the mechanisms of international institutions. In response to a question, he defended his nuclear weapons ‘modernization’ program as a careful balance between keeping nuclear readiness as a deterrent , while staying open to the possibilities of future arsenal reductions.
With the exception of ‘nuclear terrorism’ dangers, it is sadly unlikely that the POTUS Nuclear Security Summit’s outcomes will even acknowledge, much less seriously address the inconvenient nuclear truths listed above. Still, Mr. Obama deserves some credit for at least trying to keep discussion of nuclear policy going. Perhaps, once out of office, he will feel freer to join other former high-level U.S. officials in pushing for more substantive change.
Elsewhere in the news, “Four senior US statesmen with deep national security credentials – former Secretary of State George P. Shultz, former Secretary of Defense William J. Perry, former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger and former Senator Sam Nunn – joined together in 2007 to form the Nuclear Security Project (NSP) working for a world without nuclear weapons. “ Check it out: https://www.nti.org/about/projects/nuclear-security-project/
James Heddle co-directs EON – the Ecological Options Network. He blogs at PlanetarianPerspectives.net. and NoNukesCA.net He is currently at work on a new documentary SHUTDOWN: The California-Fukushima Connection
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NeoNuclearism as a Cargo Cult – Revised & Updated
Waiting…waiting…someday it will come… a cargo cult from the 1962 film Mondo Cane
Forgetting Fukushima, Denying Dai-ichi
“Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. But everyone is not entitled to their own facts.” – Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynahan
Fallout as Blowback
As the 5-year anniversary has rolled around it’s clear to all who care to notice that the Fukushima triple meltdown nuclear disaster is still not ‘under control’ – as Prime Minister Abe claimed to the Olympic Committee in his successful bid to host the coming 2020 Games – but is still on-going, and will be far into the future.
That is to say, radioactive pollution will continue to pour from Dai-ichi into the oceanic, hemispheric and planetary environment with predictably negative, but unknown, effects on the health and DNA of all life forms in the biosphere.
There’s karmic irony here. The U.S. dropped the first devastating atomic bombs on Japan, then used its political influence and propaganda prowess to sell the country nuclear power. Its corporations supplied the faulty reactors that melted down at Fukushima. Now, the U.S. West Coast is on the front line of receiving the radioactive fallout in the form of ongoing oceanic and atmospheric pollution carried eastward by winds and currents.
Faith-Based Nuclear Policy
According to a recent Cornell University study, there have been nuclear reactor 174 accidents worldwide since 1946. The researchers rate the accidents in 2013 dollars and define an accident as “an unintentional incident or event at a nuclear energy facility that led to either one death (or more) or at least $50,000 in property damage.”
Based on their extensive data, they predict
• a 50% chance that a Fukushima event (or larger) will occur in the next 50 years
• a Chernobyl event (or larger) will occur in the next 27 years
• a TMI event (or larger) will occur in the next 10 years.
According to a Guardian study, a major nuclear accident has happened on average every 5 years since 1952.
Recently, alarmed at the failure of their repeated attempts to go through ‘proper channels,’ seven engineers at America’s Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) – which then Senator Obama dubbed in 2007 ‘a moribund agency’ – filed a petition as private citizens.
They stated that they have identified a long-undiscovered electrical design flaw common to virtually all U.S. nuclear plants that could prevent cooling and allow meltdowns to occur. Their petition asks that the NRC mandate that plant operators either fix the problem or shut down the reactors.
Not to mention that twenty-three U.S. reactors share the same design flaws as those that melted down at Fukushima.
The obvious take-home lesson: because of the dependence of their cooling systems on off-site power supplies, every nuclear facility, wherever its geographic location, is vulnerable to grid blackouts from cyber attacks and extreme weather events, and constitutes both a potential terrorist weapon-in-place and danger to the entire planet, and should be treated as such by the ‘international community.’ Yet, a New Nuclear Weapons race and a New Nuclear Power race are both currently in progress.
Joined at the Hip
Nuclear weapons and energy have been joined at the hip from the birth of the Atomic Age. They both rely on the same essential core technology. That’s what the ‘Iran Nuclear Deal’ is all about. That’s why Japan’s current militaristic Abe government being in possession of an estimated 47.8 tons of stock-piled plutonium, with which it could produce 6,000 nuclear weapons, is worrying neighboring countries like China & Japan.
Barak Obama began his presidency with the celebrated April 5, 2009 Prague Speech in which he stated “…clearly and with conviction America’s commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons….” In practice Obama has
not only re-invigorated nuclear weapons development, but embraced an ‘all of the above’ energy policy including heavy investments in new nuclear reactor construction and design development.
The recipient of an apparently aspirational Nobel Peace Prize, Obama has also committed a projected $1 trillion dollars over the coming decades to upgrading America’s nuclear weapons arsenal.
The program is aimed at smaller (and therefore potentially more usable) weapons, and includes new nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles, a new manned bomber for nuclear weapons delivery, and a fleet of new nuclear missile-launching submarines. Termed – with no apparent sense of irony –‘the life-extension program,’ the plans clearly violate U.S. obligations under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
According to respected U.S. officials like former Defense Secretary William Perry, ex-Secretary of State George Schultz and even Henry Kissinger, this is triggering a new nuclear arms race. All four are now advocating nuclear weapons abolition. Perry puts it bluntly, “Today, the danger of a nuclear catastrophe is actually higher than it was during the cold war.”
In the domain of nuclear weaponry’s Siamese twin nuclear energy, there are those opinion-maker neo-nuclear luminaries like James Hansen, James Lovelock, Stewart Brand, Bill Gates and George Monbiot who advocate for nuclear energy as a ‘carbon-free solution to climate change.’ Never mind that – as Stanford scientist Mark Jacobson and his associates, as well as others, have conclusively shown – the entire nuclear fuel chain from mine to waste dump is more carbon intensive than wind and solar put together. Their work shows a transition to renewables is totally possible…without nuclear energy. https://thesolutionsproject.org/
Brand and Jacobson debate the issue here.
The Atomic Church of the Last Gasp
New Nuclearists avoid coming to terms with the risks and failures of the existing world fleet of aging, ill-designed reactors. Some even advocate re-licensing embrittled reactors from the 1960s to extend their operation decades beyond their 40-year design life.)
NeoNuclearists believe – without operational proof-of-concept – in a pie-in-the-sky, perpetually not-yet-but-soon-to-be-born generation of ‘new, small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs).’ They will consume and eliminate existing nuclear waste and be so ‘inherently safe’ you can bury them in your back yard. Any day now.
The Obama Administration agrees. According to Forbes, at last November’s White House Nuclear Summit, the Administration announced actions to help sustain and finance nuclear energy, including:
– $900 million in the Department of Energy’s 2016 budget to support commercial nuclear energy
– Supplement DOE’s existing $12.5 billion in loan guarantees for nuclear energy projects
– Launch the Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear (GAIN), coordinated by the Idaho National Laboratory, to provide outside researchers access to nuclear energy-related capabilities and expertise within the DOE complex. This is needed to bring advanced nuclear reactor designs to commercialization, at the same time ensuring the continued safe, reliable, and economic operation of the existing nuclear fleet https://gain.inl.gov/SitePages/Home.aspx
– Make $2 million available in the form of vouchers to small businesses entrepreneur-led start-ups for assistance in obtaining nuclear know-how from our National Lab system
– Provide support to small modular reactor licensing, simulation and control room development for light-water reactors
The blind faith with which latter-day nuclear advocates approach the issues of human, ecological and economic risk associated with nuclear technologies, reminds one of the Melanesian millenarian movement called ‘cargo cults,’ in which indigenous tribes, following charismatic figures, built wooden aircraft replicas on mountain tops in the vain hopes – despite repeated failures – to lure down the western cargo planes loaded with commodities they saw flying overhead as portrayed in the 1962 film Mondo Cane.
Or, if the definition of ‘insanity’ is: ‘persisting in behavior which consistently fails,’ neo-nuclearism is clearly a form of collective insanity – atomic psychosis.
Recovering from Nuclear Delusion
The facts of the failure of the nuclear dream are there, for any who are not blinded by ideology or self-interest to see: in addition to its history of totalitarianism, incompetence and global disasters, nuclear energy deployment is plagued by public opposition, investor disinterest, consistently mounting cost and schedule over-runs and dependence on contiminating dwindling water supplies. Energy consultant Amory Lovins sees nuclear energy “dying a slow death from an overdose of market forces.” Futurist Jeremy Rifkin agrees, “From a business perspective, its dead.” Expert witness and nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds Energy Education puts it succinctly,“nuclear energy is just too expensive and too slow to have an impact on climate change.”
Then there’s the energy-weapons-waste connection, the real ‘nuclear triad.’ Not only are nuclear energy and weapons production joined at the hip from birth, but they share a dysfunctional excretory system.
Waste Storage From Here to Eternity
An Australian study estimates there are 390,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste in the world, and nearly 10 million cubic meters of intermediate-level waste — all of it produced from nuclear power generation. That amount is growing by approximately 10,000 tons annually.
Tons of waste are produced at every stage of the nuclear fuel chain, from uranium mining and enrichment, to reactor operation and the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel.
In addition to thousands of tons of lethal irradiated fuel rods, the inevitable decommissioning of the aging world reactor sites will mean trying to dispose of huge amounts of radioactive metal pipes, concrete and buildings. Thus intense radioactive waste made in production of electricity for 70 years will require monitoring and protection wherever and however it is eventually stored, for hundreds of thousands of years – longer than civilization has yet existed.
The 20th century ‘nuclear dream’ of global full-spectrum dominance and energy too cheap to meter has become a 21st century nightmare. It is time to wake up. As retired top U.S. energy administrator S. David Freeman puts it, “We have to kill nuclear power before it kills us.”
NeoNuclearists are entitled to their own opinions…but not to their own facts.
James Heddle co-directs EON – the Ecological Options Network.
He blogs at PlanetarianPerspectives.net. https://www.planetarianperspectives.net/ and NoNukesCA.net
He is currently at work on a new documentary SHUTDOWN: The California-Fukushima Connection
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Neo-Nuclearism as a Cargo Cult
As the 5-year anniversary rolls around it’s clear to all who care to notice that the Fukushima triple meltdown nuclear disaster is still not ‘under control’ – as Prime Minister Abe claimed to the Olympic Committee in his successful bid to host the coming 2020 Games – but is still on-going, and will be far into the future.
That is to say, radioactive pollution will continue to pour into the oceanic, hemispheric and planetary environment with predictably negative, but unknown, effects on the health and DNA of all life forms in the biosphere.
There’s karmic irony here. The U.S. dropped the first atomic bombs on Japan, then used its political influence and propaganda prowess to sell the country nuclear power. Its corporations supplied the faulty reactors that melted down at Fukushima. Now, it is on the front line of receiving the fallout in the form of ongoing oceanic and atmospheric pollution carried eastward by winds and currents.
Despite the obvious take-home lesson – i.e., that every nuclear facility, wherever its geographic location, constitutes a danger to the entire planet, and should be treated as such by the ‘international community’ – a New Nuclear Weapons race and a New Nuclear Power race are both currently in progress.
He began his presidency with the celebrated April 5, 2009 Prague Speech in which he stated “…clearly and with conviction America’s commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons….” In practice Obama has embraced an ‘all of the above’ energy policy including heavy investments in new reactor construction and design development.
The recipient of an apparently aspirational Nobel Peace Prize has also committed a projected $1 trillion dollars over the coming decades to upgrading America’s nuclear weapons arsenal. https://www.revealnews.org/article/new-mexico-thrives-on-nuclear-bomb-despite-us-pledge-to-reduce-arsenal/
The program includes new ballistic missiles, a new manned bomber and a fleet of new missile-launching submarines. Termed – with no apparent sense of irony –‘the life-extension program,’ the plans clearly violate U.S. obligations under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
In the domain of nuclear weaponry’s Siamese twin nuclear energy, there are those opinion-maker luminaries like James Hansen, James Lovelock, Stewart Brand, Bill Gates and George Monbiot who advocate for nuclear energy as a ‘carbon-free solution to climate change.’ Never mind that – as Stanford scientist Mark Jacobsen and his associates, as well as others, have conclusively shown – the entire nuclear fuel chain from mine to waste dump is more carbon intensive than wind and solar put together. Their work shows a transition to renewables is totally possible…without nuclear energy. https://thesolutionsproject.org/
Last week, alarmed at the failure of their repeated attempts to go through ‘proper channels,’ seven engineers at America’s Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) – which President Obama himself has dubbed in 2007 ‘a moribund agency’ – filed a petition as private citizens. They stated that they have identified a long-undiscovered electrical flaw common to virtually all U.S. nuclear plants that could prevent cooling and allow a meltdown to occur. Their petition asks that the NRC mandate that plant operators either fix the problem or shut down the reactors. https://commondreams.org/views/2016/03/10/7-top-nrc-experts-break-ranks-warn-critical-danger-aging-nuke-plants
But the New Nuclearists avoid coming to terms with the risks and failures of the existing world fleet of aging, ill-designed reactors. They believe – without operational proof-of-concept – in a pie-in-the-sky, perpetually not-yet-but-soon-to-be-born generation of ‘new, small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs).’ They will consume and eliminate existing nuclear waste and be so ‘inherently safe’ you can bury them in your back yard. Any day now.
The blind faith with which latter-day nuclear advocates approach the issues of human, ecological and economic risk associated with nuclear technologies, reminds one of the Melanesian millenarian movement called ‘cargo cults,’ in which indigenous tribes, following charismatic figures, built wooden aircraft replicas on mountain tops in the vain hopes – despite repeated failures – to lure down the western cargo planes loaded with commodities they saw flying overhead.
The 20th century ‘nuclear dream’ of global full-spectrum dominance and energy too cheap to meter has become a 21st century nightmare. It is time to wake up. As retired top U.S. energy administrator S. David Freeman puts it in a recent interview, “We have to kill nuclear power before it kills us.” [Video interview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1R4jc2wlGs
The facts of the failure of the nuclear dream are there, for any who are not blinded by ideology or self-interest to see: in addition to its history of totalitarianism, incompetence and global disasters, nuclear energy deployment is plagued by public opposition, investor disinterest, consistently mounting cost and schedule over-runs and dependence on dwindling water supplies. Energy consultant Amory Lovins sees nuclear energy “dying a slow death from an overdose of market forces.” Futurist Jeremy Rifkin agrees, “From a business perspective, its dead.”
Then there’s the energy-weapons-waste connection, the real ‘nuclear triad.’ Not only are nuclear energy and weapons production joined at the hip from birth, but they share a dysfunctional excretory system – of which more below.
Nine Realities of which Nuclear Millenarians Dare Not Speak
• Uranium mining and the deadly radioactive wastes left behind continue to have devastating effects on Native Americans and Aboriginal Australians. In the U.S., thousands of abandoned open pit uranium mines contaminate drinking and irrigation water and the air breathed by tribes across the Great Planes and the Four Corners Area.
• Nuclear weapons testing has done lasting genetic and environmental damage to Pacific Islanders in the Marshall Islands and Polynesia.
The Guardian lists and ranks 33 serious incidents and accidents at nuclear power stations since the first one was recorded in 1952. Of those, six happened in the US, five in Japan and three apiece in the UK and Russia. That’s an average of nearly 5 per decade. https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2011/mar/14/nuclear-power-plant-accidents-list-rank#data
But a report by Cornell University researchers Spencer Wheatley, Benjamin Sovacool, Didier Sornette entitled Of Disasters and Dragon Kings: A Statistical Analysis of Nuclear Power Incidents & Accidents has a database of 174 accidents worldwide since 1946.
They rate the accidents in 2013 dollars and define an accident as “an unintentional incident or event at a nuclear energy facility that led to either one death (or more) or at least $50,000 in property damage.”
They conclude
In fact, the damage of the largest event (Fukushima; March, 2011) is equal to 60 percent of the total damage of all 174 accidents in our database since 1946. In dollar losses we compute a 50% chance that (i) a Fukushima event (or larger) occurs in the next 50 years, (ii) a Chernobyl event (or larger) occurs in the next 27 years and (iii) a TMI event (or larger) occurs in the next 10 years. [emphasis added]
https://arxiv.org/abs/1504.02380
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/536886/the-chances-of-another-chernobyl-before-2050-50-say-safety-specialists/
US Nuclear Meltdowns
There have been 8 nuclear meltdowns so far in the U.S. Contrary to popular belief, the meltdown at Three Mile Island was not the worst. That dubious honor goes to the little-reported July 12, 1959 meltdown at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory located a couple of miles from the city of Simi Valley and only about 30 miles north of Los Angeles. The radioactive contamination of the surrounding communities and environment from that event have yet to be fully acknowledged or dealt with. One of the companies involved was Southern California Edison, the major owner of San Onofre.
As part of his research for his book on the nuclear arms race, Command and Control – Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety, Eric Schlosser used the Freedom of Information Act to discover that at least 700 “significant” accidents and incidents involving 1,250 nuclear weapons were recorded between 1950 and 1968 alone. The Business Insider has a useful interactive site based on Rudolph Herzog’s A Short History of Nuclear Folly on which you can track 32 nuclear weapons accidents since 1950. https://www.businessinsider.com/list-of-broken-arrow-nuclear-accidents-2013-5
Approximately 93 percent of all nuclear warheads are owned by Russia and the United States who each have roughly 4,500-4,700 warheads in their military stockpiles. https://fas.org/issues/nuclear-weapons/status-world-nuclear-forces/
The Documented Human Death Toll From Chernobyl
Based on some 5,000 health data, radiological surveys and scientific reports in several languages, it concludes based on records now available, 985,000 people died, mainly of cancer, as a result of the 1986 Chernobyl accident between when the accident occurred and 2004. It projects that more deaths will continue follow.
It blows away the specious claim by the International Atomic Energy Agency – whose mission is to promote nuclear energy – that the expected death toll from the Chernobyl accident will be 4,000. The book shows that the IAEA is seriously under-estimating, in the extreme, the casualties of Chernobyl – good reason to doubt its pronouncements on Fukushima. https://www.globalresearch.ca/new-book-concludes-chernobyl-death-toll-985-000-mostly-from-cancer/20908
Health Impacts on U.S. Nuclear Workers
Irradiated, a December, 2015 McClatchy investigative report by Bob Hotakainen, Lindsay Wise, Frank Matt and Samantha Ehlinger, reveals that 70 years of U.S. atomic weaponry production has so far left at least 33,480 Americans dead, with more to come. https://media.mcclatchydc.com/static/features/irradiated/
A recent study by an international team of nine researchers looked at 308,297 workers in the nuclear industry from France, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Of 66,632 known deaths by the end of the study, 17,957 were due to solid cancers. The authors report “the risk per unit of radiation dose for cancer among radiation workers was similar to estimates derived from studies of Japanese atomic bomb survivors.” They conclude that their results “suggest a linear increase in the rate of cancer with increasing radiation exposure.” Translation: There is no ‘safe’ dose of nuclear radiation. https://www.bmj.com/content/351/bmj.h5359
Environmental & Biological Impacts of Nuclear Disasters
For years, evolutionary biologist Dr. Timothy Mousseau of the University of South Carolina, has been studying the impacts of both the Chernobyl and Fukushima disasters on animals and plants in the contaminated regions.
Studies published by Mousseau and Anders Møller of the Université Paris-Sud, and their collaborators detail the effects of ionizing radiation on pine trees and birds and small animals in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. “When you look for these effects, you find them,” says Mousseau.
He adds that, mirroring Chernobyl results, “A growing body of empirical results from studies of birds, monkeys, butterflies, and other insects suggests that some species have been significantly impacted by the radioactive releases related to the Fukushima disaster,” Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2014-08-biological-effects-fukushima-insects-animals.html#jCp
https://phys.org/news/2013-08-viewing-fukushima-cold-chernobyl.html#jCp
https://phys.org/news/2013-08-viewing-fukushima-cold-chernobyl.html#nRlv
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xnj5QYBzLs
DNA and Genetic Damage from DU weapons
U.S. wars in Former Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, and perhaps in other places as well, have seen the extensive use of so-called ‘depleted uranium’ ammunition -uranium armor penetrators. The super hard metal projectiles, fired from tanks and aircraft, can pierce the armor of tanks and combat vehicles, volatizing into deadly toxic particles that enter the bodies of all combatants and members of the surrounding populations. U.S. and NATO soldiers returning from the wars sicken and contaminate their loved ones. The populations forced to live in permanently contaminated former battle zones suffer chronic health problems and wide-spread genetic deformities that will be passed down through the generations.
https://www.bollyn.com/depleted-uranium/
https://stgvisie.home.xs4all.nl/PentagonPoison.html
I rest my case.
Neo-Nuclearists are entitled to their own opinions…but not to their own facts.
James Heddle Co-Directs EON – the Ecological Options Network. He is currently at work on a new documentary SHUTDOWN – The California-Fukushima Connection
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STAND WITH THE MARSHALL ISLANDS – ROUND 2
Guest Blog by Jackie Cabasso from Europe
The first round of oral arguments in the Marshall Islands lawsuits against the nuclear-armed states in the International Court of Justice are coming to a close today. Friday, 11 March (the 5th anniversary of the start of the Fukushima disaster), from 3 – 6 pm in The Hague, Netherlands, the Marshall Islands will rebut the arguments made by the United Kingdom on Wednesday, 9 March.
The Marshall Islands contends that the nuclear-armed nations are in violation of their obligation to disarm under Article VI of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and customary international law. In April 2014 the Marshall Islands filed lawsuits against all nine nuclear-armed states. Regrettably, the United States, Russia, China, France, Israel and North Korea do not accept the compulsory jurisdiction of the ICJ and are ignoring the cases brought against them.
Preliminary procedural arguments began on Monday 7 March in the International Court of Justice, with the Marshall Islands presenting oral arguments in its case against India. On Tuesday 8 March, the Marshall Islands presented its case against Pakistan. Unfortunately, just a few days before the scheduled hearing, Pakistan made it known to the Court that it would not participate in the oral proceedings.
On Wednesday, 9 March, the United Kingdom presented its defense against the Marshall Islands case. And on Thursday, 10 March, India responded to the Marshall Islands claims.
On Friday, 11 March the Marshall Islands will respond to the UK.
To get a feel for the hearings watch this short video from the BBC: The Marshall Islands takes three world nuclear powers to court
The second round of arguments will begin on Monday 14 March, when the Marshall Islands will respond to India, and the UK will respond to the Marshall Islands. On Wednesday 16 March India will respond to the Marshall Islands and the Marshall Islands will respond to the UK.
The International Court of Justice is the judicial branch of the United Nations. It is the highest, most authoritative court in the world on questions of international law. While these hearings concern preliminary issues as to whether the cases are suitable for adjudication on the merits, the substance of the cases is coming up in various ways.
I am in The Hague, working with Rick Wayman of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation to support the Marshall Islands by doing media outreach and social media. Here’s how you can learn about and follow the hearings from wherever you are.
· Sign up to receive our daily updates: https://www.wagingpeace.org/sign-up-to-get-daily-email-updates-from-the-hague/
· Read our daily updates from the hearings at https://www.pressenza.com/
· Follow me on and Rick Wayman on Twitter @JackieCabasso and @RickWayman, and retweet. We are live tweeting, using the hashtag #NuclearZero
· Like and share our Facebook posts at https://www.facebook.com/WesternStatesLegalFoundation/
https://www.facebook.com/wagingpeace
· Watch the hearings for yourself. Video webcasts are being broadcast live at https://www.icj-cij.org/homepage/index.php and posted on the International Court of Justice website at: www.icj-cij.org/multimedia
· Read the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation’s March 2 press release at https://www.wagingpeace.org/oral-hearings-on-the-marshall-islands-nuclear-disarmament-cases-to-begin-at-the-international-court-of-justice.
· For more information about the cases see www.nuclearzero.org.
If you’re in nearby Europe, please consider coming to The Hague to support the Marshall Islands by your presence in the courtroom. Three press releases issued by the ICJ (one for each of the cases) provide the hearing schedule and admission procedures to the court. There is no advance registration procedure.
· Marshall Islands v. United Kingdom https://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/160/18888.pdf
· Marshall Islands v. India https://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/158/18884.pdf
· Marshall Islands v. Pakistan https://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/159/18886.pdf
SPECIAL EVENT: Saturday 12 March, 4:00 pm: Humanity House, The Hague
Nuclear Weapons at the International Court of Justice
Please join us for this free public event about the Nuclear Zero Lawsuits. At this event, members of the legal team representing the Marshall Islands at the International Court of Justice will discuss the importance of the lawsuits.
o Tony de Brum (co-agent of the Republic of the Marshall Islands and former RMI Foreign Minister);
o Phon van den Biesen (co-agent of the Republic of the Marshall Islands);
o John Burroughs (Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy); and
o Laurie Ashton (Keller Rohrback LLP).
The event is free and open to the public. It is co-sponsored by the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, Soka Gakkai International, PAX, International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms, and Humanity House.
Jacqueline Cabasso
Western States Legal Foundation
Working for Peace & Justice in a Nuclear Free World
www.wslfweb.org
www.disarmamentactivist.org
www.facebook.com/WesternStatesLegalFoundation
Twitter@JackieCabasso
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Why California’s Current Nuclear Showdown Should Matter to You
San Onofre nuclear reactors between San Diego and L.A. were shuttered in 2013. Now the question is: What to do with 3,600,000 pounds of accumulated nuclear waste being stored on-site in a tsunami zone? Photo: EON
Why the Current Nuclear Showdown in California Should Matter to You
EON – the Ecological Options Network
Sunset for Nuclear Power?
Does the dream of nuclear power still ‘look bright’ as one enthusiastic investment advisor gushed less than a year ago, or is it the “the dream that failed,” as the Economist asserted as far back as March of 2012?
Approaching 5 years this March 11 after the still on-going Fukushima nuclear disaster, the debate goes on, enveloped in a miasma of mis-, dis-, and conflicting information generated by industry ‘merchants of doubt,’ but rarely leavened by rational analysis of What’s Really What.
The World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2015 by Mycle Schneider, Antony Froggatt et al went a long way toward settling the issue with just that – a data-based rational analysis. https://www.worldnuclearreport.org/-2015-.html
Its conclusion: Worldwide, despite a few troubled construction starts over budget and behind schedule, “The nuclear industry remains in decline.”
You’d never know it from the pro-nuclear happytalk and proposed subsidy and bailout bills being floated in Congress, but all around the world the global nuclear power industry is fighting for its life.
Nuclear Showdown in California
Nowhere is that battle closer to being decisively lost by the industry than in California, where the Sunshine State’s ‘last nuke standing’ – PG&E’s Diablo Canyon – faces a very uncertain future. A showdown between those who want to shut it down, and those who want to keep it going.
It is a microcosmic drama with all the elements of a movie thriller:
• A corrupt California Public Utilities Commission racked in scandals.
• A compromised Nuclear Regulatory Commission captured by nuclear interests.
• A resurgent peoples’ movement determined to shut Diablo down and responsibly manage the state’s thousands of tons of lethal radioactive waste.
• The growing vision of a nuclear-energy-free West Coast and a solartopian transition.
• A handful of atomic denialists clamoring clamoring to ‘save Diablo.’
• All this in the context of deepening climate change and the battle for decentralized, clean, renewable power.
A Diablo shutdown in California would be a shot heard in nuclear boardrooms around the world, and would continue this bellwether state’s reputation as being ‘no country for old nukes.’
A quick look at the history of California’s Nuclear Free Movement tells the tale.
Back last century, then-President Nixon predicted 1000 nuclear reactors in the US by the year 2000.
In the 60’s, PG&E announced plans to build 63 reactors every 25 miles up and down the California coast.
Thanks to informed popular resistance interventions in the courts, in the legislatures, and in the streets, that didn’t happen.
Only 10 of those planned power reactors ever got built: 1 at Humboldt Bay, 1 at Pleasanton, 1 at Santa Susana, 2 at Rancho Secco, 3 at San Onofre, and 2 at Diablo Canyon.
Today, only 2 are still in operation, those at Diablo Canyon.
From a planned 63 nuclear power plants in the 1960’s, down to 1 in 2015.
Not a bad track record for the effectiveness of informed non-violent, popular resistance…and a demonstration of the non-viability of nuclear energy – vulnerable as it is to public opposition, industry incompetence, natural disasters, terrorist attacks, and what renowned energy expert Amory Lovins long ago called ‘a terminal overdose of market forces.’
The shutdown of San Onofre in 2013 was hailed as ‘a seismic event’ for the nuclear industry.
The man who said that was in a position to know whereof he spoke, because he had once been an executive in that very industry AND had played an important part as a consultant to Friends of the Earth in helping to get San Onofre shut down.
That would be Arnie Gundersen. His partner Maggie Gundersen, founded and is president of Fairewinds Energy Education, for which Arnie serves as Chief Nuclear Engineer. https://www.fairewinds.org/
The Fairewinds organization has emerged as a major player in informing the public about the risks of nuclear power and the real potential of what lifelong No Nukes campaigner Harvey Wasserman calls a solartopian transition to a renewable energy economy. https://solartopia.org/ https://www.nukefree.org/
Since the San Onofre shutdown, and with a renewed sense of risk triggered by being on the frontline of Fukushima fallout, a resurgent Nuclear Free California movement has turned its attention to Diablo Canyon. There, two aging, embrittled reactors sited over 13 (count em) intersecting earthquake faults, in a seismically active state, in a tsunami zone (just like Fukushima), are being operated by a company under state investigation and federal indictment for safety negligence.
Back in 1981, history’s most massive non-violent blockade to that date, with thousands participating, occurred at Diablo in a valiant-but-futile attempt to prevent the plant’s start-up.
Today, the operating licenses for the plant’s two remaining reactors are set to expire in 2018 and 2019, respectively.
Now, with its age, precarious location, serious environmental impacts, massive killing of marine life, public safety risks, PG&E negligence, seismic and tsunami vulnerabilities, lax regulatory oversight, economic viability and energy contribution all being called into question, pressure is building for shutdown of the plant’s two remaining reactors.
2015 began with a regional conference organized by a state-wide coalition and hosted by Mothers for Peace in the plant’s home county, San Luis Obispo, aimed at mobilizing public awareness and local, regional and national pressure for closure.
Gundersens and Wasserman both closed the year with well-attended speaking tours designed to encourage informed opposition to the plant’s continued operation.
PG&E officials themselves are on record as being unsure whether or not the beleaguered utility – ‘with a lot on its plate right now’ – will seek extension of the licenses.
However, John Geesman of the Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility reports that information obtained through legal discovery by his organization indicates that PG&E spent $9 million in 2015 and intends to spend $15 million in 2016 working toward relicensing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ix-peILdAzY&feature=youtu.be
California’s Lt. Governor, Gavin Newsom – a former San Francisco mayor who chairs the state’s Land Commission, and is already running for Governor in 2018 – recently opined that “I just don’t see that this plant is going to survive beyond 2024, 2025. I just don’t see that.… And there is a compelling argument as to why it shouldn’t.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKeXy0O_Sjg
Nuclear Denialists Panic
That may be why, in what looks like the plant’s eleventh hour, self-styled ‘environmentalist’ and hyper-technophile Michael Shallenberger has founded the SaveDiabloCoallition https://www.savediablocanyon.org/ and launched a campaign claiming that (not even a Colbert could make this up) a Diablo shutdown would lead to an ‘environmental disaster.’
Charging that public fears of nuclear risks – based on incontrovertible evidence and undeniable past experience – are ‘overblown’ and ‘irrational,’ Shallenberger, with surprising media attention, has become a new mouthpiece for the view that, because of its ‘low’ carbon emissions, nuclear power is a ‘clean’ source of energy and therefore a major solution to climate change.
That was a view promoted at the recent CoP21 Paris climate talks by such luminaries as James Hansen. With no great result it turns out. The Ecologist reports: https://www.worldnuclearreport.org/The-Ecologist-UK-Nuclear-renaissance-Failing-industry-is-running-flat-out-to.html
The nuclear power industry’s malaise was all too evident at the COP21 UN climate change conference in Paris in December. Former World Nuclear Association executive Steve Kidd noted:
“It was entirely predictable that the nuclear industry achieved precisely nothing at the recent Paris COP21 talks and in the subsequent international agreement. …
“Analysis of the submissions of the 196 governments that signed up to the Paris agreement, demonstrating their own individual schemes on how to reduce national carbon emissions, show that nearly all of them exclude nuclear power.
“The future is likely to repeat the experience of 2015 when 10 new reactors came into operation worldwide but 8 shut down. So as things stand, the industry is essentially running to stand still.”
In any case, Hansen & friends are in error. See: “Mark Jacobson to James Hansen: Nukes Are Not Needed to Solve World’s Climate Crisis” https://ecowatch.com/2016/01/04/mark-jacobson-james-hansen/
And “The World Can Transition to
100% Clean, Renewable Energy” https://thesolutionsproject.org/
Comparisons are Odious…and Misleading
The contention that nuclear energy is ‘carbon free’ is a piece of dis-information. Yes, relative to those of coal, oil, and gas, the total carbon emissions from the nuclear fuel chain is lowER. But, by no stretch of the data, are they zero.
When you add together all the fossil fuel-dependent earth-moving machines, transportation, milling and processing operations, security and grappling with transporting and storing tons of radioactive waste lethal for thousands of years, it becomes clear how big the actual carbon footprint of the nuclear energy industry really is.
But, not only does the nuclear fuel chain emit carbon at every stage, it also emits DNA and public health destroying radioactive pollution.
Every day, ‘routine emissions’ from every nuclear reactor in the world contaminate the surrounding environment and population with radiological pollution. It’s all about our genetic heritage, you see.
Pro-Nuclear HennyPennys
Like denialist counterparts in the asbestos, tobacco, oil and GMO industries, Shallenberger and his coalition colleagues poopoo the risks of their product. But they think the sky will fall if Diablo is shutdown.
“Last week,“reports Mother Jones’ Tim McDonnell https://m.motherjones.com/environment/2016/02/diablo-canyon-nuclear-plant-climate-change
“in an effort to ensure that Diablo Canyon isn’t shut down in the near future, this new coalition sent a letter to Gov. Jerry Brown (D); the CEO of Pacific Gas & Electric, the utility that owns the plant; and five state regulatory officials. The letter warned that “closing Diablo Canyon would make it far harder to meet the state’s climate goals.” The 61 signatories include Whole Earth Catalog founder Stewart Brand, climate scientists James Hansen of Columbia University and Kerry Emanuel of MIT, and the Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker.
According to Shellenberger’s research, the MJ story goes on, https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2703039-Diablo-v11.html
Diablo Canyon currently produces twice as much power as all the state’s solar panels (California is the nation’s No. 1 solar state). Closing it, he said, would not only shave off one-fifth of the state’s zero-carbon energy, but potentially increase the state’s emissions by an amount equivalent to putting 2 million cars on the road per year. That’s because the power gap left by the plant’s closure would likely be filled by new natural gas plants—which is what happened when San Onofre was shuttered.
“What’s powerful about Diablo is the sheer size of it,” he said. “If you flip it [off], carbon emissions go up so much.”
That’s where the Porter Ranch gas leak and a little investigative background history come in.
Methane, Radon and a Missed Opportunity
You may have noticed that utilities are not all that happy about the advent of what futurist and international business consultant Jeremy Rifkin describes as ‘a new energy regime’ which is ‘decentralized, distributive and collaborative’ (and democratically managed in the public interest), because it threatens their investor-owned, centralized business model.
That’s why utilities around the country are fighting so hard to make rooftop solar and net-metering prohibitively expensive.
The California Energy Commission’s own data have shown for years that the state has a 40% surplus energy capacity. The piddling amount supplied by Diablo – Shallenberger says 8%%, others calculate 6% – could easily be made up by conservation, efficiency and the state’s huge untapped solar and geothermal energy potential in Imperial County, which the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has identified as one of the richest sources in the nation.
But when San Onofre shut down, where did the decision-makers turn for making up the difference? Not conservation, efficiency and renewables, but gas.
That’s where the Porter Ranch gas leak comes in.
Termed by famed whistleblower Erin Brockovith ‘The worst environmental disaster since the Gulf Oil Spill,” the world knows by now that the still-ongoing leak emits hundreds of tons of the greenhouse gas methane into the atmosphere every day – according to the California Air Resources Board, the equivalent of “more than 1,411,851 cars.”
According to an on-going investigation by San Diego-based attorneys Mike Aguirre and Mia Severson, the post-San Onofre decision to switch to gas and therefore reliance on use and expansion of the Porter Ranch gas storage facility rather than available renewable sources was made behind the scenes in secret meetings by government officials.
According to a letter sent Feb. 8, 2016 by the attorneys to Mike Gatto, Chairperson of the State Utilities and Commerce Committee, the trail of responsibility for the decision leading to the Porter Ranch disaster leads all the way to Governor Jerry Brown. https://www.planetarianperspectives.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Letter-to-Chairperson-Gatto-2-8-16-signed.pdf
That’s where the post-San Onofre uptick in carbon emissions came from that Shallenberger and company are so worried about.
