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The Films Of Lav Diaz
Posted by Just Another Film Buff under All Posts, Cinema of the Philippines, Filmmakers | Tags: Angeli Bayani, Batang West Side, Benjamin Agusan, Butterflies Have No Memories, Cinema of resistance, Cinema of the Philippines, Crime and Punishment, Criminal of Barrio Concepcion, Death in the Land of Encantos, Elryan De Vera, Evolution of a Filipino Family, Ferdinand Marcos, Films of Lavrente Diaz, Fyodor Dosteyevsky, Heremias, Hesus the Revolutionary, Joel Ferrer, Joel Torre, Kristine Kintana, Lav Diaz, Lavrente Diaz, Lino Brocka, Lois Goff, Long Films, Malaya Cruz, Marife Necisito, Mark Anthony Fernandez, Melancholia, Pen Medina, Perry Dizon, Raymond Bagatsing, Roeder Camanag, Serafin Geronimo, Serafin Geronimo: Ang Kriminal Ng Baryo Concepcion, Serafin Geronimo: Criminal of Barrio Concepcion, typhoon Reming, Walang alaala ang mga paru-paro, West Side Avenue, Willy Fernandez |
Lavrente Diaz
Lavrente Indico Diaz is a multi-awarded independent filmmaker who was born on December 30, 1958 and raised in Cotabato, Mindanao. He works as director, writer, producer, editor, cinematographer, poet, composer, production designer and actor all at once. He is especially notable for the length of his films, some of which run for up to eleven hours. His eight-hour Melancholia, a story about victims of summary executions, won the Grand Prize-Orizzonti award at the Venice Film Festival 2008. His work Death in the Land of Encantos also competed and represented the country at the Venice Film Festival documentary category in 2007. It was granted a Special Mention-Orizzonti. The Venice Film Festival calls him “the ideological father of the New Philippine Cinema”. As a young man, Diaz was particularly inspired by Lino Brocka’s Maynila: Sa Mga Kuko ng Liwanag, describing it as the film that opened his eyes to the power of cinema. Ever since then, he made it his mission to make good art films for the sake of his fellow Filipinos. His body of work has led critics to call him both an “artist-as-conscience” and the heir to Lino Brocka. Diaz has also been compared to other great Filipino directors such as Ishmael Bernal, Mike de Leon and Peque Gallaga, whose films examined the ills of Filipino society (Image Courtesy: Rotterdam Film Festival, Bio Courtesy: MUBI)
Filipino director Lavrente Diaz is a very versatile artist. He started out as a guitarist (He recently released a music album to accompany his latest film), then wrote plays and short stories for television (a period he seems to hate, as is made clear in his works), later started writing poems (the poems that feature in his films are written by him) and then, in the early 90s, decided that he’ll be a professional filmmaker. The later films of the director present the same kind of problem to both commercial multiplexes and film festival screens – their length. His last four feature films have a total run time of around 36 hours! Diaz believes the long length of his films is an extremely crucial part of his aesthetic and radically alters the way in which the audience converses with his films. There is another specific problem in screening Diaz’s films world wide. That he is a very “Filipino” filmmaker. All his works are deeply rooted in the country’s history and politics. Any attempt to view the films in a de-contextualized manner is only futile. That makes Diaz one of the most uncompromising of directors working today. Diaz’s greatest ambition, as it seems, is to change the Filipinos’ (and rest of the world’s) perspective of their country and culture (He tells: “For me, the issue is: if you’re an artist, with the state the country is in you only have one choice – to help culture grow in this country. There’s no time for ego, you have to struggle to help this country. Make serious films that even if only five people watch it, it will change their perspective. You may make big box office but what do the people get out of it?”).
What is really striking about Lav Diaz is how vocal and frank he is about his ideology and his works. Most of modern mainstream auteurs and even festival regulars shy away from commenting on their work or on the ideas they present. Some of them bury their political concerns so deep within their films that they may simply be overlooked. Diaz, on the other hand, is like an open book. In all his interviews, he is always willing to discuss his films and explain what they deal with. None of this actually dilutes the impact of the films or the complexities they contain. Instead, it only opens up a wider and more pertinent band of response to the film. Furthermore, Diaz is also very transparent about his political views and even his personal life (His story is exactly the kind of success yarn pseudo-liberal Hollywood studios are looking for. But one sure has to appreciate the man for what he’s gone through and what he’s become). To say that he feels strongly against the Ferdinand Marcos’s rule of The Philippines till about two decades ago would be an understatement (“He siphoned the treasury as well. He got everything. No matter what they say, he stole everything – the money, our dignity. It is true. Marcos is an evil person. He destroyed us. The hardest part was that he was Filipino”). Diaz is also very optimistic about the role artists play in a political revolution and this belief directly manifests in his films in the form of artist figures present in the narrative.
I’d say that Diaz’s aesthetic stands somewhere in between Contemporary Contemplative Cinema and conventional documentary. Like the former, he prefers long takes shot from at a considerable distance, avoids the use of background music, includes stretches of “dead time” in his narrative and relies on mood and atmosphere more than exposition or psychoanalysis. He employs parenthetical cutting that allows a shot to run for more duration than the length of the principal action, but cuts soon enough to avoid the shot to parody itself. Unlike Contemporary Contemplative Cinema, there are long stretches of dialogue in the vein of early Nouvelle Vague films and the politics the films deal with are much more concrete. All his recent features have been shot in black and white as if they are historical documents and as if the vitality of its characters has been sucked out. His use of direct sound goes hand in hand with his use of digital video, which enables him to experiment with long shots. It is only in a blue moon that he uses close-ups and all his medium and long shots come across as clinical observations of his characters’ lives. That doesn’t mean his films lack empathy or compassion. But the way he generates them is more distilled and uncontrived. He composes in deep space and allows the viewer to get a complete sense of the film’s environment and time. He says: “There’s no such thing as the audience in my work. There’s only the dynamic of interaction. And in time, that dynamic will grow. The greatest dynamic is when people want to see a work because of awareness and they want to experience it; and in so doing, they may be able to discover new perspectives or just put these perspectives into a greater discourse.”
(NOTE: I’ve written here about all the films of Lav Diaz that I could get my hands on. However, I haven’t been able to see any his earlier works or his short films. I’ll append the entries for the missing films here once I get to see them)
Serafin Geronimo: Ang Kriminal Ng Baryo Concepcion (Serafin Geronimo: The Criminal Of Barrio Concepcion, 1998)
Diaz’s debut, Serafin Geronimo: Criminal of Barrio Concepcion (1998), even without the burden of its successors, is a poorly made piece of cinema. It’s got all the trappings of a bad student film – laboured acting, ill-advised cuts, unwarranted zooms and an occasionally bombastic score – that only worsen its low production values. Very loosely based on Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, Serafin Geronimo chronicles the titular criminal’s act of sin and his subsequent confession and redemption. Diaz chooses to externalize the moral conflict of the protagonist through a dental infection whose pain seems to grow unbearable. Additionally, there’s a lot of gratuitous violence – graphic and described – in the film (even in the censored version) that underscores the savagery of the world Serafin (Raymond Bagatsing), like Hesus, is caught in. Evidently, like the Russian author, the film wants to observe human suffering in all its brutality. But what the film does not seem to understand is that human suffering can’t be captured on film by merely recording mutilated bodies or the physics of their destruction. Such documentation must attempt to record the death of the soul – the internal through the physical – as well (Compare this film with the sublime, genuinely Dostoevsky-ian passage depicting Kadyo’s demise in Evolution). However, the scenes at the countryside, set in the past, are executed with certain affection and restraint. Diaz pushes his political ambitions to the background as the quest for personal justice and redemption takes precedence here over national issues. The use of curious, hand held camera and the staging of action in deep space during indoor scenes are few of the traits that would be carried over and refined in Diaz’s later, superior works.
Hesus Rebolusyonaryo (Hesus The Revolutionary, 2002)
Hesus the Revolutionary (2002) is set in the year 2010 and follows the titular resistance fighter (Mark Anthony Fernandez) whose loyalty and ideology are put to test when he is ordered by the leader of the movement to kill his cell mates and is subsequently captured by the military. The most noteworthy aspect of the film is that Diaz does not set the film in far future or alter the mise en scène to make it seem futuristic. The fact that the architecture and geography look very contemporary indicates that there has been no progress for quite some time. Additionally, he uses pseudo-newsreels as prelude to the narrative. All these moves aid Diaz’s vision of establishing the future as a mere variant of the past and the present. His intention is to provide a critical distance between the audience and the story and hence make them reflect on how the same kind of events have happened in the past and are still happening. The chiaroscuro driven mise en scène through which the protagonist secretly moves seems to have been derived from American noir films. Diaz films his characters in moderately long shots and uses a techno soundtrack (by the band The Jerks) that enhances the dystopian sense overarching the film. Even while working within the limits of the genre (thereby using some of its conventions), Diaz manages to suffuse the film with themes that he would progressively be concerned with. However, Hesus the Revolutionary, in hindsight, is only the tip of a gargantuan iceberg.
Batang West Side (West Side Avenue, 2001)
Thanks to West Side Avenue (2001), clearly Lav Diaz’s first major work, we now know what will happen if the Filipino filmmaker takes to genre filmmaking. Diaz takes the standard policier, blows it to a size beyond what the text can handle and, in essence, brings to surface the mechanics of the genre. Constructed as a (seemingly endless) series of interrogations and recollections, a la Citizen Kane (1941), the film presents itself like a sphere without a centre. (Like Charles Kane, the relationship of all the characters to the dead boy at the centre of Diaz’s film – which is developed strikingly with a plethora of parallels – becomes the guiding device.) The procedure becomes so routine and schematic, aided to a large degree by the repetition of spaces and compositions, that the lead detective (Joel Torre) becomes something of a Melvillian zombie trudging through generic structures. But then, talking about Diaz’s film in terms of the genre is not half as justified as reading it from a national and auteurist perspective. Firmly planted in historical and geographical particulars – Filipino youth living in and around Jersey City during the turn of the century – the film takes up the issue of disappearing Filipinos – a sensitive idea that would be pursued further in other forms the later films – and examines the historical deracination and alienation that marks these young men and women. The relationship between the various characters with the killed teenager reflects their own conflicted relationship with their homeland. The film, itself, is somewhat (and slightly problematically) neo-nationalistic in flavour, gently appealing for cultural consciousness, integration and a “return to one’s roots”. The narrative mostly involves the investigation of the murder of one Manila teenager, If one moves beyond its precise sociological ambitions, one also discovers the flourishing of to-be-familiar stylistic (and narrative) devices: Scenes in master shots, montage of long takes, monochrome passages in. video and use of total amateurs. (Oddly enough, my favorite scene in the film is among the most uncharacteristic of Diaz’s cinema: a breakfast scene cut with verve comparable to Classical Hollywood). However, the most unmistakable authorial trademark of West Side Avenue is also the feature that attracts me most to Diaz’s work: the candidness and enthusiasm about his politics and political engagement, in general, as well as that rare faith in and love for cinema. That is why, towards the end of the film’s five hours, when the detective and the filmmaker – two professions seeking to discover truth – catch up with each other and restore the hitherto-absent heart of the film, you don’t if Diaz identifies with the detective or the filmmaker. He’s both.
Ebolusyon Ng Isang Pamilyang Pilipino (Evolution Of A Filipino Family, 2004)
Running for almost eleven hours and twelve years in the making, Evolution of a Filipino Family (2004), which many consider to be Lav Diaz’s greatest work, is kamikaze filmmaking of the highest order. Mixing film and digital formats (which might be an economic decision), splicing the real with the surreal and weaving together documentary and fiction, Diaz concocts a glorious and flamboyantly self-reflexive film that slips seamlessly from one mode of discourse into another. The film’s central character is Ray (Elryan De Vera), a child found on the street by the mentally ill Hilda (Marife Necisito) and who goes on to live with another family of gold diggers. One could argue that Ray is the stand in for a whole generation of Filipinos abandoned by their “parents” and left stranded (Diaz himself calls Ray as the Filipino soul). Also central to the film is Hilda’s brother Kadyo (Pen Medina), who helps the resistance fighters by stealing ammunition from dead soldiers of the military. Interspersed among the sequences that drive this fiction are newsreels depicting rallies and riots against the then-existing Ferdinand Marcos regime, interviews of the legendary filmmaker Lino Brocka explaining political film movement during the Marcos rule and footage of artists reciting sappy, exaggerated and hilarious radio serials that everyone in the fictional world seems to be hooked to. Evolution of a Filipino Family is, as the title hints, a document – one that studies and critiques a whole era and suggests what’s to be done.
Diaz shoots almost exclusively in medium shots (to avoid any sort of manipulation, he says) and some of his compositions carry the air of evocatively rendered still life paintings. His soundtrack is even more remarkable and he edits it in such a manner that fiction regularly overflows into reality. Diaz throws in everything he’s got into this film. Examining a number of topics including commercialism versus art, the class struggle, art versus reality and the inseparability of past and present, Diaz creates a dense and incisive film that seems to announce once and for all what Diaz’s cinema is all about. At heart, Evolution of a Filipino Family is a film about resistance – political and cinematic. While Kadyo and the farmer army he works for exhibit their resistance by taking up arms against the military, Lino Brocka and his cohorts manifest theirs in cinematic terms. The link is very important, as Diaz himself has pointed out, since it is through the machinery of cinematic propaganda that the Marcos regime (as any totalitarian regime would) had reinforced its position among the Filipinos. If Hesus the Revolutionary set a fantastical revolutionary movement in the near future, this film uses the one that took place for real in the past. Diaz’s intention is not just to capture the spirit of the age, but, as in the previous film, to use this piece of history to study the present and understand the state of affairs.
Heremias (Unang Aklat: Ang Alamat Ng Prinsesang Bayawak) (Heremias (Book One: The Legend Of The Lizard Princess), 2006)
Heremias (2006) was devised as the first part of a diptych (the sequel is yet to be shot) and follows the titular merchant (Ronnie Lazaro) who decides to bid farewell to the group of artisans he is a part of and go his own way. After a near-mythical journey against the forces of nature, he lands in a shady town where his ox gets stolen and goods burned. After he comes to terms with the fact that he is not going to get justice from the corrupt police department, he decides to observe the scene of crime himself, with a hope that the criminal would come back sooner or later. It is here that he learns that the local congressman’s son is going to rape and kill a girl. And it is here – almost towards the end of this nine-hour film – that there is a trace of any “drama”. Heremias, petrified, tries to convince the local police officer and the town priest to do something about it, in vain. Diaz apparently built the film on the idea of paralysis (“the metaphor of being numbed”) and it is only during this final dramatic segment, where, for the first time, Heremias shows signs of concern and empathy, that he comes out of this (sociopolitical and historical) numbness. In a way, Heremias is the Jesus figure of the story who, after a drastic spiritual awakening, realizes that there are people worst off than him and becomes willing to suffer for the sake of others (Diaz believes this quality to be quintessentially Filipino).
Formally, Heremias deviates starkly from its legendary predecessor. Diaz seems to have found a new alternative to suit his long duration filmmaking style in digital video, where there is no worry of wasting film stock. He shoots in extremely long shots but mixes in close up. Diaz’s compositions early on in the film embody both fast moving objects, such as automobiles, and Heremias’ lumbering oxcart as if providing temporal reference for his kind of cinema. However, he also seems to be in a highly experimental mode, trying to arrive at an aesthetic that he might build his later films on. As a result, Heremias seems a tad derivative and falls a notch below the preceding and following films of the director. Where in later films he would fittingly cut after three or four seconds before and after a character enters or leaves the frame, here he provides a leeway of over a quarter minute, unnecessarily making the shots self-conscious (There is an hour-long fuzzy shot of Heremias watching a bunch of stoned teenagers partying, whose length, I believe, is not justified). But many of these shots are also highly rewarding and some even emotionally cathartic (for instance, the sublime shot where the light from Heremias’ lantern pierces the screen gradually). Ultimately, the film comes across as a minor, transitional (but nevertheless commendable) work that has a lot going for it thematically.
Kagadanan Sa Banwaan Ning Mga Engkanto (Death In The Land Of Encantos, 2007)
Death in the Land of Encantos (2007) was made immediately after the typhoon Reming/Durian devastated the town of Bicol (where the director had shot his previous two films), killing and displacing many families. The nine-hour film consists of two disparate threads the first of which plays out as a straightforward documentary where a filmmaker interviews the people affected by the disaster and gathers their opinion about the causes and consequences of the typhoon. The second thread in the film follows a fictional triad of artists who too live in the region of Bicol. Benjamin Agusan (Roeder Camanag) is a poet who has just returned from Russia and has discovered that his ex-lover has been buried under the outpouring of the volcano Mt. Mayon that was triggered by Reming. Then there are his friends Teodero (Perry Dizon), the level headed ex-poet who is now a fisherman, and Catalina (Angeli Bayani), a painter-sculptor who uses the debris spewed out by the volcano for her art. Benjamin is mentally disintegrating and has visions of his childhood and of his stay in Russia now and then. He is also hunted down by the government, which seems to have an agenda of killing all the soldiers and artists involved in the resistance, for his contribution to the anarchist movement. Diaz uses abstract time when dealing with sequences involving Benjamin wherein his immediate past, distant past and present (and possibly nightmares) reside in the same physical space, at times, like in The Mirror (1974) and The Corridor (1994).
Like in many contemporary works from around the world, fact and fiction reside alongside in Diaz’s film, even interpenetrating each other at times. Although this does reinforce the reality that the film is based on, Diaz views the marriage as a purely ethical decision intended to avoid exploitation of his people’s miseries (He had shot the documentary part before even deciding to make the film). As a result Encantos is like a Herzog film that encompasses its making-of. A peculiar thing that one notices about the film is that it is so full of artists – painters, sculptors, poets, filmmakers and writers all over. On that basis alone, one could say that Death in the Land of Encantos is Diaz’s most personal film. The film is built largely around long conversations that invariably end up discussing the role of artists in a revolution. Through the contrast between the two sections of the film, Diaz may just be exploring the seemingly unbridgeable chasm between artists and common folk that, as Evolution had elucidated, exploitative, commercial media have occupied. However, he is also very hopeful about the work of artists. Mt. Mayon is apparently symbolic of everything Filipino – both its beauty and its ugliness. Catalina making beauty out of its ugliness is what Diaz, as a filmmaker, seems to be attempting too – to embrace the state of Philippines in its entirety and use his art to correct its blemishes and restore its glory.
Melancholia (2008)
If Evolution of a Filipino Family delineated the Filipino political situation through the eyes of common folk (some of whom aid the resistance movement) and Death in the Land of Encantos revealed it through the point of view of the artists, Melancholia (2008) confronts the issue head on and presents the struggle from standpoint of the resistance fighters themselves. One gets the feeling that this is the film that Lav Diaz was working towards all along. Melancholia is divided starkly into three segments each of which takes place in different time frames. The first segment is set in the town of Sagada and simultaneously follows three seemingly unrelated characters. Rina (Malaya Cruz) is a nun who wanders the streets of the town collecting charity money for the poor, Jenine (Angeli Bayani) is a streetwalker who seems to be having some trouble doing her job and Danny (Perry Dizon) is a procurer who also surreptitiously runs live sex shows for willing customers. It is soon revealed that these personalities are only characters being played by the three as a part of a rehabilitation program initiated by Danny (actually Julian) to cope up with the loss of their kith and kin in the resistance movement. The progressively elliptical second and third segments of the film respectively show the time periods following and preceding the trio’s stint in Sagada and gradually reveal the actuality behind these masks that the three have put on.
True to its title, Melancholia is a film that wallows in sadness. It is also probably Diaz’s most cynical work to date (although Diaz is staunchly against cynicism: “There’s hope even if we still have a very corrupt and neglectful system. We cannot allow cynicism to rule us.”). It is, in fact, the film non-linear structure that reduces the intensity of this pessimism largely. By presenting the consequences before the cause, Diaz sets up an extended, enigmatic prelude that is put into perspective only after the third part of the film plays out. It is after the film has ended that we learn that these three characters have embarked on a process of unlearning, of shedding the knowledge about bitter realities and settling down into a state of ignorant bliss, of repudiating the harshness of truth for the comforts of illusion. And it is during the very final shot of the film, when the shattered and disillusioned Julian and Alberta move away from each other and out of the now-empty frame that we feel the entire weight of the seven-and-a-half-hour film being exerted on us. Melancholia is a purgatory of sorts – a limbo between the states of resistance and defeat – whose inhabitants can feel neither the vigor of life nor the solace of death. “Many people are like Alberta” tells one of the characters early on in the film. And that is the most disheartening part.
Walang Alaala Ang Mga Paru-paro (Butterflies Have No Memories, 2009)
The director’s cut of Butterflies Have No Memories (2009) is something of a misnomer. For one, Diaz had to shoot and cut the film so that it didn’t run for a minute more than the one-hour mark. As a result, it feels as if Diaz had one eye on his film and the other on his watch. There are shots that are abruptly drained off their life and some that feel perfunctory. But the film also seems to mark a turning point in Diaz’s outlook towards the Filipino people. Perhaps for the first time, Diaz portrays the common folk (and perhaps a particular social class) as being almost completely responsible for their misery. In Butterflies, an ex-Chief Security Officer at the mines, Mang Pedring (Dante Perez), blames the mining company, which has withdrawn production after protests by the church and activist organizations, for the economic abyss he and his friends are living in. But it is also starkly pointed out to us that, while they were getting benefited by the mining company, these folks did nothing to set up alternate ways of business and earning and, as a result, find themselves foolishly hoping for a past to return, even when such a regression is harmful it is to the collective living on the island. Mang misguidedly plans to reverse time and reinstall the factory by kidnapping the daughter of the owner of the mining company (Lois Goff), who has returned to the island after several years and who calls Mang her second-father. What Mang tries to do overrides personal memory and disregards the fact that it is he who has lived like a moth, inside a cocoon. As, in the final shot, Mang and his friends stand wearing those Morione masks (which bring in the ideas of guilt, remembrance, conscience and redemption – so key to the film), they realize that they’ve gone way too far back in time than they would have liked – right into the moral morass of Ancient Rome.
[Death In The Land Of Encantos Trailer]
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Banking and Financial News
Italy's Salvini says institutions must be accountable, including central bank
MILAN, June 21 (Reuters) - Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini said on Friday every public institution must be accountable, including the Bank of Italy.
“There must be no power that in case of errors does not respond to anyone. Bank of Italy was paid to monitor” on the recent banking crises that hit many savers in Italy, Salvini said on the sidelines of an event in Milan.
Salvini’s far-right League and the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement ruling parties have drawn up a bill aimed at giving the government and parliament the right to name the central bank’s five-member board, ending the current system by which appointments are made mainly internally. (Reporting by Sara Rossi, writing by Angelo Amante)
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Judge Dredd Creator Gives Thumbs Up to New Movie
Logan Westbrook | 20 Jan 2011 08:46
Things are looking pretty good for the new Judge Dredd movie, as the character's creator praises everything from the set design to the script.
The first attempt to bring Judge Dredd - the ultra-violent lawmen from the 200AD comics - to the big screen, back in 1995, was a critical and commercial flop. But the second attempt - simply titled, Dredd - seems to be hitting all the right notes, as it's got the stamp of approval from the original Judge Dredd writer, John Wagner.
Following a visit to the Dredd set in South Africa, Wagner expressed admiration for the design of the Mega City One sets and said that the whole crew seemed really dedicated to making an excellent movie. He was impressed by the performances of Karl Urban and Olivia Thirlby - who play Judge Dredd and Dredd's telepathic partner, Judge Anderson, respectively - adding that Urban had managed to capture a lot of Dredd's mannerisms and looks from the comic, including his trademark scowl.
Perhaps most importantly, he also gave the script his blessing. He said that he had originally disagreed with the direction that screenwriter Alex Garland - who also wrote 28 Days Later and helped write Enslaved: Journey to the West - had taken the story but had since come around to Garland's way of thinking.
"Alex Garland and I have had our disagreements," he said. "But he has usually had a convincing argument for doing things his way. On the main issue, concentrating the plot on a slice of life rather than trying to convey the whole sweep of Dredd and Mega-City life, I now see that he's right. It was one of the flaws of the first movie, they tried to do too much."
Dredd is expected to hit theaters around December this year.
Source: SFX via Blastr
logan westbrook, 2000 ad, comics, dredd, john wagner, judge dredd, karl urban, movie, movies and tv, olivia thirlby
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Consumers in the Northeast Shop Early, but Hold Proms Latest in the Season
May 14, 2019 | Lifestyle
Pulse of Prom
NEW YORK, NY, May 14, 2019 /24-7PressRelease/ — Today, Occasion Brands, LLC (OB), releases the fifth 2019 issue of Pulse of Prom to exploring how much time junior and senior prom dress buyers allow between ordering online and their event. The data shows that the median number of days between the order date and the consumer-reported event date for junior and senior prom is between 32 and 34 days. Buyers in the Northeast region of the U.S., have the latest proms and purchase their dresses further in advance of their proms than buyers in any other region. The median number of days between the order date and event date for the Northeast is 47. These purchasers may buy early recognizing that their late scheduled dates for prom may leave them with fewer choices of dress styles and a smaller size selection.
To gather the data OB compared the actual order dates with the event dates provided by purchasers when they placed their orders. Of the reported data, junior prom dress sales represented 42% of total sales, while senior prom dress sales were 58%. Purchasers across the U.S. reported dates for junior and senior prom as early as the week of February 25th and as late as the week of July 22nd. Reported event dates for the Northeast extended into June and July; whereas, no prom dates in other regions were reported beyond the week of June 3rd.
Majority of Junior and Senior Proms Held April 1st to May 13th
Although junior and senior proms were reported as occurring as early as the week of February 25th and as late as the week of July 22nd, 82% of consumer-reported prom dates fell between the week of April 1st and the week of May 13th. The most popular week in 2019 for both junior and senior proms was the week of April 29th, representing 18% of all reported prom dates. The week with the smallest percentage (6%) of scheduled proms between the weeks of April 1st and May 13th was the week of April 15th, which was the Catholic Easter and Passover weekend. Outside of those 7 weeks, the remaining 18% of prom dates reported for 2019 were divided evenly: 9% were between the week of February 25th and the week of April 1st and 9% were between the week of May 20th and the week of July 22nd. Across the U.S., prom dates reported for each region similarly showed that the majority of junior and senior proms were scheduled in April and May.
Northeast Proms Are Held the Latest
Looking at regional data across the U.S., both junior and senior proms in the Northeast are held later in the season than in any other region.The Northeast is the only region with junior prom dates reported through the week of June 17th. The Pacific only has junior prom dates reported through the week of May 13th, and in the Midwest, junior proms are reported through the week of May 20th. The South and West have junior prom dates reported through the week of May 27th. In the West, Midwest, South, and Northeast, senior proms ran later into the season than junior proms (except the Pacific, which had the same final week for junior and senior prom). Senior proms end the earliest in the Pacific (AL, HI), with no reported prom dates after the week of May 13th. The Midwest, South, and West only have reported senior prom dates through the week of June 3rd; however, the Northeast has senior prom dates through the week of June 24th. In fact, in the Northeast, 32% of reported senior prom dates were between the weeks of May 27th and June 24th; whereas, only 5% of senior prom dates in the West (only 2% in the Midwest and South) were reported after May 27th.
Most Consumers Purchase a Dress Online One Month Before Prom
The median number of days between the order date and the consumer-reported event date for junior and senior prom is between 32 and 34 days. With the most popular event dates for junior and senior prom reported for the week of April 22 and week of April 29, the median number of 32 to 34 days puts the peak buying weeks for junior prom and senior prom dresses in the last two weeks in March, the week of March 18th and the week of March 25th. For the prom dates reported as early as the week of February 25th, this means prom dress buying starts at the end of January for buyers with early proms and goes through June for consumers with late proms.
Northeast Shoppers Purchase Dresses the Furthest in Advance of Prom
In addition to having prom dates scheduled later in the season than buyers in any other region of the US, consumers in the Northeast shop for their dresses the furthest in advance of their event date. The median number of days between order date and event date for junior prom in the Northeast is 43, and the median number of days for senior prom in the Northeast is 53. Consumers in the Midwest also shop early allowing a median of 32 days for junior prom and 40 days for senior prom between placing their order and the event. For the South, the median difference between order dates and event dates was 27 days for junior prom and 30 days for senior prom. The regions with the shortest turnaround time between the prom dress purchase and the event were the Pacific, with a median of 25 days for junior prom and for senior prom, and the West, with a median of 23 days for junior prom and 26 days for senior prom.
About Pulse of Prom
Pulse of Prom is an in-season industry-focused hot-sheet report which highlights prom season online sales trends across each region of the country. This late season issue focuses on regional sales data for when consumers buy junior and senior prom dresses, as well as the reported dates for prom. The next issue will feature a wrapup of end of season data.
The data for these 2019 prom sales represents orders placed between January 1 and May 3, 2019, and event dates reported by consumers as between March 1 and July 31, 2019. All data is across the United States by Occasion Brands, a leading national online prom retailer.
For more information about Pulse of Prom, please contact: Megan Reeves at [email protected].
About Occasion Brands, LLC
PromGirl, founded in 1998, has sold over 2 million dresses online and is the largest online retailer of prom, homecoming, and other special-occasion dresses. It offers an unparalleled selection of high-quality, in-stock dresses at all price points. Through the website, mobile and social platforms, PromGirl’s reach is global, delivering “dream dresses” to more than 140 international destinations. As part of the Occasion Brands portfolio, PromGirl supports the Occasion Brands mission to be the premier retailer in the special-occasion dress market by providing a world-class shopping experience and maintaining customer trust through an understanding of their needs as they experience some of the most important moments in their lives. Occasion Brands’ staff is based in New York City and Middletown, Delaware, and its state-of-the-art facility in New Jersey houses hundreds of thousands of dresses for PromGirl and its sister brands, Simply Dresses and Kleinfeld Bridal Party. In 2018, Occasion Brands expanded its reach by opening a PromGirl pop-up store in New Jersey, a Simply Dresses pop-up store in New York City, and a Kleinfeld Bridal Party Showroom located on the upper level of the Kleinfeld Bridal store.
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Sex in the capital city
Iain Sellers, Arts & Culture Editor
Èva Morin | Fulcrum Contributor
WALKING INTO MY first dating workshop was nothing short of terrifying. Having agreed to participate solely for research purposes, ideas of stereotypical motivational speakers and lonely singles ready to mingle haunted me the night before the seminar.
I spoke to Irene Yarkoni, a dating coach in the Ottawa region, briefly beforehand and was not given many details as to what I should expect. I was relieved to learn the workshops were for small groups of five to 10 people, which eliminated the possibility of coming face-to-face with hoards of confused singles searching for enlightenment.
Appropriately titled Dating 101: For Single Women In Today’s Dating Culture, the workshop was intimately set in Yarkoni’s office. I knew little about her, but what I did know was rather impressive. Fifteen years of experience as a dating guru was nothing short of striking for someone coming into the workshop with vague questions and bipolar expectations.
The workshop begins with Yarkoni making a strong statement, setting the tone for the next three hours .
“This is not what I think is right, but rather what I know is right for women,” she says.
Throughout the seminar, the dating coach boldly and frequently emphasizes how the dating scene has changed in the 21st century—changes mostly related to women’s liberation.
“Women’s financial independence is very important; nevertheless, women’s power in dating is not necessarily an advantage,” she says.
Yarkoni’s dating perspective may seem odd, especially as she insists that a woman should never make the first move.
“A man’s primary goal is to be successful,” she explains. “When a woman makes the first move, he has no success … When a woman makes the first move, she doesn’t know if the man is actually interested, because he was not the one to approach her.”
The workshop continues with an exploration of different qualities found in each gender, and takes a scientific approach to answer why each sex behaves a certain way.
“There will be no solution for gender differences until there is proper understanding of gender qualities,” says Yarkoni. “Men and women operate differently; understanding this is the first step.”
Research has proven a woman’s limbic area in her brain, which is connected to emotions, is much bigger than a man’s. Women possess 11 per cent more neurons than men, which are directly related to communication and language.
As the seminar progresses, Yarkoni mapped out her three cardinal rules for dating in the beginning stages. Authenticity made the top of the list.
“The reason we are not able to connect with one another is a lack of authenticity on our part, and the reason why we are not authentic is so the other person will not know how we feel,” she explains. “We don’t want to lose the upper hand by exposing our self.”
Having a “joie de vivre”, or love for life, is number two on the list, because according to Yarkoni, it demonstrates that someone is confident and open.
Finally, expressing gender qualities rounds out the love guru’s list.
Despite teaching a seminar on love and dating, Yarkoni doesn’t believe that perfect someone is out there.
“You will never find someone with all [three of] these qualities,” says Yarkoni.
With the workshop coming to an end, Yarkoni gives some tips on how to score a great date in the city.
She encourages women to flirt as much as they can, mainly through the subtle use of open and inviting body language. Yarkoni also gives advice for men on how to approach women.
“There is no sure pick-up line for a man,” advises the love coach to worried men.
“Everything in dating is a game,” she adds. “You just have to know how to play it.”
eva morin
Feel-good hip hop with Philly Moves
Gangster never felt so good Èva Morin | Fulcrum Contributor FOUNDED ON A 16-year-long friendship between Tynan “Tragic” Phelan and Jonny “Rockwell” Desilva, Ottawa-based hip-hop group Philly Moves is gearing up for the release of their latest album, How To Drink Yourself Famous. “This album is a new direction for us,” says Phelan. “This is definitely our most eclectic …
Festival leaves fans singing the blues
Èva Morin | Fulcrum Contributor Not only is Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest the biggest music festival in Ottawa, but it is, for many, the most highly anticipated event of the year. Rumors of potential headliners spark debates among friends in the early spring and the announcements in March have Ottawa music lovers waiting on the edge …
Eureka—they’ve got it!
Èva Morin | Fulcrum Contributor HOURS BEFORE THEIR July 16 show at Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest, five-piece Canadian indie-rock band Mother Mother dished on their favourite gig together as a band, their third studio album Eureka, and the meaning behind their animalistic cover art. Mother Mother’s lead singer and guitarist Ryan Guldemond and bassist Jeremy Page …
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In April 1940, Rudolph Höss, who become the first commandant of Auschwitz, identified the Silesian town of Oswiecim in Poland as a possible site for a concentration camp. Initially, the camp was meant to intimidate Poles to prevent them from protesting German rule and to serve as a prison for those who did resist. It was also perceived as a cornerstone of the policy to re-colonize Upper Silesia, which had once been a German region, with “pure Aryans.” When the plans for the camp were approved, the Nazi’s changed the name of the area to Auschwitz.
The first mass transport to Auschwitz I, which included Catholic prisoners, suspected members of the Polish resistance, and 20 Jews, arrived on 14 June 1940 from prison in Tarnów, Poland. They were interned in the former building of the Polish Tobacco Monopoly, adjacent to the site, until the camp was ready.[24] By the end of 1940, the SS had confiscated land around the camp to create a 40-square-kilometre (15 sq mi) "zone of interest" surrounded by a double ring of electrified barbed wire fences and watchtowers.[25] The inmate population grew quickly as the camp absorbed Poland's intelligentsia and dissidents. By March 1941, 10,900 were imprisoned there, most of them Poles.[22]
By the end of 1934 Hitler was in absolute control of Germany, and his campaign against the Jews in full swing. The Nazis claimed the Jews corrupted pure German culture with their "foreign" and "mongrel" influence. They portrayed the Jews as evil and cowardly, and Germans as hardworking, courageous, and honest. The Jews, the Nazis claimed, who were heavily represented in finance, commerce, the press, literature, theater, and the arts, had weakened Germany's economy and culture. The massive government-supported propaganda machine created a racial anti-Semitism, which was different from the longstanding anti-Semitic tradition of the Christian churches.
Schindler's ties with the Abwehr and his connections in the Wehrmacht and its Armaments Inspectorate enabled him to obtain contracts to produce enamel cookware for the military.[31] These connections also later helped him protect his Jewish workers from deportation and death.[32] As time went on, Schindler had to give Nazi officials ever larger bribes and gifts of luxury items obtainable only on the black market to keep his workers safe.[33] Bankier, a key black market connection, obtained goods for bribes as well as extra materials for use in the factory.[34] Schindler himself enjoyed a lavish lifestyle and pursued extramarital relationships with his secretary, Viktoria Klonowska, and Eva Kisch Scheuer, a merchant specialising in enamelware from DEF.[35] Emilie Schindler visited for a few months in 1940 and moved to Kraków to live with Oskar in 1941.[36][37]
Born in Baden-Baden in 1900,[78] SS Obersturmbannführer Rudolf Höss became the first commandant of Auschwitz when the camp was founded in April 1940,[79] living with his wife and children in a villa just outside the camp grounds.[80] Appointed by Heinrich Himmler, he served until 11 November 1943, when he became director of Office DI of the SS-Wirtschafts-und Verwaltungshauptamt (SS Business and Administration Head Office or WVHA) in Oranienburg.[79] This post made Höss deputy of the Concentration Camps Inspectorate, under SS-Gruppenführer Richard Glücks.[81] He returned to Auschwitz between 8 May and 29 July 1944 as commander of the SS garrison (Standortältester) to oversee the arrival of Hungary's Jews, a post that made him the superior officer of all the commandants of the Auschwitz camps.[82]
In early 1942, mass exterminations were moved to two provisional gas chambers (the "red house" and "white house", known as bunkers 1 and 2) in Auschwitz II, while the larger crematoria (II, III, IV, and V) were under construction. Bunker 2 was temporarily reactivated from May to November 1944, when large numbers of Hungarian Jews were gassed.[161] In summer 1944 the combined capacity of the crematoria and outdoor incineration pits was 20,000 bodies per day.[162] A planned sixth facility—crematorium VI—was never built.[163] Prisoners were transported from all over German-occupied Europe by rail, arriving in daily convoys.[164] By July 1942, the SS were conducting "selections". Incoming Jews were segregated; those deemed able to work were sent to the selection officer's right and admitted into the camp, and those deemed unfit for labor were sent to the left and immediately gassed.[165] The group selected to die, about three-quarters of the total,[c] included almost all children, women with small children, the elderly, and all those who appeared on brief and superficial inspection by an SS doctor not to be fit for work.[167]
In this year, 1929, I became convinced that tanks working on their own or in conjunction with infantry could never achieve decisive importance. My historical studies, the exercises carried out in England and our own experience with mock-ups had persuaded me that the tanks would never be able to produce their full effect until the other weapons on whose support they must inevitably rely were brought up to their standard of speed and of cross-country performance. In such formation of all arms, the tanks must play primary role, the other weapons being subordinated to the requirements of the armour. It would be wrong to include tanks in infantry divisions; what was needed were armoured divisions which would include all the supporting arms needed to allow the tanks to fight with full effect.[53]
For the role, Spielberg cast then relatively unknown Irish actor Liam Neeson, whom the director had seen in a Broadway play called Anna Christie. “Liam was the closest in my experience of what Schindler was like,” Spielberg told The New York Times. “His charm, the way women love him, his strength. He actually looks a little bit like Schindler, the same height, although Schindler was a rotund man,” he said. “If I had made the movie in 1964, I would have cast Gert Frobe, the late German actor. That’s what he looked like.”
On 15 September 1935, the Reichstag passed the Nuremberg Laws, prohibiting marriages between Jews and people of Germanic extraction, extramarital relations between Jews and Germans, and the employment of German women under the age of 45 as domestic servants in Jewish households.[12] The Reich Citizenship Law defined as citizens those of "German or kindred blood". Thus Jews and other minorities were stripped of their citizenship.[13] By the start of World War II in 1939, around 250,000 of Germany's 437,000 Jews had emigrated to the United States, Palestine, the United Kingdom, and other countries.[14][15]
Such a stalemate is not unique to armed conflict. Businesses can find themselves in similar situations when the status quo is preserved through a lack of innovation that seems to plague all competitors. It’s very hard to spot this situation in the consumer tech industry, but it happens a lot in heavily regulated industries like healthcare and education. If we were to teleport people from just ten years ago to the present day, they would hardly recognize all the tech companies and applications that dominate the news headlines (Snapchat, Instagram, Android or Tesla, either didn’t exist or were in their infancies ten years ago), whereas they would feel right at home in a school or a hospital. Let’s go back to the Germans ….
The prisoners put up various forms of resistance to the tyranny of the camp. Resistance organisations helped inmates to obtain medicine and food, documented Nazi crimes, supported attempts to escape and sabotage, tried to put political prisoners into positions of responsibility, and prepared for an uprising. A total of 667 prisoners escaped from Auschwitz, but 270 of them were caught in the vicinity of the camp and immediately executed. The best-known escape was that of two Slovak Jews, Alfred Wetzler and Walter Rosenberg (Rudolf Vrba) (link in Czech). They managed to cross into Slovakia and to tell Jewish leaders - and through them the world - about the terrible reality of Auschwitz, about which they wrote an extensive report. On the 7th of October 1944, there was an uprising by the Sonderkommando working in the gas chambers. The prisoners managed to destroy one of the gas chambers, and thus to hinder the extermination process. All the rebels died. A group of young female prisoners was also executed for having smuggled gunpowder to the rebels from the factory in Monowitz.
On the war's Eastern Front, combat did not bog down into trench warfare. German and Russian armies fought a war of maneuver over thousands of miles, giving the German leadership unique experience which the trench-bound Western Allies did not have. Studies of operations in the East led to the conclusion that small and coordinated forces possessed more combat worth than large, uncoordinated forces.
The property is of adequate size to ensure the complete representation of the features and processes that convey its significance. Potential threats to the integrity of the property include the difficulty in preserving the memory of the events and their significance to humanity. In the physical sphere, significant potential threats include natural decay of the former camps’ fabric; environmental factors, including the risk of flooding and rising groundwater level; changes in the surroundings of the former camps; and intensive visitor traffic.
There are different methods of execution. People are shot by firing squads, killed by an "air hammer", and poisoned by gas in special gas chambers. Prisoners condemned to death by the Gestapo are murdered by the first two methods. The third method, the gas chamber, is employed for those who are ill or incapable of work and those who have been brought in transports especially for the purpose/Soviet prisoners of war, and, recently Jews.[333]
Two robust editors are Blitzkrieg's keys to unlocking endless game play possibilities. The Mission Editor allows you to generate and add your own missions, chapters and campaigns according to the options you want most, from level of difficulty to type of action. The Resource Editor gives you total license to redesign the game, add or modify units, characteristics, colors, textures, sounds and more - unlimited freedom to play the game on your terms.
Adam Tooze wrote that the German economy was being prepared for a long war. The expenditure for this war was extensive and put the economy under severe strain. The German leadership were concerned less with how to balance the civilian economy and the needs of civilian consumption but to figure out how to best prepare the economy for total war. Once war had begun, Hitler urged his economic experts to abandon caution and expend all available resources on the war effort but the expansion plans only gradually gained momentum in 1941. Tooze wrote that the huge armament plans in the pre-war period did not indicate any clear-sighted blitzkrieg economy or strategy.[134]
The existing legal system provides appropriate tools for the effective protection and management of the property. The Museum Council, whose members are appointed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, supervises the performance of the Museum’s duties regarding its collections, in particular the execution of its statutory tasks. In addition, the International Auschwitz Council acts as a consultative and advisory body to the Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland on the protection and management of the site of the former Auschwitz Birkenau camp and other places of extermination and former concentration camps situated within the present territory of Poland.
Birkenau had its first documentary mention in 795 in the Lorsch Codex as a cell of the Lorsch Abbey. As one of the Abbey’s holdings, it passed into the ownership of the Archbishopric of Mainz in 1232. The centres of Hornbach and Balzenbach, on the other hand, belonged to the Electorate of the Palatinate, meaning that after the Reformation, they belonged to different denominations. In 1532 the town hall was built, and in 1771 the palace, Schloss Birkenau, of the Lords of Wambolt von Umstadt. By 1964, the population had grown to more than 5,000. In 1967 the community was recognized as a recreational resort (Erholungsort) and in 1979 as an open-air resort (Luftkurort). Owing to the only slight tourism, however, it has not reapplied for this designation. In 1995, Birkenau celebrated its 1,200-year jubilee.
On May 19th, 1939, the S.S. St. Louis sailed from Hamburg, Germany to Havana, Cuba with 937 passengers; almost all of them were Jews escaping with their lives. This was one of the last ships that left Germany before the outbreak of World War II. Most of the passengers had applied for U.S. visas and were only planning on staying in Cuba until they could enter into the United States. The U.S. State Department in Washington, the U.S. consulate in Havana, and the owner of the St. Louis were aware that they might not be able to enter Cuba, but the passengers were never told.
SS officers, including the infamous Dr. Josef Mengele, would conduct selections among these lines, sending most victims to one side and thus condemning them to death in the gas chambers. A minority was sent to the other side, destined for forced labor. Those who were sent to their deaths were killed that same day and their corpses were burnt in the crematoria. Those not sent to the gas chambers were taken to “quarantine,” where their hair was shaved, striped prison uniforms distributed, and registration took place. Prisoners’ individual registration numbers were tattooed onto their left arm.
Before World War II, Germany considered mass deportation from Europe of German, and later European, Jewry.[130] Among the areas considered for possible resettlement were British Palestine[131] and French Madagascar.[132] After the war began, German leaders considered deporting Europe's Jews to Siberia.[133][134] Palestine was the only location to which any German relocation plan produced results, via the Haavara Agreement between the Zionist Federation of Germany and the German government.[135] This resulted in the transfer of about 60,000 German Jews and $100 million from Germany to Palestine, but it ended with the outbreak of World War II.[136] In May 1940 Madagascar became the focus of new deportation efforts[132] because it had unfavorable living conditions that would hasten deaths.[137] Several German leaders had discussed the idea in 1938, and Adolf Eichmann's office was ordered to carry out resettlement planning, but no evidence of planning exists until after the fall of France in June 1940.[138] But the inability to defeat Britain prevented the movement of Jews across the seas,[139] and the end of the Madagascar Plan was announced on 10 February 1942.[140]
In September 1939, the German army occupied the western half of Poland. German police soon forced tens of thousands of Polish Jews from their homes and into ghettoes, giving their confiscated properties to ethnic Germans (non-Jews outside Germany who identified as German), Germans from the Reich or Polish gentiles. Surrounded by high walls and barbed wire, the Jewish ghettoes in Poland functioned like captive city-states, governed by Jewish Councils. In addition to widespread unemployment, poverty and hunger, overpopulation made the ghettoes breeding grounds for disease such as typhus.
In 2017 a Körber Foundation survey found that 40 percent of 14-year-olds in Germany did not know what Auschwitz was.[280][281] The following year a survey organized by the Claims Conference, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and others found that 41 percent of 1,350 American adults surveyed, and 66 percent of millennials, did not know what Auschwitz was, while 22 percent said they had never heard of the Holocaust.[282] A CNN-ComRes poll in 2018 found a similar situation in Europe.[283]
British theorists John Frederick Charles Fuller and Captain Basil Henry Liddell Hart have often been associated with the development of blitzkrieg, though this is a matter of controversy. In recent years historians have uncovered that Liddell Hart distorted and falsified facts to make it appear as if his ideas were adopted. After the war Liddell Hart imposed his own perceptions, after the event, claiming that the mobile tank warfare practised by the Wehrmacht was a result of his influence.[142] By manipulation and contrivance, Liddell Hart distorted the actual circumstances of the blitzkrieg formation, and he obscured its origins. Through his indoctrinated idealisation of an ostentatious concept, he reinforced the myth of blitzkrieg. By imposing, retrospectively, his own perceptions of mobile warfare upon the shallow concept of blitzkrieg, he "created a theoretical imbroglio that has taken 40 years to unravel."[143] Blitzkrieg was not an official doctrine and historians in recent times have come to the conclusion that it did not exist as such.[a]
In July 1938, representatives of 32 countries met in the French town of Evian to discuss the refugee and immigration problems created by the Nazis in Germany. Nothing substantial was done or decided at the Evian Conference, and it became apparent to Hitler that no one wanted the Jews and that he would not meet resistance in instituting his Jewish policies. By the autumn of 1941, Europe was in effect sealed to most legal emigration. The Jews were trapped.
In March 1941, Himmler ordered a second, larger complex to be built next to the original camp. It was called Auschwitz II - Birkenau. The camp at Birkenau was divided into subsections surrounded by electric fences with barbed wire. During 1943 and 1944 the BIIb section became the location of the „Terezín family camp“. At its summit, Birkenau had over 100 000 inmates. In March 1942, the Auschwitz III camp was set up at nearby Monowitz, also known as Buna Monowitz. German company I.G. Farben set up a synthetic rubber factory there, in which it used the prisoners' slave labour. Auschwitz also had a further 45 auxiliary camps, where prisoners were forced to engage in slave labour, mostly for German companies.
Writer Herbert Steinhouse, who interviewed him in 1948, wrote that "Schindler's exceptional deeds stemmed from just that elementary sense of decency and humanity that our sophisticated age seldom sincerely believes in. A repentant opportunist saw the light and rebelled against the sadism and vile criminality all around him."[39] In a 1983 television documentary, Schindler was quoted as saying, "I felt that the Jews were being destroyed. I had to help them; there was no choice."[90]
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Under the Nuremberg Laws, Jews became routine targets for stigmatization and persecution. This culminated in Kristallnacht, or the “night of broken glass” in November 1938, when German synagogues were burned and windows in Jewish shops were smashed; some 100 Jews were killed and thousands more arrested. From 1933 to 1939, hundreds of thousands of Jews who were able to leave Germany did, while those who remained lived in a constant state of uncertainty and fear.
Further trials at Nuremberg took place between 1946 and 1949, which tried another 185 defendants.[460] West Germany initially tried few ex-Nazis, but after the 1958 Ulm Einsatzkommando trial, the government set up a governmental agency to investigate crimes.[461] Other trials of Nazis and collaborators took place in Western and Eastern Europe. In 1960, Mossad agents captured Adolf Eichmann in Argentina and brought him to Israel to stand trial on 15 indictments, including war crimes, crimes against humanity, and crimes against the Jewish people. He was convicted in December 1961 and executed in June 1962. Eichmann's trial and death revived interest in war criminals and the Holocaust in general.[462]
The SS: The SS was a military-style group of Nazis, founded in 1925, who were like Hitler's personal bodyguards. They were in charge of overseeing the killing of people in the camps. Part of the SS called the Einsatzgruppen were put in charge of killing many people, before the extermination camps were opened to carry this out on a much greater scale. The SS also took control of intelligence, security and the police force.
Several protective zones surround components of the World Heritage property and function de facto as buffer zones. They are covered by local spatial development plans, which are consulted by the Regional Monuments Inspector. The management of the property’s setting is the responsibility of the local government of the Town and Commune of Oświęcim. For better management and protection of the attributes of the Outstanding Universal Value of the property, especially for the proper protection of its setting, a relevant management plan must be put into force.
Oskar Schindler did not create “Schindler’s List.” In 1944, with Germany threatened militarily, exterminating Jews increased in many places, but a strategy to move factories deemed vital to the war effort also emerged. Oskar Schindler convinced German authorities his factory was vital and that he needed trained workers. But Schindler did not author or dictate the list of who would go on the transport, as was dramatically depicted in the Steven Spielberg film.
The gate house was built in 1943, long after the Birkenau camp was first opened. The first inmates, who were Soviet Prisoners of War, arrived at Birkenau on October 7, 1941. At first, the gate shown in the photo above was for trucks and pedestrians. Railroad tracks were not laid through the gate until the Spring of 1944, just before transports of Hungarian Jews began to arrive. According to the Auschwitz Museum, 434,351 of these Hungarian Jews were not registered at Birkenau; instead, they were gassed immediately upon arrival. At the height of the deportation of the Hungarian Jews, during a 10 week period, up to 12,000 Jews were gassed and burned each day.
The next blow came a month later. In the early morning darkness of May 10, the Germans unleashed their Blitzkrieg against the Netherlands and Belgium. The attack sent the defending troops reeling. The roads overflowed with refugees fleeing the front. French and British troops rushing to the rescue were caught in the headlong retreat and pushed back. German dive-bombers - the Stukas - filled the sky, strafing the retreating mix of civilians and soldiers with machine gun and bomb. The Allies fought valiantly but in vain - the German war machine advanced unperturbed. In England, the invasion forced Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain to resign, to be replaced by Winston Churchill.
During the Battle of France in 1940, the 4th Armoured Division (Major-General Charles de Gaulle) and elements of the 1st Army Tank Brigade (British Expeditionary Force) made probing attacks on the German flank, pushing into the rear of the advancing armoured columns at times. This may have been a reason for Hitler to call a halt to the German advance. Those attacks combined with Maxime Weygand's Hedgehog tactic would become the major basis for responding to blitzkrieg attacks in the future: deployment in depth, permitting enemy or "shoulders" of a penetration was essential to channelling the enemy attack, and artillery, properly employed at the shoulders, could take a heavy toll of attackers. While Allied forces in 1940 lacked the experience to successfully develop these strategies, resulting in France's capitulation with heavy losses, they characterised later Allied operations. At the Battle of Kursk the Red Army employed a combination of defence in great depth, extensive minefields, and tenacious defence of breakthrough shoulders. In this way they depleted German combat power even as German forces advanced.[citation needed] The reverse can be seen in the Russian summer offensive of 1944, Operation Bagration, which resulted in the destruction of Army Group Center. German attempts to weather the storm and fight out of encirclements failed due to the Russian ability to continue to feed armoured units into the attack, maintaining the mobility and strength of the offensive, arriving in force deep in the rear areas, faster than the Germans could regroup.[citation needed]
The first “bunker,” with two sealed rooms, operated from January 1942 to the end of that year. The second, with four air tight rooms, became redundant in the spring of 1943, but remained standing and was used again in the autumn of 1944 when extra “capacity” was needed for the murder of Hungarian Jews and the liquidation of the ghettos. The second measured about 1.134 square feet. The victims murdered in the “bunkers” were first obliged to undress in temporary wooden barracks erected nearby. Their bodies were taken out of the gas chambers and pushed to pits where they were burned in the open.
Despite the term blitzkrieg being coined during the Invasion of Poland of 1939, historians generally hold that German operations during it were more consistent with more traditional methods. The Wehrmacht's strategy was more inline with Vernichtungsgedanken, or a focus on envelopment to create pockets in broad-front annihilation. Panzer forces were deployed among the three German concentrations without strong emphasis on independent use, being used to create or destroy close pockets of Polish forces and seize operational-depth terrain in support of the largely un-motorized infantry which followed. The Luftwaffe gained air superiority by a combination of superior technology and numbers. Common claims that the Polish Air Force was destroyed early in the campaign while it was on the ground are not true. Polish aircraft were moved to hidden airstrips approximately 48 hours before the outbreak of the hostilities.
The Allies believed that 'blitzkrieg' was dependent on new technology, such as tanks and dive-bombers © Shocked by their experience, the Allied military observers who had survived the fall of France attributed their defeat to the completely new form of warfare pioneered by the Wehrmacht - the blitzkrieg. Blitzkrieg seemed to be based around the pervasive use of new technology. After all, during the disastrous campaign in Belgium and France, it had seemed as if German tanks and aircraft were everywhere.
By mid-1942, the majority of those being sent by the Nazis to Auschwitz were Jews. Upon arriving at the camp, detainees were examined by Nazi doctors. Those detainees considered unfit for work, including young children, the elderly, pregnant women and the infirm, were immediately ordered to take showers. However, the bathhouses to which they marched were disguised gas chambers. Once inside, the prisoners were exposed to Zyklon-B poison gas. Individuals marked as unfit for work were never officially registered as Auschwitz inmates. For this reason, it is impossible to calculate the number of lives lost in the camp.
Blitzkrieg's immediate development began with Germany's defeat in the First World War. Shortly after the war, the new Reichswehr created committees of veteran officers to evaluate 57 issues of the war. The reports of these committees formed doctrinal and training publications which were the standards in the Second World War. The Reichswehr was influenced by its analysis of pre-war German military thought, in particular its infiltration tactics of the war, and the maneuver warfare which dominated the Eastern Front.
By August 1944 there were 105,168 prisoners in Auschwitz whilst another 50,000 Jewish prisoners lived in Auschwitz’s satellite camps. The camp’s population grew constantly, despite the high mortality rate caused by exterminations, starvation, hard labor, and contagious diseases. Upon arrival at the platform in Birkenau, Jews were thrown out of their train cars without their belongings and forced to form two lines, men and women separately.
The first 'bunker', with two sealed rooms, operated from January 1942 to the end of that year. The second, with four air tight rooms, became redundant in the spring of 1943, but remained standing and was used again in the autumn of 1944 when extra 'capacity' was needed for the murder of Hungarian Jews and the liquidation of the ghettos. The second measured about 1.134 square feet. The victims murdered in the 'bunkers' were first obliged to undress in temporary wooden barracks erected nearby. Their bodies were taken out of the gas chambers and pushed to pits where they were burned in the open. Between January 1942 and March 1943, 175,000 Jews were gassed to death here, of whom 105,000 were killed from January to March 1943.
In October 1941, work began on Auschwitz II, or Birkenau, located outside the nearby village of Brzezinka. There the SS later developed a huge concentration camp and extermination complex that included some 300 prison barracks; four large so-called Badeanstalten (German: “bathhouses”), in which prisoners were gassed to death; Leichenkeller (“corpse cellars”), in which their bodies were stored; and Einäscherungsöfen (“cremating ovens”). Another camp (Buna-Monowitz), near the village of Dwory, later called Auschwitz III, became in May 1942 a slave-labour camp supplying workers for the nearby chemical and synthetic-rubber works of IG Farben. In addition, Auschwitz became the nexus of a complex of 45 smaller subcamps in the region, most of which housed slave labourers. During most of the period from 1940 to 1945, the commandant of the central Auschwitz camps was SS-Hauptsturmführer (Capt.) and ultimately SS-Obersturmbannführer (Lieut. Col.) Rudolf Franz Hoess (Höss).
“At this point in the war and in his life, I think Oskar Schindler was absolutely determined to do everything he could to save as many Jews as he could regardless of the cost, either personal or financial,” writes Crowe. “During the last two years of the war, he had undergone a dramatic moral transformation, and, in many ways, he came more and more to associate himself with his Jews than with other Germans.”
Remarkably, there were instances of individual resistance and collective efforts at fighting back inside Auschwitz. Poles, Communists and other national groups established networks in the main camp. Some Jews assaulted Nazi guards, even at the entrance to the gas chambers. In October 1944, the Sonderkommando crew at crematoria IV revolted and destroyed the crematoria. It was never used again.
Many healthy, young strong Jews were not killed immediately. The Germans' war effort and the “Final Solution” required a great deal of manpower, so the Germans reserved large pools of Jews for slave labor. These people, imprisoned in concentration and labor camps, were forced to work in German munitions and other factories, such as I.G. Farben and Krupps, and wherever the Nazis needed laborers. They were worked from dawn until dark without adequate food and shelter. Thousands perished, literally worked to death by the Germans and their collaborators.
The Polish government-in-exile in London learned about the extermination camps from the Polish leadership in Warsaw, who from 1940 "received a continual flow of information about Auschwitz", according to historian Michael Fleming.[333] This was in large measure thanks to Captain Witold Pilecki of the Polish Home Army, who allowed himself to be arrested in Warsaw and spent 945 days in Auschwitz from September 1940 until April 1943, organizing the resistance movement inside the camp.[334]
The OP, also known as USAOpoly, has previously created games based on Avengers: Infinity War and the Harry Potter franchise. Die Hard has spawned four sequels, the latest being 2013’s A Good Day to Die Hard. Willis will likely return as McClane for a sixth installment that will alternate between the present day and his rookie years in the NYPD. That film has no release date set.
Infiltration tactics invented by the German Army during the First World War became the basis for later tactics. German infantry had advanced in small, decentralised groups which bypassed resistance in favour of advancing at weak points and attacking rear-area communications. This was aided by co-ordinated artillery and air bombardments, and followed by larger infantry forces with heavy guns, which destroyed centres of resistance. These concepts formed the basis of the Wehrmacht's tactics during the Second World War.
Oskar Schindler (28 April 1908 – 9 October 1974) was a German industrialist and a member of the Nazi Party who is credited with saving the lives of 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust by employing them in his enamelware and ammunitions factories in occupied Poland and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. He is the subject of the 1982 novel Schindler's Ark and its 1993 film adaptation, Schindler's List, which reflected his life as an opportunist initially motivated by profit, who came to show extraordinary initiative, tenacity, courage, and dedication to save the lives of his Jewish employees.
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Review: Mondo Cozmo – Plastic Soul
b.liebman August 12, 2017 May 24, 2018 Reviews
It’s rare when an artist manages to come out of nowhere and conquer the charts. In the case of Mondo Cozmo, the appearance of overnight success is just that – an appearance. Josh Ostrander, the singer, songwriter and producer who records under the alias Mondo Cozmo, has been playing music for years in different bands. His previous group the Eastern Conference Champions even flirted with success when one of their songs appeared on a Twilight soundtrack.
After releasing a number of singles online, Mondo Cozmo has finally released their first full LP, Plastic Soul, and it’s a solid, if not fully cohesive, collection of acoustic-laden indie rock.
The title track samples a piano riff from a classic soul song, and then drifts into a hazy rocker pondering love and time travel Ostrander has said the song was inspired by David Bowie and written soon after his death, and it wouldn’t be hard to imagine the Thin White Duke’s vocals on the track. The spacey orchestration at the end would work equally well on Major Tom’s journey.
“Hold On to Me” is another sample-laden track, layered with horns as Ostrander croons and pines to a lover. It’s a well-crafted song that feels familiar in a deja-vu type way. The more percussion-based “Higher” strives to be danceable, but the electro-cooed chorus and uninviting melody stray too far from Ostrander’s strengths as songwriter.
Mondo Cozmo reaches for U2-like, arena ready songs, but lands more in Imagine Dragons territory. Not that that should be anything to be ashamed of on a first album. “Come With Me” has the big, gospel-tinged chorus, and “Shine” shamelessly invokes Jesus, Mary and other religious imagery to add weight to its acoustic hymn. They are fine songs, but Ostrander will never be able to match Bono’s operatic vocals (nor can 99% of the rock frontmen out there), and with “Come with Me”, pulling back on the excess production to create more space could go a long way.
Album highlight “Thunder” achieves the stadium sound Ostrander seems to be going for, sounding like Sam’s Town-era The Killers. Another strong track, “Automatic”, more masterfully blends the anthemic aspirations and dance-rock desires at the heart of Ostrander’s songwriting, and will likely stand as one of the songs that truly represents Mondo Cozmo as an artist.
Ostrander has been writing songs for a long time, but on Plastic Soul it’s clear he’s still working on finding his voice as a solo artist. His influences are laid clear to see all over the album, making it sound like a mix-tape of the top alt. rock bands of today. He’s a good songwriter with tons of potential to grow, and if he continues to hone his craft, future artists will certainly be cribbing from him on their debuts.
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Published by b.liebman
Writer, Filmmaker, Artist, and music geek. View all posts by b.liebman
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NYC Health Commissioner Mary Bassett Protested Over Religious Animal Sacrifice
As part of a growing campaign to compel NYC’s Health Commissioner Mary Bassett to ban a religious animal sacrifice that violates seven public health codes, over twenty activists staged a 45-minute disruption in the lobby of the Department of Health’s (DOH) headquarters as several thousand city employees entered the building during the morning rush.
During a similar disruption that took place two weeks earlier, DOH employees informed the activists that the protest could be heard throughout the building and was the subject of conversation among city employees. This feedback, coupled with a desire to ensure that all DOH employees are informed of their employer’s negligence, triggered activists to return for the second disruption.
Photo: Unparalleled Suffering Photography
“The system is broken,” said Jessica Hollander, an activist who participated in the protest. “What does it is say about our city government when New Yorkers are left with no choice but to stage a ‘die-in’ on the floor of the Department of Health to compel the agency to enforce its own regulations?”
A reporter and photographer from the NY Daily News attended and reported on the protest in an article entitled, “Protesters Slam Health Department, Implore City to Ban Jewish Chicken Slaughter Ritual.”
Protest coverage in the NY Daily News
In a statement provided to the Daily News for the article, the DOH dug in its heels, stating, “We have not found Kaporos to be a significant public health threat — our surveillance has shown no increase in illness — and this ritual is an important practice for some Orthodox Jews.” The DOH did not address the health code violations or the toxicology report which explicitly warns the city of the risks that Kaporos poses to the public.
Following is an excerpt from a 25 page affidavit submitted by Dr. Michael McCabe to the court in connection with an ongoing lawsuit about Kaporos: “The high levels of total coliform bacteria and E. coli present confirm that the Kaporos activities produce unsanitary conditions in . . . public spaces . . .. It is my opinion with a reasonable degree of toxicology, immunology and environmental health sciences certainty, that based on the evidence set forth . . . that the Kaporos activities taking place in the subject locations as described constitute a dangerous condition and thereby pose a significant public health hazard and could be catastrophic.”
“During the week when the animals are killed, the streets in my neighborhood become a giant petri dish of pathogens and toxins that expose not only the practitioners to disease but also members of the general public,” said Rina Deych, a 62 year old nurse who lives in Brooklyn. “I can’t walk my grandson around my own neighborhood because there’s a makeshift slaughterhouse on every other block and chicken body parts in the streets.”
During Kaporos, ultra-Orthodox Jews swing live chickens around their heads in a symbolic transfer of their sins to the animals prior to the Jewish day of atonement, Yom Kippur. After the ritual, the chickens are killed in pop-up slaughterhouses. While most of the dead and dying chickens are stuffed into garbage bags and hauled away by the NYC Dept. of Sanitation, many end up in the streets and sidewalks, which contaminates public spaces with blood, body parts and feces.
