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Rehab Clusters
REHAB ACADEMY
She believed she could so she DID!
We have made their education our mission. You too can support us to ensure that poverty doesn’t stand in the way of a child’s education. Support Rehab and take them a step closer to their dreams. Join and help us build a better future of these children.
N-44, Hilal Homes, 2nd Stage
Abul Fazal Enclave, Delhi-110 025
contact@rehabindiafoundation.org
www.rehabindiafoundation.org
Rehab India Foundation is a non-profit charity actively working in the most backward parts of the country impoverished due to hunger, diseases and illiteracy, and involved in their sustainable development and empowerment.
Currently, Rehab works in 60* village development programmes across the country. This 5-year sustainable programme helps upbring the livelihood, education & health-care of the villagers. There are 36 Remedial coaching centers serving 5,625 beneficiaries across India.
* 38 villages in Bihar, 10 in Murshidabad District of West Bengal,
3 in Assam and 9 in Delhi, Andhra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
Education is both the means as well as the end to a better life. Good education gives many purposes to the life such as enhancement of the personal advancement, increase social status, increase social health, economical progress, success to the nation, set goals of life, make us aware towards many social issues and gives solutions to solve environmental problems and other related issues. Rehab India Foundation is working on the grass root level in rural parts of India to make sure that no child is deprived from his right to education.
Despite the Right to Education (RTE) Act coming into force in 2010, access to education for every child remains a huge concern in the country. The following are statistics that portray the seriousness of the situation:
• 1 in 4 children of school-going age is out of school in our country – 99 million children in total have dropped out of school (Census 2011)
• Out of every 100 children, only 32 children finish their school education age-appropriately (District Information System for Education (DISE) 2014-15)
• Only 2% of the schools offer complete school education from Class 1 to Class 12 (District Information System for Education (DISE) 2014-15)
• There are 10.13 million child labourers between 5-14 years in India (Census 2011)
• India has 33 million working children between the ages of 5-18 years. In parts of the country, more than half the child population is engaged in labour (Census 2011)
• 42% of married women in India were married as children (District Information System for Education (DISE 3)
• 1 in every 3 child brides in the world is a girl in India (UNICEF)
• India has more than 45 lakh girls under 15 years of age who are married with children. Out of these, 70% of the girls have 2 children (Census 2011)
Rehab Team
Where we do
Tweets by rehabindia
© Rehab Foundation India - All Rights Reserved
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Edgar Degas and His Famous Painting "The Bellelli Family"
Posted in: Famous Artist Painters
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Edgar Degas was born in Paris, France and is known for his Impressionist paintings, although he did not identify with many of their notions. He did not like to paint in the open air and had a difficult relationship with Claude Monet who remained true to Impressionism throughout his life. However, as a painter he was recognized in his lifetime. He is now also acknowledged as one of the founders of Impressionism.
Degas’ work was both admired and derided in his lifetime. With his decision to join the Impressionist movement, he became unpopular with many art critics and art lovers of his time. Many did not understand this new movement of light and colour. His paintings done whilst at the Salon between 1865 and 1870 were readily accepted as this was expected of the artists who painted there. When he rejected the rigidity and the rules of the Salon; they in turn rejected him.
He was the eldest of 5 children and his father was a banker. Although he loved to paint from an early age; Edgar Degas was not encouraged by his father to be an artist. His father had other plans for his son. He subsequently attended university and obtained a degree in literature. His mother had died when he was only 13 years old. Therefore his father and grandfather became his main guardians and were the influences in his early life.
Although his father was intent on his studying law; Degas had begun to paint at a young age and had already turned a room in his home into an art studio by the time he was eighteen!He dropped out of studying law and he registered as a copyist at the Louvre Art Museum. He connected with other artists; some who would influence his work throughout his lifetime.
In 1856 he travelled to Italy where he would reside for three years. In 1858 whilst staying with relatives in Naples he had the idea for his now famous painting “The Bellelli Family“. This was one of his early masterpieces.Degas is also famous for his paintings of ballerinas, race horses and the Paris social scene.
The Bellelli Family
“The Bellelli Family” is oil on canvas. This is a portrait of his Aunt Laura, her husband Baron Genarro Bellelliand their two young daughters Giulia and Giovanna. Although the painting was drawn whilst staying with his aunt; it is believed that Degas completed the work when he returned to Paris.
Laura was his father’s sister. Degas painted her in black,for she was in mourning at the recent death of her father. In the framed portrait positioned behind his aunt, it is believed it may be of her father. Laura’s husband, the baron was an Italian patriot who had been exiled from Naples and wasliving in Florence. The painting shows him separated from his family.
His position at the desk is too close to the fireplace. The two daughters are staying close to their mother Laura. Her countenance appears serious but dignified. She dominates the painting and is given the space not afforded her husband. Giovanna, who is the younger daughter, is sitting in a relaxed pose; though her gaze is not fixed on her father. The elder sister Giulia appears restrained yet close to her mother. There appears to be some form of family tension. It appears the marriage is not a happy one.
“The Bellelli Family” was started by Degas when he was only 24years old. Although it is now one of Degas’ most famous paintings, in his lifetime it was only exhibited once. It was then not seen again till after his death. “The Bellelli Family” is a study in human relationships and Degas has captured in a subtle way the dysfunction within this family. This famous painting has now been recognized for the magnificent portraiture it has always been.
Tags: edgar degas, edgar degas and his famous painting, the bellelli family, the bellelli family by edgar degas
Rose Iadsai is the founder of Samui Art Gallery which offer genuine hand-painted oil paintings & oil painting reproductions for sale. Connect with Samui Art on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
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SEGA Tunes: Sonic Adventure 2’s “Won’t Stop, Just Go!”
June 5, 2012 by Nuckles87
If there’s anything just about every Sonic game has going for it, it’s the soundtrack, and Sonic Adventure 2 was no exception. In fact, this game probably contained some of the most iconic songs in the franchise’s history, featuring songs every Sonic fan knows Live and Learn, City Escape, and I Am the Eggman. Cheesy lyrics and all, Sonic Adventure 2’s soundtrack has had an impact on the Sonic fanbase like no other game in the franchise, at least since the end of the Genesis era. Beyond the well-known stuff, however, is a treasure trove of superb, lesser known tracks.
Like today’s song, “Won’t Stop, Just Go!” which was the theme for Green Forest. Green Forest was one of the fastest, most exhilarating stages in Sonic Adventure 2. Unlike many of the other stages in SA2, this level focused first and foremost on delivering a rush to the player as they raised against the clock to escape Prison Island before it exploded. This track perfectly complimented the quickened pace, standing in stark contrast to some of the slower tracks later on in the game.
SEGA Tunes All Stars: Vyse’s Theme SEGA Tunes: Sonic Adventure’s Run Through the Speed Highway SEGA Tunes: Propeller Arena’s Shaving Your Life SEGA Tunes: Sonic Adventure’s “Emerald Coast” and “It Doesn’t Matter” SEGA Tunes: Wacky Races’ “Scarecrow Creek” and “Tombstone Pass” (SEGA Dreamcast)
Dreamcast Sonic Adventure 2 Tuesday Tunes Won't Stop Just Go!
2 responses to “SEGA Tunes: Sonic Adventure 2’s “Won’t Stop, Just Go!””
crackdude says:
Easily one of my favorite songs in the game. Great pick 🙂
JaydenWusHere says:
They Should Put SA2 On XBOX In A “Dreamcast Collection 2”
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Henrik Ibsen was a Norwegian dramatist and poet who was one of the most famous and controversial writers in world literature. He was the founder of the Modernist theatre movement and was regarded as the father of modern drama.
Ibsen was born in Norway on March 20, 1828 and showed no signs of becoming a writer as a child. He was the oldest of five children and, at age 15, stopped school and began working as an apprentice in an apothecary.
At age 23, Ibsen became theatre director and resident playwright of the new National Theatre at Bergen. He directed the Norwegian Theatre in Kristiana from 1857 to 1863.
Ibsen had a significant role in the rise of realism in theatre, challenging audiences to question conventional morality and social conditions. The goal of realism was to create theatre that resembled real life and included dialogue that sounded natural and not scripted.
In 1871 Ibsen began writing what he considered to be one of his greatest works, Emperor and Galilean (1876). This play was based on the life of Julian the Apostate and has been rarely revived. One of his best known and most widely performed plays, A Doll’s House, deals with the limitations and harsh expectations of women.
Some of his other works include: Catilina, Brand, The Burial Mound and The Feast of Solhoug (1856), which was inspired by Norwegian folk songs.
Henrik Ibsen remains one of the greatest dramatists that ever lived and is revered as a national symbol in Norway.
LIST OF WORKS (LITERARY AND PLAYS)
1850 - Catiline (Catilina)
1850 - The Burial Mound also known as The Warrior's Barrow (Kjæmpehøjen)
1851 - Norma (Norma)
1852 - St. John's Eve (Sancthansnatten)
1854 - Lady Inger of Oestraat (Fru Inger til Østeraad)
1855 - The Feast at Solhaug (Gildet paa Solhoug)
1856 - Olaf Liljekrans (Olaf Liljekrans)
1857 - The Vikings at Helgeland (Hærmændene paa Helgeland)
1862 - Digte - only released collection of poetry
1862 - Love's Comedy (Kjærlighedens Komedie)
1863 - The Pretenders (Kongs-Emnerne)
1866 - Brand (Brand)
1867 - Peer Gynt (Peer Gynt)
1869 - The League of Youth (De unges Forbund)
1873 - Emperor and Galilean (Kejser og Galilæer)
1877 - Pillars of Society (Samfundets Støtter)
1879 - A Doll's House (Et Dukkehjem)
1881 - Ghosts (Gengangere)
1882 - An Enemy of the People (En Folkefiende)
1884 - The Wild Duck (Vildanden)
1886 - Rosmersholm (Rosmersholm)
1888 - The Lady from the Sea (Fruen fra Havet)
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Gentlemen, —-
It is the usual custom for the President of this Society to address the members at an early period during the session for which he is elected. I will on the present occasion conform to the custom by selecting a few subjects for comment which relate either to the past Transactions of the Institute or to collateral scientific work which has been done in the colony during the last few years, and which, I think, may be reviewed with profit.
I wish, in the first place, to allude to one section of our published Transactions to which only very short notice has been devoted in previous addresses from this chair, as some of the results are important from a practical point of view. I allude to the communications on chemical subjects, which, with one exception, have all been made by Mr. Skey, the Analyst to the Geological Survey Department.
I am aware that such papers are not very attractive to the general reader, nor can they be expected to excite much interest or discussion at our meetings; but it must be remembered that the statements advanced in chemical papers are not mere opinions or theories, but describe actual experimental observations which are open to the test of verification by other chemists in their own laboratories.
One of the subjects of most general interest on which Mr. Skey has written disproves the view generally held that gold is unaffected by sulphur or sulphuretted hydrogen gas, and shows on the other hand that these elements combine with avidity, and that the gold thus treated resists amalgamation with mercury, a most important fact, which, it will be remembered, was strikingly illustrated by experiment after one of our meetings. The author has also proved this act of absorption of sulphur by gold to be a chemical act, as he has shown that electricity is generated in sufficient quantity and intensity during the process to decompose metallic solutions. He thinks further that much native gold is thus sulphurized, and that this circumstance is the greatest obstacle to its thorough amalgamation in ordinary quartz mills.
Mr. Skey was led to this interesting observation while investigating the causes of the loss of gold experienced in the Thames district, and the object of his inquiry must be held to have been satisfactorily accomplished by the discovery of this important fact.
He was aware that sulphur in certain forms has long been known to exercise a prejudical effect upon the amalgamation of gold, but this has always been attributed to the combination of the sulphur with the quicksilver used; now, however, it is certain that the sulphurizing of the gold itself must be taken into account. So long as our chemical books described gold as being unaffected by sulphuretted hydrogen it appeared as if in the ordinary amalgamating process we had nothing to fear from this gas, except its effect upon the mercury, but now that it is proved that gold itself is also readily attacked by this compound we must take the circumstance also into account that the particles of gold in the stone may be enveloped with a film of auriferous sulphide, by which they are protected from the solvent action of the mercury.
The merit of this discovery, from an experimental point of view, is that the sulphurization of the gold gives no ocular manifestation by change of colour or perceptible increase of weight, as in the case of the formation of sulphides of silver, lead, and other metals, on account of the extremely superficial action of the sulphur, and hence probably the existence of the gold-sulphide hitherto escaped detection by chemists.
Closely allied to this subject is the investigation of the mode in which certain metals are reduced from their solutions by metallic sulphides, or, in common language, the influence which the presence of such substances as mundic and galena may exercise in effecting the deposit of pure metals such as gold in mineral lodes. As this investigation has a very direct bearing on the discussions relative to the origin of large gold nuggets and the heavy masses of gold that are sometimes found in reefs formed by hydrothermic agencies, I will take this opportunity of stating the position of the question.
The close relation which the richness of gold veins bears to the prevalence
of pyrites has been long familiar both to scientific observers and practical miners, and I remember in 1860 specimens of quartz were given to me in California having cavities left by the decomposition of cubic pyrites, and which contained only a brown powder of oxide of iron and thin films of gold, as showing that the pyrites and not the quartz was the true matrix of gold.
This view, however, has not proved to be the correct one, the gold having been shown to be an after deposit to the pyrites, and, as Mr. Skey has been the first to explain, due to its direct reducing influence. It appears that in the first place my friend Mr. Daintree, who is now Agent-General for the Colony of Queensland, at the time he was on the geological survey staff of Victoria, pointed out that a nucleus of gold, when placed in a solution of chloride of gold undergoing decomposition by organic matter, is increased in bulk by a deposit of pure gold. Following up this hint, Mr. Wilkinson, also a Victorian chemist, found that many other substances, chiefly metallic sulphides, would also act as nuclei, but that quartz does not do so; and Mr. Cosmo Newbury afterwards indorsed the correctness of these results. In this state of the question Mr. Skey took up the subject, and by a series of experiments, which are detailed in our Transactions, proved that the organic matter is not at all necessary to produce the reduction of the metal, but that it is due bo the direct action of the sulphide, and showed that each grain of iron pyrites, when thoroughly oxidised, will reduce 12¼ grains of gold from its solution as chloride, which is a proportion far beyond that which could be effected by the same weight of organic matter. He also included salts of platina and silver in this general law, and demonstrated that solutions of any of these metals traversing a vein rock containing certain sulphides would be decomposed and the pure metal deposited.
We are thus enabled to comprehend the constant association of gold, or native alloys of gold and silver, in veins which traverse rocks containing an abundance of pyrites, whether they have been formed as the result of either sub-aqueous volcanic outbursts or by the metamorphism of the deeper-seated strata which compose the superficial crust of the earth.
Still following the same line of induction, Mr. Skey has also shown by very carefully conducted experiments that the metallic sulphides are not only better conductors of electricity than has hitherto been supposed, but that when paired they are capable of exhibiting strong electro-motive power. Thus, if galena and zinc-blende in acid solutions be connected in the usual manner of a voltaic pair, sulphuretted hydrogen is evolved from the surface of the former, and a current generated which is sufficient to reduce gold, silver, or copper from their solutions in coherent electro-plate films.
By pairing the different metallic sulphides Mr. Skey was further able to construct a table of their relative value as electro-motors and conductors
of electricity, the latter of which a comparative quality, he suggests might be usefully employed as a preliminary test in the analysis of mixed minerals.
The attributing of this property of generating voltaic currents, hitherto supposed to be almost peculiar to metals, to such sulphides as are commonly found in metalliferous veins, further led Mr. Skey to speculate how far the currents discovered to exist in such veins by Mr. E. Fox some forty years ago might be produced by the gradual oxidation of mixed sulphides, and that veins containing bands of different metallic sulphides, bounded by containing walls and saturated with mineral waters, may constitute under some circumstances and large voltaic battery competent to produce electro depositions of metals, and that the order of the deposit of these mineral lodes will be found to bear a definite relation to the order in which the sulphides rank in the table of their electro-motive power.
It is quite unnecessary for me to point out that these researches have a most practical bearing on bur knowledge of the conditions under which precious metals will be found, and when applied by geologists may yet lead to some clearer comprehension than we at present possess of the law which regulates the distribution of auriferous veins, and why in some cases the metal should be nearly pure, while in others it is so largely alloyed with silver.
There are many other subjects, to which I cannot at present refer, on which Mr. Skey has advanced our knowledge, such as the investigation of the poisonous matter of the tutu, karaka, and other indigenous plants, the formation of coal seams, and Other matters of interest.
As being a subject of general interest at the present time, in the discussion of which many of our members who have not much taste for technical science can take part, I wish now to refer to the state of opinion relative to what we must term the pre-historic period of New Zealand.
A most complete summary of the views on this subject prevalent a few years ago is given in Professor Hochstetter's valuable work on this colony, in which he adopted the conclusion that the Maoris first arrived in New Zealand about 500 years since, and gradually spread over the country, altering the surface features considerably, and, for instance, among other changes effected the extermination of the Moa, which, from the authorities he quotes, he supposes to have survived to about the middle of the seventeenth century.
I do not feel competent to judge of the extent to which Mr. J. T. Thomson's paper in the last volume of the Transactions modifies the previous opinions held respecting the origin and migration of the Maori race,* but his paper, and also the critical paper by Mr. Travers,† on the Value of native traditions as evidence appear to indicate that the subject is still open to discussion, and I am glad to learn that during our meetings this season we may expect several communi-
[Footnote] *See Trans. N.Z. Inst., Vol. IV., Art I.
[Footnote] †Vol. IV., Art. II. 1
cations from Mr. Travers and other members relative to the early history of the Maoris, and what will, have even, greater interest, the traditions that have been preserved by the small remnant of the Moriori race that now survives in the Chatham, Islands.
There is one branch of investigation relative to the native race to the importance of which I venture to invite the attention of medical men in this colony who have opportunities for collecting such information, and that is the nature and especially the early history of the diseases that are peculiar to the natives, and to which they were subject before the arrival of Europeans. I will only instance as an example one disease, respecting which it is desirable that full information should be obtained, and that is leprosy, as from remarks that lately appeared in the newspapers relative to the occurrence of leprosy in the Sandwich Islands, I infer that it is it generally known that there is a form of this disease amongst the Maoris, although it is mentioned by Mr. Colenso and other writers. I have myself seen eight or ten cases in the interior of this Island, and I observe that during a recent visit to Stewart Island, Professor McGregor found two well marked cases even in that comparatively ungenial climate. The unfortunate victims of this disease were, I believe, in former times kept carefully secluded, but I fear that this provision for preventing the spread of the disease, like many other old customs of the natives, is now less rigidly enforced. In the case of the Maoris it is usually supposed that it can be traced to the use of improper food, but, whatever be the cause, experience in other countries where this insidious disease prevails dictates that proper seclusion of the sufferers should be maintained.
Leaving to others the discussion of purely historical and traditional matters affecting the Maoris, I shall advert to the period at which the gigantic Moa birds were exterminated, and the circumstances that led to their destruction. Communications relative to this subject occupy a very large share of the last volume of our Transactions, and conflicting opinions are expressed which deserve a brief notice.
This question has an important bearing on many inquiries that should occupy our attention in New Zealand. You are all well aware that this country possesses an indigenous fauna and flora that is peculiar to these islands. The period at which it first acquired this insular character is a most interesting subject for investigation by the geologist, and the period of the first interruption of that isolation from other zoological and botanical regions which must have been effected by the introduction of the human race is not less important in its relation to the diffusion and persistence of types of animals and plants.
The destruction of the Moa must have been one of the most obvious and direct results of this, accompanied no doubt by extensive, alteration in the
flora of the country by the rapid spread of fires. It is true that fires probably originated in some districts in the North Island from volcanic eruptions, and that the large open tracts in the vicinity of Taupo where there are pumice drifts, containing charred wood, are probably of an earlier date than the first arrival of the Maori race, but in the South Island there are no recent volcanos to account for the spread of fires, and there is no other cause to which the conversion of what has evidently been within a modern period forest land, first into scrub and finally into grass land, can be attributed, except artificial fires.
The co-existence of man with the Moa, and the fact that these gigantic birds were hunted and consumed as food, was long ago recognized, in the first instance I believe by Mr. Mantell, but the question of whether it was by the ancestors of the Maori race now inhabiting these islands was never distinctly raised till last year, when Dr. Haast did so in the first of the series of papers on the subject to which I have referred.
In this communication Dr. Haast, led by his extensive researches and the study of a magnificent collection of Moa bones, and of the ancient native cooking-places, which are plentiful on the east coast of the province of Canterbury, adopts the view that the extinction of the Moa was effected by a race of men altogether distinct from the Maoris, who belonged to the palæolithic period, and had passed away long before the Maori settled here.
The evidence upon which this hypothesis is based is of two kinds. First the nature of the implements that were used by the early Moa-hunters, as Dr. Haast terms them, and secondly the supposed ignorance either direct or traditionary, which the Maoris display of the former existence of the Moa. There are other arguments brought forward, but as they are not so direct in their bearing on the question I will not allude to them on the present occasion. The description given of the cooking-places in which Moa bones have been found by Mr. Mantell, Dr. Haast, and other observers, does not indicate any difference in the habits of the Moa-hunters from the ordinary mode of life of the Maoris even at the present day; the only supposed peculiarity being the occurrence in the ovens of rough stone flakes with cutting edges instead of the polished implements of stone which we are accustomed to see now in the hands of the natives.
It is hardly necessary to point out, as has been already done repeatedly, that evidence of this kind cannot be considered to establish a difference of race, for the uses to which the two kinds of stone implements could be applied must have been totally different. It has never been alleged that before the time of Captain Cook's visit the natives were in possession of any cutting instruments made of metal; and yet as they ate seals, porpoises, and other fleshy animals, they must have had some means of cutting them up, and for
this sharp-edged flakes of stone would be best adapted. I am inclined to think that the old Maori woman who officiated as cook at one of the Moa-hunters encampments would have found it a most trying task to dismember a Moa with a polished stone adze or a green-stone mere, even if she would profane so valued an implement for such a purpose; and I also think that unless the meat were very much overcooked the hungry Moa-hunters, however large their stock in trade of polished weapons might be, would prefer to pick up a sharp-edged stone to assist them in cutting slices from the ponderous drum sticks. The fact is that the adzes and other polished tools were no doubt then, as they are now, used as implements for tilling the soil and grubbing up fern root, and when occasion required, for felling a tree or a foe, and that for cutting up a pig or flaying a seal, a Maori, if he had no knife, would at the present day use sharp stone flakes, of which there are abundance about all Maori cooking-places, especially on the sea coast, where their services are most required. I may mention as a further confirmation of this view that among a very interesting collection recently brought by Mr. Henry Travers from the Chatham Islands, where no Moa bones have ever been found, there are many of these flakes, together with stone implements of all kinds, rude and polished, specimens of which are on the table for your inspection.
The other evidence advanced by Dr. Haast respecting the absence of any traditions among the Maoris of the existence of this remarkable bird within the memory of the race is merely negative, and against which contrary evidence can be advanced. Dr. Haast quotes Mr. Colenso, who was well acqainted with the Maoris at the time when the former existence of the Moa first became known to Europeans, and who admits that they had a certain amount of indefinite information concerning the existence* of large birds like the Moa prior to that date, but attributes it to the traditions of the cassowary, which they had preserved from the time of their original migration from Hawaiki. Dr. Haast also suggests, as a further source of their knowledge, that these were the bones of a
[Footnote] * Polack, whose observations were made many years before the first discovery of Moa bones by Europeans, says:—“That a species of the Emu, or a bird of the genus Struthio, formerly existed in the latter (North) Island I feel well assured, as several large fossil ossifications were shown to me when I was residing in the vicinity of the East Cape, said to have been found at the base of the inland mountain of Ikorangi. The natives added that in times long past they received the tradition that very large birds had existed, but the scarcity of animal food, as well as the easy method of entrapping them, had caused their extermination.” And speaking of the South Island he states:—“I feel assured, from the many reports I received from the natives, that a species of Struthio still exists on that interesting (South) Island, in parts which, perhaps, have never yet been trodden by man. Traditions are current among the elder natives, of Atuas, covered with hair, in the form of birds, having waylaid former native travellers among the forest wilds, vanquishing them with an overpowering strength, killing and devouring, etc.”—Polack's “New Zealand,” Lond, 1838, Vol. I., pp. 303, 307.
Struthious bird, and that they had no doubt, on finding these huge bones, compared them, with those of the existing kiwi, and thus arrived at a correct conclusion respecting the nature of the original owners, and even determined the kind of feathers with which the bird was clothed. Such an exercise by the untutored savage of scientific skill, that among civilized nations is only acquired by great comparative anatomists, is to my mind less easy to understand than that the Maoris bad at one time been familiar with the Moa in the district where the inquiries were made. So far as the subject can be enlightened by a study of the language and traditions of the natives, I am sure there can be no higher authority than Mr. Colenso, whose high scientific reputation was established at an early date in the colony by his many contributions to the natural history of the country; and I sincerely trust that he will yet find leisure from the great philological work on which he is now engaged to go fully into this matter; but there is also the evidence of his own observations to be taken into account, relative to which I will read to you the account of his earliest acquaintance with the Moa, as it was communicated by him to the “Tasmanian Journal,” in 1842:—
He states that during the summer of 1838 he accompanied the Rev W. Williams on a visit to the tribes inhabiting the East Cape district. Whilst at Waiapu, a thickly inhabited locality about 20 miles south-west from the East Cape, he heard from the natives of a certain monstrous animal, which, while some said it was a bird and others a “person,” all agreed that it was called a Moa, that in general appearance it resembled an immense domestic cock, with the difference, however, of its possessing a face like a man;* that it dwelt in a cavern in the precipitous side of a mountain; that it lived on air, and was attended or guarded by two immense tuataras, who, Argus like, kept incessant watch while the Moa slept; and that if any one possessing temerity sufficient dared to approach the dwelling of this wonderful creature he would be infallibly killed by it—the process suggested being trampling to death—indicating, I venture to think, that they knew the habits of the bird, which were no doubt like those of the emu in its mode of attack. He further states that the belief in the Moa was universal, and to doubt it was a crime. Natives had, however, seen and described large bones, which they ascribed to the Moa, and all the natives had great fear of the bird, and belief in its prodigious physical power. On returning to the Bay of Islands, natives from the East Cape district confirmed the foregoing information.
In 1839 the Rev. Mr. Taylor,† being at the East Cape and hearing of the Moa, searched, and was rewarded by finding a gigantic toe of the bird. In 1841–42, while at Waiapu, he heard that Wakapunake had been visited by
[Footnote] *Mr. Mantell suggests that the phrase would be “Ahua tangata,” which might be rendered “stature of a man.”
[Footnote] † Vide ante p. 67.
some baptized natives, and, though they found no live Moa, they found some huge bones, which they declared to be those of the true Moa. These had been collected by the natives apparently as a matter of course, for the manufacture of fish-hooks, for he obtained such hooks.
Mr. Colenso then proceeded himself to the mountains, and made inquiries at a native village, where he was informed that the Moa still lived, though he had not been seen. The bones were, however, stated to be common. Similar inquiries in another district—Tiwhiti—also reported to be inhabited by Moas, gave the same result, the natives proving their knowledge of the bones, and that they belonged to the Moa, but without being able to afford any proof that they were justified in believing that he still lived. These inquiries stimulated the natives to search, so that in a short time the bones of nearly thirty birds, all of one gigantic species, were obtained.
After thus recounting his experiences, Mr. Colenso proceeds to infer that the above knowledge of the existence of this bird must have been merely traditionary; but I do not think this a fair deduction, because Mr. Colenso evidently hoped to be shown the live bird by the natives he employed, and though the natives could not do so, they yet had no difficulty in finding the bones for him in large numbers and in perfect preservation. It must also be remembered that the natives with whom Mr. Colenso communicated on the subject lived in a district which was the first settled by their ancestors, and that, although the Moa may there have been extinct for many generations, this is no reason why it may not even at that date have been existing in the South Island for all they knew to the contrary.
Having in a former communication on the subject referred to the interior of Otago as probably the part of New Zealand in which the Moa survived longest, and feeling anxious to discover the condition in which that district was found by the first European explorers, I applied to my friend Mr. John Buchanan, who is as distinguished for his power of accurate observation as he is for the skilfully executed lithographs which illustrate our Transactions and Natural History publications.
Mr. Buchanan was attached to the first surveying—I may call it exploring—party sent out by the Otago Government in 1856 into the district where the best preserved Moa remains have since been discovered, the surveyor in charge being Mr. Garvie, who was at the time in bad health and did not long survive the hardships the party underwent.
They penetrated as far as what is now the Cromwell township, at the upper end of the Dunstan gorge, or almost seventy-five miles west from the coast in a direct line, the settled country, or rather that which had been taken up as sheep runs, not extending at the time beyond the depression between the Manguatua or Lammerlaw ranges, or a distance of twenty-five
miles back from the east cost in a direct line. The Rough Ridge, Raggedy, Rock and Pillar, and Dunstan ranges, with their intervening rallies, were prior to their visit a terra incognita, as far as Europeans were concerned. The upland district east of the Lammerlaw hills, between 2,000 and 4,000 ft., was at that time covered partly with coarse grass and partly with dense scrub. The grass patches had been several times burnt, much to the detriment of the country, as the finer species were giving place to the coarse tussock-grasses (Danthonia), spear-grass (Aciphylla), and other worthless pasture plants. The scrub consisted of open sub-alpines, consisting chiefly of Veronicas and Celmisias, such as still survive in most parts of these uplands. The form of the surface and the abundance of well-preserved trunks of trees in certain parts of this district showed that at no distant date it had been forest land. In this district Moa bones were remarkably abundant, the large leg bones lying strewn on the surface in great profusion and in very perfect preservation, most of them being quite hard, except when they had been roasted by the later grass fires. At the same time, Mr. Buchanan remembers that much fresher bones had been found near the coast, and that it was well known to some of the old settlers at Green Island, near Dunedin, that the dogs used to be seen gnawing the Moa bones, which we must therefore presume contained some nutritious juices. This is a very important statement, because it has been urged that the superior state of preservation in which the Dunstan Moa remains have been recently found is due to the extreme dryness of the climate of the interior of Otago. But this argument is quite inapplicable to bones found on any part of the eastern seaboard, where the climate is well known to be extremely moist even now, and must have been still more so when the country was covered with dense forest such as that which still surrounds or till within a few years did surround Dunedin harbour.
Leaving the occupied country and pushing north-west towards the Dunstan, the ranges were found covered with rich sub-alpine scrubby vegetation, the soil being deep and well pulverized by the frosts. The formidable spear-grass abounded in the gullies, being six to eight feet high, and flower-stalks four and five inches in diameter, but every here and there patches of good pasture were found. Paradise ducks and a few of the smaller species abounded near the lagoons and water-courses, and except a few small black hawks, larks and grass-birds were the only representatives of the feathered tribes met with. Pigs, which abounded on the eastern side of the Lammerlaw range, had not found their way westward at that time, nor indeed were they ever abundant in the far interior, but wild dogs of a great variety of breeds were commonly seen, living chiefly upon ducks; every swamp and creek-side having well-beaten dog tracks along their margins. These dogs were very tame, or rather had no sense of danger, as they used to sit down at a short distance and watch
the party in a very cool manner. They comprised many varieties, some being evidently collie or sheep dogs, and a bull terrier was also seen, but all of breeds that had escaped from Europeans. As an instance in proof of this, Mr. Buchanan mentions that a spotted coach dog that escaped from Mr. Jones at Waikouaiti, gave rise to a numerous and easily recognized progeny of wild dogs. These dogs are therefore not to be confounded with the true wild dogs of New Zealand, of which only a few specimens have been obtained, and always in dense bush such as the district between the Mataura and Waikava. Rats were also present in this country, but did not form so conspicuous a feature as in later years.
In the wide extent of the Manuherikia and upper Clutha basins, which are occupied by beautifully moulded terraces, the character of the vegetation was different from that on the ranges. The terraces were covered by a smooth, equal, but sparse growth of short green grass, that from a distance appeared like the turf of a well-trimmed lawn, but on walking over it proved only to be a thin scattering of grass plants with very light soil between, that rose in clouds of dust on being disturbed. A fire had evidently only a short time previously run over these plains, and from the total absence of all larger vegetation it is very probable that, owing to the dryness of the soil, the fires had done their work more thoroughly than on the ranges. It is therefore not to be wondered at that no Moa bones were observed on these level terraces, although it is in the recent alluvium and in the crevices of the rocks surrounding this very district that all the freshest specimens have been lately obtained. Indeed, so far as bones on the surface are concerned, the very dryness of the climate, which might be suggested as a reason for their preservation, was the actual cause of their more thorough destruction, by favouring the passage of fires over the district. Near the rivers the level flats that are liable to be flooded and altered during freshets were occupied by a very dense growth of scrub, chiefly of Olearia virgata and Coprosmas. On the more open parts of the river-bed Maori cabbage grew in great luxuriance, the stems forming thickets 4 or 5 ft. high, through which it was difficult to force a path. In this river-bed scrub Moa bones were abundant, and it is in sandy ground occupying this very position that the remarkably perfect skeleton now in the York Museum, and more recently the Moa feathers, were found. The only trace of natives seen by the party was an old cultivation, about an acre in extent, in the Dunstan gorge, which could not have been long abandoned, as the crop of Maori cabbage with which it was stocked had not spread beyond the line of the fence; but many other traces of the visits of natives have since been discovered by the diggers. Among other things, Mr. John Graham in 1865 found a roll of tapa cloth under one of the overhanging rock caves which are so common in the district, and I have myself found fishing appliances and bags made of kelp in similar positions, but lower down the river.
This account of the features of the interior of Otago prior to its occupation by Europeans goes to establish that the destruction of the original forest and the destruction of the greater number of Moas must have been coincident, and that the after-growth which sprung up to cover the surface on which the prostrate trees and Moa bones lay was still growing on the ranges over which Mr. Garvie's party pushed their way, but that the burning on the terraces in the dry basins had been so frequently repeated that the vegetation had been at that date reduced to grass alone, and the Moa bones destroyed, just as has taken place during the last fifteen years over the whole of the rest of the country.
From the freshness of the timber lying on the ground, and the character of the growth that had succeeded it, no very great period could have elapsed since the last of the forest was destroyed; but the process of destruction was no doubt gradual, the heavy bush on the slopes of the hills being first reduced to clumps and patches, then confined to gullies, and finally exterminated in the same manner as can be observed in wooded parts of New Zealand at the present day.
But it must not be forgotten that a large area of the rolling country in Otago was much too high ever to carry forest, and this was no doubt the reason for the extraordinary profusion of Moas in this district, as they would feed on these large open patches, which must have had an extent of some thousand square miles.
As a great deal has been said about the absence of any mention of the Moa in Maori legends, I will read a note which Mr. Mantell has just received from Sir George Grey, in reply to an inquiry on the subject, and in passing I may state that Mr. Mantell himself has no doubt that the South Island natives, when he first collected Moa bones with their assistance, were well acquainted with their nature, and that they belonged to a bird that had become extinct quite recently.
In this note Sir George Grey says, About the Moa I can only say that when I came to New Zealand the old natives always represented it to me as a bird well known to their immediate forefathers. They gave it its name; it is not a fabulous animal with incoherent traditions, but was spoken of by them as the kiwi or other birds getting rare. They often spoke of its disappearance. Sometimes they told me it was possible there might still be living specimens in the Middle Island; others asserted that it had been entirely destroyed. If you turn to page 9 of the Maori poems I printed in 1853 you will find in an old Maori poem this similitude taken from its disappearance, ‘Ka ngaro, i te ngaro, a te Moa.’ Any old native will explain this poem to you.”*
[Footnote] *Also further reference in poems, p. 324, and at p. 74 of the Maori Proverbs. Governor Weld writes to me that when he first explored the open country in the interior of the Marlborough province the natives living on the coast warned him to beware of the Moa, and if he met one not to get behind it as it could kick like a horse and would break his legs.
But I fear that I have dwelt on this subject at too great a length, being led away by the desire to remove the impression that the Moa was limited to a palæolithic period, which is characterized by Sir C. Lyell as a period marked by a difference in the surface features from those now prevailing, or even that a palæolithic period can be recognized at all in New Zealand, as such an hypothesis, if incorrect, as I believe it to be, would greatly mislead those who are investigating the already complicated subject of the migrations of the branches of the human race.
That the Moa lived and flourished during far more remote periods there can be no doubt, but I think the discovery of the bones of the neck of one of the largest species, with feathers, skin, and muscles attached, which is now in the Museum, far outweighs all the arguments that can be advanced, and as Professor Owen pointed out in his first published paper on the subject, shows that the Moa belongs to the same very recent period as the Dodo. I must not neglect to notice that in his latest paper on the subject Dr. Haast has modified his first hypothesis so far as to say that the Maoris are not a fresh migration, but are the direct descendants of the Moa-hunters, and falling back on the supposed inferiority of the early stone implements as proof that the Maoris had attained a higher degree of civilization, he argues that a great period of time must have elapsed to account for that improvement; but against this may be urged that until the Maoris acquired knives from the Europeans they must have cut with flakes of stone with sharp edges, whatever their state of relative advancement may have been, as they possessed no other implements to supply their place. The evidence of the absence of the highly finished weapons from the cooking ovens which Dr. Haast describes at the Rakaia camping place, while they abound on the surface of the ground, appears to me to prove only that the final destruction or departure of the Maoris from that locality was rather sudden, and that in consequence valuable articles were left lying about which were not likely to be found in cooking-places that were in common use. Besides, it is certainly probable that the Moas near the sea coast on the Canterbury plains would be among the first to be destroyed, and that this particular encampment may have been used from a very early date, perhaps a century before the final extermination of the Moa elsewhere. On a revision of the whole question I do not think that the evidence which has been adduced proves that the Moas were not existing in Otago in considerable numbers less than 200 years ago, and that a few might not have survived to within seventy or eighty years; but I am glad to be able to state that Professor Owen intends to reproduce in a collected form his valuable series of memoirs on the Moa, and he will, I hope, take the opportunity to review the different hypotheses which have been advanced on this interesting subject.
As relating to this discussion, I should call attention to the description of
the feathers and microscopic structure of the egg-shell of the Moa by Capt. Hutton, which confirms the modern classification that places the kiwi in a different class of birds from Dinornis and other Struthionidœ, as it proves the incorrectness of the generally received notion that the kiwi is the living representative of the Moa kind that has remained to the present time, the fact being that Struthionidœ, once so abundant, are no longer represented in the New Zealand fauna.
I will now ask your attention while I make a short reference to the geological conditions, which prevailed in the New Zealand area at the time when the Moas may be supposed to have first appeared.
Dr. Haast, than whom there is no better authority on this matter, has stated that the Moa remains first appear in the glacier period, by which is meant, in New Zealand, the period of a former greater extension of the glaciers from their mountain sources.
The condition of New Zealand at this time is a point of great importance, if we keep clearly before us the problem that I have already stated as being one of the greatest interest to students, of the geographical distribution of animals and plants, and that is the period during which New Zealand has maintained its insulation from other large tracts of land.
I regret to observe that in some way the idea has got abroad that New Zealand and other southern lands have just recovered from a period of submergence, and that arguments based on this assumption have been used relative to an alternating of the ocean level between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.
By others our south polar climate is supposed to have undergone great amelioration, and even in Sir Charles Lyell's latest manual we have the choice given to us of either floating ice or land ice as the origin of a boulder-drift, supposed to envelop the country, and to correspond in character to the great boulder-drift of northern Europe and America. I must protest against this, for I am not aware of any evidence of the existence in New Zealand of anything analogous to the glacial drift of the Northern Hemisphere. Our extensive ice-formed drifts are all valley deposits, and exactly analogous to the moraines in the Himalayas and other tropical mountain ranges. They consist of moraines lateral and transverse, most of which occupy vallies radiating from our alpine peaks and ranges, while some outlived the drainage system which they at one time obstructed, and in process of time have come to form the present summit levels, throwing the water in a new direction. But during the long period in which the glaciers were more extensive than now the shingle brought down by the ice-fed torrents was poured out of the mountain gorges to form steeply inclined plains flanking the ranges, with a surface fall of from 35 to 40 feet to the mile. No trace of submergence of the vallies can be
found during this long period, the great duration of which may be judged of from the fact that lake basins, 1,000 feet deep and 10 to 40 miles in length, must have remained filled with ice, whilst the highest alpine vallies, containing many thousand times their cubic contents, were being excavated, and the material being carried over them and distributed in the lower plains outside the ranges, a feature which was first pointed out by Mr. Travers in a paper describing the Rotoiti Lake district of Nelson, which was published in the “Natural History Review,” in 1864.
Even if we resort to the neighbourhood of the sea-coast, where we might expect to find distinct signs of emergence, there the evidence is all in favour of a general subsidence of the land on a great scale during the post-pliocene period.
Vallies that were eroded by the extended glaciers in the hardest rocks, such as the sounds an the west coast of Otago, are now depressed far beneath the level to which they could have been eroded, as their extent and depth have no constant relation to the present area and altitude of the neighbouring mountain ranges.
In a similar manner, in the northern parts of New Zealand, where the rocky framework of the islands forms the coast line, and in situations where it has not been worn into precipitous cliffs by the surf, the vallies are prolonged beneath the water-level in a most distinct manner, forming deep water inlets and harbours, while the low shelving and sandy parts of the coast have a heaped up shore line that appears as if encroaching on the alluvial deposits. Except one raised beach—nowhere more than twenty feet above the sea-level, and which distinctly marks an irregular elevation of the land that has chiefly accompanied earthquakes since the first occupation of the islands by Europeans, and which may be examined at almost any point of this harbour—there is a total want of any inland cliffs, lines of sand-dunes, and ridges, and other familiar evidences of an emerged coast line.
The low country, where such evidence might reasonably be looked for, is invariably formed of marine strata of higher antiquity than the period of the extension of the glaciers, or of swamps that are either still exposed or have been overwhelmed by shingle deposits brought from a higher level by the rivers, as an example of which I need only refer to the sections which have been obtained in boring for artesian wells in Christchurch and elsewhere, which pass through shingle till they strike an old drift-wood bed at eighty to ninety feet beneath the level of the sea.
This peculiarity in the distribution of the alluvial deposits of the province of Wellington, and the important indication afforded by the limited altitude at which pumice drift is found in land-locked harbours not fed by streams that float down pumice from the interior, was adverted to in an early paper to the
Society by Mr. Crawford; and in our last volume Capt. Hutton, in his paper on the alluvial deposits of the Waikato basin, also arrived at the conclusion that the sea has never occupied that large area of slightly elevated land, the most modern marine beds in it belonging to the upper miocene period.
The mountains of New Zealand had, therefore, in all probability their greatest altitude during our great glacier period, but whether that period was attended by any marked changes in the climate analogous to the boreal conditions that prevailed during the equivalent period in the Northern Hemisphere can only be determined by a critical comparison of the fossil shells from marine formations belonging to the same period, if any such can be found.
Referring only to the South Island, and judging from the fossil plants that have been preserved in lignitiferous deposits belonging to the pliocene period, which even in the extreme south of Otago contain large masses of a resin allied to the kauri gum, I venture to anticipate that if there was any difference in the character of the climate at that time, it was not an extension of antarctic conditions, but the reverse. With regard to the period of greatest elevation, the interesting question arises whether New Zealand during that period continued to be isolated from other land areas, or whether its peculiar fauna and flora were established at a time still more remote. From the great depth of the ocean round the islands, and the wide expanse separating them from even the nearest islands—such as the Chatham and Norfolk Islands, both of which possess a closely allied flora—the physical changes required to produce the disseverance must have been enormous and have required a lengthened period for its accomplishment.
We must suppose that the plains of barely consolidated tertiary strata that have been raised above the sea, and over which the progenitors of the Moas first reached New Zealand, have entirely disappeared by denudation and submergence, leaving the remnant of the race of giant birds to inhabit the limited area of these islands from that distant period down to the present time.
If the hypothesis of an excess in the area of elevated land being the cause of the more powerful erosive action of the pleistocene glaciers is correct, since that time there must have been a steady diminution in the area of low-lying land and a gradual liberation of mountain slopes from their snow cap. The effect of this on the rapid diffusion of plant forms and the probable influence which it exercised on the production, by variation, of the species which now characterize our alpine flora, has been ably dealt with by your late President Mr. Travers, in the instructive series of lectures which he delivered two years ago to this Society.
The description of the physical features of this very important epoch in New Zealand geology has been chiefly undertaken by Dr. Haast in various
reports that have not been communicated to our Transactions, but there are various papers on the subject by Messrs. McKerrow, Beal, and Dobson, to which I can refer as showing that the striking phenomena of the New Zealand glacier period have not been neglected by the members of the Institute. I may mention that the lower portions of our tertiary formation have not yet received much notice in our Transactions, and with the exception of one paper by Captain Hutton, and lists of fossils by Mr. Traill and Mr. Buchanan, all the information that has been obtained respecting them since the publication of Professor Hochstetter's work is to be found in the reports, of the Geological Department, which, however, rather deal with local details than attempts at a general classification, which will not be possible till a critical tabulation of the large collections of fossils, a work on which I am glad to say Capt. Hutton is now engaged, has been effected. These formations embrace a very long interval of geological time, and form several very distinct, groups both in mineral character and in the fossils they contain, the lowest of which I incline to think extends into the upper secondary (cretaceous) period. The upper groups are marine, and the lower chiefly fluviatile and of great importance to the colony from its containing the principal deposits of mineral fuel on which we have to depend for our supplies of coal, and notwithstanding the comparatively modern period to which this coal formation belongs it contains coal seams of a valuable character. In the associated sandstones and shales the flora of the period has been in many cases well preserved, and shows that at a period anterior to the deposit of the marine stratum the New Zealand area was clothed with a mixed vegetation of dicotyledonous leaves and ferns that in general character represent those which now constitute the flora of the country.
It would appear from the recent surveys by Dr. Haast that the large saurian reptiles in the Amuri and Waipara beds, the collections of which have been added to largely during the past year by the exertions of Mr. Henry Travers, lived during the formation of these coal seams, and coeval with them was a species of the kauri tree, the leaves of which have been found imbedded with the reptilian bones. May we speculate that even at this still more remote period, which was probably prior to the elevation of a great part of the Swiss Alps, New Zealand formed part of an area that possessed an insular flora, the peculiar characters of which have been preserved to the present time. Only a very skilful investigation and comparison of ample collections of fossil plant remains can determine this.
Such speculations as those on which I have lightly touched are a legitimate incentive to research, and I therefore make no apology for the theoretical character of the subjects on which I have addressed you this evening.
It is no doubt very satisfactory to have the proceedings of our Society
represented in the annual volume by valuable treatises that cannot be controverted, but a little theory now And then in our papers may perhaps awaken interest and provoke friendly discussion, which I take it is one of the most useful objects of our association.
With reference to the views expressed in the address, the Hon. Mr. Mantell remarked that there was a legend extant of a native having killed a Moa and taken the skin to Hawaiki.
Captain Hutton pointed out that the Maoris could possess no traditions of the cassowary or emu that would account for their knowledge of the Moa, as these birds do not belong to any islands where the race of men from which the Maoris are derived are found.
The Hon. Captain Fraser thought at one time that the destruction of the Moa had been accomplished by a race antecedent to the Maoris, which, nine years ago, he had described to the Ethnological Society of London as a race who grilled their food, in distinction to the Maoris, who bake their food, but his recent explorations had convinced him that that view was incorrect.
Dr. Comrie, H.M.S. “Dido,” stated, with reference to the remarks about leprosy, that it had been introduced into the Sandwich Islands since 1852 by Chinese coolies imported to work the sugar plantations, and that it was spreading rapidly amongst the natives. One of the greatest authorities on such diseases had suggested to him that the peculiar virus might have been imported in the dried fish which the coolies carry about with them as food.
Mr. Carruthers stated that a form of this disease is not uncommon among the negros in the American States.
1. “Note on Colluricincla concinna, Hutton,” by Capt. F. W. Hutton, C.M.Z.S. (See Transactions, p. 226.)
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An Adrienne Rich Poem for These Dire Days:
One of the Rude Pundit's favorite poets (and, truly, one of the best American poets ever) died this week. Get yourself a collection of Adrienne Rich's work for the weekend. Go beyond "Diving Into the Wreck" or "Aunt Jennifer's Tigers," which you might have read in an undergraduate lit class. The Rude Pundit recommends Dreams of a Common Language, with a sweep of words and undercurrent of the political that would have made old Walt Whitman proud. Rich was one of the first poets to tap into so many of the issues that drove Second Wave feminism, and she was down in the literary and activist trenches of Third Wave feminism, too. Mostly, though, Rich was simply one of those poets whose works make you wonder at the breadth of feeling and depth of thought created by such simple, quotidian language.
Here is an early work, from 1951, "Storm Warnings":
The glass has been falling all the afternoon,
And knowing better than the instrument
What winds are walking overhead, what zone
Of grey unrest is moving across the land,
I leave the book upon a pillowed chair
And walk from window to closed window, watching
Boughs strain against the sky
And think again, as often when the air
Moves inward toward a silent core of waiting,
How with a single purpose time has traveled
By secret currents of the undiscerned
Into this polar realm. Weather abroad
And weather in the heart alike come on
Regardless of prediction.
Between foreseeing and averting change
Lies all the mastery of elements
Which clocks and weatherglasses cannot alter.
Time in the hand is not control of time,
Nor shattered fragments of an instrument
A proof against the wind; the wind will rise,
We can only close the shutters.
I draw the curtains as the sky goes black
And set a match to candles sheathed in glass
Against the keyhole draught, the insistent whine
Of weather through the unsealed aperture.
This is our sole defense against the season;
These are the things we have learned to do
Who live in troubled regions.
Posted by Rude One at 9:42 AM
Early Mourning for the Soon-To-Be Late Affordable Care Act:
Oh, sweet liberals, allow the Rude Pundit to embrace you in this time of crisis, allow him to cradle you and offer succor, let him give you gentle rubs and tender tugs. Yes, the scales of blind justice are tilting right these days, and it seems as if our precious Affordable Care Act is not long for this world.
It was always going to be so because we didn't love it enough. The Obama administration failed, so incredibly, in showing the nation that what the law accomplished with its passage came out of the deeply Christian (and other faiths and just plainly human) idea of care of one's fellow men and women. It failed, so amazingly, to demonstrate on an ongoing basis, how, as each part was implemented, life was improving. And even those who voted for it failed, so sadly, to teach their constituents about how their lives would improve, with many losing their seats for running away like whipped dogs. Yes, liberal media figures did highlight tales: the family that got insurance for their kids, despite pre-existing conditions; the college student who was put back on her mother's insurance. Simply put, though, we lost the propaganda battle and thus we will probably lose the war. No, no, enough regret. Enough recrimination. Enough woulda and the hell with shoulda.
But admit it, oh, sweet liberals, to yourself first and then to all others: you hate the individual mandate. It was the ultimate capitulation to the very forces whose insatiable greed has harmed Americans, even those who have health insurance. This Republican idea, proposed by the Cato Institute, supported by Bob Dole back in the health care battles of the early 1990s, is government at the service of capitalism and obeisance to health insurance companies. We know that this was the wrong approach. We accepted it only because of all the other things that were accomplished because of its inclusion.
One thought, though: if we really, truly believe in President Obama as the master of ten-dimensional chess, then he had to know this was coming. Even back in 1994, conservative members of Congress were talking about challenging the constitutionality of any federally prescribed individual mandate. He had to know that, by front-loading so many of the real benefits for Americans in the bill, he would make it impossible for people to want to give it up wholesale. When the first story of a dying child having his health care taken away comes out if the Supreme Court declares the act unconstitutional, the fickle, idiot public will vote the opposite of 2010.
So, in the most optimistic reading of this series of events that led to the Supreme Court's three days of hearings, Obama knew that a conservative court would overturn the individual mandate. And that an eventual outcry would force Congress to either create Medicare for all or a public option.
But, no, no, these are not optimistic times. These are days where, in the name of freedom of the individual, the individual is crushed.
Posted by Rude One at 10:52 AM
In Brief: Five Ways Broccoli Is Not Like Health Insurance:
In honor Justices Antonin Scalia and John Roberts for reducing the debate over whether or not Americans must buy health insurance to a question of whether or not the government can force Americans to buy a vegetable. It's good to know the conservative Supreme Court justices get the rhetoric memos from Frank Luntz. But just in case they're not sure how broccoli and health insurance differ, here's some tips:
1. Broccoli is a nutritious vegetable. Health insurance is a guarantee that medical care will be paid for by the individuals receiving it through their insurance companies and not by you and all of us.
2. Broccoli is delicious in American Chinese food. Health insurance allows people to get preventive care so that they do not just end up in emergency rooms when their medical conditions get too awful to tolerate.
3. Broccoli is grown in California and has a shelf life of 3-5 days. People with health insurance generally live longer than people without health insurance.
4. If overcooked, broccoli gets unpalatable and mushy, and it loses its nutritional value. Health insurance will also pay for prescription drugs that people need in order to stay, you know, healthy.
5. The best, easiest broccoli recipe: Hot pan, olive oil, garlic. Toast garlic. Toss in broccoli florets, salt, and pepper. Saute'. Add a bit of water. Cover pan. Let steam for a couple of minutes. Open. Let water boil away. Add butter. Toss. Serve. Health insurance pays for tests in order to detect diseases early so that you don't die, no matter how much broccoli you eat.
The Niggering of Trayvon Martin:
We see this again and again. A black male who captures the imagination of the nation must be degraded by the right. He must be turned into something else, some Other. President Obama can't simply be an educated black man from a lower middle-class background with whom they disagree ideologically. No, he's got to be an enemy, a foreigner, a nigger. It's hard to denigrate someone who might be like you, conservatives. But it's easy to attack a nigger because he's just a nigger. Or a coon.
When 17 year-old Trayvon Martin was shot dead, the process of transforming him from an average middle-class high school student to a dangerous thug who was asking for it began almost immediately (putting aside the profiling that George Zimmerman did the second he started stalking Martin around their gated community in his SUV). News reports say his body was tagged "John Doe" and held in the morgue for three days. Sorry, race apologists, but if that had been a white child, especially the white child of, say, a Tea Party member, there'd have been a fucking riot. Or, more likely, it just wouldn't have happened.
Now, the niggering of Martin is in full swing as fake photos, school records, Facebook postings, and even his tweets are put under the microscope. A police report that portrays Martin as the initiator of violence has been leaked. And the news media is going along with the victim-blaming that is being spun out by authorities and the right, allowing that it's in any way relevant that Martin was suspended from school once, for instance.
The niggering of Trayvon Martin works as every niggering does. It gives conservatives cover for their belief in the innate goodness of guns and the innate badness of anyone non-white who just dresses vaguely gangsta. It gives racists, open and closeted, a reason not to care. It allows them to see him as deserving of some punishment in general: if Zimmerman hadn't killed him, this narrative goes, well, fuck, chances are Martin would have been a criminal and better to get it over with now than pay for his incarceration.
The Rude Pundit read over Martin's "No_Limit_Nigga" Twitter postings, although he felt skeevy about it (and he's sure that Tucker Carlson didn't feel any skeevier than usual). It's pretty much a journey through retweets and responses and sexual shit that all fall into the category of "stupid shit teenagers say."
Then, on page 25, is this: "Retweet if your biggest fear is losing your Mom." Martin did so. Twice.
Yeah, reality is way more complicated. Or simple, really. If you take "nigger" out of the equation, you're left with "child."
Conservatives Shouldn't Make Videos:
Rick Santorum is losing his shit. Between agreeing to be Mitt Romney's bitch and saying to a New York Times reporter, "Quit distorting my words. It's bullshit," it's pretty obvious that Santorum is in the desperate end days of his unlikely long run as the last non-Romney standing, or "Le Fin du Douche," as the French call him.
One of the things it has always been easy to admire (yes, admire) about Santorum is that the motherfucker may be crazy as a shit fight in a monkey house, but he believes what he's saying. He's all-in. If you're gonna base your candidacy on your belief that Satan wins if you don't, own that shit. And nothing says nutzoid like Santorum's latest video from his campaign, not a Super PAC, wherein he imagines the color-drained hellscape that America will become if Barack Obama wins a second term. Because apparently you can put anything after the President's last name, it's called, "Obamaville":
That's right. Obama will force your children off playgrounds and take away one of their shoes. Hot women with whore-red lips will tell you to be quiet. You and your spouse will have nothing to chop on the butcher block but a bowl of grapefruit. Grapefruit, goddamnit. Little girls will dress in rags and sit in wooden rooms. Doctors will have long lines, says the narrator, but somehow hospital beds will remain empty. And all of a sudden gasoline will have the ability to pierce your skull. Old people will sit or stand quietly, knowingly. TV will mix up Mahmoud Ahmadenijad with the President in showing us our "enemies." Wall Street executives will toast each other at expensive restaurants. Wait, what? Oh, yeah, that's right. Santorum is the populist in this race so he must support regulating Wall Street. Right? No, didn't think so.
There's a word for this video, one that Santorum himself used.
However, for sheer bugfuckery, no one can top Herman Cain's newest new thing and its new video. You gotta watch and then think that he was once the GOP frontrunner:
Yes, the little girl sets up the cute bunny for catapulting and death by exploding bullets shot by a man who looks like the despicable spawn of Paul Ryan and Stephen Colbert. Yes, that's Herman Cain standing on a cliff at the end, looking for all the world like a man who is about to dive into the chasm and end it.
What's it about? Oh, small business regulation or some such shit that the Chamber of Commerce is forcing everyone to believe. Cain, though, is like the John Waters of the internet ad. There is no place too low for him.
Late Post Today:
Gotta pick up my hoodie from the dry cleaners. So glad that it doesn't have to be worn ironically anymore.
Back later with more gun-free rudeness.
Photos That Make the Rude Pundit Want to Break Out the Old Jackson Browne LPs:
That's the roughly 1000 people marching this week that didn't involve Trayvon Martin. It was more Birkenstock than hoodie, an old school protest against an old school enemy, nuclear power.
See, the Vermont Yankee plant's 40-year operating license expired Wednesday. Yesterday, protesters demanded that the collapsing, leaking facility be shut down. The problem, see, wasn't just the generating of electricity. The problem was the storage of radioactive waste at Vermont Yankee. It's actually against the law in Vermont. Entergy, the big damn energy conglomerate that bought the plant in 2002, sued to prevent the plant from being shut down and to stop the enforcement of the law. The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission gave Entergy a 20-year license for the plant. But the state's Public Service Board still gets to decide if it will license Vermont Yankee, as a federal judge ruled. Entergy, which really is just a corporation of lying, money-sucking bastards, is appealing, saying that it will sell electricity outside of the state and thus federal law should trump state. Ahh, what a sweet bind for conservatives. Nuclear power or federalism?
Meanwhile, Green Mountaineers protested yesterday, and they tried to get onto the grounds of Vermont Yankee. 130 people were arrested. More were arrested at Entergy's corporate offices in White Plains, NY, and down at its home office in New Orleans. Passions run high when a giant company is trying to profit off poisoning your air and ground and water.
Back on March 31, 1980, almost 32 years ago to the date, 75 people were arrested when another 1000 people marched on Vermont Yankee. It was the one-year anniversary of Three Mile Island, the "No Nukes" era. That accident was child's play compared to a protest in the wake of Fukushima.
Between this protest and the ones for the Trayvon Martin killing, it's depressing sometimes to think of how often we must fight the same fights.
The NRA and Florida Legislators Killed Trayvon Martin as Surely as a Gun Did:
Well, what the fuck did you expect, Florida, you limp, useless cock of the diseased body America? You make guns as easy to get as a package from Amazon (regular shipping), you pass concealed carry laws, and you pass a law that says that if people "have a reasonable belief that they are in danger of death or great bodily harm" they can kill the fuck out of someone out in public. No need to run away. No need to call the cops first. Just Spidey senses a-tingling. Did you not expect that at some point, some creepy vigilante wouldn't get the chance to live out his Batman fantasies? Of course, George Zimmerman, not being in the physical shape of Batman, was just a stupid asshole who shot a skinny, unarmed teenager because he felt threatened by black guys in hoodies walking through his 'hood.
Back on April 13, 2005, when the "Stand Your Ground" bill had just passed the Florida legislature, Bo Dietl, the former cop who appears on TV constantly to support law enforcement in his deranged goombah way (thus leading him to be a regular Daily Show and Colbert Report punchline interview subject), said on MSNBC's Scarborough Country that the new law was "idiotic" and a "ludicrous and ridiculous law. And Jeb Bush must be smoking a crack pipe...If you have a feeling, if you have a belief or that you are threatened, that you can react and react first, then you open up a whole Pandora's box here."
Anybody with a fucking brain, and even a few without, knew what was going to happen. In early 2005, when the bill was quickly debated and savagely passed, State Senator Steve Geller, a Democrat, warned, "I don't think you ought to be able to kill people that are walking toward you on the street because of this subjective belief that you're worried that they may get in a fight with you." The street, he said, is not your castle. (Note: Pat Buchanan said in 2005 on The McLaughlin Group that the law's passage was a "Great victory for Bush and for America." Is he dead yet?)
Politicians, on the right and in the middle, are to blame for Trayvon Martin's execution. All over the nation, but especially in Florida, the National Rifle Association threatens to destroy any legislator who refuses to bend over and let it shove cash into their assholes. The NRA wants an exception to the 3-day waiting period for people with concealed carry licenses, as they did in the Sunshine State? The Republicans in Tallahassee line up and open their asses for that cash to be shoveled in, along with the promise that the almighty motherfucking NRA will support them in a primary. And then, their asses full to their lower intestines with filthy money, the legislators get on their knees in front of NRA lobbyist Marion Hammer as she holds a pistol between her legs and they suck on it until the barrel has rubbed her kooz to orgasm. Then they pass every idiotarded law the gun nuts want under the umbrella of "rights." That's how the NRA works, motherfuckers, and then they tell us it's to keep us safe.
Seriously, if the ACLU were as deranged in defending the First Amendment as the NRA is in defending its distorted version of the Second, you'd be able to walk up to a crucifixion statue in the middle of St. Boyrape's Cathedral, shit on Christ's face, and claim "freedom of expression," and the laws would back you up and how dare anyone be such a pussy as to claim that shitting on Christ's face isn't free speech.
Trayvon Martin was killed by a gun. No, guns alone don't kill people. People with guns do, though. And, chances are, if George Zimmerman wasn't carrying one, he wouldn't have pursued Martin. He wouldn't have ignored the 911 operator's call for him to stand down. And Martin would still be alive.
Ten Other Toys Mitt Romney Is Like:
In honor of presidential candidate Mitt Romney's communications director, Eric Fehrnstrom, who said this morning on CNN that after the primaries, "Everything changes. It’s almost like an Etch-A-Sketch. You can kind of shake it up and restart all of over again," thus making his candidate's beliefs seem as ephemeral as a child's knob-drawn puppy, here's a few other toys Romney can use as analogies for himself:
1. Hugo: The Man of a Thousand Faces
2. Pet Rock
3. Big Loo (no, sorry, not a giant toilet, but that'd work, too)
4. See 'N Say
5. Mr. Machine
6. Crackers, the Parrot
7. Magic Window
8. Magic 8-Ball
9. Pie Face Game
10. Silly Putty
The Rude Pundit on Monday's Stephanie Miller Show (and a Correction):
Yesterday, on the soon-to-be-on-Current-TV Stephanie Miller Show, among other issues, the Rude Pundit mocked Rick Santorum's belief in acts of God. And then he and Stephanie Miller got all disgusted and confused about the GOP's war on women.
Correction: Like many a person writing about Mike Daisey and This American Life, the Rude Pundit said the Ira Glass program was from NPR. That's wrong. It's produced by Chicago Public Media and distributed by PRI. NPR stations just buy it and play it. And if you can tell the difference, more power to you. The Rude Pundit apologizes, but would like to say that he made the error only for the sake of the dramatic point of the blog post and he stands by the truth of it, even if it was totally wrong. (Tip o' the hat to rude reader S.L., who has become kind of the unofficial fact checker/grammar goon of this blog.)
Justice for the Orange-Shirted Employees:
So here's the alleged story. It's a seemingly simple one, but it gets complicated later. A group of fourteen employees, paralegals, assistants, others, at the law office of Elizabeth R. Wellborn in Deerfield Beach, Florida, wanted to show their pride and unity for a payday night out last Friday. It had become a tradition, four of them said, to wear orange shirts on Fridays, when the happy hours of local bars called them to celebration. They were all going to go out together. They wore orange, in Florida, by the way, which grows a shitload of, well, you know, because they wanted the other happy hour party people to know they were together: a large group of workers who actually enjoyed each other's company at the start of the weekend.
Apparently, an executive at the firm was told or believed that the orange shirting was a protest of some kind. And he called all 14 so-shirted employees to a conference room, asked what the shirts meant, was told it didn't mean protest, and fired them on the spot. For wearing the shirts. Said one fired paralegal, "There is no office policy against wearing orange shirts. We had no warning. We got no severance, no package, no nothing."
Funny thing is that if they had been whistleblowers, they would have had protection. And if they were all part of a religious group that demanded the adorning of the self with orange on the fifth day, they could not have been fired, according to Florida law. But because they were just regular people who did something that annoyed some lawyer or executive at the Wellborn offices, they have no recourse. That's because Florida is an at-will state with regard to employment. And that means that any employer can fire any employee for any reason at any time, with limited exceptions (like contracts or adherence to federal laws). And the employer never has to tell you why you were fired because it doesn't fucking matter. Your boss could dislike the smell of your farts and fire you. Your boss could dislike it if you don't like the smell of his farts and fire you. Fart-related firing is rampant, in case you didn't know.
And you wouldn't. Because, again, in at-will states, ones that don't have good faith covenants, you can get a phone call that says, "You're fired," and you never have to be told why. Essentially, it could be called "Joseph K's law" because of how Kafkaesque it is. Labor lawyers in Florida are saying that there is nothing that can be done about the Orange Shirted 14, that nothing in the firing violates the law.
How do you like that freedom, America? The freedom from government interference in the ability of a capricious boss to fuck up your life? And if you tried to change the law to prevent firing without cause, businesspeople, allied with conservatives, would get the outrage machine a-running because, you see, any time the government does anything to protect labor, it's socialism run amok. Any time the government does anything to protect capital, it's just, you know, good ol' fashioned capitalism.
Want an extra kick in the nuts with this story? That'd be what exactly the firm of Elizabeth R. Wellborn does. It's a bunch of cocks and cunts representing banks and mortgage firms. Well, here's how the website describes what they do: "We are proud to represent institutional and private lenders in the reclamation of titled assets. We maintain attorneys who are well versed in replevin, attachment and foreclosure. In fact, the foreclosure department represents the lender in the reacquisition of real estate assets, resale of those assets in it's 'REO' department and pursues deficiency judgments in effort to make our clients whole." Business must be mighty damn good, too, because foreclosure rates remain high for that area of the state, in the sweet spot between Boca Raton and Fort Lauderdale.
Oh, and Wellborn goes that extra mile: "Our Post-Sale and Eviction Departments manage the steps necessary to move a foreclosed property, occupied or not, out onto the market." Don't worry, though, homeowner, because of Wellborn's loss mitigation people who are ready to help you: "This department assists our clients in providing alternatives to foreclosure; promoting home retention and protecting the interest of our clients." Now, what do you think the firm has a greater stake in doing?
Goddamn, how this complicates our story, does it not? Sure, one of the fired people said, "I’m a single mom with four kids, and I’m out of a job just because I wore orange today." How easy it would be to say, "Fuck you. You worked for the motherfuckers, the bad guys. You were one of Mr. Potter's goons, asshole. Reap what you've sown."
But even assholes don't deserve to lose their jobs working for motherfuckers just because they wore orange shirts one day. If you want justice to rain on the righteous, you have to let it drip all the way down.
Mike Daisey, Foxconn, and the Art of the Theatrical Lie:
I saw Mike Daisey perform his monologue The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs at the Public Theater in New York about a month ago. It was fine, like watching Spalding Gray channel Sam Kinison, but nothing special beyond what Daisey revealed he had seen. (He totally blew the comic possibilities of the moment when Apple phoned Jobs to offer him his old job back.) Now, the Rude Pundit's not gonna say he had suspicions about Daisey's story of his visit to Shenzhen, China, and the Foxconn factory where many Apple products are made. But the Rude Pundit did occasionally think throughout the piece, "Damn, that's convenient and coincidental." Still, he didn't doubt the veracity of the tale. He has been in situations where the number of experiences he had in a short timespan seemed downright miraculous. Daisey has performed the show for tens of thousands of people over the last couple of years.
Daisey was featured on an episode of This American Life, which led to his appearance on MSNBC shows, on Real Time with Bill Maher, in the New York Times. He was a performance artist who was having a moment in the sun, and, really, who could blame him after over a decade of doing one-man plays? Did you go to China? Did you talk to Foxconn workers after you heard about the spate of suicides in 2010? Did you pretend you were a businessman so you could get inside the factories? No, you didn't. You thought about it for a moment, you got outraged briefly, and then you waited until the Joseph Kony video came out to care about something else. (No, not you, dear reader, but a more general "you.") Daisey, though, became the de facto spokesperson for the outraged Apple product buyer who wants iShit made without liberal guilt.
Now that it's come out that Daisey outright lied about details of his experience, about people he met, about meetings he had, about places he went, he was called back to Chicago Public Media's This American Life for an episode about his fabrications and the show's retraction of its original episode, during which Daisey lied to producers who were fact-checking the story. You do not fuck with Ira Glass. That bespectacled motherfucker does an NPR version of pimp-slapping in one of the more uncomfortable interviews you'll ever hear. The transcript is available, but you gotta hear it to get the full agony of Mike Daisey.
As a writer who likes to fuck around with reality (see: any blog post regarding a certain leather slave or ones subtitled "A Fantasia"), the Rude Pundit is sympathetic to Daisey's defense that he was using artistic license for the sake of theatrical effect. Or, as Daisey tells Glass, "I don’t know that I would say in a theatrical context that it isn’t true. I believe that when I perform it in a theatrical context in the theater that when people hear the story in those terms that we have different languages for what the truth means." One way to justify this is that Mike Daisey was performing "Mike Daisey," and that "Mike Daisey" did have all these experiences, like meeting workers with shaking, gnarled hands or poisoned by chemicals used at a plant. It's the difference between Stephen Colbert and "Stephen Colbert." And, in Daisey's theatrical world, that works.
Except not this time. See, Daisey was the beneficiary of amazing timing. Steve Jobs died just before his show opened. And many, many people who might not have seen it did so. And because they did, he was dealing with audiences who didn't get that "Mike Daisey" might be a fabrication, a combination of various people and their experiences. But what happened was that Mike Daisey was enjoying attention that a downtown, unknown-outside-of-theatrical-circles artist was getting, and he was becoming something else. And he allowed everyone to believe that "Mike Daisey" was real. Hell, he might have started believing it. Or maybe he thought he was extending his performance to a different type of performance space. Either way, he was fucking with real feelings. He was fucking with real lives. Even as he was fudging the facts.
What's most aggravating is that Daisey didn't have to embellish the details and allegations of the treatment of workers in China. He could have referenced them as things he was told by activists. One part of the monologue that doesn't get much discussion is the part the Rude Pundit enjoyed most: the story of the life of Steve Jobs. Daisey stuck to the real story. He didn't make up a meeting with Jobs. It's storytelling at its most compelling. And it was an easily verifiable tale.
The most disappointing thing about Daisey's justification for lying to Glass, to all the other news sources, and to his theatre audiences is that he didn't just admit the real, honest-to-fuck truth: Daisey thought he could get away with it. He didn't because of the oldest tragic flaw in theatre: hubris. He saw a chance to be more than what he had been. He went for it. And he fucked it up. It's kind of a slap in the face to all the theatre artists who say they are giving you facts and do not lie. Daisey's refusal to call "bullshit" on himself is weak, and a weak man can't lead a movement.
As for Apple, China, Foxconn, and the workers, well, to be cynical, welcome to the world. This is how your shit is made. It ain't just your electronics, but almost all of it. Do you like your shit? Do you like what you pay for your shit? Then what the fuck are you gonna do about it other than complain. Daisey himself says his goal is just to "spread the virus" of the knowledge germs he's spitting at you. That's setting a pretty low bar for global workers' rights.
Oh, one other thing about Daisey's show that bugged the hell out of the Rude Pundit. Daisey presents himself as a lifelong Apple product fetishist. But after everything he saw and heard, he never says he gave up his Macbook Air or his iPad or his iPhone or his desktop. In fact, he tells us at various times that he still uses them. It is probably the most honest, truthful part of the play.
Here, do your homework so we'll be on the same page later this afternoon.
Conservatives Are More Concerned With Twats Than Vaginas:
According to almighty Nexis, Fox "news" has mentioned the word "ultrasound" once in the last month, and that was from Juan Williams, in his role as Fox's designated not-insane-sort-of-moderate guy, talking about "invasive ultrasounds" to Bill O'Reilly. However, the name "Bill Maher" appears on 48 different segments, sometimes multiple times, more than once a day, every time being some reference or other to that time a year ago when Maher called Sarah Palin a "dumb twat" on his HBO show and a "cunt" during his stage show. Maher donated a million dollars to President Obama's Super PAC, which allows Republicans to tie Maher to Obama. Mostly, though, it's meant as a kind of sexist equivalence to Rush Limbaugh's sustained, mulit-day verbal assault on Sandra Fluke, who, according to conservatives, was a total cunt for wanting to express an opinion on contraceptive coverage. It was a way to draw fire away from Limbaugh.
By the way, the phrase "t-word" appears nine times on Fox. It was not short for "transvaginal."
In other words, the right-wing commentariat is way more concerned about assaultive words for "vagina" than actual, physical assaults on them. It's so absurd that Peggy Noonan, in her latest "column" (if by "column," you mean, "laughably earnest stupid shit"), says that the real "war on women" is not all this silly discussion about abortion limitations and contraception coverage. Oh, no, it's really liberal men saying mean things about Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann. Noonan might wanna check with Hillary Clinton while you're talking about comedians and pundits being sexist dickheads to a woman who happens to be a public figure.
And Noonan and Michelle Malkin and Sean Hannity and every other right-wing woman who has jumped on the "dumb twat" train might want to talk to women who are forced, by laws that are proliferating around the country, to endure a kind of mental and physical torture in order to get a legal abortion, performed by doctors who don't want to do the torture, but must under penalty of loss of license. They might wonder what's more sexist: saying that Michelle Bachmann is a "bimbo" or the governor of Pennsylvania saying that women forced to have an ultrasound "just have to close your eyes" if doing so is a burden. But they won't.
When women on the left complain about sexism in words, written and spoken, sometimes about this very blog you are reading now, you pigs, they are doing it from a consistent position of defending women's rights. When women on the right do so, it's done as a way to discredit the left. "See," they say, as Noonan does, "Bill Maher may say he supports feminist causes, but he said, 'Cunt.'"
Meanwhile, they'll use it as a way of negating the words of Limbaugh and Dennis Miller and other conservatives. But, more importantly, they'll use it as way of pretending to care about the place of women in America while saying not a peep about government-mandated medical procedures. They'll condemn the "twat," but not defend vaginas or the women who own them.