But here’s the kicker: according to recent reports, the leak not only contains the greenhouse gas methane and many other toxic compounds that have made hundreds sick and forced the evacuation of thousands. It also contains the radioactive gas radon. https://nuclearhotseat.com/2016/01/13/nuclear-hotseat-238-special-porter-ranchradon-radiation-risk-kevin-kamps-cindy-folkers-richard-mathews-terry-lodge/
Dependent on off-site power sources for its over-crowded waste storage pools, crammed with more accumulated waste in dry storage canisters (despite 7 decades of trying, there is still no federal radwaste repository on the horizon) every nuclear power plant is a time bomb in place awaiting a desperate, ruthless, tech- savvy terrorist. And, as Chernobyl and Fukushima amply demonstrate, every local nuclear disaster is a global nuclear catastrophe as well.
So, since we are all downwinders now, and the ‘save Diablo’ denialists’ hysteria to the contrary notwithstanding…Why Decommission Diablo? Let us count the whys:
Diablo’s Dirty Baker’s Dozen
• It has two aging reactors in a tsunami zone, just like Fukushima
• It’s located over a network of 13 active earthquake faults
• It’s out of compliance with fire regulations
• It’s out of compliance with seismic regulations
• It’s out of compliance with California’s Once-Through Cooling law
• It destroys sea life
• It releases toxic emissions in daily operation
• It’s a proven health risk to the surrounding population
• It has no emergency evacuation plan for the surrounding population
• A senior NRC inspector recently said ‘shut it down’ until seismic safety is assessed and was overruled
• It’s totally vulnerable to physical and cybernetic terrorist attacks
• Its energy output is not needed
• It is run by a company that punishes whistleblowers and is under indictment and investigation for safety abuses and corrupt practices.
Once a powerful citizens’ movement opposed Diablo’s start-up.
Now a resurgent movement of citizens is saying ‘Shut It Down’ and calling for a nuclear energy free West Coast.
A Nation of Downwinders
Fallout from Chernobyl registered throughout the northern hemisphere. Fallout from the still-on-going Fukushima nuclear disaster was detected across the United States and into eastern Europe. Radioactive contamination of the Pacific continues inching toward our shores.
Prevailing winds off the Pacific blow inland – south and southwest. Simulations of fallout from a Diablo disaster show Santa Barbara and L.A. both being in the potential path. Drifting east, fallout from a nuclear disaster in CA would first take out the central valley, a major food source for the world, then continue on cross-country in unpredictable swirls and pockets. We would literally become a country of downwinders.
The Real Implications of a Diablo Shutdown
On the other hand, a Diablo shutdown and the demise of nuclear power in California:
Would represent a double win for democratic choice and enlightened energy policy
Would be a victory and vindication for a non-violent movement that has persisted for over half a century
Would be one more stake in the heart of an international dinosaur industry thrashing about in its death throes and taking desperate measures to survive.
Would free up resources for, and stimulate a policy shift toward helping California again lead the way in a solartopian transition to a renewable energy future.
Because of CA’s image as an early adaptor bellwether state, policy-makers, legislators and investors around the country and the world take notice.
And, with more and more shutdowns of aging reactors around the country being announced each month, it would help speed the day – listen for the approaching hoofbeats – of decommissioning coming soon to a reactor near you.
Worldwide, as Dr. Jim Green observes in the recent Ecologist article, “…with over 200 reactor shut-downs due by 2040, the industry will have to run very hard indeed just to stay put.”
James Heddle is currently at work on a documentary SHUTDOWN: The California-Fukushima Connection. https://www.shutdowndoc.tv/
He co-directs EON – The Ecological Options Network with his partner Mary Beth Brangan. EON3.net. https://eon3.net/ EON’s YouTube Channel is here : https://www.youtube.com/user/eon3/videos He can be reached at mailto:Jim@eon3.net .
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Nuclearism, Climate Chaos and Active Hope
“There comes a time in human affairs when we must seize the bull by the tail and stare the situation squarely in the face.” – W.C. Fields
“Consciousness is suffering.” – Gautama Buddha
“Don’t Worry Be Happy.” – Meher Baba & Bobby McFerrin
“Hope is not something you have. Its something you do. Hope is a verb.” – Joanna Macy
Not a Pretty Picture:
The Nuclear Energy/Weapons/Waste/War/Winter Perplex and Climate Change
Right when the situation looked really dire…it just got worse.
With 2015 the hottest year on record, climate chaos is upon us with a vengeance, Paris agreements to the contrary notwithstanding.
Rumors of an impending WW III abound. There’s a New Nuclear Arms Race taking shape, and a New Nuclear Reactor Race is currently in play, too.
The Madness is Mounting
The last week of headlines tells the story.
• Obama is funding new ‘high tech’ reactor research
• The Senate is considering S.2012, the Energy Policy Modernization Bill that would mandate and subsidize development of new nuclear reactor designs
• China is funding floating reactor development
• Japan is exploring nuclear waste tunnels in a seismically active seabed
• Hackable reactors in 20 countries are vulnerable to cyber-attack-caused meltdowns
• A massive gas leak in LA has been found to include radioactive radon, with other faulty natural gas storage facilities at risk across the country
• Fukushima contamination of the Pacific continues with no end in sight
• Japan’s Abe government is pushing to restart idled reactors despite massive opposition
• Two have been restarted so far in this seismicly challenged, volcano-ridden country
• One of them is using highly toxic plutonium mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel
• Armed plutonium shipments are criss-crossing the high seas
• U.S. utilities are fighting to economically penalize rooftop solar
• Nuclear enthusiasts are clamoring to extend the operation of California’s last, aging nuclear power plant, Diablo Canyon – located on 13 intersecting earthquake faults in a tsunami zone
• Nuclear war threats loom, and the Atomic Clock is still ticking at 3 minutes to midnight.
What could possibly go wronx#%…?
Of course, you’d never know any of this if your mind is mesmerized by the Daily Distractions of America’s main stream electoral telenovela.
Watching ‘Debates’ While Rome Burns
None of the media-recognized, two-party presidential contenders will touch this triad of over-riding existential threats to our society – nuclear risks, war as a business model, and climate chaos – with a ten-foot pole.
Not to mention: America’s rigged voting system, its entrenched corporate Deep State, permanent war economy, and total surveillance system.
Or the transnational corporate mergers consolidating control of the global food and medicine supply.
Or the roll-out of secret, super-national ‘trade agreements’ that trump democracy, national sovereignty, international laws, human rights and environmental protection.
Or privately-funded, planet-wide,unauthorized toxic telecommunication, weather warfare, and geoengineering schemes perpetrated by militaries, corporations, hubristic billionaires, and unelected elites.
Being aware of all this makes it very difficult to take seriously encouraging, happy talk, upbeat calls for ‘getting engaged in positive change.’
So, what is to be done? That is the question.
Anybody have any ideas? Or is optimism in the face of converging catastrophes just denial in hope’s clothing?
Stochacity Happens
People often ask us, ‘Knowing what you know, what keeps you going?” Our answer is ‘stocacity.’ That’s a fundamental property of the universe – revealed by leading edge physics, evolutionary biology and systems theory – also known as ‘stocasticity,’ ‘unpredictability,’ or simply ‘surprise.’
As world systems analyst Immanuel Wallerstein reminds us, when a system is in ‘fibrillation,’ ‘very far from equilibrium’ – as our world system is today – small impacts and interventions can have much more powerful effect than when the ‘status quo’ is firm and stable.
Yes, we face more serious planet-wide existential threats than ever before in recorded history. At the same time, (as Paul Hawken reminded us as far back as 2007)there have never been so many people active, at so many levels, on so many issues worldwide as at this moment in time.
At the emergent, quantum-foamy bottom of evolutionary emergence, apparent trends are not determinative of ultimate outcomes, and all predictions and expectations – whether ‘negative’ or ‘positive’ from a self-centered human point of view – are radically subject to uncertainty. Cynical certainty is enervating and debilitating. Activity is energizing, enlivening and enjoyable, even if, ultimately, it may prove futile. No way to know.
And anyway, as any good martial arts instructor will tell you, the fetal position with thumb-in-mouth is not an effective defense posture.
Hope as a Verb
So, I want to draw your attention to three people who have taken W.C. Field’s sage advice quoted above…and lived to tell the tale (no pun intended).
Jill Who? Yes, Griselda, there IS a Green Party candidate for President.
Not only is she running, but she has a rationally thought-out platform that – according to at least one commentator (and this writer) – makes even more sense than Bernie’s.
That would be Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein, a medical doctor with a diagnosis and treatment plan for a very sick republic.
Having covered her campaign in the 2012 election in Ohio, we can attest that this lady is smart, strong, articulate and serious.
Unlike any of the anointed, media-certified Republican or Democratic candidates, she has ‘stared the situation squarely in the face’ and addressed our three prime existential threats: nuclearism, the permanent war economy and climate chaos with viable responses. As David Swanson reports from his recent interview with her:
“Cutting the military budget is something that we can do right now,” Stein told me, “but we want to be clear that we are putting an end to wars for oil – period. And that is part of our core policy of a Green New Deal which creates an emergency program, establishing twenty million living wage jobs, full-time jobs, to green the economy, our energy, food, and transportation systems, building critical infrastructure, restoring ecosystems, etc. This is an emergency program that will get to 100 percent renewable energy by 2030. So this is a war-time-level mobilization in order to completely detoxify our energy system, and that means both nuclear and fossil fuel. In doing that, we deprive the empire of this major justification for wars and bases all around the world. So we want to be clear that that emphasis is gone, and goading the American public into war so as to feed our fossil fuel energy system – that ends and makes all the more essential and possible the major cutting of the military budget.”
Which 50 percent of the military would Stein cut? Two places she named that she would start with (there would have to be much more) are foreign bases (she’d close them) and the U.S. nuclear weapons program. Would she unilaterally scrap U.S. nukes? I asked.
“We don’t even need to do it unilaterally,” Stein said, “because the Russians have been begging to revive the process of nuclear disarmament, which the U.S., in its wisdom, undercut. … The Russians have been persistently trying to restore those nuclear talks for the purpose of disarmament. And that would be step one – is to make major reductions between the U.S. and Russia and then to convene a world forum to put an end to nuclear weapons altogether.”
Stein also advocates canceling the student debt, single-payer health care for all and ending the arms trade and the permanent war economy.
Beyond the ‘Deep State’
Mike Lofgren was a former Congressional staffer for current Republican presidential candidate and Ohio Governor John Kasich. Now a NY Times bestselling author, Lofgren draws on his years of experience and observations as a Beltway insider for his latest opus, The Deep State: The Fall of the Constitution and the Rise of a Shadow Government.
Lofgren pulls no punches in describing in documented detail the entrenched rule of “…a hybrid association of key elements of government and parts of top-level finance and industry that is effectively able to govern the United States with only limited reference to the consent of the governed as normally expressed through elections.”
According to Lofgren,
“The Deep State is the big story of our time. It is the red thread that runs through the war on terrorism and the militarization of foreign policy, the financialization and deindustrialization of the American economy, the rise of a plutocratic social structure that has given us the most unequal society in almost a century, and the political dysfunction that has paralyzed day-to-day governance.”
He validates on the basis of his experience the conclusions of a recent study of three decades of data by liberal mainstream political scientists Martin Gilens of Princeton, and Benjamin Page of Northwestern, which found that the U.S. political system has become “an oligarchy,” where wealthy elites and their corporations “rule,” regardless of which party is in Congress and the White House.
Having spent nearly 300 pages analyzing the various aspects and manifestations of Deep State functioning, Lofgren ends by reminding us that change happened even back in the day of the post-civil war Robber Barons, when the foundations of ‘corporate personhood’ were laid. A handful of millionaires like John D. Rockefeller, J.P. Morgan and their banking cronies ruled and “striking workers were routinely massacred by corporate security guards,” much like police murder urban African Americans today.
“Yet somehow, by dint of sustained agitation by prairie populists and urban progressives alike, conditions began to change. Congress passed the Sherman and Clayton antitrust measures and pure food and drug laws: states began to regulate the conditions of labor; child labor laws were gradually abolished; some states granted their citizens the power of initiative, referendum and recall. Women finally received the vote. A couple of decades later, the New Deal Completed the agenda with wage and hour laws, collective bargaining rights, banking reform, old age and disability insurance, and several other innovations – and this occurred during the biggest global economic catastrophe of the modern age.
“Our forebears have shown that reforming the American political system, while likely to be difficult and protracted (it may take decades to accomplish) is not impossible.”
He points out that history is always a product of “circumstance, chance and human action.”
Although we may not have decades to work with – given the immanent threats of nuclear catastrophes, annihilation and climate chaos, Lofgren offers a list of recommendations to be pursued:
1. Eliminate private money from public election.
2. Sensibly redeploy and downsize the military and intelligence complex.
3. Stay out of the Middle East.
4. Redirect the peace dividend to domestic infrastructure improvement.
5. Start enforcing our antitrust laws again.
6. Reform tax policy.
7. Reform immigration policy.
8. Adopt a single-payer health care system.
9. Abolish corporation’s personhood status, or else treat them exactly like persons.
But, given the virtual black-out of relevant news and the public’s general aversion to ‘depressing’ information and ‘downer’ stories, how are any of Jill Stein’s or Mike Lofgren’s visions likely to be achieved?
Active Hope – Aspiration in Action
‘Active Hope,’ is the title of a new book by Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone. In it, they eschew feel good denial, cynical disengagement and baseless optimism.
“In our culture,” says Macy in a recent video, “I believe there is much too much value put on optimism. It can actually encourage a kind of mental sloppiness: ‘Oh, I’m really optimistic!’ But we say this as if it is a form of personal failing to actually look and say ‘I’m pessimistic. It really doesn’t look good, does it?’
“This is a problem largely unique to America. And our brothers and sisters in Europe roll their eyes when we say we’re feeling that way. We inherited that from ‘This country’s based on hope and manifest destiny, and a successful person is ready with all the answers, brimming with grins and optimism…’ even when it’s asinine.
“Hope is not something you have. It’s something you do. Hope is a verb. That means there is something you can do, even when you’re depressed. It’s something that arises out of your caring for the world.”
But, as Macy and Johnstone wisely acknowledge, there are no comforting certainties involved in opting to work for change with ‘active hope:’
“…there are no guarantees that we’ll be able to turn things far or fast enough to safeguard our civilization, or indeed, to ensure the continued existence of conscious life on Earth. We will probably not know in our lifetimes whether we are serving as deathbed attendants to a dying world or as midwives to the next stage of human evolution.”
Take home message:
Forget meditating in a cave, following the latest Great Leader or uber-guru, or wearing a hair shirt. Activism for nuclear abolition, peace, social, economic and environmental justice is the current era’s main spiritual path.
So seize the bull by the tail, choose your issue and intervention point, and remember, “Stochacity Happens.”
James Heddle is currently at work on a documentary SHUTDOWN: The California-Fukushima Connection. He co-directs EON – The Ecological Options Network with his partner Mary Beth Brangan. EON3.net. EON’s Youtube Channel is here.
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Urgent Nuclear Warning from a Man Who Knows
Former U.S. Sec. of Defense, William J. Perry: “Today we still have over 20 thousand real world nuclear weapons. Enough to blow up everybody on the planet several times over.
Those weapons pose the immediate problem of a danger of terrorism, the immediate problem of the possibility of nuclear war.
Former U.S. Sec. of Defense Dr. Wm. J. Perry – photo: EON
An original Silicon Valley entrepeneur, he advanced spy technology, was former Defense Secretary, but now is a leading Nuclear Abolitionist –
What does Bill Perry know that we don’t…
…and NEED TO?
Little did mild-mannered, hi-tech electronics entrepreneur Bill Perry know when he accepted a call from Washington, DC in 1962 that he would be involved in the most potentially catastrophic nuclear stand-off period in history.
That is, up until to this even higher risk present moment.
Though now eighty-six, Perry is a man with fire in his belly, and a drive to warn the world about what he knows as he travels the remaining ‘miles before he sleeps.’
He has been a defense establishment insider for most of his life., yet when most people would be relaxing into their ‘sunset years,’ Former Defense Secretary Bill Perry has teamed up with other senior statesmen of similar stature, Sam Nunn, George Schultz, and Henry Kissinger to mount a public nuclear consciousness-raising campaign aimed especially at the generation that will have to deal with the legacy of the Atomic Age in which each played major roles. Perry also laments the current amnesia about the nuclear threat by the general public – and therefore the lack of action.
“…Our chief peril is that the poised nuclear doom, much of it hidden beneath the seas and in remote badlands, is too far out of the global public consciousness.” (My Journey at the Nuclear Brink, William J. Perry)
In this succinct talk at a bookstore in Northern California, as part of his tireless current book tour, he lays out the key points his ‘journey on the nuclear brink,’ and shares what he knows must be done for our society to back away from the present nuclear brink.
Here’s where to find out more: WJPerryProject.
Political Responsibility in the Nuclear Age: an Open Letter to the American People
by Richard Falk, David Krieger – Robert Laney
“We are appalled that none of the candidates running for the highest office in the land has yet put forward any plans or strategy to end current threats of nuclear annihilation, none has challenged the planned expenditure of $1 trillion to modernize the U.S. nuclear arsenal, and none has made a point of the U.S. being in breach of its nuclear disarmament obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. In the presidential debates it has been a non-issue, which scandalizes the candidates for not raising the issue in their many public speeches and the media for not challenging them for failing to do so. As a society, we are out of touch with the most frightening, yet after decades still dangerously mishandled, challenge to the future of humanity.”
No Danger of Nuclear War? The Pentagon’s Plan to Blow up the Planet
By Prof Michel Chossudovsky
https://www.globalresearch.ca/there-is-no-danger-of-nuclear-war-or-is-there/5500276
“Publicly available military documents confirm that nuclear war is still on the drawing board of the Pentagon.
Compared to the 1950s, however, today’s nuclear weapons are far more advanced. The delivery system is more precise. In addition to China and Russia, Iran, Syria and North Korea are targets for a first strike pre-emptive nuclear attack.
Let us be under no illusions, the Pentagon’s plan to blow up the planet using advanced nuclear weapons is still on the books.”
Fukushima Mon Amour: the Hucksters of the Green Atom
by Jeffrey St. Clair
“There are currently 460 or so operating nukes, some chugging along far past their expiration dates, coughing up 10 percent of global energy demands. Teller’s green disciples want to see nuclear power’s total share swell to 50 percent, which would mean the construction of roughly 2100 new atomic water-boilers from Mogadishu to Kathmandu. What are the odds of all of those cranking up without a hitch?
Meanwhile, back at Fukushima, unnoticed by the global press corps, the first blood cancers (Myelogenous leukemia) linked to radiation exposure are being detected in children and cleanup workers. And off the coast of Oregon and California every Bluefin tuna caught in the last year has tested positive for radioactive Cesium 137 from the Fukushima meltdown. The era of eco-radiation has arrived. Don’t worry. It only has a half-life of 30.7 years.”
Ukraine on the brink of a nuclear disaster; Ukrainian saboteurs nearly caused another Fukushima
Pavel SHIPILIN,
In Экспресс Газета, December 15, 2015
Translated from Russian by Tom Winter, December 25, 2015
“Few gave noted the fact that cutting the power lines to de-energize Crimea nearly led to fatal consequences at the South Ukrainian nuclear power plant, which is located in the Mykolaiv region, – an accident on a Chernobyl scale. A miracle saved us all: workers at the station succeeded in a few hours to restore the electricity to the security system. [Nuclear power plants produce electricity, but they need a constant supply of it to avoid meltdown, as in Fukushima, for instance — tr.]”
US airmen damage nuclear missile as ‘troubleshooting’ mission goes wrong
The air force stripped the three airmen of their nuclear certification following the incident in 2014 and quietly launched an accident investigation
For more on this issue:
Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety Paperback – August 26, 2014
by Eric Schlosser – A myth-shattering exposé of America’s nuclear weapons
“…He sees the decline of interest in the nuclear issue as a matter of high urgency.
“This is the scary thing for me,” he says. “The people for whom this is still a threat, the people who are most anti-nuclear, the people who are most afraid about this, are the ones who know most about it.”
And yet, the pool of knowledge possessed by that elite group of weapons designers and scientists is fast drying up. “It’s very disturbing that the number of people who have seen a nuclear weapon detonate is dwindling. Half the American population was not yet born or were young children when the Soviet Union disappeared. The most anti-nuclear people in the US today are 75, 80 years old.”
Without their expertise to keep us alert, Schlosser fears, the world will be allowed to slide into a form of collective madness founded on denial, a death wish that sees nuclear weapons as no longer a problem. Though both the US and Soviet Union have reduced their stockpiles dramatically, the US today still has 4,650 nuclear weapons, Russia about 3,500, China and France about 400 each and the UK 150. Should just one of those warheads go off, through an accident, or through systems infiltration by a hacker, the consequences would be unthinkable.”
Eric Schlosser on the Secret History of America’s Nuclear Arsenal
In a new book, the ‘Fast Food Nation’ author investigates the many near-misses that could have caused catastrophes
By Ryan Devereaux September 16, 2013
Read more: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/q-a-eric-schlosser-on-the-secret-history-of-americas-nuclear-arsenal-20130916#ixzz3yJR4kP2N
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EON’s 2015 Report in Pictures &…
…Snapshots of the Resurgent Movement for a Nuclear Free California
Report to Funders
Many, many thanks to those who have supported us through the past year! With great appreciation to our funders, supporters and partner activist organizations, we celebrate our past year’s accomplishments and share some snapshots from our past year’s activities and previews of 2016. Our three main issue areas are Electro-magnetic Health Protection, Denuclearization and Election Protection – the latter, because you can’t have democratic choice on public policy issues if the voting is rigged.
Our work in 2015 began in January with helping to organize, along with Mothers for Peace and many other organizations, the NoNukesCA/West Coast conference to shut down California’s last nuke standing,’ Diablo Canyon. We also provided media support and video documentation for the conference.
“Shutdown Diablo!” Author, activist Harvey Wasserman concludes the NoNukesCA Conference with a rousing affirmation. Wasserman has been a major force in the NoNukes movement from the beginning, and continues his participation in, and reporting on, the NoNukesCA movement at NukeFree.org.
Our work in 2015 concluded with helping to organize and document on video a West Coast speaking tour for Maggie & Arnie Gundersen, founding CEO and Chief Nuclear Engineer, respectively, of Fairewinds Energy Education (Fairewinds.org). We’re pleased and honored to be collaborating with this impactful organization and the wise and wonderful couple that run it.
MB facilitates Day 2 of the NoNukesCA conference. Jim in a promotion for EON’s new documentary SHUTDOWN. A four-way conversation during Maggie and Arnie Gundersen’s Fairewinds 2015 speaking tour of Northern California that EON co-organized with John Bertucci of Fukushima Response and Project Censored at Sonoma State University; Cynthia Papermaster and the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists; and Bing Gong, Pt. Reyes Books & Cultural Potholes Institute in Pt. Reyes. There were also Fairewinds presentations at Lori Grace’s Sunrise Center in San Rafael, as well as at CalPoly and with the Mothers for Peace in San Luis Obispo. Mary Beth and Jim’s conversation with Maggie and Arnie in Pt. Reyes is now on-line on Vimeo and YouTube as a preview of the EON video series based on Fairewinds tour forthcoming in 2016.
In this “Tell All” segment of the series, Maggie and Arnie discuss their lives as former nuclear energy insiders, the lies they were told and led to believe, and the subsequent impact of speaking truth to power as whistleblowers. Now, as consultants and educators about the risk of atomic power and its radiation leaks, Maggie and Arnie talk about their role in uncovering the operating risks at San Onofre & Diablo.
Author & eco-philosopher Joanna Macy, and EON’s Jim Heddle and Mary Beth Brangan speak in segments of the upcoming EON video series based on the 2015 Fairewinds California speaking tour.
During the year, we also worked to organize and document presentations by leading scientists Ken Buesseler and Tim Mousseau on their investigations of the oceanic and biological impacts of still on-going Fukushima contamination with co-sponsors Bing Gong, Fukushima Response, Pt. Reyes Books and Cultural Potholes Institute. MB’s presentation helped place the scientists’ research in perspective.
We continued our coverage of the dire radioactive waste issues at San Onofre documented by Donna Gilmore of SanOnofreSafety.org. Donna’s invaluable research has revealed key vulnerabilities and gaping holes in current technology for containing the lethal high level waste that will last thousands of years. Donna’s challenges, backed by hard NRC data, holds industry and government decision-makers accountable. Ms. Gilmore is educating, not only activists, but largely unaware industry insiders and government officials both in CA and nationally. Responsibly managing the millions of pounds of highly corrosive deadly long-lasting radioactive waste is crucial to our species and all other species survival, but current Southern Califonia Edison plans are to bury it in thin stainless steel canisters with a cement overpack, 100 ft. from the rising ocean and inches above the water table on the beach in San Clemente surrounded by 8 million people. The technology does not exist to determine depth of cracks in the thin canisters, nor for repairing the canisters, nor for transporting cracked canisters, if there were a safe place to move them.
SanOnofreSafety.org founder Donna Gilmore educates the CCC Commissioners on the risks of SoCalEdison’s radwaste storage plans at San Onofre. A die-in at LIvermore. A teleconference on the TPP.
Revelations of nuclear plans to spend trillions of dollars for on-going nuclear weapons development were announced by Marylia Kelly at the protest at Livermore Lab on Hiroshima’s 70th. anniversary, organized by Western States Legal Foundation and Tri-Valley CAREs. EON’s coverage of this important event was cablecast multiple times. We also note the grassroots push for independent monitoring of radioactivity levels in air, food and water led by Fukushima Response and the Fukushima Fallout Awareness Network (FFAN). Kim Roberson organized FFAN members (EON, Beyond Nuclear and Citizens for Health) for a teleconference to block the TPP, which would further permit radioactivity in food with no labeling.
Lft.: SoCal Edison’s Tom Palmisano presents his company’s San Onofre radwaste storage plan to CA Coastal Commissioners. Ctr.: Mark Lombard, head of the radwaste program at the NRC admits to the CCC that the possibility to monitor and replace failing radwaste canisters like those being used at San Onofre is “not a now thing.” Rt.: “We want to know how you vote!” – Ray Lutz of CitizenOversight.org demands a voice vote from California Coastal Commissioners about to approve SoCalEdison’s seriously flawed San Onofre radioactive waste storage plan – thin stainless steel canisters, inches above the water table in a tsunami zone, on the beach of a rising ocean. What could possibly go wrong?
We have continued to document the unfolding scandal at the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and followed closely the work of San Diego attorneys Mike Aguirre and Mia Severson as they press to expose corruption and insist on justice.
Lft.: Attorney Mike Aguirre walks us through his assembled timeline documenting CPUC corruption relating to San Onofre. Ctr.: Former CPUC President Michael Peevey (L) is under investigation. Critics say current President Michael Picker (R) is stonewalling corruption inquiries. Former CPUC President Loretta Lynch says it is now a ‘rogue agency.’ Rt.: Attorney Mia Severson explains how the costs of SoCal Edison’s mismanagement at San Onofre have been passed on to ratepayers.
In 2015 we have continued our collaboration with Dr. Devra Davis and the Environmental Health Trust documenting her and her colleagues’ work on the human health effects of electro magnetic pollution caused by wifi and cell phone technologies. Our team traveled up and down the state covering meetings of the California Coastal Commission, and grassroots conferences such as the one organized by Myla Reson and Ann Doneen of the Malibu Democratic Club.
Lft.: Dr. Devra Davis at the 2015 Bio-Electric Magnetic Society (BEMS) Conference. Ctr.: Coastal Commission debates radwaste storage plans at San Onofre (R) Speakers Paul Frey, Donna Gilmore, Linda Seeley and Harvey Wasserman talk about the risks of Diablo Canyon at a community meeting in Malibu.
In the process we added 54 video reports to our popular YouTube Channel, which now has more than 700 posts, over 4,200 subscribers, and millions of views. Much of this exclusive footage will be used in our documentary SHUTDOWN: The California-Fukushima Connection, which is now in post-production for release in 2016.
As the year came to a close…
Ca. Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom (with his eye on a gubernatorial run) is the Chair of the California Coastal Commission. He has called for an environmental review of Diablo’s continued operation. “I don’t think that PG&E, in its quiet moments, would disagree that this may not have been the ideal site for a plant,” Newsom said at the commission’s Dec. 18 meeting. “I just don’t see that this plant is going to survive beyond 2024, 2025,” Newsom said. “I just don’t see that. Now, I absolutely may be wrong, but that’s my punditry. And there is a compelling argument as to why it shouldn’t.”
Also in the works is a potential documentary co-production [funding permitting] based on our years of work with Suzanne Patzer, Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman of FreePress.org and the Columbus Institute of Contemporary Journalism on the history of election theft going into the lead-up to the 2016 election and what can be done to prevent it.
Our work is made possible in large part by contributions from people like you. We encourage you to consider a monthly contribution or by including EON in your 2016 giving. Thanks for whatever you can afford – we really appreciate it! EON is a 501 ( c ) 3, tax-exempt organization. Please visit our ‘something-for-every-budget’ Donate Page – https://eon3.net/donate.html
The EON Team
Mary Beth Brangan, James Heddle, Morgan Peterson
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Saving the World from People Trying to Save the World
Maggie and Arnie Gundersen – respectively Founding President and Chief Nuclear Engineer of Fairewinds Energy Education – are former nuclear energy industry insiders who have become consultants and educators about the risks posed by that industry. They provide expert witness services and promote safe energy.
In this conversation with EON’s Mary Beth Brangan and Jim Heddle they talk about those risks, the impact of whistleblowing on their lives, their experience in helping to shutdown San Onofre, and their advice to the people and organizations pushing for the shutdown of Diablo Canyon, California’s ‘Last Nuke Standing.’
They encourage nuclear abolitionists not to demonize those who are mistakenly promoting nuclear energy as a solution to climate change.
This is a segment from a forthcoming EON series based on the Gundersen’s recent speaking tour in California, which included events at Sonoma State and California Polytechnic as well as talks in Pt. Reyes Station, Berkeley and San Luis Obispo (hosted by Mothers for Peace). The program at Sonoma State featured presentations by Arnie and author Majia Nadesan and a conversation between them.
EON helped to organize the tour in cooperation with John Bertucci and co-sponsors Fukushima Response and Project Censored; Bing Gong, Pt. Reyes Books and Cultural Potholes Institute; Cynthia Papermaster and the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists; Lori Grace and The Sunrise Center.
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"All the ways of the earth can be an opportunity to meet Christ.” (Saint Josemaría)
Opus Dei in South Africa
Christian lifeArticles on Christian lifeVirtues
Examples of Faith (III): David, A Man After God's Own Heart
The third article in a series on figures from Sacred Scripture who offer us an example of deep faith in God and his providence.
Virtues 01/07/2015
King David Playing the Harp (Rubens)
King David plays a key role in Sacred Scripture. More pages are devoted to his life than to any other person in the Old Testament. He "is par excellence the king 'after God's own heart,' the shepherd who prays for his people and prays in their name. His submission to the will of God, his praise and his repentance will be a model for the prayer of the people."[1] After considering the role of faith in the life of Moses, and seeing the deep tie between living a life of faith and fully accepting one's own vocation, the example of David can help us to appreciate how faith entails an active attitude of trust and abandonment in God's hands, even when faced with one's own falls and sins.
In God's hands
The two books of Samuel and the first book of Kings[2] describe the history of King David with great realism, although not always in chronological order. His life was filled with challenges and trials; the sacred author stresses that God is always with David, and that David puts himself in God's hands in moments of danger. He abandons himself completely to the Lord's will, with "the certainty that, however harsh the trial, however difficult the problems, however acute the suffering may be, we shall never fall from God's hands, those hands that created us, that sustain us and that accompany us on our way through life, because they are guided by an infinite and faithful love."[3]
Our attention is also drawn to the way in which God's plans were fulfilled in David. He was anointed king by the prophet Samuel after God chose him in spite of his being the most insignificant among his brothers: the Lord sees not as man sees; man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.[4] The anointing by itself did not give the throne to David. He had to fight against the opposition of Saul, before being proclaimed and anointed as King of Judah by the people. And seven more years were to go by before he was proclaimed king of all of Israel, after a bitter struggle with Saul's son Ishbosheth.[5] And David perceived that the Lord had established him king over Israel, and that he had exalted his kingdom for the sake of his people Israel.[6]
At first sight it might seem that David attained the throne by his own courage and shrewdness. But his story teaches us that "the man of faith sees life, in all its dimensions, from a new perspective: that which is given us by God."[7] Sacred Scripture shows us that God counts on human initiative and effort to carry out his plans. What would have happened if David, a man of faith, had thought that it was enough to let time go by to receive what God had promised him, or had done nothing, but just waited for the people to acclaim him?
Many moments in the history of David allow us to contemplate the example of his faith. He carries out his duties, trusting that God is at his side and will give him success. A well-known episode is his combat against Goliath, the giant in the Philistine army. The text describes the Philistine's immense size and armaments, and the comparative weakness of David, a small shepherd unskilled in warfare, whose only weapon is his sling. But the greatest contrast is in the attitude of the two combatants. The pride of the Philistine, who defies the armies of the living God,[8] contrasts with the faith of David, who goes out to fight in the name of the Lord of hosts,[9] convinced that the Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.[10]
It was his faith that moved David to prepare himself as best he could. He took as his weapon the sling, whose power he knew well, and carefully chose the stones he was going to launch. The means were disproportionate to the arms of his enemy, but with them he gained the victory: "Serve your God unwaveringly, be faithful to him, and worry about nothing else. For it is indeed true that 'if you set your hearts on the kingdom of God and on his righteousness, he will give you all these other things—material necessities, the means—as well.'"[11] David's faith and trust in God led him to make use of all his skill. This is how Christians should struggle to bring forward the works of God: for "whoever really lives his faith knows that the goods of the world are means, and uses them generously, heroically."[12]
David made use of all the means available, while also entrusting the results of his actions to God's hands. His faith in God led him not to lose courage, even when circumstances became dramatic: various passages from Scripture, in their multiple allusions, confirm for us that inter médium móntium pertransíbunt aquae (Ps 103/104:10)—the waters shall pass through the mountains. This certainty is opposed to the slightest hint of discouragement, even when the obstacles seem to tower as high as the mountain peaks. And this is the right path to reach Heaven, with the assurance that the divine waters will wash away all our limitations and draw impetus from them to bring us to God.[13]
The humility of returning to God
David's life teaches us another aspect of placing oneself in God's hands. The Bible makes it very clear that David was a sinner. Perhaps the best-known episode was his adultery with Bathsheba.[14] It was his deadened will that led to this sin, a will that eventually became twisted, forgetting the immense graces he had received from God.
The book of Samuel tells us that when the war against the Amorites was about to begin, David sent his army out to fight. But he himself remained behind in Jerusalem. Gradually we are shown the circumstances that led to David's moral fall: he abandoned his duty to lead the army, as was then habitual among kings, preferring to remain comfortably in the city; he spent the day lazily, getting up in the afternoon and killing time on the terrace. After an indiscreet and imprudent failure to guard his sight, he accepted the temptation, sent messengers to find out whether he could act as he wished, and finally, he committed the grave sin of adultery. All of this was followed by an even greater sin, the murder of Urias, Bathsheba's legitimate husband.
This episode shows the sad capacity of the human heart to do evil, notwithstanding the person's good initial dispositions or the divine gifts received. David acted in a way that might seem beyond belief if we look at sacred history and consider the faith that he showed in the past. But he had allowed negligence and sensuality to corrupt his will. The Biblical teaching is clear: when one slackens in striving for the good, one's will can become twisted until it completely darkens the intellect, leading a person to commit the most shameful crimes. All Christians are exposed to this danger. St. Josemaria wrote: "Do not become alarmed or discouraged to discover that you have failings—and such failings! Struggle to uproot them. And as you do so, be convinced that it is even a good thing to be aware of all those weaknesses, for otherwise you would be proud. And pride separates us from God."[15]
God made use of the prophet Nathan to free the king from his sad situation. He presents David with a parable of striking beauty, one of the first that we find in the Bible. The prophet describes a rich man who wanted to entertain a guest and, instead of using his own wealth, robbed a poor man of his only lamb.[16] When David became enraged against this rich man, Nathan showed him that he was the rich man, and David had to acknowledge his sin: I have sinned against the Lord.[17] What especially draws our attention in this episode is Nathan's noble refinement in making the king see the great evil he has committed.
Through his words, Nathan succeeds in awakening David's conscience and faith, and encourages him to seek God's forgiveness, which is granted to him when he confesses his sin to God. It is the beginning of a new conversion, which leads David to draw even closer to the God of Israel. This is a practical example to us of how, on the path to sanctity, it is less serious to fall than to remain on the ground.[18] According to an ancient tradition, David's sorrow for his sin is reflected in the Psalm Miserere. In this prayer, the Psalmist sincerely acknowledges the evil he has committed, and confesses that his sin has, above all, offended the Maker of all things; and he turns to God asking that, through his goodness and mercy, he will purify him.[19] He trusts in God's mercy, with the realization that God's grace is stronger than his own wretchedness,[20] and promises, as a sign of his sincere sorrow, to change his life and to teach men the paths of God so that they will be converted.[21]
The Psalm reflects very clearly what David's interior disposition must have been when he perceived the magnitude of his sin. He did not think that all was lost, nor allow his fall to keep him distanced from God. Rather, it led him to know himself better, to be more humble, to get up, again and again. God's mercy is much greater than our littleness and weaknesses, which pride tries to make great. "In this adventure of love we should not be depressed by our falls, not even by serious falls, if we go to God in the sacrament of Penance contrite and resolved to improve. A Christian is not a neurotic collector of good behavior reports."[22] Often it is we, so to speak, who are not ready to forgive ourselves, because we would like never to fall, to be perfect, flawless.