“We are not asking Commissioner Bassett to ban Kaporos,” said Nathan Semmel, an attorney who participated in the protest. “We are merely asking her to prohibit the use of live animals. Thousands of Jews around the world perform Kaporos by swinging coins around their heads and then donating the money to charity. There’s nothing in religious scripture that mentions, much less mandates, the use of live chickens.”
The 45-minute disruption at the Department of Health, which was staged during the morning rush hour, was the fifth action taken by activists to compel the city agency to enforce its own regulations.
Activists protest in the lobby of the NYC Department of Health during the morning rush to pressure the Commissioner to ban the use of live chickens during a religious ritual called Kaporos (photo: NY Daily News)
In 2015, The Alliance to End Chickens as Kaporos and 19 NYC residents sued the NYC Department of Health and the NYPD for failing to enforce the 15 public health, sanitation and anti-cruelty laws and regulations that are violated during Kaporos. The case centers on whether or not courts can mandate that the police enforce the laws that are violated during Kaporos. According to the plaintiffs’ complaint, the police are not only ignoring the violations, but they are also “aiding and abetting” in the crimes by providing the ritual practitioners with flood lights, barricades, security and the orange cones in which the chickens are bled out.
Tagged with: Alliance to End Chickens as Kaporos, chickens, Kaporos
Jack Mehoff says:
Hey activists! Go to KFC and the rest of the Fast Food Chains and protest there. Also I will be checking at all the rallies you attend to make sure you aren’t wearing any clothes made from Cows or Plants or other lifeforms. Also stop using paper because you are killing trees! Your protest signs use wood from trees too! hypocrites! If you don’t like it you are free to move to another city or country….try ISIS
Terry Russo says:
We know that swinging live conscious chickens around a person’s head, then crudely killing them in makeshift slaughter houses, violates the Jewish law of tza’ar ba’alei chayim, prohibiting unnecessary cruelty to animals. How could committing a sin against an innocent, living being REMOVE a person’s sins? It’s one thing to respect the religious beliefs of others, but when those beliefs violate local laws, such as anti-cruelty laws and health and safety laws, elected officials should not be turning a blind eye.
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Jezebel Interview
Susan Seidelman On How the 'Woman Director' Label Went from Pejorative to Political
Rich Juzwiak
Filed to: Susan SeidelmanFiled to: Susan Seidelman
Susan Seidelman
Image: Getty/Criterion
Few movies capture the filth-under-the-fingernails grit of early ‘80s New York as well as Susan Siedelman’s 1982 film Smithereens. The character study follows its protagonist Wren through tagged-up, trash-strewn Lower East Side, Soho, and beyond as she attempts to make it in the big city with no discernible goal beyond that or the skill to pull it off. She glues selfies to subway walls that read, “Who is this?” She attempts social-climbing in dive bars. She fixates on a dickhead in a band, Eric (played by punk icon Richard Hell), who treats her like shit, and ignores the attention of Paul (Brad Rijn), who seems genuinely sweet but isn’t quite a prize himself (he lives in a van on the West Side Highway). Wren gets kicked out of her apartment and tumbles through the city in punk chic like a weed without roots. “I’m really rotten,” she confesses to Paul at one point. “I’m really disgusting.”
This week, Criterion released a gorgeously grainy restoration of Smithereens on Blu-ray. Siedelman, who studied at NYU in the ‘70s, made the film in her late 20s for about $40,000. She says she had no ambition beyond getting it completed—no sense of the festival circuit, no ideas about how it would be distributed. It ended up getting accepted to Cannes and became the first American indie film to compete for the Palme d’Or. It’s almost eerie how prescient the movie is about the thirst for fame, eerier still how the scenes in various dives could have been filmed yesterday. Yes, New York is a far different place than it was 36 years ago, but walk through the doors of some piss-smelling venues with black walls and punk blaring out of its blown-out speakers and it’s as though no time has passed at all.
Smithereens was Siedelman’s first feature—she’d go on to direct a string of studio movies in the ‘80s including the hit Desperately Seeking Susan and 1989's She-Devil with Roseanne Barr and Meryl Streep. She stepped away from film in the ‘90s, focusing mostly on television (she directed a few episodes of Sex and the City, including its pilot). She’s remained active as a director and is also a professor—come fall, she’ll teach directing and screenwriting courses at the New School, as well as Stony Brook University. She spoke with me Monday by phone from her house in Bucks County about her first and subsequent movies, being labeled a “woman director” in the ‘80s, and the sea change underway in Hollywood. An edited and condensed transcript of our chat is below.
JEZEBEL: Something that I find very useful about watching Smithereens in 2018 is that it provides a window into an old, grittier, perhaps more dangerous New York for those who miss it or never got to visit at the time. Was recording for posterity one of your objectives when making this movie?
I wasn’t thinking that far ahead. My interest [was] in looking at people and trying to be authentic to some extent, although film always manipulates, to the kind of characters and kind of stories and kind of location I wanted to portray. Did I ever look ahead and say, “Forty years from now, people will look back?” No, but I’m glad I was able to document something about New York. A lot of the streets we were filming on back then are now expensive condos or NYU dorms. Looking at it as an interesting timepiece is kind of fascinating.
As much as it is of its time, many of the ideas in Smithereens are still relevant, still playing out in culture. Do you see it as prescient?
Wren is somebody who desperately wants to be recognized, yet she has no specific talent or skill. She just wants to be famous. She’s taking pictures of herself—selfies—Xeroxing them and putting them up all over, which in some ways predates the whole idea of a reality star or instant celebrity culture we have moved into over the last decade or so. Xeroxing copies of herself, because we didn’t have social media back then, with the words, “Who is this?” is essentially what everyone on Facebook or Instagram is doing some variation of—saying, “I exist, I’m interesting, you should be curious about me.”
I agree, and Wren’s social climbing in dive bars is also something I see all the time still. I saw it on Saturday.
I think if you can make a character that feels real… you know, one of my goals was never to make a sympathetic character, I wanted to make an interesting character. The goal was trying to define a character as opposed to making a moral judgement as to whether she’s a good person or a bad person. Maybe that’s something that’s timeless. Those kinds of characters still exist, but you don’t see them in too many Hollywood movies because if you’re manipulative, you’re not the leading lady in a movie.
Were you ever thinking ever in the opposite direction, though? Was Wren a provocation or a test to see how much self-centeredness audiences would tolerate in a woman protagonist?
I wasn’t trying to provoke the audience. I just knew people like her, men and women. There are people who are cutthroat and manipulative and cruel, but she’s kind of bad at it in a way. To me that’s what made her likable to a certain extent. You can feel the vulnerability. She fucks up a lot, and there’s something humanizing about someone who’s trying so hard to be part of something but is a little confused about what she actually wants and how she’s going to go about getting it.
I wanted to leave it a little open-ended, but I personally like to think she’s a survivor.
The ending is very bleak; do you think it’s fair to say Wren gets punished?
I wanted to leave it a little open-ended, but I personally like to think she’s a survivor. She does keep picking herself up no matter what happens. Whether she gets into the car with that guy, I don’t know, and if she does, I like to think she will not be murdered or hurt in some way, but I did want to leave it a little ambiguous. Part of that was being influenced by the French new wave, like the ending of 400 Blows, where the little boy kind of turns and looks at the camera and you don’t know exactly what’s going to happen to him but you think he’s going to be a survivor and it’s not going to be terrible. In the same way I didn’t want to make a moral judgment, I didn’t want to have a pat ending. Part of that was being an independent filmmaker and not wanting to follow the Hollywood formula.
Was there a sense of being part of an “indie” film community in the early ‘80s? It wasn’t until later that decade, into the ‘90s that indie really became a phenomenon recognized by the mainstream.
The whole concept of indie filmmaking was really a ‘90s phenomenon, once Miramax became an indie distribution company. Were they indie really? Indie compared to Warner Bros., but they were still making $2-$5 million movies with Gwyneth Paltrow. When I was starting out, and I think this is probably true for maybe Abel Ferrara, Jim Jarmusch, I can’t speak for Spike Lee, film was a cultural expression. There was so much going on there in terms of punk turning into new wave music. You didn’t need a lot of money to make a record. You didn’t need a lot of experience to be a band. If you could vaguely play the bass, you could play at CBGB or Max’s Kansas City. There was a bit of a do-it-yourself vibe. Same with painting. If you had spray paint and style, you could start to tag yourself on walls and become identified. It wasn’t like an intentional, “We are indie, we’re going to band together and, brand ourselves.” I don’t remember that kind of calculation. By the mid-to-late ‘80s, the culture changed. It was the beginning of the yuppie culture. I think that sense of branding and being aware of your commercial value, or whatever, started to come into play more. In the early ‘80s, I didn’t think about that. I didn’t even think about what would happen to the film after it got made. I didn’t think of film festivals or distributors.
Was there any calculation in terms of expanding culture or making a political statement by putting out a movie about an unsympathetic woman?
Often the cultural events that happen when you’re an older teenager and in your early 20’s influence you and I was influenced by the second-wave feminist movement, especially in the early ‘70s. Making films about strong female protagonists—most of the films I have made have had strong female protagonists—part of it was because I felt like I was filling a void, and because of my own belief that women are interesting. But also I didn’t want to glorify them into perfect earth mothers or perfect professionals. I still wanted to keep that ambiguity.
In the Blu-ray extras of Smithereens, you talk a lot about being a woman director making movies about women. I read a quote from yours from 1987 in which you took issue with the label of “woman director.” (“I really feel like a director, not a woman director.”) Have you come to embrace that designation in the years since?
I think what I might have meant was there was a time when someone would say, “She’s a woman director,” it was almost like they meant, “She’s good for a girl.” There was a kind of pejorative undertone. Now, the conversation is different, and there are a lot of women who aren’t just good in a subset of women directors; they’re good directors. There’s still not enough of them, but I don’t think when someone sees Wonder Woman, they say, “Patty Jenkins is a good woman director.” Or Kathryn Bigelow. I think the conversation has shifted so now the phrase “female director” has a strong political connotation as opposed to being, “She’s good for a girl.”
There was a time when someone would say, ‘She’s a woman director,’ it was almost like they meant, ‘She’s good for a girl.’
Did you feel that pejorative from within the industry? Did you face limitations from Hollywood because you were a woman making films in the ‘80s?
I think the fact that Desperately Seeking Susan was a commercial and critical success for that time and it was unexpected—no one thought this movie directed by a woman, starring two women, produced by two women, written by a woman, was ever going to enter into mainstream cinema or to make money. That gave me some freedom. It had been successful in the studio world.
I think what happens that is different for women than men, because it is still to a large extent and certainly was back then a boy’s club, is if a guy makes a movie that flops or underperforms, he can still go on for another 30 years making movies. If you’re a woman you’re not quite given that leeway. I was a woman but also a New Yorker, so I was on the other coast. I wasn’t going to the lunch places where the studio heads were eating. I wasn’t playing that game. To some extent, that was an advantage creatively for me because it didn’t make me think so formulaic, but on the other hand I wasn’t schmoozing at the studios and taking lunch and all that kind of stuff.
Are you at all resentful about not being given more chances? You didn’t make a single feature in the ‘90s.
I didn’t. That’s twofold. There were some movies I was offered, but I also had a baby. Because there are so few women directors, that’s not something people talk about that much. I wanted to have a family. I literally had a baby December 16, 1989. It was the [week after] She-Devil came out. Those two events kind of impacted, for me personally in a positive way, but certainly had an impact on my career. When my son was little, I took TV stuff because it was easier. You could do it quicker. I wanted to keep my hand in it—it’s sort of like exercising. But I wasn’t actively pursuing. To some extent, there are times when projects are coming to you and there are other times. She-Devil was not financially successful, although I kind of like that movie.
I do too. I always did.
I think it came out at the wrong time. Today, people would have gotten it. That’s one of the ones I thought was underrated in terms of its commercial and critical reception. But because it wasn’t a hit, it doesn’t mean I couldn’t work, it means I would have needed to be proactive about getting the next movie made, and I just wasn’t ready to do that.
Being the sort of artist who needs to churn out large-scale ideas and then execute them seems exhausting.
It is exhausting, and I liked being a mom. That was what I was doing. I started getting back to work once my son hit second grade, when he didn’t need Mommy around as much. That’s when I started doing a lot more television and the Sex and the City pilot.
Did you have any idea Sex and the City would blow up and become the cultural phenomenon that it did?
Darren Star sent the script to me, and when I read it, I thought, “This is so interesting,” especially for television, a) for its femaleness and b) because it was so audacious. It was truthful but bold. I read the script and I called him and I said, “I’m in.” I’d liked things before that weren’t successes so I wasn’t prepared for the impact it would have.
You worked with Roseanne Barr on She-Devil. Were you surprised by the racist tweet that led to her firing?
It did and it didn’t. I didn’t talk racism or politics with Roseanne back in 1989, so I don’t know what her political beliefs were. But what I did get is that she was somebody that didn’t censor herself a lot. She could say things to be outrageous or say things she might not have meant to get attention or to generate a reaction. I knew that she was an uncensored person and that could have ramifications down the line, and it did. She sang the national anthem in that horrible, mocking voice. Her judgement could be off, I knew that. We never talked politics or racism back then, though, so that part surprised me.
Do you have any sense of why Madonna had such a hard time with her acting career after Desperately Seeking Susan, Evita aside?
When certain people have created themselves in a way and they become iconic, it’s very hard to go beyond that. I think a lot of acting is about losing yourself in a character. In Evita, she had to play another icon, and that’s why it worked. In Desperately Seeking Susan, she wasn’t as famous. Her fame came very quickly over the course of our filming the movie. We started the movie, she wasn’t famous, by the end she was on the cover of major magazines. I had the benefit of having somebody who didn’t have an entourage around them, someone without much interference. She was just being herself and un-self-consciously acting. A lot of people say, “That’s just Madonna onscreen.” It isn’t. She was saying scripted lines, she had blocking, she had to do all that stuff and make it seem natural, which is not easy. She could bring a lot of her persona to that role and it was a perfect blend of who she was then and the character she was playing. She had great ideas, and if she had a great idea and it fit the character, it was great. One of my favorite little bits in the film is when she dries her arms under the hand dryer in the Port Authority bathroom. She just did that. She just turned the blower and dried her armpits. That was so Susan and so Madonna that it was just perfect.
You told Rebecca Bengal, who wrote the essay that accompanies Criterion’s release of Smithereens, “I had no idea until afterward what the movie business was like.” Did you have a rude awakening after finishing your first feature?
I want to put that in the context of there not being an internet at the time, the information wasn’t available. My film students over the last decade, they look at Box Office Mojo and know exactly what movie was a hit over the weekend and who’s the head of what studio and what executives have moved on to produce what. I didn’t know any of that. I didn’t read Variety back then. To me that was a benefit. That kind of naïveté kept me from manipulating a story or my career to fit a plan. For the next year [after Smithereens], I started getting studio scripts and most of them were pretty terrible. I was getting cheerleaders on the run. Girly teen comedies, and I like a good girly teen comedy, like Fast Times at Ridgemont High. I was getting some really dumb ones. I knew I had to be passionate about what I picked. I was afraid I would get one shot, the studio system is cruel, and if I blew it that would be the end. So I waited about a year and a half reading bad scripts until I got the script for Desperately Seeking Susan, which came through my agent.
Were you at all surprised by sexism in Hollywood? Would you say it’s worse than it is in the world overall?
I think that Hollywood is about making money. You have a lot of really smart, sophisticated people making some dumb movies sometimes because they’re wearing a business hat and thinking it’s going to sell. They’re subjugating their own taste to do something they feel will make money, and many times it does. The #MeToo movement, what can I say? Men have been in power for a long time and power corrupts.
Have you ever had firsthand experience with that corrupting power?
I never did the Hollywood game because I started out as an independent filmmaker. The thing about being an independent filmmaker is you make your own opportunity. You are hiring yourself. You’re not having to suck up to anyone or to subject yourself to someone else’s abuses because you are your own employer. I was fortunate. The next project was Desperately Seeking Susan, it was all women and in some way, most were first-timers. I didn’t feel like I had to compromise myself to get to that next step. And then that was a hit, and I was more or less in a position of power... it wasn’t power, it was that I was able to do what I wanted to do next and the studio trusted me. I never abused anyone, and I wasn’t playing the game. So no, I didn’t have any experiences like that.
How tuned into the whisper network were you?
You do hear stories about that, and it wasn’t only from women. I have male friends who had to go through awkward casting-couch situations. I heard. Maybe I’m just a blinkered person but I was in my own world, doing my own thing. I worked with Mira Sorvino, Rosanna Arquette, Natasha Henstridge—a lot of people who are part of the #MeToo movement. No one talked about it. Maybe they were going through stuff and didn’t talk about it with me. The people that were outed, you had heard those rumors if you were in the movie business. Very few names came as a shock.
Having watched the business up close for as long as you have, do you see it changing?
I see talk of change. Let’s see if it really changes. I hope so. It would be nice if in a couple of years this isn’t even a conversation because we’ve evolved beyond it. Will people abuse power? Yeah, probably. It doesn’t just happen in the movie business, it’s just that the movie business has movie stars so it gets headlines. Corporate America, unless it’s a huge corporation doesn’t get the same kind of attention. Do I see much of a change in terms of women not being defined as a female director and evening up the statistics a little bit? I do see change for sure in the sense that I think there are a lot more women working in television and the role of TV has changed dramatically over the course of my career. TV used to be the ugly stepsister to movies. Now I go to parties and listen in restaurants and everyone’s just talking about TV series. That’s good because you need more directors for television and women have always had better statistics in directing TV than features.
Do a lot of young women take your filmmaking courses?
When I was teaching at NYU I taught the highest level directing class, so they were all graduating seniors, and my class was for the last couple of years 50/50 men/women. When I went to film school in the ‘70s, there were 35 of us each year. There were five or six women and 29 guys. I see a big difference. I see a lot more women who are cinematographers, which is as hard as being a director. Being a DP, at some level you run up against union restrictions and the unions had been traditionally very male dominated and it was hard to get into a union. If you wanted to be a female DP and work on a studio movie, if you weren’t in the union, you didn’t get the job. Seeing women and equipment is another big change I’ve noticed.
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Director Desiree Akhavan on The Miseducation of Cameron Post and Reimagining the Teen Movie
Some Pig. Terrific. Radiant. Humble.
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Define 'Homophobic'
Dr. Pimple Popper's Season 3 Premiere Exposes the Dark Underside of Ear Piercing
Annabelle Needs to Get Off Her Ass
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Tag Archives: Berger and Luckmann
Fascist Family – A SHOCKING TRUTH
Posted by vixensjournetolife in Vixen's Process Blog
Berger and Luckmann, desteni research, Equal Money System, Family, Fascism, Indoctrination, Natalism, Socialization, The Social Construction of Reality
What is family… Really?
The paradox is, that the answer to that question, in all self-honesty, for most people, is a shock to discover, yet at the same time so univocally familiar.
The word, originating from c.1.400 is said to mean “servants of a household” and was only later giving it’s meaning of “connected by blood”. We shall here discuss exactly how accurate that first definition really is.
in looking at the root of the word, as the original meaning which we’re living into manifestation, often without knowing it, it is evident that what that is portrayed through TV (smoke) screens, is but a layer of varnish covering up the cracked foundation that is the family system and construct in this world.
Natalism is the belief that human reproduction is the basis for individual existence and thus glorifies birth (latin: natalis) and parenthood. In this article we shall discuss how the construct of the family system and the role it plays in this world, is based on a fundamentalistic and natalistic belief bordering on an ideological dictatorship that has everyone on earth spellbound through its propaganda machinery.
“Family is all that matters”
“Family must stick together”
But it is not so much about family in itself, as it is about how the understanding of what family really is, and more importantly what family DOES and why.
In 1966 Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann wrote a book called”The Social Construction of Reality”. This book has become a classic in the field of sociology for its description of how we create the reality we perceive, experience and exist in, through social construction in groups, intuitions and families. One of the points they’ve been famous for describing is the process of socialization, as how the child becomes ‘a person’ that is integrated into the culture and society one is a part of. It is this ‘how’ that is so fascinating and which reveals not only the construct behind family-structures but also behind school systems, knowledge systems, cultures and the entity of society as a whole.
Berger and Luckmann describes with exact precision the social constructs that influence how a child is integrated into the family, culture and society it is born into, and how it comes to accept itself as an integrated part of its world.
“The central concept of The Social Construction of Reality is that persons and groups interacting in a social system form, over time, concepts or mental representations of each other’s actions, and that these concepts eventually become habituated into reciprocal roles played by the actors in relation to each other. When these roles are made available to other members of society to enter into and play out, the reciprocal interactions are said to be institutionalised. In the process of this institutionalisation, meaning is embedded in society. Knowledge and people’s conception (and belief) of what reality is becomes embedded in the institutional fabric of society. Social reality is therefore said to be socially constructed.” – Summary from Wikipedia
When I first read the book, I was surprised that such a book has been written without having created at least ripples in the veil that is our co-existence – because the descriptions are so spot on and so directly describing to the very last detail exactly how the process of social programming takes place. I simply could not understand how someone could read this book from a “safe scientific distance” and in a sense not place the writing into perspective, where also we ourselves, have been equally programmed into a certain mold and pattern.
So either Berger and Luckmann’s description of the programming is not outrageous or penetrating enough to influence the larger society to actually look at itself and consider whether they way we exist requires to be changed OR the person reading is so engulfed in the programming themselves, that they can in fact only read from a “safe scientific distance”. That is not only ironic, but also absurd as we’re so clearly presented with the exact formula into how we’re continuously and monotonously programming ourselves to re-create the same social constructs and patterns.
Ironically Berger and Luckmann write:
“The history of legitimating theories is always part of the history of society as a whole. No ‘history of ideas’ take place in isolation from the blood and sweat of general history. But we must once again stress that this does not mean that these theories are nothing but reflections of ‘underlying’ institutional processes; the relationship between ‘ideas’ and their sustaining social processes is always a dialectical one. It is correct to say that theories are concocted in order to legitimate already existing social institutions. But it also happens that social institutions are changed in order to bring them into conformity with already existing theories, that is, to make them more ‘legitimate’. The experts in legitimation may operate as theoretical justifiers of the status quo; they may also appear as revolutionary ideologists. Definitions of reality have self-fulfilling potency.” (pg. 145)
So theories about society and the explicit programming of society goes hand in hand and as such is Berger and Luckmann’s theory more ‘meta’ or ‘behind the curtain’ as it describes the rules with which the ‘game’ of society is being ‘played’ on.
Let’s have a look at the detail with which these rules of construction are described:
Berger and Luckmann describe how the child is integrated and will integrate itself into society and develop an identity based on this ‘socialization’ into the system. They describe how the child is born into a situation with ‘significant others’, who most often will be immediate family members who’re in charge of introducing them to the world.
So the child has no choice – it’s total existence is dependent on these people and it is upon this basis that the premises of socialization is founded. They decide who the child is gonna be and how the child is gonna see the world around it, what it will prefer, what it will desire and fear and they do so simply according to their own programming either explicitly or implicitly.
This is where family exists as a specifically influential ‘unit’ or institution, because the child is not only introduced into a specific larger culture, but also according to a specific interpretation of that culture. Two of the most important aspects of this process, is according to Berger and Luckmann the programming of language and the emotional relationship between caretaker and child.
“The child identifies with the significant others in a variety of emotional ways. Whatever they may be, internalization occurs only as identification occurs. The child takes on the significant others roles and attitudes, that is, internalizes them and makes them his own. And by this identification with significant others the child becomes capable of identifying himself, of acquiring a subjectively coherent and plausible identity. In other words, the self is a reflected entity, reflecting the attitudes first taken on by significant others towards it, the individual becomes what he is addressed as by as his significant others. “(pg. 152)
So it is no wonder we keep recreating the same fucked up world with the same fucked up families, wherein to we’re born, never being able to escape “the sins of the fathers”, be that genetically or socially through this stream lined process of indoctrination. It also explains why it for so many people seems almost impossible to step out of the family role, because as we’re socialized into existence, our entire life is dependent on us fitting in with these people, of us mimicking them as well as eventually taken on their habits and preferences as our own.
“The child learns that he IS what he is called.” (pg. 152)
What is also interesting is that no alternative is provided; this is simply how it works. According to Berger and Luckmann, the child does however also go through a process of secondary socialization in which it is integrated in the world around it. This explains according to Berger and Luckmann the, often contradicting, preferences a person can experience where they on one hand believes it is bad to steal based on values Impulsed into them via their family and on the other hand place value into being accepted by a group of friends that steal. The difference however is that the child within the primary socialization perceives the significant others as ‘THE world’, where they when integrating with school mates and co-workers, are aware of these being but ‘A PART OF’ a greater world.
What is created on the basis of this system is not only generational child abuse in which singular people have enormous power to shape the future, but also a trapped and closed system that does not end, because it’s premise is based on the re-production of itself without validated reason or direction. We simply keep having babies generation after generations, with only the biologically engineered triggers and the socially manufactured propaganda as directive principles.
And within doing so, we’re constantly recreating a flawed world with flawed human beings that pretend they got everything under control. No one can even remember who started it , let alone how to stop, so we try – generation after generation, to redeem the damages and make the perfect match, the perfect child – but all that happens is that we make more and more of the same mess.
So we exist, as Berger and Luckmann has described, as mere reflections Impulsing that which will ensure our survival in the world, that which responds in a way to us that is filled with the least conflict and battle. And so we suppress, mold, lie, deceive, manipulate, try, compromise – with whatever means possible to get by, as our parents have done before us and theirs before them.
As children, we’re thus entirely submitted to the quirks and ways of the people who’ve brought us into the world and even the most successful and effective families are thus abusing their children by simply participating in continuous and meticulously patterned brain wash – and the worst part? We don’t know any better, so we do the same to our children, as has been done to us.
Thus we’re able to see the programming and exactly how it works – but changing it, has never until now been possible. The seeing, understanding and exposing of these social systems is what we do at Desteni. We do it through the basic understanding that we’re all equally responsible for the world and the reality we’ve created – we’ve created it ourselves and thus it is by changing ourselves, as a whole, that we can change what is here, system by system.
The family system is the engine that drives the reproduction of the systems of inequality that we’ve accepted as the foundation for our existence on this Earth.
It is within the families and as the families that we justify who we’ve become as that inequality – when we refuse to share or where we feel forced to steal or why we work until we bleed. It is where everything that is wrong with this world is justified as legitimate.
Family is like the clue that keeps the world system of inequality and abuse intact, with the deception of the family as the center, the nucleus of the world, bound by emotional strings and words in our childhood that holds us forever indebted.
So many people feel trapped in their families, others trap themselves and others again have no choice but to rely on family – a condition that only supports the notion of family being the foundation of our existence on this earth and the key to our survival.
But we forget that as this earth, as a whole, we all combine and compile into a nucleus one could call a family – connected by the blood that is this earth, consisting of the exact same molecules and atoms as the life we see around us – yet we treat this family as an intruder in our house instead of embracing all of it, life in it’s entirety. And ironically, from this perspective, it is true that we can only rely on family to survive, that family in deed do come first, because without us stepping up to the plate of taking care of our family, the plants, the earth, the animals, each other , who will we be?
Are we merely ‘servants’ of the ‘household’ that is this system of abusive and inequality?
Created as and by ourselves in ways most of us don’t even remember because we’ve compartmentalized ourselves into separate units, in the believe that only as such could we survive, by hiding all parts of ourselves, from ourselves, scattered throughout the earth – brought together in artificial units of ‘support’ called ‘family’ – yet always and only supporting the system of separation to re-produce itself into smaller and smaller pieces.
If that is what family is – then it is time we get rid of it – and to come together in the family that is this earth, as all of us, to re-define family into the unconditional support system it was supposed to be, bringing ourselves together and embracing what is here as a whole in mutual support and care.
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Burn After Reading Movie Review
“Report back to me when it makes sense”
If Seinfeld met the Coen Brothers, had a baby, and taught it how to use a camera, Burn After Reading would be the result. Only the Coen Brothers can make a movie that both simultaneously appears to be about nothing but also about everything, which is fitting given the title is to burn some knowledge that you first read and never see again. It’s a film that might leave you scratching your head by the end but ultimately, that’s exactly what it wants to do and I for one thought it was all great.
I’ve mentioned this previously, but the Coen Brothers have basically put filmmaking down to a science. Apart from Hail Caesar! and The Lady Killers, they haven’t really done anything wrong and have continued to make fantastic films across a variety of themes. Which is more than likely why the story for Burn After Reading also works because it’s handled by two people who can seemingly take any subject matter and make it incredibly interesting. This is also due to the wonderful array of characters they’ve created in their filmography and in Burn After Reading, we get a huge number of them.
From Brad Pitt playing a highly enthusiastic fitness trainer, to John Malkovich as an ex-CIA agent, every character was a burst of energy on screen. And when you have an all-star cast at your disposal with additions like George Clooney, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, Richard Jenkins, and J.K Simmons, I’m not surprised that these portrayals are coming to life so vividly. The actor-director relationship is working so well, which stems from the collaboration history for most of those names who have worked on many films directed by the Coen brothers.
This is going to be a fairly short review because just like the name Coen signals, you’re going to be getting some excellent filmmaking on display, but what I will add is that unlike some of the other more serious or tense films like No Country for Old Men, Burn After Reading lends itself to be very idiosyncratic. So much so that it isn’t as quirky as their other film The Big Lebowski, but more on the level where it stands out as being fresh in its own right.
There’s also a lot of different strands coming together with several subplots twinning in on themselves, almost akin to that of Alejandro Iñárritu’s Babel, but it’s much funnier than that. As I said earlier, Burn After Reading really does feel like a Seinfeld episode just in feature-length form because ultimately, it’s a story about nothing and everything at the same time. This is what makes it so unique and why it’s different compared to the Coen brother’s other films.
I’ll be recommending that you check this out since it’s also out on Netflix in Australia and the United States. If you haven’t heard of the Coen brothers and have been living under a rock, then do yourself a favor and fix that immediately. See it.
Tags: brad pit, burn after reading, burn after reading film, burn after reading film review, burn after reading movie, burn after reading movie review, cinema, cinema discussion, coen brothers, film analysis, film critic, film review, frances mcdormand, george clooney, jk simmons, john malkovich, movie, movie analysis, movie critic, movie review, netflix australia, richard jenkins, tilda swinton, we review you watch
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Pingback: Via We Review. You Watch. -Burn After Reading Review – Fang & Saucer
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Sep3 by omarmartini
The last meeting, on Thursday 30th August, was characterised by the usual variety of speeches and ideas, and what really stood out was the high level of delivery they all had.
Wellcome Musiyamanje’s “Personal Identity” was his first icebreaker in the “Innovative planning” Pathway program. He started wondering how we can talk about who we really are, and not about some “exterior” aspect. He took his first name as an example, something which always caused some additional, puzzling questions when he introduced himself to someone else. He amusingly confirmed that people usually said “Wellcome, you’re welcome”; he also added the other two recurring questions they made were if he was Nigerian and if he were a student. Questions could define three different types of personal aspects. There is the “Personal Identity” (our own features and characteristics), the “Personal Image” (how we are seen by the others) and the “Personal Brand” (a combination of both elements). Wellcome has several qualifications, but they don’t define his identity: another person, too, could have the same qualifications, but they will never be him. Talking about his job and what he does, as well, doesn’t define him. However, his personal identity can be revealed by what he likes, for example, to teach, to solve problems and to help the others… and if he succeeds in all this, he’ll be happy and, answering to a thank you, he’ll say “You’re welcome”.
Eileen Scott, too, had her icebreaker speech in the “Dynamic Leadership” Pathways program, although this was certainly not her first speech in our club. She started recalling her first icebreaker nine years earlier when the path to regain her abilities as speaker had started. She thinks what helped her a lot was the evaluation, so she decided to do a survey about herself, distributed among her family and friends. She summarised the results in a series of slides, and she commented on them. There were different types of questions, like what she likes and dislikes, what are her strengths and what one likes the best about her. At the end of this amusing examination, she quoted Robert Burns (“O wad some Power the giftie gie us, to see oursels as ithers see us!”), and she concluded the greatest gift of all this was the evaluation.
Finally, Marcin Aleksander Radecki reached the fifth step in the “Interpretative reading” program, that is “The Oratorical Speech”. For this, he deftly read “Stephen Fry on the Catholic Church”, a transcript of his speech during a debate hosted in the Methodist Central Hall, Westminster, in October 2009, about whether the Catholic Church could be considered or not a force for good in the world.
It’s always interesting and enjoyable to see such different types of speeches from the two parallel programs, the classic “Competent Communicator” Manual, and the new Pathway program, and you can be sure there will be other new interesting and engaging speeches at our next meeting, on Thursday 13th September.
← Slice of life speeches
The ‘Lang Scots Mile’ →
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The eight co-champions of the 2019 Scripps National Spelling Bee, from left, Shruthika Padhy, 13, of Cherry Hill, N.J., Erin Howard, 14, of Huntsville, Ala., Rishik Gandhasri, 13, of San Jose, Calif., Christopher Serrao, 13, of Whitehouse Station, N.J., Saketh Sundar, 13, of Clarksville, Md., Sohum Sukhatankar, 13, of Dallas, Texas, Rohan Raja, 13, of Irving, Texas, and Abhijay Kodali, 12, of Flower Mound, Texas, hold the trophy at the end of the competition in Oxon Hill, Md., Friday, May 31, 2019. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
The Latest: National Spelling Bee ends in 8-way tie
OXON HILL, Md. (AP) — The Latest on the National Spelling Bee (all times local): 12:07 p.m. Eight spellers were better than the dictionary. They were better than anything the Scripps National Spelling Bee could throw at them. And they all ended up with a hand on the trophy. In the most...
FILE - In this Aug. 7, 2018 file photo, Alfonso Ribeiro arrives at the Disney/ABC 2018 Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour in Beverly Hills, Calif. "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" star Alfonso Ribeiro has dropped a lawsuit against the makers of the video game “Fortnite” over its use of the “Carlton” dance he did on the show. Ribeiro’s lawyers filed documents in federal court in Los Angeles Thursday, March 7, 2019 saying he’s voluntarily dismissing the suit against North Carolina-based Epic Games in its entirety. (Photo by Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP, File)
March 07, 2019 - 10:26 pm
Actor drops 'Carlton Dance' suit against video game maker
LOS ANGELES (AP) — "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" star Alfonso Ribeiro has dropped a lawsuit against the makers of the video game "Fortnite" over its use of the "Carlton" dance he did on the show. Ribeiro's lawyers filed documents Thursday in federal court in Los Angeles saying he's voluntarily...
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« Joanne Shaw Taylor at Vieux Carré, St. Paul (08 Mar 2018) | Main | Pussy Riot at Turf Club, St Paul (10 Mar 2018) »
The Oh Hellos at Varsity Theater, Minneapolis (08 Mar 2018)
Varsity Theater Marquee
Oh Hellos Setlist
A Convocation of Fauns (A Faunvocations, If You Will)
On The Mountain Tall
Like the Dawn
Hieroglyphs
Notos
This Will End
The Truth Is a Cave
New River
There Beneath
Passerine
Eat You Alive
O Sleeper
Soldier, Poet, King
Valley (Reprise)
I Have Made Mistakes
Lowland Hum Setlist
We're All Waiting
I Don't Know How to Build Anything (impromptu song)
In the Garage (Weezer cover)
Winter Grass
The Oh Hellos
Acclaimed brother-sister duo The Oh Hellos will be gracing the Varsity Theater (re-opened again) on Thursday. Their new EP is called Eurus, and you can pick it up at this upcoming show. …
Lowland Hum
Charlottesville’s Lowland Hum (duo Daniel and Lauren Goans) will be playing the Aster Café in support of their new album Thin. NPR’s Bob Boilen said, “Sincerity, community and beauty is how I think of …
Brother/sister duo The Oh Hellos headlined the newly re-opened Varsity Theater in “Dinkytown” on Thursday night, March 8th. The nearly 1,000 capacity theater was filled up nicely, with a lot of (young) fans who had never been there before... or if they had, it’s been over a year since they were last there.
The reason why the Varsity closed for business in 2017, was the owner, Jason McLean, was in legal trouble for sexually abusing a student at the Children’s Theatre Company in 1983. It was rumored that McLean wanted to sell both the Varsity Theater and Loring Pasta Bar, but only if they were purchased together. We don’t know all the details, but since 2018, the historic theater came under new ownership... the first being a local show in early February 2018.
The Varsity is still as beautiful as ever, with its award-winning bathrooms and lounge sofas, but with a whole staff. The only difference, I could tell, is that there is now a ticket booth (boxed with a window), instead of a counter. The other thing is that there are extra securities now. There was a long line for the guard to slowly wand everyone before entering the dance floor. Naturally, I understand the reason for this, but it just took too long to get in. If you wanted to catch the opening band, you have to get to the venue when doors open.
Opening up the show was husband/wife duo Lowland Hum (Daniel and Lauren Goans), who was last in town opening for Penny and Sparrow in September 2017, when they had just released their new record Thin.
After someone asked the duo about the “tambo box”, Lauren explained that Daniel made it... then quickly corrected it to, “he thought of it, he didn’t build it.” This caused Daniel to singing an impromptu song called “I Don’t Know How to Build Anything (Except for Songs)”. Since it was made up on the spot, Daniel admitted later that he was just singing things he was thinking (which included recently appearing in Milwaukee and two cats).
The true highlight of their set has to be the beautiful duet for Weezer’s “In the Garage”. It’s Weezer’s nerdiest song (“I've got a Dungeon Master's Guide/I've got a 12-sided die/I've got Kitty Pryde and Nightcrawler too/Waiting there for me, yes I do...”), and under Lowland Hum’s version, it’s back to basic, with just a great melody and a song about being an outcast.
Unfortunately, near the end of their self-described “delicious salad” set, the audience were obviously too loud. The “quiet music” band had to say eventually explain, “We can’t play any louder. If you talk, you can’t hear us. So, choose not to talk, it would help.”
Still, we’re sure Lowland Hum won over some newfound fans, so all was good... but you can’t help but think they’re the wrong opening band for this loud “main course”.
Although we say The Oh Hellos is a folk rock duo (Tyler and Maggie Heath), when they perform live, it’s an eight-piece band. Tyler and Maggie Heath started in 2011, releasing music on Bandcamp, got featured on NBC’s Parenthood, and literally build up their fanbase by word of mouth.
If you attend any Oh Hellos shows, their fans are passionate about their upbeat/feel-good anthemic folk/rock sound. Looking on stage, there are only laughter and smiles, it’s really infectious.
The band is really fun, early in their set, one of their band member, Joshua Heinlein, asked for a “Mandatory Dance Party”, which includes a goofy “waiting for the waiter” dance.
The Oh Hellos’ latest release, Eurus (the second EP in a series of four), is out now, and it’s their Earthiest EP. Even Tyler admitted that, “We wanted the music to capture the feeling of dark woods, dry branches, dead leaves...”
03/10—Chicago, IL—House of Blues
03/11—Kansas City, MO—recordBar
03/16—Fort Collins, CO—Washington’s
03/17—Telluride, CO—Sheridan Opera House
03/20—Salt Lake City, UT—The Complex
03/22—Missoula, MT—Top Hat
03/23—Seattle, WA—Neptune
03/24—Portland, OR—Roseland Theater
03/25—Vancouver, BC—Rio Theatre
03/28—Sacramento, CA—Ace of Spades
03/29—San Francisco, CA—The Fillmore
03/30—Los Angeles, CA—El Rey
03/31—San Diego, CA—Music Box
04/03—Phoenix, AZ— Crescent Ballroom
04/06—Dallas, TX—House of Blues
04/07—Austin, TX—Stubb’s
04/08—Houston, TX—White Oak Music Hall
04/10—New Orleans, LA—The Parrish
04/12—Atlanta, GA—Variety Playhouse
04/13—Gainesville, FL—High Dive
04/14—Orlando, FL—The Beacham
04/15—Ft. Lauderdale, FL—Culture Room
Oh Hellos
Posted by W♥M on Saturday, 10 March 2018 at 07:42 PM in Lowland Hum, Minneapolis, The Oh Hellos, Varsity Theater, Vu | Permalink
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Click to copyhttps://apnews.com/c3127152d029462b9590cd666e8fa0a1
Jury sentences Navy SEAL for posing with Iraq war casualty
By JULIE WATSON and JOHN ANTCZAKJuly 4, 2019
Navy Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher, center, walks with his wife, Andrea Gallagher, left, and advisor, Bernard Kerik as they leave a military court on Naval Base San Diego, Tuesday, July 2, 2019, in San Diego. A military jury acquitted the decorated Navy SEAL Tuesday of murder in the killing of a wounded Islamic State captive under his care in Iraq in 2017. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
SAN DIEGO (AP) — A decorated Navy SEAL acquitted of murder in the killing of a wounded Islamic State captive in Iraq but convicted over posing with the corpse was given a demotion by a military jury Wednesday after the Bronze Star recipient acknowledged making ethical and moral mistakes.
Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher, 40, was also handed the maximum penalty for the offense of four months in confinement, though he will serve no jail time because it is less than the time he spent in custody before the trial.
After the court announced the sentence includes a reduction in rank, Gallagher turned to his wife, shook his head and pretended to unpin his “anchors” — the insignia of a chief — and fling them across the courtroom. He then smiled and hugged her.
The sentence will not go into effect until it is approved by the commanding officer overseeing the court-martial.
Gallagher’s lawyers said they plan to appeal the punishment that will affect his pension and benefits just as the 19-year veteran plans to retire from the service.
Earlier, Gallagher addressed the jury that acquitted him Tuesday of premeditated murder in the death of the captive and attempted murder and other charges in the shootings of civilians during a 2017 deployment to Iraq. He also was cleared on charges of impeding the investigation and retaliating against the SEALs who reported him.
The platoon chief told the jury he was fully responsible for his actions on the day he took photos with the body of the 17-year-old militant.
“I put a black eye on the two communities that I love — the U.S. Marine Corps and the U.S. Navy — specifically the SEAL community,” Gallagher said.
He said he tried to lead by example but didn’t always succeed.
“I’ve made mistakes throughout my 20-year career — tactical, ethical, moral — I’m not perfect but I’ve always bounced back from my mistakes. I’m ready to bounce back from this,” he said.
The jury called for reducing Gallagher’s rank by one grade to petty officer 1st class and ordered his monthly pay cut by $2,697 for four months.
But the judge capped the pay cut at two months and gave Gallagher 60 days’ credit for being held in overly harsh conditions before being tried and being briefly deprived of treatment for a traumatic brain injury.
Gallagher also got credit for 201 days of pretrial confinement.
A Navy prosecutor had asked only for a reduction in rank, not confinement. The defense recommended no punishment.
The prosecutor, Lt. Brian John, said Gallagher was the platoon chief and should not have been the centerpiece of the photos in which nearly all the members posed with the body. John said Gallagher should have stopped the photos from being taken.
“For that reason, he no longer deserves to wear anchors,” the prosecutor said.
John also said the photos had the potential to be used as propaganda by Islamic State and be harmful to U.S. forces overseas.
The photos were taken after Gallagher and other SEAL medics provided treatment for the captive who was wounded in an airstrike in 2017 and handed over by Iraqi forces.
One image shows him clutching the hair of the corpse with one hand and holding a knife in another. Prosecutors used the images and text messages that included “got him with my hunting knife” to build a murder case against Gallagher.
Gallagher could have faced life in prison if convicted of murder. The verdict was met with tears and hugs.
President Donald Trump, who intervened earlier this year to have Gallagher moved from the brig to less restrictive confinement, tweeted congratulations to the SEAL and his family.
“You have been through much together. Glad I could help!” the president wrote.
The outcome delivered a major blow to one of the Navy’s most high-profile war crimes cases and exposed a generational conflict within the ranks of the elite special operations forces.
Asked in an interview Wednesday on Fox & Friends what his message might be to future Navy SEALs, Gallagher said he would tell them that “loyalty is a trait that seems to be lost. ... You’re there to watch your brother’s back, and he’s there to watch your back.”
Speaking of his accusers, Gallagher said, “this small group of SEALs that decided to concoct this story in no way, shape or form represent the community that I love.”
Seven SEALs from his platoon testified that Gallagher unexpectedly stabbed the war prisoner in the neck, and later posed with the body in photos. The defense said Gallagher was framed by junior SEALs who fabricated the allegations to oust a chief who was tough on them.
They said no corpse was found and there was no physical evidence to support the allegations.
The defense said the text and photos were gallows humor and pointed out that almost all platoon members who testified against him also posed with the corpse.
The jury of five Marines and two sailors, including a SEAL, was comprised mostly of combat veterans who served in Iraq. Several lost friends in war.
Antczak and AP writer Brian Melley contributed to this report from Los Angeles.
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Why the ACLU and the Government Are Teaming Up
By Lee Rowland, Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project
September 22, 2015 | 1:45 PM
Internet Speech
Cables by frankieleon credit.jpg
UPDATE (June 14, 2016):
Victory! Today the federal Circuit court for the District of Columbia issued a decision upholding the Open Internet Order in full. The court agreed with the ACLU that because internet service providers serve only as a conduit for others to speak online, net neutrality rules do not infringe on ISPs’ constitutional rights. Read the decision here.
The ACLU did something unusual this week: Along with our friends at EFF and the ACLU of the Nation’s Capital, we filed a legal brief taking the federal government’s side on a First Amendment issue. As longtime defenders of the First Amendment, we almost always find ourselves opposing government actions, not applauding them. You may wonder, what caused this rare meeting of minds that usually find themselves on opposite sides of a courtroom? The answer: net neutrality.
Internet Service Providers have challenged the Federal Communications Commission’s new rules that ensure net neutrality, and our friend-of-the-court brief supports those rules as essential to preserving a free and open Internet.
In a landmark case challenging government censorship online, ACLU v. Reno, the Supreme Court rightly recognized the Internet as “the most participatory form of mass speech yet developed.”But in order for this incredible platform for speech to achieve its true revolutionary promise, we have to be able to access it.
Internet Service Providers are the literal gatekeepers to this world. When you get online and search for particular speech, you should have confidence that the results you see aren’t secretly filtered, altered, or slowed by your ISP because they don’t want you to see that particular speech.
If you go online to figure out which workers’ union you might want to join, you wouldn’t expect that your ISP is hiding access to a telecommunications workers union they’re locked in a political fight with. But, that happened in Canada. You probably wouldn’t guess that your Netflix queue didn’t load because your ISP is Comcast—which held Netflix fiscally hostage until they paid higher fees for access. That happened. Nor would you think that you could be prevented from using FaceTime to call your grandma, just because you use AT&T. Yeah, that happened too.
Without effective neutrality rules, ISPs can and will act as censors of digital information, rather than neutral conduits for the speech they carry over their networks. And you might not even realize it’s happening, because it’s difficult to identify what you’re not being shown.
That’s why we need government action. And earlier this year, the FCC answered the call by issuing the Open Internet Order, which sets forth rules that are necessary to prevent invisible content discrimination and protect our online marketplace. For starters, it regulates ISPs as “common carriers”—basically, a utility like the radio spectrum waves. This means they have a duty to transmit our speech whether they like what we say or not. To do that, the order includes bright-line rules forbidding ISPs from blocking access to legal online speech (like the Canadian union’s website),throttling or slowing down data on the basis of its type (like what happened to FaceTime), or prioritizing certain traffic in exchange for payment (as Netflix was forced to do). These rules add up to preserve the expectations we have of our ISPs: that they remain neutral conduits—that is, common carriers—for online speech. They shouldn’t, and now can’t, act as censors instead.
ISPs have challenged the legality of the order in federal court, and some people in the case argue that it actually violates the free speech rights of ISPs. But we’re convinced that the order doesn’t violate the First Amendment—it vindicates it.
That’s true for a few reasons. First, we know that without fair and neutral access to online content, our 21st Century marketplace of ideas lies out of reach. The consequences for our individual rights are simply immense. Can you even wrap your head around an Internet that produces pockmarked results based on secret fiscal alliances? It certainly wouldn’t be the Internet we think of now.
But in contrast, the impact on ISP’s expression is downright minimal. Critically, the FCC’s order doesn’t regulate ISPs when they themselves are speaking. Many ISPs play two roles: providing access to the Internet writ large and hosting their own content. For example, Verizon both provides Internet services and hosts its own speech on its website. The order regulates Verizon and other ISPs only in the role as conduits of information—that is, it requires them to be the neutral carriers of speech they insist that they already are.
In addition, ISPs enjoy certain exclusive rights provided by the government. The ISP market was born and remains anchored on top of existing cable and wireless networks subsidized and auctioned off by the government. And with this massive advantage, a small number of ISPs have dominated the broadband market: only 37 percent% of Americans have a choice between two or more broadband providers that offer useable bandwidth (those providing a download speed of 25Mbps or better for you nerds out there). That means it’s a monopolistic market in part created by the government—which has an interest in making sure that its citizens all get to enjoy the digital fruits of that labor. In sum, while the consequences for individual speech and expression are massive, the impacts on ISPs simply aren’t.
Imagine if big companies could control what you do, see, or say on the Internet. The only thing standing between you and that possible future is the FCC’s Open Internet Order. And we filed a brief Monday to make sure it sticks.
Elisabeth Ellenbogen
Invisible censorship by a private service provider is NOT acceptable. Most likely we didn't know this was happening when we could not routinely access a given subject. Hope spontaneous access prevails!
Even when police are tracking a particular suspect, the technology also sweeps in information about many bystanders’ phones in the area, amounting to an indiscriminate dragnet search.
http://www.outsourcedataservices.com/back-office-support/back-office-support-services/
Court Rules Public Officials Can’t Block Critics on Facebook
Brett Kavanaugh Chose Corporations Over the Public in a Major Net Neutrality...
Harvard Was Wrong to Dismiss Its Dean for Representing Harvey Weinstein
This Is How Net Neutrality Will End
Public Broadband Can Help Protect the Open Internet and Close the Digital Divide
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Hector W. Kay Memorial Lectureship
Hector W. Kay was born in Australia, November 1, 1909. After his basic education in Australia, he completed his formal education in 1938 at Springfield College where he received a Masters Degree in Education. It was also here that Hector met and married Katherine Johnson, a Springfield native. Hector's early association with prosthetics and prosthetic education began at New York University where he spent the years 1952 through 1965 in the Adult and Child Prosthetic Studies group. During this period, he became intimately associated with the Sub-Committee on Children's Prosthetic Problems of the Committee on Prosthetics Research and Development of the National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council. He was instrumental in developing the original cooperative clinic group, working very closely with the pioneers in this field: Drs. George T. Aitken, Charles Frantz, Newton McCollough and Claude Lambert. In 1965, he left New York University to join the Committee on Prosthetics Research and Development of the National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council as Assistant Executive Director. Here he continued to coordinate the activities of the Sub-Committee on Children's Prosthetic Problems. The committee was gradually expanded to cover orthotic problems as well as the prosthetic problems. During this period, Hector also acted as editor of the Interclinic Information Bulletin. The Interclinic Information Bulletin has more recently had a name change to the Journal of the Association of Children's Prosthetic-Orthotic Clinics. Hector retired from the Committee on Prosthetics Research and Development in 1974, and met a very untimely death on March 31, 1975. He is deeply mourned by all of those who knew him, respected him, and looked to him for advice. No organization owes more to one individual than does the Association of Children's Prosthetic-Orthotic Clinics. Though founded after his death, ACPOC owes its existence to an organization he nurtured.
Past Hector Kay Lecturers
1985 Charles Scott, MD, Wilmington, DE
1986 Georg Neff, MD, Tubingen, Germany
1987 R. Merv Letts, MD, FRCS(c), Winnipeg, MB, Canada
1988 Norman Berger, BS, MS, New York, NY
1989 Dudley Childress, PhD, Chicago, IL
1990 Leon Kruger, MD, Springfield, MA
1991 Charles H. Epps, Jr., MD, Washington, DC
1993 Robert E. Tooms, MD, Memphis, TN
1994 Yosio Setoguchi, MD, Los Angeles, CA
1995 Mary Williams Clark, MD, Hershey, PA
1996 Michael J. Goldberg, MD, Boston, MA
1997 Michael Lovett, PhD, Dallas, TX
1998 Curtis D. Edholm, MD, Grand Rapids, MI
1999 Hugh G. Watts, MD, St. Pete’s Beach, FL
2000 Michael Keith, MD, Banff, AB, Canada
2001 Lewis B. Holmes, MD, Houston, TX
2002 Craig W. Heckathorne, MS, Chicago, IL
2003 Sandra Dukat, Heber City, UT
2004 Michelle A. James, MD, Sacramento, CA
2005 Peter F. Armstrong, MD, Tampa, FL
2006 Randall R. Betz, MD, Philadelphia, PA
2007 John R. Fisk, MD, Springfield, IL
2008 James A. Harder, MD, Alberta, BC, Canada
2009 Sheila Hubbard, OT, PT, Toronto, ON, Canada
2010 Kenneth J. Guidera, MD, Twin Cities, MN
2011 John H. Bowker, MD, Miami, FL
2012 Ellen M. Raney, MD, Portland, OR
2013 Terry R. Trammell, MD, Indianapolis, IN
2014 Lori A. Karol, MD, Dallas, TX
2015 Eric P. Neufeld, CPO, FAAOP, Denver, CO and David J. Krupa, CP, Quito, Ecuador
2016 Melissa Stockwell, CP, Chicago, IL
2017 Scott Kozin, MD, Philadelphia, PA
2018 John Birch, MD, Dallas, TX
History of Presidential Guest Speakers
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Corinthia Hotels Takes a Shareholding in Global Hotel Alliance
Five independent hotel groups, together with Oracle, now make up the alliance’s shareholders
Dubai, United Arab Emirates, -Wednesday 3 April 2019 [ AETOS Wire ]
Global Hotel Alliance (“GHA”), the world’s largest alliance of independent hotel brands and operator of the award-winning, multi-brand loyalty programme, DISCOVERY, today announced that Corinthia Hotels (“Corinthia”) is making a strategic investment in the alliance, following the similar investments made by Minor Hotel Group and Pan Pacific Hotels Group in November 2018.
Corinthia joins Omni Hotels, Kempinski Hotels, Minor Hotel Group, Pan Pacific Hotels Group, and technology giant Oracle in the GHA shareholding. Simon Naudi, Corinthia’s CEO, will join the GHA board.
Corinthia has been one of GHA’s member brands since 2014. Founded in 1962 in Malta by the Pisani Family, today Corinthia comprises nine luxury hotels in Europe and Africa, including its flagship Corinthia London. The Corinthia Meydan Beach Dubai opens in 2020, while the Corinthia Brussels, Corinthia Bucharest and Corinthia Moscow are scheduled by 2021.
Chris Hartley, GHA’s CEO, commented: “Corinthia has been a successful member of the alliance for the past five years; now as a shareholder, their growing stature and reputation as an independent luxury hotel brand will bring significant value to the alliance, enabling us to make further investments into our growing loyalty and marketing platform, DISCOVERY, which is now shared by more than 30 member brands and 14 million customers.”
Simon Naudi, CEO of Corinthia, added: “Corinthia hotels have benefited significantly from the global reach the alliance brings us as a member brand. Now as we prepare for a period of rapid growth into new markets, we see this investment as a way to support our brand and hotels in a more efficient way, while enabling us to influence the alliance’s future direction. GHA is the ideal collaborative platform for luxury brands, such as ours, wishing to deepen their global customer base, while retaining their independent brand identity.”
Founded in 2004 with the goal of helping independent, upscale and luxury hotel brands to compete with the global majors, while retaining their individuality, this year GHA celebrates its 15th anniversary, most recently announcing the addition of Capella Hotel Group as its latest member brand.
Editor’s Notes:
About Global Hotel Alliance
Global Hotel Alliance (GHA) is the world’s largest alliance of independent hotel brands, bringing together more than 30 brands with over 550 hotels in 75 countries. GHA uses a shared technology platform to drive incremental revenues and create cost savings for its member brands. GHA’s award-winning loyalty programme, DISCOVERY, provides 14 million members exclusive opportunities to immerse themselves in local culture wherever they travel. GHA’s hotel brands currently include: Alila, Anantara, Atura, Avani, Corinthia, Discovery Destinations, Doyle, Elewana, GLO, JA Resorts, Kempinski, Leela, Lungarno, Marco Polo, Meritage, Meydan, Mysk, Niccolo, NUO, Oaks, Omni, Outrigger, Pan Pacific, PARKROYAL, QT, The Residence by Cenizaro, Rydges, Shaza, Thon, Tivoli, Ultratravel Collection and Viceroy. For more information, visit globalhotelalliance.com
About Corinthia Hotels
Corinthia Hotels is a growing family of uplifting, luxury destinations. Founded in Malta in 1962, there are now nine elegant properties worldwide, with four more landmark hotels opening by 2021. From city-centre hotels to coastal resorts, each one is connected by a strong Corinthia philosophy. Inspired by its Mediterranean, family-run heritage, the brand is dedicated to providing uplifting moments, unforgettable experiences and exquisite service. Discover more at corinthia.com and @corinthiahotels
Global Hotel Alliance
Jelena Kezika, Strategic Planning Director
jelena.kezika@gha.com
Camilla Colley, Brand Communications Manager
camilla.colley@Corinthia.com
Permalink : https://www.aetoswire.com/news/corinthia-hotels-takes-a-shareholding-in-global-hotel-alliance/en
Divani Collection Hotels Joins Global Hotel Alliance
Sun Resorts Joins Global Hotel Alliance
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Ahead of elections, Kenyans in Colorado pray for the homeland
By George Bamu on February 23, 2013.
Kenya Prayer for Peace at Anchor of Hope Church in Denver, February 23. Africa Agenda
The upcoming Kenya presidential election, part of scheduled general elections, has been described as the most critical election for Kenya in a decade. The election is critical because it is the first of its kind since a disputed vote in December 2007 sparked chaos in the country.
In Foresight Africa: Top Priorities for the Continent in 2013, Kenyan native, Nwangi Kimenyi, director for the Africa Growth Initiative at U.S. Brookings Institution says: “This will also be the first general election after the 2007-2008 post-election violence, and there is growing anxiety over whether there will be a repeat outbreak of violence.”
Not only that, Kenyans will be electing leaders in other areas as well.
“During the elections Kenyans will choose a president, members of parliament and senators, county governors and members of the newly formed county assembly,” according to the BBC.
While this is the case, the country will be voting for the first time since a new constitution was enacted and promulgated into law in 2010. Among many changes, the constitution scrapped the post of prime minister. The top most levels of government will be the president, a deputy-president and the cabinet.
The new constitution also created a national “Bill of Rights” which recognizes the socio-economic rights of Kenyan citizens.
Far away from home and wary of the outcome and potential consequences for the country, Kenyans in the Denver metro area, gathered at Anchor of Hope Church in North East Denver on Saturday, March 23 not only to pray for a peaceful result, but to celebrate their country as well.
‘We love Kenya. Our Church is better, richer because you are here,” said Ken Roberts, pastor at Anchor of Hope Church, in his welcome remarks.
They community sang to chants of “hallelujahs” and dance. The also sang both the U.S. National anthem and that of Kenya. The event was organized by the Colorado Kenyan Community and lasted over three hours.
Kenya Post Election Dialogue (Jun 10, 2008)
Denver-Saturday Feb. 9, 2008, 2:30-4:30 pm in the Community Room of Aurora Central Library (14949 ...
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Kansas City International Airport (MCI), Kansas City, MO
Kansas City–Washington D.C. distance (MCI–IAD)
Distance between Kansas City, MO (MCI) and Washington D.C. (IAD)
Distance from Kansas City (Kansas City International Airport) to Washington D.C. (Washington Dulles International Airport) is 926 miles / 1491 kilometers / 805 nautical miles.
Kansas City–Washington D.C. | MCI–IAD
Estimated flight time from Kansas City International Airport (MCI) to Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) is 2 hours 15 minutes.
The time difference between Kansas City and Washington D.C. is 1 hour. Washington D.C. is 1 hour ahead of Kansas City.
Kansas City International Airport
City: Kansas City, MO
IATA Code: MCI
ICAO Code: KMCI
Kansas City to Washington D.C. flight map.
Kansas City (MCI) → Washington D.C. (IAD).
Related distances from Kansas City (MCI)
Kansas City–Washington D.C. distance (MCI–DCA)
Kansas City–Baltimore distance (MCI–BWI)
Kansas City–Charlottesville distance (MCI–CHO)
Kansas City–Staunton distance (MCI–SHD)
Kansas City–Harrisburg distance (MCI–MDT)
Kansas City–Richmond distance (MCI–RIC)
Kansas City–Lancaster distance (MCI–LNS)
Kansas City–Altoona distance (MCI–AOO)
Kansas City–Wilmington distance (MCI–ILG)
Kansas City–Salisbury distance (MCI–SBY)
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Obama likely to veto bill renaming Chinese embassy's street after Liu Xiaobo
Austin Ramzy
Ted Cruz, the Texas senator and Republican presidential candidate, introduced legislation the White House calls detrimental to improving human rights in China
The Chinese Embassy’s stationery seems safe for now.
President Barack Obama is expected to veto a bill that would change the address of the embassy in Washington from 3505 International Place NW to 1 Liu Xiaobo Plaza after the Nobel Peace laureate imprisoned in China.
Ted Cruz, the Texas senator and Republican presidential candidate, introduced the legislation, which passed the Senate on Friday. Companion legislation has been introduced in the House.
Liu, a literary critic and prominent figure in the 1989 Tiananmen protests, was sentenced to an 11-year prison term in 2009 for inciting subversion after he compiled Charter 08, a pro-democracy manifesto. One year later, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his commitment to human rights in China.
'Complicates our efforts'
Mark C. Toner, a deputy spokesman for the U.S. State Department, said Tuesday that it was his understanding that Obama would veto the bill if it reached his desk and that changing the name would not be effective in encouraging China to respect human rights and release political prisoners.
“We view this kind of legislative action as something that only complicates our efforts, so we oppose this approach,” he told reporters at a news briefing in Washington. “It’s our desire to work more productively and cooperatively with Congress on ways to address our shared goal of improving human rights in China.”
Cruz says veto coddles China
Cruz accused the White House of refusing to stand up to the Chinese government.
“The Obama administration’s veto threat is yet another outrageous example of its eagerness to coddle an authoritarian communist regime at the expense of pro-American dissidents,” Cruz said in a written statement.
A spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hong Lei, called the bill a violation of “the basic norms of international relations” that would have “severe consequences” if passed.
“We urge the U.S. Congress to stop the approval procedure of the bill,” he told reporters at a news conference Tuesday in Beijing. “We also hope that the U.S. administration can put an end to this political farce.”
'Snowden Street' proposed in Beijing
In 2014, the House Appropriations Committee approved a similar measure to rename the street after Liu. That effort was also denounced by the Chinese government, and some Chinese proposed retaliatory names for the U.S. Embassy’s address in Beijing, including Snowden Street, after the former National Security Agency contractor who leaked classified documents about American online surveillance efforts.
One person on Weibo, the Chinese microblog service, said Wednesday that the street-naming debate raised several questions about Liu, who is not widely discussed in the Chinese news media: “How did the Nobel laurel end up on his head? Why is his name sensitive? If the U.S. Congress decided to give him such an honor, why can’t you give your reasons for opposing it?”
A Cold War example
The members of Congress who are backing the renaming effort have cited a prominent example from the Cold War, when the U.S. changed the Soviet Embassy in Washington’s address to Andrei Sakharov Plaza, after the dissident physicist.
China, too, has its own history of renaming streets for political purposes. At the start of the Cultural Revolution in 1966, China renamed the Beijing street where the Soviet Embassy was situated Anti-Revisionism Road, a reference to the Chinese belief that the Soviets had abandoned the true path toward communism. That name was eventually dropped in the late 1970s.
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Insight on the Scriptures, Volume 1
Gog is “of the land of Magog,” situated in “the remotest parts of the north.” (Eze 38:2, 15) He is the “head chieftain [“great prince,” AT; “chief prince,” KJ, RS] of Meshech and Tubal.” (Eze 38:2, 3) Some translations here read “the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal” (AS, JB), thus making “Rosh [Heb. for “head”]” refer to a country or people. No such land or people is mentioned elsewhere in the Bible, however. Meshech and Tubal, like Magog, are names given to sons of Japheth (Ge 10:2), and the three lands bearing these names lay to the N of Israel. (See MAGOG No. 2; MESHECH No. 1; TUBAL.)
Identification of Gog. The lands and peoples mentioned in the prophecy relating to Gog are known from the Bible and to some extent from secular history. But efforts to identify Gog with some historically known earthly ruler have not been successful. Most frequently suggested is Gyges, king of Lydia in western Asia Minor, called Guggu in the records of Assyrian monarch Ashurbanipal. (Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, by D. Luckenbill, 1927, Vol. II, pp. 297, 351, 352) Gyges, however, had died decades before the writing of Ezekiel’s prophecy. Hence, such identification is unacceptable. Additionally, the prophecy itself places Gog’s attack in “the final part of the years,” “in the final part of the days.” (Eze 38:8, 16; compare Isa 2:2; Jer 30:24; 2Ti 3:1.) For these reasons, the name Gog is evidently cryptic or symbolic, not being that of any known human king or leader.
The evidence points to a fulfillment in what is elsewhere called “the time of the end.” (Da 11:35; 12:9; compare Re 12:12.) Bible scholars and commentators generally recognize the prophecy as relating to the time of the Messianic Kingdom. As an example, The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge comments: “Gog appears as the leader of the last hostile attack of the world-powers upon the kingdom of God.” (Edited by S. Jackson, 1956, Vol. V, p. 14) No fulfillment on natural Israel is known. The fulfillment in “the final part of the days” logically is with regard to spiritual Israel, the Christian congregation (Ro 2:28, 29; Ga 6:16), described by the apostle Paul as children of, and directed by, the “Jerusalem above.” (Ga 4:26) These points aid in arriving at the identification of Gog.
