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Center for Cybersecurity and Cyber Operations
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Papers 2017
Irvine, C.E., Thompson, M. F., and Khosalim, J., "Labtainers: A Framework for Parameterized Cybersecurity Labs Using Containers", Proceedings National Security Summit, Huntsville, AL, June 2017. (PDF)
Nguyen, T. D., and Irvine, C. E., "Development of Industrial Network Forensics Lessons", 2017 Cybersecurity Summit, Coeur d'Alene, ID, April, 2017. (PDF)
Irvine, C. E., Clark, P. C., Nguyen, T. D., "Design Principles for Security (Appendix F of NIST SP 800-160). Systems Security Engineering: Considerations for a Multidisciplinary Approach in the Engineering of Trustworthy Secure Systems." Gaithersburg, MD: National Institutes of Standards and Technology, November 2016. http://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/SpecialPublications/NIST.SP.800-160.pdf
Irvine, C. E., and Thompson, M. F., "CyberCIEGE: A Video Game for Constructive Cyber Security Education, Call Signs, 6(2), 2015, pp. 4-8. (PDF)
Nguyen, T. D., Gondree, M., Khosalim, J., and Irvine, C. E., "Re-thinking Kernelized MLS Database Architectures in the Context of Cloud-Scale Data Stores", Proceeding Engineering Secure Software and Systems (ESSoS 15, Milan, Italy), Ed. F,. Piessens, J. Cabbalero, and N. Bielova, LNCS 8978, Springer International Publishing Switzerland, March 2015, pp 86-101. (PDF)
Thompson, M. F., and Irvine, C. E., "CyberCIEGE Scenario Design and Implementation", Proceedings of the 2014 USENIX Summit on Games, Gaming, and Gamification in Security Education, San Diego, CA, August 2014. https://www.usenix.org/conference/3gse14/summit-program/presentation/thompson (PDF)
Nguyen, T. D., Gondree, M. A., Khosalim, J. and Irvine, C. E., " Towards a Cross-Domain MapReduce Framework" in the Proceedings of the 2013 Military Communications Conference (MILCOM 2013), San Diego, CA, November 2013, pp. 1436-1441. ( PDF )
Nguyen, T. D., Irvine, C. E., and Khosalim, J., " A Multilevel Secure MapReduce Framework for Cross-Domain Information Sharing in the Cloud," Ground System Architectures Workshop (GSAW 2013), Los Angeles, California, USA, March 2013. ( PDF )
Bilzor, M., Huffmire, T., Irvine, C. E., and Levin, T., " Evaluating Security Requirements in a General-Purpose Processor by Combining Assertion Checkers with Code Coverage," Proceedings of the IEEE International Symposium on Hardware-Oriented Security and Trust (HOST), San Francisco, CA, June 2012, pp. 49-54. (PDF)
Megas, D., Pizolato, K., Levin, T., and Huffmire, T., "A 3D Data Transformation Processor. Proceedings of the Workshop on Embedded Systems Security (WESS)," Tampere, Finland, October 2012. (PDF)
Valamehr,J., Sherwood, T., Kastner, R., Marangoni-Simonsen, D., Huffmire, T., Irvine, C. E., and Levin, T., " A 3D Split Manufacturing Approach to Trustworthy System Development," IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems (TCAD), Vol. 32, Issue 4, 2013. pp. 611-615.
Valamehr, J., Huffmire, T., Irvine, C. E., Kastner, R., Koc, K., Levin, T. and Sherwood, T., "A Qualitative Security Analysis of a New Class of 3-D Integrated Crypto Co-processors," , Naccache, D., Ed., Berlin Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, 2012, vol. 6805, pp. 364-382. (PDF)
Nguyen, T. D., Gondree, M., Khosalim, J., Shifflett D., Levin, T. and Irvine, C. E., "An Approach for Cross-Domain Intrusion Detection," 7th International Conference on Information Warfare and Security (ICIW 2012), Seattle, Washington, USA, March 2012, pp. 203-212. (PDF)
Huffmire, T., Levin, T., Irvine, C. E., Kastner, R., and Sherwood, T., "3-D Extensions for Trustworthy Systems," in Proceedings of the International Conference on Engineering of Reconfigurable Systems and Algorithms (ERSA), Las Vegas, NV, 2011, pp. 45-54. (PDF)
Weissman, C. and Levin, T. E., "Network System Security Engineering: Lessons Learned Building A High Assurance Crypto Gateway, IEEE Security & Privacy," pp. 31-39, 2011. (PDF)
Bilzor, M., Huffmire, T., Irvine, C. E., and Levin, T., "Security Checkers: Detecting processor malicious inclusions at runtime," in Hardware-Oriented Security and Trust (HOST), 2011 IEEE International Symposium on, 2011, pp. 34-39. (PDF)
Tiwari, M., Oberg, J. K., Xun Li, J. V., Levin, T., Hardekopf, B., Kastner, R., Chong, F. T., and Sherwood, T., "Crafting a Usable Microkernel Processor and I/O System with Strict and Provable Information Flow Security," in Proc. International Symposium on Computer Architecture (ISCA), San Jose, CA, USA, 2011, p. 189.
Valamehr, J., Tiwari, M., Sherwood, T., Kastner, R., Huffmire T., Irvine, C. E., and Levin, T. E. "Hardware Assistance for Trustworthy Systems through 3-D Integration," Proceedings of the Annual Computer Security Applications Conference (ACSAC), ACM, Austin, Texas, December 6, 2010. (PDF)
Levin, T. E., Nguyen, T. D., Irvine, C. E., and McEvilley, M., "Separation Kernel Protection Profile Revisited: Choices and Rationale." in Fourth Annual Layered Assurance Workshop (LAW 2010), Austin, TX, USA, 6-7 December 2010, vol. Electronic Archive, Applied Computer Security Associates, http://fm.csl.sri.com/LAW/2010/. (PDF)
Nguyen, T. D., Gondree, M. A., Shifflett, D. J., Khosalim, J., Levin, T. E. and Irvine, C. E., "A Cloud-Oriented Cross-Domain Security Architecture," in the Proceedings of the 2010 Military Communications Conference (MILCOM 2010), San Jose, CA, pp. 1701-1707, November 2010. (PDF)
Nguyen, T. D., Irvine, C. E., "MYSEA: An Approach to Building High Assurance Composite System for Cloud Computing,"
11th International Common Criteria Conference (ICCC 2010), Antalya, Turkey, September 2010. (PDF)
Huffmire, T., Levin, T. E., Bilzor, M., Irvine, C. E., Valamehr, J., Tiwari, M., Sherwood, T., and Kastner, R., "Hardware Trust Implications of 3-D Integration," in the proceedings of the Workshop on Embedded Systems Security (WESS’2010), ACM, Scottsdale, Arizona, October 24, 2010. (PDF)
Huffmire, T., Levin, T. E., Nguyen, T. D., Irvine, C. E., Brotherton, B., Wang, G., Sherwood, T., and Kastner, R., "Security Primitives for Reconfigurable Hardware-Based Systems," ACM Transactions on Reconfigurable Technology and Systems, Volume 3, Issue 2, Article No.: 10, May 10, 2010. (PDF)
Irvine, C. E., Nguyen, T. D., Shifflett, D. J., Levin, T. E., Khosalim, J., Prince, C., Clark, P. C., and Gondree, M. "MYSEA: The Monterey Security Architecture," in proc. Workshop on Scalable Trusted Computing (ACM STC), Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS), Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), 2009 (PDF)
Levin, T. E., Dwoskin, J., Bhaskara, G., Nguyen, T. D., Clark, P. C., Lee, R., Irvine C. E., and T. Benzel, "Securing the dissemination of emergency response data with an integrated hardware-software architecture," in International conference on the technical and socio-economic aspects of trusted computing (TRUST), Lecture Notes in Computer Science, University of Oxford, Springer, April 2009. (PDF)
Levin, T. E., Irvine, C. E., Benzel, T. V., Nguyen, T. D., Clark, P. C., and Bhaskara, G. "Idea: Trusted Emergency Management," in proc. Engineering Secure Software and Systems (ESSoS) (F. Massacci, S. T. R. Jr., and N. Zannone, eds.), LNCS 5429, (Berlin), pp. 32 – 36, ACM/IEEE, Springer-Verlag, February 2009. (PDF)
Huffmire, T. , Brotherton, B., Sherwood, T., Kastner, R., Levin, T. E., Nguyen, T. D., and Irvine, C. E., "Managing Security in FPGA-Based Embedded Systems," IEEE Design and Test of Computers, Vol 25, No. 6, pp 590-598. (PDF)
Huffmire, T., Sherwood, T., Kastner, R., and Levin, T. E., "Enforcing memory policy specifications in reconfigurable hardware," Computers & Security, vol. 27, pp. 197–215, October 2008. (PDF)
Levin, T. E., Irvine, C. E., and Nguyen, T. D., "Least privilege in separation kernels," in E-business and Telecommunication Networks (J. Filipe and M. S. Obaidat, eds.), vol. 9 of Communications in Computer and Information Science, pp. 146 – 158, Springer, 2008. (PDF)
Irvine, C. E., Levin, T. E., Clark, P. C., and Nguyen, T. D., "A Security Architecture for Transient Trust, Computer Security Architecture Workshop," Fairfax, VA, October 2008. (PDF)
Shaffer, A., Auguston, M., Irvine, C. E., and Levin, T. E., "A Security Domain Model for Implementing Trusted Subject Behaviors," in Proceedings of the Modeling Security Workshop, Toulouse, France, September 2008. (PDF)
Huffmire, T., Brotherton, B., Callegari, N., Valamehr, J., White, J., Kastner, R., Sherwood, T., "Designing Secure Systems on Reconfigurable Hardware," ACM Transactions on Design Automation of Electronic Systems (TODAES), Vol. 13, No. 3, July 2008, 1-24. (PDF)
Kastner, R., Huffmire, T., "Threats and Challenges in Reconfigurable Hardware Security," International Conference on Engineering of Reconfigurable Systems and Algorithms (ERSA'08), Las Vegas, NV, July 2008, 334-345. (PDF)
Huffmire, T., Valamehr, J., Sherwood, T, Kastner, R., Levin, T. E., Nguyen, T. D., and Irvine, C. E., "Trustworthy System Security through 3-D Integrated Hardware," Proceedings of the 2008 IEEE International Workshop on Hardware-Oriented Security and Trust (HOST-2008), Anaheim, CA, June 2008. (Extended Abstract)
D. Phelps, M. Auguston, and T. E. Levin, “Formal models of a least privilege separation kernel in alloy,” Proceedings of the International Conference on i-Warfare and Security, April 2008. (PDF)
Orwat, M., Levin, T. E. and Irvine, C. E., "An Ontological Approach to Secure MANET Management," in Proc. of the Third International Conference on Availability, Security, and Reliability, (Barcelona, Spain), pp. 787-794, Mar. 2008. (PDF)
Shaffer, A., Auguston, M., Irvine, C., and Levin, T., "A Security Domain Model to Assess Software for Exploitable Covert Channels," Proceedings of the ACM SIGPLAN Third Workshop on Programming Languages and Analysis for Security (PLAS'08), 45-56. Tucson, Arizona. ACM Press. (PDF)
Ong, K. L., Nguyen, T. and Irvine, C. , "Implementation of a Multilevel Wiki for Cross-Domain Collaboration," 3rd International Conference on Information Warfare and Security (ICIW 2008), April 2008, Omaha, Nebraska, USA, pp. 293-304. (PDF)
Nguyen, T. D. and Irvine, C. E., "Use of Evaluation Criteria in Security Education," 3rd International Conference on Information Warfare and Security (ICIW 2008), April 2008, Omaha, Nebraska, USA, pp. 285-292. (PDF)
DeLong, R. J., Nguyen, T. D., Irvine, C. E. and Levin, T. E., "Toward a Medium-Robustness Separation Kernel Protection Profile," Annual Computer Security Applications Conference (ACSAC), December 10-14, 2007, Miami Beach, Florida, USA (PDF)
Shaffer, A., Auguston, M., Irvine, C. and Levin, T. "Toward a Security Domain Model for Static Analysis and Verification of Information Systems," Proceedings of the 7th OOPSLA Workshop on Domain-Specific Modeling (DSM '07). Montreal, Canada. October 2007. pp. 160- 71. (PDF)
Nguyen, T. D., Irvine, C. E., Levin, T. E., and McEvilley, M., "Assurance Considerations for a Highly Robust TOE," 8th International Common Criteria Conference (ICCC), Rome, Italy, September 2007. (PDF, abstract)
Levin, T. E., Irvine, C. E., Weissman, C., Nguyen, T. D., "Analysis of Three Multilevel Security Architectures" Proceedings of the Computer Security Architecture Workshop, ACM. November 2, 2007, Fairfax, Virginia, USA. pp. 37-46 (PDF)
T. Huffmire, B. Brotherton, G. Wang, T. Sherwood, R. Kastner, T. Levin, T. Nguyen, and C. Irvine, "Moats and drawbridges: An isolation primitive for reconfigurable hardware based systems,” in IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, (Oakland, CA), May 2007. (PDF)
Chiang, K., Nguyen, T. D., Irvine C. E., "A Linux Implementation of Temporal Access Controls," Proceedings 8th IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Information Assurance Workshop, West Point, NY, June 2007, pp. 309-316. PDF Addendum: in Figure 3 yes and no are reversed in the Write request conditional. (PDF)
Cullum, J., Irvine, C. E., Levin, T. E., "Performance Impact of Connectivity Restrictions and Increased Vulnerability Presence on Automated Attack Graph Generation," ICIW 2007 2nd International Conference on i- Warfare and Security Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California, USA 8-9 March 2007 pp.33-46 (PDF)
Cone, B. D., Irvine, C. E., Thompson, M. F., Nguyen, T. D., "A Video Game for Cyber Security Training and Awareness," Computers & Security 26 (2007) pp. 63-72 (PDF)
Kim, J-K., Hensgen, D. A., Kidd, T., Siegel H. J., St. John, D., Irvine, C. E., Levin, T. E., Porter, N. W., Prasanna, V. K., and Freund, R. F., "A Flexible Multi-Dimensional QoS Performance Measure Framework for Distributed Heterogeneous Systems," Cluster Computing, Cluster Computing, vol. 9, pp. 281-296, July 2006. (PDF)
Barwinski, M., Irvine, C. E., and Levin, T. E., "Empirical Study Of Drive-By-Download Spyware," Proc. International Conference on i- Warfare and Security, Eastern Shore Maryland, 15-16 March 2006 pp.1-12 (PDF)
Nguyen, T. D., Irvine, C. E., and Harkins, R. M., "An Experiment with CC Version 3.0 Migration," 7th International Common Criteria Conference (ICCC 06), September 19-21, 2006. (abstract) / (PDF)
Levin, T. E., Irvine, Cynthia E., and Nguyen, Thuy, D., Least Privilege in Separation Kernels, Proceedings International Conference on Security and Cryptography, Setubal, Portugal, August 2006, pp. 355-362. (PDF)
Nguyen, T. D. and Irvine, C. E., "Ulitizing the Common Criteria for Advanced Student Research Projects," 2006, in IFIP International Federation for Information Processing, Volume 201, Security and Privacy in Dynamic Environments, eds. Fischer-Hubner, S., Rannenberg, K., Yngstrom, L., Lindskog, S., (Boston: Springer), pp. 317-328. (PDF)
Cone, B. D., Thompson, M. F., Irvine, C. E. and Nguyen, T. D., "Cyber Security Training and Awareness Through Game Play," 2006, in IFIP International Federation for Information Processing, Volume 201, Security and Privacy in Dynamic Environments, eds. Fischer-Hubner, S., Rannenberg, K., Yngstrom, L., Lindskog, S., (Boston: Springer), pp. 431-436. (PDF)
Levin, T. E., Irvine, C. E., and Spyropoulou, E., "Quality of Security Service: Adaptive Security," Handbook of Information Security, Vol.3, pp 1016-1025, ed. H. Bidgoli, John Wiley and Sons, Hoboken, NJ, 2006, pp. 1016-1025 (PDF)
Nguyen, T. D., Levin, T. E., and Irvine, C. E., "High Robustness Requirements in a Common Criteria Protection Profile," Proceedings of the 4th IEEE International Information Assurance Workshop, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK, April 2006, pp. 66-75. (PDF)
Nguyen, T. D., Irvine, C. E., and Kane, D. R., "Using Common Criteria Methodology to Express Informal Security Requirements," Proc. International Symposium on Secure Software Engineering, Arlington, VA, March 2006, pp. 75-85. (PDF)
Afinidad, F., Levin, T., Irvine, C. E., and Nguyen, T. D., "A Model for Temporal Interval Authorizations," Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Software Technology Track, Information Security Education and Foundational Research, Kauai, Hawaii, January 2006, p. 218. (PDF)
Levin, T. E., Irvine, C. E., Nguyen, T. D., "A Note on High Robustness Requirements for Separation Kernels," 6th International Common Criteria Conference (ICCC 05), September 28-29, 2005. (abstract) / (PDF)
Afinidad, F., Levin, T., Irvine, C. E., and Nguyen, T. D., "Foundation for a Time Interval Access Control Model," Mathematical Methods, Models, and Architectures for Computer Networks Security, MMM-ACNS 2005, St. Petersburg, Russia, September 24-28, 2005, Proceedings, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, ed. Vladimir Gorodetsky, Igor Kotenko, and Victor Skormin, Springer-Verlag GmbH, Vol. 2685, pp 406-411, St. Petersburg, Russia, September 24-28, 2005.05paper_foundation.pdf (PDF)
Irvine, C. E., Thompson, M. F., and Allen, K., "CyberCIEGE: Gaming for Information Assurance," IEEE Security and Privacy, Vol. 3, No. 2, 2005, pp. 64-67. (PDF)
Nguyen, T. D., Levin, T. E., and Irvine, C. E., "MYSEA Testbed," Proceedings from the 6th IEEE Systems, Man and Cybernetics Information Assurance Workshop, West Point, NY, June 2005, pp. 438-439. (PDF)
Irvine, C. E., Thompson, M. F., and Allen, K., "CyberCIEGE: An Extensible Tool for Information Assurance Education," Proceedings of the 9th Colloquium for Information Systems Security Education, Atlanta, GA, June 2005, pp 130-138. (PDF)
Irvine, C. E., "Cybersecurity Considerations for Information Systems," Handbook of Public Information Systems, 2nd. Edition, ed. D. Garson, CRC Press, 2004, pp. 203-218. (PDF)
Irvine, C. E., "A Common Criteria-Based Team Project for High Assurance System Education," Success Through Information Security Knowledge, Proc. Fourth World Conference on Information Security Education, Moscow, Russia, May 2005, pp. 82-93. (PDF)
Dodge, C., Irvine, C. E., Nguyen, T. D., "A Study of Initialization in Linux and OpenBSD," Operating Systems Review, Vol. 39, No 2, pp. 79-93. (PDF)
Irvine, C. E., Thompson, M. F., and Allen, K., "CyberCIEGE (TM): An Informaton Assurance Teaching Tool for Training and Awareness," Proceedings of the 2005 FISSEA Conference, Bethesda, MD, March 2005. (PDF)
Irvine, C. E., "Security Policy Enforcement," Handbook of Information Security, ed. H. Bidgoli, John Wiley and Sons, Hoboken, NJ, pp. 1026-1040 (PDF)
Clark, P. C., "The Security Plan: Effectively Teaching How To Write One," Proceedings of the 2005 Federal Information Systems Security Educator's Association (FISSEA) Conference, North Bethesda, MD, March 2005 (PDF)
Nguyen, T. D., Levin, T. E., and Irvine, C. E., "TCX Project: High Assurance for Secure Embedded Systems," 11th IEEE Real-Time and Embedded Technology and Applications Symposium Work-In-Progress Session, San Francisco, CA, March 2005. (PDF)
Levin, T. E., Irvine, C. E., and Spyropoulou, E., "Quality of Security Service: Adaptive Security," to appear in The Handbook of Information Security, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. December 2005, (PDF)
Irvine, C. E. and Levin, T. E., "A Doctoral Program with Specialization in Information Security: A High Assurance Constructive Security Approach," Information Security Management, Education and Privacy, ed. Deswarte, Cuppens, Jajodia, and Wang, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Norwell, MA, pp. 173-180, 2004. (PDF)
Irvine, C. E., and Thompson, M. F., "Expressing IS Policy Within a Security Simulation Game," in Avoiding Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt, Proceedings of the Sixth Workshop on Education in Computer Security, Monterey, California, July 2004, pp. 43-49. (PDF)
Falby, N., Thompson, M. F., and Irvine, C., "A Security Simulation Game Scenario Definition Language," Innovative Program Abstracts - Colloquium on Information Systems Security Education, West Point, NY, June 2004, (PDF)
Falby, N., Fulp, J.D., Clark, P., Cote, S., Irvine, C., Dinolt, G., Levin, T., Rose, M., Shifflett, D., "Information Assurance Capacity Building: A Case Study," Proceedings for the Eighth Colloquium for Information Systems Security Education, West Point, NY, June 2004. (PDF)
Irvine, C. E., Levin, T. E., Nguyen, T. D., Shifflett, D. J., Khosalim, J., Clark, P. C., Wong, A., Afinidad, F., Bibighaus, D., and Sears, J., "Overview of a High Assurance Architecture for Distributed Multilevel Security," Proceedings of the 2004 IEEE Systems, Man and Cybernetics Information Assurance Workshop, West Point, NY, June 2004. (PDF)
Irvine, C. E., Levin, T. E., Nguyen, T. D., and Dinolt, G. W., "The Trusted Computing Exemplar Project," Proceedings of the 2004 IEEE Systems, Man and Cybernetics Information Assurance Workshop, West Point, NY, June 2004, pp. 109-115. (PDF)
Levin, T. E., and Clark, P. C., "A Note Regarding Covert Channels" Proceedings from the Sixth Workshop on Education in Computer Security, Monterey, CA, 12-14, July 2004, pp. 11-15. (PDF)
Eagle, C., Clark J. L., "Capture-the-Flag: Learning Computer Security Under Fire," Proceedings from the Sixth Workshop on Education in Computer Security, Monterey, CA, 12-14, July 2004, pp. 43-49. (PDF)
Irvine, C. E. and Thompson, M. F., "Expressing an Information Security Policy Within a Security Simulation Game," Proceedings from the Sixth Workshop on Education in Computer Security, Monterey, CA, 12-14, July 2004, pp. 17-21. (PDF)
Fulp, J. D., "The Bastion Network Project: A Framework for Conducting Interscholastic Cyber-Exercises," Proceedings from the Sixth Workshop on Education in Computer Security, Monterey, CA, 12-14, July 2004, pp. 65-71. (PDF)
Anderson, E. A., Irvine, C. E., and Schell, R. R., "Subversion as a Threat in Information Warfare," Journal of Information Warfare, Volume 3, No.2, June 2004, pp. 52-65., (PDF)
Fulp, J.D., "Training the Cyber Warrior," Proceedings of the Third Annual World Conference on Information Security Education (WISE3), Monterey, CA, June, 2003, pp. 261-273 (Link)
Irvine, C. E., Shifflett, D. J., Clark, P. C., Levin, T. E., Dinolt, G. W., "Monterey Security Enhanced Architecture Project," DARPA DISCEX Conference, April 2003 (PDF)
Irvine, C. E., Shifflett, D. J., Clark, P. C., Levin, T. E., and Dinolt, G. W., "MYSEA Technology Demonstration," DARPA DISCEX Conference, April 2003 (PDF)
Rasmussen, C. W., Irvine, C. E., Dinolt, G. W., Levin, T. E., and Burke, K. L., "A Program for Education in Certification and Accreditation, Security Education in Critical Infrastructures," ed. C. Irvine and H. Armstrong, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Norwell, MA, pp. 131-149, 2003. (PDF)
Burke, K. L., Rasmussen, C. W., Irvine, C. E., Dinolt, G. W., and Levin, T. E., "Certification and Accreditation: A Program for Practitioner Education," Journal of Information Warfare, Vol. 2, No. 3, 2003, pp. 25-37. (PDF) (PDF)
Ubhayakar, S., Bibighaus, D., Dinolt, G. W., and Levin, T. E., "Evaluation of Program Specification and Verification Tools for High Assurance Development," Proceedings of the International Workshop on Requirements for High Assurance Systems, Monterey, CA, September 2003, pp. 43-47. (PDF)
Mohan, R., Levin, T. E. and Irvine, C. E., "An Editor for Adaptive XML-Based Policy Management of IPSEC," Annual Computer Security Applications Conference (ACSAC), December 8-12, 2003, Las Vegas, NV, USA (PDF)
Irvine, C. E. and Thompson, M. F., "Teaching Objectives of a Simulation Game for Computer Security," Informing Science and Information Technology Joint Conference, Pori, Finland, June 24-27 2003 (PDF)
Irvine, C. E. and Levin, T. E., "A Cautionary Note Regarding the Data Integrity Capacity of Certain Secure Systems," Integrity, Internal Control and Security in Information Systems, ed. M. Gertz, E. Guldentops, L. Strous, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Norwell, MA, pp 3-25, 2002 (PDF)
Irvine, C. E., Levin, T. E., Wilson, J. D., Shifflett, D., and Pereira, B., "An Approach to Security Requirements Engineering for a High Assurance System," Requirements Engineering Journal, Vol. 7, No. 4, pp. 192-206, 18 December 2002 (PDF)
Xie, G. G., Irvine, C. E., and Levin, T. E., "Quantifying Effect of Network Latency and Clock Drift on Time-driven Key Sequencing," Proceedings of the Workshop on Assurance in Distributed Systems and Networks, Vienna, Austria, 2 July 2002 (PDF)
Sypropoulou, E., Agar, C., Levin, T. E., and Irvine, C. E., "IPsec Modulation for Quality of Security Service," Proceedings of the International System Security Engineering Association Conference, Orlando Florida, 13 March 2002 (PDF)
Kim, J-K., Kidd, T., Siegel, H. J., Irvine, C. E., Levin, T. E., Hensgen, D. A., St. John, D., Prasanna, V. K., Freund, R. F., and Porter, N. W., "Collective Value QoS: A Performance Measure Framework for Distributed Heterogeneous Networks," in 15th International Parallel and Distributed Processing Symposium (IPDPS 2001), 10th Heterogeneous Computing Workshop (HCW 2001), (San Francisco, CA), pp. 810?823, IEEE Computer Society, April 2001.(PDF)
Irvine, C. E., Levin, T. E., and Sypropoulou, E., "Security as a Dimension of Quality of Service in Active Service Environments," Proceedings of the International Workshop on Active Middleware Services, San Francisco, CA, 6 August 2001 (PDF)
Irvine, C. E., and Levin, T. E., "Teaching Security Engineering Principles," Proceedings of the World Conference on Information Security Education, Perth, Australia, July 2001 (PDF)
Spyropoulou, E., Irvine, C. E., and Levin, T. E., and Allen, B., "Managing Costs and Viariability of Security Services," Presentation to IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, Oakland, CA, May 2001 (PDF)
Irvine, C. E., and Levin, T. E., "Data Integrity Limitations in Highly Secure Systems," Proceedings of the International System Security Engineering Association Conference, Orlando, FL, March 2001 (PDF 1, PDF 2 (slideshow))
Irvine, C. E., Levin, T., Wilson, J. D., Shifflett, D., and Pereira, B., "A Case Study in Security Requirements Engineering for a High Assurance System," Proceedings of the 1st Symposium on Requirements Engineering for Information Security, Purdue University, Indianapolis, Indiana, 5-6 March 2001 (PDF)
Clark, P. C., "Supporting the Education of Information Assurance with a Laboratory Environment," 5th National Colloquium for Information System Security Education, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, May 2001 (PDF)
Sypropoulou, E., Levin, T. E., and Irvine, C. E., "Calculating Costs for Quality of Security Service," Proceedings of the 16th Computer Security Applications Conference, New Orleans, LA, December 2000, pp. 334-343. (PDF)
Balmer, S. and Irvine, C. E. "Analysis of Terminal Server Architectures for Thin Clients in a High Assurance Network," Proceedings of the 23rd National Information Systems Security Conference, Baltimore, MD, October 2000 (PDF)
Clark, P. C., "Policy-Enhanced Linux," Proceedings of the 23rd National Information Systems Security Conference, Volume I, pp. 418-432, Baltimore, MD, October 2000 (PDF)
Irvine, C. E., and Levin, T. E., "Quality of Security Service," Proceedings of the New Security Paradigms Workshop, Ballycotton, Ireland, 18-22, September 2000. (PDF)
Robin, J. S. and Irvine, C. E., "Analysis of the Intel Pentium's Ability to Support a Secure Virtual Machine Monitor," Proceedings of the 9th USENIX Security Symposium, Denver, CO, pp. 129-144, August 2000 (PDF)
Irvine, C. E., "Security: Where Testing Fails," ITEA Journal, June/July 2000 (PDF)
Irvine, C. E. and Levin, T. E., "Toward Quality of Security Service in a Resource Management System Benefit Function," Proceedings of the 2000 Heterogeneous Computing Workshop, pp. 133-139, May 2000 (PDF)
Irvine, C. E., and Levin, T. E., "Is Electronic Privacy Achievable?," Proceedings of the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, Oakland, CA, May 2000, pp. 76-77. (PDF)
Kim, J-K, Hensgen, D.A., Kidd, T., Siegel, H.J., St. John, D., Irvine, C. E., Levin, T., Porter, N.W., Prasanna, V.K., and Freund, R.F., "A QoS Performance Measure Framework for Distributed Heterogeneous Networks," Proceedings of the 8th Euromicro Workshop on Parallel and Distributed Processing, Rhodos, Greece, pp. 18-27, January 2000 (PDF)
Kim, J-K, Hensgen, D.A., Kidd, T., Siegel, H.J., St. John, D., Irvine, C. E., Levin, T., Porter, N.W., Prasanna, V.K., and Freund, R.F., "QOS measure framework for distributed heterogeneous networks," in The Fourth Midwest Meeting on High Performance Systems, Ann Arbor, MI, May 1999.
Irvine, C. E. and Levin, T. E., "Toward a Taxonomy and Costing Method for Security Services," Proceedings of the 15th Computer Security Application Conference, Phoenix, AZ, December 1999 (PDF)
Irvine, C. E., "The Reference Monitor Concept as a Unifying Principle in Computer Security Education," Proceeding IFIP TC11 WC11.8 First World Conference on INFOSEC Education, Kista, Sweden, pp. 27-37, June 1999 (PDF)
Irvine, C. E., "Amplifying Security Education in the Laboratory," Proceeding IFIP TC11 WC11.8 First World Conference on INFOSEC Education, Kista, Sweden, pp. 139-146, June 1999 (PDF)
Irvine, C. E., "The Benefits of Student Research in Information Systems Security Education" National Colloquium on Systems Security Education, Palisades, NY, May 1999 (PDF)
Irvine, C. E., Isa, H.R., and Shockley, W. R., "A Multi-threading Architecture for Multilevel Secure Transaction Processing," Proceedings of the 1999 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, Oakland, CA, pp. 166-179, May 1999 (PDF)
Hensgen, D., Kidd, T., St John, D., Schnaidt, M. C., Siegel, H. J., Braun, T., Maheswaran, M., Ali, S., Kim, J-K, Irvine, C. E., Levin, T. E., Freund, R.F., Kusso, J., Godfrey, M., Duman, A., Carff, P., Kidd, S., Prasanna, V. K., Bhat, P., and Alhusaini, A. "An Overview of the Management System for Heterogeneous Networks (MSHN)," Proceedings of the 8th Workshop on Heterogeneous Computing Systems (HCW'99), San Juan, Puerto Rico, pp. 184-198, April 1999 (PDF)
Rowe, N. C. and Schiavo, S., "An Intelligent Tutor for Intrusion Detection on Computer Systems," Computers and Education, pp. 395-404, 1998 (PDF)
Irvine, C. E., Chin, S-K., and Frincke, D., "Integrating Security into the Curriculum," IEEE Computer, pp. 25-30, December 1998 (PDF)
Volpano, D. and Smith, G., "Confinement Properties for Programming Languages," SIGACT News, 1998 (PDF)
Wright, R. E., Shifflett, D. J., and Irvine, C. E., "Security Architecture for a Virtual Heterogeneous Machine," Proceedings of the 14th Computer Security Applications Conference, Scottsdale, AZ, pp. 167-177, December 1998 (PDF)
Irvine, C. E., Anderson, J. P., Robb, D. A., and Hackerson, J., "High Assurance Multilevel Services for Off-The-Shelf Workstation Applications," Proceedings of the National Information Systems Security Conference, Crystal City, VA, pp. 421-431, October 1998 (PDF)
Barrus, J. and Rowe, N. C., "A Distributed Autonomous-Agent Network-Intrusion Detection and Response System," Proceedings of the 1998 Command and Control Research and Technology Symposium, Monterey CA, June-July 1998 (PDF)
Volpano, D. and Smith, G., "Probabilistic Noninterference in a Concurrent Language," Proceedings of the 11th IEEE Computer Security Foundations Workshop, Rockport, MA, pp. 34-43, June 1998 (PDF)
Volpano, D. and Smith, G., "Language Issues in Mobile Program Security," Mobile Agents and Security, G. Vigna (Ed.), volume 1419 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pp. 25-43. Springer Verag, 1998 (PDF)
Smith, G. and Volpano, D., "Secure Information Flow in a Multi-threaded Imperative Language," Proceedings of the 25th ACM Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages, San Diego, CA, pp. 355-364, January 1998 (PDF)
Irvine, C. E., "Naval Postgraduate School Center for Information Systems Security and Research: Teaching the Science of Computer Security," MILCOM Proceedings, Monterey, CA, November 1997 (PDF)
Irvine, C. E., "Challenges in Computer Security Education," IEEE Software, Vol. 14, No. 5, pp. 110-111, 1997 (PDF)
Irvine, C. E., Warren, D. F., and Clark, P. C., "The CISR Graduate Program in INFOSEC Education: Six Years of Experience," Proceedings of the 20th National Information Systems Security Conference, Baltimore, MD, pp. 22-30, October 1997 (PDF)
Irvine, C. E., "Security in Innovative New Operating Systems," Proceedings 1997 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, pp. 202-203, May 1997 (PDF)
Irvine, C. E., "The First ACM Workshop on Education Computer Security," ACM SIGSAC Review, Vol 15, No. 2, pp. 3-5, 1997 (PDF)
Volpano, D. and Irvine, C. E., "Secure Flow Typing," Computers and Security, Vol 16, No. 2, pp. 137-144, 1997 (PDF)
Currie, D. L. and Irvine, C. E., "Surmounting the Effects of Lossy Compression on Steganography," Proceedings of the 19th National Information System Security Conference, Baltimore, MD, pp. 194-201, October 1996 (PDF)
Volpano, D, Smith, G., and Irvine, C. E., "A Sound Type System for Secure Flow Analysis," Journal of Computer Security, Vol. 4, No. 3, pp. 1-21, 1996 (PDF)
Volpano, D. and Smith, G., "On the Systematic Design of Web Languages," ACM Computing Surveys, Vol. 28, No. 2, pp. 315-317, June 1996 (PDF)
Irvine, C. E., "Goals for Computer Security Education," Proceedings of the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, pp. 24-25, May 1996 (PDF)
Irvine, C. E. and Volpano, D., "A Practical Tool for Developing Trusted Applications," Proceedings of the 11th Annual Computer Security Applications Conference, New Orleans, LA, pp. 190-195, December 1995 (PDF)
Irvine, C. E., "A Multilevel File System for High Assurance," Proceedings of the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, Oakland, CA, pp. 78-87, May 1995 (PDF)
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Nyle DiMarco Foundation
The Nyle DiMarco Foundation is a non-profit organization that exists as a national philanthropic resource for all organizations, institutions and individuals working to improve the lives of every Deaf person in the world.
There are approximately 70 million Deaf people worldwide, who have as many as 500 million immediate family members in total.
Two percent (2%) of the world’s Deaf population has access to education in sign language.
Twenty-five percent (25%) of parents use sign language to communicate with their Deaf child.
Through his tremendous success on the runway and participation in Dancing With the Stars, Nyle DiMarco follows in the footsteps of numerous Gallaudet University alumni who have shown that deaf people can achieve any dream. Admirably, he has seized this moment to advocate for full and equal early access to language for deaf and hard of hearing children through bilingual exposure to American Sign Language (ASL) and English. I wholly endorse his commitment to guaranteeing full access to language.
President Bobbi Cordano, Gallaudet University
Nyle DiMarco is the latest in a long line of confident role models who demonstrate the power of being bilingual using American Sign Language (ASL) and English, and he unabashedly shares the powerful role his bilingual upbringing has had in his success. His success is unsurprising, as every child needs and deserves love and language. Families express their love to their children by communicating with them from the day they are born, as Nyle’s family did.
Language Equality & Acquisition for Deaf Kids (LEAD-K) is proud to endorse the Nyle DiMarco Foundation. Nyle is the LEAD-K celebrity spokesperson, helping to further the initiative promoting language equality and acquisition to ensure that Deaf Kids are Kindergarten-Ready. The Nyle DiMarco Foundation's mission is to empower positive Deaf Identities in all aspect of life, and we wholeheartedly support its goal for accurate resources to share with families, professionals and communities. With the Nyle DiMarco foundation, we can continue onward to create new generations of Kindergarten-Ready Deaf Kids!
Language Equality & Acquisition for Deaf Kids (LEAD-K)
Whether on the runway or the dance floor, or paying it forward through his foundation for quality early access to language and communication, Nyle represents a vision of what the best future of our students in schools and programs for the deaf can look like.
The Conference of Educational Administrators of Schools and Programs for the Deaf
Check out the latest with the Nyle DiMarco Foundation on our News page!
NDF News
Assessing a Deaf Child’s ASL Workshop: An Interview with Dr. Bobbie Jo Kite & Dr. Laurene Simms
In June, the National ASL & English Bilingual Consortium for Early Childhood Education (NASLECE) held the inaugural “Assessing a Deaf Child’s ASL” workshop in Washington, DC. The three-day workshop featured seven presenters from the fields of linguistics, bilingual education, visual language and learning, and family language policy; and was attended by twenty-two practitioners from 15 […]
Nyle DiMarco Foundation announces a grant to the National ASL & English Bilingual Consortium for Early Childhood Education
WASHINGTON, D.C. — April 15, 2017 — Nyle DiMarco Foundation has provided funding to the National ASL & English Bilingual Consortium for Early Childhood Education in support of the organization’s inaugural “Assessing a Deaf Child’s ASL” workshop. Designed for mentors and professionals currently working with Deaf children ages 0 to 5, “Assessing a Deaf Child’s […]
Nyle DiMarco Foundation announces partnership with LEAD-K and Fundraising Challenge
Dancing with the Stars winner Nyle DiMarco’s nonprofit foundation reveals its first organizational partner, Language Equality and Acquisition for Deaf Kids (LEAD-K), a national education campaign promoting Kindergarten-readiness through early language acquisition. Los Angeles, CA—August 18, 2016 – In a significant step towards its goal of supporting deaf and hard of hearing children acquire language and literacy, the […]
The Nyle DiMarco Foundation (NDF) is a registered 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization.
Developed by: Stoked Industries.
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Who are you? A parent of a Deaf or Hard of Hearing child Community Ally Service Provider I am Deaf, Hard of Hearing, or a CODA
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Stop Societal Breakdown: Build Up Marriage
By Fr. Shenan J. Boquet
“The family has a special role to play throughout the life of its members, from birth to death. It is truly ‘the sanctuary of life: the place in which life – the gift of God – can be properly welcomed and protected against the many attacks to which it is exposed, and can develop in accordance with what constitutes authentic human growth.’ Consequently, the role of the family in building a culture of life is decisive and irreplaceable.”
─ Pope St. John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae, no. 92
“Is marriage becoming irrelevant?” That’s the jarring headline on Gallup’s website, reporting the results of a new survey. The answer to the question, unfortunately, appears to be a resounding “yes.” In key ways, marriage is becoming irrelevant for large numbers of people.
The results of the survey show a distressingly swift reversal in public attitudes towards the importance of marriage in relation to the marital act and the transmission of human life. According to Gallup, only 29% of people now believe it is “very important” for a couple to get married before begetting children. That’s a drop from 49% in 2006.
Meanwhile, 72% of respondents said that it is morally acceptable to engage in a sexual act outside of marriage. That’s up from 53% in 2001.
This poll tells a sad tale about how people in general view human sexuality, marriage, procreation, children, and the family. However, one especially discouraging finding is how dramatic the shift in opinion has been among church-going people.
In 2006, 65% of poll respondents who went to church weekly said it was “very important” for couples begetting children to be married. In 2020, however, it was just 45%, a drop of 20 percentage points! Among those who go to church monthly, the number has dropped from 58% to 32%, a difference of 26 percentage points!
The good news is that church-going people are still more likely than people who never go to church to think marriage is important (only 19% of non-church-going people said being married is “very important”, down from 32% in 2006); the bad news is that the opinions of church-going people have changed far more swiftly for the worse than those of non-church-going people.
The Gallup poll also found that only 38% of people believe that it is “very important” for couples who want to spend the rest of their lives together to get married. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, the number of respondents who say they are currently married has slid significantly in recent decades. Whereas in the early 80s, 64% of people said they were currently married, that number has since fallen to just 49%.
The Negative Effects of Family Breakdown
Unfortunately, none of these findings come as a great surprise. Ever since the introduction of contraception-on-demand and no-fault divorce, we have been witnessing the steady collapse of marriage and family life. This has been reinforced by the proliferation of a hedonistic attitude towards human sexuality that places greater emphasis upon personal pleasure, romance, and gratification. This attitude, in conjunction with the mentality and behavior it promotes, falsifies human sexuality, and divorces the marital act (an act meant to be exclusive to spouses) from its two-fold and inseparable ends, unitive and procreative. This kind of act is vastly different and contrary from the one God has made to be unique and complementary between spouses. The falsification of the inherent goods of marriage and the conjugal act has dire consequences, which impacts one’s view of self, others, marriage, and the family.
As Pope St. John Paul II wrote in Evangelium Vitae:
Thus the original import of human sexuality is distorted and falsified, and the two meanings, unitive and procreative, inherent in the very nature of the conjugal act, are artificially separated: in this way the marriage union is betrayed and its fruitfulness is subjected to the caprice of the couple. Procreation then becomes the “enemy” to be avoided in sexual activity: if it is welcomed, this is only because it expresses a desire, or indeed the intention, to have a child “at all costs”, and not because it signifies the complete acceptance of the other and therefore an openness to the richness of life which the child represents. (no. 23)
What we don’t seem to have yet realized, or at least not on any wide scale, is just how devastating the collapse of marriage and family life has been upon the health of our society. I am amazed, for instance, at how much conversation there is about poverty, violence, poor education, and homelessness, but how little is ever said of the systemic reasons behind these things, and where the remedy is to be found.
Study after study has found that children who do not grow up with both of their parents in the home suffer all sorts of negative consequences. As The National Review noted in response to a New York Times article minimizing the impact of single parenthood on poverty rates, the data is unequivocal: single parenthood is strongly associated with severe poverty.
“The social science tells us that children raised by single parents are significantly more likely to have children young, to drop out of high school, and to work less as young adults,” wrote W. Bradford Wilcox. “Not surprisingly, the children of single-parent families are more likely to end up poor as young adults.”
One Irish study found that the impact of divorce on children can even be worse than if one of the parents has died. According to that study, children of divorced parents are “more likely to develop depression, do worse in school, and have poor social skills compared to other children,” reported LifeSiteNews.
One of the researchers behind that Irish study said that she hoped their research would counteract the common narrative that paints divorce as inconsequential. “Nobody should delude themselves that divorce is easy,” she said. “Keeping a bad marriage together is difficult, but protecting children after a divorce can be even more difficult. Couples need to realise this.”
A Threat to the Common Good
The simple fact is that the redefinition and breakdown of marriage, exacerbated by the falsification of human sexuality and the acceptance of divorce and cohabitation, pose genuine and serious threats to the common good, the well-being of society. Marriage between a man and a woman, something that can be understood simply from the natural law, has been for millennia the foundation stone for civil society.
As the Catechism of the Catholic Church says:
The family is the original cell of social life. It is the natural society in which husband and wife are called to give themselves in love and in the gift of life. Authority, stability, and a life of relationships within the family constitute the foundations for freedom, security, and fraternity within society. The family is the community in which, from childhood, one can learn moral values, begin to honor God, and make good use of freedom. Family life is an initiation into life in society. (no. 2207, emphasis added)
Children, always welcomed as a blessing under any circumstance, have a right to be raised by their biological parents and nurtured within the family, this God-instituted school of learning. Today, however, children suffer widely from rejection, abandonment, divorce, and multi-relationship and single-parent households. Because of the falsification of human sexuality and wide acceptance of contraception, children are no longer seen as the fruit of conjugal love; they are, instead, labeled as a burden, an unwanted consequence of the sexual act. Moreover, children are being treated as objects to be exploited – engendered outside of the conjugal act, in petri dishes and laboratories, turning procreation into a “production” which dehumanizes children.
Unfortunately, the vices that are nourished in the privacy of family life have a tendency to perpetuate themselves across generations, and thence to spread out into society at large. One of the consequences of divorce is that children of broken families are in turn more likely to get divorced themselves. Divorce begets divorce, spreading like a virus, and bringing with it all the various negative personal and social consequences.
Building a Culture of Life by Defending Marriage
My question, then, is this: How can we build a virtue-based society, one that loves, respects, defends, and serves the sanctity of life and the dignity of the individual, if the original cell of social life (marriage and the family) upon which society is built is rejected, compromised, or re-created in the image of modern-day constructs and language?
After all, a building built on sand will collapse.
Unfortunately, with the legalization of same-sex “marriage” and the near-total triumph of the contraceptive mentality and the sexual revolution, even many conservatives and pro-life and family activists have lost sight of the importance of the battle over marriage, which is widely viewed as being “lost.”
Well, the battle may well be “lost”…for now. Or seem to be lost. But the fact that we must face is that the battle for a Culture of Life will never be won unless we turn the ship around, and begin to make some progress on the battle for marriage as well.
The data clearly show that the abortion rate among single and cohabiting women is way higher than among married women. This is hardly surprising. Biologically, women bear the brunt of the burden of having a child. Being in a stable marriage provides women with the security they need to feel safe bringing a child into the world. However, if the father of the child is either gone, or is likely to be gone sometime in the future, then it is far more likely that the mother will feel tempted to take drastic measures when she becomes pregnant.
However, the problem is even more basic than this. If most men and women don’t see any connection between sex and marriage, then they are more likely to engage in extra-marital sexual relations. The more people do this, the more unintended pregnancies there will be, and the more abortions there will be. The lives of countless unborn children depend on us defending marriage and pushing back against the lies of the sexual revolution.
In the fight against the culture of death, the church needs to get back to the basics. Christians have always taught that fornication and adultery are grave sins. However, as the Gallup poll findings suggest, churches are failing to educate their congregations in Biblical truths about human sexuality and marriage. As Pope St. John Paul II proclaimed, the “future of humanity passes by way of the family” (Familiaris Consortio, no. 75). Without strong marriages and families as its foundation, society will continue to disintegrate. If we restore, however, the centrality of marriage and the family, as designed by our Creator, they will serve as a catalyst for rejuvenating social life. Only by defending marriage and strengthening the family can society be revitalized.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 5th, 2021 at 5:15 pm and is filed under News & Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
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In "Prove it God" Patty Schneier speaks as a Catholic woman and mother in our modern times. She tells her personal story of how God worked in her heart to turn her away from contraception and toward Natural Family Planning.
Patty Schneier's "Prove It, God" ...And He Did is available to listen to for free! Order it!
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Stephen Patton's "Why Contraception Matters" talk is available to listen to for free! Read it! Order it!
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La charla de Stephen Patton "Porque Importa la Anticoncepción" esta disponible aqui para que la escuchen gratis! Leela! Ordenala!
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Ethiopia Blasts Trump Remark That Egypt Will 'Blow Up' Dam
FILE - A handout satellite image shows a closeup view of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) and the Blue Nile River in Ethiopia, June 26, 2020.
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA - Ethiopia on Saturday denounced “belligerent threats” over the huge dam it has nearly completed on the Blue Nile River, a day after U.S. President Donald Trump said downstream Egypt will “blow up” the project it has called an existential threat.
Ethiopia's foreign minister summoned the U.S. ambassador to seek clarification, saying “the incitement of war between Ethiopia and Egypt from a sitting U.S. president neither reflects the longstanding partnership and strategic alliance between Ethiopia and the United States nor is acceptable in international law governing interstate relations,” a statement said.
Without naming Trump or the U.S., Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s office issued a separate critical statement amid an outcry in Ethiopia over Trump’s latest threat over the dam. The $4.6 billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is a source of national pride, aimed at pulling millions of people from poverty.
Trump made the comment while announcing that Sudan would start to normalize ties with Israel. Downstream Sudan is a party to the talks with Ethiopia and Egypt over the disputed dam. “They (Egypt) will end up blowing up the dam,” Trump said. “And I said it and I say it loud and clear … they’ll blow up that dam. And they have to do something.”
The U.S. president earlier this year told the State Department to suspend millions of dollars in aid to Ethiopia because of the dam dispute, angering Ethiopians who had accused the U.S. of being biased during its earlier efforts to broker a deal on the project among Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan. Ethiopia walked away from those talks.
“They will never see that money unless they adhere to that agreement,” Trump said Friday.
“Occasional statements of belligerent threats to have Ethiopia succumb to unfair terms still abound,” the statement by the Ethiopian prime minister's office said. “These threats and affronts to Ethiopian sovereignty are misguided, unproductive, and clear violations of international law.”
It added: “Ethiopia will not cave in to aggressions of any kind.”
There was no comment from the Egyptian government on Trump’s remarks, but pro-government media covered them extensively. Egypt has repeatedly said it wants to settle the dispute through diplomatic means, but it has said it would use “all available means” to defend the interests of its people.
Ethiopia celebrated the first filling of the dam in August, citing heavy rains, to the dismay of Egypt. Ethiopia later banned flights over the dam amid concerns over possible military action by Egypt.
Now, with Trump’s new remarks, some Ethiopians are urging Ethiopian Americans to help vote him out of office in next month’s election.
Worried by the prospect of further friction between two of Africa’s most powerful and populous countries, European Union representative Josep Borrell said in a statement that “now is the time for action and not for increasing tensions,” adding that a deal on the dam is within reach.
The statement by Abiy’s office said the talks with Egypt and Sudan have shown significant progress since the African Union has stepped in to oversee them. Trump’s statement could undermine that process, said Abel Abate Demissie, an associate fellow at Chatham House.
Ethiopia says the colossal dam could help it become a major power exporter. Egypt depends on the Nile to supply its farmers and a booming population of 100 million with fresh water.
Negotiators have said key questions remain about how much water Ethiopia will release downstream if a multi-year drought occurs and how the countries will resolve any future disputes. Ethiopia rejects binding arbitration at the final stage.
A military strike on the dam would be disastrous, one water expert warned. The dam already has more than 4.9 billion cubic meters of water in its reservoir,” Abebe Yirga told The Associated Press. “It will affect thousands of people along the way if this huge amount of water gushes out of the dam.”
The Blue Nile joins the White Nile in Sudan to become the Nile, and about 85% of the river's flow originates from Ethiopia. Officials hope the dam, now more than three-quarters complete, will reach full power-generating capacity in 2023.
Source https://www.google.com/url?rct=j&sa=t&url=https://www.voanews.com/africa/ethiopia-blasts-trump-remark-egypt-will-blow-dam&ct=ga&cd=CAIyGjVjYWMzMDRkNTczNGIxNjg6Y29tOmVuOlVT&usg=AFQjCNH0S4IKbuiv-OuLGh8yxZFSNZDhMQ
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Author Frank Baum and Illustrator W. W. Denslow Publish ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’
May 17, 1900 (updated June 1, 2020) Published by Lee Floyd
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is an American children’s novel written by author L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W. W. Denslow, originally published by the George M. Hill Company in Chicago on May 17, 1900. This was part of their effort to create a body of American literature in the fairy tale genre; they had already collaborated on Father Goose books. The Wizard was a great success and Baum followed it with thirteen more books set in the land of Oz. He lost Denslow as an illustrator and was never able to recapture the success of his original work. After Baum died Ruth Plumly Thompson continued the series with nineteen more stories, and other authors wrote additional books. The Land of Oz was one of the earliest of what fantasy fans now call “fictional universes.” Like the Sherlock Holmes stories it has attracted a large number of devoted fans, who like to discuss and write about the land of Oz as if it actually existed.
It has since been reprinted on numerous occasions, most often under the title The Wizard of Oz, which is the title of the popular 1902 Broadway musical adaptation as well as the iconic 1939 musical film adaptation. The classic 17th century Christian allegory Pilgrim’s Progress inspired some of the characters and dangers described in the Wizard of Oz.
Supposed Plot line
The book opens not in an imaginary far-off place but in real life Kansas, which in the 1890s was well known for the hardships of rural life, and for destructive tornadoes (also called cyclones). The Panic of 1893 caused widespread distress in rural America. In 1896 and again in 1900 the agrarian wing of the Democratic Party had seized control and nominated the firebrand orator William Jennings Bryan, from Omaha, who crusaded across the land promising his panacea of “free silver” (whereby the government would turn cheap silver into real dollars farmers could use to pay their debts). His supporters truly believed it would transform America in a veritable utopia. Baum and Denslow, Republicans, rejected this notion and use the book to poke fun at Bryan (who is depicted as the Cowardly Lion).
The silverite revolution—a cyclone—sweeps away Dorothy and Toto to a colorful land of unlimited resources that nevertheless has serious political problems. This utopia is ruled in part by wicked witches. Dorothy’s cyclone/revolution destroys the Wicked Witch of the East, slave-driver over the little people (Munchkins), who now celebrate their liberation. The Witch had controlled the powerful silver slippers (which were changed to ruby in the 1939 film).
The Good Witch of the North (the northern electorate) tries to help Dorothy, but she is not very smart, does not realize the power of the slippers, and sends Dorothy down the very dangerous gold road to the Wizard, who she mistakenly believes is so powerful that he can grant her wishes. (The northern vote elected McKinley in 1896 and he passed the gold standard into law.)
Along the Yellow Brick Road Dorothy picks up her coalition, the Scarecrow, Tin Woodman and Cowardly Lion, who all want the Wizard to grant their urgent wishes.
The national capital, the Emerald City, is a dream-like place based on the “White City,” the common name for the Chicago World’s fair of 1893, which Baum and Denslow attended often. The emerald green is an illusion (everyone must wear green glasses), symbolizing the fraudulent world of greenback paper money that only pretends to have value. The Wizard/president is annoyed by his guests—by the demands of the people. He is a corrupt politician, a shrewd manipulator who seeks power for himself, ignores the needs of the people, and rules by fooling with people’s minds. He selfishly sends them to destroy his enemy, the Wicked Witch of the West. If she gets them, he is rid of a nuisance. If they kill her, great—he will be pleased and then worry what to do next.
The Wicked Witch of the West represents the trusts, who took control of small businessmen and made them cogs in their empire, just as the Witch does with the heroes, using the Flying Monkeys as her tools. The trust issue was in the headlines, with a popular solution—one actually used in 1911 against Standard Oil to dissolve them. Dorothy heaves a bucket of water and dissolves the Wicked Witch.
The heroes return to Oz to claim their reward, and expose the Wizard for a media-manipulating fraud. He has no real power and must leave Oz the way he came, on a hot air balloon. (Politicians were synonymous with metaphors like “hot air” and “full of gas.”) But he is a shrewd psychologist, and realizes the heroes already possess what they think they lack, they just lack self-confidence. He fills the Scarecrow’s head with bran for a brain; implants a heart-shaped silk cushion inside the Tin Woodman (who now realizes his compassionate nature); he makes the Lion drink a dish of “courage” and he becomes king of the beasts again. He promises to take Dorothy back to Omaha, his hometown, but that plan misfires. The Good Witch of the South (the southern) vote appears. (In 1896 the South voted solidly for Bryan and free silver.) She is smarter than her sister the Good Witch of the North, and tells Dorothy to click her silver slippers three times—that believing will make it come true, and Dorothy arrives home again. It is a classic adventure story of travel to distant lands, and a story of running away from home and returning, a favorite theme for children.
Baum and Denslow did not simply invent the Cowardly Lion, Tin Woodman, Scarecrow, gold-colored Yellow Brick Road, Silver Slippers, cyclone, flying monkeys, Emerald City, little people, Uncle Henry, witches and the wizard. The images and characters used by Baum and Denslow were based on the political images that were well known in the editorial cartoons of the 1890s. Baum and Denslow built a story around them, added Dorothy whose innocence and purity are more effective than the witches’ magic. They added a series of lessons to the effect that everyone possesses the resources they need if only they had self-confidence. Positive thinking was a prevalent trend in this period, and Baum was involved with the Theosophy Movement (similar to Christian Science) that emphasized the power of pure thoughts over material evils. Baum’s point is that evil is in the mind, and it takes positive thinking, not a political revolution, to destroy it.
Baum in the 1890s edited the major national magazine for advertising in store windows, and was familiar with the elaborate mechanical displays of the Christmas story that attracted tens of thousands of spectators to the display windows of Marshall Field’s, Carson Pirie Scott, and other Chicago department stores. The spellbinding mechanical ingenuity (based on intricate clockwork) led many viewers to believe there must be a man behind the screen who worked all the levers.
Many of the events and characters of the book resemble the actual political personalities, events and ideas of the 1890s. The 1902 stage adaptation mentioned, by name, President Theodore Roosevelt, oil magnate John D. Rockefeller, Senator Mark Hanna and other political celebrities. (No real people are mentioned by name in the 1900 book.) Even the title has been interpreted as alluding to a political reality: oz. is an abbreviation for ounce, a unit familiar to those who fought for a 16 to 1 ounce ratio of silver to gold in the name of Bimetallism.
Supposed Allegorical Devices
Intellect Emotion Will
Hunk Hickory Zeke
Scarecrow Tin Man Lion
Dorothy represents a complete person or the human mind as a whole, while her three companions represent intellect, emotion and will.
Dorothy, naive, young and simple, represents the American people. She is Everyman, lost in a crazy utopia who wants to get back to normalcy and the love of her family. She resembles the young hero of Coin’s financial school, a very popular silverite pamphlet of 1893. In her innocence and purity she is all powerful and personally kills two witches—she is Columbia, the symbol of the nation’s conscience. Columbia was the usual representation of democracy in editorial cartoons (since replaced by the Statue of Liberty.)
The cyclone was used in the 1890s as a metaphor for a political revolution that would transform the drab country into a land of color and unlimited prosperity. The cyclone was used by editorial cartoonists of the 1890s to represent political upheaval.
The Tin Woodman was a stock symbol in cartoons and advertising. He was originally a human but was cursed by the Wicked Witch of the East so that every time he swung his axe he sliced off party of his body. As a good workman he replaced each part with tin, but now is all tin and has no heart. He is the worker dehumanized by industrialization, a common theme in Socialist literature of the day, such as expressed by Socialist candidate Eugene V. Debs in the 1900 election. The Woodman is rusted and helpless—ineffective until he starts to work together with the Scarecrow (the farmer), in a Farmer-Labor coalition that was much discussed in the 1890s, which culminated in the Farmer-Labor Party in Minnesota.
The Munchkins are the little people—ordinary citizens. This 1897 Judge cartoon shows famous politicians as little people after they were on the losing side in the election.
Toto: Prohibitionist party (also called “Teetotalers”)
Scarecrow: western farmers
Cowardly Lion: a cowardly politician, perhaps William Jennings Bryan
Wicked Witch of the East: Eastern factory owners and industrialists
Wicked Witch of the West: the trusts; one popular solution to the trust problem was to dissolve them, as Dorothy does. Flying Monkeys Pinkerton agents hired to break strikes
Wizard: President William McKinley
Oz: abbreviation for ounce of gold
Yellow Brick Road: gold standard
Cyclone: political revolution, the free silver movement
Emerald City: national capital
Silver Slippers: the free coinage of silver
Editorial cartoonists in recent decades have made heavy use of Oz imagery in political cartoons; the first to do so was W.A. Rogers whose 1906 cartoon ridiculed mud-slinging publisher William Randolph Hearst as the Wizard of Ooze”
Political interpretations
Historians and economists have interpreted the 1900 book (as well as the 1902 play and 1939 movie) as an allegory of the political, economic and social upheavals of America of the 1890s. Both Baum and Denslow had been actively involved in politics in the 1890s. Baum edited a Republican newspaper in South Dakota; Denslow was an editorial cartoonist for a major Chicago daily. Readers who grew up with the entire Oz series are often baffled by the political interpretation (for there is no politics in the continuation volumes), and deny that Baum intended any sort of modernized fairy tale. However, Baum explained in his introduction:
The old time fairy tale, having served for generations, may now be classed as “historical” in the children’s library; for the time has come for a series of newer “wonder tales” in which the stereotyped genie, dwarf and fairy are eliminated, together with all the horrible and blood-curdling incidents devised by their authors to point a fearsome moral to each tale. Modern education includes morality; therefore the modern child seeks only entertainment in its wonder tales and gladly dispenses with all disagreeable incident. Having this thought in mind, the story of ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’ was written solely to please children of today. It aspires to being a modernized fairy tale, in which the wonderment and joy are retained and the heartaches and nightmares are left out.
The Tin Man was a common feature in political cartoons and in advertisements in the 1890s. Indeed, he had been part of European folk art for 300 years.
The oil needed by the Tin Woodman had a political dimension at the time because Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company stood accused of being a monopoly (which was later ruled correct in a lawsuit brought by the federal government, and ultimately affirmed by the US Supreme Court.) In the 1902 stage adaptation the Tin Woodman wonders what he would do if he ran out of oil. “You wouldn’t be as badly off as John D. Rockefeller,” the Scarecrow responds, “He’d lose six thousand dollars a minute if that happened.”
The lion that Dorothy, Scarecrow and Tin-Man encounter in the enchanted forest may be a reference to William Jennings Bryan, the Democratic candidate for president in 1896. Cartoons often portrayed leading politicians as lions, and Bryan was described as having a great roar with no bite. People asked in early 1900, when the book was written, if he had the courage to oppose the McKinley Administration.
In 1900 by far the most famous farmer in America was Henry Cantwell Wallace, editor of the leading farm magazine, Wallace’s Farmer. Everyone called him “Uncle Henry.”
“Aunt Em” is a puzzle. Baum’s mother-in-law was named Matilda Joslyn Gage, and might be “Aunt M.” Mary Lease the Populist spellbinder has been suggested. (“Raise less corn and more hell!” was her shocking message, but Aunt Em is not like her.) Gage was a leader of the woman suffrage movement, but nothing about the book’s character suggests suffrage interests.
The poppies which surround the Emerald City are likely a reference to the opium poppies and the Boxer Rebellion in China of 1899.
Politicians of the era often talked about wizards. For example, one senator debating the gold and silver issue in early 1900 said, “We all know of the performances of the world’s magicians, but it has remained for the Wizard of Missouri [Senator Cockrell] to wave his magic wand or his magic head and double the price of the silver of the world.” Baum may have turned the Wizard of Missouri into the Wizard of Oz, who frightened people with his giant magic head.
President McKinley was often called a “wizard” for his political skills. The Wizard of Oz seems to be the president of the Land of Oz. The “man behind the curtain” echoes the response to automated store window displays.
Dogs were often used in political cartoons to represent politicians or parties. Perhaps “Toto” is a play on the word “teetotaler”, and represents the Prohibitionists of the era, who were aligned with Bryan in the 1896 election.
“Oz” is the abbreviation for “ounce,” and it has been suggested that Baum was making a political allusion to bimetallism, a hot political topic of the day. The 1901 theatre version used many current political allusions, mentioning by name President Roosevelt and oilman John D. Rockefeller. In a press release for the 1903 reissue of Wizard, Baum wrote:
I have a little cabinet letter file on my desk that is just in front of me. I was thinking and wondering about a title for the story, and had settled on the “Wizard” as part of it. My gaze was caught by the gilt letters on the three drawers of the cabinet. The first was A-G; the next drawer was labeled H-N and on the last were the letters O-Z. And “Oz” it at once became.
Occult Symbology. The Real Occult Allegory of The Wizard of Oz
As in all great stories, the characters and the symbols of the Wizard of Oz can be given a second layer of interpretation, which may vary depending on the reader’s perception. Many analyses appeared throughout the years describing the story as an “atheist manifesto” while others saw it as a promotion of populism. It is through an understanding of the author’s philosophical background and beliefs, however, that the story’s true meaning can be grasped.
L. Frank Baum, the author of the Wizard of Oz was a member of the Theosophical Society, which is an organization based on occult research and the comparative study of religions. Baum had a deep understanding of Theosophy and, consciously or not, created an allegory of Theosophic teachings when he wrote the Wizard of Oz.
What is Theosophy?
The Theosophical Society is an occult organization, mainly based on the teachings of Helena P. Blavatsky, which seeks to extract the common roots of all religions in order to form a universal doctrine.
“But it is perhaps desirable to state unequivocally that the teachings, however fragmentary and incomplete, contained in these volumes, belong neither to the Hindu, the Zoroastrian, the Chaldean, nor the Egyptian religion, neither to Buddhism, Islam, Judaism nor Christianity exclusively. The Secret Doctrine is the essence of all these. Sprung from it in their origins, the various religious schemes are now made to merge back into their original element, out of which every mystery and dogma has grown, developed, and become materialized.” -H.P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine
The three declared objects of the original Theosophical Society as established by Blavatsky, Judge and Olcott (its founders) were as follows:
“First — To form a nucleus of the Universal Brotherhood of Humanity, without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste, or color.
Second — To encourage the study of Comparative Religion, Philosophy, and Science.
Third — To investigate the unexplained laws of Nature and the powers latent in man.”
-The Theosophist, vol 75, No 6
Helen P. Blavatsky
The main tenets of Theosophy are thoroughly described in Blavatsky works Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doctrine. At the core of Theosophical teachings are the same tenets found in many other occult schools: the belief of the presence of a “divine spark” within every person which, with the proper discipline and training, can lead to spiritual illumination and a state of virtual godliness.
Another important principle found in Theosophy is reincarnation. It is believed that the human soul, like all other things in the universe, go through seven stages of development.
“Theosophical writings propose that human civilizations, like all other parts of the universe, develop cyclically through seven stages. Blavatsky posited that the whole humanity, and indeed every reincarnating human monad, evolves through a series of seven “Root Races”. Thus in the first age, humans were pure spirit; in the second age, they were sexless beings inhabiting the now lost continent of Hyperborea; in the third age the giant Lemurians were informed by spiritual impulses endowing them with human consciousness and sexual reproduction. Modern humans finally developed on the continent of Atlantis. Since Atlantis was the nadir of the cycle, the present fifth age is a time of reawakening humanity’s psychic gifts. The term psychic here really means the realization of the permeability of consciousness as it had not been known earlier in evolution, although sensed by some more sensitive individuals of our species.”
The ultimate goal is of course to return to the state of divinity from which we’ve emerged. The same tenets (with subtle variations) can be found in other schools such as Rosicrucianism, Freemasonry and other orders teachings the Mysteries.
Category: Banking Cartel, MK-Ultra / Monarch Programming, Occult
Tags: 1900, 1900-09, Books, Federal Reserve, fiat money, mind control, MK-Ultra, occult, Project Monarch, wizard of oz
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Spectroscopy and Photophysics of Carotenoids in Solution and in Light-harvesting Pigment ...
Posted April 14, 2020 • Uploaded by frederick00
Summary of Spectroscopy and Photophysics of Carotenoids in Solution and in Light-harvesting Pigment ...
University of Connecticut [email protected] Doctoral Dissertations University of Connecticut Graduate School 7-31-2015 Spectroscopy and Photophysics of Carotenoids in Solution and in Light-harvesting Pigment-Protein Complexes Nikki Cecil M. Magdaong [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: htps://opencommons.uconn.edu/dissertations Recommended Citation Magdaong, Nikki Cecil M., "Spectroscopy and Photophysics of Carotenoids in Solution and in Light-harvesting Pigment-Protein Complexes" (2015). Doctoral Dissertations. 857. htps://opencommons.uconn.edu/dissertations/857
Spectroscopy and Photophysics of Carotenoids in Solution and in Light-harvesting Pigment-Protein Complexes Nikki Cecil M. Magdaong, Ph.D. University of Connecticut, 2015 This thesis examines the factors affecting the photophysics and energy transfer properties of carotenoids. Steady-state and ultrafast time-resolved spectroscopic experiments were carried out on several carotenoids in various solvents and light- harvesting pigment-protein complexes. The main goal is to probe the excited state properties and kinetics of these molecules and relate the findings to their roles in ligh-t harvesting and photoprotection of the photosynthetic apparatus. The spectroscopic studies on a short conjugated peridinin analogue extend previous studies on synthetic peridinin analogues having different numbers of conjugated carbon-carbon double bonds. The results provide insight into the nature of the intramolecular charge transfer state (ICT) in carbonyl-containing carotenoids. The spectroscopic properties of several light-harvesting pigment-protein complexes isolated from various photosynthetic organisms are also investigated. Some species of purple photosynthetic bacteria produce spectral variants of the well-known B800-850 light harvesting II (LH2) complex depending on the conditions under which they are grown. Rhodoblastus (Rbl.) acidophilus strain 7050 produces the B800-820 LH2 spectral variant when grown under low-light conditions. In addition, the carotenoid rhodopinal glucoside is formed in large amounts in this complex whereas rhodopin glucoside is the primary carotenoid in the B800-850 LH2 complex grown under
Nikki Cecil M. Magdaong – University of Connecticut, 2015 high-light growth conditions. The conversion of rhodopin glucoside to rhodopinal glucoside increases the efficiency of carotenoid-to-bacteriochlorophyll (BChl) energy transfer to ~100%, as evidenced by results obtained from steady-state absorption, fluorescence, and ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopic measurements on rhodopin and rhodopinal glucoside in different solvents and in the LH2 complexes. Allochromatium (Alc.) vinosum is another example of a photosynthetic bacterium that produces various LH2 spectral forms denoted B800-850, B800-840 and B800-820 when grown under different conditions of temperature, illumination, and reduced sulfur nutrient. The analysis of the pigment composition reveals that the LH2 complexes from Alc. vinosum contain five carotenoids: lycopene, rhodopin, anhydrorhodovibrin, rhodovibrin and spirilloxanthin. Reconstruction of the absorption and fluorescence excitation spectra demonstrates that there exists significant spectral heterogeneity compared to LH2 complexes obtained from other species of purple bacteria. The combined results from these investigations provide insights into the mechanisms by which photosynthetic organisms adapt and survive under varying environmental conditions. The effect of the protein structure on the spectroscopic properties of carotenoids and (bacterio)chlorophylls (BChls) are also presented in this thesis. In higher plants, aggregation of the light-harvesting complex II (LHCII) has been postulated to be one of the factors affecting the rate and efficiency of the process of dissipation of chlorophyll (Chl) excess excitation energy known as nonphotochemical quenching.
Nikki Cecil M. Magdaong – University of Connecticut, 2015 Spectroscopic measurements were performed on monomeric, trimeric and aggregated monomers and trimers of LHCII, the results of which reveal the differences in the excited state deactivation processes of the Chls and carotenoids bound in these complexes. The last chapter looks at the influence of protein structure on the spectroscopic properties of the protein-bound peridinin and Chl a molecules in three native and recombinant peridinin-chlorophyll a-protein (PCP) complexes from photosynthetic dinoflagellates. Analysis of the absorption and fluorescence excitation spectra reveal that the individual peridinins in the PCP complexes have distinct spectra depending on their location in the pigment-protein complex and that all of the carotenoids possess the same high (~100%) energy transfer efficiency to Chl.
Spectroscopy and Photophysics of Carotenoids in Solution and in Light-harvesting Pigment-Protein Complexes Nikki Cecil M. Magdaong B.S., University of the Philippines, Diliman, 2003 A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Connecticut 2015
APPROVAL PAGE Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation Spectroscopy and Photophysics of Carotenoids in Solution and in Light- harvesting Pigment-Protein Complexes Presented by Nikki Cecil M. Magdaong, B.S. Major Advisor __________________________________ Harry A. Frank, Ph.D. Associate Advisor __________________________________ Robert R. Birge, Ph.D. Associate Advisor __________________________________ James F. Rusling, Ph.D. University of Connecticut 2015 ii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The research covered in this thesis was conducted under the excellents upervision of Prof. Harry A. Frank. To him I express my utmost gratitude for the unwavering support and guidance. His patience, fairness, professional conduct and careful attention to details are something to aspire to. It is truly an honor to have worked in his laboratory and explored the colorful world of carotenoids and photosynthesis. I am also grateful to have an exceptional thesis committee in Profs. Robert R. Birge and James. F. Rusling, my associate advisors, and Prof. Christian Brückner, who have provided helpful discussion and valuable insights on my proposal and dissertation. The various chapters contained herein would not be possible without the assistance of our much-valued collaborators. I acknowledge Prof. George N. Gibson for his patience and generous assistance in setting up the ultrafast laser system for our pump- probe measurements. Many thanks to Prof. Birge and Jordan Greco, for carrying out the computational work on our molecules. Working with you was always a delightful experience. Thank you to Prof. Rusling and Yun Zhang, from whom I learned much about protein film voltammetry. For those who have provided some of our samples for spectroscopic measurements—Prof. Shigeo Katsumura of Kwansei Gakuin University, Japan and his group for the synthetic analogues of peridinin; Prof. Roger Hiller of Macquarie University, Australia and Prof. Eckhard Hofmann of Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany for the purified PCP complexes; Prof. Richard J. Cogdell from the University of Glasgow, Scotland and his group members for the light harvesting complexes purified from purple photosynthetic bacteria. Special mention to Dr. Dariusz M. Niedzwiedzki for always being available to lend a hand with our experiments. We could always count on him to provide excellent technical support and valuable insights on the many projects we have worked on together. To former Franklab members Marcel, Jose and Shanti, thank you for your guidance, camaraderie and lively discussion. Although it has been a few years since we have worked together, I have fond memories and feel extremely lucky to have known you all. To Dr. Miriam Enriquez-Sarmiento with whom I shared a good part of this graduate career, with its twists and turns, I cannot think of a better person to have gone this journey with. Thank you for the patience, understanding and sage advice through the years. To Ms. Amy LaFountain, who has been my sounding board for the past two years, I am very privileged to have known and worked with you. You are one of the nicest, kindest people I have ever met. I truly appreciate all the help and ideas as well as morale- boosting especially in these last stages. To Anwar, Junru, Christian and Bharat, my first labmates from whom I have learned much about biochemistry experimental work, thank you for your support then and now. I am fortunate to have worked with you, albeit briefly. I am very grateful we have remained good friends, my bowling and coffee buddies. iii
To my merry band of friends—Dr. Reyna Koreen V. Lim, Dr. Major D. Gooyit, Dr. Dennis Kien B. Pacardo, who have gone the way of grad school before me and inspired me to do the same, MARAMING SALAMAT for the much needed advice and constantly providing the humor, comfort and faith needed to navigate the intricacies of graduate school and life. It wasn’t long ago when we were just talking about these plans and now we’ve all done it. I also thank Joshua, Charity, Donna, Tuani, Zarah, Angela, and all other friends who have always believed in my capabilities when I didn’t. Thank you all for the laughter, inspiration, and generosity. My family has always been my compass and guide in whatever undertaking I dared. To Mama and Papa, I am very grateful that in spite of the hardships and difficulties, you made sure I got the best education possible. You never questioned my decisions, always allowed me to explore my options and trusted my judgment. To my siblings—Nikko, Nikka, Nikkita, Nikkito, Nikkitito and Nikkitita, thank you for inspiring me to be the best version of myself. You always keep me grounded and make me aspire to be a good example for you. To the rest of my extended family, far too many to mention, thank you for appreciating all my accomplishments, big and small. iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter I — Introduction and overview ........................................................1. Structure, function, electronic states and spectral properties of carotenoids ...........1.. Light harvesting by photosynthetic organisms ........................................................6.. Purple bacteria ....................................................................................................7.. Dinoflagellates ..................................................................................................1..2.. Higher plants .....................................................................................................1..3.. References .............................................................................................................1..8.. Chapter II — Excited state properties of a short conjugated peridinin analogue ...........................................................................................................3. 4 Introduction ...........................................................................................................3..4.. Materials and Methods ..........................................................................................3..7.. Results and Discussion ..........................................................................................3..9.. Conclusions ...........................................................................................................5..3.. References .............................................................................................................5..4.. v
Chapter III — Effect of protein aggregation on the spectroscopic properties and excited state kinetics of the LHCII pigment-protein complex from green plants ............................................................................5..8. Introduction ...........................................................................................................5..8.. Materials and Methods ..........................................................................................6..2.. Results and Discussion ..........................................................................................6..8.. Conclusions ...........................................................................................................9..5.. References .............................................................................................................9..7.. Chapter IV — High efficiency light-harvesting by carotenoids in the LH2 complex from photosynthetic bacteria: Unique adaptation to growth under low-light conditions ..............................................................1..0..5. Introduction .........................................................................................................1..0..5.. Materials and Methods ........................................................................................1..1..0.. Results .................................................................................................................1..1..8.. Discussion ............................................................................................................1..4..8.. Conclusions .........................................................................................................1..6..0.. References ...........................................................................................................1..6..2.. vi
Spectroscopy and Photophysics of Carotenoids in Solution and in Light-harvesting Pigment
Bioconjugate materials for the study of pigment mobility in light-harvesting systems, protein-based
Excited States of Carotenoids and Their Roles in Light Harvesting Systems
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2018 • 613 Pages • 40.1 MB
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Mike Johansson
Principal Lecturer, School of Communication at Rochester Institute of Technology Mike Johansson is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Communication at Rochester Institute of Technology where he teaches courses in Advertising, Public Relations and Social Media. He was one of three faculty who jointly developed RIT’s first 9-credit critical thinking class, “The Meaning of Things in Three Objects.” The initial offering of the class in Spring 2017 displayed measurable growth in students’ critical thinking skills over the 15-week course. Prior to joining the RIT faculty in 2009, Mike spent more than 25 years in media companies in the United States and abroad. He maintains a lifelong interest in critical thinking and problem solving and includes weekly exercises in his classes to encourage creative thinking. A mentor once noted “Mike doesn’t think outside the box, he doesn’t recognize that the box ever existed.” Mike received two fellowships to the Poynter Institute and also served as a Digital Journalism fellow at University of California, Berkeley. He has a master’s degree from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.