Syria and Afghanistan: The Endless Shadow of Bush and Cheney (Part 1):
It was stated as plain fact, a mere detail, in a Fox "news" online article about al-Qaeda supposedly taking advantage of the uprising in Syria to expand its influence in the region. Mentioning the release of another supposed terrorist, the article says he "was captured in Pakistan 2005 and was in CIA custody until he was sent back to Syria as part of the controversial rendition program." There you are. It's just something we're supposed to accept and move on about: the United States sent people to Syria because we knew they'd be tortured there.
And that's not even getting into the story of Maher Arar, which is an awful and disgusting tale.
Now, with constant streams of torture videos coming out of Syria, with the savage crackdown on the uprising there, hearing President Obama condemning the "outrageous bloodshed" and demanding Bashar al-Assad to step down just makes the Rude Pundit's feel like he's gotten a gut punch. Because all he can think is, "Now, where did the Syrians get the idea that they could just go on with torturing and killing innocent people with only ongoing financial sanctions imposed?" And, of course, that'd be us when we gave them prisoners and said, "Oh, hey, you know that torture thing you're good at? I mean, I know we hate each other and shit, but can you do a bro a solid and break out the electric nut prod for these dudes?"
Sure, yeah, fine, that was the Bush administration, all the goons and ghouls that led us into the dark ride into the dark side for so long. And we want to say that we've emerged, but we haven't. The policy continues, with the added fun of no-trial execution. Time and again, one thing is going to come back to haunt this country and that's the failure of our government to hold anyone accountable for crimes, like knowingly giving people over to psychopaths because we wanted their hands to be bloody while ours were just wet with waterboarding.
So Obama and Pelosi and Reid gave 'em all a pass, all the Bush criminals. And, now, once again, one of our monstrous minions has gone rogue and we are in the position of having no fucking high ground. Jesus Christ, at least Canadians know how to treat war criminals: you drive them out, you make them cower and shit themselves in corners, you spit out their presence like a diseased cock you were forced to put in your mouth at gunpoint. Dick Cheney was supposed to speak in Toronto, but, because there might have been a fucking riot (and maybe an attempt to arrest him), he canceled. Would that America would treat its depraved ex-leaders as pariahs.
Here, unless you are some poor fucker who looks vaguely Middle Easterny and suspicious, you're allowed to live your life, with the imprimatur of innocence consecrating your several homes and big money speaking engagements.
Until we are willing to face our crimes, we will be a lost nation. Until we are willing to end our crimes, we deserve to be lost. The Bush administration is an ongoing eclipse of a mythical moral authority, so much so that when President Obama speaks out against torture and murder, all we can think is that it must be degrees of bloodshed, not the acts themselves, that get condemned.
The Ultra-Christian Family Research Council Thinks We're All Slaves to Planned Parenthood:
The Rude Pundit belongs to a special group, if by "special," you mean, "Don't give them sharp utensils." That is the Super-Duper Prayer Team of the Family Research Council (motto: "Come for the gay-bashing idiocy; stay for the anti-contraception craziness"). Every week, we loyal, longtime SDPT superfriends are given our orders on what for and how to offer supplication to God and God, Jr. Usually it goes like this: "Stop the gays, stop abortion, stop the gays, stop abortion, fuck the Muslims, save Israel, stop the gays."
Sometimes, though, the strange focus is goddamned weird and amazing. Like this week. We're supposed to fall on our knees and offer our pretty mouths up for some prayllatio because of an eeevil organization that is destroying us all. Referencing discredited videos by a James O'Keefe wannabe (but why?) that supposedly show Planned Parenthood helping a pimp get medical care for his child prostitutes, the FRC tells us, "No wonder several states have decided to end aid for the criminal abortion operation."
We are told, really, "Pray the states, one by one, will break free from Planned Parenthood. May the next President and Congress (House AND Senate), demolish the unholy yoke that has bound American federal taxpayers to the abortion holocaust and the criminal activities of the nation's largest abortion enterprise." Man, that's some scary shit. And luckily, the FRC SDPT is provided with Bible verses that give us the proper perspective. Where is abortion and taxpayer funding of family planning in the good book, you ask?
You are an unbelieving fuckbag, you fuckbag. Why it's in 1 Corinthinans, chapter 7, verse 21, according to our prayer letter: "For he that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord's freeman: likewise also he that is called, being free, is Christ's servant." Exactly. Wait, what the fuck does that mean?
Never mind. Surely it's about aborting Jesus or something.
The Right Can't Stop Attacking Sandra Fluke:
"Sandra Fluke is the model Welfare Queen for the 21st Century," writes American Spectator contributing editor Jed Babbin. "Welfare Queen Fluke will never produce anything of value to society. She will fit easily into the industry of regulation, bigger government, and reduced personal freedoms. She believes everything she wants -- birth control, abortion, whatever -- is an entitlement for which the government must pay."
The basic issue surrounding Fluke is "that a society in which middle-aged children of privilege testify before the most powerful figures in the land to demand state-enforced funding for their sex lives at a time when their government owes more money than anyone has ever owed in the history of the planet is quite simply nuts. As stark staring nuts as the court of Ranavalona, the deranged nymphomaniac queen of Madagascar at whose funeral the powder keg literally went up, killing dozens and burning down three royal palaces," writes Mark Steyn in the National Review. (Note: The Rude Pundit has no idea what any of that means.)
"If Ms. Fluke wants to have sex, then take the personal responsibility to pay for it. It's called growing up," intones Jeffrey Kuhner in the Washington Times. "She is saying that having sex without getting pregnant is more important than the conscience rights of the Catholic Church. This is progressive tyranny, a form of liberal bigotry against Christians who abide by the teachings of their faith."
"Ms. Fluke's crusade for reproductive justice is simply a demand that a Catholic institution pay for drugs that make it possible for her to have sex without getting pregnant," says Cathy Ruse in the Wall Street Journal.
So many, so wrong. All irrationally angry because one woman was asked to speak to a congressional committee regarding a rule clarification by the Secretary of Health and Human Services.
(Note: The Rude Pundit is having a serious case of the writer's block when it comes to bloggery. Hopefully, he'll drink his way through it. If not, he may need to call in the pill guy. If that doesn't work, he'll call the powder guy. If that doesn't work, he'll call the virgin sacrifice guy. One way or another, he'll deal with it.)
On a Day When You've Got Nothing to Say, Sometimes You Just Say Nothing:
Yeah, it'd be fine to write about what backwards ass yahoos the Republicans are in Mississippi and Alabama, since a majority either believe Barack Obama is a Muslim or don't know and 2/3 don't believe in evolution, but why? Is it a surprise? Is there a spin to put on it other than "Goddamn, them's some backwards ass motherfuckers"? So, nope, not that.
Or perhaps it'd be fun to write about Mitt Romney's pathetic attempts to act Southern. At this point, would you be surprised if he said, "Well, I've hired darkies, too"? Or Rick Santorum's patheticer attempts to seem tough? Or Newt Gingrich's patheticest attempts to stay relevant to anyone other than Newt Gingrich?
And the Rude Pundit can't write about the flick Game Change because he didn't watch it and who the fuck cares? Woody Harrelson is bald? Julianne Moore does a great Sarah Palin? Jesus, he'd rather dangle his balls over a bear trap than have to relive the 2008 election from the losing side.
No, no, and fuck no. And you know what? Bill Maher and Rush Limbaugh can say whatever the fuck they want. And the people who protest them can say whatever the fuck they want, whether that's through nasty blogging or phone calls to sponsors. That's free speech, sloppy and joyful and hurtful, as it should be.
Tomorrow, there will be time, there will be time for more. But for now, enjoy a few minutes of the one-year anniversary episode of Cheater and the Rude, the Rude Pundit's online radio concern (with Jeff Kreisler, too). This one features a thoroughly filthy appearance by Stephanie Miller, whose radio show will be simulcast on Current TV.
Blackheart's being a little bitch, and now it looks like Mephisto's getting involved. This might take a while.
Back later with more demonic rudeness.
Texas to Poor Women: Your Health Is Subject to Our Politics:
That is not, despite its look, a Taco Bell that served its last chalupa. No, that is one of the two Planned Parenthood clinics in Brownsville, Texas, which is on the border with Mexico. It closed last October as Texas started gutting funding for any program that provided money for women's health because money went to Planned Parenthood. The roughly 1000 patients' records, almost all low-income women, were moved to the last Planned Parenthood office in town. That clinic, while providing the morning-after pill, does not offer abortion services. If you want that, you can go to Mexico. It's closer than the nearest town in Texas where Brownsville women can get help, and you're not forced to look at a sonogram and wait a day.
But because some Planned Parenthoods do offer abortions, the Texas legislature and Governor Rick Perry have decided to stop accepting the $35 million in the federal aid from the Medicaid Women's Health Program because Planned Parenthood cannot be barred from receiving funds. Perry has now said the the state will provide funding for clinics that are not Planned Parenthood, in response to a general outcry, but he has not said how Texas will get the money.
One clinic that is funded directly by the federal government is the Brownsville Community Health Center. Its women's health branch serves 7,700 women with just two doctors on staff. Women that relied on the Texas Medicaid Women's Health Program often went to Planned Parenthood. With that option off the table, the BCHC is expecting an influx of thousands of new patients, and it can't take them, even if Texas fully funds the program without the federal government's help. There's only so many people a clinic can see, you know.
Which means, quite clearly and explicitly, that women will suffer for the crime of being poor in Texas. Everything's bigger there, even the dickishness.
What the GOP Is Really Saying: This Isn't That Important of a Presidential Election:
You've heard it repeatedly, no? How this year is the most importantest presidential election in the history of electin' elections ever electified. Bestial New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said as much when he endorsed Mitt Romney last October: "This is the most important election in generations." RNC Chair Reince "Yes, We All Know What His Name Is Without the Vowels" Priebus has said the same thing since at least last May, even comparing it to the battle fought for the founding of the nation itself. Grandma-kicking Republican Congressman Paul Ryan said in September, "This election this is going to be the most important election in our generation."
Oh, the warnings are dire, too. Sad accountant-looking Governor Mitch Daniels said, in the GOP response to President Obama's State of the Union, "So 2012 is a year of true opportunity, maybe our last, to restore an America of hope and upward mobility, and greater equality." Damn, we are on a fuckin' precipice, people. Don't you get it?
You can't read or listen or watch most conservative commentators without hearing, as Bill O'Reilly said back in December, "2012 will be the most important election in our lifetimes." Or some variation. In a generation. In, like, forever. Sean Hannity's said it. Ann Coulter's said it. The columnists at the conservative toilet known as "Townhall.com" wear the phrase "most important election" like the entrails of a goat in order to create some voodoo that makes what they say real.
And it's a big fucking lie, as it almost always is. How do we know it's a big fucking lie in 2012? Because if it was such an all-consuming, nation-changing, do-or-die, end of hope presidential election, then Republicans who might actually win would get step up to prevent American armageddon. So, we can conclude, pretty goddamn easily, that either it ain't all that important or that Christie, Bush, Ryan, Daniels, and whatever other GOP savior candidates you wanna toss into that heap are a bunch of selfish pussies. Well, that last part is no doubt true, but it's a special kind of pussification that they've got if they're gonna let their country go down the drain rather than run.
No, instead, what the smart Republicans know at this point is simple:
1. Obama is going to win.
2. And, really, that ain't so bad for the country.
So, you know, why bother? Let Mitt waste a chunk of change on this one. See you in 2016, motherfuckers. (By the way, it's frightening that the Rude Pundit and George Will agree on this point.)
Anyone with their heads out of their asses knows that Obama governs as a moderate, with some inclinations left and some inclinations right. And he's obviously been very, very good for rich people. What's a Republican going to do differently? Just outright force poor people to find their local Mr. Burns and hand him their wallets and purses?
At this point, Romney, Gingrich, and Santorum have all played the "most important election" card. But they're just pathetically trying to get people even vaguely interested in voting. If you're a guy, you know that point where you've done so much coke and tequila that, no matter how much Viagra you take, your dick ain't getting hard? And instead of giving up and telling the hot dude you're with you're just gonna call it a night, you sit there, yelling at your cock and yanking on it until it's chafed and sore, but that little bastard is done? Yeah, that's where we are right now in the primary process.
Sure, yes, in the abstract, all presidential elections are really, really important because the person we put in there can blow up the world. The only way you know if something is the most important election is from what happens after. 2000 was actually the most important in our lives, but most of the country didn't realize that until sometime in about 2005. And what the GOP's strongest stars know, even though they say the opposite, is that it's more important that they stay home than risk their brand to a losing race.
So you have to believe that Chris Christie wants the nation to collapse into ruin, which automatically disqualifies him as a viable candidate, or he knows that the drama queens of the right are actually pawns to be sacrificed in a bigger game, which will continue just fine.
Photos That Make the Rude Pundit Want to Snort Tang Off the Bridge of Callista's Nose:
That's GOP presidential candidate and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich yesterday at Huntsville, Alabama's U.S. Space and Rocket Center. It's also the home of Space Camp. And that's a big damn rocket he's standing in front of, welcoming it with open arms, like it's God's cock and he's just so happy to suck it. A merry stop on the way to Atlanta.
Of course, Gingrich talked up the space program, and symbolically referenced his campaign, with "This is the launching pad for the next phase of excitement in invention." And, bizarrely, he brought up Saturday Night Live, which still wasn't as bad as his even more bizarre victory speech after the results of the Super Tuesday Georgia primary. Said Newt, "Far from backing off, I invite Saturday Night Live to come to Huntsville to tape one of their skits. They can tape it at the Space Camp. Because I want to restate: America has a destiny in space. That’s who we are." And that's some thin skin on a big boy.
As egotistical as the bloated avatar for all things craven and awful in American politics was, it was hard to top Gingrich's spokesman, R.C. Hammond, for pure, unadulterated batshittery while supporting his man: "The same folks who mocked Newt Gingrich are the same people who don’t want to cure cancer, who don’t want to cure Alzheimer’s, who don’t want to fix our public school system." You got that? If you think Gingrich is a ludicrous shit dumpling who should be tossed out in the garbage of history, you want old people to have Alzheimer's. Ahh, logic.
Back at Space Camp, Gingrich turned around and bent over, ready for the rocket to give him the full force of its next phase of excitement.
American Attorney General Says It's Cool for America to Kill Americans:
So, not to veer from our happy dance over the impending doom of rotund junkie Rush Limbaugh (not quite so epically Breitbartian, but it'll do), but the Rude Pundit must say a thing or two about Attorney General Eric Holder's sanctimonious, bullshit speech justifying warrantless surveillance, military tribunals, and the murder of American citizens abroad at Northwestern University law school yesterday. If this had been Alberto Gonzales or Michael Mukasey, the cacophony of outrage on the left would have been loud and sustained. Some Democrats would have campaigned on their anger about the executive branch being judge, jury, and executioner. Instead, we'll get a few blog posts and maybe a New York Times editorial, if they're in the mood.
After offering support for military commissions and trials, Holder veered into what ought to be the most controversial aspect of the Obama administration's continuation and expansion of Bush administration policies, the constitutionality of targeted killings, whether on the technical battlefield of Afghanistan or anywhere else in the world, especially whether or not that can include Americans. Said the AG, "Now, it is an unfortunate but undeniable fact that some of the threats we face come from a small number of United States citizens who have decided to commit violent attacks against their own country from abroad...the government must take into account all relevant constitutional considerations with respect to United States citizens – even those who are leading efforts to kill innocent Americans. Of these, the most relevant is the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause, which says that the government may not deprive a citizen of his or her life without due process of law." And then he followed with the chilling statement that "due process" can mean, in essence, that the President has determined an American should be killed, with no judicial review, not even FISA, and that what we've always understood "due process" to mean as Americans is, in fact, worthless. Jesus, that's an expansive, breathtaking, frightening thought because, one day, President Trig Palin might have that power, too.
Holder kept coming back to the question of violent acts. In determining who is worthy of a drone missile in their face, Holder said that one of the principles must be that "the U.S. government has determined, after a thorough and careful review, that the individual poses an imminent threat of violent attack against the United States." And what does that mean? "The evaluation of whether an individual presents an 'imminent threat' incorporates considerations of the relevant window of opportunity to act, the possible harm that missing the window would cause to civilians, and the likelihood of heading off future disastrous attacks against the United States...the Constitution does not require the President to delay action until some theoretical end-stage of planning – when the precise time, place, and manner of an attack become clear. Such a requirement would create an unacceptably high risk that our efforts would fail, and that Americans would be killed."
Yet when the U.S. blew the shit out of Anwar al-Awlaki, he had not been charged with killing or plotting to kill anyone. And post-shit-blown, there wasn't even a half-hearted effort to paint him as actively involved in violence. He was a propagandist who occasionally hung out with people who did bad shit. Simply put, al-Awlaki's case fails Holder's first test. That renders everything else Holder said the simpering, mollifying lies of the powerful.
The biggest lie, among a pile of Yoo-worthy lies, is that everything is justified because this is a war we're in, goddamnit, and do you want to die? Do you? Hell, Holder even gave an example from the last "good" war: "[D]uring World War II, the United States tracked the plane flying Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto – the commander of Japanese forces in the attack on Pearl Harbor and the Battle of Midway – and shot it down specifically because he was on board." Yeah, and?
The effort to stop terrorism is not a war. Hell, our actual war, the one in Afghanistan, is barely one. We can keep calling the fight against a few hundred, disorganized, widespread asshole zealots with guns a war. But it ain't one. "War," in this case, is just a legalistic term of art that frees the hand of the Executive to do whatever the fuck he wants, which, if the Rude Pundit recalls, we kind of hated under Bush and Cheney. If Holder or Obama said we were just pursuing criminals, which is what we're doing, they'd have to follow niceties, like civil rights and protections. But we can't have that, now, can we, or we'd just seem weak?
Oh, good, sweet people of the left, this is less about bashing Obama and more about holding to a principle. What Holder's saying is pretty much the exact opposite of what the country was founded on, since the King being able to get all killy without trial was one of the problems mentioned in, you know, the Declaration of Independence. So it's curious that there's so much silence about this on our side, as curious as it is that non-Ron Paul Republicans who can't stand the idea of the government making you have health insurance have no problem with the government just outright blowing you up where you stand.
Don't worry, though. As Holder said, "In this hour of danger, we simply cannot afford to wait until deadly plans are carried out – and we will not. This is an indicator of our times – not a departure from our laws and our values." See? We're murdering Americans in accordance with our values. Of course, Holder also said, just a moment earlier, that "it is important to note that the legal requirements I have described may not apply in every situation." So, you know, there's always an out.
In Brief: Limbaugh Knows He's Better Than You Are (Despite All Evidence to the Contrary):
Our story so far: torpid talk slob Rush Limbaugh spent three days last week calling 30 year-old Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke a "slut" and a "prostitute" who wants to fuck as often as her vagina can take it while the government pays for her birth control because she can't afford it. In the course of the three days, Limbaugh said he wanted Fluke and other women to send him videos of their intercourse. He talked about the "babes" fucking around. He said, repeatedly, that Sandra Fluke wants to be paid for having sex. He equated contraceptive pill coverage with a requirement to buy everyone a car if they like having sex in the back seat.
In the wake of the understandable uproar, sponsors began to flee Limbaugh's show this weekend. On Saturday, Limbaugh released a statement where he once again decided that the issue was about what women do with their leisure time and asked if the government should provide running shoes to those who want to exercise (meaning "Not Limbaugh"). He offered, "I chose the wrong words in my analogy of the situation," by which he meant "slut" and "prostitute," although one could certainly read that as saying, "I should have said 'whore' and 'cunt.'" And, after days of personally attacking Fluke, by name, Limbaugh said, "I did not mean a personal attack on Ms. Fluke...in the attempt to be humorous, I created a national stir." It's like a mugger taking your wallet and beating your face in, but saying that it's nothing personal. It's just business.
Today, on his show, Limbaugh went further. He insisted that his offense boiled down to the aforementioned two words, which is pretty much the definition of "doesn't get it" or "doesn't give a shit." Oh, he was sincere in apologizing, saying that he had become like people on the left, that he "ended up descending to their level."
That's right. The man who used to get rid of callers he didn't like with "caller abortions," complete with a vacuum sound and a baby crying, the man who mocked Michael J. Fox's Parkinson's disease with exaggerated shaking, said that "I've always tried to maintain a very high degree of integrity" on his show. Because he's so fucking noble.
Oh, he also admitted that he slanted the story about Fluke's testimony (well, really, he outright lied, but still...). Yes, he blamed the CNS story, "Sex-Crazed Co-Eds Going Broke Buying Birth Control, Student Tells Pelosi Hearing Touting Freebie Mandate," which he had cited repeatedly last week. Said Limbaugh today, "I focused on that because I was simply trying to persuade people, change people's minds." Screw facts. Screw the whole story. All that matters is that dittoheads know what to ditto.
And thus Limbaugh will go on, damaged, but unbowed. He's now tainted, but you can bet that all of his listeners see him as the victim here and that, six months, a year from now, nearly all of those sponsors will be back. But maybe, just maybe, he will be poisonous enough to be nothing more than a deranged cult leader, a deaf and dumb and dying dinosaur in the tar pit of his fading career.
The Ghost of Andrew Breitbart is kicking the Rude Pundit in the head, giving him a helluva migraine. He's gotta drug the fucker away and be back later with more ghoulish rudeness.
Brief Weekend Bonus: Rush Limbaugh Has Become the Rude Pundit's 1994 Parody of Him:
Back in the early-mid-1990s, as he's discussed here before, a young Rude Pundit ran a weekly radio show on Knoxville, Tennessee's WUTK-FM called Radio Free Theatre. Once a month, we'd feature a parody of Rush Limbaugh called, oh-so-cleverly, "The Rich Flemball Show." The Rude Pundit wrote the monologues and an actor, Mark Creter, would portray Flemball, taking calls from unsuspecting listeners (along with some set-ups).
Without getting into a big story, here's a quote from a 1994 episode, where, discussing his new book, See, I Told You I'd Eat It, Flemball mocks Jesse Jackson: "Take, for instance, my chapter on crime in this country. I quote the Reverend Jesse Jackson saying, 'The government has a responsibility to provide people with hope, hope in their schools, hope in their communities, hope in their homes. Only through hope will the minority community be able to achieve its greatest potential.' And then he went on and on, talking about personal responsibility. But, as I show in the book, the Reverend Jesse Jackson's axiom fails completely. Simple change the word 'hope' with 'souped up white Cadillac' and you'll see what I mean. 'The government has a responsibility to provide people with souped up white Cadillacs, souped up white Cadillacs in their schools, souped up white Cadillacs in their communities, souped up white Cadillacs in their homes. Only through souped up white Cadillacs will the minority community be able to achieve its greatest potential.'"
Oh, how funny. It's an analogy so inane, meaningless, and ludicrous that no one who said it could possibly be taken seriously. Flemball was meant to be an extreme version of the rotund radio host.
Now, here's Limbaugh this week, talking about the contraception coverage debate: "You know, folks, millions of women enjoy sex in the back of a car. You have some women that can't afford a car. What are we to do? What is our solution to women who prefer sex in the backseat of a car but can't afford a car?"
Limbaugh has become, in the most literal sense, his own parody.
The Most Bizarrely Offensive Shit Rush Limbaugh Said About Sandra Fluke:
It has truly been one of the more bizarro episodes in the entire sad life of sad fat man Rush Limbaugh. The radio talk show host (and let's be clear: that's what he is and that's all he is) took it on himself to go after Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke for her testimony to a Democratic congressional committee on a mandate that religious-connected institutions and businesses provide contraception coverage for women (which was put together after Darrell Issa's awesome sausage-fest hearing). Eminently reasonable and rational, Fluke offered medical reasons beyond stopping pregnancy for providing a drug that keeps many women just plain healthy. This is not to mention the simple fact that, in order for contraceptive pills to work, they have to be taken daily, and it's not one pill per coitus session.
Limbaugh and others on the right decided that this meant Fluke wanted to fuck all the time. And for two days now (and probably today), Limbaugh has been going on about how much Fluke must want to fuck constantly. And, truly, it's weird, creepy, offensive and even creepier than you might imagine. The intense rape mentality that fills Limbaugh's attacks on a woman who just testified on an issue she has been involved in for a decade is kind of frightening and pathetic and desperate:
"Sandra Fluke [is] the Georgetown student who went before a congressional committee and said she's having so much sex, she's going broke buying contraceptives and wants us to buy them."
"That woman goes up to congressional committee and is asking for her contraception to be paid for so she can have unlimited, no-consequences sex...If this woman wants to have sex ten times a day for three years, fine and dandy...Why go before a congressional committee and demand that all of us -- because they want to have sex any time, as many times and as often as they want, with as many partners as they want -- should pay for it?"
(Quoting a misleading CNS article) "'Apparently, four out of every ten co-eds are having so much sex that it's hard to make ends meet if they have to pay for their own contraception, Fluke's research shows.' And of course what's sex if the ends aren't meeting?" (Um, does Limbaugh know how to have sex?)
"So she earns enough money in just one summer to pay for three full years of sex, and they're full years because she and her co-ed classmates are having sex nearly three times a day for three years straight, apparently...And what about these deadbeat boyfriends or random hookups that these babes are encountering here, having sex with nearly three times a day? While in law school."
"Okay, so this is a law student at a congressional committee asking for us ... to ... pay ... for ... the ... things ... that ... make ... it ... possible ... for ... her ... to ... have ... sex.
Therefore we are paying her to have sex.
Therefore we are paying her for having sex.
We are getting screwed even though we don't meet her personally!"
"So, Ms. Fluke and the rest of you feminazis, here's the deal: If we are going to pay for your contraceptives and thus pay for you to have sex, we want something for it. And I'll tell you what it is. We want you to post the videos online so we can all watch...if we're gonna sit here, and if we're gonna have a part in this, then we want something in return, Ms. Fluke: And that would be the videos of all this sex posted online so we can see what we are getting for our money."
"You know, folks, millions of women enjoy sex in the back of a car. You have some women that can't afford a car. What are we to do? What is our solution to women who prefer sex in the backseat of a car but can't afford a car?"
"Did you notice in that sound bite Sheila Jackson Lee or Maria Cantwell or one of them talked about the strength that Sandra Fluke had to go before Congress, which is amazing. She's having so much sex it's amazing she can still walk, but she made it up there...Ms. Fluke, have you ever heard of not having sex? Have you ever heard of not having sex so often?"
Oh, and the Rude Pundit's favorite new creepiest Limbaugh moment:
"We assume they're having sex with guys. (interruption) Well, we're talking about birth control, Snerdley. So you gotta assume having sex with guys. So, do they not have some responsibility? (interruption) Well, two women... I have to ask sex expert Snerdley on this, but I'm not aware that two women without another device can get pregnant on their own using naturally endowed accoutrements. I don't think times have changed that much. (chuckles)"
Followed very quickly by:
"She wants us to buy her sex. She wants us to pay for her sex, and she went to a congressional committee to close the sale. It's the right place to do that. Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!"
There you go. It's so funny. Ha-ha, send Rush sex videos, you whores, or shut your fucking legs and, especially, your fucking mouths.
(By the way, this is all from yesterday. It leaves out the original, classic: "What does it say about the college co-ed Sandra Fluke, who goes before a congressional committee and essentially says that she must be paid to have sex, what does that make her? It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute. She wants to be paid to have sex. She's having so much sex she can't afford the contraception. She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex. What does that make us? We're the pimps. (interruption) The johns? We would be the johns? No! We're not the johns. (interruption) Yeah, that's right. Pimp's not the right word. Okay, so she's not a slut. She's 'round heeled.' I take it back.")
Andrew Breitbart in Hell: A Fantasia:
"Well," thought Andrew Breitbart in soul form as he descended while he watched Davy Jones ascend, "this is surprising." No, he wasn't a religious man on Earth, as he himself admitted, but surely, he thought, there was a chance for some reward at the end. In a moment of self-reflection, he pondered, "Arrogance. Pride. Yeah, those are sins, but they're kind of pussy sins."
Breitbart had been as surprised as anyone that he died. He had been retweeting every Twitter slight that crossed his feed, calling everyone he could a "putz," masochistically masturbating by slamming his dick with his iPad every time he answered one, when he had gone out to get some air and his heart just exploded. At first, he thought he was on an drug trip, it happened so fast; his soul popped out of him like a cork on a shaken champagne bottle. He saw his corporeal form on the ground and thought it was a wacky out of body experience, perhaps some flashback from the time he licked LSD off Michelle Malkin's ass cheeks, perhaps some residual peyote dream from that Western walkabout he did with Sean Hannity, when they got naked and rubbed each other with red dirt until they howled out that they wanted to kill the Indians again. Those thoughts quickly pushed out of his head as he arced and began to descend from the air and into the filthy ground below. "Fuck, I had a post to finish where I called the President a rape-enabler" was his last thought as he went underground.
As he headed deeper and deeper, Breitbart wondered what awaited him. He steeled himself to everything: barb-dicked demons raping his ass for eternity; the corpses of Reagan and Joseph McCarthy tearing off his balls and forcing him to swallow them, only to have them grow back again, with a row of dead right-wingers stretching as far as the eye could see, from Nixon to Attila the Hun, all waiting their turns to do the same; being made to exist in some liberal fantasyland, where Ted Kennedy reigned as god and everyone's wealth was shared and everyone was, oh, fuck, equal; or perhaps he'd just be fed shit, day in and day out, by the shovelful, as some kind of karmic retribution.
It was easy for Breitbart to think of such things for he had spoken ill of the dead on the day of their deaths before, like Kennedy and Michael Jackson. "Why do you grant a BULLY special status upon his death?" he had said about Kennedy, ha-ha. Fuck, he'd hoped he'd at least get to see what the fucking liberal bloggers were tweeting about. He'd love to tweet them back, and he was pretty sure his Blackberry would have reception in Hell. He'd love to find out how much loathing he inspired. He'd love to read the rants about Shirley Sherrod and ACORN, about New Black Panthers and James O'Keefe.
A man can do a lot of damage in 43 years, he knows, and he smiled about all the people he had fucked with, all the lives he had fucked up, all in the name of an ideology he saw as more important than compassion for anyone different from himself. "Shit," he thought, "better be careful. That's more pride."
And, almost as much, he'd love to hear all the leftists tie themselves in knots to say something nice about him, about his family, about who he was a "person." That's even more awesome than the tears the right was no doubt shedding. Goddamn, he needed a drink. Goddamn, he wished he could mock them for their goodness as he had so many others.
Suddenly, he entered into a light and found himself on the floor of a cold, brightly lit, all-white room with no doors or windows. He opened his mouth to call out, but no voice came out, not even a whisper or rasp. It was as if he had no vocal cords, no lungs, no means of making a sound. He didn't let himself freak out. He calmly walked the room to find an exit or crack. There were none. It was a solid box. Slowly, it began to dawn on him.
"Not this," his lips formed. "Anything but this." Bring on the rape demons, bring on the zombie conservatives, the shit, Kennedy, any fate would be better. He beat on the walls. No sound. He stomped. No sound. He slammed his head into the wall. Not only was there no noise, but he didn't even feel pain. If he could have gotten sick, he would have vomited. He collapsed and waited.
Eternity, it seemed, was going to be a long time.
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NAOKI KOTAKA
Founder, FRONT, Tokyo
"My father never believed in me saying dreams or ambitions. He always taught me to write them on a piece of A4 paper so they would become proofs of my dedication sent out to the future. I continue the ritual to this day."
Naoki Kotaka is the founder of Front, a Tokyo-based consultancy specializing in brand development and creative direction for international clients across art, fashion, culture and lifestyle sectors. Naoki has a background in architecture and worked for leading London design studio Amanda Levete Architects (formerly known as Future Systems). On relocating to Tokyo, he joined VACANT, where he ran the international projects and communications programs. In 2014, he formed FRONT and began working as a creative consultant. He is a contributing editor to FREE Magazine, Nichola Formichetti's latest publishing venture.
What was your pivot point?
For 8 years I was involved with the world of architecture, both as a student and a professional in London. For 2 years, I was part of VACANT, the gallery/bookstore in Tokyo. Through that time I’ve gone: elitist and grass-roots, commercial and cultural, academic and self-taught, Japanese and exotic, advanced and DIY... etc etc. For everything I’ve experienced and created during those years, I felt the need to own a place where these seemingly unrelated elements can be united, basically connecting dots and making sense of myself to the world. So, in 2014 in Tokyo, I founded my creative consultancy, FRONT. We aim to engineer a new set of relationships through collaboration, celebrating and extending diversity through both cultural and commercial projects.
What's the one piece of advice you'd give someone going through their own transformation?
My father never believed in me saying dreams or ambitions. He always taught me to write them on a piece of A4 paper so they would become proofs of my dedication sent out to the future. I continue the ritual to this day.
Are you following the path of a trailblazer or being guided by a mentor?
I have neither but I have a role model, or rather a person, who I admire greatly. She is my former employer, Mrs. Amanda Levete, a visionary architect and a dedicated mother. I respect not only because of the incredible designs she and her team (including myself back in the day!) achieved over the years, or because of her sincere care towards her family and staff of all levels at the office, but because of her bold belief in every project she pursues. If she believes, she never hesitates but persuades to get projects going. I learned first-hand from her “the nerve” of putting your own voice creatively out to the world, with belief, confidence, and responsibility.
Where is your soul spot?
Seven Sisters in Sussex is a series of chalk cliffs by the English Channel. I got to know this place through a photograph titled End of Land 1 by a renowned German photographer, Wolfgang Tillmans. It depicts a young girl creeping to the edge of the cliff. Contrasting the beautiful white chalk cliff are surging rough seas on one side and vast grass-covered hills on another. The girl in the photograph resonated with me of formative years, terrified, yet extremely curious, to see “the end of land,” in another word the limit of your own. I’ve visited the cliff several times while living in London. I still remember to this day the sensational view from standing on the edge of the cliff, and it now has become a reminder of staying fearless and liberated in order to continue seeking the new view of the world.
If you could do anything, what would you do next?
I write strategies, interviews, and critiques but have never written a novel and always wanted to. So, I would like to write a novel about Tokyo staged between 2020 and 2025, a sort of a trend forecasting, and a manual for future living.
All images used with permission of Naoki Kotaka.
Posted by Vanessa Holden
All content © Soul Safari 2017
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Statement: Water allocation inches up despite abundant supplies in reservoirs
Water allocation inches up despite abundant supplies in reservoirs
5/25/18: Today, the United States Bureau of Reclamation inched up the allocation for south-of-Delta Central Valley Project (CVP) agricultural water service contractors by raising the expected amount of water to be delivered from 40% to 45%. The new allocation is still less than reasonably could be made by Reclamation. Last year’s record hydrologic year left a tremendous amount of water in the system, yet allocations remain low for many Central Valley Project water users.
“Water users today were dismayed by the relatively small allocation increase announced by Reclamation,” said Cannon Michael, chairman of the San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority. “It is unbelievable that the statewide average for CVP reservoirs is almost 108 percent of normal, yet South of Delta farmers are left with a 45 percent allocation,” he said.
The last hydrologic year, 2017, was the wettest year on record in the Sacramento River watershed, and presently, most CVP reservoirs remain above their historic average.
With the abundance of water, the 45% allocation reveals that regulations, not the availability of water, are creating supply shortages and impediments to the efficient operation of the CVP.
“If the system cannot provide an adequate amount of water when water levels are above average, then clearly changes need to be made to the regulations governing the CVP,” said Frances Mizuno, Interim Executive Director of the San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority.
The allocations this year are particularly harmful to communities served by CVP water because they depend on higher allocations in years of water abundance to offset lower allocations in dry years. “The state’s groundwater aquifers need to be replenished when supplies are available but that cannot happen if water deliveries are limited when surface water is available to deliver to farmers,” said Mizuno.
“Reclamation, along with other federal agencies must reevaluate the decision-making process when these conservative and restrictive operations create enormous hardships for agricultural, urban and environmental water users,” said Michael. “The federal government continues to tell us about declining in fish populations and yet it resorts to the same ineffective policies of the past,” he said.
Communities served by the CVP have received progressively lower allocations which has impacted groundwater and water quality. And, farmers have been forced to fallow land and cut food production due to the uncertainly around water deliveries.
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Children of the Camps
From A Silk Cocoon
KOTI-TV NBC2: Tulelake Pilgrimage 2018
http://satsukiina.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/NBC5.mp4
Klamath Falls, Ore. / Tulelake, Cal.
Over 400 people began arriving Friday at Oregon Tech for the 2018 Tulelake Pilgrimage.
“Many people have come several times.” Notes Tulelake Committee Board Member Satsuki Ina. “Because they have found that this is a place to feel a sense of community, and shared history about our incarceration during World War II.”
After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, over 110,000 Japanese Americans were detained at 10 ‘internment camps’ across the U.S.
Many of those felt to pose the greatest risk were held at Tulelake.
Satsuki Ina was born at the Tulelake Camp, she believes the incarceration represents human rights violations that are still evident today. “What we want to do is stand up for those people that are being targeted, in ways that nobody stood up for us.”
Many of those on the Pilgrimage toured the stockade at the grounds in Tulelake on Saturday.
Jimi Yamaichi was the foreman on construction of that jail, and was a major force behind pilgrimages over the past several decades.
Yamaichi died May 12th at the age of 95.
“This is the first pilgrimage that I’ve been to where Jimi was absent,” notes Ina. “So we’re missing him – feeling that there’s a big vacuum.”
But there’s a strong effort to preserve the grounds in Tulelake, and to hold future Pilgrimages.
“We need to pass the story on to the next generation.” Says Ina. “We have to keep this story alive so America knows this isn’t just Japanese American history, this is American history.”
The Ross Ragland Theater will host a cultural program open to the public Sunday evening at 7:30.
You’ll find more information on the Tulelake Pilgrimage at: www.tulelake.org
About Satsuki
Satsuki Ina was born in the Tule Lake Segregation Center, a maximum security concentration camp for Japanese Americans during WWII. She has a private psychotherapy practice in the San Francisco Bay Area specializing in the treatment of community trauma. A community activist, writer, and filmmaker, she has produced two award-winning documentary films about the WWII Japanese American incarceration: Children of the Camps and From A Silk Cocoon.
Contact her at:
satsukina44@gmail.com
2018 Satsuki Ina. All rights reserved.
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Satyajit Ray Org • View topic - In the lap of superstition
Board index ‹ Satyajit Ray' Films ‹ Devi (The Goddess), 1960
In the lap of superstition
by manikjethu on Thu Feb 23, 2006 12:52 am
DEVI was a film the devout and the conservative in the 1960s did not take kindly to. But as a conservative of the present time, I find the film an accurate depiction of social reality in the begining of the century that went by.
A landlord (Kalikinkor)'s devotion for the Mother Goddess and his affection for his daughter-in-law (Doyamoyee) is one day combined in his dreams (in which the images of the two are juxtaposed) and he is convinced that the daughter-in-law is an incarnation of the Mother Goddess. The lady is publicly pronounced as such when a beggar boy (on whom the doctors had given up) is completely cured after being placed on her lap. Her husband (Umaprosad)'s attempt to flee with her to the city is foiled by her own fears and insecurities. Things come to a sad end when her so-called divine powers fail to cure her nephew (her elder brother-in-law's son who she was particularly attached to) and the boy dies. Her husband, a rationalist deeply infuenced by Brahmo thought, accuses his father of murdering the boy. Doyamoyee loses sanity.
The story, penned by Probhat Kumar Mukhopadhyaya, is originally said to have been plotted by Rabindranath Tagore.
Brahmo rationalism is upheld by Umaprosad, who not only regards his father's religious orthodoxy an outcome of the pre-modern system of education, but is also prepared to help out a friend wed a widow (considered sacrilege in the Hindoo society of those times). In the course of a heated exchange with his father after the latter declares Doyamoyee the Godess incarnate, Umaprosad accuses him of having taken leave of his senses.
The conflict of tradition and modernity has been very ably depicted in this film by the Master. It is wrong to say that Hindoo religion was given a bad name in DEVI . If there was a villain in this film, it was the superstition that pervaded Hindoo society in Bengal at the turn of the last century. A must-see.
manikjethu
Location: Delhi, India
Re: In the lap of superstition
by Gblogarm on Wed Nov 22, 2017 2:29 am
This most popular website has a lot of knowledge.
Gblogarm
Return to Devi (The Goddess), 1960
Jump to: Select a forum ------------------ Polls Vote/view - Which is the best film made by Satyajit Ray? About Satyajit Ray About Satyajit Ray: Miscellaneous Books, Videos & DVDs Satyajit Ray' Filmmaking Story & Script Directing Cinematography Editing Music and Sound Art Direction Satyajit Ray' Films Pather Panchali (Song of the Little Road), 1955 Aparajito (The Unvanquished), 1956 Parash Pathar (The Philosopher's Stone), 1958 Jalsaghar (The Music Room), 1958 Apur Sansar (The World of Apu), 1959 Devi (The Goddess), 1960 Teen Kanya (Three/Two Daughters), 1961 Rabindranath Tagore, 1961 Kanchenjungha, 1962 Abhijan (The Expedition), 1962 Mahanagar (The Big City), 1963 Charulata (The Lonely Wife), 1964 Two, 1964 Kapurush - O - Mahapurush (The Coward and the Holy Man), 1965 Nayak (The Hero), 1966 Chiriyakhana (The Zoo), 1967 Aranyer Din Ratri (Days and Nights in the Forest), 1969 Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne (Adventures of Goopy and Bagha), 1968 Pratidwandi (The Adversary), 1970 Seemabaddha (Company Limited), 1971 Sikkim, 1971 The Inner Eye, 1972 Asani Sanket (Distant Thunder), 1973 Sonar Kella (The Fortress), 1974 Jana Aranya (The Middleman), 1975 Bala, 1976 Shatranj Ke Khilari (The Chess Players), 1977 Joi Baba Felunath (The Elephant God), 1978 Hirak Rajar Deshe (Kingdom of Diamonds), 1980 Pikoo (Pikoo's Day), 1980 Sadgati (The Deliverance), 1981 Ghare-Baire (Home and the World), 1984 Sukumar Ray, 1987 Ganashatru (Enemy of the People), 1989 Shakha Prashakha (Branches of the Tree), 1990 Agantuk (The Stranger), 1991 Indian Cinema Indian Cinema: Miscellaneous World Cinema World Cinema: Miscellaneous About SatyajitRay.org website Comments & Suggestions Film Institutes in India Institutes and Admissions
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Faroughi, S., Goushegir, S. (2016). Free in-plane vibration of heterogeneous nanoplates using Ritz method. Journal of Theoretical and Applied Vibration and Acoustics, 2(1), 1-20. doi: 10.22064/tava.2016.15342
Shirko Faroughi; Seyed Mohammad Hossein Goushegir. "Free in-plane vibration of heterogeneous nanoplates using Ritz method". Journal of Theoretical and Applied Vibration and Acoustics, 2, 1, 2016, 1-20. doi: 10.22064/tava.2016.15342
Faroughi, S., Goushegir, S. (2016). 'Free in-plane vibration of heterogeneous nanoplates using Ritz method', Journal of Theoretical and Applied Vibration and Acoustics, 2(1), pp. 1-20. doi: 10.22064/tava.2016.15342
Faroughi, S., Goushegir, S. Free in-plane vibration of heterogeneous nanoplates using Ritz method. Journal of Theoretical and Applied Vibration and Acoustics, 2016; 2(1): 1-20. doi: 10.22064/tava.2016.15342
Free in-plane vibration of heterogeneous nanoplates using Ritz method
DOI: 10.22064/tava.2016.15342
Shirko Faroughi 1; Seyed Mohammad Hossein Goushegir2
1Assistant Professor, Faculty of Mechanical Engineerng, Urmia University of Technology, Urmia, Iran
2M.Sc. Student, Faculty of Mechanical Engineerng, Urmia University of Technology, Urmia, Iran
In this paper, the Ritz method has been employed to analyze the free in-plane vibration of heterogeneous (non-uniform) rectangular nanoplates corresponding to Eringen’s nonlocal elasticity theory. The non-uniformity is taken into account using combinations of linear and quadratic forms in the thickness, material density and Young’s modulus. Two-dimensional boundary characteristic orthogonal polynomials are applied in the Ritz method in order to examine the nonlocal effect, aspect ratio, length of nanoplate and non-uniformity parameters on the vibrational behaviors of the nanoplate. Results are verified with the available published data and good agreements are observed. The outcomes confirm apparent dependency of in-plane frequency of nanoplate on the small scale effect, non-uniformity, aspect ratio and boundary conditions. For instance, frequency parameter decreases by increasing the nonlocal parameter in all vibration modes; the frequency parameters increase with length and aspect ratio of nanoplates. Furthermore, the effect of nonlocal parameters on the frequency parameter is more prominent at the higher aspect ratios. Finally, the effect of nonlocal parameter on the in-plane modes is also presented in this analysis.
Free in-plane vibration of non-uniform nanoplates is studied using the Ritz method.
Effects of small-scale, non-uniformity and aspect ratio are investigated.
The in-plane frequencies are found significantly affected by nonlocal parameters.
Frequencies increase with Young’s modulus and decrease with density of nanoplates.
The evolution of mode shapes with increasing nonlocal parameters is visualized.
In-plane vibration; Rectangular heterogeneous nanoplate; Nonlocal elasticity theory; Ritz method
Vibration Test Methods & Applications
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[5] K. Nagashio, T. Nishimura, K. Kita, A. Toriumi, Mobility variations in mono-and multi-layer graphene films, Applied Physics Express (APEX), 2 (2009) 025003.
[6] A.I. Gusev, A.A. Rempel, Nanocrystalline Materials, Cambridge International Science Publishing, Cambridge, U.K., 2004.
[7] X. Li, W. Liu, L. Sun, K.E. Aifantis, B. Yu, Y. Fan, Q. Feng, F. Cui, F. Watari, Effects of physicochemical properties of nanomaterials on their toxicity, Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part A, 103 (2015) 2499-2507.
[8] I. Favero, S. Stapfner, D. Hunger, P. Paulitschke, J. Reichel, H. Lorenz, E.M. Weig, K. Karrai, Fluctuating nanomechanical system in a high finesse optical microcavity, Optics express, 17 (2009) 12813-12820.
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[10] P. Ball, Roll up for the revolution, Nature, 414 (2001) 142-144.
[11] R.H. Baughman, A.A. Zakhidov, W.A. De Heer, Carbon nanotubes: The route toward applications, Science, 297 (2002) 787-792.
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[36] A. Koochi, H.M. Sedighi, M. Abadyan, Modeling the size dependent pull-in instability of beam-type NEMS using strain gradient theory, Latin American Journal of Solids and Structures, 11 (2014) 1806-1829.
[37] X.J. Xu, Z.C. Deng, Variational principles for buckling and vibration of MWCNTs modeled by strain gradient theory, Applied Mathematics and Mechanics, 35 (2014) 1115-1128.
[38] S. Chakraverty, L. Behera, Free vibration of rectangular nanoplates using Rayleigh–Ritz method, Physica E: Low-dimensional Systems and Nanostructures, 56 (2014) 357-363.
[39] R.B. Bhat, Plate deflections using orthogonal polynomials, Journal of Engineering Mechanics, 111 (1985) 1301-1309.
[40] R.B. Bhat, Vibration of rectangular plates on point and line supports using characteristic orthogonal polynomials in the Rayleigh-Ritz method, Journal of sound and vibration, 149 (1991) 170-172.
[41] T.S. Chihara, An introduction to orthogonal polynomials, Gordon and Breach, Science Publisher, Inc., New York, 1978.
[42] S.M. Dickinson, A. Di Blasio, On the use of orthogonal polynomials in the Rayleigh-Ritz method for the study of the flexural vibration and buckling of isotropic and orthotropic rectangular plates, Journal of Sound and Vibration, 108 (1986) 51-62.
[43] W. Gautschi, G.H. Golub, G. Opfer, Applications and computation of orthogonal polynomials, ADVANCES IN, (1999) 251.
[44] B. Singh, S. Chakraverty, Boundary characteristic orthogonal polynomials in numerical approximation, Communications in Numerical Methods in Engineering, 10 (1994) 1027-1043.
[45] B. Singh, S. Chakraverty, Use of characteristic orthogonal polynomials in two dimensions for transverse vibration of elliptic and circular plates with variable thickness, Journal of Sound and Vibration, 173 (1994) 289-299.
[46] P. Lu, P.Q. Zhang, H.P. Lee, C.M. Wang, J.N. Reddy, Non-local elastic plate theories, in: Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, The Royal Society, 2007, pp. 3225-3240.
[47] D.J. Gorman, Free in-plane vibration analysis of rectangular plates by the method of superposition, Journal of Sound and Vibration, 272 (2004) 831-851.
[48] L. Behera, S. Chakraverty, Free vibration of Euler and Timoshenko nanobeams using boundary characteristic orthogonal polynomials, Applied Nanoscience, 4 (2014) 347-358.
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All, Games, Technology
After four years of development and dozens of rumors about the new gaming console , Microsoft Corp. has unveiled the Xbox One entertainment console, touting it as an all-in-one solution for playing games, watching TV and doing everything in between. Microsoft wants the Xbox One to be central to your living room and packed the new Xbox with such features as the ability to change TV channels through voice commands.
At an hour-long presentation at the company’s Redmond, Wash., headquarters on Tuesday, Microsoft executives used voice controls to seamlessly switch back and forth between watching live TV, listening to music, playing a movie and browsing the Internet — all while running apps for fantasy football and chats. It showed how users could watch live sports on TV while getting updates on their fantasy leagues on a split screen.
Don Mattrick, president, Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft said, “Xbox One is designed to deliver a whole new generation of blockbuster games, television and entertainment in a powerful, all-in-one device.”
Xbox One is the third entry in the latest round of the “console wars.” It follows Nintendo Co.’s launch of the Wii U in November and Sony Corp.’s tease in February for the upcoming PlayStation 4. Each of the next-generation consoles have shifted away from simply serving as gaming machines, as they incorporate streaming media apps and social networking features.
Among the games previewed for Xbox One were the military shooter Call of Duty: Ghosts from Activision Blizzard Inc., the soccer extravaganza FIFA 14 from Electronic Arts Inc. and the racing simulator Forza Motorsport 5 and time bender Quantum Break, both from Microsoft Game Studios. Microsoft said more games will be shown at next month’s E3 video game conference in Los Angeles.
The company said there will be more than 15 games available exclusively on the Xbox One in the first year after it launches, eight of them new franchises.
In addition to the amazing lineup of games coming to Xbox One, Microsoft unveiled exclusive content partnerships with some of the top names in TV, sports and entertainment. They included:
“Halo” television series based on its Halo video game franchise, which will be produced by Steven Spielberg.
National Football League (NFL) – A multiyear, landmark partnership will deliver the ultimate interactive NFL television experiences for the next-generation Xbox One and leverage Microsoft devices and services to evolve both in-game and on the sideline. The NFL on Xbox will redefine broadcast experiences through innovations around Skype, Xbox SmartGlass and player-worn technology; add an all-new fantasy football solution for the biggest screen in the house; and create a personalized NFL destination only available on Xbox One.
Microsoft didn’t directly address whether Xbox One will be able to play used games bought from other players or games designed for the existing Xbox 360 system. It also didn’t say whether it requires a constant connection to the internet.
Xbox One will launch in markets around the world later this year. Visit the new Xbox Wire blog at http://news.xbox.com for in-depth features on the new system, including photos and videos from the unveiling event and new and rotating content from Xbox.
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Case Preview: Al-Rawi v Security Service, Tariq v Home Office
Matthew Ryder QC Case Previews
One of the most eagerly awaited Supreme Court decisions of the year so far involves two joined cases which were heard by a nine judge bench over four days beginning on 24 January 2011. Judgment is expected imminently. The joined cases concern what has become a recurring theme of Supreme Court cases: the government’s desire to litigate issues by using secret evidence and closed procedures.
The subject matter of two cases is different, but similar principles are engaged in both. The first case, Al Rawi, involves claims against UK government agencies for complicity in the detention, rendition and mistreatment of the claimants. The government asserts that it has an implied right to utilise special advocates and a secret evidence procedure, if it needs to rely on sensitive material to defend the claims. The government also wishes the court to be able to give a secret judgment that will be withheld from the claimants themselves. Such steps – permissible, but highly criticised, in the context of control orders – has never been used in ordinary civil claims before.
The second case, Tariq v Home Office is an employment tribunal claim brought by a former immigration officer. Again the government wishes to defend his claim by using a closed hearing from which the he and his lawyers will be excluded. However, the secret evidence procedure is permitted in employment tribunals by Employment Tribunals (Constitution and Rules of Procedure) Regulations 2004. Mr Tariq challenges the interpretation of those regulations. He also asserts that the use of government appointed special advocates in a claim against the government, is a breach of his right to a fair trial; and that if a secret evidence procedure is used he is entitled, at least, to a gist of the Home Office’s case against him.
The same constitution of the Court of Appeal – Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury MR, Maurice Kay LJ and Sullivan LJ – heard both cases a few weeks apart, and gave judgment in both on 4 May 2010.
In Al Rawi the claimants won ([2010] EWCA Civ 482). The Court of Appeal did not recognise any implied power to hold a closed hearing in ordinary civil cases. But in Tariq the Court of Appeal approved the use of a closed hearing because the statutory regulations permitted it ([2010] EWCA Civ 462). The Court of Appeal disagreed with Mr Tariq’s assertion that the use of government-appointed special advocates was in breach of Article 6; but agreed with his submission that he was at least entitled to a gist of the case against him.
Beneath those nuanced decisions, the Court of Appeal reaffirmed some fundamental principles about the importance of persons knowing the case they have to meet. In Al Rawi, Lord Neuberger MR giving judgment for the Court of Appeal in favour of the claimants, began his conclusion in forthright terms:
“…we should say firmly and unambiguously that it is not open to a court in England and Wales, in the absence of statutory power to do so or (arguably) agreement between the parties that the action should proceed on such a basis, to order a closed material procedure in relation to the trial of an ordinary civil claim for damages for tort or breach of statutory duty.” [11]
There were three reasons for his view. First, and most importantly, by acceding to the government’s argument the court would be undermining a critical element of a fair trial:
“…the principle that a litigant should be able to see and hear all the evidence which is seen and heard by a court in determining his case is so fundamental, so embedded in the common law, that, in the absence of parliamentary authority, no judge should override it, at any rate in relation to an ordinary civil claim… a litigant’s right to know the case against him and to know the reasons why he has lost or won is fundamental to the notion of a fair trial.”
Second, the government’s desire to serve both an “open” and a “closed” defence was incompatible with a proper interpretation of the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR). CPR 16.5, requires defendants to state which allegations they admit and deny; their reasons for doing so: and their alternative case (if any). It is difficult to interpret CPR 16.5 as permitting the government to hide their true defence from the claimants and only disclose it secretly to the court.
Third, the government’s suggestion that there were significant practical benefits in allowing part of the trial to be conducted in secret, was illusory. In order for the trial judge to assess the weight of those practical benefits he would have to go through a careful process of examining the relevant documents that the government wished to keep secret. He would also have to determine whether its contention was well founded with regard to all such documents, and also whether any form of closed hearing was truly necessary. This would add to the time and expense of the proceedings, not reduce them.
Before the Supreme Court, the government asserted that maintaining the current position would mean that in some claims brought against the state, all the relevant evidence that could be used to defend the claims may not heard. This, they said, may cause an unfair result. The response to this point – as Lord Neuberger pointed out in the Court of Appeal – is that this is not objectionable in itself. There are a number of other rules of evidence that prevent some relevant material being deployed by the parties in ordinary civil litigation. Within the framework of a fair trial and equality of arms, exclusionary rules based on important principles, are something that the parties must live with.
The Supreme Court will also consider whether it is possible to make an exception for particular categories of special case. The Court of Appeal specifically declined to do so:
“Quite apart from the fact that the issue is one of principle, it is a melancholy truth that a procedure or approach which is sanctioned by a court expressly on the basis that it is applicable only in exceptional circumstances nonetheless often becomes common practice.” [69]
If the Court of Appeal is right, and it would be unacceptable for a secret procedure to be implied into ordinary civil claims, the Supreme Court will also have to consider whether it would be acceptable if legislation authorises such a procedure. It is, for example, permissible in the context of control orders under the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005. In the case of Tariq the Supreme Court will need to consider whether the authority of statutory regulations, are adequate to permit what may otherwise be an affront to principles of open justice.
The distinction between secrecy that Parliament has approved, and that which it has not was made clear in the case of R v Davis ([2008] 1 AC 1128). That case concerned the practice which had developed in criminal courts of allowing some witnesses to have their identities kept secret. The House of Lords made it clear that it was for Parliament, and not judges, to sanction a departure from well established principles of open justice. The result was speedy legislation that allowed the practice to continue in a more regulated form.
At present, no such statutory authority exists for the use of secret hearings in ordinary civil claims. Lord Neuberger, in Al Rawi, emphasised the danger of judicial erosion of principles of natural justice. He recalled the observations of Lord Shaw of Dunfermline in the case of Scott [1913] AC 417, almost a century ago:
“There is no greater danger of usurpation than that which proceeds little by little, under cover of rules of procedure, and at the instance of judges themselves…the policy of the widening area of secrecy is always a serious one, but this is for Parliament, and those to whom the subject has been consigned by Parliament to consider”.
If the Supreme Court upholds the Court of Appeal decisions based on the absence of legislative sanction of closed hearings in ordinary civil cases, the government may respond as it did in R v Davis by simply enacting legislation. But, in this area, that may not be sufficient.
Even a statute explicitly permitting secret hearings in civil cases would still have to withstand scrutiny under the Human Rights Act 1998 and be compatible with the right to a fair trial. That is not something that Lord Shaw would have had to consider. But it may well feature strongly in the forthcoming judgment.
Law Think said:
Fascinating case. What way do you think it will go?
http://www.lawthink.co.uk
Leave a reply on "Case Preview: Al-Rawi v Security Service, Tariq v Home Office"
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These Terms and Conditions, together with any and all other documents referred to herein, set out the terms of use under which you may use this website, ThisCrush.net (“Our Site”). Please read these Terms and Conditions carefully and ensure that you understand them. Your agreement to comply with and be bound by these Terms and Conditions is deemed to occur upon your first use of Our Site You will be required to read and accept these Terms and Conditions when signing up for an Account. If you do not agree to comply with and be bound by these Terms and Conditions, you must stop using Our Site immediately.
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Jason Atherton to launch Pavlova’s bar in London’s Victoria Palace Theatre
Thursday, June 20th 2019, 17:43
Written by: Emma Lake
Jason Atherton is to launch 20-cover bar Pavlova’s at London’s Victoria Palace Theatre, in homage to the legendary Russian ballet dancer who stands atop the venue.
The public-facing bar in the theatre, which is currently hosting hit musical Hamilton, has been created alongside owner Sir Cameron Mackintosh and will open its doors on 21 June.
Social Company owner Atherton said: “I’m delighted to be launching Pavlova’s in Victoria’s bustling theatre district in partnership with Sir Cameron Mackintosh. The Victoria Palace Theatre is a stunning building and we’re honoured to now be a part of its longstanding history.”
The drinks list has been curated by the Social Company’s bar manager, Jay Doy, and will have a strong gin focus with a hidden cupboard storing more than 38 varieties from around the world.
The signature cocktail, the Dying Swan (gin, elderflower, citrus, cucumber and herbs, £9), has been named after Anna Pavlova’s famous dance and features a music box that opens to reveal a rotating ballerina and the cocktail.
Other drinks will include, Queens Park Swizzle (gold rum, mint, citrus, soda and bitters, £9.50); Can’t Fix, Won’t Fix (Mescal, Chartreuse, tequila, pineapple, and citrus, £10), and Garden Negroni (rose gin, rhubarb, bitters and sweet vermouth, £10).
The room where it happens will also have a food offering, serving coffee and croissants in the morning and a selection of paninis, charcuterie and cheeses for lunch and dinner.
Sir Mackintosh added: “When I restored and extended the Victoria Palace Theatre, I planned to open part of the building as a bar available to the general public, not just theatregoers. I wanted to partner with one of London’s most brilliant restaurateurs – and to my mind Jason Atherton is top of the bill, so I was thrilled when Jason enthusiastically agreed to create Pavlova’s.”
The Social Company currently numbers 15 restaurants worldwide, with London restaurants Pollen Street Social, Social Eating House and City Social all holding Michelin stars alongside his Clocktower restaurant at the New York Edition hotel.
In 2017 Atherton won the Restaurateur of the Year – Group Catey to add to his Restaurateur of the Year – Independent Catey, becoming the only operator to clinch both awards. Earlier in the year, the 46-year-old had been presented with the Business Achievement Award at the British Travel & Hospitality Hall of Fame.
Earlier this month Atherton revealed plans to launch the Betterment restaurant within the Biltmore hotel in London’s Mayfair.
Jason Atherton to launch Betterment restaurant at Mayfair’s Biltmore hotel >>
Openings, Restaurants, Jason Atherton, Chef, Pubs & Bars and The Social Company.
Minute on the clock: Alec Owen and Liz S...
Minute on the clock: Sally Abé, head che...
Tap & Tandoor signs for Peterborough sit...
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[sunday, march 23, 2008]
Live at the Paley Festival: The CW's "Gossip Girl"
Development Update: Friday, March 21
Updates include: Shailene Woodley to topline new ABC Family series; Jennie Garth to be "My Best Friend's Girl" at CBS; and Bob Odenkirk and David Cross return to HBO.
CBS Nukes 'Jericho'
CBS made it official on Friday - "Jericho" won't be returning for a third season.
Quick Take for Thursday, March 20, 2008 (Fast Affiliate Live + Same Day Ratings)
ABC spins the numbers for Thursday, March 20.
Live at the Paley Festival: "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" Reunion
Development Update: Thursday, March 20
Updates include: Lifetime cancels "Side Order of Life"; ABC looks for new homes for "October Road" and "Men in Trees"; and FX sets return date for "30 Days."
G4 Going Back to "The Block" for a Second Season of Series Set in the Ultimate Snowboarder's Paradise
The second season of "The Block" premieres Sunday, April 20th at 5:30 pm, ET/PT.
Marvita Eliminated from "America's Next Top Model" on the CW
The CW details the latest "America's Next Top Model" elimination.
Despite His Tireless Campaigning Efforts to Remain in the House, Big Brother Houseguests Vote to Evict Matt
Black Magic: ESPN's Most-Watched Documentary
ESPN spins the numbers for Sunday, March 16.
ABC News, National Constitution Center & Wpvi-TV to Host Democratic Presidential Candidate Debate in Philadelphia on Wednesday, April 16 at 8:00 P.M., ET/PT
Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos will moderate the debate, which will air live on ABC.
693,082 Fights - 367,301 Tears - 20 Seasons - 1 Unforgettable NighT... "The Real World Awards Bash" Premiering Wednesday, April 2 (10:00 - 11:30 P.M.)
The event had been previously set to broadcast on Saturday, March 29.
FOX Banishes 'Canterbury's Law' to Fridays
Repeats of "House" will assume "Law's" Monday, 8:00/7:00c slot starting next week.
VH1 Launches Online Site to Cast One Would-Be Suitor for the Upcoming Season of 'The Pick-Up Artist 2'
"Mystery" and "Matador" will be back for a new season in the fourth quarter of this year.
The First "CBS Elitexc Saturday Night Fights" to Be Broadcast Live on Saturday, May 31 on the CBS Television Network
Champion "Ruthless" Robbie Lawler will put his title on the line against Scott "Hands of Steel" Smith in a middleweight championship bout.
Mariah Carey, Dolly Parton, Neil Diamond and Andrew Lloyd Webber to Mentor Finalists and Perform on "American Idol" on Fox
Specific dates for mentor appearances to be announced.
Live at the Paley Festival: NBC's "Friday Night Lights"
Amanda Overmyer Is Eliminated from the "American Idol" Competition
FOX details the latest "American Idol" elimination.
Development Update: Wednesday, March 19
Updates include: Michelle Trachtenberg to visit The CW's "Gossip Girl"; John Corbett joins Showtime's "United States of Tara"; and ABC wants to be "Big in Japan."
Discovery Channel Announces Two New Series That Define 'Adventure Programming'
COAL and IDITAROD are both are produced by Original Productions, the team behind Discovery Channel's Emmy-nominated series DEADLIEST CATCH.
CBS and Gameloft Use Real Phone Calls to Unravel Clues and Solve Crimes in "Csi: Crime Scene Investigation -- the Mobile Game"
"This CBS Mobile game is the first of its kind utilizing outbound calling, which literally calls players to action," said CBS Mobile's Cyriac Roeding.
Quick Take for Tuesday, March 18, 2008 (Fast Affiliate Live + Same Day Ratings)
ABC spins the numbers for Tuesday, March 18.
White Cherry Entertainment to Produce "The 35th Annual Daytime Emmy(R) Awards" in Hollywood, Friday, June 20 on Abc
As previously announced, TV legend and talk show host Regis Philbin will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award during the broadcast ceremony.
It's a Family Affair on BET Thursday, March 20 at 8:00 PM*
The two-hour "Keyshia Cole: The Way It Is" reunion airs this Thursday at 8:00/7:00c.
VH1 Is Teaming Up with Vivica A. FOX to Search for the Next Great Celebrity Stylist in New Series "Glam God with Vivica A. FOX"
Each week the "stylista" contestants will be asked to compete in various challenges that will test their knowledge of fashion and style trends as they create the perfect look from head to toe.
Ellen Degeneres Joins Ryan Seacrest to Host "Idol Gives Back" Wednesday, April 9, on Fox
Also signing on: Maroon 5, Heart, Gloria Estefan, Boyz II Men and The Clark Brothers.
Live at the Paley Festival: NBC's "Chuck"
Sir Richard Branson Joins Sci Fi Channel's Visions for Tomorrow Advisory Board
"It is an honor to join this impressive group of leaders on SCI FI's Visions for Tomorrow Advisory Board," said Sir Richard Branson.
ScifI.com Expands Digital Portfolio with New Original Entertainment, Gaming and Social Network Offerings
Among what's in store: 10 two-to-three minute serialized webisodes related to "Battlestar Galactica's" final season.
Sci Fi Channel to Premiere All-New Episodes of Ghost Hunters International
The cable channel orders seven additional episodes of the spin-off to roll out this summer.
Sci Fi's 2008 Alternative/Reality Line-Up Delivers Scares, Laughs, Amazement and Mystery
The cable channel renews "Mind Control with Derren Brown" and revives "Scare Tactics" with new host Tracy Morgan.
Sci Fi Announces Super-Powered Scripted Development Slate for '08
The projects include "True Believer," a new drama co-created by actress Rosario Dawson.
Sci Fi Gives 'Caprica' the Greenlight
Jeff Reiner will direct the two-hour backdoor pilot prequel to "Battlestar Galactica."
Spike TV Television Highlights - April 2008
Among the highlights: the network's HD premiere of the three "Star Wars" prequels.
Starz Renews "Martin Lawrence Presents 1st Amendment Stand-Up" for a Third Season
Look for the new season starting Wednesday, July 9 at 10:00/9:00c.
Development Update: Tuesday, March 18
Updates include: HBO passes on "12 Miles of Bad Road"; Geena Davis to topline a new CBS drama pilot; and directors line up on various projects.
Multi Award Winning Actor Robin Williams Makes a Rare Television Guest Star Appearance on NBC's "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," Tuesday, April 29. (10:00 PM ET/PT)
"We are thrilled that one of the most talented and versatile actors around will be starring in this powerful and complex special 200th episode," said executive producer Neal Baer.
Emmy Award(R) Winner Mark Burnett Returns to Helm the 17th Annual 2008 MTV Movie Awards
The annual show will again premiere live on Sunday, June 1 from the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City.
NBC Ranks #2 in Adults 18-49 for the Primetme Week of March 10-16
NBC spins the numbers for the week of March 10-16.
The Price Is Still Right on Friday Night
CBS spins the numbers for the week of March 10-16.
Primetime Ratings Report for the Week of March 10, 2008 (Based on National Live + Same Day Program Ratings)
ABC spins the numbers for the week of March 10-16.
Quick Take for Monday, March 17, 2008 (Fast Affiliate Live + Same Day Ratings)
ABC spins the numbers for Monday, March 17.
NBC Turns Up the Heat with 'The Chopping Block,' New Cooking Competition Series Starring Super Chef and Original Bad Boy of British Cooking Marco Pierre White
The eight couples chosen to participate will arrive in Manhattan hoping to fulfill a single dream - to open their own quality restaurant.
BBC America Announces All-New Comedy Acquisitions
Among the additions: digitally remastered episodes of "Monty Python's Flying Circus" beginning Monday, May 26.
Viewers Welcome Back All New Episodes of CBS's Monday Comedies
CBS spins the numbers for Monday, March 17.
60 Minutes Makes the Top 10
CBS spins the numbers for Sunday, March 16.
Sixteen Celebrities Will Compete in "Secret Talents of the Stars," a Weekly Talent Show Featuring Unknown Talents of Well-Known Personalities, When the Series Premieres Live on Tuesday, April 8, on the CBS Television Network
The Eye confirms our report from yesterday as well as adds a special one-hour finale on Thursday, May 22 at 8:00/7:00c.
Nicktoons Network and Marvel Entertainment Join Forces to Bring Animated Adventures of Wolverine and Iron Man to Television
"Iron Man: The Animated Series" and "Wolverine and the X-Men" will debut exclusively on the Nicktoons Network in the first quarter of 2009.
Lionsgate Goes 'Green' with the Release of Weeds: Season Three
The studio plans to package many of its DVD releases in environmentally friendly materials.
Superstar Performances Added to the Line-Up for the "2008 CMT Music Awards"
The latest additions include Kenny Chesney, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, LeAnn Rimes, Keith Urban and Brooks & Dunn.
[march 2008]
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March 8, 2012 By vphandyman Leave a Comment
We just finished our latest bath remodel in the City of Orange. We replaced the tile shower with a new shower with a bench seat. We installed new tile flooring, recessed lighting, a new mirror and a new vanity.
Bath remodel
February 10, 2012 By vphandyman Leave a Comment
Another bathroom remodel under way in the City of Orange. Watch our progress!
Tile shower in Huntington Beach
January 27, 2012 By vphandyman Leave a Comment
Here is our latest tile project in Huntington Beach.
Bath remodel in Huntington Beach
December 9, 2011 By vphandyman Leave a Comment
Here are a couple of photos of a bath remodel under way in Huntington Beach. The customer chose 3″x6″ white “subway” tiles. Note the customer oversized shampoo niche.
You can view our other projects at www.vphandyman.com
What do you get when you hire a Handyman?
December 7, 2011 By vphandyman 2 Comments
Below is a definition of “Handyman” from Wikipedia. We are different from all other “Handymen” because we are a licensed, bonded and insured General Contractor and all of the work is performed by my employees. All of my employees have at least TEN years construction experience, all are covered by my liability insurance and my worker compensation insurance. We assume all of the risk so you don’t have to. Know who you are hiring and know what your exposure to risk is when asking someone to come to your home and perform work.
For other uses, see Handy Man (disambiguation).
“Handiwork” redirects here. For the album by Rik Emmett, see Handiwork (album).
Handyman.
A handyman is a person skilled at a wide range of repairs, typically around the home. These tasks include trade skills, repair work, maintenance work, both interior and exterior, and are sometimes described as “odd jobs”, “fix-up tasks”, and include lightplumbing jobs such as fixing a leaky toilet or light electric jobs such as changing a light fixture.
1 Handyman projects
2 Handyman businesses
2.1 Market estimates
2.2 Independent operators
2.3 Franchise businesses
2.4 Assessment of handyman options
3 Legal issues
4 Distinction between handyman and general contractor
5 Handymen in popular culture
6 List of handyman jobs
[edit]Handyman projects
One handyman project was to repair shaky stairs; a wooden structure was built inside to prevent collapse.
The term handyman increasingly describes a paid worker, but it also includes non-paid homeowners or do-it-yourselfers. Tasks range from minor to major, from unskilled to highly skilled, and include painting, drywall repair, remodeling, minor plumbing work, minor electrical work, household carpentry, sheetrock, crown moulding, and furniture assembly (see more complete list below.) The term handyman is occasionally applied as an adjective to describe politicians or business leaders who make substantial organizational changes, such as overhauling a business structure or administrative division.[1][2]
A handyman built this mailbox from particle board, with hinges, and exterior paint; the rounded edges were made with a sander
Many people can do common household repairs. There are resources on the Internet, as well as do-it-yourself guide books,[3] with instructions about how to complete a wide range of projects. Sometimes the fix-it skill is seen as genetic, and people lacking such skills are said to “lack the handy-man gene.”[4] One trend is that fewer homeowners are inclined to do fix-up jobs, perhaps because of time constraints, perhaps because of lack of interest; one reporter commented “my family’s fix-it gene petered out before it reached my generation.”[5] A primary rule for all do-it-yourself repair work is focus entirely on one thing at a time.[6] For example, focus on getting a nail; then focus on hammering the nail; but don’t try to do both tasks simultaneously. In this manner, injuries and mistakes are avoided.
This project involved mortaring the crack between the back patio and the exterior wall to prevent water from seeping in the basement.
Generally the job of paid handyman is low status, a semi-skilled labor job. It’s a less prestigious occupation than a specialist such as a plumber, electrician, or carpenter. At the same time, unpaid homeowners skilled at repairs are valued for saving money. And handyman tools sometimes become useful in different places: for example, when a proper neurological drill was not available, anAustralian doctor used a handyman’s drill in 2009 to open a hole in the head of a 13-year old boy to relieve pressure after a brain injury; the boy’s life was saved.[7]
Installing kitchen cabinets is a medium-level handyman job, with multiple steps, which competent handymen can do; consider hiring a specialist kitchen remodeler for a fancy kitchen.
[edit]Handyman businesses
[edit]Market estimates
An estimate was that in 2003, the market for home-maintenance and repair spending was up 14% from 2001 to 2003.[8] Another estimate was that the market in the United States was $126 billion and was increasing by about 4% annually.[5] American homes are aging; one estimate was that in 2007, more than half of all homes are older than 25 years.[8] And, as populations worldwide tend to become older, on average, and since increasingly elderly people will be less inclined and able to maintain their homes, it is likely that demand for handyman services will grow.
[edit]Independent operators
Many towns have handymen who work part-time, for friends or family or neighbors, who are skilled in a variety of tasks. Sometimes they advertise in newspapers or online. They vary in quality, professionalism, skill level, and price. Contractors often criticize the work of previous contractors, and this practice is not limited to handymen, but to all trades.[9] Handymen have advertised their services through flyers and mailings; in addition, free websites such as Craigslist and SkillSlate help customers and handymen find each other.[10]
This entire porch was rebuilt by a handyman, including the substructure, columns, railings (1x1s and moldings), and door surrounds; replacing a porch is a difficult project for amateurs.
[edit]Franchise businesses
In 2009, there were national handyman service firms which handle such nationwide tasks as public relations, marketing, advertising, andsignage, but sell specific territories to franchise owners. A franchise contract typically gives a franchise owner the exclusive right to take service calls within a given geographical area. The websites of these firms put possible customers in touch with local owners, which have handypersons and trucks. Customers call the local numbers. Typically these firms charge around $100/hour, although fees vary by locality and time of year. In many parts of the world, there are professional handyman firms that do small home or commercial projects which claim possible advantages such as having workers who are insured and licensed. Their branch offices schedule service appointments for full-time and part-time handymen to visit and make repairs, and sometimes coordinate with sub-contractors.