Further aid is found in the book of Revelation. Prophetic visions there foretold a great increase in persecution against the Christian congregation on the part of the symbolic dragon, Satan the Devil. This was to follow his being cast down, with his demons, from the heavens to the region of the earth, an act accomplished by the Kingdom of God through Christ at the time of Jesus’ beginning to exercise kingly authority. (Re 12:5-10, 13-17) The massing of earthly nations against God, his Son, and God’s faithful servants on earth figures prominently in these visions, as does also the total defeat and desolation of such enemy forces. (Re 16:13-16; 17:12-14; 19:11-21) The feasting by birds on the corpses of such enemies of Christ’s Kingdom rule likewise finds a correspondency here.—Compare Eze 39:4, 17-20 with Re 19:21.
The prophecy in Ezekiel concerning Gog points to a vicious, earth-wide assault on God’s people. Although Gog evidently represents a coalition of nations making the assault, it will be engineered and led behind the scenes by Satan the Devil. This attack is what triggers the complete wiping out of such Satanic forces by means of God’s awesome power.—Eze 38:18-22.
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List Of East African Poets
A Famous Author Candy Bar Gillian Anderson: At the beginning. there is a feeling suppressed under wanting that second candy bar. Often, it is that little voice I haven’t paid attention to. It’s generally not the adult voice. (For the uninitiated, the Samsung Juke was a goofy, camera-less candy bar. so many famous people — is forcing Keery into a
The United States has removed Eritrea from a list of countries uncooperative in the fight against terrorism, the latest in a.
For students who wish to study the complex interplay between political, economic, and cultural forces shaping the historic achievements and struggles of African-descended people in the United States and their relationship to others around the world.
Hoodline crunched the numbers to find the top places to visit in East Mesa, using both Yelp data and our own secret sauce to.
Researchers from North American, European and African institutions analyzed ancient DNA from 41 human skeletons curated in.
Search the Poetry Foundation’s archive of over 4,000 poets including Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes. Find poets by period, school, or region.
(CNN. poets from 31 countries in Africa and across the diaspora, in 14 different languages. Since the relaunch, users are able to navigate the site through a myriad of options including by theme,
TYSONS, Va.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Cvent, a market leader in meetings, events, and hospitality technology, today released its.
Collection : City Lights Pocket Poets , City Lights Publishers: Inspired by the French poetry series, Poètes d’aujourd’hui, Lawrence Ferlinghetti launched the Pocket Poets Series in 1955 with his own Pictures of the Gone World.The success and scandal of Number Four, Howl & Other Poems (1956), established City Lights as a major alternative press for the most innovative American and.
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — February is black history month and 2019 marks the fifth year of African American Literature Read-In Week. Joel Mackey is a dedicated nonprofit leader in the East Bay for more.
In 2011, the annual toll of poaching on Africa’s. one of the study’s authors, Doctor Colin Beale, from the University of.
The Art California Web Portal in Partnership with the California Studies Association California Arts and Humanities Institutions Film Artists Musicians Writers Visual.
The Huguenots who arrived at the Cape of Good Hope at the end of the 17th century, consisted of only a fraction of the large-scale Protestant flight from France after the revocation of the Edict on Nantes in 1685.
but they’re common in East Africa, Iceland and New Zealand. Because the rocks were found far from Aluto’s cone, scientists.
by Evan Mantyk. What is poetry?What is great poetry? These poems answer these questions. From least greatest (10) to greatest greatest (1), the poems in this list are limited to ones originally written in the English language and which are under 50 lines, excluding poems like Homer’s Iliad and Edgar Allan Poe’s “Raven.” Each poem is followed by some brief analysis.
If you are a teacher searching for educational material, please visit PBS LearningMedia for a wide range of free digital resources spanning preschool through 12th grade.
Elizabeth Alexander was born in Harlem, New York, and raised in Washington, D.C. Her most recent collections include Crave Radiance: New and Selected Poems 1990–2010 and American Sublime, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.She is also the author of the memoir, The Light of the World, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.She has received the Jackson Poetry Prize, as well as.
This report investigates intra-labour migration in the East African Community (EAC) through a literature review of existing evidence. The aim of this study, commissioned by DFID and Sida and conducted.
He received the 2002 Caine Prize for African. University of East Anglia in England.) By 2001, when he was back in Kenya,
The Pyramids of Giza epitomize ancient Egypt, but they were the results of a short period of pyramid building during the Old Kingdom. The Giza Pyramids were built as tombs for the fourth dynasty kings Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure who ruled Egypt through 2589-2504 BCE.
Your source for local news, sports, high school sports and weather in and around Jefferson City, Columbia, Fulton and the Lake of the Ozarks. All of Mid-Missouri.
This is a list of prominent and notable writers from Africa.It includes poets, novelists, children’s writers, essayists, and scholars, listed by country.
TM: I wanted to close by asking about Cave Canem, whose motto is “a home for black poetry.” I feel like almost every.
The Chinese Classics These are key texts of Confucianism, the traditional state religion of feudal China. These are some of the few Chinese texts which survived a disasterous book-burning in 213 B.C.E. by the Emperor Ch’in Shih Huang.
This is a list of Canadian poets.Years link to corresponding "[year] in poetry" articles.
Following are list of players that are currently profiled in the the. Rest of South America, Middle East & Africa, Saudi Arabia, Turkey & Rest of Middle East & Africa ** One country of specific.
Lal Ded Poetry Pdf The sonnet was created by Giacomo da Lentini, head of the Sicilian School under Emperor Frederick II. Guittone d’Arezzo rediscovered it and brought it to Tuscany where he adapted it to his language when he founded the Siculo-Tuscan School, or Guittonian school of poetry (1235–1294). He wrote almost 250 sonnets. Other Italian poets of the
Dec 31, 2011 · EMANCIPATION BY THOMAS NAST. WATCH NIGHT. CULTURAL RESOURCES. Saturday, December 31, 2011. Tara Lake, Guest Lectionary Cultural Resource Commentator Independent Scholar of African American Studies, East Point, GA
During The Romantic Period, Poets Placed An Emphasis On Hence the emphasis. of that era: Along with the Industrial Revolution, the defeat of Napoleon’s continental empire, and the abolition of the slave trade came the creation of much of the furniture. Answers.com is the place to go to get the answers you need and to ask the questions you want Citing A Website No
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ph. Ivan Mazzon
CHURCHILL (CANADA)
Ivan Mazzon, wildlife photographer
OFF TO CHURCHILL TO ADMIRE THE KING OF THE ARCTIC
— photos and text by Ivan Mazzon
Each year Churchill is invaded by white bears
Churchill is a small town situated miles away from any other town or village along the Hudson Bay coast in northern Manitoba, Canada. It is also the only Canadian sea port in the Arctic Ocean connected to a railway line. You can’t get to the town any other way on land except by train as Churchill isn’t linked to the rest of Canada by road. However, this remote corner can be reached by air with daily flights from Winnipeg.
Due to its geographical position there was a US military base in Churchill in the past. In the 80s there were around 1300 residents, whereas today the population has dwindled to 800. Life here is a challenge even for the toughest of men. In spite of everything the one thing that makes Churchill’s inhabitants continue living in this place is the tourist interest in the area. In fact, the reason for my visit was exactly the same as the one that draws thousands of tourists during polar bear migration. Each year Churchill is invaded by around a thousand white bears that arrive from different parts of Canada and wait for Hudson Bay to freeze over before continuing north to hunt seals.
Living with polar bears
About a year ago, my friend Alessandro contacted me to tell me there was an opportunity to go to Churchill. We left at the beginning of November and I realised straight away that I had come to a pretty tough place and confirmation arrived as soon as we entered town. Houses ravaged by the wind and the bitter cold, the way the locals lived, all bore witness to how hard life in Churchill really is. Yet I still hadn’t understood what it meant to live alongside polar bears.
The white bear (Ursus maritimus) is the biggest predator on land and its current population is being severely threatened by the abrupt warming that is badly affecting our planet. As a result, it has been put on the red list of species most at risk of extinction by the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources). Canada alone counts for a good 60% of the world’s bear population and a considerable number of them come to Churchill between October and November. During these six weeks Churchill is on full alert. Polar Bear Alert, a surveillance team, works around the clock keeping hungry bears away from the town. Nevertheless, one occasionally slips through the controls and gets dangerously near the houses. Every evening a siren sounds the curfew reminding people not to leave home after dark. However, if a bear is seen to be too troublesome, it is captured and kept in a sort of bear prison before being marked and airlifted away from town by helicopter.
This journey showed me just how important the white bear is, not just for the equilibrium of the ecosystem in which we live, but also for the lives of Churchill residents. In fact, thanks to this majestic predator, they have found a vital source of income which allows them to carry on living in their town with high living costs. In exchange, the residents work hard to guarantee not only the bears’ safety, but their own and that of the tourists arriving from all over the world to admire the King of the Arctic.
Ivan Mazzon, I am a great lover of nature and the animal world and in 2010 I took up nature photography. Since then I’m constantly on the look out for stories to tell with pictures. In these past few years I have travelled with the sole purpose of photographing wildlife and its habitat. In 2012 I visited the African continent (Malawi and Gambia), in 2013 Switzerland and Finland and in 2014 the Pantanal region in Mato Grosso State, Brasil. Even though the world is full of wonders I am still closely tied to the places where I was born and grew up. The Val Belluna valley and the Dolomiti Bellunesi National Park are the places where I began my photographic work. A passion that I see as being similar to a means of communication, capable of making people think and helping them to understand more about nature that surrounds us.
https://www.facebook.com/imazzon
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Little Time to Rest: 'Daughters' of Nomads
Pamela Nice
Still courtesy of Grasshopper Film.
Daughters of Anatolia
Directed by Halé Sofia Schatz
Grasshopper Film, 2015
Watching “Daughters of Anatolia,” a film documenting the nomadic lifestyle of goat herders in contemporary Turkey, makes one aware of the value of ethnographic filmography over its drier, academic prose cousin. Describing the migratory path from the Mediterranean Sea to the Taurus Mountains cannot compare with seeing the breath-taking beauty of mountains in bloom as goats scramble over them. Recording that 350 animals – mostly goats, but also camels, horses and dogs – make the trek in a symbiotic relationship with a herding family, the Goks, falls far short of the reality of watching the goats as they chew, swat flies, grab branches of flowers, and submit to milking. You can almost smell them. In this film, director Halé Sofia Schatz brings a palpable, sensory experience of the nomadic life, catching its earthy pleasures, despite its tremendous hardships. She reveals the connection of humans to nature that we have all but lost in the jungles of our urban landscapes.
The camera lingers on these connections, taking particular note of the women in the family and their activities: talking to the goats; milking them and delivering their kids; shearing the camels for wool; herding the animals across country roads and expansive fields, with the constant bleating and clanging bells. We see how many ways these goats give sustenance to the family, in the form of milk, meat, and cheese, for private use and for the market.
The Gok women have little time to rest: they spend their days cooking large quantities of food, gathering and transporting water, loading and unloading the camels, and weaving blankets for their tents. Schatz uses the term “daughters” in the title to highlight the film’s focus on the topic of children, education, and the desire of mothers and their children to leave the nomadic life for a more settled and predictable existence. Despite the difficulty of obtaining schooling while living a nomadic life, they believe it to be their way out.
“Daughters” successfully captures the sensory experiences of nomadic life, and shines when documenting the work of women in herding families. As such, this film would make a valuable contribution to courses in history, anthropology, sociology, and cultural studies, among others. It offers a gentle meditation on the soon-to-be-lost nomadic life – what defines its beauty and connection to nature, as well as its unavoidable challenges. One must be careful not to romanticize this reality, but it does remind us what we have lost to our settled selves.
This review appeared in Al Jadid Magazine, Vol. 21, No. 73, 2017.
© Copyright 2018 AL JADID MAGAZINE
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Mark Tanner Sculpture Award 2019-20
Website: http://www.standpointlondon.co.uk/mtsa/
Applications for The Mark Tanner Sculpture Award (MTSA) are now open. The award offers £8,000 in financial support towards the making of new work, plus a solo show at Standpoint Gallery. The award now includes a UK Touring Programme, taking MTSA artists to partner venues across the UK. The MTSA seeks to reward outstanding and innovative practice, with a particular interest in work that demonstrates a commitment to process, or sensitivity to material. There is no age limit, applicants will be judged on the quality of their work and the ability of the award to make beneficial impact on their practice and future development. The financial award to assist in the production of a new body of work will be made in 3 payments over the course of the year. Standpoint will maintain a supportive, mentoring role over the twelve-month period of the award, including studio visits to discuss progress towards the exhibition.
awards and prizes, exhibition, grants and funding, professional development, sculpture
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Artquest staff work a day a month at artist studios to give advice, receive feedback and keep in touch with what artists need. Artquest’s programme staff and artists spend one day a month working in s …
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HomeLocal NewsTom Jones to play Taunton’s Vivary Park
Tom Jones to play Taunton’s Vivary Park
4th February 2019 Local News 0
Tom Jones has announced today (Monday 4 February 2019) that he is to headline a concert at Vivary Park, Taunton this summer as part of Live in Somerset’.
The music icon, whose career spans over 50 years, will perform outdoors in Vivary Park on Sunday 14 July 2019.
Sir Tom, who is currently reprising his role as a coach on ITV’s The Voice, has a fundamental interest in a wide range of music.
Although he is best known for hits including It’s Not Unusual, Kiss, Delilah and What’s New Pussycat, he is first and foremost an artist with a true rhythm and blues soul.
Tom Jones will bring Live in Somerset, a three-evening series of music concerts to a close on the Sunday night.
Madness will headline the Friday (12 July) evening concert, and Bananarama with special guests including Jason Donovan, Hazell Dean, Doctor and the Medics and Aswad, will perform on the Saturday evening (13 July).
Rebecca Corbett of LCC Live said:
“We are extremely excited to be bringing this legendary musician to Vivary Park.
We expect tickets to sell quickly, which is testament to Tom Jones’ reputation as a world-renowned musician, whose career continues to go from strength to strength.”
Tickets go on sale on Friday (8 February) and are available to purchase from Ticketline by visiting www.ticketline.co.uk, by calling 0844 888 9991, or from Taunton’s Visitor Centre on Fore Street.
live in somerset
Paloma Faith, Billy Ocean and Kaiser Chiefs play Taunton’s Vivary Park this week
9th July 2018 0
Bananarama, Jason Donovan, Hazell Dean, Doctor and the Medics and Aswad to play Taunton’s Vivary Park
4th December 2018 0
Squeeze‘s Chris Difford and Lightning Seeds to open for Madness in Taunton
21st May 2019 0
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Arkadin is Named a Top Cloud Services Provider by Penton Media’s Talkin’ Cloud 100 Report
Arkadin is Ranked #12 in Who’s Who of World’s Cloud Computing Companies
Arkadin ranks among the world’s Top 100 Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) according to Penton Media’s fourth annual Talkin ’Cloud 100 report. The Top 100 CSPs generated more than $23.4 billion in combined cloud services revenues in 2013, up nearly 44 percent from what they reported the previous year. The full report is available by visiting http://www.talkincloud.com/tc100.
The report is based on data from Talkin’ Cloud’s online survey, conducted January through May 2014. Cloud Services Providers, Cloud Services Brokerages, Cloud Services Aggregators, and Managed Services Providers and VARs with cloud service expertise are profiled and ranked on such metrics as annual cloud services revenue growth both in actual dollars and in percentage growth rates.
“We’re thrilled to be recognized as a top cloud services provider,” says Olivier de Puymorin, president, CEO and founder of Arkadin. “Our high standing is a testament to our global success in cloud-based UC&C. We believe we are well positioned for further growth and leadership by our value proposition for equipping businesses worldwide with UC&C services that drive greater communications efficiencies.”
According to Mr. de Puymorin, Arkadin’s value in UC&C is predicated on the following factors which allow businesses to deal with a single worldwide provider for optimum efficiency and ROI:
Resources of NTT Group companies: Part of the NTT Group, one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world, Arkadin has access to vast technological and financial resources to accelerate global expansion in cloud-based UC&C services.
Wide range of UC&C services and technical expertise: Arkadin’s acquisition of a key Microsoft partner with deep expertise in hosted telephony and Microsoft technologies, enable an advanced hosted UC&C service platform. Launched this year, Arkadin Total Connect gives businesses the full power of the virtual office with integrated Lync, Exchange and SharePoint.
Comprehensive Video-as-a-Service portfolio: The introduction of Video Managed Services, complete with technical management and bridging capabilities, extends Arkadin’s hosted desktop and room offers, giving businesses a one-stop-shop for serving all video needs.
Local/yet global approach to service: Arkadin’s locally delivered end-to-end support, consultancy services and expert training offered in 32 countries, ensures that customers’ UC&C services have high levels of adoption and scale throughout their organizations.
Penton and Talkin’ Cloud congratulate Arkadin,” said Charlene O’Hanlon, senior executive editor and executive managing editor of Talkin’ Cloud. “The Talkin’ Cloud 100 represents those companies leading the way in the cloud space at a critical point in the maturation of the market.”
In addition to this recognition, Arkadin was recently recognized in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Unified Communications as a Service, Multiregional, published August 28, 2014.
Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
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Head of the Ephebe of Marathon
Praxiteles:
https://www.arsmundi.com/en/artwork/ephebe-of-marathon-praxiteles-002434.html
delivery time: ship immediately
Replica | Polymer bronze + Marble | Overall height 36 cm
Original: Attic, around 330 B.C., Archaeology National Museum, Athens. Resin cast, marble base, 36 cm (h - incl. base).
Link to article: https://www.arsmundi.com/en/artwork/ephebe-of-marathon-praxiteles-002434.html
Praxiteles: Head of the Ephebe of Marathon
More works from Praxiteles
Praxiteles
Cold cast bronze
Praxiteles (around 395 BC-320 BC) was Greek sculptor in Athens in the 4th century before our time. Pliny, he is praised because of his art of marble processing. Beyond that bronze work are also known. Contrary to today's idea that the noble effect of marbles is caused only by the white stone, Praxiteles had painted his sculptures by the painter of Nicias.
Today more than fifty works are known due to a description written tradition. They were completely lost as sculptures, the Romans had not made replicas. Praxiteles topics were the gods of Mount Olympus, which he represented as youthful forever. Moreover, portrait and grave statues testify to the popularity of the Athenian sculptor among his contemporaries. His best-known statue and according to Pliny "Athens Aphrodite" is the most beautiful "on the whole circle of the Earth". In fifty large plastic Roman replicas which the baths undressing beauties has been preserved. In addition to further images of Aphrodite, Praxiteles made Eros statue, which gave rise to many piquant anecdotes by their nakedness. One of his most famous young man statues is the preserved in twenty Roman replicas "Apollo of Sauroktonos". The most successful can be admired in the Louvre museum in Paris and in the Vatican.
The sculptor succeeded repeatedly to give grace to its articles of Association by a schonlinig curved contour. He put more value for his idols on a differentiated presentation of emotional feelings, because time-typical representation of the sublime character and gave them to a human appearance.
Minoan culture, Mycenean culture
The Cretan art is also named Minoan art, after the legendary King Minos.
Cretan-Minoan art is the art of Crete from about 2900 - 1600 B.C. (Minoan art) and the Mycenaean art of Crete and the Greek mainland from about 1600 - 1100 B.C., in Crete only to 1200 B.C.
German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann discovered significant remains of this culture in the shaft graves of Mycenae, that had their heyday in the 14th and 13th centuries B.C. A well-preserved testimony is the Lion Gate from the 13th century B.C.
Splendidly decorated vases are the artworks of ceramics that have best survived the turmoil of millennia. Snake Goddess (around 1500 B.C.), a faience figurine, that has been discovered in the Temple Repositories of the Knossos palace are also famous. Bronze vessels of that time were primarily used in household. Daggers, swords and armor were then also made of bronze.
The jewelery of the Cretan-Mycenaean ladies was made of gold, rock crystal, lapis lazuli, ivory, faience and glass.
Geometric culture
The geometric art developed as a continuation of the late Mycenaean art on the Greek mainland towards the end of the late 11th century B.C. Mathematically regulatory will of style entered the geometric art replacing natural Crete-Mycenaean formal language. Another new feature is the use of the ruler and the compass. The jewelry of this time is also based on strict geometric principles.
Archaic culture
The architecture developed from the temples of the 8th and 7th century B.C. Initially, mudbrick and wood were used for building, later the forms were transferred to stone. A monumental style developed in sculpture. Marble, bronze, clay and limestone were used as materials. Gods, heroes, victorious competitors were embodied in typical young nude statues. Gods or sacred figures were portrayed in clothes.
In addition to sculpture there has also developed relief art, which was preferably used for decorating the temple.
The statuettes made of clay and bronze appeared since the 6th century B.C.
Classical culture (5th and 4th century B.C.)
The beginning of the Greek Classical period falls in the stirring times of the great statesman Pericles. Thanks to his democratic politics Athens became the focal point of cultural life and artistic creation in ancient Greece.
The classic architecture refined the shapes and proportions to perfection. The Temple of Zeus at Olympia, the Parthenon on the Acropolis of Athens and other major temples arose.
In sculpture, the time of the Severe style began. The rigid forms of the earlier period were blown up, the human body was studied anatomically. Top performances of the Severe style include the Charioteer of Delphi and the Artemision Bronze, that was recovered from the sea by fishermen.
A further increase brought the High Classical sculpture. Sculptors like Myron, Phidias and Polykleitos created sculptures that affect the statuary art to the present day. (discus thrower, Athena-Marsyas group, the heroes of Riace, etc.)
In the 4th century, a romantic conception prevailed. Praxiteles and Lysippos determined the art of the time. Sculptures such as Hermes and the Infant Dionysus, Pouring Satyr and especially the Aphrodite of Cnidus are magnificent examples of the artistic conception of Classical Greece.
With the conquests of Alexander the Great, the Greek art dominated in the Mediterranean and in the Orient. In the temple construction the Ionic and Corinthian style prevailed.
Lysippos initiated the statuary art of the Hellenistic period. The temples like in Pergamon were richly decorated with statues. The Winged Victory of Samothrace was created at the beginning of the 2nd century B.C. and Venus de Milo – towards the end of the century. The Hellenistic sculpture experienced its endpoint and last increase with Laocoön Group. The painting of the period was determined by Apelles. The Hellenistic painters represented such themes as historical events, portraits and genre paintings.
The mold is usually taken directly from the original, so that the replica reproduces even the finest details. After casting the replica, using the most appropriate method, the surface is polished, patinated, gilded or painted according to the original.
A replica of ars mundi is a recognizable image of the original.
Sculptural representation of person's head and shoulders.
Bronze powder bound by a polymer. By special polishing and patination techniques the surface of the casting gets a look that corresponds to the bronze.
Praxiteles - Bestseller
"Ephebe of Marathon"
Orpheus - Eurydice - Hermes
Zeus from Dodona
Artemis Brauronia
Parthenon - Group of Gods seated
Klassische Zeit - Bestseller
Sculpture "Snake of Aesculapius", Metal casing
Portrait Head of Alexander the Great
Bust of Hippokrates
Dancing Menades
The Horses of Saint Mark
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The Work of A.J. Rau
A.J. Rau (Alisan Jesse Rau Atvur) is a an American writer and essayist who lives in Copenhagen. He is a professional user experience researcher.
Previously, he was the assistant editor of The Chattahoochee Review and a poetry reader at The Georgia Review.
His research and university education include work at the University of Oxford, the University of Georgia, and New York University. His previous academic advisors include Dr. Katarzyna Jerzak and Dr. T.R. Hummer.
Rau, A. J. "Us" OTHER.Magazine, no. 2 (2018).
Rau, A. J. "And a Song of Despair" The Apeiron Review, no. 14 (2018).
Atvur, Alisan. “Encountering the Objects: Reflections on Observation, Experience, and Poetry | TORCH.” ..Edu. The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities Blog, February 12, 2018. https://torch.ox.ac.uk/encountering-objects-reflections-observation-experience-and-poetry.
Rau, A. J. “Poem for Guessing.” The Paragon Journal, no. 11 (December 15, 2017): 47. https://issuu.com/theparagonjournal/docs/merged__4_.
Rau, A.J. “Illustration (Poem).” The Sea Letter (blog), September 7, 2017. https://thesealetter.com/2017/09/07/illustration/.
Sketch by Darwin Muljuno
a creative thinker and problem solver . . . Highly recommended.
— Marc Fitten, Award-winning novelist
I can honestly say that I have rarely had the privilege of working with a better student and a better man than Mr. Atvur. . . . He is honest beyond doubt; he has a strong work ethic; he is loyal; he is modest in the highest sense of the word, and above all he is brilliant.
— Award-winning poet and essayist T.R. Hummer
incredibly personable and energetic
— Desi Taylor, former colleague at The Chattahoochee Review
a talented and inspiring editor and supervisor. His dedication to his work makes him stand out among others
— Lisa Francavilla, former colleague at The Chattahoochee Review
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Audubon's Watercolors Pl. 11, Northern Hare (Summer)
https://www.audubonart.com/shop/product/awq-011-audubon-s-watercolors-pl-11-northern-hare-summer-1725
Published by Oppenheimer Editions, 2009
American Museum of Natural History Edition, Limited edition of 200
20 9/16" x 35"
Oppenheimer Editions Print
Blind embossed with the Oppenheimer Editions and American Museum of Natural History logos
Audubon's Quadrupeds: The Watercolors, American Museum of Natural History Edition
After the publication of his celebrated master work, The Birds of America, 1827—1838, John James Audubon began his celebrated work on mammals, The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America. Published between 1845 to 1848 by the distinguished Philadelphia print maker, John T. Bowen, the set of 150 black-and-white lithographs was completely hand-colored. Lithography proved an excellent medium for depicting the tactile realism of the mammals’ fur. These prints were published in imperial folio size, measuring 22 by 28 inches. Acclaimed as the definitive 19th-century work in the field of American mammalogy, many of the mammals were drawn by John Woodhouse Audubon with backgrounds contributed by Victor Gifford Audubon.
John James Audubon began his first watercolors for the The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America in 1838, and by 1840 was daily collecting animal specimens and painting them. In 1843, he embarked upon his final expedition up the Missouri River to witness and paint from life the four-legged mammals that could only be found further west on the American frontier. The project was highly collaborative, involving the work of both of his artist sons, as well as his coauthor and friend, the naturalist John Bachman. Maria Martin, a gifted amateur watercolorist and John Bachman’s second wife, also assisted primarily with botanical subjects. John James Audubon’s son, John Woodhouse Audubon, painted many of the animals, and Victor Gifford helped his father with painting backgrounds and managing the business aspects of the project.
John James Audubon authored only about half the original watercolors for the The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America. By 1847, he was incapacitated with a form of senile dementia and unable to complete the project on his own. The project was brought to completion with the able assistance of his son John Woodhouse Audubon, whose paintings were executed in oils rather than watercolors. His work was not of the caliber of his father’s, but because the images in the Bowen lithographs are all of a similar quality and scale it is difficult to discern just how their work differs. However, when one compares their original paintings, the difference in quality is clear. While John Woodhouse’s paintings are very competent, those by John James exhibit the same virtuosity as those he executed for The Birds of America and are every bit the equivalent of his best paintings of ornithological subjects.
Fifteen paintings from the collection at American Museum of Natural History are in this printing, including the portrait of John James Audubon painted by John Woodhouse Audubon. This unique edition offers, for the first time, actual-size limited edition fine art prints of a selection of John James Audubon’s original watercolors for the The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America. Printed with pigments on acid-free, 100% cotton rag watercolor paper, the edition is strictly limited to 200 sets.
Established in 1999, Oppenheimer Editions has partnered with prestigious museums to make prints from their holdings. Works from the New-York Historical Society’s unrivaled collections of John James Audubon’s watercolors and the Hudson River School paintings are examples of art that otherwise would be unobtainable. Among the institutional collections we have partnered with are the American Museum of Natural History, the Field Museum, and Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. These are not mere reproductions. They are limited-edition fine art prints made with the finest quality archival pigments on rag watercolor paper and executed to exacting standards.
Click here for more Audubon's Quadrupeds: The Watercolors, American Museum of Natural History Edition
Specifications for Audubon's Watercolors Pl. 11, Northern Hare (Summer)
Framed Option Available After Adding Item to Cart
Type of Artwork Oppenheimer Editions Print
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Cyberwarfare / Nation-state attacks , Fraud Management & Cybercrime , Legislation & Litigation
Bill Would Help Congress Track Offensive 'Cyber Tool' Sales
State Department Would Be Required to Provide Information on Approved Sales Scott Ferguson (@Ferguson_Writes) • May 16, 2019
A House panel has approved a measure that's designed to make sure Congress is informed when U.S. companies sell offensive cyber technologies and services to other nations' governments. The measure was introduced after a U.S. firm sold technologies to the United Arab Emirates that were used to target activists and journalists.
The provision is included in a larger State Department funding bill. The House appropriations committee approved the bill in a 29 to 23 vote on Thursday, sending it to the House floor, according to a congressional staffer.
Under current U.S. law, the State Department's Directorate of Defense Trade Control is responsible for enforcing regulations that govern the selling of any weapons to foreign governments. U.S. firms need permission from this office to sell offensive cyber technologies and services to foreign governments.
Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md., added a provision to the State Department appropriations bill that would require the Directorate of Defense Trade Control office to inform Congress when it approves the sale of these offensive cyber tools to foreign governments. The bill also would require Congress to be notified if a U.S. firm is penalized for violating policies on such sales.
"While emerging technologies have always created regulatory headaches for government, I have been particularly troubled by recent media reports concerning DDTC processes for cyber licensing," Ruppersberger says. "My report language ensures we meet the challenge head-on with a transparent, well-resourced process for licensing cyber tools and capabilities for export."
Troubling Trends
The proposed changes to State Department protocol follow a Reuters report about the selling of offensive cyber technology to the United Arab Emirates, which then used these capabilities against militants as well as activists and journalists as part of an operation called Project Raven.
CyberPoint International, a Maryland-based defense contractor that sold the technology and also provided personnel to UAE, has denied knowing how the country's intelligence agency would use the technology, according to Reuters.
The legislative proposal has garnered support among those seeking greater transparency when it comes to these transactions. Robert Chesney, a national security law professor at the University of Texas, notes on Twitter that he hopes Congress will demand even more detailed information.
I do hope this provision makes it into the bill, though I also hope they'll expand this provision regarding how much information must be reported. Don't collect just four months' worth of info; get many years' worth, and more detail about what has happened in each case. https://t.co/8jYlUOWXnZ
— Bobby Chesney (@BobbyChesney) May 15, 2019
Parallels to WhatsApp Disclosure
The House panel's vote on the measure came the same week that Facebook sent a warning to users of its WhatsApp messaging app to update the software immediately to fix a flaw that could be exploited to remotely install surveillance software (see: Attackers Exploit WhatsApp Flaw to Auto-Install Spyware).
A buffer overflow flaw in WhatsApp could be used to install Pegasus spyware, which is built by Israel-based NSO Group. The company is known to sell this software to governments looking to infect targets of investigations and gain access to various aspects of their devices, according to published reports.
The NSO's software has been tied to uses against activists in Mexico and the UAE, according to Citizen Lab, a research group within the University of Toronto that investigates the use of software exploits by governments with questionable human rights records to monitor activists and dissidents (see: Apple Fixes Zero-Day Flaws Used to Target Activist).
This has driven groups, such as Amnesty International, to attempt to take legal action against the Israeli Ministry of Defense to demand it revoke the export license of NSO Group.
An NSO spokesperson, however, tells Information Security Media Group that the company's software is designed to combat terrorism and crime, and the governments that buy the technology determine how it's used.
FBI and Europol Disrupt GozNym Malware Attack Network
Researchers: Aircraft Landing Systems Vulnerable
Managing Editor, News Desk
Ferguson is the managing editor for the news desk at Information Security Media Group. He's been covering the IT industry for more than 13 years. Before joining ISMG, Ferguson was editor-in-chief at eWEEK and director of audience development for InformationWeek. He's also written and edited for Light Reading, Security Now, Enterprise Cloud News, TU-Automotive, Dice Insights and DevOps.com.
https://www.bankinfosecurity.com/bill-would-help-congress-track-offensive-cyber-tool-sales-a-12494
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‘She lived off cold water and biscuits’
Ivy Hawkins and her husband with the MBE in 1978.
Published: 06:30 Friday 13 March 2015
“As soon as we arrived here, we could see a rat playing on the windowsill – it was so awful I couldn’t do anything but laugh.”
The shocking demise of 87-year-old Ivy Hawkins was summed up by grandson Kevin Hughes, who described the scene when he came to his grandmother’s home the week after her body was found on Friday February 27.
Chickenley resident Mrs Hawkins had lived in a council bungalow for the past 15 years but, by the end of her life, her family claims she was living off biscuits and water, with no hot water or electricity.
When Kevin, 42, visited the house the following Wednesday along with Mrs Hawkins’ daughters Susan Hughes, 64, and Christine Cummings, 66, they found a squalid living room full of flies and rat droppings.
The family members, who live in London and Tyneside, said they dealt regularly with social services to get her help, but say nothing was done.
“She was living by candlelight,” said Mrs Hawkins’s daughter Susan. “She had a freezer full of food but didn’t eat it as she could not do anything for herself.
“We told the social services this on numerous occasions and they did nothing. By the end she was living off cold water and biscuits – she was just too proud to ask for help.”
The family’s grief was compounded when they discovered the MBE of Ivy’s late husband, Cpt Richard Vernon Hawkins, had gone missing.
“We want to make an appeal for whoever took the MBE to bring it back,” said Kevin. “My grandmother had nothing here except the MBE – it was her pride and joy.”
Ivy’s body could not be formally identified for more than a week, so decomposed was it when she was found.
“I spoke to her the Saturday before she was found,” said Susan. “She said her cough had got better, but she did not feel well – that was the last time I spoke to her.”
The family also accused Kirklees Council, which took over Mrs Hawkins’ finances a few years ago, of “hoarding” her money after it refused to disclose details of her wealth.
The council sent a retainer in the form of a weekly cheque to Mrs Hawkins.
Kevin said they found nine cheques had been posted to her which remained uncashed. “I feel completely and utterly let down by the council,” he added.
Kirklees’ assistant director for social care and wellbeing for adults, Sue Richards, said: “We are very sorry to hear of the death of Mrs Hawkins and our sympathies go to members of her family.
“We have had contact with Mrs Hawkins during the last months of her life, and have been in touch with her family about the circumstances surrounding her death. We are discussing their concerns with them so we can fully investigate any issues.”
Phone police via 101 with information on the medal.
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Pete Seeger's Session
A Beliefnet interview with the great folk singer on God, religion, and whether music can change the world.
Pete Seeger, America's best-loved folk singer, has lived long enough to go from being jailed and blacklisted in the 1950s for his political beliefs to receiving Kennedy Center honors and induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the '90s. His message-filled songs ("Turn, Turn, Turn," "Where Have All the Flowers Gone," "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy," "If I Had a Hammer," among hundreds of others) have been a fixture of every progressive social movement, from labor and civil rights to peace and environmentalism.
Now 88, Seeger lives on a mountain in upstate New York where he chops his own firewood and takes part in the Beacon Sloop Club, a branch of the Clearwater organization he spearheaded in 1969 with the aim of cleaning up the Hudson River. Though in a Beliefnet phone interview he occasionally spoke of a failing memory and a worn-out voice, he was eloquent as he defined his life's purpose: "trying to raise people's spirits" and "urging all religions to tolerate talking with each other."
Listen to Pete Seeger:His Spiritual BeliefsHis Main Purpose in LifeOn Religious ToleranceBeing Changed By Civil Rights"Amazing Grace Will Always Be..."On the Afterlife
A whole new generation was introduced to your songs with Bruce Springsteen's "Seeger Sessions." Was there any song you would have added?
“Walking Down Death Row…” I was going to write a letter to Bruce about it...if you ever do any other record of songs I made, put in one serious song like that song. Or maybe the one “Quite Early Morning,” which people like the tune of--“You know it’s darkest before the dawn/ this song keeps me moving on/ if we could heed these early warnings/ the time is now, quite early morning.”
What was your upbringing like?
I came from an intellectual family. Most were doctors, preachers, teachers, businessmen. My grandfather was a small businessman. His father was an abolitionist doctor, and his father was an immigrant from Germany. My mother was a mixture. Her grandfather came over from France and ran a preparatory school in New York. My mother was a very good violinist, my father was a musicologist and spent most of his life in academia. I came along and was a teenager in the Depression and nobody had jobs. So I went out hitchhiking, when I met a man named Woody Guthrie. He was the single biggest part of my education.
If you were to choose an organized religion, what would it be?
My mother was briefly a member of the Unitarian Church. I actually joined the Community Church [a Unitarian-Universalist church] on 35th Street, in New York, because I had a chorus and we needed a place to rehearse. [My wife] Toshi thinks it was very dishonest of me to join a church simply because I needed to rehearse the chorus. But I’ve been on good terms with them ever since. And sung for them occasionally. And if I ever sing at all now, I would do it down there.
Continued on next page...
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Country Singer's Visit From God...
Jo Dee Massina encountered God on her porch after being diagnosed with cancer.
7 Ways to Get Out of an Abusive...
Follow these steps if your partner is hurting you.
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New AVCA's L&R Committe Leadership
AVCA’s Legal and Regulatory Committee Names New Leadership
The African Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (AVCA) is pleased to announce the appointment of Geoffrey P. Burgess, Partner at Debevoise & Plimpton, and Cindy Valentine, Partner at Simmons & Simmons, as the new Co-Chairs of the AVCA Legal and Regulatory Committee. As Folake Elias-Adebowale, Partner at Udo Udoma & Belo-Osagie, and Rafik Mzah, Chief Legal Officer at AfricInvest, end their three-year mandate.
Established in 2012, the Legal and Regulatory Committee is an advisory body to AVCA and its members, enabling the successful navigation of Africa’s complex legal and regulatory landscape. Under the leadership of Folake Elias-Adebowale and Rafik Mzah, the Committee completed its mandate to equip Africa’s private investment industry with significant legal and regulatory insights through its bulletin and the establishment of the AVCA Legal and Regulatory Nigerian Working Group.
Geoffrey P. Burgess brings to the Committee, a wealth of international experience working with his clients on private equity transactions, cross-broader mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and financial transitions. He has contributed greatly to the African private investment landscape, participating in several conferences and authoring various articles tackling significant industry issues including corporate governance, tax laws, Africa’s insurance merger and acquisition industry and the role of sustainable investing in Africa.
Cindy Valentine has extensive experience advising her clients in the diverse areas of private equity investment structuring, fundraising, co-investment arrangements, management buyouts, venture capital and alternative structures. She is deeply committed to Africa and has expertise working with investors targeting emerging markets, including several DFIs and US investors.
‘Tokunboh Ishamel, co-Founder and Managing Director at Althelia Capital and the Chair of the AVCA Board of Directors, noted: “I am delighted to welcome Geoffrey P. Burgess and Cindy Valentine as the new Co-Chairs of AVCA’s Legal and Regulatory Committee. I would also like to congratulate Folake Elias-Adebowale and Rafik Mzah on their successful tenure, expanding the reach of the Committee’s work and providing a platform for local legal professionals. I look forward to their continued support over the coming years.”
In a joint statement, Geoffrey P. Burgess and Cindy Valentine commented: “We are honoured to serve AVCA as co-chairs of the Legal and Regulatory Committee and build on the outstanding work of our predecessors. We look forward to working with the Committee to implement innovative and value-added initiatives to facilitate a better understanding of legal and regulatory practices in Africa.”
« Back to AVCA News
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Russia Unveils KUB-BLA “Kamikaze” Drone at IDEX 2019
By Frank Wolfe | February 21, 2019
The Russian KUB-BLA drone
Ed note: Originally published on our sister site, Rotor & Wing International, which covers rotary wing aircraft.
Russia's ZALA Aero Group, the unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) division of Kalashnikov, unveiled a "kamikaze" drone -- the KUB-BLA -- at the International Defense Exhibition and Conference (IDEX) in Abu Dhabi on Feb. 17.
The small UAS is designed to have a maximum speed of about 80 miles per hour, an endurance of 30 minutes, and an explosive payload of 7 pounds against "remote ground targets."
Loitering munitions can have a dwell time up to six hours and are equipped with sensors to allow the drones to detect and attack targets independently. Early 1980s-era examples include Israel Aircraft Industries' Harpy suppression of enemy air defenses (SEAD) drone and the U.S. Air Force AGM-136 "Tacit Rainbow" SEAD system by Northrop Grumman -- a $4 billion development program canceled in 1991.
Sergei Chemezov, the CEO of Rostec, the Russian state-owned defense and high technology conglomerate, said at the IDEX show that the KUB-BLA "is an extremely precise and very effective weapon, incredibly hard to fight by traditional air defense systems."
“The explosive can be delivered to target regardless of how well hidden it is," he said. "It operates regardless of hidden terrains, at both high and low altitude."
ZALA Aero said that the advantages of KUB-BLA include "high accuracy, hidden launch, noiselessness, and easy to use."
The unveiling of the KUB-BLA comes as countries consider the implications of artificial intelligence and lethal autonomous weapon systems (LAWS).
In the United States, the Aerospace Industries Association said that the recent revisions to the Conventional Arms Transfer Treaty will provide flexibility to allow domestic aerospace companies to export innovative UAS to other countries, and the association is calling for a further review to prevent such systems from falling into the wrong hands.
"The definitions of things like cruise missiles and ballistic missiles were set long before some of this technology was imagined," Eric Fanning, the president of AIA, told reporters last week. "And various UAS – whether it's for urban air mobility or long-range, large cargo vessels – are pushing up against those definitions. So, what we're calling for is the review of them to see how we can delineate between, for example, what's a cruise missile and what's a UAS cargo craft. We're calling, specifically, for review of weight, speed, and range, to see if we can't use those as indicators, to try and separate what those are. Obviously, we care about making sure that we are careful about proliferation and doing what we can to protect proliferation, anti-proliferation efforts. We want to make sure that we're not needlessly stifling innovation growth and market opportunities."
In the past, countries such as the UAE, Jordan and Saudi Arabia were denied in their requests to purchase U.S. drones, and China stepped in to become a supplier. Under the Missile Technology Control Regime, the Trump administration has advocated facilitating the export of any UAS, such as the General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper, that flies under 650 kilometers per hour.
The administration's Conventional Arms Transfer Policy, announced last April, says that among the considerations involved in the executive branch making an arms transfer decision will be "the recipient’s ability to field, support, and employ the requested system effectively and appropriately in accordance with its intended end use" and "the risk that the transfer could undermine the integrity of international nonproliferation agreements and arrangements that prevent proliferators, programs, and entities of concern from acquiring missile technologies or other technologies that could substantially advance their ability to deliver weapons of mass destruction, or otherwise lead to a transfer to potential adversaries of a capability that could threaten the superiority of the United States military or our allies and partners."
A United Nations' working group on lethal autonomous weapons is to meet on March 25-29 to consider the potential challenges posed by emerging LAWS technologies to international humanitarian law. The working group of governmental experts functions under the High Contracting Parties to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons -- a 1983 treaty signed by 125 countries that seeks to prohibit or restrict the use of certain conventional weapons, such as landmines, which are considered excessively injurious or whose effects are indiscriminate.
"LAWS present unique ethical challenges around the question of humans giving up responsibility for killing by fully transferring decisions over life and death to machines," Ulrike Esther Franke, a a policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), wrote in an ECFR column last November. "While for centuries now, previous technological advances have gradually increased the distance between humans and the act of killing, LAWS for the first time allow a complete removal of the human from decision-making."
At an International Committee of the Red Cross meeting in Switzerland in March 2016 to discuss the implications of autonomous weapons systems, Vadim Kozyulin, the project director of emerging technologies and global security at the Moscow-based PIR Center for Policy Studies, said that "Russia has no armed drones for now, although they are being developed, which shows that Russian drone designers are about 15 years behind their American counterparts."
ICAO, ITF Up Collaborative Research Efforts
Eclipse Awarded Production Certificate from FAA
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Posted on August 31, 2014 September 11, 2015 by animeworldorder
Anime World Order Show # 129 – Even Robot Unicorns Dance on Rainbows
http://traffic.libsyn.com/animeworldorder/AnimeWorldOrder-2014-08-31-129.mp3
In this episode we free our souls from the weight of gravity and gain true understanding of one another as you belong to me, I belong to you, we belong to Earth, and Daryl reviews the 7-part OAV series Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn.
It takes us approximately 20 minutes to answer one email. It covered multiple topics, but unless we’re intentionally jumbling the topics into one mega-topic, it was about whether we remember the love of chemically imbalanced gay teenage boys and marmalade, some of whom may be pregnant, and how this all pertains to the mecha offerings of Shoji Kawamori, Ryousuke Takahashi, and Go Nagai. Or maybe that’s what we turned it into? These things happen. Regardless, the answer to all question is that New Getter Robo is finally on Hulu.
Review: Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn (19:06 – 1:21:10)
Although Daryl still believes there is relatively little utility for anyone, anywhere, to review any portion of Mobile Suit Gundam–everyone already has their set thoughts on Gundam, so they don’t need anyone’s review to decide upon what they’re going to comment–he’s nevertheless decided to revisit the topic since episode 3 was a long time gone. Much has changed in anime fandom in the 8.5 years since that episode, but this probably isn’t one of them. But perhaps you really CAN change your destiny beyond the time after all? Just the possibility is enough, so with that in mind this review does not really contain much as far as plot or character specifics.
The New York Times wrote about Harutoshi Fukui in 2005, where he was described as “a Japanese Tom Clancy”
Not mentioned on the show but written down as a note: the key indicator that Gundam Unicorn comes from a good place is the fact that the enemy robot is named the “Sinanju” which is the name of the mystical martial art practiced by REMO WILLIAMS from the Destroyer books and REMO WILLIAMS: THE ADVENTURE BEGINS~!, soon to be rebooted by Shane Black.
There is no free streaming option for Gundam Unicorn. The least convoluted place to get a list of what Gundam titles are in fact legally streaming online with English translation of some sort isn’t Daisuki or (inexplicably) the Gundam.info website but Gundam.info’s Youtube channel. The reason for why things like Char’s Counterattack and “HD Remasters” of Gundam SEED/SEED Destiny are only uploaded in SD is the same reason for every goofball decision that gets made regarding Gundam releases outside of Japan. Note: as ZZ Gundam fans will attest, these streams will get taken down on short/zero notice.
The quality of G-Reco and Origin is unclear at this time, but let it be known that Gundam-san is the jam. WHY ISN’T THAT SIMULCASTING, HUH SUNRISE
The HD streaming rentals are a little more affordable, but Gundam Unicorn on Blu-Ray isn’t cheap or easy to come by. Amazon is basically your only real option for the 7 Blu-Rays. Compared to the rest the first episode is a little cheaper, but since the stocks are kept low (made on demand?) later episodes go out of stock resulting in outlandish listings like this one asking for $430 for a single Blu-Ray.
Right Stuf is your main source for the DVDs, though all 4 will run you about $90 (Vol 1, Vol 2, Vol 3, Vol 4). Sometimes they stock the Blu-Rays but the price won’t be any different than when Amazon has them in stock.
Closing (1:21:10 – 1:23:43)
Did we forget to record a proper closing? Eh, whatever. Next time, as threatened in Show 128, be grateful to democracy as Gerald will be reviewing the recently (once again) re-released Lupin the Third: The Mystery of Mamo. When that next time will be is to be determined, since now that Daryl’s pushing Blue Blazes on everyone, Honoo’s work ethic is spreading far and wide.
CategoriesClassics, Go Nagai, Robots, Yaoi
32 Replies to “Anime World Order Show # 129 – Even Robot Unicorns Dance on Rainbows”
nightjuan says:
Great overview. You guys are a lot of fun to listen, a few inevitable differences of opinion aside. It’s really too bad Gerald and Clarissa didn’t get to finish Unicorn before this conversation took place though.
I believe this topic has briefly come up in a couple of other places before, perhaps even years ago, and I’ve always agreed about Gundam Unicorn being a very accessible introduction to Gundam for newcomers. There is certainly an issue concerning the density of details at various points, but rewatching those episodes should be enough to cover that. You might not get all the tiny little references, sure, but they’re not essential to understanding what’s actually going on.
I’m also on the same general wavelength as Daryl in terms of the thematically appropriate nature of Unicorn as the effective end of the classic Universal Century, by taking several of Tomino’s ideas and extending them to their possible conclusions. Regardless of the questionable politics of the original author of the novels, I think the man did his homework and really thought at length about how these concepts could be challenged or reinforced in order to create a new story.
Over time, I’ve grown to increasingly appreciate the analysis of themes in both anime and fiction beyond merely focusing on criticizing the real or imagined flaws in the physical plausibility of the events in a narrative sequence, to the extent that sometimes I feel the purely logical layer can be discarded or at least treated as subservient to an emotional or conceptual one (which is also related to the reasons why I tend to like some shows you fellows mostly don’t, but I can respect that).
That’s not to say you can’t ask valid questions, as a viewer, and if certain details bother you too much that’s usually going to make any proper thematic analysis difficult. But if the themes are interesting enough, there’s a lot I’m willing to forgive. In the case of Unicorn, with all the things it does right, that’s still true…so if I had any complaints they would deal with [things that happened in the last episode removed –Daryl]. But at the end of the day, I think that’s quite secondary or tertiary to the story that Unicorn was trying to tell and the meaning it was attempting to convey.
The BDs look wonderful, of course, yet I’d say the DVDs are still a good option for those on a limited budget, at two OVAs per volume (save for the last feature length entry). While you won’t get HD quality out of them, they’re not below average for the format and look nice when upscaled.
I’ll respect your wishes, Daryl, but for the sake of fairness…I didn’t mention any character names at all, and did my best to keep any concrete details out.
I can’t imagine that someone who hadn’t already seen the show would understand what I was getting at.
Shot Weapon says:
Just FYI Shin Mazinger is coming out on DVD from Discotek this year. Great episode, glad to see this podcast still happening.
penguintruth says:
Guys… Shin Mazinger was licensed by Discotek months ago. It’s sub-only, but whatever. People will be able to see it. [Since multiple people keep pointing this out: this is me months ago noting that I was going to buy that release once it’s out. We did not “forget” this announcement. It’s just that it has no firm release date, so it’s irrelevant to the question that was asked. –Daryl]
Gundam SEED Destiny having a following is mystifying, but honestly, the original Gundam SEED having a following was pretty mystifying, too. [Big ol’ paragraph of complaint assertions about the show we didn’t talk about deleted. ANN forums are THAT-A-WAY. –Daryl]
No offense, Gerald, but the end of Char’s Counterattack isn’t that ambiguous. [Big ol’ paragraph of subjective interpretation of unclear visuals/interactions also deleted, though it does illustrate Gerald’s point. /m/ is THAT-A-WAY. –Daryl]
Things were kind of black and white in the original Mobile Suit Gundam. Sure, there were some decent, honorable Zeon soldiers and jerkass Federation soldiers, but it was mostly FED GOOD, ZEON BAD. It’s Zeta Gundam that really complicated things, even if most of the Titans were mustache-twirlers, because you had the AEUG which was made up of both Federation soldiers and Zeon remnants, while another group of Zeon renmants came in and it was more like good guys vs bad guys vs OTHER bad guys, with some shades here and there. But the thing was that Zeon always kind of had a point, even if the means to obtain their goals were horrifying. If you’re looking for true good-vs-good, then you have to go to something like Legend of the Galactic Heroes, though that’s more like necessary-evil-vs-necessary-evil, and isn’t that just the way the world works anyway? I’m preaching to the choir here, though. You folks already know all this, you’ve seen everything I have.
I never really picked up a right-wing motif in the Gundam Unicorn story. Sure, it exposes pacifism as untenable in the face of so many past wrongs and bitterness, but it doesn’t have any kind of fascist leanings or deification of military force. A lot of people felt like the revelation of Laplace’s Box and its implications were incredibly undermined by the existence of later UC timeline entries, but to be fair [innocuous though these points are, noting these PARTICULAR specifics as being implications of the MacGuffin item in question inform what it is, so away this bit goes even though the cartoons are from 20+ years ago at this point –Daryl]
I only have five volumes of Gundam Unicorn on Blu-Ray (though I’ve seen it all, figure it out), and it’s unfortunate it’s so bleeding expensive. It’s probably the least accessible Gundam anime to come out in a decade (if not one of the least accessible anime PERIOD in a decade) because it’s for hardcore UC fans, it’s not streaming, and it’s insanely expensive (and only getting more expensive). It’s almost like they don’t want you to watch it. I’d love to complete my collection of this OVA, so maybe one day I’ll win the lottery.
James Smith says:
I have to say, I think you have it wrong about anime fandom. While people may only be HARDCORE about anime for a few years, it doesn’t mean that they’ll stop watching it altogether, just more casually. It’s like saying people only watch sci-fi, or horror for a few years and then stop. Personally, I’ve been watching anime for about 22 years, since I was 6. I was REALLY hardcore from about 16-20, then became more casual, but I still watch things if I think they look interesting, like Attack on Titan. I think most people probably fall more into this category, rather than completely stopping.
Putting aside the fact that you’re not actually contradicting anything that we said, what measurable metrics do you base that assessment on? Can you cite any sources? It looks like the sole basis of your argument is your own personal experience, in which you went to clubs/conventions etc for a few years as a teenager and then stopped once you were no longer a teenager. In other words, the exact trajectory we stated.
Our statements are based on a combination of our direct observations over 15+ years of actually going to multiple cons/clubs etc every year along with testimonials from various industry folks as well as academics like Jonathan Clements, co-author of The Anime Encyclopedia and author of (most recently) Anime: A History, who has been observing and chronicling this stuff far longer than even we have.
I’m pretty confident that our assessment is valid, and that your objection is that your definition of “anime fan” is contextual to “someone who’s at some point liked a Japanese cartoon” when the context for the statement I was making was “someone invested enough in anime that they’ll spend a significant portion of their income on media and goods while engaging in some sort of fan interactions based on said media and goods.”
No, I was saying that the vast majority of people don’t completely stop watching something after a few years. If they did, I agree, I would not call them a fan. Also, I’m a huge Godzilla fan, but I’ve spent very little money on it, because to buy EVERYTHING would be too expensive, but I do HAVE all the Godzilla movies via piracy. By your definition, I would not be a Godzilla fan. I say I’m still a Godzilla fan, I’m just not “obsessed” anymore, which is what you seem to equate “being an anime fan” with. [That is correct. “Otaku” necessitates “obsession,” though I would imagine even being a “fan” of something entails liking something more than “eh sure, I’ll steal this.” That said, none of this was actually brought up in this particular episode. –Daryl]
It was clearly exactly what you implied, since you said that people are only fans for a few years and that fanhood requires monetary involvement or activity in a fan community. [Here’s the fundamental problem: you’re equating me saying “don’t pirate things you can otherwise reasonably get” with “you have to spend money” when, based on my above written comments and what was said in this recording, that was never said. You notice how my response repeatedly include variations on “you’re responding to arguments that were never made”? –Daryl]
The problem is you equate not buying things with not being a fan. Despite the fact that you claim you’re not saying this, you clearly are. It’s an insulting and fairly shallow assumption. If you were just saying that you don’t approve of piracy, I would understand. That’s not even the issue, the issue is that if you like something, you can reasonably claim to be a fan of it, regardless of whether or not you pay for it, think about it day and night, or just find it entertaining. And a lot of movies, tv shows etc., can’t be obtained easily or even legally, yet the people who pirate them are still fans.
Wow, the superiority complex even radiates through the computer. You just have to like something to be a fan, you just want to set up some sort of elitist “you’re not a real fan” bullshit, that people engage in with any media. This is especially ridiculous when talking about things like anime and Godzilla, since both are foreign, don’t always get released here and are expensive to own. Are you seriously telling me that just because I don’t OWN Attack on Titan, or ALL the Godzilla movies(I do own some), that I’m not a fan? [This was never said or implied. If your response to “this was never said or implied” is “you just wrote that above and said it on this show” then you aren’t reading or hearing this quite right. You are reading/hearing one thing as something else, and I’m not interested in refuting arguments I didn’t make. –Daryl]
Forget it, enjoy the ivory tower. I’ll keep listening to the show, but now I know how serious your warning about “holier than thou know it alls” really is. [I’m still waiting for you to give me those metrics/sources, by the way. –Daryl]
unit005 says:
I got into anime in 2006, I was nine, I started listening to the podcast in seventh grade when I was twelve, so that was in 2010, and podcast started in 2005, when I was eight, not that I knew about it. I was born april 18, 1997. hahaha thanks for reading my email!
– Madison
It’s not true that everyone in Japan knows about Gundam. Yamaga’s sister doesn’t.
*falls down in slow-motion*
Well, I’ve got all of it on video…
Let’s watch. We’ll start with the first episode.
By the way, I thought one of the canniest jokes in the show is where Honoo is forced to admit to the lady in the shop that he doesn’t actually know what Ideon is about, and (like everyone else) only knows it as Tomino’s other series besides Gundam.
ZeonicFreak says:
Hey, the site works now… since other people have posted I see.
I wanted to let Gerald know that he is WRONG about how no one watched Gasaraki. My co-host and I spent a little over a month watching the show, and our review of it will be coming out in about a month from now. I will say this, I never thought I would see something that can be compared to the same coma inducing caliber as Odin: Photon Space Sailor Starlight. My co-host believes the show is on the same level as Pilot Candidate, as for many years has used the latter as the low end measuring stick in anime.
I have been watching Unicorn each time it has been released, which has made my experience somewhat disoriented. If I had been like those die hard Gundam fans that re-watch the OVA’s up till the new release, it would have made more sense for me. Luckily, whenever our podcast did our reviews on each OVA, we had the help of our Gundam experts over at The Daily Anime Podcast, because they are those Gundam fans who re-watch Unicorn before the next one was released. This in turn made us (well mostly me) understand the overall story better to understand. I don’t have it in me like I did when I was a born again Gundam fan back in my freshman year of high school, who would re-watch the recorded airings of the Gundam OVA’s every week after school that aired on Toonami and Adult Swim in late 2001/early 2002.
By Daryl mentioning that Gundam Unicorn is the easiest way to get introduced to Gundam and not getting entirely lost in terms of order of events in the previous series, and without someone having to go back and re-watch shows and movies from 20 years ago in order for this OVA to make sense; then that is time saved. There are people that I know that did get into Gundam after watching the first OVA, so this might be this generation’s Marvel movies for Gundam.
I am like most people who got introduced to Gundam in the early 2000’s, by watching whatever came out in physical media, on TV, and then spending hours researching the events online in order to make sense of the overall narrative of that particular series or movie (i.e. Char’s Counterattack and F-91. Of course I could count G-Savior, but that isn’t something that is “really” mentioned these days.) It seems that for years the easier route to get into Gundam UC timeline is “…ok, here are these compilation movies…” which is followed by “…alright, so since you saw the movies, try these OVA’s out next…” which then might lead people to watching the TV series, if they were still interested after all the legwork they have put into it so far. That was a committed love people endured when getting into this series, which is people like me. What also helped me into knowing the order of events in a better light was the Mark Simmons “Gundam: The Official Guide” book that was a good physical source book sold in stores at the time, and this was months before Gundam Seed hit the air in Japan. I still have my copy to this day.
Now that I think about it, I do wanna try and get someone into Gundam through Unicorn and see if there is enough there to give the viewer a taste of what they need to know without getting too confused. The problem with movies like Char’s Counterattack, as you guys stated, was “hey, were making a reference to this person, you do remember them right?” In an ideal world, Bandai should have released Gundam in order way before they put Char’s Counterattack out in the States. I was that person why tried to defend the Char’s Counterattack ending from those who were solid on the conclusion of what happened to the main characters in the movie, which just made me look like an idiot half the time (nah actually, way more than that.)
Regarding Daryl belief that there is “little utility” to review all of Gundam, I am part of that group and has said something about every piece of Gundam property that has been released (well, that and the guys at GunDamn!) I do want to mention that this show is for the die-hard Gundam fans who would pick up on the MSV kits “coming to life” with even more weaponry attached to them.
[Two sections of this were removed because they were talking about what happens at the end of Gundam Unicorn. This makes me 3 for 3 so far this week with regards to proving my point that the first reaction of Gundam fans when the phrase “Gundam Unicorn” is uttered is to say what happens at the end. It was the same way 5 years ago. –Daryl]
Hey man I meant no disrespect or anything, I guess I wanted to see what would fly under the Surat Minovsky Radar. Well, I got my answer. I wasn’t surprised by the last thing you took out, since I did get my answer there.
Also, I wasn’t there 5 years ago to see what nerds on the internet were saying about Unicorn, just like how I have my head under a rock about the changes in Evangelion 3.33 that I vaguely forgot about over time. It’s because I want to buy a physical copy of that movie WHENEVER Funimation decides to release the damn thing.
Elizabeth Christian-Smith says:
An intense Twitter bullying campaign notwithstanding, I am here to post about Marmalade Boy. It goes on too long. It is largely inoffensive, with the pseudo-incest note initially playing a supporting role to the much more au courant (for the nineties and early aughts) “living with a mystery hot guy” note. That changes, but I was too irritated by the other taboo relationship to be too het up by it. For all that there are two extremely irritating subplots, the show never really enrages the viewer (me, I mean me). Anyway, I think Daryl is a poor judge of smarm. Then again, shoujo’s smarmiest love interests generally never make it to the screen.
Anyway, let me be the first to encourage adolescent girls to read the most extreme filth they can get their hands on. If nothing else, whenever you run into some oleaginous fan libertine, you won’t give him the satisfaction of grimacing in disgust when he explains the details of his last erotic D&D session. You can just look bored and sigh a lot.
In my last session with my Gundam fan student, we discussed what kind of experimentation he’d need to endure to become a Newtype.
Is there really such a thing as a “Gundam fan student?” I didn’t know something like that could still exist today, or even ever.
Yeah, I really could have phrased that better. One of my students is Chinese and studying abroad in the United States. He is mystified that almost none of his classmates are familiar with Gundam. He also informed me that he knows more about Gundam history than U.S. history. His high school has an excellent English department and a deplorable history department.
OtherSideofSky says:
I pretty much agree with everything you said regarding Unicorn. And yes, Gundam fans stay just about exactly the same, barring minor changes like the introduction of Destiny as a byword for general awfulness.
One thing I will disagree with you on is Tomino as a writer (not necessarily as a director, mind you). I’ve never checked out his Gundam novelization in the original or in translation, but I’ve been reading the nice reprints of his Wings of Rean novels that came out in Japan a couple years back, and while they aren’t stellar they are competently written fantasy with some pretty interesting and then-relevant themes running through them. I think at least part of Tomino’s reputation as an atrocious writer, particularly when it comes to dialogue, is due to poor or overly-literal translations of his work. He’s certainly not great and tends to be extremely melodramatic, but he isn’t quite as stilted and unnatural in Japanese as he is in English, and his writing is definitely made more confusing by at least one major line mangled by an inaccurate translation in every one of his works I’ve seen subbed or dubbed.
(You may wonder why so much of the Byston Well anime is terrible if the original novels aren’t. That’s a good question, and I think it’s partly due to the lack of the maps and tables that, in the novels, help put where people and places are and how they relate to each other in some kind of immediate context. Perhaps more importantly, though, the novels are much more explicitly tied to Japan’s involvement in World War II than any of the animated adaptations except maybe Wings of Rean and parts of them hinge on statements about the actions and culpability of the Japanese people that Tomino would never be allowed to make on film, a fact which robs most of the adaptations of their ideological and thematic center. Wings of Rean, of course, just tried to tell what really needed to be at least 13 episodes worth of story in six and wasn’t even particularly judicious with the time it did have.)
Okiura says:
Fucking hell. My first episode and I hear names like Dougram and Hakkenden being nonchalantly dropped. Bookmark that shit.
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Internet Nerd says:
I agree with Gerald on starting VOTOMS with the original TV series. The 2010 OVA Case;Irvine is also a pretty good starting point. Not only is it new and shiny, but also gives a sample of the franchise’s world and themes without spoiling any of the other installments.
Unicorn’s a total blast, but I can’t recommend it to people with zero Gundam knowledge. I’m afraid the amount of history and made-up terms the show is built on is enough to scare new fans away for good.
bobob101 says:
I am not a Gundam fan. My only real experience with the franchise was watching SD Gundam when it was on Cartoon Network. I have been watching Unicorn every other week with friends, and I want to know: what should my next move be? Should I find the original Mobile Suit Gundam, or go to some other show like Wing or SEED?
I don’t know if there’s an “easy” answer to that, as it will be dependent on what you liked/disliked about Gundam Unicorn.
The answer you’ll be most likely to get from people, and it’s my knee-jerk reply too, is “the compilation movies for the original Mobile Suit Gundam” because it’s what so many anime productions, (and Blue Blazes!) reference to this day, either directly or indirectly. This is true not just for all of the subsequent “Universal Century” Gundam installments along with the various alternate-universe Gundam titles, but recent non-Gundam works like Aldnoah Zero.
But let’s face it: those movies take nearly 7.5 hours to watch since each one’s about 2.5 hours long, and what’s more they largely consist of roughly 35 year-old television animation. The various “alternate universe” shows are even longer: typically 50 episodes, such that a full 13 of those episodes exist purely as setup for the actual story to be told. Nowadays, entire series are 13 episodes! There’s a very good chance that these won’t be that well-received in a group viewing environment.
Perhaps the easiest “next move” to digest would be one of the shorter side story OAVs set in the Universal Century that doesn’t require much knowledge of the lore to “get.” With that, I’ve effectively narrowed it down to two. Gundam: The 08th MS Team is only 11 episodes long (there is a 12th episode and a compilation movie, but they’re best skipped due to being made by other people), and is mostly about combat in the jungle (and naked underage girl breasts by episode 2, since it IS an OAV after all). Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket is only 6 episodes, but is rather light on action and has a 10 year-old boy for a main character who well, acts like one. I remember trying to show the first episode at a club once and it didn’t go over well at all, but that crowd turned on it the second they saw a robot show up.