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Arscott, Catherine (1765–1793)
Catherine Prior (c.1765-1793), Mary Braund and Mary Haydon were found guilty, on 20 March 1786 at the Exeter Assizes, of highway robbery. Their death sentence was reprieved to seven years transportation and they were sent to the Dunkirk hulk. The women embarked on the Charlotte on 11 March 1787 and arrived in Sydney in January 1788 as part of the First Fleet. Prior gave birth to a son John Matthew Prior on 14 November 1787 during the voyage. The child was baptised at Port Jackson on 10 February.
On 8 December 1792 Prior married John Arscott. In April 1793, after her sentence had expired, she left the colony with her husband for England aboard the Shah Hormuzear. In July Arscott was left behind on an island, after the party he went ashore with, to get some water, was attacked. When Arscott finally made it to Batavia he learnt that his wife had died of 'spotted fever' on board the Shah Hormuzear two days before it had made port in September 1793.
* information from Mollie Gillen, The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet (1989), p 293
Arscott, John (husband)
Prior, John Matthew (son)
Bryant, Mary (criminal associate)
Howell, Mary (criminal associate)
Barsby, Samuel (acquaintance)
'Arscott, Catherine (1765–1793)', People Australia, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://peopleaustralia.anu.edu.au/biography/arscott-catherine-29886/text36998, accessed 19 January 2021.
Prior, Catherine
Fryer, Catharine
Passenger Ship
Charlotte (1788)
Dunkirk hulk (Plymouth, Devon)
First Fleet (1788)
Convict Record
Crime: theft
Sentence: 7 years
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Recognition of overseas same-sex relationships in New Zealand
Kenneth Norrie
More than thirty jurisdictions across the (Western) world have, since Demark was the first to do so in 1989, created institutionalised means by which same-sex couples can have their personal relationships registered with the State and governed by legal rules, analogous to those applicable to opposite-sex couples through the far older institution that we call 'marriage'. New Zealand, a State with a strong perception of itself as an egalitarian and socially progressive country, did so with its Civil Union Act 2004, which came into force on 26 April 2005, together with a plethora of Amendment Acts bringing civil union partners within the parameters of existing legislation. These Acts are New Zealand's response to the radical but still fairly recent shift in social attitudes towards gay and lesbian people, and same-sex couples, which has accorded us the values of human dignity and equality before the law. This article suggests, however, that New Zealand law tolerates rather than celebrates this new ideal of social justice. It is argued that with LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) issues, New Zealand is a country that follows rather than leads. Especially problematical is New Zealand's approach to recognition of overseas relationships.
New Zealand Universities Law Review
Norrie-NZULR-2009-Recognition-of-overseas-same-sex-relationshipsAccepted author manuscript, 628 KB
http://www.nzulr.com/archives/vol23no3.htm
Norrie, K. (2009). Recognition of overseas same-sex relationships in New Zealand. New Zealand Universities Law Review, 23(3), 339-367.
Norrie, Kenneth. / Recognition of overseas same-sex relationships in New Zealand. In: New Zealand Universities Law Review. 2009 ; Vol. 23, No. 3. pp. 339-367.
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abstract = "More than thirty jurisdictions across the (Western) world have, since Demark was the first to do so in 1989, created institutionalised means by which same-sex couples can have their personal relationships registered with the State and governed by legal rules, analogous to those applicable to opposite-sex couples through the far older institution that we call 'marriage'. New Zealand, a State with a strong perception of itself as an egalitarian and socially progressive country, did so with its Civil Union Act 2004, which came into force on 26 April 2005, together with a plethora of Amendment Acts bringing civil union partners within the parameters of existing legislation. These Acts are New Zealand's response to the radical but still fairly recent shift in social attitudes towards gay and lesbian people, and same-sex couples, which has accorded us the values of human dignity and equality before the law. This article suggests, however, that New Zealand law tolerates rather than celebrates this new ideal of social justice. It is argued that with LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) issues, New Zealand is a country that follows rather than leads. Especially problematical is New Zealand's approach to recognition of overseas relationships.",
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Norrie, K 2009, 'Recognition of overseas same-sex relationships in New Zealand', New Zealand Universities Law Review, vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 339-367.
Recognition of overseas same-sex relationships in New Zealand. / Norrie, Kenneth.
In: New Zealand Universities Law Review, Vol. 23, No. 3, 06.2009, p. 339-367.
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AU - Norrie, Kenneth
N2 - More than thirty jurisdictions across the (Western) world have, since Demark was the first to do so in 1989, created institutionalised means by which same-sex couples can have their personal relationships registered with the State and governed by legal rules, analogous to those applicable to opposite-sex couples through the far older institution that we call 'marriage'. New Zealand, a State with a strong perception of itself as an egalitarian and socially progressive country, did so with its Civil Union Act 2004, which came into force on 26 April 2005, together with a plethora of Amendment Acts bringing civil union partners within the parameters of existing legislation. These Acts are New Zealand's response to the radical but still fairly recent shift in social attitudes towards gay and lesbian people, and same-sex couples, which has accorded us the values of human dignity and equality before the law. This article suggests, however, that New Zealand law tolerates rather than celebrates this new ideal of social justice. It is argued that with LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) issues, New Zealand is a country that follows rather than leads. Especially problematical is New Zealand's approach to recognition of overseas relationships.
AB - More than thirty jurisdictions across the (Western) world have, since Demark was the first to do so in 1989, created institutionalised means by which same-sex couples can have their personal relationships registered with the State and governed by legal rules, analogous to those applicable to opposite-sex couples through the far older institution that we call 'marriage'. New Zealand, a State with a strong perception of itself as an egalitarian and socially progressive country, did so with its Civil Union Act 2004, which came into force on 26 April 2005, together with a plethora of Amendment Acts bringing civil union partners within the parameters of existing legislation. These Acts are New Zealand's response to the radical but still fairly recent shift in social attitudes towards gay and lesbian people, and same-sex couples, which has accorded us the values of human dignity and equality before the law. This article suggests, however, that New Zealand law tolerates rather than celebrates this new ideal of social justice. It is argued that with LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) issues, New Zealand is a country that follows rather than leads. Especially problematical is New Zealand's approach to recognition of overseas relationships.
KW - family law
KW - same sex couples
KW - marriage
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KW - civil partnership
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Norrie K. Recognition of overseas same-sex relationships in New Zealand. New Zealand Universities Law Review. 2009 Jun;23(3):339-367.
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Ottawa-Carleton District School Board » Connect with Us » OCDSB News » OCDSB Indigenous Speaker Series: Kanahus Manuel - December 11, 2020
This rare and special live stream will feature Kanahus Manuel from the west coast (Secwepemc and Ktunaxa) who will be speaking to OCDSB students grades 9 to 12 and staff on current events taking place on Indigenous lands in British Columbia.
This session will be moderated by Isaac Murdoch (Serpent River First Nation) and together they will highlight the connections between colonialism and climate change, resource extraction and violence against Indigenous peoples, and how students can play an important role in solidarity and action movements.
Time: 1:00p.m. – 3:00p.m.
Registration: https://bit.ly/dec11live
Live stream: https://www.youtube.com
About the speaker: Kanahus Manuel, or Kanahus Freedom, is an Indigenous activist, birth keeper, and a member of the activist group Tiny House Warriors. Manuel is a Secwepemc and Ktunaxa mother of four Freedom Babies, children raised in the spirit of decolonization and free from the regulations of the Canadian federal and provincial governments.
Manuel decided to do this as an Indigenous woman to raise questions about the inherent rights of Indigenous peoples of Canada. Manuel's grandfather George Manuel was the president of the National Indian Brotherhood, now the Assembly of First Nations and one of the co-founders of the World Council of Indigenous Peoples, dedicated to the recognition of Indigenous rights worldwide. Manuel's father, Arthur Manuel wrote The Reconciliation Manifesto and Unsettling Canada and started the Indigenous Network on Economies and Trade organization.
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Hot Topics State Legislature Election 2016 Layoffs
Quick Hit Aricka Flowers Tuesday March 8th, 2016, 11:29pm
Lawsuits Seek To Go Further Down The Rabbit Hole Of The Laquan McDonald Shooting Investigation
As the March 15 primary election nears, the controversy surrounding the 2014 police shooting death of Laquan McDonald refuses to let up. On Tuesday, just a week before the primary election, lawsuits were filed against the Chicago Police Department, the Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA), and the office of Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez, who is facing a tough re-election bid, for more information on the case.
Specifically, the suit is calling on the police department, IPRA and Alvarez to release their respective records on the McDonald investigation. The lawsuit was filed by independent journalist Brandon Smith, who — with the help of the Invisible Institute’s Jamie Kalven — pressed for what was the eventual public release of the police dash-cam video of the McDonald shooting.
Smith says the timing of the lawsuit serves a dual purpose in light of the upcoming election.
“I think that the people of Chicago are wondering about why it took so long for Alvarez’s office to investigate this and there is no better time than now when she’s up for re-election to find out for people,” Smith told Progress Illinois. “Yes, she said she was investigating the whole time, but people who know law enforcement investigations say that your key work is done in the first few days or couple of weeks after the event happened and then the trail goes cold.
“So 13 months later, I’m just skeptical, as I think many people in Chicago are, of what she could have been doing 13 months out. So we’re trying to figure that out before the election so that people are informed going into that election.”
Garry McCarthy lost his job as CPD’s police chief due to the public outcry following the release of the McDonald dash-cam video. The Chicago Police Board was tasked with providing Mayor Rahm Emanuel with a list of three recommended candidates for the job by the end of February. But the board missed their deadline, citing the need for more time. Lori Lightfoot, the board’s president, said the recommendations will be made “as soon as possible.”
The ongoing search for a CPD superintendent could be impacted by Tuesday’s lawsuit, according to Smith, as it may incite city and law enforcement leaders to be more mindful of the rally cry for a proper police steward.
“I don’t really see a more powerful way to demand that the city find someone for that office that is worthy of the people’s trust than to make sure that the past grievances are brought to light,” Smith said of the search for a new CPD superintendent.
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests have been at the epicenter of the Laquan McDonald case, considering the city was forced to release the video by a judge after the city refused multiple media requests for the dash-cam video. A lawsuit by Smith, with the help of the Loevy & Loevy civil rights law firm, led to that judgement back in November. Members of the public, and the media, have the legal right to submit FOIA requests to government agencies in order to gain access to information that has not been made public. The latest lawsuit is yet another push for FOIA requests to be honored in the manner in which they were designed by law, according to Matt Topic of Lovey & Loevy Attorneys At Law.
“Despite our repeated good faith efforts to get the information from the CPD, IPRA, and the State’s Attorney’s Office without litigation, we have been met with obfuscations and brick walls,” Topic said in a release announcing the lawsuit. “Public access to information about the actions of our public officials, elected and otherwise, is precisely the circumstance our state’s FOIA law was designed for, especially when the government takes a life. Apparently that message still is not being heard.”
Smith hopes that the latest lawsuit will send a message to public officials about the way in which FOIA requests should be handled, regardless of who makes the inquiry.
“Journalists and the public at large have been dissuaded from filing FOIA requests or just questioning the government in general because they’ve heard these horror stories of the city denying so many things … They deny based on very broad interpretations of the exemptions, and the exemptions should be treated very narrowly. So, it’s my hope that myself — and many others who have been on the FOIA trail, if you will — that we paint a picture that shows this can work; and to ultimately make sure that it works for everyone the way it was intended.”
Image: AP Photo/Teresa Crawford
Chicago Police Board
Cook Co.
Cook County State’s Attorney
Illinois Primary
Independent Police Review Authority
Loevy & Loevy Attorney At Law
Loevy & Loevy Attorneys At Law
Primary election
U.S. Freedom of Information Act
Public figures
Anita Alvarez
Garry McCarthy
Rahm Emanuel
Level of gov’t
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IBM Search for people
IBM Research-Africa
IBM Research-Almaden
IBM Research-Austin
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IBM Research-China
IBM Research Europe
IBM Research-Haifa
IBM Research-India
IBM Research-Tokyo
Thomas J Watson Research Center
Bruce G Elmegreen
Research Staff Member
Thomas J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, NY USA
Professional Associations: American Association for the Advancement of Sciences | American Astronomical Society | International Astronomical Union
Dr. Elmegreen works in the Physical Analytics and IoT Department of the Research Division of IBM. His interests in the field of astrophysics include star formation, interstellar matter, and galactic structure. In the field of Nanotechnology, Dr. Elmegreen has designed and modeled phase change material structures and piezoelectronic devices and circuits. For Physical Analytics, he has modeled traffic flow in cities and studied long-term weather patterns. He has contributed to an international collaboration between IBM Research and the Square Kilometer Array radio telescope project. He joined IBM in 1984 after holding a faculty position at Columbia University. He received his Ph.D. at Princeton University under the guidance of Lyman Spitzer, Jr., and was a Junior Fellow at Harvard University. He was raised in Milwaukee and attended the University of Wisconsin in Madison as an undergraduate. Dr. Elmegreen has written over 360 scientific articles, given over 200 invited talks at international conferences, and obtained 20 patents. He was Chair of the Publications Board of the American Astronomy Society from 1998 to 2001 and is currently a member of the Publications Board of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. In 2001, he received the Dannie Heineman Prize of the American Astronomical Society and the American Physical Society. In 2016, he received an IBM Research Outstanding Accomplishment Award for research in star formation. He was a member of the US National Science Foundation Math and Physical Sciences Advisory Committee from 2012-2016 and became a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2013. From 2015-2018 he was President of Division H on Interstellar Matter and Local Universe and Chair of the Resolutions Board for the International Astronomical Union. Also during this time for the IAU, he was an elected National Representative of the American Astronomical Society.
Projects and Groups
Physical Analytics
Physical Analytics (previous)
Smarter Traffic
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Myles Dungan
Historian and broadcaster
UCD / NLI LECTURES
Tag Archives: Mitch McConnell
SCOTUS, POTUS AND ALLOFUS
Posted on September 20, 2020 by Myles Dungan
Does history suggest that the US President has the moral right to appoint a new Supreme Court Justice in an election year?
First off, let’s not kid ourselves by using the word ‘moral’ in the same sentence as ‘US President’, especially not in 2020. Appointing a Supreme Court justice has always been a plum to be plucked from the eponymous fruit tree by any incumbent of the Oval Office. With a third appointment looming, President Trump is hoping to have enough fruit for a jar of plum jam before the end of this year.
The answer to the question posed above seems to depend on whether a) the President in question is a Republican or a Democrat b) which party controls the Senate, and c) just how much cynicism and utter shamelessness Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) can muster. Given that he didn’t even bother to wait until rigor mortis had set in before announcing that the Senate was ready to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg by Sunday brunch, his lack of self-reflection runs even deeper than any previous diagnosis indicated.
The Notorious RBG
Back in 2016, according to Senator McConnell, it appears to have been morally repugnant to appoint a Democratic nominee, Merrick Garland, as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS – they do love their acronyms!) in March of a Presidential election year – i.e a full eight months before the 8 November polling date. But, in 2020 it seems to be just dandy to start the same process less than eight weeksbefore another Presidential election.
Of course the two situations are entirely different. The truth can be found in the Chinese Zodiac.
Chinese papercut art in for the year of the monkey 2016.
2016 was the Year of the Monkey while 2020 is, with a certain poetic inevitability, the Year of the Rat. Everyone knows that in a Year of the Monkey (1932, 1944, 1956, 1968, 1980, 1992, 2004, 2016) it is not permitted, under an obscure amendment to the US Constitution of which only the senior Senator from Kentucky seems to have had sight, for the incumbent President (provided he is a Democrat) to appoint a new Associate Justice to a Supreme Court vacancy. These rules change completely, however, during any given Year of the Rat (1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996, 2008, 2020). The Founding Fathers knew exactly what they were doing (as with the right to bear arms against pre-school children and the fabulously democratic Electoral College) when they favoured a rodent over a primate in framing this ‘lost’ amendment to the Constitution. It appears to have been re-discovered by the Senate Majority leader hidden underneath the original document in the National Archives where it had been carelessly placed by an absent-minded Alexander Hamilton who was late for a production meeting with Lin Manuel Miranda. Chapeau Senator!
If Mitch has the brass neck to try and push through Trump’s nominee (probably female and due next week) it will mean the 45th President will have manged three picks in a single term. That would be a good strike rate, but not overly impressive if we look at the history of Supreme Court appointments.
Some Presidents got to nominate a hell of a lot of justices. Obviously George Washington is the Olympic gold medallist in this particular discipline because he appointed all the members of the very first Supreme Court (there were six back then). He has a personal best of eleven appointees over eight years. Franklin Roosevelt comes next, largely because he was in office for most of the 20th century. His PB was nine, over almost a dozen years in the White House. He tried really hard to beat Washington’s total though (see below). William Hoard Taft holds the record for a one-term President with six appointees, before becoming Chief Justice himself (he wasn’t one of his own nominees by the way – he was appointed by half-term President Warren Harding in 1921).
If Trump succeeds in appointing a replacement for Ruth Bader Ginsburg and, in the process, changes the political complexion of the Court for a generation, would a newly elected Joe Biden have any possible comeback? Indeed he would. There have been nine SCOTUS justices on the Supreme Court bench since the passing of the Judiciary Act of 1869 – before that the number varied between six and ten. The total is determined, not by the President, the Court itself, or the Constitution, but by Congress. So, nothing like a time-consuming and unwinnable constitutional amendment (requiring the ratification of 38 states) is needed to change the status quo.
In 1937 Franklin D. Roosevelt, frustrated at having many of his New Deal reforms stymied by adverse Supreme Court decisions against the constitutionality of many of his measures proposed to, in effect, ‘pack’ the Supreme court with a majority of his own nominees. He sought to introduce legislation which might have had the effect of increasing the number of justices to fifteen. He wanted the power to appoint a new justice for every incumbent who opted not to retire at the age of seventy. In this particular political sleight of hand he was thwarted by members of his own party and the exclusive (male) club remained nine strong. It has done so to this day.
However, given the ’tradition’ that Senator McConnell established in 2016 and will conveniently ignore in 2020 (I won’t insult your intelligence by mentioning the Jesuitical reasoning by which he has informed his conscience, so that it allows him to flout his own ‘rules’) it should be in order for President Biden and a Democratic Congress to restore some political balance to the SCOTUS by adding one, or even two new, credible, and suitably qualified posteriors to the bench. That would make up for the SCOTUS pick denied President Obama in 2016, and newly elected President Biden (God that sounds soooo good) in 2020.
And in case you are worried about having an even number on the court if he stops at one new appointee, fear not. In the event of a tied decision all cases go into overtime as the concept of a draw is not recognised in any truly American sport. Actually that’s not true, in the event of a tied vote the decision of the lower court being challenged in the high court, is duly confirmed.
So, even if the handful of Republican Senators who have voiced opposition to a promotion to the SCOTUS during an election year are cajoled, bullied or intimidated into resiling from the position held to so fervently by their own Majority leader in 2016, there are historical precedents for the Supreme Court bench to number more than nine Justices and there is no impediment to Congress adopting that course of action in 2021, the Year of the Ox.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Franklin D. Roosevelt, Joe Biden, Mitch McConnell, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, SCOTUS, US Supreme Court, William Howard Taft
Trump can’t hack a postal ballot – but, then again, neither can Russia.
Posted on July 30, 2020 by Myles Dungan
To post or not to post?
There’s a moment in the Orson Welles classic film Citizen Kane when the main character, Charles Foster Kane— based on the newspaper and business tycoon William Randolph Hearst—is running for election as governor of New York. The editor of his New York daily has prepared two early editions, one of which will appear the morning after the result of the election is announced. One reads ‘KANE ELECTED’ the other reads ‘FRAUD AT THE POLLS’. With a long face he is forced to go with the latter when Kane loses (so did Hearst, in 1906).
It appears from his tweet today—the one about the possibility of postponing the November Presidential election, not the 87 other ones—(this was written before midnight so that figure might no longer be accurate!)—that President Donald J. Trump is of a similar mindset. Either he will defeat Joe Biden in November, or he will have been the victim of massive electoral fraud, most of it coming via mail ballots.
So, what does history tell us about a) the postponement of a US Presidential election and b) US electoral fraud.
The first thing to be reiterated is that the President cannot release his inner spider yet again and sign another Executive Order to postpone/cancel/exclude/deport/pardon a Presidential election. He may be able to rename Mars as Planet Trump (I’m not sure if that actually happened but I saw it on Twitter) but according to Article 2 Clause 4 of something called the United States Constitution (apparently we have one too, but the UK hasn’t gotten around to it yet) …
‘The Congress may determine the Time of chusing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States.’
Americans seem to have adopted the standardised spelling of ‘choosing’ since the 18th century, so it’s probably only a matter of time before they overcome their loathing of the letter ‘U’ and begin to spell ‘labour’ ‘flavour’ and ‘savour’ properly as well.
As to the date, the American election has not always taken place on the first Tuesday after the 1 November. That practice began on 7 November 1848 when the USA staged the first national election that was held on the same day in every state. Zachary Taylor became President. (Me neither!) The 1848 election date was based on a snappily titled 1845 law – ‘An act to establish a uniform time for holding elections of electors of President and Vice President in all the states of the Union’ which did exactly what it said on the tin and settled on ‘the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November’. That is the way it was been ever since.
Any change would require an amendment to that act, approved by both Houses of Congress. To the Democrats, who have a majority in the House of Representatives, it is an non-runner, dead duck, non-starter, ‘just ain’t gonna happen’ – and even Republicans in the Senate have no stomach for such a move. Trump Enabler in Chief, Mitch McConnell has described the date as ‘set in stone’[1]
And even if it was postponed when would the USA go for a reset? No election (bar the first in 1788) has failed to take place in the final full year of a presidential term. This is not the Olympic games. Any postponement beyond the end of December would require a constitutional amendment. This would have to be ratified by 38 of 50 states! If you’ve been watching Mrs. America on the BBC you’ll have some idea how difficult it is to pass a constitutional amendment. (Spoiler Alert – I’ve probably just given away the fact that the Equal Rights Amendment was never enshrined in the US Constitution. Oops! Sorry).
And it’s not as if American Presidential elections haven’t gone ahead in spite of a few minor difficulties!
In 1812 James Madison and DeWitt Clinton had to face the electorate despite the USA being in the middle of a war with their former colonisers, the British. In 1864 Abraham Lincoln had to fight an election against one of his former Generals, George McClellan even though the Civil War was still raging.
Lincoln and McClellan in more convivial times
According to Michael Burlingame, Professor emeritus of History, Connecticut College:
‘No other democratic nation had ever conducted a national election during times of war. And while there was some talk of postponing the election, it was never given serious consideration, even when Lincoln thought that he would lose.’[2] Lincoln’s chances weren’t helped by a rebellion in his own party that threw up a charismatic third candidate in John C. Fremont. But the Lincoln Project was ultimately successful (fnarr, fnarr!)
Not to mention the fact that FDR was re-elected, for the seventeenth time, in 1944 during a global conflict.
Then there is the mail / absentee voting issue.
Is voting by mail more liable to produce a fraudulent result? Well, nearly 1 in 4 voters cast 2016 presidential ballots that way, and Trump won (albeit losing the popular vote by a narrow 3,000,000 margin). Being permitted to post off your ballot in October or November, rather than appearing in person to pull the lever, would make it less likely that electors would be required to die for their country, of Covid-19. It would also be more difficult for Cozy Bears, APT29 or whatever those talented Russian hackers are calling themselves now, to game the system. Not even Vladimir Putin is patient enough to stand over every postal voter and steal their ballot.
They’ve been voting by mail in Oregon since 1998 and out of over 15 million ballots cast the conservative Heritage Foundation detected fourteen cases of fraud.[3] That’s a rate of .0000009%. A study that was funded by by those celebrated bastions of Marxist/Leninism, the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Knight Foundation, found an “infinitesimal” number of fraud cases in elections between 2000 and 2012. They detected a total of 2,068 illicit ballots cast, amounting to one in every 15 million eligible voters.[4] And those were not all mail-in voters, some of the fraud took place at election booths.
If about 150,000,000 Americans vote on 3 November that’s a potential incidence of around 10 fraudulent ballots nationwide. I’m sure the Democrats would be happy to ease President Trump’s mind by giving him a ten vote start? He can even take them all in Wisconsin or Minnesota if that helps.
BTW – President Trump himself voted by mail during New York City’s mayoral election in 2017. He cast an absentee ballot the following year, and again used a mail ballot in Florida’s primary election in 2020.[5] What’s that old saw about sauce, goose and ganders again? So, unless Democratic members of the House of Representatives are accidentally locked in a broom cupboard before a vote on electoral postponement, the poll will proceed as planned on 3 November.
Incidentally, the last time a Presidential election was held on 3 November was 1988, when a Republican incumbent (George H.W. Bush) was defeated after serving a single term in the White House. Just sayin’
Caveat – all sources cited here are, of course, fake news outlets, like Snopes.com, Reuters and NPR. So, you can safely take it all with a pinch of salt.
[1] https://www.npr.org/2020/07/30/897111969/trump-floats-delaying-the-election-it-would-require-a-change-in-law
[2] https://millercenter.org/president/lincoln/campaigns-and-elections
[3] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-vote-by-mail-explainer-idUSKBN2482SA
[4] https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/mail-in-ballot-voter-fraud/
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Abraham Lincoln, APT29, Carnegie Corporation, Citizen Kane, Cozy Bears, Donald Trump, James Madison, Joe Biden, Knight Foundation, Mail voting, Mitch McConnell, Snopes.com, The Lincoln Project
Some of the long term psychological effects of Bloody Sunday – 21 November 1920
A dubious guide to US election terminology
BRITTANIA WAIVES THE RULES: Due process or Kangaroo Courts? The 1916 Courts Martial and executions.
Happy 100th Birthday to Prohibition.
Follow on Twitter – @MylesDungan1
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Kindle: The Stealing of the Irish Crown Jewels
'On this day' on soundcloud.com
The History Show – RTE Radio 1
@RTEHistoryShow on Twitter
Just a decade after the Famine, an Irish labourer poses for the camera: @mycolorfulpast bridges "the gap between hi… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 2 days ago
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Kwame is callin’ for a hook-up from the Prez
Lee Stephens
The former Mayor of the City of Detroit has been in jail for several years now for misuse of office among other offenses. Since his sentencing of 28 years in prison, Peter Karmanos has been on Kilpatrick's side since the sentencing to find a way to set him free.
So, who better to go to than the President of the United States, right? Peter Karmanos, a longtime friend of President Trump and Kwame Kilpatrick, has already begun the process to request clemency for the former Detroit Mayor. A move that would be the latest in a slew of high profiled pardons by President Trump.
Speaking to reporters from WDIV Detroit, former Governor Rick Schneider believes the charges and time fit the crime. We'll keep you updated.
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Zygmunt Bauman’s Liquid Times – A Summary
Zygmunt Bauman is one of the world’s leading sociologists. He is particularly interested in how the west’s increasing obsession with ‘individualism’ actually prevents the individual from being free in any meaningful sense of the word.
In ‘Liquid Times (2007), Bauman argues that there are a number of negative consequences of globalisation such as the generation of surplus people who have no where to go in a world that is full; of increasingly visible inequalities as the rich and the poor come to live closer together; and of a world in which it is increasingly difficult for communities and nations to provide collective security.
According to Bauman, the ultimate cause of negative globalisation is due to the fact that the owners of Capital are invisible and shifting, having the power to invest locally without making commitments, and even to ignore international law if they deem it in their interests. The global elite are globally mobile, they are not stuck in one place, and they are free to move on if there are better investment opportunities elsewhere. The elite are seen as creating an unstable world as they move from place to place, seeking to maximise their profits. Meanwhile, the experience of ‘negative globabalisation’ for the rest of us who are ‘doomed to be local’ is one of increasing anxiety, fear, and suspicion, which derive from living in an unstable and unpredictable world over which we have no control, and we are compelled to develop strategies to counter the unstable, unjust, unequal and ‘risky’ and ‘dangerous’ world that the forever shifting elite leave in their wake.
The strategies adopted depend on the specific experience of negative globalisation, but they nearly always involve putting up barriers to protect us from ‘dangerous others’, or they involve escaping from a world that is perceived as no longer worth living in.
Those that ‘run away’ include everyone from refugees fleeing a war torn country to the millions of people in the West who continually reinvent themselves selves through seeking out new life experiences rather than rooting their identities in involvement in local and national institutions.
‘Barrier strategies’ include the emergence of fortress Europe to keep refugees out; the development of gated communities and the move towards zero tolerance policing policies in many cities.
For Bauman, these strategies are always ineffective, because they do no address the root cause of our anxiety, which is the fact that our national and local institutions can no longer provide us with security in the wake of instabilities brought on by advanced global capitalism. Instead, these strategies end up increasing the amount of anxiety and fear and segregation and eventually serve to justify our paranoia.
The remainder of this article looks at three elements of ‘negative globalisation’: The generation of surplus people; Increasingly visible inequalities; and the undermining of national and local institutions.
Surplus people
Bauman argues that ‘When the elite purse their goals, the poor pay the price’, seeing the instabilities and inequalities caused by global capitalism as creating the conditions that can lead to ethnic nationalisms, religious fanaticisms, increased civil wars, violence, organised crime and terrorism, all of which do not respect national boundaries. As a result, there is a new ‘global frontier land’ occupied by refugees, guerrilla armies, bandit gangs and drug traffickers.
Focussing on refuges, Bauman points out that they are outside law altogether because they have no state of their own, but neither are they part of the state to which they have fled. He points out that many Palestinians, for example, have lived in ‘temporary’ refugee camps for more than a decade, but these camps have no formal existence and don’t even appear on any maps of the regions in which they are situated. To make matters worse, refugees often have no idea of when their refugee status will end, and hence Bauman argues that they exist in a ‘permanent temporary state’ which he calls the ‘nowhere land of non humanity’.
Refugees in camps can be forgotten, whereas if they were amongst us, we would have to take notice of them. In these camps, they come to be seen as one homogenous mass, the nuances between the thousands of individuals living therein becoming irrelevant to the outsider. Refugees, in fact, go through a process much like Goffman’s mortification of the self, as many of them are stripped of all the usual things they need to construct an identity such as a homeland, possessions and a daily routine. Unlike the mentally ill who Goffman studied, however, refugees have no formal rights, because their self- mortification takes place in a land that doesn’t formerly exist. Bauman’s point is that one of the worst consequences of globalisation is the absolute denial of human self expression as experienced by refugees.
While Bauman’s work provides us with an insight into why refugees may want to escape their permanent temporary camps, there is little chance of this happening. For a start, Europe is increasingly developing a ‘fortress mentality’ in which we try our best to keep refugees out the European Union through offering aid to countries that boarder international crisis zones in order to help them, rather than us having to deal with the ‘refugee problem’ ourselves.
Those refugees that do make it to the United Kingdom and other European countries have an ever slimmer chance of being awarded Asylum, and are increasingly likely to be locked up in detention centres. In the United Kingdom, Asylum seekers are not allowed to work or to claim benefits, which in turn makes it incredibly difficult for such individuals to ever integrate into what is to them a new and strange country. Thus even for those who escape, their reward is further experience of marginalisation.
Bauman also deals with why the general populace of the West are so scared of Refugees. Firstly, and very importantly, he reminds us that the real underlying cause of our fears, anxieties and suspicions is that we have lost control over the collective, social dimensions of our life. Our communities, our work places, even our governments, are in constant flux, and this condition creates uncertainty about who we are and where we are going, which is experienced at the level of the individual as fear and anxiety.
This experience of fear and anxiety means that we are unnaturally afraid of a whole range of things, but a further reason that we might be especially scared of Asylum seekers in particular is that they have the stench of war on them, and they unconsciously remind us of global instabilities that most of us would rather forget about. Asylum seekers remind us, ultimately, that the world is an unjust place full of tens of millions of people who, through no fault of their own, bear the consequences of negative globalisation. Asylum seekers remind us of the frailties of a global system that we don’t control and don’t understand.
Rather than looking at the complex underlying causes of our irrational sense of fear, the Media and Politicians see people such as Asylum seekers as an easy target: They are confined to camps, and hence stuck in one place, and they will obviously look different and hence are more visible. Keeping Asylum seekers out, or sending them back in droves, becomes a political tool, with politicians winning points for adopting ever greater levels of intolerance towards the desperate.
The consequence of this for refugees is bleak. A major theme of Bauman’s work is that once fear of a group in society has been generated it is self perpetuating, whether or not that fear is justified. The very fact that we are afraid of Asylum seekers means we are less likely to approach them, it means that were are less likely to give them a chance, which in turn leads to a situation of mutual suspicion in which both parties seek to keep as much distance between themselves as possible.
The experience of Global Inequality
The radical inequality between citizens in the United Kingdom and refugees living in the no where land of non humanity is stark, but, for most of us, easily ignored. Much more visible are the inequalities that exist within International cities such as London, New York, and, even more obviously Mexico City and Rio Di Janeiro.
Bauman points out that cities used to be built to keep people out, but today they have become unsafe places, where strangers are an ever looming presence. The underlying reason why the modern city is a place that breeds fear and suspicion is because they are sites of some of the most profound and visible inequalities on earth, where the poor and rich live side by side. As a result, those who can afford it take advantage of a number of security mechanisms, such as living in gated communities, installing surveillance cameras, or hiring private security. The architecture of the modern city has become one of segregating the haves from the have nots.
For the poor, this ‘fortification mentality’ is experienced as ‘keeping us excluded from what we can never have’ and they effectively become ghettoised in areas which will always seam undesirable compared to the places they are prevented from being. Thus the poor are permanent exiles from much of their city. Lacking economic capital, sub cultural capital becomes the only thing the excluded can draw on in order to carve out some status for themselves. This, argues Bauman, is the reason why there are so many distinct and segregated ethnic identities. These are the strategies adopted by the poor to carve out some freedom for themselves, the strategies of those who are doomed to be local.
This strategy, however, breeds a culture of difference, and separatism. It breeds a city in which we are surrounded by strange others whose territory will always seam unfamiliar, which in turn breeds yet more suspicion, fear and insecurity. Islands of difference rather than an integrated city are the result, a city populated by unfamiliar people who we do not know.
Bauman points out that, once visited on the world, fear takes little to keep it going. Social life changes when people live behind walls, wear handguns, carry mace and hire security guards. The very presence of these things makes us think the world is more dangerous, leading to increased fear and anxiety. It doesn’t actually matter if the ‘others’ are actually, or ever were, dangerous, the fact that we put up defences against them is proof enough of the fact that they must be a threat.
Insecurity, anxiety, and the inadequacy of identity…
While Globalisation creates instabilities which creates surplus people and stark inequalities, Bauman also argues that Globalisation erodes the ability of the state and local communities to provide genuine stability and security for individuals. Social institutions such as the family, education and work dissipate faster than the span of one’s life, and it becomes difficult for individuals to construct a coherent life-project.
This situation results in what Bauman calls ‘existential tremors,’ where individuals do not have a stable sense of who they are, or what they belong to, resulting, as we have already come across, in increased feelings of anxiety, fear and uncertainty. As evidence of this, Bauman points out that most of us do not generally perceive the future as a bright place of hope and of ‘better things to come’, instead we see the future as a series of challenges to be overcome, of risks to be managed, and of threats to our security. In short, the future is a bleak, dark, and uncertain place.
In the absence of collective security, individuals and families are left to try and develop strategies to find security and stability themselves, and our goals become limited to the managing risks, and our horizons limited to the every narrowing sphere over which we still have some measure of control! Thus we invest in pensions, become very protective of our children, and become increasingly suspicious of strangers. We are obliged to spend our time doing things to minimise the perceived threats to our safety: checking for cancers, investing in home security, and monitoring our children. Our life-project becomes not one of developing ourselves, not one of striving for a deeper understanding of what it means to be human, but, instead, our life goals become limited to avoiding bad things happening to ourselves.
Bauman also has a pessimistic take on the common practice of the continual reinvention of the self. Bauman argues that the process of constructing an identity is sold to us as something that is fun, as something that should be pleasurable, and as something that is indicative of individual freedom. One only needs look at the various networking and profiling sites to see that the expression of self identity is something associated with pleasure and leisure. It has become a normal part of daily life to spend a considerable amount of time, effort, and money on constructing, maintaining and continually transforming one’s self.
Bauman, however, reminds us that although we may think we are free, we are actually obliged to engage in this process of continual reinvention because our social lives are in continual flux. Furthermore, many identities are not rooted in the local, the social or the political, they are much more floating and transient, based on fashion, music, and interests, and Bauman interprets many of these strategies as an attempt by individuals to try and escape from a world over which they have no control.
Following Joseph Brodsky, Bauman is rather scathing of the range of shallow strategies many of us adopt to escape from the world, and ultimately argues that they are all pointless….
“you may take up changing jobs, residence, company, country, climate, you may take up promiscuity, alcohol, travel, cooking lessons, drugs, psychoanalysis…. In fact you may lump all these together and for a while that may work. Until the day, of course, when you wake up in your bedroom amid a new family and a different wallpaper, in a different state and climate, yet with the same stale feeling toward the light of day pouring through your window.” (105)
Bauman seams to be arguing that individuals will never find peace of mind, never find ‘who they really are’ unless they have stability and security, and in order to have that, people need to root themselves in local and national institutions, otherwise, our attempts to find ourselves through the reinvention of the self will always be less than satisfactory.
Conclusion and Evaluation
Bauman’s work is important as it reminds us that there is inequality in the way we experience risk and instability. On the one hand, the global elites who cause our global society to be unstable benefit from this instability and are able to avoid the worst effects of it, through, for example, moving away from war zones, or retreating into gated communities. Meanwhile, the poorest are the ones who suffer, having lost, in the extreme example of refugees, the very right to be regarded as human beings.
As a final perverse twist, the elites that created this situation in the first place end up either retreating to expensive enclaves that are well secured, or they profit from our fears politically and financially.
One cannot help but feel incredibly pessimistic after reading Bauman’s work. It is as if hegemonic control has penetrated so far into the hearts and minds of the populace that the huge effort required for people to reassert localised, communitarian politics against global capitalist hegemonic power is simply too much to ever hope for.
But for those that are inclined to join Social Movements, at least Bauman’s work identifies an elite to position oneself against, and reminds us this elite continually flout the principles of genuine freedom, equality, in the pursuit of their self interest. Bauman’s work also offers a useful counterpoint against what some would regard as the pointless relativism of post-modernism and the mediocre third way quiescence of Anthony Giddens.
A summary of Liquid Modernity by Zygmunt Bauman
A Summary of Runaway World by Anthony Giddens
Zygmunt Bauman (2007) Liquid Times
This summary was published in the Sociology Review in February 2009
Author Karl ThompsonPosted on August 9, 2016 August 24, 2016 Categories Book summaries, Consumerism, Culture and Identity, Globalisation, Marxism, Postmodernism and Late Modernsim, Social Theory (A2)Tags bauman, liquid modernity, marxism, Postmodernism and Late Modernsim
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VCU showing of “Versailles ’73” which captured a fashion revolution on film
The screening will take place on March 24 from 4 to 5:30 p.m. at The Depot, followed by a panel discussion with Draper, designer Stephen Burrows and former model and business owner Pat Cleveland.
March 24, 2016; 11:07 AM • by Richard Hayes
From VCU Press Release:
The Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts, VCU’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion and the VCU Department of Fashion present a film screening and panel discussion of “Versailles ’73,” a documentary written and directed by Deborah Riley Draper.
The screening will take place on March 24 from 4 to 5:30 p.m. at The Depot, followed by a panel discussion with Draper, designer Stephen Burrows and former model and business owner Pat Cleveland. The screening and panel discussion is open to the public, but seats are limited.
“Versailles ’73” tells the story of when American ready-to-wear designers put their fashions on the runway up against French haute couture designers, in front of a royal audience at the Chateau de Versailles that included Andy Warhol, Princess Grace of Monaco and Josephine Baker. The American designers’ secret weapons were fresh, innovative designs and a collective of stunning black models who sashayed down the runway and into the hearts of the high-profile audience, shattering the fashion industry status quo.
“During this monumental event in history, people of color were at the forefront of conversation, models hitting the runway wearing the garments of designers of color,” said Holly Alford, director of diversity and inclusion at VCU School of the Arts and associate professor in the Department of Fashion. “It was a breakthrough moment in the industry. To have Stephen Burrows, Pat Cleveland and Deborah Riley Draper here to tell this story is a great opportunity for our student community to hear about the creative process from successful artists of color.”
Image: Versailles ’73
March 24, 2016 11:07 AM · in Fan of the Fan 0
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Author: pcamper
October 27, 2020 October 27, 2020 pcamper
Mostly fluid prose and sprawling lore make Wolf’s fantasy series worth visiting
In the past year or so I’ve transitioned the majority of my novel consumption to the audiobook format. I’ve discovered that audio allows me to keep “reading” even when I can’t find time to sit and physically open a book. My runs, my commute, even while at work, I can still delve into sprawling stories.
It was on Audible that I first encountered author Matthew Wolf. His novel The Knife’s Edge, Book One of the Ronin Saga, had appeared in my Audible app as a “Recommended for You” selection. The recommendation certainly piqued my interest. Looking into the story further I discovered the Ronin Saga is a nine-book epic fantasy revolving around elemental warriors and set in the magical realm of Farhaven. It focuses on the main characters of Gray, Ayva, and Darius who discover they are incarnations of the Ronin, legendary warriors with power over a specific element the likes of which have not been seen in a millennia. Unfortunately, the legends about the Ronin have grown dark in the warriors’ absence, and those ancient incarnations became viewed as killers and traitors. In a world where a true evil is rising, Gray and his companions must throw off the old legends and travel to the elemental cities to find the other Ronin in order to save Farhaven.
The synopsis fit my preference for high fantasy with developed lore and epic plotlines, and I was even more interested in picking up the first audiobook because it was narrated by Tim Gerard Reynolds (a master of the trade!). But at the time I received that recommendation I had just completed another large fantasy series, so I ultimately passed on the series for some lighter fare.
Several months later a friend of mine told me about Tides of Fate. It’s a novel on Kickstarter, he said, and the fourth entry in a fantasy series. Would I be interested in connecting with him? Of course, I was interested! Imagine my surprise when I realized the author was Matthew Wolf, whose novel I’d seen so many months prior on Audible.
While I wasn’t able to read more than a sample of Tides of Fate (no secret previews, unfortunately!) and a short story, “Visions of a Hidden,” which is set in the same world as the larger Ronin Saga, I was suddenly reminded of why the series interested me in the first place.
In my experience, only when an author truly understands his or her characters can the dialogue be written so seamlessly that I forget the characters are on the page, not standing in the room. Only when an author already lives in the same world as those characters can the descriptions be detailed enough to immerse, but not overwhelm, me.
I believe Wolf has succeeded in achieving these experiences. In just a few short pages I started to feel the pages fading away to reveal Farhaven, home of the Ronin Saga. Granted, the pages I’ve read are only a small handful compared to the larger collection of four novels. However, I’d argue that even in those few pages I’ve been able to glean much about Wolf’s capabilities as an author. At its best, Wolf’s prose is playful and smooth, especially in “Visions of a Hidden.” This is most apparent during Rydel’s training with the Terma and his conversations with Elisaria. The character dialogue moves the story from sequence to sequence without effort. At times when conversation is absent, such as Rydel’s travels through Drymaus Forest, the prose becomes evocative of classic myths and fairytales: flitting from point to point with poetic flourishes along the way.
While I’ll admit I did not love everything about the segments I read, sometimes finding the generally easy reading to be interrupted with stilted or forced language, I am curious to revisit Wolf’s Ronin Saga. There’s great potential in his massive world of Farhaven. I’m very curious to find out what power lies in those lands.
Tides of Fate, Book Four of the Ronin Saga by Matthew Wolf is available now for pre-order on Kickstarter. A sample chapter from the book and the short story “Visions of a Hidden” are accessible to the public for download. I received no compensation for this write-up.
Tagged fantasy, kickstarter, matthew wolf, novel, ronin, self-publishedLeave a comment
June 10, 2020 August 14, 2020 pcamper
Early pages of derivative plot forego author’s penchant for character in effort to set up something bigger
Growing up almost as much a fan of Christopher Paolini’s first novel Eragon as I was of Harry Potter, his long-gestating sci-fi project, To Sleep in a Sea of Stars (TSIASOS), was destined to join my to-read pile. As part of a Shelf Awareness promotion I was afforded the opportunity to read a partial galley of Paolini’s new book ahead of its wide release date on September 15, 2020. I was giddy with excitement, especially considering that the full novel is listed at nearly 900 pages on Amazon. For weeks I contemplated how much of the story I would get to read before anyone else.
Come to find, the partial galley I received was only 157 pages of the finished manuscript, which was just enough to meet the protagonist of TSIASOS, Kira Návarez, and witness the initial days following her first contact with an alien species.
You see, Kira is a xenobiologist working for one of Earth’s colonization corporations. Her job is to get shipped out among the stars to identify, catalog, and prepare new worlds for the human species. She finds it rewarding, if tedious, but she’s also willing to leave her job behind if it means setting down some roots. That is until the last day of her mission on the planet Adrasteia when a biological anomaly on the planet’s surface requires her to make an investigative trip. At the site of the anomaly she finds an alien relic and, more importantly, an alien.
Cue quarantine.
Sadly, Paolini doesn’t seem to tread any new sci-fi ground in the early pages of his newest novel. The plot of every first contact film and book plays out as Kira is put into isolation. The isolation methods weren’t perfect because of extenuating circumstances (which also happens to be the literal name of one of the interplanetary ships), so further complications arise and Kira is subjected to tests and study, during which time she realizes that her contact with the alien (forthwith called “xeno”) has affected her in surprising ways.
The saving grace behind Paolini’s rehashing of existing tropes is that he resolves the isolation, tests, and fear of the xeno fairly quickly so that he can introduce the reader to the greater story: one that involves the threat of another, far more advanced alien species known only as “graspers” and their strange connection to the xeno Kira encountered on Adra.
However, while speed helps to move past cliched plot points, it also results in an unfavorable number of stilted dialogue moments and exposition dumps, which is highly uncharacteristic of Paolini’s writing. Throughout his Inheritance Cycle, one can actually read Paolini mature as a writer (the first entry came out when he was 18, and the last when he was 27). Across his first four novels he develops an innate aptitude for knowing when to “show” something to his readers instead of “tell” them about it. His characters from Eragon had tangible personalities and shared witty, uncertain, or humorous conversations, supplemented by thoroughly described, evocative settings. The characters of Kira and her colleagues in TSIASOS are flat. Even when they show emotion, the reactions at best lack nuance or at worst seem to be almost entirely nonsensical. The setting descriptions of TSIASOS sometimes retain the flair of Eragon—for example, an early description of Adra and its massive gas giant neighbor—but for the most part descriptions are rushed and barely sufficient to orient the reader. This is especially true when discussing the technologies of Kira’s reality. Acronyms like “FTL” (faster than light) and terms like “Markov drive” (a type of faster than light engine) are important to the plot, but they come without definition and sometimes without context. Whether this lack of immersive writing is a product of Paolini trying to tell the story similar to how a scientist might observe events or whether it’s a necessity due to the length of the novel has yet to be seen.
So much still needs consideration because, again, the partial galley only included 157 pages. Perhaps it’s unfair to weigh TSIASOS against the Eragon books, especially when I’ve only read a fraction of the former. Eragon was a story played out over four novels, right? And it was fantasy, not sci-fi.
Yet, even as I contemplate whether the two should be compared due to differences in form and genre, I’m struck by their similarities in structure. Both begin with a young protagonist who discovers a unique and powerful object: Eragon discovers a dragon egg and Kira discovers an alien relic/xeno. That powerful object results in a loss—that I won’t spoil here for either book—, followed by the realization that strange and powerful beings seek the powerful object. I find these parallels in plot points to be rather discouraging.
I certainly won’t make my final verdict on To Sleep in a Sea of Stars just yet. There is still plenty more to read of Kira Návarez when her full story is released in September. For now I will continue to wait and wonder whether or not Christopher Paolini turns out to be a one-trick pony.
*I did not receive compensation or promotion in exchange for this review.
Tagged book, book review, Christopher Paolini, eragon, inheritance cycle, kira navarez, paolini, review, sci-fi, to sleep in a sea of starsLeave a comment
August 23, 2017 August 23, 2017 pcamper
B.A. Paris writes her second novel with means and motive in mind, but gives little thought to proper characterization
Considered to be “One of the Most Anticipated Thriller Novels of 2017” by Bustle, the second novel from bestselling author B.A. Paris was a tough one for me to read.
The Breakdown opens on Cass Anderson, a schoolteacher who lives in a small hamlet near the wood, on a stormy night as she’s driving home. She takes the shortcut home through the wood despite promising her husband Matthew that she wouldn’t, but she soon realizes how lucky she was to not have crashed in the treacherous conditions. Someone smarter than her had pulled over in a layby to await help or wait out the storm. It isn’t until the next day Cass hears on the news that the car she’d seen had been driven by her new friend Jane – and that the woman had been murdered.
Cass feels incredible guilt at not having stopped to help Jane because then she’d still be alive. Or perhaps, she wonders, would the killer have gotten them both?
It’s this horrible thought that makes Cass grow anxious and suspicious of everything around her. Her anxiety leads to stress, which leads to forgetfulness. Or is the forgetfulness actually the result of early-onset dementia, just like her mother? She can’t tell her husband because she’d promised him she wouldn’t take the shortcut home and she’d never told him about her family history of dementia. So she must figure it out alone if she’s in danger. The only problem is she might not even be able to trust herself.
It sounds interesting, but I’m sorry to say it’s not.
The first twenty pages offer a premise that quickly outstays its welcome. By page fifty I felt like I was being beaten over the head with the same three things: a woman was murdered, Cass feels guilty and anxious, Cass is having increasing lapses in memory. B.A. Paris wants the reader to know that something is very wrong, but once the answer of “early-onset dementia” (EOD) is presented, I literally scoffed.
The memory alone might have suggested EOD, but coupled with the anxiety and paranoia Cass begins exhibiting in regards to the murder I started guessing schizophrenia. In fact, the idea of debilitating mental illness had become so engrained in my mind—thanks to the incessant reminders provided by the author—that after the first hundred pages I half expected the murderer to be Cass.
And then everything about the murder stops. The focus of the novel narrows to Cass and the apparent decline of her mind. The silent calls continue, but Cass stops referencing back to the murder. Her desire to see the killer caught evaporates. Every situation from page 100 forward is meant to detract from the reliability of our narrator. It’s effective, but once again so infuriatingly redundant and not at all what I expect in a thriller.
When the twist finally came—in glorious deus ex machina fashion—I craved the excitement promised by a “psychological thriller” so much that I stayed up reading into the early morning. I tore through the end of the book that had taken me over a month to get even halfway through, and then I set aside the book and got angry. Of course, I can’t tell you why without spoiling the story, but suffice to say that even though everything is laid out and explained, the reader had no chance of figuring out the far-fetched ending.
Half the fun of thrillers and mysteries is the process of putting the clues together for yourself, but only knowing the truth when the protagonist does, or beating yourself up for not having seen it sooner. I reacted by wanting to beat up B.A. Paris for making it impossible. She had the means and motive developed, but the characterization was absent. There were no early hidden hints of whom it might be, only the verdict in the final pages.
Thankfully The Breakdown is easy summer fare. The prose is fluid enough, even if the characters weren’t. Most of the time I felt like I was reading template characters, albeit with only mildly cliché dialogue. It could easily be devoured over the course of a weekend vacation.
But why would you want to?
Tagged ba paris, bestseller, book, book review, breakdown, psychological thriller, review, the breakdown, thrillerLeave a comment
August 22, 2017 November 12, 2017 pcamper
Happy Tuesday everyone!
So far I’ve edited and posted 6 episodes of my friends’ and my beta D&D podcast. This is the first week I fell behind.
Though it’s personally disappointing that I’ll have to push back the upload for Test Episode 7 until next week, I’m happy I figured out my limits as an audio editor during beta. Twice each week is too aggressive to be sustainable. This is why we wanted to do a test run: we needed to understand our abilities and shortcomings as podcasters.
So we hope you tune in next week for Test Episode 7 – We Are We, and until then, don’t trust your DM!
Tagged 5e, d&d, dungeons and dragons, live play, phb, phb podcast, podcast, rpgLeave a comment
August 1, 2017 pcamper
The first test episode of the PHB Podcast is now posted!
As I said last week, my friends and I have been getting together every Sunday for almost two years now to play Dungeons & Dragons 5e. We’ve had a blast doing it, and we want to share that fun with others.
So head on over to the new D&D Podcast menu option and check out our Beta. Leave a comment to let us know how we’re doing, and check back every Tuesday and Thursday for the next few weeks for a new episode.
We’ll see you on the adventure trail!
Tagged 5e, d&d, dungeons and dragons, live play, phb podcast, podcast, rpgLeave a comment
Books, D&D Podcast, Film
A Week of (Relative) Rest in Lieu of “Atomic Blonde”
July 28, 2017 July 28, 2017 pcamper
Film Score: TBD
I’d originally planned on posting a review of Atomic Blonde this week, but I decided to take some time off from film to work on other projects instead. So if you see Charlize Theron kicking butt this weekend — or if you want to comment on any other movies — leave a message in the comments below!
If you’d like to hear about some of the other projects/thoughts on my plate, continue reading. In addition to some things I’m hoping I’ll get to share with you soon, I’ve got a big announcement that I’m very excited about.
Upcoming Book Reviews
For a blog that touts its film AND book reviews, it’s been sorely lacking in book reviews. I’d mentioned last week that I don’t give my reviewed books a rating because I become invested in them — both bad and good.
The Breakdown by B. A. Paris is one of those less than stellar books in which I’ve invested a significant amount of time. I started it almost 2 months ago as an Advanced Reader Copy, and though the prose is easy enough to read, the premise got worn out so quickly that I dreaded sitting down to read it. So the days have stretched on, and still I haven’t finished it. Even though I want to finish it, if only so I can give a thorough review. So expect “One of the Most Highly Anticipated Thriller Novels of 2017 by Bustle” to be my next review.
The Punch Escrow by Tal M. Klein will be after that. I got my Advance Reader Copy a little late (two days after public release), but ever since I heard about this sci-fi novel set in 2147, where teleportation is a common means of travel, I’ve been eagerly anticipating its release. It might just be enough to help me finish The Breakdown.
“Art” You Not Entertained?
I also spent a little time earlier this week revisiting my art skills. Every week I get together with some friends of mine to play Dungeons & Dragons 5e, but one of our group was called up for military tour with the Army. He was always the one making sure we were going to meet each week and he really enjoyed playing.
Yesterday was his birthday, and though we couldn’t celebrate with him, we made him a care package and each member of the D&D group tossed in a card. I wanted to give him something special, so I drew his RPG character.
Tim the Enchanter is a tiefling wizard inspired by the character of the same name from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I couldn’t remember all the details of my buddy’s D&D version, but I thought I’d make him happy-go-lucky with sparklers instead of a fireball for a Dungeons & Dragons-themed birthday card.
Which I think fits with our group as a whole. As I say, my friends and I get together every week to play Dungeons & Dragons. We’ve been doing it for over a year now and we have so much fun playing that sometimes we wind up doubled over from laughter. More than once we’ve considered recording ourselves just so we can have it to playback our nonsense.
But we’ve decided to take it one step further…
Which Brings us to the BIG Announcement…
My D&D group will soon be launching a Live Play 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons Podcast!
I’ve really come to enjoy podcasts as a medium over the past few years with shows like The Joe Rogan Experience or The Dollop. But when my group and I found out there was a market for D&D, we decided to try our hand at our own brand of podcasting.
We’re still testing the waters and figuring out what works/what doesn’t. So we’re recording test episodes as we finish up our current campaign. Look for those to be posted once a week starting next Tuesday!
Again, we’re still testing the waters. Please give us feedback so that when we officially launch, the ball will already be rolling.
TL;DR – I’ve got The Breakdown and The Punch Escrow book reviews coming soon, I drew a tiefling for my Army buddy, and my D&D group is launching a podcast!
Thanks for reading, and enjoy the weekend.
Tagged art, Atomic Blonde, book, book review, Charlize Theron, d&d, dungeons and dragons, film review, podcast, review, rpg1 Comment
Technical Sights and Sounds Aren’t Enough to Make “Dunkirk” Worthwhile
Christopher Nolan’s war epic is immersive art but devoid of much-needed historical and dramatic context
Film Score: 6/10
After Dunkirk ended, I sat for a moment to collect my thoughts and wound up talking to a gentleman in the next row. He said he’d worked in film and studied World War II. When asked what he thought of the film, he said, “If you didn’t know anything about Dunkirk coming in, you wouldn’t learn a thing.”
Fionn Whitehead is one of 400,000 men waiting to evacuate in Dunkirk
I’d done some mild research before my viewing, so I knew the history. After several failed attempts by the Allied forces to break the German advance through France, British and French troops were forced to evacuate from the port town of Dunkirk on the northern end of the English Channel. German forces had surrounded the area and threatened to break through before an evacuation could be organized, prompting Britain to consider the possibility of conditional surrender. But in one of the most widely debated decisions of the war, the German forces halted for three days to regroup and ensure the Allies couldn’t break through the line. This was enough time to set a defensive perimeter – held mainly by the French – while British naval ships and smaller private vessels ferried over 338,000 Allied troops off the beach.
However, as the gentleman in my theater commented, if you didn’t know any of this going into the movie, you weren’t going to leave much the wiser. All the viewer learns is that the Germans are drawing close and the men can’t get off the beach fast enough, with a few additional lines to hint at Britain’s surrender. There’s no historical context. The importance of this “colossal military disaster” (Winston Churchill) isn’t examined until the final few moments of the film. And the three different timelines of the Mole, Sea, and Air are so confusing it took me half the movie to sort them out.
But Christopher Nolan wasn’t aiming for a history lesson or a documentary. He wanted to place viewers in the midst of the Dunkirk evacuation and immerse them in the sights and sounds of that beach. He wanted to create an experience.
Dunkirk was shot using 70mm IMAX cameras, which means the frame is twice as wide as normal film, creating expansive shots that, according to Nolan, are like “virtual reality without the goggles.” The format allows him to capture the vastness of sea and sky, the endless expanse of beach and foamy surf, and the thousands of men standing in rank waiting to be evacuated. It truly is visually stunning, which is why Warner Bros. has made Dunkirk the largest 70mm film release in a quarter-century.
The sounds are technically wonderful and add to the immersive feeling. The groaning of ships, the shuffling of men, the scream of planes, and the whistling of incoming weapons all contribute to the experience Nolan is trying to create. In the first ten minutes of the film all you can hear are the sounds of war, while the men remain virtually silent. Humanity has been swallowed whole, with only one lone voice crying out in desperation, “Where’s the bloody air force?” The opening sequence is amazing and I love it. If you go to see Dunkirk in theaters it should be because of this.
But after that the men continue to speak very sparingly, and suddenly the sounds of war give way to an incessant soundtrack that refuses to let you forget that the situation is supposed to be suspenseful. Hans Zimmer has recently developed a nasty habit of scoring films by giving each section of his orchestra a single bar of perpetually repeating notes and then introducing them one at a time. About every twenty seconds he’ll add a blaring brass note or synthetic run and call it complex. It’s annoying, loud, and numbing.
Ultimately that’s what happened with the whole film: I went numb to it. The sound mixing was excellent and will almost certainly win awards, but after an hour I’d already heard it all before. The cinematography is wonderful to behold and also award-worthy, but by the end of the film I’d already seen the beach fifty different ways and the ocean fifty others. Nolan’s desire to immerse viewers in the film worked wonderfully for the first ten to fifteen minutes. After that the awe wore off and I found myself needing a reason to continue the experience.
Not even the cast of typically excellent actors was convincing enough to return some feeling to my viewing experience. The script just wasn’t built to foster connections between the characters and viewers, eschewing dialogue and dramatic context wherever possible. Mark Rylance delivered the strongest performance as calm and steadfast Mr. Dawson. Fionn Whitehead in the lead of Tommy was a close runner-up; he handled his lack of lines with aplomb. And other than a cringe-worthy final scene, I’ll even give admit that Harry Styles can act. They did everything they could with a script that wasn’t meant to do anything except demonstrate man’s survival.
I wanted Dunkirk to be better. As art it was fresh and intriguing, but as a film I found it overwhelmingly underwhelming. The sounds and the visuals and the soundtrack all clamored for attention, but after the first fifteen minutes I had little reason to stay. Even though I was successfully immersed in Nolan’s creation, I wasn’t learning any history, I wasn’t learning about the characters, so I just stopped caring.
If you find yourself wanting to see Dunkirk, see it in theaters and definitely see it in 70mm or in one of 31 theaters showcasing 70mm IMAX format. As a piece of technical art I’d give 8.5/10 for the film, and even higher if it weren’t for Zimmer’s soundtrack which really is that irritating. Otherwise I’d say you can skip it. As the gentleman from my theater put it: “I didn’t like this one.”
Tagged Christopher Nolan, Dunkirk, Film, film review, Harry Styles, reviewLeave a comment
Books, Film, Uncategorized
How to Use My Reviews
I know I didn’t post a review this past week, and even though that might have been a bummer for everyone, I thought it might be better to write a post explaining how (and why) I rate the way I do.
After five films reviewed, I figured posting a scale would help readers understand my review at a glance:
10 – So good I’ll be paying to see it in theater twice.
9 – Definitely something you should watch in theater.
8 – Highly recommend it, but if you miss it in theater not a big deal.
7 – I recommend it, but wait to catch this on home video.
6 – If it’s on TV or Netflix, it’s not a total waste of time.
5 – If you never see it, you won’t be missing out.
4 – Not worth your time.
3 – Not worth my time.
2 – Why was this movie made?
1 – I’ll be suing for my money back.
And for those of you who followed me hoping to read more book reviews and wondering what my scale is for those…
I don’t have one.
I spent a full day trying to think of a good way to structure a rating system for books and came to the conclusion it’s better not to have one. When I watch film, I either like it or I don’t. There are very few instances where I dislike a film but appreciate the art behind it (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is one).
With literature, I can easily think of a dozen books that I did not enjoy reading but still appreciated the author’s style or tone or character development. I don’t have the same level of objectiveness for novels as I do for film. It takes me two hours to consume a movie. It takes me two weeks to properly absorb a book for critique. I become invested in what I’m reading. The best I can do is write out my thoughts and let others decide if the book will be worth their time.
So whether you’re looking for film or book reviews, I hope this post helps you to understand my process a bit. Thank you to all of my readers and followers. Your feedback and comments are always welcome and they certainly make my work feel meaningful.
Have a good week everyone!
Tagged book, book review, Film, film review, rating, review, scale1 Comment
“Spider-Man: Homecoming” Ties Marvel Universe Together
July 5, 2017 pcamper
Tom Holland is energetic and enjoyable in this superhero coming-of-age tale
Spider-Man: Homecoming is the culmination of nearly a decade of interlocking storylines and successful films from Marvel (see Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 review here). Each has led to a believable world in which superheroes exist. But so far none of the Marvel films really focused on what this world might be like for an average citizen.
What new jobs would be created, and which would become obsolete? How would education be affected by the presence, the science, and the battles of superheroes? Instead of movie stars and boy band crushes, which superheroes would high schoolers choose to F, marry, or kill? And would the average citizen feel more, or less, safe? Spider-Man finally answers these questions by giving us a friendly, neighborhood superhero who’s “looking out for the little guy.”
Tom Holland stars as the new Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe
After the massive events of Captain America: Civil War, Peter Parker (Tom Holland) returns home to New York, now under the watchful eye of Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) and mentorship of Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.). He’s told to sit tight and focus on his sophomore year of high school when all he wants to do is find his next mission and prove himself worthy to join the Avengers full time. Parker believes taking down the Vulture (Michael Keaton) will earn him Stark’s respect, but his mistakes at school, with friends, and even his superhero life begin to add up and he soon begins to wonder if he’s even meant to be the Spider-Man.
It’s as much a traditional high school coming-of-age tale as it is a superhero flick, which is what makes it relatable. The story is evenly balanced between the actions of Peter Parker and Spider-Man, but through it all Tom Holland plays an exceptional character. His excitement at even the smallest new detail of his life is so genuine that I couldn’t stop smiling. I was geeking out watching him geek out. And just like a real teenager, he wants to be cool, has his mind on girls half the time, and is incredibly stubborn about who he wants to be while still harboring a deep anxiety that he’ll never achieve it.
His energy in the role is best matched by Jacob Batalon, who plays best friend Ned. When he discovers his best friend is Spider-Man, he has to know everything. He wants answers to the most ridiculous questions, he wants to try on the suit, and most importantly, he wants to know if he can be “the guy in the chair.” He’s the logistical smarts behind Parker’s technical skills, and his excitement at having Spider-Man for a best friend is only outweighed by his desire to fit in at school. I thoroughly enjoyed his performance and look forward to seeing more of him. Especially since he delivers probably the best excuse I’ve ever heard for being somewhere he’s not supposed to be.
Michael Keaton is The Vulture in Marvel’s Spider-Man: Homecoming
As for the villain, Micheal Keaton is a worthwhile adversary in the role of Adrian/Vulture. Adrian didn’t begin as a bad guy, but he was never afraid to do some questionable things if pushed. Keaton recognizes this and does an excellent job of never losing that character core even as he becomes the Vulture. Keaton isn’t my favorite villainous actor of all time, but I can appreciate his handling of the character’s complexity.
I’d love to speak on the overall visual aspect and CGI of the film, but as I was forced to see Spider-Man from the front row with my neck craned back, I didn’t have the best perspective (see what I did there?). Keep in mind: show up to early screenings way before you think you need to.
And even with the poor viewing experience, I know that I’d still recommend this film. The fact that I enjoyed it as much as I did, even when seeing it in less than ideal conditions, proves that a movie doesn’t need to be about spectacle. A good story with excellent actors and believable worldbuilding is all that you need. Marvel has certainly perfected that.
P.S. Stay through all the credits. No spoilers, but you’ll probably enjoy it.
Tagged Film, film review, Homecoming, Marvel, Michael Keaton, review, Spider Man Homecoming, Spider-Man, spiderman, Tom HollandLeave a comment
“Dead Men Tell No Tales” is Worst “Pirates of the Caribbean” Film Yet
June 1, 2017 June 19, 2017 pcamper
New faces and old favorites can’t buoy a lackluster script that makes even Jack Sparrow dull
I saw the first Pirates of the Caribbean on an analog television not meant for widescreen DVD playback. The aspect ratio was so terrible that I had to watch the action between two six-inch panels of black, but I didn’t want to miss a thing so I kept scooting closer. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales is the first of the series that I’ve seen on the big screen, yet it’s the only one that made me feel like it’d be okay if I looked away.
This time around everyone’s searching for the Trident of Poseidon, a magical artifact that holds the power of the sea, but their reasons never engaged me like any of the preceding films. Henry Turner (Brenton Thwiates) wants it to free his father from the curse of the Flying Dutchman, newcomer Carina Smyth (Kaya Scodelario) wants to connect with a father she never knew by finding the Trident detailed in the journal he left her, and Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) needs it to avoid the revenge of Captain Salazar (Javier Bardem) and his ghost crew. The familial bonds drawing Henry and Karina to the Trident are sufficient for introducing it as a potential treasure, but Jack’s need of the Trident—which is supposed to be urgent as it’s the only way to save his life—comes across, to quote Dead Man’s Chest, as less of a “resolute and unyielding need” and more a “trifling need […] a passing fancy.”
Jack Sparrow never once says, “I need the Trident of Poseidon.” In Dead Man’s Chest, he was very clearly terrified of the debt he owed Davy Jones and his pet beastie. He did everything in his power to prevent collection of that debt. In Dead Men Tell No Tales he meanders around on screen drinking rum for the first hour, barely aware of the danger Captain Salazar poses. Not until he and Captain Salazar finally meet does the plot pick up again as Jack realizes the threat of vengeful Spanish ghosts (and ghost sharks) is real. Though the threat apparently still isn’t real enough for Jack to start suggesting the group goes after the Trident with all haste.
Perhaps that’s a result of Captain Salazar as a villain. His thirst for revenge helps to drive the plot and certainly makes him dangerous, but it seriously stunts him as a memorable Pirates villain. Beyond the somewhat ho-hum ghostly CGI mapped around his face, all he has is his rage and a single-minded determination to find Sparrow by whatever means necessary. Bardem delivers a few excellent scenes, but it’s mainly him making due with a one-dimensional character.
Almost all the actors have to “make do” this time around as they portray characters from across the franchise. There are some classic Pirates moments that prove no one is just going through the motions—a failed bank robbery, an escape from the gallows, and the initial meeting between Sparrow and Salazar all provide the physical comedy, action, and clever banter we’ve come to love and expect—but the rest of the film relies on a script at times contrived (e.g. Paul McCartney’s cameo and an absolutely pointless witch) and at others completely ignorant of Pirates canon (i.e. the origin of Jack’s compass). The actors are left with the task of making us believe it all. Something not even Johnny Depp can do.
It doesn’t matter how big the spectacle or how many off-the-wall antics the filmmakers convince Depp to act out, the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise won’t survive without an engaging story. The original film wasn’t a hit because of its CGI-heavy action sequences. It wasn’t a hit because of drawn out misinterpretations of what a horologist does for a living. And it certainly wasn’t because the audience enjoyed watching Jack Sparrow get drunk and stay drunk on screen. The original film was a story about freedom, adventure, and a man who valued those things above all else. Depp’s Academy Award-nominated performance was inspired by that story. For the sake of that performance and the legacy of the franchise, perhaps it’s good Dead Men Tell No Tales is being touted as the final adventure.
Tagged Dead Men Tell No Tales, Film, film review, Jack Sparrow, Johnny Depp, pirates, pirates of the caribbean, review2 Comments
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TV Review: Appropriate Adult (ITV) – Miniseries
Originally aired on ITV in 2011, Appropriate Adult is a two-part miniseries that focuses on the way in which the Gloucester serial killers Fred (Dominic West) and Rosemary West (Monica Dolan) were brought to justice in 1994. During his time under police investigation, Fred was granted an appropriate adult, which role was given to housewife Janet Leach (Emily Watson). When she first attends a police interview with Fred, he confesses to killing his daughter. He then privately tells Janet that there were more victims, but appropriate adults cannot share conversations. Janet is given the opportunity to leave the case due to its distressing nature, but she resolves to continue in hopes of finding Fred and Rose’s other victims.
Another interesting true-crime drama from ITV, seeing the story of Fred and Rose West from an unusual point of view, but one that adds so much insight. I didn’t know about Janet Leach before watching this series, but it’s obvious that she played a pivotal role in encouraging Fred West to give details of his crimes, so for that, she undoubtedly deserves her own TV series.
Dominic West suits the character well and Emily Watson is always a delight.
Appropriate Adult, Dominic West, Emily Watson, ITV, Monica Dolan
Book Review: I Know What I Saw by S.K. Sharp
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Category Archives: Soccer
realmenhamilton
Soccer Tournament Recap
It was a chilly morning. But that had little effect on the mood as lovers of the beautiful game enthusiastically converged on Wentworth Arenas to participate in the first ever REAL MEN HAMILTON soccer tournament.
The teams were split into two groups for the first round of matches. Teams ranged in skill level from very experienced to newly formed. Teams in each group played against each other. A win scored a team 3 points. At the end of the first round, the top two teams from each group advanced to the semi-finals. The winners of the semi-finals advanced to the finals.
The tournament delivered a great mix of high level games and fun match-ups. There was no shortage of talent on display. The top scorer was Roberto from Fusion. His many goals won him a Brazuca (the official match ball of the 2014 FIFA World Cup). Fusion, the winners in the end, played a flawless tournament. They were without a doubt the most polished and skilled team in the tournament. They faced Men United, another strong team, in the final and emerged victorious with a 1-0 win. They were a delight to watch.
Check out our smugmug page for more photos of the event. Expect a second tournament next year. It will be bigger and better in every regard.
– Harry
Events, Soccer
Real Men Indoor Soccer Tournament
Don’t miss the Real Men Soccer Tournament on Saturday, November 22 9AM-3PM at Wentworth Arenas.
You are able to sign up as team or as individuals. Cost: $50 per team or $10 per individual. There will be a max of 8 teams consisting of 5-8 players per team.
This going to be a great indoor soccer tournament with an emphasis on fun and relationship building.
Pickup Indoor Soccer
Join us for a great night of indoor soccer at Mountain Sports Complex (1185 Stone Church Rd E) this Saturday, the 27th, from 9pm – 11pm. Pickup soccer is a great way to stay fit without committing to a team. It’s also a great way to meet new people. This is an event for guys ages 17+.
Bring your cleats and a friend. Hope to see you there!
5 Facts About The FIFA World Cup
In a few days, the biggest single-event sporting competition in the world will commence. Brazil will be host to the 20th edition of the FIFA World Cup Finals. The competition has come a long way since its inception in 1930. The first edition, aptly christened the inaugural edition, was held in Uruguay and involved only 13 teams. The road to this year’s competition involved almost 200 teams battling to be one of 32 teams to compete in the finals.