God loves us as we are. Therefore "he always awaits us, loves us, has pardoned us with his Blood and pardons us every time we go to him to ask his forgiveness."[23] He is the Father who knows us better than we do ourselves, and who responds to our weakness with patience. Indeed, the path towards sanctity "is like a dialogue between our weakness and the patience of God; it is a dialogue that, if we do it, will grant us hope."[24]
God does not want us to come to terms with our faults. He wants us to walk confidently along the paths of the interior life, without fear of falling, since we know we are in his hands. We know that, if we do fall, we will fall into God's hands, and with his grace we will get up again, if we want to. "God's patience has to call forth in us the courage to return to him, however many mistakes and sins there may be in our life."[25]
David is an example for us here. He offered the Lord what he most desires, a contrite heart,[26] a loving heart totally directed to him, placing all its trust in him. All believers can look towards the example of this king who, with all his weaknesses, was "a passionate man of prayer, a man who knew what it meant to implore and to praise."[27]
[1] Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2579.
[2] From 1 Sam 16 to 1 Kings 2:12.
[3] Benedict XVI, General audience, February 15, 2012.
[4] 1 Sam 16:7.
[5] See 2 Sam 5:3.
[6] 2 Sam 5:12.
[7] St. Josemaria, Christ Is Passing By, no. 46.
[8] 1 Sam 17:26, 36.
[9] 1 Sam 17:46.
[10] 1 Sam 17:37.
[11] St. Josemaria, The Way, no. 472.
[12] St. Josemaria, The Forge, no. 525.
[13] Bishop Javier Echevarria, Pastoral letter for the "Year of Faith," September 29, 2012, no. 6.
[14] See 2 Sam 11.
[16] See 2 Sam 12:1-14.
[18] See Pope Francis, Address, June 7, 2013.
[19] See Ps 51[50]:3-9.
[20] See Ps 51[50]:9-14.
[21] See Ps 51[50]:15-18.
[22] St. Josemaria, Christ Is Passing By, no. 75.
[23] Pope Francis, Regina Coeli, April 7, 2013.
[24] Pope Francis, Homily, April 7, 2013.
[26] Ps 51[50]:19.
[27] Benedict XVI, General audience, June 22, 2011.
Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference
Archdiocese of Johannesburg
Catholic Portal (South Africa)
1. History and Activities
4. 14 Questions about the Family
6. What does the “Gospel according to Mary (Magdalene)” say?
7. Governance
8. Novena for a Happy and Faithful Marriage
9. What do Roman and Jewish sources tell us about Jesus?
10. Examples of Faith (III): David, A Man After God's Own Heart
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Tag Archives: Literature
Say What? James McCune Smith on Labor, Capital, and Slavery
L: ‘Dr. James McCune Smith.’ Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts Archives & Rare Books Div., NYPL Digital Collection, 1891. R: US Capitol Building under repair, 2016 Amy Cools
‘The main support of slavery before the war, a support which will be strengthened rather than weakened at the end of the war, is that it is a condition of society in which “capital owns labor.” The thousands of colossal fortunes which this war has already created will find no better investment than buying up the lands of the rebel States. And, owning the land, the ownership of labor will speedily accrue to them. What defense can the landless, penniless, outlawed emancipado make against the land-monopolizing, monied, law-making capitalist – who says to him, work for this pittance or get you gone and starve! In free society, there is a perpetual conflict between labor and capital; the more nearly they are balanced, the more free the state of society, but when either gets the upper hand there is more or less of a slave society introduced. Generally, capital is predominant, because capital can wait, while labor cannot.
…How …easily could [capital] subsidize any of the one-horse legislatures of a reconstructed rebel State, so as to make things right about the freedmen. The word slavery will, of course, be wiped from the statute book …but the “ancient relation” can be just as well maintained by cunningly devised laws.’
~ James McCune Smith, ‘Letter to Robert Hamilton’ (August 1864)
Posted in Art, History of Ideas, Say What?, Written by Guests | Tagged Abolitionism, African American History, African American Intellectual History, American South, Anti-Slavery, Capital, Civil War, Convict Leasing, Emancipation, James McCune Smith, Jim Crow, Labor, Literature, Memory, Poetry, Reconstruction, Sharecropping, Slavery, Slavery by Another Name | 3 Comments
Say What? James McCune Smith on Truth and Lies
James McCune Smith, engraving by Patrick H. Reason, with signature from a letter to Gerrit Smith, 20 Sept 1860
‘Twenty years ago Dr. Nott published statistics on this point, which he claimed were made up from the bills of mortality in Boston and New York. The late Dr. Forry exposed the fraud by showing that no such statistics had ever been gathered in either city. These statistics of Dr. Nott “break out” periodically in the pro-slavery press; Dr. Forry’s contradiction is forgotten: an instance of a falsehood being longer lived than the truth it vilifies.’
~ James McCune Smith, ‘A Word for the Smith Family‘ (1860)
Posted in Art, History of Ideas, Say What?, Written by Guests | Tagged African American History, African American Intellectual History, Falsehood, James McCune Smith, Literature, Memory, Memory Distortion, Poetry, Truth and Lies | Leave a comment
Say What? James McCune Smith on African American Art and Culture
Left: James McCune Smith. Right: Nina Simone and James Baldwin, early 1960’s
‘It is the law …that an oppressed minority shall ultimately obtain a ruling influence over their oppressors. …
For we are destined to write the literature of this republic, which is still, in letters, a mere province of Great Britain. We have already, even from the depths of slavery, furnished the only music which the country has yet produced. We are also destined to write the poetry of the nation; for as real poetry gushes forth from minds embued with a lofty perception of the truth, so our faculties, enlarged in the intellectual struggle for liberty, will necessarily become fired with glimpses at the glorious and the true, and will weave their inspiration into song.
We are destined to produce the oratory of this Republic; for since true oratory can only spring from honest efforts in behalf of the RIGHT, such will of necessity arise amid our struggle…’
~ James McCune Smith, ‘The Destiny of the People of Color’ (1843),
published in The Works of James McCune Smith, 2006
Posted in Art, History of Ideas, Say What?, Written by Guests | Tagged African American History, African American Intellectual History, American Music, Art and Struggle, Inspiration, James McCune Smith, Literature, Music, People of Color, Poetry | Leave a comment
O.P. Recommends: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on Discovering America, from The New Yorker’s Politics and More Podcast
Posted on February 4, 2018 by Ordinary Philosophy
Summer 2014 issue of Ms. featuring Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, by Ms. magazine, CC BY-SA 4.0
In this fascinating podcast episode, the brilliant and eloquent Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie discusses her American experience, the absurdity of racism, the increasing orthodoxy and silencing of dissent on the political left, and much more with The New Yorker’s David Remnick. I find Adichie one of the most mesmerizing speakers and conversationalists around today.
Enjoy, and if this podcast episode happens to be your introduction to Adichie’s insightfulness and complex set of perspectives, an internet search of her name will reveal a wealth of talks, interviews, and more… you’re in for one intellectual treat after another!
Posted in Reviews & Recommendations, Written by Amy Cools | Tagged Americanah, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, David Remnick, feminism, Immigration, Literature, Nigeria, Political Orthodoxy, Racism, Racism in America, Silencing of Dissent, The New Yorker | Leave a comment
Robert Burns Letter at the National Library of Scotland in Honor of the Bard’s Birthday
Posted on January 25, 2018 by Ordinary Philosophy
Robert Burns letter to William Niven, 30 August 1786, at National Library of Scotland, special showing 25 January 2018
Robert Burns, aka ‘the Bard’, is, as you may know, one of Scotland’s most honored sons. His poems and songs are widely regarded as among the most beautiful and resonant literary creations of all of Scotland’s people. Some of the people I’ve written about for Ordinary Philosophy were inspired and influenced by Burns, notably Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. I’ll be writing much more and regularly about Burns before long in the context of my upcoming Frederick Douglass in Scotland series and pieces on the Scottish history of ideas, stay tuned!
In honor of Robert Burns’s birthday celebration, aka Burns Night, the National Library of Scotland put one of his original letters on display for a few hours today, with a little informational card that provides a brief context. I’ll be elaborating on the significance of his planned emigration to Jamaica in my next Douglass series as well.
The letter reads:
My Dr Friend,
I have been very throng every since I saw you, and have not got the wh[ole of my] promise performed to you: but you know [the old] Proverb “The break o’ day’s no the bre[ak o’ a] bargain” – Have patience and I will [pay you] all. – I thank you with the most heart-felt sincerity for the worthy knot of lads you introduced me to. – Never did I meet with so many congenial souls together, without one dissonant jar in the Concert. To all and each of them make my friendly Complnts particularly “spunkie, youthfu’ Tammy.” Remember me in the most respectful [manner to the] Baillie, and Mrs Niven, Mr Dun, and the two truly worthy old Gentlemen I had the honor of being introduced to on Friday; tho’ I am afraid the conduct you forced me on may make them see me in a light I would fondly think I do not deserve. –
I will perform the rest of my promise soon. – In the mean time, remember this, never blow my Songs amo[ng] the Million, as I would abhor to hear every Prentice mouthing my poor performances in the streets. – Every one of [my] Maybole friends are welcome to a Copy, if they chuse; but [I w]ish them to go no farther. – I mean it as a small [mark] of my respect for them: a respect as sincere as the [faith] of dying SAINTS. –
I am ever, My Dr Willm Your oblidged,
Robt Burns
Posted in Enlightenment Scotland, Happy Birthday!, Traveling Philosophy / History of Ideas, Written by Amy Cools | Tagged Abraham Lincoln, and, Bard, Burns Day, Burns Night, Frederick Douglass, Heaven Taught Ploughman, Jamaica, Literature, Robert Burns, Scotland, Scottish History, William Niven | Leave a comment
On the Value of Intellectuals, by Brad Kent
Posted on August 20, 2017 by Ordinary Philosophy
“George Bernard Shaw near St Neots from the Millership collection” from the Birmingham Museums Trust, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
In times of populism, soundbites, and policy-by-Twitter such as we live in today, the first victims to suffer the slings and arrows of the demagogues are intellectuals. These people have been demonised for prioritising the very thing that defines them: the intellect, or finely reasoned and sound argument. As we celebrate the 161st birthday of Bernard Shaw, one of the most gifted, influential, and well-known intellectuals to have lived, we might use the occasion to reassess the value of intellectuals to a healthy society and why those in power see them as such threats.
Born in Dublin on 26 July 1856 to a father who held heterodox religious opinions and a mother who moved in artistic circles, Shaw was perhaps bound to be unconventional. By age 19 he was convinced that his native Ireland was little more than an uncouth backwater–the national revival had yet to see the light of day–so he established himself in London in order to conquer English letters. He then took his sweet time to do it. In the roughly quarter of a century between his arrival in the metropole and when he finally had a modicum of success, Shaw wrote five novels–most of which remained unpublished until his later years–and eked out a living as a journalist, reviewing music, art, books, and theatre. That eminently readable journalism has been collected in many fine editions, and we see in it an earnest individual not only engaged in assessing the qualities of the material before him–much of which was dreadfully insipid–but eager to raise standards and to cultivate the public. He prodded people to want more and gave them the tools to understand what a better art would look and sound like. And he did so in an inimitable voice that fashioned his renowned alter ego: the great showman and controversialist, GBS.
“George Bernard Shaw, circa 1900” from the Library of Congress, Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
Shaw became more widely known as a playwright in late 1904, when King Edward broke his chair laughing at the Royal Command performance of Shaw’s play John Bull’s Other Island. He was no longer a journalist by trade, now being able to live by his plays, but Shaw continued to write essays, articles, and letters-to-the-editor in leading papers to set the record straight, to denounce abuses of power, and to suggest more humane courses of action. When he published his plays, he wrote polemical prefaces to accompany them that are sometimes longer than the plays themselves. These prefaces, written on an exhausting range of subjects, are equally learned and entertaining. Indeed, it has been said by some wags that the plays are the price that we pay for his prefaces.
In many ways continuing his fine work as the Fabian Society’s main pamphleteer in the 1890s, his prefaces suggest remedies for the great injustices of his time. And, what’s more, the vast majority of his prescriptions are as topical and provocative today. For example, if you’re American, should you opt for Trumpcare or Obamacare? Read The Doctor’s Dilemma and its preface and you’ll have a compelling case for neither, but rather a comprehensive and fully accessible public healthcare system, the sort now common in Canada and most European countries. That’s right, people were feeling the Bern–we might say the original Bern–well before Mr. Sanders was born.
Some of Shaw’s opinions came at a great cost. When he published Common Sense About the War, which was critical of both German and British jingoism at the outset of the Great War, he ran too much against the grain of the hyper-patriotic press and government propaganda, thereby becoming a pariah to many. But his star gradually returned into the ascendant as the body count mounted and a war-weary population came to share his point of view. The run-away international success of Saint Joan brought him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925 and, as Shaw said, gave him the air of sanctity in his later years.
“George Bernard Shaw with Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, May 1949”, from Nehru Memorial Museum & Library. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
However, Shaw always maintained that he was immoral to the bone. He was immoral in the sense that, as a committed socialist in a liberal capitalist society, he didn’t support contemporary mores. Instead, he sought to change the way that society was structured and to do so he proposed absolutely immoral policies. A good number of these beyond universal healthcare have seen the light of day, such as education that prioritises the child’s development and sense of self-worth, the dismantling of the injustices of colonial rule, and voting rights for women. But those in power continue the old tug-of-war, and the intellectuals of today must be as vigilant, courageous, and energetic as Shaw in the defence of liberal humanist and social democratic values. Witness the return of unaffordable tertiary education in the UK, made possible by both Labour and Conservative policies. We might recall that Shaw co-founded one of these institutions–the renowned London School of Economics–because he believed in their public good.
Whenever Shaw toured the globe in his later decades–he died in 1950 at age 94–he was met by leading politicians, celebrities, and intellectuals who wanted to bask in his wit, wisdom, and benevolence (Jawaharlal Nehru, Charlie Chaplin, and Albert Einstein are a few such people). Time magazine named him amongst the ten most famous people in the world–alongside Hitler and the Pope. Everywhere he went, the press hounded him for a quote. Yet despite the massive fees he could have charged, he never accepted money for his opinions, just as he had declined speaking fees in his poorer days when he travelled Britain to give up to six three-hour lectures a week to praise the benefits of social democracy. He would not be bought–or suffer the appearance of being bought.
On his birthday, then, we would do well to think of Shaw and maybe even read some of his plays, prefaces, or journalism. We might also cherish the service and immorality of intellectuals. And we should always question the motives of those who denigrate their value.
This piece was originally published in OUPBlog: Oxford University Press’s Academic Insights for the Thinking World
~ Brad Kent is Professor of British and Irish Literatures at Université Laval in Quebec City. His recent publications include Bernard Shaw in Context (Cambridge University Press, 2015) and The Selected Essays of Sean O’Faolain (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2016). He is currently general editor of an eight-volume series of Shaw’s writings that will be published by Oxford World’s Classics in 2021, and is the author of the Oxford Bibliographies in British and Irish Literature article “George Bernard Shaw.” Bio credit: OUPBlog
Posted in History of Ideas, Language, Philosophy, Politics, Written by Guests | Tagged Anti-Intellectualism, Bernard Shaw, Brad Kent, Common Sense About the War, George Bernard Shaw, Intellectual History, intellectuals, John Bull’s Other Island, Literature, Philosophy, politics, Populism, Saint Joan, The Doctor’s Dilemma | Leave a comment
Robert Louis Stevenson Memorial Trail and Monument at Mount Saint Helena, CA
Stevenson Memorial Trail to the summit of Mount Saint Helena. The trailhead is about nine miles north of Calistoga, CA
My sister Therese and I hiked the lovely trail to the summit of Mount Saint Helena on April 22nd, 2017. This hike was Therese’s idea, as are so many of the best ones; thanks, dear sister!
The Stevenson Memorial Trail winds five miles to the summit (one way), about 1,800 feet of climbing all told to the 4,343-foot peak. The entrance to the trail led into dreamy forest, with branches highlighted here and there with fluttering pink plastic ribbons to guide the trail runners in an organized event held here that day. There was a table set up in the parking lot off Highway 29, with drinks, treats, and cheers available for the tired athletes.
On our way up, we discovered the monument mentioned in the sign at the foot of the trail, a handsome little tribute to the memory of Robert Louis Stevenson and his wife placed here exactly 94 years ago on May 7th, 1911 by the Napa Club. Stevenson and his new wife Fanny Van de Grift stayed here for an adventurous honeymoon on the cheap, living for two months in an abandoned miners’ cabin. Stevenson, author of Treasure Island, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and A Child’s Garden of Verses, was seeking adventure, new fodder for his writing which he feared was lagging due to his chronic poor health, and a climate in which his congested lungs could do their best. And he was here for Fanny: he had met her years earlier and fell in love. They had to wait to join their lives together until the divorce from her abusive husband came through, and when it did, he left his native Scotland to join her in her home country.
Monument at the site of the miners’-turned-honeymooners’ cabin on Stevenson Memorial Trail, Mount Saint Helena, Robert Louis Stevenson State Park, CA
The engraved marble tablet on the stone monument reads:
‘This tablet placed by the Club Women of Napa County
Marks the site of the cabin occupied in 1880 by Robert Lewis Stevenson
And bride, while he wrote The Silverado Squatters.
“Doomed to know not winter only spring,
A being trod the flowery April blithely for awhile,
Took his fill of music, joy of thought
And seeing and stayed and went
Nor ever ceased to smile.” – R.L.S.’
It was a beautiful hike, the first mile or so lovely and shaded on the narrow switchback trail, the last four mostly fire roads, though we found a couple of steep little shortcuts. The view from the top was spectacular, though not as far as it might have been on a less cloudy day. The wildflowers were lovely too, and the pine and madrone forests (and plentiful poison oak) very much as Stevenson describes them in The Silverado Squatters. It’s the story of his travels to California and his time here in Napa County with Fanny, which is available to read in full online. It’s an amusing and charming story, though the way he describes some Jewish acquaintances is disconcerting unless you keep in mind the prejudices of the time.
Engraved stone book on the monument at the site of the old cabin on Stevenson Memorial Trail up Mount Saint Helena
Stream near the monument on Stevenson Memorial Trail. Stevenson describes a stream near the old bunkhouse in The Silverado Squatters
Panorama of the view from the peak of Mount Saint Helena, CA, 2017 by Amy Cools
Sources and inspiration
Bazzoli, Kathy. ‘The Legend of Mount St. Helena,’ The Weekly Calistogan, May 19, 2015
‘Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894)‘ – The Poetry Foundation website
‘Robert Louis Stevenson – Marriage‘, from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
‘Robert Louis Stevenson / Mt St. Helena State Park,’ Sonoma Hiking Trails website
‘Robert Louis Stevenson State Park,’ Napa Valley State Parks Association website
Stevenson, Robert Louis. The Silverado Squatters, 1883
Posted in This & That, Traveling Philosophy / History of Ideas, Written by Amy Cools | Tagged Club Women of Napa County, Fanny Van de Grift, Literature, Mount Saint Helena, Robert Louis Stevenson, The Silverado Squatters | 1 Comment
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NFPs Not Confident About Future
Thursday, 13th June 2013 at 12:46 pm
Large Not for Profits have a negative outlook on the future and aren’t confident about meeting escalating demands in their industries, according to a survey of Australia’s NFP organisations.
Thursday, 13th June 2013
The survey was conducted by the Centre for Social Impact and PricewaterhouseCoopers and looked at the well-being and confidence levels of the Not for Profit sector.
Chief Executive Officers of 362 NFPs were surveyed in the PwC-CSI Community Index to provide decision makers working in business, government and the social sectors with data which allows them to make informed policy decisions.
CEOs were surveyed about their views relating to funding, people, meeting demand and the state of their relationships.
Mark Reading from PricewaterhouseCoopers said: “The 2012 Productivity Commission highlighted a lack of data as a big constraint on supporting Not for Profits. This is an important survey as it presents how Not for Profits are faring and measures confidence levels regarding the sector’s ability to meet its immediate and future demands.
“The reality is that Not for Profits are relied upon to provide more, not less, services across the nation. In difficult economic times, it is important to ensure they receive the support from business and government to provide these critical services”.
Seven out of 10 industries have clear negative confidence levels and an overall negative outlook for the future, the survey found.
From a State perspective, all States and Territories, apart from Queensland and South Australia, reported negative levels of confidence.
The survey revealed an increase in demand since the 2012 survey, and organisations said they were more concerned about their ability to meet that demand, according to the results. The findings demonstrate confidence levels remained negative for Not for Profit organisations of all sizes and those with revenues less than $250,000 were the least confident.
The 2013 PwC-CSI Community Index showed the overall confidence level of the Not for Profit organisations surveyed was minus 3 per cent.
CEO of Community Council for Australia David Crosbie said the report findings were disturbing.
“Many Not for Profits are really struggling and find it hard to retain employees because of low wages and career prospects,” he said.
“It seems Government funding is stalling for Not for Profits. Demands aren’t stalling – they are getting bigger by the day. The growth in Not for Profits in the past decades is huge. Yet the funds to help Not for Profits are often just the same at best or are being cut. Many Not for Profits are – frankly – in survival mode. They want to be adding value but may well be pre-occupied with survival because of their uncertain future.
“It is extremely alarming that demand on our Not for Profits is outstripping our ability to supply them with what they need to deliver to people. This sector is a critical part of Australia and it’s just not being focused on enough.”
Centre for Social Impact CEO Dr Andrew Young said: “The Not for Profit industry is not confident about meeting demand. Confidence is well below par.”
Dr Young emphasised that Not for Profits would play a bigger role as Australia's economic pressures increasd. He pointed out that the forecast between 2010 to 2050 for the amount of Government revenue spent on ageing will jump from 25 per cent in 2010 to 50 per cent in 2050.
“Governments are increasingly working with Australia’s Not for Profits to deliver services to society,” he said. “Many of these organisations are working with some of the most vulnerable people in our community. In spite of the significant funding reforms in disability and education, and in spite of the relative strength of our economy by international standards, the sector is unconfident about its future. We need to plan for the sector’s future now if we are to deal with the challenges of the coming decades.”
CEO of Mission Australia, Toby Hall said a major challenge for the sector was securing the right people to work with them.
“The lack of confidence among organisations that are delivering such critical services is of great concern,” he said.
“It is alarming to find that Not for Profits in Australia’s two biggest States have such negative scores. Victoria has -2 per cent confidence and New South Wales -8 per cent.”
The research reveals:
The Education and Research industry’s overall confidence has decreased since the first survey. Confidence about meeting demand has fallen from +1 per cent to -11 per cent, and this has offset gains in other areas.
The Law and Advocacy industry has the second lowest confidence level of – 16 per cent. 64 per cent of the industry has concerns about increasing high demand.
The Development and Housing industry sector expects to be impacted by government funding cuts. The industry helps many Australians to find housing and employment. Its confidence level is a score of -17 per cent (the sector is averaging -3 per cent), the lowest confidence in the sector and the gloomiest outlook. The industry is driven by strong concerns about its paid and volunteer workforce and an inability to attract and retain employees.
Education and Research, Social Services and Philanthropy and Volunteerism are more optimistic about Government funding than in the previous survey but the rest of the sector is pessimistic.
The social services sector has a confidence level of -8 per cent (previously it was -15 per cent). The industry remains very concerned about the level of demand for its services and its ability to meet this demand.
Read the report.
Tags : Centre for Social Impact, David Crosbie, negative outlook, NFPs, Not For Profits, PricewaterhouseCoopers,
Impact investing – Tokenism and words no longer enough
David Crosbie
‘We need a serious change in approach’: Indigenous strategy comes under fire
Wednesday, 19th June 2019 at 5:03 pm
Can teaming up with finance groups save your charity?
Familiar faces remain in Labor’s shadow ministry ‘refresh’
Monday, 3rd June 2019 at 4:27 pm
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Stop the Killings: Children from Florida to Pakistan & a Southern Response
October 1, 2012 /in 2012 Winter, Newsletter /by ayinde
By Emery Wright
I am an invisible man. No, I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allen Poe; nor am I one of your Hollywood-movie extoplasms. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids — and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. Like the bodiless heads you see sometimes in circus sideshows, it is as though I have been surrounded by mirrors of hard, distorting glass. When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination — indeed, everything and anything except me.
-Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
If we know, then we must fight for your life as though it were our own…. For if they take you in the morning, they will be coming for us that night.
-James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time
The masses of people in this world are good. Given the opportunity, again and again mass movements built by oppressed people have demanded justice for all as their political vision. Therefore, throughout history, social control of the masses depends on division, violence, and lies targeted at those masses of people. In this country racial and gender supremacy, capitalism, and colonialism have been foundational elements to the social controls of division, violence, and lies.
Many of these elements that exist nationally are rooted in the history of the U.S. South. For example, the Southern use of Black bodies as free labor set the economic basis for U.S. economic dominance in the 20th Century. In the beginnings of the 21st Century, there is an increased ability for those in power to divide, be violent, and lie about it. Therefore, our collective obligation in the social movements is to connect, respect life, and tell the truth. In the South we have a unique opportunity and urgent responsibility to tell the truth about the killings of all our children from Florida to Pakistan.
As we entered the summer of 2012, we saw a grassroots uprising in response to the murder of Trayvon Martin. This winter we will fight to expose the truth and demand justice for the murder of 17 year-old Jordan Davis who was also killed in Florida at the hands of a white racist vigilante. These two tragic killings are the bookends to a larger and unacceptable story of widespread violence and killings across our neighborhoods.
Organizers and community leaders at the grassroots are contending with a wave of violence having to decide: Which murder, which injustice at the hands of the police or courts, which youth homicide can we respond to? The level of violence, racism, and poverty we face in many communities across the South can become overwhelming when we consider that these local realities are in a global context of economic war games with China, re-colonization in Africa, and the continuation of imperialist policies happening across Latin America and the Caribbean.
In 2013, our role as people committed to advancing social justice in our world is to lift the veil covering all the oppressions that have been allowed to fester locally, in our communities and globally, in our name. The Super-PACs, Right Wing Radio personalities, and other conservative groups all have blood on their hands along with the crazy man who pulled the trigger to kill Jordan Davis. We must expose them. The gun pushers that make handguns available and the gun preachers who glamorize and obscure the violent reality of guns – from video game corporations to Hollywood studios – must be exposed. The disrespect for life that our government and economic system perpetuates in our communities from Jacksonville, Florida to Little Rock, Arkansas must be exposed, challenged, and forced to end.
But we cannot afford to think only within the boundaries of our communities or within the borders of the US. In this globally-connected world, the end of this unacceptable level of violence will require a globally-connected solution. We have to share with amd learn from the communities of our global brothers and sisters from Mexico to Pakistan about how the same disrespect for life that we face is perpetuated by the same government and economic system occupying their communities. Recent reports indicate that in places like Somalia, Congo, Pakistan, and Mexico US government “Drones” are killing children. These remote controlled weapons not only kill children and other innocents across the world, they also terrorize and threaten those who do not die in the Drone strike. Just like the police incite fear with their daily presence and occasional violence, these Drones are a constant presence in rural villages and small towns. It is up to us to make these connections and hold up the faces of Jordan Davis with his counterpart in Pakistan when we say ‘Enough is Enough.’
Martin Luther King Jr. famously said the arc of history is elected a leader, we have to ask ourselves, “Now what?” What will we as a community gain from the frenzied efforts to get us to vote? Will the needs of the poor, communities of color, immigrants, youth, and LGBT folks take center stage in future policy debates? If the groups that I have been covering in the South have anything to say about it, the answer is absolutely yes.
On November 7, 2012, organizations from all over the South assembled in Atlanta to kick off what they call “The People’s First 100 Days.” Anchored by the movement building organization Project South the People’s First 100 Days will mark a series of coordinated regional actions and community assemblies aimed at building a Southern Freedom Movement. A brainchild of the Southern Movement Assembly that took place in Lowndes County, AL, on September 2012, the People’s First 100 Days seeks to highlight the struggle of Southern organizations in their fight against poverty, racism, deportation, the lack of healthcare, threats to reproductive justice, crumbling education systems, and rising violence.
When I first began chronicling these organizations at the Southern Movement Assembly, so many people cited failed political leadership and inaction for the lingering problems in their communities. But since then, these groups have refocused their energies and decided to take matters into their own hands. Starting on November 7th, instead of waiting on politicians to act, they will set their own agenda for transformative change. Like so many social and economic justice movements before it, I suspect that this people’s movement will be the determining factor in whether anything gets done in our communities.
https://i0.wp.com/projectsouth.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/group.png?fit=480%2C147&ssl=1 147 480 ayinde https://projectsouth.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/PS_Logo_Red_300x193_TransparentUpdate.png ayinde2012-10-01 03:20:502015-05-16 03:37:43Stop the Killings: Children from Florida to Pakistan & a Southern Response
Don’t believe the Hype: Election Day decided by Movement, not Majority South x South Africa
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The Innovation Administration
Dana Goldstein
The White House assumes that newer ideas are always better, but that's not necessarily the case.
"Every single one of you has something you're good at," President Barack Obama told children in his Sept. 8 back-to-school address. He went on to list future occupations toward which students could strive -- doctor, teacher, police officer, architect, lawyer. Also included in that list was a career option no previous president had ever named: innovator.
Indeed, the Obama administration has been promoting "innovation" to anyone who will listen. The stimulus package includes more than $100 billion for innovation efforts across fields as diverse as school reform, energy research, health care, and poverty alleviation. In July, first lady Michelle Obama spoke at two "innovation events" honoring architects and product designers. On Sept. 21, the president delivered a speech at Hudson Valley Community College in upstate New York on how innovation can create jobs. A search of WhiteHouse.gov turned up 531 documents mentioning the term.
The most concrete definition of innovation is offered by economists, who point out that with manufacturing and service-sector jobs migrating overseas, the United States cannot compete in the global economy without developing new products, services, and processes. In 1942, Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter coined the term "creative destruction" to describe how innovation drives economies. When Wal-Mart came up with new, cheaper ways to move products around the globe, it allowed consumers to buy essential goods at lower prices but destroyed local mom-and-pop shops. Similarly, the iPod was an innovation that destroyed the Discman, and the Internet may, someday, completely destroy the daily print newspaper. All these innovations created jobs, even as they made others obsolete. And they all grew the economy.
It makes sense, then, during a recession, for the federal government to invest in technological innovation. It's difficult to argue with the Obama administration's decision to provide $400 million for a new energy-research agency called ARPA-E, which will look for technological solutions to global warming. Or the administration's proposed $19 billion investment in electronic health records, which would result in better, more consistent care for patients.
Social policy is where the innovation agenda gets tricky. The incentives are less clear, the outcomes are more difficult to measure, and the entire endeavor is more open to ideological debate. In the White House, though, the importance of "social innovation" as a poverty-fighting tool is regarded as received wisdom. There is the new White House Office of Social Innovation, led by former Google.org chief Sonal Shah, and the Social Innovation Fund, both with the goal of working alongside the nonprofit sector in order to address joblessness, bad schools, and urban blight. And the Department of Education is using billions of dollars of stimulus money to help local school districts, nonprofits, and colleges enact "innovative reforms."
At its core, social innovation refers to the belief that for-profit institutions should be the model for nonprofit ones, and that nonprofits, in turn, can be more effective protectors of social welfare than government. There's nothing particularly new about these ideas. After the fall of the Soviet Union, American philanthropists spoke of helping former Eastern Bloc countries build "civil society" sectors, which would better care for human needs than bloated communist states had. In the 1990s, business schools promoted the idea of "corporate social responsibility," which held that government regulation wasn't needed in order for companies to do the right thing for the environment or public health. They could police themselves! During the Reagan and Bush years, conservatives suggested the nonprofit sector could serve as an effective replacement for the welfare state. (Some still do. At a health-care town hall meeting on Sept. 21, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor told a woman that her uninsured, cancer-stricken relative should seek care from "charitable organizations.")
Today, advocates for "social enterprise" argue that divisions between the public, private, and nonprofit sectors need to be broken down in order to better address social problems. The Obama administration has taken this message to heart. But it's entirely possible that social innovation is little more than a federal foray into a B-school fad that may be, during an economic crisis, insufficient to addressing the scale of the social problems facing the American public.
The Obama administration effort that best embodies this ideology is the Social Innovation Fund, a competitive grant program passed by Congress in March as part of the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act. Ironically, considering the fund is an anti-poverty program, it was rolled out by Michelle Obama at Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People Gala, a star-studded, black-tie event at Lincoln Center.
"The idea is simple," Obama said from the podium. "Find the most effective programs out there and then provide the capital needed to replicate their successes in communities around the country. By focusing on high-impact, results-oriented nonprofits, we will ensure that government dollars are spent in a way that is effective, accountable, and worthy of the public trust."
What could be less controversial among liberals than public investment in social-justice nonprofits?
A lot, it turns out. The Social Innovation Fund "is like how baby boomers think they invented sex," says Jeff Trexler, a professor of social entrepreneurship at Pace University. The idea adopts, uncritically, "the rhetoric of business schools and business magazines in the late 1990s," Trexler adds. "You can't conflate investment and innovation with guaranteed success" -- a lesson the finance industry learned when it created an innovation called the sub-prime mortgage.
Even Eric Nee, managing editor of the Stanford Social Innovation Review, is somewhat skeptical of the Social Innovation Fund, in part because no one can agree on what innovation is, or when, exactly, it is a goal worth pursuing. "It's true that not everything should be innovative," Nee says. "If all you did was go around innovating and didn't spend any time building, or following up, or doing incremental improvement, it would sort of be just chasing your tail. Why is it popular? I don't even really know -- just to be honest."
The idea for the Social Innovation Fund came out of America Forward, a campaign-season coalition of nonprofits and philanthropies. The driving force behind the group was the queen bee of the social-entrepreneurship movement, Vanessa Kirsch, founder and president of New Profit, one of the country's first "venture philanthropy" firms. Venture philanthropists direct charity dollars toward nonprofits that have embraced corporate efficiency and accountability standards, often with the explicit goal of fostering "social innovation." America Forward pushed its agenda -- a government investment in grant-making institutions like New Profit -- to all 14 presidential candidates in both parties. "Our incentive was to get the decision of what nonprofits to fund outside of government. The idea is that there is an intermediary -- the foundation -- that can make those decisions and isn't politically driven," Kirsch says. "The things that really last for the long haul are the things that have bipartisan support, that will be here through administrations."
The Obama campaign was one of the most receptive to America Forward, which was no surprise -- both Barack and Michelle Obama go way back with Kirsch. Barack served on the founding advisory board of Public Allies, a nonprofit Kirsch co-founded in Washington, D.C., in 1992, with the goal of directing low-income teens toward public-service careers. In 1993, Michelle left her corporate law firm job to found a Public Allies branch in Chicago and later joined the organization's board of directors. Public Allies won plaudits from both Bush presidents and Bill Clinton, but Kirsch was frustrated by her attempts to grow the group nationally. Many donors were less interested in "scaling up" a successful nonprofit than in launching sexier, newer programs.
In 1997, Kirsch married Alan Khazei, the co-founder of CityYear, an AmeriCorps volunteer program for young adults. (Khazei is now a Democratic candidate for Ted Kennedy's Senate seat, and he's running on a social-innovation platform -- "a message of Big Citizenship instead of Big Government," according to a fundraising e-mail.) In 1999, Fast Company profiled Khazei and Kirsch. "There's lots of money for nonprofit work," Khazei said. "There's lots of money for the really big, established groups. But there's almost no money for those organizations in between -- those who need bridge money to sustain and to grow."
The Social Innovation Fund, as drafted by Kirsch and America Forward, is intended to fill that need for "second stage" funding. "The term 'innovation' is maybe a little misleading," Kirsch now admits.
After going through the legislative meat grinder, the fund emerged as a relatively small competitive grant program of $50 million. (For comparison's sake, a single grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation can top $1 billion.) It is administered by the Corporation for National and Community Service and will award grants between $1 million and $10 million, with a focus on education, health, and economic empowerment. Per Kirsch's vision, the vast majority of the funds it allocates -- 85 percent -- will go not to "innovative" nonprofits themselves but to private philanthropies and other grant-making institutions, which will then match the funds and reallocate them to community organizations. In turn, the recipient groups must match, dollar for dollar, the grants they receive. A federal white paper on the program trumpets, "The result? Three dollars in funding for every $1 in government spending."
Obama's June 30 speech announcing the program adopted America Forward's disdain for big government; it almost sounded like Reaganomics. "Let's face it, there's only so much Washington can do," Obama said to nonprofit and philanthropic leaders assembled at the White House. "Government can't do everything and be everywhere -- nor should it be."