Oh man, how can you mention those OVAs and NOT mention the ex-Top Gun of the Gundam OVAs: Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory? [Uh, on purpose? It doesn’t meet either criteria: it is not short and it doesn’t make sense without past knowledge, since its entire reason for existence is to fill in continuity. You skipped straight past every single one of my CAREFULLY PICKED AND VERY SPECIFIC qualifiers for the sake of “you forgot to mention.” Why should I even bother? –Daryl]
But, semi-dumbass story and especially lamer love triangle aside, it is a really good looking Gundam OVA in terms of action, style and animation. You gotta give it at least that much. I still like it, I got no beef with 0083.
Woah, easy there man. I did see what you wrote and stated on 08th MS Team and 0080, which I do fully agree with. Even if 0083 is a sore attempt by some to tie in Mobile Suit Gundam and Zeta Gundam, it is still something short and pretty too look at. I don’t think its going to really hurt anyone who will see it as they are starting out in Gundam, especially if that leads them to Zeta Gundam. I’m not entirely saying that it’s “recommended material,” but it is still something for the viewer to check out at their own will.
Plus, I am just poking fun, because I have heard either from one of your episodes or somewhere else that you loath Gundam 0083 (if not that term than something more foul to use). Getting that kind of response to my question shouldn’t come to me as a surprise really.
I have been watching anime for only a year and I prefer the older art styles, such as Great Teacher Onizuka, than most of the modern 2000s. This anime season is probably the best I’ve seen over the past year with Tokyo Ghoul and Akame ga Kill, but I mainly focus on shoujo (yeah….I’m a guy also) such as Nana, the “reverse harem” Ouran High School Host Club, and some others. But what are your guy’s (and ladies) favorite genres, and what would you recommend for me since I like shoujo?
Old and Dumb says:
May I ask what bits and pieces of Urobuchi’s writing that brought out Gerald and Daryl’s “dislike” hammer?
Well, I am asking not because I want to roleplay as another Urobuchi supporter (I am not)…but rather, I found it odd that Gerald and Daryl are both showing mild dislike of…to me at least…the most anti-MOE writer I can recall in recent years. Part of Urobuchi’s style (next to being preachy and rather fond of borrowing heavily on preexisting literature e.g., Faust…the guy certainly wears the label “unoriginal” with pride) is to use characters as expendable chess pieces to advance plot. A rather stark contrast to the 100% character centric MOE formula if you ask me. I certainly enjoyed AWO podcasts and I used to operate under the assumption that Gerald L-O-V-E-S 80s-90s series with some decent plot development, and Daryl’s insistence that he would rather have something “got good at the end” tricked me to believe that he rather likes series with a somewhat decent ending (and hopefully with “things blow up good”). As I recall, many Urobuchi’s works, assuming he is the only writer, did provide a somewhat conclusive ending…which is something I cannot say for 99% of all TV programs available…animated or not. I was expecting Gerald and Daryl to show indifference to his works (magical girls is no Oscar material)…mild dislike? Hmm…interesting. [And by all this you mean “Gerald” since I’m the one who stuck up for Psycho-Pass etc whereas Gerald’s the one who said he’s never liked anything by the guy? I’m not a fan of defending positions I never espoused. –Daryl]
A side note, I am willing to pay real money reading Clarissa’s (aka the smart one) post show notes making fun of the guys.
That, is a joke.
Just another Internet stranger / ex-Gundam freak who has enough sense to shut the fuck up about all things Gundam.
Most likely your “half and half” and “BS in PP” comments caused me to think as such. PP certainly has its share of BS.
Anyway, I am not attacking so no need to defend. And no…I am not trying to get you two into trouble with certain fan base. However, you guys have been very vocal about stuff you don’t like and why (e.g., moe is bad not because of panties…but because of limited variety). Not so certain about Urobuchi’s work. In fact…I do recall you i.e. Daryl mentioned Precure when asked about Dokes. Not something I would have expected.
Have fun with work and with hobbies.
kregano says:
Pretty good podcast. It’s nice to hear other people stand up against the wave of Urobuchi wank among anime fans, especially when he seems to be coasting on goodwill earned by one fluke. But I think that “when you know the trick, you don’t care” effect applies to a lot of media, including Gundam and Urobuchi’s post-Madoka work. In their case, it’s “use action/adventure and heavy handed themes/messages to distract people from the fact that the story only works because EVERYONE in the story/setting is incredibly stupid.” Unicorn is a really good example of this, because you’d think that everyone in the UC timeline would tell anyone or anything associated with Zeon to fuck off after over a decade of Zeon-affiliates causing every single problem in the UC timeline and the Federation would crush Anaheim for aiding and abetting people who nearly ruined Earth’s biosphere. Psychopass had the same thing going on with the whole “Sybil is too stupid to have contingencies to capture a certain subset of criminals, like a manual override stun setting” and it got waved off by a lot of fans with the “it’s part of the dystopia theme” card. It gets really annoying and tiring after a while, to the point that you start rooting for almost all the characters to suffer, which is something most writers probably don’t want.
Wolfe says:
As a casual fan of Gundam I’ve been curious about Unicorn and appreciated the info.
Leave a Reply to Wolfe Cancel reply
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Gov. Doug Ducey vows action on Arizona's untested rape kits
At Monday’s State of the State address, Ducey vowed to foot the bill to run all of the state’s remaining kits for DNA analysis.
Gov. Doug Ducey vows action on Arizona's untested rape kits At Monday’s State of the State address, Ducey vowed to foot the bill to run all of the state’s remaining kits for DNA analysis. Check out this story on azcentral.com: http://azc.cc/2ijd6sC
Megan Cassidy, The Republic | azcentral.com Published 6:01 a.m. MT Jan. 11, 2017 | Updated 10:25 a.m. MT Jan. 12, 2017
During his State of the State address Jan. 9, 2017, Gov. Doug Ducey said his budget would fully fund testing of all remaining backlogged rape kits. Hannah Gaber/azcentral.com
At Monday’s State of the State address, he vowed to foot the bill to run all of the state’s remaining kits for DNA analysis.
Gov. Doug Ducey delivers his State of the State address on Jan. 9, 2017.(Photo: Tom Tingle/The Republic)
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey announced that the state was poised to clear its backlog of untested sexual-assault kits, capping off one of his key initiatives of 2016.
At Monday’s State of the State address, Ducey vowed to foot the bill to run all of the state’s remaining kits for DNA analysis. A recent inventory counted 6,400 untested kits throughout the state, but a windfall in grants has secured funding for all but 1,400 of them, according to state officials.
Ducey also promised legislation that would require law enforcement to test all rape kits moving forward.
“Let’s get this done, and for the thousands of women who have been victimized, finally ensure justice,” he said.
RELATED: Tens of thousands of rape kits go untested across the U.S.
The announcement drew praise from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and from social advocates who say the initiative amounts to justice for sexual-assault victims.
“If anything, I think it is basically telling them law enforcement cares, the county attorney cares, the Arizona Legislature cares,” said Colleen Clase, an attorney with Arizona Voice for Crime Victims.
Ducey established a task force on the issue in 2016 on which Clase and various lawmakers, county attorneys and law-enforcement officials served. The task force aimed to track down untested kits and develop statewide protocols for future testing.
Investigative value questioned
While the initiative has been roundly praised as a voice for victims, it is unclear how much investigative value will come of the effort.
DNA testing is often used in rape cases to help identify an unknown offender. However, many of the untested kits stem from cases in which the suspect was known, but there was a question of consent.
Advocates: Rape-kit backlog will discourage victims, enable offenders
Because of limited resources, many agencies declined to test such kits because they were unlikely to provide new answers. The tests can carry a price tag of more than $800 apiece.
Until recently, the Phoenix police department had adopted a “test smart” rather than “test all” protocol, which gave investigators discretion whether to run the analysis.
Sen. Katie Hobbs, D-Phoenix, said the testing could help identify serial offenders and bolster evidence in the “he-said, she-said” cases.
“Even if the assailant is known to one victim, he could be the assailant in another case,” Hobbs said. “Usually, it isn’t an isolated incident.”
Cases involving questions of consent are notoriously difficult to prosecute, yet they make up the majority of sexual assaults. According to statistics from the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, seven out of 10 rapes are committed by someone known to the victim.
Tests resulted in 2 indictments
Recent efforts to run untested kits have resulted in two indictments, both against men already in prison for other crimes.
In May, a crime lab found a hit between a 2000 sexual-assault kit and Nicholas Blackwater. Blackwater, who is currently serving 54 years for sexual assaults between 1997 and 2001, now faces six additional charges including sexual assault, robbery and kidnapping.
The Department of Public Safety crime lab in June 2015 found a match between a 2011 sexual-assault kit and Antonio Ray Sullivan.
According to court documents, a victim in Tempe awoke in the middle of the night to find that her shorts and underwear had been pulled down and an assailant was climbing on top of her. The man later was identified as Sullivan.
In August, Sullivan was sentenced to an additional 3½ years to run consecutively to a previous 6-year sentence for burglary and sexual assault.
Whittling down the backlog
Various other efforts throughout the state last year already have helped chip away at the untested kits.
The Phoenix Police Department, Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, Tempe Police Department and Tucson Police Department have received grant funding to cover the effort.
According to a September report by the governor’s task force, the grants should be enough to test all remaining kits in Maricopa County, where more than 4,300 of the kits were held.
Legislation is still being drafted, but DPS Capt. Damon Cecil said a proposed bill would close many of the gaps in current testing protocol.
The bill, which would be considered by the Arizona Legislature, likely would require a crime lab to run all rape kits, with two categories of exceptions: If the victim does not report the crime to law enforcement, or if police find direct evidence that a crime did not occur.
Read or Share this story: http://azc.cc/2ijd6sC
Untested Rape Kits
Testing old AZ rape kits leads to dozens of arrests
Bree Burkitt
Gov. Doug Ducey touts action on rape-kit testing in State of the State address
Advocates: Rape-kit backlog will enable offenders
Aida Chavez
Tempe sex-assault cases under scrutiny
Chris Coppola
Letter: There’s a daily war on women
Tammy Caputi
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You are here: Home / Manufacturers / Aston Martin / New Aston Martin V12 Vantage S Roadster Set For Global Debut At Pebble Beach
New Aston Martin V12 Vantage S Roadster Set For Global Debut At Pebble Beach
8 August 2014 By Danny
Aston Martin’s new 2015 V12 Vantage S Roadster will make its global debut as part of the marque’s presence at the Pebble Beach®Automotive Week from 14 August, joined by the new Design Prototype 100 (DP-100), which makes a North American debut.
Providing the most visceral yet engaging open-top experience in Aston Martin’s current range, the new V12 Vantage S Roadster delivers characteristic sporting agility underpinned by an enviable sports ‘soundtrack’ generated by its naturally aspirated V12 engine and expertly-tuned sports exhaust.
Equipped with the latest 565 bhp Aston Martin AM28 6.0-litre V12 engine, featuring state-of-the-art Bosch engine management, the car is capable of reaching 201 mph and sprinting from rest to 60 mph in only 3.9 seconds.
When it arrives in markets around the world later this year the new sports car will become the luxury British marque’s most potent, fastest and fastest-accelerating series production roadster to date and follows in the broad tyre tracks of the V12 Vantage S Coupe that was launched to worldwide acclaim in 2013.
Developed in-house by the Design team at Aston Martin, DP-100 Vision Gran Turismo is a new, virtual-only GT racer that is available for Gran Turismo®6 (GT6™) owners to download and will be shown as a full-size hand-crafted model at Monterey this month.
Starting with nothing but a blank sheet of paper the design team and design engineers worked for six months to create the new addition to the Vision Gran Turismo stable of race cars. Clearly pushing the boundaries of what an Aston Martin could be, DP-100 not only looks beautiful but also boasts a high degree of engineering integrity. A twin-turbo V12 mid-engined racer, DP-100 offers up to 800bhp, endowing it with blistering performance fully in keeping with the high octane nature of the game
Created utilising many of the same techniques as applied in the development of Aston Martin production sports cars – hand sketches and 3D modelling, followed by full realisation in the virtual world – DP-100 provides an exceptional level of detail with a fully functioning suspension system and state-of-the-art electronics.
The DP-100 will be exclusively available for viewings to customers and invited guests at the Aston Martin Estate (14-16 August) where it will be joined by the V12 Vantage S Roadster which will also lead the marque’s presence at Quail: A Motorsports Gathering (15 August).
Following a hugely successful 2013 Pebble Beach week, where Aston Martin was celebrated at a number of events as part of its centenary year, the British marque will again host guests at the exclusive Aston Martin Estate. This exquisite private venue, situated high above Carmel with panoramic views across the Monterey Bay, provides the ideal backdrop for showcasing Aston Martin’s latest sports car range to customers and friends of the brand.
This grand estate will also serve as the location for a myriad of exclusive events including private viewings of new Aston Martins with Design Director Marek Reichman and test drives of the marque’s current line-up of handcrafted high performance sports cars. Motorsport partners TRG-AMR will be presenting the Vantage GT4 race car which is currently spearheading the first Aston Martin one-make race series in North America.
Supported by Louis Roederer, Timothy Oulton, McIntosh, Davidoff, William Grant & Sons, Ghurka and Merrill Lynch, more than 1,000 customers are expected to visit during the week.
Filed Under: Aston Martin, Concept Cars, Latest News, Launches, Manufacturers
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Pope heads to Castel Gandolfo to write new encyclical, book
Vatican City, Jul 7, 2010 / 01:40 pm ().-
The Holy Father retired on Wednesday afternoon to his residence at Castel Gandolfo where he will be spending the greater part of the next few months. He asked for prayers as he retires for a time of rest, work, study and writing.
Today, Pope Benedict broke with the tradition of his first five summers as Pope, which entailed heading to the mountains in the north of Italy. This year he will stay in the papal villa just minutes from Rome by helicopter.
The director of the Pontifical Villas, Saverio Petrillo, told Vatican Radio on Tuesday that there was great anticipation surrounding the Pope's arrival and that staff there has been working hard, but with "joy and enthusiasm," to prepare for the occasion.
Petrillo explained that Castel Gandolfo has been used for the last 400 years as the "stable See" for Popes in summer. He added also that the Holy Father took to the villa—from which one can observe Rome and the Mediterranean on one side and a lake and surrounding hills on the other—immediately upon arriving there for his first visit in May of 2005.
According to a report from Marco Ansaldo in La Repubblica, the Pope's days will begin with 7:30 a.m. Mass and then continue with time divided between study, meditation, prayer, music and writing.
Ansaldo said that the Pope has a twofold "ambitious objective" this summer: "beginning a new book on the Gospels of the infancy of Jesus and giving form to the first draft of his new encyclical, the fourth of his Pontificate."
The encyclical, he reported, will likely be on "Faith."
Looking forward to his time at the hilltop retreat, the Holy Father asked during the Polish greeting after the catechesis at Wednesday morning's general audience for "prayers in the days of my sojourn at Castel Gandolfo."
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Pope Benedict travels to his summer residence at Castel Gandolfo
Having returned from his visit to Australia for World Youth Day, Pope Benedict XVI has moved to...
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GOP lawmaker proposes measure to end Mueller probe in 6 months
By Blair Guild
August 29, 2017 / 5:17 PM / CBS News
Trump tax returns
Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Florida, has proposed an amendment to the government spending legislation that would end funding to the special counsel investigating potential collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government during the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
If Congress passes the amendment, it would stop funding for former FBI director Robert Mueller's investigation after 180 days.
At the end of that 6 month period, the amendment would also prevent the special counsel from looking into "matters occurring before June 2015"-- a crucial time period for the special counsel to investigate, as President Trump formally declared his candidacy in a speech from Trump Tower on June 16, 2015.
The conservative congressman's office released a statement saying that the special counsel "didn't identify a crime to be investigated and practically invites a fishing expedition" and calls on Congress to "clarify the scope and limit the duration of this investigation."
The legislation was filed as part of a spending bill the House will consider after the August congressional recess. However, the House Rules Committee must endorse the measure before it can be voted on.
The appropriations bill would keep the federal government open past Sept. 30, which marks the end of the fiscal year. If the amendment were to be included in the bill, it could be among those that would be polarizing enough to cause the bill to fail. If Congress does not pass the spending package by Sept. 30, the government will shut down.
Blair Guild
Blair Guild is a politics reporter and video producer for CBS News Digital.
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Sequel To The Absent Minded Professor
The movie has one sequel, Son of Flubber, made in 1963, and was remade twice , once in 1988 as a TV movie, also titled The Absent-Minded Professor which.
The Absent-Minded Professor (1961) + Son of Flubber (1963) (double feature). Advance ticket sales automatically cut off 2 hours before the start of the first film.
Mar 16, 2016 · On March 16, Walt Disney’s mega-hit comedy-fantasy The Absent-Minded Professor turns 55—but the laughter is ageless, from its high-flying Model T antics and gravity-defying basketball game to the its inventive script that moves deftly between all-out zaniness and wry political satire.
A pleasant, undemanding Disney comedy from the reliable director of The Absent-Minded Professor (1961). The characters were stretched a little too far for a 1965 sequel, The Monkey’s Uncle.
At the beginning of “3 Headed Snake,” from his new album, “Drip or Drown 2,” Gunna is beautifully mumbling. but generally he strings clauses together as if absent-minded, a fever dream of excess.
Proof by induction. The base case, N = 2, is immediate. In general, the absent-minded professor might choose her assigned seat with probability 1/N, in which case the last woman surely gets her assigned seat. The absent-minded professor might choose the last woman’s seat with probability 1/N, in which case the last woman definitely loses her seat.
Montgomery Gregory, an English professor at Howard University who had been moved to. It was estimated that some 2 million American men would need to be conscripted into the Army in the coming year.
Buy The Absent-Minded Professor / Son of Flubber [DVD] [2 Pack] at CCVideo. com. Movies / TV: Family-Disney, Comedy-Classic: 786936774283.
THE ABSENT MINDED PROFESSOR – Disney comedy about a professor who invents a revolutionary flying rubber, which he dubs `flubber'. Not only does the.
Jul 4, 2017. [1] The Absent-Minded Professor, wikipedia.org. (accessed June 13, 2017); [2] Flubber (film), wikipedia.org. (accessed June 13, 2017); [3] The.
Ancient Greek Translation Tool Visitors to Ancient Lives are given an image of a piece of Greek-scrawled papyrus, broken and indistinct, and then use a suite of tools to mark, identify, and measure the text they find. With nearly. I was yawning when I entered my Greek. ban Google Translate. Perhaps they should force students to complete more in-class sight translations in
The Absent-Minded Professor (1961) Of all the films British director Robert Stevenson helmed for Disney in the 1960s, Mary Poppins and The Absent-Minded Professor endure as the most fun and memorable. Fred MacMurray nails his role as the titular bumbling professor who can’t seem to remember his own wedding but has the presence of mind to invent flying rubber, or flubber as he calls it.
University of Sydney Business School Associate Professor Barney Tan told Business Insider Australia. “There is something.
The Absent-Minded Professor (1961) It allows for the invention of shoes that can allow jumps of amazing heights and enables a modified Model-T to fly. Unfortunately, no one is interested in the material except for Alonzo Hawk, a corrupt businessman who wants to steal the material for himself.
Cu Boulder Spring 2019 Academic Calendar Its members are due to deliver recommendations this spring. said. CU released some positive results from initial analysis, including that 70 percent of respondents reported they had a faculty. Every spring, Dean Jim Williams holds his breath and hopes that the University of Colorado will provide the Boulder campus libraries with an “inflation fighter,” or a budget increase
They include Air Force F-22s, an Air Force B-2 Stealth bomber from Whiteman Air Force Base in. Joseph Martin, the incoming.
Empathy is a skill that one can cultivate over time, Stanford University psychologist Jamil Zaki finds, and with the right practices, anyone—even the most close-minded individuals. Zaki is an.
It simply doesn’t support the decision," said Adrian Treves, an environmental studies professor at the University of Wisconsin. Yet gray wolves remain absent from most of their historical range.
The Absent-Minded Professor is a 1961 black-and-white Walt Disney Productions film. 1 Professor Ned Brainard; 2 Others; 3 Dialogue; 4 Cast; 5 External links.
(Most of the top-tier candidates were in attendance, though Pete Buttigieg and Cory Booker were absent.) The NEA is.
Revealed during Nintendo’s E3 2019 Nintendo Direct, the long awaited sequel will feature Mr. Fantastic. previously confirmed to be included in the game — have been absent from many Marvel-licensed.
Researchers analyzed more than a decade of data on more than 8,000 2- to 17-year-olds enrolled in a national eczema. Hispanic children were 3.4 times more likely to be chronically absent due to.
May 19, 2014. You may remember the original 1963 movie "Son of Flubber" starring Fred MacMurray, the sequel to "The Absent-Minded Professor," one of the.
Jan 23, 2014. When an absent-minded science professor (Fred MacMurray) creates a gravity- free substance he calls Flubber, the fun flies as he tries to use.
Left-leaning law professor Jonathan Turley — who has stood out in recent. The sealed version of the report given to Congress only had 2 percent redacted. Democrats are therefore seeking a contempt.
"Son Of Flubber," the sequel to "The Absent-Minded Professor," is a Disney live- action movie that premiered in theaters during January of 1963. The running.
Landlady Mrs. Chatsworth (Belle Montrose) hopes to prevent Professor Brainard (Fred MacMurray) from missing his wedding for a third time, as he conducts an experiment, early in Disney’s in The Absent-Minded Professor, 1961.
Since then, more news has emerged: Season 2 showrunner Ayanna Floyd Davis tells The Hollywood. Couldn’t they have stealthily done the deed on the bus? Is Jake going to be so absent-minded that he.
2. The Absent Minded Prospector: 3. The Absent Minded Prospector. 4. The Absent Minded Prospector. Screenshots Wowpedia Wowpedia The Absent Minded Prospector Take the mysterious fossil to Chief Archaeologist Greywhisker in Darnassus.
KidFest: The Absent Minded Professor Disney comedy about a professor who invents a revolutionary flying rubber, which he dubs “flubber.”
Absent-Minded Professor, The (film) For the third time, Professor Ned Brainard of Medfield College is so engrossed in a scientific experiment he fails to show up for his wedding with pretty Betsy Carlisle. But although he loses his girl to rival Professor Shelby Ashton, his absent-mindedness pays off with the creation of Flubber, a rubbery substance with an antigravity agent.
The Absent Minded Prospector. None yet – Submit one! None yet – Suggest one! This quest was marked obsolete by Blizzard and cannot be obtained or completed. Take the mysterious fossil to Chief Archaeologist Greywhisker in Darnassus.
Hailed as one of Walt Disney’s most hilarious comedies, THE ABSENT-MINDED PROFESSOR contains two essential elements for laughter — Fred MacMurray and Flubber, his gravity-defying formula for.
Scholar Who Walks The Night Ep 10 Jul 08, 2015 · Scholar Who Walks The Night is a Korean drama taking place in an alternate history Korea where vampires exist. A vampire/scholar meets a woman who wears men’s clothing so she can work as a book merchant. the vampire met an aloof noblewoman who looks exactly like his long dead first love whose death he is
Hailed as one of Walt Disney's most hilarious comedies, THE ABSENT-MINDED PROFESSOR contains two essential elements for laughter – Fred MacMurray.
Take Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior aide, who was admitted to Harvard – generally considered the nation’s most prestigious university – after his father made a $2.5m donation.
The story was set in fictional Medfield, a town that (along with its eponymous Medfield College) was the setting for five other Disney gimmick comedies, including The Absent-Minded Professor, Son of Flubber and the “Dexter Riley” trilogy (The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, Now You See Him Now You Don’t, The Strongest Man in the World).
In addition to MacMurray, Absent-Minded Professor alumni Nancy Olson, Keenan Wynn, DVD Release: April 6, 2004. Son Of Flubber. 0. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. sex.
Mar 5, 2019. Avg: 4 from 2 votes. Routes in Absent Minded Professor. Show All Routes. Show all routes. Trad. Absent Minded Professor, The T,TR WI4.
The Absent-minded Professor. Centering around the popularity of “The Absent-Minded Professor” comes the sequel, “ Son of Flubber ” and remake “ Flubber.” Professor Ned Brainerd (Fred MacMurray) is so absorbed in his research that he’s missed his own wedding to Betsy (Nancy Olson) twice. While missing the third appointment,
Although it would not be fair to call the ultimately more famous book a sequel to his first. Hume was large and gregarious, Smith more of an absent-minded professor type. What is evident from the.
Absent free will. seminar will be held July 15 – August 2 in Bogotá, and one distinguished scholar invited to help train the first cohort of junior scholars is UC San Diego Department of Philosophy.
Mayor Jake Spano, who was absent for the vote and said he would have opted to. What it means to be American is clearly up.
Son of Flubber. Originally released on January 18, 1963, this is the souped-up sequel to that bouncy blockbuster The Absent-Minded Professor (1961).
Iowa Democratic caucuses (CNN/Des Moines Register, 600 likely caucus-goers) Joe Biden: 24% (-5) Bernie Sanders:16% (-9) Elizabeth Warren: 15% ( 6) Pete Buttigieg: 14% ( 13) Kamala Harris: 7% ( 0) Beto.
The SF, Horror and Fantasy Film Review: Son of Flubber (1963). The Absent- Minded Professor Sequel. Stars: Fred MacMurray, Tommy Kirk, Keenan Wynn.
May 2, 2019 — President Trump’s recent call to end the HIV epidemic in the United States has turned attention to a domestic public health crisis that has been absent from the headlines. El-Sadr,
2. DON’T ASSUME YOU HAVE ALL THE ANSWERS. Because we’re all attached to our ideas, we often have difficulty staying.
May 25, 2016 · Having known a few, they fit the Absent Minded Professor stereotype v well. Able to focus intensely on a given problem, to the exclusion of almost everything else. However, if a new problem presents itself, no matter how seemingly trivial to others, but they decide they want to solve it,
Aug 6, 2018. So it makes sense that Disney would choose to do a remake/sequel for the. 2. ' The Absent-Minded Professor' (1988). Disney/NBC. Everybody.
the release said. "During the mission, I was absent minded; because of the training we’ve done before and while deployed, instinct just kicked in," Bynum said. It was July 12 and the two were part of.
The Absent-Minded Professor's Memory Book book. Read 2 reviews from the world's largest community for readers.
Thesis Statement In Social Sciences Dissertation It replaces instructions that had been included in the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBE) Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement. of the proposal is required to submit a signed. said Letitia Chai ’18, as she stepped up to give her college scholar senior thesis presentation in a conference room in the Physical Sciences Building. and that as a speaker
The Absent-Minded Professor. Jump to navigation Jump to search. The Absent-Minded Professor is a 1961 black-and-white Walt Disney Productions film based on the short story A Situation of Gravity.
In an announcement made by the registrar of the board, Professor Ishiaq Oloyede. the results of candidates would be through the Short Code (55019), ” he added. 2. If you use a phone number that.
Mar 16, 2016. The Absent-Minded Professor completed the “blueprint” for Disney. for the film's sequel, Son of Flubber, the 1997 Flubber remake, and the.
Further And Higher Education Definition Clear and relevant analysis of the online higher education space is more important than ever. but “leaves many users woefully dissatisfied and also faces considerable barriers to further adoption.”. Further tax incentives to education spending outlined in IRS Publication 970 include the ability to cash in savings. Most of the tax credits and benefits outlined in Publication 970
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Celtics jerseys to feature iconic GE logo next season
By Jon Chesto, Adam Vaccaro and Gary Washburn Globe Staff,January 24, 2017, 6:05 p.m.
The Celtics’ uniforms will have a GE logo on them next season.(Barry Chin/Globe Staff/File 2017)
Since arriving in Boston, General Electric has aimed to leave its mark on the city’s schools, its waterfront, and its high-tech companies. Now, GE wants to make its mark on the basketball court as well.
The Boston Celtics and GE have reached an agreement that will place the company’s iconic logo on players’ jerseys starting in the 2017-2018 season, according to team sources.
The deal comes as NBA teams have begun to take advantage of a new league rule that allows small sponsorship patches to appear on the left side of the jerseys.
Details about the Celtics deal were scant Tuesday. Representatives for GE and the Celtics declined to comment publicly about the arrangement, although a person briefed on the deal described it as a multimillion-dollar marketing relationship that will involve a number of elements, including work in the community.
GE also wants to deploy its data analysis software on the parquet: The arrangement is expected to make GE the Celtics data and analytics partner, with a goal of improving player performance and injury prevention, according to another person familiar with the agreement.
The organizations planned to hold a press conference to discuss their new relationship Wednesday morning at GE’s headquarters in Boston’s Fort Point section.
The deal with the Celtics will give GE — the largest public company based here — a new level of public exposure in its new home city. Chief executive Jeff Immelt told the Globe a year ago it was important that the company’s presence is felt in Boston: “We would be disappointed if the town didn’t feel the difference of having GE here.”
Much of the reason the company decided to move its corporate headquarters to Boston from its sprawling suburban campus in Fairfield, Conn., was to capitalize on the depth of young, high-tech talent in this area and to plug into the city’s culture of innovation. About 200 people work at the Boston office now, but GE eventually plans to employ 800 people in a new headquarters complex that the company will build on Necco Court, overlooking the Fort Point Channel.
GE’s most prominent sports sponsorship work in recent years has been its involvement with the International Olympic Committee. GE has been a global Olympics sponsor since 2006, and its technology was featured in venues at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. The company provided equipment from light fixtures to MRI machines to devices that provide backup power to the Games. GE has also been involved with figure skating, professional golf, and Formula One racing.
Momentum for the deal began last April when the NBA announced it would allow sponsorship logos on player uniforms for a three-year trial starting next season, coinciding with the start of a league deal with Nike. The patches will appear on the front left side of the jerseys, opposite Nike’s swoosh logo. Each team is responsible for selling its own sponsorships.
That decision made the NBA the first of the country’s four major professional sports leagues to allow ads on uniforms, aside from the logos of apparel suppliers. Many international sports leagues already sell these kinds of sponsorships. They are also popular among US soccer clubs, and the WNBA started adopting them in 2009.
The Celtics-GE arrangement marks the third such NBA deal to be announced. The Philadelphia 76ers were the first to finalize a sponsorship, signing up ticket selling platform StubHub last spring. The Sacramento Kings became the second, announcing in October that the Blue Diamond Almonds logo will appear on their jerseys.
The NBA said last year that the logos must be about 2.5 inches by 2.5 inches but can be adjusted to fit the dimensions of the sponsor’s logo. For example, a mockup of the future 76ers jersey shows that StubHub will be represented in a rectangular logo.
Some purists may well take issue with the appearance of the GE logo on the iconic Celtics uniform. But the NBA has maintained that the small, nonintrusive size of the logos will not be a distraction to the team’s jersey. The sponsor patch will not appear on jerseys that are sold nationally, but teams will have the option of selling shirts with the corporate logos in their own retail stores.
NBA fans who tune in for the All-Star Game next month will get a preview of the new sponsorship concept: The logo for Kia, the NBA’s official auto partner, will appear on players’ jerseys during that game.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver has in the past estimated that total revenue from these deals could top $100 million per year across the league, though cautioned that it could be “very unpredictable, how the marketplace will react” to 30 teams all clamoring for jersey sponsors at once.
Adam Himmelsbach and Beth Healy of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Jon Chesto can be reached at Jon.Chesto@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @jonchesto. Adam Vaccaro can be reached at adam.vaccaro@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @adamtvaccaro. Gary Washburn can be reached at gwashburn@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GwashburnGlobe.
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Gender for justice: a citizen’s guide to gender accountability at the IFIs
Gender Action
Mapping Multilateral Development Banks’ reproductive health and HIV/AIDS spending
GenderAction
The gender dimensions of post-conflict reconstruction: the World Bank track record
Gender in post-conflict reconstruction: The World Bank track record
Huge gaps in the World Bank's Gender Action Plan
Le falta compromiso a la práctica de género
Gender practice fails to live up to commitments
Since June, US NGO Gender Action has published three papers illustrating the gulf between the IFIs stated commitment to gender equality and the actual gender dimension of their investments. The focus is on post-conflict reconstruction, gender accountability, and HIV/AIDS and reproductive health. All three reach the conclusion that, far from alleviating gender-based discrimination, bank loans exacerbate it.
Published in June, The gender dimensions of post-conflict reconstruction: the World Bank track record finds that only a fraction of World Bank post-conflict reconstruction initiatives focus on the needs of women. It suggests a failure on the part of the Bank to ‘meet its own promised objective to “mainstream gender” into all its investments’. Analysis of Post-Conflict Fund (PCF) grants reveals a decline in grants targeting women as a specific group, from 5.4 per cent of funds in 2002 to 3.8 per cent in 2006. Of the 14 PCF projects examined in detail, 10 (71 per cent) fail to address gender issues. PCF projects continue to have a traditional ‘Women in Development’ approach, overlooking the need to address the underlying causes of women’s poverty, especially the differentiated roles of men and women in a post-conflict environment. It is therefore extremely important, “in the post-conflict environment, that program design pay attention to how gender roles, responsibilities, relations and power affect and are affected by the achievement of mainstream program results”.
Gender justice – a citizen’s guide to gender accountability at the IFIs , published with the Center for International Environmental Law in July, compares IFI accountability mechanisms and gender policies. Accountability mechanisms have tended to focus on claims of environmental damage, but could be useful tools for addressing the gender-related impacts of IFI projects. Mechanisms were evaluated on the basis of the scope of their jurisdiction, and the types of impacts that can and cannot be considered. The analysis revealed that the Asian and African Development Banks have the strongest gender policies. They are followed by the World Bank, whose effectiveness is undermined by the fact that its gender policy does not cover policy-based lending (which often imposes socio-economically harmful reforms such as privatisation of healthcare and water supply, the impact of which falls disproportionately on marginalised groups, like women and children). Overall, gender policies at the IFIs were found to be “weak, poorly resourced, understaffed and lacking incentives for staff to engender their work”.
The third paper, published in September, Mapping multilateral development banks’ reproductive health and HIV/AIDS spending , finds that “despite firm commitments by the MDBs to achieving MDG reproductive health and HIV/AIDS targets”, there has been “a recent decline in World Bank spending and dearth of other MDB support” over the past few years. Average World Bank expenditure on reproductive health and HIV/AIDS was less than 6 per cent of total spending in 2003-06. The report found that the policies and practices of the banks themselves were among the biggest obstacles to fulfilment of their goals. This includes downsizing of the public sector, privatisation of public services, imposition of wage bill ceilings and user fees and the promotion of intellectual property rights, which limit the availability of healthcare among the poorest, a large proportion of which are women.
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LETTER: To get 11 per cent of the vote is not a mandate - it's embarassing
Picture: PA
MOLLY Scott Cato’s delusional remarks published in the letters section of in last week’s Bridport News cannot be left unchallenged.
She may remember that some years ago a referendum on proportional representation was put to the nation and rejected.
The fact is, we have the system of democracy that we have and to call it undemocratic as she does is quite untrue and bordering on a smear.
She may not like it, but the reason why there are so many Conservative politicians serving constituencies in the south west is because they gained the largest number of votes.
People vote for the party they have most confidence in. Thereafter they must leave it to the government to decide what’s best, whether it be cuts to social services, a hard Brexit, or anything else. If they don’t like what it is doing, they can vote differently at the next election.
Democracy is not a matter of degree but of fact. There are disadvantages to both proportional representation and first past the post, not least in the former case, fudge.
For my part I would be embarrassed to be working as an MEP if as she says she did she gained a mere 11 per cent plus of the vote, and on what was probably a very low turn-out too. It is not a mandate.
As for Molly Scott Cato’s linkage of the suffragette movement with proportional representation, that is quite absurd. The two have nothing to do with each other.
Quite apart from anything else, it is not without interest that one does not see passionate advocates of proportional representation chaining themselves to railings, throwing themselves onto a race track, slashing the most priceless works of art, and so on. I wonder why not.
I’m sure Molly Scott Cato is to be commended for her fast but I do wish she hadn’t advertised the fact in a virtue-signalling sort of way. It’s just a tad tawdry. People who think they are doing good things do not announce the matter through a newspaper.
In any case, to my mind, the suffragists as opposed to the suffragettes should be commemorated rather more than the latter. They were just as successful in getting the women’s vote but went about their protests peacefully and within the law.
EDMUND ROMILLY
Barrack Street
Jurassic Fields 2019: All the highlights and pictures from 'the biggest and best year yet'
Dorset's first bird of prey centre and sanctuary opens its doors
Pictures: 12 dogs having a pawsome time at Jurassic Fields
Seagull rescued from Post Office roof
Week-long fundraiser for the RNLI aims to be bigger and better than ever
Care plans for teens in council care to be updated in two-month programme
Calls for government to protect farm land from flooding
This is how many people are turning to Bridport's Citizen's Advice for help
Find out more about the world of bats at this beginners workshop
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Mount Merapi
volcano, Java, Indonesia
Alternative Title: Gunung Merapi
Mount Merapi, Indonesian Gunung Merapi, volcanic mountain peak located near the centre of the island of Java, Indonesia. The volcano is about 20 miles (32 km) north of Yogyakarta and somewhat farther south of Semarang. Merapi (“Mountain of Fire”) rises to 9,551 feet (2,911 metres) and has steep slopes with dense vegetation on its lower flanks. It is the most active of Indonesia’s 130 active volcanoes. One of its largest eruptions occurred in 1006 and spread ash throughout central Java. Other major eruptions were those of 1786, 1822, 1872, 1930, and 1976. Almost half of Merapi’s eruptions have been accompanied by pyroclastic flows, or nuées ardentes, which are clouds of superheated gases and incandescent solid particles. In the eruption of Nov. 22, 1994, the release of a pyroclastic flow killed 64 people. A series of eruptions of the volcano in late 2010, which included pyroclastic flows, killed scores of people, injured dozens more, and forced tens of thousands to evacuate the area.
Mount MerapiMount Merapi, Java island, Indonesia. Lesto Kusumo
This article was most recently revised and updated by Kenneth Pletcher, Senior Editor.
Indonesia: Volcanoes
Mount Merapi, which rises to 9,551 feet (2,911 metres) near Yogyakarta (Jogjakarta) in central Java, erupts frequently—often causing extensive destruction to roads, fields, and villages but always greatly benefiting the soil. Mount Kelud (5,679 feet [1,731 metres]), near Kediri in eastern Java, can be particularly…
…southern Java coast and near Mount Merapi (9,551 feet [2,911 m]).…
Volcanism, any of various processes and phenomena associated with the surficial discharge of molten rock, pyroclastic fragments, or hot water and steam, including volcanoes, geysers, and fumaroles. Although volcanism is best known on Earth, there is evidence that it has been important in the…
Southeast Asia, vast region of Asia situated east of the Indian subcontinent and south of China. It consists of two dissimilar portions: a continental projection (commonly called mainland Southeast Asia) and a string of archipelagoes to the south and east of the mainland (insular Southeast Asia).…
More About Mount Merapi
In Yogyakarta
physiography of Indonesia
In Indonesia: Volcanoes
Mount Pinatubo
Mayon Volcano
Mount Elbrus
Mount Ararat
Mount Everest, mountain on the crest of the Great Himalayas of southern Asia that lies on the border…
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Kenfig Industrial Estate: Great crested newt and Reptile Survey
Female Common Lizard
Wernick Buildings proposed to relocate its manufacturing base to Kenfig Industrial Estate, near Port Talbot, and submitted plans to extend an access road along the eastern side of the existing Orion building. An ecology survey report previously produced by a third party to accompany the planning application suggested that the development site was unlikely to support breeding amphibians, but that great crested newt and common reptiles may be found on the site and may use rubble piles present for hibernating. In addition, a desk study of local records completed by a third party revealed that great crested newt breed in a pond located approximately 500m to the south-west of the site in the Kenfig Dunes Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and Special Area of Conservation (SAC).
A recommendation for targeted survey of reptiles and great crested newt was made by the local planning authority in response to the conclusions of the ecology report.
BSG Ecology reviewed the requirement for further survey work and conducted a site visit and study of maps and aerial imagery to assess the habitats on the site and in the wider landscape.
The site was considered to provide some suitable habitat for terrestrial newts and reptiles, although this was limited in extent and quality. The majority of habitat was rank grassland with a fairly open sward and a thin soil base on hardcore. The thin vegetation cover and lack of tussock-forming grasses was considered to offer little hibernation potential for reptiles of amphibians. However, habitat features were identified by a line of scrub along one edge of the grassland area and a small rubble pile.
Terrestrial surveys (pitfall trapping) for great crested newts are not recommended in the guidance produced by Natural England¹ (and adopted by Natural Resources Wales) unless there is a genuine reason to do so. Such surveys are difficult to conduct thoroughly, take considerable time, and are likely to affect the welfare of great crested newts and other species. In addition, determination of population size class (as required for licensing purposes should mitigation be required) by sampling in terrestrial habitat distant from a pond is fraught with practical and interpretative difficulties, and is therefore not recommended.
Following a review of aerial imagery and ground truthing, one pond was identified approximately 120 m to the south of the development site boundary. This pond is adjacent to the River Kenfig and appeared to hold flood water from the river. Anecdotal evidence from the landowner suggested that the pond is seasonal in nature. However, ponds that dry out most years can still support populations of newts.
Our approach was to directly survey the nearby pond for the presence of great crested newt according to methods provided in the great crested newt mitigation guidelines¹ as a proportionate alternative to full terrestrial survey of the site itself. The pond survey aimed to identify the presence or likely absence of a local population, and the likelihood that terrestrial newts use the development site. The reasoning behind this was that if no newts were found during survey of the pond then the proposed on-site works would be unlikely to result in an offence under the Conservation of Habitats & Species Regulations (2010) or the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (as amended).
Reptile survey following standard terrestrial survey methods² was carried out on the development site in tandem with the great crested newt survey of the pond. This terrestrial survey also allowed for additional checks of great crested newt within the site, as a supplement to the pond survey.
The surveys were completed in spring 2014. No great crested newts were found on site or in the nearby pond, and so no mitigation measures for this species were required. A small population of reptiles was found to be present on the site. However, due to the restricted footprint of the proposed development, and the connection of the site to high quality habitats for reptiles to disperse to, it was considered satisfactory to provide a method statement for the work and limit reptile exclusion to basic vegetation management and refuge removal.
BSG Ecology adopted a pragmatic approach to establish the status of great crested newt on the development site using good practice guidance whilst considering the client’s time and cost interests. Consultation with the LPA prior to carrying out the survey work ensured that the method was accepted, and provided confidence to the client that the method was robust and acceptable to the council. Planning consent for the development was obtained in summer 2014, shortly after the completion of the surveys and provision of the survey report.
¹ English Nature (2001) The Great crested newt Mitigation Guidelines Peterborough, English Nature
² Gent, T and Gibson, S (2003) Herpetofauna Workers’ Manual. JNCC, Peterborough
Wernick Buildings
Residential/ Commercial Development, Wales
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7 Ways Jennifer Lawrence's "The Hanging Tree" & Anna Kendrick's "Cups" Are Basically The Same Song
By Kadeen Griffiths
Jason Merritt/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images
Somewhere in the world right now, Jennifer Lawrence is probably blushing in surprise and mild embarrassment. After all, Lawrence told us she had been forced to sing in Mockingjay , and proved that she wasn't very good at it, but apparently she underestimated her own considerable appeal. Despite her warning, "The Hanging Tree" is number 29 on the U.K. charts because the U.K., like the rest of the world, will pay money to watch Lawrence do anything at any time ever. Does this sound familiar? If it does, then you're as obsessed with Pitch Perfect as I am. I don't know about you, but, prior to Pitch Perfect, I didn't know that the game "Cups" had a song that went with it. And, after Pitch Perfect, I never wanted to hear that song again.
Sure, "Cups" and "The Hanging Tree" are two completely different songs, in sound and originality at least. After all, "Cups," like every other song in Pitch Perfect, was a cover of a pre-existing song that had been released in 2012. Meanwhile, "The Hanging Tree" is a haunting song written by author Suzanne Collins specifically for The Hunger Games. If anything, we might hear a cover version of "The Hanging Tree" in a Pitch Perfect 3 one day. However, people had enough of a similar reaction to the two songs to make me wonder what they actually had in common. It turns out that it's more than you think.
1. Their themes are universal
"The Hanging Tree" is basically the realest thing to come out of a movie since half of the Les Miserables soundtrack. It's a forbidden song that Katniss hasn't sung since she was a little girl, and, despite its actual meaning, it rises to become the symbolic protest song of the revolution. Meanwhile, in "Cups," the singer is talking about leaving their hometown and traveling around the world — and how lonely they'd be without a loved one at their side. Both songs have something that we can relate to, or something that we'd be moved by, inherent in their themes of love and loss.
2. Their lyrics are pretty deep
I mean, "The Hanging Tree" is deep in a morbid kind of way and "Cups" is deep in a dynamic sort of way — but I think that's incredibly fitting to the tones of both source films, don't you? The fact of the matter is, when you strip away the pomp and circumstances, both songs are about a person asking their love to meet them and go with them somewhere, but they both take different lyrical routes to that message.
3. They are perfect for covers
Both "The Hanging Tree" and "Cups" practically invite you to sing your own version of the song. In fact, the whole reason that "Cups" was lengthened to a radio single to begin with was because so many parody videos cropped up of people performing the song with a cup of their own. Meanwhile, "The Hanging Tree" is the kind of thing you can belt out in a cover to prove your vocal range, even if there aren't many parody videos. (Yet.)
4. They're catchy
Repetition and a smooth beat make "Cups" and "The Hanging Tree" easy to memorize and easy to get stuck in your head. The scene in Mockingjay in which Katniss starts singing the song and the film cuts to the rebels finishing the song is a good approximation of how easily I left the theater humming it. At this point, I am very tired of hearing "Cups," but that's just because I had it stuck in my head for three months straight. See: catchy.
5. They're sung by two awesome leading ladies
"The Hanging Tree" is sung by Lawrence and "Cups" is sang by Anna Kendrick, both of them alone on the song for the soundtrack. In-universe, Katniss Everdeen and Beca Mitchell sing their solo songs in pivotal scenes that really serve to display their character and the tone of the film they're in. Part of the reason these songs are so popular is due to the popularity of the awesome ladies who are singing them.
6. We didn't even know they could sing
I don't know about you, but I didn't know Kendrick could sing before Pitch Perfect came out. I also didn't know that Lawrence could sing before Mockingjay came out. (Although, she underestimates her own ability to sing.) The novelty of that is part of what draws us all to these songs.
7. We didn't see these songs coming
When we heard that Lorde was curating the Mockingjay soundtrack, did anyone guess that Lawrence would have a single on it? No? That's what I thought. When we heard the songs on the Pitch Perfect soundtrack, did any of us know Kendrick would perform a solo song that took the game Cups to a new, musical level? No? That's what I thought. These songs were like surprise gifts to the world and that's why they're on the charts. They don't have to sound the same to evoke the same reaction from movie audiences. They basically are the same.
Relive the goodness of both songs below.
Republic Records on YouTube
AnnaKendrickVEVO on YouTube
Image: likejaeger, mordisney (2), queensourdawn, h4awk-girl, dancemadagony/Tumblr; Wifflegif
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Typhoon Usman death count up to 75, missing at 16
January 1, 2019 | 8:11 pm
RESIDENTS OF San Jose Baybayon, Buhi in Camarines Sur are evacuated by joint teams from the Philippine National Police, military, Coast Guard, and Red Cross. — MPS BUHI FB PAGE
THE LAST typhoon to hit the country in 2018, locally named Usman, claimed 75 lives with 16 still reported missing and 12 injured, according to the Jan. 1 update from the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC). As of 6 a.m. yesterday, NDRRMC said Office of Civil Defense regional offices reported a total of 45,348 families composed of more than 191,000 individuals were affected in the regions of CALABARZON (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon), MIMAROPA (Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon, Palawan), Bicol, and Eastern Visayas. Of these, 6,637 families were still in evacuation centers. Out of the 206 flooded areas in CALABARZON, MIMAROPA, and Eastern Visayas, water has subsided in 107. The Philippine Coast Guard also reported that as of Dec. 31, there were no more stranded passengers and vessels in any port. “All fishing and shipping companies have already resumed normal operations,” the NDRRMC report said. A state of calamity was declared in the provinces of Albay and Sorsogon, both located in the Bicol region.
AGRI DAMAGE
The Department of Agriculture, meanwhile, reported P299.4 million worth of damage in the four affected regions. In an update as of 5 p.m. of Dec. 31, DA said an estimated 9,606 metric tons (MT) of farm products in 13,862 hectares were damaged, affecting 11,231 farmers. Rice loss was P266.98 million at 7,496 MT. Corn loss was reported at P976,267, with 11 MT. Fruit trees, assorted vegetables and root crops classified as high value crops worth about P31.48 million were also damaged. — Reicelene Joy N. Ignacio
Reicelene Joy N. Ignacio
Typhoon Usman
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Ottawa hearing-test company acquired
OTTAWA – Clearwater Clinical, founded back in 2005 by Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario surgeon Matthew Bromwich, has been acquired by Sivantos Group, a major global player in hearing technology that was spun out of Siemens. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Clearwater developed a few devices aimed at the healthcare market, but its breakout success has been Shoebox, an iPad-based audiometer that acts as a substitute for professional hearing tests. Perhaps because of the success of this product, the company is now known as Shoebox, Inc.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved application offers an accessible alternative to patients in need of a hearing test, many of whom face extensive travel and waiting lists before they can see an audiologist.
“There’s a lot of outlying towns and places where there’s just simply no specialist there,” CEO Mike Weider told the Ottawa Business Journal.
The 55-person Ottawa-based company will continue to operate as a standalone firm, says Weider, who joined the team roughly five years ago in a push to commercialize the Shoebox solution.
Shoebox has three primary target markets. The first is healthcare providers themselves, particularly physicians and hospitals operating in remote areas such as the far north where specialized testing equipment and booths are unavailable.
The next market targets companies in sectors such as oil and gas, construction and air travel, where excessive noise can lead to hearing loss. In these fields, regulations say employers must test workers on an annual basis to establish a baseline and regular updates for hearing health.
The final use case, and perhaps the one most applicable to the company’s acquisition, is in the hearing aid market. Sivantos is one of a few global powerhouses in this field, bringing in more than a billion euros in revenues in fiscal 2018. The company recently became even bigger, announcing at the beginning of March it has completed its merger with fellow hearing tech firm Widex to form WS Audiometry.
Providers fitting up patients with hearing aids require on-site testing to fine-tune the inner-ear devices to each user’s needs. Clearwater first started working with Sivantos last year on a strategic partnership that would see Sivantos fold the Shoebox system into its own hearing aid offerings, but as is often the case with M&A discussions, Weider says “one thing led to another” and an acquisition deal was struck in December.
New FDA regulations will soon see certain low-grade hearing aids available to patients over the counter, which will open up a new wave of demand for accessible hearing tests. “You need a test to support those new channels,” Weider says.
With the backing of a hearing tech behemoth, Weider expects the Shoebox solution to take off internationally. Sivantos alone has a presence in more than 100 countries, he says, noting markets such as China and India as ripe for disruption.
Wherever the company’s solution goes next, Weider says the core of the company Bromwich launched in Ottawa more than a decade ago hasn’t changed. “Our mission remains the same, which is to expand hearing healthcare to the world and to make it more available and accessible.”
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Drugs & Victimless Crimes
Guns & Self-Defense
Women’s Rights & Abortion
Collectivism
Middle East & Israel
Cuba & Castro
Democrats are Desperate for Votes
by Walter Williams | Apr 17, 2019 | Elections
There’s a push to change laws to permit both criminals serving time and ex-criminals the right to vote. Guess which party is pushing the most for these legal changes. If you guessed that it was the Democrats, go to the head of the class. Bernie Sanders says states should allow felons to vote from behind bars. Elizabeth Warren doesn’t go that far but believes felons should have the right to vote. Democrats want the criminal class to have voting rights restored because they could become a significant part of the Democratic base.
These are America’s murderers, rapists, burglars, child molesters and drug dealers. Over two million of these people are in prison. If we add in the number of people on probation and parole, there are 6.7 million people currently under correctional control. If cons and ex-cons get the right to vote, it’s almost a guarantee that most of these people will cast their vote for a Democratic candidate.
Democrats don’t stop with wanting cons and ex-cons to vote. It turns out that more than 50 percent of Democrats surveyed want illegal immigrants to have the right to vote, as they already do in some Democratic-controlled cities.
America’s gun control advocates have the belief that outlawing guns would drastically reduce crime. Almost all handguns have been outlawed from private citizen use in the U.K. since 1996. Nonetheless, violent crime in the U.K. has risen almost every year since the ban. Criminals love the idea of a disarmed populace. While there are few gun crimes in the U.K., there’s a recent report that in 2018 there were over 40,000 knife crimes committed. It’s gotten so bad that some stores have stopped selling kitchen knives.
America’s gun control advocates might have some solutions for the citizens of the U.K. They might advocate a thorough MI5 (U.K.’s secret service) background check for anyone wishing to purchase any kind of knife, including kitchen knives. They might advocate knife registration. There might be lengthy prison sentences for anyone caught with an illegal unregistered knife. With London’s murder rate higher than New York City’s, Mayor Sadiq Khan has implemented knife control policies as violent crime surges. Khan deployed over 300 additional London police officers to stop and search anyone they suspect is carrying a knife.
Here’s something else to ponder: Democratic candidates for the 2020 presidential elections are calling for reparations for slavery or for the study of reparations. Senators Kamala Harris, Cory Booker and Elizabeth Warren are leading the charge. Slavery was a gross violation of human rights. Justice would demand that slave owners make compensatory payments to slaves. Since both slaves and slave owners are no longer with us, such punishment and compensation is beyond our reach.
So which white Americans owe which black Americans how much? Reparations advocates don’t want that question asked, but let’s you and I ask it. Are the millions of European, Asian and Latin Americans who immigrated to the U.S. in the 20th century responsible for slavery? What about descendants of Northern whites who fought and died in the War of 1861 in the name of freeing slaves? Should they cough up money for black Americans? What about non-slave-owning Southern whites, who were a majority of Southern whites — should their descendants be made to pay reparations?
On black people’s side of the ledger, thorny questions arise. Some blacks purchased other blacks as a means to free family members. But other blacks owned slaves for the same reason whites owned slaves — to work farms or plantations. Would descendants of these blacks be eligible for reparations?
The bottom line is because blacks are doing well in the economic arena under the Trump administration, Democrats fear losing a significant portion of the black vote. Their call for reparations is another attempt to use the promise of handouts to insure that the black vote remains in their pocket. Reparations talk is simply another insulting Democratic rope-a-dope strategy.
Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University. Born in Philadelphia in 1936, Walter E. Williams holds a bachelor's degree in economics from California State University (1965) and a master's degree (1967) and doctorate (1972) in economics from the University of California at Los Angeles. In 1980, he joined the faculty of George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., and is currently the John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics. He is also the author of Race and Economics: How Much Can Be Blamed on Discrimination? and Up from the Projects: An Autobiography. The awards and honors Williams have received are many. These include the National Fellow at the Hoover Institute of War, Revolution, and Peace; the Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship; the National Service Award from the Institute for Socioeconomic Studies; and the George Washington Medal of Honor from the Valley Forge Freedom Foundation. In 1984-1985, he received the Faculty Member of the Year Award from the George Mason University Alumni. He is also a member of the American Economic Association, the Mont Pelerin Society and is a Distinguished Scholar of the Heritage Foundation. Williams participates in many debates and conferences, is a frequent public speaker and often gives testimony before both houses of Congress. This editorial was made available through Creator's Syndicate.
Latest posts by Walter Williams (see all)
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The views expressed above represent those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the editors and publishers of Capitalism Magazine. Capitalism Magazine sometimes publishes articles we disagree with because we think the article provides information that may be of value to our readers.
Please keep all comments polite, civil, and on the topic of the article. Attack the argument, but not the person. Capitalism Magazine welcomes disagreement, but not being disagreeable. Spam, products links, press releases, lengthy rants, etc. will be automatically deleted.
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Mueller Probe: If Convictions Equals Success, Whitewater Was a Triumph
The ‘Voter ID Is Racist’ Myth
A Pro-Capitalist Political Agenda
King of Debt Takes the Reins
The Election’s Bearing on Monetary Freedom
What Voting Is and Is Not
Democrats’ Race Fixation Comes Back to Bite Them
Why So Many Politicians Are Crooks
Election 2016: The Dangers of a Trump Presidency
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are Cut from the Same Political Cloth
DOLLARS & CROSSES
Video: Why Britain Needs Americanism
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UPS MD - Baltimore Part-Time
Sr Director, Prospect Management and Analytics
University of Maryland Medical System MD - Baltimore Full-Time
Assistant Property Manager
BG Multifamily MD - Ellicott City Full-Time/Part-Time
Leasing Consultant
The Donaldson Group MD - Laurel Full-Time
Edgewood MD - Wheaton Full-Time
Unarmed Guard- On Call- Baltimore, MD
Chenega Corporation MD - Baltimore Full-Time
Johns Hopkins University Campus Security Professional-Flex Officer
Allied Universal MD - Baltimore Full-Time
Armed Security Officer
Chenega Corporation MD - Laurel Full-Time
University of Maryland Medical System Baltimore Full-Time
University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) has achieved Magnet status in recognition of the hospital nursing excellence. UMMC is a teaching hospital with 757 beds based in Baltimore, Maryland, that provides the full range of health care. It has more than 35,000 inpatient admissions and 165,000 outpatient visits each year. The URL blocked - click to apply (also known as Shock Trauma) is the world's first center dedicated to saving lives of people with severe, life-threatening injuries sustained in motor vehicle collisions, violent crimes and other traumatic incidents. Our vision is to provide high value and compassionate care, improving health in Maryland and beyond, educating future health care leaders and discovering innovative ways to advance medicine worldwide.
Be Part of Something Greater!
The Investigator is responsible for the investigation of criminal and non-criminal incidents at the direction of the Security Department’s executive leadership. The Investigator is involved with investigations at the separate facilities of University of Maryland Medical Center including the Hospital, Paca Pratt Building, Carter Center, Edmondson Village, 1001 West Pratt and the Frenkil Building.
Provides direct investigative oversight and supervision of investigations conducted by other members of the Security Department, takes necessary corrective action as appropriate if correct procedures are not enforced.
Ensures members of the Department are kept apprised of pertinent ongoing investigations.
In the absence of the Security Director, Security Assistant Director, and Security Manager provides executive leadership decision’s to security personnel on disturbances in the hospital or major crimes. Provides direction to squad sergeants on appropriate action to be taken.
Provides the Security Department’s executive leadership with regular updates concerning all ongoing investigations.
Acts as liaison with the investigative units of local, state, and federal agencies. Assists police with arrests and investigations attends court hearings and unemployment hearings as appropriate.
Maintains an accurate and detailed case folder system.
Provides directions and general information in accordance with established departmental and institutional policies and procedures. Resolves significant customer service challenges in a timely and professional manner.
Maintains custody of seized illegal property, controlled dangerous substances and weapons to be used for evidence in by law enforcement.
Enforces Maryland State Law and Baltimore City ordinances, along with hospital safety and security policies and procedures during assigned shift. Makes arrests when necessary.
Provides for the safety and security of patients, visitors, and staff on the University of Maryland Medical Center campus.
Protects Medical system property by observing patients, visitors, staff, and equipment, noting irregular or suspicious behaviors.
Enforces hospital safety plans during emergencies or emergency drills by notifying staff of correct procedures or aiding staff in the evacuation of hospital patients
What You Need to Be Successful:
Associate of Arts degree or equivalent in one of the social sciences or graduation from a certified Law Enforcement Academy is required.
Bachelor’s degree is preferred.
10 years of experience in high-level security or law enforcement is required.
Experience in a hospital setting is preferred.
Previous experience in an investigative role is preferred.
We are an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, religion, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, age, or any other characteristic protected by law.
The University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS) was created in 1984 when the state-owned University Hospital became a private, nonprofit organization. It has evolved into a multi-hospital system with academic, community and specialty service missions reaching every part of the state and beyond.
UMMS is a national and regional referral center for trauma, cancer care, neurocare, cardiac care, women's and children's health and physical rehabilitation. It also has one of the world's largest kidney transplant programs, as well as scores of other programs that improve the physical and mental health of thousands of people daily.
The Medical System generates nearly $3.5 billion in economic activity in Maryland. It has 15,000 employees, approximately 2,300 licensed beds, 115,000 annual patient admissions and gross patient revenues of $2 billion.
Member Hospitals
The hospitals and health systems that comprise UMMS are:
University of Maryland Medical Center- One of the nation's oldest teaching hospitals, this 816-bed facility -- located in downtown Baltimore -- is home to the University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Cancer Center, the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center, the University of Maryland Children's Hospital and the University of Maryland Division of Transplantation.
University of Maryland Medical Center Midtown Campus - This 208-bed teaching hospital offers a full spectrum of health care for more than 110,000 people annually. University of Maryland Medical Center Midtown Campus has been providing superior and accessible community health care in West Baltimore and Midtown for more than a century.
Mt. Washington Pediatric Hospital - This 102-bed pediatric and rehabilitation hospital, located in northwest Baltimore, provides specialty medical care to infants and children with complex medical needs.
UM Baltimore Washington Medical Center - This 319-bed community hospital, located between Baltimore and Annapolis in Anne Arundel County, offers a wide variety of services and was recently named a "Top 100" hospital for intensive care outcomes by Thomson Reuters.
UM Charles Regional Medical Center - Located in La Plata, Maryland, this 110-bed community hospital, along with an Ambulatory Surgery Center and OB/GYN Centers in Waldorf and La Plata, serve patients in Charles County and the surrounding areas of southern Maryland.
UM Rehabilitation and Orthopaedics Institute - This 141-bed facility (formerly Kernan Hospital), located in Woodlawn, is the state's largest rehabilitation and orthopaedic hospital serving both adults and children. It also houses the University of Maryland Complementary Medicine Program.
UM St. Joseph Medical Center - This 232-bed nonprofit, regional medical center, located in Towson, Md., became a part of the University of Maryland Medical System on December 1, 2012. It features institutes for heart, cancer and orthopaedic care, and offers a full range of clinical diagnostic and treatment services.
UM Shore Regional Health - Shore Health System became UM Shore Regional Health on July 1, 2013, and consists of the following facilities: UM Shore Medical Center at Chestertown; UM Shore Medical Center at Dorchester and UM Shore Medical Center at Easton, as well as the UM Shore Emergency Center at Queenstown.
Upper Chesapeake Health System - In July 2009, UMMS announced a strategic affiliation with Upper Chesapeake Health System that is expected to lead to a full merger. Upper Chesapeake Health includes Upper Chesapeake Medical Center in Bel Air and Harford Memorial Hospital in Havre de Grace. The leading health care system and largest private employer in Harford County, Upper Chesapeake Health offers a broad range of healthcare services, technology, and facilities to the residents of northeastern Maryland.
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Shadows of ANZAC
an Intimate History of Gallipoli
On 25 April 1915, with the landing of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) below the slopes of Sari Bair on the Gallipoli peninsula, the ANZAC legend was born.
Unfortunately, due to sales rights restrictions, we cannot offer Shadows of ANZAC for sale in your country.
On 25 April 1915, with the landing of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) below the slopes of Sari Bair on the Gallipoli peninsula, the ANZAC legend was born. Nine months later, having suffered thousands of casualties from disease, hand-to-hand fighting, bombing, sniping and forlorn charges across no man's land, the politicians and senior military commanders in London called it quits. While the Turks also suffered terribly, they at least emerged victorious. The fighting at Anzac was not restricted to the ANZACs and Turks alone. British troops also fought at Anzac from the earliest days of the invasion and large numbers of British and Indian troops were committed to the Anzac sector during the failed August offensive designed to break the stalemate. The invasion was also supported by large numbers of men - often non-combatants - who performed vital roles. Naval beach officers kept logistics operating in some form of 'orderly' fashion; Indian mule handlers moved supplies of food, water and ammunition to the front lines; and medical staff and army chaplains worked on the beach, caring for the wounded and the dead. All these men were frequently under fire from the Turkish battery known as 'Beachy Bill'. Others surveyed the narrow beachhead and bored deep holes for drinking water; signallers tried desperately to establish and maintain communications; and the gunners hunted the battlefield for suitable places to site their guns. Off the peninsula, but just as vital, were the nursing and medical staff on the hospital ships, at Lemnos, Alexandria, Cairo and Malta, and the airmen who flew above the battlefield spotting for the navy and artillery. Shadows of Anzac: An intimate history of Gallipoli tells the story of the 'ordinary' men and women who participated in the Gallipoli campaign from April to December 1915 and gave the Anzac legend meaning. Drawing on letters, diaries and other primary and secondary sources, David Cameron provides an intimate and personal perspective of Anzac, a richly varied portrayal that describes the absurdity, monotony and often humour that sat alongside the horrors of the bitter fight to claim the peninsula.
Captain Moonlite
Michael Tyquin
One Shot Kills
Frank Gardiner
Our Friend the Enemy
David W. Cameron
My Vietnam War
Anzac Sons
Allison Paterson
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Obesity battle intensifies
By Tom Ragan (staff writer) / Published: October 28, 2012
Childhood obesity has more than tripled in the past 30 years, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
One in three children are now at high risk for chronic diseases often seen in adults, such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease and Type 2 diabetes, according to a recent report from the Hazleton YMCA/YWCA.
With childhood obesity at an all-time high, schools and other child-advocacy organizations like the YMCA are working to reverse the trend.
The Nutrition Group, a Pennsylvania-based food service company with an office in Danville, develops meals that combine healthy, nutritious eating with meals children and teens will enjoy eating at school and at home.