One Lehman Brothers executive, after being let go from the Wall Street firm, bought a Union, New Jersey franchise from a national handyman firm.[11] A franchise was approximately $110,000 with a franchise fee of $14,900, according to a spokesperson for a national handyman franchise.[11]
A handyman built the roof beams (above the drywall, not shown), based on advice from local city inspectors; later, he installed the drywall; a plumber installed pipes and the shower.
Some see a benefit of franchising as “entrepreneurship under the safety net of a tried-and-true business umbrella”[11] but forecast a 1.2 percent decrease in franchise businesses during the 2008-2009 recession.[11] In 2005, according to a survey released by the Washington-based International Franchise Association showed 909,000 franchised establishments in the United States employing some 11 million people.[11] Franchises offer training, advertising and information technology support, lower procurement costs and access to a network of established operators.[11]
Franchise handyman firms sometimes pitch clients by asking prospective customers about their unresolved “to-do lists.”[12] The firm does odd jobs, carpentry, and repairs.[12] Trends such as a “poverty of time” and a “glut of unhandy husbands” has spurred the business.[12] Technicians do a range of services including tile work, painting, and wallpapering.[12] One firm charges $88 per hour.[12] The firm targets a work category which full-fledged remodelers and contractors find unprofitable.[12] A consumer was quoted by a reporter explaining the decision to hire one firm: “‘I couldn’t find anyone to come in and help me because the jobs were too small’, said Meg Beck of Huntington, who needed some painting and carpentry done. She turned to one franchise firm and said she liked the fact that the service has well-marked trucks and uniformed technicians and that a dispatcher called with the names of the crew before they showed up.”[12] There are indications that these businesses are growing.[12] There are different firms operating.[8][13]
A handyman built this bathroom wall using two-by-four boards; after electricians added the wires, metal plates were put on studs to prevent nails and screws (to hold drywall) from going into electric wires; a handyman added the drywall.
Other competitors include online referral services.[5] In addition, some large home centers offer installation services for products such as cabinets and carpet installation.[12] Sometimes homeowners contact a professional service after trying, but failing, to do repair work themselves; in one instance, a Minneapolis homeowner attempted a project but called a technician to finish the project, and the overall cost was substantial.[14]
[edit]Assessment of handyman options
Handymen have been hired to de-clutterbasements and build movable shelves.
How well do the franchise chains perform? One Wall Street Journal reporting team did an informal assessment by hiring “handymen all over the country and asked them to fix a wide range of problems, from a relatively routine leaky faucet to a sticky door.”[8] The reporter concluded that “with few licensing requirements and standards for the industry, prices are all over the board.”[8] One quote was ten times as large as another.[8] Further, the reporter concluded “A big corporate name is no guarantee of quality or speedy service.”[8] One corporate firm took three weeks to fix a stuck door.[8] Service varied from spotty to good, with complaints about unreturned phone calls, service people standing on dining room chairs, leaving holes between wood planking, but liked getting multiple jobs done instead of just one.[8] Customers liked handymen wearing hospital booties (to avoid tracking dirt in houses).[8] The reporter chronicled one experience with repairing a water-damaged ceiling. A franchise firm fixed it for $1,530; a second (non-franchise local handyman) fixed a similar ceiling for $125.[8] The reporter preferred the second worker, despite the fact that he “doesn’t have a fancy van — or carry proof of insurance.”[8] Tips for selecting a good handyman include: ask questions, get written estimates on company stationery, make sure handymen guarantee their work, pay with credit cards or checks because this provides an additional record of each transaction, check references and licenses, and review feedback about the contractors from Internet sites.[15]
Tiling is another medium-level handyman job which most homeowners can do successfully, provided they follow directions carefully.
[edit]Legal issues
Generally, in the United States, there are few legal issues if an unpaid homeowner works on a project within their own home, with some exceptions. Some jurisdictions require paid handypeople to be licensed and/or insured. New Jersey, for example, requires all handymen who work in for-profit businesses serving residential and commercial customers, to be registered and insured.[16] Often handymen are barred from major plumbing, electrical wiring, or gas-fitting projects for safety reasons, and authorities sometimes require workers to be licensed in particular trades. However, minor plumbing work such as fixing water taps, connecting sinks, fixing leaks, or installing new washing machines, are usually permitted to be done without licensing. Many handymen are insured under a property damage liability policy, so that accidental property damage from negligence or accidents are covered.
[edit]Distinction between handyman and general contractor
It is generally assumed that a handyman, being a jack of many trades, performs the works himself. The general contractor[17], on the other hand, hires more specialized subcontractors[18] (or handymen) to perform portions of or all of the construction work on a larger scale.
[edit]Handymen in popular culture
The handyman image recurs in popular culture. There have been songs about handymen recorded by Elvis Presley in 1964, Del Shannon in 1964, James Taylor in 1977.[19] There are femme-fatale TV characters who fall for handymen.[20] Handymen have been portrayed in books and films, generally positively, as do-gooder helpful types, but not particularly smart or ambitious. In a book by author Carolyn See called The Handyman, a handyman is really an aspiring but discouraged artist who transforms the lives of people he works for, as well as sleeping with some of his clients, and his experiences improve his artistic output.[21] The book suggests handymen discover “the appalling loneliness of the women who call him for help” whose needs are sometimes “comic,” sometimes “heartbreaking,” and deep down “sexual.”[22] A 1980 movie called The Handyman was about a carpenter-plumber who was “good at what he does” but is “too honest and trusting”, and gets taken advantage of by “women who find him handsome and understanding;” the movie earned negative reviews from critic Vincent Canby.[23] Other movies have used a rather tired formula of sexy-handyman meets bored-housewives, such as The Ups and Downs of a Handyman, a 1975 movie in which “Handsome Bob also finds he’s a fast favorite with the local housewives, who seem to have more than small repairs on their minds.”[24] In Canada, there’s a television show called Canada’s Worst Handyman which is a reality-show in which handyman contestants try their best on jobs in order to not be labeled worst handyman. Home Improvement was an American television sitcom starring Tim Allen, which aired 1991 to 1999. Handy Manny is an American/Hispanic preschool television show that air’s on Disney Junior and stars a handy man cartoon character named Manny.
[edit]List of handyman jobs
The list of projects which handymen can do is extensive, and varies from easy-to-learn tasks which take little time such as changing a light bulb, to extensive projects which require multiple steps, such as kitchen remodeling. Here is a partial list:
Appraising of property
Barbecue pit maintenance
Ceramic tile repair
Curtain hanging
Dryer vent installation
Energy Updates
Fan installation
Fence fixing
Fireplace cleaning
Flooring Installation and Repair
Heating system tune-up
Hot tubs and spas
Insulation installation (batts)
Insulation installation (blown-in)
Lamp repairs
Lockset adjustment
Molding installation
Patio stone installation
Remodeling basements
Remodeling bathrooms
Remodeling kitchens
Safety modifications
Sealing driveways
Senior Living Modifications
Shelf installation
Sprinkler repair
Staining furniture
Storage area construction
Storage area repair
Swapping a toilet
Swimming pool maintenance
Wall building
Waste and junk removal
Note: this is a partial list
[edit]See also
[edit]References
^ PAUL LEWIS (April 16, 1988). “MAN IN THE NEWS; Diplomatic Handyman: Diego Cordovez”. New York Times. Retrieved 2009-10-26.
^ “Religion: Handyman to Washington”. Time Magazine. Apr. 13, 1936. Retrieved 2009-10-26.
^ LIESL SCHILLINGER (November 27, 2005). “Fire the Handyman, Then Do It Yourself (book reviews)”. New York Times: Fashion & Style. Retrieved 2009-10-26. “HELP, IT’S BROKEN! A Fix-It Bible for the Repair-Impaired. By Arianne Cohen; READYMADE: How to Make (Almost) Everything: A Do-It-Yourself Primer. By Shoshana Berger and Grace Hawthorne.”
^ Kim O’Donnel (March 26, 2007). “The Case of the Kitchen Barrel Nuts”. Washington Post. Retrieved 2009-10-26.
^ a b c Michelle Slatalla (August 5, 2004). “ONLINE SHOPPER; $220 for Two Hours? Clocking Mr. Fix-It”. New York Times. Retrieved 2009-10-17.
^ Anonymous plumber (2007). “Spoken advice”. Anonymous plumber. “A plumber told me once to ONLY focus on one thing at a time; this was the cardinal rule of all repairwork he said; trying to do two things simultaneously leads to problems, mistakes, injuries.”
^ Steve Marshall (Australia) (May 20, 2009). “Handyman drill saves blood-clot victim”. USA Today. Retrieved 2009-12-08.
^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Danielle Reed (April 29, 2003). “Chains Take a Stab At Handyman Work”. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2009-10-26.
^ Fish, Stanley (May 7, 2006). “Who Did This To You?”. New York Times: Opinion. Retrieved 2009-10-26. “the house painter who said that the prep work and the power washing our handyman had done would have to be done all over again; the handyman who regularly announced that none of those we had engaged (except his uncle) knew what they were doing”
^ Jill Priluck (December 8, 2010). “The founder’s life for young VCs”. CNN-Money-Fortune Magazine. Retrieved 2010-12-07. “In early 2009, … Ringwelski launched SkillSlate, a site that organizes handymen, dogwalkers, massage therapists and other solos through profiles and ratings the same way dating sites corral singles.”
^ a b c d e f Deborah L. Cohen (Feb 24, 2009). “Franchising heats up as economy cools down”. Reuters. Retrieved 2009-10-17.
^ a b c d e f g h i PAULA GANZI LICATA (April 3, 2005). “WHERE WE LIVE; They Make House Calls: The Range of Services Grows”. New York Times. Retrieved 2009-10-17.
^ Jayne O’Donnell (2009-10-21). “Rent-A-Husband handyman service raises questions”. USA TODAY. Retrieved 2009-10-26.
^ SUSAN SAULNY (May 16, 2009). “Even to Save Cash, Don’t Try This Stuff at Home”. New York Times. Retrieved 2009-10-17.
^ Joel Bell (Sep 9, 2009). “The Nuts and Bolts of Choosing a Handyman”. Reuters. Retrieved 2009-10-26.
^ “Starting a Business in NJ”. State of New Jersey: Department of the Treasury. 2008-11-11. Retrieved 2009-10-27.
^ general contractor
^ subcontractors
^ BEN SISARIO (August 21, 2003). “Lost Elvis Song Turns Up”. New York Times. Retrieved 2009-10-26.
^ Mary McNamara (May 29, 2009). “Review: ‘Maneater’ — Jennifer (Marla Sokoloff), the sweet-faced rich girl who has the hots for her handyman.”. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2009-10-26.
^ ELIZABETH GLEICK (Apr. 12, 1999). “Books: The Handyman By Carolyn See”. Time Magazine. Retrieved 2009-10-26.
^ DAVID WILLIS McCULLOUGH (March 21, 1999). “Home Improvement — Carolyn See’s handyman hero can manage the tasks that matter most.”. New York Times: Books. Retrieved 2009-10-26.
^ Vincent Canby (September 27, 1980). “Movie Review — The Handyman (1980)”. New York Times. Retrieved 2009-10-26.
^ “The Ups and Downs of a Handyman (1975) movie review; alternate title: The Happy Housewives”. New York Times. 1975. Retrieved 2009-10-26.
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This page was last modified on 28 November 2011 at 23:04.
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September 28, 2011 By vphandyman Leave a Comment
Newly completed tile shower in Huntington Beach. Note the custom shampoo niche!
Glasman house exterior paint job
August 31, 2011 By vphandyman Leave a Comment
All finished with the whole house exterior paint job in Orange. Another happy homeowner.
Installing shutters
Wrapping up the Glasman exterior paint job in Orange by putting the finishing touches on with new shutters.
New exterior doors
We replaced these exterior doors and patched the stucco.
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What are we doing?
Aims of our project
Things we want to share
As the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War approached, Luton Culture, with support from the Heritage Lottery Fund and in partnership with the University of Bedfordshire, embarked on an ambitious project to link Luton's experience of WWI with the family memories of people who live here today.
Those stories do not have to be strictly military, we are interested in what the ancestors of all today's Lutonians were up to in the years 1914-1919. So for example, if your ancestor worked in a hat factory during WWI, we want to know; if they worked in Scotland making ships, we want to know; if they worked as a Porter in British India we want to know.
WWI was a time when old ideas of what the British Empire was were challenged firmly. Men died on an unimaginable scale, civilians died in bombing raids or during industrial accidents making weapons; rich and poor fought alongside one another, and men and women from across the Empire met for the first time. Class and social boundaries were broken, and women earned the vote as a result of their heroic efforts during the war. We hope that by sharing the stories of people from across Luton, we will see evidence of this change happening, change that gave birth to the modern world we enjoy today.
Luton Culture could have told a story using what is in the collection but, it would have been limited to what the project team found interesting and could miss out on aspects of Luton's diverse communities. Plus we didn’t want to do this alone as the Great War was a shared effort that involved people from across the then Empire, now Commonwealth, fighting and struggling alongside one another. We want to bring a little bit of that spirit back and share the stories of all our ancestors under the banner of commemoration, reconciliation, and shared sacrifice.
Remember, this project will only be as good as what we put into. Please help us tell the story of the WWI experiences of all Luton's communities.
Digitising relevant objects and archives from the museum and library collections.
Collecting memories, artefacts and images from Luton people via collection days; and then uploading this content to this site.
Allowing people to share their Objects, Events and Stories via Crowd sourcing. You upload what you want to share, from home.
Creating stories, teaching resources, talks and events based on the content in this site.
Creating a unique insight into Luton's experiences of WWI as told by its people today.
Using the stories we collect to tell a very personal story of Luton via an exhibition that will be at Wardown Park Museum Aug-Dec 2014
The exhibition will then hopefully tour sites in Luton to share the stories yet further.
To encourage participation and contribution in the project from all communities in Luton.
To help people understand the First World War and how it impacted on the residents of Luton.
To collect and research material relating to the First World War from Luton residents.
To research and preserve resources via a virtual platform, increasing access and awareness.
To develop ICT, research, communication and presentation skills of the volunteers.
To encourage people to reflect on the impact of the First World War and how it relates to current conflicts and their impact on local communities.
Starting in March 2014, collection events will be held around Luton, in libraries, and other venues.
You can contribute to these events by picking through your attics, memories, communities, and finding things that relate to WWI.
You can simply upload and share your contribution direct through this site, by registering and following the guidance on the Add your own story page.
People's Information
Objects from wartime e.g. anything from Books to Bombs (deactivated of course) Watches to Wallets, Postcard to Photographs.
Information about events that happened in Luton at the time.
Have a look around the site to help you see what is relevant.
Anything you find that you feel is relevant to the story of Luton's Great War, as told by the people who live here today.
If You're not sure, bring your item to a collecting event (See local press, event details to be posted soon) we help you to identify it, digitise and upload it and share the story it tells.
For further Information Email: greatwar@lutonculture.com
Or write to:
WWI Projects Officer
Wardown Park Museum
LU2 7HA
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Democrats’ new battle in Congress
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) holds a news conference following the 2018 midterm elections at the Capitol Building on November 7, 2018, in Washington, DC. Zach Gibson/Getty Images.
Lea en Español
After the storm of mid-term elections, the Democratic Party faces a challenging picture, but with the same objective: to hold the president accountable.
by Yamily Habib
While the country continues to debate whether or not the so-called Blue Wave actually happened after the mid-term elections, the 219 seats won by the Democrats in the House of Representatives are the preamble to a new battle.
Before the final results came in, the leader of the party Nancy Pelosi assured that the Democrats would “show the voters that we are a governing party, not the leftist mafia described by Mr. Trump.”
The campaign strategy of the Democrats focused on downplaying the presidential demagogy and working on getting the necessary votes, something that obviously worked.
However, and as reported by the New York Times, the party has decided to reformulate their strategy for this new stage, placing special emphasis on how to deal with President Trump's erratic decisions, like that of firing his Attorney General Jeff Sessions the day after the elections.
In addition to carrying out their electoral promises (reducing the cost of medicines, investing in infrastructure, and attacking government corruption), Democrats must now "deal with the provocations of a president who relishes confrontation and disdains institutional norms."
David Axelrod, Democratic strategist and former adviser to Barack Obama, explained to the Times that "Trump’s great genius is to try and reduce everyone to his level and approach, and he wants to be able to paint Democrats as single-mindedly bent on his destruction.”
However, Axelrod adds, ballots didn’t ask the voters if they wanted the president to be attacked or defended, despite the fact that many interpreted his exercise as an affirmation of that kind.
"Striking the balance (between both agendas) is going to be difficult", concludes the strategist.
One way or another, Democrats will have to bite their tongues and fulfill their campaign promises, not only because it’s their duty to do so but because following the president's game can be a counterproductive strategy.
The Democratic representative of California, Eric Swalwell, said that the Party must "show the American people that there’s a purpose behind everything that we do,” even when many within his caucus are anxious to hold the Administration accountable.
That comes as no surprise at all, considering the new control of the House of Representatives gives the Democrats a broad capacity to initiate investigations into the president and his administration, which should be carried out with caution if they are to bear fruit.
Although the newly elected representative Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), who will become the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman, assured that "I’m not going to be handing out subpoenas like somebody’s handing out candy on Halloween,” Democrats will be able to do a lot from January on.
According to the Washington Post, the party will be able to get to the bottom of the Russian investigation; examine the conflicts of interest of acting Attorney General Matthew G. Whitaker and protect Robert Mueller's investigation; request the president's tax returns; and even evaluate the confirmation of Brett M. Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.
It would seem then that, after two years of Donald Trump's administration, the agenda of the House will require years of work.
Please tell us what you think about this story
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Ritterkreuz des Kriegsverdienstkreuzes mit Schwertern
The Knight’s Cross of the War Merit Cross with Swords (Ridderkreuz des Kriegsverdienstkreuz mit Schwertern) was also instituted on 19-08-1940 and is identical to the Knight’s Cross without Swords except that in this version there are two swords placed diagonally through the Maltese cross. The Knight’s Cross was struck of genuine silver, with a silver grade variying from .800 to .950. In some cases the mint mark is stamped on the V, placed upside down on the lower arm of the cross. The weight of this award is 1.36 troy ounces. This award was meant for military, administrative personnel and civilians who had served bravely during combat or in the war effort, but which did not merit a Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross. The Knight’s Cross could not be awarded unless the candidate had already been awarded the War Merit Cross First and Second Class with Swords. The Knight’s Cross outranked the German Cross in silver (Deutsche kreuz in silber) but was lower in rank than the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross. It is estimated that during WWII period, 211 Knight’s Crosses with Swords have been awarded, however not every award was published to protection the recipient's anonymity and/or his work. This applied to Dr. Ing. Ernst Blaicher, who was awarded the RK on 15-11-1943 for his achievements in tank production. Another case is that of Othmar Wolfran. (Luftwaffe Oberstleutnant) He was employed in the Generalstab der Deutschen Luftwaffe in Finnland. He was recalled to Berlin in the last days of the war, where he received the Knight’s Cross, he was subsequently promoted to a new post and shortly after was taken prisoner of war by the Russians.
The Knight’s Cross was awarded in a blue box, with a dark bleu velvet base with a hollowed out space to accomodate the cross and hanger. The lid was covered with white silk and the space above the hollow was intended to accommode the neck ribbon.
The criteria to be awarded the Knight’s Cross was that the recipient be previously awarded the War Merit Cross first and second class and that a recommendation be sent by the OKW or a State Minister to the Reichskanzlei for Hitler's personal approval.
Berger, Gottlob-Christian* July 16th, 1896
† January 5th, 1975
Agartz, Friedrich
Arps, Willi 29-08-1894
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Travelworld
Europe Weather Map
More about Liberia
Airlines in Liberia
Airports in Liberia
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Cities in Liberia
Climate in Liberia
Current weather in Liberia
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Information about travelling to Liberia
Liberia is located in Western Africa, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean, between Cote d'Ivoire and Sierra Leone
Facts about Liberia
Population 3,334,587 (July 2008 est.
Capital Monrovia
Time zone UTC 0 (5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during Standard Time)
Location Western Africa, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean, between Cote d'Ivoire and Sierra Leone
General info about Liberia
Settlement of freed slaves from the US in what is today Liberia began in 1822; by 1847, the Americo-Liberians were able to establish a republic. William TUBMAN, president from 1944-71, did much to promote foreign investment and to bridge the economic, social, and political gaps between the descendents of the original settlers and the inhabitants of the interior. In 1980, a military coup led by Samuel DOE ushered in a decade of authoritarian rule. In December 1989, Charles TAYLOR launched a rebellion against DOE's regime that led to a prolonged civil war in which DOE himself was killed. A period of relative peace in 1997 allowed for elections that brought TAYLOR to power, but major fighting resumed in 2000. An August 2003 peace agreement ended the war and prompted the resignation of former president Charles TAYLOR, who faces war crimes charges in The Hague related to his involvement in Sierra Leone's civil war. After two years of rule by a transitional government, democratic elections in late 2005 brought President Ellen JOHNSON SIRLEAF to power. The UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) maintains a strong presence throughout the country, but the security situation is still fragile and the process of rebuilding the social and economic structure of this war-torn country will take many years.
Disease threats
degree of risk: very high food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepat
English 20% (official), some 20 ethnic group languages, of which a few can be written and are used in correspondence
What about drugs?
transshipment point for Southeast and Southwest Asian heroin and South American cocaine for the European and US markets; corruption, criminal activity, arms-dealing, and diamond trade provide significant potential for money laundering, but the lack of well-developed financial system limits the country's utility as a major money-laundering center
Ethnic division
indigenous African 95% (including Kpelle, Bassa, Gio, Kru, Grebo, Mano, Krahn, Gola, Gbandi, Loma, Kissi, Vai, Dei, Bella, Mandingo, and Mende), Americo-Liberians 2.5% (descendants of immigrants from the US who had been slaves), Congo People 2.5% (descend
HIV/AIDS prevalence rate
5.9% (2003 est.)
tropical; hot, humid; dry winters with hot days and cool to cold nights; wet, cloudy summers with frequent heavy showers
iron ore, timber, diamonds, gold, hydropower
Civil war and government mismanagement destroyed much of Liberia's economy, especially the infrastructure in and around the capital, Monrovia. Many businesses fled the country, taking capital and expertise with them, but with the conclusion of fighting and the installation of a democratically-elected government in 2006, some have returned. Richly endowed with water, mineral resources, forests, and a climate favorable to agriculture, Liberia had been a producer and exporter of basic products - primarily raw timber and rubber. Local manufacturing, mainly foreign owned, had been small in scope. President JOHNSON SIRLEAF, a Harvard-trained banker and administrator, has taken steps to reduce corruption, build support from international donors, and encourage private investment. Embargos on timber and diamond exports have been lifted, opening new sources of revenue for the government. The reconstruction of infrastructure and the raising of incomes in this ravaged economy will largely depend on generous financial and technical assistance from donor countries and foreign investment in key sectors, such as infrastructure and power generation.
tropical rain forest deforestation; soil erosion; loss of biodiversity; pollution of coastal waters from oil residue and raw sewage
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By caithaygood
Season Ends in Disappointments Due to Injuries
North Carolina’s season and fans had extremely high hopes for this season and championship. However, throughout the season many injuries led to most of their players sitting on the bench while the opportunity to go to the Final Four slowly slipped away. After Carolina’s loss on Sunday night, it is hard not to think about what would have happened if their players were healthy. What if Kendall Marshall, injured sophomore point guard, had been just a little bit healthier to play? What if Dexter Strickland hadn’t suffered a season-ending knee injury against Virginia Tech, or Leslie Mcdonanald hadn’t been lost months before the start of the season due to a similar injury? How about if John Henson, who played Sunday with a hurt wrist and sprained ankle, was fully healed? All of these questions are haunting the players and fans of the Tar Heels… what if, what if, what if.
Marshall is not a flashy player, however, it is almost impossible to overemphasize his magnitude to the team. He is the smartest passer in college basketball, averaging 9.7 assists per game this season, which at college level is exceptional. He is a vital player to the Tar Heels, and was responsible for controlling the flow of the offense. He is the most crucial player in North Carolina’s tournament offense and Tar Heels’ most significant player. Given Marshall’s absence, the Tar Heels didn’t have high hopes for their game against Kansas. However, its hard not to think about if Marshall could have played, would Carolina be in the Final Four? It’s a puzzling concept for fans and players that the result of so many injuries throughout the season has caused them the championship. His absence in the game against Kansas will forever sit in the back of Heels fans, coaches and players.
Given all of the injuries, it makes Sunday’s loss somewhat easier to swallow because the pressure and hopes of everyone was a couple levels less than normal. This is going to make next season that much more exciting to look forward to – the anticipation of healthy players and a new season its thrilling.
Would UNC have been the team everyone wanted and expected them to be if they were all healthy? Would they have won the national title? It is very, very likely. Nonetheless, nothing is a guarantee in sports, and that’s what makes it such an exhilarating sport.
Thinking about the tournament for 2013, Carolina has a lot to think about in order to reach the Final Four next year. Kendall Marshall and James Michael McAdoo are both good NBA prospects to declare for the draft, that’s a given. Marshall proved to be a one of the most essential players, and there is a chance that McAdoo and Marshall could head to the NBA. Nevertheless, the importance of these two players would be a huge advantage for the Tar Heels. They need to bring in a strong recruiting class, which UNC has already done. They are ranked fifth in the nation by ESPNU in recruiting this far. Tar Heels top recruit is Marcus Paige, number 23 overall recruit in the 2013 class and number one point guard. He is a high scoring, quick mindset, smart decision making and good passing skills.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=S8KohbmHOaI
Powerhouses like North Carolina Tar Heels have without a doubt shown throughout the years that they can surprise with some top recruits down the line. I have a feeling their determination and motivation due to this year’s disappointment will hopefully bring them into the Final Four next year.
Megan Griswold
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June 25, 2019 Buy online steroids SPORTS NEWS 0
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In 1988, my training began in our Leningrad radio technical college: for a year I studied and trained in parallel. Just in those years there were rocking chairs, basement halls, in one of which we went to the metro station “Square of Courage” with friends. All such cellars were unlike today’s fitness halls, sometimes they couldn’t even be called a hall, but at that time their visit was a very serious step forward for us: it was a place where we could do it. How exactly to do, no one knew, we just raised the shells. Those skills, which gave athletics, are very far from the skills and techniques of exercise, which are required for the correct impact on the muscles. In general, pumped iron – who is in that much. In athletics, movements were inert steroid for sale in usa, impulsive, speed-strength trainees, and bodybuilding resulted in slow, controlled movements. But I’m so smart now. Then we, yesterday’s schoolchildren, were full of energy, desires, arrogance, were just eager to do and did what we could. Fortunately, they were young, healthy in terms of muscles and ligaments, there were no injuries, but now, looking back, I understand that injuries were possible, and not once.
In technical school I learned only one year. Again, because of my impudent disposition, I managed in a very boorish form – I will be honest, in other words, you will not call it – at the end of the first course I have a row with a teacher, and for all. I was not expelled, but I took the application myself and left, because it seemed to me then that it would be right. A little more than a year remained before the army, and I spent this time without doing anything, – more precisely, in life I was fussing and practicing.
A year later, I entered the Leningrad Institute of Railway Engineers, abbreviated LIIZT. Why exactly there? Did I want to be a builder or a traveler? Unfortunately, I did not feel any vocation at the age of 18, and there was no dynasty in our family. Mom worked at the grocery store, and Dad – at the plant at the machine. Just once I was walking down the street and met a classmate who asked why I was so thoughtful. I replied that I should go to a higher educational institution, but I don’t know where exactly: I’d have a military department and it would be easier to study. So he suggested that I go to LIIZT, of course, to “bridges and tunnels”. He forgot to say that his relatives are working in the department and “easier” with him.
READ Roads collapsed, bridges were not built, but nightclubs flourished, which I sometimes visited with friends.
I studied instead of five whole seven years. This is a separate story. Since the second year I worked as a freight forwarder. For those who do not know what it is: at five in the morning I came with a driver on a truck to the dairy factory, loaded the car, took milk to the shops, sent the driver with the invoices of one in the last shops, and sat on the subway and oral steroids for sale online in usa went to study, and immediately after the institute I visited shops to raise money for the previous day, and so every day, except for weekends. Now I would simply not be physically able to master such a rhythm of life, but then I had enough strength both for study, and for work, and for personal life.
In the second semester of the third year I was admitted to the hospital with hepatitis A, and as it turned out, that was enough to go on academic leave. I recovered a year later, part of the disciplines I conceived. In addition, during the time of my illness, I collected notes and laboratory notes from the whole group, and when I recovered, I immediately became “good”. I still think that higher education is not just a higher school, but a school of life, which gives very concentrated practical knowledge. In the fourth year I got stomach problems and another hospitalization – the second academic year. Here, my Jewish roots woke up in full force, I gathered all the “blanks” of course projects, laboratory and abstracts from my first two groups and, having recovered a year later, became the hero of my third group. Not only that I was older than everyone, it also beautifully “entered”. I distributed to all my classmates (to whom the buy injection steroids online assignments were appropriate) the already solved or similar variants of the examples. This is how I was a “student.”
If you noticed in my story, as soon as I started to move with a “trailer” and freeze, I immediately went to rest on a hospital bed to think about my behavior. This conclusion seems ridiculous even to me from the side, but, looking back, I recognize this amazing pattern. Study was separately, and I – separately. The work was also separate. And until I settled it all in my head, refused to “like everyone else”, “as it should be”, from herd, from unnecessary knowledge and directions, I persistently repeated to me where my place really was. But then I was still very far from complete awareness.
READ How to build a relief press?
… about bodybuilding
When I graduated from the institute in 1996, it was already St. Petersburg University of Communications (SPGUPS). At that time, almost nothing was built in the country, but, on the contrary, everything collapsed. I did not get a job in my specialty, since I didn’t have any protection — I traveled on this “locomotive of life” as an occasional passenger, and my classmates already knew in advance where they would work. I had to get a job at a wholesale and retail enterprise: there I was a driver, and also I checked checks at the checkout and the availability of goods in the basket. Next to the buy steroids usa work was a gym. And in 1997, for the first time, I got into not just a basement rocking chair, but just a sports club. It was called “Monolith” and was located on Konstantin Zaslonov Street. It was there that I saw for the first time real sportsmen-bodybuilders – performing sportsmen, and not just pumped up guys. In Monolith, I learned that exercising every day, almost not sleeping, while eating haphazardly, is not at all the way that leads me to big muscles. It was then, in 1997, that I first had at least general knowledge and ideas about where to go next.
By understanding the nutritional system and the training process, I was able to streamline and structure the training. As a result, for the first year of classes systematically, I finally gained 12 kilograms in weight. From 85 kg I grew to 95–97, but then in the halls there was such a saying: “Whoever doesn’t weigh 100 is not a man,” and I really wanted to weigh 100 kg.
The times were still extremely hungry, in 1998 a powerful economic crisis struck – he “killed” the company in which I worked: there was no money, and there was really nothing, and I returned to my native Vyborg district.
READ How to keep youth
The next room was the club “Elite”. Now it is no longer there, and then it was located in the basement of the hostel on Demyan Poor Street, and there was a rocking chair – in the most serious sense of the word. It also involved athletes tretizen 20, there were even more than in the first hall. But the specific atmosphere in “Elite” was not created by them, but by the cult entourage of the late 90s – “brothers” in jackets. Every two weeks, the news scattered about the rocking chair that once again one of the regular customers of the club was killed. Such times were all over the country, unfortunately.
Then I went through a good school in terms of communication with people. Indeed, in this semi-criminal semi-criminal collective, every word you say threatens to be incorrectly worded, and you can create serious problems. Although, having the adequacy and patience, and in such an interesting environment can be assimilated. In addition, if you could properly put yourself, learn to negotiate and communicate with a variety of “characters” from that time, then in the end you will be able to communicate with anyone. These “express communication courses” were very effective, although I would not wish anyone to go through them.
Until 2000, I was engaged in the “Elite”. There I gained my basic practical knowledge, as there were a huge number of real, stubborn bodybuilding fans around. And each contributed some grain of his experience – a thinking person could always isolate some more or less relevant information, checking it with his own common sense.
Related posts: Harm anabolic steroids Buy anabolic steroids Anabolic steroids for sale Legal anabolic steroids READ Muscle pain. Delayed onset muscle soreness.
Related posts: Oiled Up and Ready to Go | Sex Sent Me to the ER Does Sex or Masturbate Effects on Muscles or Fitness Goals? […]
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Saudi Cabinet gives go-ahead for businesses to open 24/7 in Kingdom
Antarctica is losing ice 6 times faster today than in 1980s
Antarctica is losing ice 6 times faster today than in 1980s /node/1435551/world
This Nov. 11, 2016, file photo shows the Taylor Glacier near McMurdo Station, Antarctica. (Mark Ralston/Pool Photo via AP, File)
SETH BORENSTEIN | AP
Study says Antarctica has lost almost 252 billion metric tons of ice per year since 2009
The recent melting rate is 15 percent higher than what a study found last year
WASHINGTON: Antarctica is melting more than six times faster than it did in the 1980s, a new study shows.
Scientists used aerial photographs, satellite measurements and computer models to track how fast the southern-most continent has been melting since 1979 in 176 individual basins. They found the ice loss to be accelerating dramatically — a key indicator of human-caused climate change.
Since 2009, Antarctica has lost almost 278 billion tons (252 billion metric tons) of ice per year, the new study found. In the 1980s, it was losing 40 billion metric tons a year.
The recent melting rate is 15 percent higher than what a study found last year.
Eric Rignot, a University of California, Irvine, ice scientist, was the lead author on the new study in Monday’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. He said the big difference is that his satellite-based study found East Antarctica, which used to be considered stable, is losing 56 billion tons (51 billion metric tons) of ice a year. Last year’s study, which took several teams’ work into consideration, found little to no loss in East Antarctica recently and gains in the past.
Melting in West Antarctica and the Antarctica Peninsula account for about four-fifths of the ice loss. East Antarctica’s melting “increases the risk of multiple meter (more than 10 feet) sea level rise over the next century or so,” Rignot said.
Richard Alley, a Pennsylvania State University scientist not involved in Rignot’s study, called it “really good science.”
Kabul Museum shines light on nation’s heritage /node/1526761/world
Kabul Museum shines light on nation’s heritage
Visitors are visibly impressed by one of the ancient relics on display in Kabul Museum on Saturday. (AN photo by Sayed Salahuddin)
Sayed Salahuddin
The damaged museum bears hallmarks of country’s four decades of conflict
KABUL: An Afghan museum looted and bombed during decades of conflict is battling on to shine a light on the country’s rich cultural heritage. Despite losing over 70 percent of its once vast collection of more than 100,000 artifacts, the Kabul Museum continues to proudly display its surviving treasures of the past and change negative perceptions of the country on a global stage.
Hundreds of items are currently on display and an exhibition has been touring the world since 2006.
But many first-time visitors to the museum, located on the Afghan capital’s southern fringes, are shocked at discovering how much remains on show.
Although lacking some of the state-of-the-art exhibition spaces found in many big-city museums, Kabul’s displays can still impress.
Students on a trip to the museum were at first skeptical, but quickly realized the wealth of history unfolding before their eyes. The youths were born and raised during the latest chapter of the war-torn country which for some of them began with the US-led ousting of the ruling Taliban in 2001.
They hardly knew how rich the museum was before it became a victim of the ferocious civil war in the 1990s that razed various neighborhoods in the capital to the ground and led to the looting and destruction of a large proportion of the museum’s treasures.
But they were quickly mesmerized by a massive Islamic-era stone bowl with delicate Arabic calligraphy, the torso and heads of Buddha sculptures, and a large, Afghan-made, 18th century leather gunpowder-measuring container. These were just some of the items highlighting the history of Afghanistan with its various civilizations and faiths.
“I came to know what sort of rich culture and civilization we have had here (in Afghanistan). I did not know about this before my visit,” student Mohammad Ehsan, 17, told Arab News.
His classmate, Aminullah, said that on arrival it “did not seem like a proper museum” but then admitted, “I am happy we came, saw and learnt about our rich culture and history. It is important what we have it (the Kabul Museum) and we learnt through our visit what a shining history we have,” he said.
Despite decades of war and losing over 70 percent of collection Kabul exhibition continues to change world perceptions.
Unfortunately, the image of Afghanistan seen by many foreigners is one of a country ravaged by conflict. However, museum officials are trying to change perceptions. They point to relics dating back to prehistoric times and those from ancient civilizations and empires that have ruled the country or tried to conquer it. Excavations have uncovered ivories from India, mirrors from China, and glassware from the Roman Empire as well as stucco heads and hordes of coins.
Now, the museum bears all of the hallmarks of Afghanistan’s past four decades of conflict. It was on the frontline of warring sides in the 1990s when many of its relics were stolen, smuggled abroad or sold by mafia gangs to foreign countries. Part of the museum building and some of its exhibits were badly damaged in an air strike and by shelling.
And despite the large amount of foreign aid that has poured into the country since the Taliban’s ouster, the museum still has no ventilation, temperature controls to protect displays, or proper security.
During their last year in power, the Taliban blew up ancient Buddha statues in Bamiyan, and began vandalizing hundreds of museum statues which had survived plunder and destruction before the group swept to power in 1996. One of the most famous surviving pieces currently in Kabul Museum is the Rabatak inscription of King Kanishka.
Mohammad Yahya Mohebzada, deputy head of Kabul Museum, told Arab News that prior to the Afghan civil war, museum staff had suggested moving the precious Tilla Tepe gold and jewelry collection along with other valuable items to a safe area in the presidential palace for protection.
These collections and relics from Begram, Ai-Khanoum, and Tepe Fullol, have been on travelling exhibition since 2006 in France, the US, Japan, Canada, Germany and Britain among other countries.
“The exhibition means a lot for us. It is proof to the outside world that Afghanistan was home to various civilizations, that we have a long history and these relics are our cultural heritage,” said Mohebzada, who has worked in the museum for 35 years.
“It helps to change perceptions overseas of Afghanistan having no culture or history and having nothing but war. We can also generate money for the museum through the exhibitions, but their spiritual importance is of more value for us.”
Japan and Britain are among a number of countries that have repatriated scores of Afghan relics smuggled abroad. Foreign experts are also putting together some of the pieces of Buddha statues destroyed by the Taliban. There are now 720 items on display at Kabul Museum and although some are damaged, they represent the historical resilience of the country.
Topics: Kabul Museum Afghanistan
Afghan radio station closes down following Taliban threats
Saudi youths construct historic market for Souq Okaz
Malta sends three suspects for trial on charges of killing anti-corruption journalist
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Home > World Cup Betting News > Going Down Under: Australia-Denmark World Cup Betting
Going Down Under: Australia-Denmark World Cup Betting
January 2, 2018 by Richard Maine
Australia likes its World Cup betting chances against Denmark, as do people betting on the World Cup in the land down under. However, defender Michael Jakobsen, who plays for Melbourne City in the A-League, believes the socceroos are in for a rude awakening. “I read in some newspapers in Denmark that the reaction from the Aussies was like relief or something, I was thinking ‘oh, apparently they don’t know what’s waiting for them’” he said. “I think if you look at Denmark, nearly every player in the starting XI plays at the highest level around Europe. If you look at the Aussies, many of them are in the lower levels or they’re not playing for the clubs at the highest level. Denmark can play up to a certain level and when I’ve seen the Socceroos, I haven’t been totally impressed.
“But the World Cup is something different. You do see nations doing things that are unreal, so it’ll be fun to see. When you see Australia struggling to beat Thailand, then that’s what I think. I think Denmark got a good group, they have a fair chance of finishing second in that group.” Then again, Jakobsen has not donned his country’s colours since a 3-0 win over Thailand in a friendly match 2010, so it’s not like he has his finger on the pulse of Danish soccer. “Nope, I would love to [play in the World Cup], I think my time has gone. In my position, they’re very strong, so I’m not getting my hopes up,” Jakobsen said. “You have plenty of players at the back like Andreas Christensen at Chelsea, Simon Kjaer at Sevilla and Jannik Vestergaard at Borussia Monchengladbach. You have a lot of players at these big clubs in Europe getting a lot of game time.
“In general I can be patriotic. When it comes to the football, I’ll always support the national team.” it is worth noting, for World Cup betting fans, that the Australian national team is still coach-less. Candidates to take over the post include Graham Arnold, Kevin Muscat, Ante Milicic, Josep Gombau, Tony Popovic, Sven Goran Eriksson, Jurgen Klinsmann, Marcelo Bielsa, Slavoljub Muslin, Gianni De Biasi and Bert van Marwijk. Alen Stajcic, Carlo Ancelotti, and Sam Allardyce have been ruled out. “We are open minded about whether the coach is Australian or someone from overseas but they must live in Australia, embrace the progress on and off the field that has been achieved with national teams over the past four years – especially in the areas of technical development and sports science – and be prepared to be an ambassador for our sport here and abroad,” Football Federation Australia Chief executive David Gallop said. “FFA’s starting point is to appoint a coach for the long term but we will be advised on this and other matters by our expert panel.”
Former manager Ange Postecoglou surprisingly resigned a week after Australia qualified for a fourth straight World Cup with a 3-1 win over Honduras. “The journey for me ends as Socceroos coach,” he said at the time. “It’s something I’ve mulled over for a while, it’s just the nature of me as a person. I’ve really tried to coach for the moment … I think I’ll always have a sense of unfinished business but to be honest that would have happened whenever I left.” That surely does not bode well for the Aussies’ World Cup betting chances.
Maradona’s Advice: France versus Peru World Cup Betting
What the Odds to Win FIFA World Cup Russia 2018 are Looking Like
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Home » Race » Controversies, apprehension over Nigerian Hate Speech Bill
Controversies, apprehension over Nigerian Hate Speech Bill
Posted by Admin on Sep 12th, 2018 // No Comment
Wikipedia defines hate speech as “speech, which attacks a person or group on the basis of attributes, such as race, religion, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, disability or gender.”
In some countries, hate speech is described “as speech, gesture or conduct, writing or display, which is forbidden, because it incites violence or prejudicial action against a protected group or individual on the basis of their membership of the group or because it disparages or intimidates a protected group or individual on the basis of their membership of the group.”
In some countries, hate speech is not a legal term, but in some, it is constitutionally protected. In some countries, a victim of hate speech may seek redress under civil law, criminal law or both.
The issue of hate speech in some countries has sparked debates over freedom of speech, hate speech and hate speech legislation, with opponents saying the term is used to silence critics of the government or political party in power.
In the United States (US), hate speech is unregulated, but in the United Kingdom (UK), for example, there are laws against it and expressions of hatred toward someone on account of that person’s colour, race, disability, nationality (including citizenship), ethnic or national origin, religion or sexual orientation is forbidden.
Any communication that is threatening or abusive and is intended to harass, alarm or distress someone is forbidden and penalties for hate speech include a maximum sentence of seven years imprisonment or a fine or both.
The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 inserted Section 4A into the Public Order Act 1986, which prohibits anyone from causing alarm or distress and a person guilty of an offence under this section is liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale or to both.
The Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006 amended the Public Order Act 1986 by adding Part 3A: “A person who uses threatening words or behaviour or displays any written material, which is threatening, is guilty of an offence if he intends thereby to stir up religious hatred.”
The Part protects freedom of expression by stating in Section 29J: “Nothing in this Part shall be read or given effect in a way which prohibits or restricts discussion, criticism or expressions of antipathy, dislike, ridicule, insult or abuse of particular religions or the beliefs or practices of their adherents, or of any other belief system or the beliefs or practices of its adherents, or proselytising or urging adherents of a different religion or belief system to cease practising their religion or belief system.”
Here in Nigeria, the introduction of a Bill on Hate Speech in the senate by Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi (APC Niger) is not only generating controversy, but also uniting critics of the Bill in different spheres of life.
Section 39 (1) of the 1999 constitution (as amended), which allows freedom of expression, says: “Every person shall be entitled to freedom of expression, including freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart ideas and information without interference.”
The Bill, which has passed Second Reading, stipulates death by hanging for only those found guilty of any form of hate speech that results in the death of another person after judicial processes in a Federal High Court. This is contrary to widely held belief that the Bill prescribes death by hanging for any person that makes hate speech.
Abdullahi insisted that those criticising the Bill are doing so because they haven’t lost a relative to violence instigated by hate speech, adding: “People who may be having some opposing views about it definitely are not in the category of people who have lost dear ones and family or livelihood to similar circumstances. If they are, I think they will be saying how I wish this was in place before this thing happened to me.”
He dismissed fears that such law could be used by politicians to victimise their critics or opponents, saying it in intended to serve as a preventive measure to deaths arising from violence started by hate speeches.
The Bill seeks the establishment of an Independent National Commission for Hate Speeches to enforce hate speech laws across the country and ensure the “elimination” of hate speech.
For offences, such as harassment on grounds of ethnicity or race, the offender shall be sentenced to “not less than a five-year jail term or a fine of not less than N10 million or both.”
In addition: “A person who uses, publishes, presents, produces, plays, provides, distributes and/or directs the performance of any material, written and/or visual, which is threatening, abusive or insulting or involves the use of threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour” commits an offence.
“A person who subjects another to harassment on the basis of ethnicity for the purposes of this section where, on ethnic grounds, he unjustifiably engages in a conduct which has the purpose or effect of (a) violating that other person’s dignity or (b) creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for the person subjected to the harassment.
“Conduct shall be regarded as having the effect specified in subsection (1) (a) or (b) of this section if, having regard to all the circumstances, including in particular the perception of that other person, it should reasonably be considered as having that effect.
“The National Commission for Hate Speeches shall be headed by an executive chairperson, who would be appointed by the president on recommendation of the National Council of State, subject to the confirmation of at least two-third majority of the National Assembly.
“The commission shall discourage persons, institutions, political parties and associations from advocating or promoting discrimination or discriminatory practices through the use of hate speeches; promote tolerance, understanding and acceptance of diversity in all aspects of national life and encourage full participation by all ethnic communities in the social, economic, cultural and political life of other communities.
“It shall also plan, supervise, coordinate and promote educational and training programmes to create public awareness, support and advancement of peace and harmony among ethnic communities and racial groups.
“It shall furthermore promote respect for religious, cultural, linguistic and other forms of diversity in a plural society; promote equal access by persons of all ethnic communities and racial groups to public or other services and facilities provided by the government.”
Abdullahi said his decision to sponsor the Bill was informed by cases of religious and ethnic violence experienced in the past years.
There was an earlier attempt to regulate the social media through a Bill in the same senate, which was later stepped down following public uproar.
The present administration has also indicted plans to take tougher actions against hate speech due to inherent abuse and indecent comments, especially on the social media.
Last year, Minister of Interior, Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazau, announced a bill against hate speech had been submitted to the Justice ministry for onward transmission to the National Assembly.
But during the week, Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, said hate speech offenders would be punished in accordance with the 2011 Anti-Terrorism Act.
Mohammed advised media houses in the country against offering their platforms for use to communicate hate speech, warning that if not checked, hate speech could be the precursor of violence and genocide.
He said the fastest way to nip the dangers of hate speech in the bud was for journalists to outrightly turn their back to the trend.
“The fact that the media takes this issue seriously is very encouraging, because, in most cases, the media, wittingly or unwittingly, provides the platform for the dissemination of hate speech.
“I have always said that hate speech is not free speech. For example, while the Nigerian constitution guarantees freedom of speech, it does not guarantee freedom of hate speech, because hate speech could be the precursor of violence, of genocide.”
Citing the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, which left at least 800,000 people dead, Mohammed said: “Hate speech or what later became known as ‘Hate Media,’ was a major catalyst of that genocide.”
The Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) has cautioned the Senate against passing the Bill into law.
In a statement by its National Secretary, Shuaibu Leman, the body said while the union shares the concerns being expressed by the sponsor of the bill, it is pertinent to caution against prescribing capital punishment for hate speech, principally because it could be used indiscriminately against perceived political opponents by unscrupulous members of the political elite.
“It is instructive to note that citizens are entitled to free speech, even if they hold offensive and hurtful opinions.
“We also cannot forget that people have the right to be biased, even offensive in their speech even if journalism is different and we have to be aware of this.”
“It is therefore, our considered opinion that it is pertinent to avoid such pitfalls in our bid to come up with legislation to curtail the excesses of citizens.”
‘It Is A Case Of Killing Ants With A Sledge Hammer’
From Adamu Abuh, Abuja and Kehinde Olatunji
A member of the House of Representatives, Mr. Johnson Oghuma, has expressed opposition to ongoing moves to slam the death penalty on perpetrators of hate speech in the country.
Speaking to The Guardian in Abuja, he argued that the offence is not comparable to the more heinous offence of murder, armed robbery and kidnapping responsible for the loss of lives and property of hapless Nigerians.
He assured that he would oppose the Bill whenever it is brought to the House of Representatives for consideration.
The lawmaker who represents Etsako Federal constituency of Edo State believed hate speech is a creation of the elites, who are fond of manipulating the psyche of Nigerians.
“The whole idea is about elites that are seriously pained by hate speech. Do you know how many hate speeches I receive everyday in my village? How many people would you kill?”
On whether it could lead to rights abuses, he said: “What do you mean by rights abuses? Fundamental human rights as enshrined in our Constitution does not give you rights to insult persons or cause another person pain. Your rights stop where you want to cause another person pain.”
On how the authorities can curb hate speech, he said: “To start with, we must adjust ourselves first. We must do things right first. If you don’t want anybody to say something you do not like, you yourself should behave in a way that somebody would not say something against you.”
Similarly, Femi Falana (SAN) in his article titled: ‘Nigeria has enough laws to curb hate speeches,’ posited that what is lacking is the political will to arrest and prosecute those who contravene the provisions of the relevant laws that exist in the country.
He maintained that before further energies and resources are dissipated by the government on the enactment of a new hate speech law, it is pertinent to point out that the country has enough laws to deal with the menace, hence the nation does not need to enact a new law against hate speeches.
Falana suggested that authorities of the Federal and State government should direct the Attorney General of the Federation and the Attorneys-General of the various states to collaborate with the Police with a view to enforcing the provisions of all the relevant laws which have criminalized hate speeches including offensive statements published in the social media.
“For the avoidance of doubt, section 4 of the Police Act has empowered the Nigeria Police Force to arrest and prosecute criminal suspects in the country. However, Section 47 (1) of the CyberCrimes (Prohibition, Prevention ETC) Act provides that law enforcement agencies shall have power to prosecute offences under this Act while section 58 thereof defines law enforcement agencies to include “any agency for the time being responsible for the implementation and enforcement of the provisions of this Act.” As the Nigerian Army is not one of the law enforcement agencies envisaged by the Act and other penal laws, it should not be permitted to enforce any of the laws against hate speeches,” he said.
In the same vein, a media watch group, International Press Centre (IPC) warned the Senate against going ahead with the passage of the bill.
The Centre in a statement signed by its Chairman, Lanre Arogundade, advised that the National Assembly convene a meeting with stakeholders to determine what could be regarded as hate speech.
He also expressed fear that the passage of the bill would pose a threat to freedom of the press and safety of journalists in the country.
“A draconian law that hallmarks dictatorship cannot be the solution to hate speech in a democratic society. What the country needs today is engagement by multiple stakeholders to determine what actually constitutes hate speech and agree on effective measures for dealing with such.”
Some lawyers, including Professor Itse Sagay, SAN, Chief Robert Clarke, SAN, Tayo Oyetibo, Babatunde Fashanu, SAN, Chief Sebastine Hon and Kayode Ajulo among others have also expressed concern over what they described as extreme punishment for offenders.
Hon argued that capital punishment is high-handed. He observed that in line with the provisions of the penal and criminal codes of other countries, death penalty, as proposed by the National Assembly should be opposed by all Nigerians.
“I do not, with respect, support the anti-hate speech Bill recently passed by the National Assembly, especially the punishment proposed for offenders. Stipulating capital punishment for hate speech is, with respect, extremely harsh and high-handed.
On his part, constitutional lawyer and former Secretary, Labour Party, Ajulo, said: “Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1948 by Nigeria, provides that everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression. This right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”
Sagay, Chairman of Presidential Advisory Committee on Anti-Corruption, PACAC, said the whole thing was extremist.
“I don’t understand this Senate at all because it is not only extremist, but unreasonable and dangerous. How do you define hate speech? Let us start from there. If it is something that has no clear definition, then people will be sent to death on the mere caprice and inclination of a judge? The whole thing is irresponsible. I don’t think it is all the senators that are in support of the bill, it could be only one senator.”
Clarke said the National Assembly would, with this bill, destroy the system more, adding, that “the National Assembly is trying to disrupt the system more than how they met it. “Let me put it this way, it is an unnecessary exercise because if they go through that path, they are going to increase the hatred among the ethnic groups.”
Oyetibo said: “What does that mean? If they can go to the extent of initiating a bill prescribing death sentence for hate speech, what about those people found guilty of corruption? What of the people who steal the funds meant for the building of our highways that claim lives on a daily basis, what will be their punishment? If they are not doing anything on those stealing billions of naira, what is the rationale for the bill on hate speech?”
https://guardian.ng/saturday-magazine/controversies-apprehension-over-hate-speech-bill/
On South Africa’s brutal farm murders
France’s Front National suspends party official over Holocaust denial
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Scholars in Exile
Paul Hockenos
Image: Barnyz
Refugee scholars in Europe face tremendous obstacles. Now some universities are trying to change that.
In 2015 nineteen-year-old Oxford University sophomore, Paul Ostwald, a native German, was volunteering in the refugee camps on the Greek island of Lesbos when the idea came to him. Ostwald was deeply moved by the plight of the migrants fleeing by the hundreds of thousands from the world’s war zones and crisis regions to Europe. But he felt that his talents and energy might be better put to use on something other than assembling bunk beds.
Chatting with the newcomers to Lesbos, it struck him how incredibly diverse and rich their backgrounds were. These people, whom the West simply knew as “migrants” or “refugees,” were also dentists, social workers, students, and scholars. “The way they were portrayed in the media, the refugees were a black box. People were scared to live next to refugees because they didn’t know anything about them. In fact, they had lives and professions before leaving that weren’t all that different than ours,” he explains.
Less than 1 percent of all refugees manage to gain access to higher education.
In order to combat the stereotype of the desperate, impoverished, faceless refugee, Ostwald left Greece determined to start a journal at Oxford showcasing the work of university researchers and scholars who had been forced to flee their homes, whose study or careers had been upended by the turbulence in their homelands and by their flight. He raised the money (a German scholarship foundation bankrolled the first issue), put together a team (including his roommate, cofounder Mark Barclay), and sent out a call for submissions via the Internet and social media. The result, The Journal of Interrupted Studies, ran its first issue in the summer of 2016. Last week the journal launched a supplemental blog, Interruptions, with the goal of providing a wider and more immediate platform for the publishing of scholarship by displaced scholars, as well as work about the intersection of scholarship and refugeeism.
Focused on the social sciences, the inaugural print issue included contributions from a Jordanian political scientist living in the United States; a Gambian doctoral candidate in Turin, Italy; an Ethiopian economist stranded in Frankfurt, Germany; and a Syrian literature professor. Topics ranged from the causes of the war in Syria to the role of the commons in rural West Africa.
An undergraduate, Ostwald recognized that he was hardly qualified to assess the journal’s submissions, so he assembled an academic board of some twenty peer reviewers from Oxford and elsewhere. In order not to let the stories of flight and hardship influence the reviewers, he mentioned nothing of the submitters’ backgrounds, even though some of the papers were written in camps and others remained incomplete because of hardship.
Universities want to help displaced students and researchers, but they’re not in touch with the reality of their circumstances.
“The language of academia is universal, kind of like football,” says Ostwald. “If you don’t know the stories behind the authors, it could be anyone. This tears down boundaries. The works were all judged by their quality alone.”
The journal’s authors and its content highlight the potential that refugees harbor for our societies, says Ostwald. Yet less than 1 percent of all refugees manage to gain access to higher education. Europe is no exception. German universities, for example, have been quick to introduce special conditions for exiled students and professional academics to audit classes, but they have been reticent to design new rules or create scholarships that would enable migrants to matriculate at established programs or to teach or research in their fields.
“The offerings for displaced people are just small projects that serve the prestige of the universities, basically done for the purpose of media attention,” explains Merle Becker of Academic Experience Worldwide (aeWorldwide), a German NGO that helps migration-displaced academics get their careers back on track. “It’s been very disappointing,” she says.
Becker says that for years her organization pushed German universities to modify their requirements to better suit qualified refugees, but until the big waves of migration in 2015, none of the universities would give her the time of day. While there has been a flurry of activity since then, none of it has benefitted the bulk of the displaced people the NGO works with, she says.
“Most of the displaced academics live outside the city, so they have to pay to travel into the city to the university. But they don’t have the money to do this,” she says, citing one of the obstacles to auditing classes. Of course, language is also an enormous barrier. Even for those fortunate enough to get into a German language course, the standard language programs for refugees do not teach academic German.
A new program initiated by Hessen, a state in western Germany, provides scholarship money for migrants who have received political asylum in Germany, but stipulates that they cannot have been in the country for more than three years. “The problem is that the process to receive political asylum can take two or even three years or more,” says Becker, referring to the legal hurdles that establish an applicant’s claims of political persecution. “They want to do something with displaced students and researchers but they’re not in touch with the reality of their circumstances,” she continues.
If the journal was just for refugees, wasn’t it reinforcing the identity of the authors as refugees foremost?
Yet there are circuitous paths to academe for exiles, such as the one taken by Syrian citizen Ahmad Mobayed, one of the journal’s author. Mobayed fled western Syria in 2012, after having completed high school with grades that normally would have qualified him for college. Living in Istanbul for the next three years, he was unable to win a scholarship there to study. But thanks to study he did through Kiron Open Higher Education—a Berlin-based program that uses MOOCs to help displaced students fulfill the prerequisites to enter a bachelor’s program—Mobayed was awarded a full scholarship to the Bard College Berlin program.
As roundly as the journal has been praised, not all of its authors were entirely comfortable with the product. Ethiopian economist Mesfin Mulugeta Woldegriorgis (who has a bachelor’s and two master’s degrees) initially thought that the journal was an accredited scholarly publication, not a publication for refugees that included the work of undergraduates, too. Upon learning this, Woldegriorgis thought twice about having the journal publish his study of management models in Sub-Saharan Africa. If the journal was just for refugees and not recognized as an accredited publication, wasn’t it reinforcing the identity of the authors as refugees foremost, and devaluing his work as substandard, unworthy of publication in an established scholarly journal?
But Woldegriorgis overcame his reservations. Since then, and with the help of Academic Experience Worldwide, which provided him with advanced German language instruction and coached him along the way, he has been accepted into the economics PhD program at Goethe University Frankfurt. He has since resumed his studies—not as a refugee but as one economist among others.
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Some of us saw it coming, and said no: on the 10th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq
I am re-posting below the very first piece I published on this blog, nearly a decade ago. I am doing so to remind readers that many, many people around the world saw the disaster of the Iraq invasion and occupation coming before it started -- and spoke out.
The reaction among pundits and politicians to the 10th anniversary of the American invasion of Iraq has been fascinating -- and at times sickening -- to watch. While one expects unrepentant troglodytes like William Kristol and other neo-cons to continue to defend this war of choice, the more morally compromised reactions have come from centrists and liberals who supported the war back in 2003. Like many of the advisers to Vietnam-era Democratic presidents, they have claimed a kind of retrospective innocence based on ignorance: "who could have known it would have turned out this badly?" Or, "How could we have known that the Bush Administration would be so dishonest and incompetent?" The 'success' of the surge has provided another moral escape hatch for some of these folks, or so they assume. They argue that while Iraq was clearly FUBAR into 2007, the surge redeemed the entire enterprise -- and thus, their position on the conflict at the outset.
Much like the Vietnam conflict, this defense is a disingenuous, self-serving re-writing of history. It was abundantly clear to millions of Americans in the months leading up to the invasion of Iraq not only that the attack was being sold under false pretenses, but that the aftermath would be an unmitigated disaster, strategically and morally. The surge did not redeem this disaster. It merely enabled the US to gradually wash its hands of it. I submit that even if the war had gone swimmingly from the outset, the dishonest way in which the war was initiated did enormous -- and possibly permanent -- damage to the rule of law at home, and our reputation abroad.
This is not hindsight. And one should be held morally responsible for one's ignorance, if similarly situated people were capable of seeing things clearly at the time. Some of our fellow citizens tried to stop the war from inside the Pentagon, the CIA, and the State Department. Others wrote, talked and marched, in an effort to wake their fellow Americans up to irreversible rubicon that the Bush Administration was about to cross. I was among that latter group, and vocally so -- as a leader of the anti-war movement in Spokane, and as vice-chair of the Human Rights Commission in that city. I spoke at rallies, I wrote newspaper editorials; hell, I even criticized the war on Mark Fuhrman's radio show.
I said it 10 years ago, and I'll say it now. The American invasion of Iraq was the greatest strategic blunder in the history of the country. It was a criminal act, a violation of American and international law. It was the single greatest violation of the letter and spirit of the law in the history of the American presidency. It is an insult to the rule of the law, and the thousands of American lives wasted and wounded in Iraq, that George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld still walk the earth as free men. That they were able to falsely lead this nation into an unprovoked attack on another sovereign state is surely one of the greatest failures in the history of American democracy. Fifty years from now, when we look back on the decline of the American way of life, I'm quite certain we will zero in on two related events: the 2000 election fiasco, and the invasion of Iraq. One hopes that we can use the 20th anniversary of the start of the war to harvest a bit of wisdom on the limits of American power, and military force. We seem to have wasted the 10th.
"On Patriotism," a talk presented March 26th, 2003 at St. Al's church at Gonzaga University, Spokane WA
A 12 year-old school girl in Maine wrote the following essay last year for her 6th grade class:
“The American flag stands for the fact that cloth can be very important. It is against the law to let the flag touch the ground or to leave the flag flying when the weather is bad. The flag has to be treated with respect. You can tell just how important this cloth is because when you compare it to people, it gets much better treatment. Nobody cares if a homeless person touches the ground. A homeless person can lie all over the ground all night long without anyone picking him up, folding him neatly and sheltering him from the rain.
School children have to pledge loyalty to this piece of cloth every morning. No one has to pledge loyalty to justice and equality and human decency. No one has to promise that people will get a fair wage, or enough food to eat, or affordable medicine, or clean water, or air free of harmful chemicals. But we all have to promise to love a rectangle of red, white, and blue cloth.
Betsy Ross would be quite surprised to see how successful her creation has become. But Thomas Jefferson would be disappointed to see how little of the flag's real meaning remains.”
As an opponent of this war, and an American historian, I have spent a great deal of time recently agonizing over what patriotism demands of us. Like millions around this nation, my acts of protest before the war began have inspired accusations of disloyalty; even within the anti-war movement, many have said that all protests must stop once the first shots are fired – that patriotism demands that we support the troops, and unify behind our leaders and our soldiers. I do not agree. Or, at the very least, I do not share the same definition of patriotism, nor of ‘support.’ Indeed, it is my patriotism that drives me to speak louder now that the war has begun. The logic is simple. If it is right to oppose a wrong when it is being publicly contemplated, how much more important is it to do so when it is in the process of commission? “When a whole nation is roaring Patriotism at the top of its voice,” Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote, “I am fain to explore the cleanness of its hands and the purity of its heart.”
It is not those who protest the war who need to justify themselves. The burden of proof is on the makers of war. As former President Jimmy Carter said recently, “war is sometimes a necessary evil. But it is ALWAYS an evil.” I’d like to share my thoughts on war, patriotism and support of the troops with you this morning. This will not simply be a plea for peace; it will also be a plea to stop THIS war. I can’t help that. I apologize if this talk will seem strident to you, but I believe it is important for those who support this war, and those who oppose it, and those who aren’t sure, to understand how much in common we share.
Why do I oppose this war? There are many reasons, but among the most important is my belief as an American in the rule of law over the rule of force. Under the new Bush Doctrine, a bold military strategy of preemptive attacks–including the possibility of a unilateral nuclear first strike– is intended to prevent any state or group of states from challenging our preeminent role in the world. The war in Iraq is the first application of this doctrine. Preemptive war, however, is unequivocally illegal. This prohibition was incorporated into the United Nations Charter after WWII as the basis for a new system of collective security in which no state retained the unilateral right to attack another–with two specified exceptions: self defense and Security Council authorization.
All of us should consider whether this radical new strategy is good for our country and the world, and whether it best represents what this nation stands for. What would happen in a world stripped of the very laws designed half a century ago to protect humanity from the carnage of unrestrained force? Can pure military might really defend us from evil and secure our freedom at the same time? The passage of the USA-Patriot Act should tell us no.
Before it is too late, we would do well to heed Sir Thomas More’s advice on the rule of law in the play “A Man for All Seasons.”
And when the last law was cut down and the devil turned around on you,
where would you hide, the laws all being flat? Do you really think
that you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then?
Why do I believe that it is a patriotic act to protest against this war? There are two visions of America, I believe, with deep roots in our history. One precedes our founding fathers and finds its roots in the harshness of our puritan past. It is very suspicious of freedom, uncomfortable with diversity, unfriendly to reason, contemptuous of personal autonomy. It sees America exclusively as a religious nation. It views patriotism as akin to allegiance to God. It secretly adores coercion and conformity. Despite our Constitution, despite the legacy of the Enlightenment, it appeals to millions of Americans and threatens our freedom, in peace and wartime.
The other vision finds its roots in the spirit of our founding revolution, and in the words of the Declaration of Independence. It loves freedom, encourages diversity, embraces reason and affirms the dignity and rights of every individual. It sees America as a moral nation, neither completely religious nor completely secular. It defines patriotism neither as blind obedience to government, nor as submissive worship to flags and anthems, but rather as love of one's country and one's fellow citizens (all over the world), and as loyalty to the principles of justice and democracy.
The admirable obligation human beings feel to their neighbors, their loved ones, and their fellow citizens, all too often becomes confused with blind obedience to government. Most of the evils in world history have come from obedience, not disobedience; from conformity, not from dissent. Unity, stability and order are not the only desirable conditions of social life, even in wartime. There is also justice, meaning the fair treatment of all human beings, the equal right of all people to life, liberty and prosperity. Absolute obedience to law may bring order temporarily, but it may not bring justice. And when it does not, patriotism may require us to disobey the law; and citizens may protest, may rebel, may cause disorder, as the American revolutionaries did in the eighteenth century, as antislavery people did in the nineteenth century, as Chinese students did in the last century, and as anti-war protesters are doing now.
It is this second vision which is my vision, my patriotism. It is the vision of a free society. We must be bold enough to proclaim it, and strong enough to defend it against all its enemies, even during wartime. When he spoke out against the Vietnam war, Martin Luther King explained his protest simply: “I criticize America because I love her. I want her to stand as a moral example to the world.” If we do not speak out in protest, King continued, “we shall surely be dragged down the long, dark and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight.” With Dr. King, I claim, without pretense or apology, a place in the long and honorable tradition of those who demand that American ideals apply to all and oppose the efforts of those, from whatever quarter, who try to reserve them for privileged groups and ignoble causes. The most effective way to love our country, I submit, is to fight like hell to change it. Through most of U.S. history, this brand of patriotism was indispensable to the cause of social change. As the poet Langston Hughes wrote, "Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed. Let it be that great strong land of love where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme; that any man be crushed by one above."
Given this vision of patriotism, what does ‘support the troops’ mean to me? First, supporting the troops means preparing the nation as a whole to join with the soldiers in equally and justly sharing the burdens of a democratically declared war (though this is not, as of yet, a ‘declared’ war). This should include an ongoing public debate over the rightness, the wrongness, and the feasibility of this war. This means to me, among other things, following the precedent of WWII and initiating economic and fiscal policies that call on all of us to sacrifice, and that support the troops and their families. This would decidedly NOT include a series of tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, and punishing budget cuts in the programs which provide social and economic security for the American working and middle classes -- who provide most of the soldiers, and build most of our weapons.
Second, Supporting our troops means seeing to it that they have jobs, and the means to re-adjust to civilian life upon their de-mobilization. Recently, the Republican majority on the House Budget Committee voted for $25 billion in cuts in the Department of Veterans Affairs budget, and a $204 million cut in the Impact Aid program that supports the education of soldiers' children. 163,000 veterans of the Gulf War continue to suffer from largely unaddressed illnesses from exposure to the fall out from destroyed chemical weapons, ammunition depots, oil fires, depleted uranium and experimental drugs. I question where the compassionate conservative support for our troops will be in a few years time, when they come back home, and seek employment, a union contract, a safe workplace, a living wage, and a labor market and system of higher education free from racial discrimination. History (as well as the President’s budget) tells us the support of our troops will fall somewhat short of this, unless we speak up for them. Supporting the troops doesn’t mean abject silence. It means seeing them as real human beings, with families, with fears, with rights, with opinions, and with moral consciences which will be stretched to the limit by the nature of modern war. And as human beings who will hopefully live long lives upon their return.
Last, and most important: supporting the troops means speaking up on their behalf, and demanding that our elected representatives do so as well. The men and women in our armed forces are duty-bound to follow the orders of our commander-in-chief. That is their job; it is their citizenship duty, and they should be honored and respected for fulfilling it, in an age when too many of us see democracy as a spectator sport. I salute them for their sacrifice on behalf of our nation. I thank them for their willingness to risk their lives. Even as I praise our servicemen and women, however, I regret that the President of the United States has ordered them to start a preemptive war fought without international support. A preemptive, unilateral war is unworthy of the honor and tradition of the U.S. military. Our armed forces should not be invading and occupying other countries. In a democracy, it is we the people that send them to war; it is we, the people, who choose when to bring them home. They die in our name, and they kill in our name. To attempt to cut off public discussion once the war starts – or even to question whether the public has any legitimate say at all – both undermines our essential values, and jeopardizes our soldiers far more than any protest ever could. We cannot shirk this responsibility, nor can we allow others to fulfill it for us. We must speak up for the soldiers, regardless of what we think about the war itself. Do you want to know how to support the troops in wartime? Do not be a cheerleader. Be a citizen. Speak up for them, in all their diversity. When we silence any of us, we silence them as well.
The idea of 'support our troops' is troubling for those who oppose this war, because it is being used by many to hammer dissenting voices into silence. Given my definition of support above, I intend to get louder, not quieter, once the war begins. It is my patriotic duty to do so.
I would like to conclude with the words of Mark Twain:
“Each of you, for himself, by himself and on his own responsibility, must speak. And it is a solemn and weighty responsibility, and not lightly to be flung aside at the bullying of pulpit, press, government, or the empty catchphrases of politicians. Each must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, and which course is patriotic and which isn't. You cannot shirk this and be a man. To decide against your convictions is to be an unqualified and inexcusable traitor, both to yourself and to your country, let men label you as they may. If you alone of all the nation shall decide one way, and that way be the right way according to your convictions of the right, you have done your duty by yourself and by your country- hold up your head! You have nothing to be ashamed of.”
Posted by Mark Santow at 11:27 AM
Labels: foreign policy, Iraq, patriotism
Some of us saw it coming, and said no: on the 10t...
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Shawn Sturgeon
Shawn Sturgeon was educated at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the University of North Texas, and the University of Cincinnati where he received a Ph.D. in English Literature in 1998, specializing in Modern and Contemporary Poetry and Fiction. He has been a frequent contributor to The Paris Review, who published seventeen of his poems. More than fifty other poems, translations, and stories have also appeared in The New Republic, StoryQuarterly, Western Humanities Review, Pleiades, Confrontation, the Southeast Review, Meridian, Willow Springs, Witness and other literary journals. As a Charles Phelps Taft Fellow (1996-97), he lived in Mexico where he studied Mexican culture and literature. In 1999, Fables for Beasts, a poetic sequence about the Native American Trickster Coyote, was one of two finalists for the Kent State University Press/Wick Chapbook Award. He was a Tennessee Williams Scholar (2000) and Walter E. Dakin Fellow (2002) at the Sewanee Writers' Conference/University of the South and the Creative Writing Fellow in Poetry (2001-2003) at Emory University. He was a founding editor with Scott Cairns of The North Texas Review and has been an editor of two other literary journals. His first book, Either/Ur (2002) was a finalist for The Paris Review Prize in Poetry (2000), a semi-finalist for the Academy of American Poets Walt Whitman Award (2001) and a finalist for The Independent Publisher Book Awards in Poetry (2003). He has been nominated for three Pushcart Prizes in literature, twice in poetry and once in fiction. He has taught at the University of North Texas, The University of Cincinnati, the Art Academy of Cincinnati, Adelphi University and Emory University. He is a member of the Kosovo Writers League and is currently the Director of Academic Affairs at the American University in Kosovo.
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Browse > Home / Kiko, Reviews / At Eternity’s Gate
December 17, 2018 by Kiko Martinez
At Eternity’s Gate
Oscar-nominated actor Willem Dafoe stars as Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh in "At Eternity's Gate."
Starring: Willem Dafoe, Oscar Isaac, Rupert Friend
Directed by: Julian Schnabel (“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”)
Written by: Julian Schnabel (“Before Night Falls”), Jean-Claude Carrière (“The Unbearable Lightness of Being”) and Louise Kugelberg (debut)
During a scene in the 1975 Academy Award-winning drama “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” a doctor at a mental institution tells R.P. McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) that after evaluating him for four weeks, he sees no evidence of mental illness. “You know, what do you want me to do?” McMurphy asks before mimicking masturbating, as if to say, “Is this what ‘crazy’ is supposed to look like?”
In “At Eternity’s Gate,” a biopic on Vincent van Gogh, Oscar-nominated director Julian Schnabel (“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”) seems to wonder the same thing as Nicholson’s character. Everyone knows van Gogh suffered from some form of psychological disorder, so why play it up like other van Gogh films of the past? Why show him writhing in front of a mirror like a madman in 1956’s “Lust for Life?” Why depict him as some fiendish loon who licks the blood off a knife after he uses it to cut off his ear like in 1990’s “Vincent & Theo?”
While both actors Kirk Douglas and Tim Roth give commendable overall performances as van Gogh in their respected films (Douglas earned an Oscar nomination for his), the idea that mental illness can be defined as one specific thing (or behavior) is an antiquated concept. It’s one of the reasons Schnabel’s film — co-written by him, his girlfriend Louise Kugelberg and French screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière (“The Unbearable Lightness of Being”) — is such an enlightening and unique experience. With “At Eternity’s Gate,” Schnabel, who is a famous painter himself, confronts van Gogh’s mental instability with inventive style and philosophical reflection. In doing so, he has given audiences one of the most creative and visually-striking cinematic compositions about an artist in recent memory.
Although almost 30 years older than van Gogh was at the time of his death, three-time Oscar nominee Willem Dafoe (“The Florida Project”) delivers a glorious portrayal as the Dutch post-impressionist painter during the final years of his life — living and painting in Arles in the south of France. During this time, we watch van Gogh connect with nature, exchange ideas with friend and artist Paul Gauguin (Oscar Isaac) and find the beauty in the mundane. Through handheld camerawork, distorted scenes and other stimulating experimental film elements, Schnabel designs “At Eternity’s Gate” as if it were one of van Gogh’s pieces seen through the eyes of a filmmaker like Terrence Malik (“Tree of Life”).
It’s not until the second half of the film when Schnabel really scours inside the mind of van Gogh as his mental illness starts to get the best of him — hallucinations, anxiety, depression and self-mutilation. Even then, however, Schnabel focuses more on the man, his work and his words. In “At Eternity’s Gate,” he allows viewers to see the world from van Gogh’s transcendent perspective.