The president continued, "Folks who are struggling don't simply need more government bureaucracy; that top-down, one-size-fits-all program usually doesn't end up fitting anybody. People don't need somebody out in Washington to tell them how to solve their problems, especially when the best solutions are often right there in their own neighborhoods, just waiting to be discovered."
The truth, though, is that big, top-down government programs like Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare have done more than almost any nonprofit effort to lift Americans out of destitute poverty. Imagine what something like a national universal day-care system could do, in terms of encouraging work among poor parents and providing early childhood academic enrichment.
That's not to say charity isn't crucial, just that setting it up in competition with government is hardly relevant -- and certainly not politically helpful for an administration attempting to overhaul the health-care system and potentially create a new, national public-insurance program. As Jeff Trexler writes in an article for the journal Emergence: Complexity and Organization, traditional nonprofit leaders critique concepts like social innovation and venture philanthropy as "an appropriation of business jargon that is inconsistent with the core values of the charitable sector."
The Social Innovation Fund rushes headlong into this debate and picks sides. Its requirement that each government dollar be matched by the recipient organization ensures that only nonprofits that are already financially sustainable will win grants. Many small organizations, no matter how essential their work, operate hand to mouth. Groups that haven't already attracted significant corporate, foundation, or individual donor support are unlikely to be able to match a multimillion-dollar government grant.
So it turns out the Social Innovation Fund is actually searching for safe bets. "The title was selected because it sounds really good," says Sean Stannard-Stockton, founder of the consulting firm Tactical Philanthropy Advisors and a well-known blogger in the nonprofit world. "We all want innovation. But the Social Innovation Fund is not going to draw up a lot of great nonprofits that nobody has heard of before. It's going to call attention to what works."
Pablo Eisenberg, a philanthropy expert at Georgetown University, is much harsher. "The administration's vision excludes the overwhelming majority of nonprofits that are really in need of assistance," he says. "Nonprofits that are activist, that are organizing, that are watchdog, that deliver important social services at the local level, like food banks and domestic-violence shelters."
Ironically, it is exactly such a small, scrappy nonprofit that Barack Obama worked for in Chicago in the mid-1980s, helping residents of a public-housing project demand better schools and public services from city government. That kind of community group, which engages directly with the political system, is out of vogue with the new generation of social entrepreneurs, who are more interested in self-sufficiency than activist government. "Foundations are some of the most elite organizations, whose boards are invariably made up of the wealthiest people in the country," Eisenberg says. "They have no sense of what community needs are."
At least so far, there's no indication the White House will push philanthropies in a more activist direction. The nonprofit groups singled out for praise by the Obama administration, in press conference after press conference, are studiedly apolitical, already enjoy significant corporate support, and often lack a systemic approach to addressing inequality.
One example is Rising Tide Capital in Jersey City, which runs a Community Business Academy for high-poverty adults looking to become small business owners. The group was founded in 2004 by Harvard graduates Alfa Demmellash and Alex Forrester. With a name that could belong to a hedge fund and a focus on self-sufficiency, Rising Tide Capital enjoys financial and in-kind support from companies including Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Capital One, Chase, Wachovia, and Fidelity Investments.
Demmellash, the group's CEO, immigrated to the United States from Ethiopia at the age of 12. Her mother worked as a seamstress and waitress, and the family was poor. She is a young, inspiring, photogenic do-gooder, so it's no surprise that last June, right before the launch of the Social Innovation Fund, Demmellash was named a 2009 "CNN Hero." She and Rising Tide Capital were suddenly everywhere. Soon, they got a call from the Obama administration. Demmellash was whisked off to the White House, where she sat in the audience during Obama's speech announcing the Social Innovation Fund. "So far, Rising Tide Capital has helped 250 business owners in the state of New Jersey," Obama said.
The problem is Rising Tide Capital hasn't helped 250 new business owners. In reality, 216 people have gone through its business academy, 79 of whom have launched businesses and 71 of whom are in the planning phases. That's an impressive achievement but certainly no cure-all for low-income neighborhoods.
Rising Tide Capital knows these numbers because it already received a large donation that allowed it to purchase outcome-tracking software and conduct surveys of program graduates. In the future, it hopes to follow its graduates over a number of years, to see whether the Community Business Academy contributes to long-term financial well-being. "As a person who is investing tremendous energy and resources, making sure our mission is actually met is incredibly important to me," Demmellash says.
The use of trumped-up numbers downplays the difficulty of the work Demmellash and other nonprofit leaders do -- and it downplays the stubbornness of problems like poverty, racial isolation, and lack of education. The 250 number was likely lifted by Obama's speechwriter from the CNN Heroes report, which used the same inflated statistic -- ironic, considering the Social Innovation Fund is supposed to emphasize the responsible use of metrics in evaluating how well nonprofits are working.
The Social Innovation Fund is not the only corner of the Obama administration to fall under the sway of venture--philanthropy vogue, sometimes to the detriment of good social science. Through the Department of Education's innovation funds, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is promoting a very specific image of school reform, one that borrows liberally from the venture philanthropists' goal of bringing free-market values to the public sector. The federal guidelines encourage states and schools to embrace specific "innovations," such as enacting merit pay for teachers and lifting laws that cap the number of charter schools. Though such policies may have tertiary benefits, there is no research consensus on whether either one contributes to the "bottom line" of education reform -- increased academic achievement for high-poverty kids.
A recent Stanford University study of charter schools in 16 states found that in math, only about 17 percent of charter schools increase student achievement over traditional public schools. The researchers described the results as "sobering." A competing study out of Stanford, by Hoover Institute Fellow Caroline Hoxby, found that students who win a lottery to attend a New York City charter school do much better on standardized tests than socioeconomically similar students who lose the lottery and return to traditional public schools. But New York's charters may be superior in quality exactly because state law allows only a few carefully selected organizations to manage charters. It is exactly such laws that the Department of Education claims stifle innovation.
Regardless of whether you believe the charter detractors or defenders, it's undeniable that the obsession with innovative charter schools is out of proportion to the reality that less than 5 percent of American kids attend such a school. "[Charters] should not distract us from the challenging, important, and unheralded task of making process improvements in the operation of traditional schools," writes Grover Whitehurst of the Brookings Institution, in a gently mocking essay titled "Innovation, Motherhood, and Apple Pie."
In Denver, the site of one of the largest experiments in merit pay for teachers, a 2008 study from the University of Colorado found no evidence that the new compensation system helped students; rather, teachers who were already high-performing chose to opt in to merit pay, while those who were less successful opted out. Even among teachers who participated in merit pay, only 38 percent believed the program directly improved student test scores.
Critics contend the administration has ignored more difficult, yet proven school reforms, such as efforts to integrate schools, thus guaranteeing that fewer classrooms are overwhelmed by the challenges of poverty and racial isolation. Research by Cornell labor economist C. Kirabo Jackson found that when the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school district in North Carolina ended a 30-year busing program and resegregated, the highest-performing teachers fled schools that became predominantly black and poor. Yet integration is seen as a pie-in-the-sky, old-school lefty goal by the venture-philanthropy crowd and has registered not at all on the Obama/Duncan agenda. It's not "innovative."
Another criticism is that even when innovative social programs are proven to work well, the Obama administration under-estimates the costs involved with scaling them up. The White House's single favorite nonprofit is probably the Harlem Children's Zone, Geoffrey Canada's effort to flood 97 blocks of New York City with educational, health, and economic resources -- including several charter schools. The president has asked Congress to set aside $10 million in the 2010 budget to replicate 20 such "promise neighborhoods" across the country. But that figure is considered laughable by most nonprofit experts. The Harlem Children's Zone has an annual budget of $70 million.
While the Social Innovation Fund and Department of Education grants are unlikely to result in systemic policy improvements, it would be a mistake to view the administration's social--innovation efforts in a vacuum. The same White House is pushing for a major overhaul of our health-care system. The $700 billion stimulus package is the greatest increase in federal spending since the Great Society.
In the end, the administration's social-innovation push may be most useful for its signaling effect. Both Obamas have appeared in front of the moneyed and influential to tell them they should invest in community nonprofits and care about inner-city schools and unemployment. Nevertheless, it's true that the Obamas' infatuation with social entrepreneurship and venture philanthropy serves as a reminder of their aversion to a more robust, liberal, government-focused rhetoric. In this regard, they are, perhaps, more Clintonian than they'd like to admit.
The administration's concept of social innovation injects government into the philanthropic sector as a sort of tastemaker, hopefully influencing charities to advance progressive public policy ideas without the federal government having to spend too much more money. With the Republican congressional delegation in a full-on tax revolt, the strategy is arguably politically savvy, at least in the short term. But is it innovative? Not so much. There's nothing new about vilifying big government and asking a stretched-thin philanthropic sector to address a truly staggering landscape of human needs -- 10 percent unemployed, 47 million uninsured, only half of all black and Latino boys completing high school.
"Many of these social problems are of the scale that require the government to be involved," says Nee of the Stanford Social Innovation Review. "A lot of the nonprofit stuff is sort of ... nickel and dime."
Shall We Be Released?
The mass folly of mass incarceration and the road back to sane prison policy.
The Teacher Wars: How the Idealism of LBJ and RFK Set the Stage for Today's Education Strife
The National Teacher Corps of the 1960s and 1970s paved the way for Teach For America
Dana Goldstein, a former associate editor and writer at the Prospect, comes from a family of public school educators. She received the Spencer Fellowship in Education Journalism, a Schwarz Fellowship at the New America Foundation, and a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellowship at the Nation Institute. Her journalism is regularly featured in Slate, The Atlantic, The Nation, The Daily Beast, and other publications, and she is a staff writer at the Marshall Project.
Articles By Dana Goldstein
RSS feed of articles by Dana Goldstein
Harry, Louise, and Barack
The Polanski Paradox
Lessons Overlearned
Title IX Dad
Let's Make a Deal
Twilight of the Op-Ed Columnist
The Myth of Too Big to Fail
The Obstacles to Real Health-Care Reform
Constant Comment
Will the Color Line Fade?
Beyond No-Fault Finance
He Kept the Flame
Girls Just Wanna Have Fangs
Can Reason Win the Drug War?
Can Human Rights Win the War?
The Canadian Way of War
All These Governors
Our Two-Class System
The Graduation Gap
Rationing College Opportunity
Saying Yes in Syracuse
Grand Solution or Grab Bag?
Ideas From the Other Washington
Can Community Colleges Rise to the Occasion?
The High Cost of Working Hard
It's Not Just Education
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2016 Election, Opinion
Hillary Missed Opportunities At The First Debate, But Still Destroyed Donald Trump
Let’s be honest with ourselves, Hillary won. She had a total command of the issues. The email scandal was addressed firmly and immediately – and quite effectively I might add. Her admission of a mistake and her taking full responsibility shut down the entire conversation. There was literally nowhere left to go after that, and the entire topic was dropped. Donald left it alone, basically defeated in his attempt to make it a debate issue. One of many missed opportunities for him, handled by a well-prepared Secretary Clinton.
Meanwhile, Clinton was mostly effective at digging into Trump on a range of issues. It wasn’t enough that she speculated about his not paying taxes. She was able to tie not paying taxes to his not having contributed to such things as wounded soldiers, schools and other government funded items that almost everyone can agree on. It was very effective.
When it came to his birther movement leadership, she told a personal story about how it upset the president, at once humanizing him while portraying Trump as a heartless, lying antagonist. Personally I think should could have made more of a point that the movement is inherently racist (see my previous post on the topic). She basically mentioned it was racist and moved on. Meanwhile, Trump’s answer was typical self-promotion – that he did a good job simply because he accomplished his arbitrary goal of getting a birth certificate (even though that wasn’t his goal), never mind whether it was racist or not. I’m not even sure he understood her criticism, as his response didn’t address the racist charge.
I have to admit, while I don’t agree with Donald Trump’s portraying the country as a place of doom and gloom, he was effective during the first few minutes of the debate in his attempt to do so. This was his opportunity to define his reason for running, and he was effective, by and large. It was also Hillary’s missed opportunity to rebut his assessment. The economy is better than it was 7 years ago, less people are out of work, the stock market is doing well, the military is stronger than ever, and on and on. Trump’s vision of America went largely unanswered, and I hope Clinton does a better job in the next debates of answering his rhetoric.
This last point would really be my only critique of her performance, which was, overall extremely refined and well-prepared. She was poised, articulate and knowledgeable. Who can argue with that assessment? She had answers for Trump’s criticisms and didn’t seem phased by his on-stage bullying and his repeated interruptions. She had an answer for everything, well thought-out and defensible.
Meanwhile, his zingers fell flat. His joke about getting onto Pennsylvania Avenue (one way or another) was a dud, and not delivered well. He sounded like an old coot trying to talk about cyber warfare and there were numerous other instances where he seemed to ramble as a result of not understanding the issues at hand.
Overall, it’s fair to say Secretary Clinton’s preparedness paid off. And frankly it’s difficult to imagine that the next debates will be any different. In fact, my prediction is that she’ll do better. She’ll be confident walking in, while Trump, knowing he’s faced criticism for his performance in the first round will be more aggressive and, you’ll see, will be likely to make mistakes as he undoubtedly will step up attacks on Clinton to try and earn points with his base. In the end, I expect him to sink himself, perhaps by attacking Clinton over the Lewinsky scandal, ill advised as it would seem – something he (somehow) managed to avoid in the first round.
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Current: Statement on the Death of Michael Goodale
Statement of the State's Attorney for the Judicial District of New London Concerning the Death of Michael Goodale on September 20, 2016, in the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation
The following is a statement concerning the tragic death of Michael Goodale on September 20, 2016. I wish to extend my condolences to the family and friends of Mr. Goodale.
On Tuesday, September 20, 2016, at approximately 11 :30 a.m., the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Police (MPTP) reported an officer involved shooting at the Fox Tower parking garage to the New London State's Attorney's office per our office protocol. Our office requested that the Connecticut State Police Eastern District Major Crime Squad (EDMCS) respond to the scene and assume responsibility for the investigation.
Section 51-277a of the General Statutes provides in part that, whenever a peace officer in the performance of such officer's duties, uses physical force upon another person and such person dies as a result thereof, the Division of Criminal Justice shall cause an investigation to be made and shall have the responsibility of determining whether the use of physical force by the peace officer was appropriate under Section 53a-22.
Ordinarily, pursuant to Section 51-277a, the Chief State's Attorney would designate a prosecutorial official of a judicial district other than the judicial district in which the incident occurred to conduct the investigation. The initial determination made by investigators was that Me. Goodale's death had occurred when he jumped to his death from the Fox Tower parking garage at the Foxwoods Resort Casino and was not caused by a peace officer's use of physical force. It was decided, therefore, in consultation with the Chief State's Attorney, that this office would complete the investigation of the incident, as it is the policy of the undersigned to conduct an investigation of an untimely death that occurs during the course of the performance of a peace officer's duties.
It is the conclusion of the undersigned that Mr. Goodale did not die as a result of the use of physical force by the MPTP officers.
CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE INCIDENT
On Tuesday, September 20,2016, at approximately 10:00 a.m., the MPTP were informed that a patron of Foxwoods Casino, Michael Goodale, DOB: 11/20/92, had an outstanding arrest warrant for violation of probation. The MPTP conducted a NCIC search and confirmed that the violation of probation warrant was a valid PRAWN warrant resulting from a prior conviction for burglary in the third degree. The MPTP confirmed that Mr. Goodale currently was a registered guest at the Fox Towers Hotel. Sergeant George Potts, Sergeant Kevin Leach and Officer Cohen of the MPTP responded to Goodale's hotel room to arrest Goodale on the outstanding warrant. No one answered the door of Mr. Goodale's hotel room. The hotel front desk personnel and security personnel were informed of the situation and were requested to monitor the casino for Mr. Goodale and to notify the MPTP in the event that he was located.
On Tuesday, September 20, 2016, at approximately 11 :30 a.m., the MPTP dispatch radioed officers that Mr. Goodale had been observed leaving his hotel room and presently was being observed by hotel security cameras. At approximately 11:45 a.m., MPTP dispatch radioed that Goodale was now on the fourth level of the Fox Tower parking garage and was under observation by the garage security cameras. While MPTP officers were responding to the parking garage, MPTP dispatch radioed a clothing description of Mr. Goodale and advised that he was in the northeast corner of the fourth level of the parking garage and that he had been observed to be in possession of a handgun.
Upon arrival on the fourth level of the parking garage, Sgt. Leach encountered Mr. Goodale in the corner of the garage, standing upright on top of the parking garage's exterior cement wall. Sgt. Leach stated in a written statement that he positioned himself behind a cement pillar inside the parking garage and yelled to Mr. Goodale three times, "Police, drop the gun." Mr. Goodale ignored Sgt. Leach's commands, turned towards Sgt. Leach and pointed a black colored handgun at him. Mr. Goodale remained silent and continued to stand on top of the cement wall and point his handgun in Sgt. Leach's direction in what Sgt. Leach considered to be a threatening manner. Sgt. Leach stated that he then fired two shots from his assigned duty weapon at Mr. Goodale. Sgt. Leach then observed Goodale turn away from him towards the exterior of the parking garage and jump off the cement wall to the ground below.
Sergeant Potts stated in a written statement that upon receiving from the MPTP dispatch Mr. Goodale's location inside the parking garage, he and Sgt. Leach drove to the third level of the parking garage in Sgt. Potts' assigned vehicle. Sgt. Potts stated that he and Sgt. Leach initially searched the third level of the parking garage, where they made contact with two Foxwoods Security supervisors. Sgt. Potts, who had remained on the third level of the parking garage while Sgt. Leach proceeded to the fourth level. Sgt. Potts stated that upon reaching the fourth level of the parking garage, he observed Sgt. Leach to be positioned by a pillar yelling "to put the gun down and not to jump." Sgt. Potts stated that he then heard "I am going to jump." Sgt. Potts then entered the fourth level of the parking garage from the stairwell, at which time, he heard what sounded like two gunshots. Sgt. Potts asked Sgt. Leach where the male had gone and Sgt. Leach told him that the male had jumped. Sgt. Potts looked over the exterior wall of the parking garage and observed Mr. Goodale motionless on the ground below.
Sgt. Potts responded to Mr. Goodale's location and determined that he was deceased. Sgt. Potts returned to the fourth level of the parking garage, where he met with Sgt. Leach and then drove Sgt. Leach to the MPTP headquarters. Sgt. Potts took possession of Sgt. Leach's duty weapon and secured it in an evidence locker at the MPTP headquarters.
Officer Cohen stated in a written statement that upon receiving information from the MPTP dispatch of Mr. Goodale's location inside the parking garage, he responded directly to the fourth level of the parking garage. Officer Cohen stated that upon exiting the elevator on the fourth level of the parking garage, he met with Sgt. Leach. Officer Cohen and Sgt. Leach began searching the fourth level of the parking garage, Officer Cohen observed a white male, Mr. Goodale, wearing a black ball cap and backpack, standing in the corner of the garage looking over the cement wall. When Mr. Goodale saw Officer Cohen and Sgt. Leach, he immediately removed his backpack and threw it over the wall of the parking garage to the ground below. Officer Cohen observed that Mr. Goodale was holding a black semi-automatic handgun and waiving it around and pointing it towards the officers. Officer Cohen and Sgt. Leach took cover behind separate cement pillars. Officer Cohen heard Sgt. Leach giving Mr. Goodale multiple loud verbal commands to drop the gun. Mr. Goodale did not comply with Sgt. Leach's commands and continued pointing the gun at the officers. Officer Cohen then heard two gunshots and almost simultaneously he observed Mr. Goodale turn and jump over the cement wall and out of the parking garage. Officer Cohen and the other officers ran over and looked over the cement wall and saw Mr. Goodale lying on his back on the pavement four stories below.
Officer Kevin Barney in a written statement stated that upon receiving information that Mr. Goodale was located inside the parking garage, he drove with Sgt. Potts to the parking garage. Officer Barney, Officer Cohen and Sgt. Potts proceeded up to the fourth level of the parking garage. Officer Barney stated that as he arrived on the fourth level of the parking garage, dispatch radioed that Mr. Goodale was armed with a gun and had discarded the backpack he was carrying. Officer Barney proceeded across the parking level and was able to see a white male, wearing a reddish colored shirt and jeans, standing on the wall of the parking garage holding a black handgun. Officer Barney heard Officer Cohen yelling to Mr. Goodale to drop the handgun. Officer Barney also commanded Mr. Goodale to drop his handgun. Mr. Goodale looked over at Officer Barney and pointed his gun directly at him. Mr. Goodale continued to point the gun back and forth between Officer Barney and Sgt. Leach. Officer Barney heard Sgt. Leach tell Mr. Goodale to drop the gun and show his hands. He heard two gunshots and observed the male fall back off the wall. Officer Barney was not sure who had fired the gunshots.
Officer Holloman stated in a written statement that he had responded to the parking garage in an attempt to locate Mr. Goodale. Officer Holloman was on the fifth level of the parking garage when MPTP dispatch radioed that Goodale was located on the fourth level. He then drove his assigned vehicle down to the fourth level. Upon driving onto the fourth level, he observed Sg!. Leach and Officer Cohen approximately thirty to forty feet ahead of him. Officer Holloman observed a white male wearing a maroon colored shirt and ball cap in the corner of the garage. As Officer Holloman drove closer, he observed the male point a black gun, which appeared to be a semiautomatic weapon, at his assigned cruiser. He then backed up his assigned cruiser, exited the vehicle and took up a position behind Officer Barney along the side of a pillar. Officer Holloman heard someone yell drop the gun. Officer Holloman saw Mr. Goodale standing on top of the wall pointing the gun in the direction of Officer Cohen and Sgt. Leach. Officer Holloman took cover behind the pillar and heard two gunshots. He looked back in the direction of Mr. Goodale and he was gone.
Upon arrival at the Fox Tower parking garage, detectives from the Eastern District Major Crime Squad processed the scene for evidence. Among the items seized was a black colored BB/pellet styled handgun located near where the body of Mr. Goodale had been discovered. The BB/pellet gun was a facsimile of a semi-automatic handgun. Seized from level "P4" of the parking garage were two spent "Federal 40 S&W" shell casings. Seized from the MPTP was Sgt. Leach's Glock 40 cal. semiautomatic pistol.
An examination of the ballistic evidence by the state forensic lab concluded that the two spent shell casings had been fired form Sgt. Leach's Glock.
An autopsy was performed on Mr. Goodale on September 21, 2016 by Dr. Gregory Vincent at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Dr. Vincent concluded that the cause of death was "blunt injuries of head, torso and extremities" and that the manner of death was "suicide (descent from height following confrontation with police)." Dr. Vincent noted that Mr. Goodale had suffered a gunshot wound of the left foot. The wound was described as a "1/2" x )1,;" grazed gunshot wound on the posterolateral aspect of the left foot. The wound has irregular edges with skin tags pointing towards the toe."
Surveillance video from the Fox Tower parking garage was seized and reviewed. The video captured corroborated the statements of the MPTP officers at the scene. Mr. Goodale can be observed on the video holding a black handgun in his hand. At one point Mr. Goodale is observed walking back and forth in a crouched position on the exterior concrete wall of the parking garage while repeatedly raising and pointing his handgun towards the officers. Mr. Goodale then abruptly turns around facing away from the officers and the garage and jumps off the wall to the ground below, a distance of approximately 81 feet. The surveillance video has no audio.
A review was conducted of the three MPTP officers' body cameras worn at the time of the incident. The body cameras captured different angles of the incident and recorded surrounding audio. None of the three MPTP body cameras captured Goodale, either audibly or visually. The MPTP body cameras audio recordings captured several MPTP officers repeatedly shouting "Drop the gun," "He just chucked the bag ... he's going to jump," "He's got a gun in his hand, I saw it", "He just jumped" and "Rush EMS." In addition, the audio of what sounds like two gunshots is heard on the body cameras.
The test is not whether it was in fact necessary for the officer to use deadly physical force in order to defend against the imminent use of deadly physical force. The test is whether the officer believed it was necessary to use deadly physical force and whether such belief was objectively reasonable, based on the facts and circumstances known to the police officer at the time the decision to use deadly force was made. See State v. Silveira , 198 Conn. 454 (1986), State v. Adams , 52 Conn. App. 643 (1999).
"The 'reasonableness' of a particular use of force must be judged from the perspective of a reasonable officer on scene rather than with the 20/20 vision of hindsight. . .The calculus of reasonableness must embody allowance of the fact that police officers are often forced to make split-second decisions - in circumstances that are tense, uncertain, and rapidly evolving - about the amount of force that is necessary in a particular situation." Graham v. Connor , 490 U.S. 386 (1989).
"The appropriate inquiry is whether the officers acted reasonably, not whether they had less intrusive alternatives available to them." Scott v. Henrich , 39 F.3d. 912, 915 (9 th Cir. 1992). "Under the circumstances at the moment when the [shot] was fired a reasonable police officer could have concluded that [Corey) was intent on resuming his flight and that if allowed to do so, he would have posed a deadly threat for the [Troopers and] others on the road." Plumhoff v. Rickard ,________ US _______ ,134 S.Ct. 2012, 2022, 188 L.Ed.2d 1056 (2014).
The threatening manner in which Mr. Goodale continually pointed his handgun at the officers and his refusal to drop his handgun after repeated commands to do so, justified Sgt. Leach's use of deadly force. The deadly physical force used by Sgt. Leach as evidenced by the autopsy report, however, cannot be found to have been the proximate cause of the death of Mr. Goodale. The facts clearly indicate that Mr. Goodale died as a result of his jumping off the wall of the parking garage and falling approximately 81 feet to his death.
I would like to thank the Connecticut State Police Eastern District Major Crime Squad for their role in this investigation. In addition, I would like to thank the Mashantucket Tribal Police Department for their assistance and cooperation.
Dated at New London, Connecticut this 2nd day of February, 2018.
STATE'S ATIORNEY
NEW LONDON JUDICIAL DISTRICT
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Home Fast Lane Generic Drugmakers Accused of Price Fixing Racket
Generic Drugmakers Accused of Price Fixing Racket
Diccon Hyatt
Four Route 1 corridor companies are among 20 generic drug companies being sued by the state of New Jersey and other states for allegedly conspiring to illegally fix the prices of hundreds of products, raising the price of some drugs to more than 10 times their true cost, all at a cost of billions to consumers.
The suit names Sandoz, headquartered on College Road West in Princeton; Aurobindo on Windsor Center Drive in Hightstown; Dr. Reddy at College Road East in Princeton; and Zydus Pharmaceuticals on Route 31 in Pennington. It also names Israel-based Teva, which merged with Ewing-based Microdose in 2013 and Actavis, which has a North Brunswick location, in 2016.
Individual executives named in the suit include James Grauso, former senior vice president of commercial operations for Aurobindo; Armando Kellum, former vice president of contracting and business analytics at Sandoz; Kevin Green, former director of national accounts at Teva and current vice president of sales at Zydus Pharmaceuticals; and several other Teva and Actavis executives.
The lawsuit targets corporate leaders responsible for sales, marketing, pricing, and operations — and outlines their alleged involvement in “one of the most egregious and damaging price-fixing conspiracies in the history of the United States,” according to the suit.
“We all know that prescription drugs can be expensive. Now we know that high drug prices have been driven in part by an illegal conspiracy among generic drug companies to inflate their prices,” said New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal in a prepared statement.
“It is particularly troubling that so much of this unlawful conduct took place in New Jersey. I’ve said before and I’ll say again that New Jersey’s pharmaceutical industry is the envy of the world. But no New Jersey company will get a free pass when it violates the law and harms our residents just because it is located here.”
The complaint alleges that price-fixing by the defendants has caused significant financial damage to state health plans, taxpayer-funded federal healthcare programs like Medicare and Medicaid, employer-sponsored health plans, and individual consumers who pay out-of-pocket for their generic medications.
Drugs subject to the unlawful pricing manipulations included all classes of medication, including oral antibiotics, blood thinners, cancer drugs, contraceptives, anti-inflammatory drugs, statins, anti-depressants, medications used to treat HIV, blood pressure medications, and many more.
The complaint alleges that the collusive activity peaked between July, 2013, and January, 2015, when one of the participants in the alleged conspiracy, Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc., is alleged to have significantly raised prices on about 387 formulations of 112 different generic drugs. The size of the alleged price increases varies, but a number of drugs saw their prices soar by “well over 1,000 percent.”
A cornerstone of the conspiracy, the complaint alleges, was an understanding among the defendant companies that they would cooperate on pricing so each company could maintain a “fair share” of the various generic drug markets. At the same time the companies also colluded to “significantly raise prices on as many drugs as possible.”
Knowing their actions were illegal, corporate conspirators generally chose to talk in person or by cell phone, so as not to create a written record of their conduct, the complaint asserts.
During their conversations, the defendant executives were said to frequently use coded terms like “playing nice in the sandbox” and “responsible competitor” to describe their anti-competitive efforts and to reference the industry’s ingrained culture of collusion.
The industry’s many posh trade shows, cocktail parties, dinners, conferences, golf outings and other events provided opportunities for such face-to-face discussions, the complaint notes. And when communications were reduced to writing or text messages, the defendants often “took overt and calculated steps to destroy evidence” of them.
Much of the anti-competitive conduct allegedly occurred in New Jersey, where many of the defendants are based. For example, the complaint identifies a January, 2014, “industry dinner” at a steakhouse in Bridgewater, which was attended by at least 13 high-ranking executives from more than five companies.
The complaint alleges violations of the Sherman Act, a federal antitrust law, as well as violations of numerous state laws, including New Jersey’s Antitrust Act and Consumer Fraud Act.
The lawsuit seeks damages, civil penalties, and actions by the court to restore competition to the generic drug market.
The lawsuit is the second stemming from a multi-state investigation led by the Connecticut Attorney General. The first lawsuit, which is still pending in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, was filed in December, 2016. New Jersey joined that action, which now includes 18 corporate defendants, two individual defendants and 15 generic drugs, in early 2017.
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South Wales police face surveillance system no more accurate than a coin toss
11/28/2018 - Algorithms, Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning, Biometrics, Freedom of Speech, Mass Surveillance, Police Militarization, Security Theater
Image: The ISIS camera configuration set-up at Logan airport in Boston, MA. Image courtesy the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
A new study examining a face surveillance program implemented by the South Wales police finds the system is wrong 50 percent of the time. The Financial Times reports:
The facial recognition technology used by South Wales Police was developed by Japanese company NEC and has two functions: a live camera feed of faces matched against a pre-determined watchlist, known as “locate”, and a comparison of still images of unidentified people against the police custody database, called “identify”. The “locate” mode depends on the quality of cameras following moving targets.
According to researchers, this yielded “true positive” results in 26 per cent of cases and “false positives” in 50 per cent.
“Identify” yielded correct matches in 22 per cent of cases and incorrect matches in 9 per cent. However, more than two-thirds of submissions made by police officers in the identify mode were of images that were not of high enough quality to enable a match.
The study cites poor camera quality, low light, and people wearing things like hats and sunglasses as obstacles to the system’s accuracy. Apparently jogging past the cameras is enough to confuse the facial recognition system.
The ACLU has called for government agencies in the United States to decline to adopt face surveillance technologies, citing both their inaccuracy and the uniquely dangerous character of the surveillance they enable. In July, the ACLU of California used Amazon’s face surveillance product, Rekognition, to scan the faces of members of Congress against a mug shot database. The results? Amazon’s technology misidentified 28 members of Congress in the mug shot database, a disproportionate number of them members of color.
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Quick Sips - GigaNotoSaurus April 2016
This month's GigaNotoSaurus features some genuinely strange visuals and a great style, and fits in with the spring, with the idea of rebirth and renewal. It's long but not too long, tightly plotted with enough exposition to give a sense of place and back story but not slave to that, able to weave an interesting and rather mysterious story where the veil is never fully lifted. And really, it's a good read that I'm going to review now!
"The Garden of Sons and Husbands" by Alex Jeffers (11,010 words)
I think I got to the point where there is this giant collective of baby-faced birds and thought to myself "okay this is a bit strange." And that could really be said of this entire story. A bit strange. But also rather good. The story is about names, really, about the names of young men and the names of gods. About how things change and get lost. About prices to be paid. And I think the story thrives because of its setting, this odd mix of elements, religion and also a cataclysm that happened in the past where the moon shattered and some of it fell to earth. There is a great sense of magic here, and wonder, but with a dark edge, these powers that have existed for so long and who have forgotten their name or forsaken their name or never had a name. It's about a priest trying to lay some part of himself and his religion to rest. About a mother trying to retrieve her son. And it's strange and it's kind of fun and it's a richly imagined world that has history and has tragedy and darkness all mixed together. It's also where I struggled at times with the story, because it feels part of something larger and while I think there's definitely enough here to stand on its own, to have meaning, there was a sense that what is witnessed is part of some larger mystery that the reader can't really begin to fully appreciate.
Of course I like that about the story, too. I like that not everything is cut and dry, that there are things that go unanswered. It gives the ending less of a clean feeling, which is important because it's a messy situation. So much about the situation has been lost to the past, lost with the dead. [SPOILERS] and it's the case that the people at the end have no idea what just happened. They have been used and saved all at once, but the true scale of what just happened is lost to them. They were either dreaming or in pain and in any event no one explained it fully. They saw something of a scale that was boggling but in part because they didn't know what it was they can dust themselves off and make their own future. It was the past, there, all the messy weight of it still exacting its toll, no long even meaningful because the reasons were lost to time. And they are finally wiped away. The sins of the past are paid and the present can stretch on. And if there is no real explanation there doesn't need to be, because the point is that they get to make their own future, find their own names. It's a fun ending that leaves me wanting to know what happens to the characters next. What kind of magic remains and what sort of newness prevails. In any event it's a vivid, complex story with a great atmosphere and stunning action. Go check it out!
Labels: Alex Jeffers, April 2016, GigaNotoSaurus
michael kohlhaas April 16, 2016 at 9:23 AM
Sharp review of a remarkable story. I've been reading Jeffers's stories and novels for years and, if you like this one, I would highly recommend his collection of stories, You Will Meet a Stranger Far from Home: Wonder Stories, for ten more excellent tales (I'm especially fond of Jannicke's Cat" ~ it is every bit as good as "The Garden of Sons and Husbands")
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Home » Library » Reacting on Autopilot: When Good Intentions Fall Short
Reacting on Autopilot: When Good Intentions Fall Short
By Lynn Margolies, Ph.D.
Pages: 1 2All
Disclaimer: The characters from these vignettes are fictitious. They were derived from a composite of people and events for the purpose of representing real-life situations and psychological dilemmas which occur in families.
Julius was a 34-year-old married veterinarian with two children, Tyler, age 5, and Luke, age 2. He was a well-liked, good-natured man with an easy sense of humor and quick wit.
When Julius was growing up, his parents were successful doctors and provided a home with the trappings of normalcy for him and his brother. However, Julius witnessed and was dragged into ugly scenes resulting from his father’s temper and his parents’ battles, which frequently left him feeling powerless and despondent. His dad’s rage and disparagement was inescapable — randomly and unpredictably foisted onto any one of them, including Julius.
In the aftermath of explosive episodes, everyone in the family retreated in silence to their separate quarters. Julius found himself isolated and in a state of confusion with no one to help or settle him. He remembers staring at his image in the bathroom mirror, drawn to the sadness in his reflection, eyes red and swollen from crying. Overwhelmed by helplessness, repressed “unfelt” anger, and sense of unending despair, Julius’ alternated between wishing he were dead and wishing his parents were dead. At times he acted out his feelings by tormenting his younger brother. This cycle left Julius feeling bad, ashamed and guilty.
As an adult Julius struggled with periodic bouts of anger, mostly toward his children but occasionally toward his wife, Elizabeth. During these incidents, Julius projected a superior and critical attitude and became entrenched in rigid, prefabricated ways of thinking and acting. He exhibited an impenetrable certainty that he was “right” and was convinced that others deserved what they got and needed to be taught a lesson — a way of thinking and behaving reminiscent of his dad.
Julius recounted the story of a Father’s Day outing to a park with his wife and sons. He became impatient with Tyler for taking so long to leave the park after he had repeatedly told him to get ready to leave. Julius became frustrated and mad and left the park, waiting for Elizabeth and the kids by the car. When Elizabeth prepared to leave, she noticed that Julius was gone. She then quickly looked for Tyler, who also appeared to be missing. Shortly thereafter, Elizabeth found Julius by the car, but saw that Tyler was not with him. She panicked. Meanwhile, Julius had already spotted Tyler happily playing nearby, oblivious to all of this.
Uncharacteristically, Elizabeth was furious, vehemently reproaching Julius in the car. In response, Julius suddenly turned around to Tyler, yelling at him, “What’s wrong with you — what were you doing off by yourself? This is your fault. Thanks for ruining Father’s Day.” Tyler began to cry. The silence in the car the rest of the ride home was deafening. Everyone was frightened and deflated. Later, when Tyler saw that Julius felt bad, Tyler said, “Don’t feel bad, Daddy, I made you a Father’s Day card… I’m not sad.”