Here are 5 interesting facts you may or may not know about the World Cup:
The official match ball for the 2014 FIFA World Cup is the Adidas Brazuca. The term ‘Brazuca’ is used by Brazilians to describe pride in the Brazilian way of life.
Pele is the only player to have won the cup three times.
With 210 goals scored, Brazil are the most prolific team in the history of the competition.
Maracana stadium, the host of this year’s final game, holds the record for the biggest attendance at a sporting event in an enclosed stadium. 199,854 was the crowd number for the Brazil vs. Uruguay match in the World Cup Final on 18th of June, 1950.
“All in one rhythm” is the official slogan for this year’s World Cup.
Bonus fact: The fastest goal in the FIFA World Cup was scored 10.89 seconds after kick off by Hakan Şükür of Turkey.
Picking Out The Perfect Pair
Spring is almost here and that means playing soccer the way it was meant to be played; outdoors on fresh cut grass with the sun beating down on you. I have nothing against playing indoors. I enjoy it also. But the playing field definitely adds a lot to the game and nothing beats playing on a well-groomed pitch.
It is important to pick the appropriate cleats for the field on which you’re playing. This is especially true when playing a competitive game where attention to the seemingly insignificant things set you above other players. It is funny how very small adjustments can have profound impacts.
When picking out cleats for a specific playing field, the most important thing to look out for is the type of outsole. This is the part that makes contact with the field.
Firm ground cleats are the most common and versatile. They are designed to provide traction when playing on natural surfaces (i.e. grass).
Soft ground cleats are good for wet, muddy pitches. They usually have metal-tipped and detachable studs.
Hard ground cleats are used for hard sun-baked grounds or frozen fields. They have many short studs distributed evenly across the bottom.
Turf cleats usually have rubber outsoles. The studs are also usually made of rubber.
Indoor cleats also have rubber outsoles. They have no studs and are made flat. They are well suited for playing futsal.
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Early Decisions: HS2 and Huawei
Boris Johnson | China | Infrastructure | Relations with China | Technology | Transport | Travel/Tourism
Amid Dramatic Rise in Cases, British Public Feels More Unsafe Than Ever Before in the Coronavirus Crisis
More Than a Quarter of Londoners Say Pandemic Has Decreased Their Desire to Live in the City
It is early days in Boris Johnson’s administration, and with a large 80+ seat majority in Parliament, the Prime Minister has significant freedom to set his own agenda over the course of the next four years. As in every government, however, the first months of a new administration are absolutely critical in setting the tone for the rest of its term. It is already in these first few days that the next election, years away, can be won or lost.
Looking towards the next Parliamentary Election, likely to be in 2024, the key challenge for the Government is to unite the diverse a range of its voters under one platform as effectively as it did in the Brexit Election. Will these voters continue to find common ground? Or, now that Brexit is behind us, will this broad coalition begin to fall apart as other issues, issues that divide the population differently, come to fore? And then, will the opposition parties be able to seize the opportunities provided such instances?
In the past month, the Prime Minister gave his approval on two potentially divisive issues. He green-lighted the continued construction of High Speed 2, commonly known as HS2, a controversial, multibillion-pound construction project that aims to build a high-speed rail line between London and Birmingham and then onwards onto Manchester and Leeds. And he granted the Chinese firm Huawei access to the UK’s 5G network, despite warnings from the United States and from within his own party.
Neither of these two issues featured prominently in the Conservative Party’s manifesto. The words ‘Huawei’ and ‘5G’ are not mentioned at all. With respect to HS2, the Conservatives reservedly promised to “consider the findings of the Oakervee review into costs and timings and work with leaders of the Midlands and the North to decide the optimal outcome.” Their manifesto highlighted the project’s significant £81 billion price tag and late final completion date––sometime in 2040.
The two other major parties were more straightforward on HS2. The Liberal Democrats promised “a continued commitment to HS2” while Labour even suggested “completing the full HS2 route to Scotland.” Even so, these comments were qualified. The Liberal Democrats emphasised “tighter financial controls” and, like Labour, noted the potential environmental impact of the project. Meanwhile, the smaller parties, namely the Green Party, Plaid Cymru and the Brexit Party, proposed scrapping the project entirely. The SNP did not mention HS2 in their manifesto.
As such, few Conservative voters, if any, voted the way they did in December 2019, explicitly knowing that their party would make these two significant policy decisions on HS2 and Huawei. Over the course of the next four years, it is highly likely that other decisions of a similar scale will also fall under this categorisation because the Conservative Party’s election platform was noticeably light on longer term promises beyond Brexit.
Thinking about this challenge and opportunity––both for the parties in Government and in opposition––Redfield & Wilton Strategies sought to find out in a recent poll of 1,216 eligible voters in Britain what the public thought about these latest two decisions. To get a proper grasp of the mood, we asked those voters to what extent they agreed with two strongly worded statements:
Construction of High Speed 2 (“HS2”) should be stopped immediately.
Boris Johnson’s decision to allow the Chinese company Huawei to sell its 5G technology in the UK is dangerous to the UK’s national security. [1]
What we found is that a plurality of voters stands against these two decisions by the Government. Altogether, 43.0% of those polled agreed that HS2 should be stopped immediately, while 21.7% disagreed. Those who voted Conservative in 2019 were the closest to being split on the issue, with 38.6% agreeing and 31.5% disagreeing. At the same time, voters for the other parties were significantly stronger in in their opposition to HS2.
On Huawei, 42.6% overall agreed that the Government’s decision was dangerous to the UK’s national security. Fewer than 20% disagreed. However, in comparison to HS2, the degree to which respondents agreed or disagreed with the Huawei decision was weaker. Responses tended to cluster more around ‘somewhat agree’ and ‘somewhat disagree.’ More people also selected ‘don’t know’ and ‘neither agree nor disagree’ as options. This is most likely due to the larger amount of coverage HS2 has received in the press.
Boris Johnson’s decision to allow the Chinese company Huawei to sell its 5G technology in the UK is dangerous to the UK’s national security.
In any case, the Government has clearly taken significant risks with these two latest decisions. Opposition to these decisions may continue to fester as their expected potential benefits will not arrive for some time––certainly not before 2024. Undoubtedly, the opposition parties should see before them a great opportunity to stake a clear position that captures the broader mood of the public.
[1] We believe giving a strongly worded, forceful statement is the best means of capturing where the public stands on an issue. It allows us to identify those who feel strongly about an opinion and those who can be encouraged to move towards a stronger stance. It is harder to make these distinctions otherwise. Those polled will always find it easier to carelessly agree or disagree with a qualified statement than with a forceful one.
Data tables for this research can be found here. To find out more information about this research contact our research team. Redfield & Wilton Strategies is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules.
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RovingRaconteurs.com
Captain Who’s Driving
Tag: Pilgrims
Thanksgiving Around the World
This is the season for reflection, gratitude, and thanks. Traditionally, we gather with family and friends to celebrate our blessings. But, well, you know……Covid. Kinda puts a damper on festivities, doesn’t it??? But eventually, we will get through this!!! Just as our ancestors have endured, coped, persevered, and overcome; so will we!!! And that’s why we take the time to reflect and give thanks—humans have been doing so for thousands of years!!!
In North America, early in the New World’s recorded history, festivals were often held after a harvest. And it was in Canada, taking inspiration from Europe, that the first Thanksgiving on the continent was celebrated in 1578. They continue to do so, every year, on the second Monday in October.
Norman Rockwell’s “Freedom From Want” depicts the warmth and spirit of Thanksgiving Day. (public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
Or some say, it could have been in St. Augustine, FL in 1565 or, perhaps that was 1564. Never mind. The first prominent historic Thanksgiving was celebrated at Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts when the Pilgrims, along with the native inhabitants, came together in October of 1621 to commemorate the Pilgrim’s first harvest. In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the ensuing tradition a National Day of Thanksgiving to be celebrated on the last Thursday of November. Then, in 1942, by an act of Congress, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed into law the fourth Thursday of November as America’s day of Thanksgiving.
“The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth” by Jennie Augusta Brownscombe. depicts America’s first Thanksgiving feast shared with the Wampanoag Indians. (Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
Today, the Plymouth Rock Monument in Plymouth, MA. is an imposing structure. (Raime, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons)
However, the rock itself, not so much!!! (Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
And just like the American and Canadian thanksgivings, similar celebrations rejoicing a bountiful harvest have evolved to include thanks for all our blessings! All over the world, people come together to joyfully acknowledge all that is good and satisfying in their lives. Here are several; but there are more and if you know about them–please let us know!!!
Germany celebrates Erntedankfest on the first Sunday in October with parades, fireworks, music, and dancing.
Celebrating Erntedankfest in Gatow, Germany (Andreas M Christott, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons)
Erntedankfest in Bad Gögging, 2013. (Foto: Tourist-Information) (Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic)
China has been celebrating a Mid-Autumn Festival for more than 2500 years. It is pegged to the 15th day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar. In 2020, it was held on October 1st.
The Mid-Autumn Festival in Bejiing (Shizhao, CC BY-SA 2.5 , via Wikimedia Commons)
Traditional Chinese Moon Cakes (misbehave, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons)
On the other hand, Japan commemorates their workers and economic productivity with Kinro Kansha no Hi, aka Labor Thanksgiving Day. The celebrations began more than 2000 years ago as thanks for a season’s first rice harvest. But by 1948, the holiday had become a way of giving thanks for workers’ rights.
A float is under construction for an upcoming festival in Fukuoka, Japan.
Liberia’s Thanksgiving is truly fascinating! Liberia was founded by freed American slaves in 1847. The country’s culture, their holidays and customs; their government, specifically constitution and laws, are heavily influenced by the United States. On the first Thursday in November, Liberians celebrate freedom and opportunity.
Liberian women singing in celebration. (blk24ga, CC BY 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons)
The Thanksgiving celebration in the Caribbean Island of Grenada is also tied to America. You may remember, political turmoil in the island nation culminated in 1983 with a military coup and the execution of Prime Minister Maurice Bishop. Concerned for the welfare of 800 American students attending university on the island during this pollical chaos, along with the threat posed to the island by communist influences, President Ronald Reagan invaded the island on October 25, 1983. Many Grenadians were thankful and celebrated by serving a traditional American Thanksgiving to the American troops. The celebration endures and October 25 has been named Thanksgiving Day on the Island. It is a national day of remembrance and gratitude.
President Reagan pardons the 1983 turkey. (White House Photographic Office, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
But there is no doubt the Grenadians did, in fact, enjoy a turkey dinner!!! (public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
South Korea celebrates Chuseok Day in mid to late September. Certainly, this celebration began as gratitude for the autumn harvest. Today, it has grown to include remembrance and reverence for their ancestors.
A South Korean table set for Chuseok Day dinner. (Namwon030, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons)
In Vietnam, Thanksgiving is known as Tet-Trung-Thu Festival or the Children’s Festival. According to folklore, this holiday is held as a means of amends to the children who were neglected during the diligent labor of the harvest. It is held on the 15th day of the 8th month on the lunar calendar. Today, the Vietnamese use this holiday to give thanks and celebrate with family.
The Tet-Trung-Thu Festival in Vietnam is the Children’s Festival. (public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
Norfolk Island, off the eastern coast of Australia, was a British penal colony at one time. Frequently, whalers and traders from the United States would come to the island. In the late 1880s, Norfolk resident Isaac Robinson served as the American diplomatic consul representing the United States. In that capacity, he sponsored a traditional American Thanksgiving at a local church. The tradition has persisted. Today, Norfolk Islanders celebrate Thanksgiving on the last Wednesday of November.
Traditional Norfolk Island Coconut Pie. (https://assets.atlasobscura.com/article_images/61126/image.jpg)
So here it is—several days before Thanksgiving. Right now, we are planning and preparing. But gotta tell you, after this year’s traditional Thanksgiving turkey dinner, we plan to immediately start setting up for the Christmas Holiday. Outdoor lights, door wreath, a tall fir tree adorned with ornaments, and lights/ candles/ bows; decorations all over the house!!! As this year draws to a close, we plan to wrap ourselves in the warmth and comfort of the Christmas Season.
Deck the Halls; Jingle Bells; Comfort and Joy!!!
Whew, feeling better, already!!!
Author rovingraconteursPosted on November 21, 2020 November 21, 2020 Categories UncategorizedTags "Freedom from Want", Abraham Lincoln, American Thanksgiving, Canadian Thanksgiving, Chuseok Day in South Korea, Erntedankefest, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Jennie Augusta Brownscombe, Kinro Kansha no Hi, Liberian Thanksgiving, Mid-Autumn Festival, Moon Cakes, Norfolk Island Coconut Pie, Norfolk Island Thanksgiving, Norman Rockwell, Pilgrims, Plymouth Rock, Plymouth Rock MA, plymouth Rock Monument, Ronald Reagan, St. Augustine FL, Tet-Trung-Thu Festival in Vietnam, Thanksgiving in Grenada, Wampanoag Indians6 Comments on Thanksgiving Around the World
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rpowell —
RPowell ( rpowell) wrote,
RPowell
"Shifting Heirs and the Ferrars Estate"
I have been a fan of Jane Austen's 1811 novel, "Sense and Sensibility" ever since I saw Ang Lee's 1995 adaptation. In fact, the 1995 movie initiated my appreciation of Austen's novel and other works. But there is a certain aspect of Austen's tale that has confused me for years. And it has to do with Edward and Robert Ferrars and their family's fortune.
"Sense and Sensibility" told the story of Elinor and Marianne Dashwood - the older two of three sisters that encountered love, heartache and romantic obstacles when their father's death and half-brother's lack of generosity left them in financial straits. Elinor had fallen in love with Edward Ferrars, the mild-mannered brother of her sister-in-law Fanny; before she, her sisters and mother were forced to leave Norland Park in the hands of half-brother John and Fanny. Unfortunately for Elinor, Edward's family was determined that he marry an heiress. Later, she discovered that he had been engaged for several years to another impoverished young woman named Lucy Steele, the cousin-in-law of Sir John Middleton, Mrs. Dashwood's cousin and the family's benefactor. The younger and more impetuous Marianne fell deeply in love with a young man named John Willoughby. Although the latter harbored feelings for Marianne, he loved the idea of a fortune even more. Willoughby eventually rejected Marianne in order to marry a wealthy heiress, leaving the Dashwoods' neighbor Colonel Christopher Brandon to console her.
The story arc regarding Marianne's love life proved to be problem-free for me. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same about Elinor's story arc. I still have a problem with that obstacle to Elinor's romantic happiness - namely Edward's engagement to the manipulative Lucy Steele. In the novel, Mrs. Ferrars disinherited Edward in favor of his younger brother, Robert, after the Ferrars family learned about his engagement to Lucy . . . and he refused to break said engagement. Mindful of Edward's financial situation and his ambitions to earn a living with the Church of England, Colonel Brandon offers him the rectory at the former's estate, Delaford, for a low salary. This is where "Sense and Sensibility" becomes a bit tricky. The novel concluded Edward's visit to the Dashwoods' home, Barton Cottage, in which he not only proposed marriage to Elinor, but also announced that Lucy Steele had broken their engagement in order to elope with Robert. Only . . . the latter remained heir to the Ferrars estate by the novel's conclusion.
The financial fates of both Edward and Robert seemed to be tied with the character of Lucy Steele. Most of the Ferrars family and Lady Middleton seemed to harbor a high regard for Lucy and her sister, Anne. Yet, when Anne exposed Lucy's secret engagement to Edward, Mrs. Ferrars disinherited the latter in favor of her younger son, Robert. But after Robert's elopement to Lucy, he remained heir to the Ferrars estate. And to this day, I can only ask . . . why? Why did Mrs. Ferrars disinherited Edward after he refused to break his engagement to Lucy . . . and fail to disinherit Robert, after he had eloped with the same woman?
In the 1981 BBC adaptation, Edward (portrayed by Bosco Hogan) claimed that Robert's inheritance became irreversible, despite his elopement with Lucy. Frankly, the explanation given by Austen struck me as rather confusing. The miniseries' screenwriters Alexander Baron and Denis Constanduros failed to explain why Edward financially paid the price for refusing to break his engagement with Lucy. They especially failed to explain why Robert DID NOT pay the price for marrying her. Is there someone out there who can offer an explanation?
Tags: ang lee, georgian era, jane austen, literary, movies, television
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"THE LADY EVE" (1941) Photo Gallery
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Down an Unfamiliar Road
Bible Commentary, Psalms, Wisdom, Advice, Counsel
← CALLED TO LIVE IN FREEDOM
CALLED TO LIVE IN FREEDOM →
CALLED TO LIVE IN FREEDOM
Posted on May 7, 2020 by drbob76
NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY
by Dr. Robert R. Seyda
PAUL’S LETTER TO THE GALATIAN CHURCHES
CHAPTER FIVE (Lesson LXXXV)
What Paul wanted the Galatians to know was that unconfessed and unrepented adultery was one of the reasons why a person is not welcome into the Kingdom of God.[1] But as far as the commission of an adulteress affair is concerned, the persons are confronted and must ask forgiveness with the resolve to never do it again. Then, there is no reason to bar them from the kingdom of heaven. Jesus proved this when the city’s elders brought a woman who was “caught” in the act of adultery to Him. Our Lord knew that the Jewish law did not require any evidence or witnesses, only the accusation. So, Jesus turned the charges against her accusers by telling them that if she did deserve punishment, let those among them who never sinned throw the first stone. When they all walked away, Jesus then said to her that He felt no reason to condemn her if she would go back to her husband and never commit this sin again.[2]
The next sinful tendency to perform illegal sexual acts comes after fornication (KJV). The Hebrew term is zanah, and the Rabbis often defined it as having sexual relations outside marriage. But from the earliest times, it was seen as the trade of prostitutes.[3] It also was used as an act of worship with gods other than Elohim – Yahweh.[4] But it also was defined as having sexual relations outside of one’s religion.[5] In many places in the KJV, the terms “whore” or “whoring” define fornication.
The Greek noun is porneia, (from which we get our English word “pornography”) and refers to illicit sexual relations. Jesus made a statement we must read carefully to comprehend. He said: “Any man who divorces his wife, except on the grounds of fornication, makes her an adulteress. Any man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.” Paul uses the Greek porneia here. Porneia includes homosexuality, lesbianism, incest, and bestiality (intercourse with animals). Therefore, we can see why the KJV translators employed the term “whoring.” Paul wrote the Colossians and referred to it as “sexual immorality.”[6] And in his letter to Timothy, Paul mentioned that it included homosexual sexual sins.[7] He also included those who have immoral relations with their father’s other wife (not their mother).[8] For Paul, the best way to stop fornication was to get married.[9]
Then we come to uncleanliness (KJV). Writers in the First Covenant generally used this word for physical uncleanliness, such as touching a carcass, not washing one’s hands, a woman’s menstrual period, etc. But Paul meant it here as moral uncleanliness. The Hebrew noun tum’ah is the one used for this type of uncleanliness. We find it expressed that way in the act of the high priest applying the blood behind the curtain in the Holy of Holies. It reads: “The high priest makes atonement for the Holy Place because of the uncleanliness of the people of Israel and because of their multiple transgressions. And this he does for the tabernacle which is there with them right in the middle of their uncleanliness.”[10]
The Greek noun that Paul uses is akatharsia, and it means uncleanliness in the moral sense such as lustful desires, impure motives, luxurious living, and extravagant lifestyle. Jesus put His finger right on the problem when He described the scribes and Pharisees as whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside, but inside they are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.[11] So when Paul wrote the Romans, he spoke about uncleanliness that was the result of whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies.[12]
And then Paul lists lasciviousness (KJV) – meaning “lustfulness.” In the First Covenant, we find the Hebrew verb pachaz (“light” KJV), which means to be malicious, reckless, indecency. It is used only two times in the First Covenant. We find this illustrated when Abimelech who wanted to succeed Solomon as king, went and hired “reckless scoundrels” (NIV); “reckless troublemakers” (New Living Translation); “good-for-nothing thugs” (Complete Jewish Bible).[13] It is also employed when God’s pronounced doom upon Jerusalem for their rebellion against Him. There they are called “treacherous people” (NIV); “opportunists” (NLT); “reckless, treacherous men” (CJB). In other words, they have no morals, especially when participating in sexual orgies.
The Greek noun is aselgeia, meaning filthy,[14] lasciviousness,[15] and wantonness,[16] As Jesus taught His disciples, He pointed out that it is not what contaminates us on the outside that defiles a person. It is what comes in from the outside that causes pollution. Among other things, Jesus mentions doing morally wrong things (indecency).[17] Paul puts it another way when he wrote the Romans and told them that they should not be involved in sexual sin or any kind of immoral behavior.[18] So we can see that the first four of these sinful efforts of humanity’s sinful tendencies being in control of their hearts and minds deal exclusively with immoral living.
Now Paul calls out idol worship as one of the sinful efforts accompanying total lack of self-control over one’s sinful tendencies. The Hebrew term for idolatry is tĕraphiym and simply means the worship of idols in the home of a shrine erected for such false gods.[19] But when a person puts their trust in earthly goods more than God,[20] that can become a form of idol worship. But there is a Hebrew noun ta’avah that seems to fit this idea very well. It means to desire, wish for, be the longing of one’s heart, things, and objects desired. Eve fell into the form of idolization when she visited the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden, and it led to her and Adam’s downfall.[21] And David talked about those who brag about their evil desires and praise the greedy and curse the Lord.[22]
We find a curious example of such idolization when the prophet Amos tells us about the worshipers of the god Baal[23] and the goddess Astarte.[24] The people sinned again and again by selling honorable people as servants for silver, and needy people for a pair of sandals. They trample helpless people in the dust and shove the oppressed out of the way. Both father and son sleep with the same woman, corrupting God’s holy name. At their religious festivals, they lounge in clothing their debtors put up as security. In the house of their gods, they drink wine bought with unjust fines.[25]
The Greek noun eidōlolatria that Paul uses seems very clear on the surface for us as the root word for our English word “idolatry.” In the spiritual sense, it means worshiping and making sacrifices to idols and false gods. However, moral factors related to the vices that arise from making anyone or anything an icon of adoration are present. In so doing, they use them to replace their unswerving devotion to God.
When Paul wrote the Colossians, he states that they should put everything evil out of their lives: sexual sin, doing anything immoral, letting sinful thoughts control them, and desire all the wrong things. And by wanting more and more for themselves, it is the same as worshiping a false god.[26] One of these, says Thayer in his Greek Lexicon, is greed and the love of fortune. When we look at those sinful efforts, Paul mentions up until now, while it does not eliminate idol worship, neither does it rule out the admiration of fame and fortune.
Paul did not mince words when he warned the Corinthians that when you see people reducing God to something they can use or control, get out of their company as fast as you can.[27] Even the Apostle Peter reminded his readers that they, too, were once such idolaters when they wasted too much time doing what those who don’t know God liked to do. They were living immoral lives, doing the evil things they wanted to do. They were always getting drunk, having wild drinking parties, and doing the same shameful acts they saw their idols do.[28]
That brings us to the next sinful effort, which is witchcraft (KJV). This term is found only twice in the KJV version of the First Covenant, as a translation of two different Hebrew nouns. The first occurrence is qecem means to practice prediction, which we would refer to today as fortune-telling, using a crystal ball or tarot cards to forecast future events. That’s what Balak’s messengers, who were elders of Moab and Midian, set out with money to pay Balaam to place a curse upon Israel.[29] Their fortune-tellers were not adequate for the job, so they went to one of Israel’s prophets. But this was forbidden by the Levitical laws. The prophet Samuel defined this type of witchcraft as a form of rebellion,[30] yet they ended up doing it anyway.[31] Even the prophet Jeremiah ran into this type of occultism,[32] as did the prophet Ezekiel to an even higher degree.[33]
The second Hebrew occurrence is the Hebrew verb kashaph, which means to practice sorcery in the form of magic, such as that practiced by magicians and witches. Moses ran into such magicians down in Egypt.[34] As a consequence, Moses forbid its practice in Israel.[35] Yet it too was practiced by the Israelites.[36] And Daniel was confronted by both types of witchcraft in Babylon.[37] And in the end, says the prophet Malachi, such workers of witchcraft will stand before the LORD of hosts on judgment day.[38]
[1] 1 Corinthians 6:9
[2] John 8:11
[3] Genesis 34:51; 38:15, 24
[4] Exodus 34:15, 16
[5] Numbers 25:1
[6] Colossians 3:5
[7] 1 Timothy 1:10 – NIV
[9] Ibid. 7:2
[10] Leviticus 16:16, 19
[11] Matthew 23:27
[12] Romans 1:24
[13] Judges 9:4
[14] 2 Peter 2:7
[15] Mark 7:22; 2 Corinthians 12:21; Galatians 5:19; Ephesians 4:19; 1 Peter 4:3
[16] Romans 13:13; 2 Peter 2:18
[17] Mark 7:20-23
[18] Romans 13:13
[19] See Genesis 31:19
[20] Proverbs 11:28
[21] Genesis 3:6
[22] Psalm 10:3
[23] Baal, a god, worshipped in many ancient Middle Eastern communities, especially among the Canaanites, who apparently considered him a fertility deity and one of the most important gods in the pantheon. As a Semitic common noun baal (Hebrew ba’al) meant “owner” or “lord.”
[24] Astarte was connected with the fertility of crops and cattle, sexuality, and war. Her symbols were the lion, the horse, the sphinx, the dove, and a star within a circle indicating the planet Venus.
[25] Amos 2:6-8
[26] Colossians 3:5
[27] 1 Corinthians 10:14
[29] Numbers 22:7
[30] 1 Samuel 15:23
[31] 2 Kings 17:17
[32] Jeremiah 14:14
[33] Ezekiel 13:6, 23; 21:18, 21, 22
[34] Exodus 7:11; 22:18
[35] Deuteronomy 18:10
[36] 2 Chronicles 33:6
[37] Daniel 2:2
[38] Malachi 3:5
About drbob76
Retired missionary, pastor, seminary professor, Board Certified Chaplain and American Cancer Society Hope Lodge Director.
View all posts by drbob76 →
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Serendipita
Serendipita?
Privacy Policy – Datenschutz
Material zur Teilchenphysik
LEIFI Physik hat in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Netzwerk Teilchenwelt kürzlich Arbeitsmaterialien zur Teilchenphysik veröffentlicht:
Kosmische Strahlung (PDF, ca. 2MB)
“Das vorliegende Material bietet Einblicke in das faszinierende Forschungsfeld der Astroteilchenphysik. Dabei steht die experimentelle Untersuchung von kosmischen Teilchen am Beispiel der Myonen im Vordergrund.”
Mikrokurse (PDF, ca. 2MB)
“In den Lehrplänen einiger Bundesländer gibt es noch keinen eigenständigen Themenbereich Teilchenphysik. Für diesen Fall sind die hier vorgestellten Mikrokurse zusammengestellt worden. Alle Kurse schlagen auf originelle Weise eine Brücke von klassischen Lehrplanthemen zu aktuellen Forschungsgegenständen. Denn viele der im Physikunterricht behandelten Themen lassen sich leicht um einen Bezug zur modernen Physik und insbesondere der Teilchenphysik ergänzen.”
This entry was posted in Astronomy, Physics, School and Education, Science on May 12, 2016 by Andrea.
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Review of Peter Watson, The Age of Nothing
The Independent - February 14, 2014
Peter Watson has written an intriguing and challenging book, which surveys the response of modern Western societies and their intellectuals to the decline of religion. To introduce the reader to the main currents of post-religious thinking, from Nietzsche, who started it with a bang, to Rorty, who tried to end it with a whimper, is no mean achievement.
Hardly an important school of thought is missing: all the 'isms' that have contended for attention during the 20th century are there, and Watson's interest in what they have to say is unflagging. I recommend this book to anyone who needs to know what the loss of religious faith has meant to the high culture of our civilisation and what, if anything, we might do about it.
Nietzsche wrote Thus Spake Zarathustra in the early 1880s, but it was only after the philosopher's death at the end of the century that its influence began to be felt. By the time of the First World War, Zarathustra had become the most popular work of philosophy in Germany, the book most frequently carried into the trenches by literate soldiers, and one printed for distribution to the German troops in a special durable edition of 150,000 copies. Today Nietzsche is at the heart of the university curriculum in the humanities, not simply on account of Zarathustra's slogan that God is dead, but more importantly because of Nietzsche's view that 'there are no truths, only interpretations'.
With the death of God, Nietzsche thought, comes the loss of the objective world: all that remains is our own perspective, and we must make of it what we can. From this it was a small step to the philosophy of the Superman, who would spend life expressing his 'will to power', through weight-lifting, rudeness and – who knows? – the occasional life-affirming murder.
Watson has a lot of time for Nietzsche, while acknowledging that his influence is due more to his gifts as a writer than his capacity for argument. He moves on through the whole range of literature in French, German and English, taking in the post-impressionist and modernist painters along the way, and discovering in all those whom he discusses some interesting and idiosyncratic reaction to the news of God's death. The range of Watson's knowledge is amazing. There are things missing that might have been there, of course: music is conspicuously absent, which is a pity, since it was Wagner and not Nietzsche who first made the death of God central to the understanding of our condition, and it was the modernist composers – Schoenberg and Stravinsky in particular – who tried hardest to breathe life into the corpse. But there is a limit to what you can expect from a book like this, which covers a whole century of intellectual endeavour as lightly as it can.
The loss of God has been experienced in many ways: as a challenge to place humanity on the empty pedestal from which God had fallen; as a call to give up on the grand narratives and rest content with our nothingness; as an invitation to therapy, drug-taking, artistic exhibitionism or some other way of making the Self into the centre of attention. All those come under Watson's eager microscope. In the end, however, he concludes that there is only one available stand-in for God and that is the intense moments of experience. Many writers have touched on these moments, presenting epiphanies in which the world is replete with a meaning that needs no God to explain it. That, Watson implies in his somewhat rambling conclusion, is all that we have.
The sacred moment is described in many ways and with many artistic embellishments. In Rilke it is an exchange of kisses between the earth and the observing consciousness; in Virginia Woolf it is a long sweet languish in a bubble bath of refined susceptibilities; in Lawrence and Nietzsche it is a Dionysiac encounter with life; in Proust it is a door into a space where the unseen eyes of Mother keep their unceasing vigil. And all those accounts are intriguing and suggestive. But they describe experiences that somehow fall short of what we are looking for, and Watson never really tells us why.
According to Watson the most important influence in shaping this search for the sacred moment was not Nietzsche or Proust but Husserl, the founding father of phenomenology. Husserl is widely referred to, but not widely read, since he wrote in an inspissated jargon that doesn't translate easily out of German, or into it for that matter. But Watson is right to acknowledge him, since he was part of a highly influential movement of thought in the late Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Husserl turned the attention of philosophy towards the structure of consciousness. He held that the concrete, contingent and immediate experience has precedence over the abstract generalities of science, since experience is the reality against which theories are tested. This idea was given literary form by Robert Musil and Karl Kraus; it was given philosophical form by Martin Heidegger, who should be credited with the extraordinary achievement of writing worse than Husserl. And the sections on Musil and Heidegger are among Watson's best.
However, the God-hungry atheism of the mid-twentieth century has a slightly quaint air today. The life-cult of D.H. Lawrence, the socialist progressivism of H.G. Wells, the naïve optimism of John Dewey, the existentialist nihilism of Heidegger and Sartre – all such religion substitutes have lost their appeal, and we find ourselves, perhaps for the first time, with a gloves-off encounter between the evangelical atheists, who tell us that religious belief is both nonsensical and wicked, and the defenders of intelligent design, who look around for the scraps that the Almighty left behind from his long picnic among us. What do we make of this new controversy? Watson gives a well-informed account of it, but he has no comfort to offer, other than those moments of meaning into which we stare and from which the face of God has vanished.
Or has it?
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The Role of Multiple Identities and Social Support in the Selfefficacy of First-generation College Students
Latinxs and first-generation college students (FGCS) make up a considerable portion of students on college campuses. in the university system, these students face unique challenges such as more career barriers and less career knowledge, which may impact their academic persistence and self-efficacy. Despite their challenges and presence in universities, researchers understudy these populations. the aim of this thesis is to fill the gap in literature, and examine cultural identity and social support as predictors of career decision self-efficacy (CDSE) for Latinx FGCS. Data were obtained from a larger study on the experiences of FGCS. Participants for the current study were 137 Latinx FGCS. Results of the study partially supported the hypotheses. Social support predicted CDSE. More specifically, peer support, but not sibling support, predicted CDSE. Furthermore, ethnic, national, and bicultural identity did not predict CDSE. These findings suggest that social support relates to the CDSE of Latinx FGCS. Future studies should continue to investigate variables that relate to CDSE. an implication of this study is that students may benefit from a collegial campus culture, where students support each other.
Garcia Peraza, Paulette D.
Nguyen, Angela-MinhTu D.
Sy, Susan
Ahmed, Sawssan R.
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12680/41687j88k
CSU Fullerton Theses and Dissertations
58_2017-08-11_Garcia_Thesis_FINAL.pdf 2020-06-01 Public
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Franking Privilege Extended for Return Mail
United States Congress extends the franking privilege to allow anyone authorized to use penalty envelopes to enclose them with return addresses to any person from whom official information is desired.
Chronology of Smithsonian History
Rhees, William Jones. The Smithsonian Institution: Documents Relative to Its Origin and History: 1835-1899, Vol. 1, 1835-1887. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1901, p. 961.
Goode, George Brown, ed. The Smithsonian Institution, 1846-1896, The History of Its First Half Century. Washington, D.C.: De Vinne Press, 1897, p. 840.
Franking privilege
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'The Barcelona Vampiress', Lluís Danés' terrifying drama, celebrates its world premiere in Sitges
Sitges 2020 kicked off its first weekend with a bang, programming spectacular premieres in all of the Festival's sections, such as the eagerly awaited The Dark and the Wicked and Mandibules in SOFC, Minor Premise in Noves Visions, the late-night double screening in Panorama Fantàstic with The Funeral Home and The Night, the essential Kubrick by Kubrick in Sitges Documenta, the first open-air screening at the Hort de Can Falç and the presentation to the media outlets of The Barcelona Vampiress with a spectacular premiere at the Meliá Auditori, before Najwa Nimri received the Festival's Grand Honorary Award, on a day full of entertainment and intense emotions.
The second day of the Festival revealed many of the most eagerly awaited surprises at this year's edition. In the in-competition Official Selection, today we could see Mandibules, the surprising new comedy by Sitges regular Quentin Dupieux, this time starring giant flies. Bryan Bertino, who surprised audiences everywhere with The Strangers, presented The Dark & the Wicked, his new piece about how there can be worse things than death. In Noves Visions we got to see the psychological thriller Minor Premise, Eric Schultz's directorial debut. The Prado Theater was in charge of opening Sitges Documenta Kubrick by Kubrick, an essential document and a definitive tribute to the Stanley Kubrick the person from the hands of Gregory Monro who recovers new and exclusive recordings of the filmmaker, where he reflects on his philosophy of life. And the Fantastic Panorama section programmed a double bill in the Tramuntana Theater to present the feature debut by two young directors, La funeraria (The Funeral Home) by Mauro Iván Ojeda and Iranian The Night by Kourosh Ahari. This Friday also saw the opening of our open-air film screenings at the Hort de Can Falç, with showings of the animated feature films One Piece: Stampede by Takashi Otsuka and City Hunter by Phillippe Lacheau. And as a grand finale to the world premiere of Malnazidos at yesterday's opening gala ceremony, its directors Javier Ruiz Caldera and Alberto de Toro participated in a special broadcast from the headquarters of the Marea Nocturna Festival, the podcast dedicated to fantastic and horror films on Radio Primavera Sound, hosted by Desirée de Fes, Angel Sala, Jordi Sánchez-Navarro and Xavi Sánchez Pons.
At a press conference held this noon at the Festival's headquarters, another of today's main attractions was presented, The Barcelona Vampiress, the terrifying drama directed by Lluís Danés. The film, based on real events that took place in Barcelona in the early 20th century, has a strong cast of Catalan actors including Nora Navas, Sergi López, Francesc Orella, Pablo Derqui, Bruna Cusí, Roger Casamajor and Núria Prims. Lluís Danés, accompanied by a large part of the artistic crew, spoke about the film's origin and production, citing Fellini's Casanova as the main reference for his filmmaking and masters such as David Lynch or The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, the leitmotiv of this 53rd edition, which "explore territories and scenarios between theater and cinema, where the scenography becomes another character". Before the official presentation in the Auditori, the artistic and technical crews walked the red carpet for the accredited print media journalists.
After 10 pm and before the screening in the Auditori of the short film Routine: The Prohibition by Sam and Quentin Dupieux’s Mandibules, Najwa Nimri Najwa Nimri took to the Auditori stage to receive the Grand Honorary Award for her lifetime achievement. Following her debut in Jumping into the Void (1995), one of the milestones in independent Spanish film, for which she won the Award for Best European Actress at the Berlin Festival, the artist born in Pamplona and of Jordanian-Spanish descent launched a dazzling career that has made her one of the most outstanding Spanish actresses of her generation, with genre films such as Alejandro Amenábar’s Open Your Eyes (1997), one of the key films in European fantastique, Lovers of the Arctic Circle (1998), Faust 5.0 (2001), Verbo (2011) and Quién te cantará (2018). In addition to combining film with her other great passion, pop music, she has also become a huge TV star thanks to the series Vis a Vis (Locked Up) and Money Heist.
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Posted: May 9, 2018 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, hockey, post season, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
We’ve got a Game 7 in the NHL playoffs tonight. The Nashville Predators will host the Winnipeg Jets tonight after the Predators where able to force a Game 7 with a 4-0 Game 6 victory in Winnipeg on Monday.
This is the only 2nd round series still playing. Tonight’s winner will move on to face the Las Vegas Golden Knights in the Western Conference finals. In the Eastern Conference the Tampa Bay Lighting will host the Washington Capitals Sunday night in the opener of that series.
Home ice hasn’t meant much in the Predators/Jets series as both teams have won the others ice multiple times in this series.
Nashville was the President’s trophy winner with 117 points this season, but Winnipeg was the next closet team to them with 114 points.
Nashville has is being led in scoring this post season by Filip Forsberg with 15 points. Mark Scheifele has been the Jets leading scorer so far this post season with 14 points. The Predators rely on Pekka Rinne in goal, but back up goaltender Juuse Saros has appeared in 3 games this post season. Rinne has a Goals Against Average of 2.94 this post season, but his record is just 7-5. Rinne does have 2 shutouts in 12 post season games including Game 6 in Winnipeg. Connor Hellebuyck has manned the net for the Jets this post season. Winnipeg’s back up Steve Mason has made 1 post season appearance. Hellebuyck has a Goals Against Average of 2.36 with a record of 7-4. Hellebuyck has posted 1 shutout this post season.
The Predators where last years Cinderella story making it all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals before coming up short to the eventual champions the Pittsburgh Penguins. Winnipeg didn’t even get into the playoffs last season. The series has lived up to the hype, but one of these teams has to go home.
The puck should drop for Game 7 in the Bridgestone Arena about 7:00 p.m. Who do you have winning tonight; Nashville or Winnipeg?
For the second time in baseball history a pitcher born in Canada threw a no-hitter and it just so happened that the game was being played in Canada.
Seattle Mariners left hander James Paxton, who’s nickname is Big Maple no-hit the Toronto Blue Jays last night as the Mariners won the game 5-0. Paxton is from Ladner, British Columbia.
Paxton struck out 7, walked 3 and threw just 99 pitches in his no-hitter. Josh Donaldson made the final out hitting a hard ground ball that Mariners 3rd baseman Kyle Seager cut off, throwing Donaldson out at 1st to seal the no-hitter.
With 2 outs in the bottom of the 7th inning Seager made the defensive play of the game that really saved the no-hitter. Kevin Pillar hit a down the 3rd base line that looked like it had a chance to get down into the leftfield corner. Seager made a full out dive to snag the baseball. Seager made a bit of an off balance throw to first base, but Ryon Healy was able to pick the throw on one hop and record the out.
Russell Martin did lead off the bottom of the 8th inning for the Blue Jays with a long drive to leftfield, but Ben Gamel easily made the catch near he wall for the 1st out of the inning.
Those where really the two closest times that the Blue Jays came close to getting a hit. Paxson was rolling along most of the night and in the 9th inning he got top prospect Anthony Alford to foul out for the 1st out of the inning. Teoscar Hernandez has been one of the hotter players in the Blue Jays line up, but Paxson struck him out for the 2nd out of the 9th inning. That led to the Donaldson ground out that Seager snagged to end the game.
Paxson’s no-hitter was the 6th in Mariners history. The last Seattle no-hitter was on August 12th 2015 when Hisashi Iwakuma threw one against the Baltimore Orioles. ‘The King” Felix Hernandez has the only perfect game in Mariners history. Hernandez threw that on August 15th 2012 against the Tampa Bay Rays.
Can you name the other Canadian born pitcher to throw a no-hitter?
If you said Dick Fowler you where correct. Fowler no-hit the St. Louis Browns on September 9th 1945. This was actually Fowler first start of that season. Fowler had been serving in the Canadian military during World War II and had just recently returned to the Philadelphia Athletics.
Fowler spent his entire 10-year career with the Athletics. He did miss all of the 1943 and 1944 season because of his military service. Fowler pitched in 221 career games with 170 of them being starts. Fowler went 66-79 with 4 saves. His career ERA was 4.11.
The Western Conference finals in the NBA where set last night. The Houston Rockets advanced by beating the Utah Jazz 112-102 and winning that series 4 games to 1. The Golden State Warriors moved on with a 113-105 win over the New Orleans Pelicans winning that series 4 games to 1. The Cleveland Cavaliers swept the Toronto Raptors out of the playoffs to advance to the Eastern Conference finals. Cleveland is waiting to see who’ll they’ll be playing and might find out tonight.
The Boston Celtics host the Philadelphia 76ers I Game 5 of their 2nd round series tonight. Boston is ahead 3 games to 1; so if they get a win tonight they’ll be the team that moves on to face the Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference finals. If the 76ers get a win tonight the series will head back to Philadelphia for Game 6 on Friday night.
With the Western Conference 2nd round wrapped up the Rockets and the Warriors will get some time off. The Western Conference finals don’t start until Monday May 14th in Houston.
Most people believe that the Rockets and the Warriors are the two best teams in the NBA and that the winner of this series will be the eventual NBA champions. Are you in this camp? Do you believe that whoever wins this series will win the championship or do you believe that which ever teams coms out of the Eastern Conference has a chance.
You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but don’t forget tat the podcast is available for you to listen to any time you want at TuneIn.com.
Don’t forget to look me up on Twitter @Burketime
How was your week
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10 Years: Reimagining Civic Education, Fueling a Movement
In 1981, our founder, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, broke the glass ceiling for women when she was nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court. Serving for more than 24 years, her career exemplified a strong dedication to public service. However, breaking the glass ceiling in our nation’s highest court was not the sole hallmark for which Justice O’Connor wanted to be remembered.
Justice O’Connor recognized a growing lack of public understanding about the basic functions of the U.S. government. When she retired in 2006, she made a commitment to finding a way to spark greater civic participation amongst America’s youth. By partnering with educators and industry experts, she discerned that digital, interactive games would be effective in preparing students for civic engagement.
It was then that Justice O’Connor’s enduring legacy, iCivics, was born.
For ten years, Justice O’Connor’s vision has remained the core of iCivics. We are the nation’s largest provider of civic education curriculum. This year alone, our 20 games have been played close to 19 million times by an estimated 6.25 million students from all 50 states. We have developed a wide range of free digital classroom resources adapted to students of all backgrounds and grade levels. Each of these resources is designed to be accessible, relevant, and show students how they can create positive change by participating in their communities and government.
We have been honored to receive numerous awards and honors that showcase our high quality. Our products have been validated by strong evidence from independent researchers from leading universities, who attest that our products have tangible impact. Our desire to constantly improve and innovate has helped us adapt to the ever-changing demographics and needs of today’s classrooms.
Beyond teaching resources, Justice O’Connor called for a movement that would unite citizens of all ages in an effort to make civic education and engagement a national priority.
Today, only nine states require a full year of civic education in high school, 31 states only require civics for one semester, and 10 states don’t have any civics course requirements at all. Studies indicate that civic education is urgently needed, as nearly 75% of Americans cannot name all three branches of government. Only 1 in 4 students reach a “proficient” score in civics on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, and the scores of Black and Latinx students continue to highlight the deep equity challenges in the field.
To address these concerns, we established CivXNow, a bipartisan coalition that has nearly 100 members from across the U.S. The coalition’s goal is to ensure that the civic mission of schools is at the core of our education system, and acts as a vehicle to sustain our unique American democracy. CivXNow has grown at an impressive rate since its inception and what we have already achieved is proof of our momentum. Our latest publication is a set of ten recommendations to guide state legislators as they craft policies to prioritize civic education in K-12 schools. We are energized for the future as the coalition continues to gain traction and work collaboratively towards our common goal.
As Justice O’Connor said, “It is time for new leaders to make civic learning and civic engagement a reality for all. It is my great hope that our nation will commit to educating our youth about civics, and to helping young people understand their crucial role as informed, active citizens in our nation.”
After ten years of hard work, iCivics is at the forefront of ensuring civic education is a reality for future generations, both inside and outside of the classroom. Our achievements are a direct result of the deep commitment to Justice O’Connor’s vision from our teachers, staff, Governing and Advisory Boards, and generous supporters. It is this steadfast dedication that fuels our momentum.
Louise Dubé, Executive Director, iCivics
1035 Cambridge Street, Suite 21B
info@icivics.org
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Film-Music
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Hilariously funny ‘Bad Jews’ next up at Odyssey Theatre
Society 805 Staff Writer
LOS ANGELES, CA — Savage, vicious and ferociously funny. Dana Resnick directs Bad Jews, a fierce yet hilarious take on family, faith and legacy by Joshua Harmon, running April 21 through June 17 at the Odyssey Theatre.
There's nothing like a death in the family to bring out the worst in us. In Joshua Harmon’s biting comedy, a beloved grandfather has died and a treasured family heirloom with religious significance is up for grabs — but who’s the most deserving? Is it bossy, overbearing, self-declared “super-Jew” Daphna Feygenbaum (played by Larkin Bell – Colony Collapse at Boston Court)? Or her wealthy, less observant cousin Liam (Noah James – Stanley Jerome in the Odyssey’s Broadway Bound) who has a shiksa girlfriend (Lila Hood – The Man Who Came to Dinner at Actors Co-Op)? Meanwhile, Liam’s younger brother Jonah (Austin Rogers – White Marriage at the Odyssey) finds himself in the impossible position of peacemaker as the two rivals argue, insult and try to outwit each other to the bitter, hilarious end.
“It's comedy, but it hits in a very real place,” says Resnick, who has been friends with Harmon ever since they met in the MFA program at Carnegie Mellon. “As we watch this family tear each other apart, we laugh at the jokes — but we recognize ourselves. This is the second time I’ve directed this play, and it triggers my own questions about where we should draw the line in the fight for what we believe. It’s riveting to watch how far people will go when their authenticity is being challenged.”
Bad Jews premiered at New York’s Roundabout Underground in the 62-seat Black Box at the Steinberg Center in 2012, transferring to the Roundabout's 424 seat off-Broadway Laura Pels Theatre the following year. Rave reviews included a New York Times “Critic's Pick,” and the play was nominated for Lucille Lortel, Outer Critics Circle and John Gassner awards. The New York Post declared it “delicious, nasty fun… a smart, divisive conversation starter” and the New York Daily News gave it four stars, calling it “fast and funny, pungent and poignant.” Bad Jews catapulted Harmon into the global theater spotlight and has since gone on to become one of the most produced plays in the U.S. Harmon’s other plays include Significant Other (opening at the Geffen Playhouse in April) and Admissions, which premiered earlier this month to critical acclaim at Lincoln Center. Harmon is a graduate of Northwestern University, Carnegie Mellon University and Julliard.
The Odyssey’s creative team for Bad Jews features set designer David Offner, lighting designer Tom Ash, sound designer Marisa Whitmore, costume designer Vicki Conrad, prop master Josh La Cour and dramaturg Arnab Banerji. The assistant to the director is Gregory Velasco Kucukarslan and the stage manager is Emma Whitley.
A professor of theater arts at Loyola Marymount University, Dana Resnick has been directing for over 15 years in Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, Washington D.C., Charleston, Milwaukee and Pittsburgh. She is the recipient of the Stephen Bochco Award in Directing and the John Jutkowitz Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Performing Arts. Favorite past productions include Bad Jews at Pure Theatre in Charleston, SC, In The Heart of America at Prop Thtr in Chicago and The Island at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival (winner, “Best in Theater”). Dana was the head of the theater department at Star Education, a non-profit based in Los Angeles that provides enrichment for public elementary school students throughout California. She holds an M.F.A. in Directing from Carnegie Mellon and a B.A. in Theater from Washington University in St. Louis.
The Odyssey Theatre Ensemble was founded in 1969 when Ron Sossi decided to demonstrate that experiment-oriented theater could have populist appeal and be fiscally solvent while maintaining the highest artistic standards. Wildly successful and innovative productions such as The Serpent and Brecht's The Threepenny Opera immediately gained the Odyssey its reputation for producing dangerous, magical and experimental work. Now celebrating its 49th season, OTE continues to explore, produce and present works on the forefront of contemporary theater art in its three-theater complex in West Los Angeles.
Performances of Bad Jews take place on Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. from April 21 through June 17. On Sunday, April 22 only, the performance will be at 5 p.m. with no 2 p.m. matinee. Additional weeknight performances are scheduled on Wednesday, May 9; Thursday, May 17; Wednesday, May 30; and Thursday, June 14, all at 8 p.m. Talkbacks with the cast follow the performances on Wednesday, May 9; Friday, May 18; and Sunday, May 27. Tickets range from $30 to $35; there will be three “Tix for $10” performances on Friday, April 27; Wednesday, May 30; and Thursday, June 14. The third Friday of every month is wine night at the Odyssey: enjoy complimentary wine and snacks and mingle with the cast after the show.
The Odyssey Theatre is located at 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., West Los Angeles, 90025. For reservations and information, call (310) 477-2055 or go to OdysseyTheatre.com
Review:King Lear
Psst, did you hear? March 2018
Fashion Art Exhibit
10 THINGS TO DO IN VENTURA THIS SUMMER.
Westlake Village Farmers' Market
WORK FOR SOCIETY 805
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NREL Takes First In-Depth Look at Solar Project Completion Timelines 0
February 12, 2015 10:30 am February 13, 2015
The Energy Department’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has gathered and analyzed data for more than 30,000 solar photovoltaic (PV) installations across the United States to better understand how interconnection regulations align with actual project completion timelines. The findings indicate that interconnection process delays are common, and can range from several days to months. Streamlining the application review and final authorization processes can ultimately benefit utilities and solar consumers by reducing the time and cost associated with going solar.
“We now have a clearer understanding of the different process elements associated with connecting a PV system to the grid, such as how long it takes to review and approve an application for interconnection, how long it takes to construct and inspect a system, and how long it takes to get final authorization from the utility,” said the report’s lead author, Kristen Ardani, a solar technology markets and policy analyst at NREL. “This report represents the first data-driven evaluation of how PV deployment time frames compare to state regulations in key solar markets.”
The authors of the report, “Understanding Processes and Timelines for Distributed Photovoltaic Interconnection in the United States,” examined PV project data across 87 utility territories and 16 states. NREL found that for the residential and small commercial (less than 50 kilowatts) systems sampled, it took an average of 63 total business days (median 53) from the date a PV installer submits an interconnection application to when the utility grants permission to operate. However, there is wide variation around these values, ranging from less than one week to more than six months. System construction represents the fastest part of the process, taking an average of four business days (median two days). Interconnection application review and approval accounted for the most time of any single process examined in this analysis, requiring an average of 27 business days (median of 18 days) to complete.
The report also provides state-level findings based on an analysis of five states with active solar markets-Arizona, California, Colorado, New Jersey, and New York. The research suggests that states with more stringent interconnection time frame regulations might reduce overall project length. However, such regulations do not necessarily limit time frames to the targets specified by interconnection standards. Additional insights on the research effort and report findings are available through a STAT Chat podcast and an educational webinar.
The impetus and data for this project were identified through stakeholder discussions facilitated through the Distributed Generation Interconnection Collaborative (DGIC), a working-group consortium of more than 100 members. NREL facilitates the DGIC with support from the Solar Electric Power Association (SEPA), the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), and the Western Area Power Administration (WAPA) to foster knowledge sharing on distributed PV interconnection practices, research, and innovation.
This body of work is supported by the Energy Department’s SunShot Initiative, which is a national effort to make solar energy cost-competitive with traditional energy sources by the end of the decade. Through SunShot, the Energy Department supports private companies, universities, and national laboratories working to drive down the cost of solar electricity to $0.06 per kilowatt-hour. Learn more at energy.gov/sunshot.
NREL is the U.S. Department of Energy’s primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. NREL is operated for the Energy Department by The Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC.
SolarFeeds Editorial Team
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Secretary of State Tre Hargett Announces Launch of Safe at Home Address Confidentiality Program for Victims of Domestic Violence
Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett today was joined by members of the General Assembly, advocates for domestic violence victims and other stakeholders to announce the introduction of the Tennessee Safe at Home Address Confidentiality Program. Tennessee now joins the more than 35 other states offering similar domestic violence safety programs.
Safe at Home launches March 1 and aims to protect Tennessee victims of domestic violence, rape, human trafficking, stalking and other related crimes from their abusers by keeping their address concealed from public records. According to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI), 18 of the 84 domestic violence-related murder victims in Tennessee in 2017 were repeat victims or had reported domestic abuse prior to their deaths.
"Our goal is to shine a bright light on the problem of domestic violence in our state and help protect those Tennesseans who have been victimized from becoming victims again,” Hargett said. “Safe at Home provides victims and their families with a tool to help heal from their abuse, begin new lives and finally feel a sense of security in their communities.”
Under current Tennessee law, most state or local government records are considered public and available for public review. These public records include identifying documents like voter registration and other documents and information, making it easy for abusers to track and find their victims.
Legislation passed in 2018 created the Safe at Home program and allows for participants of the program to be concealed from public records in order to shield survivors and victims from the ongoing threat of domestic violence. Sen. Brian Kelsey (R-Germantown) and Rep. Andrew Farmer (R-Sevierville) sponsored the legislation.
“We have made protecting victims of domestic violence a priority in Tennessee by passing legislation that targets repeat offenders and provides automatic no contact orders. Safe at Home is another mechanism to help keep victims and their families safe,” Sen. Brian Kelsey said.
“Domestic violence is an issue that knows no boundaries and impacts families across the state. I was proud to sponsor this legislation and support the Secretary of State’s office in its efforts to help those who have suffered at the hands of an abuser regain a sense of peace in their lives,” Rep. Farmer said.
Participants in the program will be provided a government-managed substitute address to be used as their official mailing address on all government documents. The address may be used for both victims and their children. Safe at Home forwards the mail received to program participants and keeps their personal address confidential. Once enrolled, the participant can provide the substitute address to all government entities in Tennessee, with very limited exceptions. Participants may also request that other nongovernmental entities, such as schools, employers and other private businesses, use this address as well.
There is no cost to participate in the program, but participants must complete an application with the assistance of a certified application assistant.
The TBI 2017 report on domestic violence found a total of 77,846 domestic violence offenses reported to police statewide, including 935 cases of stalking and more than 11,400 reports of aggravated assaults. Known domestic violence situations resulted in 81 murder victims in Tennessee during 2017.
Detailed information about the Safe at Home program, participant eligibility, how to apply and more can be found at sos.tn.gov/safeathome.
Video clips from the news conference and interviews with Sen. Kelsey and Rep. Farmer can be found at this link.
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Activism in the era of COVID-19
CSU faculty weigh in on how the practices of activism have been altered during the pandemic, what changes might be here to stay, and how to get involved responsibly
by Katie Courage
Although there have been many mass demonstrations across the country, by and large, the COVID-19 pandemic has radically altered many aspects of civic engagement in 2020: political conventions gone virtual, long-planned demonstrations canceled, communities of activists championing a variety of issues coming together through online platforms.
“We’re living through historic times,” said Dominik Stecula, an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science in the College of Liberal Arts at Colorado State University, who studies the intersection of media communication and behavior.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, activism took many forms, often involving large demonstrations, door-to-door canvassing, or asking strangers for signatures on petitions. But the arrival of the novel virus has shifted a lot of these traditional practices away from in-person contact. “The pandemic changed a lot about how activism is practiced,” Stecula said.
Although the virus has shifted the landscape of engagement, it hasn’t dampened enthusiasm around it. And this year, despite of – or perhaps even because of – the pandemic, more people than ever seem to be paying attention and even getting involved.
“I think it’s changed most significantly in terms of its grander visibility,” said Doreen Martinez, an associate professor in the Department of Ethnic Studies, whose research includes sociopolitical environment issues and visual culture. “I think that the general populace has become much more aware of activism, whether that’s through news media or social media. Currently, activism has a feel and an energy to it that is new to a lot of people, where it rallies people.”
And right now, there is no shortage of issues to rally around. “I certainly feel there is a greater sense of urgency now than in the recent past, whether the issue is racial justice, public health, financial insecurity, or climate change,” said Eric Ishiwata, an associate professor of ethnic studies who researches race relations.
Changing engagement
Activism has been a part of the United States since its founding. Since then, the causes and practices have been evolving and expanding, bringing with them echoes of the past.
“These current movements are built upon foundations that were created through the tireless work of largely unsung heroes,” Ishiwata said. “This summer’s nationwide demonstrations surrounding racial justice, for example, looked markedly different than Ferguson (Missouri) in 2014. The pandemic is at least part of this equation.”
Part of what has changed this year is many people’s awareness of activism.
“It was here in a significant way even before the pandemic,” Martinez said. “For people who have had less exposure to activism, the heightened visibility of it seems really big and really different.”
It might seem hard to remember now, with so many dramatic events in 2020 – from protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement to election year political demonstrations – but in recent years, there has also been major, public activism around the environment, economic inequality, undocumented students, and abortion and gun rights. For example, the 2019 climate strike drew some 6 million people – many of them young – out to protest the climate crisis. And hundreds of CSU students demonstrated against racial bias during President McConnell’s first Fall Address last year.
“It’s always been there,” Martinez said. “The pandemic has shifted the visibility to it, and the consciousness around it.”
“It’s always been there. The pandemic has shifted the visibility to it, and the consciousness around it.”
—Doreen Martinez, associate professor, Department of Ethnic Studies
Beyond the awareness, the pandemic has also shaped how people are showing support for a cause. Ishiwata noted there has been “a boom of activity shared on social media,” especially for people under 30. A study by the Pew Research Center found that in June of this year, more than half of respondents ages 18-29 had used social media to look for information about local protests or rallies (compared with about a third of people ages 30-49). Those under 30 were also more likely to have “used a hashtag related to a political or social issue and encouraged others to take action on issues they see as important.” Activism is even spreading to online game platforms, such as Animal Crossing.
Another way the pandemic has changed the way people engage in activism is perhaps even more fundamental. It has drastically changed the shape of millions of people’s daily lives. For one, Martinez noted, many people found they were home more and have more time to participate actively, whether that is attending in-person rallies or engaging in campaigns and other efforts remotely.
At the same time, the pandemic has also made people feel more isolated and, in many ways, less in control of their lives. Because the virus could make its way into anyone’s home, causing a health or financial crisis (or both), more people are feeling a vulnerability that they might not be used to. “People are seeking to have some say in their lives, in the world,” Martinez added. “It has created the perfect storm to bring more people into activism.”
Despite these shifts, there have still been aspects of social activism that haven’t changed all that much this year. According to Stecula, “social protests are, well, social, and gathering on Zoom is not an alternative to gathering in public places to demand social change.” Some of the main differences in many large-scale protests this year have been many individuals wearing masks and perhaps practicing physical distancing where possible.
Of course, he noted, “many folks were likely reluctant to join demonstrations and protests due to concerns about health during the pandemic. But the months of pandemic lockdowns and social isolation experienced by so many Americans probably made some people more likely to come out and be with other members of their community demanding social change.”
Coalitions amplify causes
This year has also seen an increased number of issues converging. COVID-19’s disproportionate impact on people of color – from health as well as economic standpoints – has heightened the visibility of issues surrounding racial inequalities in the U.S., for example.
“You have a coalescing of these issues,” Martinez said, of the pandemic and social justice. This has helped to amplify more diverse voices, through not only Black Lives Matter efforts, but also in the news media’s choice of sources, she noted.
At CSU, students involved in various organizations have been cross-promoting and amplifying other causes, too: the CSU Pride Resource Center used its social media presence to spread information about other advocacy groups as well as prominent social activists and practices in general during Pride Month in June. “Broader coalitions are being formed,” Ishiwata said.
Other arenas have also become spark points for activism on a broad scale, including the professional sports world. Players have negotiated public displays of activism – such as displaying social justice messages on their uniforms or courts – as well as direct actions – such as reserving sports arenas as new poling sites for the upcoming election, Stecula said. “I think the pandemic has really accelerated social activism that has been happening in the world of sports.”
Even with large corporations, from IBM to major sports leagues, coming out with “uncharacteristically bold statements, it has still been the human stories and large public mobilizations that have produced the ‘goosebump’ moments” that add energy to a cause, Ishiwata noted.
Acting responsibly
Although the numerous pressing issues of 2020 have elevated various causes into more people’s consciousness, that doesn’t mean that anything can count as activism. And billing something like wearing a mask to protect public health – or not – as such can be dangerous.
What does count as activism right now? “It’s not like anything goes,” Martinez said. She recommended that anyone who feels inspired and motivated to support a cause should do research, check with multiple sources, and “become aware and informed” about that cause.
It is also important to evaluate your own level of comfort with different types of engagement, especially while the coronavirus continues to circulate.
“This is a challenging time for all of us, and we all have competing needs surrounding our family obligations, personal health and safety, mental wellbeing, and financial security,” Ishiwata said. Even in his own work, which involves advocating with people of immigrant and refugee backgrounds to meet their fundamental needs (from rent assistance to food to helping families with limited English proficiency navigate helping their kids’ online learning), “I haven’t found a great way to pull everything off, but I keep trying,” he said.
“Everyone has had to make tough decisions for themselves,” Ishiwata continued. “For some, that has meant showing up to demonstrations in the safest ways possible. For others, it has meant coaching and supporting from the sidelines – because that can count as ‘showing up’ as well. The need is everywhere right now.”
If you are not comfortable with mass gatherings – possibly even outside of a pandemic – there are plenty of other ways to become involved, and there is room for anyone. Martinez asks: “What’s your skill set that you can contribute?”
Some people have an excellent knowledge of tech and can help an organization that way – or could drop off food or organize people online. As a professor, she says, sometimes she is able to offer an entire workshop to a group. Other times, she would prefer to show up just to help set up chairs for an event.
Getting involved has also become a much-needed balm and source of connection during the pandemic – even if interactions are virtual or happen at a distance. “People are building relationships and coming together with others,” Martinez said. That comes from “being involved – and doing it in ways that are respectful.”
Growing engagement
What the future of activism looks like is anyone’s guess. It’s hard to tell what the world will look like when the pandemic is over, but there are certain things that experts think will likely continue.
For instance, public opinion polls show a surge in support for the Black Lives Matter movement over the past few months, Stecula said. And the broader, more visible engagement of the sports world in social justice issues is likely to stay, he added.
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“Does this just go away when the pandemic goes away?” Martinez asks. “It doesn’t. We have such demanding issues, whether we call them ‘the grand challenges’ or ‘our land-grant mission,’ there’s always been efforts and calls to respond to these – and that won’t go away.”
Although many in-person events have been curtailed this year, the bottom line is that people are engaged. “Data suggests that people are paying attention to current events in unprecedented numbers,” Stecula said.
And that could translate to the ultimate civic engagement: voting.
“Based on survey data and the 2018 turnout, we’re probably en route to a massive voter turnout in November,” he said.
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One Year of the Catholic Herald
Posted by Stuart Chessman
I recently had to confront this monumental decision: should I renew the “Catholic Herald – US edition”? For that magazine was launched just about a year ago. It’s now time to review how the US edition has fared since then.
The objective was alluring and ambitious: to create a magazine providing intellectual leadership for American conservative Catholics. In the US, it was a role last completely filled by Triumph magazine – up to 1975, that is! The Herald’s new US edition could build on the success and visibility of the UK parent, in which Damian Thompson had instilled new bite and focus.
I myself had doubts early on about this venture given the anti-Traditionalist animus of at least one prospective editor – who had even railed against the above- mentioned Triumph, shut down so many years before. But the US edition was launched with a splash – an oversubscribed gathering in New York plus, I heard, even an “afterparty.” It was a welcome display of panache and flair so rare in the Catholic conservative world. A wide variety of conservative greats were invited on board as potential writers.
Yet things almost immediately went south. One of the would-be contributors – a certain Dawn Goldstein – immediately unleashed a vicious assault on the publication. Members of the Catholic Herald team fought back – but then joined her in blasting the alleged “anti- Semitism” of one of their own recently published writers – Taki, one of the great supporters of conservatism. And within months both the US and UK editors were out the door. It seems the conservative “big tent” was not so capacious after all. It is just one further proof of the inherent impossibility of the “conservative Catholic” compromise – made starkly visible in the crisis created by the current Pope.
What survives is a decent publication offering a pleasant, non-challenging version of “cultural conservativism” – nice articles on culture, church history, spirituality and new books combined with summary coverage of current events. Tough investigative journalism and a probing political, historical and theological analysis of the deviations of the papacy and local hierarchies are not, however, part of the scene. There is nothing like the recent articles in First Things on the “Amazonian” synod or the Papal Foundation. Or Ed Condon’s recent journalism in the CNA on the Vatican’s financial scandals. True, hot topics are not necessarily avoided or swept under the rug – the Catholic Herald is not yet like the Catholic News Service or Catholic New York. Yet all too often even a candid, critical discussion of an issue ends in wishful thinking or credulity.
So, for example, referring to the latest London real estate shenanigans of the Vatican:
“The controversy is likely to be a source of sadness for Pope Francis who was elected in 2013 with a mandate to reform Vatican finances. He pursued this goal energetically…” (October 25, 2019).
Or, on the Amazonian synod:
“Only a vast creative and relentless campaign of evangelization can hope to reverse this trend (of the de-catholicizing of the Amazon – SC). Will this be unleashed by the Amazon synod? Let’s pray that it
will…. .” (November 1, 2019)
I find myself therefore still relying for news and analysis regarding all things Catholic on perusing daily six to eight websites – several of which are not in the English language. One of the best of these sources is, paradoxically, the ultra-progressive website of the German bishops. All in all, the US edition of the Catholic Herald is pleasant and informative reading but has failed so far to rise to the challenge of leadership. In an era of unprecedented crisis in the Church, that is a major failing. Should I continue to subscribe? For $140, I do not know…….
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Christian Freitag to leave position at Sycamore Land Trust for the Conservation Law Center
Abby Henkel, Communications Director, Sycamore Land Trust
abby@sycamorelandtrust.org
Bloomington, Ind. – Christian Freitag, Executive Director of Sycamore Land Trust for the past 18 years, has resigned from his position to become President and Director of the Conservation Law Center, a public-interest nonprofit environmental law firm based in Bloomington.
Christian Freitag addresses attendees at Sycamore’s 2017 Annual Celebration
Sycamore Land Trust is a nonprofit conservation organization whose mission is to preserve the beauty, health, and diversity of southern Indiana’s natural landscape through strategic land conservation and environmental education. The organization was founded in 1990 by a small group of residents in Bloomington. After 28 years, the organization is now one of the most successful and fastest-growing conservation organizations in the Midwest.
Freitag was hired in 2000 as the organization’s first director, a position he has held since. During his tenure, Sycamore has built a professional staff of seven full-time employees, and efficiently expanded its capacity and impact. The organization now covers 26 counties in southern Indiana, making it the largest of Indiana’s regional conservation groups, and more than doubling its coverage area during Freitag’s service. Most importantly, the organization has now protected more than 100 properties totaling nearly 20,000 acres through direct ownership, conservation easements, and partnerships. Dozens of threatened and endangered species have been documented on land protected by Sycamore.
In this time, Sycamore also established an Environmental Education (EE) program that now serves more than 5,000 students and adults in southern Indiana each year. The EE program provides ongoing, hands-on activities for schools in their classrooms, free of charge, as well as to community groups, retirement homes, and the general public through outdoors events at Sycamore’s 16 public nature preserves.
“Of course it’s bittersweet to leave Sycamore,” says Freitag. “I’ve given eighteen years to the organization, working hard to create a groundswell of people who would help protect those natural places that are the hallmark of southern Indiana. I think we’ve done that. More than ever before, people are embracing the notion that they really can make a difference in their own environment, and moreover, they have a responsibility towards it.”
The organization maintains a permanent headquarters in Bloomington in the former home of Lynton and Helen Caldwell, whom Freitag met as a doctoral student at Indiana University’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Lynton Keith Caldwell was the principle architect of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1970, the statute requiring government agencies to consider the environmental effects of their actions through Environmental Impact Statements.
As director of Sycamore Land Trust, Freitag oversaw several notable conservation projects. Beanblossom Bottoms Nature Preserve in northwestern Monroe County, one of Sycamore’s flagship properties, has grown from a few hundred acres to a complex of over 1200 acres throughout the Beanblossom Creek valley. The area was selected by Governor Mitch Daniels as one of five Bicentennial Conservation Areas in the state, celebrating the state’s bicentennial by highlighting and protecting some of its most environmentally sensitive lands.
Also under Freitag’s leadership, Sycamore purchased the Columbia Mine property, 1,043 acres at the Patoka River National Wildlife Refuge, a keystone parcel tying together other pieces to create a larger 5,000-acre contiguous protected parcel. That land is managed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service as part of the refuge. Sycamore also purchased property at Goose Pond Fish and Wildlife Area in Greene County, donating it to the state Department of Natural Resources, and only the second addition to Goose Pond since its inception.
Christian Freitag (right) and Bill McCoy, retired manager of the Patoka River NWR, at the opening of Columbia Mine Preserve in 2013
At the Conservation Law Center, Freitag will succeed W. William Weeks, who is leaving the position after thirteen years as its founder and director. Established in 2005, the Conservation Law Center represents local, regional, and national clients in a variety of matters to help them achieve their conservation goals. The Center provides legal counsel without charge to conservation organizations, works to improve conservation law and policy, and offers law students clinical experience in the practice of law and the profession’s public service tradition.
In his new role, Freitag will continue to serve the important work of Sycamore Land Trust as one of its advisors and attorneys, a role the Conservation Law Center has played for thirteen years. Sycamore Land Trust is proud of the work done and progress made with Christian, as wishes him well in his new position.
A job posting and description can be found at sycamorelandtrust.org/jobs.
Sycamore Land Trust, 2021. All rights reserved.
Monarch Endowment
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The Bay Museum
Norman Lees Remembrance Plaque
Bill Sparks – Cockleshell Heroes Memorial Plaque
WOMEN OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR
Jul1 by The Bay Museum
The film Charlotte Gray is set in Vichy France during the Second World War. The story is based on the exploits of women in Great Britain’s Special Operations Executive (SOE) who worked with the French resistance in Nazi occupied France. In July 1940 the SOE was set up as a top secret network of undercover agents whose tasks were to “set Europe ablaze”. All operatives were required to be bilingual and possess the ability to pass as a native citizen of the country in which they were deployed. The recruits were required to undergo tough commando training with the emphasis on Morse code, radio operating and proficiency with both guns and explosives. Upon completion of their training they were dropped behind enemy in Nazi occupied territory where they sabotaged supply lines, mobilised resistance and relayed intelligence back to SOE HQ. The work often involved the delivery of packages and women generally did not arouse any suspicion. However, if captured their fate would be terrible. In civilian clothes they were classified as insurgents and not combatants in uniform. They did not have the same protection as prisoners of war as the Geneva Convention did not make provision for women.
The character Charlotte Gray is a composite agent based on such SOE agents as the following women:-
Andrée Borrel who was born in a suburb of North West Paris in November 1919. She left school at 14 to help support her family after her father died. Just prior to the start of the Second World War Andrée travelled to Spain to help in the Spanish Civil War against the Nazi-backed fascists but the war was almost over. She returned to France and volunteered for the Red Cross. In October 1939 her mother was advised to move to a warmer area for her health so Andrée and her sister escorted their mother to Toulon on the Mediterranean. Whilst there Andrée enrolled in a crash course in nursing and eventually qualified her to work in various hospitals. Along with Lieutenant Maurice Dufour they started working for the underground resistance after the hospitals had closed down.
In late December 1941 the safe house she and Dufour had established as part of an escape network was compromised they evacuated to London where she tried to join Free French Forces. She was rejected by them but then was approached by SOE. Whilst officially an ensign in the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY) Andrée was trained by SOE to become a field agent. In September 1942 Andrée and Lisa de Baissac were the first female agents to be flown to occupied France. With her knowledge of Paris she was employed as a courier eventually becoming second-in-command of the Paris circuit. She helped set up circuits in Paris and northern France including many resistance activities until June 1943 when she was arrested by the Gestapo. She was interrogated but showed stubborn resistance and sent to Fresnes Prison before being transported to Germany with seven other SOE agents including Odette Hallows. On the 6th July 1944 Andrée with three other agent were transported to Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp in France. The women were told to undress for a medical inspection and have an injection for medical reasons. The injections were lethal and their bodies were taken to the crematorium ovens. Andrée was posthumously awarded the Crois de Guerre and Médalle de la Résistance by France in recognition of her heroic defence of her homeland. Britain also awarded her the King’s Commendation for Brave Conduct (KCBC).
Yvonne Cormeau MBE, born Beatrice Yvonne Biesterfield was born in Shanghai, China in December 1909. Her father was a Belgian consular official and her mother was Scottish. She was educated in Scotland and Belgium and in 1937 she married Charles Cormeau whilst living in London. Her husband was wounded in France in November 1940 after having enlisted in the The Rifle Brigade. He was sent back to the UK and was killed shortly after when their London home was bombed. A bath fell over Yvonne’s head which protected her and saved her life. In November 1941 she joined the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) in an effect to take her husband’s place in the Armed Forces, where she answered an appeal for linguists. She was recruited by SOE in February 1943 and trained as a wireless operator along with Noor Inayat Khan. She had volunteered to save France from the Nazis, leaving her two year daughter behind who was brought up in a convent by Ursuline nuns in Oxfordshire. Yvonne was parachuted north east of Bordeaux where she worked as a courier and wireless operator under the disguise of district nurse. She successfully made over 400 transmissions to London and assisted in various resistance sabotage activities. She had one narrow escape where she passed her wireless equipment off as an x-ray machine. She worked for thirteen months despite being betrayed and having “wanted” posters of her displayed locally. She evaded being arrested on a number occasions with some narrow escapes. A year after the war ended she was demobilised having attained the WAAF Rank of Flight Officer. After demob she worked as a translator with SOE at the Foreign Office. She became a leading figure with the SOE veterans and arranged their annual Bastille Day Dinners. After the war she was appointed MBE and decorated with the Légion d’Honneur, Croix de Guerre, Médaille de la Résistance and Palmes Academiques. She was reunited with her daughter after the war and they lived in London. Yvonne was one of the earliest members of the Special Forces Club. She married James (Jim) Edgar Farrow when she was in her 70s and they lived in Derbyshire. In 1989 she was subject of “This is Your Life”. Yvonne had been invited to a cast ‘photo-call’ of the wartime series “Wish Me Luck” and was presented with the famous Big Red Book by Michael Aspell and Jane Asher, one of the stars of the series. After her husband Jim died she spent her remaining years at Fleet in Hampshire where she died on Christmas Day 1997 aged 88.