Tags: 2018, 2018 movie review, At Eternity's Gate, At Eternity's Gate movie review, Jean-Claude Carriere, Julian Schnabel, Louis Kugelberg, Oscar Isaac, Rupert Friend, Willem Dafoe
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Browse > Home / Jerrod, Reviews / Still Alice
February 13, 2015 by Jerrod Kingery
Julianne Moore stars as a woman with early-onset Alzheimer's disease in "Still Alice."
Starring: Julianne Moore, Alec Baldwin, Kristen Stewart
Directed by: Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland (Quinceañera)
Written by: Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland (Quinceañera)
At one point in “Still Alice,” Alice (Julianne Moore), a 50-year-old college professor suffering from a rare form of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, tells her husband John (Alec Baldwin) that she wishes she had cancer instead, citing the bravery people bestow upon cancer sufferers, wearing pink ribbons in their honor. Alzheimer’s only inspires pity and puts an immense burden on their loved ones, all while the sufferer’s life slips away one memory at a time. As a vibrant academic with a devoted husband, three grown children, and a personal life dedicated to reading, writing, and travel, its a fate the too-young Alice is horrified to confront.
Alice discovers her disease slowly at first, forgetting where she is during a jog. When her diagnosis is confirmed, Alice has the difficult task of not only breaking the news of her disease to her children (Kristen Stewart, Kate Bosworth, and Hunter Parrish), but the chilling fact that this form of the disease is hereditary and there’s a test her children could take that comes with the knowledge that, if positive, there is a 100 percent certainty they too will develop the disease. What follows are scenes of Alice coming to grips with her fate, using her iPhone to quiz her memory daily and her webcam to record a video instructing her future self on how to commit suicide should her memory deteriorate too far.
Moore anchors the film with a heartbreaking performance, likely to finally nab her an Oscar, while Kristen Stewart–finally free of the banal “Twilight” franchise–reminds everyone she can be an engaging actress when given more to do than swoon. She gives the well-worn trope of the wayward daughter a little more depth than is written into the script. The rest of the cast, however, are as one-note as can be—which is fine, because this is Alice’s story, but it would be nice if a performer as intense and focused as Baldwin had more to do than play the sympathetic husband. Also, I can’t help but wonder if the film would have been more effective if Alice and her family weren’t well-to-do professionals with a beach house and university careers. Alzheimer’s is a terrible disease no matter your income level, but what if Alice were a middle-class woman who couldn’t just stop working? Just a suggestion, Hollywood.
Kingsman: The Golden Circle
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1
Tags: 2015, Alec Baldwin, jerrodreview, Julianne Moore, Kristen Stewart, Richard Glatzer, Still Alice, Wash Westmoreland
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THE FIRST FILMS OF SAMUEL FULLER - ECLIPSE SERIES 5
This past July at Comic-Con International, I happened to be at my publisher's table when a kid came up and asked me when a particular cartoonist would be signing. I told him the time and said, "You'll recognize him right away. He looks like he draws."
I wasn't being facetious. A lot of cartoonists have a certain physical quality that comes through in their drawing style, particularly in how they design characters (they are their own most readily available model, after all). It's weirdly like how owners and pets often resemble one another, and in the case of film directors, how they live their lives and present themselves often make them seem like they've stepped out of one of their own pictures. Quentin Tarantino, an admirer of Samuel Fuller and a participant in the documentary about his hero The Typewriter, the Rifle, and the Movie Camera, is hyper and rarely stops talking when you see him "being himself." Likewise, Jean-Luc Godard, who cast Fuller in his 1965 flick Pierrot le fou, comes across in interviews as obtuse and irascible. Those adjectives could also be used to describe Godard's motion pictures.
Catch any footage of Fuller, including any of the many interviews in The Typewriter, the Rifle, and the Movie Camera or even his appearance in Pierrot, and you'll be confronted with a real character. He speaks bluntly, his voice gruff, but he also has a devilish lilt that suggests he knows he's got the biggest brain in the room and he's earned the right to be a smartass. It's not that he speaks in ironies, either, he's far too clear-cut for that. It's just he understands how absurd most other points of view are. As he chomps on his cigar, his confidence also suggests he's got what it takes to back up anything he says.
A Samuel Fuller motion picture has the same kind of energy, the same swagger and sense of moral values. I wouldn't say that Fuller deals in a brand of ethics where good guys wear white hats and bad guys don black ones, because his heroes aren't that far off from his rogues. What drives a Sam Fuller protagonist is his resolve, his belief in his own rightness, regardless of the odds. They are tough guys, usually living in a world that hasn't just gone soft, but has lost its head and its common sense. It gives Fuller's movies an unmistakable flavor, and it is already in evidence in his earliest efforts. The three films in The First Films of Samuel Fuller, the fifth boxed set in Criterion's Eclipse Series, may not all be equal to the quality of product the auteur would earn his reputation on, but they are still Sam Fuller through and through. Even when the talent was raw, the personality was apparent.
Fuller had been a reporter, screenwriter, and novelist when he directed his first feature in 1949. I Shot Jesse James (81 minutes) isn't the story of some great gunfight where the infamous outlaw got his comeuppance, but the tale of Robert Ford (John Ireland, Red River), a member of the James gang who shot their leader in the back in order to get a pardon from the government and marry Cynthy (Barbara Britton, The Virginian), an actress he was in love with. Only, rather than bringing him fame and comfort, the deed brought Ford ignominy. In an Old West culture obsessed with the outlaw (a truly American trait), Ford was little more than a coward. To my eye, he is almost the antithesis to a Fuller hero. Shooting Jesse James (played here by Reed Hadley) wasn't something Ford really thought he should do, hence his wavering nerve and his choice to do it when the killer was unarmed and unprepared. The negative reaction of the public puts Ford on the defensive, and though he tries to redeem himself, it never quite works because he's still trying to justify the shooting as proper.
Funny thing is, this apparently wasn't Fuller's intention. He wanted to go against the grain and try to demythologize Jesse James and treat Robert Ford sympathetically. In this goal, he's not entirely successful, and many of his choices seem counterproductive. For instance, in the opening sequence, James is seen saving Ford, who took a bullet in a botched robbery. He takes his future assassin back to his home, where James lives as a family man under a different name. Hadley's portrayal of the bank robber is neither cold-blooded nor lethal, and this makes Ireland's Robert Ford appear weak and indecisive.
Perhaps it was just first-time jitters that put Fuller off the mark, because as a whole, I Shot Jesse James doesn't quite come together. There are long gaps between the bigger dramatic beats that start to drag after a while. At other times, the story seems to jump over important plot points, using newspaper headlines or wordy exposition to fill in gaps. A subplot with one of Cynthy's admirers, John Kelley (Preston Foster, The Harvey Girls), who will end up being the lawman that confronts Ford, never really gels or takes control as the real romantic throughline. Nor does Fuller have the firm hand needed to pull off some of his tricks when he tries to convey Ford's change (having him shoot an offscreen mountain lion not only plays like a bad gag, but also makes one think he simply couldn't afford the cat on this B-picture's budget; allegedly, it was shot in ten days). This makes I Shot Jesse James a solid debut, but not necessarily an auspicious one.
(For a more recent take on the same story, see Andrew Dominik's The Assassination of Jesse James by that Coward Robert Ford.)
Where Fuller does already excel in I Shot Jesse James is in the action sequences. The opening robbery is well choreographed, and the two fistfights John Kelley gets into are shockingly physical, even brutal. Unfortunately, for his second feature, The Baron of Arizona (1950; 97 minutes), the writer/director didn't pick a subject that had a lot of fighting in it. It did, however, have a rather Fuller-esque scoundrel and an excellent lead actor to play him; yet, the man at the helm was still struggling with melodramatic story structure.
The Baron of Arizona is based on the real-life story of James Addison Reavis, who in the 1880s attempted one of the most audacious con jobs of all time: swindling the U.S. government out of the entire Arizona territory. Reavis is played by Vincent Price, who was a veteran of the industry by 1950 but hadn't yet slid into his niche as a leading man in horror films. He's already able to play devilish, however, and he is an expert at the sort of calculating schemer who would go to great lengths to pull off his plan. Reavis spent many years mastering forging techniques, camping out in a Spanish monastery in order to alter ancient records, traveling south of the border to falsify graves, and even carving a proclamation in a giant rock in the middle of the desert.
Shot in fifteen days instead of ten this time, Fuller definitely has a better handle on his material and a stronger visual sense than he had on his first feature. Reavis' office almost looks like the kind of mad scientist's lair we'd see Price occupy in later films, what with its giant maps and model trains. A lynching scene set in this room is both frightening and visually powerful, the gruesome action shown almost entirely in shadow. The actual pieces of Reavis' plans are also wonderfully detailed and engrossing. Fuller still relies on some heavy-handed storytelling to get around a lot of the more complicated matters, however. Reavis' nemesis (Hadley, once again), a government man who literally wrote the book on forgery, narrates the tale from several decades after the action, in the early 1910s when Arizona is becoming a state. His voiceover slows down the plot, which has enough going for it that Fuller should have just let it play.
The melodrama this time around comes in the form of the love story between Reavis and the Baroness Sofia (Ellen Drew), the pauper who he trumps up as the rightful heir to Arizona by decree of King Ferdinand. He doesn't tell her that he's faking the whole thing, and she doesn't tell him that she really fell in love. While some of the later scenes between them are sweet, the earlier conflict is toothless. She protests to Reavis' greed, and he gently sets her aside, and she never stops loving him. It doesn't come off as psychologically sound. Likewise, the stiffness of the costume drama too often grounds Fuller's normally rootless shooting style.
Still, for his first two pictures, Fuller was establishing himself as a man who could get the job done. He was also doing it outside of the normal studio system, working independently for the Poverty Row producer Robert L. Lippert. Fuller needed to work with a guy who was as maverick as he was--and as much of a maverick as his characters, including Reavis and in his own way, Ford, were--in order to fully blossom. For his third feature, Fuller wouldn't just write and direct, he also produced. Did I say blossom? Boy, did he ever!
For as much as I Shot Jesse James and The Baron of Arizona were middling efforts, Fuller's third film for Lippert was a bonafide classic, giving full birth to the filmmaker's no-nonsense, loose cannon mise en scene. An unflinching Korean war drama, The Steel Helmet (1951; 84 Minutes) is the first of many pictures where the director would question the government, challenge racism, and ponder the horrors of war, and he would do so with the kind of guts few others in Hollywood had.
Made in the very early days of the conflict in Korea, The Steel Helmet is a cynical take on modern warfare from the vantage point of a returning soldier who was still weary from World War II when he got sucked into this new battle. The movie opens on a shot of the helmet in question, seemingly sitting on a mound of dirt, a bullet hole distinctly visible in its upper curve. After Fuller's triple-threat credit fades from the screen, the helmet rises, revealing Sergeant Zack, played by the burly Gene Evans. Zack struggles out of a ditch, climbing over corpses, his hands tied behind his back. This is no rah-rah portrait of a man serving his country. It's hard to imagine such an image coming out of the studio system only a few years prior.
The Steel Helmet presents a grim visage of war. Zack is the last surviving member of his platoon, who were all shot after being taken prisoner. Everything is off-kilter. Zack is rescued by a young Korean orphan (William Chun) whom he nicknames Short Round, the term for a bullet that can't go the distance--not unlike the one that pierced Zack's helmet, circling around the inside and coming out under the front brim, the narrowest of misses. This seems to characterize the entirety of the American effort in this portion of the battle. The attack is meant to be deadly, but it doesn't quite hit.
Fuller is intending to make a greater point about the futility of war, particularly for a nation as divided as the U.S. The ragtag group Zack eventually joins up with include an African American medic (James Driscoll) and a Japanese American called "Buddha Head" (Richard Loo). Zack speaks to all of them, including Short Round, with little concern for social propriety. They are good enough to die with, but just barely. When the team captures a North Korean soldier (Harold Fong), the communist tries to persuade the doc and Buddha Head to defect, but it's a no go. Even as messed up as we were, we could unite under the flag to hate him.
Of course, that doesn't make war sensible. In fact, the whole concept is so lopsided, not even the sanctity of a peaceful philosophy like Buddhism can be maintained. Early in the movie, enemy soldiers pretending to pray at a shrine ambush Zack and Short Round, and the mission goal for Zack's new squad is to set up camp within a Buddhist temple. In one of his signature perverse images, Fuller shows the medic nursing the captured soldier under the gaze of the giant golden statue of Buddha, the I.V. bag hanging from the idol's large finger. The communist dies, begging for Buddha's blessing, but unable to hold on to life even in that position. God is watching, but he's letting us go about our business.
All of Fuller's trademark moves got their start in The Steel Helmet. The sharp cutting, the blunt philosophy, the snappy dialogue, and the almost screwball tangential humor--it's all in this picture. Zack is the real center of The Steel Helmet, though. He's like a living, breathing embodiment of the Fuller style. Gene Evans is gruff, hulking, and weary from the world. Even so, he soldiers on, even when it all threatens to crush him. His helmet represents the dumb luck of the righteous--or if not necessarily the righteous, the guys who can at least stay true to something. When the inexperienced Lieutenant (Steve Brodie) that Zack finds himself in the service of confronts what he perceives as Zack's misguided contempt for authority, Zack fires back with the story of the kind of leader he'd gladly follow, revealing that his issue is not with those in power, but just the stupid ones.
Which would probably put Zack right in the same pot as his maker. Samuel Fuller would never have time for the blind followers, the wishy washy, or the guys who believed in nothing. Even if there is emptiness all around you, in a Fuller narrative, you still have yourself. Likewise, put a camera in the director's hand, and he'd make a movie. That's who he is, that's what he does, and like one of his own heroes, he'd suffer just about anything to get it done.
Originally written August 14, 2007. For technical specs and special features, read the full article at DVD Talk.
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WORLD News ›
Sonic looks to increase fiber connectivity in southern Petaluma
Haberkip Petaluma is seeking to expand fiber-optic service to its South McDowell Boulevard business park, giving 258 businesses on the south side of town access to super-fast internet from Sonic. The city is in talks with Santa Rosa-based Sonic to provide the connectivity,...
Petaluma is seeking to expand fiber-optic service to its South McDowell Boulevard business park, giving 258 businesses on the south side of town access to super-fast internet from Sonic. The city is in talks with Santa Rosa-based Sonic to provide the connectivity,...
Petaluma is seeking to expand fiber-optic service to its South McDowell Boulevard business park, giving 258 businesses on the south side of town access to super-fast internet from Sonic.
The city is in talks with Santa Rosa-based Sonic to provide the connectivity, which would mean download speeds of 1 gigabit per second — more than 600 times faster than the standard 1.5 megabit speed carried by T1 lines — which is what the majority of businesses there now have access to, said Glenn Illian, vice president of Top Speed Data Communications, which has been actively involved in bringing fiber connectivity to the park.
The fiber connection would be the sixth in Sonoma County for Sonic, including four business parks in Santa Rosa and one in Petaluma at the North McDowell business park. The three most recent were made possible by the “backbone” Sonic created by laying fiber-optic cable along the SMART rail corridor.
Sonic declined to state how much the build-out to the South McDowell business park would cost.
“Businesses are now connecting more and more devices in their environments,” said Dane Jasper, CEO and co-founder of Sonic. “(This speed) has become really, really essential.”
Ingrid Alverde, economic development manager for the city, said she has had real estate agents tell her businesses have passed on moving into the South McDowell area because of its lack of connectivity options.
“When you don’t have fiber in the ground, it really hurts smaller businesses because they can’t afford to bring in fiber,” she said. “I know I’ve worked with some smaller companies, and they open up a building and go to turn on the electricity and the internet, and they find out they don’t have (high-speed internet), and it’s going to take time to get it.”
Alverde said the city had been trying to convince Comcast to offer a similar service in the southern section, but the company decided it wasn’t worth the cost. AT&T does offer limited fiber connectivity to the area.
Bryce Loutsch, owner of Vanda Floral Design, was given the option to connect to AT&T’s fiber network about six months ago, when another company paid to have AT&T run a line into the building after almost a decade of Loutsch’s company only having T1 as an option.
His company, which employs seven people in its 3,000-square-foot studio on Cypress Drive, relies on the high-speed connectivity to operate its point of sale system over its server.
“We did notice a huge difference when we moved from T1 to fiber,” he said. “But now that Sonic is looking at doing their gigabit fiber here, it’s going to be about 20 times faster at half or a third of the cost.”
You can reach Staff Writer Christi Warren at 707-521-5205 or christi.warren@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @SeaWarren.
Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.
Publish Date : 24 Şubat 2017 Cuma 05:27
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Weight loss surgery linked to self-harm, suicide
Home >> Lifestyle
DDN Correspondent Posted on 08 Oct, 2015 at 05:26:PM IST
A new study has found that weight loss surgery patients are at increased risk for self-harm and suicide in the first three years of undergoing a bariatric procedure.
Earlier, it was shown that some patients should be recommended therapy before and after surgery because of the proportion of morbidly obese people with depression or other issues related to their weight.
"Even if you remove the burden of weight, you don't remove the burden of disease," Dr. John M. Morton, president of the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, told the L.A. Times. "Some of the psychological issues might still be there."
For the research, the researchers at Sunnybrook Research Institute and the University of Toronto studied 8,815 people in Ontario, Canada, who had bariatric surgery between 2006 and 2011, following them for three years before surgery and three years after. Of the patients, 81.4 percent were women, 80.1 percent were 35 years or older, and 98.1 percent were treated with gastric bypass.
During the follow-up periods, the researchers found that 111 patients had 158 self-harm emergencies. The emergencies were about 1.5 times more likely to happen after surgery. Self-harm after surgery was more common among patients older than 35, with a low-income status, or living in rural areas.
The increased risk for self-harm underscores "the need for screening for suicide risk during follow-up," researchers wrote. The findings of the study were published in JAMA Surgery.
In 2013, a study published in the journal Obesity, raised concern for increased risk of suicide and self-harm of bariatric surgery patients.
"Bariatric surgery follow-up is notoriously poor," Dr. Amir Ghaferi, director of bariatric surgery at the Ann Arbor Veterans Administration Healthcare System and one of two authors of the commentary, told CBS News. "We try to maintain at least one-year follow-up with our patients, but it's hard. Patients fall off the radar. They move, or it's the type of operation where if they're doing well or doing poorly, they're not going to come see you."
Fat-shamed MP cop undergoes bariatric surgery in Mumbai, to lose upto 100kgs in next one and half year
Bariatric surgery for teens delivers major health benefits: Study
Bariatric Surgery Benefits Type 2 Diabetics: Learn All About Weight-Loss Surgery
Weight-loss surgery benefits obese diabetics: Study
301kg Iraqi man undergoes weight loss surgery
Weight loss surgery helps joint replacement, Asthma
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Take Interstate 93 to Exit 4, Derry, NH. Head east on Route 102 (Broadway) to the center of Derry. The Opera House is in a red brick building, on the left side of the street, just after coming up the hill. It is on the corner of Maple Street, directly opposite The Halligan Tavern.
CLICK HERE FOR GOOGLE DIRECTIONS
Parking Information – The only parking provided on the grounds of the Opera House is three handicap-only spaces. These are accessed from Maple Street, at the rear of the building, across from the Veterans Memorial Hall. There is ample public parking in the vicinity of the Opera House, as listed below:
CLICK HERE FOR PARKING MAP
On-street parking along Broadway and Maple Street.
Municipal parking lot on Abbot Court (look for the big “P” parking sign), one block east of the Opera House along Broadway.
Municipal parking lot on Wall Street.
Municipal parking lot behind and adjacent to the Derry Municipal Center on Manning Street, two blocks east of the Opera House along Broadway (after business hours)
Derry District Court parking lot on Manning Street (after business hours)
Benson’s Hardware and Lumber (two lots, after business hours)
Parking Advisory – You should avoid parking on the properties immediately adjacent to the Opera House, to the rear of the building and to the east side of the building. The owners of these properties have standing arrangements with towing companies to tow non-tenant vehicles from their property.
Handicap Access Information – The Opera House is handicap accessible. Reserved handicap parking spaces are located at the northwest corner of the building, just off Maple Street. The handicap ramp entrance to the building is on the east side. Follow the sidewalk from the handicap parking area, around the rear of the building to the east side. An automatic door opener is provided, and this entrance gives direct access to the elevator, serving all levels of the building.
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Home Scotland M&G Real Estate signs Spaces at 1 West Regent Street, Glasgow
M&G Real Estate signs Spaces at 1 West Regent Street, Glasgow
M&G Real Estate, a leading global property investor, has signed a deal with flexible workspace provider, Spaces, which will take up residence at 1 West Regent Street, Glasgow. Spaces is part of Regus, the world’s largest provider of flexible office space, which holds space across 900 cities in 120 countries. The company has taken 30,933 sq ft on a 15-year lease.
Completed in 2015, M&G Real Estate acquired the entirety of 1 West Regent Street in February 2016.
1 West Regent Street is a Grade A office building in a prime location in Glasgow’s Central Business District, under five minutes’ walk from Queen Street and Central Stations and close to the city’s main transport hubs, including Glasgow Airport. Only half a floor remains in the asset.
Aaron Pope, Director – Asset Management at M&G Real Estate, said: “With only 1.6 per cent availability of Grade A office space, Glasgow is currently seeing strong occupier demand. With businesses constantly evolving, we understand the need to offer quality space to meet ever-changing requirements. The open plan layout at 1 West Regent Street will enable staff to work more efficiently, improving the productivity of companies operating in the building. Glasgow’s wider strategy to become the UK’s most productive city by 2023 is set to attract many national and international businesses into the city, and we are playing our part.
“Integral to any new development is our best-in-class responsible property investment strategy, which ensures our buildings are future-proof. 1 West Regent Street boasts outstanding environmental performance, with an EPC A and “very good” BREEAM rating, incorporating a sophisticated ‘Intelligent Building Management System’, creating lower running costs for our tenants. The asset also has a BREEAM “excellent” fit out rating, including shower and changing facilities for employees and storage facilities for 54 bicycles. Along with its sustainability-minded design, the building is ideally located in the centre of the city’s business and cultural landmarks, making it the perfect place for businesses to set up shop.”
Rupert Cooper, Development Director at Spaces, said: “The flexible workspace revolution has well and truly arrived and we are seeing demand for flexible office space increasing dramatically. Our research has shown that 53% of professionals now choose to work flexibly for at least half of their working week, illustrating just how important it is for companies to capitalise on this growing trend.
“In such a strong and dynamic market, we are excited to be partnering with M&G Real Estate. We are confident that the new space will be a welcome addition to the city’s already thriving business culture and entrepreneurial spirit.”
M&G Real Estate was advised by GVA and JLL. CBRE represented Spaces.
M&G Real Estate
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Home / Breaking News / Saying YES to de-escalating violence
Saying YES to de-escalating violence
Mon, 01/18/2016 - 12:41pm Vic MacDonald
Pastor Curtis Johnson leads effective communication, conflict resolution workshop
Vic MacDonald, for myclintonnews.com
We will never succeed if we teach our kids to disrespect authority."
Pastor Curtis Johnson led a morning workshop today - the national observance of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birth - for the first YES conference at Clinton High School. YES is sponsored by District 56 and the Bell Street Concerned Citizens Group. The workshop, from 10 am to 1 pm, had young people and adults, including students from Presbyterian College, examining effective communication with law enforcement and conflict resolution.
Johnson, pastor of Valley Brook Outreach Baptist Church, Pelzer, and the event's guest speaker, was a leader of the 100 Days of Non-Violence movement in Upstate South Carolina, responding to a growing problem of violence in the area.
He and others conducted assemblies in schools and activities that included midnight basketball to stem the tide of violent confrontations among people, and people with the police. Tracking the results, Johnson said there was a corresponding 31% decline in violence during the 100 Days of Violence last year.
Johnson teaches how to survive a traffic stop. "Hush, and live first," he says of how a person should act when he/she is pulled over. "I understand it's all about your rights and all that. But we need to come at it from mutual respect - it does not have to be death and destruction. So that it's not life and death over a speeding ticket.
"Do what it takes to live, not just get your point across."
Arguing with the police, running, touching a police officer - all are conduct that Johnson said can get a person killed. "Stereotyping gets people killed," Johnson said. It can happen when people getting stopped stereotype all officers as being out to get them - it can happen when officers stereotype the people they are stopping as criminals. "That's why body cameras are a good thing - to see the intersection," he said.
"We cannot automatically assume an interaction with the police is going to end dangerously."
Johnson said, "The few bad interactions are the ones that get blown up. Don't escalate the situation so the officer feels you are a danger to him. ... We will never succeed if we teach our kids to disrespect authority."
YES: Youth Empowerment Summit is one of the "A day on. Not a day off" activities planned on and around the four-day MLK Weekend in Laurens County. Presbyterian College students are at 10 locations today for service projects, and at 5 pm during dinner at GDH they will have a chance to report on their activities. A MLK program and Praise Dancers Contest was conducted Saturday at Sanders Middle School in Laurens. The Laurens County Branch National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) staged its 39th Annual Freedom Fund Dinner Saturday night at Laurel Hill Baptist Church in the Waterloo community.
The state NAACP sponsored King Day at the Dome this morning at the Statehouse in Columbia - the first time King Day has been conducted without the Confederate Flag flying in a place of honor of the State Capitol grounds.
District 56 and Bell Street Concerned Citizens Group sponsor the first YES conference today (Jan. 18) at Clinton High School.
Rev. Curtis Johnson
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Journey to the Holy Land: On Pilgrimage
by John E. Kozar
Our final day of pastoral visiting and pilgrimage began in a most special way: Father Guido arranged for us to celebrate Mass at the Mount of Calvary located in the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre. It was a cherished moment for me to know that over this very location Our Lord was crucified. There were some pilgrims who joined us for the Mass and it was obvious in their faces how they, too, were so much in awe of the moment.
From there, we proceeded to pay a visit to the Papal Nuncio Archbishop Antonio Franco. We enjoyed a very animated discussion with him and he was most cordial in extending to me his best wishes in my new role as President of CNEWA. He shared with us some helpful insights on the complexities of working for the Church in an environment of conflict and tension. He said that after more than six years in Jerusalem, as the Nuncio for Israel and Palestine, he still understands only a little bit of the many problems that are part of daily life here.
After that visit, we shifted gears into the pilgrim mode, to visit some holy sites. I was blessed to have Father Guido as my guide along with Tony Zarour from the office as our driver. We visited many sites in about six hours, so I will just mention some of the highlights.
First we headed to the Dead Sea, which at 350 meters below sea level is the lowest place on earth. We saw the famous sight of people floating in the salty water. The sea has receded so much, but still maintains its beauty and health-related benefits, as evidenced by the many skin treatment products from there that are sold throughout Israel.
From the Dead Sea, we traveled to the Qumran cave. This is where a shepherd in the 1960's found ancient scrolls nestled in earthen jars that had been buried for many centuries. These famous Dead Sea Scrolls opened to the world a first-hand glimpse of life in the ancient Essene community. The geography here is breathtaking: a mountain range which has a dramatic escarpment, the view to the cave itself, and the recently excavated early community with its very sophisticated system of water storage and irrigation.
Then it was on to Jericho to visit the oldest city on earth and, like the Dead Sea, a place situated more than 300 meters below sea level.
A little gem and a favorite site for Father Guido was next on our pilgrimage: an ancient monastery named for St. George, located in a extremely remote part of the desert, between Jericho and Jerusalem, but down a deep gorge and hidden from view of the nearest road. There are just two monks living there at present and one of them has trained his donkey to go up to the nearest Bedouin village to get milk and bread. Once loaded up, the donkey is sent back down into the steep gorge with the supplies. This is a new concept in home delivery!
Then it was on to Dominus Flevit Church, built on the site where Jesus wept over Jerusalem. From this spot, we had a magnificent view across the valley looking to the walled Old City.
Gethsemane was our next site, where Jesus spent his time in prayer before being arrested. Here we remembered Jesus and his agony in the garden.
Our final stop took us to the Church of St. Peter in Gallicantu, where tradition holds that Jesus was denied by Peter and where he was also imprisoned before his crucifixion.
This is a most brief commentary on what was a very intense and memory-laden experience, too much to reflect in these few words. I was so grateful to have seen so much. I know that on successive visits here I will be able to visit more holy places, so I leave fully satisfied. I have been extremely blessed to have experienced so much of the best of the Holy Land.
(I also know that when I get home, I will enjoy reading some good guide books and reviewing some maps and relating them to the almost 3,000 photos that I have taken on this pastoral visit!)
Our day ended with a most uplifting video conference call to everyone in our office in New York. This was the third one during this pastoral visit. I was so excited to share some of my experiences with my staff. And it afforded the staff an opportunity to know much better our local director Sami El-Youssef, who gave a very impassioned reflection of what our visit meant to him, his staff and the people of Palestine and Israel.
I have the honor tomorrow (Saturday, December 24) of accompanying the Latin Patriarch to Bethlehem, where it will be my most precious privilege to concelebrate with him at the Midnight Mass at the Basilica of the Nativity built over the site where Jesus was born. You will all be remembered in my prayers during that Mass. Our special intention for the Palestinian people and all the people we have visited will be for a lasting peace.
I will share a final post with you after I return home on Monday, December 26. Until then, be blessed in Gods love. Merry Christmas. That expression means so much more to me now.
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DND Associates Sells Broward County’s Most Expensive Residential Property for $27.5 Million
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (January 13, 2016) – DND Associates, a Fort Lauderdale-based luxury real estate team affiliated with ONE Sotheby's International Realty, announced they recently closed a major $27.5 million deal, the largest residential real estate transaction to date in Broward County. In addition, they closed an $8.2 million transaction next door.
DND Associates was the exclusive listing agent for a spectacular 17,037-square-foot Harbor Beach estate located at 5 Harborage Isle Drive in Fort Lauderdale on the uber-exclusive, guard-gated Harborage Island. The team brokered the deal and secured terms for the intricate contract in just under two months, an impressive feat considering the property had previously been on the market for two years when listed by The Jills, a Miami-based brokerage.
“We remained focused and worked extremely hard the past few months to finalize this complicated deal. It’s a win-win for both the seller and the new buyer and we are extremely honored to have set the bar for the largest residential transaction in Broward County’s history,” said Dennis Stevick, Senior vice president, broker at ONE Sotheby's International Realty and founding partner of DND Associates. “We know Fort Lauderdale inside and out and take pride in servicing our valued clients, many of whom are high-net worth individuals who value the attention to detail and level of discretion which set us apart from other brokers.”
In the complex deal, DND Associates represented both the seller, David J. and Jeanine Stern, and the new buyer. The original listing price for the Harborage Island 60,000-square-foot corner Intracoastal double point lot was $32 million. A contract for $27.5 million was ultimately finalized when DND Associates secured two additional lots next door for $8.2 million. The groundbreaking $35.7 million deal comprises a total of five lots and a staggering 868’ of waterfront. The amazing private residence is defined by two breathtaking wings, six-bedrooms, seven-full and two-half-bathrooms, dramatic double staircases, a rotunda ceiling, and marble and Brazilian walnut floors throughout. Amenities include a state-of-the-art movie theater, home fitness center, gourmet kitchen, executive study, five fireplaces, a tennis court with cabana and a large infinity pool overlooking wide water views of downtown Fort Lauderdale.
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Previous Books
The Book on One – RTÉ Radio One
RTÉ Radio One’s The Book on One features The Country Girls Trilogy by Edna O’Brien for the month of April. Each week day night at 11.20pm.
Hilary O’Shaughnessy reading from The Country Girls – week starting Monday 8th April
Mary O’Driscoll, currently in the cast of the Abbey Theatre’s production of ‘The Country Girls’, will read excerpts from ‘The Lonely Girl’ from Monday to Friday 15-19 April and from ‘Girls in Their Married Bliss’ from Monday to Friday 22-26 April nightly at 11.20pm on RTÉ Radio 1.
AN EVENING WITH EDNA – 24TH APRIL – FULLY BOOKED
This event is fully booked. We are not operating a waiting list.
A small number of tickets MAY become available closer to the time.
If any tickets do become available they will be notified to our Dublin UNESCO City of Literature mailing list.
If you wish to sign up to our mailing list please click below
2019 Dublin One City One Book Festival Launched
Lord Mayor of Dublin, Nial Ring, today launches the programme for the 2019 Dublin One City One Book festival, which this year features The Country Girls Trilogy by Edna O’Brien.
The Country Girls Trilogy joins a long list of illustrious titles as this year’s featured book in the Dublin One City One Book Festival, which is a Dublin City Council initiative, led by Dublin City Public Libraries, which encourages everyone to read a book connected with the capital city during the month of April each year.
Published by Faber & Faber, this volume is introduced by Eimear McBride and includes The Country Girls and its sequels The Lonely Girl and Girls in Their Married Bliss, which changed the temperature of Irish literature in the 1960s and inspired generations of readers and writers. The passion, artistry and courage of Edna O’Brien’s vision in these novels continue to resonate into the 21st century.
Speaking at the launch in Dublin’s Mansion House, the Lord Mayor remarked:
“Edna O’Brien is one of Ireland’s most talented, treasured and most read authors, so I am very proud that our capital city is honouring her talent and legacy by selecting her much acclaimed The Country Girls Trilogy as the Dublin One City One Book choice this year. Dublin City Council’s initiative is a creative and inclusive way to get all our citizens reading. With copies of The Country Girls Trilogy available to borrow for free throughout our public library network, it just remains for the people of Dublin to embrace and enjoy this book, which I know they will.”
The month-long festival will feature dramatised readings, a new Dublin City Libraries exhibition on banned books titled Evil Literature, talks on censorship, women’s roles and Irish society in 1950s and 1960s, coming of age novels, music performances, film screenings, documentaries, workshops and seminars. The four public library services in the Dublin area will be hosting events as well as organisations such as Irish Writers Centre, The New Theatre, IFI, National Library, Trinity College and UCD.
Edna O’Brien said: “I worked in Dublin as an apprentice pharmacist from 1948 to 1952, so it’s where I first encountered literature and set out on the very secret and profane matter of writing The Country Girls Trilogy. I never dreamed the Trilogy would last so long or make it to this winning post. I am delighted and hope for new readers who won’t have to hide it under the bed covers as they did in the sixties and onwards….Dublin has given me longevity.”
The flagship event of this year’s festival is An Evening With Edna, an evening of music, readings and discussion in the Round Room, Mansion House on Wednesday 24th April. Edna O’Brien will be interviewed about her enormous contribution to world literature by writer Colum McCann. Singer Moya Brennan and harpist Cormac de Barra will play some of her favourite music and selected excerpts from The Country Girls Trilogy will be read by actor Seána Kerslake, star of the new movie The Hole in the Ground. This event is free but booking is essential at www.dublinonecityonebook.ie/programme
Dublin’s acting City Librarian, Brendan Teeling invited Dubliners to share in the City’s celebration of the books by saying: “We work hard every year to choose a book that will captivate the imagination of the people of Dublin, of all ages and walks of life. Exquisitely written, moving, humourous, full of compelling characters, and still as relevant as when it was written in the early 1960s, I know that the Country Girls Trilogy will prove a rewarding experience for all who engage with Dublin One City One Book 2019.”
In Edna’s home county of Clare, bookclubs affiliated with Clare County Libraries will reading the book during April and hosting their own event to honour Edna O’Brien. RTÉ Radio One’s The Book on One will feature The Country Girls during the month of April. A new adaptation by Edna O’Brien of The Country Girls runs at The Abbey Theatre from 23rd February to 6th April, before going on a national tour.
Faber & Faber have produced a special edition of the Trilogy for the festival, and Lee Brackstone, O’Brien’s editor at Faber & Faber remarked: “In 1960 Edna O’Brien detonated a literary bomb, the reverberations of which continue to work their way through the culture and the Irish diaspora. The Country Girls is one of the beacons of radical 20th century literature.”
Printed programmes of events can be picked up in libraries and bookshops across Dublin, as well as event venues. The Country Girls Trilogy is available to borrow from libraries, can be downloaded as an eBook from the library’s free Borrowbox app, and to buy in bookshops. It is available in audio book format and has been produced in Braille by the National Council for the Blind of Ireland.
more posts →
The Book on One – RTÉ Radio One 17 April 2019
AN EVENING WITH EDNA – 24TH APRIL – FULLY BOOKED 07 March 2019
2019 Dublin One City One Book Festival Launched 27 February 2019
Clare County Libraries Celebrate The Country Girls Trilogy 26 February 2019
UCD Library Spotlight Book Display 26 February 2019
With literary events in Dublin by entering your email
#1city1book
© 2019 Dublin City Libraries
PIXEL DESIGN
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Leader McConnell: "The August Recess Has Been Canceled"
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) has canceled the Senate's August recess, citing Democratic obstructionism of President Donald Trump's nominees.
Sen. Mitch McConnell
According to McConnell's statement, he hopes for the Senate to "make additional progress on the president’s nominees," something that is sorely needed.
According to a CNN report, as of December 31, 2017, Trump nominated 502 individuals to serve in his administration. Only 300 of them were confirmed, a 59.8% success rate. For comparison, in Obama's first year, 68.7% of the nominees were confirmed, and in Bush's first year, 66.5% were confirmed.
Trump has had more success with his judicial appointments. According to a report by Above the Law, his administration "set a record for the most-ever federal appellate judges confirmed during the first year of a presidency."
However, this statistic can deceptively mask the breadth of the Democratic obstructionism, as there are more vacancies in the court than normal. As reported by The Daily Signal,
Trump came into office in January 2017 with 108 vacancies on the federal bench. Despite rapidly moving to fill the seats, he now has 178 current and known future vacancies, according to the Judicial Crisis Network.
The Daily Signal also reported that the slow process "is a result of Senate Democrats’ requiring 30 hours of debate for every nominee, even those who clear the Judiciary Committee unanimously or near unanimously."
This obstructionism has angered both Trump and McConnell. In June 2017, Trump wrote that Senate Democrats "are taking forever to approve my people" and that they "are nothing but OBSTRUCTIONISTS!"
In his statement regarding the cancellation of the summer recess, McConnell said,
Due to the historic obstruction by Senate Democrats of the president’s nominees, and the goal of passing appropriations bills prior to the end of the fiscal year, the August recess has been canceled. Senators should expect to remain in session in August to pass legislation, including appropriations bills, and to make additional progress on the president’s nominees.
Commentator Alex Behzade thanked McConnell for ensuring "the confirmation of every Trump judge with this cancellation of the August recess."
However, The Daily Caller begrudgingly noted that McConnell will allow senators "to return home for state work during the first week of August."
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Saudi Arabia was the world’s largest producer and exporter of total petroleum liquids in 2010, and the world’s second largest crude oil producer behind Russia. Saudi Arabia’s economy remains heavily dependent on crude oil. Oil export revenues have accounted for 80-90 percent of total Saudi revenues and above 40 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP).
Saudi Arabia has been shifting its focus beyond increasing its upstream oil production since Saudi Aramco said that it had reached its target production capacity of 12 million barrels per day. In addition, its spare oil production capacity is well above Saudi Arabia’s stated target of 1.5-2 million barrels per day. Subsequently, Saudi Arabia is moving to diversify its economy by expanding its refining, petrochemicals, and mineral products industries (such as high-value fertilizers).
Saudi Arabia’s hydrocarbon sector operations are dominated by the state-owned oil company, Saudi Aramco. Saudi Aramco is the world’s largest oil company in terms of proven reserves and production of hydrocarbons. Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources and the Supreme Council for Petroleum and Minerals have oversight of the sector and Saudi Aramco directly. The Supreme Council, which is comprised of members of the royal family, industry leaders and government ministers, is responsible for petroleum and natural gas policy-making, including contract review, as well as Saudi Aramco’s strategic planning. The Ministry is responsible for national planning in the area of energy and minerals, including petrochemicals.
Posted by astalavista at 4:55 AM 1 comment:
Labels: Crude Oil Exports, electricity generation, map, Natural Gas Production and Consumption, Oil Production and Consumption, pipeline, Reserves, Saudi Arabia
Venezuela Energy Report
Venezuela is one of the world's largest exporters of crude oil and the largest in the Western Hemisphere. The oil sector is of central importance to the Venezuelan economy. As a founding member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Venezuela is an important player in the global oil market.
Venezuela map
Posted by astalavista at 5:56 AM No comments:
Labels: energy consumption, Exports, LNG, Natural Gas, Oil Production, oil reserves, Orinoco Belt, Refining, Venezuela
Proven Oil reserves by country
Reserves (bbl)
1 Venezuela (OPEC) (2012) 297,570,000,000
2 Saudi Arabia (OPEC) (more information) (2011) [2] 264,600,000,000
3 Canada [3] (more information) (2011) 255,200,000,000
4 Iran (OPEC) (more information) [1] 150,600,000,000
5 Iraq (OPEC) (more information) (2010) 143,500,000,000
6 Kuwait (OPEC) (more information) (2010) 104,000,000,000
7 United Arab Emirates (OPEC) (more information) (2008) 97,800,000,000
8 Russia (more information) (2009) 74,200,000,000
9 Libya (OPEC) (more information) (2010) 47,000,000,000
10 Nigeria (OPEC) (more information) (2011) 37,200,000,000
11 Kazakhstan (2009) 30,000,000,000
12 Qatar (OPEC)(2009) 25,410,000,000
13 United States (more information) 19,120,000,000
14 China 14,800,000,000[4]
Posted by astalavista at 11:07 PM No comments:
Labels: proven oil reserves
Peru Energy Report
Increases in the production of natural gas and the opening of South America's first liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant have enabled Peru to become a natural gas exporter despite rising domestic consumption. Peru has the potential to be a significant producer of both natural gas and petroleum due to its untapped reserves and rising investments by international companies. New government policies aimed at attracting foreign investment may result in increased production for both export and domestic use. In addition, other policies to increase energy security by promoting energy efficiency and by using natural gas and hydropower resources for electricity generation have been implemented.
According to the Oil and Gas Journal, Peru had 582 million barrels of proven oil reserves in January 2012, up from 533 million barrels in January 2011. Peru has added approximately 50 million barrels of reserves in each of the past two years.
Much of Peru's proven oil reserves are onshore, and the majority of these onshore reserves are in the Amazon region. Eleven important new hydrocarbon discoveries have occurred in just the past few years. In 2005, Peru's first offshore oil discovery occurred in the San Pedro well in Block Z-2B, where light oil was found. The largest recent discoveries have been in the offshore Talara and onshore Maranon basins, where 1.4 billion and 970 million barrels, respectively, of recoverable oil have been discovered.
Oil companies have leased at least 41 percent of the Peruvian Amazon for oil and gas drilling and could soon hold 70 percent, including areas that are officially protected for the indigenous people, as more contracts are signed with foreign investors. The current exploration boom is the second to hit this region, following an initial surge of exploration in the 1970s and 1980s.
Sector Organization
Oil production in Peru is run by foreign consortia, with the National Agency of Hydrocarbons (Perupetro) overseeing all exploration and production activities. The Ministry of Energy and Mines also participates in developing planning and policies for the sector. According to Perupetro, 75 percent of Peru's crude oil output in 2011 was produced by three companies: Argentina's Pluspetrol, Brazil's Petrobras, and Peru's Savia (formerly Petrotech). Due to an intense promotional campaign carried out by Perupetro in recent years, there are more than 50foreign oil companies currently engaged in oil exploration.As of August 2011, Perupetro had 82 hydrocarbons contracts in force; of these 20 pertain to production and 62 to exploration projects.
Not to be confused with Perupetro, Petroperu is a state-owned company founded in 1969, which is engaged in the production, transport, refining, and distribution of petroleum. Petroperu owns Peru's pipelines and other transportation systems, four of its refineries, and fuel stations.
The bidding round held by Perupetro in late 2011 resulted in 11 new exploration and production contracts. Peru will offer as many as 30 exploration contracts for bidding in the second half of 2012, covering both offshore and Amazon areas.
According to EIA estimates, Peru produced 153,800 barrels per day (bbl/d) of total oil in 2011, down slightly from the 158,300 bbl/d produced in 2010, and an increase of 60 percent from the 99,600 bbl/d produced in 2000. According to Perupetro, of the 153,000 bbl/d produced in 2011, 46 percent was crude oil and 54 percent was natural gas liquids (NGL). Peru is a net oil importer of both crude and products as domestic petroleum consumption is increasing and reached 189,000 bbl/d in 2010. Much of Peru's crude oil imports come from Ecuador.
While many of Peru's existing oilfields are in decline, unexplored reserves of crude oil and natural gas liquids hold the potential for increased production. According to Perupetro, only 24 percent of Peru's crude oil currently comes from onshore fields, while almost all NGL production comes from onshore fields. Business Monitor International's January 2012 forecast projects that Peru's oil production will more than double over the next five years, from 153,000 bbl/d in 2011 to 350,000 bbl/d in 2016. Perupetro expects oil production to exceed 500,000 bbl/d by 2021, driven by production from new discoveries.
Peru's Total Oil Production and Consumption
Peru has only one crude oil pipeline, the 621-mile Norperuano, which includes two branches that run from the Ucayali and Maranon basins in the northeastern jungle to the export terminal at Bayovar on the Pacific coast. The pipeline is owned by state-run Petroperu, which is installing additional loops in order to allow transport of extra heavy crude from more distant exploration blocks in the Amazon region. The pipeline has a maximum capacity of 250,000 bbl/d.
Downstream Activities
According to the Oil and Gas Journal, Peru has six oil refineries with a combined crude distillation capacity of 198,950 bbl/d. Spain's Repsol YPF operates the largest refinery in the country, La Pampilla, located in the capital of Lima. La Pampilla has capacity of 108,000 bbl/d, maintains thermal and catalytic operations, and also has asphalt production capacity. Talara, Peru's second-largest refinery at 62,000 bbl/d, is owned by Petroperu. It has recently been upgraded with a $1 billion investment, and now has catalytic cracking capacity. Three of the country's four other refineries are also owned by Petroperu. In Pucallpa, a 3,250-bbl/d refinery is owned by Maple Gas Corp. All four of these smaller refineries have only distillation capacity.
According to the Oil and Gas Journal, Peru had proven natural gas reserves of 12.5 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) in 2012, the fifth largest reserves in South America. Peru's main natural gas reserve is the large Camisea project in southeast Peru. Since production began in 2004, Camisea output has grown by an average of 37 percent per year, and it is expected that when site exploration is complete, Peru's proven reserves will be up by another 318 billion cubic feet (Bcf).
Other new major gas fields include lot 76 in Madre de Dios and Block 58 in the Ucayali basin, both onshore. Lot 76, located in southern Peru, is being explored by Hunt Oil and some estimates suggest this field could be as large as Camisea. Block 58, located in central Peru, was discovered by Petrobras in 2010 and is believed to contain some 1.7 Tcf of natural gas.
Petroperu negotiates, signs, and supervises license agreements for the exploration and production of hydrocarbons in Peru, in accordance with the objectives, policies, and strategies of the Ministry of Energy and Mines. The major gas companies operating in Peru include Argentina's Pluspetrol, the U.S.'s Hunt Oil, Spain's Repsol, South Korea's SK Corp, Italy's Tecpetrol, and Algeria's Sonatrach. Pluspetrol operates the natural gas wells at Camisea, making it the largest hydrocarbons producer in the country.
The distribution of natural gas through pipelines within Peru is controlled by the private consortium Transportadora de Gas Peruano (TGP), made up of Tecgas, Pluspetrol, Hunt Oil, SK Corp, Sonatrach, and Grana y Montero.
Peru produced 393 Bcf of gross natural gas in 2010, of which 106 Bcf was reinjected for enhanced oil production and 8 Bcf was vented and flared. Dry natural gas production totaled 255 Bcf in 2010, and 75 percent of the dry gas was domestically consumed.
Peru's natural gas production has been rising rapidly since 2004, when the Camisea field went onstream. Peru's domestic demand for natural gas has also risen sharply in recent years, from 30 Bcf in 2004 to 191 Bcf in 2010, driven by government incentives, economic growth, and the growing number of gas-fired electricity plants, which accounted for two-thirds of domestic natural gas consumption in Peru.
However, the rate of natural gas production began exceeding domestic consumption in 2010. By December 2010, Peru's natural gas production was in excess of 1 Bcf per day, mostly from the Camisea reserve. Business Monitor International projected in its January 2012 report that Peru's dry natural gas production will almost double from an estimated 265 Bcf in 2011 to 459 Bcf in 2016.
In 2009, unconventional gas was found in the Devonian shale beneath the Santa Rosa 1X well, which was drilled by Maple Energy in its Block 31E. Shale gas has not been previously developed in Peru and Maple Energy is continuing to evaluate the commercial opportunity at Santa Rosa.
Peru Dry Natural Gas Production and Consumption
There are two pipelines carrying natural gas from the Camisea gas fields. The 336-mile Camisea pipeline terminates at the Pisco port terminal, from which liquefied petroleum gases (LPG) are exported. As the pipeline passes through the Malvinas plant in the Andes Mountains, natural gas liquids (propane and heavier liquids) are separated from the natural gas. The pipeline has a capacity of 450 million cubic feet per day. A second 444-mile pipeline runs from Malvinas along the coast to Lima and Callao for distribution to residential and industrial consumers in the capital city. The pipelines are owned by TGP. Construction of an additional 620-mile Southern Andean natural gas pipeline from Camisea to supply Cuzco, Puno, and Arequipa in the Andes, as well as Moquetada and Tacua on the coast, is expected to begin construction in 2012.
The pipeline consortium TGP pays royalties to the national government for the distribution rights of natural gas in Peru. Pluspetrol runs a gas fractionation plant at Pisco which produces propane, butane, diesel, and naphtha from the gas fields of Camisea, with half of these liquefied petroleum gases (LPG) being consumed domestically. The major expansion of Peru's natural gas production in 2010 has been followed by more infrastructure investment. In October 2010, the Ministry of Energy and Mines and the regional government of Cusco signed an agreement for the construction of a new LPG fractionation plant in Peru's southeastern region. In March 2012, the Peruvian government announced that the construction of this new LPG plant in the Cuzco area would be completed within two years, with its output to be dedicated to meeting local demand.
Peru began exporting LNG from its Melchorita plant, South America's first natural gas liquefaction plant, in June 2010. In February 2012, Peru exported 15 Bcf (307,580 metric tons) of LNG according to LNG World News. Melchorita is owned by the PeruLNG consortium, made up of Hunt Oil at 50 percent, SK Energy at 20 percent, Repsol at 20 percent, and Marubeni at 10 percent. The plant currently has capacity of 215 Bcf per year, and a second and possibly a third train are planned to be added within the next four to five years. According to Cedigaz, in 2010, Peru shipped LNG cargoes to Spain, the United States, Mexico, China, and South Korea. However, the majority of its exports are contracted to go to the LNG terminal in Manzanillo, Mexico. Although the Manzanillo terminal and 186-mile pipeline were completed in September 2011, the need to dredge the harbor for shipping delayed the project until March 2012. The first cargo of LNG was shipped to Manzanillo on March 10, 2012.
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Labels: Crude Oil Exports, Lng exports, map, Natural Gas Production and Consumption, Peru, pipeline
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About Pool Pump Timers
Anyone who has a pool, either it’s indoor, outdoor, in ground or above ground, should know that the pool has a pump and any pool that does not really need to be. The pool pump timers are in many respects the heart of your pool and, in particular, its filtration system. How do pump timers work?
In a typical pool pump, electric power is provided by the motor. This engine rotates in the rotor in the pump housing, which absorbs drainage water (or drains in large tanks), filters through the internal filter of the pump and finally sends fresh water back to the tank. Before the water enters the current pump, it moves through a metal basket with a filter, which is used to take large objects such as sheets or even stones. The basket can then be easily removed and emptied.
While the work of a pool pump timer may sound simple and at some point, it does not matter, the pool pump is in many ways the center, even the heart of the pool. Without one thing, this water does not move from the filter and back to the pool, removing tiny organisms, molds and large objects such as leaves, your pool can quickly turn into the breeding ground for bacteria that can cause illness and disease. Therefore, proper precautions and proper maintenance are vital to ensure not only the continuous operation of the pump but also the entire pool.
Fortunately, taking care of the pool pump is relatively simple. All you need to do is either during the night when you use the pool during the summer or for months when the pool is not in use, you are going to remove it from the designated area and clean it by removing the excess sand that can enter a rotor or engine. If you allow this sand and other debris to accumulate, it may eventually burn the engine, allowing you to replace it.
In addition, it is important to know that one of the main differences between the less expensive and costly pool pumps is the workload. The cheapest pumps are usually more powerful than the most expensive ones. This should not be very important if your pump is well connected from your home, but if the pump motor is too close to your home, you should consider paying extra for a less noisy.
There are many different types of pool pump timers (see: The Pool Advisors Reviews), depending on the type of pool you have. Some of them are designed for pools above the ground, others for the earth. Whether the pool is a slope or a top surface, the key factor in determining which one you buy is the internal engine, especially the heat.
Although you can not think of the power of your pump, it really matters. If you buy an incorrect power source, you will not be able to move the water properly through the filter devices, allowing it to stop and collect bacteria, algae and other unwanted ones. If your unit is overloaded, you may experience the same problems as water that will be flushed next to the water inlet hose and, over time, can cause the same concerns as simply stagnant water.
This entry was posted in Blogging on January 24, 2019 by Jayden Matthews.
Best Oil Filters for Your Car
Do you own a car? Having troubles to drive your car smoothly as you would wish to? Do you want to keep your engine running? Well, here there are answers for you. Oil filters! Yes, you hard it right. These are the most significant components for maintaining and solving all your car problems.
Oil filters help in keeping your car engines running smoothly and being more reliable. Therefore making a decision in picking the best oil filter for your car, would be a life-changing moment for your driving experience.
We took some time to go through some of the best oil filters that can provide you with a whole new level of experience. Here you will be able to gain knowledge about the oil filters and its components.
1. Mobil 1 Extended Performance Filter
This is one of the most popular brands in the market. Its excellence performance has been approved by many car users who have given it a try. Mobil 1 Extended Performance Filter has stronger filtering abilities compared to other filters.
It uses the spin-on and cartridge filter to promote its filtering capabilities. This helps in giving your car the best filtration ever.
2. Royal Purple Extended Life
This is an oil filter that is associated with producing performance-oriented components. To achieve a higher filtering efficiency, it uses all of the micro-glass that enable removal of debris. The filter also has a thick aluminum shell that promotes durability and a silicone anti-drain-back that it is responsible for preventing any dry starts.
3. Bosch Premium FILTECH
A filter that is known for producing components that are highly significant for your car. It uses Bosch’s patented FILTECH media screen that promotes achieving excellent filtering service. The filter is designed with an aluminum shell that includes a steel base which plays a role in curbing warpage that can result due to hot temperature or high pressure.
4. ACDelco Professional
This is a filter that is more cost effective compared to other filters. You can resolve to go for it if you working on a tight budget. As much as its price is friendly it also comes with excellent performance that you will be proud of.
It ensures efficient handling of debris to promote filtering. It offers durability in extreme driving conditions as well. Without forgetting one of its bonus features, it has a thermosetting adhesive seal located at the base which ensures there is no oil leakage.
5. Wix 51348 Spin-On Filter
In achieving maximum success the filter has a pleated paper medium that promotes efficiency in removing debris and dirt particles from your engine. This is a filter that will not be able to give you any challenges during installation or maintenance.
Well, you are ready to make a choice for the best oil filter for your car. We may have listed 5 but you should go for the one you feel it’s well suited for your car. Putting in mind the efficiency in the performance of each filter.
This list of the best oil filters was done to help you in making the right informed choice.
Listen to Music in Style, Best MP3 Players of 2018
MP3 payers are still the in thing, therefore, if you don’t want to spend much money to listen to your favorite tunes, it is essential to be cautious of where to purchase your favorite tracks. this will help you in choosing the right player since if you purchase music from iTunes then the only players recognized and allowed to play your music will be Apple’s iPod Players therefore, to avoid such cases of being limited, you can own various DRM-free music or rather music that are accepted to many company’s products.
Henceforth, while we were selecting the best mp3 players of this year, our considerations were based on the size of the MP3 player; large and small, prices; pocket-friendly and expensive. We also highly recommend a pair of some of the best over the ear headphones under $100.
Here are our top 7 Best MP3-players for 2008.
1. Best Overall – AGPtEK M20S
AGPtek MP3 player is still a new brand in the market though when it comes to affordable MP3 layers, then it stands out. for those who don’t like or need many features on their MP3 players, AGPtek will be a great model for you.
Features;
Made of a premium-feeling metal and takes minimal space of 3*3*1.2 inches.
Plays various audio formats such as MP3,OGG,WMA,FLAC, APE, AAC, and WAV in addition, it supports FM radio
A great battery-life that work for 14 hrs of playback when charge for the recommended hours of 2 hours.
Storage capacity of 8 GB but can be expanded with up-to 64 GB microSD card.
Supports 20 different languages like; English, German, Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Dutch, making this model to be welcomed by many people world-wide.
You can opt for a second option after AGPtek which is Apple iPod Shuffle-4th generation. it was released in 2013 and what makes it great to be considered the second runner-up for best overall MP3 player is its diminutive size as well as its pocket friendly price. It is available in various colors with a 2 GB storage capacity and has a battery life of 15 hours when fully charged.
In addition, it has a easy-access controls which offer a bid and clickable control pad that makes it much easier to change volume andselect new tune/music. Just as its name suggest, the iPod shuffle, shuffles the music which are installed on your iPod. Apple has a unique feature, Voiceover that helps you to select songs; this “Voiceover” tells you the song’s title, artist as well as the battery status of the device. it is also made fromanodized aluminum which feels study as well as durable
2. Best Design – AGPTEK A01T MP3 Player
When it comes to the best design for MP3 players, AGPTEK takes the lead. Quite different from Apple MP3 players which often look pretty dated but AGPTEK-AOIT, it has a unique design; it’s sleek in addition, it’s designed with 6 touch buttons as well as a 1.8 inch color with TFT display. It is made of metal making it more durable and comes on a subtle-gold color.
It has an intelligent-digital noise reduction clip to reduce noise so that you can concentrate on the music. it also has a built-in pedometer which is a great option for athletes as well as the Bluetooth 4.0 functionality thus free of tangled cables. In addition, it has an internal storage capacity of 8GB which can be expanded for up-to128GD with a microSD card. It can also work for 45 hours of playback music or rather for 16 hrs for video-playing when on a 1.5 hours charge.
3. Best Audio Quality – Sony NW-A35 16GB-Walkman
What great feature makes an MP3 player fancy? It’s the stellar audio of the MP3 and Sony NW-A35 is the to-go MP3. it produces audios which are far better than of CD audio quality and its S-Master HXdigital-amp reduces distortion as well as noise in various frequencies while its DSEE-Digital sound Enhance Experience HX- feature often upgrade music to high resolution.
Apart from its great sound, this MP3 also looks good; simple with minimalist design that reflects how easy one can use it. All these are made possible by its 3.1 inch intuitive-touch screen. In addition, it has two models which include a 16gb and 64 gb model though they can be expanded up-to 195gb using a microSD card. You can also use this device for up-to 45hrs of playback as well as enjoy a smooth Bluetooth connectivity.
4. Best Battery Life – Sony NWE395
It can last for up-to 35 hours of audio-playback battery life. For Commuters and travelers who sometimes don’t have places to recharge their MP3, Sony NWE395 is your to-go MP3. It comes with an internal storage of 16 GB, an inclusions of a dynamic-normalizer which helps balance the volume-levels between songs.
Quite different from Apple mp3, Sony provides support for all lossless-music formats. It also offer easy content transfer using “drag and drop” through your window’s file explorer. You can create playlists from your PC using Sony’s dedicated software which offers easy transfer back to your Sony-E395 for immediate use.
5. Best Budget – MYMAHDI MP3
The most amazing thing with MYMAHDI MP3 player isits price; its cheap making it budget friendly for many individual who may which o won a MP3. it has an internal storage of 8gb and can be expanded for up-to 128gb using a microSD card. You can add your music very easily via “drag and drop” when you connect it to your computer. In addition, MYMAHDI mP3 player support various formats for music which include MP3, FLAC, AAC, WMA, APE and much more.
It is made of metal though it’s fairly heavy weighing 78grams but base on the material used, it makes this device more durable. it also has a speaker on its back with a voice recorder which has a convenient A and B playback button.
6. Best for Sports & Activities – RCA 4GB-Sport Clip
It’s affordable and very simple. Unlike many other MP3 players, RCA doesn’t provide flashy touch-screen. It’s slim in size and pen-like design making it to slide easily into your active-wear pockets or even clip onto a strap.
It has an internal storage capacity of 4gb that can hold up-to 1,200 mp3s, rechargeable battery with a direct inbuilt USB just like a thumb-drive into the device, making it much easier when finding a USB cable to charge the device or transfer songs. RCA is no hassle; it’s very affordable and accommodating during your jogging and daily exercise routine.
This entry was posted in Blogging on May 27, 2018 by Jayden Matthews.
The Beauty of Peruvian Andes, Cusco
Cusco is a city located in the southeastern portion of Peru, near Urubamba Valley in the Andes mountain range. It covers an area of over twenty-seven thousand square miles and has a population of almost three hundred and fifty thousand residents. The city is the historic capital of the Inca Empire and has an elevation of around eleven thousand feet. In 1983, the city was designated a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and was also named the Historical capital of Peru. It is also a top tourist destination and receives in excess of one million visitors each and every year.
Cusco can trace its heritage back to the thirteenth century, when it was the capital of the Inca Empire. When it was founded, the city was laid out in the shape of an animal sacred to the Incas, the puma. Cusco contains two sections, the hanan and the urin, which are subdivided so that each encompass two of the four provinces of the area; Collasuyu, Chinchasuyu, Qontisuyu and Antisuyu.
According to native legend, Cusco was founded by Sapa Inca Pachacuti. But, according to archaeological evidence, there appears to have been a more natural, and slower growth of the city. In 1533, the Spanish conquered the city during the Battle of Cusco. After the conquest of the city, the Spanish erected buildings that were a architectural blend of original Inca styles and Spanish influenced styles. The Spanish then began replacing the Inca temples with churches and palaces, effectively building a new city on top of the original.
A major tourist attraction in the city is Machu Picchu (also known as Camino Inca a Machu Picchu). Machu Picchu is a Inca site that is located eight thousand feet above sea level and is located on a mountain ridge that overlooks Urubamba Valley. It lies just fifty miles northwest of the city and is often referred to in popular literature as “The lost City of the Incas”. Construction on the site originally began in the early fifteenth century, but was abandoned around the time of Spain’s conquest of the country. It was virtually unknown to the outside world until 1911 when an American historian named Hiram Bingham brought international scrutiny to the site. This lost city was built in the Inca style of classical architecture and contains highly polished stone walls.
The main buildings of the site include the Room of Three Windows, The Temple of the Sun and Intihuatana. Despite its close proximity to the city of Cusco, the Spanish never found the site and as such, it remained virtually untouched. Over the next couple of centuries, the jungle reclaimed the area and very few people in the region knew of its existence until its discovery by Hiram Bingham. In 1971, over one hundred miles around the area was declared a Historical Sanctuary by the country.
In 1983, it was designated as a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. In 2007, the site was voted one of the New Seven Wonders of the World by the New Open World Corporation. A year later, the World Monument Fund placed the site on its 2008 100 Most Endangered Sites Watch List. Visitors can get to Mchu Picchu via the Hiram Bingham Train. This is an unforgettable way to get to the site and features a bar car and an open observation car that allows visitors to get a great view of the surrounding scenery.
Another way to get to Machu Picchu is the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. This route is actually three trails that overlap; the Mollepata, The One Day and the Classic trails. The longest of these routes is Mollepata. It is also the route with the highest mountain pass and eventually it intersects with the Classic trail. This trail passes through the Andes Mountains and cuts through alpine tundra and fog forest. Along the route of the trail are scattered remnants of settlements, ruins and tunnels. At the end of this trail is Sun Gate, which is located on Machu Picchu Mountain. For those with altitude sensitivity, it should be noted that the two longest trails rise twelve thousand feet above sea level, and as a result may cause altitude sickness.
Another popular attraction in Cusco is the Museo de Arte Precolombino (otherwise known as the Pre-Columbian Art Museum). This museum is dedicated to pre-Columbian artifacts and artwork from all over Peru. It’s housed in an Inca courthouse that was taken over by the conquistador Alonso Díaz in 1580 and rebuilt in the Colonial style. It was opened to the public in the summer of 2003. There are over four hundred and fifty artifacts that encompass the years between the thirteenth and the sixteenth centuries. The Museo de Arte Precolombino has ten galleries which include Mochica, Chimu, Nasca, Inca, Huari, Chancay, Formative, Jewelry and Stone, Wood and Precious Metals.
Other popular attractions in the city of Cusco:
Munaycha
Salkantay Trekking
Qoya Spa
Peru Rail
Sacred Valley of the Incas
Huacoto
Church and Convent of Our Lady of Mercy
Hilario Mendivil Museum
Andean Explorer Train
Inca Tak Spa
Museum of Religious Art
Avenida El Sol
Llama Path
Kusikay
Maria Fortaleza
Inca Baths at Tambomachay
Planetarium Cusco
Ukukus
Cusco Cathedral
Q’engo Ruins
Red Fortress
Statue of Christ
Machupicchu By Car Tour
El Camino Salkantay
Saqsaywaman Archaeological Complex
Twelve Angles Stone, Inca Museum
The Company of Jesus Church (La Compania de Jesus)
Tercentenary Square
Convento de Santa Catalina
San Cristobal Church
Plaza de las Nazarenas
Callejon de Loreto
Cusco Regional History Museum
Church of San Blas
Municipal Palace Museum
Plazoleta de San Blas
Casa Garcilaso
Samana Spa and Salon
Cusco also has several prominent restaurants and hotels.
Popular restaurants in the city
A Mi Manera
Restaurant Laguna Azul
Pachapapa Restaurant
Popular hotels in the city
Los Apus And Mirador Hotel
Hotel Monasterio
Hotel Novotel Cusco
Hotel La Casona Inkaterra
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Recent Best Sellers
Malta - 2 euros 2018 (Mnajdra)
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CoinageIndex of countries
CountryGibraltar
Mintmarks
Circulating Coins 1 pound sterling = 100 pence, 1 gold ecu = 50 pounds or 70 European currency units
PM = Pobjoy Mint Sutton, England 1988 to date
Penny (pence): 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50 / Pound(s): 1, 2, 5, 10 (14 ecus), 25 (35 ecus), 50 (70 ecus)
The Rock of Gibraltar owes its fame and its place in history to two distinctive geographical features - the long, high promontory rising directly from the sea, and its strategic position commanding the narrow western entrance to the Mediterranean Sea.
In ancient times it was one of the Pillars of Hercules, the seaside crags in Morocco and Spain which were the supposed "ends of earth" until Christopher Colombus' time. Gibraltar has been a fortress since 711, when the Arabs took it from Spain. Spain regained the Rock in 1492, but it fell to the British in 1704. The British held it against Spain and GIBRALTAR during the "Great Siege" of 1779-83.
Gibraltar's inhabitants voted overwhelmingly in 1967 to remain under Britain. It is a self-governing colony. It is the home of the famed Barbary ape and many dolphins.
Gibraltar had its own coinage from 1841-61 and continuously since 1967. Since 1988 all its coins are struck at Britain's Pobjoy Mint. In addition to the nine circulating denominations made of copper and nickel alloys, commemorative coins are issued, and 1991-1992 saw the introduction of a silver and gold bullion series, the Royal Dogs, and Europe's first true circulating gold and silver ecus denominated in both pounds sterling and A.F.L.-C.I.O. Currency Units (ecus).
Special nine-coin Mint Sets in colorful card holders suitable for novice collectors and specialists alike are issued each year using mint-fresh coins and sold at a modest increase over their face value.
For further information, contact Pobjoy Mint Ltd., P.O. Box 13826, Milwaukee, WI 53213. Telephone 414-873-6772, Fax 414-873-6422.
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UZBEKISTAN: State tries to take one children's summer camp, raids another
Uzbekistan is attempting to deprive the registered Baptist Union of land it owns and uses to run summer camps for children and families, Forum 18 News Service has learned. The state is claiming – without any apparent legal foundation – that the land was "illegally" bought in 2000. Baptists have complained to the Prosecutor-General that "the future of Uzbekistan cannot be built on the plundering of religious organisations". Separately in Samarkand Region, an unrelated children's camp organised by local Protestants was raided. The raid on a camp of 31 adults and children involved 30 ordinary police, 20 riot police, and 30 officials from the regional tax authorities, Fire Brigade, Sanitary-Epidemiological Department, and the regional administration. Police "began brandishing their rubber batons, and collected statements from everyone – even from small children separated from their parents". After over six hours of questioning and raids on the alleged organisers' homes, it is expected that charges will be brought against six Protestants. Police have refused to discuss the raid with Forum 18.
Uzbekistan is attempting to deprive the registered Baptist Union of a plot of land it owns and uses to run summer camps for children and families, Forum 18 News Service has learned. The state is claiming – without any apparent legal foundation – that the land was "illegally" bought in 2000. The hearing of an appeal by the Baptist Union against the state's allegations has been postponed to 15 August.
Separately in the central southern Samarkand [Samarqand] Region, an unrelated children's camp organised by local Protestants was raided. The authorities also raided the organisers' homes, confiscating books and other material for "expert analysis" by the state Religious Affairs Committee in the capital Tashkent. It is thought that legal charges and punishments against the organisers will follow.
Police have also recently violently physically assaulted a local Protestant, and the state is imposing large scale restrictions on Muslims marking Ramadan throughout the country (see F18News 2 August 2013 http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=1861).
Summer camp for children and families
The plot of land the Baptists use for summer camps for children and families is in Tashkent Region's Bostanlyk District. It was on 12 October 2000 bought from the Chirchik Restaurant Chain, in an auction organised by the Tashkent regional branch of Uzbekistan's Property Exchange. The restaurant chain had bought the land in 1993 from the state's regional Department of Privatisation and Deregulation of Property (DPD).
The land itself has an area of a little more than one hectare [two and a half acres], and has buildings on it with a total floor area of just over 145 square metres [1,560 square feet].
The Baptists have, throughout the time they have owned the land and buildings, fulfilled all related legal obligations such as paying utility bills on time. However, the summer camps for children and families were raided – and subjected to legal cases, pressure on children and parents, and media attacks - in 2009 (see F18News 15 October 2009 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1362), 2011 (see F18News 3 August 2011 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1600), and 2012 (see F18News 24 September 2012 http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=1746).
The 2009 raids and legal cases were connected with the state, for unknown reasons, pressuring the registered Baptist Union into changing its leadership (see F18News 7 December 2009 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1384).
Summer camp land bought illegally?
The DPD – which sold the land to the restaurant chain in 1993 – now claims that in 2004 (four years after the Baptists bought the land) some local residents complained that "in violation of religious and legal norms Baptists use the land, which in the past was a cemetery, as a resort area".
On 18 June the DPD brought a legal case based on these claims to the Tashkent Economic Court, arguing that the Baptist Union must return the land to the state as the Baptists' purchase of it was illegal. The DPD's head, Jamshid Tursunov, personally brought the claim before the Court. His claim was based on the April 2006 Deregulation and Privatisation of Property Law.
Baptists, who wish to remain unnamed for fear of state reprisals, noted to Forum 18 on 5 August that:
it is unlawful to base claims on a law that entered into force six years after the alleged illegality;
no such claims or complaints were ever brought against the restaurant chain between 1993 and 2000;
the restaurant chain was given state permission to build the buildings the Baptists now use;
no documents or other evidence (eg. archaeological remains) appears to exist proving the existence of what Baptists describe as the "mythical cemetery";
even if the "mythical cemetery" exists, its existence should in law have been asserted within 20 years – i.e. by 2003 – of the original transfer of land from state ownership;
the DPD has not explained why it waited nine years until 2013 before raising the allegations;
and that the DPD's action is unlawful, as under the statute of limitations in Civil Code Article 150, such actions must be brought within three years of the land purchase – i.e. by 2003.
In short, the Baptists argue that there are very strong legal grounds to immediately dismiss the DPD's case. Judge Malika Kalandarova of Tashkent City Economic Court on 6 August postponed to 15 August the hearing of the case brought by the DPD.
Judge Kalandarova on 5 August declined to comment to Forum 18 on the case saying that "only after we make a decision we can comment." Kamoliddin Toirbekov, Deputy Head of the DPD also declined to discuss the case with Forum 18 on 5 August, referring enquiries to the DPD's lawyer Bobyr Mukaddamov.
Asked why the DPD insists on confiscating the Baptists' land, Mukaddamov on 6 August told Forum 18 that "you will see when the Court makes a decision." Asked how he justified the DPD's breach of the Constitution and published laws, he replied: "Let's wait until the end of the case. Let the Court conclude whether or not our claim is unfounded."
Other officials in Tashkent Region between 5 and 7 August refused to discuss the case with Forum 18. Similarly, Shovkat Khamdamov, Press Secretary of the Religious Affairs Committee, on 7 August refused to comment on the case.
"Uzbekistan cannot be built on the plundering of religious organisations"
The Baptists in mid-July wrote to the Prosecutor General, complaining about the DPD's actions without apparent legal foundation. They also stated that the DPD had broken the Constitution Law and other laws, including the Religion Law and the 2012 Law on the Protection of Private Property and Guarantee of the Rights of Owners. They note that "the future of Uzbekistan cannot be built on the plundering of religious organisations".
No reply has been received from the Prosecutor-General.
Children's camp in Samarkand Region raided
On 23 July in Samarkand Region, police raided a children's camp in the village of Mironkul organised by local Protestants, a Protestant who wished to remain unnamed for fear of state reprisals told Forum 18 on 6 August. "Four full buses with 80 officials and police, 30 of whom wore police uniforms and 20 in black OMON riot police uniforms arrived." The other 30 officials were from the Samarkand regional tax authorities, Fire Brigade, Sanitary-Epidemiological Department, and the regional administration.
The raid began at 11 am in the morning and those in police uniforms "began brandishing their rubber batons, and collected statements from everyone – even from small children from their parents". After six hours of questioning, the police took all nine adults and 22 children from the camp to Mironkul Police Station for further questioning before eventually releasing them.
The officials also confiscated two laptop computers, four mobile phones, a Yamaha electric guitar, a Toshiba overhead projector, a Canon camera, one sound amplifier, one speaker, one microphone, an internet modem, four memory chips, as well as two New Testaments in Uzbek, 10 private notebooks, and four posters.
Passport confiscation without informing Ukrainian Embassy
Police also took away passports of two Ukrainian citizens without informing their Embassy. The passports were taken as the two, husband and wife Aleksandr and Oksana Tarasyuk were detained at the children's camp.
"I don't understand your question"
Senior Lieutenant Gayrat Norov, the local police officer in Mironkul, on 7 August refused to discuss the case with Forum 18. Asked about the reasons of the raid, he told Forum 18 that he "cannot hear well," although Forum 18's end of the line was very clear. He then hung up the phone.
Police Captain Shaukat Zaripov from Samarkand District, to whom Senior Lieutenant Norov reports, on 7 August also refused to discuss the case with Forum 18. Asked why the police and other authorities raided and harassed the Christian campers in Mironkul, he claimed to Forum 18, "I don't understand your question." When Forum 18 repeated the question giving the details of the case, he put the phone down. Subsequent calls to him went unanswered.