Julius could see, after the fact, that his reactions to Tyler were extreme — but they were reflexive, and felt as if they were driven by an uncontrollable force from inside him. He was also painfully aware that this incident and others like it were an exact replay of what happened in his own family growing up. Wanting more than anything to be a great dad, Julius felt disappointed in himself, demoralized, and regretful.
When his own experiences as a child were activated in his relationship with his son, Julius was unable to see Tyler accurately. From birth, we encode feelings, perceptions, memories, and behaviors. Our experiences generalize to form templates which shape our minds and act as lenses through which we see and react to the world. A process of internalization occurs through implicit memory, a type of nonverbal memory which exists throughout the lifespan and does not require conscious awareness of what is encoded (Seigel & Hartzell, 2003). When such invisible and unconscious templates are activated later on in adulthood, we are not aware that something is even being evoked or remembered, giving the evoked experience even more power over us (Seigel & Hartzell, 2003) . Instead of responding in the present, a drama from the past is reenacted, with our children or spouse as stand-ins for the original players. When such a process is set in motion, parents become unable to see their children’s true intentions and what is really happening.
On Father’s Day, Julius reacted instinctively, on autopilot, clinging to the conviction that he was justified — unaware that he was reliving something from his past. As a child, Julius unconsciously learned to bear the burden of responsibility and blame for his parents’ unhappiness, leading him to internalize a feeling of badness, shame, and powerlessness as part of his sense of himself. When these feelings were triggered (which primarily occurred in the context of family), Julius instinctively got rid of them by transmitting them to Tyler, through the same psychological process which occurred between him and his dad. In the incident on Father’s Day, Julius felt bad about himself and ashamed when confronted by Elizabeth. Julius’ shame instantly and seamlessly morphed into anger without even registering, and was quickly projected onto Tyler, who then took on the feeling of badness instead.
One evening Julius found Tyler and Luke in their room, with Luke’s hair soaked with milk. Tyler was laughing and having fun as he shook his sippy-cup and watched the milk spill onto Luke’s head. Luke, in his innocence, seemed content and oblivious as his brother danced around and giggled. Julius was furious to see this. He yelled at Tyler, frightening him, “What is wrong with you? You should know better. How could you do something like that to your brother? You should want to be nice to your brother and not hurt him.” Tyler cried and looked ashamed.
Here Julius’s compartmentalized experience of tormenting his brother when he was a child was displaced and remembered later — emotionally and behaviorally — in his emotional reactions to Tyler’s relationship with Luke. Terrified that Tyler wanted to hurt his younger brother, Julius was blind to his son. Instead of seeing Tyler and his playfulness with his brother, he saw the part of himself who hurt his brother, and reacted to his own guilt and fears by admonishing Tyler.
But why did Julius continue to fall prey to these episodes of hurting Tyler even though he wanted so badly to be a better dad and seemed to have insight into why he was acting this way?
Lynn Margolies, Ph.D.
Dr. Lynn Margolies is a psychologist and former Harvard Medical School faculty and fellow, and has completed her internship and post-doc at McLean Hospital. She has helped people from all walks of life with relationship, family, life problems, trauma, and psychological symptoms including depression, anxiety, and chronic conditions. Dr. Margolies has worked in inpatient, outpatient, residential and private practice settings. She has supervised others, and consulted to clinics, hospitals, universities, newspapers. Dr. Margolies has appeared in media -- on news and talk shows, and written columns for various publications. Dr. Margolies is currently in private practice in Newton Centre, MA. Visit her website at drlynnmargolies.com.
Margolies, L. (2018). Reacting on Autopilot: When Good Intentions Fall Short. Psych Central. Retrieved on July 17, 2019, from https://psychcentral.com/lib/reacting-on-autopilot-when-good-intentions-fall-short/
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North Carolina Legislator Profile: John Faircloth (R-Guilford)
In this Real Facts Legislator Profile, we focus on Rep. John Faircloth, the Republican Representative from House District 61. Faircloth is currently serving his fourth term in the House. Before being elected to the General Assembly, Faircloth spent seven years on the High Point City Council and served as police chief of the city for 16 years. In his time in the legislature, Faircloth voted for the unconstitutional racial gerrymander of his own district, and Rep. Faircloth has used his position to bring unconstitutional gerrymanders to local districts in his home county. He has also supported and sponsored a number of bills that gutted protections on drinking water and has failed to prioritize public schools.
Faircloth currenlty represents House District 61, but recent redistricting caused his district to change. Faircloth has filed for re-election to the House in District 62, also in Guilford County. Read more on Faircloth here.
Faircloth voted to protect his own district with an unconstitutional racial gerrymander and meddled with local elections in Guilford county.
Faircloth voted for the 2011 election maps, which have been ruled unconstitutional because they contain racial gerrymanders.
Faircloth supported redistricting for the Greensboro City Council, later ruled unconstitutional.
Faircloth was the sponsor of a bill that redrew Guilford County Commissioner Districts, which resulted in a law suit.
Faircloth has voted for multiple bills that damage the environment, including sponsoring one that allowed the continued pollution of Jordan Lake.
Faircloth voted for budgets which saw per pupil spending go down in our public schools.
(Source: Greensboro News & Record)
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Rep. Ted Davis tried to block protections for survivors of rape using technicality.
Rep. Ted Davis (R-New Hanover) asked legislators to vote no on an amendment to one of his bills meant to clarify ambiguities in NC’s laws covering survivors of sexual assault or rape. The amendment, proposed by Rep. Chaz Beasley (D-Mecklenburg), offered protections for survivors of what the law defines as “date rape.”
“I don't believe I have the authority to change the language," Davis said, claiming the amendment was not relevant to the rest of his bill.
After Davis’s request, the majority of Republicans voted against offering legal protections for “date rape” survivors. The amendment passed by two votes, 56-54.
Beasley’s amendment “better protect[s] victims that have been drugged without their knowledge.”
Republican leadership frequently scraps bills and completely rewrites them to avoid public oversight. Republicans used this method to pass several of their most controversial measures; for example, they transformed a motorcycle safety bill into one of the nation’s most restrictive pieces of anti-abortion legislation in the middle of the night.
This year they used this method to block debate and amendments on the budget rather than allow rank-and-file members of their own party and any member of the minority party the opportunity to submit changes.
Davis supported most additions of unrelated measures, voting for the 2018 budget and for the 2013 “motorcyclevagina” bill. So, why the change when it came protecting survivors of rape?
Even though he tried to block an amendment that would protect survivors of sexual assault or rape by claiming it was unrelated to the bill, Davis voted in favor of this kind of “tacked on” amendment in the past.
Davis voted to change the way the governor appointed district court judges in an amendment added to a bill about medical care in prisons. Davis voted for the bill and for the amendment that made the unrelated change.
Davis was comfortable with an unrelated measure that cut disaster relief funds by $500,000to litigate HB2, but couldn’t stomach adding protections for survivors of sexual assault to an unrelated bill.
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Terry Brown: Differed with Band on Electronics
Long-time Rush producer Terry Brown said in his intervew wth Canadian Music Scene’s Paul Beaulieu earlier this year that his split with Rush in 1983, after working on 10 albums together, “was and wasn’t” amiable, because he and the band were conflicted over their musical direction. Neil was starting to experiment with digital drum pads and Geddy was ramping up his use of keyboards, which had the effect of relegating Alex’s guitars to “second fiddle” status. “I didn’t like the sounds I was hearing,” he told Beaulieu, who’s been conducting a series of interviews with people who’ve worked with Rush over the years.
“I really didn’t get it. . . . The balance was shifting from [being] guitar-oriented, which of course I loved, and was becoming very heavily keyboard-oriented. I just wasn’t really enthused about going down that road. . . . I said, ‘Hey, if that’s what you want, that’s what you get,’ so it was amiable in that sense. And we had a really good run together.”
Brown also talked about the trouble Geddy was having with the vocals on Hemispheres, the whole album of which was written “a semitone” too high for him to sing comfortably. A semitone is also referred to as a halftone or half stop and is the step between two adjacent notes. “He worked really hard for two weeks to get those vocals, and they drove him crazy,” he said. “It drove everyone crazy.”
On recording the band’s second live album, Exit . . . Stage Left, Brown said the big challenge, unlike on the first live album All the World’s a Stage, was making the album sound cohesive, because the pieces were being pulled from different shows in different venues and were recorded using different equipment. All the World’s a Stage, by contrast, was recorded over three nights at the same place, Toronto’s Massey Hall, using the same equipment. On Exit . . . Stage Left, some pieces were recorded with trucks using a Neve console and others were recorded with trucks using an API console, which doesn’t use transformers. The API consoles produced very clear sounds, but compared to the Neve consoles, which use transformers, the sounds were transparent and thin. So, to thicken up the sounds to match them with the Neve recordings, engineer Paul Northfield ran the API recordings through transformers. “We finally got it together and we managed to match it and use takes from different nights,” he said.
Beaulieu asked Brown if the irony of “The Spirit of Radio” becoming a Top 40 hit was intentional. The piece takes a poke at the commercialism of Top 40 radio, which had always shunned the band. Brown didn’t have an answer to that but called the song a “killer. . . . It appealed to me so much because it had a progressive edge to it and yet it was devastating commercial. Poppy almost.”
More on Beaulieu’s interview with Brown about his Rush years.
~ by rvkeeper on December 27, 2011.
Posted in Background and commentary
Tags: Broon, Canadian Music Scene, Paul Beaulieu, Terry Brown
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“I will sing to the Lord all my life; as long as I live I will sing praises to my God.
May He be pleased with my song, for my gladness comes from Him.”
—Psalms 100:33-34
Because sacred music gives glory and praise to God, it has been an integral part of the life of the Church from the very beginning. One of the many vibrant ministries at Sacred Heart Church is our Music Ministry. Music brings life and vitality to our liturgies, inviting and engaging parishioners into full and active participation during our time of worship. Music has the power of moving people to tears, to joy, to contemplation and to communion with one another and with our God. The choirs of Sacred Heart embrace all those with the calling to make a joyful noise to the Lord. Voices young and old, meek and strong come together as one to lead our community of faith in song during liturgical worship and meditation.
Our groups include a Youth Choir from First Communion age (2nd grade) through High School age, the Adult Choir welcomes any confirmed adults, young and old that enjoy leading the assembly in our weekend liturgy, and the Resurrection Choir whose purpose is to offer comfort and support through music to those grieving their deceased loved ones at our Rite of Christian Burial services.
The Youth Choir sings at the 11 am liturgy on the 2nd and 4th Sundays of the month, and rehearsals are every Sunday following the 11 am liturgy from 12 – 1pm.
The Adult Choir sings on a rotation schedule, singing the 9am mass the first two Sundays of the month, the 11am on the third Sunday and the 5pm Saturday Vigil Mass on the 4th Saturday of the month. The Adult and Youth Choirs participate in our annual Lessons and Carols service the 3rd Sunday of Advent, and the Adult Choir offers prayerful and reflective music at our annual Faith Reflection Service held every Palm Sunday. The Adult Choir meets for weekly rehearsals on Thursday evenings from 7-9pm. The season runs Sept. through June.
The Resurrection Choir is a group of singers, freely volunteering their time to sing at morning funeral liturgies. There is no obligation to sing at every funeral, and membership is open year round.
The latest addition to the Music Ministry is the popular Rely On Christ (ROC) Mass. The ROC Band Mass is held at the 5:00 pm Vigil Mass on the first Saturday of the month. This new electric liturgy, appealing to teens and young adults is alive with the sound of electric guitars, bass, drums, piano, and other instruments featuring popular Christian rock music. Teenage and young adult singers help lead the music during this lively liturgy. The homilies are directed to the age group. Teens and young adults are also welcome to join in liturgical roles such as readers, ushers, and greeters.
The Music Ministry is a very active part of our worshiping community at Sacred Heart, and we look forward to welcoming your voice into our joyful noise!
Choir Rehearsal Recordings
The following choir rehearsal recordings may be listened to in several ways:
If your computer is set up properly with the appropriate browser plug-in to play music files, you may click on the link below directly to listen to it from your computer.
If you wish to download the MP3 file to your computer so that you may listen to it from an MP3 player or other portable device, you can right-click on the desired link, and then select either the "Save Target As" or "Save Link As" option which will allow you to save it to a location on your computer.
Choir Practice 03/22/2018
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Rock Hill Hit-and-Run Accident Lawyer
A hit-and-run accident occurs when someone causes a wreck and then leaves the scene. There is a criminal penalty to fleeing the scene of a car accident, but a personal injury claim can be difficult to pursue if the identity of the at-fault driver is unknown. The good news is that in South Carolina, every driver must carry uninsured motorist insurance.
If you were injured in a hit-and-run accident, you should reach out to a dedicated auto collision attorney. A Rock Hill hit-and-run accident lawyer could help you identify all available sources of compensation and pursue fair payment for your losses.
Pursuing an Uninsured Motorist Coverage Claim
If a driver causes a wreck and then leaves the scene, the victim of that wreck still has some recourse through their own uninsured motorist coverage. This coverage like a liability policy, and it will cover the same type of damages that a liability policy would have if the at-fault driver had not left the scene.
However, there still needs to be some evidence that the wreck occurred, either by physical damage to the vehicle, witness statements, or police reports. The victim needs to be able to provide that evidence to their own uninsured motorist coverage in order to bring that claim.
How an Attorney Could Help With a Hit-and-Run Claim
There are two ways an attorney can help with hit-and-run accident claims in Rock Hill. One is to attempt to gather evidence and use it to locate the at-fault driver. The other thing is to navigate the insurance coverages that go along with unnamed or uninsured drivers.
While it can be difficult to locate drivers who flee the scene, it is possible. If police responded to the crash, they may conduct a criminal investigation and attempt to find the at-fault driver. Additionally, an experienced attorney could attempt to locate evidence themselves. For example, witness statements could help identify the vehicle, or local businesses may have captured the incident on surveillance cameras. Because evidence can become difficult to locate over time, it is important to act quickly after a collision.
Lawyers could also try to protect victims from the insurance companies, even if the provider is their own. The insurance company may try to argue comparative fault or otherwise minimize the amount they need to pay. A Rock Hill hit-and-run accident attorney could help to protect a victim’s interest and fight for maximum compensation.
Recoverable Damages in an Auto Collision Case
The recoverable damages in a hit-and-run case are the same as those in other crashes. Victims are still entitled to recover compensation for economic harms, including but not limited to:
Medical treatment,
Lost income
Travel expenses to doctors’ offices
Damage to their vehicle
Additionally, victims can recover non-economic damages for pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, and mental anguish. Finally, punitive damages may be tied to a hit-and-run accident if it can be shown that at-fault driver engaged in some type of reckless behavior, such as drunk driving or racing. However, this can be very difficult to prove when someone flees the scene.
Reach Out to a Rock Hill Hit-and-Run Accident Attorney
If you were hurt in a motor vehicle crash, you may be entitled to fair payment for your losses. If the other driver fled the scene, however, it can make a case much more complex. For this reason, many victims choose to work with an experienced Rock Hill hit-and-run accident lawyer. A dedicated attorney could work to identify the responsible party, negotiate with insurance providers, and pursue full compensation. Call Schiller & Hamilton today to schedule a consultation.
Rock Hill Car Accident Lawyer
Common Types
Contacting Insurance Companies
Determining Fault
Filing a Report
Drunk Driving Accident
Front-End Accident
Parking Lot Accident
Side-Impact
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10 Completely Obvious Research Discoveries
by Jessika Toothman
Browse the article 10 Completely Obvious Research Discoveries
Oh I'm sorry, BMW, were you saying something?
iStockphoto/Thinkstock
Fun fact: If a car (preferably a luxury car) is parked in an illegal spot, you can completely solve the problem by plowing over it with an armored tank. Just ask Vilnius, Lithuania, mayor Arturas Zuokas.
OK, so that's not really research, but the stunt is hilarious to watch, even though the end result – a viral video and a useless pile of once-expensive scrap metal – is pretty predictable. So why do scientists, who last time we checked were not cranky mayors with tanks at their disposal who wanted to make a point, get tangled up in research that seems just as flat-out obvious?
Sometimes, it's an attempt to finally get some real data behind those observations everyone knows, or to disprove the things everyone knows but aren't really true. Especially when it comes to controversy, getting some science to support all that anecdotal evidence can be a good plan. But every once in a while, you have to wonder. Here are 10 studies that raised our eyebrows (but not necessarily our IQs).
Cellphones and Driving Don't Mix.
No seriously. Hang up.
Juan Silva/The Image Bank/Getty Images
It seems like just about every U.S. driver has a story about seeing an accident (or nearly avoiding getting into one) thanks to the inattentive, erratic driving of some jerk on a cell phone. Talking on the phone while driving is dangerous: It's a no-brainer, right? The brains of science agree.
Thanks to one study, we also know it's worse if you're mired in stop-and-go traffic. Cellphone-equipped drivers react 18 percent slower when there are brake lights up ahead. They're also 17 percent slower to get back up to speed, all of which exacerbates the unbearably tedious cycle of stopping and going [source: Strayer and Drews].
So the brilliant conclusion we've reached here is this: If you're going to strap yourself into a four-wheeled death machine and join a herd of other metal monsters, maybe ordering takeout or gossiping about that guy at tennis practice should wait.
High Heels Can Make Your Feet Hurt.
Humans have been wearing shoes for some 40,000 years, but it wasn't until more recently that elevation entered the equation [source: Trinkaus]. Footwear changes how people walk and can even cause broader physiological effects. But when you wear high heels, that transformation can become particularly unpleasant.
Sure, given enough dedication to height enhancement, you might eventually end up with smaller calf muscles – good for looking slender, we suppose, although not for any practical purposes -- but the balls of your feet will be smashed, your toes will be squashed together and your feet may eventually curl inward in what we can only suppose is the fetal position a foot assumes under extreme duress [source: Britt]. We know this thanks to a study on 3,300 men and women.
So basically, the lesson here is: When you jam your feet into a pair of heels, that pain you feel is millions of years of evolution punishing you for your efforts.
Flip-flops Fail, Too
High heels aren't the only shoe that's going to leave you hobbling around. It's just the most obvious. Flip-flops without arch supports or straps are a strain on the foot's connective tissue (think all the little fibers holding us meat bags together) which can lead to painful inflammation. Eventually, your ankles and hips could fall victim to your flip-flop obsession, too.
Going Bald is Upsetting.
Should it be red? Too cliché. I'm going for yellow!
Apparently going bald makes men unhappy. Like $50,000 sports car unhappy. Understandably, then, it can also get to the point that they experience depression and other psychological issues. But in spite of all that heart-wrenching anecdotal evidence, scientists weren't satisfied. One study set out to find out just how horrible, exactly, men felt about going bald. (We don't really want to imagine what those phone polls were like.)
So, how horrible was it? Hair loss caused 43 percent to be concerned about their attractiveness, 37 percent to be worried about getting older, 22 percent to be anxious about the impact it would have on their social life, 21 percent to be depressed about it and 62 percent to believe it could impact their self-esteem [source: Informa Healthcare].
All right, researchers, you've made your point. Happy now?
Employees Hate Meetings.
Meetings at work can be informative. They can also be dreadful, unnecessary bore-fests that seem to last a lifetime. And there are too many of them.
Science solved the riddle of just what "too many meetings" means. Somebody in upper management typically squanders 23 hours a week in meetings. Managers in the middle often spend 12 hours a week wasting away in meetings. And the minions? Still about 6 hours [source: Rogelberg]. And those numbers just keep climbing.
Unfortunately, as research proves, a painstaking meeting schedule has the worst effect on the employees who are the most motivated and productive. They start to feel stressed and bogged down. Slackers, on the other hand, love meetings [source: Rogelberg]. They get to yack with coworkers, avoid dreaded to-do lists, and basically kill time until 5:00.
So how many meetings did these researchers attend in order to come to this conclusion? No idea. But probably more than a few.
Friends Are Awesome.
Friends are fun to hang out with? So that's what we keep them around for! And – bonus – not only do friends make us happy, but they're also good for our health, too, since they make our lives less miserable and pathetic.
Lots of research has been conducted to figure out whether friendship is really worth the cost of having friends. Turns out it is. Perhaps the starkest and most macabre study discovered that over a 10-year period, people with lots of friends were 22 percent less likely to die [source: New York Times]. So that's a plus. Friends have also been shown to make compadres more optimistic (enemies aren't often heralded for boosting self-esteem) and they can help lower stress levels, too.
Friendship can be a double-edged sword, however, because friends can also be your downfall. Another study found that if one friend gains weight, others in the close social circle have a 60 percent chance of following suit. After all, it's not like somebody with friends is going to go at the Cheesecake Factory all alone, right?
So we guess the takeaway is, um, to paraphrase "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade": Choose wisely, for true friends will give you life and false ones will take it from you.
Sword Swallowing Can be Dangerous.
Some of us use a toothpick. Just saying.
Lots of professions are dangerous. Firefighting is certainly risky. Piloting can be perilous under particular circumstances. Mining is alarmingly hazardous. One thing those all have in common, though, is that they're vital occupations. Sword swallowing? Yeah, not so much.
Nonetheless, some people practice sword swallowing as a profession. So researchers have, of course, studied these performers to see what medical complications they run into and why. Very unsurprisingly, sore throats and chest pains are often issues, especially when sword swallowers are learning the trade or if they're booking lots of gigs. Well, that's to be expected.
But sometimes a trick goes awry. Sword swallowers can puncture their esophagus (saw that one coming) although they usually end up making pretty good patients. Gastrointestinal bleeding is another grievance that happens in the sword swallowing community (which is why most people think of swords as for external use only) but usually they can be patched up [source: Witcombe].
So what's the why in these scenarios? Sword swallowers are more prone to serious injury when they aren't paying enough attention. Yup – if you aren't focused on the fact that you're shoving a long sharp object down your throat, you may have a problem. Other red flags: trying a new sword or trying to swallow multiple swords at once.
Shocking stuff.
When It's Cold, People Bundle Up.
Unless you're one of those polar bear plunge people who enjoys jumping into icy water wearing nothing but an elegantly-fitted Speedo, you probably pull your coat out of the closet the first cold day of winter and leave it on until spring.
Well, you're not alone. We know this thanks to a study on adaptive thermal comfort, which plotted out the relationship between temperatures and the thermal resistance of people's clothes [source: van der Linden]. Basically, when the temperature gets colder, people dress more warmly. A further stunning revelation is this: People are most swayed by the outdoor temperature at around 6:00 a.m. [source: De Carli].
So, there you have it. There's proof behind that wintertime whine, "It's cold out. I don't want to get up!" and that search for a warm sweater when you're feeling chilly.
Drunk People Have Unsafe Sex.
It's a big stereotype – intoxicated people at a party, shuffling off to do something they'll regret later. It makes for many a made-for-TV drama. And it also, according to studies, makes for many a real-life walk of shame.
The finding: An increase in blood alcohol content (BAC) of 0.1 mg/ml leads to a 5 percent increase in the likelihood of having sex without using a condom. And as BAC rises, so does that likelihood [source: Rehm]. But here's the thing: This didn't come from just one study of risky behavior. This was a meta-analysis of 12 other studies of risky behavior that had already been done. Figuring out that intoxication makes you more likely to do something foolish seems to be a hot topic.
The good news is, after adjusting for publication bias, the increase in risky behavior turns out to be a little smaller than originally thought – 2.9 percent with a 0.1 mg/ml increase. But it's still there. And it still goes up along with rising BAC.
On the one hand, it's important for researchers to have a good sense of how people are behaving, especially when it comes to preventing HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. But on the other hand, this is one we knew all along.
Busty Women Get Bigger Tips.
This study must have been really unenjoyable to conduct. Eh, Science Man?
Polka Dot Images/Polka Dot/Thinkstock
This is, of course, part of the business model Hooters has been banking on for years. Not to offend their kitchen staff. I'm sure such unique and enticing dishes as the Fried Onion Tanglers, Pulled BBQ Pork Sandwich and the Nacho Ordinary Burger are huge draws. (Side note: We wonder which is more popular, the Naked Wings or the Boneless Wings. Much to ponder there). But still, come on.
The greater area of study, sometimes referred to as the "literature on female physical attractiveness" includes this politely-worded niche: "evolutionary theories about the determinants and consequences of female beauty." And perhaps it makes for some really interesting and unexpected research. But not here. Not this time. This time, the shocking conclusion reached by the researchers was: The more you look like Barbie, the better your tips.
But there's more. Another set of researchers wanted to see how big breasts affected a woman's chances of successfully hitchhiking. Female drivers were unfazed by breast size and offered a lift at a fairly steady rate; not so with men. Only about 15 percent would pull over for an A-cup, while nearly 25 percent were enticed enough to stop and give a C-cup a ride [source: Psychology Today].
Welcome to the creepy side of science.
You Should Keep Babies Away from Ledges.
It's eating its foot. And you trust it to not fall off the couch?
Photostock/Thinkstock
This quote from a 1960 study called "The Visual Cliff" is priceless: "Evidently infants should not be left close to a brink, no matter how well they may discriminate depth."
Indeed. Would you like a slice of Captain Obvious Cake to go with that tentative safety recommendation? Parents – your babies should be able to keep themselves from falling off stuff, but just in case ...
The study, for all its "well, duh" conclusion, was pretty crafty in execution. It used a flat, raised surface, half of it clear glass the other half plywood covered by a patterned cloth. A board ran down the junction, and that's where they started the babies off. Moms would stand on one end or the other, calling to their infants and trying to bribe them with promises of pretty pinwheels. Most of the babies didn't want to venture onto the glass. But a few also engaged with the glass, despite eventually heading in the right direction, whether by leaning on and peering through it, or accidentally scooting back legs onto it while preparing to take off for the safe side.
So while babies might be able to perceive depth, they're not always so smart about what to do when they encounter it. Shocker. Go buy a baby gate and really stick it to science.
Is 'Young Blood' the Fountain of Youth?
A startup is touting the anti-aging effects of transfusing teenagers' blood in older people. Stuff They Don't Want You To Know investigates.
Author's Note: 10 Completely Obvious Research Discoveries
This article was a ton of fun to write. I got to read about a lot of good science, a lot of mediocre science and a lot of straight-up awful science. It's hard to tell which I enjoyed the most.
10 Accidental Inventions You Won't Believe
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Top 5 Crazy Government Experiments
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What were Nikola Tesla's famous inventions?
Are patent trolls smothering innovation?
Alfonso, Mariola et al. "The psychosocial impact of hair loss among men: a multinational European study." Informa Healthcare. 2005. (Sept. 2, 2012) http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10.1185/030079905x61820
Allen, Laura. "Science Confirms the Obvious!" PopSci. May 1, 2006. (Sept. 2, 2012) http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2006-05/science-confirms-obvious
Benson, Jason R. "The 6 Cruelest Science Experiments Ever (Were Done on Kids.") Cracked.com. Aug. 29, 1012. (Sept. 2, 2012) http://www.cracked.com/article_19993_the-6-cruelest-science-experiments-ever-were-done-kids_p2.html
Britt, Robert Roy. "Drivers on Cell Phones Kill Thousands, Snarl Traffic." LiveScience. Feb. 1, 2005. (Sept. 2, 2012) http://www.livescience.com/121-drivers-cell-phones-kill-thousands-snarl-traffic.html
Britt, Robert Roy. "High Heels Lead to Foot Pain." LiveScience. Sept. 29, 2009. (Sept. 2, 2012) http://www.livescience.com/7911-high-heels-lead-foot-pain.html
Brown, Eryn. "'Duh' science: Why researchers spend so much time proving the obvious." LA Times. May 28, 2011. (Sept. 2, 2012) http://articles.latimes.com/2011/may/28/science/la-sci-duh-20110529
Carli, Michele et al. "Temperature May Affect Clothing Choice." Building and Environment. December 2007. (Sept. 2, 2012) http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360132306003672
Coughlan, Sean. "Hair today, gone tomorrow." BBC. May 9, 2012. (Sept. 2, 2012) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4750193.stm
Crezo, Adrienne. "Science Sides with Captain Obvious: Unsurprising Study Results." NeatoRama. July 20, 2011. (Sept. 2, 2012) http://www.neatorama.com/2011/07/20/science-sides-with-captain-obvious-unsurprising-study-results/
"Duh! 7 of 2010's most obvious scientific discoveries." The Week. Dec. 30, 2010. (Sept. 2, 2012) http://theweek.com/article/index/210383/duh-7-of-2010s-most-obvious-scientific-discoveries
"Gallery: Science Confirms The Obvious." PopSci. Aug. 8, 2010. (Sept. 2, 2012) http://www.popsci.com/science/gallery/2010-07/gallery-science-confirms-obvious-2010?image=0
Gibson, Eleanor and Walk, Richard. "The "Visual Cliff." Cornell University. 1960. (Sept. 2, 2012) http://www.scribd.com/doc/3956434/The-Visual-Cliff
"Happy Guys Finish Last, Says New Study On Sexual Attractiveness." March 26, 2011. (Sept. 2, 2012) http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/05/110524070310.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:%20sciencedaily%20(ScienceDaily:%20Latest%20Science%20News)
"Menu." Hooters. (Sept. 2, 2012) http://www.hooters.com/_content/menu/menu.aspx
"Ignobles." Improbable Research. (Sept. 2, 2012) http://www.improbable.com/
Koerth-Baker, Maggie. "First Shoes Worn 40,000 Years Ago." LiveScience. June 5, 2008. (Sept. 2, 2012) http://www.livescience.com/4964-shoes-worn-40-000-years.html
Lynn, Michael. "Determinants and Consequences of Female Attractiveness and Sexiness: Realistic Tests with Restaurant Waitresses." Archives of Sexual Behavior. 2009. (Sept. 2, 2012) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18543091
McManis, Sam. "Obvious conclusions from obvious studies." Phys.org. Fe. 2, 2010. (Sept. 2, 2012) http://phys.org/news184342719.html
"No Duh! The Most Obvious Scientific Discoveries of 2009." LiveScience. Dec. 31, 2009. (Sept. 2, 2012) http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2009/12/31/duh-obvious-scientific-discoveries/
Oestreich, Alan. "Danger of Multiple Magnets beyond the Stomach in Children." Journal of the National Medical Association. Feb. 2006. (Sept. 2, 2012) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2595063/pdf/jnma00297-0163.pdf
Parker-Pope, Tara. "What Are Friends For? A Longer Life." New York Times. April 20, 2009. (Sept. 2, 2012) http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/21/health/21well.html
Rehm, Jurgen et al. "Alcohol consumption and the intention to engage in unprotected sex: systematic review and meta-analysis of experimental studies." Addiction. Vol. 107, Issue 1. Jan. 2012 (Sept. 14, 2012) http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1360-0443.2011.03621.x/abstract
Rogelberg, Steven. "Meetings at Work." UNC Charlotte. (Sept. 2, 2012) http://orgscience.uncc.edu/sites/orgscience.uncc.edu/files/Meetings At Work.pdf
Saad, Gad. "The Allure of a Female Hitchhiker's Breast Size (To Male Drivers)." Homo Consumericus. June 19, 2010. (Sept. 2, 2012) http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/homo-consumericus/201006/the-allure-female-hitchhiker-s-breast-size-male-drivers
Strayer, David and Drews, Frank. "Profiles in Driver Distraction: Effects of Cell Phone Conversations on Younger and Older Drivers." University of Utah. Winter 2004. (Sept. 2, 2012) http://www.psych.utah.edu/AppliedCognitionLab/StrayerHFES04.pdf
Tracy, Jessica and Beall, Alec. "Happy guys finish last: The impact of emotion expressions on sexual attraction." Emotion. 2011. (Sept. 2, 2012) http://psycnet.apa.org/?&fa=main.doiLanding&doi=10.1037/a0022902
Valeo, Tom. "Bald men often feel ashamed and inferior. Here's how to get over it." WebMD. (Sept. 2, 2012) http://men.webmd.com/features/going-bald-all-your-head
van der Linden, Willemijne et. al. "Adaptive thermal comfort explained by PMV." Eindhoven University of Technology. 2008. (Sept. 2, 2012) http://www.bwk.tue.nl/bps/hensen/publications/08_indoor-air_linden.pdf
"Vilnius Mayor A.Zuokas Fights Illegally Parked Cars with Tank." Aug. 2, 2011. (Sept. 2, 2012) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-fWN0FmcIU
Wanjack, Christopher. "Flip-Flops Bad For Feet." LiveScience. June 24, 2008. (Sept. 2, 2012) http://www.livescience.com/7520-flip-flops-bad-feet.html
Watson, Jason and Strayer, David. "Supertaskers: Profiles in extraordinary multitasking abilities." Psychonomic Bulletin and Review. 2010. (Sept. 2, 2012) http://www.psych.utah.edu/lab/appliedcognition/publications/supertaskers.pdf
Witcombe, Brian and Meyer, Dan. "Sword swallowing and its side effects." BMJ. Dec. 21, 2006. (Sept. 2, 2012) http://www.bmj.com/content/333/7582/1285.abstract
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Bruins’ Marchand’s Sneaky Stick Stomp Avoids Call
Apr 26, 2019 | News, NHL
If you ain’t cheatin’, you ain’t tryin’, says the old NASCAR adage.
Boston’s Brad Marchand is always trying.
His latest attempt to gain an advantage by circumventing the rulebook came in Game 1 of the Bruins’ second-round matchup against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
With the two teams battling in overtime, Marchand found an opportunity to give his team an advantage. The pesky winger stomped on the stick of Blue Jackets forward Cam Atkinson, timing his footwork to coincide with the linesman’s puck drop.
Unfortunately for Marchand, his ploy failed as Boston center Patrice Bergeron jumped the gun, prompting linesman Ryan Gibbons to hold the puck and reset the draw.
Atkinson headed to the bench for a replacement stick.
“Hey, if that’s how he wants to roll,” Atkinson said of the intentional stick-break. “I don’t know, that’s who he is. I’m not going to let it get to me. It is what it is.”
Marchand’s lucky he didn’t get sent to the box for the stick break, either for interference or unsportsmanlike conduct.
56.2 Minor Penalty – A minor penalty shall be imposed on a player who interferes with or impedes the progress of an opponent who is not in possession of the puck.
A minor penalty shall be imposed on a player who deliberately knocks a stick out of an opponent’s hand, or who prevents a player who has dropped his stick who has dropped his stick or any other piece of equipment from regaining possession of it.
75.2 – A minor penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct shall be assessed under this rule for […] any player who is guilty of unsportsmanlike conduct including, but not limited to hair-pulling, biting, grabbing hold of a face mask, etc
Of course, it’s unlikely either of those gets called — especially in overtime of a playoff game.
There’s no doubt the Bruins’ pest will continue to find ways to irritate his opponents.
Ever the innovator, Brad Marchand.
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THE BLACKLIST Season 5 Posters
New On Netflix September 2018 + Last Call
THE BLACKLIST Season 5 Blu-ray And DVD Release Details
THE BLACKLIST Season 5 Episode 22 Photos Sutton Ross #17
THE BLACKLIST Season 5 Episode 21 Photos Lawrence Dane Devlin #26
Feeling surprisingly unencumbered, Raymond Reddington (James Spader) is back and in the process of rebuilding his criminal empire. His lust for life is ever-present as he lays the foundation for this new enterprise — one that he’ll design with Elizabeth Keen (Megan Boone) by his side. Living with the reality that Red is her father, Liz finds herself torn between her role as an FBI agent and the temptation to act on her more criminal instincts. In a world where the search for Blacklisters has become a family trade, Red will undoubtedly reclaim his moniker as the “Concierge of Crime.”
“The Blacklist” also stars Diego Klattenhoff, Ryan Eggold, Harry Lennix, Amir Arison, Mozhan Marnò and Hisham Tawfiq.
John Eisendrath, Jon Bokenkamp, John Davis, John Fox, James Spader, Lukas Reiter, J.R. Orci and Carla Kettner serve as executive producers. “The Blacklist” is a production of Davis Entertainment in association with Sony Pictures Television and Universal Television.
Please visit the official show site at http://www.nbc.com/the-blacklist/
For the latest “The Blacklist” news, videos, and photos, please like on Facebook, follow on Twitter, and follow on Google+:
https://www.facebook.com/NBCBlacklist
https://twitter.com/NBCBlacklist #TheBlacklist
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THE BLACKLIST — Pictured: “The Blacklist” Key Art — (Photo by: NBCUniversal)
Related Topics:The Blacklist
BLUE BLOODS Season 8 Episode 1 Photos Cutting Losses
GREY’S ANATOMY Season 14 Poster
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Sinkholes in Seminole County, FL | Protect Your Real Estate Investment
Seminole County Sinkhole Map
THIS MAP IS FOR DEMONSTRATION PURPOSE. SUBSCRIBE TO ACCEES THE REAL MAP
Seminole County Overview
Seminole County FL
Seminole County, located in the Central Florida region, was created in 1931 and carved out of the northern portion of Orange County. Historically, the Native American tribe Seminole were the original inhabitants of the county, thus the name given to it. The tribal folks’ name were thought to be from the Spanish word cimarron for “runaway” or wild.”
Seminole was one of the last Florida counties to be created. It encompasses 345 square miles of territory, about 10 percent of which is water, which includes several lakes such as Lake Jesup, Alaqua Lakes and Lake Mary. Notably, Lake Harney and the St Johns River dominate off Seminole’s western border, while Lake Monroe sits on the county’s northern periphery.