Christine Granville OBE, as she was known, whose real name was Maria Krystyna Janina Skarbek, was born in Poland in May 1908. She legally adopted the name Christine Granville when she became a British National in December 1946. Christine was the daughter of an impoverished Count and Jewish mother who grew up on a country estate. She enjoyed the active sporting outdoor life of a tomboy until the 1920s when the family moved to Warsaw on account of financial problems. In April 1930 she married a young business man but they were found to be incompatible and the marriage ended in divorce. Christine met her second husband at a ski resort in Poland and after they married in 1938 they set off for Kenya in Africa. Her new husband was a globetrotter and diplomat who had been offered a post of consul in Kenya, but before they actually arrived the Second World War began. Upon arrival at Cape Town they boarded another ship and headed for England. She volunteered to help the British secret services by proposing an occupied-Polish/Hungarian escape route for Polish volunteers to fight in the west together with any other available information. She was then recruited into Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) and given instructions to pass on any information to SOE. In February she made her first trip over the border and by early 1941 she was ordered to leave for Belgrade. The resistance group she was in contact with had been infiltrated as the Hungarians came under more German control. The British provided her a new passport naming her as Christine Granville enabling her to escape. The Polish resistance distrusted her in the circumstances of her escape from the Gestapo. She was prevented from getting involved in any of SOE’s further major missions. She spent nearly three years taking part in second-rate missions until 1943 when she replaced a courier in Southern France for resistance leader, Francis Cammaerts. She was introduced into SOE with extensive training and in July 1944 she was dropped into Southern France and blended in with the local resistance groups. On the eve of the Allied invasion of Southern France in late 1944, Cammaerts was arrested alongside two other SOE agents. Having sequential numbered banknotes the local Gestapo officer ordered their execution in forty-eight hours. When Christine heard she presented herself as Cammaerts’ wife and the niece of General Montgomery. Informing him of the imminent invasion and the consequences of his actions, the Gestapo officer arranged for the three SOE agents to be released. A few weeks later she managed to convince 2,000 Polish men to dispose their uniforms and revolt against the Germans. She was successful as the Polish men were forcibly enlisted in the German Army. Shortly after Christine’s mission was over as the Allies had liberated France. She was recalled to London for de-briefing and again ordered back to Cairo where she stayed until the end of the war. She found she really wasn’t wanted anywhere after she arrived back in Britain. Poland was under Russian control and she couldn’t go there, while Britain was flooded with Polish ex- servicemen struggling to find work and who now were relegated to second-class citizens. Some SOE commanders managed to assist her in obtaining a British passport although they never employed her again. She had a series of mundane jobs until 1951 when she became entangled with Irishman Dennis Mulldowney. He became obsessed with her and on the 15th June 1951 he stabbed her to death after she told him of her plans to leave England for good. He waited by her body until the police arrived and admitted murdering her. He was tried and executed in 1952. For her wartime work in conjunction with the British Authorities in May 1947 Christine was made on Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). She was also awarded the George Medal for her bravery in the field. The French awarded her the Croix de Guerre for her contribution in the Liberation of France. Her medals and awards counted for nothing when she was of no further use to Britain.
Odette Hallows (maiden name Brailly) was born in the French town of Amien in April 1912, her father was killed during the Great War. She was convent educated then met Englishman Roy Sansom and they married in 1931. They moved to Britain and had three daughters. At the beginning of the Second World War Sansom joined the army and Odette with the children moved to Somerset for their safety. When Germany occupied France in 1940 she made contact with the Free French forces based in London and consequently was recruited into SOE. When she was recruited into SOE she left her daughters in a convent school. With orders to help establish a new network in Burgundy she was sent by boat to France in October 1941. She worked as a radio operator alongside Peter Churchill the SOE’s organiser in that district. Radio operation was highly dangerous with the Gestapo constantly monitoring the airwaves. They were infiltrated by German Intelligence and Odette and Churchill were arrested on the 16th April 1943. They convinced the Gestapo they were husband and wife and were related to Winston Churchill which ensured they were not executed. Odette was sent to Fresnes Prison in Paris and was tortured by the Gestapo but did not divulge any information. Along with seven other SOE agents (including Andrée Borrel) Odette was transported to Nazi Germany on the 13th May 1944. She was eventually sent to Ravensbruck Concentration Camp until the end of the war. In 1946 she was awarded the George Cross for bravery and appointed MBE, she was also appointed the Chavalier de la Légion d’Honneur for her work with the French resistance. In 1947 she married Churchill after her marriage to Roy Sansom was dissolved. Churchill and Odette divorced in 1956 and she married Geoffrey Hallows, a former SOE officer. Odette died on the 13th March 1995 at Walton-on-Thames and was outlived by her third husband. Her wartime experience was the subject of the 1950 film “Odette”, in which the title role was played by Anna Neagle with Trevor Howard as Churchill.
Noor Inayat Khan was also known as Nora Baker and was born in Moscow on the 1st January 1914 to an Indian father and an American mother. Her father was a musician living in London and from a noble Indian Muslim family who met his wife during his travels in the United States. Just before the outbreak of the Great War the family left Russia for London. In 1920 they moved to France where she studied at the Sorbonne and began a writing career. When France was overrun by German troops at the beginning of the Second World War the family fled to Bordeaux and on to England thence Cornwall on the 22nd June 1940. In November 1940 she joined the WAAF as a wireless operator before being recruited into SOE. She was the first woman to be sent overseas purely as a wireless operator as all women agents before had been sent as couriers. In June 1943 she was flown to France band made her way to Paris. Sending messages back to Britain she was betrayed, arrested and interrogated by the Gestapo in October 1943. She did not give away any information. In November 1943 she escaped but was soon recaptured within the vicinity of Gestapo Headquarters. She was taken to Germany ‘for safe custody’ and kept in solitary confinement for ten months shackled at hands and feet. She was transferred to Dachau Concentration Camp and at dawn with three other agents on the 13th September 1944 she was executed. Noor Inayat Khan was posthumously awarded the George Cross in 1949 and a French Croix de Guerre avec étoile de vermeil (with Silver Star).
Eileen Nearne was born in 1921 in London to an English father and a Spanish mother and was the youngest of four children. Two years later the family moved to France, and Eileen became fluent in English and French. After the German invasion in 1940 Eileen and her sister Jacqueline made their way to London while the rest of the family remained in France. Upon her arrival in England she was recruited by the SOE and after training, was flown to France in March 1944 working as a wireless operator. Separately Jacqueline was also recruited by the SOE. The first message Eileen transmitted identified the location near Paris where 2000 London-bound V1 Rockets were hidden. She had an acknowledgement that the message was received by the BBC reply “Happy to know the duck had a good trip.” In July 1944 her transmitter was discovered. She survived the discovery, capture and torture by the Gestapo, escaping three times from prison camps to continue her work. By the time the war was over she had sent more than 100 coded messages across the channel. Eileen faded into virtual anonymity after the war, despite having been made an MBE, being presented with the French Croix de Guerre and winning citations for gallantry. She suffered a breakdown because of wartime experiences. After the war Eileen lived with her sister Jacqueline in London and moved to Torquay after her sister died in 1982. At the age of 89, having quietly living alone, she died of heart attack in September 2010 and at her funeral a Eulogy was read with the Royal Marines sounding the Last Post over her Union Flag draped casket.
“The love that I have, is all that I have, and the love that I have is yours” is a simple poem written by Leo Marks. The poem was given to Violette Szarbo as cipher for encoding messages. Marks was a cryptologist who wrote poems for each SOE agent in order to identify them. Violette Szarbo (maiden name Bushell) was born in Paris in June 1921 to an English father and French mother. In early 1940, whilst the family were living in England, she joined the Women’s Land Army but returned to London to work in an armament factory. She met Étienne Szarbo, an officer in the French Foreign Legion. After a whirlwind 42 day romance they married in August 1940. She was nineteen and he was thirty one. After a week’s honeymoon he returned to fight against the Vichy French. In September 1941 she enlisted in the Auxiliary Territorial Services (ATS) but soon realised she was pregnant. Étienne died of wounds received at the Second Battle of El Alemein and never saw his daughter. Violette accepted an offer to become an agent in the SOE and saw this as a way of fighting the enemy who killed her husband. On her second mission into occupied France, Violette was captured, interrogated, tortured and deported to a concentration camp in Germany and executed. Her five year old daughter Tania, was brought up by her grandmother and in December 1941 Tania received the George Cross from King George VI on behalf of her late mother. The film “Carve Her Name with Pride” was a 1958 British war drama where Violette Szarbo was played by Virginia McKenna.
The Gestapo’s most-wanted person was code-named “The White Mouse” because she had the ability to avoid capture, Nancy Wake was the Allies most decorated servicewoman in the Second World War. Nancy was born in Wellington, New Zealand on the 30th Aug 1912 and was the youngest of six children, and she appears to retain her maiden name all her life. In 1914 the family moved to Australia but shortly after her father returned to New Zealand leaving her mother to bring up the children. Using money she inherited from an aunt, she ran away from home at 16 years of age working as a nurse before journeying to New York and finally London where she found employment as a journalist. In 1937 Nancy met Henri Fiocca whom she married in 1939. They were living in Marseille when Germany invaded France. Before the fall of France she worked as an ambulance driver and after the fall she became a courier for the French resistance and the escape network. The Gestapo became aware of her and after the network was betrayed she decided to leave France. Her husband stayed behind but was captured and executed by the Germans but he did not betray her. She was unaware of his death until the war ended. Nancy made her way across the Pyrenees into Spain and returned to Britain where she joined SOE. She was parachuted into the Auvergne region of France in April 1944 where she remained until the Liberation of France. She became the liaison contact between London and the local maquis group which performed many successful attacks on the German forces in the area. With her coiffured hair and make-up she was a glamourous and feminine woman whose looks concealed her deadly ability. During one raid she killed an S.S. guard with her bare hands to prevent him raising the alarm. When her wireless operator had been forced to destroy vital codes during a Gestapo raid she cycled over 300 km (190 miles) through several German checkpoints to get to another group’s wireless operator to inform London of the situation. The total return journey of 380 miles took her 72 hours to complete. After the war Britain awarded her the George Medal, the U.S. gave her the Medal of Freedom and France honoured her with the Médaille de la Résistance, the Légion d’Honneur and the Croix de Guerre three times. Upon returning to Australia after the war she stood as a Liberal candidate in the 1949 election campaign and again in the 1951 federal election but was defeated in both. She moved back to England after the 1951 elections. In 1957 she married John Forward, a former RAF fighter pilot and they relocated to Australia. She had an uneasy relationship with her childhood country which led her to refuse any decorations from the Australian government. However, she did relent in February 2004 and was made a Companion of the Order of Australia. Her husband died in 1997 and Nancy settled for the final time in London and at the age of 98 on the 7th August 2011 she died of a chest infection at a hospital in Kingston. It was in 1999 that Nancy’s story inspired Sebastion Faulks to write the novel Charlotte Grey.
Pearl Witherington was a British subject born in Paris to British expatriate parents in June 1914. When Germany invaded France in May 1940 she was employed at the British Embassy in Paris. With her mother and three sisters she escaped occupied France eventually arriving in London in December 1940. She found work with the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) for the Air Ministry. In June 1943 she joined SOE determined to fight against the German occupation of France. On completion of training she was parachuted into France in September 1943 and joined up with Maurice Southgate, the leader of the SOE Station Network and working as his courier. When Southgate was arrested in May 1944 by the Gestapo Pearl became the leader of the new SOE Wrestler Network. She reorganised the network and fielded over 1,500 members of the Maquis (resistance). During the D-Day landings of June1944 Pearl’s network played an important role fighting the German Army, and were so effective that the Germans offered one million francs for the capture of Pearl. The Germans ordered 2,000 men to attack her small force and after a fourteen hour battle the Germans lost 86 men while the maquis lost 24 out of a possible 40 men. Pearl fled to a cornfield and waited until the Germans had vacated the area before moving away. She regrouped and set-up and launched large-scale guerrilla attacks among the German columns travelling through her operations area. As well as disrupting the marching columns she damaged key railway lines connecting Southern France to the Normandy battlefield. In mid-September 1944 Pearl’s Wrestler network helped to force the 18,000 German troops, who were still in her region, to surrender to the Americans. Having completed her mission at the end of the war she returned to London where she married her fiancée, Henri Cornioley in October 1945 and they had a daughter. France recognised her bravery and awarded her the Légion d’Honneur, the Croix de Guerre and the Médaille de la résistance. After much discussion Britain offered her a civil MBE, which she refused. Her argument being there was nothing civil about her role as a guerrilla leader. On appeal she was awarded the military MBE. The family moved back to Paris and she began a long career in the World Bank. In 2004 her MBE was upgraded to a CBE and two years later the RAF finally awarded her with her most prized possession, her Parachute Wings. As one of only a few women to lead the maquis during the war, Pearl died in February 2008.
This entry was posted in July 1940.
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WOMEN IN CIVILIAN LIFE DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR →
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Air Raid Damage Reports Brentwood Division Essex Fire Service December 1940 December 31, 2020
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THE SECOND WORLD WAR October 1940 October 1, 2020
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The Bicultural Podcast
"What binds us together is that human connection" | Interview with Nicky Davies
November 23, 2020 Janina Neumann, Nicky Davies Season 1 Episode 14
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Welcome to The Bicultural Podcast
Working in the Middle East
Leadership across cultures
Insights into the Greek culture
Thank you for listening
Nov 23, 2020 Season 1 Episode 14
Janina Neumann, Nicky Davies
In the 14th episode of season 1, Janina Neumann interviews Nicky Davies, founder of Nicky J. Davies and founder of the Developing Inspired Leaders podcast.
This episode will give insight into
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www.thebiculturalpodcast.com
Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers
Janina Neumann (00:00):
Welcome to the Bicultural Podcast. The Bicultural Podcast celebrates bicultural individuals and gives insight into cultural differences to help you improve business relationships. The podcast is presented by myself, Janina Neumann, a bilingual creative, social entrepreneur, and business owner.
Welcome to the Bicultural Podcast. Today I'm delighted to be joined by Nicky Davis, founder of Nicky J. Davies and founder of the Developing Inspired Leaders podcast. Hi, Nicky, how are you?
Nicky Davies (00:36):
I'm very well, thank you, Janina. How are you?
I'm very well, thank you. I'm really excited to have you on my podcast today.
Well, I'm really excited to be here as well because a lot of my work has actually taken me to other countries and this is something I'd love to have a conversation with you around.
Yeah, I'm really excited about it. So tell us a bit about yourself.
So I, as you can probably tell by my accent, I'm originally from the UK. I've traveled and lived in many different countries and my husband's actually American. So we've lived in America. We've lived in Europe. I brought him over to the Middle East, so we had a very different experience there. And then we've spent about half our year on a sailboat in the Mediterranean kind of floating around various different countries, but spending a lot of time in Greece.
Oh, wow. What a beautiful way to live.
Yeah. Yeah. It's good for me.
Oh, that's fantastic. So tell us a little bit more about your business.
So my business, I have two aspects to my business. I own a training and coaching company called WAVA Global, and we deliver leadership development programs. And I've been doing that since 2004, and originally started working with organisations in the UK, but very quickly was asked to work with organisations in the Middle East. And that really opened my eyes to understanding different cultural experiences and understanding what it truly means to be a very diverse workplace.
I mean diverse in terms of some of those companies have got up to about 40 different nationalities working under one roof.
Yeah. So in terms of scope for miscommunication and misunderstanding is absolutely huge and I love the challenge of working in those sorts of environments where there's very diverse cultural and communication issues because it makes it a real challenge to be a leader in those situations.
Yes, I can imagine. So tell us a little bit more about the types of leaders that you've come across.
So leaders come in all shapes and size, and you're a leader, and I'm a leader. You know, we have our own businesses and kind of work with other organisations. So everybody has the potential to be a leader, and is a leader, in some aspect of their life, not everybody is a leader in terms of their career. You know, for some people, it might be being a leader in terms of their family and you know, making sure that their children are educated, are healthy, and grow up with the right kind of mental attitude.
So leadership, you know, it's all walks of life. But in the organisations that I work with, which predominantly are in the Middle East and Europe and North Africa, what you tend to find is there's a lot of movement in terms of employees. So you end up with very diverse workforces. So the leaders in those situations have got to have a very good understanding of how to communicate effectively with people from different nationalities in order to make sure that they're communicating what they want to see happen strategically within the organisation and what the direction and the vision is.
And sometimes that can be a real challenge because I learned very quickly when I was working in the Middle East, I learned very quickly about the cultural norms and societal values that I've grown up with in the UK because often it's not until you have an experience in a different country to where you've grown up that you realise what you've taken for granted is actually just the way that you've been brought up and you know, societal norms. And I'm sure you've experienced that with your story as well.
Yeah, I can definitely relate to that and what we feel so passionate about and how we see the world really and the situation is so important and just being aware of that perception and you know, understanding that not everyone sees it the way you do. And also in that instance, you might not be right. There are different ways of doing that.
Absolutely. And just to give you a small example, there are big differences in terms of how you start meetings and in terms of hospitality. So I'm going to use some generalisations and generalisations are useful just to understand, you know, at a high level what it looks like, but obviously, there are big differences within this as well. So kind of going with stereotypes, just for simplicity.
So in the Middle East, hospitality is a really big thing. So if you're going to a meeting, it would actually be rude to directly go into the substance of the meeting itself, the agenda, if you like of the meeting. Now, if you take that into an American establishment or organisation, they're expecting you to be direct and go with the agenda and start with the agenda straight from the get go.
So when working with organisations where there's a big mix of nationalities, trying to find the middle ground is really important, or at least being clear that this isn't about insulting people. This is how I've been brought up to look at things and do things and to lead meetings. I hope I'm not treading on people's toes.
The classic for the British is... And I really notice this when I go back to the UK. I'm not in the UK now, I'm in Greece right now. When I go back to the UK, the number of times that people apologise is incredible. It really stands out to me now because I've lived and worked in so many different countries. I notice it more. Whereas if I had stayed in the UK, I probably wouldn't have seen that or noticed that in the same way, because it would just be an everyday feature. It would just be part of how we do things, part of how we get things done. But you really notice the difference when you've been outside of it. And you've experienced something different, don't you?
Yeah, you do. I mean, when I go back to Germany, it's always interesting about how people behave for example in the supermarket. Things that I value, for example queuing, and someone barges into you, perhaps less now in this crisis, but they don't say sorry, and that infuriates me. But it comes back to what you think are manners you know. Not everyone sees it in that way, although I've said before on this podcast as well, I never understand why Germans don't queue, because if we are all about efficiency, surely queuing would be the most efficient way to do things.
That's an interesting thought. Yeah. Yeah.
That's really interesting to hear about that, about how you go back to the UK and you have a different understanding of how other people are influenced by their environments. And I can also imagine that, you know, having worked with different nationalities that are also kind of interesting things that you learn about, for example, communication and being perhaps more indirect. So what would you talk about at the beginning of the meeting typically?
Well, it depends who the meeting is with. And for me, I let them lead and if they're not going to lead, because for some people, nevermind what their nationality is, for some people they're waiting for you to lead, particularly if you've set up the meeting. So it's a bit like a dance, that's kind of how I look at it.
When you're dancing, you're not quite sure what's going to come up next. So you have to be prepared to dance in the moment and be quite flexible. And it takes looking at the non-verbal cues.
So it's not so much what people are saying, it's picking up things that from observing, what's not being said. It may be a slight hesitation, and if I see a slight hesitation, I often think, "Okay, what did I just do or say?" Because that's obviously that wasn't the right thing to do or say.
And also it's about reading up and understanding different cultures as well and different mannerisms, like you were saying. So for example, in the Middle East, if you are offered a drink because hospitality is so important, if you're offered a drink or something to eat, then I would always accept it. I don't think this is so true nowadays because we're such a hodgepodge of different cultures, but some people might get really offended if I said, "No", turn down a drink, or if they were offering me something to eat. If I turn that down, it's very much a non-acceptance.
I've welcomed you into my office or my home. I'm putting on this food, this drink for you, and I expect you to partake in it. It gives me a great sense of fulfillment knowing that you are partaking in what I have provided for you. That's really important to some people in those cultures. So I very much look for those non-verbal cues, very aware of what's going on in the meeting and just paying attention to what's said, but also what's left unsaid.
Yeah, I think that's really important also coming back to you know, perhaps having a hot drink. It makes everyone feel more at ease because it's just the nature of drinking a warm drink. I think that's really important.
And the characteristic, the stereotype of somebody whose English is, "Have a cup of tea", "Something's happened, have a cup of tea". So even in the UK, the British culture, there is that sense of a hot drink is associated with calming people down a lot of the time actually, isn't it?
Yes, and also just reflecting on some of the conversations I've heard you know, how then people think about how to make things more efficient and perhaps cut out the drink, but then you have these video calls now and you think, "I'd actually like it if I had to make a drink or have a pre-meeting conversation with someone", because it seems so tense right now, and I think everyone wants to talk and be warmed up to the meeting now.
Yeah, I think that's very true. And one of the things that I've noticed is that because we're all on Zoom at the moment or Microsoft Teams, there's a lot of managers who are paying much more attention to listening, and those non-verbal cues as well. So they're actually picking up far more information now than they previously would have done if they were in the office having a team meeting. And I think that's fascinating. It's actually improved the level of listening and the attention that managers are paying to their team members, which must be a good thing.
Yes, definitely because you have that focused listening like only one person should speak in a video call and there are all kinds of mannerisms associated with that. Just from your experience of working in the Middle East, have you found that some leaders have a natural style which they then have to adapt according to a certain situation?
Yeah, there is actually something called 'Situational leadership', and that's being very aware of the context, but also the person that you're dealing with. We all like to be treated as individuals. We all have different personalities, and we also have different values as well. And it's really understanding what our values are. And I don't mean those social kinds that we talk about values you know, like honesty, integrity. Everybody is actually integral to their values.
I mean values, the things that are truly important to somebody. And it might be for example, personal development and growth is really important to me, as well as my business and being able to help people around leadership development, but also around personal growth too. So those two values are really important to me. So anything that relates to personal growth or around my business and leadership development, I'm going to naturally pay attention to. It's kind of on my radar because I have a great interest in it.
So if there's something that you want me to do, the best way to get me to do it to influence my behaviour, to get me to do something that you want me to do if you're my manager or my leader, is to actually talk about it in those terms, talk about how it relates to personal growth, leadership development or my business.
If you talked about something that I wasn't interested in at all... In our business, we have ILM qualifications which means that we have assignments that need to be marked. And that is the one job I really do not enjoy. There's lots of things in my business I love, but there's one thing I do not enjoy at all, and so I delegate that out. But if I ended up in an organisation where a leader or a manager was asking me to do that task, I would procrastinate like mad because I just don't enjoy it.
So if you're a manager or a leader, and very often managers are doing both, management and leadership, then what you want to do is really understand what's important to the individual in front of you. What are their values? What's important to them? And then if you communicate, understanding those values and you communicate what it is that you want them to do in terms of how it helps them with those values, achieving those aspirations that they have around their values, then they're going to be inspired to go and take that action. You don't need to motivate them. So leadership for me is about really understanding people, understanding the person that's in front of you.
And if you're in a situation where you're actually leading a team and you're looking to inspire a team, and there's a range of different values that people have within that team, if you understand what they are, and you're communicating from a place of meaning, why we're doing this, why it's important, but relating that to their particular values, what's important to them, you're going to have a really high performing team, a really inspired team. And a team that you won't have to motivate because actually when you have to motivate, you can't really motivate somebody. You can help set up the conditions so that somebody feels inspired, and inspired is really that internal motivation that we all have. We just get up and do things that we're interested in because they fuel us in some way. But the moment you have to motivate somebody to do something, then you've got a problem as a leader.
So I guess what I'm saying is, leadership yet, there's a natural style. You have your own natural style, you have your own personality, which comes through in your leadership style, but it's being authentic. It's being true to who you are and also understanding the person that's in front of you and really paying attention to what's important to them and communicating from that place.
That's really powerful. And I'm just thinking about how you understand that person's value. I can imagine that a lot comes down to you know, building that relationship initially. Do you have any examples of where you've had that conversation with someone where you've actually had to adapt the way you talk to them, perhaps because of their style of communicating?
Not so much about their style of communicating. Again, it comes down to values. So their values may be very different to mine. So a lot of the time I'm working with, let's talk about women leaders, for example, because both you and I are women leaders in our businesses. So very often women leaders have a role, have many, many different roles. And one of those is to do with the family and looking after the kids and making sure that their kids are educated, they're healthy. You know, that onus for the childcare in the family often falls on squarely on the shoulders of a woman, even if she's in a leadership role within an organisation.
And so very often high up in the values for that particular person is children and family. And so very often what I will be talking about, particularly when I'm coaching them as an executive coach talking to and coaching a female leader, will often have conversations around what it means to place a high value on children and their family, and still be working full time in a very pressured environment and operating as a leader in that environment, and actually thinking about what that means for other people in the organisation that place a high value on family too.
So their conversation is going to be very different to somebody whose values are much more on the career or the profession that they're working in, and family for them may be much, much lower than in the hierarchy of values for them. So it's a very different conversation. So I'm always looking for, and you can very quickly pick up somebody's values in conversation. And like you say, it's about developing a relationship so that you really get to understand what's important to that person.
So they give you a lot of information in a very short period of time in a conversation. So it's quite easy to pick up as long as you are listening for it. You're listening out to what's really important to that person. And a lot of the times when people are listening to each other in conversation, it's much more about them thinking about what they're going to say next, rather than paying attention to what the person's actually saying in the moment.
It's really true. I'm just also thinking if for them family is one of their biggest values, I can also imagine that that really impacts them for example, if they have a job in the Middle East, you know, their whole family would have probably moved with them as well.
Yes, and then they haven't got their extended family around them to help out. And I've seen women in particular really struggle with that because there's a lot of guilt that goes with uprooting the family and the guilt of not having their parents, so the children's grandparents, around to help out and keep those relationships going within the extended family. Yeah.
That's really true. And also to help them advance in their own personal growth, but also for them to feel happy about what they're doing, and perhaps to also see other ways that they're supporting their family, for example, by having a well-paid job, for example, that's also looking after your family in that respect.
Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And I see that a lot with men in particular. Family is important to them obviously, but in a different way. So for a lot of men, it will be about making sure that they're providing for their family as well as women, particularly single parents. Yeah. So the value is slightly different. Even though they talk about their family, it's about providing just like you say, it's about providing for their family in a very different way.
Yeah, certainly. I'm just thinking as well, if a new person came to the organisation and just had moved them to the Middle East, have you had any conversations, for example, things that they found that are different or any cultural barriers that they've had to overcome or perhaps switch their perspective on things?
Oh gosh, there's so much, there's so many. And you will have found this too with moving around. So we have an expectation that if you apply for visas, driving licenses, things like that, that there's a very straightforward process because so many people have done this over the years, but often what I find is the processes and administration within the Middle Eastern countries is not quite as easy or as fluent. In fact, it's getting better because one of the benefits of Covid-19 has been digitalisation of lots of processes.
So, whereas before people would have to go with five different pieces of paper from one department, drive across the city to another department with the same five pieces of paper, only to find out that they needed a sixth piece of paper that they weren't told about, the previous department have to go back, pick it up, go back to the original department and take the six pieces to the next department.
Those sorts of processes have actually changed now with digitalisation because of Covid-19. So it's actually fast-tracked improvements into processes like that, that are very confusing if you're an expat in a different country, and maybe you don't speak the language.
Yes, certainly.
So that's one of the things that a lot of people struggle with is just knowing, "How do I get things done?" Very simple things that we take for granted in our home countries because we know it, it's taken care of a lot of the times for us, but suddenly we have to find out how to do it in a different way, in a new country, a new environment and maybe like I say, in a language that we don't speak.
So there's that, but there's other more subtle things like understanding what's culturally appropriate to wear, what's not culturally appropriate to wear, and nuances around behaviours as well. So there are some big differences that you need to be aware of and you can read them up online, but it's nothing quite the same as actually arriving there and then realising the things that you need to take into account and the changes that you need to make in terms of your own behaviours in order to fit in.
Yeah, certainly, and I'm just reflecting on when we see other people, for example, come to the UK or come to Greece, who are new to that environment to also perhaps be more understanding and have more empathy with them because things are just as new as if you went to their home country and had to adapt.
Yes, and I'm forever apologising about my Greek because my Greek is terrible. And so what happens a lot of the time is people will speak to me in English. It's like a double whammy because my Greek is not very good, so they revert to English. And then what happens is I then speak in English. So my practicing of the Greek language, it doesn't happen that often, so it impacts on how well I actually speak it. And so it goes on. Yeah.
But it's really nice to hear how accommodating they are.
Oh, gosh, yeah. And I think that's because there's a long-standing great relationship, isn't there? Between the British and the Greeks. And part of it is about tourism.
And really I think the Greeks are really hospitable, very warm, very friendly. It's been a great place to live part of the year for the past, gosh, must be almost 10 years now.
Oh, wow. Did you notice any differences that really striked you when you first moved to Greece?
Not really. The funny thing is wherever I go around the world, we are all humans, you know? And that's what binds us together is that human connection. And I think you can do that wherever you are in the world. It doesn't matter if you don't speak the language, you find a way to communicate. I've found myself in many different countries from Central America, right the way across to China where I've been in a situation where I don't speak the language, and they don't speak English or another language that I know, what we've done is we've managed to do kind of sign language, our own basic version of sign language, and communicate with each other. And I'm sure you found that too. We are essentially human beings, and that's how we connect with each other is really from that core sense of being human.
Yeah, and you know, sometimes that sounds so simple...
...but when you reflect on your experiences, it does come true. And I'm just thinking, you know, coming back to values, I've been in situations where someone felt too strongly about something and I got cross because I was thinking, "Why is it a big deal for you?", and then I realised even though I had the same value that they did, they just had it amplified.
And then I was thinking, "Oh, they're actually looking after me", rather than just chasing me. So I think coming back to the values, it's so important as well to recognise that in other people.
Yeah, and language is an interesting thing, isn't it? So my husband's American and I'm British, and we think we have the same language, but actually, there are subtle differences, and I'll give you an example. So early on in our relationship, we were down with my parents around Christmas time and my husband said, "Oh, this meal is quite good". Now, in British language, if you said quite good, it means it's quite good. It's not good, but it's not bad. It's somewhere in the middle. It's how I would interpret that.
And I could see my mum's face just kind of drop when she heard Floyd say, "This is quite good." But I could tell by his face, again, those non-verbal cues that actually, he was really enjoying it and excited, and talking with passion about this. So I said, "So Floyd, if you used a different word to 'quite', what would you say?" And he would say, "Very good". So we understood then that when he says "Quite good", he actually means "Very good, excellent". It's those subtle things that often start argument and it's a misunderstanding. It really is.
I think that's why you have to look at people's body language and the non-verbal cues that go with what people are saying to really understand what the intention is and what it is that they're saying, even if you're finding it difficult to understand what it is in its totality. It's those non-verbal cues and really paying attention that makes the difference.
Yeah, it really makes a difference, and just thinking about the German language. A lot of upgraders or downgraders are used, so is either "Very", or "Not at all", which can also be offensive when you're talking to someone who's British, you know, perhaps they didn't want to know it that directly. But I just think it's really interesting also to learn parts of the other language so you understand kind of the structure of the language and what's normal way of communicating. And especially like Middle Eastern languages, you can't just translate, it's more about the feeling that you give and perhaps some phrases tell a short story that you can never say in English.
Oh, absolutely. And I love Arabic and again, I know a little bit of Arabic, but really not enough to communicate and have much of a conversation. But I love what happens when they do the English translations on Google and suddenly you get a phrase that doesn't make any sense at all. And you're right, the language, it's very much about stories and when somebody is talking to me, I'm translating the Arabic into the English, it loses a little bit of the meaning. So I love them to tell me if they can, just tell me the structure and the story, you know, what the moral of the story is, basically is what they're communicating to me. But I love the story behind it. Yeah.
Yes, but then again, the moral of the story comes back to values.
Sometimes really difficult to understand what the meaning is behind it, you know?
Yes. Yes. And I think it goes back to that thing about intention and really paying attention to the non-verbal cues as much as anything. Yeah.
Yeah, definitely. And just getting to know more people.
You pick up some cues from that as well. Not being afraid to also do things wrong because also people, they understand that you probably don't understand the situation. So just being flexible like you mentioned before, obviously comes with vulnerability and I think some people don't want to be vulnerable and that's what everything hinges on.
Yeah. I think if you've grown up with a really strong sense that you've got to get things right, you can't make mistakes because that's a failure. Then yeah, it's really hard to be in that kind of environment because you are going to make mistakes.
Exactly. Nicky, it's been fantastic talking to you. And let us find out a bit more about your podcast.
Yeah, so my podcast is really about developing inspired leaders. It's recognising that we have a great intuition that guides us as to what's the right thing to say in situations, what's the right thing to do, and very often what we do is we cover that up and we go with the other voice. Our intuition is the quiet voice that really knows best. It's like an inner wisdom. And some people would say, it's spirit, it's soul, it's God, whatever label you want to put on it, but it really is the best guide in any situation. And so my podcast is very much about learning to live from that place and lead from that place. And what that means, whether you're an entrepreneur or a leader in a corporation, or even a stay-at-home mum, what does that mean for your life and how you go about your life? And how can you encourage others to do the same thing too?
Yeah, that's really powerful. And I loved listening to your podcast. I always get so much from it.
Thank you. I love listening to yours too.
Well, that's great to hear. Yes, and tell us a little bit more about how people can connect or work with you.
Oh, thank you. So find the 'Developing Inspired Leaders' podcast, start listening to that. You can go to my personal website, which is NickyJDavies.com. And if it helps to have a conversation, more than happy to do that. It costs nothing to have a conversation. I'm just here to help.
Thank you. All right, it's been brilliant, Nicky. Thank you so much for your time today and sharing all your knowledge of different cultures. I really enjoyed it.
Me too. Thank you.
So I hope you've enjoyed this episode. Please don't forget to subscribe to the Bicultural Podcast. Thank you for listening and be inspired.
All content © 2021 The Bicultural Podcast | Janina Neumann Design.
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Curricular Resources > 1987 Volume III > Unit 7 (87.03.07) > Section Unit Guide
Writing About American Culture
Student’s Annotated Bibliography
Teacher’s Annotated Bibliography
The Roots of the Afro-American Culture—The Artistic Approach
Carolyn C. Smith
Tools for this guide:
Guide Entry to 87.03.07
The long history of Africa has, for the most part, been forgotten by the rest of the world. However, we must be reminded that this vast continent is the home of great civilizations and cultures. The many tribes and kingdoms still remain important in the history of those kingdoms and their influences on today’s cultures.
Blacks, in the United States and Other countries in the Americas, are called Afro-Americans. Their roots are found in Africa. The focal point of this unit will show how white Europeans forced or tried to force their values on Blacks. Due to the fact that Blacks were taken from their native land at an early age, the African continent grew weaker and eventually a large part of the continent fell under foreign control. In addition to this, Blacks lost contact with their immediate family causing an astronomical and sad gap in their families.
(Recommended for Social Studies classes, grade 6)
History of Art Africa Afro-Americans Art African
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Online Takeout Giant Delivery Hero Snaps Up $88M Series E, Insight Venture Partners Joins As Lead Investor
Chalk up another play for scale in the world of online takeout services: Delivery Hero, the German-based startup with operations across Europe, Asia, Africa and South America, is today announcing a $88 million round of investment. The Series E funding, led by new investor Insight Venture Partners, will take the total funding for Delivery Hero close to $200 million raised since first opening for business in 2010.
Delivery Hero now offers delivery for 55,000 restaurants across 14 countries (Germany, Sweden, UK, Korea, China and India being the biggest markets), and it says that has delivered food to some 6 million consumers, generating over $500 million in annual sales for its restaurant partners.
Numbers like these are a mark of how, as the online delivery business continues to mature, the big players continue to get bigger.
Delivery Hero’s funding comes on the heels of U.S. players GrubHub and Seamless merging; while European rival Just-Eat has raised just shy of $130 million. German incubator Rocket Internet has also been busy growing its own multinational entry into the field, Food Panda.
“Long-term there will only be a couple of players,” Delivery Hero co-founder and CEO Niklas Ostberg tells me. “Small local players will have difficulties over time.” That points to Delivery Hero possibly being one of those doing the consolidating, although Ostberg also puts a strong emphasis on organic growth because of overvaluation in the market today:
“[There is] likely [more consolidation to come] but for us [it’s] not the priority at this point,” he says. “Valuations will have to go down. It’s still much cheaper for us to grow organically.”
And for that organic growth, Ostberg points out that Delivery Hero — which had just raised $30 million as recently as last July — has access to much more capital if need be.
“We had more than a handful of good VCs pitching for the investment. We looked for someone with marketplace experience, global network and who shares our vision,” Ostberg told me. “Insight fits perfectly into this description, besides having enough capital to double the investment if competition heats up further.”
For its part, Insight Venture Partners — which has invested in a number of e-commerce businesses like Shopify, Privalia, Living Social and more — believes that scale will be what gives Delivery Hero the edge in its category. “We believe the company has the capability to win globally, providing online and mobile food ordering in all major markets worldwide,” notes Jeff Lieberman, MD at Insight Venture Partners.
Although e-commerce businesses that are built on economies of scale often take a while to reach profitability (just look at Amazon as one example), Delivery Hero actually tipped into the black last year around the time of its third anniversary. However, now Ostberg says that it’s going go back into the red because of “big investments.” (Pointing to acquisitions.)
“We will make some big investments and therefore go temporarily into loss,” he says. “The company is only 2.5 years old and it’s too early for us to aim for large profits.” Nor is it time yet to think about IPOs, despite the many rounds of funding to date.
“Our long term plans are to build an amazing service for our restaurant partners and users. In order to do so we might IPO, but it will not happen in 2014. We have enough capital for now,” he says.
Its net revenue run rate is currently $80 million, he tells me, “no longer that far behind” its main competitor, Just-Eat, although some 10 years younger.
Although Delivery Hero has established an operation in Mexico, for now there are no plans to go north of the border. “For now, our main focus will be to do what it takes to win the markets we are active in,” he tells me.
For now, that activity has seen Delivery Hero develop a number of strong markets, with no individual market larger than 25% of its business. “This means we can afford to take on a battle in any individual market. This is not the case for any of our competitors,” he says. (And for the record, Italian is currently the most popular food group, by which I assume he means pizza rather than risotto.)
While companies like Amazon and eBay and even Uber are increasingly leveraging their logistics muscles to move into real-time delivery, often specifically for food, Ostberg rules them out for now as would-be competitors. “I believe delivery of hot food has certain characteristics that makes it very difficult for Amazon or Uber to cover,” he says. “In particular difficult as the main part of our business is coming from small cities.”
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What to expect for the Calgary Flames’ restricted free agents
Posted on October 8, 2020 October 8, 2020 by Khalid Keshavjee in Calgary Flames
The Calgary Flames chose to extend qualifying offers to four restricted free agents: Forwards Andrew Mangiapane and Glenn Gawdin, defenceman Oliver Kylington, and goalie Tyler Parsons. Not qualified by the Flames were Mark Jankowski, Andrew Nielsen, and Nick Schneider.
Teams had until today to qualify players, to keep the right to sign those players. A qualifying offer is tendered that is either 100%, 105% or 110% of the player’s final year salary, depending on the amount. Keep in mind that this is the actual salary amount of the final year, not the AAV.
A qualifying offer is a one year one-way deal. If a player is qualified, teams have the right to match any offer sheet a player signs, or can receive draft pick compensation if they do not. Players who receive a qualifying offer can either accept the one year deal or reject it. If they have arbitration rights, they can elect for salary arbitration. If they do not, they remain RFAs and can negotiate with the team on a new deal.
If a player does not receive a qualifying offer, they become an unrestricted free agent (UFA) and can sign with any team they wish. Teams may not qualify a player for a number of reasons. Teams are only allowed to carry 50 NHL contracts, so they have to be judicious about who they use their roster spots on. Furthermore, if a player’s qualifying offer is going to be greater than what the market demands of them, they may opt not to qualify. In other cases, teams are unwilling to go to arbitration, as they fear that number may be much larger than they want to pay, and instead opt to lose that player to unrestricted free agency.
What do these qualifying offers or lack thereof mean for the group? Here’s what to expect next:
Coming off a one-year “show me” contract where he absolutely showed the team why they need him, Mangiapane is due for a big raise going into next season. With 17 goals and 32 points in 68 games while playing alongside Mikael Backlund and Matthew Tkachuk, Mangiapane did not look out of place at all this season.
The bread eating fan favourite was more than capable of shutting down the league’s top lines, while also creating chances going the other way by being tenacious on every puck battle. Expect him to be signing a longer term deal this summer.
Initially drafted by the St. Louis Blues in the fourth round of the 2015 NHL Draft, he was unsigned by them as they could not find a home for him in their AHL system. He re-entered the draft, but was not taken, and instead was signed out of junior by the Flames.
Gawdin put up massive numbers with the Swift Current Broncos, ending the season with 125 points in 67 games. Moving over to Stockton, the big question was whether he could produce at the AHL level.
In his first season he put those to rest with 38 points in 64 games, then last season he ended just shy of a point per game with 47 points in 53 games. Gawdin has quickly become one to watch going into next season, as he will likely get a number of games with the big team.
Going from re-entering the draft to being one of the Flames’ top prospects is very impressive. Qualifying him was obviously a no-brainer for the Flames. There is a really good chance that he ends up playing in Calgary next season.
Kylington has been an in between player for the last couple seasons. He’s a player that is seemingly too good for the AHL, but unable to cement his role in the NHL. He struggled to maintain a consistent place in the starting lineup, fighting for playing time with Michael Stone through the first half of the season.
However after the Flames acquired Erik Gustafsson and Derek Forbort at the 2020 NHL Trade Deadline, that signaled the end of the season for Kylington, who did not appear in a game again.
Despite the limited usage, qualifying Kylington was the clear choice. Going into next season, there are a number of vacant roster spots on the back end, which should allow him to get more playing time. That being said, he needs to take that next step in his development and prove to the team that he is an NHL defenceman. If he can do that, it will add much needed stability to the Flames’ back end.
Parsons was looked to be the “Goalie of the Future” when the Flame drafted him in the second round in 2016. However, a logjam of goalies ahead of him left him wallowing in the ECHL until this season. Looking ahead, it will almost certainly be him and Artyom Zagidulin splitting the crease in Stockton.
Qualifying Parsons was a no-brainer for the Flames, but it’ll be a high pressure season for the young netminder, as he will need to show his value in Stockton this season and really prove that he can be an NHL goaltender.
A player that was promised to be one of the best coming out of his draft class by Jay Feaster, Jankowski has not lived up to his expectations. Playing in the fourth line centre role, he could not hold down a steady spot in the roster, splitting time with players making far less than him in Zac Rinaldo and Tobias Rieder.
With the Flames needing to qualify him at $1.75 million dollars, it seemed highly unlikely that this was going to happen. Given players like Gawdin and Matthew Phillips knocking on the door, the Flames can get similar production from a player with a higher ceiling for a lower price.
While there was some discussion around not qualifying him then signing him to a lower number in free agency, the Jankowski camp believes he needs a change of scenery per GM Brad Treliving. We wish him all the best wherever he lands.
Traded from Toronto for Morgan Klimchuk, the former Leaf played two seasons in Stockton, primarily in a depth role. While he never scored a goal for the team, he put up 9 assists and 110 penalty minutes in 74 games. He was mostly a depth player for the Heat, with little to show that he was more than that.
Given he has signed in Austria with EHC BLack Wings Linz, it was not surprising to see him not qualified by the Flames. His departure also marks the end of the returns the Flames got for trading Jarome Iginla back in 2013.
An undrafted goalie, the former Medicine Hat Tiger was signed by the Flames after a strong showing in Flames’ camp in 2015. Since then, he only put up a .922 save percentage once, in 2018-19 in the AHL. Otherwise, he has been a sub-.900 goalie, featuring primarily in the ECHL.
With Parsons, Zagidulin, Dustin Wolf and recently selected Russian goaltender Daniil Chechelev all in the system, Schneider simply was not good enough to consider qualifying. It seems unlikely he signs again with Calgary.
Photo credit: Al Charest/Postmedia
Published by Khalid Keshavjee
View all posts by Khalid Keshavjee
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TIME 100 Talks
Jill Scott: It's Time to Add 'Dimensions and Dynamics' to Black Female Characters
By Raisa Bruner
Twenty years ago this month, Jill Scott debuted as a singular artist with her platinum-selling R&B album Who Is Jill Scott? Words and Sounds, Vol. 1. Since then, she has become a cultural icon of healing power and serenity, pursuing a career as an actress in projects like The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, First Wives Club and Black-ish, winning a Grammy for her second album and publishing a poetry collection. In the last few months, she’s made waves on social media during her appearance on an Instagram Live Verzuz music battle opposite Erykah Badu and for shutting down a football player’s criticism, instead redirecting the conversation towards the fight for justice for Black women in the U.S.
“We can’t ignore what is happening in this country. It’s impossible. And to see people motivated to speak up, speak out, rise up, fight back and not sit down is motivational. And I enjoy being a part of it,” she said during a TIME100 Talks discussion. For Scott, art is an outlet. “I think it’s important that actors create plays and movies and films. And dancers dance out frustration. And writers write. And singers sing. And for people who’ve always been aware of what’s happening in society to continue to speak out, and continue to move forward. There’s a real possibility for this country to actually be great,” she said.
Scott also discussed the limitations that Black women in particular face in the entertainment industry. “Turn the channel and see how many characters Caucasian women can be,” she said. For Black women, that’s often not the case. “I would love, love to see more variety. It seems like the entertainment industry finds a thing, and they pick up on that thing, and they make six or seven other of that thing. That’s not fair.” Scott says these characters can be “shallow,” and it’s time to add “dimensions and dynamics” to Black female characters.
“I burn incense, but I also am proficient with my weapons,” she said. “You can be crazy and sane at the same damn time. You can be wealthy and loved but poor in character. You can be incredibly intelligent and lost in every step you take… It drives me crazy searching and trying to find roles. I’d like to play villains more. I’ve been a villain.”
Scott got her start as a spoken-word poet; her interest in exploring multiple different aspects of her creativity has never been in question. But fame, she said, is also not something she chased. “I didn’t do this, this art, for fame. It’s never been an interest of mine. I’ve done this because it felt right to my soul,” she said. “My second album was called Beautifully Human, which is the goal, isn’t it?”
That embrace of humanity is something that also seems to be missing in our justice system, however, which she alluded to, mentioning racist policing in the U.S. “Missing a stop sign is human,” she said. “It’s not a major infraction, and it’s not something that should cause your death.”
But despite the current upheaval in the country, Scott said she still has hope. “As long as the sun comes up, as long as the moon comes out, as long there’s stars in the sky, as long as I have oxygen in my lungs. Yeah, I got hope,” she said. Scott also shared a personal story and song performance for TIME100 Talks, and recited an original poem, titled “Reality.”
This article is part of #TIME100Talks: Finding Hope, a special series featuring leaders across different fields encouraging action toward a better world. Want more? Sign up for access to more virtual events, including live conversations with influential newsmakers.
Write to Raisa Bruner at raisa.bruner@time.com.
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Stuff I Am Up To
Toby Tellier
You become more divine as you become more creative. All the religions of the world have said God is the creator. I don’t know whether he is the creator or not, but one thing I know: the more creative you become, the more godly you become. When your creativity comes to a climax, when your whole life becomes creative, you live in God. So he must be the creator because people who have been creative have been closest to him. Love what you do. Be meditative while you are doing it – whatsoever it is!
— Osho
© 2021 Toby Tellier.
The Cabin Fever Band
Pat Guidera called me up in the Spring of 2015 to play bass in The Cabin Fever Band for that year’s Radway Festival of Stars. The band has been in existence for at least 12 years and originated as the local bluegrass club’s house band. It was such a blast playing a mix of bluegrass tunes and canadiana at various Alberta events like the Perogies and Jam in Vegreville, The Callingwood Farmer’s Market, local senior centres, the Northern Bluegrass Circle Music Society, and again in Radway in 2016 and 2017.
I played my last gig with Pat, Dodie, Frank and Ian at the 2017 Shady Grove Festival in Nanton, AB. It was sweet singing and playing with this talented and kind-hearted bunch. Many local bluegrass players have been a part of the band’s legacy over the years and I am happy to add my name to that list. As a send-off, the band presented me with a card and a bottle of Patron tequila which was passed around along with songs in a warm-hearted bluegrass jam!
In Music, Stuff I've Done
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New York, NY (Top40 Charts) After quietly teasing its arrival, Grammy Award-winner and Tony and Emmy Award-nominated singer, songwriter, actress and author Sara Bareilles releases More Love - Songs From Little Voice Season One today. The physical version arrives in stores November 6, 2020.
For the surprise album, Sara personally performed and recorded the ten tracks she had originally penned for Little Voice (Original Series Soundtrack). Taking the creative reins, she produced the project alongside Tyler Chester. This notably marks the first time she has unveiled her renditions of these songs. Among its ten tracks, the record includes her version of the lead single "More Love."
Recently, she unveiled Little Voice (Apple TV+ Original Series Soundtrack) Demos exclusively on Apple Music. It boasted three demo versions of songs she composed for the Apple original series, Little Voice—available globally on Apple TV+ now.
In July, Sara first revealed the Little Voice: Season One, Episodes 1-3 (Apple TV+ Original Series Soundtrack). She spoke to the Los Angeles Times in-depth about Little Voice, while Refinery29 described the show as "practically irresistible." Not to mention, she appeared on TODAY for an interview and performance of "Little Voice." Music is available for all 9 episodes as tracks were released in tandem with each episode.
Last year, Sara enchanted listeners everywhere with her 2019 fifth full-length album, Amidst The Chaos. Generating widespread acclaim, Variety noted, "[it] establishes that there's no one in contemporary pop better at flexing mezzo-soprano sensitivity and social empathy like a muscle. It's the perfect album for anyone who could use a little fierce snowflake pride." The album features stand out tracks "A Safe Place to Land" featuring John Legend, as well as "Saint Honesty," which won a Grammy® Award for "Best American Roots Performance." Additionally, on the Amidst The Chaos Tour, she took the stage at iconic venues such as Madison Square Garden and The Hollywood Bowl.
Stay tuned for more from Sara Bareilles soon.
I Don't Know Anything
King of the Lost Boys
Dear Hope
In July
Tell Her
www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2020-07-14/little-voice-apple-tv-sara-bareilles-jessie-nelson
www.refinery29.com/en-gb/2020/07/9909652/is-little-voice-bess-king-based-on-real-singer
www.today.com/video/sara-bareilles-performs-little-voice-on-today-88902213762
D Smoke & Buddy Breathe New Life Into Jac Ross' Anthemic Single Now Retitled "It's Ok To Be Black 2.0"
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NZ’s worst-kept secret: Jesse Kempson finally unmasked as Grace Millane’s killer as secret trials revealed
It was called New Zealand’s worst-kept secret, but after more than two years Jesse Shane Kempson has finally been named as the man who murdered British backpacker Grace Millane.
Yesterday, it was also revealed Kempson faced two other trials this year for sexual violence against two women after the high-profile murder.
He was found guilty of all nine total charges at both trials, including rape, which he is now appealing.
The 28-year-old has also already signalled an appeal to the Supreme Court, which declined a final application for leave to maintain suppression, in a bid to overturn his murder conviction.
After killing Millane on the eve of her 22nd birthday, Kempson became the man with the blurred face on our televisions as his identity had remained suppressed since December 2018 for fair trial reasons.
His judge-alone trials in October and November were held under a shroud of secrecy.
Ultimately, he was convicted and given further prison sentences, which will be served concurrently alongside his life term for murdering Millane, which includes a non-parole period of 17 years.
Kempson will be 45 years old when he is first eligible for release in 2037.
After Millane’s death, police closed in on Kempson as the prime suspect.
As detectives investigated him and searched their files, they found an earlier complaint by another woman, who had been in a relationship with him, and a corresponding protection order.
“I was Grace’s voice and I will be Grace’s voice,” she would later tell a court.
A third woman, a Brit like Millane, was also interviewed by police about a violent Tinder rendezvous she had with Kempson.
She came forward after seeing Kempson’s identity publicised by international media as the man accused of killing Millane. She instantly recognised him as the man who had raped her in an Auckland motel and when presented with a photo ID montage – positively identified Kempson.
Both women have permanent name suppression.
Detective Inspector Scott Beard, the officer in charge of the investigation into Kempson, said police are expecting more women to come forward and report alleged violence at the hands of the killer now his name has been published.
“After he was arrested more than a dozen women came forward, and there were others we identified through our investigations,” he told the Herald.
Millane’s mother Gillian has also been supporting other women who have come forward, encouraging them to report what happened to them and get the help they need.
“As a family we do not think about him or speak his name,” the Millane family said in a statement.
Police laid Kempson’s additional charges, including rape, sexual violation, threatening to kill and assault, against him in February 2019.
But before Kempson’s murder trial began in November last year, the courts had ruled he would maintain suppression until after all his trials had been determined.
Last week and a day before the Court of Appeal dismissed Kempson’s appeal of his murder conviction and sentence, a hearing was held to determine when he would finally be named.
Court of Appeal president Justice Kos said “it is time now for a dose of reality”.
“This all occurred more than two years ago. Mr Kempson has been convicted at all three trials and no longer enjoys the presumption of innocence. In the ordinary way, there is a genuine and proper public interest in his identity being disclosed.”
Much about Kempson’s life, however, remains muddied because of his labyrinth of lies and embellishments.
Those who have known him have told the Herald about fanciful claims.
Some of Kempson’s more outrageous lies included being a manager at an oil company, a law graduate, having gang connections, being an orphan, being the cousin of an All Black, and even that he was suffering from cancer.
Many of these falsehoods were picked apart during the nearly four-week-long murder trial, which caught the attention of a global audience.
When he met the travelling Millane on Tinder in December 2018, the lies continued as did his campaign of misinformation after strangling her to death in his downtown Auckland apartment following a night of drinking.
He lied to police in a desperate attempt to cover his tracks after dumping Millane’s body in a shallow grave in the Waitākere Ranges.
Kempson’s trial lawyers, Ian Brookie and Ron Mansfield, argued Millane’s death was accidental and occurred during erotic asphyxiation. The killer has continued to maintain this claim.
His internet history, however, revealed much of what he did at about the time and after Millane died. He searched for methods of how to dispose of her body, looked at pornography online, and took intimate photos of her naked body.
He also later went on another date while Millane’s body remained in his downtown Auckland hotel apartment.
He “eroticised” Millane’s death because of his “morbid sexual interest”, Crown prosecutor Brian Dickey told jurors.
At the time he murdered Millane, Kempson told police he worked in sales for consulting firm Liquid Learning. The Herald has also confirmed he was born in the Wellington region in December 1991 and grew up in Wainuiomata and Porirua.
Kempson’s parents split when he was just 3 and he spent several years living in Australia.
The junior softball representative returned from Sydney in 2016 for what, he claimed, was to care for a sick grandmother in the Auckland suburb of Takanini.
Despite Kempson’s suppression order, many people in New Zealand already knew his name.
There were several breaches before and after the murder trial, largely by those on social media and in the United Kingdom press.
One person sitting in the public gallery at his first court appearance brazenly posted a photo from the hearing on their Facebook page.
The blatant breaches, including by Google in a mass email to Kiwi users, caught the ire of then Justice Minister Andrew Little and the Bar Association, and have led to debate about the effectiveness of New Zealand’s suppression laws in the internet age.
Posted in World NewsTagged 'secret', Jesse, kem, NZ's, worstkept
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The lobbyist hit list
A look at the industry’s biggest trade groups and influence peddlers, who are descending on Washington with everything from tax reform to infrastructure to affordable housing on their agendas
May 2017 Issue /
By Will Parker
(Illustration by Dante Terzigni)
In the fall of 1991, a brash New York developer testified at a Congressional budget hearing, telling committee members that nobody he knew could get a loan and complaining that the real estate industry’s muscle in Washington was weak.
“They have absolutely the most pathetic lobby in the history of the United States Congress,” a then-bankrupt Donald Trump said during the hearing, which was focused on how to help the U.S. economy recover amid a deep recession.
“It’s a shame,” he said, “that this very powerful and important industry doesn’t have a better lobby.”
Today, of course, Trump is the primary resident of the White House, and rather than relying on lobbyists to push his agenda, he is the target of their influence peddling.
The real estate lobby has grown massively since the day Trump testified in front of that House of Representatives committee.
In 2016, the industry pumped nearly $104 million into federal lobbying — more than the securities and investment industry, which includes the bulk of Wall Street interests apart from the major banks. The industry’s biggest spender — the National Association of Realtors — was second only to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in total spending by any company or group from any industry between 1998 and 2016, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan research group that tracks money and lobbying in politics. NAR, which has 1.1 million members, spent a massive $416 million on its reported lobbying during that time. By comparison, the megafirm General Electric shelled out $345 million, the defense contractor Northrop Grumman dropped $243.4 million, and Boeing and Exxon Mobil ponied up $242.9 million and $232.2 million, respectively.
Despite NAR’s might, the real estate industry still doesn’t have the same kind of presence in Washington as other major industries — like big oil, telecom and health care. But sources say that’s largely because real estate is less consolidated, with stakeholders ranging from residential developers to commercial landlords to mortgage players to the big banks, among others.
Real estate did not make the Center for Responsive Politics’s Top 10 list for lobbying dollars spent between 1998 through 2016. But its spending is on the rise. The $104 million it spent in 2016 was a record, up 26 percent from a decade earlier.
“While overall lobbying has been declining, real estate for whatever reason has kind of been increasing since they recovered from the collapse,” said Daniel Auble, a senior researcher at the nonprofit.
Real estate lobbyists said that in addition to targeting Congress, they’ve also recently been focusing more on federal agencies.
Bill Killmer, the chief lobbyist for the Mortgage Bankers Association — which has more than 2,000 corporate members — said the push to lobby agencies on mortgage finance issues started before the passage of Dodd-Frank, which was signed into law under President Barack Obama in 2010 and designed to increase regulation on the unwieldy banking industry after the financial crisis.
“I used to say our regulatory folks were drinking through a fire hose on a daily basis because there was so much interaction we had to have with the alphabet soup of regulators,” Killmer said, referring to the dialogue about the changing rules. “I think we tried to maintain a pretty even balance [between agencies and Congress].”
Now, with one of their own in the Oval Office, many in the industry are hoping for an onslaught of pro-real estate changes and more face time with the president or his surrogates. Sources say Bill Rudin and several other New York developers recently met with Ivanka Trump and White House economic adviser Gary Cohn in Washington.
So far, however, much of the access has come not at the White House but at the president’s private club Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, where he’s hosted friends and real estate titans Richard LeFrak, Howard Lorber, Bruce Toll and others.
In addition to having Trump in the White House, the fact that both the Senate and House are controlled by Republicans means that the legislative environment for most major real estate issues hasn’t looked better in years.
“The House has passed a lot of legislation that didn’t go anywhere in the Senate that may go somewhere now,” said Ken Trepeta, president of the Real Estate Services Providers Council, a national industry lobby.
“Some things that weren’t possible in the last eight years are now possible,” added Trepeta, who helped write the Mortgage Choice Act, which falls under the Financial Choice Act.
Last month, Texas Republican Jeb Hensarling — chairman of the House Financial Services Committee — reintroduced the Financial Choice Act, a bill designed to roll back Dodd-Frank that was shelved in December. The new version even more severely strips it of its regulatory teeth.
But reforms to Dodd-Frank — along with tax reform, the reauthorization of the EB-5 program, infrastructure spending and more — took a back seat to President Trump’s failed push to repeal Obamacare and his controversial (but ultimately successful) nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. With the administration now moving on from those matters, real estate-related reforms are next.
Below is a rundown of some of the key issues that the real estate lobby is watching and mobilizing on.
When President Ronald Reagan and his Senate allies pushed to raise taxes in the early 1980s, the real estate lobby was relentless.
“They have been camping on our doorstep,” said then-Sen. Bob Dole, the legendary Kansas Republican. “They have been in the gallery. They have been in the lobbies. They have been in the elevators.”
The lobbyists’ persistence paid off: The real estate industry managed to hold onto a slew of special tax breaks. But the victory was short-lived.
A few years later, in 1986, tax reform rose to the top of Congress’s priority list, and real estate tax shelters — which had exploded in popularity between the late 1970s and early 1980s, in part because of changes made to capital gains taxes — became a key target.
Although no concrete numbers exist, Wall Street Journal reporters Alan Murray and Jeffrey Birnbaum wrote in their 1988 book “Showdown at Gucci Gulch” that the money stashed away in tax shelters in the U.S. jumped to $20 billion from $2 billion during that time. Tax shelters became a go-to mechanism for filling developers’ capital stacks because they allowed investors to offset their tax burdens while investing in real estate.
But when Congress eliminated many of those tax shelters as well as deductions for passive-investment losses, real estate investment dropped off, industry sources say.
Today, with tax reform at the top of Trump’s agenda, industry players all agree on one thing: Never let 1986 happen again. “I was here in 1986,” said Cindy Chetti, lobbyist for the National Multifamily Housing Council, a prominent landlord group, “and many of us remember what the outcome of the tax reform effort was and the problems it created for the commercial real estate industry.”
That’s why the prospect of any major tax overhaul — even one backed by a developer-in-chief — has the entire real estate lobby on alert.
The Trump administration and House Republicans have called for sweeping changes to taxation, leaving concerns that tax benefits for real estate investments — including 1031 exchanges, carried-interest deductions, the mortgage-interest deduction and the low-income housing tax credit — might get axed (or altered) in the hunt for extra revenue.
The Real Estate Roundtable — a consortium of real estate trade associations with close ties to the Real Estate Board of New York — and NAR are already emerging as two of the industry’s leading lobbyists on tax reform.
In January, the Roundtable released its Trump-era policy agenda, touting 1031 exchanges, which allow investors to defer tax payments when they reinvest the proceeds from the sale of one property into another. A preliminary “blueprint” proposed by the House Republicans last year was silent on 1031 — as was the tax plan announced late last month by the Trump administration. Real estate sources contend that the elimination of the exchanges would have devastating effects on New York City’s investment sales market because they incentivize sellers to buy new properties, thereby generating more business.
The halls of Congress will be crowded with lobbyists from the broader business world vying to make their tax priorities known. And at the top of many of their agendas is something else: the corporate income-tax rate.
The Trump administration has called for the current rate of 35 percent to be dropped to 15 percent. The new rate would apply not just to large corporations, but also to smaller businesses and pass-through entities such as LLCs, which are used widely in commercial real estate. In their blueprint, House Republicans proposed lowering the rate to 20 percent for corporations and 25 percent for pass-throughs. But without increasing the federal deficit, it will be hard, if not impossible, to make across-the-board tax cuts unless revenue is raised elsewhere.
John Bryant of the Building Owners and Managers Association International — an organization whose members oversee 10 billion square feet of commercial property in the U.S. — said the group is staying focused on the final outcome.
“The response we’re getting when we’re talking to the tax-writing committees is ‘Don’t just look at the individual parts … if you look at the end game, it will actually be a wash or you may actually come out better,” he said.
Although Bryant and others are still advocating for the tax breaks that currently benefit the industry, as long as the overarching math works out for them, they’re keeping an open mind.
“We’re not drawing a hard line in the sand,” Bryant said.
Just the mention of Dodd-Frank gets stakeholders on both sides of the political aisle riled up — with opponents arguing that it saddles the banking industry with too many restrictions and cripples the economy, and proponents saying it’s badly needed to protect the public from the loosely regulated banks that prompted the 2008 financial crisis.
Trump has blasted the legislation, vowing on the campaign trail to “dismantle” it.
In February, the president signed an executive order directing his Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, a former hedge funder and Goldman Sachs executive, to evaluate the Dodd-Frank-created Financial Stability Oversight Council and report back within 120 days on whether it’s acting in line with his goals for a less-regulated economy.
“We expect to be cutting a lot out of Dodd-Frank, because frankly I have so many people, friends of mine, that have nice businesses and they can’t borrow money,” the president said in a February meeting with business leaders who included Stephen Schwarzman, CEO of the fund manager Blackstone Group.
While Dodd-Frank is targeted squarely at the banking industry, it is inextricably tied to real estate lending — from residential mortgages to construction loans to investment dollars. And for the industry, Dodd-Frank will be one of the biggest legislative battlegrounds.
Lobbyists, especially in the commercial sector, are carefully strategizing as they assess the rules — some of which have only very recently gone into effect.
Meanwhile, Hensarling’s new bill — which would ease regulations on mortgage lending as well as reduce the “risk retention” burden on banks that requires them to keep extra capital on their books — addresses real estate players’ concerns. But Democrats argue that the bill will put millions of consumers at risk.
Whether Hensarling’s bill moves forward or not, risk retention will undoubtely be under the microscope for the real estate industry. At the moment, it requires banks packaging commercial mortgages into sellable securities to keep 5 percent of those loans on their own books.
Two of the most prominent real estate lobbying groups taking on Dodd-Frank are the Commercial Real Estate Finance Council and the Mortgage Bankers Association, which are focused on the commercial and residential components of the legislation, respectively.
David Motley, the chairman-elect and president of the mortgage group, recently said the regulations have “reduced the availability and affordability of mortgage credit for many American families.”
Marty Schuh — the senior director and head of government relations at CREFC, who was a staffer for Republican Sen. Bob Corker when Dodd-Frank was being hashed out — said the legislation incited confusion because the procedures for implementing it were unclear.
“We had all kinds of little fights, about what the value of par,” Schuh said, referring to disputes while the legislation was being drafted about how various portions of it would be interpreted.
Major bank heads including JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon are not seeking to repeal the entire bill, but to instead to “open it up” and reassess.
“I’m not someone for wholesale ‘throw it all out,” Dimon told Bloomberg in January. But he added that “no one in their rational mind could say everything that was done and how it was done was done right.”
He cited liquidity-ratio requirements for banks as well as operational risk capital — both of which dictate how much money banks need to keep on hand — as areas for potential change.
But risk retention in general is complicated for many lobbying groups. CREFC represents both CMBS buyers and sellers and has a less hawkish stance than might be expected. While it might have technical issues with the way the rule functions, it’s not opposed to risk retention generally.
“CREFC always supported the idea of skin in the game because we are ultimately driven by the buy side — they’re the keys to this being a successful market,” Schuh said.
Some sources argue that the importance of these regulations to the success of the current market is overstated.
“While the regulatory environment is playing a role in some kinds of lending, concerns about pricing and where we are in the market cycle are also significant factors,” said Sam Chandan, an associate dean of NYU’s Schack School of Real Estate.
Still, much of the home lending industry argues that aspects of Dodd-Frank have limited the ability to extend debt.
The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau — a body created by Dodd-Frank — issued a slew of new regulatory guidance, including Dodd-Frank’s qualified mortgage rule, which tightens banks’ discretion in deciding who qualifies as a “good faith” borrower.
Killmer, of the Mortgage Bankers Association, said that above all he’s “arguing for regulatory clarity.”
“We’re not necessarily trying to blow up all those systems, we’re trying to see if there are ways to improve them.”
To get a sense of how affordable-housing construction might be shaken up by Congress, lobbyists and stakeholders need to trace the history back to 1986 — again.
That’s when, after cracking down on tax shelters — a move that led to a drop in multifamily investment — lawmakers designed a dollar-for-dollar tax break known as the low-income housing tax credit, or LIHTC in industry-speak. Developers win the credits from the state, get them from the IRS and then sell them on an open market. In 2015, the LIHTC market raised about $13 billion in equity, according to the accounting firm Novogradac & Company, which tracks the market.
These tax credits have become a crucial incentive for any developer in the affordable-housing space. Without them, sources say, many affordable residential projects don’t pencil out financially.
Bob Moss, director of government affairs for the New York-based accounting firm CohnReznick, said that although he’s concerned, the program’s wide popularity in Congress makes him hopeful that LIHTC will not be on the chopping block.
“We’ve been invited in by the Ways and Means tax staff to start talking about financial models that would maintain the low-income housing tax credit production … should corporate rates be lower,” said Moss, whose firm does extensive work in affordable housing.
“We have very much been at the table,” he added. “We have not felt like we’re on the menu.”
But with the expected drop in corporate taxes, prices for these credits are already falling. That’s because a drop in corporate tax rates means those who are buying these credits have less tax liability to offset. And that means less demand.
Still, many affordable-housing advocates are not overly worried about LIHTC, and there’s even talk of expanding the number of available credits.
In March, Sen. Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from Washington state, introduced legislation — which already has bipartisan support — to expand the number of available credits by 50 percent.
Other affordable-housing programs may not be so lucky.
The White House budget office released its proposal for the Department of Housing and Urban Development in March, which included a massive $6.2 billion slash in spending. The move was backed by Trump’s HUD Secretary Ben Carson, a neurosurgeon who ran against Trump in the GOP presidential primary and has, until now, never held a government position.
The White House’s budget blueprint also proposed abolishing Community Development Block Grants, which are widely used in New York to help fund code enforcement, building inspections and even emergency repairs to some privately owned buildings if a landlord refuses to rectify a safety issue.
National affordable-housing groups like the National Low Income Housing Coalition and the National Housing Conference are now busy making their case for why Trump’s unprecedented cuts to housing would be detrimental to the American poor. “These proposed cuts are unacceptable, and Congress must soundly reject them,” Diane Yentel, president of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, wrote in a letter after the White House announced its intentions.
“There’s already close to a $30 billion capital-needs backlog in public housing across the country,” Yentel told The Real Deal in an earlier interview.
National Housing Conference President Chris Estes, meanwhile, told his members to prepare “for ongoing, coordinated advocacy for housing and community development. This is a marathon, not a sprint.”
GSE reform
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — public companies known as government-sponsored enterprises — guarantee trillions of dollars in American mortgages. The two GSEs, which were created to expand the nation’s secondary mortgage market, were hemorrhaging money amid the subprime mortgage crisis and were bailed out to the tune of a stunning $187 billion by the federal government.
In September 2008, with President George W. Bush in the White House, they were placed into government conservatorship. At the time, the Washington Post described the move as “one of the most sweeping government interventions in private financial markets in decades.”
But most agree that having the government in control of Fannie and Freddie’s books is not sustainable.
Treasury Secretary Mnuchin has said Americans should expect GSE reform sometime during the Trump administration. Although Trump does not have a public stance on GSEs, in late November Mnuchin called for a swift end to “government control” of Fannie and Freddie. He later clarified that he’s not looking to abolish them.
In February, Cohn, Trump’s economic advisor, told reporters that Mnuchin has been “spending a lot of time” on GSE reform and described it as an “early” priority.
But Jamie Gregory, the chief deputy lobbyist for NAR, said he expects the issue to take a back seat to tax reform for now. “We’ll see legislation introduced and we’ll see hearings this year, but I think ultimately it’s far more likely a bill passes next year,” Gregory said.
NAR, along with the rest of the national real estate lobby, wants to ensure that whatever GSE plan moves forward, U.S. mortgage lending remains robust.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency — which oversees Fannie and Freddie — has warned that the two GSEs are at risk of needing another bailout if something doesn’t change soon.
Fannie’s capital buffer is on track to hit a big fat zero in early 2018, at which point it will need to hit up the U.S. Treasury. Freddie, meanwhile, started 2016 with a $354 million loss.
Yentel, of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, said one reason the Treasury would be on the hook is because Fannie and Freddie’s current structure prevents them from holding too much capital.
“The agreements they have … ensure that the capital buffers of Fannie and Freddie are ever-declining,” Yentel said. “That increases the likelihood that Fannie and Freddie will need a draw from the Treasury.”
The coalition and other affordable-housing groups will be lobbying to keep the so-called National Affordable Housing Trust Fund intact. That fund is financed by Fannie and Freddie, but if the GSEs need to tap the Treasury, they can’t pay into the trust.
“The longer we go without some resolution … the more at risk the trust fund is of having its contributions suspended,” Yentel said.
Infrastructure and EB-5
One of the biggest real estate policy issues on Washington’s docket is the massive public infrastructure plan Trump has been dangling.
On the campaign trail, Trump said he wanted Congress to authorize a $1 trillion plan to improve the nation’s bridges, roads, tunnels, airports and other public infrastructure, like electrical grids.
“We’re talking about a very major infrastructure bill of a trillion dollars, perhaps even more,” Trump said last month.
Details have been scant since he’s taken office.
Before he was elected, his economic advisers released an infrastructure plan that relied mostly on incentivizing private investment. His administration is reportedly considering up to $200 billion in federal spending along with tax breaks, MarketWatch reported.
While doing something about infrastructure, in the most general sense, is one point of bipartisan agreement, Democrats largely want the $1 trillion to come from the government, not private investors.
Most of the real estate lobby is in favor of increased infrastructure spending.
Assuming the federal government does not fund all of the public projects, they could get a boost from another key target on the real estate lobbying agenda: the EB-5 visa program, which is up for reauthorization this year.
The 25-year-old program — which awards foreign investors green cards for investing cash in job-producing projects — is set to expire this year, though it got a last-minute temporary extension late last month. Renewing it permanently requires Senate and House approval.
But the program is controversial, to say the least. Opponents say it unfairly awards wealthy foreigners who can pay their way into the country, and argue that it’s too vulnerable to fraud and abuse.
The Obama administration proposed new regulations for EB-5 — such as raising the minimum investment threshold to nearly $1.4 million for visas from $500,000.
Those proposals have not gone over well with the industry, which is devoting time and money to push for reauthorization with as few changes as possible.
Trump has remained silent on the issue. However, his real estate scion son-in-law, Jared Kushner, now his senior advisor, used EB-5 funds to help pay for the construction of a 50-story luxury rental tower in Jersey City known as, you guessed it, Trump Bay Street. White House spokesperson Hope Hicks told TRD Kushner would recuse himself from all EB-5 matters.
The program has, of course, been a go-to funding spigot for NYC luxury real estate developers, but it’s also recently been used to help fund public projects like the George Washington Bridge Bus Station redevelopment and wireless internet infrastructure in the city subway.
EB-5 has been routinely renewed for years without substantial reforms, but a sizable bloc in Congress sees little merit in the program at all, and momentum against it has grown.
Texas Republican Louis Gohmert — an outspoken member of the House Judiciary Committee — has called for suspending the program entirely. “Give us your immoral, your degenerate, as long as they have money,” he quipped at a hearing in March. “The message is we want them in America, and we’ll give them a visa to get their money.”
Startup wants to bring “micro-warehouses” to vacant retail
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Home › Best Of The Recoup › Best Of The Recoup: Serious Fun: A Conversation With The Knack’s Berton Averre
Best Of The Recoup: Serious Fun: A Conversation With The Knack’s Berton Averre
By Joseph Kyle • July 26, 2017
I must confess, the very first single I bought was “My Sharona.” I bought it at Ben Franklin’s, and i bought it with money I’d gotten for my birthday. I loved the song, and I loved its groove, and I loved how just so different it sounded. I was six years old, and I fell hard for that song. So, too, did the rest of the world; The Knack, led by the talented frontman Doug Fieger and guitarist Berton Averre, would set the charts on fire in 1979 with their debut single, and their debut album, Get The Knack. Follow-up single, “Good Girls Don’t,” was another rousing success, and it seemed that these Beatles-loving Power Poppers were set to become superstars. Unfortunately, “My Sharona” was too successful, and the band would be unfairly labeled as “one-hit wonders,” even as they continued to record and release albums and singles that were just as good–if not better–than that opening salvo.
This summer, Omnivore Recordings–who had previously released a live album and demos collection from a pre-fame Knack–released the band’s final three offerings; 1998’s Zoom, 2001’s Normal As The Next Guy, and the soundtrack to the band’s fun concert film, Live From The Rock And Roll Fun House. We sat down with Averre to discuss this final stage of the band’s career, the trappings of being pegged as a one-hit wonder, and what it all means to him now.