The company provides food for Wilkes-Barre Area, Hazleton Area, Crestwood, Weatherly Area and Pittston Area schools.
Michelle Marker, director of programs for The Nutrition Group, said food is tested for how it cooks and tastes along with its caloric and fat content.
"We have youth advisory groups from the elementary, middle and high school age ranges that help us with how much they like certain dishes," Marker said.
The groups recently selected an orange-chicken bowl recipe with low-sodium orange sauce.
"The food service director sets up a colorful table with balloons and the kids sample an item on the table. It's a way of introducing and getting kids to try something different that is good, nutritional food," Marker said.
"This is how we introduced whole wheat pasta along with tomato and cucumber salad," Marker said. "They were calling to tell us how much the kids like it."
The recipe is sent home with the children for the parents to try it and make it at home. It also contains helpful eating tips and exercise tips to reinforce the program.
David Feller, Wilkes-Barre Area food service director, said the district uses whole grain products in bread, pizza dough and even the breading for chicken nuggets.
"It reduces trans fat, saturated fat and sodium for breakfast and lunches," he said. "Educating the students about a nutritional diet and how it should be balanced with fruits and vegetables is important toward reducing child obesity."
tragan@standardspeaker.com, 570-455-3636
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Visitors to the Palisades enjoyed the Hudson River as a site of recreation and connection to nature. The last public beach in Palisades Interstate Park closed in 1943, in part due to pollution. Palisades Interstate Park Commission
The Enduring Beauty of the Hudson River
Even in the 1800s, painters were meditating on its natural beauty in the face of human exploitation.
In 1866, the historian, journalist, and illustrator Benson Lossing crafted a love letter to the Hudson River. This body of water, running over three hundred miles “from the Wilderness to the Sea,” was unparalleled in “the beauty and magnificence of its scenery, its natural, political, and social history, the agricultural and mineral treasures of its vicinage, the commercial wealth hourly floating upon its bosom, and the relations of its geography and topography to some of the most important events in the history of the Western Hemisphere.” In short, Lossing concluded, the Hudson was “by far the most interesting river in America.”
New Yorkers, perhaps more than anyone else, should find particular interest in this river and its history. The city owes not only its wealth and cultural dominance, but its very existence, to the Hudson. The richness of the Hudson estuary allowed first Native Americans and later colonialists to settle and thrive in the harbor in the first place; materials brought from upriver towns, such as bricks, stones, concrete, and iron, literally constructed New York City.
If the Hudson has served such practical needs, it has also provided a scene for deep reflection on the relationship between humans and the nonhuman world. In the 19th century, sawmills, tanneries, iron mines, and other industries transformed the landscape as they took advantage of the river and its surroundings. Artists, writers, and scientists posed questions about the moral, economic, and ecological consequences of such “progress.” Humans have the ability to shape the natural world to an extreme degree, these critics realized, but should this power be embraced or shackled? This question is fundamental to contemporary debates around the Anthropocene, a term that describes the acceleration of human impact on the earth in the last 200 years since the emergence of fossil fuels and steam power. Over the course of this period of dramatic environmental change, the Hudson has been a key site for witnessing, conceptualizing, and reimagining humans’ transformation of the earth.
Building New York City, and escaping It
The 19th-century Hudson was a conduit for people and goods: Steamboats brought immigrants, tourists, workers, artists, and writers upriver, and materials such as bricks, lumber, stone, and ice down to New York City. The ecological abundance of the Hudson estuary, where fresh water flowing down from the Adirondacks meets saltwater rushing up from the sea, provided the ideal habitat for oysters, which fed a growing urban population. Oyster shells, too, were useful to the burgeoning city, ground up to make mortar to hold bricks and stones together. Paradoxically, the river provided both the foundation for the city’s economic and cultural dominance in the 19th century and a way for urban elites to escape the less appealing aspects of their own creation in estates and hotels upriver.
For those who did not have the means to reach such destinations physically, artists and writers offered access to the fantasy of pastoral life along the Hudson. As the American Art-Union declared in 1846, “to the inhabitants of cities…a painted landscape is almost essential to preserve a healthy tone to the spirits, lest they forget in the wilderness of bricks which surrounds them the pure delights of nature and country life.” One of the most prominent painters of the Hudson was Thomas Cole, who, with his contemporaries in the Hudson River School of painting, offered scenes of an imagined rural life that starkly contrasted with a polluted and overcrowded city.
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Appealing to the spiritual and symbolic aspects of the Hudson landscape and its natural history, Cole raised questions about land use, land ownership, and the survival of rural ways of life. The message of his panoramic series of five paintings, Course of Empire, which he completed in the 1830s, is unmistakable: Left uncontrolled, economic progress leads to ruin. On three large canvases, Cole first depicts the rise of a thriving city out of a pristine landscape. Dark green hills and Native Americans disappear as architecture and science conquer the natural world. The final two paintings, just as grand as the rest, chart the decline and fall of this urban civilization.
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The outcome of the American quest for “progress,” Cole warned, was a landscape of ruins and desolation. In an 1836 essay, he connected this moral narrative to the changes he witnessed along the Hudson from his home in Catskill. Industries such as tanning and lumbering were destroying the area’s trees and polluting its streams in the pursuit of profit. “I cannot express my sorrow,” he wrote, “that the beauty of such landscapes are passing away…another generation will behold spots, now rife with beauty, desecrated by what is called improvement.”
Seeing and conserving the Hudson
While Cole held industrialists responsible for this destruction, some New York City businessmen, in fact, secured the success of early conservation efforts along the Hudson. In the Adirondacks, where the source of the Hudson is located, New York-based speculators would buy up land, remove all the lumber as quickly as possible, and then leave the state to recuperate the land for unpaid taxes. The piles of dead brush and timber they left in in their wake often started forest fires, leading to even more deforestation. In 1864, the lawyer, diplomat, and former Vermont Congressman George Perkins Marsh warned of the consequences of such practices. When trees are destroyed, he wrote in Man and Nature: Or, Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action, the ground loses its ability to hold moisture, and the disturbed ground becomes more susceptible to erosion. Deforestation threatened entire watersheds, impacting commerce, navigation, and public water supplies. This posed quite a threat to a city that largely depended on shipping to and from the Erie Canal.
Like Cole, Marsh’s message was moral and philosophical. He drew attention to the capability of humans to destroy their own civilization — even while they think they are “improving” it. “The human race,” Marsh observed, “seems destined to become its own executioner.” Yet Marsh used the language of science rather than art, drawing on textual evidence and concrete observations from his European travels. In the 1870s and 1890s, severe droughts gave his warnings credence.
Images of waterless landscapes reinforced Marsh’s catastrophic narrative. (Adirondack Experience)
Inspired by the same sense of foreboding, surveyors and forestry experts mapped and measured forested land in the Adirondacks, ultimately outlining the area necessary to protect the source of the Hudson. The possibility of inadequate water levels in the Hudson alarmed the powerful men involved with the New York Board of Trade and Transportation and the New York City Chamber of Commerce, who ultimately induced the New York State Legislature to take action. The Forest Preserve was created in 1885 out of state-owned land in the Adirondacks; Adirondack Park was created in 1892 by adding surrounding private lands; and in 1894, the New York State Legislature amended its constitution to prohibit logging on state lands within the park. This act became known as “Forever Wild,” an important precedent for large-scale land conservation projects in the 20th century.
Across the river from New York City in the Palisades, activists sought to preserve land that could provide a scenic antidote to the city, and recreational space for growing urban and suburban populations. The cliffs of the Palisades were an icon in Hudson River School paintings. Late-19th-century quarry operators, however, began to blast the cliffs for trap rock, which was used to build New York City streets, piers, and the foundation of skyscrapers. For many citizens in New York and New Jersey, this constituted the destruction of not only an ancient geological structure, but also the moral and societal values associated with scenic beauty. Opponents to the blasting often described the ruination of the Palisades as an affront to civilization itself.
Blasting the Palisades cliffs for trap rock. Image courtesy of the Palisades Interstate Park Commission
In the mid-1890s, women conservationists in New Jersey brought attention to the destruction of the forests of the Palisades as well, warning of impact of deforestation on the state’s water supplies. Other activists focused more on the threat to nature’s symbolic value, and joined forces with wealthy businessmen across the river. Members of the New Jersey State Federation of Women’s Clubs lobbied Governor Foster Voorhees, and the New York side secured Governor Theodore Roosevelt’s support for the creation of a unique bi-state agency, the Palisades Interstate Park Commission, in 1900.
The opening of Palisades Interstate Park in 1909 transformed the Palisades from a landscape of resource exploitation to one of recreation and environmental education. Early on, a free ferry from Manhattan took children and adults to the park, which offered an escape from city life. Children and teenagers participated in nature camps and examined flora and fauna specimens at the Trailside Museum, established in the late 1920s. Visitors hiked through the woodlands. In summer, they often filled the park’s swimming areas to capacity. At the end of their stay, city residents returned home with a new appreciation for nature of all kinds.
As the popularity of Palisades Interstate Park grew in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, so too did the region. The automobile age brought new types of infrastructure — from the George Washington Bridge and Lincoln Tunnel to highways — and fueled suburban fantasies. Driving over the river, or passing it on a train, park visitors and others were shielded from the reality of water pollution from toxic industries, consumer waste, and sewage. In 1943, the last public beach in Palisades Interstate Park closed, in part due to pollution. In 1964, US Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall traveled up the Hudson River and called it an “open sewer,” a description that captured the river’s stench as well as its unsightly condition. It would take a crisis to bring people back to this polluted waterway, and reignite a widespread passion for the river’s beauty.
A Landscape of power
By the 1960s, New York City’s population had grown to almost eight million. To power the metropolis, Consolidated Edison, Inc. applied to the Federal Power Commission for a license to construct a hydroelectric storage plant in the Hudson Highlands in 1962. Early documents featured an unforgettable image: The plant inserted into the side of Storm King Mountain, in a hole created for the purpose. For some, Con Ed’s promise to develop the riverfront of Cornwall, where the mountain was located, was tempting. Others were indignant that Con Ed could even conceive of such an intervention in the first place.
Con Edison’s proposed hydroelectric storage plant at Storm King, 1962. Image courtesy of the Marist College Archives and Special Collections, Poughkeepsie, NY
In 1963, a group of citizens gathered at the Irvington home of Carl Carmer, a writer and historian whose popular 1939 book, The Hudson, vividly captured the Native Americans and workers who lived and worked along the river everyday but did not own the land. Now, Carmer led a circle of activists — known collectively as Scenic Hudson — to protect land that was not their personal property, but which, they believed, belonged to all. At hearings that extended over 17 years, lawyers called upon art historians such as Vincent Scully and Barbara Novak to testify to the site’s cultural value. In the 1970s, Scenic Hudson director Franny Reese persuaded John Howat, a curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, to publish a book on the Hudson River School, the proceeds of which would support the case. The book, which included Samuel Coleman’s 1866 Storm King on the Hudson, revived interest in a school of painting that had been broadly forgotten.
Samuel Coleman’s Storm King on the Hudson (1866). Image courtesy of Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of John Gellatly
While Scenic Hudson’s fight for the site’s intangible values did not win the case, it proved persuasive in the both the New York Court of Appeals and the court of public opinion. In 1965, three presiding judges ruled that the Federal Power Commission had to reconsider Con Edison’s license request, and that the “renewed proceedings must include as a basic concern the preservation of natural beauty and national historic sites, keeping in mind that in our affluent society, the cost of a project is only one of several factors to be considered.” The plant’s impact on such intangible values was just as important as its impact on fisheries, and all had to be properly assessed. This requirement was institutionalized in the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, which mandated that all license applications at the state and federal levels include an environmental impact statement (EIS). Second, the court ruled that citizens are able to sue on behalf of land that they do not own. According to historian David Schuyler, these decisions “revolutionized environmental law” in the United States.
Ultimately, the Storm King case was won by appealing to science rather than art. In response to the court’s request for an impact statement, Con Ed revised its initial plan, proposing to place the plant underground. This may have quieted discussions about its visual impact, but brought other issues to the surface, most notably the plant’s impact on the river’s striped bass populations. Journalist and fisherman Robert Boyle challenged Con Ed’s in-house fish studies, demonstrating that many more fish would be impacted by the project than initially assessed. Bolstered by mathematical figures, Boyle’s fish studies proved more convincing than arguments focused on the site’s scenic and historical significance.
View from Olana with superimposed nuclear cooling towers. Image courtesy of Olana State Historic Site, Hudson, NY, New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (Accession Number: OL.2012.1.45)
In subsequent lawsuits, however, the subjectivity of scenic beauty too could be quantified, bringing it on par with measurable ecological effects. In 1979, a nuclear power plant was proposed across the river from Olana, the historic home of Hudson River School painter Frederic Church. In the EIS, landscape architect Carl Petrich of Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Harvey Flad, a cultural geographer based at Vassar College, superimposed images of the proposed plant on pictures of the view from Olana. They sent these images, paired with photos of the same site without the plant, to local residents and asked them to rate the visual appeal of each on a scale of one to five. These “visual preference surveys” compelled the courts. At the same time, during the hearing process, legislators were shown one of Church’s paintings of the view from Olana as evidence of the scenic and historic value of the Olana “viewshed.” The view, and all the values associated with it, had finally come into its own as a tool in conservation.
“Visual preference surveys” submitted as evidence in the 1979 case against the proposed nuclear power plant opposite Olana. Image from Final Environmental Impact Statement by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission/Oak Ridge National Laboratory for Greene County Nuclear Power Plant proposed by Power Authority of the State of New York.
A rising tide
The Hudson today is a much cleaner river, as a result of citizen activism and legislation of the 1960s and ‘70s. The Clean Water Act of 1972 required the construction of sewage treatment plants — ones that don’t just remove solids but decontaminate the water with the aid of chemical processes — and prohibited discharging pollutants without a permit. It also placed regulations on filling in wetlands, which filter water and provide habitat and spawning grounds for fish, plants, and birds. Efforts to restore the river’s health bolstered the return of the Hudson in public consciousness. Since the 1960s, postindustrial towns and cities along the Hudson have reimagined their connection to this historic waterway and undertaken projects to restore shoreline habitats. Industrial riverfronts have become waterfront sites for recreation, environmental awareness, and education.
While the water itself is safer overall, the Hudson has not returned to a prelapsarian state. Sewage treatment plants and regulations on pollution discharge from identifiable sources cannot fully address runoff from city streets and parking lots, or Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs) during storm events. The Hudson riverbed and surrounding floodplains face yet another problem, that of contamination from Polychlorinated Biphenyls, or PCBs. From the late 1940s to the 1970s, General Electric used PCBs, an insulating chemical agent invented by Monsanto, at two plants upriver. While PCBs prevented electrical fires, they poisoned the river. Unlike other types of pollution, the presence of PCBs is virtually undetectable to the naked eye except in high concentrations, where it resembles drops of motor oil. The discovery of PCBs in the Hudson led the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to declare 200 miles of the river, from the Battery to Hudson Falls, a Superfund site — a designation reserved for the nation’s most contaminated areas. Between 2009 and 2015, GE dredged 40 “hotspots” in the river close to the plants to fulfill their mandated cleanup requirement. But the EPA and New York State Department of Environmental Conservation continue to test riverbed samples taken further downriver and in the surrounding floodplains.
Plans for SCAPE’s Living Breakwaters project, for the Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery. (SCAPE Landscape Architecture)
Flooding from storm events and rising sea levels has dominated public discourse along the Hudson since it was hit by Hurricanes Irene and Sandy in 2011 and 2012. Municipal and state agencies are still repairing infrastructural networks damaged by severe flooding, while working to prepare for future storms. Rather than mourning a paradise lost, landscape designers and others have largely embraced the extent to which humans are capable of shaping the world around them, using this power to try and construct not only new landscapes but also novel ways of thinking and relating to the nonhuman world. A design for shoreline restoration off the coast of Staten Island, Living Breakwaters, by SCAPE Landscape Architects, is a prime example. The plan centers on a series of specially-designed breakwaters to reduce the impact of waves during a storm and augment biodiversity in the Lower Harbor: Oyster gabions spur the creation of oyster reefs, which provide habitat for hundreds of species of plants and fish. Deep swirls carved into the concrete blocks that make up the breakwaters offer fish places to hide and spawn. If Hudson River School paintings focused on the Hudson’s scenic beauty, the design of Living Breakwaters highlights the sublime beauty of ecological processes.
The extent of humankind’s impact on the earth, and on the Hudson, is undeniable. Today, Lossing’s “most interesting river in America” is one of the most studied bodies of water in the world. Conscious of the river’s enduring importance for the flourishing of human and nonhuman life, scientists and citizens monitor it closely, their efforts sustaining a delicate balance of use and conservation. There is, perhaps, no better place to contemplate the power of humans to desecrate nature and to rebuild it.
The Hudson, and its role in defining the relationship of humans and the natural world, is the subject of a wide-ranging exhibition on view at the New-York Historical Society through August 4, 2019.
This story originally appeared on Urban Omnibus. Subscribe to the newsletter or follow Urban Omnibus on Twitter for new perspectives on citymaking.
Jeanne Haffner is the Associate Curator of Hudson Rising and the author of The View from Above: The Science of Social Space (MIT Press, 2013). She has written on urbanism, landscape design, and waterfront planning for the Guardian, Arch+ magazine, Next City, Landscape Architecture Magazine, and BBC Radio.
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Home | What `s New | News | Setting the Record Straight on Climate Change: Experts Respond
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Setting the Record Straight on Climate Change: Experts Respond
From The Wall Street Journal, February 1, 2012:
Do you consult your dentist on your heart condition? In science, as in any area, reputations are based on knowledge and expertise in a field, and on published, peer-reviewed work. If you need surgery, you want a highly experienced expert in the field who has done a large number of the proposed operations.
On January 27, the Wall Street Journal published an op-ed on climate change by the climate science equivalent of dentists practicing cardiology. While accomplished in their own fields, most of these authors have no expertise in climate science. The few authors who have such expertise are known to have extreme views that are out of step with nearly every other climate expert. This happens in nearly every field of science. For example, there is a retrovirus expert who does not accept that HIV causes AIDS. And it is instructive to recall that a few scientists continued to state that smoking did not cause cancer, long after that was settled science.
Climate experts know that the long-term warming trend has not abated in the past decade. In fact, it was the warmest decade on record. Observations show unequivocally that our planet is getting hotter. And computer models have recently shown that during periods when there is a smaller increase of surface temperatures, warming is occurring elsewhere in the climate system, typically in the deep ocean. Such periods are a relatively common climate phenomenon, are consistent with our physical understanding of how the climate system works, and certainly do not invalidate our understanding of human-induced warming or the models used to simulate that warming. Thus, climate experts also know what one of us, Kevin Trenberth, actually meant by the out-of-context, misrepresented quote used in the op-ed. Mr. Trenberth was lamenting the inadequacy of observing systems to fully monitor warming trends in the deep ocean and other aspects of the short-term variations that always occur, together with the long-term human-induced warming trend.
The National Academy of Sciences of the U.S. (set up by President Lincoln to advise on scientific issues), as well as major National Academies of Science around the world and every other authoritative body of scientists active in climate research have stated that the science is clear: the world is heating up and humans are primarily responsible. Impacts are already apparent and will increase. Reducing future impacts will require significant reductions in emissions of heat-trapping gases.
Research shows that more than 97 percent of scientists actively publishing in the field agree that climate change is real and human caused. It would be an act of recklessness for any political leader to disregard the weight of evidence and ignore the enormous risks that climate change clearly poses. In addition, there is very clear evidence that investing in the transition to a low-carbon economy will not only allow the world to avoid the worst risks of climate change, but could also drive decades of economic growth. Just what the doctor ordered.
Kevin Trenberth, Sc.D, Distinguished Senior Scientist, Climate Analysis Section, National Center for Atmospheric Research
Richard Somerville, PhD, Distinguished Professor, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego
Katharine Hayhoe, PhD, Director, Climate Science Center, Texas Tech University
Rasmus Benestad, PhD, Senior Scientist, The Norwegian Meteorological Institute
Gerald Meehl, PhD, Senior Scientist, Climate and Global Dynamics Division, National Center for Atmospheric Research
Michael Oppenheimer, PhD, Professor of Geosciences; Director, Program in Science, Technology and Environmental Policy, Princeton University
Peter Gleick, PhD, co-founder and president, Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment, and Security
Michael C. MacCracken, PhD, Chief Scientist, Climate Institute, Washington DC
Michael Mann, PhD, Director, Earth System Science Center, Pennsylvania State University
Steven Running, PhD, Professor, Director, Numerical Terradynamic Simulation Group, University of Montana
Robert Corell, PhD, Chair, Arctic Climate Impact Assessment; Principal, Global Environment Technology Foundation
Dennis Ojima, PhD, Professor, Senior Research Scientist, and Head of the Dept. of Interior’s Climate Science Center at Colorado State University
Josh Willis, PhD, Climate Scientist, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Matthew England, PhD, Professor, Joint Director of the Climate Change Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Australia
Ken Caldeira, PhD, Atmospheric Scientist, Dept. of Global Ecology, Carnegie Institution
Warren Washington, PhD, Senior Scientist, National Center for Atmospheric Research
Terry L. Root, PhD, Senior Fellow, Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University
David Karoly, PhD, ARC Federation Fellow and Professor, University of Melbourne, Australia
Jeffrey Kiehl, PhD, Senior Scientist, Climate and Global Dynamics Division, National Center for Atmospheric Research
Donald Wuebbles, PhD, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Illinois
Camille Parmesan, PhD, Professor of Biology, University of Texas; Professor of Global Change Biology, Marine Institute, University of Plymouth, UK
Simon Donner, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, University of British Columbia, Canada
Barrett N. Rock, PhD, Professor, Complex Systems Research Center and Department of Natural Resources, University of New Hampshire
David Griggs, PhD, Professor and Director, Monash Sustainability Institute, Monash University, Australia
Roger N. Jones, PhD, Professor, Professorial Research Fellow, Centre for Strategic Economic Studies, Victoria University, Australia
William L. Chameides, PhD, Dean and Professor, School of the Environment, Duke University
Gary Yohe, PhD, Professor, Economics and Environmental Studies, Wesleyan University, CT
Robert Watson, PhD, Chief Scientific Advisor to the UK Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; Chair of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia
Steven Sherwood, PhD, Director, Climate Change Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Chris Rapley, PhD, Professor of Climate Science, University College London, UK
Joan Kleypas, PhD, Scientist, Climate and Global Dynamics Division, National Center for Atmospheric Research
James J. McCarthy, PhD, Professor of Biological Oceanography, Harvard University
Stefan Rahmstorf, PhD, Professor of Physics of the Oceans, Potsdam University, Germany
Julia Cole, PhD, Professor, Geosciences and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Arizona
William H. Schlesinger, PhD, President, Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies
Jonathan Overpeck, PhD, Professor of Geosciences and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Arizona
Eric Rignot, PhD, Senior Research Scientist, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory; Professor of Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine
Wolfgang Cramer, Professor of Global Ecology, Mediterranean Institute for Biodiversity and Ecology, CNRS, Aix-en-Provence, France
(To see the letter online at The Wall Street Journal, click here.)
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Jeff Kinney 27 Oct 15
IssuesOctober 20150 Comments
Privatization and commercialization of public lands is increasing. More companies are being allowed to manage national forests and other federal and state-owned lands, and fracking and mining firms are often permitted to extract the minerals beneath. Partnerships between public lands managers and the private sector are also on the rise. For example, in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, one of the restored log cabins in Cades Cove is “brought to you by Log Cabin Maple Syrup,” with a plaque advertising the brand and logo.
What to think of all this? Everyone knows our parks and forests are short on funds, but where should we draw the line between corporate money and public land management?
BRENT MARTIN, Southern Appalachian regional director for The Wilderness Society, is concerned about the potential harms of privatization and commercialization, especially over the long term.
What are the greatest potential harms from privatization of public lands?
Martin: There are many, including a lack of oversight in environmental protection, overuse, unsustainable exploitation and depletion of natural resources, no guarantees of public access, and a lack of public input regarding management.
Which public lands in the East are most vulnerable to privatization?
I think that Eastern national forests are particularly vulnerable. National forests are the largest concentration of public lands we have and were acquired after decades of degradation and exploitation. The purpose of acquiring these lands after the passage of the 1911 Weeks Act was largely to protect watersheds from this type of degradation in the future. Since then, these lands have come to provide much more than watershed protection, including protection of biodiversity, a wide spectrum of recreational uses, and special designations such as Wilderness and Wild and Scenic Rivers. Any threat from privatization by default threatens the common good.
What about agencies that need the cash from selling public lands, or at least selling the mineral rights? Would you be willing to pay higher taxes to keep public lands public and those minerals in the ground?
I’m not sure it has to do with a lack of money or having to pay higher taxes. It appears to be more of a political issue, and one that’s partisan and driven by particular economic interests. However, if one of the states truly needed money, I would pay higher taxes in order to protect public lands.
What’s wrong with a state or national park allowing a private company to “sponsor” something in exchange for cash? Is this public-private partnership a realistic way to bring in much-needed funds?
I don’t think anything is necessarily wrong with the idea of sponsorships like this. I wouldn’t, however, want a billboard inside a park advertising Log Cabin Maple Syrup, nor would I want the parent company influencing park policy. Also, sponsorship messages should be presented tastefully and not in an obtrusive or glaring manner. Sponsorships such as these could be a good way to raise much-needed money, but there should be parameters on what the sponsors can expect in return, and it shouldn’t diminish the visitor experience in any way.
Randal O’Toole of the Cato Institute supports arguments in favor of privatization.
In your view, what are the main arguments in favor of privatizing public lands?
O’Toole: Public lands are poorly managed due to their ownership status. Lands are managed for their most politically productive, rather than economically productive, uses. But the political system encourages people to polarize the public in order to get the biggest share of the public-land pie. In contrast, markets encourage people to cooperate in order to produce the greatest net value.
Isn’t it wrong to sell off public lands—which, by definition, belong to everyone—to the highest bidder?
Most public lands are dedicated to various special interest groups and don’t truly benefit everyone. If they could be sold to the highest bidder, the revenues would help everyone by contributing to debt reduction or paying for other essential government services. For example, Forest Service studies have found that the market value of most public lands for recreation is many times greater than other uses combined. Recreation would be the dominant use if the lands were managed for maximum economic value.
Don’t we have a responsibility to preserve public lands for future generations instead of using them for short-term corporate gain?
Public land managers often become just as exploitative of the land for short-term gains, especially when their agencies are allowed to keep some or all of the receipts from resource sales. Elected officials can rarely see beyond the next election, while private businesses have been known to sell 99-year bonds or make investments that aren’t expected to pay off for decades.
Even if just mineral rights are sold, won’t the exploitation of those minerals severely diminish the wilderness character of many public lands?
Open-pit mining can conflict with many other resources. But many minerals can be extracted in ways that aren’t so damaging. Oil and gas production, for example, uses very little land. In private hands, the owners would balance uses among various groups and what they’re willing to pay.
How far should commercialization go? Should companies be allowed to sponsor buildings or even geologic features in national and state parks?
Absolutely. Private sponsorship of recreation, scenic, and historic resources makes perfect sense. That doesn’t mean spelling out Exxon or Shell Oil in giant letters on the landscape. But many museums and other urban facilities receive private donations, so there’s no reason why public lands couldn’t do the same.
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Rise of the Local Park
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Home » The Billionaire and the Mechanic: How Larry...
The Billionaire and the Mechanic: How Larry Ellison and a Car Mechanic Teamed Up to Win Sailing's Greatest Race, the America's Cup (Hardcover)
By Julian Guthrie
A Forbes Best Book of the Year
The America's Cup, first awarded in 1851, is the oldest trophy in international sports, and one of the most hotly contested. In 2000, Larry Ellison, co-founder and billionaire CEO of Oracle Corporation, decided to run for the coveted prize and found an unlikely partner in Norbert Bajurin, a car radiator mechanic who had recently been named Commodore of the blue collar Golden Gate Yacht Club.
Julian Guthrie's The Billionaire and the Mechanic tells the incredible story of the partnership between Larry and Norbert, their unsuccessful runs for the Cup in 2003 and 2007, and their victory in 2010. With unparalleled access to Ellison and his team, Guthrie takes readers inside the design and building process of these astonishing boats, and the management of the passionate athletes who race them. She traces the bitter rivalries between Oracle and their competitors, including Swiss billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli's Team Alinghi, and throws readers into exhilarating races from Australia and New Zealand to Valencia, Spain.
The Billionaire and the Mechanic is a must-read for anyone interested in the race or this remarkable story.
Julian Guthrie is an award-winning journalist and staff writer at the San Francisco Chronicle. She is the author of The Grace of Everyday Saints: How a Band of Believers Lost Their Church and Found Their Faith. She lives in San Francisco.
[An] excellent book The story of Mr. Ellison’s decade-long effort to win the Cup and bring it back to the U.S. under Golden Gate’s flag is worth telling, and Julian Guthrie, a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, tells it well.”Angus Phillips, The Wall Street Journal
"Julian Guthrie's riveting book takes readers deep into uncharted realms, from the extremes of the ocean to the sublime connection between two singular men. The Billionaire and The Mechanic is a wondrously detailed story, beautifully told, by a writer who understands both the intricacies of human nature and the immensity of the natural world." Susan Casey, author of The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks, and Giants of the Ocean
Surely the most comprehensive book ever written about an America's Cup challenge, The Billionaire and The Mechanic will surely be must reading for any yacht-racing aficionado." Frank Deford
From the opening scene in this bookand scene is the appropriate word for its cinematic beginningthe reader is swept along on heart-thumping rides on swift, dueling sailboats, past an assemblage of characters worthy of Dreiser, past the shoals of deceit worthy of Dickens, and coming to rest on the formidable character of billionaire Larry Ellison, who has the will-to-win of his best friend, Steve Jobs, and of a mechanic, who made winning possible. Julian Guthrie writes as if with a magic wand, holding the reader spellbound.”Ken Auletta
"This is one helluva great read. Larry and Norbert - beautiful dreamers both, men with faith in their ability to convert them to reality. This book is fascinating; it informs, educates and entertains about the longest continuously contested trophy in all of sports. This is a must read for lovers of sport, and particularly for sailors.”Bob Fisher, author of An Absorbing Interest: The America's Cup - A History 1851-2003
"Larry Ellison's America's Cup victory was as improbable as it was inevitable. The same is true of his alliance with radiator repairman Norbert Bajurin. In this absorbing page-turner, Julian Guthrie tells us how they came together to make history." G. Bruce Knecht, author of The Proving Ground: The Inside Story of the 1998 Sydney to Hobart Race
The Billionaire and the mechanic is pumping with adrenaline and yet full of subtle, surprising details about both sailing and one of the most mysterious, controversial characters on earth. This book is tirelessly reported and Guthrie has a rare writing gift to tie it all together into a work of literary journalism that reads like a thriller.”Jaimal Yogis, author of The Fear Project
"If you're interested in the America's Cup competition, or in sailboat racing generally, you'll love this book. Julian Guthrie's taut and fascinating behind-the-scenes account of the colorful personalities, the risky development of astonishing new boats, and the hair-raising racing tactics of Larry Ellison's long campaign to win the trophy is necessary background reading." Derek Lundy, author of Godforsaken Sea: A True Story of Racing the World's Most Dangerous Waters
”Guthrie’s interviews with the reclusive 68-year-old were a feat in themselves (Ellison rarely agrees to them) [but] The Billionaire and the Mechanic is about more than just Ellison. It’s a look at the competitive and high-tech world of the America’s Cupone in which obsessive boat builders search for ultralightweight carbon-fiber custom blends,’ hire million-dollar athletes to run their teams, and take each other to court over where races can be held.”Men’s Journal
An up-close tour of how the world’s fifth-richest man spent hundreds of millions of dollars, and hired and fired the best sailors on Earth, to win.”Daniel Fisher, Forbes
Publisher: Grove Press
Publication Date: May 21st, 2013
Sailing - General
Paperback (April 2014): $17.00
MP3 CD (September 8th, 2015): $9.99
MP3 CD (March 11th, 2014): $19.99
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Home » Alan Gratz - Grenade (Corte Madera Store)
Alan Gratz - Grenade (Corte Madera Store)
Special Event for Kids
Grenade is the hugely anticipated follow-up to Alan Gratz's New York Times bestselling, critically acclaimed phenomenon Refugee. This is another searing and heart-pounding look at kids making their way through war. It's 1945, and the world is in the grip of war.
Hideki lives with his family on the island of Okinawa, near Japan. When WWII crashes onto his shores, Hideki is drafted into the Blood and Iron Student Corps to fight for the Japanese army. He is handed a grenade and a set of instructions: Don't come back until you've killed an American soldier.
Ray, a young American Marine, has just landed on Okinawa. This is Ray's first-ever battle, and he doesn't know what to expect -- or if he'll make it out alive. He just knows that the enemy is everywhere. Hideki and Ray each fight their way across the island, surviving heart-pounding ambushes and dangerous traps. But then the two of them collide in the middle of the battle...And choices they make in that single instant will change everything.
Alan Gratz, New York Times bestselling author of Refugee, returns with this high-octane story of how fear and war tear us apart, but how hope and redemption tie us together.
Alan Gratz is the New York Times bestselling author of several books for young readers, including Refugee; Projekt 1065, a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2016; Prisoner B-3087, a Junior Library Guild selection that was named to YALSA's 2014 Best Fiction for Young Adults list; and Code of Honor, a YALSA 2016 Quick Pick. Alan lives in North Carolina with his wife and daughter.
51 Tamal Vista Blvd
Grenade (Hardcover)
By Alan Gratz
Published: Scholastic Press - October 9th, 2018
A New York Times bestseller!
It's 1945, and the world is in the grip of war.
Hideki lives on the island of Okinawa, near Japan. When WWII crashes onto his shores, Hideki is drafted into the Blood and Iron Student Corps to fight for the Japanese army. He is handed a grenade and a set of instructions: Don't come back until you've killed an American soldier.
Kids and Teens Events
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Hudsonville construction firm to shut down, affecting 170 workers in Michigan
HUDSONVILLE — A Michigan construction company said it's shutting down all of its operations, after announcing a partial shutdown earlier this week.
Carl Blauwkamp, president and CEO of Lamar Construction Co., told the Grand Rapids Press on Friday that all of its 280 employees will be affected. About 170 employees live in West Michigan, 80 in Colorado and 30 in Kentucky. He said a revival of the 76-year-old company is unlikely.
The full shutdown comes after a bank pulled its line of credit to the company following unexpected losses. Blauwkamp declined to comment further.
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Veronica Mars and the Promise of Life after TV
Kristen Bell, the once and future star of Veronica Mars
One topic that television fans never tire of – and I count myself among them – are favourite shows cancelled too soon. My own list is long, and grows with every passing year. A couple of years ago I wrote about five such shows, and I could add many more: Terriers, Awake, Party Down, Better off Ted, How to Make it in America, or the criminally underappreciated Knights of Prosperity. The reason why it’s fun to talk up the shows that never make it out of their second seasons (or even sometimes their first) is that they were cancelled at the top of their game. They had no time to stumble or even hint at their weak spots. Two standard-bearers of the brilliant-but-cancelled genre – Judd Apatow’s Freaks and Geeks and Joss Whedon’s Firefly – were barely given the chance get their bearings before their respective networks pulled their plugs.
But the thunderous success of Rob Thomas’ recent Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for a proposed Veronica Mars movie has shifted my thoughts to a darker, less congenial question: what about those beloved series that lived too long, the ones whose sublime early seasons begin to decay under the weight of their own continuity?
As a committed/obsessive recommender, I relish exceptional shows that you can pass on without apology or conditions: The Wire, Breaking Bad, and (though I am selective about who I recommend it to) the BBC’s 2005 reboot of Doctor Who are at the top of the list. And Justified (with its fourth season about to come to a close) promises to join them. But as an inveterate TV pusher my nightmares are about the shows that I want to share, but can only really kvell about the early seasons: “You should definitely watch Battlestar Galactica… well at least the miniseries and first season, though the world won’t end if you drop off before Season 3,” “Yeah, Heroes is great! You mean Season 1, right?” or “How I Met Your Mother really did have an remarkable four seasons, didn’t it?” All of us who love TV want to share the particular pleasure of great storytelling with our friends, without condemning them to the hours (and, in the case of shows still lingering on the air, years) of mediocrity, without inadvertently committing people we care about to shows that we ourselves might continue to watch into their 7th or 8th seasons – either out of a misplaced sense of obligation, or because of a dispassionate (borderline obsessive) curiosity. There is, after all, a particular kind of pain that comes from watching a beloved television series go even slightly wrong…
Veronica Mars writer/creator Rob Thomas
For the uninitiated, Veronica Mars was a neo-noir drama set in a California high school which aired on the UPN/CW networks from 2004-2007. Rob Thomas, the show’s creator, told a 22-episode story in Season 1, and by the end of Season 2, a 44-episode story. For me, the first season was one of the first times I saw a network series telling a single, long, self-contained story. Had the show not returned for a second season, even the “who’s at Veronica’s door?” moment that closed the first season finale would have been just fine, a perfect bit of romantic open-endedness which genuinely fit the tone of the story. It was a series willing to break a lot of rules, and for all the procedural elements of its “teen PI” genre, it was a single story. In fact, what remains so unique about the series is that I rarely think of it in terms of its best episodes. (As if, for example, you could recommend a favourite novel by singling about Chapter 27 especially.)
Fast-forward five years, when half a decade of rumours about a feature film spinoff came to a head last Wednesday, as the show’s creator Rob Thomas put up a Kickstarter page to raise interest (and more importantly funds) for the project. Offering everything from copies of the shooting script, to Kristen Bell’s voice on as an outgoing voicemail message, to a (very) small speaking part in the film itself, the campaign quickly broke Kickstarter records for film projects, reaching its $2 million goal in less than 10 hours. At last count – with three weeks left – Thomas has collected more than $3.7 million from almost 60,000 Veronica Mars fans. A lot of e-ink has been spilled in the past week on whether or not Thomas has broken Kickstarter or whether crowdfunding a studio-backed project will hasten the end of Hollywood’s decades-old business model. But most people writing about the project are, for lack of a more dignified word, completely psyched. The short video of Rob Thomas and Mars stars Kristen Bell, Enrico Colantoni, Jason Dohring, and Ryan Hansen is delightful – intimate, self-aware, and both respectful of and coyly mocking of their audience – and for longtime Veronica Mars fans like myself, the very idea of returning to the world of Neptune, California, even for only 120 minutes, is enough to quicken the heart.
But as the excitement over the initial announcement has ebbed, I’m left with a simple fact that I hadn’t initially considered: I didn’t really like Veronica Mars’ third season. Don’t get me wrong: the first two seasons are still among my favourite seasons of television ever, right up there with S1 of Friday Night Lights, S4 of The Wire, and S2 of Breaking Bad. But it was precisely on these terms that its third season disappointed. Encouraged by the network to make the series more ‘accessible’ (read: less confusing for the casual viewer), the third season told shorter, more self-contained stories. By the end of the third season, I was actually relieved when it was announced that the show would not be returning for a fourth.
It is precisely what made Veronica Mars such a revelation in its first two seasons that might be untranslatable to film. Yes, most of the same talent, on- and off-screen, are slated to return. (The movie’s very recently created IMDB page has pre-emptively listed every character and actor to ever appear in the series as part of the cast.) It’s not only my past experience of TV shows making the transition to the big screen somewhat nerve-wracking (for every South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, there seems to be at least three Sex and the City 2s): my experience of its third season has left me reluctantly ambivalent about the proposed film.
Kristen Bell and Jason Dohring in Veronica Mars
The reboot phenomenon is one thing: a new franchise, with new internal continuity, and reframed narratively for what is truly a different genre. The big screen after all isn’t just a question how a story is consumed, but also how it is structured. Joss Whedon, who cut his teeth in film narrative, succeeded (in my eyes) with Serenity (2005) by telling a story that was an extension of the story he began telling on television in Firefly, and in two hours offered audiences a universe which was both a continuation and a re-configuration of what came before.
Television, as an expressive medium if not as a business model, has a singular luxury that feature films do not: television can give a story the length of time its requires. Ten-episode stories, or sixty-episode stories, there is room and flexibility to tell them all. The expectation that a show will run for years is very much North American: British television has long accepted that different stories require different amounts of time, and different segmentation. On Channel 4 this winter, Utopia created an entire world in six hours, and should it not come back next year, I will more than satisfied. It will not have been an abortive experience. No promises were made, and Utopia won’t have been “cancelled” should a second series never make an appearance. The model of Sherlock (3 feature-length stories per ‘season’) works perfectly for the BBC’s Holmes show, while on this side of the pond the extremely entertaining Elementary has been doing wonders with a 22-episode frame, slowly building characters and relationships which feel perfectly organic to the world they inhabit. American broadcast television still tends to quantify success in terms of longevity – so much so that when the show recently bowed out in its seventh season, headlines typically read “30 Rock Cancelled!”. Of course, television is a business, and networks (cable or broadcast) are building brands along with telling stories. It is certainly understandable – if not always justifiable – that they want to keep a series around until the wheels fall off. But whatever the pragmatic realities of television as corporate product, we should start asking: is it true that television shows only die involuntary deaths? Why should a story go on forever?
No story, well told, can or should.
Okay, I don’t actually know how the script for now-perhaps-inevitable Veronica Mars movie will go (though for just $10 US you can preorder one today!), and there’s an argument to be made that the noir elements of the Veronica Mars universe were always ideally suited for the big screen. (For some reason, I want send Rob Thomas DVDs of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Grosse Pointe Blank right now.) All said, I can’t deny that I’m rather thrilled that Rob Thomas and the gang are coming together again, and perhaps the fact that the new project will be a sincere labour of love for all involved (from the fans up to the cast and crew) will be enough to keep any corporate forces from working against it. But there’s still a significant part of me which would prefer that the film didn’t happen, that same part of me that (rather guiltily) still kind of wishes the series had been cancelled after its two perfect seasons.
All seasons of Veronica Mars are available on DVD. Watch it. You don’t have to bother with the last season though.
– Mark Clamen is a writer, critic, film programmer and lifelong television enthusiast. He lives in Toronto, where he often lectures on television, film, and popular culture.
(By the way, I've been wearing this Veronica Mars t-shirt since my very first post.)
Posted by Critics at Large at 8:00 PM
Labels: Film, Mark Clamen, Television
psu March 22, 2013 at 5:07 PM
There is no such thing as a TV show that gets cancelled too soon.
In the entire history of television there was only one TV show that was actually good and mostly worth watching for more than 1.5 seasons sequentially. And even THAT show ran one season too long, arguably.
You can guess which one.
Neglected Gem #39: Emporte-Moi (Set Me Free) (1999...
Three Neglected Gems (#36-37-38): Citizen Ruth (19...
Don Draper for the Revolution: No (2012)
The Perils of a Double Life in the Spy Thrillers o...
The Revisionist: Redgrave Plays Eisenberg
John Neumeier’s Nijinsky: As Brilliant and Mad as ...
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Related Bios Daniel Hahn Christian Gerner Johannes Haakenson Alex Unekis Kenny Meloy Spencer Garnett Sean Tillmon Charlie Rodriguez Drew Barth Lucas Gitzlaff Griffin Lietzau Kyle Hammitt Ben Mazzulla Jarrett Bolssen Sam Beers Dillan Fike Beau Wills Lukas Meerdink Zachary Lutz Jared Chesak Luke Howard Brett Kolacki Blake Gosswein Justin Martin Alex Prickett Ryan Green Tyler Haffey Tyler Moilanen Zack Swift Joseph Zywiciel Drew Johnson Seth Cox Tristan Largent Chris Dekrey
10 Bradlee Sumner
Hometown: Ocala, Fla.
High School: St. John Lutheran
Pronunciation: SUM-ner
app -
gs -
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2019 Season (Sophomore): Made 10 appearances on the mound with seven starts...Threw 39.1 innings and posted a 6.18 ERA with a 3-4 record...Struck out 28 with a K/9 of 6.41...Allowed only two runs in 13 innings pitched in the wins against Benedictine (April 8) and Edgewood (April 16)...Threw three innings of shutout work in the 4-2 playoff win over Marian (May 10).
2018 Season (Freshman): Made nine appearances on the mound, including eight starts…Threw 42 innings and struck out 27…Went 2-3 and tossed one complete game…Went the distance in a 6-1 win over St. Norbert, allowing five hits and one unearned run in nine innings of work…Threw three innings against Chapman in first appearance of career, allowing two runs (March 3).
Mar 28 Lakeland - - - - - - - - - - -
Mar 29 at Wisconsin Lutheran - - - - - - - - - - -
Apr 4 Concordia Chicago - - - - - - - - - - -
Apr 5 at Edgewood - - - - - - - - - - -
Apr 11 at Dominican - - - - - - - - - - -
Apr 13 Illinois Tech - - - - - - - - - - -
Apr 18 Marian - - - - - - - - - - -
Apr 19 at Benedictine - - - - - - - - - - -
Apr 25 Aurora - - - - - - - - - - -
Apr 26 at Rockford - - - - - - - - - - -
May 2 MSOE - - - - - - - - - - -
Mar 28 Lakeland - - - - - - - - - -
Mar 29 at Wisconsin Lutheran - - - - - - - - - -
Apr 4 Concordia Chicago - - - - - - - - - -
Apr 5 at Edgewood - - - - - - - - - -
Apr 11 at Dominican - - - - - - - - - -
Apr 13 Illinois Tech - - - - - - - - - -
Apr 18 Marian - - - - - - - - - -
Apr 19 at Benedictine - - - - - - - - - -
Apr 25 Aurora - - - - - - - - - -
Apr 26 at Rockford - - - - - - - - - -
May 2 MSOE - - - - - - - - - -
Mar 28 Lakeland - - - - - - - - - - - -
Mar 29 at Wisconsin Lutheran - - - - - - - - - - - -
Apr 4 Concordia Chicago - - - - - - - - - - - -
Apr 5 at Edgewood - - - - - - - - - - - -
Apr 11 at Dominican - - - - - - - - - - - -
Apr 13 Illinois Tech - - - - - - - - - - - -
Apr 18 Marian - - - - - - - - - - - -
Apr 19 at Benedictine - - - - - - - - - - - -
Apr 25 Aurora - - - - - - - - - - - -
Apr 26 at Rockford - - - - - - - - - - - -
May 2 MSOE - - - - - - - - - - - -
2018-19 10 0 0 0 - - - 0 - - - - - - -
Total 19 0 0 0 - - - 0 - - - - - - -
2018-19 10 - - - 0 0 - - - - 0
Total 19 - - - 0 0 - - - - 0
2017-18 9 8 2 3 0 1 42.0 50 37 31 16 27 5.79 2 6.64
Total 19 16 5 7 0 1 81.1 94 71 58 34 55 6.09 7 6.42
2017-18 9 10 6 3 1 .900 - 9 1 .100 - -
2018-19 10 7 2 5 0 1.000 - 7 - - - -
Total 19 17 8 8 1 .941 - 16 1 .059 - -
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Google+ Author Profile
Fall Orientation 2013
Campus offers supportive help for student startups
Anthony Bongco/Staff
“We want to see different students working together to accomplish a single goal,” said Haleemah Qureshi, co-founder of [email protected] “It doesn’t have to be one thing — it can be anything … People are intimidated by Berkeley, but the vastness of it also means a lot of opportunity.”
By Lynn Yu | Senior Staff
Tweet Comment0
UC Berkeley ranked third in Crunchbase’s recent list of the top universities that churn out entrepreneurs. With its extensive resources, funding, startup programs and diverse student body, UC Berkeley is ideal for fostering the next generation of burgeoning pioneers.
A startup doesn’t have to originate from a groundbreaking, globally oriented innovation — it can be derived from a hobby or personal necessity. The startups and organizations featured below are just a few examples of what is possible in the Berkeley community. All of them began, or are beginning, their first phases here at UC Berkeley — and all of them have been initiated by ordinary students.
As you head into a new fall semester, dare to dream big. Your fellow Bears have proved that just about anything is possible.
“Be open to live in contradiction and the beauty of Berkeley and the insanity of it,” said Komal Ahmad, CEO and co-founder of Feeding Forward. Image courtesy of Feeding Forward.
Utilizing Berkeley’s resources
BareAbundance began as a method for redistributing leftovers from Cal Dining at a local level and eventually developed into Feeding Forward, a mobile interface that connects food services with surplus food to organizations and charities that could use it. Feeding Forward is now a part of SkyDeck, UC Berkeley’s startup launchpad. The program has given space to Feeding Forward’s expanding team, along with access to professionals who serve as advisers.
“We’ve been able to communicate with people who have sold great companies for huge numbers, and they give us their time,” said Komal Ahmad, co-founder of Feeding Forward. “Sometimes, getting people’s time and advice is greater than getting money.”
Ahmad, however, never had the intention of turning her vision of alleviating American hunger into a company. According to Ahmad, winning $4,000 from [email protected] was critical to launching BareAbundance.
“To be honest, Berkeley is an institution created for graduate students,” Ahmad said. “As an undergrad, no one is going to hand-hold you. You have to go get it. There are so many professors and funding, you have to go out there and grab it yourself.”
“Do it,” said Mark Mullan, founder of Mark Mullan Events. “Grab the reins, and just do it.” Image courtesy of Mark Mullan Events.
On his own
Mark Mullan, a UC Berkeley senior studying molecular and cell biology, has established and expanded his business entirely on his own — without a culinary pedigree or any formal knowledge of the business world.
Despite having seven years of experience in the food industry — from busing and waiting on tables to serving as a line cook — Mullan learned most of cooking skills from watching YouTube videos. His company, Mark Mullan Events, was created earlier this year as a catering service and expanded over the past summer from hosting one end-of-the-year banquet to eight events over the course of a month and a half. The primary source of his expansion was Craigslist and word of mouth.
“What’s blown my mind the most is that people are choosing me and trusting me for such momentous occasions in their lives,” Mullan said. “Feeding people is a damn righteous job.”
Preparing for a typical event involves days of cooking in advance, which Mullan does all by himself, despite having the help of servers and photographers at his events.
“Essentially, we build a restaurant, prep and cook, then clean and tear down said restaurant a few hours later,” Mullan said. “My first event, I spent 48 hours cooking ahead of time.”
The idea of starting his own catering company arose after he gave cooking lessons — Mullan thought, why not make some side money doing what you love?
“It’s addicting, being your own boss,” Mullan said. “There’s no other time when you have a safety net like right now. There’s no better time to fail than right now. So do it. Grab the reins, and just do it.”
“1. Don’t let people tell you no,” said Connor Landgraf, co-founder of Eko Devices. “It’s all about your dedication. 2. Find people who are also passionate about what you do, and work more with them.” Image courtesy of Eko Devices.
Creating from class
Hooktheory, Pop Up Archive and Eko Devices all began as ideas inspired within a structured academic setting. The former two combine music and media to bring music theory, learning and records into the digital era. The latter, co-founded by former ASUC president Connor Landgraf, designs next-generation medical devices.
“It was first in a class here that we were given the challenge and were forced to come up with the answers,” Landgraf said.
The creators of Pop-Up Archive, on the other hand, worked on the idea as part of their master’s thesis.
“We were inspired by our grad work, having come upon analog records that needed to be opened up to the digital world,” said Anne Wootton, a former graduate student at the UC Berkeley School of Information and a co-founder of Pop-Up Archive.
For Hooktheory, teaching a DeCal on the theory of popular music and creating tools to teach the class eventually led to the creation of a website.
“In music courses, we met a lot of different students in music that helped us with the DeCal,” said Ryan Miyakawa, co-founder of Hooktheory. “We were all engineering, but Berkeley is the type of school that’s very strong in a lot of different disciplines. I would recommend students to branch out.”
Wootton said that at the School of Information, she and his co-workers were surrounded by the spirit of entrepreneurship.
“Depending on if you have an idea, chances are there’s someone who’s thought of some aspect of it,” Wootton said. “The Berkeley community is a really great place to find colleagues and allies.”
O4B founders at first dot429 networking event in the city last Fall semester.
“Find what you’re passionate about or interested in, and find a club that caters to it,” said Sean Drimmel, co-founder of O4B. “If no such club exists, then you know what needs to be done! Find a mentor on campus.” Image courtesy of O4B.
Creating a space for themselves
Operating in a straight and male-dominated industry, LGBT Haas School of Business students Sean Drimmel and Jeff Li said they felt there wasn’t yet a space that combined their two worlds.
“The idea of a club that advances the interests of LGBT students interested in business and professional development was not new,” Drimmel said in an email. “It was, however, something that the UC Berkeley campus had not seen before. It was a gap that Jeff Li and I finally addressed our senior year.”
The two entrepreneurs created Out for Business at Berkeley (O4B), a campus organization that partnered with dot429, a national LGBT professional network, to connect LGBT Haas students with LGBT professionals in the Bay Area and other campus clubs.
“We bring our members a sense of understanding that there is a place for them to be openly gay in business,” said Wendy Moreno, the current president of O4B. “There was a really positive sense of belonging in a community they had never seen before.”
Li said he used to think that being successful in business and finance meant hiding his true identity and blending in with everyone else.
“Truth is, if a company doesn’t appreciate who you are, then you don’t want to be there anyways,” Li said in an email. “Be confident in yourself and know that Cal is an amazing playground for LGBT students to be more than they ever thought is possible.”
“Go for it,” said David Carlton, co-founder of Hooktheory. Image courtesy of SkyDeck.
The veterans
UC Berkeley alumni Anson Tsui and Steven Hsiao were working until 4 a.m. every night during their last semester just to get their then-new late-night delivery service, PhoMeNow, off the ground.
“We would come home after a full day of classes and immediately start up working at our frat house,” Tsui said. “That last semester, we were sleeping just two hours a day.”
Tsui and Hsiao eventually went on to establish Munchy Munchy Hippos and Late Night Option, all late-night food delivery startups. Their latest project — Spoon Rocket — is taking off with the help of Y-Combinator, one of the country’s largest startup incubators. Unlike their previous companies, Spoon Rocket will cater a healthier menu with lower costs and a more efficient delivery model.
But their journey to success never was smooth, and Tsui warns it’s not easy.
“I did engineering, and because it was so painful and I hated what I did so much, what I learned is that you have to do what you love,” Tsui said. “Being an entrepreneur, you got to be tenacious and super hardworking. It’s not for everyone … If you just want to earn a paycheck, want to hang out with friends on the weekend, don’t be an entrepreneur.”
The newbies
UC Berkeley senior Haleemah Qureshi is set on leaving Berkeley with a legacy. Over the summer, she and a friend came up with [email protected], which enters its inaugural semester this year. [email protected] would provide a virtual platform that allows Berkeley students to submit or comment on ideas to improve the university life.
“Rather than just complaining about the university, we want to see students taking initiative to make it better,” Qureshi said. “Instead of just talking about it … what if we can work together and decide what we want to do about it?”
The two felt that although the school provides plenty of academic knowledge and financial resources for new startups, there isn’t much support for getting started. That’s where [email protected] comes in — to provide a discussion forum for engaging with fellow students to bounce ideas.
“We want to see different students working together to accomplish a single goal,” Qureshi said. “It doesn’t have to be one thing — it can be anything … People are intimidated by Berkeley, but the vastness of it also means a lot of opportunity.”
“Get interdisciplinary,” said Bailey Smith, co-founder of Pop Up Archive. “There’s a lot of resources outside your own department that are really great.” Image courtesy of Pop Up Archive.
Seize the opportunity
“Go for it. Do something you’re passionate about. Work hard. You will fail: Don’t let that deter you, keep working.” These are themes that all of the founders of the above startups and organizations have mentioned repeatedly in their interviews. Entrepreneurship is not in waiting around for resources to come to you — it’s in taking the initiative to lead and participate in Berkeley’s many opportunities. Programs like Big [email protected], an annual competition that awards funding to innovative proposals, or SkyDeck are just a few of the offerings that allow prospective leaders to attain resources and funds at UC Berkeley.
Business, entrepreneurship, startup
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Saints defending far better lately than last game vs Bucs
By Brett Martel / Associated Press
Dec 7, 2018 at 8:29 PM Dec 7, 2018 at 8:29 PM
METAIRIE, La. — No matter how much New Orleans' defense may have improved since this season's opening week, linebacker Alex Anzalone doesn't see the benefit in dismissing as irrelevant the 48 points the Saints surrendered in a Week 1 loss to the Buccaneers.
"In the back of our minds, if anything, it's just motivation to be on your Ps and Qs this week," Anzalone said this week, as New Orleans prepared for the rematch in Tampa Bay. "They do have a really good offense. They have a bunch of playmakers, so we know what they're capable of. There's a lot of motivation for this game, but as a defense, that could definitely be one of them."
In Week 1, New Orleans' busted coverages led to a 529-yard day for the Buccaneers' offense, highlighted by touchdown passes of 58 and 36 yards to DeSean Jackson and 50 yards to Mike Evans. Tampa Bay's offense accounted 41 points, with one Buccaneers TD coming on safety Justin Evans' fumble return.
Yet the Saints defense that was on the field that day scarcely resembles the one playing practically lights out for the past month.
The Saints have held each of their last four foes to between 7 and 17 points.
"That's huge in this league when you can hold a team to under 20 points, especially with the offense we've got," Saints defensive tackle Sheldon Rankins said. "I'm going to bet on us most times."
Confidence is surging. Botched assignments are few. Sacks and turnovers have risen sharply. New Orleans has sacked opposing quarterbacks 13 times in the past two games, during which they've also taken the ball away six times.
"It's been impressive," Saints coach Sean Payton said. "As a coach, you're encouraged because we're receiving good end play, but we're also receiving great tackle play and I think inside we've really been able to push the pocket."
Those recent performances have made New Orleans' season-opening stumble look more like ancient history.
"That was a lot of first-game errors that we had to work out," Anzalone said. "It wasn't necessarily who we were as a defense. It was just something that we weren't locked in enough or didn't execute enough to get the job done."
Rankins, a first round draft choice in 2016, is having arguably his best season with seven sacks. Five of his sacks have come since Week 8. Like the rest of the Saints defense, he did not have a sack in Week 1.
If the Bucs study game video from their previous meeting, Rankins said, they'll see the same scheme New Orleans is using now, but vastly different execution.
"With the way we've been playing, I think they're going to have to try to attack us in a different way," he said.
Buccaneers coach Dirk Koetter said he sees a Saints defense that has "evolved," both in terms of young players improving as well as with some key personnel changes, such as a mid-season trade to bring in cornerback Eli Apple from the New York Giants. Apple quickly took over as starter in place of Ken Crawley.
"Their defense is playing pretty well at this time, all the way across," Koetter said.
If New Orleans' defense has been consistent in one area, it has been against the run. The Saints have been near the top of the NFL in that department all season and rank first through 12 games, and that's not simply because opponents are choosing to pass more against them, Koetter said.
"They're playing with the lead a lot, and teams are throwing the ball," Koetter began. "Still, when you watch the tape you go, 'Man these guys are pretty good against the run.' I think their front seven is really playing hard."
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Thank You Doesn't Quite Do It
"Building a celestial marriage. The scriptures give an occasional glimpse into societies in which people “were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them” (Moses 7:18), where “there was no contention in the land, because of the love of God which did dwell in the hearts of the people.” (4 Ne. 1:15.)" —Spencer J. Condie, And We Did Liken the Scriptures unto Our Marriage
Thank you doesn't communicate the profound appreciation I have for my wife. It seems too trite. In no way does it express the joy, all accepting love and adoration I feel from my wife and what she has provide for me, or the Christ-like example and courageous endurance with which she not only accepted but full-heartedly committed in supporting me in my Master’s program. To convey even slightly the miracle and blessing this has been, I must share briefly how we got to this point.
When I was thirteen I knew what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, I wanted to be a psychotherapist. It’s an unusual story, and what kid knows they want to be a therapist? A firefighter, astronaut, race car driver, a professional skateboarder, surfer, sure. But a therapist? I might have been the only one ever in the history of the world. Although I didn’t know such a career existed or the vocabulary to describe my passion at the time, I was fascinated by human behavior. My stargazing was people watching. I got just as much awe and sense of magnificence from viewing the human experience as looking into a clear star-filled night. It wasn’t until I found a college “Intro to Psychology” textbook a couple years later that I realized it was a career and entire field of study. I took that textbook everywhere and devoured it. When in high school I was reading Jung, Fraud, Maslow and Rodgers. I was bored with fiction and thought it was a waste of time. I wanted more; I wanted to understand why people do what they do, what made them tick, both the emotional and logical.
I couldn't wait to get out of high school; it felt like a wasteful distraction. Finally in college, I took as many classes as possible in the field of psychology. It came naturally and with little effort. I remember Dr. Mark Chamberlain’s (an individual I greatly admire) occasional surprised look when I would respond in class. One such experience came when in the first week of class he was addressing various topics that were going to be covered in the coming months. He began to briefly address the issue with cancer patients and their aversion to food during chemo. I asked if he was referring to the “Garcia Effect.” His look was both of surprise and joy to hear his new freshman’s passion for the topic.
Ironically, my very passion and joy in understanding human relationships was most challenged in my first marriage. My dear bride, my love, my friend, struggled with my decision to become a therapist. Additionally, she had put her education on hold to get married. It wasn't clear to me at the time why there was such an opposition to my career choice. Nonetheless, I desired to be one with her and support her in her education. I made the very difficult decision to postpone indefinitely, my therapist career path.
The next 13 years were filled with great memories and equally difficult memories. In no way do I regret or resent those thirteen years. If anything, I learned more about human relationships than any class would have provided. I learned how to love unconditionally, forgive, be forgiven, courage, trust, how to be an individual in a marriage and how to see the heart of another who is struggling — see them not as their pain or struggle but for who they are as a person, a human, a child of God. The marriage ended, but some time later, I met Julie.
On June 8, 2012, we married in storybook fashion. If anyone tells you there is no such thing, stop them with a dramatic pause and confidently assure them that is not true and show them this video. (I must add, after the events in the video, she climbed up on the roof at 11 p.m. and shouted from the rooftop that she was getting married.) Storybook marriages are real. Period.
It was Julie’s loving prompting that encouraged me back onto the path to becoming a therapist. This was not a rash decision; it was thought about long and hard. You see, it wasn't just a dream come true marriage between to people. This blessing included five children, three daughters from her and two sons from me — in addition to two ex-spouses. Adjusting to a "normal" life would have been difficult enough. But going to school again would require me to be absent from home for long periods of time. With a full-time job, full-time schooling and eventually a full load of clients, it was rare for me to be home. In the last year of the 2.5 years schooling, we were routinely waking up at 4:30 a.m. and retiring at 10 or 11 p.m. at night. We often joked that we saw each other more during our courtship when she lived in Utah and I in California.
Now after almost three years of marriage, I have finished my Master’s in marriage and family therapy. Her love and support wasn't limited to encouraging me to achieve my dreams; she made them her own, our dreams. This was not my goal. It was ours. She will sometimes even say WE are getting our master’s degree. This was not just getting through a difficult time; it was becoming one. Loving the process as Elder Maxwell has said, one is not only to endure, but to endure well and gracefully those things which the Lord “seeth fit to inflict upon [us].”
We read in Mosiah about how the Lord simultaneously tries the patience of His people even as He tries their faith (Mosiah 23:21). One is not only to endure, but to endure well and gracefully those things which the Lord “seeth fit to inflict upon [us]” (Mosiah 3:19), just as did a group of ancient American saints who were bearing unusual burdens but who submitted “cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord” (Mosiah 24:15). —Elder Maxwell, Patience
Julie, my love exemplifies the meaning of Elder Maxwell's words.
Additionally, in these three years she has sent two daughters off to college, one on a mission, put two boys through the cub scout program, remodeled our home, started a new career, jumped two feet into a new business venture. She found daily ways to bring us as a family closer to Christ. We valued our 5 a.m. "dates" at the gym, long hours of editing papers, and many insightful heart-to-heart conversations.
In every way, she has been that best friend, complete adoring partner in life. We are deeper and more in love now then ever before. This is my feeble attempt at expressing my deep and ever-grateful love and gratitude for all you have done. Thank you.
Tagged: Eternal, Hope, Love, Marriage, Opportunity, Thank You
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Grenfell Tower: relief operation and fundraising appeal
Saleh Saeed, Chief Executive of the Disasters Emergency Committee, says: “We are deeply saddened by the tragedy that has struck the residents of Grenfell Tower, London, and their families, friends and the wider community.
“The DEC is a registered UK charity that coordinates fundraising appeals in response to large-scale humanitarian crises in developing countries. Money raised from DEC appeals involving all 13 of our member charities is used to provide essentials such as food, water and shelter during crises in countries where states are no longer able to support their citizens.
“Our charitable aims therefore limit us to responding to acute humanitarian suffering overseas, but we stand ready to provide any advice or assistance to those coordinating appeals in response to this UK disaster. A number of DEC member charities with domestic operations, including British Red Cross and Islamic Relief UK, are responding to the Grenfell Tower tragedy.
“We have first-hand knowledge of the magnitude of the UK public’s generosity and willingness to help those in great need, and encourage those members of the UK public who wish to help alleviate the suffering of those affected by the Grenfell Tower disaster to donate to the British Red Cross’s London Fire Relief Fund: http://www.redcross.org.uk/en/About-us/News/2017/June/London-Fire-Relief-Fund
“It is heartening to see companies, public figures and others providing financial support to help those affected by this disaster as they so generously do in response to humanitarian crises around the world.”
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Concacaf Announces Format for the 2022 FIFA World Cup Confederation Qualifiers
The redesigned qualifiers will determine the three and a half Concacaf representatives in the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™
Miami (Wednesday, July 10, 2019) – The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf) today announced the format for the 2022 FIFA World Cup Confederation Qualifiers. The restructured competition will be composed of two parts, which will take place simultaneously during the FIFA-match windows in 2020 and 2021.