Samarkand Regional Administration on 7 August referred Forum 18 to Shukhrat Kulmatov, Deputy Hokim (Head of Administration) overseeing religious issues. Isroil Jabbarov, an official from the Religious Affairs Division of the Administration on 7 August told Forum 18 Kulmatov was not available to comment, and that he also could not comment on the case. He asked Forum 18 to call the number of one of the Assistants of Kulmatov. The Assistant (who refused to give his name) on the same day also refused to comment saying that he "had not heard about the case".
Shovkat Khamdamov, Press Secretary of the Religious Affairs Committee, on 7 August refused to comment on the case.
Police search homes of camp organisers
After releasing the camp participants, police raided the private homes in Samarkand itself of the four adults the police consider to have organised the camp: Damir Hojaev, Eldor Muzapparov, Farida Hojaeva and Gulshan Kamalov.
From Hojaev's home the police confiscated two Christian books, including a personal Uzbek-language New Testament, two magazines, a laptop computer, and a copier machine.
From Muzapparov's home the police confiscated a desktop computer, 19 Christian books, including a personal Uzbek-language New Testament, 10 private notebooks, 62 leaflets with words of wisdom from the Bible, 52 CD and DVD disks of various fiction movies and video clips openly available in Uzbekistan.
From Hojaeva's home police confiscated 78 Christian books, including a personal Russian-language Bible and New Testament in Uzbek, and other books in Uzbek, Russian and English.
From Kamalov's home police confiscated a desktop computer, 18 Christian books, including a personal Russian-language Bible and 2 Uzbek-language New Testaments.
Charges and punishments to follow?
The Protestant told Forum 18 that all the confiscated materials were sent to the Uzbekistan's Religious Affairs Committee in Tashkent for "expert analysis". It is thought that charges will then be brought against the four alleged organisers and Ukrainian husband and wife the Code of Administrative Offences.
The articles local Protestants think will be used are:
- 184-2 ("Illegal production, storage, or import into Uzbekistan with a purpose to distribute or distribution of religious materials"). Punishments are a fine of between 50 and 150 times the minimum monthly wage, "with confiscation of the religious materials";
- 240 ("Violation of the Religion Law") Part 1 ("..unauthorised religious activity .. the organisation and conduct of special children's and youth meetings.."). Punishments range from fines of 50 to 100 times the minimum monthly salary to being jailed for up to 15 days;
- and 241 ("Teaching religious beliefs without specialised religious education and without permission from the central organ of a [registered] religious organisation, as well as teaching religious beliefs privately"). Punishments range from fines of 5 to 10 times the minimum monthly salary, or being jailed for up to 15 days.
It is also expected that the Ukrainian couple may be deported. The court case and punishments are expected to take place at some point between now and mid-September. (END)
For a personal commentary by a Muslim scholar, advocating religious freedom for all as the best antidote to Islamic religious extremism in Uzbekistan, see http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=338.
For more background, see Forum 18's Uzbekistan religious freedom survey at http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1862.
Full reports on freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Uzbekistan can be found at http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?query=&religion=all&country=33.
A printer-friendly map of Uzbekistan is available at http://education.nationalgeographic.com/mapping/outline-map/?map=Uzbekistan.
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Gabellini Sheppard
Projects Portraits News Awards Publications Project Index Keynotes Contact
Combining historic preservation and adaptive reuse, Gabellini Sheppard Associates restored the neoclassical office lobby of the former AT&T Building in Lower Manhattan and completed a non-intrusive renovation to house new retail spaces and a public galleria. The 45,000-square-foot project, commissioned by L&L Holding Company, ensures the stewardship and revitalization of a monumental building whose exterior and interior are designated landmarks.
Originally designed by William Welles Bosworth and opened in 1916, the historic lobby of 195 Broadway reflects the aspirations of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) to attain civic importance. The lobby, with entrances on three sides (Fulton Street, Broadway, and Dey Street), was once an urban nexus animated by retail activity, public telephones, and company business services as well as the daily flow of office workers. By the time the building was designated a New York City landmark in 2006, after successive owners, the lobby and lower-level spaces had become dormant and detached from the life of the city. With careful research and approval from the Landmarks Preservation Commission, Gabellini Sheppard Associates created a preservation and retail masterplan to conserve the building’s character while adding three new retail spaces connecting the lobby and lower level.
At the Dey Street office lobby entrance, a restored four-bay entry threshold supersedes the non-historic two-bay system, Raised floors from the 1960s are lowered to match their original height, reestablishing visual harmony between the entrance portal and the facing elevator bank. The non-historic, partial-height glass and metal walls at the two interior Dey Street pavilions are replaced with frameless, partial-height glass walls to restore and re-open the original view.
A public galleria connects Fulton and Dey streets, traversing the lobby along its most spectacular axis, allowing visitors to experience the magnificent forest of columns without having to cross through the office reception or any retail space. The galleria also restores public access to the 1915 bronze relief map commemorating the first transcontinental phone line, a 1928 marble sculptural group by Chester Beach, and several engraved tablets and benches, highlighting the building’s remarkable history and craftsmanship for a new generation.
The northern and eastern sections of the lobby, fronting on Fulton Street and Broadway, respectively, are non-intrusively equipped to house up to three retail tenants. This retail area is minimally partitioned from the office lobby via optical, transparent glass panels that preserve the sweeping continuity of the hypostyle hall—defined by massive marble Doric columns and a high coffered ceiling with patinated bronze and alabaster chandeliers. The new glass panels are suspended from one-half-inch-diameter cables fixed discreetly to the floor and ceiling, much as the lobby’s original retail partition walls were attached with only slight visible evidence. This cable suspension system is flexible and reversible; it can be removed or reconfigured if necessary, leaving a mostly invisible trace. In addition, a new stair opening in each of the three retail spaces, plus two new ADA elevator openings, enable access to the lower-level retail spaces without disrupting the building’s historic office lobby.
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195 Broadway, New York City
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About BLAZE Europe Ltd
BLAZE Europe is developer and distributor of video game accessories, hand held games consoles, PC accessories and software for video game consoles.
BLAZE develop and distribute video game accessories for all major video games consoles, both handheld gaming consoles and home video game consoles, including: Sony Playstation 3 (PS3), Microsoft Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo DSi, Nintendo DSiXL and Nintendo DS Lite.
BLAZE are specialists in licensed Sega licensed games consoles. Blaze also hold a number of popular licenses including Mr Men (with Mr Men accessories for Nintendo 3DS/DSi/DSi Lite), Fitness First (Mel B endorsed) accessories (for all gaming formats) and Liverpool FC (with a range of Liverpool Football Club i-Phone cases, i-Pad cases, Nintendo 3DS travel kits, Xbox 360 faceplates and PS3 controllers).
With over 20 years of experience in the video game industry, the research and development team continually seek to create new product ranges that are specially designed to meet the needs of an ever changing market place.
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Andretti, Stuck and Co. at Volkswagen Formula V revival
10:57 AM PST - 1/22/2013 Written By: Volkswagen AG
Photography by: Volkswagen
Nürburgring, 1969, McNamara, Lauda Source Volkswagen
Born in the USA: Formula V will celebrate a big birthday at the 24-hour race in Daytona this weekend (24–27 January). 50 years after its first official race, Volkswagen’s single-seater series returns to its birthplace. Among those present will be a number of ex Formula V drivers, who went on to become international motorsport stars: Indy 500 winner Arie Luyendyk, US star Michael Andretti, Daytona champion Didier Theys, Le Mans winner Hurley Haywood, former DTM stars Hans-Joachim Stuck, Prince Leopold of Bavaria, Klaus Niedzwiedz and Dieter Quester, as well as 1976 Formula Super V European Champion Mika Arpiainen. Rally icon Markku Alén, the unofficial World Rally Champion from 1978, will also be there.
“Volkswagen can look back on major success on the motorsport scene. However, the continuous promotion of juniors has been even more successful,”said Volkswagen Motorsport Director Jost Capito. “50 years ago, Formula V was pioneering in this regard. It accompanied many eventual motorsport legends as they took their first steps towards a career in motor racing. Many of these legends will be brought together for the revival in Daytona, where it all began with the first ever Formula V race. I am really looking forward to this reunion.”
Formula V in the USA – the success story that began back in 1963
The first ever Formula V race was held at the Daytona Speedway in August 1963. Armed with the 40hp, 1.2-litre engine and the chassis from the Volkswagen Beetle, motorsport enthusiasts put together extremely economic single-seater racing cars – and launched a boom that was soon to spill over to Europe: on 4 July 1965, Formula V made its official German and European debut in front of 50,000 spectators at the Norisring in Nuremberg (Germany). This proved to be the start of a success story, to which a new chapter was added from 1971 onwards with the Formula Super V series – a second class of Volkswagen racing cars, which ran parallel to the established Formula V 1300. The Volkswagen engines had a capacity of 1.6 litres and initially generated 120 hp. Within a few years, this figure had risen to almost 200 hp.
Formula One world champions Niki Lauda, Nelson Piquet, Emerson Fittipaldi, Jochen Rindt and Keke Rosberg all began their careers in the various Formula V championships, as did Le Mans winners Gijs van Lennep, Dr. Helmut Marko and Jochen Mass. As such, Formula V formed the basis for the tradition of promoting juniors in motorsport – a tradition that still lives on today through the likes of the ADAC Formula Masters “powered by Volkswagen”.
The best Formula V racing cars from Europe and the USA will complete a “lap of honor” ahead of the start of the legendary 24-hour race. In the cockpits of these iconic cars will be the Formula V heroes from the series’ heyday.
The latest Volkswagen Motorsports News from around the world...
Volkswagen continues promotion of juniors in Formula 3
In 2013, Volkswagen engines will once again be in use in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship, which gets underway with the opening round of the season in Monza this weekend. ...
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Select a document: : O-000089/2011O-000090/2011B7-0286/2011
O-000089/2011 (B7-0301/2011)
OJ 12/05/2011 - 220
B7-0286/2011
Explanations of votes
Wednesday, 11 May 2011 - Strasbourg OJ edition
12. Small Business Act review (debate)
President. – The next item is the debate on
– the oral question to the Council on the Small Business Act (SBA) review by Bendt Bendtsen, on behalf of the PPE Group, Edit Herczog, on behalf of the S&D Group, Fiona Hall, on behalf of the ALDE Group, Reinhard Bütikofer, on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group, Giles Chichester, on behalf of the ECR Group, and Niki Tzavela, on behalf of the EFD Group (O-000089/2011 – B7-0301/2011),
– the oral question to the Commission on the Small Business Act (SBA) review by Bendt Bendtsen, on behalf of the PPE Group, Edit Herczog, on behalf of the S&D Group, Fiona Hall, on behalf of the ALDE Group, Reinhard Bütikofer, on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group, Giles Chichester, on behalf of the ECR Group, and Niki Tzavela, on behalf of the EFD Group (O-000090/2011 – B7-0302/2011).
Bendt Bendtsen, author. – (DA) Mr President, the economic crisis has had an effect on Europe’s small and medium-sized enterprises. In addition, there are the new Basel rules that are now to be implemented in the forthcoming Capital Requirements Directive. This will probably make it even more difficult for small and medium-sized enterprises to obtain capital for the growth that Europe needs. In this resolution, the European Parliament is sending a clear signal to the Commission that it is now that the necessary decisions need to be taken to benefit our small and medium-sized enterprises.
Now it is true that politicians should not be running businesses, but they should be involved in creating the fertile soil in which Europe’s businesses can grow. I am pleased that we will now have a revision of the Small Business Act. We must take relevant action instead of merely toasting our European enterprises. There is an urgent need for better access to financing for small and medium-sized enterprises. There is also a need for enhanced market access, including the modernisation of the standardisation system within the EU, and for better access for small and medium-sized enterprises to public procurement opportunities.
Finally, I would like to mention that we need to reduce our enterprises’ administrative burden, in connection with reporting, for example. Why should small business owners have to submit a report more than once? Once should be enough. The public authorities should deal with the further distribution of the information themselves. We must consider the fact that, when we produce new legislation in the EU and get it implemented in the Member States, we often impose even more burdens on our small and medium-sized enterprises. It is therefore not enough simply to reduce the number. We must also ensure, every time we produce legislation, that we do not create additional burdens for small and medium-sized enterprises. Overall, we need to make it easier for businesses to operate in Europe and we need to act now.
Edit Herczog, author. – (HU) Mr President, Commissioner, I beg your pardon. I glanced up at the public gallery for an instant as I have the good fortune that a visiting group from Hungary also happens to be present right now.
The Small Business Act has become incorporated into European thinking in recent times. Based on the practical experience of the last two years, now is the time to review, update and strengthen the Small Business Act. We, the posers of the question, have summarised the most important issues in 34 points in the proposal for a decision. I would like to mention a few of these.
Implementation is very important. The Member States have done their work with different degrees of efficiency and commitment with consequent success. We would like a single database and results table to measure success and excesses.
Commissioner, in our view, the aim is not to infringe employees’ rights in any way but to create jobs. Reducing administration is not the same as infringing upon employees’ rights, but rather the opportunity must be created for micro and small enterprises to cooperate.
As regards access to financial resources, it is very important that the use of funds available at European Union level be more efficient. We have achieved 75% efficiency until now and roughly 50 000 SMEs have received funds in this way. At the same time, approximately 300 000 SMEs have managed to access funding under the competitiveness and innovation programme. We must definitely strengthen and preserve this.
It is very important that the institutional network helps small and medium-sized enterprises. For this reason, the European Enterprise Network must be strengthened.
We would very much like to find a solution that allows the Erasmus programme for young entrepreneurs to continue. We would like all the 23 million small and medium-sized enterprises to be able to hire at least one more employee. In this way, we could make a significant contribution to improving the labour market situation. However, it is highly important that the labour force working for small and medium-sized enterprises be better qualified than at present. It is especially important that they can take part in the implementation of the Green Economy programme and obtain digital skills. The most important thing for us is that young entrepreneurs with small and medium-sized businesses should not regard different forms of enterprise as losers but as winners.
Fiona Hall, author. – Mr President, the Small Business Act was given a warm welcome by SMEs, but that was two years ago. It is really important that we now show small businesses that this was not just a piece of paper.
On the issue of administrative burden, the target should not be a once-off which we reach and then abandon. It is something we have to keep working on. I am particularly concerned about the situation that micro-businesses find themselves in. It is all right – or it is relatively all right – for a small business of 249 employees that has specialist administrative staff but, for a micro-business with one or two staff, over-regulation can actually make trading impossible. We should not forget that micro-businesses of less than 10 employees actually make up over 90% of all EU businesses.
Micro-businesses really need to be treated like family units and, in particular, the EU and its Member States need to work together to look at how small businesses can be given upfront support for energy efficiency improvements. Indeed, the broader question of finance for SMEs is vital.
Just before Easter, a number of MEPs from the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy went to California to see how investment works in Silicon Valley. What we discovered was that venture capital was much more available than in Europe, and that those who provided it were much more risk-taking in their approach. Californian venture capitalists expect nine out of ten investments to fail. The one in ten which succeeds pays for all the rest, but the motto is ‘fail fast’. There is much we can learn about how we could better support our own innovative small businesses in Europe. Perhaps not least, we should not stigmatise failure but rather use it as a step to success.
Giles Chichester, author. – Mr President, there is a fundamental paradox in EU policy on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). On the one hand, there is almost unanimous support for their importance to the economy, to employment, wealth creation, innovation and flexibility, and their overall sheer size within the economy. If positive rhetoric could be converted into orders and cash in the bank, then the Union’s SMEs would be in great shape. However, the big challenge – which is addressed in this resolution – is how to convert warm words into useful deeds without just throwing money at SMEs – money that is not available in today’s economy. On the other hand, the EU combines this positive sentiment with plenty of legislation on employment protection and environmental requirements: legislation which is well-intentioned but all of which bears most heavily on SMEs, increasing the administrative burden on small business when we should be reducing it.
There are many constructive suggestions in this resolution. I particularly like the proposal for combating the practice known in my country as ‘gold plating’, whereby national authorities add layers of regulation to European measures. My personal view, as one who worked in a small business for 25 years, is that actually, while it would be nice to reduce this burden of administration, the best we can do for small businesses is to improve access to information and to finance.
Reinhard Bütikofer, author. – (DE) Mr President, it does not happen every day in Parliament that Members of six different political groups table a joint question which leads to a debate. Today, we have a case of this kind and it is no coincidence that it concerns the role of small and medium-sized businesses. This is a commonly held and broad-based concern.
One of the questions we are asking is: What is the Commission doing to further strengthen the particularly successful financial instruments in future for small and medium-sized companies? One of these successful instruments is the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP). What will happen to CIP when the common strategic framework for research and innovation is developed? What opportunities will there be for small and medium-sized enterprises in this context?
It will definitely not be possible to make the concept of innovation so broad and far-reaching that it covers all the relevant activities and all small and medium-sized businesses. However, we must not make the mistake of only promoting the competitiveness of those small and medium-sized firms which have been identified as being particularly innovative. Therefore, I believe that it is very important for the right decisions to be made in the common strategic framework.
I would also like to mention specifically that this also concerns the issue of the criteria on which simplification and the reduction of red tape are based. CIP is already much less bureaucratic than the Seventh Framework Programme. It would not be sensible to apply the standards of the Seventh Framework Programme in the case of small and medium-sized companies. We need to find a practical way of continuing the measures which have been good for small and medium-sized enterprises, in particular, in programmes such as CIP, so that these activities do not fall by the wayside during the course of a reorganisation.
Niki Tzavela, author. – Mr President, I would like to congratulate my colleagues on their contribution to this very useful resolution and to state that I agree with all that has been said so far. Nevertheless, I have made some amendments on a couple of issues which I feel could be constructive and useful contributions to the final text.
Firstly, there is no mention in the text of the effects of illegal trade on small businesses. Unfortunately, in this day and age, illegal trade is a reality and a phenomenon which is growing in all Member States. To put it simply, illegal trade is one of the biggest obstacles to the emergence and growth of Europe’s small businesses.
My second comment concerns the Commission’s ‘second chance’ initiative for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In these times of economic difficulty especially, it is important to support SMEs and help them to develop.
This leads me to my last point. I think it is regrettable that few of our innovative SMEs grow into larger companies and that there are fewer young, R&D-intensive, innovative firms in the EU than in the USA. Significant shortages in innovation-related skills prevent SMEs from adopting innovative smart business models and new technologies. This is an issue we must address, and we must cultivate in Europe the risk-taking spirit that exists in the USA among the young generation of Americans.
Enikő Győri, President-in-Office of the Council. – (HU) Mr President, Commissioner, honourable Members, I am grateful to Parliament for the interest shown in the Small Business Act and the opportunity afforded by this especially to discuss what action we should take with regard to the different initiatives mentioned in relation to the review of the Small Business Act.
The Small Business Act is a very important tool which helps us create a more favourable business environment for small and medium-sized enterprises. Small and medium-sized enterprises make a major contribution to the European economy as the vast majority of companies belong to this category and they provide jobs for over 90 million people throughout Europe. For this reason, the full implementation of the policy for small and medium-sized enterprises and, in particular, the Small Business Act, is a high priority task for the Hungarian Presidency. The success of our competitiveness strategy depends on how our policy initiatives affect small and medium-sized enterprises. One of the keys to future growth is that highly competitive and innovative small and medium-sized enterprises should operate in Europe. Accordingly, the Council welcomes with great pleasure the Commission’s communication on the review of the Small Business Act, which was published on 23 February 2011. In the communication, the Commission suggests various new initiatives in several priority areas for further action to be taken. These initiatives were created as the result of wide-ranging consultations with associations of small and medium-sized enterprises and the relevant authorities. Thus, they duly bear in mind the interests of both the enterprises themselves and other stakeholders.
The Commission’s communication was discussed at the informal meeting of competitiveness ministers in Gödöllő in Hungary on 13 April 2011. At these talks, the ministers fully supported the Presidency’s opinion that the four main issues to be handled as priorities are smart regulation, financing, internationalisation and governance. More work is needed to enable us to make progress in these issues. At the same time, it is the Presidency’s firm intention to maintain the impetus of the process at the meeting of the Competitiveness Council to be held on 31 May 2011, which will also consider the mid-term review of the Small Business Act. At the aforementioned meeting, the Presidency would like the Council to adopt conclusions in which the ‘think small first’ principle is applied in particular, that is to say, the principle which the Commission’s communication is based on.
As regards the status of the European private company, the European Commission first made a recommendation on the subject in a Council draft regulation in 2008. The idea behind the proposal was to make it easier for small and medium-sized enterprises to do business in the single market, and this must result in reducing costs and increased economic growth. Some concerns arose in the Council about certain aspects and parts of the proposal. Despite the commendable efforts of the Swedish and Belgian presidencies, the Member States have not managed to reach agreement to this day. I can assure the honourable Members that the Hungarian Presidency is striving to find the way to progress with regard to the particularly problematic issues of this proposal and will continue to do all it can to bring the matter to a successful conclusion.
Olli Rehn, Member of the Commission. – Mr President, many thanks to the honourable Members for this important oral question and your debate. I will respond to the question on behalf of my colleague, Vice-President Antonio Tajani.
In fact, small and medium-sized enterprises account for 99% of all European enterprises and generate most of the value-added of the real economy and create two-thirds of the jobs in the private sector. The EU is relying on SMEs and is creating the conditions under which they can develop and grow in order to create jobs in competitive markets. SMEs need less red tape, easier access to finance green markets and skills that match the needs of the real economy. These are the principles behind our SME policy as presented in the review of the Small Business Act for Europe. I will outline five avenues of work in the frame of your five questions in the oral question in my response on behalf of the Commission.
In the review, the Commission invites the Member States to systematically assess the impact of the legislation on SMEs by using the SME test. The European Parliament and the Commission are working together on a study of the application of the SME test in the Member States and at European level. The Commission will use this test as a basis for planning additional measures to support implementation and the exchange of best practice. We are also currently completing a study on the problems associated with licensing and official authorisation, company transfer and bankruptcy procedures in the Member States. The study will enable the Commission and, in particular, the Member States, to plan appropriate measures for applying the ‘think small first’ principle to administrative services. This will be made possible in particular by expanding online administration and the one-stop shop in line with the recommendations made in the review.
Secondly, a new system of governance will be introduced. The Commission has invited the Member States to appoint a SME representative – ‘Ms or Mr SME’ – to monitor the implementation of the SBA at national level. The national representatives will be members of a consultative group for the SBA which will help to assess and disseminate information concerning the measures taken to support SMEs. They will meet for the first time at the SBA Conference in Budapest on 24 and 25 May this year.
Thirdly, SMEs are intended to be the main beneficiaries of the European programme to reduce the administrative burden. The Commission has submitted to the Council and the EP proposals for reducing administrative costs very substantially – by up to over 30% when they are implemented – while the proposals already adopted will reduce administrative costs by 22%.
The Commission is relying on the Parliament to ensure that our proposals are adopted as soon as possible. Certain proposals, such as the review of the Fourth Accounting Directive, will benefit SMEs in particular. When it has been adopted by the Council and Parliament, the review of the Fourth Accounting Directive will enable Member States to exempt very small enterprises from certain accounting obligations.
Fourthly, the SBA has also created a framework to enable SMEs to take up the challenge of energy efficiency by improving their energy management and seizing the opportunities presented by the environmental market. The action plan to encourage eco-innovation will also be implemented, paying particular attention to SMEs by promoting networking, low carbon technologies and efficient management of the use of resources. We will also continue developing action specifically devoted to environment and energy experts within the Enterprise Europe network.
Finally, as part of the flagship initiative on the Agenda for new skills and jobs, the Commission will assess future skills needs in micro- and craft-type enterprises. An initial study on identification of future skills requirements in micro- and craft-type enterprises up to 2020 has just been published. It identifies the actions which need to be taken to meet future skills requirements, promote them more effectively and include them more systematically in training programmes for both micro-enterprises and craft-type enterprises.
Pilar del Castillo Vera, on behalf of the PPE Group. – (ES) Mr President, Mrs Győri, Commissioner, today, we find ourselves discussing in this House a joint proposal for a resolution on the revision of the Small Business Act, which the Commission submitted in February.
The relationship between small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and the economy can be defined in many ways, but in a sense, they are the axis around which any economic system revolves, in this case, the European economies. If they are strong, the economy will do well; if they are weak, the economy will do badly. SMEs generate jobs, growth and, accordingly, prosperity for society.
I shall refer to three factors that seem to me to be fundamental to achieving a strong network of enterprises.
First, the adoption of information and communication technology and the development of technologies such as online administration or cloud computing, which save money, reduce costs and effort and, therefore, improve the competitiveness of SMEs.
Second, innovation, which is equally fundamental in this sector. Accordingly, up-and-coming enterprises in the small and medium-sized business sector must be strongly incentivised.
Third, SMEs must be able to participate fully in the internal market, both in terms of cross-border public tendering and as regards all other features of the internal market, which are capable of providing extraordinary benefits to SMEs in terms of their competitiveness but are currently failing to do so.
Finally, after all this comes the value of entrepreneurship, a social value which must be strong since, if it is not, the whole network will be weak. In this area, both governments and the European Union have much to do, principally through education.
Teresa Riera Madurell, on behalf of the S&D Group. – (ES) Mr President, certainly, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have the advantage of being flexible and agile and close to the customer, which enables them to make decisions much more quickly. These are very important characteristics in times of crisis, when the ability to respond quickly is vital.
Moreover, as we well know, they make up more than 90% of the fabric of our business sector and they are a valuable model that we must maintain, because the effects of a large business failing or relocating are much more devastating, above all, in employment terms.
For that reason, we, and governments in particular, cannot afford to throw a spanner in the works of these businesses. For that reason, we approved the Small Business Act and, for that reason also, exercises such as this one are vital to the continuing progress of Member States in applying the political and legislative measures that we have agreed.
Ladies and gentlemen, European SMEs urgently need the firm political will to improve their access to public tenders that is contained in the Small Business Act to be converted into real, tangible, operative measures.
We applaud the measures that some Member States have taken, such as dividing tenders into lots and improving electronic access to information from centralised websites and interactive web pages, but we do not think that this is sufficient.
From this House, we must insist that those responsible for public procurement within the various administrative bodies incorporate terms into their tender specifications that facilitate positive discrimination in favour of SMEs and remove contractual provisions that hinder their participation.
Jürgen Creutzmann, on behalf of the ALDE Group. – (DE) Mr President, Mr Rehn, the joint question on the review of the Small Business Act shows that there is still a great deal to be done to ensure that medium-sized companies in Europe have freedom to act, particularly on a national level. However, I am pleased that in recent years, we have succeeded in implementing almost all the provisions of the Small Business Act in the European Union. Most recently, a new directive on combating late payment in commercial transactions came into force in March, which will make an important contribution to improving payment practice in Europe. Now the Member States have two years to implement the new directive. I would like to call for this timeframe to be shortened, in particular, in the Member States where this would not present a significant problem. Instead of delaying implementation for two years, it could be completed, where possible, within one year.
The Member States have not yet been able to agree on the statute for a European private company. Therefore, I very much welcome the fact that the Hungarian Presidency is following up this issue and making it one of the focal points of its work. This form of company in particular could enable small and medium-sized enterprises to save a great deal of money. I am thinking, in particular, of accounting, establishing a company and ongoing legal advice. Therefore, I would like to say again how pleased I am that the Hungarian Presidency is focusing on this area.
The issue just mentioned by Mrs Riera Madurell is also important, and that is public procurement. Here, we can still achieve a great deal for small and medium-sized enterprises. There are many bureaucratic regulations in this area and it is often particularly difficult for small and medium-sized businesses to take part in the public procurement process. We need greater transparency and we must also try to make the most of the opportunities presented by the modern media and, in particular, the Internet.
Kay Swinburne, on behalf of the ECR Group. – Mr President, the Small Business Act is precisely what we, as politicians and legislators, should be focusing on as we look for ways of fostering new growth and re-energising our economies.
SMEs make up more than 98% of the businesses in my rural constituency of Wales. As public sector jobs in the UK as a whole are becoming less certain, and more of my constituents are, I hope, going to be either setting up or working for small businesses, I fully support and endorse the ambitious targets for reducing the administrative burden on SMEs, and goals such as the SME test for all legislation. Coupled with the ‘one in, one out’ policy for regulation that my own government is operating, these measures should begin to achieve our objective.
But now is the time to be bold, to be more ambitious and to achieve more. I have seen so much creativity in Wales, as it develops into a hub of activity for new businesses in the highly profitable global gaming world and a centre for cultural excellence with regard to film and programme production, yet I find myself asking questions about how to foster and encourage this development. Big projects like the European patent and the Digital Agenda need to deliver for these small businesses, providing jobs and a future for people in Wales and the whole of the EU.
Derek Roland Clark, on behalf of the EFD Group. – Mr President, this review’s 10 principles include helping SMEs to benefit from opportunities of the single market, but the eurozone is collapsing, so how can it provide more opportunities? It also wants SMEs to benefit from the growth in markets. What growth? In September 2009, I asked Commissioner Andor what specific measures he would introduce to assist SMEs, following my similar request of him when he spoke to the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs on taking up the portfolio. I got no answers then, but now it seems I have some.
The review’s five guidelines to reduce pressure on SMEs include simplifying the rules on VAT and reducing the rates, and a directive on late payments, but that is just tinkering with existing rules and regulations. The first principle of the review – creating a right environment – should not mean proposing new rules such as European private companies and state aids. It should mean ripping rules out by the hundred. After all, Commission President Barroso said in this House in July last year: ‘red tape is strangling SMEs’.
Tadeusz Zwiefka (PPE). – (PL) Mr President, legislation which is too complex or unintelligible, which is too strict, or which does not keep up with the latest changes, is obviously not conducive to development or progress. As coordinator of the Committee on Legal Affairs, I would therefore like to draw particular attention to the importance, during the legislative procedure, of observing the principle of including small and medium-sized enterprises in ex ante and post ante impact assessments. This would make it possible, as early as during the law making process, to identify and eliminate obstacles which may be posed by new regulations for a sector which, after all, is the flywheel of the European economy.
Similarly, complying with the principles of ‘think small first’ and ‘only once’, and limiting the excessively strict transposition of the requirements of EU directives into national regulations, by bodies in the Member States naturally, will result in a noticeable reduction in the administrative burden on the SME sector. Both the Stoiber working group and the review of the Small Business Act presented by the European Commission have confirmed that administrative obstacles and excessive burdens relating to control measures often cause delays, and sometimes even prevent the further expansion of small companies which have the potential to generate new jobs.
I therefore also regard it as legitimate to ask whether the analysis promised by the European Commission, concerning a reduction of the administrative burden to 25% of its current level, is available yet. I also agree with the proposals to the effect that both the EU institutions and the Member States should be guided by these principles when creating new legislation or revising existing legislation. It is alarming to learn that implementation of the Small Business Act is coming up against many obstacles in the Member States, although the examples of several countries show that following these principles yields good results.
Finally, I should also like to draw your attention to the significance of the ongoing work on European contract law, and the work on the establishment of a European patent protection system which has begun in the Committee on Legal Affairs. There can be no doubt that good regulations in this area will give a direct boost to the development of innovation, particularly as regards the activities and growth of small and medium-sized enterprises.
Silvia-Adriana Ţicău (S&D). – (RO) Mr President, at the end of March 2011, the European Union had an unemployment rate of 9.5%, with a rate of 9.9% in the euro area. What is of even greater concern is that the youth unemployment rate is almost double the unemployment rate for the whole population. Improving the business environment and access to funding, as well as facilitating SMEs’ access to the Structural Funds, will foster the development of an entrepreneurial spirit. SMEs need legislative and fiscal stability. Repeated amendments to tax legislation or changes to the conditions for accessing the various types of funds make it difficult for them to do business. Another issue, especially during times of crisis, is that SMEs are affected by the delay from public institutions in settling their invoices. All these factors affect SMEs’ forecasts for achieving their business plans, as well as their business and, most of all, their innovative capacity.
Between 2006 and 2008, SMEs managed to win just 33% of the total value of public procurement contracts. Given that public procurement contracts account for 17% of the European Union’s GDP, we think that SMEs need to increase their involvement in the public procurement market. This is why we call on the Commission and Member States to take the necessary measures by 2015 to ensure that at least 50% of public procurement transactions are carried out electronically, in keeping with the commitment made by Member State governments in Manchester in 2005.
I should point out that the single market is not in operation yet in the services sector, which is having an adverse impact on SMEs’ business activities in the European Union. In 2008, the Commission presented, as part of the European Economic Recovery Plan, the programme which involved the European Investment Bank offering a global package of EUR 30 billion in loans earmarked for SMEs. The EIB intended to supplement the loans for medium-sized businesses with EUR 1 billion a year. I would like to ask the Commission at what stage of implementation this programme is at, whether it intends to top up the funding, and whether these funds are distributed equally to all Member States.
Mara Bizzotto (EFD). – (IT) Mr President, three million jobs have been lost in comparison with several million euro invested in support policies. That is the disastrous outcome, in terms of impact on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), first of the triumphal Lisbon project, and then of the ‘photocopy’ Europe 2020 strategy, on which we are even deciding to focus resources from the next multiannual financial framework for 2014-2020.
I therefore cannot but stress what thousands of European citizens and taxpayers are wondering: what use is Europe if it cannot solve the economic problems of the continent, if it cannot speak with a single voice on matters of foreign policy, and if it squanders money? I hope that what Commissioner Tajani has said on several occasions comes true. I hope that the review of the SME code really is able to simplify red tape, ensure access to and recovery of credit, and facilitate internalisation.
With the Late Payments Directive, we have reached a real, concrete goal, but as a result of political will and not Europropaganda. If the costs of the umpteenth strategy will still only finance talk, I call on the European institutions to make amends to the dozens of small entrepreneurs in my region, Veneto, who have taken their lives rather than see their small businesses fail.
Krišjānis Kariņš (PPE). – (LV) Mr President, Commissioner, parents very often pay attention to the child that cries the loudest, although in truth, attention ought to be paid to another child entirely. Similarly, politicians and the press pay attention most often to large companies, which have a lot of money, which have a big voice, although attention ought rather to be paid to others, that is to say, small enterprises. For us in Europe, large enterprises are like large trees, but these large trees do not make up the whole enterprise wood. A few figures. Over 90% of enterprises in the whole of Europe are small and medium-sized, not large. Approximately three quarters of all those in employment work in small and medium-sized enterprises, which produce the same proportion of Europe’s gross domestic product. The time has come for us to switch our attention from large enterprises, which are loud, I should not like to say – like children – but they are loud, and pay attention to the quieter ones, most of whom work after all with the small ones. In this context, then, Commissioner, I call upon you to pay greater attention to your own Commission’s commitment to reduce the administrative burden for small and medium-sized enterprises. You can do this by evaluating your legislation, and not by introducing regulations that make the administrative burden more costly. By supporting small and medium-sized enterprises, we shall be acting more swiftly to encourage economic growth throughout the European Union. Thank you for your attention.
Zigmantas Balčytis (S&D). – (LT) Mr President, the Small Business Act adopted in 2008 was supposed to give impetus to the development of small business and the improvement of business conditions in Europe. A lot has been done to improve the business environment and simplify administrative requirements, such as the E-Invoicing Directive and the Late Payments Directive. However, this is not enough. Today, we can see that the outcomes are not what small business expected.
The main priorities, such as financing and simplifying regulatory systems for improving the business environment, have not been implemented in a systematic or consistent manner. Meanwhile, the business environment varies greatly across the Member States. The different legal regimes covering the protection of consumer rights, which still remain, reduce consumer confidence in the single market and do not encourage companies to expand their business in other Member States. Essentially, this prevents the creation of an internal market in the European Union that is more geared towards and favourable to small business.
It is precisely small business that has been worst hit by the economic and financial crisis. We see companies going bankrupt or with a huge debt burden. We did provide for measures to help them, but sadly, they have not always been successful. The European Progress Microfinance Facility set up by the Commission really was a very appropriate step for providing small business with opportunities to obtain financing during the crisis. However, as various studies have shown, instead of providing business with loans, the national banks in some Member States have tightened lending conditions even more.
The European Investment Bank, which administered these loans for two years, generally did not have information on the implementation of these instruments. This gives rise to the question: why do we need such an intermediary at all? The clear conclusion is that in future, the Commission must take responsibility for overseeing the implementation of such important initiatives in the Member States.
Hopefully, the revision of the Small Business Act will help us to understand and evaluate where we should increase our efforts so that we can establish an environment that works better for small business.
(The speaker agreed to take a blue card question under
Rule 149(8))
Paul Rübig (PPE). – (DE) Mr President, I wanted to ask Mr Balčytis what he thinks of the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs programme, because he has mentioned that the financial situation in this area has become highly precarious as a result of the crisis. I have heard that the Commission intends to limit the scope of this programme. Do you not believe that it would be more sensible in the light of the financial crisis to ensure that the owners of small and medium-sized companies have the opportunity to find out about new areas of business?
Zigmantas Balčytis (S&D). – (LT) Thank you very much for this question. How we plan to restructure our society, and who, in future, will have to deal with the main issues, not just for small business, but big business as well – this really is a priority issue of our future.
The Erasmus programme you mentioned is also very important and I believe that in future, the Commission, the Council and the European Parliament should all increase their efforts to ensure that such programmes do not suffer, and that henceforth we have people, better prepared people, to implement many of the theoretical wishes that we have expressed here today. After all, someone has to put theory into practice. I agree with you entirely that Parliament should not consent to reducing such programmes in the future.
Bogdan Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz (PPE). – (PL) Mr President, the work currently being carried out on the review of the Small Business Act should concentrate, in particular, on establishing a European Private Company Statute, thus facilitating the cross-border operations of economic entities in the EU market. Although the time taken to set up a company has dropped in recent months, an analysis carried out by the European Commission has showed that over half of Member States still do not meet the requirement for it to be possible to do so in three days. Furthermore, the majority of Member States are still not carrying out assessments of the impact of future legislative and administrative initiatives on SMEs, and the ‘only once’ principle is also not being applied in full.
Over the past two years, the list of countries in which it has been possible to close down a business entirely within a year has remained the same. I would therefore suggest that the European Commission should become even more involved in efforts to ensure that the Member States implement these provisions. In addition, I believe that further measures under the Small Business Act should also cover improved availability of funding, access to risk capital markets and the development of points of single contact in the Member States to facilitate administrative procedures.
It is worth pointing out that in order to achieve our objective of an employment level of 75%, as enshrined in the Europe 2020 strategy, it is imperative to support SMEs. As a result of the economic crisis, these SMEs are feeling the strain of a series of additional expenses, instead of generating jobs.
Elena Băsescu (PPE). – (RO) Mr President, the Small Business Act needs to be brought into line with the Europe 2020 strategy priorities to improve the regulatory environment to meet the needs of SMEs. This means that the measures presented need to be implemented quickly, in their entirety, especially the ‘think small first’ principle. I think that particular attention must be focused on supporting large-scale funding for innovative companies. According to the Commission’s assessment, Romania is a model of good practice in applying the principle of ‘promoting entrepreneurship through the Start business programme’. The programme has a budget of EUR 21.2 million and is aimed at developing management skills among young people.
I have also noted progress in the implementation of the principle of ‘accessing funding for SMEs’. The government is supporting the set-up and development of at least 1 100 SMEs for young people.
George Sabin Cutaş (S&D). – (RO) Mr President, I want to start by welcoming the European Commission’s proposals for reviewing the Small Business Act for Europe. In practical terms, the European Commission notes in its communication of 23 February 2011 the quite significant progress which has been made since the Small Business Act was adopted in June 2008, but warns about the challenges remaining. Therefore, SMEs still have problems in expanding their activities, improving their innovative capacity, accessing markets and obtaining funding, and face excessive red tape. In most cases, when it comes to transposing the directives into national legislation, the bureaucratic requirements laid down by the European Union are actually exceeded. In order to ensure greater transparency, each Member State should produce tables comparing national bureaucratic measures with those required by EU directives. An assessment also needs to be made of the impact which the new EU legislative proposals could have on SMEs.
Jaroslav Paška (EFD). – (SK) Mr President, more than two years have passed since the adoption of the Small Business Act initiative, and it is therefore right and proper that in February, the Commission issued a notification of the review of this initiative. It seems that our efforts to promote a more favourable legislative environment for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have so far failed to make a sufficient impression in the business sector itself. On the basis of discussions with representatives of organisations representing SMEs, the Commission has therefore prepared further measures through which we can help to improve their situation.
In my opinion, we must, above all, focus more on implementing the new rules in national legislation. The experience from my own country shows me that national bureaucracies are unbelievably obstructive, and stubbornly resist all changes that would limit their ability to victimise small businesses. I therefore believe we must persevere with the simplification of rules for SMEs patiently and rigorously, and trust that our efforts will somehow bring the expected result.
Franz Obermayr (NI). – (DE) Mr President, one particularly positive feature of the Small Business Act is the provision which makes it easier to establish companies in terms of both time and cost. I also welcome the obligation on the public sector to pay invoices within 30 days.
However, some bureaucratic obstacles remain in place, for example, as far as cash flow is concerned. We need to evaluate to what extent the Basel criteria could cause a serious credit crunch for small and medium-sized enterprises. As far as the cross-border area is concerned, we should finally get the European private company under way. From the perspective of the cost-benefit factor, this form of company could, in future, be more important than the European company. I am thinking in this respect of subsidiaries and transfers of registered offices throughout Europe.
Finally, I would just like to say that we need to follow up on the measures to give small and medium-sized businesses access to China and other markets in Asia.
Ildikó Gáll-Pelcz (PPE). – (HU) Mr President, I agree with the statement in the review that further measures are needed. I believe it is important for the European Union to have a better overview of how the governments of the Member States implement the Small Business Act. The mid-term review is also important because the problems of small and medium-sized enterprises – the difficulties of obtaining funding, the size of administrative burdens, overregulation and market access problems – appear to be becoming permanent.
I think it is a good idea as well to enable small enterprises to register themselves as European private companies, thereby reducing the administrative burdens and, at the same time, realising smart regulation is an extremely timely issue. A high priority in this is spreading the ‘only once’ principle across Europe and examining whether the regulatory framework of certain policy areas is as it should be and, if it is not, what changes are required.
Seán Kelly (PPE). – Mr President, it is a fact that, if every SME created one extra job, unemployment would finish in Europe. That is not actually an impossible task. Instead, however, many of them are shedding jobs, partly due to the recession, but also due to a preponderance of regulation and red tape. This certainly needs to be tackled urgently.
I am pleased to say that our new government yesterday announced measures to help SMEs which were broadly welcomed by the business community today – measures relating to VAT, PRSI, travel tax and internships. At European level, it is essential that we tackle fraud in particular. The black market economy is thriving and needs to be tackled on a European-wide basis. We also need to encourage businesses to avail themselves of the opportunities in e-commerce and establish a European-wide patent. If we do this, we can actually end unemployment and also help the creation of many new businesses.
Sergio Paolo Francesco Silvestris (PPE). – (IT) Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the Small Business Act review is a great opportunity if it is based on an understanding of how precious our small and medium-sized enterprises are. In the economic fabric of Italy, small and medium-sized enterprises represent a major and essential part of the production market.
They are even more important in southern Italy, where I come from, because the whole productive fabric is organised around small and medium-sized enterprises. In the past, entire industrial areas were teeming with small businesses that guaranteed thousands of jobs. Today, many of those businesses have gone bankrupt or closed, not least because of unfair competition, as the students from Barletta who are here today are well aware.
Europe therefore needs to send out a strong, effective signal to guarantee less red tape, lower costs, greater transparency and shorter delays in payments, and to ensure the stability that small and medium-sized enterprises demand and need so much.
Olli Rehn, Member of the Commission. – Mr President, many thanks to the honourable Members for a very serious and substantive discussion. The Commission is aware that more needs to be done; this has been underlined by several Members, and I fully agree that the well-being of small and medium-sized enterprises is crucial for Europe’s recovery, for growth and for employment.
When our SMEs do well, the European economy does well. I can assure you that the implementation of the ‘think small first’ principle and the actions proposed in the Small Business Act are a foremost priority for the Commission. I want to thank you for your support in this regard.
The Commission is looking forward to working closely with all relevant players, especially the European Parliament, to ensure effective implementation of the Small Business Act at European level and at national level, in the Member States. The European SME Week in October will be a good opportunity to work together to raise awareness of SME policy and the needs of SMEs everywhere in the European Union. We are organising this event together with the Parliament and the Commission.
Enikő Győri, President-in-Office of the Council. – (HU) Mr President, ‘Action here and now!’ Mr Bendtsen said, and I strongly agree with his standpoint. We have heard that small and medium-sized enterprises are also major employers in the European Union and, after the economic crisis, examining and reviewing how we may be able to help them recover is especially important. The Hungarian Presidency believes in a work-based economy and society, and regards small and medium-sized enterprises to be among its key partners in this. The economic environment has changed dramatically since 2008; hence, a review really is needed. For our part, too, we welcome the six-party agreement which Mr Bütikofer mentioned, and we are also grateful that several speakers acknowledged the Hungarian Presidency’s endeavours and that the Hungarian Presidency is handling this issue truly as a priority.
Allow me to draw your attention to a few specific matters. After listening attentively to the Members, we are pleased to say that there is indeed complete agreement on the principles. The small and medium-sized enterprises are the backbone of European economic growth and employment. Therefore, improving the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises is a priority for the Council as well. To this end, and to reflect this, the Competitiveness Council is preparing to adopt the Council’s conclusions at its previously mentioned meeting on 30-31 May 2011, about which the Presidency is submitting a draft to the Council. The main elements of this intend to give answers to the problems identified as the result of the review of the Small Business Act. What are these? These are better access to loans and market access, both in European and global terms, as well as enhancing the conditions of market access and alleviating administrative burdens.
The Council believes that the transposition as soon as possible of the Late Payments Directive – which, as you are aware, has been adopted – is important, and this we note with pleasure. The Council is striving to achieve this and is encouraging Member States to do so because it would be a great weight off the shoulders of small and medium-sized enterprises and would greatly improve their liquidity. It is also a pleasure for me to announce that the Council is close to reaching an agreement on the Commission’s aims to reduce the costs of establishing a business. The essence of this is to be able to start up an enterprise in at most three days, for the cost of at most EUR 100, and for licences to be obtainable in under a month.
There are two other specific matters I wish to mention. One is the issue of the European patent. 23 Member States have already joined the enhanced cooperation and the Council is discussing the basic regulation now. We regard this as a major breakthrough from the aspect of EU competitiveness and, in particular, the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises. Mr Creutzmann wished to know about the matter of the European private limited company and asked it to be handled as a priority. We have made significant progress. Now only a very small group of Member States have not joined the consensus. The adoption of this would truly be a turning point for small and medium-sized enterprises, thus we are working on it very hard and also trust that Members will be able to exercise some sort of political pressure and motivate through their own channels in order to generate the necessary majority. We have talked about this to the eminent representatives of the Committee on Legal Affairs as allies on several occasions.
Lastly, allow me to mention the connection with the Europe 2020 strategy. Here, we believe that it is important to convert the objectives stated in the strategy into laws, actions and measures which improve the position of small and medium-sized enterprises, but, of course, the Member States must also do their own homework. The European framework in itself is not enough; thus, for example, we believe that tax systems need to be simplified and to be made friendlier for small and medium-sized enterprises. Several Member States are acting in this spirit. Among them is Hungary, currently holding the Presidency.
President. – The debate is closed(1).
The vote will take place on Thursday, 12 May 2011.
Written statements (Rule 149)
Cristian Silviu Buşoi (ALDE), in writing. – (RO) I welcome the Commission communication on the SBA review as it deals, to a large extent, with the problems which SMEs are faced with and for which European and national policies will have to come up with a solution.
The Single Market Act has placed a strong emphasis on supporting SMEs. A large number of the measures proposed, such as the review of the accounting directives, cutting red tape, improving access to the capital and public procurement markets, etc. feature in this communication.
One of the major problems facing SMEs is the lack of access to funding, which not only hampers innovation but also the growth of these businesses. Innovative SMEs in particular need broader access to informal funding and to funding based on venture capital holdings as well, which is the main source of funding for new businesses.
SMEs can also be supported by domestic tax incentive measures, especially during the first few months of business.
Finally, I think that the Late Payments Directive has to be implemented fairly for SMEs. Furthermore, with the aim of helping SMEs expand their cross-border activities, the process of recovering cross-border debts will need to be facilitated and the European Private Company Statute adopted without delay.
Nessa Childers (S&D) , in writing. – The Irish Government’s Jobs Initiative has correctly concentrated on the jobs-rich sector of tourism; while the EU’s Small Business Act has the potential to complement this in the area of SMEs over the coming years. The purpose of the SBA has been to reduce the administrative burden of doing business and improve access to finance for SMEs. Commissioner Rehn reported this evening that it has succeeded in reducing the cost of doing business by 22% in some areas and will continue to concentrate on this initiative. The principal message of the Small Business Act is to ‘think small first’ – to concentrate business legislation across the EU on small and medium-sized enterprises – and the EU has committed tonight to continue the focus on this area. To this end, it is important that entrepreneurs in Ireland are fully informed on how to make best use of the Small Business Act.
Jan Kozłowski (PPE) , in writing. – (PL) Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises play a central and key role in the growth of the European economy; they are the main source of employment and have a fundamental impact on the development of European competitiveness and innovation. We can therefore say in good faith that we will not succeed in achieving the objectives of the Europe 2020 strategy unless we support small and medium-sized enterprises and unless we make it easier for them to make full use of the single market. The solutions provided for in the Small Business Act, including fewer bureaucratic obstacles, improved access to sources of funding, and easier access to the market, are particularly significant and, in my opinion, effective measures aimed at putting in place the best possible conditions for the development of SMEs. However, problems arising from the implementation of these solutions at Member State level may pose a threat to their effectiveness. I am therefore also hoping that the Member States which have not yet fully implemented these measures will make every effort to ensure that this process is completed as soon as possible.
Marian-Jean Marinescu (PPE), in writing. – (RO) SMEs encounter difficulties in obtaining access to funding and the market. The future MFF must provide measures for overcoming these difficulties. Increased support is needed for financial programmes and instruments which are already operating successfully, but have turned out to be inadequate, such as the competitiveness and innovation programme. Access to financial support must be improved for new innovative businesses in the form of start-up funds. Setting up a European capital risk fund and expanding the permanent risk-sharing products offered by the European Investment Bank through the Risk Sharing Financial Facility will also benefit SMEs. On the issue of SMEs having access to the market, I call on the Commission to propose a plan for introducing and selling innovative products on the market. Furthermore, a set of measures is required to support SMEs in implementing the new energy efficiency plan.
Nikolaos Salavrakos (EFD), in writing. – (EL) I welcome this initiative by Parliament because the broad consent between the political groups to initiate a debate on small and medium-sized enterprises illustrates their crucial role as a driving force for growth in the EU. The recession is making it even more difficult for small and medium-sized enterprises to raise capital. Their access to the markets, to financing and to information urgently needs to be improved. We need to limit the administrative burden by simplifying the regulatory environment. At European level, it is important to combat the black market economy and to give small and medium-sized enterprises incentives. The Commission recently announced 12 actions for 2012 to stimulate the single market, including measures for funding for SMEs and worker mobility, measures which I believe are a move in the right direction By making integrated use of the single market and exploiting the advantages which it offers, we can strengthen growth and prosperity at European level and give new momentum to enterprise. Measures such as a European patent and the European professional identity card must be strengthened and applied widely in order to strengthen competitiveness and employment.
Dominique Vlasto (PPE) , in writing. – (FR) European small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the lifeblood of our economic activity. Their development, their modernisation, and their competitiveness must be at the heart of our economic strategy. I therefore welcome the review of the Small Business Act proposed by the Commission, which seeks to unblock the growth potential of SMEs. A great deal still needs to be done to simplify the regulatory environment and bureaucratic procedures, which place heavy constraints on the activity and dynamism of our enterprises.
Furthermore, I support the creation of a European Private Company Statute, which would help our SMEs to take full advantage of the single European market by enabling them to carry on their cross-border activities without having to fulfil often onerous and discouraging obligations. I therefore call on the Council to take a swift decision on this initiative.
Finally, we must support innovative SMEs by giving them better access to diversified financing, involving, in particular, a substantial simplification of the use of European appropriations, which still lack flexibility. These appropriations are already available and they must, in my opinion, be mobilised to provide more effective support to the development of the real economy, innovation and employment.
(1) See Minutes
Last updated: 7 September 2011 Legal notice
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Tailored Wedding Services
STEVE LIPMAN
Vocalist Steve Lipman wants you to join him in rediscovering the depth and beauty of the music of the Great American Songbook. Like so much fine art, this music has withstood the test of time, and remains alive, vibrant, and contemporary. For Steve, the works of the Songbook connect with the soul that yearns for love and cries at heartbreak. He aims to bring this music to a new generation of listeners who are surely aware of it, but have yet to appreciate it fully. In pursuit of that goal, Steve’s latest project, a three-song collection titled Rediscover, is his most ambitious yet, featuring brand new arrangements of classic songs for seven-piece band with three horns and a full rhythm section.
The Coffee Song
You Make Me Feel So Young
123 Union St, Suite 301, Easthampton, MA, 01027
info@eventmusiclive.com
A brand of The Prindle Music Group
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Liechtenstein Helps Protect the World’s Most Vulnerable Children against Polio
The United Nations Foundation and the Liechtenstein Embassy to the US have announced a three-year commitment of US$75,000 to support worldwide polio eradication efforts, which also supports Every Woman Every Child. “We are grateful for Liechtenstein’s contribution to help polio eradication succeed, and look forward to working with governments around the world to stop this disease once and for all,” said Kathy Calvin, President and CEO of the UN Foundation. To read the full press release click here.
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Bridgette Wegert Memorial Choral Scholarship
Applicant must be a graduating senior from Wisconsin Dells High School who was an active participant in band or choir and will attend a four-year post-secondary institution with a major in music, nursing or special education.
Music, Other, Nursing, Special Education, Special Education, Other, Music
Frank Weigel Memorial Scholarship
Applicant must be a graduating senior from Wisconsin Dells High School who will pursue post-secondary education at a two- or four-year accredited institution in a science-related field.
Biology/chemistry, Physics, Other, Analytical Chemistry, Geological And Related Sciences, Other, Agriculture, Botany, General, Organic Chemistry, Veterinary Medicine (d.v.m.), Veterinary Science, Secondary Education, Geochemistry, Geological Engineering, Pre-veterinary Medicine, Veterinary Clinical Sciences (m.s., Ph.d.), Conservation And Renewable Natural Resources, Other, Natural Resources Law Enforcement And Protective Services, Natural Resources, Secondary Education, Chemistry, Inorganic Chemistry, Polymer Chemistry, Science, Chemistry, Other, Physics
Wisconsin Dells Teacher's Association Scholarship
Applicant must be a graduating senior from Wisconsin Dells High School who will pursue a degree in education.
Wisconsin Dells Women's Association Scholarship
Applicant must be a graduating female senior from Wisconsin Dells High School who will pursue post-secondary education. Financial need and minimum 3.0 GPA required.
Wisconsin Dells Wrestling Club Scholarship
Applicant must be a graduating senior from Wisconsin Dells High School who is on the wrestling team. Financial need must be demonstrated.
American Legion Auxiliary, Carl E. Grabman Memorial Scholarship
Diesel Engine Mechanic And Repairer, Precision Production Trades, Other, Construction Trades, Other, Precision Metal Workers, Other, Motorcycle Mechanic And Repairer, Engineering Mechanics, Bicycle Mechanic And Repairer, Small Engine Mechanic And Repairer
Wisconsin Dells Art Association Scholarship
Applicant must be a graduating senior from Wisconsin Dells High School who will pursue a career in an art-related field.
Arts, Performing And Creative, Visual Arts, Visual And Performing Arts, Other, Art, General, Visual And Performing Arts
Marine Corps League, Eagles Nest Detachment Scholarship
Applicant must be a graduating senior from Wisconsin Dells High School who will attend a two- or four-year college, university or technical school.
Out-of-State Grant
Award: $3,000, Deadline: January 15
Applicant must be an entering freshman student who is not a resident of South Carolina.
Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District Of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming
Out-of-State Scholarship
Award: -, Deadline: December 1
Applicant must be an incoming freshman who is not a resident of Arkansas. Minimum 3.0 GPA required; 24 transfer hours and minimum 3.25 GPA required of transfer students.
Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District Of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming
College Sophomore, College Senior, College Freshman, College Junior
Award: $2,000, Deadline: June 1 (Priority)
Applicant must be an incoming freshman who is not a resident of Virginia.
Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District Of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming
Gold Scholarship
Award: $8,500, Deadline: March 15 (Priority)
Applicant must be an incoming freshman student who does not reside in Delaware. Selection based upon outstanding academic achievement.
Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, District Of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming
Silver Scholarship
Applicant must be an incoming freshman student who is not a resident of Delaware. Selection based upon above average academic achievement.
Out of State Access Grant
Award: $1,000, Deadline: March 15
Applicant must be a full-time undergraduate student who is not a resident of Florida.
Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District Of Columbia, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming
Huettig Memorial Scholarship
Applicant must be a Portage County resident who is pursuing a degree in the field of special education. Minimum 2.0 GPA required.
Special Education, Other, Special Education
Donn Behnke Scholarship
Applicant must be a graduating senior of Stevens Point Area Senior High School (SPASH) who was a member of the SPASH men's cross-country team and has been accepted to a post-secondary educational institution. Minimum 2.75 GPA, recommendation from coach/athletic director, and essay required.
Jarmes R. Cherney Scholarship Fund
Applicant must be a resident of Portage County who was a senior varsity athlete and is currently pursuing a post-secondary degree. Minimum 3.0 GPA required.
C.O.L.L.E.G.E. Scholarship Fund
Applicant must be a Portage County resident who is seeking a post-secondary degree. Community involvement/volunteerism must be demonstrated.
High School Senior
Community First Bank Scholarship
Applicant must be a graduating senior from Stevens Point Area Senior High or Pacelli High School who will be pursing a post-secondary degree in finance or a business-related field (preferred, but not required). Minimum 2.5 GPA required; attributes of good citizenship and service in school or community must be demonstrated.
Business Administration, Finance, General
Cook Family Scholarship
Applicant must be a graduating senior of Stevens Point Area Senior High who has been accepted into a post-secondary educational institution. Minimum 3.5 GPA and essay required.
Heidi Evenson Memorial Scholarship
Applicant must be a graduating senior of Stevens Point Area Senior High who was a member of the girl's gymnastic team and has been accepted into a post-secondary educational institution. Minimum 3.0 GPA and recommendation from coach/athletic director required.
Fat Boy Golf Scholarship
Award: $1,000, Deadline: May 1
Applicant must be a graduating senior from Stevens Point Area High School or Pacelli Senior High who is a member of the golf team with plans to attend a four-year college, university, or technical college.
Elmer Fournier Memorial Scholarship Fund
Applicant must be a graduate of Stevens Point Area Senior High who is pursuing a post-secondary degree in a business related or public service field from the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point. Minimum 2.5 GPA required.
Public Service, Business Administration
Peter Friedrich Memorial Scholarship
Applicant must be a resident of Portage County who has been accepted into a post-secondary educational institution. Documentation of a physical/learning disability and essay explaining aspirations and goals for the future required.
LeRoy & Phyllis Heiser Basketball Scholarship
Applicant must be a graduating senior of Stevens Point Area High School who is a current member of the varsity basketball team.
Hunger & Poverty Prevention Scholarship
Applicant must be a graduating senior and resident of Portage County who has been accepted to a university, college, or technical school. Minimum 2.5 GPA and essay required.
Iber Health Education Scholarship
Applicant must be a resident of Portage County who is current enrolled in a graduate level, health-related studies program at an accredited school. Undergraduate seniors accepted to an accredited graduate school for health-related studies may also apply.
College Senior, Master's-level Study
Healthcare, Health Professions/related Sciences
Judge Robert Jenkins Memorial Scholarship
Applicant must be a resident of Portage County who is pursuing a post-secondary degree in the field of law, law enforcement, or natural resources. Minimum 3.4 GPA required; community service/co-curricular activities must be demonstrated.
Law (ll.b., J.d.), Conservation And Renewable Natural Resources, Other, Law And Legal Studies, Other, Natural Resources, Law Enforcement/police Science, Natural Resources Law Enforcement And Protective Services
Jim Kocha Memorial Scholarship
Applicant must be a graduating senior of Stevens Point Area Senior High who has been accepted to a four-year college or university. Minimum 3.0 GPA and one-page essay required.
MADA Custom Apparel Scholarship
Applicant must be a graduating senior of Stevens Point Area Senior High who participated in at least two varsity sports and is pursuing a post-secondary degree. Minimum 3.5 GPA required.
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ACON materials may be reproduced in part or in full with acknowledgment to ACON. Commonwealth and NSW government information and materials on this website, including data, pages, documents, graphics, images and webpages, audio and video are protected by copyright, unless specifically notified to the contrary.
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Hurst Village Society
Preserving and enhancing the Parish of Hurst as a living community
HVS
Skills Register
New Map
The CD-ROM of Hurst
Explore Hurst and find out why we have road names such as Ward’s Cross, Dalby Close, and Martineau Lane. Which is the oldest part of Hurst, and how many pubs were there 100 years ago? Who lived in Hurst Lodge? Find out why the village so spread out, with small ‘hamlets’ like Whistley and Bill Hill.
We are delighted to bring you the entire contents of The Book of Hurst CD online so that everyone can enjoy the comprehensive history of the village researched and written by local historian and Hurst resident Henry Farrar.
Henry Farrar published The Book of Hurst, the most thoroughly researched and comprehensive history of the village, in 1984. All copies of the book were sold and unfortunately it is now out of print. However, in 2001 a completely revised edition of the book was published on CD-ROM, and included many new features and photographs.
The extensive history of the village and its surrounding area is illustrated with numerous maps and photographs, showing how Hurst has changed over the years. We hope that you enjoy viewing this fascinating history of our community.
The CD-ROM of Hurst contains a large number of images to illustrate the text and you may find it takes a long time to download.
A few of the images which appeared on the original CD-ROM cannot be included on this website because of copyright restrictions.
Browse the CD-ROM of Hurst
The Hurst War Memorial
In the churchyard of St.Nicholas Church, on top of the "wooded hill", stands a memorial to seventy men of Hurst who lost their lives in the two World Wars. These men have been remembered in a website dedicated to their memory, with biographies, photographs, maps and other reports about their lives.
© 2018 Hurst Village Society
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Home » Games » Pandoria » Designer Diary
Pandoria is the new game from Bernd Eisenstein and me, and as with our previous collaborations, the journey truly is the destination. From it’s…ahem…colorful beginnings to our many brainstorming and playtesting sessions at home and at Berlin’s Spielwiese cafe, I hope you find the story of this game design entertaining, and if this is your type of game, a reason to investigate further.
Three years ago, my family and I came back to our ground-floor apartment to find 75% of it flooded…with sewage. I will spare you the details and nasty photos, but I will say that it was due to a problem that had not been fixed despite our repeated warnings to our landlord that something was wrong. We even had to go to court to get him to pay for some of our personal damages, though he refused to cover all of them. And I did not find it amusing when, during the hearing, the judge turned to me and actually said, „Shit happens.“
Sure, he had a point. It did happen, there was not much we could do about it, and we had to move out immediately. We would not be able to move back until the apartment had been renovated five months later.
The bright side of the story is that we were reminded again that we have some of the most wonderful friends and neighbors, many of whom helped us salvage some of our belongings and throw away the rest, then allowed us to stay in their apartments when they were away on vacation. It was in one of those apartments that Pandoria was born.
Game Design Is a Welcome Distraction
I dealt with the stress the way I often do: creatively. To get my mind off the mess in our apartment and the impending court battle, and to take a break from making an extensive inventory of our lost and damaged items, I started playing with double-sided hex tiles. As I played, I saw a mechanism of enclosing certain areas of the same color. I immediately saw the potential of using figure placement to score those surrounded regions. When each player placed a tile and a figure somewhere on that tile, more than one player usually scored a closed region, but each player tried to score more than their opponents.
But what happened when a figure was inside a region that had been closed? And when did you get your figures back in order to place them again? The answer to both of those questions intuitively presented itself in a single rule: Figures inside closed regions are immediately removed! This opened up other strategic possibilities.
I knew early on that I had a fun, very interactive game that sometimes felt semi-cooperative (building a region together that everyone scores) but could also be deliciously nasty (booting someone out by surrounding them before they could score as much on that larger region).
My prototype was called „Pride of the Serengeti“, and it involved lions (the figures) hunting their prey (the different colors on the tiles). As soon as a herd of the same animal was completely surrounded, the lions went in for the attack!
The first prototype of „Pride of the Serengeti“
I may have been „homeless“, but that did not keep me from my „second home“ — the Spielweise gaming cafe. I brought „Pride“ to my weekly playtest group there and they enjoyed it right away. They also helped me solve the problem of scoring regions on the edge of the board. From then on, the game board had „exit paths“ that matched each color, and if a herd was connected to its exit, it would never be enclosed, and thus never be scored. This also meant that a figure on a region connected to an exit was not removed. This could be a good thing, but it would also reduce the number of your available figures for the rest of the game! This added more strategy and more beautiful dilemmas to the game, while still keeping the rules simple and intuitive.
At this point, I felt that „Pride“ was one of my best designs, a game with rules that could be explained in two minutes, yet it had an enormous amount of interaction and strategic depth. I was excited to bring it to the SPIEL game fair in Essen that year.
Rejection Is an Opportunity
Unfortunately, however, the „family game“ publishers I met in Essen were not interested in it, so I thought about going another route: Using „Pride“’s solid mechanisms as the base for a more complex game.
Furthermore, I’m always looking for opportunities to collaborate with Bernd, and I thought that his experience with special player powers and card combinations would benefit the game, so I asked him to join me in building a new game around „Pride“’s mechanisms. Bernd immediately had several ideas that took the game in a beautiful new direction, and from then on, every idea from one of us inspired new ideas from the other. For the past two years, we’ve had a blast constructing and deconstructing this game many times over, and I looked forward to every playtest. Bernd did the lion’s share (hehe) of balancing the cards and I wrote a new fantasy backstory. We also enjoyed playing the game together many times before bringing it to the larger group, thus Pandoria has undergone more two-player testing than any other game I have previously designed.
With the new fantasy theme, the lions became different realms: the dwarves, elves, halflings, humans and mages (and there will be two additional realms available as well). Each realm would have a unique ability.
Bernd had the idea to change the animal herds into different terrain that each yielded different types of resources. We also developed the idea of having rule-breaking cards. The top half of each card had a spell that was a one-time benefit, and the bottom half had a building that provided a benefit for the rest of the game. Each card could be used as only one or the other. The resources were important for the cards: You bought cards with gold, you cast spells using magic crystals, and you built buildings using wood. The fourth landscape type was the cities, and they provided pure victory points.
We limited the number of each resource each player could keep to ten. Any excess you scored above that would be „sold“ as victory points at a 3-1 ratio (which could be improved upon by certain buildings). Players could stockpile resources to try to score points, or use them to build an „engine“ in order to score more later — or they could decide that using some of them to cast the perfect spell at the right time was too much of a temptation to pass up. The cards provided more strategic options but still had an intuitive connection to the theme.
While gameplay became more complex due to the combinations of the cards, what you did each turn remained simple: Place a tile and a figure, play a spell or build a building if you wish, then all players score a region if you happened to enclose one. The player who closed a region may also buy a new card from the market, which gives someone an incentive to do so, even when other players might score more resources from that region.
As the game nears its end, players may also build monuments over other buildings in their tableau. These are worth a decreasing number of points, so the first ones built are the most valuable, but they also nullify the effects of the buildings that are covered.
An early prototype of Pandoria
Publishing Through Bernd’s Irongames
It was never understood that Bernd would publish the game himself, but at one point, he gave me the ultimate vote of confidence in the design when he suggested it could be the next Irongames release. I couldn’t refuse, and I have enjoyed working with Bernd further on the production and additional refinement of the game. We developed a slightly easier beginner’s version, and we are even including a „family game“, which is the original stripped-down rules of „Pride of the Serengeti“ modified to fit Pandoria’s components. So if there are casual players who want something less complex, or you want to finish the game in under an hour, you can play this version of Pandoria!
A prototype of Pandoria with finished art in action at BerlinCon in July 2018
It’s been a long wait, but now I’m looking forward to spending more time at Bernd’s Irongames booth during SPIEL this year teaching Pandoria, the game that first helped me get through a challenging episode in my life, and later became an excuse to spend time with a great friend doing what we enjoy most when we are together — making great games.
Jeffrey D. Allers
I have to thank Jeff that he asked me to join his brilliant „small“ first idea. I loved the game from the beginning for its easy rules and deep gameplay and it is always a great experience and fun to work with Jeff.
For me then it was no question to release this game under the „Irongames“ sign, because I had no other game ready, of this high quality and that makes so much fun!
Will do the best to promote it the maximum way, it deserves.
Bernd Eisenstein
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Islamic Sharia Online
Real Islam
Application of Muslim Sharia Law in European Countries
Sharia laws are one of the principal rules that make up Islamic law system and its basic structure. Speaking of it briefly, Sharia laws are meant to throw light on almost all the aspects of human cultural and religious needs. It includes topics of economic, criminal, political scope to domestic issues, rights of women, punishments, prayers, fasting etc. Sharia is strictly followed in almost all the Islamic states of the world. Some countries have inculcated various points from Sharia law as a part of the constitution. Basically there are two major sources of devising Muslim Sharia, namely Quran and Hadith. A Muslim sharia law is declared as official if it has been approved by one of the various methods of authentication in Islam. These methods include Ijma, Qiyas, Urf etc.
Talking about application and perception of Muslim Sharia law in European countries in the recent years, initially it was limited to small Muslim communities, where it was practiced with full religious freedom, especially after World War II. Now after more than half a century, due to high birth rate, Muslim population in European countries has gone far higher and Muslims are frequently demanding official application of Sharia laws in Muslim communities. This has led to a certain kind of flux within various European nations like France, where they are trying to minimize the application of Sharia law. The rapid spread of Sharia law in Germany has resulted into application of Muslim Sharia law in German courts, while dealing with any Muslim community issue, like husband wife dispute, property issues etc. Even a non-Muslim German judge has to consult Quran or Hadith in order to give judgment of the case.
In France, which has a high Muslim population, in order to follow Muslim Sharia law, all the meat sold to Muslim community is ‘halal’, having been properly sacrificed to Allah. In various countries like Denmark and Spain, Muslims have been successful in demanding a separate Muslim police that arrests and punished those Muslims who violate Muslim Sharia law. For example, In Spain, in accordance with Hudood punishments, a woman was sentenced to death, although she managed to escape the punishment. Although there is a lot of approving applications of Muslim Sharia law in Europe, there has been a heavy criticism on it in European nations as well.
There has been a rise in negative perceptions relating to application of Sharia Law, especially after the murders of cartoonists Theo Van Gogh and Charlie Hebdo. One of the major reason behind these misperceptions is that there has always been a flux between European law after world war II and Islamic sharia law. While Islamic sharia law follows a concrete set of rules devised by Allah, but the western impression of Sharia is a set of fiqh which tells a common man about ways to follow rules rather than providing a set of rules for governing a civil structure. However, Europe continues to practice its secular law, providing moral and ethical solutions to Muslim communities without clashing with state laws of civil nature.
This entry was posted on Monday, August 3rd, 2015 at 11:32 am and is filed under Islamic Sharia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Introduction to Muslim Sharia Governance
The True Spirit of Muslim Sharia Faith and Law
What is Islamic Shariah System?
What you need to know about Muslim Shariah?
What is Islamic Sharia Law?
Islamic Bayan
Islamic Sharia
Islamic Sharia Law For Women
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MainAll NewsInside Israel'Let 1,000 terrorist mothers cry, not one of ours'
'Let 1,000 terrorist mothers cry, not one of ours'
Ex-ISA head MK Dichter takes tour of Gush Etzion, warns Israel 'too often considers the Palestinians, too little does what is right for us.'
Hezki Baruch, 28/02/16 17:20
Avi Dichter and Davidi Perl
Gush Etzion Regional Council Spokesperson
Former Israeli Security Agency (ISA) head MK Avi Dichter (Likud) took a tour on Sunday morning of the Gush Etzion regional council of Judea, and spoke about the rising wave of Arab terror.
Dichter, who toured the region together with the regional head Davidi Perl, told Arutz Sheva that "even the Palestinians understand that there is no negotiation over Gush Etzion. In my many meetings throughout the world that was always clear."
He said he "refuses to be drawn into the tactics," and emphasized that "we must not lose the strategic goal. We must act in order to reach a solution."
"It is not realistic to think that it's possible to give citizenship to all the Palestinians," Dichter said of the Arab residents in Judea and Samaria, noting a key obstacle of those proposing an annexation of the region while offering Arab residents citizenship.
"We are approaching a balance between the (Jewish and Arab) populations between the Jordan (River) and the (Mediterranean) Sea. We have to take into account that this year for the first time there are more Palestinians in Israel than in the (Palestinian) diaspora."
"It is important to fight the current situation in which there are three different entities in the territories - Israel, the (Palestinian) Authority and Gaza. It would be a serious mistake to isolate Judea and Samaria from Gaza."
The former ISA head said that "unfortunately in the left they don't understand the danger and are seeking this as an easier route."
Turning his attention to steps that can be taken against the terror wave, he said, "you don't need to wait for difficult times in order to take serious steps. I'm not alarmed by creating difficulties for the Palestinian population."
"A thousand mothers of terrorists will cry so that a single mother of ours won't cry. We too often consider the Palestinians, and do too little of what is right for us."
Among the many counter-terror steps that have been raised but have yet to be implemented by the government is the expulsion of the families of terrorists, a step Dichter likely hinted at in his statements.
Tags:Gush Etzion, Avi Dichter, Davidi Perl
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Jacques Burvick, CEO Valda Entertainment
The Business of Music
Frequently Asked Questions About the Recording Production Process
The most important qualification for a Record Producer is the ability to create music and understand what will be marketable in the industry. Every artist wants a hit song. Producers must have a good musical "ear" and the ability to know what will sound good. He or she must be able to hear raw talent and have the ability to foresee how it will sound if properly arranged and recorded.
Producers with musical training and experience in the studio are most effective.
What is the role of a record producer?
The main job of the Record Producer is to produce the record or CD. There are a number of different responsibilities within this job classification, some creative and others business-oriented.
A Producer helps the artist select tunes to be recorded. Once the artist has rehearsed and is ready to record, the Producer will locate a suitable recording studio in which to record and arrange for studio time. The Producer will select an engineer, hire an arranger, and contact a contractor who who will secure background musicians and vocalists for the job.
The Producer or Production Assistant will make sure that all those hired arrive at the studio on time. The Producer is responsible for ensuring that those who have been hired are paid promptly.
During the recording session, the Producer will work closely with the engineer. The Producer advises the engineer of any specific sounds or feelings he or she is trying to create. It is the Producer's role to supervise the entire recording session, making decisions about when to do a takeover, what to use, etc.
The Producer usually adds a personal touch to the recording. This is sometimes a special sound effect or the way a tune is began or ended. Often it is a blend of instruments or vocal harmony. It is not unusual for a Producer to place his or her trademark on records.