(Thanks to Cary Baker at Conqueroo for getting this set up!)
The story of this second half of The Knack’s existence is owed greatly to the song that started it all.
Reality Bites, we didn’t see it coming. Getting that song on a soundtrack, it really wasn’t that big of a deal. “My Sharona” had already appeared all over the place, on hundreds of compilations around the world, so it appearing on a soundtrack generally wasn’t something we would given much thought to. So when the film was a success—and then the label releasing the soundtrack released it as a single—we realized we had a golden opportunity here. I would hesitate to call it an attempted comeback, but with renewed interest in the song, and it getting a bit more airplay because of the film’s popularity we realized we could use it to our benefit. So we got back together, played some shows, and soon felt the spark to work again in the studio. Doug and I, we were always writing—it was as much a part of our daily routine as practicing our guitars. He was writing some really great stuff—I’m a fan of “Pop Is Dead,” and when I heard it, I knew that we just had to release it.
It’s a pretty strong statement of intent to start an album with!
Yeah, it is. But it’s a sentiment we believed. Of course, there’s a danger with a song like that—for a moment, we thought, “Are we going to come across as cranky middle-aged men, raging against the music industry machine?” To us, the “pop” of our youth was stuff like The Beatles, The Beach Boys, The Who—hardly what you’d call “pop” at the time we wrote the song, but it was definitely the popular sound in our youth. I suppose every generation of musician and music fan will reach that point where what they liked doesn’t jibe with what’s popular. So we said screw it, and just did it, and guess what? People dug it! We felt like we tapped into something real, and the audience loving that song only proved that we had. Though it might not have ever come close to the charts, the audience loved it, with them it was a “hit,” which is all that mattered, and it became our concert opener.
To me, what I like about Zoom is it has a very raw, garage-rock sort of feel.
Zoom came together rather quickly, and yeah, there was a vibe about what we were doing. Our previous album, Serious Fun, was one we had put a lot of work into, and it was generally well-received—much better than our third album, Round Trip, which absolutely nobody heard. But we also spent a great deal of time trying to make Serious Fun sound like a hit record, and we just overdid it. Zoom, it was us recapturing that youthful vibe of writing a song and then getting it on tape. In a way, it sort of felt like the same kind of era that we documented in Rock And Roll Is Good For You. Normal As The Next Guy, it was just the process of us doing whatever it is we wanted to do musically. A much more free and open experience.
It also felt like you were no longer trying to chase “the hit.” So many bands get caught up with having to recreate that one song that gave them success—either from external forces, or from a songwriter’s desire to repeat the experience of having a hit song.
Doug called it “The Golden Albatross,” and I think that’s about the most perfect description for it that you could find. Yes, we were tagged with it from the get-go, but that song treated us well, and so we were always grateful for it, even though, like so many other bands in similar situations, it did occasionally provide us with some frustrations and headaches. Our woes were hardly unique; the list of complaints, typical. You’d play a show and could tell that a good portion of the crowd was only going to enjoy themselves once you did the hit. You’d have a new album or single to promote, and you’d go on the radio or on TV, and guess what they wanted to hear? You’d go to the label, and that’s all they’d talk about, too, “We need another ‘My Sharona,’ stat!” (Sigh) It got frustrating, and it only seemed to get worse.
I have a friend who was drummer for the band Semisonic–another great band pegged as a “one-hit wonder”– and he wrote a wonderful book about the experience. In it he describes the humiliation of having to mingle at an industry function, and some clueless radio guy comes up and says, “You should have followed up ‘Closing Time’ with a hit,” and he’s sitting there, going, “Gee, now why didn’t I think of that!?”
(Laughs heartily) I know the feeling—I think i might have talked to the same radio doofus! There’s this expectation that if you are lucky enough to have a major hit the first time out, then everything you write afterwards is going to be as good—if not better—than that initial number. In some cases, like The Beatles and The Beach Boys, that happens. But that’s so rare, and people lose sight of just how rare that is.
I think what makes these final three albums so enjoyable is that you’ve reached a point where you’ve got nothing to prove.
Well, with Zoom, it’s eighteen years since “My Sharona,” and it doesn’t feel like you’ve made Get The Knack, part two, or whatever. It’s the sound of guys making a record simply to make a record, to get together, and have fun, and not be too worried about what happens with it.
That’s a very interesting way to look at it, and I think I mostly agree with you on that. Where we were at back then, we’d come to realize that as well. Serious Fun had been more of an attempted comeback, and while it was okay, it wasn’t exactly a pleasant experience, and we soon went our separate ways again. After all, it’d only been a decade since “My Sharona” so we weren’t at a nostalgia point about our music. Ten years for a band isn’t really a very long time, if you think about it. Even though we might have been pigeonholed unfairly, we were still operating as a contemporary band and trying to be as successful as we could. We learned the hard way that once you define yourself in such a concrete manner, it’s going to be impossible to break that mindset. From our history, let’s take our third album, Round Trip. Have you heard it? (No—I didn’t even know it existed until researching for this interview.) Yep, I didn’t think so. Nobody heard it. It’s so weird, but at the time I had this inkling that it was going to come out and nobody would hear it, even though we felt it was our best record to date. It’s a shame, too, because some of the things on the record, I really love “Africa” and “Sweet Dreams” is one of his best, and we wrote that well before the Knack was formed. We broke up over it, mainly out of a sense of frustration that we could make our best music, but nobody wanted to hear it, and the label didn’t want to promote it. Life got ugly, sadly.
But to come back to your point, I sort of see what you’re driving at. We did get together after the Reality Bites thing, and thought to ourselves, why don’t we do it just for fun, just get together and play—after all, suddenly we have a song on the radio again. So we did, and it came together for us rather quickly, and moreover, it was a lot more enjoyable for us. It’s liberating when you realize you can do whatever you want to do and not worry about things such as chart positions and radio airplay and promotions. If we did something, it was because we knew it was viable to do them, like touring, for instance. Had it not been for the resurgent popularity of “My Sharona,” we probably wouldn’t have bothered to go out on the road and play shows, simply because it wouldn’t have made sense.
Was making Zoom a way to define The Knack as a viable band, to not get caught up in or becoming defined as a nostalgia act?
We kinda didn’t care, truthfully. Yeah, we would get offers for package things, but like I was saying before, we would only do things that would justify our getting out to do them, and though Doug loved playing live, I was ambivalent about touring. Yet it’s kind of misleading to think about nostalgia for a twenty-year old band, because by that time, the people who are coming out to see you play, they’re usually a mix of the hardcore fan who loved you the first time around and the curious youngsters who missed you in your heyday and wanna check you out, and younger listeners tend to be much more open-minded about what they see live. And sure, there will be people who come out just to hear that one song, and we always gave our best with it, because they deserved it, too.
Thomas Dolby had a great quote about being a so-called “one hit wonder.” He said that when people come up and make a point of saying, “Oh, well you only had one hit,” he tells ‘em, “yeah, well I bet that’s one more than you have!” (Laughs) But, really, I don’t mind. You can’t plan these things. Sure, we made a record, and the first single we released was an international smash that gets named one of the songs of the year and then one of the songs of the decade and then one of the songs of the century, and sure, nothing afterwards lived up to that commercially, but who knew all of this in 1979? Who knew that this little song would take me all over the world, provide a paycheck for the rest of my life, take care of me, allow me to make music, and would allow me to have a phone call thirty-five years later with a guy who tells me it was the first record he bought when he was six years old, and that it played an important role in his life? (Laughs) So in the world’s opinion, we didn’t have that second hit? Some experiences, money can’t buy, and ultimately, it’s those wonderful things that I’m lucky that my only hit allowed me to have.
Not too long ago, I was at a friend of mine’s house. He’s a rather successful musician in his own right, and so we’ll get together, hang out, play around with our instruments, or work on equipment together. So one day I’m over there, and his eleven year old daughter comes around after I leave, and she’s doing the typical eleven year old thing, being curious yet somewhat disinterested, and she asks her dad who I was. He says, oh, that’s my friend Berton, he used to be in a band, they had a really big hit when I was younger that I loved, his band was called The Knack,” and she starts flipping out! (Laughs) She’s like, “Why didn’t you tell me! All my friends love “My Sharona,” and she starts texting out that the guy who played one of her favorite songs was just in her house! And her dad, he’s kind of famous in his own way, so this kid who’s been around famous people, just starts to freak out and got excited over me and my little song that was a hit thirty five years ago. There’s something kind of awesome about that! (Laughs)
Live At The Rock And Roll Fun House, to me, is an interesting curtain closer to the band’s career. Did Doug’s health problems fuel a desire to make a testimony to The Knack’s legacy?
We wanted to capture ourselves live, to sort of do our own little TAMI show or what have you. Was Doug sick yet? No, he wasn’t, this was before all that. Wait, I do believe there was a really early lung cancer scare, where they found this tiny little growth. So maybe deep down there was a sense of mortality at play, but if it was, I certainly don’t recall him mentioning it. But at the time there was no real concern over what they found; it was caught super-early, and it wasn’t until 2005 or 2006 when suddenly they discovered Doug had developed a brain tumor. That’s one of the unfortunate realities of lung cancer; because of its role in the blood stream, cancerous nodes can develop and seed out to the rest of the body, and not be caught until a few years later, and that’s what happened with Doug, sadly. It was a long, long battle for him, one with lots of ups and downs. But I gotta say, he fought the good fight, and when we played our last live shows—2007 or 2008, around that time—he wasn’t in great health, but he had a blast, and so did the rest of us. They certainly weren’t intended to be our final shows, but that’s what happens in life, and those shows were an inspiration for Doug, because he was a showman.
Looking back on these final records, how do you feel about it all?
What makes our final two albums nice is that I think we had finally come to an understanding with our past. We knew that we weren’t going to have a shot at the top again. It can be confining, your past. More importantly, Doug and I didn’t feel any need to try to do anything but make the music we wanted to make, and we were okay with all that. It was special, “My Sharona,” and will always be that way, but it was just as special to get together with one of my closest friends in the world and make music that we liked. It’s all I wanted to do when I was a fifteen year old kid, and it’s all I want to do until the day I die.
Tagged as: Berton Averre, Best Of The Recoup, Doug Fieger, Omnivore Recordings, Power Pop, The Knack
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Thomas Jane on Playing Todd Parker in ‘Boogie Nights’
Posted on June 9, 2019 by The Ultimate Rabbit
WRITER’S NOTE: This is from a Q&A which took place on October 5, 2012.
Actor Thomas Jane was excited to be a guest at New Beverly Cinema as the theater presented the first day of their Paul Thomas Anderson movie marathon. One of the movie’s being shown this evening was “Boogie Nights” which served as Jane’s big acting breakthrough, and in it he plays dancer Todd Parker who becomes a dangerous friend to the characters played by Mark Wahlberg and John C. Reilly. During a Q&A which was moderated by Brian McQuery, Jane talked about how he prepared to play Todd and of what it was like working with Anderson.
One audience member asked Jane if he prepared a certain voice or walk for when he played Todd, and he replied he usually took the script for “Boogie Nights” to this theater he was working out of in Los Angeles where he could get his fellow actors to play all the other parts. It was there where Jane did a lot of experimentation which led him giving the role his own interpretation.
“I’d bring in funny glasses, do my hair crazy and try all this different stuff like bringing in a flowered shirt to wear,” Jane said. “I didn’t have any clue about who this guy was. I just knew that I was trying to find him, and then it just clicked in one day. I think it was the voice and just doing the scenes in my little theater off of Hyperion and Melrose. The first thing I found as an actor was the way Todd talked, and once I found that then everything else happened with the role.”
Jane first heard about “Boogie Nights” from casting director Christine Sheaks who had sent him the script which she said was “pretty amazing.” Upon reading the scene where Todd, along with Dirk Diggler and Reed Rothchild, go to rob a drug dealer, Jane said he was especially interested in playing Todd. Then, after doing an improvisation with Philip Seymour Hoffman and John C. Reilly in front of Anderson which lasted about fifteen minutes, he was cast in the role.
Looking back at shoot, Jane recollected much of what went on was improvised on set, and he attributed it to Anderson’s jazz-like direction.
“One thing that’s notable about the way Paul Thomas Anderson works is the freedom he gives to his actors,” Jane said. “We did have lines to say and stuff, but if you had an idea at the moment or a line to throw in or if something happens by mistake, he always encouraged that spontaneity and that freedom. That was what was so fun about working on ‘Boogie Nights.'”
When asked if he had any stories about the actors he worked with, Jane came up with a great one about Burt Reynolds. He talked about the scene where Wahlberg gets into a fight with Reynolds over wanting to shoot his sex scene now instead of later, and Anderson told Jane to fuck with Reynolds and “get in his face” once Wahlberg ran away. So, Jane started messing with Reynolds like Anderson asked him to and even pushed him, and Reynolds ended up kicking Jane right in the nuts.
“He thought the take was over and I was some punk actor getting in his face,” Jane said of Reynolds. “Paul Thomas Anderson didn’t tell Burt Reynolds that we were doing a little improvisation after the scene was over! To his (Reynold’s) credit, he gave me a bottle of champagne in my trailer the next day and he actually turned out to be really cool.”
There was also a lot of talk about the scene at the drug dealer’s house when Cosmo kept throwing fire crackers all over the place. It turns out the actor playing Cosmo was actually a friend of Anderson’s, and the fire crackers were not originally in the script. However, it got Anderson the reactions he wanted so he just put it into the movie. But since the scene was shot over several days, Anderson had to find other ways to keep the actors on their feet.
“The first day was all fire crackers, but then we had to recreate that over the next three days,” Jane said. “After the first twenty or thirty fire crackers go off you’re kind of over it, but then you can’t hear anymore. So, Paul brought a starting pistol in and he used a starting pistol for a while and then that got old. I remember he brought in a big couple of boards and was whacking those together. That was a brilliant scene because all that stuff made the tension so high.”
Thomas Jane has come a long way from his hungry days as an actor, and seeing him strut his way onto the screen in “Boogie Nights” showed us a star had arrived. For him, talking about this movie at New Beverly Cinema was very special as he said he got his film education there. He also remembered when Sherman Torgan was running the theater back then and of how he let Jane in for free, and that popcorn and candy bars served as his nightly dinner for a time.
Jane has since moved on from “Boogie Nights” to make a successful acting career for himself, and he still has many great performances left to give.
William H. Macy Talks with Jason Reitman about ‘Boogie Nights’
Posted on April 13, 2018 by The Ultimate Rabbit
Jason Reitman proudly said he saw Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Boogie Nights” long before everyone in attendance at the New Beverly Cinema on February 21, 2010 had. This was the fourth movie he showed as part of his guest programming at the still standing Los Angeles revival movie theater. It was at a test screening shown at the Beverly Center where he first witnessed this movie which proved to be the breakthrough for Anderson whose previous cinematic effort was the acclaimed but little seen “Hard Eight.” With “Boogie Nights,” Reitman said he saw a filmmaker who knew how to handle all the elements while dealing with twenty characters.
Reitman’s special guest for this screening of “Boogie Nights” was William H. Macy who played Little Bill, the assistant director to Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds) who is married to a porn star (played by Nina Hartley) who sleeps with everyone but him. In many ways, Little Bill is the most empathetic character in this movie even though we keep waiting for him to stand up for himself.
Reitman, who had previously worked with Macy on “Thank You for Smoking,” first asked him how he came upon the script for “Boogie Nights:”
“I got the script through the normal channels,” Macy said. “I think I was still with CAA then, and the script was even more outrageous. I said, ‘Is this a porn film?’ There was actual shtüpping in it! Then I met with Paul and, the actors in the room will love this, I decided I wanted to do it and met with him at the Formosa Café, and it was about ten minutes in when I realized he was selling me. I wasn’t there to audition for him, he was trying to convince me to do it, and it was one of the great moments of my career.”
Reitman replied to this by saying, “I remember having a similar meeting when I was trying to get you to do ‘Thank You for Smoking,’”
From there, Reitman talked about all the great long shots Anderson has used in his movies. Specifically, he talked about the one where Little Bill was at the New Year’s Eve party and found his wife once again sleeping with another guy. It’s a long tracking shot which goes from Little Bill looking for his wife, finding her, and then going back to his car to get a gun after which he goes back inside and shoots his wife and the other guy dead. Watching it years after “Boogie Nights” was first released, it is still amazing Anderson pulled such a shot off. Macy described how this scene was put together.
“Paul does a couple of his gazunga shots in this one and they are not as hard as you would think,” Macy said. “It took forever to set up, but then after three and a half to four hours of setting it up, the shot’s done. No coverage, no nothing and you move on. Four pages just bit the dust.”
Macy then talked about how much he loved Nina Hartley. The first time he met her was when he went into the makeup room, and she had her legs up on the counter and was shaving herself. At the end of the shoot, Hartley had started this series entitled “Nina Hartley’s Guide to Swinging” as well as one on anal intercourse. Macy then added, “In the end, she gave these films as wrap gifts! It was great to see (the reactions); anal intercourse? THANK YOU NINA!”
There was a number of actual adult film actors involved in the making of “Boogie Nights.” One of the girls who had a small scene in the movie came to Macy’s attention while he was having lunch one day with Anderson. She came down and sat between the two of them and asked Paul a career question, “Should I go legit or should I go anal?”
Reitman went back to the long shot which ended when Little Bill puts the gun in his mouth and blows his brains out. What made this shot particularly dangerous was Macy had to wear a squib on the side of his head. With squibs, the crew doesn’t want you to move around at all for your own good, and Macy went into detail over why it was so dangerous.
“What was dangerous about it was they let me do it,” Macy said. “I found out since then that they no longer let actors use that kind of squib. It’s a little explosive device and it’s called a gore gun. So I had this little backpack with all this blood and brains that would come shooting out the back, and it was wired to the pistol so that when I fired the pistol, that’s what set off the ‘gore gun’ and that’s not allowed anymore. A stunt guy sets off the gore gun now, but there is a cut because we couldn’t figure out how to do the whole thing with a loaded gun and the gore pack. So there is a cut.”
The conversation then went to the tone of a movie and what a director actually does. It’s nowhere as simple as Burt Reynolds’ character of Jack Horner makes it look in “Boogie Nights.” Reitman took the time to explain what he thinks tone is.
“Tone is like this inexplicable thing that, if you ask what a director actually does, it’s not like setting up shots or telling actors what to do,” Reitman said. “Really, what a director does is set tone. It’s not about the words; it’s about the feeling that carries through the scenes, and P.T. A’s movies have a very specific tone to them.”
Reitman then asked Macy if this is something he feels on set or if it was something he didn’t realize until he saw the finished product. Macy said he wasn’t aware of how special “Boogie Nights” was until he saw the final cut, and he was understandably very impressed with it. This led him to talk about when he made “The Cooler” (the mention of it got a strong applause from the audience) which contains one of his very best performances.
“The director kept telling me, ‘Wait until you hear the score!’ To where I finally said, ‘Dude, if you think the music is going to save this then you’re in trouble!’ I was wrong, and when he put that lush score over the film it was a different sort of film, and he had that in his head the whole time,” Macy said.
Macy went on to say the tone of the set bleeds onto the film and the way you comport yourself, or how your first assistant director comports his or herself.
“To my mind, it’s always like going to war then making art,” Macy said. “You need a good general. I’ve been known to call in first time directors and I say to them, ‘If I catch you making art on my time, then we’re going to have trouble.’ You better know what you want because it’s more like going to war.”
One of the best moments of the evening came when Macy talked about the extras who were brought in when Anderson shot the scenes at the adult movie awards. They were all told to bring their best 70’s clothes and that they were working on a Burt Reynolds movie. Then there was that moment where actress Melora Waters is about to give an award to Mark Wahlberg, and it was worded a little differently than what we saw in the theatrical version.
“I’ve seen all his movies and I can’t wait to get his cock inside my pussy, MR. DIRK DIGGLER!”
Macy said the whole crowd just sat there in utter silence, completely unprepared for what they heard. It certainly wasn’t your average everyday Burt Reynolds movie.
All in all, it was another fun evening which provided an in depth look into one of the best movies of the 1990’s, and “Boogie Nights” made clear to the world Paul Thomas Anderson was a born filmmaker.
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‘I believe in the power of prayer’: Amy Coney Barrett speaks on day one of her confirmation hearings
Daily Caller News Foundation October 13, 2020
Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett said Monday that she never lets the law “define my identity or crowd out the rest of my life” as she thanked supporters for their prayers throughout her nomination process.
Following several hours of remarks made by senators, Barrett delivered pre-written remarks Monday afternoon during the first day of her confirmation hearings on Capitol Hill.
“There is a tendency in our profession to treat the practice of law as all-consuming, while losing sight of everything else,” she said. “But that makes for a shallow and unfulfilling life. I worked hard as a lawyer and a professor; I owed that to my clients, my students, and myself. But I never let the law define my identity or crowd out the rest of my life.”
Her comments come amidst Democratic and media attacks on her Catholic faith, such as Democratic California Sen. Dianne Feinstein telling Barrett at her 2017 confirmation hearings, “The dogma lives loudly within you, and that’s of concern.”
Media also previously falsely linked People of Praise’s use of the word “handmaid” to the dystopian novel, “The Handmaid’s Tale,” before issuing corrections and retractions noting that there is no established link between People of Praise and novelist Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale.”
Barrett said she believed courts have a “vital responsibility to enforce the rule of law” but said that they are not designed to “solve every problem” in public life.
“The policy decisions and value judgments of government must be made by the political branches elected by and accountable to the people,” she said. “The public should not expect courts to do so, and courts should not try.”
“That is the approach I have strived to follow as a judge on the Seventh Circuit,” she continued. “In every case, I have carefully considered the arguments presented by the parties, discussed the issues with my colleagues on the court, and done my utmost to reach the result required by the law, whatever my own preferences might be.”
The Supreme Court nominee also thanked her many supporters for their prayers and messages of support throughout her nomination process.
“I believe in the power of prayer, and it has been uplifting to hear that so many people are praying for me,” she said. “I look forward to answering the committee’s questions over the coming days. And if I am fortunate enough to be confirmed, I pledge to faithfully and impartially discharge my duties to the American people as an associate justice of the Supreme Court.”
Daily Caller News Foundation
Founded by Tucker Carlson, a 25-year veteran of print and broadcast media, and Neil Patel, former chief policy adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney, The Daily Caller News Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit providing original investigative reporting from a team of professional reporters that operates for the public benefit.
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Researchers at the South End’s NEIDL have started working to find COVID-19 treatments
by Seth Daniel • March 20, 2020 • 0 Comments
Photo by Seth Daniel
The Boston University National Emerging Infectious Disease Laboratory, known as the NEIDL, in the South End has been controversial with the neighborhood in the past, but may grow more popular now as they are one of only a few sites in the country moving fast to find a treatment for the COVID-19 virus. Researchers received samples of the virus this week, and began growing samples of it in their lab on Thursday, March 19, for testing.
One researcher at Boston University’s National Emerging Infectious Disease Laboratory (NEIDL) in the South End has received samples of the COVID-19 virus this week, and has permission to begin working to find a treatment for those with the virus – with the NEIDL being one of about 10 places in the country rushing for a breakthrough therapy.
Professor Robert Davey, PhD., said the NEIDL started on Thursday, March 19, growing the virus in the Level 5 biolab with samples of the COVID-19 collected from the first patient that died in the United States, a man from a nursing home in Washington state.
With the virus samples in their possession, Davey said the entire scientific community in Boston and at the NEIDL is invigorated to begin working in combination on a successful treatment for a sickness that has rocked the entire globe off its normal axis.
“That’s why it’s great working in Boston because you have all this great stuff going on here,” he said, noting that he worked in Texas for about 20 years before being recruited by the NEIDL in 2018. “That’s how great science is done and how you find great treatment…All the schools and universities here have come together to try to nail this. That is very invigorating and exciting.
“Otherwise, scientists tend to be stuck to their own thing,” he continued. “I have my niche and exist in that niche. I might practice my science and do great work, but usually there isn’t everyone coming together at once like this. I’m looking forward to doing our work and seeing if we can make an impact on this outbreak.”
Those helping Davey in the testing will be Harvard University, MIT, the Broad Institute and other industry partners.
Samples came in just in the last few days, and Davey said they are growing the virus right now in the lab to be used in testing over the next month. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) had taken samples from the first man in the U.S. that died in Washington state on Feb. 29. Those specimens were sent to the University of Texas where they have a repository for infectious disease samples. From there, they were sent to the NEIDL this week, along with about 10 other places.
Having all those places working at the same time is a strategy similar to taking as many shots at goal as possible, with the idea being that one will eventually get through for success. He said that having 10 places is not a lot of places nationwide, so they do consider it an honor to be part of the group looking for a successful treatment.
“Finding an effective treatment is much like finding a needle in a haystack,” he said. “To swing the odds in our favor, you need to throw a lot of needles into that haystack and you’ll find one that works. With our testing, it’s like taking as many shots on goal as you can and by doing that you’ll have a greater chance of success.”
The NEIDL will be testing small molecules on the virus. Small molecules are drug treatments that have been made by chemists as potential treatments to a virus of this kind. They will test these small molecules on tissue samples infected with the virus with the goal of finding something that stops the virus from replicating. Once they find a “hit,” they would begin testing it on lung cells that are in the possession of the lab – as lung cells are most relevant to what the virus attacks.
To get to that point, they’ll be using 20,000 small molecules produced by their partners.
“We are expecting to test 20,000 small molecules,” he said. “A (typical) pharmaceutical company (trial) would test one million, but this is a very directed session.”
Finding one of those small molecules that work is the first step, Davey said, to identifying a treatment.
The testing, he said, would likely last for about a month. However, any success they have would then have to be run through testing with mice, then to Phase 1 clinical trials and finally to licensing with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). There is no sense of how long that might take, but the FDA has said it is focusing all its resources on approving anything that is successfully produced at the NEIDL or any of the other approximately nine sites across the country.
Davey clarified they are only working on a treatment for those who already have the COVID-19 virus, but there are others within the NEIDL preparing to work on a vaccine for COVID-19, which would be given to those who are not yet sick in order to prevent them from getting sick.
“There are other groups here doing vaccination development, and in the near future you will hear about them,” he said.
As he and his team began to prepare for the work of finding a therapy, he said he did feel a sense of extreme purpose.
“It’s important to be part of a team effort contributing to trying to find a cure,” he said.
Tags: Boston University Broad Institute COVID-19 South End
← Op-Ed: Through every challenge, Boston stands together
Gov. Baker Orders All Non-Essential Businesses To Cease In-Person Operation, Directs the Department of Public Health to Issue Stay at Home Advisory For Two Weeks →
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Evictions Cases Expected to Surge, Process Servers May See More Work
Editor’s note: We will do our best to keep this information updated but, due to its ever-changing nature, check your local legislation for the most accurate information.
Last updated: August 11, 2020, 11:00 am
Across the nation, state COVID-19 eviction moratoriums have expired or are nearing expiration, creating an environment ripe for a surge in evictions. Emergency acts put in place at both national and state levels due to COVID-19 prevented landlords from moving forward with evictions as the nation grappled with the unforeseen economic and public health circumstances. The federal eviction moratorium protections put in place expired on July 25, 2020, and although most states also offered similar protections, many opted to let them expire along with the federal measure. In the states where tenant protections have now expired, landlords who had been waiting months to evict past-due tenants are now able to freely begin the eviction process. On August 8, 2020, President Trump issued an executive order regarding evictions, but the order ultimately did not definitively extend the moratorium. The expiring moratorium(s) have the potential to significantly impact the civil process service industry as the backlog of evictions cases makes its way through the courts.
Nationwide CARES Act Eviction Protections Expired
The CARES Act (Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act) included provisions that offered several tenant protections. Those living on properties with federally backed mortgages or that participate in federal assistance programs were shielded from eviction proceedings until July 25, 2020, when the protections expired; however, the CARES Act also required that landlords give a 30-day vacate notice, which delays eviction filings until August 24. Additionally, the Federal Housing and Finance Authority stated that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would suspend foreclosures and evictions until August 31.
The federal government is attempting to put together a new stimulus package to quell damage from COVID-19. Some options include provisions for tenants, whereas others do not address evictions at all. Currently, four bills that offer tenant protections are stalled in Congress, with some extending eviction moratoriums. Those bills include the HEROES Act, Emergency Housing Protections and Relief Act of 2020, RELIEF Act (Rent Emergencies Leave Impacts on Evicted Families), Protecting Renters from Evictions and Fees Act of 2020, and the Emergency Housing Voucher Act of 2020. Each of the four stalled bills include generous provisions for tenants, with a moratorium on evictions in some cases for over 12 months.
While the potential for the US Congress to pass either a new bill preventing evictions or a reinstatement of the federal eviction moratorium (among other CARES Act protections and stimulus measures) seemed probable, talks stalled, and no bills were passed. As discussions came to a halt, President Donald Trump mentioned that he may take executive action to reinstate the moratorium. On Saturday, August, 8th, Trump issued an executive order that addressed evictions, stating that “The CARES Act imposed a temporary moratorium on evictions of certain renters subject to certain conditions. That moratorium has now expired, and there is a significant risk that this will set off an abnormally large wave of evictions.” However, the executive order did not officially reinstate a moratorium or impose a new one, instead, ultimately directing other governmental agencies, including The Secretary of the Treasury and the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, to identify those at risk and provide them with assistance.
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States With Extended State-Wide Protections
Provided an official federal moratorium is not reinstated or recreated, a surge in evictions may not be seen in all states (at least not yet), as sixteen states opted to enact emergency legislation to extend eviction protections independently of the federal government. At some point, all of the evictions moratoriums will expire, and there will likely be a surge in evictions cases.
Twelve states put in place measures that offered renters just a little bit more time:
Arizona (August 14)
Colorado (August 11)
Connecticut (August 25)
Florida (September 1)
Hawaii (August 31)
Illinois (August 22)
Indiana (August 24)
Maine (extended until August 3; now expired)
Minnesota (August 12)
Nevada (August 31)
New York (August 20)
Pennsylvania (August 31)
Four others offered the most generous provisions, which give tenants over a month before the protections expire, and those states include:
Arizona (October 31)
Massachusetts (October 17)
Oregon (September 30)
Washington (October 15)
While states are varied in their protections, what complicates matters, especially for process servers, is that evictions protocol is also being determined in some states by county and even by city. Further adding to the complexity is that some are filing lawsuits to combat the anticipated wave of evictions, which offers at the very least, delays in the process, or at best, extensions of tenants’ rights.
Highly Populated States Offer Mixed Tenant Protections
The surge in evictions will not happen at the same time because states offer various protections for tenants. Typically, process servers can look to larger states to see what they can expect. However, states with the highest populations in the US aren’t all on the same page when it comes to tenant protections.
In California, state-wide eviction protections expired with the CARES Act evictions protections. Extensions are on a city and county basis, varying wildly depending on location. NOLO provides an excellent breakdown of the current provisions within California. Throughout the state, both tenants and landlords are voicing their opinions. Protestors took to city halls, seeking an extension of the moratorium while demanding rent get “canceled.” Meanwhile, landlords feel stuck according to one report by a local California news station, unable to move forward with evictions processes on tenants who have been unable to pay. Currently, there are no state bills pending that could extend the moratorium; however, federal options to extend tenant protections are not off the table yet.
Florida’s extended tenant protections are set to expire on September 1st, after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis extended protections on July 29, 2020, through Executive Order 20-180. News agencies across the state have reported that the “floodgates will open” at the expiration of the order due to the backlog of cases. For example, the Orlando Sentinel reported that “there are about 1,000 evictions filed every month in Orange County, which could mean there’s a backlog of at least 5,000 cases.” This delays evictions in Florida, though it seems to only prolong a looming crisis. Florida Today noted that the “Florida-wide housing disaster” will merely be delayed by the governor’s recent order.
Illinois’ tenant protections were also extended through August 22 by Governor JB Pritzker through governmental executive order 2020-48. Unless extended, evictions will resume once the state provisions expire.
Similar to Illinois, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo extended tenant protections through an executive order, providing protections through August 20, 2020. When these provisions expire, if no new legislation is enacted, evictions will resume. Currently, it appears that tenants will need to show financial hardship in court to avoid eviction, according to recent news releases.
Texas allowed the evictions protections to cease in July with the federal moratorium’s expiration. However, recently on August 7, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton ruled that local governments do not have the power to create or extend evictions moratoriums, even though they are granted some emergency powers as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This means that throughout the state of Texas, no additional provisions for tenants can be made, which ultimately will result in more evictions being filed.
States Already Seeing an Increase in Evictions
While those are the states with the largest populations, it may not mean that they have the highest percent of evictions when the moratoriums expire. For example, one news outlet reported that Connecticut may soar to have the highest rate, and others are also reporting dramatic increases.
News outlets are reporting that Wisconsin and Idaho are experiencing the largest surge in evictions cases, according to data compiled by LegalShield, a nationwide legal service, which issued a press release to several news outlets. Their report contends, “Comparing first to second quarter, Idaho recorded a 76.8% spike in requests for service around ‘landlord/tenant-eviction’ concerns, the largest increase among any state, while Wisconsin notched a 45.7% increase. Louisiana (44.8%), Pennsylvania (35.9%), Rhode Island (23.9%), Ohio (23.1%), Maryland (22.6%), Iowa (22.4%), Arkansas (22.3%), and Texas (20.7%) rounded out the top 10 states with largest quarter-over-quarter increase.”
COVID-19 Economic Impact
The economic impacts of the coronavirus are still unfolding. The Wall Street Journal reported in early August that the federal unemployment rate peaked in April 2020 at 15%; however, that was short-lived as July added 1.8 million jobs and boasted a lower 10.2% unemployment rate, signaling that economic conditions are improving. As individuals lose their source of income, they lose their ability to stay on top of bills, including mortgages and rent. As COVID-19 persisted through the spring and summer months, many individuals who were not able to pay their rent on time or at all for months on end were able to stay in their homes thanks to the aforementioned CARES Act protections. As those have expired, landlords will be able to start eviction processes after months of nonpayment.
The Legal Services Corporation, a non-profit that “promotes equal access to justice and provides grants for high-quality civil legal assistance to low-income Americans,” estimates that it would cost $2.5 billion to prevent a full-blown eviction crisis.
What Does This Mean For Process Servers?
Process servers play a critical role in the evictions proceedings by giving tenants the due process notice that they will need to appear in court. Process servers should be closely paying attention to any upcoming changes as legislative measures could drastically impact workflow. This means paying attention to not only federal legislative matters, but state and local governments as well, as many across the country are legislating their own rules.
While the ultimate impact is yet to be seen, process servers should gear up for a potentially busy season with an impending slew of evictions — at some point in time, the moratoriums will cease, and those behind on their rent will face eviction processes. The true number of evictions to come are still unforeseen due to the complexity of the issue. This was also recently reiterated in a recent New York Times article: “Evictions, meted out by local courts, are difficult to tally nationwide.”
We’ll do our best to keep you informed, so check back for updates.
Do you think there will be an influx of serves when the COVID-19 eviction moratoriums lift? Are you prepared for the increase in jobs? Share your thoughts by joining our groups on LinkedIn and Facebook or contact us.
Source: ServeNow
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TONIGHT on ‘The Classic Rock Show’…
Another week has flown by and we’re here again ahead of tonight’s show letting you know what we’ll all be rockin’ out to later.
We begin, as is the norm these days, with two tracks from albums which were released around about this week back in the day; two prime cuts of well-hung beef in the form of Van Halen and Krokus. Also on The Classic Rock Show tonight (from 7pm BST) are Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath (x3), Queen, Magnum, Sammy Hagar, Led Zeppelin, Atreyu (who absolutely killed it last night at The Underworld, Camden), The Cult (from their stunningly brilliant Sonic Temple album which was released 25 years ago and still sounds awesome!), Buckcherry, Hinder, Blackberry Smoke, Anti-Nowhere League, Pearl Jam, W.A.S.P., Children Of Bodom, Alestorm, Rainbow, Savatage, Def Leppard, Kiss, Status Quo, Peter Frampton…and so the list goes on!
Join us on Twitter @classicrockshow (use the hashtag #TCRS) and/or our Facebook Group.
Listen links can be found on the homepage…see you at 7pm BST for three hours of great music.
Black Sabbath (x3)
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NEWS: W.A.S.P. announce ten date tour of UK and Ireland in September! New album ‘GOLGOTHA’ due in August! →
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FRANCIS SCHAEFFER ANALYZES ART AND CULTURE Part 69 THE BEATLES (Part S, WHY WAS SIMON RODILLA CHOSEN TO BE ON COVER OF SGT. PEPPER’S? ) (Feature on artist John Outterbridge )
SIMON RODILLA was put on the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s because of the word LABOR!!! He dedicated his own life to his work and built something that impressed beyond his death and it impressed Jann Haworth and that is why she chose to put him on the cover. Read more about SIMON RODILLA and the issue of the Beatles and their work in this post below.
Beatles Reunion – Larry King Live (part 1)
Uploaded on Jun 27, 2007
Larry King interview with Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono, Olivia Harrison and Guy Laliberté on the occasion of the 1st anniversary of Cirque du Soleil Love show.
Edith and Francis Schaffer pictured below:
How Should We then Live Episode 7
The Beatles were looking for lasting satisfaction in their lives and their journey took them down many of the same paths that other young people of the 1960’s were taking. No wonder in the video THE AGE OF NON-REASON Schaeffer noted, ” Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band…for a time it became the rallying cry for young people throughout the world. It expressed the essence of their lives, thoughts and their feelings.”
Today we will look at the path of throwing your life into your work or labor, and also we will look at the life of SIMON RODILLA (Justin Maurer’s article, “Sam Rodia’s Watts Towers,”) who is featured on the cover of Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band Album. Later in this post we will look at how hard the Beatles labored and how they were able to produce 12 albums (actually 13 in the USA) in only 8 years (#ASKNAT – CONCERNING WHY THE BEATLES RELEASED SO MANY ALBUMS). But first let’s take a look back in history at the most successful king in Israel’s history and see what he had to say the satisfaction or lack of satisfaction that his labor brought him.
Francis Schaeffer noted:
Leonardo da Vinci and Solomon both were universal men searching for the meaning in life. Solomon was searching for a meaning in the midst of the details of life. His struggle was to find the meaning of life. Not just plans in life. Anybody can find plans in life. A child can fill up his time with plans of building tomorrow’s sand castle when today’s has been washed away. There is a difference between finding plans in life and purpose in life. Humanism since the Renaissance and onward has never found it and it has never found it. Modern man has not found it and it has always got worse and darker in a very real way.
We have here the declaration of Solomon’s universality:
30 so that Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt. 31 For he was wiser than all other men, wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol, and his fame was in all the surrounding nations. 32 He also spoke 3,000 proverbs, and his songs were 1,005. 33 He spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of the wall. He spoke also of beasts, and of birds, and of reptiles, and of fish. 34 And people of all nations came to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and from all the kings of the earth, who had heard of his wisdom.
Here is the universal man and his genius. Solomon is the universal man with a empire at his disposal. Solomon had it all.
3 What does man gain by all the toil
at which he toils under the sun?
Schaeffer noted that Solomon took a look at the meaning of life on the basis of human life standing alone between birth and death “under the sun.” This phrase UNDER THE SUN appears over and over in Ecclesiastes. The Christian Scholar Ravi Zacharias noted, “The key to understanding the Book of Ecclesiastes is the term UNDER THE SUN — What that literally means is you lock God out of a closed system and you are left with only this world of Time plus Chance plus matter.”
Justin Maurer in his blog post, “Sam Rodia’s Watts Towers,” noted:
Two years later, a photo of Rodia was included on the iconic album cover of the Beatles, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band released in ’67 (Rodia is on the top row, far right, to the immediate left of Bob Dylan).
Jann Haworth chose Simon “Sam” Rodilla to be on the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s because he spent 30 years of his time laboring to build something big that had never been done before. Sam himself said, “I had it in my my to do something big and I did” (quote from the film “LA Watts Towers: “The Towers” 1957.) Rodilla also asserted, “You got to do something they never got ’em in the world.”
In the film “LA Watts Towers: “The Towers” the narrator notes, “For thirty years every day, every moment outside of his work for a living, in the light and in the darkness, Simon Rodilla labored to express the dream….As he was planning his towers his mind often turned to the past. He had a deep respect for men like Galileo, Michelangelo, Marco Polo, Columbus, builders and explorers, men of statue. He hoped in some way that his work was related to their tradition, yet he sought nothing for himself, he was content to think of great men and to build in the direction of the sky…He had an urgent need for expression.”
This series on the Beatles has included many posts on the individuals chosen to be on the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s. One interesting fact is how many of those men and ladies died in the grips of alcoholism. Justin Maurer reports in blog that may have also happened to Simon. “It was also rumored that he drank heavily after leaving his wife, and he felt the need of a monumental project to avoid a plunge into heavy drinking.” (This was back in 1927 and at this point Rodilla’s life was heading NOWHERE!!!)
Just like King Solomon, Simon Rodilla was searching for meaning in life and he found that liquor was an empty pursuit and that is when he turned to his new project. Sadly Solomon also found the pursuit of great works in his labor just as empty. In Ecclesiastes 2:11 he asserted, “THEN I CONSIDERED ALL THAT MY HANDS HAD DONE AND THE TOLL I HAD EXPENDED IN DOING IT, AND BEHOLD, ALL WAS VANITY AND A STRIVING AFTER WIND, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.”
Simon said, “You got to do something they never got ’em in the world.” But Solomon noted in Ecclesiastes 1:9, “What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.”
The Beatles were also caught in this predicament because they were looking for lasting meaning in their lives and they were doing it in the same 6 areas that King Solomon did in what I call the 6 big L words. He looked into learning (1:16-18), laughter, ladies, luxuries, and liquor (2:1-3, 8, 10, 11), and labor (2:4-6, 18-20).
John Lennon also was personally going through about half the list of L words in 1968 when he wrote the song “I’m so Tired.” He was staying with the Maharishi and was not allowed liquor, and luxuries and his mistress Yoko Ono was not invited to travel with him to India.
Hulton Archive/Getty Images
The Beatles were extremely hard workers and their output during the eight years they were together was large by today’s standards but not necessarily by those days standards. Below is a portion of an article that looks into the question of why the Beatles produced so many albums in a 8 year period.
#ASKNAT – CONCERNING WHY THE BEATLES RELEASED SO MANY ALBUMS
It’s time for another week’s #askNat and I have an interesting question this week that comes from Michael Mincey of Texas. He says:
Nat,
While I’m grateful for The Beatles releasing so many albums, I’ve always wondered why they (and other bands) recorded so frequently. Was it in their contracts with record companies, the artistic flow of the group, or some other factors?
I often question whether or not the Beatles were burned out from recording together. Maybe they could have taken vacations away from each other?
I’m sorry for my ignorance, but I grew up at a time when bands would release one album per year, or even several years apart. What has changed?
While The Beatles output of twelve albums in eight years is commendable, the number of albums per year is not so out of the ordinary. They worked hard and were very productive people that had a passion for their art. But they took vacations away from each other as well, not very long ones in the early days but one that was approximately three months towards the end of 1966. Excluding live albums and compilations and considering a similar period, both The Rolling Stones and The Kinks put out 9 albums between 1964 and 1971. Keeping in mind that they did this without ceasing to tour as The Beatles did after 1966, it seems fairly comparable.
It does seem like The Beatles put out a lot more than just the session work for twelve albums and this is for a number of reasons besides their continued presence in the news and events such as The Grammys. These include:
Since The Beatles remain in such high demand, there have been lots of compilations of their music on the market over the years. One category for these are hits collections such as The Beatles 1962-1966 (1973), The Beatles 1967-1970 (1973), Rock ‘N’ Roll Music(1976), Love Songs(1977), Twenty Greatest Hits (1982), Reel Music(1982) and One (2000). Another category for compilations would include collections of out-takes and extras such as the Anthologies. A third category for these would be for live shows such as The Beatles At The Hollywood Bowl album (1977) or the release of the Ed Sullivan Shows that starred the Beatles on DVD/BluRay.
While The Beatles had 12 “sixties” EMI albums in the UK, the US had plenty more since the practice in America was for shorter albums and also including tracks from singles as album tracks. This resulted in roughly 3 albums in the U.S. for every two in the UK. Since many of the US tracks have different mixes and edits, it expands the catalog even more for completists. A 13-disc box set called The U.S. Albums was recently released that contained only the Beatles albums that had track listings unique to the US.
Again because The Beatles have been in such high demand over the years, several special releases that contain alternate mixes of already released music have been issued, to include Rarities, theYellow Submarine Songtrack, the Love soundtrack and Let It Be…Naked.
My whole point in bringing this up is to show that while The Beatles worked hard and put out a lot of material in a short time, it seems like even more than it is because we are getting so much that came from the sessions and was initially never even intended to be shared with the public. Yet now, because of the public demand, historical interest and their status as arguably the most groundbreaking musicians of their time and genre, we are getting much more diggings from deeper in the vault. Add to this the hits collections and periodic remastered sets and you see how much of a commodity The Beatles legacy has become.
Here is a portion of a blog post by Phillippe Viguier concerning what Solomon said about our labor.
Is there gain in our labor? – Ecclesiastes 1:1-11
Sigmund Freud, the “father” of modern psychology, once wrote concerning the meaning of life: “When we begin to ask questions on the meaning of life and on death, we become sick, for none of this exists in an objective way.”
To his credit, Freud was very true to his worldview. If you believe in evolution and humans being the random result of natural causes, you shouldn’t ask yourself if life has a meaning, because there wouldn’t be such a thing as a meaning for life. In fact, the reality that you would even consider asking yourself the question would just be the evidence that you are mentally sick, unbalanced and in internal conflict.
Because without God, a meaning for the life is just an absurd thought.
Can there be any meaning in this life apart from God?
No, there cannot be….
Is there anything to gain from our toil under the sun? Think about it a second…ask yourself…is there anything lasting and meaningful to gain from all your daily toil under the sun? For working a job? For studying in school? For keeping a house together? For changing diapers?
Well, I’m glad you asked, because I just happen to have come across a book written by the the wisest man who ever lived on earth and who and saturated his mind with a quest to understand this question.
This question, Solomon would ask it six times, once in every first six chapters of the book of Ecclesiastes, where I invite you to turn in your Bibles. And we will look at the first chapter, from verses 1-11.
Ecc 1:1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. [2] Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. [3] What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? [4] A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. [5] The sun rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises. [6] The wind blows to the south and goes around to the north; around and around goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns. [7] All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again. [8] All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. [9] What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. [10] Is there a thing of which it is said, “See, this is new”? It has been already in the ages before us. [11] There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after.
“Vanity of vanities” said the preacher…we’ve heard this phrase many times. But why do you think Solomon said it…to make you feel bad about your day? To help you betterunderstand despair? To make you spend money on a psychologist? To make you empathize with him because he was a loser?
We’re talking about the wisest man who ever lived here…
No, the reason why he states this so bluntly is to provoke you to think about the matter. Because the only way you will ever do anything with his message is if it creates convictions in your heart about what you really believe. Because everyone needs to know what they live for, and how this should flesh out on a daily basis. When I first began to study the book of Ecclesiastes as a teenager, it changed my life. And even to this day, I can say without a doubt that the book of Ecclesiastes has been the book giving me the most hope concerning the meaning of my life on earth…But the main question remains: Is there any gain in our toil? And the answer is: yes, there is gain, there is infinite gain. And today we are going to look at 4 realities concerning our toil that should make us toil even harder. 4 realities concerning our toil that should make us toil even harder.
[Now bear with me. Solomon uses the power of opposites and of contrasts. So don’t get depressed in the beginning. The good stuff will come at the end when we wrap it all up.]
I. Earthly Toil Defines our Lives (vv.1-3)
The first aspect of our toil that we see here is that earthly toil defines our lives.
Ecc 1:1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. [2] Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. [3] What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?
The reason why Solomon asks this question about the meaning of our toil is because it is the reality of our lives. All that we do is toil. There is nothing on earth that is done that doesn’t require effort. As a result, the sum of our lives is really the sum of our efforts.
And without God it is all vanity.
The term “vanity” is actually a pretty good term to define our lives. It comes from a Hebrew term that comes from a root meaning “vapor” or “breath.” And just like breath, most of what you do will pass without being seen. Like a breath, your life will pass without leaving anything of itself behind. It will pass and be gone forever from under the sun. Like a breath, your life is one among billions and is insignificant in comparison to the scope of this world. A breath is meaningless. It cannot be grasped, cannot be seen, cannot be measured, it doesn’t last, it comes from nowhere and goes nowhere, and it is not worthy to be remembered. And yet, that’s all that we got.
“Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.”
Without God, there is absolutely nothing that we can contribute to this world. In and of ourselves, we are absolute nothingness. That is our identity, and the reality of everything that we do. We are but empty vessels.
And so Solomon asks, rhetorically,
“What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?”
I mean, doesn’t just asking the question make you tired? “What does man gain by all thetoil at which he toils under the sun?” Doesn’t that just want to make you exhale “pfffiu!” Isn’t it tiring just to think about all the things that you need to get done?
But Solomon gets the guts to ask: If we are nothing, and everything that is done is nothing, then why do we keep on doing it?
II. Earthly Toil is Powerless (vv.4-7)
So first earthly toil is what defines us, secondly, earthly toil is powerless.
Ecc 1:4 A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. [5] The sun rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises. [6] The wind blows to the south and goes around to the north; around and around goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns. [7] All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again.
Here we see four different images from nature that show to us how powerless we are as humans to change anything in the world in which we live.
There is the earth that remains forever, there is the sun that remains forever, there is the wind that reminds forever and there are is the sea that reminds forever.
Simply put, we live in a world in which we cannot change the rules of the game. We are creatures of limited power in a world of excessive power. And even though we crave for power, no matter how much little power we can attain in our limited state, we will never be able to change anything with the forces that set this world in motion. The laws of nature cannot be altered, slowed down, broken or changed. And if our existence was to find meaning in us making a difference in this world, we would be doomed to total despair.
The earth, the sun, the wind, the sea…all trump us.
III. Earthly Toil is Wearisome (v.8)
So first, we saw that earthly toil is what defines us. Secondly, that earthly toil is powerless. Thirdly, we see that earthly toil is wearisome.
Ecc 1:8 All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
Earthly toil is wearisome. It is tiresome. It makes you sweat, it makes you hungry, and itempties you of your strength.
Life is a constant investment of self. There is nothing that you do that does not require a part of you: whether it is your time, your energy, or your resources. Man is constantly losing his most precious possession which he calls life, to never get any of it back.
All things are full of weariness, so much that we cannot describe it. Because everything requires effort, to describe effort makes effort, and so the weariness will always outbalance its explanation. Labor is a competitor that can never be out-bidded. It will always trump you in everything you do. No human being able to talk will ever be able to describe all the efforts that they had to do to live on earth.
But is even more deplorable about this is that even though everything takes effort, there is no reward for it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. It is as if the human’s soul is bound to a formula in which all satisfaction is measured by the amount of toil multiplied by zero. How can you win when you multiply by zero? You can only lose.
Can wealth bring happiness?
Do you guys realize how wealthy Solomon was?
The weight of gold that he made every year just from the profit in Israel was 666 talents of gold (1 Kings 10:14), which is the equivalent of 25 tons of gold every year. You are talking about a massive cube of over 6 feet on each side, which in our day, since one ounce of gold is worth between $1700-1800 and there are over 35,000 ounces in a ton, would be about $1.5 billion. $1.5 billion every year…and he was king for 40 years. That’s 60 billion dollars too spend.
But he writes concerning money:
Ecc 5:10 He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity.
Can pleasure bring happiness?
Ecc 2:10 And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. [11] Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.
Ecc 6:7 All the toil of man is for his mouth, yet his appetite is not satisfied.
You can desire pleasure, you will never get enough…
And it is sad, but a lot of people start life thinking that they are the new Christopher Columbus on board of his brand new vessel, ready to explore seas of pleasure, only to eventually become stranded with no land in the horizon, no direction, and no hope.
And the list continues…Solomon tried to find satisfaction through human wisdom, through human success, through romance, through power, through fame, through the search of human perfection…all failed. And it didn’t matter how many excesses he had…it was always multipled by zero.
I mean we know it…one episode does not satisfy. That’s why we watch the next one, and the next one, only to finish a series and to start another, always on our hunger. Same with video games. One level is passed, then the next, then the next one, then what? The eyes are never satisfied. All that the world gives us is salt water. It is made of the same stuff that satisfy, but it just never gets there. It only makes it worse.
But again, that’s just how man is made. We are made to toil, we are made to be limited in power, and we are also made to have holes in our heart that longs for something bigger than ourselves, for something infinite and eternal.
IV. Earthly toil is Meaningless (vv.9-11)
First earthly toil is what defines us, secondly it is powerless, thirdly wearisome, and fourthly it is meaningless. Earthly toil is meaningless.
Ecc 1:9 What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. [10] Is there a thing of which it is said, “See, this is new”? It has been already in the ages before us. [11] There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after.
Do things really change? There is nothing new under the sun. Mankind is and will always be made of the same mold. And we might like our Steve Jobs and our Einsteins and our pop stars, but eventually it all passes like a breath, and all is forgotten.
Now, when Solomon says there is nothing new, we must understand the context. It’s not that man cannot makes inventions, but about the incapacity to change who we are and what makes us happy. The 20th century is a great testimony of that, as it showed that technology does not improve man’s morals or well-being…while some might have enjoyed lives a little more comfortable, tens of millions have perished in world wars and weapons created by our “new” technologies for mass destruction.
There is no such a thing as a new source of pleasure, there is no such a thing as a new message of wisdom, there is no such a thing as a deeper and better definition for the meaning of life.
Think about the life of Solomon.
In Ecclesiastes 7:15 he writes, “In my vain life I have seen everything.” Now don’t you think that someone who has seen everything could give you a deeper sense of what this world is all about?
Well, listen to his last words…
Ecc 12:13 The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. [14] For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.
Now listens to the last words of his father, king David,
1Ki 2:2 “I am about to go the way of all the earth. Be strong, and show yourself a man, [3] and keep the charge of the LORD your God, walking in his ways and keeping his statutes, his commandments, his rules, and his testimonies, as it is written in the Law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn,
Is it really different? Here they are with the same message: if you want to be a man, fear God and obey Him, because He is the only who can truly bless you.
Now, don’t you think it would be humbling for Solomon to write this as his conclusion? The man was the wisest man who ever lived before Christ. Not only that, but he experienced all the excesses and the depths and heights of human life…and yet he couldn’t even improve or add anything to what had been passed down to him.
So here we are in our quest of defining the meaning of life: man is a creature that is made to toil, that is incapable of changing his nature, that is condemned to suffer weariness and pain, and who longs for something bigger than himself of which he will taste out of his own toil.
So, well…thank you for listening, now you can go home and cry, lament, quit your job, and curse the day of your birth…
Well, God would not have placed the book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible if that’s all it did.
But before we get to the “good” stuff, don’t move away mentally from the feelings that this provoke in you. I mean, when we read and study this stuff, it should create unrest in our souls, because we all know that this world must be full of meaning, that there must be a sense for all of our toil.
While Solomon asks 6 times, “why do we toil?” Seven times he answers, like in Ecclesiastes 2:24:
Ecc_2:24 There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, [12] I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; [13] also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man.
Solomon’s conclusion is clear: work your tail off. Give yourself to others…Work hard with your family. Work hard at your job. Work hard at church. Be human as humans should be, tired, weak, needy, but always filled with joy because when you have faith God is with you everywhere you go, to bring eternity in action through the mundane of life.
Without God, all the pleasures of life are multiplied by zero. With Him, they are multiplied by infinity. If this isn’t meaningful, I don’t what is.
There is evidence that points to the fact that the Bible is historically true as Schaeffer pointed out in episode 5 of WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE HUMAN RACE? There is a basis then for faith in Christ alone for our eternal hope. This link shows how to do that.
The Bible and Archaeology – Is the Bible from God? (Kyle Butt 42 min)
You want some evidence that indicates that the Bible is true? Here is a good place to start and that is taking a closer look at the archaeology of the Old Testament times. Is the Bible historically accurate? Here are some of the posts I have done in the past on the subject: 1. The Babylonian Chronicle, of Nebuchadnezzars Siege of Jerusalem, 2. Hezekiah’s Siloam Tunnel Inscription. 3. Taylor Prism (Sennacherib Hexagonal Prism), 4. Biblical Cities Attested Archaeologically. 5. The Discovery of the Hittites, 6.Shishak Smiting His Captives, 7. Moabite Stone, 8. Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III, 9A Verification of places in Gospel of John and Book of Acts., 9B Discovery of Ebla Tablets. 10. Cyrus Cylinder, 11. Puru “The lot of Yahali” 9th Century B.C.E., 12. The Uzziah Tablet Inscription, 13. The Pilate Inscription, 14. Caiaphas Ossuary, 14 B Pontius Pilate Part 2, 14c. Three greatest American Archaeologists moved to accept Bible’s accuracy through archaeology.,
LA Watts Towers: “The Towers” 1957 Rembrandt Films 12min
Here is a blog post by Justin Maurer that does a great describing what Simon “Sam” Rodia was attempting to do with his towers.
Sam Rodia’s Watts Towers
“I was going to do something big, and I did…You have to be good good or bad bad to be remembered.”
– Sabato “Sam” Rodia, 1952
On a sunny Sunday afternoon I convinced my girlfriend to head down to South Central L.A. with me to check out Watts Towers. Growing up in a gang-rife Los Angeles of the 1980s and early 90s where Crips and Bloods reigned supreme, children were taught to be afraid of South L.A. South Central was especially dangerous and anywhere south of the 10 Freeway was to be avoided at all costs. In the films and television of the 80s and 90s, “Don’t go south of the 10 (Freeway),” was a common repeated phrase.
Fortunately we disregarded the advice of my childhood and decided to pay a visit to Sabato “Sam” Rodia’s Watt’s Towers, a one-man 30 year creation spanning from 1921 to 1954. Visiting the towers really touched me. I wanted to get a feel for the human heart behind this intense labor of love.
Coincidentally the Watts Jazz Festival was in full swing on the Sunday afternoon when we made the trip down to South Central Los Angeles. Watts has a history of defiance, notably the Watts Riots of 1965, the L.A. Riots of 1992, and in a historically defiant work of outsider art, Watts Towers. The Towers have stood the test of time, a veritable fist in the sky against naysayers, vandals and multiple city demolition attempts.
On the Watts Jazz Festival’s stage a charismatic M.C. declared into the mike, “Don’t let the city officials fool you. We put this together ourselves without their help. We raised the money. We put this together for the people of Watts without help or assistance from the City of Los Angeles.” The attitude of the M.C. seemed directly reflective of Rodia and his Towers. Rodia worked alone and completed his masterpiece without the help or money of outsiders. It was his personal gift to South Central Los Angeles and the world.
Although the Towers and the surrounding park are on the map, as far as city officials are concerned, the people of South Central L.A. are a low priority, off the radar of city government. South LA residents’ marginalization in the past led to drug addiction, gang violence, riots and turmoil. The mostly middle-aged black attendees of the Watts Jazz Festival have survived living in a place that at times resembled a war zone. They continue to have a sense of quiet yet defiant pride. The Watts festival attendees seem to prove that holding your head high and holding your culture close is one of the only ways to overcome decades of adversity. What better way to show this sentiment then throwing a free Jazz Festival in the park, run by the people for the people. This idea seemed to go back to the Wattstax Festival of 1972 where admission was $1. They kept the admission cost low so that everyone who suffered the Watts riots 7 years earlier could afford to partake in the festivities.
Simon “Sam” Rodia was an Italian immigrant who began his new life in Pennsylvania in 1895. When his brother died in a coal mining accident, he moved west, living in Seattle and Oakland, where he and his wife had 3 children. A tiny man, at 4’11”, he worked with his hands as a tiler, logger and construction worker as well as finding work in railroad camps and rock quarries. Many of the skills he learned in his varied manual labor occupations would later facilitate the creation of his masterpiece.
When he divorced his wife around 1909, he left his family in Oakland, moving south to Long Beach. After a few years of living and working (including relationships with 2 women), he heard about a reasonably priced small plot of land for sale in Watts. At the time, Watts was not a desirable location to live because of its proximity to both rail road tracks and the light rail tracks for the Red Car, a street car which connected downtown Los Angeles with Long Beach. The street car and the railroad produced quite a bit of noise which made the nearby lot a difficult sell.
Rodia’s romantic relations with a woman named Benita dissolved and in 1921 he decided to buy the triangular plot located at 1761-1765 107th Street in South Los Angeles. He built a small house for himself on one side of the lot and feverishly began construction on his vision of 3 towers on the other. In the 20s he lived with a woman named Carmen. After she left him in 1927, he would remain alone for the rest of his life, dedicated to creating something great.
Rodia’s heroes were highly regarded Italians like Galileo, Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus and Michelangelo. He admired the Leaning Tower of Pisa and other noteworthy Italian architecture. He was determined to create something that matched the accomplishments of his idols. It was also rumored that he drank heavily after leaving his wife, and he felt the need of a monumental project to avoid a plunge into heavy drinking. Rodia came up with an idea to create a giant sculpture resembling one of Marco Polo’s ships.
He built his Towers using a mixture of concrete, steel and wire mesh. He would bend steel using the nearby railroad tracks to anchor a makeshift vise. His basic masonry tools and his bare hands were his instruments to build. He decorated his towers and the walls surrounding the Towers with his neighbors’ discarded trash: glass bottles, broken kitchen platters, ceramic pottery and seashells from the beach 20 miles away. He constructed a stone oven where he baked bread as well as melted ceramic and glass items for decoration and construction of the Towers. His sense of humor is seen in his offbeat touches including a cement cowboy booted foot and teapot spouts jutting out of walls.
Rodia would also pay neighborhood kids in cookies or pennies for pieces of broken pottery and kitchenware. He was known to the children as the “3 Musketeers Man,” because at the time, a full-sized 3 Musketeers chocolate bar cost a nickel. If the kids brought him enough ceramic pieces, he would sometimes reward them with a nickel.
Rodia worked full time in a ceramics factory, the Malibu Tile Company in Santa Monica, and would collect ideal pieces to decorate his massive sculpture. He was fired from Malibu Tile when they discovered he was stealing such a large amount of supplies. He quickly lined up other work in the area in tiling, as a security guard and as a telephone line repairman. He diligently attended work full time and remained obsessed with his project during every free moment day or night for 30 years.
To make his commute to work quicker, he placed a circular police siren on top of his car. After successfully navigating South L.A.’s streets in an imposter squad car, someone reported him. The police came to investigate and he told the officers that he had never owned a car. The rumor was that he buried his car to avoid prosecution. It remained a rumor until it was confirmed in the 1990s, when the shell of a car was found buried behind one of his walls.
Despite his popularity with certain neighborhood children, he was often mocked by locals, dismissing his project as crazy or an eyesore.
Shrugging off the frequent ridicule, Rodia remained focused.
“Some of the people they say what is he doing? Some of the people were thinkin’ I was crazy, and some other people they say he’s gonna do something.”
– Sam Rodia
He would frequently walk the entirety of the railroad tracks from Watts to the rail road depot in Wilmington (about 15 miles one way), to collect broken bottles and other useful items on the side of the tracks. He used bottles of popular beverages such as 7-Up for green glass and Milk of Magnesia for blue glass.
His name was misspelled in a 1937 LA Times article calling him “Simon Rodilla.” History would correct his last name (Rodia), but unfortunately his incorrect first name (Simon) remained. He went by the nickname “Sam,” although his Italian given name was Sabato.
As Rodia’s project reached new monumental heights (his tallest Tower 99 1/2 feet tall) he ordained himself a minister and began orchestrating weddings, baptisms and other religious ceremonies in front of his towers. His ceremony had an unmarried couple entering the compound from one divided door frame and leaving simultaneously through one door. The ceremonies he performed were not recognized by the church or the State of California, but he drummed up a steady flow of marriages and baptisms nonetheless. On Sundays he would give sermons from a podium to any who would listen. Rodia built two fountains that spurted water. As the overflow of liquid seeped into his designs imprinted on the ground, it gave them an otherworldly feel.
According to our tour guide at Watts Towers, Rodia worked with his hands so frequently that his fingerprints were completely rubbed off. He bathed once a month in rubbing alcohol to get all of the building material off of his skin. He used a window washer’s belt and harness to climb the towers, and in his old age fell off one of the Towers in the 50s, breaking one of his hips. He remained committed and finished his project which he compared to “Marco Polo’s ship.”
On the side of the main tower is inscribed “Nuestro Pueblo” – “Our Town” in Spanish. He was fluent in Spanish and his Mexican neighbors thought that he was of Latino origin. He attended Italo-American society meetings in downtown Los Angeles so he managed to retain his Italian identity. It is curious that he named his creation “Nuestro Pueblo,” in Spanish instead of Italian. The Italian would have been “Nostra Città.” Simon Rodia was illiterate, dropping out of school at the age of 12 when he began working, so perhaps he became more accustomed to Spanish after his 50 years in the states or maybe he knew that more locals were familiar with Spanish. Perhaps it was a nod to the region’s Latino history or the El Pueblo de Los Angeles Monument on Olvera Street, the most historic street in downtown Los Angeles.
When completed, within the walls of Rodia’s Towers are 17 structures including 3 towers, a baptismal font, fountains and the four walls that surround the Towers. A city ordinance forbade a building taller than 100 feet so his tallest tower is 99 1/2 feet tall. The inner and outer walls as well as the ground are covered in Rodia’s personalized imprints – using a garden hose faucet to depict flowers, the metal backings of chairs and headboards to create intricate imprints and also hand-placed sea shells, glass bottles and tiles. Heart designs also feature prominently. When asked about the significance of the hearts, he replied, “You know.”
During WWII, in step with Japanese internment and widespread anxiety and paranoia, it was rumored that his creation was a clandestine radio tower used to communicate with the enemy.
After 31 years of labor, in 1948 his Towers were complete, ornately decorated and solid. Allegedly he frequently bickered with his neighbors, and some of the locals would even vandalize his project.
(At the 2:35 mark R. Buckminster Fuller comments on “Sam” and at the 7:21 mark Sam asserts, “You got to do something they never got ’em in the world.”)
official trailer of the film “I Build the Tower” the Watts Towers by Simon Rodia.
Uploaded on Feb 12, 2011
This is the trailer or the movie “I Build the Tower” it can be ordered from http://www.ibuildthetower.com/. For information about the Watts Towers, opening hours and other information – visit the official Watts Towers Website: http://www.wattstowers.us/. There you can also find information on the history of the towers and their creator, Simon Rodia. On the site you can also view many collected videos about the Watts Towers.
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Finishing his masterpiece well into his 70s, he decided to relocate to Martinez, California (near his former home of Oakland) to be closer to his family. In 1954, he gave the plot of land to a neighbor, Luis Sauceda, and left his beloved Towers forever. One year later Sauceda sold the land to Joseph Montoya who wanted to convert the property into a taco stand that prominently featured the Towers, but this project never came to fruition.
In 1959 the Towers were condemned and slated for demolition, deemed “hazardous” by the City of Los Angeles. A few art advocates spearheaded by William and Carol Cartwright and Nicolas King, managed to raise $3000 to purchase the Towers. They orchestrated engineers to conduct a safety test. A crane was attached by rope to the main tower. It was decided that if the tower fell, then the Towers were unsafe. If the tower was left to withstand the intense force of the crane, then it would stay. Rodia’s Towers past the strength test with flying colors as the wheels from the crane were lifted off of the ground and the rope eventually broken with no damage to the tower besides a slight lean. His tower was jokingly dubbed, “The leaning tower of Watts.”
Sam Rodia happily conducted a few interviews with journalists and filmmakers about his Towers as they began to attract international attention in the 50s.
Rodia attended a conference about the towers at UC Berkeley in 1961 and appeared satisfied about finally receiving some recognition although he never visited his Towers again after leaving Watts in 1954. Sabato “Sam” Rodia died July 16, 1965 about one month before the Watts Riots violently erupted.
Two years later, a photo of Rodia was included on the iconic album cover of the Beatles, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band released in ’67 (Rodia is on the top row, far right, to the immediate left of Bob Dylan). Jann Haworth, the co-designer of the album cover was a native Angeleno, she included Simon Rodia as one of her personal contributions to the inspirational or historic figures included in the artwork.
Since the towers were proven safe, in 1975 the City of Los Angeles and the State of California took over the maintenance and conservation of the towers and they became a public heritage site. The immediate surrounding area became a park and arts center.
“Through the sheer force of the creative intelligence they manifest, the towers uplift the Watts community. They serve as an urban oasis…”
– American National Biography, A.N.B.
I thought about Simon Rodia and how his tenacity, character and personality reminded me of the way Italian-American writer John Fante, also an L.A. writer, described his own father, Nicola “Nick” Fante in his books. His father was a brick layer, often out of work during long winter months in Colorado. He drank plenty of “Dago Red” wine and was very proud at his intermittent accomplishments, constructing many prominent buildings in the Denver area. Many of Nicola Fante’s schools and churches still stand today in Northern California and Colorado.
In Dan Fante’s memoir about his family “Fante,” he recounts a tale of his Grandpa Nick in a bar fight with two Irishmen after they humiliated him. He smashed a bottle over one of the Irishmen’s head and bit the ear off another. He couldn’t handle being slighted or humiliated.
In John Fante’s book, “Full of Life,” he writes about his ferociously stubborn Italian father, who moves in with his son’s family in Los Angeles to help renovate their house when it became infested with termites.
“I felt his hot tears and the loneliness of man and the sweetness of all men and the aching haunting beauty of the living”
– John Fante, Full of Life
The ornery tenacity of Italian-American laborers like Nicola Fante and Sam Rodia has disappeared from today’s milk toast American society. Sam Rodia’s Watts Towers still stand, now respected but only after years of being considered the work of a crazy recluse. Rodia put up with the humiliation of being considered a laughingstock but remained ferociously dedicated to his art. After he was forsaken from his family, Rodia had a singular focus, building something he would be remembered for. In the still struggling South Los Angeles neighborhood of Watts, his Towers remain a testament. They reveal the resilience of the human condition. They show that a neighborhood can survive racism, poverty, police brutality and riots. They show that a simple man can create, even a man with a broken heart.
Justin Maurer is a writer and musician from Los Angeles.
Contact Justin
100 Greatest Beatles Songs
By Elvis Costello
My absolute favorite albums are Rubber Soul and Revolver. On both records you can hear references to other music — R&B, Dylan, psychedelia — but it’s not done in a way that is obvious or dates the records. When you picked up Revolver, you knew it was something different. Heck, they are wearing sunglasses indoors in the picture on the back of the cover and not even looking at the camera . . . and the music was so strange and yet so vivid. If I had to pick a favorite song from those albums, it would be “And Your Bird Can Sing” . . . no, “Girl” . . . no, “For No One” . . . and so on, and so on. . . .
Their breakup album, Let It Be, contains songs both gorgeous and jagged. I suppose ambition and human frailty creeps into every group, but they delivered some incredible performances. I remember going to Leicester Square and seeing the film of Let It Be in 1970. I left with a melancholy feeling.
The Beatles – Across the Universe (Full video)
Uploaded on Sep 4, 2010
With rare films at 2:05
February 1968 alternate take of the song, appeared on Anthology 2 in 1996
‘Across the Universe’
Central Press/Getty Images
Main Writer: Lennon
Recorded: February 4 and 8, 1968
Not released as a single
The words to “Across the Universe” were “purely inspirational and were given to me,” said Lennon. “I don’t own it; it came through like that.” The song is a paean to cosmic awareness, with serene ruminations like “Pools of sorrow, waves of joy are drifting through my open mind” and a refrain that names Guru Dev, the guru under whom the Maharishi himself studied. “It’s one of the best lyrics I’ve written,” Lennon told Rolling Stone. “In fact, it could be the best. It’s good poetry, or whatever you call it, without chewin’ it.”
Lennon was dissatisfied with the Beatles’ recorded version, originally cut for the White Album. (David Bowie would later cover the song, with Lennon on guitar.) Engineer Geoff Emerick recalled taping the lead vocal “over and over again because John was unhappy with the job he was doing. . . . It hadn’t come out the way he’d heard it in his head.” For Let It Be, producer Phil Spector slowed down the original recording and added a choir and orchestra. Said Lennon, “Spector took the tape and did a damn good job with it.”
Appears On: Past Masters and Let It Be
The Beatles I’m So Tired Demo May 1968
Title: I’m So Tired – Demo recorded May 1968 at ‘Kinfauns’,George Harrison’s estate in Esher.Using George’s Ampex four-track machine,The Beatles recorded demos of virtually all of the songs that they would record for “The Beatles” (aka the ‘White Album’).
‘I’m So Tired’
Recorded: October 8, 1968
Lennon wrote “I’m So Tired” during the Beatles’ stay with the Maharishi. With no booze, drugs or tobacco allowed at the ashram, Lennon was meditating all day and tormented by insomnia at night, obsessing over Yoko Ono, whom he had wanted to invite along despite the presence of his wife, Cynthia. One of dozens of songs the Beatles wrote in India, “I’m So Tired” detailed Lennon’s fragile state of mind. It was also an open letter to Ono, whose postcards to Lennon in India were a lifeline. “I got so excited about her letters,” he said. “I started thinking of her as a woman, and not just an intellectual woman.”
Lennon called the White Album track one of his favorite Beatles recordings. McCartney liked it too — at one of the Let It Be sessions in 1969, the Beatles recorded an informal, jokey version with McCartney singing lead. “‘So Tired’ is very much John’s comment to the world,” McCartney later said. “‘And curse Sir Walter Raleigh, he was such a stupid get.’ That’s a classic line, and it’s so John that there’s no doubt that he wrote it.”
Appears On: The Beatles
Otis Visiting Artist: John Outterbridge
Featured artist today is John Outterbridge
John Outterbridge interview
Godfather, 2011
b. 1933, Greenville, North Carolina
Lives and works in Los Angeles, California
Legendary Godfather Romare Bearden
I was always astonished when studying the assembled collages of the Legendary Godfather Romare Bearden. He expressed and lived with well-forged confidence and a rather personal language of line, form, craftsmanship and color, obviously nurtured and extended over many, many seasons. Steeped in both rural and deeply rooted urban traditions, this sensitive master certainly kept nothing from us. His African-American sagas were freely shared. Bearden at times could be a most serious humorist, with a backlog of skillfully rendered drawings, quick sketch notes of merit—loads of original archival material that most focused collectors would give up land for. Romare created, in the genre of the Harlem Renaissance, tales of folksy customs that stick.
There are any number of reasons why the art of Godfather Bearden bestows upon us such a brilliant kaleidoscope of notions and metaphor. The most compelling reason is that he agitated his own sense of poetic narrative and philosophy. By confronting all of us with such pedigree challenges, Bearden shared the most sacred of moments, and facet after facet of magnificent storytellings. Art worlds will forever celebrate the inventive nature of this fine talent—Legendary Godfather Romare Bearden.
— As told to Allese Thomson Baker
John Outterbridge, The Rag Factory (detail), 2011, mixed media, dimensions variable. Installation view.
For “Pacific Standard Time,” the multisite initiative that runs from October 2011 to April 2012 and celebrates art made in Southern California between 1945 and 1980, the artist John Outterbridge has created a site-specific installation at LAXART made almost entirely out of rags collected from the streets of Los Angeles and from a downtown factory. Widely known as a teacher, mentor, and community organizer, and as the director of the Watts Towers Arts Center from 1975 to 1992, Outterbridge has made work for the past forty years that is widely associated with the California Assemblage movement. The show is on view from September 10 to October 22.