The first part of the Concacaf qualifiers, which will be played in a Hexagonal format, will be contested between the top six ranked Concacaf Member Associations based on the FIFA Ranking published after the FIFA window of June 2020. After home-and-away round robin play during the FIFA Match windows of September, October and November of 2020 and March and September of 2021, the top three teams will qualify directly to the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™.
The second part of the qualifiers, played across a Group Stage and knockout phase, will involve the Concacaf Member Associations ranked 7-35 according to the FIFA Ranking published after the FIFA window of June 2020. For the group stage, these 29 participating Concacaf Member Associations will be divided into eight groups (five groups of four teams and three groups of three teams). After home-and-away round robin play during the FIFA Match windows of September, October and November of 2020, the first-place finishers in each of the eight group will qualify for the knock out stage.
The quarter finals, semifinals and final matches of the knock out phase will all be played in a home-and-away direct elimination format, during the FIFA Match windows of March, June and September 2021.
The winner of the knockout phase will face the fourth-place finisher of the Hexagonal group to determine the Concacaf representative in the FIFA intercontinental playoff. The home-and-away playoff matches between the two Concacaf representatives will take place during the FIFA Match Window of October 2021.
“The love for the game in this region is growing rapidly and our diverse and dynamic communities want a clear pathway to world-class football. Through our freshly designed formats — across FIFA World Cup Qualifiers, Concacaf Nations League and Concacaf Gold Cup — we are staging more competitive international matches than ever-before to help these communities fulfill their potential,” said Concacaf President Victor Montagliani.
“This new FIFA World Cup Qualifying format, based on the FIFA rankings, makes every competitive match count. Alongside the Concacaf Nations League, and our expanded Gold Cup, it will raise standards of play to unprecedented levels and develop the sport across the region. Making the leading Concacaf nations stronger on the global stage, while giving our emerging footballing nations the chance to pursue their dreams of playing at a World Cup.”
The date, location and procedures for the draw which will determine the groups and match schedule for the Hexagonal will be announced later this year
See also: World Cup Qualifiers FIFA Concacaf
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Rozaria Memorial Trust
https://www.rozariamemorialtrust.org/
Rozaria Memorial Trust Led By Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda
Watch this video and learn more about the brave and compassionate leader behind Rozaria Memorial Trust.
Education for Child Brides
Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe
The Rozaria Memorial Trust is launching a project to support the educational needs of survivors of child marriage who left school. It also offers education and training for orphans and other marginalized girls at risk of becoming child brides. This project will help these young women and girls regain their dignity and fulfill their economic and social potential. Education for Child Brides aims to send 20 girls to school as well as provide skills training for 100 girls at a counseling, training, and technology center run by the Rozaria Memorial Trust.
Make a One-Time Monthly Recurring donation
$2000 - Supports Staff, Office Space and Supplies for the New Rozaria Memorial Trust Center
$750 - Buys a desktop computer (4 total)
$400 - Buys a Projector
$200 - Sends One Girl To School For a Year
ConnectHer Gems
Info about Zimbabwe
The main goal of this project is to mitigate the impact of child marriage by giving survivors of child marriage a second chance for an education. The Rozaria Memorial Trust (RMT) will sponsor 20 for the Girls Education Opportunity Fund and send 100 girls for skills training at the RMT Counselling, Education and Technology Centre in Murewa. Participants will receive information and communications technology (ICT) and life skills training to rebuild their confidence and harness their potential. In addition, educational support for less privileged and vulnerable girls will ensure that they are retained at school and avert the potential of them dropping out of school and being married off.
This pilot project will be completed in one year. The results and impact will be assessed with the goal of scaling up the initiative so as to provide a continuous and sustained support for the girls and young women.
The first component of the project is to facilitate reentry back to formal education for girls and young women who experienced child marriages. They will receive psychosocial support, school fees, and uniforms. This will also provide an opportunity for advocating for the full implementation of the reentry policy in Zimbabwe for girls who have dropped out of school because of teenage pregnancies and child marriages.
The second component will be the training of the girls and young women on ICTs and other life skills at RMT Counselling, Education and Technology Centre. The trainings will be provided by RMT staff and other technical experts on an as-needed basis.
The outcomes of the project are:
• Improved access to education of girls and young women who experienced child marriages.
• Keeping girls in school, thereby improving their odds of getting educated, staying healthy, and making good life choices.
• Improved understanding of SRHR especially on child marriages and the rights to education by girls and young women.
In Zimbabwe 1 in 3 girls is married before the age of 18. Rates are even higher in rural areas, especially in the farming communities of the Murewa and Shamva Districts targeted by this project, with rates of 36% and 56% respectively. "Child marriage not only puts a stop to girls' hopes and dreams. It also hampers efforts to end poverty and achieve economic growth and equity (World Bank)." This project supports girls’ education, which is one of the best tools to prevent, and help girls recover from, child marriage.
The Zimbabwe-based Rozaria Memorial Trust supports initiatives that promote health, education, and entrepreneurship for women and children in resource-poor communities. It also provides support programs for people with HIV/AIDS. Since 2006 Rozario has reached 5,000 people in 30 villages.
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America’s Iran Plans Suffer from a Double-Bind
The Triangle Drama of the United States, Iran, and China
By Dan Steinbock
Starting in May, the White House hopes to extinguish Iran’s oil exports. However, any destabilization may prove counter-productive and cause long-term damage to the United States, the region and global prospects.
For three years, the nuclear accord (JCPOA) offered Iran relief from the multilateral sanctions on energy, financial, shipping, automotive and other sectors.
The shift in the U.S. policy began in late 2016, when the Congress extended the Iran Sanctions Act for a decade. That emboldened Trump’s unipolar stance.
But what are the immediate economic and strategic implications?
Implications of three-step destabilization
Regionally, Trump’s stance leans on Saudi Arabia for economic and geopolitical support, as evidenced by the $110 billion arms deal with Riyadh in 2017, and reinforced security ties with Israel. The increasing convergence of the U.S., Saudi and Israeli interests in the Middle East reflects a quest for regional primacy.
Initially, John Bolton, Trump’s neoconservative national security advisor, urged Trump to bury the JCPOA and push for a regime change before February 2019; the 50th anniversary of the Iranian revolution. The new timeline is more flexible, but the old objectives remain. The three-step destabilization was started with the rejection of JCPOA (juridical pressure), which was followed by sanctions (to cause economic pain) that would provide the pretext for regime change (military intervention in the name of “peace and democracy”).
Despite deficiencies, data on Iran’s crude oil indicates some trends. According to OPEC, Iran’s crude oil production remained around 3.8 million barrels per day until the 2012 sanctions, which caused the capacity to plunge to 3 million. Following the JCPOA, Iran’s production soared rapidly back to 4 million barrels. With Trump’s electoral triumph and the concerted effort at regime change, the capacity has steadily decreased to less than 3.7 million barrels (Figure 1).
Figure 1 Iran’s Crude Oil Production, 2009-2019 (000s b/d)
If Iran’s production capacity takes a hit, that will penalize particularly its biggest importers; that is, China, India, South Korea and Turkey which accounted for two-thirds of all Iranian exports in 2017, along with Japan, Turkey, Europe (Italy, France), and UAE (Figure 2). Consequently, the strategic responses to U.S. sanctions by Iran’s major export destinations matter. Available data on oil purchases in the past 6-12 months indicate that China, India and Turkey have reduced their buys by about 25%, respectively; Japan by 20% and South Korea almost entirely. Yet, the role of “unknown sources” in Iran’s oil exports has quadrupled.
Figure 2 Iran’s Oil Exports by Countries, 2017 (% share of total)
Conversely, import diversification tells something about their degree of reliance on Iran. Last year, China’s largest crude oil importer was Russia, followed by Saudi Arabia, Angola and Iraq. These top-4 suppliers accounted for half of China’s total oil imports. Among them, Iran ranked seventh accounting for 6.3% of the Chinese total. In turn, India’s largest suppliers featured Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran and Nigeria, which accounted some 60 percent of the total. Among these, Iran was third, accounting for 11% of the total – that is, twice as much as to China in relative terms (Figure 3).
Figure 3 Key Oil Importers of China and India, 2018 (% share of total)
Last year, global purchases of imported crude oil totaled $1.2 trillion reflecting robust demand from 129 countries. Asian countries accounted for more than half of the total. The largest oil importer was China (20.2% of total crude oil importers), followed by the U.S. (13.8%), India (9.7%) and Japan (6.8%) (Figure 5).
Figure 4 World’s Leading Oil Importers, 2018 ($ billion, % of total)
Obstacles to the regime change ploy
In May 2018, Trump had the U.S. withdraw from the JCPOA, while pledging to reimpose U.S. secondary sanctions by November 2018. The reinstatement drove Iran’s economy into mild recession as major companies exited the Iranian economy rather than risk being penalized by the U.S. Iran’s oil exports have decreased significantly, and the value of Iran’s currency has declined sharply.
The EU and some other countries are trying to sustain the economic benefits of the JCPOA flowing to Iran hoping to keep Tehran in the accord. From Iran’s viewpoint, these efforts have been promising, but remain far from adequate.
Geopolitically, the destabilization of Iran is designed to foster the regional supremacy of America’s key allies in the region, particularly Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states. Strategically, the Iran sanctions serve major oil exporters which just happen to be among the key suppliers of both China and India, respectively – that is, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and the Gulf (Oman, Kuwait, UAE, Qatar).
Nevertheless, the Trump hawks’ Iran plans are based on misguided assumptions. Saudi Arabia and UAE can boost higher production levels some of the time, but not all of the time. A protracted effort could destabilize markets further. More importantly, Saudi Arabia (and the U.S.) can offer mainly “light crude oil,” but not “heavy oil,” which many countries need for refined oil products – and which Iran can offer.
Furthermore, China and Turkey, which oppose U.S. unilateralism, along with possibly India and some EU allies, will try to work around U.S. sanctions for economic, geopolitical and development reasons. While China is not critically reliant on Iranian oil, it vehemently opposes unipolar bullying.
There is also the last-resort scenario. If the White House will push Iran against the wall, it could close the Strait of Hormuz – which none of oil exporters and importers want.
The Trump administration believes that America’s military superiority, economic clout and energy dominance suffice to undermine the JCPOA and achieve regime change. Yet, U.S. shale oil is not adequate to dictate unipolar terms to the rest of the international community. Moreover, most Americans see U.S. involvement against Iran as an unnecessary risk. Finally, U.S. economic power is overshadowed by its $22 trillion sovereign debt and the end of the expansionary cycle.
Global repercussions
The JCPOA fostered Iran’s economic development, which would have had a constructive effect on its regional role. U.S. efforts at regime change have not played out expectedly even in Venezuela; and Iran is far more capable and determined to defend its rights in the international arena, with the support of much of the international community.
Economically, sanctions against any major oil exporter will diminish total capacity worldwide and boost crude prices. Before the 2008 global crisis, oil prices soared to almost $150 per barrel. After a severe plunge to $40, they returned to $100 in the early 2010s. As the Fed’s rate hikes caused the U.S. dollar to strengthen, oil prices, which remain denominated in dollars, plunged to mid-$20s. Since then, Fed hikes have normalized and U.S. dollar steadied, which supports rising prices (Figure 5).
Figure 5 Oil Prices, 2000-2019
Until the late 1960s, America was still an oil exporter. In the past half a century, it has been an importer, which has constrained its geopolitical aspirations. That is now changing. To President Trump, America’s “energy dominance” means not just economic, but geopolitical muscle. That explains much of recent U.S. assertiveness and regime change plans in Iran (and Venezuela). Yet, U.S. production accounts for barely 15% of global output, which limits its ability to move global oil markets.
Despite its vocal threats, the Trump White House is in a double-bind. If it does not deliver regime change in Iran, it will be seen as a paper tiger, which will further erode U.S. credibility in the Middle East. If it executes its violent plans, the result could be years of violent turmoil, destabilized region, derailed global prospects – and oil prices exposed to new supply shocks.
Dr. Dan Steinbock is an internationally recognized strategist of the multipolar world and the founder of Difference Group. He has served at India, China and America Institute (US), Shanghai Institutes for International Studies (China) and the EU Center (Singapore). For more, see https://www.differencegroup.net/
The original version was released by China-US Focus on May 3, 2019
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The importance of music education at NACE Schools
Music is a universal language which all human beings possess and understand without needing to study it. We use it to express ourselves and communicate, and it can cause us to feel a range of emotions and feelings. At NACE Schools (Agora International Schools, St George’s and Areteia in Spain, EIB Paris in France, and Stonar in the United Kingdom), we see music education as a fundamental pillar in our pupils’ education, and an integral part of the academic curriculum.
Receiving a music education at school introduces pupils to the world of rhythm, melody, singing, and the use of instruments, which encourages their emotional, social, cognitive, and body equilibrium. Furthermore, the pupils take a more active role in class, develop their spatio-temporal ability, are able to solve complex mathematical operations more easily, and tend to be children who are more civic minded, and maintain a higher average.
Music education also helps them to improve their reading comprehension and verbal skills, particularly in cases which concern bilingual children, like the pupils at NACE Schools. Music alters the organisation of the brain, and prepares it for the development of cognitive skills, a fundamental process for the children to begin to speak and learn words both in their maternal language and in a second one, therefore reinforcing their ability to speak more than one language. Similarly, learning to play an instrument has an impact on other skills such as the understanding of discourse and emotions in the voice, and the ability to perform multiple tasks simultaneously.
In terms of physiological factors, several studies demonstrate that playing an instrument causes an acceleration in the organisation of the cerebral cortex in skills such as attention, managing anxiety and controlling emotions. It has also been shown that it increases the thickness of the parts of the brain responsible for executive function, which controls the cognitive skills which are focused on achieving a goal and oriented to the future. Similarly, the process of rehearsing an instrument, which produces emotional factors of repetition and attention, encourages cerebral plasticity, the change in the structure of the brain from experience.
In the same vein, some researchers maintain that music education and training can work as treatment for cognitive disorders, such as ADHD. In these cases, music reduces levels of anxiety, improves the relationship between the body and the environment, modifies and assimilates behaviour, and activates selective attention.
For all these reasons, music education is a priority at NACE Schools, culminating at the end of each academic year in International Music Week, one of the most important events in which pupils from NACE schools in Spain, France, and the United Kingdom come together to take part in a range of activities, which end with a big concert.
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Sunday, Apr 28, 2019 09:32 AM
Rock Ya-Sin Immediately Boosts Competition In Colts’ Secondary
Jake Arthur
Colts.com Contributor
INDIANAPOLIS — The Indianapolis Colts made Temple cornerback Rock Ya-Sin the 34th overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft on Friday, and the incoming rookie can’t wait to get to work.
“I love Indianapolis. It’s a great city. I feel like it’s a great organization,” Ya-Sin told reporters following the draft. “The culture there, the players – they’re young players that play hard, competitors. I feel like we are going to win a Super Bowl in the next few years. So I feel like I am coming to a great situation.”
Although he was caught off guard by the Colts calling him up, Ya-Sin did say he met with them at the Combine and also talked to them afterwards.
After beginning his career at Presbyterian College — an FCS program where he started for two out of three years — Ya-Sin then transferred to Temple in 2018 to take on higher competition and prepare for the NFL. A year later, he’s actually joining the NFL.
Ya-Sin answered any concerns about coming from a lower level by becoming arguably Temple’s most disruptive defender. As a full-time starter, he intercepted two passes and broke up 12 others, leading to a First-Team All-AAC selection.
Following the college season was another big test for Ya-Sin at the Senior Bowl. Only a year removed from being an FCS player, he would really be seeing the cream of the crop for a week down in Mobile, Ala. The event proved to be no problem for Ya-Sin, however.
“He was just as tenacious in Mobile this week, regularly going up against Deebo Samuel and more than holding his own against our MVP of Senior Bowl practices,” Ryan Wilson of CBS Sports wrote following the Senior Bowl.
“Scouts have known about Ya-Sin since the late summer, and he quietly continued to make a name for himself until this week, when he burst onto the scene,” Wilson continued. “Now there's talk that he could be a first-round pick, and while Greedy Williams remains the most athletic cornerback in this class, Ya-Sin isn't far behind.”
Ya-Sin also caught the attention of Colts.com' s Andrew Walker, who made this note after watching the first day of practice:
Rock Ya-Sin out of Temple showed the ability to be a very aggressive, physical corner on Tuesday — and in all the good ways. He did get crossed up one time in a one-on-one rep where he lost the receiver, but he otherwise seemed to show solid coverage skills and hustle. He also had a play in which he poked the ball loose and would’ve been credited with a forced fumble in a real game setting. At 6-2, 190 pounds, Ya-Sin finished 14th in the nation in 2018 with 12 passes defensed.
With the Colts, Ya-Sin immediately becomes injected into an already-talented group of cornerbacks featuring Pierre Desir, Kenny Moore II, Quincy Wilson, Nate Hairston and Jalen Collins.
The rookie brings a nice frame (5-11, 192) with good length (77-inch wingspan), and he uses it to be a sticky coverage man who makes life difficult for wide receivers. His speed allows him to keep up downfield, although he doesn’t possess elite speed. His hips also flip easily to change direction and follow receivers on their cuts.
Something that is a requirement for Colts cornerbacks is to be tough and willing to get their noses dirty against the run, and Ya-Sin fits that mold.
What may be Ya-Sin’s best quality, though, is his ball skills and how aggressive he is to get to the ball.
“Rock was outstanding at the Senior Bowl and he was great all year,” Colts general manager Chris Ballard told reporters at the end of Day 2 of the draft. “You watch the University (at) Buffalo game and they got a good quarterback and a good wide out and he played great and he played great at the Senior Bowl and then you stack on his character, his competitiveness, his will to win, it just fit us.
“I kept telling our guys, I said, ‘Look, we move and we pass this guy that we love and we don’t get him, we are going to be regretting it,’” Ballard continued. “So at the end of the day we end up picking a guy we loved.”
Ya-Sin was obviously a player that the Colts really liked and didn’t want to miss out on, and trading back again and potentially being unable to scoop him up was too risky.
When Ya-Sin and the Colts arrive in Westfield, Ind. in late July for training camp, the rookie is expected to raise the competition level in the secondary and give the veterans a run for their money.
What To Know: Colts And The 2019 Supplemental Draft
Everything you need to know regarding the Indianapolis Colts and the 2019 supplemental draft, which allows eligible players who did not declare for the spring NFL Draft to declare for the league before the season begins.
Through The Scout’s Eye: E.J. Speed
Byron Lusby, an area scout for the Indianapolis Colts who focuses on the Southwest region, and general manager Chris Ballard discuss what they saw in linebacker E.J. Speed, the Colts’ fifth-round (164th-overall) pick in this year’s NFL Draft.
Through The Scout’s Eye: Marvell Tell III
Chris McGaha, an area scout for the Indianapolis Colts who focuses on the West Coast, as well as general manager Chris Ballard discuss what they saw in cornerback Marvell Tell III, the Colts’ fifth-round (144th-overall) pick in this year’s NFL Draft.
Through The Scout’s Eye: Khari Willis
Chad Henry, an area scout for the Indianapolis Colts who focuses on the Midwest region, as well as general manager Chris Ballard discuss what they saw in safety Khari Willis, the Colts’ fourth-round (109th-overall) pick in this year’s NFL Draft.
Through The Scout’s Eye: Bobby Okereke
Chris McGaha, an area scout for the Indianapolis Colts who focuses on the West Coast, as well as general manager Chris Ballard discuss what they saw in linebacker Bobby Okereke, the Colts’ third-round (89th-overall) pick in this year’s NFL Draft.
Through The Scout’s Eye: Parris Campbell
Chad Henry, an area scout for the Indianapolis Colts who focuses on the Midwest region, discusses what he saw in wide receiver Parris Campbell, the Colts’ second-round (59th-overall) pick in this year’s NFL Draft.
Through The Scout’s Eye: Ben Banogu
Byron Lusby, an area scout for the Indianapolis Colts who focuses on the Southwest region, and general manager Chris Ballard discuss what they saw in linebacker Ben Banogu, the Colts’ second-round (49th-overall) pick in this year’s NFL Draft.
Through The Scout’s Eye: Rock Ya-Sin
Mike Derice, an area scout for the Indianapolis Colts who focuses on the Northeast region, discusses what he saw in cornerback Rock Ya-Sin, the Colts’ second-round (34th-overall) pick in this year’s NFL Draft.
Colts Earn ESPN’s Highest 2019 Offseason Grade
After re-signing many of their own important free agents, adding some talented outsiders and nailing another draft, the Indianapolis Colts are earning high marks for their 2019 offseason.
2019 Colts Draft Picks Rock Ya-Sin, Parris Campbell Sign Contracts
The Indianapolis Colts today signed cornerback Rock Ya-Sin and wide receiver Parris Campbell. The Colts have now signed nine of their 10 draft picks from the 2019 NFL Draft.
How The 2019 NFL Draft Affected The AFC South
By nearly all accounts, the Indianapolis Colts pulled in an excellent 2019 NFL Draft class. How did the rest of the AFC South division compare?
Step Inside The Colts' Draft Room With Chris Ballard
After months and months of scouting, meetings and deliberations, the Indianapolis Colts have their 10-man 2019 NFL Draft class. General manager Chris Ballard this week invited local reporters into the team's draft room, turned on the film and shared the vision for the future of the franchise.
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About compart
Compart is an agency that specializes in Trade Marketing, merchandising and technological solutions for POS sites. In the market since 1995, we strive to deliver results through the use of our skilled teams and market intelligence.
Using a combination of intelligence, technology and creativity, the goal of our agency is to achieve positive results for our clients by planning, developing and executing solutions for the POS site.
SOLID FINANCIAL BASE
PLANNING, DEVELOPMENT AND EXECUTION OF SHARES IN POINT OF SALE
To provide the best service, to generate measurable results and to provide our clients and partners with a reliable basis for making decisions.
To leverage our technological systems and ability to manage high performance teams in order to provide the best possible service for companies in the trade, sales and marketing industries.
Innovation, integrity, ethics, transparency, sustainable growth as well as respect for people and the environment.
FOUNDATION OF COMPART
Compart was set up in the city of Cachoeirinha in Rio Grande do Sul on September 20th 2015.
Recruited promotional staff. Managed and co-oriented their team. Collected and analyzed data. Drew up special reports. Provided support for their supervisors.
OFFICE IN PORTO ALEGRE/RIO GRANDE DO SUL
Set up an office in the city of Porto Alegre.
Ran a "Purchase Necessary" competition. Recruited promotional staff. Collected and analyzed data.
Recruited promotional staff located throughout Brazil. Collected and analyzed data. Provided training to help their team to achieve better results.
HEADQUARTERS IN SÃO PAULO
Started trading in São Paulo.
Nationwide project. Ran a marketing campaign which targeted dentists. The campaign used studies that has been carried out by specialists to promote the Listerine brand. Recruited and co-ordinated their team. Collected and analyzed data.
COMPTRADE WEB
Compart is a pioneer in the development of apps for Trade Marketing. We started collecting data via SMS and launched the first version of Comptrade Web. Castrol, J&J and Alpargatas participated in the initial project.
Recruited promotional staff. Co-orientated their team. Carried out visits to body shops, metallurgy workshops and automobile manufacturers. Collected and analyzed data.
Recruited personnel for a range of roles. Carried out strategic planning. Managed and co-orientated their team. Ran marketing campaigns. Collected and analyzed data.
After J&J bought Listerine from Pfizer, they decided to hire Compart based on the success of a project that Compart had previously carried out for Pfizer. Compart continued to act as a service provider for J&J for many years and they ran a project that involved selling Listerine in small-sized drug stores.
HEADQUARTERS IN MASSACÁ
Set up an office in the neighborhood of Alto de Pinheiros.
COMPTRADE WINDOWS MOBILE
Launch of the first data collection app for Smartphones that used Windows Mobile.
Recruited promotional staff. Project took place in the city of São Paulo and Campinas. Ran marketing campaigns where customers were approached directly and motivated to buy the client's products. Collected and analyzed data.
Tasting sessions were held in the biggest supermarket chains in the country which increased the profile of the product. Collected and analyzed data.
Recruited promotional staff. Project took place in the city of São Paulo and Campinas. Ran marketing campaigns where customers were approached directly and motivated to buy their products. Collected and analyzed data.
Recruited promotional staff, two of whom were professional veterinarians. Project carried out in the south and southeast regions. Worked on strengthening the relationship with the Shopper. Collected and analyzed data.
First agency in the sector to be awarded ISO 9001 certification.
COMPTRADE ANDROID
Migration of 40 client-specific systems from the Windows Mobile OS to the Android platform. The entire process took about a year to complete.
Held a gastronomic event in São Paulo. Recruited promotional staff that specialized in cuisine. Managed and co-oriented their team.
Recruitment promotional staff who specialized in merchandising and window dressing. Designed product displays based on a shopper's journey through the store. Provided training for promotional staff on how to use new sports technology. It was the first project to use our new Comptrade system. Collected and analyzed data.
NEW ANDROID VERSIONS OF COMPTRADE
The availability of new versions of Android led to the evolution of the mobile platform. Contained new features and enhanced usability as well as new methods of data collection that were tailored to the client. The second generation of the Comptrade Web platform was launched.
The company responsible for the Harman brand, one of the largest manufacturers of audio products in the world. Hired promotional staff that specialize in Lifestyle Products. Project was run in 150 shops in the city of São Paulo. Provided training workshops for their salespeople. Oversaw the promotional campaign of the brand/product to ensure that everything went according to plan. Collected and analyzed data.
COSAN
Ran marketing campaigns which used technical exhibition promotional staff to increase sell-out and to promote the differentiation values of the Mobil brand in the POS. Worked alongside car, truck and motorcycle retailers as well as oil change stations.
Recruited promotional staff. Collected and analyzed data. Ran a tasting campaign so as to give the consumer the best possible experience.
The first Project where Compart used an SLA (Service Level Agreement). Recruited on-site stock clerks that worked for specific brands in Walmart stores. Displayed a diligent and flexible approach to recruitment.
Recruited promotional staff. Project took place in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais and Rio Grande do Sul. Compart developed a tailor-made system that allowed Philip Morris to manage and monitor their team. Enabled the real-time transmission of data collected in the field which was used to drive the product strategy.
In conjunction with the KitchenAid line, we worked with promoters, chefs and trainers who carried out demonstrations in high-end stores to showcase the features of the product, which resulted in an increase in revenue and brand exposure.
B.BLEND
Recruited promotional staff. Ran training workshops for promotional staff to ensure that they had a comprehensive knowledge of the product. Project took place in São Paulo and its surrounding cities, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul, Minas Gerais, Paraná as well as the Federal District of Brazil. Created an integrated system that combined a mobile app for collecting data with a web based back office system for analysing the data. Collected and analyzed data.
COMGÁS
Recruited promotional staff. Data collection and analysis. Carried out consumer research. Consulted 850 clients.
Hired 14 veterinary surgeons. Carried out visits to veterinary clinics. Worked on strengthening the relationship with the clients and promoted the products. Collected and analyzed data.
Hired promotional staff who focused on improving the market position of Dermacyd and Cepacol. Data that was collected using the system developed by Compart was used to inform their strategic planning. Ran a monthly incentive scheme which aimed to inspire the promotional staff to work harder. Collected and analyzed data.
Recruited promotional staff. Managed their team and trained them in how handle queries and to give product demonstrations. Collected and analyzed data.
PÃO DE AÇÚCAR GROUP
Ran Telemarketing and door to door campaigns. Identified business opportunities. Evaluated the promotional staff and trained them on how to deliver a tailor-made service to their companies. Collected and analyzed data.
Recruited promotional staff who specialise in merchandising. Project was run in Minas Gerais, Espírito Santo, Mato Grosso, the Federal District, Goiás and Amazonas. Collected and analyzed data.
Recruited promotional staff. Project took place in São Paulo. Was run in 264 POS sites. Collected and analyzed data.
Created a graphic design catalog.
RETAIL LAB
We created a Retail Laboratory that comes complete with a classroom. We use the space to deliver training workshops on merchandising techniques and shopper behavior, amongst many other topics. Our goal is to help the teams carry out their work to a higher standard so that they may achieve sell-out.
Hired promotional staff who specialize in mechandising. Managed and co-oriented of their team. Set up merchandising materials. Collected and analyzed data.
Developed a "purchase necessary" competition and designed the KV (Key Visual) and promotional pieces for the marketing campaign that was run in POS sites all over Brazil. Our team also handled all aspects of the logistics and distribution.
Compart took over the project from another agency. Hired 44 promoters who specialized in merchandising. Staff evaluations were carried out by the HR department to ensure that they had the best people working for them. Developed a new platform for the system. Designed a shelf that was specifically customized for their store in Brasília. Oversaw the entire project from its initial stages through to completion.
Service unit
Street Massacá, 418
Avenue Grajaú, 129
Compart Marketing e Tecnologia Ltda. All rights reserved.
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Optics or Radars? What is Better for the Earth Observation Purposes?
Sentinel-1B radar EO satellite working within the framework of the European Copernicus programme. Image Credit: Thales Alenia Space
Paweł Ziemnicki
EO Satellite
optical reconnaissance
ICEYE
UrtheCast
OptiSAR
Airbus Defence & Space
Optical (optoelectronic) satellites scan the surface of the Earth in a manner different than the one applicable in case of the radar-based systems. Each of the sensor types has its pros and cons and fields of application, in which it turns out to be especially useful. Can it be said that optical imagery is advantageous when placed against the radar data, or are the images gathered through optics worse?Optical (optoelectronic) satellites scan the surface of the Earth in a manner different than the one applicable in case of the radar-based systems. Each of the sensor types has its pros and cons and fields of application, in which it turns out to be especially useful. Can it be said that optical imagery is advantageous when placed against the radar data, or are the images gathered through optics worse?
Constellation of Flexible SAR Microsattelites. An Option for Poland [ANALYSIS]
Optoelectronic satellites can be considered to be passive. They examine the surface of the Earth across a varied spectrum of electromagnetic radiation frequency, especially at wavelengths typical for visible light or for infra-red. The satellites in question make use of the fact that some of the sunlight, that is not absorbed on the surface of the Earth, is reflected back into space. The number of spectral channels and bandwidth that may be recorded by an optical instrument tells us a lot about its spectral resolution. The higher the spectral resolution is, the more accurate knowledge we may get, with regards to the Earth’s environment observed from the outer space.
Meanwhile, it may be said that satellites that use radars can be considered to be active. They emit microwaves towards the Earth, in order to record the way they are reflected back at the receiver orbiting around the planet.
SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) sensors offer especially expansive capabilities, when it comes to this type of observation. This type of a radar may be used to create imagery of objects that remain on the surface of the Earth, with a high level of detail. SAR sensors theoretically enlarge the antenna size through transmission and reception of signals via an antenna placed on a mobile platform (satellite, aircraft, drone). The signals recorded are then processed, so that the data looks as if it was gathered by a single, yet large antenna array. As a result of the above, it is possible to gather high resolution radar imagery.
On-satellite SAR sensors scan the surface of the Earth with the use of microwave impulses. The radar echo is then received by the satellite antenna and recorded. The distance between the satellite and the reflection points on Earth is then measured and processed, so that imagery is obtained, comprehensible for humans and for AI.
It is important that, in order to obtain SAR imagery of good quality, very thorough knowledge of the movement track of the object carrying the sensor is required. Accurate data on trajectory of the satellite is required to properly interpret the data gathered by a satellite.
What’s better?
Here, a simple question comes to mind: what is better - optical or radar satellites? Which of the technologies above allows us to cover a wider spectrum of applications? This is an important question for a country such as Poland which is still in its infancy, when it comes to creating own satellite imagery. Warsaw, due to the budgetary constraints, may need to decide whether to focus on creating optical or SAR observation capacity first.
However, can it indeed be said, as to which out of those two approaches towards satellite EO is better? Or should they not be placed at the opposite ends of the inventory? Maybe one should wonder how radar and optoelectronics could work together? What benefits could be created by synergy as such?
Optical imagery could be more accessible, especially for persons or entities that have no experience in interpreting or processing of satellite imagery. This happens so as, among the spectrum ranges covered by the optoelectronics, visible light can be found as well. Hence, images as such, at least to some extent, are reminiscent of what a human eye can see. And thus they may be easier to digest and interpret.
High-resolution imagery of the Earth’s surface provided by one of the Sentinel-2 satellites. Image Credit: ESA/eo4idi.eu
High-resolution satellite imagery may be infinitely useful, for instance for the military intelligence purposes. Images as such allows the analyst to acquire knowledge on what type of vehicles, aircraft or vessels is used by the enemy. From the Polish point of view, the technology as such may be used to get knowledge on the Russian Armed Forces’ activity in the Kaliningrad region.
The optics often allow the satellite to gather very detailed imagery. It was in November 2018 when Airbus’s Pleiades satellites managed to find a trimaran drifting on the waters of the Atlantic Ocean. To do so, the satellites have delivered images with resolution of 0.5 meters per pixel.
One should remember though that high-resolution optical EO satellites are usually large and very expensive. Furthermore, they may only capture images of good quality if the weather and the Sun permit.
The primary advantage the radar sensors have, within the scope of carrying out observation, is the fact that the process may be carried out in a continuous manner. As opposed to the optical instruments, Synthetic Aperture Radar may carry out remote sensing activities regardless of the weather or lighting conditions.
In other words, SAR satellites may be used at night or with a thick cloud cover over the area of interest. The continuous nature of the observation provided by the ability to carry out this effort, regardless of the circumstances listed above, is of key importance, during each and every subsequent visit the satellite makes over the given area. Due to the reason above, SAR satellites are perfectly suited for monitoring change. Here one may refer to landslides or growth of water level in the flooded area. One may also estimate how many more cars appeared at a car park overnight, or how many containers disappeared from the given harbour. Satellite tools as such may also be successfully used to monitor the status of linear infrastructure, such as gas or oil pipelines.
SAR offers an ability to monitor vast areas over short periods of time. This is another of its major advantages. For instance, gathering imagery of an area which has dimensions of 100x50 kilometers takes around 30 seconds. Capturing optical imagery of such small piece of the Earth, with a proper resolution, may take up a few days.
SAR radar is well suited to monitor marine traffic too. This is because ships or warships can be easily picked up on the water, on the imagery as such.
In pursuit of resolution
In case of the optronic satellites, the ones that make it possible to obtain images with resolution below 1 meter per pixel are valued the most. Certainly, in favourable conditions, the instruments as such make it possible to obtain accurate imagery. Here we are speaking of spatial resolution of course.
So called temporal resolution is very relevant, when it comes to gathering satellite intelligence. This parameter tells us about the time intervals at which the satellite is able to deliver usable imagery depicting the given location to the user. In case of sub-meter resolution optical satellites, this interval between the successful revisits may be quite significant. This stems from two reasons. First, constellations consisting of satellites that are so precise and so expensive usually include a minor quantity of such platforms. Secondly, weather or lighting conditions may also have a negative impact on collection of imagery in the quality desired.
On the basis of the experience with the optical satellites, resolution at the level below 1 meter per pixel is considered to be desirable. 25 cm per pixel may be considered to be a satisfactory value for instance. Also, in case of the radar imagery, the 1m/pixel resolution offers a lot of capabilities and makes it possible to notice the details of the object observed.
However, in case of most applications, 3 meters resolution (1 pixel equivalent to a 3x3 m square on the Earth surface) is sufficient. Where a greater accuracy is not required, this is a sufficient and cost effective solution.
Tools as such, offering a good cost-quality ratio, constitute the primary solution offered by the ICEYE company. 3x3 radar imagery provided by that company may be used for numerous purposes. The data as such may be used, for instance, to detect illegal fishing activities. In agriculture imagery as such could be utilized to classify the vegetation types, growing over the individual fragments of the given area. ICEYE is also developing a tool that will allow for automatic detection of worrying changes in the pipeline structures, and then for analysis and classifying such anomalies on the basis of machine-learning algorithms.
SAR imagery gathered by ICEYE. Image Credit: ICEYE
One should also note that SAR satellites belonging to the ICEYE company may be operated across a variety of modes, meaning that the spatial resolution may be selected to meet the given requirement or match the purpose. Where a more thorough examination of the given place is required, the satellites are able to capture 1 meter resolution imagery (1 pixel = 1 sq. meter). Thanks to the above, the user, viewing a large area, may use both detailed, as well as a wide view of the given location.
ICEYE-X1. Image Credit: ICEYE
ICEYE also sets a high standard for itself, when it comes to temporal resolution. Until the end of 2019 the SAR satellites belonging to that company will be capable to revisit any place on Earth in an interval of up to 8 hours. Following the next 12 months, before 2020 comes to an end, that interval is to be diminished to 3 hours.
Highly Effective Cooperation
Radar satellites are well suited to regularly scan vast areas and to detect the potential changes that may be taking place there. Optical satellite, meanwhile, makes it possible to examine the given area of interest in detail.
Thus SAR sensors may scan vast areas, looking for points of interest that could be examined in detail, with the use of optoelectronics. The optical sensor would make it possible then to identify the given object (non-authorized construction site for instance) previously detected by the radar satellite. This type of cooperation may be compared to looking at the night sky with the use of binoculars and a telescope. The binoculars usually offer smaller magnification and a wider angle of view than the telescope. The observer using binoculars who manages to find the nebula that he is interested in may then use the telescope to examine it in detail. Contrary to binoculars, the telescope offers a greater magnification, however the visible fragment of the sky is much smaller.
A Perfect Symbiosis
OptiSAR constellation created by the Canadian Urthecast company is a good example of cooperation between the optical and SAR satellites. The project assumes that eight pairs of satellites would be placed on two orbital planes, and each pair will consist of a SAR satellite that is going to be followed by EO optronic satellite, following the same orbital path a few minutes later.
As a result of the above, it is going to be possible to acquire both radar, as well as optical imagery of the Earth at the same time. This will make it possible to access a much greater quantity of information, than in case when a single sensor type is used.
Furthermore, obtaining data from a radar satellite that is going to, as the first one, pass over the given area, makes it possible to notice new, potentially relevant targets that may then become a point of focus for the optical sensors of the next satellite. A proper cooperation between the satellites of each pair will also create circumstances in which the optical satellite would not gather useless imagery, due to the weather conditions.
In the light of the above it seems that placing radar and optical imagery on two sides of the table is not an approach that is accurate. Each of those tools has some unique and useful features that are usable in given conditions, and less usable if those conditions change.
EO and optical satellites are perfect for gathering intelligence. On the basis of data provided by such systems it is possible to identify and count the number of combat vehicles or warships the enemy deployed in the given area. Acquiring imagery in a spectrum broader than just in visible light, for instance, with the use of IR sensors, makes it possible to attain complex information regarding the given object.
However, one should note and remember that acquisition of data with the use of optical sensors is highly dependent on the external circumstances. And these include lighting conditions and weather.
Radar imagery may not offer clarity on par with that of optical images, however, it is perfect for complex scanning of vasts area and for detecting changes taking place there. Thanks to the above, SAR sensors may indicate the points of interest for a more thorough examination by EO satellites, or by SAR satellites that feature a higher resolution radar. However, certainty of observation on each revisit is a huge advantage that the SAR satellites may have. This makes it possible to precisely monitor and detect environmental changes. Thanks to abilities as such, the governments, administration or state services may detect criminal or terrorist activities, military and natural threats (related to movement of the Earth’s crust).
In the past, obtaining of imagery from SAR satellites was related to major costs required to be covered by the parties interested in imagery as such. The infrastructure used for that purpose was difficult and was available on the orbit in very sparse quantities.
Now, considering the Space 4.0 trends, the situation has begun to change. SAR Satellites manufactured by ICEYE are fairly inexpensive and their dimensions are not that large. The satellites in question will form a constellation of global coverage, providing frequent revisits. The elements of that constellation could be regularly and cost-effectively replaced, as the lifetime of the individual satellites come to an end. Solution offering a high degree of flexibility and certain results at a relatively low cost, may turn out to be useful in sectors of economy such as energy industry, insurance or maritime transport.
Article written in collaboration with ICEYE
Read more: First Photograph Captured by the ICEYE-X2 Satellite
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Search play_arrow business
Business | Career | Management
What Are the Highest-Paying Jobs in Business Management?
There’s more to management than money, including respect, prestige and the chance to inspire others and make a difference. However, it’s no coincidence that managers are the best-paid workers in the business world. Their vision and their strategizing and delegation skills make things happen, and they must have both a college education and a great . . .
Business | Career
What Are the Highest-Paying Entry-Level Jobs in Business?
High salary potential is probably at least part of the reason you’re considering earning a business degree. The median wage for business and finance occupations is $68,350, according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), and business professionals who work their way up to management roles enjoy a much higher median salary of . . .
Business | Grad School | Masters
What Are the Easiest Graduate Degrees to Get in Business?
Going to graduate school isn’t always about quenching a thirst for knowledge. Sometimes, it’s simply about acquiring the degree you need to boost your income or qualify for a promotion. If you’re looking at graduate school more as a means to an end than as an intellectual journey, then you may be looking for an . . .
Business | Degrees
What Are the Easiest Degrees to Get in Business?
Within the field of business, you can pursue many different majors and concentrations. All bachelor’s degrees in business generally require a similar business core curriculum and total number of college credits (generally, 120). However, the classes these programs require and the skills students need to succeed in these different fields can vary widely. While an . . .
What Are the Highest-Paying Jobs in Business Administration?
One of the reasons the business and finance field is so popular among students and job seekers is because of the high salaries you can earn in these roles. Business administration is a versatile degree program that can act as a stepping stone to many high-paying career paths. Naturally, business management jobs are some of . . .
Business | College Selection
What Is the Fastest School for a Degree in Business?
The same go-getter attitude that will help you excel in the business world can also cause you to feel frustrated at how long it traditionally takes to earn a college degree. Without an education, you can’t get the prestigious, well-paying job you want, but it's difficult to put your career on hold for so long . . .
What Government Jobs Can You Get With a Business Degree?
Government entities may not technically be businesses, but their operations have a lot in common with that of for-profit companies and corporations. Like private sector organizations, the government is most effective when it is run in ways that encourage productivity and efficiency while reducing wasted time, efforts and expenses – which, in this case, are . . .
What Are the Benefits of Pursuing a Degree in Business?
Year after year, students choose to devote their college studies to the field of business. There are many advantages to majoring in business, both during your education and after you graduate. A business degree puts you on the path to numerous growing and profitable careers. Going to business school offers you the opportunity to learn . . .
What Is the Demand for a Degree in Business?
While many business students do have a thirst for knowledge, you have an end goal in mind behind your decision to earn a business degree. You want to get a great job in the business world, one that will put you in a position to climb up the ladder toward high-level and high-paying positions. To . . .
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Helen Marie "Rea" Muncrief
November 17, 1933 ~ November 7, 2018 (age 84)
Helen Marie (Rea) Ellsworth was born on November 17, 1933 in Otis, NM where she then grew up the middle child among six siblings, although she often told friends and family, she didn’t realize she was a middle child until the 80’s when that became a thing. She would also tell anyone who asked that she was her daddy’s favorite and her big brother Ray’s baby. It was through that close relationship with her big brother that Rea caught the eye of a handsome young feller from Oklahoma.
Rea dated Edward “Sonny” Muncrief for all of three months before he said “Will ya?” and she said “Will I What?” He said “Marry Me” to which she replied….“You have to ask my daddy.” And she has been making him work for it ever since. On November 27, 1949 at the age of sixteen, Rea became Mrs. Edward Lee Muncrief. They built their home on an old rock hill in Carlsbad, next door to Rea’s parents where they raised three children, some nieces and nephews and a handful of neighborhood children before moving on to helping raise grandchildren, some great nieces and nephews and a few more assorted neighborhood children.
Known at Vacation Bible School as the “cookie lady”, Rea got to the heart of many through their stomachs. You always knew there would be something good to eat at Sonny and Rea’s and if she knew you were coming, it would be your favorite. Christmas was for cream pies and each son and son-in-law got the first piece of their favorite – no one could cut it until the designated person was there. Once it was cut – it was a free for all! Whatever she made, she made extra, mostly because whatever she made, Sonny tended to give away and she would roll her eyes and huff under her breath…and then she would make more. Her grandchildren have fond memories of decorating cookies, not just at Christmas, but for every holiday, sometimes by the hundreds!
Her hands were never idle. She was a reader…a journalist…a word searcher and crochet was her art. Rea enjoyed travel and having family around and she would tell you it was good to go and good to come home. She would also tell you she liked to have everyone come and she liked to see them leave. Rea would be the first one up – coffee made, Bible read before the rest stirred – and the last one to go to bed. She was Ma to many and an example to all of what it means to show tough love when necessary – paddle at the ready – or a soft heart when needed. Never one to cry, Rea was the first to wipe the tears of others.
Even in recent years, when her mind became locked in itself, her eyes would light up and she served as a joy to others, continuing as an example to all who knew her – and still willing to rebuke those who needed it – including Sonny – who, no argument was and is – the love of her life.
Those who knew Rea are proud to call her family or friend – it was all the same to her. Those who know her influence are better for it – the patience we learned by opening and closing the door ten times because you slammed it, the sense of fairness – if one got it, we all got it (good or bad) and mostly, the unfailing loyalty to those you love. She was preceded in death by her parents; son, Tub Muncrief; brothers: Ray, Dale and Eugene Ellsworth; sister, Mabel “Sis” Kelton.
Survivors are her husband of 69 years, Sonny Muncrief of Carlsbad, NM; daughter, Marilla “Snooks” Denny and husband, Jim of Carlsbad, NM; son, Rex D. Muncrief and wife, Lynette of Las Cruces, NM; 8 grandchildren: Shawn Denny and wife, Tabitha, Deana Corona and husband, Robert, Mindy Turner and husband, Jason, Keeley Muncrief, Christy Muncrief, Kourtney Vaillancourt and husband, Steve, Lisa Nesbit and husband, Curt and Megan May and husband, Chris; 13 great-grandchildren; brother, Bruce Ellsworth and wife, Barbara of Parker, Texas; sister, Patsy Ward of Midland, Texas and numerous nieces and nephews.
Rea left this earth on November 7, 2018. Her work on earth was done, having laid a foundation for future generations with a strong work ethic, an unwavering stand on what is right and a love for God and family. She has fulfilled her purpose.
And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28
A graveside service is scheduled for 9:00 AM, Monday, November 12, 2018 at Sunset Gardens Memorial Park with Pastor Dick Means and Pastor Herb Gage officiating. Denton-Wood Funeral Home is in charge of the arrangements.
Condolences may be expressed at dentonwood.com
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▸English version
Community - Based Sea Turtle Project, San Blas, El Salvador
August 19, 2013 Chencho Alas
Will it be possible for the FSPM to finance the turtle project this year? The hatchery season has started and we don't have the financial means to assist the people of San Blas, El Salvador. Who would like to contribute to the project? We need $,9000.
The coast of El Salvador supports nesting populations of four sea turtle species—hawksbill, leatherback, Pacific green and olive ridley—all of which are endangered. Historically, people have consumed more than 98 percent of sea turtle eggs laid in El Salvador. In 2009, the Salvadoran government banned the consumption of sea turtle eggs and use of turtle products. While the ban greatly improves the turtles’ prospects for recovery, it also creates new pressures for coastal communities, as they seek replacements for income and food turtle eggs once provided. Thus, coastal communities now combat heavy poaching of turtle eggs, which continues despite the ban.
FSPM has been working effectively in Central American communities for 11 years and has facilitated many successful conservation projects with affiliated organizations throughout Central America. Since 2008, FSPM has been managing the successful sea turtle hatchery project at San Blas, La Libertad, which is located in the middle of El Salvador’s Pacific Coast, about 20 miles from San Salvador. Olive ridleys nest regularly here, and Pacific greens resumed nesting in 2012. FSPM launched its holistic, community-based conservation program in order to protect sea turtles and their habitat at San Blas, increase the productivity of the hatchery, educate the local community about the importance of conserving turtles, and engage them in sea turtle and habitat conservation.
FSPM combats major threats to turtles in San Blas and fosters community stewardship to ensure long-term change. We seek to minimize poaching, maximize hatching success, educate and engage the entire community in conservation, shift community perspectives to embrace turtle conservation, reduce threats to turtle habitat, and conduct research to improve turtle conservation efforts over time.
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House Candidate Alejandra Campoverdi Talks Stereotypes
By Alexandra Svokos
Alejandra Campoverdi is running for Congress in the heated Los Angeles 34th District race.
She also once posed for Maxim and wants you to know those two things are not mutually exclusive.
Campoverdi was raised by a single mother and received her master's in public policy from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.
She worked a series of jobs when she was younger to help cover various costs. Those jobs included working as a waitress, a live mannequin on Venice Beach, a retail employee and a model.
Alejandra Campoverdi For Congress on YouTube
One of those modeling gigs, around 15 years ago, happened to be for Maxim.
After she got her degree from Harvard, Campoverdi moved to Chicago to work on the 2008 presidential campaign for Barack Obama.
When he was elected, she was appointed to work in the White House in the chief of staff's office, and later, as the first deputy director of Hispanic media.
But when Campoverdi was appointed, someone dug into her past and found the old Maxim photos. She wrote,
Right behind the photos followed the hotter, more humiliating blaze of unveiled snark that pointedly implied that I didn't deserve what I'd accomplished and had been overambitious for even trying in the first place.
She said she was labeled as the "White House Maxim Model" and "reduced to a stereotype."
Campoverdi said she cried for a week before working even harder to prove her worth in the White House.
But since then, her understanding of sexism has grown. She wrote,
Men get to be broad and complicated and contradictory. Yet as women, we aren't granted the whole person. [...] Women shouldn't need to choose between being intelligent and being feminine. Female sexuality and intelligence are not inversely related.
Campoverdi wrote she's "proud of the mosaic of experiences that make me who I am."
Although she's grown personally, however, she wants to help younger women who may need to learn the lessons she did about overcoming sexism.
She wrote,
It's urgent we send a message to these women that they will not be kept out of the political process by the mere fact of being human, of being their wonderfully nuanced, complicated, sometimes contradictory selves. From this generation forward, every woman will have grown up in the digital age where, unless she sat in a turtleneck at home for all her teens, she will have pictures readily available online that can be used to shame her.
Campoverdi encourages women to not be scared out of running for office by their past and by who they are. She said we need to learn to accept and celebrate "whole, multidimensional women."
It's a good lesson women and men need to hear regularly.
Citations: I Posed for Maxim and I'm Running for Congress. It Shouldn't Be That Shocking. (Cosmopolitan)
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Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Biomedical Texture Analysis
Fundamentals, Tools and Challenges
Editors: Adrien Depeursinge Omar S Al-Kadi J.Ross Mitchell
Published Date: 25th August 2017
Biomedical Texture Analysis: Fundamentals, Applications, Tools and Challenges describes the fundamentals and applications of biomedical texture analysis (BTA) for precision medicine. It defines what biomedical textures (BTs) are and why they require specific image analysis design approaches when compared to more classical computer vision applications.
The fundamental properties of BTs are given to highlight key aspects of texture operator design, providing a foundation for biomedical engineers to build the next generation of biomedical texture operators. Examples of novel texture operators are described and their ability to characterize BTs are demonstrated in a variety of applications in radiology and digital histopathology. Recent open-source software frameworks which enable the extraction, exploration and analysis of 2D and 3D texture-based imaging biomarkers are also presented.
This book provides a thorough background on texture analysis for graduate students and biomedical engineers from both industry and academia who have basic image processing knowledge. Medical doctors and biologists with no background in image processing will also find available methods and software tools for analyzing textures in medical images.
Defines biomedical texture precisely and describe how it is different from general texture information considered in computer vision
Defines the general problem to translate 2D and 3D texture patterns from biomedical images to visually and biologically relevant measurements
Describes, using intuitive concepts, how the most popular biomedical texture analysis approaches (e.g., gray-level matrices, fractals, wavelets, deep convolutional neural networks) work, what they have in common, and how they are different
Identifies the strengths, weaknesses, and current challenges of existing methods including both handcrafted and learned representations, as well as deep learning. The goal is to establish foundations for building the next generation of biomedical texture operators
Showcases applications where biomedical texture analysis has succeeded and failed
Provides details on existing, freely available texture analysis software, helping experts in medicine or biology develop and test precise research hypothesis
Biomedical engineers, medical imaging scientists, Radiologists and clinicians
1. Fundamentals of Texture Processing for Biomedical Image Analysis,
Adrien Depeursinge, Julien Fageot and Omar Al Kadi
2. Multi-Scale and Multi-Directional Biomedical Texture Analysis
Adrien Depeursinge
3. Biomedical Texture Operators and Aggregation Functions
4. Deep Learning in Texture Analysis and its Application to Tissue Image Classification
Vincent Andrearczyk and Paul F. Whelan
5. Fractals for Biomedical Texture Analysis,
Omar Al Kadi
6. Handling of Feature Space Complexity for Texture Analysis in Medical Images
Yang Song and Weidong Cai
7. Rigid Motion Invariant Classification of 3D Textures
Sanat Upadhyay, Saurabh Jain and Manos Papadakis
8. An Introduction to Radiomics: An Evolving Cornerstone of Precision Medicine
Sara Ranjbar and Ross Mitchell
9. Deep Learning Techniques on Texture Analysis of Chest and Breast Images,
Jie-Zhi Cheng Chung-Ming Chen and Dinggang Shen
10. Analysis of Histopathology Images
Oscar Jimenez-del-Toro, Sebastian Otalora, Mats Andersson, Kristian Euren, Martin Hedlund, Mikael Rousson, Henning M ̈uller and Manfredo Atzori
11. MaZda - a Framework for Biomedical Image Texture Analysis and Data Exploration
Piotr M. Szczypínski and Artur Klepaczko
12. QuantImage - An Online Tool for High-Throughput 3D Radiomics Feature Extraction in PET-CT
Yashin Dicente Cid, Joel Castelli, Roger Schaer, Nathaniel Schery, Anastasia Pomoni John Prior and Adrien Depeursinge
13. Web-Based Tools for Exploring the Potential of Quantitative Imaging Biomarkers in Radiology
Roger Schaer, Yashin Dicente Cid, Emel Alkim, Sheryl John, Daniel L.Rubin and Adrien Depeursinge
Adrien Depeursinge received a B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in electrical engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland, in 2003 and 2005, respectively, with a specialization in signal and image processing. From 2006 to 2010, he performed his Ph.D. thesis on medical image analysis at the University Hospitals of Geneva (HUG). He then did a Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Department of Radiology at Stanford University. Starting from 2014, he holds a joint position as professor at the University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland, Sierre (HES-SO) and as research associate in the Biomedical Imaging Group at EPFL. Dr. Depeursinge was the recipient of the 2011 German Association for Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology Award in medical informatics for his Ph.D. thesis. His research interests include N-dimensional texture analysis with control of image scales and directions as well as clinical workflows of image-based computer-aided diagnosis systems.
University of Applied Sciences, Western Switzerland (HES-SO).
Omar S Al-Kadi
Omar S Al-Kadi received the PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Sussex (Brighton, UK) in 2010, and the MSc. and BSc. in Information Technology and Biomedical Engineering from the University of Canberra (Canberra, Australia) and Cairo University (Cairo, Egypt) in 2003 and 2001, respectively. In 2010 he joined King Abdullah II School for Information Technology at the University of Jordan (Amman, Jordan) as an Assistant Professor, and in 2011 he was a Visiting Researcher in the Center for Vision, Speech and Signal Processing at the University of Surrey (Guildford, UK). During the period from 2013 to 2015 he was a Research Fellow at the Institute of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Oxford (Oxford, UK), working on improving 3D Ultrasound-based drug delivery strategies for liver tumor analysis and segmentation. He was also a Visiting Professor at the Medical Image Processing lab within the Institute of BioEngineering at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology - Lausanne (EPFL) from 2015-2016. Since 2015, he holds the position of Associate Professor at King Abdullah II School for Information Technology at the University of Jordan. His research interest include developing novel approaches in image processing and analysis, such as texture analysis, image classification and segmentation, with a particular interest in medical imaging.
Associate Professor, King Abdullah II School for Information Technology, University of Jordan
J.Ross Mitchell
J Ross Mitchell, PhD, is a Professor of Radiology in the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, a Senior Associate Consultant in the Department of Research at Mayo Clinic in Arizona, and an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Biomedical Informatics at Arizona State University. His research is focused on Medical Imaging Informatics - new algorithms to extract information from medical images to improve the diagnosis, treatment, visualization and monitoring of disease. He has extensive expertise translating academic research into clinically impactful products. He is a Co-Founder, and the Founding Scientist, of Calgary Scientific Inc. (CSI), a company with over 100 employees and a suite of FDA Class II cleared products for diagnostic state-of-the-art GPU-driven mobile tele-radiology. These products include intellectual property developed in his academic lab. They have been licensed by a variety of companies, including General Electric, Siemens, Fuji, Medtronic, Hitachi, IBM, Dell, Cisco, Sprint, Verizon, and others. CSI products are available in 12 languages and 33 countries worldwide
Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, and Department of Biomedical Informatics at Arizona State University, USA
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Progressive Post-Keynesian Economics
Edited by Jesper Jespersen, Finn Olesen
This book is devoted to the progression of Post-Keynesian economics, taking stock of the previous 10 years of persistent imbalances in many dimensions of macroeconomic ‘reality’. This has given inspiration to Post-Keynesian scholars to make innovative contributions in areas like methodology, macroeconomic modelling and teaching. One challenge discussed in several chapters is how to model a complex macro-system where microeconomic uncertainty is increasing? This aspect is elaborated in a number of contributions which focus on the role of the financial sector and financialization for macroeconomic disruptions. Additional chapters deal with teaching and the use of case-studies for a better understanding of the real world economy. Learn More
Finance, Growth and Inequality
Edited by Louis-Philippe Rochon, Virginie Monvoisin
This book brings together some leading and emerging scholars who bring an alternative view on some of the most pressing issues of today. In addition to key concepts in post-Keynesian and heterodox economics, the authors also explore financialization, debt, income distribution, and policies, and the emerging threat of dualism. Policy makers and scholars alike will find the book a much need addition to the field. Learn More
A Modern Guide to State Intervention
Edited by Nikolaos Karagiannis, John E. King
A Modern Guide to State Intervention investigates the impact of the changing role of the state, offering an alternative political economy for the third decade of the twenty-first century. Building on important factors including history, the role of institutions, society and economic structures, this Modern Guide considers economic and administrative interventions towards changing the destabilised status quo of modern societies. Learn More
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Forthcoming (191)
Monographs (161)
Handbooks (50)
Research Collections (17)
Reference & Dictionaries (2)
Encyclopedias (2)
Elgar Advanced Introductions (2)
Elgaronline (212)
Teaching College Economics
Edited by Paul W. Grimes
This authoritative volume presents a collection of classic and contemporary research articles examining the common ground that all academic economists share: the college classroom. This compilation includes readings covering all aspects of modern economic education research – from building theoretical models of student learning, to evaluating the long-run impact of economic knowledge on individual behavior. The articles are organized to serve as a comprehensive guide for researchers who are interested in conducting classroom research. Specific attention is given to the growing literature that evaluates the effectiveness of modern technology and alternative pedagogies on student learning of economics. With an original introduction by the editor, this volume brings together – for the first time in one place – an essential collection of economic education research by the leading authors in the field. Learn More
Choice and Economic Welfare
Edited by Viktor J. Vanberg
This important collection brings together the most prominent literature in the field of choice and economic welfare. The volume incorporates material exploring how economics as a scientific enterprise may inform political decision-making. A premise explored paradigmatically through different interpretations including utility-individualism in the context of welfare economics, preference-individualism in social choice theory, and choice-individualism in constitutional economics. The volume includes an array of the subjects founding literature as well as contemporary pieces, which have sparked further discussion in the field. Brought together by an original introduction by the editor, this one-volume collection promises to be a valuable tool for researchers and scholars, as well as a fascinating read to those gravitating towards this fascinating topic. Learn More
Convenience Triangle in White-Collar Crime
Petter Gottschalk
The ‘convenience triangle’ is the dynamic relationship between motive, opportunity, and willingness to commit a crime, which culminates in the illegal acts which constitute white-collar crime. This book aims to discuss the role of the ‘convenience triangle’ in white-collar crime, how it affects the perpetration of these crimes, the impact of this on detection and prevention and the effects of the punitive measures taken against white-collar criminals. Learn More
Handbook of Urban Geography
Edited by Tim Schwanen, Ronald van Kempen
This collection brings together the latest thinking in urban geography. It provides a comprehensive overview of topical issues and draws on experiences from across the world. Chapters have been prepared by leading researchers in the field and cover themes as diverse as urban economies, inequalities and diversity, conflicts and politics, ecology and sustainability, and information technologies. The Handbook offers a valuable resource for students and researchers interested in cities and the urban in geography and across the wider social sciences. Learn More
The Logic of Public–Private Partnerships
Graeme A. Hodge, Carsten Greve
This book examines Public–Private Partnerships (PPP), and tracks the movement from early technical optimism to the reality of PPP as a phenomenon in the political economy. Today's economic turbulence sees many PPP assumptions changed: what contracts can achieve, who bears the real risks, where governments get advice and who invests. As the gap between infrastructure needs and available financing widens, governments and businesses both must seek new ways to make contemporary PPP approaches work. Learn More
Beyond Public Policy
Peter K. Spink
Public policy is an expression that has come to dominate the way people talk about doing government and public administration and is seen as a central component of the modern democratic order. Adopting an innovative ‘public action languages’ approach, Beyond Public Policy shows how policy is only one of many powerful social languages (budgeting, planning, rights, directives and protests, amongst others) used to make things happen in the ever-changing arena of public affairs; where they may cooperate, compete, or just go their own way. Learn More
Is Intellectual Property Pluralism Functional?
Edited by Susy Frankel
The international intellectual property (IP) law system allows states to develop policies that reflect their national interests. Therefore, although there is an international minimum standards framework in place, states have widely varying IP laws and differing interpretations of these laws. This book examines whether pluralism in IP law is functional when applied to copyright, patents and trademarks on an international basis. Learn More
EU Law of Competition and Trade in the Pharmaceutical Sector
Edited by Pablo Figueroa, Alejandro Guerrero
This book provides a systematic analysis of the law and practice of EU competition and trade in the pharmaceutical sector. Authored by leading private practitioners, economists, scholars and high-level officials at competition regulators, this work provides valuable insider knowledge on the application of law and policies to the pharmaceutical industry. The work contains extensive commentary on the legislation and the latest case law and administrative precedents in this sector, at both EU and national level, including certain significant jurisdictions (e.g., the US, China). Coverage of various key developments includes the recent pay-for-delay antitrust investigations, the perennial issues around parallel trade, and an examination of mergers among pharmaceutical companies and medical devices manufacturers. In addition to the legal analysis, it offers vital economic and business perspectives to ensure that the reader has the full range of tools with which to prepare for cases and conduct transactions within the pharmaceutical industry. Learn More
Theorizing in Organization Studies
Anne Vorre Hansen, Sabine Madsen
While many books provide guidance to the construction of theory, the process of theorizing itself has been addressed far less. The aim of this book is to encourage researchers to reflect upon their subjective theorizing practices and to engage in dialogue about theorizing in organization studies. Drawing on interviews with eight key figures in the field, this book provides guidance for how to theorize, and how to do so well, using the key tools of the theorizers. Learn More
Research Handbook on Street-Level Bureaucracy
Edited by Peter Hupe
When the objectives of public policy programmes have been formulated and decided upon, implementation seems just a matter of following instructions. However, it is underway to the realization of those objectives that public policies get their final substance and form. Crucial is what happens in and around the encounter between public officials and individual citizens at the street level of government bureaucracy. This Research Handbook addresses the state of the art while providing a systematic exploration of the theoretical and methodological issues apparent in the study of street-level bureaucracy and how to deal with them. Learn More
Constitutionalising the External Dimensions of EU Migration Policies in Times of Crisis
Edited by Sergio Carrera, Juan Santos Vara, Tineke Strik
This discerning book examines the external dimension EU migration and asylum polices in times of crisis. It thoroughly assesses patterns of co-operation in EU migration management with a focus on co-operation with the global south. A key resource for academics and students focussing on EU Law and migration more specifically, this book will also appeal to policy-makers, legal practitioners and international organisation representatives alike. Learn More
Transit Oriented Development and Sustainable Cities
Edited by Richard D. Knowles, Fiona Ferbrache
This book provides new dimensions and a contemporary focus on sustainable transport, urban regeneration and development in eight countries spanning four continents at different stages of development. It examines the role of transit oriented development (TOD) in improving urban sustainability and providing different transport choices, exploring how these can be implemented in modern cities. Learn More
Preparing for High Impact Organizational Change
Edited by Gavin M. Schwarz, Anthony F. Buono, Susan M. Adams
Preparing for High Impact Change: Experiential Learning and Practice provides an overview of change processes for teaching, facilitating, and coping with change. Tested high-impact exercises in the book will prepare change leaders at all organizational levels to deal with the myriad of challenges inherent in the process of organizational change. This book is a resource for consultants, educators, students and practitioners in corporate training and development roles. Learn More
A Research Agenda for Transport Policy
Edited by John Stanley, David A. Hensher
Everyone has an opinion on transport: it significantly affects daily lives. This book highlights key transport opportunities and challenges, and identifies research requirements to inform policy discussion and support better societal outcomes. It does this by scanning across modes, continents, technologies and socio-economic settings, looking for common threads, points of difference and opportunities to make a difference. The book should appeal to prospective post-graduate students, professionals in transport and related fields, and those interested in better places and good discussions. Learn More
Transparency in EU Procurements
Edited by Kirsi-Maria Halonen, Roberto Caranta, Albert Sanchez-Graells
This book provides a timely analysis of transparency in public procurement law. In its first part, the book critically assesses a number of key matters from a general and comparative perspective, including corruption prevention, competition and commercial issues and access to remedies. The second part illustrates how the relevance of these aspects varies across member states of the EU. Learn More
Handbook of Inclusive Innovation
Edited by Gerard George, Ted Baker, Paul Tracey, Havovi Joshi
The Handbook of Inclusive and Social Innovation: The Role of Organizations, Markets and Communities offers a comprehensive review of research on inclusive innovation to address systemic and structural issues – the “Grand Challenges” of our time. With 27 contributions from 57 scholars, the Handbook provides frameworks and insights by summarising current research, and highlights emerging practices and scalable solutions. The contributions highlight a call to action and place social impact at the heart of theory and practice. It will be an invaluable resource for academics, practitioners, and policymakers who champion social inclusion and emphasize innovative approaches to addressing sustainable development goals. Learn More
Handbook on Science and Public Policy
Edited by Dagmar Simon, Stefan Kuhlmann, Julia Stamm, Weert Canzler
This Handbook assembles state-of-the-art insights into the co-evolutionary and precarious relations between science and public policy. Beyond this, it also offers a fresh outlook on emerging challenges for science (including technology and innovation) in changing societies, and related policy requirements, as well as the challenges for public policy in view of science-driven economic, societal, and cultural changes. In short, this book deals with science as a policy-triggered project as well as public policy as a science-driven venture. Learn More
Market Definition in EU Competition Law
Miguel S. Ferro
The maintenance of a fair, competitive market among member states is critical to the functioning of the EU economy. In this book, the first comprehensive, unifying view of market definition, Miguel Ferro adeptly explores the different economic-legal issues that arise in EU competition law. Learn More
A Research Agenda for Global Crime
Edited by Tim Hall, Vincenzo Scalia
This multidisciplinary collection of essays by leading international scholars explores many pressing issues related to global crime. The book opens with essays that look across this diverse terrain and then moves on to consider specific areas including organised crime, cyber-crime, war-crimes, terrorism, state and private violence, riots and political protest, prisons, sport and crime and counterfeit goods. The book emphasises the centrality of crime to the contemporary global world and mobilises diverse disciplinary positions to help understand and address this. Learn More
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School’s new studio features HD camcorders
The Price Hill (Ohio) Press
The Price Hill Press of Price Hill, Ohio, reports on the unveiling of a new digital production studio at a local Catholic high school for boys. Students at the school had already been using laptops to produce news broadcasts, but this is the first time they will have their own editing studio, which includs two high-definition camcorders, a green screen, and a news anchor desk. The school's technology director says the school is the first in Ohio to make high definition camcorders available for student use....