Vibrant Economy
Sanford is the county seat and the largest among Seminole’s seven cities. Most of Seminole were once just considered as a bedroom community for folks working in Orlando and its various theme parks. This no longer holds true, however, with the county growing in recent years as the home base of large companies and business organizations.
Many of the pillars that now support Seminole’s economy and local employment include high- tech companies, such as CuraScript, Convergys, Deloitte Consulting, Faro Technologies, and NCR. The local presence of Sears Home Improvement Products, Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems America, and American Automobile Association likewise provide dynamic contributions to the county’s growth.
Hospitable Business Climate
Seminole County has laid out a robust framework to draw more of these companies to its fold. It has set aside pre-development business sites and industrial parks to harness the county’s strategic Central Florida location. The progressive local authorities have also set forth a hospitable business climate through lucrative incentives and streamlined business permitting for locators.
In addition, the county has developed a new expressway to further enhance its location advantage alongside the Interstate 4 corridor. An expansion project of the Orlando Sanford International Airport has likewise been undertaken. This project has solidified the airport’s ranking as Florida’s third most active international airport and the 12th most active in the U.S. It has also underscored the standing of Seminole’s foreign trade zone as one of the state’s largest.
Economic Drivers
What’s even more, existing businesses and future locators are not only in close proximity to the lucrative markets and talent pool of the neighboring Orlando metro area. The Seminole market also boasts of a median disposable income that is one of the highest in the region.
Likewise, Seminole’s public schools and institutions of higher education are rated among the tops in the state. This, coupled with the county’s specialized job training programs, ensures a reliable local supply of skilled workforce. The county’s schools include local campuses of the State College of Florida, University of Central Florida, Remington College and Rollins College.
Seminole’s robust economic fundamentals supported by a strong academe, in all, has fostered healthy job growth and rising incomes. In turn, these factors spurred the development of many residential communities that has led to a rich housing stock. This healthy inventory has kept local housing prices relatively more affordable compared to other Florida regions
Businesses Facts in Seminole
Seminole County Services
Seminole County Foreclosures
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Contact Sonia Pilla
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From the Jeunesse Founders and Executives to market presidents and everyone in the Jeunesse Corporate Family across dozens of offices worldwide, we are
One Team. One Family. One Jeunesse.
We hold to the highest standard our mission to support Jeunesse Distributors and their frontline efforts in the success of Generation Young.
The Founders of Jeunesse have created something beyond a company. Jeunesse – a legacy company – provides an enriching experience for people to build belief in themselves through their experiences in network marketing and to realize their greatest potential to be leaders and to impact so many lives.
Randy Ray
Founder - Chief Executive Officer
Randy Ray founded Jeunesse with Wendy Lewis. He holds degrees in computer science and psychology and has more than four decades of experience in the tech industry. Randy has designed, sold and installed countless hardware and software systems through the years for multinational companies and world-renowned organizations including NASA, the United States Department of Transportation, Intercommunity Cancer Centers of America and Red Lobster Inns of America.
Randy has been in the direct selling industry for two decades, while co-owning MarketQ, Inc., and Jeunesse with Wendy Lewis. He has received awards as Florida Businessman of the Year in both 2003 and 2004 and is listed in International Who’s Who, and was named a 2018 Executive of the Year in the American Business Awards. Together, Randy and Wendy have provided unparalleled service and support to the industry with back office software, commission processing and complete customer service.
Randy and Wendy have continuously created a unique business opportunity for thousands of Jeunesse Distributors in countries all over the world. Randy has worked directly with large companies, corporations and industry experts, implementing the latest in innovative technologies to increase efficiency and improve productivity. As a direct result of these efforts, Jeunesse has experienced rapid growth on a global scale.
As their latest triumph and what they intend to be a legacy company, Jeunesse has distribution in more than 140 countries worldwide and operates in more than 34 offices across the globe. The corporate staff is bolstered by a network of more than 500,000 Jeunesse Distributors in 215 countries and territories. The company proudly offers multilingual global customer support, in-house shipping, on-staff professional software programmers and a proprietary web-based back office system – Joffice – among the many innovations that make Jeunesse an industry-leading brand.
WENDY LEWIS
Founder – Chief Operations Officer
Three-time honoree: DSN Most Influential Woman in Direct Selling
Wendy Lewis holds BA degrees in sociology and mathematics from the University of Pennsylvania and a master’s in educational psychology, statistics and measurement from Temple University. She is a force in the direct selling industry: In 2017, the Women World Awards recognized Wendy with Female Entrepreneur of the Year, Woman of the Year – Lifetime Achievement, and Champion of the Year. She is an eight-time recipient of the Woman of the Year award; three-time honoree among Direct Selling News’ Most Influential Woman in Direct Selling; and two-time recipient of the Maverick of the Year and Lifetime Achievement in Business awards.
In 1985, she and Randy Ray founded the successful Automated Medical System Consultants, for which she was both the president and director of customer operations, responsible for all training and support activities.AMSC was well known in the medical community for providing the best customer service in the network of 450 medical manager dealers.Their company was the No. 1 medical practice management supplier in both sales and service for eight consecutive years, until they sold the company in 1994.
Nearly two decades after starting her direct sales adventure with Randy, as distributors and then owners of direct selling companies and support companies, the couple has watched endeavor after endeavor blossom into success.
Among Wendy’s many achievements, the most critical to her, along with Randy and Scott, is assuring Jeunesse gives back, contributing to bettering the lives of those in need – with a focus on helping children. In 2018, the Jeunesse nonprofit foundation Jeunesse Kids™ raised more than $3 million to help children and communities worldwide – doubling the company’s efforts from 2017. Wendy is one of just three female founders and has helmed two Inc. 500 companies in two decades. She embodies the Jeunesse strategy of providing opportunity for advancement for everyone, ensuring gender equality.
SCOTT A. LEWIS
Chief Visionary Officer
Scott Lewis holds a BA degree in psychology from Rollins College and a master’s in human resources. He became acquainted with the direct selling industry before he was a teenager – and that lifelong exposure has given him the unique qualifications to guide the company and further the Jeunesse mission to improve lives worldwide. Before taking on his current role, Scott was Vice President of Global Operations, responsible for developing and solidifying the company’s global infrastructure.
Scott’s proven record of success is more than impressive – it is a pacesetter in the industry. He believes in maintaining a relationship-oriented foundation grounded in ethical principles, and consistently sets new standards while maintaining compassionate and professional relations with Jeunesse Distributors. He remains focused on improving the efficiency of the international operations process and is an excellent facilitator in communications. He believes what sets Jeunesse apart as an industry-leading brand is our priority of supporting our Distributors and leaders in the field at the highest possible level in their business and success, which in turn leads to the success of Jeunesse.
Scott and his wife, Isabel, travel extensively and work closely with Jeunesse leaders from around the world; both are extremely passionate about seeing distributors thrive. Jeunesse is more than just business, it’s family. Scott’s vision is not only to maintain this standard, but to elevate it so that it permeates every facet of the Jeunesse identity and culture.
Intentional leadership, incomparable vision, an emphasis on results and a servant's heart – our executives are tireless stewards of these values as they guide Jeunesse and uphold our commitment to helping Jeunesse Distributors worldwide achieve their goals.
Rob Dawson
Rob Dawson holds a baccalaureate degree in accounting and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Nebraska College of Law. He heads the Jeunesse legal department, and his expertise in the direct selling industry makes him an invaluable part of the Jeunesse organization.
Before joining Jeunesse, Rob ran a highly successful private practice for 14 years. Together, he and his wife Kimberli stay busy raising their two daughters, Lauryn and Kate.
RYAN OGDEN
Ryan holds a bachelor’s degree in finance and master’s in accounting from Utah State University. After graduation, he served for several years with one of the “Big Four” international accounting firms, and eventually accepted a position in Japan as the Director of International Finance with a direct selling company. He continued in direct selling in his return to the U.S.
Ryan brings a wealth of experience to Jeunesse and loves the personal touch that the direct selling environment offers. He and his wife Rochele enjoy raising their four sons together. When he finds the time, Ryan also enjoys participating in several sports, including basketball, tennis, and water skiing.
Mark is an award-winning leader who brings the Jeunesse brand to life.
A three-time Stevie® Award winner for Marketing Executive of the Year in both the American Business Awards and the International Business Awards, Mark is exceptional in his role of helping lead billion-dollar brands and design firms. He is known as an industry-innovating brand specialist, growing brands to market dominance while creating dozens of award-winning marketing campaigns around the globe.
Classically trained in brand management through traditional schooling at the University of Utah as well as hands-on experience, Mark brings nearly two decades of experience in the direct selling industry, with leadership positions at several international companies, including launches and the repositioning of several multimillion-dollar products, photo shoots and speaking engagements around the globe and countless accolades.
His expertise incorporates an extensive palette of marketing strategy and brand-building, including creative services, advertising, public relations, social media, search engine optimization, research and new product development for global brands. Mark applies his talents to more than just developing a brand. He is remarkably influential in creating and defining company culture.
Mark’s entrepreneurial spirit drives results-oriented teams that excel in setting high standards, garnering more than 500 awards for everything from graphic design and social media campaigns to second-to-none events, video production and communications programs, while accommodating individual brands and maintaining the integrity of a master brand.
Mark is a dedicated father of four, a music buff, foodie, world traveler and committed life enthusiast.
DENNIS WINDSOR
Dennis is a distinguished senior executive with more than 36 years of experience and an impressive track record in the industry, including co-founding a successful direct selling company in 2011. Known as a high-energy, inspirational leader, he excels at fostering rapid growth in sales. He is also a best-selling author, trusted consultant and highly sought-after international speaker and trainer.
Dennis is an outstanding contributor to the Jeunesse Family and the executive team. He brings an array of talent, experience and integrity that aligns perfectly with our mission and values. As Chief Development Officer, Dennis helps the entire Jeunesse Family continue to expand internationally, with a focus on training and developing leaders.
With 30 years’ experience in the information technology field, Bill helps keep Jeunesse on the cutting edge. He is an entrepreneur who has developed software since 1985, previously serving as CEO of a successful internet service and software development company in Orlando.
He has developed mobile applications and complicated, PCI-compliant software solutions for a range of industries, including large ministries, construction firms, health care and the direct sales industry.
Bill began working for the Jeunesse Founders in 2006. He has assembled an amazing team of technology professionals who keep Jeunesse at the forefront of technology with award-winning software, mobile applications and a global platform that is always online. Before settling down in Orlando, Bill attended Campbell University and served for 10 years as an officer in the United States Army. He has been married to his beautiful wife Julie for more than 40 years. They have two children and four grandchildren.
A hands-on, collaborative leadership approach inspires and challenges the team, while focusing efforts on aligning our technology vision with our business vison.
GREGORY DEAN
Greg is recognized globally as a thought leader in emerging technology, analytics, digital disruption and design thinking. He is a seasoned speaker with a rich portfolio that spans two decades and includes technology, sales and marketing lectures, seminars and keynotes. Greg has authored more than 100 articles on technology and marketing. He has more than 25 years of experience fueling innovation and growth for Fortune 100 companies.
Before joining Jeunesse, Greg held C-level positions for a direct marketing company in Florida and a trend-setting advertising agency in New York. He is a Penn State University lifetime alumnus. He leverages his experience and education in computer science and marketing to nurture a balance between innovation and implementation.
Greg and his wife Tammy enjoy travel and culture. He enjoys spending time composing music and playing the saxophone.
Our market presidents at Jeunesse apply a wealth of experience and keen insight to help Distributors in their regions reach their maximum potential. Whether front and center at an event or helping behind the scenes, our market presidents are indispensable around the globe.
ROBIN LEE
President of Greater China
Build a process-oriented and result-oriented team with cooperation and trust as core values.
With more than 25 years of experience in direct selling, Robin has built his successful career on specific and consistent strategies, as well as powerful marketing teams. His results-driven approach defines his superior leadership and his ability to adapt to changing markets and opportunities with innovative marketing models.
Previously, he held management positions in two notable international banks, where he was responsible for administrative services, sales and global marketing. He not only fostered long-term relationships with his customers, he exceled in leadership and innovation, being named several times as Manager of the Year and recognized for his outstanding marketing and training concepts.
As President of Greater China, Robin oversees operations, Distributor relations, marketing training and Customer Support. Under his leadership, corporate teams go above and beyond to support Jeunesse Distributors with an unrelenting goal to deliver the best service in Greater China.
KYLE COPELAND
President of Europe & Middle East
Kyle holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Brigham Young University and an MBA from the University of South Florida. After earning his CPA, he worked for several years at one of the “Big Four” international accounting firms. He then became Chief Financial Officer of a well-known direct selling company, and has since been involved in the industry.
Kyle has worked with some of the world’s most influential and lucrative network marketing companies, helping several expand globally and facilitating the development of one company to more than 60 countries. As President of Europe, Kyle drives viable strategies, manages operations and supports Jeunesse Distributor recruiting initiatives. Although he enjoys the analytical aspect of his duties, he is passionate about interacting daily with leaders at Jeunesse and supporting their growth.
KATY HOLT-LARSEN
President of North America
Katy’s passion for healthy living, lifelong learning and developing multiple streams of income are natural fits at Jeunesse. She began her journey in direct sales in 1994, when she and her husband became distributors and fell in love with the industry. This experience gave her the courage to not only manage day-to-day work while raising her family with her husband, but to follow and achieve her dreams.
Katy’s career success is based on a wealth of business experience, as well as her unique ability to listen and balance the specific needs of distributors with corporate demands. With a master’s degree in organizational behavior from Brigham Young University, she has led the development and execution of business and field strategy, market growth and expansion, knowledge management implementation, nonprofit management and leadership development solutions for Fortune 500 companies and direct sales companies in global markets.
In her executive management roles in direct sales, Katy has demonstrated an ability to ignite the field, increase distributor and customer recruitment and retention, and establish a culture that not only lasts, but flourishes. She has worked closely with the field and field leaders to deliver strategies, promotions, training, events and recognition to grow teams around the world.
Her passion and commitment has only grown through the years, as she has experienced firsthand how this industry changes lives. She loves helping people reclaim their dreams and then act to achieve them. Her strong commitment to listening allows her to see what is possible and then ignite this vision in others. Katy’s ability to inspire vision and build trust cultivates high-performing teams and business growth.
Katy is a wife and mother of two. Together, she and her family enjoy rock climbing, world travel, laughing, great food and making a difference in the lives of those around them.
MIGUEL A. BEAS
President of Latin America
An expert in internationalization and global expansion, Miguel has vast experience in the direct selling industry. After completing his education in law and international business, he quickly became a senior executive for one of the world’s largest network marketing companies. His more than two decades of leadership experience led him to impressive senior level and C-level positions throughout his career.
As President of Latin America, Miguel is responsible for driving sustainable growth while working with the market’s teams and local field leaders across South and Central America and Mexico. Surrounding himself with the right people is one of the leadership skills he has honed over his career.
Miguel has been married to his beautiful wife Silvina for more than 15 years. He has two children, Juan Miguel and Ana Isabella. In his spare time, Miguel is passionate about soccer, arts and creative writing, but his heart lies with his family, and the Jeunesse Family.
ROY TRUETT
President of Asia-Pacific & Africa
Roy is an energetic and accomplished leader in strategic and tactical planning for sales growth and overall company operations and sales strategies.With 20 years of experience in the industry, Roy is responsible for leading the long - term strategic planning, revenue development and profitable growth as well as the day-to-day management of the Asia-Pacific & Africa market.
He has worked at the executive level for several direct sales and nutritional companies, having overseen the expansion of an organization’s international market to $250 million in sales. Throughout his career, he has also held roles as CIO, COO and President of International.
As the leader of a vast region, Roy hones his outstanding analytical abilities, strong business and financial acumen, along with his experience overseeing the essential disciplines of IT, operations and supply chain management, data warehousing, application development, project management, international development and forecasting. He provides oversight to operations including finance, product development, distribution, human resources and IT.
Roy believes in building relationships in the field, and in working together as a team. He has a passion for helping Distributors, and he shows his servant’s heart by helping others achieve the goals they set.
With a love for the outdoors, Roy enjoys snow skiing, snowmobiling, mountain biking, boating and essentially anything that brings an adventure.
Our expert advisers support the development, formulation and testing of our innovative Y.E.S. Youth Enhancement System products. Each board member brings a unique background and knowledge to Jeunesse.
NATHAN NEWMAN, M.D.
From a family of internationally prominent physicians, Dr. Nathan Newman is a world-renowned cosmetic surgeon with a fully accredited and respected cosmetic surgery practice in Beverly Hills, California. His passion, expertise and education are a driving force in his role as a scientific and medical spokesman and adviser for Jeunesse.
Dr. Newman is dedicated to providing the best care to his patients, as well as educating them on the latest developments in the cosmetic surgery field. This approach is also applied as he assists our independent Jeunesse Distributors in building their businesses, giving them the highest quality instruction and most up-to-date information possible. These critical and valuable services have helped Jeunesse earn recognition as one of the fastest-growing, most life-changing opportunity in today’s market.
Constantly striving to develop new and superior methods in achieving natural, undetectable cosmetic results with the least risk and most benefit for individuals, Dr. Newman is an original thinker and innovator. He is the innovator behind the Luminesce skin care line, the genesis of the Jeunesse Y.E.S. Youth Enhancement System.
Dr. Newman was educated and trained at several prestigious medical institutions in the United States. After graduating from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, he completed his internship in internal medicine at UCLA-VA Medical Center in Los Angeles. He continued his training with a residency in dermatology at Cook County Hospital in Chicago and completed a fellowship through the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery in Riverside, California. He is board-certified in dermatology and specializes in cosmetic surgery.
As part of his philosophy to educate his patients, Dr. Newman writes monthly articles in L.A. Health News magazine. He is published in many prestigious medical journals and has been a speaker at numerous medical conferences. He has regularly presented on television and radio on the latest advances in cosmetic surgery. He has been recognized by Cambridge Who’s Who for his leadership, dedication and entrepreneurship as a cosmetic surgeon.
WILLIAM AMZALLAG, M.D.
Director of Product Sciences.
Dr. William Amzallag received his degree in anesthesiology and intensive care, as well as a degree in Chinese medicine, from the University of Montpellier in France. He has decades of experience in the medical field, along with in 14 years of experience in the direct selling industry. He previously operated a successful private practice in the south of France. Additionally, he has experience with recruiting, sales and marketing, manufacturing, formulation design, legal and product notifications and customer service.
He brings many talents to the Jeunesse Scientific Advisory Board. He serves as Director of Product Sciences and a spokesman and adviser of the European Union. His vast background in science and business encompasses nutrition and skin care, including but not limited to research and development. He is fluent in French, English and Spanish.
Dr. Amzallag is driven by innovative concepts related to holistic and Western medicine, dietary supplements, weight management and cosmetics. He has served as the Vice President and General Manager of Europe for several well-known direct selling companies.
VINCENT GIAMPAPA, M.D., F.A.C.S.
Dr. Vincent C. Giampapa is a board-certified plastic reconstructive surgeon and an Assistant Clinical Professor of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Rutgers University of Medicine and Dentistry in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
He is also the Director of the Plastic Surgery Center Internationalé and The Giampapa Institute for Anti-Aging Medical Therapy in Montclair, New Jersey. While he currently serves as a scientific adviser and spokesman for Jeunesse, he has worked as a consultant for NASA in prior years.
He received his medical degree from Mt. Sinai Medical School in New York. He completed medical training in plastic surgery and a yearlong fellowship in microsurgery and hand at New York University Medical Center. He is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and a former Research Fellow for other prestigious institutions including Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York.
Dr. Giampapa is a pioneer in his field. He was one of the first board-certified anti-aging aesthetic plastic surgeons in the world, and he is internationally recognized as an innovator in new cosmetic and surgical techniques and instrumentation. He is a founding member of the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine and served as the first President of the American Board of Anti-Aging Medicine. Dr. Giampapa has been awarded many patents from the United States government for unique cell culture delivery techniques, as well as new drug delivery systems and surgical instrument designs.
He is published in numerous academic journals, including Annals of Plastic Surgery, Journal of Plastic Reconstructive Surgery, Journal of Reconstructive Microsurgery, and Journal of Anti-Aging Medicine. He is the author of the first and only medical textbook on anti-aging medicine and age management for aesthetic surgeons. He has written five books, including: “Breaking the Aging Code” and “The Anti-Aging Solution: 5 Simple Steps to Looking and Feeling Young.” Dr. Giampapa has been featured in many national magazines, and on radio and television outlets including CNN, WABC-TV, Fox News Channel and shows including Geraldo, Joan Rivers, Phil Donahue and Anderson Cooper.
DONNA ANTARR, M.D.
Dr. Donna Antarr has always had a passion for both science and helping people feel naturally healthy and strong. A graduate of the New York City High School of Performing Arts as a ballet major, she continued as a professional ballet dancer throughout college and medical school.
Dr. Antarr graduated from Hunter College in New York City summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in honors curriculum. She took all the required classes for the food science and registered dietitian program, but chose to apply to medical school. She turned down acceptance to Harvard and Johns Hopkins, the top two medical schools in the country, in favor of the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine, one of the country’s top medical schools that also boasts a physically active culture and healthy, outdoors lifestyle.
After graduation and post-graduate training she began practice in San Diego. A radical idea at the time, she focused on preventative and rejuvenation medicine. This included educating her patients in proper diet, physical activity and the correct use of nutritional supplements. While in practice, she completed a master’s in exercise physiology, then became a certified exercise specialist from the American College of Sports Medicine, and was invited and joined the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi. She later completed a three-year residency in psychiatry at UCSD, which added the mind-body connection to her practice.
Dr. Antarr has also served as the only female physician on the scientific advisory board of a billion-dollar health and wellness company. Using the “feeling great weight” concept her practice embodied, she performed a preclinical trial for the company’s weight loss product. As Vice President of Product Training and Development for a nutrition company, she published original research on stem cell nutrition.
Dr. Antarr is a highly sought-after public speaker. She has captivated audiences of several thousand people and has been featured as both a guest speaker at countless seminars and conferences worldwide. Her medical expertise spans a range of topics related to naturally achieving a state of well-being, and rejuvenating the mind and body.
YAN BIN MA, M.D.
Dr. Yan Bin Ma was born into a family of scientists. She graduated from the medical school of Tongji University in Shanghai and has extensive experience in teaching and research in the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences in Beijing, as well as Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University in Guangzhou. She also served as a clinical physician, including work in special clinics, the ER and as an attending resident. Her research focuses on inherited disease (chromosomes, DNA) and hematology (original stem cells). She is also a certified specialist for children’s IQ assessment.
After she became a Canadian citizen, she founded an alternative medicine clinic, focusing on autoimmune disorders. She has been a lecturing doctor in the Canada MS Association, providing her expertise from more than 15 years as a product consultant in health and nutrition supplements. She is the first Chinese-Canadian doctor to be featured in the largest newspaper in Alberta, for traditional herbal medicine practice; she was nominated for female doctor of the year on the west coast of Canada.
Her efforts in promoting Chinese medicine through mass media are well recognized by the Chinese embassy, earning her the “Active Promotion of Chinese Culture” award. She has served as commissioner in the TCM Association for many years, switching positions from deputy chairperson of professional academic commission to deputy chairperson in government administration association.
In her 35 years of Western and Chinese medicine practice, she has found the main control factors among more than 70 degenerative diseases are about intervention rather than prevention. She holds insights not only in conventional clinical Western medicine, but also in epidemiology, preventive medicine and medical nutrition science. She proposes comprehensive medical solutions that integrate Chinese and Western medicine, alternative medicine and natural therapy to achieve optimized effects. Her belief: Helping out a person with ailments is to free that person from torture of diseases.
Luis Martinez, M.D.
Dr. Luis Martinez is a specialist in preventive, regenerative and anti-aging medicine. He is renowned for his expertise in regenerative, hormonal and nutritional techniques that can repair and restore cellular functions as well as increase human life expectancy.
As a Jeunesse scientific adviser, Dr. Martinez focuses on the Latin America region, offering his specialized knowledge to assist in the development and growth of the company and its cutting-edge products.
With private practices in Puerto Rico and the continental United States, he is an affiliated physician with Puerto Rico’s Ponce School of Medicine and works as a biomedical consultant, international lecturer and clinical researcher.
Christian Drapeau, MSc.
Christian is a stem cell specialist who has attained global recognition for his work in regenerative medicine and wellness. He graduated with honors from McGill University, earning a Bachelor of Science in neurophysiology and a master’s in neurophysiology.
His research includes the unique study of botanicals on the brain, which led to his specialized expertise in plant-based stem cell research. He is known for the discovery, research and development of plant extracts that support the body’s natural regenerative potential.
In addition to his duties as a Jeunesse scientific adviser, he travels the globe for not only plant discovery and research, but also as a wellness product innovator and an international speaker. A best-selling author, he is fluent in English, French and Spanish.
At Jeunesse, we lead with our hearts, and always with a servant’s heart, thriving in a culture that puts us at the forefront of innovation and progress, and of
changing lives around the world.
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“They rolled in with tanks and came and opened the gates. And they were telling us: ‘The war is over. You are free. You survived.’ … A lot of the soldiers that looked at us, they cried.”
Holocaust survivor Sophie Tajch Klisman who met US Army veteran, Doug Harvey for the first time Monday. Their paths crossed in 1945, when Harvey was a member of the 84th infantry that freed the concentration camp where Klisman was imprisoned. Klisman and her sister later immigrated to the Detroit-area.
“This is uncharted territory.”
Michael Wara, Climate and Energy Policy Program at Stanford University, reacting to news PG&E, California's largest utility company, may shut off power to certain areas during high-wind days with the hopes of preventing wildfires. California recently suffered its deadliest wildfire in history, believed ignited from a downed power line. Officials voice public safety concerns about the outages potentially lasting for days.
“Yes, your honor.”
Actress Felicity Huffman responding to the District Court judge when asked if she understood the terms of her plea deal. Huffman pleaded guilty for paying to improve her daughter's SAT scores in the largest college cheating scandal in U.S. history. Prosecutors recommended a 4-month sentence, in what could be a maximum 20-year penalty for a charge of a conspiracy to commit mail fraud; Huffman will be sentenced in September.
“The patient has a pulse.”
Cadillac President Steve Carlisle speaking about two new models in the vehicle lineup in the hopes of gaining market share after declining for the last 5 years. The Cadillac once epitomized American luxury but now has trouble competing based on low quality ratings (Consumer Reports). A Cadillac dealer voiced concerns to the Wall Street Journal, saying the new models are "not smoking-hot products."
Michigan Holocaust survivor, ex-soldier who helped free her have emotional meeting
https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/oakland/2019/05/13/michigan-holocaust-survivor-ex-soldier-who-helped-free-her-have-emotional-meeting/1195569001/
California may go dark this summer, and most aren’t ready
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/California-may-go-dark-this-summer-and-most-13840880.php
GM Looks to Jump-Start Cadillac—Again
https://www.wsj.com/articles/gm-looks-to-jump-start-cadillacagain-11557753226
Tearful Felicity Huffman pleads guilty in college scam; prosecutors recommend four months in prison
https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2019/05/13/felicity-huffman-plead-guilty-college-admissions-scandal-rick-singer-varsity-blues-sat-cheating/1151158001/
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Is a war coming between the US and Iran?
You can't say the world wasn't warned. In February, US National Security Adviser John Bolton - a leading proponent of the disastrous 2003 Iraq War - sent a video message to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 40 years after the creation of the Islamic Republic: "I don't think you'll have many more anniversaries to enjoy."
Propelled in large part by Bolton, the Trump Administration withdrew in May 2018 from the 2015 nuclear agreement between the US and the 5+1 powers - the US, UK, France, Germany, Russia, and China. In November, Washington imposed comprehensive sanctions on Tehran, including on the energy and financial sectors.
But Bolton was signalling unsubtly: we can inflict more damage if we wish. So how far will the Trump administration go? And is there an imminent threat of war between the US and Iran?
On May 13, after weeks of escalation, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, each took a rhetorical step back. In Moscow, alongside Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Pompeo said the Trump administration "fundamentally" did not seek a conflict. Addressing the president and other senior officials in Tehran the same day, Khamenei asserted: "Neither we nor they, who know war will not be in their interest, are after war."
Still, there were other combative words and steps on both sides. Khamenei jabbed: "In [its] policy of confrontation with the Islamic Republic, the US will definitely suffer defeat." For his part, Pompeo said: "We have also made clear to the Iranians that if American interests are attacked, we will most certainly respond in an appropriate fashion." Hours later, the administration ordered the partial evacuation of US embassy staff from Baghdad in Iran's neighbour Iraq.
Psychology of the drumbeat
The threat of war is not just on the Twitter timeline of US President Donald Trump. It is also in Pompeo traipsing through Europe, cancelling a meeting with the Germans - seen as too conciliatory towards the Islamic Republic - to twist the arm of the British to take action. And it is in the loudly-signalled move to the Persian Gulf of a naval strike group with the USS Abraham Lincoln and bomber aircraft in early May, and the positioning of more bombers in Qatar.
It is US administration officials telling The New York Times of a updated military plan tabled at a meeting of national security officials to send up to 120,000 troops to the Middle East if Iran attacks US forces or accelerates work on nuclear weapons - a plan ordered by Bolton and other hardliners. Trump subsequently dismissed the report but said that if he did decide to become more aggressive with Iran, the US would: "send a hell of a lot more troops than that."
But it is likely that all of this is for the illusion of war, rather than its launch. This is still jaw-jaw, but in the service of the US administration's non-military schemes to topple Iran's supreme leader.
The game - again far from subtle - is to break Iran's economy. While the US ratcheted up sanctions during the Obama administration, the aim was to bring the Iranians into negotiations over their nuclear programme. This time, the ever-expanding blacklist has no vision of talks for a renewed agreement. Its aim is to constrict Iranian production, trade, and investment, driving up unemployment and driving down the currency. In support of this, the US could update past covert operations, such as the Stuxnet computer virus, to disrupt nuclear and other operations and - as an Iranian engineer claims - attempt to take down Iran's power grid.
War by default
But what if the overt sanctions and covert sabotage don't bring about Khamenei's departure? The vision of Bolton and his compatriots, egged on by certain Iranian diaspora groups, may be that Iranians will take to the streets in many hundreds of thousands, as they did in the Green Movement after the country's disputed 2009 presidential election.
That vision is likely to be faulty. For almost a decade, the Iranian regime has decapitated dissent. The leaders of the Green Movement have been under house arrest since February 2011. Hundreds of activists, students, lawyers, labour leaders, and rights advocates are imprisoned or under perpetual threat of detention. Communications are still restricted, with further threat of punishment.
Many inside Iran are just trying to survive, and the mood is resignation. Assuming they did return to the streets, the motive for many was and is still likely to be reform of the system, not revolution - particularly if the US is pursuing regime change.
So what then? With Khamenei unyielding to any demand from the streets, will Bolton, Pompeo and co. conclude that the hammer has to fall? The gambit may be to make the Iranians make the first forceful move, and then act on the pretext of self-defence.
We could already be at that point. There is no sign yet of Iranian speedboats buzzing the US carrier and its bombers, or Iran closing the oil waterway of the Strait of Hormuz. But, on May 12 four commercial ships, including two Saudi tankers, were damaged off the coast of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in what the country called a "sabotage" attack. Two days later, Saudi Arabia said two drones caused a fire at oil pumping stations. Attacks by Iranian elements or their proxies? "False flags" to blame Tehran? Under either scenario, an escalation to more violent acts is possible.
There are many logical arguments why that escalation will not occur, however. The Islamic Republic's factions, from Khamenei to the Revolutionary Guards, know that head-on confrontation with the US could be suicidal. American forces in a conflict that is far from straightforward is not a vote winner either for Trump's 2020 re-election campaign. With the possible exceptions of Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, and UAE Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, almost every international actor - the UN, the European Union, China, Russia, the Organisation of Islamic Countries - will be opposed to war.
As Ilan Goldenberg of the Center for a New American Security summarised: "Nobody wants a war." Probably. But some officials in Washington may not be averse to a war that happens to come along. The title of Bolton's last major opinion article in the Wall Street Journal before joining the Trump administration in April 2018 was: "The legal case for striking North Korea first."
Author: Scott Lucas | The Conversation
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October 28, 2016 | 3:26 PM
Wolf vetos bill aimed at giving legislators more control over regulations
As the Harrisburg reporter for StateImpact Pennsylvania, Marie Cusick covers energy and environmental issues for public radio stations statewide. She’s also part of NPR’s energy and environment team, which coordinates coverage between the network and select member station reporters around the country. Her work frequently airs on NPR shows including Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Weekend Edition. Since 2012, Marie has closely followed the political, social, environmental, and economic effects of Pennsylvania’s natural gas boom. Her work has been recognized at the regional and national levels– honors include a Sigma Delta Chi Award from the Society of Professional Journalists and a national Edward R. Murrow Award from the Radio Television Digital News Association. Previously, Marie was a multimedia reporter for WMHT in Albany, New York and covered technology for the station’s statewide public affairs TV show, New York NOW. In 2018, she became StateImpact’s first FAA-licensed drone pilot.
AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File
Wolf has vetoed a measure designed to give legislators a greater role in the regulatory process. File
Governor Tom Wolf has vetoed a bill passed by the Republican-controlled legislature this week that attempted to give lawmakers more influence over regulations proposed by state agencies.
“It overreaches into executive authority,” Wolf said in veto message. “This bill has the potential to grind the regulatory review process to a halt.”
SB 562 amended Pennsylvania’s Regulatory Review Act of 1982, creating more legislative oversight of and involvement with the state’s Independent Regulatory Review Commission (IRRC)— a five member body comprised of political appointees who review all new regulations.
Environmental groups argued the bill was designed to block important public health and safety standards– although it would have affected all state regulations, not just environmental rules.
IRRC currently has three appointees from Democrats and two from Republicans. In April, the commission voted along political lines to approve controversial new regulations for oil and gas drilling over the objections of the GOP-led standing committees in the state House and Senate. SB 562 gives standing committees more power to delay IRRC votes.
Opponents say the measure erodes the separation of powers between the legislature and executive-led state agencies.
“The ability of a standing committee, or a handful of legislators who are chairs of committees, to hold up a rulemaking they don’t like is an abuse of power,” says Joanne Kilgour, who heads the state chapter of the Sierra Club.
Sen. John Gordner (R- Columbia) is the bill’s prime sponsor and says that was not the intent.
“When [this bill] first passed the Senate, it passed unanimously,” he says. “Unfortunately, I believe some environmental groups are trying to find something there that was not intended.”
He adds the measure, which was introduced in March 2015, was also not a reaction to the recent controversy around the drilling rules.
Gordner says he wants to ensure committee chairs share information about proposed regulations with rank and file members, because he doesn’t believe that happens often enough. The measure would also preclude an agency from pushing through regulations during a legislative recess, which he’s seen both parties do.
“There are a certain number of calendar days you have to respond to [the regulations],” says Gordner. “If the General Assembly is not in session, it’s a nice, neat way to avoid legislative reaction.”
Chapter 78: controversial new drilling rules
Gov. Tom Wolf
October 26, 2016 | 12:51 PM
Video: Clinton and Trump advisers debate energy and environmental policy
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Energy and Environment Reporting for Texas
Tracking the players in the ever-growing energy and environmental world.
Oil Production In Texas
Natural Gas Production In Texas
Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC)
Keystone XL Pipeline
Texas Railroad Commission Refutes Study Linking Quakes to Oil and Gas Industry
In the Land of the Oil Bust, the Repo Business Booms
In Some Texas Oil Towns, This 'Downturn' Feels More Like a 'Bust'
Oil Prices Spell Bad News For Texas Budget Forecast
Where politics, government and energy intersect.
The 83rd Texas Legislature
Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ)
Obama Rejected Keystone XL, But Crude Flows Through Southern Part of Project
Will State Correct A Big Mistake In What Texans Paid For Electricity?
Power To Choose -Or To Pay More? State Of Texas Website Faulted By Consumers
The Texas Drought's Over, But The Texas Slow-Motion Water Crisis Is Not
Using less and saving more through ingenuity and efficiency.
Texas Solar Power
Texas Wind Power
Non-Wind And Non-Solar Renewable Resources
Electric Reliability Counfil of Texas (ERCOT)
New Tool Predicts Bird Deaths from Wind Turbines
Better Batteries Might Hold Enough To Power Your Neighborhood
NASA Satellite Will Improve Drought Forcasting With a Little Help From Texas
Copenhagen Turns to Two Wheels and Takes Off
What the Texas Water Development Board Means to You
The Texas State Legislature created the Texas Water Development Board in 1957 (by act and by amendment to the state constitution) to manage the state’s water resources in the urgency following the drought of the 1950s. The board has found a new urgency after the drought of 2011. Water supplies are only slowly recovering (if at all), but demand for water is growing.
The board is charged with, “leadership, planning, financial assistance, information, and education for the conservation and responsible development of water for Texas,” according to its mission statement. It’s made up of six members appointed by the governor and meets every third Wednesday of the month in Austin. Their mission includes issuing State Water Plans; the last of nine over the course of its existence was submitted to the governor in January 2012.