I SEE A RAG AS AN OBJECT OF MANY VIBRATIONS. You wear clothes, and after you’re tired of them, they’re just rags. But you can’t escape the importance of the rag, no matter where you go or what you do. We use them to wrap around our bodies, but we also hide in them. Because of the colors, because of their previous lives and their histories, rags are pretty much a statement about our social position in the world and the importance of the cast-off. I like using metal a great deal too, or really any material that has a voice. Rag is not as cold as metal, and you can fold it up and put it in your pocket, you can put it in a bundle, you can hang it from the ceiling, you can decorate with it, it becomes a pillow you can lay your head down on. And that’s why I chose not to use anything for this show but piles of rags.
I was born in 1933, a long time ago. When I was a kid growing up in North Carolina, I had a mother and a father who had a lot of faith in cast-offs, the beauty and the aesthetics of what is not of use anymore, and that has always excited me because I saw old fences, degraded buildings, and scrub rags not as foreign objects but as being of a piece in the language of life, each with a lot of kinship between them. When you grow up the way I did, the way most African Americans did, separation was the law, and there were certain things––many things––that you just couldn’t do. We don’t talk about race in the way that we should, because it’s not popular anymore. We think that everything has been done before––even though nothing has been done before.
You bring that in your studio with you, that anger, whatever knowledge you gain from it. You don’t just do art; art becomes your life. The creative expression, whatever you’re doing—the fact that you have to go on the sidewalk and protest, and sometimes you have to break a glass window—it becomes part of your creative gesture, and it becomes part of your art. There is a little time to separate the act of doing art and act of going into life. And sometimes you’re not capable or able to speak of it, simply because you choke up, when you have to get into the past.
I feel good about the use of rag as an expressive element, but I don’t see it as different from other aspects of my life, or the way I think about a general population, a world population. Rags have always been in and around the environments I’ve been a part of. With me, art has the audacity to be anything it needs to be at a given time. Anything. Because the creative process is the beginning of all things, no matter what we’re doing or where we are going. You just can’t get away from rag; even when you throw it away it comes back to you. It’s like water, nourishing to your character, to the character of the cast-off, and to the way we practice living.
FRANCIS SCHAEFFER ANALYZES ART AND CULTURE Part 67 THE BEATLES (Part Q, RICHES AND LUXURIES NEVER SATISFIED THE BEATLES! ) (Feature on artist Derek Boshier )
July 9, 2015 – 4:23 am
FRANCIS SCHAEFFER ANALYZES ART AND CULTURE Part 66 THE BEATLES (Part P, The Beatles’ best song ever is A DAY IN THE LIFE which in on Sgt Pepper’s!) (Feature on artist and clothes designer Manuel Cuevas )
FRANCIS SCHAEFFER ANALYZES ART AND CULTURE Part 65 THE BEATLES (Part O, The 1960’s SEXUAL REVOLUTION was on the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s!) (Featured artist is Pauline Boty)
June 25, 2015 – 7:04 am
FRANCIS SCHAEFFER ANALYZES ART AND CULTURE Part 64 THE BEATLES (Part P The Meaning of Stg. Pepper’s song SHE’S LEAVING HOME according to Schaeffer!!!!) (Featured artist Stuart Sutcliffe)
FRANCIS SCHAEFFER ANALYZES ART AND CULTURE Part 63 THE BEATLES (Part O , BECAUSE THE BEATLES LOVED HUMOR IT IS FITTING THAT 6 COMEDIANS MADE IT ON THE COVER OF “SGT. PEPPER’S”!) (Feature on artist H.C. Westermann )
June 10, 2015 – 2:33 pm
FRANCIS SCHAEFFER ANALYZES ART AND CULTURE Part 62 THE BEATLES (Part N The last 4 people alive from cover of Stg. Pepper’s and the reason Bob Dylan was put on the cover!) (Feature on artist Larry Bell)
June 4, 2015 – 5:31 am
FRANCIS SCHAEFFER ANALYZES ART AND CULTURE Part 61 THE BEATLES (Part M, Why was Karl Marx on the cover of Stg. Pepper’s?) (Feature on artist George Petty)
FRANCIS SCHAEFFER ANALYZES ART AND CULTURE Part 60 THE BEATLES (Part L, Why was Aleister Crowley on the cover of Stg. Pepper’s?) (Feature on artist Jann Haworth )
Francis Schaeffer’s “How should we then live?” Video and outline of episode 10 “Final Choices” (Schaeffer Sundays)
Francis Schaeffer’s “How should we then live?” Video and outline of episode 9 “The Age of Personal Peace and Affluence” (Schaeffer Sundays)
Francis Schaeffer’s “How should we then live?” Video and outline of episode 8 “The Age of Fragmentation” (Schaeffer Sundays)
December 25, 2011 – 12:45 am
By Everette Hatcher III, on July 23, 2015 at 4:24 am, under Current Events, Francis Schaeffer. No Comments
« Best song on the album PIPES OF PEACE by Paul McCartney is SO BAD!!!!
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Must-Visit Places In Long Beach, California
Greta, The Getaway
Some consider Long Beach to be the perfect microcosm of
California because of its stunning shoreline and bustling downtown core. Savor the idyllic Californian sunshine while immersing yourself in the rich and unique local culture.
01Aquarium of the Pacific
This public aquarium sits on a 5-acre site on Long Beach's Rainbow Harbor. It is home to over 11,000 animals and represents around 500 different species. The Aquarium of the Pacific focuses on the seascapes of the Pacific Ocean. The displays are split into three parts: sunny Southern California and Baja, the reefs of the Tropical Pacific, and the icy waters of the Northern Pacific.
02Catalina Express
Since 1982, the Catalina Express has run a ferry service between Santa Catalina Island and mainland California. The Catalina Express today has a fleet of eight vessels, which can complete the 30-mile crossing in just under an hour. Catalina Express operates year-round and runs up to thirty trips a day in peak season.
03Naples Island
Photo by Alex Perez on Unsplash
Named after the famous Italian city, Naples is a neighborhood built on three islands located in Alamitos Bay. As you might expect, this part of the city is particularly famous for its gondola rides through the various canals of the city. Such rides have been offered here since 1982.
04Long Beach Waterfront
Photo by Brandi Ibrao on Unsplash
While the Waterfront is home to some of the more famous Long Beach tourist attractions, it's worth taking a walk along in its own right. Rainbow Harbor is the starting point for those who want to engage in whale watching or even paddleboarding. Close by, Marine Park is the perfect place to soak up the sun with the family in the lifeguard protected, Mother's Beach.
05Downtown Long Beach (DTLB)
Known as DTLB, downtown Long Beach is made up of four main neighborhoods, each with its own distinct personality.
East Village is a neighborhood with a distinctly indie atmosphere. It's home to unique boutiques and is the perfect spot for people who enjoy artisan coffee and riding bicycles.
North Pine is renowned for its restaurants, bars, and dessert cafes.
Pine ave & the Promenade is the activity and entertainment hub of DTLB. It's home to some of the country's most celebrated gastropubs.
West Gateway is the financial and civic center of DTLB, home to the World Trade Center and the Deukmejian Courthouse.
06El Dorado Nature Center
If you need a quiet, natural reprieve, then the El Dorado Nature Center is calling your name. Tucked between the 605 Freeway and the San Gabriel River, the El Dorado Nature Center stretches 105 acres and provides sanctuary for a wide range of animals. There you'll find two miles of dirt trails for hiking and a quarter-mile paved trail that you can follow to the lakes and streams.
07The Queen Mary
Photo by bradley on Unsplash
Built in 1936, the Queen Mary was a luxury cruise ship similar to the Titanic. She completed her 516th and final voyage to Long Beach, California, in December 1967. Today, this beautiful ship is a top tier hotel with suites that have been lovingly restored. Many of which still have their original art deco accents and wooden floors. Even if you're not looking to stay overnight, you can still visit the famous restaurant, British pub, sundeck tearoom, or the 1930s style cocktail bar.
08Shoreline Village
Photo by Ameer Basheer on Unsplash
Shoreline Village, or the Village as it’s known, is a family-friendly place by day and a romantic date spot by night. Styled like a Cape Cod fishing village, Shoreline Village overlooks Long Beach’s Rainbow Harbor. There are plenty of activities to choose from, from harbor cruises to visiting the antique carousel or going to check out the views from Parkers Lighthouse.
09Belmont Shore
Photo by Michael Petrila on Unsplash
Only three miles from downtown Long Beach, Belmont Shore offers a wide range of shopping options. Not only that, but there are over 50 establishments to visit if you feel in need of food or drink. Many eateries come equipt with sidewalk patios if you’d like a spot of al fresco dining.
10Rosie's Dog Beach
Photo by Meg Sanchez on Unsplash
Since 2001, Rosie's Dog Beach has been a designated off-leash place for dogs to run around in the sand and surf without getting into trouble. Located on the water between Granada and Roycroft avenues, the dog beach is closest to the Belmont Shore neighborhood. If you're a fan of famous dogs, then keep your eyes peeled as this is a popular place for Instagrammers and YouTubers to bring their furry companions!
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Szijjarto: Hungary protects its borders under all circumstances
Hungary will protect its borders “under all circumstances” and will not let in any illegal migrants, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said after talks with Serbian Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic in Belgrade on Monday. Meanwhile, Austria sends police units to the Hungarian-Serbian border and Hungary sends police units to North Macedonia and Serbia.
“For us the security of the country and the Hungarian people comes first,” he said. The talks focused on border protection as well as the situation in Turkey and Syria, Szijjarto said. He said that developments at the Turkey-Greece border were worrying and suggested that hundreds of thousands of migrants could soon arrive in the Western Balkans.
Szijjarto said he had phoned his Greek counterpart and assured Greece of Hungary’s support. “Hungary knows what it is like when the country’s borders are under an organised attack … while the international liberal media is churning out fake news”.
The current situation also highlights the importance of the European integration of the Western Balkans, Szijjarto said, arguing that “the further south Europe’s defence lines are, the better”. He urged the EU to speed up its accession talks with Serbia, saying that the country was ready to open up five new chapters in those negotiations. Szijjarto called on the EU’s Croatian presidency to give its consent to the accession talks.
Szijjarto also had talks with Serbia’s European affairs minister Jadranka Joksimovic. At a joint press conference after the talks, both ministers spoke highly of bilateral ties, both in political and economic terms, and called Hungary and Serbia strategic partners. Joksimovic also thanked Hungary for its continued support to her country’s endeavours to join the EU.
Bakondi: ‘Massive increase’ in illegal migration since Jan 1
The number of attempts for illegal entry along Hungary’s southern borders “showed a massive increase” in the first two months of the year, Gyorgy Bakondi, chief security advisor to the prime minister, told MTI on Monday.
Bakondi said that 6,597 people had been apprehended at the Hungary-Serbia border since January 1, compared with 1,315 in the same period of 2018 and 1,534 last year.
The advisor noted that 465 illegal migrants attempted to cross the Hungary-Romania border in the same period, up from a mere 12 in 2018 and 33 in 2019. Bakondi added that at present there were 321 migrants in Hungary’s transit zone, while legal proceedings were under way against 86 suspected people smugglers.
Hungary sends police units to Serbia, North Macedonia
Hungary has sent new police contingents to help local forces patrol the borders in Serbia and North Macedonia, the national police said on Monday. The national police headquarters has sent a 30-strong contingent to North Macedonia and a 20-member unit to Serbia. The police officers will be tasked with patrolling the two countries’ borders and helping to arrest people smugglers and illegal migrants, the police said on its website. Some of the Hungarian officers will be posted in the inner parts of the two countries.
Austria to send policemen to Hungary-Serbia border
Austria is sending 21 police officers and two police dogs to serve on the Hungary-Serbia border in support of Hungary’s fight against migration, Interior Ministers Sandor Pinter of Hungary and Karl Nehammer of Austria agreed in Nickelsdorf near the Hungarian-Austrian border on Monday. After the meeting, Nehammer said Austria will also support Greece and the countries on the Balkan route of migration. Austrian forces served at Hungary’s southern border during the migration crisis in 2015, protecting both Hungary and Austria, Nehammer noted.
A migration crisis like the one in 2015 “must be avoided”, he said, adding that the Austrian authorities are much better prepared than they were then. Reacting to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s announcement that Turkey would no longer hold back migrants from Syria on their way to Europe, Nehammer said Turkey must honour its agreement with the European Union. “The EU, Austria and Hungary will not allow to be blackmailed,” he said.
Source and photo: MTI
thehungaryjournal March 2, 2020 March 2, 2020 Austria, featured, Gyorgy Bakondi, Karl Nehammer, migration, Peter Szijjarto, Turkey
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What is at stake in the Iran elections?
Press TV | Hossein Jelveh: Elections in Iran are big news. Not just because they receive too much attention in the foreign media. But also in the sense that they make a difference in the Iranian people’s lives in a way that — whether it feels small or big at first — is very meaningful in the longer term.
Iranians, like Americans, are mostly divided along two political lines — and the similarity ends there, at the number of dominant political inclinations: the principlist camp and the reformist camp.
Often, the enthusiasm that flares up just at the time of elections is stronger during presidential polls. People are understandably likely to see a presidential choice a lot more consequential in political and economic terms than, say, one of city council members. Iran’s economy, while self-sufficient in many ways, is dependent on its foreign relations in its own way. Iran is such a politically sensitive country in the world; it is smack-dab in a region beset by tumult and is indispensible to resolving many of the conflicts that plague the region, whether or not others are prepared to admit it. It is also the one country that stands up to the world’s biggest bully, America, with consequences that come with that standing up.
But people normally have particularly heightened political senses at the time of any elections.
Parliamentary elections, like the ones due on Friday, February 21, fall just below presidential polls in terms of voter sensitivity. Who gets to have a say in drafting the law of the land is no trivia. And whether the camp that has gotten its presidential candidate elected by the people could also populate the parliament with enough deputies to grant legal force to that president’s agenda for the duration of the two years (at least) that their terms overlap with that of the president is also crucial.
Candidates in the 2020 race have got competition. There are 208 constituencies across the country, and an average of 17 candidates will be vying for each out of the 290 seats in the Iranian Majlis. For the capital, Tehran, that figure is almost two and a half times as much: with 1,335 hopefuls, almost 44 individuals will be competing for every one of the 30 seats allocated to the capital.
While a preliminary list of candidates approved by the supervisory Guardian Council to run had excluded many prominent reformist figures, secondary vetting okayed another 2,000 people, re-enlivening the race for many reformist supporters who had been disappointed at first.
Still, some of the reformists’ top brass, sitting on a policy-making body, have refused to put out a list of candidates for Tehran in apparent objection to the disapproval of some of their hopefuls. But reformists in general have released two other lists that have many candidates in common, including their top favored candidate.
The principlist camp has also failed to agree on one list for Tehran, with factions initially publishing at least nine different lists (although some names appeared on more than one of them). Two of those lists were finally merged together and presented as a unity list by two of the main factions.
There are political independents, too, who have compiled their own lists or are running individually.
And with just one week’s time to campaign, the candidates, and their supporters, are up for real political combat in the capital and many of the other places across the country where the main two political streaks are often facing off with each other in a close race.
But the parliamentary elections this year are important for two very important reasons, almost matching the last presidential poll in Iran, in 2017, in significance: the withdrawal of the United States from the Iran nuclear deal in May 2018, which, coupled with Washington’s so-called maximum pressure campaign, then hit the Iranian economy hard, and the assassination in January this year of Iranian Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani by the US, which hurt the Iranian nation’s pride even more.
Those events have given a sense of urgency to the elections. Will the Iranian people take part in the polls, or have they been alienated from their government because of all the (foreign) pressure and just skip voting?
Iran’s leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, laid out exactly that urgency in a speech on Tuesday, when he said Iran’s friends and foes alike were watching the Iranian elections this February.
“Enemies want to know what all of their attempts, the economic difficulties that exist in the country, the perfidy of the Westerners and the Europeans (in the Iran deal matter) toward Iran, and all the pressures — the maximum pressure, as they call it themselves — have finally done to the Iranian people,” Ayatollah Khamenei said. “Our friends all over the world, too, are watching with concern to see what happens.”
Iranian people are known for a quality that is very rare: perseverance. Survival, if you will. You might think that by hitting them hard, you would break them. But you only bring out their strongest patriotism in them if you make an attempt.
America just got a taste of that strong sense of Iranian-ness when unprecedented millions of people of virtually all political inclinations — even some people apathetic to the government — took out to the street to honor General Soleimani after his assassination.
While Iranians have grievances about their own government, there is no way they will let the bully from another neighborhood concern itself with any family matter, let alone attempt to break the family. As long as American bullying impacts their daily lives, and as far as they honor their nationhood and their democracy, Iranian people will thus show up at the ballot box in numbers that will speak for themselves.
(The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Press TV.)
Iran elections, Iran's parliamentary elections February 21, 2020
Turkey faces strategic defeat in Idlib after failing to live up to its commitments on Syria
240,000 enroll for Iran’s new housing initiative: 58% considered eligible
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Posted on June 25, 2020 October 15, 2020 by Edison Smith Editor-in-Chief
Practical Magic: Assimilating John Carpenter’s The Thing
Exploring the visual majesty of John Carpenter’s finest achievement
John Carpenter is the ultimate example of an indie filmmaker. His best movies are typically humble productions that rely on creativity, resourcefulness and ingenuity rather than big bucks extravaganza, and on the rare occasions he has been backed by major studios he has seemed rather less comfortable. If you look at the director’s most expensive movies, they’re generally footnotes in his career, creative missteps that fail to communicate with audiences. Films such as the Warner Brothers backed Memoirs of an Invisible Man floundered on just about every level; all the ingredients were there for a surefire hit, it just didn’t turn out that way.
Perhaps the biggest indicator that Carpenter is less effective working with big budgets is his most expensive film to date. 1996‘s Escape from L.A., a belated follow-up to to the filmmaker’s sci-fi classic Escape from New York, was a commercial disaster, bringing in little more than half of the $50,000,000 shelled out. I remember how excited I was when news of the sequel first reached me. I was thirteen and still naive enough to assume that newer meant better. The trailers only strengthened those assumptions. The film featured a number of interesting concepts and classic Snake moments that a deftly edited trailer beautifully teased, but the actual film felt bloated and mismanaged, as if it had been conceived by a kid with too many toys at their disposal. There was also a fifteen-year gap between the two films following a protracted development period that went all the way back to 1987 — plenty of time for the casual moviegoer to forget about Kurt Russell’s gravel-voiced antihero.
A list of Carpenter’s most renown movies tells a different tale. 1976‘s racially unifying urban western Assault on Precinct 13 is a prime example of the filmmaker’s bargain basement artistry. The movie takes a basic premise, a paper-thin cast of low-key actors, all of it sprinkled with the director/writer/composer’s inimitable synth stardust, and delivers a stone cold classic of sociopolitical resonance that slips comfortably into the realms of genre cinema. The fact that it made $11,748, roughly a tenth of its cost, was neither here nor there. Carpenter had made a movie, and a damn fine one at that.
Clark: I dunno what the hell’s in there, but it’s weird and pissed off, whatever it is.
In 1978, Carpenter would dust himself off to bring us one of the most profitable independent movies ever made in slasher innovator Halloween, a film that would spawn a decades-long franchise and a whole host of sleazy Friday the 13th imitators. So low on funds were Carpenter and long-time associate Debra Hill that cast members were asked to provide their own wardrobes. Even Michael’s iconic visage had a huge element of luck to it, the crew finally cutting the eyes out of a William Shatner mask and painting it white after a plethora of designs had left much to be desired. Halloween would manage an incredible worldwide box office gross of $70,000,000. Quite the payday for a director who, “just wanted to make a film”.
It was after Halloween II, a venture that brought in ten times its $2,500,000 budget, that Carpenter set to work on his first big studio movie: 1982‘s The Thing. Fans of the director will no doubt appreciate the irony. Carpenter never wanted a sequel to Halloween. He always felt that less was more with a character who relied so heavily on mystique, and it was with Halloween II that he finally bowed to commercial convention, consciously upping the gore for the return of his most precious character. Halloween may have inspired the likes of Friday the 13th, a series which had since returned with back-from-the-dead commodity Jason Voorhess, a character who would take Myers’ brand of nondiscriminatory slaughter to crowd-pleasing levels. In fact, by the time Halloween II was released in October of that year, the original Halloween was looking pretty tame, dare I say dated, in the eyes of a generation baying for the crude practical effects artistry of someone like Tom Savini. Slashers such as My Bloody Valentine, The Burning and Friday the 13th Part 2 relied less on suspense, more on brutality and visual exploitation, and Carpenter was ultimately convinced into following suit. In the space of three years, the innovative filmmaker had been reduced to imitating his most famous imitator.
Carpenter would hand directing duties for Halloween II to rookie filmmaker Rick Rosenthal in what was his first major picture. Carpenter would write, produce and compose the film’s score, and would even re-shoot several scenes after being unhappy with a film he would later describe as “an abomination,” and “a horrible movie”, but something had become clear. Thanks to major advancements in the field, practical effects were the future. When it came to horror, modern audiences had had their fill with filling in the blanks. What was onscreen was now rivalling their imaginations, and seeing just what special effects magicians such as Stan Winston and Rick Baker would come up with next was a curiosity that needed quenching. That same year, John Landis’ groundbreaking offbeat horror An American Werewolf in London would win the first ever Academy Award for Best Makeup, and Carpenter had landed just the property to forge a visual extravaganza of his own.
In an era of countless prequels, sequels and reboots, we have come to regard the whole process as a cynical exercise whose primary goal is to slash marketing expenditure, and modern CGI has become the ire of a generation. It’s facile to write off every remake as a lazy cash-in, but there’s so much underhanded trash to sift through in the 21st century that we’ve all become just a little dubious. CGI looks spectacular but it impresses me much less than the very best examples of practical effects artistry. That’s not to say that programmers are any less skilled when it comes to creating computer generated imagery, but we all know how powerful computer technology has become, and constantly evolving technology means that modern films have a shorter shelf life in terms of their ‘wow factor’. Conversely, the best practical effects artists are like hands-on magicians. Almost forty years after The Thing‘s initial release, there are still moments when you stop and think to yourself, ‘How in the hell did they do that?’
Of course, this is the opinion of someone raised in an era of practical effects, a person who as a child fled his grandmother’s house and ran to the end of the street having just experienced Michael Jackson’s Thriller for the first time. Audiences and critics didn’t take to Carpenter’s The Thing, a movie Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro would later describe as a “Holy Grail”. Part of this was no doubt due to their allegiance with Christian Nyby’s Cold War, alien invasion vehicle The Thing From Another World, the first adaptation of John W. Campbell’s 1938 sci-fi novella Who Goes There?. It didn’t help that Carpenter’s remake happened to coincide with the release of two of cinema’s most groundbreaking sci-fi epics in Steven Spielberg’s ‘kids in peril’ classic E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Ridley Scott’s visual colossus Blade Runner, each blessed with the kind of iconic score that put Morricone’s work on The Thing firmly in the shade. That’s not to discredit one of cinema’s finest composers. Blade Runner is arguably Vangelis’ finest achievement, and John Williams’ E.T. score would define a generation of young moviegoers. It was simply a case of bad timing.
The generational element no doubt had a bearing on The Thing‘s initial reception. As proven by my own aversion to an over-reliance on CGI, people generally prefer what they were raised on. Whether its Dr Jekyll’s iconic 1931 transformation, an effect achieved using different coloured filters and makeup, Boris Karloff’s Frankenstein or H.R. Giger’s phallic parasite the xenomorph, generations will always have their favourites, and there’s generally a degree of bias involved. No different from a dozen movies from Marvel’s hugely popular cinematic universe, The Thing‘s main drawing point back in 1982 was its practical effects, which would have been just as astonishing, and potentially off-putting, to moviegoers in the early 1980s as CGI is today. Carpenter was himself a huge fan of Nyby’s original (there’s a visual reference to the movie in Halloween), and was worried he wouldn’t do it justice without the aid of such technological advancements. In order to achieve the desired effects, Carpenter hired 22-year-old prodigy Rob Bottin, a precocious talent he had already worked with on The Fog two years prior, and who already had seven productions under his belt.
Bottin and his crew produced the kind of visual magic that many still consider the absolute peak of practical effects, an achievement aided by the fact that Carpenter’s The Thing is actually more loyal to the novella on which it is based. While the 1951 film ditched the story’s xenomorphic alien for a parasite of the standard bloodsucking variety, Carpenter gave us a creature that is able to assimilate other organisms on a cellular level, ditching the Cold War sentiments and Roswell references prevalent in its kitschy predecessor for a hyper-tense, beautifully constructed movie that is neck deep in paranoia.
Carpenter’s titular monster is an entity of almost invincible proportions, a creature with the ability to divide and conquer with its power of adaptation and surreptitious nature, proving itself an organism of raw intellect with an uncanny knack for self-preservation. Not only can it imitate the appearance of any other living being, it can adopt their personality and mannerisms, making it undetectable to even the keenest eye, a skill that would lead to one of the most intriguing open-ended twists in modern cinema. Once the outpost’s specialist Dr. Blair (Wilford Brimley) becomes aware of the creature’s unique abilities, he immediately reaches for his pistol. He may suspect that his colleagues are infected, but he can’t prove it, and every little action becomes a reason for scepticism and distrust. So convincing was Bottin’s alien life form that fans have since come up with a theory which suggests that outpost survivor and protagonist MacReady is actually ‘The Thing’ in disguise by the movie’s end.
Dr. Blair – You see, what we’re talkin’ about here is an organism that imitates other life-forms, and it imitates ’em perfectly. When this thing attacked our dogs it tried to digest them… absorb them, and in the process shape its own cells to imitate them.
In a 2016 interview with The Huffington Post, actor Kurt Russell would explain, “John Carpenter and I worked on the ending of that movie together a long time. We were both bringing the audience right back to square one. At the end of the day, that was the position these people were in. They just didn’t know anything. They didn’t know if they knew who they were, but had you seen all the things in the movie, you’ve heard MacReady say, ‘I know I’m me,’ Well, you either believe him or you don’t. And Childs — you know, one of my favorite lines in the movie [is], ‘Where were you, Childs?’ And I think that basically says it all. I love that, over the years, that movie has gotten its due because people were able to get past the horrificness of the monster — because it was a horror movie — but to see what the movie was about, which was paranoia.”
The alien effects that Bottin and his crew brought to the screen were breathtakingly audacious, the film’s polymorphous entity assuming all kinds of forms in its quest to consume every living thing it comes into contact with. Particularly impressive is a version of the creature that has become known as ‘Blair-Thing’, a towering mass of tumorous flesh made up of a mishmash or past victims. There is even a scene to rival Alien‘s iconic chest-burster when Dr. Copper’s arms plunge into Norris’s opening torso, the creature’s modified form tearing off his limbs with its enormous, abstract teeth. At the time, it was an utterly startling approach, one that horrified audiences to the point of distaste, but not everything is so in your face. In fact, the movie is driven as much by the subtleties and slow-burning tension of those early scenes: the invading husky which quietly stalks the outpost before erupting into a ferocious torrent of tentacles, the two-faced corpse dripping off the examination table in search of its next victim, the dead-eyed sheen of newly discovered hosts. This isn’t your average monster. It is everywhere and nowhere. It is all-consuming.
The Thing‘s development began as far back as the mid-1970s, with several writers and directors attached to the project at one time or another, including The Texas Chainsaw Massacre‘s Tobe Hooper, the consensus being that the film had to be bigger, but it was the son of screen veteran Burt Lancaster, Bill, who finally landed the gig after proposing a more claustrophobic movie that tapped into audience paranoia. Initially, the movie followed the classic tried-and-tested formula that kept the alien creature largely hidden, something closer to the way Carpenter presented Michael Myers a half-decade earlier, but it was Bottin who put him on the right path, leading the writer along creative avenues that saw him come up with both the aforementioned severed arms moment and arguably the film’s most suspenseful scene: a tense stand-off that forces our crew to take a blood test that will reveal the monster’s true identity. So important were those particular scenes they convinced the director to finally take on the project. As the filmmaker would explain in a 1999 interview with Creative Screenwriting, “Bill wrote the screenplay with the monster in the shadows, the old Hollywood cliché stuff, which everybody still talks about even to this day. Rob Bottin was the guy who said, “No, you’ve got to put him in the light, then the audience really goes nuts. They really go nuts because there it is in front of them.”
Revealing too much can prove the death knell for horror movies, but for all of its visual embellishments, The Thing doesn’t sacrifice on suspense. Like many of the greatest horror movies, the film plunges its characters into a hopeless environment of almost total isolation. Its remote location in the Antarctica makes our crew vulnerable to even the smallest hiccup, adding extreme weather conditions and limited supplies to their paranoia-induced battle with an unknown quantity. MacReady and his snow-bitten comrades have nowhere to turn and nobody to turn to, facing an alien entity in an alien land. With this kind of set-up, the movie grabs you by the throat and never lets go, and there are so many classic scenes to cherish as the community continues to fall apart and infected crew members are picked off with the kind of inevitability that would further displease critics, who saw the movie as being too bereft of hope. The movie may have nihilistic tendencies, but that’s kind of the point given the cast’s situation, and the movie is never drab or wasteful. Revisiting The Thing, I struggled to think of another movie with such relentless and sublimely paced tension. In this regard, it was, and perhaps still is, unsurpassed in the Carpenter canon.
When Bottin finally joined up with Carpenter and co, pre-production was already underway. A design for the eponymous creature was yet to be thought-up, and Carpenter wasn’t too pleased with Bottin’s initial ideas, finding them a little on the peculiar side, but when collaborator Dale Kuipers was forced to leave production for personal reasons, the task was dumped firmly in the youngster’s lap. Bottin had just finished work on metamorphic werewolf flick The Howling, and since The Thing had presumably travelled the universe to wind up near the cast’s doomed outpost, the logic applied was that the creature would retain some of the physical attributes of other alien hosts. To achieve this, it was suggested that Bottin work with comic book artist Mike Ploog, someone the practical effects maestro was already a big fan of, and almost immediately things began to take shape.
As Bottin explained during an interview with Fangoria, “When I described my ideas to [Ploog] he dropped his coffee cup. But what he came up with was great. We must have gone through a thousand drawings — all good stuff. There was enough for six more movies.” Owing to its transformative nature, the monster’s design was actually several, with a mish-mash of assimilated subjects melding into a single shape-shifting grotesquery.“I didn’t want it to remind anyone of any monster they had ever seen,” Bottin continued. “I wanted to avoid, if possible, all the clichés. It was a dream come true. We could do anything; just think things up and make them.”
Achieving the creature’s unique aesthetic was also excruciatingly hard work, and Bottin, who has become something of a recluse in recent years, struggled under the pressure of the film’s large-scale production, even bringing in fellow special effects legend Stan Winston to lighten the crew’s burden. Winston was responsible for the infamous scene with the shape-shifting dog, which is near the beginning of the movie and helped to influence the tone of what would follow, though Winston was so impressed with Bottin’s work that he refused to be credited. “I found it difficult to work with so many people,” Bottin would lament, “all with different needs and wants… It got to the point where I was thinking ‘If I have to do another stinking mechanical dog, I’ll go nuts. So, I asked John if we could use Stan. He said ‘yes’. What was interesting was that it was kind of like being a director and hiring an effects guy for my own movie. I told Stan what I had in mind, and just let him go. I didn’t even go over to his shop. I’d told him to call me when he was done; and when I saw it, I was blown away! I mean, he walks in with this outrageous dog-monster on his arm, and I just loved it!”
MacReady: Watchin’ Norris in there gave me the idea that… maybe every part of him was a whole, every little piece was an individual animal with a built-in desire to protect its own life. Ya see, when a man bleeds, it’s just tissue, but blood from one of you Things won’t obey when it’s attacked. It’ll try and survive…
With The Thing, Carpenter once again failed to make any serious commercial waves, managing a rather paltry $19,600,00 on a budget of approximately $15,000,000, though like many iconic films of the era, it fared much better on VHS the following year, the film quickly achieving cult status among horror fans. While critics praised the The Thing‘s technical achievements, they slammed the amount of exposure given to Bottin’s monstrous creations (a mixture of chemicals, food products, rubber, and mechanical parts), as well as the movie’s aforementioned nihilistic tone and what many perceived to be weak characterisation. As is the case with 21st century CGI, traditionalists felt the movie lacked substance, eschewing traditional storytelling elements for technological fancies. This was also an era of horror movie censorship, a legacy that Carpenter’s iconic slasher villain Michael Myers was directly responsible for, and The Thing‘s jaw-dropping visual elements were bound to rub naysayers the wrong way.
Of The Thing‘s criticism, Carpenter would say, “I’ve always thought that was somewhat unfair. I mean, the whole point of the monster is to be monstrous, to be repellent. That’s what makes you side with the human beings. I didn’t have a problem with that. The critics thought the movie was boring and didn’t allow for any hope. That was the part they really hammered on. The lack of hope is built into the story. There is an inevitability to it, but that’s not necessarily a negative.”
Years later, instead of writing the film off as a grotesque fancy, we’re instead asking the question: is The Thing Carpenter’s greatest ever achievement? That seems to be the consensus among fans, and in some ways it’s his most influential movie, one that not only matches the original but in many ways surpasses it, and how many reboots can you say that about? In fact, reboot has become such a dirty word I’d rather use the word re-imagining, because visually The Thing has all the imagination in the world, and in many ways is just as resourceful as something like Halloween, a movie that relied on subtleties as a necessity. The Thing is classic Carpenter with a cinematic upgrade, a larger budget loosening the visual limitations that had forged the director’s legendary resourcefulness, the kind that is still on display here. With The Thing, Carpenter gets the balance just right, staying loyal to those successful, once necessary subtleties of old, while bringing his latest monster out of the shadows and into the spotlight.
Screenplay: Bill Lancaster
Music: Ennio Morricone
Cinematography: Dean Cundey
Editing: Todd Ramsay
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This entry was posted in:1982, Horror, Sci-fi, VHS Gold
Tagged with:1982, 80s, Horror, The Thing, VHS Gold
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At VIFreepBreaking NewsCrime NewsPolice NewsSt. Thomas NewsU.S. Department of Justice
‘Prettyboy’ Ludvig Gets 2.75 Years In Prison For Having $638,000 Worth Of Cocaine In His Luggage To Atlanta
John McCarthy 2020-08-20
John McCarthy · August 20, 2020
CHARLOTTE AMALIE — A St. Thomas man who had 50 pounds of cocaine in his checked luggage at the Cyril E. King Airport got 2.75 years in prison from a federal judge today.
Shahime “Prettyboyswagg” Ludvig, Jr., 22, of St. Thomas, was given that term today after his conviction for possessing cocaine with intent to distribute, United States Attorney Gretchen C.F. Shappert said.
U.S. District Court Judge Robert A. Molloy, sentenced Ludvig to 33 months incarceration, five years supervised release, and ordered him to forfeit $1,991 to the United States, and pay a $100 special assessment.
Shahime Ludvig, Jr. on Facebook
According to court documents, on September 24, 2018, Ludvig appeared at the St. Thomas airport with approximately 23 kilos of cocaine in his luggage.
He checked the luggage and proceeded to the departure lounge to board flight number 307 on Delta Air Lines to Atlanta, Georgia.
During a routine screening, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) discovered the cocaine.
CBP located Ludvig at the departure lounge and detained him.
Agents from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) arrived at the airport and placed Ludvig under arrest.
Ludvig ultimately pleaded guilty to attempting to smuggle 50.70 pounds of cocaine.
The street value of the cocaine was at least $638,000, according to a CBP calculus.
This case was investigated by U.S. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Everard Potter.
St. Thomas Man Faces Life In Prison For Trying To Move 50 Pounds of Cocaine To Atlanta
https://vifreepress.com/2018/09/st-thomas-shahime-ludvig-jr-charged-with-bringing-50-pounds-of-coke-to-territory/
Tags:U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI)
VING Helps Distribute USDA 'Farmers To Families' Food Boxes At Lionel Roberts Stadium
Families Receiving SNAP Should Get $379 Per School-Age Child In P-EBT Benefits In 2 Weeks: DHS
John McCarthy is primarily known for his investigative reporting on the U.S. Virgin Islands. A series of reports beginning in the 1990's revealed that there was everything from coliform bacteria to Cryptosporidium in locally-bottled St. Croix drinking water, according to a then-unpublished University of the Virgin Islands sampling. Another report, following Hurricane Hugo in 1989, cited a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) confidential overview that said that over 40 percent of the U.S. Virgin Islands public lives below the poverty line. The Virgin Islands Free Press is the only Caribbean news source to regularly incorporate the findings of U.S. Freedom of Information Act requests. John's articles have appeared in the BVI Beacon, St. Croix Avis, San Juan Star and Virgin Islands Daily News. He is the former news director of WSVI-TV Channel 8 on St. Croix.
At VIFreepBreaking NewsCaribbean NewsCrime NewsMilitary NewsPolice NewsPuerto Rico NewsSt. Thomas NewsU.S. Department of Justice
St. Thomas Man Pleads Guilty To Smuggling 11 Pounds Of Marijuana
At VIFreepBreaking NewsCaribbean NewsCrime NewsPolice NewsPuerto Rico NewsSt. Thomas News
U.S. Customs & Border Protection Announces $65 Million Coke Bust In USVI And Puerto Rico
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Vanguard News Network Forum > News & Discussion > History & Religion
Jews in the Americas
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March 5th, 2011 #1
Tom Connington
I meant to stick this in general discussion. Sorry.
In the book The Jewish People in America: A Time For Planting - The First Migration 1654-1820 by Eli Faber, it is explained how the Jews fled the Spanish and Portugal inquisitions, settled in Amsterdam and later came to in habit New Amsterdam (NYC), and other major port towns in The New World. Jews were able to create a pure Jewish network of mercantile trade. As Faber explains in the work, Jews went as far as marrying their own blood to keep their trading network Jewish.
I made a list of the big Jews.
Jews in Trade Goods
Isaac Gomez
Hayman Levy
Isaac Adolphus
Isaac DaCosta
Slave Trading Jews
Jacob Rodriguez Rivera
Isaac Elizer
Aaron Lopez
Samuel Moses
White Slave Trade (Indentured Servants)
Nathan Levy
Isaac Levy
David Franks
Moses Franks
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January 31st, 2012 #2
http://www.oregon.gov/OSP/governor_meier.shtml
In his inaugural message to the 36th Legislative Assembly in 1931, Governor Meier made the following plea for the establishment of a State Police system in Oregon.
CRIME COSTS NATION BILLIONS
Crime has become one of the biggest industries in the United States, its yearly return being approximately $13,000,000,000.
It is estimated that crime costs our nation twice as much as the national budget, more than we loaned our allies during the war, and approximately one-half as much as this country expended in the prosecution of the World War.
Last year approximately 12,000 persons were murdered in this country. This is an appalling figure, representing approximately three times the total loss of life in the Spanish American War.
Oregon is no exception. Like all other states, Oregon has its crime problem, probably not as grave as some, but nevertheless a serious one.
The question naturally arises as to where the blame lies for this deplorable condition.
Dies it lie in our police machinery, our judicial system, or misuse of the parole and pardoning power?
While responsibility probably does not lie wholly at the door of any single one of these agencies, the attempted enforcement of our penal laws by different sets of law enforcing officers, who not only fail to cooperate but are often in opposition to one another, is largely to blame.
We have a set of officers to enforce the game laws, another to enforce forestry laws, another to enforce the traffic laws, another to enforce the prohibition laws, another to enforce the arson laws, and finally sheriffs, constables and policemen, all of them more or less isolated units, to enforce generally the laws of our State and the ordinances of our cities.
CRIME REMEDY IN STATE POLICE
Oregon has no single body whose duty it is to bring to justice those who commit offense against the laws of the state.
Eight American states - New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Michigan and Massachusetts - have instituted State Police Departments, to combat the crime problem, and effect a more efficient administration of our criminal laws generally.
These State Police not only enforce criminal laws generally, but also enforce the traffic, forest, game and prohibition laws.
Probably the three principal factors which are fostering the creation of State Police Departments are the use of automobiles and paved highways in the commission of crime, the necessity for cooperation in rural communities in the apprehension of criminals and the need of organized preventive factors.
In America the sovereign power resides in the people who speak through the law.
Consequently whenever a law is disregarded the sovereignty of the people is challenged and no sovereign power can long endure unless it has the vigor and will to vindicate itself.
The best law badly administered is worse than none.
As executive of the state I am charged with the execution of its laws, and I am convinced that to enable me to rigidly enforce them Oregon must emulate the successful example of other states and establish a State Police System.
It cost the State of Oregon approximately $910,000 during the last biennium to enforce traffic, fish, game, prohibition, forestry and arson laws, and the estimated requirement for the ensuing biennium is $1,088,1000.
A State Police System ought to save the people of Oregon at least one-third and possibly one-half of this huge expenditure.
Isn't it strange that we talk least about the things we think about most?
We cannot allow the natural passions and prejudices of other peoples
to lead our country to destruction.
-Charles A. Lindbergh
http://www.fff.org/freedom/0495c.asp
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Steven L. Akins
Location: The Heart of Dixie
Originally Posted by Tom Connington
Many of the earliest slave traders were Sephardic Jews operating out of Spanish and Portuguese ports, bringing African negroes to the colonies in the New World:
"Jews also took an active part in the Dutch colonial slave trade; indeed, the bylaws of the Recife and Mauricia congregations (1648) included an imposta (Jewish tax) of five soldos for each Negro slave a Brazilian Jew purchased from the West Indies Company. Slave auctions were postponed if they fell on a Jewish holiday. In Curacao in the seventeenth century, as well as in the British colonies of Barbados and Jamaica in the eighteenth century, Jewish merchants played a major role in the slave trade. In fact, in all the American colonies, whether French (Martinique), British, or Dutch, Jewish merchants frequently dominated.
"This was no less true on the North American mainland, where during the eighteenth century Jews participated in the 'triangular trade' that brought slaves from Africa to the West Indies and there exchanged them for molasses, which in turn was taken to New England and converted into rum for sale in Africa. Isaac Da Costa of Charleston in the 1750's, David Franks of Philadelphia in the 1760's, and Aaron Lopez of Newport in the late 1760's and early 1770's dominated Jewish slave trading on the American continent."
Jewish slave ship owners and the names of their ships:
Aaron Lopez, Moses Levy, Jacob Franks - Abigail
Issac Levy and Nathan Simpson - Crown
Moses Levy - Nassau
Moses Levy - Four Sisters
Justus Bosch and John Abrams - Anne & Eliza
Henry Cruger and Jacob Phoenix - Prudent Betty
Mordecai and David Gomez - Hester
Mordecai and David Gomez - Elizabeth
Nathan Marston and Abram Lyell - Antigua
Wm. De Woolf - Betsy
James De Woolf - Polly
Jan de Sweevts - White Horse
John and Jacob Roosevelt - Expedition
Moses and Sam Levy and Jacob Franks - Charlotte
Moses and Sam Levy - Caracoa
Source: Elizabeth Donnan, 4 Volumes, 'Documents Illustrative of the History of the Slave Trade to America' Washington, D.C. 1930, 1935 Carnegie Institute of Technology, Pittsburgh, Pa.
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May 27th, 2014 #4
Location: Europa, Serbia
Einstein was a fake!!!
Einstein Was A FAKE!
Find a jew and you'll always find a liar or a fake, or both. Itz good for jews!
Strapu
ALBERT EINSTEIN is held up as "a rare genius," who drastically changed the field of theoretical physics. However, using the technique known as 'The Often-Repeated Lie= Truth,' he has been made an idol to young people, and his very name has become synonymous with genius. THE TRUTH, HOWEVER, IS VERY DIFFERENT. Einstein was an inept & moronic person, who could not even tie his own shoelaces; he contributed NOTHING ORIGINAL to the field of quantum mechanics, nor any other science. On the contrary -- he stole the ideas of others, and the Jxxxx-controlled media made him a 'hero.'
When we actually examine the life of Albert Einstein, we find that his only 'brilliance' was in his ability to PLAGIARIZE and STEAL OTHER PEOPLE'S IDEAS, PASSING THEM OFF AS HIS OWN. Einstein's education, or lack thereof, is an important part of this story. The Encyclopedia Britannica says of Einstein's early education that he "showed little scholastic ability." It also says that at the age of 15, "with poor grades in history, geography, and languages, he left school with no diploma." Einstein himself wrote in a school paper of his "lack of imagination and practical ability." In 1895, Einstein failed a simple entrance exam to an engineering school in Zurich.
This exam consisted mainly of mathematical problems, and Einstein showed himself to be mathematically inept in this exam. He then entered a lesser school hoping to use it as a stepping stone to the engineering school he could not get into, but after graduating in 1900, he still could not get a position at the engineering school!
Unable to go to the school as he had wanted, he got a job (with the help of a friend) at the patent office in Bern. He was to be a technical expert third class, which meant that he was too incompetent for a higher qualified position. Even after publishing his so-called ground-breaking papers of 1905 and after working in the patent office for six years, he was only elevated to a second class standing. Remember, the work he was doing at the patent office, for which he was only rated third class, was not quantum mechanics or theoretical physics, but was reviewing technical documents for patents of every day things; yet he was barely qualified.
He would work at the patent office until 1909, all the while continuously trying to get a position at a university, but without success. All of these facts are true, but now begins the myth.
Supposedly, while working a full time job, without the aid of university colleagues, a staff of graduate students, a laboratory, or any of the things normally associated with an academic setting, Einstein in his spare time wrote four ground-breaking essays in the field of theoretical physics and quantum mechanics that were published in 1905.
Many people have recognized the impossibility of such a feat, including Einstein himself, and therefore Einstein has led people to believe that many of these ideas came to him in his sleep, out of the blue, because indeed that is the only logical explanation of how an admittedly inept moron could have written such documents at the age of 26 without any real education.
HOWEVER, THE TRUTH IS: HE STOLE THE IDEAS AND PLAGIARIZED THE PAPERS.
Therefore, we will look at each of these ideas and discover the source of each. It should be remembered that these ideas are presented by Einstein's worshipers as totally new and completely different, each of which would change the landscape of science. These four papers dealt with the following four ideas, respectively:
1) The foundation of the photon theory of light;
2) The equivalence of energy and mass;
3) The explanation of Brownian motion in liquids;
4) The special theory of relativity.
Let us first look at the last of these theories, the theory of relativity. This is perhaps the most famous idea falsely attributed to Einstein. Specifically, this 1905 paper dealt with what Einstein called the Special Theory of Relativity (the General Theory would come in 1915).
This theory contradicted the traditional Newtonian mechanics and was based upon two premises:
1) in the absence of acceleration, the laws of nature are the same for all observers; and
2) since the speed of light is independent of the motion of its source, then the time interval between two events is longer for an observer in whose frame of reference the events occur at different places than for an observer in whose frame of reference the events occur in the same place. This is basically the idea that time passes more slowly as one's velocity approaches the speed of light, relative to slower velocities where time would pass faster. This theory has been validated by modern experiments and is the basis for modern physics. But these two premises are far from being originally Einstein's. FIRST OF ALL, THE IDEA THAT THE SPEED OF LIGHT WAS A CONSTANT AND WAS INDEPENDENT OF THE MOTION OF ITS SOURCE WAS NOT EINSTEIN'S AT ALL, BUT WAS PROPOSED BY THE SCOTTISH SCIENTIST JAMES MAXWELL in 1878.
Maxwell studied the phenomenon of light extensively and first proposed that it was electromagnetic in nature.
James Maxwell wrote an article to this effect for the 1878 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica. His ideas prompted much debate, and by 1887, as a result of his work and the ensuing debate, the scientific community, particularly Lorentz, Michelson, and Morley reached the conclusion that the velocity of light was independent of the velocity of the observer.
Thus, this piece of the Special Theory of Relativity was known 27 years before Einstein wrote his paper. This debate over the nature of light also led Michelson and Morley to conduct an important experiment, the results of which could not be explained by Newtonian mechanics. They observed a phenomenon caused by relativity but they did not understand relativity. They had attempted to detect the motion of the earth through ether, which was a medium thought to be necessary for the propagation of light.
In response to this problem, in 1880, the irish physicist george fitz gerald, who had also first proposed a mechanism for producing radio waves, wrote a paper which stated that the results of the michelson-morley experiment could be explained if, "...the length of material bodies changes, according as they are moving through the either or across it by an amount depending on the square of the ratio of their velocities to that of light."
THIS IS THE THEORY OF RELATIVITY, 13 YEARS BEFORE EINSTEIN'S PAPER!
FURTHER... IN 1892, HENDRIK LORENTZ, of the Netherlands, proposed the same solution and began to greatly expand the idea. All throughout the 1890's, both Lorentz and FitzGerald worked on these ideas and wrote articles strangely similar to Einstein's Special Theory detailing what is now known as the Lorentz-Fitz Gerald Contraction.
In 1898, the Irishman Joseph Larmor wrote down equations explaining the Lorentz-Fitzgerald contraction and its relativistic consequences, 7 years before Einstein's paper. By 1904, "Lorentz transformations," the series of equations explaining relativity, were published by Lorentz. They> describe the increase of mass, the shortening of length, and the time dilation of a body moving at speeds close to the velocity of light. In short, by 1904, everything in "Einstein's paper" regarding the Special Theory of Relativity had already been published. The Frenchman Poincaré had, in 1898, written a paper unifying many of these ideas. He stated seven years before Einstein's paper: "...we have no direct intuition about the equality of two time intervals. The simultaneity of two events or the order of their succession, as well as the equality of two time intervals, must be defined in such a way that the statements of the natural laws be as simple as possible." Anyone who has read Einstein's 1905 paper will immediately recognize the similarity and the lack of originality on the part of Einstein.
Thus, we see that the only thing original about the paper was the term 'Special Theory of Relativity.' EVERYTHING ELSE WAS PLAGIARIZED. Over the next few years, Poincaré became one of the most important lecturers and writers regarding relativity, but he never, in any of his papers or speeches, mentioned Albert Einstein. Thus, while Poincaré was busy bringing the rest of the academic world up to speed regarding relativity, Einstein was still working in the patent> office in Bern and no one in the academic community thought it necessary to give much credence or mention to Einstein's work. Most of these early physicists knew that he was a fraud.
This brings us to the explanation of Brownian motion, the subject of another of Einstein's 1905 papers. Brownian motion describes the irregular motion of a body arising from the thermal energy of the molecules of the material in which the body is immersed. The movement had first been observed by the Scottish botanist Robert Brown in 1827. The explanation of this phenomenon has to do with the Kinetic Theory of Matter, and it was the American Josiah Gibbs and the Austrian Ludwig Boltzmann who first explained this occurrence, not Albert Einstein. In fact, the mathematical equation describing the motion contains the famous Boltzmann constant, k. Between these two men, they had explained by the 1890s everything in Einstein's 1905 paper regarding Brownian motion.
The subject of the equivalence of mass and energy was contained in a third paper published by Einstein in 1905. This concept is expressed by the famous equation E=mc2. Einstein's biographers categorize this as "his most famous and most spectacular conclusion." Even though this idea is an obvious conclusion of Einstein's earlier relativity paper, it was not included in that paper but was published as an afterthought later in the year. Still, the idea of energy-mass equivalence was not original with Einstein.
That there was an equivalence between mass and energy had been shown in the laboratory in the 1890s by both J.J. Thomsom of Cambridge and by W. Kaufmann in Göttingen. In 1900, Poincaré had shown that there was a mass relationship for all forms of energy, not just electromagnetic energy. Yet, the most probable source of Einstein's plagiarism was Friedrich Hasenöhrl, one of the most brilliant, yet unappreciated physicists of the era. Hasenöhrl was the teacher of many of the German scientists who would later become famous for a variety of topics. He had worked on the idea of the equivalence of mass and energy for many years and had published a paper on the topic in 1904 in the very same journal which Einstein would publish his plagiarized version in 1905. For his brilliant work in this area, Hasenörhl had received in 1904 a prize from the prestigious Vienna Academy of Sciences.
Furthermore, the mathematical relationship of mass and energy was a simple deduction from the already well-known equations of Scottish physicist James Maxwell. Scientists long understood that the mathematical relationship expressed by the equation E=mc2 was the logical result of Maxwell's work, they just did not believe it.
THUS, THE EXPERIMENTS OF THOMSON, KAUFMANN, AND FINALLY, AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, HASENÖRHL, CONFIRMED MAXWELL'S WORK. IT IS LUDICROUS TO BELIEVE THAT EINSTEIN DEVELOPED THIS POSTULATE, particularly in light of the fact that Einstein did not have the laboratory necessary to conduct the appropriate experiments. In this same plagiarized article of Einstein's, he suggested to the scientific community, "Perhaps it will prove possible to test this theory using bodies whose energy content is variable to a high degree (e.g., salts of radium)." This remark demonstrates how little Einstein understood about science, for this was truly an outlandish remark. By saying this, Einstein showed that he really did not understand basic scientific principles and that he was writing about a topic that he did not understand. In fact, in response to this article, J. Precht remarked that such an experiment "lies beyond the realm of possible experience." The last subject dealt with in Einstein's 1905 papers was the foundation of the photon theory of light. Einstein wrote about the photoelectric effect. The photoelectric effect is the release of electrons from certain metals or semiconductors by the action of light. This area of research is particularly important to the Einstein myth because it was for this topic that he UNJUSTLY received his 1922 Nobel Prize.
But AGAIN IT IS NOT EINSTEIN, BUT WILHELM WIEN AND MAX PLANCK WHO DESERVE THE CREDIT. The main point of Einstein's paper, and the point for which he is given credit, is that light is emitted and absorbed in finite packets called quanta. This was the explanation for the photoelectric effect. The photoelectric effect had been explained by Heinrich Hertz in 1888. Hertz and others, including Philipp Lenard, worked on understanding this phenomenon.
Lenard was the first to show that the energy of the electrons released in the photoelectric effect was not governed by the intensity of the light but by the frequency of the light. This was an important breakthrough. Wien and Planck were colleagues and they were the fathers of modern day quantum theory. By 1900, Max Planck, based upon his and Wien's work, had shown that radiated energy was absorbed and emitted in finite units called quanta. The only difference in his work of 1900 and Einstein's work of 1905 was that Einstein limited himself to talking about one particular type of energy light energy. But the principles and equations governing the process in general had been deduced by Planck in 1900. Einstein himself admitted that the obvious conclusion of Planck's work was that light also existed in discrete packets of energy. Thus, nothing in this paper of Einstein's was original.
After the 1905 papers of Einstein were published, the scientific community took little notice and Einstein continued his job at the patent office until 1909 when it was arranged by World Jewry for him to take a position at a school . Still, it was not until a 1919 A Jewish newspaper headline that he gained any notoriety. With Einstein's academic appointment in 1909, he was placed in a position where he could begin to use other people's work as his own more openly.
He engaged many of his students to look for ways to prove the theories he had supposedly developed, or ways to apply those theories, and then he could present the research as his own or at least take partial credit. In this vein, in 1912, he began to try and express his gravitational research in terms of a new, recently developed calculus, which was conducive to understanding relativity. This was the beginning of his General Theory of Relativity, which he would publish in 1915.
BUT THE MATHEMATICAL WORK WAS NOT DONE BY EINSTEIN - HE WAS INCAPABLE OF IT. Instead, it was performed by the mathematician Marcel Grossmann, who in turn used the mathematical principles developed by Berhard Riemann, who was the first to develop a sound non-Euclidean geometry, which is the basis of all mathematics used to describe relativity.
The General Theory of Relativity applied the principles of relativity to the universe; that is, to the gravitational pull of planets and their orbits, and the general principle that light rays bend as they pass by a massive object. Einstein published an initial paper in 1913 based upon the work which Grossmann did, adapting the math of Riemann to Relativity. But this paper was filled with errors and the conclusions were incorrect.
It appears that Grossmann was not smart enough to figure it out for Einstein. So Einstein was forced to look elsewhere to plagiarize his General Theory. Einstein published his correct General Theory of Relativity in 1915, and said prior to its publication that he, "completely succeeded in convincing Hilbert and Klein." He is referring to David Hilbert, perhaps the most brilliantmathematician of the 20th century, and Felix Klein, another mathematician who had been instrumental in the development of the area of calculus that Grossmann had used to develop the General Theory of Relativity for Einstein.
Einstein's statement regarding the two men would lead the reader to believe that Einstein had changed Hilbert's and Klein's opinions regarding General Relativity, and that he had influenced them in their thinking.
However, the exact opposite is true. EINSTEIN STOLE THE MAJORITY OF HIS GENERAL RELATIVITY WORK FROM THESE TWO MEN, THE REST BEING TAKEN FROM GROSSMANN. HILBERT SUBMITTED FOR PUBLICATION, A WEEK BEFORE EINSTEIN COMPLETED HIS WORK, A PAPER WHICH CONTAINED THE CORRECT FIELD EQUATIONS, OF GENERAL RELATIVITY.
What this means is that Hilbert wrote basically the exact same paper, with the same conclusions, before Einstein did. Einstein would have had an opportunity to know of Hilbert's work all along, because there were friends of his working for Hilbert. Yet, even this was not necessary, for Einstein had seen Hilbert's paper in advance of publishing his own. Both of these papers were, before being printed, delivered in the form of a lecture.
Einstein presented his paper on November 25, 1915 in Berlin and Hilbert had presented his paper on November 20 in Göttingen. On November 18, Hilbert received a letter from Einstein thanking him for sending him a draft of the treatise Hilbert was to deliver on the 20th. So, in fact, Hilbert had sent a copy of his work at least two weeks in advance to Einstein before either of the two men delivered their lectures, but Einstein did not send Hilbert an advance copy of his.
Therefore, THIS SERVES AS INCONTROVERTIBLE PROOF THAT EINSTEIN QUICKLY PLAGIARIZED THE WORK AND THEN PRESENTED IT, HOPING TO BEAT HILBERT TO THE PUNCH. Also, at the same time, Einstein publicly began to belittle Hilbert, even though in the previous summer he had praised him in an effort to get Hilbert to share his work with him. Hilbert made the mistake of sending Einstein this draft copy, but still he delivered his work first. Not only did Hilbert publish his work first, but it was of much higher quality than Einstein's. It is known today that there are many problems with assumptions made in Einstein's General Theory paper. We know today that Hilbert was much closer to the truth. Hilbert's paper is the forerunner of the unified field theory of gravitation and electromagnetism and of the work of Erwin Schrödinger, whose work is the basis of all modern day quantum mechanics. That the group of men discussed so far were the actual originators of the ideas claimed by Einstein was known by the scientific community all along. In 1940, a group of German physicists meeting in Austria declared that "before Einstein, Aryan scientists like Lorentz, Hasenöhrl, Poincaré, etc., had created the foundations of the theory of relativity." However, the Jewish media did not promote the work of these men. The Jewish media did not promote the work of David Hilbert, but instead they promoted the work of the Jew Albert Einstein.
As we mentioned earlier, this General Theory, as postulated by Hilbert first and in plagiarized form by Einstein second, stated that light rays should bend when they pass by a massive object. In 1919, during the eclipse of the Sun, light from distant stars passing close to the Sun was observed to bend according to the theory. This evidence supported the General Theory of Relativity, and the Jxxxx-controlled media immediately seized upon the opportunity to prop up Einstein as a hero, at the expense of the true genius, David Hilbert. On November 7th, 1919, the London Times ran an article, the headline of which proclaimed, "Revolution in science - New theory of the Universe - Newtonian ideas overthrown." This was the beginning of the force-feeding of the Einstein myth to the masses. In the following years, Einstein's earlier 1905 papers were propagandized and Einstein was heralded as the originator of all the ideas he had stolen. Because of this push by the Jewish media, in 1922, EINSTEIN RECEIVED THE NOBEL PRIZE FOR THE WORK HE HAD STOLEN IN 1905 REGARDING THE PHOTOELECTRIC EFFECT.
The establishment of the Einstein farce between 1919 and 1922 was an important coup for world Zionism and Jewry. As soon as Einstein had been established as an idol to the popular masses of England and America, his image was promoted as the rare genius that he is erroneously believed to be today.
As such, he immediately began his work as a tool for World Zionism. The masses bought into the idea that if someone was so brilliant as to change our fundamental understanding of the universe, then certainly we ought to listen to his opinions regarding political and social issues.
This is exactly what World Jewry wanted to establish in its ongoing effort of social engineering. They certainly did not want someone like David Hilbert to be recognized as rare genius. After all, this physicist had come from a strong German, Christian background. His grandfather's two middle names were 'Fürchtegott Leberecht' or 'Fear God, Live Right.' In August of 1934, the day before a vote was to be taken regarding installing Adolf Hitler as President of the Reich, Hilbert signed a proclamation in support of Adolf Hitler, along with other leading German scientists, that was published in the German newspapers. So the Jews certainly did not want David Hilbert receiving the credit he deserved. The Jews did not want Max Planck receiving the credit he deserved either. This German's grandfather and great-grandfather had been important German theologians, and during World War II he would stay in Germany throughout the war, supporting his fatherland the best he could. The Jews certainly did not want the up-and-coming Erwin Schrödinger to be heralded as a genius to the masses. This Austrian physicist would go on to teach at Adolf Hitler University in Austria, and he wrote a public letter expressing his support for the Third Reich. This Austrian's work on the unified field theory was a forerunner of modern physics, even though it had been criticized by Einstein, who apparently could not understand it.
The Jews did not want to have Werner Heisenberg promoted as a rare genius, even though he would go on to solidify quantum theory and contribute to it greatly, as well as develop his famous uncertainty principle, in addition to describing the modern atom and nucleus and the binding energies that are essential to modern chemistry.
NO, THE JEWS DID NOT WANT HEISENBERG PROMOTED AS A GENIUS BECAUSE HE WOULD GO ON TO HEAD THE GERMAN ATOMIC BOMB PROJECT AND SERVE PRISON TIME AFTER THE WAR FOR HIS INVOLVEMENT WITH THE THIRD REICH. No, the Jews did not want to give credit to any of a number of Germans, Austrians, Irishmen, Frenchmen, Scotsmen, Englishmen, and even Americans who had contributed to the body of knowledge and evidence from which Einstein plagiarized and stole his work. Instead, they needed to erect Einstein as their golden calf, even though he repeatedly and often embarrassed himself with his nonfactual or nearsighted comments regarding the work he had supposedly done. For example, in 1934, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ran a front page article in which Einstein gave an "emphatic denial" regarding the idea of practical applications for the "energy of the atom." The article says, "But the 'energy of the atom' is something else again. If you believe that man will someday be able to harness this boundless energyto drive a great steamship across the ocean on a pint of water, for instancethen, according to Einstein, you are wrong"
Again, Einstein clearly did not understand the branch of physics he had supposedly founded, though elsewhere in the world at the time theoretical research was underway that would lead to the atomic bomb and nuclear energy. But after Einstein was promoted as a god in 1919, he made no real attempts to plagiarize any other work. Rather, he began his real purpose evangelizing for the cause of Zionism and World Jewry. Though he did publish other articles after this time, all of them were co-authored by at least one other person, and in each instance, Einstein had little if anything to do with the research that led to the articles; he was merely recruited by the co-authors in order to lend credence to their work. Thus freed of the pretense of academia, Einstein began his assault for World Zionism.
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January 1st, 2015 #5
Roger Bannon
http://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearne...f_east_ramapo/
the Hasidic Jewish population of East Ramapo NY elected Hasids to the public school board, which then started cutting the public school budget and closing public schools. Hasids don't attend the public schools. (thisamericanlife.org)
Read the reaction of the average Joe to this information in the link.
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The hassidim there get married by the rabbi with no state license so they can apply for welfare as single mothers.
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October 16th, 2020 #7
Átilla Szeinfild
Jews in Caribe and Brazil, just like white colonials, too raped slave girls to made more slaves to sale. The mulatto slavery was so greatas african slavery.
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jews, new world, slavery
Pieville
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Marks & Spencer To Close Raffles City Outlet - Made First Loss In A Century Due To COVID-19
Jae Chia
British retail chain Marks & Spencer has put out a newspaper ad today (December 10) informing the public that it is “moving out” of Raffles City.
Marks & Spencer has been a longtime tenant of Raffles City, and has been operating there since 1986 — the year the mall opened.
According to TODAYOnline, the store’s last day of operations is on December 31.
In line with its store closing, it will be holding a moving out sale with items selling at up to 70 per cent off.
Following the closure of the Raffles City outlet, another 10 Marks & Spencer outlets will remain in Singapore.
Recording Its First Loss In A Century
The news of this outlet closure follows the demise of Marks & Spencer’s sister brand Robinsons.
Earlier in November, the retail giant made its exit from Singapore for good, after suffering losses in the recent years.
Founded in 1858, Robinsons was one of the oldest department stores in Singapore and had reportedly chalked up at least six years of losses amid declining revenues.
Marks & Spencer is treading on thin ice right now, and if it’s not careful, they might end up following Robinson’s footsteps.
It is reported that they made a profit after tax of S$101,613 in 2018, down from S$2.9 million a year ago.
Last month, they also made their first loss in almost 100 years as a result of the pandemic.
However, despite the losses, the chain forged ahead to open a new pop-up outlet at Waterway Point on October 31.
It also told The Business Times earlier this year that it had no intentions to close its “thriving business” in Singapore.
While it is unlikely that Singaporeans will witness the brand making a complete exit from our shores anytime soon, Marks & Spencers is still undoubtedly in the red.
They have to buck up their sales, or might face a potential collapse.
Featured Image Credit: Darren Bloggie
Why Marks & Spencer May Follow The Demise Of Sister Brand Robinsons Despite New S’pore Store
Tags: marks & spencersingapore
Apple And Hyundai In Early Talks To Release A “Beta Version” Of Apple Cars In 2022
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WHAV (https://whav.net/2018/12/05/joseph-s-dabrowski-jr-87/)
Joseph S. Dabrowski Jr., 87
By News Editor | December 5, 2018
Joseph S. Dabrowski Jr., 87, husband of Fortune G. (Spero) Dabrowski, died Dec. 2 at Hannah Duston Healthcare Center in Haverhill with his loving family by his side.
Born in Lawrence, he was the son of the late Joseph S. Dabrowski and Sophie (Wieczerzck) Dabrowski. Raised and educated in Haverhill, Dabrowski was a graduate of Haverhill High School’s class of 1949. Employed as a custodian for the Derry, N.H. public school system, Dabrowski was an avid New England sports fan, especially the New England Patriots. He enjoyed dancing and traveling to the mountains of New Hampshire and Vermont. A devoted husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather, he will be missed by all who knew and loved him.
In addition to his loving wife Fortune, he is survived by his children Joseph S. Dabrowski III of Milton, Kevin P. Dabrowski of Rochester, N.H., Lisa M. Tucker of Rochester, N.H., his stepchildren Debra Lee Iannalfo of Haverhill, Stephen M. Iannalfo and his wife Lori of Bradford, Richard A. Iannalfo and his partner Marie Melanson, Dana J. Iannalfo of Kingston, N.H., Fred Dabrowski and Josephine Comeau of Haverhill, John Dabrowski and his wife Becky of Somersworth, N.H., two sisters Claire Riley of Salem, N.H. and Celia H. Engler of Attleboro, 12 grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren, and several nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by his daughter-in-law Angela Iannalfo.
Family and friends are invited to attend calling hours on Sunday, Dec. 9 from 4-7 p.m. at the Kevin B. Comeau Funeral Home, 486 Main St., Haverhill. Funeral services will begin on Monday morning at the funeral home at 9 a.m. with a Mass of Christian Burial to be celebrated at All Saints Church, 120 Bellevue Ave., Haverhill at 10 a.m. Burial will follow in St. Patrick’s Cemetery, North Broadway, Haverhill.
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The Dragonborn’s Tale 18 – Into Darkness (Updated)
Posted on May 21, 2013 by Wendy Schardein
A/N: A friend on deviantART mentioned that my Lurker died a bit too easily, so I did some research, and boy was he right! I’ve redone the fight scene with the Lurker to make it a bit more realistic.
Selene and Brynjolf spent the morning in Raven Rock, getting to know the vendors and some of the other townspeople, most of them Dunmer. Although getting to Miraak’s temple was urgent, they weren’t ready to rush right in, either. They wanted to ask some more questions and basically get a feel for the island before venturing off into uncharted territory. As expected, everyone they spoke to had the same reaction as Glover and Adril when asked about Miraak, although some did mention the temple at the center of the island.
While they were wandering through the town square, they stopped at the stand of an elf working at a tanning rack and said hello.
“Did you come to buy anything or just laugh at our misfortunes?” he snapped.
“Sales are that bad?” Brynjolf guessed.
“Hmph! Bad? What if I told you you’re the first people that have even considered looking at my wares today? I’ve half a mind to contact my friends at the East Empire Company and see if they need an extra hand in Windhelm.”
“You have friends at the EEC?” Selene asked.
“Oh, absolutely!” he bragged. “In fact, I’ve corresponded with Vittoria Vici herself more than once. You know, the lady who runs the warehouse in Solitude. It’s the biggest warehouse they have in Skyrim.”
“Aye,” said Brynjolf, “she’s our next-door neighbor.”
“Oh,” the merchant muttered, the wind taken out of his sails.
“I’m Selene, and this is my husband Brynjolf.”
“Fethis Alor, at your service.”
“What do you sell?”
“The question should be what don’t I sell? If it’s not a weapon, potion or armor, then it’s likely that I have it. Gjalund over at the docks brings me all sorts of things from Skyrim, and Glover gets me a few curiosities once in a while. He usually has the most amazing deals I can’t pass up. I have an eye for trinkets.”
“Well, if we find anything unusual while we’re here, we’ll bring it to you.”
“Fine, just fine! One thing I’m always looking for is East Empire pendants. They’re amulets made by the East Empire Company for their workers; gave them as incentives. They’re no longer being made, so they’ve become collectors’ items. You might find one or two of them around the island.”
“We’ll keep an eye out.”
When they left Fethis’s kiosk, they discovered the Raven Rock Mine, and Brynjolf mentioned that they might be able to locate Crescius Carellius inside. They went inside and found a man and a woman in the main office. She was Dunmer, petite and attractive, and he was an elderly Imperial. They stood face to face with their hands on their hips and angry expressions on their faces.
“Damn it, woman! I said leave me be!”
“Crescius, you’re too old to be traipsing around down in the mine! I’m not spending the rest of my days as a widow.”
“Of course you are! Do you think I’m going to live as long as you?”
“I am not having that conversation again.”
Crescius noticed Selene and Brynjolf and looked up. “Who in blazes are you? Can’t you see I’m busy?”
“Glover Mallory sent us,” Brynjolf told him. “He wants his Ancient Nordic Pickaxe back.”
“Bah! The damn fool doesn’t even deserve to have it! I’ll bet he stole it from the Skaal in the first place!”
“That’s his concern, not yours.”
He groaned. “Oh, very well.” He reached behind his desk and retrieved the pickaxe. “Here. Tell him I hope he drops it on his foot.”
“I couldn’t help overhearing you talking about exploring the mine,” said Selene. “Is there something we could help with?”
“I don’t know. Been difficult trusting people lately. They all think I’m crazy. But mark my words: if I’m right—and I know I’m right—I have a secret that will put the Raven Rock Mine back on the map.”
“Back on the map?” the Dunmer woman countered. “It hasn’t been on the map in two hundred years!”
“Just ignore her. She thinks I’m crazy, too.”
“What kind of secret?” Brynjolf asked.
“One that the East Empire Company swept under the rug. My great grandfather died trying to uncover it. The company called it a ‘terrible accident,’ claiming it was a rockfall, but I know better. That mine is solid; there was no rockfall. See, my wife—Aphia, there—she and I were cleaning when we came across some of my great grandfather’s things locked in an old chest. I found an unsent letter he had written to the company describing a discovery that was made in the mine. They wanted Gratian—that’s my great grandfather—to have a closer look. Then he was killed, and they locked that section of the mine, I think to cover up what Gratian really found. But I have the key. Well, I assume it’s the key to the locked section. I haven’t managed to get all the way down there.”
“Why are you even entertaining this notion?” Aphia demanded.
“I’m guessing you don’t agree with his story,” noted Selene.
“Poor Crescius is aging, and I believe it’s addled his mind.”
“I’m standing right here, woman!”
Aphia ignored him. “I’m sure his great grandfather is down there somewhere, but there was no conspiracy. It was a simple cave-in, like they said. My greatest fear is that my stubborn mule of a husband will end up suffering the same fate.”
Selene shrugged. “I have to admit it sounds suspicious to me.”
“Finally!” Crescius exclaimed. “Someone who believes me! Look, my harpy of a wife nags that I’m too old to go down there chasing my theory, but perhaps she’s correct. I’m afraid time is my enemy. It’s caught up with me before I could find the answers I’m looking for.”
Selene looked at Brynjolf, who shrugged and said, “We can take a look. Any idea where to start?”
“Gratian kept a journal of notes about his discoveries. If you can find his remains, I’m hoping it will help.” He went to his desk and pulled a letter and a key out of the drawer, then handed them to Selene. “Be careful down in the mine. The way can be treacherous.”
They started to head back out to town to get supplies from their room and give Glover his pickaxe back before venturing down into the depths of the mine, and Aphia followed them to the door.
“Thank you,” she told Selene softly. “I know I won’t have him much longer, and I don’t want to risk losing him before his time.”
“How did you two meet?”
“I was a priestess at the temple. He was going through a deep depression, and Councilor Morvayn sent me to care for him. Eventually we fell in love and married.”
“You’re a priestess?”
“Yes. I had a falling out with the other priests at the temple, but I still practice Restoration magic. If you need healing, come to me, and I’ll be happy to help you.”
“That’s good to know,” Brynjolf said. “Selene is pregnant.”
Aphia’s eyes lit up. “Wonderful! Best wishes.” She placed a hand on Selene’s belly. “If you need anything, you know where I am.”
Selene thanked her, and she and Brynjolf left the mine and headed across the square to the forge. Glover chuckled when he saw Selene and Brynjolf approach with the pickaxe.
“Crescius is quite a character, eh?”
“He said he hopes you drop it on your foot,” Selene quipped.
Glover laughed heartily. “He’s a crazy old man, but I love the guy. Hey, since you went through all the trouble of getting the axe back, why don’t you keep it?”
“What? After all that?”
“I just wanted to remind the old codger that you can’t just go around taking things from other people.” With that, Selene and Brynjolf chortled. “I know, I know, it’s ironic coming from me,” he admitted with a chuckle. “Look, that pickaxe hasn’t done me any good in years. By all the questions you’ve been asking, I’m assuming you’re about to explore the island. Maybe you’ll come across some stalhrim. If you do, bring it to me and I’ll give you a good price for it.”
“Sure thing, Glover,” Brynjolf said, still trying to control his laughter.
After stocking up on arrows, potions, and first aid supplies, Selene and Brynjolf descended into the Raven Rock Mine. It was dark and musty, and the air grew hotter the farther down they went. They fought a few frostbite spiders along the way, climbing over the carcasses that completely blocked the path. They found several rich veins of ebony along the way and noted the locations so they could tell Crescius.
Perhaps two miles down into the shaft, they found a locked gate. The key did work on the lock, and they went through, but they found no evidence of a cave-in. They did, however, find a Nordic ruin. They killed several draugr as they navigated the narrow, ivy-covered maze of sarcophagi. In a round room that appeared to be some sort of council chamber, they found a nice chest loaded with gold and gems. There was some enchanted armor as well, but it was too heavy to carry through the ruin.
In a small, dark chamber, they found a patch of shimmering ice covering one sarcophagus. The room was uncomfortably hot, but the ice didn’t melt.
“Stalhrim?” Selene guessed.
Brynjolf used Glover’s pickaxe to break off a chunk to take back to him.
They got caught in the crossfire of a couple of soul gems in one narrow passage. Selene attempted to shoot the gems off of their stands, but she didn’t have time to aim before one of them shot a bolt of lightning at her, and she cursed.