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Home / News / AT&T To Bring 300Mbps Fiber To Austin
AT&T To Bring 300Mbps Fiber To Austin
Gabriel Roşu / 6 years ago
Austin, Texas seems to be the new place to be if you are interested in a blazing fast Internet connection as AT&T has announced plans to deploy fiber in the city that will ultimately provide speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second.
Known as GigaPower, the service will be an extension of AT&T’s existing U-verse program. At launch, it will be limited to 300 Mbps on the upstream and downstream which is said to be the fastest available to consumers from any Austin broadband provider.
GigaPower will initially reach tens of thousands of customers throughout Austin and the surrounding areas later this year. Those that sign up for the 300 Mbps service will be upgraded to speeds up to 1 gigabit per second at no extra cost when it becomes available in mid-2014.
Dave Nichols, President of AT&T Texas, said Austin embodies innovation and social consciousness and is the heart of a vibrant, ever-evolving tech culture and entrepreneurial spirit. With their all-fiber U-verse services, they are building the foundation for a new wave of innovation for Austin’s consumers, businesses and civic and educational institutions, he said.
Google Fiber is already available in Kansas City, and Google is now running ads for the service in Provo, Utah, where it will launch in mid-October. The service has generated a lot of buzz, and AT&T is hoping that it can overcome some of this in Austin by coming out first.
The fee for Google Fiber is $70 per month for Internet service and $120 per month with a TV bundle. For comparison, Verizon’s 500 megabit-per-second service is only available for homes in a phone and TV package for $309.99 per month.
Google may have an advantage with Fiber by starting from scratch and installing a brand new fiber optic network. This allows all Fiber customers to experience the same speeds. AT&T will instead by tapping into an existing network of fiber optics and copper lines, meaning that not everyone will get the same speed.
AT&T said this is just the start of its super high-speed services, but did not state where it plans to go next.
Thank you TechSpot and IBTimes for providing us with this information.
Image courtesy of IBTimes.
Topics: AT&T, Austin, Bundle, Fiber Optic, google, Google Fiber, high-speed, Kansas City, texas, Utah, Verizon
AMD or NVIDIA?
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Home > In The News > Articles > The False Claims Act Poses Additional Risks To Medical Device Makers
The False Claims Act Poses Additional Risks To Medical Device Makers
Publication Name: Pharmaceutical Compliance Monitor
Publication Link: Pharmaceutical Compliance Monitor
Secondary TELG Authors: David L. Scher
Medical device manufactures who sell defective products paid for by Medicare, Medicaid, or other government health programs may face additional penalties and liability when compared to other manufacturers.
On top of the already potent enforcement tools at the Food and Drug Administration’s disposal and the risk of consumer class actions, device manufacturers who knowingly sell defective products that are paid for by the government may incur damages of up to three times the value of goods sold to the government as well as civil penalties of $11,000 per occurrence. These additional damages and penalties are provided for under the False Claims Act (“FCA”). The FCA dates to the Civil War and was intended to prevent fraud committed by suppliers of goods to the Union Army. Today, the FCA is frequently used by private individuals and the government to recover large sums of money against healthcare providers and government contractors…
“The False Claims Act Poses Additional Risks To Medical Device Makers.” Pharmaceutical Compliance Monitor (June 21, 2013)
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Only 24 Years Old, This Full-Time Stock Trader Manages a Multi-Million-Peso Portfolio
Rafael Roces shares his experiences, insights and scars from his year-and-a-half as a full-time stock trader
By Lorenzo Kyle Subido | Jul 9, 2018
IMAGE Rafael Roces FB Page
Rafael Roces talks during Inspire PH, a one-day conferene organized by Investagrams last April
When it comes to people who actively invest in the stock market, one usually pictures older individuals who are years into their careers. Indeed, the 2017 Stock Market Investor Profile published by the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) revealed that 42.2 percent of investors were aged between 30 and 44, while 41.6 percent were at least 45 years old.
But at Inspire PH, a one-day conference organized by fintech startup Investagrams last April, majority of the participants and even speakers who talked about the stock market belonged to the 16.2 percent of investors who are 18 to 29 years old.
As well, discussion on participating in the stock market veered away from long-term investing and focused on short-term trading, which involves the constant buying and selling of stocks by riding on its volatility, or the extent by which its price fluctuates.
Related story: These Millennials Are Making Millions Trading on the Volatility of the Stock Market
One of these millennial short-term traders, and the youngest of the speakers who talked about the stock market at Inspire PH, was 24-year-old Rafael Roces. Known in the Investagrams community as “Scraffycoco,” Roces was exposed to the stock market back in 2016, when he was still studying psychology in Ateneo.
“I was actually supposed to become a doctor,” he revealed to Entrepreneur Philippines, adding that he already took the National Medical Admission Test or NMAT when he decided to pursue a career in stock trading. He was influenced by seminars where stock market professionals Marvin Germo and Rex Mendoza shared their experiences in investing.
“That’s when I realized that I didn’t want to be a doctor,” he said in Filipino, referring to a talk by Mendoza back in 2016. “I had that moment where… I realized that there was a big chance that I wasn’t going to be successful [as a doctor].”
Unfortunately, Roces’ first year of trading didn’t exactly affirm his decision, as he revealed in Inspire PH that he lost around 40 percent of his initial five-digit capital after a year of buying and selling stocks.
“In my first year of trading, I was a consistent loser,” he shared to Inspire PH’s audience of over a thousand stock market traders and enthusiasts. “I was losing my father’s money, and I was backed into a wall by the market.”
“I was ultimately left with two decisions: either I do nothing and I just keep on doing what I’m doing, and most likely keep on losing money, or I accept the fact that I am a loser,” he continued. “But [that] doesn’t mean that I can’t change it. It doesn’t mean that I can’t turn around my journey. And that’s what I did.”
IMAGE Investagram
Known in the Investagrams community as “Scraffycoco,” Roces was exposed to the stock market in 2016, while still studying in Ateneo
Turning around his journey involved more than a change in mindset, as Roces participated in several stock market competitions sponsored by Investagrams in his last year of school. He credited his participation and success in these competitions as the motivation he needed to continue pursuing a career in full-time trading despite the losses he experienced in his first year.
After he graduated, Roces enrolled in an intensive eight-week training program offered by the Caylum Trading Institute (CTI), a financial education firm affiliated with online stock brokerage COL Financial. According to CTI’s website, the program comes with an enrollment fee of Php100,000, but it encompasses several advanced topics and modules on trading, investing and the stock market as well as exclusive access to materials and networks.
“I really wanted to take full-time trading seriously, so I might as well learn from the best,” Roces said of his decision to enroll in the CTI course.
His efforts seem to have paid off, as today, Roces handles a seven-digit portfolio, which is a combination of his own savings, capital he received from friends and family and the returns he has received from stock trading. He revealed that his portfolio hit Php1 million in value last December 2017, and it has only grown since then.
He was able to achieve this through an established strategy that he continues to work on, which comes with a strict set of rules that he follows whenever he buys or sells a stock. For Roces, having a systematic approach to full-time trading is the proper way to do it, as he likens trading stocks without any rules or instructions to gambling.
“If not done properly, it’s gambling for me,” said Roces. “But if you make your trading systematic, it’s not gambling anymore.”
Roces has also become affiliated with Tower Securities, a local brokerage firm that has granted him access to the company’s exclusive trading platform. He added that he is in the process of securing his broker’s license, which involves attending a seminar and passing the Securities Representative Certification Exam from the PSE.
Roces today handles a seven-digit portfolio, which is a combination of his own savings, capital he received from friends and family and the returns he has received from stock trading
Roces estimates that he is one of over 10,000 full-time traders in the country, a largely new phenomenon he believes only grew to prominence once stock brokerage firms launched online platforms for buying and selling stocks. With events like Investagrams’ Inspire PH showing that more and more people are interested in becoming short-term stock traders, he warns that it is by no means easy, and that it takes a large amount of preparation to start trading full-time.
“There’s a big difference between part-time and full-time trading,” he explained. “In full-time trading, you have to be all out… and you don’t have any fallback. With part-time trading, even if you lose, it’s still okay in a way since you still have a job.”
He added that the pressure to succeed is elevated when it comes to full-time trading, saying that apart from preparing a logical trading strategy, one also needs to prepare mentally and emotionally. With a seven-digit portfolio, daily changes in its value can reach six figures, both as gains and as losses.
“Will you be able to sleep knowing that you lost Php100,000 or Php200,000 today?” said Roces. “Some people can’t take losing, and that’s why they can’t cut their losses. That’s what’s hindering them from trading properly.”
At the end of the day, Roces treats full-time trading like any other profession in that he constantly strives to hone his craft and improve how he approaches it. And much like traditional stock investors, what Roces strives for in buying and selling stocks is profitability, even if he is achieving it in a different way.
“One of the ultimate goals of a full-time trader is not to make so much money in a very short amount of time,” said Roces in his Inspire PH speech. “One of our ultimate goals is to consistently be profitable year-in and year-out.”
Lorenzo Kyle Subido is a staff writer of Entrepreneur PH
entrepph Caylum Trading Caylum Trading Institute Col financial Inspire PH investagrams money Philippine Stock Exchange profile PSE Rafael Roces stock exchange stock market stock market trading stock trading stocks Success Story Tower Securities
The Doctor is (Always) In: New App Lets Users Book Home Appointments with Health Professionals
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Dufry further expands footprint in Australia by si ...
Dufry further expands footprint in Australia by signing a new contract at Perth Airport
Dufry increased its presence in the Eastern Europe, Asia, Middle East and Australia division by signing a new contract with Perth Airport Pty Ltd (PAPL) to operate a total of 2,300 m² with two duty-free stores located in the Departures and Arrivals area, in the Terminal 1 International. The long term contract will run for 7 years.
Basel, July 24, 2018
Dufry further expands footprint in Australia
by signing a new contract at Perth Airpor
Dufry will bring a WorldClass experience to Perth Airport and its customers offering a total retail space of approximately 2,300 m² of which 1,200 m² in the Departure and 1,100 m² in the Arrival stores. The duty-free shops will offer a dynamic and engaging retail concept by bringing a tailor made design for core categories and a specific format which will delight customers with a great selection of Australian and local Western Australian produce, liquor, wine and gifts. The offer will include the latest trends and a wide range of products from the most renowned brands in the world, across several categories, such as Perfumes & Cosmetics, Wine & Spirits, Tobacco, Confectionery, Electronics, Watches & Fashion Accessories, among others. With a strong emphasis on digital development, Dufry will partner with Perth Airport to enhance the digital channel experience for passengers through the roll out of RED by Dufry, Reserve and Collect and Instore Digital tools.
The broader Asian Market is a strategic growth area for Dufry to further develop its business. Operating in 19 locations across 11 countries in the division, by adding Perth to its portfolio, the Company’s footprint is further gaining momentum after the win in Hong Kong’s new high speed railway station earlier this year.
Perth is considered the Western Gateway to Australia and is its doorstep to Asia. Perth Airport is the fourth busiest airport in the country in terms of passenger traffic and welcomed more than 4 million international travellers in 2017. The airport operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week throughout the year, and according to Tourism Western Australia, the work is continued on attracting direct flights from major centres in China, Japan and India, besides the strong travel links with Indonesia, UK, Singapore, and New Zealand. It is worth highlighting that the airport is making significant investment in terminal infrastructure and expansion to serve passenger growth and maximise both traveller’s experience and spend. That said, the new duty-free shops will create a unique and exciting shopping environment for millions of passengers who visit Perth every year.
Commenting on the new contract, Andrea Belardini, Dufry’s Divisional CEO for Eastern Europe, Asia, Middle East and Australia, said: “We are extremely proud of being awarded this concession with Perth Airport. We are set to develop a retail experience with a high level of technological innovation, a bespoke sense of place, and a strong focus on digital engagement. Following the delivery of our New Generation Store in Melbourne and the very recent award of Hong Kong High Speed Railway contract, we consider this new award as a further evidence of our commitment to expand in Asia Pacific, through the delivery of state of the art retail experience and a strong partnership approach. We have appreciated since the outset the close cooperation with Perth Airport management in setting a common agenda and establishing ways of working to ensure the delivery of a consumer centric approach. We would like to thank the airport for their trust on us and we look forward to working in close partnership to deliver Dufry’s WorldClass experience to travellers.”
Perth Airport CEO Kevin Brown has welcomed the announcement. “This agreement will give passengers a duty-free offer that includes an expanded range and categories both in-store and online, as well as exceptional service, and a high level of digital and technological innovation. Dufry’s holistic duty-free concept will further enhance the passenger experience and grow the duty-free category. Perth Airport has undergone a major transformation over the past seven years with a $ 1 billion redevelopment program, and is now planning another $ 2.5 billion of development including an upgrade of the T1 International terminal, to meet predicted strong passenger growth. This expanded duty-free opportunity will help deliver a world-class customer experience which is at the heart of everything we do.”
Dufry AG (SIX: DUFN; B3 S.A - Brasil, Bolsa, Balcão: DAGB33) is a leading global travel retailer operating over 2,200 duty-free and duty-paid shops in airports, cruise lines, seaports, railway stations and downtown tourist areas.
Conference Call on Dufry’s First Half 2018 Results on August 3, 2018 07/19/2018
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← The Many Faces of Middle-earth, 1954-1989
Memos from Digital Antiquarian Corporate Headquarters, June 2017 Edition →
An Independent Interplay Takes on Tolkien
When Brian Fargo made the bold decision in 1988 to turn his company Interplay into a computer-game publisher as well as developer, he was simply steering onto the course that struck him as most likely to ensure Interplay’s survival. Interplay had created one of the more popular computer games of the 1980s in the form of the 400,000-plus-selling CRPG The Bard’s Tale, yet had remained a tiny company living hand-to-mouth while their publisher Electronic Arts sucked up the lion’s share of the profits. And rankling almost as much as that disparity was the fact that Electronic Arts sucked up the lion’s share of the credit as well; very few gamers even recognized the name of Interplay in 1988. If this was what it was like to be an indentured developer immediately after making the best-selling single CRPG of the 1980s, what would it be like when The Bard’s Tale faded into ancient history? The odds of making it as an independent publisher may not have looked great, but from some angles at least they looked better than Interplay’s prospects if the status quo was allowed to continue.
Having taken their leave of Electronic Arts and signed on as an affiliated label with Mediagenic in order to piggyback on the latter’s distribution network, the newly independent Interplay made their public bow by releasing two games simultaneously. One of these was Neuromancer, a formally ambitious, long-in-the-works adaptation of the landmark William Gibson novel. The other was the less formally ambitious Battle Chess, an initially Commodore Amiga-based implementation of chess in which the pieces didn’t just slide into position each time a player made a move but rather walked around the board to do animated battle. Not a patch on hardcore computerized chess games like The Chessmaster 2000 in terms of artificial intelligence — its chess-playing engine actually had its origin in a simple chess implementation released in source-code form by Borland to demonstrate their Turbo Pascal programming language1 — Battle Chess sold far better than any of them. Owners of Amigas were always eager for opportunities to show off their machines’ spectacular audiovisual capabilities, and Battle Chess delivered on that in spades, becoming one of the Amiga’s iconic games; it even featured prominently in a Computer Chronicles television episode about the Amiga. Today, long after its graphics have lost their power to wow us, it may be a little hard to understand why so many people were so excited about this slow-playing, gussied-up version of chess. Battle Chess, in other words, is unusually of-its-time even by the standards of old computer games. In its time, though, it delivered exactly what Interplay most needed as they stepped out on their own: it joined The Bard’s Tale to become the second major hit of their history, allowing them to firmly establish their footing on this new frontier of software publishing.
The King takes out a Knight in Battle Chess by setting off a bomb. Terrorism being what it is, this would not, needless to say, appear in the game if it was released today.
The remarkable success of Battle Chess notwithstanding, Interplay was hardly ready to abandon CRPGs — not after the huge sales racked up by The Bard’s Tale and the somewhat fewer but still substantial sales enjoyed by The Bard’s Tale II, The Bard’s Tale III, and Wasteland. Unfortunately, leaving Electronic Arts behind had also meant leaving those franchises behind; as was typical of publisher/developer relationships of the time, those trademarks had been registered by Electronic Arts, not Interplay. Faced with this reality, Interplay embarked on the difficult challenge of interesting gamers in an entirely new name on the CRPG front. Which isn’t to say that the new game would have nothing in common with what they’d done before. On the contrary, Interplay’s next CRPG was conceived as a marriage of the fantasy setting of The Bard’s Tale, which remained far more popular with gamers than alternative settings, with the more sophisticated game play of the post-apocalyptic Wasteland, which had dared to go beyond mowing down hordes of monsters as its be-all end-all.
Following a precedent he had established with Wasteland, Fargo hired established veterans of the tabletop-RPG industry to design the new game. But in lieu of Michael Stackpole and Ken St. Andre, this time he went with Steve Peterson and Paul Ryan O’Connor. The former was best known as the designer of 1981’s Champions, one of the first superhero RPGs and by far the most popular prior to TSR entering the fray with the official Marvel Comics license in 1984. The latter was yet another of the old Flying Buffalo crowd who had done so much to create Wasteland; at Flying Buffalo, O’Connor had been best known as the originator of the much-loved and oft-hilarious Grimtooth’s Traps series of supplements. In contrast to Stackpole and St. Andre, the two men didn’t work on Interplay’s latest CRPG simultaneously but rather linearly, with Peterson handing the design off to O’Connor after creating its core mechanics but before fleshing out its plot and setting. Only quite late into O’Connor’s watch did the game, heretofore known only as “Project X,” finally pick up its rather generic-sounding name of Dragon Wars.
At a casual glance, Dragon Wars‘s cheesecake cover art looks like that of any number of CRPGs of its day. But for this game, Brian Fargo went straight to the wellspring of cheesecake fantasy art, commissioning Boris Vallejo himself to paint the cover. The end results set Interplay back $4000. You can judge for yourself whether it was money well-spent.
A list of Interplay’s goals for Dragon Wars reads as follows:
Deemphasis of “levels” — less of a difference in ability from one level to another.
Experience for something besides killing.
No random treasure — limit it such as Wasteland’s.
Ability to print maps (dump to printer).
Do something that has an effect — it does not necessarily have to be done to win (howitzer shell in Wasteland that blows up fast-food joint).
Characters should not begin as incompetents — thieves that disarm traps only 7 percent of the time, etc. Fantasy Hero/GURPS levels of competence at the start are more appropriate (50 percent or better success rate to start with).
Reduce bewildering array of slightly different spells.
If character “classes” are to be used, they should all be distinctive and different from each other and useful. None, however, should be absolutely vital.
Less linear puzzles — there should be a number of quests that can be done at any given time.
The finished game hews to these goals fairly well, and to fairly impressive effect. The skill-based — as opposed to class-based — character system of Wasteland is retained, and there are multiple approaches available at every turn. Dragon Wars still runs on 8-bit computers like the Apple II and Commodore 64 in addition to more advanced machines, but it’s obvious throughout that Interplay has taken steps to remedy the shortcomings of their previous CRPGs as much as possible within the limitations of 8-bit technology. For instance, there’s an auto-map system included which, limited though it is, shows that they were indeed trying. As with Wasteland, an obvious priority is to bring more of the tabletop experience to the computer. Another priority, though, is new: to throttle back the pace of character development, thus steering around the “Monty Haul” approach so typical of CRPGs. Characters do gain in levels and thus in power in Dragon Wars, but only very slowly, while the game is notably stingy with the gold and magic that fill most CRPGs from wall to wall. Since leveling up and finding neat loot is such a core part of the joy of CRPGs for so many of us, these choices inevitably lead to a game that’s a bit of an acquired taste. That reality, combined with the fact that the game does no hand-holding whatsoever when it comes to building your characters or anything else — it’s so tough to create a viable party of your own out of the bewildering list of possible skills that contemporary reviewers recommended just playing with the included sample party — make it a game best suited for hardened old-school CRPG veterans. That said, it should also be said that many in that select group consider Dragon Wars a classic.
Dragon Wars would mark the end of the line for Interplay games on 8-bit home computers. From now on, MS-DOS and consoles would dominate, with an occasional afterthought of an Amiga version.
The game didn’t do very well at retail, but that situation probably had more to do with external than intrinsic factors. It was introduced as yet another new name into a CRPG market that was drowning in more games than even the most hardcore fan could possibly play. And for all Interplay’s determination to advance the state of the art over The Bard’s Tale games and even Wasteland, Dragon Wars was all too obviously an 8-bit CRPG at a time when the 8-bit market was collapsing.
In the wake of Dragon Wars‘s underwhelming reception, Interplay was forced to accept that the basic technical approach they had used with such success in all three Bard’s Tale games and Wasteland had to give way to something else, just as the 8-bit machines that had brought them this far had to fall by the wayside. Sometimes called The Bard’s Tale IV by fans — it would doubtless have been given that name had Interplay stayed with Electronic Arts — Dragon Wars was indeed the ultimate evolution of what Interplay had begun with the original Bard’s Tale. It was also, however, the end of that particular evolutionary branch of the CRPG.
Luckily, the ever industrious Brian Fargo had something entirely new in the works in the realm of CRPGs. And, as had become par for the course, that something would involve a veteran of the tabletop world.
Paul Jaquays2 had discovered Dungeons & Dragons in 1975 in his first year of art college and never looked back. After founding The Dungeoneer, one of the young industry’s most popular early fanzines, he kicked around as a free-lance writer, designer, and illustrator, coming to know most of the other tabletop veterans we’ve already met in the context of their work with Interplay. Then he spent the first half of the 1980s working on videogames for Coleco; he was brought on there by none other than Wasteland designer Michael Stackpole. Jaquays, however, remained at Coleco much longer than Stackpole, rising to head their design department. When Coleco gave up on their ColecoVision console and laid off their design staff in 1985, Jaquays went back to freelancing in both tabletop and digital gaming. Thus it came to pass that Brian Fargo signed him up to make Interplay’s next CRPG while Dragon Wars was still in production. The game was to be called Secrets of the Magi. While it was to have run on the 8-bit Commodore 64 among other platforms, it was planned as a fast-paced, real-time affair, in marked contrast to Interplay’s other CRPGs, with free-scrolling movement replacing their grid-based movement, action-oriented combat replacing their turn-based combat. But the combination of the commercial disappointment that had been Dragon Wars and the collapse of the 8-bit market which it signified combined with an entirely new development to change most of those plans. Jaquays was told one day by one of Magi‘s programmers that “we’re not doing this anymore. We’re doing a Lord of the Rings game.”
Fargo’s eyes had been opened to the possibilities for literary adaptations by his friendship with Timothy Leary, which had led directly to Interplay’s adaptation of Neuromancer and, more indirectly but more importantly in this context, taught him something about wheeling and dealing with the established powers of Old Media. At the time, the Tolkien estate, the holders of J.R.R. Tolkien’s literary copyrights, were by tacit agreement with Tolkien Enterprises, holders of the film license, the people to talk to if you wanted to create a computer game based on Tolkien. The only publisher that had yet released such a beast was Australia’s Melbourne House, who over the course of the 1980s had published four text adventures and a grand-strategy game set in Middle-earth. But theirs wasn’t an ongoing licensing arrangement; it had been negotiated anew for each successive game. And they hadn’t managed to make a Tolkien game that became a notable critical or commercial success since their very first one, a text-adventure adaptation of The Hobbit from way back in 1982. In light of all this, there seemed ample reason to believe that the Tolkien estate might be amenable to changing horses. So, Brian Fargo called them up and asked if he could make a pitch.
Fargo told me recently that he believes it was his “passion” for the source material that sealed the deal. Fargo:
I had obsessed over the books when I was little, had the calendar and everything. And inside the front cover of The Fellowship of the Ring was a computer program I’d written down by hand when I was in seventh grade. I brought it to them and showed them: “This was my first computer program, written inside the cover of this book.” I don’t know if that’s what got them to agree, but they did. I think they knew they were dealing with people that were passionate about the license.
One has to suspect that Fargo’s honest desire to make a Lord of the Rings game for all the right reasons was indeed the determining factor. Christopher Tolkien, always the prime mover among J.R.R. Tolkien’s heirs, has always approached the question of adaptation with an eye to respecting and preserving the original literary works above all other considerations. And certainly the Tolkien estate must have seen little reason to remain loyal to Melbourne House, whose own adaptations had grown so increasingly lackluster since the glory days of their first Hobbit text adventure.
A bemused but more than willing Paul Jacquays thus saw his Secrets of the Magi transformed into a game with the long-winded title — licensing deals produce nothing if not long-winded titles — of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, Volume 1. (For some reason known only to the legal staff, the name The Fellowship of the Ring wasn’t used, even though the part of Tolkien’s story covered by the game dovetails almost perfectly with the part covered by that first book in the trilogy.) While some of the ideas that were to have gone into Jaquays’s original plan for Secrets of the Magi were retained, such as the real-time play and free-scrolling movement, the game would now be made for MS-DOS rather than the Commodore 64. Combined with the Tolkien license, which elevated the game at a stroke to the status of the most high-profile ongoing project at Interplay, the switch in platforms led to a dramatic up-scaling in ambition.
Thrilled though everyone had been to acquire the license, making The Lord of the Rings, by far the biggest thing Interplay had ever done in terms of sheer amount of content, turned into a difficult grind that was deeply affected by external events, starting with a certain crisis of identity and ending with a full-blown existential threat.
Like so many American computer-game executives at the time, Brian Fargo found the Nintendo Entertainment System and its tens of millions of active players hard to resist. While one piece of his company was busy making The Lord of the Rings into a game, he therefore set another piece to work churning out Interplay’s first three Nintendo games. Having no deal with the notoriously fickle Nintendo and thus no way to enter their walled garden as a publisher in their own right, Interplay was forced to publish two of these games through Mediagenic’s Activision label, the other through Acclaim Entertainment. Unfortunately, Fargo was also like many other computer-game executives in discovering to his dismay that there was far more artistry to Nintendo hits like Super Mario Bros. than their surface simplicity might imply — and that Nintendo gamers, young though they mostly were, were far from undiscerning. None of Interplay’s Nintendo games did very well at all, which in turn did no favors to Interplay’s bottom line.
Interplay sorely needed another big hit like Battle Chess, but it was proving damnably hard to find. Even the inevitable Battle Chess II: Chinese Chess performed only moderately. The downside of a zeitgeist-in-a-bottle product like Battle Chess was that it came with a built-in sell-by date. There just wasn’t that much to be done to build on the original game’s popularity other than re-skinning it with new graphics, and the brief-lived historical instant when animated chessmen were enough to sell a game was already passing.
Then, in the midst of these other struggles, Interplay was very nearly buried by the collapse of Mediagenic in 1990. I’ve already described the reasons for that collapse and much of the effect it had on Interplay and the rest of the industry in an earlier article, so I won’t retread that ground in detail here. Instead I’ll just reiterate that the effect was devastating for Interplay. With the exception only of the single Nintendo game published through Acclaim and the trickle of royalties still coming in from Electronic Arts for their old titles, Interplay’s entire revenue stream had come through Mediagenic. Now that stream had run dry as the Sahara. In the face of almost no income whatsoever, Brian Fargo struggled to keep Interplay’s doors open, to keep his extant projects on track, and to establish his own distribution channel to replace the one he had been renting from Mediagenic. His company mired in the most serious crisis it had ever faced, Fargo went to his shareholders — Interplay still being privately held, these consisted largely of friends, family, and colleagues — to ask for the money he needed to keep it alive. He managed to raise over $500,000 in short-term notes from them, along with almost $200,000 in bank loans, enough to get Interplay through 1990 and get the Lord of the Rings game finished. The Lord of the Rings game, in other words, had been elevated by the misfortunes of 1990 from an important project to a bet-the-company project. It was to be finished in time for the Christmas of 1990, and if it became a hit then Interplay might just live to make more games. And if not… it didn’t bear thinking about.
The Lord of the Rings‘s free-scrolling movement and overhead perspective were very different from what had come before, ironically resembling Origin’s Ultima games more than Interplay’s earlier CRPGs. But the decision to have the interface get out of the way when it wasn’t needed, thus giving more space to the world, was very welcome, especially in comparison to the cluttered Ultima VI engine. Interplay’s approach may well have influenced Ultima VII.
If a certain technical approach to the CRPG — a certain look and feel, if you will — can be seen as having been born with the first Bard’s Tale and died after Dragon Wars, a certain philosophical approach can be seen just as validly as having been born with Wasteland and still being alive and well at Interplay at the time of The Lord of the Rings. The design of the latter would once again emphasize character skills rather than character class, and much of the game play would once again revolve around applying your party’s suite of skills to the situations encountered. Wasteland‘s approach to experience and leveling up had been fairly traditional; characters increased in power relatively quickly, especially during the early stages of the game, and could become veritable demigods by the end. Dragon Wars, though, had departed from tradition by slowing this process dramatically, and now The Lord of the Rings would eliminate the concept of character level entirely; skills would still increase with use, but only slowly, and only quietly behind the scenes. These mechanical changes would make the game unlike virtually any CRPG that had come before it, to such an extent that some have argued over whether it quite manages to qualify as a CRPG at all. It radically de-emphasizes the character-building aspect of the genre — you don’t get to make your own characters at all, but start out in the Shire with only Frodo and assemble a party over the course of your travels — and with it the tactical min/maxing that is normally such a big part of old-school CRPGs. As I noted in my previous article, Middle-earth isn’t terribly well-suited to traditional RPG mechanics. The choice Interplay made to focus less on mechanics and more on story and exploration feels like a logical response, an attempt to make a game that does embody Tolkien’s ethos.
In addition to the unique challenges of adapting CRPG mechanics to reflect the spirit of Middle-earth, Interplay’s Lord of the Rings game faced all the more typical challenges of adapting a novel to interactive form. To simply walk the player through the events of the book would be uninteresting and, given the amount of texture and exposition that would be lost in the transition from novel to game, would yield far too short of an experience. Interplay’s solution was to tackle the novel in terms of geography rather than plot. They created seven large maps for you to progress through, covering the stages of Frodo and company’s journey in the novel: the Shire, the Old Forest, Bree, Rivendell, Moria, Lothlórien, and Dol Guldur. (The last reflects the game’s only complete deviation from the novel; for its climax, it replaces the psychological drama of Boromir’s betrayal of the Fellowship with a more ludically conventional climactic assault on the fortress of the Witch-King of Angmar — the Lord of the Nazgûl — who has abducted Frodo.) Paul Jaquays scattered episodes from the novel over the maps in what seemed the most logical places. Then, he went further, adding all sorts of new content.
Interplay understood that reenacting the plot of the novel wasn’t really what players would find most appealing about a CRPG set in Middle-earth. The real appeal was that of simply wandering about in the most beloved landscapes in all of fantasy fiction. For all that the Fellowship was supposed to be on a desperate journey to rid the world of its greatest threat in many generations, with the forces of evil hot on their trail, it wouldn’t do to overemphasize that aspect of the book. Players would want to stop and smell the roses. Jaquays therefore stuffed each of the maps with content, almost all of it optional; there’s very little that you need to do to finish the game. While a player who takes the premise a bit too literally could presumably rush through the maps in a mere handful of hours, the game clearly wants you to linger over its geography, scouring it from end to end to see what you can turn up.
In crafting the maps, and especially in crafting the new content on them, Jaquays was hugely indebted to Iron Crown Enterprises’s Middle-earth Role Playing tabletop RPG and its many source books which filled in the many corners of Middle-earth in even greater detail than Tolkien had managed in his voluminous notes. For legal reasons — Interplay had bought a Fellowship of the Ring novel license, not a Middle-earth Role Playing game license — care had to be taken not to lift anything too blatantly, but anyone familiar with Iron Crown’s game and Interplay’s game can’t help but notice the similarities. The latter’s vision of Middle-earth is almost as indebted to the former as it is to Tolkien himself. One might say that it plays like an interactive version of one of those Iron Crown source books.
Conversation takes the Ultima “guess the keyword” approach. Sigh… at least you can usually identify topics by watching for capitalized words in the text.
Interplay finished development on the game in a mad frenzy, with the company in full crisis mode, trying to get it done in time for the Christmas of 1990. But in the end, they were forced to make the painful decision to miss that deadline, allowing the release date to slip to the beginning of 1991. Then, with it shipping at last, they waited to see whether their bet-the-company game would indeed save their skins. Early results were not encouraging.
Once you got beyond the awful, unwieldy name, J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, Volume 1 seemingly had everything going for it: a developer with heaps of passion and heaps of experience making CRPGs, a state-of-the-art free-scrolling engine with full-screen graphics, and of course a license for the most universally known and beloved series of books in all of fantasy fiction. It ought to have been a sure thing, a guaranteed hit if ever there was one. All of which makes its reception and subsequent reputation all the more surprising. If it wasn’t quite greeted with a collective shrug, Interplay’s first Tolkien game was treated with far more skepticism than its pedigree might lead one to expect.
Some people were doubtful of the very idea of trying to adapt Tolkien, that most holy name in the field of fantasy, into a game in much the same way that some Christians might be doubtful of making Jesus Christ the star of a game. For those concerned above all else with preserving the integrity of the original novel, Interplay’s approach to the task of adaptation could only be aggravating. Paul Jaquays had many talents, but he wasn’t J.R.R. Tolkien, and the divisions between content drawn from the books and new content were never hard to spot. What right had a bunch of game developers to add on to Middle-earth? It’s a question, of course, with no good answer.
But even those who were more accepting of the idea of The Lord of the Rings in game form found a lot of reasons to complain about this particular implementation of the idea. The most immediately obvious issue was the welter of bugs. Bugs in general were becoming a more and more marked problem in the industry as a whole as developers strained to churn out ever bigger games capable of running on an ever more diverse collection of MS-DOS computing hardware. Still, even in comparison to its peers Interplay’s Lord of the Rings game is an outlier, being riddled with quests that can’t be completed, areas that can’t be accessed, dialog that doesn’t make sense. Its one saving grace is the generosity and flexibility that Jaquays baked into the design, which makes it possible to complete the game even though it can sometimes seem like at least half of it is broken in one way or another. A few more months all too obviously should have been appended to the project, even if it was already well behind schedule. Given the state of the game Interplay released in January of 1991, one shudders to think what they had seriously considered rushing to market during the holiday season.
You’ll spend a lot of time playing matchy-matchy with lists of potentially applicable skills. A mechanic directly imported from tabletop RPGs, it isn’t the best fit for a computer game, for reasons I explicated in my article on Wasteland.
Other issues aren’t quite bugs in the traditional sense, but do nevertheless feel like artifacts of the rushed development cycle. The pop-up interface which overlays the full-screen graphics was innovative in its day, but it’s also far more awkward to use than it needs to be, feeling more than a little unfinished. It’s often too difficult to translate actions into the terms of the interface, a problem that’s also present in Wasteland and Dragon Wars but is even more noticeable here. Good, logical responses to many situations — responses which are actually supported by the game — can fall by the wayside because you fail to translate them correctly into the terms of the tortured interface. Throwing some food to a band of wolves to make them go away rather than attack you early in the game, for instance, requires you divine that you need to “trade” the food to them. Few things are more frustrating than looking up the solution to a problem like this one and learning that you went awry because you “used” food on the wolves instead of “trading” it to them.
But perhaps the most annoying issue is that of simply finding your way around. Each of those seven maps is a big place, and no auto-map facility is provided; Interplay had intended to include such a feature, but dropped it in the name of saving time. The manual does provide a map of the Shire, but after that you’re on your own. With paper-and-pencil mapping made damnably difficult by the free-scrolling movement that it makes it impossible to accurately judge distances, just figuring out where you are, where you’ve been, and where you need to go often turns into the most challenging aspect of the game.
Combat can be kind of excruciating, especially when you’re stuck with nothing but a bunch of hobbits.
It all adds up to something of a noble failure — a game which, despite the best intentions of everyone involved, just isn’t as magical as it ought to have been. The game sold in moderate numbers on the strength of the license, but, its commercial prospects damaged as much by missing the Christmas buying season as by the lukewarm reviews, it never became the major hit Interplay so desperately needed. That disappointment may very well have marked the end of Interplay, if not for a stroke of good fortune from a most unexpected quarter.
Shortly after electing to turn Interplay into an independent publisher, Brian Fargo had begun looking for more games to publish beyond those his small internal team could develop. He’d found some worthwhile titles, albeit titles reflective of the small size and relative lack of clout of his company: a classical chess game designed to appeal to those uninterested in Battle Chess‘s eye-candy approach; a series of typing tutors; a clever word game created by a couple of refugees from the now-defunct Cinemaware; a series of European imports sourced through France’s Delphine Software. None had set the world on fire, but then no one had really expected them to.
That all changed when Interplay agreed to publish a game called Castles, from a group of outside developers who called themselves Quicksilver Software. Drawing from King Edward I of England’s castle-building campaign in Wales for its historical antecedent, Castles at its core was essentially a Medieval take on SimCity. Onto this template, however, Quicksilver grafted the traditional game elements some had found lacking in Will Wright’s software toy. The player’s castles would be occasionally attacked by enemy armies, forcing her to defend them in simple tactical battles, and she would also have to deal with the oft-conflicting demands of the clergy, the nobility, and the peasantry in embodied exchanges that gave the game a splash of narrative interest. Not a deathless classic by any means, it was a game that just about everyone could while away a few hours with. Castles was able to attract the building crowd who loved SimCity, the grognard crowd who found its historical scenario appealing, the adventure and CRPG crowd who liked the idea of playing the role of a castle’s chief steward, while finishing the mixture off with a salting of educational appeal. With some of the most striking cover art of any game released that year to serve as the finishing touch, its combination of appeals proved surprisingly potent. In fact, no one was more surprised by the game’s success than Interplay, who, upon releasing Castles just weeks after the Lord of the Rings game, found themselves with an unexpected but well-nigh life-saving hit on their hands. Every time you thought you understood gamers, Brian Fargo was continuing to learn, they’d turn around and surprise you.
So, thanks to this most fortuitous of saviors, Interplay got to live on. Almost in spite of himself, Fargo continued to pull a hit out of his sleeve every two or three years, always just when his company most needed one. He’d done it with The Bard’s Tale, he’d done it with Battle Chess, and now he’d done it with Castles.
Castles had rather stolen The Lord of the Rings‘s thunder, but Interplay pressed on with the second game in the trilogy, which was allowed the name The Two Towers to match that of its source novel. Released in August of 1992 after many delays, it’s very similar in form and execution to its predecessor — including, alas, lots more bugs — despite the replacement of Paul Jaquays with a team of designers that this time included Ed Greenwood, one of the more prominent creative figures of the post-Gary Gygax era of TSR. Interplay did try to address some of the complaints about the previous game by improving the interface, by making the discrete maps smaller and thus more manageable, and by including the auto-mapping feature that had been planned for but left out of its predecessor. But it still wasn’t enough. Reviewers were even more unkind to the sequel despite Interplay’s efforts, and it sold even worse. By this point, Interplay had scored another big hit with Star Trek: 25th Anniversary, the first officially licensed Star Trek game to be worthy of the name, and had other projects on the horizon that felt far more in keeping with the direction the industry was going than did yet another sprawling Middle-earth CRPG. Brian Fargo’s passion for Tolkien may have been genuine, but at some point in business passion has to give way to financial logic. Interplay’s vision of The Lord of the Rings was thus quietly abandoned at the two-thirds mark.
In a final bid to eke a bit more out of it, Interplay in 1993 repackaged the first Lord of the Rings game for CD-ROM, adding an orchestral soundtrack and interspersing the action, rather jarringly, with clips from Ralph Bakshi’s 1978 animated Lord of the Rings film, which Fargo had also managed to license. But the most welcome improvement came in the form of a slightly more advanced game engine, including an auto-map. Despite the improvements, sales of this version were so poor that Interplay never bothered to give The Two Towers the CD-ROM treatment. A dire port/re-imagining of the first game for the Super Nintendo was the final nail in the coffin, marking the last gasp of Interplay’s take on Tolkien. Just as Bakshi had left his hobbits stranded on the way to Mordor when he failed to secure the financing to make his second Lord of the Rings movie, Interplay left theirs in limbo only a little closer to the Crack of Doom. The irony of this was by no means lost on so dedicated a Tolkien fan as Brian Fargo.
Unlike Dragon Wars, which despite its initial disappointing commercial performance has gone on to attain a cult-classic status among hardcore CRPG fans, the reputations of the two Interplay Lord of the Rings games have never been rehabilitated. Indeed, to a large extent the games have simply been forgotten, bizarre though that situation reads given their lineage in terms of both license and developer. Being neither truly, comprehensively bad games nor truly good ones, they fall into a middle ground of unmemorable mediocrity. In response to their poor reception by a changing marketplace, Interplay would all but abandon CRPGs for the next several years. The company The Bard’s Tale had built could now make a lot more money in other genres. If there’s one thing the brief marriage of Interplay with Tolkien demonstrates, it’s that a sure thing is never a sure thing.
(Sources: This article is largely drawn from the collection of documents that Brian Fargo donated to the Strong Museum of Play. Also, Questbusters of March 1989, December 1989, January 1991, June 1991, April 1992, and August 1992; Antic of July 1985; Commodore Magazine of October 1988; Creative Computing of September 1981; Computer Gaming World of December 1989 and September 1990. Online sources include a Jennell Jaquays Facebook posting and the Polygon article “There and Back Again: A History of The Lord of the Rings in Video Games.” Finally, my huge thanks to Brian Fargo for taking time from his busy schedule to discuss his memories of Interplay’s early days with me.
Neither of the two Interplay Lord of the Rings games have been available for purchase for a long, long time, a situation that is probably down to the fine print of the licensing deal that was made with the Tolkien estate all those years ago. I hesitate to host them here out of fear of angering either of the parties who signed that deal, but they aren’t hard to find elsewhere online with a little artful Googling.)
The later Apple II and Commodore 64 ports of the game ironically played a much stronger game of chess despite running on much more limited hardware. For them, Interplay licensed a chess engine from Julio Kaplan, an International Chess Master and former World Junior Chess Champion who had had written the firmware for a number of custom chess-playing computers and served as an all-purpose computer-chess consultant for years. ↩
Paul Jaquays now lives as Jennell Jaquays. As per my usual editorial policy on these matters, I refer to her as “he” and by her original name only to avoid historical anachronisms and to stay true to the context of the times. ↩
Posted by Jimmy Maher on May 26, 2017 in Uncategorized
41 Responses to An Independent Interplay Takes on Tolkien
“run drive as the Sahara”
You know, Christopher Tolkien is usually portrayed as a bit of an over-protective curmudgeon, but as your articles illustrate, the estate did back several projects that were not completely faithful to the books. While he certainly considers himself a defender of his father’s legacy, I wonder if his hostility to the Peter Jackson adaptations, etc., has more to do with anger that Saul Zaentz and his successors in interest have profited off these products rather than the Tolkien estate than it does a desire for complete fidelity to the original works.
And yeah, I can understand why he would be upset at the situation. On the other hand, I don’t really have a lot of fondness for the notion of a work of literature supporting the next several generations of the author’s posterity. But on the third hand, we have him to thank that bookstore shelves haven’t been flooded with a bunch Middle-earth tie-in novels written by semi-anonymous hacks. You just *know* those would have been everywhere in the wake of the films’ success if not for him.
And at least he appreciates his father has a legacy worth protecting. See Herbert, Brian.
Michael Waddell
Copy-editing note: “Now that stream had run drive as the Sahara” should probably read “dry”
Doug Orleans
“You’ll spend a light of time”
Should that be “a lot of time”?
Yep. Thanks!
Pedro Quaresma
Lord of the Rings 1 is still one of my favorite RPGs ever. I believe it was the first one to feature changes in a map’s events depending where you were in the storyline: for example, first time you get to Bree, there’s the usual quest with Aragorn, and then the side quests with the witch/werewolves and Hawkwind. If you return after having been to Rivendell, there’s now quests in Bree relating to a thieves guild that needs to be eliminated.
The poor interface and combat system were evened out by the (very interesting) changes to the original plot, and adding much needed side quests, some with multiple solutions.
Lord of the Rings 2 was quite original itself as the game with force the player to switch groups at what seemed like random moments in the game. So you could be questing with Frodo and the game would go “in the meantime, Aragorn meets a man in white..” and the game would change to another party.
Oh, and… I love your articles :) Long time lurker, first time poster, I think I haven’t read the entire blog history due to lack of time but I will, one day! :)
I’m pretty sure there never was a CD re-release of the second Lord of the Rings game. I’ve certainly never come across one and the closest I can find online is a claim that one was planned at some point. I wish it wasn’t so, I’d love to play with the diagonal movement they added into the CD version of the first game. Though honestly, I’d prefer they hadn’t added the movie clips.
Right you are. Changes made. Thanks!
This. So much. I bought Lord of the Rings with my own hard-earned pocket money, and so wanted to love it. But the bugs, oh the bugs. I think I just gave up after a few days. Castles was fun in a casual play way.
“Battle Chess, in other words, is unusually of its time even by the standards of old computer games.” – some words missing there?
I can see what he’s trying to say and there are no words missing, but hyphenating “of-its-time” might read better.
Ido Yehieli
It took me a second reading of that sentence as well to realize it was meant as being representative of the era.
Fair enough. Hyphens added.
Speaking of Dragon Wars and how it could have been Bard’s Tale IV, here is programmer Rebecca “Burger” Heineman (no, I’m not using her previous name) on the issue:
‘[It was] the Bard’s Tale IV until three months before we shipped it! […] They [EA] said, “Oh, you want to use the name? Publish through us.” Push came to shove, and that’s when Brian [Fargo] came to me and said, “Okay, we’re calling it Dragon Wars.” I looked him dead in the eye and said, “You do know there’s no dragons in the story?” “Well, it’s Dragon Wars now.”
So I had to come up with, at the last minute, a story that had a dragon in it, and put little quips every now and then that said there were dragon wars in the past. But since the game was only a month or two away from shipping, I couldn’t re-do the actual ending of the game to make a battle of the dragons. So, it’s a running joke that we shipped a game called Dragon Wars with hardly any dragons in it.’
source: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/6243/the_burger_speaks_an_interview_.php
Unfortunately, it’s very hard to credit her recollections based on the hard evidence. Heaps of design documents and correspondence relating to Dragon Wars are to be found in the Strong Museum’s collection; it’s probably the best documented of all Interplay games there. They show that the game was for some time referred to simply as “Project X.” By February of 1989, it had picked up the name Crown of Olwin, and then became Dragon War and finally Dragon Wars by June of 1989. There’s no consideration given anywhere to releasing it as Bard’s Tale IV. Interplay seems to have recognized that that ship had sailed as soon as they cut ties with Electronic Arts.
Similarly, it’s very hard to credit this notion that she would have “come up with a story” anywhere for the game. I have the final design document, as submitted by Paul Ryan O’Connor on June 11, 1989. It spans several hundred pages of meticulous detail, describing every area of the game, dragons included. While I confess I haven’t checked this document against the finished game exhaustively, everywhere I have checked the two match up perfectly or nearly perfectly (there’s an occasional editing of O’Connor’s text, presumably simply for reasons of space). There’s no sign of any creative freelancing by Rebecca Heinemann, who was the programmer responsible for implementing O’Connor’s design.
Similar issues unfortunately dog her account of The Bard’s Tale; everyone but her, along with lots of documents in the Strong archive, attribute the first two of those games almost entirely to Michael Cranford.
I have no wish to cause pain to Rebecca Heinemann, who I understand has had a rough go of it in her earlier life in lots of ways. I’m sincerely thrilled to see her happy and comfortable in her skin at last. And I’m willing to give her the benefit of the doubt in so far as I assume she’s describing things as she genuinely remembers them, without consciously meaning to deceive. But still, the problem with claiming credit for things she didn’t do is of course that in doing so she steals credit from others. I’ll chalk it up as one more reason to approach interviews and other first-hand accounts with a skeptical eye and leave it at that.
I agree Rebecca’s account of things is a bit one-sided. As I understand it, she contributed a lot of the tooling for BT 1 & 2 before taking a bigger role for BT 3. Tool engineers are usually responsible for compression or maps engine, not story, text, or art.
Alex Freeman
Unfortunately, it’s very hard to credit her recollections based on the hard evidence. Heaps of design documents and correspondence relating to Dragon Wars are to be found in the Strong Museum’s collection; it’s probably the best documented of all Interplay games there. They show…
Similarly, it’s very hard to credit this notion that she would have “come up with a story” anywhere for the game. I have the final design document, as submitted by Paul Ryan O’Connor on June 11, 1989.
Just how did you get that document? From the Strong Museum?
Well, OK, but how did you get it from there? Is it a document you can read on-line, or do you have to go down some place in person?
It’s a physical archive you need to visit in person. http://www.museumofplay.org/blog/chegheads/2016/12/perserving-video-game-history-with-the-brian-fargo-collection-1983-2012/
OK, so you have to go there in person. If you don’t mind me asking, though, how do you manage to do all this research AND visit New York all the way from Denmark? Being a digital antiquarian seems like a full-time job!
It is. I can do it only thanks to the Patreon and Pay Pal support of my readers. ;)
Oh! I didn’t realize how vitally important that was to your work. In that case, I could give again.
Or, rather, I’ve just signed up to be a Patreon patron to be exact!
We loved Battle Chess in this household, and we also loved — and I mean loved — Castles. I remember my mother playing each of these for endless hours, and I would have played more myself had the computer with them installed not been in her bedroom instead of mine.
“he was brought on there on by” – extra on?
kerrymg
One of these was was Neuromancer, a formally ambitious… — duplicate was.
Pingback: Weekly Links #172 « No Time To Play
Interesting that The Lord of the Rings flew under my radar back then. I’ve never even heard of this game until reading your article, surprising because I was a bit of a fan of the Times of Lore style of game play.
“Interplay’s solution was *to* tackle”
First sentence, “ensure” is probably more appropriate than “insure”, unless Brian Fargo was buying insurance.
BTW I hope you will give Start Trek: 25th Anniversary full coverage. (Kind of a dumb title for a game IMO but I loved it nonetheless.)
Thanks! And yeah, that one will get its own article.
Gnoman
Kind of funny to see SimCity, Lord Of The Rings Volume One, and 25th Anniversary all in one article – I discovered the latter two on a copy of SimCity published through Interplay that also contained trial versions of several Interplay games.
I actually remember Battle Chess coming out for DOS in 1994. I saw it on display at Egghead Software and remember being completely wowed by it. I thought how cool it would be if you could actually fight with your piece in the battles. As it turned out, Archon had already done that, though.
It came out for DOS well before 1994. I know this for a fact because I lost countless hours playing it in 8th grade and I didn’t start 9th grade until the fall of 1989. Must have been sometime in 1988 that it was released for DOS I’m guessing.
Ah, you brought back such good memories to me. I was really into Tolkien around the mid-nineties, and bought the CD-ROM version of The Lord of the Rings back then. I still have the CD around; the orchestral soundtrack is really nice. It is one of the only two CRPGs I ever played, although I didn’t manage to finish this one (the other one I played is Final Fantasy -the NES game- emulated on a PC). Thanks Jimmy!
Ian Schmidt
I have a soft spot for this period of Interplay because Out of this World and Dragon Wars were the last two games professionally published for the Apple IIgs, thanks (of course) to Burger Becky.
Thanks for this incredibly well-researched and skillfully-written article. Fascinating. I had no idea that the Interplay Lord of the Rings game and Castles were so intertwined. They were my two favorite PC games during those years. It’s a bit like meeting old friends and realizing that they were dating the whole time you were hanging out and you had no idea.
For the record, I absolutely loved Lord of the Rings, Vol. 1. As a passionate fan of the books, I consumed anything that allowed me to continue living in that world, whether it was Tolkien’s lesser-known writings like The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales, Christopher Tolkien’s detailed accounts of his father’s writing process (Frodo Baggins originally started out as Bingo), and of course the calendars by John Howe, Alan Lee, and Ted Nasmith.
So my favorite parts of the game were the free-scrolling map (which was a revolution of game experience at that time) and all the creative side quests and Easter eggs and wrinkles in the story. Wander a little off the path in the Shire, and you run into Sharkey’s men beginning to establish themselves, which is completely plausible if you’ve read the books and actually supports rather than changes the story. On the way to Rivendell, you can stumble upon the lair of the trolls Bilbo defeated in The Hobbit and rummage through their valuables. Go to the wrong level in Moria, and you discover the spot where the dwarves dug up the Balrog. All this is completely consistent with the novels and just allows your imagination to live out the books again in a whole new way.
Granted, the combat was really clumsy — the game would almost have been better without it — and some of the maps were too big, although there’s an argument for realism there as well. An automat feature (at least with fog of war) would have improved things tremendously. The other major complaint, not mentioned in this article, was that sometimes you just got killed a lot. There was no reliable way to make your characters stronger, which was admittedly realistic, and sometimes one or two of your characters would get killed by wolves, which was realistic, but a little too much realism can leave you with half your characters pretty fast and no solid reason to keep playing.
But I’d like to offer that this article is too harsh on these points because that’s just where video games were at. The Interplay Lord of the Rings was an innovative gem. To complain that the combat was clunky in 1991 is like complaining that long-distance calls were so expensive. They just were. Now we have cell phones and it’s hard to imagine backwards.
All that said…thanks for giving this game (and Castles!) some love on the internet. For those who are shameless fans of these bygone experiences, it is — like the original game itself was — another way to relive.
I’m always a little nonplussed by these statements that old games should be graded on a curve just because they’re old. While I always appreciate other points of view, the argument that bad combat should be ignored because that’s just how games were at the time doesn’t strike me as terribly well-founded. There are tons of counter-examples of CRPGs from this era that did have fun combat, from the Gold Box games to Dungeon Master.
A stronger argument in my opinion would be to say that, yeah, the combat isn’t very good, but there’s so much else that *is* good that the game is well worth playing anyway. As it happens, that’s the exact argument I’m soon to make in my article about Ultima VII. ;)
For the record, I find the confusion engendered by the sprawling, open environment with no auto-map and the matchy-matchy method of using your characters’ skill and abilities to be more damaging to the final experience than the shortcomings of combat. I understand what Interplay was trying to do with the latter, and even commend them for its spirit, but I don’t think it works here any more elegantly than it did in Wasteland or Dragon Wars. It leaves you too often playing the interface — and trying to read the designer’s mind — rather than inhabiting the world, as is illustrated by my example of feeding the wolves at the beginning of the game.
But we could quibble about those things all day. ;) Glad you enjoyed the article overall, and glad you enjoy the game a little more than I do!
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AT-THE-BORDER
Federal judge halts Trump asylum policy keeping migrants waiting in Mexico
The temporary injunction comes amid a new record for undocumented migrant families crossing the southern border.
Author: Oscar Margain
Published: 10:20 PM EDT April 9, 2019
Updated: 11:29 PM EDT April 9, 2019
WESLACO, Texas — An experimental immigration policy by the Trump administration – returning asylum seekers to Mexico for the duration of their immigration proceedings – was halted by a federal judge Monday.
The decision comes amid new data showing a record number of migrant family apprehensions at our southwest border.
U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg’s preliminary injunction comes two months after the Migrant Protection Protocols policy was implemented by the Department of Homeland Security.
US District Judge Richard Seeborg issues temporary injunction against MPP policy
KENS
Also known as "Remain in Mexico," the MPP was created in response to the surge of asylum seekers arriving at the southern border. It was designed to keep people in Mexico while a U.S. judge determines their asylum eligibility.
MPP was first tested at the California ports of entry before it was enforced in the El Paso sector in Texas.
DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen called for the expansion of MPP to other ports of entry last week.
Seeborg ruled the policy is likely in violation of the law and it does not protect migrants from being returned to “unduly dangerous circumstances.”
President Donald Trump reacted to the news on Twitter saying the rule is “unfair to the U.S.”
Undocumented migrants have a legal right to request asylum once they reach U.S. soil, regardless of where they crossed the border. Some migrants are held in detention centers while others, namely family units, are released with a notice to appear in immigration court.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection latest migrant apprehension data
USCBP
On Tuesday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection released the latest apprehension data for the month of March, it showed 103,492 undocumented migrants reportedly detained, the most in a single month since the Central American exodus to the U.S. began in 2014.
In response to the judge's ruling, White House press secretary Sander Sanders said Trump "will do whatever it takes to keep Americans safe."
The judge’s ruling is set to take effect Friday.
Asylum seekers wait on Mexican side of the Eagle Pass bridge in Eagle Pass, Texas
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ITV Network elevates RK Arora to Group CEO
In this role, Arora will assume overall responsibility of strategic and operational management of the ITV Network and will oversee the Group's diverse portfolio of assets spanning news broadcasting
Published - 20-August-2014
RK Arora has been elevated to Group CEO, ITV Network, where he will continue to lead and drive the organisation. In this role, he will assume overall responsibility of strategic and operational management of the ITV Network and will oversee the Group’s diverse portfolio of assets spanning news broadcasting.
“I’m delighted to announce Mr Arora’s well-deserved promotion,” said Kartikeya Sharma, Managing Director, ITV Network. “I am confident that with his deep industry knowledge and collegial working style, he’ll continue to strengthen ITV Network’s position in the marketplace. He has been instrumental to the highly positive momentum, which ITV Network enjoys today and has in the past two years, in his capacity as CEO Broadcasting, worked towards attaining leadership position for ITV network and taking it to greater heights. His astute business acumen and expertise has helped ITV Network solidify its position in the news genre.”
Sharma further said, “Under Mr Arora’s tenure, all our products have become market leaders and as a group we have worked hard to deliver value for our advertisers. Not only have we fulfilled our commitments, but have also delivered more than what we had targeted. With this thought process, I am sure Mr Arora will achieve many more milestones. Our company’s objective is to become India’s largest TV news network and the most profitable one as well. I am sure that ITV Network will definitely achieve its objectives under his leadership.”
Arora is a senior professional credited with turning around companies in the news genre. A chartered accountant by profession, Arora joined ITV Network in 2012 as CEO, Broadcasting and has been instrumental in the company’s transformation and its unprecedented growth. He has extensive experience spanning over 20 years in the field of distribution, finance and profitability of companies. Prior to ITV Network, he was CEO of BAG Network (News24, E24 and Darshan24). He was also associated with Independent News Service (India TV) since its inception.
“I am humbled to lead ITV Network as Group CEO,” said Arora. “In spite of challenging and demanding environment both our brands – NewsX and India News – have been able to carve a niche for themselves. I firmly believe that with Kartikeya’s support and ITV Network’s formidable talent, we are well poised to continue to deliver superior results in today’s increasingly competitive market and take the Network to greater heights. India News and NewsX is now a preferred choice for advertisers as they are delivering strong performance week on week. In a short span of time, NewsX and India News have carved a value proposition in the mind of the advertisers and have been consistently over delivering.”
Tags Kartikeya sharma Rk arora Bag network India news Itv network Newsx
31 million tweets around #CWC19; Dhoni most tweeted about player
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Agriterra chairman Phil Edmonds steps down
Phil Edmonds, former Chair of Agriterra, a UK-based company pursuing large-scale agricultural projects in Sierra Leone and Mozambique.
Post | 25 April 2016
Agriterra, an Africa focussed agricultural company, announces that Phil Edmonds has stepped down as chairman of the company.
Mr. Edmonds is a director of a number of public and private companies and has considerable experience of introducing African focussed companies to AIM, including African Platinum and Central African Mining & Exploration Company. He is currently a director of Sable Mining Africa Limited and Africa Oilfield Logistics Limited.
Mr. Edmonds holds an honours degree in land economy from Cambridge University. He was educated in Zambia and England.
Source: Post
http://www.poandpo.com/who-is-promoted/agriterra-chairman-phil-edmonds-steps-down-25-4-2016/
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Home > Regulation & Examinations > Laws & Regulations > Decisions on Bank Applications > Merger Transactions > Dove Creek State Bank
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Dove Creek State Bank
Re: Dove Creek State Bank
Dove Creek, Colorado
Application for Consent to Purchase Certain Assets and Assume Liability to Pay Deposits Made in the Cortez, Colorado, Office of Basin Industrial Bank, Englewood, Colorado, and to Establish that Office as a Branch
ORDER AND BASIS FOR CORPORATION APPROVAL
Pursuant to Section 18 (c) and other provisions of the Federal Deposit Insurance ("FDI") Act, Dove Creek State Bank, Dove Creek, Colorado ("Dove Creek"), an insured state nonmember bank and Bank Insurance Fund member with total resources of $18,685,000 and total deposits of $16,050,000 as of March 31, 1999, has filed an application for the Corporation's consent to purchase certain assets and assume the liability to pay deposits made in the Cortez, Colorado, office of Basin Industrial Bank, Englewood, Colorado ("Basin") and establish that office as a branch of Dove Creek. Basin is an insured state nonmember bank and Bank Insurance Fund member with total resources of $7,321,000 and total deposits of $6,463,000. Notice of the proposed transaction, in a form approved by the Corporation, has been published pursuant to the FDI Act.
Upon consummation of the proposed transaction, Basin's only office will be its main office located in Englewood, Colorado, and Basin will no longer conduct traditional retail banking operations. Basin will be involved in making available to retail consumers various electronic commerce technologies through programs initiated by Basin's parent, Western Union Financial Services, Inc. ("Western Union"). Such programs include Western Union's Benefits Quick Cash and Cash Card Programs.
A review of available information revealed no inconsistencies with the purposes of the Community Reinvestment Act ("CRA"). Dove Creek is expected to continue to meet the credit needs of its entire community, consistent with the safe and sound operation of the institution. Basin intends to apply to the Corporation for either an exemption or designation as a limited purpose bank under CRA.
In connection with the application, the Corporation has taken into consideration the competitive effects of the proposed transaction; the financial and managerial resources and future prospects of the proponent banks and the resultant bank; and the convenience and needs of the community to be served. Having found favorably on these statutory factors and having considered all other relevant information, including any reports on the competitive factors furnished by the Comptroller of the Currency, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Director of the Office of Thrift Supervision, and the Attorney General of the United States, it is the FDIC's judgment that the application should be and hereby is approved, subject to the following conditions:
1. That, as indicated in subject application, Community Bankshares, Inc., the parent of Dove Creek, shall make a capital contribution in the amount of $275,000 to Dove Creek prior to consummation of the proposed transaction;
2. That the transaction shall not be consummated before the fifteenth calendar day following the date of this Order or no later than six months after the date of this Order, unless such period is extended for good cause by the FDIC;
3. That, until the proposed transaction becomes effective, the FDIC shall have the right to alter, suspend, or withdraw its approval should any interim development be deemed to warrant such action.
By Order of the Associate Director of the Division of Supervision, acting pursuant to delegated authority for the Board of Directors of the FDIC.
Dated at Washington, D.C., this day of , 1999.
Mark S. Schmidt
Legal@fdic.gov
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Hobby Talk
Carter Stewart
Thread: Carter Stewart
JoshHamilton
Someone explain this to me.
For those who don’t know, Stewart was the 8th overall pick in the 2018 draft out of high school. The Braves offered him less than slot value due to an injury so he didn’t sign. Went to a community college in hopes of being drafted this year. Instead, he signed with a Japanese team yesterday, 6 years/$7 million.
Here’s what I don’t understand. He’s not allowed to join Major League Baseball until he’s 25, which is conveniently the amount of time he would have been under Braves control had he signed with them. How in the **** can MLB ban him from playing in their league if he never even signed with a team?