The plan includes suggested changes to water management. Debate over the plan will further play out in the 2013 legislative session.
New Study Shows Rate of Groundwater Decline Slowing in Texas
Scientists at Texas A&M AgriLife Research have published the first long-term statewide survey of Texas groundwater. According to the study, statewide median groundwater levels fell by about 70 feet, or 22 meters, between 1930 and 2000, although the changes vary greatly between areas of the state. The rate of decline in groundwater levels has slowed […]
Here Are 5 Challenges to Texas Water That Might Surprise You
With nearly 70 percent of the state still stuck in a drought that has dragged on for years, there’s been plenty of talk about how to strengthen water supplies in Texas. A multi-billion-dollar water fund (the passage of Proposition 6 last election) is in the works that will help fund projects like reservoirs, desalination and conservation. And there’s ongoing […]
Wichita Falls Sees Wastewater Recycling As Solution To Drinking Water Shortage
From KERA News: Wichita Falls could soon become the first in the country where half of the drinking water comes directly from wastewater. Yes, that includes water from toilets. For some citizens, that’s a little tough to swallow. Mayor Glenn Barham says three years of extreme drought have changed life for 104,000 people living in […]
Opponents Want Marvin Nichols Reservoir Out Of State Water Plan
From KERA News: The Texas Water Development Board will soon decide whether to continue planning for the controversial Marvin Nichols Reservoir or take it out of the state’s water plan. The decision is just the latest in a battle that pits the thirsty Dallas-Fort Worth metro area against rural residents in East Texas. On Wednesday, […]
Now You Can Track Groundwater Levels in Texas
Texans don’t need statistics to tell them what the drought is like – they can feel it in their bones. Residents, manufacturers and farmers all depend on both reservoirs and groundwater in Texas, but up until recently only surface reservoir levels were public in Texas. The Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) updates those reservoir levels on their […]
Ask the Candidates: Should Texas Test Groundwater Before Fracking?
If you know what the water in your wells was like before drilling started on your land, you have a better understanding of whether drilling has changed the water. That’s the basic idea behind “baseline testing” of groundwater before drilling starts. That’s also one reason why some states, like Wyoming, have enacted rules based on recommendations […]
A Very Mixed Outlook for the Texas Drought
The latest drought monitors and forecasts for Texas are a study in contrast. Take a look at the U.S. Drought Monitor Map for the state and you might feel like jumping for joy: large swaths of the state are drought-free. Less than one percent of the state is in the worst stage of drought. During […]
Many Texas Communities Follow ‘Minimum Standards’ Or Less When Regulating Floodplains
MAP BY MICHAEL MARKS. A map of Texas Counties that participate in the National Flood Insurance Program. Counties in gray have insurance, counties in yellow have never had insurance, and counties in red do not currently have insurance, but have at some point. NOTE: Cities and towns may participate in the program even if their […]
How Texas Voted On Prop 6, and What it Could Mean for the Water Plan
How Texas counties voted on Prop 6. Counties in Blue passed the measure; Counties in Red voted against it. Map by Matt Wilson/StateImpact. There wasn’t much nail-biting on either side of the Proposition 6 debate as people watched the votes come in on Tuesday. The measure, which will move $2 billion dollars from the state’s […]
How Prop 6 Passed, and What’s Up Next for Water Projects in Texas
Texans overwhelmingly passed a constitutional amendment Tuesday to jump-start financing for water projects in the state: Proposition 6. The plan will take $2 billion in surplus state money (from the Rainy Day Fund) to start a low-interest loan program for water projects in Texas. The measure had widespread support from both sides of the aisle as well as business […]
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0On Sundays for the past few months, the two public television stations we get (one of which is part of Wisconsin Public Television, the other of which is not) has been carrying PBS’ “Masterpiece Mystery,” which is actually British TV’s police procedural contribution.
When Sunday’s installment of “Inspector Lewis” (which has been on since the end of “Zen,” whose three episodes made me want to see more) came on, I commented that “Masterpiece Mystery” starts our police TV-viewing week. The new “Hawaii Five-0” is on CBS on Mondays, the original “CSI” is on CBS on Wednesdays, “Rookie Blue” is on ABC on Thursdays, and until football started we would occasionally watch “Blue Bloods” on CBS on Fridays. (On Tuesdays it’s “Combat Hospital,” proving that there’s an exception to every rule, except that “Combat Hospital” followed “Detroit 187.”) On weekends, I watch the syndicated “CSI: Miami,” which stars David Caruso, who we watched on the first season of “NYPD Blue.”
My cop TV viewing goes back a long, long way, to two series that started in the 1960s: “Adam-12” …
… and the original “Hawaii Five-O”:
“Adam-12” was one of the creations of Jack Webb, who started by creating “Dragnet,” which I sporadically watched. One episode stuck in my brain early on, an episode sometimes called “The Big High” and sometimes called “Grass Kills,” about a marijuana-smoking couple who are too high to notice that their baby is drowning in a bathtub.
Another creation of Webb’s was a personal favorite, although it came and went in one season — “Chase,” about a special L.A. police unit assigned to cases too hot for regular cops to handle. I probably noticed the series most because of its cool theme music and because the series included a mag-wheel-equipped unmarked squad car, a motorcycle, a helicopter and a police dog.
The original “Hawaii Five-O,” meanwhile, ended as the longest-running police series in TV history, having cycled through its entire cast more than once except for star Jack Lord. I was somewhat skeptical about Five-O’s return given past rumors (including a 1990s recasting with Russell Wong and, of all people, Gary Busey). But as long as fans of the original make allowances for the updating, such as the non-square characters and their willingness to seriously bend or ignore the rules, they should enjoy the new “Five-0.”
Now that I think about it, my police TV viewing can be viewed as a continuum of YouTube clips, starting with officers Reed and Malloy …
… and McGarrett and the rest of the Five-O four …
… to really young cops …
… to the cops you call should you be bothered by, say, hostage situations …
… to detectives Starsky and Hutchinson …
… to Ponch and Jon …
… to the Hill Street Station in an unnamed city that looks suspiciously like Chicago …
… to much warmer Miami …
… back to Chicago …
… then to New York …
… then to another part of New York …
… then Baltimore …
… and back to L.A. …
… and, too briefly, in Detroit …
… and back in L.A.:
… and back in Honolulu:
You may have noticed that Los Angeles keeps coming up. The fact that L.A. is where all the movie studios are would be the first explanation. But read a couple of novels of Joseph Wambaugh, former L.A. police officer, and you’ll find that L.A. has both geographic and personal diversity, the latter meaning enough aberrant personalities to provide at least one story on every street corner.
I’ve been known to watch cop TV that is older than I am as well. One of the most noteworthy early cop series was “The Naked City,” based on the movie of the same name:
I don’t remember Burt Reynolds’ one season as a New York detective in ABC’s “Hawk.” But a decade later, when Reynolds was one of the biggest movie stars of the day, NBC decided to reshow the series:
One thing you may have noticed about all these series, and even such series I didn’t mention here, like “Kojak” …
… features distinctive, dramatic theme music, written by such master composers as Elmer Bernstein (“The Rookies”), Mike Post (“NYPD Blue”) and Lalo Schifrin (the first “Starsky and Hutch,” among numerous others), and titles in which one of the stars is the setting of the series:
And my cop TV viewing isn’t limited to the U.S. (Or North America, given that “Rookie Blue” is pretty obviously Canadian.) One benefit of the year I worked in New London was the New London library, which was part of the Fox Cities-area library system, which introduced me to a 1970s British cop series, “The Sweeney”:
To come full circle to the lead, the star of “The Sweeney,” John Thaw, later played the title character in “Inspector Morse,” whose partner became the title character in “Inspector Lewis” after Thaw’s death:
I’d watch Australian TV cops too, but their availability even on YouTube is dodgy.
So what is it about police TV, one of the oldest forms of radio and TV drama? Certainly everyone who ever played cops and robbers can relate to the real fictional thing. (Our house has enough weapons in it to stock a decent-sized police department, or a banana republic’s army.) A veteran police sergeant nicknamed “The Oracle” in the Wambaugh “Hollywood” police novels is quoted as telling new officers that “Doing good police work is the most fun you’ll ever have in your life.”
Whodunits appeal to the brain, unlike many other forms of entertainment (and certainly the oxymoronic term “reality TV”). Even if your vocational interest ended around the time you had to get glasses, most people can admire the idealized image of someone who defends victims and oppresses the bad guys.
We’re in the re-cycle, so to speak, of a trend that first started in the early 1970s — series about specialized cops beyond the traditional beat cops or detectives. The aforementioned “Chase” and “SWAT” were two examples; all the CSI series fit into that mold now.
But what is most compelling about good TV is not the stories; it’s the characters. Time was when my identification with a particular character depended on such things as his name (Steve McGarrett, natch) and heroic nature. Perhaps because I’m getting older, or perhaps because I can now discern good writing, I enjoy watching the cops like Andy Sipowicz of “NYPD Blue,” Lennie Briscoe of the first “Law & Order,” or John Munch of “Homicide” and “Law & Order: SVU.” (Or, to go off canon for a moment, Sam Axe of “Burn Notice.”) I suspect that in some alternative universe, Sipowicz and Briscoe are sitting in a Manhattan bar, drinking their club sodas (they were alcoholics) and trying to top each other with lurid stories about cases they’ve worked.
I have three TV cop projects floating around in my head, one of which could fit the current recycle:
“Black and White,” about two young detectives in 1968 New York. The white detective’s name is Black, and the black detective’s name is White, natch. It would be an interesting look at a turbulent, to say the least, period in our history from the perspective of two young members of the establishment, complete with period music, fashions, cars, etc. The theme music: The Undisputed Truth’s “Smiling Faces Sometimes.”
“DCI,” about agents of the Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation, which is responsible for “investigating crimes that are statewide in nature or importance,” including “homicide, arson, financial crimes, illegal gaming, multi-jurisdictional crimes, drug trafficking, computer crimes, homeland security, public integrity & government corruption as well as crimes against children.” That and various Wisconsin settings should be enough to fill a few seasons, right? Theme music: Something from a musical act with Wisconsin roots; perhaps the Bodeans?
An unnamed series about two older detectives who violate rules, rough up suspects, get involved in high-speed suspects and other frowned-upon police activity but are barely tolerated because they also have the highest clearance rate in the police force. Think of two Dirty Harrys in their late careers. Theme music: Perhaps this underappreciated Post work?
I’d be willing to work on a cop series for free if I could write the story that included the arrest of every reality TV “star,” beginning with the two-digit-IQ “stars” of “Jersey Shore.”
September 2, 2011 March 26, 2018
Presty the DJ for Sept. 2
6 thoughts on ““You have the right to remain silent …””
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Emancipation of women
Quotes on women empowerment
Dowry system in India
Essay on Women Empowerment
Women empowerment has five components: women’s sense of self-worth, their right to have and to determine choices, their right to have access to opportunities and resources, their ability to influence the direction of social change to create a more just...
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Women Empowerment through Women Education
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Girls’ right to education: A study of selected slums of Kolkata
The girl child is a critical agent in any society. The care given to her as a child and adolescent,...
Social Problems of Women Education in India
The girls are very useful at home for carrying out domestic duties and so mothers are reluctant to send them...
Social Issues in India
Sexual Harassment. A Serious Problem Extent and Types
To evaluate the problem of sexual harassment, it is essential to identify its vivid forms and understand the extent to...
The movement for change. The problem of sexual assault and rape in India.
The incident of the gang rape in India and murder of the 23-year-old girl in a bus by six men...
Dowry harassment. Shalini—Shattered dreams.
I have known Shalini since our early childhood days when we were neighbours in Bangalore. We were complete contrasts: I...
Child marriage deprives the childhood
Child marriage of girls is a comparatively neglected social problem in India and is seldom given attention by policy makers,...
Gender Stereotypes. Let’s Start with the Truth
When Dave came home from work, he was completely frustrated with his day. Even after he’d been home a few hours, he carried the pain of a difficult interaction with his boss. He looked over at his wife, who was typing frantically...
Gender stereotypes. Women Talk, Men Don’t
This is the biggest, most commonly accepted, and most widely spread gender stereotypes. That’s why I’m addressing it first and spending some time to dispel this mindless myth.
Gender stereotypes. Women Are Neat.
Marcus rushed home from the airport, hoping to get the computer room organized. This was his quiet place of refuge after a long day, and he considered it his home office. Normally, he knew exactly where everything was, and everything...
Gender Stereotypes. Men Are Leaders, Women Are Followers
These gender stereotypes has been widely held throughout our society, and we shouldn’t be surprised. Men have traditionally held most of the leadership roles all the way up to the president of the United States. It has been a cultural...
Gender Stereotypes. Women Are Listeners, Men Tune You Out
Melissa was beginning to wonder if Ted was actually paying attention. She was so excited about her new promotion, and yet he seemed indifferent. She continued with her story.
The greatness of women has been acknowledged in the Vedas. Long ago, our ancient law-giver, Manu, who is often attacked for his anti-feminist disposition, descending from the high level of the law, accorded a high position to women: "where women are worshipped, there the gods live, and where they are dishonoured, everything fails".
He even advised as to what the names of women should be. He said: "Let the names of women be good to pronounce-simple, pleasant and appropriate. Let them terminate in long vowels and resemble words of benediction. Today when society has reached a stage where we have women priests, isn't it paradoxical to prevent them from chanting hymns?
The concept of women empowerment is deeply embedded in our cultural heritage. In fact, I write this during the Navratras, the nine days which occur twice a year, in which the Goddess is widely worshipped by Hindus around the world, not as a spouse but in her own right. It is also interesting to recall that all the Hindu deities are invariably bracketed with a feminine figure whose name precedes them—Gauri-Shankar, Sita-Ram, Radha-Krishna and so on. Therefore, as far as the cultural aspect is concerned, the bulk of people in India should not have any difficulty with the concept of women empowerment.
However, the social reality is entirely different. With a few exceptions, the woman has been relegated to a secondary and inferior position within most of the religions of India. Records of ill-treatment of women, the growing incidents of rape, and the general attitude of male domination continue to prevail. It is in this context that the contemporary movement of women empowerment has to be viewed.
There are several dimensions of women empowerment. There is a much-needed change in social attitudes which should respect women and the girl child, and which is dramatically illustrated by the growing gender imbalance even in the more affluent states. Then there is economic women empowerment, and for this many of the new schemes that the government has launched in the last few years have been especially aimed at the women of India. They are encouraged to open their own bank accounts into which government grants can flow. Thirdly, there is educational women empowerment. Although the percentage of girl students has considerably increased over the last decade, there is still a substantial imbalance, and the dropout rate of girl students is much higher than that of boys. One of the factors which is now being tackled is the absence of separate toilets for girls in village schools, which are essential in order to retain girl students beyond the primary standard. Fourthly, medical facilities for safe delivery, widespread availability of contraceptive technology and nutritional inputs for pregnant and nursing mothers have also to be substantially increased.
Politically, women played a major role in the freedom movement under Gandhiji and have also adorned the highest positions in the land from time to time. This fact has to be appreciated because it proves that our Constitution and electoral system give ample scope for women to rise to the top at the Centre and in the states.
This website presents an impressive array of intellectual insights into the various aspects of women empowerment. Taken together, they bring clearly before us the whole array of challenges that confront India today. I need to stress that women empowerment cannot be achieved without the full cooperation of men and, therefore, we must all work in unison to achieve the desired goals. It is interesting to note that on the issue of one-third reservation of women in Parliament, both the ruling party and the opposition party are, for once, in agreement.
A few years ago, a major controversy arose when the Shankaracharya of Puri prevented a lady from reciting Vedic verses at a public function. The Shankaracharya's stand that religious scriptures barred women from reading the Vedas was vehemently opposed by many women who perceived this discrimination as an affront on women's rights and on women empowerment. Interestingly, the occasion where this controversy erupted was the centenary celebrations of Saradeshwari Ashram in Kolkata. This ashram was founded by a disciple of Ramakrishna Paramhansa, a saint who had accorded women an elevated status.
Twenty five years after the observation of the International Women's Year in 1975, another thrust on women's development came in the form of declaring the year 2001 as Women's Empowerment Year. In between, there was the United Nations Decade for Women and the Year of the Girl Child. This may lead us to wonder if we have to wait for a quarter century before we see a perceptible change in the status of women.
Moreover, during the last 30 years, we have witnessed the emergence of hundreds of women's organisations across the country with one common goal - women empowerment. The ways and methods may be different, such as enabling women to be financially independent, developing a consciousness among them to fight for their rights, to demand better health care, be educated and demolish the walls of inequality that segregates them as weak and inferior. The outcome of such collective endeavour has been amazing. Working in groups they have not only managed to secure a number of rights, but have also improved the quality of life for themselves as well as their families.
Over the years, there has been a shift in India in the perspective on women empowerment, from treating them as welfare targets to recognising them as a critical group in the national development process. Recognising that women need to be empowered if they are to play their expected role in national advancement, a number of policies and programmes have been initiated to equip them to reach the desired goal.
The two major events of the past two decades concerning women empowerment have been the setting up of the National Commission for Women in India (NCWI) and the constitutional amendments reserving 30 per cent of seats for women in all elected local bodies. With this reservation thousands of women have been put into positions of leadership and decision-making arid many of them are chairpersons at village, block and district levels taking vital decisions affecting millions of people.
We believe in a bright future by means of a progressively increasing women empowerment replacing the traditional role of an ungrudging victim of exploitation by a new dynamic role of fully liberated partners in the reconstruction of society and the development of culture.
Rockets with fire in their tails?
Shalini’s Story about Dowry Harassment. Analyse
Dowry Death. Analyse of Jasmeet’s Story.
Dowry Death. Jasmeet and Tarampal—When inadequacy kills
Dowry Death – Gagan Story. Analyse.
Cortez on Dimensions of the Problem of Child Marriage in India
Sylvester on Dimensions of the Problem of Child Marriage in India
Tanya on Dowry Death. Analyse of Jasmeet’s Story.
Essie on Social Problems of Women Education in India
Abdul on Dowry Death. Analyse of Jasmeet’s Story.
Copyright © 2019 by Successful lady.
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The Rising Sun: Surf Tourism Development in Miyazaki, Japan
Words by Kim Feldmann de Britto & images by Adam Doering
Japan’s idiosyncratic personality is often associated more with sushi or samurai – not swells. Even so, over the past few decades the country has gradually internationalised its wave potential while also tacking together a peculiar surf culture in a Japanese sort of way. Now, with surfing scheduled to premier as an alternative sport in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, the role of Japan’s surf scene ought to be reconsidered.
Dr. Adam Doering, an Associate Professor at the Centre for Tourism Research in Japan’s Wakayama University has been drawn by this often neglected influence Japanese surf cultures have had on the global surf culture. However, as a hockey player from the Canadian Prairies, Dr. Doering’s path to publishing his latest paper about the ‘Genealogy of Surf Tourism Development in Miyazaki, Japan’ was a long one.
His first contact with surfing was the result of a longing to be by the sea and the 1990s global surf industry boom: Pictures of Todos Santos covering the walls of his cold basement bedroom called him to California, while a copy of The Endless Summer for his birthday brought him closer to his dream. He never made it to California but did get closer to the ocean and surfing while completing a PhD in Tourism at the University of Otago, New Zealand. During this time, he met his partner – who happened to be from Japan’s surfing “Mecca”, Miyazaki – and spent nearly a decade living between Dunedin and Miyazaki. In 2016, he finally settled in Wakayama and has been conducting research focused on the relationship between surfing and tourism development, surfing mobilities and cultural change, and contaminated coastal ecologies, particularly in Miyazaki, Wakayama, and post-disaster Fukushima.
In the following paragraphs Dr. Doering takes a look at the metamorphosis of Japan’s surf culture and surf tourism, namely in Miyazaki, leading up to the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
From XIX-Century Bellyboards, Through American Soldiers’ Fiberglass Longboards, to Japanese Pop Culture.
“Japan’s traditional wave riding culture dates back to the Edo period (1603-1868). Surf historian Nobuhito Ohkawa locates the earliest written record of wave riding in 1821 when Haiku poet Dokurakuan Kanri described a beach scene in Yamagata Prefecture where a group of children were skimming along the waves on itago. Itago are small wooden ‘belly boards’ shaped out of the removable floor planks found on traditional Japanese-style wooden boats. The diffusion of modern surfing then came in two great waves. The first wave beginning in the 1950s when the first-generation surfers became exposed to surf imagery through the Western cultural media, The National Geographic and Life Magazine. By the early1960s an increasing number of American soldiers based out of the Yokosuka naval base, located just 65 kilometres south of Tokyo, started bring their fiberglass longboards to surf around Sh?nan and Chiba, which is where the first generation of local surfers first saw the sport and began experimenting with shaping their own boards and, eventually, riding them. The second wave that brought surfing into mainstream Japanese pop culture peaked between 1979 and 1983 amidst a steadily rising economy that began encouraging leisure as an important part of the nation’s economic development. Surfing become normalised and fully incorporated into Japanese mainstream society.
This is how the story is commonly told but it is important to note that the emergence and dissemination of Japanese surfing was not linear. Surfing emerged simultaneously in different areas in the early years. Many of these stories are yet to be told. Furthermore, depending on how one defines what or who is “Japanese” (thinking of Kanoa Igarashi here), we could even point to author and surf historian John Clark’s work that describes the experiences of second-generation Nisei Japanese surfers in Hawai’i as early as the 1920s. There may in fact be multiple pathways and influences that brought surfing to Japan that require further attention.”
The Genealogy of a Surf Town – With a Touch of Curren.
“Miyazaki has a rich surfing history, but today’s surf aesthetic began with the early coastline development between 1930-1950 that sought to attract visitors by reconstructing the Nichinan coastal road into a “moving picture frame” of a southern tropical paradise. This was achieved by planting rows of Phoenix Palm (Phoenix canariensis) trees across 100 km stretch of road called the Nichinan Coastline Road. The presence of palm trees established a southern tropical aesthetic. One would be hard pressed to find a tourism promotion of Miyazaki or tourist Instagram post without one of these palm trees in it. These early efforts marked the beginnings of a seascape aesthetic that dominates representations of surfing in Miyazaki today.
In the 1960s and 70s, surfing silently started to emerge against the background of Miyazaki’s honeymoon boom. A small group of first generation Miyazaki surfers would eventually join the Nippon Surfing Association (NSA) in the early 1970’s. At the same time, however, the honeymoon boom began to reimagine the beach, especially Aoshima, as a leisure and resort space complete with “bikini buses” to get you to and from the city. The honeymoon boom came to an abrupt halt in the late 1970s when travel to the real Hawai’i became more affordable and appealing for the emerging middle classes. This turned many of the coastline resorts, beachside businesses and tourist spots into near ghost towns leaving the government to consider the best way to distribute the economic benefits of urban areas more equally amongst the peripheral regions of Japan. In 1987 the “Resort Law” was introduced by the national government to revitalize rural economies like Miyazaki. Each prefecture was asked to design a large scale resort based on its local character, Miyazaki chose to celebrate its surfing and southern tropical imagery by constructing the world’s largest Polynesian-styled indoor wave pool, the Seagaia Ocean Dome.
The ‘Ocean Dome’ marked Miyazaki’s first attempt at intentional surf tourism development. This was supplemented by increased efforts by the government to tap into surf capital and in April 1990, Miyazaki became the first Asian nation to host the World Amateur Surfing Championships. Moreover, between 1991 until 1993, Miyazaki Prefecture would also host the ‘Miyazaki Pro’ as part of the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Tour This brought the world’s best surfers to Miyazaki. However, the biggest legacy to emerge from these events occurred outside of the official competitions. In October 1991, Typhoon Orchid reached land on Day 4 and 5 of the Miyazaki Pro. Typhoon Orchid produced up to 15 meter waves and with the world’s best surfers in town, a group headed south to explore reef breaks down the Nichinan Coastline road. It was then that professional surfer Tom Curren paddled out into a large typhoon swell breaking over the appropriately named ‘Devil’s Washboard’. What was referred to at the time as ‘the greatest waves in the history of surfing in Japan’ would be documented for the first time in the 1992 edition of Surf’n Life. Written alongside the images and names of the foreign surfers was the proud tag line ‘Japan Made’, leaving a lasting legacy within the Miyazaki surf culture and developing a sense of pride and possibility that Japanese surfing is more than just wave pools and surf cultural industry. These waves showed the world and domestic surfers that Japan’s surf is world class.
Although surfers have been travelling to Miyazaki for decades, it was not until 2015 that the first surf tourism economic analysis was conducted by the Miyazaki Prefecture Government. According to the 2015 report the economic benefit from incoming surfers to Miyazaki is estimated to be over 1.7 billion yen, roughly 15.5 million US dollars. Today surfing means big business and nearly every coastal community from Hokkaido to Kagoshima is tapping into this ‘surf town’ movement, including Miyazaki.”
“Not too different from Bali”
“Lots has changed over the past five to ten years. With the collapse of the honeymoon boom in the 1970s and capital being redirected to large scale resort projects like the Ocean Dome in the 1980s, Aoshima beach, where Surf City Miyazaki and much of the surf redevelopment is located, looked and felt like a post-apocalyptic tourist ghost town in the 1990s. Referred to as ‘ushinawareta nij?nen,’ meaning ‘twenty lost years’ (1991-2010), abandoned hotels and pachinko parlors, empty housing lots and rusted tourism infrastructure, co-existed alongside the local surf shops.
The Aoshima beachside was in desperate need of an upgrade, and surf tourism would be a key tool in the redevelopment project. The Aoshima Tachibana Hotel was finally demolished in 2010 and Aoshima beach started to reinvent itself. New surf tourism focused backpacker accommodations began to open up and the larger projects like the Nagisa-no-Koban, which is a beach patrol center that opened in 2009 with the aim of bringing together various seaside activities and to create an ocean environment that is accessible and enjoyable for everyone. This marked the beginning of other Aoshima beachside developments like Aoshima Beach Park that opened in 2015 – which offers beachgoers a place to buy food, drink, play music and hang out – and Surf City Miyazaki that opened a year later with the aim of offering surf lessons, yoga and other outdoor fitness activities for locals and visitors alike. Everyone is tapping into the surf town development momentum. The latest proposal has been to make an Aoshima Beach Village complete with a hotel, spa, a shared office space targeted to IT workers, and a pool; a Silicon Valley in Miyazaki. The main idea being that users of the office space, who will come from all over Japan, can surf in the morning and go to the office which will be ‘0 seconds from the ocean’.
The most noticeable effect these new businesses have had is that the once post-apocalyptic beach scene has been renewed through a global surfing imaginary. For instance the Aoshima Beach Park signage is entirely written in English, the food stalls include American style hamburgers restaurants and a pizzeria, and the inspiration for the design is said to have taken its design from the strong beach cultures of California, Australia and Hawaii. These changes mark a significant change in the beach aesthetic based on a globalized surf space imagery. As one visitor described it to me, ‘It looks like any surf tourist spot. It might as well be Bali.’”
A Kaleidoscope of Pros and Cons
“I can in no way speak for the local Miyazaki surfing community regarding how they experience surfing and the meanings they ascribe to surfing, my work in Miyazaki focuses on the historical links between surf culture and tourism development. Surf tourism and rural revitalisation has for the most part been a welcomed change. It is really gaining momentum with the number of international visitors to the area showing significant increases in recent years. This has led to an increase is surfer backpackers, beach bars, lifestyle migrants to the area and surf schools, a familiar scene in the global surf circuit. Domestically, the independent female travellers/surfers between the ages of 25-40 have become the most sought after market in Japan. The most impactful new business in the area, the outdoor fitness center called Surf City Miyazaki, has been recognised nationally as an innovative business model, with roughly 90% of new cliental being young women. Here brands like Roxy/Quicksilver and Red Bull are highly visible especially during events like the annual Butterfly Effect.
The feminisation of surf capital has therefore played an important role in revitalising the local economy and has created a greater sense of belonging amongst women and in the surf. However, Japan still ranks 123rd out of 144 in terms of political empowerment for women according to the 2017 World Economic Forum report. Is a neoliberal logic of developing a female surf/travel market truly empowering women in Japanese society? How is this approach able to address the serious structures of power that still prevent women from being decision-makers in Japanese society? Is this movement a political force in Japan or niche marketplace distraction?
In a similar way the overall strategy of surf tourism development may also reinforce conventional rural-urban divides rather than offering any long-term solutions to the issues facing rural Japan today. The stated strategy for this mode of economic development has been referred to as ‘yosomono, wakamono, bakamono,’ meaning ‘young, crazy, outsiders’. The strategy aims to attract young urbanites from rural areas like Tokyo and Osaka in the hopes that they have the style, skills and funds required to reinvigorate the Japanese countryside. The introduction of a ‘new’ beach culture to Miyazaki is relying on the investments and cultural knowhow of urban lifestyle migrants who have the promotional skills, desire and finances to “produce” a new destination. One of the key slogans of this new development being, ‘Change is good’.”
Of course change is as disruptive as it is a positive experience and not everyone perceives the change as all good. Some people interviewed for my research noted how Aoshima area in particular is becoming more like the famous home of surf fashion and culture, Shonan near Tokyo. Additionally, everything has become highly-stylized, turned into an ‘event’, and the ocean is now informally managed through time-slots and class schedules. One hula group I talked to no longer dances in Aoshima because of the increasing formalities that come with economic development. Although this economic redevelopment has largely been welcomed there are a few people who have told me of how the once close surf community has not just been divided, ‘it’s been blown to pieces and will not likely be repaired.’ This is the old guard trying to come to grips with this shifting global landscape, but this tension is also part of the new surf scene in Miyazaki.”
The Localism Conundrum: Traditional vs Modern
“Traditionally, like many part of the world, Japan’s surf scene has been managed, governed and controlled by the first-generation surfers. Surf bosses, hierarchy, territories, patriarchy and respect define Japanese surf spots. In a recent interview with Stab Magazine, Tom Carroll explains his recent experience in Japan saying that the surf culture feels like ancient Japan, governed by respected leaders who rule many regions across the country. But the new surf tourism developments have opened-up this once solid “traditional” style of surf governance. Miyazaki’s surf scene has diversified and multiplied, making this traditional form of governance increasingly difficult for the old guard. The emerging surf scene is globally networked, transnational, and diverse, which has created a more accessible space for more people to try out surfing and hang out on the beach. More kids surfing than ever before, and there is a notable increase of female surfers in the area. This diversity is much more noticeable in Miyazaki than say other surf spots throughout Japan as there is simply more space and less people to contend with.
The internationalization and opening up of the beach and surf culture in Miyazaki has created new possibilities, but also tensions in how surf breaks are managed, governed and experienced. As one surf boss described to me, he has grandchildren surfing now and he knows he should try to follow international surf etiquette, but is finding it hard. He would rather own the peak than negotiate his position with others. But owning the peak is becoming increasingly difficult in a time where there are more international surfers coming to Miyazaki, more lifestyle immigrants surfing and opening new businesses, more kids surfing and more women. New developments have diversified Miyazaki’s surf scene calling into question the ‘traditional’ governance model of the surf breaks in Miyazaki and Japan more broadly.”
For the Sake of the Olympics – and a Prosperous Future for Everyone
“Everyone is working hard to revitalize the rural economy in Miyazaki. City officials, young entrepreneurs, local surfers and lifestyle immigrants all desire to make life in Miyazaki more sustainable in the long-term. Miyazaki is not alone in this struggle. All rural areas in Japan are facing similar issues of depopulation, an aging society and lack of job opportunities. The neoliberal free-market approach of attracting “young, crazy, outsiders” to rural areas is working to some extent. Aoshima’s beachside is no longer a ghost town and is showing new signs of life after a twenty-year hiatus. But as a long-term national strategy, this free-market approach may not be enough. Tourism is seen by the national and prefectural governments as a panacea for Japan’s social issues. This strategy relies heavily on inbound international tourism, which is closely linked with the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. The hope being to attract 40 million tourists by 2020 and 60 million by 2030.
Miyazaki has a long history of being a tourism destination and has always been the first to take advantage of new tourism trends and policy developments. In this way, the prefecture has shown a great ability to reinvent itself during changing times. Today, surfing and surf culture is playing an important role reproducing the image of Miyazaki as a southern tropical paradise in the hopes of attracting tourists. And yet the prefecture has consistently remained one of the poorest in the nation. Tourism has not proven to be an effective long-term solution to the issues facing rural Japan. Tokyo-centrism still dominates the politics of Japan; peripheral rural areas are left to compete amongst one another for international tourists. So, while there is a common theme that the Tokyo 2020 Olympics has the potential to offer opportunities for marginalized rural communities like Miyazaki to gain greater visibility and more international inbound tourism, the broader structures of power remain the same: Tokyo first and rural communities like Miyazaki an afterthought. The real structural change required to shift the broader political and economic landscape of Japan will require more than trickle down tourism investment. Surf tourism and surf imagery has undoubtedly helped Miyazaki to reimagine itself in difficult economic times, but it could be argued that this free-market style of surf tourism development reinforces rather than remedies the longstanding rural-urban disparities.
Large questions hover over the Olympics: What happens when the Olympic Games are over? Will investment in international tourism continue? Will the wave of surf town development in Japan come crashing down during the post-Olympic hangover? Miyazaki’s open access, consistent waves and low number of surfers there will ensure a steady stream of domestic surf tourists will always go there. Miyazaki is frequently referred to in Japan as the island within an island. This inaccessibility and relative obscurity has made it a truly a special place in the Japanese surf scene. Cheap flights, the Olympic Games, increasing tourism promotion, and new transnational networks are slowly building new bridges to this once off the beaten track surf paradise. The attention now is primarily on economic development in dire economic times. Only time will tell whether or not surf tourism development is an economically and environmentally sustainable strategy in the long-term, but if history has taught us anything it is that despite the hype rural communities like Miyazaki will not be the primary beneficiaries of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics Games. Some money may trickle down but the privileging of the urban spaces is obvious, and as a result rural Japan will continue to struggle with issues of rural depopulation, ageing communities and lack of jobs. But another thing is also certain, as long as the waves keep coming surfers will continue to find ways to stay in this unique version of Northeast Asia’s surfer’s paradise.”
Surf Simply would like to thank Associate Professor Adam Doering of Wakayama University for his time and assistance in producing this article. You can view Adam’s work here.
Tags: Interview, Japan, Surf Culture, Surf Travel, Surfenomics
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No. 100 Contents
Browse Issue
Mar/Apr 2014
The Future of Audio Engineering
by John LaGrou
When Tape Op's 420th issue rolls out in 2040, the way we record, edit, mix, and master audio will be transformed entirely from the processes we use today. Currently we are separated by physical barriers — big consoles, big speakers, large acoustically designed rooms, outboard racks, patching bays, monitor screens, mice, and keyboards. This is the "fourth wall" that remains between creators and the music. Within three decades, that wall will all but disappear. Audio engineering will become virtual and immersive.
TECHNOLOGY IMPROVEMENTS FOLLOW A PREDICTABLE TREND
Fifty years ago, people thought Alan Turing was crazy. The father of algorithmic computing, Turing predicted that computers would employ around one gigabit of storage by the turn of the century. He was right. In 1965, Gordon Moore famously speculated that the number of transistors on an integrated circuit (IC) would double every two years. He was right too, if a tad conservative. We've since learned that virtually every technology follows a similarly predictable growth slope.
For example: since 1990, the cost-performance efficiency (CPE) of wireless devices has doubled every seven months. From 1980, the CPE of video display technology has doubled every 18 months. And since the early 1950s, magnetic storage bits-per-dollar has doubled every 18 months.
Since 1970, power consumption per data instruction has halved every 18 months. DNA sequencing cost has halved every ten months since 1990 (NEC is now shipping a portable crime-scene DNA analyzer that takes just 25 minutes). The cost of transistors has halved every 16 months since 1970. One transistor now costs less than the ink for one letter printed in Tape Op.
Similar CPE slopes are seen for dynamic RAM since 1970 (18-month doublings), calculations-per-second since 1950 (24-month doublings), MIPS-per-dollar since 1950 (22-month doublings), Internet global backbone bits-per-second (14-month doublings), Internet data traffic (7-month doublings), and growth in supercomputer FLOPS since 1990 (14-month doublings).
The list continues for scores of technologies, (especially!) including audio engineering technologies.
AUDIO DYNAMIC RANGE INNOVATIONS FOLLOW A TREND
In the beginning of commercial recorded sound (1890), we achieved a systemic dynamic range of around 15 dB (3 bits equivalent). By the 1930s, vacuum tubes, condenser mics, and electric cutter heads improved dynamic range to around 35 dB (6 bits). Magnetic tape gave us a 60-70 dB range and more, especially once technologies like Dolby SR were available (12 bits). With the advent of commercial digital recording in the 1970s and '80s, early systems were capable of 90 dB dynamic range (15 bits).
Today, we're achieving a best-case unweighted systemic dynamic range of around 110-115 dB (19 bits) — from concert halls to home playback; but only under controlled, pristine lab-like conditions (a high-quality home system playing better-than-average program material is possibly delivering around 16 bits).