It is up to the producer to keep the recording within the budget agreed upon. Going over budget often costs the label or artist thousands of dollars extra.
Who employs a record producer?
The Record Producer may work on staff for a label or be an independent Producer, freelancing his or her talents. The Producer on staff at a record company is responsible to the A&R department head. The Producer who freelances may be responsible directly to the label or to the artist. This depends on the arrangement made beforehand.
What qualifications are important when selecting a producer?
The most important qualification for a Record Producer is the ability to pick hit tunes. Every artist wants a hit song. Producers must have a good musical "ear" and the ability to know what will sound good. He or she must be able to hear raw talent and have the ability to foresee how it will sound if properly arranged and recorded.
What are the basic skills to look for in a producer?
Does the Producer have a role in mixing the record?
After the recording is made, the Producer is in charge of "mixing" it to perfection. Although the Producer does not always perform this function personally, (special engineers or mixers are often hired), he or she always supervises this function. Success or failure in the mixing process can be what makes or breaks a record.
If the tunes recorded are for a CD, the Producer will help to choose the order in which they are placed. He or she will also select the single from the CD.
What is Mastering?
After the mix is completed, a master must be prepared in a special studio to prepare for manufacturing on disc, CD or tape. It is wise for the producer to attend the mastering. After the mastering is done, the producer gets a sample pressing for listening purposes. The producer will listen carefully for balances, hisses, pops, or other distortions.
What role does a Producer play beyond mastering?
Most producers will remain involved in such matters as the cover, liner notes, credits and back-cover graphics. Producers with contacts in the promotion area, especially with radio stations, will often assist in the promotion of the record.
Does the Producer’s role extend beyond the recording phase?
The Producer is involved with all aspects of the record. When the recording and mixing have been completed, the Producer's job does not end. Though the creative process is almost over, the Record Producer must attend to many of the business aspects of producing.
The Producer is responsible for clearing mechanical licenses, making sure that all copyrights are checked, and providing completed consent forms and releases from artists, engineers, photographers, etc., who worked on the project (if they are to receive credit on the record). The Producer must also submit receipts and paid bills to the record company.
How is the producer compensated?
Record Producers on staff at a record company may earn a salary plus royalties on records they produce. Producers who freelance as independents are paid a fee for their services by either the label or the artist. In addition, they are always paid royalties on works they produce. The amount of royalties differs from Producer to Producer. Those with past success can negotiate for larger royalty payments. This money if often advanced to the Producer.
Business Skills - The ability to pick hits, coordinate sessions, complete paperwork, negotiate good vendor deals, and work within a budget. Attention to details - booking time, hiring musicians, arrangers, engineers, etc.
Musical Skills - Having the ability to hear what is in tune or out of tune. Writing charts and arrangements in the studio and combining sounds in an unusual and pleasing way.
Psychological Skills - Knowing how to handle talent. Exercising judgment - knowing when to take a beak, quit or go on. Knowing how to get the best performance out of the artists, singers and musicians. Ability to work long hours under stress. Projecting energy and enthusiasm, whatever one's true feelings.
Technical Skills - Knowledge of multi-track recordings and the consol to get the maximum desirable effects. Willingness to experiment with sounds, microphones, and outboard gear until the best sound is achieved. Ability to hear what sounds good in the mix in order to highlight the most important parts of a performance.
What is the difference in Copyright v. Author-Right?
While British and American copyright law has become an important part of global trade, it is not the only copyright tradition. Many countries have modeled their intellectual property laws on the French Napoleonic legal system, which bases the protection of intellectual property on author-right. In the late twentieth century and early twenty-first century, the inherent conflicts between the copyright legal tradition and the author-right legal tradition have presented a major challenge in the negotiation of international trade agreements. Here are the basic differences between the two approaches:
Laws and treaties based upon copyright legal tradition, as exemplified by the laws in America and Britain, view the existence and ownership of intellectual creations as basically another form of "property." As property, the title (ownership) of intellectual property can be bought and sold, licensed, transferred, inherited, etc., quite similar to buying, selling, or otherwise holding or transferring ownership in "real" property such as land, buildings, cars, etc. More specifically, under the copyright approach it is the "right to copy" that is vested with the value of the property once the property has been created (authored).
Laws and treaties based upon author-right view the value of the property being vested in the initial authorship and not the copying or dissemination per se. Under author-right systems this value of the creative product can never be separated from the original author. Intellectual output can thus never be bought, sold, or transferred, but only loaned for specific usage and for limited time periods, by the author or the author's heirs, to others (also called "licensing").
How do I protect my work?
To ensure the protection of your creative works, the rights of others and operation within compliance to Federal laws, an understanding of Intellectual Property and Copyright is vital.
Copyright law is part of a larger body of law called intellectual property law or IP law.
Copyright is a legal mechanism that protects the rights of the individual creators and owners of intellectual properties—artists, writers, photographers, composers—and their original works from unauthorized and uncompensated appropriation. In other words, copyright law protects the creators of intellectual properties by controlling the unauthorized "copying" and distribution of their works.
The essence of the Copyright Law of the United States (Section 102(a)) is:
Copyright protection subsists, in accordance with this title (Title 17), in the original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression, now known or later developed, from which they can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated, either directly or with the aid of a machine or device.
Under U.S. copyright law, "authorship" is further defined as including the IP output or product of the following "expressive" activities:
works of literature
musical works, and all related publishable words
dramatic works, and all related publishable words
choreographic works, including pantomimes, and their publishable descriptions
works of art, including pictorial, graphic, and photographic
works of sculpture
motion pictures and television programs and/or segments
audiovisual works
architectural works
Copyright law does not protect ideas, procedures, processes, systems, methods of operation, concepts, principles, or discoveries, regardless of how these excluded expressions are described or illustrated.
Protection under copyright law does include compilations and derivative works, so long as the use of such selections of the copyrighted work of others is lawful. Also, the copyright protection in the case of compilations and derivative works extends only to any and all new material, but not to those components of the compilation or derivative work already copyrighted by their original authors. Note that in copyright law, the term author is used to denote any creator of an original work, regardless of the form of the work.
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Trump to declare 'emergency' to build wall, Democrats cry foul
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — President Donald Trump announced Friday that he will declare a national emergency in order to build a wall on the US-Mexico border without funding from Congress, a rare step immediately slammed by Democrats as an unlawful "power grab.
The extraordinary declaration frees Trump to seek to redirect billions of dollars of federal funds to stop what he called an "invasion" of drugs, gangs, human traffickers and undocumented migrants across the southern US border.
"I'm going to be signing a national emergency... Everyone knows that walls work," the president told reporters at the White House.
Trump made the declaration after agreeing to a spending measure that will keep federal agencies operational through September 30 — a relief for lawmakers who had fretted about the possibility of a second crippling government shutdown.
But the measure falls wells short of the US$5.7 billion that Trump has been demanding for a wall on the 2,000-mile (3,200-kilometre) southern border, and the emergency declaration would help him bypass Congress and get the money that lawmakers refused to give him.
"What we really want to do is simple... We want to stop drugs from coming into our country
We want to stop criminals and gangs from coming into our country," Trump said.
The emergency declaration enables the activation of any of hundreds of dormant powers, which can permit the White House to declare martial law, suspend civil liberties, expand the military, seize property and restrict trade, communications and financial transactions.
Article 1 of the US Constitution states Congress gets to decide how money is appropriated and Trump's plan to use emergency powers to circumvent congressional opposition to the wall has alarmed US lawmakers, including in his Republican Party, who warn that the move would set a dangerous precedent.
Democrats have signalled that the move would open the door to future presidents declaring emergencies on various topics, from gun violence to climate change to the opioid crisis.
"The President's unlawful declaration over a crisis that does not exist does great violence to our Constitution and makes America less safe, stealing from urgently needed defence funds for the security of our military and our nation," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said in a joint statement.
"This is plainly a power grab by a disappointed President, who has gone outside the bounds of the law to try to get what he failed to achieve in the constitutional legislative process."
Members of Pelosi's caucus were "reviewing our options" about how to respond to Trump's move, she told reporters Thursday.
Trump said he fully expected his move to be challenged in court — and indeed within minutes the New York state Attorney General Letitia James vowed to "fight back with every legal tool at our disposal."
But the president also voiced confidence that he would prevail in any legal challenge.
"I expect to be sued," he said at the White House. "Sadly it will go through a process and happily, we'll win. I think," he said. "I think that we will be very successful in court."
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Musharraf faces strict Court proceedings
Jehlum Post News Network/Islamabad/ April 9th, 2015/ Nearly a year after retired General Pervez Musharraf appeared before a special court for high treason on Wednesday , he has now been asked to appear before a trial court in the murder case of Lal Masjid cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi. The last time he appeared in the special court, headed by Justice Faisal Arab of the Sindh High Court (SHC), was on March 31 when he was indicted for high treason. The treason trial is still pending before the same court. However, the former military ruler was also booked for the murder of the Lal Masjid cleric in September 2013. After initial investigations, police declared him innocent and additional district and sessions judge (ADSJ) Wajid Ali granted him post-arrest bail in November 2014. Last month, the court rejected an application for exemption from personal appearance and directed him to attend the trial proceedings. But while the former dictator is told to attend court proceedings regularly, political leaders have been exempted time and again from personally appearing in corruption references, pending before the accountability courts of Islamabad.Another former president, Asif Ali Zardari, obtained an exemption from appearing in person for corruption references and has not appeared before the court since January last year. Mr Zardari faced five corruption references namely, the Cotecna, Société Générale de Surveillance (SGS), ARY Gold, Ursus Tractors and Polo Ground cases. So far, Mr Zardari has been acquitted in the ARY Gold, Ursus Tractors and Polo Ground references and just two references; the SGS and Cotecna cases, remain to be decided. Former prime ministers Yousaf Raza Gillani and Raja Pervez Ashraf were also exempted from appearing in person in connection with allegations of corruption in the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra), in March 2014. Amjad Iqbal Qureshi, counsel for the two former premiers and former president Zardari, told Dawn that under Section 540-A of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), the trial judge could exempt any accused from attending day-to-day proceedings. He said that most political leaders sought exemptions due to security concerns. He was of the opinion that in view of the serious threats to his life, Gen Musharraf may also be granted exemption from personal appearance by the trial judge.
Raja Inam Ameen Minhas, former general secretary of Islamabad High Court Bar Association, said that the former military chief’s presence on the premises of the district courts could endanger the lives of litigants, lawyers, court officials and even judges. Gen Musharraf’s counsel, advocate Akhtar Shah, said that trial courts had granted exemptions to a number of accused individuals, including certain ‘high profile’ personalities on the grounds that there are threats to their lives. “Gen Musharraf is facing threats from over three dozen terrorist groups,” he said, adding that the former military ruler’s legal team had requested the court to grant a similar exemption to Gen Musharraf, but their plea was rejected. Dawn
Last Updated on Friday, 10 April 2015 09:45
Last Updated on Friday, 12 June 2015 09:50
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HAIDAMACKS:
(Redirected from UMAN.)
Russian Parties.
Massacre at Uman.
Russian brigand bands of the eighteenth century. The disorganized condition of Poland during the eighteenth century made it possible for the discontented peasants and Cossacks of the Greek Orthodox faith to make organized attacks on their Catholic masters—the Polish nobles—and the Jews. The general disorder, and the agitation of the Greek Orthodox priests led to the formation of brigand bands known as "Haidamacks," composed of runaway serfs, Saporogians, and Cossacks from Russian Ukraine. In 1734 and again in 1750, under Cossack leaders, they robbed and destroyed many towns, villages, and estates in Kiev, Volhynia, and Podolia, killing a great number of Jews and Polish nobles. In 1768 occurred the Uman massacre, when Gonta and his followers killed thousands of Jews, sparing neither old nor young.
Internal dissensions in Poland caused a division into parties. One joined the Russian government in demanding religious liberty and political freedom for all of the Greek Orthodox faith, while the other opposed these demands, and formed the Federation of Nobles to defend the old order of things. During the armed conflict agitators urged the peasants to rise against the confederacy. A false decree of Catherine II. was circulated which ordered the extermination of the Jews and the Poles. Under the leadership of the Saporogian Cossack Zhelyeznyak bands of Haidamacks in the spring of 1768 swept over the government of Kiev, killing Poles and Jews, and ruining towns and villages. They often hanged together on the same tree a Pole, a Jew, and a dog, accompanied with the inscription, "A Pole, a Jew, and a dog—all of one faith." Thousands of Jews and Poles fled to the fortified city of Uman. So great was the number of fugitives that many could find no room within the city walls, and camped in the adjoining fields. The commandant of the city, Mladanovitch, hadunder him a detachment of Cossack militia commanded by Gonta. Although there was strong suspicion that Gonta was in sympathy with Zhelyeznyak, Mladanovitch nevertheless sent him against the latter. Gonta and his followers joined Zhelyeznyak, and soon appeared before the walls of Uman. The besieged made a determined resistance during the first day, the Jews working together with the Poles on the city walls.
There was no able leader to command them, however. Mladanovitch endeavored to negotiate terms of peace with the Cossacks. The latter promised that they would not touch the Poles, while they assured the Jews that their attack was directed only against the Poles. Gonta and Zhelyeznyak with their Haidamacks entered the city and began a most terrible slaughter. Heeding neither age nor sex, they killed the Jews in the streets, threw them from the roofs of tall buildings, speared them, and rode them down with their horses. When the streets were so filled with corpses that it was difficult to pass, Gonta ordered them collected into heaps and thrown outside the city gates to the dogs and pigs. Three thousand Jews fled to the synagogue and made a stand there. Armed with knives, a number of them attacked the Cossacks. Gonta blew in the door of the synagogue with a cannon; the Haidamacks rushed into the building and showed no mercy.
Having finished with the Jews, the Haidamacks turned on the Poles. When Mladanovitch in chains reproached Gonta for his treachery, the latter answered, "You treacherously sold the Jews to me, and I by perjury sold you to the devil."
It is estimated that about twenty thousand Jews and Poles were killed in Uman alone. Throughout the district the Jews were hunted from place to place. Many succumbed to hunger and thirst; many were drowned in the Dniester; and those who reached Bendery were seized by the Tatars and sold into slavery. Smaller Haidamack bands massacred the Jews in other places. Hundreds were killed in Tetiub, Golta, Balta, Tulchin, Paulovich, Rashkov, Lizyanka, Fastov, Zhivotov, and Granov. The determined efforts of the Jews of Brody in behalf of their brethren, and the lawlessness of Gonta, led to an energetic campaign against him. Soon after the Uman massacre Gonta and Zhelyeznyak were taken by the order of the Russian general Krechetnikov and handed over to the Polish government. Gonta was executed in a most cruel manner. His skin was torn off in strips, and a red-hot iron crown placed on his head. The remaining Haidamack bands were captured and destroyed by the Polish commander Stempkovski.
Rawita Gawronski, Humanszczyzna, in Tygodnik Illustrowany, 1899;
Graetz, Hist. Hebrew ed., viii. 451, 458;
Skomarovski, Die Gezirah fun Gonta, in Jüdische Volksbibliothek, ii. 32, Kiev, 1889.
H. R. J. G. L.
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JLTLA - Our sister organization - What they do
Different organization with Common membership serving different purposes
J.L. Turner Legal Association ("JLTLA"), is the African-American bar association in Dallas, Texas which was founded in 1952. Although, the Foundation, which was founded in 1996 and JLTLA share a similar name, JLTLA does have a different purpose from the Foundation. JLTLA members created the Foundation to pursue charitable donations.
The Foundation is the 501(c)(3) public charities that raises tax deductible donations to fund (a) legal scholarships for law students and paralegals and increase the number of African-American lawyers and paralegals, (b) pre-law school educational enrichment activities oriented around law to inspire students to choose law as a profession, (c) pro bono legal service organizations targeted toward minority community, (d) selective training for practicing lawyers to develop the skills to provide the pro bono legal services, and (e) to a lesser extent, other general educational and charitable activities. The Foundation's members (who are also members of JLTLA) will often staff some of the training sessions funded by the Foundation, particularly those organized by JLTLA. The Foundation hosts an Annual Scholarship and Awards Gala. Donations made to the Foundation are tax deductible.
JLTLA, a professional bar association that is a certified provider of continuing legal education seminars for its members and other Texas lawyers, provides to the general public a directory of practicing African-American lawyers in the DFW Metroplex, organize, staff and conducts workshops in underserved Dallas neighborhoods on general topics of law, provides attorney mentors for law student in the Dallas area, has an active paralegal section and engages in some community service activities. Even prior to its formal incorporation in 1975, JLTLA existed as an unincorporated association of individual African-American lawyers who developed distinguished records of civil rights pro bono legal service through their separate law firms. JLTLA is not a recognized public charity under federal tax laws and therefore contributions to it are not tax deductible. Payments made to JLTLA will not entitle the donor to a receipt from the Foundation for charitable tax deduction purposes.
For more information on JLTLA, please click here
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Home > Vol. 150 > pp. 13-27
STORED ELECTROMAGNETIC ENERGY AND ANTENNA Q (Invited Paper)
By M. Gustafsson and L. Jonsson
Decomposition of the electromagnetic energy into its stored and radiated parts is instrumental in the evaluation of antenna Q and the corresponding fundamental limitations on antennas. This decomposition is not unique and there are several proposals in the literature. Here, it is shown that stored energy defined from the difference between the energy density and the far field energy equals the energy expressions proposed by Vandenbosch for many but not all cases. This also explains the observed cases with negative stored energy and suggests a possible remedy to them. The results are compared with the classical explicit expressions for spherical regions where the results only differ by the electrical size ka that is interpreted as the far-field energy in the interior of the sphere. Q
M. Gustafsson and L. Jonsson, "Stored Electromagnetic Energy and Antenna Q (Invited Paper)," Progress In Electromagnetics Research, Vol. 150, 13-27, 2015.
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11. Feynman, R. P., R. B. Leighton, and M. Sands, The Feynman Lectures on Physics, Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, USA, 1965.
12. Foltz, H. D. and J. S. McLean, "Limits on the radiation Q of electrically small antennas restricted to oblong bounding regions," IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society International Symposium, Vol. 4, 2702-2705, 1999.
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14. Geyi, W., Foundations of Applied Electrodynamics, John Wiley & Sons, 2011.
15. Gustafsson, M., "Sum rules for lossless antennas," IET Microwaves, Antennas & Propagation, Vol. 4, No. 4, 501-511, 2010.
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16. Gustafsson, M., M. Cismasu, and S. Nordebo, "Absorption efficiency and physical bounds on antennas," International Journal of Antennas and Propagation, Vol. 2010, Article ID 946746, 1-7, 2010.
17. Gustafsson, M. and B. L. G. Jonsson, "Antenna Q and stored energy expressed in the fields, currents, and input impedance," IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., Vol. 63, No. 1, 2015, DOI: 10.1109/TAP.2014.2368111.
18. Gustafsson, M. and S. Nordebo, "Optimal antenna currents for Q, superdirectivity, and radiation patterns using convex optimization," IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., Vol. 61, No. 3, 1109-1118, 2013.
19. Gustafsson, M., C. Sohl, and G. Kristensson, "Physical limitations on antennas of arbitrary shape," Proc. R. Soc. A, Vol. 463, 2589-2607, 2007.
doi:10.1098/rspa.2007.1893
20. Gustafsson, M., C. Sohl, and G. Kristensson, "Illustrations of new physical bounds on linearly polarized antennas," IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., Vol. 57, No. 5, 1319-1327, May 2009.
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27. Hansen, T. V., O. S. Kim, and O. Breinbjerg, "Stored energy and quality factor of spherical wave functions — In relation to spherical antennas with material cores," IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., Vol. 60, No. 3, 1281-1290, 2012.
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33. Jonsson, B. L. G. and M. Gustafsson, "Stored energies in electric and magnetic current densities for small antennas," Classical Physics, arXiv: 1410.8704, 2014.
34. Landau, L. D., E. M. Lifshitz, and L. P. Pitaevskiı, Electrodynamics of Continuous Media, 2nd edition, Pergamon, Oxford, 1984.
35. McLean, J. S., "A re-examination of the fundamental limits on the radiation Q of electrically small antennas," IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., Vol. 44, No. 5, 672-676, May 1996.
36. Sten, J. C.-E., P. K. Koivisto, and A. Hujanen, "Limitations for the radiation Q of a small antenna enclosed in a spheroidal volume: Axial polarisation," AE¨U Int. J. Electron. Commun., Vol. 55, No. 3, 198-204, 2001.
doi:10.1078/1434-8411-00030
37. Thal, H. L., "Exact circuit analysis of spherical waves," IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., Vol. 26, No. 2, 282-287, Mar. 1978.
38. Thal, H. L., "New radiation Q limits for spherical wire antennas," IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., Vol. 54, No. 10, 2757-2763, Oct. 2006.
39. Uehara, M., J. E. Allen, and C. J. Carpenter, "Electromagnetic energy and power in terms of charges and potentials instead of fields (comments with reply)," IEE Proc. A, Vol. 139, No. 1, 42-44, 1992.
40. Van Bladel, J. G., Electromagnetic Fields, 2nd edition, IEEE Press, Piscataway, NJ, 2007.
doi:10.1002/047012458X
41. Vandenbosch, G. A. E., "Reactive energies, impedance, and Q factor of radiating structures," IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., Vol. 58, No. 4, 1112-1127, 2010.
42. Vandenbosch, G. A. E., "Simple procedure to derive lower bounds for radiation Q of electrically small devices of arbitrary topology," IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., Vol. 59, No. 6, 2217-2225, 2011.
43. Vandenbosch, G. A. E., "Radiators in time domain, Part I: Electric, magnetic, and radiated energies," IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., Vol. 61, No. 8, 3995-4003, 2013.
44. Vandenbosch, G. A. E., "Radiators in time domain, Part II: Finite pulses, sinusoidal regime and Q factor," IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., Vol. 61, No. 8, 4004-4012, 2013.
45. Volakis, J., C. C. Chen, and K. Fujimoto, Small Antennas: Miniaturization Techniques & Applications, McGraw-Hill, New York, 2010.
46. Yaghjian, A. D., M. Gustafsson, and B. L. G. Jonsson, "Minimum Q for lossy and lossless electrically small dipole antennas," Progress In Electromagnetics Research, Vol. 143, 641-673, 2013.
47. Yaghjian, A. D. and H. R. Stuart, "Lower bounds on the Q of electrically small dipole antennas," IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., Vol. 58, No. 10, 3114-3121, 2010.
48. Yaghjian, A. D. and S. R. Best, "Impedance, bandwidth, and Q of antennas," IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., Vol. 53, No. 4, 1298-1324, 2005.
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Slane Irish Whiskey was launched in 2017, and represents Brown Forman’s first foray into the Irish whiskey category.
Complex aromas of fruit drizzled with caramel, butterscotch and vanilla; brown-spice and toasted oak. On the palate, spice comes first but it is quickly sweetend by rich caramel, vanilla and butterscotch. The finish lingers with layers of dried fruit and caramelised sugar.
Slane Irish Whiskey was launched in 2017, and represents Brown Forman’s first foray into the Irish whiskey category. The venerable Kentucky distiller has been on something of an expansion kick in recent years, branching out into Ireland as well as Scotland and introducing new products from its American stocks.
The Slane brand name comes from the Slane Castle, a castle belonging to the aristocratic Conyngham family and located about 30 minutes from Dublin. Several years ago, the Conynghams became interested in developing their own brand of Irish whiskey. Rather than build their own distillery, they partnered with Cooley Distillery, sourcing spirit and bottling it under their own brand.
But as the Irish whiskey boom progressed, stock became harder to source. The Conynghams had the property and the desire, but they lacked the spirits industry expertise they knew they’d need to successfully construct and operate their own distillery. So they partnered with Brown Forman to help design and build a distillery and tasting room on the grounds of their ancestral castle.
Slane Irish Whiskey takes many of its complex and smooth qualities from their signature Triple Casked process. Whiskey is aged in three varieties of casks: Virgin and Seasoned casks raised by hand at the venerated Brown-Forman Cooperages – and Oloroso sherry casks by way of Jerez in Spain. Once the liquid has been aged to perfection, it is masterfully blended to create an exceptional Irish whiskey.
Boyne Valley, County Meath
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Myeongjeok Doui (0~0)
Writer ADMIN Date12 Dec 2014 Read7,412 Comment0
Inheritor of the core teachings of the Southern School of Chan Buddhism, (Kr. Seon; Jp. Zen) derived from Master Huineng, the sixth Patriarch, Doui Guksa was the first to bring these teachings to Korea and stands as the founder of the Order of Korean Buddhism.
The lifeworks of Master Doui are made available to us based on the records of the “Doui Jeon” (Biography of Doui), in the 17th Volume of the Jodangjip (Records of the Ancestral Hall). According to the “Doui Jeon,” Master Doui lived in Myeongju, the present day Gangneung in Gangwon-do Province. His name upon entering the sangha was Myeongjeok and his Buddhist title was Doui. He was born in Bukhan-gun, located in present day Seoul, under the surname Wang. Before Doui's birth, his father had a dream of a white rainbow spreading across the sky and entering his room, while his mother dreamt of sleeping together with a monk. Upon waking from their dreams, his parents found the room to be filled with a mysterious fragrance. About a half-month later, the signs of pregnancy arrived, but the baby was only to arrive after a 39-month gestation period. Around evening on the day of the Master's birth, a mysterious monk suddenly appeared at the front door, holding a staff and stating the following command: “Place the umbilical cord of the baby born today at the hill by the riverside,” before he disappeared without a trace. Upon Master Doui's parents following the advice of the monk and burying the afterbirth in the ground, some large deer came to stand guard over that spot. Though the sun continued to rise and fall, the deer never left, and though the animals saw many people visit the site, the deer did not harm them. The Buddhist name that Master Doui received upon entering the sangha, Myeongjeok, meaning “clear quiescence,” originates from the scene depicted in this story.
In 784 A.D., the fifth year of King Seondeok's reign, Master Doui crossed the sea to visit the Tang Dynasty with ambassadors Han Chan-ho and Kim Yang-gong. Upon their arrival, he immediately went to Mt. Wutaishan whereupon he received a divine vision from the Bodhisattva Manjusri. Following this experience, and after visiting many other regions, he went to Baotan Temple in Guangfu, where he took the full monastic precepts. He then went to Mt. Caoxi (Kr. Mt. Jogye) in Guandong Province to pay homage to the shrine of Huineng, whereupon he had a most mysterious experience. On his arrival, the door to the shrine opened of its own accord, and after he bowed three times in obeisance, the door then closed again on its own.
Following this, Master Doui received instructions on meditation from Master Xitang Zhizang (735~814) at Kaiyuan Temple in Hongzhou, Jiangxi Province. As a disciple studying under Master Mazu Daoyi, Master Xitang Zhizang was the pre-eminent Chan monk of his age. In order to request Xitang Zhizang to become his master, he had to unravel the bundle of doubts that hindered him, until he finally bore through the obstacles blocking his progress. Seeing him overcome this struggle, Master Xitang Zhizang was overjoyed, as if finding a beautiful jewel in the rough or a pearl within an oyster, saying, “truly, if I cannot transmit the dharma to a man like this, there is nobody I could transmit it to.” He then renamed the Master with the appellation “Doui” (“Path of Righteousness”). Subsequently, Master Doui set out on the path of purification and went in search of the dwelling place of Master Baizhang Huaihai (749~814) at Mt. Baizhangshan to study under his tutelage. Much impressed with him, Master Baizhang is said to have lamented, “the entire Chan lineage of Mazu Daoyi is returning to Silla!”
In 821 CE (the 13th year of King Heondeok), Master Doui returned to Silla to propagate the teachings of the Chinese Southern Chan School. However, as the tradition of Scholastic (or Doctrinal, gyo) Buddhism had become firmly entrenched within Silla at that time, people looked upon Master Doui’s Seon method as rather absurd. Accordingly, judging that the circumstances were not yet ripe for the acceptance of his teachings, Master Doui retired from the world to Jinjeon-sa Monastery in Mt. Seoraksan, where he cultivated a line of disciples. In this way, his Seon method passed through his disciple Yeomgeo and bloomed in the next generation through his dharma grandson Master Chejing (804-880), leading to the establishment of the Gajisan school, one of the Nine Mountain Seon schools of the Goryeo period.
2. Doctrinal Distinction
Because no detailed materials or writings were passed down, it is difficult to definitively grasp the Seon doctrine of Master Doui. However, from the glimpses of his thought that we are able to catch from materials such as the memorial inscriptions of his disciples, as well as the knowledge that the Master’s doctrine is linked to the lineage of sixth Patriarch Huineng’s teachings, we can assume they followed the lines of the Southern Chan School of Buddhism.
In continuation with the dharma taught by Master Doui, the writings of Chejing, founder of the Gajinsan School, express the Master’s Seon doctrine as “the tenet of unconditioned spontaneity.”
In Chan teachings, the idea of “unconditioned spontaneity” refers to the way of life of following one’s original mind as it is, devoid of attachment or entanglement within the totality of existence, transcending the law of life and death, without any contrived artificiality of discriminating thought. Master Mazu, coining the term for this original mind as “ordinary mind,” asserted that “ordinary mind is precisely the way in which truth naturally functions.” Namely, if the original mind is not lost and all matters are allowed to take their course according to each situation, all things would be real and truthful and exist without contrived artificiality or entanglement. This idea is indicative of a religion of everydayness, seeking the development of a sincere life within the ordinary confines of humanity’s day-to-day existence.
In addition, we can also discern something, however fragmentary, of Master Doui’s notion of “unconditioned spontaneity” from the dialogue between him and the Head Monk Jiwon (Seungtong) of the Hwaeom School, as introduced in the Seonmun Bojangnok compiled by the Goryeo era monk, Cheonchaek.
The contents of this dialogue can largely be divided into two parts. The first part is a criticism of Scholastic Buddhism. Criticizing that Scholastic Buddhism, bound in its own dogma, was unable to ascertain the fundamental basis of the mind’s essence, Master Doui denied the tenet of the “Four Dharma Realms” as well as the "teachings of the fifty-five sages," written in the Huayan (Kr. Hwaeom) Sutra, the basis of the Hwaeom School. In addition, he emphasized that it is only within the conditions of the immediate moment that we should look to see our own nature. The second part pertains to the establishment of the Mind-seal Dharma of the Patriarchs. In establishing his idea of the Mind-seal of the Patriarchs, Master Doui speaks about the system of cultivation based on “faith, discernment, performance, and assurance” to address the Patriarchal Seon tenet of “no thought, no practice” as follows.
“The rationality behind ‘no thought, no practice’ is nothing more than the concept of ‘faith, interpretation, performance, and evidence.’ The wisdom of the dharma taught by the Patriarch School, that does not distinguish between the ‘Buddha’ or ‘sentient beings,’ is nothing but the direct realization of the fundamental truth of reality. As a result, the Mind-seal dharma of the Masters was transmitted separate from the Five Teachings of the Hwaeom School. The reason behind the appearance of the Buddha’s material form is nothing more than an expedient means, a temporary apparition conjured for the sake of those who are unable to understand the true principles of the Patriarchs. Even though one were to spend many years reading the sutras, if that was the method one were to utilize in pursuit of realizing the Mind-seal Dharma of the Patriarchs, the goal would be difficult to obtain even if an eon were to pass.” (from the dialogue between Master Doui and Jiwon Seungtong)
The “no thought theory” mentioned here refers to the undeluded and essential original mind, using the representative doctrine of the Southern Chan School as advocated by Huineng and his disciple Heze Shenhui (684~758).
The notion of “no practice” is the idea that there is no requirement for practice on the path to enlightenment. This is a refutation of the practices that seek to perceive the mind through artificial meditation or to perfect oneself on the path of gradual cultivation. Like other Chan theories, the “no practice theory” was already elucidated by Huineng and had been well developed and widely accepted, owing to the efforts of successive generations of great masters of Patriarchal Chan, including Shenhui, Mazu, Baizhang, Huangbo, and Linji, among others.
As such, we can see how in emphasizing the “no thought, no practice” theory that joins the ideas of Mazu’s “ordinary mind” and Shenhui’s “no thought theory,” Master Doui’s core tenet of “unconditioned spontaneity” is tied to the traditional thought of the Southern Chan School
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Most-wanted Web site
Sandra Haimila
This article appears in the issue September 2001 [Volume 10, Issue 8]
User stories from the knowledge front
A Web site that tracks criminals worldwide is designed for use by the public as well as law enforcement officers.
The Seminole County Sheriff’s Office site was created as an online aid to identifying and apprehending felons and criminals on the move. The site was launched by ICGate, a software development consultancy, and uses Caché from InterSystems as its database system.
“Law enforcement agencies all over the world visit the site to gather data that helps identify and track known felons and traveling criminals,” says Pete Robinson, Webmaster and special project coordinator for the Sheriff’s Office.
The site provides information concerning felons, such as sex offenders and sexual predators; advisories on criminal activity; a data repository of missing and endangered citizens and links to information on crime prevention and citizen safety.
The database also serves as an information repository for civilian initiatives such as safety code enforcement and neighborhood crime watches.
“The best way to fight crime is to prevent it, and the Web site is a very effective part of the prevention process,” says Robinson, who adds that the crime rate in Seminole County is about half that of the rest of the state.The Web site, which had had 400,000 visitors this year as of July, went live several years ago, and the data in the repository has become increasingly complex, according to ICGate.
The Sheriff’s Office wanted to cut response time for queries, which is why the site was relaunched with the Caché database, according to a recent press release from InterSystems.“Not only did we see a 30% speed improvement, because of the re-engineering of our automated processes, we saw the time to process one felon drop from 18 minutes to under seven minutes,” says Robinson, “and that’s with a database that provides access to more than 8,000 images among other data and continues to grow very rapidly.
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Ext. New York City: Discover the Reel New York On Location By Dallas King
Ever had that feeling of déjà vu? It is that feeling you get the first time you visit New York City. You have never been there before but it is a place you have visited hundreds of... More > times in the movies. From the top of the Empire State Building to the boardwalks of Coney Island, step into your favourite movie moments as this guide takes you on a tour through the cinematic history of the Big Apple alongside the most well known (and not so well known) locations that have appeared on the big screen.< Less
Ext. New York City - Discover The Reel New York On Location By Dallas King
Paperback: List Price: $12.12 $6.06 | You Save: 50%
Ever had that feeling of deja vu? It is that feeling you get the first time you visit New York City. You have never been there before but it’s a place you have visited hundreds of times in the... More > movies. From the top of the Empire State Building to the boardwalks of Coney Island, step into your favourite movie moments as this guide takes you on a tour through the cinematic history of the Big Apple alongside the most well known (and not so well known) locations that have appeared on the big screen.< Less
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Search Results: 'prayers book'
4,786 results for "prayers book"
Transfiguration Prayer Book By Holy Mother Church
Orthodox Prayer Book for Christians of the Western Rite. Modern English. Includes the Liturgy of St Gregory, with additions from Sarum sources, First Vespers of Sunday, Lauds of Sunday, Preparation... More > for Communion, Thanksgiving after Mass, Private morning and evening prayer. Liturgy of Saint Tikhon in Traditional English,< Less
My Little Book On Prayer By Rissa Burns
This little gem will teach you How to Pray with confidence each and every time you lift your prayers towards heaven. learn how to have a fulfilling prayer life. Christian prayer is not hard, it is a... More > very simple act of worship that will magnify your sprirtual life.< Less
My Unitarian Prayer Book By Anthony F McNeile
A selection of prayers and meditations in the Unitarian tradition for personal or group reflections
The Little Celtic Prayer Book By Fr Leonard Hollands
A simple collection of Celtic and Celtic style prayers for daily or occasional use. Includes preparation and thanksgiving prayers for the Liturgy, and a short selection of psalms and readings.
Book of Our Common Prayer By Andii Bowsher
Responding to the request “Teach us to pray”, Jesus outlined a pattern of prayer with five basic movements of prayer. We call this outline “the Lord’s Prayer” and often... More > simply recite it. The five kinds of praying patterned in the Lord’s prayer form the basic structure for the body of the prayers in this book. Each day’s form starts with reflecting on scripture and then the prayers are patterned by the Lord’s Prayer. They use seasonal and biblical themes and draw from scripture and from Celtic, Anglican, Catholic, Orthodox and other ecumenical sources. These forms of prayer can be used by groups as well as those who pray alone. Using them regularly will offer variety and yet provide a common pattern and sense of familiarity over time. This collection is also a helpful resource to enrich other liturgies. Many of the prayers in this book have been borrowed already for a variety of liturgies and occasions in different places in the world.< Less
The Essential Lutheran Prayer Book By Latif Haki Gaba
Hardcover: $28.00
A basic manual of prayers in traditional English and Latin.
Responding to the request “Teach us to pray”, Jesus outlined a pattern of prayer with five basic movements of prayer. We call this outline “the Lord’s Prayer” and often... More > simply recite it. The five kinds of praying patterned in the Lord’s prayer form the basic structure for the body of the prayers in this book. This is a collection of forms for prayer day-by-day. Each day’s form has an initial section for reflecting on scripture and then the rest of the form is patterned by the Lord’s Prayer with a variety of words and phrases which combine seasonal and biblical themes. Many of the prayers draw directly and indirectly from scripture. They also draw inspiration from Celtic, Anglican, Catholic, Orthodox and other ecumenical sources. These forms of prayer are written so as to be used by groups as well as lone pray-ers. This collection of prayers is also a helpful resource to supplement or enrich other forms of daily prayer.< Less
The Evangelical Lutheran Prayer Book By Joseph D. Klotz
The purpose of the Evangelical Lutheran Book of Hours is to provide the layman with a resource, in one volume, which will enable him to engage in regular, systematic prayer, that is in line with the... More > liturgical traditions and rhythms of the church. The liturgies of the Daily Office are included, with new and revised music, as well as the entire KJV Psalter, pointed for chanting.< Less
The Confederate Prayer Book By Larry Matthew McCune
This is the unabridged prayer book given to the Confederate troops who belonged to the Episcopal Church in the Confederate States of America, who normally lacked a specifically Confederate Book of... More > Common Prayer.This edition has only been modified in the formating of the pages and the addition of a short introduction by the editor.< Less
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SKYLAR JAMES, 27
Skylar is the strong, determined character, the guardian of the weak and the person you turn to if you need advice on very important life decisions or if you’re looking for a shoulder to lean on. She’s mentally and physically strong and knows exactly how to deal with difficult and critical situations because odds are good that she has lived through those situations before. Skylar is brave, fierce, brutally honest and almost always in control of her actions and emotions.
She’s very satisfied with who she is and how she looks, which sometimes might make her seem a little cocky and arrogant. Skylar knows exactly how to use her charm and sex appeal but rarely resorts to these assets as she’s not the kind of person who likes to play games. She’s a man’s dream and just a night with her usually isn’t enough for them. Even the biggest players can see themselves settling down with her. But Skylar isn’t that kind of woman. She needs her freedom and independence and can’t deal with the same man for more than a few nights. However, there might be a man from her past who she would throw all of her values away for. He’s the only person that could make Skylar lose control which might be one of the worst things that could happen to her.
Skylar seems cold at first, especially to those she doesn’t like or trust. But as soon as she decides a person is her friend, they become the most important person in her life and she lets them know and feel that. She would do anything for her loved ones even if it means she has to hurt someone else to protect them. And her loved ones would in return follow her over a cliff because they know what a valuable friend she is. Once they’re in her circle of trust, they’re in for good and she will be the most loyal and trustworthy person to them. But should one of her friends betray her even once, they’re out of Skylar’s life and they will regret it deeply.
This beautiful, confident woman seems to be fearless, but that’s not really the case. Skylar is just very good at hiding her fears and emotions and letting everybody believe nothing can throw her off track. But as soon as she is confronted with one of her biggest fears, Skylar turns into a person even her closest friends wouldn’t recognize. She turns into a hot mess or a delicate flower that’s about to break apart. But since Skylar is so in control of herself, thesse kinds of situations are so rare that maybe not even her loved ones will ever see that side of her.
Skylar is a very contradictory character. She is broken but strong. She is cold to those she doesn’t trust and has the biggest heart for those she loves. She’s got a serious manner but can be funny as hell. She’s messy but always in control. She’s brave and courageous but has a lot of hidden fears.
Skylar is the one person in your life that nobody could ever replace.
Skylar grew up with her mother, her little sister and her abusive father. Her alcoholic father Hank would regularly beat her mother and display violent behavior towards Skylar and her mother Debra, even when she was still very young. This violent behavior led her mother to leave Skylar and her father and take her little sister Riley with her when was 5 years old. Debra wanted to take Skylar with her but her father threatened to go after them and hurt all three of them if she didn’t leave Skylar with him.
As Skylar grew a little older, her father started to sexually abuse her. Not even his new girlfriend and the arrival of his newborn baby girl could change that. Skylar was so scared of her father that she couldn’t muster up the courage to report him to the police or run away. So she sucked it up, took his hits and tried to feel numb when he sneaked into her bedroom in the middle of the night while his girlfriend was sleeping next door. She put up with this until she was 21,when her father began doing the same things to her 5-year-old half sister. She couldn’t bear the thought of her own little sister being sexually abused by that monster. So one night, Skylar saw her father dead drunk on the sofa once again and knew this was her chance to stop the madness. She took her father’s baseball bat, and hit him over and over again. Unfortunately, her father’s yelling woke up his girlfriend who stopped her from beating her father to death and called the police who came and arrested Skylar for aggravated assault. She was sentenced to 4 years in prison.
Role in the Show
Skylar is the leader of the three protagonists. She always knows what to do and how to get out of a crisis. She’s the rational one who always stays on top of things. When things get messy she’s the one to clean up the mess and when one of her loved ones gets into a bad situation she’s willing to take the fall for them in order to protect them. She’s something like the protective but very strict Mom of the group.
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Corporate comedian and overall corporate entertainer Mike Bova is a former sales/marketing guru and newspaper publisher. He’s also a motivational speaker and two-time award-winning (Upper State Independent Awards 2012, 2013) comedian performing at a variety of venues across the U.S.
Bova didn’t go looking for comedy, comedy found him. He was asked to co-host the popular Funny Business Radio Show and took over as host in the fall of 2011. It was one of the most popular shows on the Blog Talk Radio network, featuring nationally-known comics and garnering more than a quarter-million listeners. The Funny Business Radio Show saw rapid success hosting major headliners such as Alonzo Bodden, Tammy Pescatelli, Shawn Pelofsky, Eddie Brill and Dave Coulier.
Bova’s career as a stand-up comic began when he was asked to co-headline a comedy show along with a semi-finalist for the popular television series, Last Comic Standing. He now does stand-up comedy as the headliner at clubs across New York state, and also performs nationally.
Bova was co-producer of Comedy Central NY, a monthly stand-up comedy series which showcases top comedians from the region. Bova was the owner of Benny HaHa’s Comedy Club, which produced shows in the greater Utica, NY area.
Bova’s comedy productions include charity fundraising shows for organizations such as the Stevens Swan Humane Society, the Ava Dorfman Senior Center, and the Italian Heritage Club to name just a few. He was the founder and organizer of the CNY Veteran’s Comedy Shows, which raised money for the CNY Veteran’s Outreach Center in Utica, New York. The first show raised more than $2000 for the center.
After winning the Upper State Independent Award for Best Comedian in 2012, Bova was picked up by a New York City talent agent. He also won the award in 2013.
Bova lives in upstate New York with his wife and two daughters.
Interested in booking Mike for your corporate or not-for-profit event? See info below:
Event Rates Vary Due to Location of Venue & Content Needed. Rates will fit most any budget.
To book Mike for your event, contact Mike Bova, 81 Clinton Rd., New Hartford, N.Y. 13413 at (315) 404-8200 or mike@mikebova.com
Here is a link to Mike’s comedy demo reel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6q5TKm4Vww
Here is a link to one of Mike’s motivational videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anVH4key3N8
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The Not Again Issue
Sick Woman Theory
Hardly Working Even a job you hate gives you somewhere to be, but what happens you finally leave?
Five times major award ceremonies were snubbed: We did some digging to see who hasn’t been so into the red carpet march in the past.
All photos by Pamila Payne; Styling, hair and makeup: Myrrhia Rodriguez; Art Direction: Johanna Hedva
Johanna Hedva lives with chronic illness and their Sick Woman Theory is for those who were never meant to survive but did.
Johanna Hedva Tue, Jan 19 2016
In late 2014, I was sick with a chronic condition that, about every 12 to 18 months, gets bad enough to render me, for about five months each time, unable to walk, drive, do my job, sometimes speak or understand language, take a bath without assistance, and leave the bed. This particular flare coincided with the Black Lives Matter protests, which I would have attended unremittingly, had I been able to. I live one block away from MacArthur Park in Los Angeles, a predominantly Latino neighborhood and one colloquially understood to be the place where many immigrants begin their American lives. The park, then, is not surprisingly one of the most active places of protest in the city.
I listened to the sounds of the marches as they drifted up to my window. Attached to the bed, I rose up my sick woman fist, in solidarity.
I started to think about what modes of protest are afforded to sick people – it seemed to me that many for whom Black Lives Matter is especially in service, might not be able to be present for the marches because they were imprisoned by a job, the threat of being fired from their job if they marched, or literal incarceration, and of course the threat of violence and police brutality – but also because of illness or disability, or because they were caring for someone with an illness or disability.
I thought of all the other invisible bodies, with their fists up, tucked away and out of sight.
If we take Hannah Arendt’s definition of the political – which is still one of the most dominant in mainstream discourse – as being any action that is performed in public, we must contend with the implications of what that excludes. If being present in public is what is required to be political, then whole swathes of the population can be deemed a-political – simply because they are not physically able to get their bodies into the street.
In my graduate program, Arendt was a kind of god, and so I was trained to think that her definition of the political was radically liberating. Of course, I can see that it was, in its own way, in its time (the late 1950s): in one fell swoop she got rid of the need for infrastructures of law, the democratic process of voting, the reliance on individuals who’ve accumulated the power to affect policy – she got rid of the need for policy at all. All of these had been required for an action to be considered political and visible as such. No, Arendt said, just get your body into the street, and bam: political.
There are two failures here, though. The first is her reliance on a “public” – which requires a private, a binary between visible and invisible space. This meant that whatever takes place in private is not political. So, you can beat your wife in private and it doesn’t matter, for instance. You can send private emails containing racial slurs, but since they weren’t “meant for the public,” you are somehow not racist. Arendt was worried that if everything can be considered political, then nothing will be, which is why she divided the space into one that is political and one that is not. But for the sake of this anxiety, she chose to sacrifice whole groups of people, to continue to banish them to invisibility and political irrelevance. She chose to keep them out of the public sphere. I’m not the first to take Arendt to task for this. The failure of Arendt’s political was immediately exposed in the civil rights activism and feminism of the 1960s and 70s. “The personal is political” can also be read as saying “the private is political.” Because of course, everything you do in private is political: who you have sex with, how long your showers are, if you have access to clean water for a shower at all, and so on.
There is another problem too. As Judith Butler put it in her 2015 lecture, “Vulnerability and Resistance,” Arendt failed to account for who is allowed in to the public space, of who’s in charge of the public. Or, more specifically, who’s in charge of who gets in. Butler says that there is always one thing true about a public demonstration: the police are already there, or they are coming. This resonates with frightening force when considering the context of Black Lives Matter. The inevitability of violence at a demonstration – especially a demonstration that emerged to insist upon the importance of bodies who’ve been violently un-cared for – ensures that a certain amount of people won’t, because they can’t, show up. Couple this with physical and mental illnesses and disabilities that keep people in bed and at home, and we must contend with the fact that many whom these protests are for, are not able to participate in them – which means they are not able to be visible as political activists.
There was a Tumblr post that came across my dash during these weeks of protest, that said something to the effect of: “shout out to all the disabled people, sick people, people with PTSD, anxiety, etc., who can’t protest in the streets with us tonight. Your voices are heard and valued, and with us.” Heart. Reblog.
So, as I lay there, unable to march, hold up a sign, shout a slogan that would be heard, or be visible in any traditional capacity as a political being, the central question of Sick Woman Theory formed: How do you throw a brick through the window of a bank if you can’t get out of bed?
I have chronic illness. For those who don’t know what chronic illness means, let me help: the word “chronic” comes from the Latin chronos, which means “of time” (think of “chronology”), and it specifically means “a lifetime.” So, a chronic illness is an illness that lasts a lifetime. In other words, it does not get better. There is no cure.
And think about the weight of time: yes, that means you feel it every day. On very rare occasions, I get caught in a moment, as if something’s plucked me out of the world, where I realize that I haven’t thought about my illnesses for a few minutes, maybe a few precious hours. These blissful moments of oblivion are the closest thing to a miracle that I know. When you have chronic illness, life is reduced to a relentless rationing of energy. It costs you to do anything: to get out of bed, to cook for yourself, to get dressed, to answer an email. For those without chronic illness, you can spend and spend without consequence: the cost is not a problem. For those of us with limited funds, we have to ration, we have a limited supply: we often run out before lunch.
I’ve come to think about chronic illness in other ways.
Ann Cvetkovich writes: “What if depression, in the Americas, at least, could be traced to histories of colonialism, genocide, slavery, legal exclusion, and everyday segregation and isolation that haunt all of our lives, rather than to be biochemical imbalances?” I’d like to change the word “depression” here to be all mental illnesses. Cvetkovich continues: “Most medical literature tends to presume a white and middle-class subject for whom feeling bad is frequently a mystery because it doesn’t fit a life in which privilege and comfort make things seem fine on the surface.” In other words, wellness as it is talked about in America today, is a white and wealthy idea.
Let me quote Starhawk, in the preface to the new edition of her 1982 book Dreaming the Dark: “Psychologists have constructed a myth – that somewhere there exists some state of health which is the norm, meaning that most people presumably are in that state, and those who are anxious, depressed, neurotic, distressed, or generally unhappy are deviant.” I’d here supplant the word “psychologists” with “white supremacy,” “doctors,” “your boss,” “neoliberalism,” “heteronormativity,” and “America.”
There has been a slew of writing in recent years about how “female” pain is treated – or rather, not treated as seriously as men’s in emergency rooms and clinics, by doctors, specialists, insurance companies, families, husbands, friends, the culture at large. In a recent article in The Atlantic, called “How Doctors Take Women’s Pain Less Seriously,” a husband writes about the experience of his wife Rachel’s long wait in the ER before receiving the medical attention her condition warranted (which was an ovarian torsion, where an ovarian cyst grows so large it falls, twisting the fallopian tube). “Nationwide, men wait an average of 49 minutes before receiving an analgesic for acute abdominal pain. Women wait an average of 65 minutes for the same thing. Rachel waited somewhere between 90 minutes and two hours,” he writes. At the end of the ordeal, Rachel had waited nearly fifteen hours before going into the surgery she should have received upon arrival. The article concludes with her physical scars healing, but that “she’s still grappling with the psychic toll – what she calls ‘the trauma of not being seen.’”
What the article does not mention is race – which leads me to believe that the writer and his wife are white. Whiteness is what allows for such oblivious neutrality: it is the premise of blankness, the presumption of the universal. (Studies have shown that white people will listen to other white people when talking about race, far more openly than they will to a person of color. As someone who is white-passing, let me address white people directly: look at my white face and listen up.)
The trauma of not being seen. Again – who is allowed in to the public sphere? Who is allowed to be visible? I don’t mean to diminish Rachel’s horrible experience – I myself once had to wait ten hours in an ER to be diagnosed with a burst ovarian cyst – I only wish to point out the presumptions upon which her horror relies: that our vulnerability should be seen and honored, and that we should all receive care, quickly and in a way that “respects the autonomy of the patient,” as the Four Principles of Biomedical Ethics puts it. Of course, these presumptions are what we all should have. But we must ask the question of who is allowed to have them. In whom does society substantiate such beliefs? And in whom does society enforce the opposite?
Compare Rachel’s experience at the hands of the medical establishment with that of Kam Brock’s. In September 2014, Brock, a 32-year-old black woman, born in Jamaica and living in New York City, was driving a BMW when she was pulled over by the police. They accused her of driving under the influence of marijuana, and though her behavior and their search of her car yielded nothing to support this, they nevertheless impounded her car. According to a lawsuit brought against the City of New York and Harlem Hospital by Brock, when Brock appeared the next day to retrieve her car she was arrested by the police for behaving in a way that she calls “emotional,” and involuntarily hospitalized in the Harlem Hospital psych ward. (As someone who has also been involuntarily hospitalized for behaving “too” emotionally, this story feels like a rip of recognition through my brain.) The doctors thought she was “delusional” and suffering from bipolar disorder, because she claimed that Obama followed her on twitter – which was true, but which the medical staff failed to confirm. She was then held for eight days, forcibly injected with sedatives, made to ingest psychiatric medication, attend group therapy, and stripped. The medical records of the hospital – obtained by her lawyers – bear this out: the “master treatment plan” for Brock’s stay reads, “Objective: Patient will verbalize the importance of education for employment and will state that Obama is not following her on Twitter.” It notes her “inability to test reality.” Upon her release, she was given a bill for $13,637.10.
The question of why the hospital’s doctors thought Brock “delusional” because of her Obama-follow claim is easily answered: Because, according to this society, a young black woman can’t possibly be that important – and for her to insist that she is must mean she’s “sick.”
Before I can speak of the “sick woman” in all of her many guises, I must first speak as an individual, and address you from my particular location.
I am antagonistic to the notion that the Western medical-insurance industrial complex understands me in my entirety, though they seem to think they do. They have attached many words to me over the years, and though some of these have provided articulation that was useful – after all, no matter how much we are working to change the world, we must still find ways of coping with the reality at hand – first I want to suggest some other ways of understanding my “illness.”
Perhaps it can all be explained by the fact that my Moon’s in Cancer in the 8th House, the House of Death, or that my Mars is in the 12th House, the House of Illness, Secrets, Sorrow, and Self-Undoing. Or, that my father’s mother escaped from North Korea in her childhood and hid this fact from the family until a few years ago, when she accidentally let it slip out, and then swiftly, revealingly, denied it. Or, that my mother suffers from undiagnosed mental illness that was actively denied by her family, and was then exasperated by a 40-year-long drug addiction, sexual trauma, and hepatitis from a dirty needle, and to this day remains untreated, as she makes her way in and out of jails, squats, and homelessness. Or, that I was physically and emotionally abused as a child, raised in an environment of poverty, addiction, and violence, and have been estranged from my parents for 13 years. Perhaps it’s because I’m poor – according to the IRS, in 2014, my adjusted gross income was $5,730 (a result of not being well enough to work full-time) – which means that my health insurance is provided by the state of California (Medi-Cal), that my “primary care doctor” is a group of physician’s assistants and nurses in a clinic on the second floor of a strip mall, and that I rely on food stamps to eat. Perhaps it can be encapsulated in the word “trauma.” Perhaps I’ve just got thin skin, and have had some bad luck.
It’s important that I also share the Western medical terminology that’s been attached to me – whether I like it or not, it can provide a common vocabulary: “This is the oppressor’s language,” Adrienne Rich wrote in 1971, “yet I need it to talk to you.” But let me offer another language, too. In the Native American Cree language, the possessive noun and verb of a sentence are structured differently than in English. In Cree, one does not say, “I am sick.” Instead, one says, “The sickness has come to me.” I love that and want to honor it.
So, here is what has come to me:
Endometriosis, which is a disease of the uterus where the uterine lining grows where it shouldn’t – in the pelvic area mostly, but also anywhere, the legs, abdomen, even the head. It causes chronic pain; gastrointestinal chaos; epic, monstrous bleeding; in some cases, cancer; and means that I have miscarried, can’t have children, and have several surgeries to look forward to. When I explained the disease to a friend who didn’t know about it, she exclaimed: “So your whole body is a uterus!” That’s one way of looking at it, yes. (Imagine what the Ancient Greek doctors – the fathers of the theory of the “wandering womb” – would say about that.) It means that every month, those rogue uterine cells that have implanted themselves throughout my body, “obey their nature and bleed,” to quote fellow endo warrior Hilary Mantel. This causes cysts, which eventually burst, leaving behind bundles of dead tissue like the debris of little bombs.
Bipolar disorder, panic disorder, and depersonalization disorder have also come to me. This means that I live between this world and another one, one created by my own brain that has ceased to be contained by a discrete concept of “self.” Because of these “disorders,” I have access to incredibly vivid emotions, flights of thought, and dreamscapes, to the feeling that my mind has been obliterated into stars, to the sensation that I have become nothingness, as well as to intense ecstasies, raptures, sorrows, and nightmarish hallucinations. I have been hospitalized, voluntarily and involuntarily, because of it, and one of the medications I was prescribed once nearly killed me – it produces a rare side effect where one’s skin falls off. Another cost $800 a month – I only took it because my doctor slipped me free samples. If I want to be able to hold a job – which this world has decided I ought to be able to do – I must take an anti-psychotic medication daily that causes short-term memory loss and drooling, among other sexy side effects. These visitors have also brought their friends: nervous breakdowns, mental collapses, or whatever you want to call them, three times in my life. I’m certain they will be guests in my house again. They have motivated attempts at suicide (most of them while dissociated) more than a dozen times, the first one when I was nine years old. That first attempt didn’t work, only because after taking a mouthful of sleeping pills, I somehow woke up the next day and went to school, like nothing had happened. I told no one about it, until my first psychiatric evaluation in my mid 20s.
Finally, an autoimmune disease that continues to baffle all the doctors I’ve seen, has come to me and refuses still to be named. As Carolyn Lazard has written about her experiences with autoimmune diseases: “Autoimmune disorders are difficult to diagnose. For ankylosing spondylitis, the average time between the onset of symptoms and diagnosis is eight to twelve years. I was lucky; I only had to wait one year.” Names like “MS,” “fibromyalgia,” and others that I can’t remember have fallen from the mouths of my doctors – but my insurance won’t cover the tests, nor is there a specialist in my insurance plan within one hundred miles of my home. I don’t have enough space here – will I ever? – to describe what living with an autoimmune disease is like. I can say it brings unimaginable fatigue, pain all over all the time, susceptibility to illnesses, a body that performs its “normal” functions monstrously abnormally. The worst symptom that mine brings is chronic shingles. For ten years I’ve gotten shingles in the same place on my back, so that I now have nerve damage there, which results in a ceaseless, searing pain on the skin and a dull, burning ache in the bones. Despite taking daily medication that is supposed to “suppress” the shingles virus, I still get them – they are my canaries in the coalmine, the harbingers of at least three weeks to be spent in bed.
My acupuncturist described it as a little demon steaming black smoke, frothing around, nestling into my bones.
With all of these visitors, I started writing Sick Woman Theory as a way to survive in a reality that I find unbearable, and as a way to bear witness to a self that does not feel like it can possibly be “mine.”
The early instigation for the project of “Sick Woman Theory,” and how it inherited its name, came from a few sources. One was in response to Audrey Wollen’s “Sad Girl Theory,” which proposes a way of redefining historically feminized pathologies into modes of political protest for girls: I was mainly concerned with the question of what happens to the sad girl when, if, she grows up. Another was incited by reading Kate Zambreno’s fantastic Heroines, and feeling an itch to fuck with the concept of “heroism” at all, and so I wanted to propose a figure with traditionally anti-heroic qualities – namely illness, idleness, and inaction – as capable of being the symbol of a grand Theory. Another was from the 1973 feminist book Complaints and Disorders, which differentiates between the “sick woman” of the white upper class, and the “sickening women” of the non-white working class.
Sick Woman Theory is for those who are faced with their vulnerability and unbearable fragility, every day, and so have to fight for their experience to be not only honored, but first made visible. For those who, in Audre Lorde’s words, were never meant to survive: because this world was built against their survival. It’s for my fellow spoonies. You know who you are, even if you’ve not been attached to a diagnosis: one of the aims of Sick Woman Theory is to resist the notion that one needs to be legitimated by an institution, so that they can try to fix you. You don’t need to be fixed, my queens – it’s the world that needs the fixing.
I offer this as a call to arms and a testimony of recognition. I hope that my thoughts can provide articulation and resonance, as well as tools of survival and resilience.
And for those of you who are not chronically ill or disabled, Sick Woman Theory asks you to stretch your empathy this way. To face us, to listen, to see.
Sick Woman Theory is an insistence that most modes of political protest are internalized, lived, embodied, suffering, and no doubt invisible. Sick Woman Theory redefines existence in a body as something that is primarily and always vulnerable, following from Judith Butler’s work on precarity and resistance. Because the premise insists that a body is defined by its vulnerability, not temporarily affected by it, the implication is that it is continuously reliant on infrastructures of support in order to endure, and so we need to re-shape the world around this fact. Sick Woman Theory maintains that the body and mind are sensitive and reactive to regimes of oppression – particularly our current regime of neoliberal, white-supremacist, imperial-capitalist, cis-hetero-patriarchy. It is that all of our bodies and minds carry the historical trauma of this, that it is the world itself that is making and keeping us sick.
To take the term “woman” as the subject-position of this work is a strategic, all-encompassing embrace and dedication to the particular, rather than the universal. Though the identity of “woman” has erased and excluded many (especially women of color and trans and genderfluid people), I choose to use it because it still represents the un-cared for, the secondary, the oppressed, the non-, the un-, the less-than. The problematics of this term will always require critique, and I hope that Sick Woman Theory can help undo those in its own way. But more than anything, I’m inspired to use the word “woman” because I saw this year how it can still be radical to be a woman in the 21st century. I use it to honor a dear friend of mine who came out as genderfluid last year. For her, what mattered the most was to be able to call herself a “woman,” to use the pronouns “she/her.” She didn’t want surgery or hormones; she loved her body and her big dick and didn’t want to change it – she only wanted the word. That the word itself can be an empowerment is the spirit in which Sick Woman Theory is named.
The Sick Woman is an identity and body that can belong to anyone denied the privileged existence – or the cruelly optimistic promise of such an existence – of the white, straight, healthy, neurotypical, upper and middle-class, cis- and able-bodied man who makes his home in a wealthy country, has never not had health insurance, and whose importance to society is everywhere recognized and made explicit by that society; whose importance and care dominates that society, at the expense of everyone else.
The Sick Woman is anyone who does not have this guarantee of care.
The Sick Woman is told that, to this society, her care, even her survival, does not matter.
The Sick Woman is all of the “dysfunctional,” “dangerous” and “in danger,” “badly behaved,” “crazy,” “incurable,” “traumatized,” “disordered,” “diseased,” “chronic,” “uninsurable,” “wretched,” “undesirable” and altogether “dysfunctional” bodies belonging to women, people of color, poor, ill, neuro-atypical, differently abled, queer, trans, and genderfluid people, who have been historically pathologized, hospitalized, institutionalized, brutalized, rendered “unmanageable,” and therefore made culturally illegitimate and politically invisible.
The Sick Woman is a black trans woman having panic attacks while using a public restroom, in fear of the violence awaiting her.
The Sick Woman is the child of parents whose indigenous histories have been erased, who suffers from the trauma of generations of colonization and violence.
The Sick Woman is a homeless person, especially one with any kind of disease and no access to treatment, and whose only access to mental-health care is a 72-hour hold in the county hospital.
The Sick Woman is a mentally ill black woman whose family called the police for help because she was suffering an episode, and who was murdered in police custody, and whose story was denied by everyone operating under white supremacy. Her name is Tanesha Anderson.
The Sick Woman is a 50-year-old gay man who was raped as a teenager and has remained silent and shamed, believing that men can’t be raped.
The Sick Woman is a disabled person who couldn’t go to the lecture on disability rights because it was held in a venue without accessibility.
The Sick Woman is a white woman with chronic illness rooted in sexual trauma who must take painkillers in order to get out of bed.
The Sick Woman is a straight man with depression who’s been medicated (managed) since early adolescence and now struggles to work the 60 hours per week that his job demands.
The Sick Woman is someone diagnosed with a chronic illness, whose family and friends continually tell them they should exercise more.
The Sick Woman is a queer woman of color whose activism, intellect, rage, and depression are seen by white society as unlikeable attributes of her personality.
The Sick Woman is a black man killed in police custody, and officially said to have severed his own spine. His name is Freddie Gray.
The Sick Woman is a veteran suffering from PTSD on the months-long waiting list to see a doctor at the VA.
The Sick Woman is a single mother, illegally emigrated to the “land of the free,” shuffling between three jobs in order to feed her family, and finding it harder and harder to breathe.
The Sick Woman is the refugee.
The Sick Woman is the abused child.
The Sick Woman is the person with autism whom the world is trying to “cure.”
The Sick Woman is the starving.
The Sick Woman is the dying.
And, crucially: The Sick Woman is who capitalism needs to perpetuate itself.
Because to stay alive, capitalism cannot be responsible for our care – its logic of exploitation requires that some of us die.
“Sickness” as we speak of it today is a capitalist construct, as is its perceived binary opposite, “wellness.” The “well” person is the person well enough to go to work. The “sick” person is the one who can’t. What is so destructive about conceiving of wellness as the default, as the standard mode of existence, is that it invents illness as temporary. When being sick is an abhorrence to the norm, it allows us to conceive of care and support in the same way.
Care, in this configuration, is only required sometimes. When sickness is temporary, care is not normal.
Here’s an exercise: go to the mirror, look yourself in the face, and say out loud: “To take care of you is not normal. I can only do it temporarily.”
Saying this to yourself will merely be an echo of what the world repeats all the time.
I used to think that the most anti-capitalist gestures left had to do with love, particularly love poetry: to write a love poem and give it to the one you desired, seemed to me a radical resistance. But now I see I was wrong.
The most anti-capitalist protest is to care for another and to care for yourself. To take on the historically feminized and therefore invisible practice of nursing, nurturing, caring. To take seriously each other’s vulnerability and fragility and precarity, and to support it, honor it, empower it. To protect each other, to enact and practice community. A radical kinship, an interdependent sociality, a politics of care.
Because, once we are all ill and confined to the bed, sharing our stories of therapies and comforts, forming support groups, bearing witness to each other’s tales of trauma, prioritizing the care and love of our sick, pained, expensive, sensitive, fantastic bodies, and there is no one left to go to work, perhaps then, finally, capitalism will screech to its much-needed, long-overdue, and motherfucking glorious halt.
This text is adapted from the lecture, “My Body Is a Prison of Pain so I Want to Leave It Like a Mystic But I Also Love It & Want It to Matter Politically,” delivered at Human Resources, sponsored by the Women’s Center for Creative Work, in Los Angeles, on October 7, 2015. The video is here.
Arendt, Hannah. The Human Condition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958.
Berkowitz, Amy. Tender Points. Oakland: Timeless, Infinite Light, 2015.
Berlant, Lauren Gail. Cruel Optimism. Durham: Duke University Press, 2011.
Brown, Stephen Rex. “Woman Held in Psych Ward over Obama Twitter Claim.” NY Daily News. March 23, 2015.
Butler, Judith. “Vulnerability and Resistance.” REDCAT. December 19, 2014.
Cvetkovich, Ann. Depression: A Public Feeling. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2012.
Ehrenreich, Barbara, and Deirdre English. Complaints and Disorders; the Sexual Politics of Sickness. Old Westbury, N.Y.: Feminist Press, 1973.
Fassler, Joe. “How Doctors Take Women's Pain Less Seriously.” The Atlantic, October 15, 2015.
Federici, Silvia. Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation. New York: Autonomedia, 2003.
Halberstam, Jack. “Zombie Humanism at the End of the World.” Lecture, Weak Resistance: Everyday Struggles and the Politics of Failure, ICI Berlin, May 27, 2015.
Harney, Stefano, and Fred Moten. The Undercommons: Fugitive Planning & Black Study. New York: Minor Compositions, 2013.
Hedva, Johanna. “My Body Is a Prison of Pain so I Want to Leave It Like a Mystic But I Also Love It & Want It to Matter Politically.” Lecture, Human Resources, Los Angeles, October 7, 2015.
Lazard, Carolyn. “How to Be a Person in the Age of Autoimmunity.” The Cluster Mag. January 16, 2013.
Lorde, Audre. A Burst of Light: Essays. Ithaca, N.Y.: Firebrand Books, 1988.
Lorde, Audre. The Cancer Journals. Special ed. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books, 1997.
Mantel, Hilary. “Every Part of My Body Hurt.” The Guardian, June 7, 2004.
Miserandino, Christine. “The Spoon Theory Written by Christine Miserandino.” But You Dont Look Sick: Support for Those with Invisible Illness or Chronic Illness. April 25, 2013.
Rich, Adrienne. “The Burning of Paper Instead of Children.” In Adrienne Rich's Poetry and Prose: Poems, Prose, Reviews, and Criticism, edited by Barbara Charlesworth Gelpi. New York: W.W. Norton, 1993.
Salek, Yasi. “Audrey Wollen on Sad Girl Theory.” CULTIST ZINE. June 19, 2014.
Starhawk. Dreaming the Dark: Magic, Sex, & Politics. 2nd ed. Boston: Beacon Press, 1988.
Thurman, Judith. “A Loss for Words: Can a Dying Language Be Saved?” The New Yorker, March 30, 2015.
Vankin, Jonathan. “Kam Brock: The Reason They Threw Her In A Mental Ward Was Crazy — What Happened Next Was Even Crazier.” The Inquisitr News. March
Zambreno, Kate. Heroines. Semiotext(e) / Active Agents, 2012.
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Johanna Hedva is an anticapitalist psychonaut sorceress who strives to practice an intersectional-feminist, queer, anti-white-supremacist, decolonial politics. They are a fourth-generation Los Angelena on their mother’s side, and, on their father’s side, the grandchild of a woman who escaped from North Korea. Check out their work on their website.
@bighedva
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Iggy Azalea Tells Ryan Seacrest Her Side Of Pizza Delivery-Gate: Watch
'This isn't about free pizza,' she clarifies.
John Walker 02/24/2015
Most things in life are about free pizza, but here's one thing that wasn't: Iggy Azalea's less than positive encounter with Papa John's.
In case you missed the most nerve-wracking standoff since the Cuban Missile Crisis, Iggy sent out a barrage of tweets a couple weeks ago calling out a Papa John's delivery guy for leaking her phone number to his family and friends. By the next day, she was calling out the brand itself for perceived security risks customers take every time they order a pie. Things got tense there for a minute, but somehow we all pulled through.
Since then, the "Trouble" rapper's kept pretty quiet on the ol' pizza delivery-gate front -- and most everything else now that she's taken a leave of absence from Twitter. But on Tuesday (Feb. 24), she popped by "On Air with Ryan Seacrest" to explain her side of the whole debacle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kH-5s7yFhLs
"This isn’t about free pizza," she says she explained to a Papa John's senior vice president over the phone. "I just want to know that you’re taking this serious because it affects other people, too -- potentially not famous people, and I want to make sure that's not happening in the neighborhood I live in."
Iggy's Great Escape Tour kicks off in April with Nick Jonas and recent collaborator Tinashe supporting. Will there be free pizza at any point of the 24-date trek across North America? That remains to be seen.
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Paris Hilton: I’ll call my baby London
Paris Hilton wants to have a baby called London.
The 34-year-old hotel heiress opened up about her hopes for the future in a new interview with Yahoo! Style.
While Paris is currently single, she is still thinking about the prospect of starting a family at some point in the future.
“I’m definitely going to dress mine up. [If it was a girl], they’d be in all pink and fluffy, little princess dresses – not like Toddlers and Tiaras style, a little bit more toned down,” she said. “I’m going to name her London, or him. Whoever is first is going to be named London.”
Paris also spoke about her friendship with Kim Kardashian. While Kim is now a household name, thanks to her reality show Keeping Up With the Kardashians, she started in the showbiz industry as Paris’ assistant.
And the blonde star says she’s “proud” of what Kim has achieved in her life.
“We’ve known each other since we were little girls, we’ve always been friends, it’s nice to inspire people,” Hilton says. “I am really proud of her and what she’s done. I saw her a few weeks ago in New York and we were hanging out.”
Paris has made a name for herself as one of the world’s most sought-after DJs in recent years.
But Paris admitted in another new interview with Dujour magazine that she only hits clubs these days for work – not for fun.
“I like to see girls looking hot and having fun — that’s what life’s about,” she told the publication. “But I’m kinda over the whole scene. I used to love going out all the time but now it’s only for DJ-ing and getting paid.”
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Music Fun Time
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Posted by Jay, March 22nd, 2010
Rarely has a pop chick rocked quite to the level of Pat Benatar. Patti truly was one of the pioneers in female contemporary rock vocals, especially if her shear amount of charting material is taken into consideration. Her accolades over her career are almost endless. Patti has won multiple Grammies over the years, multiple American Music Awards and even was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame. I remember watching Pat Benatar’s videos in the early days of MTV. I was just a lad at the time but I thought she was kind of sexy. I think it was her video for “Love is a Battlefield” that really got my little boy heart in a flutter. Whenever I was watching TV with my patents and a Pat Benatar video came on I’d get embarrassed like I was just caught looking at the underwear section in the Sears catalog.
Pat Benatar was born in Brooklyn New York in 1953. At the age of three she moved to Lindenhurst, New York where she would remain until college. Patti showed an early interest in music and her parents encouraged her to pursue vocals, particularly classical vocals. She was raised in a strict household where rock music was not allowed however her parents eagerly encouraged her to be active in many other types of music, symphonies, opera and theater especially, pretty much anything but rock. Anyone with an once of psychology knows what happened next as kids tend to gravitate towards the forbidden fruit. Patti would listen to rock wherever she could, at friends’ houses and even by sneaking some listening at home on her portable radio. Despite Patti’s rock interests though she stayed the course with the classic track for most of her teenage years. She did so well in fact that she was accepted into Juilliard, a prominent North Eastern musical school. This is where Patti’s story get’s tricky. She rejected Juilliard in favor of pursuing a rather hum drum career in health education at the state college. I bet there were much heated debates over that one at the Benatar household but Patti just wasn’t interested in spending her life in the classical realm. Things didn’t work out in the State school and Patti dropped out to marry her high school sweetheart. They moved to Virginia where Patti became a bank teller. She couldn’t resist the call of the lime light though and after as short while to became a singing waitress at a 50′s style restaurant. Things snowballed from one job to another and before she knew it she was living back in NYC and singing in night clubs there, this led to her being signed to a label and within the release of a couple albums her climb to fame was complete.
After learning about Pat Benatar’s background and observing her style overall it’s clear what region she is from. Having grown up in the shadow of NYC myself I notice certain people seem to echo that region more then others and she is a clear cut example. Emphasized especially because of her rock vocals. Her vocals are powerful, she doesn’t hold back. Her songs tend to be for the women scorned songs about heartbreak and picking up the pieces after an relationship has gone awry. Don’t get me wrong, there are some genuine love songs in there too but what female pop artist doesn’t have those? Looking over her discography I’d suggest starting with her 1980 release, “Crimes of Passion”. It was her breakthrough album and definitely one of her best. Of course you could also just get a greatest hits type-deal and take it from there.
1) In the Heat of the Night [1979]
2) Crimes of Passion [1980]
3) Precious Time [1981]
4) Get Nervous [1982]
5) Live from Earth [1983]
6) Tropico [1984]
7) Seven the Hard Way [1985]
8) Wide Awake in Dreamland [1988]
9) True Love [1991]
10) Gravity’s Rainbow [1993]
11) Innamorata [1997]
12) Go [2003]
One comment | Category: Pop, Pop Rock | Tags: brooklyn, lindenhurst, long island, new york |
1 comment to Pat Benatar
Hello! Please e-mail me your contacts. I have a question zachary@complective.ru” rel=”nofollow”>……
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Home News Microsoft ready for major consumer war
Microsoft ready for major consumer war
By Alex Yau -
Manufacturer wants to emulate UK B2B success in the consumer market as it continues to strengthen its smartphone range
Microsoft Devices UK interim boss Simon Rayne has stressed the importance of making progress in the consumer sector after a year of “progress” in B2B.