No wonder Kyler Murray chose football
Musial Collector
Stole this from the attached ESPN article:
http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/2...ft-upside-down
MLB's rules require a "foreign professional" to have spent "all or part of at least six seasons" playing in an "MLB-recognized foreign professional league." Even though Stewart is American, sources told ESPN that residency determination for foreign players is based on a number of factors, including where a player has played, where he plans to live, as well as his nationality. Stewart, under current rules, would be considered a foreign professional if he spends the next six seasons in Japan, sources said, though those rules are subject to change.
If they do not, Stewart could at age 25 join MLB via the posting system, which is used to transfer players between the leagues. The system allows foreign professionals 25 and older unrestricted free agency and delivers a fee to their Japanese team that depends upon the size of the contract negotiated with the MLB team.
Sent using my two hands, ten fingers, a keyboard and an internet connection.
death2redemptions
The Carolina on the Southern side
ddavisaz
I don't believe he was banned. I just heard about this today but it was my understanding that he chose to play in Japan. If he turns out to be very good down then he could earn himself a hefty free agent contract (no limitations) when he turns 25.
But again...I just found out about this earlier in the evening from my dad so I could be wrong.
Look, I'm gonna be honest with you. I really need a job. And I will take any position, as long as it doesn't involve having sex with old ladies for money or bear traps. Those are my two bugaboos. While mulling over my resume feel free to check out my baseball card collection, it's small and simple, kinda like me - >>>>> http://s822.photobucket.com/user/JDf...ds%20n%20stuff
bstanwood
Mystic, CT
Kyouk20
I'm on the same page as d2r... scary page ...he's not banned from mlb until 25, that's the 6year deal he signed so he can be posted by his Japanese team so he can be a FA in MLB. I'm not sure it's the "revolutionary loophole" people seem to be making it out to be but it certainly is a lucrative way to go. Most prospects don't cut it to see that big MLB contract. In Japan he will make maybe 3-5 times what he would in the minors/rookie contracts until the age 25 and if he looks good his first FA contract could be pretty big, financially it's probably the safer bet, however I have no idea what the development is like in Japan, that's the bigger gamble as far as I'm concerned.
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Statement on the Value of Museums and Collections
The Geological Society has issued a statement on the Value of Museums and Collections:
"The Geological Society, through its Geoconservation Committee and specialist groups such as the Geological Curators Group, works to help conserve the diverse geology and rich geological heritage of the United Kingdom to ensure it is passed on to future generations in good order. In addition to conserving geological sites, it is also important to conserve geological collections. The collections held in museums and educational centres around the UK are a great national asset and contribute to UK culture, research, science education and public engagement.
As a result of major reductions in funding from central government, local Councils and other government funded bodies are under increasing pressure to make cuts to services. One of the areas that is facing significant cuts to funding from local government is regional and local museums and collections.
This statement highlights the benefits and contributions that museums and collections, particularly local and regional institutions, make to Society through their use in research, education, preservation of UK heritage and public outreach. As well being as a source of information, we also encourage its use as a tool for geoconservation and museum communities throughout the UK to highlight the importance of museums and collections to stakeholders, funding bodies and local communities. "
The published statement can be found on the Geological Society's website.
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Goodyear change in operation underway
By Donna ThorntonTimes Staff Writer
Monday marked the day Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company in Gadsden converts to eight-hour shifts — a move that will result in layoffs at the plant.
United Steel Workers Local 12 President Mickey Williams said the exact number of layoffs remains unknown at this point.
“As far as the exact number going out the door, we don’t know yet,” Williams said. “They’ll be a wave (of layoffs) now and probably another wave at the end of the month.”
Williams said the union is worked to try to assist workers affected.
“The Goodyear-Gadsden tire plant is undergoing a production change as part of the company’s ongoing effort to maximize capacity at all plants, increase operations efficiencies and best serve out customers with the tires they need, when and where they need them,” according to a statement from Goodyear Communications Manager, Americas Operations, Barbara Hatala.
“We have just begun the process to determine which positions will be impacted and notify associates who will be laid off,” the statement said. “Until we have completed that process and all notifications, we can’t share specific numbers.
“Benefits for impacted associates have been negotiated with the United Steelworkers, differ based on service and are included in the Labor Agreement.”
Employees were informed in February of the plan to go to the eight-hour, three-shift, conventional schedule plant-wide — part of the company’s reduction in tire production at the Gadsden plant.
According to the Gadsden Industrial Development Authority’s web site, at the time the change was announced, Goodyear employed 1,698 people.
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Allow Me to Retort
Birdies, Bogeys and Badges
Simple Fitness
What's All the Racket?
Leonard Woolsey
Who's really exaggerating about climate change?
By JACK EVINS
In his recent column, Harold Raley critiques Dave Bary’s earlier piece regarding the threats of climate change, and suggests climate change might be good ("Climate change might not be as bad as some predict," The Daily News, July 8). Raley states, in challenging Bary’s commentary, that “to exaggerate the facts is always to diminish the truth.”
I agree. Raley claims, “Many experts, perhaps a majority,” accept the existence of climate change, but that “the evidence for human involvement is … questionable, and the scientific community remains divided.”
A study published in the November 2016 issue of “Theoretical and Applied Climatology” notes that 97 percent of published papers taking a position on human-caused climate change endorse that position, while 2 percent rejected it. The study then tried to replicate the findings reported by that minority, and found significant flaws in their methodology.
It might be interesting to know whether fossil fuel interests funded that research.
Did Raley exaggerate the facts?
Raley also asserts more atmospheric carbon dioxide is beneficial, as oxygen-producing plants need it to grow. But plants aren’t keeping up; carbon dioxide levels continue to increase, while oxygen levels fall. We can thank the rate of carbon dioxide we produce, along with deforestation and similar human activities, for that.
Jack Evins
(66) comments
Richard Illyes Jul 11, 2019 6:08am
The way out of this is to move to the new generation of nuclear and let fossil based fuel use naturally decline. That should also cause a move to much smaller grids which would reduce exposure to catastrophe if another Carrington Event or some hostile act took down a large part of the grid. The endless posturing over this issue is not getting us anywhere. There are lots of things to use oil for other than burning it. We need to implement the new safe nuclear technology as rapidly as possible.
Bailey Jones Jul 11, 2019 7:48am
We are getting somewhere. Texas now gets 1/6th of its power from wind, with more coming on line every day. The cost of solar has dropped 90% in the last decade. Whole house batteries are now available for about the same cost as a new AC unit. We're on the cusp of a new clean energy age. I've got nothing against a new generation of nuclear, but it think it will be eclipsed by inexhaustible wind, tide and solar.
Carlos Ponce Jul 11, 2019 8:16am
There's a problem with wind farms asides from killing bats and birds. They are built to withstand a Category 3 Hurricane. Wind farms on the dirty side of Harvey were forced to shut down. From Bloomberg: https://about.bnef.com/blog/harvey-pushed-this-texas-wind-farm-all-the-way-to-the-max/ "Too much wind — usually above 55 miles per hour — means turbines must be shut down......Maximum production typically happens when wind speeds reach between 26 and 30 miles an hour." Hurricanes are more than that. But after the winds died they were back online. In the meantime, those on the grid were supplied energy from natural gas generators.
Well, aside from the fact that our wind power comes mainly from west Texas, https://www.businessreport.com/newsletters/gulf-oil-platforms-shut-down-before-storm The beauty of batteries is that they can get you through a day or two of intermittent power. You know - like we have with every hurricane when the fossil fuel powered power lines get blown down. Solar, on the other hand, works as long as the sun is available, and since it's on your roof, gets you through any issues with the power grid. And as I've posted before, cats kill orders of magnitude more birds than windmills do.
Gary Miller Jul 11, 2019 10:49am
Carlos. A gas, oil or coal fired power plant with equal capacity to the wind or solar farm must be running on standby. The more wind or solar is installed the more fossil fueled power is required. Hard to think of this as "progress".
Jim Forsythe Jul 11, 2019 10:52am
"Wind farms on the dirty side of Harvey were forced to shut down" just as other types of power providers shut down. After the storm has pass. they start back up. What percent of wind farms are located in areas that Hurricane's will be a problems?---- All wind turbines are designed for a maximum wind speed, called the survival speed, above which they will be damaged. The survival speed of commercial wind turbines is in the range 89 MPH to 161 MPH. This depends on the type , some are designed for higher wind speeds. All type of Power plants will have damage in high winds, not just wind turbines. When a few are shut down for high wind speeds others in the system are still working. When the anemometer registers wind speeds higher than 55 mph (cut-out speed varies by turbine), it triggers the wind turbine to automatically shut off. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What type of power production kills the most birds?---------------- Solar: about 28,000 birds a year, Wind: about 328,000 birds a year, Nuclear: About 330,000 birds, Oil and Gas: An estimated 500,000 to 1 million birds a year are killed in oil fields, Coal: roughly 7.9 million, fossil-fuelled power plants 14.5 million, Power Lines: Between 12 and 64 million birds a year, Even higher than the above: cats, which are estimated to kill 1.4 to 3.7 billion birds every year.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Advantages of Wind Power. Wind power is cost-effective. Land-based utility-scale wind is one of the lowest-priced energy sources available today, costing between two and six cents per kilowatt-hour
Carlos Ponce Jul 11, 2019 4:10pm
"Nuclear: About 330,000 birds" That information comes from Benjamin K. Sovacool. He "claims" the bird deaths come from THE MINING OF URANIUM, not from the actual power plants."The most dominant contribution to Sovacool’s analysis of nuclear power impacts comes from uranium mining and milling operations which he claims 'can poison and kill hundreds of birds per facility per year'. In his first report, he supports this by focusing on two “uranium mining” operations 'in Wyoming' where he charges that bird deaths are caused by abandoned open pits. The first is the Canon City Uranium Mine in Colorado (not Wyoming), a mine that operated from 1958 to 1979, and only intermittently since. The owners of the mine were ordered to pay a $40,000 fine when a kerosene spill killed 40 geese in 2008. The spill was a one time occurrence and the operators were required to take steps to prevent further spills. Sovacool assumes the death of 40 geese is a routine occurrence, assumes it happens annually at every operating uranium mine, then based on estimates of the peak uranium production (8.4t of enriched uranium when the mine was operating), and using a conversion of 792 GWh produced per ton of enriched uranium, he concludes the rate associated with the Canon City mine is 0.006 deaths per GWh. Not a very big number, but taking this one incident and leveraging it to represent half of all the uranium mines in the world (as is implied in his averaging of results) is … let’s just say it’s not very good science." He's writing about things that happened DECADES ago. It's NOT ON GOING. "But they are strongly regulated today and current operations give a great deal of attention both to health effects and effects on the surrounding ecology." "But Sovacool does even worse. His second example does not even involve a uranium mine, it is an old abandoned copper mine in Montana. And it is the data from this example that dominates his conclusions both for the 2009 study and the later 2012 one." "Nuclear: About 330,000 birds" - Nothing real nor scientific about that figure. How many bird deaths at the South Texas Nuclear Power Plant - NONE.
Gary Miller Jul 11, 2019 10:57pm
Bailey. Whole house batteries are getting cheaper. Comparable in price to a whole house AC with one big fault. They don't last as long and disposable is expensive. If AC had to be replaced so often it wouldn't be as popular.
Gary Miller Jul 12, 2019 4:28pm
Bailey. What would the real price of wind or solar be without the tax funded subsidies? Both would be quickly bankrupt if ALL subsidies were eliminated. Some question why conservatives oppose renewal energy. We oppose the subsidies that must end at some time. Then consumers will be stuck with the real cost.
Bailey Jones Jul 14, 2019 11:01am
This idea that renewable energy is subsidized while fossil fuels are not is just another myth. According to the US Energy Information Administration, of the $15B we spent on direct energy subsidies in 2016 , fossil fuels received $1.3B, renewables $6.7B, nuclear $0.3B, with the rest being spent on the grid, conservation and end use projects. And this doesn't include indirect costs - like the $5 trillion we've wasted in the middle east in the past 15 years, in part to protect oil production. Straight of Hormuz ring a bell? Since the US subsidizes fossil fuels and you don't oppose oil and gas, I ask again - why do conservatives oppose renewable energy?
Carlos Ponce Jul 14, 2019 12:31pm
The subsidies for wind and solar increased under Obama. Remember Solyndra?
Bailey Jones Jul 14, 2019 12:51pm
But to answer your question, Gary, from the US EIA 2016 report, wind generated 2038 trillion BTU (597 billion Kw-hr) in 2016, solar was 533 trillion BTU (156 billion KW-hr). Direct subsidies for wind were $1.266B, and for solar, $2.231B. Doing the math, subsidies account for a 0.2 cents per KW-h for wind, and 14 cents per KW-h for solar. So, neglible for wind, maybe 2X the cost of fossil fuels for solar. https://www.eia.gov/analysis/requests/subsidy/pdf/subsidy.pdf
Richard. You may be more right than you thought. Oil, natural gas and coal can be used as raw material for most of the manufactured products making life better. Nearly all can be recycled. The 16% of oil burned is gone forever, ditto nat gas. Small and safe nuclear power generators have been available for several decades but unused due to "anti Nuke" lobbying. If all office, government and military buildings had their own nuke generator the grid would be much less vuneralable to attack or accident.
I'm genuinely curious, all partisanship aside, why so many conservatives are opposed to "renewable" energy - wind, solar, tidal, geothermal, etc. Conservatives are pro jobs - wind power techs and solar installers are two of the fastest growing job markets in the US (wind is #1 in Texas). Conservatives are pro manufacturing - both wind and solar are manufacturing intensive. The task of converting our grid from oil and gas to renewable is the greatest economic opportunity since the personal computer and the Internet, if not since America's original electrification a century ago. Not to mention the manufacture of electric cars. It can't be feasibility, wind and solar are being installed all around the world. Clean energy out produced coal in the US for the first time last April, that trend is only going to increase. Wind and solar are both becoming cost competitive with oil and gas, and will get even cheaper over time. It's easy to understand this trend just by looking at the supply chain. With oil and gas - it gets pumped from the ground, transported in trucks, or barges, or pipelines, or tankers, to a refining facility, and then transported again to a generating facility, and then you get electricity. With wind - the wind blows and electricity comes out. With solar - the sun shines and electricity comes out. There's the issue of intermittent. Like oil and gas, wind and solar both require storage. Unlike oil and gas, storage for wind and solar can be small and local - a battery system in your garage or your car. These are available now. Reliability? The wind is almost always blowing somewhere in Texas, and the sun rises every day, and the tides always roll. I keep hearing about fears of a huge government take over of American's freedoms, or some such thing. But what is the actual government involvement here? Oil and gas are pumped from government licensed wells - often government leases, transported over government licensed pipelines, or through international waters protected at great cost by the US military, to refining facilities licensed and regulated by state and federal governments. With solar - I have panels on my roof and a battery in my garage. No government required. It seems like a sovereign citizen's dream to me. Yes, obviously wind and solar isn't appropriate for every case. Long distance air travel comes to mind. And we will likely always need some back up capacity from oil and gas. That's no argument against it. Current generating capacity in Texas from wind is 22,637 MW. That's 1/6th of ERCOT's total. There's no reason why this can't double, triple, or quadruple. So, what is it, conservatives?
Bailey? After a hurricane how long will you be without power waiting for insurance to replace your roof? I'll be back on the grid long before that.
That's a valid concern, Gary. But I'd still be connected to the grid, just like you, burning that clean cool West Texas wind power.
Bailey. Conservatives are in favor of renewable energy that is price competitive. Tax Subsidised energy is subsirised because it can't compete with conventional energy and would become far too costly if the subsidies were removed. WE prefer free and fair competition, not competing with government.
The global mapping satilites show there is no deforestation. Fact is global forestation has increased 20 % in the recent 20 years. Using fossil fuels for heating/cooking instead of trees is thought to be one reason forests are increasing. Increased CO2 could be a reason cut forests regenerate faster. The tree huggers belief that every cut tree is a permanent loss is false. Trees are a fast renewable resource.
Dan Freeman Jul 11, 2019 2:17pm
What is the source Mr. Miller's claim that "A gas, oil or coal fired power plant with equal capacity to the wind or solar farm must be running on standby?"
Bailey Jones Jul 11, 2019 3:51pm
It's based on the outdated idea that there is no way to store energy created by wind or solar. So, at night, or when the wind stops, you have to fire up the fossil fuels. But, of course, we have whole house batteries now, and the 100 MW battery farm that Elon Musk recently installed in Australia, and the whole town battery that recently went on line in Presidio, Texas (due to frequent power outages from their unreliable conventional power grid). But Gary's argument can be played the other way. The oil and gas capacity we currently have is ALREADY available as the "standby backup" for enough wind and solar energy to power all of Texas.
Power storage batteries - very environmentally safe - NOT! "Batteries Impose Hidden Environmental Costs for Wind and Solar Power" https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamestaylor/2017/08/17/batteries-impose-hidden-environmental-costs-for-wind-and-solar-power/#52a5c26db4e1 "Advocates for wind and solar power often tell us that we should overlook these shortcomings because next-generation batteries, large enough and efficient enough to store wind and solar power for on-demand usage, are just around the corner. Such an assertion is highly questionable for many reasons. But even if significant breakthroughs for battery technology are imminent, is battery-dependent wind and solar power actually good for the environment?"
"But even if significant breakthroughs for battery technology are imminent, is battery-dependent wind and solar power actually good for the environment?" Compared to what, I guess, is the question. There is no perfect solution for supplying any of the needs of 7 billion humans. Anything, and everything, we do has an impact on the planet - usually negative. If you believe that any activity that degrades the environment is morally indefensible, then you can't have energy production at all, (or food production, or mineral extraction, etc.) and I know conservatives don't believe that. The question here (for environmentalists, if not for conservatives) is, what is the environmental impact of switching to renewable energy vs the environmental impact of continuing to burn fossil fuels? If you believe that CO2 is an existential threat to humanity and the rest of life on this planet, then you might be willing to accept - in the short term - the nasty side effects of manufacturing and disposing of batteries and solar cells. I have not known many conservatives to put environmental concerns ahead of economic concerns, so again I ask the question - what is the conservative objection to renewable energy?
That's the problem that proponents of wind and solar rarely address - the incidental environmental impact of those power sources. Not as "green" as they want you to believe. But they're ready to include EVERYTHING when it comes to nuclear, coal and natural gas power generation. The bird death from nuclear power generation is bogus, tossing in incidences that have nothing to do with uranium mining, etc.
Jim Forsythe Jul 11, 2019 5:33pm
Power plants are polluting day after day at a high levels. The daily amount from wind and batteries sources is low. Some want to keep using fossil fuels when we have the alternate ways of producing electricity, without using fossil fuels.----------- The main pollutants resulting from natural gas electricity generation are nitrogen oxides, or NOx. Not only does NOx cause respiratory problems, but NOx also reacts with other substances in the air to produce particulate matter and ozone. Particulate matter and ozone cause the extensive list of adverse health outcomes you hear at the end of a prescription drug commercial – shortness of breath, heart attacks, premature death; the list goes on. In short, NOx is bad news for human health. Mercury is released during coal combustion: In general, power plants emit 50 percent of the mercury released into the air, and 75 percent of the acid gases released. That accounts for 40 to 52 tons of it per year------------------------------------------------------------------ An uncontrolled coal plant releases many harmful pollutants: These include about 114 pounds of lead, traces of uranium, and 720 tons of carbon monoxide. Also, 220 tons of hydrocarbons are released, which trigger reactions that form ozone at low altitudes. A plant also releases 225 pounds of arsenic in a year, a carcinogenic compound that affects drinking water.---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Power plants discharge polluted water: Many power plants are placed along bodies of water, where they can draw it in for cooling. Billions of gallons may be used daily. The water is then delivered back to the river or sea, creating warm plumes, which can starve aquatic life of oxygen in summer and trap species in ice-free areas during the winter. Discharge waters may also contain chlorine and heavy metals.----------------------------------------- Mercury is a metallic pollutant released from coal combustion. Coal-burning power plants are the largest human-caused source of mercury emissions to the air in U.S., responsible for more than 40 % of mercury emissions (40-52 tons of mercury released every year in US). Burning of coal releases SO2 and NOx.,Oxidation of SO2 and NOx in air forms H2SO4 and HNO3, strong mineral acids.These acids then dissolve in water droplets in clouds and acidic rain results.This "wet deposition" reduces the concentration of sulfur and nitrogen oxides in the atmosphere but causes many problems on land and surface water---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When the mercury vapor finds its way into bodies of water, it is converted by bacteria into the more toxic compound, methyl mercury. This is a known neurotoxin. It causes mental retardation, seizures, cerebral palsy and death----------------------------------------------------------------Power plants emit more pollution than cars
Jim, nuclear requires no pollution especially the modern ones. As far as nuclear "waste" -modern plants take care of that. I always wondered that if they still produce radiation then why can't they still be used. The idea was brought up in my high school physics class in 1973. Glasd they finallt have the tech for that idea.
Please expand on what you are trying to say. Not sure what incidental environmental impact of those power sources you are talking about. What power sources do you consider the one that produces the lowest amount of pollution? Even leaves on trees produce ozone. How many tons of bad stuff does wind and solar put in the air and water? How many tons of bad stuff does coal and natural gas put in the air and water? Bird death from nuclear power generation, is how many?
"What power sources do you consider the one that produces the lowest amount of pollution?" I believe I stated NUCLEAR. We don't have Chernobyl style reactors in this country. And 3 mile Island reactors have been replaced by modern reactors. The US Navy has a fleet of nuclear powered vessels. A nuclear ship was just dismantled in Galveston with no ill effects.
Jim Forsythe Jul 11, 2019 10:13pm
We do not have to use just one of the methods to produce power. Some may make more since then others, as we are moving away from fossil fuels. We have also not talked about hydro power. If we are going to use nuclear,Small modular reactors are the way to go. ------------------- Nuclear reactors have a life span which after that time will have to be decommissioned. The cost of this will not be cheap. We are coming to the time when we will have to address this.-------------------------------------------------- In the United States, licenses of almost half of the operating nuclear reactors have been extended to 60 years. The U.S. NRC and the U.S. Department of Energy have initiated research into Light water reactor sustainability which is hoped will lead to allowing extensions of reactor licenses beyond 60 years, provided that safety can be maintained, to increase energy security and preserve low-carbon generation sources.------------------------------------------------------------ Nuclear power's share of global electricity production has fallen from 16.5% in 1997 to about 10% in 2017, in large part because the economics of nuclear power have become more difficult. As far as cost, solar and wind are the lowest cost. Internationally the price of nuclear plants rose 15% annually in 1970–1990. With PWR stations, having total costs in 2012 of about $96 per megawatt hour (MWh), most of which involves capital construction costs, compared with (in 2018) solar power at $36–44 per MWh, (in 2018) onshore wind at $29–56 per MWH and natural gas at the low end at $64 per MWh.------------------------------------------------- If we have a nuclear disaster, it can have effects on everyone. Chernobyl left a trail that was not contained just in Russia. If a wind turbine or solar unit has problems, it will be contained to that area. If you are talking about Small modular reactors then that's different story.-------------------------------------------------------- The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, is expected to increase the costs of operating and new LWR power stations, due to increased requirements for on-site spent fuel management and elevated design basis threats Some serious nuclear and radiation accidents have occurred. The severity of nuclear accidents is generally classified using the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES) introduced by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The scale ranks anomalous events or accidents on a scale from 0 (a deviation from normal operation that poses no safety risk) to 7 (a major accident with widespread effects). There have been 3 accidents of level 5 or higher in the civilian nuclear power industry, two of which, the Chernobyl accident and the Fukushima accident, are ranked at level 7. The Chernobyl accident in 1986 caused approximately 50 deaths from direct and indirect effects, and some temporary serious injuries.The future predicted mortality from cancer increases, is usually estimated at some 4000 in the decades to come. A higher number of the routinely treatable Thyroid cancer, set to be the only type of causal cancer, will likely be seen in future large studies. The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident was caused by the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. The accident has not caused any radiation related deaths, but resulted in radioactive contamination of surrounding areas. The difficult Fukushima disaster cleanup will take 40 or more years, and is expected to cost tens of billions of dollars. The Three Mile Island accident in 1979 was a smaller scale accident, rated at INES level 5. There were no direct or indirect deaths caused by the accident.
"Nuclear power's share of global electricity production has fallen.... in large part because the economics of nuclear power have become more difficult." Not the cost but the unsubstantiated fear. " As far as cost, solar and wind are the lowest cost." Due to government subsidies which increased during the Obama administration. See "Wind and Solar Require Massive Subsidies" https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/06/wind_and_solar_require_massive_subsidies.html And " On a total dollar basis, wind has received the greatest amount of federal subsidies. Solar is second. Wind and solar together get more than all other energy sources combined." https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2017/05/30/why-do-federal-subsidies-make-renewable-energy-so-costly/#58fdeb4b128c And "Wind Subsidies Should End" https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/renewable/wind/wind-subsidies-end/ And "Solar energy can't survive without massive subsidies" https://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/energy-environment/302900-solar-energy-cant-survive-without-massive-subsidies
Carlos, what type of nuclear power plants are you talking about? If you are talking about a Small modular reactors ,some of the below text does not apply .=========== Government subsidies to the nuclear power industry over the past fifty years have been so large in proportion to the value of the energy produced that in some cases it would have cost taxpayers less to simply buy kilowatts on the open market and give them away.----------------------------------------------------------- . Illinois, which is on the verge of bankruptcy, and New York state have approved as much as $10 billion in subsidies to keep several money-losing nuclear plants open over the next decade. Several other states with financially distressed nuclear plants — Ohio, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and New Jersey — are also considering subsidies.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Nuclear subsidies exist as: 1) huge loan guarantees from government, approximately $8.3 billion for the Vogtle plant alone. The four US reactors presently under construction are in jeopardy from the designer’s bankruptcy 2) government legal relief from radiation liability, under the Price-Anderson Act, 3) regulation that no lawsuits during construction will be allowed (with a minor exception), 4) regulation to raise electricity prices during construction to avoid interest costs on construction loans; 5) operating and safety regulations that are routinely relaxed to allow nuclear plants to not spend money to comply. 6) Regulation reform to subsidize nuclear plants operating – although they lose money otherwise – on the basis of “carbon-free” power. 7) New nuclear plants receive 2.3 cents per kWh generated for the first 10 years of operation. For a 1000 MW plant operating 100 percent (as nuclear advocates claim they do), that is $201 million per year. After ten years, that is $2 billion. 8) The ability to charge customers for the costs of decommissioning a nuclear plant, when the already-collected funds prove insufficient for the lengthy and costly task. See e.g. Omaha, Nebraska and the Fort Calhoun nuclear plant.---------------------------- The language of the Price-Anderson Act states: “Congress passed the Price-Anderson Act in 1957 to ensure that adequate funds would be available to compensate victims of a nuclear accident. It also recognized that the risk of extraordinary liability that companies would incur if a nuclear accident were to happen would render insurance costs prohibitively high, and thwart the development of nuclear energy.. .------------------------- . The Price-Anderson Act requires owners of commercial reactors to assume all liability for damages to the public resulting from an ‘extraordinary nuclear occurrence’ and to waive most legal defenses The cleanup of the damaged nuclear reactor system at Three Mile Island 2 took nearly 12 years and cost approximately US$973 million. The cleanup was uniquely challenging technically and radiologically. Plant surfaces had to be decontaminated. Water used and stored during the cleanup had to be processed. And about 100 tons of damaged uranium fuel had to be removed from the reactor vessel — all without hazard to cleanup workers or the public. Carlos, what type of nuclear power plants are you talking about? If you are talking about a Small modular reactors ,some of the below text does not apply .=========== Government subsidies to the nuclear power industry over the past fifty years have been so large in proportion to the value of the energy produced that in some cases it would have cost taxpayers less to simply buy kilowatts on the open market and give them away.----------------------------------------------------------- . Illinois, which is on the verge of bankruptcy, and New York state have approved as much as $10 billion in subsidies to keep several money-losing nuclear plants open over the next decade. Several other states with financially distressed nuclear plants — Ohio, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and New Jersey — are also considering subsidies.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Nuclear subsidies exist as: 1) huge loan guarantees from government, approximately $8.3 billion for the Vogtle plant alone. The four US reactors presently under construction are in jeopardy from the designer’s bankruptcy 2) government legal relief from radiation liability, under the Price-Anderson Act, 3) regulation that no lawsuits during construction will be allowed (with a minor exception), 4) regulation to raise electricity prices during construction to avoid interest costs on construction loans; 5) operating and safety regulations that are routinely relaxed to allow nuclear plants to not spend money to comply. 6) Regulation reform to subsidize nuclear plants operating – although they lose money otherwise – on the basis of “carbon-free” power. 7) New nuclear plants receive 2.3 cents per kWh generated for the first 10 years of operation. For a 1000 MW plant operating 100 percent (as nuclear advocates claim they do), that is $201 million per year. After ten years, that is $2 billion. 8) The ability to charge customers for the costs of decommissioning a nuclear plant, when the already-collected funds prove insufficient for the lengthy and costly task. See e.g. Omaha, Nebraska and the Fort Calhoun nuclear plant.---------------------------- The language of the Price-Anderson Act states: “Congress passed the Price-Anderson Act in 1957 to ensure that adequate funds would be available to compensate victims of a nuclear accident. It also recognized that the risk of extraordinary liability that companies would incur if a nuclear accident were to happen would render insurance costs prohibitively high, and thwart the development of nuclear energy.. .------------------------- . The Price-Anderson Act requires owners of commercial reactors to assume all liability for damages to the public resulting from an ‘extraordinary nuclear occurrence’ and to waive most legal defenses The cleanup of the damaged nuclear reactor system at Three Mile Island 2 took nearly 12 years and cost approximately US$973 million. The cleanup was uniquely challenging technically and radiologically. Plant surfaces had to be decontaminated. Water used and stored during the cleanup had to be processed. And about 100 tons of damaged uranium fuel had to be removed from the reactor vessel — all without hazard to cleanup workers or the public.
Government - National, state, local) should not take sides by subsidizing any source of electricity. Let market forces prevail.
Jim Forsythe Jul 13, 2019 8:25am
One of the best things that happened in the past, was the Dam projects which helped bring flood control, water and electricity too areas in need. Its too late for the government not too subsidize electrical projects as we have a history of doing so. Just in Hydro power, we have done a lot of subsidizing . Because of these projects, many other benefits also happened for the USA.. ------------------ This is just one project of many at Niagara Falls. On New Years day 1917, voters approved the construction of the Queenston-Chippawa power project. Construction began in May and continued for the next four and a half years. ------------------------------------ Grand Coulee Dam--President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who took office in March, 1933, supported the dam because of its irrigation potential and the power it would provide, He provided $63 million in federal funding, while Washington State provided $377,000.In 1933, Washington governor Clarence Martin set up the Columbia Basin Commission to oversee the dam project.------------------------------------------------------- The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned corporation in the United States created by congressional charter on May 18, 1933 --------------------------------------------------------- Hoover Dam--On December 21, 1928, President Coolidge signed the bill authorizing the dam. The Boulder Canyon Project Act appropriated $165 million for the Hoover Dam along with the downstream Imperial Dam and All-American Canal
Dan. State and federal law requires it. Consider what would happen if there weren't any backup.
Dan Freeman Jul 12, 2019 11:02am
Mr. Miller they do not. That is why we have the grid. When any power plant goes down other plants provide energy. For example in Texas we rely on ERCOT: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Interconnection. I suggest you learn more about energy distribution.
Standby, can be the use of batteries. No need for power plants to be used for standby.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- No longer will power not be available because of no wind or lack of sunshine. What is happening, the producers of power are using battery farm's. This will also reduce the cost of power.----------------------------------------- The South Australian Government notes that for the first time, clean wind energy can be siphoned to the grid 24/7 improving the system’s reliability, whether the wind is blowing or not. The 100MW battery farm has enough storage capacity to power more than 30,000 homes. The 100MW battery will provide the region with 129 megawatt-hours of energy to be paired with Neoen’s 99-turbine wind farm at Hornsdale, near Jamestown, South Australia.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Batteries have advantages ,they’re faster to build. A natural gas plant takes three to five years, while Elon Musk promised South Australia he would build them the world’s largest battery bank in 100 days or it would be free — and he delivered. It will be linked up to French renewable energy company Neoen's Hornsdale Wind Farm near Jamestown, South Australia.
And, of course, chemical batteries are only one possible solution. Long ago when I was a tot in college, we designed and built a pilot solar plant for the good people of Crosbyton. It was decidedly low tech - a parabolic mirror heated cottonseed oil which was then used to produce steam to drive a turbine generator. The super heated oil was stored underground to provide steam at night. Easy peasy. https://swco-ir.tdl.org/handle/10605/417
Gary Scoggin Jul 11, 2019 10:56pm
Bailey.... I remember that project! It was cutting edge for its day.
Fun fact - the EE department ran simulations on a 1964 era Control Data 1604 computer. It was huge and slow, but had a 48 bit word size, large enough for precision science. I loved that machine, and learned Fortran on it. We all loved it. The DOE in those days funded research into alternative energy solutions - and the Crosbyton project was one that was fully viable. But they lost funding when Reagan came into office.
Gary Scoggin Jul 13, 2019 7:27am
Did you have to go to the Computer Center with your stack of punchcards? Drop them off and come back later to see if your program ran?
Gary, I only had to use the computer center once - I forget which class. It had an IBM, IIRC. We used punch cards and paper tape, but ran the 1604 ourselves - overseen by watchful grad students. It was a young engineers dream machine.
Carlos Ponce Jul 12, 2019 11:57am
"Bipartisan Panel of Scientists Confirms Humans are not Responsible for Past 20,000 Years of Global Warming - July 11, 2019 Press Release Washington, DC— Thursday, in a House Science, Space, and Technology Committee hearing on climate change, under questioning by Congressman Mo Brooks (AL-05), four members of a bipartisan panel of climate science experts all admitted that humans are NOT responsible for the Earth’s global warming that has occurred over the past 20,000 years (since the Earth’s last glacial maximum). By way of background, during the last glacial maximum of roughly 20,000 years ago: Average global temperatures were roughly 11 degrees Fahrenheit COLDER than they are today (per Zurich University of Applied Science). Stated differently, global temperatures have risen, on average, roughly 0.5 degrees Fahrenheit per century over the past 20,000 years. Sea levels were roughly 410 feet LOWER 20,000 years ago than they are today (per the United States Geological Survey). Stated differently, sea levels have risen, on average, roughly two feet per century over the past 20,000 years (roughly double the global warming enthusiasts’ claimed average sea level rise rate of one foot per century since 1993). Almost all of Canada, Northern Europe, and America (north of the Missouri and Ohio Rivers, east to New York City) was under glacial ice and uninhabitable. The gist of the experts’ opinions is that the earth was too lightly populated by humans to make humanity responsible for the Earth’s global warming that began 20,000 years ago." See partial text of Congressional hearing at : https://brooks.house.gov/media-center/news-releases/congressman-brooks-bipartisan-panel-scientists-confirms-humans-are-not See full video at: https://science.house.gov/hearings/earths-thermometers-glacial-and-ice-sheet-melt-in-a-changing-climate Chairwoman Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) takes the Liberal view.
As usual Mr. Ponce misrepresented the presentation. Here is Dr. Pfeffer’s clarification: The problem here is with people. How do we respond to an environmental change? ….It is what people do. And if this had happened, you know, a long time ago, when the population of the Earth was a few hundred million, it probably wouldn’t have mattered either because we could have just gotten out of the way. But as it is today— with the number of people that we have and the infrastructure— we are very sensitive to changes of this kind. We do not handle change very well. For example, suppose that the conditions for growing crops that exist today in California, picked up and moved to North Dakota for a couple of hundred years, they are variations like that in the fairly recent geologic past that occurred. How do we deal with them? It is an entirely different world than what we were not here to experience, but we know about 20,000 years ago. We’re much more sensitive. We don’t deal well with change and to deal with it we need to know a lot about it. Brooks: Dr. Pfeffer, thank you for that additional insight.
How did I misrepresent? Since the links I provide provide BOTH SIDES of the debate there is NO misrepresentation. My goal? To show there is NO CONSENSUS AMONG SCIENTISTS as to the cause of climate change.
You present this hearing as evidence that there NO CONSENSUS AMONG SCIENTISTS as to the cause of climate change? Did you even watch the hearing? Show me where in this video the witnesses disagreed about the cause of climate change. SHOW. ME.
Watch the video, Bailey. The ENTIRE video.
"Watch the video, Bailey. The ENTIRE video." I did. There is NO disagreement among these scientists about the cause of climate change. If I'm wrong, show me.
Oh my god. Who ever said that humans were responsible for the last 20,000 years of climate change? That's patently absurd. No climate scientist has ever said that. Not ever. Not one. I had no idea this level of stupidity actually held public office in this country. As the witness says in response to Brooks' idiotic question - the earth has natural cycles - these are what have been operating over the past 20,000 years - and still operate today. As she said, according to the natural cycle, we are supposed to be cooling, but because of man made CO2 we are in fact seeing extreme warming. It's pretty obvious, Carlos, that you didn't watch the video, because the testimony presented about anthropogenic climate change since the beginning of the industrial age is conclusive and alarming. How anyone can sit through this and come away with the conclusion that "Bipartisan Panel of Scientists Confirms Humans are not Responsible for Global Warming" is off the scale unbelievable. I am flabbergasted.
Okay, Bailey, HOW MANY YEARS do you hold man accountable for climate change? Remember everyone had a campfire. Hint, Hint: Campfires emit CO2.
The answer to your question is obvious when CO2 concentrations are plotted on a graph - https://seos-project.eu/world-of-images/images/faq-2-1-fig-1-thumb.jpg In other words, since about 1800. (Hint, Hint - the industrial use of fossil fuels.)
SEOS- Science Education through Earth Observation for High Schools - Riiiiiight. And the source of their "data"?????????????????????????????
I hate to counter such an amusing point with facts but the human baseline for looking at climate is usually 1750 or so. That's the beginning of the Industrial Revolution when factories started to sprout, many began using steam power, and energy consumption began to take off. Some estimates put the population of the earth at a few million in the late stone age. Of course if you accept the work of James Usher, on October 29, 4004 BC, the population of the Earth was zero. A week later, it stood at two. Whatever the population, it is clear that per capita energy usage has increased over time. We currently have around 6 billion people using an average of over 21,000 KWh per person.
"And the source of their "data"? " Gee, Carlos, I don't know. Where do high schools usually get their scientific data? NASA? https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/ NOAA? https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ghgs-lawdome-2000yr-CO2-asof2010.svg (Note attribution in description) Or, maybe the European Environment Agency? https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/indicators/atmospheric-greenhouse-gas-concentrations-6/assessment Where do you get yours? A Mo Brooks newsletter?
"Gee, Carlos, I don't know." That says it all. I check their "sources" It is NASA but their data set goes back only a few years. The rest is sheer speculation. I believe Noah experienced "climate change" in his experiences.
"The rest is sheer speculation. " By which, of course, you mean direct measurements made from Taylor Dome Ice Cores which holds undisturbed samples of the atmosphere going back thousands of years. Still waiting for your answer to my last question. You do have an answer - right, Carlos?
Wolfgang Knorr of the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol found the absorbed fraction of carbon dioxide has stayed approximately constant since 1850. "The strength of the new study, published online in Geophysical Research Letters, is that it rests solely on measurements and statistical data, including historical records extracted from Antarctic ice, and does not rely on computations with complex climate models."
The Source: sciencedaily.com.
Re: Wolfgang Knorr - Carlos, we just had this conversation, have you already forgotten? The fraction of CO2 absorbed by natural processes (about 43%) has indeed stayed nearly constant over time. That has nothing to do with the actual amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. Just because my tax rate stays the same year after year doesn't mean my income does. Seriously, this is the simplest of math. I'm beginning to wonder if you actually understand things.
Your statement, "That has nothing to do with the actual amount of CO2 in the atmosphere." is incorrect.
"Your statement, "That has nothing to do with the actual amount of CO2 in the atmosphere." is incorrect." Golly, you're a tedious soul, Carlos. Let's go through this simply. The fraction of CO2 that is absorbed is 43%. It was 43% in 1800. And it's 43% in 2019. Now, based on this information - how much CO2 is there today? Show your work. What's wrong? Not enough information? The whole reason anyone cares about the fraction of CO2 absorbed is because some scientists thought (and some still do) that, as CO2 increases, the natural mechanisms that absorb it may have begun to saturate. That would be bad news. Luckily, it seems that those mechanisms aren't saturated (though there is some dispute about this as it's a complicated calculation based on many assumptions - your continuous objection to climate models although you seem to have no trouble accepting it here.) This is what Knorr's paper is about. Now back to your homework - If C is the amount of CO2 generated, and A is the fraction absorbed, then the amount of CO2 left in the atmosphere = C*(1-A). A is a constant, unchanging; C is the only variable. Therefore the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere is determined by C, not A. (If Knorr was wrong and A was changing, then yes, it would also be a determinant of how much CO2 is in the atmosphere.)
"Climate models" = sheer conjecture. They're making it up. And the members of the Church of man-made Climate Change swallow it whole.
Steve Fouga Jul 14, 2019 4:44pm
Carlos says: "Climate models" = sheer conjecture. They're making it up." I'd love to see you try to prove that one, either with basic logic or by quoting peer-reviewed papers.
Gary Scoggin Jul 14, 2019 5:01pm
I’ve got stuff to add here but since Carlos and others are immune to science they don’t agree with, I’ll not bother.
Let me point out the obvious. A climate model is simply a computer model based on an algorithm. They start out with limited data and make extrapolations based on that data and algorithm. In other words- it's just a guess. Take a look at what happened with the tropical disturbance, tropical storm and hurricane this past week. Each model was based on an algorithm and they were all over the place. Weathermen described the projections as "spaghetti" - different paths, different strengths, different pressure projections, different outcomes. As the time of landfall neared the "spaghetti" tightened up compared to the original models. But even on Friday one strand had it heading for the Galveston-Houston area. Now take the "climate model". Okay for the time-span data was taken but as they expanded that time to decades, centuries and beyond it becomes as unreliable as that "spaghetti" we observed for what became Hurricane Barry. Remember all the rainfall we were supposed to get Saturday and today?
You don’t know much about modeling, do you Carlos?
"You don’t know much about modeling, do you Carlos?" Not about ladies and gents modeling clothing but I DO KNOW about computer modeling and algorithms.
1800 the world population was only around 1 billion people The current world population is 7.7 billion as of May 2019 By 2100, the world’s population is projected to reach approximately 10.9 billion
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Vote: Galveston County 2018-19 girls athlete of the year finalists
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Home » Overwatch » Upper Deck Announces Partnership with Overwatch League
Upper Deck Announces Partnership with Overwatch League
By Ted Racicot
We all have fond childhood memories of collecting trading cards of our favorite sports players. Now, Upper Deck is partnering with the Overwatch League to create the first ever eSports trading cards.
Inaugural Trading Card Set
For the first time ever, fans of the Overwatch League will be able to collect and trade cards of their favorite players. Upper Deck announced that the first set of trading cards will be released on June 19. This set will commemorate the Inaugural Season for the Overwatch Least in 2017-2018. This set will feature 125 players from each of the original 12 Overwatch League teams. Though fans of other teams might be disappointed that their teams are not represented in the first set, they will surely be added in later sets.
Read: Changes Announced for 2019 Overwatch World Cup
Though fans need to wait until June 19 for its full release, they will get a taste of the new trading cards this upcoming weekend. During the All-Star Weekend, fans will get a chance to preview many of the cards. They will also be able to kick start their collection, as two All-Star themed cards will be made available for a limited time.
Who’s ready to start collecting?
We’ve teamed up with @UpperDeckEnt so now you can collect your favorite players & build your perfect team(s) starting June 19. #CollectOWL #OWL2019 #Overwatchnews pic.twitter.com/bcVFcUiijw
— Overwatch League (@overwatchleague) May 13, 2019
Bringing Trading Cards into the 21st Century
While some may have fond memories of the binders of sports cards they collected in their childhood, collecting Overwatch League cards will look quite different. Packs will be bought, open, and collected virtually using Upper Deck’s “e-Pack” site. This site serves as both the store where cards can be bought. It also serves the storage for players to view their collection. However, don’t fear if you are the kind of person who prefers to have a physical collection. Fans will be able to have physical copies of their cards sent to them anytime they like.
Read: San Francisco Shock Win OWL Stage 2 Playoffs
Using Upper Deck’s “e-Pack” system fits very nicely with Overwatch League cards. First of all, eSports fans are obviously used to living in the digital age, so the idea of a digital card collection is not far-fetched. More importantly, however, this “e-Pack” system allows players to trade their cards with other collectors around the world. Blizzard has always promoted the Overwatch League as a “global league,” and having a global market for trading cards fits nicely into this narrative.
Source: Upperdeck
A Major Step for eSports
Perhaps the most exciting part of the partnership between Upper Deck and the Overwatch League is what it means for eSports in general. Blizzard has always been a trailblazer in making strives to bring video games and eSports into the mainstream. This partnership is a sign of the growing acceptance, as well as the profitability of eSports. Both Blizzard and Upper Deck have commented on their excitement over this partnership. Blizzard’s head of eSports licensing, Daniel Siegel said the following:
“Collaborating with Upper Deck allows the Overwatch League to offer fans everywhere the opportunity to collect and trade exclusive cards and collectibles—featuring their favorite teams
and players—that can be cherished for years to come… This is an awesome milestone for our companies, and for esports as a whole.”
Jason Masherah, the president of Upper Deck, echoed a similar sentiment in a statement.
“We are very excited to collaborate with the Overwatch League for our first esports deal and to deliver new and innovative products to Overwatch League fans everywhere… This is a great way to celebrate Upper Deck’s 30th anniversary, and we look forward to working with the talented team at Activision Blizzard for many years to come.”
The statements by both Blizzard and Upper Deck show that both companies are very excited about the partnership. Both companies do have a history together. Uppdeck worked with Blizzard to make World of Warcraft trading cards in the past. This looks to be the next step in the business relationship between the two companies. Hopefully, it will prove successful.
Daniel Siegel’s statement about the partnership is particularly insightful. Sure, this may be a major step for the Overwatch League. But it is also a major step for eSports. Even fans of other eSports besides Overwatch can get excited about the growing excitement, acceptance, and business opportunities surrounding eSports.
While very exciting for Overwatch League fans, this first set of trading cards is just the tip of the iceberg. Not only will there be new sets released later including the other eight expansion teams from the 2019 season, but Upper Deck has also mentioned other products to be released later. They have announced plans to release stickers, sticker books, prints, posters, and memorabilia. Even if trading cards aren’t your thing, it seems that Upper Deck will eventually have a wide range of OWL products. Tune into the upcoming All-Star Weekend to catch first-glance eSports first trading cards.
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GEN In The News: How a Group of Frustrated Moms Built Girls Empowerment Network
How a group of frustrated moms built Girls Empowerment Network
Two decades later, GEN strengthens Texas girls through We Are Girls Conference, clubs, workshops and more.
Originally published on mystatesman.com by Nicole Villalpando on Saturday, January 14, 2017 at 12:00 a.m.
Teresa Kelly and Kerry Anne Ridley sat at the front row of Girls Empowerment Network’s We Are Girls Conference in November. Girls and their parents filled the gym at Austin High. Girls joined conga lines weaving around the gym to the tunes of girl power anthems. It was early on a Saturday morning, but they were pumped up about being a girl.
Kelly and Ridley were surrounded by the next generation of girls who would be empowered by the Austin-based nonprofit organization they and other like-minded women started 20 years before.
It was overwhelming for Kelly and Ridley. They hugged. They cried. And they shared big smiles.
GEN strengthens girls through after-school clubs, workshops in schools, summer camps and the We Are Girls Conference. It has grown from a gathering of moms in Kelly’s house to an organization that reaches 15,000 people a year across Texas.
It began with a book
In 1996, Kelly read Mary Pipher’s book “Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls” and was horrified. “It knocked me backwards,” she says.
The book talks about how girls begin losing their “true selves” in middle school in favor of fitting in, becoming what media messages say they “should be” and not who they are.
“When girls do this, the book described how they often turn inward, become depressed, start cutting on themselves and go on to make poor life choices,” Kelly said.
At the time, Kelly’s daughter Kate was 10, but it wasn’t just Kate she was concerned about. Kelly was a Girl Scout troop leader of girls who were 9- and 10-year-olds and had confidence. “Girls at this age are so brave, loud and utterly themselves,” Kelly said. “The thought of losing that crushed me.”
She thought, “Not my daughter — not anyone’s daughter,” she says.
There had to be something she could do.
She invited about a dozen other moms to read the book and come to her house for a discussion. At that first meeting, the women talked about the book. “The more we talked, the more depressed we got.” They met the next week and the following week. Kelly’s background was as a newspaper reporter, not a child psychologist. She realized they needed more help.
She contacted Renée Spencer, who was then a local psychologist with an expertise in adolescent girls.
That April, calling themselves “Some Moms of Daughters in the Westbank,” they invited parents to come to a workshop at Hill Country Middle School led by Spencer about what was happening to girls.
More than 100 people showed up. “She talked for an hour,” Kelly says of that event. “You could hear a pin drop.”
Kelly remembers Spencer’s specific point that “girls lose themselves in adolescence and regain themselves in middle age.”
The interest level told Kelly that they were onto something, and it couldn’t end with a one-school talk.
“We began educating ourselves and working with our own daughters,” Kelly said. “But we couldn’t leave it at that. We wanted to share what we learned.”
That year, Spencer helped Kelly organize a series of mother-daughter skill-building retreats that were a combination of fun activities and consciousness raising. “We got moms and girls talking with one another,” Spencer says.
Tate Janek, who is now 30, was one of those early girls and designed the Ophelia Project logo. “I loved it,” she says of the workshops. She loved being with different girls and “embracing being a woman and spending time with my mom.”
She wishes it had been more established at the time. “It was so grass-roots,” she says. “One of the things that was challenging to me was explaining to friends what it was to get them excited about it.”
These pioneering moms called their movement the Ophelia Project. One by one, more women started coming forward to help launch a new nonprofit organization to empower girls.
Across town, different people were starting to do other small programs around girls and self-esteem. Ridley was working at West Ridge Middle School, where she had started an arts and crafts group for girls where they could come after school and talk about what they were feeling without any pressure.
“I would find the teachable moment … around the feelings they were feeling,” she says.
She, too, was affected by reading “Reviving Ophelia.” “As a parent, it was terrifying reading that book and thinking what could happen with my daughter and other young women.”
Ridley saw the power in joining forces with Kelly and combining their efforts. She also brought past experience of having started a nonprofit organization 20 years before — a battered women’s shelter in Bellingham, Wash.
At Canyon Vista Middle School, math teacher Debbie Rodell had started a girls’ club. She had witnessed a girl in the hallway becoming uncomfortable as a boy tried to hug her.
“I remember being that girl,” Rodell says. “I thought, ‘She needs words and she needs power and somebody to tell her that it’s OK to be uncomfortable and it’s OK to say no.’”
Rodell’s club was made of 10 very different girls who didn’t hang around one another but whom teachers had identified as being a good fit for the club. “I wanted some girls that were leaders, and I wanted some girls like that girl in the hallway that were vulnerable and shy,” Rodell said.
After getting parents’ permission, the club started. These girls bonded and became friends.
“It was a very special club,” Rodell says. “It was invite-only. It became like everybody wanted in. I remember boys sitting outside the doors and wanting to be part of it because they heard about it.”
Rodell head about what Kelly was doing. She got Kelly’s number and began expanding on the girls’ clubs idea.
Rodell and a fellow teacher, Traci Swanstrom, began developing curriculum and going to teachers, counselors and principals at other schools to pitch starting a girls’ club there. Their curriculum gained national attention, and some of it is still used by the ClubGEN groups in 21 middle schools and elementary schools in Central Texas today.
Not everyone who joined forces with the Ophelia Project was the mother of a girl. Kim Soechting had a son going to Hill Country Middle School when she saw the flier for the “Reviving Ophelia” discussion with Spencer.
She was a volleyball coach for a select team and saw her girls having lots of issues with body image and needing to find a voice about who they are. “I wanted each girl to find whatever works for them to empower themselves,” Soechting says.
Growing Ophelia Project
“We didn’t start out wanting to be an organization, but we knew that’s what it would take,” Kelly said. They called it The Ophelia Project.
Soechting got to work establishing Project Ophelia as a nonprofit. They set up a board with Kelly working as the volunteer executive director and Soechting as the development director, Ridley as the board chair, and Rodell as a board member. They recruited others.
Within six months, they had established a speakers series that included seven other middle schools, and participation by counselors, principals and area psychologists.
Every time they faced a new challenge, “the right woman appeared at the right time,” Kelly says. They got connected to former Gov. Ann Richards, who agreed to be a keynote speaker at their first big conference in April 1997. She waived her $25,000 speaking fee for them. More than 900 mothers and daughters showed up.
Richards spoke about girl power and told the story of being in high school and being on the basketball team. She felt uncomfortable in her uniform. One boy screamed, “Hey, Bird Legs.” “It just cratered her,” Kelly says. “She became self-conscious about her body to that day. The memory of that hurt.”
In a letter to Kelly following the event, Richards wrote: “You are onto something important. You have touched a tender chord with all women and girls. I am happy to help you in any way I can.”
Soechting says the Ann Richards speech really brought them to the next level. “All the way up to the event, people came out of the woodwork,” she says.
That November, they invited author Mary Pipher to speak. Now they were moving into a new realm. They had to raise the money for her $13,000 speaking fee. “We had no money,” Soechting says. “What are we doing here? We’re putting ourselves out on a ledge financially. Teresa said maybe we should stop. Oh, let’s just do it! It went over fabulously.”
They partnered with the Texas Psychology Association to share her fees.
They got sponsors and organized house parties to spread the word about what they were doing. MeriBen Ramsey and the Austin Community Foundation came on board to handle funds and help guide them in the early days of becoming a nonprofit. By then, they were in 17 middle schools throughout Central Texas and still growing.
Outgrowing Ophelia
By 2000, the familiarity of the book “Reviving Ophelia” had begun to wane, and they needed to get to the next level. Milkshake media headed by Kat Jones developed pro bono the brand Girls Empowerment Network, or GENAustin but as services have expanded, they just became GEN.
Many of the volunteers who had taken on what amounted to another part-time or full-time job were getting burned out. It also was time to bring the clubs, the workshops and the speakers series to another level and hire an executive director. Ridley says she feels like “a true pioneer,” “but we really needed to take it from a volunteer organization to a well-funded brand.”
It was a big step to be able to raise enough money to fund that executive director position, Ridley says. “It’s easy to forget how hard it was to raise that money,” she says.
Girls served on the committee to choose the first executive director, Anita Mennucci, who served about seven years before current Executive Director Julia Cuba Lewis was hired in 2006.
“What GEN is today is beyond this initial group of parents forming these support groups and having speakers,” Ridley says. “It’s because of these amazing executive directors and getting really strong board members that it has grown into what it is.”
When Cuba Lewis joined, they had an office, but it was in a portion of the wood shop classroom at Fulmore Middle School. “When I first came, I showed up at our office … a kid was making a boat with a saw. I was confused. Then I saw a few smiling faces.” Staff members handed her a laptop, and they went to work at a 6-foot banquet table.
She remembers having a meeting there with a donor. The doors to the shop room were open to the outside and a fly landed on her cheek. The donor told her, “I’m going to grant you this because you have got to get out of here,” Cuba Lewis says.
At the time the Ann Richards School was opening and found space in a portable for GEN. They have continued to grow and now are in an office building off Interstate 35.
Cuba Lewis has watched GEN grow from that shop class in Austin to programs that are now reaching to Houston. Each year, the We Are Girls conference brings in about 2,000 people in Austin in the fall and 1,600 in Houston in the spring. Girls come from all over Texas to attend.
The reach of ClubGEN has also grown as grants made it possible to reach more low-income schools; the clubs are now in the Austin, Hays, Del Valle, Manor and San Marcos school districts. GEN gets requests all the time, especially from the Houston area, to start clubs there.
GEN also started the 180 Program in 2011 after a judge was tired of seeing girls come through his courtroom with the same problems: teen pregnancy, truancy, running away, etc. These are girls who are part of the juvenile justice system or are in danger of becoming part of it. Now there are 180 groups in schools as well as one-day workshops. It’s the program Cuba Lewis is most proud of. “We know that the girl who comes six times or more has lower school discipline problems, lower truancy,” she says. “They get coping skills for something that happening to them at home. They find a future for themselves.”
In summer, GEN offers a Pathfinder camp to help high school girls develop personal and professional leadership skills, and for girls in fourth through eighth grade, a weeklong CampGEN is all about developing confidence.
Cuba Lewis says GEN has set its sights on growing. “It’s definitely in our dream statement to go to another state, to see the organization skyrocket to the national level.”
When Kelly and some of the other founders came for a visit to tell the staff and current board the origin story 20 years later, “our mouths were hanging open,” Cuba Lewis says. “It still feels so true. What they were saying was that nothing has changed.”
Of course, “the change is the growth of the organization and the number of girls we’ve been able to touch and graduate into the real world,” Cuba Lewis says.
Spencer, who continues to study gender issues as a professor and chair of the Human Behavior Department at Boston University, says many of the problems in “Reviving Ophelia” remain. The difference is that girls are achieving more than ever before and now believe they can shape the future for themselves. “The perfect girl has morphed into Supergirl,” Spencer says. They have to now be the best at everything, she says. “The best soccer player, the best student. And it all has to be done with a smile on their face. The pressure on them to do more, to have more, is exceedingly high.”
When Spencer reflects on the group she saw in its infancy, she says, “They were an incredibly forward-thinking group of women. They did not just say, ‘That’s not going to happen to my girl.’ The real strength is that they said, ‘What can we do?’”
Felicia Gonzalez April 4, 2017
GEN In The News: Emily Roberts to Tell Girls “Express Yourself”
Development Director Ami Kane Nominated for Austin Under 40 Award
Felicia Gonzalez March 31, 2017
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Apple Adds More Disability Emoji To iOS 13
US Justice Department: It Was OK For A Federal Agent To Impersonate This Woman On Facebook
Oct 8, 2014, 6:00am
An overlooked US Justice Department court filing explains that a federal agent had the right to commandeer a woman's identity, set up a fake Facebook account using her details and even post provocative photographs of her found on a seized phone. Buzzfeed reports that a Drug Enforcement Administration agent stole the identity of Sondra Arquiett, who then went by the name Sondra Prince, back in 2010.
The site explains how she found out:
[A] friend asked about the pictures she was posting on her Facebook page. There she was, for anyone with an account to see — posing on the hood of a BMW, legs spread, or, in another, wearing only skimpy attire. She was surprised; she hadn't even set up a Facebook page.
Indeed, the DEA agent was using the account to communicate with suspected criminals. Why Sondra? Well, admittedly, she had been arrested on suspicion of being part of a drug ring, and she was ultimately sentenced to probation. While she was awaiting trial, an agent called Timothy Sinnigen set up the fake account using photographs from her confiscated phone. It worked: he communicated with at least one wanted fugitive.
But success isn't, perhaps, the point — as Sondra well knows. The whole debacle came to light, in fact, because she has been trying to sue Sinnigen, claiming that her privacy has been violated.
Sadly for Sondra, the court ruled that, while the Facebook page has been constructed without her permission, it was "for a legitimate law enforcement purpose". A statement explains:
"Defendants admit that Plaintiff did not give express permission for the use of photographs contained on her phone on an undercover Facebook page, but state the Plaintiff implicitly consented by granting access to the information stored in her cell phone and by consenting to the use of that information to aid in an ongoing criminal investigations [sic]."
Somehow, we suspect that wasn't quite the consent that Sondra assumed she was giving. And that, perhaps, is the problem: the elastic and opaque rules surrounding digital privacy and consent allow law enforcement officials to push their rights to the extreme. Sondra may not have been squeaky clean, but does that mean she shouldn't have digital privacy? [Buzzfeed]
Erin Marquis 17 Jul 2019 12:15 PM
The world laughed earlier this year when North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un’s security detail jogged alongside his armoured Benz. How he got that Benz through the strict sanctions placed on his country, not even Mercedes could say. But now New York Times reveals the complicated graft, which includes a shady Russian smuggler, ghost ships and plenty of international intrigue.
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No tax imposed on edible items: FBR Chairman Shabbar Zaidi
Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR) Chairman Shabbar Zaidi on Friday said no tax has been imposed on edible items including flour, ghee or any other items.
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, Zaidi clarified that no tax has been imposed on flour, fine flour, fine, flour (suji) or any edible items.
"Our target is to broaden the tax net. We will not take any decision that hurts our industry or trade," he said.
He refuted the news, claiming imposition of tax on flour and other edible items, he urged the media to support the FBR for creating awareness among people regarding the tax reforms and expansion of tax base in the country.
“I have spoken to the district administration of Islamabad to take strict action against those involved in market deception and tax fraud,” Zaidi said.
Responding to a question he said the FBR wanted to automate the tax system to have less human interference, which would make the board’s reform strategy successful. “Under section 114, the FBR is authorised to send notices people, who own 500-yard house, for property tax."
In response to another question regarding mobile importers, Zaidi said that duty-free mobile importers wanted to come into the net but they were willing to pay less against the actual taxes.
“The government is committed to stopping the under-invoicing for documenting the country’s economy,” he said.
The FBR chairman further said, the government would desist from taking any decision that are counterproductive for the textile industry. “The board has been engaged in negotiations with the business community all across the country and is discussing mainly two issues including SRO 1125, which is related to zero-rating and requirement of Computerised National Identity Card (CNIC) for sales tax.”
“We are clear, we do not take any decision that would affect the industry and business of Pakistan,” he said, adding that the textile industry of Pakistan was on the path of growth.
Clarifying that CNIC requirement was only for sales tax, he said that confusions were being created on the issue as some people were trying to resolve their other issues by exploiting this matter.
The FBR chairman added CNIC requirement had not emerged in income tax law, rather it came under sales tax law.
“Out of 220 million population, there were around 47,000 people registered in sales tax, however only 19,000 were paying tax. The FBR wants to introduce fixed tax scheme for small shopkeepers and this would resolve the CNIC issue,” he said, adding that there was a need to define ‘small shopkeeper’ and urged the business community to draw these limit lines.
He added, the FBR's aim was to enhance tax-base and it was working to achieve this objective.
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Conversations With A Writer/Professor/Sex Worker
By: Cynthia Catania
Antonia Crane is a writer – and a sex worker. She talks about ‘the life’ in a unique, positive and compelling way in her memoir Spent.
“There is an emotional component,” Antonia Crane says of her chosen line of work. And she has no apologies to make about it. She shares a sweet story about an older man, clearly smitten with her, who requests a ballroom dance. They’re in the lap dance area of a Strip club. She likes to play personal music for her clients and so she asks the DJ to ‘play Sinatra’. To her surprise, he does! “It was a beautiful, magical moment.,” she recalls. “The single-serving, intimacy component.Feeling vulnerable and seen. It’s unconditional, positive regard. That’s how men feel about strippers.” Antonia Crane is a writer, Moth Slam – that’s open mic story-telling – winner, activist and writing instructor in Los Angeles. She is also a sex worker. “Playing the ‘beautiful whore’ for more than 25 years has a powerful vibration,” she writes, “and it can become addictive like anything else, as my knees ground into the bare, wooden stage, then bruised while I snatched dollar bills after my three-song set. “It’s the number one industry where women make more money than men,” she adds. Internalising other people’s shame, rage, anger, loneliness; being an object of fantasies: it is all part of the process. Her writing helps her, as she extracts raw material... “My clients share their stories, the human vulnerability,” she says. Stripping has a ‘provider mentality’. “It’s exhausting – like being a nurse or therapist. Embracing them when they’re lonely. When they need human contact. There’s a tonne of shame, and I have access to that.”
A World Of Secrets
In her fascinating memoir Spent, Antonia writes about the routine aspects of it too. “Dancers always want to quit,” she says, “but we never do. We’re ghosts, dragging our chains from club to club.” She is an adjunct professor at UCLA and holds an MFA degree in writing. “I do it for the money,” she states. “Society has a voracious sex appetite that consumes women. In five hours I make as much as the average attorney. You can do it with zero credentials and zero education. It’s a clean exchange. “There was this one guy I was dating a few years back. He was in prison for a long time for fraud and tax evasion. It was maybe our second date. We hadn’t slept together yet. I had an 8-foot pole in my living room where I would practice my moves. It was the kind of pole that’s fixed to the ceiling by these big heavy metal plates and a suction cup. ‘Fraud guy’ knew I danced. We were listening to music, so I decided to spice things up. It was one of those rare, rainy LA nights with a big noisy storm.” She slips into the present tense. “I dance to some creepy, sad rock like PJ Harvey or Cat Power. I’m dancing, and he looks like he’s about to either jerk off or cry. I’m a good pole dancer. Then the pole slips away from the ceiling and crashes through 16 small glass panes: my little French windows! I fell on my soft rug but glass shattered everywhere. I said, ‘Holy shit, that is the most punk rock dance I’ve ever done. Did it turn you on?’ “ Sex work is not usually sexual for her. “It’s nothing close to sex for me. It’s like looking at a postcard where sex is happening. Men want someone to listen to them. Wives are tired of listening to them. They project fantasy on the girls: it’s real sex and love addiction.” During one shift, Antonia makes more cash than in a month’s worth of teaching. She confesses part of the challenge is that relationship to money. She’s addicted to the idea of making it – fast. And she keeps plugging away at her dreams. “I needed to pay the film crew for a ‘short’. Push came to shove, and I needed $3k. I paid for it with a client,” she tells me. “I met him in a motel and had oral sex with him. Then he left to go to the bank. I sat in the car and charged my phone. I waited. After a while, I looked up and there he was.” He lives in a world of secrets. Antonia needs money. He tapped on the window and said: “Did you think I was really gonna come back? You’re funny.” He hands her the cash. “Let’s do that ten more times.” “It’s a power move,” Antonia adds.
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