Let's visualize the history of audio dynamic range on a grownth chart.
Looking at technology growth with too narrow a time frame obscures the long-term trend. For instance, from 1885 through 1925, acoustic dynamic range didn't improve much — it took the breakthrough innovation of electric recording to significantly improve dynamic range. This is known as the "nested S-curve," or "step and wait" theory of growth. Also, economic incentive drives innovation and improvement. Generally, those technologies with the greatest economic incentives improve the fastest.
When we "average" (or "smooth") 120 years of dynamic range, we see that its growth slope is predictable. From the beginning of audio recording, commercial dynamic range has improved by roughly 0.8 dB per year — the equivalent of around one-bit every seven years. Thus, we can confidently extend our growth slope into the future, and expect the trend to continue... until real-world dynamic range is no longer limited by technical or economic factors in audio systems.
TRENDS PREDICT THE FUTURE
We've seen how and why technology advances and how we can confidently predict its growth over time. Let's now turn our attention to the next 40 years. And finally, let's attempt to anticipate the next two generations of audio engineering. It's important to recognize that the professional audio market will not be the primary driver of our future tools. The economic engines driving key changes in pro audio will be gaming, film, and television, as well as military — combined global revenue of over $500 billion. Pro audio will be the beneficiary of this massive...
The rest of this article is only available with a Basic or Premium subscription, or by purchasing back issue #100. For an upcoming year's free subscription, and our current issue on PDF...
New! Episode 30: Dan Auerbach
Interviews | No. 36
Timothy Powell: Metro Mobile
by Graham Hick
Timothy Powell of Metro Mobile Recording has been a music and gear fanatic his whole life. Walking into his main recording truck, M-48, is proof enough of that. I was amazed not only at the collection...
Tommy Guerrero
by Monte Vallier
Tommy Guerrero may be best known as one of the members of the infamous Bones Brigade skate team from the '80s. A lot less people know that he has been playing music for as long as he's been skating....
Introduction to Digital Audio: A Basic Overview of Digital Audio
by Scott Colburn
Your ears are analog devices that convert sound waves into mechanical pulses the brain can understand. Your computer is a binary device, which means that it can only understand messages described in...
Interviews | No. 101
Gerald Seligman: The National Recording Preservation Foundation
by Larry Crane
Archiving the recorded audio history of the United States? The National Recording Preservation Foundation is just getting up and running, with some familiar folks on the governing board. I had to know...
Mac McCaughan: Superchunk, Portastatic and Merge
Mac McCaughan is well known for his 20 years as the front man for the Chapel Hill, NC, band Superchunk, co-owner (with Laura Ballance) of the influential independent record label Merge Records and the...
Just Blaze (bonus): Jay-Z, Eminen, Kanye, Drake
by Zac Meyer
Justin Smith, better known as Just Blaze, catapulted to the upper echelon of hip hop in the early '00s as the producer behind a string of hits with Jay-Z and Roc-a-fella Records. He has been in high...
Ian Shaw
by Ian Shaw
Ian Shaw, engineer and producer from London, England, relocated to the heart of tropical Key West, Florida, the southernmost point in the continental US. In the winter of 2011 Ian shipped his...
A Good Ear?
by David Payette
I had arrived. Led by my ego, I waltzed into the recording studio and began to warm up. A jazz pianist about to study at conservatory, I prided myself on my ability to hear what others could not. I...
Kevin Renick: Not So Up In the Air
Your career of playing music is kind of more recent to the public eye. Well, yeah, I was described as going through the looking glass, 'cause for many years, even though I did music as a hobby...
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BioCatch closes $30M round for its ‘behavioral biometrics’ tech for banks and other transaction businesses
Steve O'Hear @sohear / 1 year
BioCatch, the U.S./Israeli startup that has developed “behavioral biometric authentication and threat detection” tech to enable banks and other high-transaction companies to stop online fraud before it happens, has closed $30 million in growth funding. In what can be viewed as a mixture of strategic and pure venture backers, the round is led by Maverick Ventures, with participation from American Express Ventures, NexStar Partners, Kreos Capital, CreditEase, OurCrowd, JANVEST Capital and other existing investors.
Founded in 2011 by self-described experts in big data, machine learning and artificial intelligence, BioCatch is tackling cybersecurity from an online identity angle. Instead of the traditional approach of simply adding additional endpoint security layers (i.e. a password on top of a passphrase on top of two-factor authentication etc.), the technology focuses on the online behavior of customers in order to detect and prevent a potential fraudster.
Once installed on a bank’s website or app, for example, the BioCatch tech collects and analyzes more than 500 cognitive parameters, such as the way you wiggle a mouse when the cursor disappears or the way you hold your phone, to generate a unique profile. It then uses this as a reference point (or form of identity) to authenticate that you are who you say you are. In this way, the technology is effective against phishing attacks or bots because it doesn’t rely on stopping a fraudster getting in but stopping them from doing any harm if or when they do.
In a call, recently appointed BioCatch CEO Howard Edelstein told me this requires companies to think about online security in a very different way to the past, making it a challenge to sell into corporates, not least getting in front of the right person at a company and someone who will be receptive to a demo of the tech. Once this happens, especially since BioCatch can reveal anomalies that other cybersecurity tech would never show up, the conversation becomes easier.
With that said, Edelstein noted that the behavioral biometrics tech market has become a race in the last 24 months, with awareness of the technology increasing among corporates and BioCatch’s financial institution customer base, which is why the startup has raised this growth round. Having focused on blue-chip companies, mostly large banks, the plan is to expand into other adjoining sectors where an identity approach can work best. This could include insurance, cryptocurrency, P2P payments, healthcare and government.
The startup will invest in its product range, too, says Edelstein, starting with fraud detection when opening an account, and before a company even knows who you are. This is being made possible now that BioCatch has amassed enough behavior data and trained its systems to understand differences in the way a fraudster behaves when entering crucial details and during other parts of the sign-up process when not acting purely from memory and so on.
Meanwhile, BioCatch is talking up its robust IP portfolio, with more than 56 patents that are either granted or pending. I previously wrote about one of the company’s granted patents called “System, device, and method of detecting identity of a user of a mobile electronic device.“ It covers the use of physiological factors, such as palm size, press size, hand tremor and eye-hand coordination, combined with behavioral traits, such as usage preferences and device interaction patterns, to help ensure you are who you say you are.
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Massive Spending Cuts: The Tax Act's Hidden Costs
Joshua Holland
Republicans rediscovered the peril of the enlarged deficit—as a pretext for gutting social spending.
Albin Lohr-Jones/Sipa USA via AP Images
A demonstrator holds a sign at a rally in opposition to the Republican tax bill held in Lower Manhattan
This article appears in the Summer 2018 issue of The American Prospect magazine. Subscribe here.
The 2017 Republican Tax Act is plainly a raw deal for working America. Corporations keep their massive cuts permanently, but according to the Tax Policy Center, 53 percent of filers will actually pay more taxes in 2027 than they would have if the Tax Act had not become law. More than twice as many of those in the lowest income group will face tax hikes than will enjoy a cut. And by 2027, the law is projected to result in 13 million more Americans being uninsured.
But that kind of narrow view only scratches the surface. One has to look at the law’s hidden costs, longer-term effects, and the ripple effect on state revenues and spending.
In one provision that hasn’t received much attention, Republicans rejiggered the formula that the government uses to measure inflation. Known as Chained Consumer Price Index, this trick will reduce the official measure of inflation. In turn, that will result in “bracket creep,” in which tax filers move to a higher tax rate without seeing the same boost in their real incomes. In the first ten years, the government will collect an estimated $125 billion more as a result, but over the following ten years, it will result in a tax hike of $500 billion. This change, which hits people of modest incomes harder, was adopted to help pay the costs of tax cuts for the rich.
Because this same measure is used to determine the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), this will hit low-income working families especially hard. According to an analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, in 2027, a family with three kids making $40,000 per year will pay $341 more in taxes as a result of the change. Again, this is permanent and as a result, the value of the credit will continue to shrink after 2027.
Because many states use federal cut-offs to determine their own income tax brackets and tax credits, this will also lead to stealthy, unlegislated tax increases at that level. In Minnesota, for example, the state estimates that residents will fork over $400 million in additional state taxes this year, according to The New York Times. The analysis finds that 870,000 families will pay an additional $489 per person this year. And because it killed or capped various tax credits, resulting in more taxable income, the Tax Act will hike taxes in the 41 states with broad-based income taxes. In the near term at least, that will boost state revenues, and in some red states—Georgia, Indiana, and Iowa—Republicans used that windfall to justify their own deep cuts, which are similarly skewed toward high earners. So skewed federal tax cuts cascade into similarly regressive changes in state taxes.
A few states with progressive leaders have taken a different approach. Colorado used its additional revenues to hike funding for schools and infrastructure. And New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy is calling for a new “millionaire’s tax” on high earners that he would use to increase funding for education, transportation, and public pensions. Most states are waiting to see how changes to the federal tax system impact their budgets before taking action.
But the big rip-off of working people hidden in the tax cuts comes in the form of massive and increasing deficits: At least $1.9 trillion over the next decade. Combined with other measures passed by Republicans, including a significant hike in military spending, that number balloons to $2.7 trillion over that same period. And that estimate assumes the economy will continue to grow apace; if that doesn’t prove true, federal deficits will be yet larger.
President Trump’s own 2019 budget suggests what’s in store: According to an analysis by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, it would cut non-defense discretionary spending—which covers a gamut of programs that help working people stay afloat, from Pell Grants to job training programs to the Affordable Care Act’s subsidies—by 40 percent. In addition to decimating the budgets of the Environmental Protection Agency (with a 34 percent cut) and the Department of Labor (21 percent), it includes deep cuts to Medicaid, food stamps, and federal housing assistance. But there’s only so much meat on the bone with discretionary programs, and the real prizes for Republicans are Social Security, which keeps 22 million Americans out of poverty, and Medicare. Less than two months after the GOP’s deficit-funded tax cuts went into effect, House Budget Committee Chair Steve Womack cited skyrocketing deficits to push for a budget resolution that would lead to deep cuts to Medicare and Social Security spending. A month later, five conservative economists warned in The Washington Postof a looming “debt spiral” that “raises the specter of a crisis.”
Rather than blame that on their party’s trillion-dollar giveaway to corporate America, they wrote that “our deficit and debt problems stem from sharply rising entitlement spending,” and that the only way to address it is to “reform and restrain the growth of entitlement programs and adopt further pro-growth tax and regulatory policies.” Three weeks later, Speaker Paul Ryan echoed that view, dismissing the Congressional Budget Office’s analysis and blaming the stormy budgetary outlook on Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. At around the same time, House Republicans tried to pass a constitutional amendment that would bar Congress from running deficits altogether.
Politically, cutting Medicare and Social Security is tough. But Republicans have made it clear that, at a minimum, they’ll push for deeper cuts in discretionary spending, including housing, education, and numerous other safety-net programs.
In May, the House Agriculture Committee passed a Farm Bill that would cut spending on nutritional assistance to low-income households by $17 billion over the next ten years. The CBOestimates that this will kick 1.2 million recipients off the program, increasing the cost of food for some of the poorest Americans.
Here again, there will be a downstream effect on state budgets. Federal transfers to the states account for around a third of their budgets, on average, and some poorer states get more than 40 percent of their revenues from the federal government. While most states are enjoying a short-term boost in their own revenues, over the longer term, the Tax Act’s cap on deductibility of state and local taxes will undermine state-funded public services. The National Conference of State Legislatures notes that “more states are experiencing tight budgets than at any point since the Great Recession,” and “a reduction in federal transfers … could present significant long-term challenges for state budgets.”
Some states may follow the path New Jersey’s governor is trying to take with his “millionaire’s tax,” but for most state governments, the political path of least resistance will be cutting services or closing budgetary gaps with regressive sales taxes, “sin taxes,” and fees.
This represents another hidden tax hike because state and local taxes and fees are already significantly more regressive than federal income taxes.
According to an analysis released last year by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, those in the bottom fifth of the income distribution paid just under 7 percent of their income in federal taxes, and just over 12 percent in state and local taxes. That contrasts with the top 1 percent of tax filers, who pay a quarter of their incomes, on average, to the federal government but less than 9 percent of their earnings on state and local taxes. For roughly 70 years, state and local taxes have increased faster than have federal taxes, which has ultimately made our overall tax structure significantly less progressive. Shifting yet more of the total tax burden to state and local governments means taking even more out of the paychecks of working people to finance massive cuts for corporations and the investor class.
As USC legal scholar Edward Kleinbard noted, regardless of the distribution of taxes, “government spending invariably is very progressive: Lower-income Americans get disproportionately more value from government spending, relative to their incomes, than do the affluent, because they rely much more on public schools, social services and health care.”
This underscores the most important hidden cost of the Tax Act: It gives conservatives the ability to apply relentless pressure to cut spending, and that forces typical households to spend more out of pocket on education, health care, retirement security, and a host of other social goods.
In that sense, the Tax Act deepens a longstanding feature of American government: The United States has the fifth-lowest overall tax burden in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), but we pay dramatically more in out-of-pocket social expenses than the citizens of every other highly developed country. In 2013, the most recent year for which complete data are available, Americans shelled out 11.4 percent of their earnings on private social expenditures, a figure that was about 50 percent higher than the country with the next highest share, the Netherlands, and almost five timesthe average among OECDcountries. This will only worsen under the Tax Act.
Conservatives have tried to sell the American people the idea that tax cuts come without costs. But the hidden costs associated with cutting taxes for the affluent are largely borne by people who can’t afford armies of lobbyists.
Pelosi, AOC, Trump, Bannon—and the Stakes
Trump has thrown the Democrats a lifeline. Will they take it?
Americans Are Complicit in Border Camp Abuses
Tova Walsh & Michael J. MacKenzie
The conditions at border detention facilities provide irrefutable evidence of the child maltreatment that President Trump commits in our names—and state officials need to take action to end the cruelty.
The Entire Republican Establishment Has Embraced a Classic Anti-Semitic Trope
The reality is that Jewish Americans worry less about Israel than things like health care, the economy, and the environment.
Joshua Holland is a Nation Institute writing fellow and the host of Politics and Reality Radio. Follow him on Twitter.
Articles By Joshua Holland
RSS feed of articles by Joshua Holland
The Emblem of This Era
How the Tax Act Undercuts Health-Care Reform
Accelerating the Death of Real Jobs
The Tax Act Actually Promotes Off-Shore Tax Tricks
Worsening Inequality
The Harm to Affordable Housing
Penalizing Marriage for the Poor
How the Tax Cut Sacks Puerto Rico
Denying the Child Tax Credit to Undocumented Children
The Long Game on Taxes
The Two Biggest Lies in Donald Trump's Tax Plan
How to Restore Taxes on Inheritances
The Tax Act That Lost Its Name
Principles for Tax Reform
The Koch Brothers' Best Investment
A Lost Opportunity to Help Small Business
What Else Could We Do with $1.9 Trillion?
Gutting the AMT
Why the Tax Act Will Not Boost Investment
How the Tax Act Embodies the Republican Culture of Corruption
Raises and Bonuses: The PR Fraud
The Top Ten Fallacies About the New Trump-GOP Tax Act
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By The Journal
Sunday, Dec. 3, 2017 6:12 PM
Journal/Sam Green
Cortez Police Department badge
Friday, Nov. 17
3:30 p.m.: A man was arrested at National 9 Motel, 301 W. Main St., on suspicion of disturbing the peace after his girlfriend reported he was yelling at her and behaving in a threatening manner while her possessions were being moved out of the motel.
5:48 p.m.: A man was cited in the 100 block of East Seventh Street on suspicion of being intoxicated in a roadway. Medics were called to treat him for intoxication.
6 p.m.: A man was arrested at Pet Pad, 24 N. Madison St., on suspicion of distribution and possession of amphetamines after officers responded to a report of a disturbance between him and his father. More than 80 small bags of meth and several items including glass pipes with meth residue were found in his pockets and in a bag he carried.
9:05 p.m.: A man was arrested in the 400 block of West Seventh Street on suspicion of violating a protection order. He was medically cleared at Southwest Memorial Hospital due to severe intoxication.
Saturday, Nov. 18
1:42 a.m.: A man was cited in the 1 block of North Chestnut Street on suspicion of driving under restraint. He was pulled over for stopping at a green light.
2:40 a.m.: A man was arrested on suspicion of felony menacing, third-degree assault, domestic violence and harassment in the 2000 block of Tucker Lane after police responded to a disturbance. Witnesses claimed the man had brandished a knife at his girlfriend and another man. The suspect claimed he had grabbed the knife after his girlfriend hit him.
11:08 a.m.: A woman was arrested at Dolores State Bank, 744 E. Main St., on a warrant for failure to appear on a local felony charge.
11:18 a.m.: Police responded to a report of a vehicle break-in in the 10 block of South Beech Street. A woman reported a backpack containing a Google Chromebook, valued at $540, had been stolen from her unlocked vehicle sometime after 11 p.m. the previous day.
11:02 p.m.: A man was arrested in the 100 block of West Main Street on suspicion of DUI, driving under restraint and weaving. He was medically cleared at Southwest Memorial Hospital due to intoxication.
Sunday, Nov. 19
1:18 a.m.: A man was arrested outside Angel’s End Zone, 309 N. Broadway, on suspicion of destroying private property and disturbing the peace after witnesses reported he had punched the hood of a vehicle, causing about $250 in damage. He reportedly refused to get in a patrol vehicle after being arrested and started pushing the officer. The officer shot him with a stun gun, and he sat down in the vehicle. He was cleared at Southwest Memorial Hospital due to the stun gun exposure.
2:51 a.m.: A man was arrested in the 100 block of North Ash Street on suspicion of DUI and driving without a license after he was pulled over for failing to dim his high beams while passing a patrol car.
4:09 a.m.: A man was arrested in the 400 block of East First Street on a warrant for failure to appear on a dangerous drugs charge. Police attempted to contact him in the parking lot of City Market because he appeared to be hiding his face from a patrol car. He began running and reportedly threw a bag of trash at a patrol car before an officer got out and tackled him. He reportedly continued to fight with two officers, and one of them punched him in the head. After he was handcuffed, he was found to have a warrant for his arrest.
3:19 p.m.: A man was arrested on suspicion of shoplifting at Walmart, 1835 E. Main St. Store employees claimed he had tried to steal five packs of “Magic” cards and several articles of clothing, valued at $16.65. He had reportedly been caught shoplifting three times at the Cortez and Durango Walmarts, and was currently trespassed from the one in Cortez. A glass marijuana pipe was found in his possession.
8:54 p.m.: A man was arrested at Walmart, 1835 E. Main St., on suspicion of theft and unlawful possession of a controlled substance. Store employees claimed he had tried to steal archery equipment, a package of underwear, a box of candy, a package of knives, a TV and an ashtray, valued at $360.37 total. He reportedly told police he planned to use the items as Christmas presents. A bag of meth was found in the man’s vehicle when police took possession of it, along with several bows, a large knife, a pair of virtual reality goggles and someone else’s identity card.
Monday, Nov. 20
2:04 a.m.: A man was cited in the 40 block of West Montezuma Avenue on suspicion of DUI, DUI per se and careless driving after a homeowner reported he was driving in circles in front of his residence and yelling his name. The suspect reportedly said he was at the other man’s house because they agreed to meet through a “hook-up” site. The homeowner said he didn’t know the suspect.
10:49 a.m.: An employee was issued a summons on suspicion of theft at Denny’s, 2059 E. Main St. A manager claimed she had stolen $20 out of a customer’s purse after the customer accidentally left it in the restaurant. The customer claimed a total of $135 was missing from her purse, but police did not find any other cash in the employee’s possession.
12:48 p.m.: A man was arrested in the 200 block of East Seventh Street on a warrant for failure to appear on a local misdemeanor charge after police responded to a report that he was involved in a fight.
5:32 p.m.: Police responded to a report of assault in the 800 block of South Chestnut Street. A woman said her ex-boyfriend had thrown her TV on the floor, pushed her down and choked her, saying he would kill her. Medics medically cleared the woman on the scene, and she reportedly refused to go to the hospital. Police were unable to locate the suspect, but they requested a warrant for his arrest on suspicion of domestic violence, third-degree assault and harassment.
Recent For the record
Sheriff’s Blotter
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Rapper Kodak Black arrested; Lil Wayne bows out of show | TribLIVE.com
Rapper Kodak Black arrested; Lil Wayne bows out of show
Sun., May 12, 2019 3:51 p.m. | Sunday, May 12, 2019 3:51 p.m.
In this Aug. 27, 2017 file photo, Kodak Black arrives at the MTV Video Music Awards at The Forum in Inglewood, Calif. Officials say Florida rapper Kodak Black was arrested on federal and state weapons charges just before he was to perform at a hip-hop festival. The U.S. Marshals office says in a news release that the 21-year-old Black was taken into custody Saturday, May 11, 2019 at the Rolling Loud Music Festival at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens. The statement didn’t elaborate.
In a June 16, 2018 file photo, Lil Wayne performs on Day 3 of the 2018 Firefly Music Festival at The Woodlands, in Dover, Del. Rap star Lil Wayne says he did not perform as scheduled Saturday, May 11, 2019 at the Rolling Loud festival at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens because he was searched by law enforcement officers. The rapper said on social media Saturday that he would not perform at the Rolling Loud festival at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens because police “made it mandatory” that he was searched before the show. Rapper Kodak Black was arrested on weapons charges before the show.
MIAMI — The Rolling Loud Music Festival celebrating global hip-hop artists in South Florida did not go so well for Kodak Black and Lil Wayne.
The U.S. Marshals Service said in a news release that Black was arrested Saturday at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens. The statement said he was charged with a crime in connection with weapons, but didn’t elaborate.
Meanwhile, Lil Wayne said on social media that he refused to perform after being subjected to a search by security personnel or police. It wasn’t immediately clear Sunday who had done the pat-down on the superstar rapper, whose real name is Dwayne Michael Carter Jr.
But here’s what he had to say on Twitter:
“To all my fans who came to see me at Rolling Loud, I’m sorry but I won’t be performing,” the post says. “The Festival Police (Not Rolling Loud) made it mandatory that I had to be policed and checked to get on the stadium grounds. I do not and will not ever settle for being policed to do my job.”
Lil Wayne has sold more than 100 million records worldwide. According to his Twitter post, he later performed at the Story nightclub in Miami Beach.
As for Kodak Black, whose current name is Bill Kapri and who was born as Dieuson Octave to Haitian American parents in Florida, this arrest is the latest in a lengthy rap sheet he has assembled at the age of 21.
Authorities say Black will make an initial appearance in Miami federal court Monday. Court records don’t list a lawyer for him.
Most recently, Black was arrested last month on drug and weapons charges as he crossed from Canada into the U.S. near Niagara Falls, New York. In Florida, he has been charged at different times with drug and weapons possession, armed robbery, sexual assault, probation violations and fleeing from officers.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and Miami-Dade County police were also involved in his most recent arrest.
Categories: AandE | Music
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Carnegie Science Center to showcase rock-themed films on giant screen
Ben Folds will hit Pittsburgh for concert, event for new book
Meek Mill seeks new trial, judge after decade-long probation
Diddy’s ‘Making the Band’ coming back to TV
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Vacant land becoming asset as development returns to Detroit | TribLIVE.com
Vacant land becoming asset as development returns to Detroit
Sun., April 28, 2019 11:36 a.m. | Sunday, April 28, 2019 11:36 a.m.
In this Feb. 26, 2019 file photo, Jeep vehicles are parked outside the Jefferson North Assembly Plant in Detroit. When Fiat Chrysler began considering where to build its next assembly plant, the automaker didn’t have far to look for land. A short walk from its Jefferson North plant on Detroit’s east side is 200 acres of land the company is eyeing as part of its $1.6 billion investment to convert an engine complex into a new facility. Decades of residential flight, disinvestment and abandonment have left the Motor City with stretches of available real estate which are appealing to some developers.
DETROIT — When Fiat Chrysler began considering where to build its next assembly plant, the automaker didn’t have to look far to find land.
A short walk from its Jefferson North plant on Detroit’s east side is 200 acres (80 hectares) of land the company is eyeing as part of a $1.6 billion investment to convert its Mack Avenue Engine Complex into a new facility.
Decades of residential flight, disinvestment and abandonment have left the Motor City with something many others just don’t have: stretches of available real estate. Unlike many big cities where space is tight and most new buildings must be vertical, Detroit’s sprawling empty spaces appeal to some developers.
Detroit is now working to secure the land needed for Fiat Chrysler. Some is home to an old power plant. A tree-planting operation is on another part. A large chunk is privately owned and leased to the automaker as a lot for new vehicles.
Mayor Mike Duggan said in late February that Detroit had 60 days to pull those acres together or the deal with Fiat Chrysler could sputter. Much of the land has been secured, with negotiations continuing with businessman Manuel “Matty” Moroun’s family for one section, according to city spokesman Tim Carroll. The Detroit City Council is expected to discuss the city’s land acquisition plan as early as Monday.
A new plant is expected to add 3,850 jobs. Fiat Chrysler plans an additional 1,100 new jobs at its adjacent Jefferson North Assembly plant.
The effort is seen as more good news for the city that is still rebounding after its 2014 exit from the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history. Bolstered by auto and other manufacturing jobs, Detroit nearly was bursting at its seams by the 1950s when the city’s population rose to about 1.8 million. But white people started to leave the city for the suburbs. The outbound tide swelled following a 1967 race riot. The black middle class followed.
Tens of thousands of aging homes that once held families deteriorated. More than 14,000 vacant structures — mostly houses — have been torn down over the past five years as part of the nation’s largest demolition program.
About 680,000 people live in the city — 1.2 million fewer than six decades ago. They’re not cramped for space: About 14,800 acres (5,990 hectares) of land in Detroit — 16.75% of the city’s 88,800 acres (35,940) — are considered vacant, according to Data Driven Detroit.
“Really, in some ways for Detroit to grow it had to shrink,” said Clifford Brown, managing partner of Woodborn Partners, which is building a $16 million mixed-use development in southwest Detroit. “The vacant land is just emblematic of Detroit needed to shrink for a while before it could get healthy. Those who were optimistic said (the city) was just resting.”
Woodburn Partners’ project will include 60 new apartments and retail space. The land being vacant was part of the appeal, Brown said.
“It’s an asset — at least from our perspective,” he said. “We like to develop on vacant land.”
In the Cleveland area, decisions are made to assemble vacant parcels, side lots and lots with abandoned houses into contiguous pieces that possibly could see redevelopment.
“The land becomes valuable over time once it becomes assembled,” said Gus Frangos, Cuyahoga Land Bank president.
But assembling smaller parcels into larger pieces is complicated, said Joe Schilling, senior policy and research associate at the Washington D.C.-based Urban Institute.
“Even if the land is vacant, it’s often owned by multiple entities and some that may no longer exist, whether bankrupt companies or single-family homes,” Schilling said.
Land banks can help, he said.
“You’ve got to have a plan and you also have to have a process that really engages the residents who live in that neighborhood to insure they benefit from the regeneration,” Schilling said.
“You can’t just do one thing,” he said. “You have to build new stuff. You have to reclaim some vacant land. You kind of have to do it all at the same time.”
Categories: Business | Wire stories
More U.S./World Stories
After New York teen is slain, photos of her corpse circulate online
Judge orders R. Kelly held in jail without bond
Should we resurrect the American chestnut tree with genetic engineering?
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Hooga
On 01/29/14 HOOGA had the opportunity to open for the metal band Soulfly/Seether at The Complex, it was a dream come true, so we knew we had to find the best photographer to record this history moment. She’s been a great friend of the band for a while, but we actually never worked with her before, but we’ve been following some of her work through bands like A Balance of Power, and we were always impressed with her work.
When we received the pictures we were just speechless, she didn’t just capture professional images, but emotions and feelings, and that is something that takes much more than just pressing a button. You now know who HOOGA’s official photographer is.
Thank you Kisska!
HoogaSalt Lake City UtahTouched By Kisska PhotographyTouched By KisskaHeavy MetalMetal
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The Political Animal
The go-to, insiders voice for everything happening in the world of animals and politics.
Endorsements and Analysis for the November Elections – Key Races for Governor
Animal Wellness Action, a non-partisan entity that looks solely at the stances and voting, leadership, and cosponsorship records of candidates on animal issues, has announced approximately 200 endorsements of candidates for Congress and for governor’s races, forecasting that Democrats are likely to regain the majority in the House after 8 years in the minority and that strongly pro-animal Democrats are poised to win races for governor in a half dozen states. Action believes that the Senate will stay in the Republican hands, but there are some particularly important some key races in that chamber.
Governors typically have a controlling influence on animal protection issues. They sign or veto animal-related bills, appoint key commissioners and staff leaders to state wildlife and agriculture agencies, and influence a wide range of other political and regulatory outcomes for animals. Several state and federal legislators with outstanding records on animal issues are seeking election to governor’s seats in key states this fall and offer the prospect of a dramatic advance on our issues in the years ahead.
In New Mexico, Representative Michelle Lujan Grisham (NM-1) is facing off against Representative Stevan Pearce (NM-2). A former cabinet member to former Governor Bill Richardson – who in his two terms turned into one of the most pro-animal governors in U.S. history – Lujan Grisham has a perfect score on the Congressional Accountability Tool. She’s also been a tireless leader against horse slaughter. Pearce, on the other hand, has landed on the opposite side of our issues time and again. Lujan Grisham gets our most enthusiastic endorsement given the sharp divergence of their records.
In Oklahoma, former four-term Democrat Attorney General Drew Edmondson is in a tough race against businessman Kevin Stitt. As attorney general, Edmondson expertly fought to protect the state’s voter-approved initiative against cockfighting. More recently, he led the successful fight to defeat a radical “Right to Farm” measure that sought to deregulate animal agriculture on a go-forward basis. We don’t know much about Stitt’s record on animal issues, but we do know that Edmondson would be an extraordinary voice for common sense, animal welfare, and family farming if he were to become the state’s chief executive.
In Colorado, Republican Walker Stapleton hasn’t had much of an opportunity to show his hand on animal welfare issues given the sorts of finance issues that occupied his time as state Treasurer. But Representative Jared Polis (CO-2) has been one of the brightest stars of animal protection in the U.S. House. He has a perfect record on animal issues and was particularly fierce in fighting against the repeal of the federal rules to protect predators on national wildlife refuges and national preserves in Alaska and in fighting for the defense of wild horses. A leader on animal issues, he could be a transformational figure on animal issues in the Colorado.
In Illinois, incumbent Republican Governor Bruce Rauner lost any prospect of winning our endorsement when he signed a terribly controversial bill to allow the trophy hunting and trapping of bobcats. His challenger, J.B. Pritzker, who is far ahead in the polls in a battle of two self funders, gets the nod from Animal Wellness Action in the hope that he’ll be an ally to the wide range of animal issues, including wildlife protection. In Michigan, state senator Gretchen Whitmer led the fight against an effort by Republican state lawmakers to overturn a voter-approved ban on the trophy hunting and trapping of wolves. The voters of Michigan rejected trophy hunting of wolves in two separate referenda in 2014, and it was Whitmer who took to the floor to call out this contempt for the voters’ will. Her opponent, Republican Attorney General Bill Schuette, has not been active on animal issues, and Whitmer easily wins our endorsement for governor. She’ll be a champion of the cause (along with stalwart advocate Dana Nessel, a Democrat candidate seeking to fill Schuette’s office as attorney general).
In Pennsylvania, we also endorse Tom Wolf for re-election, since he’s demonstrated unambiguous concern for animal protection values, even taking out advertising to tout support for his high-profile signing of an upgrade of the state’s anti-cruelty law (Libre’s law, named for the dog who was a victim of terrible abuse). In California, Gavin Newsom is expected to win in a landslide. His father has been a tremendous advocate for animal and environmental causes throughout his lifetime, and Newsom will almost certainly continue that family tradition.
Democrat Congressman Tim Walz (MN-1) gets the nod in Minnesota after amassing a strong record on animal issues, as evidenced by his performance on the Congressional Accountability Tool in his current term in the House. Former U.S. Senator Mark Begich of Alaska – who was a strong animal welfare advocate during his six-year term in Washington – now has a chance to ascend to the governor’s office now that incumbent Independent Governor Bill Walter has dropped out of the race and he faces off against Republican Mike Dunleavy in a two-man race. Kate Brown gets the nod in Oregon, although we’ve been concerned about her timid stance on critical wolf and mountain lion protection policies in the state; we sincerely hope she stands up for wildlife if she wins a second term.
We are excited to endorse incumbent Republican Henry McMaster for Governor of South Carolina, the first elected official in the U.S. to endorse Donald Trump for President. McMaster has been a strong pro-animal governor and state attorney general and he most certainly gets our nod. Other Republican governors, including Doug Ducey of Arizona, Larry Hogan of Maryland, Charlie Baker of Massachusetts, and Chris Sununu of New Hampshire, have strong records on animal protection, and they are win our support for stepping up on animal welfare. Like Oregon’s Kate Brown though, each one of them can do better on wildlife protection issues.
So many crucial issues for animal protection are decided by the states, and there’s no more important influencer of policy and regulations than the governors. Animal advocates can play a pivotal role in helping elect or re-elect a raft of pro-animal candidates for governor, and they should pay special attention to these races on their ballots.
Tags: Jared Polis (CO-2), Michelle Lujan Grisham (NM-1, Stevan Pearce (NM-2), Tim Walz (MN-1)
Archives Select Month June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018
© 2019 Animal Wellness Action
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Shanghai Begins Culling Poultry
Poultry health Biosecurity
5 April 2013, at 8:39am
CHINA - Authorities in Shanghai on Thursday (4 April) closed a live poultry trading zone in an agricultural products market and began slaughtering all birds there after detecting H7N9 bird flu virus from samples of pigeon from the market.
Meanwhile, a person who had close contact with a dead H7N9 flu patient in Shanghai has been under treatment in quarantine after developing symptoms of fever, running nose and throat itching, the Shanghai Municipal Health and Family Planning Commission said.
China's Ministry of Agriculture said it found the H7N9 virus from pigeon samples collected at the Huhuai wholesale agricultural products market in Songjiang district of Shanghai.
After gene sequence analysis, the national avian flu reference laboratory concluded that the strain of the H7N9 virus found on pigeons was highly congenetic with those found on persons infected with H7N9 virus, the ministry said.
The Shanghai municipal agricultural commission said it has ordered proper disposal of the culled birds, their excrements and contaminated food as well as disinfection of the market and vehicles that carried them and other things that have contacts with them.
The commission will also investigate and track where the pigeons came from, it said.
Meanwhile, the agency ordered the closure of the live poultry trading areas of two markets in Minhang district after samples there were found with H7 flu virus. Shanghai reported two more deaths from the H7N9 flu Thursday, bringing the death toll from the new deadly strain to five around the country.
The city has reported six infections to date, and four have died, according to the Shanghai Municipal Health and Family Planning Commission.
Of the rest two, a 67-year-old woman was in critical condition and a four-year-old baby was recovering from mild illness, it added.
Of the latest two deaths, a 52-year-old woman surnamed Yu died at Huashan Hospital on Wednesday and was confirmed infected with the H7N9 strain on Thursday.
Yu developed a low fever on 27 March and sent to an intensive care unit of Huashan Hospital on 2 April. She died on the following day.
The other case involved a 48-year-old man surnamed Chu, a poultry transporter from Rugao in neighboring Jiangsu province.
He developed symptoms of cough on 28 March. After having a fever on Monday, he went to a private clinic for treatment. The man then sought help in the Tongji Hospital in Shanghai in the early hours of Wednesday after his condition worsened.
Chu died three hours after being admitted to the hospital. He was confirmed infected with the H7N9 virus on Thursday. Eight people who had close contact with him have shown no abnormal symptoms.
So far, China has confirmed 14 H7N9 cases - six in Shanghai, four in Jiangsu, three in Zhejiang and one in Anhui, in the first known human infections of the lesser-known strain. Of all, four died in Shanghai and one died in Zhejiang.
China's health authorities have promised transparency and cooperation to the World Health Organization in regards to human infections of the new strain of flu.
The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday that no human-to-human transmission of H7N9 has been discovered and no epidemiological connection between these cases has been found.
Health authorities and hospitals in many Chinese provinces have been on high alert for the virus.
The health authorities in the southern Guangdong province have set up an expert team headed by Zhong Nanshan, a renowned medical expert, to offer advices on epidemic control and prevention.
Zhong, director of the Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Diseases, is credited with helping to identify and then stem the 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).
In Nanchang, capital of Jiangxi province, which neighbors Zhejiang, five hospitals have been selected and ordered to be ready to treat H7N9 patients, though no cases have been reported there.
South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region has ordered an inventory on medical supplies and respirator deployment for potential H7N9 cases.
You can visit the Avian Flu page by clicking here.
Trial shows glutamine aids gut health in broilers raised without antibiotics
Glutamine has traditionally been considered a non-essential amino acid in broiler diets, but it may be more essential than first realised
The Chicken Whisperer: identifying the causes of egg abnormalities
Andy Schneider and Dr Pitesky discuss what eggs can reveal about hen health.
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