“I’ve got this,” Brynjolf told her. “I don’t want to risk hurting the baby.”
“You’ll let me fight draugr, but you won’t let me dodge soul gems.”
“I know it’s a contradiction but blocking a sword is easier than blocking lightning. Just let me handle it,” he grumbled impatiently. Ducking and dodging the lightning and grunting painfully when it hit him, he ran quickly up to one of the soul gems and knocked it off.
There were a lot of false starts and dead ends, but they were usually lucrative, often ending with a chest or urns containing gold. As was their habit, they kept the gold and the lighter items and left the heavier things behind. The long, winding tunnel finally terminated in a sheer drop to a cavern below. Several levels of pillars and tiers led down to a platform, which was flanked on both sides by a rushing stream and stood before a huge, round door, its intricate carvings glowing with red light. Two horizontal fissures leading away from the door also glowed red, as did the junction where the two halves of the door met. Selene figured the lights were part of some sort of puzzle seal.
“Well,” Brynjolf sighed with resignation, “looks like it’s either jump or go back.”
“Jump,” she declared. “We haven’t found what we’re looking for yet. Besides, the drop isn’t that far.”
She leapt down to the next level, then followed the drops and tiers to the floor below. Two draugr and two human skeletons lay on the platform and the steps leading down to the stream. One of the humans had evidently been killed fighting the draugr; the other seemed to have died lying on his bedroll. A greatsword lay next to him, a red aura shining around the brilliant blade, and a journal was curled in his hand. Selene pulled the diary away carefully and paged through it.
“This is Gratian Caerellius,” Selene announced. “We’re in a barrow belonging to the Bloodskal Clan, and that is the Bloodskal Blade. It seems the draugr were released when Gratian took the blade from its stand. It says his assistant was killed in the battle; I’m assuming that’s him at the bottom of the stairs.”
Brynjolf picked the sword up and swung it a few times. When he swung, it emitted a humming, red ribbon of energy. “Lovely!” Brynjolf remarked appreciatively.
“Gratian said he thought the direction of that ribbon of light might have something to do with opening the door, but he had been badly injured in the fight with the draugr and was too weak. He died before he was able to get the door open.” She put the journal down and held her hand out. “Can I try?”
Brynjolf handed her the weapon and she swung the blade, testing its weight. She walked over to one of the horizontal cracks and placed her hand on it. The light pulsed around her hand, and the sword vibrated. Stepping back, she swung it and watched the band of light whip out from the blade. The ribbon merged with the beam emitting from the crack, and the wall shuddered. She swung again, harder this time. The doorframe hummed and vibrated, and the side she stood on began to move. The designs shifted and move up the wall, and the red light went with it. It stopped when the red beam was about halfway up the door, now vertical.
She looked back at Brynjolf with a grin. “I think we figured it out.”
“Aye, try doing it vertically this time and see what happens.”
It worked. A few swings of the Bloodskal Blade on either side of the door, and the designs on the door itself glowed brighter red. But the door didn’t open. The light from the bands, however, settled into the crack at the center.
“One more time.” She arced the blade in another vertical swipe, and the two halves of the door trembled, creaked, and parted. Selene grimaced when she saw what awaited them on the other side.
“You have to be kidding me,” Brynjolf groaned as he looked at the tableau before him. It was a long corridor like a hall of stories, and perhaps twenty pendulum blades swung back and forth, blocking the path.
“This place just gets better and better, doesn’t it?”
It didn’t take long to realize it wasn’t as bad as it looked. The blades were gathered in groups of four or five with lengthy gaps between the groups. They swung slowly and very close together, leaving a good second or two between each pass. They were easy to get past, and in only a few minutes they had moved on to the next room. It was long and narrow, sunken in the middle like an amphitheater, with a raised platform in the middle containing a chest. “Sunken” was the operative word; the chamber was under about four feet of water. A Word Wall stood at the other end of the room.
“Now, there’s a happy sight,” she said, stepping into the water, which was as warm as a hot spring.
When they got about halfway into the room, there was a screech, and a dragon priest came flying up out of the water. Selene reached for an arrow, nocked it, and shot before the creature could even get moving, and she managed to get another one out and fire before it reached them. The second arrow was enough to send it plummeting back into the water; and there was nothing left but a pile of soggy ash, some gold, and one of the creepy masks the dragon priests always dropped. She reached into the water and picked up the mask, handing it to Brynjolf with a cringe.
“They’re not that bad,” he teased her.
“They give me the chills,” she complained.
“Go to your Word Wall. I’ll get the gold and the chest.”
She squeezed the water from hair as she walked up to the wall, where she absorbed the new Word of Power. Mul meant strength. She tapped into a soul inside her to get an understanding of the word, and an image drifted through her mind of herself, covered with an orange and blue nimbus in the shape of a dragon. Dragon Aspect, she thought to herself. This one would be fun to try out.
“Mul!” she Shouted, and strength and power surged through her.
Brynjolf, who had just walked up, hair and armor dripping, gaped at her. “Was that what the Shout did? That’s fantastic!”
Selene looked down at her hand, and it was indeed surrounded by light in the shape of scales and bone. It didn’t last long, though, and after only a minute or so the light and her strength began to fade. “I’ll be looking for the other Words of Power for this one,” she noted. “What was in the chest?”
“Two bloody gold pieces. But the dragon priest had quite a bit of coin on him. Worth diving for, anyway.”
A distant memory came to mind, and she laughed softly.
“Farkas said once that he wondered why draugr hoarded gold. It’s not like they could spend it.”
Brynjolf chuckled as they began to look for an exit. They found the way out on the other side of the platform in the center and stepped into a room with a thick, black book sitting on a pedestal. Another chest rested against the wall, and Brynjolf checked it out while Selene looked at the book. An image of a many-tentacled creature was stamped into the cover, but there was no title. She opened the book and read the words, “The Winds of Change.”
The world blurred around her, and she was suddenly somewhere else. “Oh!” she cried with a start. She looked around to ascertain that she was alone, not much of a comfort but at least there were no enemies accosting her before she got her bearings. Poor Brynjolf; he’d be scared to death. Truth be known, so was she.
The place seemed to be made of books. The floor was covered with pages, and the walls and archways along the path ahead were actually stacks of thousands of volumes. To each side of the path was an ocean of ink, from which many black tentacles waved lazily under a yellow sky. Further up the path, light fixtures that looked like big plants lined the path; others flew back and forth overhead. She could see little whirlwinds of pages here and there, and off to the side, hovering above the sea, were black masses of smoke and tentacles. A stairway led higher into the construct.
And then came the voice, thick, slow, and heavy.
“As I told you, your free will is an illusion. Why else would you be here?”
Hermeus Mora. Great.
“This is Apocrypha, where all knowledge is hoarded. Sate your thirst for knowledge in the endless stacks of my library.”
“No. I want out of here.”
“You want to learn,” he argued. “Do you think I cannot sense your lust? My library calls to you. Use it. When you tire of your search, read your black book again to return to your mortal life. But know that the lure of Apocrypha will call you back. It is your fate.”
A sudden weight in her knapsack made her realize the book had materialized. She reached back and touched it, as though grabbing onto a lifeline, but she had to admit she was curious. Thus, she started down the path. Sometimes, when she got too close to the ink, tentacles would lash out at her like a whip. She was able to avoid them for the most part, but one of them caught her leg and flayed the leather and skin right off. “Gods damn it!” she squealed as she leapt away from the edge.
Selene heard a shuddering sound and turned to find a creature with several bony arms, a slimy face with long tentacles, a cloak made of fuzzy feathers, and a toothy maw where its abdomen should be. It had no legs, only tentacles, and it floated a few feet above the floor. It was shooting invisible bolts of power at her that hummed like the energy ribbons from the Bloodskal Blade. They hurt like crazy and instantly sapped her strength. She nocked an arrow, aimed and shot, but it continued to hurl the energy bolts at her. One more arrow dropped the creature, and she sat down on the floor, exhausted.
“Seeker,” Mora’s voice whispered. Was that what the creature was? A seeker?
A dull ache spread through her abdomen, and her heart skipped a beat. She placed a hand on her stomach. “No, no, little one. Don’t fret. I’ll take good care of us.”
She got up and looted the creature for a few gold pieces and a book she didn’t already have, then pressed on. She found several books and soul gems as she walked the path, dodging the whipping tentacles which thrust out of small pools along the way. She came to a locked door, but it wasn’t a standard, pickable lock, and she didn’t see any sort of lever. One of the plant-like light fixtures bobbed merrily nearby, almost as though it was trying to get her attention.
“Scrye,” said Mora’s voice.
Selene reached out and touched the fixture, and it retreated into itself as if she had frightened it, but the door opened. She passed through many halls, arches and tunnels, all made of books, sometimes using a scrye to open a door. She found one more seeker, but she managed to shoot it before it saw her. She finally came to a courtyard that was enclosed by a high fence made of complex wirework. The panels resembled stained glass windows, only without the glass. Greenish clouds floated in the pale sky, and an apparatus hovered overhead, spewing out books, which drifted lazily on the breeze. The courtyard was actually quite lovely, but the creature emerging from the inkpool in the center did detract from the beauty of the place. It was perhaps eight feet tall, humanoid but with features like a fish and lots of long, spiky teeth. It spat inky tentacles at her, but she was too far away for them to catch her. She nocked an arrow and shot the creature in the face, that the arrow only seemed to piss it off, and it lurched across the courtyard at her.
“Oh, crap,” she exclaimed, dodging the tentacles it spat. She slipped past him and ran several yards away, readying an arrow as she moved, then turned and shot it again, catching it in the chest just as it spat again. This time, the ink settled before her and turned into even more tentacles, which whipped up from the floor and grabbed at her. One of them connected with her already injured leg, and she squealed with pain as she leapt out of the way. The monster was coming at her again, and she nocked, aimed, and shot before it got close enough. This time is shrieked, but it still kept coming, and she was barely able to get out of the way before it stomped on her with its massive feet.
“Fuck me!” She took a breath and Shouted, “Fus…ro dah!” but the creature barely noticed. It still charged after her, chasing her up a flight of stairs, and soon Selene had nowhere to go. She dropped the bow and drew Dragonbane, snarling as it reached her and swiped with its giant, clawed hands. She thanked the Divines for her speed as she ducked the hand and planted the sword into the creature’s abdomen. It threw its head back and flailed its arms wildly, screaming in agony, and Selene had just enough time to remove her sword before it fell backward, tumbling down the stairs and into the inkpool. She sat down on the stairs for a few minutes, trying to catch her breath before getting up and preparing to move on. The creature was lying half-in and half-out of the inkpool, but she figured looting it wasn’t worth getting lashed by another tentacle, so she left it alone.
Two scryes opened the way to a small room that sat beneath the book machine. A stone sculpture depicting a mass of tentacles dominated the center of the room, and another black book rested on a pedestal to the side. It was also entitled The Winds of Change, and Selene realized the book was no longer in her pack. There seemed to be nowhere else to go, and she was ready to get out of this place anyway, so she opened the book. At first it was blank, but as she watched, text began to bleed onto the paper.
Behold the Book of Insight. Choose.
She read through the choices, and they seemed beneficial and pretty straightforward. Lover’s Insight would give her more allure and an advantage over male merchants and enemies. Scholar’s Insight would give her a better understanding of any books she read. Companion’s Insight, however, was the one for her. This knowledge would allow her to fight alongside Brynjolf without risk of harming him. No attacks, Shouts or spells she used in battle would cause him injury.
Selene rolled her eyes. “Are you serious?” she said aloud. “If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.”
More words appeared on the page. Insight is your reward. You have already paid the price.
“Fine, then I choose Companion’s Insight.”
Selene closed the book, and she was instantly back in Bloodskal Barrow. Brynjolf stood before her, watching her with concern. Her leg stung badly, and she gasped at the pain.
“You’ve got to stop doing that, love,” her husband scolded.
“What happened this time?”
“You just stood there and read, and you sort of faded out, and I could see through you. I couldn’t get your attention no matter what I did.”
Selene told Brynjolf about Apocrypha, Hermeus Mora, the seeker, and the gift of Companion’s Insight. Both agreed they wouldn’t go out of their way to try it out. They ascended a long, spiral staircase and went through a short tunnel to a hidden doorway bearing a conventional lever. Selene pulled the lever, and they emerged into another part of Bloodskal Barrow. It seemed bandits had taken up residence in this section, and Selene and Brynjolf took care of them quickly and silently, as well as the ones they found outside.
It was dark out, and rain drizzled on them all the way back to town, where they went straight to the Retching Netch and crawled into bed—rather, Selene crawled into bed and Brynjolf lay down on his bedroll.
“I don’t know if I want to sleep,” he said. “What if we end up out there, working on that shrine?”
“We can’t go completely without sleep, love. Besides, I’m exhausted. Let’s just hope for the best.”
If they went to the shrine, they didn’t know it, because they woke up where they had gone to sleep. Selene dreamed of the hunt, not of Miraak, and though she couldn’t say she was rested, at least she didn’t have the disturbing feeling she had been enslaved overnight.
They got up and had breakfast, then found Crescius at his house.
“Good, you’re back!” he exclaimed. “What did you find?”
“You were right, Crescius.” She handed him Gratian’s journal.
“Ha! I knew it! See, Aphia, his death wasn’t because of a rockfall It was just a story to keep people away from the tombs.”
“There’s more. We found ebony in the mine and stalhrim in the ruin.”
Aphia smiled. “You know what this means, don’t you? It means we can open the mine. Give people jobs. Give people hope.”
The old man seemed rejuvenated by the news, and he practically jumped up and down, a joyful expression on his face. He hugged Aphia, then looked over at Selene. “I believe I owe you a little more than a debt of gratitude.” He went to a desk and retrieved a hefty coin purse. “This isn’t much, but it’s the best an old, retired miner can do.”
“Thank you, Crescius,” Selene said, resting a hand on his shoulder.
“No, my dear. Thank you.”
This entry was posted in Skyrim and tagged Aphia, Apocrypha, Brynjolf, Crescius Caerellius, Dragonborn DLC, Glover Mallory, Hermeus Mora, skyrim, skyrim fanfic, skyrim fanfiction, Whisper292 by Wendy Schardein. Bookmark the permalink.
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contenu Home > News > EWL News > EWL member Engender Scotland
EWL member Engender Scotland launches #Beijing20 report
Beijing Platform for Action: Progress and remaining challenges
[Edinburgh, 20 April 2015]
Article by Alys Mumford at Engender Scotland
2015 is a key year for women. 20 years since the Beijing Platform for Action was agreed, it marks a time for women’s organisations and governments to take stock – to see what has been achieved for gender equality, and to see how far we still have to go. On April 1st Engender, Scotland’s gender equality organisation, held an event at the Scottish Parliament to mark Beijing+20 and challenge the Scottish Government to take further action.
We heard from Christina McKelvie MSP about the commitment from the Scottish Government to push for gender equality. Scotland is now, for the first time since the creation of a devolved parliament, led by a woman First Minister with a gender balanced cabinet backing her. For some this serves as proof that sexism is no longer a problem in Scotland. Of course most know this to be simply wishful thinking, but it is nonetheless a powerful statement towards gender equality.
Also speaking at the event were Kara Brown of the Young Women’s Movement and Lily Greenan, former chief executive of Scottish Women’s Aid. Both Kara and Lily had just returned from the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) talks in New York and were able to feed back on the inclusivity of the talks. While the vibrant NGO sector ensures that the fringe events are vibrant and accessible, it seems we have a long way to go before the voices of young women and women from the global south are truly heard in the official talks.
Engender has looked at how the Scottish Government is performing against 10 areas of critical concern as set out in the Beijing Platform for Action – from violence against women to women and the environment. While the Scottish Government has made some progressive moves when it comes to gender equality, there is still much to be done in terms of mainstreaming, recognising intersectionality, and putting words into action. The anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action gives women’s and other equality organisations the chance to push for further change and hold our governments to account.
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Movie Review – “Captain Blood” (1935)
By paulselluloid on April 16, 2018 • ( Leave a comment )
Whether you know it or not, most of the lore and well-accepted facts about pirates in film came from Michael Curtiz’s “Captain Blood.” The film is also responsible for launching the career of Errol Flynn, one of the first leading men in Hollywood that was often suave and heroic, but always charismatic, something we see a lot of in todays movies, especially from actors like Robert Downey Jr. and Dwayne Johnson. So basically, everything we love about pirates and blockbusters nowadays started with “Captain Blood.”
Set in 17th century England, the film chronicles the rather unpredictable life of Peter Blood (Flynn), an Irish doctor, who performed his duties during the Monmouth rebellion and was convicted of treason when he helped a rebel heal. Rather than being put to death, Blood and the surviving rebels are instead sent by boat to the West Indies where they are sold as slaves to the local Englishmen. Eventually, Blood organizes as a way to get off their little island the only way that makes sense to him – by becoming pirates.
Most of the mythos about pirates that we all know and love today can be traced back to the joy Errol Flynn and his crew of brothers in arms feel as they loot, fight, drink and sail on the high seas. They immediately set up a code of honor among fellow pirates, splitting all of their earnings amongst each other and giving extra gold to those who lost a limb for the sake of the crew. But at the same time, they all show such delight when torturing others, especially Colonel Bishop (Lionel Atwill), who had bought most of them as slaves. This is a pirate life built on the highs and lows they all share together.
Watching “Captain Blood” shows me why I believe we enjoy pirate movies as much as we do, and it is in much the same vein as gangster movies – we’re enraptured by their lust for more power, more wealth, in an attempt to satisfy their insatiable greed. Then again, what are pirates but gangsters of the sea? Except rather than fighting with guns and wise cracks, they fight with swords and witty remarks.
But what makes this film stand out is because of Errol Flynn’s performance, easily able to bounce between dramatic moments of loss and heartbreak and moments of pure joy as he falls in love with the pirate lifestyle, all while feeling like the same caring selfless person he was at the beginning of the movie. Flynn gives this performance his all, always glowing with a radiating energy in his quieter moments with Olivia de Havilland that shows a vulnerable man who wants so much more out of the world. Flynn takes what could have been a simple swash-buckling role and turns it into a flawed man with a large sense of honor that is angry at the world.
Overall, “Captain Blood” is a great time and one of the best action pieces out of the 1930s. It sets the standard by which all other pirate movies are graded on, and still remains a charming Errol Flynn movie. If you’re curious to see where pirates in Hollywood started from, or want to see the evolution of action stars throughout the decades, then this one is right up your alley.
Categories: Movie Reviews, Movies
Tagged as: Captain Blood, Errol Flynn, film review, movie review, Olivia de Havilland, Paul Sell
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Legislative Updates: Multiple States Pass School Security Bills
August 15, 2019 | by 3Sixty Team | K-12 Education
In response to the devastating increase in school shootings in the last few years, several states have introduced school security bills that focus on improving the safety of students and school staff. If you’re involved in school security planning, have children attending schools, or are a staff member, it’s critical to stay up to date on new state laws that could impact your school. As of February, states were considering nearly 250 pieces of legislation on security — and as the school year approaches, that number continues to increase. The specific priorities vary in each bill, but most touch on aspects of emergency preparedness, bullying, guns in school, and school resource officers. Here’s an overview of these latest school security bills and what they could mean for your school.
Shared Legislative Objectives
Of the most recent school security bills proposed, 85 of them focus on improving emergency preparedness. This means having an official school safety plan, practicing emergency drills, and perfecting systems meant to notify the parents in the event of an emergency. It also involves replacing existing doors with stronger one that include sturdier locks and installing metal detectors. A total of 43 states—as well as Washington, DC—now require schools to have an official safety plan in place, and 42 states require schools to regularly hold safety drills.
The second most common legislation includes specific changes for school resource officers. In particular, 71 bills feature measures to increase funding for these officers, improve their training, and allow them to carry guns. Currently, 30 states and Washington, DC allow officers to carry guns at school, and in eight states, teachers and staff are permitted to carry guns as long as they have received proper training. Some bills propose what may be viewed as more controversial ideas, such as eliminating the requirement that schools be gun-free zones and offering firearms training to teachers.
Finally, some legislative initiatives focus on reducing bullying in an effort to improve safety for all students. These bills introduce preventive measures that address hazing and cyberbullying and strive to increase the availability of school counseling for students.
Which States Have Recently Passed School Security Bills?
If you’re involved in school security, work on staff, or have children enrolled as students, it’s important to stay up to date and informed about new state laws that could affect your school. For example, SB 551 in Nevada seeks to increase funding to improve school security by authorizing 50 percent of the proceeds of tax in excess of the amount collected during fiscal year 2018-2019 to be used specifically to help pay for additional school police officers. The bill is also intended to help obtain additional funding for school social workers, safety improvements to school campuses, provide additional crisis response training, and more.
And that’s just one state. Several other states have been working on ways to pay for new school safety initiatives. In May, the state of Texas passed Senate Bill 11 that focuses on preventing and reducing the damage done by school shootings. The legislation emphasizes improving school mental health initiatives, implementing comprehensive emergency response training, utilizing new communication technologies, and creating threat assessment teams to help identify troubled or potentially violent students. The bill also mandates that school districts to have safety committees that meet at least twice each year to collaboratively work on emergency plans.
Of course, Texas and Nevada are just two examples of states that have recently passed legislation for improved school safety. Several other states have done the same. In fact, New York, Indiana, and Virginia account for over one-third of the school safety bills that have been introduced this year. It’s likely that your own state has certain school safety laws in place, some of which might be new. If you want to get familiar with them, check this list of the school safety policies in each state so you can stay updated on the regulations that affect your school.
Of course, if we can help you and your team understand and work through the process of developing a strategic plan around school security and/or navigating the changes any of these laws have created, we’d love to help.
You can also follow our blog to stay informed on the latest safety legislation, as the following are just a few posts on school safety:
School Security Enhancement Act: Bipartisan Goal of Keeping Kids Safe
Texas School Safety Bill—Comprehensive School Safety Program Proposed
Looking Back: What Columbine Taught Us About School Security
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H.E. Mohamed Ali Alabbar
Emaar Properties PJSC
Mohamed Alabbar is one of the Middle East's most respected and recognized businessmen. The founder of Emaar Properties, the Middle East's leading property developer, Mr. Alabbar has been its chairman since its inception in July 1997.
He has been named "Middle East Personality of the Year" by FDi magazine and published by the Financial Times Group. In 2011, Arabian Business, the leading regional business magazine ranked him fifth in list of 'Power 500: The World's Most Influential Arabs,' and honored him as "Businessman of the Year."
Mr. Alabbar is spearheading Emaar's growth strategy of global expansion and business segmentation into property development, hospitality and leisure, shopping malls and financial services. He heads Emaar's joint venture with Italy's Giorgio Armani to set up the Armani-branded luxury hotel and resort chain in key international destinations, and Dawahi Development, the newly launched subsidiary of Emaar, which focuses on value housing projects.
He chairs Emaar MGF, the joint venture of Emaar and MGF Developments of India, rolling out the country's largest foreign direct investment in real estate. He is also the Chairman of RSH, the leading Singapore-based pan-Asian marketer, distributor and retailer of international fashion and lifestyle brands.
A global entrepreneur, Mr. Alabbar's business interests extend far beyond Emaar and property development. He is the founder and chairman of Africa Middle East Resources (AMER), a private company operating to unlock the value of natural resource opportunities in Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia and the Subcontinent.
He is the Chairman of Bahrain-based Al Salam Bank and sits on the board of Noor Investment Group, an affiliate of Dubai Group, the leading diversified financial company of Dubai Holding.
Mr. Alabbar is well-known for his pioneering role in positioning Dubai as a world-class city. He served as the founding Director General of the Dubai Department of Economic Development (DED), and as a member of the Dubai Executive Council and Dubai Economic Council.
Under Mr. Alabbar's guidance, the DED met with notable success in opening doors to the private sector, creating innovative public policies to strengthen trade and in establishing a business culture of transparency and openness. He was in the forefront in initiating the Dubai Quality Award and launching the Dubai Shopping Festival, both aimed at energizing the retail and tourism sectors of Dubai.
As Vice Chairman of Dubai Aluminum Company (DUBAL), Mr. Alabbar contributed to the growth of Dubai's non-oil sector. He also served as Vice Chairman of Dubai World Trade Center and Chairman of Dubai Cable Company.
Mr. Alabbar graduated in Finance and Business Administration from the Seattle University in the US, where he holds an Honorary Doctorate and serves on the Board of Trustees.
Mr. Alabbar works closely with regional NGOs, and is especially committed to the cause of educational reform. A keen sportsman, he is an active member of the UAE's endurance horse racing community, and is the Chairman of the Golf Association which hosts the annual Dubai Desert Classic, the professional golf tournament that is part of the European Tour.
Profile as of 2/12/2013
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AIB Featured Business Leader - Jonah Peretti - Australian Institute of Business
AIB Featured Business Leader – Jonah Peretti
American internet entrepreneur Jonah Peretti describes himself as “a teacher, then a technologist, and then a maker of sharable things on the internet.” He also happens to be the co-founder and CEO of BuzzFeed, as well as a co-founder of The Huffington Post. He is a regular speaker on technology, activism and contagious media, and has advised a number of leading tech and media companies on their strategies. It’s clear that he is a strong strategist, but how did he get to his current power position? Learn about the career of Jonah Peretti below, and how under his leadership, BuzzFeed hopes to outlast the pack of online media.
Jonah Peretti grew up in Oakland, California where he attended the University of California and graduated with a degree in environmental studies in 1996. He had an interest in teaching and taught computer science classes in the mid 1990’s, before decideding to return to study at the MIT Media Lab. There, he studied educational technology, telling Digital Riptide that he wanted to “think about how technology could influence and improve learning”. It was at MIT where he became known for an email exchange with Nike over a request to print ‘sweatshop’ on a custom order of shoes. At the time, email was the platform for conversations going viral, and this particular exchange went on to be forwarded thousands of times. This is what got Peretti thinking about the virality and spread of messages.
In 2001, Peretti led the research and development team at the Eyebeam Art and Technology Center. There, he hosted the Contagious Media Showdown, and developed the concept of the Bored-at-Work-Network, which he believed to be larger than some major television networks. In 2005, he partnered with Kenneth Lerer and Arianna Huffington to co-found The Huffington Post. In just six years, the online platform had grown so much that it was acquired by AOL for $315 million.
The growth of BuzzFeed
BuzzFeed was founded in November 2006 and was originally known for its mix of internet memes and lists. It gained new attention when it was the first to break news about the 2012 U.S. Presidential Election, and continued to grow from there, raising over $35 million in funding from investors in that next year. Under Peretti’s leadership, the site raised another $50 million from venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, and was reportedly valued at nearly $1 billion by the firm.
When asked by Fast Company about his influencers, Peretti referred to a company that started more than 100 years ago – Paramount Pictures. Paramount owned a film production studio, its own cast of talent and its own distribution channel in the form of theatres. He said, “That allowed them to adapt and change as the market changed,” and is exactly what he hopes he can do with BuzzFeed. As the platform expands globally to locations such as the U.K., Australia, India and Brazil, it’s clear that Peretti’s plan is well underway.
In late 2014, BuzzFeed implemented a major change, shifting the company’s strategy significantly. Recognising that users prefer to consume content within their social media apps rather than being directed to websites, BuzzFeed began publishing original text, images and video directly to where the audience spent its time – on 30 different global platforms including Facebook. Content was tailored specifically for the network and audience, rather than one piece that was circulated across all of them. This is clearly working well for them as BuzzFeed now generates 5 billion monthly views, and 80 million clicks to the website each month, making it more popular than The New York Times.
It’s clear that through his keen interest in media consumption and internet use, Jonah Peretti has built an absolute internet empire. His work has been covered by the Washington Post, Time Magazine, CNN and Good Morning America, which has seen his popularity grow even more.
This article was written by Laura Hutton on behalf of the Australian Institute of Business. All opinions are that of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of AIB. The following sources have been used to prepare this article: Richest Celebrities, Wikipedia, Fast Company, Digital Riptide
Image Credit: Richest Celebrities
When it Comes to Remote Working, Inclusion is More Important Than Ever
Leading Through a Crisis: What are some Leadership Styles and Traits that may be Effective in Uncertain Times?
Yvon Chouinard: The Alternative Billionaire
AIB Featured Business Leader – Sundar Pichai
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How Much Is that Doggie in the Window?:
Lawmakers want to know why the Air Force pays more for its initial flying screening service than the Navy. Rep. Joel Hefley (R-Colo.) complained that a USAF contract for service in his district was “extremely more expensive,” and posited that Navy “pilots have to be at least as good as the Air Force pilots.” Lt. Gen. Donald Hoffman, Air Force military deputy for acquisition, explained that the Air Force arrangement included “care and feeding,” so there is no “true comparison.” But, queried Hefley, “was that actually measured?” He found it hard to believe that the difference amounted to just care and feeding. Holloman admitted he could not provide Navy figures. He did say that the IFS contract’s direct flight-related costs compared favorably to flight-related costs at the US Air Force Academy, where care and feeding are provided separately. The USAFA cost per student is $5,600. The IFS contract cost per student is between $5,000 and $6,000.
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Beyond the Ground Wars
By Adam J. Hebert
Just days after the last US troops left Iraq, the Obama Administration unveiled new national security guidance, developed in close consultation with the nation’s military leadership.
The Pentagon has been preoccupied with manpower-intensive land wars, but it is time to think about what comes next. The new guidance delivers a sensible break from the thinking of the past decade.
The very short version: Military capabilities needed to address threats in Asia, the Pacific, and the Middle East will be prioritized (see “Washington Watch,” p. 8). With DOD’s budget expected to increase only at the rate of inflation, there will have to be cuts. This requires tough decisions.
Indeed, critics found plenty to criticize when the guidance—really more of a priority list than a strategy—did not meet their preconceived notions.
From the left came familiar complaints that it does not cut enough defense spending, personnel, or equipment.
The strategy also came under fire from the right. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-Calif.), House Armed Services Committee chairman, was apoplectic, releasing a statement condemning the strategy that seemingly refused to be influenced by what was actually in it.
This serves a useful purpose, however, by allowing for an exposition of exactly what the policy does—and does not—advocate. What follows is an annotated version of McKeon’s Jan. 5 press release. The statement, in italics, is presented in its entirety.
This is a lead-from-behind strategy for a left-behind America.
Where and how has the United States been left behind? The US has the world’s largest economy, the most capable military, and is the undisputed leader of numerous international military and political organizations. The guidance defends America’s leadership in organizations such as NATO and acknowledges that spending must be restrained, in a calculated effort to reduce debt and rebuild the nation’s economic strength.
The President has packaged our retreat from the world in the guise of a new strategy to mask his divestment of our military and national defense.
The so-called retreat is actually an overdue reallocation of forces, and divestment is an interesting word choice for a plan to hold Pentagon spending roughly level, including inflation, over the next 10 years. The Asia-Pacific region and the Middle East will be prioritized, as they should be.
This strategy ensures American decline in exchange for more failed domestic programs.
Planning for China, Iran, North Korea, and such was derided as “next-war-itis” during a decade of land war domination. These threats will now get the attention they deserve. Meanwhile, commitment to the Asia-Pacific, Middle Eastern, and European regions will reinforce American leadership where it matters most and protect vital economic and military ties.
In order to justify massive cuts to our military, he [Obama] has revoked the guarantee that America will support our allies, defend our interests, and defy our opponents.
In reality, there are no massive cuts, only reductions relative to long-range spending plans. The strategy itself explicitly states that the US will uphold its commitments to its allies, defend its interests, and defy opponents—with force when necessary.
The President must understand that the world has always had, and will always have, a leader.
We agree, and the new strategic guidance helps ensure the United States will remain that leader.
As America steps back, someone else will step forward.
The US is not stepping back from its leadership position, but from secondary priorities. Most observers feel China is the nation most likely to challenge US hegemony, and this plan moves the US more securely into the Pacific—China’s neighborhood.
An honest and valid strategy for national defense can’t be founded on the premise that we must do more with less, or even less with less.
McKeon voted for the 2011 Budget Control Act, which said otherwise. The act ordered the Pentagon to make do with less by cutting more than $450 billion from DOD’s spending plans, and set up the “sequester” mechanism which could pull another $500 billion from Pentagon coffers.
Rather, you proceed from a clear articulation of the full scope of the threats you face and the commitments you have.
We might quibble on whether any eight-page planning guide can clearly articulate a full scope of threats, but the document does a commendable job of succinctly laying out the priorities and refocusing military effort.
You then resource a strategy required to defeat those threats decisively.
We live in a world in which money, time, personnel, patience, and capabilities are all limited. This has always been the case. The US had struggles and resource limitations in World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Cold War, Afghanistan, and Iraq.
One does not mask insufficient resources with a fuzzy world view and a strategy founded on hope and a hollow force.
This document shifts the nation away from the sorts of grinding ground wars that minimized US advantages. It is a rational assessment of where America’s future dangers and opportunities lie. Regarding a hollow force, the document states, “We will resist the temptation to sacrifice readiness in order to retain force structure and will in fact rebuild readiness in areas … de-emphasized over the past decade.” Importantly, it makes “reversibility” a key tenet, by protecting military structures and industrial capabilities needed to quickly rebuild the military’s size if necessary.
McKeon is to be commended for his commitment to US security and our armed forces, but clinging to obsolete strategies and spending goals will do more long-term harm than good.
To bring this plan to fruition, the Administration must now follow through, beginning with the 2013 budget request.
“I’m pleased with the outcome,” said Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman. “There will be people who think it goes too far. Others will say it doesn’t go far enough. That probably makes it about right.”
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Back Home, More to Come
Oct. 21, 2014 | By Autumn A. Arnett
An Air Force X-37B orbital test vehicle returned to Earth after a 674-day classified mission in space. The reusable, unmanned spaceplane touched down at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., on Oct. 17, announced the Air Force. The mission, dubbed OTV-3, was the third and longest space trip to date for the two-vehicle, Boeing-built X-37B fleet. OTV-3 began on Dec. 11, 2012, with the vehicle’s launch into orbit from Cape Canaveral AFS, Fla. Air Force officials were tight-lipped about the X-37’s activities on orbit—as they have been about the previous two X-37 missions—other than to say the vehicle served as a test platform to validate new space technology and concepts of operation. More X-37 flights are to come. Air Force Spokesman Capt. Chris Hoyler told Air Force Magazine on Monday that the next X-37 mission would take place in 2015 from Cape Canaveral. He provided no additional details “on the current or future operating status of the OTVs” due to the classified nature of the spaceplanes’ activities. Earlier this month, NASA announced that the Air Force would begin using bays at the nearby Kennedy Space Center that formerly supported space shuttles for processing X-37 vehicles for launch from Cape Canaveral. (See also Boeing release.)
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Top Songs & Albums Jesse Saunders
... read moreThough others did more in the pioneering of Chicago house during the early '80s, Jesse Saunders deserves mention for being part of the two records which debuted house music on wax. First, as an addition to the band Z Factor, Saunders wrote and recorded the 1983 single "Fantasy" for Mitchbal Records...
Jesse Saunders
The Landscape Ep
Dans La Voiture
Chik N Stu
Luv 2 Luv U
The Real Story Album
Key albums
On & On: 35Th Anniversary
Old Skool New Skool, Vol. 2
What's This Fx
Active: 1980s-2000s
Though others did more in the pioneering of Chicago house during the early '80s, Jesse Saunders deserves mention for being part of the two records which debuted house music on wax. First, as an addition to the band Z Factor, Saunders wrote and recorded the 1983 single "Fantasy" for Mitchbal Records. Later that year, he founded his own Jes-Say Records and released "On and On," the track usually pointed to as the beginning of house music. (Actually, DJs and producers had been recording before this point, but most tracks were played only at the clubs on reel-to-reel tape machines). He maintained his legend status in Chicago despite leaving for the West Coast and a major-label production deal by 1986 (well before the scene exploded around the world). There, Saunders began recording more R&B-oriented projects (like Jesse's Gang) meanwhile remixing and working production for various pop artists.
Born on the south side of Chicago, Saunders collected records from an early age and got into DJing during high school, through his brother. The duo played at high schools all over the area, and Saunders made pause-button megamixes using funk and disco records. After he was introduced to the DJing of Frankie Knuckles at the Warehouse, Saunders began playing more disco-oriented music and, though he spent a year studying at the University of Southern California, he returned in the summer of 1981. Drawing bigger and bigger crowds to his events, he eventually began playing at a large venue called the Playground. When one of his bootleg megamixes was stolen from his crate, Saunders decided to re-create the record with a drum machine and synthesizers he owned. The result was a track called "Fantasy," and after the members of a local electro group named Z Factor heard the song, they convinced Saunders to join their group. The single was released in 1983 on Mitchbal Records, owned by the father of one bandmember.
The first vinyl-pressed recording to approximate production techniques utilized in a club setting by DJs like Frankie Knuckles and Ron Hardy, "Fantasy" was dubbed the first house record. Using the bed of "Fantasy," Saunders recorded "On and On" later that year and released the single on his newly formed Jes-Say Records. It too became a club hit, and influenced dozens of producers to try and gain label releases as well. After the basement-style production of "On and On," Saunders began to polish his style with singles like "Funk You Up" and Z Factor's "I Am the D.J."
Though he had a hand in the recording of the first big house crossover hit, 1986's "Love Can't Turn Around" by Farley Jackmaster Funk, Saunders wasn't around when the next wave of house records dropped on the Chicago scene. With a contract from DGC Records in hand, he left later that year for the West Coast and recorded the album Center of Attraction under the rubric Jesse's Gang. The album went nowhere, but Saunders became a remixer of note, working with Paula Abdul, Smokey Robinson, George Clinton, and Mavis Staples, among others. In 1997, he recorded an album called Chicago Reunion with appearances by classic Chicago house compatriots Marshall Jefferson, Adonis, Armando, DJ Pierre, and Tyree Cooper. ~ John Bush~ Rovi
Marshall Jefferson
Ron Hardy
Dj Pierre
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Malaysia attacks armed Filipino clan in Sabah
At least 27 reportedly killed in clashes in Malaysian territory occupied by armed clan from the Philippines.
Malaysian soldiers launched an attack on Tuesday against an armed clan in the Philippines, part of a continued effort to end a three-week long standoff in Sabah after violence in recent days that already killed at least 27 people, a Malaysian government official said.
The operation to take over an area occupied by about 180 Filipinos, dozens of them armed, began early Tuesday, a spokesman for Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak said.
The government sent seven army battalions to the area on Monday to reinforce police, Al Jazeera’s Florence Looi reported, adding that an “all-out assault” could follow. No casualties have been reported in Tuesday’s attack.
Ismail Omar, Malaysian police inspector-general, said in a press conference that the ongoing military operation is centred in the area of Kampung Tanduo, which has been “sealed off” within 4km radius.
A firefight first broke out on Saturday, when the Malaysian police tried to force the group to surrender, initially killing at least 10 people. The armed group launched a counter-attack killing at six Malaysian police, but also losing an additional seven of its members, raising concerns the violence was spreading.
“After the first attack, I have asserted that the intruders must surrender and if they refuse the authorities of this country will take action,” Najib said in a statement.
The ongoing violence has already displaced many native Filipinos living in Sabah. There are an estimated 800,000 Filipinos living there.
On Sunday evening, about 300 Filipinos have arrived in Zamboanga in southern Philippines after being “deported” from Sabah, Al Jazeera’s Jamela Alindogan reported.
“A crackdown on Filipinos are expected to intensify in the coming weeks,” Alindogan said.
Earlier, Philippine president Benigno Aquino had called on members of the Sabah clan to surrender, saying negotiations can only proceed if they lay down their arms.
Centuries-old territorial claim
Members of a Muslim royal clan, who call themselves the Royal Sulu Army and hail from the southern Philippines, landed in a coastal village in Sabah on February 9 to claim the territory as their own, citing ownership documents from the late 1800s.
They are also demanding an increased payment from Malaysia for their claim as the rightful owners of Sabah.
The Malaysian government continues to pay the Kiram clan of Sulu a supposed annual rent of $1,500 for the use of more than 73,000 square kilometres of land in Sabah.
Malaysia has refused their demands and, along with the Philippine government, has urged the group to return home.
The violence has sparked a political crisis ahead of elections for both the Philippine and Malaysian governments and raised concerns of instability in resource-rich Sabah state.
The crisis also comes a crucial stage of peace negotiations arranged by Malaysia between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the largest Muslim rebel group in the southern Philippines.
The group has ignored appeals from Aquino to leave Sabah or face prosecution at home on charges of triggering armed conflict.
Uganda opposition says HQ raided as it readies election petition
Is President Putin afraid of Navalny?
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Texas State University ABA Degree Program
Texas State University is also featured in our ranking of the Top 25 Best Applied Behavior Analysis Programs.
The Master of Education with a concentration in Special Education at Texas State has a focus area for Autism and Applied Behavior Analysis. The program provides students with an understanding of how to support and instruct individuals who are on the autism spectrum. It is for those who wish to develop the ability to teach in schools, homes and agencies using evidence-based strategies that have proven results with individuals with autism.
The program is 36-credit hours with 8 classes dealing with autism while the remaining courses provide instruction in special education and related cognate. There are five additional courses that must be completed for those who wish to become certified as a special education teacher. They will also need to complete a teaching practicum. The program qualifies graduates to sit for the Board Certified Behavior Analyst Examination.
About Texas State University
The Texas legislature created the Southwest Texas Normal School in 1899 with the goal to prepare teachers while also providing advanced study in agriculture. Students began teaching at the San Marcos Board of Education schools in 1912 as part of their education at the Normal School, a precursor to student teaching requirements now common for education programs.
Programs expanded over the years and, in 1923, the name of the school was changed to Southwest Texas State Teachers College to reflect the expanded curriculum. The name changed again in 1959 to Southwest Texas State College. The school gained university status ten years later. However, in 2003, the student government requested that the state legislature change the name again to Texas State University as they felt the Southwest label was too regional. In 2013, their request was granted.
Today, there are more than 38,000 students enrolled at Texas State University. The only President of the United States to graduate from a Texas university, Lyndon B. Johnson, graduated from Texas State University. The school awards more degrees to Hispanic students than 97 percent of the schools in the country. Programs throughout the school are ranked highly by US News & World Report, Forbes, and The Princeton Review.
Texas State University Accreditation Details
Texas State University is regionally accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Accreditation indicates that the school has the resources to meet its goals and objectives. It also indicates that the school provides programs that meet or exceed criteria created by the Commission that indicates students are well-prepared in their chosen field of study. In addition to regional accreditation, programs throughout Texas State are accredited by the following organizations:
AACSB International-The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business
Accreditation Council for Education in Nutrition and Dietetics
Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications
American Academy of Sleep Medicine
American Council for Construction Education
American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs
Commission on Accreditation in Athletic Training Education
Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Management Education
Commission on Accreditation for Health Informatics and Information Management Education
Commission on Accreditation of Physical Therapy Education
Commission on Accreditation for Respiratory Care
Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education
Council on Academic Accreditation in Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology
Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs
Council for Interior Design Accreditation
Council on Accreditation of Parks, Recreation, Tourism, and Related Professions
Council on Social Work Education Joint Review Committee on Education in Radiologic Technology
Foundry Education Foundation
National Academy of Early Childhood Programs
National Accrediting Agency for Clinical Laboratory Sciences
National Association of Schools of Music
National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration
Texas State University Application Requirements
Freshmen must complete the ApplyTexas application in order to apply to attend Texas State University. Official high school transcripts along with official ACT or SAT scores are also required. An essay is not required but recommended based on topics provided in the application.
Transfer students who have earned up to 29 credits after high school graduation must have a 2.0 GPA in all transferrable credits and meet the same criteria as freshman applicants. They must provide official high school transcripts along with official SAT and ACT scores. Those who have completed 30 credits or more after graduating high school must have a 2.25 GPA in all transferrable courses. All transfer students must provide official transcripts from all colleges or universities attended.
Graduate applicants must complete the ApplyTexas application. They must provide official transcripts from all colleges or universities attended. Depending on the program, applicants may have to provide GRE or GMAT scores. In order to apply, applicants must hold a bachelor’s degree or higher. A current resume, letters of recommendation and a statement of purpose are also necessary.
Texas State University Tuition and Financial Aid
Undergraduate tuition for Texas residents is $801.56 per credit hour and $1,216.56 for non-residents. Texas State offers a Guaranteed Tuition rate which is currently $828.89 per credit hour. Graduate tuition is $746.56 for residents and $1,161.56 for non-residents.
Financial aid is available, and students must complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) in order to qualify. In 2017-18, Texas State University provided $360 million in financial aid in the form of grants, scholarships, work-study, and student loans. In order to qualify for scholarships, students must also complete an application through the Bobcat Online Scholarship System.
The Master of Education with a concentration in Autism and Applied Behavior Analysis offered through Texas State University is a unique program that provides insight into teaching methods used for people who are on the autism spectrum. The Texas State University program also provides insight into methods used in Applied Behavior Analysis in the education of individuals who need special education services.
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FIFA President Infantino lauds Cameroon for CHAN preparation
Uganda's opposition decry police brutality
Congolese war criminal Lubanga ordered to pay $10m to child soldiers
The International Criminal Court in the Hague, Netherlands has awarded $10 million in compensation to child soldiers recruited by Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga.
The International Criminal Court said Lubanga was liable to pay the full amount to his young victims and their relatives, but added it recognised there was no way he would be able to afford paying this compensation that is the largest of its kind in history.
The court therefore instructed contributions would be sourced from different parties including the Democratic Republic of Congo to fulfill this payment.
The will also monitor Lubanga’s financial situation as he served out the remaining year of his sentence to see how much he might be able to contribute to the Court Trust Fund for Victims.
In 2012, Thomas Lubanga was convicted for using child child soldiers and sentenced to 14 years in jail. His was the first conviction handed down by the permanent war crimes tribunal.
Aid agencies estimated that 5.4 million people died as a result of war and ensuing hardship in the Democratic Republic of Congo between 1998 and 2007 – more than in any other conflict since World War II.
The court in The Hague said the payment would fund psychological support and job training programmes for 427 victims identified during the proceedings.
It acknowledged that many more children had been conscripted as soldiers. “Further evidence established the existence of hundreds or even thousands of additional victims affected by Mr Lubanga’s crimes,” the court said in a statement.
The judges awarded $8,000 per person, or $3.4 million for the 427 victims recognised so far, with an additional $6.6 million for potential future awards.
In March, the ICC ordered another Congolese convict, former militia leader Germain Katanga, to pay $1 million in damages to victims.
From the same country
Unfinished history: 60 years after the murder of DRC hero Lumumba
6 Virunga National Park Rangers Killed in Mai-Mai Gunmen Ambush
China waives Congo debt to ease stress on economy
DR Congo: 20th anniversary of Laurent Désiré Kabila's assassination
Go to video
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France arrests former DRC rebel leader
Survivours still seek justice 22 years after DR Congos's Makobola massacre
DRC: Access to Kahuzi-Biega Park blocked by rangers in a bid to claim their wages
Black South Africans who fought in WWII finally recognised
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Dedicated Employees Recognized for Milestone Years of Service
Arthrex hosted its annual Years of Service awards ceremonies on Friday, October 28 and recognized an impressive total of 276 employees celebrating five, 10, 15, 20 and 25 years of service!
Two employees hit special milestones this year, Sr. Vice President of Human Resources Kathy Sparrow and Vet Systems Project Manager Tony Gawaldo, each celebrating 25-year-long careers at Arthrex.
Kathy first learned about Arthrex when she spotted an index-sized job posting tacked on a bulletin board at Champlain College in Burlington, VT in the winter of 1991. She was looking for a second part-time job while in school and the 12-15 hours Arthrex needed for packing and shipping help fit the bill.
“When I first started in the original Vermont office, all inventory could fit in one double-door office cabinet,” she shared. “I was one of just three on staff and I was willing to do anything to learn what I could – packing, shipping, answering the phone, entering customer orders.”
Reinhold was still working from Germany at the time, but that was about to change. On his first day back in the Vermont office since Kathy had joined the team, he announced he was moving the company to Naples, FL.
The idea of going to Florida was exciting for Kathy but she second-guessed if she, as a part-time employee and college student, would be offered the opportunity to move.
“Yes! Can I go?” she thought. “I ended up being the only one free and willing to move.”
The decision was easy, she says, thanks to Reinhold’s advice to “follow your instincts. If it doesn’t work out, I’ll send you back home.” He reassured Kathy and really treated her like part of his family.
So, off they went, packing the entire office into one small U-Haul in June 1991. Twenty-five years later, the rest is history.
“It mostly feels like it’s been a blink,” Kathy shares. “One day we were a small team pushing orders out and then about ten years ago it hit me how huge Arthrex had grown when I wasn’t able to personally interview all new hires anymore.”
Under Reinhold’s leadership, Arthrex at its core has always been family-oriented she says. “He expects a lot but has always offered and continues to offer all of his employees great support.”
Kathy’s most inspired by Reinhold’s drive and passion for a truer purpose and sees this dedication carried out by all employees through the company’s mission – from the early days to now.
A few months after moving the company to Naples in 1991, Vet Systems Project Manager Tony Gawaldo came to Arthrex as a part-time temporary warehouse clerk. Soon he was hired on full time and he never imagined where the company would take him 25 years later.
“When I first started, the shipping area was just two desks back to back, with two metal racks where we housed all products,” he says. “There might have been five to 10 boxes shipping out a day. Once we made it to 25 to 50 a day, we had a big celebration party in Charlie Cremin’s garage!”
Now Tony manages the more than 30 Arthrex Vet Systems (AVS) medical education courses and exhibits that take place throughout the year all around the country.
Being part of Arthrex’s tremendous growth has been “an experience of a lifetime,” he says. “Not many people have the opportunity to see a company grow like this – let alone be a part of it.”
Like Kathy, he credits Arthrex’s success to Reinhold’s leadership style of treating his employees more like family. “Reinhold always encouraged me to take risks, to try new things, to change for the better. He likes for his employees to be able to learn and grow. He’s not just your boss, he’s a friend.”
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Sparrows and poppies
Utagawa Hiroshige 歌川 広重
Japanese, 1797-1858
Color woodblock print; aitanzaku
34.5 × 11.2 cm (13 1/4 × 4 3/8 in.)
Clarence Buckingham Collection
Sojo Henjo, from the series “One Hundred Satirical Poems (Kyoka neboke hyakushu)”, 19th century
Narumi, from the series “Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido (Tokaido gojusan tsugi),” also known as the Tokaido with Poem (Kyoka iri Tokaido), c. 1837/42
Miya, from the series “Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido (Tokaido gojusan tsugi),” also known as the Tokaido with Poem (Kyoka iri Tokaido), c. 1837/42
Kuwana: The Post Station at Tomita (Kuwana, Tomita tachiba no zu), from the series “Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido (Tokaido gojusan tsugi),” also known as the Tokaido with Poem (Kyoka iri Tokaido), c. 1837/42
Yokkaichi, from the series “Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido (Tokaido gojusan tsugi),” also known as the Tokaido with Poem (Kyoka iri Tokaido), c. 1837/42
Otsu, from the series “Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido (Tokaido gojusan tsugi),” also known as the Tokaido with Poem (Kyoka iri Tokaido), c. 1837/42
Kyoto: The Great Bridge at Sanjo (Kyo, Sanjo Ohashi zu), from the series “Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido (Tokaido gojusan tsugi),” also known as the Tokaido with Poem (Kyoka iri Tokaido), c. 1837/42
Kyoto: The Imperial Palace (Kyo, Dairi), from the series “Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido (Tokaido gojusan tsugi),” also known as the Tokaido with Poem (Kyoka iri Tokaido), c. 1837/42
Nihonbashi, from the series “Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido (Tokaido gojusan tsugi),” also known as the Tokaido with Poem (Kyoka iri Tokaido), c. 1837/42
Shinagawa, from the series “Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido (Tokaido gojusan tsugi),” also known as the Tokaido with Poem (Kyoka iri Tokaido), c. 1837/42
Kawasaki, from the series “Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido (Tokaido gojusan tsugi),” also known as the Tokaido with Poem (Kyoka iri Tokaido), c. 1837/42
Kanagawa, from the series “Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido (Tokaido gojusan tsugi),” also known as the Tokaido with Poem (Kyoka iri Tokaido), c. 1837/42
Hodogaya, from the series “Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido (Tokaido gojusan tsugi),” also known as the Tokaido with Poem (Kyoka iri Tokaido), c. 1837/42
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A Nation like No Other: Why American Exceptionalism Matters
By Newt Gingrich , with Vince Haley
Read by Newt Gingrich and Callista Gingrich
Newt Gingrich Blackstone Publishing
“Belief in American Exceptionalism leads inexorably to a smaller, more effective, accountable, and limited government. The American revolutionaries did not shed their blood for the welfare state; nor did they aim to replace the arbitrary rule of King George and his ‘multitude of New Offices’ and ‘swarms of Officers,’ as stated in the Declaration of Independence, with their own oppressive bureaucracy. Instead, they fought for individual liberty—and that made America an exception among all other nations.” —from the introduction It’s become fashionable among the liberal elite to downplay, deride, even deny America’s greatness. The political correctness police insist that America is hated around the world for being too big, too powerful, too rich, too successful, too loud, too intrusive. And besides, it’s not nice to brag. They are completely missing the point. America’s greatness, America’s exceptional greatness, is not based on the fact that we are the most powerful, most prosperous—and most generous—nation on earth. Rather, those things are the result of American Exceptionalism. To understand American Exceptionalism, as Newt Gingrich passionately argues in A Nation like No Other, one must understand our unique birth as a nation. American Exceptionalism is found in the simple yet utterly remarkable principles expressed in the Declaration of Independence, “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Our nation is exceptional, continues Newt, because we—unlike any nation before or since—are united by the belief and the promise that no king, no government, no ruling class has the power to infringe upon the rights of the individual. And when such a government attempts to do so, we will vigorously reject them. Sadly, many politicians and leaders today have forgotten our sacred commitment to these ideals. Our government has strayed alarmingly far from the scope of limited powers framed by our Founders. Meanwhile, the liberal media seek out, and sometimes create, stories intended to portray America as a bully and a thief. Even our own president seems clueless, assuring us that yes, yes, he believes in American exceptionalism, just like the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism and the British in British exceptionalism. But American Exceptionalism is not about cheerleading for the home team. It’s about recognizing and honoring the history-making, world-changing ideals our Founding Fathers enshrined to make this a nation of the people, by the people, for the people. And, as Lincoln warned, we must rededicate ourselves to those principles, lest our truly exceptional nation perish from this earth.
“Belief in American Exceptionalism leads inexorably to a smaller, more effective, accountable, and limited government. The American revolutionaries did not shed their blood for the welfare state; nor did they aim to replace the arbitrary rule of King George and his ‘multitude of New Offices’ and ‘swarms of Officers,’ as stated in the Declaration of Independence, with their own oppressive bureaucracy. Instead, they fought for individual liberty—and that made America an exception among all other nations.”
It’s become fashionable among the liberal elite to downplay, deride, even deny America’s greatness. The political correctness police insist that America is hated around the world for being too big, too powerful, too rich, too successful, too loud, too intrusive. And besides, it’s not nice to brag.
They are completely missing the point.
America’s greatness, America’s exceptional greatness, is not based on the fact that we are the most powerful, most prosperous—and most generous—nation on earth. Rather, those things are the result of American Exceptionalism.
To understand American Exceptionalism, as Newt Gingrich passionately argues in A Nation like No Other, one must understand our unique birth as a nation. American Exceptionalism is found in the simple yet utterly remarkable principles expressed in the Declaration of Independence, “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
Our nation is exceptional, continues Newt, because we—unlike any nation before or since—are united by the belief and the promise that no king, no government, no ruling class has the power to infringe upon the rights of the individual. And when such a government attempts to do so, we will vigorously reject them.
Sadly, many politicians and leaders today have forgotten our sacred commitment to these ideals. Our government has strayed alarmingly far from the scope of limited powers framed by our Founders. Meanwhile, the liberal media seek out, and sometimes create, stories intended to portray America as a bully and a thief. Even our own president seems clueless, assuring us that yes, yes, he believes in American exceptionalism, just like the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism and the British in British exceptionalism.
But American Exceptionalism is not about cheerleading for the home team. It’s about recognizing and honoring the history-making, world-changing ideals our Founding Fathers enshrined to make this a nation of the people, by the people, for the people. And, as Lincoln warned, we must rededicate ourselves to those principles, lest our truly exceptional nation perish from this earth.
“[Gingrich] shows us how faith and family hold the American tapestry together, and does not flinch from naming those who would see it unravel.” —Human Events
“Recommended for fans of history, politics, and right-wing manifestos.” —Library Journal
Author Bio: Newt Gingrich
Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House, is coauthor of several bestselling books, including Pearl Harbor: A Novel of December 8 and Gettysburg: A Novel of the Civil War. He is a member of the Defense Policy Board and is the longest-serving teacher of the Joint Flag Officer Warfighting Course at the United States Air Force’s Air University.
Format: CD Format: MP3 CD
Available Formats : CD, MP3 CD
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
CDs: 7 CDs: 1
AE Catalog ID: E8B388 AE Catalog ID: E1B3898
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Monday, 18 Jan 2021 | Today's e-Paper
Imran Khan voted best captain in ICC’s social media survey
DUBAI – Former Pakistan skipper Imran Khan was voted the world’s best captain in a survey conducted by the International Cricket Council (ICC) on social media.
The legendary all-rounder, who led the ‘Cornered Tigers’ to their maiden ICC Cricket World Cup title back in 1992 in Australia, received 47.3% of the total 536,346 votes.
India’s talismanic batsman Virat Kohli came in second with 46.2% of the votes while former South Africa wicketkeeper-batsman AB de Villiers received six percent of the votes.
Lastly, Imran Khan, one of Pakistan’s greatest and leader of the 1992 @cricketworldcup triumph 🌟 pic.twitter.com/LyrZiybD4y
— ICC (@ICC) January 12, 2021
Australia Women’s Cricket Team captain Meg Lanning got 0.5% of the votes.
©2020 Balochistan Times All Rights Reserved.
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Home Back to Previous Athletics Coaching Staff
While highly competitive and successful, there is no higher priority to the Banff's coaching staff of seasoned, veteran coaches than the development of authentic community spirit and proper sportsmanship behavior in our athletes. The character for which Banff athletics strives is about commitment to a cause greater than oneself, personal sacrifice, playing through pain, and a mentality tough enough to take on every challenge.
The Banff School boasts a core of coaches that have decades of experience leading young athletes, fostering an extremely resilient and consistent environment for athletic success, mentorship, and the development of lifelong relationships. Our coaching staff leads teams of students to instill confidence, strength, and true characteristics needed in a great teammate.
Keith Coleman, Athletics Director
Athletics Director & Basketball/Track & Field Coach
Keith Coleman is one of North America’s great speakers and sought after minds on the many facets of sports motivational and leadership. A previous college professor for the University of Houston, AIB College of Business, and Lee College, Mr. Coleman is also a retired Marine Corps Officer. He is considered one of the Top training coaches in the Country by Steph Curry of the Golden State Warriors and has coached a women’s AAU basketball team to a national champion in 2005 and in 2010 his team was voted the top shooting team at the University of North Carolina camp.
Coach Coleman is one of the few persons to have been the Head Coach for both men's and women's college basketball teams and was recognized by Basketballcoach.Com as a top collegiate coach in 2012. The following year, Mr. Coleman was invited by Nike to produce a basketball training video through Championship Productions called the WAVA System. He has been recognized by The Lead America Youth Organization and National University for his work in inspiring life changes in our next generation of leaders and most recently he was awarded the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development (NISOD) Medal for outstanding commitment and contribution to the High School and College Students in the State of Texas at the International Conference on Teaching and Leadership Excellence in 2017. Coach Coleman is a graduate of Norfolk State University and completed post-graduate work at Army Logistics University at Fort Lee, Virginia. He attended Western Michigan University Thomas M. Cooley Law School and has a Master’s Degree in Education from Concordia University.
Coach Coleman is the author of four books: "Winning is Temporary, Learning is Forever: The Impact of Sports on Youth Development," "Motivate to Levitate: 30 Day Guide to Motivation," "One on One: How to Train Your Child in Basketball" and "Why You Can’t Shoot Free-throws: the Myth, the Mental and the Make." His coaching philosophy is rooted in a phrase he coined, "Winning is Temporary, Learning is Forever." He believes that if you teach the game correctly, winning will follow.
Mary ann King, PE Coach
Mary Ann King
P.E. Coach
Annie Rothbauer, PE Coach
Annie Rothbauer
Our students play a full season of games for the different sports offered. Participation and development are central to both the mission and…
The Banff School spirit manifests itself in several ways, but none more so than in our support of the Banff Bears!
13726 Cutten Road Houston, TX 77069
© 2020 - 2021 The Banff School, All Rights Reserved.
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Food & migration
10 Actions From Farm to Fork
Food paradoxes
Milan Protocol
We, food, our Planet
Students and sustainability
Gunter's fairy tales
Spreading knowledge about food, nutrition and sustainability.
Accelerate the transition to more equitable, sustainable and resilient food systems.
The main food and environmental challenges facing the planet.
Food sustainability and environmental sustainability: eating healthily while protecting the planet.
“Food and Sustainability: Building Our Future” for an alternative development model.
The commitment from young researchers around the world to tackle the key food paradoxes.
Monitor food sustainability across the world.
A competition to reward excellence in journalism that reports on food sustainability.
Understanding the present, building the future.
Sustainable diets to reduce CO2 emissions and water footprint in Europe: discover the project
A global vision for the different aspects of food and environmental sustainability.
We support research led by young people, for a new understanding of sustainable development.
A contest which rewards innovative sustainability projects from young research fellows.
BCFN meets the public
Workshops and consultations to draft co-authored documents and inspire institutes and stakeholders.
An observatory that studies the geopolitical link between food and migration flows in the Mediterranean.
The pledge of commitment from the young Research Fellows.
We are a group of young, international Research Fellows committed to promoting sustainability.
All the BCFN Foundation Alumni, their stories, ideas and sustainability projects.
Engaging children, educating the new generations.
An educational module based on the Food Sustainability Index.
An online training program for teachers and digital tools for students.
New quality standards to teach sustainability through food.
Young people, SDGs and food. Our Survey collected whit IPSOS Italy.
A free online course on sustainability in the Mediterranean area.
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The BCFN Foundation is privately held, apolitical and non-profit.
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Scientists and international experts who grapple with sustainability in different, yet complementary, contexts.
The group that coordinates and manages the Foundation’s projects.
A network of collaborations to help us create food sustainability and environmental sustainability, together.
An international contest for young people.
The 2018 edition of the contest for young people on the theme of sustainable development.
Previous editions, finalists, winners and international expert judging panels.
Food and
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Experts coming together for concrete solutions.
Let's turn these words into action together.
GLOBAL NEWS THIS WEEK
A review of the latest news, facts, commentaries on various insights on sustainable food systems
Telling the story behind food sustainability and unleash the potential of information and communication to find solutions to the most critical threats to our global food system
FOOD AND CITIES
Towards a sustainable urban food policy.
The role of cities for achieving the SDGs
A publication in collaboration with the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact
WE, FOOD, OUR PLANET: FOOD AND CITIES
An event to consider cities as an innovation laboratory for sustainable food systems
Focusing on food sustainability: the Food Sustainability Index comes to the States
How does the USA perform in terms of food sustainability? There is room for improvement, according to the Food Sustainability Index, the third edition of which will be presented in New York on 28 September. Reasons include the lack of development of ’sustainable agriculture and poor nutritional models, amongst others.
21st out of 34 in food sustainability according to the 2017 edition: this how the United States is performing, according to the Food Sustainability Index (FSI), the tool developed by the Economist Intelligence Unit and the Barilla Center for Food & Nutrition Foundation, which analyzes food worldwide and rates countries' performance in relation to policies and good practices for sustainable agriculture, nutritional challenges and the fight against food waste. The new edition of the Index will be presented by Leo Abbruzzese, Global Director of Public Policy at the Economist Intelligence Unit, during the BCFN Forum in New York on 28 September.
The United States situation
The Index's three main pillars are nutritional challenges, food waste and sustainable agriculture: it is a qualitative and quantitative analysis model based on 35 main indicators and 55 sub-indicators, analyzed using a multidisiciplinary approach. The first edition of the Food Sustainability Index was presented to an international audience of experts on 1 December 2016, at the seventh edition of the International Forum on Food and Nutrition.
In terms of food waste, in the 2017 edition the USA was placed ninth, but it was in sustainable agriculture that the country's score really tumbled. Only India, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates received fewer points in this category.
With regard to nutritional challenges, on the other hand, the United States was 24th. It is easy to explain these figures: the farming industry produces very high levels of greenhouse gas emissions, due to the large quantities of animal feed consumed, while at the same time the percentage of land used for organic farming is very low. Average pro capita meat consumption in the USA is one of the highest in the world (225.4 grams per day), and it is well known that raising animals for slaughter has a very high environmental impact: according to the FAO, this sector generates about 14.5 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions, apart from the fact, that according to calculations by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IME), it takes 15,000 liters of water to produce one kilo of meat.
Too much sugar and junk food
With regard to its lowly ranking on quality of diet, the United States has one of the highest levels of pro capita sugar consumption amongst the countries studied by the FSI. This problem is rooted in the relationship between food and culture: easy access to fast food, combined with the lack of exercise which affects four fifths of the American population, gives the United States an extremely high obesity rate. According to official data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 38% of American adults are obese and the figure rises to more than 70% for those considered overweight. Children are also affected (more than 4 out of 10 are obese) and this condition significantly increases the risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, metabolic syndrome and cancer.
The struggle against food waste
The Federal authorities are working hard to combat food waste, and the USA is aiming to halve the level of waste by 2030. The United States currently has one of the highest per capita levels of food waste anywhere in the world. About 40 per cent of food produced ends up in a landfill. The United States Department of Agriculture hopes that if this waste can be reduced, more food will reach the 41.2 million Americans whose access to it is restricted. A reduction in food waste will also help to save households and businesses money and protect the environment.
The United States is the country chosen to host the next BCFN Foundation Food International Forum, to be held in New York on 28 September 2018. The event is being organized to coincide with the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA73) and will be presented jointly by the Barilla Center for Food & Nutrition (BCFN) Foundation and the United Nationals Sustainable Development Solutions Network (UN-SDSN).
The conference will comprise three sessions: the first will discuss the world nutritional crisis and the search for solutions for sustainable food. The second session will examine the role of sustainable agriculture as an opportunity for considering the global phenomenon of migration and, to conclude, the third session will focus on concrete solutions, from a global to a local perspective, for urban systems based on food sustainability.
The Food Sustainability Index will be amongst the topics to be discussed on 28 September 2018 in New York, during the BCFN Foundation International Forum on Food and Nutrition.
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The future of Honda: Q&A with Honda boss Takahiro Hachigo
Honda’s new CEO provides us with an exclusive insight into his vision of the brand’s future
2015 has been a massive year for Honda, with a raft of exciting new and updated models, plus a return to Formula One. But it’s not stopping there, with a new NSX on the horizon and one of the stars of the Frankfurt Motor Show, the 2&4.
To find out more about Honda’s resurgence and what lies ahead, we caught up with another new Honda arrival, CEO Takahiro Hachigo, who only took over the top position in February, and quizzed him on his plans for the brand.
Q: It’s been a busy year so far for Honda, after a very quiet time – why have we been waiting so long for new models and then they all arrive at once?
A: “Honda has taken steps to evolve our global operations to swiftly respond to the needs of an increasingly competitive, ever-changing global marketplace and deliver products that will satisfy our customers. The new Jazz and new HR-V, which were both developed under this system and employ our next- generation drivetrain, can be called truly global models.
“It just so happened that 2015 was the year in which the timing of the launch of the new Jazz and HR-V fell, and this coincided with the minor model changes of the Civic and CR-V.”
Q: The headlines about Honda recently have been focusing on fun: the Civic Type R, upcoming NSX, the return to Formula One – is that because Honda’s image had become a little dull?
A: “I don’t think Honda’s brand image had become dull. The focus at Honda has always been on producing cars that are fun to drive. It is not something that began with the new Civic Type R or NSX. At Honda, we refer to our ‘challenging spirit’. Motorsport, including F1, has been close to our hearts at Honda since we first got involved in the sixties.
“We regard motorsport as a space in which to test technologies and develop engineers, not a means by which to improve our brand image.”
Q: Is Honda’s future SUV-shaped, following the general trend across the market, or are we likely to see a return to more traditional models like the Accord?
A: “The SUV segment, which includes crossovers (CUVs), is an area of the market that has seen sudden growth, both in Europe and the wider world. I think it will continue to expand going forward. The new HR-V, launched this year, meets the requirements of this market.
“Meanwhile, as regards the Accord, there are no current plans for a successor model in Europe. However, we do understand the strength of the D-segment in the European market and will continue to monitor opportunities in this sector going forward.”
Q: Another trend is towards smaller, more environmentally friendly cars – will we see smaller Honda cars or will there be an urban mobility crossover between cars and bikes?
A: “It’s evident that there is a general downsizing trend in the market, and Honda has always been good at space efficiency and we’ll continue to develop small cars, especially when thinking about customer needs in big cities. Honda has developed the MC-β for Japan, a micro commuter currently undergoing verification tests. We will continue our research in this area by listening to the voice from the market and we want to make use of the strength of being both an automobile and motorcycle manufacturer, in order to respond to the changing needs and demands of customers.”
Q: What part does Europe and the UK play in the development of future Honda products?
A: “We recognise that the development of both the diesel engine and downsized turbo technology to new levels has been driven by European market demand. Europe also has one of the highest standards for car safety requirements and environmental standards.
“Striving to be successful in such a unique and competitive European market and getting feedback from European customers is significantly important for Honda, because we believe it will further contribute to our product development and make Honda globally competitive.”
Q: Is Honda committed to car production in the UK, even if the UK leaves the European Union?
A: “Honda remains firmly committed to car production in the UK and Europe. Our production activity in the UK plays a key role for our business in terms of providing products to the European market… and beyond.
“As we announced in late March 2015, Honda will invest a further £200million into Honda UK Manufacturing (HUM) into new, advanced production technologies and processes. This move will help to secure the long-term role and future of HUM and Honda car manufacturing in Europe.
“It brings Honda’s total investment in HUM to over £2.2billion since 1985. Furthermore, HUM will become a global production hub for the next-generation Civic five-door model, which will be exported to key global markets, including North America.
“These are major milestones as we underline the importance of the region to Honda globally and secure a strong future for our car manufacturing in Europe.”
Q: There’s so much goodwill towards Honda in F1, but much frustration, too – how would you summarise the season so far and when will Honda win again in F1?
A: “Ever since its establishment, Honda has been a company which strengthens its technology, associates, and its company structure by taking on challenges in racing. Because we maintain this spirit, Honda made the decision to once again take the challenge to race in F1 as a powertrain supplier, with McLaren as our partner.
“However, as you pointed out, we have found the competition in F1 is even fiercer than expected, especially with regards to advanced hybrid technology, and we are now facing a challenging moment.
“We understand it is not an easy task, and we should not expect a radical change in our performance in the near future, but we remain dedicated to achieving the first win with this team and we will continue to make our best efforts with McLaren to achieve better results and success in the future.”
Tell us what you think of Honda's plans for the future in the comments section below...
Fast Hondas Special
• The future of Honda: Q&A with Takahiro Hachigo
• Progress report: we compare Honda models old and new
• New Honda NSX: full details on Honda's 2016 supercar
• Moments of clarity: Honda's greatest tech innovations
• Top 10 best ever fast Hondas
• Bikes, mowers & robots - hands on with Honda’s non-car products
• Honda Civic Type R vs CBR1000RR Fireblade SP: video
• Half bike, half car: the radical Honda Project 2&4 single-seater
• WIN a Honda Civic Type R for a weekend
Honda pauses UK production due to supply shortages
The sluggish passage of parts through congested UK ports has halted production at Honda’s Swindon plant
Honda axes diesel power in the UK
Honda has quietly phased-out its diesel-powered models in Britain
Honda SUV e:concept previews upcoming electric crossover
The all-electric Honda e:concept SUV could come to the UK
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Audi versus Peugeot
As sportscar racing's big guns prepare to go head to head again at Le Mans, AUTOSPORT assesses how they match up going into the legendary 24 Hours
By Gary Watkins
@gazzasportscars
Published on Wednesday June 10th 2009
Would the favourite for victory in this year's Le Mans 24 Hours please take a step forward? Pose that question to any of the leading players from Audi and Peugeot, and there'll be blank looks all around and a slight backwards shuffling. Of course, no one wants the pressure that comes with the tag of pre-race favourite, yet no one is predicting that this year's race will be anything other than a closely-fought thriller.
"We are not the favourite, that is for sure," says Peugeot Sport boss Olivier Quesnel. Meanwhile, Audi driver Allan McNish, last year's winner with Tom Kristensen and Rinaldo Capello, is predicting that Peugeot "will have the faster car" once again.
The rhetoric of these grandee marques of sportscar racing is in contrast to previous years. Audi went some way to admitting that the odds were stacked in its favour in Peugeot's first year back at Le Mans in 2007, while the French manufacturer couldn't shake off the mantle of favourite in '08 courtesy of the clear performance advantage enjoyed by its 908 HDi.
That advantage has disappeared courtesy of the arrival of the Audi R15 TDI. Yet fears that the all-new German turbodiesel would leapfrog the three-year-old 908 in the same way that the French car put the R10 in its place appear, for the moment at least, unfounded. McNish may have won a thrilling Sebring 12 Hours with his Le Mans team-mates, but he uses the US enduro as evidence to back up his claim that Peugeot will have the quicker car.
"I would say that the straight-line speed the Peugeot showed there and the fact that its fastest lap was seven tenths faster than ours means they will have the quicker car at Le Mans," he says. "I believe the gap will be smaller than last year, but I am sure they will be faster, at least over one lap."
Audi R15 © LAT
Comparing the R15 on its race debut in the American Le Mans Series with the 908 may not give a true indication of what is to come at Le Mans. By definition Audi will have had more to gain in the three months between Sebring and the 24 Hours. McNish alludes to this when he says, "I didn't expect a new car to be quite so good straight out of the box."
Peugeot Sport team manager Serge Saulnier suspects that the Audi will be quicker at Le Mans. "We are preparing ourselves for that," he says. "We expect them to have the pace on us, but we feel we will be very close in terms of outright performance." Winning the Le Mans 24 Hours involves much more than pure speed, as Audi proved last year. But now Saulnier believes that the in-house Peugeot Sport team once again has what it takes to repeat its victories of 1992-93.
"We feel more ready to win than last year," he says. "In retrospect, we had some weaknesses in every area."
There were various reasons why Peugeot failed to win at Le Mans last year, despite the clear superiority of the 908. Its tactical failures were significant, but have been overplayed. The real reasons it lost the race were an overheating problem and issues with the 908's traction control that stymied its performance in the wet, combined with a superlative performance from McNish, Kristensen, Capello and the Joest team.
The overheating problems, caused by tyre debris mixed with rainwater to create what Saulnier described as "a kind of paté" that blocked the radiators, have been addressed.
"It is something on which the team has worked on a lot," he says. "Sebring suggested we have solved it, but we won't know for sure until the race."
Peugeot also made significant strides with its traction control over the second half of last year. But it's not just the rear end of the 908 that will be calmer in 2009. The atmosphere within Peugeot Sport appears more settled, a contention with which Saulnier agrees.
"We feel stronger," he explains, "partly because you can say that we are better prepared."
Saulnier even goes as far as admitting that the team's decision to take part in the full Le Mans Series last year, which included three races before the 24 Hours, "could have been a mistake". The heavy workload was compounded by Marc Gene's car-destroying accident at the Le Mans Test Day two weeks before the race.
"We were very tired when we arrived at Le Mans," he says. "And when you are tired, you feel the pressure. This year we are more relaxed, certainly calmer." Peugeot has also tightened up on its pitwork, an area in which it consistently fell short of Joest in the past.