Globally, Microsoft sold 10.5 million units in the final quarter of last year, up from 9.3 million a year ago. The manufacturer used Mobile World Congress to launch its latest ‘affordable’ Lumia devices, the 640, and updating media on the progress of Windows 10, which will roll out across desktop and mobile in the final quarter of this year.
B2B appeal is rising
Rayne (pictured) pointed to Microsoft’s growth in the UK B2B sector over the past year which saw its share rise from 21 to 26 per cent in the final three months of 2014 (figures from Canalys).
This closed the gap significantly on market leader Apple which saw its share fall from 35 to 29 per cent over the same period.
“It’s been a strong year and it’s been really pleasing,” he told Mobile News. “We’ve made a lot of progress on the consumer side which is the big battle and B2B has been really strong.”
However, Microsoft Devices consumer market share fell from 9.6 per cent to 6.5 per cent during 2014 according to Kantar. During last year’s event, Nokia lauded the success of sales for the low end Lumia 520, handset for its rise in share – outselling the iPhone in around 10 of its key markets.
Rayne pointed to GfK figures which he said were the manufacturer’s strongest performance ever and said the consumer arena was Microsoft’s focus.
Consumer battleground
“Consumer (market) is obviously important because let’s face it, that is the battleground, that’s where everyone wants to be successful,” he said.
“The consumer sector is still the vast majority of the business in the UK.
“Probably about four million units in the B2B sector and 26 million plus shifted in the whole of the market.
“That’s the key battleground and that’s where we want to be successful as well as in
Rayne admitted the affordable sector had accounted for the majority of sales but says the launch of Windows 10 in Q4 will see a new high end flagship device later this year.
“We’ve made most of our progress in the low-to-mid end,” he said.
“We do have some momentum on the high-end in B2B but we’d of course like more and with Windows 10 that will happen.”
Simon Rayne
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Alex Yau
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[Markets] Poker-Bot Designed By Facebook "Decisively" Beats Human Poker Pros
A poker-bot that was designed by researchers from Facebook and Carnegie Mellon University has consistently beat some of the world's top human players in a series of six person no limit Texas Hold'Em poker games, according to The Verge.
The AI system, named Pluribus, played over 10,000 hands over the course of 12 days. In one situation, it played alongside five human players and in another, it played along five additional AI players. The bot won, on average, five dollars per hand with hourly winnings of about $1000, which researchers called a "decisive margin of victory".
Noam Brown, a research scientist at Facebook AI Research said:
“It’s safe to say we’re at a superhuman level and that’s not going to change.”
Chris Ferguson, a six-time World Series of Poker champion said: “Pluribus is a very hard opponent to play against. It’s really hard to pin him down on any kind of hand.”
In a paper recently published, the scientist behind the bot said that the victories are a significant milestone in AI research. Other computers have mastered games like Chess and Go, but six person Texas Hold Em was always a higher benchmark to accomplish.
This is because information needed to win the game is often hidden from players - it involves multiple players and complex victory outcomes. A game like Go is easier for AI despite having more possible board combinations than atoms in the observable universe, because all the information is at least available to see. This makes it easier for AI to train on.
Back in 2015, a machine learning system beat human pros at two player Hold Em, but raising the number to five opponents increased the complexity of the game significantly. A few different crucial strategies were deployed to address this:
First, they taught Pluribus to play poker by getting it to play against copies of itself — a process known as self-play. This is a common technique for AI training, with the system able to learn the game through trial and error; playing hundreds of thousands of hands against itself. This training process was also remarkably efficient: Pluribus was created in just eight days using a 64-core server equipped with less than 512GB of RAM. Training this program on cloud servers would cost just $150, making it a bargain compared to the hundred-thousand-dollar price tag for other state-of-the-art systems.
Then, to deal with the extra complexity of six players, Brown and Sandholm came up with an efficient way for the AI to look ahead in the game and decide what move to make, a mechanism known as the search function. Rather than trying to predict how its opponents would play all the way to the end of the game (a calculation that would become incredibly complex in just a few steps), Pluribus was engineered to only look two or three moves ahead. This truncated approach was the “real breakthrough,” says Brown.
Pluribus was "remarkably good at bluffing its opponents" and those who played against it praised it for its relentless consistency and the way it could squeeze profits out of thin hands. It was also "predictably unpredictable", and did so just by playing the cards it was dealt, without looking at facial recognition or spotting tells.
Brown says that bluffing can be an art that can be reduced to mathematically optimal strategies: “The AI doesn’t see bluffing as deceptive. It just sees the decision that will make it the most money in that particular situation. What we show is that an AI can bluff, and it can bluff better than any human.”
The fact that AI has now bested humans in six person Hold Em means that there is now much that humans can learn from computers when it comes to playing Hold Em.
Researchers also hope that techniques used to create the AI bot can be transferable to other situations, like cyber security, fraud prevention and financial negotiations.
Published:7/13/2019 10:22:23 PM
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Richard Anuszkiewicz: "Plus Reversed," 1960
Op art, also known as optical art, is used to describe some paintings and other works of art which use optical illusions. Op art is also referred to as "geometric abstraction" and "hard-edge abstraction," although the preferred term for it is "perceptual abstraction." The term "Op" bears resemblance to the other popular movement of the 1960s, Pop Art though one can be certain such monikers were invoked for their catchiness and not for any stylistic similarities.
1 Historical context
2 Origin of "Op"
2.1 The Responsive Eye
3 How op works
3.1 Black & white and the figure-ground relationship
5 Photographic Op art
"Optical Art is a method of painting concerning the interaction between illusion and picture plane, between understanding and seeing."[1] Op art works are abstract, with many of the better known pieces made in only black and white. When the viewer looks at them, the impression is given of movement, hidden images, flashing and vibration, patterns, or alternatively, of swelling or warping.
Historical context
Op Art is derived from the constructivist practices of the Bauhaus. This German school, founded by Walter Gropius, stressed the relationship of form and function within a framework of analysis and rationality. Students were taught to focus on the overall design, or entire composition, in order to present unified works. When the Bauhaus was forced to close in 1933, many of its instructors fled to the United States where the movement took root in Chicago and eventually at the Black Mountain College in Asheville, North Carolina, where Anni and Josef Albers would come to teach.
Origin of "Op"
The term first appeared in print in Time magazine in October 1964,[2] though works which might now be described as "op art" had been produced for several years previously. For instance, Victor Vasarely's painting, Zebras (1938), is made up entirely of curvilinear black and white stripes that are not contained by contour lines. Consequently, the stripes appear to both meld into and burst forth from the surrounding black ground of the composition. Also the early black-and-white Dazzle panels of John McHale installed at the This is Tomorrow exhibit in 1956 and his Pandora series at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in 1962 demonstrate proto-op tendencies.
An optical illusion by Hungarian-born artist Victor Vasarely
The Responsive Eye
In 1965, an exhibition called The Responsive Eye, curated by William Seitz, was held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. The works shown were wide ranging, encompassing the minimalism of Frank Stella and the smooth plasticity of Alexander Liberman, alongside the masters of the movement: Victor Vasarely and Bridget Riley. The exhibition focused on the perceptual aspects of art, which result both from the illusion of movement and the interaction of color relationships, as seen in the painting by Arnold Alfred Schmidt. The exhibition was enormously popular with the general public, though less so with the critics. Critics dismissed Op art as portraying nothing more than trompe l'oeil, or tricks that fool the eye. Regardless, Op art's popularity with the public increased, and Op art images were used in a number of commercial contexts. Bridget Riley tried to sue an American company, without success, for using one of her paintings as the basis of a fabric design.
How op works
Black & white and the figure-ground relationship
Floor tiles at the Basilica of Saint John Lateran are an early example of an "op art" effect.
Op art is a perceptual experience related to how vision functions. It is a dynamic visual art, stemming from a discordant figure-ground relationship that causes the two planes to be in a tense and contradictory juxtaposition. Op Art is created in two primary ways. The first, and best known method, is the creation of effects through the use of pattern and line. Often these paintings are black and white, or otherwise grisaille. Such as in Bridget Riley's famous painting, Current (1964), on the cover of The Responsive Eye catalog, black-and-white wavy lines are placed close to one another on the canvas surface, creating such a volatile figure-ground relationship that can cause a viewer's eyes to hurt.
Another reaction that occurs is that the lines create after images of certain colors due to how the retina receives and processes light. As Johann Wolfgang von Goethe demonstrates in his treatise Theory of Colors (published 1810), at the edge where light and dark meet color arises because lightness and darkness are the two central properties in the creation of color.
"Deep Magenta Square" by Richard Anuszkiewicz
Bridget Riley later produced works in full color, and other Op artists have worked in color as well, although these works tend to be less well known. Josef Albers taught the two primary practitioners of the "Color Function" school at Yale in the 1950s: Richard Anuszkiewicz and Julian Stanczak. Often, colorist work is dominated by the same concerns of figure-ground movement, but they have the added element of contrasting colors which have different effects on the eye. Anuszkiewicz is a good example of this type of painting. In his "temple" paintings, for instance, the juxtaposition of two highly contrasting colors provokes a sense of depth in illusionistic three-dimensional space so that it appears as if the architectural shape is invading the viewer's space.
Stanczak's compositions tend to be the most complex of all of the color function practitioners. Taking his cue from Albers and his influential book Interaction of Color, Stanczak deeply investigates how color relationships work.
A large show of Op art was held in Strasbourg in 2005 (L'oeil Moteur) and another was held at Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt for February through May 2007. The Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio, organized the first major retrospective exhibition of Op Art in the United States in over 25 years, called Optic Nerve: Perceptual Art of the 1960s, February 15 through June 17, 2007. The Pratt Institute of Art also hosted an Op Art exhibition in the spring of 2007. Additionally, Bridget Riley has had several international exhibitions in recent years (e.g., Dia Center, New York, 2000; Tate Britain, London, 2003; Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2004).
Photographic Op art
Although Op art is now considered relatively mainstream, photographers have been slow to produce Op art. Whereas in painting, Victor Vasarely and Bridget Riley were producing large amounts of art and the same can be said for many digital artists, such as A. Kitaoka. One of the primary reasons for this is the difficulty in finding effective subject matter. Another reason is that in order to produce Op art in the media of photography the images would need to be quite extreme, which would go against the nature of most photographers. However, it is thought by some that Laszlo Moholy-Nagy produced photographic Op art, and Noorali Hirani is currently producing Op art.
↑ John Lancaster. Introducing Op Art. (London, UK: BT Batsford Ltd. 1973).
↑ Jon Borgzinner. 1964. "Op Art - Pictures that attack the eye." Time (October 23, 1964) [1]Retrieved November 30, 2007.
Follin, Frances. Op Art. Walther Konig, 2007. ISBN 9783865602060
Houston, Joe, and Dave Hickey. Optic Nerve: Perceptual Art of the 1960s. Merrell, 2007. ISBN 9781858943893
Lancaster, John. 1973. Introducing Op Art. London, UK: BT Batsford Ltd. ISBN 0823062678
Ouchi, Hajime. Japanese Optical and Geometrical Art. Dover Publications, 1977. ISBN 9780486235530
Parola, Rene. Optical Art: Theory and Practice. Dover Oublications, 1996. ISBN 9780486290546
All retrieved December 21, 2018.
Op paintings by Richard Allen www.richard-allen-artist.com 5
Op prints by Richard Allen www.richard-allen-artist.com 6
Youri Messenjaschin, Optical Artist www.abstract-art.com
Ghee Beom Kim's Geometric Arts geometricarts.googlepages.com
The Op Art of Oncle Dom perso.wanadoo.fr
Op art history
History of "Op art"
Retrieved from http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/p/index.php?title=Op_art&oldid=1016759
Art, music, literature, sports and leisure
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Justin Timberlake Tickets: JustCheapTickets.com Announces Reduced Pricing On Tickets For Two Phenomenal Tours Taking Place This Year
Justin Timberlake tickets have been reduced in price at JustCheapTickets.com for two tours that are keeping the singer busy this year. He will be embarking on the "Legends of the Summer Tour" with rapper Jay-Z from July 14 until August 16, and "The 20/20 Experience World Tour" will then begin on October 31.
Cheap concert tickets
JustCheapTickets.com has reduced the prices of tickets for both tours, and fans are thrilled that they are having ample opportunities to attend live events.
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Brookfield, WI (PRWEB) June 24, 2013
The singer/songwriter and Jay-Z are planning to entertain fans with "Legends of the Summer" performances beginning in London on July 14 and progressing to North American cities after that time. This tour will wrap up in Miami Gardens on August 16. Beginning on October 31, the singer will again be embarking on a major tour that will take him into 2014. The trip gets its start in Canada with October 31 and November 1 shows in Montreal. On November 13, the talented performer travels to Raleigh, North Carolina, and continues to perform in the U.S. and Canada until February 10 of 2014. JustCheapTickets.com has reduced the prices of tickets for both tours, and fans are thrilled that they are having ample opportunities to attend live events.
The young star put his touring on hold for a short period in order to devote more time to his acting career. He is now touring extensively to make up for his brief hiatus, and fans could not be happier about the live events that are taking place this year and in 2014. After the talented singer/songwriter has completed his North American "20/20 Experience" shows, he has plans to travel to the United Kingdom during the spring of next year.
Justin Timberlake tickets are going quickly for future appearances. In the "Legends of the Summer Tour," the artist, along with Jay-Z, will hit such U.S. cities as New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Pasadena, Hershey, Detroit, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Miami Gardens. The Canadian locations of Toronto and Vancouver will also be included on the tour schedule.
For "The 20/20 Experience World Tour," the entertainer will also visit a number of U.S. cities that include but are not limited to Nashville, Memphis, Columbus, Las Vegas, Tulsa, Phoenix, Louisville, Houston, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Orlando, Seattle, Fargo, and St. Paul. Besides the two Montreal shows that will begin this tour, the singer will also travel to Edmonton for two concerts on the 13th and 14th of January in 2014.
Cheap concert tickets are always available at JustCheapTickets.com. Besides Justin Timberlake tickets, Paul McCartney tickets are also available, as are tickets for other live concerts, theater shows and sporting events.
JustCheapTickets
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J. J. Prentice of Columbus, OHDarwin Prentice of Otsego Co., NY
J. J. Prentice of Columbus, OH
Winter 1999 and Revised 16 May 2007
Update of 16 May 2007: Although additional investigation is needed for confirmation, his birth year and residence in Kalkaska strongly suggests that he is Jessie Prentice, a son of Joseph C. Prentice and Sarah McLargin, and is #163.2 in our Valentine3 eBook. Also living in Kalkaska at tthe same time as J. J. was a William Prentice. The ages of J. J. and William match the ages of the known sons of Joseph and Sarah, William and Jessie.
By email of 16 May 2007, Hal Prentice relates that J. J. Prentice's death certificate shows his name to be Jesse J. Prentice
1. J. J. Prentice (aka Jesse J. Prentice) was b. Jun 1862, OH. He appears in the 1900 Kalkaska, Kalkaska, MI census, and the 1910 Luce Co., MI, census with his wife and family.
He m. , Losetta "Lucy" Morse, b. Aug 1867, MI. Her parents were b. in KY and PA (per Hal Prentice, email, 16 May 2007). Census records also show their children:
Mistie M. Prentice, b. May 1887, OH. 1900 census in Kalkaska, Kalkaska Co., MI. Not in 1910 or 1920 census by any surname.
George Edward Prentice, b. Apr 1889. OH. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [2]
Hazel M. Prentice, b. Mar 1890, MI. She appears in 1900 Kalkaska census with a birth date c. 1900 and in the 1910 census in Columbus, Luce Co., MI, census with a birth date c. 1900.
Raymond Alfred Prentice, twin, b. 4 Jan 1894, OH, and d. 1934 in IL at the age of 40 years. He served in the US Army, Co. D, 339th Infantry. He was a member of the "Polar Bear Expedition" to Russia in 1918. (Ref: polarbears.si.umich.edy per Hal Prentice, email, 16 May 2007).
Roy Albert Prentice, twin, b. 4 Jan 1894, OH. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [3]
Arthur Prentice, b. c. 1902, OH. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .[4]
The 1910 census is said to indicate that J. J.'s father was born in KY and his mother in PA.
2. George Edward Prentice, b. Apr 1889. OH. Called Edward in the 1910 Luce Co., MI census. He is probably the George E. Prentice, b. c. 1888-89, OH, who appears in the 1930 Flint, Genesee Co., MI census with his wife and family.
He m. Sylvia M., b. c. 1891, MI, and children (Ref: Year: 1930; Census Place: Flint, Genesee, Michigan; Roll: T626_984; Page: 7A; Enumeration District: 20; Image: 0778.)
Lawrence Prentice, b. c. 1912, MI. Not in SSDI.
Lucy M. Prentice, b. c. 1924, MI.
3. Roy Albert "Jim" Prentice, twin, b. 4 Jan 1894, OH and d. 14 Apr 1946 (per Hal Prentice, email, 14 Apr 2004). He appears in the 1930 census in Flint, Genesee Co., MI, with his wife and family.
He m. Bessie Elizabeth Darling on 18 Sep 1915 at Genesee Co., MI. She was b. 9 Jan 1898 and d. 2 Feb 1990. , b. c. 1898, MI. Not in SSDI. Children, per 1930 census (Ref: Year: 1930; Census Place: Flint, Genesee, Michigan; Roll: T626_985; Page: 8B; Enumeration District: 28; Image: 0246 and Hal Prentice, email, 16 May 2007):
Elna Marjorie Prentice, dau., b. c. 1923, MI. Living in 2006. She m. William Ross.
Laural Earl Prentice, b. 3 Dec 1924, MI. Living in 2006. He m. Ilah Edwards. Son:
Hal Prentice (per email, Hal Prentice, 14 Apr 2004).
Wilma Rae "Woodie"Prentice, dau., b. c. 1928, MI. Living in 2006. Her nickname came into use when her brother, Jimmy, married Wilma Della Dickinson in 1949. Apparently two Wilma's in the family caused confusion. She m. Fayette "Jack" Aldrich.
James/Jimmy Maurice Prentice, birth date and place not known (per Hal Prentice, above). Living in 2006. He m. Wilma Della Dickinson.
4. Arthur Prentice, b. c. 1902, OH. He might be the Arthur W. Prentice, b. c. 1902, OH, who appears in the 1930 census in Genesee, Genesee Co., MI with his wife, Alice M., b. c. 1902, OH. He may be the Arthur Prentice shown in the SSDI as b. 25 May 1901, who obtained his SS# in OH, and d. c. Feb 1965 in OH. Children, per 1930 census:
Junior L. Prentice, b. c. 1926, MI.
Marie M. Prentice, Daughter, b. c. 1928, MI.
Who is J. J. Prentice?
A review of the 1880 census for OH, where J. J. was born Jun 1862, does not disclose any male with the initial "j" born in the right time frame.
However, a review of the 1870 census for OH discloses both James L. Prentice, b. c. 1861, OH, and Jesse Prentice, b. c. 1862, OH. Both appear in the Benton, Ottawa Co., OH census as sons of Joseph C. Prentice, b. c. 1832, OH, and his wife, Sarah McLargin/McLargen, b. c. 1836, OH. Joseph is a descendant of Valentine-3.
We can exclude James L. Prentice, both because of his different middle initial and because his wife and children do not match those of J. J. Prentice.
We do not yet have any further information about Jesse Prentice, b. c. 1862, so further investigation is needed to determine whether he may be J. J. Prentice. He does, however, seem like a good prospect since his brother, Frederick, also appears in the 1900 Antrim Co., MI census, in the 1910 Grand Rapids, Kent Co., MI census, and in the 1920 Detroit, Wayne Co., MI census.
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2008, brian k vaughan, doctor strange, marcos martin, marvel |
Doctor Strange: The Oath
by Rob McMonigal February 27, 2010
Written by Brian K. Vaughan
Illustrated by Marcos Martin (with Alvaro Lopez)
Poor Doctor Strange just can't catch a break doing a regular series. However, every once in awhile, someone picks up the character and does an amazing job with Marvel's premiere mystic.
In this case, it's Brian K. Vaughan, who conjures up a story that combines Strange's past with his present in a way I've never seen before but in a way I wish we'd see again. Strange's faithful servant, Wong, is dying, and only a mystical cure can help. Turns out, it can cure a lot of things. Soon, it's a race against time for the life of Wong as the cure is stolen. With the help of the Night Nurse, can Doctor Strange save his friend and the world? Or will he be forced to choose?
On the surface, the story itself is a bit hard to swallow. The editors at Marvel aren't going to let a minor mini-series bring a major cure into the world, even if they did want to do something like that. That means Vaughan has to work very hard to make the dynamic work--and he succeeds admirably. Even though you know as a reader that things can't end well for Strange, the characters in the story are sure they can win the day--after all, they're heroes, and that's what heroes do. As a result, the reader doesn't feel like he or she's being fed a false hope. Instead, we know that tragedy will inevitably befall our characters, and how they deal with that tragedy after building up so much hope is the glue that holds the story together.
In a way, that makes this story a reverse of the usual plot, where a villain is convinced he will take over the world, but we as the reader know that he will fail. That alone makes this a comic worth reading--Vaughan takes a typical convention of the genre and turns it upside down.
That's enough of the meta-story concepts. What about the details in the pages? If you've ever read a Brian K. Vaughan story, you know that he's a very tight plotter--sometimes almost too tight, as characters seem to bend to his will just a bit too much. Here, however, he's a bit more restrained. Part of that might be due to working with established characters, rather than those of his own imagination.
While you don't need to know much about Doctor Strange or his world to enjoy the comic, fans of the good Doctor will be pleased to note that, with the exception of tweaking the origin a bit here and there, Vaughan tells his story without tramping all over your established feelings for these characters. We even get some nods to Strange's large volume of foes, a treat for longtime fans without going so far into continuity as to confuse people who don't know why Nightmare matters.
Vaughan also displays his signature subtle wit--Strange quips in a visual gag that the hardest place they'll have to visit is the Bronx--and just a hint of preaching in the story. Both of those are present in Ex Machina and Y: The Last Man as well. Fans of Vaughan's other work will find a lot to like in this version of Doctor Strange, even if they aren't big on the mystical parts of the story.
We move along at a very brisk pace, with Vaughan alternating between scenes of Strange's selfishly arrogant past mixed with his heroically arrogant present. It's a parallel story that only hits the reader when we get to the climax and see how everything that happened to make Stephen who he is will impact on his judgment now.
Along the way, we get to see Strange using his magic in some new ways, which I thought was pretty neat. I also love that Strange in Vaughan's hands is extremely human. We see him as a distant figure so often that having him tell Wong to "cut the Zen crap" or swearing in vernacular and mystical terms at the same time is refreshing. It is perhaps the biggest change for the character in this trade, but I thought it worked rather well. After all, you don't spend so much time with people like Luke Cage and Spider-Man without picking up some of their very human attitude.
None of this would have worked without the right artist. Marcos Martin is amazing, and perfect for the job. Any book I've read with his pencils (and sometimes inks, as is the case here) are simply gorgeous. In this case, Martin works to echo Ditko without trying to copy him note for note. Panel layouts, character placement, and facial expressions remind you of Ditko's work, but have enough of Martin's own style to be reflective and not a pale imitation.
He does make one major change that I absolutely love--Martin's Steven Strange is a dead ringer for Vincent Price. (Vaughan even makes a joke about it in the dialog.) If you have any doubts of this, just look at his sketches in the back of the book as bonus material. It's a perfect idea. Price is who I hear in my head when I'm reading any Doctor Strange books, and his alternation between brooding and action (pretty much the modern take on Strange, I think, no matter who is writing him) is the prototypical Vincent Price character. Had there been a Doctor Strange movie during Price's prime, I'm sure he would have been first on the list to play the part.
Doctor Strange: The Oath is one of those series that could easily be overlooked, a small part of the veritable avalanche of titles that Marvel puts out every year. However, it's far better than that and is worth reading for any fans of Vaughan's other comics series. Plus, you don't need to know much about the characters to enjoy the story. I really liked this book, and I think just about anyone would, even if they aren't a big fan of superhero comics. That might be a "strange" thing to say, but it's true!* This is a very good trade, and well worth picking up, if you can find it.
*By the Vishanti, I apologize for that joke.
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Encounters with racism and acceptance at Mt. A
By Chihiro Muranaka
Mt. A and Sackville community are friendly and welcoming, but work still remains to be done
Whether it is a black man being beaten by the police or a Muslim woman being subjected to Islamophobic defamation on a train, acts of racism occur in every corner of the world. We are getting used to seeing videos displaying it on social media and maybe we are all – including those of us of colour – numbed at this point.
As a person of colour, I don’t know whether I should be grateful or ashamed that I have also become numbed after having spent only four years at Mount Allison. Over the years, I have gradually lost the sense that racial supremacy exists in society. I discovered that in Sackville I would no longer be put into situations where I would despair of being Asian, look around and distinguish people by the colour of their skin rather than their personalities. This is something I used to experience from time to time in New Zealand, where I completed my secondary education.
I think the Mt. A community has been more successful than other universities at accepting non-white students and not discriminating against them because of their nationality or the colour of their skin. The establishment of the Anti-Racism Education & Response Team as a part of the new Racism and Racial Harassment Prevention and Response Policy demonstrates the University’s commitment not only to the eradication of racism, but also to using education as a long-term action to tackle the essence of racism, which is ignorance.
The Canadian stereotype of being polite and friendly probably contributes to the feeling of acceptance in Sackville, because the community and the students from across Canada have shown me that it’s not just a stereotype. So, this is why the column Another Feminist Killjoy Writing About Race and Justice, written by a fellow student of colour at Mt. A, got me questioning what the necessity of purposely identifying people like us as the “visible minority” is, what she means by “space for people of color” and whether the “discomfort” is simply a product of Mt. A’s smaller ethnocultural diversity compared to larger universities, rather than a lack of effort made by the community.
I have experienced racism on multiple occasions in the past. Just a few weeks ago, I was surprisingly called a “whaler” on Bridge Street. Whether I reluctantly laughed it off or retorted in anger, I knew neither response would’ve been productive, as it would not be helping to make a fundamental change. Being a target of racism sucks, and explaining it to the people who haven’t had to worry about experiencing racism can be an uneasy task. My advice to those who wish to advocate for the eradication of racism is to recognize that your frustration could discourage those who are racist from having a productive conversation. We must keep in mind that they are the ones who could use your help to acknowledge that racism comes from their own ignorance. This is not to say we cannot be frustrated about it, but the eradication of racism cannot be achieved without our encouragement to help racists acknowledge their prejudiced attitudes. A community like Mt. A’s could be a great place to start the conversation. If we want to make an impact in fighting racism, we should all work together to create a space where those who experience racism can initiate the dialogue.
Opportunity to make a change is at every corner of campus if you want to see it. I was in a washroom stall sitting on the toilet in the library when I saw a poster stuck on the door that said, “The Argosy is student-run, mostly white, mostly female. The Argosy wants to be more diverse.” I was delighted by this kind of approach.
Taking the time to talk and learn about others’ experiences and perspectives is an important aspect of unlearning racist behaviours. Sarah Noonan/Argosy
Chihiro Muranaka
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Starring: Reggie Bannister, James LeGros, and Angus Scrimm
"Come on, you mutha!"
Of all the major horror franchises, the Phantasm series seems to be overlooked in favor of its more famous contemporaries, such as the Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street series. I've never quite understood why this is the case, but I suppose it derives from the fact that the series never attained the mainstream success like those films. Most fans in horror circles rightfully cite the original as a classic of the genre, but I feel that the series as a whole is one of the most consistently well-done franchises in the genre. This perhaps owes to the fact that the series' creator, Don Coscarelli has remained on board as writer and director for each installment in the series, which is something that most franchises can't claim. The first sequel in the series, Phantasm II, arrived nearly ten years after the original, and still stands as the only studio-backed entry in the series.
Despite the ten year gap separating the production of the first two films, Phantasm II picks up right where the first film left off. After a short sequence that informs us that a young psychotherapy patient, Liz, has developed a psychic bond with Mike Pearson, we are returned to the Tall Man's appearance at the end of the original film. As he and his minions descend on Mike, Reggie attempts to fight back before he is eventually forced to turn on the gas taps on his fireplace. He then grabs Mike and crashes through the window just as the house explodes. The Tall Man, however, escapes, and Liz continues to tell us that he spent the last few years plundering graveyards, leaving ghost towns in his wake.
The film then presents our antagonist, Mike, who is released from the Morningside psychiatric clinic after telling the doctor that his encounter with the Tall Man was simply an illusion. Once freed, Mike starts digging up graves at a local cemetery until he's interrupted by Reggie, who offers to take Mike home. Before they get there, however, Reggie's house mysteriously explodes, killing his entire family. As a result, Reggie and Mike vow to set out and destroy the Tall Man once and for all. The pair's travels take them to various ghost towns in the Pacific northwest before they finally meet up with Liz, a hitchhiker named Alchemy, and, finally, the Tall Man himself in a climactic showdown.
Phantasm II displays a distinct shift in tone from the original film, which was a very understated and almost gothic horror film. The sequel trades in this aesthetic for a more fun, action-filled approach without the psychological undertones of the first film. Coscarelli himself admits that such a choice was the result of studio pressure, which usually signals trouble for a film. However, Coscarelli did his best with the hand dealt him, as the tonal shift works very well for the sequel, which is ultimately a lighter film than its predecessor. A lot of horror fans tend to dislike when a series takes a turn towards a lighter tone, but Phantasm II manages to blend horror and action into an entertaining film.
The film's story really makes such a shift necessary, as the mystery aspect of the first film falls a bit by the wayside. While we do learn a little bit more about the Tall Man, this film operates on the assumption that we already know all the necessary information. Thus, Reggie and Mike spend the majority of the film very much prepared for the Tall Man and his minions, and there are several action set pieces involving them. There are some well done horror moments, too, however, and most of them recall sequences from the first film that involved the infamous spheres (identified as Sentinels in the third film of the series). Furthermore, while the overall tone of the film has changed from the original, there is still a sense of gothic desolation during several of the film's sequences.
Another studio mandated change for the sequel is the replacement of A. Michael Baldwin with James LeGros in the role of Mike Amazingly enough, Universal actually made both Baldwin and Bannister audition for their roles in the original film. Luckily, Bannister got to keep his role, a fortunate turn because he's truly the heart and soul of the film (if not the series). Baldwin's absence is noticeable, but the presence of Bannister helps. This is not to say that LeGros turns in a bad performance--it's adequate enough--but, for continuity's sake, I would have preferred Baldwin. Also, the love story (another Universal mandate) involving Michael and Liz feels forced and out of place, and the film wouldn't have suffered had it been excised. There's a bit of a lengthy sequence involving Liz in the middle of the film that bogs down the proceedings as well; however, for the most part, the film moves at a nice pace. The final major principle from the first film is the Tall Man, who is again portrayed by the delightfully menacing Angus Scrimm. We do get to see a bit more of the series villain in this film, but he ultimately remains a fairly mysterious figure, which is one aspect of the original film that rightfully retained here.
Though Phantasm II is very different from the original, it stands as a great sequel that is a lot of fun. Suffice to say, I would ride with Bannister until the 'Cuda's wheels fell off, so anything that involves Reggie taking on the Tall Man and his Jawa impersonators is right up my alley. Also, I still find the Tall Man to be one of the most unique horror villains to this day, which makes all of the Phantasm films fascinating. In many ways, the first sequel defines the tone of the middle entries of the series, as both are essentially fun films that involve Mike and Reggie attempting to unravel the mystery of the Tall Man. Both middle sequels are more cinematic and linear than the series's two bookends, which have a more dreamlike tone; however, they all fit together nicely to form one of my favorite horror franchises.
Despite the fact that it is the first sequel in a fairly well known horror series, Phantasm II is conspicuously absent on DVD in Region 1. It's no secret that Universal hasn't been exactly enamored with the series since this film didn't perform up to financial expectations. However, there are far more obscure titles that have received a DVD release out there, and I'm surprised by Universal's downright refusal to do anything with the film. Coscarelli has spent the last few years obtaining the rights to all of the Phantasm films in the hopes of being able to release a comprehensive box set similar to the Region 2 release.
However, Phantasm II has served as the biggest road block because Universal has no intentions of selling the film to Coscarelli, nor do they seem particularly interested in releasing it themselves. My guess is that they're waiting to cash in on the long-rumored fifth installment in the franchise or a potential remake (whichever comes first). Either way, the fans are losing out here, so Universal needs to do the right thing sooner rather than later. If you're even a casual Phantasm fan, I urge you to write Universal and let them see that there's a demand for the title. While it's not quite the essential classic that the original film is, Phantasm II is a great horror film that deserves a better treatment on home video. Once the film is finally released on DVD, no horror fan should be without it. Buy it!
Average members rating (out of 10) : 7.00
Votes : 2 since 2008-08-13 20:03
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Written by: Andrew Kevin Walker
Directed by: David Fincher
Starring: Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt, Gwyneth Paltrow, and R. Lee Ermey
"Ernest Hemingway once wrote, 'the world is a fine place and worth fighting for.' I agree with the second part."
As David Fincher's most recent team-up with Brad Pitt (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) hits theaters, it seems appropriate for me to take a trip down memory lane and revisit this duo's first collaboration: Seven, a film that has become a bona-fide cult classic in the decade since its release. As a director, Fincher hasn't exactly been a stranger to the horror genre, as his debut feature was the criminally underrated Alien 3, which was unfortunately shredded by Fox before the director's original vision was finally restored on DVD. Since Seven, Fincher has tread on the lines of the genre with both The Game and Zodiac, films that take a more cerebral approach than Seven, which still stands as Fincher's masterpiece. An intensely cerebral film in its own right, Seven also packs just enough of a visceral punch that allows it to haunt viewers after the film ends. Furthermore, the presence of Fincher managed to attract quite a few A-List stars in the form of Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Spacey, and Gwyneth Paltrow, which is something that rarely happens for the horror genre (and, when it does happen, it always seems like critics refer to the film as a "thriller" or "psychological thriller").
As the film opens, world-weary and cynical Detective Somerset (Freeman) is on the verge of retirement. His replacement, Detective Mills (Pitt), arrives just in time to allow the duo to investigate the grisly murder of an obese man that was apparently fed to death. Somerset is initially unwilling to get caught up in such an obsessive case, but the police captain (R. Lee Ermey) has no one to replace him. Meanwhile, Somerset is assigned to another case involving the murder of an infamous criminal lawyer, and it soon becomes apparent that two murders are connected because both victims are killed for their sins of gluttony and greed, respectively. This brings both Somerset and Mills together as they desperately attempt to unravel the killer's identity and prevent him from carrying out and complete his "masterpiece" of punishing one person for each of the deadly seven sins.
Personally, I find the setup and premise of the film to be nothing short of brilliant, and I think it'd be really hard for anyone to not make an entertaining film from it. However, in the hands of Fincher, it becomes more than just an entertaining film, as it's a meditation on obsession, justice, and the depravity of mankind. There's some substantial thematic weight behind all of the madness, which is nice to see every once in a while. It also helps that Fincher is working with those aforementioned A-listers, particularly Freeman, who brings gravitas and charisma to the Somerset character, which is key because, at its core, Seven is really a character piece centered around Somerset and Mills. The murders just serve as the impetus that allows the viewers to discover what makes the two tick as human beings, and not only does it work, but it has to work, as the film's climax would not be nearly as effective without the film's character development.
This is not to say that the film is lacking in the horror department, however, as the film is chilling on many levels. First of all, some of the murders themselves are among some of the most cringe-worthy to ever grace a screen, and many of them are merely implied. In some cases, viewers are treated with the grisly aftermath but are never made privy to the actual acts themselves, which is an interesting technique that leaves a lot to the imagination. In fact, the "lust" murder remains one of the most cringe-inducing film murders that I can think of, and we never see any of it. When I first saw the film, I was about 13, and that scene has been burned into my memory ever since. When viewers are treated to a bit of grue, it's all intensely gritty and realistic, featuring some excellent work from effects guru Rob Bottin.
Secondly, the perpetrator of the murders himself, John Doe, is one of the most chilling characters of all time. Despite his limited screen time, Kevin Spacey truly impacts the film and is arguably the film's most memorable character, as Doe is clearly more than a mindless killer; instead, he's cut from the same mold as Hannibal Lecter, as he's more than ready to philosophize and even preach his values to the world (in this sense, readers might see a bit of a parallel to Jigsaw from the Saw series). Some films attempt to make a killer scary by making them outlandishly insane, but Fincher doesn't go this route, as Doe is a cold, calculating individual that enjoys his work. Doe's lone, lengthy scene towards the end of the film contains an unsettling conversation between himself and the two detectives that falls in line with the film's understated tone. Even the film's ending (which is one of the most infamous and shocking endings ever) isn't very bombastic; it is somewhat chaotic, but Doe maintains a chilling composure as he attempts to complete his masterpiece.
And all of this is not to mention the overall grim atmosphere of the film, which plays out like a modern-day noir, right down to the rain-soaked sets, the costume designs, and the world-weary Somerset. Even Spacey's initial appearance in the film visually evokes the murderer in Fritz Lang's M (also one of the more sadistic killers in cinema history). Furthermore, the film just looks downright bleak, as even Fincher's stylish touches only serve to make the film look more gritty and realistic. However, unlike those early noirs, Seven is not a very faith-affirming film; instead, it's intensely nihilistic and pessimistic work that ultimately haunts me after I've watched it (despite the fact that I've seen the film several times). Despite this, the film obviously remains alluring to me. I hesitate to call such a grim affair entertaining, but the fact remains that Fincher's direction and pacing are masterful, and the performances are among the best the genre has to offer. Of all the horror-related films released in the past 15 years, Seven is certainly among the best, even if it does tread on the lines of other genres. It's a bit of a crime thriller, a mystery film, and a character piece, but it all melds together quite nicely to create a pretty horrifying experience when it's all said and done.
It's only fitting that this film's DVD release still remains one of the best ever, despite being released over 8 years ago. Released in 2000 from dearly-departed New Line Cinema (who remained one of the best home video companies until the very end), the Platinum Series DVD is absolutely loaded with extras, including four commentaries, each focusing on a different aspect of the story, including "the stars," "the story," "the picture," and "the sound." There are also a host of documentaries dedicated to revealing how the film was mastered for home video; the features take viewers through the video mastering, audio mastering, and color correction stages. It's a fascinating look at something that's sort of taken for granted these days. There's also a host of deleted scenes, an alternate ending, production designs, still photographs, and a host of EPK materials. Like I said, this sucker is teeming with extras, and it even comes in an awesome case that resembles one of John Doe's notebooks in the film. As far as the video goes, it's pretty passable. I noticed a lot of edge enhancement due to a larger television set, but the transfer is otherwise well done. I have no complaints about the film's soundtrack, as the DTS 6.1 track is still among the best on standard DVD, as it's very immersive and bombastic. And the best part? You can find this bad boy for less than 15 bucks these days, which is quite a bit less than what I paid for it years ago, and it's certainly worth every penny. It'd be a sin for any horror fan to go without this modern classic. Buy it!
Fatal error : Shield protection activated, please retry in 153 seconds...
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Home > Back to Search Results > "Great Expectations" Collection I
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"Great Expectations" Collection I
Harper's Weekly, November 24, 1860 through December 29, 1860. This is a six-issue set (part 1) of Harper's Weekly containing the Charles Dickens "Great Expectations" in serialization format. The set provides more than a 10% discount over purchasing the issues individually.
This set would look great displayed in one of our 17 inch by 14 inch display cases which can be viewed at www.rarenewspapers.com/folders.aspx (or by returning to the home page and selecting "storage and display options".
The individual issues are described as:
Harper's WEEKLY, Nov. 24, 1860 Ftpg. shows: 'Tomb of John C. Calhoun, Charleston, S.C.'. Nice illus. of 'Charles Dickens'. Bkpg. cartoon. This issue begins the serialization of Charles Dickens' "Great Expectations", with a prefacing editorial concerning this great work. The story continues in subsequent issues.
Harper's WEEKLY, Dec. 1, 1860 Ftpg: 'Charleston Scenes' includes 'Palmetto Tree & Old Custom House at Charleston' & 'Ft. Sumter From Sullivan's Is.'. Inside illus. of: 'Entrance to Bonaventure Cemetary, Savannah, Ga.' & 'Bonaventure Cemetary, Savannah' 'The New State House at Columbia, S.C.' Winslow Homer dblpgctrfld: 'Thanksgiving Day, 1860, the Two Great Classes of Society' is a handsome print.
Harper's WEEKLY, Dec. 8, 1860 Ftpg. article & illus. of; 'Hon. Roger B. Taney, Chief Justice of the U.S.'. Four illus. re. 'The Marine School at Charleston, S.C.'. Terrific & very displayable dblpgctrfld: 'General View of the Fortifications for the Defense of the City of New York' shows 7 forts in the vicinity, including ones at Long Is., Staten Is., Gov.'s Is., Sandy Hook 'Hon. Roger B. Taney, Chief Justice of the U.S.'. Four illus. re. 'The Marine School at Charleston, S.C.'. Terrific & very displayable dblpgctrfld: 'General View of the Fortifications for the Defense of the City of New York' shows 7 forts in the vicinity, including ones at Long Is., Staten Is., Gov.'s Is., Sandy Hook & more. Also a map of the N.Y. area.
Harper's WEEKLY, Dec. 15, 1860 Ftpg. shows: "The city of Washington from the Dome of the Capitol" as well as "The National Capitol at Washington". Halfpg: "Departure of the St. Louis Bridge for Kansas" & one by Winslow Homer: "Expulsion of Negroes & Abolitionists from Tremont Temple, Boston" includes a related article mentioning Frederick Douglass and William L. Garrison having attended this meeting, and referencing a speech made by Douglass (but not included here).
Harper's WEEKLY, Dec. 22, 1860 Nice full front page illus: 'The Seceding South Carolina Delegation' is by Winslow Homer. Fullpg: 'Christmas-Day Then & Now' and fullpg: 'Santa Claus' is a small print of him & larger on people shopping.
Harper's WEEKLY, Dec. 29, 1860 Full ftpg: 'Christmas Day, 1860' shows a family at Christmas dinner. Nice fullpg: 'Christmas Chimes at Trinity Church, N.Y. This issue also contains a serialized portion of "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens. In addition, the 1st installment of "Dickens's Christmas Story - A MESSAGE FROM THE SEA" is also present, taking nearly 6 pages of text.
Category: Harper's Weekly
Baseball in England...
The landing of Ohio Troops at Louisvi...
Great Christmas prints, many in color...
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Meet our esteemed Partners & Sponsors
Under Armour is the Official Apparel and Footwear Provider for Softball Factory. Under Armour is a leading developer, marketer and distributor of branded performance apparel, footwear and accessories. The brand’s moisture-wicking synthetic fabrications are engineered in many different designs and styles for wear in nearly every climate to provide a performance alternative to traditional natural fiber products. The Company’s products are sold worldwide and worn by professional football, baseball, and soccer players, as well as athletes in major collegiate and Olympic sports.
Wilson Sporting Goods is the Official Ball Glove Provider for Softball Factory. Wilson Softball is part of Chicago-based Wilson Sporting Goods Co., the largest baseball and softball equipment company in the world today. In these sports, Wilson manufactures high-performance gloves, bats, uniforms, apparel, protective gear, accessories and player-development equipment through its Wilson®, DeMarini®, Louisville Slugger®, EvoShield® and ATEC® brands. For more information on Softball Factory’s new partnership with Wilson, read the press release here.
Jaeger Sports in the Official Arm Care Partner for Softball Factory. Jaeger is a Southern California-based organization specializing in arm health, arm conditioning and mental training for Softball Factory athletes. Jaeger will provide Softball Factory athletes with the very best in products, such as the “J-Band”. For more information on Softball Factory’s new partnership with Jaeger, read the press release here.
Diamond Kinetics is the Official Bat and Ball Sensor Partner for Softball Factory. Diamond Kinetics provides the most precise data-driven player development tools available in the game of softball. Their revolutionary SwingTracker bat sensor and PitchTracker smart softballs enable players to measure their performance in real-time, track improvement over-time, and share data with coaches and scouts seamlessly through their Factory Athletics profile pages. Get the gear. Get better. Get noticed. For more information on Softball Factory’s partnership with Diamond Kinetics, read the press release here.
Softball America is the Official Content and Media Partner for Softball Factory. Softball America helps to identify current and future stars of the game and proudly partners with Softball Factory to help promote athletes. Softball Factory’s passionate editorial staff comprised of experts (travel ball to college to professional to international), strive to provide the highest level of expertise and insight covering the game at every level, from high school to travel ball, to college, up to international and professional with weekly rankings, top performers, previews, recaps and stories on the industry and the lifestyle. They will provide that same level of insight into Softball Factory athletes, working to highlight and promote such key events as the Under Armour Softball Factory National Evaluation Tryout Tour and Player Development events in locations across the country.
Softball Factory is Fueled by Gatorade. Athletes will be hydrated and fueled for performance at Softball Factory events.
DICK’S Sporting Goods is the Official Sporting Goods Supplier for Softball Factory. DICK’S Sporting Goods, Inc. is an authentic full-line sporting goods retailer offering a broad assortment of brand name sporting goods equipment, apparel and footwear in a specialty store environment. The Company also owns and operates Golf Galaxy, LLC, a golf specialty retailer. As of October 27, 2012, the Company operated 511 DICK’S Sporting Goods stores in 44 states, 81 Golf Galaxy stores in 30 states and eCommerce websites and catalog operations for DICK’S Sporting Goods and Golf Galaxy.
Pocket Radar’s Ball Coach Model named the Official Radar Gun of Softball Factory. From the world’s smallest certified accurate speed radar, to the only radar gun specifically designed for coaching and training, Pocket Radar has engineered a revolutionary product line to fit your speed measurement needs. Each Pocket Radar design includes exceptional performance and technology that fits in the palm of your hand. Pocket Radar products are convenient and rugged enough for everyday use by everyone from pro to amateur, to National Championship winning coaches and anyone interested in speed. For more information about Pocket Radar, visit www.PocketRadar.com.
Group Housing is the Official Hotel Partner for Softball Factory.
National and Enterprise are the Official Car Rental Companies for Softball Factory.
Softball Factory is the Preferred Player Development Partner of Little League® Softball. Softball Factory will work with Little League to encourage sportsmanship, fair play and teamwork, while developing the skills of each player in order to promote future on-field success. We will work with the Little League players to develop their skills and ultimately guide them on their path to college softball.
Softball Factory is the Official Player Development Partner for Babe Ruth Softball. Babe Ruth is an international youth softball and baseball league based in Hamilton, New Jersey. Softball Factory works with Babe Ruth to provide youth softball athletes with new opportunities to develop their skills and fulfill their dream of playing in college. The organizations will work together to continue promoting mental and physical development for athletes within the Babe Ruth League. This partnership is the first of its kind for Babe Ruth, as their reach extends into baseball also.
Softball Factory is the Official Player Development Partner for PONY Softball. PONY Baseball and Softball began with organization of the PONY League in Washington, PA in the summer of 1951. Initially created as a transition league for 13-year old and 14-year old players, PONY was designed to take graduates of Little League Baseball from smaller diamonds to the regulation-size diamond. Growing by word of mouth, the original six teams in Washington were joined by 505 others in 106 leagues around the country and, in 1952, the first PONY League World Series was held. For more information about PONY, visit http://www.pony.org/.
Softball Factory is the Official Scouting Partner for USA Softball. When the Amateur Softball Association (ASA), a volunteer driven, not-for-profit organization based in Oklahoma City, OK, was founded in 1933, it evolved into the strongest softball organization in the country. The growth and development of the association led the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) to name the ASA the National Governing Body of Softball, pursuant to the Amateur Sports Act of 1978. The ASA has many important responsibilities as the national governing body of softball in the United States, including regulating competition to insure fairness and equal opportunity to the millions of player who annually play the sport. When ASA/USA entered the softball picture in 1933, the sport was in a state of confusion with no unified set of playing rules and no national governing body to provide guidance and stability. The ASA changed all that by adopting softball’s first universally accepted rules of play and by organizing consistent and fair competition across the nation. From this beginning, the ASA has become one of the nation’s largest and fastest growing sports organizations and now sanctions competition in every state through a network of 83 local associations. The ASA has grown from a few hundred teams in the early days to over 250,000 teams today, representing a membership of more than four million. As the sport of softball continually evolves, focusing on the USA Softball brand better reflects the legacy that ASA/USA Softball has established over its 80 years as the leader in the sport of softball. Effective January 1, 2017, the National Governing Body of Softball in the U.S., announced their organizational rename, rebrand and new logo, officially to USA Softball.
2011 Press Release: ASA/USA Softball Joins Forces With Softball Factory.
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Library looking for student collaboration at upcoming events
September 02, 2014 / Peter Njoroge, Executive Editor
The Sonoma State University library is hosting interactive events beginning Sept. 4 and students are invited to collaborate on where the library is headed in terms of space, multimedia use and the library’s website.
The library has three floors and two wings on each floor as well as an art gallery and display area. Opened in August 2000, the facility covers 215, 000 square feet and holds 50,000 feet of shelving.
According to the library website, it cost $41.5 million to build and the majority of that funding came from the state of California. The library is home to SSU’s information technology, center for distributed learning, writing center, faculty center, center for community engagement and the Charlie Brown’s Café.
“We’re working on a lot of different projects,” said Web Services Librarian Laura Krier. “We’re looking at redesigning some of the space. We’re constantly working at redesigning the website.”
Krier expects students to share both positive and negative feedback about the library and its services in order to make improvements that benefit everyone.
“We need to know what students want in order to make sure we’re making the right choices. We thought about a lot of different ways we could get students involved. We thought the best way to go about it would be to host a series of drop in events where people could come for about an hour and engage in specific activities,” Krier said.
The exchange of ideas was implemented last spring and Krier thinks it is important to have students informally share ideas and be active in planning the library’s future direction.
“We’re looking at some renovation projects, some new furniture, some new multimedia pods. We’re really open-ended and we want to know what students want when they come in here,” said Krier.
In terms of the budget for the new renovations, Krier stated that they are still in the “idea phase” of the plan. After Krier and her colleagues gather more ideas by collaborating with students, they will subsequently assign the necessary funds.
“I feel like it could definitely have some positive impact on our library,” said senior Noah Marquez. “I’m a senior and I’ve been coming to this library for the past four years and I love this library. It’s a great space, a nice space to come do your work. Not only for that, but also to get help from the writing center. I can definitely see students taking advantage of this space in a good way.”
Krier also hopes to do the events every semester and to add a loyalty club in which students would get early notices of new books and invitations for special events.
Also, technology is in focus and Krier is open for partnerships with the computer science department to create internships with the students from those departments in order to help the library build new tools.
“I think that it should be open later on the weekends. I know that sucks for employees but a lot of the times we do stuff during the day. So I think just the hours and all the floors being open until midnight and not just the first floor. The library brings us all of our customers. I just think it needs to be open or available more often,” said senior and Charlie Brown Café employee Kayla Hassen.
Krier is open to later hours for the library but she said the cost of staffing is the only thing that would come between the idea and its implementation.
Students are encouraged to attend these events and can learn more on SSU’s library website as well as contact Laura Krier at laura.krier@sonoma.edu. The events run from Sept. 4 through Sept. 23 in the library and students will receive food and drinks as well as collaborate with librarians.
September 02, 2014 / Peter Njoroge, Executive Editor/ Comment
Peter Njoroge, Executive Editor
US News and World Report to release ...
New housing construction near campus
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The St. Michael's Story
St. Michael's 3.0
Excellence in Quality
Mid-East Toronto Sub-Region: Primary Care Strategy
Community Advisory Panels
CAPs Value
Our 4 CAPs
Homeless & Under-Housed
First Nations, Métis, Inuit and Indigenous
Information, Access and Privacy
Mental Health and Addictions CAP
Ensuring that all voices are heard
The Mental Health CAP provides a consumer perspective to St. Michael's Hospital on matters related to the mental health continuum of care. With its community partners, the CAP advocates for change, including:
better income support
improved dental care
Since 1992, the Mental Health CAP has worked on behalf of hundreds of consumer/survivors from downtown Toronto on ways to improve mental health services, from the full spectrum of inpatient and outpatient care to social supports and community lunches.
CAPs-in-action
"Having someone take the time to sit there and have the police officer stand back... can help people identify what choices they have and feel back in control of their life." - MCIT participant
Mobile Crisis Intervention Team (MCIT)
Watch an excerpt from the NFB award-winning documentary, The Interventionists.
The CAP identified a need to respond more effectively to 911 calls that involved individuals experiencing a mental health crisis. After consultation with community groups and the hospital, they helped create a unique partnership between the hospital and the police called the Mobile Crisis Intervention Team (MCIT).
The MCIT team - a St. Michael's mental health nurse and a Toronto police officer - travel together in an unmarked car to respond to and de-escalate crisis situations. The team helps to avoid unnecessary arrests or trips to Emergency, and provides links to resources in the community. MCIT was chosen as a Leading Practice by Accreditation Canada in 2009. It was also the subject of an award winning documentary through the National Film Board of Canada's Filmmaker in Residence program.
Community lunch
For the past five years, the St. Michael's Mental Health CAP has organized an annual community lunch for all community partners, including front-line staff from community agencies. During the lunch, participants visit tables staffed by various hospital program areas: inpatient, crisis, and outpatient. They can write down any questions or concerns on the paper table coverings, and many of these questions are answered right away. Participants can also tour different areas of the hospital. CAP Chair Aileen Meagher says, "The lunch is a great way to make links with the community and we always get new members."
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The trading floor in use
Built between 1883 and 1886 to house the business negotiations surrounding the global sale of coal mined from the South Wales valleys, the Coal Exchange is a symbol of Wales’s industry and prosperity in the late 19th and early 20th century. It is famous as the place where the first million-pound cheque was written, to buy coal for France. Roald Dahl’s father was a member of the Exchange. But as the coal industry wound down in the mid-20th century, so did the Coal Exchange and trading ceased in 1958.
In the 1970s the building was Grade II listed and it was originally earmarked as a potential home for the new Welsh Assembly.
More recently, it has been home to a range of creative industries. It has been used as a set for many films and television programmes, notably the “Titanic” episode of Doctor Who. Its Hall has hosted great and memorable gigs by the Manic Street Preachers, the Stereophonics, Van Morrison, Arctic Monkeys and Patti Smith.
In 2013, the majority of the building was closed, following a structural survey, by order of Cardiff Council. However, a small number of businesses continue to operate from one of the wings. In September 2014 the building’s current owners went into liquidation and handed the building to the Crown Estates, opening the way for a community campaign to emerge to save the building.
“Don’t let the corporate men destroy your city” – Patti Smith
(When she played at The Exchange and noted the state of disrepair.)
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HISTORIC MEDICAL CONFERENCE FINDS BOLIVAR MAY HAVE BEEN POISONED
Could one of South America's greatest military figures have died from a deadly poison, rather than the tuberculosis assumed at the time of his death in 1830?
The mysterious illness and death of Simon Bolivar — known as "El Libertador" or "The Liberator" — is the medical mystery in question at this year's Historical Clinicopathological Conference (CPC), sponsored by the University of Maryland School of Medicine and the Veterans Affairs (VA) Maryland Health Care System in Baltimore. This conference is devoted to the modern medical diagnosis of disorders that affected prominent historical figures.
Simon Bolivar, born in 1783 in Caracas, Venezuela, is one of the most influential generals in the history of South America. Bolivar, who died of a mysterious illness at age 47, led the long struggle that freed South America from three centuries of Spanish rule. Bolivar established the nation of Bolivia — previously part of Peru — in 1825, and the new country was named in his honor. Now, French Guyana is the only South American nation that remains a colony.
The Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in the United States will send two representatives to the conference: Counselor Regzeida Gonzalez and Raquel del Rocio Gasperi, director of the Technical and Scientific Unit at the Office of the Public Prosecutor of Venezuela, who was part of the country's Presidential Commission to investigate the death Bolivar.
During the conference, John Dove, MBBS, a Bolivar scholar and orthopedic surgeon from Scotland, will describe Bolivar's accomplishments and the somewhat controversial role he has played in South American history.
"Bolivar ended 300 years of colonization in South America," says Dr. Dove. "He was a liberator and a brilliant hands-on commander. The figures speak for themselves. Bolivar covered more than 80,000 miles and spread the idea of freedom over an area greater than one and a half times the diameter of the earth."
Dove's fellow presenter at this year's CPC is Paul G. Auwaerter, M.D., M.B.A., associate professor and clinical director in the Division of Infectious Diseases in the Department of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. Auwaerter has taken on the challenge of unraveling the mystery of Bolivar's death.
When Bolivar died on December 17, 1830, it was believed he was succumbed to consumption or tuberculosis, a common condition of the day. He had suffered a long illness with a variety of symptoms — frequent bouts of loss of consciousness, skin darkening, extreme weight loss, coughing, exhaustion and persistent headaches.
Dr. Auwaerter, in his careful review of Bolivar's case, has concluded the general's killer was likely not tuberculosis. Rather, Dr. Auwaerter sees evidence of a more sinister cause of death — chronic arsenic poisoning that led to a serious respiratory illness. Considering the many attempts on Bolivar's life throughout his career as a revolutionary, Dr. Auwaerter says he has considered the possibility that the death was an assassination. But most of the signs and symptoms point to slow, chronic poisoning, the kind that might result from drinking contaminated water. Such environmental contact with arsenic would have been entirely possible, Dr. Auwaerter says.
"Bolivar spent a lot of time in Peru, and there have been Colombian mummies found there that have tested positive for high levels of arsenic," he explains. "That indicates the possibility that the water in Peru may have had unusually high levels of the naturally occurring poison."
But that's not all, he adds: "Bolivar was known to ingest arsenic as a remedy for some of his ongoing illnesses — recurring headaches, wasting, hemorrhoids and his chronic episodes of unconsciousness. Arsenic was actually a common medical remedy of the time. In fact, it has recently been discovered that a contemporary leader of Bolivar's, George III, had super-high levels of arsenic in his body tissue and air. It seems he had been treating himself with it."
While the possibility of an assassination certainly adds intrigue to Bolivar's story, "It's unlikely this was acute poisoning," Dr. Auwaerter explains. "What I'm finding is more consistent with chronic poisoning because of symptoms such as his skin darkening, his headaches, his extreme weight loss. His whole body is really falling apart at the end. He lived for quite some time like this. I believe it's likely he would have succumbed to tuberculosis much earlier than he did. The idea of gradual arsenic poisoning is a good explanation to link all these symptoms together."
Dr. Auwaerter began his search by considering the nature of the illness that ultimately led to Bolivar's demise. For the last two weeks of his life, he was emaciated and weak and coughed constantly, producing large amounts of green sputum. The autopsy found signs of green fluid in the lungs and in the heart. Bolivar's doctors concluded he died of tuberculosis because of the respiratory aspect of this final illness.
"This was an era where there was really no ability to confirm that someone had died of tuberculosis," Dr. Auwaerter says. "That green fluid in the lungs and heart is very suggestive of a bacterial infection called bronchiecstasis, which was very common at the time. The green pericardial fluid is very unlikely to represent tuberculosis."
Bolivar also appeared to have had a tumor in his lungs that caused him to be severely hoarse, with a voice so quiet he could hardly be heard for the last six months of his life. Lung cancer could be another complication of chronic poisoning, Dr. Auwaerter adds.
"It's very hard to be definitive here," he explains. "I have to say that tuberculosis is not an unreasonable explanation for his death. But, at the end of the day, there are a lot of features of this illness that argue against tuberculosis. If the body were ever to be exhumed, there would be a lot of things to look at. Arsenic testing on Bolivar's tissue and hair could answer some of our questions."
"Whereas Dr. Auwaerter makes a compelling case for chronic arsenic intoxication complicated by bronchiectasis and lung cancer, I have no doubt that the controversy regarding the ideology of the general's fatal illness will continue until his remains are re-examined using modern diagnostic techniques," Philip A. Mackowiak, M.D., M.B.A., professor and vice chair of the Department of Medicine of the University of Maryland School of Medicine and Chief of the Medical Care Clinical Center of the VA Maryland Health Care System. Dr. Mackowiak founded the annual CPC in 1995, and the program has since examined the lives and deaths of famous figures such as Edgar Allan Poe and Abraham Lincoln.
"Medicine is very much a field of detective work," says E. Albert Reece M.D., Ph.D., M.B.A., interim president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore, John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor and dean, University of Maryland School of Medicine. "Ordinarily, our world class faculty here at the School of Medicine are solving mysteries in the realm of human health in the laboratory and in the clinic. The CPC is a chance for our colleagues in medicine to apply our skills to history, and to revisit the state of our field centuries ago. It reminds us how far we've come, and how the groundbreaking discoveries we make every day will revolutionize medicine for future generations."
Dr. Auwaerter says he enjoyed the challenge of taking on the Bolivar mystery. "I've done a lot of background research to put these ideas together," he says. "I'm not a historian, so this is not usually my thing. But this is just the sort of puzzle I like thinking about."
HISTORIC MEDICAL CONFERENCE FINDS BOLIVAR MAY HAVE...
LOTTERY GAME HELPS TO ASSESS BRAIN DAMAGE FOLLOWIN...
NANODOTS BREAKTHROUGH MAY LEAD TO A LIBRARY ON ONE...
MELTING ICEBERGS CAUSING SEA LEVEL RISE
RARE 95-MILLION-YEAR-OLD FLYING REPTILE AETODACTYL...
EARTH MICROBES MAY CONTAMINATE THE SEARCH FOR LIFE...
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Men, Women, Marriage, and Not Growing Up 4
Socialism doesn't work, in families or in government.
By Lee Tydings | March 3, 2010
This series has explored many reasons why a modern man would rather not grow up in the sense of taking care of a woman and helping her raise their children, and how this societal immaturity is reflected in modern Western politics. A major political force today is the conflict between the adults, who want to keep as much as possible of their earnings, and voters who insist on acting like children and who want the government to spend more and more of other people's money supporting them.
To understand how to fix a problem, it helps to consider how things got fouled up in the first place. As we bring this series to a close, let's explore the political forces that brought us to this point of familial dissolution and dissipated lives.
Society and Money
A great many so-called "fiscal conservatives" think that social conservatism is at best a waste of time and at worst an unnecessarily divisive list of old-fashioned Thou Shalt Nots which have no place in modern governance. They are mistaken - fiscal conservatism and social conservatism are indivisibly linked.
Without the old-fashioned values of our social conservatives - longstanding rules about marriage, family responsibility, duty to parents, and all the rest of the old-fashioned virtues - there can be no fiscal conservatism because the government will persuade itself that it should step in and fill the void left by the abandoned virtues. When parents don't care for their children, social workers happily put them in foster care at government expense.
The American government has tried and failed miserably to fill in for parents ever since LBJ's Great Society, but that wasn't the first attempt by government to replace parents.
Back in ancient Greek times, the Spartan government didn't think parents could be trusted to raise children militantly enough. Children were moved into dorms when relatively young and raised to government standards, creating the finest warriors the world has ever known.
Some of their legendary military feats are remembered to this day, yet the Spartan civilization is long gone, first defeated by "effeminate" Athens and then by various other invaders from progressively further away. As successful as it seemed to be on the field of battle, the Spartan culture's method of child-rearing has been demonstrated by the impartial forces of natural selection not to work.
More recently, Nazi courts removed children from the homes of parents who didn't raise them as the state expected:
Nov. 29, 1937 In Waldenberg, Germany, a court has taken parents away from their children because they refused to teach them Nazi ideology. The parents are pacifists, members of a Christian sect called International Bible Researchers. The court accused them of creating an environment where the children would grow up "enemies of the state." The children were delivered into the state's care.
The judge delivered a lengthy statement reading in part, "The law as a racial and national instrument entrusts German parents with the education of their children only under certain conditions, namely, that they educate them in the fashion that the nation and state expect." [emphasis added]
Quoted from "Chronicles of the 20th Century," 1987 edition, p 475 Chronicle Publications, Mt. Kisco, NY.
Hitler was quite insistent that every last German child, including the current Pope, must be indoctrinated by participating in his Hitler Youth regardless of how their own families might have felt about it. As with the Spartans, this thoroughgoing totalitarianism failed: the Nazi system didn't last even as long as Sparta.
In America, we don't have anything like the same adamantine demands for the government to raise every last child in the nation, but vast percentages of our children are in effect wards of the state. The Left likes to look on this as a success, but in what alternative world are they living? What, exactly, was or is great about the Great Society?
In what way are we a better or stronger nation now that half our mothers would rather have government take care of their offspring than have their fathers care for them? How is it good to have packs of single young men scampering from bar to bar looking no further than the next sexual conquest because any consequences will be the problem of the taxpayer? There will be no angry father appearing at the door with a shotgun. There may, perhaps, be an IRS agent or a process server with his hand out, but that pitfall can be easily avoided by the simple expedient of not earning enough to interest the government in coming after you for child support.
Immaturity Begets Immaturity
I've wondered for many years how liberals can live with themselves. There were problems with our former patriarchal system, but instead of reforming their men, the women decided to go to war with their men. Liberal politicians happily signed on, trashing men in return for women's votes. The awful consequences of their politics of not forcing people to grow up are now visible in broken homes, delinquency, crime rates, school dropouts, domestic violence, and a host of social pathologies.
Are liberals deluded? Do they think they're doing good? Do they know they're doing harm but are so evil that all that matters to the is getting power by spending other people's money or by passing regulations that take away other people's freedom?
Finally, a light dawned. We know that the Senate and the Congress are populated by millionaires. Despite all the lies about getting money from ordinary people, politics has become so expensive that the only people who can afford to run for national office are wealthy people who either fund their own campaigns or have connections to wealthy people who can help them.
For the most part, entrepreneurs who earn the original fortune are too busy to go into politics, so our current politicians are mostly second or third generation wealthy or those who have "earned" their fortune via some postmodern nonproductive career such as that of trial lawyer John Edwards.
Wealthy people have too little time and too much money. They have always had a great deal of trouble getting their children to grow up, going back to the ancient kings who were lucky to get a halfway sane and competent ruler every three or four generations. Modern plutocrats do no better: children of second or third generation wealth are famous for getting into trouble in various ways.
Consider Al Gore, whose father was a wealthy, powerful, respected, and generally honest legislator. Our current Al Gore had no qualms with publishing a documentary riddled with lies. He had no trouble traveling the globe giving high-priced lectures which contained the same lies. He stopped lying, not because he grew up enough to realize that what he was doing was wrong, but because reporters started challenging his lies.
John Kerry was not the first scion of wealth to lie about his military career. Anybody who's tried to raise a child knows that lying comes naturally to all children. The only way to get them to tell the truth is to force them to mature enough to realize that lies end up costing more than they'd like to pay.
Consider Mr. Ayers, Mr. Obama's friend the terrorist. His father was a wealthy Commonwealth Edison executive so Mr. Ayers never had to earn any money on his own. Most of the 9-11 terrorists as well as the Nigerian panty bomber were at least upper middle class. Osama Bin Laden's father is a multi-billionaire.
Then there's the late Teddy Kennedy. His father Joe the rum-runner once said that he had given each of his sons a million dollars on their 21st birthday "so they can tell me to go to hell if they want to." Joe seems not to have noticed that having a million 1960 dollars also meant that his sons could tell everyone else, and indeed polite society itself, to do the same. Having that much money at their disposal also meant that none of them ever had to grow up one bit more than they wanted.
John F. Kennedy seems to have decided at least to grow up sufficiently to put on the expected public display of maturity; his private life, conspiratorially concealed by the media of the day, tells a quite different story.
Younger Teddy didn't even attempt to grow up until he qualified for an AARP card. He was caught cheating at Harvard and avoided expulsion only by the intervention of his family; his antics with Washington waitresses are the stuff of legend. There is also the infamous death of Mary Jo Kopechne who slowly asphyxiated in the back seat of his submerged car sunk in a Chappaquiddick creek while he consulted with his lawyers.
Regardless of his escapades, whether abuse of women, rape, or even murder, the lawyers and financiers of the "Kennedy machine" always kept him out of jail.
Teddy never earned an honest dime in his life because he didn't have to. Throughout his Senatorial career, he kept bleating about "fairness" and shoveling taxpayer money at people who didn't want to grow up.
When I Became A Man, I Gave Up Childish Things
What's behind liberal thought? Most liberals never had to grow up themselves and are incapable of properly valuing adult responsibility. Since they view themselves as the epitome of greatness and goodness, they don't think it's fair or reasonable for other people to have to grow up and become more mature than they are.
Kennedy didn't have to work, so he thought it was "fair" to set up programs so that other people could enjoy the same benefits of irresponsibility as he did. Kennedy didn't have to worry about paying his rent so he helped set up programs so that other people wouldn't have to pay their rent either. Is this the pathway to a just society? No - it's the highway to an infantilized, Soviet-style command economy that offers nothing more than equality of poverty.
Last, there's Mr. Obama. His father exhibited no responsibility for him or to him at all. He credits his grandmother with pointing him in the correct direction, but we know how hard it is for a woman to raise a man to maturity. His male role models were questionable at best.
Is it any surprise that he can't handle men like Mr. Chavez who've fought their way to leadership of a country; or Mr. Putin, an archetypal tough guy who killed and schemed himself to the top of a gangster-based society? How can Mr. Obama cope with such men? Is it any surprise that he let Nancy Pelosi write the health car bill? He's used to deferring to women. He can't lead women, he can't lead men. Has he grown up?
It's not limited to politicians. Hugh Hefner wrote many, many monthly columns about the Playboy Philosophy he epitomized, which boiled down to the idea that men should rack up as many women as possible without taking care care of any of them in any permanent way. Given that the sign over his doorbell read (albeit in Latin) "If you won't kiss, don't ring," the women who entered his domain knew the score.
His writings helped convince men that it was OK for a man not to grow up. Even in his dotage, Mr. Hefner still manages to attract limo-loads of beauties that would put to shame golf stars a third his age. Is it any surprise that he is a Democrat? Immature liberal politicians institutionalize immaturity in themselves and in their supporters.
Hugh Hefner: Not an example of a conservative!
The problem with government spending more and more money taking care of voters who prefer not to grow up is that, as Margaret Thatcher said, eventually you run out of other people's money.
What Liberals Have Wrought
Liberal policies supporting eternal childhood have destroyed our public institutions. Our schools used to focus on education - the children of earlier immigrants were forced to learn English as fast as possible and went on to become outstanding citizens. Now, it doesn't matter if immigrants end up stuck in English as a Second Language courses where they learn nothing until they're old enough to be shoved out of school.
Our cities used to have workable infrastructure. The privately-maintained parts of New York City still function well, but the unionized city employees can no longer maintain what their ancestors built. Voters and government employees have demanded that politicians subsidize their childishness, and the politicians are only too happy to oblige.
We see the FDA attempt to ban cough syrup for children because a few parents are too stupid to read the labels and might hurt their children. All the rest of us have to suffer because a few people aren't smart enough to realize you don't let your kid chug the whole Robitussin bottle at one go?
The federal government requires that all new cars have air bags. Adults who are smart enough to fasten seat belts have to pay $3,000 more for cars because some people are too stupid to fasten their belts?
Must we all suffer because of those who refuse to grow up? According to liberals, the answer is an emphatic "Yes!"
Health care is perhaps the worst example of government forcing irresponsible, childish behavior on all of us. During World War II, the government in its infinite wisdom froze wages because there was a labor shortage with so many men in the military. To get around the wage freeze, companies offered health insurance as an inducement to get the workers they needed.
As a result of this misguided wage freeze, pretty much all Americans have come to expect that someone else will pay for their health care. When someone else pays the bills, we aren't nearly as careful what we spend.
What's more, liberals are convinced that if some workers don't have to worry about paying their own health care costs, nobody should have to worry - just as Ted Kennedy didn't want anyone worrying about paying to heat their homes because he didn't have to worry about heating his homes. As costs for supplying heating oil to poor people keep going up, so do medical costs because everybody pushes their costs off on someone else.
Eventually, there will be no "somebody else" left to pay the bills. What then?
This Is No Surprise
Historian Alexander Tyler said:
A democracy can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasury.
Our founders were well aware of this danger and did their best to prevent it. They explicitly set up a republic not a democracy so that individual states could run things in different ways. That way, people could move to a state that operated in a way they liked. The founders didn't want the federal government forcing all states to operate in the same way.
The Constitution had members of the Senate be appointed by their state legislatures so that the Senate would represent the interests of the various states; the House of Representatives, as its name implies, represented the interests of the people. Unfortunately, we changed the system by amending the Constitution in 1913.
Now that senators are elected by popular vote, they're no longer interested in taking care of the state governments as our founders intended. Why are we surprised that the federal government gets bigger and bigger?
At the time our Constitution was ratified, John Adams stated, "Our constitution was made for a moral and religious people; it is wholly inadequate for any other."
For all of American history even to this day, the most familiar set of moral and religious principles was what's taught in the Bible. Mr. Adams didn't say that the Christian religion per se is required for democracy to flourish, it's the personal maturity and restraint from vice that classical Christianity demands which makes the Constitution work. A complete discussion of Max Weber's opus The Protest Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism would be too long for this article, but a few tid-bits of Christian writing will give you the general idea:
And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you.
- I Thessalonians 4:11
Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread.
- II Thessalonians 3:12
For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.
The Bible clearly taught that Christians must be mature enough to support themselves. In addition, men are required to support their families:
But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.
- I Timothy 5:8
Christian morality, which used to be the basis of acceptable behavior among Americans, required that men support their families. Men who failed in this duty were subject to considerable popular criticism.
When the Pilgrims landed, their number included some "gentlemen" who expected the others to provide for them as the peasants had supported the gentry in Merrie Olde Englande. At first, the Pilgrims agreed to share their food in common, but the colony quickly ran out of food because everybody found something better to do than grow food for other people. Once they gave up socialism for capitalism, individual initiative promptly solved the problem because each person was permitted to keep what they grew.
Similarly, Capt. John Smith of Pocahontas fame found that he had to enforce a policy of requiring people to labor in exchange for food in Jamestown. In other words, everybody had to grow up and take responsibility for themselves.
Freedom to Remain Children at Taxpayer Expense
Times have changed. Instead of expecting families to care for children, our politicians say "It takes a village" and try to get votes by seeing who can shovel the most money at their supporters.
That path leads to social collapse because people aren't forced to grow up. Children can't run a modern society any more than the Lost Boys were equipped to keep the City of London operating. We've let our voters grow up to be children instead of citizens and the cost of all that whole-life child-care is bankrupting our nation.
The Tea Party protestors are demanding that government be less involved in their lives and in their wallets. They want government to treat them as adults who can take care of themselves, butt out of pushing them around, and let them keep their earnings.
The question for our particular moment in history is, will Americans insist that our multiple generations of "adult" children be forced to grow into citizens or will they allow them to stay children? Are we a nation of citizens or a nation of children?
As Reagan's great speech once put it, we have arrived at "A Time for Choosing" - for the two systems cannot permanently coexist in the same economy.
Lee Tydings is a guest writer for Scragged.com. Read other Scragged.com articles by Lee Tydings or other articles on Society.