"We were at least as fast as them at Sebring, and sometimes we were quicker," says Saulnier, who points out that both teams were not running to the new one-wheelgun pitstop rules devised to try to put a premium on tyre longevity. "To be fast in one pitstop is one thing, to be fast now over 24 hours is something else."
Peugeot 908 © LAT
Two seasons' worth of sportscar experience should make Peugeot a more formidable opponent for Audi. It has also bolstered the experience of the driver line-up in its three 908s.
Old Le Mans hands Sebastien Bourdais and David Brabham have replaced Jacques Villeneuve and Ricardo Zonta. Bourdais was a shoo-in for a drive once his Formula 1 situation became clear, while Brabham was recruited after Quesnel joined Peugeot Sport in January. It appears that he vetoed the signing of Anthony Davidson on grounds of experience.
Audi also arrives at Le Mans with a stronger driver line-up than in 2008. This writer incurred the wrath of one, now-departed member of Audi's sportscar squad for suggesting that McNish and co were the only crew that could take the fight to Peugeot. That prediction came true, which was one reason why there has been a changing of the guard at the German manufacturer for this season.
All three R15s - not just the McNish/Kristensen/Capello car - are capable of winning this time. Lucas Luhr reasserted his credentials as a top-line sportscar driver in the ALMS last season, while Mike Rockenfeller looks more at home in an R15 than he ever did in an R10. The arrival on loan from Porsche of Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard, two of the world's best sportscar drivers, further boosts Audi's line-up.
They should have a reliable car, on the evidence of Audi's past record and the R15's debut at Sebring. The German marque hasn't had an easy run-up to Le Mans, however. It appears to have been affected more than Peugeot by the late addition of 30kg of ballast to the turbodiesels, an attempt by the race organisers to bring the petrol-powered opposition into range. So tightly packaged is the R15 that finding room for the necessary ballast wasn't easy.
"These cars are complex," says head of Audi Sport Dr Wolfgang Ullrich, "so you don't just take 30kg and stick it somewhere. You have to work out a proper solution and redesign components."
Development of the R15 has also been interrupted by two major accidents, both during endurance runs. Capello crashed at Sebring, two days after the 12 Hours, following a problem. Last month Alex Premat shunted heavily during a 30-hour Le Mans simulation at Paul Ricard. This accident was the result of driver error, but crucially it meant Audi Sport and Joest had to schedule another endurance run. "We are a little late with our endurance stuff, and there is still some work to do," said Ullrich in mid-May. "It will be tight, but we expect we will be in good shape at Le Mans."
Peugeot's build-up toward the 24 Hours hasn't been without its problems. A gearbox problem put one of its 908s out of the race at Sebring, and the same issue reappeared during testing. This was the reason Peugeot opted to enter two rather than the planned three cars in its warm-up race at the Spa LMS event early in May.
Peugeot and Audi won't get chance to test their 2009 LMP1 challengers on the Circuit de la Sarthe before Le Mans week, because the traditional Test Day was cancelled when the credit crunch hit. That means a picture of where the Big Two stand against each other may take some time to become clear.
"Everyone will be feeling their way on Wednesday [first qualifying]," reckons McNish. "We may have to wait until Thursday or even until after the first eight hours of the race to see where we all are."
Last year's hero of the day is in no doubt that the 2009 edition will provide another great race. "Look at the number of strong cars and look at the driver line-ups at Audi and Peugeot," he says. "It has the makings of another classic."
About Gary Watkins
Gary Watkins has, for reasons best known to himself, devoted all his working life to covering sportscar racing. This season is his 29th as a motorsport journalist, during which time he has reported on major long-distance events on four continents and approaching 70 24-hour races. He reckons a degree in political philosophy makes him well qualified for covering the sometimes Machiavellian world of international sportscars.
Gary, who also writes for Autoweek, Motor Sport, Autocourse, RACER and others, lives in Surbiton but spends more time on the road than at home for most of the year.
More from Gary Watkins
The curios kept by motorsport professionals Keeping momentos of key triumphs is par for the course for motorsport professionals, but what are the most cherished souvenirs picked up by the drivers and engineers who have seen and done it all? 1608854400 F1
The Porsche icon that forged sportscar racing's greatest era Porsche is returning to the top class of Le Mans with an LMDh prototype that it hopes will write its next successful chapter in sportscar racing. But it will have to go some to emulate its 956/962, a car which defines the Group C age more than any other 1608076800 WEC
The high-power solution to counter a dying breed SRO boss Stephane Ratel was worried about the disappearance of the amateur - or 'gentleman' - drivers who used to be the bedrock of GT3. So he invented a new category that brings back a familiar name from the past 1607212800 GT
How Kristensen forged the Mr Le Mans legend He is synonymous with success at the Circuit de la Sarthe, but Tom Kristensen's sportscar legacy amounts to much more than his record-breaking nine Le Mans wins, as the most successful driver ever at Sebring and a world champion to boot 1607126400 WEC
Read more features by Gary Watkins. Subscribe to Autosport Plus
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Justin Timberlake Confirms Birth of Second Baby With Jessica Biel, Reveals New Son's Name
From 'Rompe' To 'Con Calma,' Here Are Daddy Yankee's Longest-Leading Latin Airplay Hits
Check Out the Cover Art and Track List For John Legend's New Album 'Bigger Love'
By Glenn Rowley
John Legend attends the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards at Staples Center on Jan. 26, 2020 in Los Angeles.
John Legend revealed the cover art and track list for his upcoming seventh studio album, Bigger Love, on Friday (June 12).
Painted by artist Charly Palmer, the artwork features a smiling portrait of the singer-songwriter covered in blooming flowers and a starry sky against a pop of turquoise backdrop. The LP's 16 tracks include singles "Conversations in the Dark," "Actions" and the title track, as well as collaborations with Gary Clark Jr. ("Wild"), Jhené Aiko ("U Move, I Move"), Rapsody ("Remember Us") and more.
"The songs are inspired by the loves of my life: my wife, my family and the rich tradition of black music that has made me the artist I am," Legend said in a statement. "All of these songs were created prior to the world being rocked by a pandemic, prior to the latest police killings in the U.S. that sent so many to the streets in protest. During these painful times, some of us may wonder if it’s ok to laugh or dance or be romantic. Lately, the images of black people in the media have been showing us with knees on our necks, in mourning, or expressing our collective outrage. We feel all those emotions."
Artist Mentioned
Confused About the Movement to 'Defund' Police? John Legend Is Here With an Explainer
The EGOT winner continued: "But It’s important for us to continue to show the world the fullness of what it is to be black and human. Through our art, we are able to do that. This album is a celebration of love, joy, sensuality, hope, and resilience, the things that make our culture so beautiful and influential. I’m under no illusion that music can save the world or solve the world’s problems, but I’ve always turned to music to help me through tough times and I know many of you have done the same. That’s why I couldn’t wait to release this album to the world."
Bigger Love is set for release on June 19 via Columbia Records. Check out the cover art and full track list below.
John Legend, "Bigger Love"
Everything to Know About Olivia Rodrigo | Billboard News
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08 Jun Adapting Business to COVID-19 & Going ‘Virtual’
Posted at 16:35h in Uncategorised by Bird Consultancy
The current global health crisis has caused a seismic shift in the way people are going about their day-to-day lives. Naturally, many businesses are still concerned that they will become lost in the pandemic and are looking at ways of adapting their business to COVID-19.
Most people will never have had to perform in the way they have in recent months, looking at work and their business in new ways in an drive to keep themselves and their aspirations alive, relevant and deliverable in the current climate.
At Bird Consultancy we are no different and have been putting our minds together and planning out how we, and our clients, are adapting business to COVID and the world as it is today, to keep the ball rolling and come out on the other side relatively unscathed.
Given that the majority of us are still in some form of lockdown (June 2020), one way has been the rise of the ‘virtual’ world.
Zoom or Team s have rapidly become a familiar work (and social) action, and with many of our events, communications and activities moving to the virtual world
Here are just a few of the ways Bird and our clients have been adapting business to COVID. If you are looking to make similar changes to your brand or business in these most unusual times, hopefully you will find something here that will give you some much-needed inspiration:
The Running Bee Foundation
When the Tour of Tameside had to be postponed because of the pandemic, the decision was made to adapt to the times, as opposed to run from them, and create a ‘virtual’ alternative which people could complete in their own time, however and wherever they liked. Thus, the Virtual Tour of Tameside was born! Thanks to a helping hand of PR, Social and Design work from the Bird team, the new virtual event generated a lot of interest and hundreds of entries from runners in the local community who were keen to keep to their fitness plans and achieve their running goals, even if it was virtually!
The Virtual Grand National
The Grand National has been the pinnacle of horse racing events for almost 200 years now. Every year thousands of people in-person, and millions watching around the world on television, flock to Aintree Racecourse to see which steed and jockey will be named champions.
But the 2020 coronavirus pandemic threw a massive spanner in the works for outdoor events and mass gatherings worldwide, which left the future of the Grand National in serious doubt. Thankfully, there was an alternative already waiting in the wings…
The Virtual Grand National, which had been broadcast on ITV4 since 2017, is a computerised simulation of the actual race designed to predict the most-likely winner using a series of algorithms and probability coding.
Previously the race correctly predicted Tiger Roll to emerge victorious in 2018 and chose three of the top five finishers in the 2019 edition, which gave the world a very good indication of its impeccable accuracy.
With outdoor events of this scale off limits, the Virtual Grand National catapulted into prime position to become the year’s biggest and most-watched sporting event, even if it wasn’t an actual sporting event at all!
The event peaked at a whopping 4.8 million viewers, and raised £2.6million for NHS Charities. The build-up to the event in the form of online advertising and social media promotion reached an incredible 20 million people overall.
Bird have been involved with the unique concept since its inception and we were so proud to be a part of its success in 2020 – a prime example of adapting business to COVID, offering people a very welcome distraction from the doom and gloom of daily news.
Our efforts in boosting social media views and interaction with The Virtual Grand National in the lead-up to the event, as well as managing the full media campaign and countless press enquiries, helped the virtual event reach the massive stage it otherwise may not have reached this time around.
What about your events? Your business? Your brand? Can you create a ‘virtual’ version of something you had in the pipeline, and does it have the potential to have the same (if not greater) impact than the original, much like the Virtual Grand National?
Look closely at your assets, what you have to work with, and think outside the box. Utilise your following and social media and get to work at creating something that works with the times we’re in, as opposed to hiding from them.
Quest Media Network
A real home-grown success story, Bird became involved with Quest Media Network when our CEO Chris Bird became its chairman last year. Our intention was simple: To rebuild the network from the ground-up and create a local news brand that excited people and made them want to engage with what was going on in their local community.
Over the course of several months, Bird took charge of overhauling the Quest website, radio station (Tameside Radio) and newspapers (Tameside Reporter, Oldham Reporter, Glossop Chronicle) bringing their appearance, format and designs back to life. On top of this, we also worked on the promotion and organisation of the official re-launch event which was a tremendous success.
But life in local news and radio became much more difficult when the virus hit, and the teams at Bird and Quest had to act fast in order to keep people receiving the local entertainment and news that mattered most to them.
As it turns out, people aren’t exactly desperate to head to the shops solely for a newspaper in the middle of a pandemic lockdown. No surprises there! So instead of people heading out for a paper, Bird brought the paper and the local news to them…
As an alternative to the traditional newspaper, Bird created a virtual newspaper – totally digitised editions of Quest’s flagship publications, showing off the very best in local editorial efforts in a completely fresh and vibrant way. The new format even kept to the aesthetic of traditional papers, allowing you to ‘turn the pages’ on whatever device you were reading from, for an added bit of realism!
This new format proved to be exceptionally popular for readers of the papers, as well as visitors to the site, which quickly experienced a boom in visitor numbers. On average, QuestMediaNetwork.co.uk has begun generating a staggering 850,000 per month, a 400% increase over previous months.
It just goes to show that, even in adapting business to COVID and dealing with current events, there are still ways to keep people engaged by making the most of both the old and the new.
If you have a website that’s been suffering in a loss of visitor numbers in recent weeks, could Quest Media Network’s example be something you could look to make your own? What new ‘hook’ can you give your visitors that will keep them coming back, and keep new ones rolling in?
LiveBetterVirtual
One aspect of business life that has suffered greatly as a result of the coronavirus pandemic is conferences and similar business events. Given that they usually involve upwards of 100 people in one space, this was no big surprise.
LiveBetterMCR, an original event created by Bird, was a business conference designed to discuss and debate wellbeing in the workplace. The conference, held at the Etihad Stadium on October 3rd 2019, was a great success. So much so that plans were in place for a second event in 2020. Alas, as you’ll be aware, plans were forced to suddenly change.
So, what could we do? Should we have just abandoned the momentum we had heading into 2020 and hope the situation improved later in the year, or at the very least in time for 2021? Definitely not, and certainly not at a time when workplace wellbeing is more important than ever, but the workplace and managing teams doesn’t look anything like it used to.
Instead, we chose to focus more on what mattered to people in the world today: Wellbeing whilst working from home; motivating remote teams, looking after physical wellbeing, and how you manage people when we eventually return to the workplace. We shifted our approach from an in-person event to a series of (free) live Webinars over the highly-popular video call platform Zoom.
In doing this we were (and are) still able to keep the brand active and achieve the same goal as a live event; Informing and educating people interested in wellbeing in the workplace (specifically, working from home) while at the same time being open for questions, discussion and comments from the public who were in attendance on the call… all from the safety of our own homes!
We’re very proud of the webinar sessions we’ve been able to host thus far and we’ve got plenty more still to come, with even more top guests and insightful topics. But we aren’t the only ones doing this – businesses all over the world are making use of such platforms as Zoom to take their events totally digital! Are there aspects of your business or the work that you do to reach people you can take online?
As if gaming wasn’t already popular enough! Now that much of the world is staying at home, many people have re-discovered their passion for video games and online gaming. Naturally, as an extension of this, the Esports industry has experienced a resurgence in both participation and viewership.
Not that Esports needed any kind of helping hand whatsoever; It is still on-course to be one of the most watched sports (and yes, it is a sport) globally by 2021, with a predicted casual viewership of 301 million per year. For comparison, that’s just under the current population of the United States.
In other words, Esports has been taking off and isn’t showing any signs of slowing down! Which is why Bird were thrilled to assist JD in launching their very first Esports team and event, with a collaboration between Bird Innovation (a new Esports & technology venture from Bird) and Innovation Esports, leaders in the Esports realm.
While the coronavirus pandemic hasn’t exactly helped in the organisation of live Esports events with crowds, the nature of Esports and gaming as a whole mean these types of tournaments can happen from anywhere, with all the involved players still able to take part. Because of this, Esports might be the only sport with a considerable audience that hasn’t been forced into hiatus during this time. If anything, the numbers we have show that it’s still growing.
Club La Santa, one of Bird’s closest clients, is the world’s premier sport & activity resort in Lanzarote and is home to a multitude of sports, equipment and facilities to help enthusiastic holidaymakers experience the very best active holiday imaginable.
But due to the coronavirus, as you’d expect, they’ve been forced to temporarily close their doors to their adoring sporting public, like so many other resorts around the world.
But what makes Club La Santa different from so many other resorts around the world is their dedication to offering their customers ways to stay active and enthusiastic about being active. Which is why they launched their very own series of virtual workout sessions streamed entirely online.
Experienced Club La Santa staff have been taking time out of their own days to give their customers at-home workouts, pilates, spin classes, cardio, you name it! All from the privacy, safety and comfort of their own homes.
Given that the lockdown conditions might mean some of us aren’t getting as much exercise as we’re used to, or as much as is recommended, these classes act as the perfect starting-point for people to work on their stamina, their technique and keep themselves in shape, ready for when Club La Santa finally opens its doors once again.
Freewheel Holidays
Another of Bird’s closest clients, Freewheel Holidays supply avid cyclists, groups of cyclists and families with some of the very best cycling holidays money can buy to some of the top cycling holiday locations in all of Europe.
But seeing as Europe (and the rest of the world) totally froze when the virus hit, so did the cycling holiday market, if only for the time being. But instead of holding off and simply waiting for the day when cyclists could roam free across borders once again, Freewheel doubled-down and decided to stay busy during what could have been a very quiet time.
Steven Rittey, who heads up the cycling holidays and customer relationships at Freewheel, has been delighting followers, customers and guests with a series of group video conferences centered around the world of cycling and cycling holidays.
Bird has been assisting with promoting the sessions on social, which have proven to be a huge hit! A great way to keep the Freewheel brand in the minds of the public and customers until cycling holidays make their long-awaited comeback!
So just because the whole world seems to have been put on hold doesn’t mean that needs to be the case for you entirely – are there aspects of what you do that can continue (or even thrive) during times like these? Examine your offering and be sure to isolate and focus on what will be your key lockdown success story.
Who knows where we are heading once the coronavirus is gone? But one thing we know for certain is that the limitations the pandemic placed on us all should be seen less as “limitations” and more as an opportunity; An opportunity to look at the world, our business and ourselves a little differently, so that we might learn a few new tricks from the challenges we are facing, finding new avenues and opportunities to reach and engage with our customers.
At Bird Consultancy we’re constantly looking to evolve in the face of issues like those we face today, and we recognise there are other people and businesses out there looking to do the same.
If you think we might be able to help you see “the other side” of your brand or need help adapting business to COVID help you shake things up for the better, reach out to us @Birdconsultancy on Twitter or email onawire@birdconsultancy.co.uk today.
We are Bird.
We are #YourDepartment.
Can the News damage my health? 12th January 2021
We’re Hiring A Digital Marketing Apprentice! 7th January 2021
Bird Highlights for 2020 31st December 2020
Social Media Predictions for 2021 29th December 2020
Let’s Talk Thirty – The Bird Consultany Podcast 24th December 2020
onawire@birdconsultancy.co.uk | 0161 839 4846
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USS Bowfin Submarine Museum & Park is now open from 8 am to 4 pm, daily. Please refer to our Health & Safety Guidelines prior to making reservations.
Please Note: Due to the unpredictable nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, this is subject to change. Please monitor our website, social media posts, and e-newsletters for updates.
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“The Continentals,” an 1875 painting by Frank Blackwell Mayer. Library of Congress photo.
Bowfin Museum
In 1782 Gen. George Washington created the Badge of Military Merit to recognize heroic acts by his troops. The requirements for earning the badge were a lot different from today’s Purple Heart. Soldiers had to do something unusually heroic or perform some act that was essential to the success of the Continental Army. While that sounds more like something you’d have to do to earn the Medal of Honor, the badge was actually a cloth purple heart with the word “merit” stitched across it in white. So, in a way, both the Medal of Honor and the Purple Heart came from the Badge of Military Merit.
One thing that made the badge different was that it was the first award meant for enlisted troops. Before this, the only way to recognize heroism by an enlisted soldier was to promote him, or for a general to give him a battlefield commission.
No one knows for sure how many soldiers ever received the Badge of Military Merit, though it could be as few as three. And the book in which recipients’ names were recorded has been lost for more than 200 years.
Washington’s order was allowed to lapse after the war ended and the Purple Heart wasn’t revived until Feb. 22, 1932, on Washington’s 200th birthday. Designed by Elizabeth Will, an Army heraldic specialist, the modern medal features a profile image of Washington. Once again, the medal was awarded for meritorious service, but now soldiers could also receive it if they’d been wounded by the enemy.
At first, the Purple Heart was only available to soldiers, but in 1942 Congress changed the rules for earning the award, authorizing it only for wounds, and made it available to all services, including some civilians. Civilians who worked with the military, like Red Cross workers or war reporters, remained eligible for the award until 1997. Civilian employees of the Defense Department who are killed or wounded by an enemy now receive the Defense of Freedom Medal.
During World War 2 (but also in Korea and in Vietnam), the “Purple Heart” was often awarded on the spot, with occasional entries made into the Official Service Records, although this was more often not the case! It should be noted that, in addition to the above, a number of field commanders would sometimes engage in “bedside presentations” of the Medal. This would typically entail a local Commander or a General Officer entering a Hospital Ward with a box of Purple Hearts, pinning them on the chests or on the pillows of wounded servicemen, and then departing with no official records kept of the visit or of the awarded persons.
Posthumous awards were sent to the relatives or next-of-kin of a deceased member of the Armed Forces, who could then display the decoration in any manner desired, but were not authorized to wear it.
In the early 1960s the award criteria for the Purple Heart changed again under John F. Kennedy. Since Kennedy recognized that the Purple Heart should be awarded to uniformed personnel who were shedding blood in South Vietnam, he signed an executive order on April 25, 1962 that permitted the Purple Heart to be awarded to any person wounded or killed “while serving with friendly foreign forces” or “as a result of action by a hostile foreign force.” By 1973, when the last U.S. combat forces withdrew from Vietnam, thousands upon thousands of Americans wounded or killed in Southeast Asia had been awarded the Purple Heart.
The next major changes to the Purple Heart occurred in February 1984, when President Ronald Reagan recognized the changing nature of war and signed Executive Order 12464. This order announced that the Purple Heart could now be awarded to those killed or wounded as a result of an “international terrorist attack against the United States.” Reagan also decided that the Purple Heart should be awarded to individuals killed or wounded “outside the territory of the United States” while serving “as part of a peacekeeping mission.” As a result of Reagan’s decision, a small number of soldiers in uniform received the Purple Heart who otherwise would have been denied the medal.
Finally, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq caused the most recent changes to the Purple Heart’s award criteria. On April 25, 2011, the Defense Department announced that the decoration now could be awarded to servicemen and women who sustained “mild traumatic brain injuries and concussive injuries” in combat. This decision was based on the recognition that brain injuries caused by improvised explosive devices (IEDs) qualify as wounds, even though such brain injuries may be invisible.
As war evolves so too do the requirements for obtaining the Purple Heart. For example, a recent law passed by Congress permits the award of the Purple Heart for some domestic terrorist incidents. While today’s Purple Heart medal looks exactly the same as it did in 1932, General MacArthur would certainly be surprised to see how much the criteria for awarding it has changed.
More than 1.5 million American men and women have been awarded the Purple Heart since 1932.
About 1.07 million Purple Hearts were awarded during World War II, more than were awarded in all of the other conflicts of the 20th century combined.
One of the most famous civilians to earn the Purple Heart was Ernie Pyle, a war correspondent who covered World War II from the trenches of Europe before being killed in the Battle of Okinawa.
Audie Murphy received the Purple Heart three times during World War II. He also received every combat award for valor available from the Army -- including the Medal of Honor -- as well as French and Belgian awards for heroism.
In an effort to expand our reach and impact, USS Bowfin Submarine Museum & Park is undergoing a major improvement project and renaming itself The Pacific Fleet Submarine Museum at Pearl Harbor. MAKE AN ONLINE DONATION TODAY.
#History #WWII #DistanceLearning #Education #BOWFINandBEYOND
Most WWII submarines were named for fish and other sea creatures.
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Polity, Policies & Guidelines
Query Procedure
Goals for Elections
Mission, Vision, Values, and Objectives
Study Committees
Recorded/Future Conferences
Compelling Vision Process
Guidance In Relation To Genetic Engineering
1987 Church of the Brethren Statement
WHEREAS: The miracle of new life is a gift from God.
WHEREAS: The innate characteristics, such as sex and genetic makeup, of new life are also considered intimate to God’s plan;
WHEREAS: Scientific research, in regard to genetic engineering and recombination, including gene insertions, deletions, and mutations, is progressing steadily in areas of amphibian and mammalian gene manipulation;
WHEREAS: Restrictions toward some aspects of genetic engineering are being eased, or lifted altogether;
It is felt that a thorough, comprehensive study is in order to allow the Annual Conference to learn of the mounting evidence in scientific progress toward ultimate future manipulation of human genes, and also to encourage the General Board and Annual Conference to provide guidance and direction to the local churches.
Therefore, we, the people of the Bear Creek Church of the Brethren, in council on May 30, 1982, voted to petition the 1983 Annual Conference meeting in Baltimore, Maryland, on June 28 to July 3, 1983, through the West Marva District Conference meeting in Westernport, Maryland, on September 17-18, 1982 to appoint a committee to investigate the current direction of scientific research in regard to genetic engineering and recombination, as it relates to experimentation on human life.
Ernest Spoerlein, Moderator
Mrs. Judy Rush, Clerk
Action of the West Marva District Conference meeting at the Westernport Church of the Brethren, September 17-18, 1982: Passed to Annual Conference.
Lester Boleyn, Moderator
Linda Everett, Writing Clerk
Action of 1983 Annual Conference: The Annual Conference approved the Standing Committee recommendation to “a) adopt the concern of the query from the West Marva District and b) take the following actions:
to endorse the concept of persons using their ability and reason to experiment for the enrichment of life and existence.
to instruct the General Board to:
seek out wherever possible Church of the Brethren participation in the development of guidelines for ethical research;
encourage and assist continued evaluation and discussion by the Brethren Health and Welfare Association and other interested groups within the church;
report to the membership within two years in the form of a study paper or by other means in the areas of concern, controversy and change. We also request the General Board to monitor these areas and to keep the membership appraised.”
Action of the General Board: The General Board assigned to the World Ministries Commission responsibility for implementing the Annual Conference action. Leland Wilson, director of the Washington Office, was given staff responsibility.
The following actions were taken:
Through Messenger and Agenda, Church of the Brethren members were encouraged to study the issue of genetic engineering and to share ideas and guidelines for genetic engineering that would be a part of this study. Referrals were also made to the Brethren colleges and to Bethany Theological Seminary.
A referral was made to the Brethren Health and Welfare Association, and the issue has been a part of its agenda.
Paul W. Hoffman, president of McPherson College and 1983 Annual Conference moderator, was asked to prepare the query answer, assisted by an Advisory Committee. The committee provided initial perspectives and resource materials. They then reviewed and made suggestions on the preparatory draft of this paper. Members of the Advisory Committee were:
Murvel Annan, Professor of Biology and Genetics, retired, Bridgewater, VA;
John W. Cooper, Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Religion Bridgewater College, Bridgewater, VA,
David Deeter, graduate student, Claremont Graduate School, Claremont CA;
Thomas A. Fogle, Assistant Professor of Biology, Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame, IN;
Harvey Good, Professor of Biology, University of LaVerne, LaVerne, CA,
Robert Heckman, Professor of Biology, Elizabethtown College, Elizabethtown, PA;
Leon Hironimus, Pastor, First Church of the Brethren, Ligonier, PA;
G. Martin Keeney, Synthetic Chemist, Monsanto Corporation, St. Louis, MO;
Debra A. Kirchhof-Glazier, Assistant Professor of Biology, Juniata College, Huntingdon, PA,
David G. Metzler, Professor of Religion, Bridgewater College, Bridgewater, VA;
Romelle S. Million, Medicine and Science Verbatim Reporter, Alexandria, VA;
Dale L. Oxender, Director, Center for Molecular Genetics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI;
William Puffenberger, Professor of Religion and Philosophy, Elizabethtown College, Elizabethtown, PA,
Gerald W. Roller, Physician of Internal Medicine, Roanoke, VA,
A. Robert Shank, Director, Western Research Station, Illinois Foundation Seeds, Inc., Seward, NE;
Graydon F. Snyder, Dean, Chicago Theological Seminary, Chicago, IL.;
Marla Ullom, premedical student, McPherson College, McPherson, KS;
Ben F. Wade, Vice-President and Dean, Florida Southern College, Lakeland, FL;
LeRoy Walters, Director, Center for Bioethics, Georgetown University, Washington, DC;
W. Steve Watson, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Religion, Bridgewater College, Bridgewater, VA,
1987 ANNUAL CONFERENCE STATEMENT ON GENETIC ENGINEERING
The term “genetic engineering,” first coined in 1965, describes the various techniques used to isolate specific genes, form combinations of genes, or move genes from one species to another species without regard to genetic barriers, Genetic engineering is the common name for more scientific descriptive words such as “gene splicing,” in vitro recombination, or DNA cloning. The most common type of genetic engineering is gene splicing, in which some DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid-the building blocks of life) is excised from one species and inserted into the DNA of another species, thus forming “recombinant DNA.” “Germ cells” are the sex cells, sperm and egg, which fuse during fertilization. “Somatic cells” constitute all cells of the body other than germ cells. They contain twice the number of chromosomes as germ cells since they have their ultimate origin in the union of sperm and egg at fertilization. Genetic engineering of an individual’s somatic cells affects only the individual involved, whereas genetic engineering of an individual’s germ cells affects the individual’s offspring rather than the individual. The changing of germ cells is called germline intervention.”
The understanding of DNA in terms of its impact on genetic characteristics began about 1953. In the early 1970s, scientists learned how to isolate specific DNA materials and remove them from one species and attach them to another. More recently, biomedical research and genetic engineering technologies have been greatly expanded and refined. This causes excitement in some persons and concern in others.
The application of genetic engineering to agriculture and human medicines has been nearly universally accepted for many years.
In the area of agriculture, human beings have deliberately and systematically been bringing about genetic changes in plants and animals for at least ten thousand years. Through the use of selective breeding and the planting of certain seeds, predictable results have followed. The overall goals have been to improve health, yields, adaptations, resistance to diseases, and the length of growing seasons.
The existence of genes was postulated in 1865 by Gregor Mendel, a Moravian monk (abbot) who studied pea plants. Though not taken seriously until this century, Mendel was certain that the traits of inheritance were real and predictable.
More recently, vaccines have been developed using the products of recombinant DNA which are helpful in preventing diarrhea and other animal diseases. Growth hormones are being examined for their ability to increase milk production. New crop varieties that are resistant to herbicides, grow under difficult conditions or are resistant to plant diseases are being developed. Certain cereals with increased protein content and nutritional value are now present Some agricultural experts predict that by the year 2000, the value of genetically- altered products will reach 6.8 billion.
Plant geneticists are now able to make hybrids of two different plants using a process called protoplast fusion. Products combining carrots and celery, tomatoes and potatoes, have been developed although not yet at a high quality level. Future crops will likely be more resistant to diseases, produce significantly higher yields, and adapt to environments better than their predecessors. It is exciting to those concerned about feeding everyone to speculate about the positive impact that genetic engineering can have in the area of agriculture.
Recent developments in medicine are being received with great enthusiasm. Genetically engineered bacteria that can produce insulin, interferon, or human growth hormone are seen as beneficial and medically helpful to millions. New molecular approaches have greatly improved our understanding of such complex diseases as cancer and diabetes.
Many antibodies, used for diagnoses, are the result of engineering, and the new possibilities are promising, as attempts continue to reduce diseases.
Sickle-cell anemia and Duchenne muscular dystrophy are examples of diseases caused by defects in a single gene, In the future, these defects may be corrected by a surgical replacement with the proper gene. Even now, through sophisticated genetic screening, physicians can sometimes be alerted to a greater likelihood of cancer.
Using very recent recombinant DNA technologies, scientists have now identified certain genes in normal cells that are responsible for causing malignancy. Two of these specific cells closely resemble certain viruses that can infect cells and transform them into cancer cells. Researchers are confident that they will be able to determine the biochemical events involved in malignancy given the power of the new techniques.
Immunotherapy, the name given for a new treatment for cancer, is receiving much attention by scientists and physicians. Through the use of anticancer agents which are genetically engineered, human cells develop proteins which become a part of the defense mechanism of the body. Whereas chemotherapy uses toxic chemicals, these new biological agents regulate the body’s own immune system to cause it to eliminate the cancer cells. Also monoclonal antibodies are being used on tumor cell surfaces to destroy the tumor cells. The development of monoclonal antibodies is a parallel technology to that of recombinant DNA.
Physicians who treat patients dying of Huntington’s chorea are obligated to bank a sample of the patient’s DNA so that prenatal diagnoses can be performed on the relatives of the patient during the fetal stage. Such testing through amniocentesis allows families to better prepare for a defective fetus. In the instances of negative hereditary patterns, some persons now decide against having children.
Genetic engineering has the possibility of producing more food from less land on a planet where many are starving and where the population could soon be higher than the planet can comfortably accommodate. Genetic engineering may be able to greatly limit the hereditary transference of diseases, correct genetic mutations and even eliminate many of the currently dreaded diseases of humankind, Thus, through genetic changes, the quality of life could be greatly enhanced for many persons.
The church affirms that God is the creator of life, that life is a divine gift, and that life has a divine purpose.
The church affirms that the search for truth is a continuing process involving biblical study, scientific research and prayer, as these contribute to the decision-making of the faith community.
The church affirms that redemption is not only helpful but required, considering that persons are often trapped in economic and health situations which require assistance.
The church affirms its stance against the abuses of knowledge.
The church affirms that in the incarnation of Jesus Christ, God has shown the importance and meaning of human existence and the value of human decisions.
The church affirms that God continues to create all humans in God’s image so that all of life may be understood as a divine gift to be lived in faithfulness to God and with God’s children.
The church affirms the concept of community and life within community for the sharing of inspiration and love and for the wholeness that comes from participation within the faith community.
The church affirms the unity within a human life, the oneness and interrelationships of the organism, which has a body, a mind, and a spirit.
The church affirms its vigorous opposition to war and killing and to the development of weapons whose sole purpose is to kill, maim subject, or manipulate others and, recognizes that any research can be used for such purposes.
The church affirms that the human mind is a gift of God and that the search for knowledge is to be encouraged.
The church affirms that Christians follow the truth as they have perceived it even though that truth may conflict with the majority opinion.
The church affirms an everpresent readiness to listen to the ideas and opinions of all others and its openness to new knowledge in all areas.
Theological Concerns. Advances in genetic engineering pose significant theological questions. How does the engineering of genetic change relate to our understanding of God as Creator of life? Does changing the genetic structures of life, overstep the boundaries God has set for humankind or contradict the biblical concept of the fear of the Lord?
Are humans playing God? Or is genetic engineering a legitimate way for humanity to serve as partners with God to fulfill God Is intentions? If so, what is the proper way for the religious community to work with the scientific community in raising the pertinent theological questions and in making scientific decisions that are moral and appropriate? And, given the power to shape or alter life, what are the moral limits beyond which it would be hazardous or sinful to go?
Ethical Concerns. Genetic engineering presents new and continuing ethical issues which have not been adequately addressed or resolved. What are the ideal credentials for persons serving on committees or agencies who make decisions about genetics? What agencies should be empowered to ultimately supervise and control genetic experimentation and research? Who should own the patents which come from products which result from government funded research?
Will the powerful genetic technologies be used to relieve human suffering in areas such as the Third World when the financial rewards are limited? Will governments and corporations consider the diseases and needs of the poor when research priorities are established? Currently, some genetically engineered medicines and foods cost much less than their predecessors. What incentives and protections could be enacted to encourage corporations to specifically develop products for the benefit of the millions of poor, hungry, and sick persons worldwide? Will only the rich benefit from the new multi-billion dollar biological technologies?
Are there responsible safeguards to prevent the misuse of poor or uneducated persons as being the initial subjects for genetic research? Are the parameters for safety the same for the rich and the poor when considering reasonable risk levels as genetic technologies are implemented?
Is it appropriate for academic institutions to promote or accept lucrative military contracts when the sole purpose of the contracts for research is to produce weapons for military defense? Since military information is often classified and secret, how can the public know whether biological weapons are being produced, developed or refined? What are the legitimate rights of citizens in a democracy to be informed about biological weapons, especially when the potential for destruction through genetically engineered bacteria is so great?
Social Impact. The impact of genetic engineering on the social well-being of persons is not at all clear. Who decides the legal, social, and ethical issues that are involved? Genetic changes that assist persons of one sex or in one culture or geographic area may be a liability to persons of the other sex or another culture or geographic area. Who determines what changes are good and permissible?
It may be possible to radically change the nature of humankind through selective genetic manipulation in order to develop persons with stronger bodies, higher intelligence, and greater memory. Will the development of such persons be for those who have the financial resources to pay for the costs? Will this development be available to all and at whose expense? And what are the societal hazards of inadvertent mistakes made by well-meaning researchers, as the side effects of recombinant DNA or germline intervention become known?
Long-term Effects. The long-term effects of genetic engineering are unknown. Should there be minor harmful effects in the process of producing major helpful effects, what ratios of minor and major are acceptable? What impact will numerous genetic changes have on an ecological system that has evolved over many generations into a system of delicate balance?
Natural selection, a process of genetic change over thousands of years, has moved at a very slow pace. Genetic engineering produces changes at a comparatively rapid pace. What impact will the swift changes have on ecology and the process of nature? What procedures will be used to control biological pollution, the uncontrollable multiplication of altered life forms that cannot be recalled? What is the responsibility of one generation related to the health of those persons of future generations? What are the acceptable parameters for defining human health both now and in the future?
Genetic Counseling. As gene-splicing techniques become more sophisticated, there are numerous questions presented related to human health and reproduction which will require counseling as persons make decisions related to very complicated issues. At present genetic counseling services are considered to be somewhat successful in providing medical information. But addressing the emotional, economic, and moral issues involved has been less than satisfactory. What is the appropriate role of the Christian church in providing appropriately trained counselors who can give spiritual as well as medical assistance in compassionate ways? What is the role of the church in confronting prospective parents with the realities of their genetic histories as decisions are made about whether or not to have children. What is the appropriate balance of individual freedom in making decisions related to genetic changes or reproduction as compared to social responsibilities where decisions are made for the good of society. If diseases such as Huntington’s chorea, hemophilia, or cystic fibrosis are pre- or ante-nataly diagnosed what are the ethical and moral responsibilities involved in the decision-making processes.
Since abortion is the only current way of dealing with a defective fetus, is abortion permissible or even appropriate in certain instances involving improper fetal development? Should Christians have different concepts about abortion when the fetus is obviously unhealthy as compared to when the fetus is considered to be normal or healthy? If a fetus is diagnosed beyond doubt as being defective, are there different levels of defectiveness which would lead to different decisions? How does the Christian church prepare counselors with an understanding of all of the intricacies involved to assist those who are faced with making such decisions?
Gene Therapy. Although research has not as yet been authorized using human subjects, knowledge is rapidly accruing about the impact of gene therapy through research with animals. Through gene therapy, unhealthy genes will be replaced by healthy ones. Who is to determine what are unhealthy and healthy genes? Can an individual patient request gene therapy or can others, such as relatives, request it for a particular patient? Should gene therapy be limited only to genetic changes on somatic cells or is it permissible also to change sex cells?
At what point in the state of the art of gene therapy is it permissible and acceptable to attempt therapy with human subjects? What are appropriate precautions that must be met and who is assigned the penalties in the event that irrevocable errors are made which might impact future generations? How far can one go with the unknown related to the controllable or uncontrollable risks involved? How should society cope with persons who have energetic philosophical concepts which insist on genetic changes in order to produce a “healthy” or “perfect” human being?
Human Reproduction. The technical advances in genetic engineering have presented new concepts and rapid changes related to human reproduction. These changes are often called “technological reproduction” or “non-coital procreation.” What impact will the new methods of procreation have on the traditional Christian concepts of sexuality, the family, or sexual roles? If it becomes possible to modify human family characteristics such as height, weight, or intelligence, who will determine the parameters or the appropriatenesses of these modifications?
What are the ethical issues involved in in vitro fertilization? Given the possibilities of embryo freezing, embryo changing, and surrogate mothering, what is the appropriate stance of the Christian church toward these issues? Are Christians free to consider any other process for conception when the “natural” mode does not produce a pregnancy? In the event of health problems, are there hesitations presented by the Christian faith that should prevent the use of a surrogate mother as a couple develops its own family?. Are single persons outside of the boundaries of the Christian faith when they have children without the process of coitus?
In response to recent developments in genetic engineering, the Church of the Brethren recommends the following:
We recommend the continuing use of scientific research for the alleviation of human suffering.
We recommend that members of the church take an active interest in monitoring and influencing the actions of the Recombinant Advisory Committee of the National Institute of Health, the Biotechnology Science Coordinating Committee, the Environmental Protection Agency, and other similar committees, and use appropriate procedures to influence these agencies in keeping with the spirit and intent of this statement.
We recommend the greater utilization and broader involvement of the Subcommittee on Bioethics of the Recombinant Advisory Committee in the development of guidelines for the application of genetic engineering.
We recommend that legislation be enacted which would prohibit both research on and development of genetic engineering for military purposes.
We recommend the careful monitoring of genetic engineering by the General Board of the Church of the Brethren and the development of future papers as is felt to be appropriate.
We recommend that members of the church become knowledgeable about genetic engineering through readings, classes, college courses, church seminars, special lectures, and articles from professional journals.
We recommend that members of the church become involved in discussions about genetic engineering and especially encourage members of the scientific community to be in dialogue with nonscientists.
We recommend that select persons with appropriate credentials, skills, or potential be encouraged to become knowledgeable for the purpose of being genetic counselors to persons who are trapped in a conflict of values.
We recommend that congregations as a part of their ministry encourage persons contemplating parenthood to research their genetic histories and to especially seek counseling if there is a history of genetic diseases.
We recommend that institutions of the church, especially our colleges and seminary consider including professional courses or discussions within appropriate courses to disseminate information about genetic engineering.
We recommend a continuing emphasis on the rights of all persons to dignity, freedom, justice, love, and respect.
The advancements of genetic engineering have begun to provide us with choices in areas where previously no choices were possible. Existing moral and ethical systems give no clear guidelines for making these new choices. As concerned Christians we commit ourselves to the development of moral guidelines and regulations recognizing that guidelines and regulations are never sufficient alone, but at best are undergirded by the scriptures, education, information, justice, concern and love. If we proceed deliberately, insist on guidelines which are subservient to the norm of love, encourage scientific literacy, and tolerate very minimal risk, we can have the kind of future we desire, a future in which we are free to make careful choices and still be able to place our faith in God to shape our ultimate destiny.
Action of the General Board: At its March, 1987 meeting, the board approved the final draft of the “Guidance in Relation to Genetic Engineering” paper with the addition of the section, Ethical Concerns and directed that it be sent to the 1987 Annual Conference.
Phillip C. Stone, Chairman
Donald E. Miller, General Secretary
Action of the 1987 Annual Conference: The 1987 ANNUAL CONFERENCE STATEMENT ON GENETIC ENGINEERING was presented to the delegate assembly from the General Board by Leland Wilson, General Board staff member, and Paul W. Hoffman, General Board appointee to prepare, with an advisory committee, the paper in completion of an Annual Conference assignment to the General Board. Several amendments were proposed and were defeated. The 1987 ANNUAL CONFERENCE STATEMENT ON GENETIC ENGINEERING was adopted as received.
1982 Refugees1989 No Force in Religion
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Congressional Hearing on Religious Liberty Misled by Bishop’s Testimony
A Congressional Subcommittee hearing today on the state of religious liberty in the US heard from Bishop William Lori, the chair of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty, who gave testimony on behalf of the bishops’ conference. The bishop’s testimony intimated that some Catholic teachings on religious liberty should be incorporated into American law. His proposals, however, would disproportionately benefit Catholic organizations and institutions, while trampling on the religious liberty of every citizen and having a chilling effect on the ability of Americans to receive basic preventive healthcare in publicly-funded Catholic hospitals or through their health insurance.
In a written statement to the committee Jon O’Brien, president of Catholics for Choice, presented the authentic Catholic position on religious freedom.
Religious freedom is an expansive rather than a restrictive idea. It has two sides, freedom of religion and freedom from religion. It is not about telling people what they can and cannot believe or practice, but rather about respecting an individual’s right to follow his or her own conscience in religious beliefs and practices, as well as in moral decision making. The protections we put in place to preserve religious freedom do not—and should not—be considered to permit religious institutions or individuals to obstruct or coerce the exercise of another’s conscience.
This tenet is the basis of the social contract that religious organizations like Catholic hospitals and charities are woven into by virtue of the tax benefits and other public funds they receive. One would expect that these organizations would play by the rules of society at large, rather than require the rest of society to play by their rules. In his testimony, Bishop Lori made the misleading claim that, should the refusal clause being considered in recently released rules implementing the Affordable Care Act pass as is, or be expanded by the Obama administration, only parish housekeepers would be affected. The reality is that a far greater number of workers would be affected by the exemption. By his calculation, however, it is acceptable to skimp on the rights of some because of the good that Catholic charitable organizations provide others. These terms are unacceptable, both to Catholics and to the American people.
Mr. O’Brien’s statement continues:
“Today, the 98 percent of sexually active Catholic women in the US who have used a form of contraception banned by the Vatican have exercised their religious freedom and followed their consciences in making the decision to use contraception. Thus, they are in line with the totality of Catholic teachings, if not with the views of the hierarchy. However, having failed to convince Catholics in the pews, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is trying to impose its religious views by fiat, and in the process impeding the religious freedom of millions of Americans, taking reproductive healthcare options away from everybody.
Federal dollars should be used for the common good and to enable people to exercise their conscience-based healthcare decisions. The original vision of our founding fathers on religious freedom would have it no other way.”
Jon O’Brien’s full statement may be read here.
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How the integration between Zendesk and WhatsApp works
In this article we will understand how the integration between WhatsApp and Zendesk works, how to implement it, what are the pros and cons, and what are the alternatives to Zendesk to integrate WhatsApp within the channels of your customer support
In August 2018, Zendesk announced the release of the integration between its products dedicated to customer service and WhatsApp Business. The news arrived on the same day that WhatsApp officially announced the release of the WhatsApp Business API, a symptom that the two companies had been working on the integration for a while.
From that moment on, Zendesk clients were able to request access (the process is not automatic) for the integration with WhatsApp, in order to bring within the platform support requests coming from the most widespread messaging app.
So let’s see how this new feature works, what you need to do to implement this new integration and what alternatives you can use to provide customer support via WhatsApp.
How can you integrate WhatsApp Business into Zendesk?
As we have already mentioned before, the integration between the Zendesk suite and WhatsApp cannot be managed independently. In fact, it is not possible to connect with just a few clicks your WhatsApp Business account to the platform.
The main reason for this is that it is still in beta phase and, before being able to connect the two tools, approval by WhatsApp itself is required.
To start using the integration, it is necessary to fill out a form on Zendesk’s website and enter the requested information such as, for example, the number of messages you expect to send based on the number of assistance requests that you expect to receive.
At the moment, this process does not look too straightforward, and many Zendesk clients have expressed some disappointment with how this procedure works. For more information on this topic, we suggest you take a look at Zendesk’s blog, where you will find some negative comments like this one:
In fact, it seems like it can take at least a month before you can even try the integration, and many members of the community complain that they have not received any response from Zendesk following their request.
If you need to start providing customer support via WhatsApp urgently, we advise you to take a look at the possible alternatives at the bottom of this article.
If, on the other hand, you want to manage this channel from the Zendesk platform at all costs, let’s see more detail how this integration works, once the approval process has been completed.
How to manage support requests via WhatsApp within Zendesk
Once the integration is configured, you can finally start managing assistance requests from WhatsApp within Zendesk. Whenever a client starts a new WhatsApp chat with the company, a new ticket will be opened within the support platform.
Once the ticket has been taken over by a support agent, everything looks very similar to the management of a traditional ticket, including the possibility of exchanging images, videos, links and preview maps.
Despite the fact that Zendesk’s ticketing system does not allow for instant chatting, this integration finally allows you to manage customer support via WhatsApp in a structured way, using the routing and assignation features of the traditional Zendesk interface.
Note: it is not possible to integrate WhatsApp on Zendesk Chat (Zopim).
Many of our readers ask us if WhatsApp can be integrated within the Live Chat interface (once called Zopim). At the moment this is not possible, and assistance requests can only be managed through the traditional ticketing interface.
To have an experience similar to that of WhatsApp Web, but with the features necessary for the collaboration of a support team, we recommend that you consider alternatives such as Callbell.
What are the alternatives to the integration of WhatsApp with Zendesk?
There are various alternative solutions that allow you to provide customer support via WhatsApp. With the release of WhatsApp’s Business APIs in fact many companies, in the field of customer care software, have invested in creating solutions that would allow support teams of any size to manage this channel in a simple way.
Among the main alternatives to Zendesk, we recommend:
1) Callbell, to provide assistance with WhatsApp in a similar way to a Live Chat but with all the features necessary for team collaboration. The platform, which can be configured in just a few clicks, allows you to manage customer support through the main direct messaging apps.
2) Freshdesk, similar to Zendesk, proposes a management of WhatsApp through tickets. It represents a valid solution only if other services offered by the platform are already being used.
3) Treble.ai to collect feedback and requests from customers through bots. The solution is mainly used in post-sales phases, in order to collect feedback from users in an automated way (for example, after having ordered a meal through a food delivery app).
In this article we have analyzed how the integration of WhatsApp Business with Zendesk works, we have understood the possibilities and the limits and we have evaluated potential alternatives.
If you found this article useful, don’t forget to share it and let us know what you think by leaving a comment below!
That’s all for today, thanks for reading and see you soon!
How does WhatsApp Business integrate with Zendesk?
The integration between WhatsApp and Zendesk is managed through tickets: it is not yet possible to manage chats coming from WhatsApp from Zopim or through a system similar to a live chat.
What are the alternatives to Zendesk to integrate WhatsApp among customer support channels?
The main alternatives to Zendesk are Callbell, Freshdesk and Treble.ai
Is it possible to integrate WhatsApp with Zopim (Zendesk chat)?
At the moment it is not possible to integrate WhatsApp to Zendesk’s chat platform and support requests from WhatsApp need to be managed through tickets.
How does Whatshelp work?
The advantages of using Whatsapp and Messenger for your business in times of emergency (Codiv-19)
How to grow your business thanks to Messenger and WhatsApp
How to use WhatsApp in a dealership business
What are the WhatsApp Business APIs for?
Carlo Morandi
About the author: Hello! I am Carlo and I am one of the co-founder at Callbell, the first communication platform designed to help sales and support teams to collaborate and communicate with customers through direct messaging applications such as WhatsApp, Messenger, Telegram and (soon) Instagram Direct
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Challenging USCIS Denial of Multinational Manager Immigrant Petition
Bird Technologies Group, Inc. v. United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, et al.
The United States is home to an increasing number of multinational companies that sell their products and services in the global marketplace. Under our immigration laws, employment-based visas are available to certain managers or executives of these multinational companies who have worked in either capacity outside of the United States for the time required by law. Multinational companies file petitions with United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on behalf of managers or executives who, if USCIS approves the petitions, may eventually be eligible for permanent residence in the United States.
Plaintiff Bird Technologies Group, Inc. (BTGI) – a multinational company headquartered in Ohio with several U.S. and foreign subsidiaries – challenged the denial of an immigrant petition filed on behalf of a BTGI manager whom BTGI employed in Brazil as a manager for nearly nine years. USCIS denied the petition because BTGI was not incorporated in Brazil, and did not have a subsidiary or affiliate in Brazil. BTGI argued that it need not be incorporated in or have a subsidiary or affiliate in Brazil to petition for a manager 1) BTGI employed abroad directly for the required statutory period, and 2) will continue to employ as a manager in the United States.
Prioritizing the immigration of multinational executives and managers recognizes the need for the United States to remain competitive in an increasingly global economy. BTGI sued to ensure it is permitted to employ a valuable manager who already has experience with the company’s multinational operations, goals, policies, procedures, and operations.
BTGI sought an order vacating the denial and requiring approval of its petition.
After filing suit, USCIS agreed to approve the petition and the parties stipulated to dismissing the suit.
The Council served as co-counsel, with David E. Gluckman of McCandlish Holton, PC, under the Council’s program to encourage business immigration attorneys to file suit to challenge unlawful agency denials of employment-based petitions.
Follow this case:
Litigation Document
Exhibit 1: Decision
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Train service resumes after deadly New Jersey crash
New Jersey Transit employees talk to one another after a train arrives to Hoboken Terminal in Hoboken, N.J., Monday, Oct. 10, 2016. (Seth Wenig / AP)
HOBOKEN, N.J. — Rail service resumed Monday at a New Jersey transit station damaged less than two weeks ago after a train traveling more than twice the speed limit crashed, killing a woman on the platform and injuring more than 100.
The return of partial service into Hoboken Terminal was welcomed by commuters in River Edge, about 12 miles north of Hoboken — even if some had still-painful memories of the crash.
Sheilah Tiangco-Hugo had been in the first car that day and remembered being jolted out of her seat when the train sped up as it approached the track's end. She braced for impact on the floor and watched as a concrete slab crashed down on the seat she had occupied moments earlier.
"That slab could have cut me in half," Tiangco-Hugo said as she waited for the train with several other people Monday morning. "I started praying, and saying, 'Is this really happening?'"
Her back still hurts from the crash, Tiangco-Hugo said. But it didn't stop her from boarding Monday's 8:11 a.m. train for Hoboken.
Eight of the 17 tracks at Hoboken Terminal reopened, according to New Jersey Transit. Tracks 10 to 17 reopened, while tracks 1 to 9 will remain out of service until further notice as repair work continues in that section of the busy station, where commuters connect with other trains and with ferries heading into New York City
With rail service in and out of the terminal running on a modified schedule, NJ Transit warned commuters that its bus, rail and light rail services may experience crowding conditions and delays.
With the resumption of service, a new rule will require that the conductor join the engineer whenever a train pulls into the terminal. That means a second set of eyes will be watching as a train enters the final phase of its trip at stations where there are platforms at the end of the rails.
The engineer in the crash was alone at the time. He has told federal investigators that he has no memory of the crash.
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Grabbing an Uber? Buckle up and bring your face mask to combat coronavirus
Mike Snider / USA TODAY
It's not just airlines requiring masks for passengers. Soon, Uber riders – and drivers – will need to wear face masks or some kind of face covering in post-shutdown America.
The policy, approved by the company's executives in a meeting last week, is expected to become official in the coming weeks.
Uber confirmed the plan, first reported by CNN Business, to USA TODAY.
“As countries reopen, Uber is focused on safety and proceeding with caution," the company said in a statement. "Today, we continue to ask riders to stay home if they can, while shipping safety supplies to drivers who are providing essential trips."
Uber is still operating in most markets globally. While emphasizing to potential riders to stay at home – with TV ads and reminders in its mobile app – Uber already suggests that all drivers and riders wear masks. But it is not a requirement.
The company has donated rides to health care workers and to thousands of women at risk for domestic violence. Competitor Lyft has also donated rides for health care workers. Both companies have begun working with medical providers to provide transportation for patients needing to get to appointments.
Uber announced plans to buy and ship tens of millions of masks to its drivers and delivery workers; it has also sought to get drivers disinfectant supplies.
So far, Uber has 1.4 million face masks that have either shipped or are in the process of being packed and shipped in the U.S., the company says. Delivery has been prioritized to cities that have asked drivers to wear face covers; those cities include New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.
Beyond that, Uber is now planning its strategy for the coming days as cities and states begin lifting some of the stay-at-home and shelter-in-place orders.
As part of the plan, the company is developing detection technology so it knows drivers have face masks on before they begin accepting trips, CNN Business reported. Uber is also investigating methods of confirming riders have face coverings.
"Our teams are preparing for the next phase of recovery, where we will all have a role to play," Uber said in its statement. "We’ll communicate updates directly to users when ready, but in the meantime we continue to urge all riders and drivers to wear masks or face coverings when using Uber.”
Follow USA TODAY reporter Mike Snider on Twitter: @MikeSnider.
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St. Paul’s can fine-tune cochlear implants remotely
VANCOUVER – Sound returned to Alan Holt’s world in late 2017 when surgeons at St. Paul’s Hospital inserted a cochlear implant (CI) into his right ear. Music, bird song and the laughter of his grandchildren returned to his life after years of diminished hearing, caused by a career in a noisy Sunshine Coast pulp and paper mill. Things eventually deteriorated to the point where hearing aids he used were no longer effective.
Each year since receiving the implant, the 68-year-old retiree has returned to St. Paul’s for a follow-up that involves reprogramming the device, a process called mapping. There, a CI audiologist programs and adjusts the external sound processor to his specific hearing needs.
Holt, a resident of Duncan on Vancouver Island, is grateful for regaining his hearing, especially after two near accidents with vehicles driving behind him as he walked on a rural road (without sidewalks). He could not hear them.
“It was a life-changing surgery,” he says.
As thankful as he is, Holt must carve out a full day for his follow-ups, because St. Paul’s is the sole provider of cochlear implant services for adult residents of British Columbia and Yukon through its BC Adult Cochlear Implant Program.
For two years, the follow-up day went like this: Holt rose at 4.30 am to drive to Nanaimo for the 8.15 am ferry, then once on the mainland, drove to the hospital for his 90-minute appointment. He grabbed a meal then drove to the ferry for the 5.30 pm sailing, returning home at 9 pm, exhausted.
“It’s a long day,” says Holt. “The whole experience of driving in the city, trying to find parking – it adds a whole bunch of stress. It’s a real hassle and it takes a lot of time.”
He was dreading this year’s appointment in particular because of COVID-19 risks around ferry travel.
As it turns out, the 2020 visit to the clinic has been dramatically different. And Holt is thrilled about it.
St. Paul’s has partnered with Island Health and Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA) to set up the first remote adult-mapping program in BC. It launched December 4. The plan is for patients to have their annual follow-up visits through telehealth though they’ll be seen in-person every three years for physical check-ups.
Holt is one of the first virtual mapping patients. On this December day, St. Paul’s CI audiologist Myron Huen (pictured) uses a sophisticated video platform to remotely test Holt’s processor, far from where he sits in a clinic at Victoria’s Royal Jubilee Hospital.
“How’s the hearing?” Huen asks Holt, whose image looms large on her monitor. “Your battery is good and tight? We’re going to remap to make sure your hearing is as optimal as it can be.”
The two communicate with each other via computer screens, and Huen spends the next 90 minutes painstakingly fine-tuning Holt’s device. When she has to deactivate the implant, she types what she’s doing on a screen Holt can see on his screen. She will test an array of 22 electrodes implanted inside Holt’s cochlea, the snail-shaped part of the inner ear that lets people hear. (Cochlear implants work by bypassing damaged portions of the inner ear and then directly stimulating the auditory nerve leading to the brain. They involve internal and external components).
Virtual health has become a hallmark of many aspects of patient care since the pandemic, and this clinic is no exception. “This program has been years in the making, but COVID gave it a real push,” says Huen. “With COVID, telehealth has been a central part of healthcare delivery.”
“Caring for patients virtually is part of our long-term digital strategy at Providence,” says Brian Simmers, the organization’s Chief Financial Officer.
“Creating partnerships like this remote mapping cochlear implant program provides seamless care for our patients. Technology like this enables patients to receive care closer to their homes, while connecting virtually makes it a smooth experience for both patient and healthcare provider.”
CI audiologist Jowan Lee, who treats CI patients virtually and in person too, gives the program high praise. “It’s so seamless, it’s like the patient is right in the room,” he says. “This remote mapping service was made possible because of the collaboration with virtual-care services at Island Health and Providence, and the IT wunderkinds at PHSA and Island Health. They did the meat of the work and I’m the one who benefits, along with the patients.”
Dr. Mary Lyn Fyfe, Island Health’s chief medical information officer, says: “We are profoundly impressed by the collaboration among our interdisciplinary team members in creating this virtual inter-health authority service. Each individual understood the significance of this program, especially during the pandemic, made it a priority and, thus, a reality for our Island residents.”
Vancouver Island was chosen because of the high number of people with cochlear implants, about 180 patients. Lee says the goal is to possibly expand the virtual clinics up the island then, if things go smoothly, to Interior and Northern Health. “People there have insanely long days to get to the clinic – often a 10-hour drive, depending on where they live.”
The virtual clinic can potentially ease the burden from the in-person clinic, where space is at a premium, and in so doing, allow audiologists to see more patients in person.
Alan Holt is more than happy with his first virtual appointment. “It was a really good process. There was no waiting at ferry terminals, no trying to find parking in downtown Vancouver or getting up early.” He was home by 1.15 pm – a good eight hours earlier than usual. “It was a huge savings in time, cost and stress reduction.”
Story courtesy of St. Paul’s Hospital.
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Keep up to date and contact us
Whitchurch: New Option for Whitchurch School Reorganisation (24/02/10)
Cardiff Council recently consulted on proposals to reorganise education in the Whitchurch area of the city. During the consultation period a number of meetings were held with the local community and affected schools and around 1,000 written responses were received including a number of alternative suggestions and also the expression of a number of concerns.
In consideration of this further information and as part of the ongoing consultation process, officers are now asking for views on a fourth modified option before drafting the consultation report for consideration by the Executive. This to ensure that elected members have all relevant information before them before making a final decision.
The additional option
Whitchurch High School
Whitchurch High School to be reduced in size from 12 to 11 forms of entry from September 2012 and then to 10 forms of entry from September 2015 with no further reduction proposed beyond this. No change of catchment area is proposed
An investment programme of £5.6m would result in the removal of poor quality/demountable accommodation and refurbishment/adaptation of permanent school buildings
This option does not involve any sale of land or increased sharing of land on the school's two sites
Eglwys Wen and Eglwys Newydd Primary Schools
Eglwys Wen and Eglwys Newydd Primary Schools to be closed and replaced with a new 2.5 form of entry English-medium primary school with nursery on the site currently shared between Eglwys Wen and Ysgol Melin Gruffydd from September 2012, with no sale of land now proposed
An investment programme of £2.2m would result in refurbishment and adaptation/extension to the permanent buildings, without the need for any additional demountable classrooms during the transition period. Furthermore, all existing demountable classrooms would be removed on a phased basis until the proposal is fully implemented
It is proposed that the new school would serve the combined catchment areas of the two existing schools
Ysgol Melin Gruffydd
Ysgol Melin Gruffydd to transfer to the site currently occupied by Eglwys Newydd as a 2FE Welsh-medium school from September 2012
An investment programme of £4.9m would result in refurbishment and adaptation/extension to the permanent buildings including the provision of a nursery
All demountable/substandard buildings, including additional provision needed during the transition period, will be removed on completion of the building works
For more information download the letter sent to parents (186kb PDF)Link opens in a new window
Your views are important
We want your comments on our proposals, send your comments or views on to schoolresponses@cardiff.gov.uk alternatively if you want more information call 029 2087 2720.
The findings of the consultation will be published in spring 2010 when the Council's Executive will consider all the issues and views received and will then decide how to proceed. If a decision is taken to move forward to the next stage, statutory notices will be published.
If statutory notices are published, they allow a period of two months from the date of publication for formal objections to the proposal. If there are no formal, written objections, the Executive will confirm its decision to proceed unless the Welsh Assembly Government indicates that it wishes to determine the proposal. If there are objections the Welsh Assembly Government Ministers will take the final decision. We will be making sure that you are kept up to date at every stage.
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Occupational Licensing in New Hampshire
The Radisson Hotel Manchester Downtown, Contoocook Room 700 Elm Street Manchester, NH 03101 United States
Occupational licenses, or government issued permission slips to work, are mandated in an ever-growing number of professions. In the 1950s, licenses were required for less than 5 percent of workers. Today, a much greater percentage of American workers need a government license to perform their jobs legally. In New Hampshire, 14.7 percent of the workforce is licensed.
Once a rarely talked about issue, occupational licensing is becoming a mainstream target of reform. And while significant steps have yet to come, a diverse coalition is growing around the clear understanding that many occupational licensing requirements are unnecessary barriers to opportunity. According to a report from the Institute for Justice on low- and moderate-income occupational licenses, the average license in New Hampshire requires 230 days of training, $209 in fees, and two exams. For so many, particularly those looking to start or switch their careers, these costs prevent entry and stifle opportunity. This disproportionately harms low-income individuals who have less time and money to pursue licenses.
On Tuesday, March 21, 2017, join the Charles Koch Institute and a panel of distinguished, bipartisan experts to discuss occupational licensing reform in New Hampshire. Doors will open at 6:00 p.m. for a 6:30 p.m. panel discussion. Heavy hors d’oeuvres and drinks will be served.
Will Ruger, vice president, research and policy, Charles Koch Institute
Ryan Nunn, policy director, The Hamilton Project; formerly an economist in the U.S. Treasury Department
Jason Sorens, program director, Political Economy Project, Dartmouth College
Ed Timmons, director, Center for the Study of Occupational Regulation, Saint Francis University
Dana Wade, senior research fellow, Charles Koch Institute; former U.S. Senate banking staffer
Grant Bosse, editorial page editor, New Hampshire Union Leader
Are you a Student or Faculty?*
By submitting the above information, I understand that the information and responses I provide may be used by the Charles Koch Institute in accordance with its terms of use and privacy statement.
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CIGI report on international trade highlights shift toward ‘mega deals’ and potential impact on China
Declan Kelly
WATERLOO, Canada — May 2, 2014 — The global trading system appears to be shifting toward more “mega deals” between large trading entities, such as the United States, the European Union, China, according to a new report from the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI).
In Global Mega Trade Deals and the Impact on China, CIGI Distinguished Fellow John Whalley reflects on the new US strategy of mega deals and what this may mean for the global trading system, particularly in light of US President Barack Obama’s current trade-focussed trip to Asia.
Whalley defines “mega deals” as large prospective trade deals between the United States and Europe (such as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership [TTIP]), and in Asia and the Pacific (Trans-Pacific Partnership [TPP]). But he notes that the phenomenon of mega deals “is much broader than just these two — admittedly large — prospective deals, and also includes China and Asia more broadly than just the TPP partners.”
“The emerging picture is that the trade room for such deals is large, and with uninitiated deals being the biggest category, this reemphasizes the significance of all potential mega deals in the medium term,” Whalley writes.
Whalley concludes that, because of the importance of trade and export growth to China’s continued growth, “it is likely that China, more so than any other larger country or entity, will be driven into its own mega trade deals by the need to compete in the system.”
Whalley’s observations include:
Sparked in part by the low expectation of future negotiations in the World Trade Organization and by the perceived need to reinvigorate growth in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries through export growth, various possibilities for a series of large-large trade negotiations have emerged, covering most members of the Group of Twenty (G20);
This shift represents a change from small-small or large-small regional trade agreement (RTA) activity in recent years, and;
Since these arrangements are exclusionary, those left out will want to negotiate more deals.
To download a free PDF copy of China's Long March Toward Economic Rebalancing, please visit: http://www.cigionline.org/publications/global-mega-trade-deals-and-impact-china.
John Whalley is a CIGI Distinguished Fellow. His research interests include G20 issues, globalization, Chinese policy issues and climate change negotiations. In addition to his work at CIGI, John is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the Econometric Society, and co-director of the Centre for International Economic Relations at the University of Western Ontario. He is also a foreign fellow of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences.
Declan Kelly, Communications Specialist, CIGI
“The emerging picture is that the trade room for such deals is large, and with uninitiated deals being the biggest category, this reemphasizes the significance of all potential mega deals in the medium term.” CIGI Distinguished Fellow John Whalley
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Never Do That Again
Nov 7, 2017 by Morgan Housel
On November 12, 2001, American Airlines flight 587 took off from JFK with 260 people onboard, en route to the Dominican Republic. Seventy-nine seconds after takeoff, the plane’s tail snapped off, sending the Airbus A300 crashing into a residential Queens neighborhood. Everyone onboard, and five people on the ground, died.
The crash’s proximity to 9/11 caused a panic. The Empire State building and the UN Headquarters were evacuated. It was quickly determined the crash was due to mechanical failure. For a world on edge at the thought of more terrorism, this was unbelievably good news. People exhaled, went back to focusing on the aftermath of 9/11, and Flight 587 became perhaps the least-remembered major plane crash in history.
But the NTSB did what it’s done for every commercial air accident for the last 50 years. It scoured every piece of data to determine the crash’s cause, and mandated changes to prevent that cause from happening again.
In this case, wake from a plane that took off before flight 587 caused severe turbulence, and the first officer responded with aggressive rudder movements that put more stress on the plane’s tail than it was designed to withstand. This largely came from a training issue. A particular variant of the A300’s rudder controls were far more responsive than other planes pilots were trained in – 732 times more sensitive than a Boeing 767 – which flight simulators and pilot guidelines didn’t reflect. The result was a tendency for pilots to massively overreact to heavy turbulence, even though they were reacting as they were trained. After flight 587, dozens of new training guidelines were put into place to correct this error.
Could the same accident happen again? Probably. But the odds are lower today than they were in 2001, because the NTSB sniffed out the precise cause of the accident and put in place regulations to prevent it from happening again. That’s it’s playbook, and it’s quite good at it. Accidents caused by the same thing rarely happen twice.
This can’t be overemphasized: The reason flying is as safe as it is is because after every accident comes an intense learn-and-fix process that reduces the odds of future accidents. And the reason that works is because flying is governed by immutable laws of physics, and basic airplane mechanics haven’t changed much in the last 50 years. It’s not uncommon for 25-year-old jets to still be in service. We’ve learned nearly everything about these planes, and when something goes wrong we implement specific processes to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
Which can’t be said about businesses, the economy, or any investment market.
More than half of new restaurants fail in the first five years.
Why? This is a centuries-old business. We have all the data in the world. You’d think we’d figure out the formula of what works and what doesn’t by now.
But what would a restaurant success formula look like?
Location is everything. Unless the food is great, then people will find you wherever.
Make sure the food is great. Although in some spots there’s a market for mediocre food.
Make it clean and welcoming. Unless it’s a dive bar; then messy adds charm.
Compete on price. Unless it’s upscale; then high prices signals quality.
Focus on service. Unless it’s fast food; then, just smash it out quickly.
For every rule of what works are piles of exceptions. Starbucks became a giant name by purposefully saturating the market with locations. Krispy Kreme tried that and nearly killed itself. The rules of local restaurants are even more nuanced. Location is everything, but a hidden taco truck can draw bigger crowds than a Main St. storefront with a huge marketing budget.
Most of what makes a restaurant work is “buzz.” Atmosphere. Feel. Energy. These are elusive concepts that change without warning. So it’s hard to learn from one restaurant failure and implement its lessons onto the next restaurant, like the NTSB would after a plane crash. The jump from “here’s what went wrong” to “here’s what should be done next time” is a mile wide. The result is that most restaurants are failures, and always will be. Totally different from air travel, where accidents consistently decline as we learn.
Many things in business and investing work like this.
What’s a good investing formula? Finance attracts some of the smartest people in the world, so you’d think we’d figure it out by now. But by and large, we haven’t. And that’s because, unlike g-forces on an airplane’s tail, things adapt over time. There are strategies that work extremely well for years on end before, one day, they stop. Momentum is one. Buying stocks for less than tangible book value is another. 1999’s lesson was “Don’t buy Amazon at what looks like a crazy, valuation.” Which has been painful advice for the last decade. Value investing, on the other hand, works – sometimes. Ben Carlson recently showed that only buying stocks when they trade at below-average P/E ratio leaves you with below-average returns, and how below average those returns are has changed tremendously over time. I have spent considerable time with quantitative investors over the years. A question I always ask is “How do you know when your strategy has permanently stopped working?” It’s the hardest question for them to answer, and I can’t blame them. How hard would NTSB’s job be if aerodynamics went in and out of favor?
Same with economics. A society whose economy has been hit with devastation may be more risk-averse than one with a luckier past. The lesson from France’s economy could be “A welfare state slows innovation.” Or it could be “After being ransacked by neighbors twice in 25 years, people tend to value a stronger safety net.” When one country’s (or region’s, or culture’s, or demographic’s) experience doesn’t offer a good template for what might work in another, we’re often left confused. Which is why economists argue more than engineers.
Part of the reason we will always have recessions is because it’s hard to identify exactly what caused a recession, and even if we could the next recession might respond totally differently to the same set of circumstances. Stimulus works in a recession – as long as that recession is caused by inadequate demand, and policymakers maintain the bond market’s trust in long-term fiscal prudence. Sometimes they can, sometimes they can’t.
I think I’m more open-minded than I’ve ever been as an investor. I’ve seen too much stuff work that technically shouldn’t have worked, and too much stuff fail that technically should have worked.
Some things are timeless. Bubbles will always occur. A handful of companies will dominate industries. Things won’t be fair. Patience will be rewarded, stubbornness will be penalized, and we’ll never be able to tell which is which.
But I’m not optimistic on learning specific lessons from individual events. We are not the NTSB. There’s a limited amount we can learn from one event that makes us better prepared to handle the next event.
I think it’s rare that we can say, “Always do this.” Or even, “Never do that again.” Unless it’s flagrantly obvious or reckless, “I have an evidence-based strategy but I am perpetually open to amending those views as our ever-evolving world adapts, and I know I’ll occasionally be wrong even when I technically should have been right” should be your position on almost every business, investing, and economic topic.
Nov 7, 2017 by Morgan Housel ·
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Why Collegiate
Lifestyle Packs & Cleaning Services
National Code Assured Accommodation
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Kelvingrove Park, Glasgow
Glasgow is a beautiful city bursting with places to walk and things to see in the great outdoors. Kelvingrove Park is one of the best!
You can lose yourself for hours and hours in what seems like another world. For this exact reason we have put together some of our favourite things about this amazing park on our doorstep.
The park sits between the University of Glasgow’s Gilmore Hill campus and residential areas such as Sauchiehall Street and the Garnet Hill neighbourhood. This makes it a 5-minute walk from Collegiate Claremont House!
People spend hours walking around with all manner of dogs, runners explore everything it has to offer, children play, families having picnics and student’s study, this can all be happening at one moment in Kelvingrove!
However, the park is big enough so that you can find peace and quiet and hardly be aware of anyone else that is around!
In 1852 the City purchased land forming Kelvingrove and Woodlands Estates for the sum of £99,569 to create an area which is now known as Kelvingrove Park. The Park was created for the rapidly growing West End of the city for the recreation and amusement of the citizens of Glasgow. It is now known as one of the city’s best loved historic parks!
It was also one of many Victorian parks created in response to the appalling conditions created by rapid urban growth, resulting from the industrial revolution.
It was designed by the leading landscape designer of the time, Sir Joseph Paxton who also designed the Crystal Palace in London. It has been used twice for International Exhibitions in 1888 and 1901 as well as being used for the Scottish National Exhibition in 1911!
The magnificent Art Gallery and Museum which are a prominent feature of the park were built for the 1901 Exhibition.
There are so many key features to this park that are a must see to anyone visiting Glasgow. In 1854 a granite staircase was erected near Park Gardens – close to the former home of the SFA – at a cost of £10,000. Following this The Stewart Memorial Fountain was erected in 1872, which commemorates the Lord Provost Stewart who was instrumental in the delivery of Glasgow’s water supply system from Loch Katrine – inaugurated in 1859!
Finally, the River walkway is a peaceful natural haven within a densely populated area of the city and is home to a diverse range of wildlife that can be found any time of year!
We hope this information has been helpful on showing you the true beauty of Kelvingrove Park in Glasgow. Why not find out more about this amazing city with the best student things to do or find out more on Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery!
Flexibility Available
Collegiate Claremont House offers spacious, stylish Glasgow student accommodation in a comfortable and secure environment. The accommodation is beautifully positioned for access to the bright lights of Glasgow city centre and just a 12 minute walk from the University of Glasgow campus as well as the heart of the vibrant student culture of Glasgow’s West End, with it’s bars, cafes and restaurants.
With a spacious residents lounge, on-site cinema, private fitness suite and roof terrace, you’re spoilt for choice when it comes to facilities.
Student Accommodation in Glasgow
If you are looking to move to Glasgow this coming year then make sure to check out our student accommodation Claremont House!
We want you to have the best university experience you can, whether this is through providing you a perfect home or giving you tips on what to do and where to go, we can do it all. Here at Collegiate, we pride ourselves to give you a welcome into a cosy and stylish home fitted with all the amenities you could ever want or need. Check out everything we can offer and book your new home today.
Not only do we ensure that you have the best home to start or continue your university life but we also want to make sure you know what a wonderful city you are in, this is why our site teams are here to help you with local tips and tricks and our blog pages are full of places to discover while you’re at university in Glasgow.
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© 2020 Collegiate AC Ltd. All rights reserved. Registered as a limited company in England and Wales under company number: 7619022.
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