Other articles in this series
A Farewell to Duty
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: Spitting in the Face of Evil
Gore-Spattered Nobels
Lies, Damned Lies, and Embarrassed Global-Warming Liberals
My Friend the Terrorist
TSA Lying (Down) On the Job
A Patriot of Our Prouder Past
Voices of unity, voices of disunity
Government Don't Know Jack: Regulation
1913: America's Worst Year - Election Reform
Early life of Pope Benedict XVI
"American Adulterer" Author Jed Mercurio on JFK’s Personal Life, Sexual Affairs
Obama’s Communist Mentor
Hugh Hefner Biography and Political Campaign Contributions
irvnx said:
It is a pity the author could not focus on the issue at hand, but give us a diatribe against Liberals, using Christian theocracy and not much rational, perceptive analysis.
I realise this is a podium for disgruntled anti-intellectual Conservatism- still a semblance of sanity for an otherwise fascinating topic might be germane, but no Dr Dobson is this author.
haris said:
modern man is very busy and he have no time for his wife and his children thats way modern man would rather not grow up in the sense of taking care of a woman and helping her raise their children.
riska said:
wow, that's the world full of mystery and contrhopesy
sneha said:
wow,this article is very nice i have never read this type of article.thank you very much for posting this article.
DC527 said:
I THOUGHT THIS ARTICLE MADE A LUCID, INSIGHTFUL ARGUMENT FOR THE REASONS THIS COUNTRY IS IN THE SHAPE IT IS. I BELIEVE MR. OBAMA WAS ELECTED TO THE HIGHEST OFFICE IN THE LAND PRECISELY BECAUSE THERE ARE SO MANY PEOPLE TODAY WHO WANT SOMEONE ELSE TO TAKE CARE OF THEM. I THINK MR. TYDINGS IS RIGHT ON THE MARK.
rochell said:
Married couple should read this. This article is really very helpful to strengthen family ties.
The NY Times presents a very interesting perspective on growing up.
The Toys Are Us
By DAVID HAJDU
"Toy Story 3" is a Pixar parable for graying adults, not kids.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/20/opinion/20hajdu.html
NEARLY 2,000 years after St. Paul of Tarsus wrote his poetic epistles to the people of Corinth, we still equate our capacity for selfless love with the putting away of childish things. That is to say, the time comes for each of us to grow up and pack up our toys.
The ennobling, terrifying drama of outgrowing toys has played out many times in stories and songs - most recently in this weekend's Pixar release, "Toy Story 3" - and these well-loved tales tell us at least as much about the times in which they were created as they do about the time of life when children abandon their dolls and action figures.
Consider Margery Williams's 1922 story "The Velveteen Rabbit." With its portrayal of the old-fashioned plush bunny endangered by arrogant mechanical playthings, the book functioned in part as a critique of the dehumanization of the machine age. I still remember being read the story by my mother and father, who grew up in the late '20s and '30s and held it so dear for so long that they bought a copy for my first son when he was a child, 20-some years ago.
When the stuffed bunny's owner falls ill and the toy is consigned to be destroyed in a bonfire to prevent the spread of germs, the story moves from timely social commentary to more timeless mysticism. My Catholic mother saw saintly virtue in the rabbit's near martyrdom and, through the miracle of crying a real tear, quasi-messianic resurrection. That reading suggests a comparison with the Book of Job, as if the sick boy's abandonment of the bunny for a fancier toy was something akin to divine inscrutability.
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Organisations and Networks - Indonesia
GAYa Nusantara, Surabaya
GAYa Nusantara is a national gay rights group that provides HIV and AIDS counselling and support, community outreach and gay awareness workshops. It also publishes a monthly magazine and coordinates the Indonesian lesbian and gay network, consisting of lesbian and gay organisations and individual activists throughout the nation. The organisation also plays a leadership role in public advocacy, organising campaigns to raise society's awareness on gay and lesbian persons' sexual rights and emancipation. GAYa Nusantara also participates in national public education campaigns to educate gays and lesbians about their rights. (Bahasa Indonesia: http://gayanusantara.org)
Koalisi Perempuan Indonesia (Indonesian Women's Coalition for Justice and Democracy), Jakarata
The mission of the Indonesian Women's Coalition is to be an agent for defending women's rights, be a supportive group for all women, be a critical pressure group for legal and policy reform, increase political participation and representation for women, and to be a motivator and facilitator of organisations, groups and individuals who care for women's concerns. The organisation's main activities are to increase political empowerment of women, conduct public policy and advocacy initiatives, lobby with political parties and other various institutions, create strong financial and human recourses, and develop organisational and networking mechanisms to ensure gender justice in the political process. Indonesian site: http://go.to/koalisip
Kunci Cultural Studies Centre, Yogakarta
Kunci Cultural Centre aims to build strong relationships between social science and the humanities through its newsletter, website, conferences, seminars, workshops, and a library. Their studies are concerned with marginalised issues and people-addressing different themes such as youth culture, sexuality issues (gay,lesbian and queer), racism, postcolonialism, women's issues, youth, urban lifestyle, consumerism, and the politics of the body, identity, and space. The website contains links to articles and cultural studies working papers, links to recent news and articles on Indonesian culture, cultural studies websites/journals, and cultural studies archives.
Q-munity, Jakarta
Q-munity, begun by media professionals concerned about the media images of gays and lesbians, organises an annual film festival with gay theme and draws films from Germany, Canada, France, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey and Malaysia. The objective is to bring more positive images of gays and lesbians into mainstream discourses and remove assumptions about communities which lead to stigma and discrimination. Many of the art films showcased deal with homosexuality and HIV and AIDS.
Spiritia Foundation, Jakarta
Spiritia's vision is to provide quality care and support of people infected by HIV and AIDS in Indonesia. Their work enables them to collaborate with partners at local and national levels, with a primary focus on the role of people living with HIV and AIDS when developing effective responses to the epidemic. Other activities include facilitating a network of positive people, skills training, conducting national meetings, newsletter, publications, a fund to distribute money for medical emergencies for PLWHA, and information dissemination. Spiritia also conducts local focus groups and consultations with communities in an effort to understand how HIV and AIDS has led to a denial of rights.
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12:43 pm by Sharon Butler
On Tuesday Simone Monasebian, the New York chief of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, announced that Ross Bleckner will be the next goodwill ambassador for United Nations’ agencies. Randy Kennedy reported in the NY Times yesterday that earlier this year Bleckner, who has long been involved in AIDS-related causes, went on an official mission to the Gulu district of northern Uganda. Gulu has been terrorized for many years by the rebel force known as the Lord’s Resistance Army, which has abducted and conscripted thousands of children, forcing boys and girls to become killers and sex slaves.
“Using thousands of dollars’ worth of paint, brushes and paper shipped from New York Central Art Supply in the East Village, Mr. Bleckner, 59, worked with a group of 25 children — former abductees and ex-soldiers — for more than a week at a Roman Catholic aid center. The children made 200 paintings that will be sold at a benefit at the United Nations headquarters next month at which Mr. Bleckner will be appointed goodwill ambassador. Several of the luminous paintings are now on view in the front window of the clothing store Moschino in the meatpacking district, whose company is providing money to support the Gulu project.”‘One of the things we realized about a fine artist, a painter, in this role is that the work that emerges from it really needs no translation, no dubbing like a documentary or music — it’s immediately accessible to anyone who sees it,’ said Ms. Monasebian, whose office estimates that human trafficking generates $32 billion a year in profits, third only to drug and arms trafficking.”
“…Bleckner said that after several days of teaching them rudimentary painting and drawing skills, many began to open up to him and to create work that powerfully expressed their experiences. (Mr. Bleckner said one haunting portrait made as part of the project is thought to be that of a henchman of Joseph Kony, the infamous commander of the Lord’s Resistance Army. Mr. Kony is wanted for crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court, whose Trust Fund for Victims helped identify the children who participated in the painting project.)Mr. Bleckner said that he planned to return to the area early next year to enlarge the painting project and that — in his role as ambassador — he hoped to enlist many more artists to become involved in efforts to fight child enslavement and trafficking.” Read more.
Tags: NY Times, Randy Kennedy, Ross Bleckner
Author Sharon ButlerPosted on April 30, 2009 June 25, 2016 Tags NY Times, Randy Kennedy, Ross Bleckner
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You are here: Home / Local Info / History
Rhue Settlement
The Pre-Historic Settlement At Rhue by Colin Scouller in “A guide to Ullapool” Down A Minor road signposted “Rhue” branches left off the A.835 about 2.5 miles north of Ullapool and after about a quarter of a mile, bends sharply to the right. Most of the settlement, which covers four acres or more, lies on […]
People of Hector
People of Hector The Ship Hector and the people who sailed on her By Henry Beer To see some more photos of the passenger list and ship hector click hereOr visit www.townofpictou.com Down on the shores of Pictou Harbour in Nova Scotia ship builders are painstakingly reconstructing the 18th century ship Hector. In 1773 the […]
Ship Hector
Ship Hector FROM OLD SCOTIA TO NOVA SCOTIA Reported by Andy Mitchell Photo Curtesy of www.townofpictou.com An On a bright June morning in 1773 the old Dutch vessel, Hector was moored in Loch Broom, close to the small settlement of Ullapool, taking onboard a group of people from the Highlands. These people were joining a […]
The Loch Broom Landscape By Peter Harrison in “A Guide to Ullapool” The North West Coast has particularly outstanding scenery. The landscape you view today is the result of geologically recent surface processes acting on much more ancient underlying rocks. The oldest rocks to be found in the Lochbroom area are at Corrie and were […]
Archaeology by Cathy Dagg in “A guide to Ullapool” Although people have been living in the Ullapool area since the end of the Ice Age. About 9000 years ago, they have left little evidence to be unearthed by archaeologists. However, there are so few documentary records of life here, even for relatively recent times that […]
Clearances Near Ullapool The Clearances in Loch Broom and Coigach An ancient Act of 1585 legally permitted the laird to evict tenants or sub-tenants provided he gave them 40 days notice. If they failed to comply he could bring in troops to evict them. By the end of the 18th Century several of the old […]
Isle Martin
Isle Martin Isle Martin Near Ullapool The Location Isle of Martin is situated at the mouth of Loch Broom, some three miles northwest of Ullapool in Wester Ross. The nearest mainland is less than a mile away at Ardmair. This strategic location has been important in both the commercial and cultural history of the island. […]
Crofting
Past and Present Day Crofting in Ullapool Crofting: History and Present by George Campbell in “A guide to Ullapool” Crofting is a unique form of land tenure, and though there are similarities with other small farming systems throughout Europe, it has no exact replica. The History of Crofting Crofting as we know it today, is […]
Fishing Industry in Ullapool Ullapool’s Fishing Industry By Joan Britten Ullapool harbour has long been a focal point of the village for tourists, situated, as it is in the centre of Shore Street and also now the ferry terminal for Stornoway. For over 200 years fishing has played an important role in the economy of […]
Pipe Band
The History of Ullapool and Loch Broom The Ullapool Pipe Band & Highland Dancers Before The Pipe Band Pipe Major Norman Gillies was a soldier serving in the Glasgow-based Light Infantry, while there he earned the reputation of being one of Scotland’s leading pipers. In 1975 during April he was appointed as the first instructor […]
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Ullapool History
Ullapool Ferry
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A deeper look at polls from Environics and Ipsos-Reid
The two most recent federal polls unleashed on the world came from Ipsos-Reid and Environics Research Group. Both polls were taken at the end of June, which means that they are now a little dated. So instead of looking at the overall numbers, let's take a look at some of the numbers that weren't included in their original releases.
First, the Environics poll. In addition to the usual regional breakdown that Environics includes in its release, the polling firm also records 'sub-regional' support and was kind enough to pass those numbers along.
The last time I had these numbers was in June 2012, at the height of Thomas Mulcair's honeymoon with Canadians. Compared to those numbers, the New Democrats have fallen 11 points in Environics's polling, while the Conservatives have been down five and the Liberals gained 15.
At the sub-regional level, however, we can see where some of these gains and losses have disproportionately taken place. Compared to the shift in national support, the Liberals have surged disproportionately in Toronto (Environics defines Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal as their CMAs) by 22 points to 50% support. They were up 28 points, also to 50%, in Newfoundland and Labrador. Both of those shifts in support are well outside the margin of error, even for the small samples used for these regions.
It should be noted, however, that Environics also did a poll of 1,000 Newfoundlanders and Labradorians at around the same time as their national June 2012 poll, and compared to those numbers the Liberals were up only 16 points.
Liberal support grew by about the same amount as it did nationally in Saskatchewan (14 points), Montreal (13 points), and Vancouver (13 points), but only by 11 points in Manitoba.
For the Conservatives, their support fell disproportionately in Vancouver (10 points) and Saskatchewan (8 points), while it maintained itself better in Newfoundland and Labrador (down two points), Toronto (three points), and Montreal (two points). But in these areas, the Conservatives did not have much further to drop.
And the New Democrats suffered most in Newfoundland and Labrador (down 25 points and losing the lead), Montreal (down 15 points), and Toronto (14 points), while they fell only four points in Saskatchewan. They were also down 12 points in Vancouver and eight points in Manitoba.
With these levels of support, the Liberals would win five seats in Newfoundland and Labrador to two for the NDP, while the Tories would be shut out. In Manitoba, the Tories would take eight, the Liberals four, and the NDP two, and in Saskatchewan the Conservatives would win 11, the NDP two, and the Liberals one.
The extra bit of precision for the Prairie provinces does have an effect, as using the overall Prairie numbers to project seats short-changes the NDP by two (giving one extra seat to the Liberals and Conservatives).
For the Ipsos-Reid poll, the firm did something different in trying to assess likelihood of voting. They found that, among the general population, the Liberals led with 33% to 30% for the Conservatives and 28% for the New Democrats. The regional numbers would deliver seats in the following proportions:
The three parties would be almost even, with 121 for the Conservatives, 112 for the Liberals, and 102 for the New Democrats, with the Bloc and Greens taking three seats together.
The Conservatives pull more seats from fewer votes because of their advantage in the western provinces and in Ontario. A tie there (34% to 34%) is more advantageous for the Tories. But the party would only win five seats east of the Ottawa River.
When Ipsos-Reid looked at only those who were most committed to vote (about 60% of the sample, interestingly enough considering that is a very plausible turnout number), the Liberals were boosted to 35%, with the Tories dropping to 29% and the NDP to 26%. For those wondering, that is counter to what my simple turnout model would have given for this poll (34% CPC to 33% LPC and 24% NDP). With Ipsos's regional numbers for likely voters (which the firm was also nice enough to pass along), the Liberals move ahead in seats:
The Liberals win 126 seats to 114 for the Conservatives and 95 for the NDP. The big difference is in Ontario, as the turnout numbers give the Liberals 38% to 34% for the Conservatives. But turnout benefits the Tories in B.C. and the NDP in the Prairies and Quebec.
Despite the difference between Ipsos-Reid's total sample and likely voters being relatively marginal (no party moved by more than two points nationally), the consequences are far more important. In the first scenario, the Conservatives might actually try their luck at a minority government. They would likely be defeated by the Liberals and NDP, but if those two parties did decide to work together they would each need to be given almost equal heft in a coalition.
In the second scenario, the Conservatives likely would not try to form a minority government and instead the Liberals would try their hand at it (yes, I know that the Tories could try to continue to govern but I'm assuming they wouldn't, as Jean Charest did in Quebec). If they did work with the NDP, they would be able to call more of the shots holding 57% of the coalition's seats instead of 52%, and finishing much further ahead in the popular vote (nine points instead of five).
This emphasizes just how important likely voter numbers will be in the next election. I am happy to see that more firms are starting to think about how they will go about this in 2015.
Labels: Environics, Ipsos-Reid
undermedia 15 July, 2013 10:53
Unless I'm mistaken, I believe the NDP has in fact fallen 11 points since Environics' June 2012 survey.
Éric 15 July, 2013 11:17
Right you are, will fix. Thanks.
"yes, I know that the Tories could try to continue to govern but I'm assuming they wouldn't, as Jean Charest did in Quebec"
Éric, do you know of any examples other than MacKenzie King where an incumbent government succeeded in retaining power despite not winning a plurality of seats? e.g. at the provincial level?
You're correct that it's quite obvious with Harper, as it was with Charest (or even Paul Martin for that matter), that none of the other parties would be willing to back him in such a situation.
No other examples come to mind.
Ed Prior 15 July, 2013 17:27
1. Russell MacLellan in Nova Scotia won 19/52 seats as did the NDP in 1998. He continued to govern for 18 months with the help of the Conservative party.
2.After the 1896 election Sir Charles Tupper did not immediately resign but continued with the ministry until the Governor General refused to grant appointments. Lord Aberdeen then dismissed Tupper and commissioned Laurier to form a government.
3. In Tasmania the Liberal party government of Robin Gray was reduced to a minority government 17/35 seats at the 1989 election. The Labor party won 13 seats but was able to form a coalition with the Green party (5 seats). Gray tried to remain premier but his request for a dissolution was refused and he was dismissed from office.
I find it unlikely two rivals who are essentially competing for the same voters would form a joint government. It would weaken their potential and eliminate the possibility of either the NDP or Liberals ever forming a majority. In short it could very well solidify a vote split or it may reduce one or both parties to regional players. In addition both parties would be responsible for each others policies and or actions. Better to let Harper play out a minority then win a majority.
I find the assertions among some that a coalition or agreement between two parties wishful thinking at best
bede dunelm 16 July, 2013 00:00
The Feb. 1974 UK general election returned a hung Parliament with Labour winning 301 to incumbent Conservative PM Heath's 297. Health tried to form a coalition with the Liberals but, this proved impractical as the Liberals did not have enough seats to guarantee Labour or the Tories a majority. Health resigned as PM in favour of Harold Wilson who called an election in the Autumn.
Ah yes, I should've thought of the NS example, given that I lived there at the time. The incumbent Libs and NDP tied for seats, although the Libs got a slightly higher share of votes; so it's not quite as extreme as Mackenzie King in 1925 when he clung onto power despite being 15 seats and over 6 percentage points of the popular vote short of Arthur Meighen.
Re: "I find the assertions among some that a coalition or agreement between two parties wishful thinking at best"
I think if Harper gets a minority in 2015, especially a weak one (e.g. "Éric's first seat forecast above where the CPC wins the most seats but fewer votes than the LPC), and the LPC and NDP can combine for a majority, there will be immense pressure from the public and likely many party members and insiders for them to form a coalition government. Whether the leaderships would take heed is anyone's guess, but it's worth noting that it happened following the 1985 election in Ontario.
Personally, in such a situation I would support them making a max 2-year deal during which they pledge to reform our voting system and then call a new election.
Part of the reason I think a minority government is far more likely as opposed to a coalition is the way government formation works. The Crown will call upon either Mulcair or Trudeau to form a government-whoever has more seats. Once Trudeau is in 24 Sussex he would have little reason to work out a formal coalition with the NDP. Whoever forms government does not need to prove to the Crown they have confidence in the House before their appointment, at some point a confidence vote will be held.
The Conservatives may very well go through a leadership change and in the interregnum it would be unlikely they would defeat the government. Some short term agreement may be struck as you have suggested but, if Harper resigns the Liberals or Dippers (whoever form government) could pretty much govern as if they had a majority.
The other big problem for both the Liberals and NDP if they ever formed a coalition would be the dissipation of volunteers and supporters for the other. The impacts are uncertain however, we would likely see a fractionalisation of both parties.
Ohio JOE 15 July, 2013 14:32
Interesting that the Conservatives due better in Manitoba than Sakatchewan.
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June 2013 federal polling averages
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Updates to federal averages and by-elections
The Environics Institute
Latest averages for Canada, Ontario, and Quebec
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Sexydepo.com
Kiara Mia – The Queen of Spanish Porn
31/05/2018 31/08/2018 Categories CelebrityKiara Mia, Pornstar, Spanish, Spanish Porn
If you love Spanish porn and all the stars it has, you must have already have heard of the Latina legend, Kiara Mia. He tits and beautiful face are unforgettable, at a shapely 5’4″ she’s a gorgeous brunette who’s believe it or not is now 41 years old! She’s a stunner born on January 24, 1977 in West Hollywood, California. She comes from a Latino family, and had her sights set on the entertainment world spending fourteen years trying to get into the mainstream right before she started acting in the adult entertainment industry. 2011 was the first time Kiara started to perform in explicit adult and hardcore movies, and by then she was already in her mid-thirties. A late-comer to the industry she still worked with great studios who created the most watched X-rated features. She is known for Evil Angel, Diabolic Video, Wicked Pictures, Bang Productions, Elegant Angel, and Zero Tolerance. She’s bilingual in both English and Spanish.
Since she’s so popular here are some facts about her that will make watching her films much more interesting and fun. Did you know that she calls herself the # 1 international porn star on her Twitter account? She is definitely older and refers to career as coming ‘out of retirement’. She has a lot of social media power since just her Instagram alone has over 2.6 million followers. She uses her influence to allow women to empower themselves to have the best sex life by unleashing their beastial nature in the bedroom. Her own website too claims this title as “The World’s #1 Porn Star,” and to back it up she offer lots of ‘exxxclusive porn videos’ that have never been published. She even has offers on site in terms of sexual favors, and packages that range from $300 a month for a ‘Boyfriend Experience’, or a $75/month VIP experience, and even has a $25/monthly Basic Plan that allows her fans to get closer to her, and gives them x-rated experiences. She’s got over 90 pornographic films under her belt and is always looking for more opportunity on the sexy screen.
Due to a few small roles, she also claims that she’s an actress from having starred in the 2005 film, Harsh Times, that starred Christian Bale and Eva Longoria, and she’s had some other small gigs. Outside movies she’s also educated and has some college experience, she claims she went to college and studied graphic design, and went on to design websites before porn. It’s also known that she has a grown daughter who works as an Instagram model and fitness expert. Her name is Jasmine Chiquito, and the 23 year old has almost a million followers on Instagram, and shows off her skills as a fitness expert, touted for her philosophy of building a booty naturally, her method is famous and she even published a popular E-book.
It’s great that Kiara has a family since it’s on public record that she had a tough upbringing herself. In an interview with Men’s Magazine Daily in 2014, she spoke about her upbringing in Los Angeles and described it as a very strict Latino household. She said in the article; “I grew up in an alcoholic home. My dad was an abusive alcoholic. My mom was an enabler and she never left my dad… Childhood was basically full of fear and anxiety. I was always scared about when my dad was going to come home and beat my mom. I never thought about playing or friends. It was just always this fear about wondering if my dad was going to come home drunk that night. My brother was born when I was eleven years old and I’m not sure what that triggered but my dad never hit my mom again.” She went on: “My dad was an amazing, amazing man when he was sober… That was amazing. They were very loving parents and I’m grateful for that so yeah that was my childhood up to that point.”
Her popularity has risen even more since this summer when she was seen out on a date in Beverly Hills with NFL, San Francisco 49ers quarterback, Jimmy Garoppolo, who’s 26, on July 18 2018. They were are at Avra restaurant, where paparazzi caught them arm-in-arm after Garoppolo wined and dined her and toasted the occasion with wine. Her Instagram posted a pic that night that read ‘date night’, but nothing more has come out of that soiree. Online searches for her blew up, as she broke many hearts, simply with the speculation that she’s no longer single.
Celebrity Scandals Provide Media Relations Tips For Top Leaders
04/12/2017 27/11/2017 Categories Celebrity
Over the past few months so many celebrities got caught in the spotlight over sex scandals. But when such news surfaces in the media I think it is interesting to observe how celebrities address the poor behaviour in an attempt to salvage their images and reputations. These types of crises can also happen in large organizations. When they do, top leaders have to decide how they are going to react and communicate with the media to preserve the reputation of the organization.
Today, looking at the gossip magazines and celebrity gossip programs on satellite TV, one would have to believe that monogamy in Hollywood is out of style. In the latest celebrity cheating scandal between Jesse James and his ex-Sandra Bullock, the world has wondered aloud how anyone could possibly cheat on such a beautiful, successful and interesting woman. For James and his mistress, business has never been better. The two have routinely had their names smeared across television and magazines.
In October, David Letterman came forward to quickly address the media on his late night show and describe an extortion plot against him that was based on allegations that he had a sexual relationship with a female employee. The media broke the news in November that Tiger Woods had been philandering with multiple women after he was involved in a mysterious car accident outside his home. But in that instance Tiger waited three months before talking about the scandal in public.
So what can a top leader learn from these two men about what to do if this type of a crisis hits and their reputation and image – and that of their organization – is suddenly at stake?
Top leaders are seen as role models within their organization. They or someone else in the organization can make a big mistake – but as leaders they or someone on their top staff must address the media in a proactive fashion. Otherwise personal and professional brands and images are threatened and can be easily damaged or destroyed.
I acknowledge that there are millions of different viewpoints about how David and Tiger handled their personal situations and private matters. But what I want to highlight are some valuable professional tips for top leaders who face these kinds of unexpected situations and then have to step out and face the cameras.
1) Don’t Avoid the Confrontation – People hate embarrassing moments and confrontation, and many times they think the situation will die down and go away if they just ignore it. That “ostrich with its head in the sand” plan just doesn’t work, especially in this media-driven era. Especially when celebrities or powerfully branded organizations like Toyota make mistakes, people want to know the truth. When leaders don’t come forward to talk about the facts, the public and the media draw their own conclusions – and those are usually much more sensational and damaging. We all know how the media can distort facts and how that can do significant harm to an individual or organization.
2) Do the Right Thing – Every organization needs to have a crisis management plan in place ahead of time and decide prior to the crisis who is the best person to address the media. This top person needs to accept responsibility for the inappropriate action or behavior, apologize, and express concern for those who have been hurt. Tell the facts quickly and let people know what you plan to do to change your behavior or otherwise rectify the situation.
3) A Scripted but Heartfelt Expression of Emotion – In Tiger’s media appearance I did like that he had a scripted message to keep him focused on what he needed to say. But I believe that his monotone voice and reading of the script lacked real emotion. In a situation where you have hurt people you need to show real emotion through your body language and your tone of voice. If your physical presence, body language, and voice are not all congruent, people will perceive mixed messages and question your authenticity.
Get Back To Business – After you have promptly addressed the media it is time to get back to business. Individuals or organizations make mistakes, but it’s how they handle the situation and react afterward that can keep a personal and corporate brand intact. When you can admit wrongdoing to millions of people – and it shows in how you speak and behave under pressure – the public is more inclined to respect and forgive you and let you get back to work.
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News Ch8 Today at 6AM
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News Ch8 at 6PM : WFLA : October 3, 2016 6:00pm-6:30pm EDT
impacting the red tide outbreak and water keepers may sue the city of st. petersburg because of it. jeff patterson joins us live in tampa and help us connect the dots. what is the connection between the sewage spill and red tide rex>> reporter: good evening and i will try to do that. a little bit of a storm storm water runoff taking everything down the street and into the bay is not good. add to that the recent sewage release we had during and after hurricane hermine and environmentalists tell us that is a recipe for trouble. it's the smell you often notice first. a red tide outbreak can kill thousands of fish. when they wash up on the beach, the smell was not pleasant. the algae from red tide can irritate your eyes, nose and lungs. justin believes the maybe making red tide words. >> i think the main problem is storm water runoff. i think it's also indisputable that raw sewage or partially treated sewage flowing into waterways contribute to conditions that foster red tide. >> reporter: the florida fish and wildlife commission tracks red tide and currently there is a plan from track
impacting the red tide outbreak and water keepers may sue the city of st. petersburg because of it. jeff patterson joins us live in tampa and help us connect the dots. what is the connection between the sewage spill and red tide rex>> reporter: good evening and i will try to do that. a little bit of a storm storm water runoff taking everything down the street and into the bay is not good. add to that the recent sewage release we had during and after hurricane hermine and...
News Ch8 Today at 6AM : WFLA : October 4, 2016 6:00am-7:00am EDT
condition this morning. certainly a very scary situation, and last night it was in st. petersburg. it was near the avesta apartments on 54th avenue north in st. petersburg. the crash happened when traffic westbound on 54th and one boy was riding the bicycle and the other was on the handlebars. for hours fhp troopers had no idea who the victims were or the name of their parents. >> i have been waiting outside, waiting for the parents. haven't seen any parents, and i was telling one of the employees earlier tonight, if they come back in, let me know so i can call police so we can at least try to find the one big question we still have this morning is whether or not the parents or guardians of those two boys will face any criminal charges. we know the boys were left apparently alone riding the bicycle in st. petersburg last night, and we are checking back in with florida highway patrol to see if any charges could be on the way. gayle? >> such a tragic story. thank you, mary. >>> the university of south florida fraternity has been suspended this morning after a hosted by the frat. it was
condition this morning. certainly a very scary situation, and last night it was in st. petersburg. it was near the avesta apartments on 54th avenue north in st. petersburg. the crash happened when traffic westbound on 54th and one boy was riding the bicycle and the other was on the handlebars. for hours fhp troopers had no idea who the victims were or the name of their parents. >> i have been waiting outside, waiting for the parents. haven't seen any parents, and i was telling one of the...
News Ch8 Today at 4:30AM : WFLA : October 4, 2016 4:30am-5:00am EDT
on 54th avenue north in st. petersburg, and the troopers say when traffic westbound was stopped and on the bicycle and the other was on the handlebars at a near drugstore one employee says she sees the pair in the store often. >> watched them cross the road the other day, thinking the worst, thinking they was going to get hit. >> reporter: the driver who hit them claims they didn't see the into the street. for hours afterwards, troopers couldn't find the parents, and at first they didn't know their names. we found out one is in stable condition this morning, and the other is in critical condition. we are trying to find out from highway patrol whether or not the parents will face charges, gayle. >> mary, it's gene. we will check back with a bit, thanks. >>> a man with an annual pass to seaworld is accused of molesting two young girls. a 12-year-old and 15-year-old accused macormic of floating against him. seaworld is claiming they will not allow him back into the weatherwise this morning. >> we will talk about what is happening today, and then the potential long-term effects for matt
on 54th avenue north in st. petersburg, and the troopers say when traffic westbound was stopped and on the bicycle and the other was on the handlebars at a near drugstore one employee says she sees the pair in the store often. >> watched them cross the road the other day, thinking the worst, thinking they was going to get hit. >> reporter: the driver who hit them claims they didn't see the into the street. for hours afterwards, troopers couldn't find the parents, and at first they...
News Ch8 Today at 5AM : WFLA : October 20, 2016 5:00am-5:30am EDT
. >> ross made it all the way to st. petersburg before being taken down. the corrections officer is fine . during the arrest no deputies were injured. >>> a little bit later this morning ross will make his first appearance in front of a judge to face the charges that he committed in st. petersburg which include fleeing arrest. he will then have to be extradited over to pull county to face other charges -- po they are. in total he was only freak for about 2 hours. >>> another comfortable morning out there. we are really getting a treat and we haven't even gotten to the cold front that will bring in the real fall weather so enjoy. let me take you hour by hour through the day so you can plan things out: by 8 am we're still in the might see a few passing clouds through the day but i left it at 10 percent rain chance. i don't think a lot of us will see the rainfall. we're at 84 degrees by 4:00. plenty of sunshine with temperatures slightly above average. the cold front arrives late tomorrow. breezes will pick up. i don't expect that much rain but i do expect much cooler air. breakout the scar
. >> ross made it all the way to st. petersburg before being taken down. the corrections officer is fine . during the arrest no deputies were injured. >>> a little bit later this morning ross will make his first appearance in front of a judge to face the charges that he committed in st. petersburg which include fleeing arrest. he will then have to be extradited over to pull county to face other charges -- po they are. in total he was only freak for about 2 hours. >>>...
News Ch8 Today at 5:30AM : WFLA : October 21, 2016 5:30am-6:00am EDT
jackson. the mayor's rally this morning will happen in st. petersburg this morning. the mayors of tampa and st. petersburg are among the 20 former and current mayors campaigning for hillary clinton as part of this tour. >> donald trump is heading to north carolina today and from there he will head onto pennsylvania. monday he's having a rally here in the bay area at 7:00 p.m. at the mid florida credit union amphitheater at the florida state fairgrounds. >>> well, at a campaign stop in addressed his repeated claims this election is rigged and made his supporters a promise. listen. >> i would like to promise and pledge to all of my voters and supporters and to all of the people of the united states that i will total accept the results of this great and historic presidential election if i win. criticized for refusing to say he will accept the election if he loses though. now a lead attorney in the 2000 bush versus gore recount is speaking out. david boise argued the case for al gore and explains in that case that gore and former president bush said they would respect and abide by wha
jackson. the mayor's rally this morning will happen in st. petersburg this morning. the mayors of tampa and st. petersburg are among the 20 former and current mayors campaigning for hillary clinton as part of this tour. >> donald trump is heading to north carolina today and from there he will head onto pennsylvania. monday he's having a rally here in the bay area at 7:00 p.m. at the mid florida credit union amphitheater at the florida state fairgrounds. >>> well, at a campaign...
NEWS CH8 @ 7PM : WFLA : October 3, 2016 7:00pm-7:30pm EDT
reports the group may soon sue the city of st. petersburg because of it. >> it is the smell that you often notice first, a red tie- dye can kill thousands and thousands of fish. justin bloom believes the recent sewage into the day may be making red tide worse. >> waterways contributes to the conditions which will foster red tide. >> reporter: the florida fish and wildlife commission tracks red tide and currently, there is a bloom from tampa bay to charlotte harbor. the fwc maintains red tide is a natural occurrence. sandy gilbert is with a group called s.t.a.r.t. that monitors red tide and advocate lodz to -- laws that prevent contribution. they say this red tide problem sewage release isn't helping. >> it can increase the problem of red tide in other things, that is the kind of nutrient red tide eats. >> reporter: suncoast water keepers say they intend to sue st. petersburg if the wastewater problem is not fixed. jeff patterson, news channel 8. >>> as hurricane matthew looms, thousands of floridians are dealing with damage from hurricane hermine. fema representatives are going door to doo
reports the group may soon sue the city of st. petersburg because of it. >> it is the smell that you often notice first, a red tie- dye can kill thousands and thousands of fish. justin bloom believes the recent sewage into the day may be making red tide worse. >> waterways contributes to the conditions which will foster red tide. >> reporter: the florida fish and wildlife commission tracks red tide and currently, there is a bloom from tampa bay to charlotte harbor. the fwc...
NEWS CH8 @ 7PM : WFLA : October 17, 2016 7:00pm-7:30pm EDT
experiencing problems. mayor rick christman says he has already budgeted capacity issues in st. petersburg. >> transparency is always important. we recognize and one of the things we have done after the last event is we took a look internally and said, what did we do right? what can we do run? what can we do better? communication is one of those things that we settled on we know we can do better on and and how quickly. >> the task force will meet bimonthly. and action plan should be in place within the next 90 days. >>> the man who fired a gun at george zimmerman during a road rage incident last year is heading to prison for a long time. today, a judge sentenced matthew apperson to 20 years in prison for attempted second- degree murder. zimmerman testified in may 2015 that he followed him, flas horn. then he says he pulls up beside him and shot at him. >>> once again, amy schumer has offended people in tampa bay during a show last night in tampa. some people booed, even walked out of the theater, when she delved into some trump bashing. in the youtube video uploaded by username, mama pain, you can see schu
experiencing problems. mayor rick christman says he has already budgeted capacity issues in st. petersburg. >> transparency is always important. we recognize and one of the things we have done after the last event is we took a look internally and said, what did we do right? what can we do run? what can we do better? communication is one of those things that we settled on we know we can do better on and and how quickly. >> the task force will meet bimonthly. and action plan should...
malter goes before the --stinky matter goes before the st. petersburg city council. it is monday morning. and you are watching news >>> happening today, a special meeting in st. petersburg to get to the bottom of the sewage spill scandal. news channel 8's mary mcguire is live in st. pete. mary, the mayor was furious when he found out the report on waste water was never shared with his office or city council. >> reporter: he certainly was. this information should have been shared with city leaders back in july before hurricane matthew hit. it warned of sewage issues during heavy rainfall. millions of gallons of waste water was released into tampa bay after the hurricane. a report warned of sewage spills if the city closed the treatment plant. the plant did close but st. pete's mayor and city council claim they never saw the report. back in september, the former st. pete mayor claimed the >> somebody wasn't paying attention. i'm not going to blame the administration or city council, somebody wasn't paying attention. >> reporter: now the head of the city's northwest water treatment
malter goes before the --stinky matter goes before the st. petersburg city council. it is monday morning. and you are watching news >>> happening today, a special meeting in st. petersburg to get to the bottom of the sewage spill scandal. news channel 8's mary mcguire is live in st. pete. mary, the mayor was furious when he found out the report on waste water was never shared with his office or city council. >> reporter: he certainly was. this information should have been shared...
is by the polk parkway, back to gene and gayle. >>> happening today, the clock st. petersburg motel. they have just a few hours to finish packing before they'll be forced out. for years, the motel has been home to low-income families but the building will be demolished in the coming months to make way for a commercial development. news channel 8's ryan hughes is at the motel this morning. some families have been there for quite a while. >> reporter: some have been here for several years but at this point, they have just a few hours left before they must many. [no audio ] >> reporter: eviction notices were served within the last week. some residence made arrangements to stay at another motel but it's more costly so they won't be there long. a company bought the property foreclosure. the new owners plan to demolish the motel and turn it into commercial property. back here live this morning, closing time is 8:00 this morning. sheriff deputies and social service workers will be onhand to assist. we will be here gayle and bring you the latest as the remaining residents leave the mosley m
is by the polk parkway, back to gene and gayle. >>> happening today, the clock st. petersburg motel. they have just a few hours to finish packing before they'll be forced out. for years, the motel has been home to low-income families but the building will be demolished in the coming months to make way for a commercial development. news channel 8's ryan hughes is at the motel this morning. some families have been there for quite a while. >> reporter: some have been here for...
fellow inmates in the building and then took off with the work truck. emitted all the way to st. petersburg before being taken down. they caught the guy. he was on the ground and 3 cops have their guns on them. he would intentionally pick up his head and kick his feet and they were telling him not to move. said>> reporter: the corrections officer is fine and during the arrest no deputies in pinellas county, ross was considered to be a minimal security risk in may. he was in prison on forgery charges, sentenced to 5 years in prison back in 2014 now he faces a host of other more intense more severe charges and a lot more time behind bars. >>> let's get a check on the weather. >> it feels pretty nice out there this morning. wee walk you hour by hour through the day. starting at 7 am, 68. we want to 72 degrees at 10 am. we have an afternoon high of 86. that is 2 degrees above normal. our rain chances are slim to none. we get this breeze from north tees throughout the day. while we may see a few passing clouds, the risk for showers is head into the weekend: we're 86 today, 80 for tom
fellow inmates in the building and then took off with the work truck. emitted all the way to st. petersburg before being taken down. they caught the guy. he was on the ground and 3 cops have their guns on them. he would intentionally pick up his head and kick his feet and they were telling him not to move. said>> reporter: the corrections officer is fine and during the arrest no deputies in pinellas county, ross was considered to be a minimal security risk in may. he was in prison on...
News Ch8 First @ 4 : WFLA : October 18, 2016 4:00pm-5:00pm EDT
. instead we're told he ft damage by staging another accident. >>> right now a st. petersburg police officer is off the force accused of driving while under the influence. the deputies tell us they found officer anthony green sleeping behind the wheel of his personal car. he refused to take a breathalyzer test. green was also arrested for dui back in 2009. starting today any employee immediately suspended without pay. >>> a bradenton grandmother is being kicked out of her home because she allowed her young grandson to move in. >> and last year dona sousa brought in her 1-year-old grandson to live with her. the boy's mother is battling drug addiction and unable to care for him, but sousa lives in a retirement community that does not allow children and is being convictein 30 not being consider ts or lenient towards her. >> in my heart i don't understand how people can be so cruel especially when it involve as baby. >> reporter: the owner of the mobile home park told ws channel 8 that she understood the rule0s of the complex. they added she has been given more than six months to find a
. instead we're told he ft damage by staging another accident. >>> right now a st. petersburg police officer is off the force accused of driving while under the influence. the deputies tell us they found officer anthony green sleeping behind the wheel of his personal car. he refused to take a breathalyzer test. green was also arrested for dui back in 2009. starting today any employee immediately suspended without pay. >>> a bradenton grandmother is being kicked out of her home...
: it's moving day at the mosley motel in st. petersburg in the last couple of weeks more than 400 residents packed up their stuff and left. ashley packed as the deadline loomed. >> i have been moving for two get out of here. >> reporter: it may say motel on the sign but to her and her six kids this was home the past two years. >> it's like losing family.>> reporter: miami real estate firm alters cardinal bought the dilapidated motel and plans to demolish it to make way for business development. residents were served with eviction notice any sheriff's deputies make sure they fo the property and reminding them it's time to go. the chef wanted to make sure it was a smooth transition. >> it's a balance between respecting property rights in the owner's interest in the property which they certainly have been making sure we accomplish this in a dignified and humane and compassionate way for these people who don't have anywhere else to live. >> reporter: some residents moved into nearby hotels and others plan to stay in shelters. animal services came to pick up at that families could not
: it's moving day at the mosley motel in st. petersburg in the last couple of weeks more than 400 residents packed up their stuff and left. ashley packed as the deadline loomed. >> i have been moving for two get out of here. >> reporter: it may say motel on the sign but to her and her six kids this was home the past two years. >> it's like losing family.>> reporter: miami real estate firm alters cardinal bought the dilapidated motel and plans to demolish it to make way...
bottom of the sewage scandal. things should get underway here in st. petersburg at 8:30 this morning. this. there will be a lot of hard feelings here. if this was a problem that could have been avoided. >> sure, because it was inconvenient for the people that live there and think of the water dumped into the bay. thank you, mary. >>> friends and family of a tow truck operator hit and killed by a drunk driver almost two weeks ago held an event this weekend in his memory. more than 50 drivers joined the family during a procession on sunday. towing and was on i-75 when he was hit and killed. his coworkers are hoping that something can be done about the move over law before someone else is hurt. >> wasn't nice. you know, it's a shame that we get up and go on calls and we don't know if we're coming back home to our families or not. because of drunk drivers. >> 44-year-old gregory miller of lakewood ranch faces dui hillsborough county jail with no bond. >>> a fiery weekend crash on the veterans expressway claimed the lives of two people. a 54-year-old is accused of speeding and hit
bottom of the sewage scandal. things should get underway here in st. petersburg at 8:30 this morning. this. there will be a lot of hard feelings here. if this was a problem that could have been avoided. >> sure, because it was inconvenient for the people that live there and think of the water dumped into the bay. thank you, mary. >>> friends and family of a tow truck operator hit and killed by a drunk driver almost two weeks ago held an event this weekend in his memory. more...
favoritism. the fdle has been called to investigate. >>> a stinky sewage spill in st. petersburg. the city leaders met on monday to figure out how to prevent a similar disaster in the future. during hurricane hermine millions of gallon flowed into tampa bay it will take millions of dollars to put the plant back online. >> our contracts that e-mail each one of us personally and mail us the report. >> council members said they were never given the detailed closing the plant. >>> a rapper was caught on camera kicking a woman in the face. he claims it was self-defense after tree grabbed his leg. the jury is all women, and it's expected the trial will only last a day. >>> members of movement spoke out. shots wither fired through the windshield when he started to movement the shooting, as you may remember, sparked an uproar in the african american community, putting st. pete in the national spotlight. >> i never thought that i would be growing up, and 18 years later, my brother was killed until the street. 40 some people witnessed him being killed, and the officers were still found not guil
favoritism. the fdle has been called to investigate. >>> a stinky sewage spill in st. petersburg. the city leaders met on monday to figure out how to prevent a similar disaster in the future. during hurricane hermine millions of gallon flowed into tampa bay it will take millions of dollars to put the plant back online. >> our contracts that e-mail each one of us personally and mail us the report. >> council members said they were never given the detailed closing the plant....
st. petersburg motel. they have just a few hours to finish packing before they'll be forced out. for years, the motel has been home to low-income families but the building will be demolished in the coming months to make way for a commercial development. news channel 8's ryan hughes is at the motel this morning. some families have been there for quite a while. >> at first we thought, this really isn't going to happen. until reality set in about a week and a half ago. reporter: eviction notices were served within the last week. some residence made arrangements to stay at another motel but it's more costly so they won't be there long. foreclosure. the new owners plan to demolish the motel and turn it into commercial property. back here live this morning, we're told roughly 20 to 25 rooms are still occupied at this hour. closing time is 8:00 this morning. sheriff deputies and social service workers will be onhand to assist. we will be here gayle and bring you the latest as the remaining residents leave the mosley motel. folks. thank you, ryan. >>> right now, an uneasy morning commut
st. petersburg motel. they have just a few hours to finish packing before they'll be forced out. for years, the motel has been home to low-income families but the building will be demolished in the coming months to make way for a commercial development. news channel 8's ryan hughes is at the motel this morning. some families have been there for quite a while. >> at first we thought, this really isn't going to happen. until reality set in about a week and a half ago. reporter: eviction...
News Ch8 at 5PM : WFLA : October 17, 2016 5:00pm-5:30pm EDT
the meantime looking for other ways to treat their patients. reporting in st. petersburg, janet jones news channel 8. >>> a deadly explosion at the world's largest chemical plant under investigation in germany. liquids and liquefied gas. at least one person is dead and six are injured and several other still missing. no word yet what caused the explosion.>>> the long-awaited of offensive to reclaim iraq's second-largest city from isis is underway. mosul was held by militants for more than two years and the last major stronghold in the un and kurdish troops. it's expected to be the toughest operation since american troops left direct five years ago. >>> the governor of north carolina calls it an attack on democracy. republican party field office in an orange county strip mall firebombed over the weekend. working to figure out who was behind the attack. meanwhile a group of democrats quickly raise more than $10,000 online to reopen the office. >>> just 22 days to go until the election and if the latest polls are correct democratic nominee hillary clinton maintains a double-digit lead na
the meantime looking for other ways to treat their patients. reporting in st. petersburg, janet jones news channel 8. >>> a deadly explosion at the world's largest chemical plant under investigation in germany. liquids and liquefied gas. at least one person is dead and six are injured and several other still missing. no word yet what caused the explosion.>>> the long-awaited of offensive to reclaim iraq's second-largest city from isis is underway. mosul was held by militants...
sarasota forecast coming up. >> thank you. >>> right now a little league in st. petersburg is struggling to pay its bills. >> the company that handles registration and fees didn't pay the league $35,000. we went to find out why. >> reporter: northeast little league started the season without any money, with only three weeks left in the season, the league president david van says he is still getting the run around. >> the dog died. sorry, i have been out of town. why they can't give toc money. roars the league coach and manager says the league's financial slump has put a strain on a lot of people. >> you're asking parents to pay twice that couldn't afford the first time. our vendors are not paid. we ordered shirts that we didn't have the money for. >> reporter: and now that it is getting dark earlier in the evening, that means even more problems. >> you have to be shut down a little earlier. some nights we won't play because we can't afford the run the lights. >> reporter: i aske never see this $35,000, and me told me regardless what happens with the money, he says he is still
sarasota forecast coming up. >> thank you. >>> right now a little league in st. petersburg is struggling to pay its bills. >> the company that handles registration and fees didn't pay the league $35,000. we went to find out why. >> reporter: northeast little league started the season without any money, with only three weeks left in the season, the league president david van says he is still getting the run around. >> the dog died. sorry, i have been out of...
News Ch8 Mid-Day at 11AM : WFLA : October 24, 2016 11:00am-12:00pm EDT
tampa in the vaughn center at 4:00 p.m. it's free and open to the public. st. petersburg to get to the bottom of that sewage spill scandal. this centers on the release of millions of gallons of waste water into tampa bay after herr hermine. a consultant report in 2014 warned of sewage spills if the city closed the treatment plant. the plant was closed despite the report. saint pete's mayor and city council claim they never saw the report. but former mayor bill foster attention. i'm not going to blame the administration or city council, somebody wasn't paying attention. >> in all, more than 148 million-gallons of waste water has been dumped into the bay. >>> time is 11:06. we're joining lee with a gorgeous look at our forecast. i'm not sure we can top this weekend. but i think we're going to try. >> we're going to try, we live in florida. some people might have thought it was cool yesterday morning. today we're a little warmer. but just as little bit of a vacation from having to track any rainfall. i tell you what, it's scanning the skies, a million watts of power. still, no rain. t
tampa in the vaughn center at 4:00 p.m. it's free and open to the public. st. petersburg to get to the bottom of that sewage spill scandal. this centers on the release of millions of gallons of waste water into tampa bay after herr hermine. a consultant report in 2014 warned of sewage spills if the city closed the treatment plant. the plant was closed despite the report. saint pete's mayor and city council claim they never saw the report. but former mayor bill foster attention. i'm not going...
News Ch8 Mid-Day at 11AM : WFLA : October 4, 2016 11:00am-12:00pm EDT
water mall in st. petersburg, it'll be held in the parking lot of the target store on martin luther king jr. street north. both events start at 5:00 p.m. we posted more information on wfla.com. >>> meanwhile the city of tampa just received $1.9 million in federal funds. it's part of $119,000,000.000000000 dolled out for the hiring of new police officers. tampa can now hire 1r5 new beats. something mayor bob buckhorn and tpd police chief eric ward agree is a huge boost to keeping our city safe. >>> sarasota county is making a push against the fight against zika virus. a team of representatives from all faith food bank, the department of health, and sarasota mosquito management are working on the fight the bite campaign aimed to create awareness of mosquito bites and mosquito repellent to people who may need it. this campaign will distribute more than 28,000 can of insect repellent in sarasota county over the next 30 days. >>> good news for commuters this morning. transportation officials will not convert regular lanes on the howard franklin bridge to toll lanes. the d.o.t. decided to
water mall in st. petersburg, it'll be held in the parking lot of the target store on martin luther king jr. street north. both events start at 5:00 p.m. we posted more information on wfla.com. >>> meanwhile the city of tampa just received $1.9 million in federal funds. it's part of $119,000,000.000000000 dolled out for the hiring of new police officers. tampa can now hire 1r5 new beats. something mayor bob buckhorn and tpd police chief eric ward agree is a huge boost to keeping our...
. petersburg. that is warmer than yesterday. only by a degree in tampa and st. petersburg. brandon, you're 4 degrees warmer than 6:00 a.m. yesterday du that's even above the average of 82 despite the extra clouds. at 6:08 i take you hour by hour through your friday and then plan out your weekend for you. >>> leslee is going to help you plan out your commute. >> looking forward to the weekend. >> yeah. >> things are business ness -- busier but good. when i show you surface roads and they are yellow it's a good drive but that's a lot of surface traffic lights that you have to go area. st. petersburg,a great dive on 275. in tampa, bearss avenue down to i-4 just a 10 minute drive. we have a collision over in manatee county. just a head's up. it's off to the side of the roadway, u.s. 19 at ken hubbard lane. a little accelerate -- activity but no lanes blocked. now back to gene and gayle. >> thank you, leslee. >>> right now questions re main after a fire tor destroying the building and killing dozens of animals inside. investigators are trying to find out if it was illegal for the owner
. petersburg. that is warmer than yesterday. only by a degree in tampa and st. petersburg. brandon, you're 4 degrees warmer than 6:00 a.m. yesterday du that's even above the average of 82 despite the extra clouds. at 6:08 i take you hour by hour through your friday and then plan out your weekend for you. >>> leslee is going to help you plan out your commute. >> looking forward to the weekend. >> yeah. >> things are business ness -- busier but good. when i show you...
News Ch8 at 11PM : WFLA : October 27, 2016 11:00pm-11:34pm EDT
temperatures fall quickly into the upper 70s. mostly 70s around the region, wesley chapel, st. petersburg 79, to 74. clouds in the south in the ri for development. we went to watch it because the sea surface temperatures are warm and is bringing rain to cuba today. a lot of rain across the south part of florida. right across the northern keys in the southern peninsula florida. that is the result of a surface trough and a persistent northeasterly wind. range of temperatures there. this game in tampa tomorrow, friday night playing the guys from navy. 7:00 p.m., 79 degrees at kickoff. very comfortable weather overall. we won't see much an array of changes. this front -- we will see clouds and met -- mix with sunshine. best rain chances they would be for southern areas. high pressure continues in the flow is stronger across the north -- or rather the southern part of the state. the winds from the northeast to help with the humidity. saturday a mix of clouds and sun with the temperatures about the same. friday, saturday and sunday rain chances are low. less than 10%. you would like
temperatures fall quickly into the upper 70s. mostly 70s around the region, wesley chapel, st. petersburg 79, to 74. clouds in the south in the ri for development. we went to watch it because the sea surface temperatures are warm and is bringing rain to cuba today. a lot of rain across the south part of florida. right across the northern keys in the southern peninsula florida. that is the result of a surface trough and a persistent northeasterly wind. range of temperatures there. this game in...
News Ch8 First @ 4 : WFLA : October 4, 2016 4:00pm-5:00pm EDT
auctioned off at the famous renaissance in st. petersburg. >> i know this is going to go for a lot of money. >> thank you. >> create opportunity. the artists hope you will want to frame their next masterpiece. andly be at the annual fundraiser in st. petersburg which raise as lot of money to keep the agency up and running, but i wanted to show you ways you can help by donating supplies, offering your time to teach the clients at park or if you want to buy some art, i have put a link on wfla.com so you can connect with park. >>> hello, there. i hope you are enjoying your afternoon. i want to talk about some road work that is going on. just be on the look-out for it. it is a project that will not be wrapped up until october 7, on and wrapping up. and right at grenada street, you're still going to see closures there in the area. let's talk about the skyway bridge. we have had closures. one lane and part of in week. keep that in mind. it is usually wrapped up by about 5:30 atm. also let's talk about the lower level of the expressway, detours in place. it is usually closed between 8:00 p.m
auctioned off at the famous renaissance in st. petersburg. >> i know this is going to go for a lot of money. >> thank you. >> create opportunity. the artists hope you will want to frame their next masterpiece. andly be at the annual fundraiser in st. petersburg which raise as lot of money to keep the agency up and running, but i wanted to show you ways you can help by donating supplies, offering your time to teach the clients at park or if you want to buy some art, i have put...
News Ch8 at 6PM Saturday : WFLA : October 2, 2016 6:00pm-6:30pm EDT
rushed to by a front medical center in st. petersburg. we still don't know what their conditions are tonight. >>> residents living at a moseley motel have until tomorrow morning to be off the property. this comes after the old motel was bought by a new owner who has plans to demolish it. news channel 8's jamel is joining us live. you talked to those residents who have no place to go a lot of these residents say this place has been their home for years. those eviction notices were served last week, and now they have no choice but to pack up and leave. >> bought the property located on 34th street north from the previous owner who was fighting foreclosure. according to st. pete city officials, new owners planned to demolish the old building and turn it into new development. social services went around sunday to check on residents who were still packing up. most the 110 units had already left, but some residents tell us they still have no place to go. city officials say they have room at the shelter for those just in case. >> they went from denial that it really wasn't going to happen b
rushed to by a front medical center in st. petersburg. we still don't know what their conditions are tonight. >>> residents living at a moseley motel have until tomorrow morning to be off the property. this comes after the old motel was bought by a new owner who has plans to demolish it. news channel 8's jamel is joining us live. you talked to those residents who have no place to go a lot of these residents say this place has been their home for years. those eviction notices were...
mosely motel in st. petersburg. >> i've been through it. i can tell you it's nasty. it's absolutely one of the worst situations i've ever seen. >> as bad as it may be, so those evicted this morning are now homeless. we were there as the remaining tenants walked out. >>> police are on alert in north port after two students make threats to a school. just ahead, we'll tell you what the principal is telling parents about those students. >>> new pictures and information on the deadly train crash in new jersey. investigators encountered a significant set back in the investigation. what that is, coming up. good monday morning. i'm gene ramirez. >>> thanks for joining us. for the latest on your weather. >>> the hurricane is stronger. it's now a category 4 hurricane. earlier this morning it was down to 130. a powerful storm. getting outer rain bands throughout haiti, the dominican republic, and jamaica. it's moving north at 6 miles per hour. hurricane warnings still up for haiti, cuba, and jamaica. as it heads due north, it's going to put ic west side. the weaker side. still a strong storm. but
mosely motel in st. petersburg. >> i've been through it. i can tell you it's nasty. it's absolutely one of the worst situations i've ever seen. >> as bad as it may be, so those evicted this morning are now homeless. we were there as the remaining tenants walked out. >>> police are on alert in north port after two students make threats to a school. just ahead, we'll tell you what the principal is telling parents about those students. >>> new pictures and...
trump's pick for vice president is holding a rally at the st. petersburg clear water international airport in a couple hours. peter bernard is there with a preview. >>> republican supporters are lining up early for the mike pence rally inside this aircraft hanger which will occur later on. the visit comes days after the fbi director revealed there maybe more warrant scrutiny. >>> hats, t-shirts, buttons, and more, political swag for sale outside the venue where mike pence will speak. people waiting to get in tell me they want to see a change. >> he's going to get obama care taken care of. he's going to do so many things in his first 100 days. and i couldn't be more excited about it. >> he's defending trump donald trump's about face on the criticism of james comey. leadership. donald trump is predicting a victory in the race. people i talk to hit on trump's platforms. >> we support mr. trump because of what's going on in washington. basically we've been very unhappy with the way the establishment and the leaders are running the country. and we feel this is time for change. >> pence
trump's pick for vice president is holding a rally at the st. petersburg clear water international airport in a couple hours. peter bernard is there with a preview. >>> republican supporters are lining up early for the mike pence rally inside this aircraft hanger which will occur later on. the visit comes days after the fbi director revealed there maybe more warrant scrutiny. >>> hats, t-shirts, buttons, and more, political swag for sale outside the venue where mike pence...
with this situation in the future, gayle. >> sounds like a scary situation. thank you, guy. >>> a st. petersburg motel that's been home to low-income families for years is closing for good. and people who live at the hotel have just a few hours left to pack up and get out. the building will be demolished to make way for a new development there. and news channel 8's ryan hughes is live from the hotel. and some of the residents are scrambling and have to find a new place to live. >> reporter: they are. and time is running out. this place is supposed to be empty by 8:00 this morning and some residents are making last- minute arrangements to leave and many are upset by the prospect of moving. >> i think it's wrong. putting families and their children out. >> reporter: one resident was so upset she could bare by talk to us. they were served eviction find new homes. a real estate development company bought the property after it went into foreclosure. the new owners plan to turn it into a commercial development. social services has reserved space at a local shelter for those who have nowher
with this situation in the future, gayle. >> sounds like a scary situation. thank you, guy. >>> a st. petersburg motel that's been home to low-income families for years is closing for good. and people who live at the hotel have just a few hours left to pack up and get out. the building will be demolished to make way for a new development there. and news channel 8's ryan hughes is live from the hotel. and some of the residents are scrambling and have to find a new place to live....
hospital in st. petersburg. that is a long time for teenager 16 and i want to be out hanging out with friends on the weekend in the football game friday night but they just came to see me instead of me going to them. >> maddie was born with congenital heart disease and had her first open heart surgery i just 7 days old and her first heart transplant just before her fix the birthday. >> when we first met maddie back in 2011 we knew her first transplant would not last forever. on a number of medicines at this point just to keep her stable, to keep her system so that it is not compromised. is >> her first heart lasted nearly 10 years, 7 years longer than doctors expected, but then this march just before his 16th birthday she was put back on the transplant list. >> we were told wednesday and listed thursday. >> this is her pediatric heart surgeon >> you become more prone to rejecting a new heart, so that is one of the reasons why patients will want to go -- patients who undergo a 2nd heart transplant tend to struggle the 2nd time around. >> at first i was very weak and i was just giving u
hospital in st. petersburg. that is a long time for teenager 16 and i want to be out hanging out with friends on the weekend in the football game friday night but they just came to see me instead of me going to them. >> maddie was born with congenital heart disease and had her first open heart surgery i just 7 days old and her first heart transplant just before her fix the birthday. >> when we first met maddie back in 2011 we knew her first transplant would not last forever. on a...
delays on 75 coming away from brandon. back to gene and gayle. >>> a st. petersburg motel that's been home to low-income families for years is closing for good. and people who live at the hotel have just a few hours left to pack up and get out. the building will be demolished to make way for a new development there. and news channel 8's ryan hughes is live from the hotel. and some of the residents are scrambling and have to find a new place to live. >> reporter: they are. and time is running out. this place is supposed to be empty by 8:00 this morning and minute arrangements to leave and many are upset by the prospect of moving. >> i think it's wrong. putting families and their children out. >> reporter: one resident was so upset she could bare by talk to us. they were served eviction notices last week and must now company bought the property after it went into foreclosure. the new owners plan to turn it into a commercial development. social services has reserved space at a local shelter for those who have nowhere to go. sheriff deputies and animal control officers will be here this m
delays on 75 coming away from brandon. back to gene and gayle. >>> a st. petersburg motel that's been home to low-income families for years is closing for good. and people who live at the hotel have just a few hours left to pack up and get out. the building will be demolished to make way for a new development there. and news channel 8's ryan hughes is live from the hotel. and some of the residents are scrambling and have to find a new place to live. >> reporter: they are. and...
you. right now an environmental group put the city of st. petersburg on notice. they may sue over the discharge of waste water into tampa bay. sun coast water keeper believes the discharge of waste water is a serious human health risk and may be contributing to the red tide out break on the gulf coast. >> it forms offshore. when it's blown on shore and meets nutrient-rich conditions it's fueled. and it can blossom and bloom and create what we're seeing now. and i think that sewage out falls contribute to that. >> however, some experts disagree. a red tide specialist remote marine in sarasota believes the current out break cannot be directly tied to that waste water discharge that happened during hurricane hermine. >>> a third arrest in the murder for hire of an professor. police tell us that case is not over yet. here's mike vas linda. >> reporter: katherine magnum law is the third person charged in the death of fsu law professor dan. but police say she's probably not the last person to be charged. she's the mother of children, fathered by suspected hit man garcia, she also dated
you. right now an environmental group put the city of st. petersburg on notice. they may sue over the discharge of waste water into tampa bay. sun coast water keeper believes the discharge of waste water is a serious human health risk and may be contributing to the red tide out break on the gulf coast. >> it forms offshore. when it's blown on shore and meets nutrient-rich conditions it's fueled. and it can blossom and bloom and create what we're seeing now. and i think that sewage out...
want more information, call the number on the screen, (813)974-3623. >>> st. petersburg lab testing blood donations for the zika virus has found a test. one blood tests every donation for zika as mandated by the cdc. neither one blood nor the florida department of health is saying where the zika positive donor lives now. >>> early this morning, 20 tampa electric employees handed to grand bahama island. they're helping restore service that's still down following hurricane matthew. the storm hit as a cat 4 the crews are prepared to stay for two weeks. >> clean up continues in north carolina. still recovering as you see here from hurricane matthew. the state was the worst effected here in the united states. at this sporting goods store in kinston. water hoses are being used to flush flood water out. the water was nearly 3 feet high. the company explayed 75% of the store's merchandise was removed before the storm hit. but the water still caused lots of damage there. the store does plan to reopen the most damage in haiti. now aid is finally arriving for the storm victims there in the rem
want more information, call the number on the screen, (813)974-3623. >>> st. petersburg lab testing blood donations for the zika virus has found a test. one blood tests every donation for zika as mandated by the cdc. neither one blood nor the florida department of health is saying where the zika positive donor lives now. >>> early this morning, 20 tampa electric employees handed to grand bahama island. they're helping restore service that's still down following hurricane...
p.m. not too hot. not too temperatures. 76 in st. petersburg. and 77 in auburndale. yes, there's a breeze. we're going to keep the steady breeze in the forecast out of the east to northeast. notice it's 12 miles per hour in lake land. you'll feel the breeze. 10 miles per hour in sarasota. 10 miles per hour in brooksville. stronger gusts getting up to 16 to 17 miles per hour. pressure, it brings you clear skies, around it you get clockwise wind. the winds are coming out of the east. and you'll feel it with the lighter breeze. most of the rain staying farther across south florida. above average temperatures in the morning. mostly clear. this morning we had fog. wouldn't be out of the question to have fog north of i-4 again tomorrow. and a similar pattern. mostly sunny, highs in the mid 80s. like we're seeing today. wickedly warm, dry as a tomorrow, also 86 degrees. we're at 85 degrees on wednesday. things finally begin to change a bit toward the latter parts of the week. a cold front comes through. a 20% rain chance on friday. look what happens to our temperatures. 78 for saturday an
p.m. not too hot. not too temperatures. 76 in st. petersburg. and 77 in auburndale. yes, there's a breeze. we're going to keep the steady breeze in the forecast out of the east to northeast. notice it's 12 miles per hour in lake land. you'll feel the breeze. 10 miles per hour in sarasota. 10 miles per hour in brooksville. stronger gusts getting up to 16 to 17 miles per hour. pressure, it brings you clear skies, around it you get clockwise wind. the winds are coming out of the east. and you'll...
memories of the pier. an iconic landmark in st. petersburg gone he says but not forgotten. it'll be nice to see what replaces it. >>> the new one coming soon. send it to stacy by tweeting #sendittostacy. and share them with me on my wfla facebook page. >>> coming up this halloween, you can stay in dracula's castle if you want. the real one in transylvania. get all the details when first at 4:00 returns in a few come into steak 'n shake for hand-dipped fall milk shakes. better yet, come into steak 'n shake for hand-dipped fall milk shakes at half- price... ...during half-price happier hour, weekdays, now two to five... >>> let's look at what's trending online beginning with things that sound like >> that's right. who has this kind of time? the survival compilations that sound like everybody's favorite wilke and the latest thing on social media and dozens posted online. funny stuff.>>> training on facebook airbnb is offering to set you up in the real dracula's castle in romania this halloween. they launched a contest one has spent the night in this castle since 1948. the guests will b
memories of the pier. an iconic landmark in st. petersburg gone he says but not forgotten. it'll be nice to see what replaces it. >>> the new one coming soon. send it to stacy by tweeting #sendittostacy. and share them with me on my wfla facebook page. >>> coming up this halloween, you can stay in dracula's castle if you want. the real one in transylvania. get all the details when first at 4:00 returns in a few come into steak 'n shake for hand-dipped fall milk shakes. better...
. investigators found him inside and the st. petersburg museum when they arrived to check out an alarm. st. pete police claim surveillance video shows him kicking and breaking an electronic key pad and call box. however, police say nothing else was damaged and nothing is missing. >>> breaking news, emergency crews in china are trying to two miners did escape. rescue operations and an investigation into the cause of the explosion are underway. and of course, we will keep you posted on this breaking news. >>> workers return to the australia theme park where four people died on a ride. dream world is not open to the public. the workers are there just to maintain the park. in the meantime, they are hiring safety officials to inspect every ride before the park re-opens to the raft on the river rapids ride overturned. police are still investigating to determine exactly what went wrong there. >>> the man accused of shooting two police officers in oklahoma and two of his relatives was killed in a shoot-out with police sunday night. michael dale vance, jr. was killed near the town about 130 mil
. investigators found him inside and the st. petersburg museum when they arrived to check out an alarm. st. pete police claim surveillance video shows him kicking and breaking an electronic key pad and call box. however, police say nothing else was damaged and nothing is missing. >>> breaking news, emergency crews in china are trying to two miners did escape. rescue operations and an investigation into the cause of the explosion are underway. and of course, we will keep you posted on...
hour and a half. the clouds will also keep you a little warmer. st. petersburg you are at 71. 2 degrees warmer than we were yesterday at 6:00 in the morning. during the afternoon 85 degrees which is above the average of 82 . at 6:08 i will go hour by hour through your day to complain about. leslie will help you plan out your commute. >> we have pretty good commute on the interstates but we have issues elsewhere. we are continuing to follow and keep house. lutz lake fern road is completely shut down at heritage harbor. i want you to take vandyke road instead. southbound 301, fhp tells me this accident is tying up a link right at animal drive. it looks like -- animal -- adamo drive. >>> a major local roadways back open right shut down after a fiery crash that killed 4 people.>> the scene played out there martin luther king boulevard. ryan is there live now. bryne, this was a horrible scene. what is the latest? >> this is the specific spot where it happened around 9:5 last night. crew spent hours cleaning up investigating. let's go to some video. 4 people confirmed dead in the fier
hour and a half. the clouds will also keep you a little warmer. st. petersburg you are at 71. 2 degrees warmer than we were yesterday at 6:00 in the morning. during the afternoon 85 degrees which is above the average of 82 . at 6:08 i will go hour by hour through your day to complain about. leslie will help you plan out your commute. >> we have pretty good commute on the interstates but we have issues elsewhere. we are continuing to follow and keep house. lutz lake fern road is...
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GTI: What the world needs to tearn from the Nigerian army
By Karen Goulding
The Global Terrorism Index is a tool that has been developed to help governments understand whether and how they are making progress in containing insurgencies or hostile to the state or specific communities. The Index derives its scores by measuring the direct and indirect impact of terrorism. This includes the number of lives lost, injuries, property damage, business impact (closings and lost revenue), as well as the psychological effects on the communities affected.
Between 2007 and 2015 Nigeria’s score was not good. The Boko Haram insurgency had reached its peak, destabilizing communities in the North-east all the way to the capital, Abuja. This worsened the life of the entire North-east region, but for specific localities that were targeted, there were maimed inhabitants, dislocated communities, shuttered schools and businesses, murders and kidnappings. The Boko Haram not only shook up the political status of the region, but also impacted the economic and social activities of the people.
In 2015, Boko Haram overtook ISIL to become the deadliest terrorist group in the world. In the 2015 report, Nigeria moved up to the 3rd country with the highest impact of terrorism with an index score of 9.213, only surpassed by Iraq and Afghanistan.
Little did the people of the region know that good news was on the way. And the way Nigeria turned the tide on terrorism is a lesson for other communities, a lesson of local capacity and local solutions, of a nation that didn’t beg for help, but set itself on a course, together with key neighbors, to drive the insurgency from its territory.
On assuming office in May 2015, the Buhari administration fast-tracked the government’s response to the Boko Haram threat first by moving the military headquarters from the FCT to Maiduguri.
Next, given the transnational dimension of Boko Haram, he reached out to garner support from Nigeria’s immediate neighbors: Chad, Niger, and Cameroon, which culminated in the formation of the regional Multi-National Joint Task Force (MMNJTF). The MNJTF framework allowed for joint operations between the countries concerned such that troops from Chad and Niger were permitted to operate on Nigerian soil specifically in the Lake Chad axis.
The Nigerian army’s intelligence gathering abilities, operational scope, and overall impetus became more active. Furthermore, Nigeria also entered into pacts with foreign nations in the fight against terrorism. This meant military aid from allies especially with regards to training of personnel, provision of ammunition and intelligence sharing improved the morale and made better the abilities of local and regional troops.
This gave rise to a steady recapture of a sizeable portion of territories initially in control by Boko Haram. These territories during the peak of the violence in late 2014, covered an expanse the size of Belgium according to available reports. The Terrorism Index in Nigeria decreased to 9.01 in 2016 from 9.31 in 2015.
The exploits of the Nigeria Army in the past three years speaks volume of a rededicated commitment to Nigeria. More specifically, implementing the basic tenets of professionalism in an unconventional war situation as well as respecting human rights and sticking to the rules of engagement are the hallmarks of the operations of the Nigeria Army under the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai.
The era of Lt. Gen Tukur Buratai in the north-east has been unique and exemplary for many reasons. Clutching to the experience garnered as an infantry general, some may have questioned if he was the right man for the job. The Infantry is the branch of the army that engages in military combat on foot, distinguished from cavalry, artillery, and tank forces. How would a man who commands such close combat have the strategic awareness to effectively deal with the situation at hand?
But he did, and his infantry experience may have been the key. Many security experts observe that the infantry have much greater local situational awareness than other military forces, due to their inherent intimate contact with the battlefield. This is vital for taking or holding ground (really for any military objectives), securing battlefield victories, maintaining military area control and security both at and behind the front lines, for capturing ordnance or material, taking prisoners, and military occupation. General Buratai brought all of these attributes to bear in his leadership of the Nigerian Army, in the course reclaiming all of the Nigerian territories that were once under the control of Boko Haram terrorists.
One important step General Buratai took may not seem as vital, but in the end helped to secure not only territory, but also the hearts and minds of the population. Under the leadership of current Chief of Army Staff, the Nigerian Army commissioned its Human Rights Desk. The establishment of the Human Rights desk office was borne out of the increasing interest of the local and international human rights bodies on what the army was doing in the North East and other parts of the country. But it was also a key tactic to earn the trust of the local population. This is also on the heels of the excellent record the Nigeria Army has attained by ensuring that civilian casualties are kept at the barest minimum.
There are indeed lessons to be learned from the exploits of the Nigerian Army. Lessons on how to win a war and sustain the tempo. And how to keep the morale of a fighting force high. In some quarters, it has been stated that the coming of Lt. Gen Tukur Buratai in 2015 opened a new vista in the operations of the Nigerian Army, especially with the fight against terrorism. This fact was evident as mentioned earlier in the Global Terrorism Index rating that indicated a 33 percent reduction in the number of terrorism-related deaths in four of the terrorism ravaged countries including Nigeria compared to that of the previous years.
Under Lt. Gen. Buratai, the leadership of the Nigerian Army nourishes the standards of discipline and professionalism through the enforcement of commensurate rewards and a strict punishment system. Similarly, a recent appraisal of the counter-insurgency campaigns in Nigeria, especially in the Northeast, by the United Nations Organization (UNO), also applauded, as exemplary, the Nigerian Army’s professional execution on the Boko Haram terrorism and insurgency, as conforming to international best practices. Additionally, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) led by its President, Ambassador Mathew Rycroft, expressed same eulogies on Nigerian troops fighting the counter-insurgency war when they were in that country on assessment tour.
An additional recognition of General Buratai’s superior leadership was the conferment of the Brazilian Military Order of Merit Award, in recognition of his contributions to world peace and for leading a most successful military campaign in North East Nigeria with minimal casualties and respect for human rights. It is, therefore, safe to say that since the coming of the present administration in 2015, a lot has changed in the operations of the Nigerian military. If you call the Chief of Army Staff a rare breed, you won’t be entirely wrong, because of his passion for not only the professional development of the troops but also providing for their welfare within the available resources. The Army has been reinvigorated since he assumed leadership. These are rare attributes worthy of emulation by critical stakeholders in Nigeria, other military forces in Africa, and indeed all active forces the world over.
Goulding contributed this article from the United Kingdom.
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Leeds sign Keeper on 4½ year deal
Hot on the heels of probably the greatest ever Leeds United press conference, where Bielsa gave the waiting media, the media pundits, the fans and Frank Lambard a master class in tactics in response to the #spygate nonsense, the Championship club are hitting the headlines again, announcing the arrival of Kiko Casilla from Real Madrid.
The keeper joins on a four and a half year deal having signed on a free transfer after bought himself out of the remaining 18 months of his contract abroad. It is the first time the keeper has left Spain and is indicative of the pull that Leeds, and probably the tactical genius of our manager can have.
Bailey Peacock-Farell is expected to make way for the new signing, having played 31 times. There is no doubting the youngsters ability. He has pulled off some outstanding saves this season, however he is inexperienced and has made a couple of errors, and having an experienced professional like Casilla at the club will not do his development any harm.
The signing not only gives Leeds strength in goal for the promotional push, but secures a healthy future for the club in between the sticks.
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